nothing besides God nor any joyned with God but purely God nakedly revealing his Fatherly face in Christ unto the believing soule uniting himself unto the soule and the soule unto him in pure act of hyperbolicall and incredible Communion which is rather felt by experience then known by discourse and iâ— more reall then verball This beholding the beauty of the Lord iâ— that one thing which David desireth above all things Psalm 27.5 It is the pleasant face of God anâ— it only which can put gladnes into his heart Psalm 4. and again he hatâ— nothing in Heaven or in earth buâ— only God Psalm 73.25 He whosâ— name is the Lord of Hosts is the Poâ—tion of Jacob Ier. 10.16 to him thâ— righteous fly for safety Prov. 18.10 these are the people which are kept in perfect peace whose minds are stayed in the Lord as saith the Prophet Isaiah 26 3. nor set any question whether any thing save only God can be the stay of the heart for the reasons declaring this truth are invincible And first God only can be the haven of mans heart because he only is that infiniteness which the heart desireth For this we are to know that mans desires are infinite and endless not triangle as is the figure of the heart but infinite according to that goodness which it once lost in loosing God and hence it is that all Creatures are unable to give it any stable contentment because all comprehensible things are of a finite condition God only can accomplish this rest because the longing of the heart is only in him A second reason is this God is a spirit and therefore most fit for the soule of man which is spirituall to â—â—st anchorinâ—all other things are too shâ—low waters for the shiâ— of mâ—â— neare â—â—â—ide in for thâ— soule must neâ—de◠〈…〉 which is 〈…〉 Aâ—d 〈…〉 by 〈…〉 an◠〈…〉 God hâ—â—self mâ—st 〈…〉 â—s harbour The 〈…〉 of doth teach us these uâ—es Fâ—st it doth declâ—re the naturall â—â—â—â—â—ness and Idolatry of mans heart in that its earnest seeking of rest in a created subject or object Alas man seeketh nothing more then rest as was â—hewed in the second Chapter but how some in wine some in women some in with wealth learning religious exercises c. as the blindness of the understanding doth direct whereas all these are but so many whorish inventions of mans Idolatrous heart which secretly placeth a God-head deity in these comprehensible things but we see that God will not give his glory to another and therefore denieth the heart rest and peace till it come out of all such A second use of this is to declare the reason why the professors of Religion are so covetous and so close-handed namely because that knowledg which hath filled their braines hath not power to satisfie their hearts and that because it is not God but a speculation of God so that though they seeme full yet are as empty-hearted as the vainest man that liveth and are as apt to entertain every way of gain or glory â—n hope to satisfie their restles soules For what this peace of God which passeth understanding is they never knew nor can know because â—hey are so busied in their witty working and understand not what it is to become fooles Lastly this should teach all to enquire what is the Haven or harbour for their soules and not to set down their rest till they be certainly arrived in the God of peace and are made one with him in experimentall acquaintance through Christ But when thy soule shall cast Anchor in God thou shalt feele and find many sweet and heavenly fruits following such as is peace in God and joy in the Holy Ghost together with sweet comfortable and constant contempt of the world as I will briefly touch in the next and last Chapter CHAP. XII Containing the Symptomes or signes of this true happinesse THe last member of this hearts happinesse remaineth to be shewed in declaring the signes of the anchorage of the hearts anchorage And they are in number 4. First the hearts reall rest I say reall rest to distinguish it from all verball and Imaginary rest which man supposeth to have obtained in created and comprehensible things of one sort or another For as things reall and in true being do differ from things Imaginary and as true naturall acts do differ from dreames so doth the peace of that heart which is established in God surpasse all the peace of naturall men in their sensualities and all verball professors in their severall formes of religious exercises The truth of this reall peace appearerh in that it addeth jâ—y in tribulation as St. Paul sheweth Rom. 5.3 and in that it is able to stay the heart and minde Phil. 4.7 Such is this peace that it hath enabled the godly to contend with and to overcome many potent adversaries for proof of this peace see Prov. 18.10 Isa 26.1.2.3 vers Psa 116.7 And that this is a reall peace will further appeare in that it recalleth all the worldly wandrings of the heart and setleth the mind as will be shewed in the restrainr of the appetites The consideration of this first Symptome doth serve to teach all restlesse and wandring hearts that they are not arrived in the Hâ—ven of true being Let us professe what we will know what we can practise in religious exercises till nature be spent yet if there be a restlesse heart coveting and longing for more gaine more glory c. this man hath not knowne the peace of God but the peace which he hath if he have any is a peace of his own framing and is attended with continuall insâ—tiety The second Symptome of the hearts arrivall is the joy which it possesseth Maries heart dorh magnifie the Lord and her spirit doth rejoyce in God her Saviour the Kingdomâ— of God is joy and how can they but rejoyce in whom it dwelleth yea such is this joy as it wipeth away all sorrow in respect of that feare and torment which was in the conscience arising from Gods wrath from the believers eye I say not all sorrow for now this slavish sorrow arising from fear being done away there is begotten another kinde of grief in the soul viz. a grief because the soul sinneth and not because it shall be punished For the love of God hath cast out this fear So that this joy is a joy most unspeakable and glorious And this joy is that which Reverend Ward in his book called the life of Faith doth so extort as it were from a Christian for he saith plainly that he will not believe that Faith can be without joy And certainly that joy must needs be great which is no other thing but God in power making glad the heart of man We see how greatly our affection of joy is moved and stirred with almost vnspeakable delight in the reall partaking of some earthly endowmeÌ„t Judge then how much more are they enlarged with joy which not
which live in Kings houses as our Saviour saith and by continuance of time he so affecteth their minds and so tendereth their skins that they neither can nor will indure the hardnesse of harden no lin is leath weake enough for their silken yet sinfull skins it is to be doubted whether the sending of a second Jonas would bring these Harlots to a shirt of haire and these peoples silk and sattin to sackcloath Thus their sense affecting softnesse it cometh to passe that all labour is terrible and hard most uneasie and unpleasant so idlenesse becometh the habite both of bodie and mind and now is this party fit for the Devills purpose To conclude this deceit of our senses the Devill like a cunning fisher laboureth to hang us with a hook baited with sensuall objects and having gotten his hook in our jawes he doth not like some unskilfull Angler by and by strike to the hazard of hook line rod fish and all but rather draggeth and draweth us up and downe in the Sea of our sensuall contentment or water of our wickednesse till at the last he hath drowned us in our own element that so the rest of our hearts may be forgotten and the peace of our minds buried in perpetuall oblivion The second engine whereby the peace of our heart is hindred through the craft of the Devill is the exercise of our fantasie upon its object which fantasie or imagination of ours Satan feedeth with a thousand fancies and and foolish imaginations of imperfect shapes sometimes he deceiveth with the conceit of learning either this art or that language in the perfection whereof he perswadeth us lieth much contentment But if humane speculation be not able to satisfie the mind then he hath a more deceitfull invention to deceive us and that is the propounding of some forme of religious exercise And hence it is that he hath begotten so many new inventions in the Sect-makers of our times as in old times he hath done heretofore This is a Sea and a Labyrinth of distraction here the poor soul findeth a beginning but hardly any end for this religious knowledge is so variable through the multiplicity of curious wits and contentious spirits Sect-makers for the most part that the life of man is too short to take a view of this variety Moreover this exercise savoreth so of duty and obedience that men are afraid to neglect the earnest exercise thereof But well doth Satan see how to puffe up the mind in the acquiring of such religious knowledge and so to keep the mind in the acquiring of such reasonable formes of service that the poore soule may never passe further then the outward court of bodily performance nor once looke within the most holy place Thus hath he blowne and puffed up many which in their externall performance and knowledge doe even feed and feast themselves as men in dreams supposing themselves to have all things and yet indeed have nothing but onely a bladder full or rather a braine full of windy and wordy conceptions So fruitlesse is all speculation and knowledge in respect of quieting the soule or heart for as shall be shewed the soule cannot communicate with any such comprehensible thing but onely with God which is a Spirit and able to fill the Soule with his presence and so quieteth the restlesnesse thereof as it remaineth to be shewed in the eleventh place where we shall speake of the Harbour or Haven of the Hearts Happinesse and shew it to be God himself CHAP. V. Of the hearts deceit in the conceit of happiness IT is the conclusion of the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 17. Vers 9. that mans heart is deceitfull above all things and true it is that mans heart is not more cunning either in simulation of good or in dissimulation of evill towards others then it is in this selfe-deceiving in seeming to it selfe happy in a most haplesse condition but because S. John saith ch 20. v. 21 that every mans condition is such as his heart doth assure him of Object Here may some object that our hearts cannot deceive our selves though it may deceive others and this objection is strengthned by that place in the Corinthians know ye not your own selves that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 by which two places it seemeth that every mans owne heart can truly tell him what his estate and condition is whether good or ill Moreover if we should deny this that mans heart is able to give him true testimonie then should we crosse this truth that the conscience is a thousand witnesses and so should we be forced to run into this absurdity of proving our inward condition and estate between God and us from and by some marke and note from without in the outwards of our conversation whereas to say as the truth is all is in the outwards of our conversation according as it is in the inward of our hearts and all mans testimony to himselfe must be drawne from within as we must give the Church and the world testimony from without This being granted that the heart doth give found testimony of a mans estate and condition between God and him how is it then said that the heart is deceived in the conceit of happinesse To which I thus answer by a comparison A Merchant or any other man that tradeth in the world hath good skill in Arithmetick or the art of numbring by vertue whereof he is very able no man better to cast up the account of his estate and so to know truly what he oweth and what is due to him from others notwithstanding he partly through carelesnesse and partly through fear of beholding the ruine of his condition foreseeing that he is not so rich as he could wish and as the world doth judge he doth neglect the precise examination of his estate and so esteemeth his estate though bad yet much better then it is for whereas he judgeth himselfe worth little it proveth in the conclusion that he is ten times more in debt then all that he hath is worth Where now is the fault is it want of skill in numbring No it is the want of the exercise of that skill even so it is with our hearts they are able to give us true testimony of our estate with God but most neglect to take a true triall of themselves for the reasons aforesaid And so it cometh to passe that the heart is deceived in the conceit of happinesse Now that the danger of this rock may be avoided let us consider how this deceit is framed where we will observe two things First what is the ground of this deceit And secondly the manner how it worketh The ground of this deceit is an incredulity concerning this hearts happinesse for it is hard to find a man that believeth historically the quietnesse and happinesse of the heart as it is to be considered to tell men that there is a rest and peace in God passing
understanding seemeth a strange thing to most men to perswade men that a man may be rich without wealth honorable in disgrace joyfull in adversity strong in weaknesse and lively in the very point of death this to perswade men to were to make the world wonder So that it is cleare that the most part of men are incredulous in this matter of the hearts happinesse There be many that will confesse that there is but God and that the Father is the Creator of the world that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and the holy Ghost the Sanctifier which notwithstanding will affirme it to be a great presumption for any man to be assured of any happinesse in God or in Christ which is all one as to deny both God and Christ for no man truly and experimentally knoweth God but he which is established in him as the only good of his heart and soul But to let such passe which in opinion deny such assurance let us consider how grossely they faile which do in opinion allow of the possibility of this assurance for though many may be found which do confesse that it is possible to come to such an assurance and happinesse in God yet will they not believe but that this assurance is up and down according to their working better or worse neither will they believe that the peace of the heart standeth in the soules communion with God but that it dependeth upon such evidences as they have drawne from the conformity of their wills affections and actions to their literall knowledge so that it cometh to passe that none are so unbelieving in this point of the hearts happinesse as those which have acquired a brain full of verball knowledge with which they are puffed up Infidelity being the ground of this deceit let us consider how it worketh the manner how it worketh is by a proud puffing up the heart in a very high conceit of what it hath acquired and this pride is supported by two deceitfull props The first is conceit of things future and to come The second is neglect of things present which we thus declare Infidelity possessing the heart hence proceedeth pride stoutly opposing the hearts happinesse with one of these two arguments following That is either like Corah and that company they tell the sons of Levi they take too much upon them to discourse of so high and transcendent a subject as the Peace and Happinesse of the Heart or else in a Scripture-learnednesse and a verball knowledge they labour to maintaine as the onely happinesse of the heart that estate and condition in which they stand for not having grace to humble themselves to the true annihilating of their acquired and put on formes of knowledge it must of necessity follow that they must defend that estate in which they stand the props or supports of this condition and bold maintaining are as before is said First a conceit of future things for when a man doth truly looke into his spirituall estate and so examineth the fulnesse of his heart he presently findeth a want and an emptinesse of contentment yea in the midst of all externall fulnesse but now he in this estate of emptinesse doth befool himselfe perswading himselfe that it shall be well with him when he shall have accomplished such and such projects as his mind intendeth And thus he putteth off this present time in expectation of future good which is nothing else but the malice of Satan against our Hearts happiness The second prop upholding the infidelity and pride of our Hearts is neglect of examination of our present condition and estate for the most part of men are seldome drawne to enter into a true examination of their owne condition and so it cometh to passe that they conceit themselves happy in a haplesse condition Thus we see the hearts deceit in the conceit of happinesse the ground of it Infidelity the manner how it worketh by pride the props of its support conceit of things future and neglect of things present CHAP. VI. The mysticall cloake or covering wherewith the heart is most strongly deluded concerning this happiness HAving shewed in the former Chapter that the Heart is deceived in the conceit of Happinesse and that most commonly by one of these two deceits either a vain confidence in things to come or by a carelesse neglect of the present condition it shall be necessary that we now come to shew a third and a more mysticall manner of deceit then yet we have touched And this I the rather signifie in a Chapter by it self partly because it requireth a large dilation and would have the former Chapter over-long and partly because it is more proper to some people then the former deceits being spun in a small thred and so very mystically deceiving as shall be shewed We read in Holy Writ of a mysterie of godlinesse and that is Christ manifested in the flesh we read also of a mystery of iniquity and that is a fleshly manifestation of Christ for as the true manifestation of Christ in the flesh is a godly and a great mystery so a fained and a false manifestation of Christ is a great yet a fleshly mystery and if there be a mystery of iniquity no marvell if Satan mystically cloak the minds and hearts of men that they should not perceive the truth of true happinesse But in short to tell what this mystical cloak and covering is which so strongly deludeth our hearts happinesse it is a fair yet a false flourish of religious exercises Many things there be with which the heart of man is deceived but none may be compared to this in respect of the close and crafty deceiving which in it is contained In the declaring whereof let us observe three things First the truth of the assertion that a flourish of religious exercise is a speciall deceiver of mans heart of the true happinesse Secondly let us consider the reason of this religious deceit Thirdly we shall note the manner how it worketh to deceive the Hearts happinesse That religious exercise doe deceive men of their hearts happinesse seemeth at the first a very strange position for it rather seemeth that sensuality and fleshly pleasures and profits doe deceive men then religious exercises for too few God knoweth will some say are religiously exercised To which I answer It is true that very few are relâ—giously exercised if we speak of Religion and religious exercises as they are in truth and indeed in the account of Almighty God who is that true Kardiognostes and searcher of the heart Nor are any deceived with the truth of Religion for it is nothing else but God in Man conforming man to his own Image of righteousnesse and true holinesse Now God cannot deceive but that there is an exercise of Religion seeming true which becometh the strong deceiver and most mysticall deluder of our happinesse is the Proposition that is affirmed and remaineth to be proved Let us now come to the proof of
this point considering it first in the rude and sensuall multitude and then in the more seeming religious and we shall evidently perceive that the religious exercises of men do most strongly deceive and delude the Heart of happinesse the rude multitude of sensuall livers whose belly is their best god which in truth of heart do no sacrifice but to Bacchus Apollo or Venus c. these I say are not so much deceived of hearts happinesse by their sensuall exercises though by them they be hindered as they are by the exercises of their Religion such as it is better or worse for in that they have the name of Christians put upon them in Baptisme and for as much as they do often repeat the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and the ten Commandements and in that they come sometimes to divine Service and to heare a preaching upon Gods good Sunday as they say and seeing that at Easter they do receive their Riteings or the Lords Supper Hence it is that these people will not be perswaded but that their condition is most happy and he that goeth about to discover their haplesse estate undertaketh a most fruitlesse undertaking Now did not these men performe any exercise of Religion it were much more easie in the eye of reason to perswade such men that their case were miserable and wretched but now when any man reprehendeth their vaine condition and bewrayeth their vanity they by and by flie to the Castle of their religious exercise and in it they shroud themselves as being equall in profession with the best of Christians and quid ultra what needeth any more But God forgive me or the like abrupt ejaculations and if such men as these have after some drunken fit or after some fearfull blasphemous Oaths any inward dejection of spirit though far short of Ahab both in nature and time then they conclude themselves very penitent persons and thus they set up themselves in their religious condition As well may a man perswade these men that they are not men as perswade them that they are not true believers and in a most happy condition if it were possible to perswade these men that they are irreligious and unbelieving and that they were of their father the Devill whose work they doe then were they in the way towards happinesse but the first is not likely therefore not the second Thus in the very rude multitude we see that religious exercise doth most strongly deceive it was the too much confidence the Ephesians had of their Diana that kept them from the receiving the faith of Christ even so it is at this day with many they have a forme of believing and of serving God which secretly they doe adore and worship accounting it so good and so great a Diana or God-service that they neither can nor will receive any light of truth It is strange to consider how contrary men are to themselves for it is every mans opinion and conceit that faith without works is a dead faith and no faith and this is most true notwithstanding these men themselves living most ungodlily and wickedly will not acknowledge that they want faith nor hear that they are unbelievers so strongly are they conceited of their Faith and Religion It was a good saying of Alexander Severus and some others that the best learning was to unlearne what was learned amiss so I say that it were the best lesson for all seeming religious men to unlearn their faith and religion and to acknowledge it for no faith and no Religion But to passe from this demonstration drawn from the prophane multitude in whom this truth is least apparent let us come to consider it in the more precisely religious and it wil appear that by how much more men have been strictly exercised to the view of the world by so much more they have been deceived Of all the people in the world the Jewes were most religiously exercised and amongst them the Pharisees were most devout yet Christ telleth the Jewes that they did not know the things which concerned their peace The Pharisees had a good opinion of their Religion as is plaine in him that would give God thanks that he was not as other men were and yet for all this they received not Christ the Son of Peace without which no true peace can be established And as of old so in these our days those that are most devout and forward in the exercises of Religion are in that their performance most mystically deceived in this point of true peace The Papists and the most devour amongst them the Jesuites plainly shew that they have no inward peace in that they daily plot so many policies to augment their degrees of preferment whereas if they were at peace in the inwards of their hearts then had they preferment enough though in never so low a condition Hence it is that they as we and we as they run from opinion to opinion and can abide in no condition with any content because we have not this inward peace of the heart Hence spring all Sects and all divisions amongst both Papists and Protestants And to conclude this point it is most apparent even amongst us both Preachers and Professors which to our selves and to the eye of the world seem most religiously exercised that we have no peace for though we in the secrets of our hearts praise God that he hath called us from our vanities and that he hath made us to abhor those vices in the which our neighbours do wallow and tumble and so blesse our selves in a conceit of a better estate notwithstanding it is most clear that the true peace of the heart we have not known in so much that every one of us for the most part do seek our selves and our own ends in all our courses and are glad to patch and piece out our contentments with gain and glory and vaine boasting of our owne praises oftentimes opening our mouths against others secretly begging commendations to our selves And more then all this we must have our dishes our dainties and our sweet morsells to support our empty hearts yea our possessions must be inlarged our buildings must be beautified and too little to satisfie our restlesse soules and which do clearly shew that though we have a Religion that speaks of peace yet our Hearts are not established in the God of peace for were the soule once at rest and so the heart made truly happy in God then as we did injoy one thing above all so should we injoy all things in one and in that one thing would all other things be contemned as dung and as things of no esteem but this earthly hungering sheweth the Hearts emptinesse in all Now what hath deceived us even our conceit of the goodnesse of our Religion Quest But some will demand a reason why religious exercises do so mystically deceive Answ To which question I thus answer The Lord according to his divine wisdome hath
doth for a while stay in the Wilderness of mortality civility or religious formality in some or all of them as to his reason seemeth best This man while he here stayeth may be said to be come from Egypt of beastly and brutish sensuality but yet this man is farre remote from Canaan the land of rest Now while man is established in any of these wayes I judge him to be as it were in the Wilderness of rationall contentment I call it rationall because the reason of man doth conduct hjm inâ—o this way of what kind soever â—t be if it be past sensuall but in â—he sensuall reason is no guide but only blind affection pricked forward by the organicall power of the sensuall exercise And this rationall condition I the rather call a Wilderness because as in a Wilderness men often loose themselves and can find no way out but supposing after long travell that they are near the place where they intend are in truth further off so it fareth with many yea with all such as walk in the way of reason and humane understanding they loose themselves in the woods bushes of their deep and learned speculations so that the longer they travell the further they are from God and rest in him This rationall Habitation is also twofold in respect of the subject matter in and about which it is occupied viz. humane or divine And in taking a farewell of both these parts of the rationall contentment in this especially doth the Child of God outstrip the naturall and verbal professor For the naturall prefessor for so I call all brain-sick disputers taketh a cold farewell of the sensuall life only or rather he exchangeth his grosse sensuall life into a more close sensuall life and communing partly in conceit and partly in truth out of the fleshly and sensuall life he now ariveth in the Haven of some speculation or knowledg either in things humane or divine or in both So that this man by vertue of his knowledg can dispute and reason of the outward and bodily part of Gods worship he can discourse of white and black round and square of kneeling and subscribing and run an infinite discourse against Antichristian Government and this rationall discourse he calleth the language of Canaan Indeed so it is the language of Canaan for other land of rest his heart knoweth not then what ariseth from these things wherein he is established This speculation is his summum bonum and from this his knowledg and his working he deducteth notes and markes of his unfit faith and reall fidelity supposing and imagining that he believeth which faith never faileth him till he stand in need of it But the true Christian taketh his farewell as of the sensuality so of all rationall contentments and biddeth all comprehensibleness farewell as being too weak and unworthy for his soule to have society withall And so becometh more strong in desire then curious in speculation and longeth more to feele communion with God then to be able to dispute of the genus or species of any question humane or divine and thus in depth of desire is humbled in the highest degree of knowledg and presseth to know God in powerfull experience This man doth no longer commit sacriledg or spirituall whotedome in the secret of his heart either with knowing or doing though his knowledg be great and his obedience surpassing many but is truly nullifyed and made nothing and so is become a foole in all fleshly wisdom having nothing to glory in but only the Lord. Secondly we are to consider the manner how the heart taketh this fare-well from the sensuall and rationall life It is not by going out of either but metaphorically that is the heart denieth to receive any contentment from either of them We are to know that the Christian can use the Objects of his sences as though he used them not and so the world and the things in the world he being in the inwards of his heart truly gone and separated in his affections from all created good So that this man doth not Stoically refuse the lawful liberty of any Creature that God hath made but whereas before they were as Lords over him and as Gods to him now he is Lord over all Creatures which God hath given him for his use and himself truly subject to God in Christ Nor doth he madly despise the use of reason or contemn the exercise of the understanding as some would infer but now he useth reason and art as only handmaids and attendants to Divinity and Divine knowledg and so keepeth reason under that if with Hagar it will be bearing rule he in the wisdom of God like Sarah will cast it out from having any Dominion So that this man doth use his reason to confute and confound the Arguments of them that would have reason Lord over our faith and such as would establish reason as the chief good And now this mans reason being subdued he is ten times more reasonable then he was before for now his reason doth keepe her true lists and limits So hath reason her true use in all species and comprehensible things in which she sits in man as Lord and also in respect of her subjection there is a free passâ—ge for the soule in pure aâ—t to breath unto God in strength of desire and so to communicate with him as he shall be pleased to reveale in his own time This humble use of reason hath St. Paul respect unto when he confoundeth faith and reason making them both as one 2 Thes 3.2 for then is reason one with faith when it is subjugated to faith otherwise faith is a thing above reason We see then that the Christian farewell to the sensuall and rationall life is not absolutely to be considered but respectively It is not a shortning of a mans life to avoid the world nor a refusing the use of means to rectifie reason The 3. and last point to be considered is the Arguments wheâ—eupon the heart resolveth this farewell The Arguments are deducted from privation for the heart considereth what it hath lost and it findeth that the lost is no Creature nor any comprehensible thing but a Creator most incomprehensible so that the heart must needs passe from every other thing and re-aspire to that which it hath lost Secondly the want of comfort in all other things wherein the heart hath been established for thus the heart or soule reasoneth against her 2. Enemies sensuality and rationall formality You never could give me any stable contentment c. ergo I must needs bid you farewell c. So that the Arguments moving this farewell are very forcible as may be shewed in the amplification of them but I 'le leave it to be understood But least we should deceive our selves in the conceit of this farewell remaining still on our old condition I shall in the next Chapter declare the signes and Symptomes of this farewell CHAP. 10. Shewing the signes
of the Christian farewell HAving declared this farewell it remaineth in the tenth place to shew the signes and symptomes thereof For such is the nature of man that he no sooner heareth that such a farewell should be undertaken but by and by he conceiteth that it is in him accomplished although he be more firmly and unmoveably settled in these things which he should forsake then formerly he hath been That the signes may better appear we are to remember three things which are forsaken viz. the sensuall and the rationall life as in the former Chapter for the Symptomes of the forsaking have reference and â—greement to things that are forsaken First let us speak of the signes of the sensuall forsaking and â—hey are in number three The â—irst is the withdrawing of our hearts from the exercise I say the withdrawing of the heart for though mans senses be still exercised in and upon their proper objects yet is not the life sensuall for the heart taketh no contentment from any such exercise but is still for the most part exercised in a more transcendent Communion even with God and Christ whereas the sensuall ever hath his hearts contentment from his sensuall and sinfull exercises and other contentment hath he none insomuch that when such pleasure and profits faile him his very heart doth faile and his soule is filled with heaviness But the man which hath taken his farewell from the sensuall life receiveth no cordiall content from any sensuall exercises whatsoever This withdrawing of the heart is not unaptly pointed at in the speech of the spouse Cant. 5.2 I saith she sleepe but my heart waketh so it may be said of the true Christian he is sleeping looking hearing tasting eating drinking feasting c. but his heart is withdrawn and is rejoycing in God his Saviour and his soule is magnifying the Lord. Contrariwise those men whose hearts are not thus withdrawn they are so drowned in their sensuall exercises that they forget both God and his people as the Prophet Amos doth signifie unto us at large Amos 6. vers 3.4.5.6 but the man whose heart hath entred into the forsaking of sensuality hath his only content in God as is aforesaid The second signe of this farewell is the true content that this man taketh in hearing his sensuall life reproved in every particular yea though he knew himself particularly spoken to this man loveth the rod of correction and can most kindly kiss both the reproof and the reprover and that not with the hypocriticall kisse of Judas as some who will seeme to kisse reprehension till they see opportunity to be revenged of the reprover to whom they secretly say in heart as Ahab did have I found thee oh mine enemy I need not stand to amplifie how unwillingly sensuall sinners entertain reproofe the common unkindness which all faithfull reprovers find at their hands as also the usuall advancement and preferment of flatterers and time-servers is a sufficient demonstration how ill they brooke reprehension But it is far otherwise with them which have forsaken their sinfull and sensuall life for they love to be smitâ—en with a righteous hand c. The â—xample of Fragan the Emp. is worth the remembring who desiâ—ed nothing else of old Mr. Pluâ—arke but only this that he would â—lainly reprove his failings and â—ithall told him that when he seeâ—ed angry he would not have him â—o think that it was at him for his â—eproofe but at himself for the fault â—equiring such reproof but alas we â—ave few such Fragans and as few â—lutarkes The third symptome is a quiet acâ—uittance from the Court of our â—wn Conscience in the day when â—eason holdeth her sessions by the â—vidence of morall truth which is â—us to be conceived there is in an a power of reason and understanding and this reason of man is sometimes more free and fit being freed from the incumbrances of the unruly affections to judge determine according to evidence that is according to the light of moral truth made known either by reading or hearing or by depth of solid meditation now if in this day hour wheâ— thy reason shall be awakened thy Conscience do not torment theâ— but speak peace quiet unto thee this is an Argument that thou haâ— taken thy farewell of the sensuaâ—â— life For of this be sure that eitheâ— thou hast taken thy farewell of thâ— sensuall life or else thy Consciencâ— doth torment thee or else thy reâ—son is a sleepe and cannot heare thâ— voice of morall truth Now come we to shew the signâ— of forsaking the rationall contenâ—ment which is that where in thâ— true Christian doth outgoe the morall honest man And these be in number 4. First an undoubted resolution of a negative condition that is to say the soule or heart of this man is fully resolved that all comprehensible acts and things men and meanes are no way able to give it peace and that not only of those things wherein it hath had experience but also in whatsoever new invention it may heare of in time to come The second signe is a firm perswasion affirmative concerning the true happiness to consist in God and only in him which firm perswasion begetteth such a patient waiting as sheweth forth the very seeds of faith to be in the heart and this soule will rather chuâ—e to dye in this desire if God refer its request then be brought to reâ—y upon any comprehensible good by any humane perswasion A third signe is a great and unspeakable admiration which is wrought in the soule to consideâ— the passages of all opinions and thâ— termination of all difficulties together with that sweet beholding with the eye of faith all thing extracted out of one thing and iâ— one to see all As most divinelâ— saith this Akempis he to whom thâ— eternall word speaketh is freed froâ— many opinions which freedom begetteth a great admiration in thâ— heart in which it dwelleth The 4. and last note is a most profounâ— silence concerning all curious inquisition and discourse this maâ— pondereth much in his heart buâ— prateth little with his tongue he 〈◊〉 now swift to hear and slowe tâ— speak And this is that by whicâ— in a most speciall manner he differeth from the wordie windy professor And this is a sure testimony that this man hath taken his farewell of his deceitfull and deceiving reason CHAP. 11. Shewing the true Harbour or Haven of the Hearts Anchorage HAving declared the hearts progreâ—sion towards happiness her farewell to all false flattery and the Symptomes of it it remaineth that we shew what is the haven or harbour of the heart This hath been negatively signified and affirmatively insinuated in all our former â—assages in that we have laboured â—he bringing of the heart from all â—nd every comprehensible thing The which now I intend more punctually to resolve with as much brevity as may be The haven or harbour of mans heart is God And nothing under God nor
verbally but really communicate with God and have by faith a true tast and sure earnest of all heavenly preferments which St. Peter calleth an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and this is administred saith he abundantly And some Divines setting forth this happines say that the beleever hath one foot in Heaven as old men have one foote in the grave and wicked men one foote in hell The use of this point is to add sorrow to the sorrowfull but not to such as are filled with godly sorrow because they sin against their loving Father but this augmenteth the sorrow of such as are filled either with worldly sorrow or with slavish and distrustfull sorrow For all such sorrow bewrayeth the want of faith for as Mr. Ward saith such before alleadged such as is our Faith such is our joy and by consequence such as is our sorrow such is our unbelief That is if our sorrow be worldly or slavish and distrustfull Such men as so sorrow may well be told that they have Faith and so they may rest as a man in a dreame and suppose they have Faith but God giveth his children such a Faith which bringeth forth such true testimonie with it that men nor devils cannnot prevaile against it such a faith as justifieth the sinner before God and giveth him inwatd peace toward God in Christ And to speak more plainly though the degrees of peace and joy may be extenuated yet the testimony of its being in nature still remaineth so strong that the child of God can ever say yea when he feeleth God to be withdrawing himself my God my God why hast thou forsaken me And in this might of Gods absence he remaineth confident that though sorrow be over night yet joy will come in the morning So that though the Lord should seeme to kill him with unkindnes yet will he put his trust in him knowing that for all this his Redeemer liveth yea in spight of infidelity his Redeemer liveth and my God hath hid his face and such like phrases are most frequent with the faithfull The 3. Signe is a generall restraint of all mans appetites And here we are carefully to mark two things First how manifold mans appetites are Secondly how farre they are restâ—â—ined The appetites of man may be 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ehended in 3. Heads That is 〈◊〉 â—ppetites cordiall rationall 〈◊〉 The cordiall appetites are most of all restrained the rationall â—ppetites are lesse restrained and the â—enâ—uâ—â— are least of all restrained yet â—â—l reâ—tâ—ained in some degree To enlarge these three points a â—â—ttle The cordiall appetites or the naturall longings of the heart though they move in man most strongly yet are they most hidden from man and where a man doth sensibly perceive the appetite of his heart once he perceiveth the rationall ten times and the sensuall ten hundred times This appetite of the heart is nothing else but a silent mourning of the Spirit for its proper good which is God as it was shewed in the second Chap. Now then it must needs follow that when the heart hath met with God and is arrived in him it must follow that this appetite of the heart must be very much restrained being in a manner full through the fulnesse of God in which it is established The second appetite is the rationall that is the wandring of mans mind in desire of the comprehensible goods according to the determination of the understanding This appetite is more discerned then the former though it move not so strongly and the reason why it is more discerned is because the object of our understanding upon which this appetite worketh is comprehensible so that the mind no sooner moveth but the whole man is for the most part alwayes acquainted with it except only at such times as the sensuall appetites work more strongly in eodem puncto temporis in the same instant Now this rationall appetite being variably and often exercised by reason of the strong cry of the heart expressing its discontentment to the understanding in a perpetuall cry of emptiness must needes be very much restrained because that moving of this appetite the hearts emptiness is now supplyed The mind of man hath a naturall motion for its own delight and recreation as it were and this appetite still remaineth in the mind of man but that motion which was violent from the cry of the heart is now restrained so that the appetites of mans mind are nothing so unruly nor so forceable as before for all the unrulines of this appetite is subjugated and subdued in the peace of the heart The 3. and last appetite is the sensuall and this is least bridled because it is most exercised in relieving of the outward man notwithstanding the inordinateness of this appetite is brought into a very comely decorum and order So that now the sensuall appetite can with much more easiness and contentednesse be denyed the object of its desire yea the sensuall appetite can in a good measure be content with what is most repugnant to its desire as with hunger cold nakedness yea and with death it self such is the wonderfull working of the hearts quietness it requireth a volumn to express how it rectifieth and ordereth the whole man The use of this lets us see that whereas all the appetites are unrestrained the peace of the heart is not attained The fourth and last Symptome is such Eucharisticall love love arising from a thankfull heart extended first to God then towards men and it is to be noted that it is love arising from thankfulness that is from a thankfull heart to God because that his everlasting love in his Christ is made known to the heart This man doth not frame him-self to love and to do good duties that so he may have somewhat to thank God for vain-gloriously as did the Pharisee But being assured of Gods love doth stand bound over again to God in love and thus out of 〈◊〉 thankfull heart standeth knit to God and to the obedience of his Commandements saying in his heart O how I love thy Law and every particular of it This love of God shed abroad iâ— his soule doth cut down self-love so that now this man is for God and his Neighbour to all and every such services wherein he may glorifie God and do good unto men so that it is as his meat and drink to be doing of the will of God FINIS