enquire to pray and yet not finde the light of thy presence But O Lord Leave not this poor Soul of mine but make it to understand the unmeasurableness of thy Bounties and Mercy Oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish and darksome shall be turned into a full and clear Vision O happy darkness if thus to become lightsome The more hidden thou art now blessed Saviour the more glorious wilt thou be then Ah that my heavie thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft amongst those celestial Quires Me-thinks I see when thou shalt be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortal body which now detains me from thy presence and interrupts the view of thy glory how nothing will be able to hinder the eagerness of my Soul from flying to thee Me-thinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy thee Surely there 's no possibility of pleasure without thee no faculty of Soul to wish or think any thing but thee yea my Soul would more willingly wain into nothing then part with thee Thee my only incomprehensible and Eternal All my dear dearest Lord and God! Adieu then those charming warbles of a fleeting and deceitful world O merciful Father Behold my prodigal Soul which returns unto thee Receive me as a mercenary servant if thou wilt not receive me as a Son for I resolve no longer now to run after the salt waters of worldly pleasures and contentments The light of thy countenance is far better then life it self being able to turn the shaddows of death into life and the midnight of the sharpest adversities into the noon-tide of joy and chearfulness Oh how great is the clemency of God to hide from us the greatest part of things which will befal us in the world The knowledge whereof would continually overwhelm our wretched life with sadness and affrightment and give us no leave to breathe among the delicious Objects of the earth Had many great and eminent persons mounted on the highest degree of honour but seen how they were still falling into endless Abysses or beheld the change of their Fortune and the bloody ends of their life it is impossible but the joys of their Tryumphs would have been moistned with Tears and through a perpetual fear of inevitable necessity they would have lost all the moments of their felicity And did the poor and seemingly forsaken Soul thorowly at once apprehend the severe anger of an omnipotent God what alas would it do when it sees it self menaced by the hideous and affrightful terrors and mischiefs of Satan What shall the poor heart do when God is pleas'd to write bitter things against it when he shall scare it with dreams and terrifie it with Visions Surely not pains imprisonments poverty or death it self can be more troublesome to it Whereas the comforts of a quiet conscience becalmed with the gracious in-comes of Gods gracious presence and enlightned with his glorious Beams which expel the darkness and ignorance of our cursed Nature as are so many threads of gold which involve us here below in precious repose and a certain expectation of beatitude until at last we finde wings to take our flight to the City of Peace and Refuge promised unto us by that mouth which never erred and whose Laws are established upon foundations stronger then the pillars of heaven and earth and where we shall receive the excellent Promises and clearest revelations of Eternity The Soul admires the infinite Riches of her Saviours Love in taking Humane Nature upon him WIth what admiration is not the heart of man seized on when he entereth into the great Abysses which are discovered in our Redemption and when he seeth Jesus a Saviour to reveal unto us the secrets and wisdome of heaven by his blessed Incarnation For what saw he in our Nature but a brutish body and a Soul all covered over with crimes and wholly drenched in remediless miseries Or what could he set before him but a miserable ungracious wretch cast forth upon the face of the Earth wallowing in uncleanness abandoned to all sorts of scorns and injuries And yet behold how the Prince of Glory looking on us with the eyes of his mercy taketh us washeth cloatheth adorneth and tyeth us to himself by a hand of infinite Love He laid aside the beautiful Angels and came upon earth to seek this lost creature though a Foe to his Honour and injurious to his Glory See O my Soul How that God far beyond all other created Essences hath been so liberal as to bestow himself on thee He bowed the Heaven and came down rendering his sacred Person subject to all the misery of humanity to bruises to tearings to shatters to violences oppositions and tyrannies and all to accomplish a King of sorrow calamity and scorn He laid aside all the Prerogatives of his most perfect Soul exposing it to labours to tears and griefs to those stupendious Throws in the Garden which made him cry out in those expressive words My God! My God! To what a point hast thou let me to be brought and in the end to be commended even to death it self How alas didst thou abandon thy body to heat to cold to weakness to hunger to thirst to travel to weariness to fear to sadness of Soul and death it self What was it but Love and Love alone that brought down God from heaven to be incarnate in the womb of a Virgin and to suffer all the hardships not sinful to which humane Nature is subject So that thou art not able to conceive the multitude and greatness nor any way comprehend the worth of his mercies And what then canst thou say but only lie gasping with admiration of so vast so unknown a goodness and sigh out the rest in the Center of thy heart Good God What sublimate is made in the Limbeck of Love What attractive was there in Humane Nature to draw thee from the highest part of the heavens to its love Thou out of thy goodness wouldst not lose him who through his own weakness delighteth to lose himself O miracle That humane Nature should be thus tyed to the Divine That glory should be separated from the estate and condition of glory yeilding his Soul up as a prey to sadness O dear Saviour Thou stretchest out thy hand to him who turns his back to thee Man flyeth as a Fugitive and thou pursuest him even to the shaddow of Death What may we say more of so profuse a Bounty Oh how thou courtest sinful flesh Being not content to pardon his crimes but even through thy own death to procure him a Kingdom All the ancient Patriarchs who were persecuted in times past and all the glorious Martyrs who since our Saviour have endured such torments made but a tryal of his Dolours Impatient souls then as we are Can we expect a greater motive to suffering then to have our Saviour for an example Who then will complain Or who is the man who cannot bear a
and easie What though thou here seem to weep for a time thou shalt but onely resemble the Flower-de-luce which weeps a little and out of its own Tears produceth seeds to renew its Beauty The salt Sea of this world shall become a flourishing field as it did to the people of God when they came out of the chains of Egypt Wee are here in this World like little Infants without Air or Light besmeared with blood and swadled in Clouts which Nature onely gave thee for a time to fit thee the better for that life where thou shalt for ever breath in all freedom and liberty We are yet in Prison Fetters and Obscurity until the coming of the great day wherein God shall give us a Spiritual body All the pomp of this World all our life yea all that pleaseth here and taketh up our heart is but the shadow of that Glorious Beauty and contentment which passeth in Eternity Let me then O my God! continually exercise my self in the desires of joyes Eternal let me sanctifie all other Loves to the love of Jesus Christ let me forsake all humane things O my God! and betake my self wholly to the consideration of his excellency When I speak let it be of Heaven as of my resting place and of thee as of the Object of my Felicity Ah! what can be more divine then to see a Soul thus capable of the influences of Heaven whom the Sithe of Time cannot affright whom the Threats of the world nor the wheel of Inconstancy neither the power of Death can dismay O House of God! O Temple of Peace when will the time come which will devest us of all that is mortal which will sweeten the bitterness of our life replenish our hearts with spiritual refreshment and at last put us into the bosom of Immortality The Soul filled with Heavenly Love sends forth the pure flames of her Affection GOd who loves the importunities of his servants often hides his face the longer to the end his Grace may with the more brightness afterwards appear We find in Nature that the Sun is never more resplendent then after an Eclipse the Sea never more calm then after a Tempest nor the Air brighter then after a shower Neither is it ever too late to knock and cry at the Gate of Heaven The fainting Beggar which neglects the re-inforcing of his complaint often goes away without his reward The weary and lingering Christian seldom attains the end of his journey where he shall live for ever in the Palace of Peace and contentment where our happiness shall be perpetual and our fulness never occasion loathing to him that possesseth it Neither doth God do us any injury if after long waiting here instead of a Crown which is the Weather-cock of winds of a Scepter which is the Reed of the times or of a Life which is the Harbenger of Death he affords us delights and glories which outstrip the flight of Thoughts which drie up all our Tears and surmount all our Imaginations It was once told a great Prince being in his Infancy bred up in the House of a Peasant whose Son he took himself to be that he should no longer follow so mean an employment of life that his Hat should be turned into a Diadem his Spade into a Scepter his Raggs into Robes of Gold his Cottage into a Pallace and his servitude into an Empire Oh can we think how he was ravished with the love of a Father by whom he was born to so much Treasure and Greatness And shall we not have the like approbation when our Saviour tells us we are not created to live among Mire and Dirt to be tyed to a wretched frail and miserable Body to walk among Bryars and Thornes and embroyl our selves in the toyls and cares of a mortal life Bring me then O dear Jesus in thine own time into those celestial Palaces of incomprehensible lights and unspeakable Beauties Enlighten me O thou Son of Righteousness to discover those glorious excellencies all white with Innocency and resplendent with the Rayes of Glory from the Syrens of the world which so much abuse us with deceits vanitie and infamies I acknowledge thus far the infinite mercy of thy divine Providence that while I was in darkness and under the black Cloud of thy heavy displeasure thou sanctifiest my Fetters and hast now raised up my Ashes above the Crowns of the World Thou mightest indeed have made me ambitious delicate haughty covetous and adorned with worldly Treasures to have walked on Roses to have putrifed in delights yea made my happiness seemingly to have out-run my desires Such there are I confess who have defiled their names with reproach wearied the Earth with their vices astonished Posterity with their deportments and peopled Hell with their crimes But O mercy that thou makest me to see light in the most dusky Nights and a Haven of comfort in the most forlorn shipwracks O most Mighty O most Soveraign Lord of all things visible and invisible were I with thee in the shades of death what should I fear being between the arms of Life O great eye who seest all and art not seen of any here below Thou art truly worthy if we with mortal lips may call thee worthy yea worthy to whom all the world should give continual thanks for thy inexplicable Benefits Worthy before whom we on our bended knees should all our life-time remain prostrate Worthy that for thee we should have Prayers and prayers everlastingly on our lips O Monsters of impudency if yet we see not thy goodness and persist insensibly of thy mercy With these considerations if the Soul now wholly ravished she walks on Earth as a man suspended in Heaven drenched in God and fill'd with the joyes of his Spirit Her eyes are listed up towards Heaven though streaming down tears for sinne upon Earth Her hands are still lifted up thither by prayer Her heart formerly contracted with sadness for crimes committed against so good a God now melts with joy unspeakable Neither earing nor drinking nor sleeping is able to dissolve the sweet conversation she hath with God Now is it that the Soul begins to lead a life wholly Celestial as one who seems to have nothing to do with the Bodies and conversations of the living Now is it that after so many Tempests so many Thunder-claps and Whiriwinds of grief and sadness she arrives at a Port not of temporal felicity but of the unspeakable joyes of Heaven Ah ignorant that we are of the works of God! perpetually fixed to the Earth and deprived of those sparkles of heavenly fire and light Let us but a little draw aside the Curtain and we shall see through so many Clouds the glorious Rayes of lasting happiness There may you behold the Effigies of a gracious Soul with a Crown on its Head and Scepter in its Hand with prosperity continually smiling with loves free from disturbance with desires void of denials with affairs without
state wherein thou wouldst die to fear Hell always that thou maist not fear it ar all to frame a tender and timerous conscience to thy self and to call thy self often to account in this manner Ah poor Soul if thou wert now at this instant to dislodge out of this world art thou in an estate to be presented before the Throne of the supream Judge hast thou not some sinnes unrepented of some restitution to make do there not some vain thoughts and worldly lusts lodge and remain within thy heart Say further to thy self alas what is a little time when it is gone how quickly shall I be in another world how speedily will our years pass how will our minutes of pleasure be then repaid with everlasting sufferings what have I then to do but to provide for heaven And let me think that time lost wherein Nothing is done to that end And seeing all the pleasure of sinne here in this world is but to converse with Swine and feed on Husks O that we had but a right apprehension of the fulness and pollution thereof and how momentary and uncertain that delight is vvhich vve reap by it The Soul being ready to sink under the weight and apprehension of her Sins bemoanes the weakness of her Faith and desires help from her Saviour THough Prosperity and the Beauty of the world doth not easily corrupt Souls which have once taken upon them to live in the fear of God yet notwithstanding they oftentimes vvould and in some sort change them every sin being a tripping off of the Souls heels The poor labouring and industrious Bee sometimes goes so long upon her hony as that by much walking she there entangles her feet So a Soul yea one of those who are most devout being continually soothed by a long sequel of pleasing successes and the delights of the world taketh some small flight out of it self and seeketh content in the smiling and delicate aire of the worlds delights though at last they prove nothing but the Objects of grief and sorrow But no sooner doth adversity strike and God hold up his finger but the Soul re-entereth into it self it raiseth it self above the wayes of the Moon and compass of the Sun to the goodly Temple of Eternity where Spirits live dispoiled from these Masses of flesh and Bones which we draw along with us in the midst of the various revolutions of this mortal life This is the way which the Soul taketh so soon as through sinne she is alienated from the Court of Heaven She entereth into a sad retirement and in this manner bespeaks her self O Lord this World is irksome to me I cry unto thee Lord unto thee do I fly O thou whose clemency reacheth from Heaven to Earth set my sinnes from me as wide as the East is from the West It is thou onely O Jesus that canst cure the ardours of my Sufferings It is thou onely that canst dry up my Tears break my Fetters and dissipate all my Troubles If I am in darkness thou art light if in doubt thou art my councel if in danger of shipwrack thou art my Haven if in a Labyrinth of Dangers thou art the Thread to guide me out yea if at the Gates of death thou art my Life O suffer me not dear Saviour now to sink under the grievous weight of my many infirmities Then she looks about her as if it seemed Nature had displayed the Mountains Valleys the Woods Forrests and Rivers and the great Theatre of the works of God altogether to assist and further her in the height of her sadness She that formerly seemed like those that shined in the Majesty of sumptuous attire was now covered with course Cloth She who seemed like those that altogether sparkled with precious Stones appeared now in a Livery of Sackcloth and since he had formerly entertained a mortal beauty was now wholly taken up and wasted with sadness and mortification of the Flesh Methinks I hear how the Soul reasoning with her self and being ever perplexed and involved finding pain in repose thirst in abundance and seeming separated from the fountain of true comfort sadly cries out My God! I know that no good can be had without thee the true and soveraign Good In every place that I am without thee I am in pain All the Riches which are not in thee seem to be meer poverty All the greatness pleasures and profits of the World are nothing to me unless I can call thee Saviour From thee onely comes that joy which all the Saints have studied with pain with delight and tasted with Glory It is that which S. Peter calls 1. Pet. 1.8 A joy vnspeakable and full of Glory It is that which S. James said contained the consummation of all comforts Iam. 1.2 which S. Paul found in the Caverns of the Earth which some have found upon Wheels others in Flames some in Gibbets others on Gredirons and lastly it is that which descenderh from Heaven and with Eternal streams of comfort watereth the dry and parched hearts of distressed Souls Thus was the divine Soul like the Moon in an Eclipse which appeareth wholly dark on the side towards the Earth but faileth not to be most bright in that part which looketh towards Heaven And though some who behold her with carnal eyes in such a state may think her totally darkned yet God in this retirement and sweetness of repose darts his glorious Rayes upon her through the Cloud of the Body and causeth her to see the eyes of Angels as a Soul wholly invested with the Sun of Righteousness In the mean time she relisheth this retreat as Manna from Heaven and tasteth this deep silence with incredible delight after so many confused clamours of a troubled Conscience It seemeth unto her that she then speaks to God face to face and that she saw all the pride of the Earth much lower then her feet Her Soul was whitened in her Tears and purified in her desires pouring out all unto God as it were through the Limbeck of her ardent Devotion and drawing the Curtain over all worldly affairs to be onely entertained with God And from this time forward she lives beyond the sense of worldly affections Time seems to have no Sythe for her Death is unprovided with Darts Calumny loseth its Teeth at her and Glory spreads throughout the Ensigns of Immortality She seems onely to live on Extasies turning that little breath which remained on her lips to the praises of God She now also sees it a matter very reasonable that God should make use of all manner of Arms to prosecute a Fugitive from his Providence who hath made a divore from its Creator and seeks to save himself in a Region of nothing She can bethink of no better way to purifie those eyes then with tears which are now wholly bent towards Heaven neither any better course then mortifyings and fastings to whither the beautiful Roses of her face and at last to
in all its dimensions Here it is that our Reason is Eclipsed and we often stray from our chiefest good but there it is that after an admirable Transformation the Soul is wholly absorpt in Felicity And as a small drop of water pouted into the Sea instantly takes the colour and taste there of so the Souls taste is fully inebriated and coloured with the divine Glory O Beauty O Greatness O Goodness Beauty to inhabite in the Idea of God as in a Paradise of Glory and Greatness to have capacity infinite and truly apprehensive of divine Majesty Hence also may we take notice that as there is ever some weakness in humane things which sticketh to the most smiling Felicities and never giveth us wine but with a mixture of dregs so never doth the day of God shine clearly in a Soul which hath too much light of man and sips too deeply in the fading vanities of the world such dayes being seldom without Clouds For O deceitful Riches O fading Beauty O Phantasms of Honour How painful are ye to those that sue for you How Traiterous are ye to those that possess you and dolorous to those that leave you unhappy are those that prize you through error that court you through vanity and obtain you by iniquity How much better is it to put our hands in flames then to lay them on Crowns covered with injustice what will it avail us to have worn Purple when we arrive at the period of Death if we have defiled it with the spots of uncleaness and that we must make an Exchange of all our glory and greatness for a habite of Flames which shall no more wear out then Eternity And who so blind as those who behold not the Diamonds of a Royal Crown to sweat with horrour upon a Head poisoned with Pride and Ambition Who is so weak as sees it not his best course to withdraw from the great conversations of the world from the imbroilment of affairs wherein is so little profit from the Court from specious Offices Preferments and Negotiations from all worldly Ambitions and to cultivate a sweet repose and quiet in the service of Jesus O God of the Patient and Eternal mirrour of Patience may my Soul for ever hover in that Region where thou inhabitest may it speedily arrive to that fortunate Island where divine tranquility dwelleth and where there is an everlasting springof Beauty and Glory may it enter into the Temple and may the continual odours of the Sacrifice of Reconciliation Mercy and Propitiation mount up to thy Throne which thou taughtest us upon Calvary in the bitter and sharp dolours of thy body amidst the sorrow of Heaven the darkness of the Sun the opening of Sepulchres the breaking of Stones the effusion of thy Blood and the desolation of thy Soul And as thy arms Blessed Lord were stretched out upon the Cross so at last receive me into the stretched-out arms of thy mercy The Sin-sick Soul can take no rest until she be further reconciled to her Saviour AS there is never any thing good without the experience of evil so God is often pleased here to afflict his Children the berter to make them relish his comforts And hence is it that as David saith Psal 55.19 The wicked fear not God because they have no changes God sending troubles to his Children in mercy but gives prosperity to the wicked in his wrath And hence it is that while the workers of iniquity do flourish the children of God being heavy loaden with the weight and burden of their sinnes cry out Lay on us O God! any affliction rather then suffer us to prosper in the way that is evil As the little Nightingale which lives innocently by some little seeds of Plants sings sweetly while we see all those Birds of Prey which feed upon the flesh of Beasts send forth a horrid cry And as the poor Turtle ceaseth not to groan having lost her Mate and often beholds her self in the silver streams where in every wave she sees she laments the waving Image of her misfortune yet is far more secure since the memelancholly Object of pitty then those who are more obvious to the eye of the Fowler so a pious Soul though seemingly deprived of her sweet liberty and seeing her self severed from all commerce with Man kind to be banished into a Desert where nothing but Rocks are witnesses of her sufferings is notwithstanding still fastned unto God by Chains not to be dissolved whom she fervently desires to vouchsafe her comfort and to confirm her spirit which was descended into the bottom of the miseries of this world When the poor Soul hath offended her God she can never be friends with her self untill she be reconciled to him and conceive his countenance to be turned again to her If he once but hide himself she looks forward if he be there on the right hand and on the left if she may find him She takes all ocasions of holy Conferences and useth all means with the Spouse to enquire for her Beloved which way he was gone and whether he was turned aside Early and late doth she seek the Lord of her life she takes no rest in traversing the Forrests the Woods the Meadows the Mountains and Floods Cant. 1.3 and 6.3 She seeks him by night whom her Soul loveth she will arise and look about the streets with groans and cryes with sighes and prayers in her Chamber and Closet in Church and Chappel she sends up her vowes to the God of her salvation How powerfully also doth she desire God first bedewing her own eyes to water the barrenness of her Soul what sad complaints being all swoln with Tears doth she pour out What is Heaven turn'd Brass that neither Tears nor sighes can enter Shall there be no more commerce between Heaven and the unhappy Progeny of sinfull Adam Alas O God! saith the forlorn Soul Wilt thou alwayes be hidden from me Shall I never see that face which with one glimpse of splendor can make me eternally happy where am I what do I Alas my soul is in night and darkness and I sadly feel O blessed Saviour that thou art far from me My heart is near sinkingin a sea of sorrow I row strongly but can advance nothing except thou come into my Soul Come then O my most blessed Saviour walk upon this tempestuous Sea of my heart say unto me It is I be not afraid O come speedily and Reign within me to disperse those cares to enlighten my understanding to enflame my will to cure my Infirmities and recover my decayed Senses Many and bitter no doubt are the assaults of Satan all this while within the poor Soul Can God love thee saith he and leave thee thus to my power Why then is all this befaln thee where are all his mercies thou boastest of sure he hath now forsaken and delivered thee into my hand why then shouldst thou wait any longer But still doth the Soul stop her ears
the Pilgrimage of a perfect Christian following his Saviour home to the Cross Briefly Here maist thou be wrapt in the contemplation of his Bounties and ravisht in the consideration of his Beauties It having been my desire and endeavour by setting forth the Vanities of the World and the Excellencies and Riches which are in Christ to draw the heart of his Spouse to be sick of Love to him and to be enflamed with longings to enjoy him until by the sacred ardors of love he dive into our hearts and make us enter with him into the great Abyss of delights which he hath reserved for the most purified Souls The CONTENTS THat Love in its self is not a Vice but the Soul of all Vertues when it is tyed to its proper Object which is the Soveraign Good Page 6. Of the Nature and Qualities of Divine Love and wherein it exceeds all other Love p. 10. That our love to God ought to precede and exceed all other Loves p. 16. That the Soul can take pleasure in nothing until it meet with satisfaction from its Maker p. 24. That many may have their eyes Love-proof and their hearts shut up against all the assaults of Fond-Love p. 30. The Misery of those who have yeilded to the Passion of Love and the Glory of Souls which have overcome it p. 39. How we may avoid the Snares of Love p. 44. That Outward Ornaments should not invite our Love p. 53. That when all Loves fail the Love of God remains p. 55. Temporal Goods cannot content the Soul and therefore deserve not our Love p. 61. The Soul complaineth of her Condition and Misery by reason of the darkness and ignorance of sin p. 77. The Souls solitude and content in her Separation from the great enticements of the world p. 72. The Soul admires the infinite Riches of her Saviours Love in taking Humane Nature upon him p. 83. The Soul checks her selfe for her backwardness and too much neglect of her Saviours invitations p. 92. The Soul repents the time that ever she was Cloistered up in the walls of Clay and thrown into the Dungeon of that corrupt mass of Flesh p. 96. The Soul calling to mind the infinite Love of her Saviour bewailes her ungratefulness and the coldness of her returns p. 104. The Soul breaks into Sighes and dissolves into desires for the presence of God p. 111. The Soul filled with Heavenly Love sends forth the pure flames of her Affection p. 117. The Soul contemplates and sets forth her Folly in hazarding Eternal Joyes by preferring Earthly Vanities p. 124. The Soul being ready to sink under the weight and apprehension of her Sins bemoanes the weakness of her Faith and desires help from her Saviour p. 130. The Sin-sick Soul can take no rest until she be further reconciled to her Saviour p. 140. The Soul is ravished upon the Return of her Saviours Presence p. 150. The Soul being re-advanced on the wings of Faith sends up her choicest Affections towards Heaven p. 159 The Soul in a Phrensey breaks out into admiration of Gods love in being freed from the misery of everlasting flames p. 164. The Soul being sensible of its former Mercies sits weeping under the Cross of her Saviour and resolves to partake with him in his Sufferings p. 169. In Imitation of our Saviours great Patience under his Passion the Soul resolves for ever to yield an humble submission to his Will. p. 181. Of LOVE in General IF we go about to describe fond love what better resemblance may we have then to that man who is bitten with a Tarantula or hath eaten a weed which is called Sardoa and so laughs himself to death being murthered by that which looks like merriment or like a mouth wounded with a sting dipt in honey the Taste enjoying what the Touch suffers Or may we not compare it to him who through too much wantonness is tickled to his Grave And surely had we as many eyes opened towards heaven as heaven openeth towards us to behold the sleights and danger thereof we should be strucken with horrour to see a deprâ—ved soul to change all his abilities as incentives to sin and to make suâ—h delights and pleasure the true snares to entice it to Eternal misery O God of purity How many now adays do we see who through too fond and free a conversation receive as many wounds as glances yea as many deaths as Beauty shoots Arrows against them Solomon who well knew the effect of this Possion Prov 23.33 said Thy eyes shall behold strange women and thy heart shall utter perverse things And in another place he saith With much fair spee ch she caused him to yeild with the flattering of her lips she forced him He goeth after her as an Ox to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a Dart strike thorow his Liver as a Bird hastneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7.21 23. See how a senseless soul like a lazie Pilot or one fast asleep in the midst of the Sea being oppressed with drowsiness and having lost his Helm deludeth it self It 's true saith he I am struck but I feel no pain they have drawn me this and that way but I am not sensible of it when shall I be awaked to be again drunk with love and to return to my accustomed pleasures Alas poor soul How dost thou not having well guarded thy senses in the first Assault deliver thy heart over as a Prey whereby it sinks into the bottom of misery Our Love being indiscreetly tyed to women at first presents us shews which are fair and specious seeming bright with a pleasing serenity and full of Beauty whilst all this while we do but consult with Spirits and strange Apparitions full of obscurity and darknes and the issues thereof dismal and hideous or as a stone thrown into the water makes first a small Circle which causeth many to follow until it fill up the total superficies so hapneth it in Love it falls into our heart not perceived nor foreseen giving a slight touch in the beginning which multiplies and distends it self over our Soul with Chains and Arrows which will require much labour to dissolve and unloose The most generous spirit becomes a Captive when this tempting and imperious visage and Commandress comes and knocks at the door of his heart It exerciseth our discourse it enflameth our desires it busieth our thoughts to go to speak to visit to complement yea it insinuateth into Prayer and our best Devotions with distractions pleasingly troublesome Love in the heart is an exhalation in a cloud It cannot continue there idle it formeth a thousand imaginations it brings forth a thousand cares and necessarily is accompanied with anxieties and trouble Yea fond Love is like the heart of a wicked man which saith the Prophet is a troubled Sea whose waters cast up myre and dirt Isa 57.20 And what Hipocrates said
inexplicable sweetnesses of his bounty O the excellency of divine Love which thus causeth a Calm to be found in a Tempest Safety in the midst of Dangers Life on the brinck of Death Comfort in Disasters an Upholding in the midst of Weakness and which protects so many people under the shadow of its Branches Happy Souls which flyes hence into heaven enricht with the purple stains of so heavenly a Fountain yea happy are the wounds from whence flow so much virtue and goodness What greater mercy could there be then to see a Humane Nature sought unto by God which was once despoiled of the Robe of Honour and Diadem of Glory as a just chastisement of its Rebellions and condemned to a Prison of Flames and Darkness even then when it was unable to free it selfe and when neither Angel nor Man could deliver it from the misery whereinto it was plunged To see it I say sought unto by God when it flew from him and to consider how so heavenly a Father transported with unspeakable love said unto it Take my only Son to redeem thee from thy many remediless calamities And this onely Son disdaineth not to become its Ransom and delivered himself for it to Torments so enormious and Confusions so hideous What shall we further admire in the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation Can there be any thing in the world greater then a Man-God If we cast our eyes on our heavenly Father we there see a work of the power of his Arm wherein he seems to have exhausted all his strength The Heaven and the Stars saith Gregory Nyssen were but the works of the Fingers of this divine Majesty but in the Incarnation he proceedeth with all the extent of his might with all the Engines of his power and Miracles of his greatness Blessed Jesus who can chuse but love and adore thee who wert not content onely to reconcile us to thy Father but espousedst our Nature and unitedst it to thy selfe by an indissoluble Band we naturally use to shew an aversion and dislike to such persons as are loathsome mishapen and infected and if with those defects we find a Soul wicked ungrateful and an Enemy to God we conceive him with such horror as that we had need be more then men to endure him But were not we in as bad estate as this for besides the mis-fortunes and calamities which encompassed us on all sides were we not Enemies to God by being too much a friend to our selves and yet all this while he accepteth us and appropriateth us unto himselfe amongst all these contrarieties The Soul checks her selfe for her backwardness and too much neglect of her Saviours invitations WHat imagination is sufficiently powerful to figure to its selfe the ardent dolours of a wounded Soul who desiring to be free and purified from the contagions of the earth and apprehending the shadows of the least sinnes hath its spirit seised on with the consciousness of some more hainous and grosser omissions How hard a matter is it for the Soul to guid the Helm of Reason in so tempestuous a storm of disturbances and in so dead a night of misery to adore the Ray of Gods Providence since almost swallowed in the depth of her sorrows But Nature having at last evicted a huge Tide of Tears she thus sighs out the other in Complaints My God! how justly have my sins deserved this desolate condition yea to endure the Trial of those sorrows which might ever befall the thoughts of a wretched Creature How happy alas are those pure and innocent Souls who have departed from their Bodies when they were ignorant of the sinnes which have approached my knowledge and defiled my thoughts They like little blossoms were cut off in the tenderness of their Age and thrice happy had my Soul been to have been transported into the other world before I had felt that trouble and anguish of Spirit which through the sense and horrour of my sinnes in refusing those gracious tenders of a mercifull Saviour now so sadly afflicts me O wicked and ungrateful heart it is thou which art the source and spring of all my disasters wretch whether goest thou what hast thou to do with the things of the world which will at last ruine thee wilt thou thus cast underfoot the Laws of thy God! Is it not madness to let pass so many golden Harvests which time presents thee and to sow nothing but wind and vanity which onely return thee thorns and sorrows and at last abandons thee as a Pilgrime rob'd and dispoil'd by a Thief O poor Soul wilt thou live rather amongst feavers and burning coals in an inconstant world then tie thy self to the will of God Miserable man to have thy heart fill'd with such restless desires wilt thou like Ravens be ever feeding upon Carrion Is it for such infamous pleasures thou renouncest the delights of heaven unhappy man where wilt thou find place to rest on at the last Dost thou forget the words of the Prophet Jer. 17.11 Silly Partridge thou broodest borrowed Eggs thou hast hatched Birds which were not thine let them fly since thou canst not hold them And canst thou yet fix thy beatitude upon this Gold that Silver that Beauty that Profit and Pleasure as on a little Divinity Is not Jesus thy Saviour enough to content thee must a world be made of Gold and Roses to please thee Alas senseless Soul canst thou have any better Object to behold then a Saviour on the Cross all naked and who in his nakedness giveth all things Oh! how little are all things mortall with him who looks upon a God immortal Blessed Jesus having thee for my guid I will walk confidently in the shades of death since they cannot separate me from the fountain of life I came not into the world glittering with precious Stones neither can I go out poorer then I came Let Poverty then come against me with all its terrours I shall account it a Glory to die poor for a God so dispoiled If Banishment come what need I care what Land be under my feet so my eyes be fixed in Heaven Or what at last can Imprisonment Fetters Gibbets yea death it selfe take from me but a life of Pismires and Flies and a miserable Carkass subject to a thousand deaths And woe unto that Soul the darkness of whose understanding is so great that though Jesus be all light he cannot see him how deprived is that will who though he be all goodness he cannot love How are his affections perverted who though he be all power will yet refuse to submit unto him Alas how art thou estranged from him when thou wert created it was by his power If thou live it is by his bounty if thou move it is by his assistance If thou lie down he sustaineth thee if thou sleep he refresheth thee if thou awake he enlightneth thee if thou read he teacheth thee if thou eat he nourisheth thee if thou art cloathed he warms
thou save thy self if thou put not thy selfe under the shelter of thy Saviours Cross If thou lose him thou hast nothing left to comfort thee In him thou hast all things If thou art Hungry thou needest but to taste of his love if Thirsty the light of his countenance is farre better then the Corn and Wine of this world We read of many accomplished Beauties in former ages which have drawn the affections of those that beheld them but what are those but fading shadows to the love of Jesus which winneth whole Nations and Monarchies to it From hence it is that so many Kings Queens and great Personages have forsaken the Pomp and Beauty of the World and followed him through Thornes and Rocks that so many millions of the wisest and most purified Souls upon Earth have abandoned themselves and loved him even to the suffering of Flames and Wheeles yea the dismembring of their whole Body Oh that our hearts could then dissolve for him Oh that they could dayly melt in his service without consuming since there is nothing which equalizeth the excellency of this Celestial Love But wretched Creatures as we are can we chuse but grievc to see them torn and divided by so many vile and base Objects which divert our Affections and hinder us from giving them to God for which they were made Oh how much should we blush thus to contaminate our hearts with the wickedness and impurities of the Earth The heart of Man should be as a fortunate Island wherein there is nothing but God and it Or like the Nest of that little Bird which cannot hold one silly Fly more then it self But alas what Creatures are there there lodged to the prejudice of our Creator O poor Soul really miserable do but once open thine eyes and thou shalt soon see the head-long ruine which threatneth thee Carnal Souls have much ado to conceive how a man may become passionate in the love of God it is a love too high say they to transfer our Affections into Heaven we know no affection but for temporal and visible things O blinded Spirits ignorant of the glorious Mysteries of Heaven How do ye thus argue with your selves O sad Souls is Heaven a Country wherein they have no commerce Doth God speak to thee in all his Creatures nay doth he seek for thee dost thou behold him through the veil of Nature in somany various Objects Dost thou daily see him in the Image of his Bounty and Greatness of his power and the splendor of his Beauty and in the lively Characters of his Majesty and wilt thou be so much charmed with the present pleasures and delighted so with the Workmanship as to forget the Workman Wilt thou embrace the shadow for the body and momentary Beauties for Eternal verities Oh! but thou objectest that he is a secret so hidden and invisible to men that our poor spirits finde more confusion then light in seeking him I answer hold thy peace O thou ignorant and mis-judging Soul God shews himself in as many mirrours as there are Creatures in the world All that we see hear touch or handle cease not to recount unto us the love of our Maker Do we not find the daily experience of his love in every minutes preservation Do we not hear the sweetness of his voice and harmonies in the chirping of every little Bird and Nightingale yea the least silly Fly holds forth a tone which all the art of the world cannot frame If we behold the murmuring of those silver streams which so sweetly charme and delight our senses if we cast an eye upon those various party-coloured Flowers with what an exquisite delicacie shall we find them adorn'd insomuch that as we have it from the sacred lips of Eternal Wisdom Solomon in all his Royalty was not like one of these But when we cast our eyes towards Heaven when we behold the Sun the Moon and those silver sparcles which shew themselves as soon as the Night spreads its Mantle over the inferior Regions of the World Ah! how may we with the Princely Prophet cry out The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Expose not then the loss of thy innocency and sanctity O poor Soul to the alluring occasions of this tempting world and thou needest not fear but in him to find salve forall thy wounds It may be thou fearest Poverty alas hath not thy Saviour consecrated it in the Crib and in Clouts Dost thou fear Reproaches he hath sanctified them in the loss of his Reputation Dost thou fear dolours he hath lodged them in his own flesh Dost thou fear Death he hath overcome it for thee only let thy heart be devested from the ardent affections thou hast towards worldly enablements beholding them as an inconstant moving of shadowes and Spirits which with a swift course glide before our eyes And lastly let us look towards the eye of God which perpetually beholdeth us Let us behold it as our Pole-star and flaming Pillar whereby at last we shall learn to repose our selves in his bosome slumber upon his heart and sleep eternally between his Arms. The Soul breaks into Sighes and dissolves into desires for the presence of God THe Soul of Man being made to the Image of God and for the possession and fruition of God will never rest but in the conformity of its understanding and will to its Creator It casts its eyes indeed oftentimes on the Sea the Earth with so many Rivers which moisten it so many Trees which cover it so many living Creatures which furnish it so many men which inhabite and dress it but yet rests not there It figures also the Air in its thoughts with all its Birds so different in shape so various in colour so diversified in their Notes but alas like Noahs Dove she finds no rest for her footing It glanceth up further to those Christaline and azure Vaults where the Sun the Moon and so many silver Stars perform their career with such measure as God hath determined yet finds not God in any of them It contemplates those innumerable Legions of Angels Spirits of Fire and light which resplendently shine as Lamps before the face of God yet ever cryes out it is not be God onely being he who comprehendeth all things and not onely bounds them but incomparably surpasseth them What do I here then O Jesus without thee but sail without Stars and labour without the Sun Alas if I can do nothing here without thee if without the Sun-shine of thy presence I am but an unprofitable servant and burden to the Earth what do I here All that satisfieth the desires of the curious all that which inviteth the admiration of the wisest all that which enflameth the hearts of the most passionate yea Land and Sea Thrones and Scepters Arms and Empires are but as a silly drop of dew before thy face And wilt thou yet O disloyal Soul entertain in thy heart a mass of
trouble Greatness without change Pleasures without sorrow and at last fully laden with celestial Honours This surpassing Joy having one time so far transported a heavenly lover as to give occasion to some who beheld him to think him besides himself you are in the right said he my Beloved hath taken away my will and I have given him my understanding there is nothing left me but memory to remember his mercy Oh what a great Abyss of Delights are reserved for those purified Souls who are thus wholly rapt in the contemplation of heavenly Beauties and altogether ravished in the consideration of Gods divine Goodness No longer do they suffer themselves to be transported with earthly prosperities but in the midst of all worldly Pomps their eyes are firmly fixed upon the many benefits received from God their Ears being charmed their Tears wiped their Fetters broken And what way do they more seek out then how to testifie their gratitude and poure themselves as incense upon Coals towards the Altar of divine Majesty Yea there is a love so tender in them and a fear of offending so infinite a Saviour as that they apprehend the least shadows of sinne as Death Day and Night do they send forth Centinels before the Altars who cease not to implore the assistance of Heaven for the salvation of their Souls How often in the deep silence of darkness when no eye sees nor ear hears do they cause their weeping eyes to speak to God and address their many vowes to Heaven for the attaining of Eternal life How willingly do they part with all the Interests of Flesh and Blood and all other impediments about them They think they can never do too much for eternal happiness whatsoever are their sufferings here the know Paradice will still be purchased at a good penny-worth Oh true zeal O most powerful Alchymie changing all Tears and Troubles into Marble and Gold What Wisdome what Grace what Eloquence doth a heart truly endowed therewith use towards the attaining of Heaven What love for its Soul what fervour for its salvation what care for its direction what resignation of its will to the mind of God What a heart of Diamond doth it express against a thousand stroaks of dolours and sufferings how joyfully doth it meet death yea what Triumphs afterwards in all conditions and after all its afflictions offering up unto God the obedience of the heart the Prayers of the lips and all the faculties of Soul and Body which appear in a general conformity to the commands of God And what indeed can that Soul fear nay what can he not hope for who hath a Jesus for a Protector and a God absolutely powerful and whose power and essence walk hand in hand which is without limits embraceth all places and no way confin'd to any certain number of Ages since it is Eternal and involveth all time What can he doubt of who can conclude an Interest in him who made the world with the least blast of his mouth and can as easily the same way unmake it all the great variety of this Universe where there are Creatures without number Beauties without end and Greatnesses innumerable being but an effect of his word O how brave a thing do we account it for a Prince to possess an earthly Kingdom in the hearts of men to make himself a Throne of Peace to which love raiseth an Eternal Basis and on which God raineth infinite Blessings Whereas what a hideous spectacle is it to see Tyrants hidden like Owls in perpetual Nights with a mind possest and beset with horrid Fancies filled with suspitions and seised by distrust whose Dreams are full of bloody spectacles for whom Thunder seems to roar and for whom Heaven prepares all its Thunderbolts Oh what horror is it to see them not dare to appear in publick without being clothed with Iron and dispoiled of the peoples affections to appear among their Subjects in nothing but Blood Terrors Torments and Massacres and afterwards to be hated like Plagues and poysons Is not this the way to make a Hell of his life a Tyranny of his manners and to increase vowes towards his death Just so is the difference between a poor Soul vvho daily marcheth under the standard of Gods providence and is every hour replenished with the mercies and benefits of Heaven Like a virtuous King the one adventures to live in the most unfrequented Wildernesses without Corps-du-gard He finds assurance in Battels prosperity in his House veneration abroad admiration at home When he sleeps his Saviour who is more watchful then a million of eyes wakes for him when he prayes that voice which is better then a million of mouthes makes intercession for him His joyes are pure his pleasures innocent his repose dreadless his eating and drinking without fear of poyson his Life happy and his Memory blessed Whereas divine Providence which sharpens the Sword of Justice in the Tears of the miserable pours it on the head of the other consumes him by strange Maladies a thousand hands are ready to punish him his life is a reproach his memory full of cursings dung-hills are provided to interre him yea the Stones or Mettals afterwards punished and defaced for no other crime but to mention his Actions and set forth his feature The Soul contemplates and sets forth her Folly in hazarding Eternal Joyes by preferring Earthly Vanities AReprobate sense being the last step which any one makes to enter into Hell O how great is the happiness of an enlightned Soul which sets all the glory of the world at its feet and preferres the knowledge of Christ and an obedience to his will and command beyond any thing here below which shall come in competition with it Often doth she thus expostulate with her self what alas shall the sight of Temporal Beauty which too often fills our Soul with nothing but fire and flames abate the more fervent love of Eternal things Is it possible that I should so adore my prison and fetters here as to ballance them with the Cross of my Saviour Jesus who alas can give me Tears sufficient having thus forsaken my God! Origen mentions of Mary Magdalen That Heaven and the Angels were a burden to her and that she could live no longer then she beheld him that made them and shall we here preferre an Earthly Pilgrimage before a Heavenly Paradice Is it possible that I should suffer my self to be entangled with worldly vanities which are more brittle then Glass more light then smoak and more swift then the wind that I should fatten my self in earthly Pleasures that I should nourish this Carrion this Dunghill of my Body and neglect and forget and despise my Soul Oh! what horrid Phantasms will seem to reproach me with ingratitude when the affairs of my conscience shall be set in order and say unto me I am the Pleasure thou hast obeyed I am the Ambition to which thou wert a slave I am the Covetousness which was the aim
Fear not O Spouse thy Beloved is not wholly departed Be not troubled if thy journey to Canaan be through the wilderness of this world and if in thy way to Sion thou pass through the valley of Baca since Christ is a Cloud and Pillar to direct thee Thus by the Gates of Hell doth God oftentimes shew us the way to Heaven He who is not tyed alwayes to bring a Soul thither by one and the same Road can make Death the way to life The Sun of Righteousness is stil bright though behind a Cloud and not seen to us The Nurse is withdrawn oftentimes that the Mother may get the chiefest affections of the Child And though God leave a poor Soul labouring in the Pangs of Desertion yet through the Sun-shine of Gods countenance ripening its Graces cloudy weather still advantageth her growth and her Barrenness at last yeelds a fruitful Harvest Gods relief comming alwaies in the best time and she patiently attends his help from Heaven even until the fourth which is the last watch of the Night And when vvith Peter she is freed out of the Prison of strong Temptation and God is pleased to come in unto her with abundance of comfort Oh! how is she raised to bless the Lord who hath forgiven her sinnes and healed all her infirmities The waves of Terrours and flouds of Afflictions never beat so violently upon her neither did she so much complain of spiritual wants as now she saw the wonders of God in the deep and the infinitenefs of his Wisdom in the dispensations of comfort and joy of grief and terrour The Souls complaint now is no longer Where is my God become or that There is no soundness in her flesh because of his anger All her distempers seem but as so much Physick to clense her from her manifold sins Yea she now seems even drown'd in sweetness and in sinking cryes out Oh the breadth of thy unfathomable love what Saint what Tongue what Angel can speak out thy unexpressible kindness Ephes 5.17 Thou hast loosed my Bonds Oh that my heart could burn in love towards thee Oh that I could as I desire make known to others hovv good thou hast been to me in preserving strengthning and fixing my fiath on a Rock not to be over-born vvith the storms and swelling Surges of Satans Temptations Methinks I meet thee every where O blessed Jesus with a hundred arms unfolded to do me good what place what time what moment is not filled vvith thy Bounty Though passions have for a time assailed my mind and thy Terrours have affrighted my spirits yet behold now thy Grace hath shot through the dark Clouds of my Sin and doubting thy Darts have pierced the Center of my heart with quickning sparklings my spirits are come again Ah how my Soul is fill'd with joy ravishment and admiration Oh God! who is he who beholds the fading shadows of the world this dismal place where cares and sorrows are still growing young and never die that would ever betray his Soul Heaven and his God to yield obedience thereunto who vvould betray an Eternity of blessing for a Pleasure so short and wretched who would build Tabernacles here to lose a Mansion among Celestial Souls where Love onely Reigns who would not give a farewel to those earthly Cottages to ascend those mounts of Bliss vvhere every season is a constant Spring who vvould desire to make his name great here on Earth and desire to have them enrolled among the Saints in Heaven O what Celestial mirth what an expansion of all the faculties of the Spirit yea what rejoycing is there in the heart of Man vvhen Christ begins to make it his Throne all Powers do him homage all Passions render him service Who can conceive what joy passeth in the Soul vvhen Jesus is pleased to take up his lodging in it Hovv is the heart excited awakened and enflamed towards Heaven what distaste is there of all things in the world It is as light to bleared eyes It is as food to hungry Travellers It is the repose to the wearied the Country of poor Pilgrims and the Crown of all our happiness Nothing but Fires Desires Sweetness Affections Joyes and Admirations will transport our Souls having once regained our wel-beloved our thoughts will wholly be employed upon Jesus we shall be dead and insensible to all the Objects of the world All the Thornes wherewith it is encompassed will seem as Roses If we swim in the Tears of Wotmwood it will be no other then sweet water All the wounds we receive will be but like Rubies and Pearls Our Maladies will prove but sports our Calumnies will be our blessings yea Death it self no other then a happy life When the Soul sleeps Jesus is in her sleep vvhen she speaks Jesus is under her Tongue when she Writes Jesus is under her Pen and when she is merry she chaunts forth the praises of her Jesus in her solitude she seems all environed with Raptures And vvhen any reproves her for being alone she cries out nothing less before she vvas interrupted with their company In the morning she grieves to think how often she shall offend God before Night Being about to rest she bitterly vvith scalding Tears laments that she shall have no more power over her Dreams but offend her Saviour while she slept Thus is her mind alwayes running after her dear Spouse Se is in a prison of Love vvhere her Thoughts her Hopes her Joyes were Chains And still doth she elevate her self upon the wings of Faith in the highest postures she can towards Heaven taking the choisest affections vvith her vvhereby to ascend that Mountain of pure and inexpressible light She vvell knew that true Pleasure vvas to be found no vvhere but in God vvhose Joyes are like those Gardens which never vvither but are perpetually watered vvith immortal Graces And oh How if it vvere possible vvould she express her love to him by daily offering her self a hundred times for him in as many Sacrifices as she hath Thoughts and Body Members Never Ship laden vvith Gold arrived more gladly at the Haven after many tedious Tempests and a thousand disasters among Pirates at Sea as the poor soul novv seems to take content in the love of God And having spun out all the Web vvhich he gave her cryes out I have ended all the hopes of the vvorld why stayest thou O my God! to receive my Soul which I bear in my lips O Jesus at whose name the Heaven the Earth and Hell do bend the knee I now care not what I suffer for thee so I sin not against thee so I may for ever injoy thee Thus the love of God is like Lightning in a Cloud still striving to break forth and suffers the Soul to take little rest in any thing but what it undertakes for the glory of her Maker Joh. 11. who many times defers the cure that his power may be the more manifest the heats of
deploring the evil effects of Covetousness namely That the life of man was miserable because Avarice like a spirit of Storms and Tempests had poured it self on Mortals and that it were to be wished that the best Physicians might meet together to cure the Disease The same may we say of Love since it is the fatal Plague among all Passions and no simple malady but one composed of all the evils in the world A Passion which maketh charms and illusions to march before it and draggeth on Furies disasters and rapines after it Was it not this which sharpned the sword which transfixed Ammon Which shaved and blinded Sampson Which gave a Halter to Phillis Alas How many wretched and caitif souls how many ship-wracked Spectacles may we behold standing on Promontory tops who tell us of the ruines which this Passion hath caused Simon Magus was undone by a Hellen being more bewitched by her love then he enchanted others by his Sorcery Apelles was corrupted by Phylumene Donatus by Lucilia Montanus by Maximilla Women having ended amongst all these what Heresie and Magick had but begun which made one wittily to say That Heaven was most happy in having a God In Coelo Angelus Angela c. Tertul. adversus Val. and Angels and no Goddesses since it might be feared that if there were diversity of Sex it would alter somthing of its tranquility Was it not the love of Women which caused Sampson's David's and Solomon's shipwracks Hath it not besotted the wise conquered the strong deceived the prudent corrupted Saints and humbled the mighty Hath it not trodden down Scepters and Crowns blasted the Lawrels of the greatest Conquerours troubled the most flourishing States Hath it not thrown Schism into Churches corruption among Judges and the greatest cruelties into Arms Hath it not acted Treasons Furies firings poysons murthers and ransackings And how should it spare its enemy since it is so cruel to its self It kills and murders those that have most constantly served it drinking their blood and insensibly devouring them and making many to sink in the twinkling of an eye It will open a Flood-gate to a Deluge of miseries and cares It will by some invisible hand as it were shoot Arrows amidst the Vermilion of Roses and the whiteness of Lilies It is the worm which gnaweth all our great actions the moth which eateth all the vigour of our spirit the Labyrinth which hindreth our chief designs yea it is the true snare of our soul which too often hides poison and death under a seeming sweetness See here the goodly sacrifices of Lust Behold the transfigurations of sottish Love What Nothing but Poyson Gibbets Massacres and Precipices Nothing to be seen but smoak flames darkness despairs and the sad complaints of unfortunate Lovers O God! What is he who beholding these Pictures would ever betray his soul heaven and his God to yeild obedience to loathsome lust In time then let us behold the disasters which wait on the experience of this miserable sin which is so ruinous to our body soul estate and reputation so full of fetters and snares It being impossible to write all the Tragedies which arise from this Passion for which all Pens are too weak all Wits too dull and all Tongues would be dryed up Neither is it to be wondred at what the Wise man said That the too free familiarity with Women was a firebrand in the bosome Prov. 6.27 and as another said It was as easie to live among burning coals as to converse with this Sex and not to wound the soul How careful then should we be to avoid whatsoever may endanger the scortching not only of our Body but our precious Soul yea how should we fear our Relapses and shun all occasions which may re-enkindle the flame For if vain Love be a Tree the fruit flowers and leaves whereof are nothing but sorrows if it be a Sea full of Tempests and Storms where a Haven is not to be hoped for but with the loss of our selves If it be a Passion which causeth a continual drunkenness of Reason If this Banquet which seems to be the source of life brings an Edict of Death with it and the best sports thereof are ordinarily bloody why should we embrace such cruelty as is mingled with delights Or that pleasure which is attended with Funerals O my Make us to bury all our concupiscences before we go to the Grave and so strive to live as that when death comes it may finde us prepared and that we may have little other business then to die That Love in its self is not a Vice but the Soul of all Vertues when it is tyed to its proper Object which is the Soveraign Good NEver shall the soul of man act any thing great in this world if he retain not holy fire in his veins since from the beginning of the world all things are held together by this Divine tye Concord which in its union causeth the happiness of all things and those sacred influences of Love have woven eternal chains to tye indissolubly all the parts of the Vniverse True joy is nothing else but a satisfaction of the soul in enjoying what it loves neither is the accomplishment of Pleasure any thing but the presence possession and fruition of the good which is known to us and which we love We cannot have one silly spark of love for God unless it be inspired into us by himself That which the Ayr is in the Elementary world the Sun in the Celestial and the Soul in the Intelligible the same is he throughout All He is the Ayr which all the afflicted desire to breathe in the Sun which dispelleth all our clouds the Soul which giveth life to all things and therefore he that is thus the Lover of our souls ought really to be the object with which our soul ought everlastingly to be in love And oh how happy are they who entertain this chaste and spiritual love for things Divine who embrace the wisdom of heaven which is so far beyond all humane Beauties as the light of the Stars surpass the petty sparklings and flitting fires of the earth but miserable are those who mount not above the flatteries and fading Beauty of the world From hence it was that the beauties of Solomon's Mistresses were no sooner adored but that through the neglect of his former Zeal and Courage Idols were worshipped That Sampson was no sooner blinded with love but that Dalilah forthwith blinded the eyes of his reason and body together Hence was it that David paid so dear for that unhappy cast of his eye on Bathsheba all which God is pleas'd to place as broken masts on the top of a mountain to make others take heed of the shipwracks of love And great care surely ought to be taken in the whole course and progress of our life sin being usually killed by flying the occasions of it Absence resistance coldness silence labour and diversion have overcome many assaults
glances If my Hairs have been Nets to captivate any soul under the yoke of wanton Love O let them be trampled under feet as the Ensigns and Standards of wicked Cupid Let those Embraces which carried nothing but the poyson of a luxurious passion now clasp him under whose shelter I shall eternally rest secure Briefly let me breathe nothing but the delicacies of Chastity and let those pleasing Odours which were once vowed to sensuality at last become the sweetest exhalation of odoriferous persume at the Altar of my Saviour that so I may practise a sanctified revenge on my self and my Repentance never end but with my life That our love to God ought to precede and exceed all other Loves SO many and great are the delights and enticements of the Flesh the Divel and the World to withdraw man's love from God as that he hath not only imprinted in his heart that he was solely to love his Creator but such was his infinite goodness to the end man might never forget it as to leave him his spiritual Law written in Tables of Stone Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might Deut. 6. Neither do we finde any Law or Precept so strongly and largely enjoyn'd as this binding the heart tongue hand eyes and the faculties of our soul to love God How then can we answer our own Soul without blushing here or without confusion or condemnation at the last day Or can we render any thing less then love Can any price be set too high for so infinite a ransome whereby both soul and body forfeited by our sins to Satan and eternal Hell fire are freed through the shameful tortures the disgraceful usage and cruel murthering of a merciful Saviour Had God as justly he might in return of his infinite love commanded thee to offer unto him all thy Wealth to sacrifice all thy Children as some Heathen have done and as once he tempted Abraham Had he required thee with stripes and fastings to mortifie and kill thy body Had he commanded bounty to the poor the poor man might have said I cannot give it If labour or fasting the sick and infirm or if knowledge the simple might have said I have them not in my power But if in lieu of all this he require only that which is the least thy love and which without expence pain or labour thou mayest easily afford O my soul How canst thou make a better purchase then by love to make God Heaven and Earth to be wholly thine All that God Courts and Wooes man for is his Heart Prov. 23.26 and wilt thou not grant him this desire O my soul He might have required all thy substance all thy actions to be spent in his immediate service and worship He grants thee thy wealth and the fruits of thy honest labour and bids thee give only what thou canst best spare of all thy Increase he takes only a Tenth and from all thy worldly labours only a sevonth part Love and the affection of thy heart being all that he entirely calls for Thy blessed Saviour so highly valued this Treasure of love as that even then when he was to depart and leave the world he left it as his last Will and Testament to his Disciples and that as he had loved them so they should love one another John 13.34 Ah! saith he being at the last point as it were before his Possion to his Disciples and in them to us my time is but short and I finde death approaching before which I have one only remembrance to give you That you love one another It was not long before that he desired them that If they did love him they would keep his Commandments Love being as it were the Embassadour of God and hath not only proclaimed the Fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 but as our Saviour himself pronounced thereon depends the Law and the Prophets O then my God! my Jesus make me to keep the Law of thy Love and nothing else Thy love is a yoke which brings with it more honour then burden It is a yoke that hath no weariness in it O my sweet Saviour My soul is weary and greatly distasted with all the fading delights of this transitory world and doth incessantly languish after thee Shew me then my stains and give me water to wash them out Let the night cease to cast a dark Vail over my mortal body but let the Sun be advanced high and the break of day begin to guild the mountains where my Soul hovereth and is ashamed to see its self so dark before light and smutted over before thy immortal whiteness Alas I am altogether but one stain and thou art all purity do not however write me on the ground as a childe of the earth but write me in heaven since I am the portion which thou hast purchased with thy precious blood Thy love is the Center of all our true love on which our heart as on the point of a Compass being set the other part moves about the Circumference of the World Is it not the Almighty whose mercies are without number Where hath it been well with us without him Or How can it be ill with us where he is present I had rather saith one be a Pilgrim here on earth with him then be in heaven without him And blessed then sure are they who delight to attend his service and cast from him all the fetters and impediments of worldly love For what will all things avail if we be forsaken of our Creatour Can we live without the Fountain of Life All places are solitary where he is not and where he is there only is fulness of pleasure O Jesus the author of all Glories henceforth be unto me my only Crown For oh how vain is the rest and solace of man who though nothing brings joy and comfort without God and that he finds so little entertainment in all worldly treasures as that the vanity in possession will soon reprove the violence of his appetite is notwithstanding still sullying himself in the puddles thereof How often do we cry out with the perverse Jews not Christ but Barrabas not God but Mammon How often with the Idolatrous Israelites do we say of our Covetousness Honours Greatness and the rest of our Lusts Ye are our Gods whereas alas God cannot endure that one Temple should receive both his Ark and the Idol Dagon He will not have the Divel the Flesh and the World should come in and lodge in his Bed-chamber thy heart it being but just with God to require it But oh how unreasonable art thou in dividing it between him and his enemies between God and Baal between Light and Darkness 1 Cor. 6.14 Fond Worldlings Can you be so great enemies to your souls as being once unloosed from slavery to sigh wither and languish for your fetters for shame then forsake the love of these poor Cottages these
of thy eternal happiness That when all Loves fail the Love of God remains THe Soul of man is unsatisfied nothing but the Creator thereof will content it It walks but sadly amongst the Riches Honours and Dignities of the world all the joys glories and beatitudes of the earth afford it no comfort It wholly represents God as the beginning and end of all things and is ravished with its glory as poor creatures use to be with the heat of the Sun It is he alone which the soul seeks esteems and honours All that she sees hears or understands besides is nothing to her if it carry not his Name and take colour from his Beauty she well knows she shall get all by loving him and death it self which comes from his Love is the gate of Life Here we every night finde a little death in our sleep sickness and pains are still subject to overtake us neither indeed do we know what belongs to a Crown Scepter or Kingdom while we are in this base life But surely had we talked only one quarter of an hour with a blessed Soul departed and discoursed of the State of the other life Oh! How would our heart dissolve into desires How would we hasten to go out of that ruinous house where of we are but Tenants How would we be ravished to hear these words Go faithful soul out of this Body go out with joy in full peace and safety the eternal mountains those glorious Heavens and all the goodly company of Angels and blessed Spirits which there inhabite will there receive thee Go on confidently behold God is ready to wipe away all thy Tears No more sorrows no more clamours behold an Estate altogether new Oh What Repose What Peace What cessation of Troubles shall we there meet with Our Saviour met the Young-man that was carried to Burial at the Gate of Naim Luke 7.11 which is interpreted The Town of Beauties to shew us that neither Beauty nor Youth are freed from the Laws of Death And it was not impertinately storyed of a young man who going eagerly after the pursuit of his Lusts met a dead Corps in his way which occasion'd his return and the future amendment of that and other his exorbitant and lascivious courses And truly as the consideration of our ashes will humble us under the greatest Pride so will it abate and consume our burning Lust he being very strong by Nature or wicked by his own choice who will not amend himself having ashes for his Glass and death for his Mistris Oh! What then is it silly dust and ashes that thus strangely enflames thy swelling veins when the least breath or shew of death is like Belshazzar's hand-writing on the Wall ever ready to affright thee Wilt thou then pursue those seeming joys and fancies which will at last vanish into a dejected Melancholy Wilt thou unadvisedly let loose the Reins of thy affections towards the enjoyment of such perishing Pleasures If so oh How dearly wilt thou buy thy folly What are we alas and what is all we call ours To day we flourish and are well spoken of we please and are in favour with men But out alas our flower will fade to morrow and we shall be evil spoken of and out of favour with God and man And whither tends all this O my soul but to tell thee that thou art made to wait on thy Lord and Spouse and wholly to thirst after Divine things neither must thou ever think to attain perfect rest and happiness in the troublesome Bed of this world Three cubits of earth will suffice us and how little or much soever we possess how beautiful or deformed soever we are this is all shall be left us Yet how often O God! doth it come to pass that for a little deceitful Beauty a little fugitive honour a little filthy pleasure and that not long we so slightly regard the joys of heaven neither dread the everlasting pains of hell He that but truly be-thinks himself of Haman's pride of Belshazzar's sacriledge Ahab's covetousness Absolon's hair Sampson's locks and Dives riches shall quickly finde that these things wherein we most presum'd and which we esteem'd our best support may suddenly become the occasion of our ruine and destruction You then that say Come and let us enjoy the pleasures that are let us take our fill of precious wine and sweet perfumes and no way lose the flower of our time let us crown our selves with Roses before they fade away and let no meadow be untraversed by us O that ye would but a little apprehend that what this way seems most to afford you content exposeth you a hundred times a day to the hazard of your lives For how little alas is the continuance at best of all the favours of Fortune When one Sun-shine of pleasure is past in comes a Tempest and when one storm is dispersed how are we again cast into new despairs and at last with what dreadful complaints able to rend Rocks and Marbles asunder will we lament our sins then presented unto us like so many Furies which heretofore we esteemed so light If then at any time thou art taken with the Syren and pleasing smiles of the world if thou seem here to content thy self in the beholding of earthly Palaces rich furniture exquisite pictures and sweet Perfumes if thou seem here to please thy melancholy Fancy in high Mountains goodly Forrests rich Marbles fair Meadows pleasant Rivers and beautiful Flowers O do but be-think thy self What are these What is this to Heaven What is this to Eternity All being but a little Atome to the unspeakable joys of the Celestial Paradice Earthly delights may I confess astonish but can never satiate our senses Temporal Beauty is but a transitory charm an illusion of our senses a Flower which hath but a moment of life and a Dyal which we never look on but when the Sun shines What is humane glory but a Dunghil covered with snow a Glass painted with false colours a sugar'd Fruit gilded with poyson or a dangerous Hostess in a fair House Shall we then trust so fading a good Shall we hazard our Souls in so unhappy a snare Or shall we tye out contentments to so slippery a knot Or dote upon temporal goods which like chirping Birds give us only a little Musick in the Summer and so fly away There are some who upon these words of the Psalmist By the waters of Babylon we sate down and wept have compared the temporal goods and delights of the world to these Waters not only for their swift running away and never returning but for their trouble in procuring and their sorrow in losing and well may we therefore hang up our Harps and sit down weeping while we live in this Babylon of Captivity And surely Wisdom tells us that such is the vanity of all earthly goods as that there is nothing so great in this Vale of Tears whose loss should any way disquiet us VVhat
are our bodies but the food of worms Our gaudy Attires but nourishment for Moths Our stately pyled Houses but stones and morter Our most precious Jewels but the excrements of an enraged Sea which borrow their worth from our weak fancy and all our honours but the golden Masks and Weather-cocks of inconstancy O unfortunate Worldling Where then are thy thoughts fixed What is here in the world that can deserve thy love Behold the whole Fabrick of the Creation and see what thou canst meet with worth thy affection Canst thou then embarque thy self among such trecherous Syrens Seest thou not that thy riches friends reputation companions and all will at last forsake thee as a Butterfly which escapes the hand of a childe Whereat then aims thy strong Ambition What means thy burning Avarice Thy profuse Ryot What will one day become of thy wretched profit thy fading pleasures Will not all vanish into fancy and a body of smoak and nothing avail thee when thy mouth shall be stopt with eternal silence Be not then so bad a Merchant as to sell things eternal for temporal It is for silly flies to gad only in the Sun-shine of this world This Enchantress which thou so much admirest and enjoyest after thy own lusts will at last prove but a very bad bargain full of vanity deception and sorrow Ah! That thou shouldest love poyson and embrace death That we should seek our own ruine and confusion Doth the world tempt thee to honour Oh despise it in humility If to Riches O scorn it in contentment And O my Soul Let not the wings of thy love to God be entangled with the bird-lime of temporal things God hath espoused thee a chaste Virgin to himself Let not those Love-tokens which he hath sent to engage thy Affections more strongly to himself seduce thy heart from him who except he may have the choicest will admit of none of thy love Temporal Goods cannot content the Soul and therefore deserve not our Love ALl the happiness and felicity of man in this world is a Dream it comes on we know not how and when it vanisheth we cannot so much as discern whether it is gone Yea How do all the possessions thereof pass away in an unperceived motion When we suppose them fast lock'd in our arms they creep from us in a mist or smoak which silently steals out at the chimnies top after it hath fouled and smutted it within Our life is but like the nest of some silly Bird whose best composure and materials are straw and dust and as soon doth the stately Palaces and Courts of the greatest Princes decay as the poor resting place of a Swallow comes dropping down at the approach of Winter What alas shall I say since wheresoever we reflect our eyes we shall finde cause sufficient to dissolve them into Tears If we look up to heaven while we behold our Country aloof we cannot but consider our selves in banishment If on earth it is but the upbraiding remembrance of our grave and how proudly soever we trample it under our feet at present it makes full account to have the disposure of our heads yea the greatest Emperours after death are found sitting in Vaults under earth in silence and mournful Majesty Neither is there any thing when all other Beauty Honours and happiness proves brittle and inconstant which remains to yeild us comfort but the benefit we receive from the few hours we spend in Prayer Meditation and the Exercises of a pious life Now now is the time that in one little part of an hour we may obtain pardon here which all Eternity shall not hereafter Now is the time that in one short day we may have more debts so given us then in all the years and times to come Here may we so lament for sins committed as to escape everlasting punishment Here 's nothing but the fearful cracks of ruines every where the dreadful roaring of storms and tempests on every side Our house still threatens its fall and we are with S. Stephen in the midst of a violent shower of stones on every hand and shall we not think of retyring our selves to our heavenly Countrey Shall we not willingly then leave the house of our Pilgrimage here for those glorious Mansions above O happy Countrey O blessed Mansions which are provided for us in our Fathers house But O Eternity Eternity How little do we think on thee Or strive to avoid those endless miseries and those perpetual nights of horrour and sadness which custome in sinning will assuredly bring upon us Alas What more fond then for a little earthly Beauty for Riches and for the love of this world to lose heaven and procure eternal wretchedness Alas How do all the sweet waters of our pleasures at last run hastily into a Sea of sorrows and bitterness How doth sadness dive into the bottom of the Soul when delights tickle us in the outside of the skin How like a bunch of Grapes saith S. Bernard are the Worldlings joys whose juyce is pressed out How full of disquietness are they Their fulness at best being seasoned with shame and repentance Oh! How do they like abortives die in the birth yea too often prove the executioners of the owners or leave us like a poor Pilgrim dispoiled by thieves We finde our Saviour disswading his Disciples from Ambition Matth. 20.20 and to call Riches thorns as bearing fair flowers but the fruit very bad yea serves as a shelter for Vipers and serpents Yet oh insatiable Avarice Whither dost thou transport our manners and understanding Ah! the forgetfulness of our condition Alas What are we Whence came we Was it not a few years since we were born naked creeping on the earth and having a mouth open to cries and hunger and do we think we have nothing except we possess all things Alas Our misery lies in our life we die when we do not die In our last end is all our happiness which will transport us from earth to heaven from Aegypt to Canaan if so be we make it our care to avoid as well the affections as the presence of all the creatures of this world and unite our selves to God by the practise of vertues which will serve as so many steps to glory Nor is there any other way to take away the sting of death or make our life comfortable Our honour will lie in the dust and sleep in a Bed of earth Our Riches will not deliver us in the day of wrath what if thou leave them behind to procure a few mourning weeds to attend thy Herse or erect some glorious Monument to thy memory yet will they at last rather afflict then relieve thee at the hour of thy passage Oh but thou wilt say thy friends shall help thee Alas All that they can do is but to attend thee to thy last resting place and to shed some friendly perchance feigned Tears for leaving them behinde thee Such miserable comforters are all things
thou canst think on here below When all things leave thee the love of God and a good Conscience will be thy familiar friends and which must ever attend thee That Balmof Gilead which must chear thee and that Palm of Peace which must at last crown thee And truly we have daylie need of God and not of man to help us One cries out here Wretch that I am who will help me out of misery Where shall I finde Tears enow to save me Another cries out What shall I do Must I needs leave my only Father my dear Husband my loving Brother my sweet and only Childe Oh let me die Some good body or other make an end of me The black clouds of sorrow somtimes so sadly overshadow us as that with Jacob we rend our clothes and will needs go down with sorrow to our Grave We often cry out What for ever In aeternum valedicere What to part for ever To forsake the world and all our friends what more troublesome What To take this young betrothed this poor Maid this intended Husband What To lay hold on one so well beloved in the flower of his age so fresh so flourishing so full of Honour and Prosperity O cruel and malicious Death What Hast thou Ears of Brass and Diamonds and wilt not hear our cries Alas What do I here I am but a living death and an unprofitable burden to the earth Why hadst thou not rather taken away this Begger that Cripple who hath not wherewith to live Ah Death Now shoot the utmost of thy Darts Thus do our humane respects too often seem to withstand the Divine Providence But oh thou that art thus unwilling to part with a Dunghil an earthly Cottage to enjoy a life of perpetual Beauty and felicity What alas may we think of thee That Heaven should open it self to thee and thou wilt neither embrace it nor open thy heart to love him that offers it Alas O Soul many times ungrateful and disloyal what wilt thou answer for so great a neglect when God shall call thee to an account Ah! If we love any thing in the world let us love it for life eternal The joys of heaven are without example Oh that we might then know our names to be written in the book of Life Oh how should we finde our Spirits ravished with those beautiful Ideas of glory Where can we more fitly commend our selves then unto so vast a bosom of Compassion as shall set a period to all the miseries of this sinful life To God I say who is an endless Ocean and boundless Sea of mercy How can we better fix our thoughts then on our crucified Saviour and in his countenance to read the lively characters of that infinite love he bears us the remembrance of death it self being sweet to those who lead their life so as to meet him comfortably as their Judge at the last day It will be no more to him to die then is one nights sweet repose on a bed of Roses Who can but behold the spirit of Jesus amongst those great Convulsions of the world moving round about the Cross in the midst of those bloody dolours insolent cries and insupportable blasphemies O behold and see him there as in a Sanctuary bleeding weeping and praying yea mingling his prayers with his tears and blood and at last to die unmoveably upon the Throne of his patience Oh madness of men That spend all their time encrease their account and lose so many fair opportunities when they might have gotten heaven for a tear a sigh or a groan from a penitent heart for the attaining of that which not only proves their eternal ruine hereafter but occasions their miserable vexation here O worldlings Thus to deceive your selves Who shall weep over you since you know not how to lament and bewail your selves Why alas are you so careful and tender of your bodies yet daylie entangle your poor souls in a thousand vanities a thousand Courtships and a thousand worldly loves which defile you and must one day be discharged at a dear rate Miserable wretches How will you then cry out what have we done Once had we time to have wrought out our salvation O precious time but these golden days are past And have we thus miserably undone our selves Come Rocks and fall upon us Come ye Furies and tear us until we moulder into nothing Sad creatures then as we are to procrastinate and put off our Repentance Since the Sun which goes so many miles in a minute and the Stars in the Firmament which go many more make not so much speed as our body hastens to the Grave The devouring sword the consuming fire the winds from the Wilderness the Diseases of the Body and all that afflicted holy Job are still at our heels what daylie reports do we hear Such a man is slain another is drowned a third breaks his neck this man died eating that man playing another sleeping this by accident that by his own hands Oh how great an Elephant and yet how small a Mouse can destroy us a pin a comb a hair pulled out hath gangren'd Nay our joy our mirth and laughter our shame and blushing may ruine us and in the very flower of our youth and blossome of our age we may be untimely nipt and sent down into the dust And alas If God but a little withdraw our breath vain is the power of art vain is the Physitians skill vain and fruitless are the sighs and tears of thy friends yea vain and helpless are the wishes of all our kinsfolk Here sits one weeping there another lamenting yet all to no purpose Neither is it Beauty or the Damask skin that can help us when we feel the slow pace of our panting pulse It is not mirth nor greatness which can then affect us when death in a moment shall dissolve all our honour into darkness The whole world cannot afford us content when our Soul is expiring from our body Neither can all her alluring baits smiling blandishments and beautiful temptations avail thee when thy spirits shall tremble with affrightful pangs when all thy senses shall decline and all the faculties of thy soul attempt which way soonest to leave thy body O then that we did but present unto our selves the sad and miserable condition at present and the happiness which is to come How effectual it would be to raise up our thoughts from the fading blossoms and perishing pleasures of this transitory world How would it comfort us in all conditions whatsoever How little would we care for the losses and crosses of this world did we think of a heavenly kingdom We are all in the time of our absence from God but strangers upon earth Let us then pass the time of our sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.17 and then he needs not care for ill usage in his pilgrimage here who knows he is a King at home But alas We too often eat husks when we should
feed on Manna Great riches cannot make our clothes warm nor our meat more nourishing why then do we tumble in the myres of this world Seek rather O Christian Soul for that Kingdom whereof there is no end that Kingdom which is infinitely glorious Luke 1.33 and every way blessed the King that ruleth is eternal and they that live there never die Let our hearts and mouths be ever filled with the praises of it Let our thoughts and words ever bend towards it since we have no other way then this to attain any true and lasting glory Let us also wholly resign our selves to him that sent us here We have too long lived in the Gardens of Adonis which in the beginning make shew of Flowers but at last bring forth nothing but Thorns Let us then fix a nail in the wheel of this furious and yet inconstant Chariot lest at last we expose our selves to the hazard of a precipitous fall Can there be a greater victory then to conquer our own tumultuous thoughts in such a conjuncture of time when our own ruine lies at stake Can we better use our choicest skill then to shake off those enchanting embraces and turn away our earsfrom those betraying sighs lest like that insolent Conquerour who was vanquished by his own slave we become strangely cruel to our selves Alas That we did but consider how fearful will be the case of those who have neglected the day of their salvation If it be a troublesome thing to be tyed to a Bed of Roses though but for a little time with silken strings oh what may we think of those damned Souls which must dwell in a bed of Flames as long as there is a God! It will be in vain then to cry to the Hills to fall on us and to the Mountains to cover us It will be in vain to repent and wish we had not slighted the day of our Visitation nor sold it for a little pleasure It will be in vain then to cry Lord open to us oh spare us oh pity us do not cast us into Eternal Burnings O what ease What eternal darkness Blinded world Prostituted World Desperate World Ah hadst thou but known Hadst thou but known But alas Thy unhappiness hath put a Scarf before thine eyes O poor secure Worldlings What will you then do when he that will be your Judge shall come in the clouds of Glory and Majesty Where will you hide your selves What shall cover you Mountains are gone the Earth and Heavens do pass away and how do you wish your selves might melt away as they do But ah wishes are now in vain To what end dost thou cry Lord Lord It is too late alas too late why then dost thou look about thee Whither dost thou run Can any save thee Wretches as you are To what pass have you brought your selves How happy had you now been if you had believed and obeyed having only time left to bewail and lament your miserable condition Ah drowsie earthy Creatures Are you still hanging downward when heaven is before ye Are you sleeping when so great a Treasure is set before you Are ye taken up with your delights and pleasures Had ye rather sit down in dirt and dung then walk in the Palace of Heaven Is it better to be there then above with your Saviour Alas deceived Soul Come away then out of the Wilderness of this World make no excuses frame no delays look not back on thy worldly business thy unbridled lusts thy sinful company which here took up thy thoughts in this howling Desart this Valley of Tears Do but consider how soon thou art to depart hence then wilt thou finde what thou hast neglected in following trifles and so much minding thy provision in the way whilst thou art hastening so fast to another world and thy eternal happiness lies at stake How wilt thou then cry out upon thy rocky heart thy proud and unbelieving heart thy Atheistical and Idolatrous and worldly heart yea thy carnal and sensual heart for here toyling and selling an endless glory for worldly vanities and adventuring the loss of heaven for the pleasure of sin to have thy portion in this life where the best things are often the lot of the most miserable wretches and to lose thy part in heaven and eternal happiness to take up thy ease and dwelling here in a nest of straw of wind and vanity the greatest of Plagues and forest of curses which God can give thee over to and to lose thy part in Paradise and thy Mansion in the heavenly Jerusalem But oh the strange aversness of our souls from God! that we should account our misery a happiness Nay that we should rather groan under any intolerable burden and servitude then seek our happiness in him That we should think these Honours delightful that Beauty tempting those goods lands and houses our dependance that merry company our solace that health and strength contentful those buildings walks apparel and pastimes to be pleasant and after all those seeming enjoyments and heart-contenting thoughts we shall look behinde us and see death with open mouth proclaiming these words Fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee O gross Idolatry to make any creature or means our relyance To place any dependance on the worlds favours to settle our soul upon such hazardous enjoyments or to say here am I well here will I rest And wilt thou here rest oh my soul on the top of those tempestuous mountains Wilt thou swallow down those deceitful baits where death is nearest when the pleasure seems sweetest Alas Settle not in this perishing world where all our days are sorrow and our labour grief The Souls solitude and content in her Separation from the great enticements of the world HOw strange a thing is it that God is always with us and we are so little with him We have our life our being our moving from him and yet all this while we scarce know what he is Alas What is the cause But that our eyes are dazled with the false lights of the world they are darkned with so many mists and vapours of our own appetites and passions as that we cannot see the goods of heaven in the brightest of the day Whereas to speak true our Soul should always be languishing after her Jesus and count it a sad thing to be separated from him so much as in thought Would we but learn a little to talk with him O how would it sweeten the sadness of our Pilgrimage by the contemplation of his Beauties Were we but embarqued in his Vessel while we sayl on the Seas of this troublesom world we would not amuze our selves to gather Cockles on the shore but we would always have our eyes fixed upon Paradice Or had we but our eyes well opened to penetrate and see what the world is we should finde its chains indeed to have a certain pleasure and seeming vigour in them but only painted and attended with
a most certain sorrow and uncertain contentment Yea we should then say of all the most ravishing Objects thereof How senseless was I when I Courted you O deceitful World Thou didst appear great to me when I saw thee not as thou art but so soon as I did see thee aright thou wert no mo more to me but just nothing Whither then dost thou straggle O my Soul Whither dost thou fly O seek out him who hath marked his steps with his great Conquests Who hath made visible his way by his own light paved it with his wounds and watered it with his most precious blood Say unto him at least O my Jesus Stay with me for it is late in my heart and the night is far advanced by the want of true light Alas O my Lord wherefore art thou pleased to hide thy self from a Soul that languisheth for thee Ah! Take away the vail from my eyes and suffer thy self to be seen in the habit of thy excellent Beauties Oh my God! If I cannot enter as sorrowful as I would into my grave I will yet go repentant into some obscure and savage Cave where the Sun shall no more shine on a head so sinful as mine or trace some desart mountains where with freedom I may pour forth my sighs and complaints There will I make that mouth which hath been often the gate of unchaste and idle speeches to become a Temple of thy Praises There shall those arms and hands which have been the chains of wanton embracements have room enough to be lifted up in prayer to heaven mine eyes O mine eyes which first received that fire which hath so passionately devoured my Soul shall there turn Fountains and want no water to wash that heart which hath so long been a burning Furnace of worldly lusts and affections and those feet which have strayed in the ways of sin and wickedness shall there traverse and weary themselves in the desolate paths of Furies and wilde Beasts Briefly O my God! Since I have so betrayed my heart abused my youth spent prodigally thy treasures and made Crowns of silver to the Idol of my own inventions since I have forsaken thee who art the unchangeable eternal and incomparable goodness and without whom all other goods are nothing to follow the wanton fires of my own lusts where alas shall I finde Tears sufficient to wash away my Offences Where shall I finde parts enow of my body to be offer'd up as the Sacrifice of my Repentance Wash me wash me again O my Jesus Make clean I beseech thee merciful Saviour my most sinful Soul What though it were as black as hell yet being once in thy hands how soon will it become more white then that Dove of silver wings whereof the Prophet speaks Oh my God! Have some pity on that heart which is so many times torn in pieces and strays among so great a multitude of Objects which estrange and draw me from thee Draw me O Lord from the great throng of so many inferiour things that so I may retyre into my own heart and finde peace in thee Make me to see the first beams of that Liberty which thou grantest to thy children Ah! When shall my thoughts return from wandring in those barren Regions where thou art not acknowledged When shall they cease to run in full career after all that pleaseth their sense and account thy Cross only and the Throne on Mount Calvary to be the true Path-way to heaven Here I am I confess in the Wilderness of sin in the Desart of this world O when shall I be re-united and so purifyed by thy favours that I may celebrate continual days of Feasting in my Soul I was one of those and I cannot deny it that through my sins helped to apprehend thee in that obscure and dolorous night wherein thou wert betrayed and when thou enteredst into the Garden of Mount Olivet to expiate the sin committed in a Garden by our first Parents Were not my sins then the Traytors that laid hold on thee Were they not my sins which drew those bitter sorrows from those most dainty Sweets Which made thee suffer pains in a place of delight and turn'd that place which was made for Recreation into a dismal Den of Desolation Oh sad change Ah my Jesus What hath my sins brought upon thee Those Olives which were tokens of Peace did there denounce War against thee the Plants there did groan the Flowers were flowers of death and those clear Fountains were turn'd to fountains of sweat and blood What then remains but that I be now ashamed of all the fading curiosities of the world Ah! Shall I not study this Garden And forsaking all other pleasures make my heart fit ground for Jesus to reside and delight in O beautiful Garden since made so by the sighs of my dear Saviour Here let me only breathe in thy walks let me lose my self that I may never be lost with my God Let me gather thy flowers since thou hast deckt them with thy blood Let me wash my self in those Fountains which thou hast sanctified with thy sweat O my dear Saviour Let me have no other Will but thine Wilt thou be abridged of thy own Will to give me an example of mortifying my Passions and shall I retain any wicked or inordinate appetite Hast thou like the Dove of Noah's Ark escaped the Deluge of so many Passions and torrents of dolours falling headlong so fast on one another to bring me green Olive-branch of peace and shall my soul be so audacious as to wage war against thee by my sins O what earth could then open wide enough to swallow me What thus to live with a hand stretched out against heaven which pours out for nothing but Flowers and Roses Out alas No no Raign O my dear Saviour within all the conquered powers of my Soul Let thy Wounds be the adored Altars of my Vows Let me hereupon promise an inviolable fidelity to thy service Let me live no more but for thee since thou makest my life to flourish with thy tryumphant Resurrection Ah my Soul Dost thou want any thing to provoke thy Love Is there not a Sea of Love here before thee Cast thy self in then and swim in the Ocean thereof Sit no longer under the weeping banks of worldly sorrow Thou hast long sate mourning with Hagar Gen. 21.15 1 Kin. 19.6 2 King 6.16 in this Valley of Tears Thou hast long been in the posture of Elias sitting down under the Tree forlorn and solitary yea desiring rather to die then to live Nay how many times hast thou cryed out with Elisha Alas What shall I do and with passionate Jonah I am weary of my life When shall I be out of this frail this corruptible Body this ruinous ensnaring and deceiving flesh O when shall I be out of this vexatious world whose vain pleasures are but deluding Dreams What remains then O my Soul But that thou strive to get out
thee no Creature being able towork by its own strength having all but dependent Beings from God alone Miserable wretches then as we are as not to see him with our bodily eyes so not to behold his Glory in our most retired Meditations that he should be all brightness yet we view him not all sweetness yet we taste him not That he should be in all places yet we feel him not alas what strangers are we in the House of our Father O that our life here should be fuch an estrangement from him and that when we most behold him it should be but as it were in a Glass darkly Draw nearer then O my Soul bring forth thy strongest burning Love here 's matter for thee to work upon here 's something truly worth thy loving Oh see what bounty presents it self Is not all the Goodness in the world contracted here Is not all the Beauty in the world deformity to it Here is comfort for thy Soul and a feast for thine eyes Ah! that ever thou shouldest need to be invited to feed on it That thou shouldst be invited to love where thou feel'st a heavenly sweetness accompanying it and where the very Act of loving is unexpressibly sweet O what wouldst thou give for such a life couldst thou be all love and alwaies loving Come away then O my Soul stand no longer looking on that Beauty admiring this Face or Idolizing these earthly shadowes But behold that Glory which is onely to be enjoyed in the lap of Eternity Ah that thou couldst bid the world farewel and here immure thy self that thou couldst shut the door upon thee and injoy the sweet content of divine and heavenly Meditation But Oh the dulness of thy desires after so great a happiness How doth thy backwardness accuse thee of Ingratitude must thy Saviour procure thee Heaven at so dear a rate and wilt thou not more value it must he purchase thy life by the Pangs of a bitter death must he go before and prepare a Mansion and art thou loath to follow must his blood and pains and care be lost O unworthy and ungrateful Soul what is loathing if this be love Ah wretched Creature if thou art not ashamed to neglect so great a mercy The Soul repents the time that ever she was Cloistered up in the walls of Clay and thrown into the Dungeon of that corrupt mass of Flesh THe Soul of Man being embarqued in the dangerous Sea of this world where her adventure is very hazardous and full of Rocks and having no Port to put in at but either Repentance or Death bewailes the want of her Pilot without whose guidance she is sure to meet with a miserable shipwrack and which she conceives as natural to her as swiming is to Fishes flight to Birds beauty in Flowers and rayes in the Sun Woe is me saith he that ever I was born to see the Light Why did my Mother rejoyce to hear me cry and to receive the news that I was a living Soul when first I entered into the world I bore the Image of my Creator in some lustre and glory but since that time my first Parents who bore as it were in one Vessel the Riches of all Mankind had lost all that which wretches might lose or men desire and which with grief we yet deplore it s scarce discernable in me in regard of those Leaprous spots of sin and taintures of iniquity which I have contracted from those frail corporeal Organs which have so pittifully dis-figured and transformed me as that the Character of my God is almost lost in me Alas I am but an unweildly lump of Earth a meer passive thing of my self Those eyes of mine which should have been as christal Casements through which I might behold the glorious Firmament and study my Creator in the Volums of Nature have let out the Beams of vanity and lightness Those Ears which should have let in wholsome precepts and holy exhortations have been no other then Trunks to receive idle discourses and vain sounds That Mouth and Tongue which should have sounded out the praises and glory of my Creator and sung Halelujahs to him have been instruments of Equivocation Sinne and Prophaness Those hands which were design'd to deeds of Charity have been employed in evill and sinful works That Throat which was intended as a Conduit-pipe to poure out divine and pious Ejaculations hath been made the instruments of Luxury and excess And those Feet which were made to walk in the paths of Piety and Virtue have been used to run into the Road of al Licentiousness But oh when I examine my heart the seat of my affections what a sinck of sin a Cage of unclean Birds do I find it and whereas I should have made it a Closet for my Saviour to sit and reside in alas what Hatred what Hypocrisie what spiritual Pride and Choler hath infected every corner thereof And if I look further how shall I find every Cell of my Brain infected My Fantasy is become wild and extravagant my Memory hath been more mindfull of bad then good things my Understanding full of darkness my Will wholly blinded my Reason strangely besotted and my Imagination wholly puffed up with airy passions and malignant humours which interpose between me and the glorious Beams of my Saviour Ah whether have the Councels of those transported me which desire the ruine of my Soul How am I environed with admires of Lusts and besieged with Legions of inordinate affections Miserable that I am what shall I do to hinder the designs of my naturall Corruptions Alas How they prevail against me unhappy that I am that the Sun which this day shines so bright over my head should see his face defiled with the stains of my sins What do I here in this house of Pleasure where we seem to enter in by five Gates which are all Crowned with Roses and bear the face of youth and prosperity Are not those five Gates the five Senses by which all the passages are made into carnal pleasures and the vain delights of the world Is this the way to live like a Christian to walk according to the Rules and propensions of Nature Is this the Babylon of worldly hopes which in the beginning sheweth it self as a Miracle carrying Hony in the lip Light in the face but Poyson in the tail Why alas should I thus live in the fervours of a Feaver why should I desire to live in that greatness which will onely serve to make my fall the more miserable Why should I rest upon those worldly comforts whose acquisition is painful whose fruition uncertain and taste unsavory And how pleasing soever they appear in the dawning of the day seeming in the first springing to be spread with Emeralds and Rubies yet will they at last be changed into the horrours or a sad Tempest and ever waited on by ignomy and confusion O that I should thus spend the latter part of my age after smokes and
phantastick shadows which will at last pay me with nothing but grief shall I flatter my self with the specious hopes of the world which like Dreams of a delicious Fountain never quench the Thirst Ah much rather let me make an Eternal divorce from all those frivolous worldly hopes and look on Jesus as the Pole-star alwaies unmovable let me put my self between the arms of hope and amidst all disturbances of mind pass the veil and enter the Tabernacle of the Sanctuary whereinto he hath entered for our salvation Behold how the Soul is troubled as if through some melancholly fit she were fallen into an Abyss from which issue forth such an infinite quantity of evil vapours as cause night in the most cheerfull brightness and make the most pleasing Beauties to be beheld with affrightment The greatest punishment which can befall a sad and dolorous Soul in this world consisting in being suspended from the presence and sight of God And as it naturally desireth to rejoyn it selfe unto God and the least hinderance it feels is most irksome unto it so how doth it mourn to be deprived of so infinite a comfort which it alone depends on and to see it self bereaved of so great a happiness even by its own fault which is the Needle of the Dial which sheweth how our Souls circumvolve times and the hours of the day And well may she complain of the great distance between her and so infinite a bounty seeing the holy Scripture speaking of Love Gen. 34.3 saies It causeth one soul to claspe into another And truly did we but once begin to dislike the world and heartily to love Jesus Christ we should almost every moment think upon him all the most pleasing Objects of the world would seem mixed with Gall and Wormwood We should seek for our Saviour in all Creatures we should languish after him All that beareth his Name and memory will be delightful to him We shall speak of him in all companies desire to have him honoured esteemed and acknowledged by all the world our solitude would be in Jesus our discourse of Jesus Jesus will be in our watchings and in our sleep in our affairs and Recreations And Oh! how unwilling will be to lose sight of him though but for a little time Did we but once wipe those eyes surcharged with earthly Beauties and covered with a thick cloud of the worlds vanities how soon should we fix them upon the infinite love mercy and goodness of God How cheerfully vvould our Souls be carried with full flight into the bosome of our Saviour and be there held in a sweet Circle of ravishing contemplations our hearts would be as flaming Lamps which perpetually burn before the Sanctuary of the living God we should have but one main desire in the vvorld which is God himself all creatures vvhich use to be the Objects of our contentments will never more be the subject of our fears Neither should we like silly worms turn against God when he permitteth any thing to happen contrary to our liking we would frame unto our selves a life simple and free from all affectations we vvould learn to endure any slight oppositions vvith great tranquility vve vvould cast avvay our vvantonness our pleasures and petty peevishness neither vvould vve here think our selves immortal seeing that every moment vvhich is novv in our hands vve must divide vvith death and the Sun vvhich to day you have seen to rise out of his couch may before his setting see you in your Tomb. Oh horrour then to see men enraged with that avarice which sticks to their bones as doth their Marrow and shall sleep with them in their Grave to see them pride themselves in their Garments which are the food of Mothes to see them glittering with precious Stones which are the excrements of the Sea and Land to see them carrried in Coaches and on Horses which are the Notes of their poverty or to see them glory in Titles which are but imaginary Felicities Deceitful Beauties of the world then where are ye Ah true Turrets of Fairies which are onely in conceit where shall your allurements prevail from henceforth to what calamity do you reserve a wretched life deprived of strength and vigour to resist you and if it have any feeling it is onely of misery How few alas are your selicities in this world where your best lights have its shadows all fruit its vvorm and every Beauty fails not to have its embracements And vvhere are ye also ye admirers of the fortunes of Glass that happen to the vvicked where are these adorers of the Colossu's and heaps of dirt that appear by the help of false gildings and vvhich are immediately reduced to dust Hovv much better had ye been to have contemplated in that great School of Nature vvhere God speaketh to us and teacheth us lessons through the veil of his Creatures how happie had ye been had ye looked upon these delights below as men blind whereby ye would the better have looked up to heaven and into your selves that ye had heard of the worlds vanities as being deaf and no waies ravisht by them as discoursing of them and yet no way concerned Thus should he have been as men in part translated to Heaven and here become earthly Angels For Oh! how little doth the pomp of the world seem to that Soul who every day drowns part of his life in Tears and through long solitude hath purged it selfe from the impurities of the Earth Oh how contemptible do all those Beauties of dust and fortunes of wind seem to that heart which having every day dilated it self in the greatnesses of God renders himself capable with the visits and commerce with Heaven It is time to close the Earth when God opens Heaven and to carry our heart where he is since all our Riches are in him What alas have we to do like Moles to dig the Earth and therein to hide our Treasure surely he deserves to be everlasting poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as he is Canst thou love a little shining Earth Canst thou love a walking piece of Clay before that God that Christ that Glory which is unmeasurably lovely Canst thou love the World thy Friends thy Kindred whose love cannot advantage thee whose weeping cannot ease thee in the time of thy trouble and canst thou not love thy Saviour vvhose Tears and Blood have a healing virtue and are like Balsome and waters of life to thy fainting heart Oh my Soul what incomprehensible love is here If love deserve and should procure love oughtest thou not here to poure out all the store of thy affections shall he not be first served shall he not have the strength of thy love who parted vvith strength and life in love to thee Oh that thy love were more Oh that thy affections were a thousand times greater Alas vvhat vvantest thou to provoke thy love is not here a Sea of love before thee little dost thou
know ah little indeed the glory and blessedness of this love little dost thou know the excellency of this Love Is there any thing here below but baseness in espect of thy enjoyments above are the heavy sufferings the unsatisfying vanities of this world really sutable to thy desires or canst thou find any place more sutable to thy misery then that of mercy or of nearer interest or Relation then that of Heaven Come away then O my Soul stop thine ears to the ignorant language of the world what is the Beauty the Riches the Honours thou hast so much admired Canst thou but even close thine eyes and thou wilt think it all darkness and deformity What is the beauty thou hast so much admired alas when the night comes it will be nothing to thee whilst thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away doâ—h not the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age or some other deformity make it as loathsome as it was once delightful Ah then O miserable man that thou art unworthy Soul how canst thou love a skinful of dirt and canst no more love the heavenly Glory art thou not a Soul is not heaven the onely lovely Object art thou not a Spirit and is not Earth a Dungeon to Celestial Glory shall Gold or Greatness or worldly Pomp be thy Idols vvhich are all dirt and dung to Christ come forth then O my dull and drowsie Soul thou hast lain long enough in these earthly Cells where cares have been thy Fetters where sorrows have been thy lodgings and Satan thy Jaylor The Soul calling to mind the infinite Love of her Saviour bewailes her ungratefulness and the coldness of her returns WHen holy David considered the vvorks of Gods hands the Sun and the Moou which he had made Psal 8.3 4. he immediately breaks forth into thoughts of humility touching the frail and sad estate of man But blessed Lord what can we say for our great neglect of that Love which hath stretched it self for us even to the death of the Cross and what stupidity is it to forget that that bloody Banquet which was to us the source of life should bring with it the Edict of death O poor Sinner What hast thou done look upon a Deed that vvas worthy of none but thy cruelty stretch out thy hands put thy fingers into those wounds vvhich thou hast made bedew thy hands like unbelieving Thomas in that sacred stream vvhich flowed from thy Saviours side Drink miserable vvretch of that River vvhich there thou seest glide to quench thy thirst Look and behold those dead eyes which accuse thy nakedness and which thou still dost wound with the aspect of thy wickedness alas they are not shut so much by the necessity of death as by the horrour of thy Luxury Behold the great temper of thy Saviours Soul in his most horrible sufferings what could be invented which he endured not what could be undergon which he met not vvith Oh high effect of an infinite Love vvhich found no belief in senses no perswasion in minds no example in manners nor resemblance in nature It is storied of a Prince vvho being desirous to offer himself to death for the preservation of his Subjects took the habite of a Clown the better to facilitate his death he laid down his Crown and Purple and all the Ensigns of Royalty onely retaining those of Love and lost his life in his Enemies hands But alas this was but a mortal life and in giving it he onely paid that tribute to Nature which at last he must of necessity yield But where have we read that a man glorious by Birth and immortal by condition hath espoused that humility which all the world despiseth that mortality which all must partake of that mercy which none can equalize and for no other occasion then to dye for his friend O dear Jesus thou wert by nature immortal and impregnable against all exterior violences thou took'st not the Body of a Peasant nor a body of Air but a true body of Flesh personally united to the word of God Thou O blessed Saviour consumedst thy body with Travails thou quailedst it with toils thou castedst tottered Rags over thy Purpleâ— thou laid'st our miseries upon thy own shoulders and at last resignedst thy selfe as a Prey to a most dolorous death My God! What a Prodigie is this Thou foundest a way to accord infirmity with Soveraignty Honour with Ignomy Life with Death and Time with Eternity O God of Glory O mild Saviour all this hast thou done it was not possible that sole God should suffer death nor sole Man should vanquish it but God and Man hath overcome it Ought not then thy pains to be as much adored by our wills as they are incomprehensible to our understandings And alas how much ought we to be ashamed since instead of enkindling our Affections with the sacred fires of thy Eternal Love we have sought after prophane fire from the eyes of earthly Beautie and have opened our hearts to Forreign flames Ah ungrateful Soul art thou not afraid to hear those heart-piercing words Cant. 5.6 I opened to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when I spake I sought him but I could not find him Shall the love of God be so communicative as to stream forth by those two conduit-pipes of Glory and Beauty and art thou not hereupon even confounded to see thy heart so narrow and streightned in the exercise of holiness and good works Oh blessed Saviour thou didst spend thy time in continual pain and labours here on Earth for the redemption of the world Many were the scorns reproaches and miseries thou endurest for us Thou didst even melt and dissolve under the ardors of unspeakable affection and zeal for our salvation and at last exposedst thy self to languors sorrows extasies and the cruel punishment of the Cross and shall ingratitude be all the return thou reapest for such infinite mercy How justly maist thou many many times question with me as thou did once with S. Peter Joh. 21.17 Lovest thon me Thou seemest indeed poor soul to love me But why then dost thou not keepe my Commandements Doth not fond love which ordinarily delights to see what it cannot attain find too much admiration for thy eyes and food for its flame Ah that ever thou shouldst spend so many hours endure so much pain and run so many hazards to seek after an unhappy loathsomness Oh that ever thou shouldst take away thy love from me to place it on Creatures which so little deserve it And why should the faculties of the eye which was ordained for light be thus applyed to darkness Shall that which was Created for the use of Life be the cause of Death Alas what canst thou gain by imbracing thy Lusts O poor deceived Soul what Snares what Traps what Tempests beset thee on all sides O Man miserable wretch drenched in the waters of bitter Tears where alas wilt
affliction being but the chafing of thewax whereby he means to seal us nearer to himself and the spots of our infirmities but the Letters wherein to write his Name He makes his servants more eminent in their sufferings then actions yea makes them remarkable with the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.4 5. In much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses in Stripes in Imprisonments c. And as in worldly Amities it is not enough to have affections languours and lip complements without some better effects so the Souls love consisteth not in slight affectations or idle Devotion She knows that whosoever doth truly love must serve Jesus whose will must be executed his Cross carried and our selves wholly transformed into him by imitation of his Example She looks no more upon a withered and rotten Gourd upon the seducements and flatteries of a most odious and decayed Prostitute But Heaven is still in her Eye where wealth without want delight without distaste and joy without sorrow like undefiled and uncorruptible Virgins sit cloathed and crowned with Glory A devout Soul resembles those Rivers which run under the Earth It steals from the eyes of the world to seek for the eyes of God It studies solitude and retirement and is wholly shut up within it self Whence it often happens that those of whom we speak least on Earth are the best known in Heaven and while the world thinks they lie upon Thornes their Beds are made of Roses Yea God usually makes Ladders and Footstools of our Tribulations to lead us unto Heaven Happy then is that life which hath no eyes for carnal Beauties it being a shame for us still to tread on Flowers and think to attain Heaven without being acquainted with the troubles of Earth to be embarqued in the great Ship of Christianity and not sometimes to cast our eyes on the Rocks but like Jonah and the outcasts from Gods Presence to sleep securely under the Hatches And for ever blessed is that life which is no way dazeled with the sun-shine of worldly vanities How freely doth it taste the comforts of Heaven How doth it forsake the painted pieces of the world what pleasures will it one day take in this one Pleasure what joy is it to derive all our Joys from this one Fountain Why say we not then with S. Austin O Fountain of Life when shall we come to thy Delights and eternall sweetness I sigh here on Earth holy Hierusaleus in a dry Land O dear City with weeping eyes we behold thee afar off Tell me then if thou canst O fond worldling what is it that thou so strangely sets thy thoughts on What alas is it that thou so passionately seekest Wilt thou have Honours who hath more then God to whom so many States Kingdoms and Empires are but a drop of dew Hast thou high thoughts with thy self who more high then thy Saviour who makes Heaven to bow under the shadow of his Majesty who sits upon Thrones and shall at last come with his Angels to judge the World Oh but thou wouldst have power in thy hands Alas who more great then this Judge who makes the Thunder to roar the Lightning to fly the Rocks to rent the Earth to quake the Elements to melt there being neither Place Time nor Power which can deliver any out of his hands If wisdome affect thee who more wise then that God who hath the Riches of Eternal wisdom who seeth all within himself and to whom all things past present and to come are at one instant represented But it may be O wavering Soul thou art wearied with the cares griefs vexations and anxieties of the world If so where canst thou find repose out of God Hath he not all the contentments for the Soul and body But thou saist again thou art no body without Pleasures yea the desires of thy heart are unsatisfied without them And is there not a fulness of joy in thy dear Saviour Is he not an abundance which never fails a sweetness which never corrupteth a Feast which never consumes Is he not a perpetual Treasury of Comforts and an unexhaustible fountain of all contentments Methinks oh unsatisfied Soul I hear thee yet further to complain thou wantest Riches And dost thou think to receive them anyway but from him who possesseth all He is the Beauty of fields the lustre of Flowers the pleasantness of Fruits the wealth of Minerals and the Magazin of total Nature Cannot he whose care it is every year to make Garments all besprinkled over with the pearls of so many Meadow flowers satiate thy hungry desires Surely would we but thus by continual familiarity adore that most pure Spirit which thus enlivens us and disperseth it self throughout the whole world we should not look upon the Sun but break out into desire for that eternal Light wherein there is neither blemish nor darkness We should not behold the Sea but admire the secret depths of the Judgements of God We should not cast our eyes upon the Fields but in so many sorts of Hearbs and Flowers different in colour and quality behold the beautiful eyes of him that hath ordained them neither should we hear a Bird to sing but we will conceit it to speak the love of our Maker The Soul being re-advanced on the wings of Faith sends up her choicest Affections towards Heaven THose that are throughly wounded with heavenly love Cant. 3.1 2 3. are sending out their sighs and groans their thoughts and tears to seek out the welbeloved of their Souls No return nor Letter pleaseth them wherein the Name of Jesus is not comprised They pretend not any more to the Greatness and pleasures of the world after their former affliction but throw themselves between the arms of the Cross that they may there find those of their Saviour daily dissolving themselves into Tears and meeting no comfort but in the wounds of their Saviour and a heavenly Retirement And O how great is the comfort in seeking the remedies of our wounds in the Mercies of an infinite God! who being in his Nature most wise and bountiful hath not so given man over as a prey to grief and calamities but hath withal reserved a life of spirits to himself whereby to please and adore him He wipes the eyes of those that are his so many times drenched in Tears and makes them see through their greatest sufferings a glory and happiness not imaginable which expects their Soul in another life Ah welcome welcome that affliction which is raised from our Saviours Love Happy is that chastisment which comes from so fatherly a hand What though I smart though I bleed under the stripes of my heavenly Father sure there cannot be so much pain in them as comfort in the love of him that layes them on Did he not use to chastise every one whom he doth receive Heb. 12.6 8. Alas I might suspect my self But O repining Soul must thou alwayes feed upon dainties will not the Crums which fall from
which are always flourishing cool shadow my wandering eyes from the burning glances of lustful concupisence Let those eyes which no sooner began to exercise the functions of life but were seen all in blossom and an amourous aspect for us allay the spreading Rayes of those open Casements Let those eyes which from the top of a mountain looked on a poor famished people who wander'd through the deserts as sheep deprived of their shepherd guid my straying heart to thy own self Briefly let those chrystal fountains which daily distil the sweet influences of mercies which in dropping tears so freely poured out themselves over miserable Hierusalem which prov'd so efficacious for us when thou gav'st up thy Soul with weeping and bleeding in the Sacrifice of the Cross quench the flames of all unholy desires and abate the fervour of all sinful thoughts and affections within us The Soul in a Phrensey breaks out into admiration of Gods love in being freed from the misery of everlasting flames THe discourse of Heavenly things is the sweetest Manna which the Soul tasteth in the wilderness of this world She is ever crying out O Glory O Bliss O Happiness how have ye struck me to the heart O when will the happy day come that I shall sit at this Fountain-head and not need with pain to draw the water of pleasure When shall I arrive at this sweet Ravishment and Extasie Alas my dulness my weakness my drowsiness yea ever and anon is she crying out Oh the compassion of that Physitian which finding his Patients in a Phrensie and knowing that nothing could preserve their life but the loss of his own is contented to die not onely for those who were the causers of his death but the Actors and instruments themselves Solomon saith That Love is as strong as death Cant. 8.6 But if we examine the strength of each we shal find Love to be the stronger It s true all earthly things submit to the power of death young and old Kings and Peasants Scepters and Spades are all alike to him Not the Supremacy of the King also not the holiness of the Prophet as we see in David not the gravity of the High Priest verified in Eli to his Sons Not the wisdom of Solomon or the strength of Sampson are any way exempted from owing Homage or paying tribute to Love as unto Death If we compare also the acts of Love with those of Death we shall find Love not onely as powerful and universal but much stronger Death being only seen in taking the Rich the Strong the Wise the Young the Great But O behold how Love hath prevailed over the Son of God the Saviour and life of the world See how he submitted himself to his death out of Love Was it not Love and onely Love that wrestled with God and overcame him in this that he should leave the Heavens and lay down his life submitting himself to that death which had no power over him O my God what do I here see what is this my eyes behold Truly my Lord my God! death hath transported thee even to Extasie Alas what shall I say to thee my heart overwhelming love when I consider how many Millions are swallowed up in Eternal perdition while I am one of that small number thou hast brought to the light of knowing thee and finding the narrow way to salvation Why didst thou set thine eyes upon me preferring a wretch before so many thousands was it because I was Nobler or more excellent then they Ah no! O my Soul what dost thou expect if this be not enough to set thee on fire Look about thee and behold yet a further endearment see thy own Country thy Neighbours Acquaintance thy Kindred and Friends yea how many maist thou find of all degrees more worthy of acceptation then thy self Oh how the Soul is fill'd with a Seraphick Love with a fire drawn from the most pure flames of Heaven which is uncessantly burning being shut up within a melting heart without consuming and which like a Diamond in the midst of a thousand Hammers is never moved with all their violence is never tempted with the glittering of Honours but is alwayes tempering of Gall with the most delicious contentments of this life to follow her Jesus her wounded Jesus her Jesus that was crucified for her Still is she crying out to her self whence come those Lights those Joyes those Pleasures Consolations and Hopes which are thus above our strength and wherewith we often find our thoughts to be transported and raised above our selves Is it not from thee O Jesus who enters into our Soul and becomes our Comforter we need not seek thee in Heaven seeing thou art thus in our heart and there utterest thy Oracles O do thou still raise us above all the concupisences of flesh let us ever love and dilate our selves in thee which thus fillest us with the height of thy Glories Let the sweet familiarity we have with thee our Redeemer steal from us all extraordinary care of the worlds employments Though we are within the world let us be nothing less then of the world Let us like Fishes live silent in the roaring of the waves and keep our selves freshamidst the brinywaters of the Sea of this world yea like the beams of the Sun let us touch the Earth but never leave Heaven And since mercy provoked changeth it self into severe Justice and what Creatures then are there which will not punish a fugitive Soul which flyes from her Saviour through her ingratitude when he draws her to him by the sweetness of his love O let me above all things fear to be forsaken of thee my God! O let not mine eyes be the snares of my Soul Blessed Lord thou hast given thy self for a portion thy Son for a Ransom Rom. 8.32 Ier. 10.16 Psal 16.5 thy Spirit for a Pledge thy Word for a Guide and thy glorious Kingdom for an Inheritance and alas how unable am I to value the least of thy blessings much less to repay thee any thing for them since I am infinitely below all thy mercies and had I any thing worthy thy acceptance it were all thine and I could offer nothing to thee but thine own What then shall I do but throw my heart to the feet of thy bounty all naked all melted without self-will or povver of resistance Lord do thy pleasure upon me 1 Sam. 3.8 Howbeit I will not despair of my Disease vvhilst I remember the Physitian Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Yea I hope I am even now under thy healing hand And though during my continuance in this Body many infirmities oppress me yet vvill I never leave craving what thou hast taught me alvvayes to ask Give me therefore a Gracious disposition a more watchful obedience to thy law a more mortified conversation for the future and more sorrow and contrition of heart for what is past O let my eyes be open to see the shortness of
the pleasure of sin and the perpetuity of sinners Torments the easinesse of thy gentle yoak and light burden here below and the weight of thy glory provided for me above since there is no moment O Lord void of thy goodness why should there be any moment void of my praise I know it will not be long until death consume me to the very bones and I shall then possess nothing but what I have done for thee Shall I then live in this world to my self and be still vexed with care how to preserve a miserable life Dear Jesus suffer me not thus to be taught by thy Judgements what I have neglected to learn from thy mercy Time and age will one day wither the blossoms of youth The best of our joyes are but fires of straw or flattering sun-shines which are suddenly either washed away with a shower or banished by Tempests The Sun will at last daver the freshest Roses and Lillies O let not then my thoughts strike sail or my heart do homage to the transitory beauties of this world which will onely ensnare and imprison me in the Fetters of sin least the storms of an evil conscience suddenly arise and trouble the serenity of my delights and the tranquility of my seeming felicity The Soul being sensible of its former Mercies sits weeping under the Cross of her Saviour and resolves to partake with him in his Sufferings AS Humility is seldome planted upon Crowns and Scepters so the wisdom of State seldome joyns with that of the Cross where its lustre is too often darkned by the too much glittering of the world and ordinarily finds slippery footing amongst the Rubies and Diamonds of a Crown It was the saying of Tertullian who flourished two hundred years after the Nativity of our Saviour when there had been no speech of any Emperours that had embraced Christianity Tertul. in Apol. That if the Caesars would become Christians they would cease to be Caesars and if the Christians would become Caesars they would cease to be Christians conceiving that poorness of spirit cannot consist with so high and stately Riches neither Humility with a Soveraign Empire or the Tears of Repentance with the vain delights of the Court. Surely the hungring and thirsting after Righteousness upon which our Saviour so often leaves his blessing can no way stand with the desire of Pomp and Greatness in the world no more then Peace can subsist with Licentiousness of War or pureness of heart with the conversing with most pleasing and tempting Beauties or the fairest hopes of the world which are mowed dow in their flower by the pittiless Sythe of death Peter was never so near his ruine as when he was warming himself in the Priests Hall John Baptist was far more secure amongst Wolves Foxes and Tigers then among the wicked Courtiers of Herod He was more happy with his little Dinner of Locusts and wild Honey retired in his Cabin then amidst the Pomps and Pleasures of the King of Galilee Do we know whether our Fancy will run when Ambition rides it or our Minds sail when distempers steer them What makes a Hermit at the Court a solitary man in a Tumult a David in his Tower of Pleasures a Solomon in the midst of so many Wives and Concubines and a Sampson under the enticing hands of his treacherous Dalelah Yea what makes a sacred man amongst the prophane or a Saint in the house of a Tyrant So hard is it also for Carnal eyes to behold the bitter Agony of our blessed Saviour so hard is it for any Tongue without being steeped in Gall to express his sufferings or for any person without pouring out of Tears to approach his Cross What eyes can look on thee as they should and behold all thy flesh wholly imprinted with dolours and thy heart drenched in acerbities What eyes can without bitter relenting behold thy deadly sweat of blood can see thee dragg'd through the streets of Hierusalem every one looking out at the windows to fill their eyes with gazing and astonishment can see thee buffeted flouted tossed from one Tribunal to another spit on every where despised and maliciously affronted What eyes can look on thy spread Arms thy nailed Hands and Feet thy rack't sinews thy pierced side thy bended Neck thy faln looks thy torn Body thy pale and bloodless flesh thy company to be of infamous Theeves and thy miserable Favourite and forlorn Mother ready through grief to expire their last breath what ears could with patience hear thy doleful out-cryes to Heaven and what heart could apprehend thee at first received into a wretched Stable and there laid in a Manger and at last to conclude thy innocent life in so great nakedness as that thou hadst no other veil to cover thee then the blood which gushed from thy wounds Behold O my Soul the whole life of thy Saviour which he passed here on Earth and thou shalt find it a School of Christian manners by the contemplation whereof Holiness is perfected in the fear of the Lord 2 Cor. 7.1 The world loved Riches but he would be poor The world loved Honours but he shun'd and refused a Kingdom and the Treasures thereof the world delighted in a carnal off-spring but he desired neither Marriage not Issue The world feared nothing more then disgrace desertion of friends insulting of enemies bodily Tortures and Death whereas Christ endured the rebukings of the people the flight of his Disciples the mockings of the Souldiers the spitting of the Jews and the death of the Cross O vvonderful that the mighty power of the Divinity would thus manifest it self in the infirmity of the Cross Sure it was onely for God to perform this great Design and thus ascend up to his Throne of Glory by the basest disgraces of the world and if vve vvill be his Children vve must make it appear by participation of his Cross and by suffering Tribulation By this Sun it is that the Eagles are discovered The good Thief saw no other Title or sign of his Kingdom but onely his body covered over vvith bloud and oppressed with dolours by that Book of the Gross he learned all the Glory of Paradise and apprehended that none but God could vvith such patience endure so great Torments Methinks blessed Saviour I hear devout Simon seeing thee heavy loaden with the burden of the Cross thus expostulating with thee O Jesus vvhether goest thou with the extream vveight of this barren piece of Wood whether dost thou carry it and why vvhere do you mean to set it What upon mount Calvary Alas that place is most wild and stony How canst thou plant it there who shall water it to which thou answerest I bear indeed a piece of Wood upon my Shoulders and carry it to mount Calvary This Wood I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of the world and to draw all after me I bear it to place it by my death and water it with my blood Oh Love
into Adamant are the Eternal Springs of Lebanon dryed up are the Heavens become Iron that no drops of dew can distill down to refresh thy languishing Soul Where are now thy old friends which were so much delighted with thy Glory upon mount Tabor who lately sung so cheerfully at thy entering into Hierusalem yea even solemnly protested their readiness to die with thee Alas they are all asleep so fast so dead asleep that neither shame nor compassion on their Masters disconsolate condition can make them to say so much as one short prayer for themselves Oh weak condition of humane friendship unhappy and miserably deluded are all they who build on so false a Bottom How far better is it to trust in God then Man O ill requited Master is this the fruit of all thy Teachings Is this thy reward for all thy Benefits Is this the Profit of all thy Wonders thou hast made amongst them What though Judas were tempted with the glittering of Silver which dazels the eyes of all the World yet what Plea have thy beloved Disciples to excuse their dulness their coldness and want of Love Though Earth fail Heaven should be kind And now O my Soul thou who hast been witness to this great Spectacle What shall not this strange and incomparable love of thy Saviour make thee wholly to go out of thy self Look if thou are able to look at so glorious a Light or judge of so infinite charity and tell me what thou canst do Canst thou love any thing after this but thy Lord Jesus Canst thou affect any thing but thy dear Saviour Can thy greatest troubles or hardships distaste thee Thou complainest indeed of thy Sufferings but weigh them in this Ballance and alas how little cause hast thou to complain Ah! what poor flea-bitings are those which thou art afflicted with in respect of the Torments thy Saviour underwent for thee whom thou thus seest to have traced out the way with his own gored footsteps having his Head Crown'd with Thorns his shoulders charg'd with the infamous Burden of the Cross his ears pierced with Reproachful speeches and his eyes floating with Tears in which condition he ascended mount Calvary and invites thee to follow him Were they not thy sins O my Soul which were the Nails that fastned his Hands and his Feet were they not the Spears which pierced his sacred side Look upon thy Hypocrisie which was the kiss that betrayed him Behold thy Back-slidings which made his Soul weary to death which caused the withdrawment of his Fathers love and made him cry out that he was forsaken Hath Christ endured so much for thee and wilt thou not suffer a little for him Ah happy is that Affliction which is raised from thy Saviours love How rich shall we be when we have him for our Portion yea how high when we shall see a true contempt of the world under our feet Maist thou forbid O blessed Jesus that I should go about any worldly Throne which carries not thy Scepter or that I should talk of Honours when there is mention made of thy Holy Cross Let all greatness where thou art not be baseness unto me and let me mount up unto thee by those stairs of Humility whereby thou camest down to me O let me kiss the paths of that Mount which thou hast sprinkled with thy precious Bloud and esteem that Cross above all earthly things which thou hast consecrated by thy cruel pains Alas is it not a shameful thing that God should seek us among the heats of his Love and Sufferings and yet we cannot be found by him Shall we not forsake all the Disorders of a sensual life which hinder the effect of his Grace shall we not with the Samaritan woman forsake and leave behind us our Pitcher that we may return full of Jesus Christ shall we not bid farewel to all those occasions which lead us to sin O dear Saviour the most pure of all Beauties since it is for thee that so many Champions have peopled Deserts and passed the stream of bitterness and sorrow bearing their Crosses after thee and amongst the most cruel of dolours have felt the sweetness of thy presence shall I shed no Tears for those sins that pierced thee shall Jesus carry so many Thorns upon his Head and shall I have none in my heart Alas my Soul canst thou behold a Crown of Thorns grafted upon a man of sorrow what Spectacle alas is this no more a man but a skin dispoiled and bloody taken from the teeth of Tigers and Leopards Every stroak made a wound every wound a fountain of blood O hideous Prodigies which took away from us the light of the Sun and covered the Moon with a sorrowful darkness Heaven wears mourning upon his Cross all the Citizens of Heaven weep over his Torments The Earth quakes the Stones rend the Sepulchres open the Dead arise and all to teach us by insensible Creatures the pitty we should take of his Sufferings And in conclusion of all what should we hence learn but imitating our blessed Saviour who having sadness in his Soul even to death yea taking up a resolution and deprecation in the approaches thereof cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me willingly to submit to all those Sufferings he shall think fit to lay upon us Neither to be any way fearful or solicitous in what manner God will please to take us to him or in the least manner to be troubled touching the place hour or manner of our Dissolution since he that made us best knows how to dispose of us as he please who can give us a Cordial in our greatest fainting Fits and therefore his will ought to be the rule of our Life and Death our Sufferings and our Sorrows since from him who is all goodness of himself we cannot expect any thing but the best Are we mortal and shall we grieve to die Shall we not gladly drink of that Cup whereof our Saviour hath begun Death is unwelcom onely to those who have not mortified their desires and affections here while they lived why then should we have regret to leave so miserable a lise Why should we be unwilling to bid adieu and quit this place where we have endured so many Deaths and which hath so long been the place of our sorrows O my God! what a vain fear then is that which startles me what a sad Pensiveness which over-spreads me Oh when and where shall I take my flight unto thee Do not tell me O dear Saviour there is a great Chaos between thee and me since thou hast already passed it and wilt thou not then lift me up by thy mercy I am here as within the Deserts of Africa in a burning world the drought whereof makes it a habitation for Devils O my God! I am tormented in this flame until some Lazarus be found to dip the end of his finger in thy blood to allay the burning of my thirst and restore me into the bosome of a merciful God O bessed day when we shall be free from sorrow and suffering but not from comfort where we shal rest from our Labours and perfectly injoy the most perfect God who as he is love it self will perfectly love us yea love us for ever O comfortable words how sweet must they needs be to our ears how refreshing to our wearied Senses and languid Spirits Ah What smiles shall we then perceive in that face of Sorrows and with whom we have here suffered when he shall pronounce that joyful sentence Come ye blessed of my Father shal we then repent our Sufferings and Sorrows are not the Tears of Repentance sweet unto us This is that joy which was procured by sorrow This is that Crown which was procured by the Cross Jesus did weep that our Tears might be washed away Our Saviour bled that we might not be wounded O blessed Love Oh in what a frame will our Soul then be who can express who can conceive the infinite love and unexpressible joy of so happy a Union so sweet a Reconcilement who can question the love which he doth so sweetly taste or doubt of that vvhich vvith such joy he feeleth vvhen vve shall be incircled in Eternity and for ever praise him FINIS