A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved

7. Get such a prevailing degree of Generous and pure Love to all that is Good, and such a degree of Hatred unto Evil, that you may want neither the good word of men to be a spur to doing Good, nor the sharp Reproofs of men to restrain from evil; who hateth evil, will not need any one should put a colour on it to lessen the apparent evil: We are glad that what we hate appears so evil, that it justifies our Hatred. Get an Antipathy to all that is Vice, or looks like it, and then you cannot but dislike all that would commend it to your Choice, or excuse it to your Judgment. Get that frame of Heart David had, I hate every false way, and then you are safe from this Disease: And to make the Cure complete, add that Pure, Generous, Universal and Divine Love of Good, for its own sake, that will account it a rich Recompense, and Praise enough to have done it: There will be little need of mans just Praises; where our Love to doing Good is set on it for its own sake, there will need none of the undue Praises of any: None need praise the Person of Rachel to Jacob, he would have scorned the Flatteries of any who should have lessened her real Loveliness by false Colours: How should we disdain the labour, and condemn the folly of a Madman, that would persuade us he could add Loveliness to the light of a Glorious Morning? Open your eyes, ye Lovers of Virtue, look on all her Daughters, they are all Glorious; if any are Veiled, 'tis because you cannot bear the lustre of their Excellency: Awake ye dreaming Mortals, you'll see enough in Naked Virtue to fall in Love with it; (as all would, if they saw it, according to Plato's Judgment.) They are weak Stomachs that must be allured by superadded Sauces to eat of Good Viands, there is no need of them where Food is loved, and the Appetite in right order: so here, when you Love Good for the Goodness that is in it, you'll desire Flatterers to forbear their labour, lest they mar what you Love, by adding of their own, which you hate and suspect. When God would put us in a sure way of keeping his Commandments, and persevering in a Praise-worthy Life, he does direct us to encourage our selves by the large Praises of men, but Commands we should Love his Law with all our Heart: This will Cure indeed.

7. Get such a prevailing degree of Generous and pure Love to all that is Good, and such a degree of Hatred unto Evil, that you may want neither the good word of men to be a spurr to doing Good, nor the sharp Reproofs of men to restrain from evil; who hateth evil, will not need any one should put a colour on it to lessen the apparent evil: We are glad that what we hate appears so evil, that it justifies our Hatred. Get an Antipathy to all that is Vice, or looks like it, and then you cannot but dislike all that would commend it to your Choice, or excuse it to your Judgment. Get that frame of Heart David had, I hate every false way, and then you are safe from this Disease: And to make the Cure compleat, add that Pure, Generous, Universal and Divine Love of Good, for its own sake, that will account it a rich Recompence, and Praise enough to have done it: There will be little need of mans just Praises; where our Love to doing Good is set on it for its own sake, there will need none of the undue Praises of any: None need praise the Person of Rachel to Jacob, he would have scorn'd the Flatteries of any who should have lessen'd her real Loveliness by false Colours: How should we disdain the labour, and condemn the folly of a Madman, that would perswade us he could add Loveliness to the light of a Glorious Morning? Open your eyes, ye Lovers of Virtue, look on all her Daughters, they are all Glorious; if any are Veil'd, 'tis because you cannot bear the lustre of their Excellency: Awake ye dreaming Mortals, you'l see enough in Naked Virtue to fall in Love with it; (as all would, if they saw it, according to Plato's Judgment.) They are weak Stomachs that must be allur'd by superadded Sauces to eat of Good Viands, there is no need of them where Food is loved, and the Appetite in right order: so here, when you Love Good for the Goodness that is in it, you'l desire Flatterers to forbear their labour, lest they marr what you Love, by adding of their own, which you hate and suspect. When God would put us in a sure way of keeping his Commandements, and persevering in a Praise-worthy Life, he does direct us to encourage our selves by the large Praises of men, but Commands we should Love his Law with all our Heart: This will Cure indeed.