which like a greater fire put the other out But he poor Soul though alwayes denying his own desires breaking of his will in pieces lying upon a rack and fast nailed to the Cross where the body of sin was bleeding to death yet found his Spirit in horrid torments and deprived of those divine delights which cheared the bright souls of the blessed Martyrs and made them shine with a greater luster then did their fires But since I cannot express the soreness of this Agony in which he a long time lay I shall only add that it was so great that one day being quite tired and spent he fell into a kind of trance and remained as immoveable for some space as if he had been dead And a blessed occasion this was though all his acquaintance that were come to comfort him imagined he would then have expired For he thought he saw a man coming to him with a very smiling aspect as though he knew him who bad him get up and go as fast as he could to a certain Oratory that was not far off and in his way where he should meet with some relief When he was come to himself he thought this Vision or what else you please to call it was in stead of an Oracle and had discovered to him one of the greatest causes that he continued so long ill of these grievous distempers And that was That while he afflicted and tormented himself with the remembrance of what was passed he neglected to implore the help of God with such constant prayers as was nieet for the redress of his present evils and prevention of the like in time to come This began to make a vehement commotion in his mind for he saw there was nothing truer then that We are apt to pray least when we have greatest need of it and are wont to spend that time in looking upon our sores which should be imployed in looking up to Heaven for its Balm to drop into them And truly so lively were the colours wherein this was set before his eyes that he was ready to burst into tears and pour out his Soul there before he stir'd from the bed whereon he lay But remembring presently the voyce to which he thought himself so much beholden had bid him make what speed he could to a particular place where he might address his prayers to his Saviour he arose and dressed himself without any further delay And though he knew that our Lord hears the suits of his humble Clients every where yet he would not be disobedient to the directions he had received but made haste to go and see what good might wait for him in that Oratory or Chappel which had been built in the rode by some charitable person for the use of devout passengers to Jerusalem And no sooner had he entred within the doors but he fell upon his knees and there sent out his Soul in such strong and passionate desires as left all words behind which were not able to accompany them If the throng of his thoughts which upon this occasion were assembled had not been so great you might have received a better account of them But truly such was the violence wherewith they pressed forth and so great were their numbers that he found it very difficult either then to range them in any order or afterward to recall them distinctly to his mind Yet some of them carried this sense as I have been certainly informed by him from whom he hides none of the secrets of his Soul O thou Almighty Goodness the Father of the Fatherless the Patron of the Poor the Protector of Strangers cast thy gracious eyes upon a miserable Pilgrim who all torn and ragged implores thy mercy When I look on my self I dare scarce be so bold as to lift up mine eyes unto thee When I think in what condition I am and what I have done it so confounds me that I can hardly think of any thing else It is the greatness of my misery alone that constrains me to this presumption of prostrating my self at thy feet The weight of which oppresses me so much that it hath left me little more power then to expose my self before thee as an object of thy wondrous Charity O what a Wilderness am I faln into where I can find no water What Desarts are these in which all comfort forsakes my Soul Into what strange regions am I wandred where there is nothing but darkness and the vallies of the shaddow of death O the terrors that surround me how dreadful are they O the affliction and torment which I indure what tongue can express it my Soul is parcht and dryed up My spirits are consumed by the heat of thy displeasure May I not now beg one drop of comfort from thee O my God my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and barren land I remember thy loving kindness in former times I call to mind the dayes of old And I cannot but wish at least to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary There is none in Heaven that I desire but thee nor on earth besides thee My Soul followeth hard after thee O when wilt thou come unto me O hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble hear me speedily I am poor and needy make haste unto me O God thou art my helper and deliverer O Lord make no tarrying I am come a great way from all my friends and kindred and there is none to pitty me O my God be not thou far from me draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it I am poor and sorrowful let thy Salvation set me up on high For thou who searchest the hearts knowest that I am travelling nowhither but to thee All the world have I left that I may find my happiness only in thee And at thy heavenly motion it was that I undertook this long journey I am become a Pilgrim meerly in obedience to thy Will Yea thus far I acknowledge thou hast most graciously conducted me Hitherto I have been highly favoured and wonderfully helped by thee And wilt thou now at last abandon me who have ahandon'd all things else for the sake of thee Hast thou called me from mine own Country and Fathers house that I may perish by famine here and only for want of thee O my Lord give me leave to plead for a Soul which once I thought was dear unto thee Pitty O pitty an Heart which thou hast made too great for all the World and cannot be satisfied with less than thee Canst thou see it dye for lack of one smile from thee yea canst thou let it dye of love to thee for that hath brought me thus far to seek thee And wilt thou suffer it to dye at thy feet Canst thou endure to behold it perish in thy arms into which it now throws it self with all the force it hath Shall it miscarry full of
the noise of it but still men are to seek what this great thing should be They awake men out of their sleep and make them look and gaze about them but let them see nothing of that which they have to take in hand They bid them indeed Believe but it is very hard to know when they do They have intangled Faith in Disputes when it should have been imployed in good Works They have obscured a plain thing in many laborious definitions of it They have made it so subtill and to consist in so nice a point that it is a difficult thing for any to see it They handle matters of doubt weakly and as before a people that will accept of any thing In the Doctrine of Manners there is little to be had but Generality and Repetition The bread of life they toss up and down but break it not They say in the gross that men must live well but they tell them not how to live They bring not their Doctrines down to Cases of Conscience that a man may be warranted in his perpetual Actions whether they be lawfull or not Nor take they care to teach men their lawful liberty as well as their restraints To keep them from superstitious Observances as well as Prophane transgressions Nay I wish we could not say that it is the least of some mens care to promote a godly life Faith is made a thing that is quite distinct from it Good Works and Faith are commonly opposed in the Justification of a sinner The one is thought to exclude the other And to be justified it is said to be necessary that a man do Nothing for it The most that Christ can get is by way of Gratitude which you know is small or none in bad Natures At the best they will put him off with desires or purposes or an indeavour of a new life though still these things be ineffectual All which is said for no other end but that you may not have mens persons in admiration That you may be at liberty to prove all things and hold fast that which is good That you may not bear a greater reverence to Masters then you do to Truth which is ready to become the portion of those who are more in love with it then with their party And since you seem to me to be one of those I shall spare no pains to bring you and Truth together But if you think it needful I will give you further satisfaction in this which we have contested and make you confess that there is nothing plainer then that which I have said of Faith in Christ You will gratifie me very much replyed the other if you will be at the trouble to teach me this lesson better And I am prepared already by what I have now learnt to consider and weigh not who but what it is that I hear Very good said he again let me Catechise you then a little and be not offended at this common and easie Question Do you not think that Christ came into the World for some end Nay was he not sent of God upon some high design You cannot doubt of it and therefore I will not stay for your answer But tell me what do you think that great end was Wherefore for instance did he dye and shed his blood Was it only that our sins might be pardoned Did he bear the Cross that we might bear none Did he deny his own Will that we might have liberty to do ours Is his Death to excuse us from holy living Hypocrisie indeed thinks so but true Religion teaches us that the intent of his death was by keeping us from dying to make us alive to God By saving us from execution when we were condemned to render us honest men by denying of himself to teach us to take up our Cross and follow him Will you hear what they that knew the mind of Christ have taught us in this argument He that committeth sin saith St. John is of the Devil 2 Joh. 3.8 for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil which is as much as to say that he appeared in the world that men might cease to sin And so St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 5.15 That he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him which dyed for them and rose again i.e. will come to judge them as a little before he had declared This is the end for which he gave himself for his Church That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5.25 26 27. that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Nor is it a slight and superficial Holiness that he intends the clensing only of the outside or the washing away of some pollutions but He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Titus 2.14 and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works For he hath reconciled us as it is in another place in the body of his flesh through death Colloss 1.21 22. to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight And to say no more St. Peter also teaches us that He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 1.24 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed I know not what sense Hypocrisie may pick out of these words which hopes the scourges on Christs back will save sinners from the lash and that his death shall preserve them from dying though their sins still live But it is evident to them that are sincere that the Apostles meaning is our Saviour dyed not meerly to save us from dying of our wounds or to take away the anguish and torment of them but that our Natures might be healed and made sound and whole again He is such a Physitian as removes the pain and the smart by curing of the wound that easeth the part affected by making it well that doth not lend his Creeple patient a Crutch to support him but infuses strength into his feet and anckle-bones and spirits into his sinnews that he may walk in the wayes of Gods commandments I wish there was nothing harder then this to understand in the Book of God It is not a truth which men cannot but which they will not understand It is against a corrupt interest or else they would not resist it There is a strong party in their heart against this end of Christs death or else there would be no dispute about it The biass that inclines their will is not on the side of this truth It contradicts their pleasures their unlawful gain or some such thing which they are loath to leave and therefore it
were pressed with want You cannot therefore better please him then by imitating this bounteous disposition There will nothing more indear you to him then such a generosity which may shew it self in a mean as well as in a plentiful fortune Do you not observe what praises he bestows upon a poor widow who had cast all her living into the publick stock It seems to me that this was a more pleasing spectacle to him then all the offerings of the Rich. Read but his famous Sermon which he made to his followers and there you will find so many precepts of taking no care for meat and drink and clothes and of giving away hoping for nothing again that you will think he had a mind to recommend to them this contentedness and Charity above all things else And least you should fancy that all the acts of his Charity were miracles which are no examples to us or be like the Hypocrites who imagine his precepts were given to upbraid our weakness and reproach to us our fall rather then to direct our practise observe the smart Question which he asks toward the conclusion of that Sermon Why call you me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Luk. 6.46 As if he should have said are you not ashamed to call me your Master and yet do nothing that I command What mischief is this that you should acknowledge mine Authority and yet not be governed by my Will Away with this Hypocrisie Cali me Lord no more when you will neither do as I say nor as I do The very same words should I now say to you if I did not think that you were resolved to tread in his steps and that you esteemed poverty with contentment the greatest riches and a liberal heart with a small estate the largest possessions You will not fail I know to scatter your Charity as you go along to Jerusalem If you meet with any distressed person in your way you will be sure to do like the good Samaritan and provide for his health and deliverance Nay spare not to seek for opportunities to do good and since we live in an ill natur'd and hard-hearted age let your light so shine before men that they may see Jesus still in the world And indeed I have often beheld to my great astonishment a poor Pilgrim give more largely to a charitable use then a person of high condition in the World There are many Rich Gluttons who will bestow more upon their Dogs then upon a needy Lazarus I have heard men wonder they are not ashamed to see themselves out-done by people of a meaner rank and that they do not fear the bowels of the Poor will groan against them and complain to heaven of their unmercifulness But so it is that they have hardned their own bowels toward them and think that heaven is as insensible of all their cryes as themselves Their hearts are as cold as stones and you may as soon move a Statue to do good as one of these Images of men They are not crucified to the world but they are killed in her embraces and she hath hug'd them to death in her arms The world hath poured too many of her favours upon them and pressed them to death with the weight of Silver and Gold Their hands are fast closed their fingers are stiff and rigid they hold their money so hard that a dead mans hand cannot be more inflexible nor hold that thing harder which he grasps when he is just expiring Nothing but the example of the Lord of Life will be of any power to get them open There is none but himself can breathe such a spirit into them as will loosen the cold bands of death and make them stretch forth themselves to the relief of their perishing neighbours Propound therefore this pattern every where in your practice and if men like not to be the followers of Christ on these terms tell them they must look for their wages at the Devils hands He hath as fast hold of those misers souls as they have of their money Hell is as greedy as their desires It gapes for them as they do insatiably for Riches And besides if there be any truth in our sacred Books they and their riches and their posterity shall rot and become as vile as those whose miseries they will not pitty And when you have well affected your heart with this heavenly-minded and compassionate Jesus then turn your eyes to another sight and behold in him the deepest humility and the most profound lowliness of mind joyned with the greatest perfections and highest abilities that ever any man had If there were ever any man in the world that had cause to bear himself high this was the person His indowments were divine his reasons were inspirations his words were oracles and yet blocks and truncks are wont now to lift up themselves higher in their own conceit than he could be tempted to do Never had any one so large a knowledge that boasted so little of it His power was not to be equall'd on earth and yet it did not domineen over the meanest creature He could do what he would with a word but would not imploy the least breath in his own praises The very hemm of his garment was thought to be of a miraculous virtue but it was touched with pride as much as himself The wonders which he did were alwaies accompanied with another wonder that he took not the honour of them but gave it to God He was dead indeed not only to the outward world but also to himself He was not only insensible of the blandishments of fleshly pleasures but of the flatteries of spiritual pride He wrought such Miracles as to raise the dead but they could never raise any self-conceit nor give vain-glory in him any life He would have concealed his works if Gods Glory had not been concerned in them more than his own He would have stopt the peoples mouth as well as his own breath and stifled same as much as others seek to give it air if it had not been for the good of the world that he should be known And therefore when the fame of him did fly abroad it could carry no other news but that he was as humble as he was great When he was so high in the peoples esteem that they would have advanced him to be a King he chose rather to remain a private man When they would have carried him into a Pallace and made him a Court he liked better to steal away into a Desart Poor men were his Companions Fishermen and the meaner sort he took for his Attendants When he was in his greatest triumph he was meek and lowly riding upon an Ass When his ears was filled with Hosanna's he was going to humble himself to the shameful death of the Cross He was in truth no other than the King of courtesie and humility A Prince that listned to the petitions of the poorest
changes upon them or other such like adulterate Ware which would fain pass for wit and elegance Next to the love of Gibberish and of canting phrases there is no greater dotage than this of courting the diseases corruptions and the rotten carkase of eloquence and sleighting the life and spirit of it One would wonder that reasonable souls should delight in toying and playing with letters and syllables There is nothing more strange unless it be this that there are a company of men to be found who are at a great deal of pains to trim themselves with these tinsel ornaments and with much curiosity study to speak absurdly It is not their negligence but they take a care to trifle They do not slip unawares into childish expressions but they fall into them by design But if you would be wise and good you must open your ears to plain words and strong sense to proper and significant language which brings along with it powerful and convincing arguments to that which strikes and penetrates into the soul and doth not meerly glide smoothly over the surface of it You must not come to be tickled but to be taught not to be pleased but to be made better not that a man may speak to your gust but to your necessities You must not think you have spent your time well when the Truth peeps into your soul but stops at the door or when your will is sleightly moved and then stands still but when the light pierces into your mind and makes a broad day there when a secret fire creeps into your veins and continues to burn in your heart when all your affections are carried away and remain in the possession of Truth And for this purpose you must read the Holy Scriptures themselves not to store your mind with high notions or to replenish it with a large furniture and matter of discourse or to find support for some of your opinions but to get a stock of efficacious reasons for well doing and to over-power your heart by the force of them to consent unto it And let this be your Rule also in reading other pious Books For there are too many who regard only the lightest things in any discourse the fringes the lace and other ornaments more than they do the body it self They note the pretty stories the apt similitudes and here and there a small sentence which smites their fancy but mind not the clear reasons the nervous arguments and much less the whole scope and design of the treatise which they read Much like some Writers we have seen who reporting the History of their times take notice of little more than of Justings and Tornaments of Bear-baitings and lanching of Ships and such like frivolous matters which are of no moment Or like those Beggars who travelling many Countries behold a great number of fair buildings but know nothing either of the persons or the furniture or the order and regular form which is to be observed in them I think it is not amiss to add that this likewise is the end you ought to propound to your self in all your conferences with wise and pious souls who may give you great assistance in your journey to Jerusalem Not to breed in your self an opinion that you are Religious because you frequent their company but to receive greater illumination of mind from their Torches and to have your heart warmed with a greater love to God at their holy Fires And here it will be seasonable at the conclusion of this discourse to admonish you of a thing which may do you very much service and save you abundance of trouble which else may arise in your mind There are many things as you see that will further you in well doing viz. Prayer Reading and Hearing the Word of God Meditation Conference with good men and such like some of these you must understand will serve your purpose at one time and some at another according as you are disposed and they shall be found efficacious for the end to which they are designed There is a great variety also in these of which you may make an advantage if you chuse that use and practice of them which you shall find to have most power in it at the present to withdraw your mind from worldly vanities to mortifie your passions and to establish your will in the Love of Jesus As for instance sometimes it will be fit for you to Meditate and sometimes to Pray and sometimes to Converse with your friends and it is not so much to be askt which of these you shall chuse as which of them will best at that instant advance you in your way and move your will with the greatest force to virtuous actions And then in Meditation there is the Life of Christ and his Death his Resurrection and his Glory his Coming again to Judgment and the Life of the World to come the long Experience you have had of his Goodness the Instances which he daily gives of his Providence the Example of all his Saints and an hundred things besides to exercise your thoughts and have a great virtue in them to make you do your duty toward God and Man In like manner there are sundry Books in the reading of which you may imploy your time though I would rather have you chuse the best than a multitude and several waies of praying and addressing your Petitions to God which may every one of them have their places and seasons according as you shall be disposed to serve your soul of them And therefore if you perceive that some of them through custom and long use do in time lose their Savour and their Power to increase the Love of God in you and it seems to you there may be more profit in another way take that new course and leave the former without any scruple For that Meditation which will not now affect you at another time will prove more efficacious than any else and that way of opening your soul to God which now you forsake will come about again to be in use Only of this you must take a great care to stir up your self to a continual attendance upon the Publick Service of God For that is a necessary acknowledgment of his Supreme Authority and Dominion in the World and though you feel your self indisposed dull and heavy at certain times in these addresses yet there is this good alwayes done that by your very presence there you have paid part of your homage to him have owned him to be your Lord and Governour and confessed that he is worthy of all Honour and Service But as for the rest though the inclination and resolution of your heart to love Jesus and to be like to him must be unchangeable nevertheless the wayes and means which are to be imployed to the nourishing and strengthning of your resolution may and ought to be changed according as you feel your self disposed and find them to be effectual But especially
received a Kingdom and Glory from the Father that he hath power to raise up you to sit with him in his Throne that he will infallibly take you up to himself that you may be there where he is and behold the Glory which God hath given him and then tell me if ever you felt any thing touch your heart with such a pleasure as the bare contemplation of those divine enjoyments The very fancy of them is delightful Such a dream if a man was in it he would not lose for all that he sees here He would be troubled to be awaked and shut his eyes again wishing that it may know no end And therefore the assurance of these things to be a certain truth which the Holy Ghost coming down from Jesus hath given to us must needs give us a far greater satisfaction A satisfaction as much beyond that of fancy as a sensible enjoyment is beyond a dream And what the contentment will be if we suffer these truths to go down to our hearts to ravish our wills to breathe into us the Love of Jesus and to bring all those Blessed Vertues into our esteem and affection I have not power enough to express But as you love your soul do not deny it your best endeavour that before this day be at an end you may have a real feeling of it And now it may be fit for your fuller conviction in this particular to bid you turn your eyes to the condition of other men who are ingaged in a quite contrary course and you will soon see that to be a pleasant path wherein I conduct you by the misery and confusion which you will discern in their lives It will not be long before you be satisfied that they are not in a state of Nature They will presently discover to you that they are not as they should be Nay that they would be something else than what they are and that long use and custom hath rendred contradictions familiar to them There is not one of them but he loves that which he hates and pursues that which he flyes and praises that which he cannot but also discommend There are strange seditions and clashings in their desires and they are tossed about with I know not how many contrary winds They all desire to be rich and yet this very desire will not let them be so They fear nothing more than need and yet they are ever in great want and cannot be filled For they alwayes think that which they have to be less than that which they have not and they take that which is present to be so little that it is not worth their notice in compare of what they expect in time to come And is there is any greater consistency in their desires of pleasure Alas they pursue mirth but they ever pull upon their heads a great deal of sorrow They would have nothing at all but sweetness and the more greedy they are of it the greater is their bitterness When they think to heighten their delights they quite destroy them and take them away When they would leave no place empty they are so full that they cannot feel them Do you not see all this verified in drunken fools Where is their pleasure after their Understanding is once blasted with the fumes of Wine A Spunge is as good a Judge as they of pleasures which without any difference sucks in the best and the worst of liquors And as for Death Which of them is there that doth not fear it and yet they take no care at all to live They dread diseases and yet they will not abstain from noxious and unwholesome things When any trouble falls upon them then they wish they were out of the world and bless those that are dead and yet when death comes though they are never so ill they wish it would stay a little longer They hate many times to live and yet they are afraid to dye They think them happy who are in the other world but yet they are loath to come among them They cry out of the evils which they suffer and yet they would fain spin out the most miserable life to the greatest length But there is another thing that is stranger than this For you have often heard them complain I believe of the great scarcity of time and yet which of them is there that is not so prodigal of it as if he had half a Age to spare They say that it runs away very swiftly from us and yet they spur on their hours and would have them flye away faster than they do as if they had too many of them There are but a few seasons they say in time and yet they let those opportunities grow old in their hands and suffer them to be bald before they mind to apprehend them And did you ever mark how they deal one with another Each man suspects his fellow because he deserves to be suspected himself Every one is afraid to be deceived and labours all he can to deceive He hath a great mind to be revenged and yet he would not have Justice it self take any vengeance of him He hates Tyranny and yet he would fain be the Tyrant He would have all men subject to those Laws which he hath no mind to observe He accuses many things as base but will not stick to do them And on the contrary he holds good fortune in great estimation but cares not a rush for vertue which yet he acknowledges deserves only to be fortunate Max. Tyr. dissert 20. Philosophers themselves have been ashamed to see how they all behave themselves in every condition like unconstant fools They abhor War but cannot tell how to live in Peace They are miserably dejected if they be made slaves but are so insolent in liberty that they draw servitude upon them They desire children and when they have them take no care about them They would leave them estates but no vertue to use them well and to preserve them They desire to have their family alway flourish but breed them so as if they meant it should dye with the next Generation Nay God himself is not better used by them For they pray to him as if he was able to do them good and yet they affront him as if it was not in his power to do them hurt At other times they fear him as if he could severely punish and yet forswear themselves as if he had no Being but only when they pleased But that I may not run into infinite particulars let us once for all take a view of those who would attain to great honours and see by what low mean and servile practices they labour to ascend unto them There is nothing which their heart abhors more than subjection to others and yet they are forced to the basest prostrations They stoop to the very feet of those upon whose heads they would tread They kiss those hands which they wish a thousand times were
and take great heed that they be not gulled with the flatteries and enchantments of the World and of the Flesh And truly there is very great need of this watchfulness for the Flesh will be solliciting your attendance and desire you to make provision for it It will complain of your neglects too and be angry that it is not more kindly used It will grudge at all the time and care that is bestowed on your Soul and say it is too much You must expect that it will murmur at the commands of Christ and think it self very much in jured by them But as you must not regard these complaints so I will tell you a way whereby you shall cease them and make it better satisfied Let it know that if it will not be content with what you do it shall have worse usage then hitherto Tell it that you will not have so much kindness for it unless it will be quiet Perswade it that it is better to consent to obedience sooner for else it shall fare more hardly and you will take a severer course to bring it under For so I have read that Hilarion an ancient Pilgrim was wont to do When he found his flesh to be much displeased that it was denyed any thing He insulted over it on this fashion Thou Ass canst thou not tell when thou art well and hast but a light burden upon thy back I will make thee that thou shalt not kick again in hast I will lay such loads upon thee that thou shalt stand quietly and have no power to Wince And I will not feed thee with Corn but with straw I will punish thee with hunger and thirst I will afflict thee with fasting and bring thee low with harder labours I will make thee think more of thy meat then of gluttony and riot Thou shalt be glad of a drop of drink and rest well content without compotations and excess of Wine Thou hadst better have been more moderate in thy desires for I will teach thee to be well pleased with a sparer diet It had been more for thine ease if thou hadst been more diligent for I will cure thee of thy Sloth by exacting of thee more grievous tasks In this manner he quieted and still'd all its grumblings and affrighted away its reluctance and idle disposition And in the same way may you bring it to some reason and make it capable of good advice lest by craving too much it have the less and by incroaching upon the better part it lose the freedom that it doth enjoy Terrifie your selves with the thoughts of severer Discipline which you must be forced to use and represent to your selves effectually that if there be no other way this sluggish temper must be banished by a rigorous and sharp pennance which you can less endure than this easie service of our Lord. By this means sure you will procure liberty for your souls to follow their nobler propensions and to provide for their return to their own Country and their Fathers House Which if you mean to effect then you must take more time whatsoever the Flesh or the World shall object to consider more seriously the worth and price of your Souls than which I know not what can be more powerful to drive away your sleep and to make you attend with all earnestness to the securing of their happiness Remember I again beseech you that it is too long that you have remained in ignorance of your selves That it is high time now to look about you lest your Souls quite forget themselves and never recover the memory of what and whence they are Let my counsel therefore be acceptable to you and revolve very often in your mind the words of that Heathen whom I have brought hither to make you ashamed Retire much into your selves and there demand of your Souls that they declare their quality and condition to you They are able to make you an answer and therefore bid them tell you what is their parentage and kindred of what house they are descended what is their nature their portion their inheritance and do not cease till you have received satisfaction Ask them if they are not the Daughters of God Sisters to Angels Images of Divinity Hearken if they will not tell you that they are spirits of a vast understanding purer than the Light swifter than the Lightning whose portion and dowry is immortality whose place is the Universe whose capacity is a picture of Infinity and who are born to be heirs of the other world to have the honour of being Kings and to raign with God for ever And when your souls have dealt faithfully with you and let you know such things as these you must be as faithful and just to them and assure them that you will have a great care of them and attend upon them according to their birth and quality Think what a madness it is to throw away this nobler Moity of man for that which no discreet person would purchase with the loss of his health or the price of the pains of the far inferiour part Let every one of you say within himself O my Soul I will never be perswaded to lose thee nothing shall tempt me to be false unto thee This Body shall be hungry and starv'd nay and dye too if it were possible a thousand deaths rather than I will famish thee and suffer thee to perish I have resolved thou shalt have thy true liberty pursue thy true end for which thou wast made Look about thee and see what thou wouldst have and by the Grace of God it shall not be denyed to thy desires And what is I beseech you O you Sons of men or rather you Sons of God you children of the Most High what is it that you are most desirous to enjoy Is it not the Knowledge of God to be acquainted with your Father to recover his Image to be impressed with his Likeness to live in his Love to have the Light of his Countenance to be full of good hopes of receiving his Blessing and to be restored at last to his presence after this long banishment from him O gratifie your souls then so far as to give all diligence to fulfil these reasonable longings Be not sparing of your pains in so great a business Let them not be put off with frivolous excuses that you are not at leisure that you have other things to mind for the convenience of your Bodies or any the like pretences but instantly apply your selves more vigorously than ever to see that they have right done them and that they receive their true and full satisfaction Do not think it is such a small matter that will content them as the whole World Nay do not imagine that it will suffice them to talk of the other World to send some messages to it and receive some from it It is not enough that they speak now and then with the Father of their Being and that
there any reason to fear drowning after he had walked half a furlong or to imagine it would not bear him up the next half as well as it had done the former none at all sure The winds that blew and the rough waves that began to lift up themselves were no less subject to that power which upheld him then the smooth and quiet surface of the Sea It was as easie to walk upon a Billow as upon the still water The blustering wind had no more power there then the silent Aire Whence then proceeded this change that the man who lately trampled upon the Sea and gloried over the deep doth now feel himself slip into the bosome of it and is in danger to be swallowed up by it The firm ground which he thought was under him is gone and he is left to the mercy of the angry waves Was not the change within before his feet felt any Did not a violent fear lay hold upon him and did he not let go his hold of the hand which before sustained him Yes this was the business If his Faith had been as strong as once it was his condition had been as safe in the midst of the storm as before it was in the calm When this Anchor broke the waters began to suck him in They challenged him then for their proper goods because his Faith was in a manner already shipwrackt But did his Gratious Master so part with him Would he lose a servant because he was weak and wanted confidence in him Or did he delay to help him and only hold him up by the chin when all his body was in the deep No when he cryed for relief and beseeched to be saved he instantly put forth his hand caught hold of him and rescued him from the jaws of death He only chides him because he doubted but neither lets him sink into the belly of the waters nor stayes his succours till he was in greater need of them He straightway lends him more power and chuses rather to incourage a little Faith then let him perish because he had no more Now this story methinks bears a great resemblance with that condition wherein you and many more besides have been We have a great mind to go to Jesus and for that end to walk here in the World as he walked But it is very much that we who are so earthly and have such ponderous affections to things here below should be able to tread them under our feet and keep our selves above the soft pleasures of the flesh into which we are apt to sink This seems no less a wonder then it was for a body of earth to walk upon the face of the Sea which uses to swallow down such heavy things that come into it Whence is it I pray that we have this strength and can lift up our selves above our natural propensions to lead the life of God Is it from our own Vertue or rather must we not acknowledge that we receive it from that voice which saith to us as unto that Apostle of our Lord Come This sure is the cause to which it must be ascribed And it cannot be of less efficacy afterward then it was at the first but when he still saith Follow me he gives a greater power and force unto us so to do But how comes it about then that you and others begin sometimes to sink or at least to imagine that you are falling into the World and that the sensual life will at last draw you into its embraces again Truly there is the same cause of it that there was in him and that is Diffidence You forget your self and distrust God and that works a decay of the Vertue and ability that was in your heart You regard more the winds and the waves the difficulties and temptations that you are incompassed withall then the power and the love of Jesus which attends upon you and so you begin first to fear and then to fall Yet behold what a loving and kind Master you serve He doth not take this so ill at your hands as to let you quite go and fall still lower and lower into the water untill you be drown'd But if you look earnestly upon him and call to him and intreat him to take pitty upon you and not to leave you he gives you his hand presently and sets you in safety Though now you have been very distrustful of his goodness and have fainted in your mind as if he would not regard you yet his tenderness is so great that he bids me assure you he will not forsake you nor fail to support and help your feeble soul Only in his name I must a little chide you and give you a gentle reproof in his own words saying O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt I say no more because I see you are sorrowful and hope you will give me no more the like trouble Indeed replyed the Pilgrim I deserve a more severe reprehension and you deal too favourably with me when you give me so mild a rebuke But I suppose you use me thus tenderly that I may be sensible of the gratious nature of our Lord who hath compassion on our weakness and is loath to discourage those by any sharpness of his who are too apt to invent over many discouragements to themselves And truly I am so apprehensive of his lenity and behold also so great a portion of it in your self that were it not upon that account I should again be apt to stand in fear of creating not only you but him a greater trouble then you are able to bear I am you see very foolish alwayes complaining and exercising your patience I have so many scruples and little fears am so unconstant and wavering in my thoughts so frequently sick and out of order so forgetful also of your counsels that perhaps by this time you begin to reflect and consider how great a burden you have drawn upon your self by undertaking the charge of me And I pray tell me sincerely whether you are not a little weary of me and do not wish your self rid of such an impediment for I can scarce call my self your Friend any longer but your Trouble or your Burden Tell me I say is not this a fitter name for me then any else And can you find in your heart to own that sweet relation to him any more who hath made himself so unpleasing on all occasions and nothing but disquieted your happy repose I doubt if you could see my heart and behold what a seed of new troubles and doubts lodges there you would tell me plainly that you shall never enjoy your self till you be divorced from me You surprise me strangely said the Good old man and did I not consider that you have suspected the kindness of God himself I should be so amazed at this alteration in you as to lose the use of words and not know what to say to you Little did I think that
shall be false though never so clear in it self lest these beloved sins should suffer any harm But if there were any honesty in mens hearts if they were void of guile they would be able to see this without the help of so many testimonies out of holy writ that it was not a thing worthy of the Son of God to come and dye for any less end then to make the World better and render it obedient to the Creator For what do you mean I beseech you when you say that Jesus satisfied for your sins What was it do you think that he gave satisfaction unto Was it not all those Glorious Attributes of God his Wisdom his Truth his Justice his Holiness saving the Honour of which he might now pass by the offences of returning sinners Was it not that the credit of all these might be maintained and yet the rebels not perish That the Sentence might not be executed and yet the Authority of the Laws be preserved There is nothing plainer then that this death of Christ did do great honour to God in the face of the World asserted his right gave countenance to his Authority proclaimed his righteousness and purity was a not able testimony on his behalf against sinners and so there could be nothing more powerful to move God to grant a pardon to those rebels that would submit to him since now he should lose nothing by it but that which he had a mind to give away and not demaund viz. the penalties which they had incurred by the breach of his Laws But is it not manifest then that God cannot love sin nor be friends with sinners until they amend Did not the death of Christ shew that his nature is such that he cannot indulge men in their trespasses Is it not apparent that it was not fit to pardon even penitent and returning offenders unless he shewed his displeasure at their offences Did he not take care to secure his Authority when he issued out a pardon There is nothing more visible And if Hypocrisie had not over-run us and thrust true Reason as well as Religion out of doors men would easily see that Christ could not dye meerly to procure us a pardon much less that men might sin with more security and without any fear of punishment No natural reason tells us that men must needs be hateful to God while they are unlike him that all the Blood of Christ cannot wash them and make them lovely as long as they continue in actual rebellion against him His very nature is against such men his Wisdom is an enemy to them For how should he maintain any Government in the World if he himself should be the cherisher of Traitors if he should take care for their protection and set up a Sanctuary to which they may boldly fly if he should make the Altar of the Cross a refuge where they may find Salvation and Safety who are the opposers of his Authority It cannot be that God should be so liberal as to give away all his own right He cannot quit his title and claim unto our universal obedience It is impossible that Christ by his death should repeal all the Laws of God and absolve us from our duty There is no question he intended to strengthen them when he made a relaxation And when he procured a dispensation he did more establish and secure that which is not dispensed withall It is a rule of Reason that all exceptions do confirm the Law They tell us that it is not to be extended to any further indulgence And therefore Christ dying that the punishment might not be executed this is all the remission that we are to expect and not that God should remit all our duty to him It is very easie if men were well disposed to read at once in the death of Christ the greatest Love of God to us and the greatest Love to his Laws His Love to us appears in that he would for our good and that we might not be eternally undone lay aside his own right which he hath to punish forgive us a debt which we were not able to pay alter his Law and abate the strictness of it dispense with the execution of the Old Law and make a New one of Grace and Favour and that he might do so and save both us from dying and his Law from contempt by our escape that he would provide such a wise remedy as this of his Sons dying for us Herein was his Love indeed manifested and we can never sufficiently admire it that he would have him dye rather than us that he would have him suffer that we might be delivered But then this also plainly tells us the great Love that he bears to Holiness to his Laws and to our Duty which he took care should not be injured by this favour and remission Though he would not have all dye out of love to us yet he would have one lest we should still continue in the love of sin Though he would not have every one of us suffer for the breach of his Laws yet he would have Christ suffer that we might not take the boldness still to break them This death of his Son reduced things to an excellent temper providing that neither we nor God might be damnified That we might not suffer for what we have done and that he might not suffer by our doing still the same That he might be what he is and we become what we ought That the old Original Laws which require our obedience might remain in force and the rigour of them not be executed for our disobedience That he might part with some of his right and yet recover all the rest In one word that he might be moved to let go his right to punish us and we not moved to be careless in yielding him the rest of his right which he hath to our hearty and constant obedience I wish heartily that you and every body else would seriously consider this and not expect that God should not require your service and obedience for it is so much his due that for the sake of his Son he cannot part with his right and claim unto it Nay I have a bolder thing to say than all this and that is That the Death of Christ is so far from intending our pardon only that it is not the chiefest thing that he intends Of the two the purifying of our hearts and lives was more in his design than the forgiveness of sin and this was but in order to the other So much you may easily gather from many of those places of the Holy Writings which were mentioned before for though he bare our sins in his own body on the Tree yet it was for this end this was the ultimate scope of it that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness And so another Apostle saith He gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 that he might deliver us from this present evil