omitted which is reasonable to be done Soul No certainly Light And is it not reasonable that every lovely thing should be lov'd and if any person have any lovelinesse that there should be a poize and proportion of love for every grain of it in him Soul All this is just and reasonable Light Take notice then there shall not be the least good quality in you which shall not by every one be lov'd for its being what it is and your self be belov'd for its being in you wherefore sit down and consider what the things are for which in this world you reasonably desire to be esteem'd and know you shall be lov'd for them above as much as they can deserve as much as you can wish Soul Peradventure they are things I shall not carry with me as wholly or in part belonging to my body Light No matter You shall be belov'd there because you had such things in time and place wherein 't was fit to have them Soul Now surely I have ground enough without farther curiosity or dispute to presume upon the content I desire since you have so plainly and evidently demonstrated it But I know not whether I am arriv'd at my hopes for I feel in my self an expectation that my familiar friends and kindred and such as I my self particularly love should likewise return me a speciall love Light Fear not you shall have that also For mark well the principle I told you that there should not be the least thing love-worthy in you but you shall be especially belov'd for it Now then if Friendship Kindred Acquaintance c. be things which put a particular obligation of love upon those persons betwixt whom they are you will be more lovely to them for these very respects wherefore all those will love you more especially then any others which I think is that you express'd to be your desire Soul Yes this is well but yet a little difficulty molests me I have been taught that God loves most and next to himself the Angels or Saints according as they are in degree under him then if the lowest love me as much as I deserve others will love me more then I deserve which is against reason and so impossible Light Two things are to be considered in love first the comparison of one beloved object to another and this way all will love you according to your desert for none shall prefer any thing lesse lovely before you nor you before any thing more lovely a second consideration is the strength of the affection we call Love which being according to the nature out of which it proceeds in all above your condition will be greater then you deserve in all under you weaker according to the proportion of their natures and strengths Soul Yet one thing more comes into my mind I see some strong natures in whom though by reall effects it evidently appeares they love their friend yet there is no tendernesse you can observe no motion of love in their hearts no shew in their change of countenance such a love gives me small content Shall we therefore have in Heaven a melting sweet delicious love or onely those strong and solid thoughts which as they are very good so are they far from giving that pleasure which this other soft and gentle love affords Light Would you not think that man unreasonable who being cold and brought to a good fire should refuse to warm himself because there was no smoak he having been alwayes accustomed to smoaky fires Soul Yes certainly for he contradicts his own pretence smoak being a hindrance to the heating he desires besides other inconveniences which render it offensive Light Such is the passion you call Love to that which truly is Love for everything being to be discern'd by the effects you shall see those who are most given to this whining sort of love least active to help themselves but wholly abandoned up to the following of their Passion without indeavouring to procure what they desire So in grief if you see one fit still weeping and despairing you count him womanish and not so much that his sorrow is great as that a little overcomes him Besides this passion is but an expression of the inward mind or rather a wasting of it for we see that ordinarily weeping eases and discharges the heart which becomes lighter after such venting of it self by tears So that this which you desire to have in Heaven is not love but an expression or concomitant of it weakning and disturbing the affection for the present and wasting it for the future and therefore not fit to give content to such as understand the happinesse of enjoying a place in Heaven The sixth discourse Soul THere 's yet another thing wherein I find a great inclination and drawing of Nature and certainly 't is agreeable to some principle within me though this kind of delight appears not so sensibly 't is in hearing and understanding what passes in the world I cannot espie a whisper but I long to know about what ' t was If any of my neighbours or acquaintance have met with any change of fortune I cannot endure to have it concealed from me nay the more secret such an accident is the greater is my eagernesse to know it though as I said I observe not those sensible effects in this sort of Pleasure as in the former unlesse there happen a speciall reason out of some other consideration to raise them And perhaps the curiosity of hearing news proceeds from the same cause and belongs to the same head as also the love I have to reading Histories knowing what pass'd in our forefathers times for this I perceive I long after though I finde not therein such apparent delight as in other entertainments Light And why do you not mention too the feign'd Histories Romances which the world is full of find you no delight in them Soul Yes very great sensible they being wholy contriv'd and fram'd both in subject fashion and style to move nay even violently to force our delight These therefore I did not range under this Head as likewise seeing of Playes because the content arising from them seems to be of a higher order then those other pleasures I mentioned Light See you not that other Histories and these are of one nature though of different fashions So that the delight reap'd out of both must also of necessity be of the same nature And as for Playes they are but the ample expression of some little part of that which compriz'd more shortly makes a History so that they all agree in substance though differ from one another in circumstances Tell me then what is it that pleases you in all these things Soul For playes and feigned Histories I perceive my self taken with the Passions due to the subject represented I see I have a tendernesse and compassion towards those who suffer imnocently I abhor cruel and unnaturall actions I am glad when good
for thy Body is in Heaven as in another and different thing but in the Sacrament substantially in It as mans Soul and Body are in Man as the adored Person of God is in my Lord Jesus Christ as every thing is in its self or in its whole Thou art therefore my Jesus both in Heaven and in the Sacrament truly but in one more properly in the other more excellently Reallity is in both but the Manner different Wherefore I cannot complain thou hast left us by thine Ascension and bereaved us of that comfortable Presence whose force was so magneticall in thy life-time No no I see Thee as truly as they did then I feel thee as corporally as did That Master of Touching who sought thy Side and Wounds to embalme his Sense in I Tast Thee as really as the Chanaan-Feaster did the Wine Thou sentst him Thou deludest not my Senses by making me onely seem to See Feel and Taste when indeed I do not Thou entertain'st me not with other things or Qualities which are with Thee but not thy self No no the White I see is Thou the Body I hold in my hand or mouth is Thine and Thou that which yeelds Savour to my tongue and palate is thy-self and no other thing This thou hast told me this thy Church has ever apprehended and taught this I believe and confesse to Thee But oh can I conceive without trembling or speak without horrour Does Man's Hand break the Body of my Saviour do Mans teeth rend and mangle the Sacred vesture of Deity Yes yes my Soul fear not to confesse the Wonders and Mercies of thy Lord and God they may be hard to understand but they are the Words of Life So farre has He subjected his glorious Body to our use that what other bread can suffer may be wrought upon Him Not that we can tear a Finger from his Hand or his Hand from his Arm or any one member from another but as when we break bread every piece is still bread so when we divide his Body both parts remain his whole Body for it was not one part that became one part of the Bread and another the rest but all succeeded to each part of bread Let great Clerks in their Schools with their subtilties search how this can be effected for seeing it is done in bread it is not against Nature nor unintelligible even by That to me let it suffice the Church has taught me 't is so and that 't is the greatest benignity and most gracious condescence that God himself could expresse to have it be so And is this more perhaps then that thy immortall flesh should nourish my mortall Carcase that it is mingled with Mine as Wine with Water as two melted Waxes incorporate themselves Let none tell me 't is Quantity that is digested into my body for then it is not Thou that nourishest me and I will not forgo those precious expressions that Thou feed'st me with Thy Flesh and giv'st me Thy Bloud to drink So thy Words sound so thy Church has taught so I believe How this can be done without thy being turn'd into me or how thy Substance can unchangedly be chang'd into mine that thou mayest endue my Flesh with a quality of Immortality let the Sages question but I 'm sure 't is so this I know is the way of Love and the most charming Mystery and inchanting Riddle that ever love-spent bowels were able to sing or sigh out ANd now my Soul having thus perfunctorily Alas viewed the excessive benefits of Almighty God 't is time to reflect a little upon thy Duty and consider what motions and affections they should stirre and work in thee First Thou hast seen how all thou hast are gifts and not onely all but wholly If any friend has done thee kindnesse He prepar'd that Friend he gave him the power the occasion the will to serve thee he blest his endeavours with efficacy successe If thou thy self hast done any thing to thine own improvement or advantage He gave thee not onely Body and Soul with all their powers and faculties not only matter opportunity strength will liberty choice but every least imaginable perfection of the very stroak of choise and liberty insomuch that there is nothing no considerability of it so from thy self that even its being from thee comes not from the Almighty in comparison to whom no Friend no creature ever did or can do any thing for thee Shall then the friendship or love of any Creature have power to draw my affection from God permit it not my great Creatour but thorowly perfect thy work Why am I good by half 's since I am entirely thy Designe I professe before Thee who seest my very heart and before Angels and Men that I ought not to be so that 't is folly and madnesse to be so Give me then thy grace utterly to abhorre and detest so injurious so unworthy an ingratitude And since Thou vouchsaf'st thus clearly to convince me that 't is a great indignity and against all reason and truly-naturall inclination to join any with Thee grant me ever with all exactnesse to observe this duty That as no Creature has the least part in doing me good but merely so farre as it has it from Thee no not I my self so none none may share with Thee in my Love but just so farre as thy love thine order thy direction applies it to them Next my Soul thou hast seen how the Benefits of God are not onely all thou hast but that they are in an excessive Measure wide as the World uncountable as the sands of the Sea great as the Creatures can be since neither the eminentest Men nor highest Angels are exempt from being ministring spirits employed for thy salvation nay God himself in the two Persons of the Son and Holy Ghost has condescended to wait on Thee So various and superabundant they are that they comply not onely with thy necessity but serve even thy delights and recreations So that thou art neither able to conceive the multitude and greatnesse nor comprehend the worth and pleasingnesse of his favours What then canst thou say but onely lie gasping with admiration of so vast so unknown a Goodnesse and sigh out in the centre of thy Heart My sole-Good my All I thought before I was bound to acknowledge thy Benefits and love Thee for them but now I renounce both for he that acknowledges makes a shew as if he were able to esteem and he that loves seems as if he would render somewhat Not so I my great Master not so But I protest my self infinitly below all thy mercies unable to value the least of thy Blessings much lesse to repay Thee any thing for them since had I any thing worthy thy acceptance it were all thine and I could offer Thee nothing but thine own What then shall I do but throw my heart at the feet of thy bounty all-open all-melted without any self-will or power
He loves improves and raises every ones happinesse to a farre higher degree in that it makes all them love one another and publishes his particular Love of thee to be known and esteem'd by all the loves Nor is there the least subject of any Envy or Jealousie He can wait on All entertain All fill All content All blesse and beatifie All at once And now my glorious Lord having sifted and rack't my brains to find some exception against Thee some excuse to palliate my withholding the Duty I owe Thee some Cross-knot to dull the piercing of thy two-edg'd sword dividing my Soul and Spirit behold nothing imaginable but all sweetness all heat all light O then let me turn my course and joy at my missing desired misfortune Let me sit with the happy Spouse so pleas'd with every part of her Lover Let me delight my self to consider the Greatnesse of every Perfection in Thee and the Infinitenesse of All. Let me compare Thy Eternity to the weak imitation of humane Nobility and scorning This joy in the immense eminency of That Let the vast extent of thy Power in widenesse and profundity to all effects and to Huge ones make me laugh at the narrow-compass'd and beggarly ends which the ambitious Hearts of this world aim at O the poor Treasures that can be hoarded in caves in houses or towers what proportion do they bear to Thy wealth O the scant presence and jealous absence of Lovers in this world the outwardnesse of them and hearts to-be-guess'd-at what bitter-sweets must they of necessity cause Besides their shallow wits and short reaches in no other respect to be esteem'd but because we find no better their hungry benefits and pinching prodigalities proportion'd to their petty affections their by-ends and base aims in their most reall and truest professions their weak and impertinent passions their fond and changeable inclinations easily consum'd in a few triviall disgusts What miserable penurious blasts are these to blow the coals of Love And yet have these so long mov'd my Heart whilst it has lyen so heavy and restiff to lift it self up and follow thee O my onely Good henceforth for ever make me run like the blessed Magdalen without care or consideraton after the Odours of thy Perfumes Make it all my pleasure to sit hours and dayes and nights weighing every Excellency of thine and considering how good it is for all Creatures and particularly for me that Thou art so rich in glory so full of perfections but above all how thy adorable Attributes become Thy self how bright and beautifull they sit upon Thee Make me spend all my forces in blessing Thee that Thou art such in rejoycing at it in protesting that 't is all reason all fitnesse all justice it should be so that 't is the blisse of thy Creatures but yet a greater good and farre more excellent in it self Make me vapour away into Acts and Wills to have it so to render it such were it not so and in my power to procure it and that for what it is to me but much more for what it is to Thee But oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish darksome partiall and Enigmaticall shall be turn'd into manly noon-like full and clear Vision O how unmeasurably must my Love be there increas'd where the Object cannot fail to deserve infinitely more then I can employ yet shall I then employ infinitely more then I can now imagine and as the degrees of Love are multiplied the degrees of Joy must still grow higher and the more the Joy is so much more must the Love be redoubled thus raising still one the other to the very breaking in pieces the Adamantine sinews of my Soul whilest the Object ever stretches by its infinite perfection the bounds of a capacity ever yielding to embrace it O how shall I cling to and incorporate with him not for fear of losing but for eager desire of more enjoying O how shall I melt into esteemings and praisings and Love-breathing Dittyes how shall I inessence my self into that Fountain of Goodnesse Oh come oh come that happy day come even now I fear neither Hell nor Judgement for I know Thou canst bear no wrath against those that love Thee Come then come while these sweet sighs call on Thee wrest my soul from this loading this loathsome body skrew up even these very aspirations to such a pitch that they become the happy instrument to break my heart-strings those fetters and bonds of my imprison'd Soul which keep it from the sight of my so-beloved Spouse and Master and set me at liberty in the eternall freedome of thy Palace and everlasting glory of thy celestiall Presence Fiat Fiat BReath a while my Soul and recall a little thy Spirits This Stupendious Palace of Love still deserves a more curious search 't is not impertinent here to be humbly inquisitive Let 's see whether there be not yet some farther secret worthy our discovery And behold a Lock and little Door Oh 't is Loves Cabinet Certainly He there reserves some rare Jewel to enrich and adorn thee Knock call aloud and if he delay to open at least peep through the key-hole and see what 's within O Glory 't is the very Quintessence of Loves Object I see how because God is sole Eternall all things must be made by Him and since nothing can give but what it has nor make but what it is I see the whole frame of all that is or can be must be in Him with all their joynts and intriques wherewith they are intangled in their flowing from Him Whence I plainly discern that by knowing Him I shall know all things and all causes of all things O vast and spacious Wisdome O incredible content For since my Soul is nothing else but a Vessel and capacity of knowledge and This alone is the knowledge of all things by their proper Causes too and those resolv'd into theirs even to the very highest cause not ascending backward but beginning at the Spring-head and most knowing it and from it descending even to the lowest the most impartible grain of Sand or Dust what can my Soul wish more what can it imagine greater Yes my prospect opens it self farther and I see that since all created things are in themselves dispers'd and multiplied with infinite variety and sometimes incompossibility and contradiction but in God refin'd and resum'd into a most simple and indivisible Being they must infinitely be better in Him then in themselves He yet infinitely better then they For as four cannot be different from three but because it has somewhat that three has not so God must have something that is not in Creatures to be different from them and this being of a higher order and more eminent rank must of it self be better then all they put together and of a far nobler and richer glorious possession I see yet more that since God is cause of all other things out of
twelve legions of Angels to countermand the course of time and scourge the powers of Hell Since then all things are thus at thy dispose see how he conjures thy Almighty compassion If it be possible let this Cup passe from me He that can command thy whole power summons it all to his assistance He whose absolute will is absolutely irresistable with his whole strength and utmost affections solicites thy Omnipotency to rescue him from this dismall period Behold this meek and humble heart swoln high with sighs and running over with the vehemency of his passions Behold thy own thoughts divided betwixt granting what seems so unjust in it self and denying what is so necessary to us the finall sentence of death against an Innocent if thou yieldest to his deliverance Mankind is unavoidably ruin'd forever if thou refusest thou seemest to destroy at once all the hopes that even Angels Seraphims can pretend to have their prayers admitted since thou declin'st to hear the voice of thy Son thy beloved eternall and onely Son The afflicted Father in the Gospel soon received his chearfull dispatch thy Son is well The importune Cananean for a confident answer was doubly recompenc'd both with the commendation and fruit of her faith her Daughters recovery The mourning Sisters of Lazarus by once repeating this short Charm thy friend is sick drew this thy Son into the midst of his Enemies who watch'd continually all occasions to oppresse him and with one sorrowfull cast of their eyes mov'd in his heart so deep a compassion that immediately he broke the fetters of death and opened the prison of the Grave to restore them their lost Brother whom they only wisht for and barely represented their condition not thinking it necessary to ask any thing in direct terms of so noble a Benefactour And yet O Father of pity He told us he did nothing but what he saw thee do before him Where is then the God of Elias are thy bowels of mercy petrifyed into Adamant are the eternall springs of Libanus dryed up are the Heavens become of Iron that no drop of dew can distill down to refresh a languishing Soul O no 't is only to set before our eyes a glorious lesson of perfect patience for us to copy out and be happy for though thou killest him still will he hope in thee still cry and call on this sweet Persecuter to death Bend but thine eare to those sacred words he speaks Not my will but thine be fulfilled True it is my God thou art the Authour and Conserver the absolute supreme Governour of all Things and therefore 't is just and necessary all câ—eated wills be subject to thy dominion But whence comes it my dearest Lord that those whom thou scourgest with greatest severity are most obedient to thy commands I heare thy servant Job the liveliest pattern of this thy afflicted Son cry from the depth of his Soul Who may have so much favour with God to obtain for me that he will be pleased to loose his hand and cut me off lest I fall into impatience and contradict the judgements of the most holy For my flesh is not of beasts and I extreamly apprehend my weaknesse Yet was he but an imperfect draught of this great Sample of misery wholly wrought over and through by the sharp needles of all sorts of affliction from whom we hear no such feares no such complaints but a strong and generous deniall of himself abridg'd into this short and cordiall protestation Thy will be done Ah sweet SAVIOUR does not the excesse of thy griefs disturb a little thy memory hast thou deliberately reflected on the force and consequence of those strange engaging words Let me represent to thee the meaning of thy severe Father and in his own threatning expressions which thou wilt soon find to be too rigourous truth I have prepar'd Clubs and Lanterns Souldiers and Officers the flatterers of thy enemies to lay hands on thee and with loud cryes and scorns carry thee to the City of Jerusalem Jerusalem where thy Miracles have rendred thee so famous Jerusalem where thou so lately entredst with loud acclamations of joy and Triumph Thy will be done I have prepar'd Judges of all sorts Priests and Divines and Religious men that daily minister at the holy Altar grave and solemn persons highly esteem'd upon the opinion of their extraordinary piety and learning to discredit and accuse thee Kings and Presidents Jewes and Gentiles and an infinite multitude of people assembled at this great Feast to scorn and condemn thee Thy will be done I have prepar'd Whips and Scourges and Buffets and Thorns to afflict thee Fools coats and a mock-Purple and the ridiculous Sceptre of a Reed to vilifie and abuse thee a heavy Crosse and tearing Nailes unmercifull Hands and ingratefull Hearts to torment and affront thee Thy will be done I have prepar'd a Murtherer to be preferr'd before thee to be begg'd in thy place by thy beloved people on whom thou hast spent thy life two other Theeves for thy Companions and fellow-Sufferers and a shamefull Title of Treason to be impos'd on thy Crosse. Thy will be done I have prepar'd multitudes of strangers to stand by unconcern'd and with dry eyes behold all thy miseryes and tell the whole world thy seeming crimes nay I have found thee out a Judas amongst thy own Disciples to betray thee with the base hypocrisy of a Kisse the best of them to deny thee all to forsake thee and even now thy three choice friends lye sleeping by thee little solicitous of their own duty to thee or thy Suffrings for them Thy will be done I have prepar'd thee a desolate Mother to stand at the foot of thy Crosse and afflict thy departing Soul with the sight of her grief and the disconsolate condition thou leavest her in and above all to verifie thy prophesied title of Man of Sorrowes I will be a rigid and austere Father to thee abandoning thee into the hands of the powers of darknesse and strictly charging them not to spare so much as thy life's last breath Even so Thy will be done not mine O invincible courage O admirable fortitude which neither life nor death nor things present nor to come nor feares nor torments can shake or stirre one inch from its settled resolution Pardon me my dearest SAVIOUR I cannot weep I cannot pity thy Sufferings nor contain my heart from singing Alleluia in the midst of the strongest throes and bitterest pangs of thy Agony For this one act makes thee more happy more amiable more glorious then all the world can give then all thy miracles can deserve Not Mount Thabor's glory not Palm-sunday's acclamations not the true and hearty praises of the people fed with thy bread and resolv'd to force thee to be their King not the Wisdome to confute thy adversaries not the Power to change at pleasure the course of Nature no not the sitting at the right hand of thy eternall Father to
Nature is capable of here but withall I see it is impossible men should hear and understand so many persons together and speak to them all in exchange Light I confesse this is hard to be believ'd by one that hath not yet reached to the nature of a Spirit but he that could conceive all this we call Body and diffusion of bignesse and parts must of necessity be resum'd in the indivisible thing we call a Spirit so that all the imaginable operations of materiall substances can never arrive to equall the activity of the least Spirit he would easily allow it this priviledge of being capable to do as much as a thousand tongues and a thousand eares at once But 't is not my task now to evince a possibility only to exact a belief of this opinion and upon supposal of its truth shew you how infinitely greater the content in Heaven must necessarily be then the highest pleasure this world can afford Soul But unlesse I talk of such persons and things as both my self and they with whom I converse know and are acquainted with the circumstances of every passage the conversation is dry and unpleasing Now here they are very few who have knowledge of the same particulars that I have for their number is confin'd to such as I live withall and I know not whether I can expect to meet many of them in heaven the straitnesse of the way and the paucity of the enterers being so often and so strongly inculcated to us Light It were a very hard question to determine the number of those that go to heaven and at this time would divert our discourse only this I will say that the paucity of the blessed may well stand with this truth that many of such Christians as live innocently in the world are saved Wherefore I fear not but you may have enough to converse with who are acquainted with the particulars your self are But what will you think if every one hath as cleare a sight of all your circumstances as your own heart for it were a great simplicity to imagine the Soul abstracted from the Body hath no means to know things without it since in the Body it hath and if it be furnisht with any means it is not possible but it should know whatever it pleases But as I said before the proof of these things is to be sought elsewhere here we are onely to consider how great and full the pleasure of a blessed Soul is these things being so as I have declared Soul I must confesse you have now made Heaven a tractable thing to me for by these considerations I do not onely find a common apprehension of good but I can lay hands upon intelligible pleasures whereby to content my naturall desires and with hope thereof make them pursue the endeavours and undergoe the difficulties necessary to the attaining them Light Reflect then a little and summe up or rather conclude what kind of life in Heaven this pleasure will afford you Remember some afternoon or couple of houres in which your pleasing conversation hath been at height remember the twinkling of some one conceit which especially carryed away your heart and for the time possessed it wholly think with your self had the whole two houres continu'd like that minute how unspeakable your pleasure had been Then elevate your fancy and conceive in Heaven not houres nor dayes nor yeares but ages of ages but an eternity will be of that dainty ravishing contentment Joyne if you are able all these encreases and advantages which we have expressed whereof there is not one but drawes an incomparable extremity with it and if only this were once well master of your thoughts I do not see how any temporall thing could either please or discontent you or that you would not as much long for death as now you adhorre and fear it Soul The world 's chang'd with me I find my self refresht with this thought and in a cheerfull disposition Light Yes for the present but it will not stay long with you unlesse you play your part and cultivate the opening seeds which now ferment in your heart and this must be by often thinking of and remembring these and such other considerations partly at set times and partly whenever you find your self in a fitting disposition that is at ease alone your mind free or peradventure inclin'd to good thoughts lose not these tides as I may call them for they bring great waves of spirituall profit In the happy opportunity strive to penetrate with a cleer understanding the verity of such points then turn your self upon your self and see what you do and what you should do according to these truths Encourage your self to what is wanting amend what is amisse and sigh after the great reward we all labour for The third discourse Soul HItherto it goes well but in so great a happinesse and so glorious a State is there but one content Light If there were no other then what is already declared I believe there were more not only then you can wish in this world but also then you would be weary of in the next Neverthelesse since your palate is so dainty that it must have varieties think with your self what other thing there is here wherein you take great pleasure and love to spend your time Soul The next that comes to my mind is that I am much delighted with Masks and Shews and in going to Court especially when there are grea meetings and bravery there these things extreamely take me in so much that I can endure to expect a great while as half a day or more in some disease to be present at such sights and Assemblies Light And when these things are in their perfection can you tell what it is that therein delights you Soul I think it is those passages which meeting afterwards with others that have or have not been there I use to discourse of and commend And all those being either Things or Persons in Things I commend the greatnesse beauty or good proportion some fine conveyance some rare and new invention in Persons I praise their comlinesse the gracefulnesse of their behaviour the perfection and compleatnesse of their actions These I conceive for the most part are the principal causes of the delight and relish I find in such encounters Light I hope then you will not want this contentment also in heaven For to begin with Persons you shall have in your company those who have ever been the greatest and worthiest in all considerations Adam the beginner of the World Noah its restorer you shall have Abraham the Father of that Nation which after so many ages continuance in the Prerogative of the Elect people of Almighty God is now by their dispersion into all Nations become to them a Testimony of Christianity you shall have Moses who like the Lieutenant of the highest in all sorts of miracles establisht the Law the Field wherein Christianity was blazoned you
successe relieves the afflicted In fine if any word or deed come in very pat and unexpectedly I am highly ravish'd These things I observe both please me in the reading or seeing and afterwards I find my self great with desire till I have discharged my self of them to some other whom I conceive apt to take pleasure in such passages In true Histories and Newes I am affected with a kind of sober satisfaction and if I have heard or read half a story I feel a want of content till I know the rest and be fully possest of the whole proceeding As for home-bred Curiosities I cannot conceive what entertains our affections concerning them except the common desire to know which I imagine is greater towards those things whereof we have already a beginning for so I see this Itch is pleased chiefly in the businesse of mine own acquaintance Light And do you think that the common desire of Knowing is a Passion of so triviall a consequence which peradventure if all things were throughly look't into would appeare the chief or sole cause of all our pleasure at least it being the inclination of our understanding and reason that is the most substantiall and principall part of us it must necessarily have great influence upon all our actions But besides this I see another delight which is a kind of tickling our affections whereat they move and have their course as strings tuned to certain notes answer one another And this happens in all humane affaires but chiefly in such as bear a particular relation to our own state and private circumstances We heare not of any action done by another man but it presently strikes a key in our breasts either of pleasure or displeasure because it has a proper and particular report to our condition Now consider how small a time you can endure to sit ruminating on a businesse that no way concerns you how impossible it is to take off your hearts from thoughts wherein your interest or affections are notably engag'd and then reflect on the choice which in heaven you shall have where according to what is declared the whole course of the sons of Adam shall be clear before your eyes none of their actions or secretest thoughts hidden from you Think how one reflection will preoccupate another how one delight will surcharge another If you will see the Counsels of Statesmen and great Princes there opens it self a Carriere aperte de vieu as the French say If you will see how Scholars came to their profound learning how Artificers to their great experience If you will see how petty fellows shew as much cunning in a little circle as the Grandees of the world in their deep and politick designes If you will see the increase as it were of souls from the babling of children that know not how to spell their letters to the learned Sermons and sublime Speculations of the most famous and renowned Masters in every kind an excesse of examples a world of particulars will display themselves to you all different in some respects yet all agreeing in generall heads all inviting and enticeing by their specialty all contenting and satisfying by shewing their source in evident and common principles Nor shall therebe in the whole multitude any one that shall not affect you with some particular relish and satisfaction by its speciall conformity or difformity to your nature for both these in that state shall yield content as you see here we laugh and are delighted with that in another whereat we should be asham'd and displeas'd if it were in our selves Soul Truly you tell me of a great content but I have been taught that it is the propriety of Almighty God to see hearts and that none else can penetrate into what passes there but by revelation from him Wherefore pray make me know what you mean when you say No mans thoughts are hidden from the Blessed for this I hear is grounded in the holy Scriptures so a dangerous matter to be meddled with Light Those who consider not that the Scriptures are written to men that is to people living in a vale of ignorance and darknesse may perhaps too hastily passe their censure upon the City of Light whereof we discourse But as far as I can understand them there is not a word in our holy books excluding the heavenly Jerusalem from this-knowledge and our Masters use to give a rule that speeches are to be taken secundum subjectam materiam according to the matter we treat of for he that speaks is suppos'd to confine himself to the particular subject of the discourse he undertakes neverthelesse you have not yet heard me say the celestiall habitation enjoyes this priviledge without Revelation for here I do not display the principles upon which their conclusions depend but onely declare to you admitting such positions to be true the excesse of pleasure and content you are to reap in that harvest if you cultivate your land in this world as you are commanded Soul Then I 'le believe what you say without farther enquiry For truly I see that if the day of Judgement declare the justice of Almighty God this cannot be done without full and generall discovery of all hearts and if then every secret thought shall be laid open before the whole world me thinks 't is no great matter the blessed should in joy the priviledge of knowing them before Besides it would be an unhandsome maime both to their knowledge and content if seeing the effects they should be depriv'd of seeing the causes which for the most part reside in the inward thoughts And so have I fallen upon no small subject of delight to me that I shall see the Motives and true Sources of all effects a thing I observe much aimed at by men of sharpest understandings whence 't is that Historians are so desirous to dive into the secrets of affaires those being accounted the best who are thought most truly to have found the deepest ground and bottom of matters of great consequence Light 'T is a good and ingenuous reflection And if you will take the paines to examine also the inconveniences which here you find in talking reading or fitting at a Play peradventure by comparison of your pleasures below you will make a fuller conceit of the content you shall meet above finding there all the delights sincere and pure without the mixture of those bitter and distastfull contingencies which are so frequently offensive here Soul I have not so ill and slowly follow'd you but of my self I can understand that there I shall not have that incertitude of reports which here we wholy rely upon and yet they are generally so fallible that it were a great indiscretion to believe above the tenth part of what is told us Nay even when I heare any strange relation from parties who were present whose eyes and eares saw and heard what pass'd yet am I often troubled how to understand their words some for Interest
her Spouse is not pleased to sit by her self and stedily fix her thought upon him wishing for the day she shall once meet and enjoy him till then love and honour him in his Picture see him in every one that has seen and known him and be overjoyed with all Tokens that come from him Whereof what variety my soul hast thou from thy God All we have hitherto discours'd is nothing else Heaven and earth and all that is in them His Divinity his Humanity his Body Blood and Soul Thy self all thou hast all thou dost all thou hast done or ever shalt do Se Nascens dedit socium Convescens in Edulium se Moriens in Pretium se regnans dat in Praemium But retire thy self a little my soul from the multitude of the Creatures His benefits to thy more united thoughts for Love's Palace to be compleat must have a with-drawingroom Thither then retire and consider this Great Courtier that makes so many Embassyes to thee for thy Love Know who He is whether He be the best worthy thy Affections First what 's His Extraction Is He Noble and of an ancient race He is the First of things whence all Nobility derives its esteem His Ancientnesse is Eternity higher driven then Time His Creature and Off-spring which yet is the measure of all other Auncestry True it is He is the First of his House but the Last too His nobility is not by derivation from others and a participation of their worth 't is entirely His Own out-wearing the long Pedegrees of Mankind's successions by the never-changing greatnesse of His Own Person Is He powerfull All things except himself are his Creatures and the Works of his Hand they depend for their being all they have all they are worth on his breath and would perish if he did not perpetually drop them from his omnipotent Fingers He works them and turns them as he lists with a Fiat and none can breath a wish to resist him but by his permission nor is Himself able to make a Thing of such strength that it can break his least Order or Will Is He rich Sea and Land and all their Treasures are His Beasts and Birds Fishes and Trees and Plants are the store of his Basse-Court the mines of the Earth and the Jewels of the Ocean are the refuse of his plenty All that lies hidden behind the dazling starres whose riches we cannot imagine all 's His. There 's no end of his Wealth and his Creatures are not able to make use of the least part of it All this is well But peradventure He is a great way off and I cannot come near Him He is every where He makes Place it self He is in all Things and their Places to be separated from him is to be Nothing and No where He is in thy very Heart and in the bottome of thy Soul the inmost thing thou canst finde in thy self is He nor canst thou look upon any thing without or within thee but He is to be found and seen in it if thou hast Eyes turned towards him and a Mind to discern him Thou canst never want his light but by thine own fault never be excluded from his Presence but when thou turnest thy back to him which yet can be but from his favours not from his Power With all this is he wise The Device of the World is His He contriv'd the Order of Heaven and Earth The Planets roul by his measures Night and Day proceed by his direction the Waters in the Sea expect his beck turning and winding just as he pleases He joynted the Beasts every one to his peculiar motion and frames the Little-ones in the Damm's Wombes He prevents and casts the counsels of Men catching those who think themselves crafty in their own snares and over-reaching them in their most premeditated projects He changes Kingdomes and States making Tyrants the instruments of their own ruine In a word He governs the Fates of Men and Angels and brings them to those Ends he thinks fittest Is He Bountifull and magnificent Behold the Earth we walk on all this he gave to One Man Alas we but trample on the out-side and fill a small part of it there 's a thousand times more we never come to see and of this surface we inhabite what vast Deserts are possest onely by Beasts and Birds whilst all the Sea covers is stor'd onely with Fishes Think what abundance of Plants Beasts Birds and Fishes live and die without the knowledge of Men yet all bestowed on them and created for them Remember what a heap of Benefits thou found'st laden upon thy self and know that Others have no lesse See the Sun and Moon lighted like Torches to wait upon us one farre greater the other not much lesse then the whole Earth See in a fair night how the huge world about us is bestudded with glorious Gemms that serve for nothing but witnesses of his great Magnificence and unbounded Prodigality to us But Is He Purely Loving and has no Ends in all He does When no Creature had a Being He was brim-full of Glory and infinitely satiated with his own happinesse being Essentially Joy and Pleasure to Himself to Himself Honour and Praise and all He could wish He could desire nothing nor aim at obtaining any thing Now He has made Creatures He 's never the better for them his Heart is not touch'd with their praises or good-works no more then 't is molested with their dispraises or mis-deeds nor can any possible Creature have force to move his Will more then my weaknesse has to change the course of the Sun and Moon He made all Creatures therefore not for any good in them or love conceiv'd from them but meerly out of the Intrinsecall Goodnesse of His Own Nature and the strong Inclination which Himself is to do Good because He is what He is an Inclination stronger and more naturall then any Lover in this world can have with as much advantage as God's Nature has over a Creatures So not without reason is His Love but totally Reason as not kindled by thinking or casting to obtain any End but perfectly from Nature and Essence and no more to be wrested from Him then can His own Being yet neverthelesse most perfectly free and rationall This is much But He Loves a great many so that I fear I shall have a small portion in His Affection O no His Heart is whole where it is and as He comprehends perfectly all things with so high an eminency that he knowes every one as well as if there were nothing else to be known so He loves every one as dearly as if there were no other He is with one without parting from another He fills one without emptying another and as a Rainbow in a Multitudes Eyes or Thunder in all the Worlds Eares He is Whole in All and Whole in Every one His Affection his Care his Tendernesse is intire indivisible to every one the Multitude of those
Himself He himself can have no cause and that they having their being from Him may be and not be as compos'd of being and what is only God has no such composition wherefore since He cannot be what is without being He is being without what is whereas all Creatures Substance is what is and being an Accident to them This I find that God is not only none of these things we see but nothing like any of them of a higher and super-excellent strain not agreeing with them in any name that can signifie Substance infinitely above our utmost conceptions incomparably sublimer nobler more wonderfull more deserving knowledge and more stirring and straining an appetite of it Beyond all this I see that God is not such an Existence and being as we apprehend by this name we give it and which we exalt above what is by it but as far retir'd above it as that 's above what is He is not a being by which a thing is but a being which is a thing a Substance He is a being redoubled upon it self giving and receiving being to and from it self and yet neither for this is impossible but a higher inexpressible force implying both without their contradiction I see that all I have said and can say are pure follyes not expressing in the smallest degree the thing which I see is and the more I force my self to understand it the farther I am from it one abysse still calling upon another because it is infinite and unsoundable but only to God himself O happy darknesse if once to become lightsome the more hidden thou art now the greater blisse wilt thou be then Oh that my heavy thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft and towre height upon height till I came within view of these celestiall Quires not to discern Thee my dread Lord for I should be never the nearer but to quicken my desire and encrease my longing O how fix'd would mine eyes stare upon Thee when thou shouldst be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortall body that now intercepts the view of thy glory and demolish the strong-wall that as yet unhappily detains me from thy Presence Methinks I see that no violence of nature no falling weight no bent of forced steel no earth-bursting vapour no tower-shivering thunder or bulwark-tossing mines could expresse the eagernesse of my Souls embracing Thee Methinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy Thee in and that my Soul would sooner wane to nothing then part from Thee Methinks there 's no possibility of Pleasure which is not in Thee nor any out of Thee no faculty in my Soul to wish or think of any other thing but Thee Thee my onely my eternall incomprehensible All my dear dearest Lord and my God If the good God has reserved for his Friends be so immense and the joy and blisse it brings the Soul so extream who can doubt but the losse must be proportionable and the grief and anguish of missing it be measured by the same weights what then must thou do my poor Soul wavering yet betwixt hope and fear of these so important contraryes what must thou do to assure thy chief interest and make thy self secure Mistresse of so great so glorious pretensions Peradventure spend thy time in wishes and flashing thoughts like the Northern Fire-drakes or the lightning breathings of fair Sommer nights which but vent their own heat without firing any thing No no these goads pierce too deep to be contented with palliating and superficiall remedies Adieu then those so charming warbles of Father Friend Spouse another self and whatever else the Wit of Man or even the Spirit of God has invented to tickle materiall fancy and to revive Taraâ—â—nteliz'd Souls These are Milk for beginners Lenitives to take away the angrinesse of their festring hearts when they first tear off from worldly toyes Metaphoricall expressions which have no proper and solid meaning to feed the truth-hungry mind The affections growing out of these are grounded upon love to our selves even then when we wish more good to another then to our selves even when in comparison we wish harm to our selves But that God is our Good and finall End is as true as that He is our Maker and the very Essence of our Soul is nothing else but a pure capacity and emptinesse of Him all its strength by nature or grace nothing but an inclination to apply it self to Him and be replenished by Him Here all the sinews of nature are rack't to their height to this the Soul 's more strongly bent then to its own being since we see our thoughts are first driven outwards and from the Objects return to make us reflect on our selves only at this Object we aim not to make it ours but to make us its All other knowledges are but as it were divers figurations and dispositions of our Soul this is an adhering and union of our Soul to another thing All Ends are Masters of our wills as far as they are Ends the Medium's only master'd by us the last End therefore must be the absolute commander and forcer of the very Essence of our Will And as the basis of a Statue had it an appetite proportion'd to its nature would not wish to be above but to lye under and support the Statue or as the motion and way towards a form and term would wish to perish in bringing the thing alter'd or mov'd to that state whereto its Essence imployes its service so our Soul rightly affected can wish no other then to be most subject most conformable and most entirely fitted to its last End That then my Soul which thou hast to do is in the greatest peace and discretion and quiet of thy Heart to cast about and seriously consider in what course of life all things maturely ponder'd thou art likeliest to cultivate and improve thy self best and render thy thoughts most apprehensive of this only this eternall Good which having once found with thy whole strength with the neglect of all other things as far as they avail not to this be sure to prosecute vigorously never sitting down or so much as looking back and in all considerable actions even in this chosen way still have a pure eye open to discern what most conduces to this only necessary work or least deviates thee from it O Gregory Lopez Thou after the Apostles unparallell'd Master of Christian life who will give me that prodigious unheard-of constancy of thine in every breath for moneths and yeares continually to fix my thoughts upon this main aim of my being till I had made it hard and almost impossible for me to restrain them from it But since this is more Angelicall then Humane obtain me grace at least from our Generall thy immediate Master every day to spend some competent space of time in framing a lively view of this Great truth and settling a strong resolution to continue in it for ever Still may I strive by the following