Love of God to it As that this infinite glorious God should send his onely Sonne a part of himselfe to redeeme and glorifie us That this part of himselfe This very God our Saviour Iesus Christ should vnvaile himselfe of all his glory come to live on Earth and suffer so much such a Death for such miserable wretches as wee are when wee were his enemyes to deliver us from Death Hell and all misery and to merrit for us Heaven and all felicity why then it is even overcome and with Saint Ignatius even weepes with Love and joy to thinke that his love was crucified for him Lord teach us a language wholly divine to thanke thee for such Love See what a vertue is in the passion of our Saviour that if our soules in Contemplation of his wounds should ressent the smart yet knowing that he suffered all this most willingly to make us happy It is enough to make us even swoune with Ioy and Love and bee extazied with a thousand sorts of pleasures Insomuch as wee should willingly dye of Love and joy for his sake Moreover when the Soule thinkes how her Saviour loves her it is enough to fill her with sweetest ioy and pleasure O! how shee is inflamed with Love when shee contemplates those sweete words of her beloved calling her his sister his spouse his Love his Dove his vndefiled And saying thou art all faire my Love there is no spot in thee Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes c. Cant. 4. And my beloved is the fairest among Women the chiefest among tenne thousand Looking forth as the morning faire as the Moone pure as the Sun c. Cant. 5. That shee is a Kings daughter As a Queene in a vesture of Gold of Ophir embroydred Rayment of Needle worke that the King might take pleasure in her Beauty Psal 45. O! how the sweet harmonious accents of these words doe ravish the Spirits and powerfully attract the hearts of all those unto him that are able truely but to heare the Eccho of them and to perceive the sweetnesse thereof Insomuch that they are ready to borrow wings on all sides to flye out of themselves that they may bee wholly possest with the Love and Ioy of their Saviour Let us then feelingly speake to our Beloved in the same language which hee speakes to us Then which indeed can be no better no sweeter Come then my Beloved Kisse mee with the kisses of thy mouth for thy Love is better then Wine Draw me and I will runne after thee Shew mee O thou whom my Soule loveth where thou feedest and where thou makest thy flocke to rest at noone Cant. 1 2 4 7. Stay mee with thy flagons and comfort mee with apples for I am sicke oâ— Love Cant 2.5 Come my beloved let us goe foorth into the fields let us lodge in the Villages Let us get up early to the Vineyards let us see if the Vine flourish whether the tender grape appeare and the Pomgranate bud foorth There will I giue thee my Love Cant. 7.11.12 Set mee as a seale of thine heart and as a signet on thine Arme For Love is as strong as death It is as a fire a vehement flame many waters cannot quench Love and the flouds cannot drowne it c. Cant. 8.6.7 I am perswaded saith Saint Paul That neither life nor death nor Angells nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to seperate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Rom. 8.38 True Love suffers not for the Subject which it Loves It hath a power in it to change the nature of things From the time that a Soule is chastly taken with this passion even the paines and torments thereof are changing the name and quality within the Heart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of Ioy and not of paine if it bee necessary to dye for the glory of this Lovely cause of its life It is no death to it but a meere Rapt of Contentment which severs it selfe from it selfe in Love of another selfe whom it Loves more then it selfe So that if wee were truely capable of the Love Beauty Glory and excellency of our Saviour Though with Saint Lawrence wee should broyle uppon Devouring flames Yet our hearts which would burne more hot with the fire of his Love then that of our punishment would quite extinguish the same for our hearts being all aflame already and our soules afire how could wee expire amidst those heates though our bodyes were burned to ashes since the stronger must needs prevaile Insomuch as wee should feele the delights of Heaven in the fire whereof we should make our selves a Crowne of glory Though wee cannot attaine to such an height of Love and Ioy yet let us endeavour to love as much as wee can For GOD who alwayes accepteth the will for the deed will lovingly accept of our good wishes and Endeavours And his Power is made perfect in our Infirmities as St. Paul sayth And the more to inflame our loue to GOD. Many gracious and glorious Promises are registred in his Divine word to such as Love him I shall onely mention and Conclude with that of Saint PAVL 1 Corinth 2.9 Eye hath not seene nor Eare heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of man those things which GOD hath prepared for them that Love him Thinke then you Spirits of the world what Felicitie this is Wee know the Eye hath seene most Beautifull Lovely and glorious things The Eare hath heard rare Consorts of Musicke and voyces What sweet Ioy and pleasure hath the Heart of man imagined of the Orchards of Adonis The Gardens of Hesperides The Delights of the fortunate Islands Of the Elizian Fields and Turkes Paradise But let Humane imagination thinke of all these at once and assemble in one Subject whatsoever is most Beautifull and delicious in Nature Let them imagine a Quire of Syrens and let them joyne thereto in Consort both the Harpe of Orpheus and the voyce of Amphion Let Apollo and the Muses bee there to beare a Part And let them search within the Power of Nature all the extreame Pleasures which it hath produced in the world hitherto to charme our Senses and to ravish our Spirits Yet all these are but meere Chymeraes and as a vaine Idaea A meere Shadow of a body of pleasure in Comparison of those Divine thoughts and pleasures which the Saints may and shall enjoy in the Contemplation of GOD and his infinite Beauty Glory Love and of the Felicities which hee hath prepared for them that Love him Their thoughts and Contemplations even in this life may bee Composed of mutterably Glories Crownes Kingdomes Divine visions Heavenly exultations of Spirit and of extreame ioyes pleasures and felicities It is impossible to expresse the pleasures of a heavenly Soule The Contentments thereof are not to bee so called Its sweetnesse hath another name Its Extasies and Ravishments cannot bee vttered Saint Paul himselfe could not expresse the same Hee could not tell whether hee were in his body or no Insomuch as the heart that feeles them cannot comprehend them Truely therefore doth Saint Paul say That such pleasures have not entred into the heart of man This seemes to bee a Riddle Not Entred into the heart of man how can man enioy it then Indeed hee must bee aboue a naturall Man Aboue himselfe that enioyes such pleasures Hee must bee Partaker of the Divine nature of a Superhumane and Heavenly temper All Grace is aboue nature And if by reason of our frailties and infirmities wee cannot attaine to such a height of Love to and joy in God in this life yet if wee indeavour truely for this grace to Love and serve him who alwayes accepts our true Endeavours and desires and perfects our weaknesse by his power There shall come a time when wee shall see GOD as hee is know him as wee are knowne Love him beyond expression and enjoy in him infinite pleasures and felicities for ever And then wee shall bee made like him as Saint Iohn sayth 1. Iohn 3.2 In such sort as fire by uniting it selfe to yron by an exceeding and extreame heate doth purifie the yron and convert the same into fire In like manner but above all degrees of Comparison doth GOD purifie and reduce us to a being supernaturall and deified vnites and takes the soule into his owne divine nature And this fire which shall so vnite us to God is divine Love For as God is a consuming fire to his Enemies So is hee a fire of Love to his friends And then wee shall have a new being and a new Name That is of our Spouse of our Beloved of GOD himselfe For hereby the Soule becomes a Part of GOD and with him and in him enjoyes all Happinesse So as now it may be sayd to be no more a Soule but GOD himselfe To conclude Let us then fervently wish and long for this time which shall bee at the Marriage of the Kings Sonne to which the Angels shall invite us Then shall wee Celebrate an Everlasting wedding Feast yea our Soules shall bee the Bride and Love shall be the Banner over us And then shall we possesse and enjoy infinite pleasures and felicities for ever FINIS Jmprimatur THO WYKES Decemb 7. 1637.
many To instance breifely in some few of them This Love preserues and encreases mankind in a perpetuall generation and vnites familiar Provinces and Kingdomes It causeth abundance of felicity to such as are indeed true lovers such who live together like Abraham and Sara Isaack Rebecca Paetus and Arica Seneca and his Paulina Rubenus Caelar and his Ennea Cato and his Portia and the rest of those who are regestred in the list of true and happy Lovers It is said there is no pleasure in the world like that of the sweet society of Lovers in the way of marriage and of a loving husband and wife Hee is her head she commands his heart he is her Love her joy she is his honey his Doue his delight They may take sweet councell together assist and comfort one another in all things their joy is doubled and Redoubled By this blessed vnion the number of Parents friends and kindred is increased It may be an occasion of sweet and lovely Children who in after times may bee a great felicity and joy to them And these may remaine as living Pictures to shew their memory from generation to generation Lysippus Mento Polycletus Zeuxis or Parthasius had never the skill to engrave or paint the father and mother neere so well and lively and great is the Pleasure that loving Parents enjoy in their Children A multitude of felicities a million of joyfull and blessed effects spring from true Love And indeed this Nuptiall Love and society sweetens all our Actions discourses all other pleasures felicities and even in all Respects Encreases true Ioy and happinesse SECTION 2. The Miseries of the losse and want of such Love THis blessednesse excellency of love will be the more aparāt if we cōsider the miseries either of the losse of such love before marriage or of the want thereof after marriage It is wonderfull to thinke how many Lovers for want of enjoying their wishes in this kind plunge themselves into a multitude of cares feares sorrowes blindnesse dotage seruitude slavery mischeife and miseries Many men will venture their goods fame lives and as King Iohn for Matilda Crownes if they had them to enioy their Loves Sorrow deiection much waking sighing Neglects Peevishnesse restlesse thoughts brutish attempts want of apperite palenesse and leannesse are common effects and Symptomes of the want of enioying and of the losse of Love And millions of men having lost their Loves for this cause become Melancholly discontented and deiected all their life-time after Many there be saith Zorobabell that have runne out of their wits for women and become servants for their sakes Esdr 4.26 These things are commonly knowne Bedlam hath bin full of examples Many also have perished have erred and sinned for women Esdr 4.26 Examples heereof have bin common in all ages Histories are full of them And how many have wee knowne and heard of in our ages who have consumed away and dyed for want of enioying and loosing their loves yea some for griefe have bin their owne executioners and for this cause have made away themselves And after marriage it is strange to thinke what Iealousies Contentions Feares Sorrowes strange Actions gestures lookes bitter words outrages and debates are betweene men and their wives for want of true love and discretion These things have alwayes bin and are so common to all mens view as they need but little disquisition An evill woman saith the wise man makes a sorry countenance and an heavy heart and he had rather dwell with a Lyon then keepe house with such a wife Eccl. 26.27 And he that hath her is as if he held a Scorpion verse 14. SECT III. Of a good choyce in Love BVt that wee may truely love obtaine our loves enjoy them and live well together First let us make a good choyce in Love A good wife is from the Lord saith King Solomon Let us then first goe to him by prayer for such a one and invite Christ to our wedding let us take Saint Pauls counsell to marry onely in him Whatsoever yee doe saith he let all bee done to the praise and glory of God Let Piety and Vertue be the first mover of our affections since therein onely consists true and permanent felicity And no lovers live more pleasantly and happily together then such as are of gracious and vertuous conditions Whereas among such as are of vicious and impious conditions what is to bee seene but strife tumults disorder suspition confusion and misery in the end A vertuous and well given lover is much better to bee esteemed then a fine faire face with ill conditions Let us not then bee so sensuall as to love onely the corps but looke higher and see something in our lovers of an Angelicall nature That is a free vertuous and gracious mind which to an vnderstanding man appeares to bee a divine essence and to which he mingles his soule in love which if truely thought on will appeare to bee a farre more excellent and permanent love then that of the body and consequently more pleasant So then let us spheare our loves and seeke beauty rather in a mind then in a countenance In the next place after Piety vertue and good conditions it is very good and requisite to looke after corporall and externall respects And as neere as wee may to choose such as are of equall yeeres birth fortunes and degree of good parentage and kindred of such a countenance complexion and constitution as best agrees to our love and disposition Inconsiderate and vnequall marriage are commonly very pernitious and a multitude of mischievous and miserable effects spring from such marriages An old woman is a very unfit and unpleasing companion for a young man and for an old man to dote upon young wenches is very unseemely and hatefull Ecclus 25.26 And commonly much strife suspition jealousie discontents and miseryes ensue such marriages It is a good time as some say for a man to marry betweene fiue twenty yeeres old and thirty and for a woman betweene her age of eighteene and two and twenty That young fine wife of old rich Faelix Plater of Basill beeing married to him against her will for griefe hang'd herself Such as marry foolish light Phantasticke adlepated brainsicke Peeces and of contrary conditions are like to find but peevish jealous froward and untoward things of them If a sound and healthy person marryes one that is diseased and impotent It is like to bee an occasion of much discontent And so in all respects such as marry unequally and unfitly what better successe can they looke for then Vulcan had with Venus Menelaus with Hellen Theseus with Phadra Minos with Pasiphae Claudius with Messalina Suspition Iealousie Strife Shame Sorrow Discontent and Misery Let us then as neere as wee may conveniently choose such as are of fit and equal yeeres birth fortunes degree parentage constitution and of like vertuous and gracious conditions And especially such a one as from our
hearts wee can truely love From such a loving fit equall and good choyce is like to spring abundance of most sweet delights and felicities SECT IIII. Shewing how to enjoy our wishes please our Lovers and encrease love HAving made our choice now comes a question How shall wee doe to obtaine our wishes and please our lovers It beeing such an excellent felicity to enjoy our loves and such a misery to loose them as is said this matter therefore is very requisite to bee peept into The ordinary and vsuall Arteficiall meanes prescribed and used to obtaine and encrease love and to please our Minnions Mistresses and Madames are such as follow Pleasant and well composed lookes Glances Smiles Countersmiles plausible Gestures pleasant carriage and behaviour affability complements salutations a comely gate and pace dancing and the like will greatly please and increase the love of some female creatures Also time place opportunity conference importunity sometimes I know that neglect and scorne doth in some of these female kind much increase love for some of them are of such Imperious conditions as they will insult over and scorne such puny Lovers as will bee pind upon their sleeves Hence it is like women are compared to shadowes if wee follow them they will goe from us If wee goe away they will follow us againe wherefore sometimes to neglect is better then opportunity and whetteth Love There be divers love-trickes and devices also to stirre up and increase love as tokens favours letters valentines merry meetings and many others All these fore named occasions allurements and love devices are usually practized and even naturall to lovers and need little disquisition I might now imagine a Wedding day wish to all true-louers joy and proceed Yet because me thinkes I see many young lovers in a deepe study very pensiue and melancholly surely the matter is they are plodding and devising what to say to please their mistresses at their next meeting And forasmuch as heretofore at idle times to recreate and please my selfe I began to study the Art of discourse I now thinke it not amisse out of the same to take a little paynes or rather a little pleasure to recreate my selfe amidst more serious occasions and giue an instance onely concerning this matter of Love SECT V. The Art of Love-discourse ARteficiall discourse being added to the other love devices if any good meanes will this may effect our desires and to such as are already agreed the same may bee most pleasant and delightfull much increase love and adde a greater joy and pleasure to all other Love-sports devices and pleasures Wee know that even common and frivolous discourse being spoken in the way of love will much please and take these female lovers such as are idle Complemēts Players ends Newes tales Love-stories Lascivious Iests Songs and the like though very idle and frivolous and though spoken and acted by some Apish gull-Pot Poet or swaggering idle companion so as especially light Phantasticke things such as many women are will bee over head and eares in love But now if some well given faire condition'd young man for to such I cheifely direct this discourse shall withall adde a sweet pleasing convincing heart-striking and materiall discourse to his Lover whom I will imagin to bee a like vertuous and well condition'd young creature it will bee indeed sufficient to captivate sweetly charme and overcome them and beeing spoken in the way of love and mingled with other honest pleasant love devices to fill their hearts full of joy and pleasure and so to enchant them as they will be ioyned together with an indissoluble bond of true flaming Love For the manner and matter of our discourse I have alwayes thought it vanity and lightnesse rather then courtesie to discourse according to the gallants fashion of our times by meere complements congies apish gestures and meere finicall words To say sweete mistresse or Madame I honour your shoo-strings the ground you tread upon am proud to kisse your hand it is my ambition to bee your servants servant and the like to present and offer not onely our service but life to the command of our mistresses as wee use to call them though God knowes wee never meane to bee their servants Or on the other side to study and talke to them high straines of wit and figuratiue exornations lest they bee not vnderstood or laught at But in this respect a plaine yet arteficiall mouing and peircing way is best I intend not to perscribe a set method to discourse in for why methinkes a premedicated set discourse shewes something a barrennesse of wit though not of judgement And is commonly uttered with little passion or feeling which is in some measure taken away by premeditation and consequently not so freely lively and with such a grace as otherwise unlesse wee can counterfeit like a Player our passions and have wit enough to come out and in upon all occasions of discourse On the other side wee are not strayted in this subject for want of matter to discourse on all occasions even in an extemporeall manner for every smile Action Object Event or speech may affoord a lover matter of sudden discourse and indeed love of it selfe if it bee fervent whets the wit and so stirres up the spirits as wee may say of lovers As of fine wits they can make use of any thing But neither of this extemporeall discourse is my intention to write of but rather a mixture of both which I will call a habit of discourse or an extemporeall Method A method not so much to discourse in as to discourse by in such sort as a man may bee furnisht with continnuall abilities of discourse in an extemporeall method as I may say or a sudden and well composed manner without brainsick light idle frivolous prating on the one side or too much pumping for wit on the other side but with a ready yet perswasiue and materiall discourse on all occasions But this Art of discourse in generall concerning all matters will not easily be given to weake novices yet the meere observation thereof even to such may doe them some good concerning this matter of love but in generall it will rather require that a man bee well learned and experienced in the liberall Sciences especially such as he shall have most occasion to discourse of So as he may readily on all occasions dilate the matter of his discourse by the Rules and grounds of this Art which are By Number Particulars Arguments Examples Comparisons Similitudes Contrarieties Appendances Circumstances and the like I shall first giue an instance in this Art of discourse very breifely concerning this matter of Love and that onely concerning the excellency thereof And then a taste what is to be done to attaine to this Art SECT VI. An instance in this Art of Discourse concerning Loves excellency FIrst for instance in this Art concerning the excellency of Love which though I have already given a tast of
lively a Poet a Musitian a dancer a man of fine behaviour it makes us enjoy all things in the world with a sweeter pleasure then otherwise for why it possesses the heart with joy and a ioyfull heart takes pleasure in all things sweetens all our Actions Discourses Riches and all pleasures A million of joyfull and blessed effects spring from Love if wee love truely So if wee love wee still shall find A joyfull pleasure in our mind Whether eate talke thinke work or play True Love will turne all into joy Or by Additions Appendances and Circumstances as for example That Love is more splendent and excellent when it is seated in its Throne and attended with Riches honours and other pleasures who seeme to bee Loves handmaids who graces and sweetens all the rest And as a Circumstance hee can discourse almost of any thing and set forth the excellency thereof as by the Attendants Riches honours and pleasures by the object Women by the Parts and Parties affected which are the most excellent parts of man and commonly the bravest noblest and most generous men By the Author which is God himselfe for Love is a daughter of heaven yea as some say a little heaven upon earth by which wee may spye and spell Glympses of heaven and bee the more inflamed to seeke and possesse it so as it seemes wee may enjoy two heavens In highest joyes that can be thought Wee l sweetly passe our time away What pleasure is in Earth or heaven That thee and I may not enjoy Thus have I given a tast of Loves excellency by way of instance in this Art of discourse But I pray remember it is but by way of discourse and I hope you will pardon what is amisse for you know men will talke somewhat largely to please their Lovers and yet say they have given but a tast when they have done But I proceed SECT VII Shewing further the use of this Art BY which order or Art of discourse wee may discourse of any other particular whatsoever as for example Of the contrary to what hath bin dilated to wit the misery of Loves Losse Which may even readily bee dilated and expressed by this Art in this manner likewise Either by the number of miseries the misery of each particuler of that number with observations in respect of matter time place and other occasions And each particular demonstrated by divers examples Reasons Arguments Comparisons Contrarieties Similitudes Circumstances or otherwise And set forth by apt expressions and particularly applyed and passionately enforced and uttered according to the nature of the subject In this manner also wee may discourse of any other subiect upon occasion whether of Riches or of honour of health of Prudence Temperance fortitude or of any vertue of Poverty disgrace or sicknesse of Covetousnesse Ambition Intemperance or of any other vice or misery yea of Religion and divine Matters And in truth there cannot bee a better way of Love discoursing then a Religious way however seldome practized but rather despised by many of the blades and gallant Dames of the world aswell as the sottish and blockish sort of people who thinke and esteeme all things aboue their phantasticke and vaine humors folly and madnesse But indeed what better way of Love discoursing can bee then a laudable and pious insinuation into the mind of such as wee discourse with whether friend or Lover by heavenly discourses which also may bee done by some such like Art as hath bin dilated In somuch that if both parties bee of a divine temper their hearts may bee filled with heavenly and glorious thoughts but these things I know will seeme folly mysticall strange and as very Riddles to such whose meere naturall mindes are not raised to the knowledge of supernaturall and heavenly things But such Lovers and friends whose minds are Elevated to a supernaturall and divine temper their hearts can bee filled with heavenly Ioy in such discourses and by the eye of Contemplation see one another in respect of their mindes like Angels Divine creatures and so love one another with a heavenly aswell as earthly Love Both which being vnited doe tye their hearts together with an indissoluble knot and fill them with sweet fountaines of joy and delight SECT VIII Shewing briefly how to attaine this Art of discourse NOw to give a tast as I said how to attaine to bee a skilfull Artist in this or the like Art of discourse Which because it may bee said in generall almost in as few words as particularly of Love I shall endeavour very briefly to shew the same in a generall way which is First by often and serious meditations to imprint into our minds the grounds and heads thereof As Numbers Particulars Observations Arguments Examples Comparisons Contrarieties Similitudes Circumstances Appendances and the like as perfectly as wee doe our A B C. Whereby wee may as readily call to mind those grounds as wee can letters to spell words with which is as fast as wee can speake Or as in the Art of Brachygraphy or Short-writing wee readily know at which end side or place of the letter to set the tittle dash or ensuing letter whereby wee know what vowell dipthong or word it signifies even as suddenly as wee can thinke of any thing or as Preachers doe especially take notice and imprint into their minds the heads divisions and grounds of their Sermons Secondly having thus imprinted the grounds in our minds wee ought to bee furnisht with sufficient learning and skill concerning the matter of our discourse And in generall to bee skilfull in such Arts and Sciences as wee shall have most occasion to discourse of whether of Divinity Physicke Law Philosophy History Poetry or other so as I might instance also in this Art concerning the Divine the Lawyer the Physitian the Gentleman and divers others aswell as the Lover in their severall wayes of discoursing and also concerning divers usuall occasions if my skill would attaine thereunto but this Treatise will not admit thereof That so by observation reading or otherwise wee may bee furnisht with sufficient Learning matter examples and skill to this purpose in such sort that wee may as some ancient and well furnisht Orators Lawyers Physitians and others can in their severall wayes readily discourse even Raptim upon any Maxime ground or Rule in their Scicences So then impressing the grounds of this Art in our mindes and furnishing our selves with a ready ability to discourse upon these grounds is the way to attaine to this Art of discourse And although the perfection thereof bee very difficult to attaine unto in such a ready manner yet even the meere observation or reading thereof may lend us some light and in this matter of Love bee an occasion of encreasing the same and possessing our selves and Lovers with most pleasing joyes and delights unlesse wee have to doe with some brainsick foolish Phantasticke light things better lost then found and consequently dispossesse the
Loving and good conditions From such a Marriage as hath bin dilated springeth a Terrestriall Paradise of pleasures and happinesse To conclude then Let us wish all joy to such happie Lovers Let the Graces dance and the Muses sing at their Wedding And let all pleasantnesse love and joy dwell for ever in their hearts And as their yeares so may their Love and Ioyes increase That in after-times they may say This is the twentieth or thirtieth yeare of our Ioy. Let them alwayes be familiar and kind to one another So to our selves when wee are married and to all married men let us wish all prosperity And let us all take King Solomons counsell Prov. 5.17 Rejoyce in the wife of thy youth let her bee vnto thee as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe and Rejoyce in her Love continually SECT XV. Of the good use of this Nuptiall Love and so concluding with a briefe discourse of Divine Love TO conclude then with the good use of this Nuptiall Love If God please to give us any blessings in this kind let us use them well Enjoy them and bee thankfull Hee that useth these externall felicities of the world such as this of Nuptiall Love to the glory of God and to good ends with moderate delectation is better to bee reputed then hee that unduely Inconsiderately Rashly Inconveniently and Suspitiously as some Monkes and others doe neglects and refuseth so great a good which God freely offers to our acceptance These externall pleasures and blessings of the world may serve to many excellent uses stirring us up to all duties of piety to the Love of God to thankfulnesse and joy in him Let us then enjoy God in all things And all thinges in him and to his glory The Principall good use of this Love and the felicities thereof which I shall now insist upon is That by viewing and enjoying such pleasures and felicities of the Earth wee may looke higher to their Fountaine Contemplating the Love Lovelinesse Beauty Sweetnesse and Excellency of the Creator who is infinitely more excelling And so conclude with a briefe Discourse of Divine Love True it is that all other Excellencies are but dung and drosse in respect of GOD yet by and through these lower delights and felicities of the Earth These little glimpsing Rayes proceeding from that Sunne of Glory wee may spy some light of that Sunne GOD himselfe and of that Eternall felicity which wee pretend hereafter to possesse And so in some measure spell and spye Heaven from the Earth Neyther ought wee to disdaine to make Comparisons betweene Corporeall and Spirituall thinges betweene Earthly and Heavenly Though in respect of the Excellency of the Spirituall and Heavenly there is no comparison Yet as Children have need at first to bee allured to the acquist of Great and Excellent matters by such toyes and trifles as they apprehend so in respect of our weake apprehension such Comparisons and Similitudes are and ought to bee used in a convenient manner So as wee may make a very good use of Earthly felicities in this respect as men doe of Spectacles for by and through these our dimme Eyes may see the cleerer into heavenly Excellencies And consequently bee the more enamour'd of them and so stirred up to seeke and enjoy them And in this respect of Nuptiall-Love the sacred Scripture gives us many and faire Examples As in Hosea I will returne vnto my first Love for it was then better with mee than it is now Hos 2.7 And in divers places CHRIST and his Church are compared to Lovers betrothed and to bee married together The Church is called the Bride the Lamps wife Rev. 21.9 And the end of the world is called their marriage day Rev. 19.7 Saint Iohn Baptist calleth Christ the Bride-groome and his Church the Bride Iohn 3.29 And Christ calleth himselfe the bridegroome Marke 3. That Song of Songs betweene two Lovers betrothed each to others Is by the consent of all Divines a most pleasant Love-song betweene Christ and his Church What remaines then but that wee seeke for and enjoy that fountaine of all Love lovelinesse beauty sweetnesse and excellency which is infinitely more permanent and Excellent then all the other beauties and excellencies of the world if they were all united together If wee could truely thinke what God is how beautifull lovely glorious and in all respects most Excellent Our hearts would presently bee filled with Love and Admiration of him insomuch as then wee should settle our deerest and noblest thoughts wholly upon him and in his Love wee should bee filled with sweetest flames of joy and pleasures One thing have I desired saith King David and I will still desire to behold the beauty of the Lord. His beauty infinitely excells the beauty of the heavens Sunne Moone Starres Angels or what is most excellent If there bee such beauty lovelinesse and pleasure in a Creature As that it hath such power to draw neere unto the eyes Eares and affections of such as behold and consider it how much more beautifull and lovely is God himselfe the Creator and the fountaine from which all other Excellencies spring How should this divine beauty of God attract our desires and inflame us with Love and Ioy. If wee so much endeavour and bee so much affected with the Comelinesse of Creatures how should wee bee Rapt at the Admirable Lustre of God himselfe Hee offers his Love most freely to such as will accept the same Wisdome cryes out in the streets c. Prov. 8. Hee invites us to come into his faire garden to eate drinke with them to bee merry and to enioy his presence for ever Cant 5. But wee must then lay aside all vaine objects of the world All mucky Covetousnesse All aiery Ambition All vaine sensuall Lusts Our desires must not creepe on the Earth wee must purifie our hearts deny our selves and looke aboue our selves If wee will have a cleere vision of God A flaming Love and soule-ravishing delights in him Let us then endeavour to lay aside all Earthly thoughts when wee intend to view this sight To enjoy this Love this pleasure Let us by Contemplation which is the best opticke view heaven see and grow into acquaintance with God Being acquainted let us proceed further and endeavour to bee more familliar with him To denie our selves and goe out of our selves to live above our selves with him Let us powre forth our soules into God and In-soule our selves into him so as his Divine Love and Ioy yea himselfe may wholly possesse us When a Soule is once thus possest with the beauty and Love of God it will bee often thinking of him often mounting up to heaven and as a vapour exhal'd by the Sunne often gliding after its Love being thereunto attracted by the allurements of his most Amiable faire and Divine beauty and Lovelinesse Insomuch as it will be enlightned with glorious thoughts towring apprehensions Ardent affections and heavenly Ioyes Further when the soule considers the infinite