sPIBITVAL PEACE AND COMFORT. .385 us do more than needs, or had made such laws as fewof the fool- ish rulers on earth would make. This is plainly to blaspheme the Most High, by denying his wisdom and his goodness, and his just government of the world ; and to blaspheme his holy laws, as if they were too strict, precise, and made us more to do than needs ; and to reproach his sweet and holy ways, as if they were grievous, intolerable, and . unnecessary. Much more is their madness, in charging the godly with being too pure, and too precise, and mak- ing too great a stir for heaven, and that merely for their godliness and obedience; when, alas ! the best do fall so far short of what God's word, and the necessity of their own souls, do require, that their consciences dó more grievously accuse them of negligence, than the barking world doth of, being too precise and diligent. And yet more mad are the world, .to lay out so much time, and care, and labor, for earthly vanities and to provide for their con- temptible bodies fora little while; and in the mean time to think, that heaven and their everlasting happiness there, and the escaping of everlasting damnation in hell, are matters not worth so much ado, but may be had with a few cold wishes, and that it is but folly to do so much for it as the godly do. That no labor should be thought too much for theworld, the flesh,.and the devil, and every little is enough forGod. And that these wretched souls are so blinded by their own, lusts, and so bewitched by the devil into an utter ignorance of their own hearts, that they verily think, and will stand in it, that for all this they love God above all, and love heavenly things better than earthly, and therefore shall be saved. But yet extremes there are in the service of God, which all wise Chri4tians must labor to avoid., It is a very great question among divines, Whether the common rule in ethics, that virtue is ever in the middle between two extremes, be sound, as toChristian virtues. Amesius saith no. The case is not very hard, I think, to be re- solved, if you will but use these three distinctions : 1. Between the acts ofthe mere rational faculties, understanding and will, called' elicit acts, and the acts of the inferior faculties of soul and body, called imperate acts. 2. Between the acts that are about the end immediately, and those that are about the means. 3. Be- tween the intention of an act, and the objective extension, and comparison of object with object. And so I say, Prop. 1. The end (that is, God and salvation) cannot be too fully known, or too much loved, with ,a pure, rational love of complacency, nor too much sought by the acts of the soul, as purely rational ; for the end being loved and sought for itself, and being of infinite goodness, must be loved and sought without measure or limitation, it being impossiblehere to exceed. Prop. 2. The means, while VOL. I. 49
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