A discourse of the freedom of the will by Peter Sterry ...

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.

Christian and Candid Reader,

I Intreat some few things of thee, for thine own sake and for mine:

1. Study the Love of God, the Nature of God, as he is Love, the Work of God, as it is a Work of Love. Moses in his dying Song beginneth with God, and the perfection of his Work; He is the Rock, his Work is perfect. St. Paul descended from the Paradise in the Third Heavens, bringeth this with him down into the World, as the Sacred Mystery, and rich ground of all Truth, from which all the Beauties and Sweetnesses of Paradise, of all the Heavens spring; That Love is the band of Perfection. It is Love then, which runneth through the whole Work of God, which frameth, informeth, uniteth it all into one Master-piece of Divine Love.

If God be Love, the Attributes of God are the Attributes of this Love; the Purity, Simplicity, the Soveraignty, the Wisdom, the Almightiness, the Unchangeableness, the Infi∣niteness, the eternity of Divine Love. If God be Love, his Work is the Work of Love, of a Love unmixt, unconfined, supream, infinite in Wisdom and Power, not limited in its workings by any pre-existent matter, but bringing forth freely •…•…nd entirely from it self its whole work both matter and form, according to its own inclination and complacency in it self.

Leo Hebraeus, enflamed with the Beauty, and languishing in the Love of the heavenly Sophia, the heavenly Wisdom, which is the first and freshest life of all Beauties in one Face, immortal, and ever-flourishing, is instructed by this Divine Mistress in those excellent Dialogues between her and himself to Court and Woo her into his Embraces, by enquiring into the Nature of Love. Pursuing this enquiry, by the bright Conduct of her shining Beauties, he is led through the whole nature of things above and below, with all the Varieties and Changes as manifold streams of Divine Love; in diverse breadths and depths, with innumer able, sportful windings and turnings, flowing forth from its own full Sea of eternal Sweet∣ness, and through all its Chanels, hasting thither again.

Campanella teacheth us, That all second Causes, are Causa prima modificata, so many Modifications of the first Cause, so many forms and shapes in which the first Cause appears and acts. All the Works of God, are the Divine Love, in so many Modes and Dresses. There is diversity of Manifestations, there are diversities of Operations, which compose the whole frame and business of this Creation, which are as diverse per∣sons acting diverse parts upon this stage. But there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God, one Love, which worketh all in all.

It is the Divine Love, with its unsearchable Riches, which is the fulness that filleth all persons, and all parts upon the stage of Time or Eternity. If any man know not the way to the Sea, let him follow a River in the course of its stream, saith the Comoedian.

Dear Reader, if thou wouldst be lead to that Sea, which is as the gathering together, and confluence of all the waters of Life, of all Truths, Goodness, Joys, Beauties and Blessed∣ness; follow the stream of the Divine Love, as it holdeth on its course, from its head in eternity through every work of God, through every Creature. So shalt thou be not only happy in thine end, but in thy way; while this stream of Love shall not only be thy guide by thy side, but shall carry thee along in its soft and delicious bosom, bearing thee up in the bright Arms of its own Divine Power, sporting with thee all along, washing thee white as snow in its own pure floods, and bathing thy

whole Spirit and Person in heavenly unexpressible sweet∣nesses.

This is my first Request to you.

2. Study and practise that great Command of Love, as the Lesson of thy whole Life, with which alone thou art to entertain thy self, and all the heavenly Company, both here and in eternity. This is the first and great Command; That thou love God with thy whole self; and then, That thou love thy Neighbour as thy self, which is a second Law, a second Love, like unto the first. Indeed it is so like, that it is one with it. Be thou thy self in thy whole Person, the Sacrifice of a whole Burnt-Offering, ascending in a Sacred flame of heavenly love to God, the only and eternal Beauty. As the zeal of the House of God, which is Love flaming, did eat up David and Christ; so let this heavenly Love of the Divine Beauty, which is the Beauty it self, descending in a pure and sweet flame upon thee, by consuming thee, convert thee into one spiritual flame with it self. Now live thou no where, but where thou lovest, in thy Beloved. Let thy Be∣loved alone now live in thee; when thou hast thus lost thy self by an heavenly Love in thy Beloved, in thy God; when thou hast thus by the Sacred and sweet mystery of this Love found thy Beloved, thy God, in the place of thy self; Then love thy Neighbour as thy self. Love thy Neighbour in thy Jesus, thy God. Love thy Jesus, thy God, in thy Neighbour. Let this Neighbourhood of Divine Love be as large as the God of Love himself is. Let every other Person and Spirit, which lives and moves, and hath its being in God, within the encompassing, upon the Ground and Root of the Divine Being, be thy Neighbour, thy Brother, another self, as thy self to thy self; the Object to thee of an heavenly and incor∣ruptible Love.

Upon this Commandment, saith Jesus Christ, hang all the Law and the Prophets. This Love is the Centre and the Circle of all the Works of God, of all Motions and Rests, of all mysteries in Nature and Grace, in Time and Eternity. Plato saith, That three sorts of Persons are led to God, The Musician by Harmony, the Philosopher by the beam of Truth, the Lover by the light of Beauty. All these Conductors to

the supream Being meet in this Love, of which we speak; the first and only true Beauty, being the first Birth, the first Ef∣fulgency, the essential Image of the supream Goodness, is also the first, the supream, the only Truth; the Original, the measure, the end of all Truth; which by its amiable attractive Light, conducteth all Understandings in the search of Truth, and giveth them rest only in its transparent and blissful Bosom. This also is the first, the only, the universal Harmony, the Mufick of all things in Heaven and on Earth; the Musick, in which all things of Earth and of Heaven, meet to make one melodious Consort.

While the holy Lover then pursues the tracts of this Beauty, through all the works and ways of God, he is encompassed with the Light of Divine Truth shining through him, and round about him. He is carried on in the Spirit by the force of the Divine Harmony; He carrieth along this Harmony of things, charming all things round about him, as he passeth on. So he seeth the God of Gods at last on Mount Sion, the perfecti∣on of Beauty, Harmony, Truth and Goodness, which all Center in the Divine Love, the Divine Unity, the band of perfection.

3. Let no differences of Principles or Practices divide thee in thine affections from any person. He who seems to me as a Samaritan to a Jew, most worthy of contempt and hatred, most apt to wound or kill me, may hide under the shape of a Samaritan, a generous, affectionate Neighbour, Brother and Friend. When I lie wounded and dying, neglected by those who are nearest to me, most esteemed by me; This person may pour Wine and Oyl into my Wounds, with tender and con∣stant care, at his own expence, bring me back to life and joy. How evident hath it been in the History of all times, that in Parties most remote one from the other, most opposed one to the other; Persons have been found of equal excellencies, in all kinds, of equal integrity to Truth and Goodness. Our most Orthodox Divines, who have been heated and heightned with the greatest zeal of Opposition to the Pope, as the Antichrist, yet have believed a Pope to have ascended from the Papal Chair, to a Throne in Heaven. Had my Education, my Ac∣quaintance, the several Circumstances and Concurrances

been the same to me, as to this person from whom I now most of all dissent, that which is now his sense and state, might have been mine. Have the same just, equal, tender respects and thoughts with the same allowances of another, which thou re∣quirest from him to thy self. It is a Rule in Philosophy, That there is the same reason of Contrarieties. Two opposed Parties or Persons, by reason of the opposition, for the most part looking through the same disturbed and coloured Medium, behold one another under the same uncomely form, in the same displeasing Colours. Hath there not been frequent experience of those, who by being of differing Parties, alienated, exaspe∣rated, having their fansies filled with strange Images of each other, when they have been brought together by some interve∣ning Providence, have discovered such agreeable Beauties of Morality and Humanity, such an harmonious agreement in essential, in radical Principles of Divine Truth, of the true and ever lasting good, that they have conversed with highest delight, they have departed with an higher esteem of each other, their Souls have been inseparably united with Angelical kisses and embraces? Some entertaining Strangers, have enter∣tained Angels. Do thou so believe, that in every encounter, thou mayest meet under the disguise of an Enemy, a Friend, a Brother, who, when his Helmet shall be taken off, may disclose a beautiful, and a well known face, which shall charm all thy Opposition into love and delight at the sight of it.

But now, Reader, I fall at thy feet, I take hold of thy knees, by all things moving and obliging I beseech thee, If there be any Bowels, or comforts of Love, any Peace, Plea∣santness, Strength, Prosperity in Union, any good in Unity, that thou wouldst take deeply into thine Heart, and treasure up safely there, and frequently with fixed, studious eyes, con∣template this (as I humbly conceive it) most sure and recon∣ciling Truth, which I shall now, as I am able, represent to thee.

Often, yea for the most part, two opposed Parties have something on each side, excellently good, something exorbi∣tantly evil; although perhaps in unequal degrees. Both mu∣tually set after an unmoveable manner before their eyes, their own good, the evil on the other part. Thus they blind their

minds to all sense or belief of any good there. Thus they lift up themselves above all sense of their own evil. So they heighten themselves by self-justifications, by mutual Con∣demnations, unto an extinguishing of every beam of good, to an encrease of their evils, unto a blackness of darkness, until by these mutual mistakes they have drawn on upon themselves mutual and absolute ruine. How much better were it to obey that Precept of the Holy Ghost, which offereth it self to us, like an Olive-branch in the mouth of this Sacred Dove, To look every man not to his own things, but to the things of another.

O that now I had an hundred Mouths, an hundred Tongues, a voice like Thunder, like the Voice of God, that rends the Rocks, to cry to all sorts of Persons and Spirits in this Land, in all the Christian World through the whole Creation; Let all that differ in Principles, Professions, or Opinions, and Forms, see that good which is in each other, and the evil in themselves. Joyn in thi•…•…, to extirpate the evil, the common evil, your common enemy, and so quench that fire which burns upon your Estates, your Houses, your Relations, your Bodies, your Souls, even to the nethermost Hell. Unite the good which is in you, so shall the good on one side make up that which is imperfect and defective in the good on the other side, unto a perfection of good in both. So shall the good on one side be as a proper Antitode to extinguish the evil on the other side. Thus while the evil is the privation, the loss of your selves, and the good your true-selves, (as Hor ace calls Virgil, Dimidium animae meae,) you will meet like two halves of each other, filling up the circle of each others Being, Beauties, Joys, and be now compleated in one. How unexpressible would the fruits of this Union be? How would it heighten you in all the Beauties and Blessed∣nesses of Truth and Goodness, in which your immortality and conformity to God are placed? yea, how would this Union strengthen those outward Interests, and sweeten those natural Enjoyments, for whose sake, now like Adders, you stop your Ears to the wisest Charmer, and the most potent Charms, that would draw you home into the bosom of each other, for whose sake now you cast down to the ground all

ingenuity and integrity. You make your way over their sweetest Beauties and tenderest Bowels, to the heart-blood of one another, until you have drowned in blood those very darling Interests and Enjoyments, together with your own Lives and Persons, your native Country, the Christian World, the face of the whole Earth? But ab, when will poor Mankind on Earth be wise, to understand its own good, or be good, that it may me wise? Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lorld. VVe wait for thy Salvation, thy Jesus, O God! To him shall the gathering of the people be, the true Shiloe, for whom this Glory is reserved.

It seemeth indeed, according to my humble sense, necessary to divide those Principles and Practices, which divide Man∣kind into three Heads:

1. Some seem to be of a nature perfectly indifferent, neither good nor evil, but according to the intention and spirit which acteth them.

2. Some differ in the degrees, mixtures, or varieties of good and evil.

3. Others differ in the whole kind of good and evil.

In this last state of things, it is the part of every Child of Light, to maintain the Divine Love in his Spirit, like the Sun in the Firmament, encompassing the whole Earth, from one end to the other, shining upon all, both good and bad, upon dry and sandy Desarts, the Habitations of wild Beasts, and venemous Serpents, as well as cultivated Gardens, flourishing with wholesome Herbs, pleasant Flowers, and all sorts of fruits. Thus God himself is propounded to us for a Pattern by the Son of God.

Distinguish between the good and evil. Love takes plea∣sure in the good. Hate the evil. Advance the good. Op∣pose the evil upon all occasions, with all your forces. But every where distinguish carefully, with all tenderness of Spirit, between the person, and the evil of the person. Be wise as Serpents, but innocent as Doves, according to the Counsel and Command of Jesus Christ, who is the supream VVisdom and Love both in one. Discern the evil with a quick and curious eye, guard your selves with all your might from it, maintain an aversion, an enmity to it, eternally irreconcilable.

Thus be a Serpent to the evil, but at the same time be a Dove to the person, without gaul, without any thing to offend, moaning over it, groaning for it, as your Mate, till it be re∣covered from the evil, which captivates it into a fellowship with you, in the purity and love of the Divine Nature.

Have always most tender bowels for, and a most sensible sympathy with all Mankind in their greatest Deformities and Defilements, as thy Brethren tyed unto thee by a double Con∣sanguinity.

1. All men are made of the same blood in Adam.

2. All men are redeemed by the same blood of the Lord Jesus, who hath given himself a Ransom for all, to be testi∣fied, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the proper times. Each person which hath his part in this Ransom, hath its proper time for its dis∣covery in him. Thine may be now sooner. This person also now most of all lost in the depth of all evils, may have his proper time yet to come, for the taking off the disguise of these filthy Rags from him, for the discovery of the Glory, as of a Son of God in him. As his time comes later, so it may come with a fuller Glory. As Zipporah said to Moses, whether bitterly, or in the sweet sense of a Sacred mystery, pointing to the Messias, Thou art an Husband to me in bloods. So look thou on every man, as a Brother to thee, in both these bloods, of which one was once pure and precious, as that of the Sacred Image of God in Paradise. The other is eternally pure and precious, as the blood of God himself.

Forgiving one another freely for Christ's sake, is the lan∣guage of St. Paul. Look upon every person through this two∣fold Glass, the Blood, and the Beauties of Christ. Christ hath died for all. The natural Being of every person hath his Root in the Grave of Christ, and is watered with his blood. Christ lives in all. His Resurrection is the life of the whole Crea∣tion. He is the VVisdom, the Power, the Righteousness of God in every work of Nature, as well as of Grace. He is the Root, out of which every natural, as well as every spiritual, Plant springs, which brings forth himself through every natural existence, and brings forth himself out of it, as the flower, the brightness of the Glory of God. He is the Root and Truth of all things. All things are by him, and for him, to the

praise and glory of God in him. His Name is excellent through all the Earth. Read then this Name of Excellency, of Glory, the Name of Christ in every part and point of the •…•…arth, the darkest, the lowest, the least; forgive the spots upon this Name in every person, for the Names-sake engrav•…•…n upon it.

Receive one another into the Glory of God, is the Rule of St. Paul. Divines distinguish between the person, together with the nature of the De•…•…il and the evil. The person, the nature, springs forth from God, and so is good, hath a Divi∣nity and Glory in it; a Divine Root, a Divine Image. It stands in the Glory of God, as a Flower in the Garden, a B•…•…am in the Sun, it is maintained by a continual emanation from the bosom of the supream Glory. Thus thou art to re∣ceive every person, clouded with the greatest evils, as he is the work of Nature, and of God into the Glory of God. Thus every other person is to be thy Neighbour, thy •…•…rother in the Glory of God; and the Object of a Divine Love.

No evil, as evil is the nature or choice of any person, but the mishap, and the disease. Truth is the only Object of every Understanding, the only white at which it aims. Like the Mary-gold, it opens it self only to this Sun, or that which shines upon it in the glorious form of this Sun, and so de∣scends in seeming beams of this Divine Beauty into its bosom. Good is the only Object of the VVill. As the Needle toucht by the Load-stone, is governed in its motion and rest by the North-pole; so is the VVill moved and attracted by that alone, which toucheth it with a sense of good. It resteth in no bosom, but that which courteth and wooeth it und•…•…r the Divine Form of good, with the seeming Charms of this its only Beloved and Bridegroom.

St. Paul saith, Sin deceived me, and slew me. No person is willingly d•…•…ceived in his belief of Truth, on disappointed in his expectation of good. Every evil is a degree of death; a diseafe, in the end death. When it appeareth like it self, all things fly from it, as from death. But as Cupid, in the form of the young and flourishing Prince Ascanius, by trea∣cherous embraces and kisses, breath'd a fatal poyson into the veins of the Carthaginean Queen. So doth sin and evil by

the hellish enchantments of the Prince of Darkness, form it self into the most alluring resemblance of the heavenly Image, composed of Truth and Goodness, meeting in one immortal form. It adorneth it self all over with the most curious and sparkling Counterfeits of all its most amiable, most Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties. Thus it insinuates it self into the eyes and hearts of the Sons of God, and fills them with its false sweetnesses, enflames them with a false Love, as the poyson and fire from Hell. Yet still in the midst of these enchant∣ments and deaths, as the Athenians in the midst of their Atheism and Idolatry, had an Altar inscribed, To the un∣known God; The Understanding and the Will, according to their own proper natures, stand in every natural Spirit, as Altars in a Temple, shining and burning, with continual fires by night and by day, aspiring to the highest and clearest Hea∣vens, through all opposed Clouds of Darkness, while this in∣scription in clear Characters appeareth engraven round these Altars, To the Unknown Good, the Unknown God, to the unknown Truth, the unknown Jesus.

If any person then be faln into any evil, Let those that are spiritual restore him with a spiritual skill, with a spirit of Meekness and Divine Love. Apply Reproofs, Chastisements to evil persons in their seasons, as a Brother gives an Antidote to a beloved Brother, that by a mistake hath been surprized and drunk in poyson; or as one hand applies a Medicine to the other hand, or to the eye, when it suffers by any wound or distemper.

If thou art an Angel, and hast to do with a Devil, use no reviling Language, for so the Angel himself is by the Spirit of God markt with a Character of Honour for this, that he used no reviling Speeches to the Devil.

Preserve thy self from that bitter zeal, which St. James mentioneth, upon which he setteth so evil a mark, branding it deeply with the fire of Hell; as a Devil transfiguring himself into the form of an Angel. If there be (saith he) amongst you bitter envying; this wisdom is not from above, but earthly, sensual and devillish; We read it, bitter en∣vying. In Greek it is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, bitter zeal. Take heed of suffering thy zeal against the evil, to be mingled and

tempered with a bittern•…•…ss against the person. As Light∣ning from Heaven melts the Sword, but doth no harm to the Scabbard. Discover thou in all thy Reproofs and Chastise∣ments an equal love to the person, and hatred to the evil, an equal desire to destroy the evil, and save the person. Or rather, let thy zeal against the evil be love to the person, flaming forth, and burning with a great, but with a sweet, and Divine force, that it may consume the Dross for the Golds-sake, to which the dross cleaves, that of the Gold, thus refined, it may make a Jewel for the Bosom, or a Crown for the Head of Jesus Christ. Suffer not thy zeal against evil, to be like the Locusts from the bottomless-pit, which have faces like men, hair soft and delicate like women, Crowns of Glory upon their heads like Angels, but venemous and killing stings in their tails. Let it not be like Culina∣ry fire, or the fire of Hell, black, sooty, and devouring; but like the fire from the golden Altar, mingled with sweet In∣cense, filling all round about, and carrying up that upon which it feeds, as a Sacrifice to Heaven, with the rich Odours and Perfumes of a Divine Love.

If I be lifted up to Heaven by manifold excellencies, toge∣ther with Corazin and Bethsaida, from whence I look down upon another far beneath me, lying like Sodom and Gomorrah, in a loathed and hated deep of darknesses, defilements, dis∣graces; Let me then think, That this Sodom may have a better Spirit, a better ground of good at the bottom of its Spirit than my self. That if the seed of Love and Light which hath been sown in me, had been sown with the like ad∣vantage there, it would have far excelled me in its fruits. Yea, let me think that it may not only have a better ground, but a Divine seed, hid deep in that ground beneath all this soil and dung, beneath all this darkness, deformity, and deadness of its Winter-season, which may rise up in its proper Spring into pleasant Flowers and Fruits, as the Garden of God. Thus let me think, and let these thoughts instruct me to love every other person, removed to the greatest distance from me, cast down to the greatest depth beneath me, as my Neighbour, my Brother, my self.

This is my double Request to thee, gentle Reader.

1. That thou love every other person, as thy Neighbour, thy Friend, thy self, with that Divine Love, in whose flame thou sacrificest thy self, and all things to receive thy self again, and all things together with thy self in a more excellent and durable form.

2. That thou suffer nothing to stain the Candour of this Love, whose Reasons being altogether Divine, subject all other reason to themselves. Give me leave to strengthen this two∣fold Request, by presenting to thee thine own Interest, after the highest manner contained in it, after a two-fold form.

1. This Divine Love, at this heighth, in this Latitude, is all that is true in Religion, all that is good in Man, all that is acceptable with God, all the hope of future Glory, and of blessed immortality. If I give all my Goods to the Poor, and my Body to be burnt, and have not Charity, I am no∣thing. Is there any Charity or Love to Man greater than this, to give all my Goods to the Poor? Is there any Cha∣rity or Love to God more Divine than this, to give my Body to be burnt for him? Yes, there is a Charity, a Love, which transcends all this, which, if I want, I may yet have all this, and be nothing. This is that Divine Love, of which I speak, which lifteth not it self up above any of the works of God, but keepeth the Unity of the eternal Workman, of his Divine Design and VVork, in the golden band of an universal Peace, and Divine Amity. This is that Divine Love which be∣haveth not it self uncomely, seeketh not its own things, breaketh not the Harmony of the whole, dividing it self from the whole, by a particular self-love. In the univer∣sal Beauty and Melody of the Divine Wisdom and Work, it respecteth it self as a part, and all parts, as it self, having one Beauty and Joy together, in the Beauty, Joy, and har∣monious Perfection of the Divine Figure in the whole piece.

This Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, suffereth all things. This we read of the Divine Love, 1 Cor. 13. 7. The first expression in that verse is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which we render, beareth all things. I have three Reasons against this translation of it.

1. It makes the last Clause of this verse a tautology, a vain repetition; It suffereth all things, which is the same with the first.

2. It is the remotest sense of the Greek word, two senses being nearer:

• 1. To cover.
• 2. To contain or comprehend.

3. These two nearer senses are more agreeable, more full and Divine.

1. The Divine Love covereth all things with the Divine loveliness and beauty of the universal Harmony, which is the Righteousness of God in Christ, the first, the fairest Image of the invisible God, in which every other Image of God standeth, as in the Original, the all-comprehending Glory. This is that which Solomon saith, Love covereth all sin. And St. Paul, of the Divine Workman, of the Divine Love; He putteth the highest comeliness, that is, the universal Comeliness of the Divine Image in its entire∣ness and perfection upon every part, even upon the most un∣comely parts; That there may be no schism or division in the Body, that there may be one glory of all.

2. The Divine Love in every Person or Spirit lives not in it self as a part, but in the life of the whole, in the Divine, the Universal Spirit, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of the whole. I live not, saith St. Paul, but Christ liveth in me. Again, If you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. Thus the Divine Love having its life in each person, in the life of the whole, the Universal Spirit, being one Spirit with that Spirit, which is the Unity of the whole, comprehendeth all things with strictest tenderest imbraces in it self, as one self with it self. So faith the holy Apostle, All things are yours, you are Christs, and Christ is Gods. All things are yours, as you are Christs, as Christ is Gods; that is, in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, which is Love it self.

Now from this covering Beauty, and comprehensive Vir∣tue, in Divine Love these effects naturally flow; To believe all things, to hope all things; We easily believe and hope that which we desire. The Divine Love hath a complacen∣cy in all things, as it comprehendeth them in their Divine

Root. It hath a good will to all things, as they stand in the same Divine Root with it self. From this Complacency, this Desire, this Divine Root it believeth, it hopeth all things. It believeth all things to be Divine Tabernacles, like that in the Wilderness, which though moving through Des•…•…ts, through a Land of Graves, through a Land of fiery Serpents, yet answer to their Pattern on the top of the Mount; though covered with a course Tent, exposed to the fury of the Sun, and tempests in the midst of Clouds, of dust; yet are all∣glorious within, composed of rich materials, bearing a Divine Figure, filled with the Divine Presence and Glory. It hopeth all things, light in the midst of darkness, a flourish∣ing Garden of Lillies and Roses, in a ground covered, and bound up with all the darknesses and rigours of the hard∣est Winter; a treasure of Honey-Combs in the body of a Lion.

The Master of the Sentences hath such an high esteem of this Charity, or Divine Love, which is the subject of St. Pauls Discourse in this Chapter, That he affirmeth it to be the holy Spirit himself, the third Person in the Trinity, which is the Love in the Divine Nature, and so the Virtue, the Power; As the second Person, the Lord Jesus is the Beauty, the Wisdom.

St. James reasoneth after this manner, Can the same Foun∣tain bring forth sweet and bitter waters? with the same mouth you bless God, and curse man, made after the Image of God. If from the same heart thou bringest forth that Love to some men, by which thou givest all thy Goods to them to supply their wants, and ragest with wrath or hatred against others, who as they have any making, are made after the same Divine Image with the rest of Mankind; Who as they have any Being, have the same Divine Root, are sealed with the same Divine Impression, thou hast not Charity, thou hast not Divine Love, thou hast not the Spirit; the universal, the eternal Spirit, thou art nothing. If thou hast the gist of Prophesie, if thou understandest all divine Mysteries, if thou hast a divine Faith, if with the same heart thou lovest God to so high a degree, that thou givest thy Body to be burnt for him, and yet burnest in rage

against any man, made after the Image of God; All these Divine Gifts or Graces in which thou gloriest, are nothing; thou art nothing, thou hast not Charity. Thou hast not the Divine Love, thou hast not the Spirit of Christ and of God, which is the universal Spirit, the Spring, the Seal, the Band of the Divine Unity.

Dear Reader, follow after this Divine Love, without which all that, which thou hast, is nothing, which, if thou hast, it is the band of perfection, never faileth, never falleth short of the Glory of God; but by the incorruptibleness of a meek spi∣rit, preserveth in it self a Divine Beauty and Sweetness, which is ever perfect, which never passeth away, in the midst of all changes of Life, in Death, to Eternity.

This is thy first Interest, in preserving the Divine Love en∣tire in thy heart.

2. The measure which thou measurest to others, shall be measured to thee again. If you do well, who will harm you? St. Paul distinguisheth between a righteous man and a good man. This doing well is that goodness of Divine Love, pouring forth round about it, heavenly beams upon all things, which maketh men to be so far from any inclination to harm the person, in whom this goodness discovereth it self, that they are willing to die for him. St. John giveth us a lively figure of the Divine Love, in a light of Glory, by these words, He that loveth his Brother, walketh in the light, and there is none offence in him. The last words are capable of two senses, which very agreeably meet here.

1. There is nothing in this person, at which any man taketh any offence.

2. There is nothing, of which this person receiveth any Image, into his Spirit, which offends him.

He, who is this Divine Lover, walketh always in those blessed Regions of Divine Light, where every thing presenteth it self in his heart, as it lieth in the heart of God, springing forth from the womb of an eternal Love, acted by that eternal Spirit, which is Love it self, cloathed with an ever-flourishing loveliness, lying in the universal Harmony of the Divine Wis∣dom, being one piece with it, having the Glory of God re∣sulting from it, and resting upon it. He, that is, this Divine

Lover, shines forth in all his Discourses, Conversation and Actions, upon all eyes and hearts, with such a sweet light and heavenly lustre of the Divine Nature, of the supream Love it self, the Unity, the Mother, the Sister, the Desire of all things, the Joy of the whole Earth, that nothing takes offence at this Person, nothing can harm him.

O what a Conquest had we attained, if we once did so live, that we convinced all persons, that we loved them in truth and in deed, that we had a Divine Love for them, that we esteemed all things in our selves of no value, of no effect to our present Beauty and Peace, to our eternal Life and Glory, to be altogether nothing, except this Divine Love alone? How would this demonstration of an heavenly Wisdom, in an heavenly meekness of Divine Love, disarm all hands of the weapons lifted up against us, and all hearts of their wrath conceived against us, like the Musick of David's Harp, the sweet force of this Love would chase away every evil Spirit from every Breast?

There is no power in Nature like to that of Similitude. Every thing draws and attracts its like to it. Where this Divine Love flourisheth in any person, all the blessed immortal Spirits of heavenly Love above, in eternity, with all the joys and glories of Love resort to this Person, to this Heart, planting themselves round about, as heavenly Guards, and heavenly Ministers to it, inhabiting in it, as their proper Paradise, and Heaven here below. In all things below, through all their differences, distances and divisions, the Spirit of Love, which bath in it the Root and Idea of each Creature, which is in each Creature, as the proper Root of that Creature, as its Ideal, and primitive Form, discloseth it self to, shineth forth upon, and in all forms of things circleth in this per∣son, this heart, being attracted by it, drawn to it, as its proper Centre.

Some Divine Philosophers teach us, That according to the property or power which predominateth in us here, such will that Divine Idea be, which shall be our eternal Habita∣tion and Palace above, in which we shall enjoy all things, be∣ing sealed to us by this Idea. If the Divine universal Love reign in thee here, Love, which seems to be the highest and

sweetest of all Ideas, in the Divine Nature, the Divine Na∣ture it self in its most proper and perfect Idea, uniting the Ideas of all Perfections, of all Beauties, of all Sweetnesses, of all Lives, Loves, Joys, and Glories in it self, at their greatest heighth, with the most ravishing agreeableness and har∣mony; this shall be thy proper Habitation and Palace, set up for thee in thine own person, in every Creature, in every Created or uncreated form of things, to dwell unchangeably in both, here and above. Here shall all things present them∣selves to thee, cloathed and sealed with this Idea, with this pure and perfect Love. With the measure with which thou hast measured unto others, shall it be measured unto thee. Thou hast loved all things with a Divine Love, looking up∣on them stedfastly, through all seasons and changes in a Divine Light, in the incorruptible form of a Divine loveli∣ness. As thou hast looked upon them, so shall they all, in all seasons and states, appear to thee in a Divine Light, full and over-flowing with a Divine Love, cloathed all over with a Divine loveliness. Love all things, O Reader, after a divine manner, that thou mayest be the beloved Object of all divine things, and divinely beloved by all things, that thou mayest shine with a divine loveliness in all eyes, and be received with a divine loveliness into all hearts.

These are the Requests which I make to thee for thine own sake.

I have one Request only to present to thee, for my self, which is, That thou wouldst come with this Divine Love to the read∣ing of this Discourse.

C•…•…me with that love which thinketh no evil. We read in the Revelations of an Angel descending from Heaven, who enlightned the whole Earth. While thou readest, let this heavenly love be as a Seraphim flying down upon its flaming wings, from the Throne of Love into thy Bosom, to enlighten thy whole Soul with its beams, unto a Divine Candour, that there may be no dark corner left for any suspitious Jealousies, Prejudices, Animosities, or ill will, like poysonous Toads in the hollows of some old wall.

Come with this love which believeth all things, all the good that every subject, either person or thing, is capable of

As Bees extract the virtue out of the commonest Herbs, and convert it to Honey in themselves: So do thou believe every thing here to be intended in the best sense, of which it is capa∣ble: Draw forth this sense from it, and improve it in thy self with the utmost advantage, to the sweetest satisfaction, and the richest treasure in thy own mind.

Believe this Piece to be the fruit of Love, springing from a Root of Divine Love. We read in the Revelations of an Angel standing in the Sun. Plato somewhere saith, some∣thing like this, that if we stood in the Sun, all things, even this dark mass of Elements, and elementary composition to us, beholding them from that center of Light, would appear in a Sun-like Glory. Be thou this Angel, or in this an An∣gel-like Spirit, stand in this Sun, the glorious circle of divine Love. From thence see the Fountain of Love opening it self to thee in this Discourse, all the parts, all the lines as so many streams flowing forth from it to water thy Spirit, and make it a Garden of Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties. If the rich man in Hell, next to the quenching of those flames, which burnt upon himself, made this his Request to Heaven, That his brethren might be preserved from coming to that place of torment; How much more do the blessed Inhabitants of Hea∣ven sweetly burn in pure and precious flames of most ardent desires, that other persons, dear unto them, may be brought into the same blessed place, to partake of the same incorruptible Joys and Glories? Let Love instruct and prompt thee, gentle Reader, to think that the worthless Authour, according to the inexplicable sweetness, the unconfined freedom, and ful∣ness of this eternal Law, the Divine Love, which gu•…•…deth without difference the Cottage and the Palace, the Dunghill and the Throne, may have been led by a Sacred beam of this Love, touching his heart from on high, so near unto the bor∣ders of the happy Regions and Kingdoms of Divine Truth, as to discover all to be Heaven there. Let the same sweet In∣structor teach thee, to think that he, as he may have been by the same gracious beam led farther into the blissful Conti∣nent of this Love, may have met with Heavens, which open themselves into Sweetnesses and Glories, ever increasing, ever extending themselves to a more vast amplitude and compass,

which heighten themselves in Joys and Glories, in Sweetness and Beauty, past all description, or belief, except to him alone who hath been by the same shining guide led into the same pla∣ces. Then let the sweet waters of this Divine Love, from its own Fountain sprinkled upon thine heart, raise this candid belief in thee, that as a pair of silver-feathered Doves flying before Aeneas, guided him to the Tree laden with golden-boughs, in the midst of a thick and obscure Wood; So this Discourse, aiming at a resemblance of those beautiful and lovely Birds, sacred to love, in a whiteness of unspotted Can∣dor, may be a birth of Love, though weak, and flying low, sent forth to allure and guide thee into those ever lasting Hea∣vens of Divine Truth and Goodness, which as thou entrest into the discoveries of the Divine Love, and passest on farther in them, thou wilt find in the obscurities and tumults of these earthly shades, of this life of dreams, opening themselves to thee, with inexplicable delights and satisfactions, with tran∣scending glories, endlesly raising themselves to greater heighths, and spreading themselves to a wider compass.

But you will say, what connexion hath the Divine Love with Free-will, the subject of this ensuing Discourse?

Very fit and harmonious in two respects:

1. The Will it self is love. Thomas Aquinas defines the Will to be the inclination of the Soul. The Object of the Will is good. The inclination of the Soul to good is love. St. Augustine calls Love, Pondus Animae, the weight of the Soul, by which it moves to its attracting Object, as to its Center. The Object of Love is loveliness or beauty. Beauty in its Essence is good, in its effulgency, in its proper and essential Image. Thus the VVill and Love are both one in their Object, and in their proper formality; both are the Souls vital spring or principle of motion to good. The Un∣derstanding receives its Object into it self, to be a living Light shining within it, and illustrating it. The Soul in the VVill flyeth forth upon the wings of Love, into the bosom of the beloved Object, to live there where it loves.

He, who with a clear eye distinguisheth the curious and close workings of the will, may find all its motions or affections to be the same love in various postures, as it rests with sweetest

complacency, in the embraces of the beloved Beauty, or faints under a dispair of fruition, or an irresistable opposition in its prosecutions; as it sails on smooth Seas, with soft and prospe∣rous gales to its haven in its eye; or wrestles with tempests of Waves and Winds, with chearful courage raising it self to sur∣mount them. As the colours of the Rainbow are the same light variously reflected from the Sun, and variously falling upon the watry Cloud; so are all the motions of the VVill the same Love, raised from the same good, beautifully shi∣ning forth, and reflecting it•…•…lf variously upon the Soul in different postures of presence or absence, of doubt, difficul∣ty, impossibility in the attainment, or facility and assurance of fruition.

The freedom then of Love is the freedom of the Will. We frequently say, VVhat so free as Love? yet what so inevi∣table, as the golden-headed darts of Love, like beams shot forth as from a golden Quiver, from the face or bosom of the amiable and shining good? What so inevitable, as the sweet wounds made by these darts? God is Love, the Soul is the Image of God. According to our distinctions, God is Love most peculiarly and properly in his Divine VVill. The will of man then is also a Divine Love, being the Image of the Divine VVill. If that be true, as it appeareth so to many of the greatest Philosophers or Divines, that the Soul in its essence and faculties, are really one. The Soul it self is essentially a Divine Love, being in its essence an Image of that God which is Love.

Behold then the freedom of the humane will in the free∣dom of the Divine Love; where as, in the Godhead it self, the most perfect freedom and the most absolute necessity are joyned together in a Marriage, to which the whole Heavens and Earth, with unutterable joy, sing eternall Marriage-Songs. Where liberty and necessity meet in one; while the Will is carried most freely and most necessarily to its Object, which is goodness: Goodness at once becometh the essence and election of the Will, for the highest necessity is that of our na∣tures and essences. According to which ground Logicians make those Propositions most necessary, where there is the most essential connexion between the terms. In like manner,

Love being the principal act of the Soul, and carried most free∣ly, most necessarily to goodness in its proper and essential Image, which is the first, the most true, the highest beauty; Beauty, the beauty of Goodness, the beauty of Holiness▪ become at once the essence and election of Love. Thus the Divine •…•…ill and the Divine Good, the Divine Love and Divine Beauty, are made one, by the golden knot of the same heavenly and eternal Marriage, diffusing themselves from this marriage∣bed in Divine embraces, and unconfined enjoyments, through all things of Time and Eternity, through finiteness and infi∣niteness it self.

Let me add to these a third Marriage, making up the joys and triumphs of the other two; between the Divine Loves, the Father, the Brother, the Bridegroom; And the Daughter, the Sister, the Bride; the Divine and the Humane will; the Soul and her God; the Image and her Original. Is any freedom to be compared with this, which takes up the Image into the ample glories ofits Original; which determining and espousing the Humane will, the Divine Love below, to the Universal, the Divine Good, as its dear Object, and delight∣ful Bridegroom; taketh it up also into one uncontrouled, unlimited Sweetness and Liberty, with the Divine Love, the Divine will above.

Yea, now the will and love enjoy a two-fold, full and glori∣ous Liberty, while Goodness and Beauty are their Essence, as well as their Election.

1. They freely and unconfinedly rove through all the fields of Goodness and Beauty in their greatest amplitude, in their richest and most unbounded Varieties, as freely, as through their own proper Essence and Being.

2. Their Liberty, in this unconfined amplitude of all Goodness and Beauty, becomes most ample and triumphant, while it is free from all fear, danger, suspicion, possibility of change to any degree of confinement or constraint, by this essen∣tial Connexion between it self and the highest necessity. O good, O beautiful, O blessed Will, which sits upon the Throne of Eternity, which governest us and all things! While in be∣ing good, beautiful, blessed, with a perfect Liberty, thou art such also with the highest necessity. Thou art now as delight∣fully

and complacentially; so unchangeably, absolutely, univer∣sally, supreamly, soveraignly, essentially Good, beautiful and blessed in thine whole Nature, Person and Duration, in all •…•…hy works and ways. O Good, Beautiful, Blessed, is that will also, in whom Liberty and Necessity are after the same manner uni∣ted by its Union with the Divine will.

2. Nothing seems to present the Divine Face of Truth, and the whole nature of things with such harmonious and charming Beauties to the eye of the mind, as the determina∣tion of the will by its essential and universal Causes, seen in one view with the Divine Love. A single light seen by Mari∣ners resting upon their Ship, which, as I remember, was of old called by the name of Helena. Threatneth a dreadful storm. But two Twin-Lights, known by the name of the two Bro∣thers, Castor and Pollux, infuse a new life into the hearts of the Sea-men, by the sweet hope of a sudden and gentle Calm. After the same manner, these two, the divine Love, and the determination of the will, shining together, as twin-lights, entertain us with a most beautiful composure, a golden Calm, and Sun-shine, a Divine Amity spread through the work of God in all the parts of it. But either of these alone ex∣poseth all to stormy gusts, slawes, and wracks.

We read of the Spouse in the Canticles, That the Joynts of her thighs are Jewels, the work of a curious workman. The indeterminate motions of the Will, render the work of God, a dis-joynted piece, exposing it in its most principal parts and motions to an ungoverned contingency, without joynts or bands, which may knit them together one to another, and to the whole, as one piece. If the will with its motions, by a necessary connexion in the Order of Causes, be joynted into the whole, and compose with the rests of the parts one entire work, answering to one entire design, framed in the heart, and brought forth by the hand of that supream and eternal Spirit, which is love it self; the pure, unmixt, en∣tire Spirit of love; How sweet? how beautiful? how full of all Divine Charms and Perfections through all the parts of it? What a Princely Daughter and Spouse, worthy of the great and eternal King must we think this work to be; which is the compleat and full contrivance of so rich and so high a

Love formed in its own Bosom. In the midst of all its most amiable and delightful treasures; which is the outward work of a most pure and Almighty Love, wrought entirely from end to end by its own hand, with fingers dropping its own pure incorruptible Myrrh upon every part of it, as it wrought it, forming it for a compleat Image of it self, and a conti∣nual delight to it self? What Jewels now must we think all the Joynts of the Thighs of this Divine Image and Birth? How harmonious the motions by these Joynts, when the joynts and motions are all the work of so skillful, so curious, so faithful a Workman, as Love it self, the supream and eternal Love?

I humbly acknowledge, that to my weak Understanding, a created Will, absolute and arbitrary, determined in its course by no light of Truth, no light or life of good, seemeth to lead my Spirit into a Wilderness, where there is no way or guide; or to thrust me forth without Ballast or Rudder, with∣out a Pole-star, or Needle toucht with the loadstone upon the face of an unknown and stormy Sea. What a golden-thread of Harmony guides us through the nature of things? and leads us into all Truth? (Harmony being the very Essence of all Natures and all Truths) when we understand the whole na∣ture of things, from the greatest to the least parts and motions of it to be determined, and that determination to be the work of the Divine Love, the firmest band of sweetest Union, the sweetest Life of all beautiful proportion, being only Wise, only Powerful, inasmuch as it is the highest Unity, containing all Variety Originally in it self, sending it forth from it self, and diffusing it self through all!

We are taught in Metaphysicks, That Being, Truth and Goodness, are really one. How sweet a rest now doth the Spirit, with its Understanding, and its Will, find to itself in every Be∣ing, in every Truth, in every State or Motion of Being, in every form of Truth, When it hath a sense of the highest Love, which is the same with the highest Goodness, designing, disposing, working all in all, even all Conceptions in all Understand∣ings, all Motions, in every VVill, Humane, Angelical, Di∣vine? With what a joy and complacency unexpressible doth the Will, the Understanding, the whole Spirit now lie down to

rest every where, as upon a bed of Love, as in the bosom of goodness it self?

Let not any question the close and Divine Contexture of the whole Work in all the parts and conduct of it; by a firm connexion of Causes and Effects, like links in a Chain, from its first beginning to its last end; because he meeteth with an Hell, as well as an Heaven in this work of God. Divine Love (which transcendently excels in all Wisdom and Prudence, be∣yond all the highest wits of men, the richest Contrivances of Poets,) knoweth how to joynt an Hell into its work, with such Divine Artifice, incomprehensible to Men or Angels, that this also shall be beautiful, with delights in its place, and shall give a sweetness, a lustre to the whole piece. St. Paul saith to the Saints, All things, this World, Life, Death, things pre∣sent, things to come are yours, you are Christs, and Christ is Gods, and God is Love. See a golden Chain, see the Order of the precious Links, see how in a beautiful circle the beginning is fastned to the end.

All Philosophy agreeth in this, that the last end is the first mover. In God then, who is Love, the first and the last links of this Chain meet. All things, this wicked World, Death it self, even the second Death and Hell, deaths to come, as well as deaths present, are shining links in this golden Chain, fastened to that superior Link, the Saint, the spiritual man; He is linkt by heavenly embraces to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ to God, the Father of Lights, and the spring of Loves.

Homer tells us of a Chain fastned to the Throne of Jupiter, which reacheth down to the Earth. He speaketh to Neptune, Minerva, and the rest of the Powers about him, which reign in the Skies, in the Seas, in the Earth, in Hell below. If ye should all hang with your whole weight upon the end of this Chain, I would at my pleasure draw you all up to my self. The Throne of the most High God, is a Throne of Grace, of Love. Like a Chain doth the whole Nature of things descend from this Throne, having its top fastned to it. What-ever the weights may be of the lowermost links of this Chain, yet that Love which sits upon the Throne, with a Divine delight, as it lets down the Chain from it self, so draws it up again by

the Order of the successive Links unto a Divine Ornament, an eternal Joy and Glory to it self. All things of Nature in its Beauties, all things of Nature in its Ruine, Life and Death in all forms, are a Saints, a Saint is Christs, Christ is Gods.

But, gentle Reader, this is enough to set forth the suita∣bleness between the two Subjects of my Epistle and my Book; the Divine Love, and the VVill of Man, the Daughter, and the Bride of this Love, by its immortal Birth and Espousals, essentially, inevitably determined to its heavenly Father and Bridegroom. To this Love the only Good, in all appearan∣ces of it, the Will turns it self, as the Needle toucht with the Loadstone to the North-pole. Beautiful and blessed is this Will, when its own Bridegroom shines upon it, and at∣tracts it by beams, by sweet glimpses of it self, spread through all things, more clear, or more obscure, but true. Then do her beauty and blessedness both change into deformity and misery, when by hellish enchantments she is deluded, and drawn into the embraces of a wrinkled VVitch, or a Spirit, from the darkness below, transformed into the likeness of her heavenly Love.

There are now a few things only remaining, of which I would briefly give thee some accompt.

1. Persons engaged on both sides in this question, which is the ground of my Treatise, are highly honoured by me, and truly dear to me in an high degree. A natural Understand∣ing, Ingenuity, Integrity, Learning, VVisdom, Knowledge, an heavenly mind, set a great price and lustre upon them. The ends at which these persons on both parts profess to aim, are truly Spiritual and Divine. It is the design of one part to beighten the Grace of God by its freedom and peculiarity. Of the other, to enlarge the Glory of this Grace by its ex∣tent and amplitude. One admires and adores the absolute∣ness, the soveraignty of God, the other his goodness. On one side is an holy jealously, for the Unity and the Beauty of the Divine Nature, lest God should be imagined like the natural day in the Creation, made up of two Contraries, co-ordinate and equally predominate, as Day and Night, Love and VVrath, a ground of Holiness, and a ground of

Sin. The others are equally jealous of the same Unity and Beauty of the Divine Nature, lest the eternal Power, and so the Godhead should be divided between the Creator and the Creature; least in effect two Gods should be set up, like those of the Manichees, a Fountain of Good, and a Fountain of Evil; lest the Divine Glory should be darkned in its work, and the Harmony broken, in which the Divine Unity and Beauty most sweetly shine, by taking away in any part of the work the fix'd subordination of Causes and Effects.

O what Joy and Glory would crown the Earth, and the Church of God on Earth, if those Divine Persons who have fix'd to themselves ends so Divine, instead of opposing each other in their way, perhaps sometimes mistaken to those ends, would unite their Divine Will and Forces mutually to ad∣vance the ends each of other▪ St. Paul saith, If the falling away of the Jews be the bringing in of the Gentiles; what shall the return be, but life from the dead? If the dividings, the disputes of these Parties have brought much light to the Church, what will the reconciling and uniting of their glo∣rious ends, and their Spirits in the glory of those ends be, but as a Marriage-day shining from on high, which shall fill the Angels themselves with a new joy? The day will come, when men shall say, Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord, Who reconcilet•…•… the freedom and peculiari∣ty of the Grace of God, unto a full amplitude and extent, so raising its sweetness to a perfect heighth; who shall bring into mutual embraces the soveraignty or absoluteness of God, and his goodness, that the soveraignty, the abso∣luteness, may be soveraignly and absolutely good; that the goodness alone may be absolute and soveraign; who through the whole compass of the Divine Nature, and the works of God, shall discover to the eyes of men in the evidence of a Divine Light, the Unity, the Beauty of the God∣head in their clearest Purity, their highest Perfection; springing and shining through all, making all, in the whole, one entire piece, pure and pleasant, perfect in the Beauties of Holiness.

The Rules which I have desired to govern my self by in this Discourse, are these, Right Reason, the universal∣ly acknowledged Principles of all sober Philosophy and sound Divinity, the Analogy of Faith, the Letter of the Scriptures, the Spirit of Christ, in the Head of the Church Christ himself, in the Scriptures, in the Church, in the Spirits, and experiences of each Saint. As all these answer each other in a mutual Harmony, like the several strings upon a well-tuned Lute: So shall I ever (as I humbly believe) take it for granted, That what-ever jars upon any of these strings, is also out of tune to all the rest. That what-ever is not conformable to any one of these Rules, crosseth them all. If any thing of this kind shall have faln from me, I do here humbly repent of it, and recant it. I humbly desire all those, who shall stoop to read what I have written, to believe that no Gift can be so acceptable to me, as the displacing of any Errour or Falshood in my Mind; with the gentle hand of Love, by bringing in the Truth which it hath counterfeited and vailed. If any Errour have seemed sweet, beautiful, or desirable to me, in any kind. I humbly undertake to have a confident assurance of this, That the Truth it self shining forth, will bring along with it far more transcendent Sweet∣nesses, Beauties, Agreeablenesses and Satisfactions to all my Desires, excelling it in all the impressions of a Divine Pleasantness, Power and Profit, as the true Sun doth a Parelius, or a counterfeit Image of the Sun in a Cloud.

If any shall undertake to answer this Discourse with re∣viling and reproachful Language, I shall endeavour to imitate the example of the Marquess de Rente, fixed with much dearness and esteem upon my heart. He came to a City, filled with Reproaches cast upon him. I (saith he) spake not one word to clear my self, I received gladly the Humiliation.

Now, gentle Reader, I will seal up my Epistle to thee with that golden Sentence of St. Paul, Let all your things be done to all in Charity, or in Divine Love.

Let me add this one short Direction, as a gloss upon it, bear always clearly, and deeply engraven upon thy Soul, these and the like Precepts, Love all Men, Honour all men. Love your Enemies, Love another as thy self.

Study to know God, as he is the Pattern, and the Per∣fection of the Divine Perfection included in these Precepts; Be you perfect, saith Jesus Christ, as your heavenly Father is perfect. So he setteth before his Disciples the rich ground, out of which these Precepts Spring, as Plants of Paradise.

Study the Reason and the Equity of these Precepts. The Precepts of God are true, saith David, and righteous al∣together. Every Divine Precept is founded in a Divine Truth. The only reason of Love, is loveliness. Thus shalt thou be every where led into a Paradise, and into Heaven, while thou shalt now understand that God is Love, a Godhead of Love; That while thou livest and movest, and hast thy Being in God; thou livest, and movest, and hast thy Being in Love it self; That while God works all in all, fills all in all, all within thee, all without thee, is a work of Love, is full of Love.

Thus these Precepts, in the reason of them, which will shine out upon thee more and more, as thou growest in the practice of them, shall be an anointing upon thine eyes, by virtue of which thou shalt see in all things, every where, which way soever thou turnest thy self, a Divine Loveliness presenting it self to thee, continually entertaining, enflaming thine heart with a Divine Love, crowning thy thoughts with a Divine Peace and Joy.

Gentle Reader, There were in the Temple Vessels made of Wood, but these were over-laid with pure and massy Gold. This Treatise is no Temple, thou wilt cer∣tainly meet with many things of wood, and perhaps of the lowest sort of wood, worthless, the subject of Frailty and Corruption. Let it be thy part and glory to over-lay it with the Gold of the Temple above, Divine Love, which co∣vereth all Sin. So my humble Prayer is, That thou mayest be together with my self, yea, so shall we both be, if we abide in the Divine Love, Priests, consecrated by an

heavenly Blood, and an heavenly Unction, to minister to the God of all Loving kindnesses, by day and by night, in the Temple of Love. Here now death is no more, here from our Death-beds, as from the golden Altar, like the sweet and costly Incense, we shall ascend in a pure and glorious flame of heavenly Love, kindled from the Face and Heart of God above, unto the Throne of God, the Throne of Grace and Love, to be ever in the circuit of that Throne, where the eternal Spirit, like a Rain-bow, shall encompass us round, as the seal and band of eternal Love shining with all, innumerable beauties and pleasantuesses, ever full, ever fresh and flourishing.

Perhaps some one will say, Who is this that thus preacheth Love to the World? Is he himself a Dove washt in Milk? Far is he from pretending to the praise and perfections of that Spirit, the Bride of the heavenly Bridegroom, which sitteth in the Garden of Divine Purities, Sweetnesses and Light, making her Beloved, and his Companions to hear her Voice, while they return their esteem, affections, and admiration in Songs, saying to her, Thy Voice is plea∣sant, thy Face, thy Person is lovely. No, the only Cha∣racter here is that of a Voice in the Wilderness, a Wil∣derness of many Deformities and Distractions within, as well as without, Crying, Prepare ye the way of Divine Love, make streight paths for it, by bringing down every Mountain of Vanity and Pride, by filling up the Val∣lies of low, dejected, lost, dispairing Spirits. He who thus cries to you too frequently, too deeply, hath •…•…erc'd the side of this Love; yet still from the wound•…•… heart, through the wounds, water and blood flow to wash off the stains of this blood upon him, and by this blood, as a Balsom, as a Cordial, as a Spring of Life, all at once to heal his Wounds, to infuse new vigour and joy into his Spirits, to renew life in his heart, even out of Death it self unto Immortality. This is the Innocency and Wisdome which maketh them blessed, who aspire to it; who, as of∣ten as they fail in their duty of loving every other per∣son as themselves, are sensible of the guilt of breaking the

whole Law, which is summed up in these two great Com∣mandments, and maketh them inseparable as the substance, and the shadow in the Sun-shine, or as the Fountain and the stream, the Sun and the similitude of the Sun, in the light surrounding it.

To love God, with all our selves, and To love our Neighbour, as our selves.