we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens Why therefore oh why should ye be loath to part upon faire termes Thou O my soule to the possession of that happy Mansion which thy deare Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his Fathers house and thou O my body to that quiet repository of thy Grave till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the just never never to be severed Soliloq III. Heavenly Conversation IT matters not a little with whom wee hold our familiar Conversation for commonly wee are transformed into the Dispositions and manners of those whose company we frequent We daily see those who by haunting the society of Drunkards and debauched persons have from civill and orderly men growne into extremity of lewdnesse and on the contrary those who have consorted themselves with the holy and vertuous have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity Why shouldst thou not then O my soule by a continuall conversation with God and his Angels improve to an heavenly disposition Thou canst not whiles thou art here but have somewhat to doe with the world that will necessarily intrude into thy presence and force upon thee businesses unavoidable and thy secular friends may well looke to have some share in thy sociable entertainements But these are but goers and commers easily and willingly dismissed after some kind interlocutions The Company that must stick by thee is spirituall which shall never leave thee if thou have the grace to apply thy selfe to them upon all occasions Thou maist hold faire correspondence with all other not offensive companions but thy entirenesse must be onely with these Let those other be never so faithfull yet they are uncertaine bee their will never so good yet their power is limited these are never but at hand never but able and willing to make and keepe thee happy O my God thou seest how subject I am to distractions Oh hold mee close to thee Let me enter into the same company here in my Pilgrimage which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my home Solilo IV. Love unchangeable OUr younger years are wont to bee delightted with variety and to be much affected to a change although to the worse The childe is better pleased with his new Coat though the old be farre handsomer Whereas age and experience fixeth our desires and teacheth us to set the greatest vallue upon those good things wherewith we have been longest acquainted Yea it is the generall disposition of nature to be cloyed with continued blessings and upon long fruition to complaine of that good which we first commended for pleasing and beneficiall What could relish better with the Israelites the first morning than the Angels food which fell downe from heaven every day about their Campe the taste whereof was like to wafers made with honey If we stay but a while wee shall ere many yeeres heare them calling for the Onions and Garlike of Egypt and crying out Now our soule is dried away there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings both of earth and heaven and to nauseate with store Neither is any thing more tedious to us than the enjoyned repetition of a daily-tasked Devotion But contrarily Grace endeares all blessings to us by their continuance and heightens our affections where they are rightly placed by the length of the time of their enjoying O God it is thy mercy that thou hast vouchsafed to allow mee an early interest in thee even from my tender yeeres the more and longer I have known thee the more cause have I still found to love thee and adore thee Thou art ever one and unchangeable Oh make thou my heart so Devote thou me wholly unto thee and by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections inflame it so much the more in my love to thee Solil V. The happiest Object IF we could attaine to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God it would put us unto the comfortable exercise of all the affections that belong to the Soule For surely if wee could conceive aright of his Omnipotent power and transcending glory and incomprehensible infinitenesse we could not but tremble before him and be alwaies taken up with an adoring feare of him And if we could apprehend his infinite goodnesse both in himselfe and to mankinde wee could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him and should thinke our selves happy that we might bee allowed to love such a God and if we could conceive of that absolute beauty of his holinesse and blissefull presence we could not but be enflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God and if wee could apprehend all these we could not bee but both transported with an unspeakeable joy that we have a sure interest in a God so holy so good so almighty so glorious and stricken with an unexpressible griefe that we should either offend him or suffer our selves to want but for a moment the feeling presence of that all-sufficient and all-comprehending Majesty On the contrary those men begin at the wrong end who go about to draw their affections to God first and then after seeke to have their mindes enlightned with right conceits of his Essence and Attributes who meeting with those occurrent Temptations which mainly crosse them in their desires and affections are strait set off from prosecuting their good motions and are as new to seeke of a God as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven O God let it be the maine care of my life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ thy Son my Saviour I cannot through thy mercy fail of an heavenly disposition of soule whiles I am here and of a life of eternall glory with thee hereafter Solilo VI Vnchangeable duration IN the first minute wherin wee live we enter upon an eternity of being and though at the first through the want of the exercise of reason we cannot know it and afterwards through our inconsideration and the bewitching businesses of time we doe not seriously lay it to heart we are in a state of everlastingnesse there must upon the necessity of our mortality be a change of our condition but with a perpetuity of our being the body must undergo a temporary dissolution and the soule a remove either to blisse or torment but both of them upon their meeting shall continue in an unchangeable duration for ever and ever And if wee are wont to slight transitory and vanishing commodities by reason of their momentany continuance and to make most account of things durable What care and great thoughts ought I to bestow upon my selfe who shall outlast the present world and how ought I to frame my life so as it may fall upon an eternity infinitely happy and glorious O God doe thou set off my heart
spreads forth large Armes at last being growne to a meet age of vegetation it begins to grace the Spring with some fair blossoms which falling off kindly give way to a weake Embryon of fruit Every day now addes something to the growth till it attaine in Autumne to a full maturity Why should I make account of any other course in my spirituall proceedings O God I shall be alwaies ready to censure my slow pace in grace and holy obedience and shall bee ever ambitious of aspiring higher in thy gracious favour but when I shall have endeavoured my utmost I shall wait with humble patience upon thy bountifull hand as one that desires thankefully to acknowledge the little that I have received and meekely to attend thy good pleasure for what I may receive So thou bring mee to Heaven take what time and keepe what pace thou pleasest Soliloq XVII Allowable Variety IT is a great and insolent wrong in those men who shall think to reduce all dispositions and forms of Devotion and usages to their owne since in all these there may bee much variety and all those different fashions may receive a gracious acceptation in heaven One thinkes it best to hold himselfe to a set forme of Invocation another deems it farre better to be left free to his arbitrary and unpremeditated expressions one pleases himselfe with this notion of that Omnipotent Deity whom he implores another thinkes that may be more proper and affective one thinks this posture of body may bee the meetest for his humble addresse to the throne of Grace or to the Table of the Heavenly Manna another likes that better one is for a long prayer another for short ejaculations one desires to raise up his spirits with the Prophet by the aid of an harmonious melody another holds them better fixed in a sad silence one holds it best to set forth Gods service in a solemne state and magnificence another approves better of a simple and inceremonious Devotion One requires a sacred place and a peculiar habit as best becomming Gods publike worship another makes no difference of either roome or dresse One makes scruple of comming otherwise than fasting to the Lords Table another conceives it more seasonable after a Love-Feast One thinkes his Christian Liberty allowes him the moderate scope to all not-unlawfull Recreations anothers austerity interdicts all pastimes One judgeth this haire and that attire not lawfull onely but comely another thinks he espies sinne in both O God as thou hast ever shewed thy selfe justly severe in the avenging of sin so I know thee graciously indulgent in allowing thy servants much latitude in the free use of all that thou hast not prohibited In imitation whereof give me an heart holily zealous to abhorre every thing that is truely evill and charitably affected to the favourable censure of all usages that are meerely indifferent Let my maine care bee to look to the sincerity of my Soule and to the sure grounds of warrant for my actions For other circumstantiall appurtenances where thou art pleased to be liberall let mee not be strait-handed Soliloq XVIII Misconstructions of holinesse IT is no marvell if there bee nothing that undergoes more variety of constructions from the lookers on than holinesse for that being an inward gracious disposition of the soule conformed to God in all the renewed faculties thereof lyes so close in the bosome that it can only be guessed at by such uncertaine emanations of words and actions as flow from it to the eares and eyes of others The particular graces and affections of Love Feare Hope Joy godly Sorrow Zeale and the rest breake forth apparently in such symptomes and effects as may win a certainty of beliefe from the beholders neither indeed are easily concealed from the view of others all these may bee read in the face but if the heart it self could be seen and that curiously dissected yet even thus could not holinesse be discovered Beside the closenesse every man is apt to measure his judgement of holinesse by a false rule of his own whereby it comes to passe that it is so commonly mis-taken One thinkes him holy that forsakes the World and retires into some wilde Desert or mures up himselfe in an Anchorites Cell Another judges him holy that macerates his body with Fasting that disciplines his hide with whips and haire clothes that lies hard and fares hard that abstaines from all that relates to flesh in his Lent and Embers that passionately hugges his Crucifix and tosses his Beads and duely observes his Shrifts and Canonicall houres Now this man that in their way is in danger of Canonization for a Saint is by the professor of an opposite holinesse decryed to hell for superstition and Idolatry One stiles him holy who segregates himselfe from the contagious Communion of formall Christians professing to serve his God in a purer way of worship rejecting all stinted formes of Prayer and Psalmony spitting at the mention of an Hierarchy allowing no head sacred but by the imposition of what we miscall Laick hands abandoning all Ceremonies of humane Institution abiding no Circumstances of Divine Worship but Apostolicall Another allowes him onely holy who is already a Citizen of the new Jerusalem advanced to such an entirenesse with God as that hee is no lesse than glorified hee hath left the Scriptures below him as a weake and dead Letter and is farre above all whatsoever Ordinance Yea which I tremble to report above the blood of Christ himselfe A third reputes him onely holy who having left the Society of all Churches as too impure stands now alone waiting for some Miracles from Heaven to settle his Resolution Now Lord after all these and many more weake and idle misprisions upon the sure and unfailing grounds of Truth thy Word is Truth I know that man to bee truely holy whose understanding is enlightened with right apprehensions of thee and Heavenly things whose Will and Affections are rightly disposed to thee so as his heart is wholly taken up with thee whose Conversation is so altogether with thee that he thinkes all time lost wherein hee doth not enjoy thee and a sweet and heavenly Communion with thee walking perpetually with thee and labouring in all things to bee approved of thee O God doe thou worke me up to this temper and keepe me still in it and then however I may differ in a construction of holinesse from others that thinke themselves more perfect howsoever I may bee censured as defective in my judgement or affections yet I doe not without sound and sensible comfort know that my Judge is in Heaven and my Witnesse in my bosome Soliloq XIX Two Heavens in one I Was wont to say It is in vaine for a man to hope for and impossible for him to enjoy a double heaven one below and another above since our sufferings here one earth must make way for our future glory but now I finde it in a better sense very faisible for a
on what load thou pleasest since the more I bear the more thou enablest me to bear and the more I shall desire to bear the world hath so clogg'd me this while with his worthlesse and base lumber that I have beene ready to sinke under the weight and what have I got by it but a lame shoulder and a galled backe O doe thou free me from this unprofitable and painfull luggage and ease my soule with the happy change of thy gracious impositions so shall thy yoake not bee easie onely but pleasing so shall thy fulfilled wil be so far from a burden to me that it shall bee my greatest delight upon earth and my surest and comfortablest evidence for heaven Soliloq XXVII Joy intermitted WHat a lightsomenesse of heart do I now feele in my selfe for the present out of a comfortable sense of thy presence O my God and the apprehension of my interest in thee Why should it not be thus alwaies with me Surely thine Apostle bids me rejoyce continually and who would not wish to do so for there is little difference betwixt joy and happinesse neither was it ghessed ill by him that defined that man onely to be happy that is alwayes delighted and certainely there is just cause why I should be thus alwaies affected Thou O my God art still and alwaies the same yea the same to me in all thy gracious relations of a mercifull Father a loving Saviour a sweet Comforter Yea thou art my head and I am a limb of thy mysticall Body Such I am and shall ever be Thou canst no more change than not be and for me my crosses and my sinnes are so farre from separating me from thee that they make mee hold of thee the faster But alas though the just grounds of my joy be steady yet my weake disposition is subject to variablenesse Whiles I carry this flesh about me my soule cannot but be much swayed with the temper of my body which sometimes inclines me to a dull listlesnesse and a dumpish heavinesse of heart and sadnesse of spirit so as I am utterly unapt to all cheerfull thoughts and finde work enough to pull my affections out of this stiffe clay of the earth and to raise them up to heaven Besides this joy of the holy Ghost is a gift of thy divine bounty which thou dispensest when and how thou pleasest not alwaies alike to thy best Favourites on earth Thou that givest thy Sun and Raine dost not command thy Clouds alwaies to be dropping nor those beams to shine continually upon any face there would bee no difference betwixt the proceedings of nature and grace if both produced their effects in a set and constant regularity and what difference should I finde betwixt my pilgrimage and my home if I should here be taken up with a perpetuity of heavenly joy should I alwaies thus feelingly enjoy thee my life of faith should bee changed into a life of sense It is enough for me O God that above in those Regions of blisse my joy in thee shall be full and permanent if in the mean while it may please thee that but some flashes of that Celestiall light of joy may frequently glance into my soule It shall suffice if thou give me but a taste of those heavenly pleasures whereon I shall once liberally feast with thee to all eternity Soliloq XXVIII Vniversall Interest IT was a noble praise that was given to that wise Heathen that hee so carried himselfe as if hee thought himselfe born for all the world Surely the more universal a mans beneficence is so much is it more commendable and comes so much neerer to the bounty of that great God who openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness There are too many selfish men whose spirits as in a close retort are cooped up within the compasse of their owne concernments whose narrow hearts think they are born for none but themselves Others that would seeme good natur'd men are willing enough to enlarge themselves to their kindred whom they are carefull to advance with neglect of all others however deserving some yet more liberall minded can be content to be kinde and open-handed to their neighbours and some perhaps reach so farre as to professe a readinesse to do all good offices to their Countrey-men but here their largesse findes its utmost bounds All these dispositions are but inclosures Give mee the open Champaine of a generall and illimited benefacture Is he rich hee scatters his seed abroad by whole handfulls over the whole ridge and doth not drop it downe betweene his fingers into the severall furrowes His bread is cast upon the waters also Is he knowing and learned He smothers not his skil in his bosome but freely laies it out upon the common stock not so much regarding his private contentment as the publike proficiency Is he deepely wise Hee is ready to improve all his cares and counsels to the advancement and preservation of peace justice and good order amongst men Now although it is not in the power of any but persons placed in the highest Orbe of Authority actually to oblige the world to them Yet nothing hinders but that men of meaner ranke may have the will to bee thus universally beneficent and may in preparation of mind be zealously affected to lay themselves forth upon the common good O Lord if thou hast given me but a private and short hand yet give mee a large and publick heart Soliloq XXIX The spirituall Bedleem HE that with wise Solomon affects to know not wisedome onely but Madnesse and Folly let him after a serious observation of the sober part of the world obtaine of himselfe to visit Bedleem and to looke into the severall Cells of distracted persons where it is a world to see what strange varieties of humors and passions shall present themselves to him Here he shall see one weeping and wringing his hands for a meerely-imaginary disaster there another holding his sides in a loud laughter as if hee were made all of mirth here one mopishly stupid and so fixed to his posture as if he were a breathing statue there another apishly active and restless here one ragingly fierce and wreaking his causeless anger on his chaine there another gloriously boasting of a mighty stile of Honour whereto his rags are justly intitled and when he hath wondred a while at this woefull spectacle let him know and consider that this is but a slight image of those spirituall phrensies wherewith the world is miserably possessed The persons affected believe it not surely should I goe about to perswade any of these guests of Bedleem that in deed he is mad and should therefore quietly submit himselfe to the meanes of cure I should be more mad than he Only dark rooms and cords and Ellebore are meet receits for these mentall distempers In the meane while the sober and sad beholders too well see these mens wits out of the socket and are ready out
think it to be above When thou art all in all to us what can the knowledge of any creature adde to our blessednesse And if when we casually meet with a Brother or a Son before some great Prince we forbeare the ceremonies of our mutuall respects as being wholly taken up with the awfull regard of a greater presence how much more may we justly think that when wee meet before the glorious Throne of the God of heaven all the respects of our former earthly relations must utterly cease and bee swallowed up of that beatificall presence divine love and infinitely blessed fruition of the Almighty O God it is my great comfort here below to thinke and know that I have parents or children or brothers and sisters or friends already in possession of glory with thee and to believe assuredly that in my time I shall bee received to the association of their blessednesse but if upon the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle I may be admitted to the sight of thy all-glorious essence and may set eye upon the face of my blessed Saviour now sitting at the right hand of thine incomprehensible Majesty attended with those millions of his heavenly Angels I shall neither have need nor use of enquiring after my kindred according to the flesh What can fall into my thoughts or desires beside or beyond that which is infinite Soliloq XXXIV Poor Greatnesse I Cannot but look with much pitty mixed with smiles upon the vaine worldling that sets up his rest in these outward things and so pleases himselfe in this condition as if he thought no man happy but himselfe how high he looks how big he speakes how proudly hee struts with what scorne and insultation doth he look upon my dejectednesse the very language of his eye is no other than contempt seeming to say Base Indigent thou art stript of all thy wealth and honour thou hast neither flocks nor heards nor lands nor mannors nor bagges nor barne-fulls nor titles nor dignities all which I have in abundance no man regards thy meanenesse I am observed with an awfull veneration Be it so great Sir thinke I enjoy you your height of honor and heaps of treasure and ceremonies of state whiles I go shrugging in a thred-bare coat and am glad to feed on single dishes and to sleepe under a thatched roofe But let me tell you set your all against my nothing if you have set your heart upon these gay things were you the heire of all the earth I would be loath to change conditions with your eminence and will take leave to tell you that at your best you shall fall within my commiseration It is not in the power of all your earthly privileges to render you other than a miserable vassall If you have store of gold alas it is but made up into feetters and manicles and what is all your outward bravery but meere matter of opinion I shall shew you an Indian slave that shall no lesse pride himselfe in a Bracelet of Glasse beades that you can in your richest Jewels of Rubies and Diamonds All earthly things are as they are valued The wise and Almighty Maker of these earthen Mines esteemes the best Metals but as thicke Clay and why should we set any other price of them than their Creator And if we be wont to measure the worth of al things by their vertues and uses and operations what is it that your wealth can do Can it free you from cares can it lengthen your sleeps can it keepe you from head-aches from Gouts Dropsies Feavers and other bodily distempers can it ransome you from death can it make your account easier in the great day of reckoning Are you ever the wiser ever the holier ever the quieter for that which you have purchased with teares and blood And were it so precious as you imagine what hold have you of it what assurance to enjoy it or your self but one hour As for despised me I have wealth that you know not of My riches are invisible invaluable interminable God all-sufficient is mine and with him all things My treasure is not lockt up in earth or in heaven but fils both My substance is sure not obnoxious to plunder or loss or diminution No man hath bled no widow or orphan hath wept for my enriching The onely difference is this You are miserable and think your self happy I am happy whom you think miserable How ever our thoughts may beare us out in both for a while yet at the last except truth it selfe can deceive us the issue must fall on my side O God be thou my portion and the lot of mine inheritance let the scum of the world spit in my face as the most despicable of all creatures I am above the despight of men and devils and am secretly happy and shall be eternally glorious Soliloq XXXV Acceptation of Desires WHat a comfort it is to us weake wretches that we have to deal with a mercifull God that measures us not by our performances but by the truth of our desires David had a goodmind to build God an House his hands were too bloody to lay the foundation of so holy a fabrick Yet God takes it as kindly from him as if hee had finished the work and rewards the intention of building an house to his Name with the actuall building of an house to David for ever Good Ezekiah knew how easie and welcome a sute he made when after all endeavours of sanctifying the people for the celebration of that great Passeover he prayed The Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke God the Lord God of his Fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary Alas we cannot be but lame in all our obediences What can fall from defective causes but imperfect effects If we pray we are apt to entertaine unmeet notions of the infinite Spirit to whom wee addresse our supplications and suddain glances of wandring thoughts If we read or hear wee are subject to vaine distractions if wee approach Gods table our souls fail of that exact preparation purity wherewith they should be decked when they come to that celestiall banquet If we doe the workes of Justice or Mercy it is not without some light touch of self-respect well may we say with the blessed Apostle The good that I would I do not we should therefore finde just cause of discouragement in our selves if our best actions were to bee weighed by their own worth and not by our better intentions But that gracious God who puts good desires into us is so ready to accept of them that he looks not so much at what wee have done as at what we wisht to have done and without respect to our defect crownes our good affections All that I can say for my selfe O my God is that the desire of my heart is to please thee in all things my comfort then is though my abilities fail in the
raked up in the Embers of my soule and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation Soliloq XLI Deaths Remembrancers EVery thing that I see furnishes me with fair monitions of my dissolution If I look into my garden there I see some flowers fading some withered If I look to the earth I see that mother in whose wombe I must lie If I goe to Church the graves that I must step over in my way shew me what I must trust to If I look to my Table death is in every Dish since what I feed on did once live If I look into my glasse I cannot but see death in my face If I goe to my bed there I meet with sleepe the Image of death and the sheets which put mee in minde of my winding up If I look into my study what are all those books but the monuments of other dead authors O my soul how canst thou bee unmindfull of our parting when thou art plyed with so many monitors Cast thine eyes abroad into the world what canst thou see but killing and dying Cast thine eyes up into heaven how canst thou but thinke of the place of thy approaching rest How justly then may I say with the Apostle By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily And Lord as I daily die in the decay of this fraile nature so let me die daily in my affection to life in my preparation for death O do thou fit me for that last and happy change Teach me so to number my daies that I apply my heart to wisdom and addresse it to ensuing glory Soliloq XLII Faiths Victory WEE are here in a perpetuall warfare and fight wee must Surely either fight or dye some there are that doe both That is according as the quarrell is and is managed There are those that fight against God these medling with so unequall a match cannot looke to prevaile Again The flesh warreth against the spirit this intestine rebellion cannot hope to prosper but if with the chosen vessell I can say I have fought a good fight I can neither lose life nor misse of victory And what is that good fight Even the same Apostle tels me the fight of faith this is the good fight indeed both in the cause and managing the issue Lo this faith it is that wins God to my side that makes the Almighty mine that not only ingages him in my cause but unites me to him so as his strength is mine In the power of his might therefore I cannot but be victorious over all my spirituall enemies by the onely meanes of this faith For Satan This Shield of faith is it that shall quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one For the world this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Be sure to finde thy self furnished with this grace and then say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly the powers of Hell shall not bee able to stand before thee they are mighty and have all advantages of a spirituall nature of long duration and experience of place of subtilty Yet this conquering grace of faith is able to give them the foile and to trample over all the powers of darknesse O my Lord God doe thou arme and fortifie my soule with a lively and stedfast faith in thee I shall not feare what man or Divell can doe unto me settle my heart in a firme reliance upon thee and turne mee loose to what enemy thou pleasest Soliloq XLIII The unfailing Friend NExt to the joy of a good conscience there is no greater comfort upon earth than the enjoyment of dear friends neither is there any thing more sad than their parting and by how nearer their relations are so much greater is our sorrow in forgoing them What moane did good David make both for Absalon as a Sonne though ungracious and for Jonathan as a friend Surely when our dear ones are pulled away from us we seeme to have limbes torne away from our bodies yet this is a thing must bee lookt for wee are given to each other or lent rather upon condition of parting either they must leave us or we them a parting there must bee as sure as there was a meeting It is our fault if we set our hearts too much upon that which may yea which must be lost Be wise O my soul and make sure of such friends as thou canst not be bereaved of Thou hast a God that hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee It was an easie sute and already granted which the holy Psalmist made Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth And againe When my Father and my Mother forsake me in their farewell to a better world yet then the Lord will take me up It is an happy thing to have immortall friends sticke close unto them O my soule and rejoyce in them evermore as those that shall sweetly converse with thee here and shall at last receive thee into everlasting habitations Soliloq XLIV Quiet Humility HE is a rare man that is not wise in his owne conceit and that saies not within himselfe I see more than my neighbours For wee are all borne proud and selfe-opinionate and when we are come to our imaginary maturity are apt to say with Zedechiah to those of better judgement than our own which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wilde paradoxes both in Philosophy and Religion wherewith the world abounds every where When our fancy hath entertained some uncouth thought our selfe-love is apt to hatch it up our confidence to broach it and our obstinacy to maintain it and if it bee not too monstrous there will not want some credulous fools to abet it so as the onely way both to peace and truth is true Humility which will teach us to thinke meanly of our own abilities to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity greater sanctity deeper insight of our blessed Predecessors This onely will keepe us in the beaten road without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths Teach me O Lord evermore to think my self no whit wiser than I am so shall I neither bee vainly irregular nor the Church troublesomely unquiet Soliloq XLV Sure Mercies THere is nothing more troublesome in humane society than the disappoint of trust and failing of friends For besides the disorder that it works in our owne affaires it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to others The leaning upon a broken Reed gives us both a fall and a wound Such is a false friend who after professions of love and reall offices either slinkes from us or betrayes us This is that which the great patterne of patience so bitterly complaines of as none of his least afflictions My Kinsfolk have
failed me and my familiar friends have forgotten me It went to the heart of David that his owne familiar friend in whom hee trusted which did eate of his bread should lift up his heele against him And surely those that are stanch and faithfull in themselves cannot but bee so much the more deeply affected with the perfidious dealing of others and yet also so much the more as their confidence and entirenesse was greater this was that which heightned the vexation of that man who is so famous for the integrity of his heart It was thou O man mine equall my guide my acquaintance we took sweet counsell together and walked to the house of God in company And still our daily experience gives us miserable instances in this kinde Hee hath had little to doe in the world that hath not spent many a sigh upon others faithlesness And now O my soule the more sad proofe thou hast had of the untrusty disposition and carriage of men the more it concernes thee to betake thy selfe in all zealous absolute affiance unto the sure protection and never-fayling providence of thy God the God who being Truth it selfe never did never can forfeit his Trust to any soule that relyed upon his most certaine promises upon his promised mercies upon his mercifull and just performances My soule wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He onely is my Rock and my salvation In God is my salvation and my glory the Rocke of my strength and my refuge is in God It shall not trouble thee to send men false whiles thou hast such a true God to have recourse unto Soliloq XLVI Dangerous Prosperity IT was a just and needfull precaution O God which thou gavest of old to thine Israel When thou shalt have eaten and art full then beware lest thou forget the Lord There was not so great feare of forgetting thee whiles they were in an hungry and dry Wilderness although even there they did too often forget themselves in an ungracious murmuring against thee and their Leaders the greatest danger of their forgetting Thee would be thou knewest when they should come to be pampered in the Land that flowed with Milk and Honey There it was that accordingly Jesurum waxed fat and kicked there being growne thick and covered with fatnesse he forsooke God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation Nothing is more difficult than to keep our selves from growing wanton by excess whereas nature kept low is capable of just obedience Like as in the body also a full feed breeds superfluous and vicious humors wheras a spare diet keeps it both clean and healthfull Do not I see O Lord even the man that was after thine owne heart whiles thou kepst him in breath with the prosecution of an unjust Master how tenderly consciencious hee was remorsed in himselfe for but cutting off a lappe of the robe of his causelesse pursuer who yet when he came to the full scope of his ease and Courtly jollity made no scruple of the adulterous bed of faire Bathsheba or the bloody murther of a faithfull Vriah Who was I O Lord that I should promise my self an immunity from the perill of a prosperous condition under which thy holier servants have miscarried It was thy goodnesse and wisdome who fore-seest not what shall be onely but what might bee also in prevention of the danger of my surfeit to take away the dish whereon I might have over-fed O God I do humbly submit to thy good pleasure and contentedly rest upon thy Providence which hast thought fit rather to secure me in the safe use of my little than to exercise mee with the temptations of a bewitching plenty Soliloq XLVII Cheerfull Obedience IT is not so much the worke that God stands upon as the mind of the worker The same act may bee done with the thanke and advantage of one agent and with frowns and disrespect to another If we doe our businesse grudgingly and because we must out of the necessity of our subsistence we shall have as much thanke to sit still It is our owne need that sets our hands on work not our obedience So as herein wee are our own slaves not Gods servants Whereas if we go about the workes of our calling cheerfully offering them up to God as our willing sacrifice in an humble compliance with his commands and an awfull and comfortable expectation of his gracious acceptance we are blessed in our holy endeavours and cannot faile of an Euge from our Master in Heaven Alas Lord it is but little that I can doe and without thy enabling nothing Thou that vouchsafest to give me an abilitation to the worke put into me also good affections to thee in performing of it Let me doe thy will here as thy Angels doe in heaven with all gracious readinesse and alacrity and be no lesse glad that I shall doe it than that it is done so whiles carnall hearts shall languish under their forced taskes my labour shall be my pleasure and I shall finde unspeakable comfort both in the conscience of my act and the crown of my obedience Soliloq XLVIII Heavenly Accordance AS our condition here upon earth is different so must our affection needs be also that which is one mans joy is anothers griefe one mans fear is another mans hope neither can it be otherwise while our occasions draw us to so manifest contradictions of disposition These diversities and contrarieties of inclination and desire are the necessary symptomes of our wretched mortality and the nearer we grow to the perfection of our blessednesse the more shall we concentrate in the united scope of all our actions and affections which is the sole glory of our Creator Know then O my soul that the closer thou canst gather up thy selfe in all the exercise of thy faculties and proposals of thy desires to the only respect of the honour of that great and good God which gave thee thy being thou aspirest so much nearer to thy heaven where all the blessed Saints and Angels agree together in one perpetuall imployment of praising their Maker and sweetly accord in that one most perfect ditty and note of an eternall Allelujah to him that sits upon the Throne of that Celestiall glory O God doe thou draw in my heart more and more from this variety of earthly distractions and fixe it upon this one heavenly worke put me upon that blessed Taske here below which shall never know any end but endure for ever in heaven Soliloq XLIX Divine Bounty HAd not the Apostle said so yet our owne sense and experience would have told us that every good and perfect gift is from above and commeth downe from the Father of Lights For sure from below it cannot come How should any perfect gift arise from the region of all imperfection How should evill afford any good What is below but earth and hell whereof the one
spirits O God doe thou quicken my spirituall dulnesse in thy holy service and when I come to Celebrate thy great Name whiles the Song is in my mouth let my heart be the stage wherein Trumpets and Psalteries and Harps shall sound forth thy praise Soliloq LXXVII Blemishes of the holy function I Cannot but blesse my selfe at the sight of that strange kinde of curiosity which is reported to have been used in the choice of those who were of old admitted to serve at the Altar If Levi must bee singled out from all Israel yet thousands must bee refused of the Tribe of Levi Wee are told that notwithstanding that priviledge of bloud no lesse than an hundred and forty blemishes might exclude a man from this sacred Ministration whereof nineteen in the eyes nine in the eares twenty in the feet such an holy nicenesse there was in the Election of the legall Priesthood that if there were not found an exact symmetrie of all parts of the body not comelines onely but a perfection of outward forme in those Levitical Candidates they might by no meanes be allowed to serve in the Sanctuary they might have place in some out-roomes and cleave Wood for the Altar and might claime a portion in the holy things but they might not meddle with the sacred Utensils nor set foot upon the floor of the holy place It was thy charge O God that those Sons of Aaron which drew neare to thee should be void of blemish thou which wouldst have the beasts of thy Sacrifice free from bodily imperfection wouldst much more have thy Sacrificers so The generality of the Command was thine the particularities of the numbers are Traditionall And well might the care of these outward observations agree with the pedagogie of that law which consisted in externall rites but we well know it was the inward purity of the heart and integrity of an unspotted life that thou meant'st to aime at under the figure of these bodily perfections which if it were wanting it was not a skin-deep beauty and exquisitenesse of shape that could give a son of Aaron an allowed accesse to thine Altar Hophni and Phinehas the ill sonnes of good Eli were outwardly blemishlesse else they had not been capable of so holy aâ—… attendance but their insolencies and beastlinesse made them more loathsome to thee than if they had been Lepers or Monsters of outward deformity And can wee thinke that thou hast lesse regard to the purity of the Evangelicall Ministerie than thou formerly hadst of the Legall Can we think the spirituall blemishes of thine immediate servants under the Gospel can be a lesse eye-sore to thee than the externall blemishes of thy Priesthood under the Law Oh that my head were waters and mine eies a fountaine of teares that I might weep night and day for the enormities of those who professe to waite on thy Evangelicall Sanctuary My sorrow and piety cannot but bewaile them to thee though my charity forbids me to blazon them to the world Oh thou that art as the Refiners fire and the Fullers soap doe thou purifie all the sonnes of thy spirituall Levi Do thou purge them as Gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousnesse Then shall the Offerings of our Judah and Jerusalem bee pleasant to the Lord as in the daies of old and as in former yeers Soliloq LXXVIII The blessed Reward WHen Paulinus came first into this Island to preach the Gospell to our then-Pagan Ancestors King Edwin thought good to consult with his Priests and Nobles whether it were best to give any entertainment to the Christian Religion which was by that stranger Preached and recommended to his people Up starts one Coifi the Arch-Priest of those Heathen Idols and freely saies There is no vertue or goodnesse O King in this Religion which wee have hitherto embraced There is none of all thy Subjects that hath more studiously addicted himselfe to the Service and worship of our gods than my selfe Yet I am sure there are many that have prospered better and have received more favours from thee than I have done And if our gods could doe any thing they would rather have been beneficent to me that have most carefully served them It remaines then that if these new doctrines which are preacht to us bee found upon examination to bee better and more availeable that without all delay we do readily receive and welcome them Thus spake a true Idols Priest that knew no Ell whereby to measure Religion but Profit no proofe of a just Cause but successe no Conviction of Injustice but mis-carriage Yea even thine Altars O righteous God were never quit of some such mercenary attendants who seek for onely gain in godliness If the Queene of Heaven afford them better penny worths and more plenty than the King of Heaven she shall have their Cakes and their Incense and their hearts to boot I know thee O Lord to be a munificent Rewarder of all that serve thee yet if thou shouldest give me no wages I will serve thee If thou shouldest pay mee with hunger and stripes and prisons and death I will serve thee Away base thoughts of earthly remuneration I will honour and serve thee O God for thine owne sake for thy services sake yet I have no reason not to regard thine infinite bounty It is no lesse than a Crown that thou hast promised me and that I shall humbly aspire unto and expect from thee not as in the way of my merit but of thy meer mercy My service is free in a zealous and absolute Consecration to thee thy hand is more free in my so gracious Retribution If thou be pleased to give thy servant such a weight of glory the glory of that Gift is thine My service is out of my just duty thy Reward is of thy Grace and divine Beneficence Doe thou give me to doe what thou bidst me and then deal with me as thou wilt As the glory of thy Name is the drift of all my actions so the glory that thou givest mee cannot but redound to the glory of thine infinite mercy Blessed bee thy Name in what thou givest whiles thou makest mee blessed in what I receive from thee Soliloq LXXIX Presages of Judgement SEldome ever doe wee read of any great mutation in Church or State which is not usher'd in with some strange Prodigies either raining of Bloud or apparitions of Comets or airy Armies fighting in the Clouds or Sea-Monsters appearing or monstrous Births of men or Beasts or bloudy Springs breaking out or direfull noises heard or some such like uncouth premonitors which the great and holy God sends purposely to awaken our Security and to prepare us either for expectation or prevention of Judgements wherein the mercy of God marvellously magnifies it selfe towards sinnefull Man-kind that he wills not to surprise us with unwarned evills but would have his punishments anticipated by a seasonable
onely sick of thy love but ready and desirous to die for thee that I may enjoy thee Oh let me not endure that any worldly heart should be more enamoured of these earthly beauties which are but varnished rottennes than I am of thee who art of absolute and infinite perfections and bestowest them in being loved Oh when shall the day be wherein thou wilt make up these blessed Nuptials and endow me with a ful participation of that glory wherewith thou art invested from and to all eternity whereto have all thy sweet favours and gracious love-tokens tended but to this issue of blessednesse Oh doe thou Crown all thy mercies in me and mee with immortality SECT. X. VPon this desire of fruition if thou wouldst be truly happy there must follow a constant prosecution of that desire for if thy wishes be never so fervent yet if they be onely volatile and transient they shall be able to availe thee little slight and flickering motions of good if they be not followed with due indeavours sort to no effect Content not thy selfe therefore O my soule that thou hast entertained into thy selfe some affective thoughts of thy beatitude but settle thy selfe in firme resolutions to pursue and perpetuate them Let them not call in as strangers but dwell in thee as in-mates never to be by any secular occasions dislodged These morning dewes of holy dispositions which are ready to be exhaled with every gleam of worldly prosperity as they finde little acceptance from God so they are able to afford small comfort to thee as whose condition is such that they leave thee more disconsolate in their vanishing than they yielded thee pleasure in their momentany continuance Be thou able to say with holy David my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed and then thou maiest well adde I will sing and give praise otherwise thy distracted thoughts will admit no cause of sound joy In this case it fals out with thee O my soul as with some fond child who eagerly following a Bee in hope of her bag sees a gay Butterflie crosse his way and thereupon leaves his first chase and runs after those painted wings but in that pursute seeing a Bird flie close by him hee leaves the flie in hope of a better purchase but in the meane time is disappointed of all and catcheth nothing It mainely behoves thee therefore to keep up thy Cogitations and Affections close to these heavenly objects and to check them whensoever thou perceivest an inclination to their wandring like as the carefull Huntsman when he findes his Hound offering to follow after a new game rates him off and holds him to his first sent Whither are yee stray O my thoughts what means this sinfull and lossefull inconstancy Can yee bee happier in a change Is there any thing in this miserable world that can be worthy to carry you away from the hopes and affectations of blessednesse Have yee not full often complained of the worthlesnesse and satiety of these poore vanities here below Have yee not found their promises false their performances unsatisfactory their disappointment irksome Away then yee frivolous temptations and solicit those mindes that are low and empty like your selves For me I disdaine your motions and being taken up with higher imployments scorne to descend to your base suggestions which tend to nothing but meer earthliness But as there is no fire which will not go out if it be not fed it cannot be enough that thou hast entertained these gracious resolutions unlesse thou doe also supply and nourish them with holy meditations devout prayers continual ejaculations and the due frequentation of all the holy ordinances of thy God without which if they shall languish through thy neglect thou shalt finde double more worke and difficulty in reviving them than there could have been in maintaining and upholding them in their former vigour Bee not therefore wanting to thy selfe in the perpetuall exercise and improvement of all those holy meanes that may further and perfect these heavenly longings after salvation thy God shall not be wanting to thee in blessing thee with an answerable successe SECT. XI IT is the just praise of the marvailous bounty of thy God O my soule that he will fulfill the desires of them that feare him If therefore thou canst hunger and thirst after righteousnesse if thy heart can yearn after heaven he shall bee sure to satisfie thee with goodnesse and not onely shall bring thee home at the last to that land of promised blessednesse but in the meane time also put thee into an inchoate fruition of happinesse which is the next degree of thine ascent to heaven That which is complete may bee the surest rule of knowing and judging of that which is imperfect Wherein doth the perfection of heavenly blisse consist but in a perpetuall enjoying the presence of God in a cleare vision of the divine Essence in a perfect union with God and an eternall participation of his life and glory Now as grace is glory begun and glory is grace consummate so dost thou O my soule being wrought to it by the power of the Spirit of thy God even in this life how weakely soever enter upon all these acts and privileges of Beatitude Even here below thou art never out of the presence of thy God and that presence can never be other than glorious and that it is not beatificall here is not out of any deficiency in it but in thine own miserable incapacity who whiles thou abidest in this vale of tears and art clogged with this flesh art no fit subject of so happy a condition Yea that blessed presence is ever comfortably acknowledged by thee and enjoyed with such contentment and pleasure that thou wouldst not part with it for a world and that thou justly accountest all earthly delights but meer vexations to that alone Whom have I in heaven but thee and what doe I desire on earth in comparison of thee A Balaam could say how truly soever I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh But Lord I see thee even now I behold thee so nigh me that I live in thee and would rather die than live without thee I see thee though weakly and dimly yet trulie and reallie I see thee as my God all-sufficient as my powerfull Creator my mercifull Redeemer my gracious comforter I see thee the living God the Father of Lights the God of Spirits dwelling in light inaccessible animating filling comprehending this glorious world and doe awfully adore thine infinitenesse Neither doe I looke at thee with a trembling astonishment as some dreadfull stranger or terrible avenger but I behold thy majesty so graciously complying with my wretchednesse that thou admittest mee to a blessed union with thee I take thee at thy Word O dear Saviour even that sweet word of impetration which thou wert pleased to utter unto thy coeternal Father immediately before thy meritorious passion