every where must bee acknowledged to be ever in a glorious manner present with us manifesting his presence most eminently in the high heavens and yet filling both heaven and earth with the Majesty of his glory In him it is that we live and move and have our being he comprehends the whole world himselfe being only incomprehensible secluded from no place included in no place neerer to us than our owne soules when we die we part from them from him we cannot part with whom remotenesse of place can make no difference time no change when the heart is thus throughly assured it is in a faire way to see the Invisible for now after all the former impediments the hinderance of distance is taken away and nothing remaineth but that the eye bee so affected and imployed hereabouts as it ought SECT V. TO which purpose in the third place there must be an exaltation and a fortification of our sight An exaltation rasing it above our wonted pitch for our heart is so inured and confined to bodily objects that except it bee somewhat raised above it selfe it is not capable of spirituall things A fortification of our sight so raised for our visive beames are at our best so weak that they are not able to look upon a sight so spiritually glorious alas wee cannot so much as look upon the Sunne-beames but we are dazeled and blinded with that which gives us opportunity of sight how shall wee be able to behold the infinite resplendence of him that made it St. Stephen was a true Eagle that blessed protomartyrs cleared exalted fortified sight pierced the heavens and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God Whence was this vigor and perspicacity Hee was full of the holy Ghost that Spirit of God that was within him gave both clearnesse and strength in such miraculous manner to the eyes of him who should strait-way see as hee was seene who should instantly by the eye of his glorified soule no lesse see the incomprehensible Majesty of God the Father than now by his bodily eye he saw the glorified body of the Son of God It must bee the only work of the same Spirit of God within us that must enable us both to the faculty and exercise of seeing the Invisible for the performance whereof there must be in the fourth place a trajection of the visuall beames of the soule thorow all earthly occurrences terminating them only in God as now we look thorow the aire at any object but our sight passes thorow it and rests not in it whiles we are here we cannot but see the world even the holiest eye cannot look off it but it is to us as the vast aire is betwixt us and the Starry heaven only for passage all is translucid till the sight arrive there there it meetes with that solid object of perfect contentment and happinesse wherewith it is throughly bounded When it hath therefore attained thither there must bee in the fifth place a certaine divine irradiation of the mind which is now filled and taken up with a lightsome apprehension of an infinite Majesty of a glory incomprehensible and boundlesse attended and adored by millions of heavenly Angels and glorified Spirits whereto way must be made by the conceit of a transcendent light wherein God dwelleth as far above this outward light which we see as that is above darknesse For though we may not in our thoughts liken God to any created brightnesse bee it never so glorious yet nothing forbids us to think of the place of his eternall habitation as infinitely resplendent above the comparison of those beames which any creature can cast forth He is clothed saith the Psalmist with light as with a garment Lo when wee cannot see a mans soule yet we may see his body and when we cannot see the body yet wee may see the clothes Even so though wee may not think to see the essence of God yet we may see and conceive of this his resplendent garment of light Farre be it therefore from us when we would look up to a Deity to have our eye-sight terminated in a gloomy opacity and sad darksomnesse which hath no affinity with any appendance of that divine Majesty who hath thought good to describe it selfe by light Let our hearts adore such an infinite spirit as that the light wherein he dwels is inaccessible the light which he hath and is is inconceiveable and rather rest themselves in an humble and devout adoration of what they cannot know than weary themselves with a curious search of what they cannot comprehend A simple and meek kind of astonishment and admiration beseemes us here better than a bold and busie disquisition But if this outward light which of all visible creatures comes neerest the nature of a spirit shall seeme too materiall to expresse the glory of that blessed habitation of the Highest Let the mind labour to apprehend an intellectuall light which may be so to our understanding as this bodily light is to our sense purely spirituall and transcendently glorious and let it desire to wonder at that which it can never conceive How should this light be inaccessible if it were such as our either sense or reason could attaine unto SECT VI. WHen we have attained to this comfortable and heavenly illumination there must be in the sixt place a fixing of the eye upon this beatificall object so as it may be free from distraction and wandring Certainly there is nothing more apt to be miscarried than the eye every new sight winnes it away from that which last allured it It is not hard or unusuall to have some sudden short glympses of this happy vision which yet the next toy fetches off and makes us to forget like as the last wave washeth off the impression of the former what are we the better for this than that patient who having the filme too early raised from his eye sees the light for the present but shall never see any more Would wee see God to purpose when we have once set eye upon him we may not suffer our selves by any means to lose the sight of him againe but must follow it still with a constant and eager intention Like as the Disciples of Christ when they had fixed their eyes upon their ascending Saviour could not be taken off with the presence of Angels but sent their eye-beames after him into heaven so earnestly that the reproofe of those glorious spirits could hardly pull them off You are now ready to tell me this is a fit task for us when we are in our heaven and to plead the difficulty of such our settlement in this region of change where our eyes cannot but bee forced aside with the necessity of our worldly occasions and to question the possibility of viewing two objects at once God and the world not considering that herein lyes the improvement of the Christians skill in these divine Opticks The carnall eye looks through God at the world The
liquid body and how tamed and confined by thine Almightinesse How justly didst thou expostulate with thy people of old by thy Prophet Ieremy Feare yee not mee saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bounds of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof tosse themselves yet they cannot prevaile though they roare yet can they not passe over it And what a stupendious work of omnipotence is it that thou O God hast hanged up this huge globe of water and earth in the midst of a yeelding aire without any stay or foundation save thine owne eternall decree How wonderfull art thou in thy mighty winds which whence they come and whither they go thou only knowest in thy dreadfull thunders and lightnings in thy threatning Comets and other fiery exhalations With what marvellous variety of creatures hast thou peopled all these thy roomy elements all of severall kinds fashions natures dispositions uses and yet all their innumerable motions actions events are predetermined and over-ruled by thine all-wise and almighty providence What man can but open his eyes and see round about him these demonstrations of thy divine power and wisedome and not inwardly praise thee in thine excellent greatnesse For my owne practise I cannot find a better notion wherby to work my heart to an inward adoration of God than this Thou that hast made all this great world and guidest and governest it and fillest and comprehendest it being thy selfe infinite and incomprehensible And I am sure there can be no higher representation of the divine greatnesse unto our selves Although withall we may find enough at home for what man that lookes no further than himselfe and sees the goodly frame of his body erected and imployed for the harbour of a spirituall and immortall soule can choose but say I will praise thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made SECT III. SVrely could we forget all the rest of the world it is enough to fetch us upon our knees and to strike an holy awe into us to think that in him we live and move and have our being For in these our particular obligations there is a mixed sense both of the greatnesse and goodnesse of our God which as it manifestly showes it selfe in the wondrous work of our excellent creation so most of all magnifies it selfe in the exceedingly gratious work of our redemption Great is thy mercy that thou mayst be feared saith the sweet Singer of Israel Lo power doth not more command this holy feare than mercy doth though both here meet together for as there was infinite mercy mixed with power in thus creating us so also there is a no lesse mighty power mixed with infinite mercy in our redemption What heart can but awfully adore thy soveraigne mercy O blessed God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ in sending thine only and coequall Sonne the Sonne of thy love the Sonne of thine eternall essence out of thy bosome downe from the height of celestiall glory into this vale of teares and death to abase himselfe in the susception of our nature to clothe himselfe with the ragges of our humanity to indure temptation shame death for us O blessed Iesu the redeemer of mankind what soule can be capable of a sufficient adoration of thine inconceive able mercy in thy meane and despicable incarnation in thy miserable and toilsome life in thy bloudy agony in thine ignominious and tormenting passion in thy wofull sense of thy fathers wrath in our stead and lastly in thy bitter and painfull death thou that knewest no sinne wert made sinne for us thou that art omnipotent would'st die and by thy death hast victoriously triumphed over death and hell It is enough O Saviour it is more than enough to ravish our hearts with love and to bruise them with a loving feare O blessed Spirit the God of comfort who but thou only can make our soules sensible of thy unspeakable mercy in applying to us the wonderfull benefit of this our deare redemption in the great work of our inchoate regeneration in the mortifying of our evill and corrupt affections in raising us to the life of grace and preparing us for the life of glory O God if mercy be proper to attract feare how must our hearts in all these respects needs be filled with all awfull regard unto thy divine bounty Oh how great is the goodnesse that thou hast laid up for those that feare thee even before the sonnes of men SECT IV. NOw we may not think this inward adoration of the greatnesse goodnes of God to be one simple act but that which is sweetly compounded of the improvement of many holy affections for there cannot but be love mixed with this feare The feare of the Lord is the beginning of love and this feare must be mixed with joy Rejoyce in him with trembling and this feare and joy is still mixed with hope For in the feare of the Lord is strong confidence and the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy As therefore we are wont to say that our bodies are not neither can bee nourished with any simple ingredient so may we truly say of our soules that they neither receive any comfort or establishment nor execute any powers of theirs by any sole single affection but require a gracious mixture for both As that father said of obedience we may truly say of grace that it is all copulative Neither may wee think that one only impression of this holy feare and inward adoration will serve the turne to season all our following disposition and carriage but there must be a virtuall continuation thereof in all the progresse of our lives Our Schooles do here seasonably distinguish of perpetuity of whether the second act when all our severall motions and actions are so held on as that there is no cessation or intermission of their performance which wee cannot here expect Or of the first act when there is an habit of this inward adoration settled upon the heart so constantly that it is never put off by what ever occurrences so as whatsoever we do whatsoever we indeavour hath a secret relation hereunto And this second way we must attaine unto if ever we will aspire to any comfort in the fruition of Gods presence here upon earth and our meet disposition towards him I have often thought of that deep and serious question of the late judicious and honourable Sir Fulke Grevil Lord Brook a man worthy of a fairer death and everlasting memory moved to a learned kinsman of mine much interessed in that Noble man who when he was discoursing of an incident matter very considerable was taken off with this quick interrogation of that wise and noble person What is that to the Infinite as secretly implying that all our thoughts and discourse must be reduced thither and
he find that the deceitfulnesse of riches will be apt to beguile good soules he deales with them as carefull gardiners are wont to do by those trees from which they expect fayre fruit abate the number of their blossomes as more caring they should be good than full Lastly then How can we account those arguments of favour which the best have had least Even the great Lord of all the world for whom heaven it selfe was too strait when he would come down and converse with men could say The Foxes have holes and the fowles of heaven have nests but the son of man hath not where to rest his head And when the tribute mony was demanded is faine to send for it to the next fish Shortly wore out his few dayes upon earth in so penall a way that his sorrowes were read in his face in so much as when he was but two and thirty yeares of age the by-standers could say Thou art not yet fifty What proofes of divine favour then are these to presume upon which the worst have which the best want which God oft-times gives in judgement denyes in mercy SECT XVII THere cannot bee a more sure remedy for presumtion of abilities than to take an exact survay of our graces both of their truth and degrees Satan is a great imposter hee that was once an Angell of light knowes how to seeme so still when hee left to bee an Angell hee began to bee a Serpent and his continuall experience cannot but have added to his Art so as he knowes how to counterfeit graces both in himselfe and his in so exquisite a fashion that it is not for every eye to discerne them from true We see to what perfection Mechanicall imitation hath attayned what precious stone hath Nature yeelded which is not so artificially counterfeited both in the colour and lustre that only the skilfull Lapidary can descry it Pearles so resembled that for whitenesse cleernesse smoothnesse they dare contend with the true Gold so cunningly multiplyed and tinctured that neither the eye can distinguish it nor the touch scarce the crucible So as Art would seeme to bee an Havilah whose Gold is good whiles Nature is an Ophir whose Gold is exceeding good What marvell is it then if crafty Spirits can make so faire representations of spirituall excellencies as may well deceive ordinary judgements The Pythonesse's Samuel was so like the true that Saul adored him for such And Iannes and Iambres made their wooden Serpent to crawle so nimbly and hisse so fiercely that till Moses his Serpent devoured theirs the beholders knew not whether were more formidable Some false things seeme more probable than many truths there must be therefore much serious and accurate disquisition ere we can passe a true judgement betwixt apparent and reall graces Neither would it aske lesse than a volume to state the differences whereby we may discriminate counterfeit vertues from true in all their severall specialties they are faced alike they are clad alike the markes are inward and scarce discernable by any but the owners eyes In a generality we shall thus descry them in our owne hearts True grace is right-bred of a divine originall and comes down from above even from the father of lights Gods spirit working with and by his own ordinances produceth it in the soule and feeds it by the same holy meanes it is wrought The counterfeit is earth-bred arising from mere nature out of the grounds of sensualialitie True grace drives at no other end than the glory of the giver and scornes to look lower than heaven The counterfeit aimes at nothing but vaine applause or carnall advantage not caring to reach an inch above his own head True grace is apt to crosse the plausiblest inclinations of corrupt nature and chears up the heart to a delihgtfull performance of all good duties as the best pastime The counterfeit is a meere parasite of fleshly appetite and findes no harshnesse but in holy devotions True grace is undantedly constant in all opposition and like a well wrought vault is so much the stronger by how much more weight it undergoes This metall is purer for the fire this Eagle can look upon the hottest Sunne The counterfeit showes most gloriously in prosperity but when the evill day commeth it looks like the skinne of a dead Camelion nasty and deformed Lastly true grace is best alone the counterfeit is all for witnesses In briefe if in a holy jealousie of our own deceitfulnesse wee shall put dayly interrogatories to our hearts and passe them under severe examinations we shall not bee in danger to presume upon our mistaken graces but the more we search the more cause we shall find of our humiliation and of an awfull recognition of Gods mercy and our own unworthinesse SECT XVIII THe way not to presume upon salvation is in an humble modesty to content our selves with the clearely revealed will of our Maker not prying into his counsells but attending his commands It is a grave word wherein the vulgar translation expresses that place of Salomon Scrutator majestatis opprimetur à gloria hee that searcheth into majesty shall bee overwhelmed with glory Amongst those sixteene places of the Bible which in the Hebrew are marked with a speciall note of regard that is one The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that wee may do all the words of this Law Wherein our maine care must bee both not to sever in our conceit the end from the meanes and withall to take the meanes along with us in our way to the end It is for the heavenly Angels to climbe downe the ladder from heaven to earth It is for us onely to climbe up from earth to heaven Bold men what do we begin at Gods eternall decree of our election and thence descend to the effects of it in our effectuall calling in our lively and stedfast faith in our sad and serious repentance in our holy and unblameable obedience in our unfaileable perseverance This course is saucily preposterous What have wee to do to be rifling the hidden counsells of the Highest Let us look to our owne wayes Wee have his word for this that if wee do truly beleeve repent obey persevere wee shall bee saved that if wee do heartily desire and effectually indeavour in the carefull use of his appointed meanes to attaine unto these saving dispositions of the soule wee shall bee sure not to faile of the successe What need wee to look any further than conscionably and cheerefully to do what we are enjoyned and faithfully and comfortably to expect what hee hath promised Let it be our care not to be wanting in the parts of our duty to God we are sure hee cannot be wanting in his gracious performances unto us But if wee in a groundlesse conceit of an election shall let loose the reines to our sinfull desires and vicious