imperfection injoyed in this vale of tears SECT VI. NOw that these mutuall respects may be sure not to coole with intermission the devout heart takes all occasions both to thinke of God and to speak to him There is nothing that hee sees which doth not bring God to his thoughts Indeed there is no creature werein there are not manifest footsteps of omnipotence Yea which hath not a tongue to tell us of it's Maker The heaven declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-worke one day telleth another and one night certifieth another Yea O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome hast thou made them all The earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide sea where are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts Every herb flower spire of grasse every twig and leaf every worm and fly every scale and feather every billow and meteor speaks the power and wisdom of their infinite Creator Solomon sends the sluggard to the Ant Esay sends the Jews to the Ox and the Asse Our Saviour sends his Disciples to the Ravens to the Lillies of the field There is no creature of whom we may not learn something we shall have spent our time ill in this great schoole of the world if in such store of Lessons we be non-proficients in Devotion Vaine Idolaters make to themselves Images of God whereby they sinfully represent him to their thoughts and adoration could they have the wit and grace to see it God hath taken order to spare them this labor in that he hath stamped in every creature such impressions of his infinite power wisdome goodnes as may give us just occasion to worship and praise him with a safe and holy advantage to our soules For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead And indeed wherefore serve all the volumes of Naturall History but to be so many Commentaries upon the severall creatures wherein we may read God and even those men who have not the skill or leisure to peruse them may yet out of their own thoughts and observation raise from the sight of all the works of God sufficient matter to glorifie him Who can be so stupid as not to take notice of the industry of the Bee the providence of the Ant the cunning of the Spider the reviving of the Flye the worms endeavour of revenge the subtilty of the Foxe the sagacity of the Hedge-hog the innocence and profitablenesse of the Sheep the laboriousnesse of the Oxe the obsequiousness of the Dog the timorous shifts of the Hare the nimblenesse of the Dear the generosity of the Lion the courage of the Horse the fiercenesse of the Tiger the chearful musick of Birds the harmlesnesse of the Dove the true love of the Turtle the Cocks observation of time the Swallows architecture shortly for it were easie here to be endlesse of the severall qualities and dispositions of every of those our fellow-creatures with whom we converse on the face of the earth and who that takes notice of them cannot fetch from every act and motion of theirs some monition of duty and occasion of devout thoughts Surely I fear many of us Christians may justly accuse our selves as too neglective of our duty this way that having thus long spent our time in this great Academy of the world we have not by so many silent documents learned to ascribe more glory to our Creator I doubt those creatures if they could exchange their brutality with our reason being now so docible as to learn of us so far as their sense can reach would approve themselves better Scholars to us than we have been unto them Withall I must add that the devout soul stands not alwaies in need of such outward monitors but findes within it selfe sufficient incitements to raise up it self to a continuall minding of God and makes use of them accordingly and if at any time being taken up with importunate occasions of the world it finds God missing but an hour it chides it selfe for such neglect and sets it self to recover him with so much more eager affection as the faithfull spouse in the Canticles when she finds him whom her soul loved withdrawn from her for a season puts her self into a speedy search after him and gives not over till shee have attained his presence SECT VII NOw as these many monitors both outward inward must elevate our hearts very frequently to God so those raised hearts must not entertain him with a dumbe contemplation but must speak to him in the language of spirits All occasions therefore must be taken of sending forth pious and heavenly ejaculations to God The devout soul may doe this more than an hundred times a day without any hindrance to his speciall vocation The Huswife at her Wheel the Weaver at his Loome the Husbandman at his Plough the Artificer in his Shop the Traveller in his way the Merchant in his Warehouse may thus enjoy God in his busiest imploiment For the soule of man is a nimble spirit and the language of thoughts needs not take up time and though we now for examples sake cloath them in words yet in our practice we need not Now these Ejaculations may bee either at large or Occasionall At large such as that of old Jacob O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Or that of David O save me for thy mercies sake And these either in matter of Humiliation or of Imploration or of Thanksgiving In all which we cannot follow a better pattern than the sweet singer of Israel whose heavenly conceptions we may either borrow or imitate In way of humiliation such as these Heal my soul O Lord for I have sinned against thee Oh remember not my old sins but have mercy upon mee If thou wilt be extreme to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Lord thou knowest the thoughts of man that they are but vaine O God why abhorrest thou my soul and hidest thy face from me In way of Imploration Up Lord and help me O God Oh let my heart bee sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Lord where are thy old loving mercies Oh deliver me for I am helplesse and my heart is wounded within me Comfort the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord doe I lift up my soul Go not far from me O God O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy name Thou art my helper and redeemer O Lord make no long tarrying Oh be thou my helpe in trouble for vain is the help of man Oh guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory My time is in thy hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies Oh withdraw not thy mercy from me O Lord. Lead me O
dangerous inconvenience wherof hath been too often found in the rash and unwarrantable expressions that have fallen from the mouths of unwary suppliants but we must addresse our selves with due preparation to that holy worke we must digest our sutes fore-order our supplications to the Almighty so that there may be excellent and necessary use of meet rules of our Devotion He whose Spirit helps us to pray and whose lips taughts us how to pray is an all-sufficient example for us all the skill of men and Angels cannot afford a more exquisite modell of supplicatory Devotion than that blessed Saviour of ours gave us in the mount led in by a divine and heart-raising preface carried out with a a strong and heavenly enforcement wherein an awfull compellation makes way for petition and petition makes way for thanksgiving the petitions marshalled in a most exact order for spirituall blessings which have an immediate concernment of God in the first place then for temporall favours which concern our selves in the second so punctuall a method had notbeen observed by him that heareth prayers if it had been all one to him to have had our Devotions confused and tumultuary SECT III. THere is commonly much mistaking of Devotion as if it were nothing but an act of vocall prayer expiring with that holy breath and revived with the next taske of our invocation which is usually measured of many by frequence length smoothnesse of expression lowdnes vehemence Whereas indeed it is rather an habituall disposition of an holy soul sweetly conversing with God in all the forms of an heavenly yet awfull familiarity and a constant entertainment of our selves here below with the God of spirits in our sanctified thoughts and affections One of the noble exercises whereof is our accesse to the throne of grace in our prayers whereto may be added the ordering of our holy attendance upon the blessed word sacraments of the Almighty Nothing hinders therefore but that a stammering suppliant may reach to a more eminent devotion than hee that can deliver himself in the most fluent and patheticall formes of Elocution and that our silence may bee more devout than our noise We shall not need to send you to the Cels or Cloysters for this skill although it will hardly be believed how far some of their Contemplative men have gone in the Theory hereof Perhaps like as Chymists give rules for the attaining of that Elixir which they never found for sure they must needs fail of that perfection they pretend who erre commonly in the object of it alwayes in the ground of it which is faith stripped by their opinion of the comfortablest use of it certainty of application SECT IV. AS there may be many resemblances betwixt Light and Devotion so this one especially that as there is a light universally diffused through the aire and there is a particular recollection of light into the body of the Sun and Stars so it is in Devotion There is a generall kind of Devotion that goes through the renewed heart and life of a Christian which wee may terme Habitual and Virtual and there is a speciall and fixed exercise of Devotion which we name Actuall The soule that is rightly affected to God is never void of an holy Devotion where ever it is what ever it doth it is still lifted up to God and fastned upon him and converses with him ever serving the Lord in feare and rejoycing in him with trembling For the effectuall performance whereof it is requisite first that the heart bee setled in a right apprehension of our God without which our Devotion is not thanklesse onely but sinfull With much labour therefore agitation of a mind illuminated from above we must find our selves wrought to an high awfull adorative and constant conceit of that incomprehensible Majesty in whom wee live and move and are One God in three most glorious Persons infinite in wisdome in power in justice in mercy in providence in all that he is in all that he hath in all that he doth dwelling in light inaccessible attended with thousand thousands of Angels whom yet we neither can know neither would it availe us if we could but in the face of the eternall Son of his Love our blessed Mediatour God and Man who sits at the right hand of Majesty in the highest heavens from the sight of whose glorious humanity we comfortably rise to the contemplation of that infinite Deity whereto it is inseparably united in and by him made ours by a lively Faith finding our persons and obedience accepted expecting our ful redemption and blessednesse Here here must our hearts be unremoveably fixed In his light must we see light no cloudy occurrences of this world no busie imployments no painfull sufferings must hinder us from thus seeing him that is invisible SECT V. NEither doth the devout heart see his Grd aloof off as dwelling above in the circle of heaven but beholds that infinite Spirit really present with him The Lord is upon thy right hand saith the Psalmist Our bodily eye doth not more certainly see our owne flesh than the spirituall eye sees God close by us Yea in us A mans own soule is not so intimate to himselfe as God is to his soule neither do we move by him only but in him What a sweet conversation therefore hath the holy soul with his God What heavenly conferences have they two which the world is not privy to whiles God entertains the soul with the divine motions of his Spirit the soul entertaines God with gracious compliances Is the heart heavy with the grievous pressures of affliction the soule goes in to his God and pours out it selfe before him in earnest bemoanings and supplications the God of mercy answers the soule again with seasonable refreshings of comfort Is the heart secretly wounded and bleeding with the conscience of some sinne it speedily betakes it selfe to the great Physician of the soul who forthwith applyes the balm of Gilead for an unfailing and present cure Is the heart distracted with doubts the soule retires to that inward Oracle of God for counsail he returnes to the soule an happy settlement of just resolution Is the heart deeply affected with the sense of some speciall favour from his God the soul breaks forth into the passionate voice of praise thanksgiving God returns the pleasing testimony of a cheerful acceptation Oh blessed soul that hath a God to go unto upon all occasions Oh infinite mercy of a God that vouchsafes to stoop to such intirents with dust ashes It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed now breathing towards heaven That he should change his place not his company His conversation was now before hand with his God and his holy Angels the only difference was that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life in that region of glory above whom he had truly though with weaknes and
Lord in thy righteousness because of mine enemies O let my soul live and it shall praise thee In way of Thanksgiving Oh God wonderfull art thou in thine holy places O Lord how glorious are thy workes thy thoughts are very deep Oh God who is like unto thee The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong helper Lord thy loving kindnesse is better than life it self All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints give thanks unto thee Oh how manifold are thy workes in wisdome hast thou made them all Who is God but the Lord and who hath any strength except our God Wee will rejoyce in thy salvation and triumph in thy name O Lord. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse Oh how plentifull is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee In thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore Lord what is man that thou art mindfull of him Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise SECT VIII OCcasionall Ejaculations are such as are moved upon the presence of some such object as carries a kind of relation or analogy to that holy thought which we have entertained Of this nature I find that which was practised in S. Basils time that upon the lighting of candles the manner was to blesse God in these words Praise be to God the Father and the Son and the Holy ghost which that Father says was anciently used but who was the Author of it he professeth to bee unknown to the same purpose was the Lucernarium which was a part of the evening office of old For which there may seem to be more colour of reason than for the ordinary fashion of apprecation upon occasion of our sneesing which is expected and practised by many out of civility Old and reverend Beza was wont to move his hat with the rest of the company but to say withall Gramercy Madame la Superstition Now howsoever in this or any other practice which may seeme to carry with it a smacke of Superstition our Devotion may be groundlesse and unseasonable yet nothing hinders but that we may take just holy hints of raising up our hearts to our God As when we doe first look forth and see the heavens over our heads to thinke The heavens declare thy glory O God When we see the day breaking or the Sun rising The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sunne When the light shines in our faces Thou deckest thy self with light as with a garment or Light is sprung up for the righteous When we see our Garden imbellisht with flowers The earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. When we see a rough sea The waves of the sea rage horribly and are mighty but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier than they When we see the darknesse of the night The darknes is no darknes with thee When we rise up from our bed or our seat Lord thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising thou understādest my thoughts afar off When we wash our hands Wash thou me O Lord and I shall be whiter than snow When we are walking forth O hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not When we hear a passing-bell Oh teach me to number my dayes that I may apply my heart to wisdome or Lord let me know my end and the number of my dayes Thus may wee dart out our holy desires to God upon all occasions Wherein heed must be taken that our Ejaculations be not on the one side so rare that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God but that they may be held on in continuall acknowledgement of him and acquaintance with him and on the other side that they be not so overfrequent in their perpetual reiteration as that they grow to be like that of the Romish votaries fashionable which if great care bee not taken will fall out to the utter frustrating of our Devotion Shortly let the measure of these devout glances be the preserving our hearts in a constant tendernes godly disposition which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities by the exercises of our more enlarged and fixed Devotion Whereof there is the same variety that there is in Gods services about which it is conversant There are three maine businesses wherein God accounts his service here below to consist The first is our address to the throne of Grace and the pouring out of our souls before him in our prayers The second is the reading and hearing his most holy Word The third is the receit of his blessed Sacraments In all which there is place and use for a fetled Devotion SECT IX TO begin with the first work of our actual and enlarged Devotion Some things are pre-required of us to make us capable of the comfortable performance of so holy and heavenly a duty namely that the heart be cleane first and then that it be cleare clean from the defilement of any knowne sin cleare from all intanglements and distractions What doe wee in our prayers but converse with the Almighty and either carry our soules up to him or bring him down to us now it is no hoping that we can entertaine God in an impure heart Even wee men loath a nasty and sluttish lodging how much more will the holy God abhorre an habitation spiritually filthy I find that even the unclean spirit made that a motive of his repossession that he found the house swept and garnished Satans cleanlinesse is pollution and his garnishment disorder and wickednesse without this he findes no welcome Each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature How much more will that God of spirits who is purity it selfe look to be harboured in a cleanly room Into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin What friend would be pleased that wee should lodge him in a Lazar-house or who would abide to have a Toad lie in his bosome Surely it is not in the verge of created nature to yeeld any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man as sin is to that absolute and essentiall Goodnesse His pure eyes cannot indure the sight of sin neither can he indure that the sinner should come within the sight of him Away from me yee wicked is his charge both here and hereafter It is the privilege and happinesse of the pure in heart that they shall see God see him both in the end and in the way enjoying the vision of him both in grace and in glory this is no object for impure eys Descend into thy self therefore and ransack
must needs follow a renewed act of true thankfulnes of heart to our good God that hath both given us his dear Son to work our redemption his blessed Sacrament to seal up unto us our redemption thus wrought and purchased And with souls thus thankfully elevated unto God we aproach with all reverence to that heavenly Table where God is both the Feast-master and the Feast What intention of holy thoughts what fervour of spirit what depth of Devotion must we now find in our selves Doubtlesse out of heaven no object can be so worthy to take up our hearts What a clear representation is here of the great work of our Redemption How is my Saviour by all my senses here brought home to my soul How is his passion lively acted before mine eyes For lo my bodily eye doth not more truely see bread and wine than the eye of my faith sees the body and bloud of my dear Redeemer Thus was his sacred body torn and broken Thus was his precious bloud poured out for me My sins wretched man that I am helped thus to crucifie my Saviour and for the discharge of my sins would he be thus crucified Neither did hee only give himselfe for me upon the Crosse but lo both offers and gives himself to me in this his blessed institution what had his generall gift been without this application Now my hand doth not more sensibly take nor my mouth more really eate this bread than my soule doth spiritually receive and feed on the bread of life O Saviour thou art the living bread that came dome from heaven Thy flesh is meat indeed and thy bloud is drink indeed Oh that I may so eate of this bread that I may live for ever He that commeth to thee shall never hunger he that beleeveth in thee shall never thirst Oh that I could now so hunger and so thirst for thee that my soul could be for ever satisfied with thee Thy people of old were fed with Manna in the wildernesse yet they dyed that food of Angels could not keep them from perishing but oh for the hidden Manna which giveth life to the world even thy blessed self give me ever of this bread and my soule shall not dye but live Oh the precious juice of the fruit of the Vine wherewith thou refreshest my soul Is this the bloud of the grape Is it not rather thy bloud of the New Testament that is poured out for me Thou speakest O Saviour of new wine that thou wouldest drink with thy Disciples in thy Fathers Kindome can there be any more precious and pleasant than this wherewith thou cheerest the beleeving soule our palate is now dull and earthly which shall then exquisite and celestiall but surely no liquor can be of equall price or soveraignty with thy bloud Oh how unsavory are all earthly delicacies to this heavenly draught O God let not the sweet taste of this spirituall Nectar ever goe out of the mouth of my soul Let the cōfortable warmth of this blessed Cordiall ever work upon my soul even till and in the last moment of my dissolution Dost thou bid me O Saviour do this in remembrance of thee Oh how can I forget thee How can I enough celebrate thee for this thy unspeakable mercy Can I see thee thus crucified before my eyes and for my sake thus crucified and not remember thee Can I find my sins accessary to this thy death and thy death meritoriously expiating all these my grievous sins and not remember thee Can I hear thee freely offering thy selfe to me and feele thee graciously conveighing thy self into my soul and not remember thee I doe remember thee O Saviour but oh that I could yet more effectually remember thee with all the passionate affections of a soul sick of thy love with all zealous desires to glorifie thee with all fervent longings after thee and thy salvation I remember thee in thy sufferings Oh doe thou remember me in thy glory SECT XXIX HAving thus busied it self with holy thoughts in the time of the celebration the devout soul breaks not off in an abrupt unmannerlinesse without taking leave of the great master of this heavenly feast but with a secret adoration humbly blesseth God for so great a mercy and heartily resolves and desires to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus whom it hath received and to consecrate it selfe wholly to the service of him that hath so dearly bought it and hath given it these pledges of its eternall union with him The Devout Soul hath thus supt in heaven and returns home yet the work is not thus done after the elements are out of eye and use there remains a digestion of this celestiall food by holy meditation and now it thinks Oh what a blessing have I received to day no lesse than my Lord Jesus with all his merits and in and with him the assurance of the remission of all my sins and everlasting salvation How happy am I if I be not wanting to God my self How unworthy shall I be if I doe not strive to answer this love of my God and Saviour in all hearty affection and in all holy obedience And now after this heavenly repast how do I feel my self what strength what advantage hath my faith gotten how much am I nearer to heaven than before how much faster hold have I taken of my blessed Redeemer how much more firm and sensible is my interest in him Neither are these thoughts and this examination the work of the next instant onely but they are such as must dwell upon the heart and must often solicite our memory and excite our practise that by this means we may frequently renew the efficacy of this blessed Sacrament and our souls may batten more and more with this spirituall nourishment and may be fed up to eternall life SECT XXX THese are the generalities of our Devotion which are of common use to all Christians There are besides these certaine specialties of it appliable to severall occasions times places persons For there are morning and evening Devotions Devotions proper to our board to our closer to our bed to Gods day to our own to health to sicknesse to severall callings to recreations to the way to the field to the Church to our home to the student to the souldier to the Magistrate to the Minister to the husband wife child servant to our owne persons to our families The severalties whereof as they are scarce finite for number so are most fit to to be left to the judgement and holy managing of every Christian neiis it to be imagined that any soul which is taught of God and hath any acquaintance with heaven can be to seek in the particular application of common rules to his own necessity or expedience The result of all is A devout man is he that ever sees the invisible and ever trembleth before that God he sees that walks ever here on earth with the God of heaven and still adores
thy heart who ever wouldst be a true Client of Devotion search all the close windings of it with the torches of the law of God and if there be any iniquity found lurking in the secret corners therof drag it out and abandon it and when thou hast done that thy fingers may retaine no pollution say with the holy Psalmist I will wash my hands in innocence so will I goe to thine Altar Presume not to approach the Altar of God there to offer the Sacrifice of thy Devotion with uncleane hands Else thine offering shall be so far from winning an acceptance for thee from the hands of God as that thou shalt make thine offering abominable And if a beast touch the Mount it shall dye SECT X. AS the soul must be clean from sin so it must bee clear and free from distractions The intent of our Devotion is to welcome God to our hearts now where shall we entertain him if the rooms be full thronged with cares and turbulent passions The Spirit of God will not endure to be crowded up together with the world in our strait lodgings An holy vacuity must make way for him in our bosoms The divine patterne of Devotion in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily retires into the Mount to pray he that carried heaven with him would even thus leave the world below him Alas how can we hope to mount up to heaven in our thoughts if wee have the clogs of earthly cares hanging at our heels Yea not only must there bee a shutting out of all distractive cares and passions which are professed enemies to our quiet conversing with God in our Devotion but there must be also a denudation of the minde from all those images of our phantasie how pleasing soever that may carry our thoughts aside from those better objects We are like to foolish children who when they should be stedfastly looking on their books are apt to gaze after every butter-fly that passetin by them here must be therefore a carefull intention of our thoughts a restraint from all vaine and idle rovings and an holding our selves close to our divine taske Whiles Martha is troubled about many things her devouter sister having chosen the better part plyes the one thing necessary which shall never be taken from her and whiles Martha would feast Christ with bodily fare she is feasted of Christ with heavenly delicacies SECT XI AFter the heart is thus cleansed and thus cleared it must bee in the next place decked with true humility the cheapest yet best ornament of the soul If the wise man tel us that pride is the beginning of sin surely all gracious dispositions must begin in humility The foundation of all high and stately buildings must be laid low They are the lowly valleys that soak in the showres of heaven which the steep hils shelve off and prove dry and fruitlesse To that man will I look saith God that is poore and of 〈◊〉 contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Hence it is that the more eminent any man is in grace the more he is dejected in the sight of God The father of the faithfull comes to God under the stile of dust and ashes David under the stile of a worm and no man Agur the son of Jakeh under the title of more brutish than any man and one that hath not the understanding of a man John Baptist as not morthy to carry the shooes of Christ after him Paul as the least of Saints and chiefe of sinners On the contrary the more vile any man is in his owne eyes and the more dejected in the sight of God the higher he is exalted in Gods favour Like as the Conduict-water by how much lower it fals the higher it riseth When therefore we would appeare before God in our solemn devotions we must see that we empty our selves of all proud conceits and find our hearts fully convinced of our own vilenesse yea nothingness in his sight Down down with all our high thoughts fall wee low before our great and holy God not to the earth only but to the very brim of hell in the Conscience of our owne guiltinesse for though the miserable wretchednesse of our nature may bee a sufficient cause of our humiliation yet the consideration of our detestable sinfulnesse is that which will depresse us lowest in the sight of God SECT XII IT is fit the exercise of our Devotion should begin in an humble confession of our unwordâ—â—nesse Now for the effectual furtherance of this our self-dejection it will be requisite to bend our eyes upon a threefold object To look inward into our selves upward to heaven downwards to hell First to turne our eyes into our bosomes and to take a view not without a secret self-loathing of that world of corruption that hath lien hidden there therupon to accuse arraign and condemn our selves before that awful Tribunall of the Judge of heaven and earth both of that originall pollution which we have drawn from the tainted loins of our first parents and those innumerable actuall wickednesses derived there-from which have stained our persons and lives How can we bee but throughly humbled to see our souls utterly overspread with the odious and abominable leprosie of sin We find that Uzziah bore up stoutly a while against the Priests of the Lord in the maintenance of his sacrilegious presumption but when he saw himself turn'd Lazar on the suddain he is confounded in himselfe and in a depth of shame hastens away from the presence of God to a sad and penitentiall retirednes We should need no other arguments to loath our selves than the sight of our own faces so miserably deformed with the nasty and hatefull scurse of our iniquity Neither only must we be content to shame and grieve our eyes with the foule nature and condition of our sins but we must represent them to our selves in all the circumstances that may aggravate their nainousnesse Alas Lord any one sin is able to damne a soul I have committed many yea numberlesse they have not possessed me single but as that evill spirit said their name is Legion neither have I committed these sins once but often Thine Angels that were sinned but once and are damned for ever I have frequently reiterated the same offences where then were it not for thy mercy shall I appear neither have I only done them in the time of my ignorance but since I received sufficient illumination from thee It is not in the darke that I have stumbled and faln but in the midst of the clear light and sun-shine of thy Gospel and in the very face of thee my God neither have these been the slips of my weaknesse but the bold miscarriages of my presumption neither have I offended out of inconsideration and inadvertency but after and against the checks of a remurmuring conscience after so many gracious warnings and fatherly admonitions after so many fearfull examples of thy judgements after
would blesse the Preacher in the delivery of his sacred message that he would be pleased to direct his Messengers tongue to the meeting with our necessities that hee would free our hearts from all prejudices and distractions that he would keep off all temptations which might hinder the good entertainment and successe of his blessed Word Finally that hee would make us truely teachable and his ordinance the power of God to our salvation In the act of hearing Devotion cals us to Reverence Attention Application Reverence to that great God who speaks to us by the mouth of a weak man for in what is spoken from Gods Chair agreeable to the Scriptures the sound is mans the substance of the message is Gods Even an Eglon when he hears of a message from God riseth out of his seat It was not St. Pauls condition only but of all his faithfull servants to whom he hath committed the word of reconciliation They are Ambassadors for Christ as if God did beseech us by them they pray us in Christs stead to be reconciled to God The Ambassie is not the bearers but the Kings and if we do not acknowledge the great King of heaven in the voice of the Gospel we cannot but incur a contempt When therefore wee see Gods messenger in his pulpit our eye lookes at him as if it said with Cornelius We are all here present before God to heare all things that are commanded thee of God whence cannot but follow together with an awful disposition of mind a reverent deportment of the body which admits not a wild roving eye a drouzy head a chatting tongue a rude and indecent posture but composes it self to such a site a may befit a pious soul in sâ— religious an impoiment Neither do we come as authorized Judges to sit upon the Preacher but as humble Disciples to sit at his feet SECT XXIV REverence cannot but draw on Attention We need not be bidden to hang on the lips of him whom we honour It is the charge of the Spirit Let him that hath an ear hear Every one hath not an ear and of those that have an ear every one heareth not The soul hath an ear as well as the body if both these eares doe not meet together in one act there is no hearing Common experience tels us that when the minde is otherwise taken up we doe no more hear what a man says than if we had been deaf or he silent Hence is that first request of Abigail to David Let thine handmaid speak to thine eares and hear the words of thine handmaid and Job so importunately urgeth his friends Hear diligently my speech and my declaration with your ears The outward ear may be open and the inward shut if way be not made through both we are deaf to spirituall things Mine ear hast thou boared or digged saith the Psalmist the vulgar reads it my eares hast thou perfitted Surely our ears are grown up with flesh there is no passage for a perfit hearing of the voice of God till hee have made it by a spirituall perforation And now that the ear is made capable of good counsel it doth as gladly receive it taking in every good lesson and longing for the next Like unto the dry and chopped earth which soaks in every silver drop that fals from the clouds and thirsteth for more not suffering any of that precious liquor to fall beside it SECT XXV NEither doth the devout man care to satisfie his curiosity as hearing only that hee might hear but reducts all things to a saving use bringing all hee hears home to his heart by a self-reflecting application like a practiser of the art of memory referring every thing to its proper place If it be matter of comfort There is for my sick-bed There is for my outward losses There for my drooping under afflictions There for the sense of my spiritual desertions If matter of doctrine There is for my settlement in such a truth There for the conviction of such an error There for my direction in such a practice If matter of reproof he doth not point at his neighbour but deeply chargeth himself This meets with my dead-heartedness and security This with my worldly-mindednesse This with my self-love and flattery of mine owne estate This with my uncharitable censoriousnesse This with my foolish pride of heart This with my hypocrisie This with my neglect of Gods services and my duty Thus in all the variety of the holy passages of the Sermon the devout minde is taken up with digesting what it hears and working it self to a secret improvement of all the good counsell that is delivered neither is ever more busie than when it sits still at the feet of Christ I cannot therefore approve the practice which yet I see commonly received of those who think it no small argument of their Devotion to spend their time of hearing in writing large notes from the mouth of the Preacher which however it may be an help for memory in the future yet cannot as I conceive but be some prejudice to our present edification neither can the braine get so much hereby as the heart loseth If it be said that by this means an opportunity is given for a full rumination of wholsome Doctrines afterwards I yeeld it but withall I must say that our after-thoughts can never doe the work so effectually as when the lively voice sounds in our ears and beats upon our heart but herein I submit my opinion to better judgements SECT XXVI THe food that is received into the soul by the ear is afterwards chewed in the mouth thereof by memory concocted in the stomack by meditation and dispersed into the parts by conference and practise True Devotion findes the greatest part of the work behinde It was a just answer that Iohn Gerson reports given by a Frenchman who being askt by one of his neighbours if the Sermon were done no saith he it is said but it is not done neither will be I fear in hast What are we the better if we hear and remember not If we be such auditors as the Jews were wont to call sieves that retaine no moisture that is poured into them What the better if we remember but think not seriously of what we hear or if we practice not carefully what we think of Not that which we hear is our own but that which we carry away although all memories are not alike one receives more easily another retains longer It is not for every one to hope to attain to that ability that he can goe away with the whole fabrick of a Sermon and readily recount it unto others neither doth God require that of any man which he hath not given him Our desires and endeavours may not be wanting where our powers faile It will bee enough for weak memories if they can so lay up those wholsome counsells which they receive as that they may fetch them
forth when they have occasion to use them that what they want in the extent of memory they supply in the care of their practice Indeed that is it wherein lies the life of all religious duties and without which they are but idle formalities that which the Philosopher said of all vertue I must say of true godlinesse that it consists in action Our Saviour did not say Blessed are ye if you know these things But If ye know these things blessed are ye if ye doe them The end of our desire of the sincere milk of the Gospel is that we may grow thereby in the stature of all Grace unto the fulnesse of God SECT XXVII THe highest of all Gods services are his Sacraments which therefore require the most eminent acts of our Devotion The Sacrament of initiation which in the first planting of a Church is administred only to those of riper age and understanding cals for all possible reverence and religious addresses of the receivers wherein the Primitive times were punctually observant both for substance and ceremony now in a setled and perpetuated Church in which the vertue of the Covenant descends from the parent to the child there seems to be no use of our preparatory directions Only it is fit that our Devotion should call our eyes back to what we have done in our infancy and whereto we are ever obliged that our full age may carefully endeavour to make our word good and may put us in minde of our sinfull failings That other Sacrament of our spirituall nourishment which our Saviour as his farewell left us for a blessed memoriall of his death and passion can never be celebrated with enough Devotion Farre be it from us to come to this feast of our God in our common garments the soul must be trimmed up if we would be meet guests for the Almighty The great Master of the feast will neither abide us to come naked nor ill clad Away therefore first with the old beastly ragges of our wonted corruptions Due examination comes in first and throughly searches the soul and finds out all the secret nastinesse and defilements that it hides within it and by the aid of true penitence strips it of all those loathsome clouts wherewith it was polluted Sin may not bee cloathed upon with grace Joshuah's filthy garments must bee pluckt off ere hee can be capable of precious robes Here may be no place for our sinfull lusts for our covetous desires for our naturall infidelity for our malicious purposes for any of our unhallowed thoughts The soul clearly devested of these and all other known corruptions must in the next place in stead thereof be furnished with such graces and holy predispositions as may fit it for so heavenly a work Amongst the graces requisite Faith justly challengeth the first place as that which is both most eminent and most necessarily presupposed to the profitable receit of this Sacrament for whereas the main end of this blessed banquet is the strengthening of our faith how should that receive strength which hath not being to deliver these sacred viands to an unbeleever is to put meat into the mouth of a dead man Now therefore must the heart raise up it selfe to new acts of beleeving and must lay faster hold on Christ and bring him closer to the soul more strongly applying to its self the infinite merits of his most perfect obedience of his bitter death and passion and erecting it self to a desire and expectation of a more vigorous and lively apprehension of its omnipotent Redeemer Neither can this faith be either dead or solitary but is still really operative and attended as with other graces so especially with a serious repentance whose wonderfull power is to undoe our former sins and to mold the heart and life to a better obedience A grace so necessary that the want of it as in extream corruption of the stomack turnes the wholsome food of the soul into poison An impenitent man therefore comming to Gods Board is so far from benefiting himself as that he eates his owne judgement Stand off from this holy table all yee that have not made your peace with your God or that harbour any knowne sinne in your bosome not to eat is uncomfortable but to eat in such a state is deadly yet rest not in this plea that ye cannot come because yee are unreconciled but as yee love your souls be reconciled that you may come Another Grace necessarily pre-required is charity to our brethren and readinesse to forgive For this is a communion as with Christ the head so with all the members of his mysticall body This is the true Love-feast of God our Saviour wherein wee professe our selves inseparably united both to him and his If there be more hearts than one at Gods Table he will not own them These holy elements give us an Embleme of our selves This bread is made up of many grains incorporated into one masse and this wine is the confluent juice of many clusters neither doe we partake of severall loaves or variety of liquors but all eat of one bread and drink of one cup. Here is then no place for rancour and malice none for secret grudgings and heart-burnings Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against the Leave there thy gift and go thy way first bee reconciled to thy brother and them come and offer thy gift Neither may we doe as those two emulous Commanders of Greece did who resolved to leave their spight behind them at Mount Athos and to take it up again in their returne here must bee an absolute and free acquitting of all the back-reckonings of our unkindnesse that we may receive the God of peace into a cleare bosome SECT XXVIII BEsides these graces there are certaine holy predispositions so necessary that without them our soules can never hope to receive true comfort in this blessed Sacrament whereof the first is an hungring and thirsting desire after these gracious means of our salvation What good will our meat doe us without an appetite Surely without it there is no expectation of either relish or digestion as therefore those that are invited to some great feast care first to seed their hunger ere they feed their body labouring by exercise to get a stomach ere they employ it so it concerns us to do here and as those that are listlesse and weak stomached are wont to whet their appetite with sharp sawces so must wee by the tart applications of the law quicken our desires of our Saviour here exhibited Could wee but see our sins and our miseries by sin Could wee see God frowning and hell gaping wide to swallow us wee should not need to bee bidden to long for our deliverer and every pledge of his favour would be precious to us Upon the apprehension of our need of a Saviour and so happy a supply therof presented unto us
that Majesty with whom he converses That confers hourly with the God of spirits in his own language yet so as no familiarity can abate of his aw nor fear abate ought of his love To whom the gates of heaven are ever open that he may go in at pleasure to the throne of grace none of the Angelical spirits can offer to challenge him of too much boldness Whose eyes are well acquainted with those heavenly guardians the presence of whom hee doth as truly acknowledge as if they were his sensible Companions He is well known of the King of glory for a daily sutor in the Court of heaven and none so welcome there as he He accounts all his time lost that falls beside his God and can be no more weary of good thoughts than of happinesse His bosome is no harbour for any knowne evill and it is a question whether hee more abhorres sin or hell His care is to entertain God in a clear and free heart and therefore he thrusts the world out of doors and humbly beseeches God to welcome himself to his owne He is truly dejected and vile in his owne eyes Nothing but hell is lower than he every of his slips are hainous every trespasse is aggravated to rebellion The glory and favours of God heighten his humiliation He hath lookt down to the bottomlesse deep and seen with horror what he deserved to feel everlastingly His cries have been as strong as his fears just and he hath found mercy more ready to rescue him than he could be importunate His hand could not be so soon put forth as his Saviours for deliverance The sense of this mercy hath raised him to an unspeakable joy to a most fervent love of so dear a Redeemer that love hath knit his heart to so meritorious a deliverer and wrought a blessed union betwixt God and his soul That union can no more be severed from an infinite delight than that delight can bee severed from an humble cheerfull acquiescence in his munificent God And now as in an heavenly freedome he pours out his soul into the bosome of the Almighty in all faithfull sutes for himself and others so he enjoyes God in the blessings received and returns all zealous prayses to the giver He comes reverently to the Oracles of God and brings not his eye but his heart with him not carelesly negligent in seeking to know the revealed will of his Maker nor too busily inquisitive into his deep counsels not too remisse in the letter nor too peremptory in the sense gladly comprehending what hee may and admiring what he cannot comprehend Doth God call for his ear He goes awfully into the holy presence and so hears as if he should now hear his last Latching every word that drops from the Preachers lips ere it fall to the ground and laying it up carefully where hee may be sure to fetch it Hee sits not to censure but to learn yet speculation and knowledge is the least drift of his labour Nothing is his own but what he practiseth Is he invited to Gods feast he hates to come in a soul and slovenly dresse but trims up his soul so as may be fit for an heavenly guest Neither doth he leave his stomach at home cloyed with the world but brings a sharp appetite with him and so feeds as if he meant to live for ever All earthly Delicates are unsavory to him in respect of that celestiall Manna Shortly he so eates and drinks as one that sees himself set at Table with God and his Angels and rises and departs full of his Saviour and in the strength of that meal walks vigorously and cheerfully on towards his glory Finally as he well knows that he lives and moves and hath his being in God so he refers his life motions and being wholly to God so acting all things as if God did them by him so using all things as one that enjoyes God in them and in the mean time so walking on earth that he doth in a sort carry his heaven with him THE FREE PRISONER OR The COMFORT of RESTRAINT Written Some while since in the Tower BY I. H. B. N. The Free Prisoner OR The Comfort of Restraint SECT I. SIR WHiles you pity my Affliction take heed lest you aggravate it and in your thoughts make it greater than it is in my own It is true I am under restraint What is that to a man that can be free in the Tower and cannot but be a prisoner abroad Such is my condition and every Divine Philosophers with me Were my walks much straiter than they are they cannot hold me in It is a bold word to say I cannot I will not be a prisoner It is my soul that is I my flesh is my partner if not my servant not my self However my body may be immured that agile spirit shall flie abroad and visit both earth heaven at pleasure Who shall hinder it from mounting up in an instant to that supreme region of blisse and from seeing that by the eye of faith which S. Paul saw in extasie and when it hath viewed that blessed Hierarchy of heaven to glance down through the innumerable and unmeasurable globes of light which move in the firmament and below it into this elementary world and there to compass seas and lands without shipwrack in a trice which a Drake or Cavendish cannot doe but with danger and in some years navigation And if my thoughts list to stay themselves in the passage with what variety can my soul be taken up of severall objects Here turning in to the dark vaults and dungeons of penall restraint to visit the disconsolate prisoners and to fetch from their greater misery a just mitigation of mine own There looking in to the houses of vain jollity and pitying that which the sensuall fools call happiness Here stepping in to the Courts of great Princes in them observing the fawning compliances of some the trecherous underworking of others hollow friendships faithless ingagements faire faces smooth tongues rich suits viewing all save their hearts and censuring nothing that it sees not There calling in at the low cottages of the poor and out of their empty cupbord furnishing it self with thankfulnesse Here so overlooking the Courts of Justice as not willing to see rigour or partiality There listning what they say in those meetings w ch would passe for sacred and wondring at what it hears Thus can and shal and doth my nimble spirit bestirre it selfe in a restlesse flight making onely the Empyreall heaven the bounds of its motion not being more able to stand still than the heavens themselves whence it descended Should the Iron enter into my soul as it did into that good Patriarchs yet it cannot fetter me No more can my spirit be confined to one place than my body can bee diffused to many Perhaps therefore you are mistaken in my condition for what is it I beseech you that makes a prisoner Is it an
allotment to the same roome without change without remove What is that still to a mind that is free And why is my body then more a prisorer than the best mans soul that you know is peremptorily assigned for inhabitation to this house of clay till the day of dissolution Why more than the stars of heaven which have remained fixed in their first stations ever since they were first created Why more than those great persons which keep up for state or dames for beauty Why more than those Anachorites whom wee have seen willingly coopt up for merit How much more scope have we than they Wee breath fresh aire we see the same heavens with the freeest travellers SECT II. BUt we have you wil say bounds for our restraint which the free spirit hates as never being pleased but with a full liberty both of prospect and passage Any barre whether to the foot or to the eye is a death Oh vain affectation of wild and roving curiosity If their desires cannot be bounded yet their motions must When they have the full sight of heaven above them they cannot climbe up into it they cannot possibly see that whole glorious contignation and when the whole earth lies open before them they can measure but some small peeces of it How can they be quiet till they have purchased Tycho Brahe his prospective trunk of thirty two foot long wherby they may discover a better face of heaven some lesser Planets moving round about the Sun and the Moonets about Saturn and Jupiter the mountains seas and vallies in the Moon How can they rest til having acquainted themselves with the constellations of our Hemisphere they have passed the Equinoctiall and seen the triangle the crosse and the clouds and the rest of the unknown stars that move above the other Pole And when all this is done they are but who they were no whit better no whit wiser and perhaps far lesse happy than those who never smelt any but their own smoak never knew any star but Charls-wayn the morning star and the seven For me I do not envy but wonder at the licentious freedome which these men thinke themselves happy to enjoy and hold it a weaknesse in those minds which cannot find more advantage and pleasure in confinement retirednesse Is it a small benefit that I am placed there where no oathes no blasphemies beat my eares where my eyes are in no perill of wounding objects where I hear no invectives no false doctrines no sermocinations of Iron-mongers Felt-makers Coblers Broom-men Grooms or any other of those inspired ignorants no curses no ribaldries where I see no drunken comessations no rebellious routs no violent oppressions no obscene rejoinings nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul This this is my liberty who whiles I sit here quietly lockt up by my keeper can pity the turmoils distempers abroad and bless my own immunity from those too common evills SECT III. IS is the necessity and force of the restraint since those things which we do voluntarily are wont to passe from us with delight which being imposed seem grievous to us Why should not I have so much power over my will as to make that voluntary in me to undergoe which another wills forceably to inflict the mind that is truely subacted to Grace can so frame it self to what it must suffer as that it finds a kind of contentment in patience Thus we daily doe to the Almighty whose wil by our humble submission wee make ours and pray that we may doe so And who can restraine us without him If therefore my wise and holy God think it best to cage me up by the command of authority upon what cause soever why should not I think this inclosure a better liberty who know there is perfect freedome in his obedience So then if constraint make a prisoner I am none who am most willingly where my God will have me And if my will did not often carry me out of my owne walls at home why cannot it as well confine me to a larger compasse of the Tower SECT IV. IS it solitude and Infrequence of visitation This may perhaps be troublesom to a man that knows not to entertaine himselfe but to him that can hold continual discourse with his owne heart no favor can be greater For of all other these self-conferences are most beneficiall to the soul Other mens communication may spend the time with more advantage of learning or mirth but none can yeeld us so much spirituall profit as our own soliloquies And when all is done the Greeks said well It is not much but usefull that makes truely wise Besides this wee can never have the opportunity of so good company as when we are alone Now we enjoy the society of God and his Angels which wee cannot so freely doe in a throng of visitants When God would expresse his greatest intirenesse with his Church Ducam eam in solitudinem saith he I will bring her into the wildernesse and there speak comfortably to her We cannot expect so sweer conversation with God in the presence of others as apart Oh the divine benefit of an holy solitarinesse which no worldly heart can either know or value What care I for seeing of men when I may see him that is invisible What care I for chatting with friends when I may talk familiarly with the God of heaven What care I for entertaining mortall guests when I may with Abraham his Nephew Lot feast the Angels of God and which were too great a word if God himself had not spoken it be attended by them SECT V. IS it the reproach and ignominy that commonly attends the very name of an imprisonment weak minds may be affected with every thing but with solid judgements it is not the punishment but the cause that makes either the Martyr or the malefactor S. Pauls bonds were famous and Petrus and vincula is not without a note of yearly celebrity and it were hard if so many blessed Martyrs and Confessors who have lived and dyed in Jayles for the truths sake should not have brought prisons such as they may be into some credit Shortly as notorious crimes may be at liberty so even innocence may be under restraint yet those crimes no whit the better nor this innocence the worse Besides that which perhaps came not within your freer thoughts every restraint is not for punishment there is a restraint for safety a salva custodia as well as arcta such is this of ours This strong Tower serves not so much for our prison as for our defence what norror soever the name may carry in it I blesse God for these wals out of which I know not where we could for the time have been safe from the rage of the mis-incensed multitude Poor seduced soules they were taught it was pieto to be cruel and were misperswaded to hate and condemn us for that which should have
There he must lye in an uncouth posture for his appointed moneth till the native bonds being loosed and the doores forced open hee shall be by an helpfull obstetrication drawn forth into the larger prison of the world there indeed he hath elbow-room enough but all that wide scope cannot free him from a true incarceration Who knowes not that there are many differences and latitudes of restraint A Simeon may imprison and enchaine himself in the compasse of a pillar not allowing himself the ease of his whole dimensions Peter may be lockt up in a larger Jayl betwixt his two Leopards as that Father tearms them S. Paul may be two years allowed to be a Prisoner in his own hired house but under the guard of his keeper and not without his chain There are those who upon hainous and dangerous occasions may be kept close under many locks there are prisoners at large who have the liberty of the Tower yet even these last notwithstanding the allowance of spacious walks fresh gardens are no other than acknowledged prisoners Such is my condition to the world when I am at my fullest liberty It is true that when I look back to the straitness of my first and native prison and compare it with the large extent of that wide world into which I am brought I may wel with Isaac's Herds-mensay Rehoboth For now the Lord hath made me room but when I compare that world wherein I am with that whereto I aspire and which I know to be above and look to enjoy I can see nothing here but meer prison-walls and professe my life to be no other than a perpetuall durance SECT IX IF Varro said of old that the world was no other than the great house of little man I shall be bold to adde what kind of house it is It is no other than his prison yea his dungeon Far be it from me to disparage the glorious worke of my omnipotent Creator I were not worthy to look upon this large and glittering roof of heaven nor to see the pleasant varieties of these earthly landskips If I did not adore that infinite power and wisdome which appears in this goodly and immense fabrick and confesse the marvellous beauty of that majestick and transcendent workmanship Rather when I see the Moone and the Stars which thou hast ordained I say with the Psalmist Lord what is man But O God it is no dishonor to thee that though this be a fair house yet thou hast one so much better than it as a Palace is beyond a Jayl This beauty may please but that ravisheth my soul Here is light but dim and dusky in respect of that inaccessable light wherein thou dwellest Here is a glorious Sun that illumineth this inferior world but thou art the Sun who enlightenest that world above Thou to whom thy created Sun is but a shadow Here we converse with beasts or at the best with men there with blessed souls and heavenly Angels Here some frivolous delights are intermixed with a thousand vexations There in thy presence is the fulness of joy So then let the sensuall heart mis-place his paradise here in the world it shal not passe for other with me than my prison How can it Why should it for what other termes do I find here What blinde light looks in here at these scant loop-holes of my soul Yea what darknes of ignorance rather possesses me what bolts and shackles of heavy crosses do I bear about me how am I fed here with the bread of affliction how am I watched and beset with evill spirits how contumeliously traduced how disdainfully lookt upon how dragging the same chaine with the worst malefactors how disabled to all spiritual motions how restrained from that full liberty of enjoying my home and my God in it which I daily expect in my dissolution when therefore I am released from these wals I am still imprisoned in larger and so shall be til the Lord of the Spirits of all flesh who put me here shall set me free and all the days of my appointed time will I wait till this my changing come SECT X. YOu see then by this time how little reason I have to be too much troubled with this imprisonment or my friends for me But indeed there are some sorts of Prisoners which neither you nor I can have teares enow to bewaile and those especially of two kinds The one those that are too much affected with an outward bondage The other those that are no whit affected with a spirituall In the first rank are they that sink under the weight of their Irons Poor impotent soules that groaning under the cruelty of a Turkish thraldom or a Spanish Inquisition want Faith to bear them out against the impetuous violences of their tormentors I sorrow for their sufferings but for their fainting more Could they see the Crown of Glory which the righteous Judge holds ready for their victorious Patience they could not but contemn paine and all the pomp of Death and confesse that their Light affliction which is but for a moment works for them a far more exceeding eternall weight of glory But alas it is the weaknesse of their eyes that they onely look at the things that are seen close walls heavy fetters sharp scourges mercilesse racks and other dreadfull engins of torture and see not the things which are not seen the glorious reward of their victory blessednesse Had they had Stephens eyes they would have emulated his martyrdome Surely whosoever shal but read the story of the mother and the seven brothers in the Maccabees that of the fourty Armenian Martyrs frozen to death reported by Gaudentius and shall there see the fainting revolter dying uncomfortably in the Bath whiles the other thirty and nine together with their new converted Keeper are crowned by an Angel from heaven cannot chuse except he have nothing but ice in his bosome but find in himself a disposition emulous of their courage = ambitious of their honour But alas what ever our desires and purposes may be it is not for every one to attaine to the glory of Martyrdome this is the highest pitch that earthly Saints are capable of He must be more than a man whom paine and death cannot remove from his holy resolutions and especially the lingring execution of both It is well if an age can yeeld one Mole In what termes shall I commemorate thee O thou blessed Confessor the great example of invincible constancy in these back-sliding times if at least thy rare perseverance be not more for wonder than imitation whom thirty yeares tedious durance in the Inqusitory at Rome could not weary out of thy sincere profession of the Evangelical truth All this while thou wert not allowed the speech the sight of any but thy persecutors Here was none to pity thee none to exhort thee If either force of perswasion or proffers of favour or threats of extremity could have
shall say ye are not able to look into the bottome of this divine love wherwith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life None oh none can comprehend this mercy but he that wrought it Lord what a transcendent what an infinite love is this what an object was this for thee to love A world of sinners Impotent wretched creatures that had dispighted thee that had no motive for thy favour but deformity misery professed enmity It had been mercy enough in thee that thou didst no◠damn the world but that thou shouldst love it 〈◊〉 more than mercy It was thy great goodnesse to forbeare the acts of just vengeance to the sinful world of man but to give unto it tokens of thy love is a favour beyond all expression The least gift from thee had been more than the world could hope for but that thou shouldst not stick to give thine only begotten Son the Son of thy love the Son of thine essence thy coequal coeternal Son who was more than ten thousand worlds to redeem this one forlorne world of sinners is love above all comprehension of men and Angels What diminution had it been to thee and thine essentiall glory O thou great God of heaven that the souls that sinned should have dyed and perished everlastingly yet so infinite was thy loving mercy that thou wouldest rather give thy onely Sonne out of thy bosome than that there should not be a redemption for beleevers Yet O God hadst thou sent down thy Son to this lower region of earth upon such termes as that hee might have brought down heaven with him that hee might have come in the port and Majesty of a God cloathed with celestiall glory to have dazeled our eyes and to have drawn all hearts unto him this might have seemed in some measure to have sorted with his divine magnificence But thou wouldst have him to appear in the wretched condition of our humanity Yet even thus hadst thou sent him into the world in the highest estate and pomp of royalty that earth could afford that all the Kings and Monarchs of the world should have been commanded to follow his train and to glitter in his Court and that the knees of all the Potentates of the earth should have bowed to his Soveraign Majesty and their lips have kissed his dust this might have carried some kind of appearance of a state next to divine greatnesse but thou wouldst have him come in the despised form of a servant And thou O blessed Jesu wast accordingly willing for our sakes to submit thy self to nakednesse hunger thirst wearinesse temptation contempt betraying agonies scorn buffeting scourgings distention crucifixion death Oh love above measure without example beyond admiration Greater love thou saiest hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends But oh what is it then that thou who wert God and man shouldst lay down thy life more precious than many worlds for thine enemies Yet had it been but the laying down of a life in a fair and gentle way there might have been some mitigation of the sorrow of a dissolution there is not more difference betwixt life and death than there may be betwixt some one kind of death and another Thine O dear Saviour was the painfull shamefull cursed death of the crosse wherein yet all that man could do unto thee was nothing to that inward torment which in our stead thou enduredst from thy fathers wrath when in the bitternesse of thine anguished soul thou cryedst out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Even thus thus wast thou content to be forsaken that wee wretched sinners might bee received to mercy O love stronger than death which thou vanquishedst more high than that hell is deep from which thou hast rescued us SECT XVI THe sense of this infinite love of God cannot chuse but ravish the soul and cause it to goe out of it self into that Saviour who hath wrought so mercifully for it so as it may be nothing in it self but what it hath or is may be Christ By the sweet powers therefore of Faith and Love the soul finds it self united unto Christ feelingly effectually indivisibly so as that it is not to be distinguished betwixt the acts of both To me to live is Christ saith the blessed Apostle and elsewhere I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which now I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me My beloved is mine and I am his saith the Spouse of Christ in her Bridall Song O blessed union next to the hypostaticall whereby the humane nature of the Son of God is taken into the participation of the eternall Godhead SECT XVII OUt of the sense of this happy union ariseth an unspeakable complacency and delight of the soul in that God and Saviour who is thus inseparably ours and by whose union we are blessed and an high appreciation of him above all the world and a contemptuous under-valuation of all earthly things in comparison of him And this is no other than an heavenly reflection of that sweet contentment which the God of mercies takes in the faithful soul Thou hast ravisht my heart my sister my Spouse thou hast ravisht my heart with one of thine eyes Thou art beautifull O my Love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me How fair is thy love my sister my Spouse How much better is thy love than wine and the smell of thine ointments better than all spices And the soul answers him again in the same language of spirituall dearnesse My beloved is white and ruddy the chief est among ten thousand Set me as a seal upon thine heart as a seal upon thine arm for love is as strong as death And as in an ecstaticall qualm of passionate affection Stay mee with fiaggons and comfort me with apples for I am sick of love SECT XVIII UPon this gracious complacency will follow an absolute self-resignation or giving up our selves to the hands of that good God whose we are and who is ours and an humble contentednesse with his good pleasure in all things looking upon God with the same face whether he smile upon us in his favours or chastise us with his loving corrections If he speak good unto us Behold the servant of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word If evill It is the Lord let him doe whatsoever he will Here is therefore a cheerfull acquiescence in God and an hearty reliance and casting our selves upon the mercy of so bountifull a God who having given us his Son can in and with him deny us nothing SECT XIX UPon this subacted disposition of heart will follow a familiar yet awfull compellation of God and an emptying of
our souls before him in all our necessities For that God who is infinitely mercifull yet will not have his favours otherwise conveighed to us than by our supplications The style of his deare ones is his people that prayeth and his owne stile is the God that heareth prayers To him therefore doth the devout heart pour out all his requests with all true humility with all fervour of spirit as knowing that God will hear neither proud prayers nor heartlesse wherein his holy desires are regulated by a just method First suing for spirituall favours as most worthy then for temporall as the appendances of better and in both aiming at the glory of our good God more than our own advantage And in the order of spirituall thngs first and most for those that are most necessary and essentiall for our souls health than for secondary graces that concern the prosperity comfort of our spirituall life Absolutely craving those graces that accompany salvation all others conditionally and with reference to the good pleasure of the munificent giver Wherein heed must be taken that our thoughts be not so much taken up with our expressions as with our desires and that we doe not suffer our selves to languish into an unfeeling length and repetition of our sutes Even the hand of a Moses may in time grow heavy so therefore must we husband our spirituall strength that our devotion may not flagge with over-tiring but may bee most vigorous at the last And as we must enter into our prayers not without preparatory elevations so must we be carefull to take a meet leave of God at their shutting up following our supplications with the pause of a faithfull and most lowly adoration and as it were sending up our hearts into heaven to see how our prayers are taken and raising them to a joyful expectation of a gracious and successefull answer from the father of mercies SECT XX. UPon the comfortable feeling of a gracious condescent follows an happy fruition of God in all his favours so as we have not them so much as God in them which advanceth their worth a thousand fold and as it were brings down heaven unto us whereas therefore the sensuall man rests only in the meer use of any blessing as health peace prosperity knowledge and reacheth no higher the devoute soul in and through all these sees and feels a God that sanctifies them to him and enjoyes therein his favour that is better than life Even we men are wont out of our good nature to esteem a benefit not so much for its owne worth as for the love and respect of the giver Small legacies for this cause finde deare acceptation How much more is it so betwixt God and the devout soul It is the sweet apprehension of this love that makes all his gifts blessings Doe we his gifts blessings Doe we not see some vaine churle though cryed down by the multitude herein secretly applauding himself that he hath bags at home how much more shall the godly man find comfort against all the crosses of the world that hee is possessed of him that possesseth all things even God All-sufficient the pledges of whose infinite love he feels in all the whole course of Gods dealing with him SECT XXI OUt of the true sense of this inward fruition of God the devout soul breaks forth into cheerfull thanksgivings to the God of all comfort praising him for every evill that it is free from for every good thing it enjoyeth For as it keeps a just Inventory of all Gods favours so it often spreads them thankfully before him and layes them forth so near as it may in the full dimensions that so God may be no loser by him in any act of his beneficence Here therefore every of Gods benefits must come into account whether eternall or temporall spirituall or bodily outward or inward publick or private positive or privative past or present upon our selves or others In all which he shall humbly acknowledge both Gods free mercy and his own shamefull unworthinesse setting off the favours of his good God the more with the soyle of his own confessed wretchednes and unanswerablenesse to the least of his mercies Now as there is infinite variety of blessings from the liberall hand of the Almighty so there is great difference in their degrees For wheras there are three subjects of all the good we are capable of The Estate Body Soul and each of these doe far surpasse other in value the soul being infinitely more worth than the body and the body far more precious than the outward estate so the blessings that appertain to them in severall differ in their true estimation accordingly If either wee doe not highly magnifie Gods mercy for the least or shall set as high a price upon the blessings that concerne our estate as those that pertain to the body or upon bodily favours as upon those that belong to the soul we shall shew our selves very unworthy and unequall partakers of the Divine bounty But it will savor too much of earth if we be more affected with temporall blessings than with spirituall and eternall By how much nearer relation then any favor hath to the Fountain of goodnesse and by how much more it conduceth to the glory of God and ours in him so much higher place should it possesse in our affection and gratitude No marvell therefore if the Devout Heart bee raised above it self and transported with heavenly raptures when with Stephens eyes it beholds the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God fixing it self upon the consideration of the infinite Merits of his Life Death Resurrection Ascension Intercession and finding it self swallowed up in the depth of that Divine Love from whence all mercies flow into the soule so as that it runs over with passionate thankfulnes and is therefore deeply affected with all other his mercies because they are derived from that boundlesse Ocean of Divine goodnesse Unspeakable is the advantage that the soule raises to it self by this continuall exercise of thanksgiving for the grateful acknowledgement of favours is the way to more even amongst men whose hands are short and strait this is the meanes to pull on further beneficence how much more from the God of all Consolation whose largest bounty diminisneth nothing of his store And herein the devout Soul enters into its heavenly Task beginning upon earth those Hallelujahs which it shall perfect above in the blessed Chore of Saints and Angels ever praising God and saying Blessing and Glo-ry and Wisdome and Thanksgiving and Honour and Power and Might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen SECT XXII NOne of all the services of God can bee acceptably no not unsinfully performed without due devotion as therefore in our prayers and thanksgivings so in the other exercises of Divine Worship especially in the reading and hearing of Gods Word and in our receipt of the blessed Sacrament it is so necessary that without it we