But yet Extremes there are in the service of God, which all wise Christians must labour 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 to Christian Virtues: Amesius saith, No. The Case is not very hard, I think, to be resolved, if you will but use these three Distinctions. 1. Between the Acts of the mere Rational faculties, Understanding and Will, called, Elicit ⟨p. 349⟩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. Between the Intension of an Act, and the Objective-Extension, and Comparison of Object with Object. And so I say: 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 it self, and being of Infinite Goodness, must be loved and sought without Measure or Limitation, it being Impossible here to exceed. Prop. 2. The Means, while they are not mis-apprehended, but taken as Means, and Materially well understood, cannot be too clearly discerned, nor too Rightly chosen, nor too Resolutely prosecuted. Prop. 3. It is too possible to mis-apprehend the Means, and to place them instead of the End, and so to Over-love them. Prop. 4. The Nature of all the Means consisteth in a Middle or Mean betwixt two Extremes, materially: both which Extremes are sin: so that it is possible to over-do about all the Means, as to the Matter of them, and the Extent of our acts. Though we cannot Love God too ⟨p. 350⟩much, yet it is possible to Preach, Hear, Pray, Read, Meditate, Confer of Good too much: For one Duty may shut out another; and a greater may be neglected by our overdoing in a lesser: which was the Pharisees sin in Sabbath-Resting. 5. If we be never so right in the extension of our Acts, yet we may go too far in the Intension of the Imperate Acts or Passions of the soul, and that both on the Means and End: Though the pure Acts of Knowing or Willing cannot be too great towards God and Salvation, yet the Passions and Acts commonly called Sensitive, may. A man may Think on God not only too much (as to exclude other necessary thoughts) but too Intensely:
But yet Extremes there are in the service of God, which all wise Christians must labour to avoyd. It is a very great Question among Divines, Whether the common rule in Ethicks, That Virtue is ever in the middle between two extremes, be sound, as to Christian Virtues: Amesius saith, No. The Case is not very hard, I think, to be resolved, if you will but use these three Distinctions. 1. Between the Acts of the meer Rational faculties, Understanding and Will, called, Elicite ⟨p. 349⟩Acts; and the Acts of the Inferiour faculties of soul and body, called, Imperate Acts. 2. Between the Acts that are About the End immediatly, and those that are About the Means. 3. Between the Intension of an Act, and the Objective-Extension, and Comparison of Object with Object. And so I say: 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 it self, and being of Infinite Goodness, must be loved and sought without Measure or Limitation, it being Impossible here to exceed. Prop. 2. The Means, while they are not mis-apprehended, but taken as Means, and Materially well understood, cannot be too clearly discerned, nor too Rightly chosen, nor too Resolutely prosecuted. Prop. 3. It is too possible to mis-apprehend the Means, and to place them instead of the End, and so to Over-love them. Prop. 4. The Nature of all the Means consisteth in a Middle or Mean betwixt two Extreams, materially: both which Extreams are sin: so that it is possible to over-do about all the Means, as to the Matter of them, and the Extent of our acts. Though we cannot Love God too ⟨p. 350⟩much, yet it is possible to Preach, Hear, Pray, Read, Meditate, Confer of Good too much: For one Duty may shut out another; and a greater may be neglected by our overdoing in a lesser: which was the Pharisees sin in Sabbath-Resting. 5. If we be never so right in the extension of our Acts, yet we may go too far in the Intension of the Imperate Acts or Passions of the soul, and that both on the Means and End: Though the pure Acts of Knowing or Willing cannot be too great towards God and Salvation, yet the Passions and Acts commonly called Sensitive, may. A man may Think on God not onely too much (as to exclude other necessary thoughts) but too Intensly:
