He loves improves and raises every ones happinesse to a farre higher degree in that it makes all them love one another and publishes his particular Love of thee to be known and esteem'd by all the loves Nor is there the least subject of any Envy or Jealousie He can wait on All entertain All fill All content All blesse and beatifie All at once And now my glorious Lord having sifted and rack't my brains to find some exception against Thee some excuse to palliate my withholding the Duty I owe Thee some Cross-knot to dull the piercing of thy two-edg'd sword dividing my Soul and Spirit behold nothing imaginable but all sweetness all heat all light O then let me turn my course and joy at my missing desired misfortune Let me sit with the happy Spouse so pleas'd with every part of her Lover Let me delight my self to consider the Greatnesse of every Perfection in Thee and the Infinitenesse of All. Let me compare Thy Eternity to the weak imitation of humane Nobility and scorning This joy in the immense eminency of That Let the vast extent of thy Power in widenesse and profundity to all effects and to Huge ones make me laugh at the narrow-compass'd and beggarly ends which the ambitious Hearts of this world aim at O the poor Treasures that can be hoarded in caves in houses or towers what proportion do they bear to Thy wealth O the scant presence and jealous absence of Lovers in this world the outwardnesse of them and hearts to-be-guess'd-at what bitter-sweets must they of necessity cause Besides their shallow wits and short reaches in no other respect to be esteem'd but because we find no better their hungry benefits and pinching prodigalities proportion'd to their petty affections their by-ends and base aims in their most reall and truest professions their weak and impertinent passions their fond and changeable inclinations easily consum'd in a few triviall disgusts What miserable penurious blasts are these to blow the coals of Love And yet have these so long mov'd my Heart whilst it has lyen so heavy and restiff to lift it self up and follow thee O my onely Good henceforth for ever make me run like the blessed Magdalen without care or consideraton after the Odours of thy Perfumes Make it all my pleasure to sit hours and dayes and nights weighing every Excellency of thine and considering how good it is for all Creatures and particularly for me that Thou art so rich in glory so full of perfections but above all how thy adorable Attributes become Thy self how bright and beautifull they sit upon Thee Make me spend all my forces in blessing Thee that Thou art such in rejoycing at it in protesting that 't is all reason all fitnesse all justice it should be so that 't is the blisse of thy Creatures but yet a greater good and farre more excellent in it self Make me vapour away into Acts and Wills to have it so to render it such were it not so and in my power to procure it and that for what it is to me but much more for what it is to Thee But oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish darksome partiall and Enigmaticall shall be turn'd into manly noon-like full and clear Vision O how unmeasurably must my Love be there increas'd where the Object cannot fail to deserve infinitely more then I can employ yet shall I then employ infinitely more then I can now imagine and as the degrees of Love are multiplied the degrees of Joy must still grow higher and the more the Joy is so much more must the Love be redoubled thus raising still one the other to the very breaking in pieces the Adamantine sinews of my Soul whilest the Object ever stretches by its infinite perfection the bounds of a capacity ever yielding to embrace it O how shall I cling to and incorporate with him not for fear of losing but for eager desire of more enjoying O how shall I melt into esteemings and praisings and Love-breathing Dittyes how shall I inessence my self into that Fountain of Goodnesse Oh come oh come that happy day come even now I fear neither Hell nor Judgement for I know Thou canst bear no wrath against those that love Thee Come then come while these sweet sighs call on Thee wrest my soul from this loading this loathsome body skrew up even these very aspirations to such a pitch that they become the happy instrument to break my heart-strings those fetters and bonds of my imprison'd Soul which keep it from the sight of my so-beloved Spouse and Master and set me at liberty in the eternall freedome of thy Palace and everlasting glory of thy celestiall Presence Fiat Fiat BReath a while my Soul and recall a little thy Spirits This Stupendious Palace of Love still deserves a more curious search 't is not impertinent here to be humbly inquisitive Let 's see whether there be not yet some farther secret worthy our discovery And behold a Lock and little Door Oh 't is Loves Cabinet Certainly He there reserves some rare Jewel to enrich and adorn thee Knock call aloud and if he delay to open at least peep through the key-hole and see what 's within O Glory 't is the very Quintessence of Loves Object I see how because God is sole Eternall all things must be made by Him and since nothing can give but what it has nor make but what it is I see the whole frame of all that is or can be must be in Him with all their joynts and intriques wherewith they are intangled in their flowing from Him Whence I plainly discern that by knowing Him I shall know all things and all causes of all things O vast and spacious Wisdome O incredible content For since my Soul is nothing else but a Vessel and capacity of knowledge and This alone is the knowledge of all things by their proper Causes too and those resolv'd into theirs even to the very highest cause not ascending backward but beginning at the Spring-head and most knowing it and from it descending even to the lowest the most impartible grain of Sand or Dust what can my Soul wish more what can it imagine greater Yes my prospect opens it self farther and I see that since all created things are in themselves dispers'd and multiplied with infinite variety and sometimes incompossibility and contradiction but in God refin'd and resum'd into a most simple and indivisible Being they must infinitely be better in Him then in themselves He yet infinitely better then they For as four cannot be different from three but because it has somewhat that three has not so God must have something that is not in Creatures to be different from them and this being of a higher order and more eminent rank must of it self be better then all they put together and of a far nobler and richer glorious possession I see yet more that since God is cause of all other things out of
descent of effects from causes draws out this long Play that has so many Ages been acting upon the stage of this world there you shall discern the golden threads whereby the just retrive themselves out of the Labyrinth of sinners you shall penetrate the Adamantine chain with which the wicked are confin'd to eternall flames In all you shall see the glorious Liberty casting out its Rayes in God and his Saints strengthned with an undeceivable force of Light in the wayes of Men struggling in a perpetuall Agony with contingency and servitude except where in few souls the supernall light more and more hinders the instability of its estate The seventh discourse Soul TEll me no more of these great pleasures for I feel my self already full I can endure no longer I pant for breath and languish through excessive heat of desire I doubt not henceforth but the state of eternall Blisse contains farre more and higher joyes then ever entred into mortall hearts to conceive Nor fear I whensoever I enter this great field but for ever to find a most pleasant and delightfull feeding and eternally drink of the torrent which inebriates the City of God Light You are too tender Remember that the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and the violent onely can be Masters of it You must look for a strong Purgatory of love and desire if you walk this way you must not give over without resisting even to blood As yet you are scarce got out of the Circle of Man 't is time now to cast your eyes on the rest of this glorious frame we call the World and see what pleasure it affords It is the whole whereof mankind is but a little though a principall Part. It is a thing in a manner above us in a manner our end If our understanding be but a hunger of truth and truth but the perfect possession of a thing without us you see this great machine the world is a principall end to which nature has design'd our application And truly when we reflect that the universall Masse of Beings is the most full expression of Almighty God's Essence which nature can attain to what doubt remains but that our felicity in a notable degree consists in the perfect contemplation and knowledge of it Soul This I easily believe For when I have the good fortune to hear a strange discovery of some secret of nature such as Philosophers and Astronomers use to look into I cannot understand the joy I feel in mine heart 'T is not of that kind which I have when I laugh and am taken with some witty conceit 'T is not such as when I encounter any welcome news of some advantage to my self or friends but of a higher strain mixt with admiration methinks I am better and greater then I was before methinks they who know these things are more then men and are a kind of Demi-gods And I observe that Poets and persons of great brain and capacity having spent their youth in vain and worldly pursuits desire ordinarily to consecrate their riper yeares to these Sciences Light Reflect then upon the wonders which are stored up in Nature for your content Place before your eyes the admirable government of this great Fabrick the World Consider the courses of the Sun Moon Planets and fixed Starres and hope one day to know what causes and wheels they turn upon See the Globe of the Earth and Men heels to heels walking round about it without any nayls or glew to fasten them to it yet how laborious it is to remove from it Really the serious consideration of the Antipodes renders the mystery so strange and hard to be believ'd that though we are assur'd by experience of the truth yet if we should alwayes strongly imagine our selves so walking we could not but fear still falling into the Clouds when we travail'd to one another See the perpetuall floating of the Sea like a monethly or yearly Clock warning us of the seasons with as great exactnesse as do the Moon and Starres See the various Climes with all their affections The bounds of Seas and Lands The difference of temperature in the same proportions to the Sun The diversity of Beasts Birds Fishes and Plants according to the variety of their habitations Men themselves here black there white in some parts tawny some red and their very Wills and Affections following the temperament of their bodily qualities When you are weary of these wonders look into particular Natures The mixture of Metals and Stones How Juices and Liquids penetrate all and incorporating themselves frame these strange multiplicities of things we converse with Plants more wondrous then these who can choose but be delighted to see a little Flower or Meal hidden in the earth and peep out again now green then take body and strength disperse it self into branches bud forth leaves and flowers and fruit and at last other such bags of Meal as it self was Yet Living creatures are furnisht with a farre greater plenty of wonders The Wormes the Flies the Birds the Beasts the Fishes every one affording a world of admiration and variety But above all MAN the End and Master of all is a subject of amazing contemplation Who would not think a life spent in delight to understand what composition that should be which turn'd into blood becomes first one part of a heart afterwards a whole heart what should make it spring and shoot out into other vitall parts how can a poor heart frame such a variety of Members as are necessary to the perfect body of a man What should set two Armes two Legs two Eyes just such a number of Fingers and Toes upon every man so many different parts so various in their Nature Figures Use and Service and all these to agree together and Man compos'd of all to keep so long in tune and harmony the deeper we go the greater's the admiration though the words fewer But what astonishment will it be to discover the subtil nets wherewith Power and Act as Metaphysicians call them are forbidden parting to penetrate the divisibility of substance it self to sing the loves of Matter and Form and see how by the Influence of the Overflowing Being they become the Basis and Foundation of this fair Pageant Shall I seek into the rationall Soul and see the union of the two worlds or search the Conduits and passages by which knowledge is conveyed through the Body to the Spirit How the beating of divers weights and figures upon our senses can beget the skill of knowing all things Shall I ask why the Spirit being subsistent within our limbs seems dead or asleep and can do nothing but by the impression it receives from the body But what will it be to make this an occasion of passing into the next world there to contemplate the state of so many separated souls all different yet all like one another then still to mount up higher to the never-bodied Spirits and see their Being their
same meats dyeting and lodging with them maintain'd by Alms having no certain aboad but most commonly among the poor and simple Fishermen Farther we see him weary thirsty hungry forgetting hunger for love of souls envy'd slander'd blasphem'd threatned now ready to be stoned now to be precipitated flying hiding himself troubled in spirit weeping for his friends weeping for his Countrey contradicted persecuted conspired against His confidents corrupted his followers excommunicated his friends sought to death others not daring to acknowledge him and a thousand such indignities But the State of Love shewes it self first in the Garden O the dolefull unheard cryes to Heaven O the bitter Agony and deadly Sweat of bloud O the ravenous throats of devouring Wolves led on by one of his own dearest houshold See with what outcryes and howlings and noyse they drag him through the streets of Jerusalem every one looking out at their windowes to fill their eyes with gazing at this strange wonder See how He is toss'd from one Tribunal to another here revil'd and buffetted there flouted and spit on every where despis'd and maliciously affronted But what wofull spectacle is that Pilate presents to the People which causes so great and loud cries The Stature is of a Man but the Head of a Monster A Crown of piercing Thornes bloody and bloodying all that is near it Hair such as ravish'd the heart of the delicious Spouse but clotted with gore sticking some to his Neck and Flesh some to the horrid Thorns all rudely ruffled in a hideous disorder A Face and Eyes able to subdue all hearts if stripes and buffets and bloud and swellings and marks of blind rage permitted them to beseen Well-shap'd Limbs but disfigur'd and hidden in their own bruises and tearings and shatters A red ragged Mantle and a Sceptre of a Reed to accomplish a King of sorrow calamity and scorn And why all this this ingenious cruelty to disguise a poor Man into so monstrous an Object of disdainfull Malice Alas all 's but to glut the blood-thirsty jaws of an unfaithfull and rebellious Multitude which no longer then five dayes since sung praises and Hosanna's to this very Person and strewed their garments and Palm-branches in his way A People infinitely oblig'd and no wayes offended by him A people that cannot accuse him of the least crime that have seen him cleered in all Tribunalls the Judge himself pleading His Innocence Yet no lesse then his heart's last drop will satisfie them though it be at the cost of their own and all their posterities Nor can they tell why more then that they are push'd on by those who abuse and pillage them and who have conceiv'd this implacable hatred against him only because he discovered their violences oppressions and tyrannyes over these very people that so furiously exclaim against him Well if there be no remedy charge those wounded shoulders with thy heavy Cross dear Saviour and shew us on Mount Calvary a greater and stranger Transfiguration able to dim That of Mount Tabor I see thy spread Arms thy nailed Hands and Feet thy rack't Sinews thy pierced Side thy bended Neck thy faln Looks thy torn Body thy pale and bloudlesse Flesh thy Company of infamous Thieves and thy miserable Favourite and forlorn Mother I hear thy last Words and breath'd-out Soul into the Hands of thy Father not as they command Heaven but as they reach to Hell O Love canst thou love or expresse it beyond this Yes heark and consider Those higher-endearing Charms of heaven The Father the most tender and perfectly-loving Father whose Essence is pure distill'd spirit of love He put his Onely-his Equall-his Intimate-his Co-essentiall Son with His own hands nay with This Son 's own commanded Will and hands to all these and infinite more unspeakable tortures and miseries for thy sake for thine my soul that thou mightest not complain thou wantedst an Object a Motive thou hadst not a Teacher a Pattern an Exciter an Enforcer to Love IF there be a Hall for all comers certainly there 's a Parlour too for select and choice friends where they may confer together of thine infinite perfections and often repeat with joy thy unspeakable bounties where they may retire from the noise and distractions of the World and entertain their thoughts with the sweet still-musick of contemplation where they may sit alone excluding even themselves and be chastly ravisht with the dear embraces of the Divine Spouse of Souls O what Droanes are our highest-strain'd Lovers whose memories in all languages affect immortality for their fantastick passions what dull buzzing of Beetles are their kindest expressions to the melting notes of this heavenly harmony But is there no further admittance O glorious King of Love for those who have so happily enter'd thy Palace I remember a large upper-room furnisht by thy self and richly prepared to give yet a more noble treatment and methinks I hear something within me bid me advance a few steps further What fair gilt door is that which dazzles so my sight to look on Sure 't is the holy place we seek sealed up for thy peculiarly beloved Open it some bright and flaming Seraphin O my God what do I see what 's this my eyes behold Manna raining from Heaven for those that can get to the shoar of that former Red Sea of loves flouds Truly my God my Lord Love has transported thee even to extasie it has made thee do extravagant and frenetick actions extravagant indeed and freneticall if measured by the narrow and short judgement of poor humanity but heights and depths and Abysses if referr'd to thy uncircled wisdome and unlimited reach of bounty and goodness Behold the Body that hang'd on the Crosse that was anointed in the Grave that rose again and ascended to the right hand of the heavenly Creator Behold It falls down in wheaten drops like Coriander Seeds to feed and feast the wretches descended from Adam Behold the Body the Blood the Soul the eternall Person the Deity the Trinity all couch'd as it were in a corn of Bread The Omnipotency that made Heaven the Wisdome that link'd all possibilities into the Chain of all Beings the Bounty that crowded into Natures teeming bosome all that was Best these all these lie here covered like a Chymical pill in a Sugared wafer Those looks from which Heaven and Earth amazedly flie in whose Presence the Princes of the celestiall hosts and the Pillars of the World tremble that Head on which depends the fate of Souls both past and to come that Tongue which shall doom in one word the Nations of all Ages All are here humbly stoop'd and subjected to me and other such wretches even to be abused by our wickednesse Yes yes all these are as truly Here as they are on thy Throne in Heaven as they will be in the midst of the blessed on the Day of thy Triumph over Nations What do I say as truly and not even more in a far more excellent manner
of resistance at every pulse of my breath repeating this onely Burden Do thy pleasure upon me Again Thou hast seen my Soul that far beyond all created Essences God has been so liberall as to bestow Himself on thee He bowed the Heavens and came down rendring his sacred Person subject to all the miseries of Humanity He laid aside all the prerogatives of his most noble and most perfect soul exposing it to labours to teares to griefs to those stupendious throwes in the Garden even to such a height that it admired it self in those expressive words My God my God! to what a point hast Thou let me be brought And in fine to be commanded even to Hell He abandoned his Body to heat to cold to weaknesse to hunger and thirst to wearinesse to torments to death and not content with this after the Resurrection in Its state and season of Glory he sent it again into the World to be subject to a thousand more indignities scorns and abusings Here now my soul compare seriously thy sufferings with His and consider First Since nor health nor wealth nor any other good thou possessest is thine or from thy self but onely vouchsaf'd thee during his pleasure and discretion all thy sufferings can be but a not-enjoying any longer what is no way due to thee but He was incapable of any wants in himself if his own Will had not taken upon him both a Nature that could want and its necessities Again what commodities He at any time seem'd to have he held them from himself and His purely they were wherefore He truly suffered when they were ravish'd from him whereas we through ignorance attribute to our selves what we possesse being really but Trustees not Masters of the least pile of grasse Farther yet our mis-call'd sufferings if rightly used are indeed blessings for if we lose our Fortunes alas they made us not know our selves if our Health 't is to disaffect us to this world if we prove unhappy in our Children what greater distraction had we from the love of our hoped glory then our care and tendernesse to them But Christ's sufferings could have no such advantagious effects no they were chiefly to shew us the straitest Path to that life He promis'd us and to assure by his own Example who could not but know and embrace what was best that the way of Tribulation is the high-Road to Heaven And canst thou my Soul after this think any Crosse heavy and affliction hard to endure canst thou chuse but be vexed and enraged at thy Flesh and Blood which against all evidence will force thee to esteem unfortunatenesse an Evil O my great and sole Good suppresse these unreasonable follies which boyl in my breast Make me know whatever happens good or bad to me is securely my best because it comes from Thee whilst my onely care ought to aim at this how to improve it to my best advantage Make me understand that whatever I beare with patience I suffer for thy sake because I take it as from Thee because I do as Thou commandest because 't is in imitation of Thee and lastly because it is to obtain Thee my chief my onely my most entire Treasure O rich Treasure O masse of Glory in proportion to whose attainment all the labours and tribulations that Men and Devils can heap on me are nothing nothing considerable not deserving even the slightest esteem Lastly My Soul thou hast seen with what ambition and exaggeration of Courtship with what unparallel'd addresse and exquisite inventions thy Lord has sought and woo'd thy love First He gave thee heaven and Earth with all their Creatures for thy Motives to know and love Him Next He made Himself thy Fellow and Brother in flesh and bloud that thou mightst not strain thy self but familiarly conversing be caught with his love Beyond that He has pass'd all those fabulous imaginations of dangers and misfortunes in which idle witts have fram'd Errant Ladies to have engaged their Servants for proof of their fond obstinate loyalty He has heap'd on thee all the names and titles of endearment which either nature or use have introduc'd among Mankind He is thy Maker thy Father thy Spouse thy Brother thy Ransomer out of thraldome thy Deliverer from danger thy Saviour from misery and death thy Friend even thy very Play-fellow He has gone beyond all this He is thy Food thy Drink thy Self for since when thou eatest Him His Flesh becomes thine as truly as the bread whereof we encrease and nourish our substance which by the power of matter and conformity of quality remains in us how can we chuse but be his Members so that if we dishonour our body we dishonour His how can we chuse but have a share of Him perpetually in us and in plain truth be Reliques of Him of His glorious Flesh and immortall Bloud O Eternall Wisdome how truly didst Thou say It was thy delight to be with the Sons of Men Can Angels boast of such priviledges of such tendernesses of such Extasies of Thy love No none but so weak a Nature as ours was able to necessitate Goodnesse it self to so deep a condescendence as this and none but all Goodnesse could so appropriate it self to all Infirmities O melting Goodnesse that fillest every corner and chink Thou findest capable of thy perfections wave not this poor soul of mine but make it understand the unmeasurablenesse of thy bounties and Mercy Shall I for ever apprehend my past sinnes still in fear whether they are forgiven Shall I not rather in the very moment of terrour turn me to Him of whose readinesse to receive me I cannot doubt Mark how easy thou art to pardon thy self and consider thou art one of his Members whence be assured as soon as thou sayest I have sinned thou shalt hear thy sin is taken away Shall I fear that I am not in state to receive his Body when the very preparing my self and having a true will to go meet Him puts me in state Shall I seek outward Medicines for my wounds whose ulcerousnesse onely consists in bereaving me of Love O my dearest Lord make me love and joy in thee make me take pleasure to come even corporally to Thee but much more to delight and solace my self in thinking of thee in remembring how Thou lov'st me how Thou art my Friend my Spouse my Father and whatever dear name by which Thou hast been pleased to expresse so blest a relation Make me place my chief felicity in contemplating how happy I shall be when once I see Thee face to face and familiarly converse with Thee as a Friend does with his Friend Mean while establish firmly in my soul this absolute judgement that the greatest pleasure and advantage this world can afford me is often and long and heartily to practice here on earth that sweet and holy conversation which is to be consummated in Heaven What Maid whose Parents have promis'd her a person compleatly qualified for
Why this is but nature whereas to go to Heaven 't is necessary we walke in a supernaturall Path much contrary to nature wherefore sure this cannot be right Light There are two things in Man which are call'd Nature one Reason which truly is his Nature ruling all his actions as he is Man and distinguishing him from Beasts The other is this frame of our Materiall Instruments which we call our Body consisting of Motion of Blood and Spirits which have a course in us so depending from other causes that neverthelesse a great part is in our power Of these two Natures Reason often contradicts the Inferiour and therefore Grace and our supernaturall way must do the same Whereas for Reason Grace never contradicts it but guides it and shewes it that many things which otherwise it would never have attain'd to are very reasonable and by force of reason it self ought to be enacted and put in execution For our supernaturall life is like a Graft which though it bear a better fruit then the Stock yet can it bring forth nothing but by means of that and in the season wherein the Stock of it self flourishes Soul Then I must employ my time in gaining knowledge and governing my self according to it but what should I seek to know Light Your enquiry may be fully satisfied if you confine your search to these two Heads To learn the things that concerne you in the next life which are chiefly Heaven and Hell in Heaven I comprehend all that belongs to Almighty God as well to his Godhead as his Humanity And secondly to study what in this life imports you which is the real valuation of those motives that govern mankind here and the true and straight way that leads to blisse hereafter Soul Surely this cannot chuse but be a pleasant and delightsome Method For what more pleasant then to know especially such truths as most are ignorant of what more delightsome then to enjoy a clear serenity of mind free from those errours we see our Neighbours tossed and turmoyl'd in But above all what can be so ravishing as to understand we are in the direct path towards those great felicities promised us in the next life Light If you take the right course and ply it diligently you shall instead of that anxious and troublesome way you walk possesse all this pleasure and much more whereof as yet you have no feeling nay which you little think your whole pursuit shall be after pleasures and those the highest this life can afford For since Reason is our Nature which hath the greatest stroak in all our actions and whatever is conformable to Nature the more powerfull Nature is the more pleasant that must be it follows the pleasures of Reason are greater far then those of Sense Now Grace being but an heightening of Reason what is conformable to Grace must be still more pleasing to Nature Soul I can easily apprehend the Contemplation of Heaven must be full of pleasure especially if the Contemplatour findes in himself hopes of attaining thither but I know not how the dreadfull consideration of Hell and Death and Judgement should be pleasing being of themselves such frightfull things Light As for those fearfull objects you need not trouble your self yet if you find the considerations of Heaven take hold of your Soul which when they are once settled and well possess'd of your heart will alone so entertain and fill you that you will be free and secure from the irksomenesse of other apprehensions but you must first strive to be in love with heaven and heavenly things if possibly you can Soul I confesse hitherto my considerations have been very dry I not being able to make any apprehension of what pleasure can possibly be found where all that gives us content here will be wanting The second discourse Light NOw if you were sure to find there the same pleasures you enjoy here in this only changed that what ever makes them short noysome tedious or allayes them here with any other discommodity is not there to be found so that the pleasure is there more clear more sweet perpetuall and never cloying you must of necessity make a good apprehension of a desirable place and lovely end to aim at Soul If you can make me see this I hope I shall be better affected to Heaven that with a naturall tye Whereas now I force my self to love a thing which I cannot understand what it is Light Well then do you take pleasure in company of friends with whom you can be free Soul Very much especially if their discourse be such as goes down with some smartnesse and delight Light At least then there 's one pleasure in heaven which you can relish for friends and acquaintance you cannot want there all that are in Heaven knowing all being familiar with all and their hearts lying open to all so that what delight you can imagine in conversation you shall have there a thousand fold multiplied above what it is here Soul But that which pleases me here is to be with a friend in a corner where no body may hear our discourse for it would be a great annoyance to have any one partaker of our secrets Light And why if you have reflected upon it is it troublesome to have overhearers of your discourse Soul Because some would laugh at my follyes or imperfections and jeere at my conceits different from theirs others would carry tales abroad and make a businesse of nothing others are indiscreet and altogether unable to give me either advice or comfort but talk nonsense and rather trouble me then do me good Light Then if the company were such that from every one you could promise your self all respect love prudence and such parts as should be fit to improve heighten the content you aimed at the plurality of those with whom you converse would rather strengthen your pleasure then any way diminish it Soul 'T is true but I cannot conceive if the company be greater then a certain proportion which by interchange may still keep life in the discourse but that the conversation must either be hindred by many speaking at once or dull by one party's speaking so seldome Light But on the contrary if you did apprehend the whole multitude without intermission speaking together and that he that speaks perfectly understood all the rest and himself also were perfectly understood by every one so that each continually declared his own mind without the least impediment to understand perfectly at the same time what all others said and this not onely to himself but any one to any other do you not see what the proportion of content by such discourse would be to the satisfaction you find here when you are in the fullest careere of joy that ever you experimented or can wish or even imagine according to the course of our conversation Soul If this were true I see an extreme increase of pleasure in Heaven over the greatest our
Nature is capable of here but withall I see it is impossible men should hear and understand so many persons together and speak to them all in exchange Light I confesse this is hard to be believ'd by one that hath not yet reached to the nature of a Spirit but he that could conceive all this we call Body and diffusion of bignesse and parts must of necessity be resum'd in the indivisible thing we call a Spirit so that all the imaginable operations of materiall substances can never arrive to equall the activity of the least Spirit he would easily allow it this priviledge of being capable to do as much as a thousand tongues and a thousand eares at once But 't is not my task now to evince a possibility only to exact a belief of this opinion and upon supposal of its truth shew you how infinitely greater the content in Heaven must necessarily be then the highest pleasure this world can afford Soul But unlesse I talk of such persons and things as both my self and they with whom I converse know and are acquainted with the circumstances of every passage the conversation is dry and unpleasing Now here they are very few who have knowledge of the same particulars that I have for their number is confin'd to such as I live withall and I know not whether I can expect to meet many of them in heaven the straitnesse of the way and the paucity of the enterers being so often and so strongly inculcated to us Light It were a very hard question to determine the number of those that go to heaven and at this time would divert our discourse only this I will say that the paucity of the blessed may well stand with this truth that many of such Christians as live innocently in the world are saved Wherefore I fear not but you may have enough to converse with who are acquainted with the particulars your self are But what will you think if every one hath as cleare a sight of all your circumstances as your own heart for it were a great simplicity to imagine the Soul abstracted from the Body hath no means to know things without it since in the Body it hath and if it be furnisht with any means it is not possible but it should know whatever it pleases But as I said before the proof of these things is to be sought elsewhere here we are onely to consider how great and full the pleasure of a blessed Soul is these things being so as I have declared Soul I must confesse you have now made Heaven a tractable thing to me for by these considerations I do not onely find a common apprehension of good but I can lay hands upon intelligible pleasures whereby to content my naturall desires and with hope thereof make them pursue the endeavours and undergoe the difficulties necessary to the attaining them Light Reflect then a little and summe up or rather conclude what kind of life in Heaven this pleasure will afford you Remember some afternoon or couple of houres in which your pleasing conversation hath been at height remember the twinkling of some one conceit which especially carryed away your heart and for the time possessed it wholly think with your self had the whole two houres continu'd like that minute how unspeakable your pleasure had been Then elevate your fancy and conceive in Heaven not houres nor dayes nor yeares but ages of ages but an eternity will be of that dainty ravishing contentment Joyne if you are able all these encreases and advantages which we have expressed whereof there is not one but drawes an incomparable extremity with it and if only this were once well master of your thoughts I do not see how any temporall thing could either please or discontent you or that you would not as much long for death as now you adhorre and fear it Soul The world 's chang'd with me I find my self refresht with this thought and in a cheerfull disposition Light Yes for the present but it will not stay long with you unlesse you play your part and cultivate the opening seeds which now ferment in your heart and this must be by often thinking of and remembring these and such other considerations partly at set times and partly whenever you find your self in a fitting disposition that is at ease alone your mind free or peradventure inclin'd to good thoughts lose not these tides as I may call them for they bring great waves of spirituall profit In the happy opportunity strive to penetrate with a cleer understanding the verity of such points then turn your self upon your self and see what you do and what you should do according to these truths Encourage your self to what is wanting amend what is amisse and sigh after the great reward we all labour for The third discourse Soul HItherto it goes well but in so great a happinesse and so glorious a State is there but one content Light If there were no other then what is already declared I believe there were more not only then you can wish in this world but also then you would be weary of in the next Neverthelesse since your palate is so dainty that it must have varieties think with your self what other thing there is here wherein you take great pleasure and love to spend your time Soul The next that comes to my mind is that I am much delighted with Masks and Shews and in going to Court especially when there are grea meetings and bravery there these things extreamely take me in so much that I can endure to expect a great while as half a day or more in some disease to be present at such sights and Assemblies Light And when these things are in their perfection can you tell what it is that therein delights you Soul I think it is those passages which meeting afterwards with others that have or have not been there I use to discourse of and commend And all those being either Things or Persons in Things I commend the greatnesse beauty or good proportion some fine conveyance some rare and new invention in Persons I praise their comlinesse the gracefulnesse of their behaviour the perfection and compleatnesse of their actions These I conceive for the most part are the principal causes of the delight and relish I find in such encounters Light I hope then you will not want this contentment also in heaven For to begin with Persons you shall have in your company those who have ever been the greatest and worthiest in all considerations Adam the beginner of the World Noah its restorer you shall have Abraham the Father of that Nation which after so many ages continuance in the Prerogative of the Elect people of Almighty God is now by their dispersion into all Nations become to them a Testimony of Christianity you shall have Moses who like the Lieutenant of the highest in all sorts of miracles establisht the Law the Field wherein Christianity was blazoned you
shall have David and Solomon if his Penance was true in his old dayes you shall have Kings Captains and Prophets all in their degrees before Christ. What shall I say of Christ and his Apostles of Bishops Martyrs and Hermites what of the so fruitfull devouter Sexe All these have expressed the most generous evidence of Universall Gallantry and shewn the noblest effects of all such vertues as breed admiration in humane hearts What Court what Maske what Shew can feign or counterfit so much as Heaven will afford you reall objects to be ravished with Soul 'T is true but I am not taken with these high and sublime vertues which I do not well apprehend But if I see a Gentleman Noble Liberall Courteous Valiant and Honourable of his word such qualities make a deep impression in my affections Light Why then if you find all these perfections not onely to be in your Company above but in a far higher degree too and greater measure of excellency then can be in any persons here you must certainly be charmed with a strange excesse of Pleasure And to enter a little into the businesse I cannot doubt so much as to ask whether you are pleased with the outward shew of these vertues which are in the Heart Soul You need not for were they counterfeit or no greater in the heart then in the outward shew I should lose my esteem of the persons But out of one generous Act expressed we imagine the heart ready to perform a hundred to be as it were naturally and unchangeably fitted to do the like again when occasion is offered this makes me highly value and be delighted with the person Light Then if heaven afford you thousands and millions of hearts which you may see into as clearly as into the purest stream or fountain of water you can imagine and there behold all these admirable qualities in a high perfection and so immutably settled that sooner heaven and earth may fall in pieces then they decline the least tittle from that degree of worth they are exalted to how can you then doubt that your pleasure there even in this very kind will not be infinitely preferrable to the greatest the world can furnish you And for those high vertues of which you say you feel little apprehension your state there will be so improved that you will be able exactly to penetrate the true value of every one which will make you see with how much passion ignorance and over-sight the greatest actions of this life are manag'd You 'l discern evidently that the valour of Captains the wisdome of Statesmen the skill of great Clerks are not comparable to make no bulk or shew in comparison of that Knowledge Prudence and Courage which those contemned persons and here reputed-fools ever carried enclosed in their breasts Think what infinite pleasure and content you will infallibly receive in contemplating them and being informed of their worths Soul All this I must of necessity confesse but yet I do not see that in heaven there will be either the comelinesse of the persons the gracefulnesse of their behaviour or the variety of their attires and such otherthings wherewith I speak but in mine own weaknesse I often find my self here much taken and carried away Light Alas do you not consider that all these are but mute and imperfect expressions of the interiour mind and that it is the thing signified which takes you in them all or else their artifice and conveyance In speaking whereof you passe into the other part of Things which you distinguished against the consideration of Persons For take away the mind and all the rest may be in a Puppet-play or motion as they call it Consider again with your self that a cunning Architect is delighted as much with the Modell of a House as you with the building it self a good Musician with the notes in his head as you with the singing Out of which I draw this great and curious truth that when you shall be perfect in knowledge as is expected in Heaven you will not look after these outward expressions but the Modells which are in the hearts you will see will satisfie and fill the desires beyond all you can wish or imagine Soul Peradventure what you say is not only true but extreamly efficacious according to the state we shall be in there but yet I feel not that impression which wonted and well known objects use to work in me If there are not even these corporeall motions and fashions which delight me so extreamly here with their novelty variety extravagance and excellency me thinks I apprehend a droughth not of what shall be there but of the apprehending what I see shall be there yet cannot make carry my fancy Light Since nothing will content you but the flesh and bloud you are nuzzled in and that you must carry to heaven with you the very imperfection if not of your own mind yet of the world you live in let us at one blow seek to give a resolution not onely to this your desire but also to the other part that is concerning those qualities which delight you in Things as well as in Persons Do you therefore remember the answer our Saviour gave to the Sadduces concerning Marriage in the next world Soul You mean That we should neither marry nor be married but be like the Angels of God This I remember well but I desire to know why you put me in minde of it Light Wherein do you conceive the likenesse to Angels consists For if it be onely in this Negative why should that be promised for a happiness whereas we see the benedictions of marriage promised for a benefit content Soul When I reflect that Angels have no bodies and therefore all their nature is to be purely knowing Creatures me thinks our Saviour in these words signifies to us that the pleasures of the next world should not consist in these corporeall motions which here are gratefull to us by reason of our bodies but that they should be of knowledge such as are proportioned to Angels and although we should have bodies yet they should not hinder our knowledge and pleasure even by them from being such as the Angels contentment is at least in likenesse if not in equality Light You are very right and do you not see every man conceits that though Angels are no bodies yet they have means and those naturall means too to see and know any thing that passes amongst bodies do you not hear them set for Governours of corporeall things even men deliver'd to their charge Wherefore you cannot but believe they have a naturall power and force to know all things here below at their will and pleasure Conceive then that Souls freed from the body have the same capacity though in a lesse degree and that at will they can see what passes in this world and not onely in this Globe of earth the world of Man but in all the other infinite
Masse of Bodies which in truth and rigour is termed the world Now therefore imagine your self seated upon a high hill such as the Devil placed our Saviour on with your eyes so perfect and sharp that whatsoever you had a mind to see no remotenesse of place no Hills or Dales no Clouds or darknesse no Walls or Dungeons could hide from you and then think what could your heart desire in this sort of pleasure that you were not Mistresse of and know that all is far short of what the state of blisse will afford you even in this kind For neither could you in that posture no not in a Masking house it self note all particulars to be seen nor listen to all you would desire to hear nor know all you would be earnest to ask and which is most of all you could attend but to one thing at once whereas in the state of blisse you shall discern every circumstance perfectly and all things that are done at once you may know altogether the one not hindring the other though there be thousands of them Soul But shall I see then whatever I will of all that passes in this world Light It followes clearly out of what we have said make no doubt of it but raise your thoughts and mark There is a Generall mustering his flourishing Troops his Drums beating his wanton Colours dancing in the Aire his Commanders as glorious as the Starres in the Firmament his Ranks and Files glittering in fearfull steel Majesty beauty and strength at one sight ravishing the beholders Here is a Marriage or entertainment of some great Prince the wits of two Kingdomes set a work for invention of sports and Ballads what Water Fire Aire and the dull weight of Earth can do all scann'd by exact Artificers and the purest quintessence reduc'd into a modell or taste to please the ambition of empty-soul'd Lords There is a great Admirall commanding the obedient Waves and prancing over the Billows with Mast upon Mast loaden with towred wings his Streamers fluttering his Canon roaring his People shouting In other places battels joining some by Sea some by Land assaults giving and repulsing undermining of Walls entrance upon breaches Murtherers devouring all before them with flaming mouthes Here great Windes and Shipwracks there glorious Palaces mighty Treasures rich Jewels Inventions of all sorts to content those whom Industry or Fortune hath made the Masters of Money These and a thousand other things which at leasure you may reflect upon especially those wherewith you are most affected consider and think that with a cast of your understanding more quick then any twinkling of an eye you shall see not one which you most desire but all all you can desire at once one not hindring the other Soul O glory O happinesse O Blisse now you have struck me to the heart O when will the happy day come that I shall sit at this Fountain-head and not need with pain to draw the water of pleasure When shall I arrive at this sweet ravishment and extasie The fourth discourse Light GOd Almighty be praised who as he created Man of Dust and slime so forgets not what he is made of but provides Motives even out of that to enamour him of true blisse and happinesse This last consideration is the slightest of all I have proposed to you and when you come to understand your self you will take least content in it yet how are you now ravisht with it But because your distraction is great I think I had best put you in mind of one circumstance which peradventure you may forget When you go to these Maskes and great meetings do you not take pleasure to be seen as well as to see what passes there Soul What need I say Yes to you that know better then my self the most hidden thoughts of my heart how can I counterfeit to the Light which shines into every corner of my Conscience and shewes my self so cleerly to me I confesse therefore that I seldome go but to be seen hath its share in my wishes nay sometimes the greater This makes me so exact in dressing my self that all things may contribute to their good liking of me this makes me choice of my Company and place and desirous of any thing that may draw eyes upon me Happy they that can content themselves with admiring their own perfections in a Looking-glasse for my part unlesse I have the commendations of others I little satisfie my self Hence also it is that if any great personage take notice of me in publick my heart leaps to imagine the whispering of friends and strangers the one taking notice of the favour done me the other busily enquiring who is that so highly honoured when if they light on any of my wel-wishers receiving in exchange a Catalogue of all that is good and to be esteemed in me O this is a sweet thing And if perchance any of their discourse come to my eares I know not how to expresse what a pleasing motion it makes in me But should it happen that the King or Queen were the persons that graced me before all the Company a year were not sufficient to receive congratulatory visits to expresse every circumstance of the favour to professe my self undeserving and overloaden though willing enough to hear others say it was no more then I deserved These things I confesse passe within me but I am so afraid any should take notice on 't that fain I would perswade my self many times my actions depend on other more justifiable motives Wonder not therefore that I expect not this in Heaven where all hearts being open I shall not for shame desire it Light How easily the comparison of this world misleads you in the estimation of the next since there you shall desire it without shame and possesse it more fully then your heart can wish here For if you look into your own desires you shall find that two things chiefly delight you to be known and to be esteemed For the former consider here below the multitude of persons into whose knowledge you may fall the quality of the knowledge they are to have of you the worth of their persons and the goodnesse of their judgements which may make you joyfull that their verdicts passe in your favour As for the multitude it scarce ever exceeds one Kingdome even in Princes and of this Kingdome not one Shire not one Town are familiarly acquainted no not so much as to know you if your cloaths were changed but you should walk undiscerned even in the streets Soul That is true but all those whose spirits are a little elevated will know me and their acquaintance is onely worth the wishing others whose low apprehensions cannot ascend to esteem the perfections of the higher sort of people are to be neglected Light But the higher you raise their abilities the lesser you make their multitude and even of those whose judgements you esteem in your whole life time how many are you like
the most rich and excellent piece of all in his own particular property and degree The fifth discourse Soul AS you put me in mind of one thing I should have forgotten so you have embolden'd me to ask another I should else have been asham'd to propose and yet I confesse it has a great power mastery over my affections 't is that I love to be beloved If any shew the least signe of kindnesse for me methinks presently they are the best persons in the world neither is there so poor a wretch but if I see in him a hearty expression of love towards me I cannot chuse but love him again Alas what do I talk of Men if a little Dog or Bird or any other dumb Creature come once to take a haunt to me and be delighted in my pany 't is a death to see any harm befall them and I find a very great satisfaction and content to see them play and pleas'd according to their low manner Now if this love be wanting in Heaven I fear 't will put me out of conceit with the pleasures there Light You are too fearfull and too little considerate of the joyes you aim at Think but with your self that Charity is nothing but the love of God and your Neighbour that 't is the way to Heaven and that of our three guides and conducters thither onely that remains with us and see then whether there can be any fear you shall want love Consider that the principall and main employment in Heaven is nothing else but to love and be beloved and those there are the greatest lovers who are in the greatest favour and highest glory For God himself is love and none is in God or God in them but by love Measure therefore with your thoughts the scope of Heaven from Gods eternall throne to the least child which by Baptisme is made partaker of the Adoption of Christ and be sure that all these shall love you you especially love you as much as if there were no others to be belov'd but only your self that the higher and greater every one is the more ardent expressive and effectuall shall his love be to you in person in particular by name and design What do you now conceit of the base love of this world of the love of Dogs and Birds raise a little your thoughts and look up at true love where it reignes in its full glory where it shewes it self in its Magnificence fly at it there fear not if you love it cannot escape you make but your approaches it will meet you 't is too ethereall for this cloudy region lift but your self above your body and of it self it will bend and stoop to your Arms. Soul What you have said cannot chuse but be a great comfort but I have a foolish scruple if you will give me leave to utter it yet I need not be so coy since you know enough by me this ' t is I have been taught that we should strive to love all men for Almighty Gods sake and so I suppose it passes in Heaven that all these great lovers which you have express'd to be there are of this Nature that they will love me because God Almighty commands it And this alas according to my low apprehension gives me but little satisfaction for this love and good will is not to me but to Almighty God whereas my perversenesse is such that I my self would be beloved and I mark in my self a great difference between when I give money to some little child I am pleas'd with when I bestow an Almes on a poore body that askes me for Gods sake in the one I find that affection I desire others should bear to me towards the Beggar I have no such inclination and the cause as I conceive is that one seems to deserve my love the other only to need it Now if you tell me that in Heaven they shall love me but I shall not deserve it I confesse as my affections now stand 't will be a great cooling to the esteem I desire to have of their love Light How truly spake he that said I know my self a Man that is a proud and yet a wretched thing Is it possible you cannot endure to be belov'd beyond your desert I fear you endure it often enough in this world but here self-conceit makes you easily think not only all love and esteem due to you which is offer'd but for the most part that too little is offer'd Yet I have observ'd sometimes it happens that we truly conceit another to shew more affection towards us then we have deserved though I never heard any offended at such excesse but rather highly pleas'd and engag'd to an endeavour of deserving it Neverthelesse I 'le strive to give you content even in this point Therefore tell me what you think of a person in whom reason governs in full measure so that not a thought passes but according to the pure direction of it do you believe in such a person any love can be unreasonable Soul No certainly so far is past doubt Light And if we love any thing more then it is amiable do you think that love is reasonable Soul I perceive whither you aime that since in Heaven all 's govern'd by reason none there can love otherwise then according to desert but withall I see there may be that desert in another and not in me as for example they shall love me because God who deserves to be obey'd commands them and if only thus I rest as unsatisfied as before Light Why do you conceive that God can command any unreasonable thing especially there where reason is in it's perfection for here I know not what the mixture of bodily qualities with reason may make it reasonable for God to command or if God would command others to love you beyond desert yet do you think that himself being the essence of reason and understanding can love you so or that any one by his command can love you more then himself does Soul This is right again Yet I see we love many things for the connexion they have with some other and not for themselves a Dog a Book a Glove from a beloved person is much made of not for it self but because the using it kindly is an expression or rather a practise of our love towards the person to whom it belongs So I imagine because I am a creature of Almighty God's making and have cost his only Son so dear a price those blessed spirits inflam'd with the love of God may also expresse an affection to me which you see is wholly by the desert of another not mine and however it may be infinitely more then I deserve yet is it not that which I express'd to be requisite to my content Light Your palate is very nice and delicate yet you shall be pleas'd What think you then where reason as I asked before is in full height can any thing there be
omitted which is reasonable to be done Soul No certainly Light And is it not reasonable that every lovely thing should be lov'd and if any person have any lovelinesse that there should be a poize and proportion of love for every grain of it in him Soul All this is just and reasonable Light Take notice then there shall not be the least good quality in you which shall not by every one be lov'd for its being what it is and your self be belov'd for its being in you wherefore sit down and consider what the things are for which in this world you reasonably desire to be esteem'd and know you shall be lov'd for them above as much as they can deserve as much as you can wish Soul Peradventure they are things I shall not carry with me as wholly or in part belonging to my body Light No matter You shall be belov'd there because you had such things in time and place wherein 't was fit to have them Soul Now surely I have ground enough without farther curiosity or dispute to presume upon the content I desire since you have so plainly and evidently demonstrated it But I know not whether I am arriv'd at my hopes for I feel in my self an expectation that my familiar friends and kindred and such as I my self particularly love should likewise return me a speciall love Light Fear not you shall have that also For mark well the principle I told you that there should not be the least thing love-worthy in you but you shall be especially belov'd for it Now then if Friendship Kindred Acquaintance c. be things which put a particular obligation of love upon those persons betwixt whom they are you will be more lovely to them for these very respects wherefore all those will love you more especially then any others which I think is that you express'd to be your desire Soul Yes this is well but yet a little difficulty molests me I have been taught that God loves most and next to himself the Angels or Saints according as they are in degree under him then if the lowest love me as much as I deserve others will love me more then I deserve which is against reason and so impossible Light Two things are to be considered in love first the comparison of one beloved object to another and this way all will love you according to your desert for none shall prefer any thing lesse lovely before you nor you before any thing more lovely a second consideration is the strength of the affection we call Love which being according to the nature out of which it proceeds in all above your condition will be greater then you deserve in all under you weaker according to the proportion of their natures and strengths Soul Yet one thing more comes into my mind I see some strong natures in whom though by reall effects it evidently appeares they love their friend yet there is no tendernesse you can observe no motion of love in their hearts no shew in their change of countenance such a love gives me small content Shall we therefore have in Heaven a melting sweet delicious love or onely those strong and solid thoughts which as they are very good so are they far from giving that pleasure which this other soft and gentle love affords Light Would you not think that man unreasonable who being cold and brought to a good fire should refuse to warm himself because there was no smoak he having been alwayes accustomed to smoaky fires Soul Yes certainly for he contradicts his own pretence smoak being a hindrance to the heating he desires besides other inconveniences which render it offensive Light Such is the passion you call Love to that which truly is Love for everything being to be discern'd by the effects you shall see those who are most given to this whining sort of love least active to help themselves but wholly abandoned up to the following of their Passion without indeavouring to procure what they desire So in grief if you see one fit still weeping and despairing you count him womanish and not so much that his sorrow is great as that a little overcomes him Besides this passion is but an expression of the inward mind or rather a wasting of it for we see that ordinarily weeping eases and discharges the heart which becomes lighter after such venting of it self by tears So that this which you desire to have in Heaven is not love but an expression or concomitant of it weakning and disturbing the affection for the present and wasting it for the future and therefore not fit to give content to such as understand the happinesse of enjoying a place in Heaven The sixth discourse Soul THere 's yet another thing wherein I find a great inclination and drawing of Nature and certainly 't is agreeable to some principle within me though this kind of delight appears not so sensibly 't is in hearing and understanding what passes in the world I cannot espie a whisper but I long to know about what ' t was If any of my neighbours or acquaintance have met with any change of fortune I cannot endure to have it concealed from me nay the more secret such an accident is the greater is my eagernesse to know it though as I said I observe not those sensible effects in this sort of Pleasure as in the former unlesse there happen a speciall reason out of some other consideration to raise them And perhaps the curiosity of hearing news proceeds from the same cause and belongs to the same head as also the love I have to reading Histories knowing what pass'd in our forefathers times for this I perceive I long after though I finde not therein such apparent delight as in other entertainments Light And why do you not mention too the feign'd Histories Romances which the world is full of find you no delight in them Soul Yes very great sensible they being wholy contriv'd and fram'd both in subject fashion and style to move nay even violently to force our delight These therefore I did not range under this Head as likewise seeing of Playes because the content arising from them seems to be of a higher order then those other pleasures I mentioned Light See you not that other Histories and these are of one nature though of different fashions So that the delight reap'd out of both must also of necessity be of the same nature And as for Playes they are but the ample expression of some little part of that which compriz'd more shortly makes a History so that they all agree in substance though differ from one another in circumstances Tell me then what is it that pleases you in all these things Soul For playes and feigned Histories I perceive my self taken with the Passions due to the subject represented I see I have a tendernesse and compassion towards those who suffer imnocently I abhor cruel and unnaturall actions I am glad when good
Natures their Operations their Quires their Hierarchies And now there is but one great step more to behold the influence of the Divinity upon all and in all manners but in none so great and admirable as in shewing its self its Face its Essence to the blessed Spirits That Blessing that Adoption that Deification as it is the most wonderfull of all Gods works so will it be strangely ravishing to behold in others as well as feel in our selves Soul I have not the least scruple but that these delights are farre beyond all you have hitherto mention'd they clearly deserving that estimation and rank by the Excellence and Nobility of the Objects and the pleasure which I feel even in the meanest of them for those I confesse most affect me as being most suitable to my low and heavy disposition Light So 't is with you for the present but if much and solid contemplation make you able to manage this point you will in time experience that even here these sublime things overdraw all others Look upon the pains a Democritus an Archimedes a Plato and other Philosophers have taken to know the lowest of Truths The first is said to have put out his eyes that he might contemplate the better The second to have been so absorpt that he suffer'd death for not taking notice of the danger before him The third to have travailed through all parts where he could hear of learned men to be their Scholar Another to have liv'd in the fields two and twenty years to discover the customes and operations of Bees Think you not these excellent witts found great pleasure in their contemplations who was ever mov'd to so difficult undertakings by any worldly designe As for your Alexanders and Cesars if their lives be well look'd into they had many collaterall respects and by-invitements alwayes conversing amongst multitudes of men who crying up their conquests as actions of immortall fame still encourag'd them to go on and finish their triumphs Soul When time and experience shall have encreased my force I shall be able I hope to grapple with these motives But in the mean while is there nothing in these secrets of Nature which may touch my self and so make me more quick and sensible of the pleasures thereof Light If it so little move you that this knowledge is the proper mark at which your nature aimes at least consider that the knowledge of your self is a speciall part of it and if you believe you are concern'd in your self if delighted with your own parts and perfections you shall not want cause of content What would you have would you be the Center of this great Circumference would you have nothing done but you should have a share in 't If no lesse will satisfie you let 's see how much is true of this What think you are any two things exactly like one another Soul Peradventure yes I conceive it no paradoxe to believe so Light Then they would be in the same place have the same figure c. whereby they would be the same and not alike Soul That 's true I confesse therefore no two things are absolutely alike Light Can two things in any respect unlike one another proceed from the same causes in no respect differing from one another Soul Certainly they cannot for wherein they vary there must necessarily be some cause of their dissimilitude but the same causes still work the same therefore the causes must some way be different if there be difference in the effects Light This is well Then you and all the circumstances had not been the same if any one of the causes which concurred to the making of them had been alter'd in any thing concerning your making Soul That 's very true Light Then cast with your self what part of Nature you draw with you of all that pass'd before you Soul I see well that neither the causes immediately concurring to the making of me nor any that concurr'd to the making of them such as they ought necessarily to be for the making of me could from the beginning of the world to this hour be other then they have been if I were to be what I am But how farre this extends it self I do not clearly see Light Looke well into the causes of your body Doe you thinke the Aire contributes nothing Soul Yes certainly for it piercing all tender bodyes by Perspiration must of necessity alter much the disposition of either Man or Child if it self be different Light And if the very next Aire to that which enters into your body be different can that which enters be the same Soul Clearly it cannot for the next part in so fluid and penetrable a body must of necessity have great Influence into that which pierces my Body Light And how far reaches this operation Soul Marry in this way going from one to another and still arguing If the next be altered this cannot be the same I see no stop as far as the Air or any other such penetrable Body extends it self but the same consequence must be applyed to the whole Light You have forgotten your agreement with me in this point that the Air contributes to the bodies which are in it else you would easily have seen that all which communicate in the same Air must be chang'd if any the least thing in you were alter'd Soul Then if it be true what I see Astronomers now almost consent in that there are no Sphears but a continuall Aire or other subtile body runs through the whole frame of Nature all bodies that are must be alter'd for the alteration of any one unlesse Almighty God or some other Spirit by a particular and extraordinary interposure make an unexpected and preternaturall change in some one or more of them Light You are in the right but do you reflect upon the consequence that nothing created before you could be otherwise if you were to be what you are nor any thing following you could become what it is to be were not you what you are So that you shall find your self a partiall cause of all either before or after you Soul 'T is easie to conceive I may be cause of what comes after me because when once I have a being I can work and some effects may flow from me but before I my self am how can I be cause of any thing Light Do you not know that God creates nothing but he foresees and fore-wills all the good which is to follow upon such a production and makes it with designe that such good may proceed from 't Whence you may safely conclude that he intended you out of all that went before you and you are not ignorant that among the four kindes of Causes the finall or good intended is the chief and principall so that you are more the cause of what 's past then of what 's to come The eighth discourse Soul THough I know not what to answer to your Discourse nay though it seem clear
after it do but wish it and you cannot faile it cannot escape you but of it self will stoop to your lure and hand The ninth discourse Soul I Can better with a deep thought and silent recollection imprint upon my mind these glorious truths you have discovered to me then by words expresse how sensible I am of the charming contents they afford Now I see you have led me by degrees through all the pleasures of the mind from the most familiar and lowest to those of so high a pitch that they exceed the apprehension of Men and Angels I know not what remaines but to enquire since our Bodyes shall be partakers of happinesse with the Soul whether it shall have any proper pleasure of sense as it seems to have in this world Light Well said you as it seems to have for really it has none all motions which appear in beasts so orderly that they make a shew of proceeding from some degree of reason being only the quavering of certain aeriall or watery parts of the body so ordained by Nature as to be the beginnings of helping it self in its wants Now we out of our experience of our selves conceit they passe with knowledge in them as we find they do in us But marking our selves well we shall easily perceive that in Beasts all those motions may be without any true knowledge For if we observe our groning in diseases we shall experience that it is but the course of our breath which coming forcedly by reason of some restraint within sends forth that sad unmusicall noise as it would do out of a Pipe so made as our bodies are in that case By the same Instrument is performed the expression of Joy though tuned to another key and every passion causing some variety in our interiour Organs is the reason that our naturall expressions are divers which clearly discovers the hypocriticall ambition of such as professe to understand the language of Birds that truly is none at all If then we consider our body abstractedly as there is no knowledge in it but only a course of windy and watery substances shut up in conduits and cases so there is no pleasure nor grief but all depends upon the mind and is intirely derived from it even then when the body so impetuously irresistably seems to oppresse us Soul But at least shall the Soul then participate by the Body such pleasures as now she does by her senses Neither do I ask this out of any strong desire I have of them for your discourse hath weaned me from that by demonstrating such excessive store of far more delicious entertainments but only led on by a curiosity to know what shall betide us in that happy Kingdome Light I am glad to see you so reasonable and therefore propose you only one question Whether you think it fit any thing should be in that blessed state which might bring trouble and disturbance to its rest and peace Soul Nothing is more assured then that whatever is interruptive of joy ought to be banished from so great a felicity Light Then go along with me in one observation more and remember that all sensitive pleasures are troublesome and importune unlesse the body be in a certain disposition when such delights are seasonable as to one whose stomach is full not only the taste but even the very smell of meat is nauseous Which single instance if particularly look'd into and improved to the uttermost will sufficiently establish this conclusion that no corporeall pleasure is good to Man or Beast but in some want or distresse in the Body when either t is too full and would discharge some oppressed part or too empty and demands something to fill it Soul All this I agree to in pleasures of the tast and touch and peradventure of smelling which seems to have great affinity with our tast but how it should hold in recreations and delights conveyed to us by hearing and seeing I do not perceive Light Seeing in generally in order to knowledge and so the pleasure principally and purely of the mind not of the body But for hearing 't is evident enough that is so even by the sole experience of musick which we plainly feel inclines us to sadnesse or mirth according to its quality Who has not heard that it discharges the venome of the Tarantula in Apulia And by what vertue think we is this strange wonder wrought but that musick is to our inward as dancing or running to our outward parts And as Nature stirres up all young things Boyes and Lambs and Kitlins to play and run about by which they disperse the cloggy humours that otherwise would settle in their joynts so Musick strikes our inward aeriall parts into a quick and active motion which discharges them of their grosser humours and purges all into a sprightlinesse as rivers clear themselves by running and winds by the swiftnesse of their flying For we feel if we mark it the sensible stroaks of a Lute or Bandora beat the same measure in our Breasts as if the strings of our Heart and of the Instrument were both Unisons and certainly there is some substance there able to receive the impression as we see the Aire and Water do of such things as have any quick motion in them So that the sound of musick is sweet to us because the tremble it makes in our ear is agreeable to our Body but if you take away that proportion by which such a shake or motion is fit for us Musick it self would be ungratefull Wherefore if we conceive our Body shall be in the most happy and excellent disposition it can be put into and that all Motion must of necessity alter it from that temperament and by consequence change it into a worse we see that state is not a state of Motion but of Rest and that all Motion and alteration will be displeasure to our body To which if you joyn this reason that all corporeall action is either Motion or performed by it you may conclude there can no pleasure hereafter flow from Motion nor passe through our senses all whose operations depend upon it Soul Then is all corporeall pleasure to be left with this world Light When you come into the other or rather after the Great Day your body shall be inriched with all perfections its nature is capable of your soul with universall and almost infinite knowledge If still you desire any farther pleasures you shall have both skill and meanes to apply them to your self And as for Musick whose delight consists in the variety and connexion of proportions those your understanding shall participate more perfectly then any sense can afford and this in a high and noble manner of operation without the dull and slow assistance of eares to convey their impression to your mind Can you wish for more Soul Not only my utmost wishes but even my curiosity remaines fully satisfied For other qualities of our body I have been taught we shall
enjoy eternally all that can be desired a Strength irresistable an Agility so swift and active that the Soul cannot sooner command then the Body obey a Health firm and constant which nothing can either diminish or endanger lastly a Beauty now no beauty but pure Light and Glory Light You are in the right and I am very glad to observe your affection to that happy state from the kindnesse of your expressions concerning it only as for beauty of which some are particularly curious I shall propose this speculation It may be so comprised in a generall symmetrie of the body that neverthelesse every individuall person may enjoy such a singular and speciall temperament as shall be a degree of best the joyes of the soul darting their beams and diffusing their influences throughout the very body and rendering it the most lovely and desireable sight that can be imagined And now having driven our discourse up to this height that we are come within the view of heaven it self what remaines but burning desires perpetuall thoughts of and a dwelling even whilst we are here in our conceived happinesse above which only to understand and desire is to gain and for ever possesse But if neither eâ—ternall Felicities can allure us nor everlasting Miseries fright us into our evident duty what shall we answer at that Great Day if we find our selves upon the wrong hand What pretence can we offer to be placed on the right What excuse can we alledge against the dreadfull Nescio Vos Wherefore to avoid that unhappy separation to prevent that irrevocable banishment from our dear JESUS let us make our selves familiar with him here who by a thousand favours solicites our love and by a thousand titles deserves our service having spent His age and shed His precious bloud to redeem us from sin and draw us to himself to deliver us from the bondage of Satan and bring us to His own Kingdome rewarding us with the Crowns and Sceptres of Eternity To whom be given all possible honour and glory from all things for all things and in all things Amen FINIS AN EXERCISE OF LOVE WITH A DESCANT ON THE Prayer in the GARDEN By the same Authour S. Ign. ad Rom. Amor meus Crucifixus est AT PARIS Printed in the YEARE 1654. TO THE Right HONOURABLE THE Lady SOMMERSET MADAM AS your Commands have been able to strain all the Sinews of my Soul into a quick and faithfull Obedience So had they the power to imbue it with that gentle softnesse and tender Devotion whence themselves proceeded this my Pen had bled out the sweetest pangs that ever swelld the Breast of any Seraphin But finding my Heart-strings too cough and restiff for pliance to such delicious charmes they leave a necessity on me to beseech your cautious perusall of these Lines wherein the jarring discords of my confus'd apprehensions and rugged expressions may otherwise prove too offensive to the harmony of so equall so well tun'd a Soul in which I can complain of this only fault Your imposing so strong and weighty a task upon so slight so weak though MADAM Your Honours most perfectly subjected Servant Tho White Paris 9. Sept. 1653. AN EXERCISE OF LOVE PErmit me my Lord my God to confesse to thee thy Mercies and repeat in thy presence thy infinite Bounties that I may love and honour and praise Thee with my whole heart and forces Let me remember how from all Eternity I was nothing till by thy order I sprung up a tender Imp and bud testifying my Origin by my weaknesse and inability to help my self Nor did my Father or Mother those kind instruments to whom thou would'st have me beholding for my Being know or intend me when they serv'd thee to make me but thou before all time hadst among millions rejected named me and sign'd my happy lot whilest I lay sleeping in my nothingnesse and unbeing What could'st thou see in me dread Lord that might move thy will to select me from that Masse of non-Entity Peradventure did I love Thee Alas I who was not what could I love yet if I could have lov'd surely nothing lesse then Thee who wast most contrary to my Nullity But though I was not to love Thee Thou wast who could'st love me and love me as I was not able to love Thee nor yet any thing else for I cannot love but what is and by its amiablenesse produces a liking in me How miserable then were I if Thou lov'dst not me till I could afford something that might please Thee But thou didst love me when I could not love Thee and sealedst Thy love stamping Thine Own Image on my face on the face of my Soul first giving me a power to love Thee and consequently on my Body as 't is fitted to such a Soul The Marks of thy bounty are no lesse then all I am and have Ah wretched I that continually weare about me all those Tokens of thy kindnesse and yet not love Thee and yet fear that perhaps Thou lov'st not me Dear Lord make me love Thee that I may not fear Thou lov'st not me for True love knowes not what it is to fear But Thou art not content to have made me of Nothing if thou hadst not surrounded me with innumerable Helps and created as it were the whole World for me If the Aire and Fire did not afford me breath and warmth the Land and Sea with their infinite Issue variety of food and cloathing and these not what confines with my place of residence but even from their utmost bounds If I look upon my Table I see Fish from the Frozen Zone Sugar from the Torrid and Spices from the East and the West If on my Attire the Profundities of the Earth and Water the Longitude and Latitude of Mans Habitation meet all in me as in a Centre to bestow their Rarities upon me O Great God! who set the multitudes of unhappy Creatures buried in the bowels of Metallick Hills and consumed in the Marishes of Brasil to labour for me Who commands the Sea-men to burn under the Equator and freeze by the Poles to replenish me with Dainties Who ordained Kings and Potentates Counsellers and Souldiers to beat their braines forget their sleep and hazard their lives to produce me Quiet and Abundance Not they themselves who for the most part are carried with vile and wretched appetites to pursue unworthy ends neither knowing nor dreaming of me but only Thou my Lord and God who marshallest Heaven and Earth for those thou art pleased to blesse who heapest thy favours on a generation of dull stupid Creatures that can receive all thy gifts without returning the least love to the Giver that live and move and have their being from Thee never so much as acknowledge thy Bounty Why permittest Thou so unsufferable ingratitude Why dost Thou not either suspend thy mercies or make us more sensible of our duties From this houre Dear Lord let not my hand touch a bit
for thy Body is in Heaven as in another and different thing but in the Sacrament substantially in It as mans Soul and Body are in Man as the adored Person of God is in my Lord Jesus Christ as every thing is in its self or in its whole Thou art therefore my Jesus both in Heaven and in the Sacrament truly but in one more properly in the other more excellently Reallity is in both but the Manner different Wherefore I cannot complain thou hast left us by thine Ascension and bereaved us of that comfortable Presence whose force was so magneticall in thy life-time No no I see Thee as truly as they did then I feel thee as corporally as did That Master of Touching who sought thy Side and Wounds to embalme his Sense in I Tast Thee as really as the Chanaan-Feaster did the Wine Thou sentst him Thou deludest not my Senses by making me onely seem to See Feel and Taste when indeed I do not Thou entertain'st me not with other things or Qualities which are with Thee but not thy self No no the White I see is Thou the Body I hold in my hand or mouth is Thine and Thou that which yeelds Savour to my tongue and palate is thy-self and no other thing This thou hast told me this thy Church has ever apprehended and taught this I believe and confesse to Thee But oh can I conceive without trembling or speak without horrour Does Man's Hand break the Body of my Saviour do Mans teeth rend and mangle the Sacred vesture of Deity Yes yes my Soul fear not to confesse the Wonders and Mercies of thy Lord and God they may be hard to understand but they are the Words of Life So farre has He subjected his glorious Body to our use that what other bread can suffer may be wrought upon Him Not that we can tear a Finger from his Hand or his Hand from his Arm or any one member from another but as when we break bread every piece is still bread so when we divide his Body both parts remain his whole Body for it was not one part that became one part of the Bread and another the rest but all succeeded to each part of bread Let great Clerks in their Schools with their subtilties search how this can be effected for seeing it is done in bread it is not against Nature nor unintelligible even by That to me let it suffice the Church has taught me 't is so and that 't is the greatest benignity and most gracious condescence that God himself could expresse to have it be so And is this more perhaps then that thy immortall flesh should nourish my mortall Carcase that it is mingled with Mine as Wine with Water as two melted Waxes incorporate themselves Let none tell me 't is Quantity that is digested into my body for then it is not Thou that nourishest me and I will not forgo those precious expressions that Thou feed'st me with Thy Flesh and giv'st me Thy Bloud to drink So thy Words sound so thy Church has taught so I believe How this can be done without thy being turn'd into me or how thy Substance can unchangedly be chang'd into mine that thou mayest endue my Flesh with a quality of Immortality let the Sages question but I 'm sure 't is so this I know is the way of Love and the most charming Mystery and inchanting Riddle that ever love-spent bowels were able to sing or sigh out ANd now my Soul having thus perfunctorily Alas viewed the excessive benefits of Almighty God 't is time to reflect a little upon thy Duty and consider what motions and affections they should stirre and work in thee First Thou hast seen how all thou hast are gifts and not onely all but wholly If any friend has done thee kindnesse He prepar'd that Friend he gave him the power the occasion the will to serve thee he blest his endeavours with efficacy successe If thou thy self hast done any thing to thine own improvement or advantage He gave thee not onely Body and Soul with all their powers and faculties not only matter opportunity strength will liberty choice but every least imaginable perfection of the very stroak of choise and liberty insomuch that there is nothing no considerability of it so from thy self that even its being from thee comes not from the Almighty in comparison to whom no Friend no creature ever did or can do any thing for thee Shall then the friendship or love of any Creature have power to draw my affection from God permit it not my great Creatour but thorowly perfect thy work Why am I good by half 's since I am entirely thy Designe I professe before Thee who seest my very heart and before Angels and Men that I ought not to be so that 't is folly and madnesse to be so Give me then thy grace utterly to abhorre and detest so injurious so unworthy an ingratitude And since Thou vouchsaf'st thus clearly to convince me that 't is a great indignity and against all reason and truly-naturall inclination to join any with Thee grant me ever with all exactnesse to observe this duty That as no Creature has the least part in doing me good but merely so farre as it has it from Thee no not I my self so none none may share with Thee in my Love but just so farre as thy love thine order thy direction applies it to them Next my Soul thou hast seen how the Benefits of God are not onely all thou hast but that they are in an excessive Measure wide as the World uncountable as the sands of the Sea great as the Creatures can be since neither the eminentest Men nor highest Angels are exempt from being ministring spirits employed for thy salvation nay God himself in the two Persons of the Son and Holy Ghost has condescended to wait on Thee So various and superabundant they are that they comply not onely with thy necessity but serve even thy delights and recreations So that thou art neither able to conceive the multitude and greatnesse nor comprehend the worth and pleasingnesse of his favours What then canst thou say but onely lie gasping with admiration of so vast so unknown a Goodnesse and sigh out in the centre of thy Heart My sole-Good my All I thought before I was bound to acknowledge thy Benefits and love Thee for them but now I renounce both for he that acknowledges makes a shew as if he were able to esteem and he that loves seems as if he would render somewhat Not so I my great Master not so But I protest my self infinitly below all thy mercies unable to value the least of thy Blessings much lesse to repay Thee any thing for them since had I any thing worthy thy acceptance it were all thine and I could offer Thee nothing but thine own What then shall I do but throw my heart at the feet of thy bounty all-open all-melted without any self-will or power
her Spouse is not pleased to sit by her self and stedily fix her thought upon him wishing for the day she shall once meet and enjoy him till then love and honour him in his Picture see him in every one that has seen and known him and be overjoyed with all Tokens that come from him Whereof what variety my soul hast thou from thy God All we have hitherto discours'd is nothing else Heaven and earth and all that is in them His Divinity his Humanity his Body Blood and Soul Thy self all thou hast all thou dost all thou hast done or ever shalt do Se Nascens dedit socium Convescens in Edulium se Moriens in Pretium se regnans dat in Praemium But retire thy self a little my soul from the multitude of the Creatures His benefits to thy more united thoughts for Love's Palace to be compleat must have a with-drawingroom Thither then retire and consider this Great Courtier that makes so many Embassyes to thee for thy Love Know who He is whether He be the best worthy thy Affections First what 's His Extraction Is He Noble and of an ancient race He is the First of things whence all Nobility derives its esteem His Ancientnesse is Eternity higher driven then Time His Creature and Off-spring which yet is the measure of all other Auncestry True it is He is the First of his House but the Last too His nobility is not by derivation from others and a participation of their worth 't is entirely His Own out-wearing the long Pedegrees of Mankind's successions by the never-changing greatnesse of His Own Person Is He powerfull All things except himself are his Creatures and the Works of his Hand they depend for their being all they have all they are worth on his breath and would perish if he did not perpetually drop them from his omnipotent Fingers He works them and turns them as he lists with a Fiat and none can breath a wish to resist him but by his permission nor is Himself able to make a Thing of such strength that it can break his least Order or Will Is He rich Sea and Land and all their Treasures are His Beasts and Birds Fishes and Trees and Plants are the store of his Basse-Court the mines of the Earth and the Jewels of the Ocean are the refuse of his plenty All that lies hidden behind the dazling starres whose riches we cannot imagine all 's His. There 's no end of his Wealth and his Creatures are not able to make use of the least part of it All this is well But peradventure He is a great way off and I cannot come near Him He is every where He makes Place it self He is in all Things and their Places to be separated from him is to be Nothing and No where He is in thy very Heart and in the bottome of thy Soul the inmost thing thou canst finde in thy self is He nor canst thou look upon any thing without or within thee but He is to be found and seen in it if thou hast Eyes turned towards him and a Mind to discern him Thou canst never want his light but by thine own fault never be excluded from his Presence but when thou turnest thy back to him which yet can be but from his favours not from his Power With all this is he wise The Device of the World is His He contriv'd the Order of Heaven and Earth The Planets roul by his measures Night and Day proceed by his direction the Waters in the Sea expect his beck turning and winding just as he pleases He joynted the Beasts every one to his peculiar motion and frames the Little-ones in the Damm's Wombes He prevents and casts the counsels of Men catching those who think themselves crafty in their own snares and over-reaching them in their most premeditated projects He changes Kingdomes and States making Tyrants the instruments of their own ruine In a word He governs the Fates of Men and Angels and brings them to those Ends he thinks fittest Is He Bountifull and magnificent Behold the Earth we walk on all this he gave to One Man Alas we but trample on the out-side and fill a small part of it there 's a thousand times more we never come to see and of this surface we inhabite what vast Deserts are possest onely by Beasts and Birds whilst all the Sea covers is stor'd onely with Fishes Think what abundance of Plants Beasts Birds and Fishes live and die without the knowledge of Men yet all bestowed on them and created for them Remember what a heap of Benefits thou found'st laden upon thy self and know that Others have no lesse See the Sun and Moon lighted like Torches to wait upon us one farre greater the other not much lesse then the whole Earth See in a fair night how the huge world about us is bestudded with glorious Gemms that serve for nothing but witnesses of his great Magnificence and unbounded Prodigality to us But Is He Purely Loving and has no Ends in all He does When no Creature had a Being He was brim-full of Glory and infinitely satiated with his own happinesse being Essentially Joy and Pleasure to Himself to Himself Honour and Praise and all He could wish He could desire nothing nor aim at obtaining any thing Now He has made Creatures He 's never the better for them his Heart is not touch'd with their praises or good-works no more then 't is molested with their dispraises or mis-deeds nor can any possible Creature have force to move his Will more then my weaknesse has to change the course of the Sun and Moon He made all Creatures therefore not for any good in them or love conceiv'd from them but meerly out of the Intrinsecall Goodnesse of His Own Nature and the strong Inclination which Himself is to do Good because He is what He is an Inclination stronger and more naturall then any Lover in this world can have with as much advantage as God's Nature has over a Creatures So not without reason is His Love but totally Reason as not kindled by thinking or casting to obtain any End but perfectly from Nature and Essence and no more to be wrested from Him then can His own Being yet neverthelesse most perfectly free and rationall This is much But He Loves a great many so that I fear I shall have a small portion in His Affection O no His Heart is whole where it is and as He comprehends perfectly all things with so high an eminency that he knowes every one as well as if there were nothing else to be known so He loves every one as dearly as if there were no other He is with one without parting from another He fills one without emptying another and as a Rainbow in a Multitudes Eyes or Thunder in all the Worlds Eares He is Whole in All and Whole in Every one His Affection his Care his Tendernesse is intire indivisible to every one the Multitude of those
Act to surpasse the precedent as thou didst still may I pursue the perfect Conquest of my self till there remain in me no affection able to shew its head no passion daring to rebell against this heaven-born Principle but it become sole Lord and absolute possessour of my Soul as it was of thine Then shall I not fear to sing a happy Nunc dimittis when ere our just and glorious Judge shall send His warning rod to cite me to that great to weak men but no secret to such piercing spirits as thine who enjoyedst a high noon-day in this world to break into a seven-fold light when the welcome hand of death drew the thin and already half-transparent curtain of thy mortality Amen A DESCANT ON THE Prayer in the GARDEN OBtain for me ye beloved Disciples of our LORD Peter James and John you happy favourites of the World's Redeemer who by especiall prerogative of love are still let in to his greatest secrets obtain for me permission to wait on you into the Garden of Gethsemani and with an humble silence to observe what passes there Grief has already I see seiz'd on your hearts and raising drowsie humours into your heads may suddainly perhaps surprise your eyes and seal them up in their own tears My heart is too stony to admit so deep an impression my head too full of vanity to be opprest with so rationall so religious a sadness I 'le watch and try to improve my levity into vertue whilst you relieve your sorrows with the short comfort of an hour's repose But while I speak behold my Lord whirl'd away by the vehemency of his Spirit like a ship rent from its shoar and anchors with a strong and suddain tempest Behold him cast on the ground his knees bent his eyes o'reflown his hands stretch'd up towards heaven all cover'd with gloomy clouds and darknesse his heart swoln his lips ready to break into some loud and dolefull complaint against mans ingratitude Oh my Lord what means this unusuall strife contention in thy own brest Thou wept'st indeed o're Jerusalem and the pious Magdalen drew tears from thy eyes but there was no such astonishment as this Thou discoursedst of thy Passion in Mount Thabor but with a glory that ravisht the hearts of all that beheld it and receiv'd from Heaven it self an attestation of thy Eternall Father Often hast thou profest a great desire to see this houre often complain'd that the time was so long deferr'd and when thou cam'st this last voyage towards the Town thou advancedst with so quick a courage that thy swiftest followers could not equall thy pace And now thou art arrived at the place of thy wishes and the day thou hast so impatiently expected approches neer horrour seizes thee grief surrounds thee cold and stupifying fears oppresse thee and that strong and resolute heart seems wholly o'recome with the apprehension of this sad Tragedy Art thou daunted at the sight of danger is the face of Death so frightfull to thee O no but thy kind design is to be tempted in all things without sin that we may be comforted in the faintings and tremblings of our heart To fear to be perplext to grieve is an imperfection and weaknesse in humane nature which might and therefore ought to be assum'd for our salvation and example that we may learn of thee this great difficult lesson how to comport our selves at the full tide of anguish and tribulation But now the trembling aire warns us of some ringing cry that 's streaming towards our eares Father let this cup passe from me O my God my Creatour my hope and authour of all my good to thee it is he addresses his petition before thee and thy mercifull eyes he humbly unbinds and layes open all his wounds too deep to be cur'd by any but thy almighty hand too near his heart to find remedy but from him who is in the centre of his heart the only searcher and perfect healer of all hearts Hear him most gracious and bountifull God hear him who so justly calls thee Father Remember 't is he whom thou dost essentially and eternally generate Remember that Soul-ravishing delight of God and Man wherewith thou art his Beginner Remember thy Divinity is as truly and fully his as thine thou hast it but to give and 't is his to receive Remember he is that right hand with which thou twice didst strike the barren rock of Nothing and the plentifull fountain of All things gushed out to refresh the desaâ—t of thine elect Remember he is the light of thy eyes that pure eternall light that rises from thy own bright bosome and shines perpetually in thy glorious Presence Nor canst thou alledge the exorbitancy of this request to justifie the unkindnesse of thy refusall He asks not a Hecatombe of men and Angels to be offer'd in sacrifice to his great name which yet thy Justice could not deny the Dignity of his Person He demands not that the world's fabrick should crack and its sinewes be strain'd in pieces to change all Fates and Destinyes for his pleasure yet were not this too great a boldnesse for him that supports their poise with his power and cements them together with his wisdome He pretends not to honour wealth or long life yet all these thou bestowedst on Solomon as a voluntary excesse of thy bounty and supererogation to what he ask't thee and behold a greater then Solomon is here He seeks not the bloud of his Enemies in revenge of their unjust and malicious persecution his prayers are confin'd to his own afflicted person for one poor life he offers up all his sighs all his teares nay not so much for the only deferring of death and if that be yet too high he humbles his petition to this low request only a lesâ—e cruell a lesse intolerable death not a whole deluge of bitternesse not all the torments and affronts that a cursed synagogue of desperate Hypocrites could maliciously suggest or an enraged rabble of a debauch'd and insolent multitude furiously execute Can there be a more reasonable desire a more cleer and confident subject of hope can there be a more unquestionable plea a more violent and enforcing cry to heaven And hark how it tears its way through the shiver'd Elements in those strong and piercing words All things are possible to Thee Excuse not thy self lay not the fault on others say not 't is the wicked Judas betrayed him when Thy own hands deliver'd him to his Enemie Say not the hearts of the Jewes are hard since if thou pleasest thy Grace can instantly mollifie them Say not Herod is a proud and libertine King Pilate an unbelieving Pagan whose fear of Cesar was above his love to Justice for the hearts of Kings are in thy hand and out of stones thou art able to make start up Sons of Abraham And though the dismall houre be come and the Kingdome of darknesse encroach upon thy confines yet hast thou more then