long have I stay'd in a strange Land and rebelled like Absalom in the sight of the Sun before Heaven and against Thee O God! Declaring my self no Son that I might be a Slave to the Tyranny of my basest Affections and a Traitor to my Sovereign Lord Surely much too long and most unhappy hath been my Travel through this Wilderness where I have made Woldly-mindedness my sole Companion so that I may say too too many because Evil have been the Days of my Pilgrimage And surely no greater mishap can befal a Man than to find himself out-lawed from thy Care and made a Vagabond like Cain in the Land of Aberrations under the Rule of Evil Spirits and among his own Deceivings and Temptations such evil Companions as may well be termed Arabians from the Rudeness of their Behaviour the Badness of their Neighbourhood the darkness and deformity of their appearances whereby that Dove the Soul that is conversant amongst them is blacked and sullied as if she had layen among the Pots and lost her silver Wings and is by so much the more unpleasant and unfit for the Eyes of thy Purity by how much the more pains thou hast took to make thy Psyche without spot or blemish or any such thing as the ugliness of Vice disguises the Soul withal Free me therefore O merciful Lord from the iniquity and perverseness of those Tongues that have not known the way of Peace nor had they known it would have loved it because like the grand Enemy in the Gospel they are continually sowing the Seeds of Hatred and the Teeth of Discord Nay while they wear the Vizards of kindness and of peaceableness they conspire treacherously against the welfare of such as would adore and serve Thee Such Tongues O God flattering the sensual Appetite subjugate Reason unto it and make falshood and blasphemies so allyed to them as that although they veil the mischief of their deformities they cannot hide them For Can these Aethiopians change their Skins No they will appear the Black Sons of Cham and like Leopards full of Spots let them daub over their Actions never so deceitfully Lord I wish that my Soul being wholly devoted to Peace may thereby join it self to thy favour and not stray at all from thy Commandments but carefully trace thy divine Examples O Blessed Jesu Thou hast born so good a Will to Man as to will Peace on Earth as well as in Heaven that Glory may be to God in the Highest Thou didst teach on the Mount how that Hatred should be banish'd that Envy not Justice should fly from Earth and that Prayers should be put up for all even for our Persecutors and Kindness reserved for our very Enemies Thou gavest thy Apostles Peace for the best Present thou couldst make them on Earth Thou didst leave them Peace for a Legacy when thou wentest hence and they shall receive from Thee everlasting Peace for their felicity in Heaven At thy Birth the Angels were Heralds who proclaimed a General Peace And what did thy bitter Death bring but the sweetest pacification As the first Words at thy Resurrection were of Peace But Gracious God if thou deliverest me not from that Ishmaelite who pursues me with deadly hatred and from his Children who follow him in Flatteries and Accusations I see alass the Repose of my Soul is so much broken by their Assaults and its own Impotencies as that it may despair of Safety Because without Divine Assistance no body can resist the Witckcraft of those Tongues that are the Fire-brands of the Devil and by his instigation like the Fool in the Proverbs throw about Fire and darts and as if in jeast work nothing but mischief and deceit The second Step upon the second PSALM of Degrees being the 121 PSALM Levavi Oculos O My Soul What dost thou look at What dost thou look for What dost thou look after Whence spring the Hopes which yield some ease to the Troubles and Evils of thy Condition Who is he that can deliver thee from the Arrests of Justice Where wilt thou be secured from the Thunder of Divine Vengeance See round about thee nay within thee there are Ten thousand Witnesses who are accusers also of the Exorbitances of thy Passion Observe both by the late and sad Chastisements of others not so bad as thy self how ready the abused Patience of the Almighty is to change it self into Fury at thy continued provocations Is not thy Conscience gnawing thee like a Vulture and ready to fly in thy very Face to reprehend the vanity of thy desires the extravagance of thy Appetite the blindness of thy Affection and the infidelity of thy Opinions Therefore gape no longer after the Tantalizing fruit of Sodom stare not at the Tinsell Glories of this World but lift up thy Spiritual Eyes in Love and Prayer and Contemplation to the Rock of Ages to the utmost bounds of the everlasting Hills to the Father Son and Holy Ghost those Mountains of perfection who inclose within the bowels of their Love all the Treasures of Wisdom and Holiness and the only means of our Salvation Look up unto the top of this Pisgah and see all that blessed Land see from this Summit how those lower Heights who never feel the showers of our Sorrows nor fear the clouding of their Heads in Darkness I mean the Beatified Saints and Angels who have such glorious Elevations through the Magnetick force of God's goodness upon theirs that like the Hill of the Lord they are venerably to be regarded and though thy weak sight can reach no higher than these Hills O learn from these thy Fellow-creatures the vast distance of thine own unworthiness when but compared even to them in whom thou hast found Folly and be confounded with Shame at thy far grosser failings so shalt thou learn to turn off the Thorns of the Flesh to turn out the Love of the World and to turn away the Messengers of Satan Thou shalt learn the right Methods of a sincere and incorrupt Life thou shalt learn to behold and beholding admire that Hight of Glory that is above and admiring thou shalt learn to get up to that innumerable Company of Saints and Angels already gone to an eternal Passover before the Lord in his Holiest Sion and thou shalt not only have the Ministry of Angels but the help and protection of that great Angel of the Covenant the Holy Jesus to guid thee up safely unto those who are gone before But since O most gracious God! the Aids which thy Creatures afford are but instrumental and Ministerial without force or advantage but by thy Will and Permission I therefore look from them unto Thee directly having recourse to thy Pity only and imploring thy Assistance Thou art my Creator my Redeemer my Comforter my God and my Rock if thou shouldst reject my Supplications to which of the Saints should I turn to offer them up If Thou shouldst deny a Remedy for my weak Condition from what
intreat that unsealed and unexhausted Spring of Mercy which without upbraiding any for want of worthiness imparts to all of the fulness of his Grace I have access to thy Throne O Father of Lights and to Thee O Glorious Sun of Righteousness that without respect of persons hast shined upon the just and the unjust and lookest so kindly on the Universe as to offer thy Beams and Beauties unto all While on the other side Thou merciful Lord crowning thy Eternal Glories with the continued Acts of thy Pity hast so far lessened thy Greatness as to receive my Petitions and not only heard my Prayers by thy Favour but heap'd up Answers to them by thy Grace So that my ever-craving needs have never wanted seasonable supplies nor my desires wearied out thy Bounty But every wish of mine hath worn some token of thy good will to Mankind and every Prayer hath been returned like an acceptable Messenger with marks of favour Seeing then I was made a Creature by thy Love at first and a new Creation by thy Mercy now I return again O Father with the Prodigal to beg the excesses of thy Tenderness the loud soundings of thy Bowels towards me 'T is more than ordinary preserving or creating goodness that I want And Thou my Everlasting God hast ever been my Saviour so that to deny me now the continuance of thy Favour or the blessing of thy Protection would be to loose the fruit of thy Labour and the end and Harvest of thy former care Therefore let thy Love be still the Banner over me while the Tongues of those who are eloquent in fraud and falshood storm my Ears daily with Inveaglements for the drawing my Heart off from paying its due homage of Thankfulness and Obedience to Thee the Great and Almighty King With the fears of thy Judgments they scare my remembrance of my faults with the snares of their Allurements they would draw me aside out of the way that leads to Life And with false Flatteries they would indulge my compliance with Sin and masking Vice under the show of Virtue seek to betray my soul that is too easie and pliable to the Charmes of Sense and to the Pleasures of the World But alass I perceive though somewhat too late how these Mouths of Hell and Oracles of Satan would christian Cruelty with the name of Justice and name a cursed Revenge the Way of Honour With them Covetousness is but Frugality Luxury the Law of Nature and Envy noble Emulation So that being well nigh lost and cast away amongst the dark mists or false lights of their vain conceits I find my self deterr'd from good and stay'd unhappily in evil And truly O most gracious God without the assistance of thy Grace and the protection of thy Love without the buttress of thy Power and the foundation of thy Wisdom What feeble Jericho's are all our Breasts How may the strongest Walls of all our Virtues and the highest Towers of noble Resolutions be pull'd down as it were with ridiculous Rams-horns with the Breath of a naughty Woman with the blast of an evil Tongue And who is there since Adam Solomon Lot and Peter were blown down that can avoid the fascinations either of flattery or of falsehood of the Parasite or Calumniator Who can resist the force or withstand the mischief of such insnaring Words as the Lyers Lips enter the Soul withal The Syren's of the World the Circe's of the Devil and all the Idols of Sensuality may sooner be pass'd by and more easily got from by the exercise of Prudence by the rules of Reason and by the restraint of Laws than the snares that are laid by a deceitful wicked Mouth And these are so much the more invincible and unavoidable by how much they are invisible and unknown being spread over with the specious pretences either of Piety or of Friendship The other mischiefs of this frail state here may be grievous dangerous and mortal but none so comparably to a false malicious and dissembling Tongue which is a painted Sepulchre full of nothing but Emptiness Rottenness Hollowness and precipices instead of Amity Righteousness Holiness and Piety which it so much pretends to as that it oftentimes intraps the most just and innocent and tramples them under the feet of Calumny and Disgrace But O what fruit have you in those things whereof you may be now ashamed O ye perfidious Doegs What Pleasure what Profit what Honour do ye gather from your Lyes and from your falshoods O ye deceitful Men Do ye Flatterers who are the most venomous tame Beasts look for reward or hope for praise or expect immunities No no your Company is too Pernicious your Teeth too Poysonous your Sin too Presumptuous to expect any thing from Heaven but Hate and Vengeance For the Javelin's darted from a strong and steady arm gash not the Flesh with deeper wounds than the Words of a treacherous and faithless Tongue pierce the Soul of the ingenious to the quick The glowing Coals of Juniper which have the singular property of keeping Fire do not reserve or afford so much heat as an evil Tongue can throw upon our affections for that saith the Apostle is set on fire of Hell Wherefore my God I trust while thou dost rain down Plagues upon such sacrilegious Sinners as thou didst upon Sodom and Gomorrah thou wilt preserve my soul as thou didst righteous Lot's that was vexed with the wicked Conversation of his Neighbours so that I may not be overthrown amongst the Pits of Dissimulation nor be shipwrack'd in those unstable Waters where many a wise Pilot hath been cast away Lord I would not run on the shelves of such persuasions as drive men on further to their own Ruin But by the wonted effects of thy Omnipotence deliver me from those mistrusts and misunderstandings that too much indulging the impotence of Nature take off the Man from doing his Devoir and from obeying thy Commands and stays him amongst sinful Complacencies and Delights Against such O Lord arm thy just wrath and let thy disdain strike them on the Mouths who full of mischief and deceit become the burying places of others fame and reputation O let the arrows of such cursed Tongues and the Goals of their traiterous Mouths become Thunder-bolts to chastise their mallice and lightning to flash for ever in their Faces and fire to punish their Offences everlastingly And here now Lord the multitude of my Crimes committed at the instance of Sacrilegious Tongues comes with their Curses fresh into my mind Here the remorses of my Conscience tell me of the Sins and Plagues I have contracted by my compliance with their vain conceits and company who have too frequently taken me off from the performance of my Duty and the observation of thy Holy Laws Woe is me wicked Wretch O how weak O how miserable am I Like the Prodigal I have stay'd too long from home from my Father's Mansion from thy Love and Protection And alass How
Charity unto God himself who is Love and the Man that can get thither saith St. John dwells in Gods 1 John 4.16 and God in him These Five Ascents are to be often mounted and if in honour to the holiest Trinity they are thrice gone over in our youthfullest in our strongest and in our oldest Age we shall be perfect in our Duty by such Repetitions of it and not think the Fifteen Ascents to God's House at all too many or too steep or tiresom FINIS ERRATA IN the Epistle to the Reader Page 1. Line 28. for quote read Court p. 3. l. 48. read Sketch p. 4. l. 19. for ones read ends l. 49. read Ite In the next Epistle of the Author at l. 12. insert its p. 2. l. 12. read to Heaven p. 3. l. 8. read perfect ones In the Book p. 8. l. 7. read thee p. 9. l. 2. read it natural and born with us l. 32. read or recover it THE Eucharist at Easter 1657 ON THE Happy Recovery Of my Most Dear and Honour'd LUCINDA ANGELS come tune my Joys since they require Notes pure and high like those which ye inspire Blest Saints of Heav'n could ye impart your Mirth Then might I learn to sing of one on Earth One who hath not your Glory yet your Grace One equals you in Piety not Place Because she lives Nor can I more express To tell what 't is the World calls Happiness And since she lives I pray for nothing more But how to praise that help I did implore O God who art most powerful do thou please To give me thankfulness who gav'st her ease Give strength as to her Body to my Brain That with her health may Harmonize my strain And breath still vigorously like my past Fears In Lines more numerous than were earst my Tears While every gladsome Verse records at once My Gods and Mothers Resurrections Within the Spheres of which two Blisses move All I enjoy below hope for above But all my Words and Actions needs must be Lame Offerings fit for Vulcan not for Thee I cannot sing like David nor can I Be even like Saul when Saul did prophecy Yet by that Harp which was his cure I find A Tongue to ease my overjoyed Mind Therefore my Song shall fill the thankful Quire My Voice shall consort with the Hebrew Lyre To drown its Hoarsness in those sweeter Lays So hiding my Defects but not thy Praise The CXVI PSALM verse 1 I Love to praise thy Love most high Who to my Praise gav'st ear verse 2 While I have Breath to thee I 'le cry For thou my Cry did'st hear verse 3 Hell 's Prison made my Soul afraid Death's Snares beset me round 'Till to thy Name I sought for aid Nothing but Woes I found verse 4 But when I pray'd Lord ease my Woe O Lord save thou my Soul verse 5 His Grace and Goodness God did show Making his Patient whole verse 6 His Love and Justice is display'd Shiclding the lowly'st Head And raising mine whom Grief had laid Down low even near the Dead verse 7 Then Soul said I gad not abroad To lose thy sought-for Rest Thou seest Love fills the Heart of God O make that Love thy Host verse 8 That Love which keeps thee from the Grave Thy Foot from falls thine Eye verse 9 From Tears and gives thee Life to have This spent in Piety verse 10 Thus I believ'd and therefore pray'd 'Till Troubles shook my Trust verse 11 Then rashly said all Men are made Of Falshood as of Dust verse 12 But what bring I to thee I 'le take The Cup of Blessing Lord verse 13 And bless thy Name whose Mercies make Our Duty our Reward verse 14 I 'le pay my Vows in sight of them Whose Lives most holy are verse 15 Whose Deaths are in thine Eyes esteem As it s own sight most dear verse 16 Thy Handmaid's Son thy Servant Lord Thy Servant Lord am I bound faster to thee by the Cord Which thou art pleas'd t' unty verse 17 I 'le offer still unto thy Name My Life my Praise my Prayer verse 18 I 'le pay my Vows in sight of them Whose Lives most holy are To God the Father God the Son And God the Holy-Ghost Be Glory and let every one Strive who shall praise God most HALLELUJAH The XXVII PSALM LUCE tuâ fruamur LUCE verse 1 GOD is my Soul 's dear Light What should I fear but him God is my Life 's chief Health and Might What else should dreadful seem verse 2 When wicked ones my Foes Approach me to devour They shall fall down for they that rose Have fall'n into my Pow'r verse 3 Though many Troops besiege None shall my Heart dismay Though Men against me Battel pitch God's strength shall be my stay verse 4 This only Grace this boon Of God I now desire That in his House I may have room To pray in and retire verse 5 There I his Pleasure tast I have his shelter there There on a Rock I shall be plac'd In times of Grief and Care verse 6 For all my Foes surround When God their Siege hath rais'd Around his Courts with joyful sound God shall be greatly prais'd verse 7 O therefore hear me Lord When I rejoyce or cry Comfort or Mercy still afford And to my Call reply verse 8 When once it heard thy Grace my Heart to thee could speak O Lord thou said'st Seek ye my Face Thy Face Lord will I seek verse 9 Thy Face O never hide Nor turn it once away O Leave me not my God my Guide Whose strenth is all my stay verse 10 When Friends no care had took Thou didst for me provide Nay when my Parents me forsook Thou laid'st me not aside verse 11 Lord teach me thy plain way To shun each crooked Path Because my Foes would have me stray verse 12 O save me from their wrath See how the Faithless rise Against me and their Breath Would first ensnare by Calumnies Then cut me off by Death verse 13 Lord I had fainted quite Had I not hop'd to see Thy Goodness in this Life to light My Soul t' Eternity verse 14 Wait then on God poor Soul Take Courage kiss his Rod For he shall make thee strong and whole Wait then I say on God Glory and Praise allow To God in Trinity As at the first he was is now And evermore shall be The XXIII PSALM Paraphras'd THE King of Heav'n the God of Love Takes up a Shepherd's Crook As David did his Son above To his few Sheep will look Then though in Deserts they are left 1 Sam. 17.20 How safe are those few Sheep How safe am I from wolvish Theft Where Christ the Fold doth keep For while I wake he lets me feed By th' Sunshine of his Eye When I want Rest if ought I need His Arm 's my Canopy So that I shall not fear Death's Night Nay when Time's Bell has gone Darkness that harbours many a Sp'rite Shall let my Soul alone My Soul Return array'd then in its Light Such Glories shall put on As they that make my Shepherd white Who is my Shield and Sun He from a howling Wilderness Of Savages th' Aboad Hath brought me by his right Address Into fair Canaan's Road. There up and down meek Lambs he leads While Tides of Joy flow by Can his Flock want who kindly feeds Young Ravens when they cry Like Israel's Leader by the Flood Exod. 14.2 He bids his Army stay Then as he gave Elijah Food 1 King 19.8 He cheers them in their way The pow'r and goodness of our God Return Are our advance and stay Exod. 14.16 Elisha's Staff and Moses's Rod 2 King 4.29 Do Wonders less than they They save the Poor support the Weak Heal sick Folks help the Blind Soft Hearts they bead hard ones they break Thus nurturing the Unking For all Saul's envy Doeg's hate My Head and Beard is crown'd In spite of Foes I fit in state With Ease and Plenty round My Bowl 's with Wine swell'd to the brim With Oyl my Temples shine God is with me e're I with him His Goodness 't is not mine His Grace and not their own anoints Return Kings to the sway they bear His Spirit Royal Feasts appoints His Son is our best Cheer O that towards God my days could move Fast as to Death they tend My Thanks should keep pace with his Love And like it never END
Gen. 28. cap. a 16 ad fin Heb. 13. cap. 14 15 16 Ἀπ ἄÏτι ὄπσεσθε τον οá½Ïανὸν ἀνεφγότα καὶ τουσ ἀγγÎλουσ του Θεου αναβαινοντασ καὶ καταβαινοντασ επι τον υιὸν τοῦ ανθÏωπου Joan. 1.52 Bethel Design W. Faithorne Sculp THE ASCENTS OF THE SOUL OR DAVID's Mount TOWARDS GOD's House BEING PARAPHRASES ON THE FIFTEEN PSALMS of DEGREES Written in Italian By the Illustrious GIO. FRANCESCO LOREDANO a Noble Venetian 1656. Render'd into English Anno Dom. 1665. Né si comincia ben se non dal Ciélo LONDON Printed by A. G. and J. P. for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhill 1681. To the most Honour'd LUCINDA AS the kind Sun which cheers our dying Muse From the bright East brings day and with it views The World's fair Parts but finding none so sweet As th' Orient Beauties whom he first did greet Back to his Morning Mistress he doth run Ending his round Heat there where he begun So though my Rhimes like stragling Waters fled From Wit 's clear Spring from You the Fountain's Head Yet now my Fancy pays its final Stream To its first Helicon and fairest Theam For sure 't is Heav'n's with your blest Influence 'T is not th' Extream's usual Coincidence Which as it did at first our Verse Baptize So now redeems These from Idolatries That their late wand'ring Feet no more may roam But like the elder Brothers keep at home While You restore our Music and renew Our Mind to sing again to God and You. See here our Muse washes her Feet and all Turns Penitent that had been Prodigal And as a Magdalen with all her Store She worships Goodness but doth wast no more She sends her Honey back to that dear Hive Where she 'll be bury'd if not kept alive Then with her Notes Swan-like she 'll end her Days Singing Your Worth her Requiem and God's Praise To the most Honour'd LUCINDA MADAM YOU may smile while I blush that You find me speak in Print when You know I love no such phrase or thing because it argues an affectation which I have not 'till now been guilty of But since it is too general a Disease that Poverty and Laziness bring upon Linguists no wonder if my Converse with some such hath infected me at this time when remembering how I used from beyond Seas to Congratulate Your New-year with some Foreign Present And finding none of that Store left by me which was dearly bought and far fetch'd I turn'd from my Cabinet to my Closet and there found this Venetian Chrystal so finely wrought and pollished by the Author and not ill set perhaps by my putting a File unto it as I was resolved to make an Offering of it to that Shrine Your Oratory wherein are many things worth the admiring but none more than the pious behaviour of Your self This is so excellently useful as that we may be pardoned for desiring a Reflection of it And therefore Madam I send this Mirrour of Devotions not to direct or dress Yours but to display them unto others and to do my Duty so far to all the Good as to do You Right in the discovery of so rare a Goodness as Yours is which hath not only embolden'd me to venture up the Stairs to Your Praying-place and to revisit these Degrees whereon I went above ten Years ago but likewise to shew the World how Your Piety is exemplary like David's it hath led and instructed a numerous Train to follow You though very hardly up a great way towards the Mountain of Holiness And Madam since this Age doth want such Presidents in Worth in Goodness and in Place as Your late noble Lord and Father have been we may earnestly beg of God to add to Your Honour and Prosperity Fifteen Degrees and prolong Your wonderful Life marvelously farther than Hezekiah's If then You might see Your Sons not go backward in the World but getting up like the Children of Israel out of Egypt to the best and most difficult Advancements I mean up the many Steps to the House of God there to praise his Blessings and to pray for Yours I doubt not but it would be a Token of much Comfort and Honour to Your self and of as much Happiness and Benefit to them as to him who is ready to say with the elder Brother Gen. 27.31 Arise and tast kindly of thy Son's Service that thy Soul may bless me also TO THE READER ALTHOUGH the Author's glorious Dedication of this Book To the Queen of Heaven together with several other Reasons would have made me no more in love with this sort of Complements than the many are who have wrote long Discourses against Prefaces and so have sentenced themselves with a Witness by condemning the very Act in which they were found Guilty Yet finding by the sad Example of most the Ingenious who have failed in their attempts against Epistles prefatory as he did who designed a great Building without Inlets or Addresses to it that it is a hard matter for People to avoid the Road and run over Hedge and Ditch without being judged Men of odd Designs I therefore take the beaten track to the Town and am content to keep pace with anothers Motion having took no course to appear before nor being now spurr'd on to this Publication by any Sentiments but those of Gratitude before-mentioned Were I stung by such a Gad-fly as Vain-glory I would not Print a Translation now which was made above ten years ago to dub me a Writer when the Form of it as much as the Matter will be so dull and insipid to the Wits of this time These are for no Book-learning no writing by Gentlemen unless it be at the Modish Rate strangely extravagant profane or foul Therefore as I leave these Gallants to the Tyranny of that Genius by which they both act and suffer so purposely have I dismounted their expectation of any pass-time from me for I have slipt the Spring I have lost the Season for youthful Publications and now I seek to have Audience incognito with a grave Senator This methinks may be sufficient Proof that I neither quâ—tâ— nor expect the stale Title of an Author for all I am now like one in a Preface Most Eyes are upon Books as upon a Horse-Race on the first Start or at the ending more than upon the best part of the Heat In short I tell the Readers what they may find here though I cannot tell what they may like for if they look for much Roman Ceremony or Papal Devotion they will go away unsatisfied For I have changed the Religion as much as the Language of my Author and allowed my self the same Christian liberty in turning or trimming this Piece of his which he likewise took in some of his Translations That as the Signor dressed it for his Country Vede loquinto Vol. del Sig. Gio. Fr. Loredano nel praefatio sua All' Historia Catal. I may look after it in mine and bear the blame if this Stranger
the Mind to no purpose for the acquiring or preserving of Grace without thy good will or Divine assistance since from thee we have our principles and beginnings our conservation protection and perfection Without thee as thou hast told us we can do nothing but we must likewise know that thou art not far from any one of us nor forsakest such as seek thee truly Many do mis-conjecture that the height of Walls the depth of Waters the thickness of Works the courage of Men the goodness of Arms the fulness of Provisions the watchfulness of Guards and the wisdom of Commanders will secure any Regular Fortification when alas all the Ramparts will founder all the Bastions and Lines fall in together like the walls of Jericho the Curtains will drop down or rend in pieces being too thin and sleight to keep out an Enemy while wrapped in them the sleepy Centinels shall be carried off to Eternal Slumbers unless thy Providence and Protection O Lord of Hosts be over such a Fortress for it is thy favour that must be its strong Tower and Rock of defence and Magazine of safety without that all we can do signifies nothing How far can humane industry advance to raise a man up like Jeremiah out of the Dungeon from the pit of Sin or despair or to support him in thy presence till thou sayest the Comfortable Edict I will be thou clean 'T is true the Angels are ministring Spirits and Holy men help instrumentally to the conservation of Grace and to the disposing of our Minds to good by their exhortations and examples And 'T is certain that I am not seldom affected with the consciousness of my provocations so that I resolve then vigorously to spend the residue of my dayes amongst the Rigors of an Austere Repentance while my Remembrance shames me with the Thoughts of thy abused patience which must needs be turned into fury and this be imbittered by delay Yet for all this without thy special Grace and particular assistance all my Resolutions are but Spiders Webbs my strongest attempts but as Stubble before a consuming fire very weak and ridiculous motions It is not in Man saith the Prophet to direct his Steps Therefore trust not O mortal men either to your selves or to your possessions trust not your enjoyments of great Knowledge or of great Strength no not of the chief Natural or Corporeal Faculties no more than you would credit the turning Wheel of Fortune or the Top of worldly Pomp and Honours Can ye think by robbing your Eyes of Sleep your Minds of Rest your Limbs of Ease or your Bodies of Health ye may do any thing on your own score to gain the applause of Heaven or to throw open the Gates of Paradise No no the Roots of your Merit should be set on another Ground it is not a Plant that will grow in the barren soil of our Earth we must have God's daily Cultivation his Love his Shelter and his Sun too or else we shall go without it And to obtain some worthiness of thy Regard some favour in thy sight a sound and sincere reliance upon Christ doth avail more than all the Watchings Fastings Austerities and Rods which some make such a bustle withall and too often to little purpose for their rising at Midnight or before Day is but a walking in darkness their arrogant reliance on their own Performances is but increasing the difficulties of such achievements as depend not on our own Strength or Merit but on God's Free-will and his alone good pleasure Assist me therefore O most gracious Lord with such a Grace as may gratifie my humble requests and graciously receive the submisness of my Heart in all its acts of Penance with sincerity of Address of Trust and Obedience to thee and to thee onely for to which of the Saints may I turn That although I have been long embraced within the Arms of Sin I may now break away from that Harlot and from the bondage of my Guilt and fly unto thee for a place of rest in the Bosom of thy Favour and Compassion Lord suffer not the naughtiness of my Heart to inveigle me to any further expectation of Comfort or hope of Satisfaction than in those things that are above and there promis'd me by thy Truth and Goodness Let not Worldly concerns or poor transitory Prizes allure my Soul which stoops too oft at low Objects she should tower more out of sight of Earth like a Bird of Paradise and direct her mount to that Summit or height where should be her Airie and which was her Country Ah! did she ply her Wings thitherward like thy holiest Dove she would not be endangered by the Floods of Humane unhappiness she would reach home with her Olive and Myrtle branches with Peace and Purity While Imploying all the Labours of my Life and longings of my Heart after a sight of God in such Righteousness as Peace and Holiness bring along with them I my self might be secured both in Life and in Death and I should find Death but as a sleep and Heaven as an Inheritance long promised to the Faithful and laid up for us in those promises as laid out in that other Life where those who are faithful unto Death may expect a full satisfaction of their Pains Hopes and desires and meet with a farther Solace in a Knowledge of one another and of all their Fellow-brethren even the whole flock of Christ which shall then appear in his Presence and enter into his Joy and triumph in his Courts to all the Ages of an happy Eternity I will therefore O my God! assert my self thy Creature the work of thy Almighty Power the Fruit of the Body of Christ begotten again to a lively hope by his blood and seeking Regeneration by his Ordinances and by my Faith so that I may not love the World nor the things of it but do the will of our Father which is in Heaven But doth it not require much Sweat vast Pains and violent Exercises and very great Self-denial to enter in at the strait Gate and to walk worthy of the Denomination of a Son of God Yea surely 'T is therefore needful to leave off the pursuit of all those vain complacencies which have served onely to amuse and to deceive me here below 'T is needfull O my Soul that thou being armed by devout Prayer and Fasting shouldest be sober and watchful to repell the most furious attacks of his Temptations who is come forth against thee like a ravenous Lion 'T is needful for thee to make Reason thy Pilot Religion thy Load-star for thy better passage through the waves of this troublesome Life and if thou steerest wisely in the faithless Sea of this World weathering all the stormes of Impetuous affections thou mayest at last arrive at the Haven where thou wouldest be and as the feigned Son of Jupiter is said to overcome the many-headed Monster so thou mayest by thy several Labours in Charity Love Faith