Creatures towards their Masters and towards their owne Mates towards their dammes and their young We have plentifull instances of those whom Death could not separate from their beloved Guardians some that have died for their Masters some with them some that have fearlesly hazarded their owne lives for the preservation of their young ones some that have fed their aged dammes with that food which they have spared from their own Mawes Amongst the rest how remarkable is that comparison of thine O Saviour wherein thou wert pleased to set forth thy tender care of thine Israell by the resemblance of an Hen gathering her Chickings under her wings how have I seen that poor Fowl after the patience of a painfull hatching clocking her little brood together and when she hath perceived the Puttock hovering over her head in a varied note calling them hastily under the wing of her protection and there covertly hiding them not from the Talons onely but from the eye of that dangerous enemy till the perill hath been fully over after which she calls them forth to their liberty and repast and with many a carefull scrape discovers to them such grains of food as may bee fit for them contenting her self to carve for them with neglect of her owne sustenance O God thou who hast wrought in thy silly creatures such an high measure of indulgence and dearnes of respect towards their tender brood how infinitely is thy love and compassion towards the children of men the great Master-peece of thy Creation How past the admiration of men and Angels is that transcendent proof of thy divine love in the more than marvelous work of our Redemption How justly glorifiable is thy name in the gracious and sometimes miraculous preservation of thy Children In the experience whereof if I forbeare to magnifie thee or dare not to trust thee how can I be but unworthy to bee owned of thee or blessed by thee Soliloq LXIX Choice of Seasons HOw regularly O God hast thou determined a set season for all thy Creatures both for their actions and their use The Storke in the heaven saith thy Prophet Jeremy knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their comming Who hath seen the * Stork before the Calends of August or a Swallow in the Winter Who hath heard the Nightingale in the heat of harvest or the Bittern bearing her base in the coldest Moneths Yea the Fishes in the Sea know and observe their due seasons and present us with their Shoales only when they are wholsome and useful The Herring doth not furnish our Market in the Spring nor the Salmon or Mackerell in Winter Yea the very flies both have and keepe their daies appointed the Silke-worme never looks forth of that little Cell of her Conception till the Mulbery puts forth the leaves for their nourishment and who hath ever seen a Butter-flie or an Harnet in Winter yea there are Flies wee know appropriate to their owne moneths from which they vary not Lastly how plain is this in all the severall varieties of Trees Flowers Herbes The Almond tree looks out first the Mulberry last of all other The Tulip and the Rose and all other the sweet Ornaments of the earth are punctuall in their growth and fall But as for Man O God thou hast in thy infinite VVisdome indued him with that power of reason whereby he may make choice of the fittest seasons of all his actions Thou that hast appointed a time for every purpose under heaven hast given him wit to finde and observe it Even lawfull acts unseasonably done may turne evill and acts indifferent seasonably performed may prove good and laudable The best improvement of morality or civility may shame us if due time bee not as well regarded as substance Onely Grace Piety true Vertue can never be unseasonable There are no seasons in Eternity There shall bee one uniforme and constant act of glorifying thee Thy Angels and Saints praise thee above without change or intermission The more we can do so on earth the nearer shall wee approach to those blessed Spirits O God let my heart be wholly taken up evermore with an adoration of thine infinite Majesty and let my mouth bee ever sounding forth of thy praise and let the Hosannahs and Hallelujahs which I begin here know no measure but Eternity Soliloq LXX The happy return home EVery Creature naturally affects a return to the originall whence it first came The Pilgrim though faring well abroad yet hath a longing homeward Fountaines and Rivers run back with what speed they may to the Sea whence they were derived all compound bodies return to their first Elements The vapors rising up from the earth and waters and condenss'd into clouds fall down again to the same earth whence they were exhaled This body that we beare about us returnes at last to that dust whereof it was framed And why then O my soul dost not thou earnestly desire to returne home to the God that made thee Thou knowest thy Originall is heavenly why are not thy affections so What canst thou finde here below worthy to either withdraw or detain thee from those heavenly Mansions Thou art here in a Region of sin of misery and death Glory waites for thee above Fly then O my soul fly hence to that blessed immortality If not as yet in thy dissolution for which thou must waite on the pleasure of thy deare Maker redeemer yet in thy thoughts in thy desires and affections soar thou up thither and converse there with that blessed God and Father of Spirits with those glorious Orders of Angels and with the soules of just men made perfect And if the necessity of these bodily affairs must needs draw thee off for a time let it bee not without reluctation and hearty unwillingnesse and with an eager appetite of quick returne to that Celestiall society It will not be long ere thou shalt bee blessed with a free and uninterrupted fruition of that glorious Eternity In the meane time doe thou prepossesse it in thy heavenly dispositions and contemning this earth wherewith thou art clogged aspire to thy heaven and be happy Soliloq LXXI The confinements of Age DOst thou not observe O my soule how time and age confines and contracts as our bodies so our desires and motions here upon earth still into narrower compasses VVhen we are young the world is but little enough for us after wee have seen our own Island wee affect to crosse the Seas and to climbe over Alpes and Pyrennes and never thinke we have roved far enough VVhen we grow ancient wee begin to bee well-pleased with rest now long and unnecessary journeyes are laid aside If businesse call us forth wee go because we must As for the visits of friendship one Sun is enough to measure them with our returnes And still the older we grow the more we are devoted to our home there we
we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens Why therefore oh why should ye be loath to part upon faire termes Thou O my soule to the possession of that happy Mansion which thy deare Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his Fathers house and thou O my body to that quiet repository of thy Grave till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the just never never to be severed Soliloq III. Heavenly Conversation IT matters not a little with whom wee hold our familiar Conversation for commonly wee are transformed into the Dispositions and manners of those whose company we frequent We daily see those who by haunting the society of Drunkards and debauched persons have from civill and orderly men growne into extremity of lewdnesse and on the contrary those who have consorted themselves with the holy and vertuous have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity Why shouldst thou not then O my soule by a continuall conversation with God and his Angels improve to an heavenly disposition Thou canst not whiles thou art here but have somewhat to doe with the world that will necessarily intrude into thy presence and force upon thee businesses unavoidable and thy secular friends may well looke to have some share in thy sociable entertainements But these are but goers and commers easily and willingly dismissed after some kind interlocutions The Company that must stick by thee is spirituall which shall never leave thee if thou have the grace to apply thy selfe to them upon all occasions Thou maist hold faire correspondence with all other not offensive companions but thy entirenesse must be onely with these Let those other be never so faithfull yet they are uncertaine bee their will never so good yet their power is limited these are never but at hand never but able and willing to make and keepe thee happy O my God thou seest how subject I am to distractions Oh hold mee close to thee Let me enter into the same company here in my Pilgrimage which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my home Solilo IV. Love unchangeable OUr younger years are wont to bee delightted with variety and to be much affected to a change although to the worse The childe is better pleased with his new Coat though the old be farre handsomer Whereas age and experience fixeth our desires and teacheth us to set the greatest vallue upon those good things wherewith we have been longest acquainted Yea it is the generall disposition of nature to be cloyed with continued blessings and upon long fruition to complaine of that good which we first commended for pleasing and beneficiall What could relish better with the Israelites the first morning than the Angels food which fell downe from heaven every day about their Campe the taste whereof was like to wafers made with honey If we stay but a while wee shall ere many yeeres heare them calling for the Onions and Garlike of Egypt and crying out Now our soule is dried away there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings both of earth and heaven and to nauseate with store Neither is any thing more tedious to us than the enjoyned repetition of a daily-tasked Devotion But contrarily Grace endeares all blessings to us by their continuance and heightens our affections where they are rightly placed by the length of the time of their enjoying O God it is thy mercy that thou hast vouchsafed to allow mee an early interest in thee even from my tender yeeres the more and longer I have known thee the more cause have I still found to love thee and adore thee Thou art ever one and unchangeable Oh make thou my heart so Devote thou me wholly unto thee and by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections inflame it so much the more in my love to thee Solil V. The happiest Object IF we could attaine to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God it would put us unto the comfortable exercise of all the affections that belong to the Soule For surely if wee could conceive aright of his Omnipotent power and transcending glory and incomprehensible infinitenesse we could not but tremble before him and be alwaies taken up with an adoring feare of him And if we could apprehend his infinite goodnesse both in himselfe and to mankinde wee could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him and should thinke our selves happy that we might bee allowed to love such a God and if we could conceive of that absolute beauty of his holinesse and blissefull presence we could not but be enflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God and if wee could apprehend all these we could not bee but both transported with an unspeakeable joy that we have a sure interest in a God so holy so good so almighty so glorious and stricken with an unexpressible griefe that we should either offend him or suffer our selves to want but for a moment the feeling presence of that all-sufficient and all-comprehending Majesty On the contrary those men begin at the wrong end who go about to draw their affections to God first and then after seeke to have their mindes enlightned with right conceits of his Essence and Attributes who meeting with those occurrent Temptations which mainly crosse them in their desires and affections are strait set off from prosecuting their good motions and are as new to seeke of a God as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven O God let it be the maine care of my life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ thy Son my Saviour I cannot through thy mercy fail of an heavenly disposition of soule whiles I am here and of a life of eternall glory with thee hereafter Solilo VI Vnchangeable duration IN the first minute wherin wee live we enter upon an eternity of being and though at the first through the want of the exercise of reason we cannot know it and afterwards through our inconsideration and the bewitching businesses of time we doe not seriously lay it to heart we are in a state of everlastingnesse there must upon the necessity of our mortality be a change of our condition but with a perpetuity of our being the body must undergo a temporary dissolution and the soule a remove either to blisse or torment but both of them upon their meeting shall continue in an unchangeable duration for ever and ever And if wee are wont to slight transitory and vanishing commodities by reason of their momentany continuance and to make most account of things durable What care and great thoughts ought I to bestow upon my selfe who shall outlast the present world and how ought I to frame my life so as it may fall upon an eternity infinitely happy and glorious O God doe thou set off my heart
from all these earthly vanities and fix it above with thee As there shall bee no end of my being so let there bee no change of my affections Let them before-hand take possession of that heaven of thine whereto I am aspiring Let nothing but this clay of mine bee left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is mouldring Let my spirituall part bee ever with thee whence it came and enter upon that blisse which knows neither change nor end Soliloq VII Trust upon Triall WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world which both produceth them to their being and over-rules and carries them on to and in their dissolution without their knowledge or intended cooperation but for those whom God hath indued with the faculty of ratiocination how easie is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with them how that all-wise God contrives their affaires and events quite beyond and above the power of their weak projections how he prevents their Desires how he fetches about inexpected and improbable occurrences to their hinderance or advantage sometimes blessing them with successe beyond all their hopes sometimes blasting their projects when their blossomes are at the fairest Surely if I looke onely in a dull stupidity upon the outsides of all accidents that befall me and not improve my reason and faith to discerne and acknowledge that invisible power that orders them to his owne and their ends I shall bee little better than bruitish and if upon the observation of all that good hand of God sensibly leading mee on in all the waies of my younger and riper age in so many feeling and apparent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my daies and the happy close of that life which he hath so long and mercifully preserved the favours of a bountifull God shall have been cast away upon a barren and unthankfull heart O God I am such as thou hast made me make up thy good worke in me and keep me that I do not marre my selfe with my wretched unbeliefe I have tryed thee to the full Oh that I could cast my selfe wholly upon thee and trust thee both with my body and soule for my safe passage to that blessed home and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory in thine Soliloq VIII Angelicall Familiarity THere is no reason to induce a man to thinke that the good Angels are not as assiduously present with us for our good as the evill Angels are for our hurt since we know that the evill spirits cannot bee more full of malice to work our harm than the blessed Angels are full of charity wel-wishing to mankinde and the evill are only let loose to tempt us by a permission of the Almighty wheras the good are by a gracious delegation from God encharged with our custody Now that the evill spirits are ever at hand ready upon all occasions to present their services to us for our furtherance to mischiefe appeares too plainly in their continuall temptations which they inject into our thoughts in their reall and speedy operations with the spels and charmes of their wicked Clients which are no lesse effectually answered by them immediately upon their practice than naturall causes are by their ordinary and regular productions It must needs follow therefore that the good Angels are as close to us and as inseparable from us and though we see neither yet hee that hath spirituall eyes perceives them both and is accordingly affected to their presence If then wicked men sticke not to goe so far as to endanger and draw on their owne damnation by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits Why should not I for the unspeakable advantage of any soule affect an awfully-familiar Conversation with those blessed Angels which I know to be with me The language of spirits are thoughts Why doe not I entertaine them in my secret cogitations and hold an holy discourse with them in mentall allocutions and so carry my selfe as that I may ever hold faire correspondence with those invisible companions and may expect from them all gracious offices of holy motions carefull protection and at last an happy conveyance to my glory O my soule thou art a Spirit as they are doe thou ever see them as they see thee and so speak to them as they speake to thee and blesse thy God for their presence and tuition and take heed of doing ought that may cause those heavenly guardians to turne away their faces from thee as asham'd of their charge Soliloq IX The unanswerable Christian IT is no small griefe to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity to see how utterly unanswerable the greater sort of men that beare the name of Christ are to the example and precepts of that Christ whose name they beare He was humble and meeke they proud and insolent hee bade us love our enemies they hardly can love their friends he prayed for his persecutors they curse hee that had the command of all cared not to possesse any thing they not having right to much would possesse all hee bade us give our Coat also to him that takes our Cloak they take both Coat and Cloake from him that hath it he bade us turne our cheek for the other blow they will bee sure to give two blowes for one he paid obedience to a Foster Father and tribute to Caesar they despise Government his trade was onely doing good spending the night in praying the day in preaching and healing they debauch their time revelling away the night and sleeping away or mispending the day he forbad Oaths they not onely sweare and forsweare but blaspheme too hee bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnes they make Mammon their God hee bade us take up his Crosse they impose their own he bad us lay up our treasure in heaven they place their heaven in earth he bids us give to them that ask they take violently from the owners he bade us return good for evill they for good return evill he charged his Disciples to love one another they nourish malice and rancor against their brethren hee left peace for a Legacy to his followers they are apt to set the world on fire His businesse was to save theirs to destroy O God let rivers of waters run downe mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel Give grace to all that are called by thy name to walke worthy of that high profession wherto they are called And keepe me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed patterne which thou hast set before me Oh let mee never shame that great name that is put upon me Let mee in all things approve my self a Christian in earnest and so conform my selfe to thee in all thy example and commands that it may be no dishonour to thee to owne mee for thine Soliloq X.
are thy workes in wisedome hast thou made them all Soliloq XXIII The Bodies subjection BOdily exercise saith the Apostle profits little Little sure in respect of any worth that it hath in it selfe or any thanke that it can expect from the Almighty For what is it to that good and great God whether I be full or fasting whether I wake or sleepe whether my skinne be smooth or rough ruddy or pale white or discoloured whether my hand be hard with labour or soft with ease whether my bed be hard or yeelding whether my dyet bee course or delicate But though in it selfe it availe little yet so it may bee and hath been and ought to be improved as that it may be found exceedingly beneficiall to the soule Else the same Apostle would not have said I keepe under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any meanes when I have preached to others I my selfe should be a cast-away In all the records of History whom doe we finde more noted for holinesse than those who have been most austere in the restraints of bodily pleasures and contentments In the Mount of Tabor who should meet with our Saviour in his Transfiguration but those two eminent Saints which had fasted an equall number of dayes with himself And our experience tells us that what is detracted from the body is added to the soule For the flesh and spirit are not more partners than enemies one gaines by the others losse The pampering of the flesh is the starving of the soule I finde an unavoidable emulation between these two parts of my selfe O God teach me to hold an equall hand betwixt them both Let me so use them as holding the one my favourite the other my drudge not so humouring the worse part as to discontent the better nor so wholly regarding the better as altogether to discourage the worse Both are thine both by gift and purchase inable thou me to give each of them their Dues so as the one may be fitted with all humble obsequiousnesse to serve the other to rule and command with all just authority and moderation Soliloq XXIV The ground of Vnproficiency WHere there is defect in the Principles there can be no possibility of prevailing in any kinde Should a man be so foolish as to perswade his horse that it is not safe for him to drinke in the extremity of his heate or to advise a child that it is good for him to be whipt or in a case of mortall danger to have a fontinell made in his flesh how fondly should hee mispend his breath bebecause the one wants the faculty the other the use of reason So if a man shall sadly tell a wild sensualist that it is good for him to bear the yoake in his youth that it is meet for him to curbe and cross his unruly appetite that the bitterest cup of afflictions ought to bee freely taken off as the most soveraigne medicine of the soule that wee ought to bleed and die for the name of Christ that all the suffering of the present times are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall bee revealed in us his labour is no lesse lost than if hee had made an eloquent Oration to a deafe man because this carnall hearer lacks that principle of grace and regeneration which onely can enable him to apprehend and relish these divine Counsailes I see O God I see too well how it comes to passe that thy Word sounds so loud and prevailes so little even because it is not joyned with faith in the hearers The right principle is missing which should make the soule capable of thy divine mysteries Faith is no lesse essentiall to the true Christian than reason is to man or sense to beast O doe thou furnish my soule with this heavenly grace of thine and then all thy sacred Oracles shall bee as cleare to my understanding as any visible object is to my sense Soliloq XXV The sure Refuge SUfficient unto the day is the evill thereof saith our Saviour Lo Every day hath its evill and that evill is load enough for the present without the further charge of our anticipated cares Surely the life of man is conflicted with such a world of crosses succeeding each other that if he have not a sure refuge to flee unto he cannot chuse but bee quite over-laid with miseries One while his estate suffers whether through casualty or oppression another while his Children miscarry whether by sicknesse or death or disorder One while his good name is impeached another while his body languishes One while his minde is perplexed with irksome sutes another while his soule is wounded with the sting of some secret sinne One while he is fretted with Domesticall discontents another while distempered with the publike broiles One while the sense of evills torments him another while the expectation Miserable is the case of that man when hee is pursued with whole Troops of Mischiefs hath not a Fort wherein to succour himself and safe and happy is that soule that hath a sure and impregnable hold whereto hee may resort O the noble example of holy David Never man could bee more perplexed than hee was at his Ziklag His City burnt his whole stock plundered his Wives carryed away his people cursing his Souldiers mutining pursued by Saul cast off by the Philistims helplesse hopelesse But David fortified himselfe in the Lord his God There there O Lord is a sure helpe in the time of trouble a safe protection in the time of danger a most certaine remedy of all complaints Let my Dove get once into the holes of that Rock in vaine shall all the birds of prey hover over me for my destruction Soliloq XXVI The light burden WHy do wee complaine of the difficulty of a Christian profession when we heare our Saviour say My yoak is easie and my burden is light Certainely hee that impoposed it hath exactly poised it and knowes the weight of it to the full It is our fault if we make or account that heavy which he knowes to be light If this yoake and burden be heavy to our sullen nature yet to grace they are light If they be heavy to feare yet they are light to love what is more sweet and easie than to love and love is all the burden wee need to take up For love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Evangelicall law is all the burden of my Saviour O blessed Jesu how willingly doe I stoope under thy commands It is no other than my happinesse that thou requirest I shall bee therefore my owne enemy if I be not thy servant Hadst thou not bidden me to love thee to obey thee thine infinite goodness and perfection of divine beauty would have attracted my heart to bee spiritually inamoured of thee now thou bidst me to doe that which I should have wisht to bee commanded how gladly doe I yeeld up my soule to thee Lay
of Christian charity to force upon them due remedies who cannot be sensible of their owne miseries Now having learn'd of the great Doctor of the Gentiles to distinguish man into spirit soule and body whereof the body is as the earthly part the soule as the ethereall the spirit as the heavenly the soul animall the spirit rationall the body meerely organicall it is easie for him to observe that as each of these parts exceeds other in dignity so the distemperatures thereof is so much greater and more dangerous as the part is more excellent When therefore he shall hear the Prophet Hosea say The spirituall man is mad hee cannot thinke that charge lesse than of the worst of phrensies And such indeed they are which have been epidemicall to all times Could they passe for any other than sottishly mad that would worship Cats and Dogs and Serpents so did the old Egyptians who thought themselves the most deeply learned of all nations Could they be lesse mad than they that of the same Tree would make a block for their fire and a God for their Adoration so did Isaiah's Idolaters Could they be any bettter who when they had molten their Earings and with their own hands had shaped a golden Calf could fall down and worship it and say these bee thy Gods O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt so did they which should have knowne themselves Gods peculiar people Could they bee any other than mad men that thought there was one God of the hils another of the vallies so did the Syrian Courtiers Could they bee any other than stark mad that would lance and gash their owne flesh because their Block did not answer them by fire so did the Baalites Lastly could they be other than the maddest of men who would passe their owne Children through the fire and burn them to ashes in a pretence of Devotion so did the Clients of Moloch Yea what speake I of the times of ignorance even since the true light came into the world and since the beams of his glorious Gospel shined on all faces there hath been no lesse need of darke roomes and manicles than before Can we thinke them other than notoriously mad that having good clothes to their backes would needs strip them off and go stark naked so did the Adamites of old about the yeare of our Lord 194. So did certaine Anabaptists of Holland at Amsterdam in the yeer 1535. so did the Cynicall Saint Francis in the streets of Assissium Could they bee other than mad which would worship Cain Iudas the Sodomites So did those good Devotionists which were called Caiani about the yeer 159. Nay were they not worse than mad who if we may beleeve Hosius and Lindanus and Prateolus worshipt the Devill ten times every day so did those Hereticks which were in the last age called Demoniaci Could they be better than mad which held that beasts have Reason as wel as man that the Elements have life that Plants have sense and suffer paine in their cutting up so did the Manichees Could they be other than blasphemously mad that held there are two Gods one good the other evill and that all creatures were made by the latter so did the Gnosticks Were there ever mad men in the World if they were not such who would beseech yea force passengers to doe them the favour to cut their throats in a vain affectation of the praise of Martyrdome so did the Circumcellions a Faction of Donatists in the year 349. But above all other did not those surpass in madnesse who allowed of all Heresies and professed to hold all opinions true so did Rhetorus and his followers St. Augustines Charity sticks at the beleefe of so impossible a Tenet I must crave leave to wonder at his reason For saith hee many opinions being contradictory to cach other no man that is compos mentis can thinke both parts can bee verifiable as if it could be supposed that a Rhetorius thus opening could bee any other than beside all his wits Surely had he been himselfe so impossible an absurdity could not have falne from him neither could any of these fore-cited practises or opinions have been incident into any but braines highly distempered But what doe we raking in the ashes of these old forgotten Lunaticks would to God wee had not work more than enough to looke for the prodigious phrensies of the present age than which there were never since the world began either more or worse Can there be under the cope of heaven a madder man than hee that can deny there is a God such a monster was rare and hooted at in the times of Paganisme The Heathen Orator tels us of but two in those darke ages before him that were so far forsaken of their wits and we know that the old Athenians when a bold Pen durst but question a Deity sentenced the booke to the fire and the Author to exile But now alas I am ashamed to say that this modern age under so clear beames of the Gospel hath bred many professed Atheists who have dared not in their heart onely as in Davids time but with their blasphemous lips to deny the God that made them And are the phrensies of those insolent soules any whit lesse wilde and outragious that dare boast themselves to be God and sticke not to stile themselves absolutely deified avowing that the soule in their body is the onely Christ or God in the flesh That all the acts of their beastly and abominable lusts are the workes of righteousnesse that it is their perfection and the highest pitch of their glory to give themselves up to all manner of abominations without any reluctation that there is no hell but a dislike of and remorse for their greatest villanies Now shew mee amongst the savagest of Pagans any one that hath been thus desperately brain-sick and let me bee branded for a slanderer What should I need to instance in any more or to contract a large Volume of Hereseology In short there is no true Heretick in the world that is not in some degree a mad-man And this spirituall madnesse is so much worse than the naturall as in other regards so especially in this that whereas that distemper of the braine containes it self in its own bounds without any danger of Diffusion to others the spirituall is extreemly contagious spreading its infection to the perill of all that come within the aire of it In this sad case what is to bee done Surely wee may as we doe mourn for the miserable distractions of the world but it is thou onely O Lord that canst heale them O thou that art the great and soveraigne Physician of soules that after seven yeares brutality restoredst the frantick Babylonian to his shape and senses looke downe mercifully upon our Bedleem and restore the distracted World to their right temper once againe as for those that are yet sound keepe
yeelds nothing but torment the other nothing but misery and sin If therefore it be pefect or good since nothing can give what it hath not it must needs come from above And from whom above Not from those lightsome bodies of the Starres whose influences cannot reach unto the soule whose substance is not capable of any spirituall power whether to have or give perfect gifts Not from the blessed Spirits which are Angels of Light They may helpe through Gods gracious appointment to convey blessings to us they neither wil or can challenge an originall and primary interest in the blessings which they convey Onely therefore from the Father of Lights who as he is light so is the Author of all whatsoever light both inward and outward spirituall and sensible and as light was the first good and perfect gift which hee bestowed on the world so it well may imploy all the spirituall blessings conferred on the Creature So as he that said Let there bee light said also Let this man be wise Let that bee learned Let that other be gracious and holy whence then O whence can I look for any good thing but from thy hands O my God who givest to all men liberally and upbraidest not whose infinite treasure is not capable of any diminution since the more thou givest thy store is not the lesse thy glory more Thou dost not sell thy favours as we men are apt to do looking through our small bounty at an expected retribution but thou givest most freely most absolutely neither dost thou lend thy best blessing as looking to receive them back again but so conveyest them to us as to make them our owne for ever since therefore thy gifts are so free that all thy heavenly riches may be had for asking how worthy shall I bee to want them if I doe not sue for them to the Throne of thy grace Yet even this since it is a good thing I cannot do without thee O then give thou mee the grace that I may bee ever begging faithfully of thee and give mee the graces that I beg for Soliloq L. Sweet use of Power I See that great wise and holy God who might most justly make use of his absolute power yet proceeds sweetly with his creature in all his wayes Hee might force some to salvation in spight of their wills He might damne others meerely for his pleasure without respect to their sin But he doth not hee will not doe either of these but goes along graciously and gently with us inviting us to Repentance and earnestly tendring to us the meanes of salvation on the one side with effectuall perswasions and strong motives and kindly inclinations to an answerable obedience on the other side laying before us the fearfull menaces of his judgements denounced against sinners urging all powerfull disswasions and using all probable meanes to divert us from all the waies of wickednesse and when those prevaile not justly punishing us for our wilfull disobedience impenitence and infidelity O God how should we learne of thee to proceed with all our fellow-Creatures but much more with our Christian Brethren not according to the rigour of any pretended prerogative of power but in all mercifull tenderness in all gentle and faire meanes of their reclamation on the one side on the other in an unwilling and constrained severity of necessary justice And how much doth it concerne thee O my soule not to stay till thy God shall drag thee to Repentance and salvation but gladly to embrace all those happy opportunities and cheerfully to yeeld to all those mercifull solicitations which thy God offers thee for thy full Conversion And carefully to avoid those waies of sinne and death which he hath under so dreadfull denunciations graciously warned thee to shun Else thy God is cleared both in his justice and mercy and thy perdition is of thy self Soliloq LI. The power of Conscience IT is a true word of the Apostle God is greater than our Conscience and surely none but he under that great God the supreme power on earth is the conscience Every man is a little world within himselfe and in this little world there is a Court of Judicature erected wherein next under God the Conscience sits as the supreme Judge from whom there is no appeale that passeth sentence upon us upon all our actions upon all our intentions for our persons absolving one condemning another for our actions allowing one forbidding another If that condemn us in vaine shall all the World besides acquit us and if that cleare us the doom which the World passeth upon us is frivolous and ineffectuall I grant this Judge is sometimes corrupted with the Bribes of Hope with the weake feares of losse with an undue respect of persons with powerfull importunities with false witnesses with forged evidences to passe a wrong sentence upon the person or cause for which hee shall be answerable to him that is higher than the highest but yet this doom though reversible by the Tribunall of Heaven is still obligatory on earth So as it is my fault that my conscience is mis-led but it is not my fault to follow my Conscience How much need have I therefore O my God to pray that thou wouldst guide my Conscience aright and keepe this great Judge in my bosome from Corruption and errour and what need hath this intestine arbiter of mine to take speciall care that he may avoid all misinformations that may mislead his judgment and all the base suggestions of outward advantage or losse that may deprave his affections And O thou that only art greater than my Conscience keep mee from doing ought against my Conscience I cannot disobey that but I must offend thee since that is but thine Officer under thee and only commands for thee Soliloq LII Proud Poverty THat which wise Solomon observed in the temporall estates of men holds no lesse true in the spirituall There is that maketh himselfe rich yet hath nothing There is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches On the one side we meet with a proud but beggarly Laodicean that saies I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing which will not know that he is wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked This man when the means of further grace are tendred him can say as Esau did of the profered herds I have enough my Brother and with the bragging Pharisee can boast of what he is not and of what he is of what hee hath of what he doth admiring his owne nothing and not caring to seek for more because he thinks he hath all this fond Justiciary can overdoe his duty and supererogate contemning the poverty of soules better furnished than his 〈◊〉 and laying his merits in the dish of the Almighty On the other side there is an humble soule that is secretly rich in all spirituall endowments full of knowledge abounding in grace which out of the true
mortall as in the body there may bee some wounds in the outward and fleshly part which have more pain than peril but those of the principall and vitall parts are not more dolorous than dangerous and often deadly so it is in the soul there are wounds of the inferiour and affective faculties as griefe for crosses vexation for disappointment of hopes pangs of anger for wrongs received which may be cured with seasonable remedies but the wounds of conscience inflicted by the sting of some hainous sin which lies belking within us carries in it horror despaire death O God keep me from bloud-guiltinesse and from all crying and presumptuous sins but if ever my frailty should be so fouly tainted do thou so work upon my soul as that my repentance may walke in equall paces with my sin ere it can aggravate it selfe by continuance Apply thy soveraign plaister to my soule whiles the wound is greene and suffer it not to fester inwardly through any impenitent delay Soliloq LXII Beneficiall VVant IT is just with thee O God when thou seest us grow wanton and unthankfully neglective of thy blessings to withdraw them from us that by the want of them we may feel both our unregarded obligations and the defects of our duty So we have seen the Nurse when the childe begins to play with the dugge to put up the breast out of sight I should not acknowledg how precious a favour health is if thou didst not sometimes interchange it with sicknesse nor how much I am bound to thee for my Limbes if I had not sometimes a touch of lamenesse Thirst gives better relish to the drinke and hunger is the best sauce to our meate Nature must needs affect a continuance of her wellfare neither is any thing more grievous to her than these crosse interceptions of her contentments but thou who art wisdome it selfe knowest how fit it is for us both to smart for our neglect of thy familiar mercies and to have thy blessings more endeared to us by a seasonable discontinuance Neither dost thou want to deale otherwise in the mannaging of thy spirituall mercies If thy Spouse the faithfull soul shall being pampered with prosperity begin to grow secure and negligent so as at the first knock of her beloved she rise not up to open to Him but suffers his head to bee filled with Dew and his lockes with the drops of the night she soon findes her beloved withdrawne and gone she may then seeke him and not finde him she may call and receive noe answer she may seek him about the streets and in stead of finding him lose her vaile and meet with blowes and wounds from the watch-men O God keep thou me from being resty with ease hold mee in a continuall tendernesse of heart continue me in a thankfull and awfull use of all thy favours but if at any time thou seest me decline to a careless obduration and to a disrespective forgetfulnesse of thy mercies doe thou so chastise me with the fatherly hand of thy afflictions and so work me to a gracious use of thy desertions that my soul may seeke thee with more vigour of affections and may recover thee with more sensible comfort Soliloq LXIII Interchange of Conditions IT is not for nothing O my God that thou hast protracted my time so long and hast given me so large experience of thy most wise and holy dealing with my selfe and others Doubtlesse it is that I might see and feele and observe and teach the gracious changes of thy carriage towards thy poore sinfull Creatures upon earth Thou dost not hold us alwaies under the rod though we well deserve a perpetuall correction as considering our miserable impotence and aptnesse to an heartlesse dejection Thou dost not alwaies keep our hearts raised up to the jollity of a prosperous condition as knowing our readinesse to presume and to bee carried away with a false confidence of our unmoveablenesse but graciously interchangest thy favours with our sufferings When thou seest us ready to faint and to be discouraged with our adversity thou takest off thy hand and givest us a comfortable respiration from our miseries When thou seest us puft up with the vaine conceit of our owne worth or successe thou takest us downe with some heavy crosse When thou findest us overlaid with an unequall match and ready to bee foiled in the fight thou givest us breath and puttest new strength into our armes and new courage into our hearts When thou findest us insolent with our Victory thou sham'st us by an unexpected discomfiture And as for the outward estate of the Nations and Kingdomes of the earth thou whirlest them about in a perpetuall yet constant vicissitude Peace breeds plenty Plenty wantonnesse and pride Pride Animosity from thence followes war VVar produces Vastation and want Poverty causeth Industry and when nothing is left to strive for Peace an industrious peace brings plenty againe and in this gyre thou hast ordained the world still to turne about Be not too much moved then O my soule when thou findest thy selfe hard pressed with afflictions and conflicted with strong temptations but beare up constantly in the strength of thy faith as being assured that having rid out this storme thou shalt bee blessed with an happy calme Neither bee thou lifted up too much when thou findest thy selfe carried on with a fair gale of prosperity since thou knowst not what tempests may suddenly arise and many hopefull vessell hath been sunke in sight of the Port And when thou seest the world every where full of woefull combustions bee not over-much dismaied with the sight and sense of these publike Calamities but waite patiently upon that Divine Providence which after those revolutions of change shall happily reduce all things to their determinate posture To which purpose O God do thou fix my heart firmly upon thee doe thou keep me from the evill of prosperity from dejectednesse in affliction from the prevalence of temptation from misprision of thy Providence VVorke me to that due temper which thy Solomon hath prescribed me In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him Soliloq LXIV The rule of Devotion THy will O God as it is alwaies holy so in what thou hast decreed to doe with us is secret and in what thou wouldst have us doe to thee is revealed It is thy revealed will that must regulate both our Actions and our Prayers It may be that I may lawfully sue to thee for what thou hast decreed not to grant As Samuel ceased not to pray for thy favour to that Saul whom thou hadst rejected and many an Israelite prayed for raine in that three yeeres and an halfe wherein thou hadst commanded the Clowds to make good the prophecie of thine Elias yea thine holy Apostle prayed thrice to have the Messenger of Satan
I pray not for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their Word That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be One in us And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may bee one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may bee made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me I know thou couldst not but be heard in all that thou prayed'st and therefore I take what thou suedst for as done Lord I do beleeve in thee unite thou me to thee make me one spirit with thee It is no presumption to sue and hope for what thou hast prayed for and promised to performe Oh make mee according to the capability of my weake humanitie partaker of thy divine nature Vouchsafe to allow me even me poor wretched soul to say of thee I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine And by vertue of this indissoluble union why shouldst thou not O my soule finde thy selfe endowed with a blessed participation of that heavenly life and glory which is in and with him In that thou art united to thy body thou impartest to it vegetation sense motion and givest it a share in the exercise of all thy noble faculties how much more entire and beneficiall is the spirituall union of thy God and thee Alas that bond of naturall conjunction is easily dissolved by ten thousand waies of death this heavenly knot is so fast tied that all the powers of hell cannot unloose it And the blessings communicated to thee by this divine match are so much more excellent as the infinite giver of them is above thy meanenesse Lo now thou art actually interessed in all that thy God is or hath his kingdome is thine his glorie is thine to all eternitie SECT. XII ANd what now can follow O my soule upon the apprehension of thus enjoying the presence of thy God and the vision of so blessed an object and thine union with him and participation of him but a sensible ravishment of Spirit with a joy unspeakable and full of glorie Heretofore if some great friend should have brought mee to the Court and having shew'd me the splendor and magnificence of that seat of Majesty should have brought mee in to the sight of his Royal person and should have procured me not onely a familiar conference with him but the entire affection of a favourite and from thence there should have been heaped upon me Titles of honour and large revenues and yet higher a consociation of Princely dignitie How should I have been transported with the sense of so eminent an advancement how great and happie should I have seemed not more in others eies than in my own what big thoughts had hereupon swolne up my heart in the daies of my vanitie But alas what poor things are these in comparison of those heavenly promotions I might have been brought into the stateliest Court of this World and have been honoured not only with the presence but the highest favours of the best and greatest of Kings and yet have been most miserable Yea which of those Monarchs that have the command and dispensation of all greatness can secure himselfe from the saddest infelicities But these spiritual prerogatives are above the reach of all possible miserie and can and do put thee in some degree into an unfailing possession both reall and personall of eternall blessednesse I cannot wonder that Peter when with the other two Disciples upon Mount Tabor he saw the glorious transfiguration of my Saviour was out of himself for the time and knew not what he said yet as not thinking himselfe and his partners any otherwaies concerned than in the sight of so heavenly a vision he mentions onely three Tabernacles for Christ Moses Elias none for themselves it was enough for him if without doors he might be still blessed with such a prospect But how had he been wrapt from himselfe if he had found himselfe taken into the society of this wondrous transformation and interessed in the communion of this glory Thy renovation and the power of thy faith O my soul puts thee into that happy condition thou art spiritually transfigured into the similitude of thy blessed Saviour shining with his righteousness and holiness so as he is glorified in thee and thou in him Glorified not in the fulnesse of that perfection which will be but in the pledge and earnest of what shall and must bee hereafter O then with what unspeakable joy and jubilation dost thou entertaine thy happinesse How canst thou containe thy selfe any longer within these bounds of my flesh when thou feelest thy selfe thus initiated into glory Art thou in heaven and know'st it not Know'st thou not that hee who is within the entry or behinde the screen is as trulie within the house as he that walkes in the Hall or sits in the parlour And canst thou pretend to bee within the verge of heaven and not rejoyce What is that makes heaven but joy and felicity thy very thought cannot separate these two no more than it can sever the Sun and light For both these are equally the originals and fountaines of light and joy from whence they both flow and in which both are complete there is no light which is not derived from the Sun no true joy but from heaven as therefore the nearer to the body of the Sun the more light and heat so the nearer to heaven the more excesse of joy And certainly O my soul there is nothing but infidelity can keepe thee from an exuberance of joy and delight in the apprehension of heaven Can the wearie Traveller after he hath measured many tedious miles and passed many dangers both by sea and land and felt the harsh entertainements of a stranger chuse but rejoyce to draw near in his returne to a rich and pleasant home Can the Ward after an hard pupillage chuse but rejoyce that the day is comming wherein he shall freely enjoy all his Lordly revenues and roialties Can a Joseph chuse but finde himself inwardly joyed when out of the dungeon he shall be called up not to liberty only but to honour and shall be arraied with a vesture of fine Linnen and graced with Pharaoh's ring and chain and set in his second Chariot and in the next chair to the throne of Egypt And canst thou apprehend thy selfe now approaching to the glorie of the heaven of heavens a place and state of so infinite contentment and happinesse and not be extasied with joy There there shalt thou O my soule enjoy a perfect rest from all thy toiles cares fears there shalt thou find a true vitall life free from all the incombrances of thy miserable pilgrimage free from the dangers of either sins or temptations free from all anxiety and