ation, our labour and our pleasure, our food and feast. Other delights are lawful and good, fo far as they further thefe delights of holy love, by carrying up our hearts to the original and end of all our mercies and delights. But nothing is fo injurious to God and us as that which corrupteth our minds with fenfuality, and becometh our Pleasure inftead of God.

.42. The fenfe of the prefent imperfection of our Love fhould make us long to know God more, and to love him and delight in him, and praise him in perfection to the utmost extent of our capacities.

If it be fo good to love God, then muft the higheft degree Read Seneca, de vita of it be beft: and reason teacheth us, when we feel how weak beata, fully proving our Knowledge and Love is, to long for more; yea, for against the Epicureans, that wealth, bo. perfection. nour and pleasure are 1.43. Thus bath Reafon fhewed us the end and higheft felicity not mans felicity, beof man, in his highest duty; To Know God, to Love him and cause they make him Delight in him in the fulleft Perfection, and to be Loved by him, not better or beft. and be fully pleafing to him, as berein bearing his Image, is the felicity, and the ultimate end of man. LOVE is mans final act, excited by the fullest Knowledge, and God fo, beheld and enjoyed in bis Love to us, is the final Object. And here the Soul must feek its Reft.

Obj. But quæ fupra nos nihil ad nos: God indeed is near to Angels, but he hath made them our Benefactors, and they have committed it to inferiour Causes: there must be suitableness as well

autem illic, ctiam

antequam hac cufto

as excellency to win love: we find no fuitableness between our Surfum animum vobearts and God. And therefore we believe not that we were cant initia fua: Erit made for any such employment. And we fee that the far greatest part of mankind are as averse to this life of Holiness as our felves; and therefore we cannot think but that it is quite above the nature of man, and not the work and end which he was made for. Anfw. 1. Whether God have made Angels, or Rulers, or Benefactors, or what love or honour we owe them as his Inftruments, is nothing to our prefent bufinefs. For if it be granted that he thus ufeth them, it is moft certain that he is nevertheless himself our Benefactor, nor nevertheless near What nearness to us they have, we are much uncertain; but that he himself is our total Benefactor, and always with us, as near to us as we are to our felves, is paft all queftion, and proved before.

2. There

dia exolvatur, fi vitia fua deferuit, purufq; ac lenis in cogitaticnes divinas emicuit. Tutum iter eft, jus Senec, p. 80. cundum eft, ad quod natura te inftruxit. Dedit tibi illa quæ Deo confurges. Pa fi non deferueris, par rem autem Deo te pecunia non facit &c. Senec, ep, 13.

2. There neither is nor can be any object fo fuitable for our LOVE as God; he hath all Goodness in him, and all in the creature is derived from him, and dependeth on him; and he hath given us all that ever we our felves received, and muft give us all that ever we shall receive hereafter. He is all-fufficient for the fupply of all our wants, and granting all our juft defires, and making us perfect: all that he doth for us, he doth in Love, as an intellectual free Agent; and he is ftill prefent with us, upholding us, and giving us the very Love which he demandeth: and he created us for Himself.to be his Own, and gave us these faculties to know and love him. And can any then be a more fuitable object of our love?

3. Do you not find that your understandings have a fuitablenefs or inclination to Truth and Knowledge, and would you not know the best and greatest things? and know the caufe of all the wonderful effects which you fee: and what is this but to know God? And do you not find that your Wills have a fuitableness to good as fuch in the general? and to your own felicity? And do you not know that it should not be unnatural to any man to love the best, which is best, and especially which is best for him; and to love him beft who is his greatest Benefactor, and most worthy of his love in all refpects? And can you doubt whether God be moft worthy of your love? All this is plain and fure. And will mens averfeneß to the love of God then difprove it? It is natural for man to defre knowledge, as that which perfecteth his underftanding; and yet Boys are averfe to learn their Books, because they are flothful, and are diverted by the love of play. What if your fervants be averfe and flothful to your fervice? doth it follow Quod fi poena, fi metus fupplicii, non that it is not their duty, or that you hired them not for it? ipfa turpitudo, deter- What if your wife and children be averfe to love you? is it ret ab injuriofa, fa- therctore none of their duty fo to do? Rebels are averfe to cinorofaque vitâ, obey their Governours, and yet it is their duty to obey them. nemo eft injuftus: at If your child or any one that is moft beholden to you, fhould incauti potius habendi funt improbi: Cal. be averfe to love and gratitude to you, (as thousands are to lidi, non boni funt, their Parents and Benefactors) will it follow that Nature qui utilitate tantum, obliged them not to it?

non ipfo honefto, ut 4.

boni viri fint mo

What can you think is fuitable to your love, if God be ventur. Cic. de leg. not? is it luft, or play, or meat and drink and cafe? A Swine 1. x. p. 289. hath a nature as fuitable to these as you? Is it only to deal

ingenuously

norum, ut ficut felle

ingenuor fly and honour at ly in providing for the flesh, and main- Complent bona cortaining the fuel of these fenfualities, by Buildings, Trading, tam; fed ita ut fine Manufactures, Ornaments and Arts? All this is but to have illis poffit beata vita a reafon toferve your fenfe, and fo the fwinifh part fill fhall exiftere Ita enim be the chief: for that which is the chief and ruling object with parvæ & exiguæ fünt you, doth fhew which is the chief and regnant faculty. If ifte accefliones boJenjual objects be the chief, than Senfe is the chief faculty with in radio folis, fic iste you. And if you had the greatcft wit in the world, and used in virtutum fplendo it only to ferve your guts, and throats, and lufts, in a more re, ne cernantur quieffectual and ingenious way than any other men could do, verè dicitur parva dem. Atque hæc ut this were but to be an ingenuous beaft, or to have an Intellect effe ad beatè vivenbound in fervice to your bellies. And can you think that dum momenta ifta things fo little fatisfying, and fo quickly perifhing, are more corporis commodofuitable objects for your love than God?

5. What fay you to all them that are otherwife minded, and that take the Love of God for their work and happiness? They find a fuitableneß in God to their highest efteem and love; and are they not as fit Judges for the affirmative, as you for the negative?

rum, fic nimis violentum eft, nulla effe

dicere. Quienim fic difputant, obliti mihi videntur que ipfi egerint principia na

turz. Iribuendum eft his aliquid, dumObj. They do but force themselves to fome a&is of fancy. modo quantum triAnfw. You fee that they are fuch acts as are the more fe- buendum fit intelli rious and prevalent in their lives, and can make them lay by gas. Pifo in Cic. de other pleatures, and spend their days in fecking God, and fiib. 1.5.p.202. lay down their lives in the exercife and hopes of Love. And that it is you that follow fancy, and they that follow folid reafon, is evident in the reafon of your feveral ways. world which you fet above God is at laft called Vanity by all that try it: Reafon will not finally juftifie your choice: but I have here fhewed you undeniable reafon for their choice and love; and therefore it is they that know what they do, and obey the Law of Nature, which you obliterate and contradict.

That

Obj. But we fee the Creature, but God we fee not, and we find it not natural to us to love that which we do not fee.

Anfw. Is not Reafon a nobler faculty than fight? if it be, unum verò finem why fhould it not more rule you, and difpofe of you? Shall Ariftotelis declaravit, no Subjects honour and obey their King but thofe that fee effe ufum virtutis in him? You can love your mony, and land, and friends when grâ. Hefych. Iluß. they are out of fight.

Obj. But these are things vifible in their nature.

vita fan&ta & intem

in Ariftot.

the Stoicks and the

Pifo ubi fup. in Cic. Anfw. They are fo much the more vile, and less amiable. faith, That all the dif- Your own Souls are invifible, will you not therefore love ference in this between them? You never faw the life or form of any Plant or living Peripateticks and A. Wight; you fee the beauty of your Rofes, and many other cademicks is but this, flowers, but you fee not the life and form within, which whether corporal things caufeth all that beauty and variety; which yet muft be more fhall be called no Good excellent than the effect. Can you doubt whether all things at all, or only fuck little Goods as to be which appear here to your fight, have an invifible Cause and next to none,pag. 202, Maker? or can you think him lefs amiable, because he is in203. To the shame of vifible, that is, more excellent?

thofe nominal chriftians, who know no

greater good than they.

Siquis eft hoc robore animi atque hac indole virtutis, ac continentiæ, ut respuat

omnes voluptates,

omnemque vitæ fuæ curfum labore corpo

6. In a word, it is most evident, that all this averfeness of mens hearts to the Love of God, is their fin and pravity; and the unfuitableness of their nature is, because they are vitiated with fenfuality, and deceived by fenfible things: a disease to be cured and not defended. Their fin will not prove the contrary no duty.

7. And yet while we are in flesh, though God be not vifible to us, his works are, and it is in them (the frame of the world) that he hath revealed and expofed Himself to our love: It is in this vifible Glass that we muft fee his Image, and in that Image muft love him: and if we will love any Goodnefs, we must love his; for all is his, and as his fhould be loved by us.

CHAP. XIII:

ris, atque in animi Experiments of the difficulty of all this Duty, and what it will coft a man that will live this holy life.

H

contentione conficiat, quem non quies, non remiffio, non æqualium ftudia, non lu- Itherto I have proved that there is a GOD, cf Infinite di, non convivia dePower, Wisdom and Goodneß; the Creator, and conlectant, nihil in vita fequently the Owner, the Ruler, and the Father or expetendum puter, nifi quod eft cum Chief Good of Man; and that Man as his creature is abfolutely laude & honore con- bis own, and therefore should refign himself as his own to his junctum; hunc, meâ difpofal, and that he is abfolutely bis fubject, and therefore should fententiâ, Divinis moft exactly and diligently obey him; and I have fhew'd parAtructum atque orna- ticularly wherein; alfo that Man is his Total Beneficiary, and Cic. pro made to love him as his chief Good and End; and therefore

quibufdam bonis in

tum puto.

Ca!

should

fhould totally devote himself to him in gratitude and love, and defire him, feek him and delight in him above all the world, and live in his praifes and continual fervice. All this is fully proved to be Man's duty. And now let us fee on what terms he itandeth in the world for the performance of it.

Malè de me loquun tur, fed mali: MoCalo, fi Lelius fapiens, fi duo Scipiones ifta loquerentur.

verer, fi de me Marc.

cere, laudare eft. Sen.

lum referta eft his

D.1. There is in the prefent difpofition of Man a great averfeneß Nunc malis difplito fuch a life of Refignation, Obedience and Love to God, Vidcturne fummâ as is before defcribed, even when he cannot deny it to be his improbitate ufus non duty, and to be the best, most honourable, and most felicitating life. fine fumma effe raToo fad experience confirmeth this. The bad are fo averfe, tione. Nec fcena fothat they will not be perfwaded to it: the godly.have fuch a fceleribus, fed multo mixture of averfenets, as findeth them matter of continual vita communis pone conflict. It is this averfneß which ferveth inftead of arguments majoribus. Sentit against it, or which is a pondus to the very judgment, and domus uniufcujufque, maketh it fo hard to believe any arguments which go againftit curia, fentit forum, fenfo ftrong a contrary inclination.

1.2. We find that the fenfes of men are grown masterly and inordinate, and are too eagerly fet upon their objects, and hold down the mind from rifing higher, and cause it to adhere to things terrene.

So that man's life now is like that of the bruits: it is things of the fame nature that he valueth and adhereth to, and moft men live to no higher ends but to enjoy their fenfual pleasure while they may.

campus, focii, provincia, ut quemadmodum ratione re&tè fiat, fic ratione peccetur: alterum & à paucis & raro alterum & fæpe & à pluribus: ut fatius fuerit nullam omnino nobis à Diis

datam effe rationem, quam tanta cum pernicie datam. Ita Cotta

6.3. We find that Reafon in most men is fo debilitated, that it cannot potently reduce it felf into action, nor fee that practi- contra Deos in Cic. de cally which speculatively it confeffeth, nor clearly and powerfully Natur. Deor. 3. p. obferve thofe Perfections of God in his works, nor thofe Duties of 111.

man, which we are convinced to be true: but by inconfiderateneß

and dull apprehenfions is almost as no reason to them, andfalleth down before their fenfuality.

9.4. Hereupon men grow as strangers unto God, and have no thoughts of him but dark, and dull, and ineffectual.

0.5. The world is full of allurements to the flesh, and thofe Mercies which should raise the mind to God, are made the food of this fenfuality, and the greatest means to keep it from him.

Senfe is irrational, and faftneth on its object: and when Reason faileth in its office, there we are left like Dogs gnawing upon a Carrion, and in greedinefs fighting for it with each other; when we have feparated the creature from God

in