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91
Once more, that I might close up this point with an infinite wonder: As among divines, it is said, That every moment’s preservation is a new creation: and therefore blessings continued must not be despised, but be more and more esteemed: because every moment’s preservation is another obligation: even so in the continual series of thoughts whereby we continue to uphold the frame of Heaven and Earth in the Soul towards God, every thought is another world to the Deity as acceptable as the first. Yea, the continuance puts an infinite worth and lustre on them. For to be desultory and inconstant is the part of a fickle and careless soul, and make the imagination of it worthless and despised. But to continue serious in upholding these thoughts for God’s sake, is the part of a faithful and loving Soul: which as it thereby continues great and honorable with God, so is it thereby Divine and Holy: and every act of it of infinite importance: and the continuance of its life transcendently esteemed. So that though you can build or demolish such worlds as often as you please; yet it infinitely concerneth you faithfully to continue them, and wisely to repair them. For though to make them suddenly be to a wise man very easy: yet to uphold them always is very difficult, a work of unspeakable diligence, and an argument of infinite love.
92
As it becometh you to retain a glorious sense of the world, because the Earth and the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens are the magnificent and glorious territories of God’s Kingdom, so are you to remember always the unsearchable extent and illimited greatness of your own soul; the length and breadth and depth, and height of your own understanding. Because it is the House of God, a Living Temple, and a Glorious Throne of the Blessed Trinity: far more magnificent and great than the heavens; yea a person that in Union and Communion with God, is to see Eternity, to fill His Omnipresence, to possess His greatness, to admire His love; to receive His gifts, to enjoy the world, and to live in His Image. Let all your actions proceed from a sense of this greatness, let all your affections extend to this endless wideness, let all your prayers be animated by this spirit and let all your praises arise and ascend from this fountain. For you are never your true self, till you live by your soul more than by your body, and you never live by your soul till you feel its incomparable excellency, and rest satisfied and delighted in the unsearchable greatness of its comprehension.
93
The world does serve you, not only as it is the place and receptacle of all your joys, but as it is a great obligation laid upon all mankind, and upon every person in all ages to love you as himself; as it also magnifieth all your companions, and showeth your heavenly Father’s glory. Yea, as it exalteth you in the eyes of the illuminate, and maketh you to be honored and reverenced by the Holy. For there is not a man in the whole world that knows God, or himself, but he must honour you. Not only as an Angel or a Cherubim, but as one redeemed by the blood of Christ, beloved by all Angels, Cherubims, and Men, an heir of the world, and as much greater than the Universe, as he that possesseth the house is greater than the house. O what a holy and blessed life would men lead, what joys and treasures would they be to each other, in what a sphere of excellency would every man move, how sublime and glorious would their estate be, how full of peace and quiet would the world be, yea of joy and honour, order and beauty, did men perceive this of themselves, and had they this esteem for one another!
94
As the world serves you by shewing the greatness of God’s love to you, so doth it serve you as fuel to foment and increase your praises. Men’s lips are closed because their eyes are blinded: their tongues are dumb because their ears are deaf: and there is no life in their mouths, because death is in their hearts. But did they all see their Creator’s glory, which appeareth chiefly in the greatness of His bounty; did they all know the blessedness of their estate, O what a place full of joys, what an amiable region and territory of praises would the world become; yea, what a sphere of light and glory! As no man can breathe out more air than he draweth in: so no man can offer up more praises than he receiveth benefits, to return in praises. For praises are transformed and returning benefits. And therefore doth God so greatly desire the Knowledge of Him, because God when He is known is all Love: and the praises which He desires are the reflection of His beams which will not return till they are apprehended. The world therefore is not only the Temple of these praises, and the Altar whereon they are offered, but the fuel also that enkindles them, and the very matter that composeth them. Which so much the more serves you, because it enkindles a desire in you that God should be praised, and moves you to take delight in all that praise Him. So that as it incites yours, it gives you an interest in others’ praises: and is a valley of vision, wherein you see the Blessed Sight of all men’s praises ascending, and of all God’s blessings coming down upon them.
95
The World serves you, as it teaches you more abundantly to prize the love of Jesus Christ. For since the inheritance is so great to which you are restored, and no less than the whole world is the benefit of your Saviour’s Love, how much are you to admire that person that redeemed you from the lowest Hell to the fruition of it? Your forfeiture was unmeasurable and your Sin infinite, your despair insupportable, and your danger eternal: how happy are you therefore, that you have so great a Lord, whose love rescued you from the extremest misery! Had you seen Adam turned into Hell, and going out of this fair mansion which the Lord had given him into everlasting torments, or eternal darkness, you would have thought the World a glorious place, which was created for him, and the Light of Eden would have appeared in greater lustre than it did before: and His love by whom he was recovered the greatest jewel. It is a heavenly thing to understand His love, and to see it well. Had Adam had no esteem for the place to which he was restored he had not valued the benefit of his restitution. But now looking upon it with those eyes wherewith noble men look upon their territories and palaces, when they are going to die, His mercy who died for him, that he after his condemnation might return again into his dear enjoyments, maketh Him by whom they were purchased the best and greatest of all enjoyments. Darius when he had conquered Babylon, by the art of Zopyrus, who cut off his nose and ears and lips, that making the Babylonians to confide in him, he might deliver up the city into the King’s hands; admiring the fidelity and love of Zopyrus protested, that he had rather have one Zopyrus whole, than ten Babylons. Even so we, were our spirits Divine, and noble, and genuine, should by the greatness of the benefit be excited above ourselves, and to exceed the gift, in the Love of our Saviour. Being afterwards asked upon the sight of a pomegranate slit in the midst, what thing he would above all other desire, might he have as many of them as there were seeds in that pomegranate, answered, Tot Zopyrorum: As many Zopyruses. One Saviour is worth innumerable worlds.
96
The World is a pomegranate indeed, which God hath put into man’s heart, as Solomon observeth in the Ecclesiastes, because it containeth the seeds of graces and the seeds of glory. All virtues lie in the World, as seeds in a pomegranate: I mean in the fruition of it, out of which when it is sown in man’s heart they naturally arise. The fidelity of Zopyrus and the love of Darius are included in it. For when we consider, how great a Lord gave us so great a dominion: we shall think it abominable to be treacherous and unfaithful in the midst of His dominions. When we consider we cannot choose but sin, if we sin at all, being surrounded with His gifts, and that the land we tread on is of His munificence: how can we err against Him who gave it to us? Can we forsake Him, whose gifts we cannot leave? The whole world is better than Babylon; and at greater expense than Zopyrus’ lips was it purchased for us.
97
This visible World is wonderfully to be delighted in, and highly to be esteemed, because it is the theatre of God’s righteous Kingdom. Who as Himself was righteous, because He made it freely, so He made it that we might freely be righteous too. For in the Kingdom of Glory it is impossible to fall. No man can sin that clearly seeth the beauty of God’s face because no man can sin against his own happiness; that is, none can when he sees it clearly, willingly, and wittingly forsake it, tempter, temptation, loss, and danger being all seen: but here we see His face in a glass, and more dimly behold our happiness as in a mirror; by faith therefore we are to live, and to sharpen our eye that we may see His glory, we are to be studious and intent in our desires and endeavours. For we may sin, or we may be holy. Holiness therefore and righteousness naturally flow out of our fruition of the World: for who can vilify and debase himself by any sin, while he actually considers he is the heir of it? It exalts a man to a sublime and honorable life: it lifts him above lusts and makes him angelical.