SUSURRIUM CUM DEO SOLILOQVIES OR Holy Self-Conferences of the DEVOUT SOUL upon sundry choice Occasions With Humble Addresses to the Throne of Grace Together with The Souls Farwell to Earth AND Approaches to Heaven The second Edition By JOS. HALL B. Norwich LONDON Printed by Will Hunt and are to be sold by George Lathum junior at the Signe of the Bishops Head in St Pauls Churchyard 1651. THE AUTHORS SVPPLICATORY DEDICATION TO thee only O my God who hast put these holy Thoughts into my soule doe I most humbly desire to Dedicate both my selfe and them Earnestly beseeching thee graciously to accept of both And that thou wouldst be pleased to accompany and follow these my weak practicall Devotions with a sensible blessing in every Reader Let these good Meditations not rest in the eie but descend into the Bosome of the Perusers and effectually worke in their Hearts that warmth of pious Affections which I have here presumed to exemplifie in mine To the glory of thy great Name and our mutuall comfort in the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Amen THE Heads of the severall Soliloquies 1. The best Prospect 2. The happy Parting 3. Heavenly conversation 4. Love unchangeable 5. The Happiest Object 6. Vnchangeable duration 7. Trust upon Triall 8. Angelicall Familiarity 9. The unanswerable Christian 10. Hellish Hostility 11. False Joy 12. True Light 13. Bosome-Discourse 14. The insensible fetters 15. Satans Prevalence 16. Leasurely growth 17. Allowable variety 18. Misconstructions of holinesse 19. Two Heavens in one 20. The stock imployed 21. Love of Life 22. Equall Distribution 23. The Bodies subjection 24. The ground of unproficiency 25. The sure Refuge 26. The light Burden 27. Joy intermitted 28. Vniversall Interest 29. The spiritual Bedleem 30. The difference of actions 31. The necessity of labour 32. Acquaintance with heaven 33. The All-sufficient knowledge 34. Poor Greatness 35. Acceptation of desires 36. Heavenly ioyes 37. Mixed Contentments 38. True Wealth 39. False Light 40. The haste of Desire 41. Deaths remembrancers 42. Faiths victory 43. The unfailing friend 44. Quiet Humility 45. Sure Mercies 46. Dangerous Prosperity 47. Cheerfull Obedience 48. Heavenly accordance 49. Divine Bounty 50. Sweet use of Power 51. The power of conscience 52. Proud Poverty 53. The happiest Society 54. Honey from the Rock 55. Sure Earnest 56. Heavenly Manna 57. The Hearts treasure 58. The narrow way 59. Gods various proceedings 60. The waking Guardian 61. The sting of guiltines 62. Beneficiall want 63. Interchange of conditions 64. The rule of devotion 65. Hels triumph 66. Dumbe homage 67. Indifferency of events 68. The transcendent love 69. Choice of seasons 70. The happy return home 71. The confinements of Age 72. Sin without sense 73. The extremes of devotion 74. The sick mans vowes 75. The suggestions of a false heart 76. Sacred Melody 77. Blemishes of the holy Function 78. The blessed reward 79. Presages of judgement 80. Vnwearied motion and rest eternall June the 26th 1650. I Have perused these divine and holy Soliloquies between God and the faithfull Soule and doe finde them to bee so pious and profitable so sweet and comfortable and full of pious and spiritual devotion that I judge them well worthy to be Printed and Published IOHN DOWNAME Selfe-Conferences Soliloq I. The best Prospect O My God I shall not bee worthy of my eyes if I think I can imploy them better than in looking up to thy heaven and shall I not be worthy to look up to heaven if I suffer my eyes to rest there and not looke through heaven at thee the Almighty Maker and Ruler of it who dwell'st there in all glory and Majesty and if seeing thee I doe not alwaies adore thee and find my soul taken up with awfull and admiring thoughts concerning thee I see many eyes have looked curiously upon that glorious frame else they could not have made so punctuall observation of the fire and motion of those goodly Globes of light which thou hast placed there as to fortell all their Conjunctions and Oppositions for many hundred yeeres before but whiles they look at the Motions let me look at the Mover wondring not without ravishment of spirit at that infinite Power and Wisddome which keepes up those numberlesse and immense bodies in so perfect a regularity that they all keepe their just stations and times without the least varying from the course which thou settedst them in their first Creation so whiles their observation makes them the wiser mine shall make me the holier Much variety of Objects hast thou given us here below which do commonly take up our eyes but it shall bee my fault if all those doe not rather lead my thoughts to thee than withdraw them from thee since thy power and Majesty is clearly conspicuous in them all O God whiles I have eyes let me never but see thee in all things let me never but enjoy thee Let me see thee here as thou maiest be seen by the eye of faith till I may see as I am seen hereafter in glory Let me see thee as through a glasse darkly here on earth till I may come to see thee face to face in Heaven Soliloq II. The happy parting I Have lived divers yeers longer than holy David did yet I can truely say with him if that Psalme were his which hath the Title of Moses We have brought our yeares to an end as it were a tale that is told Me thinks O my soule it is but yesterday since we met and now we are upon parting neither shall we I hope be unwilling to take leave for what advantage can it bee to us to hold out longer together One peece of me cannot but grow more infirme with use and time and therupon must follow a decay of all faculties and operations Where the Tooles are growne bad and dull what worke can be exquisite Thou seest it then necessary and inevitable that we must yeeld to age and grow worse with continuance And what privilege can meer time give us in our duration We see the basest of stones last longer than the durablest plants and we see trees hold out longer then any sensitive Creatures and divers of those sensitive Creatures out-last man the Lord of them all neither are any of these held more excellent because they weare out more houres Wee know Henoch was more happy that was fetcht away at three hundred sixty five yeares than Methuselah at nine hundred sixty and nine Difference of age doth nothing but pull downe a side where there are not supplies of increasing abilities Should we continue our partnership many yeares longer could wee hope for more health and strength of body more vigour of understanding and judgement more heate of good affections And can wee doubt that it will be else-where better with us Doe wee not know what abides for us above Are we not assured that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved
we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens Why therefore oh why should ye be loath to part upon faire termes Thou O my soule to the possession of that happy Mansion which thy deare Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his Fathers house and thou O my body to that quiet repository of thy Grave till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the just never never to be severed Soliloq III. Heavenly Conversation IT matters not a little with whom wee hold our familiar Conversation for commonly wee are transformed into the Dispositions and manners of those whose company we frequent We daily see those who by haunting the society of Drunkards and debauched persons have from civill and orderly men growne into extremity of lewdnesse and on the contrary those who have consorted themselves with the holy and vertuous have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity Why shouldst thou not then O my soule by a continuall conversation with God and his Angels improve to an heavenly disposition Thou canst not whiles thou art here but have somewhat to doe with the world that will necessarily intrude into thy presence and force upon thee businesses unavoidable and thy secular friends may well looke to have some share in thy sociable entertainements But these are but goers and commers easily and willingly dismissed after some kind interlocutions The Company that must stick by thee is spirituall which shall never leave thee if thou have the grace to apply thy selfe to them upon all occasions Thou maist hold faire correspondence with all other not offensive companions but thy entirenesse must be onely with these Let those other be never so faithfull yet they are uncertaine bee their will never so good yet their power is limited these are never but at hand never but able and willing to make and keepe thee happy O my God thou seest how subject I am to distractions Oh hold mee close to thee Let me enter into the same company here in my Pilgrimage which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my home Solilo IV. Love unchangeable OUr younger years are wont to bee delightted with variety and to be much affected to a change although to the worse The childe is better pleased with his new Coat though the old be farre handsomer Whereas age and experience fixeth our desires and teacheth us to set the greatest vallue upon those good things wherewith we have been longest acquainted Yea it is the generall disposition of nature to be cloyed with continued blessings and upon long fruition to complaine of that good which we first commended for pleasing and beneficiall What could relish better with the Israelites the first morning than the Angels food which fell downe from heaven every day about their Campe the taste whereof was like to wafers made with honey If we stay but a while wee shall ere many yeeres heare them calling for the Onions and Garlike of Egypt and crying out Now our soule is dried away there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings both of earth and heaven and to nauseate with store Neither is any thing more tedious to us than the enjoyned repetition of a daily-tasked Devotion But contrarily Grace endeares all blessings to us by their continuance and heightens our affections where they are rightly placed by the length of the time of their enjoying O God it is thy mercy that thou hast vouchsafed to allow mee an early interest in thee even from my tender yeeres the more and longer I have known thee the more cause have I still found to love thee and adore thee Thou art ever one and unchangeable Oh make thou my heart so Devote thou me wholly unto thee and by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections inflame it so much the more in my love to thee Solil V. The happiest Object IF we could attaine to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God it would put us unto the comfortable exercise of all the affections that belong to the Soule For surely if wee could conceive aright of his Omnipotent power and transcending glory and incomprehensible infinitenesse we could not but tremble before him and be alwaies taken up with an adoring feare of him And if we could apprehend his infinite goodnesse both in himselfe and to mankinde wee could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him and should thinke our selves happy that we might bee allowed to love such a God and if we could conceive of that absolute beauty of his holinesse and blissefull presence we could not but be enflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God and if wee could apprehend all these we could not bee but both transported with an unspeakeable joy that we have a sure interest in a God so holy so good so almighty so glorious and stricken with an unexpressible griefe that we should either offend him or suffer our selves to want but for a moment the feeling presence of that all-sufficient and all-comprehending Majesty On the contrary those men begin at the wrong end who go about to draw their affections to God first and then after seeke to have their mindes enlightned with right conceits of his Essence and Attributes who meeting with those occurrent Temptations which mainly crosse them in their desires and affections are strait set off from prosecuting their good motions and are as new to seeke of a God as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven O God let it be the maine care of my life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ thy Son my Saviour I cannot through thy mercy fail of an heavenly disposition of soule whiles I am here and of a life of eternall glory with thee hereafter Solilo VI Vnchangeable duration IN the first minute wherin wee live we enter upon an eternity of being and though at the first through the want of the exercise of reason we cannot know it and afterwards through our inconsideration and the bewitching businesses of time we doe not seriously lay it to heart we are in a state of everlastingnesse there must upon the necessity of our mortality be a change of our condition but with a perpetuity of our being the body must undergo a temporary dissolution and the soule a remove either to blisse or torment but both of them upon their meeting shall continue in an unchangeable duration for ever and ever And if wee are wont to slight transitory and vanishing commodities by reason of their momentany continuance and to make most account of things durable What care and great thoughts ought I to bestow upon my selfe who shall outlast the present world and how ought I to frame my life so as it may fall upon an eternity infinitely happy and glorious O God doe thou set off my heart
repentance But of all the fore-tokens of thy fearefullest plagues prepared for any Nation O God there is none so certain as the prodigious sinnes of the people committed with an high hand against Heaven against so cleare a light so powerfull Convictions The monstrous and unmatchable Heresies the hellish Blasphemies the brutish Incests the savage Murthers the horrible Sacrileges Perjuries Sorceries of any People can be no other than the professed Harbingers of Vengeance these are our shoures of bloud these are our ill-boding Comet these are our mishapen Births which an easie Augurie might well construe to portend our threatned destruction The Prophet did not more certainely foretell when he heard of an hand-broad Cloud arising from the Sea that a vehement Rain was comming than Gods Seers might foreknow when they saw this darke Cloud of our sins mounting up towards Heaven that a Tempest of Judgement must necessarily follow But Oh thou God of infinite mercy and compassion looke downe from Heaven upon us and behold us from the Habitation of thy Holines Where is thy Zeale and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowells and of thy mercies towards us Are they restrained If so it is but just For surely wee are a sinfull Nation a People laden with iniquity We have seen our Tokens and have felt thy Hand yet we have not turned to thee from our evill waies to us therefore justly belongeth confusion of Faces because we have sinned against thee But to thee O Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though wee have rebelled against thee Oh spare spare the remnant of thy people Let thine Anger and thy fury be turned away from thy chosen inheritance O my God hear the Prayer of thy servant and his Supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that is desolate O Lord heare O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and defer not for thine owne sake O my God Soliloq LXXX Vnwearied Motion and Rest Eternall I See thy Heavens O God move about continually and are never weary of their revolution whereas all sublunary Creatures are soon tyred with their motions and seek for ease in their intermissions Even so O my soule the nearer thou growest to celestiall the more constant shall thy courses be and the freer from that lassitude that hangs upon thine earthly part As it is now with me thou seest I soone find an unavoidable defatigation in all things I am weary of labour and when that is done I am no lesse weary of doing nothing weary of the day and more weary of the night weary of all postures weary of all places weary of any one if never so pleasing imployment weary even of varieties weary of those which some men call recreations weary of those wherein I finde most delight my Studies But O my soule if thou be once soundly heaveniz'd in thy thoughts and affections it shall bee otherwise with thee then thou shalt be ever like this Firmament most happily restlesse thou shalt then finde ever worke enough to contemplate that infinite Deity who dwels in the Light inaccessible to see with ravishment of spirit thy deare Saviour in his glorified humanity adored by all the powers of heaven to view the blessed Orders of that Celestiall Hierarchy attending upon the throne of Majesty to behold and admire the unspeakable and incomprehensible glory of the Saints These are Objects with the sight whereof thine eie shall never bee satisfied much lesse cloyed Besides that the hopes and desires of enjoying so great felicity and the care of so composing thy selfe as that thou maiest be ever readily addressed for the fruition of it shall wholly take thee up with such contentment that all earthly pleasures shall bee no better than torments in comparison thereof O then my soule since as a spark of that heavenly fire thou canst never be but in motion fix here above where thy movings can bee no other than pleasing and beatificall And as thou O my God hast a double Heaven a lower heaven for motion and an Empyreall heaven for rest One patent to the eye the other visible to our faith so let my soule take part with them both Let it ever bee moving towards thee and in thee like this visible heaven and since the end of all motion is rest let it ever rest with thee in that invisible Region of glory So let it move ever to thee whiles I am here that it may ever rest with thee in thine eternall glory hereafter Amen FINIS THE SOVLES FAREWELL TO EARTH AND APPROACHES TO HEAVEN BY J.H. B.N. THE SOULES Farewell to Earth AND Approaches to Heaven SECT. I. BE thou ever O my soule holily ambitious alwaies aspiring towards thine heaven not entertaining any thought that makes not towards blessednesse For this cause therefore put thy selfe upon thy wings and leave the earth below thee and when thou art advanced above this inferiour world look downe upon this Globe of wretched mortality and despise what thou wast and hadst and think with thy selfe There was I not a sojourner so much as a prisoner for some tedious yeeres there have I been thus long tugging with my miseries with my sinnes there have my treacherous senses betrayd mee to infinite evills both done and suffered How have I been there tormented with the sense of others wickednes but more of my own What insolence did I see in men of power What rage in men of bloud What grosse superstition in the ignorant What abominable sacrilege in those that would bee zealous What drunken revellings what Sodomitical filthinesse what hellish profanations in Atheous ruffians What perfidiousnesse in friendship what cozenage in contracts what cruelty in revenges Shortly what an Hell upon Earth Farewell then sinful world whose favours have been no other than snares and whose frownes no lesse than torments farewell for ever for if my flesh cannot yet clear it self of thee yet my spirit shall ever know thee at a distance and behold thee no otherwise than the escaped Mariner looks back upon the rock whereon he was lately splitted Let thy bewitched Clients adore thee for a Deity all the homage thou shalt receive from me shall bee no other than Defiance and if thy glorious showes have deluded the eies of credulous Spectators I know thee for an Impostor Deceive henceforth those that trust thee for me I am out of the reach of thy fraud out of the power of thy malice Thus doe thou O my soul when thou art raised up to this height of thy fixed contemplation cast down thine eies contemptuously upon the region oâ— thy former miseries and bee sure ever to keep up in a constant ascent towards blessednesse not suffering thy self to stoop any more upon these earthly vanities For tell me seriously when the World was disposed to Court thee most of all what did it yield thee but unsound joyes sauced with a deep anguish of spirit false hopes shutting up in an heart-breaking
true Christian to attaine both for as we say where the Prince resides there is the Court so surely where the supreme and infinite Majesty pleases to manifest his presence there is heaven whereas therefore God exhibits himself present two waies in grace and in glory it must follow that the gracious presence of God makes an heaven here below as his glorious presence makes an heaven above Now it cannot but fall out that as the lower materiall heaven comes far short of the purity of the superior Regions being frequently over-cast with Clouds and troubled with other both watery and fiery Meteors so this spirituall heaven below being many times darkened with sad desertions and blustred with temptations cannot yeeld that perfection of inward peace and happines which remaines for us above this sphere of mutability yet affords us so much fruition of God as may give us a true Title and entrance into blessednesse I well see O God it is no Paradox to say that thy Saints reigne with thee here on earth though not for a thousand yeers yet during the time of their sojourning here below not in any secular splendor and magnificence not in bodily pleasures and sensuall contentments Yet in true spirituall delectation in the joys of the holy Ghost unspeakeable and full of glory O my God doe thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy heaven put thou my soule into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness so shall I cheerfully spend the remainder of my daies in a joyfull expectation of the full consummation of my glory Soliloq XX The Stock imployed WHat are all excellencies without respect of their use How much good ground is there in the World that is neither cultured nor owned What a world of precious metals lies hid in the bowels of the earth which shall never be coined What store of rich Pearles and Diamonds are hoarded up in the earth and sea which shall never see the light What delicacies of Fouls and Fishes doe both Elements afford which shall never come to the Dish How many great wits are there in the world which lie willingly concealed whether out of modesty or idlenesse or lacke of a wished opportunity Improvement gives a true value to all blessings A peny in the purse is worth many pounds yea talents in an unknown mine That is our good which doth us good O God give thou me grace to put out my little stocke to the publike banke and faithfully to imploy those poore faculties thou hast given me to the advantage of thy Name and the benefit of thy Church so besides the gaine of others my pounds shall be rewarded with Cities Soliloq XXI Love of Life WE are all naturally desirous to live and though we prize life above all earthly things yet we are ashamed to profess that we desire it for its owne sake but pretend some other subordinate reason to affect it One would live to finish his building or to cleare his purchase Another to breed up his children and to see them well-matched One would faine outlive his triall at law Another wishes to outweare an emulous corrivall One would faine out-last a lease that holds him off from his long-expected possessions Another would live to see the times amend and a re-establishment of a publike peace Thus wee that would bee glad to give skin for skin and all things for life would seeme to wish life for any thing but it selfe After all this hypocrisie nature above all things would live and makes life the maine end of living But grace has higher thoughts and therefore though it holds life sweet and desirable yet entertaines the love of it upon more excellent that is spirituall termes O God I have no reason to bee weary of this life which through thy mercy long acquaintance hath endearead to me though sauced with some bitter disgusts of age but how unworthy shall I approve my selfe of so great a blessing if now I do not more desire to continue it for thy sake than my owne Soliloq XXII Equall Distribution IT was a most idle question which the Philosophers are said to have proposed to Barnabas the Colleague of Saint Paul Why a small Gnat should have six legges and wings beside whereas the Elephant the greatest of beasts hath but foure legs and no wings What pity it is that those wise Masters were not of the Counsel of the Almighty when hee was pleased to give a being to his Creature they would surely have devised to make a winged Elephant and a corpulent Gnat A fethered man and a speaking Beast Vaine fooles they had not learned to know and adore that infinite wisdome wherin all things were made It is not for that incomprehensible Majesty and power to bee accountable to wretched man for the reasons of his all-wise and mighty Creation yet so hath he contrived it that there is no part of his great workmanship whereof even man cannot bee able to give an irrefragable reason why thus framed not otherwise What were more easie than to say that six legges to that unweildy body had beene cumbersome and impeditive of motion that the wings for so massie a bulk had been uselesse I admire thee O God in all the workes of thy hands and justly magnifie not onely thine omnipotence both in the matter and forme of their Creation but thy mercy and wisdome in the equall distribution of all their powers and faculties which thou hast so ordered that every Creature hath some requisite helpes no Creature hath all The Foules of the aire which are ordained for flight hast thou furnisht with Feathers to beare them up in that light Element The Fishes with smooth scales and finnes for their more easie gliding through those watery Regions the Beasts of the Field with such Limbes and strong Hides as might fit them for service As for man the Lord of all the rest him thou hast endued with Reason to make his use of all these whom yet thou hast so framed as that in many qualities thou hast allowed the brute Creatures to exceed their Master Some of them are stronger than he some of them swifter than he and more nimble than he he were no better than a mad man that should aske why man should not flye as well as the bird and swimme as well as the Fish and run as fast as the Hart Since that one faculty of Reason wherewith he is furnished is more worth than all the brutish excellencies of the world put together O my God thou that hast enricht me with a reasonable soule whom thou mightest have made the brutest of thy Creatures give me the grace so to improve thy gift as may be most to the glory and advantage of thy owne name Let me in the name and behalf of all my brute fellow-Creatures blesse thee for them and both for them and my selfe in a ravishment of Spirit cry out with the Psalmist O Lord my God how wonderfull and excellent
performance yet thy mercies cannot faile in my acceptation Soliloq XXXVI Heavenly Ioyes DOubtless O God thou that hast given to men even thine enemies here upon Earth so excellent meanes to please their outward senses such beautifull faces and admirable flowers to delight the eye such delicate sents from their garden to please the smell such curious confections delicate sauces to please the taste such sweet Musick from the birds and artificiall devises of ravishing melody from the art of man to delight the eare hast much more ordained transcendent pleasures and infinite contentments for thy glorified Saints above My soule whiles it is thus clogged and confined is too straight to conceive of those incomprehensible waies of spirituall delectation which thou hast provided for thy dear chosen ones triumphing with thee in thy heaven O teach me to wonder at that which I cannot here attaine to know and to long for that happinesse which I there hope to enjoy with thee for ever Soliloq XXXVII Mixed Contentments WHat a fool were I if I should thinke to finde that which Solomon could not contentment upon earth his greatnesse wealth and wisdome gave him opportunity to search where my impotency is shut out Were there any thing under heaven free from vanity and vexation his curious inquisition could not have missed it No alas all our earthly contentments are like a Jewish Passeover which wee must eate with soure herbes Have I wealth I cannot bee void of cares Have I honour I cannot bee rid of envy Have I knowledge Hee that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow saith the Kingly Preacher Have I children it were strange if without crosses Have I pleasures not without a sting Have I health not without the threats of disease Have I full diet not without the inconveniences of satiety Have I beauty not without a snare to my soul Thus it is in all our sublunary comforts I cannot have the Rose but I must be content with the prickles Pure and absolute pleasure dwels elsewhere far above the reach of this vale of misery O God give me to seeke it there onely not without a contemptuous neglect of all those deceitfull vanities which would withdraw my soule from thee and there let me finde it whiles I am here by faith when I remove hence by personall fruition In the mean time let me take what thou givest me with patience and thankfulness thankfulnesse for the meat and patience with the sauce Soliloq XXXVIII True Wealth ALL a mans wealth or poverty is within himselfe It is not the outward abundance or want that can make the difference Let a man bee never so rich in estate yet if his heart be not satisfied but he is still whining and scraping and pining for more that man is miserably poore all his bagges cannot make him other than a starke beggar On the other side give mee a man of small means whose minde is throughly content with his little and enjoyes his pittance with a quiet and thankefull heart that man is exceeding rich all the World cannot rob him of his wealth It is not having by which we can measure riches but enjoying The Earth hath all Treasures in it yet no man stiles it rich Of these which the world call goods of Fortune onely opinion sets the value Gold and Silver would bee metals whether wee thinke them so or not they would not bee riches if mens conceit and institution did not make them such O my soule bee not thou carried away with the common Error to covet and admire those things which have no true worth in themselves If both the Indies were thine thou shouldest bee no whit the wealthier Labour for those riches whereby thy stocke may bee advanced The great Lord of all who knowes best where his Wealth lies and where thou shouldst hoord up thine hath told thee where to seeke it where to lay it Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theeves break thorow and steale But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven There thou shalt bee sure to finde it entire free from plunder and all danger of diminution O God give me to covet that my minde may bee rich in knowledge that my soule may be rich in grace that my heart may bee rich in true contentation as for this pelfe of the World let it make them miserable that admire it Soliloq XXXIX False Light LOoking forth one starry evening my eye met with a glorious light that seemed fairer than its fellowes Whiles I was studying what Planet it might be it suddainly glided downe and vanished O God how can we hope to avoid delusions upon earth when even the face of heaven may thus deceive us It is no otherwise in the firmament of the Church How many have there been that have seemed eternally fixed in that high sphere which have proved no other than base Meteors gilded with fair beames they appeared starres their substance was but slime Woe were to the earth if a true starre should fall Yea I doubt whether the Fabrick of heaven would stand if one of those glorious Lights should drop downe If therefore the star Wormwood shall fall and imbitter the waters hee shall shew himselfe to be but a false star and a true Impostor else heaven should fall as soon as hee O my God give mee grace to know the truth of my substance and the firmnesse of my station Let me hate all counterfeit exhalations Let me know my selfe the least and most insensible star in thy Galaxie so shall I bee happy in thee and thou shalt be by me glorified Soliloq XL The haste of Desire HOw slowly the houres seem to pace when we are big with the desire and expectation of any earthly contentment we are ready to chide the time for standing still when wee would over-hasten the fruition of our approaching comfort So the School-boy longs for his play-day the Apprentice for his freedome the Ward for his livery the Bride for her nuptialls the Heire for his inheritance so approvedly true is that of wise Solomon Hope deferred makes the heart sick Were it not O my soule for that wretched infidelity which cleaves so close unto thee thou couldst not but bee thus affected to thy heaven and shouldst bee yet so much more as the joyes there are infinitely more exquisite than which this earth can afford Surely thou dost but flatter mee with the over-weening conceit of the firm apprehension of my faith whiles I finde thee so cool in the longing desires of thy glorification What hast thou no stomack to thy happinesse Hath the world benummed thee with such a dull stupidity that thou art growne regardlesse and insensible of eternall blessednesse Oh shake off this Lethargick heavinesse of spirit which hath possessed thee and rouze up thy selfe to those ardent desires of glory which have sometimes enflamed thee Yea Lord do thou stir up that heavenly fire that now lies
full and inimitable this seale cannot be counterfeit the graces of the Spirit which thou hast received thou feelest to be true and reall thou findest in thy selfe a faith though weak yet sincere an unfeigned repentance joyned with an hearty detestation of all thy sinnes a fervent love of that infinite goodnesse that hath remitted them a conscionable care to avoid them a zealous desire to bee approved to God in all thy waies Flesh and bloud cannot have wrought these graces in thee It is onely that good Spirit of thy God which hath thus sealed thee to the day of Redemption Walke on therefore O my soule confidently and chearfully in the strength of this assurance and joyfully expect the full accomplishment of this happy contract from the sure hands of thy God Let no temptation stagger thee in the comfortable resolutions of thy future glory But say boldly with that holy Patriarke O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Soliloq LVI Heavenly Manna VIctory it selfe is the great reward of our fight but what is it O God that thou promisest to give us as the reward of our Victory even the hidden Manna Surely were not this gift exceeding precious thou wouldst not reserve it for the remuneration of so glorious a Conquest Behold that materiall and visible Manna which thou sentest down from heaven to stop the mouths of murmuring Israel perished in their use and if it were reserved but to the next day putrified and instead of nourishing annoyed them But the hidden Manna that was laid up in the Arke was incorruptible as a lasting monument of thy power and mercy to thy people But now alas what is become both of that Manna and of that Arke Both are vanished having passed through the devouring jawes of time into meer forgetfulnesse It is the true spiritual Manna that came down from the highest heaven and ascending thither again is hidden therein the glorious Arke of Eternity that thou wilt give to thy Conqueror That is it which being participated of here below nourisheth us to eternall life and being communicated to us above is the full consummation of that blessed life and glory O give me so to fight that I may overcome that so overcomming I may bee feasted with this Manna Thou that art and hast given me thy selfe the spirituall Manna which I have fed on by faith and the symbolicall Manna whereof I have eaten sacramentally give me of that heavenly Manna whereof I shall partake in glory It is yet an hidden Manna hid from the eies of the world yea in a sort from our owne hid in light inaccessible For our life is hid with Christ in God but shall then bee fully revealed for it shall then not onely cover the face of the earth round about the tents of Israel but spread it self over the face of the whole heaven yea fill both heaven and earth I well thought O my God that if heaven could afford any thing more precious than other thou wouldst lay it up for thy Victor for it is an hard service that thy poore Infantry here upon earth are put unto to conflict with so mighty so malicious so indefatigable enemies and therefore the reward must be so much the greater as the warefare is more difficult O doe thou who art the great Lord of Hosts give me courage to fight perseverance in fighting and power to overcome all my spirituall enemies that I may receive from thee this hidden Manna that my soul may live for ever and may for ever blesse thee Soliloq LVII The Hearts Treasure IT is a sure Word of thine O Saviour that where our Treasure is there our hearts will be also neither can wee easily know where to finde our hearts if our Treasure did not discover them Now Lord where is my Treasure Surely I am not worthy to bee owned of thee if my Treasure be anywhere but in heaven my lumber and luggage may be here on earth but my Treasure is above there thou hast laid up for me the richest of thy mercies even my eternall salvation Yea Lord what is my richest Treasure but thy selfe in whom all the Treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge yea of infinite Glory are laid up for all thine All things that this world can afford me are but meere pelfe in comparison of this Treasure or if the earth could yeeld ought that is precious yet I cannot call that Treasure Treasure implies both price and store of the dearest Commodities never so great abundance of base things cannot make a Treasure neither can some few peeces of the richest mettals bee so accounted but where there is a large congestion of precious Jewels and Metalls there onely is Treasure If any at all surely very little and mean is the wealth which I can promise my selfe here perhaps some brasse Farthing or light and counterfeit Coine meer earthy dross which may load but cannot enrich my soule my only true riches are above with thee and where then should my heart bee but there My hand and my braine too must necessarily bee sometimes here below but my heart shall be still with my Treasure in heaven It is wont to be said that however the memory of old age is short yet that no old man ever forgot where hee laid up his Treasure O God let not that Celestiall Treasure which thou hast laid up for me be at any time out of my thoughts let my eye be ever upon it let my heart long for the full possession of it and so joy in the assured expectation of it that it may disrelish all the contentments and contemne all the crosses which this World can afford me Soliloq LVIII The narrow Way O Saviour I hear thee say I am the Way the Truth and the Life and yet again thou who art Truth it selfe tell'st me that the way is narrow and the gate straight that leadeth unto life Surely thou who art the living Way art exceeding large so wide that all the World of Beleevers enter into life by thee only but the way of our walke towards thee is straight and narrow Not but that thy Commandement in it self is exceeding broad for Lord how fully comprehensive it is of all morall and holy duties and what gracious latitude hast thou given us in it of our Obedience and how favourable indulgence and remission in case of our faylings But narrow in respect of the weaknesse and insufficiency of our obedience It is our wretched infirmity that straitens our way to the Lo heaven which is thy All-glorious Mansion when wee are once entred into it how infinitely large and spacious it is even this lower contignation of it at how marvailous distance it archeth in this Globe of aire and earth and waters and how is that again surrounded with severall heights of those lightsome Regions unmeasurable for their glorious dimensions But the heaven of heavens the seat of the blessed is yet so much larger as it is higher in place and more
this whole both lower and superior world yet there keepes and manifests his state with the infinite magnificence of the King of eternall glory there he in an ineffable manner communicates himselfe to blessed Spirits both Angels and men and that very Vision is no lesse to them than beatificall Surely were the place a thousand degrees lower in beauty and perfection than it is yet that presence would render it celestiall the residence of the King was wont to turn the meanest Village or Castle into a Court The sweet singer of Israel saw this of old and could say in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is not so in these earthly and finite Excellencies A man may see mountaines of treasure and bee never a whit the richer and may bee the witness and agent too in anothers honour as Haman was of Mardochees and be so much more miserable or may view the pompe and splendour of mighty Princes and be yet still a beggar but the infinite graces of that heavenly King are so communicative that no man can see him but must bee transformed into the likeness of his glory SECT. VIII EVen thy weak and imperfect Vision of such heavenly Objects O my soule are enough to lay a foundation of thy blessednesse and how can there chuse but bee raised thence as a further degree towards it a sweet complacency of heart in an appropriation of what thou seest without which nothing can make thee happy Let the Sun shine never so bright what is this to thee if thou bee blinde Be the God of heaven never so glorious yet if hee bee not thy God bee the Saviour of the World never so mercifull yet if hee be not mercifull to thee be the heaven never so full of beauty and Majesty yet if thou have not thy portion in that inheritance of the Saints in light so far will it be from yielding thee comfort that it will make a further addition to thy torment What an aggravation of misery shall it be to those that were children of the kingdom that from that outer darknesse whereinto they are cast they shall see aliens come from the East and West and sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of heaven Cease not then O my soul till by a sure and undefaisible application thou hast brought all these home to thy self and canst look upon the great God of Heaven the gracious Redeemer of the world the glory of that celestiall Paradise as thine owne Let it be thy bold ambition and holy curiosity to finde thy name enrolled in that eternall Register of Heaven And if there bee any one room in the many Mansions of that celestiall Jerusalem lower and lesse resplendent than other thither doe thou finde thy selfe through the great mercy of thy God happily designed It must bee the worke of thy faith that must do it that divine grace is it the power whereof can either fetch downe heaven to thee or carry thee before-hand up to thy heaven and not affix thee only to thy God and Saviour but unite thee to him and which is yet more ascertaine thee of so blessed an union Neither can it bee but that from this sense of appropriation there must necessarily follow a marvellous contentment and complacency in the assurance of so happy an interest Lord how doe I see poore worldlings please themselves in the conceit of their miserable proprieties One thinks Is not this my great Babylon which I have built Another Are not these my rich Mines Another Is not this my royall and adored Magnificence And how are those unstable mindes transported with the opinion of these great but indeed worthlesse peculiarities which after some little time moulder with them into dust How canst thou then bee but pleasingly affected O my soul with the comfortable sense of having a God a Savior an heaven of thine own For in these spiritual and heavenly felicities our right is not partiall and divided as it useth to be in secular inheritances so as that every one hath his share distinguish'd from the rest and parcelled out of the whole but here each one hath all and this blessed patrimony is so communicated to all Saints as that the whole is the propriety of every one Upon the assurance therefore of thy Gods gracious promises made to eevery true beleever finde thou thy selfe happily seized of both the King and Kingdom of heaven so far as thy faith can as yet feoffe thee in both and delight thy selfe above all things in these unfailing pledges of thine instant blessednes and say with the holy Mother of thy redeemer My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour SECT. IX FRom this feeling complacency in the owning of thy right to glory and happinesse there cannot but arise a longing desire of the full possession thereof for thou canst not so little love thy selfe as what thou knowest thou hast a just title unto and withall apprehendest to bee infinitely pleasing and beneficiall not to wish that thou maist freely enjoy it If thou have tasted how sweet the Lord is thou canst not but long for more of him yea for all It is no otherwise even in carnall delights the degustation whereof is wont to draw on the heart to a more eager appetition much more in spiritual the pleasures whereof as they are more pure so they are of the heavenly-minded with far greater ardency of spirit affected The covetous mans heart is in his bags what he hath doth but augment his lust of more and the having of more doth not satiate but enlarge his desires Hee that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with encrease but these celestiall riches are so much more allective as they are more excellent than those which are delved out of the bowels of the earth O my soule thou hast through the favour of thy God sipp'd some little of the cup of immortality and tasted of that heavenly Manna the food of Angels and canst thou take up with these slight touches of blessednes Thou hast though most unworthy the honour to be contracted to thy Saviour here below thou knowest the voice of his Spouse Draw me and we shall runne after thee stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love make hast my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountaines of Spices Where is thy love if thou have not fervent desires of a perpetuall enjoyment if thou doe not earnestly wish for a full consummation of that heavenly match O my Lord and Saviour as I am not worthy to love thee so I were not able to love thee how amiable soever but by thee O thou that hast begun to kindle this fire of heavenly love in me raise thou it up to a perfect flame make me not
from all these earthly vanities and fix it above with thee As there shall bee no end of my being so let there bee no change of my affections Let them before-hand take possession of that heaven of thine whereto I am aspiring Let nothing but this clay of mine bee left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is mouldring Let my spirituall part bee ever with thee whence it came and enter upon that blisse which knows neither change nor end Soliloq VII Trust upon Triall WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world which both produceth them to their being and over-rules and carries them on to and in their dissolution without their knowledge or intended cooperation but for those whom God hath indued with the faculty of ratiocination how easie is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with them how that all-wise God contrives their affaires and events quite beyond and above the power of their weak projections how he prevents their Desires how he fetches about inexpected and improbable occurrences to their hinderance or advantage sometimes blessing them with successe beyond all their hopes sometimes blasting their projects when their blossomes are at the fairest Surely if I looke onely in a dull stupidity upon the outsides of all accidents that befall me and not improve my reason and faith to discerne and acknowledge that invisible power that orders them to his owne and their ends I shall bee little better than bruitish and if upon the observation of all that good hand of God sensibly leading mee on in all the waies of my younger and riper age in so many feeling and apparent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my daies and the happy close of that life which he hath so long and mercifully preserved the favours of a bountifull God shall have been cast away upon a barren and unthankfull heart O God I am such as thou hast made me make up thy good worke in me and keep me that I do not marre my selfe with my wretched unbeliefe I have tryed thee to the full Oh that I could cast my selfe wholly upon thee and trust thee both with my body and soule for my safe passage to that blessed home and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory in thine Soliloq VIII Angelicall Familiarity THere is no reason to induce a man to thinke that the good Angels are not as assiduously present with us for our good as the evill Angels are for our hurt since we know that the evill spirits cannot bee more full of malice to work our harm than the blessed Angels are full of charity wel-wishing to mankinde and the evill are only let loose to tempt us by a permission of the Almighty wheras the good are by a gracious delegation from God encharged with our custody Now that the evill spirits are ever at hand ready upon all occasions to present their services to us for our furtherance to mischiefe appeares too plainly in their continuall temptations which they inject into our thoughts in their reall and speedy operations with the spels and charmes of their wicked Clients which are no lesse effectually answered by them immediately upon their practice than naturall causes are by their ordinary and regular productions It must needs follow therefore that the good Angels are as close to us and as inseparable from us and though we see neither yet hee that hath spirituall eyes perceives them both and is accordingly affected to their presence If then wicked men sticke not to goe so far as to endanger and draw on their owne damnation by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits Why should not I for the unspeakable advantage of any soule affect an awfully-familiar Conversation with those blessed Angels which I know to be with me The language of spirits are thoughts Why doe not I entertaine them in my secret cogitations and hold an holy discourse with them in mentall allocutions and so carry my selfe as that I may ever hold faire correspondence with those invisible companions and may expect from them all gracious offices of holy motions carefull protection and at last an happy conveyance to my glory O my soule thou art a Spirit as they are doe thou ever see them as they see thee and so speak to them as they speake to thee and blesse thy God for their presence and tuition and take heed of doing ought that may cause those heavenly guardians to turne away their faces from thee as asham'd of their charge Soliloq IX The unanswerable Christian IT is no small griefe to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity to see how utterly unanswerable the greater sort of men that beare the name of Christ are to the example and precepts of that Christ whose name they beare He was humble and meeke they proud and insolent hee bade us love our enemies they hardly can love their friends he prayed for his persecutors they curse hee that had the command of all cared not to possesse any thing they not having right to much would possesse all hee bade us give our Coat also to him that takes our Cloak they take both Coat and Cloake from him that hath it he bade us turne our cheek for the other blow they will bee sure to give two blowes for one he paid obedience to a Foster Father and tribute to Caesar they despise Government his trade was onely doing good spending the night in praying the day in preaching and healing they debauch their time revelling away the night and sleeping away or mispending the day he forbad Oaths they not onely sweare and forsweare but blaspheme too hee bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnes they make Mammon their God hee bade us take up his Crosse they impose their own he bad us lay up our treasure in heaven they place their heaven in earth he bids us give to them that ask they take violently from the owners he bade us return good for evill they for good return evill he charged his Disciples to love one another they nourish malice and rancor against their brethren hee left peace for a Legacy to his followers they are apt to set the world on fire His businesse was to save theirs to destroy O God let rivers of waters run downe mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel Give grace to all that are called by thy name to walke worthy of that high profession wherto they are called And keepe me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed patterne which thou hast set before me Oh let mee never shame that great name that is put upon me Let mee in all things approve my self a Christian in earnest and so conform my selfe to thee in all thy example and commands that it may be no dishonour to thee to owne mee for thine Soliloq X.
spreads forth large Armes at last being growne to a meet age of vegetation it begins to grace the Spring with some fair blossoms which falling off kindly give way to a weake Embryon of fruit Every day now addes something to the growth till it attaine in Autumne to a full maturity Why should I make account of any other course in my spirituall proceedings O God I shall be alwaies ready to censure my slow pace in grace and holy obedience and shall bee ever ambitious of aspiring higher in thy gracious favour but when I shall have endeavoured my utmost I shall wait with humble patience upon thy bountifull hand as one that desires thankefully to acknowledge the little that I have received and meekely to attend thy good pleasure for what I may receive So thou bring mee to Heaven take what time and keepe what pace thou pleasest Soliloq XVII Allowable Variety IT is a great and insolent wrong in those men who shall think to reduce all dispositions and forms of Devotion and usages to their owne since in all these there may bee much variety and all those different fashions may receive a gracious acceptation in heaven One thinkes it best to hold himselfe to a set forme of Invocation another deems it farre better to be left free to his arbitrary and unpremeditated expressions one pleases himselfe with this notion of that Omnipotent Deity whom he implores another thinkes that may be more proper and affective one thinks this posture of body may bee the meetest for his humble addresse to the throne of Grace or to the Table of the Heavenly Manna another likes that better one is for a long prayer another for short ejaculations one desires to raise up his spirits with the Prophet by the aid of an harmonious melody another holds them better fixed in a sad silence one holds it best to set forth Gods service in a solemne state and magnificence another approves better of a simple and inceremonious Devotion One requires a sacred place and a peculiar habit as best becomming Gods publike worship another makes no difference of either roome or dresse One makes scruple of comming otherwise than fasting to the Lords Table another conceives it more seasonable after a Love-Feast One thinkes his Christian Liberty allowes him the moderate scope to all not-unlawfull Recreations anothers austerity interdicts all pastimes One judgeth this haire and that attire not lawfull onely but comely another thinks he espies sinne in both O God as thou hast ever shewed thy selfe justly severe in the avenging of sin so I know thee graciously indulgent in allowing thy servants much latitude in the free use of all that thou hast not prohibited In imitation whereof give me an heart holily zealous to abhorre every thing that is truely evill and charitably affected to the favourable censure of all usages that are meerely indifferent Let my maine care bee to look to the sincerity of my Soule and to the sure grounds of warrant for my actions For other circumstantiall appurtenances where thou art pleased to be liberall let mee not be strait-handed Soliloq XVIII Misconstructions of holinesse IT is no marvell if there bee nothing that undergoes more variety of constructions from the lookers on than holinesse for that being an inward gracious disposition of the soule conformed to God in all the renewed faculties thereof lyes so close in the bosome that it can only be guessed at by such uncertaine emanations of words and actions as flow from it to the eares and eyes of others The particular graces and affections of Love Feare Hope Joy godly Sorrow Zeale and the rest breake forth apparently in such symptomes and effects as may win a certainty of beliefe from the beholders neither indeed are easily concealed from the view of others all these may bee read in the face but if the heart it self could be seen and that curiously dissected yet even thus could not holinesse be discovered Beside the closenesse every man is apt to measure his judgement of holinesse by a false rule of his own whereby it comes to passe that it is so commonly mis-taken One thinkes him holy that forsakes the World and retires into some wilde Desert or mures up himselfe in an Anchorites Cell Another judges him holy that macerates his body with Fasting that disciplines his hide with whips and haire clothes that lies hard and fares hard that abstaines from all that relates to flesh in his Lent and Embers that passionately hugges his Crucifix and tosses his Beads and duely observes his Shrifts and Canonicall houres Now this man that in their way is in danger of Canonization for a Saint is by the professor of an opposite holinesse decryed to hell for superstition and Idolatry One stiles him holy who segregates himselfe from the contagious Communion of formall Christians professing to serve his God in a purer way of worship rejecting all stinted formes of Prayer and Psalmony spitting at the mention of an Hierarchy allowing no head sacred but by the imposition of what we miscall Laick hands abandoning all Ceremonies of humane Institution abiding no Circumstances of Divine Worship but Apostolicall Another allowes him onely holy who is already a Citizen of the new Jerusalem advanced to such an entirenesse with God as that hee is no lesse than glorified hee hath left the Scriptures below him as a weake and dead Letter and is farre above all whatsoever Ordinance Yea which I tremble to report above the blood of Christ himselfe A third reputes him onely holy who having left the Society of all Churches as too impure stands now alone waiting for some Miracles from Heaven to settle his Resolution Now Lord after all these and many more weake and idle misprisions upon the sure and unfailing grounds of Truth thy Word is Truth I know that man to bee truely holy whose understanding is enlightened with right apprehensions of thee and Heavenly things whose Will and Affections are rightly disposed to thee so as his heart is wholly taken up with thee whose Conversation is so altogether with thee that he thinkes all time lost wherein hee doth not enjoy thee and a sweet and heavenly Communion with thee walking perpetually with thee and labouring in all things to bee approved of thee O God doe thou worke me up to this temper and keepe me still in it and then however I may differ in a construction of holinesse from others that thinke themselves more perfect howsoever I may bee censured as defective in my judgement or affections yet I doe not without sound and sensible comfort know that my Judge is in Heaven and my Witnesse in my bosome Soliloq XIX Two Heavens in one I Was wont to say It is in vaine for a man to hope for and impossible for him to enjoy a double heaven one below and another above since our sufferings here one earth must make way for our future glory but now I finde it in a better sense very faisible for a
on what load thou pleasest since the more I bear the more thou enablest me to bear and the more I shall desire to bear the world hath so clogg'd me this while with his worthlesse and base lumber that I have beene ready to sinke under the weight and what have I got by it but a lame shoulder and a galled backe O doe thou free me from this unprofitable and painfull luggage and ease my soule with the happy change of thy gracious impositions so shall thy yoake not bee easie onely but pleasing so shall thy fulfilled wil be so far from a burden to me that it shall bee my greatest delight upon earth and my surest and comfortablest evidence for heaven Soliloq XXVII Joy intermitted WHat a lightsomenesse of heart do I now feele in my selfe for the present out of a comfortable sense of thy presence O my God and the apprehension of my interest in thee Why should it not be thus alwaies with me Surely thine Apostle bids me rejoyce continually and who would not wish to do so for there is little difference betwixt joy and happinesse neither was it ghessed ill by him that defined that man onely to be happy that is alwayes delighted and certainely there is just cause why I should be thus alwaies affected Thou O my God art still and alwaies the same yea the same to me in all thy gracious relations of a mercifull Father a loving Saviour a sweet Comforter Yea thou art my head and I am a limb of thy mysticall Body Such I am and shall ever be Thou canst no more change than not be and for me my crosses and my sinnes are so farre from separating me from thee that they make mee hold of thee the faster But alas though the just grounds of my joy be steady yet my weake disposition is subject to variablenesse Whiles I carry this flesh about me my soule cannot but be much swayed with the temper of my body which sometimes inclines me to a dull listlesnesse and a dumpish heavinesse of heart and sadnesse of spirit so as I am utterly unapt to all cheerfull thoughts and finde work enough to pull my affections out of this stiffe clay of the earth and to raise them up to heaven Besides this joy of the holy Ghost is a gift of thy divine bounty which thou dispensest when and how thou pleasest not alwaies alike to thy best Favourites on earth Thou that givest thy Sun and Raine dost not command thy Clouds alwaies to be dropping nor those beams to shine continually upon any face there would bee no difference betwixt the proceedings of nature and grace if both produced their effects in a set and constant regularity and what difference should I finde betwixt my pilgrimage and my home if I should here be taken up with a perpetuity of heavenly joy should I alwaies thus feelingly enjoy thee my life of faith should bee changed into a life of sense It is enough for me O God that above in those Regions of blisse my joy in thee shall be full and permanent if in the mean while it may please thee that but some flashes of that Celestiall light of joy may frequently glance into my soule It shall suffice if thou give me but a taste of those heavenly pleasures whereon I shall once liberally feast with thee to all eternity Soliloq XXVIII Vniversall Interest IT was a noble praise that was given to that wise Heathen that hee so carried himselfe as if hee thought himselfe born for all the world Surely the more universal a mans beneficence is so much is it more commendable and comes so much neerer to the bounty of that great God who openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness There are too many selfish men whose spirits as in a close retort are cooped up within the compasse of their owne concernments whose narrow hearts think they are born for none but themselves Others that would seeme good natur'd men are willing enough to enlarge themselves to their kindred whom they are carefull to advance with neglect of all others however deserving some yet more liberall minded can be content to be kinde and open-handed to their neighbours and some perhaps reach so farre as to professe a readinesse to do all good offices to their Countrey-men but here their largesse findes its utmost bounds All these dispositions are but inclosures Give mee the open Champaine of a generall and illimited benefacture Is he rich hee scatters his seed abroad by whole handfulls over the whole ridge and doth not drop it downe betweene his fingers into the severall furrowes His bread is cast upon the waters also Is he knowing and learned He smothers not his skil in his bosome but freely laies it out upon the common stock not so much regarding his private contentment as the publike proficiency Is he deepely wise Hee is ready to improve all his cares and counsels to the advancement and preservation of peace justice and good order amongst men Now although it is not in the power of any but persons placed in the highest Orbe of Authority actually to oblige the world to them Yet nothing hinders but that men of meaner ranke may have the will to bee thus universally beneficent and may in preparation of mind be zealously affected to lay themselves forth upon the common good O Lord if thou hast given me but a private and short hand yet give mee a large and publick heart Soliloq XXIX The spirituall Bedleem HE that with wise Solomon affects to know not wisedome onely but Madnesse and Folly let him after a serious observation of the sober part of the world obtaine of himselfe to visit Bedleem and to looke into the severall Cells of distracted persons where it is a world to see what strange varieties of humors and passions shall present themselves to him Here he shall see one weeping and wringing his hands for a meerely-imaginary disaster there another holding his sides in a loud laughter as if hee were made all of mirth here one mopishly stupid and so fixed to his posture as if he were a breathing statue there another apishly active and restless here one ragingly fierce and wreaking his causeless anger on his chaine there another gloriously boasting of a mighty stile of Honour whereto his rags are justly intitled and when he hath wondred a while at this woefull spectacle let him know and consider that this is but a slight image of those spirituall phrensies wherewith the world is miserably possessed The persons affected believe it not surely should I goe about to perswade any of these guests of Bedleem that in deed he is mad and should therefore quietly submit himselfe to the meanes of cure I should be more mad than he Only dark rooms and cords and Ellebore are meet receits for these mentall distempers In the meane while the sober and sad beholders too well see these mens wits out of the socket and are ready out
think it to be above When thou art all in all to us what can the knowledge of any creature adde to our blessednesse And if when we casually meet with a Brother or a Son before some great Prince we forbeare the ceremonies of our mutuall respects as being wholly taken up with the awfull regard of a greater presence how much more may we justly think that when wee meet before the glorious Throne of the God of heaven all the respects of our former earthly relations must utterly cease and bee swallowed up of that beatificall presence divine love and infinitely blessed fruition of the Almighty O God it is my great comfort here below to thinke and know that I have parents or children or brothers and sisters or friends already in possession of glory with thee and to believe assuredly that in my time I shall bee received to the association of their blessednesse but if upon the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle I may be admitted to the sight of thy all-glorious essence and may set eye upon the face of my blessed Saviour now sitting at the right hand of thine incomprehensible Majesty attended with those millions of his heavenly Angels I shall neither have need nor use of enquiring after my kindred according to the flesh What can fall into my thoughts or desires beside or beyond that which is infinite Soliloq XXXIV Poor Greatnesse I Cannot but look with much pitty mixed with smiles upon the vaine worldling that sets up his rest in these outward things and so pleases himselfe in this condition as if he thought no man happy but himselfe how high he looks how big he speakes how proudly hee struts with what scorne and insultation doth he look upon my dejectednesse the very language of his eye is no other than contempt seeming to say Base Indigent thou art stript of all thy wealth and honour thou hast neither flocks nor heards nor lands nor mannors nor bagges nor barne-fulls nor titles nor dignities all which I have in abundance no man regards thy meanenesse I am observed with an awfull veneration Be it so great Sir thinke I enjoy you your height of honor and heaps of treasure and ceremonies of state whiles I go shrugging in a thred-bare coat and am glad to feed on single dishes and to sleepe under a thatched roofe But let me tell you set your all against my nothing if you have set your heart upon these gay things were you the heire of all the earth I would be loath to change conditions with your eminence and will take leave to tell you that at your best you shall fall within my commiseration It is not in the power of all your earthly privileges to render you other than a miserable vassall If you have store of gold alas it is but made up into feetters and manicles and what is all your outward bravery but meere matter of opinion I shall shew you an Indian slave that shall no lesse pride himselfe in a Bracelet of Glasse beades that you can in your richest Jewels of Rubies and Diamonds All earthly things are as they are valued The wise and Almighty Maker of these earthen Mines esteemes the best Metals but as thicke Clay and why should we set any other price of them than their Creator And if we be wont to measure the worth of al things by their vertues and uses and operations what is it that your wealth can do Can it free you from cares can it lengthen your sleeps can it keepe you from head-aches from Gouts Dropsies Feavers and other bodily distempers can it ransome you from death can it make your account easier in the great day of reckoning Are you ever the wiser ever the holier ever the quieter for that which you have purchased with teares and blood And were it so precious as you imagine what hold have you of it what assurance to enjoy it or your self but one hour As for despised me I have wealth that you know not of My riches are invisible invaluable interminable God all-sufficient is mine and with him all things My treasure is not lockt up in earth or in heaven but fils both My substance is sure not obnoxious to plunder or loss or diminution No man hath bled no widow or orphan hath wept for my enriching The onely difference is this You are miserable and think your self happy I am happy whom you think miserable How ever our thoughts may beare us out in both for a while yet at the last except truth it selfe can deceive us the issue must fall on my side O God be thou my portion and the lot of mine inheritance let the scum of the world spit in my face as the most despicable of all creatures I am above the despight of men and devils and am secretly happy and shall be eternally glorious Soliloq XXXV Acceptation of Desires WHat a comfort it is to us weake wretches that we have to deal with a mercifull God that measures us not by our performances but by the truth of our desires David had a goodmind to build God an House his hands were too bloody to lay the foundation of so holy a fabrick Yet God takes it as kindly from him as if hee had finished the work and rewards the intention of building an house to his Name with the actuall building of an house to David for ever Good Ezekiah knew how easie and welcome a sute he made when after all endeavours of sanctifying the people for the celebration of that great Passeover he prayed The Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke God the Lord God of his Fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary Alas we cannot be but lame in all our obediences What can fall from defective causes but imperfect effects If we pray we are apt to entertaine unmeet notions of the infinite Spirit to whom wee addresse our supplications and suddain glances of wandring thoughts If we read or hear wee are subject to vaine distractions if wee approach Gods table our souls fail of that exact preparation purity wherewith they should be decked when they come to that celestiall banquet If we doe the workes of Justice or Mercy it is not without some light touch of self-respect well may we say with the blessed Apostle The good that I would I do not we should therefore finde just cause of discouragement in our selves if our best actions were to bee weighed by their own worth and not by our better intentions But that gracious God who puts good desires into us is so ready to accept of them that he looks not so much at what wee have done as at what we wisht to have done and without respect to our defect crownes our good affections All that I can say for my selfe O my God is that the desire of my heart is to please thee in all things my comfort then is though my abilities fail in the
raked up in the Embers of my soule and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation Soliloq XLI Deaths Remembrancers EVery thing that I see furnishes me with fair monitions of my dissolution If I look into my garden there I see some flowers fading some withered If I look to the earth I see that mother in whose wombe I must lie If I goe to Church the graves that I must step over in my way shew me what I must trust to If I look to my Table death is in every Dish since what I feed on did once live If I look into my glasse I cannot but see death in my face If I goe to my bed there I meet with sleepe the Image of death and the sheets which put mee in minde of my winding up If I look into my study what are all those books but the monuments of other dead authors O my soul how canst thou bee unmindfull of our parting when thou art plyed with so many monitors Cast thine eyes abroad into the world what canst thou see but killing and dying Cast thine eyes up into heaven how canst thou but thinke of the place of thy approaching rest How justly then may I say with the Apostle By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily And Lord as I daily die in the decay of this fraile nature so let me die daily in my affection to life in my preparation for death O do thou fit me for that last and happy change Teach me so to number my daies that I apply my heart to wisdom and addresse it to ensuing glory Soliloq XLII Faiths Victory WEE are here in a perpetuall warfare and fight wee must Surely either fight or dye some there are that doe both That is according as the quarrell is and is managed There are those that fight against God these medling with so unequall a match cannot looke to prevaile Again The flesh warreth against the spirit this intestine rebellion cannot hope to prosper but if with the chosen vessell I can say I have fought a good fight I can neither lose life nor misse of victory And what is that good fight Even the same Apostle tels me the fight of faith this is the good fight indeed both in the cause and managing the issue Lo this faith it is that wins God to my side that makes the Almighty mine that not only ingages him in my cause but unites me to him so as his strength is mine In the power of his might therefore I cannot but be victorious over all my spirituall enemies by the onely meanes of this faith For Satan This Shield of faith is it that shall quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one For the world this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Be sure to finde thy self furnished with this grace and then say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly the powers of Hell shall not bee able to stand before thee they are mighty and have all advantages of a spirituall nature of long duration and experience of place of subtilty Yet this conquering grace of faith is able to give them the foile and to trample over all the powers of darknesse O my Lord God doe thou arme and fortifie my soule with a lively and stedfast faith in thee I shall not feare what man or Divell can doe unto me settle my heart in a firme reliance upon thee and turne mee loose to what enemy thou pleasest Soliloq XLIII The unfailing Friend NExt to the joy of a good conscience there is no greater comfort upon earth than the enjoyment of dear friends neither is there any thing more sad than their parting and by how nearer their relations are so much greater is our sorrow in forgoing them What moane did good David make both for Absalon as a Sonne though ungracious and for Jonathan as a friend Surely when our dear ones are pulled away from us we seeme to have limbes torne away from our bodies yet this is a thing must bee lookt for wee are given to each other or lent rather upon condition of parting either they must leave us or we them a parting there must bee as sure as there was a meeting It is our fault if we set our hearts too much upon that which may yea which must be lost Be wise O my soul and make sure of such friends as thou canst not be bereaved of Thou hast a God that hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee It was an easie sute and already granted which the holy Psalmist made Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth And againe When my Father and my Mother forsake me in their farewell to a better world yet then the Lord will take me up It is an happy thing to have immortall friends sticke close unto them O my soule and rejoyce in them evermore as those that shall sweetly converse with thee here and shall at last receive thee into everlasting habitations Soliloq XLIV Quiet Humility HE is a rare man that is not wise in his owne conceit and that saies not within himselfe I see more than my neighbours For wee are all borne proud and selfe-opinionate and when we are come to our imaginary maturity are apt to say with Zedechiah to those of better judgement than our own which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wilde paradoxes both in Philosophy and Religion wherewith the world abounds every where When our fancy hath entertained some uncouth thought our selfe-love is apt to hatch it up our confidence to broach it and our obstinacy to maintain it and if it bee not too monstrous there will not want some credulous fools to abet it so as the onely way both to peace and truth is true Humility which will teach us to thinke meanly of our own abilities to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity greater sanctity deeper insight of our blessed Predecessors This onely will keepe us in the beaten road without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths Teach me O Lord evermore to think my self no whit wiser than I am so shall I neither bee vainly irregular nor the Church troublesomely unquiet Soliloq XLV Sure Mercies THere is nothing more troublesome in humane society than the disappoint of trust and failing of friends For besides the disorder that it works in our owne affaires it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to others The leaning upon a broken Reed gives us both a fall and a wound Such is a false friend who after professions of love and reall offices either slinkes from us or betrayes us This is that which the great patterne of patience so bitterly complaines of as none of his least afflictions My Kinsfolk have
failed me and my familiar friends have forgotten me It went to the heart of David that his owne familiar friend in whom hee trusted which did eate of his bread should lift up his heele against him And surely those that are stanch and faithfull in themselves cannot but bee so much the more deeply affected with the perfidious dealing of others and yet also so much the more as their confidence and entirenesse was greater this was that which heightned the vexation of that man who is so famous for the integrity of his heart It was thou O man mine equall my guide my acquaintance we took sweet counsell together and walked to the house of God in company And still our daily experience gives us miserable instances in this kinde Hee hath had little to doe in the world that hath not spent many a sigh upon others faithlesness And now O my soule the more sad proofe thou hast had of the untrusty disposition and carriage of men the more it concernes thee to betake thy selfe in all zealous absolute affiance unto the sure protection and never-fayling providence of thy God the God who being Truth it selfe never did never can forfeit his Trust to any soule that relyed upon his most certaine promises upon his promised mercies upon his mercifull and just performances My soule wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He onely is my Rock and my salvation In God is my salvation and my glory the Rocke of my strength and my refuge is in God It shall not trouble thee to send men false whiles thou hast such a true God to have recourse unto Soliloq XLVI Dangerous Prosperity IT was a just and needfull precaution O God which thou gavest of old to thine Israel When thou shalt have eaten and art full then beware lest thou forget the Lord There was not so great feare of forgetting thee whiles they were in an hungry and dry Wilderness although even there they did too often forget themselves in an ungracious murmuring against thee and their Leaders the greatest danger of their forgetting Thee would be thou knewest when they should come to be pampered in the Land that flowed with Milk and Honey There it was that accordingly Jesurum waxed fat and kicked there being growne thick and covered with fatnesse he forsooke God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation Nothing is more difficult than to keep our selves from growing wanton by excess whereas nature kept low is capable of just obedience Like as in the body also a full feed breeds superfluous and vicious humors wheras a spare diet keeps it both clean and healthfull Do not I see O Lord even the man that was after thine owne heart whiles thou kepst him in breath with the prosecution of an unjust Master how tenderly consciencious hee was remorsed in himselfe for but cutting off a lappe of the robe of his causelesse pursuer who yet when he came to the full scope of his ease and Courtly jollity made no scruple of the adulterous bed of faire Bathsheba or the bloody murther of a faithfull Vriah Who was I O Lord that I should promise my self an immunity from the perill of a prosperous condition under which thy holier servants have miscarried It was thy goodnesse and wisdome who fore-seest not what shall be onely but what might bee also in prevention of the danger of my surfeit to take away the dish whereon I might have over-fed O God I do humbly submit to thy good pleasure and contentedly rest upon thy Providence which hast thought fit rather to secure me in the safe use of my little than to exercise mee with the temptations of a bewitching plenty Soliloq XLVII Cheerfull Obedience IT is not so much the worke that God stands upon as the mind of the worker The same act may bee done with the thanke and advantage of one agent and with frowns and disrespect to another If we doe our businesse grudgingly and because we must out of the necessity of our subsistence we shall have as much thanke to sit still It is our owne need that sets our hands on work not our obedience So as herein wee are our own slaves not Gods servants Whereas if we go about the workes of our calling cheerfully offering them up to God as our willing sacrifice in an humble compliance with his commands and an awfull and comfortable expectation of his gracious acceptance we are blessed in our holy endeavours and cannot faile of an Euge from our Master in Heaven Alas Lord it is but little that I can doe and without thy enabling nothing Thou that vouchsafest to give me an abilitation to the worke put into me also good affections to thee in performing of it Let me doe thy will here as thy Angels doe in heaven with all gracious readinesse and alacrity and be no lesse glad that I shall doe it than that it is done so whiles carnall hearts shall languish under their forced taskes my labour shall be my pleasure and I shall finde unspeakable comfort both in the conscience of my act and the crown of my obedience Soliloq XLVIII Heavenly Accordance AS our condition here upon earth is different so must our affection needs be also that which is one mans joy is anothers griefe one mans fear is another mans hope neither can it be otherwise while our occasions draw us to so manifest contradictions of disposition These diversities and contrarieties of inclination and desire are the necessary symptomes of our wretched mortality and the nearer we grow to the perfection of our blessednesse the more shall we concentrate in the united scope of all our actions and affections which is the sole glory of our Creator Know then O my soul that the closer thou canst gather up thy selfe in all the exercise of thy faculties and proposals of thy desires to the only respect of the honour of that great and good God which gave thee thy being thou aspirest so much nearer to thy heaven where all the blessed Saints and Angels agree together in one perpetuall imployment of praising their Maker and sweetly accord in that one most perfect ditty and note of an eternall Allelujah to him that sits upon the Throne of that Celestiall glory O God doe thou draw in my heart more and more from this variety of earthly distractions and fixe it upon this one heavenly worke put me upon that blessed Taske here below which shall never know any end but endure for ever in heaven Soliloq XLIX Divine Bounty HAd not the Apostle said so yet our owne sense and experience would have told us that every good and perfect gift is from above and commeth downe from the Father of Lights For sure from below it cannot come How should any perfect gift arise from the region of all imperfection How should evill afford any good What is below but earth and hell whereof the one
Creatures towards their Masters and towards their owne Mates towards their dammes and their young We have plentifull instances of those whom Death could not separate from their beloved Guardians some that have died for their Masters some with them some that have fearlesly hazarded their owne lives for the preservation of their young ones some that have fed their aged dammes with that food which they have spared from their own Mawes Amongst the rest how remarkable is that comparison of thine O Saviour wherein thou wert pleased to set forth thy tender care of thine Israell by the resemblance of an Hen gathering her Chickings under her wings how have I seen that poor Fowl after the patience of a painfull hatching clocking her little brood together and when she hath perceived the Puttock hovering over her head in a varied note calling them hastily under the wing of her protection and there covertly hiding them not from the Talons onely but from the eye of that dangerous enemy till the perill hath been fully over after which she calls them forth to their liberty and repast and with many a carefull scrape discovers to them such grains of food as may bee fit for them contenting her self to carve for them with neglect of her owne sustenance O God thou who hast wrought in thy silly creatures such an high measure of indulgence and dearnes of respect towards their tender brood how infinitely is thy love and compassion towards the children of men the great Master-peece of thy Creation How past the admiration of men and Angels is that transcendent proof of thy divine love in the more than marvelous work of our Redemption How justly glorifiable is thy name in the gracious and sometimes miraculous preservation of thy Children In the experience whereof if I forbeare to magnifie thee or dare not to trust thee how can I be but unworthy to bee owned of thee or blessed by thee Soliloq LXIX Choice of Seasons HOw regularly O God hast thou determined a set season for all thy Creatures both for their actions and their use The Storke in the heaven saith thy Prophet Jeremy knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their comming Who hath seen the * Stork before the Calends of August or a Swallow in the Winter Who hath heard the Nightingale in the heat of harvest or the Bittern bearing her base in the coldest Moneths Yea the Fishes in the Sea know and observe their due seasons and present us with their Shoales only when they are wholsome and useful The Herring doth not furnish our Market in the Spring nor the Salmon or Mackerell in Winter Yea the very flies both have and keepe their daies appointed the Silke-worme never looks forth of that little Cell of her Conception till the Mulbery puts forth the leaves for their nourishment and who hath ever seen a Butter-flie or an Harnet in Winter yea there are Flies wee know appropriate to their owne moneths from which they vary not Lastly how plain is this in all the severall varieties of Trees Flowers Herbes The Almond tree looks out first the Mulberry last of all other The Tulip and the Rose and all other the sweet Ornaments of the earth are punctuall in their growth and fall But as for Man O God thou hast in thy infinite VVisdome indued him with that power of reason whereby he may make choice of the fittest seasons of all his actions Thou that hast appointed a time for every purpose under heaven hast given him wit to finde and observe it Even lawfull acts unseasonably done may turne evill and acts indifferent seasonably performed may prove good and laudable The best improvement of morality or civility may shame us if due time bee not as well regarded as substance Onely Grace Piety true Vertue can never be unseasonable There are no seasons in Eternity There shall bee one uniforme and constant act of glorifying thee Thy Angels and Saints praise thee above without change or intermission The more we can do so on earth the nearer shall wee approach to those blessed Spirits O God let my heart be wholly taken up evermore with an adoration of thine infinite Majesty and let my mouth bee ever sounding forth of thy praise and let the Hosannahs and Hallelujahs which I begin here know no measure but Eternity Soliloq LXX The happy return home EVery Creature naturally affects a return to the originall whence it first came The Pilgrim though faring well abroad yet hath a longing homeward Fountaines and Rivers run back with what speed they may to the Sea whence they were derived all compound bodies return to their first Elements The vapors rising up from the earth and waters and condenss'd into clouds fall down again to the same earth whence they were exhaled This body that we beare about us returnes at last to that dust whereof it was framed And why then O my soul dost not thou earnestly desire to returne home to the God that made thee Thou knowest thy Originall is heavenly why are not thy affections so What canst thou finde here below worthy to either withdraw or detain thee from those heavenly Mansions Thou art here in a Region of sin of misery and death Glory waites for thee above Fly then O my soul fly hence to that blessed immortality If not as yet in thy dissolution for which thou must waite on the pleasure of thy deare Maker redeemer yet in thy thoughts in thy desires and affections soar thou up thither and converse there with that blessed God and Father of Spirits with those glorious Orders of Angels and with the soules of just men made perfect And if the necessity of these bodily affairs must needs draw thee off for a time let it bee not without reluctation and hearty unwillingnesse and with an eager appetite of quick returne to that Celestiall society It will not be long ere thou shalt bee blessed with a free and uninterrupted fruition of that glorious Eternity In the meane time doe thou prepossesse it in thy heavenly dispositions and contemning this earth wherewith thou art clogged aspire to thy heaven and be happy Soliloq LXXI The confinements of Age DOst thou not observe O my soule how time and age confines and contracts as our bodies so our desires and motions here upon earth still into narrower compasses VVhen we are young the world is but little enough for us after wee have seen our own Island wee affect to crosse the Seas and to climbe over Alpes and Pyrennes and never thinke we have roved far enough VVhen we grow ancient wee begin to bee well-pleased with rest now long and unnecessary journeyes are laid aside If businesse call us forth wee go because we must As for the visits of friendship one Sun is enough to measure them with our returnes And still the older we grow the more we are devoted to our home there we
and attend upon the Throne of thy Majesty the thousand thousands of thy blessed Angels Arch-angels Cherubim Seraphin Thrones Principalities Dominions which in thy presence enjoy a bliss next to infinite any one of which if wee could see him were enough to kill us with his glory Not one of those millions of mighty spirits but were able to destroy a World Oh then how infinitely transcendent is that power of thine which hast both created all this heavenly Hierarchy and so movest in them that onely in and by thee they are thus potent Yea Lord let me but cast mine eies downe to this earth I tread upon and view thy wonders in the deep how manifestly do these proclame thy divine Omnipotence When I see this vaste Globe of earth and waters dreadfully hanging in the midst of a liquid Air upheld by nothing but by the powerfull word When I see the rage of the swelling waves naturally higher than the shores they beat upon restrained to their bounds by thine over-ruling command When I see the earth beautifully garnished with marvailous variety of trees herbs flowers richly stuffed with precious metals stones minerals When I see besides a world of men the numberless choice and differences of the substance formes colours dispositions of Beasts fowles fishes wherewith these lower Elements are peopled how can I be but dissolved into wonder of thine Almighty power SECT. IV. NEither is thy power O God either more or more thy selfe than thy Wisdome which is no lesse essentiall to thee than infinite What have we to doe silly and shallow wretches with that incomprehensible wisdom which is intrinsecall to thy divine Nature the body of that Sunne is not for our weak eies to behold it is enough for mee if I can but see some raies of that heavenly light which shines forth so gloriously upon thy creature in the framing and governing whereof whether thy Power or Wisdome did and doe more exhibite it selfe thou only canst judge O the divine Architecture of this goodly Fabricke of Heaven and Earth raised out of nothing to this admirable perfection What stupendious artifice of composition is here What exquisite symmetrie of parts what exact Order of Degrees what marvailous analogie betwixt beasts fishes plants the natives of both Elements Oh what a comprehensive reach is this of thine Omniscience which at once in one act beholdest all the actions and events of all the creatures that were are or shall be in this large Universe What a contrivance of thine eternall Counsell which hast most wisely and holily ordered how to dispose of every Creature thou hast made according to the pleasure of thy most just will VVhat a sway of Providence is this that governes the world over-ruling the highest and stooping to the meanest peece of thy Creation concurring with and actuating the motions and operations of all second causes of whatsoever is done in heaven or in earth Yea Lord how wonderfull are those irradiations of knowledge and wisdome which thou hast beamed forth upon thine intelligent creatures both Angels and men As for those Celestiall spirits which see thy face continually it is no marvaile if they be illuminated in a degree farre above humane apprehension but that the rationall soule of man even in this woefull pilgrimage below notwithstanding the opacity of that earth wherewith it is encompassed should bee so far enlightned as that it is able to know all the motions of the Heavens the magnitudes and distances of Starres the natures properties influences of the Planets the instant of the Eclipses Conjunctions and severall Aspects of those Celestiall bodies that it can discover the secret Treasures of Earth and Sea and knowes to unlock all the close Cabinets both of art and nature O God what is this but some little gleame of that pure and glorious light which breakes forth from thine infiniteness upon thy creature Yet were the knowledge of all men on earth and all the Angels in heaven multiplied a thousand fold how unable were it being united together to reach unto the height of thy divine Counsels to fadome the bottome of thy most wise and holy Decrees so as they must bee forced to cry out with that Saint of thine who was rapt into the third heaven O the depth of the riches both of the VVisdome and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out SECT. V. BUt with what a trembling adoration O my soul must thou needs look upon the infinite Justice of thy God whose inviolable rule is to render to every man according to his workes Alas the little good thou wert able to do hath been allayed with so many and great imperfections that it can expect no retribution but displeasure and for the many evills whereof thou art guilty what canst thou look for but the wages of sinne Death not that temporary and naturall only which is but a separation of thee a while from thy load of earth but the spirituall and eternall separation from the presence of thy God whose very want is the height of torments Lo whatever become of thee God must be himselfe In vain shouldst thou hope that for thy selfe he will abate ought of his blessed Essence of his sacred Attributes That righteous doome must stand The soule that sinnes shall die Hell claimes his due Justice must bee satisfied where art thou now O my soul what canst thou now make account of but to despair and die surely in thy self thou art lost there is no way with thee but utter perdition But looke up O soul look up above the Hils whence commeth thy salvation see the heavens opening upon thee see what reviving and comfortable raies of grace and mercy shine forth unto thee from that excellent glory and out of that heavenly light hear the voice of thy blessed Saviour saying to thee O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thy helpe Even so O Jesu in thee onely in thee is my helpe wretched man that I am in my selfe I stand utterly forfeited to death and hell it is thou that hast redeemed me with no lesse ransome than thy precious bloud Death was owing by me by thee it was payed for me so as now my debt is fully discharged and my soule clearly acquitted Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Lo now the rigor of thine inviolable justice is taken off by thine infinite mercy the sum that I could never pay is by the power of that faith which thou hast wrought in me set off to my all-sufficient surety by thy divine goodnesse graciously accepted as mine I have paid it in him he hath paid it for me Thy justice is satisfied thy debtor freed and thy mercy magnified SECT VI THere are no bounds to bee set unto thy thoughts O my soul since whatsoever thy God
either is or hath done comes within thy prospect There besides the great worke of his Creation thou maiest dwell upon the no lesse almighty worke of his Administration of this universall world whereof the preservation and government is no lesse wonderfull than the frame there thou shalt see the marvelous subordination of creatures some made to rule others to obey the powerfull influences of the Celestiall bodies upon the Inferiour the continuall transmutation of elements forsaking their own places and natures to serve the whole formes dying matter perpetuall all things maintained by a friendly discord of humors out of which they are raised the circular revolution of fashions occurrences events the different and opposite dispositions of men over-ruled to such a temper that yet government is continued in the hands of few society and commerce with all shortly all Creatures whiles they doe either naturally or voluntarily act their own part doing unawares the will of their Creator But that which may justly challenge thy longer stay and greater wonder is the more-than-transcendent worke of mans Redemption the mysteries whereof the holy Angels have desired to look into but could never yet sufficiently conceive or admire That the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory Coeternall Coequall to his Father God blessed for ever should take upon him an estate lower than their own should cloath his Deity with the ragges of our flesh should stoop to weake and miserable man-hood and in that low and despicable condition should submit himselfe to hunger thirst wearinesse temptation of Devils despight of men to the cruelty of tormentors to agonies of soule to the pangs of a bitter ignominious cursed death to the sense of his Fathers wrath for us wretched sinners that had made our selves the worst of Creatures enemies to God slaves to Satan is above the reach of all finite apprehension O never-to-bee-enough-magnified mercy Thou didst not O Saviour when thou sawest mankind utterly lost and forlorn content thy selfe to send down one of thy Cherubim or Seraphin or some other of thy heavenly Angels to undertake the great work of our deliverance as wel knowing that taske too high for any created power but wouldst out of thine infinite love and compassion vouchsafe so to abase thy blessed selfe as to descend from the Throne of thy Celestiall glory to this Dungeon of earth and not leaving what thou hadst and what thou wast to assume what thou hadst not man and to disparage thy selfe by being one of us that wee might become like unto thee co-heirs of thy glory and blessednesse Thou that art the eternall Sonne of God wouldst condescend so low as to be man that wee who are wormes and no men might bee advanced to bee the Sonnes of God thou wouldst bee a servant that wee might reigne thou wouldst expose thy self to the shame and disgrace of thy vile Creatures here that thou mightst raise us up to the height of heavenly honour with thee our God and thy holy Angels thou wouldst dye for a while that we might live eternally Pause here a while O my soule and do not wish to change thy thoughts neither earth nor heaven can yeild thee any of higher concernment of greater comfort Onely withall behold the glorious person of that thy blessed Mediator after his victories over death and hell sitting triumphant in all the Majesty of heaven adored by all those millions of Celestiall Spirits in his glorified humanity and what thou maist enjoy the vision of him by faith till thou shalt be everlastingly blessed with a cleare and present intuition Long after that day and be ever carefull in the meane time to make thy self ready for so infinite an happinesse SECT. VII ANd now O my soul having left below thee all the triviall vanities of Earth and fixed thy selfe so farre as thy weak eies will allow thee upon thy God and Saviour in his Almighty works and most glorious Attributes it will be time for thee and will not a little conduce to thy further addresse towards blessednesse to fasten thy selfe upon the sight of the happy estate of the Saints above who are gone before thee to their bliss and have through Gods mercy comfortably obtained that which thou aspirest unto thou that wert guided by their example bee likewise heartned by their successe thou art yet a Traveller they comprehensors thou art panting towards that rest which they most happily enjoy thou art sweating under the crosse whiles they sit crowned in an heavenly magnificence See the place wherein they are the heaven of heavens the paradise of God infinitely resplendent infinitely delectable such as no eye can behold and not be blessed shouldst thou set thy Tabernacle in the midst of the Sun thou couldst not but bee encompassed with marvailous light yet even there it would bee but as midnight with thee in comparison of those irradiations of glory which shine forth above in that Empyreall Region For thy God is the Sun there by how much therefore those divine raies of his exceed the brightest beams of his Creature so much doth the beauty of that heaven of the blessed surpasse the created light of this inferior starry firmament Even the very place contributes not a little to our joy or misery It is hard to bee merry in a Goale and the great Persian Monarch thought it very improper for a Courtier to bee of a sad countenance within the verge of so great a Royalty The very devils conceive horror at the apprehension of the place of their torment and can beseech the over-ruling power of thy Saviour not to command them to go out into the deep No man can be so insensate to thinke there can bee more dreadfulnesse in the place of those infernall tortures than there is pleasure and joy in the height of that sphere of blessednesse sith we know wee have to doe with a God that delights more in the prosperity of his Saints than in the cruciation and howling of his enemies How canst thou then O my soule bee but wholly taken up with the sight of that celestiall Jerusalem the beautious City of thy God the blessed Mansions of glorified Spirits Surely if earth could have yeelded any thing more faire and estimable than gold pearles precious stones it should have been borrowed to resemble these supernall habitations but alas the lustre of these base materials doth but darken the resplendence of those divine excellencies With what contempt now dost thou looke downe upon those muddy foundations of earth which the low spirits of worldlings are wont to admire and how feelingly dost thou blesse and emulate the spirits of just men made perfect who are honoured with so blisfull an habitation But what were the place O my soule how goodly glorious soever in it self if it were not for the presence of him whose being there makes it heaven Lo there the Throne of that heavenly Majesty which filling and comprehending the large circumference of
distraction free from all sorrow pain perturbation free from all the possibility of change or death A life wherein there is nothing but pure and perfect pleasure nothing but perpetuall melodie of Angels and Saints singing sweet Allelujahs to their God A life which the most glorious Deitie both gives and is A life wherein thou hast the full fruition of the ever-blessed God-head the continuall society of the celestial spirits the blissefull presence of the glorified humanitie of thy dear Saviour A life wherein thou hast ever consort with the glorious companie of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Patriarks and Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors the Celestiall synod of all the holy fathers and illuminated Doctors of the Church Shortly the blessed Assembly of all the faithfull Professors of the Name of the Lord Jesus that having finished their course sit now shining in their promised glory See there that yet-unapproachable light that divine magnificence of the heavenly King See that resplendent Crown of righteousnesse which decks the heads of every of those Saints and is readie to be set on thine when thou hast happilie overcome those spirituall powers wherewith thou art still conflicting See the joyfull triumphs of these exsulting victors See the measures of their glory different yet all full and the least unmeasurable Lastly see all this happinesse not limited to thousands nor yet millions of years but commeasured by no less than eternity And now my soul if thou have received the infallible ingagement of thy God in that having beleeved thou art sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of thine inheritance untill the full Redemption of thy purchased possession if through his infinite mercy thou bee now upon the entring into that blessed place and state of immortality forbear if thou canst to be raised above thy self with the joy of the holy Ghost to bee enlarged towards thy God with a joy unspeakable and glorious See if thou canst now breath forth any thing but praises to thy God and songs of rejoycing bearing evermore a part in that heauenly ditty of the Angels Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and thanksgiving and Honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever SECT XIII ANd now what remaines O my soule but that thou do humbly and faithfully wait at the gate of heaven for an happie entrance at the good pleasure of thy God into those everlasting Mansions I confess should thy merits bee weigh'd in the ballance of a rigorous Justice another place which I cannot mention without horror were more fit for thee more due to thee for alas thou hast been above measure sinfull and thou knowest the wages of sin death But the God of my mercy hath prevented thee with infinite compassion and in the multitudes of his tender mercies hath not onely delivered thee from the nethermost hell but hath also vouchsafed to translate thee to the Kingdom of his dear Son In him thou hast boldnesse of access to the Throne of Grace thou who in thy selfe art worthy to bee a child of wrath art in him adopted to be a co-heire of Glory and hast the livery and seizin given thee beforehand of a blessed possession the full estating wherein I do in all humble awfulnesse attend All the few daies therefore of my appointed time will I wait at the threshold of grace untill my changing come with a trembling joy with a longing patience with a comfortable hope Onely Lord I know there is something to be done ere I can enter I must die ere I can be capable to enjoy that blessed life with thee one stroke of thine Angell must bee endured in my passage into thy Paradise And lo here I am before thee ready to embrace the condition Even when thou pleasest let me bleed once to bee ever happy Thou hast after a weary walk through this roaring wilderness vouchsafed to call up thy servant to Mount Nebo and from thence aloof off to shew me the land of Promise a land that flowes with milk and honey Do thou but say Die thou on this Hill with this prospect in mine eye and do thou mercifully take my soul from mee who gavest it to me and dispose of it where thou wilt in that Region of Immortality Amen Amen Come Lord Jesu Come quickly BEhold Lord I have by thy Providence dwelt in this house of Clay more than double the time wherin thou wert pleased to sojourn upon earth Yet I may well say with thine holy Patriark Few and evil have been the dayes of the yeeres of my pilgrimage Few in number evill in condition Few in themselves but none at all to thee with whom a thousand yeares are but as one day But had they beene double to the age of Methusaleh could they have been so much as a minute to eternity Yea what were they to me now that they are past but as a tale that is told and forgotten Neither yet have they been so few as evill Lord what troubles and sorrowes hast thou let me see both my owne and others What vicissitudes of sicknesse and health What ebbes and flowes of condition How many successions and changes of Princes both at home and abroad What turnings of times What alterations of Governments What shiftings and downfalls of Favourites What ruines and desolations of Kingdoms What sacking of Cities What havocks of warre What frenzies of rebellions What underminings of treachery What cruelties and barbarismes in revenges What anguish in the oppressed and tormented What agonies in temptations what pangs in dying These I have seen and in these I have suffered And now Lord how willing I am to change time for eternity the evils of earth for the joyes of heaven misery for happinesse a dying life for immortality Even so Lord Jesu Take what thou hast bought Receive my soule to thy mercie and crowne it with thy glorie Amen Amen Amen FINIS A Catalogue of the severall Bookes written by the Author in and since his Retiring Namely 1. THe Devout Soule and Free Prisoner 2. The Remedy of Discontentment Or A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever condition 3. The Peace-Maker laying forth the right way of Peace in matter of Religion 4. The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the distressed both Morall and Divine 5. Christ Mysticall Or The blessed union of Christ and his Members To which is added An holy Rapture Or A Patheticall Meditation of the Love of Christ Also The Christian laid forth in his whole disposition and carriage 6. A modest offer tendred to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster 7. Select thoughts in two Decades with the breathing of the Devout Soule 8. Pax Terris 9. Imposition of Hands 10. The Revelation unrevealed Concerning The thousand yeeres raigne of the Saints with Christ on earth 11. Satans Fierie Darts quenched Or Temptations repelled In 3 Decades 12. Resolutions and Decisions of divers practicall cases of Conscience In 4 Decades Select Thoughts one Centurie with the breathing of the Devout Soul 13. Susurrium cum Deo c. This present Tract newly Reprinted 1 Cor. 13.12 Euthym in Praefat. Psalmorum Psal. 90.9 Gen. 5.2.24.27 2 Cor. 5.1 Exo. 16.13 Deut. 8.3 Exo. 16.31 Num. 11.6 Heb. 1. ult. Psal. 119.136 1 Kin. 19. Luk. 12.49 Mat. 6.23 John 1.9 Psa. 119.105 Clement de gestis Petri 1 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 9.27 Rom. 8.18 1 Sam. 30.6 Cato 1 Thes. 5.23 Hos. 9 7. Esa. 44.16 Exod. 32.4 2 Kin. 20.23 1 Kin. 18.28 2 Kin. 23.11 Cicer. de Natur. Deorum initio Heart bleedings for Professors abominations Set forth under the hands of 16 Churches of Christ baptized into the name of Christ p. 5.6 7. c. Joh. 18.28 Mat. 23.25 2 Chro 30.18 19 Rom. 7.19 Mat. 6.19 Pro. 13.12 1 Cor. 15.31 2 Tim. 4.7 1 Tim. 6.2 Eph. 6.16 1 Ioh. 5.4 Psal. 71.9 Psal. 27.10 1 Kin. 22.24 Iob 19.14 Psal. 41.9 Psal. 55.13 14. Psal. 61.7 Deut. 6.11 12. Deut. 32.15 1 Sam. 24.5 Iam. 1.17 Iam. 1.5 Prov. 13.7 Rev. 3.17 Psal. 81.16 1 Cor. 10. Heb. 9.12 Eph. 1.7 Rom. 5.9 Col. 1.20 Heb. 9.22 Heb. 13.12 14. 1 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 9.15 1 Sam. 14.29 Pro. 14.23 Pro. 25.16 Eph. 1.14 Mat. 24.35 Colos. 3. Psal. 119. Psal. 12.14 Mat. 8.24 25 c. Mat. 4.37 Luk. 8.13 Psa. 141.8 Gen. 4 14. Cant. 5.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 Eccle. 7.14 1 Cor. 12. Luk. 15.10 Psal. 5.8 Eccl. 9.1 2. Mat. 23.37 Ier. 8.7 * Oecolampad in locū Ierem. Eccl. 3.1 Psal. 55.17 Act. 2.1 1 Thes. 5.17 Rom. 8.26 Aeneas Sylv. de Reb. gest Alph. 2 Chro. 29.25 28. 2 Chro. 5.12 13. Mamonides in Cle. hamikdash c. 3 * Chro 29.25 28. Maymon in giath hamikdash Ier. 9.1 Mal. 3.2 Mal. 3.4 Beda Eccles. Hister l. 2. cap. 13. Ier. 44.17 18. 1 King 18.44 Esa. 63.15 Esa. 1.4 Dan. 9.8 9. Dan. 9.16 17. Dan. 9.19 Rom. 11.33 Ose 13.9 Rom. 8.33 34. 1 Pet. 1.12 Bernard Serm. de passione Domini Rev. 21.23 Nehe. 2.2 Luk. 8.31 Heb. 12.23 Mat. 8.11 Dan 4.30 Luk. 1.46.47 Eccl. 5.10 Cant. 1.4 2.5 8.14 Psal. 57.7 Psal. 145.19 Psal. 73.24 Num. 24.17 Ioh. 17.20 21. 22. 23. 1 Cor. 6.17 2 Pet. 1.4 Can. 6.3 Mar. 9.6 Luk. 9.33 Rom. 12.2 Eph. 4.24 Ioh. 17.10 2 Thes. 1.12 Eph. 1.13 14. 1 Thes. 1.6 Rev. 7.12 Psal. 59.10 Psal. 86.13 Col. 1.13 Gen. 47.9