of your exact Justice your unfeigned Charity your Self-denyal your Patience your Peaceableness and above all your Meekness Humility and Modesty of Spirit that if they had a mind they may not have the face to say you have but the semblance and Apish imitation of Piety And to say the truth there is nothing will certainly evince it to your self but only this that you feel in your heart a constant powerful and prevailing inclination to all good works 1 Joh 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit If we know that he is righteous we know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of him Cap. 2.19 Let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous He that committeth sin is of the Devil Cap. 3.8 9 c. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God In this the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not Righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And indeed by this one mark last named you shall detect the Artifice of those seeming people who notwithstanding all their fair speeches whereby they deceive the hearts of the simple are never found to have a true and hearty Love to those that follow not the Sect which they have embraced It is a great while ago since a very eminent person told the world that he noted but two small wants in that sort of men viz. of Knowledge and of Love He might have bated them one of the two and yet their condition had been bad enough though if he had lived till now he would have seen their Poverty increased and that they want Humility as much as either of the other They are indeed but small wants in their account especially the two last of the three and they can be very well content without them if God will be so too They esteem themselves Rich enough in other invisible treasures nay they have one Jewel of such inestimable value viz. their Faith that it will compensate for a thousand wants that are no greater than these But either I have lost all my labour or else I have made you sensible that there is nothing more imports you than to see that you be not deficient in these two Charity and Humility I may safely I suppose refer you to your own memory for to be satisfied in their necessity and so only say this concerning the former of them That all your Faith is worth nothing which worketh not by Love and that he is a Lyer who saith he Loveth God and loveth not his Brother also That you may secure your self therefore the better from this and all other illusions what other counsel should I give you than to ponder that sentence much which I wisht you to carry along with you and to let your thoughts run as little as may be upon any other thing save Jesus only and Jerusalem Draw your mind from the things which you see in this outward world and make it to retire within unto your self that there you may talk with Jesus and behold Jerusalem and see that Glory where he is Which when you have practised a competent time as every thing will be unwelcome and painful to you which is not related to them So you will entertain every thing as very acceptable which brings you into their familiarity Not as if I would have you to neglect any business to which you are obliged in the world for whatsoever it be which either Necessity or Charity requires whether it be for your self friends or Christian Brethren I must charge you to apply your self to the doing of it with all care and exactness Jesus is not out of your eye as I shall tell you further when you are so imployed for this is the thing by which he was known above all other that he went about doing good But if it be a business of no necessity or if it be one wherein your particular person is not concerned and your neighbour challenges not your assistance let it alone and trouble not your thoughts about it And if it offer it self to you and press upon you and would make you a medler in other mens matters as most of our vain Believers are tell it you have something else to do and repeat still those words I HAVE NOUGHT AND NOUGHT DO I DESIRE BUT TO BE IN PEACE WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM CAP. XXI Of the indeavours of his Enemies to keep him from doing good to his Brethren under a pretence of Love to God And of the Excellency of that Brotherly Charity AND here it seems very seasonable to remember you of another common subtilty whereby your Adversaries will study to deceive you and put a great stop to your progress in the way you are about to enter Which is to detain you in the amusements of contemplation and to busie your head only with Meditations and Conferences with Jesus They know that this will keep you too much at home as well as any thing else and that you will travel in your mind and thoughts only but not with your whole man to Jerusalem And therefore they will labour to perswade you of this at least that there is not half so much Piety can be exercised abroad as in your Closet and that the good we do our Brethren is nothing comparable to the Meditations we have of God and our Saviour and the Affections we express unto them This will very much hinder your proficiency and put a greater rub than you imagine in your way if you lend any belief unto it It will keep you very much behind under the pretence and colour of putting you forward and it will depress and thrust you down below others while you seem to be mounting up on high and soaring to a pitch far above them For your Enemies understand very well that God accounts all that as done to himself which is done to your Brethren for his sake He hath made over all those benefits to them which are owing to him because he is in no need of them They are become his Receivers and he hath devolved the right which he hath to our returns of Love to him upon our Brethren Be not you ignorant of this then but understand it as well as your Enemies that you never serve God better nor so well neither as when you are doing any service to your poor Neighbours You are bound you think to express such Love to God as he hath expressed to you Only you find that he is not capable to receive such effects of it as you experiment in your self from his affections to you But will you imagine now that he will lose the right he hath to your thankful retributions because he is in want of nothing No such matter he
his goodness which you will feel him pouring out on every side and in one word you will behold so much of the Beauty of Jerusalem it self that you will travel with the better courage thither But that in which I would have you spend the greatest part of those private seasons is in thinking of your own estate and comparing your life with the life of Jesus Let him be your companion when you are alone look stedfastly on his face and observe what resemblance you bear to him Pray him to draw and describe himself more exactly upon your soul and to supply all the lines that are still wanting to render you an accomplished image of him Shew him how desirous you are to be conformed in all your thoughts words desires and actions to that excellent model of perfection which he hath given you in his own example Let him know how much you are in love with him and that you wish for this above all the world to be like to him It cannot be thought that he will deny your desires or let your indeavours want his help for the making you more compleat in him You will come out of these secret places with a greater lustre and issue forth with a greater force and power to follow the steps of your Saviour Your face will be indued with such a brightness and cast such a splendor round about that it will be seen by all that you have been with Jesus Who can express the pleasures that hide themselves in these retreats or tell the contentments that are locked up in those unfrequented closets Do but enter into the first of them that presents it self and there will need nothing more then the sensible delectation which you will find in it to invite you to seek such silent retirements These quiet places are the resemblances of the serene regions above and little models of heaven They are hung round about also with a great many Pictures of Jesus which will ravish your heart and draw it out of your body to snatch it up to himself In one corner you will see him pictured as the Lover of men and in another you will behold him in the greatest abasement and humility that ever was On this side you will see him dealing his Charity to the Poor and on that he will discover himself attending on the sick Here his Meekness there his Patience will be lively represented to your eyes In one place you will find him pouring out his Instructions and in another pouring out his Blood for the Good of men And from every one of these you will receive such touches and feel your heart so wounded that you will never be more inamoured of him then when you and he thus meet alone and he makes this private visit to your Soul There he will open his very heart to you and let you see how much you are in his favour There he will impart to you his consolations and fill you with his Spirit Your mind will there be illuminated your affections inflamed your resolutions strengthned and all your faculties invigorated with a greater chearfulness in obedience to his Will And therefore do not fail as oft as you can to get out of the dust and heat of this World into these close and cool walks which Jesus frequents For though the dews of the Divine grace fall every where yet they lye longest in the shade These sugar'd drops do love most to stay in the solitary places And when you can find no where else this milk of heaven wherewith all things are nourished and refreshed you will be sure to meet with plenty of it in these hidden recesses But then I must remember you That in the greatest most open and full manifestations of the Glory of God upon Jesus he was very private too and cared not for having it published and talkt of abroad in the world When he was transfigured in the Holy mount you read that he went aside privately with a few of his Disciples which may well commend unto you the love of retirement And that brightness also wherewith he was cloathed he commanded to be concealed as a great secret till a a fit season to divulge it which may well teach us to keep to our selves what passes between God and our souls till others may be concerned in it as much as our selves You may refer this perhaps to the Humility of his Spirit but yet I thought good to advise you of it alone because it deserves a particular consideration There is a vanity you may be guilty of if you heed not this of glorying when you come abroad again of the secret communication that you have had with Jesus in the time of your Solitude For I observe it is the Genius of some who profess acquaintance with Him when they feel any delitious joyes exceeding the common sort which perhaps are indulged only in favour of their weakness and intended meerly to cherish their present childish condition to blaze them every where and report them to others without any great occasion for it They think it a piece of Religion to communicate their experiences to the next passenger they meet withall They love that others should know how nobly they are treated and so they lay a double snare one for themselves by the high conceit which they may raise in others of their excellencies and a second for their neighbours by the discouragement they may feel for want of such elevations If your spirit therefore be at any time transported if God shine into your heart very brightly and darken all this world in your eyes by causing his glory to cover you I beseech you cast a cloud about it that no body else may see it unless the good of others make it necessary that it should be revealed Draw a vail over your face when it is so radiant least by shining too brightly upon others it hurt their eyes and the reflection of it prove dangerous to your self As when you are in the World you must not forget to be private with God so when you have been the most with God it is safest to keep it private from the World It may be seasonable here to add that while He maintained this delightful Converse with God for his own benefit his life was most profitable to others Prayer and Meditation did not hinder his labours but they were spurrs to industry and made him more careful to do his work for which he was sent into the world He was not only attent to his own spirit that it might be kept with God but he watcht for advantages of bringing the hearts of others to him Much less did he spend his time in pleasing amusements to think how much he was in the favour of Heaven but he issued out of these delicious thoughts and took as great a pleasure in introducing others into the same favour There was no hour passed but he did some good or other to the world The finishing of
it that our desires think to waft us as fast as they can unto it and growing continually in strength and swiftness by their own motion the gale proves so stiff that our hearts are swelled therewith and leave no room for any other thoughts nor can be at any rest till they be possessed of it Thus would this poor man have taught those who now beheld him though they had never read a word in their own souls for his mind was so impressed with the happiness which he heard dwelt at Jerusalem that he was not able to discharge his soul at any time of those thoughts and desires which lifted him up from the ground and told him they would carry him thither When he did eat or drink Jerusalem would still be in his mouth when he was in company Jerusalem stole away his heart from them nay in his very sleep it would not stay away but he was wont to dream fine things of Jerusalem But that which makes the story of this person the more remarkable is that it was toward the latter end of the year and in the decay of all things when these good thoughts began to spring up in his soul When the earth had removed it self a great way from the Sun when all the gallantry of the fields had resigned its place to Ice and Snow when charity grew cold and Christian virtue seemed to be gone back to its root when the waies were untrod and few or no Travellers upon the road then did these zealous desires begin to bud in the heart of this honest Country-man and he felt such a vehement heat urging and stimulating his breast that he could remain in no quiet for thinking of his journey to that fair place which had been so much commended to his love as the most flourishing and glorious that ever eye beheld CAP. II. The earnest desire of the Pilgrim to be at Jerusalem and what he expected to find there MUch time he spent in consultation with himself about the course which would be best to hold in his travel thither There was no cost spared no study omitted to get acquaintance with the nearest way to it nor did he cease to inquire of those who were reputed the most skilfull guides that he might obtain a true information of every passage in the journey which he seriously resolved to undertake For though the weather was cold the wayes dirty and dangerous and the journy he was told would be long and company little or none could be expected to deceive the tediousness of the Pilgrimage yet so great were the ardors which he felt within himself that he regarded none of these discouragements but only wished that he might be so happy as to find the right way though he went alone thither And that which made his desires the more forward was that he had often heard Jerusalem by interpretation was no meaner place than the VISION OF PEACE A sight that he had been long pursuing in several forms and shapes wherein it had often seemed to present it self before him but could never court it into his embraces O my beloved would he often sigh within himself O my hearts desire O thou joy of the whole earth in what corner of it dost thou hide thy self and lyest concealed from our eyes Where art thou to be found O heavenly good Who will bring me to the clear vision of thy face Art thou company only for the Coelestial spirits Art thou so reserved for the Angels food that we poor mortals may not presume to ask a tast of thy sweetness What would not I part withal to purchase a small acquaintance with thee and to know the place where thou makest thine abode Many a weary step have I taken in a vain chase of thy society The hours are not to be numbred which I have spent in wishing and labouring to lay hold on thee and still thou flyest away from me After all the sweat wherein I have bathed my self I can find nothing but only that thou art not here to be found Thou art retired it seems from this poor world and hast left us only a shaddow of thee for when we think to clasp thee hard in our arms the whole force and weight of our souls doth fall upon Nothing O my heart what ails thee what torments are these which so suddenly seize upon thee Ah cruel pains the remembrance of which prepares a new rack for me The arm of a Gyant would not ake more if with all his might he should strike a feather then my heart now doth but to think of the anguish it endured when all the strength and violence of its desires were met with emptiness and vanity O Jerusalem Jerusalem the only place that can ease us of this misery the place where the beloved of my soul dwelleth the vision of peace the seat of true tranquillity and repose how fain would I have the satisfaction of being in the sure way to thy felicity This is all the peace I wish for in the world No other happiness do I thirst after as every thing can testifie that hath been privy to my thoughts There is never a room in my house but hath been filled with the noise of my sighs and groans after thee O Jerusalem Every tree that grows in my ground hath thy sweet Name ingraven upon it The birds of the air if they can understand are witnesses how incessantly my soul pants and longs to fly unto thee O Jerusalem What charitable hand will guide me in the way to thy pleasures who will bring me into that strong City the retreat of my wearied mind the refuge to recruit my tired spirits the only place of my security my joy my life it self Wilt not thou O God who hast lead me to the knowledge of it who hast filled me with these desires and hast brought me into a disesteem and contempt of all other things O let not these desires prove the greatest torment of all unto me for want of their satisfaction O forsake not this soul that hath forsaken all other delights and taken its leave of every other comfort that it may go and seek for thee at Jerusalem CAP. III. The great trouble that he fell into because of the different wayes which he was told of to that place IN this manner the poor man was wont to sigh out his soul hoping that at last the heavens would please to hear him and favour him with the understanding of that which would make all his groans useless and render him as chearful as now he found himself disconsolate But that which made the fulfilling of his desires more difficult and his hopes to arrive more slow was the many controversies which were in those dayes fiercely agitated and the huge quarrels that men raised about the right way to Jerusalem There were no less than twenty and some say many more very different parties that contended sharply with each other and every one of them confidently
men of peaceable spirits and that he waits sometimes to do us a pleasure there where we feared to meet with harm and mischief For falling one day into the company of some persons who were discoursing concerning the state of affairs abroad he happened to light on that which he verily thought their vain jangling would fright and drive away There were many debates passed about the several opinions that were then on foot and about the grand supporters of them Some leaned to this others to that but he could not perceive there was any of them who was not addicted to a Sect and did not seek to hear the voyce of Jesus Christ amidst the clamours and hideous noises of the disputers of the world At last there stood up an old man that was a perfect stranger to him who told them that in his judgement if it would be permitted him to deliver it boldly they were hugely mistaken who marched under the Banners of any of those Leaders in defiance to the rest of their Brethren Jerusalem he said was very little beholden to them which was a City at better unity within it self than it was supposed by their Ensignes and he believed the way to that place would be found to be more peaceable than to be disturbed with the sound of Drums and Trumpets Their zeal he continued might be the effect of little not of much knowledge and their confidence the nursling of an overweening opinion of themselves rather than the issue of a sound judgement and clear conception of things In fine he told them that if they would take a little time to cool themselves and would abate so much of their presumption as to think they might possibly erre he doubted not but to bring them to a person who though obscure and of no great note among them should make them confess he gave them better directions than they ever heard of in the way to Jerusalem There was none there at that time but either out of curiosity or some dissatisfaction desired instantly to know who this man should be and in what place he hid himself from the world They concealed the anger which they conceived at his free reproof and having rendred him faint thanks for his liberty of speech professing they loved an open enemy better than a dissembling friend the very love of Novelty lead them to request him to bring them acquainted with this rare person That is a very easie matter to do replyed the old man for he is one that is conversible enough and besides not far distant from this place but for the present I shall chuse to spare the mention of his name and let you know him only by his Character He is a person then that is altogether disinteressed and a partaker in none of those Sects and Factions that are among us One that hath Sion and Jerusalem more in his heart than in his mouth and loves to do more than to talk But when he speaks his words are more than sounds and have a sting in them which pierces the very heart If you did but hear him you would feel that he leaves a true compunction in the spirit and not a false alarm in the ear His head is gray though not his hairs his wisdom makes him more venerable than his years he knows better how to live than others do to dispute and he can argue more for peace than they for their opinions He hath Faith enough to save himself and Charity enough to believe that others may be saved that are not in all points just of his belief His compassion is equal to his understanding his meekness equal to his zeal his faith is matcht with charity his love to his neighbour is proportionable to his love to God and his humility and modesty is equal to them all He seems to me to be a piece of the wracks of Ancient Christianity a relique of the Golden Age one of the children and not of the Apes of Antiquity He hath escaped the contagion of this evil age without flying from it and he is Master of more strength than custom is of force and violence The general corruption which hath overspread us hath not been able to prevail over the purity of his temper And all the wickedness which could not but touch him hath not yet had the power to defile or sully him If those Worthies in whose veins the blood of Christ did run could return to visit the world again I make no doubt but they would discern in him such marks of their virtue that they would confess him for one of their race and embrace him as an Inheritor not only of their name but of their noble qualities If you would know any more of him you had better learn it from himself than from me only this I can assure you that by his guidance there are many men who have made a very happy progress towards Heaven And if you fear that when you go unto him you may lose your labour and not find him or that you may find him little at leisure I can give you this further assurance that being a man of peace he stirs but little from home and hath but little company neither that frequents his house CAP. V. The Opinion which others conceived of that Guide and his address to him YOu cannot imagine how much it pleased our Traveller for so he was in his resolution to hear this news and how much he thought himself beholden to God for bringing him so fortunately into this company which he studied rather to avoid Without any complements therefore or waiting to hear what others would reply he immediately offered himself to be conducted to the society of this excellent Person adding withall that if the rest pleased not now to go along they might hear from him when he should be able to make a judgment of him in what esteem he was to be held To this they all gave their assent and were not a little glad of this expedient to keep out of the acquaintance of him whose Character they nothing liked But the stranger to whom he commited himself would not stir from that place till he had taken him a little aside to speak with him Where he let him know how unworthy a thing he held it to deceive any mans expectations with partial relations which made him that he could not endure to conceal from his notice a matter that he might think most worthy his consideration though he did not judge it fit before to declare it This person said he to whom you are about to repair I must tell you is generally decry'd by all parties as no friend to Truth because he is no great stickler about the Questions that have vexed our unhappy daies Some say that he is indifferent and lukewarm in Religion Others will have the world believe that he is only indued with a great measure of Moral Prudence but hath nothing of the Spirit in him And there are some
the Pulpit against it that you may think it thunder-struck many years ago but let me tell you that if you cherish not good thoughts of God in your mind all your Religion will degenerate into this spurious and base-born devotion In stead of that free and friendly converse that ought to be maintained between God and his creatures you will only flatter him in a servile manner and bribe him not to be your enemy Do not imagine that I abuse this word Superstition or that you are in no danger to fall into it for there are none more guilty of it than they that seem to be most abhorrent from it Did you never observe what a terrible image of God there is erected in most mens minds and how frightful their apprehensions are when they look upon it Never was there any Devil more cruel or sought more to devour then they have painted him in their souls How is it possible then they should address themselves with any considence and pleasure to him How can they entertain any chearful and friendly society with a Being which appears in a dress so horrible to them And yet worship him they must for fear of incurring his displeasure and lest their neglects of him should rouze up his anger against them Now between this necessity of coming to him and that fearfulness to approach him what can there be begotten but a forced and constrained devotion which because they do not love they would willingly leave did not the dread and horrour they have in their souls of him drag them to his Altars And what are they wont to do there Truly nothing but make faces and whine and cry and look as if they were going to execution till they can flatter themselves into some hopes that he is moved by these pittiful noises and forced submissions to lay aside his frowns and cast a better aspect upon them But then his nature remains the same still and they fancy that he delights in the blood of men though for that time he was pleased to smile a little upon them And therefore they are constrained to renew these slavish devotions and to fawn again upon him that they may purchase another gracious look from him In this circle do these poor wretches spend their dayes and advance not one step toward Jerusalem For as there can be little comfort to them I should think in such grim smiles So you cannot imagine that it can be acceptable to God to see men croutch in this fashion to him and out of meer fear afford him their unwilling prostrations No this if any thing in the world is that which ought properly to wear the name of Superstition A devotion which hath no inward spring in the heart no life nor spirit in it and by consequence is void of all savour and tast to them that perform it It is sottishness to think that God will be contented with that which hath no better original than outward compulsion and in its own nature is dead and heartless dry and insipid and yet no better service will you present him withal unless you frame a lovely fair image of him in your mind and alwayes represent him to your self as most gracious kind and tender-hearted to his creatures Let this therefore be your first care not only to form such a beautiful Idaea of him but also to settle and fix it so firmly in your heart that nothing may be able to pull it out Then will you be prepared to follow all my other counsels and most chearfully also resign your self to the obedience of the hardest commands This will make you absolutely give up your self to the Divine Will and to embrace it freely also as most to be chosen and that for it self and its own innate goodness You will think that nothing but good can come from this good God and therefore you will submit to his Laws as loving commands and not as imperious tyrannical Impositions You will deny your self in any thing that he would have you that you may be made better than your self by becoming like to him But otherwise I must tell you and it is no new observation neither that if your conceptions of him be not such as make you heartily love him as you will serve him only with a forced obedience so you will obey him with a sordid and niggardly affection You will be very scanty and sparing in those duties which are of greatest moment and most pleasing to him and studdy only to express your liberality in things of lighter concernment and such are most pleasing to your self Nay things of your own devising you will be more ready to heap upon him as so many courtesies whereby you shall oblige him than to render him those services that are appointed by himself which will be the less grateful because they are his will whom you cannot love This is ever the fruit of hard and penurious thoughts of God that they shrivel up mens hearts too and make them needy and penurious in the expressions of their love and obedience to him and more forward to give him any thing than that which he most desires But I think I might have left you to deduce these things your self who have a capacity I see for greater matters and therefore I shall shorten the rest of these kind of counsels and forbear all long Discourses and Comments upon them Secondly Then it must be your care when your mind hath recovered right thoughts of God to purifie your intentions throughly and to see that they be clear and unspotted in his sight Spread your very heart before him and desire him that you may have his love and that he would deal with you as you sincerely aim at nothing but only to become what he would have you Tell him that you mean in the greatest simplicity of your soul to do his will Protest to him a thousand times that you desire above all things to know what that good that perfect and acceptable will of his is Let him know that you are so passionately bent to please him that you would not stick to purchase the understanding of his pleasure at the rate of the whole world if it was in your disposal This will prepare you in the third place to throw out the sluggish humour which is in all our natures and to dispose your will with true fervour to attend this business of searching out the will of God Ingage your self as solemnly as you can to be very diligent in finding out the truth Perswade your mind not to rest contented with that which first offers it self to your hands but to examine and prove all things and then to hold fast that which is good It is a fault too common that men take things upon the credit of others by whom they are brought to them and not upon their own credibility The reason of which is no other but this that in the one way we make a purchase of them at a
bestowed if it were for nothing else but to see this Illustrious Person especially to behold him in all his glory and his highest exaltation who is the Patron of all good souls the great Protector of all Pilgrims the Guide and Rest too of all noble Travellers and who bears a particular affection to your self who hath suffered so much for you who hath sent you so many messages of his Love who hath endeared himself to you by a thousand favours and was never contented till he brought you to himself that you might be there where he is and behold the glory which his Father hath given to him There he intends to entertain all pious men with an everlasting Supper to make them a never-ceasing Jubilee and treat them with such sumptuous magnificence that there will not be tongues enough among them all to publish his praises and their own thankfulness Only you must remember that the entertainment he will give them is himself and that they will feast eternally upon his blessed face Their happiness will be to see God to behold the glory which is given to our Lord that is to know him and to be filled with his Wisdom Love and Likeness And here lest I should not be understood and you should imagine the happiness of seeing God and his Son to be less than it is let me stop a while to explain this part of my description to you before I pass unto the rest You must not then conceive that the pleasure of Jerusalem is to sit whole Ages and meerly to gaze upon the Divinity or that they who enjoy the repose of that happy place do nothing else but feed their eyes with the beauties of our Saviours face No these are the fancies of low and uninstructed minds who know no higher enjoyments than those of sense To see God will be to have such a knowledge of him as gives our hearts a powerful touch and strikes them with such a lively sense of him that he turns them perfectly into his nature and transforms them into the likeness of his divine excellencies This glorious object doth as I may so speak diffuse and spread it self all over inamour'd souls and by a living heat doth animate them into the same disposition with it self The beauty on which they fix their eyes doth imprint its own form upon their hearts and makes them fair and beautiful with the same lovely qualities which they delight to behold They do not busie themselves there as men imagine in gaping upon the splendor and the many ornaments of that place but they themselves become a part of its glory and are changed into that on which they fasten their eyes They do not spend their time only in looking upon God and curiously prying into him but they receive him into their hearts and he enters into their souls He doth not guild them with his beams but they themselves become Light in the Lord. There is not a glory only cast about them but they receive such rayes of light from his face as dart into their very hearts and shine thorow their whole souls so that they also become luminous and bright They are so ravished with his Goodness that they are made Good They are so affected with his Wisdom that they become Wise The sense they have of his incomparable Purity renders them more Holy and his dear Love so over-masters their souls that they conform in all things to his hearts desire and it seems as if both their hearts had but one and the same motion In short my meaning is that they are not happy at Jerusalem by any external injoyment of God which is all the vulgar conceit doth reach when we speak of seeing his glory but they are inwardly moved by a powerful efflux from him which quickens them into the same thoughts will and desire with himself Their souls are not outwardly painted with him and some colours as it were of his Wisdom living Images of God and really changed into a true resemblance of that which they behold It is not some glory that appears before them which makes them blessed but they are made all glorious within and become themselves God-like creatures They do not behold the Divinity only without themselves but they see God within them and looking into their own souls there they find him and are happy in him And let me add this by the way as I pass to other things that such a knowledge and participation of God you must pursue in this world if you mean to come to Jerusalem You must here be partakers of a Divine Nature and now be transformed by the renewing of your mind proving what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God But I think it is time to lead you to other Spectacles which are worthy your sight and to tell you that in this City all the glorious Ministers of State to the King of Kings have their Mansion-houses and Noble Palaces All the Heroes of ancient daies do here make their abode Nay all the spirits of just men that are made perfect do here inhabit and have their constant residence And all those glittering Angels and those brave minds that ever flourish in this heavenly Court I believe you will think sufficient of themselues if there were nothing else to render this a very splendid place The Laws indeed of which are such that none can be permitted to live there but Noble men persons of high birth and illustrious descent for they are all called the Sons of God But that which gives them this Nobility and stamps such an honourable title upon them is not such poor things as swell the men of our world into an aiery and imaginary greatness but the height of their minds the purity of their hearts and the excellent qualities wherewith they are endowed which intitle them to the kindred of God Insomuch that the meanest Pilgrim on the earth that is found worthy by reason of his virtuous disposition and generous spirit to be admitted a Citizen of Jerusalem instantly becomes Noble and is inrolled among the Princes of heavenly Progeny Into this blessed society then when once you are received How delightful do you think their company and acquaintance will prove Are you not highly pleased now with a rare History and could you not lend your ears for a whole day to hear the adventures of some one famous person And yet these are nothing to the pleasures that they can entertain you withall There were never such things yet reported as the Inhabitants of Jerusalem will be ready to impart and communicate with you Who can tell you a long story of the Love of God and make a never-ceasing relation an endless history of all the rare passages of his providence throughout the whole world They can present you with a thousand Abrahams and as many Josephs whose adventures were so strange that fiction is not able to invent any thing so surprising Nay out of those Countries
insipid pleasures of our decrepit Age as they themselves are surpassed by the quickness and height of those joyes wherein the Citizens of Jerusalem are eternally immersed It is impossible for me to declare the smallest part of the sweet delectations which they resent but to gratifie those longings which I discern I have already excited in you I shall run the adventure of describing a few of those pleasures that gush out of that full and ever-springing fountain of Good with whom they live and maintain an happy converse And because I believe you are desirous to know how they receive and take in those voluptuous injoyments I will indeavour with one labour to satisfie you in both You may conceive then if you please that such a spirit as your own being advanced and fortified much beyond the feeble narrowness of this present state doth continually imploy the highest and most Soveraign powers that it hath upon the highest and most supream Good That it is daily admiring his excellent nature loving and embracing his amiable perfections blessing and praising his bounteous disposition studying to conform it self to all his desires rejoycing in the full satisfaction which he communicates to its heart and in one word doing all those actions which a soul is capable to perform upon any other object in this world And then you will have a little Idea of that infinite delectation which such a conjunction of the very top and flour of the mind with the beginning and original of all good must needs produce Look how you are moved in the injoyment of any sensual good and that will tell you what they do who live at Jerusalem and wherein the pleasure of their life doth consist You see it or some way or other perceive it you apprehend and lay hold of it you feel it you cleave unto it you are tickled and delighted in it and just so will you and all they live and be happy in God who arrive at that blessed place Their life and felicity consists in a clear and distinct perception of him in a close union and conjunction of heart and will with him in a feeling of the pleasures that are in him in an ardent embracement of him that they may more feel him and in an high delight and ravishment of spirit in such injoyment of him Thither if we can but get we shall love as much as we are able and be able to love far more then we can now think The greatness of the object will intend the affection The vastness of the Good will force the will to desire and love more then else it would We shall injoy according to the wideness of our Capacit and all our Capacities will be so inlarged that they will exceed the extent of our present thoughts as much as our present thoughts exceed our present injoyments It is a life wherein we shall do nothing but what we desire and wherein all things shall be just as we will our selves and wherein we shall will nothing but that which is most to be chosen A life every act of which must needs be sweet and full of joy beyond all the measures of all our present wishes When we think we shall rejoyce when we love we shall rejoyce when we adore or praise we shall rejoyce Whatsoever we do it will have infinite delight and pleasure in it and when we have done it never so oft it will be eternally to be done again and we shall likewise have more power to do it and every repetition of such acts will be with a fresh addition of contentment in the doing of them There is no satiety nor loathing in the injoyment of that good no fainting nor growing weary but we shall alwayes think we have enough and yet still be injoying more we shall be in a perpetual youth and vigor and yet daily growing more strong and able to converse with God For that great Good cannot be known at once nor can all the sweetness of that life be instantly tasted nor the rivers of those pleasures be drunk up at one draught but fresh delights will continually entertain us new pleasures will be springing forth unto us and a flood of joy that we never knew before will over-flow us out of that full fountain who now issues forth in so many streams and diffuses himself in such great varieties in this world that our minds may be every moment imploy'd in some rarity of nature which till then did never affect their eyes A happy life sure this will be when we shall have before us such an inexhausted ocean of Good to fill us and such great appetites to be filled and such repeated satisfaction in the filling of them and such an increase of strength by their satisfaction and wider capacities also created by the continual flowing in of that good upon us which will distend and stretch our souls by its injoyment to make us more able to injoy it And now need I be at any pains to perswade you that this City is a place which abounds so much with a plenty of all good things that there can be no want at all but a perfect fulness of whatsoever may be an happiness to us It is apparent already that whatsoever we can desire there it is present and whatsoever is present is Good and whatsoever good there is it is all Good pure good without any evil and that pure Good is all in one Good GOD himself who can be nothing else but Good How much do the Good things of this world delight us which yet are not Good by themselves nor contain in them all that Good is nor are only Good neither but come with a great mixture of trouble to us Will not the injoyment then of him give us infinitely more pleasure and make us perfectly happy who is Good by himself and not by derivation from any other and so is perfectly Good and nothing else but Good without any thing at all to abate his sweetness These things here below saith an ancient Guide to Jerusalem whom I have met withall are something Good St. Aug. else how should they at all delight us but they could not be Good at all if it were not for him that is All Good and only Good who hath made them to be what Good they are For all Good was created by him and he is that Good which was created by none He is Good by his own Good and not by any participated Goodness He is Good from his Good self and not by adhering to any other Good As much therefore as he excells all other Good so much must our injoyment of him excell all other injoyment As he is a Good that is from none but himself so our happiness will be a Good that depends on none but his happiness When we are with him we shall but ask and we shall see we shall but see and we shall love we shall but love and we shall eternally rejoyce
an one as follows He is a person that relyes upon his Masters merits and depends only on the worth and sufficiency of his Lord. He trusts in his goodness for a pardon of all his faults and hopes he will esteem him a good servant because he is a good Master He leans upon his arm and clasps fast about him and is resolved not to let him go till he have paid him his wages He embraces him kindly and hopes he will account him righteous because he is so himself And in one word He applyes to himself all the good works that his Master hath performed and prayes to be excused if he do not his business because that his Lord can do it better Is not this a very ridiculous description or would you be content to be thus served Do not imagine then that God will be served after this fashion or that such an ill-favoured notion as this is the best that can be found to compose the definition of a true believer But first do all that you can and then acknowledge your self an unprofitable servant Let it be your care to follow your work and then rely only upon the goodness of our Lord to give you a reward Be sure that you be inwardly righteous and then no doubt the righteousness of Christ will procure you acceptance and bring you to that happiness which you can no wayes deserve CAP. XVII What place Prayer Hearing of Sermons Reading of Good Books Receiving the Sacrament have in the Religion of Jesus And of what use they are to Pilgrims AND that you may be able to make a better judgement of what I have said and I may also return to the occasion and beginning of this discourse let me intreat you to consider well the nature and ends of Prayer to God It is manifest from the life of Jesus that it is but a part of that duty and obedience that we owe to God and yet it is a powerful means to bring us to all the rest It is the converting and turning about of our minds and hearts to the original of our Being It is our reflecting and looking back upon him from whom we came It is our circling and winding about as Heathens themselves have well conceived to that point from which we took our beginning that we may be fast united to God and never be divided from him It is an acknowledgement of God in all his perfections An expression of our dependance and subjection an oblation of our selves both soul and body to him Think therefore to what purposes it most naturally serves for it being a thing of daily use you may judge thereby what the great business of Christianity or Believing is Doth it minister chiefly to our confidence of being saved and are we to swell our selves by this breath with great hopes that we are beloved of God Or rather is it not most properly subservient to the putting of us into a state of Salvation and the rendring us fit objects of the Divine Love It is not intended to inspire us with conceits that we are the children of God but to breathe into us the spirit of sons and to impress upon us the image of him upon whom we fix our eyes It is the elevation of our minds to him and the fastning of our eyes upon him in order to our being made more like him It is the oblation of our selves to his uses and service and not a giving of our selves to be saved by him Here we place our minds in the brightness of his heavenly light Here we expose our cold affections to the warmth and heat of the Sun of righteousness We behold our Lord most clearly in these devout Meditations and by the frequency of them we shall learn his carriage and gestures and conform all our actions to the excellent model of his I beseech you descend into your own heart and if you know what it is to pray tell me what Faith it is which you feel then most stirring in your heart Is it only a relyance on Christ and an application of his merits to your soul Or is it not rather a vigorous application of your mind to him that you may feel him more begetting and promoting his life in your heart Is it not a strong desire to be touched by him to be impressed with his likeness to be joyned to him and made one spirit with him and in one word that you may be made more ready and disposed to every good work I will evidently convince you that this is the great end of Prayer and consequently the main work of believing on the Son of God We are you know of kin to two Worlds and placed in the middle between Heaven and Earth With our Heads we touch the one and with our Feet we stand upon the other Man is the common term wherein these two meet and are combined By his superiour faculties he holds communion with the inward and spiritual world and by his lower he feels the outward and corporeal But there is a great difference between the correspondence which we hold with one and that which we maintain with the other For to this sensible World we lye open bare but between us and the invisible World there is a gross cloud and vail of flesh which interposes Or to speak more plainly Our senses have nothing that comes between them and their objects to hinder their free approach to them whereas our understanding hath those very objects wherewith they are prepossessed to interrupt the light of coelestial things which shine upon it The outward man is continually exposed to the strokes of the things of this outward World and without any difficulty or pains is moved by them but our Mind is not so patent to the things of the other nor is our Will so easily inclined by them For they being already impressed and engaged by sensible objects these lye between us and the higher Regions and they having enjoyed a long familiarity with them before we received notice of any thing else beside it will require some labour to bring us and those Nobler objects together In short the senses have nothing else to do but only to receive those things which present themselves before them nor are they solicited by any other enjoyments But our minds and wills are haled two waies and solicited by this World as well as by the other so that to perceive that which is Divine we must remove this out of the way and pull our souls from those thoughts and desires wherein these lower things have intangled our hearts Unless our Understanding draw her self aside to the contemplation of Divine Truths and thereby carry the Will to the taste of an higher Good it cannot be avoided but that we become meer men of this World and by being wholly carnal lose our acquaintance with the other caelestial Country We shall be altogether fraught with fleshly opinions and affections and have nothing remaining in us of
by the help of Heaven instantly to set forth in this way which you have described If I had been born your Son I could not have thought my obligations greater to you than now I feel them Nay I shall take the liberty to say That I stand more indebted to your Piety than I do to Nature For fancy oft-times makes Parents but it is only reason truth and goodness which have tyed my heart to you And therefore since I am the issue of your mind you may justly expect a greater reverence love and obedience to your commands than if I was the issue of your body I have heard your discourse Sir with great attention I have markt every particular passage of it with diligence and care and such a gust hath every word given me which dropt from your mouth that it hath seemed to me not many minutes long It is not to be expressed how your Golden Sentence pleaseth me which you have put into my mouth I am resolved to go along this Journey chaunting it continually with no less delight than the Birds are wont to do their Melodies Nay I cannot forbear and be not weary I beseech you Sir if I hold you longer than I thought but I must here before you renounce my own proper will and protest that I desire nothing but to be what Jesus would have me and to be where Jesus you say will bring me O thou enemy of God! my self-will that hast reigned so long come down from thy Throne I proclaim War against thee and am resolved from this day forward to oppose all thy desires I set my self here in open defiance to thee I will have no peace with thee for one moment because thou-art no friend of God to whom I now deliver my self Let him be pleased to come and reign in my heart for I am absolutely his May it be his will to accept of a poor Slave that devotes all his powers to his service This I will beg of him perpetually that he would vouchsafe to let me know what his will is and that shall be my Guide though my own will be never so desirous to hold a contrary course Let it pain me or let it please me I am resolved to bind my self fast to God that he may carry me not whither I would but whither himself thinks good Say the word O my God and it is enough I am prepared to be conducted by thee Lead me whither thou wilt O thou blessed Providence thou shalt have a faithful follower of thy wise Counsels I am no longer affraid of any dangers Those terrible Monsters Poverty Reproach and all the rest do strike no dread at all into me Farewell offices and honours if you must be the recompence of crimes Farewell my friends if I must be the companion of your sins Farewell all the world if it must be the price of my soul But as for you Sir I am loath to bid you farewell I must be snatched rather than go from your company For you are my Father my Oracle a Messenger sent from God to bring me to him And if you will go to Heaven without me I pray you once more to receive my acknowledgements which testifie that I would thank you if I were able both for your former Directions and for this Patience Truly replyed the Father I think my self rather obliged to thank you most heartily that you would come to me and being come that you would hear me not only with Patience but Acceptance For there is nothing I am so greedy of as to meet with a soul that is sincerely desirous to know the way to Jerusalem neither do I know any pleasure equal to that of pouring out my heart into such thirsty minds unless it be this of seeing them rellish those Waters of Life which flow from Wisdome's lips And that same Jesus who I see hath touched your heart already with his Love and excited you to take this Journey give you his Blessing and send his Spirit the Comforter to accompany you in your travels and assign you to some good Angel of his that may conduct you to that happy place the Heavenly Jerusalem where he lives In the way to which I am so desirous you should enter that I will not be your hinderance by any further discourses but shall be very glad as I told you to find you in safety arrived there where we shall never part more nor have any cause to say this sad word Farewell Must I part then with you said the Pilgrim Here he made a pause and tears spoke the rest of his mind for I could hear never a word he said till after a great many sighs hee thus proceeded Well let it be so It is part of my duty you say to be contented with every thing And therefore I now freely resume my former resolution and say in the words I hope in the Spirit also of Jesus Not my will O Lord but thy Will be done Onely let me again renew my desires that you would accompany me ever with your good Prayers for I hope it is not too great a gratification of my self to be pleased in your friendship and in the belief that you remember me Nor will it be accounted a crime that I am not willing to be left out of your thoughts especially when they are addressed in devout supplications to Jesus I have been long perswaded that I use to prosper the better in all my designes for the good wishes of pious persons and it hath been some support to me also when I have had no great store of good desires in my own heart or been but cold in those I had to think that the concerns of my soul were presented to God by some Friend or other in their more fervent Devotions And therefore it will be at the most but a pardonable error if I do with some Passion beg the prayers of such a person as you are and if I comfort my self sometimes with the interess I have in you and them Especially since I see by your charitable instructions and the patience you have used towards me that you have an heart so full of Love and Goodness that it will neither suffer you to remember me coldly nor to be weary in recommending me to the Grace of God The Father would not make any long reply to these words for fear they should never break off but be alwayes linkt together by the chains of this pleasing conversation and the delight which he perceived began to spring up in him by the interchanging so many expressions of their mutual Love But after he had assured him by a solemn promise that he would never fail to commend him to the love and care of Jesus they took their leave one of the other not without a great many embraces and hearty wishes to see each other again in peace at Jerusalem You may be sure the Pilgrim could not but often reflect with a sad heart upon this
prayers and longing after thee Shall it expire in cryes and tears which it pours out for thy mercy O where are thy Bowels what are become of thine antient loving-kindnesses Are they all forfeited by one offence against thee O my God I cannot think so hardly of thee I begin to live me thinks because thou permittest these adresses to thee It inspires me with some hopes to find these holy breathings in me It rejoyces me much that I feel thee drawing my very heart after thee O take it I beseech thee take it quite away from me unto thy self Shape it after thine own heart and make it such as thou canst imbrace Create in me a clean heart O God and renew in me a right spirit Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit He was proceeding in the words of that Penitential Psalm being once got into it but that a flood of tears stopt the passage of his words and sighs and groans supplyed their place In which having vented himself a while it fell out that the tyde of his passion being a little faln and his sighs growing something silent he should hear the voyce of another person that was drowned before in his lowder cryes which invited him first to listen and then to cast his eyes as wet as they were that way from whence it came to his ears And so turning his head a little aside who should he espy in this Oratory but the Good man from whom he had taken his first Directions who being himself also a Traveller to Jerusalem called in at this place to refresh himself and to take such a repast as the bounty of Heaven was wont here to provide He searce knew at the first whether he might believe his eyes or no and when he had satis fied himself that it was no dream he was still in some doubt whether he should rise from his knees and go to salute him Two passions he felt strugling in him at the same point of time the one transported him to the Father with whom he already fancied himself and the other held him where he was that he might make an end of his prayers to God But finding at last that his spirits began to fail him and that he knew not well what to add at present to his former Devotions withall hoping that God had sent his Director at this happy moment to teach him to pray better he went without any further deliberation and threw himself into the arms of the Father as soon as he saw that he was at leisure to receive him The good old man was as much surprized with the strangeness of this accident as the Pilgrim could be But when all other passions had spent themselves which use to be moved on such unexpected occasions they left Joy in the sole possession of his heart which could not but stay there a great while having so many causes to excite it It was no small pleasure to see his son as he could not but esteem him after so long absence Friends never part with so much sadness but they meet again with as great a Joy But then to meet him when he thought not of it and to meet him in so good a place and to find him so far advanced in his way to Jerusalem and also to hear him so fervently desire to be carried further these things made his Joy exceed and boil up to a greater height I will not recite what he said unto him and indeed it was not much because the young Pilgrim though wonderfully enlivened by the fight of the Father yet could not so disguise his soul but that it left some deadness in his countenance The Joyes and pleasing Raptures into which he was cast at this interview were not so bright but that there remained some clouds upon his face which could not be dispelled by them This made the Good man very abruptly to break off his speech as soon as he had entred into it and it abated also a little of his satisfaction when he saw by the paleness of his cheeks and the dulness of his eyes that all was not well with him Yet there was no need to ask what he ailed for he had no sooner told the Father what Joy he conceived in his presence but he was ready to unbosome the grief of his heart to him thinking to find some ease both by discharging his soul into that breast and â—â—â—eceiving it back again better informed in all its concernments Many things he related to him but above the rest I remember he insisted upon his present dulness and the loss of those Joyes that were wont to attend him which he had no means left to recover unless he was now sent by God to restore them And all the time of his speech on this argument he lookt so sorrowfully that it would have moved an heart most void of compassion to behold him His words likewise were all uttered with mournful accents and not without the addition of some tears though he endeavoured as much as he could to restrain them lest they should hinder all his mind from coming forth Which when he had sighed out with a great deal of passion it was not possible so to repress them but that all concluded in a plentiful showre At the end of which he being very silent the Father thus addressed his speech to him And is this all you have to say against your self Then you may wipe your eyes and look more chearfully for you are not so ill as I see you imagine You are more affraid than hurt and unless you will be your own tormentor there is nothing appears that can disturb your repose Did you not write me word that you received much satisfaction in this very case by a Letter that I happily sent unto you Did not my Instructions before your setting out bid you expect some cloudy weather in your Travels I thought you would have under stood by those discourses that we must not expect alwayes the same joyes and consolations in such a variety of tempers as we now suffer nor the same vigour and activity of spirit while we are so fast chained to this 〈◊〉 as our present state will have us Did I not bid you also say perpetually I am nought I have nought c. and did you not find this a most effectual spell to drive away all these black and dismal thoughts Why then did you think your self worthy at all times to enjoy these pleasures Why did you not abase your self at the feet of your Saviour and confess to him that these are too great favours to be indulged constantly to us on this side of our resting-place If there be any way to have them it is this not to expect them and acknowledge that we do not deserve them Nay in those submissions and devolutions of our selves before our Lord
deceive and cheat you with its dissimulations while you are in this state endeavouring to slubber over negligence under the pretext of I cannot do any more It is true we are not tyed to that which we cannot do but yet the flesh will sometimes juggle and complain of impotence when there is nothing hinders us but only Sloth Here you must look upon your self with a great many eyes you must become your own spy and narrowly watch the most secret motions of your heart For this Eve that is within us is so desirous to be cherished and pleased to be walking up and down the Garden and to be eating of the forbidden fruit that she wants not a thousand inventions to make us believe that her demands do not extend to superfluities but only to things necessary for us that she doth not desire ease and pleasure so much as rest from hard labours and she is in a mighty chafe if we will not give a perfect credit to her She perswades us sometime that we are much weaker than in truth we can affirm our selves to be She tells us that we cannot with safety think of any thing else but her and is not willing to let us make a tryal She bids us attend only to her quiet and satisfaction and not suffer the mind to disturb her repose at all And the more we humour and gratifie her desires the more still she bemoans her self to move our pitty towards her It concerns us therefore to be careful in observing what good it is that we can then perform without a manifest prejudice to our health and to make provision that it be not neglected by means of the heavy complaints of laziness and sloth Look up unto Jesus as often as you can Tell him in the secrets of your soul that you heartily love him Open your very bosome to him and shew how desirous you are to be more conform'd unto him by this affliction Pray him to come and ransack your heart and to throw out of doors whatsoever is offensive to him Let him know that you had rather not only be sick but dye a thousand times than not be friends with him And so entreat him to take pitty upon you Promise him to do whatsoever he would have you And exhort all others of your acquaintance that they would love and serve him more than you can do And this let me add for your comfort that sometimes he bestows more favours upon sick men in their Beds who can pray in no other manner but by the humiliations and prostrate submissions of their Wills to him than he doth upon some others who spend many hours on their bended knees in that holy exercise And do not despair I beseech you of receiving this mercy though you think your self never so unworthy of it since it costs him no more but only his Will to bestow it With these and such like Discourses the Good man entertained his friend in this sickness for many dayes which put the time into a speedier pace than otherwise it would have pass'd away Though he kept his Bed for some weeks yet the hours did not seem at all tedious to him but rather fled away as fast as he used before to do himself So happy a thing it is to have a partner in our troubles and the assistance of another shoulder beside our own to bear our griefs Good Discourses are like the breath of Heaven which when the burdned Vessel feels she cuts her way through all the waves and never complains of the greatness of her burden Nay they proved to him like the cool Air which refreshes the gasping Traveller in a hot day making his very body feel its leggs the sooner by the delicate touches which they gave unto his Spirit All the Art of his Doctors and an whole Apothecaries shop had not been able to restore his consumed flesh so easily and in such a little space of time as these Soveraign Cordials which distilled from the Good mans lips and were drawn he felt from the very bottome of his heart I have wondred sometimes when I considered the suddenness of his recovery for though he lay some weeks in a feeble condition it was because he did not at first receive these Medicines which so soon as he tasted he became another man and seemed to have a New Essence infused into him It is no new piece of Philosophy but an Axiome older than Hippocrates and which calls Solomon that great Physician its Father Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Pro. 12.25 but a good word maketh it glad And in another place of his Aphorisms we read that A merry heart doth good to a Medicine Pro. 17.22 but a broken spirit dryeth the bones CAP. XXIX Of the trouble which the Pilgrim was in about some business which had layn neglected during his sickness Of his desires after a contemplative Life Of Solitude The Profit of it especially at the beginning of our Christian course And how they that enjoy it do not find all the satisfaction which they expected in it BEing able therefore by the good inspirations of his friend whose mouth he acknowledged was a Well of Life to go about the house Pro. 10.11 He spent as much time as he was able in praising God instructing the servants and doing good to all his neighbours not neglecting any duty which God or man required of him But so it was that having been long sick there were some necessary businesses in which both he and his friend were concerned that had layn as long as himself without any regard These called very importunately upon him for his attendance and being very weighty and requiring quick dispatch would not cease to sollicite more of his thoughts than he was willing to allow them It will be of no use to tell you what they were but it may be sufficient to let you know that they were of such moment that without a manifest wrong both to himself and others he could by no means put them off nor make them rest contented with a cold and slow management of them And yet from hence his mind took occasion to spring a new doubt which he had not power to remove himself till he had made it known to his Friend though his affairs were not so urgent but that they left him a little leisure to consider of that which might have given him some satisfaction For whensoever a crowd of little occasions throng'd in upon him and would not be denyed his company then he began to frown upon himself because he did not find so much vacancy as his heart desired for private Prayer and Recollection To this the Father said as soon as he had eased himself of the scruple by telling of it that for his part he was very glad to find he had such a vehement love for retired thoughts and secret converse with God and that he sighed so much after it as far more delightful to
And was you not glad to behold so many kind neighbours assembled at that decent entertainment To me there is not a more agreeable spectacle than a company of select friends vacant of business and full of chearfulness met together at one table And I cannot imagine that a man who understands pleasure can wish any equal to this that he might make one in such an happy society You may think indeed that it is sufficient to our delight if we can meet our friends any where But I am of the mind that the pleasure is redoubled when they refresh their bodies and their minds both together I hate indeed your great Feasts where persons that never saw one the other before nor ever shall perhaps again are mixt together where there is much talk and little or no discourse But these Love-feasts me-thinks do call to my mind the dayes of Innocence and make me wish for nothing when I enjoy them but only such another pleasure Here we know that we pledge an hearty Love when a man presents his kindness to us Our mind is entertained with a greater variety than the body enjoyes The very taste of our meat is exalted by the inward delight which we feel in our hearts And whatsoever satisfaction we then receive we impart as much to those that give it The weak and languishing appetite is excited by the sight of friends and the pleasure of their discourse and the discourse flows more freely by the moderate satisfaction of our appetite Our dull spirits are raised by communication with our friends and that Communication grows more lively by the exaltation of our spirits Or if you please so to consider it Friends never talk with greater wit and more freedom than when they take an innocent repast together and their meat never doth their bodies more good than when this sweet conversation is the sauce for it Indeed said the Pilgrim I had forgot to reflect upon that part of those good mens satisfaction which I take to be so great and yet so harmless withall that I shall ever be a friend of such pleasures and permit my self to be merry in such worthy company They have convinced me that I ought not to affect a sad brow and an heavy countenance They have reconciled me to smiles and mirth And provided they will keep within such bounds I will never quarrel with my passions any more But there is none that I have a greater kindness for than that of Love the pleasures of which as it self acquaints me withall so the usefulness of it those excellent men have also taught me And not to part so soon from so good a meeting I must let you know that they understood afterward a great part of the discourse at that Table was about friendship and the happiness of him that had found a faithful friend Which when it was repeated to him by one that was there it was a great means of confirming this affection in our Pilgrim and making him rejoyce in his advantageous choice My memory is not so good as to carry away all that I heard was said on this argument but it begun with a commendation of that saying of the Son of Sirach A faithful friend is a strong defence and he that hath found such an one Ecclus. 6 14 15 16 hath found a Treasure Nothing doth countervail a faithful friend and his excellency is unvaluable A faithful friend is the Medicine of Life and they that fear the Lordshall find him He speaks like an Oracle said one of the company for a friend me-thinks is the only universal Medicine against all the evils of this present life And with your permission I will make a Comment upon this Aphorism or rather I will recite you the words of a good Author who though I believe he never saw him hath glossed me-thinks most excellently on the Text of that wise Hebrew To which when they had all most willingly accorded he thus proceeded There is no Remedy in the World saith he Dion Prus 1. equal to that of a friend for other Medicines are profitable to the sick and superfluous to those who are in health but He is necessary to both He supplyes the wants of Poverty He adds a brightness to our glory and he obscures and hides our Ignominy This one things lessens the difficulty of those that are troublesome to us and increases the happiness which all our injoyments bring us It makes evil things little and good things great By this sweet society our griefs are divided and all our joyes are doubled What calamity is not intolerable without a friend and what felicity is not ungrateful if we have none to share with us in it We suffer not so much when we have some to condole and suffer with us And we rejoyce the more when our felicity gives a pleasure not only to our selves but to others also If Solitude and want of company be so horrid so dreadful a thing it is not to be understood of the want of men but of the want of friends For it is a good Solitude not to dwell with those that do not love us and a man would chuse such an Hermitage where he might not be troubled with them who bear no benevolous affection to him But for my part I cannot think it to be an happiness which hath no friend to participate in its pleasures A man may more easily bear the hardest Calamity with his Friend than the greatest felicity alone So that I judge him the most miserable who in his calamity hath many to insult over him and in his felicity none to taste of his joyes and rejoyce with him Who is there more speedy in his succours than a Friend Whose praise is sweeter to us than his And by whom is Truth spoken with less grief than by such a mouth What Castle what Bulwark what Arms and Weapons are more potent to secure us than the custody of those who are well-affected to us For in truth so many Friends as a man hath gained with so many eyes doth he see and with so many ears doth he hear and with so many understandings doth he think of that which is profitable for him It is all one as if God had given to a man in one body a great many Souls every one of which do tenderly consult and care for his good Nay if our eyes and our tongue and our hands are much to be prized not only for the delights of Life but that we may live Friends are not only as profitable but more necessary than these For your eyes can scarce see those things which are under your feet but by our Friends we may see those things which are in the furthermost parts of the earth By our eares we hear only the things that are very near us but by our Friends we hear them which are most remote The tongue signifies only to those who are present and with the hands the strongest man can do
for Peace which lyes between both and which ought alwayes to be fought for by the vanquished and desired by the victorious they nothing care unless they may have it on their own terms and conditions If you intend then to have our company you must throw away this stubborn stiff and resolute disposition which makes men lose Peace for little or nothing A yielding compliant and gentle nature is the great friend of Peace and the only soil wherein it will grow For the preparing of which soil there is nothing so necessary as Humility It is Pride generally that makes men so obstinate and pertinacious A conceit of themselves makes them fondly imagine that every body must submit to them and they to none This therefore is as great an enemy to our happy agreement as any the world hath It obstructs all passages to it it makes a man stand upon punctilio's and formalities as if they were of equal consideration to Peace and Unity It preferrs the least trifle which supports its Grandeur before the greatest Blessings that Heaven can bestow It makes men endlesly wrangle when all that they can say signifies nothing but that they have no mind to yield You are better skilled than I it is to be presumed in the History of ancient times And you cannot well chuse but remember something of a contest between the Athenians and King Philip about an Isle that he had taken from them and had a mind to restore But then you cannot also but call to mind how learnedly one of their proud Orators advised them that if the words of the Treaty did import that he gave it to them they should refuse it He would rather have them lose that which they could not get than not have it by way of surrender restitution to them Was not this a strange foolery What was it else but to prize the vanity of a word before the solidity of the thing as one hath observed on that Story To stand upon a fancy and shadow of Honour when a real interest was concerned But such is the nature of Pride which thinks it self disgraced if you pluck an hair out of its head and takes it self to be undone if it lose but a word Pride would have it so and that will be obeyed though men suffer soundly for it And are not most of the Controversies that divide the world about matters of the like high moment Are they not in great part a scuffling about syllables and a fighting with shadows and Idols of our own Imagination Is there not very hot bickerings about hard phrases And is it not thought enough to make a man be killed if he do not believe a barbarous word Consider whether your weapons are not like to be ingaged in these doughty quarrels Whether you have not sharpened them to serve in the cause of words I doubt those that I see you arm'd withall are provided to protect Cob-webs and to defend the idle dreams and phantasms of Sophisters But is not the World in a sad case in the mean time Is it not very strange that it should be so much at leisure They know very well sure how to live and how to dye or else they would find themselves something else to do It seems God hath not told them enough to employ them and so they invent words out of their own brain about which to fight eternally Away for shame with this Vanity and Pride Away with this conceitedness which hath thus embroiled the whole Earth and seeks to draw Heaven into the Contention too If you would have us joyn with you in any thing it must be in our prayers that God would give men such a right sense of themselves that they may become humble and lowly in heart To this we will say Amen both for our selves and all others We will beg this day and night that he would incline mens hearts to peace by inclining them to yield one to another That he would bestow upon them a soft and gentle disposition of mind That he would mollifie their hardness and smoothe the roughness and severity of their spirits That all may be willing to quit their particular desires for the General Good That Self-denyal may have as great a place in all mens hearts as it hath in our Religion And that all who call themselves after the name of Christ may learn of their Master who was meek and lowly in heart who did not cry neither was his voice heard in the street who did not quench the smoaking Flax nor break the bruised Reed Who did bear with the infirmities of those that followed him and is now such an High Priest as can have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way Of these things we can be infallibly assured and if you have mind to be as confident of other matters which we think either doubtful or false trouble not the World with it and we will not trouble you nor envy to you the height of your illumination CAP. XXXV A Discourse with some Pilgrims that were going to Loretto the Holy Land or such like places How much such persons are abused and cheated The judgment of St. Gregory Nyssen of these Pilgrimages The Priviledges which Rome boasts of above all other places And what a Market is there held continually for Pardons Of which a Lease may be bought of many thousand years for a small matter WHen the two Champions for so they esteemed themselves saw that there was no ground to be won of these men they thought it best to quit the field especially since the night was coming on a pace to part them They made therefore but a short return to what had been objected to them and then both sides expressing all the kindness that might be towards each other and promising to live in Charity they took their several courses And as for our two friends they did but rid themselves of this company to make room for a new For having bequeathed their wearied bones to rest in such a bed as they could get betimes the next morning they met with a cluster of Pilgrims as they called themselves in a very poor habit and much weather-beaten who were got together under a tree relating their several Pilgrimages which either they intended or had already performed To this company they were very desirous to joyn themselves a while and it being admitted they found one of them telling how holy a place Mount Sinai was which he was going to visit with great devotion And I said another shall go your way for there is a Vow upon me to go and see the Oak of Mamre under which Abraham entertained the Angels But first said a third let us go to Jerusalem whither I am bound to see the sanctified places which our Saviours feet have trod The place where he made the Pater noster and where the Apostles made the Creed The Olive tree also still standing hard by the house of Annas
their thinking and speaking of it This they lookt upon as a common friend to both that would translate them to those happy regions where friendship is in its Kingdom and raigns over every heart All the favour they would have beg'd if it were wont to grant any petitions was that with one stroke it would arrest them both and carry them thither together And if any body could have made good the Paracelsian promise of spinning out the life of man to a length equal with the clue of time and making our vital oil of the same durable temper with that which feeds the Lamps of Heaven All things were so in common between them that I verily think one of them would not have accepted of such a courtesie on condition to injoy it alone without the other No they rather desired as I said that the one might not see the other expire but that the same hand might cut off both their threds at once and that one moment might put out those Lamps which were not willing to burn asunder All the wishes that our Pilgrim made besides this was only that they might live so long till he could give some remarkable proof of his affection to his Guide For though he knew that he loved him above all things and could contradict even his former wishes by dying for him yet it did sometimes a little discontent him that he was in no capacity to show his tenderness but only by words and protestations Though the wisdom of his Conductor had stood him in so great stead and he could not well spare any of it yet he was so foolish now and then as to think that if he had been less wise he himself had been more happy Because then he might have stood in need to receive those counsels which now he only gave and been requited for those courtesies which now he made him a pure debtor for Many other benefits also that are usually communicated between friends he found himself utterly destitute of all means to confer they being either not in his power or his Guide in no need of them This sometimes raised a small disquiet in his mind and one day I remember he could not contain himself but he began a discourse to this purpose which shall put an end to this present Relation I should think my self said he the happiest man alive was I but able to correspond with you in the duties and offices of friendship and were I not constrain'd to return you only a weak and fruitless passion for that efficacious love which hath done me so many services It troubles me a little to find that my passion is as useless as it is extream and as void of benefit to you as it is violent in it self It is no less barren then I doubt it may be burdensome and hath as little profit as I see it hath brought you much trouble Though the honour be very great you have done me in bestowing such a place upon me in your heart yet I know not sometimes whether I should not complain in the enjoyment of a favour which as it was not in my hands to deserve so I cannot possibly requite True indeed it is that I have given my self to you but that is no more than strict Justice exacts since I have received your self as a gift to me Friendship they say is a commutation of hearts and therefore it is but fit that you should have mine in room of your own And yet alas mine is of such small value that I doubt you will be wholly a loser by the change Is there no means for me to do you service or to rest content with a will to serve you Cannot you either shew me how I may be useful to you or shew your self a disposition to it in that heart which I have given you I should be satisfied I think if you knew my will as well as my self It remains in your power not my own to settle my mind in peace if you will first believe I love you and then set a value upon that Love which you know is the cause of all well-doing and ought not to be blamed for want of power Very true said his Guide who laid hold of that word I think that I have found a treasure in your Love and I will have it pass for currant payment though it cannot express it self in such sensible effects as you would have it It is enough to me that you have such a passionate affection for me though it could never find the means to do any thing but only tell me how hearty it is I am pleased with the intentions and desires which you have to do me any good It is an extraordinary contentment to me to contemplate the imaginations which are in your mind of what you would do for me could power be courted by your will to come and joyn it self unto it They are the Vulgar who call nothing benefits but what they can feel with their fingers It is the portion of gross Souls to be insensible unless your courtesies to come at their hearts pass through their hands The purer and more refined Spirits touch the very Souls of their Friends and feel the kindness which lyes in their breasts They are so subtil as to see a courtesie while it is so young as to be but only in design They touch it before it be cloathed in matter or have passed beyond the confines of thoughts They meet it in the first rudiments and embrace it while it is only in meaning and drawn in the imagination They receive these inward acts of Love as most pure and spiritual being separate from all the terrestrial part which affect the vulgar minds And in one word there is not any thing dearer to them than those motions of the Soul which finding nothing they can do correspondent to their own greatness and force do terminate in themselves They are pleased to see them stay there and go no further because there is nothing fairer than themselves to be met withall wherein to end and rest Do not depretiate your affection therefore nor vilifie it in that manner you are wont as though it were not worthy my acknowledgement Do not tell me any more that it is no valuable Love which doth not serve our Friends for this service depends upon occasions and they depend on an higher Being and are only in the dispose of Providence All that I can be beholden to you for I have received already from you and for the rest if it could be bestowed I must make my acknowledgements to something else Be contented then that you give all that is in your hands and that if it were in them to make occasions you would still let those be wanting which most of all prove a friend Nay let me tell you I am so favourable in my opinion to your affection and so apt to give it the best advantage that I am not yet resolved but there may be
that he is our Lord and we his Subjects and that after all our search we find our Happiness to lye in him alone and in separation from him the best condition in the world will leave us miserable And he had not long pondered upon these things with much satisfaction before those words of the Psalmist came into his mind He that offereth praise glorifieth me Psal 50.21 and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God Which made him fall into the praises of God and to resolve that he would do so every day and early design all the imployments of it to his service concluding that whilst he held this course and ordered his wayes aright he exalted God in the world by lifting up his Will into a preheminence and command over his own subjecting himself unto it both as most supreme and also wise and good And after a great many thoughts of this nature at last he made a short reflection upon the person who had made him this visit in the night And when he remembred that he fancied it was his Friend who came to his Bed-side he had a new pleasure to think of the benefits of Sleep The praises of which he could not upon this occasion forbear though at certain times he wished his thoughts might never be intermitted by it What an heavenly power said he is this for so I am ready to call it how much am I beholden to it for its silent refreshments That which useth to part the dearest friends hath now brought them together That which separateth those who touch each other hath made those near who are far asunder O Divine Gift O beloved Rest which God bestows upon us How great are these charms which lock our doors to all the World and now have opened them to my friend How much better are these dreams then many of my waking thoughts How much rather had I be in the arms of the brother of death then in the feeble injoyments of many parts of my life I am content just now to be restored to his embraces if my Friend will but meet me there again in this manner At least I hope I may conclude that when we are Dead indeed he will not fail to meet me whose Image finds me out when I am in the Images of death CAP. XXVII How the Pilgrim fell into a great sadness and how strangely it was cured by an unexpected meeting with his Guide Who discourses of the nature of sensible joyes And at last upon his desire contracts a particular Friendship with the Pilgrim IN such thoughts or rather dreams as these he spent a little portion of his time with great delight And now having vanquished so many enemies and impediments in his way of divers sorts he was willing to believe that he should be molested no more but pass in perfect peace to the Vision of Peace A great many dayes he remained in these pleasant expectations and went a good way onwards to his resting place without the least weariness of any part about him He seldome departed from meditation but either with his mind illuminated with new light from heaven or his will inflamed with a new ardor or his whole heart steeped in new sweetness And though sundry new enemies also attempted him yet such a profound peace seemed to have taken possession of his heart that they could not move the least disturbance there The joyes that he felt made him despise all baits of pleasure which lay in his way The Conquests which he had got made him think himself above the scorn and laughter of the World And though he was sometimes bitterly reproached yet he comforted himself with this that they did but prepare him matter for new triumphs But he could never be drawn to any other contests wherein the Generality of men were then very zealously ingaged nor did he affect any Victories among the disputers of the World He lived in love and peaceableness with all his fellow-travellers He thought himself so rich also in these graces that it was no trouble to him to be poor And he had such a sense from whence he received them that they were no temptation neither to be proud But yet for all this it chanced that some exercises of Devotion to which he had bound himself being one day omitted either through indisposition or by reason of some lawful if not necessary occasions which diverted him he was cast into such a pensiveness of mind as proved at last a great affliction to him For he indulged to himself those thoughts because they pleased him at first but by too frequent reflections they grew to a melancholy mood and from thence proceeded to a dull and listless temper of Spirit In this condition you must needs think his joyes were again abated which added very much to the trouble of his mind and indeed they fell in time to so low an ebb that he feared they would never rise again but leave him at last quite dry and without one drop of comfort And so truly in the issue of things it proved for as they forsook him so he was tempted again to forsake his way which was now become but irksome to him without those refreshments The pleasure and rellish that he was wont to feel in holy duties was quite gone In stead of clearness there succeeded darkness dryness of spirit took the place of affection and in the room of joy and gladness he was loaded with nothing but groans and heaviness He often professed that he could feel nothing at all but remained as a man that had lost the use of his soul And therefore though he continued for a while to pray and perform his duty in other things as well as he could yet finding that he was but like a man that drinks very much when the liquor hath no tast and gives him no pleasure in the going down he was tempted to throw it all away and thought he had as good not do those things at all as do them with no delight And accordingly he gave up himself wholly to be tortured by his own thoughts which imployed themselves in nothing else but making sad representations of the misery of this state which you must needs think was so grievous that it is not possible to draw a picture of it For since the soul is of far greater force then the body the pains and anguish which arises in it must needs be far more pungent and afflictive then those which touch the outward man He suffered a kind of Martyrdom every day or rather he was continually crucified and had nothing but Gall and Vinegar given him to drink He thought he had reason when he complained of greater pains then the Martyrs endured For they being inwardly illuminated and touched from heaven found the highest comforts in their torments the greatest liberty in their imprisonments and in the midst of flames the divinest ardors of Love in their hearts
which like a greater fire put the other out But he poor Soul though alwayes denying his own desires breaking of his will in pieces lying upon a rack and fast nailed to the Cross where the body of sin was bleeding to death yet found his Spirit in horrid torments and deprived of those divine delights which cheared the bright souls of the blessed Martyrs and made them shine with a greater luster then did their fires But since I cannot express the soreness of this Agony in which he a long time lay I shall only add that it was so great that one day being quite tired and spent he fell into a kind of trance and remained as immoveable for some space as if he had been dead And a blessed occasion this was though all his acquaintance that were come to comfort him imagined he would then have expired For he thought he saw a man coming to him with a very smiling aspect as though he knew him who bad him get up and go as fast as he could to a certain Oratory that was not far off and in his way where he should meet with some relief When he was come to himself he thought this Vision or what else you please to call it was in stead of an Oracle and had discovered to him one of the greatest causes that he continued so long ill of these grievous distempers And that was That while he afflicted and tormented himself with the remembrance of what was passed he neglected to implore the help of God with such constant prayers as was nieet for the redress of his present evils and prevention of the like in time to come This began to make a vehement commotion in his mind for he saw there was nothing truer then that We are apt to pray least when we have greatest need of it and are wont to spend that time in looking upon our sores which should be imployed in looking up to Heaven for its Balm to drop into them And truly so lively were the colours wherein this was set before his eyes that he was ready to burst into tears and pour out his Soul there before he stir'd from the bed whereon he lay But remembring presently the voyce to which he thought himself so much beholden had bid him make what speed he could to a particular place where he might address his prayers to his Saviour he arose and dressed himself without any further delay And though he knew that our Lord hears the suits of his humble Clients every where yet he would not be disobedient to the directions he had received but made haste to go and see what good might wait for him in that Oratory or Chappel which had been built in the rode by some charitable person for the use of devout passengers to Jerusalem And no sooner had he entred within the doors but he fell upon his knees and there sent out his Soul in such strong and passionate desires as left all words behind which were not able to accompany them If the throng of his thoughts which upon this occasion were assembled had not been so great you might have received a better account of them But truly such was the violence wherewith they pressed forth and so great were their numbers that he found it very difficult either then to range them in any order or afterward to recall them distinctly to his mind Yet some of them carried this sense as I have been certainly informed by him from whom he hides none of the secrets of his Soul O thou Almighty Goodness the Father of the Fatherless the Patron of the Poor the Protector of Strangers cast thy gracious eyes upon a miserable Pilgrim who all torn and ragged implores thy mercy When I look on my self I dare scarce be so bold as to lift up mine eyes unto thee When I think in what condition I am and what I have done it so confounds me that I can hardly think of any thing else It is the greatness of my misery alone that constrains me to this presumption of prostrating my self at thy feet The weight of which oppresses me so much that it hath left me little more power then to expose my self before thee as an object of thy wondrous Charity O what a Wilderness am I faln into where I can find no water What Desarts are these in which all comfort forsakes my Soul Into what strange regions am I wandred where there is nothing but darkness and the vallies of the shaddow of death O the terrors that surround me how dreadful are they O the affliction and torment which I indure what tongue can express it my Soul is parcht and dryed up My spirits are consumed by the heat of thy displeasure May I not now beg one drop of comfort from thee O my God my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and barren land I remember thy loving kindness in former times I call to mind the dayes of old And I cannot but wish at least to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary There is none in Heaven that I desire but thee nor on earth besides thee My Soul followeth hard after thee O when wilt thou come unto me O hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble hear me speedily I am poor and needy make haste unto me O God thou art my helper and deliverer O Lord make no tarrying I am come a great way from all my friends and kindred and there is none to pitty me O my God be not thou far from me draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it I am poor and sorrowful let thy Salvation set me up on high For thou who searchest the hearts knowest that I am travelling nowhither but to thee All the world have I left that I may find my happiness only in thee And at thy heavenly motion it was that I undertook this long journey I am become a Pilgrim meerly in obedience to thy Will Yea thus far I acknowledge thou hast most graciously conducted me Hitherto I have been highly favoured and wonderfully helped by thee And wilt thou now at last abandon me who have ahandon'd all things else for the sake of thee Hast thou called me from mine own Country and Fathers house that I may perish by famine here and only for want of thee O my Lord give me leave to plead for a Soul which once I thought was dear unto thee Pitty O pitty an Heart which thou hast made too great for all the World and cannot be satisfied with less than thee Canst thou see it dye for lack of one smile from thee yea canst thou let it dye of love to thee for that hath brought me thus far to seek thee And wilt thou suffer it to dye at thy feet Canst thou endure to behold it perish in thy arms into which it now throws it self with all the force it hath Shall it miscarry full of