distraction free from all sorrow pain perturbation free from all the possibility of change or death A life wherein there is nothing but pure and perfect pleasure nothing but perpetuall melodie of Angels and Saints singing sweet Allelujahs to their God A life which the most glorious Deitie both gives and is A life wherein thou hast the full fruition of the ever-blessed God-head the continuall society of the celestial spirits the blissefull presence of the glorified humanitie of thy dear Saviour A life wherein thou hast ever consort with the glorious companie of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Patriarks and Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors the Celestiall synod of all the holy fathers and illuminated Doctors of the Church Shortly the blessed Assembly of all the faithfull Professors of the Name of the Lord Jesus that having finished their course sit now shining in their promised glory See there that yet-unapproachable light that divine magnificence of the heavenly King See that resplendent Crown of righteousnesse which decks the heads of every of those Saints and is readie to be set on thine when thou hast happilie overcome those spirituall powers wherewith thou art still conflicting See the joyfull triumphs of these exsulting victors See the measures of their glory different yet all full and the least unmeasurable Lastly see all this happinesse not limited to thousands nor yet millions of years but commeasured by no less than eternity And now my soul if thou have received the infallible ingagement of thy God in that having beleeved thou art sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of thine inheritance untill the full Redemption of thy purchased possession if through his infinite mercy thou bee now upon the entring into that blessed place and state of immortality forbear if thou canst to be raised above thy self with the joy of the holy Ghost to bee enlarged towards thy God with a joy unspeakable and glorious See if thou canst now breath forth any thing but praises to thy God and songs of rejoycing bearing evermore a part in that heauenly ditty of the Angels Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and thanksgiving and Honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever SECT XIII ANd now what remaines O my soule but that thou do humbly and faithfully wait at the gate of heaven for an happie entrance at the good pleasure of thy God into those everlasting Mansions I confess should thy merits bee weigh'd in the ballance of a rigorous Justice another place which I cannot mention without horror were more fit for thee more due to thee for alas thou hast been above measure sinfull and thou knowest the wages of sin death But the God of my mercy hath prevented thee with infinite compassion and in the multitudes of his tender mercies hath not onely delivered thee from the nethermost hell but hath also vouchsafed to translate thee to the Kingdom of his dear Son In him thou hast boldnesse of access to the Throne of Grace thou who in thy selfe art worthy to bee a child of wrath art in him adopted to be a co-heire of Glory and hast the livery and seizin given thee beforehand of a blessed possession the full estating wherein I do in all humble awfulnesse attend All the few daies therefore of my appointed time will I wait at the threshold of grace untill my changing come with a trembling joy with a longing patience with a comfortable hope Onely Lord I know there is something to be done ere I can enter I must die ere I can be capable to enjoy that blessed life with thee one stroke of thine Angell must bee endured in my passage into thy Paradise And lo here I am before thee ready to embrace the condition Even when thou pleasest let me bleed once to bee ever happy Thou hast after a weary walk through this roaring wilderness vouchsafed to call up thy servant to Mount Nebo and from thence aloof off to shew me the land of Promise a land that flowes with milk and honey Do thou but say Die thou on this Hill with this prospect in mine eye and do thou mercifully take my soul from mee who gavest it to me and dispose of it where thou wilt in that Region of Immortality Amen Amen Come Lord Jesu Come quickly BEhold Lord I have by thy Providence dwelt in this house of Clay more than double the time wherin thou wert pleased to sojourn upon earth Yet I may well say with thine holy Patriark Few and evil have been the dayes of the yeeres of my pilgrimage Few in number evill in condition Few in themselves but none at all to thee with whom a thousand yeares are but as one day But had they beene double to the age of Methusaleh could they have been so much as a minute to eternity Yea what were they to me now that they are past but as a tale that is told and forgotten Neither yet have they been so few as evill Lord what troubles and sorrowes hast thou let me see both my owne and others What vicissitudes of sicknesse and health What ebbes and flowes of condition How many successions and changes of Princes both at home and abroad What turnings of times What alterations of Governments What shiftings and downfalls of Favourites What ruines and desolations of Kingdoms What sacking of Cities What havocks of warre What frenzies of rebellions What underminings of treachery What cruelties and barbarismes in revenges What anguish in the oppressed and tormented What agonies in temptations what pangs in dying These I have seen and in these I have suffered And now Lord how willing I am to change time for eternity the evils of earth for the joyes of heaven misery for happinesse a dying life for immortality Even so Lord Jesu Take what thou hast bought Receive my soule to thy mercie and crowne it with thy glorie Amen Amen Amen FINIS A Catalogue of the severall Bookes written by the Author in and since his Retiring Namely 1. THe Devout Soule and Free Prisoner 2. The Remedy of Discontentment Or A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever condition 3. The Peace-Maker laying forth the right way of Peace in matter of Religion 4. The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the distressed both Morall and Divine 5. Christ Mysticall Or The blessed union of Christ and his Members To which is added An holy Rapture Or A Patheticall Meditation of the Love of Christ Also The Christian laid forth in his whole disposition and carriage 6. A modest offer tendred to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster 7. Select thoughts in two Decades with the breathing of the Devout Soule 8. Pax Terris 9. Imposition of Hands 10. The Revelation unrevealed Concerning The thousand yeeres raigne of the Saints with Christ on earth 11. Satans Fierie Darts quenched Or Temptations repelled In 3 Decades 12. Resolutions and Decisions of divers practicall cases of Conscience In 4 Decades Select Thoughts one Centurie with the breathing of the Devout Soul 13. Susurrium cum Deo c. This present Tract newly Reprinted 1 Cor. 13.12 Euthym in Praefat. Psalmorum Psal. 90.9 Gen. 5.2.24.27 2 Cor. 5.1 Exo. 16.13 Deut. 8.3 Exo. 16.31 Num. 11.6 Heb. 1. ult. Psal. 119.136 1 Kin. 19. Luk. 12.49 Mat. 6.23 John 1.9 Psa. 119.105 Clement de gestis Petri 1 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 9.27 Rom. 8.18 1 Sam. 30.6 Cato 1 Thes. 5.23 Hos. 9 7. Esa. 44.16 Exod. 32.4 2 Kin. 20.23 1 Kin. 18.28 2 Kin. 23.11 Cicer. de Natur. Deorum initio Heart bleedings for Professors abominations Set forth under the hands of 16 Churches of Christ baptized into the name of Christ p. 5.6 7. c. Joh. 18.28 Mat. 23.25 2 Chro 30.18 19 Rom. 7.19 Mat. 6.19 Pro. 13.12 1 Cor. 15.31 2 Tim. 4.7 1 Tim. 6.2 Eph. 6.16 1 Ioh. 5.4 Psal. 71.9 Psal. 27.10 1 Kin. 22.24 Iob 19.14 Psal. 41.9 Psal. 55.13 14. Psal. 61.7 Deut. 6.11 12. Deut. 32.15 1 Sam. 24.5 Iam. 1.17 Iam. 1.5 Prov. 13.7 Rev. 3.17 Psal. 81.16 1 Cor. 10. Heb. 9.12 Eph. 1.7 Rom. 5.9 Col. 1.20 Heb. 9.22 Heb. 13.12 14. 1 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 9.15 1 Sam. 14.29 Pro. 14.23 Pro. 25.16 Eph. 1.14 Mat. 24.35 Colos. 3. Psal. 119. Psal. 12.14 Mat. 8.24 25 c. Mat. 4.37 Luk. 8.13 Psa. 141.8 Gen. 4 14. Cant. 5.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 Eccle. 7.14 1 Cor. 12. Luk. 15.10 Psal. 5.8 Eccl. 9.1 2. Mat. 23.37 Ier. 8.7 * Oecolampad in locū Ierem. Eccl. 3.1 Psal. 55.17 Act. 2.1 1 Thes. 5.17 Rom. 8.26 Aeneas Sylv. de Reb. gest Alph. 2 Chro. 29.25 28. 2 Chro. 5.12 13. Mamonides in Cle. hamikdash c. 3 * Chro 29.25 28. Maymon in giath hamikdash Ier. 9.1 Mal. 3.2 Mal. 3.4 Beda Eccles. Hister l. 2. cap. 13. Ier. 44.17 18. 1 King 18.44 Esa. 63.15 Esa. 1.4 Dan. 9.8 9. Dan. 9.16 17. Dan. 9.19 Rom. 11.33 Ose 13.9 Rom. 8.33 34. 1 Pet. 1.12 Bernard Serm. de passione Domini Rev. 21.23 Nehe. 2.2 Luk. 8.31 Heb. 12.23 Mat. 8.11 Dan 4.30 Luk. 1.46.47 Eccl. 5.10 Cant. 1.4 2.5 8.14 Psal. 57.7 Psal. 145.19 Psal. 73.24 Num. 24.17 Ioh. 17.20 21. 22. 23. 1 Cor. 6.17 2 Pet. 1.4 Can. 6.3 Mar. 9.6 Luk. 9.33 Rom. 12.2 Eph. 4.24 Ioh. 17.10 2 Thes. 1.12 Eph. 1.13 14. 1 Thes. 1.6 Rev. 7.12 Psal. 59.10 Psal. 86.13 Col. 1.13 Gen. 47.9
full and inimitable this seale cannot be counterfeit the graces of the Spirit which thou hast received thou feelest to be true and reall thou findest in thy selfe a faith though weak yet sincere an unfeigned repentance joyned with an hearty detestation of all thy sinnes a fervent love of that infinite goodnesse that hath remitted them a conscionable care to avoid them a zealous desire to bee approved to God in all thy waies Flesh and bloud cannot have wrought these graces in thee It is onely that good Spirit of thy God which hath thus sealed thee to the day of Redemption Walke on therefore O my soule confidently and chearfully in the strength of this assurance and joyfully expect the full accomplishment of this happy contract from the sure hands of thy God Let no temptation stagger thee in the comfortable resolutions of thy future glory But say boldly with that holy Patriarke O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Soliloq LVI Heavenly Manna VIctory it selfe is the great reward of our fight but what is it O God that thou promisest to give us as the reward of our Victory even the hidden Manna Surely were not this gift exceeding precious thou wouldst not reserve it for the remuneration of so glorious a Conquest Behold that materiall and visible Manna which thou sentest down from heaven to stop the mouths of murmuring Israel perished in their use and if it were reserved but to the next day putrified and instead of nourishing annoyed them But the hidden Manna that was laid up in the Arke was incorruptible as a lasting monument of thy power and mercy to thy people But now alas what is become both of that Manna and of that Arke Both are vanished having passed through the devouring jawes of time into meer forgetfulnesse It is the true spiritual Manna that came down from the highest heaven and ascending thither again is hidden therein the glorious Arke of Eternity that thou wilt give to thy Conqueror That is it which being participated of here below nourisheth us to eternall life and being communicated to us above is the full consummation of that blessed life and glory O give me so to fight that I may overcome that so overcomming I may bee feasted with this Manna Thou that art and hast given me thy selfe the spirituall Manna which I have fed on by faith and the symbolicall Manna whereof I have eaten sacramentally give me of that heavenly Manna whereof I shall partake in glory It is yet an hidden Manna hid from the eies of the world yea in a sort from our owne hid in light inaccessible For our life is hid with Christ in God but shall then bee fully revealed for it shall then not onely cover the face of the earth round about the tents of Israel but spread it self over the face of the whole heaven yea fill both heaven and earth I well thought O my God that if heaven could afford any thing more precious than other thou wouldst lay it up for thy Victor for it is an hard service that thy poore Infantry here upon earth are put unto to conflict with so mighty so malicious so indefatigable enemies and therefore the reward must be so much the greater as the warefare is more difficult O doe thou who art the great Lord of Hosts give me courage to fight perseverance in fighting and power to overcome all my spirituall enemies that I may receive from thee this hidden Manna that my soul may live for ever and may for ever blesse thee Soliloq LVII The Hearts Treasure IT is a sure Word of thine O Saviour that where our Treasure is there our hearts will be also neither can wee easily know where to finde our hearts if our Treasure did not discover them Now Lord where is my Treasure Surely I am not worthy to bee owned of thee if my Treasure be anywhere but in heaven my lumber and luggage may be here on earth but my Treasure is above there thou hast laid up for me the richest of thy mercies even my eternall salvation Yea Lord what is my richest Treasure but thy selfe in whom all the Treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge yea of infinite Glory are laid up for all thine All things that this world can afford me are but meere pelfe in comparison of this Treasure or if the earth could yeeld ought that is precious yet I cannot call that Treasure Treasure implies both price and store of the dearest Commodities never so great abundance of base things cannot make a Treasure neither can some few peeces of the richest mettals bee so accounted but where there is a large congestion of precious Jewels and Metalls there onely is Treasure If any at all surely very little and mean is the wealth which I can promise my selfe here perhaps some brasse Farthing or light and counterfeit Coine meer earthy dross which may load but cannot enrich my soule my only true riches are above with thee and where then should my heart bee but there My hand and my braine too must necessarily bee sometimes here below but my heart shall be still with my Treasure in heaven It is wont to be said that however the memory of old age is short yet that no old man ever forgot where hee laid up his Treasure O God let not that Celestiall Treasure which thou hast laid up for me be at any time out of my thoughts let my eye be ever upon it let my heart long for the full possession of it and so joy in the assured expectation of it that it may disrelish all the contentments and contemne all the crosses which this World can afford me Soliloq LVIII The narrow Way O Saviour I hear thee say I am the Way the Truth and the Life and yet again thou who art Truth it selfe tell'st me that the way is narrow and the gate straight that leadeth unto life Surely thou who art the living Way art exceeding large so wide that all the World of Beleevers enter into life by thee only but the way of our walke towards thee is straight and narrow Not but that thy Commandement in it self is exceeding broad for Lord how fully comprehensive it is of all morall and holy duties and what gracious latitude hast thou given us in it of our Obedience and how favourable indulgence and remission in case of our faylings But narrow in respect of the weaknesse and insufficiency of our obedience It is our wretched infirmity that straitens our way to the Lo heaven which is thy All-glorious Mansion when wee are once entred into it how infinitely large and spacious it is even this lower contignation of it at how marvailous distance it archeth in this Globe of aire and earth and waters and how is that again surrounded with severall heights of those lightsome Regions unmeasurable for their glorious dimensions But the heaven of heavens the seat of the blessed is yet so much larger as it is higher in place and more
raked up in the Embers of my soule and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation Soliloq XLI Deaths Remembrancers EVery thing that I see furnishes me with fair monitions of my dissolution If I look into my garden there I see some flowers fading some withered If I look to the earth I see that mother in whose wombe I must lie If I goe to Church the graves that I must step over in my way shew me what I must trust to If I look to my Table death is in every Dish since what I feed on did once live If I look into my glasse I cannot but see death in my face If I goe to my bed there I meet with sleepe the Image of death and the sheets which put mee in minde of my winding up If I look into my study what are all those books but the monuments of other dead authors O my soul how canst thou bee unmindfull of our parting when thou art plyed with so many monitors Cast thine eyes abroad into the world what canst thou see but killing and dying Cast thine eyes up into heaven how canst thou but thinke of the place of thy approaching rest How justly then may I say with the Apostle By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily And Lord as I daily die in the decay of this fraile nature so let me die daily in my affection to life in my preparation for death O do thou fit me for that last and happy change Teach me so to number my daies that I apply my heart to wisdom and addresse it to ensuing glory Soliloq XLII Faiths Victory WEE are here in a perpetuall warfare and fight wee must Surely either fight or dye some there are that doe both That is according as the quarrell is and is managed There are those that fight against God these medling with so unequall a match cannot looke to prevaile Again The flesh warreth against the spirit this intestine rebellion cannot hope to prosper but if with the chosen vessell I can say I have fought a good fight I can neither lose life nor misse of victory And what is that good fight Even the same Apostle tels me the fight of faith this is the good fight indeed both in the cause and managing the issue Lo this faith it is that wins God to my side that makes the Almighty mine that not only ingages him in my cause but unites me to him so as his strength is mine In the power of his might therefore I cannot but be victorious over all my spirituall enemies by the onely meanes of this faith For Satan This Shield of faith is it that shall quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one For the world this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Be sure to finde thy self furnished with this grace and then say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly the powers of Hell shall not bee able to stand before thee they are mighty and have all advantages of a spirituall nature of long duration and experience of place of subtilty Yet this conquering grace of faith is able to give them the foile and to trample over all the powers of darknesse O my Lord God doe thou arme and fortifie my soule with a lively and stedfast faith in thee I shall not feare what man or Divell can doe unto me settle my heart in a firme reliance upon thee and turne mee loose to what enemy thou pleasest Soliloq XLIII The unfailing Friend NExt to the joy of a good conscience there is no greater comfort upon earth than the enjoyment of dear friends neither is there any thing more sad than their parting and by how nearer their relations are so much greater is our sorrow in forgoing them What moane did good David make both for Absalon as a Sonne though ungracious and for Jonathan as a friend Surely when our dear ones are pulled away from us we seeme to have limbes torne away from our bodies yet this is a thing must bee lookt for wee are given to each other or lent rather upon condition of parting either they must leave us or we them a parting there must bee as sure as there was a meeting It is our fault if we set our hearts too much upon that which may yea which must be lost Be wise O my soul and make sure of such friends as thou canst not be bereaved of Thou hast a God that hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee It was an easie sute and already granted which the holy Psalmist made Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth And againe When my Father and my Mother forsake me in their farewell to a better world yet then the Lord will take me up It is an happy thing to have immortall friends sticke close unto them O my soule and rejoyce in them evermore as those that shall sweetly converse with thee here and shall at last receive thee into everlasting habitations Soliloq XLIV Quiet Humility HE is a rare man that is not wise in his owne conceit and that saies not within himselfe I see more than my neighbours For wee are all borne proud and selfe-opinionate and when we are come to our imaginary maturity are apt to say with Zedechiah to those of better judgement than our own which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wilde paradoxes both in Philosophy and Religion wherewith the world abounds every where When our fancy hath entertained some uncouth thought our selfe-love is apt to hatch it up our confidence to broach it and our obstinacy to maintain it and if it bee not too monstrous there will not want some credulous fools to abet it so as the onely way both to peace and truth is true Humility which will teach us to thinke meanly of our own abilities to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity greater sanctity deeper insight of our blessed Predecessors This onely will keepe us in the beaten road without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths Teach me O Lord evermore to think my self no whit wiser than I am so shall I neither bee vainly irregular nor the Church troublesomely unquiet Soliloq XLV Sure Mercies THere is nothing more troublesome in humane society than the disappoint of trust and failing of friends For besides the disorder that it works in our owne affaires it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to others The leaning upon a broken Reed gives us both a fall and a wound Such is a false friend who after professions of love and reall offices either slinkes from us or betrayes us This is that which the great patterne of patience so bitterly complaines of as none of his least afflictions My Kinsfolk have
repentance But of all the fore-tokens of thy fearefullest plagues prepared for any Nation O God there is none so certain as the prodigious sinnes of the people committed with an high hand against Heaven against so cleare a light so powerfull Convictions The monstrous and unmatchable Heresies the hellish Blasphemies the brutish Incests the savage Murthers the horrible Sacrileges Perjuries Sorceries of any People can be no other than the professed Harbingers of Vengeance these are our shoures of bloud these are our ill-boding Comet these are our mishapen Births which an easie Augurie might well construe to portend our threatned destruction The Prophet did not more certainely foretell when he heard of an hand-broad Cloud arising from the Sea that a vehement Rain was comming than Gods Seers might foreknow when they saw this darke Cloud of our sins mounting up towards Heaven that a Tempest of Judgement must necessarily follow But Oh thou God of infinite mercy and compassion looke downe from Heaven upon us and behold us from the Habitation of thy Holines Where is thy Zeale and thy Strength the sounding of thy Bowells and of thy mercies towards us Are they restrained If so it is but just For surely wee are a sinfull Nation a People laden with iniquity We have seen our Tokens and have felt thy Hand yet we have not turned to thee from our evill waies to us therefore justly belongeth confusion of Faces because we have sinned against thee But to thee O Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though wee have rebelled against thee Oh spare spare the remnant of thy people Let thine Anger and thy fury be turned away from thy chosen inheritance O my God hear the Prayer of thy servant and his Supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that is desolate O Lord heare O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and defer not for thine owne sake O my God Soliloq LXXX Vnwearied Motion and Rest Eternall I See thy Heavens O God move about continually and are never weary of their revolution whereas all sublunary Creatures are soon tyred with their motions and seek for ease in their intermissions Even so O my soule the nearer thou growest to celestiall the more constant shall thy courses be and the freer from that lassitude that hangs upon thine earthly part As it is now with me thou seest I soone find an unavoidable defatigation in all things I am weary of labour and when that is done I am no lesse weary of doing nothing weary of the day and more weary of the night weary of all postures weary of all places weary of any one if never so pleasing imployment weary even of varieties weary of those which some men call recreations weary of those wherein I finde most delight my Studies But O my soule if thou be once soundly heaveniz'd in thy thoughts and affections it shall bee otherwise with thee then thou shalt be ever like this Firmament most happily restlesse thou shalt then finde ever worke enough to contemplate that infinite Deity who dwels in the Light inaccessible to see with ravishment of spirit thy deare Saviour in his glorified humanity adored by all the powers of heaven to view the blessed Orders of that Celestiall Hierarchy attending upon the throne of Majesty to behold and admire the unspeakable and incomprehensible glory of the Saints These are Objects with the sight whereof thine eie shall never bee satisfied much lesse cloyed Besides that the hopes and desires of enjoying so great felicity and the care of so composing thy selfe as that thou maiest be ever readily addressed for the fruition of it shall wholly take thee up with such contentment that all earthly pleasures shall bee no better than torments in comparison thereof O then my soule since as a spark of that heavenly fire thou canst never be but in motion fix here above where thy movings can bee no other than pleasing and beatificall And as thou O my God hast a double Heaven a lower heaven for motion and an Empyreall heaven for rest One patent to the eye the other visible to our faith so let my soule take part with them both Let it ever bee moving towards thee and in thee like this visible heaven and since the end of all motion is rest let it ever rest with thee in that invisible Region of glory So let it move ever to thee whiles I am here that it may ever rest with thee in thine eternall glory hereafter Amen FINIS THE SOVLES FAREWELL TO EARTH AND APPROACHES TO HEAVEN BY J.H. B.N. THE SOULES Farewell to Earth AND Approaches to Heaven SECT. I. BE thou ever O my soule holily ambitious alwaies aspiring towards thine heaven not entertaining any thought that makes not towards blessednesse For this cause therefore put thy selfe upon thy wings and leave the earth below thee and when thou art advanced above this inferiour world look downe upon this Globe of wretched mortality and despise what thou wast and hadst and think with thy selfe There was I not a sojourner so much as a prisoner for some tedious yeeres there have I been thus long tugging with my miseries with my sinnes there have my treacherous senses betrayd mee to infinite evills both done and suffered How have I been there tormented with the sense of others wickednes but more of my own What insolence did I see in men of power What rage in men of bloud What grosse superstition in the ignorant What abominable sacrilege in those that would bee zealous What drunken revellings what Sodomitical filthinesse what hellish profanations in Atheous ruffians What perfidiousnesse in friendship what cozenage in contracts what cruelty in revenges Shortly what an Hell upon Earth Farewell then sinful world whose favours have been no other than snares and whose frownes no lesse than torments farewell for ever for if my flesh cannot yet clear it self of thee yet my spirit shall ever know thee at a distance and behold thee no otherwise than the escaped Mariner looks back upon the rock whereon he was lately splitted Let thy bewitched Clients adore thee for a Deity all the homage thou shalt receive from me shall bee no other than Defiance and if thy glorious showes have deluded the eies of credulous Spectators I know thee for an Impostor Deceive henceforth those that trust thee for me I am out of the reach of thy fraud out of the power of thy malice Thus doe thou O my soul when thou art raised up to this height of thy fixed contemplation cast down thine eies contemptuously upon the region oâ— thy former miseries and bee sure ever to keep up in a constant ascent towards blessednesse not suffering thy self to stoop any more upon these earthly vanities For tell me seriously when the World was disposed to Court thee most of all what did it yield thee but unsound joyes sauced with a deep anguish of spirit false hopes shutting up in an heart-breaking
disappointment windy proffers mocking thee with suddain retractions bitter pils in sugar poison in a golden cup It shew'd thee perhaps stately Palaces but stuft with cares faire and populous Cities but full of toile and tumult flourishing Churches but annoyed with Schisme and Sacrilege rich Treasures but kept by ill spirits pleasing beauties but baited with temptation glorious titles but surcharged with Pride goodly semblances with rotten in-sides in short Death disguised with pleasures and profits If therefore heretofore thy unexperience have suffered thy fethers to be belimed with these earthly intanglements yet now that thou hast happily cast those plumes and quit thy selfe of these miserable incombrances thou maiest soare aloft above the sphere of Mortality and be stil towring up towards thine heaven And as those that have ascended to the top of some Athos or Tenariffe see all things below them in the Vallies small and scarce in their diminution discernable so shall all earthly objects in thy spirituall exaltation seem unto thee either thou shalt not see them at all or at least so lessened as that they have to thee quite lost all the proportion of their former Dimensions SECT. II. IT will not be long O my soul ere thou shalt absolutely leave the world in the place of thine habitation being carried up by the blessed Angels to thy thy rest and glory but in the meane time thou must resolve to leave it in thy thoughts and affections thou maist have power over these even before the hour of thy separation and these rightly disposed have power to exempt thee before-hand from the interests of this inferiour World and to advance thine approaches to that World of the blessed Whiles thou art confined to this Clay there is naturally a luggage of Carnality that hangs heavy upon thee and swayes thee downe to the earth not suffering thee to mount upward to that blisse whereto thou aspirest this must bee shaken off if thou wouldst attaine to any capacity of happiness Even in this sense Flesh and Bloud cannot inherit the Kingdome of God It behoves thee to be so far as this composition wil admit spirituallized ere thou canst hope to attaine to any degree of blessednesse Thy conjunction with the body doth necessarily clog thee with an irrationall part which will unavoidably force upon thee some operations of its owne and thy senses will be interposing themselves in all thy intellectuall imployments profering thee the service of their guidance in all thy proceedings but if thou lov'st eternity of blessednesse shake them off as importunate sutors gather up thy selfe into thine owne regenerated powers and doe thy worke without and above them It is enough that thou hast at first taken some hint from them of what concernes thee as for the rest cast them off as unnecessary and impertinent the prosecution whereof is too high and too internall for them to intermeddle with thou hast now divine and heavenly things in chase whereof there cannot be the least sent in any of these earthly faculties Devest thy selfe therefore what thou possibly maiest of all materiality both of objects and apprehensions and let thy pure renewed and illuminated intellect work only upon matter spirituall and celestiall And above all propose unto thy selfe and dwell upon that purest perfectest simplest blessedest Object the glorious and incomprehensible Deity there thou shalt finde more than enough to take up thy thoughts to all eternity Be thou O my soule ever swallowed up in the consideration of that infinite self-being Essence whom all created spirits are not capable sufficiently to admire Behold and never cease wondering at the Majesty of his Glory Thy bodily eies dazle at the sight of the Sunne but if there were as many Sunnes as there are stars in the Firmament of Heaven their united splendour were but darkenesse to their All-glorious Creator Thou canst not yet hope to see him as he is but loe thou beholdest where he dwels in light inaccessible the sight of whose very outward verge is enough to put thee into a perpetuall extasie It is not for thee as yet to strive to enter within the vaile Thine eies may not be free where the Angels hide their faces What thou wantst in sight O my soule supply in wonder Never any mortall man O God durst sue to see thy face save that one intire servant of thine whose face thy Conference had made shining and radiant but even he though inured to thy presence was not capable to behold such glory and live Far be it from me O Lord to presume so high Onely let me see thee as thou hast bidden me and but so as not to behold thee after thy gracious revelation were my sinne Let mee see even in this distance some glimmering of thy divine Power Wisdom Justice Mercy Truth Providence and let me bless and adore thee in what I see SECT. III. OH the infinitenesse of thine Almighty power which thou not hast but art beyond the possibility of all limitations of objects or thoughts In us poor finite Creatures our power comes short of our will many things we fain would doe but cannot and great pitty it were that there should not bee such a restraint upon our unruly appetites which would otherwise worke out the destruction both of others and our selves But O God thy Power is beyond thy Will Thou canst doe more than thou wilt Thou couldst have made more worlds when thou madst this one And even this one which thou hast made Lord how glorious a one it is Lo there needs no other demonstration of thine omnipotence Oh what an heaven is this which thou hast canopied over our heads how immensely capacious how admirably beautifull how bestudded with goodly Globes of Light Some one whereof hath in it such unspeakable glory as that there have not wanted nations and those not of the savagest which have mis-worship'd it for their God And if thou hadst made but one of these in thy firmament thy workmanship had been above our wonder for even this had surpassed the whole frame of this lower world but now as their quality strives with their greatnesse so their magnitude strives with their number which of them shall more magnifie the praise of their Almighty Creator and these three are no less than matched by the constant regularity of the perpetuall motion of those mighty bodies Which having walked their daily rounds about the World above this five thousand six hundred and sixty yeares yet are so ordered by thy inviolable Decree that they have not varied one inch from their appointed Line but keepe their due course and just distance each from other although not fixed in any solid Orbe but moving singly in a thin and yeelding skie to the very same point whence they set forth And if the bodily and visible part of thine heavenly Hoast O God be thus unconceivably glorious where shall we finde room to wonder at those spirituall and living powers which inhabite those celestiall Mansions