§. I.

AS in Navigation, Cosmographie is no lesse usefull then Astrologie, by reason it is by some relation to the earth, that all measures are taken, and all reckonings are made in the severall courses of our saylings; even so in our spirituall voyage through this life, it seems no lesse requisite, to study the Map of our own Earth we carry about us, then to speculate the Globe of heaven, whereunto we are steering, in regard the constitution of our infirme Nature ought to be understood, in order to the con­ducting of the Vessell to her supreme and heavenly designati­on; And the knowledge of our selfe, is as it were the Com­passe, whereby we must set our course, since it is out of divers knowne properties of humane nature, that we forme points of direction, by which we judge, how neere our actions and designs stand to the right course of a rational nature: And as [Page 2] the soule and bodie in man, hold an analogie with the firma­ment and the earth, in point of constituting but one world of these so differing substances; So shall we doe well to consider the spirituall and corporeall substances in man, as making one coexistence, whereby we may the better understand the na­ture of the subject we discourse upon, and reflecting on man's consisting of two so diverse portions, as spirit and materiality, we shall wonder the lesse, at those so discordant qualities, which are found in this compound nature of Man.

If Faith did not oblige us to beleeve our own originall inte­grity, we have scarce vertue enough left to own it, our reason is so degenerated, as she hath no mind to claime by that pre­scription the dominion of our sensitive appetites (which are her naturall subjects) she seemes so much better pleased to yeeld unto their government: but let us move Reason (by the dig­nity of her prerogative, and the debasement of her conditi­on in submitting to the rule of our passions) to endeavour the recovering as much of her Rights, as can stand with the forfei­ture of her first state.

God made man so noble a creature, as even in his obnoxi­ousnesse to misery, there was an excellence of nature; For the freedome of his will was one of the chiefe prerogatives of his state, and the abuse of this power, declares the dignity of it, by the severity of God's vindication, since upon the first defe­ction of mans will from him, God did teare and divide the Kingdome he had given him, rending the sensitive powers from the dominion of the rationall; And in this breach, he left mans reason though not wholly deposed, yet so much distressed by the powers of the other revolted Tribes, as she needs now a forrein succour, not onely prevenient, but actu­ally concomitant for her support, in this continuall warfare against her naturall subjects, our affections and sensitive ap­petites, which have set up idols of their own making, like Jeroboams calves, (the delights of the senses) to maintaine this division and independencie, upon the soveraignty of reason, to which they were at first subjected, looking alwayes up [Page 3] with the eyes of the Hand-maid, upon the eyes of the Mistresse sincere and rectified reason. This first happy state of man we are bound to beleeve, even in this deplorable condition we now find him, for the spirit of his Creator assures us, that God made man upright, & he intangled himself in all his perplexities.

We may therefore well ask the Prophets question, O how didst thou fall in this Morning light, when there was but one block in all the earth to stumble at? Thou wert made to tread upon the earth, onely as on a stage, beautified and adorned for thy passage over it, in triumph up to heaven, not to sink into it, and be wrapp'd up in it, in this foule and dark conveyance of thee, whereunto thou art now sentenced. Thou wast created to have been served onely by the mutati­ons of all creatures, not to have suffered with them by any change, which should have been in thee onely a translation of thy earth to heaven, not a resolution of it into dust; for mans soule as having never been offended by his body, should never have put it away, and left it to his owne vility, but should have gratified the services thereof, with an immediate prefer­ment to glory and impassibility: O! what can be answered by man for this selfe-destruction?

Me thinks Man replyes, that the weight of the then greatest of all created substances, falling from heaven, fell upon him, and thus shiver'd him into dust; indeed this is all can be said to move compassion for him, and this prevailed so much with his Maker, as Man's fall was commiserated and redressed, and he that fell upon him, was left fastned to the abisse of his own precipitation. What a sad contemplation is this, that the morning star who was created to feed onely on the increated light, was so soone condemned to feed on dust, as being falne from an Angel to a Serpent; and Man who was to rise up to the Purity of Angels, and to know no foulenesse by the way, was quickly sentenced to the becomming dust: so that by this commerce with the Serpent, Man is become his food. O then as the Wise-man sayes, sure it is the tongue of the Ser­pent, while he fed first upon thee, that infused the poyson of [Page 4] pride into all thy corruption; For mans nature savours so of this venome, by which it was first tainted, (which came from the Serpent, who retains his pride in all his debasement) as even through all the veines of mans infirmities there runs still this mortal spirit of self-love and presumption, though he be reduced daily, to plead the misery and infirmity of his na­ture, in defence of his reproachable imperfections.

There seemes to be no better Character of the infelicity of humane nature, then is made by those, who inveigh against the weaknesse of it, yet claime that as an authority for all their faults, making the propensity to ill, the patronage of it, as if the forbidden fruit were now become medicinall for a weak conscience: That is, as if our inward frailty might serve for a purgation of most of our faults. This is a confection the Serpent offers us often, which his tongue may be said to make against the venome of his teeth; For how familiar is it, to ac­cept this prescription, and to apply thisreceipt of (it is not I, Rom. 7. but sin that dwels in me) for the cure of all the stings of con­science, as if the accusation of the wretched man, were sufficient for the acquittance of him before God. For how many when they are ingenuous in this confession, think they are dispensed with for many grosse infidelities? so as even the discovery of the nakednesse of our nature, passeth often to our sense for the cover of all her deformities: how familiar this selfe de­ception is, I need not argue, but rather complain directly in these tearmes of the Gospel, since the light that is in thee is darknesse, how great is that darknesse? This being our case; Mat. 6. 23. when the knowledge of our infirmity becomes the despaire of our recovery.

This considered, may not we say that the Serpent while he feeds upon our dust, (that is, prevaileth upon our frailties) blowes part of it into our eyes, to blind us, raising this cloud out of our infirmities, that we may see no way out of them: which subtilty prevaileth so much, as despairing often of our constitution, we consult our poysoner, for receipts, onely to give us a fair and easie passage through this life, and for allay­ing [Page 5] the disquiets of our nature, he gives us such remedies, as are pleasant for our senses to take, which are variety of sensible fruitions, that rock our childish nature into some rest, by the motions of her owne infirmities; Thus commonly our life is but a continued slumber, in which our reason lies bound up, and our fancie is the onely loose and living faculty of our soule, which raiseth to us, but dreames and similitudes of good and evill, sometimes vaine images of joyes, and other amazing phantasmes of fears; and in this dream of opinion and imagination we usually passe our lives, seldome waking and comprehending the true nature, even of the things wherewith we are the most affected: In so much, as while the truth is that our life in this world is but a kind of dreame or shadow, we dreame so strongly, as we doe not discerne it to be but a dreame; for the momentanynesse and inanity of our life seldome comes into our fancie, which though it be so suscepti­ble of all levities, yet seldome admits the thought of mans owne lightnesse into it; the vanities of our life, shadow and cover to us our lives being but a shadow; and thus while we breath continually in this element of vanity, it becomes as the ayre to us, which we feele not sensibly in our familiar res­piration, and yet our breath is nothing else but aire: after this manner, while our life is nothing but vanity, we are the lesse sensible of this constitution.

So vaine a thing is meere humane nature, as when your wit hath fancyed the most ayerie and light conceptions, it can, for images of this inanity, man seemeth yet so much vainer then all those expressions, as even all of them leave no im­pression on man, of his owne vanity, for he makes no use of those his apprehensions, but lives as if hedid traduce and abuse himselfe in his conceptions and expressions of his owne vacuity and emptinesse, and falls not at all into considera­tion of those disabusing notions: and thus he verisies what the holy Spirit sayes of him, that man compared to vanity is Rom. 8. found lighter then it.

For, as if the variations and instability of his owne state, [Page 6] were not sufficient for his vexation, doth not man adde to them, the changeablenesse of many other creatures, more va­nishing and fleeting then himselfe, by fastning his love to them, namely, to riches, honour, beauty, and the rest of this worlds flashes, and blazes of delectation, which goe out very often, even before they have so much as warmed our senses.

§. II.

ALL the creatures seeme to tell man in their perishing variations, that they were made so transitory, to passe away as attendants on the flux and motion of his life, whereby to instruct, as well as serve him by their subjecti­on, yet is he so little advertised by them of his own frailty, as he rather applies their variations to amuse him in the impercep­tion of his owne instability; For while all his pleasures are derived from the continuall changes and mutations of things, even out of this variety of delights, he drawes the inconsidera­tion of his owne continuall flux and consumption: For he neither seemes to beleeve the nature of the things themselves, in all these evidences of their mutability (while he fixes his heart upon them, as if they were immoveable) nor doth he so much as learn the variablenesse of his own minde, by the expe­riments of so frequent alterations of it which happeneth after, even without so much cause as satiety, meerely by the lightnesse of his owne constitution.

Doth not this seeme a strange incongruity in the nature of man, who, while he states all his delectation in the inter­mixture [Page 7] of changes, (even of his owne minde, as well as of forreine fruitions) that in this occupation, he should divert himselfe from the animadversion of his owne vanity and im­permanency: How justly may it be said then, O wretched man, who shall deliver thee from this body of delusion? When all the creatures that passing away and dying, open themselves in an Anatomie of thy fraile nature, thou wilt not so much as looke upon thy owne frame and composition, which thou canst not see in those living figures thou art play­ing and sporting with; for the life of man cannot see it selfe truly, but by reflex from death, and every perishing, dying or dead creature, reflects to man his own image, and yet as the Apostle sayes, Man so frequently beholding his naturall face in James 1. 23. this glass of death, forgets what manner of man he is. Therfore the Author of life, in his Word, hath often set his hand to his manifest of the creatures, which they all make, for Man, in their successive corruptions, and in very pregnant tearmes he hath declared to man, That his life is but a vapour, that appeares but James 4. 14. a little time, and then vanisheth. If then our life, which is the foundation of all our vanity, be but so slight and subtile a thing, what can we say of riches, beauty, and honour, and the like temporalities? which are but the accidents of that sub­stance, which is it selfe but a vapour: Wherefore all they seem but colours, diversified by the severall variations of that light, which is but a flash of lightning, for life it selfe is but such an esclat of light.

This considered, when the nature of all the worlds toyes and nugacities is rightly discussed, all the specious good of them is found to be but opinion and imagination, which may be tearmed the fume of this vapour of our lives, as it is exhaled, and vanisheth away, and yet this fume of opinion, darkens to us the nature of our lives, as smoake often doth the matter out of which it is raised: For how familiarly the eye of our reason is deprived of all exercise by this smoak of opinion, I need not urge, since every one that goes abroad into the aire of the world, palpably seeth what sore eyes Reason hath al­most [Page 8] every where, by living in this smoak of opinion.

O then, how much worse then nothing is the life of man, thus lightned and evaporated by his own fancie, when at the best of his carnal nature, in the holy Spirit's account, it is but a shadow, a dreame, or a vapour?

And certainly it was an expresse act of Providence, (relating to our undeceiving) this of Gods choosing Solomon, among all his Secretaries, to make the most ample and precise manifest of the nature and conditions of all temporalities; for as Ale­xander is said to have furnished Aristotle largely with expen­ces requisite for all sorts of Anatomyes, when he designed him to write the history of Nature, that his experiments might af­ford him both light for himself and credit with others; so God seemes to have provided Solomon an abundance and affluence of all those creatures, in their best degree of sincerity and per­fection, whereof he was to deliver to the world, the nature and properties, that the sensiblenesse of his experience might move and affect the world joyntly with the charity of his specu­lation.

S. Iohn Baptist, (who had the same spirit of truth, I by an im­mediate infusion, but did never exercise it in any practical expe­riments) had not been an organ of this truth, so proportinate to our infirme apprehension which embraces truth, sooner, clo­thed with sensible particular experiments, (and so becomes as it were palpable) then in the universality of notions, while it re­maineth more abstracted in speculation; King Solomon there­fore was an instrument sized and fitted to worke upon our na­tures, and he, who was the best Moral Chymick that ever wrought upon the matter of temporallities, by the experi­ments of all fruitions, extracted this as the quintessence of them all. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity under the sunne and vex­ation of spirit; Here then is the product and summe of all our loves and fruitions in this world, and after this convincing manifest, of the worthlesnesse of all other creatures, alas, how much a more deplorable conviction hath he left us of the vani­ty of man, by his owne fall and prevarication, when in the [Page 9] splendor of all this light of verity; a few fading colours in a womans face, dazel'd even his Eagles eyes, and so his blind­nesse and infatuation is become a clearer evidence of the infir­mity of mans nature, then even all the beames of his illumina­ting pen.

They who will look attentively upon this naked image of Solomon, need no other character of our humanity; there they shall discover all that the world accounts the security of hap­pynesse to be the likeliest betrayers of it; For he, whose know­ledge exceeded the stock of nature, and whose possessions were equall with all natures provisions, may be said to have fallen by the weight of his felicities; how infirme a thing then is man, that cannot carrie even his own wishes without falling under them when he is charged with their successes, for alas, how much doth familiar evidence attest this truth, that man in honour becomes like the beast that perisheth?

May not our carnall nature then be justly discredited to us, by considering that our life is either a perplexity of wishes, or a perversion of successes? and this convincing evidence which common experience offereth, proveth what Solomon sayes, Eccle. 3. 10. that this is the affliction which God hath given to the sons of men, to exercise them in it; since indeed this world is but a stage for their wrastling and contention.

And if we look upon our nature in the exercise and triall of it, in the other extream of affliction, we shall finde their feeblenesse, even in those pillars that were the strongliest sup­ported by grace, namely Elias, who seemed to have had so little mixture of the elements in his nature, as he is called by Ecclus. 48. Kings 3. 19. the holy spirit, a fire and a burning light, yet even he in his fiery triall had so much earth about him, as to faint under his carri­age, and to cry out to be delivered even of his life, as of a bur­then: thus strong was that little weakness of our nature he had about him: & holy Jer. who seemes to have brought none but holy earth out of his mothers wombe, by the testimony of his sanctification in it, yet even this sanctified oare, had so much drosse found in it, when the burning fire was shut up in his bones, [Page 10] as to run over even into the cursing the day of his birth, and to prepose his mothers being a tombe for him before a delive­rer of him into that light wherein he saw so much misery and affliction; May we not well say then in reference to that of Solomon, if the best men on earth make this confession of the misery of their nature, what doe the worst and the most Jer. 20. 10. 14 Prov. 11. 31. depraved?

Thus have we seene frailty and infirmity of our corrupted nature taken from the best figures of it in diverse postures of temporall felicity and affliction, and we perceive that in one state it is so unhappily disposed as the pronenesse of it to ingra­titude, is raised by the very degrees of obligations and benefits it receiveth; Insomuch as the plenty of temporall blessings, proves often an over-ballancing even of the power of abundant grace, as we see manifested in the infidelityes of Solomon: and againe we find in the other triall, how the weight of sufferance boweth and deflects a little, even the strongest pillars of huma­nity, among which we doe bring in Saint Pauls deposition of this truth, where we make upon all these surveys, this his re­flection, O wretched man! who shall deliver thee from this body Rom. 7. of death and corruption? But we are not so miserable as not to have a present answer to this sad question, the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Wherefore let us goe on, and look upon our nature as it is Deified in him, and as the other representations might make us lament our birth with Job upon our dunghill, so this aspect of it in the person of Christ, may recall us to rejoyce with Zachary Luke 1. in the Temple, and allow our nature this selfe-ascription, justly assumed by the second organ of the reparation thereof, hence­forth all generations shall call me blessed; this assumption may be well allowed our nature when we look upon it with S. Paul, Gal. 2. 20. not living in it selfe, but Christ living in it.

§. I.

HAving seene the figure of man made much liker the image of him, who said, he would raise himselfe and become like God, then like God himselfe who made man after his own image, what meanes is there left to restore that, which all the subtilty of the supreamest Angel had much adoe to disfigure, when ruine is so much easier then repa­ration?

If Lucifer himselfe had applyed all his abilities to have given man satisfaction, he could hardly have excogitated such a meanes of mans redintegration; for it may be disputed whe­ther it had not been a higher pitch of disrespect to have desig­ned God, to have put on this wretched nature of man, then it was to project for his own Angelicall nature, an independency on the divine.

So here the spirits of men and Angels are confounded, when they consider both these natures of God and man, first a­part in their peculiar properties, and then behold them united in this incomprehensible manner in the person of God: here Saint Austins exclamation is more proper then any inquisition, one Abisse calls on another, the Abisse of misery attracts that of mercy; here is the transcendency of all wonder, that the unworthynesse and demerit of humane nature should prove the [Page 12] exaltation of it; For now the Church doth not stick to say foelix culpa, proclaiming even the fault to have been happy, that procured such a redemption and a melioration.

Lord what was man, that thou should'st be thus mindfull of him, who had nothing left to move thee, but his being be­come worse then nothing! did this invite thee to shew thy selfe more God in his refection, then in his creation, wherein his nullity had thus much towards his being, viz. no actuall op­position to thee, which his iniquity had, and so his reparation seemed more incapable of thy love, then his nothing was of thy omnipotency in his first production.

In this deplorable state of humane nature, become even Gods enemy, he did not only reconcile, but even subject himself to it, to mediate this reconciliation, he that could not rob God Phil. 2. 6. of any thing by his equalizing himselfe to him, seemed to rob God of all his Majesty by this his equality with man, by this strip­ping and exinanition of himselfe, taking upon him the forme of this disfigured servant; here we may ask with the amaze­ment of the Apostle, who hath been thy Councellor in this incom­prehensible designe, which man could not have so much as wished for himselfe? And Saint Paul resolves us, God for that Ephe. 2. 6. great, love, wherewith he loved us, hath raised up our dead na­ture, and made it sit in as heavenly a place, as even the person of God.

And indeed, love could only render this act worthy of almighty God, all the other of Gods benefits might be refer­red to his glory, without any relation to his love, the creation of all out of nothing, might relate to the manifestation of his omnipotency, and the order of his providence and admini­stration of the world, might be referred to the magnifying of his wisdome, and the exalting his glory by his diverse communications to his creatures; But this exinanition of him­selfe could not consist with Gods dignity, if it had not flowed from the immensity of his love: So as this act confirmes Saint Johns definition of God, that he is love, for in this testi­mony 1 Ep [...]. John 4. God appeares nothing else, all his immensity and [Page 13] infinity is extant onely in love, since in this act of Gods incar­nation, even his Omnipotency may be said to be exhausted in obliging man, when there remains neither power in God to do, nor wisdome to excogitate a greater benefit then this self­donation.

O immense beneficence and excesse of love, which termi­nates even the divine omnipotency! shall not this then subdue mans infirmity, and appropriate all his desires, to the study of loving this God; who having given man, even all his divinity by his love; shall not man give this divinity all his love? me­thinks it is now unnaturall, since God is become man by love to him, that man united to this God, should not become all love of this divine Essence.

How can man then finde now so little of God in his nature, as to plead his own infirmity, for not loving God, when by this gift, he is made a consort of the divine nature? as Saint S. Peter 2. Ep. 4 Peter tels him, and thereby inabled to love God by a partici­pation of the same love, with which God loves himselfe, so that the donation exceeds so much the delinquency, as Saint Au­stin Romans 5. votes a congratulation to our humane nature, which being assumed by the Son of God, is constituted immortall in hea­ven, and exalted, so as to sit at the right hand of the Father: who then ought not now to congratulate his nature thus im­mortalized in Christ, when he may hope to rise to the same immortality by this assumption?

So much strange incomprehensiblenesse followes upon Gods incarnation, as our nature is dignified above what it hath a faculty to conceive, for the soul of man shall not rightly ap­prehend the honour of this union with our flesh, till she be sever'd her selfe from this connexion: so great is the mysterie of Gods taking flesh and blood upon him, as man must devest his, before he can comprehend it, for we see the more we are immersed in flesh and blood, the lesse we discerne of it, the carnal man is the worse inquisitor into this incarnation, but the benefit and mercy is no lesse then the mysterie, for Gods in­carnation inableth man for his owne decarnation, as I may say [Page 14] and devesture of his carnality, and by imitation of this divin [...] man Christ Jesus, shewes him how to weare his flesh in s [...] proportion, as Christ wore his, namely, as a garment that did not defile what it cover'd;

Who then will chuse to cleave to our nature in the impure­nesse of her owne carnality, and bewaile that infelicity, for an extenuation of her foulnesse, rather then recur to this capacity which is imparted by the two natures of Christ unto ours, viz▪ to refine her selfe to so much cleannesse and spirituality, as Saint Paul doth not feare to exalt our spirits to an identity 1 Cor. 6. 17. with Gods; he doth not wonder at any thing in consequence of this first gift of God himselfe given to our nature, for he concludes, that he, who did not think his owne Son too much, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom. 8. 32.

Insomuch as we may justly now say with S. Paul, Therefore O man thou art inexcusable when thou judgest thy nature, as inca­pable Rom. 2. 1. of victory over her infirmity, for there is no such predo­minant malignity in her, as thy enemy would insinuate the belief of; the worst part of thy weaknesse is this querilous diffidence, for in that ill feature thou shalt finde no similitude in the person of Christ in all thy trials and temptations; thou mayest finde some resemblance in his figure, even in the anguish and attristation of thy spirit, but none in the yeelding and surrender of thy confidence, for he felt our infirmities that we might not faint under them, so that the similitude of his temp­tation Heb. 4. 15. Heb. 2. 18. is the succour and security of our defence in all our tryalls.

They then who in the pressures of their frailties, shal fainting­ly say, who shal shew us any good? have their answer following in Psal, 4. the next words, the light of thy countenance is sealed & impressed upon us; for now the light of Christs divinity is not only shining on our nature, but even in it, as being now the orbe of the sun of righteousnes, insomuch as the eyes of God may be said, not onely to be upon us now in all our conflicts, but likewise to be concerned in our contentions as members of that head, whose eyes are his; and consequently they do not only animate us, but [Page 15] act and second us, insomuch as the Apostle S. Paul chuseth his infirmities only to glory in, to magnifie the triumph of Christ.

Wherefore they, who behold the splendor of Christs divi­nity now shining in our nature, need not lament the destructi­on of the first Temple, when they contemplate this re- [...]dificati­on of this second Sanctuary, but may confesse with one of Gods Esaiah 9. 10. Haggai. 2. 2. witnesses, that the glory of this latter House is greater then that of the former, for our nature is more dignified in the person of Christ, then it could be depressed by the fault of Adam, since, not only the holy Angels adore now humane nature in the person of Christ, but the very revolted spirits are punished even by the consequences of their malice to it, for the bruised heele stands now trampling upon their subjected heads; and it is not only in the glorious person of Christ, that our nature triumpheth over Ephe. 1. 22. her enemy, but even in many other persons, mortall and char­ged with her infirmities, (which make the weight of the shame the heavyer) she treades victoriously upon the Basalisk, vilify­ing all the malicious powers and principalities, who are the governours of the darknesse of the world. Such honour have many of Christs members, even in this life, being inabled to walk in it, and yet not war after the flesh, having such spirituall weapons, as cast downe all imaginations, that rise up in defence of their own impotency, and suggest their incapacity of subduing their enemy.

§. II.

REflecting duly on what hath been premised, we may justly sing an Hosanna to our humane nature, as she is now participant of the virtue of God himselfe, in the person of Christ, since she is so fortified for triumph and victo­ry over all the devills forces, and her own frailties, as I may say, it is a greater shame for man, not to overcome now, thus joyned with Christ, then it was at first, to yeeld to the devil and the woman joyned.

He, who is clothed with light as with a garment, when he bowed the heavens and descended, taking our nature as a cloud for his vestment, might have purged it of all frailty and infirmity by his merits in it, and have re-estated it in the originall integrity; but he seemes to have chose the leaving of this infirmity, to exalt the fidelity, this thought may be sup­ported by his deniall of Saint Paul, the removing from him his 2 Cor. 12. reluctancies, because virtue is perfected in weaknesse, so having left our nature with this life-guard about her of my grace is sufficient for thee, he hath inabled her to rise to a higher degree of honour, by victory, then she could have done by security, for then our nature would have wanted the similitude and confi­guration with the image of Christ, tempted, suffering, and tri­umphing, which is a diviner figure then the safe unexercised condition of Adam.

And why may not we conceive that the miseries left in our nature by so mercifull a God, were intended as seeds of a more fruitfull glory, since not only our own sufferings are [Page 17] now allowed as good evidences for the claime of our felici­ [...]y▪ but even the distresses of others, are assigned for our qua­lifications, for Christ in his last account with man, produceth nothing but miseries of nature, for mans merit to him, sickness, [...]unger, poverty, and captivity are brought in, as the only contributions to mans glorification, and by Christs words, we finde that even he inhabiteth still in the infirmities of our nature, insomuch, as to reconcile us to the most aversing part of our nature, we may look upon Christs personation in it, for he seemes (at that day, when he shall in our nature, judge both natures of men and angels) to own his residence most especially, in all the distresses and indignities of humane na­ture, and to admit the communication and familiarity we have had with such miseries, as the only claime to our eternall association with him, and thus having a capacity imparted by all our infirmities to merit at Christs hands by his owne sentence, our lyablenesse to them may be thought a no­bler state then would have been our exemption from danger.

And to support this supposition, we may conclude, that our arrogant enemy (who affected to be like Christ in his glo­ry, but never emulated his humility) is more tormented now by mans triumphs over his angelicall powers, and his owne humane weaknesse, then he would be by mans state of impe [...] ­cancy; for even that spoil this enemy now makes upon us, doth not at all ease or relieve him, whereas the defeats & shames he received by our victories over him, strain the rack of his pride upon him, torturing him by this vilifying his power, by which means, even our infirmities may be said to serve Christ against the great maligner of both his Natures, which admitted, they who complain of the infelicity & perversion of our nature, may be advertized, that they have a means to rectifie this crooked­ness, even by the impulse of one of the most vebement corrup­tions thereof; namely, the passion of revenge, since this redress may be wrought by their attempting continuall vindications against the procurer of all our misery, by a victorious fidelity to our maker; whereby even our infirmities being overcome, are [Page 18] converted into the torments of our pretending tormentor; and may the thussting of the serpent be retorted into his own bo­some, when his assaults return him more the sight of his own impotency▪ then of our frailty.

And how feisable this way of revenge is made, S. Paul assureth us, both by his life and Doctrine, when he defieth An­gels, Principalities, and Powers to joyn with his infirmities; and yet glorieth that in all these oppositions, man may be more then conquerer by him, who hath loved him. Rom. 8. 37.

How many virtuous Trophees are there now erected in Christianity, of the victories of humane nature, over our most powerfull infirmity? What numbers wear the vestures of their humanity, shining in the candour of innocence and chastity, in so pure a manner, as they seeme rather, living, transfigured with Elias and Moses upon Tabor, then comming disfigured with Adam out of Eden? So much doth even the frailest por­tion of our humanity triumph now over the greatest frailty Nunns. of our nature, and from the infirmity of the flesh, derive rather consequent merit then actuall infection; so that the proud spi­rit findes oftentimes by this repulse, rather the misery of his destitution of grace, then the infirmity of our nature, being suc­cour'd and supported by an accession of the fortifying grace of our Head Christ Jesus.

In which respect Saint Augustin sayeth elegantly, the nati­vity of Christ was the renascency of man; as flesh had wounded thee, so it now healeth thee; the Physitian ministred a receipt, composed of our own infirme nature, and by the infirmity of his flesh, cured the infection of ours.

And for an intire re-inforcement of our humane nature, which consisteth of spirit and flesh, our spirit seemes to have yet a more intimate union with God, for our flesh was but a supervesture or upper Garment to the Son of God. The two natures of God and Man remaining distinct, and not inter­mixed, but our spirit is sealed and impressed by the holy Ghost, and so seemes identified with the Spirit of God, in some such sort, as the impression left is the same image with the stampe [Page 19] which impresseth it, and in this respect, the Apostle tells us, that he that is joyned unto God, is one spirit with him; we need not 1 Cor. 6. 17. speculate so curiously, the radiant beames of the Word of God, as to dazle or dissipate the sight of our minde, in this mysterious expression of the holy Spirit; as much as is com­petent with our eyes, is the perception (by this dazling light) of what great dignity and excellence our humane nature may now own; in which the intire Trinity doth reside, the Son of God in Person, the holy Ghost or Spirit of God, by Cha­racter and impression, and consequently God the Father by the indivisibleness of his essence from their presences; therefore we see Christ promiseth us in expresse termes, the company of the John 14. 23. Father, and his residence in us.

Wherefore, Now O happy man that thou art, look not down upon the stage of the Serpent, where he lyeth still hissing at thee, to call thy thoughts to the earth, since thou didst first hearken to him; But raise thy lookes upward, to the throne of Heaven, where the splendor of thy humanity, at the right Hand of God, reflecteth to thee thy owne dignity, for even in the mirrour of the word, wherein God the Father seeth himselfe, man may now see his own image; there man may see not only his nature made after Gods image, but God himselfe in the image of his nature.

Correspond with thy own worthynesse then, O exalted creature! and live as if thou had'st never seene thy selfe in any other glasse, for here is that eminence truly conferred on thee, which thou did'st at first so vainly affect, of being like God, and the holy Spirit is thy councellour in this claime of thy divinity, and thy comforter against the disswasions of thy first projector, who would now divert thee from the aspiring to the consort and participation of the divine nature which is 2 Peter 1. 4. offered to thy aspiring.

This premised and ponder'd, man may say, I rejoyce even in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, and 2 Cor. 12. 9. triumph in me; for my strength is made perfect in weak­nesse, and may consort the harp of David to the same tune of [Page 20] praysing mans condition, professing, thy friends, O Lord are Psal. 138. become exceeding honourable, their principality is exceeding strengthened, for when mans infirmities appear in temptations and suggestions, to deface the image and Character of the holy Ghost in him, then hath he the holy Spirit to second him in the defence of his own image. So that by the adjunction of these helpes, even all mans infirmities may be converted into his glories, and man hath nothing left to undeifie him now, but his owne preferrence of degeneration and flavery to the enemy of his nature, before his adherence to her Author.

Finally, upon all these representations, I may justly re-ex­toll and magnifie the dignity of humane nature, which we may consider sent down at first from Heaven as Gods image: and next, as a state to which God himselfe did vouchsafe to come down in person, and taking it upon him, will inhabit therein eternally, and then, that the holy Spirit of the Father and the Son abideth in it, as in his Temple, which he sanctifies incessantly, nay more that it is designed to partake the same glory, which the whole Trinity injoyeth, by being promised to be made like him who hath it all, the God and man Christ Jesus. 1 E. John 3. 2.

O then, he that may hope this, let him never plead his frailty or infirmity, in discredit of his nature, let him not in a dejection of spirit seek to cover his pusilanimity, with, O wret­ched man, I finde a Law reluctant in me, against all these mo­tives and incentives of my aspiring to divinity, but rather let him boldly pronounce in such a holy confidence as is prescri­bed him, I can doe all things in him that strengthens me, for since God is in so many sorts with us, who shall prevaile against us? Therefore in all these reluctances, let us aspire to be more then conquerors, by him who so much loveth us. Rom. 8. 37.

§. I.

REligion riseth in the first dawning of the light of na­ture, for the soul, as soon as she doth but see her selfe by the reflex of any discourse, discernes her own rela­tion to some superiour cause; to which she assigneth some present reverence and reason, as it riseth and ascendeth, brea­keth the day a little further, but leaveth the mind still in such a twy-light, as the understanding doth hardly distinguish singularity, in the supremacy discryed above it selfe; for rea­son doth but, as it were, feele out her way to Divinity by a kinde of palpation, and sensible touches upon materiall crea­tures, and cannot by an immediate elevation of her faculties to immateriall notions, raise her selfe up to the speculati­on of any spirituall substance, much lesse to the supreme spiri­tuall Essence.

So that by the meere light of nature, the mind oftner scat­ters and breakes the object of Divinity, then singleth it into unity. This deficiency appeareth in the speculations of most of the Philosophers, who all looked naturally upward, for some supream reference and asscription of their being, but unto most of them, Heaven like a crack'd mirrour broken by their various imaginations, reflected multiplyed images of the Divinity; whereby we may discerne that the perception of uni­ty in the divine Essence, is not derived so much from the emis­sion of the rayes of naturall Reason, as from a reception of a supernaturall light, whereby reason is rather illuminated from [Page 22] above it selfe, then singly producing this selfe-illustration: and this forrein clarity diffused upon our reason, is the Grace of the Divine essence, which elucidates to our minde the sim­plicity and indivisiblenesse of the object, from whence this gracious splendour issueth upon our understanding.

Grace thus inspired, worketh by the soule, as light doth by the sense; not inducing the faculty, but only the exercise of sight, for grace doth not conferre any new faculty to the soul, but only perfecteth the capacity of naturall reason in this act, of singling the notion of the Diety, and settling the unity of a Creator in our beleef. And this first position alwayes sugge­steth some Religion taken largely, as a recognition by some exteriour homage of one Supreamacy above our Nature; but this estate admits of much diversity in Religious beliefs; in which, even the wise men of the World, as Saint Paul termeth them, did stray and lose themselves, growing vain in their own Rom. 1. 21. imaginations, for by a seeming pretext of piety, namely, of making religious addresses enough to God, they made many Gods under the colour of one Supream addresse. By this Errour we may perceive that naturall reason needeth still a further conduct from grace, to lead it to a rectified Re­ligion.

Certaine it is, that the materiall and visible species of this world, afford some notion of the invisible producer; as in mines, whereof the specificall matter is of a much meaner sub­stance, there are found some veines of Gold and Silver; so out of the grosse masse of nature, those that work upon it by single reason, may easily extract some Spirituall ore of Religi­on, for through the elemented body of the universe there run some veines of intimation of a spirituall nature, independent on all matter, which reason may discerne, and so resolve some Religious acknowledgment of a Divine principle, as the pro­ducer of subordinate causes and effects, but how apt humane reason is to sever and disunite this principle, we may easily judge, when we remember how soone reason forgot her owne origine, and as if having lost the unity of the god-head, she [Page 23] 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.

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. James. 1. 27.

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 Act. [...]. [Page 25] 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; Ephes. 2. 19. 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 John 13. 6. Psal. 144. 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 Church­yard, 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, Ephe. 1. 9. 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 Psal. 142. 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 [Page 26] spirit, and are likely never left there, but helped on to the other part of worshipping in truth, by him that hath ordained John 4. 23. 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 Churches service, being set by the hand of that great Master, who in this last lesson of his owne voyce, did concert this symphony in the musick of the Church, and even ingaged his father, to preserve this unity and consort by these words, Holy John 17. 11. Father, keepe through thy owne name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are one. This cleereth to us the marke of concordancy in faith, to be one of the most respondent unto Christs signature on his Church.

And as one may, without arrogating to himselfe much of the science of a Physitian, venture to pronounce what is the best temper to be composed of, so may I safely affirme that Religion to be of the best constitution, which consisteth the most perfectly of these two divine elements, well intermixed, Zeale and Charity; the which may be said to make a good complexion in the face of Religion, the first relating to the colour of the blood, and the last to the fairnesse of the skin, through which the good tincture of zeale is transparent in the works of charity: wherefore the well tempering of these two qualities make that beauty in the Spouse, of which the Bride­groome saith, Behold, how faire is my Love! there is no spot in her. And as the face, although it be not an infallible, yet is one of the best indications of the bodies health; for although there be not any so secure symptomes in it, as conclude against all infirmities, yet there are some so resolving marks of unhealth­fulnesse [Page 27] in the face, as cannot mislead a prognostike of some infirmity: So may we make a probable judgement of the foundnesse of a Religion by the faire and healthful aspect there­of, and by the ill looks and disfigurements of some Religions, we may warrantably sentence the unsoundnesse of them; for there are some that have such marks of uncleannesse on their skin, as not onely the Priest, but even the People may discern the Leprosie.

This considered, the most advised judgement touching Re­ligion, for the generality of men, is, the preferrence of that which hath the most promising countenance, of this perfect constitution, of unity in faith, of orderly zeale, and of active charity, for out of these materials onely, that flame is raised, which our glorious high Priest came to kindle upon the earth. Luke 12. 49.

§. I.

THere is nothing seems more requisite, towards the sincere practice of it, then the sound definition of De­votion, for it is much easier to copie well, then to de­signe perfectly this worke: Neverthelesse it is the familiar pre­sumption of the world, to passe themselves Masters, by draw­ing the expressions of their piety, by their own imagination, rather them to work then by the Churches draughts and pat­terns: and thus many are mistaken in the manner, more then [Page 28] in the meaning of their religious duties, for devotion consists more of conformity to order, in pious applications, then in contrivement of them: wherefore this prescription of some spirituall director is given by God, Obey them that rule Heb. 13. 17. over you, and submit your selves, for they watch for your soules. And herein is provided a rest, as I may say, for our zeale to discharge it selfe upon; for when it is shot without that stay, it often falls very wide of the right mark, which the holy Spi­rit hath set up to us, by the Psalmist, in, Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy Name give glory. So that this is the safest prin­ciple Psal. 114. Non nobis Domine sed nomini tuo da glori­am. for all good inclinations to build upon, viz. the right notion, and understanding of devotion, taken from some prudent director; for even the steadiest hands draw straighter lines, stayed and guided by a rule, then left to their own loose motion. And I may without presumption, undertake to shape a generall good rule, (by the Model of the Churches do­ctrine) whereby to take the right dimensions of rectified De­votion; for this may be done by an unskilfull hand in the practicall part, as good instruments may be made by Mecha­nicks, who want the science of using them.

Devotion is a fervour infused into our soule by Grace, which Devotion de­fined. breatheth out continually an alacrity & promptitude in regu­lar and ordinate performances, of all such religious duties, as are ordained by God, for the exteriour testimony of the in­teriour love and reverence we owe him.

This good habit of the mind, is the fierie spiration of the holy Ghost, taking in such sort upon our wills, as it raiseth a fla­ming Mat. 3 [...]. 11 evidence of our love to God, in all our actions, and this is properly to be baptized with the Spirit, and with fire, to have Luk. 12. 49. all our affections turned Christian, by the accension of that holy fire in our hearts, which Christ said he came to cast into the earth, and required the kindling and ardencie of it in us, so that the activity of this spirituall fire in our soules is that we tearme our devotion, which implyes a conformity of our affections in morality, and our opinions in religion, to the re­vealed will of God; our appetites we conforme in acquiring [Page 29] such habits of virtue as are expresly enjoyned us by God, in his commandments; and our own conceptions we submit in our conformity to such acts of religious worship, as are dire­cted to us by the Church, which God hath invested with po­wer of direction, by these words of his commission, They that S. Luk. 10. 16 heare you, heare me, and they that despise you, despise me: pro­mising also the spirit of truth, to rectifie all the executions of John 17. Mat. 28. this power, and the residence of that spirit to the end of the World. In order to the preservation of that capacity impar­ted; hence is it that there is no zeale or fervour of spirit, which may properly passe for Devotion, that is not touched at the test of the sanctuary, which is obedience to the Churches regulations, for many may thinke themselves in Saint Pauls discipline, in the ferrour of the spirit, when they are neerer Saint Judes commination of perishing in the contradiction of Jude 11. 1 John. 4. 6 Core, for as Saint John sayes, The Spirit of Truth and of Er­rour is discerned by hearing the voyce of the Church, not by singing loud in it, therefore it is not the straining our notes, but the singing in tune, that makes the musick of Devotion wherewith God is delighted.

But supposing the flame of our Devotion to be lighted by a coal from the Altar; the higher it riseth, the neerer it com­eth to Heaven; for there must not be only interiour heat, but exteriour light in it, Saint John Baptist is a perfect image of John 5. 35. Devotion, in that Character Christ gives of him; he was a burning & a shining light, which signifieth internall sincerity, and active exemplarity; and our Saviour intimates these two requisitions in our Devotion, when he gives us this order, Let Matthew. your light so shine before men, that they may see your good workes, and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven; wherefore this pre­cept requires not only a fervour, which we feel our selves, but a splendour that may illuminate others by the edification of our lives.

When our Saviour stateth us as pilgrims in this transitory world, he advises us to have our Loynes girl, and our Lights Luk. 12. 35. burning, which intimateth promptitude to the exercise of [Page 30] Charity, and fervency in the act of our love. And Devotion comprizes fully this equipage for our journey, since it collects us, and strengthens us for motion, and is likewise that fire which is the best security we can carry with us in our passage through the wildernesse we travail, to arme us against all the wild sensualities that lie in our way, since it hath this speciall virtue to fright and disperse all that is irratio­nall.

And this spirituall fire hath many analogies with materiall, insomuch as the holy spirit sayes of it, The coales thereof are coales of fire, and have a vehement flame; and me thinkes this Cant. 8. 6. one remarkable similitude betweene them may be fitly apply­ed, viz. as fire doth convert many substances which were un­fruitfull & unclean, into a matter both generative and clensing by the consumption and reduction of them into ashes, which have both these qualities: so Devotion by consuming our passi­ons which were both barren & impure, converts our affections into the love of penance and mortification, which are the ashes of our consumed offences, and so are made both fruit­full and purging by this conversion into matter of humiliati­on, by which kind of soyling many converts improve much the good seed fal'n into their hearts: for that penitent reflexion Devotion makes upon our vaine and foul passions and affecti­ons, (which is the consumption and incineration of them) becomes purgative by sincere contrition, and generative of all fruites of Charity, since the zeale of mortification is not only a marke of our repentance, but a meanes of our perfection: when holy David sayes, he eate ashes like bread, they were made of his loose passion consumed by the flame of his Devotion, and so converted into seeds of penance, and we know how fruitfull these ashes proved to his former sterility.

The water of expiation in the Law, was made with the in­fusion of ashes, and certainly there is nothing more clensing then the matter of our offences consumed by Devotion, and aspersed upon our memories, for nothing makes us more [Page 31] zealous to take out all their staines upon our lives, according to the Apostles observation of the effects of godly sorrow; What carefulnesse, what clearing of our selves, what indignati­on, 2 Cor. 7. 11. what vehement desire, what zeal, yea, what revenge it workes? so as you see what fertility Devotion raiseth out of the con­sumption and ashes of our sinnes, which is the Apostles godly sorrow.

§. II.

BEcause Devotion hath hitherto spoke the Language of the Church, it may seeme uneasie unto many to be un­derstood; therefore I shall put it into the vulgar tongue of the Court, and so make it more familiar for apprehension, and by the warrant of S. Pauls condescendence to the capaci­ties he wrote unto, I may speak after the manner of men, be­cause Rom. 6. 19. of the infirmity of your flesh; and therefore venture with­out any levity to say, Devotion is a Divine passion.

Love raised to the height of passion, upon humane objects, is a power in our mind, whereon most of the world doth ra­ther pretend an excellency over others, then plead any excuse, for such an incapacity in their nature; wherefore this will be an expression of devotion, that will serve and fit most appre­hensions. And certainly as strangers doe discreetly, to change their habit, when they come to dwell in forreigne parts, espe­cially if they be rude and uncivilized; so pure devotion (being Rom. 8. 7. a stranger to our carnall nature, which is of it selfe wild and undisciplined, comming to plant it selfe, and live with it) may be better suited for the purpose of introduction with the apparell of passion, which is native, then with her owne habit of purity, though more decent and becoming; for this ex­teriour [Page 32] simil [...]de may give the love of God, at first, more convenient conference with our sense, which usually doth but looke strangly at her, when she appeares first in her owne spi­rituall habit, which is so different from the spotted garment of S. Jude 23. flesh and blood.

So that Devotion being thus put into the fashion, and spea­king the language of the place it comes to, may hope for ad­mittance without much wonder unto our understandings, and by acquaintance with them, informing them of the benefits of her association, may obtaine a plantation in our wills and af­fections; and thus by degrees come to be naturaliz'd in our dispositions; and by this easie way of introduction, Devotion may come to get possession in some minds, by commerce of a good companion, sooner then by open claime of her owne rights; for we may conclude what right Devotion hath to our mindes, by this, that when prophane passion seekes to va­lue it selfe, and to possesse the minds of others, it puts on a hea­venly habit, and speakes the language of Devotion, in reve­rence and adoration; thus, as it were, confessing the due interest piety hath in our hearts. May not piety then to recover the easi­lier her due, without irreverence, be put into the lighter figure of passion? I may therefore in order to a pious successe, propose the being devout, under the tearmes of being in love with Hea­ven, because it is the likeliest way of perswasion to the world, to propose not the putting away, but the preferring of their loves, and so transferre them to a fairer object, not extinguish the fervency of their act; and I believe without any levity of conceipt, that hearts wrought into a tendernesse by the lighter flame of nature, are like mettals already running, easilier cast into Devotion then others of a hard and lesse impressive temper, for Saint Austin said, the holy Magdelen changed her object only, not her passion; and one may joyne him with her to authorize this opinion, for love like gold, though it be cast into an idol, the perversion of the forme, doth not disva­lue the mettall; and we know the same gold that Gods People tooke from his Enemies, in the forme of their idols, after it [Page 33] was purged by fire, was consecrated to the tabernable, and then it seemed to have a double capacity of honouring God, as an offering of his servants, and as a trophe from enemies; so when the flame of the holy Spirit (which is Devotion) hath purged and purified our loves, that were cast into the images of humane passions, the same love is sanctified and assigned to Divine Service, and brings a more speciall glory to God, as it is not only an oblation of his children, but also a spoile of his enemy.

This is not meant to countenance the alienation of our loves at any time from God, but to commend that disposi­tion of nature, where love seemes the predominant instinct, for certainly such a temper is apter for a right conversion, then a harsh and sowre constitution of the mind, the first is a good mould of earth, with ill seed cast into it, and so the fruit may be ill, while the pregnancy of the earth is good; the other is Psal. 62. In terra de­serta invia & inaquosa. a heath naturally unfruitfull, and requires much more ma­nuring to make it beare: Wherefore that nature, which hath not a kindly pregnancy in it to beare love, is not the best mould for the seed in the Gospell, for though it may render thirty, it can hardly yeeld the increase of a hundred fold in Devotion.

Certainly we may then very religiously preferre the con­stitution of such mindes, whose powers are best disposed for the act of loving: for love, as it is the greatest treasure of our soules, so is it the only security stands bound to God for all our debts; all the other faculties of man seeme to be receivers only, and this the discharger of all their accounts; but love hath this extraordinary blessing, the greater expense it makes, upon this occasion, the richer it growes; for the more our love payes God, the more it improves the same estate; but we can assigne nothing but this pure species of love to the receipt of heaven. Wherefore all empty formalities, and unsincere af­fectations in exteriour exercises, that would passe for Devo­tion, are, me thinkes, like servants, that have got on fine clothes of their Masters, by which, strangers may mistake [Page 34] their quality, but their Masters are not deceived by them; so these garments and coverings of Devotion, may abuse the eye of the world, but we know the master of all sanctity, distin­guishes dissimulation in all the specious similitudes it weareth. And I should beleeve a varnished hypocrite may be more offensive to the sight of God, then a zealous unvailed idolater, for this, is but mistaken in God, and the other seemeth to sup­pose God may be mistaken in him: and certainly there is no­thing more capitall against the lawes of Heaven, then coun­terfeiting the coyne, (which piety may not improperly be tearmed) as being the price and measure of all exchanges be­tween heaven and earth: of these false coyners King David sayes, They slatter God with their mouth, & lye unto him with their Psal. 78. Psal. 59. tongues, and he gives them Gods answer, thus, The Lord shall laugh them to scorn.

We may conclude then, that the sincere love of God, is the spirit and soul of Devotion, and therefore is to be intire in every severall part of our religious exercises: when God dignifies man with similitude to his own image, it is the soul, not the body that hath this Divine relation; so in the service of God, (which is a consistence of two such parts united of spirit and of matter) the spirit and breath of life doth not reside in the materiall part, which is sensible religious offices, but in the informing and animating part which is Devotion, the which answereth to the soule in humanity, as I have endeavoured to demonstrate. And thus I hope that I have not indecently ap­parell'd Devotion in the habit of the place it is recommended to, clothing it in this soft rayment of passion, being to come un­to the houses of Kings. Mat. 11. 8.

But now me thinkes, I heare some sensuall and voluptuous persons cry out to warne their passions to stand upon their guard, objecting that I, like a pyrat, have thus put up friends colours, while I am in chase, calling devotion, love and passi­on, that it might the easilyer enter our hearts, which when it hath done, it takes and imprisons all our humane delights.

To these I may answer, that I have put up these colours in­deed, [Page 35] that those vessels I would speak with, might not fly from piety at first sight, as from an enemy to pleasure, that speaking with them, I might shew them how Devotion com­ming and possessing our mindes, doth rather compose the munity, then infringe the true liberty of our affecti­ons.

For grace findes Humane Nature (like a vessell richly fraught for commerce with Heaven) most commonly in a mutiny, where the affections that should saile her, rise up against their Commander, resolving to make spoile of their commodities, and to turne to the piracy of sense, taking all whereof sensuality can possesse it selfe, and if. Devotion Reason. enter and compose this sedition, and convey the affections cheerefully to their direct commerce with Heaven; this may be rather thought a delivery then a violation.

And surely our senses cannot more justly complaine of Devotion, as a dispossessor of their properties, then wilde people can call a Law-giver a tyrant. For piety doth but regu­late the functions, not ruine the faculties of our senses; and li­centiousnesse cannot more rightly be called the mindes liberty, then nakednesse the bodies freedome: For lawes and apparell, doe both in their kinds, cover natures nakednesse; and lawes, like clothes, impart conveniencies, (the one to the minde, as the other to the body) without impeaching the decent and proper exercises of either: and so Devotion doth but reduce the wild multitude of humane affections and passi­ons, under the Monarchall Government of the love of God, under which they may enjoy a more convenient freedome, then let loose in their owne confused Anarchy, which they con­fesse when they are converted by God to this belief of their condition, that to serve God is to raigne.

§. I.

UPon the title of this Chapter, me thinkes I see our humane affections stand with the same perplexed at­tention, as a condemn'd multitude, at the reading of a Proclamation of Grace, to some particular specified names, each one watching and praying for his owne. Thus doe our humane passions seeme now concerned, believing themselves all condemn'd by piety, each one me thinkes in a frighted and tacit deprecation of their censure, is expecting with anexity to know whether Devotion will allow them life and consistence with her edicts.

The answer to this, must be, that I shall only put to death, the blind and the lame, whch are commonly set to keep the strong hold of our corrupted nature against virtue. (As they were upon the walls of Sion to keep out David.) Such, Devotion must destroy, for they are hated by her Soule, and are not to be admitted into the Temple. Secular justice is allowed a la­titude 2 Kings c. 5. in mercy, to which this spirituall judge cannot extend his favour, viz. rather to save diverse guilty, then to cut off one innocent; for Devotion must rather put to death many innocent affections, then save one criminall, by reason, that in this case mercy renders the judge a complice of the crime, [Page 37] so that our Devotion must not looke upon the face of any of our affections, but judge by the testimony, our conscience brings in against them.

Yet piety is not so inhumane, as many may apprehend that know not the nature thereof, for it delighteth not in the death of our affections, but desires rather they may turne from their perversions and live, and to perswade their conversion, offers that to them in this life, which is promised to us, but in hea­ven, namely, to have our bodies changed from corruptible and passive, into immortall and inpassible, for Devotion offers to transfigure our affections from their impure and passive shapes, into immuculate and imperishable formes, & raise them up from infirmity to virtue, and make those desires which have beene the image of terestriall figures, to beare only that of 1 Cor. 15. 43. 49. the celestiall.

Neverthelesse our minds seeme to be like fond mothers, which are lamenting their children given over by the Physi­tian, and will scarce hearken to the consolation of Gods Mi­nister, who promiseth so much a better state, as a change from weak infants into Angels. In this manner our fond and effemi­nate mindes seeme to bewaile this tranfiguration of their af­fections, which Devotion proposeth according to the Apostle, Phil. 3. 20. viz. the raising their conversation up to Heaven, and changing their vile body, so that it may be fashioned like unto the glori­ous quality of the love of God.

And certainly, unlesse our affections be cut off from the carnall stock of our nature, and set by way of ingrafting and incision upon the stem of the holy Vine, they doe beare but sowre Grapes, such as will set reason's teeth on edge, which is their mother, since our corrupted nature puts forth many sharp and unripe cupidities, and fancies which are truly rather corra­sive then cordiall to the minde.

God hath planted affections in our sensitive nature, not with a purpose that they should be fixed in the earth, and bear only terrene cupidities, but hath rather set them there for a while, only as in a seminary or nursery; where he doth not [Page 38] meane they should take any deepe root, for our reason, as soon as it is able, is ordained to remove and transplant our affecti­ons into spirituall scituations into, that garden for which they were first planted, so that, although our loves grow at first, while they are little tender slips, only in the terrestriall part of our nature, they are designed to be removed in their due sea­son into the celestiall portion, and to beare fruites spirituall and intellectuall, which order is intimated by the Apostle, when he saith, as the first man is of earth, earthly; so the latter must be of heaven, heavenly.

But because in this warfare of our lives upon earth between these two parties, the sensitive and the rationall, our sensitive nature is not easily perswaded to render up her affections (wherein she accounts her selfe so strong) unto right rea­son upon discretion, let us examine what faire conditions grace which alwayes taketh Reason's part offereth her; and indeed, if the offers be well judged of, there will appeare a truer freedome gained by this surrender, then that, which the loosenesse of our nature would maintaine, when our affections Rom. 6. 18. being made free from sinne, are become the servants of righteous­nesse, for if we examine the impositions and constraints our passions lay upon us, it is easie to convince that to he a reall servitude, which we doe familiarly, but in wantonesse tearme so: and thus our loose passions (like the Jewes, to whom our Saviour proposed freedome by the knowledge of truth▪ will hardly confesse their inthralment; but I may fitly say to them, as he did, while you commit sinne, you are the servants of John 8. 34. 36 sinne. If grace by Devotion set you free, you shall be free in­deed.

Therefore I will procure to manifest how grace may give nature great conditions of freedome, and how the best pro­prieties of our affections, are rather improved and secured, then alienated and spoiled by this surrender to Reason and Devotion.

And to treate first of the interests of love, (which seemes to be the commander of all the strength of our passions) when [Page 39] love renders it selfe to Devotion, then is it so farre from being restrain'd, as it is continued in the command of all the power of our pieties, and is trusted so much, as it is allowed to hold faire correspondence with beauty, though that were the party, love had served under against grace, for then our love com­merceth with the creatures, only to improve his owne estate and faculty of loving, which is all assigned to the honour of the creatour. And surely when love by a rectified perswasion of the blessings of the creature, brings beauty into the service of Devotion, by a right admiration of the workes of the creatour, such objects may forcibly concurre to excite us to the love of the maker, in honouring of whom consists all Devotion.

Beauty may be truly honoured by the rights of her nature without being flattered, by that meanes to be solicited against her maker, for she may be confessed one of the best of all mix­ed creations, since pure spirituall substances, when they will put on a materiall vaile, take beauty for their vestment. The An­gels expose themselves to us, alwayes in the forme of beauty, because that is the readiest note our sense acknowledges of Divinity; and when the Son of God vouchsafed to be clothed with materiality, the holy Spirit that made him this Garment, exposes it and recommends it to us, in this forme of being beautifull above the sonnes of men, and he drawes the image of Psal. 44. 3. the spouse he came to take, in the figure of perfect beauty, as the best sensible Character can be made of her; and makes this quality the object of Christs love, As she is all faire, and no Canticle. 4. spot to be found in her: and thus, as beauty is chosen for a sim­bol of spirituall purity, the allegory of it, as I may say, not the letter is to be studyed by us, since that attention will reflect to us the fairenesse and integrity we ought to preserve in our soules, and so possesse us against that perverted sense which is often drawne out of the out-side or letter of materiall beauty.

In the Book of Gods Workes, Saint Paul tells us, the Divi­nity Rom. 1. 20. of the Author is legible by some little study of the Cha­racter; [Page 40] and certainly, there is no so faire part of this edition, as that of beauty; but we doe most commonly, like children, to whom books are given in fine prints, and graced with gay flourished letters, and figures, they turne them over, and play with them, and never learne the wordes; thus likely, doe our childish mindes, that are kept at play by our senses, looke wantonly over the specious figures of beauty, and seldome study them to learne Gods meaning in them, which if they did seriously inquire, they might learne that the excellence and perfection of their true meaning, renders the perversion the more reproachable, for as crimes are the greater, the neerer they come to the violation of the person of the Prince; so if beauty be the neerest sensible image of the soveraigne of nature, the betraying it to his professed enemy, must needs be the most capitall offence: how this infidelity is committed, is but too much notified.

May I not fitly then reproach those with S. Paul, who with vaine flatteries, change the truth of God into a lie, for is not this Rom. 1. 25. done by such who corrupt the reall good of beauty, by fond and false ascriptions? And surely while they serve thus the creature more then the Creator, they provoke God to give them up to their vile affections, in which with Daniels Elders, Dan. 13. Having overthrown their sense, they turn down their eyes, that they may not see heaven. But the perversion of this blessing, doth not not interdict unto the eyes of the world a due com­merce with beauty, nor to our sight the being delighted with it; for as the Apostle wisheth us, we may be children in malice, 1 Cor. 14. 20. and yet men in understanding.

If Devotion comming to Court, should declare such a war to the world, as to prohibit oursenses commerce with pleasures; which are the natives of this world, she would find but a small party, upon such a breach to follow her. And indeed, God doth as the Prophet sayes, lead us into solitude, when he speaks Hosea 2. that language to our hearts, there he sets on the wings of Sera­phims, to those that upon such plumes fly over their passage through the world; but those whose vocations lead them [Page 41] through the tracts of the earth, doe alwayes feele the earth they tread upon, and it is not to be required of them, to leave all the pleasures of the world in their following of Christ; but S. John Baptist instructs them sufficiently in the lesson he Luk. 3. 13. gave the souldiers, that they should exact no more then is ap­pointed them, and be content with those wages of innocent pleasures, God allowes their senses in the duties of na­ture.

We may then justifie Devotion to be so farre from inter­dicting to nature the regular love of the creatures, as we may assert it the only meanes, whereby we can assure the continu­ance of our loves to them; for our sensitive affections are like the hay and stubble the Apostle speaks of, they are easily ligh­ted 1 Cor. 3. by every spark of pleasure, but they make onely a short blaze, and goe out againe; whereas Devotion is the Psalmists oyle of gladnesse, and though it raise not so glaring and so sharp a flame of joy, yet it entertains it in a more equall and durable temper, for notwithstanding it doth not blaze so much in the sensitive, yet it warms and recreates more the rationall part of our minds, and so doth rather foment then waste the matter of our joy, which the sharper flashes of our passions do quick­ly consume: for truly our affections and passions in their owne nature are so light and volatile, as beauty it selfe, that works best upon them, cannot fixe them, nay nor stay them, so long as even beauty, which is so variable, continues the same; since the same vaine love, which to day robs even Di­vinity for offerings to make to beauty, tomorrow commits as great a fault in humanity, stripping again his owne Idol, meer­ly upon the motion of inconstancy, not at all upon the com­plaint of conscience; so that I may fitly apply this of the Prophet to such loves, They weave spiders webs, their webs shall Isai [...]. 5. 6 not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works.

Thus are our humane passions so deceived in their commerce, with the vanities of this world, as they break often upon the re­turn of their adventure; it seems our fancies insure more upon [Page 42] fruition, then the commodities are worth we traffique for, and so we become losers even by the return of our adventure, whereas Devotion teacheth us the true value of our desires and successes, and how to adventure our hopes, and how to ma­nage the happinesse of our wishes in temporalities, in such sort as to make a stock out of them for eternity, according to the prudent advice given us, to make friends of the felicities of this S. Luke 16. 9 world, that may provide for us in the eternall habitation.

By these lights we see how the love of God is not onely compatible, but requisite with our love of creatures, to assure and improve our true delights in them; for nothing but piety can make good to humane appetite, in all temporalities; that abatement of their esteeme which is made by propriety, and Devotion teacheth us to love them, as gifts of God. By which meanes, fruition makes rather an endearment of them, then a deduction.

But because I conceive this passion of love, hath more friends then any other that will be interested in the cause, I shall give it a fairer triall another time, single by it selfe, wherein the right our love hath in the creature, shall be deter­mined.

§. II.

IN the next place, Ambition seemeth to claime a hearing, and pleadeth a long prescription, for possession of a great tenure in our nature; I shall examine therefore that affecti­on of the minde, which is currant under the sinister notion of Ambition, and endeavour to shew, how the matter of this appetency (which is temporal dignity and glory) is not incon­sistent with the purity of Devotion.

[Page 43] Pride is like Jeroboam, who first drew Israel to sinne, and in­deed may be fitly said, to set up golden Calves for the worship of our fancy, against the true service of our reason, wherefore Devotion is charged to extirpate all that house; and Ambiti­on, as it is familiarly accepted, is the eldest sonne of the house, for it is an inordinate appetite of temporall honour and pre­ferrence, which we understand, commonly under the terme of Ambition; which indeed, is the act of the habit of pride. And so Ambition, is, as it were the title of the prime seignory belonging to the House of Pride, which varies only the appel­lation of the sonne, and in this sence (as Ambition is the heire of Pride) though bearing another name, Devotion can have no confederacy with it; for humility, which hath the same relation to piety, that Ambition hath to pride, hath the com­mission of Jehu, and is not to be tempted by Jezabel, though she be never so well colour'd and painted, even the little ones of this house must be dashed against the stones; but humility hath no command to raze and demolish the Cities and Palla­ces this ill generation lived in, which are, honour, fame and power, for piety may lawfully dwell in these commodious habitations of the world, and make excellent use of all these temporall advantages. So that Devotion doth not prohibit Ʋtilior sapi­entia cum di­vitiis. Eccles. 7. 12. the pursuite of honour and preference, it rather gives our nature a safe conduct against the dangers of the way; upon which, so many parties of our passions make their courses; for we know honour and differencing of degrees, are staires of Gods fabricke, and there can be no order without degrees, for order is the right disposition of parity and disparity. Where­upon the severall stations in this world, are designed by divine wisdome, both for the ornament of the universall frame, which is the naturall end of them, as also for this morall effect, namely to excite and attract our mindes, by these neere sensi­ble fruitions, to straine for an investing the habit of virtue, which likely presseth and pincheth our loose natures at the first essayes, but they indure more quietly the constraint, as being conceived the meanes of some affected acquisition; for [Page 44] all honour is primarily intended by God, as a remuneration of virtue, and it goes still in the world under that name, though this order be never so much vitiated by the iniquity of the world, all dignification retaines still the same title of the merit of some virtue, and those that attend the least to virtue, will not referre their temporall successes to lesse then the adep­tion of them by some virtue; insomuch as even mans corrup­tion attests that all honour and dignity is originally the legiti­mate issue of virtue, which our mindes are naturally betrothed unto, and confesses the generations of fortune to be spurious & illegitimate, since we wil not leave any of her issue under the title of her maternity, but passe them all over to some virtue, for the owning them. For doth not every one finde out some colour of virtue to lay upon the lookes of his good fortune? No body will leave it naked in that frivolous figure of bare fortune, every one is ashamed to expose such a barenesse of minde, and such a destitution of virtue.

Doth not honour and dignity appear plainly by this genu­ine instinct of our ascribing them to virtue, to be one of Gods designments for mans appetency? Wherefore they cannot be discredited by Devotion, which is Gods Minister, and doth decently marshall all the faculties of our minde, in the order of humane actions, directing every one by their severall voca­tions to their respective properties, assigning to Courts and Cloisters their severall portions, and so evidenceth that of the Apostle, that God hath given every one the manifestation of the 1 Cor. 12. 7. spirit, according to the severall utilities he designes by them; and thus, as there are many mansions in our fathers house, Devo­tion sets every one upon the right staires, that lead up to their peculiar assignment. Therefore piety must not be so much tra­duced to the Court, as to be reported quarrelsome with all the family, the proper attendants of the place, namely, glory, po­wer and riches; for it is rather the steward God appoints to keep all in decent order. By whose conduct the proper lustre & magnificence of the place may be set off, so much to the best, as it may hold a pious Analogy with the Court of Heaven, as [Page 45] well in the whole family, as in the Masters persons, who are so specially the images of God upon earth; as not only the person of Solomon, but the order of his Servants, the attendance of his Ministers, and their apparell may be a good image of the originall glory they represent. And such a constitution or frame of temporall glory, may be formed by the oeconomy of Devotion, when she manageth the dignities and treasures of 3 Reg. 10. the world, which commonly are made the subject of confusion and disorder.

Devotion may then say to the Court of temporall desires, which passe under the notion of Ambition, as Christ did to his Apostles, in the temptations they were exposed to, I pray not John. 17. 15 that they may be taken out of the world, but that they may be kept from evill.

As for the prescribing a course of temperance to these ap­petites, this present question doth not properly exact it: I hope the rest of my labours will afford some competent di­rections for our regiment of health, according to the aire and diet of the place, for which they shall opine. Pride is, indeed, that dangerous disease, whereunto the constitution of the Court is most disposed, and the least overheating of Ambiti­on turnes it into pride, but truly the matter of this disease, is rather in the humours, then in the blood, for as no meannesse of birth, or misery of condition are sure exemptions from pride, so not any noblenesse, or felicity are consequent confer­rers of it; for Solomon alloweth us to conclude, that the want of bread doth not starve pride. Prov. 12. 9.

Christian humility doth not prohibit all pursuite of honour, as malignant; or prescribe poverty, as not at all obnoxious; for we have Christs Authority to conclude it a more blessed thing to give, then to receive; and the blessing he gave to pover­ty, was to the poore in spirit, and this qualification of the spirit, may agree with the eminence of all qualities; for Devotion Matthew 5. doth not only carry humility with her up to all the heights and stories she ascends, but retaines it also; for she lookes upward still at that infinite distance she there remaines from heaven, [Page 46] and doth not take measure by her elevation above other estates, she sees below her on the ground; this was King Da­vids Psal. 122. prospect from the Towers of Sion, where he was raised so much above the platforme of the earth, Unto thee I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens: and that true mirrour, did reflect to him humility, while the polished glories of the earth, might have returned him a flattering image of his condition.

We may then resolve, that those who shall make their judgement by the Apostles perfect law of liberty, will finde James. that the carriage of Devotion, is no clog to the activenesse of their thoughts, or motion of their desires, but rather such a weight as is put to clocks, to regulate, not retard their motion; and certainly, our temporall desires are to be esteemed as our watches, not those which goe fastest, but those that goe best.

So that one of the chief offices of Devotion in the world, is to regulate, not represse all temporall desires. Wherefore piety may fitly say to our humane affections, in the Apostles termes to the Galatians, Brethren, you are called into liberty, Gal. 5. 13. only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

Devotion may have ill offices done her by her own friends, by bringing her to Court in so severe and unsutable a habit, and uncompleasant lookes, as she may fright the infirmity of some well disposed, and fire the malignity of others, and thus faile of a good reception by many that would entertaine her, if she were better suted for the place. They never saw piety but in one dresse, that thinke she cannot sute her selfe accor­ding to occasions, and put her selfe so farre into the fashion, as may make her the easilier occostable, and yet retaine her dignity and decency, her naturall visage in a Cloister, may be a vizard to her in a Court. And surely there is nothing re­commends Devotion more to the world then to see it well suited, in the exterior habit, to the society wherewith it is conversant, and the habit changeth no more the naturall com­posure [Page 47] of it, then clothes doe the true proportions of the body, wherefore Devotion may lawfully suite her selfe in such sort, at her first comming to Court, as to cover that which is such an eye-sore unto our infirme nature, too pressing a con­straint upon our naturall affections.

Did not Saint James advise Saint Paul, to comply with the weaknesse of the times, and surely it may be truly said of Courts, that there are many which believe, and yet are Zealous of Acts 21. 20. the law of nature, of the pleasures and conveniences of the earth, and not to offend such as may have innocent inclinations to such attractives, those that recommend Devotion, may protest (against their common discredit) that they doe not teach the relinquishment of all the customes of the place, but doe admit many of them competent with the spirituall lawes of piety. This president of Saint Paul may be prudently ac­commodated, by those that are addressed to worke re­spectively upon the severall infirmities of persons and places; they that can copy well, Saint Pauls figure, of becomming all things to all, that they may gaine all, shall neither avert some by the hard favour of scruple, nor indanger any by the smiles of liberty.

The precepts of speculative purity, are naturall in the ele­ment of contemplation, which is reclusenesse and solitude, but are not alwayes competent with society, there may be a misapplication of spirituall advices, where the matter propo­sed, is excellent in quality, but not adequate in proportion to the place. Of such directions, it may be said as Cicero said of Cato the Censour, that his sense was alwayes excellent, but he did sometimes indamage the state, because he councelled, as in the republicke of Plato, not a [...] in the rubbish of Romulus. So there may be many that may meane excellently, and advise very virtuously, and yet prejudice the state of humanity when they prescribe, as if it were still fresh in the purity of Eden, not pol­luted, in the dregges of Adam: The fit application of actives to passives produceth the best effects in grace, as well as nature, so that it is sufficient for the proposers of Devotion, to answer [Page 48] as Solon did, when he was asked whether he had given his Country the best Lawes he could devise? he replied, that he had given the best they were likely to take; by reason the useful­nesse of pious precepts, consists not in the giving alwayes simply the best, but relatively the properest; as when we set fruit, we consider the earth before we choose the plant.

Vpon these grounds, my study hath been to fit propositions of piety to the measures I have by experience taken of the world, in which worke I may be more confident of the just­nesse of the measures taken by my infirmities, then of the va­lue of the matter furnished by my abilities. I have by Saint Pauls advise, remembred those that are in bonds, as having Heb. 13. 3. been bound also, (and being still, God knoweth, but working upon other fetters) and if there be any thing that seemes lighter colour'd, then the solemnness of the argument requires; let it not be taken as a voluntary indulgence to any levity, but in order to the support of the feeble-minded, and comfort of the weake, by S. Pauls direction. 2 Thes. 5. 14.

When Ambition then is purged from the popular malig­nancy, imputed to that terme, and refer'd only to an aspiring at dignity & preferment by virtuous addresses, I may conclude Devotion and Ambition may live happily together, and yeeld mutuall aides to one another, while Grace furnisheth order, and Nature activity to our spirits.

When piety disciplineth Ambition, the end of our pursuites is rather in prospect upon others, then reflection upon our selves; and truly, charity and beneficence must be the last terme of a Christians exaltation, according to the patterne of our head CHRIST JESUS, our ascending up on high, must be coupled with giving gifts unto men.

We may then resolve, that when Ambition moves without Devotion, this is an earthly motion, moving upon his owne Center; for then Ambition turnes commonly, at best, upon selfe-love, and private cupidities; but when it moves with Devotion, then it is a celestiall motion, upon anothers Center [Page 49] that is, upon the designe of a charitable influence on the inferior positions of the earth, which is that activenesse all Christian Ambition should have, in order to communication of the good whereunto it aspires.

And this, as it is a heavenly, so is it a circular motion which unites all at last unto it selfe, that it toucheth in the whole circulation. For as a circle hath every point made in the whole circumference, contained in the perfection of the fi­gure; so this circle of charity hath every portion of good it hath done, returned into it selfe at the compleatment thereof, which is in the closure of the circle of our lives: For then the Charities which power hath circumferr'd to others, doe all returne, and become her owne againe, in the perfection of Cha­rity; wherein consists the consummation of all power, when by the pious exercise of our temporall power, we are preferr'd to an eternall domination.

By these discussions, I hope to have shewne without any le­vity or indecency, how love and Ambition are compatible with Devotion and piety; and me thinkes, these two are the two great lights of our passions; the one ruling over the day, the other over the night in our sensitive appetite: so that I shal not need to bring any of our lower affections in question, which like lesser stars derive their lights from hence; for when once love and ambition, which are, as it were, the heads of the faction against the spirit, are reduced to the service of Devoti­on; the other meaner popular affections are easily regula­ted.

This premised, we may conclude, Nature hath so little rea­son to complaine of any restraint made upon her faculties by grace, as her affections may justly make this acknowledgment of the Apostle, unto Devotion, (which is Graces minister) that it delivers them from the powers of darknesse, and makes them worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of light. Col [...] 1. 13.

§. I.

THis inscription may seem to many to speak like a Mountebanks Bill, that discrediteth the common Schoole of Nature, and promiseth by one receipt the cure of all diseases; and I pray God this offer may obtaine, what the large undertakings of their Bills familiarly do, which by speaking so faire, invite many that believe not fully the pro­mises, to trie the experiment of their medicines; for if this my plausible prescript gaine but so much either upon the curi­osity, or the beliefe of any, as to draw them to an essay of this my receipt, in that order I have indited it, I need not feare the discredit thereof by the operation, since they who are drawne by any motive to follow this voice of the Psalmist, to come and Psal. 23. see how sweet the Lord is, do quickly make this confession with him, Even the fables, sinners have told me, are not like thy [...]; Psal. 118. for even the speculations of our own inventions do not so much as create that reall peace of mind, which is concluded by devotion.

This metaphor of Physick suggesteth to me the carrying it a little further on to my purpose; for, me thinks I may truly [Page 51] say of the spirit of devotion, what some curious Naturalists have vented of a medicinall extraction, they call the spirit of the world, which giveth vegetation to all bodies, they af­firme it to have the vertue of restoring nature from decay to integrity, and to preserve mans body long in an indeficient vi­gour, and propose contrary effects produceable by this spirit, respectively to divers constitutions, but still to the benefit and redintegration of nature, in each individuall whereunto it is ministred: I may without questioning or signing this position, make this application of it, and affirme that these properties are really verified in the virtue of this supernatural spirit, which I call Devotion: so that I need not feare what I promise, to perswade the taking it, in that manner I have formerly re­ceipted it: whereupon I propose to every regular user there­of, no lesse benefit, then the conferring on them their finall desire in this life, which is comprized under this notion of happinesse; by which terme we understand, the resting and quieting our mindes in the fruition of goods convenient, and Happinesse defined. agreeable to our nature, in which state I propose to shew, that Devotion doth establish the minde of man; in order whereunto I may well prefix this Axiome of Saint Augustine, Lord thou hast made the heart of man for thy selfe, and therefore it is alwayes restlesse untill it requiesce in thee.

Nothing hath so perplexed the wit of man, as to determine the supreame felicity of this life. The Phylosophers have been so divided about it, as they seeme to have passed their lives in a continuall warre upon one another, in the very trea­ty of this generall peace they sought to establish: it seemeth Almighty God, in revenge of the partitions and fractions they made of his unity, broke their opinions into so many pieces, as they could never joy [...]ne in one uniforme conclusion, but as Saint Paul saith of them, They grew vaine in their imaginati­ons, and in the darknesse of their hearts, every Sect had a Rom. 1. 21. severall Phantasme of happinesse appearing to it.

Surely God, who saw with what presumption they were building up the designe of their security in this life, by the [Page 52] modell of their owne naturall Reason, sent this confusion of opinions, like that of the tongues amongst them, to ruine that structure of humane felicity, the wisdome of the world was raising for her refuge & shelter, against the stormes of Heaven. And so these bricklayers of humane happinesse, (which they may be properlytermed, in respect they wrought only upon the matter of the earth, tempered by humane wisdome, and with that stuffe, thought to build up their forts of felicity) were struck from Heaven into this confusion of language, and di­spersed into severall Sects, in which, every one spake a diffe­rent tongue, and never concurr'd in an intelligence to constitute one unanimous position touching the supreame fe­licity.

This point of mans constant happinesse, seemeth to be in Morall Philosophie, the great secret, in search whereof most of the speculative Sages have imployed their studyes, and have advanced no further then the naturall Philosophers have done towards finding the famous Elixir; for the Mora­lists have made many usefull discoveries by the way; whereby they have composed diverse excellent medicines for the infir­mities of the minde, but never any of them, though they have much boasted it, did attaine unto that consummate virtue, which could settle the minde in a perfect tranquillity and inva­riable temper. This virtuous power in morality, as it answereth adequately to those properties the Chymicks attribute to their great worke; so is there this Analogy betweene them, that they both seeme much more feisable by their specu­lative rules, then they are found by practicall experi­ment.

The swelling science of the Ancients, which had never heard of the fall of Humane Nature, grew too well conceited of her sufficiency, thinking the perversity and wrynesse of the superiour part of the minde, to grow only by an ill habit of stooping and bending towards the lower portion, which is the sensitive appetite; thus the Stoiks concluded, that single reason might by the reflex of discourse, see this indecent po­sture, [Page 53] whereunto custome inclined her; and so, by degree rectifie and erect her powers to such a point of straightnesse, as neither the delights nor the distresses of the lower and sen­sitive part of nature, should ever bowe or decline the evennesse and rectitude of the minde; and by this means they arrogated no lesse to mans sufficiency, then even the power of remaining in a calme apathy and impassivenesse, in all offensive emergen­cies. But alas, the wisdome of the world knew nothing of that inward bruise our nature had in her fall, which keepeth her too infirme, to be reduced to that perfect activity, where­unto pure speculation might designe her; we understand that repugnant law in our members, by which, all their imagined tenures of security were voyded, when they came to their tri­all; but they understood so little this law, as what we know to be the defect of frail title, namely, our nature, they took for the security of their estate of peace.

Me thinkes the Ancient Philosophers with all their wis­dome and precaution were served by their owne nature, as children use to doe one another, at a certaine schoole-play, when he that hides, striketh him he holdeth blinded, who being thought out of play is never guessed at; and thus did our corrupted Nature while she her selfe held them blinded, strike them, and she was never suspected of the blow; but the accidents of fortune were only taken for the strikers, with which singly, those Sages thought their mindes were exerci­sing themselves; for they never misdoubted this infidelity in Humane Nature, they thought her intirely sound and selfe­sufficient, to afford this consummate tranquillity of spirit in all seasons; and thus they were like children kept blinded, and strucken by the same hand which they never suspected, char­ging fortune as a forreine actor, with all those blowes that pro­voked their passions. Upon which ground they presumed on the sufficiency of naturall Reason, even to extinguish all passi­on or distemperance in their mindes: but to these presumpti­ons the Apostle answereth, While they accounted themselves wise, they became fooles.

[Page 54] And surely, these Morall Ideas conceived by the Stolkes, may well be coupled with the naturall Ideas, supposed by the Platonikes; out of which principle, there may be some light drawne towards the inquiry into the nature of formes ab­stracted from matter, although the position be erroneous. After this sort, we may derive much clarity, towardes our discerning the latitude and power of morall virtue, by these maximes of the Stoiks, which are not sincerely true in their conclusions. I may therefore justly bring in this evidence of the wisest of men, against this Sect of pure Moralists, presu­ming upon the Stock of naturall wisdome, You have said, you Eccle. 7. 24. would become wise, and it departed farther from you.

The felicity of a Christian is stated upon a farre different principle, namely, in the perception of the defectivenesse of our Nature, as being maimed by her first fall, and in the ac­knowledging the insufficiency of our single Reason, to mode­rate and compose the disquiets of the mind, without a super­naturall adjunction of Grace; by which we are, as Saint Peter 1 Pet. 2. 9. telleth us, called out of the darknesse of the Phylosophers, into this admirable light, to see the curse that is upon our earth, and to discerne that we are not, in this life, Lords of our ease, but tillers of this foule earth of our corrupted Nature, which we can never weed so perfectly, as to gather out of it a pure and immixed felicity; it is by a supernaturall light shining in our dark places, that we are inlightned in a right apprehension, of what degree of happinesse we may project in this life; and Grace doth us this good office, by a detecting to us the naked­nesse of our nature, not by a covering and palliation of her disfigurements; and in the point of establishing our happinesse, Grace may well be said to instruct Reason as her Disciple, in the termes of Truth himselfe to his Disciples, Abide in me, and I in you: For, as the branch cannot beare fruit of it selfe, except it John 15. abide in the vine, no more can Reason, unlesse it abide in Grace; & when our Reason (which originally consider'd, is properly a branch of the root of Grace) doth abide therein, it bringeth forth much fruit of such felicity as the season of this life can afford for our resection.

§. II.

NExt we will take into consideration the case of those who state the happines of this life in a plentiful fruition of all temporal accomodations; and such are in my mind much easier confuted then the former Rationalists, we have examined; for these, whom I tearm Sensualists, may be in great pain and incertainty, to get but so much as the ground or subject of their happinesse, which are wealth and sensuall pleasures; whereas the other have the foundation, at least of their work, namely Rectifiable Reason, much more attainable by a sincere pursuite so that notwithstanding they are abused in the degree of sufficiency, they assigne to this rational com­posure of mind, yet have they alwayes some fair proportion of contentment in this attempt; whereas the Sectaryes of vo­luptie, part with their Peace before-hand, upon no security of their projected satisfactions for commonly they are first much troubled with an unassurance of compassing any of their de­sires, and then in case of successe, much perplexed in point of preserving them; and at the best, are alwayes disappointed of somewhat they expected, even in the possession of their de­sires: Since propriety in our fickle nature, doth deduct much from the prefanfied value of such pretensions.

Such therefore as state the felicity of this life in the full and constant satisfaction of their senses, are much easilyer con­futed then the other we have treated of; for they seem to de­signe the imposing upon Reason, a degree of Passivenesse, as much lower then it can fall, as the other do aspire to raise it to a point of activity above the sphere of our vitiated nature; Since the Sensualists me thinks pretend to reduce the Ratio­nall part of the mind, to as much submission to the sensitive [Page 56] appetite; As the Moralists did design the quite contrary sub­jection. For they would have Reason murmure as little against all the appetites and fruitions of the senses, as these would have the mind remain unaffected & inviolable by all sensible vexati­ons; neither of which projects are effectible in our humane con­stitution; for experience disabuseth us in both these proposals, but most especially in this point of sensualities, being able to suspend & silence reason so fully, as it shal interpose no disqui­et or dis-savour in the eases & suavityes of corporeal fruitions; for even the highest degree of irrational pleasures, which doth the most alienate and suppresse the acts of Reason, are of little continuance, and our reason soon returnes, and bringeth with her such reproaches as break the entirenesse of the delight, and so leave all voluptuary happynes, at the best, but an intermit­ting and discontinued peece of satisfaction. For this interpo­sition of the reasonable power of the soul, induceth alwayes some accusation of the unreasonablenesse of those delights upon which we assign our selves felicity, and our understan­ding sets our memory very often, even against our will, to remember the dignity of our Intellectual nature, which we endeavour to debase by a preference of her own natural ser­vants, and there is no state of sensuall voluptie, so wel guard­ed by the attendance of all earthly commodityes, whereinto the depressed power of Reason doth not often get accesse, and then it woundeth that tender portion of the mind, we call con­science, so farre at least, as to manifest to us the unsoundnesse of that sort of our imagined happinesse.

Nay abstracting from all religious reflexions, doth not na­turall experiment familiarly teach us, that our sensitive nature is not to be trusted, when she proposeth the satisfaction of her appetites, for security to our happines? Since our carnall affe­ctions, even in their dearest ingagements, break their word so commonly, and run away, as I may say, from those appe­tites they were contracted to, before they have so much excuse as having attained to their proposed tearm, to justifie their change of desires, and how seldome do our passions maintain [Page 57] themselves in any vigor in the state of a lawfull conjunction and fruition of their most servent pursuits; Nay, doth not a Legitimate propriety, (which in reason should indear them) commonly make the right we have to be pleased with such possessions, the onely reason of our disvaluing them? These notorious Infidelities may justly evacuate all the title Volup­tie can claime unto this lifes felicity.

Must we not then resort to a Superior power, for the stabi­lity of our happynes? such a one as may be able to fix our affections, and not leave them in their own naturall trepidati­ons and Retrograde motions, by which we can never keep a true account, even of our desires? So farre are we from assu­ring our delights, and for the fixing of our volatile Nature, there is no humane art to be consulted, the Author of Nature reserveth to himselfe this great secret.

Since Nature then is so discredited, in order to this great work, we must have recourse to the peculiar secret of Christia­nity, which is the grace of God infused into our hearts by the ho­ly Rom: 5. Ghost; By the advise whereof, our hearts are taught, not to work upon temporal felicity, (which may aptly be resembled to quick-silver) as Alchymists do upon this minerall, with a 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 Dan. 1. 4. 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 [Page 58] 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 [Page 59] 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 Psal. 29. 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 Psal. 38. 7. man passeth as an Image, yea and he is troubled in vain.

§. III.

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 [Page 61] 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, Ecclus. 11. 24 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 Ecclus. 18. 26 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 inconsistent with this injunction of continuall fear, we must understand, that there are two feares respecting this world, which may stand in morality, answering most of the properties of the same in Divinity, viz: a filiall and a servile feare, the first whereof feareth but as a child of humanity, by the knowledge of the frail Nature of all temporalities; the other, as a slave to mundanities, being mastered and subjected by Sensuality; So that the filiall fear riseth from an ordinate love, and right ap­prehension of the condition of the Creatures, and the servile springeth from a misprision of their Nature, and an undue subjection unto them; wherefore this first filiall fear, is but virtuous and precautionall, and so compatible with a hap­py constitution, for it perplexeth our present fruitions, no more then the generall notion of our mortality offendeth our present health: the knowledge that we must die, doth not make us sick; no more doth the understanding, that our temporary delights are to passe away, disrelish their present savour.

Let this prenotion then of intervenient changes in all our most secured conditions, of stated as requisite, for the settle­ment of tranquility in our mindes, since at all times, tem­porall felicity is either going away from us, or we from it; for whatsoever the best of our times bring us in their revolutions, they carry us away from them at the same time, by the motion of our Mortality; in proof whereof the Spirit of Truth telleth us, we are but a breath of aire passing on and not retur­ning. Psal. 78. 39.

[Page 62] Thus have I, after the method of Saint Paul with the Athe­nians, indeavored to confute the two Sects of the Stoicks and Epicureans, and I conceive to have voyded both their titles to happinesse; the first, claiming it in the right of our single Na­turall Reason, the other, challenging it in the name of our sa­tisfied senses; to neither of which, I hope in God to have shew­ed, that felicity can rightly be adjudged, by reason the specu­lations of the Stoicks are but like well painted scenes, which at a convenient distance seeme to expose reall fruits, waters, and shades; but when you come into them, you finde nothing but paintings and barren colours. Much after this manner, while you looke upon the pure Theory of their maximes, they seeme to containe peace, serenity, and satisfaction of spirit, i [...] all the earthquakes of this world; yet this faire shew lasteth but while our conditions are at a convenient distance from a ne­cessity of acting those principles, for when we are pressed under the ineumbe [...]t miseries of this life, to practise this I deal self-suf­ficiency, we are then brought as it were into the scenes of those maximes, for then we finde all those figurings of apathy and impassivenesse, to prove but coloured and fruitlesse concepti­ons, in respect of those Soveraigne effects were promised the minde, at the distance of speculation.

And I presume to have cast the other Sect by these two evi­dences brought against it, viz. the unfaithfulnesse of all ma­teriall goods, in point of duration and fixure, and the fickle­nesse, even of our owne affections, in the esteeme of such fru­itions; wherefore the former of these two Sects stands convin­ced of stating happinesse, in what can never be obtained, and the other, in what can never long be preserved; whereupon they may both justly receive their sentences, the first from the Apostle, pricking thus their swelling knowledge, If any man 1 Cor. 8. 2. think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet, as he ought to know: and the case of the other stands thus judged by the Prophet, you shall conceive heat, and bring forth stubble, your Esay. 33. 11. spirit as fire shall devoure you.

May I not then say, that felicity is in the worlds opinion, [Page 63] as the unknowne God was in the Religion of the Athenians? for though it have an Altar assigned unto it, yet neither the true nature of happinesse is rightly apprehended, nor the addresses to it duly determined, and the termes of Saint Paul on that occasion, will very [...]igh fit my purpose, What therefore you Acts 17. ignorantly pursue, that I declare unto you, and manifest how the true felicity of this life, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; that is to say, it is not seated in the speculative edifices of Philosophy, nor in the materiall structures of sensible fru­itions, but resideth in this spirituall mansion of fervent and rectified Devotion, which produceth a right understanding of the value of all things transitory, and induceth a confi­dence of enjoying eternall peace of mind, and inva [...]ible felici­ty of body.

I have already set up before you an entire figure of Devotion, by which you may draw the just proportions of that virtuous bit, which calmeth all humane passions, in that degree our nature can be serened and quieted in this life; instructing us, how Gods universall order admitteth not our being happy in all our temporall desires; and therefore Devotion fixeth all our desires upon Gods order, and so maketh the accomplish­ment of his designes, the chiefe terme of our wishes: and by this course, as God changeth his exterion sentence sometimes, but never his i [...] councell; so godly and devout soules may [...]ary in the apparencies of their present happinesse, but never alter in the in [...]rinsique state of a blessed condition. For as much as in all extrinsique changes, Devotion hath this rest of the Ps [...]lmist, when upon the vexations of the senses, the soule [...]s to be reduced to My soule refused to be comforted, there followeth presently, I was mindefull of God, and was de­lighted Psal. 76. 4. in this mindfulnesse of God. Devotion sixeth all our security, and by fastning our mindes to what is im­moveable, they themselves are rendered as it were unal­terable.

Upon what we have discoursed, I may conclude my pro­position firmely established, and resolve by the Authority of [Page 64] the wisest of men, The heart that knoweth the bitternesse of his Prov. 14. soule, in his joy shall not the stranger be mingled. That is, an ad­vised man man admits an exterior foundation of his happinesse▪ And for an unquestionable security of my promise, I will leave you this ingagement of the Psalmist, Delight in the Lord, and Psal. 36. he will give thee the petitions of thy heart.

§. I.

ME thinkes I heare many, very impatient to see some more sensible object of temporall happinesse, exposed by Devotion, for our nature is not easily drawn to looke off from the delights it seeth, as I may say, face to face, and turne to those that are seene but darkly as through a glasse, which are the joyes of the other life, speculated only 1 Cor. 13. through the perspective of faith; I will not therefore propose to those vocations which are the addresse of my perswasions, the putting their nature into any severe straights or pressures, in hope only of remote reversions. I will assigne present con­veniencies for the entertainment of our nature, and over-pay by good security of sincere secular joy, what may seeme taken away in that adulterate species, wherein our fancies use to ac­cept the receites of our contentment: For surely Devotion [Page 65] doth assigne the minde a rectified joy, in the use of temporall goods, instead of that vitious and counterfeit, which our three enemies (pretending to be our stewards) bring into our fancy that is prone, to take all, whatsoever hath but the image of sensible pleasure, without examining the substance; which facility to be deceived, the Prophet reproacheth in us, saying, We sell our selves for nothing. Esay 52.

Should a traveller passing through a forreign countrey, finding the coyne of the place raised to an excessive value, ex­change into it all the good species of his own, thinking to make gain by this traffique, because the coyne is currant in his passage; as soon as he were passed that dominion, he would quickly repent his inconsiderate mistake; This seemeth to be the familiar case of man, who while he is in his transition and passage through this world, findeth the temporalities thereof, (which are the currant species of the place) cried up to such an over-value, as he is perswaded to turne all his affections into that species of joy, and at its issue out of this forreign re­gion, he findeth the irreparable losse he hath made by the debatement of his talents in this exchange: And it is against this delusion, not against all commerce with secular joy in our journey, that Devotion issueth to us her inhibitions, lest by this ill husbandry in their way, when they come to account with their great Creditor, they be reduced to give a worse answer then he, who brought back his talent unimproved: I shall therefore exhibite to our minds (which must needs nego­tiate in their passage through this world) the true Intrinsique value of those joyes, uttered in the commerce with the crea­tures, that taking none but such as are allowed in their last audict, their traffique may bring home into their native coun­trey not their Bonds forfeited, but rather Bils of exchange payable upon their Masters joy.

In answer then of the desire of having the truest happynesse of this life, specially determined; I declare that the felicity of Felicity de­scribed. this life consisteth in a constant rejoycing in truth: This is the assertion of Saint Augustine, and is easily verified to all ra­tionall [Page 66] dispositions; The first reply the world is like to make to this proposition, is Pilates question, What is truth? to which John 18. 38. I answer,

Truth is a perfect and edequate similitude or likenesse, imprint­ed Truth defi­ned. in our understanding of the nature of the thing we conceive; So that when our conception is just equall to the being and property of the thing we conceive, we are said to understand truth. Wherefore the truth of knowing, is as it were the mould cast off from the truth of being, or the print of that seal, and so the image of the true being of a thing, is the figure of truth seated in our minds.

But this, which may seem a fair impression of the nature of truth, may perchance appear but a dark Character of the form of happynesse to my auditory, unto whom indeed I do not intend to assigne onely the speculative notions of verities for the subject of their satisfactions; but I will open farther this store of joy, (the rejoycing in truth) and shew how it contain­eth the Prophets wine and milk, which he offereth to all for Esay 55. fetching it; From hence the contemplative life draweth that wine, whereof King David saith, My chalice inebriating how Psal. 22. 1 Pet. 2. goodly is it; and the active sucketh that milk, which the Apostle saith is proper for their vocation, which nourisheth their minds with more sensible delectation issuing from the true use and ordinate love of the creature; And this is that, I may not un­pleasantly call the milk which these Gentiles love best, to whom I present my breast.

The preference of the contemplative life, before the active, is inferred from this respect, of affording a more clear and serene light, for the perception of Supernatural verityes; For contemplation is a fixure of the mind on the aspect and Contempla­tion defined. presents of truth: and although this act of contemplating be purely Intellectuall, yet the terme and end thereof rests in the affections, as the possession of our pursuits induceth joy; whereby this is demonstrated, that the happynesse of the con­templative life consisteth in the rejoycing in truth; This sensi­ble delight in contemplation flowing from the Superior por­tion [Page 67] of the mind down upon the Inferior, is a good Image of mans consummate Beatitude in Heaven; where the glory of the body is derived from the excesse and redundancy of the joy and blessednesse flowing from the soul; and in this order, the delight imparted to our affections by contemplation, fals from a superfluence of truth in our understanding. And thus, what may be said to be light in the Superior region of the Soul, seemeth fire in the lower; The first reporting to truth, and the latter to joy; which as it is a passion in our nature, may be said to be more materiall then the other in the same degree, as flame is lesse pure then the radiancy of the Sunne; but the comparative degrees of purity, between the acts of our Intel­lect and our affections are not our Theam. Certaine it is, that all the sensible delectation of the contemplative life, streameth from the springs of Supernatural verities; we will therefore stay no longer on the top of Mount Sinai, which may seem all cloud to those that are below, while the Moseses that are upon it, find all splendor and clarity, and may not unfitly be said to see the hinder parts of that verity, in seeing the face whereof, consists the consummate rejoycing.

Comming then down into the Camp of the active life, it will be no hard task to prove the happinesse of that state like­wise, seated in the rejoycing in truth, which hath so gratefull a savour even to our sensitive appetite, as I may say, none wish for quailes, but they desire to tast this Manna in them; I mean no body affecteth any sensible fruition, but as it is under the form of a true good: For as Saint Augustine reasoneth, let any be asked, whether he had rather joy in truth or in falsity, and the answer will bear no doubt; For although there be ma­ny would deceive others in their happinesse, there are none would be deceived themselves in it, there is such a signature of the light of the countenance of verity, stamped upon the reason of man, as his understanding can propose nothing to his affections as matter of joy, but under the colour at least of truth; So that the object of all our affections is true delight, though the errour be never so great in the subject of our joy: [Page 68] For no body can rejoyce under this notion of being deceived, the instinct of man is such, in order to truth, as he must pre­sent that object to his Imagination, even out of the errour it self he rejoyceth in, so Essentiall is truth, for the terme of his acquiescence.

Supposing we do thus generally aim at truth for our felicity, I may well be asked, how it commeth to passe, that the sub­ject of our joyes is oftener apparence and falsity, then the real good of this life's benedictions? the cause surely is, the parti­ality of our imagination towards our sensitive appetite, rather then in favour to our reason; and thus Opinion, which is but a changeling introduced by Sense, passeth commonly for the right child; and certainly, Opinion may well be said to be the mean issue of sense, and Verity, the noble child of Reason; but by this unjustice of our imagination, it followeth, that all the delights which are touched but at our senses, are commonly accepted by our will for the true species of joy, from the credit of that test, without examining their nature in the fire of Ra­tiocination; whereby it happens, that when we are the trulyest deceived, we are most believing in the truth of our happynesse; for when we misapprehend the most the nature of secular plea­sures, having the least suspition or scruple of the mutability of such fruitions, our joy seemeth the most sincere, which pro­veth clearly, that truth is but mistaken in the colouring, not unintended in the designe of our felicity.

In redresse of this error, Devotion taketh off the deceitfull colours of good and evill, which Opinion layes upon the crea­ture, and presenteth to our understanding a naturall image both of the worth as well as the vanity which may be found in the rectified or vitious apprehension of all temporalities, & possessing us with the true nature of all our possessions, direct­eth us how to rejoyce in the truth of such blessings, and there­by satisfyeth that instinct of the mind with the reality, and doth not amuse it with the meer colour of verity.

Certaine it is, that temporall blessings, as health, beauty, wealth, and honour, are indued with a true and sincere good­nesse, [Page 69] wherein their owners may vertuously rejoyce: the point is, the discernment of this Truth, and the selecting that, only for subject of our delectation: because just as much as we stray from this principle, so much we remove from our hap­pinesse; which depending on the satisfaction of our opinion, if that be unsound, in apprehending the nature of such goods as are the objects of our affections; we are in danger of being unhappy, by their being but true to their owne nature, while we are untrue to ours: For their true instinct is mutation and instability; and ours, the perception and use of that verity: whereby our understanding may sort an affection proporti­oned to the nature of secular benedictions.

§. II.

THe states of many the dearest friends of God, testifie that temporall felicity affordeth a sincere matter of joy, which is commensurate to the true sense concei­ved of the nature of such happinesse. Abrahams wealth was thought worthy the holy Ghosts mentioning as a blessing, & as his peregrination was fitted with great accommodations; so that state of unsettlednesse was a fixing in his minde, the true nature of all he possessed. In proof whereof, it may well be observed, that the only purchase Abraham made upon Gen. 23. earth with his riches, was a grave; from whence we may in­ferre, how rightly he understood the truth of their transitory nature, and his owne mutable condition; whereupon he chose to take possession of the Land, promised him by a marke of [Page 70] his parting with it, rather then of his possessing it: thus did he, understanding the true goodnesse of his worldly commodities, derive from them, both exercises of charity, and notions of mortification, while he imployed his wealth, in the accommodations of strangers and passengers, and in provision of his owne lodging, as a traveller at the end of his journey: and remaining in this rectified sense of his tempo­porall fruitions, all their effects proved a constant rejoycing in Truth.

By this method Abraham extracted the same Spirit of Truth, out of his plentifull substance that Lazarus did out of his penury and indigence; and surely, if Dives had rejoyced but in the truth of his abundance, and not set his heart upon the false part thereof, he would have taken Lazarus into his breast in this life, & then they might have been bed-fellowes in Abra­hams Bosome. For I may truly affirme, that there is no Lazarus in this world, who hath not an Abraham in his Bo­some, that shall get to the being in Abrahams Bosome in the next: And likewise conclude, that there is no Dives in this life, who hath a Lazarus in his bosome, that shall not at­taine to Abrahams Bosome in the other world: For there is no necessitous body, wanting fidelity of heart, and poverty of spirit, that can be qualified for that state meerely by his misery; and there is no so splendid or opulent person, indued with true Christian poverty of spirit, that is not thereby intitled to eternall felicity: and surely, as there are many Lazarusses, who want this kind of Abraham I have explained in their heart; so there are diverse Abrahams in this life, as I may terme them, who carry this sort of Lazarus in their bosome, being both rich, humble, and faithfull, contriving all their tempora­ry joy, out of the perception and dilection of the true blessing; intended in the Creature, and deduce their satisfaction from Gods order, not their owne exaltation, in which respect they may be proved to rejoyce in verity.

Did not holy Job rejoyce in the truth of his worldly goods, when he assigned the most of them to sacrifices, either expia­tory [Page 71] for his children, or propitiatory for himselfe, to purge the excesses of feasting in his owne family, or to provide against the exigences of fasting in the houses of his neighbours? acting this part which the holy Spirit gives the potent; saying, the portion of the poore is in the rich mans hands; and surely we may conceive that in the latter part of his life, (which I may call his temporall resurrection, his estate rising againe to more glory then it had expired with) his piety was also exalted in proportion to a higher state of perfection; so that truth being found and acknowledged in any splendid condi­tion, will keepe Peace and righteousnesse in the family kissing Psal. 84. each other.

Was not King Davids vast treasure well managed by the superintendency of truth, when he assigned all the most preti­ous materialls the earth affordeth to their true use? some as it were converted into vocall instruments of Gods prayses; others into visible memorialls of his presence, and designed in a Temple as good a sensible figure as he could of the truth he conceived of all materiall substances, which was, of the earths belonging to God, and all the plenitude thereof, which con­fession he made in these words, thine are the heavens, and the earth is thine: In this verity he rejoyced, extracted out of all his transitory felicity.

And King Ezekias, having his treasury and cabinets filled with all pretious stores, might have rejoyced in the truth of those blessings, without deriving from them vanity and pre­sumption, as much as he boasted of them to the Babylonians; so much untruth he found in that felicity, whereof he seemed to have forgot the changeable property, and was quickly in­structed by the Prophet, in the insecurity of such goods, where­by Esay 39. he discerned how he had rejoyced in the untruth of his temporal happines; out of which, he might have extracted mat­ter of a true and sincere rejoycing; for Gods Spirit attesteth to us, that he doth not cast away the mighty, whereas he himself is mighty. Job 36. 5.

All the attainders, lying upon great and rich men in the [Page 72] Scripture, are brought against such as rejoyce in the errours and deceits of temporall goods, such as either sacrifice all their wealth to the Idols of their fancy, or such as make an Idol of their wealth, and offer up all their thoughts unto it: The voluptuous, or the avaritious are those that fall under the sentence of the Gospell, and their crime is not what they possesse, but what possesseth them, when they doe not rejoyce in the truth of their goods, but delight themselves in contri­ving errours and fallacies out of them; and as the Apostle sayes, Change the Truth of God into a lie: So that the defective­nesse Rom. 1. 25. of their happinesse, ariseth out of their degression from Truth; and whence doth all the blessednesse which Christian faith annexeth to sufferance, issue, but from this spring of veri­ty, which streameth out that joy and exultation is proposed to us, in the afflictions of this life?

How come the thorns of sufferance to beare grapes, the wine whereof rejoyceth the heart, while our senses are prickedct wounded with this spinous or thorny matter? Surely this cor­diall is made of the Spirit of Truth, which may be extracted out of all the asperities of this life; first, by considering the true state of Humane Nature, designed to sufferings, not only by sentence, but by Grace, in order to the aversing us from the love of this world: next by contemplating the truth of those glorious promises, which are made to a virtuous corre­spondency with Gods Order, in his disposure of his creature; so that both the materiall goods and evills of this life, afford no legitimate joy, but what the mind beareth when she is teeming with Truth; we may therefore resolve with King Da­vid, that when Truth doth spring out of the earth, righteousnesse Psal. 85. 11. shall looke downe from Heaven.

§. III.

BUt now me thinkes, having determined the happinesse of this life, in the loving and rejoycing in Truth; many that thinke themselves unhappy, wonder at this conclu­sion, and conceive me disproved by their defeatures, perswa­ding themselves to have beene alwayes suitors and lovers of Truth; when the Truth is, that they doe not first seeke verity for the object of their love, but conclude they have found it, in what they have placed their love: Supposing their opinions of such joyes as they pursue, to be sincere and solid truthes; insomuch as I may well resolve such sonnes of men, that They love vanity, and seek after lies. Psal. 4.

In that region of the world which I have travelled the most, I may reflect to the inhabitaints of it, one raigning error, which may convince many of insincerity in their addresses to Truth, for the ground of their happinesse: this it is, the trust­ing the infidelity of fortune to others for our owne felicity, designing our stock, out of the spoiles of our fellowes; and in this course, doe we not fixe the hopes of our happinesse, upon what can never passe to us, but by such an infidelity as must assure us we are in continual danger of a like dispossession? this must needs be our case, when the expectance of the unfaithful­nesse of fortune, is made the assignment of our prosperity: And yet we see how Courts are commonly divided into these two partyes, of some, that are Sacrificing to their owne nets, and Habac. 1. 16. others that are fishing for such nets; the first, is the state of such as are valuing themselves, for what they have taken; the second, of those, who are working and casting out, how to catch what the others have drawne: and in this manner, there [Page 74] are many who pretend to be lovers of Truth, that make these fallacies, the very ground of that web of happinesse they have in hand.

This is so preposterous a course, for ingenious spirits in order to true felicity, as surely there is much of a curse in this method, and God warranteth my beliefe, both by the Prophets and Apostles; when speaking by the voyce of Esay to this case, he saith, They have chosen their owne wayes, wherefore I Esay 66. 4. also will chuse their delusions, and by Saint Paul, the holy Spirit saith, Because they received not the love of Truth, for this cause God sends them strong delusions, that they should beleeve a 2 Thes. 2. 11. lie.

Let the worlds darlings examine what they confide in for the security of their joyes, and they will finde, it is the Father of lies, they trust for the truth of their felicity, who being not able to diminsh the increated verity, sets all his art to deface all created Truthes, which worke (in this region of the world I now treat of) he designeth by such a course as he used with the Person of Truth it selfe, when he was upon earth; for he carryeth up our imagination to the highest point of esteeme he can raise it, of earthly possessions, from whence he exposeth to our fancies, the glories and beauties of this world, in de­ceitfull apparencies, as if they were permanent and secured fruitions, and our wills are commonly perswaded to bowe downe and reverence such false suggestions; whereof the in­fidelity augmenteth by the degrees of our Devotion in that beliefe; since the more we confide in their stability, the more falshood doe we admit for our happinesse; and thus are we abused in the possession of Truth, while we affect all our de­lights under that notion, by the subtilty of the great enemy of Truth; we are as Saint Augustine saith elegantly, brought to hate Truth, by loving those things which we love, only as we imagine them to be true, for the impermanency of this worlds goods is odious to us; which is the truth of their na­ture, and we affect in them their assurance, as a truth without which we would not love them, and yet that opinion is a meere delusion.

[Page 75] This may satisfie many, who account themselves unhappy by the mutations of fortune, and the dispossessions of their secular commodities, for they shall finde themselves unfor­tunate, but in the same measure they misapprehended the true nature of such fruitions, by as much as they over-loved them, so much are they distressed by their losses, so the defect will still result out of the distance of our joy from this principle, of rightly possessing and rejoycing in Truth, for all our reall unhappinesse riseth by the same degrees, that Verities are diminished from among the Children of men. Psal. 11. 1.

There is one familiar scruple raised against our perswa­ding the active life to this constant intendment of Truth; which is, that this fixure of the minde upon verity, rather then leaving it a little loose to opinion, taketh off the point and edge of our spirit, in the activenesse and commerces of this life. Whereunto I answer, that spirits wher and sharpned up­on the errours of imagination, are subject to turne their edge upon the least encounter of disappointment; when mindes temper'd by the consideration of truth, and thereby set and whetted for action, keep their edge cutting against the haire, as I may say, not blunted or rebated in any adverse occurrencies; nor doth this breast of Verity, as some suppose, nourish only the minde, and pine the senses, but feedeth them also with healthfull and convenie [...] pleasure, and teacheth the soule how to keepe the senses in their true degree of servants, mana­ging their trusts only upon account, which the minde taketh so exactly of them, in all the commerce of their delights, as they can never runne out much in prejudice of her estate; and in this order the rationall part doth the office of the good steward in the Gospell, Feeding the family with their portions Luke 12. 42. in due season. And surely, this orderly oeconomy in the ma­naging of all worldly goods, (Reason presiding, and the senses entertained with competent satisfaction) is the best state of happinesse this active life can admit. So is it the knowledge and love of Truth, seated in our understanding, and our affecti­ons which can only consort this harmony of a constant rejoy­cing.

[Page 76] And doubtlesse, while our fancies doe but counterfeit that truth they expose to our affections, we can no more justly complaine of the insufficiency of that object, in point of affor­dingus felicity, then of a painted fires not warming us, be it neverso wel drawn. For commonly, they are but designs of our imaginations coloured over with vaine apparencies of Truth, which they exhibite to our affections, for the true substances of our happinesse: wherefore I may, me thinkes, fittly illu­strate this familiar errour of the world, by this story of Zeuxis the famous Painter; who having made the figure of a boy, with a cluster of grapes in his hand, being told, the birds sate upon the boyes hand, to peck at the grapes; answered, this was no true praise of his art, because it was a signe he had painted the grapes better then the man; otherwise the birds would have been afraid of that figure: In like maner, may I say, that these imaginations which figure such a truth of happinesse in sensible delectations, as their affections take them for the reall and sincere felicity of this life, are not to be commended for this vivacity, for it is a signe they represent more lively to our reason, the fruits of this world, which the man hath in his hand, then they doe the nature of our humanity, the constitution whereof, if it were truely imaged and figured to our understanding, would fright our affections from setting themselves upon the fruit of temporalities, by considering the state of man; which inadvertency is now familiar, by this partiality of our fancy, in figuring the grapes more to the life then the hand that holds them; if the images which Truth it selfe hath drawn of the condition of man in this life, were well impressed in our imagination, of being but a blast, a vapour, or a shaddow; this would undoubtedly divert our mindes, from taking never so well coloured images of riches, honour, beauty, or dominion, for the true substances of humant felicity.

If there be any then, that wonder they are not happy, pre­tending they have alwayes held Zerubbabels party, preferring truth before all competitors, of empire, beauty, and pleasure, [Page 77] if they are in any great de [...]ection of spirit, let them take this course to undeceive themselves in this their supposed rectitude of intention, (which if it had beene sincere, could not have let their mindes sinke into any deepe depression) let them I say, examine first, whether they have rightly apprehended the state of our humane Nature, and the condition of all tempo­rall fruitions; and then, whether they have squared their loves to such delights, by the measure of a rectified apprehension of both their nature, and their own, for the same disproporti­ons there are betweene our affections and the true property of those things we love, the same deficiencies must be conse­quent in our happinesse: and upon this reflection, Truth may tell most of the world, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their hearts are farre from me, and as the increated Truth Iohn 8. told the Pharisees, who pretended to have great interest in God the Father, that if what they alledged had beene true, They would have acknowledged him also, because he proceeded from the Father. So in the name of the created Truth, which is to be found in all Gods Workes, I may say to many such pretenders, if they had truly loved the Originall Verity, they would have beene possessed of the true nature and use of the creature, which notion issueth and proceeds out of an appli­cation to the first Verity.

Having shewed how the beames of Truth enlighten both hemispheres of the contemplative and active life, and infuse into each of them, their respective happinesse, I may conclude with the Wisemans confession, upon his loving of Truth, above Sap. 7. 10. 11. health or beauty, that hers is the only light, because it is inextin­guishable, and that all other goods come together with her, and Devotion may lawfully use the words of her great master, and assure her followers, If you continue in my word, then are you truly my disciples, and you shall know the Truth, and the Ioh. 8. 31. 32. Truth shall make you free.

§. I.

NOW me thinks I am called upon, as one that hath advised a traveller not to lose his way, to give some nearer directions for the finding it, as a further con­tribution towards the securing his journeyes end, then a sim­ple caution against the danger of deviation; For as Solomon telleth us, The lame man in the way maketh more hast then a Courser out of it.

And by reason there may be many different humours, that may ask this question of Saint Thomas, How can we know the way to this so excellent possession of truth? I may well premise this consideration before my answer, that there was a wide difference between Pilat's Interrogatory concerning truth, when he asked our Saviour, What is truth? and Saint Thomas Iohn 18. 38. his question about finding the way to it, saying, How can we know the way? The first seemed to question onely the truth of Iohn 14. 6. Christs affirmation, not to intend the being satisfied in his question, whereas the other sought to be informed of the rea­dyest [Page 79] accesse to that truth which he believed; so they who shall be moved onely by the captiousnesse of the Infidel ex­aminant in this point, are like after his manner not to stay long enough upon the inquest, to be enlightened in this verity; but to such as with the credulity of faithfull Disciples, shall make this quaere, How shall we know the way to this truth you propose? namely, a rectifyed understanding and true use of all Mat. 28. 6. prosperous and adverse events in this life, I may say as the An­gel did to the faithfull watchers at the Sepulchre, after he had strucken as it were dead the miscreant wayters, Fear not you, If you seek Jesus: for he answereth all sincere inquirers of truth, Iohn: 14. 6. as he did Saint Thomas, I am the way and the truth, and none commeth to verity but by me: yet this me thinks gives a fair hint for such a further demand as Saint Philips was, saying, Shew us the plain direct way of comming to you, Lord Jesus, and it will suffice us; This question Christ hath also answered by this most evident direction of Ask, seek, and knock, for every one that asketh receiveth, and that seeketh findeth, and to him that knock­eth it shall be opened. Math. 7. 7.

Prayer is therefore expresly given us for our addresse to Jesus who is truth, and in these three proper divisions, of pe­tition, meditation, and perseverance, which ought to be con­comitant with each of them; our asking respecteth the parti­cular suits we make, seeking importeth the application of our minds unto Spiritual verityes, and knocking referreth to our zeal, earnestnesse, and perseverance in the acts of prayer, and to this sort of prosecution, is annexed the promise of assequti­on of truth: wherefore I may answer my inquirers, as Christ did some who distrusted his proposals, If any man will do this wil of Jesus, he shall understand of the Doctrine whether it be of Iohn 7. 17. God, or I speak of my self; So that considering aright these gra­tious assignations unto prayer, I may say, we may obtain the possession of verity, even with lesse solicitude then we can neg­lect it; for the seeking, asking; and knocking, in this world upon such applications as divert us from this inquest, are the more laborious assignments of our mind.

[Page 80] May I not therefore boldly reply to all the incredulous and disbelievers of the facility of this medium exhibited; Say not in thine heart, who shall thus ascend into heaven? for the word is nigh thee in thy mouth, and in thy heart; we onely need Rom. 10. 6. 8. but (as the Prophet adviseth us) return to our own hearts to find that happynesse, which while we seek else-where, we lose our hearts in that inquest. True it is, that the great enemy of our nature, useth all his arts towards the prejudicating this belief, of the alsufficiency of prayer, in which designe he doth now impugne our nature, by a Machination farre differing from his first, slandering it to us now, almost as much as he did here­tofore flatter it; for now to discredit to us our capacity of re­pairing his first breach, he suggesteth the ineptitude of our present state for this perception of truth, and seemeth to ask us now by way of derision, Shall you be like Gods thus knowing good and evill? so that he tempteth us now, and often prevaileth upon us, even by the disparagement of our nature; thus much hath he gained upon us since his first acquaintance, when he durst not attempt us by lesse then the promise of a capacity above our nature, to wit, of knowing like Gods; whereas now, he presumes to implead our right to that knowledge which is due to us as men, that is, the discernment of our being quali­fied for the penetration into truth by the beames of prayer and meditation; But the holy Spirit hath left us a good cauti­on against this delusion, Resist the Devill and he will flie from you, approach to God and he will approach to you: This refuteth James 4. 8. all suggestions of diffidence in this point of attaining by pray­er the effect of my proposition, since God promiseth to set forward to meet us, as soon as our prayers do but set out to­wards him, which is likewise aver'd by the Psalmist, assuring us, God is near all such as call upon him in truth. Psal. 145.

Gods mercy hath so much outdone mans mischiefe, as he hath not left him, either the subtilty of the Devil, or the in­firmity of his nature to charge with the continuance of his mi­sery; there must go an accession of wilfulnesse to our weaknesse for the duration of our unhappynesse: For since the Divine [Page 73] power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and 2 Peter 3. godlinesse, we have no more colour left to diffide in the meanes of rectifying the enormities of our infirm nature, then a Ma­lefactor that were offer'd grace for asking it, had reason to fall sick & die for fear of his former sentence; he who hath blotted out the hand-writing of the Decree against our nature, hath gi­ven us his hand for such security of obtaining what we solicite by this appointed meanes and method, as we can onely indan­ger the wanting a sufficient provision, by our pretending too little by this addresse, for surely this rule will hold in our ask­ing little Spirituall light, that what we have, shall be rather taken away then more confer'd, and the contrary disposition, will likewise be answered with the more abundance.

What Saint Gregory conceiveth to be the case of the Saints in heaven, in this point of supplicating God, may be firly said to be that of us sinners upon earth, in our act of petitioning for Spirituall light and verity: as the Saints the more ardently they are united to God, receive the more fervent impulses from him, of asking what they know he is resolved to do, and thus drink out of him, what they thirst for in him; after such a manner, the more zealously our prayers are applyed to the pursuite of Spirituall illumination, the more fervent desires we attract from the increated verity, of begging what we are sure he will give, viz: the discernment of truth, whereby in an admirable sort, we draw from Jesus, even in this life, the hunger in the very food we take of them, while our prayer at­tracting the infusion of truth, doth extract conjoyntly out of those verityes fresh desires of the same illuminations.

May not these considerations justly silence any objection against the facility of this proposed medium of prayer, for obtaining from God a sufficient communication of that truth, wherein I have stated the happinesse of this life? since there is no condition charged upon this grant, but the sincere desiring it, which is comprised in the direction of Christ prementioned; and the Apostle witnesseth to the same tenor, re-minding us in this particular, the frequent promises of the giver of all good [Page 74] things, whereupon he urgeth us thus expresly to this applica­tion, If any of you want wisdome, let him aske it of God, who gi­veth all men liberally, and it shall be given you. James 1. 5.

§. II.

THese promises of the increated verity delivered by his own mouth being premised, together with this conveyed to us by the holy Organ of his Secretary, Saint James, I may confidently give every one this addresse to the effect of my proposal, the asking wisdome of God, by sincere and humble apprecations, for indeed the soul hath no hand wherewith to reach her sustenance from heaven but prayer, and by this hand she offereth her sacrifice of praise, and reacheth to her self the exchange of succour for all her neces­sities: wherefore in order to this commerce with God, the A­postle Saint Paul adviseth us to pray every where, lifting up pure Tim. 2. hands; Here prayer is assigned the function of the hand to of­fer up, and to bring down to us all returnes from heaven. But we must remember this binding clause in the promise of Saint James, that our prayer must be without any stammering, or hesitation in our faith.

First we ought to believe steadily Gods providence in all the various contingencies that seem to shake humane reason: Next, our prayer must not waver between the desire of this wisdome, which brings all other good with it, and the affectati­on principally of some peculiar good we designe for our feli­city, for this is an hesitation in faith, when we do positively elect any temporall fruition for our happinesse, because there­in [Page 75] we tosse and flote between the fear of that privation, and the reference of all our proprieties, to the course of that providence which wheels about all temporalities; Insomuch as this hesita­tion Mat. 11. Justificata est sapientia a filijs suis. makes a kind of mentall stammering in our prayer, when there is as it were some knot upon our heart, that doubles it and keepes it from opening it self freely to this desire of spi­rituall wisdome. And as in this vocall impediment, the eager­nesse doth rather fasten then untye the tongue, so in this im­plication of our heart in any worldly affection, our zeal and fervor in the pursuite of that petition, is rather an impediment to the freedome of our mind, then any solution to the difficul­ties of our peace.

But I desire it may be remembred that the meanes I propose of obtaining happinesse by prayer, is not the fervency of the spirit in such petitions, as the flesh doth commonly indite, namely, an attaining either riches, honour, or the like tempo­rall commodities; but in that sincere ardor of the soul, to­wards the impetration of such a fervent love of God, as indu­ceth a composure and steadinesse of mind, equalling and si­zing our wils with our conditions, and by that meanes keeping the peace of our mind volubile and concentrick with the moti­ons of Divine providence; and this is an effect of that wisdome onely which the Apostle Saint James sayes, descends from a­bove, and is assigned for all those that ask it, without hesitation in faith, or duplicity of mind.

Not that I disswade the negotiants of the world, their pur­suite of earthly commodities, nor the praying for adeption, and conservation of temporall blessings, but it must not be as they have placed their happinesse on the materiall part of those desires, but as the greatest good of them is, their being grants, and concessions to prayer, which when it is sincere, refers the will of the suppliant to that of the Soveraign Creator of all wills, who doth often as Saint Augustine saies, mercifully de­ny us, when we know not what we ask; for there may be many events solicicited or deprecated, in relation to Gods service by the dim light of our reason, which do not stand with the [Page 76] [...] [Page 85] [...] [Page 76] order of Gods providence, and so our praying may be accep­table, when our prayer is not accordable; but this suit of spi­rituall wisdome, (whereby to adjust our wills to all the events and orders of Divine providence,) is not onely assured of ac­ceptation, but of concession; on the other side there is no tem­porall project of ours never so Pious, wherein we may not be mistaken in the specialty of the way, and meanes whereby God hath designed to be glorifyed, whether by his justice upon us, or his mercy to us; wherefore this grace of confor­mity to all his designations, is the onely petition we can be sure hath this reference made to it by Saint Iohn, viz: That it is made according to the will of God, and consequently is ac­corded 1 E. Ioh. 5. 14. to us by his promise, of Whatsoever we ask according to his will, he heares us.

Neverthelesse, even they who are discharged of any weigh­ty solicitude in this world, must not expect such a fixure and steadinesse of their minds, as not to feel the motions of our fluent unsteady nature, which heaveth and sets a little, even in our greatest calmes: This is that emotion and unevennesse whereunto Saint Paul saies, even those who have the first fruits Rom. 8. 23. of the Spirit are subjected, viz: some swelling and groaning within themselves; and Saint Augustine tells us, that exemp­tion from combate is properly the Angelicall priviledge, and not to be subdued or mastered in the contention, is the supre­mest point of fixure, attainable in our mortal nature.

Wherefore they must not conclude this advice defective, who do not attain to such an evennesse of peace by prayer, as they figure to themselves, resting without any breath of dis­quiet to shake those leaves of passions, which hang upon the stock of our nature, but must conclude, such agitations of the sensitive part of their soules no lesse naturall then wind in the middle region of the ayre, for Saint Paul tells us what we find by familiar experience, that we have our treasure not in earthen vessels; so that to be troubled, but not distressed; to be vexed, 2 Cor. 4. and not vitiated, is the best establishment of happynesse, com­petent with this state of our Peregrination; and this degree [Page 85] of tranquility of spirit is to be attained by petition to him, whom the sea, and the windes of humane frailtyes obey upon his rebuking them.

Saint Paul (who had learn'd to be equally content in all Phil. 4. estates of abundance, and abasement) did not find this science at the feet of Gamaliel, but rather upon his own knees at Da­mascus, when, Behold he prayes, was alledged for the reason of his relief; and by using his own prescription of Pray continu­ally, he attained to such a strong habit of mind, as preserved his equanimity in all the inequalities of his conditions. For when in one day, the same hands that would have sacrificed to him as a God, did sacrifice him to their own evill spirits; he tore his clothes with more emotion of spirit when he was vainly to be Deifi'd, then he suffered the tearing of his flesh when he was thus unjustly damnifi'd.

This patern in one part affords us a fair copie of the muta­bility of humane nature in her own current, and in the other a draught of that constancy may be superinduced upon it, by this intervention of grace, which is attracted naturally by the aspirations of prayer, according to what the Psalmist tells us, I opened my mouth, and I drew in thy Spirit; I may therefore hope to have acquitted my self of such direction as was requi­site Psal. for attaining the possession of that truth wherin I had con­stituted happinesse, and my way is so accessible, it lies as neer every one as their own wil, which is affirmed by the holy Spirit, saying, Open thy mouth and I will fill it.

This considered, I may expect the perswading some at Court to be suitors to God for Devotion, concurrently with all their other suites; since in all the fortunes they can make they cannot unmake fortune: For the variable temper of hu­mane felicities, is not to corrected and fixed. Since they cannot then stay what is transitory, let them attend to arrest that which is fixable, which is a good degree of peaceable ac­quiescence of spirit, in all transitory events; and as no tem­poralities can conferre this spirit, so no contingencies can sequester it, for it is the spirit of Truth, that stayes our minde; [Page 86] which partly is composed of the knowledge, and expectance of alternative variations in temporalities; and hence it is, that in all adverse changes, this spirit is rather in action and practice of his owne constant nature, then in suffering or passion, with the fraile nature of temporall mutations.

Let me then intreat all those (who neede not be pressed to muster themselves at Saint Pauls summons of Rejoyce al­wayes) to remember that this treasure is the pay, and stipend of his discipline, of pray without ceasing, and give thankes in every thing, for this is the will of God: Whereby we may 1 Thes. 5. make all the severall conveyances of Gods providences new deeds of joy to us, when our rejoycing is seated upon his will, and thus our happinesse that cannot stand still upon the fixure of our fortunes, may be firme upon the confixure of our wills, to that immoveable one that changes all things, Without any James 1. 17 vicissitude or shadow of change in it selfe.

§. I.

IN the Law of Moses, all the Rites and Ceremonies were not only declaratory formes of the present Religion, but significative figures of a future state; and howsoever, most of the vulgar looked no farther then the glosse and lustre of the exterior vaile, which was the beauty and decency of the forme, and order that affected them; yet the nobler sort passed their sight through that vaile, and fixed it upon the significati­on, [Page 87] and mysterie it selfe, and thereby, had not only their eye of sense delighted, but that of their understanding enlightned by these objects.

In reference whereunto I may hope not improperly to ap­ply these considerations to the Courts of Princes, since all the exteriour state of Ceremony and Reverence (being truly con­ceived) is significative as referr'd to the images of God, and thus all the distinguished ranks of honour, which compose the formall order of Courts, are figures of those different degrees of Ministers, which attend their Originall, the King of Kings: and in this order, the Glory and Majesty which exteriorly in all sorts, resideth about the persons of Princes, may be fitly understood to represent (in such shaddowes as these materi­alities can make) the celestiall magnificence of the King of Heaven: so that one who will interpret religiously the Cere­monies of Princes Courts, may say, all things befall them in Heb. 1. figures.

But certaine it is, there are many in Courts, who determine and center their thoughts upon the fronts and out-sides of these mansions, which are honour, riches, & pleasure, and raise all their Devotions to the place upon those objects, (and such are truly the meaner sort of Courtiers, though they be grea­test in the measure of the world) and there are some of the other party, who penetrate into the religious sense of these ex­teriour figures, and derive from them, spirituall conceptions and appetities; concluding by these glories, (which are but the shaddowes of those they signifie that the substance it self must needs be above what eye hath seene, or eare heard, or hath entred into the heart of Man; and so by this view are quick­ned in their ambition, towards those originall honours; and these are the nobility of Courts, though they be never so infe­riour in office.

Of these two kindes of Courtiers is verified, The first shall be Matth. 19. last, and the last first. And likewise of the first sort we may say, as the Apostle saith of the Law, the Letter kils. If the litte­rall sense of the faire text of this worlds glories take up and [Page 88] fix their mindes; and of the latter sort the spirit quickens, when out of these specious objects they extract a spirituall sense, which excites in them a celestiall aspiring and emulati­on.

Such a figurative conception Saint Fulgentius framed out of these images, when he was asked, whether the beauty and Majesty of Rome did not worke upon his affections? he answe­red, If terrestriall Rome be so beautifull, how glorious must be celestiall Jerusalem? His minde was so little taken or retarded on her way, as she stayd not at all in the outward Court of the Gentiles, but passed on, as in her way through it, to the Holy of Holies; and by this method, who attend the offices of their mindes upon earth, and waite not upon the places of their bodies, concluding that they are but strangers, and passengers through these courts, and Fellow-citizens of the Saints, and Ephe. 2. 9. Domestikes of God; make excellent use of all the lustrous, and polished glories of the place: for instead of looking on them as flattering glasses, and mirrours which reflect only the materiall beauty of the earth, they make opticke glasses of them, through which, they do the easilier take the height of the celestiall glo­ries: and surely, the sight of our minde is much helped by such materiall instruments, in the speculation of spiritualities, by reason that in this her prison, all the intelligence of our minde with immaterialities, passeth as I may say, through her keepers hands, which are her senses, that can carry nothing but corporeall images to her; and therefore we see the Apostle Saint John drawes the image of the court of heaven, in such Revel. 21. colours as are most visible and most affecting in the Courts of the earth; whereby to raise our imaginations upon these steps, which they can tread upon to some proportionate concep­tion of such fruitions, as are truly all spirituall, and Intelle­ctuall.

And under this notion, all the lusters and splendors of Courts, (being understood as figures of the sublimer, and pu­rer state of the Kingdome of heaven) are convenient ascents for our weak apprehensions to rise up to the love and estima­tion [Page 89] of these spirituall objects; for the same affections which move us so strongly in the valuation of the state of Princes, may work upon us towards the pursuite of that condition, which is proposed to us, of sitting on the throne with the King of kings, and enjoying more Majesty and pleasure then we can wish in this life, by such little paterns presented to our appe­tites. Nay by this order, even the vanities and excesses of this world (which were stumbling blocks to our minds as long as they looked but upon them, and not through them) are by this perspection and through light laid under our feet, and made steps or gradations for our minds to ascend the easilyer even to the contempt of them, and the contemplating the sin­cere and secure glories of our Spirituall Coronation.

And since, as the Apostle saith, We see now but through a 1 Cor. 13. glasse, and darkly through the brightest creatures, some faint beames or glances of the Creator; Surely the Majesty and splendor of Princes is the most clear and best polished glasse we can look through, in order to the speculation; and so Courtiours who studie the Spirituall opticks in these glasses, may make instruments of protracting their sight, of the same glaring temporalities, which others make the dazling and dissipation of it; whereby of such students at Court, I may say with the wisest of Kings, In vain the net is spread in the sight of such birds, for they can easily flie over all the snares of va­nity, Prov. 1. 17. which catch those who want these wings of contem­plation.

§. II.

CHristianity hath repealed this Canon against Courtiers made by the Poets (the Divines of the Heathen) Exeat aulâ qui vult esse pius, that one must either quit the Court or his conscience; this caution might be pertinent in the courts of such Princes, as were rather the images of those they made their gods, then of the God that made them; f [...] as the Psalmist saies, The gods of the Gentiles are Devils, & their Prin­ces were the gods of those Courtiers; every flatterer was a statuary, who cast his Prince into a god, of that gold he had either received, or expected from him; and thus most of them set up their own fortunes in their thoughts, which they adored under the image of their Prince; and by this course the Kings of the Gentiles, seemed animated idols of gold and sil­ver, whose breath passed for divine ayre, as it melted those mettals, and made them run, and flowe about their flatterers▪ in such Courts likely all the offices, and complacencies of the Courtiers, were immolations and sacrifices to idols; true it is, that there must have been too much danger to live in such Courts, where the very ayer was pestilentiall.

This was in the Monarchy of Lucifer over the world, when most Princes lived like his vice-Kings; but since this Tyrant hath been deposed by our King of kings, who took Luke 3. not all the Kingdomes of the earth of him upon the termes that usurper offered him, but dispossessed him of them by his own right, and invested his Deputies in the Crowns of the earth; by which act Christian Princes are now lnaugurated [Page 91] Vice g [...]nts to the King of righteousnesse; and as they reign by his Commission, so the offices and dutyes of their servants are copies of their Alleg [...]ance to the Supream Soveraign of them both, who faith truly, By me Kings reign; and when they are images of both his properties, viz: of his righteousnesse, as well as of his reg [...]ty, the offices o [...] Courtiers may be e­steemed neerer Sacred functions, then seducing temptations.

Princes then are so much engaged to Personal Piety, as they seem depositaries, not onely of the Politique, but even of the Moral virtue of their state; as they have the first trust given them by the Ordinance of God, so have they the last reference made to them, by the inordinatenesse of man: For our nature traffiqueth with virtue commonly, as she [...]ees it makes returnes in the world; and so Courtiers, when they find this Royall exchange (of the Princes disposition) open and promising honourable returnes of their commerce with vir­tue, are easily perswaded to imploy their stock upon this adventure, and are as easily discouraged by Balaa [...]s returne from the King, I thought [...]o have raised thee to preferment, but Numb. 24. the Lord hath kept thee back from honour: Such wrecks of ex­pectations will easily fright many adventurers.

In this respect Princes had need to be very considerate, what Moral Lawes they passe for their Court by their lives, since Courtiers are likely very religious in such observances. All factions at Court likely agree in this voice of We have no King but Cesar; Christ is not immediately looked upon as our p [...]tern; we are much readier to copie those his images, because we are soon paid for our work: Wherefore Princes are bound to be very accurate in preserving the similitude of the Originall, in the figure of their lives; they had need as the Apostle adviseth, bear the image of the Celestiall man, since 1 Corin. 15. the terrestriall man is so apt to bear their image; [...]est they incur then our Saviours Woe to those who did not onely not come themselves into the Kingdome of heaven, but kept also others out of it. Let them for Gods sake be followers of Christ, since whether they be or no, men will be followers of them.

[Page 92] There is me thinks such a difference between any noted vitiousnesse in Princes, and a much greater depravation in pri­vate persons, as is between the Maligne influence of the Pla­nets, or the Celestiall bodies, and the poyson of plants and minerals; for although the ill of the first be not simply so great, viz: intensively so mortal in the operation, yet con­sidering this circumstance of the extensive quality of it, that the malignity hath a generall influence, and offends imper­ceptibly, and so is lesse evitable, in these regards it may be counted the greater nocency in nature: So the lives of Princes have such an universall influence upon their Court, (at least) as a small infection thus spread by them, may be esteemed a greater ill, then the rank poysonous lives of such whose examples are not operative; and this rule holds in all Courtiers descending in proportion to their several degrees, since all of them according to their respective magnitudes, have like the lesser starres, some power of insinuating their tempers to their dependencies; since our interested nature doth commonly, as the Prophet saies, do some worship to all the militia of this fir­mament, respectively to that fertility of the earth, they are likely to impart to us; for as among the Gentiles there were lesser gods for severall speciall necessities, houshold as well as temple gods: so in Courts, there are superior powers of many sises, that have votaries proportionate to such powers.

Considering then the communicative felicity which Prin­ces have of their dispositions, ought they not to be most cha­ry and tender of this highest Prerogative? which is, to impose virtue by their practice of it, & this Spirituall levy made upon the mindes of the people, facilitates the raising upon them all other tributes.

Therefore Princes should be as religious in their lives, as they are politickly just in their coines; they must take heed of crying up any base species to an over-value, since their stamp and impression makes all their morall coyne so currant in their Court, by reason the images of their humor, are as it were privy seales for the receit of those images wherewith their fol­lowers [Page 93] are most affected: and because it is no crime to coun­terfeit this kinde of the Princes signature, but rather a warrant for their pretensions, likely the whole Court is a stamp of the Kings humour and affection.

This influence of Princes, upon the dispositions of their Courts, needs not the deposition of examples, since it hath the Authority of a knowne principle; therefore I shall only offer one precedent in the case, in which the example and extrava­gancy is so singular, as the very foulnesse of the Testimony must make the proofe the fairer, and the more irrefragable. There was a Grecian Emperour, called Constantinus, surnamed Copronimus, which Surname he gave himselfe before he could He fouled the font in which he was bap­tized. speake, when he was first brought into the Church, by fouling it as much as his nature could then extend unto; and after­ward, his life was a truer performance of that unclean promise he made himselfe, then of those bonds of Christianity, and purity he entered into by his sureties: for this first was the least uncleannesse wherewith he polluted the Church in the rest of his life. This Emperour (who seemed to have a soule meerely vegetative, by the inclinations of it, (for it grew, & thrived on­ly upon dung) had such a fancy to the smell of horse-dung, as he besmeared himselfe with it; and all his Court in com­placency to that fancy, qualified themselves for his com­pany with the same per [...]umes, and so offered him continually this odor, which was fi [...]incense for such a deity: and this na­turall immundicity was but a figure of that spirituall impurity of him and his Court, for in this Princes humour, this was the least brutish of all his other bestialities, so that his Court was rather a parke of the locusts, and scorpions of the Revela­tion, then a Congregation of reasonable creatures. This is an Of all sorts of Her [...]sies. unhappy trophee of the power of example in Princes, erected, to evidence that conclusion.

The sacred History is so pregnant in these examples, how the prevarication of the Prince, hath alwayes beene the per­version of the people, as I shall not need to instance any: there­fore I may properly apply to Princes, this advise, which was [Page 94] given by a holy Father of the Church to Priests, Since they speak as Oracles, let them live as Deities, for the lying spirit is often more credited in their mouthes, then in those of the Prophets. And this same prescript is likewise very requisue for all persons neere in office, trust, or familiarity with Princes, since there is a naturall influence from such conversations, even upward upon their superiours, according to what some Physitians hold, in point of a circulation of the blood, to wit, that which is in the feet, to have a reflux back into the heart. This motion may be truly affirmed in the course of the spiritu­all blood, in the civill body of society, for the affections and ha­bits of the inferiour parts of the company, flow often upward upon the superiour, as well as they runne downward by their influence on the lower stations; wherefore this morall circula­tion of virtue and vice in humanity, makes the infection of any parts of the company familiar with Princes, very dange­rous for their contagion, we see this in Roboams young Coun­cellors, who were not only the mediate instruments of rendring the Kingdome, but also in some relation, were the erectors of Jeroboams calves.

§. III.

UPon this information, let the Familiars and Coun­sellors of Princes understand, they have a very pre­cise charge of integrity upon them in their morall conversation, as well as in their politicke comportments; for indeed, their vocations in many respects are rather sacred fun­ctions, [Page 95] then simply civil conditions, in regard they are imployed in the ministeries of the most speciall images of God on earth; in which respect, the scandall of their lives is not only propha­nesse, but a kinde of s [...]c [...]iledge, as it endangers the viola­ting of the most sacred part of a Princes Character, which is the divinenesse of his life and Government.

The life of King Joas is an unhappy precedent in this case, who while he had Joh [...]a in his eye, was himselfe a singular patern of piety to the people, and eminent for the reparation of the Temple; but after the change of such a companion, when the Princes of Juda came, and adored the King; he being 2 Paralip. 24▪ 17. moved by their insinuations, concurr'd with them quickly in leaving the Temple he had so much merit in, and followed them into the groves, to secke out, and set up new Idols. This was the sad effect of infectious familiars, therefore such as are neer in office, or privacy to the persons of young Princes, have a most strict: obligation to be virtuous, and exemplary in their lives and conversations, for humane Nature, like Jacobs sheepe, in the a [...]dor and [...]eat of youth; is very apt to conceive, with some tincture of the colours it sees in those waters whereof it drinks in that season; & the conversations of our familiars, are the waters where with our imaginative faculty is nourished, and so Princes had need to have them kept very cleere and serene; for according to the colours they looke upon in them, their conceptions likely prove, whereby the issues of their mindes become sported, and staind according to such images as are represented to their imaginations in the pregnancy of their youth.

In this regard, they (who have choice of those, to whom they will commit such trusts, as the company and famili­arity of young Princes) should no [...] be lesse [...]act, then when their Pictures are to be taken; for which alwayes, such who are the best reputed, are preferr'd: for indeed, their famili­ars doe this intellectuall office to their mindes, though this spirituall worke is done by acuite contrary manner, to that of the images of their persons; for the familiar companions of [Page 96] Princes may be said to worke upon the image of their mindes, by sitting to them, that is, by exposing their owne figure to the young fancy, they draw the other to that resemblance; such is the active virtue of example upon the tender age of educa­tion.

Surely those then who are trusted with this office, of be­ing a familiar object to young Princes, (which is a nobler place then they can conceive by any name it hath at Court) should set their dispositions in a virtuous posture, knowing they are working upon Gods most speciall image, and that they are to be accountable for what dis-figurements in that forme their workes shall occasion: So that taking Courtiers under this notion, one may advice them a good use of flattery; which is, to flatter the figure of their own humours, and inclinations, to make them as good, and gracious an object as they can, though they be not so like their nature; to the end the exterior representation, which workes upon Princes, may be proper for imitation; this favouring their minds, in the colouring of ver­tue, is more conscientious then the exposing the naturall ill complexion of them, before young Princes; for when the ex­emplary part, (which only workes upon their minds) is faire, and vertuous; the un-sincerenesse of it for the present, can have no ill operation on them, because those eyes do not penetrate farther then the superficies of goodnesse; and so peradventure the very flatterd pictures of vertue may work such an impressi­on upon Princes in their youth, as they may derive the love of truth, even from the face of dissimulation. For as a beautifull Curtizan may be a fit object for a Painter, whereby to make a good image of a Saint by, seeing he takes only the lovely spe­cies for his pattern; so, even the faire glosse of a counterfeit ver­tue, may be a convenient object for youth, which commonly only copies the aspect, and countenance of such exposures.

Upon all these considerations methinks this may be a religi­ous rule for both sorts of great Courtiers: viz. That Counsel­lors should advise Kings, as if they thought them invested with the Prerogative of their originall, to wit, of the knowledge of [Page 97] hearts, and companions should live with young Princes, as if they thought they could not discover their hearts, but by their lives before them. This rule will produce sincerity in the for­mer, and exemplarity in the latter, which are the two things whereby Kings who are in age of Government, and Princes who are in years of Discipline, are the most advantaged; and so may be said to be these, the mediate conveyances, by which God gives judgement to the King, and righteousnesse to the Kings Psal. 1. 71. sonne.

To conclude, let Princes and Courtiers of all degrees consi­der themselves as ministers of the King in the Gospel, who is gone into a farre countrey, and as being all to account by the severall proportions of their talents, wherewith they are trust­ed. For they who are set over many cities, here, are by the good account of their Governments, to be preferr'd to the command of many greater in their Masters Kingdome: so Luke 19. that this is the most proper Motto they can set upon all their coates, which are blazon'd with so many shining, and glorious colours of the fruitions of the world, To whom most is given, of them most shall be required.

§. I.

TO this Map which I have presented the Court of her owne state, it will be expedient to adde some lines, by which, as by a kinde of scale of miles, Courtiers may take their measures, and learne the distances betweene their dominion, and the state of perfect Christianity, and by that meanes have some direction in their way, to the next adjacent Kingdome, of which I have shewed their region, to be a very pregnant type, for I have said you are Gods, maketh their ha­bitations a most speciall figure of Heaven.

Whereupon I conceive this advise in the first place, to be very pertinent, towards the seasoning our minde with a grave and reverend tincture of the nature of Courts, to consider them as a figure of the celestiall mansions, in those respects I have exhibited, because this first stamp being imprest on our mindes, may give us a sober and modest image of our condi­tions in Courts, which may perswade us, that we are not placed there by God, as officers to our fortunes, which terminate in this world, but rather as Ministers, in that order upon earth; by which God doth figure out to us the constitution of the state of his owne Majesty: whereby we may resolve that our [Page 99] places are but passages up to that preferment of Saint Paul, whereunto we may aspire, The sitting in heavenly places toge­ther Ephes. 2. 6. in Christ Jesus.

This animadversion then is very important for all Cour­tiers to esteeme themselves, called to a laborious vocation, and not resting in a licenced vacancy from labour: for though they doe not eate their bread in the sweat of their browes, they doe it in the sweat of their braine, and so the di­gestion is more difficult, then in the other case: and upon this ground, we see likely that the body of this society, is more unhealthy then any other, because the fulnesse of bread choakes that heat, which should concoct it; and their spiritu­all bread which should alter and convert the other into good nourishment, is made of that grain in the parable, which grow­eth among so many of those thornes, as doe at the best, make the gathering of it, sharp and uneasie; for The solicitude of this Matth. 13. world, and the falacy of riches, doe prick and draw some blood, of all such as reap thisbread amongst them: By reason there are alwayes some diversions and distractions in a Courtiers life, which catch and hold their affections in some manner to tem­poralities; insomuch, as there is ever some paine and smart in our passing through those bryers.

But many of those Weedes which Courts are over-runne with, are slight levities, and vanities, that have but such stings as nettles in them, which when they are held and handled rough­ly, sting lesse, then when they are fingered tenderly: for there are diverse fond affectations, which I need not instance, whereof, taking resolutely in hand the reformation, we finde lesse pain in discharging them, then we did apprehend, while we were but as it were chiding them, to fright them, rather then to put them away. I may hope to be beleeved in this, having good warrant to say with the Wiseman, I have seen many things wan­dring Ecclus. 34. 13 to and fro, and very many fashions of words, and sometimes I have beene in danger of death for these things, and I was deli­vered by the Grace of God.

I may therefore set this bill upon the Court gates, Sonne, [Page 100] comming to the service of these gods upon earth, stand in feare, Ecclus. 2. 1. and prepare thy heart for tempation; for we may well use the phrase of the Psalmist, It raines snares in this region; by reason of the fatnesse of this soile, which affords more earthly vapors then other places, which the Prince of the aire drawes up out of it, and from thence formes shoures of temptations; to po­wer downe upon it, to set forward his fruits; namely, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which thrive most kindly in this rich earth; this renders the scituation dangerous, but not certainly infectious, for as the Wiseman telleth us, The Crea­tures of God are become snares, but to the feet of the unwise; Sap. 14. wherefore he directs us how to escape this capture, by entring into other bonds of pre-ingagement to wisdome, Putting our Ecclus. 6. 25. feet into her fetters, and our neck into her chaine; These fetters are of too solid a substance to be catched, and intangled in the slight brittle snares of Courts, the chaines of wisdome are made linkes of Gold, which cannot hang in cobwebs.

The levities and nugacities of the world, to those who look on them, only with the pur-blind eye of sense, may prove clouds, and even so thick ones, as their sight cannot trans­pierce them, that is, looke beyond such vanities, when those that see clearly with the eye of reason, discerne such slight traverses to be but like cobwebs, that do not eclipse to them the light of Heaven: it is not the matter of temptations in Courts, which worketh like celestiall bodies upon terrestriall, by a predominant impression, but it is the disposition of the patients, which rendereth the matter so malignant; for all the vanities of Courts in a confession of their owne impotency, to force our affections, doe soothe and flatter our senses first, and cor­rupt them, towards the possession of our mindes.

Whereupon, as Moses said to the children of Israel, I may say to those who are called into this land of milke and honey, If thou shalt say in thine heart, these inhabitants of the place are Drut. 7. 17. more then I, and how can I prevaile against them? thou shalt not be afraid of them, but remember what the Lord can do, how many hath he carryed with a mighty hand through all these con­federations [Page 101] of snares in Courts; sundry examples of such holy victories attest to us, this word of the Apostle, The Lord 2 Pet. 2. 9. knowes how to deliver the godly out of temptations.

It is related in the life of Saint Anthony the holy Hermite, how in a vision he saw the world all hung over with nets, and the very aire over-spead with them, so that in great com­miseration of their estates, who lived in it, he asked God how it was possible to escape in our passage, and make way up to Heaven? and he was answered, there was no way left, which was, to creep under them, for they were not so fastned below to the earth, but they yeelded and gave way to that posture of humility. And since our Head Christ Jesus did vouchsafe to be figured to us, under the notion of a worm, & no man, this lowly posture of creeping through this world, could not mis-become his members.

Therefore to such as have their mindes laid even and levelled by this line of humility, I may say (while they are creeping under these snares) with the Prophet, Feare not thou worme Ja­cob, Esay 41. 14. I will help thee saith the Lord, thou shalt thresh the moun­taines, and make the hils as cha [...]fe, thou shalt fan them, and the winde shall carry them away; all the mountaines of greatnesse; and power, and the hiles of plenty and pleasure shall appeare to the eyes of an humble soule, broken and crumbled into that dust which they consist of, and their resolutions shall be able to blow them off from their affections, like chaffe, assisted by the winde of the holy Spirit, which blowes alwayes so strong­ly in such soules; as the levities of this world that flie about them, cannot cleave and hang upon them. And we must set­tle this principle, that humility is not seated in locall depression and obscurity, but in mentall purity and illumination; and so conclude the scitation of Courts is not in that torrid zone of pride, which some imagine to be uninhabitable for humi­lity.

§. II.

THis admitted, the best prescription can be given a Courtier against all his infirmities, is pious and discreet humility; and this is so farre from being alledged by themselves, incompetent with their vocation, as almost every one pretends the being furnished with it, as a requisite qualifi­cation, though indeed most commonly, it is so hollow, as even the best noise it makes, speakes the emptinesse of it, as being but a tinkling cymball of ceremony and complement. There is a slight glittering stuffe, which commonly Courts are hung with, which passeth there for humility, and is truly but the tinsell of civility and courtship, through which, one may of­ten see the walls to consist of pride and selfe-love: Wherefore they, who desire the reall benefit of this virtue, must discerne between this superficiall colouring, and the true being of hu­mility, and endeavour an acquiring the habit thereof in their minde, not study the fashion of it only in their exteriour com­merce.

Me thinkes one may properly argue with Courtiers, as S. Paul did with the Hebrewes, by representing to them, how all Ep. Heb. the externall Ceremonies wherein they were so Religious, were types and figures of that reality which he proposed to them, and so their customes and observances might well dispose them, sooner then the undisciplined heathen, to acknowledge that bodie, whose shadow was so famillar to them: In like manner, may not I say to Courtiers, that all the civilities, Cere­monies, and mutuall submissions, whereof they are so studious, [Page 103] are figures of that substantiall humility which I recommend to them; from whence I may argue that their habituall practi­ces in these exteriour representations of that virtue, should ad­vance their mindes, more then other lesse civilized conversa­tions, towards the acquiring of that reall humblenesse of spirit, I recommend to their intentions.

Those of whom it is commonly said as Saint Paul said of the Pharisees, that they are of the best sect of their Religion, viz. they who are accompted the most accomplished in all urbanity and Courtship, and are the most exquisite in all ci­vill polishments, in the purifications of their apparell and tables, and all other sorts of humane neatnesse and curiosity, they I say, must remember not to rest so much on these tradi­tions of men, as to forget the graver and weightier parts of the Law of Christianity, which is purity of heart, and poverty of spirit, two of our King Christ Jesus his qualifications, for the Matth. 5. Courtiers of heaven required in the order of his beatitudes in­stituted in the Gospell.

As for the other exteriour polishments and decencies, which are pertinent to their condition, I may say with our Saviour in the like case, these things may be done, but the other not omitted, for civility and sincerity, proprety and purity, honour and humility, may be fellow Courtiers, and all of one party. So that I may say to these of the best sort, Therefore ô men Rom. 2. you are inexcusable, for you condemne your selves, by these ex­teriour professions of those virtues, if you have not the interi­our signature and impression of them, in so much, as the im­mundicities of Tyre and Sidon shall be more tollerable, viz. the ruder formes of life where humility and purity is not so much represented to them, shall not be so much charged with their defects in them, as this Capernaum where these virtues seeme preached every day, and wonders done in this Doctrine of ceremoniall purity, which is a figure of a reall immaculate­nesse of minde.

But I must speak yet plainer, and declare that this humility I propose to Courtiers for their commerce with one another, [Page 104] is farre different from that currant species of a verball imagery of this vertue which I have decryed, for it is an internall habit, Humility de­scribed. or disposition of humblenes impressed upon our spirits by the signature and character of truth, made by a lively exhibiting to our minds the intrinsique value of all specious temporalities, by which perception we are disposed to dis-value really this world, and our selves in the first place; as knowing best our in­terior unworthinesse: and this sincere root of Humility, beares our severall engagements, proportionated respectively: First to the greatnesse of God, then to the meannesse of our selves, and next, to our nearnesse, and relation to our Brother. And as these three divisions contain the totall summe of Christiani­ty, so is there no better Accountant to make up a just estimate of these divisions, then Humility; whereof they who are solid­ly possessed, shall not be confounded in the diverse fractions, and partitions of estimates either of things, or persons, which their condition requires them to make, in the true account of this world; for they can easily by this Rule of Three, wherein Humility is perfect, divide all their respects to each of those du­ties, and so give God, Themselves, and their Brother respe­ctively, their just estimations.

Nor can it be answered that this degree of exactnes seemeth opposed, by the offices of this Vocation; for this cleare-sight­ed Humility is so farre from being incompetent with the con­dition of Courtiers, as if many circumstances be fairely weigh­ed, their profession may appeare more advantaged then any, towards this endowment; since likely they are the sharpest, and most discerning Spirits, which apply themselves to this active course of life; and surely this dis-abusing the object, is the most fairely, and most familiarly exposed in Courts; viz. The fickle­nesse and infidelity of all temporall advantages; since what the world calls Fortune, goes in other places more modestly atti­red, and so may easily be mistaken; whereas in Courts, presu­ming on her beauty, like a professed Curtizan she unveiles her selfe, confident of corrupting even those to whom she proclaims her disloyaltie, by continual shows & triumphs of inconstancy. [Page 105] Many private and setled states of Life, do take this knowledge of the instability of humane goods, but by heare-say, living themselves in a calme dead water, where they feele little moti­on of variety; but Courtiers who are in this Ocean of Fortune, feele continually her tides, and very frequently her stormes; insomuch as they living in a perpetuall fluctuation of tempo­ralities, may be said to walke Per speciem, in the sight of the true nature of all mundanities, and to see the variety of Fortune face to face, while low obscurer lives, looke upon her perfidious­nesse but through a glasse, and darkely in reports of the various turbulencies and confusions of Courts.

The heights of Courts may in this regard be said to be the best scituations for prospect, and farre sight upon the truth of the worlds constitution, and so courtiers to be better placed then lower estates, in order to their being undeceived, in the specious fallacies of the world, by as much as experience is more operative upon our nature then speculation.

And methinks we may account it a speciall provision of God, that where our affections are in most danger to be sedu­ced, by the alluring invitation of temporalities, that there our reason should be most powerfully disswaded from such ad­herencies, by the clearest evidences of the infidelity of such confidences; for here Fortune beares her own name in her fore­head, which is visible together with her smiles, and the conti­nuall objects of rise and ruine, the frequent vicissitudes of bra­ving and bleeding conditions; show Fortune in Courts (even but to indifferent good eyes) not as the Sirens of the Poets, the beauty and graciousnesse of her only above water, but expose her, just like to the Locusts of the Revelation; for although on Apoca. 9. 7. her head there seemes to be crownes of gold, and her haire like the haire of Women, yet her teeth appeare as the teeth of Lyons, and her sting like that of Scorpions; so that the deterrings and dis­abuses appeare together with the delectations.

I may therefore conclude, that Courtiers by their living in this demonstration of the truth and nature of all mundanities, are advantaged above others, towards the acquisition of Hu­mility, [Page 106] which is, a naturall resultancy, from a true apprehend­ing the meannesse, and vility of all things so unfaithfull & tran­sitory: For as all Pride riseth from the beliefe of some propriety which we rely on, so the perswasion of the insecurity of our possessions, must needs abate our esteem of them, and conse­quently dispose us to a modest and humble account of our selves, and our conditions.

I will therefore confidently commend Humility to Courti­ers for their guide, through all the snares of their way, in the tearmes of Solomon; She shall lead you by the paths of equity, which when you are in your steps shall not be straitned, and when you Pro. 4. 11. run you shall not stumble; for you shall neither faint in the resti­nes of your Fortune, nor fall in the full speed of it; Humility doth not decline the course of Honour, and Dignity, but only casts reines upon our sensitive appetite, and holds that from running away with our Reason, in the course. Nay, Magnifi­cence and Humility are consortable in the same heart, wherein the habit of this vertue may consist with acts of the other, since this disposition dislodgeth no vertue, and secureth all: For the posture of prostration in which Humility conducts our minds, may be said to carry as it were a Trench before them, casting up the earth it selfe for their defence, against all the fiery en­gines of the Prince of this World, in regard the Penetration and inspection which sincere Humility makes into the bowels of our own earthinesse and mortality, casts up our misery, and despicablenes before us, as a brest-worke of our own earth, to defend our hearts against vain-glory or presumption, by which any Fortune never so eminent can endanger us.

For indeed, they who have this Parapet, as I may say, before their minds, of Dust thou art, and to Dust thou shalt returne, may be said to be fortified in the nakednes and discovery of them­selves: Such is the ingeniousnes of Humility, as it can raise de­fences for us, out of our wants and destitutions; nay it may be said to draw in them a Line of communication, between heaven and earth, joyning the knowledge of our own nullity, and the apprehension of the immensity of God, which view may keep [Page 107] us alwayes little in our own eyes, though we have never so ma­ny false reflexes from the eyes of others.

§. III.

HAving proposed to Courtiers, for their chiefe securi­ty, solid Humility, discerned from superficiall civility, I must desire them to be very sincere in the examina­tion of this vertue; for humanity and courtesie externall, do often so well counterfeit the stamp of it, as it had need be touched at some occasion of suffering, to find the falsity of the metall: and for the greater safety of this vertue, it were to be desired, we could banish and eliminate out of the verge, one of the best Waiters at Court, though of the worst servants in it, namely, Flattery, which is alwayes an enemy to Humility, though it seeme often neare allyed unto it, by submissive ap­pearances: For we know, the first progenitor of Pride, was al­so the primary father of Lyes, from which all Flattery descends in a collaterall Line. Hence it is, that there is alwayes some of the bloud of Pride, in all adulation, though it go cloathed in never so servile an habit of submission.

And that we may see how naturally Flattery issueth out of Pride, wee may consider into what a base and inferiour posture Lucifer contrived himselfe, when he cast the first seeds of Flat­tery into our earth; did he not lye prostrate at those feet he was undermining; while he was flattering them with their capa­city of treading on him, and becomming like Gods? And this seeming subjection, was it not designed by the sublimest part of his Pride, which meant to captivate and subject the minds he wrought upon in this posture?

[Page 108] In like manner, all the servile formes of complacency, and deference to others, which Flattery casts it selfe into, in the magnifying their worth and excellency, hath this serpentine insinuation in it; to wit, the hoping to infuse the easilyer the Flatterers sense into them; which project in the complyers must needs rise from a beliefe of their own minds, being so superior to those they are applyed to worke upon, as they can impose upon them the beliefe of all their suggestions, and so subdue their spirits; which thought is the very soule of Pride, to con­clude our minds to have such a transcendency over others; for no body flatters another, but in beliefe of being credited: So that all Flattery being anatomized will be found to live by the heart of Pride, which is indeed the first living part of Sico­phantry, in what body soever of humble verisimilitudes it seemes to move. And upon this ground we may say, that a meane Parasite is a prouder thing, then the most magnifyed Prince he humoureth; in as much as the presumption on the excellence of mind, as it is more spirituall, is nearer the origi­nall of Pride.

And as it was excellently said of a wise King, That witchcraft King James. is the height of Idolatry, because though it exhibits no exterior offices of Worship, but rather disclaimes them; yet is it the highest mentall veneration of the seducing spirit, and so the truest idolatry: In like manner it may be said, that Flattery is the supremacy of Pride, because though there be no externall profession of selfe-love in it, but rather of an alienation from it, yet it is a continuall exercise of the supreamest arrogancy, which is the Flatterers valuation of his own abilities.

Whereupon it seemes that a Philosopher being asked what was the most noxious beast to humane nature? answered, of wild beasts a Tyrant, and of tame ones a Parasite; and we may adde, that the tame ones seeme the worst of the two, for the wild ones take the greatest part of their ferocity, by coupling with them; since this commixion is the generation of all tyrannie, wild power en­joying servile praise: Humane nature could not fall in love with the exorbitancy of wickednesse, if she saw it naked, and [Page 109] beheld the bare deformity of that object; therefore to make this conjunction, there must intercede the art of flattery, to co­lour the basenes and inhumanity of outrageous mischiefe, with some faire varnish of decency; as either with the right of great­nesse, or the liberties of nature, or many other such shadowes, by which Sycophants keepe Tyrants minds the fiercer, by hol­ding them in this darkenes, chained up by the magnifying and applause of their appetencies: so that this may be truly said, in the tearmes of the Psalmist, to be the pestilence that walketh Psal. 90. 6. in the darke, which the light of truth would easily asswage, somewhat, even in the greatest rage of corrupted nature.

We may therefore fitly say, that Flattery is the oyle of the Flattery de­scribed. sinner, wherewith Tyrants are annointed by these Ministers of their passions; and we know King David saith this should not be the unction falling on the head of Princes: For this reason we cannot too strongly brand the forehead of these Court Charlatans, since there is so much known art, to take out the markes of the character of a Parasite, and to continue still in the practise of this mystery of iniquity.

I confesse therefore it is hardly to be hoped, that this sen­tence of expulsion of Flattery out of Courts, can be strictly executed; for when it is pressed and straitned by these re­proaches, then like the Poets Proteus, it varyes shapes, and ap­peares presently covered with another forme, either in that of duty to superiors, or civility to equals, or due commendation of merit, and will never answer to this indictment of Flattery: And indeed these formes, which she shifts herselfe easily into, are the legitimate issues of morality, by which all the fit alli­ances are made in civill society; the two first bearing order and distinction beween Persons, and the last producing fertility in vertue.

Wherefore we cannot impeach this commerce of customary civility and complements, for there is a discipline belonging to the practicall part of morality, which is referred to the dis­cretion of the Ministers of it, (which Courtiers may be most properly termed) and the rites and ceremonies of mutuall ci­vilities, [Page 110] are ornaments requisite to raise respect, and sorme or­der in all the exercises of morality; therefore as it is not possi­ble to set and regulate in such sort those voluntary descants of complement, as to put them into such measured notes, as they must precisely runne in, to keepe them from straying into Flat­tery, I will only set Courtiers this lesson of the Apostle, which may keepe some time and measure in the consort of their vo­call civilities, You are called unto liberty, only use not this liberty Gal. 5. 13. for an occasion to the flesh, but by love to serve one another; and by this order, those finer threads of Court civilities, may make as strong a band of charity, as rough and grosser materials.

§. IIII.

I Do not in this sharpe insectation of sordid Flattery, mean to asperse the good name of praises and commendations, for I must allow them to be convenient brests, to nurse young and tender dispositions to vertue; and the good inclina­tions of Princes and great persons, may like their other issues be allowed more tender and dainty breeding then ordinary, and yet be nourished with sincere and healthfull aliments; for applause and estimation of all their young vertuous actions, and proffers, may be so tempered, as they may conduce to the thriving and growth of their minds, without any swelling or elation.

Methinks praise may in some cases be fitly applyed to our minds, as Corall is to the mouthes of children, when they are breeding teeth, which is given them to nibble and champ up­on, to ease and satisfy that little itch they have in their gums, in that season, and to supple them so much as to bring their teeth out with the more ease: In this order praise may be aptly [Page 111] given to young tender inclinations to vertue, for there is in our minds, in that state, a spirituall itch which is eased and refresh­ed, while they are champing, and sucking upon applause, which doth also soften and open our imagination, and so lessen the pain of our perverse and froward nature, when the hardnes and sharpenes of vertuous practises, which are spirituall teeth, do first breake the flesh, which is alwaies done with some smart, when the tendernes of our senses is pierced and broken through, first, by the sharpnes of the spirit of vertue; & by degrees, when our minds have thus put out these kinds of teeth more com­modiously by these cherishing contributions, which help at first our weake nature, they advance to such a state of strength, as to be able to feed on the solid meat of vertue, which is the dis­charge of our duty to God and man, irrespectively to humane praise, and by these steps we come to be wean'd from the emul­sions of sensible applause, which is the first milke our imagina­tions are fostered with, and gives them a sweet relish of vertue.

Since then we find by experience how praise and estimation conduce much to the sweetning of the asperity of vertue in young tasts, I do not discredit the ministring of sober and mo­dest praises, to the good dispositions of great and eminent per­sons, whose minds are too commonly at Court in this tender state of growth and prosiciency; and I confesse it is not practi­cable, to frame rules for the discernment, between due praises, and flatteries, in all occurrences in the worlds commerces.

Wherefore the ingenuity of every particular, must be every ones director in this point; but the best generall advice I can conceive, is, for those who are passive in commendations, to weigh the worthinesse of the hand that layes them on, in one of the Scales, against the beliefe, they put into the other, of their own deserts; and still to put in somewhat lesse credit of their own praises, then the opinion of the praiser layes in the scale; and those who are active in this subject, when they praise any they love [...] and would perfume them with the good odour of vertue, must remember to give them lesse of this sweet oyle, then their own opinion; and beliefs would cast upon them; [Page 112] which is to say, that when we are praising our friends to their face, we should be carefull to praise them alwayes somewhat lesse then we love them; for likely that measure of our affecti­ons filled with praises, will runne over, if it be poured into that of our friends merit, and when we are upon the receipt of com­mendations from kind conferrers of them, we must be advised in taking somewhat lesse of them upon the account of our be­liefe, then is offered us; for we may give alwayes a good allow­ance of discrediting, for the partiality of friendship, which cannot be exact in the weighing of her opinions.

The Chimicks say, that he who had found the art to fix Mer­cury, might easily transforme it into gold; so may I say, If there were meanes to limit this volatil matter of complement, and fluency of praises, within the termes of that precise good, which is beleeved of one another; this might convert all currant civi­lity, into the gold of charity, and then the breath of reciprocall praises might mutually kindle vertue, raysing but little smoake of vanity.

But this rectitude of our lips is not to be hoped in this our state of crookednesse of hearts; for our words are cast off from their moulds; and since it was flattery that drew the mouth awry of that figure whereof we are all copies, our mouthes wil alwayes stand somewhat drawne aside from the straitnes of truth, to­wards the side of flattery, especially when we find the eares of great persons drawn awry into that posture.

Forasmuch then as we cannot pretend to rectify perfectly this shape of our distorted nature, we must be cautious to leane as little as we can to that side of our inclination to flattery: King David found this deflection, & indirectnes in our minds, when he proclaimed, that verities are diminished from the sonnes of men, they speake vanity every one with his neighbour, with flat­tering lips, and a double heart; since through our best watches over our lips, there will escape many excesses in the enter­changes of civilities; it is very requisite for the safety of their hearts, that Courtiers should not let their tongues runne loose in the ordinary excursions of complements, thinking such [Page 113] words weigh as little as the breath that carries them, for we know that even all those nulls and ciphers, in our reckoning, are set upon account to us.

I wil therefore close up this caution, with that terrible animad­version of the Gospell, By thy words thou shalt be justifyed, and Mat. 4 by thy words condemned; which words, if they would frequent­ly put into their mouthes, they would find them a bit, which will not at all presse upon their tongues, so farre as to curbe them from any becomming freedome, but hold them as it were from being cast out of their mouthes, in many undecent motions of loose libertyes, wherein the unbridled custome of the world doth never curbe them.

§. V.

THus have I with my best skill set the Courtiers Com­passe, by which he may steere a good course, through the deepest of his temptations; and the Wise man seems to qualify me for this office, saying, They who saile the Sea, re­port the perils of it; so that in my judgement, there may be a convenient safety in this course, when it is steered by sincere humility; for truely humility is like the Marriners needle, but a little motion, yet requisite for the use of all the Sailes of moral vertues, in the course of a Christian; and I have set as good markes as I can upon those bankes, and sands of flattery and adulation, which lye covered over with the shallownes of civi­lity, and complement, upon which if our affections do stick, they will batter, and by degrees open our hearts, and so cast them away quickly upon all vanities and presumptions; and indeed, these sands are more dangerous, then apparent and [Page 114] emergent rockes of riches, and ambition, which give more warning of their dangers.

Nor do the many wrecks that are made in Courts, justly discredit the profession of this traffique, for temporall com­modities; I have already in this expresse argument, voted the pursuance of all worldly honours, respectively to severall con­ditions, very competent with piety and devotion; though in­deed it must be remembred, that such estates in the world re­quire much more vigilancy, and attendance, then others of a more simple constitution, as engines of various motions may be kept in order with proportionate appliance of labours, as well as a single wheele; for regularity is as sociable with mag­nitude, as with mediocrity, if there be proportionate art and labour to concert them; and greatnes is as consortable with goodnes, as simplicity of life, where there is a commensurate applyance of the mind, to the obtaining of an answerable mea­sure of grace.

He who suspends the world upon the weight thereof; and measu­reth Iob 26. the waters in his span, keeps the Sea in bounds as easily, as the smallest Brooks in their own beds: Every condition hath a size of grace suited to it; as the Apostle saith, Every one hath Cor. his proper gift; and proportionate duties are annexed to every severall condition: God is so just, that he chargeth the great­est possessions of temporalities, with the greatest taxes of dif­ficulties in spirituall payments; but no condition is scanted in a capacity of such performances as Gods precepts charge upon it: And so we see how all conditions have presented to us Saints, which humane reason weighing all circumstances, can­not ranke in order of precedency in the Church: How many Kings and Courtiers doth the Church reverence, as now pla­ced in those heavenly mansions, where she cannot discerne in what degree (as severall Starres) they differ in brightnesse? So equall hath the lustre of their lives been, with that of any other vocation, as they dazle us in any such distinguishment of their merits, we know how the good seed of the Gospell tooke roote as early in the house of Cesar, as in any part of Rome, and Saint [Page 115] Paul sets an emphaticall note on those Saints, in preference be­fore Phil. 4. 22. the rest. Did not S. Sebastian in the head of the Emperour Dioclisians: Guard (which was one of the greatest elevations on earth) appeare in the same eminence of zeale among the Primi­tive Christians? And did not Saint Maurice in the head of the Emperours Army, erect such a trophie for Christianity, as all Times triumph in? for in desiance of those Spirits which called themselves a Legiou, he flourished the Colours of Christ Jesus, dyed in the bloud of a whole Legion of Martyrs; which blessed legion of Spirits did so possesse the Christians of those times, by their, examples, that many gave supernaturall testi­monies Mar. 5. of this holy possession.

And may it not be remarked for the honour of Courts, that while Christianity was but shed and sprinkled here and there, in the lower parts of the Roman Empire, it was carryed but in the hands of Christs Commissioners? but when Christ was plea­sed to appeare at Court, he marked his lodging with his own signet, the glorious Crosse; first in the ayre, visible to the Em­perour Constantine, and to the whole Court, and after, the same Euseb. vit. Constant. night appeared himselfe to the Emperour, advising him how to manifest his glory, which untill then, he was content should not break out of the clouds of contempt & persecution, that over­cast it. And thus Christ made his remove presently from the Grots and Cavernes of the fields, up to the imperial palace of Rome, where he set up his Crosse triumphant over that Crown, which til then, went as near burying of it, as the keeping it long under ground, for the Caverns of the fields were before that time, both the Tombes and Pallaces of the Christians.

And it may be noted, that when Christianity descended from this heigth of the Court, upon the lower parts of the Empire, it spread it selfe faster in a few yeares, then it had done in the three hundred, before it camp up to the Court, for till then, the waters of Life were cast upward, and forced against the risings of sense, humane power, and naturall reason, by the supreame force of Miracles, and so were spread no further, then they carried them by continuall renewed supplies of miraculous o­perations; [Page 116] but now after there broke out this Spring of Living water, on the tops of the mountaines of the Empire, it ranne down more naturally, and plentifully upon the subjacent parts, and fructifyed the earth faster, and more universal­ly.

In our corrupted nature, what is the common effect of mate­riall, holds also in spirituall weight falling on our mindes, for the higher reason falls from the elevation of authority, and ex­ample, the more impression and penetration it makes upon them: wherefore Christian Religion, when it fell from the su­preamest point of humane power, the Imperiall Court made much more sensible markes upon the world, then it had done before. And as this operative efficacy, may endeare to Cour­tiers their vocations, so must it needs presse so much the more upon them the evidence of their vertues.

Thus I have showed how the Court may say, in honour of her conversion, that Christ in diverse manners spoke to the other parts of the world by his Messengers, but unto us he spake him­selfe, Heb. 4. when he came first to Court in publicke, for before Con­stantines time was there but as we say in incognito, but then he appeared in his own place, over the head of Kings, and present­ly dislodged the Prince of darkenes out of these roomes of State, whereas before he had but displayed him in his under Offices, while he did but deliver and free private possessions, but then in one act he seemed to dispossesse the whole Roman Empire, when he expelled him from the Court.

§. VI.

COurtiers (who may by these reflexions be apt to value their vocation) must be put in mind, that as they are more eminently then any, made spectacles to the world, to Angels, and to men, they have in that preheminence a pro­portionate 1 Cor. 4. charge upon them, of being more to the life the image of the celestiall man; in which figure, there is common­ly at Court one remarkeable incongruity, which is, that the feet are more laboured, and better finished then the head; for morall vertues hold but an analogy with these parts in the bo­dy of christianity, since they are but as it were carriages for theologicall or divine vertue to rest, and move upon.

The errour then which I reproach, is, that there are many who are very precise in acquiring, and preserving their reputa­tion in courage, prudence, and fidelity, and are as remisse and indifferent in their applications to charity, piety, and humility; which is methinks such an incongruity in christianity, as that of the Pharisees was in the Law, when they said, Whosoever 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.

[Page 118] 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 [Page 119] 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 me [...]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 Mad [...]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 [Page 120] 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 2 Pet. 2. 8. 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.

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. 1 Cor. 12.

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 [Page 122] in number, weight, and measure, as the Wise man informeth us; Sap. 11. 12. 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 [Page 123] 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 Kin. 4. 6. 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, Cor. 12. 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 [Page 124] 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 the regulation made by Gods precepts, and the churches explanations. Thus a courtier may preserve him­selfe from being at all moved or shaken in his judgement for Christ and Religion, by not apprehending whether he be accounted or no a friend to Cesar, to wit, whether he retain the courts opinion of being agreeable, or complaisant, or good company.

Gods lesson given to the Prophet Ezekiel upon this occasi­on, is very proper in such cases of temptation, Sonne of man, Ezek. 2. though thou doest dwell among Scorpions; be not afraid of their words, nor dismayed at their lookes, though they be a rebellious house; For those (who do sincerely stand upon their defence, lifting up their hands in the posture of the Psalmist, in all the volleys of Darts) shall never want that child to incompasse them, which he promiseth, Thousands shall fall on both sides of Psal. 90. him, but the danger shall come no nearer him, the Sunne shall not burne him by day, nor the Moon by night: the Sun-shine of For­tune [Page 125] shall not tanne or dis-colonr the fairenes and candor of his mind; nor the Night, or coldnesse of his grace or credit, shall not damp or benumme the vigour of his spirit.

To conclude, let a Courtier at his entrance into this vocati­on, remember to read the Bill I have set upon the Court gates, at the beginning of this Argument, and before he go in let him say with Moses, in a devout apprehension of his infirmity, If Exod. 33. 15. thy presence go not with me, let me not go up to this place; and so, in all his advances into the roomes of State, (in any sort of his preferment) let him remember that whereof all the Majesty he seeth, is but a figure, and by this meanes he may easily keepe the originall presence in his sight; which object will prove a light to his eye, and a lampe to his feet, shewing him, according to the Apostles rule, How to walke worthy of God, who hath cal­led Thes. 2. 12. him into his Kingdome and glory.

§. I.

HAving entred you safely into the Court, and condu­cted you as I may say, through the roomes of State, and shewed their ordinary furniture of snares, as Ambition, Flattery, and Dissimulation; it followes in order to passe into the withdrawing roomes and cabinets, which are commonly furnished with the finest and daintiest stuffs, to wit, [Page 126] with more subtle and refined temptations; among which I con­ceive there is none more sharpe and piquant, and consequently lesse controverted or reproved, then Detraction, and Medi­sance: Wherefore it will not be amisse to worke a little, to file downe as much as we can, the point of it, by the instruments of Religion, which the Holy Spirit ministereth to us fitted for this purpose, by the hand of Solomon, Remove from thee a fro­ward mouth, and let detracting lips be farre from thee. Pro. 4. 24.

But lest this first severe aspect, may seem to affront any in­nocent Medisance defined. good humour, upon the Stage of conversation; tis fit to declare, that I only understand by Medisance, all such spee­ches as may probably derogate from the fame and good re­pute of our neighbour; which though it be done in never so gracefull or facetious a manner, hath still the deformity of sin lying under the finest coverings, any fancy can cast over it, and consequently ought not to be admitted into good com­pany, upon the recommendation of never so handsome cloathes.

The Chimiques say, that in all materiall bodies there is a salt, which is the most spirituall and active portion of them: which suggesteth to me this conceipt, that in the immaterialities of our passions, there may be said to be a kind of salt or spirit, which is the most subtill and sharpe point of them; and upon this score, I may say, that Medisance is the salt of envy; as con­taining the most quick and piquant part of this passion; it agre­eth likewise in this property with Salts and Spirits calcined, which do not sensibly discover the matter out of which they are extracted, being reduced into differing formes; neither doth Medisance in many cases manifest at all the quality from whence it is derived, being drawn into another appearance of jest and ingeniosity; and surely the nature of such poysonous plants, ought to be the most proclaimed, the taste whereof is pleasant, and the occurrence familiar among innocent herbs, of which kind is this spirit of detraction; which I may not unfitly compare to Mercury sublimate, that tasteth like sugar; where­fore the children of this Family ought the more cautiously be [Page 127] advertised of the malignity thereof, since the matter lyes so of­ten in their way.

The Apostle Saint James, as Gods advocate, brings a hai­nous charge against this libertinage, which in the world doth Jam. 4. 11. pretend to passe, at the highest, for no more then a trespasse, not a sin; but thus he informeth against it; Detract not from one another; he that detracteth from his brother, or he that judgeth his brother, detracteth from the Law, and judgeth the Law; so that not onely the credit of man, but even the honour of God seemeth violated by these invasions, since even the law of God is said to be impleaded by such aspersions; God seemeth to have tender'd so much the good fame of man, as he hath joyn­ed his own honour with it, as a convoy against the insults of our vitious fancyes, that we might at least respect Gods con­cernment in the violation of the fame of one another; detracti­on is thus proved to be one of the greatest offenders in humane society, yet the familiarity covereth so much the faultinesse, as it suffereth the seldomest of any criminall, by reason of the many disguises it can interchange: insomuch as sometimes religious justice that would not connive, knoweth not how to take notice of it, meeting it so ingeniously transformed, but for the most part it is not strictly looked after.

The case of medisance in courts, is like that of loose wo­men in the world that are very handsome, who do oftener gain and corrupt the officers of justice, then they are detected and indicted by them; for abuses and derisions of one another, passe for such a kind of Pecadill [...]o among the children of this age, as they conceive it the office of a Gentleman rather to rescue and shelter it, when it is pursued by just reprehension, then to deliver it up as a criminall; but surely if we consider whose law the Apostle telleth us is offended and impugned by these asperities, we shall find the Method of Jael to be fol­lowed, rather then that of Rahab, with these emissaries of the Prince of this world, which are imployed by him to bring him back the fruits of our corrupted earth, which is very luxuriant in this mistery of iniquity; insomuch as we may say of this [Page 128] unhappy facundity, that our earth needs no rain to fall upon it, that is, no externall provocation to fertilize it, there riseth a mist out of it selfe that watereth it, to wit, our innate per­versity, which causeth this pregnancy of thorns and briars, that prick and scratch one another in a reciprocall and custo­mary detraction, wherein we differ much from the opinion of the holy Ghost, for we conceive we gather the best figs from these thorns, and the best grapes from these brambles, that is, we raise the most pleasant points of our discourse, and the most chearful rejoycings of our hearts out of these pungencies and stingings of one another.

Of all the disguises medisance puts on, that of mirth is the most common, and the most cunning; for there it appear­eth in so naturall a habit, weareth the clothes of innocence and harmlesnesse so handsomely, and speaketh the language so well, as seldome any inquire whether it be a native of that state; but as strangers are easilier discovered by their accents then by the impropernesse of their words; So medisance re­taineth most commonly some forreign accent, if it be well ob­served, that betrayeth it to be no native of the state of inno­cence; yet we are likely over-civill, in taking notice of this forreigner, and very familiarly use detraction, as we do stran­gers we would oblige, when we flatter their failings in our lan­guage by the warrant of civility, and take no notice of what we cannot chuse but perceive; This kind of court-ship is much used in our entertainment of all ingenious and well fashioned mordancy or detraction.

In this particular more then in any other, we commonly at Court observe the precept of doing to others, as we would be done to our selves; For we examine one anothers faults in this kind, rather as complices then judges, so generall is the con­currence towards the maintenance of this common interest of our fancyes entertainment: For alas, how few are there in Courts that are not either theevs or receivers in this stealth of one anothers good name? for those who have not tongues to commit the fact, have eares to entertaine it, and it may be [Page 129] truly said in this case, that if there were no such receivers, there would be no such theeves, since the good reception and welcome that witty medisance finds, doth surely entertain the profession; and alas how few resolve with the Psalmist, that Psal. 140. this oyle of sinners shall not make fat their head, but do rather use it to keep their faces smooth, and shining in smiles & gaye­tyes; little remembring what Saint Paul saith of whisperers and detracters, that not onely they that do such things, are wor­thy of death, but they also that have pleasure in those that do 1. Rom. 30. 32. them.

Ought we not to be the more vigilant in the discernment and discountenancing this licentiousnesse, when we consider how hardly this offence can come to be sentenced, since the committers of it are very often the onely possible Judges of the crime? so well is it dissembled to the rest of the company; which even when they do suspect it is rendred very partial, by being interrested in the pleasure, and not conceiving them­selves concerned in the fault; wherefore every one must be his own sincere overseer and censor of the edition of his lan­guage on this Theame, since he is not likely to meet any other correction; All other licentiousnesse of speech doth likely meet with some adverse party in the company, and so cometh not off without being shot at with some reprehension, but plea­sant and sharp medisance, as if it were in contribution with all humours, passeth commonly freely in all conversations, with­out so much as the warning of an enemy.

Our own consciences must therefore be the conductors of our fancyes, when they are licensed to go out in partyes a la petite guerre, as the French cals it, to a kind of little warre in conversation; and the French have suted methinks this kind of liberty of speech very aptly with a terme, calling it faire la guerre, as it were shirmishing of wits with one another: and I conceive that medisance may be very properly matched in this particular, with the custome that parties have in the cour­ses they make upon high-wayes, in their own quarters; for when they take from travellers in the tearms of civill asking, [Page 130] because the words are not violent, they maintaine the action to be lawfull; whereby many times when in effect they do rob, they perceive not their own theft; after fuch a sort medisance or detraction while it useth the tearmes of raillerie, that is, quaint & handsome jesting, although it take away what repu­tation it pleaseth, yet the actors deceive themselves in the crime by the civill and sociable forme whereinto it is contri­ved.

The insinuation therefore of this mischievous quality into mirth, ought to be watched with the more attention, since the preception of it is often very difficult, & the prejudice alwaies very desperate; for it worketh it selfe into conversation, (which is the best externall fruit our reason beareth) like a worm by a little orifice, but it tainteth and corrupteth more then the birds, which prey directly upon the skin of the fruit, that is, then more professed indecencies and presumptions, which are like birds easier seen and driven away, by an apparent gravity and sobriety set up in our behaviour.

It importeth us very much to preserve conversation (which seemeth the intellectuall aire, that our soules breath in and out) as pure and wholsome as we can, since though the infection of it, do not sensibly offend us at the instant, yet it worketh upon our minds by a more subtil infusion of malignity, where­by it corrupts by degrees the habit and disposition of our soules; wherefore the Psalmist tells us, that with the perverse, we shall be perverted; and how often do we find this surreptious contagion crept into our hearts, without much sence of the in­troducement? of which case Solomon saith, The words of the whisperer are as it were simple, and the same come to the most in­ward Pro. 26. 22. parts of the belly; let us therefore consult a little how to obstruct the passages of this so subtile insinuation.

§. II.

BY this reformation proposed, I do not intend any defa­cing of the faire and pleasant frontispiece of sociable conversation, for I do not design the breaking down of all discourse, that hath the image or aspect of civill hostility, that is, all ingenious wrastling and fencing of wits against one another; such formes of speech may be handsomely set, as spi­rituall Figures and carvings upon the structure of conversati­on, which may innocently grace and imbellish the whole frame, there are many passages that have an evident character of harm­lesse mirth and jollity; which although they are piquant, yet are not easily pervertible to any disparagement of our neigh­bour; so that our speech may be with grace, and seasoned with salt, as Saint Paul adviseth us, wherefore in any such recreative freedoms may well be admitted, with this caution given to the utterers, that they examine 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 What cir­cumstances are to be ob­served in jesting. 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 [Page 132] 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. Psal. 39.

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 Ecclesiasti­cus 17. 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 [Page 133] 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? Ecclestasti­cus

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 [Page 134] 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 vi [...]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 Princes in point of their fortunes, so do they seem to prescribe unto Princes, in this regulating their comport­ments, in respect of the common frailties, because they cannot take off the impositions of their own examples; wherefore they must remember themselves to be the selfe-same persons, which are the most specially menaced by those judgements the Holy Spirit saith are prepared for scorners.

[Page 135] This being so much averred, I humbly present Princes and Pro. 19. 29. great persons, with this excellent pre-caution given by the Wiseman, Hedge your eares with thornes, and heare not a wicked Ecclus. 28. 28. tongue, and make doores and locks to your mouth; that is to say, fence your eares so with the points of religion and piety, as they may rather prick, by some sharpe reproofe the obtruders of all offensive Medisance, then leave them open for such receptions; and surely the locks set upon the mouthes of the chiese of the company, doth shut out all such speech, as they intend to de­bar, for their humours are the Wards, by which the rest frame the Key of their discourse, to open unto themselves acceptati­on.

All this considered, the best expedient I can administer, to­wards the repressing of this licentiousness, is the dis-favour and un-concurrence of the Grandees in the world; which opinion is thus supported by the Holy Ghost, The North wind dissipateth raines, and a sad looke the tongue that detracteth; Wherefore I Pro. 25. 23. beseech every one whom it may concerne, to put on a serious displicence, upon these occasions, that they may not incurre this menace of Christ, Woe be unto you that laugh now, but ra­ther entitle themselves to this promise of the Holy Ghost, They Luk. 6. 25. Pro. 31. 25. shall laugh in the latter day.

§. I.

BEing in chase of the tongue, which Saint James saith, is so wilde a beast as no body can tame, me thinks James 3. this other unruly evill seemeth to be her other fore­leg, whereby she runnes so lightly in the course of our nature, and sets it (as the Apostle saith) on fire; wherefore these her two vitiousnesses of medisance and lubricity may well be pro­secuted together, and in effect they are seldome parted in our humours. Moreover, as they are twins of an illegitimate and scandalous conception, their delivery is commonly after such a manner, as that of Pharez and Zara, where he that put his Gen. 38. hand first into the world, came intyrely the last into it: So detraction and piquantnes of wit, doth likely first make prof­fers to issue out of our corrupted nature, but is fully delivered the latter of the two, for we know that our fancies even in their immature season, strain to be forward in this point of medisance and mordancy of one another, but the other twin, namely loosnesse and uncleannesse of speech, entreth first com­pleatly into our discourse, by reason that the full growth of medisance, requireth a riper fancy, and many extimulations to sharpen it; whereof our green youth is not susceptible: [Page 137] so that most commonly our tongue delivereth fully this vice of foulensse and obscenity of speech the first into the world; and thus, that of the two which in part sallieth first out of our fancy, is the last in point of an intire production, I shall not stay to examine their priority, in this relation of their brother­hood in iniquity, as neither of them are children of light, so their inheritance is such, as even the least share will seeme too much to each of them; wherefore I may truly say, Blessed are they who dash these while they are little ones, against the stones of the Temple of the Holy Ghost, repressing the first strainings and proffers of our fancies, at these indecent excursions.

But alas how distancial are we from this igennious coercion of our polluted fancies? When commonly we set al our wits upon this liberty, to cloake and palliate it, when it is accused; do we not familiarly seeke to elude the reprehensions, and to cover this our Idol of Wantonnesse with Rachels Mantle, answering Gen. 31. our impeachers, it is with us after the manner of the world? the customary infirmity of our nature is made the palliation of this iniquity; but surely custome and possession in this case ought strongly to be impleaded; for if custome passe for a second na­ture, even when at first it contendeth against her, when it doth concurre and second her; how strong and unruly must they needs both grow against the order and discipline of grace? which is evidenced in most companies by the notorious excesses of these impunities.

But it is no hard Argument to overthrow this plea of cu­stome, and to prove this charge of a high offence against this licentiousnes of speech, because if we stand charged with al our words upon accompt, all our indecent and uncleane ones must needs be set very high in the reckoning; by reason they may be said to be responsable, not only for all the time we our selves take up upon them, but even for all the losse and prejudice the company suffereth by them, since whether they offend or affect the company, we are answerable for both these effects, for the scandall even when they are distasted, and much more for the temptation when they are well relished; and if we are injoyned [Page 143] such a preferring the good of society, before that of singlenes, as we are disswaded by the Apostle, even lawfull and inno­cent libertyes, in case of indangering the scandalizing of our brother; how faulty must be this unruly transgression of all the precepts that directly prohibit such licentiousnesse? Is it not a pleasant answer to Saint Pauls order, of let no ill word come out of your mouth, to reply, alas we are used to let out so 1 Cor. 11. many as the custome may stand for our defence: to which, me­thinks we may suppose the spirit of Saint Paul answering as he did upon the occasion of reforming an effeminate fashion among the Corinthians, We have no such custome, nor the Church of God.

The most familiar extenuation of this culpable practise, is, that there are many light passages in discourse, that have no aime but the present jollity and recreation, and that many of such levities spring up in our way without the ranging of our fancyes for any such game, and that such accidentall free­domes may produce a harmelesse recreation; I do not bring my charge against any such chances, there may many words be started in conversation that may move our first in­stincts to runne after such sportings, wherefore I do not at­taint all such propensions, but desire that this aptnesse in our nature may be rightly understood, and that we may discerne our being moved with such light invitations, to be rather excu­sable by our frailties, then justifiable by the qualities of such mirth.

There is no fault so little in this kind, that is not accounted one; for the familiarity of these small imperfections, indange­reth their rising into higher corruptions; how many little un­cleannesses do we see, that being wiped off as soon as they light upon our clothes, come out again with any stain? which if they be neglected, sinke in, and leave their spots upon the place: nor is there any morall immundicity of a more dange­rous insinuation then this of wanton discours, by reason it in­troduceth it self in a harmeles apparence, & so subtilly, as even many who aime at purity of life, are sometimes if not affected, [Page 139] at least amused & diverted by it in their design, and unto such wel disposed minds do I addres this animadversion; to such I say, in whose lives these amusements are the most apparent de­fects; for in such subjects, (in whom these excesses are, the least of their corruptions, where out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth overfloweth in these pollutions) I cannot hope to wash off so easily this soule graine of their interior disposition; this particular being so twisted & inwrapped in other grosser vices (like strawes or fethers cleaving to some tenacious mat­ter) as it cannot be easily severed or expurged, but in some fair souls; these levities are but like some loose dust or feathers that of themselves come up, and swim upon the top of their enter­tainments, and so may easily be scum'd off by a gentle hand of reprehension, whilst in fordid and foul mindes, this filth stick­eth to such heavy vices, as keep them in the bottome of their hearts, insomuch as they seem to require some storm of afflicti­on that may move and agitate the deepest parts of their ill ha­bits, and by that meanes cast out all the foul weight together that lay sunk in the bottome of their hearts.

I will therefore onely addresse these gentle prescripts unto such as intend the observance of Solomons advise, of keeping Ecclesiastes 9. their garments alway white, that they must not onely set a guard over their heart, but also a watch over lips, that no inde­cent freedomes may creep into a custome, for in that incroach­ment they shall never discern the possession they have taken, till they attempt their remove; and the smalnes of this fault in the commencements of it, proveth the most dangerous part towards the progresse thereof; for it may be compared in a perverted sense, to that grain which is the least of all seeds, when it is cast into the ground; but at last it groweth to a nest for the fowls of the ayre, because, commonly what is at first but levity and veniall wantonnesse, groweth up very famili­arly to beare and harbor all kind of foulnesse and impurity: Wherefore Solomon warneth us thus against such deceptions, There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end there­of Prov. 16. 25. is the way of death.

§. II.

THE admission of these liberties by well disposed per­sons, is derived commonly from the inconsideration of the dignity and duty of a Christian, upon this sug­gestion, from him who transfigureth himselfe into an Angel of light, that the maimed and defectuous, were onely forbid the Altar, not debar'd the Congregation; to wit, that Can­dour and immaculatenesse of conversation is onely required of such, as are sequestred for God, by some vow or consecra­tion; and that other vocations need not attend to so much cleannesse of heart, as is intimated by these scrupulous sug­gestions, but this flash of lightning of the evill Angell will quickly vanish, when we turne our eyes upon these beames of the Sunne of Righteousnesse, which shine out so fully in these words, Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect: Where­by Mark 5. our Saviour seemeth to presse so much our purity, as he setteth us a higher patern then even himselfe, (as he did then appeare to the eye of his disciples) and this similitude injoyn'd cannot possibly admit any voluntary adherence to the least unlikenesse and dissimilitude to this exemplar, and how di­stanciall the most triviall imperfection is from his infinite purity, the Angels themselves cannot determine: How much ought we then to apprehend the slightest touch or dash of our pensill, in the copying this Immaculate Originall?

If we could discern the staynes and taints, even of our best workes, wherein we perceive no faultinesse, we would ne­ver venture the voluntary exposing any to the sight of God, wherein we our selves find spots and blemishes, when the man [Page 141] after Gods own heart was fain to appeale to Gods mercy for his secret and undiscerned sinnes; how vain a thing is it to e­steem any sinne light or inconsiderable, which we our selves are able to discover? O what an honour is a Christian trusted with, when not onely the rejoycing of Angels is within his capacity, but even the satisfaction of the holy-Ghost? which is intimated by Saint Paul, when he chargeth us not to grieve or make sad the holy Spirit; and certainly all the loose mirth and jollity wherewith we flatter our nature, is so much contrista­tion to his holynesse and purity; and alas, how often do these impure sparks of our tongues passe to a higher offence? when flying inward they kindle such a flame, as doth extinguish the order of the holy Spirit, how little a spark sets a whole wood on fire? is too frequently attested by unhappy experiments in this 1 Thes. 5. 20. kind; wherefore Saint James warning us further of the ill consequences of our tongues disorder, tells us, that the tongue is the helme of the whole body, so that if it be ill steered, it must James 3. needs mislead the course of our whole lives.

Nothing methinks evidenceth more the faultinesse of these libertyes, then that the presence of any notedly good and vir­tuous person, doth commonly restrain such freedomes of speech; doth not this forbearance avow their unjustifiablenes, and reproach the idlenesse of our inconsideration, while we forget the continuall presence of Almighty God? in reference whereunto, we are pressed even by instinct, to pay this reve­rence unto men, of vailing our loose inclinations; if the eyes even of the children of light, are able to dispell these foule mists, the consideration of the presence of the Father of lights though in an invisible manner, may well dissipate the matter of these meteors, the substance whereof, is alwayes earthy and viscous, though the flame be never so bright: for the subject of lascivious words, is alwaies sordid and unclean, though the flame of fancy they glitter in be of never so clear and sharp conceptions.

The best expedient then in order to the bridling our un­ruly fancyes, is, to awe them often with the presence of God, [Page 140] [...] [Page 141] [...] [Page 142] who is termed a consuming fire, for such minds as are habitu­ated to that aspect, and whose thoughts walk before the Lord will be no more entangled with these levities, then they are retarded by Atomes walking in the ayre; and to indue this presentiall consideration of God, let us remember often that we are not our own, but are bought with a great price, by him who will be glorified as well as carried in our bodyes: and as 1 Cor. 6. 20. 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 Ecclesiastes 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 [Page 143] 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 shoo [...] 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 ow [...] 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 sha [...]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 [Page 144] 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 Confes. Aug. l. 1. 10. Ch. 3. 4. 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 [Page 145] 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 I may passe for one retur­ned as it were from the death and grave of these sinnes, where­in I lay the deepest buried of any; so that I may truly acknow­ledge in honour of the exceeding indulgence of God, Great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soule from the Psal: 85. 13. lowest hell, wherefore in all humility I offer up this short Petiti­on to my deliverer.

Lord I beseech thee, let this my resuscitated voice, carry some powerfull effect to such of my bretheren as it shall come unto, re­porting the painfull remorse these faults require for expiation; and while I stand here, brought by thy clemency to do this just and pub­licke penance in these penetentiall sheets, grant that the admonition may prove as efficacious to others, as the confusion is sensible to me, who humbly acknowledge, that as the chiefe of sinners I have therefore obtained mercy, that in me first of all Christ Jesus might shew all patience, to the information of those that believe in 1 Tim. 1. 16. him to life everlasting.

§. III.

DEsiring to compleate my charge in all points, and to denude this offending liberty of her most potent patronages, it is requisite to impeach some circum­stances, as guilty of great aggravations in these of­fences, namely, the quality, the reputation, and the Sex of such as favour these freedomes of speech; for though great vices may be made currant by great examples, yet they are cryed up in their own visibly base species, whereby every one knowes the matter they receive to be sordid, even while they use it: But this wantonnesse and petulancy of speech is oftentimes a kind of Alchimy, so well coloured over with wit, as it may easily passe for a good and innocent custome, when it is vented by great and observable hands, which may abuse even the Judge­ments of their dependents, in the understanding of these licen­ces: wherefore every one according to their degree of place, or estimation of vertue in the world, is charged with a proportio­nate evidencing their discountenance of such liberties, for the advantage of quality may easily introduce them, and the ne­pute of modesty may as easily disguise many of those faulry freedomes: The first of these capacities may authorize this cu­stome, and so render it a destruction that wasteth at noone day, and the latter of them, may by a connivance bring it in as a pe­stilence Psal. 19. 6. that walketh in darknes.

The most part of women, but especially such as this discourse is addressed unto, seem but passive, and tolerating of these levi­ties, and many thinke that they discharge the duty of their Sex in some slight reprehensions of them, which are commonly not [Page 147] of so sad a colour, but the whole company may through them see another tincture then the uppermost: lesse piercing eyes then Gods, discern what is under that veile: but surely vertu­ous women ought to be very solemn & serious in such dislikes, especially such as have authority over the company, if they well consider that an easie Judge may do more mischiefe, then an impudent offender, by reason this publisheth the foulenes of the crime, and in that act discrediteth it, whilst the other pal­liateth and disguiseth it, whereby the inducing the habit thereof is much endangered.

And since the weaknes of the world looketh commonly up­on women, as the only Judges of their behaviour before them, when the Judges are conceived to be receivers, wee may ima­gine to what a height this theft of liberty is likely to grow, and surely these light indecencies may be fitly compared to the children that theeves use to carry along with them, to put into windowes, which after they have crept in, open the doores to them that employ them, since very little freedomes stealing at first in at the eares, do often open the way to greater liberties, that expect an entry by the overtures shall be made by these first encroachments upon modesty, so that women (who have their bashfullnes and pudency given them for a guard of their weaknes and frailties) must beware of any surprisall of this out­guard: Let those who are so bashfull and cautious in any un­decent discovery of their bodies, know, that the admission and countenancing of this wantonnesse, is a detection of the naked­nesse of their minds, which may prove the farre more dange­rous temptation: I do not say but their honour may be kept alive in this ill aire of idle discourse, but certainly the unwhol­somnesse thereof, induceth but a crazie constitution.

Let therefore all vertuous and wel-affected minds be choise in the ayre of their conversation, for though this unsound one do not change the features of their vertue, it will spoyle at least the complexion of it; all these staining levities are a sort of freckles that appeare upon the face of their piety, which taketh off much of the fairnesse and beauty of it.

[Page 148] Those persons then whose places in the world set their lives as patterns to be copied by others, are the most strictly bound to take care of the face and apparence of their vertue, which is never so lovely, as when it frowneth severely upon all indecent freedomes of speech: wherefore I may fitly present them with this memoriall from the Holy Spirit, to cast their thoughts up­on in these occasions, Anger is better then laughter, because by the sadnes of the countenance the mind of the offender is corrected. Ecoles. 7. 4. So that all women, to whom civility, or any other respect gi­veth power over men, should make use of it to preserve the li­berty of their vertue, which is alway intrenched upon by any unbeseeming presumptions: and lest it may be apprehended that the retrenchment of these pleasant liberties, may flat and dead the taste of conversation, I dare answer by experience, that whosoever will enter into a course of purging his nature of that humour, (which I may call a morall jaundies that disco­loureth the whole skin of civill conversation, and putteth us out of taste of the sweetnes of purity) shall recover the right favour and gust of purity by the same degrees he is cleansed from the other immundicity, and he will quickly find so much more pleasantnesse in the rellish of innocence, as the very smell of these herbes of Egypt will offend him, and Manna will not seeme too light a food for him, but will rather find Piety af­fording him as many severall tastes of mirth and entertain­ment, as his rectifyed appetite shall demand, and the savour of purity shall bring him quickly to professe, How sweet are thy words unto my taste? yea sweeter then honie to my mouth. Psal. 118. 10.

Now then I will bind up all my perswasions with these bands of two Apostles, Saint Paul and Saint James, which strengthen them so firmly, as no subtilty of the most artificiall evader can loosen them, the first detesteth so much all licentiousnesse, as he forbideth even the naming any uncleannesse, filthinesse, foo­lish Ephes. 5. 4. talke, or scurrility, as incompatible with the sanctity of a Christian, and the last leaveth us this precise advice, in order to the same regulation, He that looketh into the perfect law of li­berty, and continueth therein, being not a forgetfull hearer, but a [Page 149] doer of the worke, this man shall be blessed in his deed: and if any man thinke himselfe religious, not bridling his tongue, but sedu­cing Jam. 1. 25, 26 his heart, this mans religion is vaine.

§. I.

LOve in humane nature, is both the sourge and center of all passions, for not only Hope, Feare and Joy, but e­ven Love desined. Anger and Hatred, rise first out of the spring of Love; and the courses of these passions which seem to runne away from it, do by a winding revolution returne backe to rest again in Love; for there could be no aversion if the last end of it were not some affection which our Love pursueth through opposition, with which our Anger and Hate combate, but in order to the conquest of our first Love; so that all the powers of a rationall Nature seeme to be ministeriall to this soveraigne power of Love, since even in Grace also, Love is both the way and the end of Beatitude, For God himselfe is Love, and none 1 [...] Ep. Ioh. 4. end in God that do not go by Love: Therefore S. Augustine saith excellently, that a short definition of all Vertue is the order Vertue defi­ned. of Love; for since Love is the first impulse and motion of our intellectuall appetite, (which is the Will) towards an union [Page 150] with what it apprehends under the notion of good; if God be rightly apprehended as the supreame good, and our Loves primarily directed to that union, then all our affections descend from that due elevation, upon the lower stations of the crea­tures, as upon stepps set in order by God, for our affections to passe down upon his workes, and repasse again upon the same gradations up to the Creator: Therefore we must examine whether that state of mind which the world termeth (being in Love) admit of this order, wherein consisteth the vertue of all Devotion.

I have before treated and defined what it is to be Devout, so I conceive it expedient now to determine what it is to be in Love; for as there are many antipathy's, which while they are out of the presence of one another, discover not their repug­nancies, but being set together do quickly declare their aversi­ons, so if we state prophane and sacred love by one another, we shall the easilier discerne whether there be any incompatibility between them, for he who transfigureth himselfe into an Angell of light, doth more artificially disguise this passion then any o­ther, and presenteth it to our minds under the fairest notion he can utter it, knowing that Love is the best colour he can use in his own transfiguration.

I have already described Devotion to you in these familiar termes of (a being in love with Heaven,) whereby I conclude, that being in Love is the most intensive appropriation of all the powers of our mind to one designe; now how such an assignment A description of being in Love. of our Soule to the love and service of the creature, (which is to be in love with one) can consist with the precept of loving the Creator with all our heart and all our mind, is a question too hard for even the Devill to resolve; therefore to reconcile Passion with Devotion, he doth commonly detract somewhat from them both, in his definitions of them to us, representing it as a lesse alienation and transaction of the mind to be in love, and a lesse exaction on the soule to be devout.

Thus mans first supplanting Counsellor offereth himselfe for a reconciler of this inconsistency, and pretendeth to accord [Page 151] these two loves, as we use to compose civill differences, where likely each party doth remit some of his interest to facilitate the agreement; and thus many taking off somewhat from the nature of humane passion, and abating some of the rights of divine Love, think they may both concurre in the soule by this arbitration; as who should say, when God is allowed the su­preamest part in formall adoration, the creature may share in the inferiour portion of the mind, which is the seate of Passion, and be allowed a love to a degree of Passion: Many are decei­ved by this, as with an equall composition, which truly exami­ned, is to conclude, that if the Arke be set in the quire, Dagon may stand in the body of the Church; but he whose Temple our heart is, alloweth no independent love to the creature to stand by his at any distance; all our affections must rest invol­ved in his Love, and must issue from thence upon the creature, but as by commission and delegation from that master Love: So I may say of such compounders, that pretend there may be some of the heart allotted to support humane Passion, as was said of the inhabitants of Samaria after the captivity, wherein were mixed the Jewes and Babilonians, These feare the Lord, but serve their Idols; for indeed they who give not God all their Kin. 4. 17. 41. Love, give what they do, chiefly to his feare, and so may be said to feare God, not to love him, but to serve and love their passions.

Yet it may be there are some who being frighted with the precisenesse and amplitude of the precept of loving God, dis­avow me in my definition of being in Love, saying I have done an ill office to humane Passion in this exaltation of it, putting it upon a claime of so great rights, as must needs make a quar­rell between it and Devotion, when they pretend they do co­venant between their eyes and their affections, in the admirati­on of beauty, for the preserving the prerogative of divine Love; alleadging that all the vehemency of their affections, is in order to the estimation of the excellency and perfection of Gods workes, and disclaime any infringing the rights of Religion.

This is commonly answered by some when they are before [Page 152] grave and pious examiners, when they find themselves fallen, as I may say among Gods party, then they have his word rea­dy to passe with, but when they come off to their own side, when they are giving account of their passions to those persons they serve under, then commonly they take all occasions to do all ill offices to divine Love, and study to affront Devotion, as if it were a Rivall that pretended to that affection for which they are in suite, and then the entirenes of the oblation of their minds is what they most insist upon; and God knoweth Reli­gion is not so much as thought upon, unlesse it be to take from it some divine tearmes, to set out the offering of their passion.

§. II.

PRophane Passion is a flame in our sensitive Appetite, which doth commonly refine and subtilize the faculty of our imagination, enabling the fancy very much to circumvent the reason, suggesting this beliefe to many, that we may easily proportion a correspondence between our affections to sensible and spirituall objects, setting them in the due sub­ordination of the sence to the understanding; and when this or­der is settled in our minds, we are perswaded there may be al­lowed this intelligence, (which passeth often between the grea­test distances of degrees) that what appertaines properly to the dignity of spiritualities, may be borrowed sometimes inno­cently, and applyed to adorne and grace the worth of materi­all goods: and after this manner I suppose we may accommo­date these attributes of divine and heavenly, and many other such jewels of the crown of God, to illustrate the accomplish­ments of corporeall blessings.

In this method many Lovers seeme to thinke they may use Gods spirituall Altar, as we do his material Altars in Churches [Page 153] from whence the ornaments are borrowed and transposed from one to another, according to different solemnities, for many use as familiarly all the proprietyes of divine love for the gracing of their passion, as if God had lent them his attri­butes to set off the shrine of their affections, which do usually stand dressed up with Sacred vessels, with all the termes of veneration and adoring, and thus doth our unfaithfull coun­cellor perswade us in effect to set up altar against altar, upon pretence of a faire correspondence between Grace and na­ture.

This is truly to be blinded by the God of this world, (as the A­postle saith) to treat any such compartition of our heart, be­tween our faith and our fancy, applying alternatively the same expressions of estimation to them both, when we know all the appurtenances to Gods altar, are so fastned to it by his own hand, as the very borrowing of them for secular uses is sacriledge.

The same composition of oyntment, which God did appro­priate to the services of the Tabernacle, was forbid to be im­ploy'd upon bodyes in the delicacies of the flesh, under the same paine as sacriledge, and that confection of perfumes, which was peculiarly Gods odour, was not to be compound­ed for any common application; and when we poure out so familiarly Gods attributes upon our loves, as an unction of suavity and delicacies upon flesh and blood, and perfume our passions with the same composition of prayses and exaltati­ons which are properly affected to divine uses; we do certain­ly incur this kind of irreligious presumption, and how fami­liar this loose effusion is of all the most Sacred termes upon this subject of our passion, I need not argue, but enter this ill custome as a high indignity to God, though it passe com­monly for no more then a light intemperancy of the fan­cy which is little questioned; truly it is most an end the foul ardor kindled in the heart, that seeths this uncleane froth out of the mouth which staineth all the Moral virtues it toucheth; for prophanenesse taints wit, and civility, and all other good [Page 154] qualities it runnes through; and so though prophane love may sharpen the brain, it alwayes sowreth the heart, which is the vessell of devotion; if there be then many hearts farre from God, while they honour him with their lips, we may safely con­clude no heart can be neer to God, while the lips are so farre from honouring him, as leading out his propertyes.

Wherefore let no body presume that they may innocently convert a hymne into an Iopean, that is, to transferre the prerogative prayses of divinity to the flattery of his owne Diana.

In the religion of the heathen Romanes, every one had their houshold gods, that did not derogate from the honor of those they worshipped in the Temples, each one was allowed his Genius, each family their Penates for familiar gods at home, which they observed & loved more, though they feared not so much as their state gods: methinks they that would maintaine a consistancie betweene those two altars of humane passion, and divine love, take the priviledges of that religion allowing themselves their Genius or fancy for a domestick god, which they affect more, though they acknowledge not so much as their Church of God.

But the reason why the Gods of the heathens did admit this association, was, that they were not jealous Gods, and cared as little for the singlenesse of the heart, as they knew the secrets thereof; whereas our God is just the contrary, both a jealous and an Omniscient God; and as all hearts are his, not onely by creation, but by purchase with no lesse a price then all his love, so it cannot be expected, he should receive hearts back againe with lesse then all their love.

§. III.

MEthinks passionate lovers, who know nothing so well as the nature of jealousie, (which studyeth con­tinually the anotamy of hearts, and is so severe to the least defective part,) should not hope to passe any insincerity upon a jealous God, if they did not study too much the qua­lity of jealousie, and too little the nature of God, for if they attended that, it would shew them God cannot be jealous, ac­cording to the nature of man, where jealousie implyes doubt and perplexity of inquiry; for to God the secrets of hearts are manifest, even while they are secrets to themselves, he precon­ceiveth what all hearts shal ever freely conceive; & so God cal­leth himselfe a jealous God, as knowing the nature of humane jealousie, (which is so sensible of the least substraction from what we affect) to assure us by that title, he can admit no participation in what he vouchsafes to love.

It is to inlighten man in the knowledge of his severity, not to obscure the beliefe of his omniscience, that he cals himselfe a jealous God, which quality is as propitious in Gods love as it is malignant in mans; for humane jealousie among all the falsities it suggests for our disquiet, telleth us but one impor­tant truth, (and that we seem to believe little by the eagernes of our solicitations) which is the infidelity and variablenesse of all humane loves, that are so unfaithfull, as our greatest passions are commonly unsecured by our tendernesse and cau­tion of them, and Gods jealousie assureth us of the immuta­bility of his love, which we can loose onely by our not being jealous of it, for the more watches we set over it in our lips, and the more guards in our hearts, the more it is obliged by this circumspection: nor must we think to keep it safe in our [Page 156] hearts, while the doors of our lips stand open to all the passen­gers of a prophan and libertine tongue; so that if we make a se­rious reflexion on it, there is none of Gods attributes so sure a guide for our way to him, as a jealous God.

Whereupon I may well ask the Synagogue of Libertines this puestion of Saint James, Do you thinke that the Scripture saith in vain, The Spirit that dwelleth in you, covets you even to emulation, and Saint Paul explicates this, James 4. 5. when to indeare his zeale to soules, he calls it the emulation of God, and we know God is not as man that he may be deceived; the same Spirit is jealous of us, which peirceth and divideth 2 Cor. 11. 2. asunder the soule and the Spirit, and is the discerner of the Heb. 4. 12. 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 [Page 157] shall not see me, who go out of the world, in this stretching of Iohn 14. 19. 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 Prov. 28, 14. Psa. 118. 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 Sapi. 17. 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.

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 Luke 13. 15. 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 Ecclesiasti­cus 5. 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 [Page 159] 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 Mat. 3. 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 the creature, in a regular re [...]ux back to the Ocean of all beauty) find them intercepted in this dangerous passage, and when they are once staid, by degrees they come to intend nothing but the making their passion the deeper, by an effusion of another upon it; and thus they fall into the state, which God reprocheth by the Prophet, they commit these two evils, They forsake God the fountaine of li­ving Jer. 2. 13. waters, and hew themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water: For alas how unsound are all those con­serves of humane beauty which containe mans passion? we cannot say which is the lesse solid or durable, either the mat­ter of them, which is but fading colour, or the maker of them [Page 160] which is yet more fickle fancy; neverthelesse, in these broken vessels do men trust their love, when they are even in the secu­rest or strongest passion, since inordinate love is so unsafe a conserve for our happynesse, as even our own wishes cannot fixe it long upon one object, and our reason can much lesse weigh it by graines as our owne wills take it from our senses, and so keep our love to the creature in such a proportion, as it may be tryed by the ballance of the sanctuary, whether it have just that quantity which is allowed our affection to the crea­ture.

Therefore let none perswade themselves they can keep their affections running on currently through particular inclinati­ons, back to the Universall center of love, and upon that con­fidence license many insinuating familiarities with women, for it is very hard even for the most purified humane affecti­ons, to fall from beauty (where nature maketh so many fences to stay them,) to passe on without making some eddyes in a reluctant motion, looking backward with a profession of some unwillingnesse to passe so quickly forward in that course of purity they should continue; and if (as Saint Peter saith), the Peter 4. severest watchers of their nature have task hard enough, what shall be hoped of the indulgers of it? certainly they who will cherish nature in her first appetites, shall quickly finde her second past their checking, and then as the Wise-man saith in this case, Who wil pitty a sorcerer that is stung with a Serpent? for they who are familiar with temptations, will quickly be acquainted with infection; let them remember then our Ma­sters counsell, that will have their body kept lighted, to keep their eye pure, since the Prince of darknesse observeth a rule quite contrary to the first law of the Father of light; for when he hath put out an eye of his servants, he doth not release him, but makes him the more slave.

§. V.

NOthing hath more perplexed the animosity of man, then the search into the nature and transmission of O­riginall sinne, which the curiosity of woman produ­ced: it seemeth God is pleased to punish that first presumption in point of knowledge, with a perpetuall perplexity of doubt in the very thing which was then introduced into nature, and the onely one of mans own making, which he did by yeeld­ing to woman, who furnished him the matter whereunto he gave the forme of Originall sinne, and ever since they have both conspired to pervert the greatest blessings of their cor­porall nature into occasions of propagating sin, for the same seeds of vain glory spring up upon all invitations.

The first temptation that prevailed upon woman, was her becomming like God, and the same tempter seemeth to im­ploy mans passion to performe his promise, so that it is upon his commission men offer all those prophane flatteries by which they worship their passions, and yet even all these pre­sumptuous expressions of passion testify that all our love ap­pertaineth to God for these mis-intended excesses unawares, set the right superscription upon the addresses of their affecti­ons, when they set divinity and adoreablenesse as the titles whereunto their loves are directed; and so their tongues as it were by instinct, declare the property of love to be Gods, while they cannot call them lesse then Gods to whom they misgive their love; and love which by nature and instinct is so conversant with God, may easily slip into this mistake; for as when we are bred and habituated to one company, we are ve­ry apt to call those we speak to by accident, by those names [Page 162] which are most familiar to us; so love, which by nature is most intimate with God, when it is by accident diverted to other company, seemeth to mistake their names, and gives them that which is so imprinted in it, and yeeldeth them the same reverence proper to that title; thus even the farthest removes of their affections from God, are remembrances of their loves, being intirely due to him, when even the possessed tongues like the evill spirits in the Gospel do testifie Gods right.

There is nothing sure the devil hateth more then beauty, it is so much his contrariety, who is all foulenesse and deformity, yet there is nothing he flatters so much; he serveth it with the supplenes of a Parasite till he gain his ends by it, and being the best Artist, with a gentle hand he layeth fresh colours of prai­ses on the externall figure of beauty every day, whereby Gods Image is quickly so covered, as they who admire it most, take no notice, (unlesse it be profanely) of any such character upon it; and the Glasse this servant holdeth to Women, makes them no reflex, but of those vain colours of flatteries which he hath laid upon the Figure; and thus as at first he deceived woman by credulity in expectance, now he seemes to delude her by con­fidence, that shee is possessed of all his ascriptions to her, and beauty set under this burning glasse of praises and admirations, easily lighteth selfe Love in the heart, which is a flame catches at all materials that are offered to entertain it: nor is there any thing so apt to soment selfe-love, as that Straw and Stubble of light prayses which the passions of others cast upon it.

Whence it is, that prophane lovers do as the Prophet saith, Walke in the light of their own fire, and in the sparkles which they Esay 50. 11. have kindled, while abusing the liablenesse of woman to selfe-love and vanity, they are continually striking fire out of their fancies upon this tinder, that is, straining their wits to cast ex­cessive praises upon this so taking Subject of Womans beauty, wherein men should be very temperate, knowing how little a sparke fireth the whole Wood, and turneth all the goods of Na­ture into jewels for Pride, and Vain-glory, the flame whereof Jam. 3. 6. [Page 163] is so deceitfull, as when we believe it polnteth upward, to the honour of our Maker, it tendeth downward to the centre of fire, without light, for the fire of self-love, as it is kindled by the breath of the Father of Lies, so it partaketh of the quality of his flames to be without light, since it keepeth us in darknes to our selves, and imper-ception of our own true dimensions.

Wherefore it must needs lye as a heavier charge upon men then they usually account it, the breaking this bruised Reed by pressing so much flattery upon it, for the aptnes which beauty hath to raise selfe-love, may be reputed an allay of the naturall blessing thereof; it may be this propensity to selfe-deceiving, is set as another Fine upon womans head for her first fault, and the facility of her minds conceiving, and the pleasure of bear­ing this spirituall issue of selfelove, is another kind of judge­ment upon her first credulity; and to be thus endangered in her soule by the pleasure of her best materiall property, which is beauty, seemeth a greater penalty, then the sorrow of her other labour: Upon which ground Lovers do likely treate at first by Parly, to introduce selfe-love into the heart by the Presents of flatteries; and certainly more are betrayed by Natures intelli­gence with the subtilty of adulation, then taken by the breach of interest: For indeed selfe-love in woman hath a strange qua­lity, the more it perswades her to over-value her selfe, the more it tempteth her to cast her selfe away, and so men cheapen their bargain most, by commending what they would have.

Therefore let not even those (who, without any designe do suffer their tongues to ru [...]ne loose by fashion, in the praises of Womens graces and beauties) thinke this aymelesse roving of their fancies altogether innocent, though they pretend only to spring and put up their good humours, and not to set and take their affections, for convertly they undermine vertue, though they lay not a Traine to blow it up: The Tempter never want­eth ministers that watch hearts as they grow hollow, and void of humility, to fill them up with vanity, and then the Mine is too easily sprung; so many may be guilty of filling of hearts with Pride, and selfe-love, while they meant only to empty [Page 164] their own fancy; and thus their wits serve the Tempter, as Jo­nathans Page did his master; for they carry Arrowes which 1 Reg. ch. 20. the Devill shootes upon Design, though they are not privie to the intention.

It is no wonder that fraile woman should be so much decei­ved in the colours and features of all their good qualities, since the Devill and Man joyne and study nothing so much as to make them flattering reflexes of their persons, and powers of their mind; and so woman is entertained commonly in her first manner of delusion, for that is still taken from her, which shee believeth is given her; the being like God, for her innocence, is a much better resemblance of God, then mans vain adoration.

But let not men thinke they have an easie account to make for all those levities which they expose so handsomely, as wo­mens eyes are deceived by those false lights, for that which will prove an aggravation of mens faults, will serve as an extenua­ting circumstance for womens defence; their wit and dexter­ousnes, may deduct somewhat from the guilt of womans tres­passes, for she may plead now some commiserablenes, by say­ing, the man who was given me, as my sentence to obey, deceived me, and as one of the reasons given, why God did compassio­nate the fall of Man, and not of Angels, is, that they sinned without any exteriour sollicitation; so certainly abused woman shall find this circumstance as some intercession for her, the be­ing assaulted by a forreigne power of temptation, which may move God the easilyer to call such to him, as Christ did the Woman, who had a spirit of infirmity so long upon her, that tyed her from looking upward; and Christ giveth this reason for his calling her, when she did not it seemeth thinke on him, that she was bound by Sathan, and she is a good figure of the Luk. 31. 11. infirmity of her Sex, which is easily overcome and bound by the violence of exterior temptations; wherefore God doth more easily commiserate their fallen frailties, and calleth them with more pitie then he doth the stronger Sex, which have the crime of abusing their strength towards the others defection: Wee can but hope that the Samaritane Lover was comprised in the Ioh. 4. [Page 165] conuersions of her towne, we are sure of her sanctification, and we have little reason to hope of the adulterers remission, when the Woman found such commiseration in Christ, so as we may conclude, God is more indulgent to the infirmity of woman, ex­tenuated and modified by the exterior pressure of temptation, then he is to the infidelity of man, who is as it were trusted with a charge of superiority, rather to succour then supplant the weaknes of that Sex.

Admitting this, they who are so licentious in all their entertainments of Women, should remember sometimes the penalty Christ hath set upon the scandalizing of little ones, for there are few women that are not alwayes children in this point Matth. of being able to beare fond praises and adulations, without en­feebling and lightening their minds; so as all those levities which the fancies of men vapour out in their conversation with these little ones, are Mill-stones, which they are insensibly hang­ing upon their own necks, while they are thus scandalizing them; that is, while they are leaning and pressing upon the in­firmity of nature, that way it standeth already bowed: And since humane nature is of so fraile a constitution, as the purest blood of it is the easilyest tainted, we ought to be the more so­ber and temperate, in treating and entertaining the most infirme part of it, which is Beauty, with the delicacies of praises, since by nature it is so apt to make excesses upon such diet.

If we consider how profuse and inordinate even the most re­served Lovers are in this entertainment, we may easily sentence even this light riot to be poyson to piety and devotion, which saith with the Psalmist, I will take heed to my wayes that I sinne not Psal. 38. with my tongue; what can then be answered for them, who take care of their tongues only to make way for their sinne? and since we are to account for idle words, methinks that order should easily determine never so slight a passion to be inconsi­stent with Religion; for we know they are the aliment and life of all such excesses; and certainly no idle words are so hard to answer for, as upon this subject of vain love: Upon other oc­casions [Page 166] many vapouring extravagancies are like squibs thrown up and breake in the aire, above the heads of the company, and so offend no body; but upon this purpose, they are like­ly Traines laid to take fire and worke some ill effect, so that idle words upon the ground of passion, grow not as Weeds, wild out of the pregnancy of the earth, but are set as poysonous plants, with design of making venemous compositions.

How heavy these light words will lye upon them, let every one judge by this rule, that they are to be accounted for at the same price each one setteth upon them; for just as much as they would have them passe, (whether they be taken or no at that rare, by those they would put them off to, viz. whether they make that cozening advantage by them or no, with the crea­ture) they must answer for as much to the Creator as they projected to make of them; and thus, as the Prophet saith, As much Wind as they have sowed, so much Tempest they shall reape. Hosea 8. 7.

§. VI.

THere are many Lovers, who (when they find no di­rect design of impurity at first in their passions) con­clude them competent with their salvation, and care not how neare the wind they steere, nor how many boards they make, as long as they believe they can reach the Port with this wind, which is so faire for their senses; therefore they pretend they need not stand so strait a course, as making Jobs covenant with their eyes, nor setting Davids watch over their lips, provi­ded they set a guard over their heart, that no foule possession enter upon that seate: thus do they expose many faire models of their love, which in speculation may seem designed accor­ding to the square of Religion, but how hard it is to build ad­equately [Page 167] to the speculative measures in this structure, none can tell that presume to know it: our senses are not inanimate ma­terials that obey the order of the spirits designe, but rather la­bourers, which are easily debauched, to worke contrary to the measures and rule of the Spirit: hence it is, that they who will undertake in this case, all they can argue possibly for humane nature, render it impossible by their undertaking it, for they reckon not their presumption as any impediment, which in the practise (as being an irritation of God) out-weighs all the o­ther difficulties, and the more, alwayes the lesse it is weighed in the designe; therefore as Solomon saith, The wise man declineth evil, and the foole heapes on and is confident. Pro. 14.

The beliefe of impossibility is the most prudent supposition in such experiments as cannot be essayed without some despe­rate exposure of our selves: it may be demonstrate by reason, that we may have halfe of our body over a precipice, so the centre of the weight be kept in an exact aequilibrium, that part which is pensile can never weigh down the other which is sup­ported but we should thinke one mad that would try this con­clusion, when the least motion changeth the Position, and con­sequently destroyeth the practicer of this speculation: so those that pretend to keept their soules equally poised in the just measures between piety and prophane love, their eyes hanging over the precipice of temptations, which do so easily turne their heads, and then alter all the positions of their mind, ad­venture upon just such a spirituall experiment.

He that seeketh danger shall perish in it, is attested by the un­happy president of the wisest of men, and it is superfluous to 3 Reg. ch. 7. Jachin and Boos the two pillars set be­fore the tem­ple of Solo­mon, signify­ing Direction and Forti­tude. instance other testimonies of this truth: When David and So­lomon, the two brazen pillars of the Temple, (being the dire­ction and fortitude of the Princes of Israel) were melted and poured out like water, (as David himselfe confesseth) by the ardors of his flesh, and so they seem to stand in holy record as two high eminent markes set upon these sands, to advertise the strongest vessels not to venture to passe over them: and if Saint Paul that vessel of election, after his having seen the beauty of [Page 168] Heaven to possesse his heart) thought himselfe hard matched with the Angell of Sathan, and cryed out to heaven for helpe against him; shall any presume to entertain and cherish this ill Angell, and hope to overcome him with flattery and civility? for they make this tryall, who lodge in their thoughts, and serve with their fancies, strong impressions of humane beauty, and propose to keepe their body in order, even by the vertue of such a guest, pretending that the very object infuseth a re­membrance, and reverence of purity.

With this and the like glittering conceipts do many vain Lo­vers fondly satisfy and abuse themselves, which is to answer the question of the Holy Spirit, that the fire they carry in their bosomes preserveth them from being enflamed by it; we may fitly say to such, in answer from the Prophet, God laughs at you; when all Gods advices are, that there is no security against this bosome enemy, but violence and diffidence; there is no meane between the flesh's being slave or master; this treaty of Friendship between it and the spirit, proves but Dalilahs kind holding of Sampsons head in her lap, while she is shaving him: How often do we see the Spirit thus betraid, and lye bound by this confidence? And truly, all those chaines which vain Lo­vers forge for the figuring out the powerfulnesse of beauty, may be said to be those irons the flesh hath cast off, and set upon the Spirit, which is truly captivated alwayes by the others li­berty.

This considered, let none presume, that while they deny the [...] eyes nothing which they covet, they can deny their hearts any undue cupidity; for this seemeth such an experiment, as if one of the children of Israel should have carryed a fiery Serpent in his bosome, presuming that while he looked upon the Brazen Serpent he could not be stung: sure such a perverted confidence would not have proved safe to the projector: So those who believe (while they have the love of God before their eyes) they may expose them to all the fiery darts of lustfull eyes; seem to tempt God by such a vain presumption: these are such of whom we may fitly say with the Apostle, that Erring themselves [Page 169] they lead others into errour, and have a forme of Godlinesse, but 2 Tim. 3. v 4. 5. deny the Power of it, being lovers of pleasure, more then lovers of God.

Let no body then trust to any confederacy between the flesh & the spirit which is of humane loves making, for, of all recon­ciled enemies, the flesh is least to be trusted after the accord, and love the least for the arbitration; therefore let none be­lieve their souls out of danger, because in the first paces of their passion, they meet no insolent temptations that face them, and declare the danger of their advance, for the Devill keepes like­ly his first Method still, with those he findeth in the state of innocence, he taketh the shape of the serpent, and creeps up by insinuation, and then changeth his shape into the figure of his power, and this transmigration of the evil spirits, from one body into another, is truer then the fancy of Pythagoras; for we find often this Metamorphosis of the devill from the form of a dove unto a serpent, & from a lamb into a lion, since it is the same spirit that moves in the poetical doves of Venus, as was acting in Eves serpent, & thus what hath at first in our love an innocent form, passeth quickly into a venemous nature.

Wherefore severe caution, and repulse of the first motions of our sensitive appetite, is the onely guard our soules can trust against our bodyes in this case: for certainly many lovers sink into temptations in which they perish, as some do that wade themselves unawares beyond their depth, who go into the water at first, with caution and security as they believe, and are carefull to find ground at every advance of one of their legs, but when the water gets to a certaine height, though they feel ground still, they cannot use their legs, which are carried up by the streame before they are out of their depth, and thus they perish by this ill measured confidence: Even so the most cautious lovers do often cast themselves away, for as long as they feel but the feare of God as a ground, they go still upon, and finde no temptations, (which the Scripture fa­miliarly figureth to us by waters) force away absolutely their consents, (which are the souls feet) they think themselves safe, [Page 170] while they feel the ground of a good resolution, but comming on by degrees into such a depth of temptation, as the sensitive appetite doth surreptiously lead them into, their feet are easily carryed away, and so they are lost by this unexperienced presumption: and thus as Solomon saith, we find There is a way Prov. 14. 12. which seemeth right unto man, but the ends of it are the wayes of death: Me thinks Solomons experience should disabuse all men in the relying upon the virtue of their Spirit, when we see that his so singular induement with the holy Spirit was not securi­ty against the danger of this presumption: we are warned by the Apostle, not to extinguish the Spirit, and nothing puts it out so soon as the bodyes being set on fire, the pure immixt fire of the cloven tongues will not hold in long in cloven hearts, they must be perfect Holocausts, which are to enter­tain that flame, and when the eyes are but warming them­selves at strange fire, that is, intending onely an innocent de­light in the sight of beauty, they are often in too much dan­ger of being taken by this incentive.

Holy Saint Bernard bringeth in Eve, looking upon the fruit, while it was so yet in her eye, when she saw it pleasant & faire Genesis 3. to the eye; and asketh her, why do you look so longingly upon your own death? why are you so taken in looking upon that, which if you tast you are lost? you answer, that you do but cast your eye, and not your hand upon it, and that you are not forbid to see, but to eat; O though this be not your actuall crime, yet is it an aptitude thereunto, for while you are thus amused, the serpent covertly windeth into your heart, first by blandishments he intangleth your reason, and then by falla­cies he diverteth your fear, affirming you shall not surely die, and thus sharpens the curiosity while he suggesteth the cupi­dity, and by these degres presenteth the fruit, and putteth you out of the garden; and this is commonly the event of the chil­dren of Eve, who entertaine this party with the serpent, weigh­ing no temptation when it lights first upon their eyes, till it fall too heavy on their hearts to be removed,

Therefore Saint Austin giveth us an excellent advise, since [Page 171] the Devill doth watch thy heel, do thou watch his head, which is the beginning of an ill suggestion; when he proffereth first an ill motion, reject it; then, before delectation arise, and consent follow; thus while thou breakest his head, he shall not be able to bruise thy heel. And sure Saint Austin is one of the best Counsellors we can consult in this case, for he reads it decided in that book which he was commanded to take up and read, while he was studying the case, which advise as it came from the same voice, so it wrought the same effect, take up thy bed and walk; for it raised him from being bed-rid in this passion, and set him a walking with him who is the way, the truth, and the life; We cannot recuse Saint Austine as a party against this passion, when he professeth he had studied long the agreement of it with Piety, therefore let us heare the result of his studies.

All the while he was in this disceptation, he confesseth he found two wils in himself, the one carnal, & the other Spiritu­all; which by a daily contention did sever and dissipate his mind: and thus by experience he found the combate between the flesh and the Spirit, which while his mind sought to part and reconcile, she was hurt by both parties, conscience wounded her on the one side, and custome struck her on the other, on which she was the most sensible, so as his senses sway­ed him commonly to a partiality; thus he sheweth us the links of that chaine, which lovers by degrees find their wills fasten­ed by; an easie seduced appetite raiseth passion, and that che­rished, induceth custome, and that uncontrolled imprints ne­cessity, which becometh a punishment of perverted liberty; for the law of sinne is the violence of custome, by which the mind is drawne and held at last even against her owne relu­ctancie, but deservedly, for having willingly fallen into this necessity, in this manner he confesseth that often upon the motions of the Spirit, which invited him to break off all treaty of accord, and to declare for the redemption of his captived appetite, he found himselfe kept as it were in a slumber in these meditations of rising out of that soft bed of sensuality, [Page 172] and while he lay stretching himselfe to wake, overcome still by his drowsinesse, he lay still tossing in this resolution.

And alas, how familiarly do we rowle our selves asleep a­gaine in this doubtfull drowsinesse, while we are halfe awake, purposing to rise and break off our fancyes, dreames, and il­lusions! O then let Saint Austin's alarum keep us awake, while we are in this halfe-wishing or vellity towards our cast­ing off the workes of darknesse, let us not lie still stretching and consulting our senses, whether the night be farre spent, and the day be at hand, that is, whether there be not enough of our Rom. 13. v. 13. 14. youth left to promise us time to make our selves ready for the last day, let us not slumber in this rumination, but rise and put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not lie turning our selves to and fro, which is, to make provision for the lusts of the flesh; Saint Austin after he had rowsed himselfe upon this alarum rose up directly, and set himselfe to such exercises as kept him alwayes in that vigilancy which is required, not to enter into temptation, he presently broke off all treaty with this passion, and hath left this excellent test for lovers to touch their affe­ctions, to try if they be of that purity which is onely currant with God.

They love God lesse then they ought, who love any thing besides God, which they love not for God. Apoc. 216.

This is to state God in our affections, as he hath proclaimed himselfe to our faith, to be the beginning and end of all things; Now whether a passion to the creature can by any compasse of humane frailty be drawne into this perfect circle, moving first from the love of God, and reflecting still back againe in all the circumference to that first point? is a question will be answered affirmatively by none, but by him who promised man he should become like God; for this is an understanding above the straine of humane nature: yet I believe there are ma­ny lovers seduced by this counsellor, who at first designe this innocent re-conveyance of their affections, passing through the creature back to their proper place, and of many of such pro­jectors, we may say as Saint Gregory doth of the Camell in [Page 173] the law, that they are cleane in the head, but not in the hoof; they ruminate well, and speculate cleannesse and purity in the rationall part, but the feet of their soules, which are the sensitive appetites, want alwayes their right division, because they remaine too intirely carnall, and so the whole becomes illegall in the law of grace: therefore I may say it will be hard for such Camels to passe in at the narrow gate; wherefore I shall advise those well-meaning minds in Christs name, He that is thus washed, wanteth yet the washing his feet, they must indeavor to change and purge their terrestriall affections Iohn 13. 13. (which are here typified by the feet) with as much neatnesse as they can for the impressions of corporeall beauties, which at first are but as dust upon their feet, if they be let stick upon them, do easily turne to such dirt as is not to be got off but by water drawn from the head; teares are required to wash off that at last, which our breath might have blown off at first.

Therefore let them remember Solomons admonition, in the Prov. 23. 33. first straynings and impulses of their frailties, thy eyes shall see strange women, & thy heart shal speak pervers things: we must answer then our hearts first question, before it multiply argu­ments, with King Davids resolution, My heart, and my flesh rejoyce in the living God, who indeed is the Essence of all beau­ty and goodnesse, and hath such an immensity of them, as even they who love not him directly, can love nothing under the notion of faire or good, that is not a part of him, though they be so injurious to God as to cover him with his own light, taking the lesse notice of him, the more they find of his simi­litude in the creature, they love and honour with his rights: in this case we do but like fishes who play and leap at the i­mage of the sun, as it is impressed upon the fluencie of their element, and take it for the reall substance: for when we adore the image and copy of beauty, shadowed out to us upon the fluent and transitory superficies of well coloured flesh and blood, are we not deluded like fishes, with a shining image of beauty superficially delineated upon our own fleeting element? [Page 174] and thus as the Apostle saith, we are erring, and leading into errour.

§. VII.

UPon what we have discoursed I believe we may con­clude, that none should flatter themselves with the hope of an agreement or co-habitation of these two, divine love, and humane passion; whereupon we may say, that they who treate this accommodation, are of Micahs disciples Jud. 17. who hope to lodge concordantly together an Idol, and an E­phod, [...]aking only as it were a Cell apart for God, and expect as he did, to prosper in this concordancy: But we know our Law-giver Christ Jesus would not suffer so much as Doves to be traffiqued in the Temple; which figureth to us, that we must endeavour to dislodge even all our levities and most harmlesse amusements out of our thoughts, which are apt to trade and bargain for a part of our hearts, that must be kept single and entire to his love: Therefore we may much more forceably conclude with the Apostle against the co-habitation of any vain passion; What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols? you are the Temples of the Living God. 2 Cor. 6. 16.

But now as I was laying downe my Pen, there come some objections from my memory of the worlds humour which hold my hand till I have answered them, though it may be I have already strained the patience even of a recovering Reader, by the quantity of this prescript.

Methinks there are many now, who (like the Pharisees that were in the possession of the pleasure of changing wives) reply Matth. 19. 10. as they did to Christ upon the decision of that question, saying, if this strictnes be required in our life, with women, we are de­barred [Page 175] of all friendship and civill conversation with them; and it were better there were no beauty if this be the case, that we are interdicted a particular preference and estimation of it, unto whom I may properly return Christs question for an an­swer, have you not read, that the souleof man is the spouse of God? And that which God hath joyned so, nothing must se­parate; no creature must share any parcell of the heart, in such a manner as may question her fidelity, which is all the restraint I put upon the spouse, but as wives are allowed friendships and familiarities with others, which do not impeach the sincerity of their vertue, so the soule of man is permitted acquaintances, amities, and valuations of the creature, and proportionate to the excellencies wherewith they are advantaged from the Crea­tor, giving the graces of nature a prizall commensurate to their distinct dignities, so it be bounded in such termes, as do not come within that inclosure of the heart, which is Gods proper­ty; for the Beloved challengeth the heart as a Garden inclosed, a Spring shut up, a Fountain sealed: And yet this integrity of the Cant. 4. 12. Spouses love to her Beloved doth not forbid her affections comming abroad, and conversing with amiable objects, as with her Lord his dependents and retainers, which shee may e­steem and delight in more or lesse, as the stamp of his goodnes is the fairelyer impressed on them.

Wherefore I do not meane to attaint friendship with beauti­full persons, meerely upon the suspition of our frailty, for such intelligences are requisite to some vocations in the world, which may say, in the Apostles name, we must go out of the world, if we do not contract friendship with Women, and I hope such may find in this discourse some direction how they may be able to quench all the f [...]ery darts of the enemy, who can easily Ephes. 6. 16. make up his Wild-fire in friendship.

And in answer of what concerneth the honouring of beauty, I professe to esteem the blessing of beauty so much, as I designe only by these advises to secure it from the treachery of such a confident as beauty likely trusteth most, yet is truly such a one as doth oftenest betray the goodnesse of it; this is passion that [Page 176] I detect, which is so naturally false to beauty, as it subsisteth but by betraying beauty, by perverting it into temptation and impurity; whereupon I would preferre reason to beauty, to have that trusted only, which may furnish true joyes enough, where­with to entertain & delight the owners of it; shewing what a re­all blessing beauty hath, by being made by God one of the best opticke glasses for the helpe of mans spirituall eye, by report from his corporeall in the speculation of divinity; for by this inference of the Wise-man, he may argue, If we are delighted with these materiall beauties, we may judge how much more beau­tifull and lovely is the Lord and Creator of them: adding, that by the greatnesse of the beauty of the creatures, the heathens were inexcusable, that they did not find the truth of one Sap. 13. 3. Creator.

We may remarke a speciall providence of God in the or­der of nature, providing against the pervertiblenesse of this great blessing of beauty, for the most vehement cupidity of our nature ariseth not before the use of reason: the abuse of beauty, and the use of reason, are both of an age, whereby we have a defence coupled with the time of temptation, and our reason when it is seriously consulted for our safety, hath the voyce of the holy cryer in the desart, and directeth us to a stronger then her selfe, which was before her, though it ap­peared after her; this is Grace, which we may call in to our succour in all the violencies of our nature, so as with these pre-cautions, I propose beauty to be truly honoured in that high­est degree of nobility, which God hath been pleased to rank it among his materiall creatures, preserving religiously the Prerogative Rights of the Soveraign of our hearts, who de­mandeth not the putting out of the right eye as the Ammo­nites 1 Reg 11. did for a mark of slavery, but proposed it onely as a me­dicine in case of scandall, when the liberty of the whole body is indangered by it, whereby we see devotion doth not infringe any of the rights of humanity in the valuation of materiall blessings, for in not admitting vain passion, it doth rather defend then diminish the liberties of humane nature, which [Page 177] are truly inslaved by the tyrannies of passion.

Now in answer to that question concerning friendship with Friendship defined. women, I professe to intend so little the discrediting of reall friendship with them, as I approve it for an excellent preser­vative against the contagiousnesse of passion, for as passion hath been well said to be friendship runne mad, so friend­ship may be properly styled sober passion; since it hath all the spirit and cordiality of the wine of love, without the offensive fumes and vapors of it, and so doth the office of exhilara­ting the heart, without intoxicating the braine; Insomuch as we finde, that our friendship with the proprietor of what we are tempted to covet, doth often, even by the single virtue of morality, suppresse those unruly appetites: Therefore when the power of Christianity is joyned to re-inforce it, we may ex­pect it should much the easilier correct frailty of nature.

It hath been well said of friendship, that it is the soule of humane society, and if our friendship hold this Analo­gy with the soul, to be equally intire in every part of the bo­dy, it is very safe with women, if the love be no more in the face then in the feet, as long as it is like a soule thus spiritual­ly distributed, equally in the whole compound of body and mind, it is not in danger of the partiality of passion, which never maketh this equall communication of it selfe, but lodg­eth solely in the externall figure of the body; and friendship thus regularly spirituall, may find a sensible as well as a lawfull delight in the beauty and lovelynesse of the person; for beauty hath somewhat that affecteth and taketh our nature, which methinks is somewhat like to that we call the fire, or the wa­ter in diamonds, which are certain rayes of luster and bright­nesse, that seem the Spirit of the whole matter, being equal­ly issued from all parts of it; and so there may be a kind of spirit, and quicknesse of joy and delight that may shine upon us, from the object of a beautifull person, whom we may love so spiritually, as to consider nothing in the person, se­vered from the whole consistence and virtuous integrity of soul and body, no more then we do the fire of a diamond apart from the whole substance.

[Page 178] Thus beauty may innocently raise the joy of friendship, whiles sincere▪ friendship doth suppresse the danger of beauty, which is onely the kindling of passion▪ wherefore if it be right­ly examined, passion which pretendeth to honour beauty, more then friendship, will be found but to vilifie and de­base it; for passion useth this diamond but as a flint, to strike, materiall sparkles of lust out of it, whereas friendship lookes upon the fire of this diamond as delighted only with the luster of nature in the substance of it, which reflects alwaies the splendor of the Creator unto a Pious' and religious love.

But this high Spirituall point of friendship with women, (where we have no defence by consanguinity against the frail­ty of flesh and blood) is not so accessable as we should pre­sume easily to reach it, many loves have stray'd that pretend­ed to set out towards it; therefore we cannot be too cautious in this promise to our selves of security in such difficulties, for our spirit can make no such friendship with our flesh, as to rely upon the fidelity thereof, without his own continuall vi­gilancy; wherefore S. Peters advise is very pertinent in these 1 Pet. 1. 17. intelligences, Converse in feare in this time of your sojourning, for otherwise I may presage to you in the termes of the Pro­phet, Evil shall come upon you, and you shal not know from whence Esay 47. 11. it riseth; for friendship doth often when it is too much presu­med upon, rob upon the place it did first pretend to guard, being easily tempted by the conveniency our senses finde in that trust: And as those theeves are the hardliest discovered, that can so handsomely change their apparencies, upon the place, as they need not flie upon it; so friendship when it is de­baushed into passion, is very hardly detected: For when it is questioned by Gods authorized examinants, it resumeth the lookes and similitude of innocent friendship, and so remain­eth undiscovered, not onely by the exterior inquest, but very often it eludeth a slight interior search of our own conscience, thereby proving the most dangerous theef in the familiarities with women: For this reason I must charge this admission of friendship towards women, with this clause of Saint Paul, [Page 179] While you stand by saith, presume not, but feare, for in this case we may warrantably invert the rule of Saint John, and say, 1 Ep. Joh. 4. 18. that perfect love bringeth in feare: wherefore I will conclude this case with Solomons sentence, Blessed is the man who feareth alwayes, he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischiefe.

§ VIII.

NOw then upon these evidences, we may fairely cast passion in this charge of Treason against the Soveraign of all our love, and consequently, all libertine dis­course, and familiarities with women, may justly be noted as Malignants, which legally in Religion ought to be sequestered; nay even friendship it selfe (with persons to be feared) lyeth un­der some cloud, as requiring a continual suspitious eye upon it, to keepe it safe from all intelligence with sensual appetites; in so much as when it is sincerest, it must be watched with great pru­dence to be kept safe: for which cause in stead of all these peril­lous commerces of our love, I will preferre so secure an object to it, as Saint Augustine saith of it, Love but, and do what you will; this is the increated beauty of God, in which there is not only no feare to be had of our over-loving it, but even there is no fear of our not being out-loved by it, and so our love is alwayes secured to us.

Therefore, O Soule! Why doest thou halt and hesitate a­bout the loving him, who must needs love thee faithfully? and art so prone to love that, which if it love thee at all, must do it perfidiously, either deceiving thee or some other: thou shalt al­wayes be unhappy in loving such, which if another love, thou [Page 180] shalt be offended; or if they love another thou shalt be tormen­ted: The love of God is exempted from all griefe or care; for in his loving of others, thou shalt joy, and that all may be in love with him, thou shalt wish: This is the transcendent suffici­ency of Gods good, that he may love all, and be beloved of all without any detriment or diminution of either the lover or the beloved, but with a fuller joy of both: All other things are infirme, scanted and indigent, which are not sufficient for the loving of two, or the being beloved by two, without defraud­ing of one of them.

You then, that by love seeke contentment, why do you love that, which even the loving of, is disquiet? O love him, who even in the necessary disquiets of this life, can make you happy; how idle is it to love such goods, which by loving thou de­servest to want, and not to love that good, where the act of loving is the fruition of it? for God being beloved becommeth yours: other goods when you love you become theirs, and so indeed you want even your selfe by such loves: God is on­ly to be wanted by not being loved, and all other things which you leave for God, you find again in his Love; O then love that only, which alone is all things.

To conclude, all you who have much to be forgiven for o­ther loves, transferre betimes all your affections upon him, 1 Thes. 5. 23. where you may hope with the blessed Penitent, To have much forgiven you, for loving much: Thus only you can hope to at­tain to the state Saint Paul prescribeth to abstain from all appea­rance of evill, that your whole spirit and soule and body may be preserved blamelesse to the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and God grant that our soules may meet him with the lamps of the wise Virgins only lighted in them; and then we shall be no more in danger of ceasing to love what we should, when we enter into our masters joy, which is eternall love.

§. I.

WHen Esdras had cleared to the seduced people, that the Law of God could not dispense with 1 Esd. 10. 12. their retaining of such strange women of the Land as lay in their bosomes, they pleaded for some time to make this painfull divorce, saying, It was not the worke of a day or two: So methinks, many who are convinced in this point, of the prohibition of this alien and strange conjunction of our Love, which is the child of God; with vain passion, the daugh­ter of the earth, pretend that by degrees they will sever this im­purity from their loves, because it requireth some time, and much grace to make this division.

I confesse, it is not the worke of a few good motions or re­morses, it asketh as it were a melting and liquefaction of our hearts, to separate this drosse from the pure substance of love; but we are so much furthered towards this operation, as the fire we must worke it in costeth nothing but the asking: It is that which the Spouse saith, are coales of fire, and have a vehe­ment flame, and hath a speciall vertue to purge and calcine our Cant. 8. 6. affections; according to the Prophets advice, of separating the pure from the impure: and we may confidently call for this fire downe from heaven, by the Spirit of our master to consume [Page 182] these his enemies, the concupiscence of the eye, and the concupi­scence of the flesh, that are the opposers of this purgation, and re­finement of our hearts which he demandeth of us, as silver se­ven times tryed.

Reflecting upon the exactnes of this receiver of hearts, if we resolve to trade with our loves for the Kingdome of heaven, we must examine sincerely what temper of purity is currant with God; for as passion doth both lighten and vitiate them in one kind, so is there another sort of drossines in our na­ture, which doth often too much imbase our love, by an over­allay of selfe respect, that rendereth it too mercenary, and of too low a value: it is very requisite then to be rightly enformed of the Standard by whose purity all our love, that passeth for the purchase of the Kingdom of heaven, must be tryed & tested.

In our contract for heaven, there is a strange singularity, since both the paiment and the purchase, are one and the same thing; differing only in degrees of intension and purification; for infirme and imperfect love is our price, and love perfected and consummate is our possession; namely, God who is love is all; & 1 Ep. Joh. 4. [...]. as love is the best thing even in heaven as well as in earth, it is consonantly appointed for the chiefe commerce between them: wherefore God asketh but the heart of man even for all him­self, & knowing that the heart in the most entire transaction of it selfe in this life, can remit but imperfect and defective love: we must examine severely what rates of imperfectnes God ad­mitteth in our affections; for in favour of our poverty, he ac­cepteth some part of our payment, in that which is, as I may say, the base money of our nature, mercenary love, which he alloweth for the conveniency of our indigent and decayed estate.

Methinks by this allusion we may appositely explain what degree of allowablenes mercenary love may be accepted at; for as base money is a meanes of commerce between the rich and the poore, and is not commonly allowed in payments, above some low summe: so God in condescendence to the poverty and incommodity of our nature permitteth mercenary love in [Page 183] some proportion to be currant, between his plenty and our penury, but will not accept our totall discharge in it, we may have some selfe-respect in our affections to God, that may re­present to us our rewards, as a beneficiall traffique and corre­spondence; but if we assigne all our love too partially to the in­terest of our private blessings, we are in danger of losing hea­ven, by trading only for it; by reason this kind of love seemeth to treat with God only, as he is in heaven, not to affect hea­ven as it is in God; and so we may faile of both, by this mis­placing of them in our desire; they who seeke God first, are sure to find heaven with him, but they who looke at heaven on­ly, are not so sure to find God: for in this Court the very aspi­ring to the Kings favour is the acquiring it; and we know the having grace and credit is a better security for the making of benefit, then the affecting of gaine, is an addresse to the attain­ing of favour.

This considered, we must be advised, not to reckon too much upon this baser species of mercenary love, for though it be admitted for some part of our account, it will not be accep­ted for the whole summe of our purchase, it must be the gold tryed in fire which the Angell adviseth us to provide, that must Rev. 3. 18. make the greatest part of the price of that precious Pearle for which we traffique: and this is filiall love, even as pure as wee can refine it, in this our [...]ordid constitution: Wherefore I con­ceive it will be expedient to lay out some pieces of both these loves, that those who desire to discerne their differences, may have some facility to weigh their own dispositions by these portions of either of them exhibited as just measures, whereby they may judge their due proportions.

§. II.

MErcenary Love, is that which affecteth God chiefly, in order to our own remuneration, and so seemes to looke up to heaven, rather as on a mirrour of reflexi­on, then as on the essentiall splendor of Gods presence, where­by this aspect on God seemes more referred to the sight of Mercenary love desined. our selves in him, then to the seeing of him in himselfe: this kind of love then savoureth much more of the minds immer­sion in our senses, then of the spirituall nature of the soule, which by her own instinct pointeth back to heaven, in order to a free returne to God from whom she issued, rather then that she is drawn thither by a reflexion on her selfe: and the more the soule is abstracted from selfe-respects, the more genuine and kindly return she maketh of love; which free and ingenuous re­aspiring to her own repatriation, we terme filiall love, which is to love God more fervently, for what he is to us by his own nature, then for what we are promised to be by his grace, which is a due to God, who as he is a father to us, in so admirable a kind, as his love to us, not his delight, as in other fathers, is the occasion of our being; so his being, rather then his blessings ought to be the object of our love.

But in our degenerated nature, mercenary love seemeth to be the Elder Brother, yet as it is the sonne of the Bond-woman, so is it not the heire of the blessing; though God doth heare the voice of this Ishmael, and assignes some allowance to it, yet he settleth not the Covenant upon it: Filiall Love is our Isaac, the issue of a free ingenuous Soule, the spouse of God, and of that stock, Christ, as the Apostle saith, is born in our hearts, and the chiefe blessings of christianity are entailed upon this seed of the Holy Ghost, Filiall Love.

[Page 185] Notwithstanding we must acknowledge this Ishmael of mer­cenary love to be a legitimate issue, though of a servile mother▪ for King David himselfe owneth the Linage of it, saying, I en­clined my heart to performe thy statutes for reward: So as I do Psal. 118. not censure the matter, but advise the regulation of the mea­sure of it: For it may be said to be of the nature of Dwarfes, which are an imperfection, not a perversion of nature; and so like them, the lesse it groweth, the better it remaineth, the little­nesse of it making some amends for the infirmity: And we may say aptly, that this kind of love, is permitted us for the hardnes of our hearts; for from the beginning it was not so, since we know God made the soule to reflect backe upon himself, direct­ly, as a Beame emitted from his own goodnes; and so it was to revert upon him, in as direct a line, as Rayes are reverberated upon the substance from whence they issue: But we know who changed this course of the soule of man, and taught her this flexuous serpentine motion of selfe-love in which she seemeth now to revert to God: For selfe-love moveth in a posture of indirectnesse and retor [...]on, winding and looking backe upon selfe-respects: yet Gods indulgence is such, as he tolerateth this infirme, crooked regresse of the soule, when by the succour of grace, the heart is sollicitous to rectify and straighten the course of our loves reflux, bending as little as we can in the obliquity of our nature towards private references, and addressing the major part of our wishes in heaven, to the glory of God.

When our hearts do sincerely aime and point at this straight filiall love, God, like a tender father, doth rather compassionate then reproach the wrinesse and indirectness of our paces, in this feeblenes of our feet, when our hearts are set straight in this way of our loving him, as we see fathers deale with little children, which they call to them when they beginne to try to go alone, when they see them crosse their feet, and reele forward in their weake faltering motions, sometimes falling by the way, they. do rather cherish them then chide them for this imbecility: so God, when he seeth the heart straining forward, with the best of our powers, towards a simple immediate love of him, [Page 186] doth not discourage this infirme staggering of our nature, be­tween mercenary and filiall love; and in conformity to this his Method with his children, God saith by the Prophet, I have taught Ephraim to go, and taken them by their armes, and then Hosea 11. in condescendence to our degenerous and ignoble nature, he advanceth further, and saith, I drew them with the cords of A­dam, with bands of love: that is, God presenteth us with such at­tractives, as affect most our interested constitutions, which are the objects of remuneration, and private salary; and of these threads, (made of the fleece as it were, of our own nature) he vouchsafeth to frame cords to draw us, and fasten us to the love of him, but we must not take this mercifull indulgence given to our defectuosities, as a dispensation for the sordidnes of our loves, but rather in a holy effect and contention of gra­titude, strain to love God the more purely, and irrespectively to our selves, in regard of the transcendent benignity of this dispensation.

This supposed, we ought to consider mercenary love under the same notion, as Saint Paul exhibits to us the Law of Mo­ses, as a Preceptor or Tutor to us in the childhood of our love, to lead it by degrees to filiall love, which is the full age of our affections: For indeed while our love is in this first infancy Gal. 3. 24. our minds may be well said to be in bondage under the ele­ments of the world, rather serving upon a servile contract, then acting as heires of the Promise; which dignity a Christian evi­denceth only by filiall Love: indeed the other sort is rather le­gall then evangelicall, and alone bringeth nothing to perfe­ction.

§. III.

NOw then (as the Apostle saith,) Let us leave these be­ginnings and rudiments of the doctrine of Christ, and Hebr. 8. covet earnestly the best gifts, and I will shew unto you a Corinth. 12. more excellent way; by as much as the matter of the altar of perfumes was more precious then that of Holocausts, let us then leave fouling our hands with this brasse of mercenary love, and fall a telling out this gold of Filiall dilection.

Filiall love is an adherence of our hearts to God, under this Filial love defined. mixt notion, principally of his own being, and secondarily of our relation to him: So as this may be said to be a repercussi­on of his own light upon him, as simply as our compounded nature can reflect it, the light of Gods countenance impressed upon us, being by this love reverberated upon the divine na­ture, From the eyes of the hand-maid, fixed upon the eye of her mistresse, more in order to the duty of her nature, then in pri­vate affection to her selfe▪ So that this kind of love seemeth to be in the regeneration of man in the age of reason, what the soul is in his first generation, to wit, the first principle of life: For our devotion is but as it were an Embrion before it re­ceive this animation, which is induced by an infusion, even of that love, wherewith God loveth himselfe, since it is the holy Spirit diffused in our hearts, that quickneth and infor­meth them by this kind of love: This is then the onely sort of affection worthy of God, whereby we returne him that part of the divine nature, we partake by his communication, while we seem thus to remit the holy-Ghost back to him out of our hearts, loving God with the same affection, we derive from this residence in our soules.

[Page 188] Methinks the dignity and present delight of this noble love (though it were an unthrift anticipation in this our minority, and were to be discounted to us out of our future estate of loving) might tempt a soule to take up for her present joy and satisfaction, the suavity and blessednesse of this excellent love: how much the rather ought we then aspire to this de­grees of loving, when the estate of our reversion is reproved proportionately to the degrees of this our anticipation? This may well be the Method of such a father, whose portions to his heires, are the injoying himselfe; no wonder then, that the desire to preoccupate this state, should augment the childrens inheritance: For the Father (who is infinite love,) must needs be largest to them who have advanced to themselves the most of Filiall love: and the reason is, that this Celestiall Father can reward nothing but his own gifts, assigning alwayes se­cond benefits, by the measures of his first liberality: and thus the more he hath inriched us with this love, the more he remu­nerateth the possession of it; so that mercenary love when it is understood, will be found to damnifie it selfe, by this projected aeconomy of selfe-provision: for in this commerce, all pri­vate reference imbaseth so much the species wherewith we negotiate, as it falles in value, just as much as it riseth in quantity.

When we reflect upon the state of humane nature, we may collect easily, how much God desireth this correspondence of Filiall love, since even from the forfeiture of all our filiall dignity, he tooke the rise of a nearer and firmer alliance of our nature unto his, and fastned it so to this filial constitution, as he took it out of mans own power, ever to divide or sever it againe from this relation; for even the sinne of man can ne­ver divorce our humanity now from this filiall state, since the naturall Sonne of God, will now no more cease to be man, then to be God, so inseparably is our nature now fixed in this filiall reference; for though individuals may by want of Filial love to the divine nature) separate themselves from a blessed participation thereof in eternity, yet our nature can never fall [Page 189] from this divine conjunction, but shall remaine elevated above that of Cherubims and Seraphins to all eternity.

O who can contemplate this, and consent to love God, lesse nobly then our present nature will admit, considering we have even the noblenesse of our nature, now set out to us as an ob­ject of our love! for as it is in Jesus Christ, we cannot over­love our own humanity: and since God hath done as much as was possible for him in honour of our nature, shall man be content to love this God, lesse then is possible for his consti­tution? nay there are grave Divines, who indeare this obligati­on upon our humanity by this supposition, that God lost the love of much nobler creatures, by his preference of mans na­ture before theirs; and if the supreamest of all creatures, thought this as a partiality to an unworthy subject, a provo­cation to leave loving of God; shall not this prefer'd creature derive from hence a powerfull motive to raise and purifie his love, in respect of this so obliged proposure; whereof the A­postle glorieth, and insisteth much upon the prelation of the seed of Abraham, before the nature of Angels, as one of the strongest inducements, to [...]nterest our hearts in this filial affe­ction.

And since God hath prefer'd the nature of man, before that of Angels, not onely in point of honour, but likewise in the part of succour; why may we not suppose he valueth more the love of men, then that of Angels? this conception may safely be made use of, to incite us to the studying the abstraction and spiritualizing our loves, to the purest degree of our com­pound nature; in which (the very disadvantage we have more then pure spirits in the devesture of self-respects) may be con­verted into a conducement to the value of our purity, by rea­son the opposition of our bodyes in this disinterested love, is counted to us an indearement of our hearts, when in this re­luctancy of one halfe, we reduce our love to that decree of implicity which is compatible with this our complexure; and as Saint Jerome saith of the chastity of virgins composed with that of Angels, There is more felicity in the one, but more [Page 190] fortitude in the other: So we may say respectively of their two loves, that there is more happynesse in the one, but more He­roicknesse in the other.

What Angelicall love exceedeth in the finenesse of abstra­ction, humane may answer in the fidelity of extraction, since his is laboured and formed out of repugnant matter; for man must overcome, what Angels have not to resist, many mate­riall adherencies incorporate in his senses, insomuch as the sonnes of men for the purifying their affections, must (as it were) cease to be themselves, and these spirituall substances for the simplifying of their loves, need but rest and remaine themselves.

Wherefore in this ods of natures, in this act of loving, the difficulty on mans part passeth as an allowance of some dis­parity in point of finenesse and separatenesse; and taking our loves with this allowance, they may be thought as currant with God, as those abstracted affections facilitated by a more simple nature▪ so that when man sigheth, (as the Apostle saith) as burthened with inviscerate interests, longing to put on this pure spirituall vesture of Filiall love, this kind of heavinesse of spirit, may be said to make his love weight in heaven; and in­deed the easiest way to lighten this kind of burthen of selfe-respect, is to sigh it away by degrees; for nothing looseneth and bloweth off more this dust about our hearts, then these breathings and aspirations of the soule in a resentment of those impure mixtures, the body infuseth into her love to God; so that we are, as I may say, allowed what our nature aboundeth the most in, which is sorrow, to make up that wherein our love is the most defective, which is simplicity and immixture; since a pure and sincere sorrow, for the mix­ture and impurity of our affections to this indulgent Father, is accepted as a compensation for the defect of pure and Filial love.

§. IV.

LEt us observe a little under what affecting notions the divine Trinity vouchsafeth to exhibit it selfe to the love of man, the first person under that of a father, the se­cond of a brother, the third of a comforter or a friend; so that the love of man may be said to be an act wherein they have all one indentity, while they are distinguished into these three obliging relations, issuing out of the unity of love; thus the dei­ty seemeth to draw it selfe out into these several lines of bene­volence, to take in all the wayes and avenues to our love, since there is no inclination that is not suted and matched by the [...]e agreeable correspondencies, if our affections do not so easily ascend to the relation of a father, we have that of a bro­ther, which is level and even with the current of our naturall love, and if it seem to runne too stilly and slow in this chan­nell, we have the respect of a friend and comforter to turn it into, in which our affections may be said to runne downward in respect of their pleasant current, and so to have the quicker motion: thus hath the divine charity fitted all the sympathies of our rationall nature, with competent and attractive mo­tives to ingage our loves unto it selfe.

Doth not then this Method prove what God saith by the Prophet, What could I do that I have not done for this generation? shall man then leave any thing undone, that his love may re­tribute?

When the Prophet aslae [...]h in admiration of Gods conde­scendence, What is man that thou art thus mindful of him? may we not answer, that though man was nothing but by Gods [Page 192] minding him, yet now by that act of bounty, he is become sonne, brother, and friend to God: Then may we not ask now with greater wonder, What is man, that he can be unmind­full of God? and attend to the loving himselfe who is nothing, thereby deducting from his love to God, who offered him yet more for his affection, the becoming even like himselfe, for but loving him all he can, and specially when selfe-love which opposeth this integrity, reduceth him to worse then nothing; surely no body can seriously ponder this state and obligation of man, and not cry out with the Prodigall, if he have hitherto mispent and dissipated his love, Father I am unworthy to look upon thee in this relation, and if he have not been such an unthrift, neverthelesse if he find much mercenary drosse stick­ing upon his love, let him humble himselfe with the unset­led father, in the Gospel, confessing, Lord I love thee, but im­purely, and do thou purge the impurity of my love, and love that calleth in for this succour, groweth strong enough by this displicence of his weaknesse.

This indulgent dispension with our defective love, floweth from that gratious relation of friends to the Son of God: which dignity seemeth so firmly instated in our nature, as the conferrer of it did not degrade, even Judas, after the forfei­ture Matt. 26. 50. thereof, he was received with the title of friend, when he came to renounce all his rights to that concession, it seemeth he was yet in a capacity of being restored, if he would but have pleaded by love and sorrow for his restauration, he might have sold God, and yet have injoyed him, if he would but have loved him after he had sold him; had he instead of casting the price of his dispaire, into the materiall temple, brought but back his faith and his love to the living temple, casting himselfe forward at his feet, as a counterfall to reco­ver his falling backward when he fell from them, had he then with penitent kisses repai'd unto Christs feet, besought the ta­king off that perfidious impudence which stuck upon his lips, we may well believe Christ would have received him in this returne, with Friend thou art welcome, comming with these [Page 193] kisses to signe the Sonne of man's being the Sonne of God, and it is very probable he would then have equalized the good theef.

O what cannot love obtaine of him who loved us so much, as he seemed not to love himselfe in the expres­sion of it? Let us then copy this love, as well as our dispro­portions allow us, and aspire to such a dilection of him, as may seeme a desertion, and even an exinanition of our selves, which were as the Apostle saith, the degrees of his love to us; Phil. 2. 7. and in this our imitation of his love, we have a strange ad­vantage of him; for he was faine to take upon him the forme of a servant, to expresse his excessive charity, and we put on a divine similitude in this our exhibition of pure disinterested love to him; for we manifest our partaking of the divine na­ture in this denudation of our own, when our love is refined and purged from mercenary respects.

And when we penetrate into the divine nature, we perceive that we are so farre from losing any thing by this self-post-po­sure, as we lose even no time in point of our remuneration: For there is no interim between our loves looking on God for himselfe, and the seeing our interests in God, since in the same instant, our loves look directly upward upon this mirour of the Deity, it reflecteth to us our own blessednesse, and the lesse we looked for our selves, the more we then see of them, re­splendent in that clarity.

This Celestiall mirrour, maketh a reflection much differing from all materiall ones, for it doth not send back to us the same image we set before it, but a farre better then we had any capacity to expose unto it: for when our love looketh up­on God, refer'd simply to his own essentiall purity: This sort of mirrour returneth to us not so much the image of our loves to God, as the representation of Gods love to us, by reason we see then God loving us, in this our intuition of his good­nesse: which reflection sheweth us a better character of this manner of our love, then we could have prefigured to our selves; and when we behold our selves in that image of Gods [Page 194] loving us, we cannot overvalue our selves under that notion, so that this is a blessed and a safe course, joyntly to please God, and humour our own nature in a selfe-complacency.

Thus have I endeavoured to figure these two loves, and I have set them both in the tabernacle, but in unequall ranks of dignity, the one without, among the utentsils of brasse, the other within the vail, among the instruments of gold: so as the most ignoble of these two species, is allowed in the ser­vice of religion in some degree, but is not accepted single, as sufficient for our religious oblation: For God tollerateth no longer the infirmity of that love, whereof we our selves dis­pence with the insufficiency, so that the relying upon mercena­ry love, may decry it, while our disclaiming the meannesse of it, may hold it up current with him, to whom King David pay­ing the purest species, said, Thou art my God, and standest i [...] no need of my goods. Psal.

§. V.

THese two loves being thus set by one another, (where­of I have not only drawn the several complexions, but delivered the diverse constitutions,) there is little doubt which of them will be preferred, but much, which will be rightly pursued, for our degenerated nature is apt to be­lieve that the verball preferring of Filiall love, is the having it: and certainly, many who have been neare it, have missed of it, by concluding they had attained it; and many have lost it, by conceiving it might be kept, and left loose without much at­tendance, whereas they should remember that it is not the Spring of our fallen nature, that of it selfe riseth to that point from whence it fell; it is the force of grace which can only [Page 195] raise and re-mount it to this elevation; and our spirits must continually attend this operation of Grace, to force up this pure affection against the risings of our sensitive appetites, which make steepe oppositions to this reflux; insomuch as if this worke be not assiduously intended, our affections quickly sinke into the channell of our earthy nature, which is interested and mercenary love.

They who pretend to keepe their hearts exalted, as the Pro­phet saith, above the altitudes of the earth, in this purer ele­ment of filiall love, must watch it continually, when they hope they have it, and still pray for it as if they feared they had it not: and there is no so ill sign of our having any of it, as our presuming we have enough of it; as Saint Augustine saith of the knowledge of God, that he who hath speculated his nature never so long, when he commeth to think he hath found a compleat definition of God, may be then said to understand the least of him: So may I say of Filiall love, they who have been never so long filling their heatrs with it, when they pre­sume they are full enough, are then the most devoyded of it: It is in our love, (referring to the immensity of God) as in numbers relating to infinity, wherein any summe never so great, when it is once cast up and stai'd in any total, may be said to be further from infinity then a much lesser number, which is still running on without any determined period: So any degree of love to our Creator, being once voluntarily bounded and circumscribed, is farther off from our intermi­nate duty of loving, then an affection never so much behind, that is still advancing without a purpose of terme or limi­tation.

This then may be an infallible note of the deficiency of our love, when in any straine of interior fervor, we conclude we may stay our loves at such a pitch, and make plaines upon it, never aiming at a higher flight, and this may be a secure rest for such hearts, as are yet never so infirme in their loves, that as long as they pursue sincerely the premotion and advance of them, loving all they can, and resolving never to love lesse [Page 196] then all, they can improve their loves by any solicitude, they may believe they love enough, for nothing reacheth nearer Gods actuall infinity, then this (as I may say) optative infi­nity in the soul of man, which though she can never reach the other infinite existence, yet hath a possibility of never staying or limitting her motions towards it: This consideration drew from Saint Bernard this elegant indearement of the capacity of love, in these words to God, O otherwise incomprehensible Majesty to a soul loving thee! thou seemest comprehensible, for though the conception of no soul or Spirit can comprehend thee, yet the love of a true lover of thee, comprehendeth all thou art, when he loveth all thy being, how great soever it be.

What greater incentive can we wish for the purifying our love, then to conceive that capacity to be granted to our love on earth, which is denyed to our understanding even in hea­ven, to wit, the full comprehension of God? but there is no love unlesse perfect filiall, that can beare this so large ascripti­on: For our mercenary affection may be said to look upon divinity but as an object angular, onely as it pointeth unto our selves, and doth not spread out souls upon the spherical and circular form of the divine goodnesse, as it is it selfe, im­bracing all forms and beings, which latitude and expansion▪ is peculiar unto Filiall love, as an operation of that all-compri­sing charity, diffused in our hearts by the holy-Ghost: For all Rom. 5. our love to God is inspired by himself, as the light inlightning, maketh the light that is illuminated.

God hath provided so kindly against our mistaking of our way to this excellent love, as he hath set us a sensible mark to guide us by, which is fraternall love, which we have as a kind of visible object, whereby to direct our course; so that if our love lose sight of this mark, we may be sure it is out of the way to filiall affection, for the beloved Apostle (in pursuit of his 1 Ep. Iohn, 4. 10. Masters specifical difference given to know his disciples from others, which was the loving of one another) giveth him the lie, that is so bold as to say he loveth God, when he hateth his brother: And sure it is a speciall mercy, the. laying for us [Page 197] these sensible steps of sociable dilection, whereon we may feel our hearts rising up to that imperceptible object of the Deity, that by loving what we do sie, we may direct the course of our love to what we do not see, if we wanted this land-mark, (where­of the Pharisees took down the upper halfe, when they shor­tened the precept of loving our neighbour, to the length onely of reciprocall friendship) our love would be much more expo­sed to deviation, in the course to heaven; For we know it is much easier to keep our way at land, where we have diverse sensible marks for our guidance, and information of our ad­vance, then at sea, where we keep our course by accounts of art, and little visible directions; and our love to our brothers, seemeth to be a passage of our minds by land, since in that mo­tion, in our own element, we have many marks and signes of the rectitude of our love; whereas the elevation of our loves to the invisible being of God, seemeth to be a course at sea, wherein we are conducted onely by spirituall and abstracted notions.

We may therefore account our selves much favoured by ha­ving fraternal love as a sign & secure token of our loves being in a straight and rectified addresse to God, and the bosome-dis­ciple of Christ fixeth this, as the pole by which our love may safely set his course to our Celestiall Father, affirming that He 1 Ep. Iohn, 2. 10. Mat. 22. 39. who loveth his brother, abideth in light, and in him there is no scandale; this is grounded on his Masters assertion, that the se­cond precept of loving our brother, was like the first of loving God; and these two loves may (me thinks) be said to be diffe­rent: but as the Divines say, Gods attributes are distinct from his Essence, not really in their own nature, though they are se­vered by distinct conceptions in our understandings, to wit of Gods wisdome, goodnes, justice, &c: we form conceptions di­stinct from his essence, which are all really the same thing with it: In like manner we frame diverse notions of this charity, as it is divided into these distinct exercises, which is really the same, & is distinguished onely by our understanding, according to these several respects towards God and our brother; for it is [Page 198] the same inspired love that streameth it selfe into these diverse acts or operations: Let us then blesse God for this precept of Fraternall love given us as a visible pillar of fire, which while we have in our eye, we may be confident of being in our way, to the term of Filiall love consummate in the sight of our Fa­ther, who is as yet visible but in his images; wherefore let us attend unto this duty, as to a light shining in this our dark place, 2 Pet. 1. 12. untill the day-star of Filiall love rise in our hearts.

Thus have I set before you Christian Charity in the forme of Jacobs ladder, on which our love must ascend to him who rests upon the top of it, and in this similitude mercenary love seem­eth to answer well to the lower rounds neerest the earth, on which our infirme nature is allowed to set her first steps, and so to rise by degrees to the uppermost marches which touch hea­ven, to the which none reacheth but filiall love, and our fra­ternall charities seeme to be the side-pieces which combine and compaginate the whole frame; so that these three concur­rencies do compleat the meanes of our soules re-ascent to her Creator: And since Christian grace is derived from the filiall relation in the Deity, Filiall love in this state of our adoption must needs be the pillar & strength of Christianity, which like the pillars of the holiest part of the Tabernacle hath the head cast of gold, and the fact of silver, that is, it containeth not onely the purity and preciousnes of speculative love, but the pliant­nes and commerce of practicall charity, whereby the feet in action, hold a proportionate value to the head in speculation; thus by the intelligence of speculative, and the industry of act­ing charity, our souls are safely re-conveyed into our Fathers bosome, where the portion of every child is no lesse then the becomming like the Lord of all, our elder brother Christ Jesus, whose Filial love hath purchased this co-inheritance for us, up­on this condition onely on our part, of loving our father and his, with an affection copied after his; and the liker we draw this image, the more we shall resemble him when we shall be­come like him by once looking on him; let every one then that 1 Epi. Iohn. 3. 3. hopeth this, sanctifie his love, as his is sanctified.

§. I.

NEver [...]an spake like this, said our Saviors enemies of Iohn. 7. him, when they came armed with Malice, and Au­thority to offer him violence: This singular attribu­tion was due to all he said, but cannot, me thinks, be more apposite to any thing he uttered, then to this injunction of, Love your enemies, as good to them that hate you; The Matth. 5. 44. strangeness of this precept seemeth to imply, That the Au­thor of Nature onely could be the proposer of it, because the complyment with it seemeth to require a reversal of the instincts of Nature, and looks like a greater undertaking, then the re-edifying the Temple in three days; this seem­ing as many miracles proposed, as there are Humane tempers in the world to be wrought upon: For the answering of Hatred and Injury with Love and Charity, seemeth more incompetent with our Nature, then the proposition which posed Nicodemus, since i [...] may be said to be less strange for Iohn 3. Nature to revert to what she hath once been, then to tran­scend so much her own dispositions, as to be raised from a Humane to an Angelical temper: For in this state of Charity, [Page 266] the spirit seems no ways acting by the impulses of the sense [...].

Me thinks those Coelestial Doctrines should have at­tested to his enemies, that it could be no less then the Creator of Men and Angels, that could undertake these Conversions of old men into children, and all men as it were into Angels; and he it was indeed who proposed this renovation and ex­altation of our Nature: and well might he do it, who had in his person brought God into Infancy, and Man into Divi­nity. We may [...]i [...]y then proclaim of him, with them that heard him, referring specially to this article, of Loving ene­mies, that he taught not as the Scribes, but as having power: For the Doctors of the Law durst so little press this duty up­on the people, though it were contained in their Command­ments, as in complyance with the hardness of their hearts, they ventured rather to allow a Bill of Divorce to their loves, in this case of consorting with enemies; and in this per­verted liberty, Christ found the people strongly habituated.

Insomuch as we may say not improperly, That o [...] High Priest found the fire of this Charity, which came 2 Mac. 1. [...]1. out of the flames of Mount Sinia, as much altered in ap­parence, as Nehe [...] did the fire of the Altar, that had been hid during the Captivity, which seemed turned into a thick water: And Christ Jesus, like Nehe [...]as, took the same mat­ter of the former precept, and spread it again upon the Altar, and extracted the first fire out of it; for our High Priest ex­plicated and unfolded this precept of Loving our neigh [...], the vertue whereof had long layen concealed, and seemed rather turned into a thick water of bitterness against enemies, then to retain any spark of love for them: But Christ by his explication and dilating of this precept, hath revived the fire that lay covered in it, and replaced it on his Altars, which kindleth now one of the best smelling Sacrifices we offer up in the Temples of the Holy Ghost, which is the loving of enemies, and doing good to those that hate us.

This may at first sight seem such a burthen laid upon Christians, as their fathers could not [...]ear; but when we look [Page 267] upon the donative given at the same time that the imposition was laid, we may acknowledge these retributions, not to be tythes or first-fruits of that treasure which is dispensed to us for our inablements to this discharge, since the grace of Christ Jesus passeth all understanding much more, then this precept transcendeth natural reason; For single morality hath by the hands of the Philosophers, affected to draw an exterior colouring of this image of Charity, in arrogating impassiveness unto humane wisdom: We then, unto whom the Divine wisdom hath imparted it self in so admirable a maner, teaching and acting this office, may well avow the gift to be much greater then the charge: And truly, when they are ballanced together, this order seemeth more an in­franchising, then a fettering of our Nature, which without it seemeth rather bound, then free to revenge, such is the do­minion of our irritated passions; so that Christ, by this in­junction, may be said to have set us at liberty, not to seek our own vindications, wherein the violence of our Nature seemed before to ravish us of Free-will: wherefore even in this point, wherein the Gospel seemeth the most co [...]rcive and constraining, it may rightly be said to be The Law of Liberty; he that in our Nature led captivity captive by this sort of Cha­rity, hath given the same gift unto men, as his members, 2 Pet. 1. whereby they are inabled to triumph by the same love over all foraign and in [...]rinsique enmities.

We then who may own a participation of the Divine Nature, cannot justly except against this obligation, of acting more by the inspirations of that Nature, then by the instincts of our own; and our Savior seemeth to have affected so much, the inviscerating this disposition in our hearts, as he claimeth the first introduction of this precept, to recommend it to us, as a special property of his mission, that the kindeness to his person might sweeter the asperity of the command, he saith, he giveth us this as a new commandment, To love one an­other, Ioh. 13 34. and thus owneth the having instituted, what he did but redintegrate; it seemeth he meant (by setting the most he [Page 268] could of himself to this order) to work the better upon our Nature, by that sympathy which is more sensible between him and us, then between us and the other persons of the Trinity; and surely all the prints of this duty were so efaced, as these conjunctions co-existing in Christs person, seemed requisite to induce this renovation, viz. Man for a capacity of suffering from enemies for our example; and God for a power of imparting an ability of imitating such returns of love, to injuries and violations.

But supposing these two capacities, united in the person of the precepter of this conformity, the newness of such a per­son taketh off all wonder, from any innovation can be in­duced by such a Ministery; And, me thinks, we may say of this Doctrine of Loving enemies, as S. Paul did of that of 1 Cor. 15. 14. the Resurrection of the dead (though in this point Christs infirmity and passiveness promoteth the Commandment, a [...] in the other his prerogative and exemption evinceth the arti­cle) That if Christ had not risen from the dead, the preaching of the Gospel would have been vain: So if Christ had not forgiven his enemies his death, and returned them love and benefits for all their provocations, the preaching of this article would have been of little efficacy; for we know Christ found it wholly antiquated in the Law, and how little is it actuated in the time of the Gospel, with the help even of Christs prece­dent? though he dyed for his enemies, and requires of us but the living with ours as if they were our friends; this is but a favorable exaction, were the retribution claimed but by an equal: when God himself is then the sufferer, as well as the imposer, how can we be affected more with Humans enmity, then with this Divine friendship; and leave follow­ing of Gods patern of charity, to copy out Mans draught of malignity, in his offending both God and his Brother?

Must not this preference of the example even of them we hate, before that of God, appear a strange ingratitude, when we calmly reflect upon it, since God hath been so solicitous, both for the cure and comfort of our infirm Nature, as he [Page 269] himself, in the person of Christ Jesus, chose to want all those things, the cupidities whereof do use to deprave and vitiate our affections, that by his contemning them, they might be deprised and vilified to our appetites; nor hath he staid at this privation, but passed on, even to an assumption and tole­ration of all those things, whereof the terror and apprehensi­on useth to divert us from the preference of his verities, that by his society we might be reconciled to these aversions, and animated in the pursuance of his preferences.

Would we but consider then the remission of Offences to one another, as a debt we owe our Savior Christ, we might repute it a blessing to have some of that species of Charity to repay unto him, wherein he hath given us no less a trea­sure then our own Salvation; and without the help of ene­mies we could have none of this precious species of love, which Christ so highly valueth, insomuch as our friends and favorers may be said not to be so useful to us, as our afflicters and maligners, when we make the best of them; for they indebt us more and more to God, and these help towards our discharge and acquittance, by a means of paying, in some part, of the most difficult conformity we owe in Christi­an Religion: And we may observe, That Christ hath intailed Mat [...]h. 5. most of his Beatitudes upon such estates as come to us by enemies, not by friends, as all sorts of sufferances; and that friends commonly do less for us then we require, whereas enemies in this respect do more for us then we can wish, since out of their iniquity we may raise friends, that shall receive us into the eternal Tabernacles.

This bitter fruit, planted in the middle of Christianity, and commanded to be tasted of, is as it were the counter­poyson of that which was at first forbidden; the breach of which order induced the necessity of this, and this whole­some plant, as it is designed to cure the venome of the other, so hath it contrary properties, as the first was fair to the eye, and pleasant to the taste, but mortal in the operation; so this is unpleasant to the fight, and unfavory to the palate, [Page 270] but medicinal in the effect; this allayeth the heat of our feaverish passions, expectorateth all such obstructions as might impostume in our breasts, and draweth away the viru­lency of all those poysoned arrows that wound our flesh; insomuch as that promise seemeth truly annexed to this, which was deceitfully given with the forbidden fruit; for this doth really open our eyes, and shew us the true distin­ction between good and evil, whereof we are commonly ignorant, till the dilection of enemies giveth us this light, to discern injuries and offences to be no evils to us, without our helping them to that mischief, since the evil of pain can ne­ver change the species into that of guilt, but by our own voluntary translation.

§. II.

SInce our first Parents Reason was vitiated by this Tem­ptation, of discerning good and evil, there is descend­ed on us a curiosity of having them in this life still of our own making, and so out of our fellow creatures we make this composition of good and evil, by the rule of our private appetites: Thus cometh in that supposed variety of these two qualities (the objects of all our passions) which God hath no hand in; for we attribute commonly these properties to things, as they respect our sensitive appetite, by which means, as many false goods as our fancies compose, so many true ills we frame by the same work; for the wa [...] of such apprehended goods, is always accounted a real evil, and the fruition of them is likely in effect, what the priva­tion is but supposed. Thus God suffereth things which [Page 271] have no true goodness, to work upon our imagination, under real apparances, and so to anxiate us as effectually, as if they were sincerely what they are fancied by us; this is verified by the common experiment of our being so truly afflicted and perplexed, either by the defeature, or in the pursuit of vain desires; and this vassallation is a penalty set by the true Judge of all things, upon our attempt to design, of our own heads, the forms of good and evil, whereof the right ap­prehension consisteth in judging of all things, as they re­spect the supreme and ultimate good of our being; by re­ference whereunto we shall discern nothing to be an evil, that doth not deflect from the rectitude of that line which is drawn to the Centre of goodness, by the hand of him who is himself this Centre, Truth it self, and the way to it, as he Iohn 14. 6. termeth himself; and our path is lined out to us by his hand, which hath drawn for us a trace of self-denial.

So that in our peregrination through this world, we are not to go as if we were taking the air, where the fairest and pleasantest way leadeth always to our end, but as Travellers and Pilgrims we must keep on the straight narrow way, which Christ hath marked us, though it seem never so aspe­rous and unpleasant, resolving with the Royal. Prophet, for the Psal. 16. 4. words of his lips to keep hard ways: Nay, in this our passage, our enemies seem to be our surest guides, since we may take a certain mark from them of our being in the way, which is our loving them; and from our friends we can take no such assurance, for our kindeness and love to them doth very of­ten mis-lead us into the by-ways of our inclinations; so while we love but those that love us, we know our leader telleth us, we may be still in the ways of the Gentiles; but when we love those that persecute us, and do good to those who hare us, this is an unquestionable mark of The straight and narrow way, treading in Christs very prints and vestages, in confor­mity to this rule of his dear Disciple, in this point of Charity, He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk as 1 Iohn 2. 6. he hath walked.

[Page 272] The great enemy of our Nature, who findeth the ob­servance of this new difficult command, a proper expedient to repair the transgression of the first so easie precept, inter­poseth all his subtilty to divert this obedience, and he findeth this atempt nothing so hard a work as his first circumvention: for in this point he hath our Nature already gained to help him, whereas in his first enterprise it was fortifi'd against him; in this case he maketh use of our eyes, being unhappily open, and presenteth us injuries, persecutions and hatred, as so hor­rid objects, that in their company he covereth even his own deformity, and appeareth lovelyer then they, to our imagi­nation, in that light he setteth himself by them; so as his own fouler enmity in the suggestion of malice and revenge is not discerned: and he is much bolder in this counsel, then he was in his first perswasion, for then he was fain to flatter us with the hope of having our eyes opened, and becoming like Gods, to be able to deceive us; but now he presumeth to carry our wills by another kinde of insinuation, which is that of fear to become like inanimate creatures, having the eye of sense shut up and blinded by the conformity to this precept, the submission whereunto is represented by him as an examination and destruction of our sense: And our Na­ture (which standeth too well affected to all propositions that seem to defend the rights of Sense) is ready to take this ene­mies part in this determent and initation against all our other enemies, whereby the Serpent is commonly successful, in the discrediting this counterpoyson of mortification, prescribed for the killing of his first venome of disobedience.

If we but reflect upon our first constitution and integrity, we shall easily confess this to be but just, that our Nature, which had but one commandment for her restraint, and broke that through a curiosity of enlarging her lights and capacities, should now be enjoyned to expiate part of this fault, by this closing of her eyes, and contradiction of her own sense, in submission to this commandment, so repug­nant to our vitiated Reason; so that were this imposed [Page 273] simply as a punishment upon our criminal Nature, it could seem but equal, that she who had introduced enemies and in­juries into this world, should be obliged not onely to for­give, but to love and benefit them; yet God is so indulgent, as in stead of exacting this duty, as a fine set upon our first forfeit, he seemeth to treat with us for the sale of our Re­venges, as if they were Proprieties he would purchase from us, and offereth us no less then his eternal Love for our tem­porary dilection of enemies: Nevertheless, how few are there that will part with this illegitimate title to Revenge, even up­on these terms. Our passions truly considered, are stated only upon Reversions, by reason they lay out always our present peace upon some succeeding expectation, yet they had ra­ther trust their own powers, which can give them no se­curity of their wishes, then resign their interests to God for such an exchange, as his promise of an eternal Triumph over all enemies; and so likely, in stead of accepting this proffer of God (which he is so gracious as to make even his own propriety, which is all Revenge; our chief stu­dy seeketh how to evade the obligation of this precept, and how we may draw our particular aversions and animo­sities our of the compass of this order) whereby we often make the party declared against it (viz. Our private vicious Reason) judge of the sence of this Commandment of, Love your enemies, and do good to them that hate you.

The most part of the world take the same course to solve the difficulty they apprehend, as Alexander did with the Gordian knot, they will not take the pains to bow this pre­cept, but break it out-right by a neglect and inconsideration of it: Others that would seem more reverent, are ingenious to elude it by way of explication; by this means many bow it, so as to make it seem standing bent to their peculiar dispo­sition; and such humors use these words, Love your enemies, as some do, This is my body; they strip them of all their li­teral sence, because they seem so cross and opposite to their Reason in a literal admission, they will not receive them in other then a figurative meaning, rejecting the reality signi­fied [Page 274] by those words: Thus do those that would elude this precept of Love your enemies, because they finde this Com­mand so averse to Humane sense in the literal acception, they would have it understood but as a kinde of figurative ex­pression, to evade the reality of this duty, and so pretend to be obliged onely to some exterior shew and superficies of civility and fair behavior to enemies (which is indeed but the figure or representation of Love) while they decline the real presence of Fraternal Charity; the reality whereof hath no less substantial a patern, then that of Christ Jesus's love unto us, given in this form, A new commandment I give John 13. 34. to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you.

It is not therefore so much the obscure, as the hard saying that averteth the conformity of our Capharnaites in this Ar­ticle; and alas, how many are there who are not scanda­lized at this hard saying, which seemeth so to their Reason, in the point of Faith concerning Christs Natural body, who do notwithstanding go back upon this Article of love to [...] Mystical? It is therefore requisite to plain and smoothe somewhat the rough surface of this Command; for which effect there needeth onely an unfolding and deplication of the inside of this order, to shew, it is not so asperous and thorny as our Nature apprehendeth it by the first glances that light upon it.

§. III.

IF ever there were a just occasion of hatred given, it was that man had when he first perceived the injury he had received from woman seeing his own and her nakedness [Page 275] become as it were a minoir that reflected to him the figure of Death in his own face: How came it then to pass, that this passion of Revenge (which is likely the strongest at the first straining, all passions being now so newly broken loose in the minde of Adam) did not declare some violent resent­ment of this provocation, and fall into an aversion against his Temptress? Sure it was, that he (who had still so clear a light of his own Nature left shining in him) discerned the Image of God remaining still upon her; which object he saw deserved love and affection.

This character, as it was not efaced by this occasion (which was the seed of all injuries that have sprung up ever since) so it remaineth still indelible in all Humane enemies: And as no iniquity can expunge that Image, so is there al­ways left that object for our love in Humane Nature, even when it is the worst disfigured to us by any demerit of in­dividuals to our particular: Unto this character is that love referred, which is by command assigned to our private ene­mies, whom we are not ordained to love under the notion of haters of us, nor to bless in relation to their cursing us, for this were to propose that for the object of our love, to which God cannot be reconciled, as Evil and Viciousness; not could out Master and Law-giver love any, because they hated him: we may rather say, That because he did not love to be hated, he came even from Heaven to make friends of his enemies, that were capable of this Conversion, and shewed no love even unto Angels, in respect of the inflex­ibleness of their Nature, after their declared enmity; but we can have no irreconcileable enemies, since Humane Na­ture is not invariable after judgement, like Angelical.

Therefore all our Charity commanded for enemies, is in order to the working on them, by differing impressions, being designed to rectifie their enormity, not to confirm their crookedness; for we are not obliged to any offices towards enemies, that are likely to continue and foment their pravity or malevolence. After our sincere and cordial forgiveness, all the assistance we are bound constantly to render them, [Page 276] is Spiritual, in fervent and devout intercessions to God for their recipiscence and restitution to his Grace. Temporal be­nefits are precisely due to them onely in cases of their ex­treme necessities, and in such proportions as rise not to the enabling them for those ill effects we may justly apprehend from their ability, what falls within our ordained duty, is, The not excluding them in any publike distribution of our benificences, in relation to our private discords, and the keeping our mindes disposed to succour and accommodate their particular distresses, in case of their occurring and pre­senting themselves to our charity.

This is the term our Charity is positively commanded to reach unto, what it exceedeth this point is a free-will-offer­ing, which passeth forward from the precept towards the perfection of Piety; so that the positive exaction in this du­ty, can seem severe onely to such as are pinched with any of the straight orders of Christian Religion; for all the ex­terior offices of obligation, respect onely the necessities of enemies, which our Nature hath no aversion to look upon, and it must be a very perverse temper that must not be moved to Charity by the state of superiority over an enemy; be­sides, all our Supplies and Ministeries, both Spiritual and Temporal, are directed by God towards the conversion of our enemies into friends; and in that respect we seem alow­ed a prospect of some present interest in all our offices, for the coals we are to intend the heaping on the heads of our adversaries by our benevolences, are such as are kindled in our own hearts, of Fraternal Charity; they are not to be proposed as fuel to Gods fiery indignation against them, as is familiarly misconceived by many semi-Christians.

When we ponder then (even but rationally) this duty, we shall finde it lighten in our hands the more we weigh it; for what is commonly said of Death, sorteth well with this precept, viz. That is looketh horridly at the first aspect, but the longer it is looked upon, the less formidable it groweth, and by degrees it becometh familiar and unoffensive to our minde. In like maner the terror of this precept consisteth [Page 277] in the first aboard of it to our vicious Nature: the discour­sing and acquaintance with it openeth to us the understand­ing of it, by which we are easily reconciled to our first pre­judice of the severe countenance of this commandment; and when we behold it in the form reflected from the light of the Gentiles, all Christians see themselves fellow members of one body: In which respect the resentment of offences may seem as unnatural, as our hating a wounded part of our body, because it paineth and distempereth the other: Doth any body project a revenge against his feet, for having stum­bled and faln and hurt his face? All wrongs and injuries done to one another, are (in the constitution of Christianity) but the failings and defects of one portion of the body, whereby another is prejudiced.

Let them therefore who are so mindeful of those words of the Apostle, in not hating, but cherishing their own flesh, Eph. 5. 29. Eph. 4. 26. remember of these of the same hand, That we are all mem­bers of one another; and so malice seemeth to incur this in­congruity of hating part of our selves, if we allow our neighbor that relation to us which S. Paul assigneth him: If we would rather follow this method, of giving more 1 Cor. 12. 24. abundant honor to the infirmer members, considering all injuries proceeding from some weakness and infirmity in the offen­sive portion of the body, this would be a prevention of that Schism so much censured by the Apostle; and this course would keep the part offended from pain and vexation, whereas the other of resentment doth but indeed chase and inflame the sore.

The Stoicks with the Ninevites will rise up in judgement against the viperous generation of our Non-Conformists to this Doctrine, when they upon the preaching of the voyce of Nature, undertook to suppress and mortifie these pas­sions of Anger and Revenge: May not we then (who have another maner of Dictator of this precept, even the Au­thor of Nature personally acting this proposition, as well as preaching this observance) fitly say to the Rationalists of this Age, what our Master did to the refractory of his, upon [Page 278] no unlike occasion, being upon the casting out of evil Spi­rits, if even your own children pretend to dispossess their mindes of all malignity, and to have the dominion of all passions, shall not they be your Judges, and condemn such, as with the succour of Grace conjoyned to reason, do not undertake the subjection of this passion to the precept and Luke 11. 19. John 7. 5. example of our Divine Directer?

The Holy Ghost intended this surely as a high reproach to Christs nearest kindred, when he telleth us that they did not believe in him; and we are as much nearer a kin to God (as I may say) then the Heathens were, as Brothers are to one another, then Strangers: So that a Christians unconformity to this Doctrine, riseth to the highest degree of ill Nature and Malignity: They who remain wavering between the ob­servance and the excuse of a punctual compliance with this order, are loose and unsettled in the foundation of Chri­stianity, and all their superstructures of Alms and other materials of Religion, are but raised upon that sandy foun­dation Christ slighteth so much, which the least storm re­moveth and dissipateth: Such then (who retain any uncha­ritableness in their hearts, while their hands are full of good Works, and their lives gilded over with the leaf gold of external Charity shining in the eyes of the world) seem to me to do but as if a Leper should be very curious to make himself brave against the time of the Priests visiting his na­kedness, since to our Searcher of Hearts, all cogitations are naked and discovered; and if the interior be leprous and in­fected, we know even the finest garments and coverings it hath are accounted but unclean.

Yet alas, how many are there who use this supervesture and palliation of their Souls, covering private Malices under specious Pieties? all which are but like perfumes which one that hath an ill breath rising from perished lungs, em­ployeth about him, which may take away the ill smell from such as converse at usual distances with him, but his bed­fellow will not be deceived by those exterior Odours; it is the breath of the Spouse which exhaleth those Odours after [Page 279] which the bridegroom runneth▪ and smelleth them when he kisseth Cant. 1▪ her with the kiss of his mouth: If the soul have not the sound­ness of interior Charity, all the gums and spices of Prayers and Alms do not sweeten her breath to her Divine Lover: In this case of her pretending to exterior beauty, tainted by this intrinsique blemish, she may be said to have the con­trary properties to the beloved Spouse, for then it may be reported of her, That she seemeth beautiful, and yet is black; Cant. 1. 4. though the complexion of her life be fair, yet the consti­tution of her substance is foul and unhealthful: Let none then conceive their Devotion sufficiently qualified, without the integrity of Charity for enemies.

God is so gracious, as I have said before, that he offers to purchase of us all our claim to Revenge; and men by spe­cious acts of Religion, consorting with covered Malice, seem in stead of accepting this offer of God, to make him a proffer of a recompence in other actions, for his pretence of this alienation of their interests, and conveyance of their wils over to his pleasure: But alas, in this bargaining as it were with God by this offer of Pious exercises, we do but forfeit all we advance, and God applyeth them to the necessities of others, and accounteth nothing to our selves for the di­soursement; for God can accept nothing, in lieu of this conformity to Christ, it might seem a derogation from his exemplary remission of all injuries, if our obligation in this point were redeemable by any commutation.

Let none then abuse themselves with this hope, to make such friends of the Mammon of Iniquity, as may protect their iniquity to enemies, let them leave their other offer­ings at the Altar of their distressed Brother, and go make 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 [Page 280] 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. Apoc. 3. 2.

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 [Page 281] 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 Mat. 5. 48. 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 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 [Page 283] 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 Dan. 1. 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 our Saviors judgement denounced in Mat. 18. 32. the Parable, of our being delivered over to the Tormentors, in case every one forgive not his brother from his heart; and in point of benefiting of enemies, the disposition is onely exacted, in order to their extreme necessities; so that a tem­perate consideration of the terms of this Duty, will easily resolve with the Apostle of love, That even this command 1 John 5. ment is not heavy.

We must remember then, that this order doth not allow [Page 284] the common shift of the world, which is, The raking up our passion in the ashes of civil prudence, where malice is still kept alive, though it neither blaze nor smoke, to the perce­ption of others: This allowance would make this precept the easiest to be observed, where it seemeth now the most incompetent; namely, in courts where hatred, as well as Luke 22. many other mean things, is usually dressed up in so fine clothes, with so much art and dissimulation, as it looketh familiarly liker all things, then what it is.

This disguise is the more criminal, as it seemeth to make even God of the party, by putting out his colours of love and sincerity, when all the exterior civilities and correspon­dencies are but set out as false flags, by which the enemy may be boarded with the more safety: for here the acts of enmity are commonly suspended, not so much out of fear of Gods prohibition, as of his defeature of the success, which is Judas's art, this watching an opportunity that the people might not spoil his bargain; and so the attempt of revenge is but deferred by many, till it seem sure to the wis­dom of the flesh, which we know is an enemy to God: In this sort Rom. 8. Gods enemy shroudeth himself under his wings, while ma­lice remaineth masked with sociable civility; but indeed this dissimulation is so mean and irreligious a thing, as it may be said to brave God, and to fear Man: And having brand­ed it with this infamous Character, I hope I shall not need press any farther the detestation of this counterfeit con­formity.

There may be so great advantage made of enemies, as certainly no ill-willer would act his malice upon one from whom he expected but a return of love: For the scope and aim of all violence and mischief, is the pain and resentment of the patient; so that did we believe our harms designed would prove satisfaction instead of sorrow, malice would ne­ver alow the maligned party this gain upon her; Envy would never set up her frames, if she thought that she did but weave her Rivals Nuptial garment: Christian Charity maketh this [Page 285] conversion of the works of her enemies, she cloatheth and adorneth her self by the same hands that invade her.

Therefore we see most commonly, that they are such as are little skill'd in the nature of Charity, that offer injuries and studies revenges; and it must needs be, upon their ex­pecting such a temper of grieving and vexation in their pa­tient, as they finde in themselves, otherwise they could not assail an enemy whom they conceived they should fortisie by their attempt: But true Christian Charity hath this ex­cellent property, unknown to such strangers, and so impro­veth by her invaders by this unexpected capacity; for there may be truly affirmed much more of the vertue of Charity, then was fained of the estate of Antheus, who was said to raise new strength from his fall, but this was onely after his being overcome; he had been more invincible then Hercu­les, if he had doubled his forces by the gripes and compres­sions of his Adversary; and this is the Prerogative of Cha­rity, which therefore is insuperable by all violences, because she deriveth fresh vigor, even from the pressures of the hands that impugn her: In order to this, I have seen Charity paint­ed with her hand upon a Compass, and this Motto, While I am press'd, I am inlarged, which aptly expresseth her true nature, and informeth us, That if we do not finde this open­ing and dilatation of ours, upon the pressures of enemies, we should resort to Christ with this sute of his Apostles upon this same occasion, Lord, increase our Faith: This re­quest sincerely pursued in all our provocations, is always Luke 17. 5. answered with this grant Saint Paul proclaimeth, of glory­ing in our probation, as it produceth hope, which is not to be confounded, because the Charity of God is poured forth Rom. 5. in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; and this infused love can be tested at nothing more approving, then Enemies and Persecuters: for true Charity must not onely have the clarity of Christal, but the solidity of Gold, it must not onely be lucid and shining in good Works, and firm, until some Violence strike upon it, but it [Page 286] must be like gold, by which it is so often symbolized, malle­able and induring all percussions, without shivering or dis­sipation.

This sort of Charity, hammered by the hands of ene­mies, and refined in the ardors of persecution, is that fire­tryed gold, which the faithful and true Witness counselleth us Apoc. 3. to buy of him to be made rich; but this precaution is very re­quisite to be given such as intend this purchase, not to reckon on the possession thereof, until they have actually laid out some of it, since this error of the Angel of Laodicea is very familiar, to account our selves rich in it, when we are poor and void of it; for the speculative promises we make to our selves of this treasure, are but such an account, as if one should calculate his wealth upon great Bonds and Obliga­tions which he had made to himself; our perswasions of this capacity proving often such self-deceivings, when this Cha­rity is to be issued out in practise: For while the will may take this vertue upon trust, and pay no ready constraint and pain for it, upon these terms it freely engageth it self for fu­ture discharges of this Obligation; but commonly when God sendeth enemies, affronts and indignities, to call in for the discharge of this Charity, our will doth oftner break and run away from them, then make good and acquit our Con­tracts: It is therefore but very bad Security which we use to give our selves, the presumption on this vertuous habit, before the practical demonstration; for sure there is no precept of Christianity, wherein the speculation and the practise are more distant from one another then in this of, Loving our enemies, and benefiting our disobligers.

§. V.

SInce it seemeth so unsafe, to presume upon the interior habit of this conformity before an actual probation, this question may well be made, What is the best pre­paratoty disposition, in order to the compliance with this precept, in all emergencies and occurrences of Injuries? Whereunto I answer, The habit of sincere Humility, a vertue every one lays claim to, but most do it upon evidence which they forge themselves; so as commonly, when the possession thereof cometh to be questioned before God, it indureth not the tryal; In this case, we cannot recuse our Enemies for our Jury, since they are more proper then indifferent persons for this tryal, which is to be judged upon the testimonies of our humble and patient sufferings; few will protest against flexi­bleness, under the depression of Gods hands, but most would fain hold the screw themselves, whereby they are let down, for fear of falling too violently or too low; but true Humi­lity abandoneth it self to the supreme hand, under which all other move but instrumentally, not excepting against any violent motions of secondary hands, whereinto it is delivered to be exer [...]ised.

And if upon the pain we feel from our Enemies hand, we would with the eye of Humility look strictly inward upon [Page 288] our selves, we should for the most part discern, that it is dres­sing some defect we apprehended not before, as either the cancer of Self-love, which we have all in our breasts, or some tumor rising in Prosperity, or the Ulcer of Sensuality, or the vertigo and giddiness of youth, or the drowsiness and tepidity of Ease and Accommodation; All which may be said to be like worms to Ships, that breed in us, eating and consuming us under water most, when we lie still in the har­bors of temporal rest and security; so that perfect Humility, understanding the unsoundness of Humane Nature, appre­hendeth Enemies as Gods Surgeons, making all their opera­tions, rather Cures of some Infirmity, then woundings of any vertuous quality.

I may then safely propose to you the study of Humility, as the best qualification for the discharge of this precept, Matt. 11. since he who commandeth us to take this yoke upon us, biddeth us, learn of him to carry it, because he is meek and humble of heart; Matth. 3. therefore by the same disposition we must needs be the best enabled in his method, to fulfil all righteousness.

Nor doth this precept, of Loving enemies, and Forgiving offences, any way slack or retard the exercise of Justice, whose sword, though it draw blood, yet it sheddeth none, for it striketh onely in application to Gods order, not mans passion; Princes therefore (who are but Gods sword-bearers by the right of their offices, when they are provoked by any personal injury, as Ingratitude, or any other infidelity not le­gally criminal) should remember, That though they have many other arms about them, yet they are warranted to strike with none but the sword of Justice.

Revenge is justice that Nature would do her self, where­by that power which hath the command of regular Justice, may easily be deceived by our Nature, which (when it is checked by the Law of God in this point of self-righting) seeketh to slip in this appetite, under the cover of the Law of Man: Thus the animosity which powerful persons have in their hearts, easily runs through their veins into their [Page 289] hands, which hold and deliver out the publike Justice; into which private interests do so commodiously insinuate them­selves, as it requireth a great attention of grace to discern this surreption, and reject this intrusion of Revenge into the train and comitancy of Justice.

Me thinks Princes, not being exposed so much as others to personal irritations, have it discounted to them in the equal imposition of this duty on them, of Forgiving private offences, and repressing the sence of particular displeasures; since this Bridle must needs set the most uneasily upon their heads, the Crown seeming to take up so much room, as there is little left for the reins of this Command: In others, the violence of their Nature is often easily staid and repulsed by the steepness of the rise up to Revenge, but they are put to hold it pressing downhil, so that unless Grace bear the reins very hard, Nature will easily run away in this precipitate passion; but as this difficulty maketh the restraint of this impetus the more painful, so the mastery thereof becometh more meritorious to them, then it is to less tempted Con­formists.

Certainly Princes who faithfully observe this command, make more of their provocations then they do of most of their bounties; for by this subjection, they lay up their power in Heaven, in stead of laying it out on Earth: and at that day when all the Treasures of their Civil Liberalities shall be melted and dissolved, these their Sufferings and Self denials shall remain impassible, in that fire, which the Apostle saith, shall try all our works.

Blessed then are onely those, who while they live here in greatness and authority, build their Monuments of such ma­terials as may endure the fire of that day, when even the light affections of this life shall prove hay and stubble about their owners, passing through a flame, and the heavy pas­sions of Anger and Malice shall sink their bearers into such flames as are never to be passed.

Wherefore the best Monuments Princes can erect for [Page 290] their eternity, are arches of these solid Vertues, of Humility, Patience and Charity, which are the more strengthned, the more they are charged with the remission of injuries, and the dilection of enemies: These will out last all their Pyramides of secular Ostentation and Magnificence, the King of Hea­ven & Earth hath left them the model of this arch in his life, who was then in the strongest point of his Oharity, when he was bowed into this triumphant arch of Humility, bear­ing his Cross, under which as his body sunk, so his love to his enemies grew the more erected: none then can be so great, as to be exempted from this conformity, nor any so miserable, as not be solaced by this association.

I may well then cast up all my divisions, respecting se­veral conditions, and different provocations, into this total, That whosoever confess they have any sins, whereof they expect a forgiveness from God, must resolve to forgive their Brother, what offences soever shall require their re­mission, since this condition is expresly set upon their own pardons, If you forgive not men, neither will your Father Mat. 6. 14. remit unto you your offences: And our Savior Christ at his re­move from his Disciples, left them this specifical distinction from the worlds dependants, The loving one another; so as John 14. 36. we may say, That our suffering King and Master hath set his Arms upon this Precept, for all his followers to wear, and to be discerned by. O let us then cast off our old Badges of Envy and animosity, which are indeed but the Cognizances of Cain, and let us put on his Livery, to whom we rightfully belong, remembring we are not our own, having been bought by a great 1 Cor. 6. price to glorifie and bear God in our body: And when we carry Christ crucified in our thoughts along with our own Crucifi­ers, the pretensions of our Nature to her resentments, will be out of countenance in that company; and drawing all the grievances and aversions of our Nature, as coupled in the yoke with Christ, we shall easily confess, That even the bur­then of this precept of dilection of enemies, sits but light upon the carriage of the Cross of Christ. Mat. 11.

§. I.

THere is no Argument wherein Natural Reason hath more need of a Supernatural prompter, to help us to frame our conclusions, then in this of the miscar­riage and frustration of pious and just designs, especially in publike causes: For God hath left us a convenient light, whereby to read the right of Causes, and our duties to them, which is our sincerest and most disinteressed Reason, judging by the known Laws of his Will: But to discern whether the Success or Defeature of any Cause concur most to the universal end of Gods Providence, this knowledge is seated in unaccessible light. We may read Gods present Will in Events, but not his consequent Order, which may require the demolishment of many particular goods, to build up the frame of the universal▪ therefore the present ruine of single pieces of Equity, doth not derogate any thing from the goodness of their Nature: Wherefore the right of Causes ought not to be sentenced by the irregularity of Suc­cesses, which are always uniform to Gods universal de­sign, though, disproportioned according to the model of our Reason.

[Page 292] Surely they who shall seek to penetrate the Divine Provi­dence by the eye of Reason, so far as to make a draught of the reasons of all particular occurrences, in the variations of Events, make such an attempt, as one that should gaze upon the Sun to enjoy more light, then when he looked upon the Earth: For they who press into this light, shall quickly be oppressed by the same splendor they design for illumination: And yet the infirmity of man is subject to such a kinde of Temptation (viz.) To study even the decyphering of all Gods characters, in which his hand to the Creatures is very often sent. For the successes and prevalence of Injustice against Honesty and Vertue, may be aptly termed Gods ey­phers, in which his hand is soon discerned, but not his sense: Nevertheless, we do familiarly take Events for the key of all the characters of Gods Providence, and presume to read many of his Secrets very confidently by this key of the pre­sent form and figure of Events; Nay, our zeal is often so in­genious in this art of decyphering, as it perswades us that we may even run and read the right of Causes by this light of Successes.

Insomuch as S. Pauls case in Malta is very familiar in the world; for while the Viper is hanging upon the Cause, and we are looking when it shall fall down and perish, then we make our Judgement to be Gods Sentence; and when the Viper is shaken into the fire, and that destroyed by us, which was expected as our destruction; when a cause recovers from this danger; then commonly that is cryed up for Gods Cause, which before passed for his Curse. This is a familiar conclu­sion with such, who as we may say, know Gods Providence onely by fight, that is, by the external marks of Successes, and have no acquaintance with the nature and condition [...] thereof.

Therefore as it is said of Philosophy, That a slight and superficial knowledge of it, may incline the minde of man to Atheism; for if our minde stay, and rest upon second causes which are next to our senses, this fixure of our [Page 293] thoughts may keep our minde short of the Supreme cause; but if we make a farther advance and progression into the reason of Philosophy, it will lead the minde up to Religion, as it shews the congruous dependency and subordination of all causes to Divine Providence: So in the first rudiments of Religion, which present us with a superficial aspect of Gods Justice under the notion onely of rewarding and pu­nishing: This first impression may move us to conclude of the quality of causes by Gods present declaration in their promotion, or their prejudice; but a judicious advance into the farther grounds of Religion, will carry us to a reverent suspense of our conclusions upon the present apparences of all Events, and apply us to the contemplation of Gods uni­versal Providence, which the Psalmist calls Gods great abysse; which when it is the most stormy to our Reason, when it drowns and desolates in our apprehension the right and ju­stice of Humane actions, even then it runs in the proper course of universal Justice and Equity. There is also a re­gularity, even in the very wave it seems broken into, sub­verting all Humane order, though the concertation of this method falls not within our capacity; for the Psalmist him­self says, when the waves of this Ocean were gone over his head, Thy way is in the Sea, and thy pathes in many waters, and Psal. 76. 20. thy steps are not to be traced.

A profound immersion in Religion, covers our Reason with a reference to Gods universal Providence, in those cases which seem to be void of his particular justice, where­as a looking upon Successes by the first glances of Religion, and discoursing on their Reasons by the flashy light of our private zeal to the Cause, may easily raise impertinent con­clusions upon the present apparences; and such hasty judge­ments are so little capable of giving rest to our mindes; as they must needs keep them in a continual vassellation, ac­cording to the vicissitudes of contrary occurrences.

Wherefore, as meer eagerness and zeal to the mastery and prevalence of any Cause, ought not to be the motive of [Page 294] electing our party (for in that affection there is always some obliquity from the straight love of Right [...], and leaning to­wards the conveniency, not an uprightness in our address to Justice) so the success of our election ought as little to raise or abate the zeal to our Cause; for by this varying of our measures, we seem to square our conformity to Gods me­thod, as it answereth to the model of our Reason, by which we have framed conclusions upon our own suppositions of Equity: And this expectation of the Success of our Cause, comes nearer oftentimes to the flattering our own judge­ment, then applauding the Divine order and disposition of Events.

§. II.

GOd hath left us sufficient marks, by which to discern the right of publike Causes, though our mistake of them be very familiar, being swayed by some private partiality, which looks more upon the beam reflected back on our selves, then upon the direct beam, as it shines upon the publike good: But supposing us mis-led by our judge­ment, I conceive it less blameable to persevere firmly in our first application, then to be shaken from our party meerly by the motions of adverse Events. In the first case man doth but miss his way in seeking God, and in the last he seems to fear God may miss his way in coming to man; for we know God is often said to come down to men in several acts of his Providence, and when the Psalmist says, He bowed the Hea­vens and came down; there was a cloud, and mist under his feer [...] So that we must not look to trace his paces, nor judge of his design by some strokes and touches of his hand, but expect the time when the whole piece of his universal Providence [Page 295] shall be exposed and finished altogether: Then we shall di­scern how all postures, which taken severally did seem de­formed, when they are set together in the whole design, do make an admirable concordance of Justice and Mercy. We must remember what S. Peter says, A thousand years, 2 Pet. 3. 9. and one day, are the same instant object to God; so as he sees all the broken and sh [...]vered pieces of our several times, intire at once in the mirror of his intellect, whereby all is evenness and uniformity in his spirit and sight, which is fraction and irregularity in our successive view of the broken portions of his Providence.

Do not they then who are confused and distracted in their Opinions, upon the prevalence of unjust actions against the honest and unquestionable party, do, as if one should see a crooked and mis-shapen figure severed from the whole de­sign, whereof it is a part, and knowing it to be of a great Masters hand, should yet wonder at it, and suspect the fail­ing of the Artist? when if this single figure were seen in the complete design, it would appear to be made for that mis-shapen posture it was to represent, in order to the per­fection of the whole piece: For the particular present events in Humane actions which seem crooked, and deflected from the rule of Justice, are such portions of Gods Providence, severed for a time from the whole configuration; for which reason, in this single existence of them, they seem dis­proportioned: Wherefore in this case we should look up­on parts and portions of Gods works with the eyes of the wise man, concluding, All things live, and remain for all Ecclus. 42. uses, and they are all obedient: all things are double one a­gainst another, and he hath made nothing imperfect: So, that which taken single may seem imperfect to our sense, be­ing set doubled, and united to that part it belongs unto, becomes uniform, and complete in the total of Gods Justice.

Since then our Faith tells us, That God hath disposed Sapi [...]nt▪ 11. 12. all things in weight and measure, we must suspend our judge­ment [Page 296] while the ballance is yet suspending, and not resolve by the present raising or depression of the scale, unless we pretend to hold Gods hand where our eye leaves it: For we know the scales of Providence are always in motion, as the Psalmist says, Now he humbles this part, now he exalt [...] the Psal. 91. other: Whereupon this is that holy Kings supercession and suspense of his judgement, in these tides of the Abysse of Gods Providence, Thy cogitations are too profound for me. David rests his own cogitations in that depth which they cannot fathom, and satisfies his incapacity with rejoycing in Gods Incomprehensibleness, proclaiming joyfully, Thy Justice is as the Mountains, and thy Judgements as the vast Ocean, in which they who will study the reasons of the ebbings and flowings of happy and adverse Events in all kinde of Causes, shall be more confounded then the Phi­losopher was in the reason of the tides of the Sea. But one may more properly relieve himself, by doing with our Reason, as it is said he did with himself, by casting it into the bosome of the unsearchable Order; concluding, Since I cannot comprehend the design of it, it shall con­tain and involve my submission to it. And being thus sunk deep enough into that Divine Element, we shall not feel the storms and agitations which are on the upper part of the waters.

§. III.

THe Athenians were a people so affected with curiosi [...]y and novelty, as rather then they would want new Religions, they would have even unknown gods; so as their Liberties did not onely reach to the making of new Religions, but new gods: therefore it is no wonder if their Poets were their Priests, which moved S. Paul to argue Acts 17. with them out of their Authorities. It was no wonder this people, who had a several god presiding over every Humane action, should judge the equity of all causes by Events; insomuch as when S. Paul preached to them one God, and his single Providence as the orderer and contriver of all productions and mutations, they thought this an abridge­ment of the priviledge of their Reason, to be enjoyned a subscription to one supreme Providence, without any pri­vate satisfaction to their discourse in the occurrences of this life: For when he told them, That by Gods works man could but feel out as it were by palpation in the dark the notion of the Deity, and could not expect to reade the reason of his ad­ministration by any light, but that of Faith; this seemed to them babling, and talking idlely in S. Paul.

Neither is it any wonder that people undetermined in Re­ligion, should be so superstitious in Successes, as to make some Religion out of them; for where Religion hath been loosest, Fortune always passed for a Deity; and it is not strange that they who worship Fortune, should sacrifice their Reason to Successes, for then truly mens private Fortunes become their Religions. But where the knowledge and worship is resolved and uniform, the Divine Providence is erected in stead of Fortunes Altar, our Reason is offered up [Page 298] as an Holocaust totally consumed, and resigned to this or­der, and the fat of the Sacrifice is the evacuation of all our own judgements, in the event of things which do wholly transcend our Reason.

Yet do I not pretend we should be wholly unmoved or unaffected with happy Successes, but in such cases we ought to look upon them, as they are simply in themselves mercies, not respectively, as we judge them sentences in our Cause: for in adversity the matter doth not declare Gods meaning, when somtimes it is intended to purge & improve, somtimes determinately to punish us; therefore the matter of misery may be disliked, but not Gods meaning in it So prosperous Successes are sometimes meant as approbations, and often as derelictions to the desires of our hearts; wherefore the matter of them may be affected, but the meaning of them not peremptorily concluded.

Hence it is, that as in our enemies we may hate the sin, and not love the man the worse, so in our temporal advan­tages, we may be joyed with the success, and yet not like the cause the better, which is to have an equal disposition in them: For the choyce of our Cause must rest upon that im­moveable Centre of the right and justice thereof: which when by our best and most disinteressed Reason we con­ceive fixed and setled, nothing that doth not better our Rea­son, can evidence more to us the goodness of our Cause: and uncertain Natural Events have not that vertue of improving our Reason; they may more easily weaken it, if we study by the lines and editions of Natural Accidents, which are so false to the nature of Moral causes.

Man is not set so hard a task, as to work to fit all Events with sutable Reasons to them: It was a strange exaction of Nebuchadnezzar upon his Magi, to declare to him not onely the meaning, but the very dream, as if they had been the infusers of it. They who search for Humane Reasons pro­portionate to the events of all actions, do, me thinks, as wilde a thing; for they adventure to interpret Gods Actions [Page 299] and Mysteries by their own Dreams, since our ratiocina­tion upon the secrets of Divine Order, is but an excur­sion of Fancy, which is of the same nature as a Dream in Religion.

It seems therefore rather an indulgence to our weakness, then an injunction against our liberties, to be forbid to press into that light where we shall be oppressed by the majesty of it: For, What is man (saith the wisest of men) that he should fol­low his Maker? and when he had applyed his heart to finde out the reason of all things, he confesseth, He had counted one Eccles. 7. 28. by one to finde out the account, and yet his soul sought and found it not: So that his return upon his adventure, may well be our disswasion from the attempt, and a strong motive for us to rest upon this anchor of the Prophet, In the path of thy Isa. 26. 8. judgement, O Lord, we have patiently expected thee.

§. IV.

AFter these bounds set to curiosity, me thinks many are desirous to know, Whether their Wills are bound up to their Adversities. I shall endeavor to satisfie such enquiries by a clear Solution of this Question; re­solving them, That although we are restrained in the curiosi­ty of Causes, we are not confined to a conformity of our Wills, to the material object of Gods Will, in publike calamities and afflictions. Our Wills must be fastned to Gods, in the formal object of our willing; which is, to de­sire every thing in order to the accomplishment of his Will, in his universal Ordination of all things: But we are not obliged to be pleased in every material declaration of Gods [Page 300] pleasure, as in the defeature of a good Cause, the death of our friends, and the successfulness of our enemies. In these, and such cases of conforming our wills to the matter of our sufferings, we may, as it were, dispute the cause with God, and wish his Providence might work by other means: Because in this shadowed light of our Reason wherein we live, we do not see how the ways lead to Gods universal ends, to which our wils are only bound to be conformed formality, as making that Divine Order the rule of our final desires.

We know Abraham opposed Gods declared Will, in the material part of it, in the destruction of Sodom; and when God ordained him the Sacrificing of his Son; he might justly have wished God had been pleased to appoint him some other testimony of his Obedience: This kinde of dis­senting is properly rather a velleity, or wishing an altera­tion of Gods purpose, then an opposition to it; and this imperfect adhering to Gods Will, is proper to this half-light we have of it, in our distance from the object of his univer­sal Order. Those who in the light of his countenance look upon his Will, have theirs both materially and formally uni­ted to it; because, as the Psalmist says, In thy light we shall see all light: Thus they discern how all they desire is in order to the universal end, and understand how all the discords which are now jars in our ears, are set to compose the har­mony of the Divine Providence, wherein they have their parts, singing continually the praises thereof. But while we are looking through our glass, and the darkness of our riddle, we are not obliged to a clearer conformity of our Wills, then the nature of our light can afford us, which dis­covers not to us how all present advers accidents are perti­nent to the efficacity of Gods universal Order; therefore we are not imposed that precise adherence of our Wills to the material part of adversity.

Upon this ground the Prophets presumed as it were to im­plead Gods sentences, by an expostulation with him about their execution. Moses makes a Remonstrance to God of the [Page 301] inconveniences of his declared Will to destroy Israel, repre­senting the scandal of impotency whereunto his name would be lyable among the Heathens: and the Prophet Samuel, after the pronouncing of Gods sentence against Saul, seems to plead for him with his tears so long, as God asketh him, How long he would lament Saul? not as displeased with this unconfor­mity, but rather in commiseration of his piety, and tenderness of charity. The Prophet Jeremy pleaded so long against the rigor of his own commission, as God imployed his modesty to silence him, knowing he would not expect a grant in what Moses and Samuel should have bin rejected; yet when he could Jer. 14. intercede no longer, when his mouth was stopt, his eyes were let loose into streams, that seemed to run still against the tide of Gods judgements. And God allowed the Prophet Jonah a Jonah 4. much stronger liberty, to seem angry at Gods mercy, and to dispute the justness of his perplexity. In all these instances the wills of the Prophets were formally concurrent with the Will of God; for they made still the reason of their willing the ac­complishment of the common universal disposition of Gods order, but we see they dissented in the matter of their willing; they did not vote these special and precise means concurrent­ly with Gods voice, because they saw not clearly how they stood in Gods design of the common good, and so might dif­fer from God in wishing the order, though not the end.

It is otherwise with the Angels who are in a fuller light, they discern how all Humane events are in their special order to the common benefit of the Universe, and so execute their Commissions of Benevolence or Indignation upon us, with­out any alteration of joy in our temporal blessings, or commi­seration in their offices of destruction. This state of equanimi­ty we shall attain, when we come to see face to face, that Face which shall make us like it, by looking on it, when we shall see him as he is, in whō we shall together see all other things as they are; until then, while we see him but in the shadow of his works, he requires of us only our conformity to his wil, as far as he hath endued our Nature with a power of apprehending [Page 302] how his declared pleasure hath a consonancy with the uni­versal good of the world: So that we have an injunction and a capacity of wishing always in preference of the universal good, before our private interest. And in those cases in which we are not convinced, how the ills we suffer conduce to that order, we may piously deprecate such Events, la­ment the exigencies they occasion, and sue to God for the reversing of such orders; in which exigencies we may ear­nestly press the hastening of Gods time, and concurrently attend his will with patience; for that is Gods time to which our Prayers have brought God, as that price was Gods price to which Abraham brought God for Sodom. This, I hope, will sufficiently explicate the sence of formal and material conformity to Gods Will, and so enlighten us in many ob­scurities and scuples, which the tenderness of our Con­science may cast over us, as apprehensions of con [...] against Gods order in our sorrow, and resentment of pub­like or private calamities.

§. V.

BEcause this tryal of us requireth all the strength of our Grace, or our Reason, to secure us farther from being dismayed at the proneness of our Nature to slack [...] in the confidence of our Cause, upon the prosperity of the advers party, we may look upon one of the strongest vessels of Gods building, and we may finde him in this storm dri­ving upon all his anchors, when he confesseth, My [...] Psal. 72. almost gone, and my steps well [...]igh stipping away, when I saw the [Page 303] peace of sinners; they are not in trouble, as other men, neither are they plagued as others: He could have no ease in the inqui­sition of the reason of this inverted appearance of Justice, till, as he says, he went into the Sanctuary of God: So when we finde our selves upon Davids slippery steps, we must fol­low him who leads us to take Sanctuary in Gods universal Providence, taking hold of his Altar there, his Inscrutable Wisdom; and the passions of our Nature will be afraid to violate that holy Refuge, in disputing to draw us out of that Sanctuary by their Violences, as long as our thoughts rest themselves there, and our Reason doth not venture abroad to rove in the inquisition of second causes.

It was upon the holy ground of this Sanctuary that King David trode, when he climbed up the mount Olivet bare­foot; his steps were then firm and sure, even upon all these sharp stones which were under them; even those stones which Shimei threw in his way, did not give him the least trip, he walked upon this ground of, The Lord hath ordained him to curse David, who shall then say, Wherefore hath he done 2 Kings 15. so? it may be the Lord will look on my affliction, and requite me for this days cursing: Here we see King David walks so firmly on Gods Order and Providence, as his steps broke in pieces all Shimei's stones they trode upon; and he was now no more moved in the diffidence of his cause, then he was elated with the right of it, when Shimei came to meet him, and lay prostrate at his feet to be trode upon: He then raised up his enemies person, and kept onely his injuries un­der his feet, which were so many steps to raise his eternal Throne: and certainly, all that Shimei threw at him proved the most precious stones, which the Hand of Pro­vidence set in the Everlasting Crown of this Blessed King.

Thus we see the common infirmity even of the most sanctified Natures, while they are working upon the stock of their own Reason in Humane occurrences, and what a firmness and stability we may finde when we lay all our [Page 304] thoughts up to rest in the bosom of the Divine Providence, taking this advice in all advers Events, Yea, when thou shalt say Job 35. 14 he considereth not, be judged before him, and expect him. And as it is observed in the motions of the Heavens, that as the Orbs are nearer the first mover, so they go the faster in the common diurnal motion, & the slower in their own peculiar, which is opposite to the other; so we may truly say, the nearer our mindes are raised to an adherence to the first Divine moving order, our Reason shall go the quicker in a consent­ing motion to all the common occurrences of Providence, and shall move the gentlier in the retrograde motion of her own Orb of Nature, and consequently the disquiets of our Nature shall move less in their passionate oppositions to all sinister Events, and we shal be the less frighted when with the Apostles we are going into the cloud, remembring the re­proach Luke 9. God maketh to tottering confiders, Am I onely a God Jer. 23. at near hand, and not the same at distance?

If ever we could have hoped to have been informed of the reason of the present advantages allowed to the wicked, it should have been when the Prophet Jeremy (one sanctified even in his Mothers womb) did so earnestly ask God this que­stion, with a conjuration upon his Justice, saying, Lord, thou ar [...] just when I argue with thee; yet let me talk with thee of thy Judge­ments: Jer. 12. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal treacherously? And yet God affords him no answer to this desire, but leaves him in such a su­spense and perplexity, as in an holy confusion he challengeth even God of having misinformed him in his Judgements Jer. 20. 7. upon sinners, which were so long deferred: So we can look for no satisfaction in this point, greater then that answer which God makes to Daniel, when he asked, What sha [...] [...]e Dan. 12. 9. the end of these things? Go thy ways, Daniel, for the words are closed, and sealed up till the time of the end. Wherefore, in all the distractions and subversions of Kingdoms, pri [...] Ruines and Confusions, we must recur to Daniels conclu­sion, Blessed be the Name of the Lord; wisdom and power are h [...], [Page 305] he removes and constitutes KINGS and Kingdoms.

By this precedent, as near as our giddy Nature will admit, we must seek to fix our mindes upon that incomprehensible course of Gods Providence, which changeth all things without any mutation in it self; and the nearer we come to this con [...]ixure unto that stability, the less obnoxious we shall be to the estuations of joys and fears, or the anxiety of won­der in all contingencies: For the chief motive of the dis­quiet of our minde, is the imperfect broken view we have in this life of the chain and coherence of second causes we see several links lying scattered and parted without the rings which make the connexion▪ that is, we see daily mutations of all conditions, from good to bad, and interchangeably from advers to prosperous estates, but we discern no reason that linketh and accordeth these variations with our judge­ments, making a coherence satisfactory to our understand­ings in this distributive part of Gods Justice.

This half-sight of the form of things, excites wonder in us, which is broken knowledge, when our understanding meets objects of strange effects, divided from their apparent causes; for if we could see at once this chain of Providence set together, all events hanging linked to their final reasons, our wonder would presently cease: As we may suppose if the Prophet Daniel had lived to see actually the accomplish­ment of his Visions, while others had wondred at Alexan­ders enterprise upon the Monarchy of the World, and all the strange occurrences that did effect that work, he would have been little moved at those Events: And when cursed Antiochus destroy'd Jerusalem, and set up Idols upon the altar of the Temple, and abolished all form of true Religion; when venerable Mathathias, and the glorious Maccabees had reason Mac. 2. to rend their garments, and to be astonished at the desolation of Gods people, Daniel would not have been perplexed and amazed in all this confusion, as having had a prenotion of this, and the rest of the chain of Providence, which made the coherence of this action.

[Page 306] In the like maner in all other prodigious Events, which coupled the successions of the other designs of God upon the world, whereof Daniel had a prevision; he could not be confused at that, whereat others (who looked but upon the broken pieces of the chain) were justly astonished: But if Daniel had survived the issues of all his Revelations, and had come to those Times of which he was desirous to know the sequences and determinations, and was refused that illumi­nation, and told, They were sealed Mysteries, and not to be opened Dan. 12. 9. to him; if then he had seen the destruction of Gods people, and the violation of all things sacred, by the inhumanity of Gods enemies, he would then have been posed to have given a reason of these disorders, and must have resorted to Davids answer to himself, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it Psal. 138. 6. is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Some satisfactory rest may be derived from the experi­ments and acquaintance with such cases, but still the reason of that order (which is so preposterous to our conceptions) will remain in the smoke of the Temple, wherein we may see Apoc. 15. God is present, but not how he worketh in it: The order of Gods administration rests in the Temple described in the Re­velation, which is filled with smoke from the Majesty of God, and none can enter into it until all be consumnate.

One that shall study the Story of the World in one Age or Century, shall finde Iniquity and Violence prevailing, it may be, many years over all Piety and Justice; and inse­quence of time shall come to reade the prosperers and pre­sumers in their powers destroy'd and extirpated by some ex­emplary vengeance; then for some time may meet with ver­tue and godliness flourishing so, as to protect all their Vot [...] ­ries; and then as he goes on, it may be, he will meet with a storm blasting, and withering all the fruits of innocence he saw before so flourishing: Thus alternatively through the whole age, he shall commonly finde an interchangeable va­riation from the happy to the persecuted state of goodness: And although in the period of that portion of time he [Page 307] chance to finde the most notorious impieties of it punished and revenged, in such sort as that particular may give him some sensible satisfaction of Gods Justice, yet he shall finde in no age the audict so perfectly made up, between Impiety and Punishment, as he shall not still remain perplexed in the account of Gods reckonings with the world.

They who shall live to see, or reade the full Account of this present Age, will certainly finde at the end of it, the Fractions and Divisions [...]urnm'd up nearer the true Account of Gods Justice, then it appears now in all these scattered orderless figures, which seem to have little reference to Equity; but still the end of this Age will leave some con­fused parcels of Injustice, which are referred to the suc­cession of time to make up, and rectifie: And in this kinde of sequence and relation, Times will turn and rowl over to one another, the last bringing still somewhat imperfect to the next it flows into, until Time it self shall be drowned in eternity; so that while we see, as Solomon tells us, All things Eccles. 9. happen alike to him that offers Sacrifice, and him that breaks down Altars, he gives us this excellent caution, not to be tempted to say there is no Providence, If thou seest the vio­lent perverting Justice, and Judgement in a Province, marvel Eccl. 5. 7. not at the matter: for he that is higher then the highest regard­eth, and there be higher then they.

This is a cordial the Holy Spirit hath confected for us, to take in the strongest fits of Humane vicissitudes, to keep us from fair [...]ing in the unsuccessful state of a righteous cause: I shall onely give one or two Historical instances of many, which all Times afford in this Argument.

The first is so memorable and adequate in all circumstan­ces for our instruction, as no times can match a better, and no sort of Christians can reject it as president. This is the case of St. Lewis King of France, a person so holy, as if the most sanctified voyces of his Time had been to elect a King, they would probably have chosen him: This great and holy King starning with the zeal of repossessing Christians of the [Page 308] Holy Land, which is a figure of their Birthright, the heaven­ly Jerusalem, kindled most of the Christian Princes with the same ardor, which carryed many of their persons upon the place for the atchievement of this blessed Design: The beginning of this Enterprize was prosperous, in the recovery of many possessions from the Infidels, and restitution of the Worship of Christ into them: But soon after Gods secret Judgements strook this Army with an evident mark of his present displeasure, and by a pestilent sickness consumed most of his Forces; insomuch as he was reduced to a dis­honorable Treaty with Gods Enemies, and forced to return with a total defeature of his Design: Under which rough hand of God, his sanctity in Syria, like one of their Palm­trees, grew the higher by the weight of adversity it was charged with, and after a perilous return into France in his old age (his zeal burning still the brighter in all the darkness of his Successes) he made a second Expedition, with three of his Children, upon the same Enterprize, and landing in Africa, his Army was again seized by the destroying An­gel, and one of his Sons strool first, and presently he him­self was arrested by the same hand, and executed in his sen­tence of Mortality, though truly delivered out of his pri­son, and translated to that higher Crown which he had con­quered in all his defeats.

This was the unhappy Event, according to the stile of the world, which that pious King, and unquestionable Cause; left the world to opine upon; of which we cannot give a better vote, then he himself did in his sickness out of the Wise-mans mouth, Who can conceive the ways of God, [...] Ecclus. 16. 20. more then a Tempest which no eye can see? for most of his works are hidden; Who can declare the works of his Justice, or who can stand under them? for his covenant is afar off, and the tryal of all is in the end.

There is another notorious president I have met with in the Ecclesiastical Story, which I have chosen of many, as it hath relation particularly to this Nation. King Ha­rold [Page 309] of Denmark, who was the first planter of the Faith of Christ is his Countrey, and a Prince whose eminent sanctity deserved the publike testimony of the Church, by his admission into the Catalogue of the Saints: This de­vout King in his old age was assayled by the Rebellion of his own Son, called Swayn, a desperate Enemy of Chri­stianity, yet it pleased God to give him Victory against his Father, and to Crown the old King with Martyr­dome in the Defence of Christs Cause, and his own Right; for he dyed of his wounds received in the Bat­tel, where his impious Son remained Conquerer, and King.

But soon after Gods Vengeance rose up against this Pa­tricide, and expulsed him out of his Kingdom, and in many changes of Fortune reduced him to take Refuge in England and Scotland for many years. At last in many va­riations of his Unhappinesses, it pleased God to change his heart, and convert him to Christianity, of which af­terwards he became a great Champion, and a Zealous; and God imployed him here in ENGLAND to pu­nish King Ethelred (who though his person was not stained with his Mothers bloody hands, yet he did rise to the Crown, not by a Legitimate Descent in Blood, but by an Execrable effusion of his elder Brothers, through the wickedness of his Mother) so as Swayn of Denmark dispossessed this King, and soon after dyed invested of the Crown of England.

I thought this Example, in the various Occurren­ces of it, very apposite to this subject of declaring GODS mysterious Judgements, His Justice, Mercy; and Longanimity, which is the Attribute whereby we are so much relieved in all our provocations of his Ven­geance.

These Examples may temper an hasty impatience to censure Causes by the Events, and repress in us that Na­tural forwardness of judging with the JEWS, those [Page 310] to be the greatest sinners, on whom the Tower of S [...] doth chance to fall, for we know our Saviors decision of such conclusions.

§. VI.

THere are many men of such a mould of earth, as the stony ground in the Gospel, who are quick in their conception of vertue, and active in the first im­pressions of the right and justice of their party, and so their actions are forward, and eminent in fair seasonable weather; but if the heat of disaster beat upon them, for want of a w [...]ll-rooted constancy on the ground of true fortitude, they shrink and wither as fast as they did shoot out at first; when they first begin to be followers of vertue, they should remember what our Savior said to his Disciples, Blessed is he Luk. 7. 23 who shall not be scandalized at me; for in the attendance on goodness in this world, we shall often see it suffering and affronted.

They who will serve under the Militia of the King of kings, must take the Covenant of Longanimity, in which con­sists the best part of the honor of a Christian; for, as our great Master saith, If you love but where you are beloved, do not the Gentiles do as much? so if you are zealous while you are prosperous, every unworthy person hath this kinde of honor to shew for his nobility; but when you are to endure the test of loving of Enemies, that is, humbly to embrace all advers accidents, and to close with them, to wrastle still, ra­ther then flye from the Lists where they are triumphing, when as the Prophet says, Strange lords have dominion over us, Isa. 26. this is the sincere tryal of honor, even in morality; in which, this perilous perseverance (it may be) i [...] but a counsel [Page 311] of perfection; but in cases of Divinity, I am sure, it is a precept, as the Apostle saith in the name of our Master, If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in Heb. [...]0. 38. him.

Hence it is, that as any defection from a good Cause is odious in Gods sight, so too much solicitude and vehemen­cy, in relation to a quick issue out of our engagements, look unhandsomly in Gods eyes; for there is always a great sha­dowing of Self-love woven with this colour of our zeal to Justice, in this impatient appetite of Success.

Our Savior Christ at his remove from his dearest fami­liars upon earth, in a gentle reprehension to them in this point of earnestness, hath left us an order for our depen­dance quietly upon the common course of his Providence, without any inquisitive scruting into the times of such E­vents, as the cause may promise: For when they desired to know the time of his restoring their kingdom who were of his own house, his answer was a kinde of soft increpa­tion to them, and a strong instruction to all times, It is not your part to know the times, nor the seasons which the Father hath Acts 1. put in his own power: This is a prerogative our Soveraign communicates unto none; but as he proceeded to com­fort again those friends he had check'd, we have our share in their compensation, for he doth impart to us also his Holy Spirit, which may assist and consolate us in the perplexities of all Times and Seasons.

Let us therefore, by the residence of this Comforter with us, endeavor to correct our Nature in her promptitude and hastiness in our distresses, to make Gideons question to the Holy Spirit, If the Lord be with us, why are all these ills be Judges 6. 13. f [...]ln us? and to conclude, Sure the Lord hath left us, and de­livered us up to our enemies, Let us procure rather to make the answer of Eli to Sa [...] in acceptance of Gods Judge­ments, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth good to him: If we remain in this temper, we may boldly say with King Da­vid, The Lord will not be angry for ever; he will judge the world Psal. 102. [Page 312] in equity, and the people in his truth: therefore I will hope always, and will yet praise him more and more: Thus with the Psalmist, keeping God at our right hand, we shall not be moved, or dejected by any sinister Events in a sincere Cause.

There is a far different superstition in the pertinacy of the Pharisees, and the facility of some people; for they in a shower of Miracles falling down upon them, to anounce to them the time of the change of their Law, still called for a Sign from Heaven to authorize that Doctrine; and some people are so prone to change their Law, as they call Natural Accidents, that favor their dispositions, Signs from Heaven to warrant their innovations. As the first were said to have eyes, and not to see, so these last may be said to see without eyes; for their imaginations seem to them so illuminate, as the eye of their Reason is dazled when it looks against them: Such fancies commonly love to cast in troubled waters, and upon all successful draughts, they do (as the Prophet saith of them) Habac. 2. Sacrifice to their own net, and offer incense to their drag, wor­shipping in a maner their own Spirit, which they have be­fore invocated for their directer: Thus while they are so confident Expositors of the letter of Humane Contin­gencies, they are better Interpreters of Fortune then of Providence.

They who are emboldened by the advantages, or abashed meerly by the miscarriage of a Cause of which they have reason to believe God to be the conducter, do as if the chil­dren of Israel should have thought God had been more in the Pillar of Fire, then in the Cloud, because it was a plea­santer object: The true children of Abraham, the sons of Faith, follow the Cloud of Gods Judgements, as confi­dently as the Flames of his manifest Kindeness, and mur­mure not at the waters of Contradiction, which they are often put to drink in this peregrination.

St. Augustine says elegantly; That every one would be content to overtake Christ at his home, but few are constant in following him in the way; there is a contrary inordinate­ness [Page 313] in our Nature in the point of Gods Providence, for most are curious to follow with their ratiocinations the traces and steps of it upon Earth, and few are content to be transported immediately to the home thereof, which is Heaven; that is, we commonly affect an enquiry into the Reasons of second Causes, and are busie in guessing at Gods meaning by them, rather then resort directly to the inscru­table order of Gods Providence in all Events, and so rest upon the faithful resciance of his Reasons: This course is the overtaking of Gods Providence at home, and not the tracking it curiously abroad, in the prints and traces thereof as it passeth through the world.

This last ought to be the course of a Christian, to whom Christ hath left his Faith in the equity of Gods uni­versal Providence, as the Apostle saith of his other Do­ctrines, That we may not be like Children, tossed to and fro with every kinde of Fortune, by which our great Enemy, the Prince of the Ayr, raiseth continually change of winds, to toss us, and carry us away into an opinion of that airy Deity of Fortune, which he hath set up for the Devotion of the worlds Fancy.

I may pertinently then conclude with Saint Peter, in this case of Temptation to the Primitive Christians, Think 1 Pet. 4 [...] 12. it not strange, concerning the fiery tryal which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; it may be the time is come, that Judgement must begin at the house of God; in which case we have this excellent advice from God by the Prophet Isaiah, Go my people into thy chambers, shut Isa. 26. 20 thy doors upon thee, be hid for a moment, till the indignati­on pass.

Whereupon I will sum up all my resolutions with this ex­cellent Exhortation of that most holy King David, in his most depressed condition, Expect the Lord, do manfully, and thy Psal. 26. 19. heart shall be strength [...]d: I say, wait on the Lord; for they who have taken Gods Word for their repose, and ac­quiescence against the corrupted Testimonies of their own [Page 314] impatient humors, will by a blessed experiment attest the truth of this Asseveration of the same afflicted King, and beloved Saint, Blessed is the man whom thou chasti [...]est, O Psal. 94. 12, Lord, and teachest him out of thy Law, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.

§. I.

MAny who have made Images of Solitude, have done like Painters when they draw Ladies; who (obser­ving the most remarkable Features, as much as may make a resemblance) cover the defects of the complexion with all the Art they can; they set no freckles, or mark, nor pits, or unevennesses in the skin, accounting the best prizure of their Art, to leave the favor of the person on the figure, with the least touches of disfavor upon it: In report to this method, many who have figured Solitude, having set out the most noted properties thereof, have sought to sweeten all they could the disagreeableness, leaving no roughness or inequality upon the countenance of their Character of Solitude.

But those who look upon it by the life, will finde much more unsmoothness and hard favor in it, then is exprest in such speculative Images: For the original Malady of our Nature was such, as hath left some dints and prints in the surface of the evennest state of our mindes; there are harsh and unpleasant intervals of roughness, and inequality found in all the fairest complexions of our peace and serenity: Wherefore it concerneth us to possess our opinion with the [Page 316] most natural Image of Solitude we can pourtraict, and that rather rudely touched, then flattered: For when we come to the actual acquaintance of it, either by election or neces­sity, it imports us in the first case, not to have fancyed such a figure, as may have moved us to design it for a Mistris to some melancholy Fancy; or in the last case, of constraint not to have preconceived any such hard favor, or disagree­ableness, as may confuse us in our first aboard of it: But some previduation of it is easilyer taken off by acquain­tance, then an over-charge of promises to our selves of peace and ease, can be made good unto us by our first communications with it; because our mindes do easilyer acquiesce upon their proposals of moderate conveniences, then they can setle upon their fall from high overvalua­tions.

I shall not therefore play the Painter in this draught of Solitude, but rather the Printer, by exhibiting the just im­pression of it, taken from the original stamp thereof, which I have in my hands, and shall design my print to bear the countenance and proportions of Truth, rather then the regu­lar symmetries of a fair imagination, which is as Painters draw Angels, in whom they intend onely beauty, not similitude: For I may own the having taken this Lesson from Solitude, which I will practice upon her own figure, to prefer the benefit of the Reader, before the beauty of the Discourse; and rather desire to impart by Charity the uti­lity of Truth, then to affect the making my Solitude so lovely, as it may be rather good Company then good Counsel.

This were to trade for Vanity with that Stock of Soli­tude God hath given me to acquit the Mortgages of my time; and it is no mean blessing to be able to redeem time, even by the evils of our days. This is to grow so rich by the very Sequestration, as to be able to make provision of Liberty, peradventure at some time or other, even for some who are now Masters of mine: For this my Map [Page 317] of Solitude may be useful to all that are Travellers through the Changes and Vicissitudes of Times, though they seemed never so fixed in any station.

I do therefore humbly present my Countrey with some Fruit of that Graft of Solitude it hath set upon the barren Stock of the other time of my Life, praising God that I may in some measure say with Saint Paul, The things which have happened to me, have faln out to the furtherance of my liberty in Christ; Philippians, Chapter the first, Verse the twelfth.

I shall not then endeavor to write the Laudative, but rather the Life of Solitude, in which the intermixtures of Good and Ill are co-incident to one another: And though I do not pretend the measures of my minde should exactly fit many others, yet the matter of my propositions, which is Vertue and Piety, will endure the taking to pieces, and translating into many good Forms, according to the sizes of several Dispositions.

In God there is this inexplicable Mystery, there is Unity, and Singleness without Solitude; for out of the Singularity of the Divine Essence, there is a Natural Fecundity and Emanation of a Plurality of Persons, in which consists Gods incapacity of solitariness; for with­out this connatural Society, Divines affirm God might be said to be solitary, even in the middest of all his Crea­tions, as Man was said to be alone among all the Crea­tures of Paradice, before he had a Consort of his own Nature. We need not stay any longer in this Moun­tain of the Divine Essence, clouded and overshadowed with this Mystery of a TRINITY in UNITY, it is sufficient that it afford us but so much Light, as to shew, That Solitude is not consonant to the Nature of Man, as he is GODS Image, and so provision was quickly made for that supply, after the singleness of his Creation.

We must resort then to some Supernatural intervention, [Page 318] that may mediate between Mans Nature, and the Nature of Solitude, when he is reduced to it; and thereby acquaint him with another kinde of society, when he is sequestred from that which is so familiar to him: Thus, as it were, rather translating his communication into another language, then razing out the impression in him of the love of company. And this is to change the nature of his society, and not the sociableness of his Nature.

§. II.

ME thinks all the states of Solitude may be pertinently divided into these three sorts, of Voluntary, Violent, and Neutral. The first is the operation of a Super natural Voluntary Solitude defined. agent upon Mans Will, which works upon it, as the Wise man says, Forcibly and sweetly, drawing our mindes out of the world, in such a gentle soft separation, as vapors are extracted out of the earth, while the vertue of the hea­venly Spirit attracts our Will out of grosser immersions in the earth, unto the pure speculation of Divine objects; the grace of such evocations falling (as the Psalmist saith) like dew upon a fleece. So as this egress out of the society of the world, may be nominated supernatural in the means, though voluntary in the act.

The next is, when any exterior natural agent forcibly de­prives Violent Solitude defined. us of the liberty of all society; and this may often be just, in order to the general society of the world, which is maintained sometimes by violences exercised on particulars; but is always offensive to the nature of Man: And so I term this sort of Solitude, Violent.

The third (which I state as Neutral) is a mixture, and Neutral Solitude defined. compound between the aptness and constitution of particular [Page 319] natures, and some exterior intervention of violence and of­fence to that humor, by which we are most affected to the world; as a defeature of some hope, whereunto our mindes were most applyed, or some loss, of what our affections had made an intire transaction of themselves unto, or some inju­ry above our reach of any reparation, and many the like vio­lations of our mindes in the world, upon which we break off correspondence with it. And this condition of Solitari­ness I call Neutral, as having somewhat of both the other states of Voluntary and Violent; for both these qualities concur to the composure of this kinde of separation from Society.

For the first sort of these Solitudes, which I call Voluntary, that part of it which is disagreeable to the instinct of Na­ture, is reconciled by the mediation of the Author of Na­ture, who nourisheth the mindes, he calls ou [...] into this De­sert, with lighter and more Spiritual society, which he showers down from Heaven upon them, as the Psalmist says, Man feeds upon the bread of Angels, Prayer and Medita­tion, which associates his Spirit to such company, as he thinks he hath rather one body too much with him, then want of any.

There are many of the children of Abraham whom God Gen. 12 [...] calls, as he did their Father, summoning them by his voyce to come out of their Countrey, from their Kindred, and from their Fathers house, unto a Land that he will shew them; and to this citation many do faithfully answer, quit­ting the Native Region of all their Inclinations, the habi­tudes of Flesh and Blood, which are so near of kin to them, and all the sweetnesses of communication, and solaces of company, which are the domesticks of their Fathers house, and the familiars of our Humane Nature, and separating themselves from all these in [...]e app [...]tencies, take their jour­ney into the strange Region of Solitude, privacy and recluse­ness; and when the Soul, like the Psalmists Spouse, shall thus Psal. 44. 13. forget her own people, and her fathers house, then the King shall [Page 320] be in love with her beauty; and then this delectation of the Luke 12. 40. Psal. 36. Soul in our Lord, confers all the petitions of the heart up­on it.

When God makes these extraordinary selections and vo­cations to this passage through the Desert unto the Land of Promise, he spreads a Cloud over them by day, which sha­dows them from all the ardors of their sensitive appetite, and sets up a pillar of Fire before them in the night, of that fire which Christ came to bring into the earth, that illumi­nateth all the obscurities whereunto our Nature is subject, in the ecclip [...]e of Society, and warmeth and cherisheth that shivering chilness wherewith our Nature is so apt to be be­numb'd, in the privation of the elementary light, and heat of our Nature, which is Communication and Society. This holy fire that accompanies them, doth not onely (as the Psal. mist says) Make their night as day to them, but even the de­vesture of themselves, their solace and delectation; and by the same degrees that they are severed and discharged of themselves, they are replenished with that Society, which entertaineth them with that joy, wherein the fingleness is the universality of it; for it is never all things to any heart, but when it is there alone; This is the peace of Christ, ex­ulting in our hearts: And in Colloss. 3. 15. this Society is the whole Trinity, which, as the Prophet says, Leads first into Hosea 2. solitude, and then speaks to the heart, as though it would have nothing but the heart it self present at this entertainment.

Such passengers as are truly led by this conduct, have for their Viatick, that hidden Manna given them, which is pro­mised in the Revelation, in which they finde the several tastes Rev. 2. of all their inclinations; the relish of the society of Parents, Brothers and Friends, are all savor'd in this celestial Ma [...]na of Contemplation; insomuch as they seem to taste in the source, and spring it self the divers relishes of all those cur­rents of pleasure that flow our of it, before they take various infusions from those veins of the earth they run through. They taste the joys of Fathers, Brothers and Friends, in [Page 321] loving him, who is every thing to pure love: Thus being in the state which the Prophet says, shall be raised above the al­titudes or elevations of the earth, they live in the scent and odour of the blossoms of the Tree of Life, of which they are promised to eat the fruit in the Paradice of God; For our Supreme beatitude, is the contemplation of God, ripe, and gathered in the maturity of the full vision of his Essence, so as one of the sweetest fruits of Glory, is a perfect and con­summate Contemplation.

They then who live in this holy Garden of Speculation, may be said to be already under the shady leaves of the Tree of Life; this state of separation from the world, seem­ing to be in such an order and relation to the supreme beati­tude, as Adams Paradice was to Heaven, as it is in a maner of integrity of [...]ase, and passeth away out of this life by a kinde of translation to glory. They live in the Suburbs of the celestial Jerusalem, whose streets are paved with fine gold; and these suburbs in proportion are paved with refined silver, which is a proportionate purity here, to that perfect Charity wherein it terminates within the gates of the City. So as we may say of this kinde of separation from the world (which is an ascending upon Jacobs Ladder) Truly, this is no Gen. 28. [...]her but the house of God, and the gate of Heaven.

Of such Souls that live but at this little distance from their home, while they are still advancing from vertue to vertue, we may say with the Psalmist, Blessed are those Psal. 88. 10. souls which know this jubilation, they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, and in thy Name they shall rejoyce all the day, and in thy Righteousness shall they be exalted▪ It is easie to say much in exalting this happy state of Solitude; all the space between Earth and the empyreal Heaven, the seat of the bles­sed, being the scope we have to extend our thoughts upon: For no exageration that stays short of the sight of God, can go too far in the endearment of this blessed condition, as they who have read the lives of many Saints who have lived in this Region, will easily confess.

[Page 322] I must confess my self very unable to say anything in order to direction, either how to walk in these Suburbs of Heaven, or how to finde the best way to them; yet as one may print a good Map of a Countrey, or stamp of a City, and neither know the streets and passages in it, nor the ways in the Countrey that lead to it; experience in both being requisite for this capacity: So though I am not at all acquainted with the purity of this kinde of Solitude, knowing it onely by sight, as having seen it in the Images of some Saints, I may have taken off this impression handsomly, without any pra­ctical skill in this Divine Exercise of Contemplation; there­fore I will onely say of it as a Holy man did of the Apoca­lypse, I admire it in what I do understand, and also what I do not understand, in honor of what I do: For truly the mystery of this Angelical life, is like the white Stone promised in the Apocalypse, in which a new Name is written, which none Apoc. 2. 17. know, but they that receive it: So that I can say nothing to inform such as have received this white precious kinde of life, onely admire their felicity, who (like Moses conversing with God) see the hinder parts of him in this life, and have as it were the earnest given them of that which S. Paul saith, Neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath it entred into the heart of man, the joy, I mean, of contemplating the Di­vine Essence face to face in the light of glory.

What I may presume to say pertinently in order to my design, is to desire, That all men be very advised in the di­scernment of their vocation to this excellent kinde of Soli­tude, and to proceed as Samuel did, by Eli's advice, in an­swer to the voyce, not to presume upon their first interior motions, though never so clear, but to stay for the iteration and pressure of the same voyce often speaking to them, and not to resolve any thing finally, but by conformity to some Spiritual direction, to the end an acceptation of this excellent course may rather be the perswasion of Humility and Obedi­ence, then any promptitude or fervor of our temper and complexion: For the voice of God to this vocation, may easi­ly [Page 323] be mistaken, as the Jews took that which was a voice from Heaven for Thunder onely, so many take that for the voyce of God, which indeed is but the thunder of their own con­stitution; some Spiritual fervors (composed of the vapors of their Nature, that lie under the clouds of the world) break­ing out into some loud discontent; which noise of our hu­mors is often taken for the voyce of Grace.

But this vocation is not so likely to be in the great wind of our first Spiritual impulses, or in the flashes of our new fer­vor, as in the gentle ayr and breath which the Prophet found the Spirit of God in; that is, in a soft and equal temper of Humility, and diffidence on the power and vertue of our na­tural propensions; not to trust every Spirit, but to try the Spirit, is the best advice in this great undertaking, and to bring it to the test of a prudent Spiritual Director, who may upon due examination testifie to our Spirit, that this is the voyce of the eternal Word, which pronounceth this, Follow me. And when we have truly heard this voyce, and answered to it by a self­abnegation, then the hundred-fold which he assigned even in this life, is paid in the relinquishment of all, and dissociation from the world, by this union with him, who is so much a­bove all we leave, as he is all we can wish to have.

This is all I can contribute to the reverential estimation of this best sort of Solitude; and since the blessedness of it is much above my report, I will leave it with the Queen of She­ [...]a's admiration, and praise of the Master of this so well or­dered Solitude, who is greater then Solomon, Happy are thy men, and happy are thy servants, which stand thus continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.

§. I.

NOw I have, as I conceive, rather paid my Devotion in this Saintly life of Solitude, then contributed any thing by my testimony to the beatification of it, I shall descend to the other two, which are more terrestial, and of my familiar, acquaintance. Wherefore I may hope to give some more pertinent information of the nature of them; for as I may truly say, I have neither learnt wisdom, Prov. 30. 3. Ecclu [...]. 34. 12. nor have I the knowledge of the Saints; so I may also own, That I have seen many things by erring, and going astray, whereby I have found, that the sensitive part hath often an equal voyce with the rational, in the election of this second state of Solitude, which I have stated as Neutral, and so will treat of it in the middle, between those two I have termed Voluntary and Violent, as mixed and partaking of them both.

What hath been said of the great Patron of Solitude, John Baptist, may, in my conceit, sort well with this parti­cular I now describe; to wit, That he was the Horizon of the Law and the Gospel, his state being a kinde of middle Circle that did divide those two Haemispheres, touching upon each of them: Such a position doth this Neutral Solitude seem [Page 325] to have, of being an Horizon between the two states, of pure­ly Voluntary, and Violent Solitude, as it is a middle term be­tween both of them, which parteth and disterminateth them from one another, and partaketh of either of them: For indeed it toucheth both upon Freedom and Constraint; on the first, as it is an act of Election; on the latter, as it is an effect of some exterior compulsion, which notwithstanding it cannot fully distrain the will, yet it lays such forcible mo­tives upon it, as carry away the election in a posture mixed between Consent and Coaction; and this is the maner of our willing in many occasions, when our Imagination sug­gesteth to our Will some apparent good, under the form of Real, and moving this choyce in a kinde of imperious maner of perswasion, carrieth the election, which although it be always voluntary in the act, yet may be said to be vio­lent in respect of the means that wrought it; forasmuch as that voluntary act holds more of the imperfection, then of the perfection of Free-wil, as being an act contrary to the or­der of Reason, thatdoth dictate rather the choyce of the real good, then the apparent, which is preferred in this election.

To elucidate this point, we may consider, That the An­gels now cannot make such a choyce, in respect their free­acts are always perfect and regulated by right Reason, though before they did see God it was not so, as in Lucifer is clear: when therefore such a vote is passed by our Will, it must needs argue a kinde of violence and tyranny indeed excerseded over our Reason; and consequently this choyce partaketh of violence in point of perfection of the act, how­ever it is likewise voluntary, in the order of our imperfect Natures, that are less truly free then Angels; albeit we may be said to have an extension of liberty above them, viz. that we can choose as well to do evil as good, which amplitude argueth in effect imperfection and deficiency of liberty, no [...] any compleatment or perfection thereof: And for this rea­son, That by the order of Nature, the understanding ought to command in all rational elections; wherefore it is rather [Page 326] a regulation of Nature to restrain the Will unto Reason, then any violence upon Free-will, to have it so confined or restrained.

In proof whereof we may consider, That even mans Will (which is now in via rebellious, when it cometh to be perfectionated in Heaven, or in patria, as Divines call it) will be reduced into this order and conformity; so while we finde this order inverted by the irregularity of our corrupt­ed Nature, we may say many of our voluntary acts partake of a kinde of violence, when by the predominating of our Will over our Reason, they are rendred acts imperfect, how­ever we may call them free: From whence ariseth this mix­ed amphibious kinde of election, which nevertheless doth not infringe the liberty of the Will, since that electeth al­ways freely; for no force of motives can rise to a direct compulsion of the Will: and the efficacy of extrinsecal impressions, in this case, may be fairly illustrated by Gods maner of working upon the Will, which he moveth effica­ciously to his own end, yet freely in order to her Natures preserving his power and her liberty. After such a sort do external Motives very often carry the elective faculty of the Minde to some choyces and resolutions, moving the Will with efficacy, and withal conveying it with freedom to the determination: And this is the case (I suppose) of what I term Neutral, or Mixed Solitude, when any exterior injury from the world presseth the Will vehemently, to elect this state of life, which is often chosen, as in this mixed Dis­position hath been represented: Wherefore the chief in­tendment of this Discourse, shall be to furnish the Will with such precautions, as may fortifie her against such violent as­saults of the Imagination in this act of so great importance.

§. II.

THe Soul of man being the seat of the Divine Image in Humane Nature, the instinct of sociableness may be said to be the eye, or the sight of the Divine Image in it; for as the eye is the organ of light, which conveyeth to us the chiefest society of all material things (and thence is the noblest maner of Commerce the Body hath with the World, as consequently the worthiest por­tion of our sensitive Nature) So the instinct and Natural ap­petency of Society, is the noblest faculty of our intellectual: For by Society we receive all our rational light, as by the Eye we take all visible species; and the love of company is not imprinted in us so much for our own private solace, as for the support of the common frame of Humane Society: So that the sociableness of Humane Nature, is in order to the conservation and comfort of the whole, by a conveni­ent union of the parts: And the same reasons that require a due disposition of the several parts of our Natural body, for the decency and health of it, hold in the constitution of the Spiritual frame of our Nature, so as the love of Society Definition of order. is referred to the constituting of order, which consisteth al­ways of parts, and is nothing but a due marshalling and ranking of divers and distinct portions, either in material things, or rational designs.

Whereupon, since order is in Nature the final end of this impression of the love of Society, an inordinate love of Company may be out of the order of the sociableness of Humane Nature, as it may aim onely at some propriety that respecteth some such single desire, as is much severed from the common good of Society: and so many self-assign­ments [Page 328] may be in this respect said rather to tend properly to Singularity then Society. According to this rule all the busie negotiation of our passions, in the world, do rather break the chain of Society, then make part in the connexion, though they seem the onely rings and links whereof it is framed. Hence is it we so often see unruly and disorderly activity, and pursuit of some appropriation, occasion a sepa­ration from the world, as falling out with it upon the reje­ction of some unduly affected propriety: And upon these terms many do often break with the world, and retire in de­fiance of all other company, after this defeature of their particular pretence; and so in effect they rather flie from the world upon a repulse in their assault, then leave it in neg­lect of what it possesseth: Wherefore in this quarrel with the worlds party, many do often change their side at first in despight, rather then their minde in a sincere distance of their affections from it; yet on our first estrangement from the world, upon difference with it, God is so Divinely compas­sionate, as he doth not upbraid us with our first infidelity, in adhering so firmly to the advers party in all our success­fulnesses, which we take as the pay of his enemies.

All which truly understood, are but the excesses of Gods plenitude, who can afford even to his enemies, as his waste and redundancy, these his temporal Bounties, since The earth is his, and the fulness thereof: Insomuch as the infiniteness of the Divine goodness, is very often manifested most in the reception of such as come in to him, upon the worlds cashiering of them: For God accepts even his enemies Reformado's, and preferreth them often to great Trusts in his house.

We cannot therefore discountenance this breach with the world, though at first it be not in direct order to the follow­ing of Christ; for he to whom St. John forbade the casting Luke 9. 50. out of Devils, because he was not of Christs train, was not­withstanding authorized by Christ himself: God resolveth often (in this case of an indirect address to him) as Christ [Page 329] answered St. John, in the forecited occasion, He taketh those to be for him, who are not against him: for many of such who are but so near Christs side as a declaration against the world, he doth often retain and setle in his service.

S. Pauls Charity was a copy of this his Masters, who rejoy­ced at an accession to Christ, whether it were either by pretence, Phil. 1. or in truth: So God is glorified in some degree in many such relinquishments of the world, which have at first more ani­mosity then sincerity of Devotion; because this defiance hath always some apparence of victory over the world, which still gives a kinde of alarm to the worlds party, and shews them the contempt of the world, standing before them in such a posture, as stirs up some reflexion upon the de­spicableness of it, or at least upon the distresses and dangers in it, and so moves, in some measure, towards a consultation on their estates.

Yet do I not upon this foundation advise any hasty incon­siderate Sequestration of our selves from the world, though there are many (who like some criminal and Banditi retiring into the the Sanctuary onely for safety) have by the frequent­ing Gods domesticks, been sincerely converted into the fa­mily, and have taken up the arms of the Spirit, with which they have combated onely the rest of their life against them­selves by continual mortification. In this maner many (up­on civil enmities with the world) have (in their retreat out of it, and taking the Sanctuary of Solitude) found by de­grees that Sanctification, which at first they did not chiefly seek, as God said to the Prophet, I am sought of those that asked Isaiah. not for me before; and I am found of them that sought me not: This was the case of many who sought Christ at first, meerly for recoveries from incurable diseases, by the worlds Art, which had given them over, and found Spiritual reparations of their Souls, above what they projected. Many such bedrid Pal­ [...]ies, benumb'd and stupified in their passions, which are fain to be carried out of the world, by the violent hands of di­vers afflictions, being brought to Christ into such solitudes [Page 330] wherein he doth most manifestly reside, receive not onely the cure of their passions, which they sought chiefly at first, but are often staid and scaled with a Divine impression of the contempt of the whole world, and a sincere consecration of themselves to Spiritual affections.

This happeneth when God in some rare cases useth in­strumentally the worlds sharp tools, as fit and proportionate to work on some stony hearts, wherein his Image is much defaced, which he hath notwithstanding from all eternity designed for figures to stand in his house: But such are pre­cedents of Gods Mercy, to reverence onely, not to relie upon; for God (as the Prophet saith) doth often take out a stony heart, and put one of flesh in the room of it; whence the Apo­stle telleth us, He hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will Rom. 9. 18 he hardeneth; yet he will harden none, but such, as like fire­stones, resist and grow harder by the heat of his love, or the flames of his judgements, which he hath first applyed to soften them. They who study Gods hand in all the va­rious designs and colourings of his Works, shall discern it even in all those pieces of Providence, which are of such different maners, as have made many mistakes in the world upon this Conclusion.

§. III.

THere is no notion under which we can more apply look upon God, then as a Physician to our weak Nature: He who knows all the properties of Actives and Passives, applyes to all constitutions their proper reme­dies; and as some Medicines are not proper both for Beasts [Page 331] and Man, in regard of their different tempers; So for brutish sensual persons, there are required stronger Drugs, then to more reasonable and ingenious dispositions. The Word of God makes this difference often between voluptuous and sensual habitudes, and between pious and vertuous consti­tutions, calling the one Dogs, and the other Children; wherefore as the Physicians minister to some tempers onely such Drugs which they call Benedicta, blessed simples, which work kindly, and yet effectually upon them, & to others they are fain to prescribe Minerals, and more violent Ingredients to move them: So there are some such insensible habits of minde, as Gods Benedicta, his Blessings, and his gentle voyce of vocation doth not move; but their strong Na­ture rather works upon them, and alters them, turning them into the nourishment of their passions, while all their tem­poral Benedictions are converted into aliment of their sen­sualities.

Therefore to such indurate tempers, God ministers often rude and violent Minerals, so unprepared, as they seem to the world to be poysons; these we may call Affronts, Losses, Dishonors, and all kinde of Disappointments: and these violent compositions work upon their Natures, and alter it, by which their cure is performed; so that oftentimes the worlds Injuries prove R [...]ceits ministred, when it intends ruines: For while the enemies of our 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 [Page 332] 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 th [...]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 [Page 333] 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 bru [...]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 Jer. 30. to him, doth adjudge a punishment s [...]ted to this presumption, [Page 334] 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 [...]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 Luke 17. that reverend distance: And Christs answer in this case is a very pertinent direction to such Spiritual Lep [...]s, Go, and show your selves to the Priests, take advise of Gods Ministers, and their opinions of the cl [...]anness and purity of their inten­tions, [Page 335] before they venture into the communion of this San­ctuary of holy Solitude, otherwise their present offering may prove of as ill an odour as their former Sacriledge.

If these Animadversions meet likewise with any such as are not urged by the pressure of their Consciences, but ra­ther solicited so much by their natural temper and disposi­tion to privacy and retiredness, as upon the least provoca­tion of the world they are apt to break with it, these humors are desired to stay and pause [...]riou [...]ly and long on this sug­gestion; for this may often be the operation of Melancholy which works this hasty promptitude: And as Melancholy is the highest degree of choler in the Humors; so in these hasty sallies out of the society of the world, there may well be more Natural Humor, then Spiritual Disposition, and so this be rather a Disease, then a devout Constitution: Wherefore like sick men that forbear food long, while the Humor is consuming, these retreaters may for some time live quietly, as long as this Humor of the worlds disrelish is wasting and spending it self; but after that is digested, the appetite of the world returns, and likely gnaws upon their peace, they having no natural food for it. Hence is it that such complexions ought to be very advised in this their assigning of themselves, according to the propensity of their Humors, which perswades them often, that what is indeed but the Ec [...]ho of their own voyce of Nature which speaks in them, is a Spiritual vocation: For their Natural Consti­tution raifeth that desire in their imaginative part, which causeth a little repetition and answer of it in the Judiciary and Rational power of their minde; but it is rather from the hollowness of their reason, then the solidity of it, that this Eccho is returned.

The result therefore of all these Examinations of several Cases, must be, Not to conduct our selves by the prece­dents of special extraordinary vocations of some, whom Christ hath sent for out of the streets and by-ways of the world, that is, immediately from the foulness and immundicity of [Page 336] their lives, and by his Messengers of Crosses and Afflictions, compelled them to come into his house: For these Cases are pre­rogatives Luke 17. 23. of Gods Grace, which do not alter the known Laws that are enacted by him; by which Laws we ought to try our vocations, to wit, by the mature advice of those Judges he hath seated in his Tribunal upon Earth, his Church; and by their Sentences to make the tryal of all our own pri­vate impulses or motions of our Spirit, to this dispossession and abnegation of the world▪

Christ himself hath ruled this case in an excellent Parable, Luke 14. 28. of one that builds a Tower, which is properly adopted to the design of a contemplative life, as it is the erection of a frame of life, raised high above the other parts of the Earth, and intended for prospect and discovery; so that none must un­dertake this edifice, but after computation of the pertinen­cies requisite for the finishment, lest they expose themselves to the reproach, of having begun what they were not able to finish; and this reckoning and account of our provision, must be made by the consulting of a prudent Spiritual Surveyor, not trusting to the Architecture of our own Spirit, in which we must zealously, often and humbly consult the eternal Ar­chitect of all Spiritual frames, for a sincere discernment of his order, in the regulating our own designs, with this ad­dress of the cautious Spirit of Holy David, Lord, grant me Psal. 142. to know the way wherein I should walk; for I have lifted up my soul to thee.

This parting and separation from our own Will, is the first leave we must take in our valediction to the world; and this is not to be done by a hasty dismission of it, for so it is but a weight thrown upward, which is fastened to us, and falls quickly back again; therefore it must be loosened and severed by degrees, and steeped, as it were, in the fresh spring­ing water of Prayer and Mortification, whereby it will peel and fall away the easilier: Some perseverence in this disposition is requisite, to blanch and whiten the intention perfectly. St. Pauls advice for our preparation for the Holy [Page 337] communion, is, me thinks, very properly applicable to this our preparation, for participating of this Spiritual food; for Religious Solitude is the Table of the Holy Ghost: Therefore, let a man examine himself, and then eat of this bread of life, for he that presumes to taste of it unworthily, may be truly impeached as guilty of much irreverence to the Holy Spirit, in venturing to come to the Communion of his Gifts and Graces rashly, without a due consulting of his invitation.

I need not urge our precaution and advisedness in this case farther, since our temerity in it is brought to be a kinde of Sin against the Holy Ghost: Whereupon I will close up this Ad­vertisement in St. Johns words, Beloved, believe not every Spi­rit, 1 John 4. but try the Spirits, whether they be of God; for many false promises of this Spirit of an happy Solitude, are current in the world, it being truer in no case then in this, It is not of Rom. 9. him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who sheweth mercy.

§. I.

IN the case we treated last, the Will needed a premonition against the deception of sight; for our Will in fits of Melancholy, looketh commonly through the glass of our Imagination, upon such objects as flatter that humor most: This Perspective of our Fancy is often cut into such angles, as represent various and false colours of perswa­sions, wherewith the Will is inveigled, such species proving not real when our Reason cometh strictly to oversee them. Therefore in the election of Solitude, the elective faculty was to be instructed against the falacies of discourse, upon which, the Resolution is to be grounded; but this case re­quireth a different direction: For here, the best course the Will can take to rectitude, is, to be totally blinded and ciel­ed, that she may make the straighter mount upward to the eternal Will, and not amuse or perplex her self by looking about, with a solicitous inspection into second causes, but may pitch at the first flight upon the primary cause of all Contingencies.

Our Nature requireth much precaution in this aptitude, to intangle us under the pretext of infranchisement, by the [Page 339] liberty of reasoning out the Causes of all advers Accidents; for in this case of loss of Liberty and Company, our Na­ture likely seizeth on curious disquisitions of all Humane Reasons, as the next thing she takes hold on, to make com­pany out of them, and the contrivement of issues out of these straights, is a sort of freedom our Nature takes, as some imaginary reparation in her necessity; by reason wherof these are cōmonly the first occupations wherein our Fancy seeketh some divertisement: and this entertainment may lighten the weight a little, by removing it to and fro in our Fancy, not letting a sad apprehension setle upon our mindes; but all this agitation of discourse, as long as it is but in circum­ference about this world, and in the element of secondary Causes, is still but a circular motion, which maketh no progression to our end: for till our mindes are risen and fix­ed upon the supreme Cause, all the various projects and motions of our Fancy, are but cooling a Feaver with [...]anning upon the distemper'd patient, where the ayr may afford some exterior refreshment, which may be an inflaming of the dis­ease; but if our Will be [...]eled at first, with the Dove of the Psal. 54. Psalmist, she flyeth up immediately to her rest: The sooner then we spread our thoughts upon the wings of Faith, the more haste we make to be lodged in rest and tranquility of Spirit.

Liberty and Society are two so dear Proprieties of Humane Nature, as natural Reason can give no equivalent exchange in satisfaction for them: The Author of Nature can onely recompence this privation of two of the best Functions of our being, and this by a communication of no less then his own Nature, which is, by filling up these breaches with his own Spirit, otherwise our Spirits will certainly remain empty and destitute of peace and consolation: For God, who made Mans Society out of Man himself, hath left the love of Company so inviscerated in him, as that deprive­ment seemeth now to take more then a rib out of him, even the better half of his Minde seems intrenched from him; [Page 340] insomuch as his Reason seemeth to be left but one-handed, to minister to him in this Exigence, which would require a reduplication rather for his support; But Nature is so unable to make this supply, as for the redintegrating of his minde, he must resort to a Supernatural suppeditation.

§. II.

WHen I consider the strange undertakings of the Philosophers, me thinks they have charactered to us the power of Natural Reason, in a fabu­lous figure or Romance, setting it out as vanquishing all cor­poreal sensibleness, armed with never so many strong afflicti­ons, dissolving and disinchanting all the Charms and Spells of Passions, although their characters be set never so power­fully against the efficacy of Reason, which they exhibite in this predominancy, dispersing all Errors, rectifying all oblique Opinions; thus have they fancied the superior part of the minde, inthroned in such power as may easily blow away all ayr, even of any Sedition, that riseth in the inferior Regions of the imaginative or sensitive faculties; Reason remaining in the posture of the Queen of the Revelation, proclaiming, I sit Queen, and am no Widow, and shall see us sorrow.

But they who account upon this Self-sufficiency, shall quickly finde how impracticable these strong speculations will prove, when they are bound, and the Philistines are upon them; that is, inclosed in Solitude, and assailed by Natural distresses and vexations; if they shall then expect such a Her­cules of their Reason, as they have seen painted by the Stoicks, that should break through all these Monsters, and remain [Page 341] fortified by all these labors, they will soon perceive their projected securities had more of Poetry then of Prophesie: And sure I believe one that trusteth to the power of Natural Reason, upon the word of Philosophy, to deliver him from all faintness or deficiency of Spirit in this state of Vio­lent Solitude, doth as if one should perswade himself inspired with the vertue of some fabulous Heroe, with whose chara­cter he had been strongly affected by reading his Romance; for when he comes to combat his vitiated Nature in this Spi­ritual atchievement, he will finde such a vanity in his specu­lation. The Fable of Ixion is a good figure of this kinde of presumption; for projecting to enjoy Juno (that is, some celestial Prerogative) they do but embrace a cloud, and by this mixture they beget nothing but Chymera's.

Certain it is, that Christianity doth afford such Spiritual Samsons, as carry the gates of their Prisons away upon their shoulders up to the Mountains, and break all their chains as flax, raising their mindes, with the Psalmist, up to the moun­tains, contemplating Gods Providence and his design upon them in so high a degree of resignation, as even their Pri­son and their Solitude are rather Marks to them of their li­berties, then Manacles of their Spirits; but the strength of such Samsons is derived from the vow, not from the veins or sinews of Nature: Is it by their offering up and consecrating their Reason to that Spirit, whose breath over­throws all the strong holds, and destroyeth all the councels 2 Cor. 10. of Self-sufficiency, and replenisheth the evacuation which is made of our own Reason, to make room for that infusion: therefore such victorious Spirits profess, That the weapons of their warfare are not carnal, but such as are mighty to the de­stroying of all the counsels of humanity, and bring into captivi­ty all understanding unto the obedience of Christ; for as he himself assureth us, If the Son of man make you free, you shall be free in­deed: John 8. 36. So that all such infranchised mindes are convinced of the incapacity of their single Nature, to preserve this im­munity, and acknowledge this condition to that Spirit which [Page 342] ima [...] this freedom, by the degrees of restriction [...]o putteth upon them of his own bands; for where the Spirit of 2 Cor. 3. 17. our Lord is, there is liberty. This Spirit made St. Peter s [...]eep soundly in his chains between his two guards, that is, hold him reposing in a perfect stilne [...]s of minde in all his ex [...] disquiets, and preserved him in as much freedom of Spirit before his irons were struck off, as after the iron gates of [...] City flew open before him; even while he lay in his Dun­geon he was surely in the same freedom of minde, bound in his chains, as sitting on his chairs of Rome and A [...]; and the Centurion that fell down before him at Ces [...]ea, con­strained his Spirit more then the Soldiers between whom he was laid down at Jerusalem.

The Soul of man then is capable of a state of much peace and equanimity, in all exterior bands and ag [...]ions; but this capacity is rather an effect of the expropriation of our Reason, then a vertue resulting from her single capacity, for it is the evacuation of all self sufficiency that a [...]h a replenishment from that Divine plenitude, from whose fulness we receive grace for grace; so that it is a super ve [...] 1 John 16. gift, not a native graft in our Reason: And this tranq [...] of Spirit, he that led captivity captive hath given as a gift unto men, whereby we become partakers of his Divine Na­ture, 2 Pet. 1. in this calm and serenity of minde, which he pa [...] out to us in all his several postures: Wherefore in our copy­ing of this equality and imperturbation, we must protest with the Apostle, We have not received the Spirit of the World, 1 Cor. 2. 12, 13. but the Spirit which is of God; not in the l [...]a [...]ned words of mans wisdom, but in the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost.

Nevertheless, it is our familiar presumption, to [...] much upon the vertue of Humane Reason, whereof the Philosophers have made so lovely Images, as many full [...] Pygmal [...]ons Fancy, of falling in love, as it were, with the Statu [...] of Morality, which wanting the soul and a [...] of Grace, will be found cold and speechless, when they expect the spirit and life of Consolation, in such pri [...] [Page 343] as these of Liberty and Company, which seem to shake even the Centre of our natural app [...]es.

Those who [...]st then upon the power of natural Reason, for the dispossessing themselves of all anxieties and vexa [...]ions of Spirit, will be served like the Sons of S [...]; for the malignity of the world will answer them. The grace of God Acts 19. I submit unto, as having a power to displace and ex [...]el my Mischiefs; but who are you, that undertake by Nature, to cast our all those Evils where with you are possessed, and to [...]ee your Spirit by a lesser power, then that which doth possess it; your Senses in your vi [...]iated Nature being stronger in their appetites, then your single Reason is in her dis­courses: So as when their Senses are much offended by the worlds Malices, such undertakers will be prevailed upon by the present passion, and [...]e put to flye naked and wounded in this Enterprise, as the Sons of S [...]va were in their Ex­o [...]cisms.

The Philosophers who projected Reason to be such a powerful Actor, thought she was onely to contend against the infirmity of Flesh and Blood, knowing not that the Minde was to wrastle with Superior powers, Spiritual rulers, in high places; against which, there is no fence, but the putting on the whole armor of God: for bare Reason cannot be of proof against those fiery darts of Murmure, Repinings and Desolations of Spirit, which great extremities of sufferance cast at our hearts; Reason being so far from making a con­stant resistance, as very often she joyneth with the provoca­tions, and concurreth, with the perswasion of revolting against Patience, as a more reasonable thing to complain and repine, then to resist our Senses, in this onely appetite which is left to satisfie our Nature, the ease of bemoaning and lamentation.

We are so much more enlightened then they who boast­ed of this Self-sufficiency, as we are in defiance like Ene­mies, with those they worshipped as gods; so that we had need have better Arms then those they have left us, to com­bat [Page 344] with▪ And we may observe the insufficiency of [...] presumptions by this instance, that what they erected [...] Trophy of their Victory, is to us the greatest brand of in­famy and poverty of Spirit, which was the running away out of this life, upon any extremity of pressure: This even in rectified Reason, is the ignoblest way of yielding, rather then an act of conquering; insomuch as this, which seemed to them a demonstration of their position of the mindes im­passiveness, is an evident confutation of their opinion, for this is a total surrender to the power of that passion which hath made this life intolerable.

Cat himself, whom Seneca adoreth as the Deity of Phi­losophy, dissolved all the frame of his Maximes, when he was fain to open a violent passage for the flight of his Spirit out of the pressures it either felt or feared; Was it not [...] ­fillanimity to choose in favor of his Senses, a softer blow from his own hand, then he feared from Fortune▪ He should have suppressed the apprehension of tyranny, and not have drenched his thirst of liberty in his own blood; why did he not quench that and or, by casting away his dag [...], as he did the glass of water in the Desert, where he refreshed his whole Army, by extinguishing his own Natural appe­tite: This had been the best proof of the apathy of his minde, the resolving to suffer even servitude in an Imp [...] ­ble temper; but by this Self distrusting, he did sign with his blood the retractation of his Maxime, confessing Se [...] ­vitude to be insufferable to his minde; This precipita­tion cannot be vindicated from the charge of impatience and discomposure in his minde, which is the disproof of all the Stoical assertions: Christianity glorieth not in [...]y innate, but in an infused vertue, saying, He that is in you, [...] [...] John 4. greater then he that is in the world.

And so the power that holdeth the Spirit of a good Christian, is Forein and Divine, and consequently [...] stronger then any that can shake it, although the worlds Earthquakes may make a local mutation of his person, [...] ­mains [Page 345] still calmly in any posture wherein God shall set him, upon whose providence he knoweth all rowlings and fluctua­tions to be current, and seeth his own security, with the Psal­mist, at his right hand, which stayeth him from being moved; Psal. 15. the same hand that removeth him in all his local changes, holdeth him in a tender love to that power, which together with the pains of his senses, introduceth the spirit of resigna­tion: These reflections may be well applyed, to dispossess that presuming spirit of the children of this age, who pretend to expel all sense of misfortunes, by the Exorcism of Moral Philosophy and Natural Reason.

§. III.

BY this redargution of the arragancies of meer Rationa­lists, I do not purpose to reject the use of Moral Philo­sophy, in this great work of consolation in distresses, but to rank it in a due order, ministring and subservient unto Grace; For when the peace of God, which passeth all understand­ing, is seated as the Principal, then Moral Reasons are sitly received, as serviceable Accessaries to the Solace and Recrea­tion of the minde: If we should first examine and try the Principles of Christian Religion, by the best extent of Hu­mane Reason, we shall never accept the Mysteries of the Trinity from the single hand of Rational perswasion; But when we have pitched our belief of this Verity upon the Word of God, when our Faith hath carried our assent as high as Heaven upon her wing, from thence we may then de­scend to the Orb of Reason, where Discourse affordeth us many Similitudes and Congruities, to open and illustrate [Page 346] to our apprehension this Mystery, in such sort, as to bring it as it were within sight of Humane Reason, in some obscure and imperfect notion: So when we have first erected our expectance of confort and support upon the Divine station of Grace, then we may step downwards upon the paces and gradations of Reason, and finde there solidity of Re­creation for our mindes whereupon to rest, walk and exer­cise themselves; For then we use Moral Discourse, but as an Organ whereby God conveyeth to us the clarity and eluci­dation of the nobleness of the soul, indued by his grace with this capacity of remaining impassive in all exterior violence.

In order to the illustrating this Position, the precepts of Philosophy come in the stronger, when they enter in their due places, unfolding to us the nature of the Universe, and spreading fairly before us the contempt of all Temporali­ties, by divers detections of the infidelity of all things sublunary. Thus after the right marshalling of this Auxi­liary succor, the more stock we have of Moral Philosophy, the more inlargement we may make of the Recreations of our Spirit, in these straights of our condition; For as a very learned Humanist, converted to Christianity, is the more able, by the means of this learning, to explicate and illu­strate the Doctrine whereof he is perswaded: In like maner, after this first conviction of our mindes, touching the ne­cessity of our primary recourse to Grace, for the rectitude and conformity of our hearts, they who are the most con­versant with the Precepts of Reason and Philosophy, shall be the best qualified by these helps, for the amplification of their entertainments, and sweetning the Natural asperity of Solitude.

We must be sure then to fix this Principle in our thoughts, that all Humane Philosophy doth but the part of the wate [...] of Sil [...], it doth but wash off the dirt of Ignorance from our eyes; it is the vertue of the superior direction, which send­eth us to that sort of Application, which commandeth this [Page 347] admirable effect; Reason is used by that supreme agent, to take off the foulness and impurity of terrestial objects from the eye of our Minde, and to open it into the speculation of vertue, but it is Grace which worketh the Miracle of this Serenity of Spirit, by these instrumental illuminations of Reason: As long then as Philosophy is kept onely as a hand-maid, with her eyes looking always upon the eye of her Mistress Ephes. 2. (which is Grace, the gift of God) so long she proveth very useful to her service; but where she is seated as single com­mander of the family, all her specious precepts and dire­ctions will prove (as the Apostle termeth them) but learned fables, when this practical office is required of them, to in­state the minde in that regularity and apathy whereof they are so confident projectors.

Having setled this Maxime, as Disciples of the Psalmist, for the fundamental article of Spiritual composure, My soul, wait thou upon God, for from him is my patience; then Psal. 61. the discoursings and arguments of Morality are proper stuff to adorn our mindes, that they remain not bare and naked, but furnished with convenient matter of meditation and entertainment: Humane literature may be used in this order, as Ceremonies are in Religion, which are requisite to excite and detain Devotion and Reverence in our Nature, that is affected much with sensible coverings of Spiritualities, which affording, as I may say, no hold for our Senses, our Mindes are not so easily staid and fixed in an attention upon such Duties; therefore such occupations of our Senses, are very pertinent towards the raising and arresting our Devo­tion. In like maner the flowers and adornments of Moral Philosophy, are apt and serviceable for the affecting and entertaining our Imagination, by the gracefulness and ele­gancy of their perswasions, which are very congruent with the nature of our Affections, that incline most to notions a little aspersed with sensible matter, and so are easiliest staid and quieted in such attentions, which hold our Spirits in a more cheerful application to the Arguments of rectified Reason.

[Page 348] In this order, Philosophy may be acknowledged to be a convenient discipline, belonging to the doctrine of Peace and Tranquility of Spirit, which is grounded in that pax vobi [...]; that cometh in like the Master of it resuscitated, not through John 20. the doors of Humane Reason; and then this peace useth dis­course and argument, as Christ did his body, who in conde­scendence to the weakness of the Faith of his Disciples, made them feel and handle it: So doth the Holy Spirit clothe his Grace with sensible Reasons, so correspondent to our Fan­cies, as they do the easilier acquiesce unto them, and thus contribute to the mindes repose and regulation: Surely this is the proper function of literate elegancy, to figure vertue in so lively and fresh colours, that our imagination may be so taken with the beauty of vertue, as it may invite our mindes to make love to her in solitude; and in this suit our Reason may make good company, even out of all our wants and de­solations, as imploying them to do us good offices to this Mistress, by their testimony of our patient acceptance of all sufferings, that may advance us in this pursuit, which nothing doth more then a temperate constancy in Distresses, wherein vertue loveth to try the fidelity of her servants: And thus we may make even Solitude prove our access and mediation to our love, whileg▪ we are in research and suit to vertue, for unto her we know it is confessed, that difficulties give the best introduction and entrance.

So that the uses of Philosophy are much improved by this their proper application, to illustrate the amiableness of ver­tue; and by the gaining of our Fancy, to facilitate the sub­jection of our Affections to our Reason, whereunto Hu­mane learning conduceth in many respects; and it may not unaptly be said to be a kinde of Spiritual Heraldry that doth blazon the Arms of Natural Reason, shewing the genea­logy and descent thereof from the Father of Lights, and marketh the affinities and alliances between Grace and Nature, keeping a Register of the Antiquity and Nobility of Moral Vertue, in the examples and precedents of all Times; and [Page 349] in these respects is very pro [...]itable in all states, especially in Solitude, both to recreate and rectifie the minde of man.

And indeed nothing inableth us more for the best im­provement of the stock of Philosophy, then having our wills first fastned unto Gods design upon us, before our un­derstandings range abroad into the documents of Morality for exercise and recreation: Me thinks we may well be al­lowed to apply these orders of the Temple of Solomon to our present Argument, and say as they, who by their conse­cration were admitted into the holy place of the Temple, had liberty to come out, and entertain themselves in the out­ward Courts of the Laye [...]y, and the station of Gentiles; but they who were not qualified by some holy Character, were not admitted into the inward part of the Temple, or the San­ctuary: So they who have devoted first their Reason to the inscrutable Order of God, and have this Character of Christianity imprinted on them, may freely and usefully recreate their mindes in the outward Galleries of Philoso­phy, where Humane Reason hath an inlargement and spa­ciousness for the exercise and solace of the understanding; but if our Spirits are but of that rank which are without, in the arches of Philosophy, and conversant onely in the por­ches of Moral Vertue, this constitution doth not sufficient­ly qualifie our mindes for admission into the interior Sanctu­ary of Peace and Tranquility of Spirit: So that all I have so much pressed, tendeth to perswade every one in this case of Distress, to begin, by devoting their mindes intirely to Gods Order, and to expect the liberty of their Spirits from the vertue of that Christian consecration; and in this me­thod, all their studies and occupations in Humanity or Mo­rality, will be like the Gold upon the Altar, which though it be noble by nature, yet was sanctified but by application to Divine uses, and so all Humane sapience (which though vertuous, is but secular) by this Dedication becometh Sa­cred and Religious.

§. IV.

HAving laid the ground-work of our peace and ac­quiescence upon that Divine Assignment which Christians are to account upon, which is the provi­sion of it by the All-sufficient power, that giveth not such John 14. 27. peace as the world giveth, but such as none shall take from us; upon this foundation we may design the frame of our time into several rooms and offices, respectively to our Duties to God, and the diversions of our own minde, to make this sort of life both as useful and as agreeable as we can: For this kinde of Solitude is acknowledged to be a burthen to our Nature, and so by parting and dividing it as it were into several parcels, we seem to carry the less of it at once; whence it becomes of easier portage. By the experience I have had of the benefit of this method, I should advise every one in this case to make partitions of the day into several hours, assigned to distinct occupations, beginning in the morning with the intentional Sacrifice of the whole day to the honor of God, looking upon this memorial S. Bernard perused every morning, Bernarde ad quid venisti? Bernard, what wert thou born for? This question to our selves, of what we are come into the world for, may easily afford us this resolution, That we have no time to spare in the longest day, for that work for which we were created; having then in the beginning of every day made this Free-will offering of all our time, we may take such portions as are allowed us back, after this consecration, and divide them into such pieces, and dress them in those maners, as best agree with [Page 351] the appetites of our minde, both to nourish our Soul, as well as to solace and recreate our Imagination.

I should advise then, that every day may be cut out into several portions of entertainments, in that company (which I suppose onely allowed) that is, the conversation of Books; which address I need not recommend to any in this case: for in this civil death, we do naturally repair to the society of the dead; and in Books we finde a civil Resurrection of the dead for our conversation: And by this sort of intombning our thoughts, we revive our Spirits, and have better or worse company, according to the qualities of those Spirits we choose to converse with (for I suppose this allowance in this civil death, of free intelligence with all these kindes of Shrines and Reliques of the dead) and I do not mean to make a new commitment of any body's minde, restraining them onely to Mount Thabor, with Moses and Elias, that is, to Books of Devotion and Contemplation; they may, as I have explained, walk not onely innocently, but usefully in the ways of the Gentiles, out of all sorts of Philosophy, History, Policy, and out of lighter food of Humanity, there may be wholsom nourishment drawn and assimilated to a good constitution of minde; yet certainly the solider and purer the aliment is we feed upon, the stronger and sounder complexion we shall induce: But what licences soever our Fancies take for their recreation, our Spirits must be regu­lated in this, to taste constantly of the Morning and Even­ing Sacrifice of the Temple; that is, in each half of the day there ought to be some hour assigned, to the reading of some Book of Devotion; this practice will keep the fire on the Altar always alive, which by an insensible perspiration breatheth out a pious warmth into all the other innocent oc­cupations of our mindes; nor is it required, that the no­tions of Religion and Piety should be always blazing in our cogitations▪

When we have thus portioned out our day into several assignments of Prayer, Reading or Meditation, we shall not [Page 352] feel the weight of the whole day upon us all at once, onely such hours by themselves as are successively chained upon one another, by links of various occupations, and every such division, as it hath some ayr of variety in it, seemeth rather a recreation, then a charge upon the minde, which must be cherished with those diversities that may (as near as we can draw them) resemble liberty; and when all our time is parcell'd out into different voluntary addresses, there being no spaces left void or empty, time weigheth much the lighter, the less vacuity is left in it; for nothing nauseateth the minde so soon, as an emptiness of thoughts, bespoken and fitted for her entertainment, since in that vacuousness the winds and vapors of tediousness and displicence rise and fume out of our imagination into our Spirits, whereas a convenient replenishment of the Fancy, with change of at­tentions, doth much suppress such fumes.

We may learn, me thinks, by the eye of the body, how to accommodate objects to the sight of the minde, for both of them are best pleased with the diversity of species, and the competent determination of the prospect; which order and interposure of various and alternate attentions, afford­eth both the change and the limitation agreeable to each of these appetencies, every several trancision of our thoughts to different occupations, breaketh the vastness of Solitude, by a competent termination of the prospect, when our ima­gination looketh no farther then that term of time allotted for that single exercise. These intersertions of differing entertainments, are like woods or hills, which rest the sight in this vast prospect of Solitude, affording our Fancies this agreeable intermixture of variety and rest: So that by this method of an interchanging mixture of Prayer and Study, one may approach to that Blessing the Prophet Isaiah de­scribeth, The Lord will make our wilderness like Eden, and our Isa. 51. 3. desert like the garden of the Lord.

Having given this advice for the lightening of our time, we must not forget some order for the weighing it, that the [Page 353] value may be taken together with the measure; for indeed the worth of time rightly pondered and ballanced by rea­son, may outweigh any Liberty or Company, which either imbase the value of time unto us, or steal from us any ex­cessive proportions of that which is the onely Stock we have for the purchase of a blessed Eternity: And we know how familiar it is, to assign our Liberties and Companies to the discharging us onely of our time, as if the pleasure of our life were but the smothering or making away of precious time: They then (who seriously reflect upon the loss of Li­berty, wherewith vain passions may be charged (by which our mindes are truly imprisoned, while they are dallying with these similitudes of Prisons and Chains, to inlarge the liberties of their Fancy) when they come to understand and affect rightly the freedom of their mindes) may judge this severing from such temptations and fascinating vanities, to be a state of real infranchisement, and esteem the other giddy agitation of their persons up and down the world, floating upon their Fancies, but as a Prisoners Dream, wherein he may imagine himself Master of his own Keepers, while he is faster in hold then when he is awake, and truly apprehending his condition.

They whose mindes then are guilty of these kindes of crimes, of making away their time, and using their former liberties, as instruments in this mischief, let them Arraign their Imaginations upon this Indictment of their Memories; for by judging and casting themselves, they may make a new life out of this suffering and execution of their faulty liberties; which if their Prison put to death in their affe­ctions, as it doth extinguish in their practices, they will conclude themselves rather resuscitated then restrained: How happy may they be accounted, who come to redeem time ever by the evilness of their days, to whose civil death and moral resurrection this of the Apostle may be apply­ed, What was sown in corruption, is raised in incorruption; and 1 Cor. 15. 43. what was sown in infirmity, is raised in power.

[Page 354] This being admitted, let those who lie under this sentence of Sequestration from the world, in stead of setting th [...] hearts upon the Suit of their Habeas corpus, apply them to [...] out, as I may say, their Habeas [...]tem, in which Plea they are sure they have to deal with so indulgent a Judge, as he taketh their own Will for Security, to free their Minde upon it; the which being at liberty, will be well pleased with the Commitment of their bodies, upon the Action of their Time against them, when they conceive that this Arrest was the easiest way for them to acquit that Debt, by the discharge whereof they can onely recover their forfeited Estate of real Liberty: And when their mindes look upon the lovely Image of redeemed and improved time, figured upon the walls of their inclosures, by falling in love with time, they may disprove the Proverb, and make a lovely Prison, while that becometh a possession of their love; and are not their affections happily placed, when time contributeth to the beauty of the object? This Spiritual inamourment hath all these preheminences, and the indearments of such loves, are made by the professions of liberty and infranchisement; how much a nobler engagement then is this of our mindes, above that of such loves, which have all direct contrary qualifications.

Such therefore as address their thoughts to this suit and research, shall by degrees finde their familiarity with this love, introduce them into the acquaintance of that truth which unvaileth the various miseries of all conditions in this life, by the light of Contemplation, wherein this pro­mise of the Prophet is verified, Then shall thy light rise in ob­scurity, Isa. 58. 10 and thy darkness be as the m [...]n day; for by this clarity we may discern the whole world in several chains and man­cipations, and those the most inflaved, who are sweating in the world as in a forge, to hammer out their own Man [...], which they make even while they are laying bolts and irons upon others that are cast under them, but as it were by the rowling of the Ship on the one side, for another contrary [Page 355] wave coming, turns them back again, beneath those they lay upon, and then all the irons they had put on them, prove their own surcharge. The speculation of these truths, may keep the Spirits of Sufferers in more steddiness then is com­patible with that estuation of minde which is inseparable from insolent prosperity: These calm Meditations suggested by the Spirit of Truth, may bring Prisoners into that state which is promised to the clients and followers of these Verities, You shall know Truth, and Truth shall set you Joh. 8. 32. free.

These Advices, in order to the valuation of Time, as they do primarily respect eternity, so incidentally they refer to the reconciling us unto the great acerbities of the mo­ments of this life; where unto, I conceive, this adjunction also of some Counsel, in point of Improvement of Time, in relation to the acquiring of Humane knowledge, may be a very useful ministry and suppeditation.

§. V.

I Do not pretend to design to any their Studies and Re­creations in Lecture, every several Vocation will [...]sily fit it self with inst [...] pertinent to their Profession; I shall advise onely a general method, in order to their thriving best in this Spiritual Pasture. As I have proposed partitions of our hours, into several Applications, so should I counsel a [...] every such Section, between the change of Books, the making some convenient pause of Medi [...]a [...]ion [Page 356] upon the matter of our last attention: For when we reade cursorily, we do but smell and scent the flowers as they grow; but this rumination of the notions, is a gathering and collection of them, and a kinde of carrying them away in Nosegays, and holding to our mindes the sums and digest [...] of their substance, by which means their odour lasts the longer, and leaveth our memory always the more perfumed; so that when our reflections resort thither to smell again the same odours, they may finde some of their ayr remaining in that conserve: And those (who intend to lay in any store of Knowledge, to distribute and dispense it upon preme­ditation) must not onely gather these flowers, and entertain their breaths the longer by these recogitations, but must set themselves to work upon them, and as I may say, distil their essences through their Pens; and thus extract the Spirits of them, making them up in these vessels of Note-Books, distinguished by common places, which are, as [...] were, so many several viols, marked with their peculiar pro­perties, and sorted respectively to their uses, and are kept in this Cabinet of our Note-Book, ready by us to draw out again, either through our pen, or to distribute in our con­versation, or any other function of our profession: For when we have thus extracted these Spirits out of the Books we have wrought upon, it is a Spiritual treasure lying by us, which we may relie upon as a stock for all our necessities, either for private and interior provision, o [...] publike and forein communication.

This way of distillation or confection of our studies, preserving them for lasting uses, is (even without any [...] ­ference to their participation unto others) the best [...] the perfuming and sweetning our time to our selves, in [...] unpleasant ayr of Solitude; for this work breatheth an [...] into our Fancy all the day long, which by filling it, keepeth out the fumes of our natures disease, and impresseth the more strongly on our imaginations, now Images of intelle­ctual acquisitions, which successively entring into [...] [Page 357] thoughts, keep out the unhandsom representations of our condition, wherewith our Fancy is apt to stuff it self, if it have not some such intentive preoccupation: This is there­fore the best prescript all my study of Solitude can admini­ster, which I am bound to recommend, in gratitude to the benefit I must acknowledge to this method, desiring to make a prisoners return for the alms of Confort I have received, to repay a Benefactor in reputation, by divulging (as hand­somly as I can) his good qualities: And truly I have intend­ed in this piece of Solitude I am working on, to follow the order of Painters, rather then Poets, in the describing the person of a Benefactor; for I have not sought to indear my resentments, by the highest praises I could excogitate, but to draw the figure I expose, the nearest the life I could exhi­bit it: For those excesses that may express Art in the Poet, may proclaim Ignorance in the Painter, if he should think to value his gratitude to his obliger, by drawing his picture in such perfection of shape and beauty, as did not render the person knowable by that Image: I have therefore set forth these good qualities of Solitude (to which I profess much obligation) so truly copyed, as I dare say, that those who have never seen it, if ever they come to compare these lineaments of my hand with the life they do character (of Solitude imployed in this method) shall finde, my pen hath not made a Fancy, [...] a Copy, and done this sort of life but right in the Resemblances of her good qualities, whereof I may be bold to say in the terms of the Holy Spirit, The Desert, and the Land without passage, Isa. 35. shall be glad, and the Wilderness shall rejoyce, and flourish as the Lilly.

After a little taking my [...] off from my work (to give you in a few stroke▪ a little [...] of the ingenuity of my own Minde, in designing this Labor for an Altar-piece, rather then a Cabinet Ornament, desiring you to con­ceive my intendment i [...] it [...]cha [...]itable utility, not bare­ly a recreating Imagery▪ I shall proceed to another Advice [Page 358] in this point of Lecture, and represent to you how [...] who read without any intention to converse with [...] Books, and to retain their suggestions, but onely, a [...] [...] say, to kill so much time, abuse themselves in this un [...]vi [...]ed­ness; for they shall finde their time like a c [...]case, m [...]h heavier when it wants this animation of studio [...]sness [...]d intendment, then when it is quickned, as it were, by this Spirit of design and addition to benefit: For this principle of Activeness, seemeth to breathe a kinde of life and [...]i­mation into our time, which maketh it lighter, and [...] better company, when our future designs and purposes [...] to converse and entertain us, with Repli [...] and Deb [...]te [...] of our Propositions: And they (who reade in order to the uses and profits may be extracted, not onely for their present [...]i­vertisements, but for their general improvements) may even in Civil History reade Lectures [...]o themselves of Con [...] ­tion in all their Distresses and E [...]igencies, even the confu­sions of this Sublunary world, may be converted [...] sufficient con [...]orts, by contemplating the various [...] of all conditions, shuffled and tossed together [...] appearing order of equity, Sometimes servants [...] horseback, and Princes walking [...]n the ground [...] servants; [...]d Eccles. 10. [...]. again, how often doth this Scene shew innocent [...] groaning and oppressed by Tyrants, and sometimes [...] ­mate Princes distressed and vilified by Rebellions [...], and (as the Wiseman [...]aith) we finde [...] c [...]g out of a [...] up to a Throne, and another meeting him, dragg'd fro [...] a [...] to a D [...]geon: They (who consider seriously these vic [...] ­tudes of all states, this continual subversion of on [...], [...]d substitution of another into the same room, all things suc­ceeding in this broken and abrupt inter [...]ture) will easily finde their own Nativity cast in this Universal Sch [...] the world, and so need not wonder or complain of [...]y injurious [...]tion in their private Fortune, when they [...] so many va [...]ions assigned unto them▪ [...] they are p [...] this [...] Universe; In which, the [...] order of things [Page 359] seemeth to be disposed a [...] the natural is, wherein corruption and generation mutually entertain one another; but in civil changes the reason is fa [...] more obscured to us, for in the alterations of nature, our reason is more trusted with h [...] secrets, and so i [...] not offend [...] at the present ruine of such things, whereof we are acq [...]ted with their design of renovation; but in the civil perishing and corruption of equi­ty, our reason is more pe [...]plexed, as being no way privy to the intent of such inversions, the destruction of vertuous persons and the exaltation of vitious, the inf [...]licity of good causes, sinking under impious adversaries, are such occur­rencies, as confound humane ratiocination, for in these cases the divine providence seemeth disguised to our eyes in the habit of Chance; so that our faith must look well upon her before it can know her in this dissimilitude to justice.

Me thinks reflecting upon the confusion of this world, there may be many such things as were said by the Holy Spi­rit, Philip. 2. 7. of God being in the [...] of man, applyed not unfitly to the divine providences b [...]ing among men; (which being the wisdom of God in that respect is the same they were said of) May we not then say that Gods providence converseth upon earth, in the habit and similitude of Fortune, and seem­eth exposed to all the weaknes and inequality of Chance, and that (sin only excepted), beareth all the infirmities of in­justice; and surely if faith did not assure us, that under the vail of humane confusion, the wisdom of God were subsist­ing, we might easily judge of Gods providence as the world did of Christs person, and condemn it as a meer na­tural figure of fortune, destitute of all divinity; we know most of those who were to resolve this question, by their single reason, about the government of the universe, either tyed up God in the chain of fate, or left all loose upon the wheel of fortune; but we (who sit in the light prepared to lighten the Gentiles) see by the eye of faith, that the liberties Luk. 2. of God and man are consistent with the divine providence and preordinanion, and that the necessary sequences of such [Page 360] effects as are annexed by order to their respective causes, do no more impeach Gods freedom, then his necessary pro­duction of two persons equal to himself, doth restrain or abate his liberty.

But should we release our mindes from this bond of Faith, whereby they are obliged t [...] pay an acceptance of all chan­ges unto the Divine Order, the very rational consideration of the equal exposure of all conditions to adverse vici [...]i­tudes, might correct our private relunctancies; the Story of all Times sheweth us such frequent [...]uptures and diss [...] ­lutions of all kindes of Union, so familiar Subversions of all Foundations, of Government and Superiority, such an alternative transmutation of all p [...]ivate Fortunes from one into another▪ as they who look but upon the Theatre of this world (which needeth but History for the maker of his Scenes) cannot wonder justly at any part which is put upon their particular. To those then that shall repiningly lament their turns, or expect their exemption, I may safely apply the Prophet Jeremy's Commission against this Jer. 45. 4. pretence, The Lord saith thus, Behold, that which I [...] built I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up over this whole Land; and seekest thou great things for thy self? seek them not.

§. VI.

I Have upon my ruminating on the Stories of the world, been presented often with such an imagination as may prove Instructive as well as Recreative, to such Moral Chymicks as can extract a [...]alt out of the freshest matters their mindes do work upon: I have thought one that had the Historical Map of the world lying before his thoughts, might suppose himself seated upon a high Rock, and look­ing down upon a fair and vast prospect, divided into some Cities and Palaces of the one side, on the other into lovely Gardens and pleasant Groves, or fruitful Fields and Pa­stures, and suddenly seeing a Mine playing upon the Ci­ties, and all sorts of things blown up confusedly into the Ayr, where Princes and People are broken and mangled indifferently, the Chains of the Prisoners flying up, and shivering, perhaps, the Crowns that laid them on, and many other civil dissipations that may be adapted to the confused eruptions of Mines; and being affrighted at this dismal object, he turneth his Eye upon the Fields, Gardens and Groves, as flying into priviledged Retreats, exempt from such violent distractions, and presently he findeth an Earthquake, playing, as I may say, upon all of them successively in their several turns, rending the Ce­dars, deflowering the Gardens, swallowing the fruits of the Campagnes and Vineyards, leaving all the pleasure of his Prospect inverted into objects of Horror and A­mazement. The Story of the world doth often afford such a kinde of Representation; sometimes it present­eth a fair view of glorious MONARCHS, and flou­rishing Nations, symbolized by the Magnificence of [Page 362] Cities and Palaces; high and eminent Prosperity in the Grandees of the Earth, figured by the Cedars; plentiful and opulent private Estates, emblem'd by the pregnancy of the Fields, happy and easie [...]d [...]y the orderly sweetness of Gardens; All these conditions the Sto­ry of every Age sheweth shattered in pieces, by some vio­lent Changes and Subversions.

Thus much light may be derived from our ascen [...] the upper stories of this Fabrick of the Universe, whi [...] overlook this Earth by a narrative view onely of the con­dition and constitution of this world: Surely the Prince of this World knew not who he carried to the top of the Mountain, to tempt by the Glories of that Prospect, [...]e understood him better afterward, when he begg'd of him not to be cast out of the world himself, and [...]ed to him but for a few Swine, to whom he had before offered the whole world; But when the Holy Spirit carrieth any o [...] up to the Mountain of Contemplation, the object [...] poseth of the subjacent Earth, is not onely illumi [...]a [...] but operative; he doth not simply inform the understanding in the estate, but rectifieth the will in the estimation of this world. Saint Paul looked down upon the Earth from [...] Mountain, when he proclaimed, that The figure of t [...] 1 Cor. 7. 31. world passeth away: And Saint John (whose Spirit was [...] were exhaled above the Earth by that heat it felt always of the Divine bosom) dis [...]rned clearly this [...]uctuant state of our Globe, when he advertiseth us, Th [...]s the world pass [...] 1 Joh. 2. [...]7. away, and the concupiscences thereof.

They who take then either of these guides, Reason o [...] Grace, to carry them up to this cli [...] of Meditation, may [...]ast down their thoughts in a [...]alm despection of all tho [...]e shining attractives which they see to be so [...]y; they that contemplate this universal undermining of all [...] stations, need no [...] wonder nor complain to [...]de them [...] [...]rn from the upper part of the world, and [...]unk under the earth in the playing of the Mine: They who are, as it were, [Page 363] thus [...] and b [...]yed in a prison, let them imagine them­selves in that posture where in the playing of the Mine hath laid them, and so be conf [...]d, as involved in the general constitution of this hollow and unfaithful world; and by figuring to themselves this [...] of the Universe, they may conclude, That the wall [...] which inclose them are under­mined also, by the common instability of all Fortunes; and when the time co [...]h that the Train of Change taketh fire, then they are to be carried in [...] another position: So that the impermanency of all thing [...] [...]y, which doth deduct so much from our Temp [...]ary [...]elicity, may be by these thoughts made to [...] proportionably the sence of our se­cular adversity.

Thus by the advice of Natural Reason, we may derive much stability of minde from the infidelity of all [...] ­ [...]: Na [...], Philosophy proposeth to [...] a firmer settlement of our Spirits, upon our duty to Nature, and [...]h [...]rgeth any [...] or [...]lousness, in what state soever of distress; with sedition and [...] even against the Laws of N [...] [...]ce it is by the order of the Universe we stand [...] with all o [...] private grievances, insomuch as to di [...] fro [...] tha [...] order, see [...] an a [...]mpt of our wishes, to confuse and discompose the whole frame of Nature. These, and many other [...]adings, do the S [...]o [...]c [...]s make, to intitle rectified Reason to this power of con [...]erving the minde in an estate of imperturbation, amidst the changes and translations of all vicis [...]udes.

But to Christians these melodious voyces of the Philoso­phers, serve but as Musique to their Church Anthemes, for they are the sacred words of our Faith (put into the airs of Hu­mane Elegancy) that make the Musique Religious, nor the [...] of their sweet perswasions, whereunto single Philosophy doth but report: I may therefore [...]itly present you with this holy Lesson of the great Apostle St. Peter, We have a firmer 2 Pet. 1. 19. word of Prophesie, which we do well to attend to, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place; in all the obscurities of our For­tunes, [Page 364] we have the day-Star of Faith shining in our hea [...] (in respect of which, all Philosophy is but Lamp-light) that giveth us a clear sight of the Providence of God; in all our turnings and transportations we have this Word, even of God himself, organized by the voyce of the Evang [...] Prophet, I form the light, and create darkness; I make [...] Isa. 45. 7. and create evil [...] I the Lord do all these things. The answer of a Christian therefore is well made for us by the Prophet [...]e­remy in Prison, and in all the bitter tastes of these cups of Gods mingling, as the Psalmist found before him, My [...] Psa. 74. 9. Jer. 10. 19 is g [...]ie [...] but I have said, Truly, this is my grief, and I [...]ust bear it; The belief of Gods special design in all things [...] befal us, must answer all the perplexities of a Christian; and we have not onely this order, but this ability imparted to us from our suffering Head, whose members working by [...] vertue of his animation, cannot say [...]less to God the Father then Not my will, but thine, O Lord, be done.

This little intermixture of a Garden-plat or patern, [...] both with the flowers of Nature and the fruits of Grace, may be no unpleasant walk or [...] for the uncon [...]ned [...] ­tion of some solitary Prisoner, to whom I dedicate [...] piece of Entertainment, which, I hope, may in some [...] water and refresh his minde, and help to keep it in this temper of the Prophet, Her leaf green in this time of droug [...] Jer. 17. 8 and not ceasing to yield fruit.

§. VII.

IF I have made any extraordinary discovery of Springs, passing so long through this Desert (in my journey ou [...] of Egypt unto the Land of Promise) I hold my self bound to set the best marks I can upon all such Refreshments, that they may the easilier be resorted to by such as by any acci­dent shall be engaged in this desolate Peregrination; and I need not fear to be tedious in this office, no more then Phy­sicians in their attendances upon Patients: I will impart therefore another Receit I have found very efficacious, which is mixed with the wine of Philosophy, and the oyl of Divinity, it hath both the quickness and vigor of Reason to work upon our Fancy, and the unction of Faith also to supple and molifie the unpleasantness of our Nature, in these constraints of Solitude: This is then the prescript, to make even the multiplicity of the evils and diseases of this life medicinal unto us, by considering how many we are free from, of those we might easily have altogether; as for Ex­ample, If we are in Prison and in health, to remember we have a greater blessing then that we want, and how much [...]reer we are then diseased Princes, close Prisoners within their Curtains. If we chance to be sick and in Prison both at once, we may consider, That we have as much of this violent restraint taken off from us, as is imposed upon us by this Na­tural one, in which we are cōmitted by our own body, since in this case all states are reduced to the same confinement, be­ing under the Arrest of Sickness, and therefore our liberty may seem as it were recover [...] by our infirmity, since no body is in pain to want what they could make no use of if they possessed it.

[Page 366] The more then we have of this evil of sickness, the lest we have of this other of imprisonment, for the sicker we are, the less capable we become of the use of liberty; so that we may say, Nature seem [...]th to have provided, that the [...] of our bodily evils, should cure the next worst of our cor­p [...] su [...]s, since the wa [...] of health [...] prop [...] ­nately to remedy the privation of liberty.

And again, if this violent separation from the world [...]e but the policy of an adverse party, to intercept all ou [...] contri­butions, to the promoting of the cause which they impu [...], then we may reflect, how much better our condition is, then if we were under the indignation of some inh [...] tyrannies, which use tor [...]res as instruments which [...], curiosities play upon, to draw those tunes out of th [...] their fancies or their fears have set; and [...]o such mis [...], we may remember our selves to be exposed: thus we [...] discourse over all the mischiefs of this life, wh [...] we might have ben condemned, and it is likely, we shall finde upon this accompt, the number of our exemptions in our present stare, a just mitigation of our senten [...] this ingenious diligence of our reason, we may finde [...] be [...]s enough of miseries, that stand as I may say, Neu [...] and levying them thus by our meditation, we may bring th [...] in to our succor, to defeat those which are actually declared against us, whereby we may be said to overthrow [...] the multitude of her own forces, while (by ou [...] [...] ­ptions from so many of the worlds greater [...]alamiti [...]s) [...] facilitate the cariage of our owne portion, and by the [...] of the Gospel, we may properly make, in this occa [...], those which are not against us to be with us.

This little hint will serve to lead our thoughts into [...] fields of meditation, upon the numerous in [...] of [...] Age, which surrounding by enemies, the more it [...] the likelier it is to draw our eyes up to the mo [...] with the Psalmist, from whence we may expect our [...] and looking faithfully up to those hills with the [...] [Page 367] we shall de [...]ery supernatural Auxiliaries, whereof we may 2 Kings 6. 16. truly say [...]o our fearfull se [...]ses, as to our amazed servants, [...] for there are more with us then against us.

I have set most of my spiritual notions with the foilies of humane perswasions, considering how much such conjun­ctions conduce to a be [...]tering the water of the jewels of Di­vinity into the eyes of our nature; S. Paul used this art, when he was content to speak after the maner of men for the infir­mity of our flesh. But now I will present you with an advise Rom. 6. sincerely Divine without any, plau [...]ible adjunction to illu­strate it, which is in this order of distributing the day I have proposed, to assign some special part of every day, (the measure whereof I do not define) to a serious medi­tation upon the immensity of eternity, and the momenta­riness of this life, we may consider the time of all ages, like a little globe of smoke vanishing into the vast region of air; for all time holds less proportion to eternity, then the least vapor doth to the whole air into which [...]s vanished; if then the duration of all time, be so disproportioned to eter­nity, when we sever our single part in this point of time, how neer a Nothing must it appear to us; and it may be the time of our suffering is but a small parcel even of our own life: This computation must needs shew us the shortness of that time, which our weak Nature thinks often long, measuring it not as it is in flu [...], but as it seemeth stay­ing in our [...]aney, and distant from some earthly de [...]ire whereunto we would be carried; and so this our mis­counting of the length of time, ariseth always from this error, that we do not reckon upon it, as it is in motion to­wards eternity; but rather regard it under the notion of a remora or retardment, in that haste we have to satisfie some passion, in pursuit whereof Time it self seemeth too slow for our P [...]ney.

This irregularity in our nature, may be much corrected, by pondering seriously every day the property of time, and the state of e [...]ity: I do not meane to impose upon [Page 368] any body a subtile penetration into any abst [...]use conceptions upon these subjects, only a pious reflection upon the familiar notions of each of them, as the lightness and inanity of the one, the weight and immensity of the other; unto which every one may conceive himself passing on, as a straw upon a [...]or­rent; and at the foot of this precipice, suppose an Ocean of endless joy or misery, which hath a division in it of these two qualities, of Good or Evil, but no difference in the infinity of either; and we may contemplate, how we are not carried to either of these, as we are the greater or the lesser straws, but as we come off clean or fowl from this torrent of time; it is not by the greatness, but by the purity of our lives, that we are delivered over to these divers states, in this indivisible eternity; these are [...] ­tations competent to all sises of mindes, in reference to this method of meditation on Eternity: When King David was upon this application, as he saith, I thought upon old Psalm. 76. 6. days, and the Eternal years had I in minde; he telleth us th [...] he swept his Spirit, that thought presently applied him to the cleaning of his Spirit, which temporary objects had bedusted; and sure our soul in this point is like our eye, which may have dust and filth in it, while it is closed, whereof it is not sensible, but as soon as it is open, it presently findeth the offence: so our minde, wh [...] she is shut to the apprehension of eternity, may have many impurities in her which she discerneth not, but as soon as her thoughts are wide open upon that object, she feeleth the offensiveness of every fowl Atome sticking on her, so as this cogitation of the Royal Psalmist, is the readiest Matth. 5. address to that cleanness of heart, to which our Savior hath annexed the seeing of God.

Me thinks this lesson is given us by the nature our soul, which partaketh both of Time and Eternity, (as having a beginning and no end) to couple in our thoughts the images of both these Beings, that as the minde draweth fluent and transitory affections from time, she may derive [Page 369] also fixed and permanent desires from Eternity; and this intermixture of these divers impressions, is the greatest setlement or simplicity a soul can attain unto during her ope­ration, by such organs as are meerly temporary; and the Holy Spirit giveth this security, to the frequent meditation on the ending and endlesness of our two lives, In all thy works Ecclus. remember thy latter ends, and thou will not sin for ever: And sure­ly this habitual prospect on our end, will abate much the sense of any present condition; for it affecteth us not with what we are, or have been, but with what we are to be for ever: and since by Na [...]ue death hath a share in every day we live, they who let this debt run on, without pay­ing unto it any of their time, will finde the sum risen so high, as they will at last come to owe death even their eternity: But by this order I propose, of assigning some parcel of every day to this discharge, we may convert that portion we pay death, into a debt accrening unto us, of eternal life, which at our last day death shall be forced to deliver to us.

In order to this address of your cogitations, I will offer you this obvious conception, to suppose all states of life imbarqued upon one vessel, and that continually sink­ing, (which surely is sensible enough to such as are not dizied and distracted by the motions of it) and when the vessel is palpably sinking, doth the General who is comman­ding above, think himself in a better state, then the slave working in his chains? Doth he that is in the lanthorn ac­count himself happier, then he that lieth in the hold, because he is like to perish some minutes later? Do not they all then alike forget what they have been, and think onely on what they are to be? they who will accustom themselves to ruminate upon this similitude, reporting aptly to all the conditions of this life, which are in an equal certainty of expiration, may easily forget their present posture, and be pos­sessed intirely with their future expectation, which in one instant becomes unalterable to all Eternity; and they can­not [Page 370] be assured, that this instant is not as near them as their next thought I surely then I am perswaded, that whosoever shall fasten his thoughts attentively once every day upon this meditation, shall not be disquieted with that kinde of life he is reduced unto, but rather joyed, to consider that he is in a capacity of making our of any sort of life, never so grievous, a life everlasting, and eternal beatitude, whereof he may be assured from S. Paul, the Patern and Patron of prisoners, whom he may suppose speaking this to him in his chains, Our light affliction (which is but for a moment) work­eth for us a far exceeding and eternal weight of glory; and if our 2. Cor. 4. 17. prisoner be one that hath the thorns of an ill life to pull out of his conscience, he will think himself much happies while he is in a state which conduceth to his repenting of what he hath done, then when he was in a condition that did contribute to his doing what he was to repent.

§. VIII.

NOw then to sum up the true account of all my propo­sitions, I do not pretend they should amount to so much as the Stoicks have vainly reckoned upon their precepts; I do not promise the minde such an apathy or insensibleness of all distresses and afflictions, as those Rational Charl [...]tans have undertook; this deading and stark calming of all passion, is rather a dream of Phi­losophy, then the rest of a Christian; and of that fan­cied slumber of theirs, we may say with the Psalmist, of these mens fancied riches, They have slept their sleep, and have found nothing; a Christian must not affect to say, I have slept a good sleep, but I have fought a good fight, and [Page 371] my Crown hangs where I must take it away by violence, it will not fall upon my head while that lieth upon the pillows of my sensitive appetites; they therefore who are the best studied in the precepts of Reason, or the power of Grace, must expect to meet with some dark obscure parenthesis's in their Solitude, which at sometimes they cannot understand, and the more contestingly they set their Reason to explain them, the more intricate they, perhaps, will finde them at that conjuncture; for there are some inter­vals of wearisomness and disfavor in our Spirits, which no Reason can clear to us, though it may be they have a coherence with the whole contexture of our peace, as being interposed by God, to introduce patience and resignation, by these intervening trials of our temper; and likely the thoughts we have in temptations to frowardness, are the copies of our minde, upon which God judgeth their profi­ciency in the school of patience, which he hath put them to: There are diverse forms in prisons, to which God pre­ferreth our mindes by degrees, and the highest seemeth to be, the remaining humbly patient in a destitution of all sensible consolation from the Spirit of God, to which we rise not but after some experiments of such desolations; so that the best advice to this case, is in our propensions to frowardness and petulancy, to conclude, That we are then set to bring in those exercises of vertue, that must prefer us to a higher form; all the Saints have passed by this exam [...]n, insomuch as David saith in this case, My Psalm 76. 4. soul refused to be conforted, I was mindfull of God, and was delighted: here you see the storm, and the passing of it over, by remembring the qualities of such blasts and stresses of temptations.

He is then the best scholler, that studieth the least by his own arguings, to clear to himself these obscure interjections of displicence and ill humor, and cieling up his thoughts; flieth directly to the top of the Cross, resting there, with the Man of sorrow; where his [Page 372] minde, finding (My God, why hast thou forsaken me?) may easily be answered in all her own perplexities and desola­tions; and in stead of fearing her self to be forsaken, may suppose she is following of Christ in this anxiety, to which he was voluntarily subjected, to solace by his Society our Nature in this infirmity, whereunto that is necessarily ex­posed; so as in these disquiets, when the book of our Spirits seemeth closed up to us, and we are ready to weep for our not being worthy to open it, we may suppose our good An­gel doing the office of the Elder to St. John, bidding us not Apoc. 5. to be dismaid, for the man of sorrow hath opened all these sealed anguishes, by his taking the same impression upon his Spirit; and indeed, when our mindes are well died in the blood of the Lamb, these aspersions of disquiets do not at all stain our Soul, though there may seem some refractariness in our Spirits, in these overcast intervals; But to secure us from incurring any irregularity by this Spiritual Contention in the Temple of the Holy Ghost, the safest way is, not to seek a defence by the power of our Reason, but to yield up our Spirits to suffer under this indisposition, as long as it shall please the Holy Spirit to remain withdrawn, even within our own Spirit, beyond our discernment; and many times in this ari [...]ity of our Devotion, when our hearts are, as I may say, parched and cracked in this drought of Divine Refreshment (if our wills are faithfully resigned to this ex­ercitation of our Faith) every such crack or overture in our hearts, caused by the shutting up of Heaven, proveth a mouth opened, and calling for that holy dew which never fails to be showered down in due season, upon such necessi­tous fidelities; insomuch as this aridity and desolation in­terposed for some time, doth often prove more fruitful then a common kindely season of repose and acquiescence.

I desire therefore to recommend specially this Advice (to this state of Solitude, which is very liable to these obscure interjections) not to expect peace of minde onely from what we do sensibly receive from God, but also from what [Page 373] we do sensibly give unto him; for in this our commerce with Heaven, there is this Supernatural way of Traffique, we do not onel [...] pay God with his own gifts, but we may give him even what we want, and do not receive from him; that is, we may present him with our privation of his sensi­ble Graces, by our acceptance of this poverty and destitu­tion; And this offering of our emptiness, is no less pro­pitiatory, then the first fruits of our Spiritual abundances.

This Advertisement I conceive very pertinent to my de­sign, of furnishing my fellow Soldiers with the armor of Ephes. 6. God, that they may resist in the evil day, and in all things stand perfect; for it may be properly said of their condition, that they are to wrastle not onely against flesh and blood, but against the Rulers of the darkness of this world, the Flesh shooting all her sharpest darts in the privation of Liberty, and the Spirit his▪ in the destitution of the most humane sympathy of Conversation: This resignation then which I have pro­posed, includeth a disswasion of any anxious solicitude, concerning the cause of our sufferance; for the ranging of our thoughts to spring second causes, may keep us too much upon the scent of the earth, the Apostle's advice is properer Col. 2. 20. in this case, Seek upward, and not upon the earth, which was the first point from whence this circle of my discourse did set forth; and to allay this feaverish disquiet in our Patient, I may fitly apply this Opia [...]e of the Apostle, If you are dead to Col. 3. the elements of this world, why do you yet decree as living in the world? This perplexing your selves with the thoughts of the world, is to lose the benefit of this your civil death, where­by you may rest from the labors of the living. This you may rest upon in general, That in this life there is no sort of Suffering, but may be converted into Sanctification: If you lie under a just sentence, you may, by an humble conformity to Gods Justice, make it a release of a greater penalty, then you feel in all your deprivements: If you suffer injuriously for your engagement in a righteous Cause, your Consola­tion is so much supposed, as you have a command to rejoyce Matth. 5. [Page 374] in [...]tion, in view of the glory of your reward▪ And if every imprisoned Christian may be said to be a rough draught of Christ (since he avoweth his personation in them) they who suffer for the Defence of Justice and Vertue, may be said to be Christs Images, coloured and more exactly finished; wherefore such may expect to be readily received, with, I know you easily, your scars and wounds which you bring with you, coming out of my service, have finished the figure of my similitude: And we may resolve, That such Champions shall be set near Christ, where the number of their wounds shall be so many marks of their Consanguinity with the bleeding Lamb, and the weight of their Chains shall be the estimate of their Crowns.

All sorts of Christians then may fill their several measures of Confort out of this Fountain of Christian Doctrine, that all they, who do not directly suffer for Christ, may yet suffer as Christians, and so attain the reward of a Prophet: I will then close up my Present to them with this Seal of the Bands of our fellow-Prisoner and Master Doctor, Let us for­get Phil. 3. 13. th [...]se things which are behinde, and reaching forth [...] th [...]se things which are before, press forward to the mark for the pri [...] of the high calling of God in Christ: Let as many therefore [...] be perfect, be thus minded; and those who are otherwise, I beseech God to reveal this unto them.

§. I.

I Have, in effect, shot all my Quiver at this one Head, viz. The love of this World, and have set such points to my Arrows, as I conceived most proper to enter those Helmets of Perdition, wherewith the Prince of this World commonly armeth his Militia in this quar­ter I aim at, namely, Presumption or Inconsideration; Wherefore now, me thinks, I may say to this Age, with the Psalmist, Childrens Arrows are made thy wounds, re­lating Psa. 63. 9. either to my former Alliance to the world, or to the present weakness of the hand that hath made these Ejacu [...]ations: But surely the Head that hath been my Mark, may be fitly compared to that of the Beast in the Revelation, which (having been wounded as it were to Rev. 13. death) was afterwards healed, and Worshipped the more upon this Cure: For the love of this world seemeth very often mortified, and lying as it were dead in our mindes, being wounded by the Sword of the Spirit, and yet [...] viveth, and grows stronger then ever in our Affections. [Page 376] And as these two Heads do not differ much in their Al­legories, since all the Heads of the Beast may be said to signifie several mundanities; so are they consorted in this point, of having both the same Surgeon, the old Serpent, who venteth all his Art upon the recovery of this Head, namely, The love of mundanity, wherein do indeed re­side the vital Spirits of the body of Sin, the onely Subject of the Prince of this Ages Empire.

So that considering the dangerous convalescence of this wounded Head, I have conceived it requisite to do my best, not onely to kill it outright by playing Jael's part, driving this Nail, that is, this express Tract directly through the temples of it, but also to endeavor the burying it, as I may say, in this holy ground of Spiritual Joy and Ac­quiescence, which is the safest course to prevent the re­vival of it; for the alacrity of the Spirit keepeth the in­ferior appetites, as it were, under ground: and in this figurative interment, the Balms and Spices of contempla­tive Solaces, contrary to material ones, have this vertue, quickly to consume and dissolve this matter, when they are applied unto it: I shall therefore endeavor to draw out of the inclosed Garden of the Spouse, such precious Spices as may work these two different effects, to dissi­pate and consume the love of this world, as well as pre­serve and persume the love of Heaven.

One Sin infected our whole Humane Nature, by reason that all succeeding individuals had then their voyces com­prised in one person Representative of the whole Species: And when we see the whole Mass of the Earth accursed at Gen. 3. 17. once, me thinks we may speculate this to have been some part of the reason, that in the little portion of Earth, com­posing the body of Man, the whole Globe thereof seemed represented, and consequently all tainted by the inquina­tion of that one parcel; for the sensitive part of Man con­sisting of Earth, that may well be charged as a Complice in the Crime, since that portion of Man, although it were [Page 377] not Principal, was yet an accessory in the Crime, the body having acted the transgression: This may give an ingenious reason for the Condemnation of the whole Earth, to bear onely Thorns and Bryers naturally, and fruits not without induring wounds and violences, to wit, the contamina­tion of the whole, in the vitiousness of this first ungrateful portion of Earth, which, in the person of Woman, may be said to have put forth some Bryers to catch the Soul of Man, even before it was accursed. This I presume to be a better Reason for the sentencing of the whole Earth, then can be given for the Soul of Man's adhering to this Earth by his affections; forasmuch as this convinceth us of the ter­restrial parts of conspiration of our ruine, and so may well averse the Soul from such an adherency.

How evident is it, that God never intended that the Soul of Man (after this first injury) should set her affections up­on the Earth, since Man was presently removed from the most lovely part thereof, and that was fenced against his access to it, not onely to shorten his time upon Earth, but also, as we may suppose, to abridge his Delights and So­laces in that short time, since no other part of the World could afford such a complete deliciousness, as the earthly Pa­radice out of which Man was excluded; whereby God seem­eth to have provided against Mans having the strongest Mo­tives the Earth might offer him, to draw down his affections upon it, and hath left him a continual quarrel, as it were, with the Earth; to wit, the Contention of his labors against her sterility, to entertain this disagreement between it and the love of Man, since the Earth alloweth him nothing, but at the price of his sweat and [...]atigation: This might seem sufficient, considering our lazy Nature, to admit no kinde or friendly correspondence between us; nay, there are many who suppose the world long since not to have had so much invitation left for Man to love it, as the containing the terrestrial Paradice: This at least is very probable, That even since the Flood, the beauty, fecundity and pleasant­ness [Page 378] of that portion of the Earth is utterly deflowered and [...]faced; But this is positively true, That God did not ex­pulse Man out of Paradice, to allow him the making an­other Paradice for himself out of the Earth: These spe­culations do (as Saint Paul saith) speak after the maner of men, to implead all title this Earth can claim to the affections of a reasonable Soul; and through all the body of this Miscel­lany, there run veins enough of disparagement to this world; so that they may well terminate in this Centre of Contempt and despection.

The Apostle of love, whose fiery tongue casts forth 1 John 2. 15. as many Scintillations of love, as he doth lines, in that Work which may be fitly called, An Epistle commendat [...]ry of Love to Christians, doth not allow the world so much as one spark of it, he rather straineth his breath to blow out and extinguish every flash of affection to it; enjoyn­ing us expresly, Not to love the world, nor the things that are in it: And it is remarkable, That he alleageth not the mi­series and disgusts of the world to discredit it, but bring­eth even the most amiable alluremonts thereof for Reasons against our affecting it, arguing upon the worlds having nothing in it, but the concupiscence of the eye, and of the flesh, and the pride of life, in which consist the most powerful At­tractives the world hath for our love: And if all these which are acknowledged the worlds Proprieties, are turned a­gainst the valuation thereof, what hath it left whereby to 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 [Page 379] 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 1 Cor. 7. 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 Phil. 2. 5. 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 Hebr. 12. 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 [Page 380] 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 Isa. 65. 11 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 [Page 381] of it in our Mindes, to the honor of such a Re­munerator.

§. II.

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 John 1 [...]. 32. 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 Joh. 8. 24. 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 1 Cor. 10. 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 [Page 382] 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 Habac. 1. 16. 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 Joh. 8. 23. 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, Mat. 19. 29. 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 1 Cor. 2. 12. 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 [Page 383] 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 1 Cor. 7. 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 [Page 384] 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, 1 John 4. then [...] that is in the world.

§. I.

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 Rev. 15. 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 [Page 386] 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 Joh. 8. 23. 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 Joh. 12. 32 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 [Page 387] of such blessed Contemplators; of whom I may say with the Apostle, That in the midst of a perverse generation, they Phil. 2. have shined as lights in the world; their mindes seeming to be kindes of Spiritual fixed Stars, which never altered their distances from the Earth, and intended onely the finishing their course at the same time, imparting light unto the world by divers irradiations, respective to their positions therein, either of Prayer or other Edifications: Wherefore of such habits of minde the Holy Spirit saith, The path of the just is as Prov. 4. the shining light, that proceedeth even to perfect day, which is Contemplation consummated, when the day-Star (whereby Saint Peter expresseth it) shall be risen in our hearts; where­of these acts of our intellect seem to be some inchoative or imperfect rays, and to give you as fair a view as I can of this abstruse object, I shall set it in the most luminous definition I can deliver it, out of the mouth of S. Augustine.

Contemplation is a clear int [...]on, and a delightful admiration Contem­plation defined. of perspicuous Verities; so that the minde in that state may be said to walk in the meridional light of Faith, towards the incomprehensible clarity of perfect vision; and this light of Grace, wherein a pure Contemplative Soul inhabiteth, may (me thinks) be said to hold some such proportion to the purer light of glory she expecteth, as the sight which the three Apostles had of Christs Body transfigured on Ta­bor, holds to that they are to have of it glorified in Heaven; for as the brightness of Lightning, and the cand or of Snow, did in some measure represent to them the far transcending lustre and beauty that was to be looked for in his Body beatified, so these admirable intellectual Verities, which are the objects of a true Contemplative Soul in this life, do in some degree figure to it the unexpressible notions, rising out of a fruitive Contemplation of the increated Verity; insomuch as these elevated Spirits may be conceived to have such a kinde of advantage over others, who may also be faithful in lower stations of Christianity, as the three Disci­ples called up to Tabor had of them that were left below the [Page 388] Mountain: For certainly this sight must have imprinted in their mindes a more lively and affecting image of the ami­ableness of glorified Bodies, then the others could appre­hend: But as Christ admitted few even of his Apostles to this sight of him, so doth God vouchsafe to select and ele­vate but very few to this superlative pitch of Contemplation, of whom we may say with the Psalmist, This is the genera­tion Psa. 23. 6. of them that seek the face of the God of Jacob, who we know was one of the most eminent in this high vocation, feeding on this bread of Angels, and having this Spiritual Manna show [...]red down upon him, while he was feeding the flocks of others in a servile obligation: And holy Da­vid, in all his exterior bitternesses tasting of this Spiritual reflection, saith, as it were, this Grace to it, How great is the Psal. 30. 20. multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hid for them that fear thee; thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face from the disturbance of men: This expresseth well their state of minde, which is covered from the sight of the world in the secret of Gods face, that is, in his most private and re­served kindenesses; and as God hideth himself in his own inaccessible light, so such Souls, adhering unto God, and becoming (as the Apostle [...]aith) one Spirit, are hid to the world 1 Cor. 6. in the excessive light of their Graces, which common ap­prehensions cannot penetrate; of such mindes we may most peculiarly say, Who knoweth the things of such men, save 1 Cor. 2. the Spirit that is in them, which searcheth the deep things of God? while their apprehensive faculty perfecteth it self by extracting the pure species of Truth, and their affecting power is perfected, by transmitting it self exteriorly upon the object that attracteth it: Thus the understanding is ne­ver satiated by a continual receiving, nor the affection ever diminished by an incessant issuing it self out upon the ob­ject, but doth rather acquire by this perpetual Self-alie­nation.

In this admirable commerce doth the true Contempla­tive Soul negotiate with her own Maker, while what is im­ported [Page 389] from him into the Understanding, obligeth the Will to export unto him her faculty of loving; and thus know­ledge infused, draweth forth love, and love efused, remitteth back fresh illuminations: This Angelical correspondence with God, the Contemplative Man entertaineth, and hath in proportion to his Nature, the same priviledge that Angels have, when they assume apparent Bodies for their ministery on Earth; namely, to finde no intermission of their seeing God: So in all the exterior offices which the Soul acteth by the ministery of the Body in such persons, the Minde doth not remove out of that apprehended presence of God, whereof her transitory state is capable; insomuch as a pro­found Contemplator may be said to be never so much alive to this life, as when he seemeth to be the most dead to it: For in the image of Death, when the other powers of his Minde cannot controul his Fancy, that may introduce imaginations into him superfluously relative to this life, and removed from the scope of all his reasonable cogitations, which never move, but in a presential reverence of God: So that the Natural Man may be said to live in him no longer by the strength or power of his Nature, but meerly by the in­firmity of it, that requireth such a suspension of the Spi­ritual Man, which lives so powerfully in such a person, as he seems fully in possession of Christs promise, of his Fathers and John 14. 23. his coming, and making his ab [...]de with him: which according to the division made by the Holy Ghost of the whole Man, may be conceived to be done in this maner; The Father re­siding in that portion called the Soul, as it importeth the Origine of all vital operations, the Son resting in the Minde, as that is the seat of our actual intelligence or understanding, and both of them may be said to expirate and breathe forth the Holy Ghost into the Heart, as that is taken for the conti­nent of our affections; and by this means the whole Man cometh as near the loving God with all his Soul, with all his Minde, and with all his Heart, as this traverse and inter­posed vail of Flesh and Blood can admit him, forgetting [Page 390] (with Saint Paul) the things that are behinde, and stretching Phil. 3. forth himself to those that are before, by this constant Applica­tion, preserving the whole Spirit, Soul and Body, without blame to the coming of our Lord Christ Jesus.

Considering then the properties of these golden vessels of Charity placed within the outward vale of the Temple, and looking continually towards the Propitiatory, seated within the inward vale (which figured the beatifical vision) even their Bodies may be well compared to the grate upon the Altar of Incense, from which all the ashes of carnal appetites fall away down under the Altar it self, represented by their mindes, from whence the fume of those fragrant Odours of Vocal and Mental Prayer, is directed towards the wings of the Cherubims; and so what is sweet in the Spirit ascend­eth to Heaven, and what is unclean in the Flesh falleth to the Earth, and doth not remain as a foulness upon the Altar, which is kept always bright and odoriferous; And in these Temples of the Holy Ghost, there is not onely a continual emission of fire from Heaven falling upon the Altar, but even a fresh provision of materials to incense upon it, that is to say, new supplies of Meditations, descending from the Father of light, from whom the same beam imparteth at once the ardor of love and the light of Science; so that this matter can never want that flame, nor that flame ever want this fomentation.

O how incomprehensible is the clarity of the Divine El­sence, whereof if the little light shed on us do shine so strangely even in us, being as yet but dark lanthorns to carry it, how much must those splendors of purity and sanctity radiate, which never issue out of it self, whereof we have but few or no glances in this imperfect state of Contempla­tion, to wit, little or no intelligible perception of the My­sterious light of the glorious Trinity, consistent with that most simple Ʋnity in which the Trinity of persons is com­prised; and yet the simplicity of the Unity is not at all di­minished: In which speculative Verity, the best plumed [Page 391] S [...]raphins of our mortal Nature, when they soar never so high on these two wings of Grace and Contemplation, must cover their faces with these two other, of Faith and Wonder, singing with the Psalmist, I shall be satisfied when thy glory ap­peareth, and in thy light we shall see light.

§. II.

I May well suppose that there will be many, who being dazled by the radiancy of the faces of these Moses's Exod. 35. we have exposed, will, with the people, turn their heads away from this object: And I may imagine, that some (as being taken with the beauty of this light) will conclude with the Apostles, That it is good to live upon this Mount, and may perchance think of making Tabernacles for their abode in this place; that is, design all the powers of their mindes to the forming in themselves such a state of Contemplation: wherefore it may be pertinent to look a little downward up­on such subjacent stations as are the direct way up to the top of the Mountain, whereunto the nearest conterminate part is that of Speculation; and the next to that, Lecture; and after that Mortification, which lieth indeed as the basis of all the ele­vation: and as it hath this property of the ground-work, to consist of the most gross matter, so hath it this likewise, of being the support of the whole erection; and in that or­der I will re-ascend to the summity from whence I have dismounted.

While the Soul of Man receives no intelligible species, but such as are raised from sensible matter, and acteth onely by corporeal organs, by Natural Reason it is evident, why Mortification is requisite for the best extent of her intel­lectual [Page 392] powers, as rendring these passages the clearer through which all images enter into our discursive faculty, and also keeping that power the more free and active in all her ex­ercises: The purer the glass is, the better we see all things in the room, and the farther we may see out of the room, when we look outward through the glass; so both the spe­cies that enter into our mindes through clean and unob­structed organs, are the clearer, and the acts also of our dis­course and speculation, looking outward towards immateri­alities, are the more sharp and penetrating.

I shall not need to argue how much corporeal pleasures and sensualities do obscure the light received by the appre­hensive faculty, and clog the operations of the reasoning power of the Minde; Wherefore even in this Natural respect, a convenient suppression of the appetites of the Flesh seemeth the platform of all Spiritual exaltation; but we have a firmer supernatural ground, whereupon to raise this Conclusion, of the requisiteness of Mortification to­wards speculative gifts, the word of the Holy Ghost saying, They that are in the flesh cannot please God; and if they be re­moved Rom. 8. even from Gods favor, they must needs be very distantial from that grace and familiarity, which is impart­ed to Contemplation: Saint Paul was allowed so little to think of his body, when he was raised to his highest point of illumination, as he knew not whether he had any body about him, or no, at that time: And we finde that he took the best course he could all his life, to feel the least he might possibly of his body; in order whereunto he saith, He did not onely chastise his body, and keep it in subjection, but 1 Cor. 9. affirmeth likewise, That he did dye daily: It seemeth he found no means of clearing the operations of the Soul, but by making, as it were, a quotidian separation between her and the Flesh; And, me thinks, we may say of all Saint Pauls converted life (notwithstanding his humility in owning infirmities) that which he himself said of some part of it, namely, Whether this man in Christ lived in his body, or out 2 Cor. 12. [Page 393] of his body, we know not, God knoweth, so little sense we finde him to have had of his body, in point of Mortification, and so little impediment by it in Contemplative operations: And doth he not say himself, That it is not he that liveth, but Gal. [...]. Christ in him, and referring to us, he declares the requisiteness of Mortification, telling us, That they that be Christs have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences; and if this kinde of crucisixion be requisite even for the practical part of Christianity, whereunto all are called, much more must it be pertinent to the perfect speculative state thereof, to which so few are chosen. Psal. 83.

I am therefore well warranted to lay Mortification as the ground or foot of this Mount of Moria, which signi­fieth the Land of Visions, whereunto all such as shall de­spise ascensions in their heart, must take their rise from this foot, and remember what was figured by Abrahams leaving his Servants and his Ass afar off, when he saw the Moun­tain, and the prohibition of any Beast to come near to Mount Sinai, to wit, that no carnal or sensual dispositions might Gen. 22. presume to approach towards the mysterious lights of God: So that whosoever aspired to go up to this mount Moria of Contemplation, must be advised to follow Abrahams order, to leave afar off all voluptuous and sensual appetites, figured by the Servants and the Ass, and carry in his hand the Fire and the Sword, that is, Zeal and Activity for the sacrificing of his Flesh and Blood to the honor of God: This is the Fire that he who was typified by Isaac brought into the earth; and this the Sword, which he saith he came to send, and not Peace. Wherefore this hostility declared against our Flesh, must be remembred to be the first Article of that peace of the Spirit, which is concluded in Contemplation.

§. III.

THe next Stage whereby we are to rise, is pious Lecture; which subject calls back my thoughts up­on the first state of mans knowledge; wherein we may consider, That the first Humane Soul came into this world, perfect in the intellectual part, by Science infused, and needed not stay for the help of her corporeal organs to acquire any, for those instruments whereby she was to act, were ready in their perfection, before she was seated in them, since Gods forming perfectly the body of man, preceded his breathing into it the breath of Life: And so we finde that he was able to reade presently in the book of Gods works, wherein he read the character of Gods hand in every creature that was set before him; and, as I may say, superscribed their names upon them, by the secret impression he read of their Nature: But not being satisfied with this ex­cellent degree of intelligence, he began to affect the reading even in Gods own increated book, The knowing like God himself. Upon this presumption the rational soul of Man was cast down from this high form, and set so much back­ward, as ever since both the Vegetative and Sensitive souls precede her long in the perfection of their acts, and she is ob­liged to stay their leisure before she can act her best accord­ing to her faculty, which must cost her also pains and care to reduce it unto the best extent thereof.

Thus is now the rational Soul, sentenced to feed her self by her kinde of sweat and labor; so that she is not onely to acquire most of her natural knowledges, by a laborious in­dustry, but she is also set to work by study and attention, even upon those supernatural Principles that are infused into her, as those of Faith, Hope and Charity; even these infused habits will not so much as remain in her, without her own [Page 395] study and solicitude to preserve them, much less can they be improved to their best degree, without much intend­ment and application: And to facilitate the perfection of the Soul in this life, God hath been pleased to make his own Character, and to leave it legible under his own Hand, his holy Scriptures, wherein all his attributes are penn'd in the fairest maner, to affect our understandings, and to take our affections; insomuch as of the holy Writ it may be well said to God, The light of thy countenance is impressed upon it: This living spring of Verities the Holy Ghost hath left upon Psal. 4. the earth, from whence all the rivelets of pious Books de­rive their waters, which are so proper to refresh and see un­date the minde of Man, as the Holy Ghost doth but rarely use his own power of impregnating and replenishing Souls with immediate inspirations, but vouchsafeth, for the most part, to be conveyed into our mindes by the mediate spi­rations into them of vertuous notions, from his subalternate instruments, the pens of his holy Ministers, which he doth certainly inspire with qualities [...]o well proportioned to our capacities, as they deliver Divine Truths unto our mindes, under such familiar and agreeable forms as are most apt to work upon our affections.

This is the design of the Holy Ghost in all pious Books, wherein his Spirit remaineth covered in the elements of mans conceptions (for words may be said to be a kinde of body to thoughts) as the Divinity of Christ did under the vails of Flesh and Blood. In like maner it is the Divine vertue of the Holy Spirit, that worketh all those devout effects which are produced by the instrumental conceptions of pious Writers: Wherefore as the Scriptures are to be read with perswasion, that God is presentially speaking to us, so all Books of Devotion are to be used with this opi­nion, of their speaking to us, as delegated and deputed from God.

The minde of Man abhorreth vacuity, and though her Nature tend upward to be replenished with Spiritual no­tions, [Page 396] yet if she be void of them, she sinketh presently to earth, to take in any grosser furniture; so that if she be not provided with such pure species as may keep her point­ing at her own Centre, in stead of being elevated, as it were, above her self in Contemplation, she will fall below her self into some terrene amuzement: Wherefore a ha­bit of pious Lecture is most necessary, in order to the re­plenishing her with Spiritual Images, that may keep her eye always erected up upon them; and may we not well infer the requisiteness of reading, for the support of the Spiritual Man, since Saint Paul doth not onely advise his 2 Tim. 4. 13. so elevated Disciple Timothy to attend unto reading, but chargeth him with great solicitude to bring him some Books, even after he had told him he had consummated his 2 Tim. 4. course, and the time of his revolution was near; If he who had been in Paradice already in a transcient state, and was so near his going thither to a permanent, did still make use of Books, how necessary must they be for all such as aspire to any Spiritual exaltation?

§. IV.

THis last station carrieth us up to the top of this Mount Moria, from whence we have descended, and so is the steepest part, and the uneasiest mounting of all the rest, as it is nearest the vertical point of our fixure: This last step then is Speculation or Meditating, which act of our discursive faculty, is commonly taken as univocal, with this other of our minde fixed in Contempla­tion; but when they are rightly distinguished, there ap­peareth such a diversity, as is between the last strains of motion, and the term of acquiescence: For Speculation is Specula­tion de­fined. properly the busie attention of the minde in the inquest of truth, ranging and casting out all ways, to bring in conclu­sions for the Spirit to fix and rest upon in Contemplation; which (as I have said) is a fruitive possession of Verities, which flowers the minde doth no longer gather or collect, but rather hold in her hand ready made up in nosegays that she is smelling to.

Me thinks these two different states of the Minde may be rendred very intelligible, by a conception my Fancy hath sprung, while it is ranging for some fit expression of this very act which my Minde is now exercising▪ and I may say, That Speculation and Contemplation differ [...]ust so, as my present writing of their differences doth from my reading them anon when I have finished them: For now my imagination is beating and casting all ways, for some well suited similitude, whereby to illustrate the diversity of these two acts, and my memory is sifting and sorting ap­posite words, to express my conceptions▪ and thus by de­grees [Page 398] I shall by means of this studious Application of those powers of my Minde, form some digested Character of what I design; which finished Draught of my own thoughts, when I shall reade over, I shall no longer work upon it, but behold the Image I have framed out of the past divisions and compoundings of my thoughts, and then my Minde will rest and enjoy my determined notions: So that as I do now speculate, and shall upon the finishing of these two Characters, contemplate them, without any far­ther agitation of my Minde: In like maner the state of Speculation is a disquisition of sundry Divine Verities, whereby to form some determined notions, which are the objects that Contemplation is to be fixed upon in an acqui­escent state, when the discursive motion is arrived at the term of rest it pointed at; and then contemplating the re­sult of our former discoursings, we do, as it were, reade over and enjoy this digest of our Imaginations: where­fore as the act of our Comprehending doth excel that of our Reasoning, in respect the intellect sees at one look or intuition what the Reason collecteth but by divers circuits of Discourse, and so seemeth but a purveyor of what the intelligence possesseth in one instant: In like maner the Contemplative state, by the same reason, transcends the Speculative; and, [...] thinks, in such a proportion as the intellect of Angels excelleth that of rational Souls: for the first comprehendeth in one act, without the tardity of discourse, all intelligible species connatural to it, and the last is fain to stay upon the abstracting of intelligible spe­cies from materialities, and the conferring and co [...] of them with one another by ratiocination, before it can settle conclusions, wherefore Speculation seemeth to be a Humane act, and Contemplation, as it were, an An­gelical.

These lines have, I hope; drawn a fair par [...]ition be­tween these two acts of a devout Soul, whereby they ap­pear not to be coincident, as they are commonly misunder­stood, [Page 399] although they are co ordinate to one another, not that I do presume that God hath obliged himself to this order, of transfusing this grace of Contemplation always through the medium of studious Speculation: For I am not ignorant of his immediate communicating this hand of intuitive fruition of his Verities to some choyce Souls, unqualified for this preparatory course of Reading and Meditation; God is admirable in his Saints, in manifesting his Grace and Omnipotence by divers maners: but as Saint Paul saith, Though none [...]eth the minde of the Lord, yet 1 Cor. 16. we have the minde of Christ, wherefore I have given this direction, as I said, when I first entred upon it, to conduct Travellers in this path, which is Christs high way mark­ed for us, of Asking, Seeking and Knocking; and this is the beaten track of his Church, which doth not circumscribe God within this method: Sometimes the Spirit of the Lord catcheth up some humble illiterate Souls, and setteth them immediately upon the top of this Mountain, as he did Phi­lip the Deacon at Az [...]us; but for the most part he con­veyeth Acts 8. those he calleth to this land of Visions, as he did Abraham, by these three days journeys I have gested to you, Gen. 22. before they come to this high station: For God doth com­monly carry these Spiritual discoverers which he calleth to take a little sey of the fruits of the Land of Promise, all over this course of Spiritual exercises, before they come to gather this fruit of Contemplation, which seemeth to be a bunch of Grapes of that immense Vintage of Wine, whereof the Psalmist speaking, saith, They shall be inebriated by the fulness of thy house: For an inchoative state of Con­templation in this life, is as it were a cluster of Grapes of the same Vine, to wit, the Grace of Christ, which after­ward is reduced into what was the last intent of the planter, that is, into the Wine of the Saints, perfected Contempla­tion of the Divine Essence.

So that having given you clear and practicable instru­ctions, in order to the taking a right way towards this state [Page 400] of acquiescence (the singular excellencies whereof I have with my best skill pourtraicted unto your judgements and affections) I shall adde onely this laudative of the Holy Spirit, as very appliable to this happy state of Contempla­tion, Many daughters have gathered together riches, but thou Prov. 31. 21. hast passed them all.

Upon these premised Considerations, I may conclude the same order observable in the offering up this Spiritual In­cense, which was held in the preparing and burning the material Incense of the Tabernacle (which act was a figure of this our Religious Duty) we must then first by Mor­tification keep clean and fair the grate of the Altar; by Le­cture and studiousness we are to gather and mix the Gums and Spices of pious Conceptions; by Speculation and me­ditating we must bear and pounce the Odours into a fine powder, to wit, collect pure and refined images of Verities, and then by Contemplation we come to fire and exhale the perfume of the whole Composition; By this method we erect our hearts, according to those gradations designed by the Psalmist, and the Law-giver shall give a blessing, when Psa. 83. 8. they go thus from vertue to vertue, the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.

§. V.

HAving treated the blessedness of the intellectual part of this Contemplative state, which may be said to stand for the Soul thereof, there remaineth the adjoyning that portion which answereth to the Body in this compound of happiness, which is, the sensible joy where­with the affections are replenished; which delectable good affecting the sensitive powers, is a redundancy or waste falling from the vertue of that Truth which overfloweth in the supremest portion of our Minde, in some such maner as the beatitude of the Body is derived from the super­fluent riches of the Soul, in the state of glory, and as the Soul shall then over-pay all the ministerial offices of her Body in this life (by the mediat [...]on whereof, her powers are now exercised) imparting to the Body far more noble ca­pacities; So doth the intellect in this life, when the minde is in the state of Contemplation, superabundantly recompence the ministery of the Senses, for the conveyance of those species whereupon the understanding acreth in Lecture and Speculation, by far exceeding joys and [...]uavities diffused up­on the affections, such indeed as are not to be conceived, unless it be by those that have tasted them, whereof the Psalmist saith, Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation; upon Psal. 88. which words St. Gregory noteth, that the Holy Spirit saith, Not speaks, but knoweth this jubilation, because it may be con­ceived, but not fully expressed by the enjoyer of it: The Soveraign Contemplator King David, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, giveth us the fairest light we have of it, [Page 402] when he saith, My heart and my flesh have rejoyced in the living God; the first whereof imports the satisfaction of the in­tellectual, and the last the solaces of the appetitive part of the Soul, that is, the seat of the Affections; which though they are not always equally feasted with delectation, yet are they for the most part entertained with a competent mea­sure of gladness and exhileration, and sometimes are re­created with an extraordinary jucundity, in such a maner, as the Prophet Elisha's trenches were filled with water, without 2 King. 3. any appearance of wind or rain to produce this effect; that is to say, the inferior part of the Soul feeleth a sensible delight and refreshment, without any inordinate emotion or altera­tion of those sensitive powers, wherein this delight is ex­cited, insomuch as they finde the sweet effects of these two Affections, both Love and Joy, the first rising not from the wind of passion, and the other not being instilled by the rain of any material fruition; and thus the delights of these two Affections, from to be in such mindes, as they are in Angels, and Souls separate from Bodies, to wit, as they are acts of the Will, not alterations of the sensitive appetite.

How blessed is the state of such Souls, when even the sensitive power of their Minde seemeth to operate, as if their Spirits were totally abstracted, or their Natures were Angelical; and therefore may not improperly be said to measure this world with such a golden Reed, as the Angel in Apoc. 21. 17. the Revelation did the heavenly City, that Saint John saith, was the measure of a Man, which is of an Angel; for this squaring of their affections by the rule of pure Charity, ren­dreth them in a great measure proportionate to the same Angelical operations: And in this admirable maner doth the hand of their Maker square and model such choyce Souls to fit and adjust them for the filling up the vacant rooms of Angels, according to the design of him who hath said, They shall be like the Angels of God i [...] Mat. 22. 30. Heaven.

[Page 403] Having conjoyned this sensitive portion unto the the ra­tional, we have exhibited this Contemplative stare, in that accomplished beatitude this life admitteth; And surely the Soul of Man in this mortal state, doth as naturally cover the adjunction of this delectable part in her affections, un­to the other illuminated portion of her intellect, as a Soul though glorified, doth the addition of her Body: And as by this last accession the Soul doth not augment her bea­titude by way of intersion or exaltation, but onely in point of extension and amplitude, so doth the addition of this de­light of the affections, rather inlarge and dilate the blessed­ness of this state of Contemplation, then elevate or heighten the vertue of the Soul in that condition, the felicity where­of I may will leave sealed with this Signet of the Holy Spi­rit, This is the gift of God, and the possessor thereof shall not Eccles. 5. 19. much remember the days of his life, because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

After this edition of the high Prerogatives of the true Contemplative life, lest any one should conceive the inferior Vocations any way discredited, I will present all the several stations of this world, with this Consolation and Instru­ction of Saint Paul, As God hath distributed to every one, as 1 Cor. 7. 17. the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk: For although the ear have not an absolute dignity equal with the eye, yet in the dignity of proportions there is an equality between them; Wherefore I will offer this excellent Conclusion of Saint Austine, to all the engaged conditions of this world, The love of Truth desireth a holy vacancy, the pres­sure of Charity imposeth just occupations; which charge, if it be not laid on by some charitable obligation, the best is, to at­tend unto the perception and contemplation of Truth; but in case of our being entred into a lawful Engagement, that is to be born for the necessity of Charity, but yet not so as the delectation of Verity be totally deserted, lest that Religious S [...]avity being substracted, we [...]e the easilier oppressed by th [...] [Page 404] other secular necessity. This Advice may serve for a conve­nient direction, to all such as are drawing in the yoke of any secular Engagement, or are loose in the state of a tree Election of entring into this sweet yoke of Christ, drawing in the Chariot of Contemplation.

Being now arrived at the farthest point of the Hori­zon of this state of Grace, we cannot pass forward with­out entring upon the other Haemisphere of the state of Glory; which, I hope, God will enable me to exhibite un­to you in the other part of this Map I first designed, which I will leave now divided by this Aequator, severing the two halfs of that Spiritual Globe, whereof I had first in­tended to give you an intire Edition; But finding in the other part many Spiritual Positions, according to the old Doctrine of the Suns moving, and the Earths being fixed; which Maximes would not well agree with the new Ma­thematical Discovery, of the Earths moving and cota­tion: I have thought better to publish at first this un­controverted part of my Work, and reserve the other till a farther decision of this question. And since the whole Work was designed as a Sacrifice of a Leper, in order Lev. 14. to his cleansing; the purgation being yet very imperfect, I may not unfitly say, That this is one of the Sparrows, which I humbly offer up upon the running waters of a pe­nitent Soul; and promise, That the other shall be let flye into the world hereafter, when God shall be pleased farther to advance the emundation; for the accelerating whereof I humbly request all their Prayers, who shall be so benign [Page 405] as to conceive they owe me any thing for this Part, or shall make any account of my owing them the other: And I may fitly end this Semicircle of my Pen, with the best half of Saint Pauls valediction to the Romans, Now Rom. 15. 30. I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christs sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that the oblation of my service may become ac­ceptable in Jerusalem to the Saints. Now the God of peace be with you all.

Amen.