we all lie down in our bed of earth as sure to wake as ever we can be to shut our eyes In and from thee O blessed Saviour is this our assurance who art the first fruits of them that sleep The first handfull of the first fruits was not presented for it self but for the whole field wherein it grew The vertue of that oblation extended it self to the whole crop Neither didst thou O blessed Jesu rise again for thy self only but the power and vertue of thy resurrection reaches to all thine so thy chosen Vessel tels us Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming So as though the resurrection be of all the dead both just and unjust yet to rise by the power of thy resurrection is so proper to thine own as that thou O Saviour hast styled it the resurrection of the just whiles the rest shall be drag'd out of their graves by the power of thy God-head to their dreadful judgment Already therefore O Jesu are we risen in thee and as sure shall rise in our own persons The Loco-motive faculty is in the head Thou who art our head art risen we who are thy members must and shall follow Say then O my dying body say boldly unto Death Rejoyce not over me O mine enemy for though I fall yet I shall rise again Yea Lord the vertue of thy first fruits diffuseth it self not to our rising only but to a blessed immortality of these bodies of ours for as thou didst rise immortall and glorious so shall we by and with thee Who shalt change these vile bodies and make them like to thy glorious body The same power that could shake off death can put on glory and Majesty Lay thee down therefore O my body quietly and cheerfully and look to rise in another hue Thou art sown in corruption thou shalt be raised in incorruption thou art sown in dishonour thou shalt be raised in glory thou art sown in weaknesse but shalt be raised in power XXXVI In this life in this death of the body O Lord I see there are no degrees though differences of time The man that dyed yesterday is as truly dead as Abel the first man that dyed in the world and Methuselah that lived nine hundred sixty nine years did not more truly live then the childe that did but salute and leave the world but in the life to come and the second death there are degrees degrees of blessedness to the glorified degrees of torments to the damned the least whereof is unspeakable unconceivable Oh thou that art the Lord of life and death keep my soul from those steps that go down to the chambers of death and once set it for higher I dare not sue to go but over the threshold of glory and blessedness XXXVII O Lord my God I am as very a Pilgrime as ever walked upon thy earth Why should I look to be in any better condition then my neighbours then my forefathers Even the best of them that were most fixed upon their inheritance were no other then strangers at home It was not in the power of the world to naturalize them much less to make them enroll themselves free-Denizons here below they knew their country which they sought was above so infinitely rich and pleasant that these earthly regions which they must pass thorough are in comparison worthy of nothing but contempt My condition is no other then theirs I wander here in a strange country What wonder is it if I meet with forrainers fare hard usage and neglect Why do I intermeddle with the affaires of a nation that is not mine Why do I clog my self in my way with the base and heavy lumber of the world Why are not my affections homeward Why do I not long to see and enjoy my fathers house O my God thou that hast put me into the state of a Pilgrim give me a Pilgrims heart set me off from this wretched world wherein I am let me hate to think of dwelling here Let it be my only care how to pass through this miserable wilderness to the promised land of a blessed eternitie XXXVIII One Talent at the least O Lord hast thou put into my hand and that sum is great to him that is not worth a dram but alas what have I done with it I confess I have not hid it in a napkin but have been laying it out to some poor advantage yet surely the gain is so unanswerable that I am afraid of an Audit I see none of the approved servants in the Gospel brought in an increase of less value then the receit I fear I shall come short of the sum O thou who justly holdest thy self wronged with the style of an austere master vouchsafe to accept of my so mean improvement and thou who valuedst the poor widows mites above the rich gifts cast into thy Treasurie be pleased to allow of those few pounds that my weak indevors could raise from thy stock and mercifully reward thy servant not according to his success but according to his true intentions of glorifying thee XXXIX What a word is this which I hear from thee O Saviour Behold I stand at the doore and knock Thou which art the Lord of life God blessed for ever to stand and knock at the door of a sinful heart Oh what a praise is this of thy mercy and long suffering What a shame to our dull neglect and graceless ingratitude For a David to say I waited patiently upon the Lord Truly my soul waiteth upon God it is but meet and comely for it is no other then the duty of the greatest Monarchs on earth yea of the highest Angels in Heaven to attend their Maker but for thee the great God of Heaven to wait at the door of us sinful dust and ashes what a condescension is this what a longanimity It were our happiness O Lord if upon our greatest suit and importunity we might have the favor to entertain thee into our hearts but that thou shouldst importune us to admit thee and shouldst wait at the posts of our doors till thine head be filled with dew and thy locks with the drops of the night it is such a mercy as there is not room enough in our souls to wonder at In the mean time what shall I say to our wretched unthankfulnes and impious negligence Thou hast graciously invited us to thee and hast said knock and it shall be opened and yet thou continuest knocking at our doors and we open not willingly delaying to let in our happiness we know how easie it were for thee to break open the brasen doors of our brests and to come in but the Kingdome of Heaven suffers not violence from thee though it should suffer it from us Thou wilt do all thy works in a sweet and gracious way as one who will not force but win love Lord I cannot open unless thou that
flesh but for him God took him and cloathed him living with immortality I finde none but him and Elijah that were thus fetcht to their Heaven It will be happy for us if we may pass in the common road to blessedness O God give me to walk close and constantly with thee and what end thou pleasest let my body pass through all the degrees of corruption so that my soul may be immediately glorious FINIS THE BREATHINGS OF THE Devout Soul I. BLessed Lord God thou callest me to obedience and fain would I follow thee but what good can this wretched heart of mine be capable of except thou put it there thou know'st I cannot so much as wish to think well without thee I have strong powers to offend thee my sins are my own but whence should I have any inclination to good but from thee who art only and all good Lord work me to what thou requirest and then require what thou wilt II. Lord God whither need I go to seek thee Thou art so with me as that I cannot move but in thee I look up to heaven there I know thy Majestie most manifests it self but withall I know that being here thou art never out of thy heaven for it is thy presence onely that makes heaven Oh give me to enjoy thee in this lowest region of thine heavenly habitation and as in respect of my naturall being I live and move in thee so let me not live and move spiritually but with thee and to thee III. Whither now O whither do ye rove O my thoughts Can ye hope to finde rest in any of these sublunary contentments Alas how can they yeeld any stay to you that have no settlement in themselves Is there not enough in the infinite good to take you up but that ye will be wandring after earthly vanities Oh my Lord how justly mightest thou cast me off with scorn for casting any affective glances upon so base a rival Truly Lord I am ashamed of this my hatefull inconstancy but it is thou only that must remedy it O thou that art the father of mercies pity my wildnesse and weak distractions Take thou my heart to thee it is thine own keep it with thee tye it close to thee by the cords of love that it may not so much as cast down an eye upon this wretched and perishing world IIII. Lord I confesse to my shame thou art a great loser by me for besides my not improving of thy favors I have not kept even-reckonings with thee I have not justly tallied up thy inestimable benefits Thy very privative mercies are both without and beyond my account for every evill that I am free from is a new blessing from thee That I am out of bondage that I am out of pain and misery that I am out of the dominion of sin out of the tyranny of Satan out of the agonies of an afflicted soul out of the torments of hell Lord how unspeakeable mercies are these Yet when did I bless thee for any of them Thy positive bounties I can feel but with a benummed and imperfect sence Lord do thou enlarge and intenerate my heart make me truly sensible as of my good received so of my escaped evils and take thou to thy self the glory of them both V. Ah my Lord God what heats and colds do I feel in my soul Sometimes I finde my self so vigorous in grace that no thought of doubt dare shew it self and me thinks I durst challenge my hellish enemies another while I feel my self so dejected and heartlesse as if I had no interest in the God of my salvation nor never had received any certain pledges of his favour What shall I say to this various disposition Whether Lord is it my wretchednesse to suffer my self to be rob'd of thee for the time by temptation or whether is this the course of thy proceedings in the dispensation of thy graces to the sons of men that thou wilt have the breathings of thy Spirit as where so how and when thou pleasest Surely O my God if I did not know thee constant to thine everlasting mercies I should be utterly disheartened with these sad intervals now when my sense failes me I make use of my faith and am no lesse sure of thee even when I feel thee not then when I finde the clearest evidences of thy gracious presence Lord shine upon me with the light of thy countenance if it may be alwaies but when ever that is clouded strengthen thou my faith so shall I be safe even when I am comfortless VI. O my God I am justly ashamed to think what favors I have received from thee and what poor returns I have made to thee Truly Lord I must needs say thou hast thought nothing either in earth or in heaven too good for me and I on the other side have grudg'd thee that weak and worthless obedience which thou hast required of me Alas what pleasure could I have done to thee who art infinite if I had sacrificed my whole self to thee as thou commandest Thou art and wilt be thy self though the world were not it is I I only that could be a gainer by this happy match which in my own wrong I have unthankfully neglected I see it is not so much what we have as how we imploy it O thou that hast been so bountiful in heaping thy rich mercies upon me vouchsafe to grant me yet one gift more give me grace and power to improve all thy gifts to the glory of the giver otherwise it had been better for me to have been poor then ingrateful VII Ah Lord What strugling have I with my weak fears how do I anticipate my evils by distrust What shall I do when I am old How shall I be able to indure pain How shall I pass through the horrid gates of death Oh my God Where is my faith that I am thus surprized Had I not thee to up-hold and strengthen my soul well might I tremble and sink under these cares but now that I have the assurance of so strong an helper as commands all the powers of heaven earth and hell what a shame is it for me to give so much way to my wretched infidelity as to punish my self with the expectation of future evils Oh for the victorie that overcomes the world even our faith Thou O God art my refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore will I not fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea VIII Lord I made account my daies should have been but an inch but thou hast made them a span long having drawn out the length of a crazie life beyond the period of my hopes It is for something sure that thou hast thus long respited me from my grave which look't for me many years ago Here I am O my God attending thy good pleasure Thou know'st best what thou hast to do
so long with thee not of thy raigning on earth so long with those Martyrs How busie are the tongues of men how are their brains taken up with the indeterminable construction of this enigmaticall truth when in the mean time the care of thy spirituall raign in their hearts is neglected O my Saviour whiles others weary themselves with the disquisition of thy personall raign here upon earth for a thousand years let it be the whole bent and study of my soul to make sure of my personall raign with thee in heaven to all eternity XVI Blessed be thy name O God who hast made a good use even of hell it self How many Atheous hearts have been convinced by the very operations of Devils Those which would with the stupid Saducees perswade themselves there are no spirits yet when they have sensibly found the marvellous effects wrought even by the base instruments of Satan they have been forced to confesse Doubtless there is a God that rules the world for so great powers of evill spirits must necessarily evince the greater powers of good It is of thy wise and holy dispensation that thy good Angels do not so frequently exhibite themselves and give so visible demonstrations of their presence to thy Saints as the evill Angels do to their Vassals though they are ever as present and more powerfull What need they when thou so mightily over-rulest those malignant spirits that thou forcest from them thine own glory and advantage to thy chosen Lord how much more shall all thy other creatures serve to thy praise when thy very hellish enemies shall proclaim thy justice goodness omnipotence XVII Speculation O Lord is not more easie then practice is difficult how many have we known who as it was said of the Philosophers of old know how to speak well but live ill How many have written books of Chymistry and given very confident directions for the finding out of that precious stone of the Philosophers but how many have indeed made gold Practice is that which thou O God chiefly requirest and respectest who hast said If ye know these things blessed are ye if you do them Knowledg puffeth up but love edifieth O Lord do thou enlighten mine eyes with the knowledg of thy will but above all do thou rectifie my affections guide my feet into the wayes of thy commandements apply my heart to fulfill thy statutes alway and Prosper thou the work of my hands upon me O prosper thou my handi-work XVIII How oft have I wondred O Lord at the boldness of those men who knowing they must shortly die yet dare do those things which will draw upon them eternity of torments What shall I say but The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Surely men love themselves well enough and would be loth to do that which would procure them an inevitable misery and pain Did they therefore believe there were another world and that they must be called to a strict reckoning for all their actions and be doomed to an everlasting death for their wicked deeds they durst not they could not do those acts which should make them eternally miserable Let me say to the most desperate ruffian there is poyson in this cup drink this draught and thou diest he would have the wit to keep his lips close and cast the potion to the ground were it not for their infidelity so would men do to the most plausible but deadly offers of sin O Lord since I know thy righteous judgments teach me to tremble at them restrain thou my feet from every evill way and teach me so to walk as one that looks every hour to appear before thy just and dreadfull Tribunal XIX The longer I live O my God the more do I wonder at all the works of thine hands I see such admirable artifice in the very least and most despicable of all thy creatures as doth every day more and more astonish my observation I need not look so far as Heaven for matter of marvaile though therein thou art infinitely glorious whiles I have but a spider in my window or a bee in my garden or a worm under my feet every one of these overcomes me with a just amazement yet can I see no more then their very out-sides their inward form which gives them their being and operations I cannot pierce into the less I can know O Lord the more let me wonder and the less I can satisfie my self with marvailing at thy works the more let me adore the majesty and omnipotence of thee that wroughtest them XX. Alas my Lord God what poor weak imperfit services are those even at the best that I can present thee withal How leane lame and blemished sacrifices do I bring to thine altar I know thou art worthy of more then my soul is capable to perform and fain would I tender thee the best of thine own but what I would that I do not yea cannot do Surely had I not to do with an infinite mercy I might justly look to be punished for my very obedience But now Lord my impotence redounds to the praise of thy goodness for were I more answerable to thy justice the glory of thy mercy would be so much less eminent in my remission acceptance Here I am before thee to await thy good pleasure thou knowest whether it be better to give me more ability or to accept of that poor ability thou hast given me but since when thou hast given me most I shall still and ever stand in need of thy forgiveness Let my humble suit be to thee alwaies rather for pardon of my defects then for a supply of thy graces XXI O my God how do I see many profane and careless souls spend their time in jollity and pleasure The harp and the Viol the Tabret and the pipe and wine are in their feasts Whiles I that desire to walk close with thee in all conscionable obedience droop and languish under a dull heaviness and heartless dejection I am sure I have a thousand times more cause of joy and cheerfulness then the merriest of all those wilde and joviall spirits they have a world to play withall but I have a God to rejoyce in their sports are triviall and momentanie my joy is serious and everlasting One dram of my mirth is worth a pound of theirs But I confesse O Lord how much I am wanting to my self in not stirring up this holy fire of spirituall joy but suffering it to lie raked up under the dead ashes of a sad neglect O thou who art the God of hope quicken this heavenly affection in my soul and fill me with all joy and peace in believing make my heart so much more light then the worldlings by how much my estate is happier XXII What shall I do Lord I strive and tug what I may with my naturall corruptions and with the spirituall wickednesses in high places which set upon my soul
more of a man then of a flower that lasts some days he lasts some years at their period both fade Now what difference is there to be made betwixt days and years in the thoughts of an eternal duration Herein therefore I have a great advantage of a carnal heart such a one bounding his narrow conceits with the present condition is ready to admire himself and others for what they have or are and is therefore dejected upon every miscarriage whereas I behold my self or that man in all his glory as vanishing onely measuring every mans felicity by the hopes and interress which he hath in a blessed eternity V. When I am dead and forgotten the world will be as it is the same successions and varieties of seasons the same revolutions of Heaven the same changes of Earth and Sea the like occurrents of natural events and humane affairs It is not in my power to alter the course of things or to prevent what must be What should I do but quietly take my part of the present and humbly leave the care of the future to that all-wise providence which ordereth all things even the most cross events according to his most holy and just purposes VI. The Scripture is the Sun the Church is the Clock whose hand points us to and whose sound tells us the hours of the day the Sun we know to be sure and regularly constant in his motion the Clock as it may fall out may go too fast or too slow we are wont to look at and listen to the Clock to know the time of the day but where we finde the variation sensible to beleeve the Sun against the Clock not the Clock against the Sun As then we would condemn him of much folly that should profess to trust the Clock rather then the Sun so we cannot but justly tax the miscredulity of those who will rather trust to the Church then to the Scripture VII What marvailous high respects hath God given to man above all his other visible Creatures what an house hath he put him into how gloriously arched how richly pavemented Wherefore serves all the furniture of Heaven and Earth but for his use What delicate provision hath that bountiful hand made for his palate both of meats and liquors by Land and Sea What rich ornaments hath he laid up for him in his wardrobe of earth and waters and wherefore serves the various musick of Birds but to please his ear For as for the brute Creatures all harmony to them is but as silence Wherefore serves the excellent variety of Flowers surpassing Solomon in all his glory but to please his eie meer grass is more acceptable to Beasts Yea what Creature but he is capable to survey Gods wonders in the deep to contemplate the great fabrick of the Heavens to observe the glorious bodies and regular motions of the Sun Moon Stars and which exceeds all conceiveable mercies who but he is capable of that celestial Glory which is within that beautiful contignation to be a companion of the blessed Angels yea to be a limb of the mystical Body of the eternal Son of God and to partake with him of his everlasting and incomprehensible glory Lord what is man that thou art thus mindful of him and how utterly unworthy are we even of common mercies if we return not to our God more advantage of glory then those poor creatures that were made for us and which cannot in nature be sensible of his favors VIII How plain is it that all sensitive things are ordered by an instinct from their Maker He that gives them being puts into them their several dispositions inclinations faculties operations If we look to Birds the Mavis the Black-bird the Red-brest have throats tuneable to any note as we daily see they may be taught strains utterly varying from their natural tones yet they all naturally have the same songs and accents different from each other and fully according to their own kinde so as every Mavis hath the same ditty with his fellows If we mark the building of their nests each kinde observes its own fashion and materials some clay others moss hair sticks yea if their very motions and restings they are conform to their own feather different from others If to Beasts they all untaught observe the fashions of their several kindes Galen observes that when he was dissecting a She-goat big with young a Kid then ready to be yeaned starts out and walks up and down the room and there being in the same place set several vessels of oyl hony water milk the new faln Kid smells at them all and refusing the rest falls to lapping of the milk whereupon he justly infers that nature stays not for a Teacher Neither is it other in Flies and all sorts of the meanest vermine all Bees build alike and order the Common-wealth of their hive in one maner all Ants keep their own way in their housing journeys provisions all Spiders do as perfectly and uniformly weave their web as if they had been Apprentises to the trade the same instincts are seen also in the rational Creatures although in most cases overruled by their higher faculties What an infinite providence then is this we live under that hath distributed to every creature as a several form so several inclinations qualities motions proper to to their own kinde and different from other and keeps them in this constant uniformity and variety for the delight and contentment of man O God that I could be capable of enough wondring at thy great works that I could be enough humbled under the sense of my own incapacity that I could give thee so much more glory as I finde more vileness in my self IX When I saw my precious watch now through an unhappy fall grown irregular taken asunder and lying scattered upon the workmans shop-board so as here lay a wheel there the balance here one gimmer there another straight my ignorance was ready to think when and how will all these ever peece together again in their former order But when the skilful Artisan had taken it a while in hand and curiously pined the joynts it now began to return to its wonted shape and constant motion as if it had never been disordered How could I chuse but see in this the just embleme of a distempered Church and State wherein if all seem disjoynted and every wheel laid aside by it self so as an unknowing beholder would dispair of a redress yet if it shall please the great Artist of Heaven to put his hand unto it how soon might it return to an happy resetlement Even so blessed Lord for thy great mercies sake make up the breaches of thy Sion repair the ruines of thy Jerusalem X We are and we are not all one mans children Our bodies once met in one root but our mindes and dispositions do so differ as if we had never been of kin one man is so gentle and plausible that he would fain please
beneficial a thing is affliction especially to some dispositions more then other I see some trees that will not thrive unless their roots be laid bare unless besides pruning their bodies be gashed and sliced others that are too luxuriant except divers of their blossoms be seasonably pulld off yield nothing I see too rank corn if it be not timely eaten down may yield something to the barn but little to the granary I see some full bodies that can enjoy no health without strong evacuations blood-lettings fontinels such is the condition of our spiritual part It is a rare soul that can be kept in any constant order without these smarting remedies I confess mine cannot How wilde had I run if the rod had not been over me Every man can say he thanks God for ease for me I bless God for my troubles XXII When I consider what an insensible Atome man is in comparison of the whole body of the Earth and what a meer Center-point the Earth is in comparison of the vast circumference of Heaven and what an almost-infinite distance there is betwixt this point of Earth and that large circle of the Firmament and therewithal think of the innumerable number and immense greatness of those heavenly Luminaries I cannot but apprehend how improbable it is that those Stars should at such a distance distinguish betwixt one man and another betwixt one limb of the same body and another betwixt one spot of Earth and another and in so great a mixture and confusion of influences should give any distinct intimation of particular events in nature and much more of meer contingencies of arbitrary affairs As for the Moon by reason of her vicinity to the Earth and sensible predominance over moysture and for the Sun the great magazin of Light and Heat I acknowledg their powerful but unpartial operations upon this whole globe of Earth and Waters and every part of it not without just wonder and astonishment the other Stars may have their several vertues and effects but their marvelous remoteness and my undiscernable nothingness may seem to forbid any certain intelligence of their distinct workings upon me But whether these glorious Lights give or take any notice of such an imperceptible mite as I sure I am there is great reason I should take notice of them of their beauteous lustre of their wonderful magnitude of their regular motion and be transported with admiration of that omnipotent power wisdom providence which created this goodly and mighty host of Heaven and guides them in their constant march without the least deviation from their first setting out to the last moment of their final conflagration O the narrowness of my wretched heart that affords not room enough for wonder at that which I cannot but see XXIII It becomes not us to be niggardly where our Saviour intends bounty How glad should we be rather to ampliate the benefit of the great Work of our Redeemer but surely I cannot see upon what warrant that favor is grounded that enlargeth the fruit of Christs redemption to the Angels the good needed it not the evil were not capable of it onely mankinde was captiv'd and redeemable by that invaluable ransom Doubtless those blessed Spirits have their part in the joy and gratulation of the infinite mercy of our deliverance for if they rejoyce at the conversion of one sinner what triumph do we think there is in Heaven at the Universal Redemption of all beleevers The propriety of this favor hath reason to ingage us so much the more Lord thy mercy is free and boundless thou wouldst pass by the lapsed Angels and leave them in their sin and their chains and onely rescue miserable man out of their Hell O for an heart that might be in some measure answerable to so infinite mercy and that might be no less captiv'd to thy love then it is freed by thy Redemption XXIIII Men do commonly wrong themselves with a groundless expectation of good fore-promising to themselves all fair terms in their proceedings and all happy success in the issue boding nothing to themselves but what they wish even the man after Gods own heart could say In my prosperity I said tush I shall never be removed wherein their misreckoning makes their disappointment so much the more grievous Had not David made such account of the strength and stability of his Mountain it could not have so much troubled him to have it levell'd with the Plain on the contrary the evils which we look for fall so much the less heavily by how much we are fore-prepared for their entertainment what ever by-accidents I may meet withal besides I have two fixed matches that I must inevitably incounter with Age and Death the one is attended with many inconveniences the other with much horror let me not flatter my self with hopes of jollity and ease My comforts for Heaven shall I trust never fail me but for the present world it shall be well for me if I can without too much difficulty scramble out of the necessary miseries of life and without too much sorrow crawl to my grave XXV Heaven hath many tongues that talk of it more eyes to behold it but few hearts that rightly affect it Ask any Christian especially whom ye shall meet with he will tell you thither he shapes his course there he hath pitcht his hopes and would think himself highly wronged by that man who should make doubt of either his interest or speed But if we shall cast our eyes upon the lives of men or they reflect their eyes upon their own bosomes the hypocrisie will too palpably discover it self for surely which way so ever the faces look the hands and feet of the most men move hell-ward If malice fraud cruelty oppression injustice excess uncleanness pride contention covetousness lyes heresies blasphemies disobedience be the way thither wo is me how many walk in that wide and open road to destruction but even there where the heart pretends to innocence let a man strictly examine his own affections he shall finde them so deeply earthed that he shall be forced to confess his claim to Heaven is but fashionable Ask thy self but this one question O man whatsoever thou art ask it seriously Might I this very hour go to Heaven am I willing and desirous to make a present change of this life for a better and tell me sincerely what answer thou receivest from thine own heart Thy judgment cannot but tell thee that the place is a thousand times better that the condition would be infinitely advantageous to exchange baseness for glory misery for blessedness time for eternity a living death for a life immortal If thou do now fumble and shuffle and demur upon the resolution be convinced of thine own worldliness and infidelity and know that if thy heart had as much of Heaven as thy tongue thou couldst not but say with the chosen vessel I desire to depart hence and to be with Christ which is
in mount Sinai that thunder and rain wherewith God answered the prayer of Samuel in wheat-harvest for Israels conviction in the unseasonable suit for their King that thundering voyce from Heaven that answered the prayer of the Son of God for the glorifying of his Name the seven thunders that uttered their voyces to the beloved Disciple in Pathmos had nothing of ordinary nature in them And how many have we heard and read of That for sleighting of this great work of God have at once heard his voyce and felt his stroke Shortly if any heart can be unmoved at this mighty voyce of God it is stiffer then the rocks in the wilderness for The voyce of the Lord shaketh the wilderness the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh For me I tremble at the power whiles I adore the mercy of that great God that speaks so loud to me It is my comfort that he is my Father who approves himself thus omnipotent his love is no less infinite then his power let the terror be to them that know him angry let my confidence overcome my fear It is the Lord let him do what he will All is not right with me till I have attained to tremble at him while he shineth and to rejoyce in him whiles he thundreth LX. We talk of mighty warriors that have done great exploits in conquering kingdoms but the Spirit of God tells us of a greater conquest then all theirs Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Alass the conquest of those great Commanders was but poor and partial of some small spots of the earth the conquest of a regenerate Christian is universal of the whole world Those other conquerors whiles they prevailed abroad were yet overcome at home and whiles they were the Lords of nations were no other then vassals to their own lusts These begin their victories at home and enlarge their Triumphs over all their spiritual enemies The glory of those other victors was laid down with their bodies in the dust the glory that attends these is eternal What pity it is that the true Christian should not know his own greatness that he may raise his thoughts accordingly and bear himself as one that tramples the world under his feet For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life these he hath truly subdued in himself not so as to bereave them of life but of rule if he have left them some kinde of being still in him yet he hath left them no dominion and therefore may well stile himself the Lord of the world Far far therefore be it from him that he should so abject and debase himself as to be a slave to his vassals none but holy and high thoughts and demeanors may now beseem him and in these spiritual regards of his inward greatness and self-conquests his word must be either Cesar or nothing LXI I see so many kindes of phrensies in the world and so many seemingly wise brains taken with them that I much doubt whom I may be sure to account free from either the touch or at least the danger of this indisposition How many opinions do I see raised every day that argue no less then a meer spiritual madness such as if they should have been but mentioned seven years ago would have been questioned out of what Bedlam they had broken loose And for dispositions how do we see one so ragingly furious as if he had newly torn off his chaines and escaped another so stupidly senseless that you may thrust pins into him up to the head and he startles not at it One so dumpishly sad as if he would freez to death in melancholy and hated any contentment but in sorrow another so apishly jocund as if he cared for no other pastime then to play with feathers One so superstitiously devout that he is ready to cringe and crouch to every stock another so wildly prophane that he is ready to spit God in the face shortly one so censorious of others as if he thought all men mad but himself another so mad as that he thinks himself and all mad men sober and well-witted In this store and variety of distempers were I not sure of my own principles I could easily misdoubt my self now setled on firm grounds I can pity and bewail the woful distraction of many and can but send them for recovery to that divine wisdom who calls to them in the openings of the gates and uttereth her words saying How long ye silly ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledg turn you at my reproof O ye simple understand wisdom and ye fools be ye of an understanding heart Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gaâ—es But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death LXII Man as he confists of a double nature flesh and spirit so is he placed in a middle rank betwixt an angel which is spirit and a beast which is flesh partaking of the qualities and performing the acts of both he is angelical in his understanding in his sensual affections beastial and to whether of these he most enclineth and conformeth himself that part wins more of the other and gives a denomination to him so as he that was before half angel half beast if he be drowned in sensuality hath lost the angel and is become a beast if he be wholly taken up with heavenly Meditations he hath quit the beast and is improved angelical It is hard to hold an equal temper either he must degenerate into a beast or be advanced to an angel meer reason sufficiently apprehends the difference of the condition Could a beast be capable of that faculty he would wish to be a man rather then a brute as he is There is not more difference betwixt a man and beast then between an angel and a brutish man How must I needs therefore be worse then beast if when I may be preferred to that happy honor I shall rather affect to be a beast then an angel Away then with the bestial delights of the sensual appetite let not my soul sink in this mud let me be wholly for those intellectual pleasures which are pure and spiritual and let my ambition be to come as neer to the Angel as this clog of my flesh will permit LXIII There is great difference in mens dispositions under affliction Some there are dead-hearted patients that grow mopish and stupid with too deep a sence of their sufferings others out of a careless jollity are insensible even of sharp and heavy crosses We are wont to speak of some whose inchanted flesh is invulnerable this is the state of those hearts which are so bewitched with worldly pleasurâ—s that they are not to be peirced with
freely enjoy his presence but of those straglers who care not to live without God so they may be befriended by Mammon How ill a match these poor men make for themselves I send them to their Saviour to learn What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul God forbid I should give their souls for lost but I must say they are hazarded for herein doubtless they tempt God who hath not promised to keep them in any other then their just wayes and they do in a sort tempt and challenge Satan to draw them on either to a love of error and impiety or at least to a cooling of their care and love of truth How unlike are these men to that wise merchant in the Gospel He sold all that he had to buy the pearl of great price they sell the pearl to buy a little worthless merchandize As the greatest part of their trafick stands upon exchange so I heartily wish they would make this one exchange more of less care of their wealth for more care of their souls LXXXVIII Even when Joseph was a great lord in Egypt second to none but Pharaoh and had the command of that richest countrey of the world yet then his old Father Jacob thought his poor parcel of Shechem worthy to be bequeathed to him and embraced of him as a noble patrimony because it was in the promised land and the legacy of a dying Father How justly do I admire the faith both of the father and son in this donation Jacob was now in Goshen Shechem was in Canaan neither was the father now in the present possession nor were the sons in some ages to enjoy it It was four hundred and thirty years that Israel must be a sojourner in a strange countrey ere they shall enter into the promised Land yet now as foreseeing the future possession which his posterity should take of this spot of earth so long after Jacob gives Shechem to Joseph and Joseph apprehends it as a rich blessing as the double portion of the divided primogeniture Infidelity is purblinde and can see nothing but that which is hard at hand Faith is quick-sighted and discerns the events of many centuries of years yea of ages to come Abraham saw his Saviours day and rejoyced to see it a thousand nine hundred and fourty years off and Adam before him almost four thousand years As to God all things are present even future so to those that by a lively faith partake of him Why do I not by that faith see my Saviour returning in his Heavenly magnificence as truly as now I see the Heaven whence he shall come and my body as verily raised from the dust and become glorious as now I see it weak and decrepit and falling into the dust LXXXIX True knowledg causeth appetite and desire For the will follows the understanding whatsoever that apprehends to be good for us the affective part inclines to it No man can have any regard to an unknown good If an hungry man did not know that food would refresh and nourish him or the thirsty that drink would satisfie him or the naked that fire would warm him or the sick that Physick would recover him none of these would affect these succors And according to our apprehension of the goodness and use of these helps so is our appetite towards them For the object of the will is a known good either true or appearing so And if our experience can tell us of some that can say with her in the Poet I see and approve better things but follow the worse It is not for that evil as evil much less as worse can fall into the will but that their appetite over-carries them to a misconceit of a particular good so as howsoever in a generality they do confusedly assent to the goodness of some holy act or object yet upon the present occasion here and now as the School speaketh their sensitive appetite hath prevailed to draw them to a perswasion that this pleasure or that profit is worthy to be imbraced Like as our first parents had a general apprehension that it was good to obey all the commands of their Creator but when it came to the forbidden fruit now their eye and their ear and their heart tell them it is good for them both for pleasure and for the gain of knowledg to taste of that forbidden tree So then the miscarriage is not in that they affect that which they think not to be good but in that they think that to be good which is not for alass for one true good there are many seeming which delude the soul with a fair semblance As a man in a generality esteems silver above brass but when he meets with a rusty piece of silver and a cleer piece of brass he chooses rather the clear brass then the silver defaced with rust Surely it is our ignorance that is guilty of our cool neglect of our spiritual good if we did know how sweet the Lord is in his sure promises in his unfailing mercies we could not but long after him and remain unsatisfied till we finde him ours would God be pleased to shine in our hearts by the light of the true knowledg of himself we could not have cause to complain of want of heat in our affections towards his infinite goodness Did we but know how sweet and delectable Christ the Heavenly Manna is we could not but hunger after him and we could not hunger and not be satisfied and in being satisfied blessed XC Those which we mis-cal goods are but in their nature indifferent and are either good or evil as they are affected as they are used Indeed all their malignity or vertue is in the minde in the hand of the possessor Riches ill got ill kept ill spent are but the Mammon of iniquity but if well The Crown of the wise is their riches How can it be amiss to have much when he that was the richest man of the East was the holiest Yea when God himself is justly stiled the possessor of Heaven and Earth How can it be amiss to have little when our Saviour sayes Blessed are ye poor And if from that divine mouth we hear a wo to the rich himself interprets it of them that trust in riches If our riches possess us in stead of our possessing them we have changed our God and lost our selves but if we have learnt to use our wealth and not enjoy it we may be no less gracious then rich If a rich man have a large and humble heart and a just hand he inherits the blessing of the poor If a poor man have a proud heart and a theevish hand he carryes away the wo from the rich Riches saith wise Solomon make themselves wings they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven So as we may use
but sometimes I am foyled and go halting out of the field it is thy mercy that I live being so fiercely assaulted by those principalities and powers it were more then wonder if I should escape such hands without a wound Even that holy servant of thine who strove with thine Angel for a blessing went limping away though he prevailed what mervail is it that so weak a wretch as I striving with many evill Angels for the avoidance of a curse come off with a maime or a scar But blessed be thy name the wounds that I receive are not mortall and when I fall it is but to my knees whence I rise with new courage and hopes of victory Thou who art the God of all power and keepest the keys of hell and death hast said Resist the Devill and he will flee from you Lord I do and will by thy merciful ayd still and ever resist make thou my faith as stedfast as my will is resolute Oh still teach thou my hands to war and my fingers to fight arme thou my soul with strength and at last according to thy gracious promise crown it with victory XXIII Oh Lord God how ambitious how covetous of knowledg is this soul of mine as the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare filled with hearing no more is the mind of man with understanding yea so insatiable is my heart that the more I know the more I desire to know and the less I think I know Under heaven there can be no bounds set to this intellectuall appetite O do thou stop the mouth of my soul with thy self who art infinite Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Alas Lord if I could know all creatures with all their forms qualities workings if I could know as much as innocent Adam or wise Solomon Yea more if I could know all that is done in earth or heaven what were my soul the better if it have not attained the knowledg of thee Since as the Preacher hath most wisely observed In much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledg increaseth sorrow Oh then set off my heart from affecting that knowledg whose end is sorrow and fix it upon that knowledg which brings eeverlasting life And this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent XXIV O my God what miserable uncertainties there are in these worldly hopes But yesterday I made account of an eminent advantage of my estate which now ends in a deep loss How did we lately feed our selves with the hope of a firme and during peace which now shuts up in too much bloud How confidently did I relie upon the promised favour of some great friends which now leave me in the suds as the scorn of a mis-called fortune In how slippery places O Lord do our feet stand If that may be said to stand which is ever sliding never fixed And not more slippery then brittle so as there is not more danger of falling then of sinking With thee O God with thee only is a constant immutability of happiness There let me seek it there let me finde it and over-looking all the fickle objects of this vain world let my soul pitch it self upon that blessed immortality which ere long it hopes to enjoy with thee XXV Lord God What a wearisome circle do I walk in here below I sleep and dress and work and eat and work again and eat again and undress and sleep again and thus wearing out my time finde a satiety in all these troublesome Lord when shall I come to that state wherein I shall do nothing but injoy thee do nothing but praise thee and in that one work shall finde such infinite contentment that my glorified soul cannot wish to do any other and shall therein alone bestow a blessed eternity XXVI O God how troublesome and painful do I find this Sun of thine whose scorching beams beat upon my head and yet this excellent creature of thine is that to which under thee we are beholden for our very life and it is thy great blessing to the earth that it may enjoy these strong and forceable rayes from it Oh Who shall be able to endure the burning flames of thy wrath which thou intendest for the punishment and everlasting torment of thine enemies And if men shall blaspheme the name of thee the God of heaven for the great heat of that beneficiall creature what shall we think they will do for that fire which shall be consuming them to all eternity Lord keep my soul from those flames which shall be ever burning and never either quenched or abated XXVII Which way O Lord which way can I look and not see some sad examples of misery One wants his limbs with Mephibosheth another his sight with Bartimeus a third with Lazarus wants bread and a whole skin One is pained in his body another plundred of his estate a third troubled in minde one is pined in prison another tortured on the rack a third languisheth under the loss of a deare son or wife or husband Who am I Lord that for the present I enjoy an immunity from all these sorrows I am sure none grones under them that hath deserved them more It is thy mercy thy meer mercy O my good God that any of these calamities have faln beside me Oh make me truly thankful for thine infinite goodness and yet onely so sensible of thy gracious indulgence this way as that when any of these evils shall seize upon mee I may be no more dejected in the sense of them then I am now over-joyed with the favor of their forbearance XXVIII O blessed God what variety of gifts hast thou scattered amongst the sons of men To one thou hast given vigor of body to another agility beauty to a third to one depth of judgment to another quickness of apprehension to one readiness and rarity of invention to another tenacity of memorie to one the knowledg of liberal arts to another the exquisiteness of manuary skill to one worldly wealth to another honour to one a wise heart to another an eloquent tongue to one more then enough to another contentment with a little to one valour to another sagacity These favors O Lord thou hast promiscuously dispersed amongst both thy friends and enemies but oh how transcendent are those spiritual mercies which thou hast reserved for thine own the graces of heavenly wisdome lively faith fervent charity firme hope joy in the holy Ghost and all the rest of that divine beauye For any competency of the least of thy common blessings I desire to be thankful to thy bounty for which of them O God can I either merit or requite but oh for a soul truly and eagarly ambitious of those thy best mercies Oh let me ever long for them and ever be insatiable of them Oh do thou fill my heart
knock'st for entrance wilt be pleased to inable me with strength to turn the key and to unbolt this unweldy bar of my soul O do thou make way for thy self by the strong motions of thy blessed Spirit into the in-most rooms of my heart and do thou powerfully incline me to mine own happiness els thou shalt be ever excluded and I shall be ever miserable XLI In what pangs couldst thou be O Asaph that so woful a word should fall from thee Hath God forgotten to be gracious Surely the temptation went so high that the next step had been blasphemie Had not that good God whom thy bold weakness questions for forgetfulness in great mercy remembred thee and brought thee speedily to remember thy self and him that which thou confessest to have been infirmity had proved a sinful despair I dare say for thee that word washed thy cheeks with many a tear and was worthy of more For O God What can be so dear to thee as the glory of thy mercy There is none of thy blessed attributes which thou desirest to set forth so much unto the sons of men and so much abhorrest to be disparaged by our detraction as thy mercy Thou canst O Lord forget thy displeasure against thy people thou canst forget our iniquities and cast our sins out of thy remembrance but thou canst no more forget to be gracious then thou canst cease to be thy self O my God I sin against thy justice hourly and thy mercy interposes for my remission but oh keep me from sinning against thy mercy What plea can I hope for when I have made my Advocate mine enemy XLI How happy O Lord is the man that hath thee for his God He can want nothing that is good he can be hurt by nothing that is evill his sins are pardoned his good indeavors are accepted his crosses are sanctified his prayers are heard all that he hath are blessings all that he suffers are advantages his life is holy his death comfortable his estate after death glorious Oh that I could feel thee to be my God that I could enjoy an heavenly communion with thee In vain should earth or hell labour to make me other then blessed XLII How just a motion is this of thine O thou sweet singer of Israel O love the Lord all ye his Saints Surely they can be no Saints that love not such a Lord Had he never been good to them yet that infinite goodness which is in himself would have commanded love from Saints Yet how could they have been Saints if he had wholly kept his goodness to himself In that then he hath made them Saints he hath communicated his goodness to them and challengeth all love from them and being made such how infinitely hath he obliged them with all kinds of mercies How can ye choose O ye Saints but love the Lord What have ye what are ye what can ye be but from his meer bounty They are sleight favours that he hath done you for the world in these his very enemies share with you How transcendent are his spirituall obligations Hath he not given you his Angels for your attendants himself for your Protector his Son out of his bosome for your Redeemer his Spirit for your Comforter his heaven for your inheritance If gifts can attract love O my God Who can have any interest in my heart but thy blessed self that hast been so infinitely munificent to my soul Take it to thee thou that hast made and bought it enamour it thoroughly of thy goodness make me sick of love yea let me die for love of thee who hast loved me unto death that I may fully enjoy the perfection of thy love in the height of thy glory XLIII Lord how have I seen men miscarried into those sins the premonition whereof they would have thought incredible and their yeildance thereto impossible How many Hazaels hath our very age yeilded that if a Prophet should have fore told their acts would have said Is thy servant a dog that he should do these great things Oh my God why do not I suspect my self What hold have I of my self more then these other miserable examples of humane frailtie Lord God if thou take off thy hand from me what wickedness shall escape me I know I cannot want a tempter and that tempter cannot want either power or malice or skill or vigilance or baits or opportunities and for my self I find too well that of my self I have no strength to resist any of his temptations O for thy mercies sake uphold thou me with thy mighty hand stand close to me in all assaults shew thy self strong in my weakness Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Let them not have dominion over me then onely shall I be upright and shall be innocent from the great transgression XLIV It is thy title O Lord and only thine that thou givest songs in the night The night is a sad and dolorous season as the light contrarily is the image of cheerfulness like as it is in bodily pains and aches that they are still worst towards night so it is in the cares and griefs of mind then they assault us most when they are helpt on by the advantage of an uncomfortable darkness Many men can give themselves songs in the day of their prosperity who can but howl in the night of their affliction but for a Paul and Silas to sing in their prison at mid-night for an Asaph to call to remembrance his song in the night this comes onely from that Spirit of thine whose peculiar style is the Comforter And surely as musick sounds best in the night so those heavenly notes of praise which we sing to thee our God in the gloomy darkness of our adversity cannot but be most pleasing in thine ears Thine Apostle bids us which is our ordinary wont when we are merry to sing when afflicted to pray but if when we are afflicted we can sing as also when we are merriest we can pray that ditty must needs be so much more acceptable to thee as it is a more powerful effect of the joy of thy Holy Ghost O my God I am conscious of my own infirmity I know I am naturally subject to a dull and heavy dumpishness under whatsoever affliction Thou that art the God of all comfort remedy this heartless disposition in me pull this lead out of my bosome make me not patient only but cheerful under my trials fill thou my heart with joy and my mouth with songs in the night of my tribulation XLV It is a true word O Lord that thy Seer said of thee long ago The Lord seeth not as man seeth Man sees the face thou seest the heart man sees things as they seem thou seest them as they are many things are hid from the eyes of men all things lie open and displaid before thee What a madness then were it in me to come disguised into