behold the upright for the b Ps 37.37 end of that man is peace He 'l give grace and glory and no good thing will he withhold If there be any choicer thing than grace and glory and truly that 's God himself he 'l keep back nothing From whom from such as walk c Ps 84.11 uprightly He 'l shew d Ps 16.11 Ps 23 3 the path of Life but 't is to such as first have been lead by him in the paths of righteousnesse Happy man that can unfeignedly and skilfully tune Hezekiahs Song Remember e Isay 38.3 now now at the point of death O Lord how I have walkt before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Integrity of hearr and the goodness of his doings are his double appeal at the appearance of death Though the good we have done be very little yet if that little fruit grow from a sanctified root God graciously accepts it because 't is of his own planting As David spake of his royall preparations for the Temple So must we of all our graces duties services f 1 Chron. 29 14. All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee Do any fragrant spices perfume the air of a Saints discourse Or any pleasant fruits garnish the garden of a Saints life We must invite as the Spouse doth Let g Song 4.16 my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits The trees of righteousnesse are h Isai 61.3 of his planting that he may be glorified like the Trees of Lign-Aloes like the Cedars of Lebanon which the Lord hath planted and not man Numb 24.6 and Psal 104.16 i Phil. 2.13 To will and to doe to think and to act the hearts integrity and the lifes sanctity are all from his good pleasure Whoso can enter his appeal at the throne of grace with the testimony of his conscience that k 2 Cor. 1.12 in simplicity and godly sincerity he hath had his conversation in this world may rejoyce at the remembrance of the day of the Lord Jesus and long for its approach Section 3. A third Appeal concerns our love to God Opticks teach us that lines and raies of light come from all parts of a luminous body and traverse and cut one another at innumerable angles but some are centrall from the midst All the affections are but emanations beamings from the heart and will but love is the cardinall centrall ray What we love that sets all the wheels of the Soul in motion Love 's the commandresse of all our forces It a Ps 86.11 unites all the powers under its banner and leads all the squadrons of the soul into the fortress of Gods name The Soul before acquaintance with God was like a bird wandring from its nest but now she hath found where to lay her a Ps 84.3 young even all its unfledg'd desires upon thine altars O Lord of Hosts my King and my God The Soul that 's in love with God loves him only thirsts pants cries after him Whom b Ps 73.25 have I in heaven but thee and none upon earth do I desire beside thee Are there no Saints there no Angels there Yes but they move in the stated inferior Orbs both of their own essence and his affection he mounts higher and the glory of the Sun of Gods countenance eclipses all these Stars that a Saint sees none in heaven to love like God All these he loves in the order of his ascension to the bosome of God A Saint passes by the Angells ascending and descending on Jacobs Ladder till he comes to the embraces of the c Gen. 28.12 13. Lord above at the top of all Non aliud tanquam illum as d Bernard f. 94. b. Bernard heavenly non aliud praeter illum non aliud post illum A Saint loves none like him none besides him none after he hath tasted of his loveliness And again Nec pro illo aliud nec cum illo aliud neâ— ab illo ad aliud convertamur The Soul embraces none in stead of him none in competition with him neither turns about from him to any besides him Bern. p. 77. b. Bonum est magis in camino habere te mecum quam esse sine te vel in coelo It 's better to be with thee in a Furnace then in Heaven without thee A Saint loves heaven for God not God for heaven Heaven is heaven because God is there and where ever God is that place is a Saints heaven As a faithfull Spouse is not taken with the Jewells Bracelets and Ear-rings but the lovely person that gives them 'T is not the place but the person not the Palace but the Prince not the glorious Throne but the Father of Mercies upon it God lov'd first and kindled these holy flames and whither doe they towre but upward into the element of love within his bosome O let my prayer saies David a Ps 141.2 Dirigatur instar coâ—umâ—â— be directed as incense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of my heart like a pillar of incense No incense was fragrant to God but what smoaked in the fire that first came down from heaven no love but that which first flasht from God O let our love stream straight upright into heaven in perfumy and spicy pillars not waved by chill blasts of the worlds tentations The Torch of our affections was first kindled from b Ezec. 10.6 between the wheels of the chariot of Cherubims and it lights our winged feet into the Chamber of Presence We have none in heaven to love and none in earth to desire but God Here upon earth there 's nothing desireable but God In heaven there are things desireable but nothing so lovely as God He is the only prime and ultimate object of the Souls satiety Hearken to this c Ps 45.10 O daughter consider his lovely and beautifull glory incline thine ear and forget thy fathers house The memorable relish of the song of divine love inchants the Soul with a holy forgerfulness of old terrene relations So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty O Queen of Zion forget thy black Egyptian Father and all his tawny-moor Princes of the adust race of Cham. Run to the arms of thy Solomon desire him upon earth and love none besides him in heaven and he will greâ—tly desire thy beauty Thy beauty a Alas 't is his beauty that shines upon thee First thy beloved is thine and then thou art his he plants his Lillies and then feeds among them But let 's descend a little and try the pretended love of mortalls by these higher than Lydian touchstones Dost thou love any thing in the world more then God above God beyond God without God and not in order to him How then can d 1 Joh. 3 17. the love of the Father dwell in you Dost thou love him
unto him in raiment of needlework at the wedding day Now 't is soiled with many a drop and many a foul spot but then as pure as God would have it Now the more 's the pitty 't is patcht and ragged many a Saint is out at heels in his holiness he walks disorderly and uncomely But then we shall have new Coats fine linnen clean and white Rev. 19 8. and change of Raiment from our elder brother Benjamin a Gen. 45.22 shall be fine indeed when he sits at the Table of the Ruler of Canaan 'T is holiness fits us for Table communion in heaven 't is porch communion in grace that brings us neer it hast thou never walkt with God in the porch thou shalt never sit down at the b Luk. 22.30 Table of Christ and drink the new wine of the Kingdome Again As God walks in the light of holiness he walks also in the holy Place of his Temple God delights in his Ordinances in his pure worship We walk with God when our hearts are in communion with him in Ordinances His paths are in the Sanctuary there 's his e Lam. 2.1 footstool and there his goings He d Rev. 2.1 walks among the golden Candlesticks In the Temple all talk of his glory while he sits at the Table of grace and the c Song 1.11 Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof There he hath f Ps 133.3 commanded the blessing and life for evermore Walking in Scripture when applyed to God in communion with Saints is exprest three severall waies Before God with God and after God To walk before God among others one speciall sense is that we are now upon to walk in pure and holy worship Coming up to the Temple is called a coming up g 1 King 14 9. before God our appearing h Ps 56.13 sitting i 1 Sam. 2.30 35. Ps 100.2 c. Ezek. 33.31 walking and abiding before him h And Jerohoam is branded on the account of false worship that he cast God behind his back As God commands his people they shall have no other Gods before him So he forbids any other worship then he hath instituted to serve himself with For he is k Exod. 20.5 a jealous God his eyes do see quickly l Exod. 32.8 and his jealousie will m Dent. 29.18 20. smoak fiercely against such a man and all the curses in the Book shall lye upon him and the Lord will blot his name from under heaven Bold and sawcy is that silly worm that presumes to chalk out a worship for the living God To walk with God is to walk in his wayes in his statutes and commandments to do them to eye his directions to feel and turn about with every guide of his hand We must n Ps 119. choose his precepts for our way and we shall have him for company and is the way so holy and our God so holy then blessed is the man that 's holy and undefiled in such a way Ps 119.1 and in such heavenly company The a Hos 14.9 wayes of the Lord are right the just shall walk in them but transgressors shall fall therein Every holy duty is a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling to a carnall heart he trips and stumbles and falls and rises no more But an upright heart and an upright way meet pleasantly with an b Ps 25.8 upright Lord that teaches sinners in the way and guideth the week in judgment c Pro. 11.20 Such as are upright in the way are his delight he takes pleasure in the path and person To walk d Deut. 13.4 after God is to choose God for our Captain and Leader to make him our example president and conduct The Israelites followed the cloud of Gods presence by day and the pillar of Fire by night in the howling Wilderness of Arabia till they came to Canaan When the e Num. 9.17 cloud was taken up then Israel journied and where the cloud abode there they pitched their Tents Saints must be imitators f Deu. 1.36 Josh 14.8 9. of Caleb and Joshuah to follow the cloud of the divine presence fully and this is the Churches prayer g Ps 80.2 before Ephraim Benjamin and Manasseth stir up the Ark of thy Strength march before us to lead and save us A holy and perfect God goes before and a holy and perfect People follow after Be h Mat. 5.48 ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect be ye holy in all manner of conversation For 't is written i Pet. 1.15 16. be ye holy as I am holy Not to come up to it but to come after it not to equall but to eye and imitate O perfect copy the more a Saint looks at it the more he mends his hand O the rare strokes in this pattern of holiness that enamours the eye to behold and quickens the hand to imitate As he is so are we k 1 Job 4 17. in this world as he walkt l 1 Joh. 2.6 so ought we So should we Lord and by thy heavenly conduct so would we Let Saints consider how Christ walkt how obediently to the Father how tenderly to the brethren how mortified to the worlds vanities When thy thoughts are tempering or thy tongue upon the string thy hand or thy foot hastning to action stop one moment consider would Christ do this m Eph. 5.1 and be followers of God as dear children Thirdly As God walks in holiness and in the Sanctuary of Ordinances So he delights to walk among a holy People he n Zeph. 3.17 rejoyces over them with joy he rests in his love and joyes over them with singing When Zion shines in holiness she shall be a Crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royall Diadem in the hand of her God She shall no more be termed Forsaken nor her land desolate But her own name shall be a Isa 62.4 Hephzi-bah and her Lands name Beulah For the Lord delighteth in her and her land shall be married The joy and delight of God is in a people like himself with such he will dwell rejoyce over them b 2 Cor. 6.16 16. above the joy of harvest and walk in them for ever c Pro. 8.17 I love them that love me saies Wisdome and who seeks me early shall find me Love sets the heart a seeking and the more we love him we seek the earlier I sought yea d Song 3.1 by night him whom my soul lov'd Night-searchers are Christ-finders a holy heart seeks a holy Saviour and a holy Lord delights to be found by it Christ absents not for want of love to us but to inflame our love to him he loves e Song 2.9 14. to stand behind the wall and to hear our moaning after him to look out at the e 2.9 window of heaven and takes pleasure to see our wandrings about to find him and
in war warmth influenced into thy Soul by sitting under the b Ps 91.4 Feathers of the Almighty under the wings of the Cherubims in his holy Oracle Art rhou warm'd by Ordinances and inflamed in thy affections to God and through a holy cherishing vitall heat Can'st say with David thou art with me then humbly infer I will fear no evill He that walks in c Ps 89.15 the light of Gods face and under the warmth of his wings no evill frights him no Lion in the way turns him aside from the paths of holiness A righteous man under the sense of the flowings in upon him of the righteousness of Christ is as bold as a Lion and makes all the beasts of the forrest tremble He playes with that huge d Job 41.2.5 Leviathan of Death as with a Bird and bores his jaw with a thorne The head of this e Ps 74.14 Crocodile is meat for his Soul in the wilderness he spreads a banquet for his companions and parts him among his spirituall merchants he makes a gain of death and feeds upon the Destroyer For f 1. Cor. 3.21 death is his because he is Christs and Christ is Gods He carries the g Rev. 2.17 white stone of absolution in his bosome and fears not the day of Judgment Christ is h Gal. 1.16 revealed in him and so shall his glory The i Col. 1.27 Eph. 3.17 dwelling of Christ in his heart by faith is not only the bode of glory but roots and grounds him in love and inlarges his Soul to comprehehend with all Saints the interminable bounds the unmeasurable dimensions the unintelligible knowledge of the love of Christ till he be filled with all the fulness of God Though as yet he sees not Christ by the eye of sense yet he is enamour'd with him by the eye of love from the optick nerve of Faith and k 1 Pet. 1.8 rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory A Saint cannot conceive the greatness of Christs love nor utter the exuberancy of his own joy As the love of Christ flowes in so his joy swells overflowes and tides it into the bosome of Christ He is as full of heaven as he can hold and is ready to take his Phoenix-flight upon the wing of an extasie into Paradise But where 's the Saint that injoyes such heavenly feelings of the presence of God Did we search our experiments to feel our feelings and tast our tastings of God More would find the Well and drink the waters of assurance Ut nemo in sese tentet descendere nemo Will no man dive into his breast To seek the face of such a guest Hast thou a Well of living waters within thee and ne're a Bucket A Fountain and ne're a Bason of Meditation Be a worthy Souldier of Gideon a Judg. 7.5 6. lap with the hand of Faith b Bochart de animal parti col 674. hasten and conquer the Midian of tentation O how it strengthens the nerves inspirits and puts a new life in the sinews of these Champions of valour to fight the Lords Battails A sense a tast of the waters of divine love makes a conquering Saint Like Sampson at death slayes all his Philistins destroyes their God and their Temple together What the touch of God upon the heart is may be better felt then exprest and what ye can express none understands but he that feels None hear these Unison strokes but virgin-Virgin-Souls that have learnt b Rev. 14.3 the Song of the Lamb No stranger intermedles with a c Prov. 14 10. Saints bitterness at first conversion nor the sweet fruit of joy in assurance These spices grow in the d Song 4 12 enclosed garden bitter are they in the root and taste at first but send forth a fragrant scent when pounded in the Mortar of Meditation These waters flow from a Fountain sealed like the head of Nilus but at length by their nitrous streams impregnate all the champion plains of the Soul with fertile and teeming joyes A Saint distills them into Spirits of consolation and then like an expert Chymist circulates all his duties and graces in the closed glasse of experience at the Sun of Gods countenance into an oyl of joy 'T is etheriall and volatile and comforts all that mourn ' I is fragrant wine and highly balsamicall fit for a sick beloved it e Song 7.9 goes down sweetly causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak The love of God is a glorious object seen by the eyes of the Soul turn'd inward Experience is like the chrystalline humour through which and Meditation is like the tunica a Spigel Anat fol. p. 301. Bartholin 80. p. 351 Ed Lug. B. 1651. retina the Network-Coat of the Eye upon which the various kinds and species of divine love are cleerly discern'd Like as the curious varieties of all manner of objects are brought into darkned rooms by convex glasses So 't is with a Saint in the private room of contemplation when his glasse is placed in the roof of his Soul and all worldly objects are shut out a heavenly heart lets in only the admirable things that come from above All that 's in Heaven flowes in and paints the Chambers of the Soul like Solomons Temple within and adorns a holy heart in lively colours with Palm-Trees and Cherubims The Queen is all glorious b Psal 45.13 within Her clothing of wrought Gold from the Isle of Ophir her garments of Phrygian Needlework But all these ornaments beautifie the heart within The Kings c Song 7.5 Galleries within the Soul are hung with the Arras of Grace and Tapistry Stories of Gods love from Election to Salvation from Heaven to Heaven Lift up your heads ye everlasting d Ps 24.9 dores that the King of glory may enter and there e Song 7.12 receive his loves Naked innocency and godly simplicity holy integrity and unblameable purity of life are a Saints outward ornaments the choicest lustre and radiancy shines in the presence Chamber The Soul that has it beholds it with unsatiable delight enjoyes it and is even inebriated and scarce it self with the pleasant draughts of this cordiall Nectar It drinks abundantly of this holy anodyne to asswage its sorrows The joyes of Heaven pour'd in from the golden cup of assurance is a choice opiative against death It perverts not but exalts the intellectualls and translates a Saint in a trance to glory Hast thou then any spirituall senses are they f eâ—ercised to discern both good and evill Heb. 5.14 Canst thou tast the bitter evill of death in the forbidden fruit and cure that mortall gust with the g Rev. 2.7 Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God Eph. 1.21 2. Hath the h Head of Principalities and Powers commanded away the Cherubims with their flaming Swords from the gates of Eden Has the Prince of Life called
Ps 23.1 my shepherd I shall not want a full Table trickling Oil a running Cup are Davids portion Such a child that hath a God to his Father V. 5 fears no want Such a Lamb that hath a God to his Shepheard fears no evill His crook and his staffe shall comfort him Here 's green Pastures and pleasant Rivers in the very Valley of Death Faiths prospect of Heaven transports a Saint He sees Deaths Valley but 't is a Gilden Vale. 'T is a narrow Valley he leaps it over with his Shepheards staffe Faiths eyes are strong and its legs nimble He takes his rise from the promise and no sooner dies but is over Kidron At death carnall mens eyes are dim no spectacle no optick Glasse can help them to spie Jerusalem A Saint like Moses hath b Deut. 34.7 strong eyes nor is his natural moisture fled He stands upon the Pisgah of his own Tomb and sees crosse the whole Land of Canaan to the utmost c V. 2. even the Mediterranean Sea Others at death how feeble are d Eccl. 12.3 the knees of their Souls their hands the keepers of their house tremble and their thigh-bones the strong men bow themselves But the feeblest of the inhabitants of Zion I speak of such as stand in specula visionis e Zach. 12.8 in the watch-tower of Faith and look through the glasse of assurance they shall be as David in that day and the house of David shall be as God as the Angell of the Lord before them As David but why as David Sure strong was the faith and piercing the eye of David that saw glory so clearly through all the thick Fogs Mists of the Valley 'T was God was with him that cleared his eyes and pointed with his hands as he did to Moses and f Deut. 34.1 4. caused him to see it But neither Moses nor Aaron must enter to shew that the ceremoniall no nor the morall Law can't waft us over the Brook to Canaan But David the Prince of the new Covenant he shall tread down the Cananites and on his head shall his Crown flourish David the Subject had Daved the g Ps 84.3 King with him David the Servant had David the Son the Son of Jesse had the Son of God for h Ps 110.1 his Lord and Captain And whose Faith shall not flowre by Christs watering and whose fear shall not wither at his presence who fears death when this Shepherd sustains who fears his arriving to Heaven if a God if a God in Covenant if my God and my Father lead me Thou art now with me saies David I 'le not fear for shortly I shall be with thee Gods with us here but we are with him in heaven here drops of Heaven slide into us there we shall swim in heavens Ocean Here a little of the oil of joy trickles into our hearts from a Ps 133.2 the head of Christ there we shall b Mat. 25.21 enter into the fulness of our Lord and Masters joy here it enters into us and there we enter into it But still by virtue of his presence thou art with me and the vigor of his conduct thou shalt lead me Thou art with me to bring me to thee Thy Crook and thy Staffe they comfort me and why For they protect and guide me to thy holy Hill and to thy Tabernacles Thou wilt shew me the path of life At c Ps 16.11 thy tight hand are pleasures for evermore of all these five I hope to treat in their order If God permit CHAP. VIII Experimentall feelings of the Divine presence choice Comforts to a Saint at Death THou hast made known unto me the wayes of life and what followes Thou d Act. 2.28 shalt make me full of joy from thy countenance Gods face darts one beam of light on the path of a Saint to shine upon his way to glory another beam and that 's of joy upon the heart of a Saint to oil his motion And all but beams yet warming beams and experienc'd beams to hasten him to the Sun it felf A Saint ha's now but beams of joy and blessed be God for beams and such beams as direct and attract to the Sun it self to that Sun of joy to that fulness of joy in his countenance Saints look unto him and their c Ps 34 5. faces are enlightned our looking to God makes us look like him and the neerer to him the more we are like him Gods countenance is of a changing and transforming nature When God lookt upon Moses but through a chinck how did his face shine how lovely was it as well as glorious God smiles on a Saint in love and a Saint reflects upon God with joy But Saints have not only good looks from God but free entertainment He maketh me to lye down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his Names sake oh how the cool Etesian gales from the rivers of the spirit in ordinances revive and refresh a Saint The experience of present mercies dispells the fears of future evills I will fear no evill for thou art with me God never forsakes a soul in covenant never withdraws his reall though sometimes his visible communion I foresaw the Lord alwaies a Act. 2 2◠27. before my face therefore my heart rejoices c. because thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave By nature Gods not with us but when once the day spring from on high doth visit us grace never sets in an evening whether we sleep or wake we are still with God Here 's the point to know aright that God is with us and we with him Whether we have walkt with God and he with us If Enoch walk with God then God will take him He that walks with God pleases God b Gen. 5.24 The Septuagint render the Hebrew word for walking by pleasing God and the Spirit of God delights in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and uses the same c Heb. 11.5 when treating of Enoch in the New Testament to shew what pleasure God takes in them that walk with him If we walk with God we have fellowship and communion with him God d 1 Joh. 1.6 7. is light and if we walk in light we walk with him Light is holiness and a holy person walks in light and dwells in God le ts not spot our garments and we shall walk with him in white e Rev. 3.4 The fine linnen of holiness alas what Saint doth keep it clean we must wash it daily in the Laver of the Spirit or else no company for a holy God The best of our linnen is but course and yellow it s well if it be sincere and true but then it shall shine with raies of glorious light and be laced and beautified with admirable gifts The Queen f Ps 45.14 shall be brought
thee to feed upon that i medicinall fruit Rev. 22.2 to live for ever Has thy Soul relisht the sweetness of the water of the chrystalline River of Life Does it flow so fast upon thy Palate with its unspeakable varieties and admirable changes of all manner of delicious tastes that thy spirituall sancy is uncapable to keep pace with much less to unfold and express its pleasure Here are sweet waters stoln from heaven that the world knows not and hidden Manna that even many disciples a Joh. 4.32 taste not The waters come down from the b Rev. 22.1 throne of God and of the Lamb They spring from the Fountain of the Fathers divine election and his eternall Covenant with the Lamb and run between the Banks of the Incarnation and Passion in chrystall streams Hast thou tasted c 1 Pet. 2. â— that the Lord is gracious Tell me O Soul is he not sweet And so sweet that thy tongue can't hold but passionately invite others to come d Psal 34.8 taste and see Is not the Manna the c Joh. 6.35 Bread of Life which Christ gives suited to every desire and longing appetition of a Saints Palate Is not his f Song 2.3 fruit sweet to thy taste Do not the Apples comfort thee when thou eat'st them under his shadow with great delight To them that believe he is g 1 Pet 2.7 h. 3. precious sayes Peter If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious A gracious Lord is a precious Lord and a tasted Lord is a sweet Lord Speak true O Soul didst ever taste so choice a sweetness or lay thy lips to such i Song 6.11 Pomegranats as grew in this garden The k Song 7.12 2.13 flower of the Vine by its smell allures by its taste captivates the senses and even overcomes the spirits of a Saint It s said of the spicy mountains of Arobia the happy that the gatherers are often bereav'd of their spirits by the strong emanation of those fragrant shrubs Truly Saints when walking in the mountains of Canaan the heavenly I mean of assurance need the spice of support against the powerfull efflux of the spice of joy The Soul before it finds Christ is sick of love and when hee 's found is sick of joy I mean while here below till we are purified by vision it can scarce well bear the flowings in of assurance We must have our visions of the Angell of the Covenant like Jacob a Gen. 32.26 only by dawnlight glittering noon enjoyments are for heaven These old Bottles are readyto burst with the new wine of the Kingdom We could not bear the strength of this wine If the King should often bring us into these Cellars therefore he keeps the Key opens shuts it at his pleasure and possibly therefore God is pleased to nourish Saints but with drops of these high Tinctures of glory full draughts might swell us with pride and inflame us with feavers of censure again meek walkers Jacohs Peniels must halt upon shrunk sinews b Gen. 32.32 And Pauls Revelations must be humbled by Satans buffets 'T is not only the surges of grief but rivers of joy that may overwhelm the spi As Gerson speaks of a devout woman that breathed out her Soul in the strength of these enjoyments Vol. 3. p. 64. b. Therefore 't is that here we must live by tastes and tastes only the full banquet 's kept to last the first fruits first then the harvest first the bunch of Eschol and then the Vintage of Canaan first the watersh wine of Cana and then the miraculous wine of Christs glorious Kingdome Admirable grace it is that God drops down tastes and lets fall crumbs from the Table of the Spirits of the Just made perfect And is a taste so pleasant so delectable then what 's the fulness Hast thou a mouth that tastes and savours the things of God Though it stay the stomnck yet it whets the appetite for glory The ear trieth words and the mouth tasteth meat saies a Job 34.3 Elihu but 't is the heart that ponders judgment Heavens dainties call for a pondering spirit to dwell upon the relish and a circumspect frame that we be not wanton I have heard of thee saies Job b Job 42.5 by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee and may we say my soul tasteth thee Therefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Abhorrency of self and complacency in God are tokens of divine tastings feelings seeings enjoyings The neerer we draw to those holy embraces the more lovely doth God appear and more vile our selves Nothing else pleases that Soul which hath had a ravishing relish of God Now nothing lesse then God now nothing longer nothing like him Not our selves our sins humble us our graces are imperfect Not Angels Mary weeps for all she c Job 20.12 13. talks with shining Angels 't is not them she cries for nor can their white garments dry up her tears or their radiant shining faces raise the least umbrage of a smile while her Lord is absent The burden is they have taken away my Lord and whereis he But a word from Christ clear her eyes and chears her spirit She knows his voice when Christ will have it so before she sees him She saw a seeming gardiner and asks for Christ but now she sees the true Vine and tastes his love she hears his voice and sees his face and nothing now will serve but d V. 17. touching The more we hear and see of Christ the neerer fuller sweeter are our approaches to him The Soul 's never satiated on this side heaven This feast presents heavenly Viands genuine apposite to a gracious palate They are not of a cloying clogging temper and there ever comes in flowing upon the heart fresh new and sweet issuings from Christ Such rare pieces of prospect entertain the Soul in this transfiguring mountain that it peeps and pryes and piers in at the key-hole of the Chamber of Heaven and can do nothing but lye at the posts of wisdome and cry with the ancient plus de te Domine Mo e of thee Lord But on the other side where are the hearts of besotted worldings The eyes of a a Prov. 17.24 fool saies Solomon are in the ends of the Earth rowling and rambling about upon vain objects But wisdome is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the very face of him that â—ath understanding he sees such beauty in the face of wisdome that he shuts his eyes to the world and opens them only to heaven A wandring eye is the sign of an unsatisfied fool that wont learn wisdome from a Solomon Though God gave him more riches If Villalpandus countaright then ever any of the Roman Emperors had and all manner of enjoyments and an exquisite heart to dive to the bottome of the visible Creation Every one that girds himself to
run Solomons race a new counts that Prince a fool but proves himself to be so God commanded Solomon to write a Book on purpose to save our labour to quench our drought to excuse our oil and to set up his Herculean Pillars On the one side he graves all is vanity on the other ne plus ultra sail no further For now there 's no terra incognita no more land nor continent nor Isle to be discovered hear the conclusion of the b Eccl 12 13 whole matter Fear God and keep his commandment for this is the whole of man Solomons Ships of speculation went round the world and brings tidings of more gold for covetous wretches and more Apes and Peacocks for curious and weak fancies but no new thing under rhe Sun The old pleasures indeed shall waft home new toils new vexations but no satisfaction to a judicious Soul A wise man therefore fixes his eyes upon divine wisdome and daily contemplates the ribs of Solomons Ship laid up in the dock at Eziongaber shatter'd with its sore travells and learns the great prudence to stay at home to study his own heart and to ponder the paths of understanding Alas then may we not pitty deluded bewitched entangled mortalls that still hunt their game and follow the hot scent through the wildernesse and forrest of this world Oh! how they puff and pant and sweat and leap hedge and ditch after the deep throated hounds of their boundlesse desires to catch a shadow It s a plain sign they know little and have tasted nothing of God to hunt so fiercely after smoak and vapour I will not say 't is unlawfull to hunt wild Beasts for the food of man or to make room and preserve his safety But this I 'le say to take pleasure in setting the creatures at variance to make a sport of the fruit of sin to make that a recreation which God has made a curse is the sign of one that walks contrary to God I read of no godly man but of four other hunters in Scripture Nimrod and Esau and Ishmael and the cruell hunter of souls and I am sure they are wild and bad companions But there are a world of hunts-men that pursue the pleasures of sin and the gains of unrighteous Mammon and oh how these ignes fatui these inflam'd meteors lead thousands into the bogs of eternall darknesse And as the ancient Heathens sang of hunts-men Nec praeda quam caede magis c. Nunc hominum nunc bella gerunt vio lenta ferarum That eager hunters of Beasts in times of peace were usually bloody hunters of men in time of war That man has no communion with God whose Soul is immerst and drownd in sensuall pleasures Such as walk in the vanity of their minds a Eph. 4 18 are alienated from the life of God such have little honour or love for God that forsake the fountain of living waters and suck the mud of the broken Cisterns of the Creature Their Souls are as earthy as their objects and their spirits as base as their pleasures But remember that to lay up thy Soul in thy Barns to tye it in thy Bags to lodg it in thy Parks to pack it in thy Warehouse or stove it in thy Ship These are dangerous places to look for it when the world is in a light flame Shall I commend unto thee O man a gainfull Trade and a pleasant Chase The first is to lay out all thy Stock for the Pearl of price The second is to fall in company with David and a Ps 63.8 follow hard after God and never leave him till thou get a blessing As b Ps 42.1 the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God Here 's a hunted hart turns hunter himself Sin hunts a Saint and he pants for God and at length meets with lovely Venison but 't is in the Sanctuary savoury meat that his soul loves he tastes it and blesses his darling before he dyes He feeds upon a Kid of the flock takes the Cup of Salvation and Praises saying thou hast dealt bountifully with me c Ps 116.7 Return O my Soul unto thy rest He has no rest upon earth no rest but in God and therefore return O my soul unto thy God He looks upon the whole earth as Tohu vabohu without form and void d Gen. 1.2 and all the fulnesse thereof to be but emptinesse the roating of the seas to sound forth their shallownesse and all the starry heavens to be like e Stellae nebulosae vanishing clouds Unlesse he feel the warmth of the spirit of God moving upon the waters of his soul If thou hast indeed had spirituall feelings of God thy Soul 's warm'd thy thirst to the world slaked to God inflamed thy hot inquisition and pursuit of the creature coold and checkt Fools gather Cockleshells and Peebles when there lyes before them a mine of Gold or a rock of Diamonds And here 's the vast difference between the possessors of worldly and the inheritors of heavenly treasures Those make the man covetous of an evill e Hab. 2.9 covetousnesse to his house the other ennobles the minde with a communicative generosity And there 's reason for 't though no reason for sin yet there 's a reason to be rendred why the sinner acts so For the first loses by his hoarding and the other gains by his spreading The graces of the spirit in the soul as well as in the whole Church are a fountain of gardens f Song 4.15 a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon They are not wells pent up but overflowing Come saies David and I le tell you what g Ps 66.16 God hath done for my soul Experience in these Visions is like sailing upon an Ocean that hath an infinite round no diving to the bottome no kenning of a shore There 's alwayes a terra incognita an unknown land in heavenly mysteries and the more we discover it yields more various and excellent pleasures New fruits new tastes new paradises new gardens of delight new songs and new joyes for ever The Songs of the Lamb will be new a Rev. 14.3 to all eternity Here in this life the soul hoists up sails from the port of conversion on the waters of Merom the bitter waves of repentance mourning and tentation for sin then spreads them upon the Sea of Galilee in sweet communion with Christ and his holy disciples in the ship then passes the dead sea without danger and at length with a prosperous gale falls into the vast Ocean of eternall glory But to reentrench he that feels what God is to his soul is in wardly fild with a sense what he will be Death is no more able to amuse a holy soul inbosom'd with God and season'd with experiences of his love then the Carkass of the Lion was to fright Sampsons Parents nay it fed them with life-honey dropping
from the hony-comb Keep up thy feeling fellowship with God in the closest and choicest reflections upon his love and the fear of death will vanish Make conscience of secret sins and secret duties this will make way for secret communion and sweetly encrease it The more frequent and humbly familiar you are with God in holy reverence the more divine and soul-fainting emanations will flow from his heart to replenish thy soul and enlarge it for glory our a Ps 90.8 secret sins saies Moses are in the light in the broad day light of thy countenance Let 's consider a he sees the least aberration and wandering of our thoughts from his love let 's be as tender to avoid his displeasure as we would be joyfull in the beams of his face let 's b Ps 63 6. remember him upon our beds and meditate on him in the night watches Let 's c Ps 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commune with our own hearts and be still that we may commune with his and be joyfull Silete vacate be still from all passions and hurries give a vacancy to thy Soul to meditate on God and it will still thy fears The more our Souls are wrapt up in this communion the more they dye to the world and live to God Our life is a vapor to dying mortalls but death is a vapor to a living to a lively Saint But now let me end with a caution that 's mixt with a Cordiall A very holy Saint may set in a cloud and arrive at the haven in a storm God's tyed to believers by promise to save them but not to carry them in a Song 3.9 Solomons Chariot of the wood of Lebanon into Heaven Yet it stands firm what David sings in this present Psalm Thou art with me and therefore I 'le fear no evill When the Soul from feeling can chear up its spirits that God is with it It fears not who 's against it God for secret reasons b Luk. 24.16 may hold the eyes of some disciples that they may not know him to shew that all from grace to glory is from free love and that we can challenge neither grace to close with his Covenant nor assurance to discern our adherence The sprinkling of the Conscience from dead works the peace of God that passeth all understanding c Col. 3.15 to rule in our hearts and the joyes of the holy spirit all flow from the same Fountain All our springs are in Zion and bubble up from under the Throne of the Mercy-Seat Yea at the state of Death some ordinary Christians If meek and humble may injoy greater Visions then many gracious holy and sweetly gifted Ministers 'T is not alwayes the strength of Grace but the gift of influence that breeds and nourishes strong and bright assurance A Mary Magdalen shall call Jesus by the name of Rabboni When two experienc'd Disciples shall walk and talk with him many a mile and not see him nor taste him till the evening till the c Luk. 24 29. Supper of Glory But yet 't is rare for holy hearts to want these heavenly Visions The pure in heart shall see him in the Glasse of assurance as well as behold him hereafter face to face CHAP. IX Holy Appeals to God in Prayer great Comforts against Death DAvid was now at Prayer applying and appealing to God at owning and appropriating work telling God that he was with him Did not God know that he was with David Yet but God loves to hear from a Saint that he feels it A Saint must tell God that he feels it not to satisfie him as unacquainted with it For the Lord fills the Soul with himself and known unto the Lord are all his works from the beginning But because God delights to hear that we thankfully own and acknowledge it Thou art with me David speaks it upon his knees and with his Harp in his hands he sings it This Lesson Lord I learnt of thee wilt thou please to hear it Thou art with me in me and thou within me comest unto thy self I am full of thee and therefore my Soul over-flowes to thee Thy love is a fire which hath inflamed my heart and a Excellens sensibile laedit sensum being pent it preyes upon my spirits let it have it 's holy vent into thy bosome It multiplies upon it self and out it must wilt thou accept it For a while let it warm the strings of my Harp as well as of my affection and touch every tone with a flame of love as if a Seraphim had quickened it with a coal from the Altar Then let my Soul like fire ascend before thy Throne winged with that love from whence it came Prayer what is it but a flight of the Soul from it self to God A Soul affected with divine love hath Doves eyes its prayers hath Doves wings and flies with Letters of credence at its feet from the spirit within our Temples unto the holy Oracle within the Vail 'T is in Prayer that David pours out his Soul and sings Thou art with me he sayes not thou wilt be with me but inferres that God would be with him because he was so and therefore I shall fear no evill This God is our God a Ps 48.14 for ever and ever he will be our guide unto death and through death and after b Ps 73.24 death receive us to glory Faith carries the foot of prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Rev. 14.6 into the midst of Heaven as with Angels wings And as the Lord said to Joshua so may we say to praying Saints a Josh 1.3 every place that the soal of your foot shall tread upon that hath he given you the good land is before you go in and possesse it When we pray we enter the Court of Heaven where the Lord b Exod. 24.10 Ezek. 1.26 sits on a Saphire Throne embellisht with the morning Stars and the Rain-Bow of the Covenant round about him and thousands of Legions of Cherubims to minister to him We are taught by our blessed Saviour to pray Our Father which art in Heaven as if a Saint in prayer should account himself as it were assum'd into Heaven The Father sees us at all times but in prayer we doe Sistere nos coram present our Souls to be seen by him Should our hearts be in heaven when our souls are in prayer what heavenly hearts become so heavenly a presence as God's and so heavenly a quire as the Angells round about him Let 's pray that his will be done as it is in heaven that we be like a kind of earthly Angells that in all our prayers our wills may be hallowed into his d 1 Joh. 5.14 as when we shall come to heaven Then if we ask any thing e according to his will he heareth us To have our wills the best way is to have his holy will to be ours and then we may pray with reverence
of my impure affections that my Soul may appear like glittering gold seven times purg'd by the fire of thy love Nay Lord thus David appeals thou c V. 1. hast searched and known me and oh how precious are thy d V. 17. thoughts unto me O God how great is the sum of them Thy thoughts of me and my thoughts of thee how precious to me O God how great is the sum of them Thy thoughts of electing love of justifying and sanctifying grace Nay thou hast thoughts for e 2 Sam. 7.19 a great while to come A great while indeed for they are thoughts of eternall f Jer. 31.3 love Thy thoughts in number transcend the sands on the Sea-shore the hairs of my head and the stars of heaven Archimedes may number the sands Spigelius the hairs and Hipparchus the visible stars But who can expend thoughts commensurate to the love of God The circle of his love cannot be squared nor its cubick root extracted We may study and pray g Eph 3.18 to comprehend with all Saints the glorious love of God in Christ But still it passeth knowledge and surmounts our numbers Well might David when waking h Ps 139.18 be still with God In the morning watches when his Soul was freshest his thoughts warmest his parts quickest while the yet-remaining darknesse presented no diverting objects to his eyes and the deep silence of the night distracted not his audience with various clamours Then David hath his Songs in the night Ps 30.29 as in the holy Solemnities Then does he meditate on the divine love and remember God i Ps 63.6 upon his Bed His wonderfull works and the thoughts of God concerning him he professes they could not be reckoned up in order before him Though he was stil with God searching and following after him yet l Joh 11.7 could not find out the Almighty to perfection But yet the holy man holds fast his confidence For thou art with me and I with thee God with us keeps us with him Doe our desires and affections hast after him they 'le bring in the food of assurance that he is ours Talem illum invenies saies Gerson a Gerson de Mendicitate spiritual f. 75. a. Op. 3. part qualis tu fueris in tuis desideriis Our spirituall desires longing and panting after God interpret and manifest the gracious motions of the divine love to us The more we seek him the sweeter we find him and the more we trust him the more he loves us Let us with David in all our straits make to him as our rock our refuge our strong Castle our Fortresse our City of Defence and Munition of Rocks b our Waters shall never fail and our bread shall be sure is 33.6 Appeals to God To Appeal to the Majesty of Heaven is a matter of most important moment because of his omniscience omnipresence his exactnesse in justice and judgment If our hearts c 1 Joh. 3.10 condemn us God is greater and knoweth all things but if our heart acquit us then have we confidence towards God yea d And 4.17 in the day of Judgment To be scalded with condemnation from conscience and from God too is double judgment and our hearts condemnation is but the harbinger to Gods Conscience is but the Prison till execution and if the earthly Prison be so noisome and dismall what 's the eternall It behoves all therefore that dare appeal to God to examine and try their hearts with impartiall strictnesse before they turn about their faces to heaven David spends the largest part of an excellent Psalm in choice ruminations upon the divine attributes and the works of God on his former experiences and deep meditations upon the all-searching eye of God before he dares to make an essay of a reverent e Ps 139.23 appeal unto him Holy Paul makes small account of being judg'd by the Church or by morall men or his own conscience in comparison with f 1 Cor. 4.3 4. divine judgment Our heart is g Jer. 17.9 deceitfull above all things who can know it But the Lord is a God of knowledg and by him h 1 Sam. 2.3 actions are weighed The ballances of the Sanctuary will turn at a grain of the least action yea at the thousandth part of a thought His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his piercing and searching eye enters the innermost parts of the belly His eyes doe behold his eye-lids i Ps 11.4 try the children of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explorabunt They search into the hearts and pry into the reins of men The Lord sits in specula aeternitatis upon the watch-tower of glorious Majesty and discerns all the secrer recesses and caverns of the hearts of Men and Angells The Metaphor seems to be taken from Souldiers that stand upon the guard on a high Tower to observe and ken the approaching enemy When men doe connivere oculis even close their eyes and make as it were a small portion of a Tube with their eye-lids to exclude the light and discern objects the clearer or like refiners that look narrowly into the Crucible or Cople to discern when the melted Gold gathers into a clear and pure circle and hath cast out all its drosse All this is to shew with what nicenesse and accuratenesse the Lord doth pierce into the hearts of men When we consider the excellency of the searcher the curiosity of his observation that nothing escapes the Eagle eye of his Omnisciency when we ponder upon the purity of his Judgment and the equity of his tremendous tribunall who should not fear before him and tremble at his imperiall Majesty For who can stand If he doe but a Ps 143.2 enter into Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne veniat let him not come toward the work saies the Psalmist unlesse we can stand before him To impose upon men is base hypocrisie but to impose upon the Maker and searcher of hearts is cursed Atheism abominable impudence b Ps 14.1 2 4. and corrupt folly of the works of iniquity When we enter our appeals before God we imply his all-searching providence his avenging hand his acquitting justice his pardoning grace the resurrection of the dead and the dreadfull Judgment-Seat of Christ ' Ev 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this account c Act. 24.16 2 Cor. 5.2 saies Paul we exercise our selves in having a conscience void of offence in the sight of God that the d Ps 19 14 meditation of our heart may be acceptable in his sight our Strength and our Redeemer As to the matter of our appeals in prayer there are but four cases whereof I would treat in respect to our comforts at death Isa 33.16 Section 1. Our first Appeal may be about the integrity and sincerity of our hearts Not that we have escap'd all outward sins or perform'd all inward duties or can absolve our selves from a Ps
19 12. secret faults or are purely cleansed from all the stains of hypocrisie But that the bent of the heart is to God that the constant pointing of the needle of our love is to heaven that we approve no sin not the least intumescence fermentation or rising of an evill thought without actuall combate or at least a serious inward habituall displicency of heart against it springing from that radicall hatred which is in us through grace against the least concupiscence Though when we b Rom. 7.22 would doe good evill be present with us yet there is a chrystall fountain of delight in the Law of God bubbling from the inward man that cleanses and carries away the very soil of our thoughts This holiness of heart conformity of will to the Law of God flowes from the grace that dwelleth in us Thou art with me saies David A holy God makes the heart holy the heart of a Saint by the light of holiness sees God a holy God to be with it In c Ps 36.9 thy light we doe see light the light of grace and we shal see light even the light of glory Many infirmities are and will lurk in the choicest of Saints The Ivy of sin will shoot its roots and fibres into the joints and cracks of our Mud-walls but when these fall that shall wither A Saint is alwaies hacking at the boughs of actual and stubbing at the root of originall sin His sincerity makes him to lay about him and though he can't appeal Lord I have no sin yet thus he can Lord be mercifull to me a sinner d Ps 51.9 Hide thy face from my sins the face of thy justice the face of thine anger and look upon the e Ps 84. â— face of thine anointed within the vail f Ps 55.1 hide not thy self from my supplications g Ps 119.19 hide not thy commandments from me O h Ps 69.17 hide not thy face from thy Servant I am i Ps 119.94 thine Lord save me for I have sought thy Precepts I have kept the waies of the Lord and have not k Ps 18.21 wickedly departed from my God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not dealt so wickedly as to go away from God and his holy wayes through the tentation of any wickednesse Not as if there were any departure from God that were not wicked but I have not committed so great a wickednesse as to fall away from the wayes of God His Judgments a Ps 18.22 were before my face and I did not put away his Statutes from me Neither his Statutes in respect to purity of worship nor his judgments that is his judiciall Law in respect to morall obedience Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to the cleannesse of my hands in his b V. 24. eye sight To wash our hands in the Laver of the Sanctuary before his eyes because he sees them not because men see their impurity David would not rake in any foul dunghill of sin or pollute his fingers with the pitch of bribery or the sanies the ulcerous matter of any corruption because God saw him Nay I was upright c V. 23 before him and have kept my self from mine iniquity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have guarded watcht and strictly observed my self as to mine own iniquity whatever it were ambition lying or any fruits of a sanguine complexion Can'st thou thus appeal to God in Prayer that thou keepest thine eye upon God and that the eying of his face guards thy heart from sin Thou may'st then cheerfully infer that God is with thee that he will enlighten the lamp of thy Soul with the light of his love and thus lift up thy Soul with David The Lord my God will enlighten my darknesse and though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evill for thou wilt be my guid to glory Section 2. A second Appeal may flow from a retrospect a reflection on a well spent life He that hath faithfully appealed about the sincerity of his heart may doubtlesse reap his Sheaves with joy from the Harvest of a holy life For out of the abundance of the heart d Mat. 12.34 the mouth speaketh the hand worketh and the foot runneth In whose hearts are the a Ps 84.5 waies of them that passe through the Valley of Bacah up to the Temple of Beracah Such as have Gods holy waies in their hearts want not feet to walk and run in them when the heart is in the foot it runs nimbly like a Roe or a young Hart upon the Mountains of Bether They goe from strongth to strength till they all appear before him in Zion Thy law is in b Ps 40.7 8 my heart that 's the root of obedience and therefore lo I come to thee When the heart believes the c Rom. 10.10 mouth confesses unto Salvation when the heart is fixed settled and calmed from carnall fears then d Ps 57.7 108.1 the tongue praises the harp warbles and the ten-string'd Instruments of the Soul make the Temple-Marbles to ring aloud of his glory When the heart bubbles up with a good matter e Ps 45.1 then the tongue becomes the pen of a ready writer The body alas is but the f Rom. 6.13 weapon the organ and altar of the soul When some persons are impeacht of an ungodly life they retort let every one answer for himself their hearts are good and that they are no hypocrites But can hearts be good when lives be naught or can lives be unholy when hearts be gracious Such as the vein is such will the metall prove that 's melted from it as the fountain such is the stream as the root such the fruit like star like influence The Pleiades will soften with showres and Orion will bind with frost The cause and its effects are of the same blood and kindred Out g Pro. 4.23 of the heart are the issues of life naturall carnall and spirituall Whoever can look back on a well ordered conversation to him shall be shewn h â—s 50.23 the Salvation of God He that hath his Quiver full of holy works may shoot at this enemy Death in the gates The ungodly cannot i Ps 1.5 stand in Judgment but he that delights in the Law of the Lord whatever he doth shall prosper when holinesse hath taken root in the heart it blossomes and flowers in peace of conscience and joy of the Spirit and brings forth pleasant fruits in the conversation and goodly spices in the hour of death Like the Psalmist in his affliction so a Saint at death comforts himself with the holy Songs he had warbled in his youth The end of the wicked is to be cut off Ps 77.6 and a Prov. 14 32. he is driven away in his wickednesse but the righteous he that hath walkt uprightly hath hope in his death Mark the perfect and
more then these and yet spendest so little time in communion Communion manifests where a mans heart is and the measure of Communion is the Standard of our love We would fain have a sense of his love and yet watch not for the presence of his person When Christ knocks doe our Souls melt within us When he cries a Song 5.2 Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled doe the everlasting dores fly abroad at the voice of the King of Glory Love and Kingdomes abhorre Rivalls Do I not hate them that hate thee saies David b Ps 139.21 yea with perfection of hatred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thine enemies are enemies to me Can'st thou love carnall friends and vain persons their frothy jests and squandring of precious hours with vain newes the sinfull pleasures the Soul-choaking and strangling profits of the cheat and grand Imposture of the c Ezek. 28.18 Tyrian traffick of the world And yet darest say that thou lovest God Thou art a lyar and the truth d 1 Joh. 2 15. is not in thee Vain distinctions will taste like wormwood and gall and wine e Mark 15 23. of myrrhe when thou appealest at Death He that spends his time his strength and brains f Joh. 6.27 for meat that perisheth g 1 Cor. 6 13. the belly that hides it must perish with it But living bread and living water that comes down from heaven nourishes our love to the doner and nurses up fair countenances to stand before the King of Glory There 's many an empty headed talker that wears in his Cap the aiery plume of profession and yet locks up his pennies in chests of flint The hammer of judgments the fire of divine wrath will scarce melt down a few drops to comfort a brothers bowells then 't is tinctur'd with the bitter fears of the ruin of his family or at least that he shall not raise it to the dignity of his ancestors The Axe of the sorest affliction can hardly hew off a few scattering chips to warm a poor brothers Cottage They keep h Deut. 26.13 Jos 6.19.24 hallowed things in their house without fear of Achans curse They hide in their Tents things that should be devoted to the Sanctuary This sinks many a fair estate 't is a worm at the root because they consecrate not of their gain to the Lord of the whole earth O ye of no faith Mic. 4.13 is this your false love If faith work by love love be a fruit of faith and love to a Brother be the token of love to God Where 's your faith or love to God or Brother But here 's not all I am asham'd of the converses of Christians Dost thou love God and talkst all day of the world Baineson the Ephes p. 201. Holy Baines gives it as a notable character of a carnall heart whose conference is cold and carelesse and for the most parr about unnecessary and curious Arguments As whether we shall know one another in heaven or not Whether Hell be in the Ayr in the Earth or where it is or like some of the hollow hearted and Sickbrained Schoolmen 1 Tim. 6.4 of what mettall the Trumpet of the Archangell is made whether Gold or Silver Such have hot heads but cold hearts they are branded by the Apostle Paul as proud knowing nothing but doting about questions strife of words whereof cometh envy strife railings evill surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth you shall hear them lavish out many impertinent words about idle controversies tending to jangling and meer vanity Differences about some Historicall matters and doubts about reconciling seeming varieties in the Scriptures these things shall awaken their drowsie minds tip their tongues with some discourse that they may seem pious and cheat conscience smoothly Alas at the hour of death conscience will shew it self to be no fool but will call all these things to mind with deadly horror What we love we love to talk off You may fetch out the hearts of Lovers by talking of what they love though otherwise prudent persons Love gilds the tongue with eloquence It makes the dumb to speak as Codrus his mute Son when the Fathers life lay at stake Love is a native an overflowing Oratour When it gluts the tongue with its fulness that it cannot utter then it proclaims the heart by blushes and casts forth it self at the windows of the eyes by quick and nimble glances It s a Song 8.5 as strong as death many waters can't quench it nor floods drown it It contemns Gold and all the Substance of thy House Is thy love sincerely inflamed to God A Kingdome a World a Heaven can't buy or bribe off thy heart from God Methinks when I stand and muse upon Soul-sick mortalls as they run up and down the streets of London and strike fire upon the stones and kick up the dirt and justle and quarrell for hast To see them reel about the lanes and alleys like drunkards intoxicated with the venemous cup of profit while their b Job 3◠5 foot hasteth to deceit oh what a dirty heaven have these bemired wretches what a pittyfull molehill doe these giddy pismires huddle about and scarce deserve at last to taste of the Parthian banquet with Crassus to have molten Gold but Kennell filth powr'd down their Throats with this Epitaph Satia te stercore quod sitisti be fil'd with the mire for which thou hast thirsted Oh how greatly should we pitty and mourn over the faln estate of man when we behold such wofull spectacles of decayed reason so far from rationall actors that they rather sustein the distracted person at Athens For though they say not yet by their deportments seem to wish that all the Ships in the Thames were theirs that all the Wharfs Cranes Ware-houses and their Stowage were all theirs As if the Lord had set a Job 34.13 the world in their hearts not to contemplate his wisdome in its beautifull structure but to adore it as a God They spend their spirits in heaping of clay and compass themselves with thick clods of the earth Most mens lives are exhausted in playing for glistering Counters he is counted wisest that lurcheth most Though Solomon the wisest of all mortalls determineth by the guide of Gods spirit that bread is not to b Eccl. 9.11 the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill but time and chance happeneth to them all But yet in all ages among the depraved and frothy spirits of the herd of this vain world Riches and not wisdome advances to honour and the raw unsavoury undigested blatterings of rich misers are lickt up by fools like themselves as if they were Delphian Oracles But oh lamentable state of the faln children of Adam to grind out their dayes with sorrow and to pour out the strength of their nerves
thereof yet a Saint drinks of a river that makes glad the City of God and glides with its silver streams along the banks of his Soul A Saint a Ps 143.5 remembers the daies of old meditates on all his works and muses on the work of his hands He recounts his sweet songs in the night his pleasant touches on the harp when the spirit of God was pleased to sing in consort I Remember saies the Psalmist the b Ps 77.10 years of the right hand of the most High when his candle shined upon my head and by his light I walkt through darkness The secret of God was upon my Tabernacle when c Job 29 3. c. I washed my steps in butter and the rocks poured me out rivers of oyl He that hath enlarged my Soul d Ps 4.1 in distresse he that hath e 2 Cor. 1.10 delivered doth and will deliver Christ is the root of his faith experience like a heavenly dew makes it spread and flower in appeals to heaven and grow within the firmament Nay all a Saints graces are like the Misseltoe have noe root of their own but in the true vine their sap life is from Christ and experience sucks it out Thou hast been with me and continually with me and therefore I will not fear I was cast upon thee f Ps 22.10 from the womb thou art my God from my mothers belly Thou art my hope O Lord God thou art my trust from my youth By thee g Ps 71.6 I have been held up from the womb thou art he that tookest me out of my mothers bowells my praise shall be continually of thee Cast me not off in my h V. 9. old age forsake me not when my strength faileth Thou i V. 20 shalt quicken me again and bring me up again from the depths of the earth See how Davids feeling communions did wing his soul up into heaven and keep it there The Lark is a lively embleme of a Saint alwaies singing while mounting to heaven and then silent in a gracious sadness when by any tentation drawn down to the world Behold in David how experience feeds upon God and drinks out of God and then like a Dove lifts up ' its eyes to heaven in appeals of praise under the sense of divine veracity love and mercy O my Soul thou hast Doves eyes eyes like the spirit when thou raisest up thy wings in heavenly praise and thankfulness Appeals are the fruit of gratitude and oh how comely is this for Saints Bernard f Bern. f. 89 b. saies 't is clemency in God to deny ungratefull men their petitions that they may not fall under heavier condemnations for their frequent ingratitudes Let us then sing forth his glory and make every mercy to sound upon the Harp and Viol. My lips saies the Prophet g V. 22. shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee and my Soul which thou hast redeemed My tongue shal talk of thy righteousness all the day long He Hath heard my voice I a Ps 116.1 2. will call upon him as long as I live He hath been with me and he will be with me and David tells this not to the sons of men nor to his own soul only but to God himself When David and his Harp are alone and the singer of Zion is planting his heavenly thoughts into the melodious strings O the Shushannims the Lilly tunes that David playes 't would ravish ones Soul to lay an ear to the key-hole To hear an other Saint flowing forth in appeals It dissolves our Souls into rivers of pleasure but for our own Souls to be swimming in these Sanctuary waters O extasie of joy The Soul by appeals dives into the Ocean of love and appears not till the resurrection The life of such a Saint is hid with God in Christ and at his appearing and kingdome shall break forth in orient and radiant lustre It builds none of Peters Tabernacles in the mount of present Vision it longs for fulness and looks upon Tabor as but a small petty step to glory and under the sweet manifestations of its future communion cries out when dying with that b Mr. Newman of New-England holy Saint of late Angels do your office Was God with a Saint in electing love before a Saint was Is God with a Saint in the breathings sealings of his spirit before a Saint clearly sees himself with God and shall such stand amused at death What 's Death to a Saint It neither separates from God nor Christ nor the Spirit nor Angells nor Saints nor Heaven nor Glory 'T is a friend to a Saint one of the Guard-Chamber to the King of Heaven turns the key and hands us into his presence A Saint like Androdus in Gellius hath pickt the thorn out of the foot of this Lion and behold how tamely he walks by his side till the morning of Triumph Is God with a Saint and can he say so because he feels so The grave which is like the darkness of Egypt to others it may be felt gives the light of Goshen to a Saint since Christ hath left a path light and a luminous glittering print of his footsteps in it when he passed through it A Saint draws its enlightned aire into the lungs of meditation for his nourishment God's with him and a Saint sees him tasts him feels him and therefore c Act. 2.26 his heart rejoyces his tongue is glad and his flesh rests in hope It was said of Lazarus d Joh. 11.3 Behold he whom thou lovest is sick and it may be said of every departing Saint Behold he whom thou lovest is dead No! saies Christ this damsell-soul e Mar. 5 39 is not dead but sleepeth and my bosome shall warm it till it wake and minister to mee The vigor of Christ shall cherish the body of a Saint as Elisha did the Shunamites child and raise it to a glorious life when the Sun of assurance shines glitteringly at the evening of his life in the face of an appealing Saint his Soul may presage joyfully that such a ruddy a Mat. 16.2 evening is the certain token of a radiant and illustrious day to follow the bright morning of his resurrection A day wherein the Captain of our Salvation our victorious and triumphant Joshua will lead the Armies of Israel into the land of Canaan and command the Sun of glory to stand still for ever in the noon of Eternity and that permanent happiness never to know an evening O then haste my beloved and come away a Song 8.14 be like a young Roe or a Hart upon the Mountains of Spices Thou b Rev. 22.16 Root thou Off-spring of David thou bright and Morning Star that shinest in that ruddy dawning haste thine appearance The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus FINIS The Errata PAge 9 line 34 shrink read screik p. 1 l. 21 Noahs second r. the second Noahs p. 12. l. 30. attaching r. from attaching p. 32 l. 8 sharpness r. sharpens p. 42 l. 5 sticks r. strikes p. 69. l. 1 pangs r. pains p. 85. l. 7. whereas r. where 's p. 88. l. 34 bode r. bope p. 94 l. 24 again r. against p. 94 l. 29 spi r. spirit p. 97 l. 22. oyl r. toyl p. 108 l. 21 through r. though p. 123 put in this note in the margin at the words a Opticks teach us a Vittellon optic l. 2. Theorem 17. p. 67. edit Basil fol. 1572.