I Am very much de­lighted, to learn both by the voice of Fame, and the Information of much more credi­ble Relators, that Hermione's cold usage has cured you of the Feaver, her scorching eyes had given you: And that when once you found your self reserved to shew what wonders her eyes were able to per­forme, you seasonably resolved to be­come an Instance of the power, rather of Reason, than of Love; and accor­dingly, did your selfe the right to fru­strate the vain hopes, your Insulting [Page 2]Mistriss cherished to manifest in you, That her charms were capable to make your flame persevere, when her change had made it as well causelesse as hopelesse. I could wish indeed for your sake, that you owed your cure more entirely to your Reason, and lesse to your Resentment; That the Ex­traction of your freedome may no wayes blemish it. But since un­allay'd Satisfactions are joyes too hea­venly, to fall to many mens share on earth, I cannot but conclude, that your recovery even on these Tearms deserves, I should Congratulate it? For, the French say truly, that Les plus courtes Folies sont les meilleures. And li­berty being too high a Blessing to be divestible of that nature by Circum­stances; I (that seldome deplore him, who by losing his Mistress recovers Himselfe) think that Hermione has but intentionally, not eventually diso­bliged you; and hath made your flames a better return, by restoring you your own heart, than she could have done by exchanging hers for it. But that which not least endeares to me your recovery, is, That I am as­sured by persons, from whom I dare [Page 3]Credit even so welcome News, that my endeavours prov'd so happy as to be conducive to it, and that the Con­siderations I ventured to present you, did at least so farre contribute to your Freedome, as to give you the desire, and the design of regaining it. For I hope, I need not tell you, that I sel­dome use endeavours, whose pros­perousnesse is more more welcome to me, than those, that aspire to serve Lindamor. And though I cannot ever pay you any great Services in relati­on to my vastly greater desires, yet I can scarce do you little ones in Re­lation to the delight resulting from the having done you any. Nor has the Joy which this successe of my dis­courses brings me, been sparingly en­creased by my having ventured them with much more desire, then expe­ctation of their prospering; and lesse out of any strong hope they would succeed, than out of an unwillingnesse to leave the means, I thought least improbable, unessayed: being invited to excite you to greater hopes, than I durst allow my self for you; by the Ex­ample of Generalls, who, whatsoever­distrustfull thoughts they harbour in [Page 4]their breasts, suppose, that before the Battell, to make their Souldiers fight successefully, 'tis as well conducive as requisite, by encouraging Orations, to make them think they shall do so: For, although I endevoured indeed to perswade you, that Reason being born Soveraign of the Passions though her Lenitie or supineness doe sometimes both occasion and permit their Usur­pation; She is seldom so diversted of her native power; but that when­soever she pleaseth to imploy what she hath left, she is able to resume, what she hath lost. And though I was wil­ling you should believe that to per­fect what your Resentment had begun, was a taske so easie, that the Victory was as much in your power, as the Resolution of attempting it: Yet not­withstanding all this, I say, I was once half perswaded, that to undertake the Curing of a Lover was the next weak­nesse to the being one. And, Linda­mor, to deal ingenuously with you, your Recovery hath circumstances in it, that make me very apprehensive, that you are not yet out of the danger of a Relapse, and that you have not half so absolutely abandon'd your for­mer [Page 5]amorous constitution of mind, as the former Idol of it. I know that from a person, who, for one that hath never yet been hurt by Cupid, is accu­sed of using him sleightingly and fe­verely enough, you will expect En­deavours to preserve you from Re­lapses by such disswasions from Love, as its Votaries will scarce vouchsafe so mild a Title to, as that of Inve­ctives against it. And I shall ingenu­ously acknowledge, Lindamor, that I have been sometimes no very unrea­dy Satyrist on that Theme; and with a pen, rellishing of the Liberty I cheri­shed in myheart, endeavoured to dis­abuse those Servile souls, that being born to Reason, so far degraded them­selves as to boast solely on excesse of Passion; and had such low and nar­row thoughts of faelicity, and misery, as to expect either, from a Womans usage: All which I thought I might the freelier do, because having never known the infaelicities of Love, but in the sufferings of others, I might pro­bably suppose, that my Declamations against it, would passe for the pro­ductions of my Reason, not my Re­venge. But, Lindamor, though the [Page 6]extravagancies of some mens folly, have been sometimes too great, to let me avoid laughing somewhat Saty­rically at it; yet I am really too little an enemy to Love, unlesse excessive or mis-plac'd by indistinct and disfigu­ring Considerations, to represent to you the noblest Passion of the Mind, as its most hideous and formidable dis­ease.

To love even with some passionate­nesse the Person you would Marry, § 1 is not onely allowable but expedient, being almost necessary to the duty of fixing your affection, where you have once engaged your faith; For, it hath been observ'd, that Love doth seldome suffer it self to be confin'd by other matches, then those of its owne ma­king. And few, but they, that are so wife as they see cause to be in Love before hand with those they Marry; prove so honest as afterwards to be in Love with none else. Since therefore, the Marriage of a wise man supposes at least as high a degree of Love, as he is capable to cherish with­out forfeiting that Title; I can scarce, disallow the being moderately in Love without being injurious to Marriage, [Page 7]which is a Relation, which though I can with much lesse Reluctancy per­mit others, then Contract my self; yet dare I not absolutely condemne a con­dition of Life, as expedient to no man, without which, even Paradise and Innocence were not sufficient to compleat the happinesse of the first man. Thus you see, Lindamor, that I do not promiscuously quarrell with all sorts of Love, but indeavour onely to possesse you with this Truth, That as antiently, among the Jewes, there were odoriferous Unguents, which it was neither unusuall nor unlawfull to anoint themselves with, or bestow upon their friends: But there was a certain peculiar Composition too, of a pretious Ointment, which God ha­ving reserv'd to be imployed in his owne Service; with that, Exod. 30.31, 32. the Perfu­ming of their friends was Criminall and Sacrilegious: So there are re­gulated degrees of Love, which 'tis not forbidden to harbour for a friend, a Mistris, or a Wife: but there is too, a certain peculiar Strain, or, if I may so call it, Heroick Temperament of Love, which where ever it is found, makes it belong, as unalienably, as [Page 8]justly, unto GOD. A virtuous Wife may love both her Husband and her owne Relations, and yet be truly said to love him with her whole heart: because there is a certain unrivall'd degree of fondnesse, and a peculiar sort of Love, which constitutes true Conjugall affection, which she con­fines to him, and reserves entirely for him, and would think it Criminall to harbour for any other Person. So a Religious soul may obey the Com­mand, of Loving God entirely, though she allow her affections other objects; provided, they be kept in a due subor­dination to, and kept from entring into Competition with that Love, which ought to be appropriated to him: and which results chiefly from, an either altogether, or almost unin­creaseable Elevation, and vastnesse of affection; from an entire resignement to, and an absolute dependance on the Lov'd Party; from a restlesse disquiet upon the least sense or doubt of her displeasure; from a greater Con­cern in her interests, than ones owne; from an expectation of no lesse, then felicity or wretchednesse from her friendship or indignation, or at least [Page 9]a perswadedness that nothing can be a greater happinesse, then her favour, or deferve the name of happinesse without it. For, where ever a passion has these properties or any of them conspicuous in it; it cannot, but by being consecrated to God, avoid, be­coming injurious both to Him and to it selfe. The very Noblenesse of it, entitles him to it: as in some King­domes, (and particularly here in Eng­land) though Veins of coorser Metalls may belong to the owner of the Soile they grow in, yet all the Mines of the more perfect Metalls, (as Gold and Silver) are by the Law made Mines Royall, and belong to the King, to whom their value appropriates them. By reflecting upon this peculiar Noti­on of Love, you may be pleased, Lin­damor, to interpret such indefinite ex­pressions, as you may meet with in the following discourse. And this Love, I have taken the freedome to style Sera­phick Love, borrowing the name from (if the Romish Divines be good Mar­shalls of the Heavenly Host) those nobler Spirits of the Caelestiall Hie­rarchie, whose Name in the Lan­guage to which it belongs, expresses [Page 10]them to be of a flaming Nature; The Name Seraphim, in Hebrew, springs from the Root Saraph, which signifies to burn or flame: Whence, Numb. 21.6. those pernicious Crea­tures, that our Translators English, Fiery-Serpents, are styled in the O­riginall, Hannechasim has-seraphim. and whose im­ployment, menti­oned in the Isa. 6.2, 3. E­vangelicall Pro­phet's Mysterious Vision, sufficiently poynts at the divine Object, to which the flames, that warm them, aspire and tend. And me-thinks, Linda­mor, that you should find it no faint In­vitation to embrace Seraphick Love, that you may have the advantage by making your selfe a Rivall to these glorious Spirits, to make them your friends, and the honour to be inga­ged in a Service, where you are sure of such Illustrious concurrents. At least if you be of the mind of that gene­rous Youth (to whose successefull Va­lour the Conquer'd world was both Theater and Trophie) who refus'd to runne at the Olympick Games, be­cause there were no Monarchs to runne with him. But I fear, Linda­mor, I have a little digressed since I might have told you in fewer words, that it is not my design in this paper to declame against Love in generall, or make a solemne Harangue of the [Page 11]ficklenesse of women: and that there­fore, as when young Gallants, (such as you, Lindamor) are subject to cast away their Love upon unfitting Ob­jects, their discreeter friends, sensible of the truth of the Italian Comick's observation, that

Without taking any more than ne­cessary notice of their former fond and stragling Passion, reclaim them by either matching them, or at least (in order thereunto) engageing their ad­dresses to persons, whose Beauty or Prerogatives may both legitimate and confine their affections. So I shall now endeavour to prevent the future gad­dings of your Love to objects, that cannot deserve so transcendent and disinterest a one, as I have observed yours to have been; by preferring and [Page 12]engageing it to the true Object that passion was born to, the noblest it can aspire to, and the most satisfying it can enjoy. Yes, Lindamor, as it has hi­therto been my not-unprosperous Task, to un-hood your Soul, I shall now make it my business, to show her Game to flye at. I see that Love in Lindamor is too noble and predomi­nant an affection, to be either easie or fit to be destroyed. It will therefore be my design not to suppresse your flame, but to addresse it. I wish'd it withdrawn from Hermione, not to an­nihilate it, but to transfigure it. I would not have a passion, which wan­ted nothing, but a due object, to be Se­raphick Love, like vulgar men, be swallow'd up by Death, the common fate: But be enobled by a destinie like that of Enoch and Elias, who, having ceased to converse with Mortalls, dyed not, but were translated into Heaven.

What has been said already, § 2 hath, it seems, suffic'd to rectifie your love, by disabusing it, and showing you, how unfitly it was plac'd on its former ob­jects. Your proficiencie in that, in­vites me to proceed with you to a new Lesson, and (mindfull of that true [Page 13]Saying of an Eminent Father, Nemo aliquem amat, quem non vult esse melio­rem) to endeavour to exalt your passi­on by directing and setling it, upon an Object, the due Contemplation of whose Lovelinesse may Cure as per­fectly all hurts received from any Mortall Beauty, as antiently the sight of the Mysterious Serpent on the Pole did cure the hurts, Numb. c. 21. v. 8, 9. the fiery Serpents gave. For, since to gaze stedfastly on an outward beauty where all your looking will but discover the same face, is found so effectuall to kindle or to blow the fire of Love (which the Greeks prettily enough expresse by their [...]) how much must a due contemplation ena­mour us of that divine, and, though refulgent, yet ever more and more discoverable object; where attention and wonder, still mutually excite and cherish each other? Whence the zea­lousest and perfectest Lovers of God, are the glorious Angells, of whom our Saviour says, that in Heaven, Matth. 18.20. They alwaies behold tha face of his Father which is in Heaven. And those blessed Saints, whose imployment and whose hap­pinesse is, in the Revelation, exprest to [Page 14]be, Rev. 14.4. To follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. And those unblemisht persons are in that place recorded to have kept themselves undefiled by mortall Beau­ties; to teach us, that the nearer and cleerer Intuition, that Heaven affords them of the glorious object of their passion, was, not the Cause of it, but the Recompence; and that, whilst they liv'd exiles here on earth, 'twas such a speculation, as I am recommending (Lindamor) to you, wherwith they liv'd, (to borrow the Expresion used of Moses) as seeeing him who is invi­sible; Heb. 11. [...]7. a sight, whose glory made them look on fading Beauties, with as un­dazl'd and untroubled eyes, as Eagles can be suppos'd to cast on Glo­wormes when they have been newly gazing on the Sun.

To engage your Love, § 3 Lindamor, to this sublimest of Objects, I shall desire, that all that I have said to divert your former flames, and all that I may say to depreciate and discredit those de­grading and disquieting Amours, that are wont to inveagle Mortalls, may be lookt upon as meant rather by way of preparative, then of Motive, aiming but to disabuse and rectifie your mind, [Page 15]that with compos'd and unprepossessed thoughts you may judge of the Object, I propose to you. Which to qualifie you to be but impartiall to, this Me­thod seem'd expedient, being but im­ploy'd upon such a Score, as that, on which the Platonists us'd to premise certain vertues, which they (signifi­cantly enough) call'd Purgative, to dispose and fit the mind for the Re­ception of sublimer truths. As Phy­sitians to cleer the sight are wont to purge the head, that the eye freed from all darkning and disguising Tinctures, may the more perfectly discern the ob­jects presented to it. And certainly, the Love I would perswade, is of a na­ture, that makes nothing more con­ducive to it, then the greatest unclou­dednesse of the eye, and the perfectest Illustration of the object: which is such, that the cleerest Reason is the most advantagious light, it can desire to be seen by. You know the story of that witty Wench, who us'd merrily to wish her Lovers all good Qualities, but a good Understanding; for that, said she, would them make cut of love with me. The Divine object to which I would prefer you, Lindamor, is so far [Page 16]from being obnoxious to a Danger of that Nature, that I need not disparage any other to enamour you of this. For, the Creator is too full of Excellencies to need to be recommended or set off by the Creature's Defects. He was soveraignly lovely in himself, before they had a being, nor has his giving us that passion, called Love, made him the unfitter object for it. To love God but because your Mistriss has per­sonall faults, is a greater, then any of those for which you have declin'd her; and is such a Soloecism in Seraphick Love, as it were in the Persian Re­ligion (for that has yet imbracers in the East, as those, that have there convers'd with them, assure me) to make the Spots, that blemish the Moon, the Motives of their worshipping the Sun. Hermione is a Lady, to whose noble Relations I am too much a ser­vant, not to have a Respect for Her; and I cannot, without concluding her an extraordinary person, remember how lately she enjoy'd the honour of Captivating Lindamor: and though she has since by injuriously declining, justly forfeited the glorious Title of his Mistriss; yet the Qualities, that [Page 17]gave it her, made me among divers others like her so well, that 'tis now my quarrell to her, that she Is not, what she Was. And therefore, what ever may fal from my pen to her disad­vantage, relates to her but as she was, or may again be, an Obstacle to your devotednesse to Seraphick Love. To in­gage you to which (all this notwith­standing, Lindamor) I must do you the right to tell you, that God deserves the highest Elevation of your Love, though Hermione had not rejected it. Were she not onely as Handsome as you fancyed her, but as Constant as you wished her, Her beauty, and her Friendship too concurring, could not have made her other, than, as Disad­vantagious as Injurious, a Rivall unto God; and, in the very fruition of as obliging returnes, as her Kindnesse could have made your Passion, she would have deserv'd but a more Mo­derate Degree of it. Angels, to whom women were never false or cruell, love their Maker above all things: Rev 22.4. & 19.1. and he to whom St. John presents his ado­ration, refused it for himself. to direct it unto God. Would not you your self, Lindamor, have thought your Hermione [Page 18]absolutely handsome, though Moores had not worn the Devill's Livery; and the thing call'd Deformity, had been as much a stranger, as it is unwelcome to her sex. 'Tis true, such is our frail­ty, that, as the Israelites needed a cru­ell and oppressive bondage in Aegypt, to make them resolve on returning to the blest Land of Canaan: So often­times, the amorous Soul needs the harsh usage of a disdainfull Mistriss, to disgust it with its thraldome, and make it aspire to its more genuine and satisfying Object. I may therefore al­low Hermione's Defects to have given you freedome and occasion, to consi­der the Prerogatives of Seraphick Love: But I must not allow them to be the chief Motives of your imbracing it; For, it were too injurious to its glorious Object, to make that but the Refuge of a Defeated Passion, whose Transcendency entitles it to more than the most elevate and entire one. Alas, God needs not these beggerly Parallels with any fading objects, to become that of our disabus'd Devo­tion, and He were Lovely Without comparison as well as He is so Above it. And though I be not so unjust, as [Page 19]to deny, that there are Ladies (some of which I have the happinesse not to be unknown to my selfe) whose Ex­cellencies are capable to ennoble their whole Sex: Yet their greatest accom­plishments compar'd to his Perfecti­ons, whose gifts they are, are, in that Eclipsing company, as inconspicuous as the faint Qualities of more ordi­nary persons. As, when in a cleer Mor­ning the rising-Sun vouchsafes to vi­sit us, as well those Bright Starrs, that did Adorn our Hemisphere, as those Dark Shades, that did benight it, va­nish: Consonantly whereunto, give me leave to observe to you, Lindamor, that though divers of God's Attributes are through his goodnesse participa­ted by his Creatures, yet the Scrip­ture makes so vast a disparity betwixt the excellencies, that it ascribes to men, and the same Perfections consi­dered as they exist in God, that it seems absolutely to exclude created Beeings from any Title to those Attri­butes; because they possesse them but in a way so inferior to that transcen­dent, peculiar, and divine manner, in which, they belong to God. Thus our Saviour sayes to him that (taking [Page 20]him but for a man) call'd him good, Why callest thou me good? Mat. 19.16, 17. There is none good but One (that is) God. Thus St. Paul, 1 Tim. 6.15. calls God (or Christ) the onely Potentate, [...], though the earth be shared by severall Potentates; and even the Devout Evnuch in the Acts; Act. 8.17. Luk. 1.52. and the deposed Grandees men­tioned by the Blessed Virgin in her Canticle, are, in the Original, styled Potentates. Mat 25.5. Thus, though there be wise Virgins as well as foolish; and though our Saviour tells us, Luk. 16.8. That the Children of this world are in their ge­neration wiser, than the Children of Light: 1 Tim. 1.17. 1 Tim. 6.16. Yet St. Paul scruples not to rearm his Maker, The onely wise God; and thus he elsewhere Paraphrases him, He that onely hath immortali­tie, Though Angels and humane Souls be deathless. In so incommunicable a manner does the Superiority of God's nature make him possesse those very Excellencies, which the diffusivenesse of his goodnesse, makes him pleased to communicate. I am the more zealous, Lindamor, to transfigure your Love into Devotion (which I must desire you to look upon but as a varied name for Seraphick Love) because I have [Page 21]observ'd your passion to have been extreamly impatient of confinement, and to have esteem'd whatever may be term'd Limits to be Prisons. Few therefore can Need more or Deserve better, an object for their love, for which too immense a vastnesse were impossible. And such a one is God; whose soveraign Perfections render him so uncapable of being lov'd Too Much, that the most aspiring passion can scarce arrive (so much, as) to lessen its disproportion to the object. Other passions like other Rivers, are most lik'd, when they calmly flow within their wonted Banks: but of Seraphick Love, as of Nilus, the very Inundati­ons might be desireable, and his over­flowings make him the more welcome. For mortall beauties, our passions are like our selves: If our Stature chance to exceed a certain size or standart, it make us monstrous: but Devotion is like a flawless Diamond, where the bignesse taxes the Value and the unu­suall Bulke both rates and inhances the Lustre and the Price. To give GOD All our Love is the greatest command both of the Law and Gospell (in its capacious & teeming womb both com­prising [Page 22]and cherishing all the other services, God requires) and that there is not more exacted of us, is not, that an addition were Culpable, but because it is Impossible. So noble is the nature of Devotion, that it admits of failings but by one of the extreams, which is that of Defect. For, Medio­critie (whose office 'tis to restrain us from approaching the utmost Limits,) which in other passions is an Excel­lence, is here an imperfection. Or, at least, if Mediocrity be that which cre­ates passions vertues; the Mediocrity of this Love must consist in the Excesse of it, since that is it, which makes it most a vertue. Psal. 42.1. Cervina caro sicca est, &c. Sennert. Insti. De Alimenter facultati­bus. lib. 4. part. 1. cap. 3. The man after God's own heart is not a fear'd to own even to his Maker an ardency of love for Him, which must be exprest with the significant Metaphor of Thirst; and that such a Thirst too, as makes the panting Hart (by Naturallists ob­serv'd to be a very drie Creature) bray (as I remember the Hebrew hath it) for those refreshing streams, whose want distresses and reduces her to an almost gasping condition: My very Soul (saith he) thirsteth for God. vers. 2. And we know that thirst is not only so [Page 23]violent an appetite, that it lessens the wonder of that Monarch's Bargain, whom History reco [...]ds to have parted with his Kingdome for a cup of water: but thirst doth so confine our longings to what it craves, that nothing else can satisfie them. The wealth of both the Indies would not excuse the want of a needed Cup, supposing their Possessor tormented with an Appetite, which cannot be quench't but by Drink. To which I must adde, that the uneasinesse of unrelieved Thirst, is not, like that of other inconveniences, [...]essen'd by conti­nuance, but grows by lasting the more unsupportable. The same inspired Po­et scruples not also to professe so sensi­ble and so active a Concern for Gods in­terests, that the zeal of Gods house had eaten him up; and hugely troubled he is, that others are not affected with the same zeal. Psal. 119.158. I beheld (sayes he) the Transgressours, and was grieved, because they kept not thy Word. Nay, Rivers of wa­ters, sayes he, run down mine eyes, Ibidem v. 136. because they keep not thy Law; and to manifest, how much the tendernesse and unre­serv'dnesse of his Love, made him think those his friends or enemies, that were so to God, Ps. 101.6. Mine eyes (sayes he) shall be [Page 24]upon the faithfull of the Land, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh perfect in the way, he shall serve me. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee, and am not I grieved with those, Psal. 139.21.22. that rise up against Thee? I hate them with a perfect ha­tred, I count them mine Enemies. At this Rate, did pious David love his Ma­ker, but he was so far from thinking this rate Excessive, that, transported by the sense of his personall disability, to pay that Divine object all the Love that his perfections merited: he is not con­tent to rouze up all his owne faculties to praise God, Ps. 103.1. (Blesse the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, blesse His holy Name,) but he invites all the Godly to assist him in the payment of so vast a debt, Ps. 117.1. (Love the Lord all ye Saints, for &c.) And again, (Praise the Lord all ye Nati­ons, praise him all ye people.) And not con­tent neither frequently to do this, as may appear by very many passages of his sacred Poems, Ps. 138.2. he extends his Invi­tation to the Angells, and all the other Hosts of God, and concludes the book of Psalms with a, Let every thing, that hath breath, praise the Lord: Hallelujah. Nor does it invalidate, what has now been delivered.

That some men have, § 4 even by De­vout Persons, been blamed for too much Devotion: for, it was not an ex­cesse of Love, but a want of Discretion, that was guilty of their faults; The expressions of our Love to God, ought to be regulated not by our blind and wild fancies, but by his revealed will, (as Christ sayes, If you Love me, keep my Commandements) and therefore it is very possible, to be too devout, not because any expression of Seraphick love can be made with too much Ardency, whil'st 'tis considered abstractedly in it selfe, and irrelatively to the rest; But because, that there being severall du­ties of Love which require an Ardency of it; 'tis injurious, to exercise all that in one alone, or a few, that belongs equally to the neglected others. We must not, (as too many Professours are now wont to do, of whose error you may receive a fuller accompt in some other papers,) dash in pieces the two Tables of the Law against one another; But must so love GOD with all our hearts, as to love our Neigh­bours as our selves. You know, what our Saviour saith to the Pharisees, Mat. 23.23. that Tithed Mint and Cummin, [Page 26]with a neglect of Judgement, Mercy, and Faith, those weightier matters o [...] the Law; These ought you ( [...]) t [...] have done, and not to leave the other undone. And indeed this Partiality, Lindamor, which makes us display so much of the strength and vigour of our Spirits in some few favorite-Duties, that we can but languidly and per­functorily perform those others, we are lesse fond of, begets in Devotion a disease, not unlike that new one in Children, we call the Rickets, which some Learned Physicians do not im­probably conceive to arise from the unequall Nutrition of the parts; for, though none of them receive excessive Nourishment, yet some of them recei­ving as much as is convenient for them, and thereby growing up to their na­turall bignesse, whilst others are lesse nourished, than (were the Body health­full) they would be, do grow so little, that the sounder parts seem Over­grown, and so the disproportion be­twixt Them, and the Ricketting ones makes the whole Body, they compose, mis-shapen, and unweildy. But, Lin­damor, this proves not, that we can love God too much, but onely, that we [Page 27]may imploy too much of that Love, in this or that way of expressing it. Whilst we are, Job. 4.19. (as Job speaks) Inhabitants of these houses of Clay, there are many Duties, which do as well challenge an intensity of our affections, as those, which relate more immediately to God. As St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. 7.32, 33, 34. That there is difference betwixt married and sin­gle Persons; the affections of the one being at liberty, to devote themselves more undistractedly to God, where­as those of the other are distracted, as Adam's were, betwixt his Maker and his Rib. But, where a direct and immediate expression of Love to God, defraudes not any other Duty, there it is free from the danger of excesse. Though Prayers may easily be too long, and Fasts grow exorbitant; yet Christ could spend the whole night in Prayer, and fast forty dayes without immode­ratenesse, when the other expressions of his Love to his Father, and the other exercises of his Mediatory Function, were not thereby disturb'd, 1 King. 19.8. but fur­thered, and promoted. And so Elijah might inculpably fast long, when that fasting did not disable him to prosecute his journey to the Mount of God; and [Page 28]though just men here on Earth must ex­presse their Love to their Master, by (that busie distracting, and remoter way of service) Trading with his Talents trusted to them; yet when their de­vesture of Mortality dispenses them from those laborious and avocating du­ties to distressed Christians, and their owne secular Relations, which were here requisite to be perform'd; their glorified spirits may now, without any immoderate devotion, imploy, I say not, their Time, but their Eternity it selfe in Conversing with God, and following the Lamb whithersoever he goes. And congruously I observe, that the four mysterious Beasts, Rev. 4.6, 7. allow'd to approach neerest to the Throne of God (though their many wings and more numerous eyes, intimate them of a very active nature) are represented to us in the Apocalypse, as addicted but to one imployment, vers. 8. ceasing neither day nor night from saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty; and from giving Glory, and Honour, and Thanks unto him. And of those that have white­ned their Robes in the blood of the Lamb, this account is in the same book given [Page 29]us, Rev. 7.14, 15. that they are before the Throne of God, and serve Him day and night in his Temple. So true it is, that no degree of Seraphick Love can be Exces­sive, nay nor any expression of it, Im­moderate, unlesse it be made so, not by its Greatness, but by its Usurpation, whereby, it either engrosses or invades what belongs to its injur'd, and lan­guishing associates. Our Love unto the Creatures is a Present, but unto God it is a Tribute: and though we may easily play the Prodigalls in par­ting (over-freely) with our Guifts, we can scarce be so in the payment of our Debts; for, be the Summes never so vast we pay away, their being due in spite of their being great, makes the disbursement too much an Act of Ju­stice, to be one of Profusenesse: Sera­phick Love, (whose Passionatenesse is its best Complexion) has then most ap­proach't its noblest measure, when it can least be measured: nor ought its ex­tent to admit any other limits, then an utter disability to exceed those, that terminate it. For he alone loves God, as much as he Ought, that loving Him as much as he Can, strives to repaire the deplored imperfection of that love, [Page 30]with an extream Regret to find it no greater. Such a sublimity of love will best intitle you to the Consolation, ac­cruing from that memorable passage of St. John, 1 Joh. 4.16. where he sayes, that God is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Which supplies me with a forcible in­ducement, to invite you to an eager aspiring to a Transcendency in devoti­on, since it may render selfe-deniall so easie, that 'twill (at last) almost devest that name. For, this sublimer love be­ing, by an intimate conjunction with its Object, wholly devoted to it, and throughly refined from all base drosse of selfishnesse and interest, nobly be­gets a most strict Union of our wills with God's, or (rather) a perfect sub­mission of the one to the other. And thus, when it is become your will to obey His, no dispensations of Provi­dence will immoderately disquiet you; for, you possesse your wishes in the Ge­nerall and in Bulke, though possibly not alwayes in Retaile; for, your chief­est desire being to see your Maker's will fulfilled, your knowledge of his being the Soveraign and uncontrolled Dispo­ser of Events, assures you, that all Ac­cidents, [Page 31]that can befall you, are but exact accomplishments of His Will, and consequently of yours so far forth, as that is included and compriz'd in his. When you have Resign'd, or ra­ther Consign'd, your expropriated will (if I may so call it) to God; and there­by, (as it were) entrusted him to will for you; all his disposalls of, and his dispensations towards you, are, in effect, the acts of your owne will, with the Advantage of their being directed and specified by Him. An Advantage that does at once assure you both of their Rectitude and their Successe. God's Wisdome, Power, and Love to you consider'd, how much more hap­py must you be in your Elections of his naming for you, than your immediate owne? The Patient thinks himselfe ob­liged, to gratifie his Physitian, for choosing for him, what sorts of meat he is to feed on; though the Doctor be wont to make such a choice for him, as deprives him of the Dishes he best likes, and oftentimes confines him to those he loaths. Alas, how often might God say of our requests, as Christ did of those of the two aspiring Disciples; Ye know not what ye ask. I admire, [Page 32]and blush to read in a Heathen Satyrist, so Heavenly a Lesson, as,

The consideration of which made a heathen Philosopher say, That he was wont onely in generall Termes to beg Good things of the gods, leaving it to them, to determine what things were Good for him: And indeed, our own wishes are but too commonly as blind as Rachel's, who having so eagerly lon­ged for Children that she impatiently cryes, Give me Children, or else I dye; Gen. 35.18. dyed in Child-bearing: And as de­structive to the wishers, as their Long­ings prov'd to the Murmuring Israe­lites, Numb. 11.33. who loathing the wholesome Manna (that bread of Angells) God had provided for them, are their own Bane in the flesh, they had so greedily lusted for. Thus, Lindamor, that so­affrightning vertue of Selfe-denyall, proves to be little more, than a Son's Letter of Attorney to his Father, of whose paternall fondnesse and con­summate abilities in the management of affairs, his confidence amounts unto a certainty. Nay, till my second [Page 34]thoughts check'd the over-forward Impetuosity of my first, I was about to adde; Since God resents an infinite satisfaction in the accomplishment of his own will, your making over your whole will to God, will impart to you that felicity, proportion'd to the de­gree of the resignment. And, as the eye whilst by the Optick Nerve ty'd unto the head, so chain'd can taste delights; which it is dead to, being once sever'd from it, though (otherwise) it enjoy the best condition of which its inanimate Nature can be suppos'd to be capable: So may your will by an Identity or Sameness (in Tendency, though not in Nature) with your Maker's, as twere engrafted into Gods, receive a new, and an enlarg'd capacity, which wil enable you to contain, and rellish joyes, highly transcending those, which the fullest fruition of your private wishes were able to create. Thus self-deniall is a kind of holy association with God, and (by making you his partner) interesses you in all his happinesse, and acquisi­tions. And consonantly we see that Glorified Saints and Blessed Angells, whose wills have the most exquisite and exact conformity to God's, enjoy a [Page 35]happiness most appreaching His; wher­as the Apostate Spirits in a confirm'd Repugnancy to his will, find the ex­treamitie of wretchednesse.

But though I dare not own, Lindamor, § 5 so bold a Sally, yet I dare without Scruple improve the discourse, that preceded it, to make out to you an ad­vantagious difference of Seraphick Love from Ordinary Flames. For, he that makes a Present of his heart to any Mortall Beauty, even by her welcom­ming it and lodging it with her own, grows subject to have it wounded in her breast. Those misfortunes reach him that would otherwise terminate in her: hir afflictions torment him, whilst his own reprieve him; and the Felicity of two persons grows requisite to make one happy. The letting out our love to mutable Objects, doth but inlarge our hearts and make them the wider Marks for fortune, and capable of being wounded in more places: For, although Love may as well make us participate the Joyes, as resent the Infelicities of the Parties lov'd; yet even the least unhappy persons do in so fickle and so tempestuous a Sea as we all find this world, meet with so many [Page 36]more either crosse winds or stormy gusts, then prosperous gales; and we are so much more sensible of Pain than Pleasure (an akeing corne, though lesse then a sicknesse, unfitting us to rellish, the otherwise perfect health of the whole body) that even Friendship it selfe, though a much calmer affection than Love, ought to be declin'd as In­jurious to our quiet, did we consider it, but as a Partnership of Fortunes, not an Exercise of Vertues. But he, whose wiser Love settles it selfe on God, is not onely by the immutable and even Essentiall happinesse of that Adorable Object, secur'd from participated infe­licitys; but finds his personall crosses and distresses sweetned by conside­ring, that what he most loves, is most happy; and as able as willing in due time to make Him so. And though Seraphick Love makes us partake but God's Felicities, yet his acceptance of it makes him resent Our sorrows: In all their afflictions he was afflicted, Esa. 63.3. sayes the Prophet of God, and of the Israe­lites. And so the Son of God (who is so much one with those that love him, that both he as the Head, and they as the members are sometimes, as making [Page 37]up one body, call'd by one name, 1 Cor. 12.12. Christ) though as high as Heaven above the reach of personall or im­mediate persecutions, calls out to Saul for an intention of harming those, that lov'd him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And, to demonstrate the ten­dernesse of this Compassion, the Pro­phet says to the return'd Israelites, con­cerning God: He that toucheth you, Zach. 2.8. toucheth the apple of his Eye. Nor is God's compassion like a Mistresse's, a grie­ving only and an useless pitty, where­by the suffering Lover is oftentimes lesse comforted as it proceeds from her kindness, than afflicted because it breeds her disquiet: But God's is a compassion, though Active, yet Serene, and worthy of Himself, which without produce­ing the discomposure, produces the effects of the most sensible Pitty, by engaging him to a timely Reliefe and Rescue: As that freshly-mentioned Ex­pression, In all their affliction he was afflicted; is immediately follow'd by, And the Angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the daies of old. Yes, this pitty for its not disturbing [Page 38]Gods Happinesse, enclines him not the lesse to expresse a sense of our Miseries and makes us find (to use a Scripture phrase as I would render it) [...], Heb. 4.16. Grace for an op­portune reliefe; I say, with the divine Writer, an Opportune or Seasonable Relief, because it comes not alwayes when it is most desired, but when it is most fit; And when that is, he that hath at once all present past and future things in his Prospect, is fittest to de­termine. Christ's words to his Disciples, (It is not for you to know the Times or the Seasons, Act. 1.7. which the Father hath put in his own power,) are applicable to more cases, then that, which occasioned them. Mar. 7.27 The Canaanitish woman must put up a Refusall, and the reproach­full name of Dog (which yet, by the way, was a Paraphrase commonly enough us'd by the Jews of the Hea­then, The Text refers her extraction to Syrophae­nicia, the same Re­gion with Canaan. and as such was under stood by this [...], Gentile not Greek) The Israe­lites (comprizing the Patriarchs their progenitours) were reduced to wait four hundred & thirty years, ere they were introduced into the promis'd Land: Gal 3.17. and during a great part of that long space of time, languish'd and [Page 39]groan'd under the heavy Burthens, and other as heavy pressures, of the as cruelly as unsuccessefully politick Aegyptians. St. Ezek. 28.24. 2 Cor. 12.7. Paul himself pray'd the Lord thrice, for the removall of that rude [...], Thorn to the flesh (whatsoever that may mean.) Nay of the blessed Virgin-Mother her selfe her divine Son would not be found till the third day, Luk. 2.48 though she sought him sorrowing. And Lazarus, to whom even during his sicknesse he vouchsafed (a Title to which all Cae­sar's were but Trifles) the style of Friend, Joh. 11.2. which emboldned the pious Mary to paraphrase him by a, vers. 3. Hee whom thou lovest, was permitted not one­ly to lye a dying, but to dye; his Rescue being deferr'd till it was thought Im­possible; and was so indeed, to any less power then Omnipotence. Which manifests, that as no degree of Distress is unrelievable by his power; so no extreamity of it, is inconsistent with his compassion, no nor with his friend­ship. He whose spirit inspired the Prophets, Mal. 3.3. is in the last of them repre­sented under the Notion of a Refiner: and 'tis not the Custome of Refiners to snatch the belov'd Mettall out of [Page 40]the fire, as soon as it feels the violence of that purifying Element, nay nor as soon as it is melted by it, but they let it long indure the brunt of the active flames, actuated by exciting Blasts, till it have stood its due time in the fire, and there obtain'd its full purity and splendor. And I hope you will give a converser with Furnaces (though no pretender to the Philosopher's Stone) leave to improve a Chymicall Meta­phor, and observe, that though in af­flictions, especially Nationall or Pub­lick Calamities, God oftentimes seems to make no distinction betwixt the ob­jects of his compassion and those of his fury, indiscriminately involving them in the same destiny; yet his pre­science and intentions make a vast Difference, where his inflictions seem not to make any: As, when on the same Test, and with the self-same Fire, we urge (as well) the Gold as the blended Lead or Antimony; but with fore­knowing and designing such a dispa­rity in the events, as to consume the Ignobler Mineralls or blow them off into drosse or fumes, and make the Gold more pure and full of Lu­stre.

It is true, Lindamor, § 9 and (not to be sup­pected of partiality towards a Love, which so little needs it, to be thought fit to be praeferr'd before all other passions) I shall acknowledge it, that the happinesse, resulting from those many prerogatives, I have endea­vour'd to discover to you in a Trans­cendent degree of Seraphick Love, is moderated by the Effects of that Sub­limity, the Eager Desires, it creates of a more compleat fruition of its per­fect and divine Object. Such aspiring Salleys of the longing Soul, made the languishing Spouse in the Canticles cry out, Stay me with Flaggons, Cant. 11.5 Comfort me with Apples; for I am sick of Love. Such made the ravisht Apostle desire to return (for so I should rather trans­late the word [...] there, Phil. 1.23. and so I find it Luk. 12.36. elsewhere to fignifie) and to be with Christ: and the Inspir'd Poet thus expresses his longings to the blessed Object of them, Psal. 42.1, 2. As the Hart panteth af­ter the water-Brooks, so panteth my Soul after thee O God. My Soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God. But, Lindamor, it was fit, that to elevate our thoughts and wishes to Heaven, some peculiar [Page 42]and elsewhere incommunicable de­grees of Joy, should be reserv'd for us there. And 'tis a good sign, and such as worldly Objects cannot boast, when the Incompleatnesse of our Seraphick Lover's happinesse in his fruitions, pro­ceeds not from their want of Satis­factorinesse, but his want of an Enti­rer Possession of them. And let me tell you, Lindamor, that even this uneasie state of Separation, is sweetned with as much allay as is consistent with its being a Grief. For, the Divine Evi­dence and teacher of Gods love, pro­nouncing a thirst after perfection to be a Title to it (according to those Scrip­tures, Mat. 5.6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousnesse: for, they shall be satisfied. Rev. 22.17. And, Let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of Life freely) and the Joyes of Heaven being so vast, that they dif­fuse their Nature to all the grounded Hopes, men have to enjoy them; each new Assuranc is a new Degree of them, and is acceptable to our hope though uneasie to our desires. And these bait­ings at compleat felicity should not be more unwelcome for the present disquiet they suppose, than the Con­trary [Page 43]for the Zeal they argue, and the Felicity, they promise: For, this pro­duction of the Spirit in our hearts may be justly termed, at the Spirit himself in Scripture, is, An earnest; 2 Cor. 5.5 which though by being such, it confesses it self not to be the Entire summe, yet is not onely a Part of it, but a Pledge: And, Lindamor, how Supportable is this thus-qualified Allay of the Joyes of Seraphick Love, in comparison of the Disquiets and the Torments, that are wont to attend sensuall Love? I shall not lose time to enumerate, how ma­ny it is supposed to have sent to their Graves: because, though I find those Tragicall stories rife enough in Ro­mances, yet I find them rarities every where but in those Fabulous compo­sures: and though I have had the Cu­riosity to visit some of those warmer Regions, where the Flames of Love are thought to burne with more vio­lence, yet (bating by Duells and the Pox) I remember not to have observ'd Love to have ever been the Death of any man: unlesse, speaking like Phi­losophers, who make Reason the Essen­tiall Constituent Form of man, we will affirm that Love by dethroning [Page 44]Reason, though it leave the Lover a­live, doth kill the Man. But though I am loath to put so bad a Complement upon mankind, as to say, that Love is wont to destroy mens lives; yet I think it would be no Calumnie to say, It much disquiets them. I could ask you, How long many a Lover must conti­nue a Servant to purchase the honour of being taken notice of to be so? And I could recruite that Question with pretty store of others of the like na­ture: but that I suppose, your memory will save my Pen the labour of repre­senting to you the Torments of Love, which they that feel them, would lit­tle lesse justly, then they do frequent­ly style Martyrdoms, if the Greatnesse onely, without the Cause and Object of Mens sufferings suffic'd to make them Martyrs. And though the Condition of Lovers be in Romances so dexte­rously and delightfully describ'd, that not onely Sanguine Readers are trans­ported, but even I my self have been surprised into Inclinations to admire and envie their Felicity; yet when some I was concern'd for, have been really concern'd and engaged in such adven­tures, my Envy quickly turned into [Page 45]Pitty. For the repulses, the regrets, the jealousies, the fears, the absences, the despairs, and the rest of the afflicting disquiets of Lovers: though in hand­some Romances, they are soon read over by the diverted peruser; yet they are not so soon weather'd out, nor so easily supported, by the disconsolate Lover: whose infelicities, though they may be perhaps so handsomly deplo­red, as to delight the Reader; yet, trust me, Lindamor, 'Tis a much hap­pier condition to be free from mis­fortunes, than to be able to complain eloquently of them. And as I have with delight beheld a storm, excel­lently drawn by some rare Artist's Pensill; but when I was this Spring tost by the rude winds, that blew me out of Holland, I found a reall Storm, a very troublesome and uneasie thing. So the condition of a Lover, (whose happinesse depends on the constancy, of what, perhaps, you have found as fickle, as either Winds or Seas, a wo­man's Heart) though drawn by a smooth Pen, it is wont strangely to affect and please us; yet when men are really engaged in it, they find it full of hardships and disquiet. 'Tis a much [Page 46]better condition to be look'd on, than embrac'd; and Experience gives men of it much (sadder and) more unwel­come notions, then Description did. Nor phancie, Lindamor, that the trou­blesomenesse of your sufferings in love, proceeded but from their not being acceptable to her, for whom you en­dured them; for, had your Mistresse crowned them with Myrtle, and prov'd as kind to you as Hymen could have made her; yet, I fear, she could have Recompenced you but by Disabusing you, and could not have freed you from the Need of happinesse, but one­ly from a Mistake of it. For me-thinks, Lindamor, most of these transitory Goods that we are so fond of, may not unfitly be resmbled to the Sensi­tive Plant, which you have admired at Sion-Garden; for, as, though we gaze on it with attention and wonder, yet when we come to touch it, the coy delusive Plant immediately shrinks in its displayed leaves, and contracts it self into a form and di­mensions, disadvantagiously differing from the former; which it again re­covers by degrees, when toucht no longer: So these objects, that charm us [Page 47]at a distance, and whilst gaz'd on with the eyes of expectation and de­sire; when a more immediate posses­sion hath put them into our hands, their former lustre vanishes, and they appear quite differing things from what before they seem'd; though after deprivation or absence hath made us forget their emptinesse, and we be redu­ced to look upon them again at a di­stance, they recover in most mens eyes their former beauty, and are as capa­ble as before to inveagle & delude us. I must add, Lindamor, that when I com­pare to the Sensitive Plant most of these transitory things, that are flattered with the title of Goods, I do not out of that number except most Mistresses. For though I am no such enemy to Matrimony, as some (for want of un­derstanding the Raillery, I have some­times us'd in ordinary discourse) are pleased to think me; and would not refuse you my Advice (though I would not so readily give you my Ex­ample) to turn Votary to Hymen; yet I have observed so few Happy Mat­ches, and so many Unfortunate ones; and have so rarely seen men love their wives at the rate they did, whilst they [Page 48]were than Mistresses, that I wonder not, that Legislators thought it ne­cessary to make marriages Indissoluble, to make them Lasting. And I canno [...] fitlier compare Marriage than to a Lottery; for in both, he that ventures may succeed, and may misse; and if he draw a prize, he hath a rich Return o [...] his Venture: But in both Lotteries, there lye a pretty store of Blancks for every Prize. And for your particular, Lindamor, the world is much mistaken in both your humours, if Hermione's and yours be not so unsuitable, that (to make haste from so nice a subject) had she justified your expectation of her kindnesse, you would have pos­sessed the Person without possessing the Happinesse you expected: And might have found your self, as sensibly disappointed by her Grant, as you were by her Change.

But I forget, Lindamor, that I re­solv'd, not to insist on Parallels, and therefore, instead of prosecuting the discourse my Pen has slip't into, con­cerning the advantages of Seraphick, compared with ordinary Love; I shall venture to incourage you to the for­mer, by showing you, that your past [Page 49]addictednesse to the later, may prove serviceable to you in it: Yes, Lindamor, I shall not scruple to tell you, that your strong Passion for Hermione, may not a little facilitate your Devotion, by breaking all the Chains, excepting one, that fastned your Affection to unsatis­fying Objects, and restrain'd it from soaring to the sublimest, and by exal­ting your Passion to a Height fit for Se­raphick flames. For, Love hath this of Noble, that it makes us devest our selves of selfishnesse; slight fortune, quiet, safety, honour, life, and all our owne Concernments, when their com­ing into Competition with the Lov'd partie's Interests, may render their sa­crifice acceptable to Her: and to think Goods or Ills deserve those names, but as they come to us from, or through Her. You could scarce have learn't a better Lesson, even from a much bet­ter Master; for, Love having thus ac­customed you, to (what is thought most difficult in that vertue) the Acts of selfe-deniall, you need almost, but Transferre your flames from an Inferi­our, and mistaken, to their True & No­blest Object, and you will have exalted and refined your Love into Devotion; [Page 50]to the latter, of which, a sublime Ele­varion of the first, is such a disposition, as the having formerly by looser Aires, and (perchance) wanton Songs, learn't to Improve and to Command ones voice, is to the skill of Singing, those devour Hymnes and heavenly An­themes, in which the Church-Militant seems ambitious to emulate the Trium­phant, and Eccho back the solemne Praises and Hallelujahs of the Coele­stiall Quire. And, as by Hunting, though (possibly) we follow but some poore fugitive Hare, or some such tri­fling game, we gain that Vigour, that Sufferance, and Agility, that fit us for the Toyles, and Military hard-ships, that are exacted in the pursuit of Glo­ry, and of Empire: so though in Love, (Devotion's Prentice-ship) the Courted Creature be often inconsiderable e­nough, to make our Elections fit to be numbered amongst such, as those that made Love be painted Blind; yet in the Progresse and Conduct of our passi­ons, we contract such dis-interests and resign'd Habitudes, as, being preferr'd to serve Coelestiall Objects, do excel­lently qualifie us for Devotion. And, in effect, a fervent Love seems little else, [Page 51]then Devotion mis-addrest, where our owne very expressions may serve to disabuse us; For, when you give your Mistriss the style of Goddesse, and talke of nothing to her, but Offering up of hearts, Adoring, Sacrifices, Martyr­domes; does not all this imply, that, though it be said to her, 'tis meant to a Divinity: which is so much the true and genuine Object of men's Love, that we cannot exalt that passion for any other, without investing it with the Notion and Attributes of God? As Children disclose the inbred kindnesse they have for those Persons, by calling the Babies, they most doat upon, by their dear Mothers, Exod. 32. vers. 4, 5. In the latter of which it is expresly said, that the Feast was pro­claimed, [...], To Jeho­vah, the peculiar Name of the true God. or lov'd Nurses Names. And as Aaron, and the revol­ting Jewes, by justifying to themselves their Adoration of the Idols they had set up, by attributing the Title of God to what they ador'd, did tacitly ac­knowledge Adoration to be due onely to the Deity: so, does a Lover by na­ming what he Worships, a Divinity, tacitly confesse the Deity to be the proper Object, of that highest and pe­culiar straine of Worship.

And this truth, Lindamor, § 8 the very sicklenesse of Lovers concurrs to testi­fie: [Page 52]for what men call and think, In­constancy, is nothing but a Chase of Per­fect Beauty, which our Love fruitlesse­ly follows, and seeks in severall Ob­jects, because he finds it not entire in any one; for, Creatures have but small and obscure fragments of it, which cannot fix nor satisfie an Appetite, born for, and (though unknowingly) aspiring unto God: who is proclaimed the true and proper Object of our Love, as well by mens ficklenesse to women, as the Angells constancy to Him. Just as the trembling restlesnesse of the Nee­dle in any but the North point of the Compasse, proceeds from, and manifests its Inclination to the Pole, its Passion for which, both its wavering and its rest, bear equall witnesse to. That unsa­tisfi'dnesse with transitory fruitions, that men deplore as the Unhappiness of their Nature, is indeed the Priviledge of it; as 'tis the Praerogative of men, not to care for, or be capable of being pleas'd with Whistles, Hobby-horses, and such fond Toyes as Children doat upon, and make the sole objects of their Desires and Joyes. And by this you may, Lindamor, in some degree imagine the unimaginable suavity, [Page 53]that the fixing of ones Love on God, is able to blesse the Soul with, since by so indulgent a Father, and Competent a Judge, as God himself; the decree'd uncontentingnesse of all other goods is thought richly repaired by its being but an Aptnesse, to prove a Rise to our Love's setling there.

And hitherto, my dearest Lindamor, § 9 I have endeavour'd, to recommend un­to you Seraphick Love, by mentioning some of its Properties, which seem to relate more to the Love it selfe, then to the divine Object of it. But I feare you'l think, I have too long entertain'd you with Considerations, which be­sides, that they are not altogether the importantest, that belong to this Dis­course; I have been by haste reduc'd to Pen in the unaccurate Order, wherein they offer'd themselves to my thoughts, not the Method wherein I should have presented them to yours.

And therefore, Lindamor, § 10 since the Noblest and supream Motives to the love of God, consist in his own infi­nite Perfections and Prerogatives; and since the properties of God's Love to us do advantage us much more, (and consequently are likelier to endear [Page 54]Devotion to us) than those of ours to him: The former not onely moving God to Kindle in us, but to Cherish and Foment, and, if our own wilfull extinction interpose not, to Crown the latter: for both these reasons, I say, Lindamor, I doubt not, but you'l think it seasonable for me to proceed, to consider that higher sort of Motives to Devotion; and to evince, that the se­verall things, which are wont most to Engage and Heighten our affecti­ons, do, in a peculiar and transcen­dant manner, shine forth, and con­stellate in God: That, you know, which enamour'd you of Hermione, I need not prove to you, to have been your supposing her full of Lovelinesse and Excellencies in her self; and your be­lieving, that the Love she vouchsafed you was Great, Free, Constant, or Ad­vantagious to you. And that all these properties do not onely eminently ex­ist, but illustriously concur in God, and in his Love; I must now, Lindamor, (with strong desires of doing it Pros­perously) attempt to manifest.

First then, § 11 our highest love is made God's due by the Excellencie and Prero­gative of his Nature. But trust me, Lin­damor, [Page 55]when (necessitated by a Me­thod, exacted by the nature of this discourse) I find my self engaged to say something, by way of celebration of Gods Perfections: I am very sensi­ble, I can but Detract from what I de­sire to Praise, and must unevitably ap­peare unable to speak worthily of a Theme, to which even Seraphims themselves cannot do right. And if, as the Scripture assures us, those things neither fell under the Senses nor en­tred the Thoughts of men, 1 Cor. 2.9. which God has reserv'd for those that love him; how ineffable and incomprehensible must those things be, which he has re­serv'd for himself; the infinite Superi­ority of his Nature above all Created Beings, placing a vast disparity betwixt his greatest communicated Vouchsafe­ments, and his Boundless, and therefore to creatures Incommunicable, Per­fections.

Wonder not therefore, Lindamor, that my weak eyes dare not dwell long upon an Object, which they can­not stedfastly gaze on long, without being dazl'd: And do not marvaile, that I scruple not, to use seeming Hy­perbolies in the mention of perfections, [Page 56]which make the highest Hyperbolies but Seeming ones. Both Gods Na­ture and his Word declaring him to be exalted above all blessing and praise, Neh. 9.5. If it were seasonable, Lindamor, to en­tertain our selves but with those attri­butes of God, which are Legible or Con­spicuous in the Creation, We might there discern the admirable Traces of such immense Power, such unsearch­able Wisdome, and such exuberant Goodnesse as may justly ravish us to an amazement at them and admira­tion of them. And I must needs ac­knowledge, Lindamor, that when with bold Telescopes, I survay the old and newly discovered Starrs and Planets that adorn the upper Region of the World; and when with excellent Mi­croscopes I discern in otherwise in­visible Objects the unimitable Subtlety of Nature's Curious Workmanship; And when, in a word, by the help of Anatomicall Knives, and the light of Ch [...]micall Furnaces, I study the Book of Nature, and consult the Glosses of Aristotle, Epicurus, Paracelsus, Harvey, Helmont, and other learn'd Expositors of that instructive Volumne; I find my self oftentimes reduc'd to exclaim [Page 57]with the Psalmist, Ps. 104.24 How manifold are thy works, O Lord? in wisdom hast thou made them all. And when I have been losing my self in admiration of what I Understand but enough to Ad­mire, and not to Comprehend; I am of­ten obliged to interrupt or break off my Enquiries by applying to the works of Gods Creation, the Expression us'd by St. Paul of those of his Providence, O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wis­dome and knowledge of God! Rom. 21.33. how unsearch­able are his Judgments, and his wayes un­traceable: And Exclamations of this Nature may the attentive Consi­deration of any other of Gods Attri­butes deservedly produce. But having elsewhere treated of this subject in a Peculiar Discourse: I shall now, Lin­damor, invite you to consider with me how much You, and those that are Conscious to their having Vertue e­nough in themselves to make them prize it in others, are in Love with Cato, Scipio, and those other Heroe's that did enoble and almost exceed mankind upon the bare knowledge of their vertues; although, from them wee derive no Personall advantage (their Death having numerous ages [Page 58]preceded our Nativity.) Since then we pay so much disinterest-Love to some few faint and ill refin'd Vertues, that ne're did profit us: how much on such a Score, and at that Rate, should we Love him, who so possesses All perfecti­ons, that each of his Perfections is In­finite? Were you and I our own Cre­ators, Lindamor, and wholly Indepen­dent upon God, without either Need or Hope to taste his Bounty; his native Excellencies, and what he has done for others, should surely ravish us and enamour us of Him. Though his Be­nefits to us did not entitle him to our Love, his Essence (the Source and only Motive of those Benefits) would give him a right to it; and though we ow'd him nought for what We are, we yet should owe him Love for what He is. He is that glorious Sun From whom (as beams) all created-perfections flow, and In whom they all concenter. To omit God's Soveraign Majesty (which places him so high, t [...]at but to own for him so familiar and levelling an af­fection as Love much more to expect to be re-lov'd by him, were not the least sawcie Presumption man could be guilty of, did not his own Commands [Page 59]make it a Duty.) Not to insist on this, I say; Let us a while consider that proper and peculiar attractive of Love, his Loveliness; which is such, that, did we but once see it, all Creature-com­petitions (ev'n we being Judges) would then be as Impossible, as they are now Unjust. In the fifth Evange­list's prophetick Vision, Esa. 6.7. the Scraphims themselves, those glorious Ornaments of the Coelestiall Hierarchie, are re­presented as covering their faces in Gods presence, either blushing at their Comparative Deformity, or unable to sustain the unqualifi'd Spl̄edor of so Di­vine a Brightnes; whence perhaps it be­came of old the Jewish fashion (as some frequent Expressions in their Writers intimate) when they went to Pray, to Vaile their head and faces: (though now I have in their Synagogues seen them only cover their heads, not their faces, with those white Garments they wear, at their publick devotions:) And, Lindamor, if Moses's face by but a few dayes converse with God, reflec­ted such a light as dazl'd mortall eyes; and if his swift posts, the Angels, when sent on Errants to us here on Earth, even when they may be suppos'd (if [Page 60]I may so speak) to weare their Travel­ling Cloaths, and stoop as much to our frailty in the Form, as in the Region, they appear to us in, do, in spight of that darkning Condescension, so much Transcend all Objects here on Earth, that the Scripture often mentions, That even those that Aspir'd to imitate their Vertues, were confounded at their Presence: And if, in this vailing Ha­bit they appear so Glorious, that their thus disadvantag'd Beauty is made the Complement and Hyperbole of that Quality: what may we, or rather what may we not, conclude of God himself, of whom the Scripture says, He that planted the Eare shall he not hear? Psal. 94.9. He that formed the Eye shall he not see? That is, he that imparts a faculty or an Excellence to the Creature, shall not he himself much more eminently possesse it? And in effect, the most un­blemished Created Beauties are but faint Shadows (or trulier, Foyles) of His. Those drops of Prettinesse scat­teringly sprinkled amongst the Crea­tures were design'd to defaecate and exalt our Conceptions, not to inveagle or deteine our Passions; for, God did ne're intend them to terminate our [Page 61]Love, but only by our Eyes to exalt our Faith above them, and by the beau­ties, our sight can apprehend, to raise us to a Confidence, that there is in their Author more than we can either see, or comprehend. 2 King. 2.11. Like Elijahs fiery Cha­riots, though they be Pure and Bright and consist of the refulgentest materi­alls, they are meant by God but to carry us up to him. And as the Pa­triarch's Steward was furnish'd with so sumptuous an Equipage, Gen. 24.10.53. to court Rebecca, not for himselfe, but for Isaac, so all the Lovelinesse impar­ted to the Creature, is lent it, but to give us some more enlarg'd concep­tions of that vast Confluence and Im­mensity that exuberates in God. To make the rightest use of Fadeing beau­ties, you must consider God and them, as you were wont to do your Mistrisse's Picture, and its Crystall Cover: where though that native Glasse were pure and Lovely, and very richly edg'd; yet to gaze on it, was not the Chiefest Busi­nesse of your Eye; nor did you in it Terminate your sight, but greedily look through and Beyond it, upon th'd ado­red Image, that solid vail betray'd. Me­thinks, Seraphick and our common Lo­vers behold exteriour beauties with [Page 62]a Difference resembling that, where with Children and Astronomers consi­der Galileo's Optick Glasses, (with one of which Telescopioes, that I remem­ber I saw at Florence, he merrily boosted that he had, Trovato la Corte a Gione) which th' one prizes most, for what they Appear; the other, for what they Discover. For Children contenting themselves to wonder at the Length, and fall in Love with the Workman­ship, and Gildings of the Tube, do thus but Gaze Upon them, whereas Astronomers Look Through them, and, scarce taking notice of the unusuall Ornaments, or the shape, imploy them to find out unknown Lights in the Skie, and to descry in Heaven bright Stars, unseen before, and other Coele­stiall Novelties and Beauties.

I deny not, § 12 Lindamor, that God has been pleas'd to adorn some of his Creatures with Hints and Impresses, as well of His Lovelinesse, as his other Excellencies; But they do much more faintly and imperfectly resemble him, than the Counterfeit Sun, we some­times see in a Cloud, aemulates the True one, by whose Refracted or reflected Beams, some acute moderne [Page 63]Naturalists suppose it to be produc'd. For though, this Derivative Sun shine with a not-inconsiderable Lustre, com­paratively to the rest of the dark Cloud it ennoble's, yet is it not onely as much inferiour to the true Sun in Brightnesse, as in Height; but it enjoyes alone, a Precarious, Dependent, and almost Momentany Being, which often it loses in a very Short time, and never attains to preserve a very Long one. And there­fore, to neglect that supream Resplen­dency, that shines in God, for those dimm Representations of it, that we so doat on in the Creatures, is as praepo­sterous and absured; as it were for a Persian to offer his Sacrifice to a Parhe­lion, (as the Greeks call that Meteor) instead of adoring the Sun. And cer­tainly, Lindamor, if our dim sight, like that of the Prophet's Servant, 2 King 6.27. who saw the Mountain near Dothan cover'd with Horses and Chariots of Fire, were priviledg'd to discern Invisible Objects; our ravisht Eyes would be­hold Lovelinesse enough in God, to make us incessantly exclaim, in the Lan­guage of the Prophet; How great is his Goodnesse, Zach. 9.17 and how great his Beauty? Agreeably whereunto, we may ob­serve, [Page 64]That as the Load-stone, doth at tract most powerfully the brightest Needles, made of the purest Steel, and those that most approach it; so Angells, who of all Created Beings enjoy the un­cloudedst light & the most clear know­ledge of their Maker, do love him with a Constancy so fix't, that in five thousand and some odde Centuries of yeares, (efflux't since the Creation) they could never see any thing, either in God, or out of Him, Capable to seduce them to a Change. Gods Loveliness, (which is such, that the eternall Fruition of himselfe, Create sev'n His faelicity) is like rare Musick, which though it do delight all its partakers, the know­ing'st Artists still do highliest value, and are most ravish't with; The Trans­ports it produceth, being proportion'd to the degrees of the Skillfulnesse of its admirers. The Apostate Spirits indeed deserted their first Station, not frighted thence by any blemish they descry'd in God; but probably fell by a sawcy affectation of a Parity, and (as Divines tell us) a Sacrilegious aspiring to Per­fections, which they were criminally unable to behold, without wishing them their owne. And for their pre­sent [Page 65]separation from God, it is their Curse and Punishment: And I shall ingenuously confesse to you, Lindamor, that by the advantagious Idea's I en­tertain'd of Gods Perfections, I have been sometimes inclin'd to think, that the reason, why God tells Moses, Exod. 33.20. Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me, and live, might be, that (as Transcendent Objects destroy the Sense) so Lovely and Glorious a sight, (whose Continuance shall make our Happinesse in Heaven) would let in Joyes, and would create Desires, too mighty for frail Mortality to sustain; the ravish't Soul, being shown such Game, as That, would bate so eagerly, that she would break those Leaches that tye her to the Bodie, (and thereby, hinder her flight to that wish't union) and the glad Heart, (too narrow a Re­ceptacle for so much Joy) to make room for such Guests, would stretch unto a Rupture. Longing or Joy, have sometimes singly reach't Degrees, that have made them Fatall; And why then should their Union in such Extreams, be thought uncapable of producing the like effect? Nor is it perchance more a Priviledge of the next Life, that we [Page 66]shall then see God; than, that we shall survive that glorious Sight: which is too dazling an Object for Mortall Eyes, till (to use St. Paul's Expression) our mortall Part have put on Immorta­lity. 1 Cor. 15.54. But I must no longer lose my self in a Theme, on which it is so easie to speak Much, and so impossible to say Enough. If I be not very much mista­ken, they are so; who presume to give us satisfactory Definitions of Gods Na­ture, which we may perhaps more safely define, by the Impossibility of its being accurately defined; And I must confesse, I do the least expect the best Description of the Divine Nature from those, that are most forward, to take upon them to explicate it: For our Words being but the Representations of our Notions, and they being necessa­rily Finite, as our Being; few men are (me-thinks) more likely to be mistaken in the Nature of what's Infinite, (and consequently of Gods Attributes) than those that think Descriptions can com­prize it. Nor will an Assiduity and Constancy of our Speculations herein relieve us; For too fix't a Contempla­tion of Gods Essence, does but the more Confound us. As I remember, St. Paul [Page 67]tells the Jewes, Act. 22.6, 11. that he could not see for the Glory of that light, that shone from Heaven about him at his Conversion. And this the famous Simonides experi­mentally found, who being ask't, What God was, took a dayes time to consi­der of it; after, being call'd upon for his answer, he desir'd two dayes longer to think upon it; and, when they were ex­pir'd, demanded four dayes longer; and so continu'd a great while, each time encreasing his Demands for Re­spite: till, being prest to give an Ac­count of such a Dilatory way of pro­ceeding, he ingenuously acknowledg'd, that the longer he Consider'd Gods Na­ture, the less he Comprehended it. And indeed, Experience teacheth us, that they, that gaze stedfastliest on the noon dayes Sunne, can least of all discern what it is, being rather Dazl'd, then In­structed by so confounding an Object; Nor is it onely, Lindamor, a task of too great Difficulty for a mere man, per­fectly to Explicate that Incomprehensi­ble Nature of God, to which nothing but his own Infinite Understanding can be adequate. But, me-thinks, even to Celebrate Gods perfections, cannot be soberly attempted without a very deep [Page 68]sense of a mans own Unworthinesse and Incapacity. For, the same Excel­lencies that furnish us with Praises, do transcend them. And the fruitfulnesse of the Subject may as well deterr, as invite our Pens; since, as we are sure we shall not Want Theme, so we are certain, we cannot Dignifie it. And for my part, Lindamor, though my Sub­ject exacted of me, the Praises I have endeavoured to ascribe to God, yet I should have thought it requisiite, ra­ther to decline the Laws of Method; than be reduced to derogate from what I would extoll: if the Necessity of De­tracting from God's Perfections, were not equall to that of Mentioning them; and if that Necessity were not as Glo­rious to God, as greater Praises than we are able to ascribe him, could be. But, Lindamor, having thus done right to my Method, though I could not to my Theme, I shall onely invite you to imitate with me those Persians, that adored the Sun, though the light he lent them serv'd but to make the source of it admired, and not to pry into his abstruse Essence with it. And though I might say much more con­cerning God's Perfections, I must [Page 69]henceforth think Silence the properest Language I can now employ; for 'tis Silence that best expresses our wonder: and, sure, wonder is never more seaso­nable, then when God is the Object; A prostrate Veneration being the safest Apprehension of Him, that is Incom­prehensible.

Having thus considered, Lindamor, how fit an Object God is, § 13 of our highest Love, for what he is in Him­self; Let us now proceed to derive further proofs of the same I ruth, from what he is to Us, (that your Grati­tude may contend with your Reason, which shall more heighten your De­votion) and we shall find in the Vast­nesse, Freenesse, Dis-interestnesse, Constancy, and Advantagiousnesse of his Love to us, that more than All the Love we can pay him, were but a little Part of that we owe him.

But for the first Attribute, we have assigned his Love (the Greatnesse of it) it being a Generall property, diffused through all the rest, and conspicuous in them, it requires not to be treated of apart.

We shall then proceed to the Free­nesse [Page 70]or unmeritednesse of God's love; To believe which, strangely vast, we need but consider, that we so little could at first Deserve his love, that he lov'd us even before we had a beeing: And our Felicity, in his Decrees, pre­ceded our Existence in this world. God lov'd you numerous ages before you were; and his Goodnesse is so entirely its own Motive, that even your Crea­tion (since when alone, you can pretend to merit his love) is the Effect of it. This Benefit alone were sufficient, to render God the Object of our Love, though We were that of his Aversion. For (as the Persians ador'd the Sun, even when it schorch'd them) we esteem our selves obliged to Love and honour our Parents, in spight of their being wicked and unkind; though they be but God's Instruments in our Production, and made us what we were born, not Arbitrarily, but in vertue of his Ordination. But God, to confer on us, in the most excellent and endearing manner, the blessing promised to his antient People, when he vouchsafed to assure them, Hos 14.4. that he would love them freely, was pleased to love us, not onely when we were not [Page 71]at all, but when we were his Enemies: If when we were enemies (saith St. Rom. 5.10 Paul) we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, &c. Our inexistence indeed was a condition, wherein nothing in us was capable of being a Motive of God's Love: but our Enmity proceeded fur­ther, and made us Worthy of his De­testation; as if his Love were nothing, unlesse it Vanquish'd Obstacles, as well as Wanted Motives. This gave the Apostle a just cause to say, Rom. 5.8. that God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us: That is, when we wanted all Mo­tives to invite his Love, unlesse our very Want of them should passe for one. And how did God expresse his Love unto us? Even by the Gift of the Son of his love; For God so loved the world, Joh. 3.16. (saies the divine Token of his Love) that he gave his onely begotten Son. And how did that Son love it? He (saies the Apostle) being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equall with God; but made himself of no reputation, Phil. 2.6, 7, 8. and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likenesse of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he hum­bled himself, and became obedient unto [Page 72]death, even the death of the Crosse. That is, That he would love at no lesse Rate than Death; and from the superemi­nent heighth of Glory, stoopt and abas'd himself to the sufferance of the extreamest of Indignities, and sunk himself to the bottom of Abjected­nesse, to exalt our condition to the contrary Extream. Isa. 53.5. He was wounded [...]or our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed, saies the Prophet. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 8.9. that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich, saies the Apostle. Men ha­ving displeased God, and consequent­ly forfeited all right and Naturall Pos­sibility to happinesse; even whilst they compleated the Forlornnesse of their condition, by the Lethargy of not be­ing sensible of it, and were as carelesse to seek means of recovery, as they had been unable to devise them of them­selves: Even then, his restlesse Love would never be at quiet, till it had set his Omnipotence on work, to contrive Expedients, and find out a way to re­concile his Justice and his Mercy, in [Page 73]reconciling Sinners to Himself. And this mercifull Designe, by the Incarna­tion of his Son, he prosecuted in a way so Worthy of Himself, & so Advanta­gious to us, that our just wonder at it may keep us from having any, to find that, as St. Peter informs us, the very Angels (prompted questionlesse, by a Religious Curiosity) ardently de­sire to look into those Divine Myste­ries. 1 Pet. 1.12. I find it hotly disputed amongst Divines, (not onely betwixt the Socini­ans, and the Orthodox, but betwixt Orthodox and Orthodox) Whether or no God could, without violating his Justice, have devised any other Course for the Expiation of Sin, than the Pas­sion and Death of Christ. But, without venturing to Determine, whether or no God Could, to Redeem us, have chosen any other way, We may safely think, that he Has chosen the most ob­liging and most endearing way, dis­playing in this Divine Manner of res­cuing us, the severest Justice, and the highest Mercy; the greatest Hatred of Sin, and the greatest Love to Sinners: Since by those unequald' & unvalua­ble Sufferings, to which he delivered up for us that Son, who is so near unto [Page 74]him, that he truly said, I and the Fa­ther are one, He at once manifested both how much he Hated Sin, which he so heavily Punish'd in the Person, he most Lov'd, though that Surety but a­dopted it, to free men from the Insup­portable vengeance of it; and How much he Lov'd Sinners by giving up what he so lov'd for a Ransome of those, that were guilty of what he so hated. And therefore our Saviour, though he did such great things to satisfie the unbelieving and contuma­cious Jews of his being their promis'd Messiah, would not decline death to convince them; And, though he had not seldom done so much to make him­self the Object of their Faith, would not be invited from the Crosse, though the chief Priests and Scribes them­selves said, Mat. 23.7. at his Crucifixion, Let him him now come down from the Crosse, and we will believe on him: And Christ, to con­vince the World of their unablenesse to emerge and recover out of that deep Abysse, wherein the Load of sin (which in Scripture is call'd a weight) had pre­cipitated fallen Man, Heb. 12.1. came not into the World untill well nigh 4000. years of sicknesse had made the Dis­ease [Page 75]Desperate, and the cure almost Hopelesse. So inveterate an obstina­cy at once widening the Distance be­twixt God and Man, and proclaiming the latter's Disability, to finde by his own wisdom Expedients of Re-union: Thus Christ heal'd and dispossess'd a dumb person, Mat. 9.32. who was able to make entreaties but by the Disability of pro­nouncing them; and might truly say to the secure World, Isa. 65.1. I am found of them that sought me not: And when our Saviour Was come into the wret­ched World, of all the numerous Mi­racles recorded in the Gospel, he scarce did any for his own private Relief: And to shew, that, as he endured his Sorrows for our sakes, Isa. 53.5. that by his stripes we might be healed; so were the Joyes, he tasted in Relation to Us. We read not (which is highly observable) in the whole Gospell that ever he Rejoyc'd but once; and that was, when his re­turn'd Disciples inform'd him, that they had Victoriously chas'd Devills and diseases out of oppressed Mortalls, Luk: 10. and that by his Authority men had been dispossess'd of both the Temptor and Punishment of Sin. He converst among his Contemporaries with Ver­tues [Page 76]as well attesting, what he was, as Prophecies or Miracles could do; and, to teach Man, how much he valu'd Him above those Creatures, that man makes his Idols, he often altered and suspended the Course of Nature, for mans Instruction, or his Relief, and revers'd the Laws, establish'd in the Universe, to engage Men to obey those of God, Mat. 12:24. By doing miracles so nume­rous and great, that the Jews Unbelief may be almost counted one. Yet were those wonders wrought for a Genera­tion that ascrib'd them to the Devil, Mar. 3.12. & Return'd him with so unexampled an Ingratitude, that 'tis not the Least of his wonders that he would vouchsafe to work Any of them for such blasphe­mous wretches: who were indeed, as some of the latter Jews have too truly styl'd themselves, in relation to their fathers, Chometz ben ya yin, Vinegar the Child of Wine, a most degenerate Off-spring of Holy Proge­nitours. He suffered so much for them, that made him do so, that he suffered the addition of Misery of being thought to suffer Deservedly, and he was numbred with the Transgressors. Isa. 53.12. And [Page 77]though he Liv'd as much a Miracle as any he Did, yet did his condition some­times appear so Despicable and for­lorn, that men could not know his Deity, but by his Goodness, which was too Infinite not to be long Incommuni­cably to God. And though 'twere once a saying of our Saviour's, Greater Love hath no man than this, Joh. 15.13 that a man lay down his life for his Friends; Yet is not, what is said of the Love here mention'd, to be understood of Love Indefinitely or generally considered, but onely of the single Acts or Ex­pressions of a mans love to his friends Compar'd betwixt themselves. And so the alleaged passage seems to mean but this, that among the single Acts of kindnesse to a mans friends, there is not any One more highly expressive of a reall and sincere Love, than to part with ones Life for their sakes. This Text therefore would not be indefi­nitely applyed to the affection of Love it selfe, as if it could not possibly be greater then is requisite to make a man Content or Willing to dye for his friends; for he that sacrifices besides his Life, his Fortune also, his Children & his Reputation, does thereby express [Page 78]more Love to them than he could do by parting with his Life only for them, And he that is forward to dye for those that Hate him, or, at least, know him not; discloses a more plentifull and exuberant Stock of Love, then he that does the same kindnesse, but for those that Love him. And thus our Saviour would be understood, unlesse we would say, that he Out-practis'd what he Taught: for, he came to lay down His life ev'n for his Enemies, and (like the kind Balsome Tree, whose healing-wounds weep Soveraigne Balm to Cure those that made them) he refus'd not to Dye for those that Kill'd him, and Shed his bloud for some of them that Spilt it. And so little was his injur'd Love to the ungrateful World discouraged or impair'd by the savage Entertainment, he met with in it, that, after he had suffer'd from wret­ched men, for whose sakes he left Hea­ven to become capable of suffering such barbarous Indignities, as might have made bare Punishments appear Mercy, and ev'n Cruelty it self seem no more than Justice; when I say, to hope for so much as his Pardon were Presumption; he was pleas'd to Cre­ate [Page 79]Confidence of no less than his Love, A vertue. Nor think it, Lindamor, im­pertinent to our present Theme, that I insist so much on what Christ has Done and Suffer'd for us, since he him­self informes us; See also Joh. 14. v. 9, 10, 11. that He and his Fa­ther are one. And some of the Texts already mention'd have taught us, that 'twas an effect also of God's love to the World, Joh. 3.16. That He gave his onely be­gotten Son to Redeem it; and, Rom. 5.8. That God commendeth his Love towards us in that, while we were yet Sinners, Christ dyed for us. Wherefore I shall without Scruple proceed to observe to you, That so free is Christ's Dilection, that the grand condition of our Felicity is our Belief, that he is dispos'd to make us Happy on Tearms, not onely so Ho­nourable to him, but so Advantagious to us, that, I was about to say, That possibly Faith it self would scarce be exacted, as Requisite to our happinesse, but that the Condition does increase the Benefit, by vouchsafing us bold and early Anticipations of it: For, Heb. 11.1 Faith being (as the Apostle tearms it) the substance of things hoped for, and evi­dence (or, conviction) of things not seen, wafts our Joys to this side of the [Page 80]Grave, bows Heaven down to us, till our freed Spirits can soar up to Hea­ven; and does us such a service, as the Jewish Spies did to their Country­men, Numb. 13 23, 27. by bringing them over, to this side Jordan into the Wildernesse, some of the pleasant and delicious Fruits of the blest Land of Promise. I said, Lindamor, that Faith was the grand Condition required, in God's free Grant of Eternall Life. Not that I would ascribe any thing to a Lazy, Speculative, & Barren Faith, in oppo­sition to that lively and active one, which is called by the Apostle, [...], Gal. 5.6. Faith operating by Love; Jam. 2.26. since I am informed by St. James, that the Divorce of Faith and Works is as Destructive to Religion, as that of Soul and Body is to Life: But that I was willing to mind you, that though true Faith (which cries like Rachel, Give me children or else I die) be ever the pregnant Mother of good Works; Gen. 30. yet are not those Works the Cause, but the Effects and Signes of God's first Love to us, (however afterwards the Children may Nurse their Parents.) As, though the Needle's pointing, at the Poles be, by being an Effect, an [Page 81]Argument of its having been Invigo­rated by the Loadstone, or received Influence from some other Magnetick Body; yet is not that Respect unto the North the Cause, but the Operation of the Iron's being drawn by the at­tractive Minerall. Thou art good, Psal. 119.68. and dost good, saies the Psalmist to his Ma­ker. The Greatnesse of his Goodnesse is that which makes it Ours; nor doth He do us good, because that We are good, but because He is liberally so; as the Sun shines on Dunghills, not out of any Invitation his beams find there, but because it is his Nature, to be diffusive of his Light; yet with this difference, that whereas the Sun's Bounty, by being rather an Advantage to us than a Favour, deserves our Joy, and not our Thanks, because his Vi­sits are made designlesly, and without any particular intention of addresse, (by such a bare Necessity of Nature, as that which makes Springs flow out into Streams, when their Beds are too narrow to contain the renewed water, that doth incessantly swell the exuberant Sources:) God, on the con­trary, for being Necessarily kind, is not lesse Freely or Obligeingly so, to you [Page 82]or me; for, though some kind of Com­municativenesse be Essentiall to his Goodness, yet his Extension of it with­out Himself, and his Vouchsafeing it to this or that particular Person, are pure­ly Arbitrary. To omit his Love to the numberlesse Elect Angells; the strict Relations betwixt the persons of the Blessed Trinity, supplying God with internall Objects, which im­ploy'd his Kindnesse before the Cre­ation, and Himself being able to allow his Goodnesse the Extent of Infinity for its Diffusion. But (having glanc'd at this onely by the By) we may yet further admiringly observe, That, whereas men usually give freeliest, where they have not given before, and make it both the Motive and the Ex­cuse of their desistance from Giving any more, That they have Given alrea­dy: Gods bounty hath a very diffe­rent Method; for he uses to give, be­cause he Hath given, and, that he May give. Consonantly to which, when the revolting Israelites had broken the Contents, whilst Moses was bringing them the Tables of the LAVV; and had thereby provok'd the Incens'd Given of it, to thoughts of a sudden Extirpa­tion [Page 83]of so ingratefull and rebellious a People, we may observe, That, where­as God, as unwilling to remember his former Goodnesse to them, speaking to Moses, calls them, Thy People which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt: Exod. 32.7. Moses, on the other side, to engage God to the new Mercy of a Pardon, represents to God his former Mercy to them, and calls them God's People, which he brought forth out of the land of Egypt, with great power, vers. 11. and a mighty hand. And so conspicuous in the Eter­nall Son was this Property of the Mer­cifull Father, that when sick Lazarus's Sisters implored his Rescue for their exspiring Brother, the Motive they imploy, and which Prospered their addresses, was, Lord, behold, (not, Joh. 11.3: he who loveth thee, but) he whom thou lo­vest, is sick. And as he takes the first In­ducements of his Bounty from Himself; so do his former Favours both invite and give rates to his succeeding Bles­sings. And there is reason for it: for his pure love being all the Merit, by which Man can pretend to the Effects of his Bounty; it is but just, that the degree of his Love should proportion those Favours, which 'tis our onely [Page 84]Title to; and that God's Liberality should as well afford Measures as Motives to it self.

Nor is Gods love lesse Dis-interess'd, § 14 than Free. His grand Designe upon us, is but to make us Instruments and par­takers of His Glory, and to bring us to everlasting Happinesse, by a Way that does as well elevate and dignifie our Nature; as the Condition, reserv'd for us, will. His Method of saving us, if but comply'd with, does here, as the Apo­stle speaks, Col 1.12. fit us for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light. We being made (as St. Peter speaks) Partakers of the Divine Nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. having escap'd the cor­ruption that is in the world through Lust; So that these things, wherein the noblest of the Philosophers plac'd their Faelicity, serve but to Qualifie and Prepare Christians for that Higher Blessednesse, that is reserv'd by God for those that love Him; and cannot, but be heighten'd and endear'd by the Value, which Graces and Vertues had given men on Earth for such a Noble and Ra­tionall kind of Happinesse, as is appor­tion'd to them in Heaven. What ends can he have upon us, whose Goodnesse and his Blessednesse are both Infinite? [Page 85]He was unconceivably Happy (in his own Self-sufficiency) before the Crea­tures had a Being; and sure that felicity that needed not Themselves to be su­pream, needs nothing, that they can Do. Nor was it his Indigence, that forc't him to make the World, thereby to make new Acquisitions, but his Good­nesse, that prest him to manifest, and to impart his Glory; and the goods, which he so over-flowingly abounds with. Witness his Suspension of the World's Creation, which certainly had had an earlier Date; were the Deity capable of Want, and the Creatures of Supply­ing it. St. Paul in his Epistle to Timo­thy, styles God, 1 Tim. 1.11. [...] which we translate, The Bessed God, but may per­haps more properly be rendred, The hap­py God: and else-where in the same Epistle, he truly cals him, The Happy, 1 Tim. 6.15. as well as Onely Potentate. God (sayes the Apostle) That made the World and all Things therein, Act. 27.24 25, & 28. seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, dwelleth not &c. As though He needed any thing, seeing that He giveth to all, Life and Breath, and all Things. And, In Him, we live, and move, and have our being. And indeed, so co­herent in the mind of a mere Man, that [Page 86]does but Consider and Understand the Import of his owne Notions, is the be­liefe of Gods Happinesse, to that of His Beeing, that I remember the Epicu­rean, Lucretius himselfe, ev'n in that impious passage, where he denies di­vine Providence; and in a seeming, but injurious Complement, would un­der the pretence of Easing God, Deprive Him of the Government of the World; does yet confesse, that the Divine na­ture must necessarily enjoy a supream and endlesse Tranquillity, adding, (to bring this to our present purpose) that 'tis, ‘ — Privata dolore omni, privata periclis; Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga no­strî.’ Whereby he acknowledges,

Or, if you will have him speak of the gods in the Plurall, like a heathen Po­et, that [Page 87]

A much Nobler Poet tells us, That the Earth is the Lord's, Psal 24.1 and the fullnesse thereof, the World, and they that dwel therein; Agreeably whereunto, Prov. 26.10. that Great God that formed all things, (as, in our Translation the Scripture calls him) sayes in one of the Psalms, If I were hungry, Ps. 50.12. I would not tell thee, for the World is mine, and the full­nesse thereof. His Ubiquity excludes all wishes of Remoove, by making his Es­sence uncapable of Exclusion; For Whither should he desire to Transport himselfe, that is Every where, and can wish himselfe in no place, where he is not already? His Sufficiency is such, that he can see no goods, but what he Gives, or Hath (or rather both bestowes and possesses) his Plenty being so unex­hausted a spring of goods, that his libe­rality does lesse impoverish God, than the Suns light does him; or imparted knowledg, impairs the Teacher's stock. And therefore, though St. James do ve­ry justly call God, That Father of Lights, Jam. 1.17. who is the bestower of every good and [Page 88]every perfect Gift; Jam. 2.23. yet the Friend of God, (as the Scripture calls Abraham) and that Royall Priest, Heb. 7. per totum. (whom the Writer to the Hebrewes teaches us to have been so illustrious a Type of Him, whom he calls The high Priest of our pro­fession) do both of them in the same Chapter style him the Possessour of Hea­ven and Earth. Heb. 3.1. Gen. 14.18, 22. No, no, God needs not beg From, or covet, In the Creatures shallow streams, those goods, of which he not onely Hath, but Is the Source. Our greatest Services to our Creator must be to Discharge our selves, not to Advantage him, nor as thinking to adde any thing to a Felicity, which were not Infinite, could it admit Encrease; Our highest Performances, though they be Dues, amount not unto Tributes, but are rather like those pepper Corns of Rent, which Free-holders pay, not with hope or with intent to enrich their Land-lord, but to acknowledge, that they hold all from him. When we ad­mire the Sun, our Seeing of his light doth not Increase it, it makes it not Greater, but only it makes it Ours; and when we turn away or shut our eyes, that glorious Planet suffers no Eclipse, and is not at all darkn'd or impair'd, [Page 89]nor doth He thereby lose his light, but We: The Easiness of the application requires, and excuses its Omission. If thou sinnest (sayes Elihu in Job) what doest thou against him? if thou be righteous, Job 35.6, 7, 8. what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? Thy wickednesse may hurt a man, as thou art, and thy righteousnesse may profit the Son of man. In effect, the wic­ked's spite against God, is but like a mad mans running his head against a wall, that leaves the Wall unshaken, but dashes his own Brains out. God in­habits a Felicity (as well as Light) inac­cessible to all inferiour attempts: His soveraign Tranquillity is so sublimely plac'd, that 'tis above the reach of all Disquieting Impressions; and, like the Stars, that feel not the diseases, their in­auspicious Influence produces, He doth not Resent the Torments, he Inflicts. Gods justice is no less Essentiall to him, then his Mercy; Witnesse that, (the numbers of the Saints, and the Repro­bates consider'd) thousands fall Sacri­fices to the severer Attribute, for one that proves Capable of the milder. He said, Exod. 14.17, 18. he would get himselfe honour upon Pharaoh, and all his Host; when he de­sign'd their ruine in the Red Sea: and [Page 90] Moses said, Ex. 15.1. He hath Triumphed gloriously in effecting it. And in Ezekiel he sayes, Behold I am against thee, Ezek. 28.22. O Sidon, and I will be glorify'd in the midst of thee, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed my judgments in her, and shall be sanctify'd in her. Thus, when a Flash of Gods Indignation (kindled by that strange fire, they presum'd to offer before him) had blasted the two pre­sumptuous Sons of Aaron, God is said To have been sanctify'd in them, Levit. 10.3. that come nigh him, and to have been glorify'd before all the people; such eminent and exem­plary Instances of Severity, manifest­ing him to be so Holy in his Laws, and so Concern'd for them; That ev'n the Ministers of his Altars shall not violate them with Impunity, Heb. 12.29. but find Him (what the Writer to the Hebrewes calls him) A consuming fire; Who will be Glorify'd before all his people, ei­ther by the Obedience of those that ap­proach him, or by their Destruction: So to evidence, that God can derive Sa­tisfaction as well from the Exercise of his provoked Justice, as from that of his for ward Mercy; The sacred Orator uses this remarkable Antanaclasis, Deut. 18.63. And it shal come to passe, that as the Lord rejoyced over [Page 91]you to do you good, and multiply you; so will the Lord rejoyce over you to destroy you, and bring you to nought. Thus, though it be truly said of God by the Prophet Jeremiah, that he doth not afflict willingly, Lam. 3.33 nor grieve the children of men: And therefore the determined Consump­tion of the whole Land, which our Bibles English, God's work, Isa. 28.21. his strange work; other Translators render, Opus alienum saum: Yet when the Sins of in­corrigible offenders are grown to that provoking Heighth, that his Mercy in­tercedes no more, to avert or suspend the inflictions of his Justice; then how much he can satisfie himself in de­stroying those, that would not be pre­served, may be guess'd at by that formi­dable Expression in Ezekiel; where ha­ving foretold what havock the Sword, the Famine, and the Pestilence should make, amongst the intractable and dis­persed Israelites, he adds, (as a kind of [...]) Thus shall mine anger be ac­complished, Ezek. 13.5. and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted. The Houlings of the Damned as wel sound forth his praises, as do the Hallelujahs of the Saints; they both do sing to him an everlasting Canticle of praise; one­ly [Page 92]in this great Consort of his whos [...] Intelligent Creation, the designlesl [...] conspiring Voices are as Differing, a [...] the Conditions of the respective Sin­gers. Hell's darknesse doth as well con­tribute to God's Glory, as Heaven's Eternall Splendour: As Shadows, ju­diciously plac'd, do no lesse praise the Painter, than do the livelier and brighter Colours. And as when the Earth doth send black, noisome, and sulphureous Exhalations up toward the Sky; alas, they reach not Heaven nor discompose the Spheres; but all the Storms and Thunders they pro­duce, fall on that Globe they came from, and there do all their mischief▪ So, the wicked may Wrong God in­deed, yet do they really Harm but themselves, by all their greatest sins, which trouble him chiefly, but be­cause they necessitate Him to punish them: for the transgressions, that do most Provoke God, do him not the least harm. An impious person may (as Elihu lately inform'd us) hurt a man, as himself is; not that supreamly blessed Deity: the Result of whose In­finite Perfections is a resembling Hap­pinesse, which is as inseparable from [Page 93]Him, as his Essence. Our offences may derogate from his Accessionall Glory, not from his Essentiall Faelicity; or ra­ther the most desperate Sinners, by their greatest Crimes, can but Change the Attribute they should bring honour to, and but oppose the glorifying of his Goodnesse, to occasion the glorifying of his Justice; Since he will be infal­libly glorify'd, soon or late, either by mens actions, or their sufferings; by their Practice of Duties, or Punish­ment for Sinne. Thus you see, how little God is beholden to you for your declining Hell: Nor will the score be very much increas'd by your addresses and attempts for Heaven. Can a man, Job 22.2, 3. (sayes Eliphaz) be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himselfe? Is it any pleasure to the Al­mighty that thou art righteous? or, is it gain unto him that thou makest thy wayes perfect? Congruously to which sense the Psal­mist sayes, Ps. 16.2. My Goodnesse extendeth not to Thee; The fire that we kindle on God's altars, heats and enlightens Us, but warms not Heaven at so distant a remove, nor is wanted in the Sun's residence. We have all the Redolence of the Perfumes and Incense, we burn [Page 94]upon his Altars; the Smoak doth Vanish ere it can reach the Sky, and whilst tis undisperst, but cloud's, and but Ob­scures it: Alas, our Best Performances are as uselesse Services to God, as the Heir's bringing Wax to his departing Father is to him; which addes not any thing to the rich mans store, and is by him desir'd and accepted, onely to Sea [...] away a Fortune to his Sonne. Though therefore it be true, that God is Pleas'd with our performances, yet is that Welcome he vouchsafes to give them, so far from enabling us by them, to Re­quite his Love, that it encreases the Unrequitednesse of it; Since he is de­lighted with them, as they afford him just Rises to reward them. How far from Mercenary is then Gods Bounty? since he accepts our Acknowledgments of his former blessings, (chiefly), to make them Opportunities of conferring fresh ones; as good old Isaac desir'd his Sons venison, that from the rellishing of that savory meat, he might take an opportunity to blesse him.

And, § 15 to discover how disinteress'd God's Favours are, let us further con­sider, how little they are requitable: for we can give Him nothing, but his [Page 95]owne, (nor, Heaven knows, all that nei­ther); and both the Will and Power to serve Him are his, upon so just and ma­ny Scores, that we are unable to Retri­bute, unlesse we do Restore; and all the Duties we can pay our Maker, are lesse properly Requitals than Restituti­ons. When David and his Officers had offer'd towards the Structure of that Magnificent Temple, which they seem'd Ambitious to make a Mansion inferiour to Heaven onely; the King himself gave three thousand Talents of Gold, and seven of refin'd Silver: and the Heads of the People, five Thousand Talents, (besides Ten Thousand Drachms of Gold) ten Thousand Ta­lents of Silver, eighteen thousand of Brasse, and a hundred thousand of Iron, (a Treasure, of which, I scarce remember to have read the like in any History); besides a number of all man­ner of pretious Stones, capable of im­poverishing the very Indies: They per­fum'd this noble and unequal'd Offe­ring with a solemn Confession, which perhaps, in God's esteem, was much more pretious than It: Thine, O Lord, (saies the Royall Prophet in the name of all) is the greatnesse, and the power, 1 Chro 29.11, 1 13, 14, 1 16 [Page 96] and the glory, and the victory, and the ma­jesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is thine. Thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all. And in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious Name. But who am I? and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and soiourners, as were all our fathers. Our daies on earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. O Lord our God, all this store, that we have prepared to build thee an house, for thy holy name, commeth of thine hand, and is all thine own. Rom. 11.35, 36. Who (saies the Apostle, in a Question that imports its own Negative) hath first given to him, and it shall be recompenced to him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: Nay, even our Love it self, (that poor-man's Surety and Exche­quer, that doth pay all his Debts, by supplying him with the Prerogative to Coyne his Desires and Wishes of an [Page 97]Arbitrary value) is here unable to dis­charge our Debts: our Love is too much the Effect, to be capable of be­ing the Recompence of God's. And surely, 1 Joh. 4.10. the Divine Amorist had cause to say, that herein is love, not that we lo­ved God, but that he loved us. And, as the same Apostle elsewhere speaks, We love him, because he first loved us. If, 1 Joh. 4.19. in effect, we look upon the unworthy Contest, betwixt God's Mercies, and most men's Ingratitude, and but re­flect upon the small Return of Love, that the greatest Disbursments of His, do usually bring home; we cannot but acknowledge, (as David, in the lately mentioned Scripture, did) that our loving God for his Favours, is one of the greatest Favours that we love him for; so Unrequitable is God's love and so Insolvent are we, that that love vastly improves the Benefit; by which alone we might have pre­tended to some ability of Retribution; And so unlimited is this Impotence of ours to recompence or repay God's Dilection, that it extends to, and fet­ters our very Wishes. For God en­joys an Affluence of Felicity, so per­fect and entire, that even our Wishes [Page 98]can aime at nothing for him Worthy of him, unlesse instructed by what he already actually Possesses. And the Sense of this same very Impotence, to some of the greatest Proficients in Se­raphick Love, appears not the least un­easie Property of it. It grieves us sen­sibly, to see our selves reduc'd to be onely Passive, and Receivers in this Commerce. We would fain contri­bute Something, and cannot alwaies refrain from devoting our Wishes to encrease His Happinesse, to whom we owe all Ours. And some Holy Persons (particularly St. Austind) have by the Exuberance of their Gratitude and Devotion, been transported to make Wishes, and use Expressions, wherein their Affections had a greater share than their Reason, and which argued them much better to apprehend, How much God deserv'd of them, than How little he needed them But, upon second thoughts, we shall find, that the cause of our Grief ought to turn it into our Joy, since the Desires we would frame, aiming at God's being infinitely happy, are all Fulfilled before they are Conceived, and that in the most Ad­vantagious and Noblest way: For [Page 99]could God's happinesse admit Acces­sion by our accomplisht Wishes, there were then a possibility of his Wanting something to render it Compleat. And sure, 'Tis a more Supream felicity, to be by Nature transcendently above All encrease of Blessednesse, than to re­ceive the Greatest that men can wish.

To proceed now to the Constancy of Gods Love: § 16 we cannot entertaine of God any Apprehensions, not alto­gether unworthy of Him and crimi­nally Injurious to him, without be­lieving, That to think that he can be Inconstant, is as great a Crime as 'twere a Misery to find him so; his Love is like his Essence, immutably Eternall, reaching from Everlasting to Everlasting; it preceded the Nativity of Time, and will survive its utmost Period and obsequies. Having loved his own which were in the World, Joh. 13.1. he loved them unto the end, sayes the Evangelist: and when St. James had told us, That every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, Jam. 1.17. and commeth down from the Father of Lights, he adds (to compleat our Consolation) with whom is no va­riablenesse neither shadow of turning. Of his own Will begat he us of the word of [Page 100]Truth; and, in effect, since God takes the Motives of his Love to us from Himself, not from Us, the unchangable­nesse of his Nature seems stro [...]gly to inferre that of his Charity and our Happinesse in it. For, I am the Lord, I change not; Mal. 3.6. therefore ye sons of Ja­cob are not consumed, sayes God by the last of his prophets. And in Je­rem ah he tells his people, I have lov'd thee with an everlasting Love: And what God once said to the generous Josuah, Josh. 1.5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, is by the Writer to the Hebrews apply­ed to believers in generall: Heb 13.5 for the gifts and calling of God (sayes the same Author elsewhere) are without repentance. Rom. 11.29. Nor do those Crosses that seem due to his Anger, destroy the Im­mutability of his Love, since ev'n that Anger is an Effect of it, proceeding from a Fatherly Impatience of seeing a Spot unwip'd off in the Face, he loves too well to suffer a blemish in it; and from a Desire to see his Child an Ob­ject fit for a larger Measure of his Kind­nesse; as when we beat the dust out of a Suite we fancie, we strike not out of Anger, but onely to remove that which doth sully it, and hinder us to [Page 101]take that delight in it, which our fond­nesse would be pleas'd with a just Cause to find. As many as I love, Rev. 3.19. I re­buke and chasten, (sayes our Saviour) And, I know, Psal. 119.75. O Lord (sayes the Psal­mist) that thy Judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulnesse hath afflicted me. The Furnace of Affliction being meant but to Refine us from our earthly dros­sinesse, and Soften us for the Impression of Gods own Stamp and Image. The great and mercifull Architect of his Church (whom not onely the Philoso­phers have styl'd, but the Scripture it self calls, Heb. 11.10. [...] an artist or Artificer) imploys not on us the Hammer, and the Chizzell, with an intent to Wound or Mangle us, but onely to Square and fashion our hard and stubborn Hearts into such living Stones, 1 Pet. 2.5. as may both Grace and Strengthen his heavenly Structure. Nor is God only thus Con­stant to his Love, but to his Lovelinesse. Our female Beauties are usually as fickle in their Faces as their Minds, and more certainly in the former: be­cause, though Casualties should spare them, Age brings in a necessity of a Change, nay, a Decay, leaving our doters upon Red and White, incessantly [Page 102]perplext, by the incertainty both of the Continuance of their Mistrisse's Kindnesse, and of the lasting of her Beauty (both which are necessary to the Amorist's Joys and quiet): for, some­times, when the Mistresse's humour doth not change so much, as to prove guilty of the fault of Inconstancy, her face alters enough to make her Lovers wish Inconstancy no fault; Or, that she had committed it, that her Fickle­nesse might afford them the Excuse of Imitation or Revenge: But in Devotion, we are equally secure from both these Dangers. Since God nor doth desist from blessing us with his Love, nor ceases ever from deserving the Heighth of ours: Nor is he onely constant in making us the Objects of His Love, but also in bending and incli­ning us to make him the Object of Ours: so that he not only persists in continu­ing to us both the Offer and the Value of his Love, but perseveres to give us a receptive Disposition to Welcome it to us, and reflect it up to Him. The want of this last mercy lost Adam Paradise and Satan, Heaven; there being to the Objects, that must Secure our love, such a Nature requisite in reference to our [Page 103]Affections; as Philosophers are pleas'd to ascribe to the world's Center in re­lation to Heavy bodyes, which, they teach us, that Magnetick poynt has the double Faculty not only to Draw thither, but to Keep there: for so Un­toward and Crossegrain'd are we, in poynt of our own Good, and so unfit to procure, and ready to desert, our own Felicity; that neither its Excel­lencie is a sufficient Motive to carry our addresses to it, nor its possession a competent Tye, to intercept in us all designs of Revolts and Divorces: but we must be used as peevish Children are, who (on the one side) when their mouths are out of taste, and they re­fuse to take what is necessary for them, must have it not only Offer'd them, but Forc'd upon them, and be (as it were) Made to receive it; and who (on the other side) must be restrain'd from gadding, when the Beauty of the Man­sions, they live in, cannot invite their stay, but they would gladly leave the proudest Pallaces, Architecture can boast, to Runne into the Street and Dabble in the Kennel: All these three properties of Divine Constancy are not ill shadow'd in the operations of [Page 104]the Load-stone, a Minerall, in which I have made too many Experiments, not to be by you allow'd to make some Comparisons to it. For, first, it never forsakes its Inclinations for the Steel: next, being united to it, it retains so constantly its Attractive qualities, that it gives not the Needle any Mo­tive of deserting it: and thirdly, it doth never rightly touch the amorous Steel, without leaving an Impression, which ever after disposes it to a Con­version to that Magnetick Posture, which best fits it to receive fresh In­fluences. To which, let me add this other resemblance, betwixt God's work on Us, and the Load-stone's on the Iron; that the Kind Stone attracts a Needle to it, not to Advantage it self by that Union, but to Impart its Vir­tue to what it draws. Besides, Ab­sence and Rivalls, those frequent Ru­iners of other Lovers happinesse, can threaten nothing of formidable to yours: For Absence (which so divorces us from that which animates us, that Lovers do not so improperly style it Death, if Death be but the Separation of Soul and Body) by God's Ubiquity we are secured from; He is ever pre­sent [Page 105]With us; or rather In us. You that not long since so highly valu'd the Opportunities of conversing with your Mistriss for some few Moments, shall here find your Priviledges im­prov'd to a Permission (nay, an Invita­tion) of entertaining the Object of your Love at all times; no hour ren­ders your visits Unseasonable, nor no length Tedious: he is rather welcom­est to God, that comes to him Oftenest and stays with him Longest. What fa­vours were vouchsaf'd to that antient Prophetesse (who was likewise one of the first Evangelists) who for many years departed not from the Temple; but served God with Fastings and Prayers, Luk 2.37. &c. Night and Day, the beginning of St. Luke's Gospell may inform you. The midnight-Hymns of Paul and Silas did not only not disturb or Offend him they prais'd, Act. 16.25 26, &c. but procur'd the visit of an Angell to bring them miraculous and unexpected Liberty, as a proofe of the Acceptablenesse of their not-Canoni­call Devotions, Gen. 5. 22, 23, 24. When Enoch had wal­ked with God as many years as the year has dayes, God was so farre from being Importun'd or Tir'd by that lasting assiduity, that vouchsafing him an un­exampled [Page 106]exampled Exemption from death, he was pleas'd by a new and nearer Cut to Heaven, to admit him to a yet Closer, more Immediate, and more Undistrac­ted Communion with himself. And when Moses had spent no lesse than forty dayes and forty nights in conver­sing (if I may use so Familiar a term) with God in the Mount, Exod. 34.30. he brought down thence instead of a Pennance for his Importunity, so signall and ra­diant a Testimony of Gods peculiar Favour, that his dazl'd Country-men were as much Disabled, as Invited to gaze on an Object of so much wonder. And then, How proud doe we see ma­ny Lovers of their Sufferings; when she but Knows of them, for whom they are endured? But in Seraphick Love, there is not the least good Wish or pri­vatest Suffering; nay, not a whispe­ring Sigh, or closer Thought, that silent­ly Groans or Aspires in the Amorous Soul, but He both sees and heares, that Puts his Servant's teares into his Bottle, Ps. 36.8. sweetning and recompencing the grea­test Misfortunes that his Love oc­casions, with such Support and Joyes, as hinder us to feel them; and make them deserve a contrary name. Each [Page 107]amorous Soul may say to God with David: Thou knowest my down-sitting, Ps. 139.2, 3. and my up-rising, thou understandest my thoughts afar off, thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my wayes. And Christ also him­self has so attentive an Eye upon the Amorous Soul, that he is held forth, in the Apocalypse, as telling the Ru­ler of the Church of Smyrna, Revel. 2.8, 9. I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty; And saying to the Angell of the Church of Pergamus, Revel. 2.12.13. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satans seat is, and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my Faith even in those dayes, wherein Anti­pas was my Faithfull Martyr who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. So that no endearing Circumstance of our Love, scapes unobserv'd by Him, who has done and suffered so much to engage us to it. God remembers not our Endeavours to serve Him, the lesse, for Our having forgotten them. Matth. 25.37, &c. When saw we thee any way distressed, and relieved thee? will be the Question of those, to whom Heaven it self will be at the last Day awarded, as having ministred to their Redeemer. Those, that in Dege­nerate times, such as ours, Lindamor, [Page 108]did, like Lot in Sodom, mourn for their Sins, that mourned not for their own, and condol'd among themselves, the Spreading Wickednesse of the times they liv'd in, though probably the dangers, threatned them by the very Sinfulnesse they deplor'd, made them affect such Privacyes in their Conferen­ [...]s, as freed them from the Thoughts of being over-heard; yet the Scripture informs us, (and 'tis a Comfortable, as well as Memorable Passage) that the Lord hearkened, Mal 3.16, 17. and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. Then shall he return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. I know, says Christ (not only to the Angell of Smyrna, but to each true sufferer for Him) thy works, Rev. 2.9, 10. and tribulation, and poverty: Fear none of these things, that thou shalt suffer: Be thou faithfull unto death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life. God is often pleas'd to accept those good thoughts and Intentions of his Servants, which never arrive at actu­all Performances, Though David built not the Temple he design'd, yet his [Page 109]Son, that did it, informs us, that God said unto him, 2 Chron. 6.8. Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my Name; Thou didst well in that it was in thine heart, &c. And 'tis the Epithet our Sa­viour gives God; Mat. 6.6. Your Father which seeth in secret, &c. Nor need we fear, our Rivalls should supplant us, since we can have none in Devotion, whose Prayer and Endeavour it is not, that God would love us more. For his Love to you being (as the chiefest Merit) the strongest Motive and Title unto theirs, they cannot but Wish him well whom God doth Love so; and cannot Wish him better, then by imploring for him, fresh Additions both of that Love of God, and gratefull Dispositions to return it. Our Saviours assures us, that there is Joy in the Presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner, Luk. 15.7, 10. that repen­teth. And the sole Hymne (except a visionary one) I find recorded of the Coelestiall Quire, Luk. 2.13, 14. was sung for a Bles­sing to mankind, wherein (for ought I know) their Love and Sympathy alone concern'd them: Isa. 9.6. For unto us (men) the Child is born, and unto us the Son is given. Heb. 2.16 Who took not upon him the nature of Angells, but the seed of Abraham. So [Page 110]Noble and so dis-interess'd, doth Divin [...] Love make ours, that there is nothing besides the Object of that Love, tha [...] we love more, then our Concurrents i [...] it; perhaps out of a Gratitude to their assisting us, to pay a Debt (of Love and Praise) for which (alas!) we find ou [...] single selves but too Insolvent.

Perhaps I need not mind you, § 17 Lin­damor, that divers Passages of the fore going Discourse, suppose the truth o [...] Their Doctrine, who ascribe to God, i [...] relation to every man, an Eternall un­changeable and Inconditionate Decre [...] of Election, or Reprobation; Yet con­cerning the Controversies betwixt th [...] Calvinists and the Remonstrants, abou [...] Praedestination and the cohaerent Do­ctrines, it were Improper to give you here my sense: The Godly of both Par­ties are perhaps otherwise look't on b [...] God, then by one another, as conten­ding, which of Gods Attributes should be most Respected, the one seeming t [...] Affirm irrespective Decrees, to magnifi [...] his Goodnesse; and the other to Den [...] them but to Secure the credit of hi [...] Justice. And ev'n in Honouring the sam [...] attribute his Goodnesse, these Adven­saries seem Rivalls, the one party sup­posing [Page 111]it best Celebrated by believing it so Irresistible, that to whom soever 'tis intended, he Cannot but be happy; and the other thinking it most Extoll'd by being believ'd so Universul, that it will make Every man happy, if he pleases: the one party electing to honour Free­grace, by assigning it (as to men) an un­limitedly-vast Extent; as the other does, by ascribing it an infallibly-victorious Degree. But though my haste, and the nature of my Theme make me decline the Controversies about Praedestinati­on; yet since the Doctrine, that main­taines it, is not onely by almost all the rest of Mankind, but by the rest of the Protestant Churches themselves, the Lutherans, and divers learned Divines of the Church of England, not onely Rejected, but Detested as little less, than Blasphemous, (as indeed they, that judg it an Error, cannot but be tempted to think it a Dangerous one, and of very pernicious Consequence, so far forth, as its Sequels are permitted to have Influ­ence on mens Practice) I think it not amisse to advertise you, that the Do­ctrin of Praedestination is not Necessary to Justifie the Freenesse and the Great­nesse of Gods Love. For, so conspi­cuous [Page 112]and Refulgent a Truth is that o [...] God's being the Author of mans Feli­city, that the dispute betwixt the Cal­vinists and Arminians, is not so much concerning the Thing, as concerning the Manner of its being proffer'd; the for­mer affirming Grace to be Irresistibly presented; the latter, though they deny it to be Irrejectable, yet granting, not only that it is altogether Free and Un­deserv'd, but also, that the proffer is made both with a Power enabling those, to whom 'tis tender'd, to accep [...] it, and with such engaging Invitations that man at his first Conversion need contribute nothing to his Faelicity, but the not-wilfully Refusing it, and may more properly be said to owe it unto God, then the Begger to owe his Almes to his Reliever, though he open his hand to receive it, which he might have de­clin'd to do, if he would have wilfully courted his owne Prejudice; Christ paid a ransome to redeem us, 'tis true, and he is therefore call'd, The Lord that bought us: 2 Pet. 2.1. but it was God's free Good­nesse, both to provide us That Christ, and to accept of That Ransome, neither of which he was Oblig'd to do; and therefore, the Scripture ascribes it not [Page 113]to the Justice, but to the love of God to the world, John 3.16. that He sent His only begotten Son to redeem it: and St. Paul in the same Text tells us both, Rom. 3.24. that we are Ju­stify'd, [...], freely by his Grace, and yet that it is, [...], through the Redemption, (purchas'd for a Ransome; the Original word english'd Redemption, relating to the Price, pay'd for the Redeeming of Captives) that is in Jesus Christ. 'Tis confest on all hands, that Merit must be disclaim'd, and those that seem to ex­pect some thing from God as a Due, acknowledge, that if his Promise did not, their Actions could not, make it so; and that 'tis to his Mercy, they owe the right they have to confide in his Justice. St. Paul, who, 2 Tim. 4. v. 7, 8. having fought the good fight, finisht his Course, and kept the Faith, expected a Crown of Righteousnesse from the Lord, under the Notion of the Righteous Judge; yet tells us that by grace we are sav'd, through faith, Ephes. 2.8 and that not of our selves, it is the Gift of God. Whose Promises, now they are made us, allow us indeed to expect Heaven from his Justice; [...] but the making us those great and precious promises, (as St. Peter justly styles them) must be acknow­ledg'd [Page 114]the pure Effect of his free and un­deserved Goodnesse; which to believe In­finite, we need but consider the Dis­proportion betwixt such a Recompence, as Eternall Glory and the least Imper­fect Performances of ours: which, though they Needed not Pardon, could not at least Challenge any Reward, from Him, who, as our Creatour, has such a Right to exact of us what servi­ces he pleases, without proposing us any Recompence, that our exactest obe­dience to all his Commands, would yet leave us to confesse our selves un­profitable Servants, Luk. 17.10. who have done, but what it was our Duty to do, and what if we had not done, we had given God, who had the Power, the Right and pro­vocation to punish us. And indeed, so conscious are men Generally, (if not Naturally) to their being beholding to God for their Felicity, that even those, that mistake or oppose his way of do­ing them good, will yet be sure to find out some Notion or other, under which they may conceive themselves God's Debtours for his Blessings. That the more sober sort of Romish Catholicks themselves, ascribe not so much to Me­rit, (properly so call'd) nor so little to [Page 115]Gods Grace, as the more Quarrelsome Writers of their Party, have given the more eager Disputants of ours, occasi­on to reproach them; were perhaps no difficult task to manifest, if my haste would give me leave. That the Ar­minians own the Freenesse and Unmeri­tednesse of Gods grace, The Remon­strants especially Chap. 17. Num, 5, 6 Confession, and Apology, are very carefull to satisfie the World. And ev'n the Socinians, (how prospe­rously, I determine not) are not a lit­tle, nor un-industriously sollicitous to free their Erroneous Doctrine of Justi­fication, from the objected guilt of its tendency to draw the Imbracers of it to Sacrifice to their own Nets, and thank themselves for their Faelicity; Which brings into my mind a passage, that I lately read in one of the chief modern Up-holders of that Sect, Schlichtingius, Who is wont, in my opi­nion, where his Subject will beare it, to discourse as Fairly and as Rationally as almost any Writer, that I have met with of his Perswasion; and who la­bours to reconcile Socinus his Doctrine with the Freenesse of Gods Grace, by Considerations, which, not to injure him, I shall present you with in his [Page 116]owne words. — Ad retundendam verò (sayes he, disputing against the Learned Meisnerus) arrogantiam justi­ficatorum, & ne dicant se meruisse Grati­am, non est necesse, servum in homine arbi­trium inducere; non debet virtus tolli ut tol­latur arrogantia. Sufficit, 1. Quòd nec velle nec perficere possint, nisi Deus & voluntatem excitet & vires augeat 2. pag. 97. Quòd ea, quae divinis adjuti viribus faciunt, nullo modo dignitate & pretio divinae gratiae respon­deant, sed infinito intervallo ab eâ absint. Nay, though the modern and degene­rate Jewes be, upon the Score of being the great Patrons of mans Free-will, not causlesly esteem'd the great Oppug­ners of Gods Free grace; yet both from their famous Rabbi, and my learned Acquaintance Menassah Ben Israel, and from divers others of their most emi­nent Writers, has the truth sometimes extorted Confessions, which though made upon Erroneous grounds, were not very far short of Orthodox. To which purpose I remember, that a Jewish professour of Hebrew, (who assisted me in my studies of that myste­rious tongue) being, as the rest of his Nation, an eager and peremptory Champion of Free-will, conceiv'd that [Page 117]even that Liberty, which to us seems least to Indebt men to their Creatour, did transcendently oblige him unto God. For, one day that we were pri­vately and freely discoursing together of matters of Religion, he told me, he thought Men ow'd more to Gods Good­nesse, then the very Angells do. For, said he, whereas God, without any good work of theirs, but purely out of his Goodnesse, conferr'd on them that blest Condition, they enjoy; by gi­ving Man a free Will, by the good Use of which he may Glorifie his Maker, when by Abusing it, 'tis in his power to Dis­honour him, he allows man that high­est Satisfaction, and Priviledge of Co­operating to his owne Felicity.

And now, § 18 Lindamor, we are arrived at the last Property, which qualify's God the fittest Object for our Love, which is, the Advantagiousnes of His to us both in the Present & the Future Life. And first ev'n in this World we owe God no lesse then All the goods we pos­sesse, we owe him both What we have and That we are: for we may truly say of God with the Psalmist, It is he, th [...] hath made us, and not we our selves. [...] we were not onely in his hands, [...] [Page 118] clay in the Potter's, Isa. 64.8. that he might have made us any thing; but we were so purely that Negative, from whence we were extracted, that He, (if he had pleas'd) for ever might have left us to our first Nothing. His Love is the Originall and Fountain-blessing; all the rest are but as Pipes (and Instru­ments) to convay it, and serve but to hand it to us. Your Wit wins you ap­plause, Your Industry heaps you up Treasures; be it granted. But who gave you that Wit? and did both Give and Prosper that boasted Industry, Certainly, God as much Gives us all the goods, we Possesse, as he, that gives a begger a Thousand Pounds, gives him the Cloaths and Meat and all the Bravery, it helps him to. But, besides these more obvious Presents of Gods Bounty, we enjoy other Effects of his Goodnesse, which though by the Customarinesse of their being possessed, they prove lesse Conspicuous, than the other; yet grow no lesse Priz'd, when the Want or Loss of them, make us sen­sible of the true value of them. Had I the leisure, Lindamor, to lead your thoughts with me to the Galleys, and show you there those wretched Cap­tives, [Page 119]that are chain'd to the Oars they tugg at, and though expos'd to all the Miseries and Hardships of a Tempestu­ous Sea, have oftentimes cause given them by their Barbarous Usage ashore, to fear the Ocean lesse then any Port save Death. Could I draw for you the Curtains of sick and dying men, and open to you that sad Scene, where some pine and languish away by Distem­pers, that deprive them of all the Joyes, Advantages, and (what is more consi­derable) Uses of life, before they ease them of life it selfe; others Breathe, ra­ther then Live, perpetually Tormented either with their Diseases or Physick to protract a wretched Life, upon tearms that turn it into a Trouble: And others strugling with the rude Pangs of Death, are yet perchance lesse tormen­ted by Them, then by the sad Prospect of their former Life, and the remem­brance of those Criminall pleasures, which yet it perhaps lesse troubles them, that they must now fore-goe, then that they once enjoy'd them. Should I, Lindamor, bring you into Hos­pitalls, and show you there the various Shapes of Human Misery, and how ma­ny [Page 120]Souls, narrowly lodg'd (if I may so speak) in Synecdochicall bodies, see their earthen Cottages moulder away to Dust; those miserable persons by the losse of one Limb after another, surviving but Part of Themselves, and living to see themselves Dead and Buri'd by piece-meal. Should I, to dis­patch, Lindamor, show you all the se­verall Companies of Mourners, that al­most make up Mankind, and disclose to you how copious showers of Tears do almost every where water (not to say overflow) this vale of Miseries; You would perchance see caus to think, that God's Privative may contend with his Positive Favours; and that you owe little lesse for what you are Not, then for what you Are, to that discrimina­ting Mercy of his, to which alone you owe your Exemption from miseries, as great as the Blessings it conferrs on you: 1 Cor. 4.7. For, Who maketh thee to differ? is a Question, that may be as well askt in reference to our externall, as to our Spirituall Condition. Which invites me to mind you, Lindamor, that you are yet more engag'd to Gods Love, for Protecting you from those grosse Vices, that Disfigure most mens [Page 121]minds, than from those lesse Dange­rous, though more resented, Dis­eases that Distemper their Bodyes.

For, Ambition, Lust, Avarice, Re­venge, and ev'n that vain Conversati­on which young Gentlemen are gene­rally pleas'd to think so Innocent, are really more Formidable and pernici­ous Diseases and Calamities, than those that reduce men to take Physick, or thrust them into Hospitalls. To e­vince the truth of which Paradox, I hope I shall not need to mind you of judging of the Dangerousnesse of Dis­eases by the Noblenesse of the part af­fected, since I can tell you, that He that cannot erre, seems dayly to justifie our Assertion, by inflicting Sicknesse and the sharpest outward Calamities on his own Dearest Children, to preserve them from the Contagion of Sinne, or Cure them of the unfilial habitudes of it. And therefore, since, when we see a tender Mother apply a painfull Caustick to the neck of her Favorite-Infant, threatned by the Apoplexie; we scruple not to conclude that she thinks the trouble of an Issue an Evill infe­riour to Convulsion-fits. So when we [Page 122]see our Heavenly Father send Infirmi­ties and Crosses to rescue those he Loves from the Contagion or the Do­minion of Sinne; we may safely con­clude, he thinks Affliction a lesse Evill than Guilt, since he is too Wise and in­dulgent a Physitian to Cure with a Re­medy worse than the Disease. In the 8th of Deuteronomie there is a Caution given the Israelites, least Prosperity (which is wont to be a kind of Lethe, that makes men Forget all, but their Enjoyments) should make any of them say in his heart, Deut. 8.17, 18. My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this Wealth. But (saith the Text) they shall remem­ber the Lord their God: for it is he, that gi­veth them power to get wealth. It is not the revolting Israelites onely, of whose Ignorance of his Bounty God may complain as he did by the Pro­phet, by whom he said, I taught Ephraim to go taking them by their armes, Hos. 11.3. but they knew not, that I healed them: and there are but too many, of whom he might say, as he did by the same Prophet; For she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine, Hos. 1.8, 9. and Oyle, and multiply'd her Silver, and her Gold, which they prepar'd [Page 123]for Baal: Therefore will I return and take away my Corn in the time thereof, and my Wine in the Season thereof; and will reco­ver my Wool and my Flax given to cover her Nakednesse. And this will make way for the Design I had to recom­mend the Advantagiousnesse of Gods Love, by saying, That as for Spirituall Goods; he gives us in this life so rich an Earnest of expected Joyes, that ev'n the Earnest is a Stock large enough to subsist with Comfort on, and really out-values and transcends all those Momentary Pleasures, it requires us to forsake, to keep up a Title to Eternall ones. But to particularize God's mer­cies to us in This very life, would cer­tainly take up a considerable part of it; And yet the Love, God bears us, dyes not with us, nor doth (as mens Affections) either endure a Funerall in our Tombs, or survive onely in an uselesse Grief (or an Esteem as boot­lesse:) No, Gods Love is so far from resembling the usuall sort of friends, who, when they have accompanied us to the Grave, do There leave us; that, like the Angells, that carried Lazarus's Soul to Abrahams bosome, Luk. 16.22. its Officious­ness [Page 124]begins then most to Appear, whe [...] our dark eyes are Clos'd, and is the [...] Truest to the beloved Soul, when sh [...] Forsakes the Body, giving each blesse [...] Saint cause to say of God, what Na [...] ­mi did of Boaz: Ruth 2.20. That, He hath not le [...] off his kindnesse to the Living, and to th [...] Dead. 1 John 3.2. Now, indeed (says our Saviour' [...] Favorite) are we the Sonns of God, an [...] it doth not yet appear what we shall be▪ but we know, when he shall appear, we sha [...] be like him, This blest Expectance mus [...] be now my Theme, because the nar­row Limits, which my Design hath plac't to this Discourse, (of the Advan­tages accruing from Gods Love) will leave no more room untaken up by Heaven.

But, § 19 Lindamor, before I proceed to set forth to you the Greatnesse of the Felicity reserv'd for us in Heaven; It will, I fear, be requisite to mind you of the Lawfullnesse of having an Eye on it. For many not-undeservedly applauded Preachers, have of late bin pleas'd to teach the people, that to Hope for Heaven is a Mercenary, Legal, and therefore Unfiliall Affection. In­deed, to hope for Heaven, as Wages [Page 125]for Work perform'd, or by way of Me­rit, in the proper and strict Acception of that tearm, were a Presumption, to which none of the Divines, we dissent [...]rom, can be too much an Enemie, nor perhaps more so, then I am. But to take in Gods Blessings among the Mo­tives of Loving God, is but to do as he did, who said, I love the Lord, because, Psal. 116.1. he hath heard my voyce, and my Supplica­tions; and to look upon the Joyes of Heaven, to comfort and support us in the hardships and losses, to be undergon in our Journey thitherward, is to imi­tate no worse a man than Moses, of whom it is said, Hebr. 11.26. that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches, than the Treasures in Aegypt: for he had respect, or turned his Eye [...], unto the recom­pence of the reward. It is indeed, Linda­mor, a happy Frame of mind, to be able to love God purely for Himself, with­out any Glance at our own Advanta­ges. But though, I dare not deny, that it is possible to attain to so High and disinteress'd a kind of Love, yet I think, that that Excellency suppos'd to be Vouchsaf'd to some men, is not by the Scripture Exacted as a Duty [Page 126]from All men. Were all the recom­pence of Piety of a worldly Nature and to be Here receiv'd, the Actions invited to, by the Intuition of it, might passe for Mercenary. But when Hea­ven is chiefly hoped for, as it will ad­mit us unto the Fruition of God him­self in Christ, and that the Other Joye [...] expected there are so farre from being of a Sensual or Worldly nature, tha [...] they are known not to be attainable till by Death the Senses and Bodye themselves and all the meerly Anima [...] Faculties be abolisht; for a Heaven s [...] consider'd, I say, to forgo readily al [...] the Pleasures of the Senses, and un­dergo cheerfully all the Hardships and Dangers, that are wont to attend a Holy life, is, Lindamor, such a kind o [...] Mercenarinesse, as none, but a resigned Noble, and believing Soul, is likely to be guilty of. If I should say, that Fear it self, and even the feare of Hell may be one Justifiable Motive of Mens Actions, though I should propose, wha [...] those I am reasoning with, would think a Paradox; yet I should per­haps hold forth therein no more than the Scripture does, Hebr. 4.1. Let us there­fore [Page 127]fear, (saies the writer to the He­brews,) lest, a promise being left us of en­tering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. And no lesse eminent a Herauld of the Gospell, than St. Paul, who so successefully maintain'd the Evangelicall against the Legall Spirit, thus professeth of himself, I keep under my body, and bring it into Subjection, 1 Cor. 9.27. lest by any means, when I have preach'd to o­thers, I my self should be a cast-away. And 'twas not to Slaves or Hirelings, that Christ directs this Admonition: I say unto you, my Friends, Luk. 12.4, 5. Be not afraid of them that kill the Body, and after that have no more that they can doe: But I will for­warn you whom you shall fear, Fear him, which after he hath kill'd, hath power to cast into Hell; Yea, I say unto you (a ge­mination, which the present Contro­versie shews, not to have been Cause­lesse) Fear Him. Where the paraphrase given of God, is not barely Descriptive but Ratiocinative (to borrow those tearms of the Schools) informing us not only Who we should, and should not fear: but Why, we should fear the one and not the other. As when St. Paul sayes, I know whom I have trusted, [Page 128]he means what manner of Person, 1 Pet. 4.19. how Faithfull (as St. Peter elsewhere calls God) and how Omnipotent: whence immediately he adds, And I am per­swaded, 2 Tim. 1.12. that he is able to keep that, which I have committed unto him against that day. More Texts of the same Import might be added, if the Design of those already alledg'd were other, than to Facilitate the Admission of the more Plausible truths we have been make­ing out, and which to us seems very cleerly held forth in those and the like Scriptures, which are therefore cited out of the new Testament, that they might have the greater authority with one sort of our Antagonists. Phil. 3.14. I presse toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Revel. 22.14. Blessed are they, that do his Commandements that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the Gates into the City. 1 Tim. 6.19. Laying up in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of Eternall life. Rom. 2.17. To them who by patient Continuing in well-doing, seek for ( [...]) Glory and Honor, and Immortality, eternal Life. And of Christ himself, whose love to God [Page 129]is questionlesse Filiall and unequal­lable, 'tis said, Heb. 12.2 looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Crosse, despis'd the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God. Nor see I, why it should be Un­filiall for a Child of God to further the Raising of those Passions, which his Heavenly Father intends to have rais'd in him, upon the same Grounds and Motives, that God is pleas'd to imploy to Excite them. And since the Scrip­ture seems plainly to invite our Hopes by recording St. Pauls having said, 1 Cor. 9.25. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things; now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown, but we an in­corruptible: And by representing our Saviour himself as saying in one place, Reioyce, and be exceeding glad; Mat. 5 12. for great is your reward in Heaven: In another, Be thou faithfull unto Death, Rev. 2.10. and I will give thee a Crown of Life; And in divers others, speaking to the like purpose: Since, I say, the Scripture seems thus to Allure our Hopes, Would it not be kind of accusing it of an aptnesse to delude and ensnare us, To teach that it proposeth us the powerfullest Ob­jects [Page 130]to Incite our passions, if it be sin­full to cherish and harbour the Passions naturally belonging to those Objects. And certainly, Lindamor, since God, who as our Creatour knows the Frame and Constitution of mans Soul, incom­parably better than he himselfe; is pleas'd to deal with our Hopes and our Fears, to engage us to his Service: It very ill becomes Us, either to quar­rell with his Methods of working on our Spirits, or to reject any help, which he has been pleas'd to afford a piety, which, for ought ever I could observe, does ev'n in the Best men find resistance enough to keep any Help that can be imploy'd to promote it from being Superfluous. And truely, the animating or discouraging In­fluence, that Hope or the Want of it, is wont to have upon our Indeavours, makes me very apprehensive, that since the enlivning hopes of Heaven are not able to make most mens Endeavours other than very Languid, the forbidding those supporting hopes would soon weaken and decrease our Endeavours into none at all.

But, § 20 Lindamor, though I may perhaps have taken some Pains in studying [Page 131]Controversiall Divinity, yet I take so little Pleasure in writing of it, that though not only a Seasonable Duty to truth, but a Necessary one to the ensue­ing part of this Discourse, have press'd me to serve in this cause; yet I shall perhaps obtain Your pardon sooner than my own, for having thus long suspended the discoursing to you of the Advantagiousnesse of Gods love to us, as it gives us Here a Right, and wil Hereafter givs us Admission to Heaven. Heaven, the bright Seat of so much happiness, that we shall scarcely count amongst our Joyes, that Heaven is the Seat of them: There the Excellency of the possessed Goods, shall as much dis­appoint our Expectations, as in other fruitions, the Emptinesse is wont to do. The Apostle tells us, That Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, 1 Cor. 2.9 neither have entred into the heart of Man, the things which God hath prepar'd for them that love Him. Such pure refin'd Delights, not onely stoop not unto Sense, but are sublime enough ev'n to transcend Imagination. When Fancy hath form'd and shap't the perfectest Ideas, that its abstractions can make, of Blessednesse; our owne more happy Experiences of greater, [Page 132]must disabuse us, when we come to Heaven, which is a Soyle, whose Fruit­fulnesse is so confin'd to Joy, that ev'n our Disappointments and mistakes shal there contribute to our Happinesse, which doth so much partake of his Im­mensity, whose Gift it is, that you see the Apostle gives it a Negative De­scription: and to create in us Appre­hensions, underogatory from what we shall possesse, not onely removes our thoughts from all we Do Enjoy, but ex­alts them above all that we Can Fancy. At which way of proceeding, that you may the lesse wonder, Lindamor; be pleas'd to consider, that in Heaven our Faculties shall not onely be Gratify'd with suitable and acceptable Objects, but shall be Heightn'd and Enlarg'd, and consequently our Capacities of happinesse, as well Encreas'd as Fill'd; A child not yet releas'd out of the homely Prison of the Womb, cannot there possibly frame Ideas of those de­lights, which will be afforded him by the pleasing Noises and the glittering Objects, that will present themselves to him after his Birth. And the same Child whil'st he continues in his Non­age, though he may with delight look [Page 133]upon Emblems finely drawn and Pain­ted, and may take some pleasure in be­holding the neat and surprizing Cha­racters, and florishes of a Greek and He­brew Bible, curiously Printed, yet he cannot then Imagine the Pleasure, the same Objects will afford him, when Age and Study shall have ripen'd and instructed his Intellectualls, and made him capable both of Understanding, and Rellishing the excellent Moralities, couch'd in those ingenious Emblems, and the profound and saving Mysteries, wherewith that divine Book, the Scrip­ture, especially in its Originall Tongues, does to an Intelligent and religious Peruser, appear replenisht. Such a double advantage, Lindamor, among others, the Admission into Hea­ven brings those, to whom that blessing is vouchsaf'd: for, besides that Set of Objects, (if I may so speak) so New and so Peculiar to Heaven, that their Idea's could never enter into mens thoughts before their Admission there; Besides this, I say, our then enlarg'd Capacities will enable us ev'n in Ob­jects, which were not altogether Un­known to us before, to discern things formerly Undiscern'd, and derive [Page 134]thence both new and greater Satisfacti­ons and Delights. Wonder not, Lin­damor, that in mentioning the Joyes of Heaven, I use the Expressions I find least Detractory from a Theme as much above our Praises, as the Heaven they are injoy'd in, is above our Heads. For, though such Expressions may seem somewhat tumid and aspiring; and fit­ter much for one, that Celebrates, then for one, that but Asserts: yet cannot I scruple, to use Seeming Hyperboles in the mention of Felicities, which make the highest Hyperboles but Seeming ones; For these joyes, Lindamor, are like the Stars of Heaven, which by reason of our Remotenesse from them appear extreamly Little, though really in themselves they are so Vast, that a lesse than the largest, is by Odd Greater then the biggest Object upon Earth, nay then the whole Earth i [...] selfe. And therefore, as if I were to take you with me to contemplate th [...] Planets, I would show you the [...] through such a Telescope, as by great­ning those bright Objects in compari­son of what to the unassisted Eye the [...] appear, doth somewhat lessen the Dis­advantage of Remotenesse, and show [Page 135]them with lesse Detraction from their true Magnitude; So mentioning to you the Felicities of Heaven, I think it not Unlawfull, or Improper, to endeavour by representations, transcending what they Appear, to give you Notions lesse inferiour to what they Are.

In Heaven, then, § 21 we shall tast Happi­nesse enough, to enable us to rectifie the Definition of it: We may there be instructed, how to Name and Rate all Goods by those that will Concenter in­to the Felicity we shall possesse; which shall be there made up of the Confluence, Perfection, and Perpetuity of all true Joyes; for, Heaven will make us happy, not (as Philosophy pretends to do) by the Confinement, but by the Fruition of our Desires: which shall neither Fail in the Choice of their Objects, nor Misse of the En­joyment of them; but be, both uner­ringly Just, and infallibly Accomplish't: In the former of which properties, (as our then Rectify'd reason wil consider things) we shall think our selves hap­pier (yet) than in the latter. We shall there Resemble the Saints we here Ad­mire, and shall not onely see and be like those pious Worthies, whose vertues [Page 136]Eclipse theirs, which among the Hea­then Deify'd lesse deserving Heroes those excellent Persons that did as well Ennobles as Instruct Mankind, giving us cause to Glory, and to Blush that we are Men, and whose Stories have the un­parallel'd Honour of being recorded by Inspired Pens; Those Spirits, I say, of just men made perfect, Heb. 12.23. as the Scripture terms them, shall be our Constant and familiar Company, into whose blessed Society we shal not onely be Welcome, but Encrease it. In Heaven, we shall have a blest and familiar Conversati­on with those same glorious Spirits, whose Nature doth invest them with such a Lustre, that all the Disadvan­tage of their Disguizes, when they Ap­pear to us, doth scarce suffice to con­fine our Raptures to Respects below Idolatry, and darken them into Ob­jects for our Wonder, not Adoration. There we shall see (a sight worth dy­ing for) that Blessed Saviour, of whom the Scripture does so Much and so Ex­cellently entertain us, and who having done and suffer'd so much for us, does so highly deserve of us both upon the score of his Infinite Perfections, and upon the account of his Inestimable [Page 137]Benefits. Yes, there shall we see that Holy and Divine Person, who when he vouchsaf'd (as his Favorite-Disciple speaks) to to pitch his Tent among us, [...]. Joh. 1.14. and dwell with men on Earth, to fit them by his Merits and Example to dwell with him in Heaven, did so admirably mixe an awefull Majesty with an hum­ble Meeknesse, and the assum'd Infir­mities of his humane Nature with the seasonable Coruscations of his Divine; expressing in his whole life, so Perfect and Exemplary a Vertue, and yet so much Sweetnesse and Gentlenesse, to­wards those Aspirers to it, that were the most Short of it, that the Jews them­selves could say of him, That he had done all things well; and his very Enemies, that were imploy'd to ap­prehend him as a Malefactour, con­fess'd to those, that sent them, That never man spake like him. Joh. 7.46. And his Apo­stles, who had most Opportunity to Pry narrowly into his Actions, and were of a Condition and Breeding very unlike to infuse into them Hero­ick Resolutions, did, in Spight of the frequent Reproofs their failings extor­ted from him, and of the Hardships that attended his Service, think ev'n [Page 138]Death it selfe in his Company, more Elegible, Joh. 11.16 then Life led out of it; Let us also go that we may dye with him, (sayes ev'n the distrustfull Thomas, to his fel­low-Disciples.) But, Lindamor, we shal there see the Son of God, not in that Form of a Servant, Phil. 2.7. which he put on that he might Suffer for us, and exer­cise his Priestly and Prophetick Fun­ctions here below; but in that Regall State and Condition, which belongs to him by vertue of his Kingly office, on whose score he is styl'd in the Scrip­ture, Rev. 19.16. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, All power or authority being (as him­self speaks) given Him both in Heaven and in Earth. Matth. 28 18. And how Nobly atten­ded may we suppose this Divine Mo­narch to be in his Exalted Condition in Heaven, when in his state of Humi­liation on Earth, Mar. 1.13 whilst he was in the VVildernesse among the wild Beasts, the Angells are recorded to have ministred unto him; and, whilst he lay swath'd in a homely manger, Luk. 1. the mul­titude of the Coelestial host were heard to solemnize his miraculous Birth according to that passage of the wri­ten to the Hebrews, Heb. 1.6. When he bringeth in the first begotten into the World (he saith) [Page 139] And let all the Angells of God worship him! And yet such considerable and Noble Creatures, those Immateriall Intelligences call'd Angells, are, 2 King. 19.35. that One of them in One night was able to destroy above a hundred and fourscore thousand men, in the blasphemous Senacherib's impious Camp. And so much Majesty, and Superiority, does their Nature give them, in reference ev'n to the eminentest of Mortalls, That, when the undaunted Josuah had boldly challeng'd one of them, that appear'd to him in the likenesse of a Man, and demanded, Whom he was for? when he knew him to be an Angel (unlesse he suppos'd him to be that promis'd Messiah, who is elsewhere call'd the Angell of the Covenant, Mal. 3.1. as it is in the Originall, and in the same Text, the Lord) he alters his Addresse unto him into this Submissive one, Josh. 52 13, 14. What saith my Lord unto his Servant; and ev'n wise and holy Daniel him­self, who was the Second person of the World for Power, and the First for much nobler Attributes, Wisdom and Understanding, who saw so many Governours of vast Provinces, and Professours of admired Magick, infe­riour [Page 140]to himself, yet confesses to the Angell, that appear'd to him, That he was confounded and disanimated at his presence, and addes, How can the Servant of this my Lord, Dan. 10.17. talk with this my Lord. We may safely therefore expect that we shall then behold our Saviour not in those Disguises, which disfigur'd him in their Eyes, that only consider'd his Sufferings; but in that triumphant Condition, wherewith they are now Rewarded. The Thorns of his (now no more Galling, but Adorning) Crown will appear upon that radiant Head of His, more glorious, than those of the flaming Bush, Exod 3.2 wherein God ap­pear'd to Moses. And we shall not see, that despicable forme, which made the Prophet say (personating the Generality of the Jewish Nation con­temporary with the Messias) — He hath no Form, Isa. 53.2. nor Comelinesse, and when we shall see him, there is no Beauty, that we should desire him. But we shall see him Encompass'd with so much Majesty, and Shining with so much of his genuine Splendour and Beauty, that we shall deservedly esteem him N [...]phle, Isa. 9.6. the admirable. And our ravisht Souls shall by the more attentive Con­templation [Page 141]of him, but find more cause to imitate the Spouse in Solomons my­stick Epithalamium; who having dwelt upon the Beauty of the severall parts, that concurr'd to the accomplishing the divine Bridegroom, exclaims in an Epiphonema, very contrary to the Ex­pression lately mention'd in the Pro­phet, He is altogether Desires, or, Cant. 5.10. by an Hebraism, Most desirable, which our English renders, He is altogether love­ly. His eyes will there appear, as St. Rev. 1.14. John represents them, of active Fire, and will into the willing Breasts of the Ravisht beholders shoot Flames as Pure, as Holy, and as Deathlesse, as those Fa­thers of the Church, who believ'd not the Angels altogether Incorporeall, may be suppos'd to have conceived the Seraphims to consist of. Certainly, since (as the Scripture informs us) It never entred into the Heart of Man, what God has reserv'd in Heaven for those that love him; That Glory can be but Imperfectly express'd by the bare Epithet of Inconceivable, with which God rewards the meritorious Sufferings and Obedience of that Only begotten Son of his love; For whose sake, he is pleas'd to confer on so ma­ny [Page 142]Thousands of men, unimaginable Glories. He that vouchsafes ev'n to many of his Servants a brightnesse like that of the Starrs, Dan. 12.3 will sure com­municate a more radiant Lustre to the Sun of Righteousnesse, Mal. 4.2. that Only Son of His, whom (to borrow inspir'd Expres­sions) he hath appoynted Heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds: Heb. 1.2, 3. Who being the brightnesse of his Glory, and the expresse Image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purg'd our Sinns, sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, farre above all Principality, Eph. 1.21 and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and every Name, that is named not only in this World, but in that which is to come, Thereby ex­alting him not onely above all Earthly Princes and Potentates, but ev'n above the Highest Orders of the Spirits of the Coelestial Hierarchie.

But apprehend not, § 22 Lindamor, that this sublime Exaltation of Christ will make him Despise the meanest of his Saints, or disdain communion with him; For, St. Paul assures us, That he was in the form of God, when he vouchsaf'd to take upon him the form of a Servant, to make us Free; and, sure, [Page 143]he that condescended so far, and stoop'd so low, to Invite and Bring us to Hea­ven, will not refuse us a gracious Re­ception there. In the dayes of his flesh he was pleas'd to own Lazarus, ev'n [...]n the Dishonours of the Grave, and vouchsaf'd him in that despicable Condition the Glorious Title of his Friend. And when he descended the Mount of Olives, all the loud Accla­mations of the glad Multitude, that [...]ung Hosanna's to him, and strow'd his way with their Palms, Luk. 19.37, 38—41 their Vestments and their Praises, could not divert him from Deploring, ev'n with Teares, Je­rusalem's approaching Fate; and ex­pressing in the midst of his Triumphs a Concern, for the very worst and stubbornest of his Enemies. And, lest [...]t should be thought, that he was thus concern'd for worthlesse Mortalls, on­ [...]y whilst he shar'd and felt the mise­ [...]ies of their Condition; Give me leave to observe to you, Lindamor, that [...]mmediately after his Resurrection whilst the Sense of the sudden and un­exampl'd Change of his Condition was Fresh upon him, and the Remembrance of the Apostles Ingratitude in desert­ing him, almost as Recent; he sticks not [Page 144]to give those very Disciples that for­sook him, the glorious Title, and that a more familiar one then we find him to have allow'd them on Earth, O [...] his Brethren; Mat. 28.10. and particularly shows himself Sollicitous for that Peter, who, in spight of all those empty Boasts, Mar. 16.7 wherewith he not only seem'd to de­fie Death, but Christs Prediction too, did not onely Forsake his Master, but Deni'd him. He can in Heaven be so concern'd for his distress'd members here on earth, that not onely he can take Notice of expiring Stephen, Act. 7. tho­row that cloud of fatall Stones, that batter'd down his Prison; and can, when Saul was persecuting the vulgar Christians, cry out unto him, Saul, Saul, Act. 9.4. why persecutest thou Me? as if He, and those, that Love him, were but One: But in the messages, In the 2 ^d and 3 ^d chapters of the A­pocalyps. he sends to the Angels or Governours of the seven Churches, he sufficiently manifests, That single Christians may be as par­ticularly in his thoughts, as if they had no other Object: His Greatnesse will not make his Kindnesse lesse Fami­liar, but only more Obligeing; He dis­dains not ev'n after his Ascension to say; Behold; I stand at the door and knock, [Page 145]if any man hear my voyce, Rev. 3.20 and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. That King, in the Parable, by whom Himselfe is represented, Matth. 25. is pleas'd himself to wel­come each Individual trusty Servant with a peculiar, Euge bone Serve; And in another Parable he scruples not, to represent the great Condescensions and Familiarity, wherewith the Lord shall remunerate the faithfull and watchfull Servants, by telling his Dis­ciples, Blessed are those Servants, Luk. 12.37. whom the Lord, when he commeth, shall find so watching. Verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and will make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth to serve them. At which Expression, you will the lesse Admire, if you Consider, that besides that it is Parabolicall, and probably Hyperbolicall, and therefore not to be taken (as the French speak, au pied de la lettre) in a strict sense: We find in the Evangelicall Story that our Saviour disdain'd not to converse familiarly with Publicans and Sinners, nor ev'n to Wash the Feet of his own Disciples. And since he condescended to such [Page 146]familiarity to those frail Mortalls, so many of whom were apt to turne the Favours of God into Want onnesse, we may the lesse admire his gracious Con­descensions to those, the Sinlessenesse of whose Condition will keep them from turning his Vouchsafements into any thing, but Occasions of Joy and Gratitude. Marvaile not, Lindamor, as at an Impertinencie, that I appear so Sollicitous to possesse you with high Apprehensions of the super-eminent Dignity and Felicity of our exalted Saviour; And, that in the Loftiest and most magnificent Expressions, the Scripture affords me, I have endea­vour'd to make out to you, that the bright Sun of Righteousnesse is now grown uncapable of suffering Eclipses, but shines with unclouded and une­quall'd Splendour, and that we shall in Heaven (as the Writer to the He­brews speaks) see Jesus who was made a a little (or for a short while, Heb. 2.9. [...]) lower than the Angells, for the suffering of Death, crown'd with Glory and Honour. For it will make Heaven more Hea­ven to us, to find Him raigning there, [Page 147]who hath Suffer'd so much for us; and for whom, if we e're come thither, we shall have so much Suffer'd. For, since our Love will, as the rest of our survi­ving Graces, be perfected, and grow Compleat in Heaven; The ineffable Happinesse of our Dear Redeemer, must needs bring an Encrease to ours, commensurate to the Ardency of our Love for him, and we shall relish no Happinesse more than That; which is therefore Ours, because He is happy, and Supposes in Him, what it Conferrs on Us. Besides that, since the Regall Dignity, wherein (as Mediator) he is Instated, may make us owe our Salva­tion to his Sentence, as well as to his Merits; Heaven it self will be inestima­bly endear'd to us, by our Injoying it upon his Account. I need not tell you, what a value Lovers are wont to set upon the least Favours, that can be be­stowed on them by their Mistresses, and that oftentimes a worthlesse Rib­band, a Bracelet of Hair, or some such Trifle that nothing can make precious but Hir presenting it, is highlyer va­lued by the transported Lover, than [Page 148]the richest Presents of Nature, or of Fortune. How great a Blessing must it then be, Lindamor, to owe Joyes, that need no endearing Circumstances to merit the name of Happinesse, to a Person so belov'd, that even Heaven it self will bring more Felicity to the amorous Soul, as it is a Proof of his Love, than as it is a Donative of his Bounty: As passionate Brides do in­comparably more value the Wedding-Rings, which their glad Lovers give them, as Pledges, than as Gold. 'Tis said of the persecuted and disgrac'd Apostles, that they rejoyced [...]o have been counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Act. 5.41. But if they deservedly Rejoyced, to be allow'd to Suffer for him; of how much Joy shall they have just cause, that are admitted to Reign with him. His having supported the Hardships and the Toyles (for I must not now call them Evills) to which our afflicted Condition of Mortality is Expos'd, does so much alleviate them, and re­fresh us under them, that in this sense also it may be truly said, Isa. 53.5. That the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and [Page 149]by his hurts we are healed. But he that Reliev'd us even by his Crosse, will sure do more for us by his Crown; when he shal Admit, and even Invite, each faithfull Servant to no lesse a Blessing, than, Matt. 25.21. to enter into his Masters joy. So rich a Source of Happinesse did Christ designe, to make himself to us in all his Capacities and Condi­tions, that in Heaven and in Earth, it Was, and Will be, his gracious and constant Imployment, to Share our Griefs, or Impart to us his Joyes; and either Lessen our Miseries by his Suf­ferings, or Encrease our Happinesse by his Felicity.

Expect not, Lindamor, § 23 that I should Solemnly beg your Pardon, for this seeming Excursion, till I come to think it a Digression, to insist on the Bles­sednesse of Christ in Heaven, treating of the Happinesse, which those that Love him will enjoy there. Where­fore, not to spend time in imploring a needlesse Forgiveness [...], I shall proceed to tell you, Lindamor, that in Heaven, we shall not onely see our Elder Bro­ther Christ, but probably also all our [Page 150]Kindred, Friends, and Relations, that Living here in his Fear, Died in his Favour. For, since onr Saviour tells us, Luk. 20.36. that the Children of the Resurrection shall be [...], equall to, or like, the Angels; who yet in the Visions of Da­niel and St. John, appear to be acquain­ted with each other; Since in the Pa­rable of the miserable Epicure, and the happy Beggar, Luk 16. the Father of the Faithfull is represented, as knowing, not onely the Person, and present Condition, but the past Story of La­zarus. Since the Instructor of the Gen­tiles, confidently expects his Conver­ted and Pious Thessalonians, to be his Crown at that Great Day; 1 Thess. 2.19, 20. When the ha­ving turned many to Righteousness, shall, as the Scripture foretells, Dan. 12 3. confer a Star-like and Immortall Brightnesse. Since (which is chiefly considerable) the Knowledge of particular Actions, and, consequently, Persons, seems re­quisite to the attainment of that Great End of God, in the Day of Judgment; the Manifestation of his Punitive and Remunerative Justice: Since, I say, these Arguments, besides divers o­thers, [Page 151]are afforded us by the Scrip­ture; we may safely conclude it Pro­bable, that we shall Know each other in a Place, where, since nothing re­quisite to Happinesse can be wanting, we may well suppoe, (at least, if we can Imagine Here, what we shall think There) that we shall not want so great a Satisfaction, as that of being knowingly Happy, in our Other­selves, our Friends. Nor is this onely Probable, Lindamor, but 'tis not Im­probable, that those friends that Know us in Heaven, shall Welcome us thi­ther. For, since Christ assures us, that the very Angels (though they be so far from being Related to our Persons, that they are Forrainers to our very Nature) receive accession of Joy for a relenting Sinner, Luk. 15.7. that by Repentance Begins to turn towards God; You will not think it Absurd, that in a Place, where Charity shall not onely conti­nue, (as St. Paul speaks) but grow per­fect: 1 Cor. 13.8. Our dear Friends should rejoyce to see us, not onely Being to Turn to­wards God, but Come home to him. Nor is it unlikely, that our transpor­ted [Page 152]Souls shall mutually Congratulate each other, their having now fully escaped the numerous Rocks, and Shelves, and Quicksands, and threat­ning Storms, and no lesse dangerous Calms, through which they are at length arrived at that Peacefull Ha­ven, where Innocence and Delight (which are here so seldom Matcht) are inseparable Companions, both of each other, and each blessed Resident. With those friends we here Lamen­ted, we shall there Rejoyce. And 'twill be but need, that the Discovery of each other's Vertues, should bring us to a mutuall Knowledge of our Per­sons; for otherwise, we shall be so Chang'd, that we should never know our Friends (and should scarce know our Selves, were not an eminent En­crease of Knowledge a part of that happy Change) For those departed-Friends, whom, at our last Separation, we saw disfigured by all the ghastly Horrours of Death, we shall then see assisting about the Majestick Throne of Christ, Phil. 3.21 with their once vile bodies transfigured into the likenesse of his [Page 153]glorious body, mingling their glad Acclamations with the Hallelujah's of Thrones, Principalities, and Powers, and the most dignifi'd Favou­rites of the Coelestiall Court. I need not tell you, Lindamor, that we shall be more justly Transported at this Mee­ting, than was good old Jacob at that of his son Joseph, whom having long mourn'd for dead and lost, he found not onely alive, but a great Favourite, ready to welcome him to an unknown Court: For, whereas the Patriarch said to his son, Now let me dye, Gen. 46.30. since I have seen thy face; The seeing of our Friends in Heaven will assure us, that we shall for ever Live with them there. The Re-union of Friends being there as priviledg'd from Divorce, as that of Soul and Body, (which scarce will be more Strict and Satisfactory) For, here indeed, if our Friends do not allay our Love or Affection by unwel­come Actions, or their contagious Sufferings, we commonly dote on them to a Degree, that, as it were, Re­duces God to deprive us early of them, and Snatch our Idols, and his Rivalls, [Page 154]from us. But there, our, on both sides, compleated-Graces, will not onely Deserve, but Allow a higher Strain of Friendship. The near Contemplation and Fruition of the infinitely tran­scendent Perfections of the Creator, keeping all our Kindnesse to the Crea­tures, not onely Subordinate To the Love we owe to God, but Grounded On it; as Excited Needles, when they stick fastest to each other, owe their Union to their having both been tou­ched by the Load-stone; to which they have therefore both of them in­comparably stronger Inclinations, than either to the other.

There, § 24 we shall satisfacto­rily understand those Deep & Obscure Mysteries of Religion, which the pro­foundest Clarks that love not to Flatter themselves, acknowledge, they are unable fully to Comprehend; being, after all the Toyle and Industry of their anxious Enquiries, reduc'd to sit down with the Apostle's [...], an Admira­tion of that depth, whose Bottom they cannot Fathom: there we shall Under­stand [Page 155]those obscure passages of (That Divine book uncapable of flattery) The Scripture, which, for all that Bold Criticks and Learn'd Expositors have Attempted to Illustrate it, does still continue obscure. There, discerning how exquisitly the severall Parts of Scripture are fitted to the severall Times, Persons, and Occurrences, wherein their all-foreseeing Author intended most to use them, we shall discern not onely a Reconcileablenesse, but a Friendship, and perfect Harmo­ny betwixt those Texts, that here seem most at Variance, and shal discover not onely the Sense of the obscurer passa­ges, but the Requisitnesse of their ha­ving been written so obscurely. That strange and peculiar, as well, as other­wise Crypticall Method and Style of Scripture, which often costs us so much Study to find it Rationall, we shall there discover to be Admirable, and worthy of its Omniscient Author. There, I hope, we shall have clearly expounded to us those Ridles of Provi­dence, which have, but too often, Tempted ev'n good men, to question [Page 156]Gods Conduct in the Government of the World; whil'st the Calamities and Persecutions of Vertue, and Inno­cence seem Approv'd by him, who Ac­cumulates Prosperities on their Cri­minall Opposers. There, we shall be convinc'd, that all these Seeming Irre­gularities, which the Heathen thought fit to impute to the giddy Whimsies of a Blind femall Deity, are not onely Consistent with Gods Justice and Good­nesse, but are Productions of it. And though such a Beliefe do here to Intel­ligent Persons, seem perhaps a greater piece of Self-deniall, then to refraine from Wine, or Gold, or Mistresses; yet in Heaven it will appear as Reaso­nable, as here we find it Difficult. For, as Bildad speaks in Job, Job 8.9. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our dayes upon Earth, are but a Shadow. And the Shortnesse of our Transitory lives, not permitting us to Continue long enough Spectatours here, to see above a Scene or two at most of that great Play, acted by Mankind upon the Stage of the World, 'tis no wonder, we are apt to harbour sinister thoughts of the [Page 157]Contriver of a Plot, whose neither Be­ginning nor End we are acquainted with: which is no lesse injurious, than t'were to Censure the lofty Tragedian Seneca, or some other matchlesse Ar­tist, having perused but a Piece of some Tragedy, whereof the Latter part never arrived at our view. But, when once Gods whole Plot (if I may so speak) and Conduct in the Administration of the World, shall come to be Disclos'd; all those Revolutions and Occurrences of Empires, States, Families, and Par­ticular Persons, which men are here so prone to Quarrell with, will there ap­pear so Just, so Requisite, and so Seaso­nable, that those very things, which Here tempted us to Deny God, shall There engage us to Praise him; and we shall not so properly be Satisfy'd with his Providence, as Ravish't. But espe­cially, we shall be Transported with Wonder and Gratitude, when God shal vouchsafe to discover to his particular Servants, the Reasons of his Dispensa­tions towards them, and make out to them not onely the Necessity and Ju­stice, but ev'n Mercifulnesse of those [Page 158]very Afflictions, that were most impu­ted to his Severity, (no Stroke from Gods Paternall Hand, either lighting Sooner or falling Heavier, or staying Longer, than the occasion, that Extorted it, exacted) and convince them, that their Hopes were never Disappointed, but to Secure their Title to Better things, than those they hoped for; nor their Inferiour Interests prejudic'd, but for the advantage of their Supream ones. Yes, all that unwelcome Dark­nesse, that here surrounded our pur­blind Understandings, will vanish at the dawning of that bright, and (as St. 2 Pet. 3.18. Peters expression may be interpet­ted) eternall day, wherein the Reso­lution of all those Difficulties, [...] which here Exercis'd (and perhaps Distress'd) our Faith, shall be granted us to Re­ward it. And I must professe to you, Lindamor, (as Unfashionable as such a Profession may seem in a Gentleman not yet two and Twenty) that I find the study of those excellent Themes, Gods Word, and his Providence, so Difficult, and yet so Pleasing and Invi­ting, that could Heaven afford me [Page 159]no greater Blessing than a clear Ac­compt of the abstruse Misteryes of Di­vinity and Providence, I should value the having my Understanding Gratifi'd and Enrich'd with Truths of so Noble and precious a Nature, enough to Court Heaven at the rate of renounce­ing for it all those unmanly Sensuali­ties and trifling Vanities, for which in­considerate Mortalls are wont to for­feite the Interest, their Saviour so dear­ly bought them in it.

Nor shall we onely converse with Saints and Angells, § 25 but with that infi­nitely more glorious Deity, that made them, what they are, without at all Impoverishing Himselfe. In Heaven, we shall enjoy (its Maker) God, 1 Joh. 3.2. 1 Cor. 15.28. and see Him as he is, who (as the Scripture tel­leth us) shall then be all in all: Com­prising all the goods, we value in the Creatures, as eminently and fully, as the Sun doth the Light, that Twinkleth in the Starrs.

If one, Anaxage­ras. that was none of the least of the Philosophers, scrupl'd not to tell the man that ask'd him, What he was borne for, that, It was to contemplate [Page 160]the Sun; If our best Naturalists them­selves, though the darknesse that is here cast upon things, and the dimnesse of our Intellectual Eyes, (which I re­member Aristotle fitly compares to those of an Owle) permit us to dis­cern but very little of that Wisdom, Power, and Goodnesse, which he has expressed in the Creation, are yet of­ten transporeed and ravish'd with a just Admiration of the Perfections, He has displayed in his Workman-ship. If the wise Queen that came so far to visit Solomon, was put almost into an Extasie, by the sight of his, though Wise, yet Human, Ordering of things; And if the Angels themselves (as St. Pe­ter informs us) desire to look into the mysterious contrivances of God, in order to Man's Redemption: How great a Satisfaction, Lindamor, may we justly conceive it must needs be, to be ad­mitted to See so much of God, as Heaven will Discover to us? Especially, since so much of our future Happinesse will consist in that Beatifick Vision, (as the School-men justly call it) that St. John concluded, that we shall be like God, be­cause [Page 161]we shal see Him as He is. And our Saviour himself paraphrases our Coele­stiall felicity by this blessed Vision, Matt. 5.8. where he says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God: As on the other side the Writer to the Hebrews imployes the being deny'd the sight of that Divine Object, as a Description of extreme wretchednesse, in that Text, where ha­ving exhorted those to whom he writes to follow peace and holinesse; he adds, Heb. 12.14. as the formidablest Menace which he could make useof to Deterr them from sleighting his Exhortation, without which no man shall see the Lord. And by this Vision our Saviour seems to describe the happinesse even of Angels; where, forbidding the Scandalizing of any of [...]hose little ones that beleeve in him, he adds, to enforce what he had said, that [...]heir Angells do alwaies see the face [...]f his Father in Heaven. Matt. 18.10. We shall [...]e so taken up with the Contem­ [...]lation and Fruition of that Glorious Object, (in whose Infinity all goods are [...]ncluded and Dilated) that Ages num­ [...]erlesse as the Joyes That Beatifick Vision abounds with, will scarce af­ford [Page 162]us leasure for a Diversion to any other Pleasures, than those it self cre­ates; which are so Numerous, and so Entire, that we shall there Desire no­thing, that we Have not, except more Tongues to sing more Praises to him, or at least a Capacity to pay him grea­ter Thankss, for what we Have; And even those Desires, Gods gracious Ac­ceptation wil make, in being Conceiv'd, Accomplished: for, otherwise Heaven's Residents scarce know any other Want, then that of Need to Wish; The Compleat Blessednesse of their Condition, reducing them to a happy Uselesnesse of Wishes, by affording them a full Prae-possession of all the Objects of Desire. There Time, like Fire, having destroy'd What ever it could prey on, shall at last Dye it self, and shall Goe Out into Eternity. Whose Nature is such, that though our Joyes, after some Centuryes o [...] Years, may seem to have been grow [...] Elder, by having been enjoyed so ma­ny Ages, yet will they really still con­tinue New, not onely upon the score [...] of their Welcomenesse and Freshnesse, [Page 163]but by their perpetually Equall (be­cause Infinite) Distance from a Period. There, our felicity shall alwaies be the Same, yet ever New. Wearinesse ar­guing Imperfection, either in the Ob­ject, or the Appetite; the Former of which is Impossible in God, and the Latter shall Cease in Heaven; Where our Felicity shall be so Great, that Va­riety (it self) shall not be needed as a part of it. And if Heaven do admit Variety, it may be supposed such a one, as shall consist in a Further Know­ledge of the First Object (God), not a forsaking of it; and such as arises from the fixt Beholding of the changing­necks of Doves, or such as we may see in the diversisi'd Refractions of the same sparkling Diamond. In God, there is such a various Identity, that the Fruition of Him both Satisfies and Creates Desires: though That, without Satiety; and This, without Disquiet. Other Delights, like the usuall Cloaths we wear, quickly grow Stale, and are soon Worn out; where as Coe­ [...]estiall Pleasures participate the Pre­rogative of the Jews Garments in the Deut 29.5 [Page 164]Wildernesse, of not Impairing by be­ing used Long. But as the amorous Needle, once joyn'd unto the Load­stone, would never, uncompell'd, for­sake the inchanting Minerall; but, af­ter ages, cling no lesse closely to it than at the first moment of their Union: So do the Saints in Heaven, with the same undiminisht Freshnesse, ever possesse their Joyes, as if each mo­ment were the First that they possest them in. And if their Happinesse do not improve by lastinger Enjoyment, 'tis perhaps but because it was at first uncapable of Increase. Or, if our Plea­sures do admit Accession, they shall receive it from our Assurance, that we shall taste them Ever, and perpe­tually repeat (or rather continue) the same renewed Fruitions to an Eter­nity, endear'd by nothing more, than by the quiet leisure it will afford us, undistractedly to employ it, in Cele­brating of the Author's Praises; and in a Condition, happier in that by it we grow past Doing, than past Suffering Ill. In Heaven, (in a word) our inex­hausted Joyes will be so numberlesse, [Page 165]and so immense, that we shall need (as well as have) Eternity it self to taste them fully.

But, Lindamor, § 26 it was not my Design to give you a particular Topographie of this Coelestiall Canaan; but onely in a few words to let you see, that 'tis, a Land flowing with Milk and Hony, And though I acknowledge, I have given you but dark Descriptions (and sometimes, rather Poeticall than Cho­rographicall) of what the Apostle styles, Col. 1.12. the Inheritance of the Saints in light. Yet since, to whet our Longings for Fruitive (or Experimentall) Know­ledg it is reserv'd among the Preroga­tives of being in Heaven, to know how happy we shall be, when There: And since what the Scripture hath reveal'd of Paradise, seemes meant rather to Quicken our Obedience, then Satisfie our Curiosity; I may for those pur­poses, have perhaps tolerably per­form'd that taske (of Heavenly Topo­graphie) by the acknowledgments of my Disability to do it worthily. I shall now onely adde this Property of our expected Blisse, that the vast Mul­titude [Page 166]of Partners does detract no­thing from each private Share, nor does the Publicknesse of it lessen Pro­priety in it. This Ocean of Felicity being so Shoarlesse and so Bottomless, that all the Saints and Angels cannot exhaust it, it being as impossible for any Aggregate of Finites to compre­hend or exhaust one Infinite, as 'tis for the greatest number of Mathe­matick Points to amount to, or con­stitute, a Body. Our neighbour-regi­ons doe all enjoy the benefit of light as well as we; yet we enjoy not Lesse, than if they enjoy'd None. Indeed, there is this difference between the Sun of Righteousnesse, and that of Heaven; that, whereas the later by his presence Eclipses all the Planets (his Attendants); the former, though radiant with a much mightier Splen­dour, will by his Presence Impart it to his Saints: according to that of the Apostle; Coll. 3.4. When Christ who is our Life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in Glory. So that the Elect, in relation to this Sun, shall not be like Starres, which his shining obscures [Page 167]and makes to disappear; but like po­lisht Silver, or well glaz'd Armes, or those vaster Balls of burnisht Brasse, the topps of Churches are sometimes adorn'd with, which shine not till they be shin'd upon, and derive their glittering Brightnesse and all the fire, that environs and illustrates them from their being expos'd (un­skreen'd) to the Sun's refulgent beams. Cant. 6.3. I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine, sayes every Saint (with the Spouse in the Canticles) to hir Redeem­mer. David sayes of them that put their trust in God, Psal. 36.8. That he shall a­bundantly satisfie them with the fat­nesse of His house, and make them drink of the River of his pleasures: As if he meant to insinuate, that, as when a multitude of persons drink of the same River, none of them is able to exhaust it, and yet each of them may have the full liberty of drinking as much as he can, or as much as he could though none but himselfe should be Allow'd to drinke of it: so whosoever enjoyes God, enjoyes him wholly, or at least doth enjoy him so [Page 168]entirely, in Relation to that man's ca­pacity that the Fruition of whatso­ever rests unenjoy'd of God, is for­bidden by the Immensity of the Ob­ject, and not the Praepossession of his Rivalls. The Angels, though of a Nature Differing from our's, and thereby plac'd above the personal Experience of our sufferings, and infirmities, doe yet so sympathize with us, that (as our Saviour informs us) they rejoyce at the repentance of a sinner.

And though, the members of the Church Militant, and those of the Triumphant, live as farre asunder, as Heaven is from Earth, and are not more Distant as to place, than Differing as to Condition; yet St. Paul reckons all the Saints to be but one Family in Heaven and Earth. Eph. 3.15. If then the disparity of Residences, of Qualities, and of Conditions, cannot Now hinder the Lovers of God, from being so concern'd in one a­nother; how much of endearing Kind­nesse may we suppose, that they will Enterchange, When both their Love [Page 169]shall be perfected, and all those other Graces, that are proper to cherish and encrease it: For, the same Apostle, who, to assist us to conceive the strictnesse of the Union both betwixt Christ and his Saints, and the Saints a­mong themselves, tells us, that He is the Head, 1 Cor. 12. and they are his Body, and Members, in particular; teaches us to make this inference That, (to expresse his Doctrine in his own words) If one Mem­ber suffer all the Members suffer with it; v. 27, 28. and if one Member be hon­our'd, all the Members rejoyce with it. Yes, Lindamor, in that blest Condition, our wills being per­fectly conform'd unto our Maker's, no Saint nor Angel can enjoy his Love without possessing a propor­tionate Degree of ours. And then, since perfect Friendship appro­priates to each Friend the Cros­ses and Prosperities of the other (as good Barzillai could not be highlier oblig'd by David, 2 Sam. 19.37. than [Page 170]by the Kings kindnesse to his Son) each severall Beatitude in Hea­ven, shall (in some sort concern the whole Society, and) be Ours. As the Earth receives Addition of Light by the Sun's Beames bestow'd upon the Starrs, and from the Moon refle­cting upon Her. And because our personall Capacities are too too narrow, to contain all that Joy, we are (by the strange Arithmetick of Friend­ship) multiplyed into as ma­ny Happy Persons, as there are Saints and Angells blest in Heaven. Our perfect Uni­on to Our Common Head, and mutuall Communion with each other, applying and bring­ing home every Felicity of theirs to us. This Friendly and reciprocall Sympathy, rea­ching us each Glorified Saint's Blessednesse, and Him ours, by a blest Circulation, which makes us encrease, by our [Page 171]resenting them, those Joyes (of others) whose Encrease we resent. But my Thoughts are ingaged in so good Com­pany, Lindamor, that they keep me from considering, how fast the Hours passe, and have al­most made me forget, that the Time which my Occasions al­low me for Scribling to you, is so far spent, that not now at last to Reprieve you from the Persecutions of my blunt Pen, were to be almost as Injurious to my own Affairs, as to your Patience. Hereafter yet, I may possibly make you some amends for this, with Riper Discour­ses of the Nature and Duties, or (if you will) the Properties and Returns of this Love, to which I have hitherto presen­ted you some Motives. To (the last of) which, I might add; That, our Love to the Creature is an Earnest, but to God 'tis [Page 172]a Title; the One makes Us the Object's, but the Other makes the Object Ours: That, since there is in Love so strong a Magick, as to Transform the Lover in­to the Object Lov'd; We ought to be extreamly carefull of the Dedication of a Passion, which, as it is plac'd, must either Dignifie our Nature, or De­grade it. And not to Addresse to any Lower (or, which is all one, to any Other) Object, the highest Intensity of a Love, which cannot Stoop without our Degradation. And these I might Exspatiate on, and Re­cruit them with many other Motives, additionall to those already insisted on; but that I may more properly reserve them to the Treatise of the Proper­ties of that Love, whose Na­ture so partakes That of its Ob­ject, that there can hardly be produc'd more powerfull Mo­tives [Page 173]to it than the Conditions of it. Since then (as I freshly intimated) I cannot but feare that your tir'd Patience, as well as my urgent Occasions (though these will recall me to morrow Morning to my own VVest­erne Hermitage) doth at pre­sent summon me to leave you: and since I cannot do so in a hap­pier place, than Heaven, I shall suspend my Farewells, onely to begge you to believe, that so Noble a Motive of Exalting-Friendship, as the Ambition of rendring mine a fit Return for yours, hath so Improv'd my Kindnesse that my Affection with­out wronging its own Greatnesse, could not Expresse it self by any Lesse Attempt, then this of gain­ing you the Greatest and the most Desireable of all Goods, by eleva­ting (that Noble Harbinger of your Soul,) your Love to Hea­ven: Whose Joyes alone are not [Page 174]Inferiour to those which the Being made Instrumentall to procure them you, would really Create in,