the Pilgrimage of a perfect Christian following his Saviour home to the Cross Briefly Here maist thou be wrapt in the contemplation of his Bounties and ravisht in the consideration of his Beauties It having been my desire and endeavour by setting forth the Vanities of the World and the Excellencies and Riches which are in Christ to draw the heart of his Spouse to be sick of Love to him and to be enflamed with longings to enjoy him until by the sacred ardors of love he dive into our hearts and make us enter with him into the great Abyss of delights which he hath reserved for the most purified Souls The CONTENTS THat Love in its self is not a Vice but the Soul of all Vertues when it is tyed to its proper Object which is the Soveraign Good Page 6. Of the Nature and Qualities of Divine Love and wherein it exceeds all other Love p. 10. That our love to God ought to precede and exceed all other Loves p. 16. That the Soul can take pleasure in nothing until it meet with satisfaction from its Maker p. 24. That many may have their eyes Love-proof and their hearts shut up against all the assaults of Fond-Love p. 30. The Misery of those who have yeilded to the Passion of Love and the Glory of Souls which have overcome it p. 39. How we may avoid the Snares of Love p. 44. That Outward Ornaments should not invite our Love p. 53. That when all Loves fail the Love of God remains p. 55. Temporal Goods cannot content the Soul and therefore deserve not our Love p. 61. The Soul complaineth of her Condition and Misery by reason of the darkness and ignorance of sin p. 77. The Souls solitude and content in her Separation from the great enticements of the world p. 72. The Soul admires the infinite Riches of her Saviours Love in taking Humane Nature upon him p. 83. The Soul checks her selfe for her backwardness and too much neglect of her Saviours invitations p. 92. The Soul repents the time that ever she was Cloistered up in the walls of Clay and thrown into the Dungeon of that corrupt mass of Flesh p. 96. The Soul calling to mind the infinite Love of her Saviour bewailes her ungratefulness and the coldness of her returns p. 104. The Soul breaks into Sighes and dissolves into desires for the presence of God p. 111. The Soul filled with Heavenly Love sends forth the pure flames of her Affection p. 117. The Soul contemplates and sets forth her Folly in hazarding Eternal Joyes by preferring Earthly Vanities p. 124. The Soul being ready to sink under the weight and apprehension of her Sins bemoanes the weakness of her Faith and desires help from her Saviour p. 130. The Sin-sick Soul can take no rest until she be further reconciled to her Saviour p. 140. The Soul is ravished upon the Return of her Saviours Presence p. 150. The Soul being re-advanced on the wings of Faith sends up her choicest Affections towards Heaven p. 159 The Soul in a Phrensey breaks out into admiration of Gods love in being freed from the misery of everlasting flames p. 164. The Soul being sensible of its former Mercies sits weeping under the Cross of her Saviour and resolves to partake with him in his Sufferings p. 169. In Imitation of our Saviours great Patience under his Passion the Soul resolves for ever to yield an humble submission to his Will. p. 181. Of LOVE in General IF we go about to describe fond love what better resemblance may we have then to that man who is bitten with a Tarantula or hath eaten a weed which is called Sardoa and so laughs himself to death being murthered by that which looks like merriment or like a mouth wounded with a sting dipt in honey the Taste enjoying what the Touch suffers Or may we not compare it to him who through too much wantonness is tickled to his Grave And surely had we as many eyes opened towards heaven as heaven openeth towards us to behold the sleights and danger thereof we should be strucken with horrour to see a deprâ—ved soul to change all his abilities as incentives to sin and to make suâ—h delights and pleasure the true snares to entice it to Eternal misery O God of purity How many now adays do we see who through too fond and free a conversation receive as many wounds as glances yea as many deaths as Beauty shoots Arrows against them Solomon who well knew the effect of this Possion Prov 23.33 said Thy eyes shall behold strange women and thy heart shall utter perverse things And in another place he saith With much fair spee ch she caused him to yeild with the flattering of her lips she forced him He goeth after her as an Ox to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a Dart strike thorow his Liver as a Bird hastneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7.21 23. See how a senseless soul like a lazie Pilot or one fast asleep in the midst of the Sea being oppressed with drowsiness and having lost his Helm deludeth it self It 's true saith he I am struck but I feel no pain they have drawn me this and that way but I am not sensible of it when shall I be awaked to be again drunk with love and to return to my accustomed pleasures Alas poor soul How dost thou not having well guarded thy senses in the first Assault deliver thy heart over as a Prey whereby it sinks into the bottom of misery Our Love being indiscreetly tyed to women at first presents us shews which are fair and specious seeming bright with a pleasing serenity and full of Beauty whilst all this while we do but consult with Spirits and strange Apparitions full of obscurity and darknes and the issues thereof dismal and hideous or as a stone thrown into the water makes first a small Circle which causeth many to follow until it fill up the total superficies so hapneth it in Love it falls into our heart not perceived nor foreseen giving a slight touch in the beginning which multiplies and distends it self over our Soul with Chains and Arrows which will require much labour to dissolve and unloose The most generous spirit becomes a Captive when this tempting and imperious visage and Commandress comes and knocks at the door of his heart It exerciseth our discourse it enflameth our desires it busieth our thoughts to go to speak to visit to complement yea it insinuateth into Prayer and our best Devotions with distractions pleasingly troublesome Love in the heart is an exhalation in a cloud It cannot continue there idle it formeth a thousand imaginations it brings forth a thousand cares and necessarily is accompanied with anxieties and trouble Yea fond Love is like the heart of a wicked man which saith the Prophet is a troubled Sea whose waters cast up myre and dirt Isa 57.20 And what Hipocrates said
the envenomed wounds of their Husbands who have breathed out their last upon the Graves of those who first gave them heart and affections and of those who have forsaken all their friends renounced their fortunes and exposed themselves to the greatest hazards envie or time could bring upon them But alas saith the poor soul what is all this if heaped together to the love of my Saviour How far is it from that beatifical love How small a drop to that Deluge of his mysterious and adorable love Now those that desire to profit in this love must by fervent prayer beg it of God they must value and esteem it above all earthly things and apply all their actions thereunto since it will no way be entertained in a soul sullyed with worldly and terrestrial affections They must render him fervency and earnestness in all their meditations and devotion no hour must pass without some ejaculation in all companies we must publish his greatness we must refer all objects all creatures to his love and love nothing but in him and for him yea we must engrave all his words wounds and actions in the bottom of our hear And O that we could often present unto our selves as the principal means whereby we may come to this heavenly obedience that infinite love of Jesus Christ Oh that we could here be raised on the highest Region of Grace and poize our selves on the wings of Faith there being no tongue so eloquent no pen so learned sufficiently to express it But oh the deadness and dulness of our spirits Could we but here reflect and a little lift up our eyes surcharged with so many earthly humours and vanities to behold that president which he hath given for the rule of our Love What secrets What mysteries of love should we there finde What greatness and purity must we needs conceive therein And oh how much shame ought we then to have so to defile our love with the impurities of the earth This this alone is it which hath made many forsake the shaddows of Diadems and Scepters which so easily deceive the credulity of the most passionately ambitious by their fond illusions and have thereby attain'd Renown on earth and a Crown in heaven These are Celestial fires which ever proceed from God as being their proper Sphere It is he that begetteth them and breedeth them being no way constrained to descend upon earth to seek nourishment from perishing creatures Those indeed which seek nothing in the world but sensual pleasures which are more thin then smoak and lighter then Wind cannot imagine how much these fair amities which are the daughters of Vertues nourish holy delights The love of God saith one is an influence of Eternity because coming from an Eternal God It is rather inspired then studied It is given to us by the favour of heaven Though good Books and Discourses contribute much to this purpose yet they who think to learn the love of God only by precepts have little in them that is solid And those Lovers who have the ardours of heaven who entertain chaste and spiritual love for things divine partake of those pleasures which the jealous eye cannot espye the slanderous tongue cannot hite And when we thus love God we finde him every where we serve him every where and every where meet with the recompence of our services we may Jonah with Jonah cry unto him out of the Whales 2.2 Belly as from a Chappel and talk with him with the three children in the midst of flames Dan. 3.25 Surely to love truly is to love aloft and to love him who made us when once we are come thus far we shall finde all the greatness of the world lower then our feet Let us not then put a Balm so precious into an unclean Vessel Let us retain no Idols or passions in our hearts to oppose or withstand this excellent Guest Let us entertain this Love with all the strength and vigour of our heart and soul yea make it our continual practice Shall we set our Affections so eagerly on the despicable and inconsiderable affairs of the world Shall we slight a matter of so great importance as the love of God Shall worldly Lovens espouse all occasions use all ways and diligence transform themselves into all shapes and humours pass through fire ice tears blood fearful Torrents enraged Seas enflamed Serpents to attain their hearts wish and arive at the least of their desires and pretensions and shall not we with the greatest applications of minde and soul use all possible industry to profit in a more divine and heavenly Love O shameful reproach That all this should be done for a vain and worldly love which ends always in bitterness and endangers our souls and there is none but Jesus who is chiefly to be loved for whom we will not stir a hand or a foot Out alas Why are we so blinde as to love servitude and to make a Goddess of the Worlds Beauties Why should we make it our glory to sacrifice our Liberty and kiss the Fetters of our slavery Alas How dear doth it cost us to destroy our poor souls Did the man of uncleanness but think that whiles he is in the embraces of his fulsome Mistris that his soul is waited on by death and death by eternity Did he but think that those eyes which did burn in Lust should in a bottomless Furnace be scorched with Brimstone That those ears which here were wont to wanton it with Minstrels shall there be filled with nothing else but the groans of Divels and the shrill screetches of the damned that the Tongue which delighted in the relation of fond and idle Stories should there cry out for water to cool it and the whole Body which was here clothed in rich and fantastique garbs should be hereafter enwrapped in a mantle at once of darkness and yet of flames and the Voice which here was taken up with the Songs and Ditties of Love should there nothing but complain of Torments Would he I say but consider all this it were impossible that he which thus loves pleasure and cannot endure to be tormented should delight to thrust himself into the fire or that he which fears to lose one drop of blood should delight in the wounding of his whole Body Stand amazed then O poor Soul and bewail thy self that thou shouldest no better value so inestimable a favour as thy Saviours love and resolve for the remaining part of thy life to be crucified unto all those Objects of pleasure profit and honour which have heretofore transported thee O sweet Jesus Thy Beauties are without stain and shall I be of the number of those souls which are distasted with Manna Shall I languish after the Onyons of Aegypt O make me rather dear Saviour to sanctifie all that is esteemed profane If my Eyes have been the cause to entertain fond love O let them now become Vessels of Water to wash away the spots of all unchaste
freedom of conversation height of diet courting musick idleness night-watchings solitude and other incitements are joyned to it Surely we need require no other charms to work the ruine of a Soul And since fond Love thus sets our reason to sale if it carefully take not heed and insensibly draweth it to its side and thereby fighteth against our selves making use of our members as of the instruments of its battels and the organ of its wiles since without the singular grace of God it causeth Sedition within War without and never any true repose Since we have all one Domestick Enemy which is our own Body that perpetually almost opposeth the dispositions of the spirit how great should be our resistance how notable our victories Conscience and Honour indeed many times make some resistance and glimmering flashes yet how quickly doth the understanding create to it self many new and evil Lights and the will too much false fire did not the fire of God awaken us and make us even ashamed to tell our own thoughts to our proper heart Oh this Feaver this perpetual Frenzy this wandring of the Soul this neglect of the true God and setting up of Idols How can it be sufficiently deplored How is reason hereby weakned shamefac'dness banished passion entertained good counsel abandoned yea at last how do they impute to the Stars to Destiny to Necessity what is nothing else but their own folly It is thought by some that in great Storms evil Spirits shuffle to stir up Lightning-flashes whereby the Tempests become more dreadful and pernicious And may we not well suppose that the Angel of Darkness involveth himself in the great Tempests of Love and many times maketh use of the abominable help of Magicians Is it not the Rock which wracketh the greatest Vessels yea the Gulph which devoureth our Bodies and Souls Let no man then flatter you in the passion of sensual Love as if it were a prime vertue of your profession which is the stain that defileth all the ornaments of your life Neither among all the qualities of a vertuous life is there any sweeter odour then that Temperance which represseth the voluptuous pleasure of the body That many may have their eyes Love-proof and their hearts shut up against all the assaults of Fond-Love IT is not impossible but that the Soul wholly propending to the thing beloved vertuous and civil Amities may be between persons of different Sex who are endowed with singular and excellent Vertues and who manage their Affections with great discretion the which though rarely done yet if there be any which abuse themselves by ill placing their Love through want of discretion it doth not follow neither is it fit by reason of blasted members we should blame sound parts there being not a few who with much prudence and chariness have therein comported themselves yea very many great Souls who are so powerfully possessed by the love of God which replenisheth their hearts and who live a conversation in continual exercises of Prayer and mortification as by a conversation sweetly grave and simply prudent to converse with women without changing the Love which they bear to the vertue of Chastity And therefore Democritus needed not have voluntarily made himself blinde by looking stedfastly on the Beams of the Sun to free himself from the importunities of the love of women who perchance shut up two gates against Love and opened a thousand to his Imagination Neither needed Origen to have deprived himself of the distinction of Sex to rebate the stings of sensuality which bred him much mischief It being a better way of repulse given by her who being importuned by a young man with all the violent assaults this Passion could suggest told him she had resolved to fast forty days with bread and water desiring him therein also to give a Tryal of his Love which being accepted in few days thought more of his death then precedent folly Neither let us think Chastity to be onely found in Cloisters but every where where the fear of God is And though as Justin Martyr faith a singular discretion ought to be had to treat with women and he doth very much who can love their Vertues without danger yet we see there is sometimes need but of a Spiders web to beat back the Darts of Love that at other times the Ramparts of Semiramis are not strong enough against and that a well fortified heart is like the Bed of a Phoenix which takes no fire but from the beams of the Sun yea that Chastity is often times impenetrable by the darts of Love amidst all the delights and temptations of the World A large president whereof we have in pious Joseph who having opportunities enow to advance himself in the Court of Pharaoh by satisfying the desires of his Mistris who had tempted him to sin accounted it the greatest tryal of his Vertues to have sin in his power and innocence in his will neither would raise fortunes of Glass upon the foundations of Iniquity But preferring Reason before Passion Grace before Nature and God before any thing else represented the faithfulness he had promised to his Master to himself and leaving his garment behinde him came out of the Chamber where the snare was laid as a Ruby out of burning flames without losing any thing of his integrity And surely as they who will with profit make use of the proper instruments of Vertue must so live as if they were always under the Physicians hands so ought we so to live as if we were still to give an account for every word of our mouth every thought of our heart every glance of our eye every minute of our time every duty we have omitted and every sin we have committed Jesus our great Master hath by the account of some abridged six hundred and thirteen Precepts of the Old Testament within the Law of Love Do but Love saith St. Austin and do what you will onely let your love go to the right Fountain which is God Be not afraid to shew him thy heart stark naked that he may pierce it with his Arrows His wounds are more precious then Rubies thou shalt gain all by loving him and death it self which comes from his love is the gate of life Our Love being once thus fixed we need not fear the extravagancy thereof With this excellent and holy temper of spirit it was that Hester changed King Ahasuerus into a Lamb that Abigal was much stronger then the Arms of David and that the eye of Judith triumphing over Holofernes and with a little Ray of its flames burning up a whole Army did more then her hand which destroyed 100000 men by cutting off one only head O what magnificent employments had Love in these Acts And to say truth even consecrating its Arrows never was it so innocent in its Combates never was it so glorious in its Triumphs We finde in the Ecclesiastical History that Athanasius being with rage and fury persecuted by
phantastick shadows which will at last pay me with nothing but grief shall I flatter my self with the specious hopes of the world which like Dreams of a delicious Fountain never quench the Thirst Ah much rather let me make an Eternal divorce from all those frivolous worldly hopes and look on Jesus as the Pole-star alwaies unmovable let me put my self between the arms of hope and amidst all disturbances of mind pass the veil and enter the Tabernacle of the Sanctuary whereinto he hath entered for our salvation Behold how the Soul is troubled as if through some melancholly fit she were fallen into an Abyss from which issue forth such an infinite quantity of evil vapours as cause night in the most cheerfull brightness and make the most pleasing Beauties to be beheld with affrightment The greatest punishment which can befall a sad and dolorous Soul in this world consisting in being suspended from the presence and sight of God And as it naturally desireth to rejoyn it selfe unto God and the least hinderance it feels is most irksome unto it so how doth it mourn to be deprived of so infinite a comfort which it alone depends on and to see it self bereaved of so great a happiness even by its own fault which is the Needle of the Dial which sheweth how our Souls circumvolve times and the hours of the day And well may she complain of the great distance between her and so infinite a bounty seeing the holy Scripture speaking of Love Gen. 34.3 saies It causeth one soul to claspe into another And truly did we but once begin to dislike the world and heartily to love Jesus Christ we should almost every moment think upon him all the most pleasing Objects of the world would seem mixed with Gall and Wormwood We should seek for our Saviour in all Creatures we should languish after him All that beareth his Name and memory will be delightful to him We shall speak of him in all companies desire to have him honoured esteemed and acknowledged by all the world our solitude would be in Jesus our discourse of Jesus Jesus will be in our watchings and in our sleep in our affairs and Recreations And Oh! how unwilling will be to lose sight of him though but for a little time Did we but once wipe those eyes surcharged with earthly Beauties and covered with a thick cloud of the worlds vanities how soon should we fix them upon the infinite love mercy and goodness of God How cheerfully vvould our Souls be carried with full flight into the bosome of our Saviour and be there held in a sweet Circle of ravishing contemplations our hearts would be as flaming Lamps which perpetually burn before the Sanctuary of the living God we should have but one main desire in the vvorld which is God himself all creatures vvhich use to be the Objects of our contentments will never more be the subject of our fears Neither should we like silly worms turn against God when he permitteth any thing to happen contrary to our liking we would frame unto our selves a life simple and free from all affectations we vvould learn to endure any slight oppositions vvith great tranquility vve vvould cast avvay our vvantonness our pleasures and petty peevishness neither vvould vve here think our selves immortal seeing that every moment vvhich is novv in our hands vve must divide vvith death and the Sun vvhich to day you have seen to rise out of his couch may before his setting see you in your Tomb. Oh horrour then to see men enraged with that avarice which sticks to their bones as doth their Marrow and shall sleep with them in their Grave to see them pride themselves in their Garments which are the food of Mothes to see them glittering with precious Stones which are the excrements of the Sea and Land to see them carrried in Coaches and on Horses which are the Notes of their poverty or to see them glory in Titles which are but imaginary Felicities Deceitful Beauties of the world then where are ye Ah true Turrets of Fairies which are onely in conceit where shall your allurements prevail from henceforth to what calamity do you reserve a wretched life deprived of strength and vigour to resist you and if it have any feeling it is onely of misery How few alas are your selicities in this world where your best lights have its shadows all fruit its vvorm and every Beauty fails not to have its embracements And vvhere are ye also ye admirers of the fortunes of Glass that happen to the vvicked where are these adorers of the Colossu's and heaps of dirt that appear by the help of false gildings and vvhich are immediately reduced to dust Hovv much better had ye been to have contemplated in that great School of Nature vvhere God speaketh to us and teacheth us lessons through the veil of his Creatures how happie had ye been had ye looked upon these delights below as men blind whereby ye would the better have looked up to heaven and into your selves that ye had heard of the worlds vanities as being deaf and no waies ravisht by them as discoursing of them and yet no way concerned Thus should he have been as men in part translated to Heaven and here become earthly Angels For Oh! how little doth the pomp of the world seem to that Soul who every day drowns part of his life in Tears and through long solitude hath purged it selfe from the impurities of the Earth Oh how contemptible do all those Beauties of dust and fortunes of wind seem to that heart which having every day dilated it self in the greatnesses of God renders himself capable with the visits and commerce with Heaven It is time to close the Earth when God opens Heaven and to carry our heart where he is since all our Riches are in him What alas have we to do like Moles to dig the Earth and therein to hide our Treasure surely he deserves to be everlasting poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as he is Canst thou love a little shining Earth Canst thou love a walking piece of Clay before that God that Christ that Glory which is unmeasurably lovely Canst thou love the World thy Friends thy Kindred whose love cannot advantage thee whose weeping cannot ease thee in the time of thy trouble and canst thou not love thy Saviour vvhose Tears and Blood have a healing virtue and are like Balsome and waters of life to thy fainting heart Oh my Soul what incomprehensible love is here If love deserve and should procure love oughtest thou not here to poure out all the store of thy affections shall he not be first served shall he not have the strength of thy love who parted vvith strength and life in love to thee Oh that thy love were more Oh that thy affections were a thousand times greater Alas vvhat vvantest thou to provoke thy love is not here a Sea of love before thee little dost thou
thou save thy self if thou put not thy selfe under the shelter of thy Saviours Cross If thou lose him thou hast nothing left to comfort thee In him thou hast all things If thou art Hungry thou needest but to taste of his love if Thirsty the light of his countenance is farre better then the Corn and Wine of this world We read of many accomplished Beauties in former ages which have drawn the affections of those that beheld them but what are those but fading shadows to the love of Jesus which winneth whole Nations and Monarchies to it From hence it is that so many Kings Queens and great Personages have forsaken the Pomp and Beauty of the World and followed him through Thornes and Rocks that so many millions of the wisest and most purified Souls upon Earth have abandoned themselves and loved him even to the suffering of Flames and Wheeles yea the dismembring of their whole Body Oh that our hearts could then dissolve for him Oh that they could dayly melt in his service without consuming since there is nothing which equalizeth the excellency of this Celestial Love But wretched Creatures as we are can we chuse but grievc to see them torn and divided by so many vile and base Objects which divert our Affections and hinder us from giving them to God for which they were made Oh how much should we blush thus to contaminate our hearts with the wickedness and impurities of the Earth The heart of Man should be as a fortunate Island wherein there is nothing but God and it Or like the Nest of that little Bird which cannot hold one silly Fly more then it self But alas what Creatures are there there lodged to the prejudice of our Creator O poor Soul really miserable do but once open thine eyes and thou shalt soon see the head-long ruine which threatneth thee Carnal Souls have much ado to conceive how a man may become passionate in the love of God it is a love too high say they to transfer our Affections into Heaven we know no affection but for temporal and visible things O blinded Spirits ignorant of the glorious Mysteries of Heaven How do ye thus argue with your selves O sad Souls is Heaven a Country wherein they have no commerce Doth God speak to thee in all his Creatures nay doth he seek for thee dost thou behold him through the veil of Nature in somany various Objects Dost thou daily see him in the Image of his Bounty and Greatness of his power and the splendor of his Beauty and in the lively Characters of his Majesty and wilt thou be so much charmed with the present pleasures and delighted so with the Workmanship as to forget the Workman Wilt thou embrace the shadow for the body and momentary Beauties for Eternal verities Oh! but thou objectest that he is a secret so hidden and invisible to men that our poor spirits finde more confusion then light in seeking him I answer hold thy peace O thou ignorant and mis-judging Soul God shews himself in as many mirrours as there are Creatures in the world All that we see hear touch or handle cease not to recount unto us the love of our Maker Do we not find the daily experience of his love in every minutes preservation Do we not hear the sweetness of his voice and harmonies in the chirping of every little Bird and Nightingale yea the least silly Fly holds forth a tone which all the art of the world cannot frame If we behold the murmuring of those silver streams which so sweetly charme and delight our senses if we cast an eye upon those various party-coloured Flowers with what an exquisite delicacie shall we find them adorn'd insomuch that as we have it from the sacred lips of Eternal Wisdom Solomon in all his Royalty was not like one of these But when we cast our eyes towards Heaven when we behold the Sun the Moon and those silver sparcles which shew themselves as soon as the Night spreads its Mantle over the inferior Regions of the World Ah! how may we with the Princely Prophet cry out The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-work Expose not then the loss of thy innocency and sanctity O poor Soul to the alluring occasions of this tempting world and thou needest not fear but in him to find salve forall thy wounds It may be thou fearest Poverty alas hath not thy Saviour consecrated it in the Crib and in Clouts Dost thou fear Reproaches he hath sanctified them in the loss of his Reputation Dost thou fear dolours he hath lodged them in his own flesh Dost thou fear Death he hath overcome it for thee only let thy heart be devested from the ardent affections thou hast towards worldly enablements beholding them as an inconstant moving of shadowes and Spirits which with a swift course glide before our eyes And lastly let us look towards the eye of God which perpetually beholdeth us Let us behold it as our Pole-star and flaming Pillar whereby at last we shall learn to repose our selves in his bosome slumber upon his heart and sleep eternally between his Arms. The Soul breaks into Sighes and dissolves into desires for the presence of God THe Soul of Man being made to the Image of God and for the possession and fruition of God will never rest but in the conformity of its understanding and will to its Creator It casts its eyes indeed oftentimes on the Sea the Earth with so many Rivers which moisten it so many Trees which cover it so many living Creatures which furnish it so many men which inhabite and dress it but yet rests not there It figures also the Air in its thoughts with all its Birds so different in shape so various in colour so diversified in their Notes but alas like Noahs Dove she finds no rest for her footing It glanceth up further to those Christaline and azure Vaults where the Sun the Moon and so many silver Stars perform their career with such measure as God hath determined yet finds not God in any of them It contemplates those innumerable Legions of Angels Spirits of Fire and light which resplendently shine as Lamps before the face of God yet ever cryes out it is not be God onely being he who comprehendeth all things and not onely bounds them but incomparably surpasseth them What do I here then O Jesus without thee but sail without Stars and labour without the Sun Alas if I can do nothing here without thee if without the Sun-shine of thy presence I am but an unprofitable servant and burden to the Earth what do I here All that satisfieth the desires of the curious all that which inviteth the admiration of the wisest all that which enflameth the hearts of the most passionate yea Land and Sea Thrones and Scepters Arms and Empires are but as a silly drop of dew before thy face And wilt thou yet O disloyal Soul entertain in thy heart a mass of
of his Saints you shall there find that there is a Chamber within us and a bed of Love in that Chamber wherein Christ meets and rests with the Soul O sweet communion whereby we are also made the Temples of the Comforter himself and in which communion stands the fulness of joy and beauty Here the more you love the more you may If you love abate here will it be renewed If it grow cold at this Fire may you re-kindle it if it be lost here may you find it Here may you confer with the infinite perfections and with joy often repeat the unspeakable Bounties of your Saviour far beyond all those fabulous Imaginations which Poets feign and idle wits have fram'd Errant Ladies to have engag'd their Servants in Here may you retire from the noise and distraction of the world and entertain thoughts with the sweet still musick of Contemplation Here may you sit alone and excluding even your self be chastly ravished with the dear embraces of the divine Spouse of your Soul Ah the pleasantness of such a life of Love Then onely indeed and not till then do we live when we injoy divine Love Nor can our bosoms breathe out the breath of life before Christ breathes in us the breath of Love Alas what Drâ—ans are our highest strain'd Lovers what dull bussing of Beetles are their kindest expressions to the sweet melting Notes of this Heavenly Harmony Away then with your false Boxes fill'd with loathsome trash of sundry kinds of Colours and compositions for the hiding of your Deformities Look but in this Glass of perfect Beauty and you shall have no need to provide Looking-Glasses embossed with precious Stones in length and breadth answerable to your Bodies some whereof stand you dearer then the Dowry of your Ancestors You will find little time to bestow in Patching and trimming your selves whereby to invite all kind of Luxury and infamous Pleasures And if you but once draw near this perfect object of heavenly Love if you but fix your eyes upon him who is the fairest of men the perfection of spiritual Beauty and the treasure of heavenly joy if your Affections be but once inflamed and fixed on him who is the chiefest of Beauties Oh how will you be sick of Love how importunate will be your wishes how unsatisfied your desires yea how will ye pant and breathe after him and never leave until he be brought to rest within the Chambers of your Soul The Epistle to the Reader THat which is most pleasing to the Soul and nature of man next unto God is Love the generall subject of this whole Work is Love and the several parts thereof tending to the better ordering of a Godly morall and civil life To tell many of a Life of Love beyond what Sense feels is a Mystery which they can neither perceive nor believe Many indeed can spend dayes and weeks in reading the fond Fancies of ilde Lovers but have not an hour to meditate on the love of God Oh! how often are we singed in the flames of that late Love which cannot hold without jealousies nor break without Repentance It is a strange weakness of judgement that our eyes should be so enflamed in the violent pursuits of worldly Pleasures since the worlds best Jewels though followed by a million of Idolaters are but like the empty Imaginations of a sick Spirit and he that too eagerly Courts them it s twenty to one but he perishes in their Embraces Nay is it not madness out-right that our eyes should reserve to themselves no other Objects then such thin colours which put upon them so many Illusions to occasion our misery and like so many dangerous Snakes lie lurking under the green leaves of sugred Speeches and fair perswasions and which unless we timely resist their influence will at last lead us into irrecoverable Precipices Our blessed Lord met the young man carried to be buried at the Town of Naim which being interpreted the Town of Beauties may shew us how soon the glory thereof fadeth and how dangerous it is passionately to affect the objects of the world which never giveth us fine Ware but pincheth it either in the measure or continuance seeing we cannot but with abundance of griefe lose all that which with unlimited Love is possessed So subtilly doth Satan sound our inclinations and discover our Dispositions as that he intermedleth and layeth snares in all things wherein he observeth us with most fervour and earnestness to be busied And must not every judicious man needs be in forced to confess through the sole consideration of nature that the most noble Loves yea the greatest ought to be employed in things invisible For what are all the Glories of the World but Towers and Columnes of Dirt plaistered over with Gold and the deceitful varnish of fading Pleasures whose amorous assaults will at last prove but like Rocks of shipwrack Fountains which send forth poisoned Streams and Trees whose fruit will be bitter in the stomack how pleasing soever it be in the mouth Carnall Souls I confess have much ado to conceive how any man can become passionate in the love of God They know no affectation but for temporall and visible things O blinded spirits ignorant of the Mysteries of Heaven a Country wherein you have no commerce How wretched alas are your loves which dote on the fading Beauties and vanity of the World since you Idolize a little exterior skin which being pull'd off you will take that for a Monster which you now adore for a Goddess But on the contrary vve find the holy Scripture speaking of Love to say Gen. 34.3 That it canseth one Soul to claspe into another If once you begin to love Jesus Christ you will think upon him almost every moment Every time you fetch breath saith St. Gregory there will come a pleasing Idea of God to fill your Soul vvith Comfort and Affection Ah! hovv vvill you feel distaste and unsavoriness of heart against all Earthly things yea the most pleasing objects of the vvorld vvill then seem mingled vvith Gall and Wormvvood you will seek for Jesus in all Creatures you vvill speak of him in all Companies yea you will earnestly desire to see him honoured esteemed and acknovvledged by all the World Your Solitude vvill be in him your Discourse of him Jesus vvill be in your Watchings and in your Sleep in your Recreations and all your Affairs and you vvill account it your greatest misery to lose sight of him but for one hour Go then fond Lover and see the Ashes of those vvho have been burnt in the Flames of the worlds love and thou shalt find nothing answerable to this Love Here maist thou silence all thy troublesome Thoughts all thy inordinate Passions which so often bereave thee of thy Saviours presence Here maist thou appease the stormes and troubles of a wearied life and silently speak unto him Here maist thou Allegorize all earthly Vanities into heavenly Truths Here maist thou find
deploring the evil effects of Covetousness namely That the life of man was miserable because Avarice like a spirit of Storms and Tempests had poured it self on Mortals and that it were to be wished that the best Physicians might meet together to cure the Disease The same may we say of Love since it is the fatal Plague among all Passions and no simple malady but one composed of all the evils in the world A Passion which maketh charms and illusions to march before it and draggeth on Furies disasters and rapines after it Was it not this which sharpned the sword which transfixed Ammon Which shaved and blinded Sampson Which gave a Halter to Phillis Alas How many wretched and caitif souls how many ship-wracked Spectacles may we behold standing on Promontory tops who tell us of the ruines which this Passion hath caused Simon Magus was undone by a Hellen being more bewitched by her love then he enchanted others by his Sorcery Apelles was corrupted by Phylumene Donatus by Lucilia Montanus by Maximilla Women having ended amongst all these what Heresie and Magick had but begun which made one wittily to say That Heaven was most happy in having a God In Coelo Angelus Angela c. Tertul. adversus Val. and Angels and no Goddesses since it might be feared that if there were diversity of Sex it would alter somthing of its tranquility Was it not the love of Women which caused Sampson's David's and Solomon's shipwracks Hath it not besotted the wise conquered the strong deceived the prudent corrupted Saints and humbled the mighty Hath it not trodden down Scepters and Crowns blasted the Lawrels of the greatest Conquerours troubled the most flourishing States Hath it not thrown Schism into Churches corruption among Judges and the greatest cruelties into Arms Hath it not acted Treasons Furies firings poysons murthers and ransackings And how should it spare its enemy since it is so cruel to its self It kills and murders those that have most constantly served it drinking their blood and insensibly devouring them and making many to sink in the twinkling of an eye It will open a Flood-gate to a Deluge of miseries and cares It will by some invisible hand as it were shoot Arrows amidst the Vermilion of Roses and the whiteness of Lilies It is the worm which gnaweth all our great actions the moth which eateth all the vigour of our spirit the Labyrinth which hindreth our chief designs yea it is the true snare of our soul which too often hides poison and death under a seeming sweetness See here the goodly sacrifices of Lust Behold the transfigurations of sottish Love What Nothing but Poyson Gibbets Massacres and Precipices Nothing to be seen but smoak flames darkness despairs and the sad complaints of unfortunate Lovers O God! What is he who beholding these Pictures would ever betray his soul heaven and his God to yeild obedience to loathsome lust In time then let us behold the disasters which wait on the experience of this miserable sin which is so ruinous to our body soul estate and reputation so full of fetters and snares It being impossible to write all the Tragedies which arise from this Passion for which all Pens are too weak all Wits too dull and all Tongues would be dryed up Neither is it to be wondred at what the Wise man said That the too free familiarity with Women was a firebrand in the bosome Prov. 6.27 and as another said It was as easie to live among burning coals as to converse with this Sex and not to wound the soul How careful then should we be to avoid whatsoever may endanger the scortching not only of our Body but our precious Soul yea how should we fear our Relapses and shun all occasions which may re-enkindle the flame For if vain Love be a Tree the fruit flowers and leaves whereof are nothing but sorrows if it be a Sea full of Tempests and Storms where a Haven is not to be hoped for but with the loss of our selves If it be a Passion which causeth a continual drunkenness of Reason If this Banquet which seems to be the source of life brings an Edict of Death with it and the best sports thereof are ordinarily bloody why should we embrace such cruelty as is mingled with delights Or that pleasure which is attended with Funerals O my Make us to bury all our concupiscences before we go to the Grave and so strive to live as that when death comes it may finde us prepared and that we may have little other business then to die That Love in its self is not a Vice but the Soul of all Vertues when it is tyed to its proper Object which is the Soveraign Good NEver shall the soul of man act any thing great in this world if he retain not holy fire in his veins since from the beginning of the world all things are held together by this Divine tye Concord which in its union causeth the happiness of all things and those sacred influences of Love have woven eternal chains to tye indissolubly all the parts of the Vniverse True joy is nothing else but a satisfaction of the soul in enjoying what it loves neither is the accomplishment of Pleasure any thing but the presence possession and fruition of the good which is known to us and which we love We cannot have one silly spark of love for God unless it be inspired into us by himself That which the Ayr is in the Elementary world the Sun in the Celestial and the Soul in the Intelligible the same is he throughout All He is the Ayr which all the afflicted desire to breathe in the Sun which dispelleth all our clouds the Soul which giveth life to all things and therefore he that is thus the Lover of our souls ought really to be the object with which our soul ought everlastingly to be in love And oh how happy are they who entertain this chaste and spiritual love for things Divine who embrace the wisdom of heaven which is so far beyond all humane Beauties as the light of the Stars surpass the petty sparklings and flitting fires of the earth but miserable are those who mount not above the flatteries and fading Beauty of the world From hence it was that the beauties of Solomon's Mistresses were no sooner adored but that through the neglect of his former Zeal and Courage Idols were worshipped That Sampson was no sooner blinded with love but that Dalilah forthwith blinded the eyes of his reason and body together Hence was it that David paid so dear for that unhappy cast of his eye on Bathsheba all which God is pleas'd to place as broken masts on the top of a mountain to make others take heed of the shipwracks of love And great care surely ought to be taken in the whole course and progress of our life sin being usually killed by flying the occasions of it Absence resistance coldness silence labour and diversion have overcome many assaults
of the enemy solitude of heart fasting prayer and the Word of God are weapons of an excellent force and which the Word teacheth us to use in our conflicts And sure it imports us much to fight valiantly and to bring with us the hearts of Lions what honour can we expect by yeilding to the first Temptation How many Martyrs have been roasted in burning flames because they would not speak an ill word Let us consider also the Crown we shall get at last by fixing our love aright If God be the Essence of Essences why do we please our selves by making so many nothings If God be a Spirit why should we our selves be perpetually fixed to carnal pleasures which only flatter to strangle us Why should not the day yeild up all our thoughts to him Why should the night which seemeth made to arrest the agitations of our spirit any way raze the remembrance of him from our heart Oh the unconquerable fire of holy love that can neither be quenched with many waters nor drowned with mighty floods but like the Ark in the Deluge by how much the waters swell higher by so much the more it ascendeth towards the place of its birth and first original the bosome of him who is the Author and Father of it Did we but behold all humane things from the top of the Palace of eternity O how would they seem like rotten pieces yea alas How often would the heavens and the elements conspire against thy affections which thou hast so unworthily and disasterously placed Or did we but see the miseries attending us in the violent pursuit of our desires who alas is it who would enter into this Hell of torment to rob himself of the joys of chastity and to live like Ixion on the wheel of Eternal vexation Were it not much better to throw away this frantick love this troublesome curiosity this rashness of judgement and all that fomenteth and nourisheth so ill a passion O my God! Make me from henceforth to enter into the bottom of my soul and to silence all those tempting and troublesome creatures these inordinate affections which so often bereave me of the happiness of thy sight and my eternal welfare O thou which canst draw Being out of the Abyss of nothing and bring the shades of death into light make me to put a difference between true love and concupiscence the which being once enjoyed dies and is ofter resolved into the smoak of disgrace and the ashes of hate whereas the other is still more ardent towards the thing beloved by possessing and enjoying it O unexhaustible Fountain of all Beauty whither shall I go to quench those violent distempers and wicked thirst kindled within my soul but to thee O Saviour who canst shew me my stains and give me water to wash them to thee who only canst quench those in-lets of sin with the tears of repentance O then melt that heart which hath retained so many vain and lustful thoughts in the sacred Limbeck of thy Love and distil it out by my eyes Why should any impure thoughts pollute that soul which thou hast sanctified Why should any profane words pollute that Tongue which thou hast commanded to be the Organ of thy Praises Why should any unchaste action rend the vail of that Temple wherein thou hast pleased to enter and chusest for thy habitation And thrice happy shall all those be who can seal up all their senses from vain objects and suffer them to be wholly possessed with Religion fortified with prudence watchfulness and mortification and have bound up their eyes and heart from all strange and disorderly affections and have so far watered them with the smoak which ariseth from the fire of this worlds prosperity as to finde delight in nothing here below neither to prefer any thing before the hopes and expectation of celestial glory Of the Nature and Qualities of Divine Love and wherein it exceeds all other Love ALL things here below being transitory and frail little is the support we can find in them until God hath poured his holy Love into our heart which can alone purifie our life and eternize our Souls It is he which inspireth the love with which he will be loved It is his gift alone by which we love him above all and all for him God in the first place gives us a taste of his Word and makes us to taste sweetness therein and he only it is who gives us good resolutions towards the amendment of our life Consider then O Soul redeemed with the blood of the Son of God that thou canst not live without Love since on what side soever thou turnest thou must necessarily love and God who is the Author of Love and makes of the lightnings thereof eruptions whereby to communicate himself to man seeing this necessity would that thou take the object of his love for the object of thy own who is altogether lovely neither is there spot or blemish in him And O my soul when thou hast heedfully contemplated his Beauty strive to finde a reciprocal love enkindled in thy breast towards him who loved thee when there was nothing lovely in thee who made no love to Beauties to gold or greatness but loved thy very poverty and miseries From this Love it is that we are diligent and assiduous in praying to him that we endeavour the keeping of our Conscience unspotted that sin is weakned his Law observed our lusts abated that humane considerations and all the respects of flesh and blood are trod under foot yea that we account all things worse then a Dunghil to gain Jesus Christ Hence further it is that we are patient in adversities that we embrace the Cross that we love our enemies and do good to those that persecute us Behold the accomplishment also of true love left us in the pattern of our blessed Saviour who made himself the highest example thereof in laying down his life to save us Few there are who in an unshaken constancy persevere till death we read indeed of strange examples of Amity and Affection between †Luci. Toxorh friends as of him who left his whole family in a fire to carry â—ut his dearest Friend on his shoulders of another who gave his own eyes for the ransom of him he tenderly affected We finde mention also of many Women tyed with the indissoluble chains of vertuous inclinations As Valeria who said Though her husband were dead to others he was not so to her Of Sulpitia who in spite of her Mother broke doors and locks to run after her banished Husband Of Eponina many years shut up with her Husband in a hollow Tomb. Of Mithridates Queen who in the midst of all his Captains followed him through snows storms and wildernesses But especially of Mary Magdalen that mirrour of Love and ardent affection whose soul dissolved and melted with spiritual languor on the heart of her beloved Saviour We read also of some who have licked whole
glances If my Hairs have been Nets to captivate any soul under the yoke of wanton Love O let them be trampled under feet as the Ensigns and Standards of wicked Cupid Let those Embraces which carried nothing but the poyson of a luxurious passion now clasp him under whose shelter I shall eternally rest secure Briefly let me breathe nothing but the delicacies of Chastity and let those pleasing Odours which were once vowed to sensuality at last become the sweetest exhalation of odoriferous persume at the Altar of my Saviour that so I may practise a sanctified revenge on my self and my Repentance never end but with my life That our love to God ought to precede and exceed all other Loves SO many and great are the delights and enticements of the Flesh the Divel and the World to withdraw man's love from God as that he hath not only imprinted in his heart that he was solely to love his Creator but such was his infinite goodness to the end man might never forget it as to leave him his spiritual Law written in Tables of Stone Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy might Deut. 6. Neither do we finde any Law or Precept so strongly and largely enjoyn'd as this binding the heart tongue hand eyes and the faculties of our soul to love God How then can we answer our own Soul without blushing here or without confusion or condemnation at the last day Or can we render any thing less then love Can any price be set too high for so infinite a ransome whereby both soul and body forfeited by our sins to Satan and eternal Hell fire are freed through the shameful tortures the disgraceful usage and cruel murthering of a merciful Saviour Had God as justly he might in return of his infinite love commanded thee to offer unto him all thy Wealth to sacrifice all thy Children as some Heathen have done and as once he tempted Abraham Had he required thee with stripes and fastings to mortifie and kill thy body Had he commanded bounty to the poor the poor man might have said I cannot give it If labour or fasting the sick and infirm or if knowledge the simple might have said I have them not in my power But if in lieu of all this he require only that which is the least thy love and which without expence pain or labour thou mayest easily afford O my soul How canst thou make a better purchase then by love to make God Heaven and Earth to be wholly thine All that God Courts and Wooes man for is his Heart Prov. 23.26 and wilt thou not grant him this desire O my soul He might have required all thy substance all thy actions to be spent in his immediate service and worship He grants thee thy wealth and the fruits of thy honest labour and bids thee give only what thou canst best spare of all thy Increase he takes only a Tenth and from all thy worldly labours only a sevonth part Love and the affection of thy heart being all that he entirely calls for Thy blessed Saviour so highly valued this Treasure of love as that even then when he was to depart and leave the world he left it as his last Will and Testament to his Disciples and that as he had loved them so they should love one another John 13.34 Ah! saith he being at the last point as it were before his Possion to his Disciples and in them to us my time is but short and I finde death approaching before which I have one only remembrance to give you That you love one another It was not long before that he desired them that If they did love him they would keep his Commandments Love being as it were the Embassadour of God and hath not only proclaimed the Fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 but as our Saviour himself pronounced thereon depends the Law and the Prophets O then my God! my Jesus make me to keep the Law of thy Love and nothing else Thy love is a yoke which brings with it more honour then burden It is a yoke that hath no weariness in it O my sweet Saviour My soul is weary and greatly distasted with all the fading delights of this transitory world and doth incessantly languish after thee Shew me then my stains and give me water to wash them out Let the night cease to cast a dark Vail over my mortal body but let the Sun be advanced high and the break of day begin to guild the mountains where my Soul hovereth and is ashamed to see its self so dark before light and smutted over before thy immortal whiteness Alas I am altogether but one stain and thou art all purity do not however write me on the ground as a childe of the earth but write me in heaven since I am the portion which thou hast purchased with thy precious blood Thy love is the Center of all our true love on which our heart as on the point of a Compass being set the other part moves about the Circumference of the World Is it not the Almighty whose mercies are without number Where hath it been well with us without him Or How can it be ill with us where he is present I had rather saith one be a Pilgrim here on earth with him then be in heaven without him And blessed then sure are they who delight to attend his service and cast from him all the fetters and impediments of worldly love For what will all things avail if we be forsaken of our Creatour Can we live without the Fountain of Life All places are solitary where he is not and where he is there only is fulness of pleasure O Jesus the author of all Glories henceforth be unto me my only Crown For oh how vain is the rest and solace of man who though nothing brings joy and comfort without God and that he finds so little entertainment in all worldly treasures as that the vanity in possession will soon reprove the violence of his appetite is notwithstanding still sullying himself in the puddles thereof How often do we cry out with the perverse Jews not Christ but Barrabas not God but Mammon How often with the Idolatrous Israelites do we say of our Covetousness Honours Greatness and the rest of our Lusts Ye are our Gods whereas alas God cannot endure that one Temple should receive both his Ark and the Idol Dagon He will not have the Divel the Flesh and the World should come in and lodge in his Bed-chamber thy heart it being but just with God to require it But oh how unreasonable art thou in dividing it between him and his enemies between God and Baal between Light and Darkness 1 Cor. 6.14 Fond Worldlings Can you be so great enemies to your souls as being once unloosed from slavery to sigh wither and languish for your fetters for shame then forsake the love of these poor Cottages these
to arive to tranquility It is a Treasure which will be infinitely profitable if we can tell how to attain it It taketh hearts which as yet are but of earth and clay and enkindleth them with a divine flame It beats them under the hammer of Tribulations and sufferings to make them fit for their Saviours reception Yea it makes fit vessels of them worthy to be placed above the chiefest of terrene enjoyments We finde Love indeed divided into many branches to wit Natural love which consisteth in things inanimate having their sympathies and antipathies as the Amber draws the Straw the Adamant Iron and as Trees and Plants bend or decline one from another Next Animal Love is that beginning which giveth motion to the sensitive appetite of Beasts to see that which is fit for them and to take pleasure therein Reasonable Love is that which seeketh and accepteth the good represented by the Understanding But alas What are all these to that Divine and Angelical Love by whose sides are lodged Beauty and Goodness which make up all loves the soul of man being able no where to fix it self until it re-ascend to God It is the nature of Quicksilver to tremble up and down and never leaveth until it have found Gold wherewith to mingle it self so boundeth and leapeth the heart of man here and there in all its troubles and disturbances there being nothing but Ebbs and Floods in it until such time as it is united to its Creator as being the Temple of all repose There only it is that the Banished finde a Country the Poor a Patrimony the Ignorant Knowledge the Feeble Support the Sick Health and the Afflicted Comfort It is that only which immortalizeth us after death and gives us light in our darkest affairs It is that alone which is the sanctity of all humane hearts the comfort of our souls the repose of life and the knot of all felicities And what is the cause that the blessed are never weary of loving but that they perpetually finde in God new Beauties and Perfections The body of man is finite and quickly thrusts out all its qualities which with time doth rather fade then flourish but our soul in some sort tendeth to infinity Oh what sweetness Oh what an earnest of the life of the blessed is that Love which is inviolably grounded upon Vertue and Holiness upon heaven and the Beauty thereof Whereas on the contrary when we wax cold in the love of God and in the exercise of Devotion taking too much liberty in our conversation with such things as we affect how insensibly do we finde our selves surprized by the eyes and ears the heart the gesture the smiles the speech yea the whole carriage of any who lays a Plot with our passion to betray our Reason How do we dote wax pale cry to the woods and mountains one hour we write another we blot then tear out all our repast is unpleasant and irksom and repose which charmeth all the cares of the world seems not made for us So doth the poyson of Love spread it self over all our Veins Absence unquietness and disturbance of minde ever keeps waking the imagination Still our fair one still our cruel one tormenteth us and God makes a whip for us of that thing we most affect How wretched then are those poor souls who seek for pleasure in their affections As that of Eloquence of Poesie of Musick ingenious sports and witty jests since these though for a time sweet to the sense are subject to the diversity of Ages Humours Seasons and Employments If we consult with History how many millions of Lovers shall we finde who complain of the infidelity of their Mistresses and those they seem to adore But the Love placed upon heavenly objects never fails to make an answerable return It is from thence that the blood is enflamed the body weakned the colour changed That the eyes grow hollow the senses stupified and the whole body overthrown And though there be diversities of Love in some sharp and violent in others dull and cloudy in others light and wanton in others turbulent and perplexed and in others weak soppish fantastique and inconstant yet as if somthing of Idolatry adhered to it how do all seem to Deifie the creature of whom they are so passionately enamoured and would willingly place it amongst the Sun Stars and Altars yea they would die a hundred times for it chains and wounds being accounted honourable so it throw but so much as a handful of Flowers or distil but one poor Tear on their Tomb. And as for affections purely Conjugal you shall finde them now adays very rare and for Celestial loves they are much more scarce But for the love of Fantasie the love of sensuality of servitude of fury on what side soever you turn your face you shall not fail to meet them though nothing be beautiful or to be affected in the best of them Surely a small Circle since Volumns are not sufficient will not shew you the Essence the Causes the Symptoms sorts and effects of Love neither the inconstancy and fickleness thereof Some feign it to be the Sun of the Wind to signifie it may be the wavering and diversified colours thereof appearing in the beginning all in Rubies Diamonds and Emeralds over our heads but afterwards to cause storms and tempests discovering it self first with such bright semblances to our senses whilest it occasions much corruption in our mindes Insomuch that if we do but observe one which is transfixed with violent Love we shall finde he hath all that in his love which Divines have placed in Hell namely Darkness Flames the worm of Conscience an evil savour and banishment from the presence of God He sometimes entereth into quakings sometimes into faintings one time into fits of fire and another time into ice If I go about to fetter Love saith one it gets out of my hands if I will judge it it grows into favour with me when I intend to punish it it flatters me if I will fly from it it seems tied to me when I destroy it with one hand I repair it with the other if it be too much cherished it assaults me more violently if watching withers it sleep pampereth it by treating it ill I endanger my life by pampering it too much I incur death Briefly Love enters into the most secret places which seem inaccessible but to Spirits and Lightnings It bewitcheth the minde dislocateth the brain and eclipseth the reason All that the Lover beholdeth all that he meditateth on all he dreameth all he speaketh of is the Creature he loveth He hath her in his head his heart he carves her into the most pleasing forms he fears he hopes he despairs he sighs he groans and blusheth yea he never takes rest If Beauty then of it self be so much to be dreaded when it hath no other companions how dangerous think you is it when Pomp of Apparel attractives dalliances cunning wiles
the Arrians who were thirsty for his blood was beholding to a woman for shelter and the supply of such necessaries as he wanted And may we credit the relation of Writers on this Subject how great do we finde the passions of St. Jerome for Paula as if all the splendour of Romes greatness all the riches of the earth were nothing to him in comparison of the resplendent vertues of this noble Lady He is not onely very large when he goes about to praise her wishing all the members of his body were turned into Tongue and that he were nothing but voyce to chant out her Praises but even in his old age makes an Epitaph upon her death St. Chrysostom also a man austere in his life and vehement in the matters of vertue is reported to have written letters to his dear Olimpias from the place of his banishment wherein he saluteth her with openness of most ardent Aeffections He instructs and encourageth her by sublime and grave discourses he imparteth and recounts his Voyages and adventures his comforts and discomforts unto her yea he descends unto particulars of his own health habit and exercises in that ugly place whereunto he was banished and adviseth her in the like manner what he thinks to be most necessary for her If we look further into History we shall finde Chastity to be the Trophey of Cyrus the Triumph of Alexander nay if we may believe the Relation of Ju-Julianus apud lian the worst of Emperours though re Arminianum nouncing his Christian Faith would would never renounce Chastity which he had learnt among Christians saying This Vertue made beautiful Lives as Painters did fair faces By all which formerly said we may conclude Saints have very lively Affections to those they love And therefore seeing there is a necessity of Love vain is the opinion of some Philosophers who teach indifferency and say We must not love any thing And however a severe Censurer may with a supercilious countenance and a wrinckled brow look asquint yet may we not doubt there may be love between Sex and Sex pure and ardent as the flames which enlighten stars though belonging onely to persons prudent and absolute in Vertue yea great circumspection must be used herein men usually fortifying themselves with much precaution observing diligently the disposition of their Nature the causes of Temptations and the maladies of the Soul whereby the more successfully and with better effect to attain the Cure Love indeed may be termed the Phronzy of the Understanding the Poyson of the Heart the Corruption of Manners and the desolation of the life in some yet doth it not follow that women are always fat of the ruine of men Many indeed resemble those Serpents which requite them with poyson who sing pleasant songs unto them But what shall we bring an accusation against Nature in general and conclude nothing to be good of all that God made because it may be corrupted by the wickedness of men Shall we accuse the Sun because it is said that Phaeton burnt himself in those heats or take away the water from among the Elements because they say Aristotle was drowned therein Onely let it be our greatest care not to serve two Mistisses God and the Beauties of the World which are so different as not to agree When David and Sampson endeavoured to accord them they became Lascivious instead of being Holy The one at first could overthrow a Giant but had no sooner received the wound from Bathsheba's eye but Love soon dryed up all his Victories and those eyes which first discovered her at the Fountains head had much ado to cure themselves with the waters of many tears And when the other betook himself to the Comb and Looking-Glass of Dalilah being formerly like a shining Sun enlightning his Nation he became a coal and dark vapour having no longer eyes but to deplore the fondness and disafter of his love with Tears of blood As the best Wine is most subject to degenerate into Vineger so we see the chastest Love if heed be not taken changeth it self into Flesh How carefully then should we avoid reject the first thoughts of such miserable Designs as being the first sparkles of this fire lest by giving too great a command to our Passion we give too great an overture to our unhappiness We finde what the World could not do to Solomon the wisest of men a Woman did and what the Devil could not by himself do to Adam he did it by a Woman Neither was it the Devil but the Daughters of men which tempted the Sons of God Gen. 6.2 So did Dinah the son of Shechem Dalilah Sampson Bathsheba David and millions more have done the like whose eyes being like burning Lamps or coals of fire to kindle their breath their lips as lime-twigs to ensnare and their hands like Manacles or Bands to binde and hold fast How ought we then to make Jobs covenant with our eyes not to look upon a Maid And oh Happy are those who are so instructed in the Vertue of Purity as that they know not the least shaddow of those sins which are committed in the world It being a Fate sadly attending those who see and smell out so many vain Customs and entertainments of Countries since too soon they learn what too late they will forget taking so much fire in at the Ears and Eyes that water enough will not be found to extinguish it except with Mary Magdalen we sit under the feet of Jesus and bedew them with the chrystal Tears of our Repentance O wonder of Women O most happy of aâ—l Lovers How didst thou make profit of Sin which destroys all How didst thou sanctifie that Love which so little knew the way to any sanctity a work only wrought in thee by the right hand of the Highest Thou which wert a sinner wounded with Love curest thy self by Love Thou changest the fire of Babylon into that of Jerusalem thou pluckest out the venomous Dart of worldly Love off thy Wound to make way for the Arrows of Jesus to pierce thy heart and that soul which was before black and burnt up with the fire of Concupiscence provideth a Fountain for the King of Heaven and draweth Tears from its sins to procure a Pardon And for ever blessed are those who with this Pattern of holy Sorrow considering the evil consequence of sensuality effeminacy and the too eager pursuit of carnal pleasure use severity denyal and the frustrating of their appetite when it any way grows unreasonable For why should we thus offer violence to our selves Why should we thus endanger our Estate Shall we drown those Senses here in a world of pleasure which will not hereafter be able to procure one bottle of Water to refresh us O horrour What Of the Members of Jesus Christ to make them the members of an unclean Creature O great indignity What To worship and serve our Lusts to adore our sinful Appetites O that we would put
our selves any where into the hands of Innocency rather then among the imaginary felicities of sin and wickedness Say to thy self O my Soul it will not be long until thy Eyes be shut and thy body become troublesome to all that come near it unless speedily yeilded up to the Earth And no sooner will death absent thee from the eyes of thy Friends but forgetfulness will draw thee off from their heart Thou art enforced O my Soul to inhabite in a sickly body encountring with all sorts of pains and maladies O my God! What a favour then is it to be banished from so many Gouts Sciaticks Collicks so many pains of Head Teeth and Heart so much hunger thirst and other infirmities which afflict a frail and momentary body And oh that we would but remember this when Temptation comes upon us When we are tempted to give up our minde to the world and drown our selves in earthly cares when we are tempted to profits pleasures and evil company with the neglect of the Duties of Gods Worship That we would but seriously be-think whether the world will then be as sweet as now Whether our unruly Passions and Lusts will then bear the same sway with us and whether all the Glories Beauty Honours and Preferments of the world will not then seem needless vain and unprofitable Alas Will any of those things be comfortable to thee at that day of Reckoning Is this a day to be forgotten Is not that man worse then mad that is going to judgement and never thinks of it Should we not rather forget to eat to drink to sleep or work then a matter of so great concernment What To forget that we must remember for ever O poor Souls How much rather should we in the midst of all our Temptations and allurements to sin imitate him who wheresoever he went seem'd to hear a Voice calling to the World Arise ye Dead and come to judgement The Misery of those who have yeilded to the Passion of Love and the Glory of Souls which have overcome it TO mention the sad effects of sensual Love which hath so many ways of working will be a Task very hard and difficult seeing this Fury hath a thousand hands and a thousand attractives yea for the most part different and quite opposite It takes by the eyes by the ears by the Imagination by change of purpose by flying pursuing honouring and insulting by complacency and by disdain Somtimes it lays hold by Tears by laughing by modesty by boldness by confidence by subtilty by simplicity by speech and by silence It assaileth us somtimes in company somtimes in solitude at windows in grates in Theaters at Feasts at Sports yea oftentimes at the Church and in Duties of Devotion Briefly if we behold one transfixed with violent Love we shall finde he hath all that in his love which Divines have placed in Hell viz. Darkness flames an evil Conscience an ill savour and banishment from the presence of God Sin will not at first discover its dreadful events and Tragedies It will perchance shew you a chamber wherein Beauty is presented which hideth gross infirmities It presents you with smiles glances Courtships and flatteries which yet carry nothing with them but ruine yea it shews you Sports and Banquets Tears and Funerals in one day Alas How many millions of men are there in the world who would be most fortunate and flourishing if they knew how to avoid the mischievous power of this Passion Hence is it that so many Virgins are stoln away so many Families desolated and Parents precipitated often times into their Tombs by their ungrateful children That so many little Innocents are made away by death whose birth also is often prevented Hence is it that so many Widdows are dishonoured that chaste Wedlocks are disturbed and so many Rapes committed Is it not hence that so many are abandoned to dishonour their Estates to pillage and poverty their Reputation to infamy and their whole lives to continual disturbances Is it not hence that poysons are mingled that Halters are noozed that Swords are sharpned and those Tragedies begun in the Night are executed upon the Scaffold in full day-light Good God! What heavie scourges do always fall on sin and what a pleasing spectacle among so many confusions is it to see any Victory gained over evil Love It were easie to enlarge the History of Loves power which would require a Volumn greater then hath yet been seen if I should tell you how Love oftentimes rejecteth the greatest commands wisest Edicts and best Laws How it despiseth Honour neglects Fame Wealth Health Life Soul and all It is compared also by some to Fire the most active and strongest worker of all the Elements which destroyeth Castles Houses and Cities which melts and consumes the hardest Metals and if our contemplation dive into former Times or if we turn over the variety as well of Modern as Ancient Histories not only Divine but Humane we shall finde the sad effects of our evil Love how Ambition Revenge and Murther vices which not only eclipse our judgments but darken our understandings have ever proved fatal to the Undertakers thereof and that we shall not only see with grief but finde with repentance how this Passion of fond Love hath brought shame instead of glory misery for felicity and affliction for content where affection hath not had reason for its guide nor vertue for its object I shall spare to insist on those infamous Ladies whose memory purchased by odious Lust will survive the course of time as Cleopatra Faustina Clitemnestra with the last whereof Aegistus lost his honour through too great a familiarity and we finde not a few to suffer a great eclipse of their credit through their too much effeminacy whence it was that Demosthenes being demanded a great price for a little pleasure by the Courtezan Lais answered I will not buy repentance at so dear a rate well considering that the fairest flowers do as well serve for a shelter to hide Aspes and Serpents as to beautifie Garlands and Chaplets neither would desire the fruit of that Tree nor the kernel of that Apple which was at first of that fatal and dreadful consequence to the Taster The things we finde commended in Mary Magdalen by our blessed Saviour was her humility and the Office she performed to his feet and no way admiring her comly countenance and the pleasant flower of her youth which she had too often made as a snare to betrey her Lovers and all to let us see how loathsome disrelishing and unsavoury are the husks of vain and empty Beauty and how irksome the taste of sinful pleasures are which like deep laughing still carries a deep sigh in the end in respect of those inward vertues of the soul to be preferred beyond the fair and ruddy fruit of Earthly Beauty But then again on the contrary how large do we finde History in setting forth the admirable command which some have had
are our bodies but the food of worms Our gaudy Attires but nourishment for Moths Our stately pyled Houses but stones and morter Our most precious Jewels but the excrements of an enraged Sea which borrow their worth from our weak fancy and all our honours but the golden Masks and Weather-cocks of inconstancy O unfortunate Worldling Where then are thy thoughts fixed What is here in the world that can deserve thy love Behold the whole Fabrick of the Creation and see what thou canst meet with worth thy affection Canst thou then embarque thy self among such trecherous Syrens Seest thou not that thy riches friends reputation companions and all will at last forsake thee as a Butterfly which escapes the hand of a childe Whereat then aims thy strong Ambition What means thy burning Avarice Thy profuse Ryot What will one day become of thy wretched profit thy fading pleasures Will not all vanish into fancy and a body of smoak and nothing avail thee when thy mouth shall be stopt with eternal silence Be not then so bad a Merchant as to sell things eternal for temporal It is for silly flies to gad only in the Sun-shine of this world This Enchantress which thou so much admirest and enjoyest after thy own lusts will at last prove but a very bad bargain full of vanity deception and sorrow Ah! That thou shouldest love poyson and embrace death That we should seek our own ruine and confusion Doth the world tempt thee to honour Oh despise it in humility If to Riches O scorn it in contentment And O my Soul Let not the wings of thy love to God be entangled with the bird-lime of temporal things God hath espoused thee a chaste Virgin to himself Let not those Love-tokens which he hath sent to engage thy Affections more strongly to himself seduce thy heart from him who except he may have the choicest will admit of none of thy love Temporal Goods cannot content the Soul and therefore deserve not our Love ALl the happiness and felicity of man in this world is a Dream it comes on we know not how and when it vanisheth we cannot so much as discern whether it is gone Yea How do all the possessions thereof pass away in an unperceived motion When we suppose them fast lock'd in our arms they creep from us in a mist or smoak which silently steals out at the chimnies top after it hath fouled and smutted it within Our life is but like the nest of some silly Bird whose best composure and materials are straw and dust and as soon doth the stately Palaces and Courts of the greatest Princes decay as the poor resting place of a Swallow comes dropping down at the approach of Winter What alas shall I say since wheresoever we reflect our eyes we shall finde cause sufficient to dissolve them into Tears If we look up to heaven while we behold our Country aloof we cannot but consider our selves in banishment If on earth it is but the upbraiding remembrance of our grave and how proudly soever we trample it under our feet at present it makes full account to have the disposure of our heads yea the greatest Emperours after death are found sitting in Vaults under earth in silence and mournful Majesty Neither is there any thing when all other Beauty Honours and happiness proves brittle and inconstant which remains to yeild us comfort but the benefit we receive from the few hours we spend in Prayer Meditation and the Exercises of a pious life Now now is the time that in one little part of an hour we may obtain pardon here which all Eternity shall not hereafter Now is the time that in one short day we may have more debts so given us then in all the years and times to come Here may we so lament for sins committed as to escape everlasting punishment Here 's nothing but the fearful cracks of ruines every where the dreadful roaring of storms and tempests on every side Our house still threatens its fall and we are with S. Stephen in the midst of a violent shower of stones on every hand and shall we not think of retyring our selves to our heavenly Countrey Shall we not willingly then leave the house of our Pilgrimage here for those glorious Mansions above O happy Countrey O blessed Mansions which are provided for us in our Fathers house But O Eternity Eternity How little do we think on thee Or strive to avoid those endless miseries and those perpetual nights of horrour and sadness which custome in sinning will assuredly bring upon us Alas What more fond then for a little earthly Beauty for Riches and for the love of this world to lose heaven and procure eternal wretchedness Alas How do all the sweet waters of our pleasures at last run hastily into a Sea of sorrows and bitterness How doth sadness dive into the bottom of the Soul when delights tickle us in the outside of the skin How like a bunch of Grapes saith S. Bernard are the Worldlings joys whose juyce is pressed out How full of disquietness are they Their fulness at best being seasoned with shame and repentance Oh! How do they like abortives die in the birth yea too often prove the executioners of the owners or leave us like a poor Pilgrim dispoiled by thieves We finde our Saviour disswading his Disciples from Ambition Matth. 20.20 and to call Riches thorns as bearing fair flowers but the fruit very bad yea serves as a shelter for Vipers and serpents Yet oh insatiable Avarice Whither dost thou transport our manners and understanding Ah! the forgetfulness of our condition Alas What are we Whence came we Was it not a few years since we were born naked creeping on the earth and having a mouth open to cries and hunger and do we think we have nothing except we possess all things Alas Our misery lies in our life we die when we do not die In our last end is all our happiness which will transport us from earth to heaven from Aegypt to Canaan if so be we make it our care to avoid as well the affections as the presence of all the creatures of this world and unite our selves to God by the practise of vertues which will serve as so many steps to glory Nor is there any other way to take away the sting of death or make our life comfortable Our honour will lie in the dust and sleep in a Bed of earth Our Riches will not deliver us in the day of wrath what if thou leave them behind to procure a few mourning weeds to attend thy Herse or erect some glorious Monument to thy memory yet will they at last rather afflict then relieve thee at the hour of thy passage Oh but thou wilt say thy friends shall help thee Alas All that they can do is but to attend thee to thy last resting place and to shed some friendly perchance feigned Tears for leaving them behinde thee Such miserable comforters are all things
small burden to which he is tyed by duty and nature when he beholds this great Abyss of love of mercy of dolours of ignomy of blood of lowliness of admiration and amazement which swalloweth up all thoughts dryeth up all mouths and stayeth all Pens and hands And canst thou O my Soul after all this think any cross heavie any affliction hard to endure Canst thou chuse but be vexed and enraged at thy repinings O my great and only good Suppress those unreasonable follies which boyl in my Breast Make me know that whatsoever happens good or bad to me is my best portion because it comes from thee O rich Treasure O mass of glory In proportion to which all the labours and tribulations which Men or Divels can heap on me are nothing considerable Thou hast seen also O my Soul with what unparallell'd addresses and exquisite inventions the Lord hath sought thee and wooed thy love He gave thee heaven and earth with all their creatures for thy motives to serve and love him He made himself thy fellow and brother in flesh and blood yea he hath heaped on thee all the Names and Titles of Endearment which either Nature or Use have introduced among mankinde He is thy Father thy Spouse thy Friend thy Ransomer out of danger thy Redeemer from thraldome and slavery thy Saviour from death and misery yea he is thy food thy drink thy self O Eternal Wisdomed How truly then didst thou say It was thy delight to be with the Sons of men Can Angels boast of such Priviledges of such tendernesses of such Extasies of Love No None but so weak a Nature as Ours was able to necessitate Goodness it self to so deep a condescendence as this and none but all goodness could so appropriate it self to all infirmities O melting goodness that fillest every Corner thou findest capable of thy perfection We find the holy Phrenzie of Love to have possessed many of the Saints of God here on earth Moses out of his extream love to his Country-men wished himself blotted out of the Book of God Exod. 32.32 S. Paul wished himselfe accursed unless his brethren might be saved with him Rom. 9.3 But if ever any exceeded in Love above all the Love that was in the world it was thou O Saviour Joh. 10.20 who in the excess of thy Love to thy very Enemies wouldest suffer thy Self to be taken delivered up and shamefully put to death for them And in consideration whereof it seems S. Hierom cryes out Oh ungrateful man to thy God whosoever thou art considerest thou not the wonderful Love of him who is the Lord of heaven to be delighted thus to do and to suffer for thee And thinkest thou thy selfe better when thou art in the company of the wicked and prophane Return Shunamite return And surely methinks we should not here so greedily seek after the delights and contentments of Nature seeing the God of Nature so roughly handled in the world which he built with his own hands Ah! should not the Example of our Saviour make us ashamed when we nearly consider the sorrow of his life and the ignomy of his death We read of one further who considering this height of mercy which aboundeth with all Riches and hath the plenitude of all happiness cryeth out in a great Extasie O Love What hast thou done Thou hast changed God into man thou hast drawn him out of the lustre of his Majesty to make him a Pilgrim here on Earth thou hast shut him nine moneths in the wombe of a Virgin Tu deum in hominem demutatum voluisti tu deum abbreviatum paul sper à majestatis suae immenfitate c. Zeno. Ser. de Fide Spe. Charit thou hast annihilated the Kingdom of Death when thou taughtest God to dye Ah Love indeed which drowneth all humane thoughts which swalloweth all earthly affections which causeth the Spirit to forget it selfe and to look on nothing but Heaven A Love which Angels study and admire whichman could not be without and conceived in that fire which Jesus came to enkindâ—e on earth to enflamethe whole world Alas who can chuse but admire to think how thou O blessed Jesus descendest from the highest part of Heaven to take our Nature upon thee to charge thy self with our debts to lay our Burdens and Miseries on thy own shoulders to lodge in the silly Cottage of our Heart to be dispoiled of all for us to become our Riches by thy Poverty Strength to us by thy weakness To become Contemptible to make us Glorious and full of Sufferings to ease our servitude To make thy selfe of a King of Glory a man of Sorrows and to purchase our happiness with as many wounds as thou hadst â—embers And shall none of those Arrowes and shafts flying on every side of thee O my Soul wound thee to him shall none of his Favours Benefits and Affections descend into thee to fill and replenish thee with flames of thankfulness and love Canst thou still continue obdurate in the midst of those burning ardors and not be wholly captivated with his Bounty yea altogether inebriated with the Extasies of his Love Canst thou think of the infinite love of thy Saviour in suffering for thee and not admire his goodness Canst thou read the History of his life a life of Dolours from the Cradle to his Grave and peruse it without compassion canst thou think of his death and not commix the waters of thine eyes with those of his water and blood Ah! canst thou consider all this and not perpetually languish with fervent desires yea cause thy soul to melt and dissolve with spiritual languour on the heart of thy beloved O mirrour O Perfection mine eyes dazel in beholding thy Love my Pen fails in writing thy Praises O blind if thou knowest not O insensible if thou neglectest it and O unfortunate if thou loosest it Go and see the Ashes of those who have been burnt with the worlds love and thou shalt see nothing comparable to his Love who came to put us into the possession of all his greatness by surcharging himselfe with our miseries It may be thou hast seen some to die on an Earthly Scaffold who with the sweetness of their countenances terrified the most terrible aspects of their Executioners They did they spake they suffered they ordered their death as matter of triumph They comforted others in a time when they had much to do not to complain themselves But here here is a Banquet which carries with it all the benefits of Life yet attended with an Edict of Death Here 's Cruelty mingled with Delights Joy with Sorrow and Pleasures with Funerals Ah! what more could he possibly have done then thus to suffer for us He hath washed us in his blood he hath regenerated us into his Love If we endure any thing for him he endureth with us he weepeth for us he prepareth eternal springs of consolations for us yea he mingleth all our griefs in the
thee no Creature being able towork by its own strength having all but dependent Beings from God alone Miserable wretches then as we are as not to see him with our bodily eyes so not to behold his Glory in our most retired Meditations that he should be all brightness yet we view him not all sweetness yet we taste him not That he should be in all places yet we feel him not alas what strangers are we in the House of our Father O that our life here should be fuch an estrangement from him and that when we most behold him it should be but as it were in a Glass darkly Draw nearer then O my Soul bring forth thy strongest burning Love here 's matter for thee to work upon here 's something truly worth thy loving Oh see what bounty presents it self Is not all the Goodness in the world contracted here Is not all the Beauty in the world deformity to it Here is comfort for thy Soul and a feast for thine eyes Ah! that ever thou shouldest need to be invited to feed on it That thou shouldst be invited to love where thou feel'st a heavenly sweetness accompanying it and where the very Act of loving is unexpressibly sweet O what wouldst thou give for such a life couldst thou be all love and alwaies loving Come away then O my Soul stand no longer looking on that Beauty admiring this Face or Idolizing these earthly shadowes But behold that Glory which is onely to be enjoyed in the lap of Eternity Ah that thou couldst bid the world farewel and here immure thy self that thou couldst shut the door upon thee and injoy the sweet content of divine and heavenly Meditation But Oh the dulness of thy desires after so great a happiness How doth thy backwardness accuse thee of Ingratitude must thy Saviour procure thee Heaven at so dear a rate and wilt thou not more value it must he purchase thy life by the Pangs of a bitter death must he go before and prepare a Mansion and art thou loath to follow must his blood and pains and care be lost O unworthy and ungrateful Soul what is loathing if this be love Ah wretched Creature if thou art not ashamed to neglect so great a mercy The Soul repents the time that ever she was Cloistered up in the walls of Clay and thrown into the Dungeon of that corrupt mass of Flesh THe Soul of Man being embarqued in the dangerous Sea of this world where her adventure is very hazardous and full of Rocks and having no Port to put in at but either Repentance or Death bewailes the want of her Pilot without whose guidance she is sure to meet with a miserable shipwrack and which she conceives as natural to her as swiming is to Fishes flight to Birds beauty in Flowers and rayes in the Sun Woe is me saith he that ever I was born to see the Light Why did my Mother rejoyce to hear me cry and to receive the news that I was a living Soul when first I entered into the world I bore the Image of my Creator in some lustre and glory but since that time my first Parents who bore as it were in one Vessel the Riches of all Mankind had lost all that which wretches might lose or men desire and which with grief we yet deplore it s scarce discernable in me in regard of those Leaprous spots of sin and taintures of iniquity which I have contracted from those frail corporeal Organs which have so pittifully dis-figured and transformed me as that the Character of my God is almost lost in me Alas I am but an unweildly lump of Earth a meer passive thing of my self Those eyes of mine which should have been as christal Casements through which I might behold the glorious Firmament and study my Creator in the Volums of Nature have let out the Beams of vanity and lightness Those Ears which should have let in wholsome precepts and holy exhortations have been no other then Trunks to receive idle discourses and vain sounds That Mouth and Tongue which should have sounded out the praises and glory of my Creator and sung Halelujahs to him have been instruments of Equivocation Sinne and Prophaness Those hands which were design'd to deeds of Charity have been employed in evill and sinful works That Throat which was intended as a Conduit-pipe to poure out divine and pious Ejaculations hath been made the instruments of Luxury and excess And those Feet which were made to walk in the paths of Piety and Virtue have been used to run into the Road of al Licentiousness But oh when I examine my heart the seat of my affections what a sinck of sin a Cage of unclean Birds do I find it and whereas I should have made it a Closet for my Saviour to sit and reside in alas what Hatred what Hypocrisie what spiritual Pride and Choler hath infected every corner thereof And if I look further how shall I find every Cell of my Brain infected My Fantasy is become wild and extravagant my Memory hath been more mindfull of bad then good things my Understanding full of darkness my Will wholly blinded my Reason strangely besotted and my Imagination wholly puffed up with airy passions and malignant humours which interpose between me and the glorious Beams of my Saviour Ah whether have the Councels of those transported me which desire the ruine of my Soul How am I environed with admires of Lusts and besieged with Legions of inordinate affections Miserable that I am what shall I do to hinder the designs of my naturall Corruptions Alas How they prevail against me unhappy that I am that the Sun which this day shines so bright over my head should see his face defiled with the stains of my sins What do I here in this house of Pleasure where we seem to enter in by five Gates which are all Crowned with Roses and bear the face of youth and prosperity Are not those five Gates the five Senses by which all the passages are made into carnal pleasures and the vain delights of the world Is this the way to live like a Christian to walk according to the Rules and propensions of Nature Is this the Babylon of worldly hopes which in the beginning sheweth it self as a Miracle carrying Hony in the lip Light in the face but Poyson in the tail Why alas should I thus live in the fervours of a Feaver why should I desire to live in that greatness which will onely serve to make my fall the more miserable Why should I rest upon those worldly comforts whose acquisition is painful whose fruition uncertain and taste unsavory And how pleasing soever they appear in the dawning of the day seeming in the first springing to be spread with Emeralds and Rubies yet will they at last be changed into the horrours or a sad Tempest and ever waited on by ignomy and confusion O that I should thus spend the latter part of my age after smokes and
know ah little indeed the glory and blessedness of this love little dost thou know the excellency of this Love Is there any thing here below but baseness in espect of thy enjoyments above are the heavy sufferings the unsatisfying vanities of this world really sutable to thy desires or canst thou find any place more sutable to thy misery then that of mercy or of nearer interest or Relation then that of Heaven Come away then O my Soul stop thine ears to the ignorant language of the world what is the Beauty the Riches the Honours thou hast so much admired Canst thou but even close thine eyes and thou wilt think it all darkness and deformity What is the beauty thou hast so much admired alas when the night comes it will be nothing to thee whilst thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away doâ—h not the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age or some other deformity make it as loathsome as it was once delightful Ah then O miserable man that thou art unworthy Soul how canst thou love a skinful of dirt and canst no more love the heavenly Glory art thou not a Soul is not heaven the onely lovely Object art thou not a Spirit and is not Earth a Dungeon to Celestial Glory shall Gold or Greatness or worldly Pomp be thy Idols vvhich are all dirt and dung to Christ come forth then O my dull and drowsie Soul thou hast lain long enough in these earthly Cells where cares have been thy Fetters where sorrows have been thy lodgings and Satan thy Jaylor The Soul calling to mind the infinite Love of her Saviour bewailes her ungratefulness and the coldness of her returns WHen holy David considered the vvorks of Gods hands the Sun and the Moou which he had made Psal 8.3 4. he immediately breaks forth into thoughts of humility touching the frail and sad estate of man But blessed Lord what can we say for our great neglect of that Love which hath stretched it self for us even to the death of the Cross and what stupidity is it to forget that that bloody Banquet which was to us the source of life should bring with it the Edict of death O poor Sinner What hast thou done look upon a Deed that vvas worthy of none but thy cruelty stretch out thy hands put thy fingers into those wounds vvhich thou hast made bedew thy hands like unbelieving Thomas in that sacred stream vvhich flowed from thy Saviours side Drink miserable vvretch of that River vvhich there thou seest glide to quench thy thirst Look and behold those dead eyes which accuse thy nakedness and which thou still dost wound with the aspect of thy wickedness alas they are not shut so much by the necessity of death as by the horrour of thy Luxury Behold the great temper of thy Saviours Soul in his most horrible sufferings what could be invented which he endured not what could be undergon which he met not vvith Oh high effect of an infinite Love vvhich found no belief in senses no perswasion in minds no example in manners nor resemblance in nature It is storied of a Prince vvho being desirous to offer himself to death for the preservation of his Subjects took the habite of a Clown the better to facilitate his death he laid down his Crown and Purple and all the Ensigns of Royalty onely retaining those of Love and lost his life in his Enemies hands But alas this was but a mortal life and in giving it he onely paid that tribute to Nature which at last he must of necessity yield But where have we read that a man glorious by Birth and immortal by condition hath espoused that humility which all the world despiseth that mortality which all must partake of that mercy which none can equalize and for no other occasion then to dye for his friend O dear Jesus thou wert by nature immortal and impregnable against all exterior violences thou took'st not the Body of a Peasant nor a body of Air but a true body of Flesh personally united to the word of God Thou O blessed Saviour consumedst thy body with Travails thou quailedst it with toils thou castedst tottered Rags over thy Purpleâ— thou laid'st our miseries upon thy own shoulders and at last resignedst thy selfe as a Prey to a most dolorous death My God! What a Prodigie is this Thou foundest a way to accord infirmity with Soveraignty Honour with Ignomy Life with Death and Time with Eternity O God of Glory O mild Saviour all this hast thou done it was not possible that sole God should suffer death nor sole Man should vanquish it but God and Man hath overcome it Ought not then thy pains to be as much adored by our wills as they are incomprehensible to our understandings And alas how much ought we to be ashamed since instead of enkindling our Affections with the sacred fires of thy Eternal Love we have sought after prophane fire from the eyes of earthly Beautie and have opened our hearts to Forreign flames Ah ungrateful Soul art thou not afraid to hear those heart-piercing words Cant. 5.6 I opened to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when I spake I sought him but I could not find him Shall the love of God be so communicative as to stream forth by those two conduit-pipes of Glory and Beauty and art thou not hereupon even confounded to see thy heart so narrow and streightned in the exercise of holiness and good works Oh blessed Saviour thou didst spend thy time in continual pain and labours here on Earth for the redemption of the world Many were the scorns reproaches and miseries thou endurest for us Thou didst even melt and dissolve under the ardors of unspeakable affection and zeal for our salvation and at last exposedst thy self to languors sorrows extasies and the cruel punishment of the Cross and shall ingratitude be all the return thou reapest for such infinite mercy How justly maist thou many many times question with me as thou did once with S. Peter Joh. 21.17 Lovest thon me Thou seemest indeed poor soul to love me But why then dost thou not keepe my Commandements Doth not fond love which ordinarily delights to see what it cannot attain find too much admiration for thy eyes and food for its flame Ah that ever thou shouldst spend so many hours endure so much pain and run so many hazards to seek after an unhappy loathsomness Oh that ever thou shouldst take away thy love from me to place it on Creatures which so little deserve it And why should the faculties of the eye which was ordained for light be thus applyed to darkness Shall that which was Created for the use of Life be the cause of Death Alas what canst thou gain by imbracing thy Lusts O poor deceived Soul what Snares what Traps what Tempests beset thee on all sides O Man miserable wretch drenched in the waters of bitter Tears where alas wilt
give up that amorous heart which hath been the corrupt fountain of so many Lusts onely to be washed and clensed with the blood of her Saviour O Lord said she my heart was created for thee and it will be restless until it return unto thee Do I hunger thou art the bread of life Do I thirst thou art the waters whereof whosoever drinks shall never thirst Am I Naked thy Righteousness is my Robe Isai 25.4 Thou art a Refuge from the storm and a shadow from the heat If I am Ignorant thou art Wisdome to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent is Eternal life Joh. 17.3 Since therefore all things are nothing unto me without thy self be thou all things unto me O God! true God of my salvation my heart which feels it self moved with an affectionate zeal thinks alwaies upon thee O let the breathings of my heart fill my lips with the sounds of Love The * Lingua amoris Tuba Tongue is Loves Trumpet and that love whic his sweetly in the bosome sounds sweetly in the breath O therefore let my voyce be the silver Trumpet loudly to sound thy praise Love is the commanding affection of the Soul consisting in the expansion and going out of the heart towards a person or thing it wishes well to It is the Queen Regent of the Soul and sits upon the Throne commanding all where then can the distressed Soul better fix her affections and but upon her Saviour the ends of whose love â—ike so many several Lines in a Compass meet all in Love as in their alone Center who alas but the shaking hand trembling for fear of guilt of sinne and the wrath of God is fittest then to lay hold upon him He is all comfort who should partake of him but such as are ready to faint He is our Physick and who should receive him but such as are diseased In this manner will the Soul which is ever longing after her Saviour be ever seriously meditating upon the spotless innocence and unblameable conversation of its Lord and Master It will consider what it is through the defilement of sinne it will frequently converse with the word of God it will still keep communion with God in prayer it will often participate of his holy Supper and if at any time it be surprised with Temptation and overtaken in a fault oh how vigilant is it at all times and in all places privately by her self and publickly with others And when any inordinate Passion Lust or Distemper doth begin to stir in her how doth she fly to the rich mercy and free Grace of her Saviour for strength to crush it in the very first rising that she be not given ovet to impetuous desires nor that sinnes of a high hand get dominion over her The thoughts also of a Gracious Soul will be ever frequent towards Jesus Christ If she lie down all things are commended to his protection If she rise she desireth his guidance If she read or meditate she craves his help If she ear she intreates his blessing When she is satisfied she praiseth his Bountie In the beginning of her Work she labours in his fear in the end thereof she referres it to his Glory In scarcity she is contented with his fulness in plenty she distributeth it to his Glory All things are nothing without him and he is all things unto her if she have nothing else And though she oftentimes labour under spirituall affliction when God is pleased to turn her mid-day into Night and many times afflict her with barrenness in her Soul yet will she still be setting forth the praises of her God If she cannot chant with the Nightingale she will chirp with the Black-bird she 'l chatter with the Swallow yea croak with the Raven rather then the sighes and groans of her heart shall want pouring out A serious survey of her manifold slips and failings shall be taken She will be deeply humbled loathing and detesting what she hath done amiss confessing her offences with a mournful heart and a weeping eye unto the Redeemer of Men who onely is able to comfort her How doth she complain that her sinnes have even excluded all the comforts of her God and all his Graces from her Soul once she injoyed a sweet communion with him but now she sinks in the Valley of sorrow For why he passeth by as a Wayfaring man is become a stranger to her and takes her for his Enemy Ah they are my sins they are my sins saith she which have thus occasion'd the withdrawment of my Saviour And what shall my dearest comforts be thus driven away by my self woe is me that I am constrained to live in thy Anger and to have such a sad habitation in the dark Tents of thy heavy displeasure My God! my God! why comes thy wrath so fast upon me O what Billowes of disquietness arise within my heart what sad thoughts arise within my Soul I know not what to doe I know not what to answer so unworthy am I not having any thing in me to move thy affections to me Alas how unfit am I to perform any service to thee How dull how poor and liveless therein yea with what vanity and distractions are my best Actions accompanied And will Christ stoop to uphold such a worm as I am Yes sure Lord my eyes are toward thee It s true I am a sink of sin but thou art a Gracious God I am the chief of sinners yet such thou cam'st to save What though I am darkness yet thou art light and however thou now seemest farre from me thou canst again fill me with light and refreshment If thou once appear the Tempest of my weather-beaten Soul will cease Thus at last through a true humiliation having found her Conscience appeased her bloody Issue stanched her heart enlarged her foot-steps ordered with delight to run the wayes of God and her poor and almost ship-wrack't Vessel arrived at the Haven of Gods amiable Presence she comfortably concludes that God had heard the requests of her lips saying unto her by the testimony of his Spirit as once Christ did to the sick of the Palsie Mark 2.5 Son thy sins are forgiven thee And here we see how that God who many times enricheth us by our losses enobles us by our disasters and raiseth us by our Ruines brings us low that we may not * Fecitque cadendo ne caderes fall into the Precipice of everlasting misery He leaves us here for a time to behold dying Creatures who fade wither and shrink insensibly into nothing when once unsupported by the divine hand that the House of God and the Palace of Essences may be the more welcome to us where all things are immortal vigorous perfect and incorruptible In this world we see but with the two Eyes of Flesh the whole world being still tottering and altogether imperfect But there it is where the blessed behold all things stable equal and absolute
friends Ranters Gamesters Amorists and all the delights of former Companies since from this moment we shall be for ever separated Whereas far otherwise shall it be with those heavenly and victorious souls who have lived to God Time and the Laws of Death have nothing to affright them with All that they have to do is but to go out of a dark Dungeon and a streight Prison to leave a world of sadness and misery and enter into a spacious Temple of Eternal Splendors where their Being shall have no end their knowledge no ignorance nor their love suffer change Repair then unto him O my Soul who is all-sufficient and though the discharge of thy duty be above the power of thy ability yet can he give thee a heart to perform what he requireth from thee There is no Prison for a Soul whom God hath set at liberty The whole world belongs to him who knows how to misprise it God seeketh thy conversion and he is able to turn thee He requireth thy faith and he is able to make thee believe he requireth thy love and by knocking at the door of thy heart he is able to get entrance into it Be not sad then O my Soul but adore that infinite mercy which doth at any time chastise thee with Temporary punishments being not willing to make thee an Object of that fury which is kindled by Eternity of Flames Why shouldst thou not bend all thy affections to Jesus who is onely able to delight thee Why shouldst not thou be enamoured of his Beauties Why shouldst thou not sigh after his Attractives If we behold the Sun we cannot chuse but love God that Glorious Light being the Image of the Soveraign King the Eye of the which enlightneth the Stars in Heaven createth the Fruits and Flowers upon Earth and giveth strength to all living Creatures How pleasant a thing also is it to behold those goodly Forrests to trace those flourishing Woods to be delighted with the murmuring Waters to hear the pleasant notes and warbling of Birds in the sweetness of solitude and retirement But O my Soul rest not here Let thy Spirit fly to that hidden Spirit which thus distributeth it self through so many melodious Divisions throughout the whole world When thou contemplatest the world and all things thereto belonging think on that secret Spirit which insinuateth it self thereunto with such admirable power ravishing sweetness and incomparable harmony Oh love thy Jesus because he is fair and made all these Beauties presented before thee Love him because he is good and communicateth himself unto thee Love him because he is thine and thou art wholly his O be thou still touched with his beauty his wisdom and goodness and let his mercy still soften thy heart And how a thousand times wilt thou bless the hour of this Resolution Ah Jesus why should I argue any longer with my vain Thoughts Why should I dispute any longer with my sinful Lusts Why do I not fly away weigh Anchor set Sails and go forward towards my Eternal happiness Shall I create unto my self an Empire in my Banishment shall I suppose my self in a Haven in the midst of shipwrack surely the Soul which is ravished with the contemplation of Heaven will not stay upon Flesh She hath nothing to do with the standing puddles of Egypt which do onely enflame thirst in her veins but is ever seeking refreshment in the Cisterns of Bethel No more will she ask where is her God become not a tract of a Tear will be visible on those cheeks where Flouds and Billowes of sorrow had formerly appeared Though formerly she went weeping under the heavy load of her sinnes she at last returns with precious seed she soons recovers her joy Psal 51.10.11 and peace and loseth no Graines Psal 126.6 but rather gets ground in the fire of Temptation she receives double with Iob for all her losses for a Cup of Affliction Vessels of joy and for a few disconsolate dayes moneths and years of delight and comfort in Heaven where she no longer complains of her frailties but cryes out It is enough Lord it is enough what am I or what is my Fathers House that thou shouldst thus deal with me And oh if there be such pleasures in the Kingdom of Grace how unspeakable are those laid up for us in the Kingdom of Glory The Soul is ravished upon the Return of her Saviours Presence THough the Soul of Man may live at uncertainties upon a certain Faith and in time of desertion trembling may accompany the people of God yet it truly relies upon Christs mercy Job 13.15.16 Psal 6.8 it shews a true saving and justifying faith in the very act of Reliance and dependance And though Gods Afflictions are oftentimes like hot Spices comfortable to the stomack though hot in the mouth yet the Soul with the Spouse is ever waking whensoever it falls into any spiritual slumber The greatest darkness ordinarily as we use to say is about the break of day And it is not impossble but that when sadness and melancholly which is many times the Nurse of doubting shall pervert our Reason and clad the Soul in mourning weeds there may be an Eclipse at the fairest Noon through the with-drawment of Gods favour and the interposition of Satans Temptations The dark Cloud which sometimes comes between God and the Soul is again cleared with many Lights and most sweet consolations insomuch that being again gilded over with the most radient Splendors and admirable Beauty of her beloved she breaks out with profusions of heart not to be expressed Holy Asaph may complain Will the Lord absent himself for ever Will he be favourable no more hath God forgotten to be Gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercy Psal 77.7.8 9. and yet all this expostulating with God is not because he suspects the truth of his Promises but because at such times the Soul cannot so plainly see it it looks upon its sinnes in a multiplying-Glass and in the gloomy day of Affliction is ready to behold them as an evidence that it wants that interest in God it should have and thinks with David and the Church it is wholly cast off Psal 43.2 44 9 80 1. But after those fainting and soul-swounding fits and too much eying and poaring on sin without observing the nature of God in his Covenant when the poor Soul as well looks upwards with one eye towards Gods mercy as with the other downward on her sins she is kept from being over-powred with Satans temptations she concludes there is yet some help in her God she still layes hold on the merits of her Saviour And however her stomack may be gone for a time yet when she awakes out of her spiritual Desertion she cryes out Surely the Lord is in this place though I knew it not Ps 4.3.8 I shall again sit at Davids Table who bids me to come and taste and see how good the Lord is
affliction being but the chafing of thewax whereby he means to seal us nearer to himself and the spots of our infirmities but the Letters wherein to write his Name He makes his servants more eminent in their sufferings then actions yea makes them remarkable with the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.4 5. In much Patience in Afflictions in Necessities in Distresses in Stripes in Imprisonments c. And as in worldly Amities it is not enough to have affections languours and lip complements without some better effects so the Souls love consisteth not in slight affectations or idle Devotion She knows that whosoever doth truly love must serve Jesus whose will must be executed his Cross carried and our selves wholly transformed into him by imitation of his Example She looks no more upon a withered and rotten Gourd upon the seducements and flatteries of a most odious and decayed Prostitute But Heaven is still in her Eye where wealth without want delight without distaste and joy without sorrow like undefiled and uncorruptible Virgins sit cloathed and crowned with Glory A devout Soul resembles those Rivers which run under the Earth It steals from the eyes of the world to seek for the eyes of God It studies solitude and retirement and is wholly shut up within it self Whence it often happens that those of whom we speak least on Earth are the best known in Heaven and while the world thinks they lie upon Thornes their Beds are made of Roses Yea God usually makes Ladders and Footstools of our Tribulations to lead us unto Heaven Happy then is that life which hath no eyes for carnal Beauties it being a shame for us still to tread on Flowers and think to attain Heaven without being acquainted with the troubles of Earth to be embarqued in the great Ship of Christianity and not sometimes to cast our eyes on the Rocks but like Jonah and the outcasts from Gods Presence to sleep securely under the Hatches And for ever blessed is that life which is no way dazeled with the sun-shine of worldly vanities How freely doth it taste the comforts of Heaven How doth it forsake the painted pieces of the world what pleasures will it one day take in this one Pleasure what joy is it to derive all our Joys from this one Fountain Why say we not then with S. Austin O Fountain of Life when shall we come to thy Delights and eternall sweetness I sigh here on Earth holy Hierusaleus in a dry Land O dear City with weeping eyes we behold thee afar off Tell me then if thou canst O fond worldling what is it that thou so strangely sets thy thoughts on What alas is it that thou so passionately seekest Wilt thou have Honours who hath more then God to whom so many States Kingdoms and Empires are but a drop of dew Hast thou high thoughts with thy self who more high then thy Saviour who makes Heaven to bow under the shadow of his Majesty who sits upon Thrones and shall at last come with his Angels to judge the World Oh but thou wouldst have power in thy hands Alas who more great then this Judge who makes the Thunder to roar the Lightning to fly the Rocks to rent the Earth to quake the Elements to melt there being neither Place Time nor Power which can deliver any out of his hands If wisdome affect thee who more wise then that God who hath the Riches of Eternal wisdom who seeth all within himself and to whom all things past present and to come are at one instant represented But it may be O wavering Soul thou art wearied with the cares griefs vexations and anxieties of the world If so where canst thou find repose out of God Hath he not all the contentments for the Soul and body But thou saist again thou art no body without Pleasures yea the desires of thy heart are unsatisfied without them And is there not a fulness of joy in thy dear Saviour Is he not an abundance which never fails a sweetness which never corrupteth a Feast which never consumes Is he not a perpetual Treasury of Comforts and an unexhaustible fountain of all contentments Methinks oh unsatisfied Soul I hear thee yet further to complain thou wantest Riches And dost thou think to receive them anyway but from him who possesseth all He is the Beauty of fields the lustre of Flowers the pleasantness of Fruits the wealth of Minerals and the Magazin of total Nature Cannot he whose care it is every year to make Garments all besprinkled over with the pearls of so many Meadow flowers satiate thy hungry desires Surely would we but thus by continual familiarity adore that most pure Spirit which thus enlivens us and disperseth it self throughout the whole world we should not look upon the Sun but break out into desire for that eternal Light wherein there is neither blemish nor darkness We should not behold the Sea but admire the secret depths of the Judgements of God We should not cast our eyes upon the Fields but in so many sorts of Hearbs and Flowers different in colour and quality behold the beautiful eyes of him that hath ordained them neither should we hear a Bird to sing but we will conceit it to speak the love of our Maker The Soul being re-advanced on the wings of Faith sends up her choicest Affections towards Heaven THose that are throughly wounded with heavenly love Cant. 3.1 2 3. are sending out their sighs and groans their thoughts and tears to seek out the welbeloved of their Souls No return nor Letter pleaseth them wherein the Name of Jesus is not comprised They pretend not any more to the Greatness and pleasures of the world after their former affliction but throw themselves between the arms of the Cross that they may there find those of their Saviour daily dissolving themselves into Tears and meeting no comfort but in the wounds of their Saviour and a heavenly Retirement And O how great is the comfort in seeking the remedies of our wounds in the Mercies of an infinite God! who being in his Nature most wise and bountiful hath not so given man over as a prey to grief and calamities but hath withal reserved a life of spirits to himself whereby to please and adore him He wipes the eyes of those that are his so many times drenched in Tears and makes them see through their greatest sufferings a glory and happiness not imaginable which expects their Soul in another life Ah welcome welcome that affliction which is raised from our Saviours Love Happy is that chastisment which comes from so fatherly a hand What though I smart though I bleed under the stripes of my heavenly Father sure there cannot be so much pain in them as comfort in the love of him that layes them on Did he not use to chastise every one whom he doth receive Heb. 12.6 8. Alas I might suspect my self But O repining Soul must thou alwayes feed upon dainties will not the Crums which fall from
which are always flourishing cool shadow my wandering eyes from the burning glances of lustful concupisence Let those eyes which no sooner began to exercise the functions of life but were seen all in blossom and an amourous aspect for us allay the spreading Rayes of those open Casements Let those eyes which from the top of a mountain looked on a poor famished people who wander'd through the deserts as sheep deprived of their shepherd guid my straying heart to thy own self Briefly let those chrystal fountains which daily distil the sweet influences of mercies which in dropping tears so freely poured out themselves over miserable Hierusalem which prov'd so efficacious for us when thou gav'st up thy Soul with weeping and bleeding in the Sacrifice of the Cross quench the flames of all unholy desires and abate the fervour of all sinful thoughts and affections within us The Soul in a Phrensey breaks out into admiration of Gods love in being freed from the misery of everlasting flames THe discourse of Heavenly things is the sweetest Manna which the Soul tasteth in the wilderness of this world She is ever crying out O Glory O Bliss O Happiness how have ye struck me to the heart O when will the happy day come that I shall sit at this Fountain-head and not need with pain to draw the water of pleasure When shall I arrive at this sweet Ravishment and Extasie Alas my dulness my weakness my drowsiness yea ever and anon is she crying out Oh the compassion of that Physitian which finding his Patients in a Phrensie and knowing that nothing could preserve their life but the loss of his own is contented to die not onely for those who were the causers of his death but the Actors and instruments themselves Solomon saith That Love is as strong as death Cant. 8.6 But if we examine the strength of each we shal find Love to be the stronger It s true all earthly things submit to the power of death young and old Kings and Peasants Scepters and Spades are all alike to him Not the Supremacy of the King also not the holiness of the Prophet as we see in David not the gravity of the High Priest verified in Eli to his Sons Not the wisdom of Solomon or the strength of Sampson are any way exempted from owing Homage or paying tribute to Love as unto Death If we compare also the acts of Love with those of Death we shall find Love not onely as powerful and universal but much stronger Death being only seen in taking the Rich the Strong the Wise the Young the Great But O behold how Love hath prevailed over the Son of God the Saviour and life of the world See how he submitted himself to his death out of Love Was it not Love and onely Love that wrestled with God and overcame him in this that he should leave the Heavens and lay down his life submitting himself to that death which had no power over him O my God what do I here see what is this my eyes behold Truly my Lord my God! death hath transported thee even to Extasie Alas what shall I say to thee my heart overwhelming love when I consider how many Millions are swallowed up in Eternal perdition while I am one of that small number thou hast brought to the light of knowing thee and finding the narrow way to salvation Why didst thou set thine eyes upon me preferring a wretch before so many thousands was it because I was Nobler or more excellent then they Ah no! O my Soul what dost thou expect if this be not enough to set thee on fire Look about thee and behold yet a further endearment see thy own Country thy Neighbours Acquaintance thy Kindred and Friends yea how many maist thou find of all degrees more worthy of acceptation then thy self Oh how the Soul is fill'd with a Seraphick Love with a fire drawn from the most pure flames of Heaven which is uncessantly burning being shut up within a melting heart without consuming and which like a Diamond in the midst of a thousand Hammers is never moved with all their violence is never tempted with the glittering of Honours but is alwayes tempering of Gall with the most delicious contentments of this life to follow her Jesus her wounded Jesus her Jesus that was crucified for her Still is she crying out to her self whence come those Lights those Joyes those Pleasures Consolations and Hopes which are thus above our strength and wherewith we often find our thoughts to be transported and raised above our selves Is it not from thee O Jesus who enters into our Soul and becomes our Comforter we need not seek thee in Heaven seeing thou art thus in our heart and there utterest thy Oracles O do thou still raise us above all the concupisences of flesh let us ever love and dilate our selves in thee which thus fillest us with the height of thy Glories Let the sweet familiarity we have with thee our Redeemer steal from us all extraordinary care of the worlds employments Though we are within the world let us be nothing less then of the world Let us like Fishes live silent in the roaring of the waves and keep our selves freshamidst the brinywaters of the Sea of this world yea like the beams of the Sun let us touch the Earth but never leave Heaven And since mercy provoked changeth it self into severe Justice and what Creatures then are there which will not punish a fugitive Soul which flyes from her Saviour through her ingratitude when he draws her to him by the sweetness of his love O let me above all things fear to be forsaken of thee my God! O let not mine eyes be the snares of my Soul Blessed Lord thou hast given thy self for a portion thy Son for a Ransom Rom. 8.32 Ier. 10.16 Psal 16.5 thy Spirit for a Pledge thy Word for a Guide and thy glorious Kingdom for an Inheritance and alas how unable am I to value the least of thy blessings much less to repay thee any thing for them since I am infinitely below all thy mercies and had I any thing worthy thy acceptance it were all thine and I could offer nothing to thee but thine own What then shall I do but throw my heart to the feet of thy bounty all naked all melted without self-will or povver of resistance Lord do thy pleasure upon me 1 Sam. 3.8 Howbeit I will not despair of my Disease vvhilst I remember the Physitian Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean Yea I hope I am even now under thy healing hand And though during my continuance in this Body many infirmities oppress me yet vvill I never leave craving what thou hast taught me alvvayes to ask Give me therefore a Gracious disposition a more watchful obedience to thy law a more mortified conversation for the future and more sorrow and contrition of heart for what is past O let my eyes be open to see the shortness of
into Adamant are the Eternal Springs of Lebanon dryed up are the Heavens become Iron that no drops of dew can distill down to refresh thy languishing Soul Where are now thy old friends which were so much delighted with thy Glory upon mount Tabor who lately sung so cheerfully at thy entering into Hierusalem yea even solemnly protested their readiness to die with thee Alas they are all asleep so fast so dead asleep that neither shame nor compassion on their Masters disconsolate condition can make them to say so much as one short prayer for themselves Oh weak condition of humane friendship unhappy and miserably deluded are all they who build on so false a Bottom How far better is it to trust in God then Man O ill requited Master is this the fruit of all thy Teachings Is this thy reward for all thy Benefits Is this the Profit of all thy Wonders thou hast made amongst them What though Judas were tempted with the glittering of Silver which dazels the eyes of all the World yet what Plea have thy beloved Disciples to excuse their dulness their coldness and want of Love Though Earth fail Heaven should be kind And now O my Soul thou who hast been witness to this great Spectacle What shall not this strange and incomparable love of thy Saviour make thee wholly to go out of thy self Look if thou are able to look at so glorious a Light or judge of so infinite charity and tell me what thou canst do Canst thou love any thing after this but thy Lord Jesus Canst thou affect any thing but thy dear Saviour Can thy greatest troubles or hardships distaste thee Thou complainest indeed of thy Sufferings but weigh them in this Ballance and alas how little cause hast thou to complain Ah! what poor flea-bitings are those which thou art afflicted with in respect of the Torments thy Saviour underwent for thee whom thou thus seest to have traced out the way with his own gored footsteps having his Head Crown'd with Thorns his shoulders charg'd with the infamous Burden of the Cross his ears pierced with Reproachful speeches and his eyes floating with Tears in which condition he ascended mount Calvary and invites thee to follow him Were they not thy sins O my Soul which were the Nails that fastned his Hands and his Feet were they not the Spears which pierced his sacred side Look upon thy Hypocrisie which was the kiss that betrayed him Behold thy Back-slidings which made his Soul weary to death which caused the withdrawment of his Fathers love and made him cry out that he was forsaken Hath Christ endured so much for thee and wilt thou not suffer a little for him Ah happy is that Affliction which is raised from thy Saviours love How rich shall we be when we have him for our Portion yea how high when we shall see a true contempt of the world under our feet Maist thou forbid O blessed Jesus that I should go about any worldly Throne which carries not thy Scepter or that I should talk of Honours when there is mention made of thy Holy Cross Let all greatness where thou art not be baseness unto me and let me mount up unto thee by those stairs of Humility whereby thou camest down to me O let me kiss the paths of that Mount which thou hast sprinkled with thy precious Bloud and esteem that Cross above all earthly things which thou hast consecrated by thy cruel pains Alas is it not a shameful thing that God should seek us among the heats of his Love and Sufferings and yet we cannot be found by him Shall we not forsake all the Disorders of a sensual life which hinder the effect of his Grace shall we not with the Samaritan woman forsake and leave behind us our Pitcher that we may return full of Jesus Christ shall we not bid farewel to all those occasions which lead us to sin O dear Saviour the most pure of all Beauties since it is for thee that so many Champions have peopled Deserts and passed the stream of bitterness and sorrow bearing their Crosses after thee and amongst the most cruel of dolours have felt the sweetness of thy presence shall I shed no Tears for those sins that pierced thee shall Jesus carry so many Thorns upon his Head and shall I have none in my heart Alas my Soul canst thou behold a Crown of Thorns grafted upon a man of sorrow what Spectacle alas is this no more a man but a skin dispoiled and bloody taken from the teeth of Tigers and Leopards Every stroak made a wound every wound a fountain of blood O hideous Prodigies which took away from us the light of the Sun and covered the Moon with a sorrowful darkness Heaven wears mourning upon his Cross all the Citizens of Heaven weep over his Torments The Earth quakes the Stones rend the Sepulchres open the Dead arise and all to teach us by insensible Creatures the pitty we should take of his Sufferings And in conclusion of all what should we hence learn but imitating our blessed Saviour who having sadness in his Soul even to death yea taking up a resolution and deprecation in the approaches thereof cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me willingly to submit to all those Sufferings he shall think fit to lay upon us Neither to be any way fearful or solicitous in what manner God will please to take us to him or in the least manner to be troubled touching the place hour or manner of our Dissolution since he that made us best knows how to dispose of us as he please who can give us a Cordial in our greatest fainting Fits and therefore his will ought to be the rule of our Life and Death our Sufferings and our Sorrows since from him who is all goodness of himself we cannot expect any thing but the best Are we mortal and shall we grieve to die Shall we not gladly drink of that Cup whereof our Saviour hath begun Death is unwelcom onely to those who have not mortified their desires and affections here while they lived why then should we have regret to leave so miserable a lise Why should we be unwilling to bid adieu and quit this place where we have endured so many Deaths and which hath so long been the place of our sorrows O my God! what a vain fear then is that which startles me what a sad Pensiveness which over-spreads me Oh when and where shall I take my flight unto thee Do not tell me O dear Saviour there is a great Chaos between thee and me since thou hast already passed it and wilt thou not then lift me up by thy mercy I am here as within the Deserts of Africa in a burning world the drought whereof makes it a habitation for Devils O my God! I am tormented in this flame until some Lazarus be found to dip the end of his finger in thy blood to allay the burning of my thirst and restore me into the bosome of a merciful God O bessed day when we shall be free from sorrow and suffering but not from comfort where we shal rest from our Labours and perfectly injoy the most perfect God who as he is love it self will perfectly love us yea love us for ever O comfortable words how sweet must they needs be to our ears how refreshing to our wearied Senses and languid Spirits Ah What smiles shall we then perceive in that face of Sorrows and with whom we have here suffered when he shall pronounce that joyful sentence Come ye blessed of my Father shal we then repent our Sufferings and Sorrows are not the Tears of Repentance sweet unto us This is that joy which was procured by sorrow This is that Crown which was procured by the Cross Jesus did weep that our Tears might be washed away Our Saviour bled that we might not be wounded O blessed Love Oh in what a frame will our Soul then be who can express who can conceive the infinite love and unexpressible joy of so happy a Union so sweet a Reconcilement who can question the love which he doth so sweetly taste or doubt of that vvhich vvith such joy he feeleth vvhen vve shall be incircled in Eternity and for ever praise him FINIS
fading pleasures these little Ant-hills which enflame thy heart Thy Country is no longer Earth behold the great Globe of Heaven all replenished with glorious Lights why do we so extreamly torment our poor life running after this worlds shadows which we cannot follow without trouble nor possess without fear nor lose without sorrow He that cloaths the flowers of the Meadows more gorgeously then Monarchs who lodgeth so many little Fishes in golden and azure shells He who but openeth his hand and replenisheth all Nature with his blessings will never forsake us at our need if we love him and keep his Commandments A man that must die needs very few worldly things but whole Kingdoms will not satisfie covetousness O my God Shall I always then fly after that which flies from me and never follow Jesus who follows me and even loves me when I am ungrateful Ah no more let me run after the vanishing Beauties of a deceitful world Our love to Jesus should be like the Needle in the Seamans Chard which though it be ever moving and casting about as it were to several parts yet it still returns and retains its whole setled course to the true Pole-star It should be like the Oak the Hart and the Elephant which as Naturalists observe are long liv'd and not like Pincks Roses and Tulips flowers of sight and smell but delightful only for a few hours If you will examine King David the man after Gods own heart he will tell you he hath conquered the Bear and the Lyon and that great Gyant Goliah yet was not satisfied He had stept from a Sheep fold to a Crown yet was not contented He had subdued all his Enemies and Rebels yet had he no rest until he enjoyed Heaven I have a goodly Heritage saith he but the Lord is the fulness of my Inheritance in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. And therefore it is that he again saith Psal 73.24 There is none O Lord upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee We finde all sublunary bodies compounded of the four Elements and all the goods of the Body reduced to four heads First Life under which we understand health strength and beauty of Body Secondly Honour under which may be comprised Titles Offices Priviledges and Retinue Thirdly Wealth Lands Money and Revenues have place Fourthly Pleasures which are as various as there are objects of our senses pleasing to our taste sight touch hearing and smell Now though all these ordinately desired and lawfully used may be both useful and lawful yet are they not able to satisfie the soul longer then a wind or lightning And therefore man should not and indeed truly he cannot set his love upon them And alas O poor soul What canst thou finde in all other loves which prove no other then that of Sampson who paid so dearly for relying on his trecherous Dalilah or as the Prodigals Lovers in the Gospel who like Mice Whores and Swallows make love and frequent the house in the Summer of prosperity or like Lice who continue no longer then there is sweat to nourish them but in the end like Actaeon's hounds prove your destroyers The like we finde of Job's friends and of those the Prophet mentions Isa 1.23 Who loved gifts and followed after Rewards Not much unlike to those were the seeming friends of King David of whom he so often complains and prays against as being of his Council and eating his bread Psal 54. yet while they had butter and oyl on their lips their hearts and tongues were spears swords and very poyson And as these to David were more dangerous then his publique enemies for of those saith he I could have taken heed so are all the false Loves of Delight Feature Beauty or other parts or gifts Yea their Loves are like the Apples of Sodom or like that creature called Acucena which at twice handling yeilds out an ill savour or as the flowers of the Garden which long hold neither colour nor scent Ye then which cry Come and let us crown our selves with Roses Let us eat drink and take our fill of love Ah! How suddenly are you and your loves vanished And your place no where to be found How do ye starve like Tantalus in the midst of all your glory and abundance How doth that which seemeth so much to encrease your felicity occasion your punishment Yea How doth the pain you meet with mix gall and bitterness with all the sweet appearances of the world What wanted Solomon of all the desireable things under heaven He had seven hundred Wives and three hundred Concubines He built himself stately Palaces adorn'd them with variety of Orchards and Gardens He had Attendants answerable to his Wealth and Glory yet when he weighed all together instead of proclaiâ—ing himself happy he cryed out All is but vanity and vexation of spirit Prov. 1.1 How great then alas is our folly to seek and expect our happiness here in the best enjoyments and most pleasing delights the world holds forth unto us Sit no longer then O my Soul by the fire of earthly comforts where the cold of carn I fears and sorrows do still afflict thee Wilt thou house thy self still on worldly thoughts and confine thy self to worldly dulness Away with those Soul-tormenting cares and fears Away with those Heart-vexing worldly sorrows Stand by a little O forbear to trouble my aspiring soul whilst I look up and see my eternal happiness whilst I lay aside my mourning robes and partake the joys of an everlasting Spring Happy change to leave these clods of earth and perpetually enjoy the glory of the Sun Blessed Conquest to tryumph on earth and enjoy heaven to conquer death and enjoy life to withdraw thy love from a wretched world and wholly fix it on thy Saviour the Fountain of all true love and goodness O that I were able O that I could feelingly say I love thee But ah Lord What is a Feast without an appetite Thou must give me a stomack as well as meat Thou mayst set the Dainties of Heaven before me but alas I am blinde and cannot see them I am sick and cannot relish them I am benummed and cannot receive them O then thou Spirit of Life breathe thy Graces upon me Take me by the hand and lead me up from earth to thy self that I may see by faith what thou hast laid up for them that love and wait for thee That the Soul can take pleasure in nothing until it meet with satisfaction from its Maker GOd having concluded our salvation in Love shews us that the best and speediest way to be happy is to love him who is the Author of our felicity and the immoveable Sun about which so many changes and agitations of all Creatures circumvolve which continually groan and aim at this first Beauty as the true Center of everlasting repose Oh this is the most assured way
dedicated to the Fantasies of our Spirits Let Reason get the upperhand of our Passion let our eyes be fast setled upon the Law of God which tells us that there is never any thing lost by being faithful unto him And let us still represent to our selves the short pleasure which accompanies sin and the remorse of Conscience which follows it and it will tend much towards the extinguishing of the Flames of Love to break all its Darts and to make us sole master of our captivating Lusts Neither is dissoluteness of habit the least sign and fore-runner of the Adulteries of the minde many having this way made so proud a monument of their vanity as to erect an Eternal Reproach of their punishment Heaven and Earth must be turned over Nature must be forced and all Arts wearied out to serve as instruments to Pride and Luxury and to what end serves those false Guiess those costly Jewels those shameless Flies patchings and paintings wherewith women daub and besmear their Faces unless to destroy Chastity To what end serves the nakedness of their Neck and Breasts How little do these things speak or breathe the odour of Vertue but much rather expose shame to their Sex and scandal to civil decency Surely whosoever thus appears too quaint before the world can hardly carry a sound heart before God And Tertullian bewailing the furniture and equipage of such a Woman saith Quasi ad pompam funeris constitutam Tert. de Hab. Mulieris It would be more fit for the setting forth of her Funerals then the ornament of her body which indeed would seem better adorned if cloathed like Eve with simple skins then in such vain and worldly Pomps Our Affections and services can no longer be pleasing to the Saviour of the world when we are thus engaged to false Divinities Poor Creatures then as we are to love rather to measure the world in its vanity then to possess it in the love of God! To prefer darkness before the Sun Thorns before Grapes Acorns before good Corn and not to place our affections on our Jesus who was crucified for us Proud dust and ashes as we are since born with supereminency of body and seeming the goodliest Creatures of the world why should we go about to beg glory from poysons of the Earth from worms and spoils of the dead You then that have no other Idol but Beauty who worship no other Deities but pleasure and Ambition O consider that as a Rose adorned with its own leaves obscures the Beauty of all other Flowers so the best Art is to have no Art to take whatever Nature hath given and to render all to God Let not your thoughts strike sail to Affection let not your hearts do homage to that Beauty which will ensnare and imprison you in the Fetters of sin but rather timely resist the influence of your amorous assaults being the Rocks whereon many have sadly suffered shipwrack the Fountain which sends forth many poysoned streams and the Tree whose fruit is bitter to the stomach how pleasing soever it be to the palate Consider further how that in an instant God can turn your vessel of gold into an earthern Pot. For alas what a short life have we here Love saith one may be compared to the Punais Worm which bites while she liveth and after death maketh her infection to be felt The sin of the body too often begins in that of the face which is insensibly eaten with painting and poyson and too often do we derive Beauty from corruption Neither do I know a better way to stop the beginnings of Lust then to think of the end thereof Those that in the first Temptation will but take the pains to draw the Curtain shall behold such a huge Gulph of scandals injuries rages lothsomness and despairs as that they would as willingly almost descend into hell alive as consent to this brutish Passion Who would not account him mad who always walks in solitude who courts a shaddow who sigheth laugheth feareth waxeth pale blusheth desireth hateth dieth riseth again is now in earth and straightway in heaven in one hour acteth a Comedy of a dozen Personages and every minute changeth and metamorphoseth himself What a silly thing is it to see any one thus to trouble and vex himself in pursuit of a wylie Wench that delights to exercise Her most infamous Tyrannie Is it not a pitiful thing to see a man burn in Ice and congeal in Fire Having the colour wan the Visage meagre the eyes hollow the cheeks sunk the spirits giddy the reason uncollected and the whole Body Feverish and distemper'd for a creature that will soon fail his expectation Who is there that will not condemn that King who suffered his Minion to take off his Crown and set her Slippers on his head That Dionysius the Tyrant should write the expeditions of his Kingdom and that Mirrha his Wife should Cancel or Signe them at her pleasure Who would not be astonished at the Roman Macarius who having conquered Love in the world was surprized in the Wilderness by finding a Womans Shooe And yet may we daylie observe an infinite number of matters much more strange Why go we then about to Idolize a Woman Have we not slavery enough at home but we must needs seek it abroad O let us consider that they which thus suffer their heads to run at liberty after such sottish Loves die a thousand times a day in following of scornful Beauty and have little cause to brag yea though they attain the end of their pretensions their Passions being most violent for things that must quickly be taken from them What a shame is it to observe many who waste so much of their precious time for the kiss of a Hand the touch of a Lip the glance of an Eye the untying of a Shooe-string and the like That they should thus make a Goddess of a piece of Flesh and kiss the Fetters of their slavery instead of breaking them That they should take a glory to sacrifice their Liberty to that Idol whereby at last they suffer a shameful servitude And as for the cruelties attending this Passion What Furies what Poysons what Racks what Swords and Gibbets belong to the violence of enraged Lovers And shall we still rejoyce in the sense-pleasing flatteries of our sensual Desires What Nothing to be seen but Tears Horrour Grief Astonishment and other representations of death And shall we thus Court those flames Shall we embrace that Stake to which we shall be a Martyr Ah! Were we but well awaked with what horrour should we behold the precipices whereinto we are falling How plain should we behold these golden snares which like the Carcanet of Medea or the Trojan Horse will at last bear Arms against us And to the end then that we may not turmoil and weary our selves in the By-paths which directly lead us into the myre of violent affection neither wholly resign our selves over to such
a gross indiscretion I shall shew you the Medeas we often Court under the Story of One who had almost lost his Wits as well as Reputation through the violent pursuit of a Lady he much adored who finding no other slight or stratagem to vanquish the importunate extravagancies of this passionate Lover shewed him her Neck and uncovered her Bosome all gnawn and eaten with a maligne Cancer Behold fond Lover said she what thou so eagerly Courtest and so instantly made the Cancer of her body to cure the Cancer of his minde vitae Patrum Occid l. 6. Is it not a shame to entertain such worldly Amities and petty Loves only to please flesh and blood and which are no sooner disliked by the Eye but distasted by the heart We read of some who have fought with it on Thorns Hair-clothes and other austerities and we finde mention of One who being bound to a Bed of Roses with silken Cords to resigne himself to the love of a Courtezan spit out his Tongue in her Face Some have also asswaged their Passion by flames Others have quenched the heat of their desires in snows Others by living in rocks and solitary wildernesses as if nothing were so invincible and hardly attain'd as this Vertue of Chastity Nothing so difficult as to see all the follies of entranced Lovers But the chiefest way amongst many humane Industries which tend to the curing of Love it being to no end to hold long Discourses and to appoint many Meditations to a sharp Fever which is full of ravings and furious symptomes is to owe all our health this way to the fear of God to Prayer Fasting and Devotion which is far better then all other inventions Make use also often of the memory of death Set an assiduous watch over thy eyes ears heart and senses Avoid anger since anger and love work upon one subject Absent your self from that Presence which is the nourishment of your Flames Those Comets which are said to be fed by the vapours of the Earth are no longer maintained then nourishment is afforded and that Love which burns and shines like a false Star in our heart will soon go out if you refuse sustenance from the face you admire and the company which entertains you in an enchanted Palace full of chains and charms Withdraw your self then betime from this captivity gain the Haven before the storm surprize you for if you be once engaged there is neither Arm nor Oar can bring you safe Let us enter seriously into our selves and daylie consider what passeth there cutting off this Passion which raiseth such a Storm within us Let us ever keep a vigilant Guard lest Satan betray us and our lusts like expert Enemies who politiquely strengthen themselves with all advantages make head against us And lastly Let us throw out this Jesabel who with her Natural cruelty hath slain so many Innocents ruined so many Cities disturbed States and let us come out of that servitude in which like a Mill-wheel we labour much and get little and which hath always folly for guide Poverty for Dowry and Misery for recompence That Outward Ornaments should not invite our Love HE that loves the World and the Glories thereof entertains a thousand businesses and every business hath a world of employments and those so multiplied by variety of circumstances as that it is troublesome to understand them and much more to encounter with them whereas sweet are the sleeps of those who prefer heaven before earth and Chastity and Temperance before the wantonness and impurities of a debauched conversation Why alas then should we ruine our certainties in the fruitless expectation of vanity and shaddows What slender footing will these accessory commodities have when death deformity poverty contempt and sickness are at our heels Let us timely consider then how many boxes full of Pills the fairest Beauties have at home in their Chests to take when the Rheum and other infirmities assail them Since God gives us leave to dispose of our dislodging from these fading Tabernacles shall we not prepare our selves unto it O let us seasonably bid farewel to our company and let us shake off those violent Hold-fasts which estrange us from our future happiness As those eyes seldom burn with Lust which are bedewed with Tears so those who prefer the light of God's presence before all corporal Beauty do easily perceive how little it is to be regarded They will not exchange the glorious Sun for the light of a candle Here they can have no Lightning without the Thunder that makes it seems more dreadful then delightful and therefore will prefer a silent night before a tempestuous day and the everlasting views of the face of God before the false Lights of the world The light of the Sun indeed lighteth all the world but how useless will it be when Jesus who is the true light of the world shall appear in the glory of heaven The Rose looks fair indeed but is not the Beauty faded and the sweetness expired oftentimes before the scars in gathering of it be healed The honey seems pleasant to the taste but alas Who would have it with so many smarting stings Thou then that art taken with a pleasing smile thou whom a sigh a glance or tears beguil oh turn thine eyes aside Forbear to Sayl in so dangerous a Tyde lest Syrens assail or shipwrack attend thee few attaining their desired harbour with such a wind of vanity all thy labour and rowing in so leaking and weather-beaten a Vessel will prove at last but as a handful of waters to a man that is drowning which will help rather to destroy then save him Alas What is the Beauty that thou so admirest When the night comes it is nothing to thee and while thou hast gazed on it Hath it not withered away Canst thou not even shut thy eyes and fancy all into darkness or deformity Or will not a few leprous spots or malignant ulcers soon divert thy affections and make the Idol of thy Love to become the sad spectacle of thy distaste Suppose that thou saw'st that beautiful Carcass lying on a Bier carrying to be buried or rotting in a grave the skul digged up and the bones scattered where will be thy lovely object Canst thou then love a skin full of dirt Or didst thou but behold thy beautiful Dalilah thy lovely Mistris on a dying Bed panting schrieching groaning turning from one side to another and panting for breath her eyes gastfully rolling her lips fading her hands trembling her mouth distorted through violent Convulsions those White and Reds so much admired turn'd into a black swarthiness and her whole body declining into clay Ah tell me now what thou thinkest Canst thou now sweetly embrace it or take any pleasure in it O my Soul then Withdraw thy thoughts from the fading Beauties of the world Let not the shaddow but the Sun direct thee Labour to fix thy eyes upon the only true and lovely object
of thy eternal happiness That when all Loves fail the Love of God remains THe Soul of man is unsatisfied nothing but the Creator thereof will content it It walks but sadly amongst the Riches Honours and Dignities of the world all the joys glories and beatitudes of the earth afford it no comfort It wholly represents God as the beginning and end of all things and is ravished with its glory as poor creatures use to be with the heat of the Sun It is he alone which the soul seeks esteems and honours All that she sees hears or understands besides is nothing to her if it carry not his Name and take colour from his Beauty she well knows she shall get all by loving him and death it self which comes from his Love is the gate of Life Here we every night finde a little death in our sleep sickness and pains are still subject to overtake us neither indeed do we know what belongs to a Crown Scepter or Kingdom while we are in this base life But surely had we talked only one quarter of an hour with a blessed Soul departed and discoursed of the State of the other life Oh! How would our heart dissolve into desires How would we hasten to go out of that ruinous house where of we are but Tenants How would we be ravished to hear these words Go faithful soul out of this Body go out with joy in full peace and safety the eternal mountains those glorious Heavens and all the goodly company of Angels and blessed Spirits which there inhabite will there receive thee Go on confidently behold God is ready to wipe away all thy Tears No more sorrows no more clamours behold an Estate altogether new Oh What Repose What Peace What cessation of Troubles shall we there meet with Our Saviour met the Young-man that was carried to Burial at the Gate of Naim Luke 7.11 which is interpreted The Town of Beauties to shew us that neither Beauty nor Youth are freed from the Laws of Death And it was not impertinately storyed of a young man who going eagerly after the pursuit of his Lusts met a dead Corps in his way which occasion'd his return and the future amendment of that and other his exorbitant and lascivious courses And truly as the consideration of our ashes will humble us under the greatest Pride so will it abate and consume our burning Lust he being very strong by Nature or wicked by his own choice who will not amend himself having ashes for his Glass and death for his Mistris Oh! What then is it silly dust and ashes that thus strangely enflames thy swelling veins when the least breath or shew of death is like Belshazzar's hand-writing on the Wall ever ready to affright thee Wilt thou then pursue those seeming joys and fancies which will at last vanish into a dejected Melancholy Wilt thou unadvisedly let loose the Reins of thy affections towards the enjoyment of such perishing Pleasures If so oh How dearly wilt thou buy thy folly What are we alas and what is all we call ours To day we flourish and are well spoken of we please and are in favour with men But out alas our flower will fade to morrow and we shall be evil spoken of and out of favour with God and man And whither tends all this O my soul but to tell thee that thou art made to wait on thy Lord and Spouse and wholly to thirst after Divine things neither must thou ever think to attain perfect rest and happiness in the troublesome Bed of this world Three cubits of earth will suffice us and how little or much soever we possess how beautiful or deformed soever we are this is all shall be left us Yet how often O God! doth it come to pass that for a little deceitful Beauty a little fugitive honour a little filthy pleasure and that not long we so slightly regard the joys of heaven neither dread the everlasting pains of hell He that but truly be-thinks himself of Haman's pride of Belshazzar's sacriledge Ahab's covetousness Absolon's hair Sampson's locks and Dives riches shall quickly finde that these things wherein we most presum'd and which we esteem'd our best support may suddenly become the occasion of our ruine and destruction You then that say Come and let us enjoy the pleasures that are let us take our fill of precious wine and sweet perfumes and no way lose the flower of our time let us crown our selves with Roses before they fade away and let no meadow be untraversed by us O that ye would but a little apprehend that what this way seems most to afford you content exposeth you a hundred times a day to the hazard of your lives For how little alas is the continuance at best of all the favours of Fortune When one Sun-shine of pleasure is past in comes a Tempest and when one storm is dispersed how are we again cast into new despairs and at last with what dreadful complaints able to rend Rocks and Marbles asunder will we lament our sins then presented unto us like so many Furies which heretofore we esteemed so light If then at any time thou art taken with the Syren and pleasing smiles of the world if thou seem here to content thy self in the beholding of earthly Palaces rich furniture exquisite pictures and sweet Perfumes if thou seem here to please thy melancholy Fancy in high Mountains goodly Forrests rich Marbles fair Meadows pleasant Rivers and beautiful Flowers O do but be-think thy self What are these What is this to Heaven What is this to Eternity All being but a little Atome to the unspeakable joys of the Celestial Paradice Earthly delights may I confess astonish but can never satiate our senses Temporal Beauty is but a transitory charm an illusion of our senses a Flower which hath but a moment of life and a Dyal which we never look on but when the Sun shines What is humane glory but a Dunghil covered with snow a Glass painted with false colours a sugar'd Fruit gilded with poyson or a dangerous Hostess in a fair House Shall we then trust so fading a good Shall we hazard our Souls in so unhappy a snare Or shall we tye out contentments to so slippery a knot Or dote upon temporal goods which like chirping Birds give us only a little Musick in the Summer and so fly away There are some who upon these words of the Psalmist By the waters of Babylon we sate down and wept have compared the temporal goods and delights of the world to these Waters not only for their swift running away and never returning but for their trouble in procuring and their sorrow in losing and well may we therefore hang up our Harps and sit down weeping while we live in this Babylon of Captivity And surely Wisdom tells us that such is the vanity of all earthly goods as that there is nothing so great in this Vale of Tears whose loss should any way disquiet us VVhat
of this sink of sadness this skin full of groans this snow-bail of Tears this Carcass of fears this channel of the waâ—â—rs of affliction and betake thy self wholly into the arms of thy Saviour The Soul complaineth of her Condition and Misery by reason of the darkness and ignorance of sin THe Spirit of Man naturally tendeth to God as its first cause neither can take any contentment without him though too often indeed hindered by the weight of the Body and the bait of Concupiscence He will what God will loves what God loves and if in this wayfaring life his love sticks upon frivolous objects which like foolish Fires lead him into precipices and dangerous paths he speedily complains how much he is misguided Now the reason hereof is That as every thing tendeth to the imitation of its Original so a Soul truly Christian hath all its strength and vigour from God He is the end of all his works and if God chance to fail it the whole Fabrick of its salvation falls to the ground When a gracious heart hath its eyes cleared by the Rays of Divine Majesty he is at the end of its journey and no longer entertaineth a multiplicity of desires since he hath found the Center of Eternal rest And well then may the Soul of man which is out of the Limits which God hath assign'd it finde Inns to lodge in but never finde a Home to reside in Alas then what is our life and the affairs of man That which is past is nothing the present is a fantasie and the future an Abyss where even those that stand on the brink see not any thing Our life only is hid in Christ as saith the Apostle And surely he only who knows how to accommodate himself to the Will of his Saviour knows only how to live and hath found the industry of an infinite happiness in the accomplishment of his desires Neither is there any thing so turmoiled so torn and so divided as a Soul which hath always before it the Image of its own crimes And this is it which makes the Vermilion of the cheeks to fade that maketh paleness to overspread all the face hence is it that a miserable man being fallen as it were into a Tempest not foreseen cryes out Humane hopes where are ye Ah true dreams of aery Fancies Fleeting fires which shine not but to extinguish your selves and being put out bereave us of all true light leaving only the ill savour and sorrow of losing all your seeming glories To what shall I compare your Beauties but to those who carry under a smooth face a heart spotted like the skin of a Panther What are your Pleasures but like those enchanted Islands which recoyl backward and vanish when men most think to approach them Alas my Tears What fitness can ye finde to bemoan my misery Alas my eyes Why are those flames which once so sweetly blazed in you now fallen into an Eclipse My voice is interrupted and words imperfectly spoken all the Organs and Bands of my Body are loosened and untyed Oh how doth fear and trembling spread it self over all the Basis of Natures building Nor is this evil passion content only to seize on our Body but it flyeth to the superiour Region of our Soul to cause disorder robbing it almost in a moment of memory understanding judgement will courage yea rendering us benumm'd dull and stupid in all our actions and would a thousand times overcome us with Melancholy were it not from the consolations drawn from the fountain of true piety Alas O Lord How is our Soul confounded to see so many sparkles of pride lust and covetousness arise from this Caitiff dust which we are compos'd of So little do we learn how to live and so late how to die which made S. Austin cry out My God my life and my happiness I confess my misery unto thee after so many temporal consolations have separated me from thee Thus is the poor Soul ever bewailing her condition and bedewing that face with mournful Tears wherein God once caused the sanctity of a gracious heart to be resplendent And though formerly it had seem'd chearful yet now alas behold it though heretofore retaining the vigour of holy alacrity altogether dissolved with austerities and maladies Nothing but spectres of terrors ruine outrages solitudes darknesses revengeful thunders and innovations extreamly weaken and affright the heart until at last having reckoned up the dolours which on every side environed her Saviour she raiseth up her self like the Palm against the weight of her afflictions O inestimable Bounty O greatness unheard of O inexhaustible love of God! whose goodness is such not only thus to divert our miseries and fit them to our condition but even from our Tears to draw sweetness and consolation for our solace Now as pious Hannah forsook all the distracted looks which sorrow caused in her after she had conceived the little Samuel so doth the poor Soul being again honoured with the re-enjoyment of God in its heart drive away all the disturbances of grief and sadness Oh saith she what thoughts of Satan are these to deliver up my self to distrust of comfort in the sight of a Jesus who beareth my reconciliation on his sacred wounds and pleadeth my cause before his eternal Father with as many mouths as my sins in him have made wounds It is not possible I should doubt of his love and fatherly goodness if I look upon his hands I shall there see it written with those nails that pierc'd them I shall see it in his side which was opened for me by that Lance which digged out the remainder of his life Alas Who was more destitute then man more brutish and ignorant in so great a night and horrible confusions Who was more unfurnished with wise directions And yet he affordeth us his examples Who more forlorn And yet he adopteth us for children Who more needy And yet he giveth us the treasure of his merits Who more hungry And yet he feedeth us with his flesh and blood Who more imhappy And yet how doth he divide every part of his body amongst us O goodly spectacle to behold How he blesseth us with his presence How he replenisheth us by his greatness How he governeth us by his power and sanctifieth us by his influences Oh for ever unhappy If after so many benefits we remain still faithless and ungrateful Lord As thou revealest to me more of my misery so reveal also more of thy mercy I confess my self indeed to be too often intangled in some pleasant or profitable Lust Satan is the Bellows my corruption the tinder and the world the wilde-fire to burn my soul and so dangerously to withdraw my love as that although O my Saviour thou art still calling me yet am I loth to leave my Bed of ease Cant. 5.1 How justly then to prevent my spiritual pride mayest thou leave me in ignorance and darkness as thou didst thy Spouse yea to go to
enquire to pray and yet not finde the light of thy presence But O Lord Leave not this poor Soul of mine but make it to understand the unmeasurableness of thy Bounties and Mercy Oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish and darksome shall be turned into a full and clear Vision O happy darkness if thus to become lightsome The more hidden thou art now blessed Saviour the more glorious wilt thou be then Ah that my heavie thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft amongst those celestial Quires Me-thinks I see when thou shalt be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortal body which now detains me from thy presence and interrupts the view of thy glory how nothing will be able to hinder the eagerness of my Soul from flying to thee Me-thinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy thee Surely there 's no possibility of pleasure without thee no faculty of Soul to wish or think any thing but thee yea my Soul would more willingly wain into nothing then part with thee Thee my only incomprehensible and Eternal All my dear dearest Lord and God! Adieu then those charming warbles of a fleeting and deceitful world O merciful Father Behold my prodigal Soul which returns unto thee Receive me as a mercenary servant if thou wilt not receive me as a Son for I resolve no longer now to run after the salt waters of worldly pleasures and contentments The light of thy countenance is far better then life it self being able to turn the shaddows of death into life and the midnight of the sharpest adversities into the noon-tide of joy and chearfulness Oh how great is the clemency of God to hide from us the greatest part of things which will befal us in the world The knowledge whereof would continually overwhelm our wretched life with sadness and affrightment and give us no leave to breathe among the delicious Objects of the earth Had many great and eminent persons mounted on the highest degree of honour but seen how they were still falling into endless Abysses or beheld the change of their Fortune and the bloody ends of their life it is impossible but the joys of their Tryumphs would have been moistned with Tears and through a perpetual fear of inevitable necessity they would have lost all the moments of their felicity And did the poor and seemingly forsaken Soul thorowly at once apprehend the severe anger of an omnipotent God what alas would it do when it sees it self menaced by the hideous and affrightful terrors and mischiefs of Satan What shall the poor heart do when God is pleas'd to write bitter things against it when he shall scare it with dreams and terrifie it with Visions Surely not pains imprisonments poverty or death it self can be more troublesome to it Whereas the comforts of a quiet conscience becalmed with the gracious in-comes of Gods gracious presence and enlightned with his glorious Beams which expel the darkness and ignorance of our cursed Nature as are so many threads of gold which involve us here below in precious repose and a certain expectation of beatitude until at last we finde wings to take our flight to the City of Peace and Refuge promised unto us by that mouth which never erred and whose Laws are established upon foundations stronger then the pillars of heaven and earth and where we shall receive the excellent Promises and clearest revelations of Eternity The Soul admires the infinite Riches of her Saviours Love in taking Humane Nature upon him WIth what admiration is not the heart of man seized on when he entereth into the great Abysses which are discovered in our Redemption and when he seeth Jesus a Saviour to reveal unto us the secrets and wisdome of heaven by his blessed Incarnation For what saw he in our Nature but a brutish body and a Soul all covered over with crimes and wholly drenched in remediless miseries Or what could he set before him but a miserable ungracious wretch cast forth upon the face of the Earth wallowing in uncleanness abandoned to all sorts of scorns and injuries And yet behold how the Prince of Glory looking on us with the eyes of his mercy taketh us washeth cloatheth adorneth and tyeth us to himself by a hand of infinite Love He laid aside the beautiful Angels and came upon earth to seek this lost creature though a Foe to his Honour and injurious to his Glory See O my Soul How that God far beyond all other created Essences hath been so liberal as to bestow himself on thee He bowed the Heaven and came down rendering his sacred Person subject to all the misery of humanity to bruises to tearings to shatters to violences oppositions and tyrannies and all to accomplish a King of sorrow calamity and scorn He laid aside all the Prerogatives of his most perfect Soul exposing it to labours to tears and griefs to those stupendious Throws in the Garden which made him cry out in those expressive words My God! My God! To what a point hast thou let me to be brought and in the end to be commended even to death it self How alas didst thou abandon thy body to heat to cold to weakness to hunger to thirst to travel to weariness to fear to sadness of Soul and death it self What was it but Love and Love alone that brought down God from heaven to be incarnate in the womb of a Virgin and to suffer all the hardships not sinful to which humane Nature is subject So that thou art not able to conceive the multitude and greatness nor any way comprehend the worth of his mercies And what then canst thou say but only lie gasping with admiration of so vast so unknown a goodness and sigh out the rest in the Center of thy heart Good God What sublimate is made in the Limbeck of Love What attractive was there in Humane Nature to draw thee from the highest part of the heavens to its love Thou out of thy goodness wouldst not lose him who through his own weakness delighteth to lose himself O miracle That humane Nature should be thus tyed to the Divine That glory should be separated from the estate and condition of glory yeilding his Soul up as a prey to sadness O dear Saviour Thou stretchest out thy hand to him who turns his back to thee Man flyeth as a Fugitive and thou pursuest him even to the shaddow of Death What may we say more of so profuse a Bounty Oh how thou courtest sinful flesh Being not content to pardon his crimes but even through thy own death to procure him a Kingdom All the ancient Patriarchs who were persecuted in times past and all the glorious Martyrs who since our Saviour have endured such torments made but a tryal of his Dolours Impatient souls then as we are Can we expect a greater motive to suffering then to have our Saviour for an example Who then will complain Or who is the man who cannot bear a
inexplicable sweetnesses of his bounty O the excellency of divine Love which thus causeth a Calm to be found in a Tempest Safety in the midst of Dangers Life on the brinck of Death Comfort in Disasters an Upholding in the midst of Weakness and which protects so many people under the shadow of its Branches Happy Souls which flyes hence into heaven enricht with the purple stains of so heavenly a Fountain yea happy are the wounds from whence flow so much virtue and goodness What greater mercy could there be then to see a Humane Nature sought unto by God which was once despoiled of the Robe of Honour and Diadem of Glory as a just chastisement of its Rebellions and condemned to a Prison of Flames and Darkness even then when it was unable to free it selfe and when neither Angel nor Man could deliver it from the misery whereinto it was plunged To see it I say sought unto by God when it flew from him and to consider how so heavenly a Father transported with unspeakable love said unto it Take my only Son to redeem thee from thy many remediless calamities And this onely Son disdaineth not to become its Ransom and delivered himself for it to Torments so enormious and Confusions so hideous What shall we further admire in the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation Can there be any thing in the world greater then a Man-God If we cast our eyes on our heavenly Father we there see a work of the power of his Arm wherein he seems to have exhausted all his strength The Heaven and the Stars saith Gregory Nyssen were but the works of the Fingers of this divine Majesty but in the Incarnation he proceedeth with all the extent of his might with all the Engines of his power and Miracles of his greatness Blessed Jesus who can chuse but love and adore thee who wert not content onely to reconcile us to thy Father but espousedst our Nature and unitedst it to thy selfe by an indissoluble Band we naturally use to shew an aversion and dislike to such persons as are loathsome mishapen and infected and if with those defects we find a Soul wicked ungrateful and an Enemy to God we conceive him with such horror as that we had need be more then men to endure him But were not we in as bad estate as this for besides the mis-fortunes and calamities which encompassed us on all sides were we not Enemies to God by being too much a friend to our selves and yet all this while he accepteth us and appropriateth us unto himselfe amongst all these contrarieties The Soul checks her selfe for her backwardness and too much neglect of her Saviours invitations WHat imagination is sufficiently powerful to figure to its selfe the ardent dolours of a wounded Soul who desiring to be free and purified from the contagions of the earth and apprehending the shadows of the least sinnes hath its spirit seised on with the consciousness of some more hainous and grosser omissions How hard a matter is it for the Soul to guid the Helm of Reason in so tempestuous a storm of disturbances and in so dead a night of misery to adore the Ray of Gods Providence since almost swallowed in the depth of her sorrows But Nature having at last evicted a huge Tide of Tears she thus sighs out the other in Complaints My God! how justly have my sins deserved this desolate condition yea to endure the Trial of those sorrows which might ever befall the thoughts of a wretched Creature How happy alas are those pure and innocent Souls who have departed from their Bodies when they were ignorant of the sinnes which have approached my knowledge and defiled my thoughts They like little blossoms were cut off in the tenderness of their Age and thrice happy had my Soul been to have been transported into the other world before I had felt that trouble and anguish of Spirit which through the sense and horrour of my sinnes in refusing those gracious tenders of a mercifull Saviour now so sadly afflicts me O wicked and ungrateful heart it is thou which art the source and spring of all my disasters wretch whether goest thou what hast thou to do with the things of the world which will at last ruine thee wilt thou thus cast underfoot the Laws of thy God! Is it not madness to let pass so many golden Harvests which time presents thee and to sow nothing but wind and vanity which onely return thee thorns and sorrows and at last abandons thee as a Pilgrime rob'd and dispoil'd by a Thief O poor Soul wilt thou live rather amongst feavers and burning coals in an inconstant world then tie thy self to the will of God Miserable man to have thy heart fill'd with such restless desires wilt thou like Ravens be ever feeding upon Carrion Is it for such infamous pleasures thou renouncest the delights of heaven unhappy man where wilt thou find place to rest on at the last Dost thou forget the words of the Prophet Jer. 17.11 Silly Partridge thou broodest borrowed Eggs thou hast hatched Birds which were not thine let them fly since thou canst not hold them And canst thou yet fix thy beatitude upon this Gold that Silver that Beauty that Profit and Pleasure as on a little Divinity Is not Jesus thy Saviour enough to content thee must a world be made of Gold and Roses to please thee Alas senseless Soul canst thou have any better Object to behold then a Saviour on the Cross all naked and who in his nakedness giveth all things Oh! how little are all things mortall with him who looks upon a God immortal Blessed Jesus having thee for my guid I will walk confidently in the shades of death since they cannot separate me from the fountain of life I came not into the world glittering with precious Stones neither can I go out poorer then I came Let Poverty then come against me with all its terrours I shall account it a Glory to die poor for a God so dispoiled If Banishment come what need I care what Land be under my feet so my eyes be fixed in Heaven Or what at last can Imprisonment Fetters Gibbets yea death it selfe take from me but a life of Pismires and Flies and a miserable Carkass subject to a thousand deaths And woe unto that Soul the darkness of whose understanding is so great that though Jesus be all light he cannot see him how deprived is that will who though he be all goodness he cannot love How are his affections perverted who though he be all power will yet refuse to submit unto him Alas how art thou estranged from him when thou wert created it was by his power If thou live it is by his bounty if thou move it is by his assistance If thou lie down he sustaineth thee if thou sleep he refresheth thee if thou awake he enlightneth thee if thou read he teacheth thee if thou eat he nourisheth thee if thou art cloathed he warms
worldly desires Wilt thou rather live among Fevers and burning Coals then tie thy selfe to the will of God wretched Rebel wilt thou prostitute thy selfe and have affection in store for a deceiving Creature O ungrateful and faithless Soul the same Paradice that God hath prepared for him self he hath prepared for thee he will that thou possess thy self in him and wilt thou take liberty to fly after all Objects as Bees after Flowers wilt thou flutter up and down like a silly Butter-fly amongst so many Creatures so many desires perpetually hungry ever distant from thy good ever a Traytor to thy own repose and glory wilt thou adventure on a Sea that hath neither bottom nor shore Beggerly Soul which beggest every where miserable Soul which in every place findest want in abundance when wilt thou rally all thy desires into one Period when wilt thou begin to live the life of God to be satisfied with Gods contentment and to be happy with Gods felicity But alas methinks I hear thee say of thy self thou art able to do nothing stretch out thy arms then unto me O mild Saviour a poor Exile I am I confess yet redeemed by thy Blood Cast an eye on me from heaven in these storms of life O lead me to that plâ—ce where thou for ever reignest where youth waxeth not old where life hath no limits where Beauty decayes not where health doth not empair nor love abate If I cannot reach Heaven by my own strength let me go thither by thy love which is the true gate whereby we enter into the Sanctuary eternally to enjoy the sight of the inaccessible Beauty of the divine Presence O God as thou art dispersed throughout us by love so banish all the cursed hatreds of hell and the world and make us love all in thy goodness to possess all in thy fruition Never suffer me O Lord to fill all the sails of my desires with the windy vanities of this world which are more light then Smoak more slippery then Ice whose promises are Perjuries and whose perjuries are forsakings Ah never let us run at random after the transitory honours of the Earth which glister like a worm in rotten wood which prick like Thorns and withdraw our affections from thee who Crownest the Heads of thy Elect with Eternal Garlands Oh let me not live daily in the fits of Fire and Ice for the slight toyes and fading beauty of the world and for such things as for shame we dare not oftentimes express and have neither heart nor thought for thee I see all things which environ me those Riches those Pomps those Honours are but flitting company deceitful and momentary things and serve for nothing but Snares and Prisons Oh then let me look on all the Objects of pleasure not as they are when they first sooth me but when they turn their backs and forsake me All pleasures of sense pass but to the outward skin and all the Flowers of the Garden of this world are without fruition pleasing onely to the Imagination and no way satisfying the desires of a gracious Soul Enter then into thy heart O my Soul and lay thy hand upon thy thoughts and thou shalt find that all thy unhappinesse commeth from being too much tyed to Honours Ambitions and worldly Commodities It was the saying of one defining the life which he called the Pilgrimage of a perfect Christian that true and perfect Religion is in a generall despair of all things And truly the Remedy of all evils will never be but in a holy despair of all the frivolous and fair semblances of the world O happy despair indeed to put all our hope in God alone to remove those deceitful and treacherous Props which besiege our credulous minds and cease not to enter into our hearts and hinder us from bidding adieu to all the charming Promises and allurements of a barren and lying world and from turning our eyes towards the heavenly Jerusalem our true Country Ah! how sweet are the expressions between the Bridegroom and the Bride where she saith My Beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2.16 And again I am my wel-beloveds and my wel-beloved is mine Cant. 6.3 She first returns her soul and love to him and then confirms his to her self And when Love like that of Jonathan to David hath thus united their Souls all the affections and actions of the Soul to will to do to say the same thing will speedily follow Surely the Spouse was at little rest while absent from her Beloved When saith she will the day of Redemption appear Where O where art thou whom my Soul loveth Cant. 1.7 By night I sought him whom my soul loveth I will rise and go about the City and in the streets and in the broad wayes will I seek him whom my Soul loveth Cant. 3.1.2 and when she seeks and finds him not O how doth she bemoan self to the Watchmen and having found him she holds him fast and will not let him go ever crying out O how shall I adhere unto him how shall I incorporate my self with him how shall I melt into praisings and love-breathing Ditties how shall I get into that Fountain of Goodness Oh come Oh come that happy day come even now I fear neither Hell nor Judgement for I know thou canst bear no wrath against those that love thee come then come and draw my Soul from this loathsome body screw up my Affections O dear Saviour to thy own self unloose the Fetters and Bonds of my imprisoned Soul which keep me from the sight of my beloved Spouse and Master and at last set me at liberty in the Eternal freedom of thy Palace and everlasting glory of thy presence O free me from the snares of the world the wiles of Satan and the deceits of the flesh O when will that day of Redemption come when I shall drink at the full those comforts which are here dispersed but by small drops And thrice happy is he who hath here raised his gain from his losses his assurance from this worlds incertainties his strength out of his infirmities his hopes out of his despairs and is not contented but in God who can onely satisfie his desires and Crown him with Felicities Happy I say is he who beholds all wordly things as Roses which still with their odour cast forth some of their substance who look on them afar off and in the dark as painted Women and adulterate Merchandice who behold them as Torches which wast and annihilate themselves leaving nothing behind for the most part but stench and smoak The world I confess thinks it no easie matter to trust Christ upon his word though he have told us Mat. 11.30 His yoak is easie and his burden light What say some is it so easie to renounce all that a man hath Wealth Liberty Life and all are these so light yes poor Soul Truth it self hath spoken it and most true it is that love makes them both light
trouble Greatness without change Pleasures without sorrow and at last fully laden with celestial Honours This surpassing Joy having one time so far transported a heavenly lover as to give occasion to some who beheld him to think him besides himself you are in the right said he my Beloved hath taken away my will and I have given him my understanding there is nothing left me but memory to remember his mercy Oh what a great Abyss of Delights are reserved for those purified Souls who are thus wholly rapt in the contemplation of heavenly Beauties and altogether ravished in the consideration of Gods divine Goodness No longer do they suffer themselves to be transported with earthly prosperities but in the midst of all worldly Pomps their eyes are firmly fixed upon the many benefits received from God their Ears being charmed their Tears wiped their Fetters broken And what way do they more seek out then how to testifie their gratitude and poure themselves as incense upon Coals towards the Altar of divine Majesty Yea there is a love so tender in them and a fear of offending so infinite a Saviour as that they apprehend the least shadows of sinne as Death Day and Night do they send forth Centinels before the Altars who cease not to implore the assistance of Heaven for the salvation of their Souls How often in the deep silence of darkness when no eye sees nor ear hears do they cause their weeping eyes to speak to God and address their many vowes to Heaven for the attaining of Eternal life How willingly do they part with all the Interests of Flesh and Blood and all other impediments about them They think they can never do too much for eternal happiness whatsoever are their sufferings here the know Paradice will still be purchased at a good penny-worth Oh true zeal O most powerful Alchymie changing all Tears and Troubles into Marble and Gold What Wisdome what Grace what Eloquence doth a heart truly endowed therewith use towards the attaining of Heaven What love for its Soul what fervour for its salvation what care for its direction what resignation of its will to the mind of God What a heart of Diamond doth it express against a thousand stroaks of dolours and sufferings how joyfully doth it meet death yea what Triumphs afterwards in all conditions and after all its afflictions offering up unto God the obedience of the heart the Prayers of the lips and all the faculties of Soul and Body which appear in a general conformity to the commands of God And what indeed can that Soul fear nay what can he not hope for who hath a Jesus for a Protector and a God absolutely powerful and whose power and essence walk hand in hand which is without limits embraceth all places and no way confin'd to any certain number of Ages since it is Eternal and involveth all time What can he doubt of who can conclude an Interest in him who made the world with the least blast of his mouth and can as easily the same way unmake it all the great variety of this Universe where there are Creatures without number Beauties without end and Greatnesses innumerable being but an effect of his word O how brave a thing do we account it for a Prince to possess an earthly Kingdom in the hearts of men to make himself a Throne of Peace to which love raiseth an Eternal Basis and on which God raineth infinite Blessings Whereas what a hideous spectacle is it to see Tyrants hidden like Owls in perpetual Nights with a mind possest and beset with horrid Fancies filled with suspitions and seised by distrust whose Dreams are full of bloody spectacles for whom Thunder seems to roar and for whom Heaven prepares all its Thunderbolts Oh what horror is it to see them not dare to appear in publick without being clothed with Iron and dispoiled of the peoples affections to appear among their Subjects in nothing but Blood Terrors Torments and Massacres and afterwards to be hated like Plagues and poysons Is not this the way to make a Hell of his life a Tyranny of his manners and to increase vowes towards his death Just so is the difference between a poor Soul vvho daily marcheth under the standard of Gods providence and is every hour replenished with the mercies and benefits of Heaven Like a virtuous King the one adventures to live in the most unfrequented Wildernesses without Corps-du-gard He finds assurance in Battels prosperity in his House veneration abroad admiration at home When he sleeps his Saviour who is more watchful then a million of eyes wakes for him when he prayes that voice which is better then a million of mouthes makes intercession for him His joyes are pure his pleasures innocent his repose dreadless his eating and drinking without fear of poyson his Life happy and his Memory blessed Whereas divine Providence which sharpens the Sword of Justice in the Tears of the miserable pours it on the head of the other consumes him by strange Maladies a thousand hands are ready to punish him his life is a reproach his memory full of cursings dung-hills are provided to interre him yea the Stones or Mettals afterwards punished and defaced for no other crime but to mention his Actions and set forth his feature The Soul contemplates and sets forth her Folly in hazarding Eternal Joyes by preferring Earthly Vanities AReprobate sense being the last step which any one makes to enter into Hell O how great is the happiness of an enlightned Soul which sets all the glory of the world at its feet and preferres the knowledge of Christ and an obedience to his will and command beyond any thing here below which shall come in competition with it Often doth she thus expostulate with her self what alas shall the sight of Temporal Beauty which too often fills our Soul with nothing but fire and flames abate the more fervent love of Eternal things Is it possible that I should so adore my prison and fetters here as to ballance them with the Cross of my Saviour Jesus who alas can give me Tears sufficient having thus forsaken my God! Origen mentions of Mary Magdalen That Heaven and the Angels were a burden to her and that she could live no longer then she beheld him that made them and shall we here preferre an Earthly Pilgrimage before a Heavenly Paradice Is it possible that I should suffer my self to be entangled with worldly vanities which are more brittle then Glass more light then smoak and more swift then the wind that I should fatten my self in earthly Pleasures that I should nourish this Carrion this Dunghill of my Body and neglect and forget and despise my Soul Oh! what horrid Phantasms will seem to reproach me with ingratitude when the affairs of my conscience shall be set in order and say unto me I am the Pleasure thou hast obeyed I am the Ambition to which thou wert a slave I am the Covetousness which was the aim
Fear not O Spouse thy Beloved is not wholly departed Be not troubled if thy journey to Canaan be through the wilderness of this world and if in thy way to Sion thou pass through the valley of Baca since Christ is a Cloud and Pillar to direct thee Thus by the Gates of Hell doth God oftentimes shew us the way to Heaven He who is not tyed alwayes to bring a Soul thither by one and the same Road can make Death the way to life The Sun of Righteousness is stil bright though behind a Cloud and not seen to us The Nurse is withdrawn oftentimes that the Mother may get the chiefest affections of the Child And though God leave a poor Soul labouring in the Pangs of Desertion yet through the Sun-shine of Gods countenance ripening its Graces cloudy weather still advantageth her growth and her Barrenness at last yeelds a fruitful Harvest Gods relief comming alwaies in the best time and she patiently attends his help from Heaven even until the fourth which is the last watch of the Night And when vvith Peter she is freed out of the Prison of strong Temptation and God is pleased to come in unto her with abundance of comfort Oh! how is she raised to bless the Lord who hath forgiven her sinnes and healed all her infirmities The waves of Terrours and flouds of Afflictions never beat so violently upon her neither did she so much complain of spiritual wants as now she saw the wonders of God in the deep and the infinitenefs of his Wisdom in the dispensations of comfort and joy of grief and terrour The Souls complaint now is no longer Where is my God become or that There is no soundness in her flesh because of his anger All her distempers seem but as so much Physick to clense her from her manifold sins Yea she now seems even drown'd in sweetness and in sinking cryes out Oh the breadth of thy unfathomable love what Saint what Tongue what Angel can speak out thy unexpressible kindness Ephes 5.17 Thou hast loosed my Bonds Oh that my heart could burn in love towards thee Oh that I could as I desire make known to others hovv good thou hast been to me in preserving strengthning and fixing my fiath on a Rock not to be over-born vvith the storms and swelling Surges of Satans Temptations Methinks I meet thee every where O blessed Jesus with a hundred arms unfolded to do me good what place what time what moment is not filled vvith thy Bounty Though passions have for a time assailed my mind and thy Terrours have affrighted my spirits yet behold now thy Grace hath shot through the dark Clouds of my Sin and doubting thy Darts have pierced the Center of my heart with quickning sparklings my spirits are come again Ah how my Soul is fill'd with joy ravishment and admiration Oh God! who is he who beholds the fading shadows of the world this dismal place where cares and sorrows are still growing young and never die that would ever betray his Soul Heaven and his God to yield obedience thereunto who vvould betray an Eternity of blessing for a Pleasure so short and wretched who would build Tabernacles here to lose a Mansion among Celestial Souls where Love onely Reigns who would not give a farewel to those earthly Cottages to ascend those mounts of Bliss vvhere every season is a constant Spring who vvould desire to make his name great here on Earth and desire to have them enrolled among the Saints in Heaven O what Celestial mirth what an expansion of all the faculties of the Spirit yea what rejoycing is there in the heart of Man vvhen Christ begins to make it his Throne all Powers do him homage all Passions render him service Who can conceive what joy passeth in the Soul vvhen Jesus is pleased to take up his lodging in it Hovv is the heart excited awakened and enflamed towards Heaven what distaste is there of all things in the world It is as light to bleared eyes It is as food to hungry Travellers It is the repose to the wearied the Country of poor Pilgrims and the Crown of all our happiness Nothing but Fires Desires Sweetness Affections Joyes and Admirations will transport our Souls having once regained our wel-beloved our thoughts will wholly be employed upon Jesus we shall be dead and insensible to all the Objects of the world All the Thornes wherewith it is encompassed will seem as Roses If we swim in the Tears of Wotmwood it will be no other then sweet water All the wounds we receive will be but like Rubies and Pearls Our Maladies will prove but sports our Calumnies will be our blessings yea Death it self no other then a happy life When the Soul sleeps Jesus is in her sleep vvhen she speaks Jesus is under her Tongue when she Writes Jesus is under her Pen and when she is merry she chaunts forth the praises of her Jesus in her solitude she seems all environed with Raptures And vvhen any reproves her for being alone she cries out nothing less before she vvas interrupted with their company In the morning she grieves to think how often she shall offend God before Night Being about to rest she bitterly vvith scalding Tears laments that she shall have no more power over her Dreams but offend her Saviour while she slept Thus is her mind alwayes running after her dear Spouse Se is in a prison of Love vvhere her Thoughts her Hopes her Joyes were Chains And still doth she elevate her self upon the wings of Faith in the highest postures she can towards Heaven taking the choisest affections vvith her vvhereby to ascend that Mountain of pure and inexpressible light She vvell knew that true Pleasure vvas to be found no vvhere but in God vvhose Joyes are like those Gardens which never vvither but are perpetually watered vvith immortal Graces And oh How if it vvere possible vvould she express her love to him by daily offering her self a hundred times for him in as many Sacrifices as she hath Thoughts and Body Members Never Ship laden vvith Gold arrived more gladly at the Haven after many tedious Tempests and a thousand disasters among Pirates at Sea as the poor soul novv seems to take content in the love of God And having spun out all the Web vvhich he gave her cryes out I have ended all the hopes of the vvorld why stayest thou O my God! to receive my Soul which I bear in my lips O Jesus at whose name the Heaven the Earth and Hell do bend the knee I now care not what I suffer for thee so I sin not against thee so I may for ever injoy thee Thus the love of God is like Lightning in a Cloud still striving to break forth and suffers the Soul to take little rest in any thing but what it undertakes for the glory of her Maker Joh. 11. who many times defers the cure that his power may be the more manifest the heats of
thy Masters Table sometimes suffice thee Canst thou not be content to touch the Hem of his Garment Hast thou eaten so plentifully of the Loaves of his mercy canst thou not sometimes be content to fast with him in the Wilderness Wilt thou be with him in the Calm and not with Peter adventure to him on the waves of Trouble Thus doth the poor Soul often check her self for her great faintness under the power of some affliction But though she see it a sad thing to row where Jesus is not in the Boat yet at last she finds all things to fall out aright with those who embarque with him If he once say It is I be not afraid Mat. 14.6.26 How quickly doth the storm of temptation cease Nothing seems grievous to a sincere Christian so as at last with the Apostle he may finish his course with Joy He is like a Pearl coming out of the salt Sea beholding himself involved almost from his birth in great acerbities and horrible confusions from whence he mounts with so much lustre as to make his adversities the steps to the Temple of Glory That Soul which hath brought it self to love God above all and to despise all in comparison of him and accounts it self unhappy if for one moment of time diverted from the sweet Idea's and most sublime thoughts of his person will with comfort pass over all the troubles and acerbities suffered in in his service perpetually languishing with most ardent desires to behold him face to face Have you never seen those poor Tulips in a Garden shut up with melancholly under the shadie coldness of the night which in the next morning have been as it were unlock with the Key of the Suns Rayes Just so doth it happen to those drooping Souls who sometimes seem benummed and frozen through the want of that Presence which at last enlivens them with great refreshment and cheerfulness Who would have thought that Jonah when contrary to the advice of his Master he would turn Polititian and fly from his Presence should forthwith be swallowed by the greedy Ocean yet behold when the Tempest pursued him the Sea raged on him the Belly of a Whale which we thought his Sepulcher became his Palace wherein had he not been buried he had dyed Sure there is I know not what kind of charm in holy sadnesses which cannot be sufficiently expressed but such it is that a Soul contristated from God when it is fallen into those Abysses wherein all the world reputes it lost findeth in the bottom of its heart such lights and sweetnesses as that there is not any comfort in the world to be compared with them Still is the dejected Soul crying out My God! I adore thy holy Providence which sometimes drencheth me with Gall and Wormwood in an age wherein others are accustomed to vvalk on Roses Thou know'st O Lord that my pride hath need of such a counter-poise and in all equity hast thou done that which thy wisdom thought good What though mine eyes are moistned and fail not every night to pour forth streaming Rivers Is it reason I should live without some light hurt seeing thee wounded on all sides for my example Can I receive or take contentment in the hopes of a better fortune Where should I gather those pleasures that I shall at last in joy in thee It s true I am yet upon the weeping banks of the River of Babylon But since thou hast at last promised to wipe off those Tears since thou hast told me Thy yoke is easie and thy burden light and hast at last promised to ease all those that labour and are heavy laden why should I not fix all my consolations and songs at the feet of thy Cross why should I desire any thing more in the world then the performance of thy holy will Observe then whosoever thou art that readest these lines of what wood God useth to frame his Saints Do we not see oftentimes that some escape out of Prison by fire others falling into precipices very gently have found their liberty in the bottom thereof others to whom poyson hath turn'd into nourishment others to whom blowes of a Sword have prolonged life by opening their Impostumes yea often it is that the seeds of good hap are sometimes hid under the appearances of evil Oh silly humane Prudence then which darest to row against the providence of God! finding us many precpices in thy passions which seem so pleasing to thee as thou openest snares to betray thy poor soul Is it possible that any who bears the Name of a Christian should not be grieved to lead a life an Enemy to the Cross of Christ That so many good men as we read of should by the power of virtue afflict their bodies and preferre contempt above all that the world esteemeth that they might conform to the sufferings of their Saviour and any contentment should be delightful which comes not from divine things and blots out all the memory of sensual delectations Can it possibly be that the Soul which hath forsaken the Love-dalliances of the world and razed out of his heart all other love as the Rayes of the Sun scatter the Shadows and Phantasms of the Night should any more delight in its former pleasures No sure she returns as from the Country of the dead with languishing voyce and interrupted words she bedews her self with tears for every vain thought and idle word which offers violence or makes the least breach on her former engagement When David avvaked as it were out of a dead sleep after he had remained nine moneths covered with filth and blood without coming to himself until Nathan took away that veil that blinded him how soon did he become another man He was no more that amourous David but a Penitent exceedingly humbled having a heart bleeding eyes weeping a sad and disfigured face a body made thin sighings redoubled one upon another Joynts pined away with fastings and austereness Bones broken by reason of his sin Society was unpleasing to him the light unwelcome to him because reproaching him with his offence His Couch swam with Tears his Harp was employed in expressing his griefs his whole Body all this while dying to all mortal things of the earth ecchoed his groanings and swell'd with weeping on the Sea of Repentance until he regained that presence from which he desired God never more to cast him And oh that we could but cast those eyes which have so often descried the fair prospects of the world upon Jesus our Saviour the true brazen Serpent to free us from the Serpents of Hell Fire yea O dear Saviour look back upon me as thou didst upon Peter cast those eyes upon me which did incessantly watch for my salvation even to the passing of whole Nights in sighs and Prayers O cast those eyes of love of mercy and compassion upon me which dart the beams of day-light into souls that love thee Let those eyes
canst thou love more or express it beyond this yet to all these and infinitely more tortures and unspeakable miseries was thy Saviour expos'd O my Soul for thy sake for thine my soul that thou maist not complain thou wantest an Object a Motive a Pattern or invitation to love O mirrour of Love Love it self Christ our Saviour Hovv earnest wert thou nay how delighted wert thou to Treat of thy Passion It were thy sweet words not long before thy death With desire have I desired to eat And when S. Peter would have disswaded thee from thy last Sufferings thou reprovedst him more for this then for his denyal of thee in the High Priests Hall Thou only castedst thy eye upon him for the first as minding him thereby of his great promise made never to deny him but for the other thou bidst him avaunt yea call'st him Satan as being the hinderer of thy much desired and longed for death Ah! incomparable Love who can think on and not admire the Extasies of our sweet Saviour How is he even ravished with the object of his Death and transported with the Idea of his sufferings Behold how he encourageth himself in this combate How troubled he is at all those that hinder it How confident doth he look on the Cross as the Fountain of his Glory And shall we not love his Cross which Jesus hath cherished every place is a Paradise to him that knows how to love the Cross and every thing a Hell to those that fly it Oh blessed Saviour then who canst lift up all the Earth with the least finger of thy power raise up a little this sinful mass of my Body which so sadly weighs it self down by its sinnes O my God fix thine eyes upon me and thou shalt thereby bring me to the fountain of true happiness The Father hath given me to thee and I am the conquest of thy precious bloud and wilt thou suffer a Soul to be taken away from thee that hath cost thee so many sweats and sufferings Alas Lord thou hast but one life and I see 1000 instruments of death that have taken it away Was there need of so many bloudy Doors to let out thy innocent Soul Could it not part from thy Body without making on all sides so many wounds which after they had served for the Objects of mens Cruelty serve now for those of thy mercy O Lance cruel Lance why didst thou open his most tender side But in thus playing the Murtherer thou hast made a Sepulchre wherein I will from henceforth bury my Soul When I behold the wounds of my dear Saviour I do acknowledge the stroaks of my own hand and will therefore likewise there engrave my Repentance Give me then O sacred mouth give me that Gall which I see upon thy lips to sprinckle all my pleasures divide with me O beautiful head thy dolorous Crown of Thorns seeing it were my sinnes which sowed them Lend me O sacred hands and adored feet the Nails that have pierced them and while I live let me never breathe any other life but that onely which shall be produced from my Crucified Saviour Surely we shall never be worthy of him until we thus bear the Ensigns of his War and Ornaments of our Peace And alas what reason hath wretched man to complain Is not suffering our Trade our Vow our Profession As the Clock goeth on by the help of its counnter-poise so a Christians life never proceedeth so much in virtue as by the counter-ballance of its Crosses Make me then to serve thee to imitate thee yea to suffer for thee O thou King of the afflicted Ah that I had a Sea of sweet odours to empty on an Object so worthy of love Art thou unwilling to bear part of thy Saviours Cross yet give O my Soul give at least tears to him who satisfied for thy sins Consider that thy miscalled Sufferings ifrightly used are indeed Blessings What if thou lose thy fortunes it is to make thee know thy self what if thy Health be empaired it will make thee disaffect this world What if thou lose thy Riches is it not to make thee seek out better By all which God is pleased to shew us the straightest way to that life which he hath promised us and to assure us by his own Tribulation who could not but know and embrace what is best that the way of Tribulation is the high-way to Heaven We find indeed Tertullian in one place thus complaining Eternal Wisdom which thus cuts thy childrens Threats and use them as Sacrifices as if thou couldest not Crown them but by their Torments or Honour them but by their punishments But alas he that will love must serve And Behold August Serm. 19. de verb. Apost saith S. Au-gustine The foolish Lovers and Amorists of the world are not they who are surprised therewith ready to serve to endure all commands in Attire in Habite and behaviour for a Mistress sake Oh foul confusion of life and prostitution of spirit God who promiseth never to behold us with a good eye unless we keep his Commandments deserves to be loved above all things Love that cannot suffer is not Love Yea the last Character of love to our Saviour is to suffer for him the Prince of Sufferings Our Souls are engaged by Oath saith Tertullian to this warfare so soon as we first enter into Christianity Tertul. ad Scap. Besides know we not that all Creatures of the world groan and bring forth that all the Elements are in Travell and in a ceaseless agitation The Air it self say the Philosophers is perpetually struck with the motion of Heaven to prevent the hatching of Poyson The Rivers are purified by their streaming current One deep must call upon another the deep of Afflictions calls for that of Honour and the heights of Honour are prepared according to the measure of our Tribulations In this world Cruelty is mingled with Lights and Pleasures with Funerals Gods Prison is a School of Wisdome In this Captivity are we free under these Bonds and Irons our Soul can walk with God in the midst of Groans and sighs our heart can rejoyce it can talk with him though with the three Children in the midst of the fiery Furnace And as the most rigorous of Punishments became a Throne of Honour to those three Champions the fire forgetting it self to be fire and the Furnace strewing it self with Roses so all the Thorny paths of our Pilgrimage here seem but like a Meadow enamelled over with Flowers If we here make Jesus the Object of our present Dolours he will hereafter prove the Fountain of our Eternall Joyes Behold then the exact method which providence keeps in the conduct of her chosen ones Behold the Character of an humble Soul persecuted by the Tongues of Slanderers by the Arms of his kindred by the contempt of his friends by the ingratitude of his Enemies yea of those upon whom he had still heaped good turns without
to the voyce of his deceitful charming not doubting that however Christ had for a time withdrawn his wonted favour he was still her Advocate and even at that instant pleading her case and answering for her at the Bar of Gods Justice all those suits which Satan was then objecting against her Oh saith the Soul it is he that dyed for my sins and rose again for my Justification my own Righteousness alas is but as menstruous Rags It is he onely that was made for me Wisdome Righteousness and Redemption Rom. 5.25 It is he that hath satisfied an infinite Justice for my sinnes Isai 53.4 5 6. It is he that bears my grief and carries my sorrows and will at last cure my sufferings Behold then the various Dispensations of a merciful God! Oh the wonderful experience of a strong belief in a high mounted Soul whose excellent Graces of Charity and Humility are like so many wings to carry her above all the sense of her present Afflictions giving her to see that though Jesus were sometimes pleased to hide himself in the Gospel as the Sun within a Cloud yet he would again draw the Curtain the Sun of Righteousness would appear with healing in his wings and notwithstanding his present withdrawment did receive her sighs and bottle up her Tears and would again shew himself in the best time And whensoever the ship of her Soul seemed wrack't then would she endeavour to save her self upon the Rock of his infinite mercy at this Pool of Bethesda would she still lie until he cured her on this Thread would she catch to bear up her wounded spirit and upon him would she still wait who loves those to the end whom he once loves whose presence she always desired to cherish and resolved still to wait on him who but for a time hides his face from the house of Jacob Isai 8.17 And Iob. 10.1 laying her complaint upon her self How often would she thus expostulate with her offended God Ah Lord the marks of thy bounty * Semel electus semper dilectus I confess are no less then all I am and have Ah wretched I that continually wear about me all the Tokens of thy kindness and yet not love thee what shall I answer when thou saist unto me I created thee like unto my self I made thee a little God on Earth I imprinted on thy forehead the Character of my Greatness The Sun shined on thee the Earth supported thee the Creatures clothed thee and yet thou hast forgotten me O admirer of thy self and ignorant of my works Why hast thou husbanded my goods as to change them into evil Alas poor Soul what evidence will at the last day be produced against thee The Devils who first tempted thee to sin will then rise up as witnesses against thee The Angels of God before whom thou shouldst not have sinned will then testifie against thee The abused Creatures will then be brought in to thy conviction The Messengers of God will cry aloud against thee for neglecting their Doctrine All the personal mercies which thou hast received will also be so many evidences against thee the Earth that bore thee the Air thou breathedst in the Food which nourished thee the Clothes which covered thee the Creatures that laboured for thee the Houses thou dwelledst in and all things else that served for thy use will then further thy condemnation And may not God himself justly expostulate with thee Did all my mercies deserve no more thanks shouldst thou not have better served me that gave them was I so hard a Master was my work so hard and unreasonable or my Rewards of so little value as no way to perswade thee to my service Ah ungrateful wretch that the love of God the evil of sinne the blood of thy Saviour the Judgements to come the Glory promised and the punishment threatned should not be as forcible to draw thee to Holiness as a little fleshly delight and worldly gain is to draw thee to wickedness O whether will thy mind fail when distempers shall steer it Whether will thy Fancy run when Diseases shall ride it What Hell wilt thou frame within thy Conscience Watchings will surprize thee Dreams will terrifie thee and if some terrible Bird do but croak in the Night it is presently the sad voice of some dead man who bids thee prepare for another world Ah! that thou couldst but think of thy perplexed condition vvhen thy conscience being once awakened shall blush and stare thee in the face when thy sins with David Psal 51.3 Shall be ever in thy sight Then will thy mouth be confessing thy eyes weeping thy cheeks blushing thy hands writinging and smiting thy bosome thy heart-bleeding thy Heart-strings breaking and thy voice crying out vvith Cain My sinnes are greater then can be forgiven Then too late wilt thou cry Lord have mercy upon me vvhen a ruinous house shall be ready to fall about thy ears vvhen tediousness of sickness loss of Goods and confusion of understanding shall encompass thee when thy windy sighes and deep-fetch't Groans of thy breaking heart when the misty Clouds of thy closing eyes the Roaring thunder of thy stammering tongue sometimes perchance venting horrible Oathes and Blasphemies shall represent nothing but Images to the Beholders And alas vvhat vvilt thou do when in the last agonies of Death thy Body shall feel such great disturbances as will make thee to turn here and there to rub the Bed-clothes vvhich over-power thee with Convulsions vvhich choke thy speeches make thy Visage Pale thy memory to faulter and a cold sweat to over-spread all thy body which is onely encompassed with weeping eyes whining countenances distracted looks affrighted and dejected Visages hideous out-cryes and perchance which is worse with petty Furies Ah! what content wilt thou then take when Death comes to sound his last Trumpet in thy Ears saying unto thee Come let us be going thou must dislodge from thy Riches thy large possessions from thy Beauties and fading Pleasures from thy friends and from thy kindred and never more to return again Oh! how bitter will be the remembrance of death how harsh will it be unto unmortified spirits when they shall say to the Body ah whither goest thou dear Hostess whether goest thou Thou hast hitherto most tenderly pampered me pompously cloathed me wantonly cherished me I was thy Idol thy Pride thy Glory and whether now must thou go What into a Grave with Serpents and Wormes alas what wilt thou do there and what will become of thee Thus fares it with distressed Souls in the shades of Death when fixing their dying eyes upon their former acquaintance they find some weeping others screeching some fainting and all under a veil of sorrow encompassing their Bed with this sad Note alas do you leave us and shall we meet no more Farewel pleasing amities adieu all our sports feasts and loves now is the time come that me must leave all our earthly acquaintance all our Table
the pleasure of sin and the perpetuity of sinners Torments the easinesse of thy gentle yoak and light burden here below and the weight of thy glory provided for me above since there is no moment O Lord void of thy goodness why should there be any moment void of my praise I know it will not be long until death consume me to the very bones and I shall then possess nothing but what I have done for thee Shall I then live in this world to my self and be still vexed with care how to preserve a miserable life Dear Jesus suffer me not thus to be taught by thy Judgements what I have neglected to learn from thy mercy Time and age will one day wither the blossoms of youth The best of our joyes are but fires of straw or flattering sun-shines which are suddenly either washed away with a shower or banished by Tempests The Sun will at last daver the freshest Roses and Lillies O let not then my thoughts strike sail or my heart do homage to the transitory beauties of this world which will onely ensnare and imprison me in the Fetters of sin least the storms of an evil conscience suddenly arise and trouble the serenity of my delights and the tranquility of my seeming felicity The Soul being sensible of its former Mercies sits weeping under the Cross of her Saviour and resolves to partake with him in his Sufferings AS Humility is seldome planted upon Crowns and Scepters so the wisdom of State seldome joyns with that of the Cross where its lustre is too often darkned by the too much glittering of the world and ordinarily finds slippery footing amongst the Rubies and Diamonds of a Crown It was the saying of Tertullian who flourished two hundred years after the Nativity of our Saviour when there had been no speech of any Emperours that had embraced Christianity Tertul. in Apol. That if the Caesars would become Christians they would cease to be Caesars and if the Christians would become Caesars they would cease to be Christians conceiving that poorness of spirit cannot consist with so high and stately Riches neither Humility with a Soveraign Empire or the Tears of Repentance with the vain delights of the Court. Surely the hungring and thirsting after Righteousness upon which our Saviour so often leaves his blessing can no way stand with the desire of Pomp and Greatness in the world no more then Peace can subsist with Licentiousness of War or pureness of heart with the conversing with most pleasing and tempting Beauties or the fairest hopes of the world which are mowed dow in their flower by the pittiless Sythe of death Peter was never so near his ruine as when he was warming himself in the Priests Hall John Baptist was far more secure amongst Wolves Foxes and Tigers then among the wicked Courtiers of Herod He was more happy with his little Dinner of Locusts and wild Honey retired in his Cabin then amidst the Pomps and Pleasures of the King of Galilee Do we know whether our Fancy will run when Ambition rides it or our Minds sail when distempers steer them What makes a Hermit at the Court a solitary man in a Tumult a David in his Tower of Pleasures a Solomon in the midst of so many Wives and Concubines and a Sampson under the enticing hands of his treacherous Dalelah Yea what makes a sacred man amongst the prophane or a Saint in the house of a Tyrant So hard is it also for Carnal eyes to behold the bitter Agony of our blessed Saviour so hard is it for any Tongue without being steeped in Gall to express his sufferings or for any person without pouring out of Tears to approach his Cross What eyes can look on thee as they should and behold all thy flesh wholly imprinted with dolours and thy heart drenched in acerbities What eyes can without bitter relenting behold thy deadly sweat of blood can see thee dragg'd through the streets of Hierusalem every one looking out at the windows to fill their eyes with gazing and astonishment can see thee buffeted flouted tossed from one Tribunal to another spit on every where despised and maliciously affronted What eyes can look on thy spread Arms thy nailed Hands and Feet thy rack't sinews thy pierced side thy bended Neck thy faln looks thy torn Body thy pale and bloodless flesh thy company to be of infamous Theeves and thy miserable Favourite and forlorn Mother ready through grief to expire their last breath what ears could with patience hear thy doleful out-cryes to Heaven and what heart could apprehend thee at first received into a wretched Stable and there laid in a Manger and at last to conclude thy innocent life in so great nakedness as that thou hadst no other veil to cover thee then the blood which gushed from thy wounds Behold O my Soul the whole life of thy Saviour which he passed here on Earth and thou shalt find it a School of Christian manners by the contemplation whereof Holiness is perfected in the fear of the Lord 2 Cor. 7.1 The world loved Riches but he would be poor The world loved Honours but he shun'd and refused a Kingdom and the Treasures thereof the world delighted in a carnal off-spring but he desired neither Marriage not Issue The world feared nothing more then disgrace desertion of friends insulting of enemies bodily Tortures and Death whereas Christ endured the rebukings of the people the flight of his Disciples the mockings of the Souldiers the spitting of the Jews and the death of the Cross O vvonderful that the mighty power of the Divinity would thus manifest it self in the infirmity of the Cross Sure it was onely for God to perform this great Design and thus ascend up to his Throne of Glory by the basest disgraces of the world and if vve vvill be his Children vve must make it appear by participation of his Cross and by suffering Tribulation By this Sun it is that the Eagles are discovered The good Thief saw no other Title or sign of his Kingdom but onely his body covered over vvith bloud and oppressed with dolours by that Book of the Gross he learned all the Glory of Paradise and apprehended that none but God could vvith such patience endure so great Torments Methinks blessed Saviour I hear devout Simon seeing thee heavy loaden with the burden of the Cross thus expostulating with thee O Jesus vvhether goest thou with the extream vveight of this barren piece of Wood whether dost thou carry it and why vvhere do you mean to set it What upon mount Calvary Alas that place is most wild and stony How canst thou plant it there who shall water it to which thou answerest I bear indeed a piece of Wood upon my Shoulders and carry it to mount Calvary This Wood I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of the world and to draw all after me I bear it to place it by my death and water it with my blood Oh Love