Section 7

unit |
Method of Prayer. 119
mto them that the kingdom of heaven t loth belong. Jefus Chrift laid this
0 the apoftles, becaule they would , iave hindered the children from ( oming unto him. Oftentimes men
ipply the remedy to the body, and
1 nean while the difeafe is at the | eart.
I The great reafon why their fuc-
Iefs in the reformation of men is 0 fmall and tranfient, efpecially if labouring perfons, is, becaufe ninifters and teachers fet about it utwardly. Did they but give them t firft the key to the hidden life of God nthe foul. Reformation of the out- ;ard aftions would naturally fol- 3W. Now this is moll eafy, name- y?, to teach them to feek God
!i their hearts, to think upon him, ) return unto him there, when- ,ver they find themfelves diftraft- d, to do all things, and fuffer all ! lings with a defign to pleafe him :
this
s
I
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this is to fend them to the fountait of ail good, and (hewing then where to find all that is ne celfary for their fanftification am fa! vat ion.
I earneftly requeft and conjur all you who mir.ifter to fouls, t put them immediately into th way, which is Jefus Chrijl-, and h! conjures you this, by all the blooj which he hath fhed for thefe fou whom he hath entruffed to yot/ miniftry : Speak ye to the heart i Jerufalem, Ifaiah xl. ?. O y preachers of his word ! O ye m nifters of his facraments ! Eftablil his kingdom ; and that you rn at eflablifli it tiuly, make him i| rei^n over hearts ! For as it is tl heart alone which can oppole it ft to his empire ; fo is it by the tot; fubjeftion of the heart that his f vereignty is the molt honourel Give ye glory to the hohnejs of God. ai
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Method of Prayer.
he jhall become your fanEijication, Ifa. viii. 13. Teach your people how to pray, not by reading forms of devotion, but by the prayer of the heart, and not of the head ; a prayer of the fpirit of God, and not of man's invention.
Alas ! Men will be making ftu- died prayers ; and while they feek to adjuft them too much, they ren- . der them impracticable. They have eftranged the children from he belt of all fathers, in teaching hem a language too polite. Go n /e, poor children, fpeak to your aeavenly Father in your own lan- m ;uage ; how barbarous and rude ni oever it be, it i«s not fo to him. A : ather loveth rather a difcourfe, id which love and refpeCd may put tornto diforder, (forafmuch as he is eeth that this cometh from the ieart) than an harangue that is Iry, empty and barren, though L never
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never fo well ftudied. O how mightily do the glances of love in the heart delight and pleafe him ! They exprefs infinitely more than all the fine language, whether of extempore, or of the belt invented forms of prayer.
Men in endeavouring to teach how to love by rule and method, have in a great meafure loft the love itfelf. O how little neceffary it is to teach an art of loving! The language of love is barbarous to him who is not in love, but it is very natural to him that is in love : and one can never better learn how to love God, than in loving him. In this cafe the raoft dull become the moft expert, becaufe they behave themfelves more fim ply and more cordially. The fpirit of God hath no need o j our regulations, he taketh up (hepherds, when he pleafeth, to
mak
Method of Prayer. 123
make of them prophets : and fo far is he from {hutting the palace of prayer againft any one, as fome imagine, that, on the contrary, he leaveth all the gates thereof open to all ; and wifdom crieth in the public places, IVhoJo is fimple , let him come unto me, Prov. ix. 4. And fhe faith unto them that are without underftand- ing, Come ye, eat oj the bread which J give you, and drink oj the wine which 1 have prepared you, ver. 3. Doth not Jefus Chrift thank his Father, l That he hath hidden his fecrets from the wife, and hath revealed them to the i little ones, Matt. xi. 25.
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Sect. XXIV.
What is the jafejl Method to arrive at the Divine Union.
IT is impoflible to arrive at the divine union by the way of me- ditation only, or even of the af- fections; or by any luminous and diftinCtly comprehended prayer whatfoever. There are feveral reafons for it : behold here the principal.
In the firjl place, according to the fcripture, No man Jhall fee God Jo long as he is living , Exod xxxiii. 20. Now all the exercife of dif- curfive prayer, or even of aClive contemplation, (confidered as an end, and not as a difpcfition to the palfive) are living exercifes,
whereby
Method of Prayer . 12^
whereby we cannot fee God ; that is to fay, be united to him. It is neceffary, that whatever is of man, and of his own induftry, how no- ble and exalted foever it may be ; ’tis neceffary, I fay, that all this fihould die. St. John reports, that in heaven there was a great filence. Rev. viii. 1. Heaven reprefents the ground and the centre of the
O
foul, where all mull be in filence, while the majefty of God appears therein, all the efforts of our own ftrength, and all our own felf-fuffi- ciency mult be deftroyed; be- caufe nothing is oppofite to God but felfifhnefs ; and all the malig- nity of man is in this principle of fef fubfifting, it being the fource of his evil nature : fo that the more any foul lofeth its own will or felfilh property, the more pure it becometh; and that which would be a defe£t in a foul living to it- L 3 felf,
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felf, is not fo any more, by realon of the purity and innocence which it hath contra&ed, fince it loll; that which caufed the unlikenefs to its God.
Secondly, To unite two fuch contraries, as are the purity ol God and the impurity of the crea- ture ; the fimplicity ,of God, and the multiplicity of man, his need- ful that God do Angularly operate. For this can never be effected by the effort of the creature, fince two things cannot be united which have no fimilarity or likenefs to each other; even as an impure metal will never be fully united with gold that is folidly pure.
What doth God do in this cafe ? He fendeth before him his own wifdom, even as the fire (hall be fentupon the earth, to confume by its affivity whatfoever is of impure therein. The fire con-
fumeth
Method of Prayer. 127
fumeth all things, and nothing refifteth its activity. It is the fame with zvifdom ; it confumeth every impurity in the creature, to difpofe it for the divine union.
This impurity, which is fo oppo- fite to divine union, is felfiflmefs and a&ivity. Selfilhnefs, becaufe it is the fource of impurity, which can never be joined with elfential purity : even as the rays of the fun may indeed touch the dirt, but cannot unite with it.
Activity, becaufe God being in an infinite reft, ’tis neceffary, in order to the foul being made capa- ble of union with him, that it do partake of his reft ; without which he cannot be united with it, by nti reafon of the unlikenefs : fince that two things may be united, 'tis ne- celfary that they be in a proporti- onable reft.
cci And it is for this reafon that the net foul
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foul arriveth not to the divine union, but by the relting of its will ; and it cannot be united unto God, until it be in a central reft, and in the purity of its creation. To purify the foul, God maketh ufe of wifdom ; as fire is made ufe of to purify gold. It is certain that gold cannot be purified but by the fire, which confumes by little and little all that is earthly and of a contrary nature therein, and fepa- rates it from the gold. It is not enough for the gold, in order to be made ufe of by the goldfmith, that the earthly part be mixed with the gold : "tis neceftary more- over that the fire do melt it, for to draw out of its fubftance v\ 1 ever remains in it that is of a
trary or earthly nature : and this gold is caft fo often into the fire till it lofeth all impurity,
Method of Prayer. 129
every difpofition that is left to be purified.
When the goldfmith can find no more mixture, becaufe it is come to its perfect purity and fimplicity, the fire can no more aft upon it; and it might be there an age, without being made thereby more pure, and without any the lead diminution of its fubftance. Then it is fit for the mod excellent works ; and if this gold contracts any impurities at any time after- wards, thefe are defilements newly contrafted only by the commerce and nearnefs of foreign bodies. But there is this difference, that this impurity is merely fuperficial, and doth not make it unfit for ufe : whereas the other impurity was hidden in the centre or ground, and as it were interwoven with its nature. Neverthelefs perfons who are unacquainted with this, .feeing
a piece
l go A Short and Eafy
a piece of pure gold that is truly refined, covered outwardly over with filth, would not value it foj much, as they would a piece oi coarfe gold that is very impure when its outfide is polifhed.
Moreover, you may obferve that gold of an inferior degree o: purity, cannot be joined with tha of a fuperior degree of purity there is a neceflity for the one to contrabl of the impui ity of th other, or for this to partake of thtj puiity of that. To mix, fine golc with coarfe, is what the goldlmitl will never do. What will he theri do ? He will caufe all the earthh mixture of this impure gold to b deftroyed, by the fire, to the en he may be able to unite it with th purity of the firft. And this is i that St. Paul faith, namely, that ou works Jhall he tried as by fire , thd
what is combufible may
Method of Prayer. 131
1 Cor. iii. 13, 15. He ad- deth, that theperfon whofe works Jhall be found Jewel for the fire jhall be burnt although he himfelf Jhall be faved , yet fo as by fire. The meaning is, that there are certain works which are accepted and approved ; but to the end that he who hath wrought them may be alfo pure, it is needful that they pafs thro’ the fire, that fo the felfilh mixture may be taken from them : and it is in this fenfe that > God will examine and judge our ' righteoufnejfes, Pfi lxxv. 2. vulg. Be- :aufe man Jhall never be fanBified by ’he works of the law, but by the right- i oufnefs oj the Jaith which cometh of 9od. Rom. iii. 20.
This being once laid down, I fay, hat to the end man may be united to his God, there is a neceflity that his wifdom, accompanied with the divine juftice as a devouring fire, fhould extirpate and root out of
the
132 A Short and Eajy
the foul, all whatfoever it hath of earthly, carnal, and fe!f-a£livity ; that having cleanfed and purified the foul from all this, God may unite himfelf to it. Which can never be done by the induftry of the creature : on the contrary, the creature fuffereth it even with re- gret : becaufe, as I have faid, man loveth fo ftrongly his own will, anc dreadeth fo much its dellru£lion that if God did not do it himfelf.1 and with authority, man would' never confent to it.
To this it may be anfwered me that God never taketh from mar his liberty, and that thus he carl always refill God : from whence i; followeth, that I ought not to fay that God adleth abfolutely, anc without the confent of man. Tha! this may be done, and yet the en tire freedom and liberty of th will not be violated, 1 explaii
Method of Prayer. 133
myfelf and fay, that it fufficeth then that man give apaffive con- fent, becaufe that having given up himfelf to God, at the beginning of his Chriftian courfe, that God might do with him and in him, what- ever he would, he gave then an : lftive and general confent to what- ever God fhould do. But when Mod deftroyeth, burneth, and pu- - ifieth, the foul feeth not that this s advantageous to it, but helieveth ather the contrary ; and even as le fire feemeth at firft to foil the ;o!d, fo this operation feemeth to ® ob the foul of its purity. So that F an active and explicit confent /ere then needful, the foul would ave difficulty to give it, and very ften it would not give it at all. The moll the foul doth, is to keep felf in a paffive confent, fuffer- lg as well as it can this operation, 'hich it neither can nor will hinder.
M Therefore
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Therefore God purifieth in fucb wife the foul from all its own ope- rations and the workings of felf, which make it fo very unlike him, that in fine he renders it by little and little, conformable to himfelf j! exalting the palfive capacity oi the creature, enlarging it, and enoblingit; though after an hid' den and unknown manner, whicl is hence called myftical. But it i, necelfary that in all thefe opera tions the foul concur paffively. I is true, that in the beginning be fore it cometh to this, it mull b more active ; and then, according as the divine operation growetl: ftronger, the foul mult gradual!' and fucceffively yield and giv way unto God, until it be perfefi ly abforpt in him. But this is long while effecting.
We do not then fay (as fom have believed) that there is no nee
t
■
Method of Prayer. 135
to pafs through afition ; fince. on the contrary, this is the very gate : but only that one mull not always dwell there, feeing man ought to tend to the perfe&ion of his end ; but he can never arrive at it with- out quitting the firft helps and means; which, though neceftary to introduce him into this way,
] I would greatly retard his progrefs. and if obftinately perfifted in would binder him from arriving at his end. This is what St. Paul did : l leave (faith he) Phil. iii. 14. that vhich is behind, and I endeavour to idvance forward, that fo I may fnifh my courfe.
Would not they fay, that a per- on had loft his fenfes, if having indertaken a journey, he would ftop tthe firft inn, becaufe he was cer- ainly informed that feveral have iafted that wav, that fome have edged there, and that the matter M2 of
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of the houfe dwells there ? AH that we wifh for then from people is, that they go on ftill towards their end ; that they take the fhorteft and eafieft way ; that they do not Hop at the firft place they come to ; and that following the counfel of St. Paul, they leave themfelves to be moved and led by the fpirit of grace, who will conduft them to the end for which they were creat- ed, which is, to enjoy God.
Npne can be ignorant, that the fovereign good is God ; that effen- tial happinefs confifteth in the uni- on with God; that the faints are more or lefs glorified, according a: this union is more or lefs perfeft and that this union cannot be made in the foul by any aftivity of it: own, fince God does not commu nicate himfelf to the foul, but ir proportion as its paffive capacity is enlarged. No one can be unii
c
Method of Prayer. 137
ed to God without paffivenefs, and fimplicity ; and this union being the beatitude itfelf, the way or me- thod which conducts us into this paffivenefs cannot be evil ; on the contrary, it is preferable to all other.
This way is in no wife dangerous ; if it were, would Jefus Chr'ft have made it the moll perfebt and the moft neceffary of all ways ? All can walk in it ; and as all are cal- led to bleffednefs, all are alio cal- to enjoy God both in this life and in the next; forafmuch as the enjoyment of God conftitutes our bleffednefs or bappinefs. I fay, of God himfelf \ and not of his gifts; which could never make the ef- fential bleffednefs, nor be capable of giving full contentment and fa- tisfaclion to the foul. For the foul is fo noble andfo magnificent, that all the gifts of God, even the great- M 3 eft,
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eft, could not render it happy, if God do not give himfelf unto it. Now God’s whole defire is to give himfelf unto his creature, accord- ing to the capacity which he hath placed in it; and yet, alas ! Men are afraid to fur render themfelvesl to God ! They are afraid to pof- fefs him, and to difpofe themfelves for the divine union.