Chap. XIX - Of Charity … Neighbour
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2022
Summary
Charity to our Neighbour most natural and Easie in the Estate of Innocency: Adams Love to Eve and his children a great Examplar of our Love to all the World. The Sweetness of Loving. The Benefits of being Beloved. To Love all the World, and be beloved by all the World is perfect security and Felicity. Were the Law fulfilled all the World would be turned into Heaven.
CHARITY to our Neighbour is Love expressed towards GOD in the Best of his Creatures. We are to Love GOD in all the Works of his Hands, but in those especially, that are most near unto him, chiefly those in which he manifesteth himself most clearly, and these are they that are most like him, most exalted by him, most loved of him, and most delightful to him.
ANGELS and Men, are so distinct from the residue of the Creation, that all the Works of GOD, as if they were Things of another Kind, are put in Subjection under their feet. They were made in his Image, and are often called the Sons of GOD. They are the Sovereign Objects of his Eternal Love, every one of them, considered apart, is so Glorious; as if he were the Sole individual friend of GOD, and King of the Universe, so that they are to be treated in another Manner, as High and Sacred Persons, elevated above the Race of ordinary Creatures, as a Progeny of Kings that are all of them friends to the King of Kings, Ambassadours representing his Person, in whom he is injured, or Obliged.
I confess there are many Disguises, that overcast the Face of Nature with a vail, and cloud these Sovereign Creatures: the Excellency, the Absence, and Distance, and unknown Nature of Angels; the Perversness of Nature, the Ignorance, and Unkindness, and Disorders of Men Darken, and Eclipse this Glorious Duty, and make it uncouth and difficult to us: But all these Disorders came in by Sin, and it is expedient to remove the Confusions that blind us, in our miserable Estate, and to look upon this Vertue of Charity, in the Naked Beauty which appeareth to us in the Light of Eden.
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- The Works of Thomas Traherne VII<i>Christian Ethicks</i> and <i>Roman Forgeries</i>, pp. 147 - 154Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022