soule is resolved of her choise for she hath fixed her love on that Spirit which is the true object of the love of spirits But even that excellency which draweth her love awaketh her fear and beholding admirable purity and majesty together with her owne impurity and lownesse shee is moved at once both to runne to happinesse and to fly from it Shee stands distracted and in this distraction asketh Will God indeede dwell with men and will the highest Spirit who inhabiteth eternity and cannot abide iniquity dwell with low spirits that are defiled and be full of impurity Who shall dwell with the devouring fire and who shall dwell with everlasting burnings But the Lord himselfe speaketh to her and saith Feare not for thy maker is thine husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth It is the glory of the greatest spirit to blesse the lesser spirits as it is the happinesse of the lesser to bee blessed by the greatest Fulnesse is glorified most by filling the greatest emptinesse and majesty by succouring greatest infirmity As for thy impurity true it is that thou art indeed too uncleane to touch God in an immediate unity but there is a pure counterpart of thy nature and that pure humanity is immediatly knit to the purest Deity And by that immediate union thou maist come to a mediate union For the Deity and that humanity being united make one Savior Head and Husband of soules and thou being married to him who is God in him art also one with God He one by a personall union thou one by a mysticall And being thus united and married to him his spirit flowes into thy spirit and the sappe of the Deity sheds it selfe into the soule For as man and wife in a corporall marriage are one flesh so in this spirituall and mysticall marriage Christ and his spouse are one spirit The spirit of Christ entring into our spirits layes in them an immortal seed and from thenceforth those whom he found impure he makes pure even pure in heart so that they may see God The Sonne of God so loved the soules of men that hee would make them a wife and marry them And that hee might make this wife fit to be brought into his Fathers house hee left his Father to come to his wife that he might cleanse her frō spots blemishes and present her pure glorious to his Father By his precious blood he purgeth her from her guilt by his spirit he purifieth her from her uncleannesse and both of these hee bestoweth on her in his marriage with her And then the soule thus washed hath boldnesse to approach unto God through her husband the Sonne of God who hath loued her and giuen himselfe for her and giuen himselfe unto her For God beholds her and she beholds God as one with his Sonne euen as his Sonnes wife Then draw neere O soule to this husband of soules the Lord is the spirit that marieth spirits and makes them one spirit with him in a knot of eternall blessednes Cleare vp thine eye and fixe it on him as upon the fairest of men the perfection of spirituall beauty the treasure of heauenly joy the true object of most feruent loue and inflamed affections and accordingly fasten on him not thine eye only but thy mightiest loue and hottest affections Looke on him so that thou maiest lust after him for here it is a sinne not to looke that thou maist lust and not to lust hauing looked For the spirit hath his lust also it lusteth against things contrary to it and it lusteth for things connaturall to it Accordingly it lusteth against the flesh but it lusteth after spirituall objects wherof Christ Iesus is the chiefest Let thy spirit then looke and long and lust for this Lord who is the spirit the chiefest spirit let it cleaue to him let it hang about him and neuer leaue him till hee bee brought into the chambers of the soule Yea tell him resolutely thou wilt not leaue him untill thou here a voyce in thy soule saying My wellbeloved is mine and I am my wellbeloveds To this end bee still gazing on him and still calling on him Kisse me with the kisses of thy mouth Yea kisse my soule with such a kisse of thy spirit that they may be no longer two but one spirit say to him whom haue I in heauen but thee and whom haue I desired on earth besides thee My soule thirsteth and panteth for thee the liuing God Tell him that thou art sicke of loue Vexe him with Importunity and put him out of hope of ease as the widdow did the Iudge but onely by satisfiing thy desires It is the right-voyce of the spirit I found him whom my soule loveth I held him and would not let him go If then thou hast found him with thine eye hold him with thine heart and winde thy affections round about him And if he see thee all on flame with loue and obstinate in Importunity by loue he who is loue cannot deny the importunity of loue The bowels of loue in him melt at the sound of loue in thee as one string danceth at the sound of another agreeing with it Hee was great with loue before thou louedst him and hee looked but for a loue to draw his loue from him Hee was great with spirit and did but looke for spirits that by loue would draw some spirit from him And now when his loue meeteth with thine his loue joyneth with thine when his spirit meeteth with thine his spirit powreth it selfe out into thine hee is joyned to thee and thou art one spirit with him his spirit and thine being united and mingled in a blessed communion II. The soule hath but one husband at once THere is a law in heaven that the heavenly Bride may at one time have but one Husband The first marriage on earth was a patterne of this Law for then God gave one woman to one man God that made this first marriage gave not two women to one man nor two men to one woman but he gave one to one that two not three or foure may be one flesh Accordingly the heavenly marriage-makers espouse the Church to one husband and that they may doe so they doe teach that the former husband must be dead before the soule can marry with another No soule can marry with Christ Iesus but a widow for she must be freed from the law of her old husband by his death before shee can come to be subject to the law of the new Her olde husband was concupiscence to who she was married in carnall generation and this husband must be slaine and put off by death if Christ Iesus the new and true husband of the soule shall be put on in regeneration And indeede if the soule will give her consent this new and true husband will kill the old not so much an husband
let her ever be tasting of thy loves and ever love thee by tasting them Let the savour of thy oyntments whose very breath is love be ever in her nostrills that she may ever love thee for that savour and by it Give me the flagons of the new wine of the kingdome which may lift up my soule above her selfe in her loves and give her better loves than her owne where with to love him that is farre better than her selfe Yea let her drinke plentifully that she may be mounted up in a divine extasie above her carnall and earthy station that she may forget the low and base griefes and cares and distractions of carnall and worldly love and by an heavenly excesse be transported into an heavenly love to embrace her beloved who is the Lord from heaven with a love that is like him O my beloved thou art most lovely even when I love thee not yet then art thou most lovely and when my soule covered with flesh sees not thy beauty yet then art thou most beautifull and most worthy to be beloved But then thy lovelinesse is lost to me because love loves not what it sees not Therefore ever anoynt mine eyes with thine eye-salve that my soule may ever see thy lovelinesse and seeing it to be most lovely love it with her best loves and despise a world of beauties in comparison of thine and a world of loves in comparison of those loves wherewith shee loveth thee Let my love rest in nothing short of thee neither let it be content meerely to rest in thee but kindle it enflame it enlarge it that it may rest largely in thee Enlarge the crany which thy spirit hath bored through the flesh into my spirit that I may largely see thee and so largely love thee Enlarge the arteries and conduit pipes by which thou the head and fountaine of loves flowest into thy members that being abundantly quickened and watered with the spirit of love I may abundantly love thee And doe not onely come much but often into me and let my spirit often be one spirit with thee in communicative and fruitive unions For such often unions with thy spirit will make my spirit more spirituall and the more spirituall shee is the more will she love him who is a spirit Againe the more spirituall she is the more will he who is a spirit love her and the more he loves her the more will he visit her with his spirit and the more he visits her the more lovely and beloved shall she be Wherefore by often visitations put thy owne image and beauty more and more on my soule and then love thy owne beauty in my soule and my soule for thy owne beauty which thou hast put on her and let my soule love thee infinitely for being infinitely more beautifull than that beauty which thou hast put on my soule and therefore infinitely more lovely than that which thou lovest in my soule Wilt thou my Lord love the image and shall not the image much more love the patterne O thou most lovely my love to thee should be farre greater than thy love to me because my object of love in thee is infinitely greater than thine in me But I being a poore and narrow creature have not love enough to love thee sufficiently an infinite Creatour and indeed there is no love but thy owne sufficient to love thee whose love onely is equall to thy lovelinesse Thy being is lovelinesse it selfe and thy being is love it selfe for God is love Come therefore into me O thou that art love and love thy selfe in me Come into me and by thy owne most excellent love fitly love thy owne most excellent lovelinesse And while thou lovest thy selfe in my soule let my soule according to her measure taste and see and love that love Let her with all her might though that might be far too weake for this worke consent and approve that love of thine and on the torrent of thy love let her most active strongest and largest affections swimme to thee O thou Ocean and unbounded fulnesse both of lovelines and love And thus though shee cannot make her owne love sufficient to love thee yet let her make thy all-sufficient love her owne by receiving some of it into her according to her capacity by assenting to it by approving magnifying it and by a desire to resemble it as much as a poore measured creature may resemble that which is unmeasurable It is thy owne word O thou lover of soules that where there is a willing minde thou acceptest that which a soule hath and not that which she hath not But Lord though that love which I have attaine not to that measure which is unmeasurable yet Lord let it be a full measure which thou pourest into me and let there bee nothing void in my heart and unfilled with thy love Yea let thy spirit of love come so fully into my soule that it stretch and enlarge her measure and make her to grow from the measure in which she is unto the measure in which shee should be even to that stature which is appointed her in thy body And thus by fulnesse in a lesse measure let her grow to a fulnesse in a greater measure growing still in measure and growing still in that which filleth her measure Yea let the measure sometimes be not onely full but running over even running over to a spirituall drunkennesse but not unto drowning for these extasies and excesses of love shall somewhat advance my ability of loving thee For when my understanding will and affections are all overflowne overcome and amazed then shall my wonder gaze on thee and my very faintings shall be enflamed toward thee and melt me into thee Neyther doth my soule desire the pleasure of this loue and Ioyes of thy vnion meerly for pleasure But I desire that the ioy and sap of thy spirit powred into mine when they two are one spirit may be generatiue and fruitfull Far be it from my soule to loue thee like an harlot and not like a wife let mee desire vnion with thee because I love thee and because I love thee let mee desire to bring forth fruite vnto thee Yea I will not cease to cry vnto thee Give mee children or else I die For thou canst not reply vnto mee Am I in Gods stead to give the fruit of the wombe For verily thou art that God who giveth the fruite of the wombe both spirituall and corporall Give me therefore children by this vnion with thee euen fruites of thy spirit which may resemble thee and be pledges to me of thy vnion with me And when I have brought them forth let me give the praise vnto thee For thou onely makest the barren to beare and to be a fruitfull mother of children And when thou hast made mee fruitfull by coming to mee come more often to mee be cause thou hast made mee fruitfull It was the voice of a naturall
wife long agoe Now will my husband dwell with me because I have borne him six sons Let it be said now also by a spiritual wife Now will my husband dwell with me because his dwelling with mee hath made me fruitfull Make my soule a fruitfull paradise bearing every good fruit of love divine and humane and then come often into thy garden to behold gather the fruits of it And that I may bring forth fruites wholly thine and not anothers beside thee burne and consume whatsoeuer would grow one with my soule besides thee Thou art a burning and consuming fire and the spirit by which thou art one with my spirit baptizeth with fire O let the fire of thy spirit so wholly turne my soule into spirituall fire that the drosse of the flesh the world being wholly consumed shee may be onely spirituall and so bring forth fruites onely to thy spirit Thus and thus saith my soule to her beloved but when she saith thus her beloved is not farre from her for by him she speakes to him when he is neare his oyntments yeeld their savour and the savour of his ointments draweth soules to run after him There hath beene of late a fruitive union and such fruitive unions doe individuate and enflame the love of the soule to him whom she hath enjoied in that union But alas the husband of the soule is sometimes like that husband which is not at home but is gone a long journey He is gone so farre from me as if hee were not mine yea so far sometimes as if he were not at all The summer is gone from my soule and the winter is come and the true olive so draweth in his fatnesse that my soule though a branch yet doubteth whether there bee a root that beareth her The ointments of light and love are not seene or felt and how can she love the lovelinesse that she sees not and if she saw it how can she love it without love In such a darknesse the greatest lovelinesse affects not the eye and in such a deadnesse there is no love wherewith to love the greatest lovelinesse The soule doth not now taste how sweete her Lord is and therefore his sweetnesse is to her as a thing forgotten or a thing mistaken or at best as a thing which was and is not and will be no more The often unions that are passed are wholly past and the very images and representations of them are neare wholly vanished And now my soule that will ever bee a lover of something and a seeker of good in one object or other being left to the flesh by the enchantment of the flesh runneth to the creature to seeke good in it For as the spirit runneth to Christ so doth the flesh to the creature But alas the dove of Christ thus flowne from the Arke in her thoughts and affections findeth no rest for shee is gone from her rest and how can she finde rest by going from rest Put forth thy hand O thou lover of soules and take her in unto thee yea first make her to returne to thee by finding her when she seeks thee Seeke her O Saviour when she goes astray from thee like a lost sheepe for even when shee thus goes astray she hath not utterly forgotten thee thy loves nor thy lawes One looke of thine will awake her love and make her weepe bitterly that she loved thee so little whom to love sufficiently her best and mightiest loves are most insufficient Prevent her seeking with thy seeking and be thou present with her in thy providence and preserving power even when thou seemest to be farre off in the tasts of thy sweetnesse and fruition of thy loves Love her even when thou doest not give her thy loves yea love her by not-giving them Doe her good even by the subtraction of thy goodnesse shew her that her safety is not in her owne hands shew her that her goodnesse is not her owne shew her that she is nothing in her selfe but that which is worse than nothing and that thou and thy grace make her wholly to be that which she is Then shall she be more humble by seeing her owne vilenes in thy absence and thou shalt bee more lovely and precious to her whose presence gives her all her worth and excellence VVhen she hath regained thee she will hold thee more hardly and keepe thee more fastly and love thee more vehemently Shee will value thy loves above treasures yet she will love thee more than thy loves and she will provide a stocke of loves in the summer against the winters if they perchāce shal return again For in these loves shee will behold the pledges of a love eternall in these joyes of thy presence she will behold the earnests of eternall joyes in an eternall presence and for the sure hope of these eternall joyes she will patiently endure the sorrowes of these temporall absences Yet let these temporall absences be as thornes in the sides of my soule to stirre her up to the desire of that eternall presence And be not lacking overlong O thou life and love and guide of my soule but ever and anon visit her with thy presence stay her with thy flagons comfort her with apples for she is sicke of love when shee wanteth her beloved Whē thou wast here on earth thou hadst compassion on the multitude that had nothing to eate and wouldest not send them away fasting lest they should faint by the way O sweete Saviour thou art no lesse mercifull in heaven than thou wert on earth and an hungry soule is a fitter object of mercy than an hungry body and my hungry soule hath a farther way to goe than their bodies for shee must goe from earth unto heaven O refresh her and that right soone with thy mercies with the joyes of thy presence with the bread of heaven and water of life which thy spirit plentifully giveth to my spirit when thou commest unto her Be thou her guide even to the life which is beyond death and grant that through these changes of temporall presences and absences she may runne in one even and unchanged path of love and holinesse untill she come unto that eternall presence where is the fulnesse of joy without ebbes and perpetuity of joy without interruptions There shall shee see her beloved clearely and plainely even face to face and there shall shee enjoy her beloved so fully as she seeth him clearely yea she shall enjoy him with all her might of enjoying Her being shall be the measure of her enjoying for as much as she is so much shall shee enjoy shee shall be in a perpetuall union with her beloved and in a perpetuall fruition by union and so in a perpetuall rack extent and vttermost of joy The fountaine of joy shall flow continually into the mouth of the soule the new wine of the kingdome shall still overcome her and set her up
THE MYSTICALL MARRIAGE Experimentall Discoveries of the heavenly Marriage betweene a Soule and her Saviour By F. ROVS LONDON Printed by William Iones dwelling in Red-crosse-street 1631. TO THE BRIDE THE LAMBES WIFE A REASON OF THIS WORKE IF any man fearefull of waste doe ask To what end serveth this labour I answer To the maine end Gods glory by mans edification And to this I thinke it conduceth many wayes First by the fitnesse of it to all times and seasons either of prosperity or adversity For if the times be joyfull this subject brings the best joy with it and enables us to rejoyce with them Yea it rectifies amends and exalts our joyes for upon an earthly it sets a crowne of heavenly joy And indeede without this joy we may say to joy Thou art mad and to laughter What is it that thou doest But if the times prove sad and dangerous by pestilence famine sword or other calamities this Doctrine brings strong consolation even stronger than all sorrowes and discomforts For our Communion with Christ is a fastning of the soule to a mighty and impregnable Rocke that makes her stedfast even against the gates of hell By this Communion we are made Temples of the holy Ghost the very Comforter himselfe and by him there is a Sanctuary made within us into which the soule may fly for rest safety and comfort amid all feares and dangers For into this Sanctuary the Avenger may not enter There is a chamber within us and a bed of love in that chamber wherein Christ meetes and rests with the soule and the force of friends or men either dares not or cannot breake in to disturbe the rest of Christ with the soule nor of the soule with Christ. It is an undeniable Axiome We are more than conquerours through him that loveth us An omnipotent lover gives an excessively conquering and unconquerable safety And for this safety of us and our joy we have also the immediate word of the lover himselfe I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall none take from you No wonder then if the Disciple beloved of this Lover doe tell us that writing of this communion hee writes that our joy may bee full for in this communion stands the fulnesse of joy both for soundnesse measure and safety And surely with these last times of the world it hath too great a fitnesse For it hath beene foretold that in these times the love of many should waxe colde and what fitter remedy is there for love when it hath taken cold than to kindle a fire to it even that spirituall fire which issueth frō the spirit that baptiseth with fire A second advancement to edification is this that that it presents to the view of the world some bunches of grapes brought from the land of promise to shew that this land is not a meere imagination but some have seene it and have brought away parcels pledges and earnests of it In these appeares a world above the world a love that passeth human love a peace that passeth naturall understanding a joy unspeakable and glorious a taste of the chiefe and soveraigne good Neither doth the benefit of it rest onely in the conviction of the understanding but thirdly it goes on to the will and affections It warmes and drawes them and by them the whole man to partake of the same pledges and by the incouragement of these pledges to goe on laboriously and constantly to the possession of the whole And that as by a borrowed sight men are provoked to come to tasting so by their owne tasting they may come to a sight of their owne which onely tasting can teach them But withall that by these foretastes they may be led on to that fulnesse wherewith the soule shall eternally be satisfied Fourthly it may provoke others of this Nation to bring forth more boxes of this precious oyntment even of that mysticall loue which droppeth downe from the Head Christ Iesus into the soules of the Saints living heere below For so the house of God shall bee filled with the savour of his oyntments and we know that because of the savour of his oyntments the Virgins love him And loving him they cry Draw me and I will runne after thee So the more savour of this oyntment the more love of Christ the more love the more running after Christ. But if the number of those who have written on this subject of mysticall and experimentall Divinity be tolde I thinke this worke will not be found supernumerary THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE I. The soule seeketh a Husband and findes him I WAS first breathed frō heaven and I came from God in my Creation I am divine and heavenly in my originall in my essence in my character and therfore my happines must be divine and heavenly For to a divine and heavenly essence can agree no other but a divine and heavenly happinesse I am a spirit though a low one and God is a Spirit even the highest one and God who is a Spirit is the fountaine of this spirit Where should a low spirit finde happinesse but in the highest Spirit and where should a created Spirit seeke happinesse but in the Spirit that created it Wherefore being a Spirit I will fasten my selfe on a spiritual happinesse and this spirituall happinesse I will looke for in no other but in the first and best Spirit beyond whom there is neither good nor being Then what hast thou to doe O soule any longer among these grosse thicke and bodily things here below to cast thy love on them or to seeke happinesse in them what are they to thee or what agreeablenesse is there betweene thy purity and their grossenesse The bodie that lives by breathing the thinne element of ayre may as well live in the bottome of the thicke water as thou canst live continue much lesse better thy Being by sucking these grosse and bodily Creatures Thy being is of a higher and purer nature and therefore thy well-being must bee fetched from something that is higher and purer than they The maine use of them is to serve the body which is some kinne to their grossenesse but remember that the bodie it selfe is to serve the soule and what base felicity must that be which she shall find in her servants servant Much more reasonable were it for the soule to fetch her well-being from some being higher and better than her selfe for such onely can better her and withall to lift up the body to the participation of the soules high and spirituall happinesse for there is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body then that the body should draw downe the soule to the grosse and transitory things that are given to serve the body in the bodies service of the soule And thus may man be perfectly happy the soule a spirit by union with the highest Spirit and the body by union with the soule united also to that Spirit And now the
to the increase of happines since the more happy shee is in time the greater shall her happinesse be in eternity CAP. IIII. The heavenly marriage is happy not onely in the pleasures but in the labours of love A WISE husband though most loving is not alwayes embracing hee doth love ever but doth not ever embrace For there is a time to embrace and a time to be farre from embracing There is the service and labour of love as well as the pleasure of love and accordingly as we reade once that Isaac sported with Rebekah so wee reade also that she made savoury meat such as her husband loved No doubt she had pleased him before by the like service that she pleased him so certainly now at least she was no better than Sarah who did her husband the service of making cakes for the entertainment of his guests So doth the mysticall wife also she thinkes sometimes how she may please her husband by service and not onely how she may take pleasure in him and of him For the soules husband will not onely please but be pleased hee will not onely give love but take it and the love which he takes shall be sometimes in the labours of love Hee is her Lord and therfore he expects service from her that shee may not call him Lord in words onely but in deedes even in doing his will Neither is this service a meere service or a thing onely of toyle and trouble but it is an easie yoake and a light burthen yea it is full of profit and advantage for it bringeth and increaseth rest and happinesse to the soule For indeede love ever seekes the good of the beloved and accordingly Christ Iesus who is love sets the soule on worke for her owne good For the soule hath many gaines annexed to her worke she gaines before she workes she gaines in her worke and she gaines after her worke She gaines before the worke for this is one maine cause why those weighty joyes sweete embracements and ravishing consolations are given her that she may cheerfully runne the race and performe the service set before her When Angels bring meate to Elijah it is because hee hath a great journey to goe so that he is beholding to his great journey for his Angels foode The outward Israel is fed with the bread of heaven to maintaine him in his walke unto Canaan and the inward Israel is fed with the true bread that commeth downe from heaven to enable him in his workes and walkes through this pilgrimage to heaven Neither doth this course holde onely in the service of doing but in the service of suffering in the passive as in the active obedience Christ Iesus shews his Disciples on the Mount a patterne of his heavenly glory and then to Christ thus gloriously transfigured Moses and Elias doe speake of the suffering which hee should accomplish at Ierusalem So to the Head himselfe the glory set before him is an encouragement to the enduring of the Crosse and despising the shame And if it be so to the head it should be such also to the body And such it is indeed to the true members of that body for they receive not the grace of God in vaine but can doe and will doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth thē For as they finde that they are strengthened with all might according to Gods glorious power so they know the end for which they are thus strengthened even unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulnesse Wherefore let us think that the parcels of glory joy and strength which we now receive in the visitations of Christ Iesus are a kind of wages paid aforehand to encourage us more cheerfully confidently to the worke of doing and suffering And accordingly having received them let us not dreame of rest but of labour not of setting up Tabernacles but of service and sufferings And let us not doubt but if the Angels foode be a preparation and call to a long or laborious journey of doing or suffering the same foode will also strengthen and enable us to performe the journey unto which it calls so that in the strength thereof we shall be able to walk even to the Mount of God Yet neither is all the comfort encouragement and gaine given to the soule before her worke but even in her worke she gaineth In the service of her husband is continuall gain and that not of strength onely but of pleasure and delight For the soule having tasted Christ in an heavenly communion so loves him that to please him is a pleasure and delight to her selfe Yea there is such a law of love shed into her by that communion that his commandements are so farre from being grievous to her that there is no pleasure in her taste comparable to them No sweet things no precious things in her judgement may be compared to the sweetnes and preciousnes of cōmandements Therefore it is the true voice of the Spouse and therein not so much her mouth as heart speaketh They are more to be desired than gold yea than much fine golde sweeter also than hony and the hony combe Behold how the soule married unto Christ delights in the law of her husband and no wonder if she love his law when she loves him neither if her heart be to his law when his law is written in her heart Besides the law of his lips is a law of grace and a law of grace is a lovely law So she loves his law because his law is lovely she loves it because it is his law whom she loves she loves it because the love of his law is written in her heart And as she loves his law so she loves to fulfill it for her love will not be quiet untill it see her words turned into her deedes And this she doth not negligently nor heavily but like a lover pleasantly and chearfully Looke but to a carnall lover and see how he affects the title of a servant and is more than glad even proud to receive and fulfill the commands of his beloved Give then spiritual love to a soule and she will rejoyce also to perform the spiritual commands of her beloved If a man know not this it is because hee loves not but let him love and then he will both know and doe it For the nature and law of love in the lover naturally moveth to the fulfilling of the law of the beloved And as the Sun in whom a law or covenant of motion is written rejoyceth like a gyant to runne the race and motion of that covenant so the soule in whom this law of love is written rejoyceth to runne the race and motion of this law Obedience is the kindly fruite of a loving soule and a loving soule bringeth forth this fruite as kindly as a good tree bringeth forth good fruite And as this law of love is active and laborious so is it strong and mighty Even
death it selfe cannot overcome love for love is stronger than death Yea love enjoyeth dangers and death it selfe and takes them for advantages as by which the excellence and vehemence of love may be really expressed Accordingly the nearest and dearest friends of the Bridegroome rejoyce that they are counted worthy to suffer for his sake The fire of diuine loue so inflameth thē that much water of persecution cannot queneh it yea such is the nature of this fire that it feedeth on those waters and groweth more fervent by that which would quench it For the fire of love upon opposition kindleth another fire of an holy rage which is full of anger and scorne that life or death or any other creature should offer to separate the soule from her loved Christ Iesus And as the Bridegroom himself rejected a great Apostle with the title of Satan when he disswaded him from expressing his love to his spouse by dying for her so the spouse her selfe is angry when she is disswaded from expressing her love to her best-beloved in the sufferings of love One while being threatned with a fiery furnace she saith O King we are not carefull to answer thee in this matter but bee it knowne to thee wee will not serve thy gods nor worship thy golden image And another while at other threats We cannot but speake the things that wee have seene and heard And again when danger was denounced and friends disswaded I am ready not to be bound onely but also to die for the name of the Lord Iesus Thus may bee seene not onely what pleasures but what power and might doe accompany and blesse the labours and sufferings of love love delights in doing and suffering yea it is angry when it may not be suffered to suffer And as opposition riseth against it so it riseth against opposition yea it riseth by it untill it rise above it But besides the usuall pleasure which love takes in suffering for the beloved there are unusuall and extraordinary comforts allotted to the sufferings of love When the Bride suffereth most for her love to the Bridegroome the Bridegroomes love must needes be most increased to the Bride and consequently the fruits benefits of his love Therefore there being an hundred-fold gaine promised in this life to the sufferings of love the more those sufferings are the more hundred-folde is that gaine which is promised to them Besides the Bridegroome seeth that the Bride hath then most need of comfort helpe and supply when for his sake she is in most distresse and therefore hee that is a present helpe in trouble cannot but be a greater helpe in a time of greater trouble for hee fitteth the measure of his helpe to the measure of her trouble Hence it ariseth that there is a peculiar height and abundance of consolations which none can attaine unto but those that have a speciall height and abundance of tribulations For this proportion the Apostle acknowledgeth when he saith As the tribulations doe abound so doe the consolations Thus is there continuall gaine in the sufferings of love and great gaine in great sufferings thus is the soule made a conquerour and gainer in all labours and losses and crosses through him that loveth her What she loseth in the creature she hath repayed with great advantage in the Creatour what she loseth in brasse she hath repayed in golde not barely value for value but weight for weight yea the weight of the worse is farre exceeded by the weight of the better for it is but a light affliction and it is an exceeding weight of glory and parts of this weighty glory the soule now receiveth aforehand as earnests of the whole and having received them she doth now rejoyce even through manifold tentations of crosses and losses with a joy unspeakable and glorious Her finite measured and utterable tribulations are overwaighed with joyes unspeakable and that they are so we see it in the effect of them because the soule despiseth the sufferings for the joyes yea the sufferings are so overcome by the joyes that the sufferings doe not turne her joyes into sadnes but the joyes turne the sadnes of the sufferings into joy for she rejoyceth in her sufferings Lastly the soule is a great gainer after the worke for the greatest gaine of the soule is at the end of all her labours there is a time comming when shee shall rest from her labours but when shee rests from them they shall not rest from following her for follow her they shall into heaven and blesse her with eternall joyes Yea the more shee hath laboured and suffered the more shall she be blessed and glorified The more afflictions the more weight of glory for the harvest will answer the sowing the present sowing in teares shall be followed with a proportionable harvest of joy so that he which loveth sparingly shall reape sparingly and hee that soweth plentifully shall reape plentifully Vpon the consideration of these threefold gaines annexed to the labours and sufferings of love here ariseth a just reproofe of those contemplative men who by neglecting or rather excluding these labours and sufferings doe neglect shut out these gaines They would presently be at rest and presently would have nothing but rest and enjoying but it is utterly a fault and a losse to separate mystical Divinity from practicall for howsoever they may be distinguished they may not be separated each having his turnes and each giving hand to other and strengthening one another The joy of the Lord is our strength and it strengthens us for something to bee done or suffered and again these labours and sufferings doe increase the joy for as the tribulations doe increase so doe the consolations True it is that the minde of man would presently bee at his workes end and having received joyes spend the whole time in gazing on them tasting of them or in recalling the tastes and images of them But too much enjoying is a losse of enjoying for it looseth all those gaines formerly mentioned annexed to doing and sufferings For if a man will onely busie himselfe in tasting present joy how can he expect those joyes that are sent to prepare unto labours or those that accompany labours or finally which is of most weight those infinite and unmeasurable and exceeding joyes which in the life to come are to follow afflictions and labours Will God give joy to enable us unto services when he seeth hee cannot have the services for which hee gave the joyes Can we looke for an abundance of consolations when we exclude the abundance of tribulatiōs to which these consolations are annexed Or can wee looke for that exceeding weight of glory which shal follow light and momentany afflictions and yet utterly refuse that light affliction which worketh this glory Surely whosoever thou art that thus doest thy losse hereby is manifold but especially greatest in turning thy seed-time into harvest and
secondly there is yet a farther use and benefit of desertions For it may be thou hast gone beyond neglect of thy beloved and hast proceeded unto some offensive crosse and contrary carriage toward him thou hast entertained some thought purpose or act which hee cannot endure and then it is best both for him and thee that he hide himselfe from thee If thou come once to entertaine his enemies and to lodge them in one roome with him how canst thou expect but that hee should leave that roome since there is no agreement betweene light and darknesse betweene Christ and Belial And surely hee should neither regard himselfe nor thee if hee should give thee his loves when thou entertainest his enemies For since thy husband is thy happinesse the enemies of thy husband are the enemies of thy happinesse and so both his and thine enemies Therefore is it good that thy friend should a while goe aside when that thou grievest him and hurtest thy selfe by the entertainment of his and thine enemies And while thus hee is hid from thee and thou art left to those enemies whom thou hast entertained in stead of him thou maist learne what odds there is betweene a friend and an enemy and what a folly it was to grieve him that loved thee by loving them that hate thee Thou hast perchance had a touch with thy olde husband the flesh and jealousie which is the rage of a man much more of a man that is a jealous God is angry with thy whorishnesse and puts a day of wrath upon thee wherin he seemes not to spare thee Therefore thy conscience is let loose upon thee and it teares thee to peeces it breakes thy bones and grindes thee to powder Satan also who tempted thee hath leave to set upon thee and to teare thee with vexations whom he had seduced by tentations And now art thou left as it were wholly in hell who wouldest entertaine a peece of hell into thy heaven And indeede it is both a just and mercifull dispensation to tyre thee with thine owne wayes to make the flesh to come out at thy nostrills to make thee weary of thine enemies and to make thee long and looke grone and cry for thy friend whom thou hast grieved and driven out of thy sight Therefore is heaven shut up and become as brasse unto thee and hell hath enlarged her mouth to swallow thee yea thou art like Ionah in the belly of hell thou art like Nebuchadnezzar cut downe by the commandement of the holy one and driven away from men to the beasts of the field thou art like Sampson when his lockes were cut off the good Spirit leaves thee and the evill Spirits like Philistims are upon thee But hath God forgotten to be mercifull and hath he shut up his tender mercies in an everlasting displeasure Will hee breake the bruised reede and deliver up the soule of his Turtle into the hands of her enemies Nay wee shall not die O Lord Thou hast ordained them for judgement and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction The enemies of the soule are suffered to scourge her for loving her enemies so to beate that love out of her and to beate her into that olde love from which in some great degree shee was fallen Thus is she beaten by her enemies from her enemies and the stripes sent her from her friend bring her backe to him that sent them Shee had grieved the spirit of her beloved and by the griefe of her owne spirit shee now learnes what the griefe of a grieved spirit is and thereby learnes to grieve him no more Hereupon she resolves to cast out whatsoever hath offended him and to put on that singlenes and purity of soule which makes her one for one and one fitted by holinesse for that one who is holy She will be his alone whose alone she is and from henceforth shee will scorne and hate any sinne that will offer to bee a rivall with her wellbeloved and especially that sinne whose rivalty hath lately cost her so deare as the losse of his familiarity And the soule being thus washed and trimmed by repentance holy resolutions and renewing her covenant the bridegroome of the soule appeareth to her againe and giveth her his loves And now is she like a garden watered after a scorching heate the heate being overcome by moysture makes her more flourishing and more fruitfull the belly of hell having vomited up the soule of a Saint because it could not digest her shee then runnes much more readily in the wayes of Gods cōmandements The stumpe of the tree for it was not pulled up by the rootes springeth and flourisheth againe being watered with the dew of heaven and is more glorious than before by a greater acknowledgement and glorifying of the Lord of glory The haire for it was onely polled groweth again so doth the strength of the spirit and greater exploits are done against the enemies of the soule than ever before For the soule having beene long kept fasting feedes more heartily on the bread of life and this being the true bread that strengthens the heart of man the more feeding on it the more strength of heart A long drynesse of spirit hath made her very thirsty and the more thirsty she is the more doth shee drinke of the waters of life and the more shee drinkes of life the more lively and active shee is The late breach of love increaseth her love and by love her union with her Lord and husband and the increase of that union is the increase of holinesse and happinesse There is yet a third profit by spirituall desertions and it is the preventing of pride which usually ariseth upon spirituall revelations or any other excellencies of the spirit It is a precious and a glorious thing to know the counsels of heaven and the secrecies of that kingdome and these mysteries doth the husband of the soule often reveale unto her in the bed of love There is a secret murmure of things inutterable and then the soule wonders at the deepe wisedome and unspeakeable truthes which are discovered to her yea anon she wonders at her selfe and her owne happinesse because they are discovered to her But then the flesh which is apt to swell upon the apprehension of any honour or eminence steps in too often and puts his swelling into the soule and then the thoughts of the soule are changed For whereas before shee was a spirit that did magnifie the Lord and rejoyced in God her Saviour because to her lowlinesse hee shewed high and great things now shee rejoyceth in her selfe because of that which she hath received even as if she had not received it She growes proud against the giver even by his owne gifts and boasts of a selfe-sufficiency even against him from whom her sufficiencie came and without whom she hath no sufficiency Accordingly as shee changeth her thoughts so she changeth her voice for now she speakes in
the language of Babel I sit as a Queene and of Laodicea I am rich and have neede of nothing But indeed this riches is the true way to poverty and nothing For the soule being once rich in her owne opinion turnes her eyes from her husband that onely gives her true riches and so lookes from riches unto poverty And againe her husband seeing her rich in her owne opinion strips her and sends her naked and empty away But what a folly and madnesse is it in the soule though indeede very agreeable to the blinde flesh that maddeth her to thinke highly of the secrets and mysteries revealed to her and withall to stoppe the current of such revelations For thus she doth by turning away the face and turning the backe unto the revealer But on the other side it is a great mercy and favour in the revealer to stop his current of revelations yea to send some spirituall affliction and desertion in stead of them to prevent or amend this turning away of the soule from her husband the giver because of his gifts For thus by a short absence of both she may recover both the sooner and keepe them the longer but if shee should have that which she will abuse the having of it would cast her into the danger of a greater and a longer losse If the Moone being full should grow proud in her fulnesse and out of that pride neglect the Sunne not caring though the earth did ever keepe him out of sight were not this a way by the pride of her light to bring her to an everlasting darknesse And were it not farre better for her that the Sunne by some short eclipse and interposition of the earth did shew her her owne darknesse being without his light that so she may the more steadily and continually be lightened by a stedfast and continuall looking on him from whom her light commeth And thus indeede doth the husband and Sunne of the soule Having sent light hee sends also some turne of darknes that by a short darknes he may prevent a longer and that by darknesse hee may send a greater light Having visited the soule with his graces hee gives a medicine and preservative against pride the poyson of grace and a restorative to humility the forerunner of grace Humility is the bed wherein the Bridegroome lyes downe and rests with the soule With whom shall I rest saith hee but with the humble contrite soule Wherfore let the soule account it a benefit when this bed is made by some spirituall affliction for the King of grace and glory is shortly comming to lodge with her in some gracious visitation he that giveth grace to the humble will visit her with abundance of consolations he will give her his loves and his loves shall againe tell her his counsailes And then shalt thou account thy selfe a gainer if affliction and desertion have beene so great as to bring forth a great humiliation for a great humiliation shall bee followed with a greatly gracious and glorious visitation Fourthly these desertions are profitable to try the truth of our love and the tryall of our love shewes us the faults of it and by shewing them calls upon us to amend them The husband of the soule will see whether his spouse love him with the love of a wife or of an harlot The love of an harlot loveth a man onely for his gifts and so in truth loveth not the man but the gifts And though this be secretly true when by outward fashion she seemes to love him yet it is manifestly true when the gifts cease for then her love to the man also ceaseth But the true wife loveth her husband even for himselfe and by himselfe shee loves him without gifts yea she loveth his gifts for his sake for she would nor take the same gifts from another man Yea the true love of a wife goes some degrees farther for shee doth nor onely love her husband when hee gives no gifts neither doth shee onely love his gifts for his sake but she loves him when he is absent from her even when she is without both his presence and his gifts for even then the memory of him is precious to her shee calls to remembrance his perfections his vertues and his loves And yet the true love of a wife goes farther for she loves her husband even whē hee chides her and is angry with her though in that case an husband seemes to be more absent being at home than an husband pleased being from home All these doth the true spirituall love of the spouse performe unto Christ and Christ delights to see them performed Christ Iesus loves his wife with a true love for he hath laid downe his true his true blood and life for her And greater love hath no man than he that laid downe his life for his beloved Now Christ thus truly loving his wife hee expects a returne of true and unfained love from his wife And that it may be tried to be true or amended and made true if it be not so these tryalls are sent to her in these desertions And indeede in most of these degrees of love are we often faulty the flesh having often too great a part and influence in our love For the flesh as mainly for things present and palpable and like Thomas is wholly for seeing and feeling And hence it is that our love dotes so much on the gifts of Christ Iesus that it cooles even to Christ Iesus himselfe without his gifts Wee are all for Christs light and knowledge for his kisses and embracements for his hony and his wine for his sweetnesses and ravishings and without these Christ is a dry and loathed husband as Manna to the fleshly Israelites was a dry and loathed food But when it is so with us how farre are we short of those higher degrees of love even of that love that loveth Christ being absent and hid out of sight or that loveth him being present in that utmost absence of anger chastisement and seeming enmity How farre short are we of that Canaanitish woman that kissed his rodds and made love out of those reproaches whereby Christ seemed to drive her away But since it is so is it not high time for Christ to remove his gifts to whom our hearts are removed from Christ that so our hearts may againe be removed to Christ from them It is a right proper cure of this adulterous love to remoue those things with which love did adulterate that so the right object of our best love may bee sought and found and constantly proposed And surely this cure is profitable to our soules as it is pleasing also to the husband of soules for by it Christ hath more interest in the soule and the soule in Christ. And if this be the fruit of desertions then art thou againer by desertions But that thou maist be sure to gaine by them be sure to learne that which they
of the soule even the image of the most excellent Deity shine brightly in his eyes being anoynted with fresh oyle and let her be lovely to him by those oyntments which make him lovely to her Let her often goe out of the body yea out of the world by heavenly contemplations and treading on the top of the earth with the bottome of her feet stretch her selfe up to looke over the world into that upper world where her treasure her joy her beloved dwelleth Let her stand in this watch-tower and looke out for her lover as the watch-man looks out for the morning and then the day-spring from on high shall visite her Turne thy face away from the enchantments of this world from dreames of earthly profit and preferment and turne thy face to the wildernesse even turne this world into a wildernesse and a nothing before thy face and the spirit of God shall come upon thee and thou shalt see the vision of the Almighty And when this Sunne of the soule shineth upon her let the eye of the soule made cleare and piercing by faith like the eye of an Eagle looke on the Sunne for this Sunne looks on the eye that lookes on him yea he loves the eye of a faith working unto love and cries out that he is wounded by this one of her eyes It is his owne speech to the soule Seeke my face continually and it is an answer which he loves to receive from the soule Thy face O Lord will I seeke And thus beholding Christ Iesus with open face thou shalt see and feele things inutterable thou shalt also bee changed from beauty to beauty from glory to glory by the spirit of this Lord. The more the soule seeth and is seene of him the more lovely shall shee grow and the more lovely she is the more will hee delight to see and be seene of her Againe if with that hearty lover whose heart was according to the heart of his well-beloved thou canst truly say Mine eyes are alwayes to the Lord having procured his comming thou shalt also stay him from going Thy heart shall watch him and keepe him and holde him for where he is so watched and held from going he is willing to abide The story is well knowne that though hee seemed as though hee would have gone further yet when they constrained him hee went in to tarry with them And though he should after some tarrying vanish out of sight yet if our hearts be thinking and talking of him hee will eftsoones stand in the midst of them and bring his peace with him And that thou maist keep his love fresh and fervent to thee keepe thy owne love fresh and fervent to him For love draweth love and fervent love makes love fervent like it selfe Love is like burning coales and burning coales will kindle coales that are not burning Therefore kindle thy love and make it to flame by thinking on his beauty on his sweetnes on his goodnes Kindle it by renewing the olde tastes of him which thou hast formerly tasted Kindle thy love by reviving the images of loves past put thy selfe into the same thoughts wherein thou wast when thou didst enjoy him And so if thy minde be fitted and put into a state of enjoying it is likely that hee will come into a minde so fitted and thou shalt enjoy him And if hee come not yet into thee stirre up thy spirituall concupiscence and therewith let the soule lust mightily for him and let her lusts and desires ascend up to him in strong cryes and invocations then by his spirit he will descend unto thee Be carefull that there be a perpetuall consent of thy will unto his will and a perpetuall issuing of thoughts and actions from this consent and conformity In the house of this husband there must be but one will and that is the husbands The wifes will must be melted into the will of the husband and her will must not live but her husbands will must live in her And then this husband will delight to be much at home where he may be Master and he will delight often to give the unity of fruition where there is an unity of will and affection but where the wifes will doth crosse the will of the husband there is he wearied away and that house is to him as a place of continuall dropping offensive and indeed unfit to entertaine that Lord who is the King of glory A King loves to be in his Kingdome where he commandeth and is obeyed and therefore if thou wilt have this King to visit and dwell with thee let him command and reigne in thee for he hath told thee himselfe If any man love mee and keepe my commandements I will love him and will appeare plainly to him Wherefore if the soule desire to please her selfe by the fruition of his presence let her especially and mainely strive to please him for by pleasing him she shal be pleased by him whose pleasure is infinitely greater than that which ariseth out of her pleasing of her selfe Let her give away her owne will for his will and in so doing shee shall be a double gainer for she changeth a worse will for a better and withall gaines him whose the better will is and who is infinitely better than her selfe Wherefore strive to please him and to give him his will yea strive to give it much and mainly for the more thou givest it the more thou receivest into thee a most excellent will and a most excellent husband Thus shalt thou please thy selfe most by pleasing him and not thy selfe What husband is there who seeing his wife to neglect her selfe for him but hee will love and cherish that wife the more the more shee neglects her selfe for him And then by how much his love and cherishing is more advantageable and pleasing than her owne so much is her gaine advanced by loving and pleasing him more than her selfe And because there is some beauty and good in the creature though indeed subject to vanity and blasted with a curse and there is a law of the members reigning in the worst and not wholly rooted out of the best which loves to looke on the creature and by looking lusts after it let the soule married to Christ be very wary how she turnes her eye and fixeth it on the creature For if her eye goe much after it and fettle long upon it her love is likely to come after her eye She may looke on it and behold the goodnesse of it but in beholding the goodnesse of it shee must againe look from it to that transcendent originall and infinite goodnesse of her husband of whom this goodnesse was borrowed For by him all things were made that were made Againe she may looke on it to see the vanity of it that by seeing the vanity of it shee may looke from it to her Lord and Husband in whom is stability and perpetuall
buffeting it and so when thou lookest for a good spirit to exalt thee an evill spirit be sent to beate humble thee Christ comes into thee not to feede but to kill the flesh wherefore thy end and his are contrary if thou desire his cōing to feede that which he comes to kill If then thou wouldest have him come indeede into thee joyne with him in the proposall of one the same end even the exaltation of the Spirit and the death of the flesh allowe not fleshly swelling to bee an end no not a subsequent of thy meeting with Christ but kill it if after this meeting it arise in thee The flesh hath no part nor portion in this service but to bee slaine by it therefore let not this left hand of the flesh know what the right hand of the spirit doth in thee but be thou wholly spirituall in a spirituall in a spirituall busines and by it growe more spirituall and not more but lesse carnall Againe desire not these sweetnesses of spirituall vnion onely because they are sweete for in this the flesh also may have his part both in desire and fruition Be not like the children of Israell in the wildernes who desired meate for their lusts for of such a desire there is an il beginning an il end may be expected since lust is both the beginning and end of it But blessed is the land when her Princes eate for strength and not for riot blessed is the Church when her Nobles eate this spirituall foode for spirituall strength and not for lust and luxury It is a kinde of luxury to make taste and not strength the maine end of eating but let the sweetnesse of the taste bee used as an encouragement unto eating for strength Out of the strong one comes this sweetnesse that by this sweetnesse thou maist be made partaker of his strength Wherfore having foūd this honey eate with Ionathan that thou maist be strengthened in services to be done and against enemies to be resisted Eate that thou maist strengthen thy faith and that the eyes of the inner man being enlightened thou maist the more clearely discerne the riches of glory given to thee in Christ Iesus Strengthen thy faith also that thou maist more fully and closely cleave unto him with thy will whom thou hast seene with thy understanding to bee the treasure of perfect felicity Yea let not thy faith leave growing from strength to strength untill it bring thee beyond faith unto vision Eate that thou maist strengthen thy hope and that thou maist hope the more perfectly to receive the full fruition of that sweetnesse and blessednesse whereof here by this eating thou hast received the foretastes and pledges Eate that thou maist strengthen thy love and that thou maist love him with a love above all loves whom thou hast seene and tasted to be fairer and sweeter than all that can be loved And by strengthening thy love to him strengthen also thy love to his will and to his law the copie of his will The sweetnesse which thou tastest must needes love the law for they are twinnes this sweetnes being shed into our soules and the law written in our hearts by one and the same spirit And as the sweetnesse brings with it a love of the law making it sweete to us even sweeter than hony and the hony combe so doth the law leade us to the fulnes and fountain of this sweetnesse Be thou also strengthened by this sweetnes more strongly to resist the enemies of thy soule and of thy Lord and Saviour Let the sweetnesse of the spirit turne the sweetnesse of the flesh into bitternesse and the sweetnesse of the world into contempt and let it make thee to spit out against the taste of all tentations which the evill spirit shall offer thee for how sweete soever the same tentations may now seeme in thy mouth they shall at last be turned into an everlasting bitternesse and gnashing of teeth But the sweetnesse of thy husband groweth like a river untill it come and bring thee to a boundlesse Ocean of perpetuall sweetnesse Briefly let this sweetnesse now tasted by thee fill thy heart and soule and life with sweetnes Let thy garments smell of myrrhe cassia and frankincense let thy conversation yeeld forth the sweete fruites of righteousnes sweet figges and sweet grapes that cheare God and man Having received sweetnesse from Christ sweeten others also and being strengthened by this sweetnesse strengthen thy brethren Be not discouraged if he come not so often to thee nor stay so long with thee as thou desirest The baites of a traveller are short and his journey long The meales of Elijah were but two but his journey was forty dayes This kinde of foode hath in it an eternall nourishment and therfore it may strengthen long though but shortly taken Besides if thou hadst this meate so long and so fully as thou desirest it may be thou wouldest not so long and so fully desire and love it as now thou doest There is a loathing upon fulnesse and a restivenesse upon spirituall fatnesse as upon the bodily Therfore Iesburun being fat kicketh against him that made her fat and Israel being fully and daily fed with Manna falls to loathing it But thy husband who is wisedome in perfection and knowes thee better than thou knowest thy selfe prevents this dangerous fulnesse and fatnesse and carries his kindnesse in so temperate a moderation betweene glutting and starving that the soule be neither too fat nor too leane And indeede as shee is then most comely in the eye of her husband so is she then most healthy active and fit for the services of her husband Wherefore let her bee content with these turnes of comming and going with short meales and long journeyes If the meales be sufficient to bring us to our journeyes end even to Gods holy Mountaine we may well be contented For these journeyes and labours that here seeme to be long in regard of the rests that come betweene them shall bring us at last to an eternall rest which hath no interposition of labours And then it shall be no sorrow of heart to us that through short rests and long labours we have arrived to that state of happines which hath in it no labour but is all rest Againe bee not discouraged if hee come not still when thou thinkest that thou hast prepared thy soule and made the bed of loue for him Thou mayest perchance bee short of that fitnes which thou thinkest for he is a God of pure eyes and thou euen when thou knowest nothing by thy selfe art not free from Impurity Hee will haue thee yet more fitted for his comming by a narrower search of thy owne blemishes and vnfitnes yea hee will haue thee fitter for his comming by being composed and decent without his comming He will haue thee fitted and trimmed by faith as wel as by love and teach thee to
beleeve his love when thou feelest it not as well as when thou feelest it And indeed that is most like faith which beleeves what it feeles not but how canst thou shew this vertue if still thou hast feeling Hee expects perchance that the old stocke of assurances in visitations and sensible aproches shold have lasted longer with thee and thou shouldst not so soone have neede of new tokens of love on his part and new feelings on thine owne The former tastes and tokens of his love shold have longer told thee that he still loves thee though thou doe not still receive tokens from him and tastes of his love True it is that he seldome failes to meete a soule duely trimmed and prepared for him Neverthelesse he is still free and perchance will have it somtimes to appeare so And if he doe thus at somtimes when we are prepared then at other times hee comes being unexpected and so by a compensation gives us that which we asked though onely with a difference of time And indeede his dispensations are wiser then our desires and it is fittest that times and seasons should be in his hands and not ours especially for his owne gifts For we indeed do not all waies open our mouthes in due season but hee alwaies openeth his hand and filleth vs with his blessings in due season and accordingly though the spouse somtimes seeke him find him not yet another time hee is found of her that seekes him not for when she is sleeping he comes knocking and saith Open to me my sister my loue my doue my vndefiled Wherefore let vs looke mainely to our owne part to haue our lampes trimmed with faith and loue and let vs trust him with his owne part the choise of the times and seasons of his comming Yea againe and againe be not discouraged though hitherto thou hast not felt the spiritual kisses of Christ Iesus the extasyes of his wine nor the rauishments of his vnion It may be the houre of thy Lord Sauiour is not yet come nor the day wherein hee shall say This day shalt thou bee with me in Paradise This day was the last day to him to whom it was first said and it may be one of thy latter dayes wherin it shall bee said to thee this day will I be with thee and make a Paradise within thee Yet let not these dayes be late dayes much lesse last dayes by thy delayes howsoever late they may be his dispensations Remember him in thy youth and first dayes and be thou as a servant ever ready and hearkening when his Lord will come and knocke that when he knockes thou maist open and he may come in and dwell with thee for ever It is just that the giver should chuse his owne time for his owne gifts and it is just that if thou refuse his time he should refuse thine and then will he be like one that turnes aside to the flockes of thy companions And yet lesse let those be discouraged who have small and but small tastes of these spirituall joyes Hee that made us knowes our frame and what is the fittest proportion both for our age and measure There are babes in Christ and we seldome give wine to children because it is too high for them Christ gave his doctrine so as they were able to heare it and so gives he the joy of his spirit as we are able to beare it As by the strength of the same spirit the joy may be converted into into spituall advantage and not perverted by the flesh into carnall voluptousnesse security or swelling the soule must be faithfull in little before shee bee an owner of much and therefore there is commonly some time of tryall and acquaintance between Christ and the soule before he will trust her with great familiarity and give her the great and high degrees of his hidden joyes Besides it must be knowne and considered that Christ Iesus hath some parts whose measure even at their full growth is so small as the infancy of other parts A finger in his full growth is not so bigge as the legge of an infant And such little parts may have lesse feeling of these joyes because of their littlenesse and yet they may be as lively as the greater for a finger liveth as well as an arme And indeed let such especially look that their life be sound in them that shall they know by the actions of life If faith and love bee active in them then are they lively and living For it is no other but the life of Christ in them which makes faith and love to bee lively and operative in them and then let them not feare for they are passed from death to life On these fruites therefore let them especially looke for though they have not here many sweetnesses and joyes yet if they have many fruites of faith and love they shall hereafter have a greater measure of joys in heaven than those who have had here greater joies than they and have not improved them as they should have done to a fruitfulnesse greater than theirs whose joyes were lesser Yet farther if this matter be duely weighed we shall see in Gods dispensations a greate wisdome and equity for commonly those that haue the greatest consolations haue also the greatest tribulations And the one are so ballanced with the other that the soule is kept in an evennesse the tribulations not making her to sinke by reason of the counterpoising consolations nor the consolations over much weighing her downe into pride for pride though seeming to look upward is an infernall thing because of the counterballancing tribulations Wherefore if thou envie another mans consolations why doest thou not also envie his tribulations If thou wish to be rapt with Paul into the third heaven wish also to be in labours often in watchings often in perills by sea in perills by land and under that loade of sufferings which he fulfilled for Christ. But withall take heede what thou wishest lest thy owne wishes being granted doe sinke thee If thou know not thine owne strength God knowes it and what thy vessell is able to beare both of the one and other And be thou contented if with lesse tribulations he give thee lesse consolations this lesser measure of both being fitted for a lesser vessell and yet the same proportion betweene both in the lesser that is in the greater CAP. IX A Song of Loves THou hast touched my soule with thy spirit O most beloved and vertue is gone out of thee into me and draweth me to thee Thy spirit is a loadstone of love and where it toucheth spirits it leaveth love and this love makes a soule to move to her beloved that touched her So by thee doth she run after thee O thou fountaine and rest of loves thy oyntments draw her to the anoynter her loves begin and end in thee O let my soule ever runne this circle of love
as a thiefe and adulterer A theefe he is for he hath stollen the foule from her first Lord and husband even the Lord that made her and an adulterer he is for he lives with her that belongs to another and while hee lives with her he keeps her not for love but lust wherefore let the soule give her consent to his death that thereby her true husband may recover his right in her and that she may receive her true husband and in him life liberty and felicity And indeed she may well be weary of the old for her living with him is most unreasonable most slavish and most miserable It is most unreasonable for there is no sense in the mariage of a soule with lust What good can lust do to a soule there being no likenesse but a meere contrariety betweene them and wee know that things are cherished and augmented by their like but they are destroyed by their contraries The soule is light and lust is darknesse and can darknesse give any increase of being or wellbeing to light Yea doth not darknesse goe about to lessen to quench and kill light Againe lust hath in it a venome contrary to goodnesse and can evill give any accesse or addition of goodnesse to the soule Yea this venome hath in it a force and power to draw the wil and affections from that soveraigne good which is the true and onely beatificall object of the soule and to glue and fasten her to objects of vanity yea of death and misery Againe the soule in her substance is a spirit and what kindly or naturall pleasure or profit can a spiritual essence receive from grosse and fleshly lust The soule hath no savour in the ranke and grosse pleasures of the flesh but they are to her as the onions and garlike of Egypt to a dainty delicate taste Surely so well may the earth lighten the Sunne and a tempest give rest to the sea as lust can give light or life or rest or happinesse to the soule but darknesse and death and misery it can and doth give and so under the shape of an husband it is a cruell enemy and a very murtherer of the soule And surely hee could be no other but a mortall enemy of the soule that made such a marriage betweene the soule and her mortall enemy And hee had neede to be as cunning as malicious to put a shew of reason upon a match so absurd and unreasonable And if in a second place wee beholde the slavery of the soule in this marriage with lust the teares that bewailed the virginity of Iephthahs daughter are not sufficient to bewaile this slavish marriage The body commands the soule earth heaven and dust that noble and divine essence which was breathed into man even from Gods owne mouth and had his owne image imprinted on it Neither is it the body of dust onely that commands the heavenly soule but the body it selfe being commanded by lust doth command the soule so is lust the chiefe lord both of body and soule even a certaine venome itch and fury dwelling in this earth of man There may be some proportion betweene the dust which God turned into a body and that soule which God made with his breath though in a large and remote distance and difference But betweene the soule which God made according to his owne image and this blinde and wilde lust which God made not in man there is no portion or part of proportion whereupon any right or power of command may be grounded Yet in this base and wretched marriage vile and odious lust spurs up the soule with his commands and makes her to trudge up and down in businesses of darknesse filthinesse and wretchednes The soule is set on work in things that are no kin to her no good to her yea that are contrary to her being and well-being For contrary they are to that image of God which is in her and consequently contrary to that God whose image this is and to whō this image points and leades her as to her soveraigne good And thus have wee a third mischiefe of this marriage even misery annexed to slavery For as the image of God in the soule turnes the eye and heart of the soule to looke unto God her chiefe happinesse so lust turnes about the eye and heart of the soule from her happinesse and what can her prospect and object be then but misery And if the eye of the soule happen to cast up some glances to heaven and happinesse yet the heart even the will and affections are hurried away by this lust to objects and workes of vanity and misery so that the soule can onely say I see the better things and follow the worse I see happines and runne after misery Thus by slavery shee buyeth misery and slavery it selfe being misery by misery she earneth misery And indeed is it not the true misery of an Egyptian bondage that the soule should bee still set on worke by lust in a fiery fornace yea be beaten and tormented when shee doth not worke though her worke concerne her selfe nothing but onely to strengthen her owne bondage and to increase her owne misery And indeede therefore is she kept so hard at this worke that she may haue no leisure to thinke beyond bondage and misery Accordingly if the soule at any time doe but lift up her eyes above her present bondage to that Lord of life liberty and happinesse which would once have married her and still makes new offers unto her this tyrannous husband like a Taske-master strikes in deepe lashes into her side and tells her she is idle though she thinkes on her nearest businesse and dearest happinesse If it be in the morning there is a bargaine of profit imposed on her and this lot of bricke must be made that day and about it must the soule goe being pierced throgh with the thorns of covetousnesse by the violent hand of her false husband that she may have no leisure respiration or rest And if at night the soule be weary of this dayes worke and would faine goe to bed with the body the night is lusts day as it is the Owles for both are blinde and then there is a wife whose husband is from home and the poore soule being a spirit must crafficke in this errand for the flesh to make a wary but a wicked meeting betweene her owne lewd husband and another mans wife and while she plots it she doth a worke of slavery and when she hath done it she shall have no other but the wages of misery But endlesse were it to set forth the whole story of this Aegyptian bondage Let the carnall man reade over the story of his owne life and he may see the one in the other And all being summed together amounts to this that the marriage betweene the soule and lust is monstrous as betweene a woman and a beast slavish as betweene a woman and a tyrant mischievous and mortall
as betweene a woman and a serpent And I wish all this were sufficient to perswade the soule to give consent to the divorce and death of this usurping and bloudy husband without whose death there can be no marriage betweene her happines for though all reason and right doe joyne for his removal yet power and possession and union worke mightily for him The friends of the Bridegroome cry aloud Put off the olde man corrupt throgh deceiuable lusts put on the new created in righteousnes and holines And If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye mortifie the deedes of the flesh by the spirit ye shall live And Abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soule The authority love and reasons of these voices deserve to be heard perswading the soule to no other but a separation from a deadly enemy who can give her no dower but death eternall And I wish that thus yet the soule may be perswaded And when the soule is come even to the point of perswasion even then will lust come weeping after the soule like the false husband of Michal hee will raise up in her remembrance the images of grosse and filthy pleasures to awake the old unhappy love and to cause a cruell and unmercifull pitty For a cruell pitty it is when the soule pitties her owne murtherer and not her owne murther But rather put on a mercifull cruelty being mercifull to thy selfe by killing him that would kill thee It is better he should endure one death who is not worthy to live than that a soule should be ever dying which should live for ever If thou kill not lust now hee must shortly die with the death of the body and this short life of his will cost thee everlasting death but if thou kill him presently who must die shortly by this small oddes of death thou preservest to thy selfe everlasting life Wherefore that which shall shortly be necessary make it presently voluntary and so shalt thou turne necessity into a sacrifice even a freewill offering and by his death thou shalt change thy owne death into life eternall And know that they are but false teares which lust doth shed and his cryes are lyes for there is no such happinesse in his union as his teares would tell thee but thy happines is then most when thou art gotten free from lust even when lust is dead and the soule new maried to her Saviour For the first soule was happy before she was maried to lust and miserable onely after that accursed mariage To bee without lust is a true Paradise for man had not this lust when hee was first placed in Paradise neither could Paradise endure man when this lust was placed in him Therefore the true way to returne to Paradise or the state of happines wherof it was a type is to put off this lust wherewith began our misery And lust being put off frō the soule by death and she new maried to the Lord of life then will she say that she was never happy till then and that her former imaginary happinesse was but painted and glittering misery She will looke on dead lust as on a loathsome carkasse and shee will loath the remembrance of her former not loves but adulteries she will be like one awaked from a foolish dreame or an inchanted love and shee will wonder that shee hath so long beene bewitched with vanity folly sinne and misery But withall in her new mariage having tasted how sweete her Lord is shee will wonder and lament that shee hath so long lacked this sweetnesse Excesse of joy will be to her a cause of sorrow for her joy is now so great that she is sorry shee was no sooner partaker of this joy And in this joyfull sorrow shee will kisse the feete of her Lord and weepe on them while she kisseth them The feete of her Lord are now more precious to her than the head and top of lust for therefore she kisseth them because she loveth thē and therefore she weepeth because she hath loved lust so long a time and her Lord so little For lust that once falsly appeared to her as her greatest joy now truly appeares to her as her greatest sorrow and her now Lord in whom before she tooke no delight now appeares to be her chiefest and truest joy And both these her teares doe tell us CAP. III. The happinesse of the soule in her second Marriage NAbal being dead David marries his wife lusts name is Nabal and folly is with him and folly being dead the Sonne of David yea the Sonne of God who is the highest wisdome marriage A right kindly and blessed marriage wherein a spirit marries with a spirit a derived spirit with the originall and and roote of spirits yea with a spirit that hath abundance of spirit and so can continually refresh and nourish her with a new supply of spirit For being thus fed and supplied with a sap of her owne kinde shee growing in being and well-being she is more spirituall by receiving more juice and fatnesse of the spirit and consequently more full of divine light beauty love vertue power life joy and glory Behold the highest knot of blessednesse on earth and a preparation yea a pledge of the highest happinesse in heaven And though this inchoate marriage here on earth compared to the consummate marriage in heaven seeme but like to a betrothing yet even this betrothing compared to earthly marriages casts a shadow of darknesse on them for all the beauty all the glory all the joy in the world are but beames rayes flashes of this King of glory beauty and joy By him were all things made that were made and therfore the goodnesse of the things that are made by him must be borrowed of him that made them and then must the borrowed goodnesse needes be ashamed to be compared with his goodnesse that gave or lent it Christ Iesus is all lights in one light all glories in one glory all beauties in one beauty all joyes in one joy Whē he gave light and glory and beauty and joy to the creature he left the roote of light and glory and beauty and joy in himselfe So did he leave infinitely more in himselfe than hee gave out of himselfe for an internall and infinite fountaine hath infinitely more in it than all the streames that ever issued from it and hee is a fountaine for largenes unlimited and for spring without beginning and ending The dew of his birth is of the wombe of the morning even of that morning which hath an everlasting rising and shall be free from setting for all eternities Thus the soule being united to him is united to an eternall roote and fountaine of blessednes she is lightened with the primitive light she enjoyeth the primitive beauty she is adorned with the primitive glory shee tasteth the radicall utmost and uppermost sweetnesse Being made one with him who is God she hath the
taste of God and God being tasted overfloweth and steepeth and drencheth the soule with overcomming and inebriating sweetnesse For a high and large and mighty joy poured into a low and measured and weake spirit overcommeth her with quantity and quality and so carries her away into extasie and ravishment she is too narrow and feeble to containe and beare a joy that is too large and strong for her and therefore having filled her to the utmost capacity it goes beyond and runnes over So is she blessed in that fulnesse which her measure containeth yea she is more than blessed even blessed in a kinde of excesse by being overcome and overflowed with blessednesse And if we will consider the quality of this joy as well as the quantity there is no joy to the spirituall joy the joyes of the body being base in comparison of it the spirituall joy is pure piercing and full of activity the joy of bodies is grosse heavie dull and earthy In the bodily wine it is the spirit of the wine that rejoyceth the spirits of the body But a wine that is all spirit and spirit in the height and top of spiritualnes and newly drawne and sucked from the prime and chiefest spirit how doth that rejoyce how doth that ravish the spirits that drinke it when mans highest part doth tast the highest good Man hath no higher part whereby to taste and receive happinesse neither is there any higher happinesse to be tasted and received Therefore the soule that tasteth this wine at her spirituall marriage saith as the Master of the Feast at the earthly marriage Lord Thou hast kept the best wine untill the last And this being best the soule gives it the best place in her judgement and affection she forgets that which is behinde and indeavours to that which is before she will not rest in the low and backward joyes of the bodie but strives toward the high and forward joyes of the spirit and having attained them she rests in them as in the best joyes yet so rests in them in this life of growth that she desires to grow by them presently to a greater capacity of them and finally to a full large and everlasting fruition of them in a nearer accesse unto the very spring and fountaine of joyes But when all is said of this marriage-happinesse one taste of it wil tell thee more than all that is or can be said The true knowledge of the sweetnes of God is gotten by tasting and therefore taste first and then see how sweet and gracious the Lord is The taste of it will truly tell him that tasteth it how sweet it is but hee that knoweth this sweetnes by tasting cannot deliver over the full and perfect image of this sweetnes to him that hath not tasted it For this sweetnes surmounts all knowne sweetnesse of the creatures and by that which is knowne must that which is unknowne be made knowne But if that which is knowne be lesse and lower than that which is unknown that which is knowne may teach and tell us what the unknowne is not but not what it is So the joy of love and union in an earthly marriage cannot expresse a heavenly joy that is spiritually pure and purely active Only these and the like comparisons may serve for staires whereby to ascend even above these comparisons and to set our foot on something beyond them For if the soule rests on these she rests short of the knowledge of the sweetnesse which is beyond these shee is still in the sweetnesse of the creature and hath not attained the sweetnesse of the Creatour Therefore when she hath gone as farre as she may in the sweetnesse of the creature let her advance one step more into that spirituall union wherein is to be tasted and seene by tasting the sweetnes of the Creatour and ther shall shee see more by tasting than all the creatures could shew her by resembling she hath met with that joy which onely can truly teach it selfe and therefore it is called unspeakable And whereas before it was tasted the being of it was doubted and much more the manner and shape of it was unknowne now it is both knowne to be and the shape and manner of it is also known And being knowne all other sweetnesses which before were alone knowne and esteemed are now despised as it were unknown For this is that blessed estate of spirituall love and union whereof the spouse of Christ truely saith If a man would give all the substance of his house for loue it would utterly bee contemned And indeed the spouse having Christs love she hath that which is better than all things and having Christ with his love how can she with him but have all things also Christ is the heire of all things and the soule having married this heire is a joynt-heire annexed with Christ. She hath him by whom the worlds were made and therefore she hath also the worlds made by him yet he that made the worlds being Infinitely better than the worlds made by him she despiseth the worlds in respect of him that made them she quencheth her thirst in the fountaine onely and she accounts it a folly and a losse to leave the fountaine and to run after the streames Therefore setting her mouth to this fountaine she is filled with the waters of life with the oyle of gladnesse with the new wine of the kingdome of God with the joy of the holy Ghost even a joy unspeakable and glorious In Christ Iesus she hath all-sufficiency all safety all supply shee receives from Christ that spirituall oyntment which gives her spiritual light power goodnesse love and life yea it adorneth the soule with the most excellent beauty even the likenesse and image of God himselfe And being thus lovely the bridegroom kisseth and embraceth her with spirituall visitations he tells her his counsailes and his eyes are ever toward her even when hee seemes to be turned from her For she is set as a signet upon his heart and much water cannot quench his love she also looketh on him and is changed from glory to glory as the Moon when with more open face shee beholdeth the Sunne But of the particular benefits ane advantages of this blessed Marriage more hereafter Thus happy and thus growing in happinesse shee walkes on in this life of marriage inchoate untill she come to the eternall life of marriage consummate She is happy now in her union with happinesse and she shall be happy hereafter in a full fruition of happinesse She is happy now in the earnests and peeces of that happinesse which shall be full hereafter yea daily more and more happy here by a daily enlarging of those earnests and peeces and shee shall be the more happy hereafter by how much more these earnests and peeces of happinesse have beene here enlarged And thus shall she walke by happines unto happines and by the increase of happines
comforters that wound and smite her and if shee meete with that one of a thousand that speakes right words and tells her true comforts yet while the inward Comforter is wanting that should turne the words into deedes they remaine bare words and are like the white of an egge that hath no taste in it For the soule sayes still Call mee not Naomi but Marah for my Lord hath dealt bitterly with me Yet still she lookes out for her husband but sees him not shee calls to remembrance his former loves that so shee may enjoy him in the representations of her former enjoyings But then a world of fleshly and fearefull thoughts rush in upon her and with a cloud cover that sight of him which memorie would give her and if she yeeld not to them she is vexed with importunity and if she yeeld to thē she is vex't with guilt self-accusation the Tempter buffets her with sharp and thornie temptations to drive her to yeeld and when shee yeelds hee buffets her with fearful accusations Now what can bee added to her misery Her best friend is gone from her and her worst enemies are round about her yea her best friends seemes to have surrendred her into the hands of her worst enemies for shee feeles a mighty force of her enemies but no strength of her beloved Therefore her heart failes her and shee thinkes that shee hath wholly lost both her selfe and him I opened saith she to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawne himselfe and was gone I sought but I could not finde him I called him but hee gave no answer The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote me they wounded me But yet be of good comfort thou wearie wounded and distressed soule thy husband is a God that comforteth the abject that makes light to shine out of darknesse that gives refreshing to the weary and heavie-laden that brings life out of death Thy Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and as a wife of youth when thou wast refused saith thy God For a small moment hath he forsaken thee but with great mercies will hee gather thee The mercies of God even when they seeme to faile thee then doe they gather thee yea they gather thee by their seeming to faile thee Thy husband is God and God is love and love doth ever good to the beloved Yea thou lovest him and he hath told thee that all things shall turne to good to them that love him therefore even these desertions though never so dreadfull and discomfortable the almightinesse of Gods love shall make usefull and advantageable This is so true that many of these uses and advantages may particularly be named and I doubt not but thy husband himselfe will teach them to thee experimentally yet because while the cloud of desertion is upon thy soule she can hardly see by her owne light another that hath light for the time though perchance clouded himselfe as much or more another time may tell her what hee sees by his light And indeede when the soule is in the darke and her owne light shines not she may doe well to get a guide and to take heede to borrowed light untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in her owne heart A first advantage then that may come to the soule by the desertions of her husband is by desertions to prevent desertions for by loosing him shee may learne not to loose him and by the miseries of her former ill keeping him learne hereafter to keepe him better Perchance thou wast too careles in holding him when thou hadst him or in admitting him when he came to visite thee and to bring these thy faults to remembrance that by remembring them thou maist amend them he is now gone from thee Remember whether thou didst not heare such a voice as this Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with deaw and my lockes with the drops of the night Remember also whether this was not thy answer I have put off my coate how shall I put it on I have washed my feete how shall I defile them Thou hadst taken up some rest in the flesh and hadst put thy selfe into a method of ease and then it was a marring of thy method and a fowling of thy feete to step into any action or passion for thy beloved Hee that was thy true happinesse was growne very cheape to thee and thou wast content to part from him rather than to give the price of a little paines for him And art thou not well worthy to lose him whom thou thoughtest so little worth the keeping But now thou art put to learne the value of him by absence whom thou didst so much undervalue being present And when by absence thou hast learned this lesson thou hast gained more by absence than thou wouldest have done by presence for thou hast gained the true valuation of thy Lord by absence which through thy fault and frailty thou forgatest in his presence so by this first gaine thou shalt come to a second for by absence thou shalt gaine his presence For absence having taught thee truly to value him and accordingly to desire and thirst after him and to give him due entertainment when he comes hereafter and offers his love unto thee then shalt thou by this benefit of absence come to enjoy his presence Thy fulnesse brought thee to hunger and thy hunger now brings thee to fulnesse for he filleth the hungry with good things and the full he sends empty away He will fill thee not onely with good things but with goodnesse it selfe for he wil fill thee with himselfe and hee is goodnes yea thou shalt yet have a farther gaine by this absence for when he comes againe thou wilt holde him faster and keepe him surer and so enjoy him nearer longer Now thou wilt embrace him and cleave to him and winde thy selfe about him and when thine eye sleepeth thy heart shall wake that thou maist still keepe his presence whose absence was so bitter unto thee Thou wilt bring him into the chamber of the soule and binde him with the cords of love thou wilt claspe thy affections about him and hold him fast that hee may no more escape from thee And being thus bound by the cords of love and love loving to be bound by love hee willingly abides in the bands which hee loveth for both love and faith are mighty with the Almighty and make the spouse an Israel even a prevailer with God Shee that loveth Christ much may embrace him much and kisse him much and holde him much and if any man doe trouble her hee himselfe will say Why trouble yee the woman And thus thrives the Spouse by her losses while by losing her husband for a time shee loves him better and being returned enjoyes him the more and holdes him stronger and longer But
he finde thee watching that so when he knocks thou maist readily open and he may readily enter and that by thy slacknesse hee doe not turne away to the flockes of thy companions And in the second place take heede that thou give not thy selfe over to a desperate idlenesse to doing nothing because thou canst not doe as thou wouldest This were a double offence both because it is impatience and because it is idlenesse This is to cut off the hands because they are feeble and because the feete halt to turne them out of the way But it were farre better to strengthen thy weake hands and that thou maist doe by exercise though it be but weake exercise and it were better for thee to halt in the right way than to runne or rest in a false way Wherefore if thou canst not doe the higher workes doe the lower for doing is thy way though thou goe but softly in it but idlenes is a false way And when thy Master Lord and Husband commeth and findeth thee doing according to that which thou hast thou shalt be blessed in thy deede by him who accepteth our worke if it come from a willing minde according to that which wee have and not according to that which wee have not If thou art faithfull in little hee will make thee ruler over much thy Masters joy shall shortly enter into thee and thou shalt shortly enter into thy Masters joy But contrarily looke for no gaine from idlenesse but the gaine of losse and punishment Thou maist lose him the longer the lesse thou doest to please him yea hee may come unto thee with a rod when thou expectest him to come with the spirit of meeknesse and consolation To the workers hee comes with a penny even with a reward favour and a good eye but to the idlers he comes with a frowne and a checke Why stand yee all the day idle Rather doe that which may winne him to come may please him being come than by doing nothing keep him from comming or make him angry when hee commeth And if thou aske what thou shalt doe Thy most ordinary worke is the worke of thy ordinary calling yet maist thou give times and turnes to those workes that more immediatly concerne thy heavenly calling even such as immediatly call for thy heavenly Lord to come into thy soule sigh and pray and reade and heare and by heavenly meditations let thy soule be trimmed as a bride that lookes for her husband yea with thy earthly labours maist thou mixe these heavenly thoughts thou maist worke and sigh worke and wish worke and pray in short ejaculations and thus working and thus waiting working in profitable duties and waiting with submissive patience he that loveth both thy workes and thy patience will come unto thee and say I know thy patience and thy workes yea hee will come with such an increase of grace that he will also say Thy last shall bee more than thy first Finally these desertions are advantageable to the soule while they draw her eye and affection from this place of interrupted joyes to the place of incessant and everlasting joyes The Bridegroome here doth but looke in upon the soule at a crany and the soule seeth him but by glimpses but there shall she behold him face to face and this beholding as it is full so it shall also be perpetuall The soule is here walled up in an house of clay and the trafficke betweene her and her husband is but by some chinke which the spirit hath bored But this clay which is now in it selfe nothing but darknesse and keepes out light shall hereafter be made all glorious and lightsome yea whereas the soule is now much carnall then the body shall be made spirituall and if the body be spirituall and lightsome how pure and spirituall shall the soule be which is now a spirit Surely then shall wee be as it were all eye even all clarity and purity and so most capable of light and glory and according to the capacity of our receiving shall the light and glory and joy of our husband enter into us and fill us And of this fulnesse of joy and glory there is no end no interruption Wherefore our husband wisely and profitably drawes us by these desertions from earnests unto full fruition from broken peeces to whole and entire joyes If the soule might still have these glimpses shee would perchance be contented with them and this were no other than to be contented with perpetuall star-light even a light fitted for this life of vanity which is but a night being compared to the bright day of eternity Yet lying in the bed of love she would be content to looke on her beloved by this lesser light and would not desire the perfect day wherein the Sun of glory might arise unto her and by a large and glorious light make her largely and gloriously to see him who is the fountaine of that large and light by which she seeeth him VVherefore this lesser light is profitably taken from her to stirre her up to the seeking of the greater and her beloved doth chastise her by desertions to beate her away from resting in lesser and interrupted joyes and to beate her unto the seeking of fuller loves mightier joyes and everlasting fruitions And indeede the earnests should have taught her this lesson but because they did not these interruptions are sometimes sent to teach it her The earnests shold have taught her to look out for the full exhibition of that whereof they are earnests but because the soule in stead of looking by them beyond them fastens and stayes her eye on them they are taken from that eye which was unduely stayed on them that so by wanting them it may looke beyond them which it should have done but did not by them And now the soule seeing that these earnests are not onely but drops and parcells of an infinite fulnesse but withall drops and red forth and his actions are answerable to his name As he was annoynted with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellows so doth he give of his oyntmentes to the Bride which is joyned in communion and fellowshipp with him For of his fulnesse doth shee receive even grace for grace The pretious Oyntment drops from this head unto his body the Church and thereby she is made all glorious within glorious shee is now within by grace and shee shall hereafter be glorious both within and without with perfect glorie Among the benefites of this glorious Grace wherewith the Church is inwardly beautified when the Bridegrome visits her with his spiritual ointments this is a great one that the heavenly oyle giveth light to the soule the soule is a lamp with this oile is the Lampe of the wise Virgins trim'd and becomes a burnning a shining light They have that light from the bridegroom by which they looke out for the Bridegroome The eye salve is gotten from Christ by which
the Queene come in boldly with her request though it be for a kingdome Yea this King likes it best If thou doe first seeke a kingdome wherefore whatsoever thou askest be sure to aske this kingdome yea to aske it first and the righteousnesse inseparably annexed to it It were a madnes in thee to offend him by asking a lesse gift when thou mayst please him by asking a greater especially since if thou aske and obtaine the greater the lesser by promise is annexed to the greater And accordingly thou maist come down in thy petitions from the greater to the lesser and having desired the mayne petitions that the King of glory may bee glorified by the comming of his kingdome of grace with the righteousnes therof then after mayst thou petition for dayly bread to bee given thee Yea know that thou art now in a high degree the Temple of the holy Ghost and whatsoever prayer or supplication shall be made in this Temple by a man that shall know the plague and griefe of his owne heart He that dwelleth in Heaven will heare the prayer made on earth he will forgive and doe according to that prayer The spirit of prayer supplication is in this Temple and he is most powerfull in these seasons of love he who gives this spirit of praier will heare the prayer of the spirit which himselfe giveth For he gave this spirit of purpose to make those prayers in vs which himself might approve grant We know not how to pray as wee ought for we are carnall and flesh will not aske so as it may bee pleasing to a spirit A spirit loves a spirituall prayer and therefore hee gives the spirit that he may have that spirituall prayer which he loves So when he heareth his spouse hee heareth himselfe and how can any one deny his owne prayers Christ and his Spouse are now and that in a height of eminence one spirit And if a man who is flesh do not hate his owne flesh but cherisheth it surely much more assuredly the Lord who is a spirit cannot hate his owne spirit but loveth and cherisheth and consequently heareth it Thirdly when the soule is visited by the spirit of the Bridegroome then set upon some good yea upon some great worke The spirit which we receive is a spirit of power and when the spirit floweth much into us in these tides of grace we receive much power Now great power can doe a great worke and it were both a losse and a shame to thee with a great power to doe a little worke when thou maist doe a great one Therefore if there be a worke which was before too great and too hard for thee yet now set upon it for when thy strength is greater thou maist doe that worke which thou couldest not doe when thy strength was lesse Our Saviour saith to Peter Thou canst not follow me yet but thou shalt follow me hereafter thou canst not follow mee yet untill thy strength be greater by a greater portion of the spirit But when thou art more strengthened by the spirit then thou shalt follow mee And accordingly he that before Christs resurrection denied Christ at the voice of a maid after his resurrection confessed him in the face of a Councell And no wonder for for it is then said of Peter that he was filled with the holy Ghost Neither is it true of Peter alone that a great measure of the spirit enables to a great worke but in others also When the spirit of the Lord comes mightily upon Sampson he doth mighty workes for hee breaketh cords as flax and slayes a thousand with the bone of an asse And Paul being filled with the holy Ghost worketh a miracle by which at once he confounded Elymas and converteth the Deputy Though two talents gaine but two yet five can gaine five Therefore marke when the spirit comes mightily upon thee and then attempt some mighty worke As the Seaman watcheth the naturall winde and tide so doe thou watch the winde and tide of the spirit The spirit bloweth when he lifteth and when hee listeth to blow then set forth on some noble action when the tide of the spirit floweth then put thy hand to the oare for then if thou rowe strongly thou maist advance mightily The soule lying in flesh and bloud is like a boate on ground all the rowing in the world will not move it but let the tide come and set him afloate the same tide that enables him to move will also mightily advance the motion which it first enabled VVherefore if there be any vertue or any worke of excellence not yet well done thinke upon it in these times and tides of grace now set upon them that so thou maist goe from vertue to vertue untill thou be skilfull active in all vertues and having attained the full number of them then strive to the fulnesse and perfection of degrees On the contrary if thou have some mighty enemie that hath beene too hard for thee even some raging and wasting concupiscence feare distrust or other tentation now set upon him mightily for now canst thou best see the way to conquer him and now hast thou most might to effect this conquest and to doe what thou seest Having tasted this honey thine eyes shall be opened and thy strength revived wherfore make thou now a more mighty slaughter of the enemies of God and thy soule And let thy fighting be against all these enemies though chiefly against the chiefest There are some little foxes that have strong holdes and these will ask some strength to be digged out and taken Remember that thy warfare is against the whole Nation of the Canaanites thou maist not suffer a little one to live Thou must strive against all sinne and strive for all righteousnesse for the fruite of the spirit is all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth It is the saying of a Saint I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens mee If therfore Christ strengthen thee strive thou to doe all things also Neither hast thou in these times onely a greater strength to encourage thee to great workes but also a great joy And indeede the joy of the Lord is our strength The joy that is in us is a peece and patterne of the joy set before us and by this peece of joy within us beholding the joy set before us we may despise the shame and endure the Crosse and runne with patience the race set before us As sure as wee have this pawne so sure shall wee have the performance and therefore we may labour comfortably in the workes of doing and suffering because our labour is not in vain in the Lord. The joy which we have excites us to labour because as this joy is followed with labour so shall the labour be followed with an over-waighing joy and the greater the labours are to which this joy of the spirit
encourageth us the greater shall those joyes be which follow these labours for hee that soweth plentifully to the spirit in labours shall reape plentifully of the spirit in the joyes life everlasting Though no life everlasting can be longer than another yet one life everlasting may bee more joyfull than another and this greater joy shall follow those that dying in the Lord doe rest from greater labours And as the joy precedent and the joy subsequent doe encourage us to the labours of holinesse so doth also the joy concomitant The spirit thriveth growes fat prospereth and rejoyceth in the doing of good workes even like the mighty man in the running of his race As the naturall man pleaseth himselfe in eating and drinking so doth the spirituall man delight himselfe in well-doing and it is meate and drinke to an heavenly Sonne to doe the will of his heavenly Father VVhen a thing worketh naturally it worketh pleasantly and it is naturall to the godly nature to work godlinesse Therefore by all these wayes Blessed is the people that knowes the joyfull sound they shall walke in the light of thy countenance O Lord. They that know the joyfull sound are blessed and they are walkers The joyfull sound is a precedent blessednesse and a present blessednesse it is to walke in the light of Gods countenance and the future is to walke by that light unto the countenance it selfe which is perfect blessednesse The joyfull sound and the light of Gods countenance doe not allow any to take up their rest here but they call on them to walke even to walk cheerfully in good duties by these streames of blessednesse unto the ocean and fulnesse of blessednesse VVherfore let us make this use of the precedent present and following joyes even to walke and runne that race of piety which is here prevented with that sound accompanied with gladnesse and the light of Gods countenance and shall be followed with the never-ending sight of that countenance which is the fountaine of that light and which to behold is true felicity Fourthly in these times of plenty lay up a stocke of confidence and comfort for times of scarsity It hath bin tolde thee before and thou shalt finde it true that the Bridegroome sometimes hideth his face and holdes backe his oyntments and the spirit which bloweth when he listeth bloweth not when he listeth not Therefore goe unto the Pismire and learne of him in the summer of consolation to provide for the winter of desertion If with Thomas thou hast seene and felt Iesus to bee Iesus in his neare and palpable approaches and visitations and hast then truly called him My Lord and my God lay up this truth for the times of desertion and beleeve that truth to bee then true when thou feelest not the truth of it and that though thou art changed yet Iesus Christ is yesterday to day and the same for ever And for the better helpe of thy memory and assurance of thy soule set downe upon record these testimonies and tokens of love and seales of union which Iesus gave to thy soule when hee visited her in the bed of love In an ill matter Tamar kept a seale and a staffe for the safeguard of her life in a good matter doe thou much rather keepe these seales for the safety of thy soule And if thine enemy who is both a Tempter and an Accuser and in these times of desertion doth commonly tempt by accusing doe call thy soule into question for her life accusing her to be an adulteresse of the flesh and not a spouse of Christ Iesus bring forth thy seales tokens which lye by thee and tell him that whose these are his thou art thy well-beloved is thine and thou art thy well-beloveds Tell him That thou hast not followed cunningly devised fables but hast beene an eye-witnesse of Christ Iesus and his love And what thou hast seene and heard and felt that declare and shew to the face of thy accuser tell him The spirit of Iesus hath left a testimony with thy spirit that thou hast beene one spirit with Iesus in an heavenly marriage and then say also Wherefore wee are no more two but one spirit let no tempter nor temptation put asunder what God hath put together Thus in laying up the seales of union thou layest up a stocke of confidence and thou maist see Saint Paul making the same provision and the same use of it God hath given us the earnest of the spirit therefore are wee alwayes confident Neither do thou only from these Memorialls gather confidence but comfort True it is that confidence it selfe will bring comfort for hope is the juice of confidence and this juice is an especiall cōfort and cordiall to the soule But besides this comfort which ariseth from the apprehension of the things to come thou mayst take comfort in that which is past and therewith refresh thy soule in times of drought and wearinesse By these memorials pledges call to remembrance his loves his sweetnes his kisses his oyntments Renew the Images and keepe them fresh in thy soule and these shall comfort thee when the things themselves are absent It will be a pleasure to thee to tast over his loves againe againet by renewed remembrances of them It will be a pleasure to thee to repeate the pleasure thy soule hath enioyed and to say His love was pleasanter then wine and I eate vnder his shadow with great delight and his fruite was sweete to my tast Thou hast tasted by tasting seene that thy Lord was gracious and now see and by seeing tast how gracious thy Lord was For as tasting brought forth seeing at the first so now a revived seeing wil also bring forth a revived tasting ech mutually begetting other Yea many times when thou doest this only by remembrance and representation of that which is past thou shalt bring into thee the substance of that whose shadow thou recallest And so while Iesus and his sweetnes are represented to thee as they have beene heretofore seene and tasted they will even now present themselves afresh to be tasted and seene by thee While the Disciples going to Emaus talked of Iesus as of one that was absent Iesus became present unto thē and then their hearts burned with an heavenly fire And so while thou talkest with thy soule of Iesus of his beauty of his graces of his sweetnesse he wil present himselfe to thee and thou who wouldest have accounted it a great comfort to sit under the shadowes of his remembrance shalt now enjoy his reall presence and eate of his most pleasant fruites for when hee comes hee comes with abundance of consolations Thy remembrance of him brings him into thee whom thou doest remember and then thou needest not to borrow comforts out of the stocke of thy former remembrances for thou hast the Comforter himselfe to give thee new comforts and so maist adde them to
the stocke of thy memorialls and remembrances for future encouragements and consolations Lastly let the peeces and earnests of heavenly joyes stirre up thy desires and affections to the fruition of the fulnesse of joyes let these drops of Gods sweetnesse enflame thy soule with a thirst and longing to enjoy God the fountaine of this sweetnesse Let these kisses of Christ Iesus kindle in thee such a fervent love of Christ that thy soule may pant to bee united to him in a perfect and consummate marriage And out of the heate of these longings and enflamed desires send up the aspirations and breathings of thy burning soule in vehement wishes and groaning complaints My soule thirsteth for God when shall I come and appeare before God My teares have beene my meate day and night while the flesh saith to the spirit VVhere is thy God I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ which is best of all Surely Christ is best of all and therefore is it best of all to bee with Christ. Thou hast tryed in the drops of his sweetnesse which thou hast tasted that hee is best of all for the taste of Christ in them hath distasted all the taste of the creatures Thou hast tasted and seene that the goodnesse creating is better than the goodnesse created and therfore Christ is best of all These droppes of the Creatour are better than all the visible creature and he that is the fountaine is better than the drops that distill from the fountaine and so is he better than that which is better than the creature and therefore is best of all and if he be best surely it is best for thee to bee with him the enjoying of the best is the best enjoying Therefore call unto him O send out thy light and thy truth let them leade mee let them bring mee unto thy holy hill let thy good spirit leade mee and bring mee to thy blessed presence that as I have seene thee in these modells and mirrours and earnests so I may beholde thee face to face And though thy pilgrimage be prolonged and being present in the body thou art absent from the Lord yet desire rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Accordingly let thy affections bee ever rowing in these streams of the Deity to the Deity it selfe by these patternes of rich oare having discovered a farre richer mine doe not stand gazing on the patternes nor thinke thy selfe rich enough in them but by them be stirred up to get and possesse the full riches of the Mine Indeede the patterne shewes thee the richnesse of the Mine it being a part of that riches which the Mine will give thee But remember it is but a peece and a peece cannot be equalled to the whole for the whole hath an infinite fulnesse of such peeces in it And hereby there is such oddes betweene a peece and the whole that a peece is more valuable for being an earnest of the whole than for his owne value It is more to be prized for that which it promiseth than for that which it exhibiteth Therefore value it highly for the worth which it hath in it self but value it infinitely more highly for that excessively exceeding weight of glory which it promiseth Looke upon it for the goodnesse that is in it but much more on the goodnesse without it which the goodnesse within it promiseth So by looking on it looke from it even beyond and above it for though these earnests first doe call thy affections to them yet being considered as earnests then doe they remove thy affections to that whereof they are earnests our rest is not in them but in him that gave these earnests who gave them for this end that they might direct our faith and hope to him who is our rest Wherefore as God spake to Israel by Moses so speaketh he to the true Israel by these earnests Goe forward Why stand yee still gazing and resting on these earnests when even the earnests themselves call on you to goe forward The earnests call on you to goe forward from earnests to full performances from grace to glory from faith to vision from the drops of the Deity to the Deity it selfe the onely true rest and Sabbath of the soule And when God saith Goe forward If any man draw backe his soule shall have no pleasure in him But of all drawing backe let us most of all beware of drawing backe from God to the world This were yet a farther degree of going back from God for whereas the drawing backe from God to the earnests is one degree this going back from the earnests to the world is a second and a most fearefull degree This is a true returning from Canaan to Egypt but let us remember what the Apostle saith of the right possessours of these earnests Wee are not of them who draw backe unto perdition but of them that beleeve to the saving of the soule If we beleeve we doe looke forward and goe forward for faith lookes not on things seene but on things not seene and such are the things before us yet because the strong taste of the onions of Egypt even of fleshly lust doth sticke still in our teeth and often would make Manna to seeme but a dry meate it is not amisse that this word Goe forward be often sounded in the eares of the heavenly pilgrims These earnests are Manna and this Manna is not such a dry meate as the flesh would make it for it serves to carry us unto the land of eternall felicity it both calls upon us to goe to our husband who is our happinesse and it enables us to goe that journey whereunto it calleth us Therefore let us hearken to the voice of it when it calleth because the same that calleth us doth also enable us We have received the earnest of the Spirit therefore are we alwayes bold and willing to be with the Lord whose earnest we have received We would put off these bodies of dust and lust that our soules may put on Christ in a full and fruitive union Yet neither would we wholly be uncloathed of our bodies but put them off to put off their basenesse and sinfulnesse and to put them on againe glorious and holy And then shall it be a fit garment for the soule in the day of her gladnesse and capable with her of the consummate marriage with the King of glory And for this marriage doth the spirit and the bride say Come the bride saith it by the spirit and the spirit saith it in the bride This is the voice of the bride and not of her tongue onely but of her spirit and not of her spirit onely but of the spirit in her spirit If then thou have the same spirit of love because thou lovest doe thou also speake and say Come Lord Iesus come quickly CAP. VII The signes and markes of the true and right visitations of
parts of the soule to water the roote of her and to give her true kindly and reall increase As mudde is to the thirsty bodies so are these to thirsty soules they cannot drinke them in nor quench their thirst with them But the spirituall joyes enter in and enlarge the very soule of man they make her who is a spirit more spirituall for shee opens her mouth wide to them and then shee is filled with that spirituall and divine sappe which accompanieth them and wherein they are founded And then as shee hath heard so she hath seene and tasted that an heavenly joy is to the soule a restaurative medicine and that when she enjoyeth her Saviour in the contemplations and tastes of his love then is she filled with marrow and fatnesse But I hasten to a third Marke of spirituall visitations and that is holinesse For when Christ visiteth the soul as he doth clarifie her with light and ravish her with joy so he doth beautifie her with holinesse Externall joyes and joyes of the body have not this vertue neither can they give it to the soule but when Christ commeth into the soule by his spirit the same spirit that doth enlighten and glad her doth also hallow her yea as by the light she is directed to holinesse so by the gladnesse shee is lifted up encouraged and actuated unto holines In these accesses of Christ there are heights of union and the increases of union bring with them increases of uniformity The spirit of union is fire and fire turnes that into it selfe to which it is united and the fuller and closer this union is the more is this turning So Christ Iesus the more hee comes into a soule by his spirit the more spirituall doth he make her yea the more doth hee melt a soule into himselfe the more doth hee turne her will into his will and the more doth hee increase his owne image in her and wee know that his image is righteousnesse and true holinesse He brings with him those oyntments for which the Virgins love him and those oyntments also make them more lovely Hence are they inwardly more glorious and hence outwardly they smel more sweetly in their conversations The Kings daughter is all glorious within and her garments smell of myrrhe aloes and cassia In these touches of Christ if in any other there comes forth vertue frō him The spirit of the lover passeth into his beloved and makes her of one heart and will with him and this conformity of the will with Christ is true holinesse The spirit by which Christ visiteth his spouse is an holy spirit and a spirit of power and accordingly when this spirit is shed into the soule there is power holynes infused with him and by him And hēce it is that they who receaue the true oyntments of the spirit in true visitacions they passe beyond a speculatiue discoursing holynes even beyond a forme of godlines and advance to the power of it to a fruitful expression of this power Yea I may say that hereunto the very loue of Christ constrayneth vs. For in these visitacions and by them the loue of Christ is shed into our harts The spirit of power holines is the spirit of loue and this loue giuen by the spirit may be called holinesse for it is the fulfilling of the law They that love Christ are certainely willing to please him and to keep his commandements and they that have the spirit of love cannot but love him Yea they cannot but love him for the union they have with him and the joyes of this union And loving him they wil desire to bring forth fruite unto him and by him even fruite that may be like him The pleasure of love and union in outward marriage is a kinde of hire of fruitfulnes and in the spirituall marriage the joy of love and union is the hire of a fruitfull holinesse Wherefore those that truly enjoy Christ in these spiritual accesses both desire and obtaine this spirituall fruitfulnesse for the spouse of Christ is most truly that vine which is fruitfull by the sides of the house and whose children stand like olive plants yea in olde age is shee full of fruite Wherefore if with light and joy the soule doe feele that the spirit of Christ by spirituall heate power and love have wrought a powerfull and fruitfull holinesse in her let her know that Christ Iesus himselfe hath beene with her Carnall and corporall things cannot doe this evill Angels neither can nor will doe it good Angels though they rejoyce to see it done yet they doe it not but that spirit alone both can doe it doth it which is the power and right hand of God which onely writeth the lawes of God in the hearts and soules of men He it is alone that giveth the soule the new wine of the kingdome wherewith the soule being once refreshed shee rejoyceth as a gyant to runne the race of holinesse It is the spirit of Christ alone that so anoynteth the soule that shee runneth after Christ in the wayes of righteousnesse And as it was said to this Head and Husband of the Church Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnesse above thy fellowes So it may bee also said to the Spouse Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnes above all those that were thy fellowes by carnall generation For there is no oyle of gladnesse that hath with it the love of righteousnesse but that wherewith Christ Iesus the Head was principally anoynted and which dropping from Christ the Head to the Members and Spouse of Christ makes her to excell the rest in vertue and holinesse And as there was not any such spice as the Queen of Sheba brought unto Salomon so there are no such oyntments of grace and gladnesse as a greater than Salomon doth give to his Queen when hee and shee are met in the heates of a spirituall conjunction and the excesses of a fruitive union CAP. VIII A Corollary of counsailes and directions to those that are entred into the estate of this blessed Marriage LEt it be the maine endeavor of a soule married to Christ to keepe her selfe still in that point wherein she may keepe him and so keepe him that she may still say and feele what she sayes My well-beloved is mine and I am my well-beloveds To this end let her still cast and consider with her selfe what those things are which hee most loves and make her most lovely in his eyes for the spirit of this lover loves to be there where his love is Therefore if there be any praise any vertue thinke on those things and set them as pearles and jewells about thy soule to make her glorious and amiable in his sight Let the face
felicity And yet againe she may looke on it to see the curse that is cast upon it and in the terriblenesse of that curse shee may see the horrour of sinne that looking from it againe to her Lord and Saviour she may see the excellency of his love and inestimable value of his person who hath taken away the curse and the sinne from his beloved Spouse and gives her a blessed use of the creature and full blessednesse in the eternall fruition of the Creatour Thus looking to the creature by looking to it shee lookes from it she rests not in it but passeth by it to her only true rest And indeed by these and the like removals the soule should ever bee kept loose from the world For as when we would not have things to glue and fasten we doe often touch and turne and moove them so the soule being apt to glue and fasten to the world wee must by these and the like meditations often touch and remove her that so she may be kept continually loose from it But because the cyment which joynes the soule to the world is the flesh and she must adulterate first with this old husband before she can prostitute her selfe to the world let the soule take especiall care to watch and resist the approaches of this fly but deadly enemy that commeth in the shape of a lover This is he whom the true husband whose name is jealous doth perfectly hate for there is a perfect contrariety betweene them Therefore so much as thou admittest the flesh so much thou expellest thy Lord and Saviour But so much as thou banishest the flesh so much roome doest thou make for Christ to come into thee by his spirit Therefore bee thou so farre from loosing thy husband for this old adulterer that thou gaine him the more by expelling and killing the other The flesh is good for nothing but to be slaine and therein there is this gaine that the more he dyeth the more thy love and life loveth thee and liveth in thee Therefore whereas the flesh would make it thy pleasure to live after the flesh doe thou make it thy pleasure to kill the flesh let the hunting pursuing and killing of the lusts of the flesh be thy pastime and pleasure even the hunting and destroying of these foxes that would destroy thy vineyard And then will the Lord of the vineyard get up early to his vineyard the vine shall flourish and the tender grape appeare and there shall he give thee his loves But if through thy owne remisnesse or the fleshes importunity the soule by concupiscence hath conceived sinne make haste to the fountaines set open for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash and to be cleane Wash thy selfe in teares and bloud the spirit of penitence contrition and conversion washeth white the bloud of the Lambe washeth whiter than snow And by the cleansing spirit is given to thee the cleansing bloud That false husband whom thou hast pleased hee hath defiled thee and thy true husband whō thou hast offended he it is that must wash thee therefore hee came by water and bloud to wash thy guilt with his bloud and thy filth by his spirit that thus being washed thou maist be without spot and blemish and againe lovely in his eyes and acceptable in the eyes of his Father And being thus made faire by his washing he will yet againe embrace thee and put thy evill out of his remembrance by his owne overcomming goodnesse But then let his goodnesse overcomming thy evill teach thee to overcome thy owne evill with goodnesse Hate and resist all sinne and especially that sinne by which thou hast most offended so loving a husband and hate and resist that false husband who tempted thee to this sin Love thy true husband the more the more thou hast offended him and the more he hath forgiven thee And the more thou lovest him the more strive not to offend him And if thus after thy sinne thou art the farther from sinne more faire in holinesse and fuller of love to thy heavenly husband thou shalt heare from his mouth the voice of ioy and gladnesse and shalt feele from his mouth a kisse of peace in thy soule And this spirituall kisse shall drop a spirituall oyntment the very pledge and seale of pardon and peace even a testimony of his spirit speaking to thy spirit Thy sinnes are forgiven thee And having regained him make thy selfe more one with him and increase thy communion with him Touch him hard with thy faith sucke him strongly with thy love that more vertue may come out of him to cure that issue of sinne yet abiding in the remnant of the flesh and to make thee more one and uniforme with him For as a bough the more hee suckes from the tree the larger is his union with the tree and the more is his likenesse to the tree so the more a soule draws from Christ the more is she one with him and the more is shee like him And againe the more shee is like him the more will hee delight to bee one with her and thus shall she goe on in an endlesse circle of happines The highest and happiest and sweetest harmony is when the soule is in an unizon with her Saviour and husband every touch and sound of the soule thus tuned to Christ Iesus resoundeth in him toucheth and moveth him And as with the sound of outward musicke the spirit of God came upon the Prophet so with the sound of this inward musicke be it in holy contemplations ardencies desires invocations resolutions the spirit of Christ Iesus commeth more powerfully and plentifully into the soule And when hee comes doe thou draw from him that spirituall sappe and nourishment by which thou maist grow up to the stature appointed thee By the supply of this head grow up to this head in a due proportion even to the fulnesse of that part which thou holdest in his body And let not the head be the head of a man yea of the fairest and goodliest of men and thou a starved dwarfish crooked or mishapen hand or foote but both in measure and shape strive to be a member proportionable to so comely an Head And that thou maist thus grow let not swelling but growth be the end of thy sucking Desire the sincere milke and hony and wine of the Deity that thou mayst growe thereby in solide substance not in frothy and puffy imaginations Growe thou in the reall excellence of a divine Nature and not in the empty swellings of a fleshly pride For the flesh hath sometimes a desire of spirituall excellencyes but it is for a fleshly end even to puffe it selfe up by thē But seeke not these pearls to cast it to these Swine nor this Bread of heaven to give it to such dogs Rather buffet this flesh and beate it downe lest a messenger of Satan be sent to buffet thee for not
in a continuall trance and extasie of joy Her life shall be rejoycing and her life shall be eternall and so shall be her rejoycing Her life shall be love and this love shall give an overcōming sweetnesse to the enjoying of him whom she loveth and the sweetnesse of her enjoying shall enflame her love to him by whom she enjoyes this sweetnes and thus shal she run an everlasting course between the pleasure of love the sweetnesse of enjoying Therefore thus saith my soule to her beloved Come away my beloved and be as a Roe on the tops of the mountaines My life is hid with thee my love Appeare quickly thou which art my life that I may quickly appeare with thee in the glorie and happines of a consummate mariage Make mee faire with thy spirit and put the golden vesture and the needle-worke of thy manifold graces vpon mee and bring me speedily into the presence of the great King Let the day of gladnes quickly come wherein both soule and body even my whole selfe may eternally enioy thee For thy spirit being now in both makes both to thirst for thee and my flesh fainteth as well as my soule and ech panteth after thee Neither will they stil be put off with these tasts and earnests but their love and longing is rather enflamed by them to the fruition of thee The very voice of these earnests is come yea they scarse know any other language but Come therefore again again they say come Yea after they have said come as if that were not enough they say Come quickly Now thou who knowest the meaning of the spirit give an answere to the speaking sighes and grones of the spirit Thou who hast enflamed the heart of thy spouse to speake vnto thee in this silent yet lowde language of ardent desires speake againe to the hart of thy spouse and answer the desires which thou hast made to speak vnto thee But harken for hee speaketh Those lips speake which are full of grace and such lips cannot but speake grace peace to his spouse to his beloved Hearken therefore and heare what he saith Beholde I come quickly O hony and sweetnesse it selfe to the soule that loveth her beloved comes quickly her consummate marriage comes quickly her full joy and perfect happinesse comes quickly And now what can the soule say more to her Lord Onely as before shee still said Come so now will she still say Amen and Even so come Lord Iesus Amen and Amen FINIS 1 Ioh. 1. Esay 54. Gal. 5.17 Cant. 3.4 Ioh. 14.21 2 Cor. 12.2 Eph. 4. Rom. 8.13 1 Pet. 2.11 1 Pet. 1.8 Cant. 8.7 Rom. 8.32 Heb. 1. 1 Cor. 3.22 Cap. 4 5 6. Eccles 3. Mat. 11.29 Heb. 12. Phil. 4.13 Col. 1.11 Psal. 19.10 Psal. 19.5 Ier. 31 33 35 36. Cant. 8.6 Rev. 12.11 Acts 5.41 Dan. 3. Acts 4.17 18. Acts 21.13 Mark 10.30 2 Cor. 1.5 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Pet 1. phil 2.17 1 Thes 1.6 c. Rev 14.13 2 Cor. 9.6 Nehem. 8.10 Luke 9.33 Heb. 4.9 Vers. 6.11 Acts 1. Eccles 4.10 Iob 6.6 Ruth 1.20 Cant. 5 Esay 54.6 7. Rom 8.28 Cant 5.2 Gen. 32.28 Luke 7.37 Matth. 26.10 Prov. 6.34 Hab 1,32 2 Cor. 3.5 Rev. 17. Rev. 3. Esay 66.1 2. Ioh. 15.13 Mat. 15.27 Col. 3.3 Iohn 3.8 Iohn 2.4 Iudg. 13.25 Iohn 5.4 Psal. 123.2 Psa. 37.34 1 Sam. 2.30 Psal. 37. Psal. 4.6 7 Psal. 42.2 102.2 130.6 Heb. 12.12 2 Cor. 8.12 Mat 10. Rev. 2.19 1 Cor 15.44 Ioh 17.14 1 Cor 1.30 Psal 73.17 Psa 90.12 Psal. 73. 2 Cor 4.17 Esay 30.21 Psal 143 8-10 1 Cor 2.10 Iohn 1.14 2 Cor 4.6 Esa 54.13 Ioh. 15.15 Pro 23.23 4.12 Mat. 6 33. 1 Kings 8 38 2 Chron 7 14 15 Zach 12.10 Rom. 8.26 2 Tim 1.7 Ioh 13.36 Acts 4.8 Iudg 15. 16. Acts 13.6 1 Sam. 14.29 30. Eph 5.9 Phil. 4.13 Neh 8.10 Heb. 12 Psal. 19. Ioh. 4.34 2 Pet. 1. Psa. 89.15 Iohn 20.27 28 Heb. 13 8. Gen. 38.25 2 Pet. 1.16 1 Iohn 1. Rom. 8.16 Gal 4.6 7 2 Cor 5.5 6 Cant. 1. 2. Luke 24 15 19. Psa 42.2 Phil 1.23 Psal. 43.3 2 Cor 5.8 Exod 14.15 Heb. 10.38 Heb. 10.39 Num 11 6 Iosh. 5 12. 2 Cor. 5. 1 Cor. 1.23 24. Esay 8.20 Psal. 94.19 2 Cor. 4.16 Luk. 24.15.17 Psal. 30.11 Matth. 5.3 4 6. Numb 20 10. 2. King 4. 2 Cor. 8.12 1. Thes. 1.6 1. pet 1.6 Psal. 112.4 2 Cor. 4.6 Psal. 4. Phil. 3.8 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Rom. 5.3 Rom. 8.5 Prov. 17.22 Psal. 63.5 Eph. 4.24 Psal. 45. Mark 5.30 Luke 1.35 2 Tim. 1.7 Rom. 13.10 Ioh 14.21 Rom. 7.4 Psal. 128. Psal 92.14 Ezek. 11.19 20. 2 Cor. 3.3 Psal. 45. Numb 24 Cant. 4.9 Psal. 27.8 2 Cor. 3.18 Psal. 25.15 Luke 24.28 c. Luk. 11.13 Ioh. 14.21 Iohn 1.3 Exod. 34.14 Gal 5.17 Gant 2.18 Cant. 7.12 Zach. 13.1 Psal. 51.7 Rev. 7.14 Esay 1.16 1. Luke 7.47 Psal. 51.8 Rom. 5.1 5.11 Hebr. 10. 19,22 2 King 3.15 Eph. 4.15 16. 1 Pet. 2. Num. 11.4 Eccl. 10 17 Psal. 19.10 Gal. 6.16 Rev. 22.14 Psal. 45. Iudg. 9.11 1 King 19 Deu. 32.25 1 Cor. 4.4 Psal. 145. 15. Cant. 5.2 Luk. 23.43 Eccl. 12.1 Rev. 3.20 Mark 4.33 Gal. 2.20 5.6 1 Ioh. 3.14 1 Cor 4.11 2 Cor. 11.23 Gen. 30. Rom. 7.4 Ioh. 15.5 psal 113.9 Gen 30.20 Ioh 14.23 Cant 4.16 Prov. 7.19 Psal. 119. 176 Luke 22.61,62 1 Cor. 10. 13. 1 Pet. 1.5 6. Gant 2.5 Mat. 15.32 Heb. 4.15 16. Psal 63.1 Rom. 8.23 Rev. 22.20