this whole both lower and superior world yet there keepes and manifests his state with the infinite magnificence of the King of eternall glory there he in an ineffable manner communicates himselfe to blessed Spirits both Angels and men and that very Vision is no lesse to them than beatificall Surely were the place a thousand degrees lower in beauty and perfection than it is yet that presence would render it celestiall the residence of the King was wont to turn the meanest Village or Castle into a Court The sweet singer of Israel saw this of old and could say in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is not so in these earthly and finite Excellencies A man may see mountaines of treasure and bee never a whit the richer and may bee the witness and agent too in anothers honour as Haman was of Mardochees and be so much more miserable or may view the pompe and splendour of mighty Princes and be yet still a beggar but the infinite graces of that heavenly King are so communicative that no man can see him but must bee transformed into the likeness of his glory SECT. VIII EVen thy weak and imperfect Vision of such heavenly Objects O my soule are enough to lay a foundation of thy blessednesse and how can there chuse but bee raised thence as a further degree towards it a sweet complacency of heart in an appropriation of what thou seest without which nothing can make thee happy Let the Sun shine never so bright what is this to thee if thou bee blinde Be the God of heaven never so glorious yet if hee bee not thy God bee the Saviour of the World never so mercifull yet if hee be not mercifull to thee be the heaven never so full of beauty and Majesty yet if thou have not thy portion in that inheritance of the Saints in light so far will it be from yielding thee comfort that it will make a further addition to thy torment What an aggravation of misery shall it be to those that were children of the kingdom that from that outer darknesse whereinto they are cast they shall see aliens come from the East and West and sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of heaven Cease not then O my soul till by a sure and undefaisible application thou hast brought all these home to thy self and canst look upon the great God of Heaven the gracious Redeemer of the world the glory of that celestiall Paradise as thine owne Let it be thy bold ambition and holy curiosity to finde thy name enrolled in that eternall Register of Heaven And if there bee any one room in the many Mansions of that celestiall Jerusalem lower and lesse resplendent than other thither doe thou finde thy selfe through the great mercy of thy God happily designed It must bee the worke of thy faith that must do it that divine grace is it the power whereof can either fetch downe heaven to thee or carry thee before-hand up to thy heaven and not affix thee only to thy God and Saviour but unite thee to him and which is yet more ascertaine thee of so blessed an union Neither can it bee but that from this sense of appropriation there must necessarily follow a marvellous contentment and complacency in the assurance of so happy an interest Lord how doe I see poore worldlings please themselves in the conceit of their miserable proprieties One thinks Is not this my great Babylon which I have built Another Are not these my rich Mines Another Is not this my royall and adored Magnificence And how are those unstable mindes transported with the opinion of these great but indeed worthlesse peculiarities which after some little time moulder with them into dust How canst thou then bee but pleasingly affected O my soul with the comfortable sense of having a God a Savior an heaven of thine own For in these spiritual and heavenly felicities our right is not partiall and divided as it useth to be in secular inheritances so as that every one hath his share distinguish'd from the rest and parcelled out of the whole but here each one hath all and this blessed patrimony is so communicated to all Saints as that the whole is the propriety of every one Upon the assurance therefore of thy Gods gracious promises made to eevery true beleever finde thou thy selfe happily seized of both the King and Kingdom of heaven so far as thy faith can as yet feoffe thee in both and delight thy selfe above all things in these unfailing pledges of thine instant blessednes and say with the holy Mother of thy redeemer My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour SECT. IX FRom this feeling complacency in the owning of thy right to glory and happinesse there cannot but arise a longing desire of the full possession thereof for thou canst not so little love thy selfe as what thou knowest thou hast a just title unto and withall apprehendest to bee infinitely pleasing and beneficiall not to wish that thou maist freely enjoy it If thou have tasted how sweet the Lord is thou canst not but long for more of him yea for all It is no otherwise even in carnall delights the degustation whereof is wont to draw on the heart to a more eager appetition much more in spiritual the pleasures whereof as they are more pure so they are of the heavenly-minded with far greater ardency of spirit affected The covetous mans heart is in his bags what he hath doth but augment his lust of more and the having of more doth not satiate but enlarge his desires Hee that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with encrease but these celestiall riches are so much more allective as they are more excellent than those which are delved out of the bowels of the earth O my soule thou hast through the favour of thy God sipp'd some little of the cup of immortality and tasted of that heavenly Manna the food of Angels and canst thou take up with these slight touches of blessednes Thou hast though most unworthy the honour to be contracted to thy Saviour here below thou knowest the voice of his Spouse Draw me and we shall runne after thee stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love make hast my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountaines of Spices Where is thy love if thou have not fervent desires of a perpetuall enjoyment if thou doe not earnestly wish for a full consummation of that heavenly match O my Lord and Saviour as I am not worthy to love thee so I were not able to love thee how amiable soever but by thee O thou that hast begun to kindle this fire of heavenly love in me raise thou it up to a perfect flame make me not
from all these earthly vanities and fix it above with thee As there shall bee no end of my being so let there bee no change of my affections Let them before-hand take possession of that heaven of thine whereto I am aspiring Let nothing but this clay of mine bee left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is mouldring Let my spirituall part bee ever with thee whence it came and enter upon that blisse which knows neither change nor end Soliloq VII Trust upon Triall WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world which both produceth them to their being and over-rules and carries them on to and in their dissolution without their knowledge or intended cooperation but for those whom God hath indued with the faculty of ratiocination how easie is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with them how that all-wise God contrives their affaires and events quite beyond and above the power of their weak projections how he prevents their Desires how he fetches about inexpected and improbable occurrences to their hinderance or advantage sometimes blessing them with successe beyond all their hopes sometimes blasting their projects when their blossomes are at the fairest Surely if I looke onely in a dull stupidity upon the outsides of all accidents that befall me and not improve my reason and faith to discerne and acknowledge that invisible power that orders them to his owne and their ends I shall bee little better than bruitish and if upon the observation of all that good hand of God sensibly leading mee on in all the waies of my younger and riper age in so many feeling and apparent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my daies and the happy close of that life which he hath so long and mercifully preserved the favours of a bountifull God shall have been cast away upon a barren and unthankfull heart O God I am such as thou hast made me make up thy good worke in me and keep me that I do not marre my selfe with my wretched unbeliefe I have tryed thee to the full Oh that I could cast my selfe wholly upon thee and trust thee both with my body and soule for my safe passage to that blessed home and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory in thine Soliloq VIII Angelicall Familiarity THere is no reason to induce a man to thinke that the good Angels are not as assiduously present with us for our good as the evill Angels are for our hurt since we know that the evill spirits cannot bee more full of malice to work our harm than the blessed Angels are full of charity wel-wishing to mankinde and the evill are only let loose to tempt us by a permission of the Almighty wheras the good are by a gracious delegation from God encharged with our custody Now that the evill spirits are ever at hand ready upon all occasions to present their services to us for our furtherance to mischiefe appeares too plainly in their continuall temptations which they inject into our thoughts in their reall and speedy operations with the spels and charmes of their wicked Clients which are no lesse effectually answered by them immediately upon their practice than naturall causes are by their ordinary and regular productions It must needs follow therefore that the good Angels are as close to us and as inseparable from us and though we see neither yet hee that hath spirituall eyes perceives them both and is accordingly affected to their presence If then wicked men sticke not to goe so far as to endanger and draw on their owne damnation by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits Why should not I for the unspeakable advantage of any soule affect an awfully-familiar Conversation with those blessed Angels which I know to be with me The language of spirits are thoughts Why doe not I entertaine them in my secret cogitations and hold an holy discourse with them in mentall allocutions and so carry my selfe as that I may ever hold faire correspondence with those invisible companions and may expect from them all gracious offices of holy motions carefull protection and at last an happy conveyance to my glory O my soule thou art a Spirit as they are doe thou ever see them as they see thee and so speak to them as they speake to thee and blesse thy God for their presence and tuition and take heed of doing ought that may cause those heavenly guardians to turne away their faces from thee as asham'd of their charge Soliloq IX The unanswerable Christian IT is no small griefe to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity to see how utterly unanswerable the greater sort of men that beare the name of Christ are to the example and precepts of that Christ whose name they beare He was humble and meeke they proud and insolent hee bade us love our enemies they hardly can love their friends he prayed for his persecutors they curse hee that had the command of all cared not to possesse any thing they not having right to much would possesse all hee bade us give our Coat also to him that takes our Cloak they take both Coat and Cloake from him that hath it he bade us turne our cheek for the other blow they will bee sure to give two blowes for one he paid obedience to a Foster Father and tribute to Caesar they despise Government his trade was onely doing good spending the night in praying the day in preaching and healing they debauch their time revelling away the night and sleeping away or mispending the day he forbad Oaths they not onely sweare and forsweare but blaspheme too hee bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnes they make Mammon their God hee bade us take up his Crosse they impose their own he bad us lay up our treasure in heaven they place their heaven in earth he bids us give to them that ask they take violently from the owners he bade us return good for evill they for good return evill he charged his Disciples to love one another they nourish malice and rancor against their brethren hee left peace for a Legacy to his followers they are apt to set the world on fire His businesse was to save theirs to destroy O God let rivers of waters run downe mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel Give grace to all that are called by thy name to walke worthy of that high profession wherto they are called And keepe me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed patterne which thou hast set before me Oh let mee never shame that great name that is put upon me Let mee in all things approve my self a Christian in earnest and so conform my selfe to thee in all thy example and commands that it may be no dishonour to thee to owne mee for thine Soliloq X.
true Christian to attaine both for as we say where the Prince resides there is the Court so surely where the supreme and infinite Majesty pleases to manifest his presence there is heaven whereas therefore God exhibits himself present two waies in grace and in glory it must follow that the gracious presence of God makes an heaven here below as his glorious presence makes an heaven above Now it cannot but fall out that as the lower materiall heaven comes far short of the purity of the superior Regions being frequently over-cast with Clouds and troubled with other both watery and fiery Meteors so this spirituall heaven below being many times darkened with sad desertions and blustred with temptations cannot yeeld that perfection of inward peace and happines which remaines for us above this sphere of mutability yet affords us so much fruition of God as may give us a true Title and entrance into blessednesse I well see O God it is no Paradox to say that thy Saints reigne with thee here on earth though not for a thousand yeers yet during the time of their sojourning here below not in any secular splendor and magnificence not in bodily pleasures and sensuall contentments Yet in true spirituall delectation in the joys of the holy Ghost unspeakeable and full of glory O my God doe thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy heaven put thou my soule into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness so shall I cheerfully spend the remainder of my daies in a joyfull expectation of the full consummation of my glory Soliloq XX The Stock imployed WHat are all excellencies without respect of their use How much good ground is there in the World that is neither cultured nor owned What a world of precious metals lies hid in the bowels of the earth which shall never be coined What store of rich Pearles and Diamonds are hoarded up in the earth and sea which shall never see the light What delicacies of Fouls and Fishes doe both Elements afford which shall never come to the Dish How many great wits are there in the world which lie willingly concealed whether out of modesty or idlenesse or lacke of a wished opportunity Improvement gives a true value to all blessings A peny in the purse is worth many pounds yea talents in an unknown mine That is our good which doth us good O God give thou me grace to put out my little stocke to the publike banke and faithfully to imploy those poore faculties thou hast given me to the advantage of thy Name and the benefit of thy Church so besides the gaine of others my pounds shall be rewarded with Cities Soliloq XXI Love of Life WE are all naturally desirous to live and though we prize life above all earthly things yet we are ashamed to profess that we desire it for its owne sake but pretend some other subordinate reason to affect it One would live to finish his building or to cleare his purchase Another to breed up his children and to see them well-matched One would faine outlive his triall at law Another wishes to outweare an emulous corrivall One would faine out-last a lease that holds him off from his long-expected possessions Another would live to see the times amend and a re-establishment of a publike peace Thus wee that would bee glad to give skin for skin and all things for life would seeme to wish life for any thing but it selfe After all this hypocrisie nature above all things would live and makes life the maine end of living But grace has higher thoughts and therefore though it holds life sweet and desirable yet entertaines the love of it upon more excellent that is spirituall termes O God I have no reason to bee weary of this life which through thy mercy long acquaintance hath endearead to me though sauced with some bitter disgusts of age but how unworthy shall I approve my selfe of so great a blessing if now I do not more desire to continue it for thy sake than my owne Soliloq XXII Equall Distribution IT was a most idle question which the Philosophers are said to have proposed to Barnabas the Colleague of Saint Paul Why a small Gnat should have six legges and wings beside whereas the Elephant the greatest of beasts hath but foure legs and no wings What pity it is that those wise Masters were not of the Counsel of the Almighty when hee was pleased to give a being to his Creature they would surely have devised to make a winged Elephant and a corpulent Gnat A fethered man and a speaking Beast Vaine fooles they had not learned to know and adore that infinite wisdome wherin all things were made It is not for that incomprehensible Majesty and power to bee accountable to wretched man for the reasons of his all-wise and mighty Creation yet so hath he contrived it that there is no part of his great workmanship whereof even man cannot bee able to give an irrefragable reason why thus framed not otherwise What were more easie than to say that six legges to that unweildy body had beene cumbersome and impeditive of motion that the wings for so massie a bulk had been uselesse I admire thee O God in all the workes of thy hands and justly magnifie not onely thine omnipotence both in the matter and forme of their Creation but thy mercy and wisdome in the equall distribution of all their powers and faculties which thou hast so ordered that every Creature hath some requisite helpes no Creature hath all The Foules of the aire which are ordained for flight hast thou furnisht with Feathers to beare them up in that light Element The Fishes with smooth scales and finnes for their more easie gliding through those watery Regions the Beasts of the Field with such Limbes and strong Hides as might fit them for service As for man the Lord of all the rest him thou hast endued with Reason to make his use of all these whom yet thou hast so framed as that in many qualities thou hast allowed the brute Creatures to exceed their Master Some of them are stronger than he some of them swifter than he and more nimble than he he were no better than a mad man that should aske why man should not flye as well as the bird and swimme as well as the Fish and run as fast as the Hart Since that one faculty of Reason wherewith he is furnished is more worth than all the brutish excellencies of the world put together O my God thou that hast enricht me with a reasonable soule whom thou mightest have made the brutest of thy Creatures give me the grace so to improve thy gift as may be most to the glory and advantage of thy owne name Let me in the name and behalf of all my brute fellow-Creatures blesse thee for them and both for them and my selfe in a ravishment of Spirit cry out with the Psalmist O Lord my God how wonderfull and excellent
on what load thou pleasest since the more I bear the more thou enablest me to bear and the more I shall desire to bear the world hath so clogg'd me this while with his worthlesse and base lumber that I have beene ready to sinke under the weight and what have I got by it but a lame shoulder and a galled backe O doe thou free me from this unprofitable and painfull luggage and ease my soule with the happy change of thy gracious impositions so shall thy yoake not bee easie onely but pleasing so shall thy fulfilled wil be so far from a burden to me that it shall bee my greatest delight upon earth and my surest and comfortablest evidence for heaven Soliloq XXVII Joy intermitted WHat a lightsomenesse of heart do I now feele in my selfe for the present out of a comfortable sense of thy presence O my God and the apprehension of my interest in thee Why should it not be thus alwaies with me Surely thine Apostle bids me rejoyce continually and who would not wish to do so for there is little difference betwixt joy and happinesse neither was it ghessed ill by him that defined that man onely to be happy that is alwayes delighted and certainely there is just cause why I should be thus alwaies affected Thou O my God art still and alwaies the same yea the same to me in all thy gracious relations of a mercifull Father a loving Saviour a sweet Comforter Yea thou art my head and I am a limb of thy mysticall Body Such I am and shall ever be Thou canst no more change than not be and for me my crosses and my sinnes are so farre from separating me from thee that they make mee hold of thee the faster But alas though the just grounds of my joy be steady yet my weake disposition is subject to variablenesse Whiles I carry this flesh about me my soule cannot but be much swayed with the temper of my body which sometimes inclines me to a dull listlesnesse and a dumpish heavinesse of heart and sadnesse of spirit so as I am utterly unapt to all cheerfull thoughts and finde work enough to pull my affections out of this stiffe clay of the earth and to raise them up to heaven Besides this joy of the holy Ghost is a gift of thy divine bounty which thou dispensest when and how thou pleasest not alwaies alike to thy best Favourites on earth Thou that givest thy Sun and Raine dost not command thy Clouds alwaies to be dropping nor those beams to shine continually upon any face there would bee no difference betwixt the proceedings of nature and grace if both produced their effects in a set and constant regularity and what difference should I finde betwixt my pilgrimage and my home if I should here be taken up with a perpetuity of heavenly joy should I alwaies thus feelingly enjoy thee my life of faith should bee changed into a life of sense It is enough for me O God that above in those Regions of blisse my joy in thee shall be full and permanent if in the mean while it may please thee that but some flashes of that Celestiall light of joy may frequently glance into my soule It shall suffice if thou give me but a taste of those heavenly pleasures whereon I shall once liberally feast with thee to all eternity Soliloq XXVIII Vniversall Interest IT was a noble praise that was given to that wise Heathen that hee so carried himselfe as if hee thought himselfe born for all the world Surely the more universal a mans beneficence is so much is it more commendable and comes so much neerer to the bounty of that great God who openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness There are too many selfish men whose spirits as in a close retort are cooped up within the compasse of their owne concernments whose narrow hearts think they are born for none but themselves Others that would seeme good natur'd men are willing enough to enlarge themselves to their kindred whom they are carefull to advance with neglect of all others however deserving some yet more liberall minded can be content to be kinde and open-handed to their neighbours and some perhaps reach so farre as to professe a readinesse to do all good offices to their Countrey-men but here their largesse findes its utmost bounds All these dispositions are but inclosures Give mee the open Champaine of a generall and illimited benefacture Is he rich hee scatters his seed abroad by whole handfulls over the whole ridge and doth not drop it downe betweene his fingers into the severall furrowes His bread is cast upon the waters also Is he knowing and learned He smothers not his skil in his bosome but freely laies it out upon the common stock not so much regarding his private contentment as the publike proficiency Is he deepely wise Hee is ready to improve all his cares and counsels to the advancement and preservation of peace justice and good order amongst men Now although it is not in the power of any but persons placed in the highest Orbe of Authority actually to oblige the world to them Yet nothing hinders but that men of meaner ranke may have the will to bee thus universally beneficent and may in preparation of mind be zealously affected to lay themselves forth upon the common good O Lord if thou hast given me but a private and short hand yet give mee a large and publick heart Soliloq XXIX The spirituall Bedleem HE that with wise Solomon affects to know not wisedome onely but Madnesse and Folly let him after a serious observation of the sober part of the world obtaine of himselfe to visit Bedleem and to looke into the severall Cells of distracted persons where it is a world to see what strange varieties of humors and passions shall present themselves to him Here he shall see one weeping and wringing his hands for a meerely-imaginary disaster there another holding his sides in a loud laughter as if hee were made all of mirth here one mopishly stupid and so fixed to his posture as if he were a breathing statue there another apishly active and restless here one ragingly fierce and wreaking his causeless anger on his chaine there another gloriously boasting of a mighty stile of Honour whereto his rags are justly intitled and when he hath wondred a while at this woefull spectacle let him know and consider that this is but a slight image of those spirituall phrensies wherewith the world is miserably possessed The persons affected believe it not surely should I goe about to perswade any of these guests of Bedleem that in deed he is mad and should therefore quietly submit himselfe to the meanes of cure I should be more mad than he Only dark rooms and cords and Ellebore are meet receits for these mentall distempers In the meane while the sober and sad beholders too well see these mens wits out of the socket and are ready out
taken off from him and heard no answer but My grace is sufficient for thee So Lord we pray for the removall of thy judgements from this sinnefull and deplored Nation which for ought we know and have cause to feare thou hast decreed to ruine and deâ—â—station and many a good soule prayes for a comfortable sense of thy favour whom thou thinkest fit to keepe downe for the time in a sad desertion and I thy unworthy servant may pray to be freed from those temptations wherewith thou seest it fit that my faith should be still exercised O God give me the grace to follow thy revealed will and to submit my selfe to thy secret What thou hast commanded I know I may doe what thou hast promised I know I may trust to what thou hast in a generality promised to do may in some particular cases by the just decree of thy secret Counsell bee otherwise determined If I aske what thou hast decreed to do I know I cannot but obtaine If I aske what thou hast warranted notwithstanding the particular exception of thy secret will though I receive it not yet I receive not pardon onely but acceptation O God give me grace to steer my selfe and my prayers by thy revealed Will and humbly to stoop to what the event shews to have been thy secret will Soliloq LXV Hels Triumph THou hast told us O Saviour that there is joy in the presence of thine Angels for a sinners repentance those blessed Spirits are so far from envying our happinesse that as they endeavour it here so they congratulate it in heaven and we wel know that these good Spirits do not more rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner than the evill Spirits do in the mis-carriage of a convert The course of the holy obedience of thy servants here is doubtlesse a pleasing object to thine Angels neither are those malignant spirits lesse pleased with the wicked practises of their Vassals but the joy arises to both from the contrary condition of those parties over which they have prevailed The alleagance of a good subject though wel-accepted yet is no newes to a gracious Soveraigne but the comming in of some great Rebell is happy tidings at the Court On the contrary where there is a rivality of soveraigntie for a professed enemy to do hostile actions is no other than could bee expected but for a subject or a domestick servant to bee drawne into the conspiracie is not more advantage than joy to the intruder O God thou hast mercifully called me out of the world to a profession of thy Name I know what eies those envious Spirits have ever upon me O doe thou lead me in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies If thine Angels have found cause to joy in my conversion O doe thou keepe me from making musicke in hell by my miscarriage Soliloq LXVI Dumbe Homage HOw officious O God doe I see thy poore dumbe Creatures to us how doe they fawne or crouch as they see us affected how doe they run and fetch and carry and draw at our command how doe they beare our stripes with a trembling unresistance how readily doe they spend their strength and their lives in our service how patiently doe they yield us their milk and their fleeces for our advantage and lie equally still to be shorne or slain at our pleasure expecting nothing from us in the mean time but a bare sustenance which if it bee denyed them they do not fall furiously upon their cruell Masters but meekly bemoane themselves in their bruitish language and languish and die If granted them they are fatned for our use I am ashamed O God I am ashamed to see these thy creatures so obsequiously pliant unto me whiles I consider my disposition and deportment towards thee my Creator Alas Lord what made the difference betwixt me and them but thy meere good pleasure thou mightest have made them rationall and have exchanged my reason for their brutality They are my fellowes by Creation and owe both their being and preservation to the same hand with my selfe Thou art the absolute Lord of both to whom I must bee accountable for them they are mine onely by a limited substitution from thee why then should they bee more obedient to my will than I am to thine since they have onely Sense to lead them in their Way I have both Reason and Faith to teach me my duty Had I made them I could but require of them their absolute submission Why should I then exact of them more than I am ready to performe unto thee O God thou that hast put them under my hand and me under thy owne as thou hast made me their Master for command so let me make them my Masters to teach me obedience Soliloq LXVII Indifferency of Events THou givest us daily proofes O God of the truth of that observation of wise Solomon That all things come alike to all and that no man knowes love or hatred by all that is before them In these outward things thy dearest friends have not fared better then thine enemies Thy greatest enemies have not suffered more than thy beloved Children When therefore I looke abroad and see with what heavy afflictions thou art pleased to exercise thy best Favourites upon earth I cannot but stand amazed to see what horrible Torments of all kindes have beene undergone by thy most precious Martyrs whose patience hath overcome the violence of their executioners and to see those extreme tortures which some of thy faithfull servants have endured in the beds of their sickness one torne and drawn together with fearefull convulsions another shrieking under the painefull girds of an unremoveable stone one wrung in his Bowels with pangs of cholicke and turning of guts another possessed with a raging gout in all his Limbes one whose bladder after a painefull incision is ransack'd another whose Leg or Arme is cut off to prevent a mortall Gangrene I cannot but acknowledge how just it might be in thee O God to mix the same bitter cup for me and how merciful it is that knowing my weakness thou hast forborn hitherto to load mee with so sad a burthen What thou hast in thine eternall Councell determined to lay upon mee thou onely knowest If thou bee pleased to continue thy gracious indulgence to me still make me truly thankfull to thee for health and ease as the greatest of thy outward favours but let mee not build upon them as the certaine evidences of thy better mercies and if thou thinke fit to interchange them with a vicissitude of sickness and paine let mee not misconstrue thy severe chastisements as arguments of thy displeasure But still teach mee to feare thee in my greatest prosperity and to love thee in my greatest sufferings and to adore thine infinite Wisdome Justice and mercy in both Soliloq LXVIII The transcendent Love HOw justly doe I marvaile O God to see what strength of naturall affection thou hast wrought in poore brute
are content to sit still and enjoy the thoughts of our youth and former experience not looking farther than a kind neighbour-hood But when Age hath stiffened our joynts and disabled our Motions now our home-pastures and our Gardens become our utmost boundaries from thence a few yeares more confine us to our owne floor Soon after that we are limited to our chamber and at last to our chaire then to our bed and in fine to our Coffin These naturall restrictions O my soule are the appendences of thy weary Partner this earthly body but for thee the nearer thou drawest to thy home the more it concernes thee to bee sensible of a blessed inlargement of thy estate and affections Hitherto thou art immured in a straight pile oâ— clay now heaven it selfe shall be but wide enough for thee The world hath hitherto taken thee upâ—… which though large is yet but finite now thou art upon the enjoying of that God who alone is infinite in all that he is O how inconsiderable is the restraint of the worse part in comparison of the absolute inlargement of the better O my God whose mercy knowes no other limits than thy essence worke me in this shutting up of my daies to all heavenly dispositions that whiles my outward man is so much more lessened as it drawes nearer to the Center of its corruption my spirituall part may be so much more dilated in and towards thee as it approacheth nearer towards the circumference of thy celestiall glory Soliloq LXXII Sin without sense ALas Lord how tenderly sensible I am of the least bodily complaint that can befall mee If but a tooth begin to ake or a thorn have rankled in my flesh or but an angry Corne vexe my Toe how am I incessantly troubled with the pain how feelingly doe I bemoane my selfe how carefully do I seek for a speedy remedy which till I feel how little relish doe I finde in my wonted contentment But for the better part which is so much more tender as it is more precious with what patience shall I call it or stupidity doe I endure it wounded were it not for thy great mercy no lesse than mortality Every new sin how little soever that I commit fetches bloud of the soule every willing sin stabs it the continuance wherein festers inwardly and without repentance kills O God I desire to be ashamed and humbled under thy hand for this so unjust partiality which gives me just cause to fear that sense hath yet more predominance in me than Faith I do not so much sue to thee to make mee lesse sensible of bodily evills whereof yet too deep a sense differs little from impatience as to make me more sensible of spirituall Let me feele my sin more painefull than the worst disease and rather than wilfully sin let me die Soliloq LXXIII The extremes of Devotion I Acknowledge it to bee none of thy least mercies O God that thou hast vouchsafed to keepe mee within the due lines of devotion not suffering mee to wander into those two extremes which I see and pitty in others Too many there are that doe so content themselves in meer formalities that they little regard how their heart is affected with the matter of their prayers so have I grieved to see poore misdevout soules under the Papacy measuring their Orisons not by weight but by number not caring which way their eie strayed so their lips went resting well apaid that God understood them though they understood not themselves too neer approaching whereunto are a world of wel-meaning ignorant soules at home that care only to pray by rote not without some generall intentions of piety but so as their hearts are little guilty of the motion of their Tongues Who whiles they would cloake their carelesnesse with a pretence of disability of expressing their wants to God might learn that true sense of need never wanted words to crave reliefe Every begger can with sufficient eloquence importune the Passenger for his Almes Did they not rather lack an heart than a tongue they could not be defective in bemoaning themselves to heaven for what they lack Especially whiles we have to doe with such a God as more esteemes broken clauses made up with hearty sighes than all the complements of the most curious Eloquence in the world On the other side there are certain zealous Devotionists which abhorre all set formes and fixed hours of Invocation teaching and so practising that they may not pray but when they feele a strong impulsion of Gods Spirit to that holy work whereupon it hath come to pass that whole daies yea weekes have gone over their heads unblessed by their prayers who might have taken notice that under the Law God had his regular course of constant hours for his morning and evening Sacrifices that the ancient Saints under the old Testament held close to Davids rule Evening and Morning and at Noon to pray and cry aloud so as the very Lions could not fright Daniel from his taske And even after the vaile of the Temple was rent Peter and Iohn went up together to Gods house at the ninth hour to Evening Prayer Yea what stand we upon this when the Apostle of the Gentiles charges us To pray continually Not that wee should in the midst of a sensible indisposednesse of heart fall suddainly into a fashionable Devotion but that by holy Ejaculations and previous Meditation wee should make way for a feeling Invocation of our God whose eares are never but open to our faithfull Prayers If wee first though silently pray that we may pray the fervour of our Devotion shall grow upon us in praying these holy Waters of the Sanctuary that at first did but wet the soles of our feet shall in their happy processe rise up to our chinnes I thanke thee O God that thou hast given me a desire to walk even between these extremities As I would be ever in a praying disposition to thee so I would not willingly break houres with thee I would neither sleepe nor wake without praying but I would never pray without feeling If my heart goe not along with formes of words I do not pray but babble and if that be bent upon the matter of my sute it is all one to thee whether the words be my own or borrowed Let thy good Spirit ever teach me to pray and help me in praying Let that ever make intercessions for me with groanings which cannot be expressed and then if thou canst send me away empty Soliloq LXXIV The sick mans Vowes THe answer was not amisse which Theodoricus Bishop of Coleine is said to have given to Sigismond the Emperor who demanding how he might be directed the right way to heaven received answer If thou walk so as thou promisedst in thy painfull fit of the Stone or Gout Our extremities commonly render us holy and our paine is prodigall of those Vowes which our case is as niggardly in performing The
distraction free from all sorrow pain perturbation free from all the possibility of change or death A life wherein there is nothing but pure and perfect pleasure nothing but perpetuall melodie of Angels and Saints singing sweet Allelujahs to their God A life which the most glorious Deitie both gives and is A life wherein thou hast the full fruition of the ever-blessed God-head the continuall society of the celestial spirits the blissefull presence of the glorified humanitie of thy dear Saviour A life wherein thou hast ever consort with the glorious companie of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Patriarks and Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors the Celestiall synod of all the holy fathers and illuminated Doctors of the Church Shortly the blessed Assembly of all the faithfull Professors of the Name of the Lord Jesus that having finished their course sit now shining in their promised glory See there that yet-unapproachable light that divine magnificence of the heavenly King See that resplendent Crown of righteousnesse which decks the heads of every of those Saints and is readie to be set on thine when thou hast happilie overcome those spirituall powers wherewith thou art still conflicting See the joyfull triumphs of these exsulting victors See the measures of their glory different yet all full and the least unmeasurable Lastly see all this happinesse not limited to thousands nor yet millions of years but commeasured by no less than eternity And now my soul if thou have received the infallible ingagement of thy God in that having beleeved thou art sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of thine inheritance untill the full Redemption of thy purchased possession if through his infinite mercy thou bee now upon the entring into that blessed place and state of immortality forbear if thou canst to be raised above thy self with the joy of the holy Ghost to bee enlarged towards thy God with a joy unspeakable and glorious See if thou canst now breath forth any thing but praises to thy God and songs of rejoycing bearing evermore a part in that heauenly ditty of the Angels Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and thanksgiving and Honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever SECT XIII ANd now what remaines O my soule but that thou do humbly and faithfully wait at the gate of heaven for an happie entrance at the good pleasure of thy God into those everlasting Mansions I confess should thy merits bee weigh'd in the ballance of a rigorous Justice another place which I cannot mention without horror were more fit for thee more due to thee for alas thou hast been above measure sinfull and thou knowest the wages of sin death But the God of my mercy hath prevented thee with infinite compassion and in the multitudes of his tender mercies hath not onely delivered thee from the nethermost hell but hath also vouchsafed to translate thee to the Kingdom of his dear Son In him thou hast boldnesse of access to the Throne of Grace thou who in thy selfe art worthy to bee a child of wrath art in him adopted to be a co-heire of Glory and hast the livery and seizin given thee beforehand of a blessed possession the full estating wherein I do in all humble awfulnesse attend All the few daies therefore of my appointed time will I wait at the threshold of grace untill my changing come with a trembling joy with a longing patience with a comfortable hope Onely Lord I know there is something to be done ere I can enter I must die ere I can be capable to enjoy that blessed life with thee one stroke of thine Angell must bee endured in my passage into thy Paradise And lo here I am before thee ready to embrace the condition Even when thou pleasest let me bleed once to bee ever happy Thou hast after a weary walk through this roaring wilderness vouchsafed to call up thy servant to Mount Nebo and from thence aloof off to shew me the land of Promise a land that flowes with milk and honey Do thou but say Die thou on this Hill with this prospect in mine eye and do thou mercifully take my soul from mee who gavest it to me and dispose of it where thou wilt in that Region of Immortality Amen Amen Come Lord Jesu Come quickly BEhold Lord I have by thy Providence dwelt in this house of Clay more than double the time wherin thou wert pleased to sojourn upon earth Yet I may well say with thine holy Patriark Few and evil have been the dayes of the yeeres of my pilgrimage Few in number evill in condition Few in themselves but none at all to thee with whom a thousand yeares are but as one day But had they beene double to the age of Methusaleh could they have been so much as a minute to eternity Yea what were they to me now that they are past but as a tale that is told and forgotten Neither yet have they been so few as evill Lord what troubles and sorrowes hast thou let me see both my owne and others What vicissitudes of sicknesse and health What ebbes and flowes of condition How many successions and changes of Princes both at home and abroad What turnings of times What alterations of Governments What shiftings and downfalls of Favourites What ruines and desolations of Kingdoms What sacking of Cities What havocks of warre What frenzies of rebellions What underminings of treachery What cruelties and barbarismes in revenges What anguish in the oppressed and tormented What agonies in temptations what pangs in dying These I have seen and in these I have suffered And now Lord how willing I am to change time for eternity the evils of earth for the joyes of heaven misery for happinesse a dying life for immortality Even so Lord Jesu Take what thou hast bought Receive my soule to thy mercie and crowne it with thy glorie Amen Amen Amen FINIS A Catalogue of the severall Bookes written by the Author in and since his Retiring Namely 1. THe Devout Soule and Free Prisoner 2. The Remedy of Discontentment Or A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever condition 3. The Peace-Maker laying forth the right way of Peace in matter of Religion 4. The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the distressed both Morall and Divine 5. Christ Mysticall Or The blessed union of Christ and his Members To which is added An holy Rapture Or A Patheticall Meditation of the Love of Christ Also The Christian laid forth in his whole disposition and carriage 6. A modest offer tendred to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster 7. Select thoughts in two Decades with the breathing of the Devout Soule 8. Pax Terris 9. Imposition of Hands 10. The Revelation unrevealed Concerning The thousand yeeres raigne of the Saints with Christ on earth 11. Satans Fierie Darts quenched Or Temptations repelled In 3 Decades 12. Resolutions and Decisions of divers practicall cases of Conscience In 4 Decades Select Thoughts one Centurie with the breathing of the Devout Soul 13. Susurrium cum Deo c. This present Tract newly Reprinted 1 Cor. 13.12 Euthym in Praefat. Psalmorum Psal. 90.9 Gen. 5.2.24.27 2 Cor. 5.1 Exo. 16.13 Deut. 8.3 Exo. 16.31 Num. 11.6 Heb. 1. ult. Psal. 119.136 1 Kin. 19. Luk. 12.49 Mat. 6.23 John 1.9 Psa. 119.105 Clement de gestis Petri 1 Tim. 4.8 1 Cor. 9.27 Rom. 8.18 1 Sam. 30.6 Cato 1 Thes. 5.23 Hos. 9 7. Esa. 44.16 Exod. 32.4 2 Kin. 20.23 1 Kin. 18.28 2 Kin. 23.11 Cicer. de Natur. Deorum initio Heart bleedings for Professors abominations Set forth under the hands of 16 Churches of Christ baptized into the name of Christ p. 5.6 7. c. Joh. 18.28 Mat. 23.25 2 Chro 30.18 19 Rom. 7.19 Mat. 6.19 Pro. 13.12 1 Cor. 15.31 2 Tim. 4.7 1 Tim. 6.2 Eph. 6.16 1 Ioh. 5.4 Psal. 71.9 Psal. 27.10 1 Kin. 22.24 Iob 19.14 Psal. 41.9 Psal. 55.13 14. Psal. 61.7 Deut. 6.11 12. Deut. 32.15 1 Sam. 24.5 Iam. 1.17 Iam. 1.5 Prov. 13.7 Rev. 3.17 Psal. 81.16 1 Cor. 10. Heb. 9.12 Eph. 1.7 Rom. 5.9 Col. 1.20 Heb. 9.22 Heb. 13.12 14. 1 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 9.15 1 Sam. 14.29 Pro. 14.23 Pro. 25.16 Eph. 1.14 Mat. 24.35 Colos. 3. Psal. 119. Psal. 12.14 Mat. 8.24 25 c. Mat. 4.37 Luk. 8.13 Psa. 141.8 Gen. 4 14. Cant. 5.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 Eccle. 7.14 1 Cor. 12. Luk. 15.10 Psal. 5.8 Eccl. 9.1 2. Mat. 23.37 Ier. 8.7 * Oecolampad in locū Ierem. Eccl. 3.1 Psal. 55.17 Act. 2.1 1 Thes. 5.17 Rom. 8.26 Aeneas Sylv. de Reb. gest Alph. 2 Chro. 29.25 28. 2 Chro. 5.12 13. Mamonides in Cle. hamikdash c. 3 * Chro 29.25 28. Maymon in giath hamikdash Ier. 9.1 Mal. 3.2 Mal. 3.4 Beda Eccles. Hister l. 2. cap. 13. Ier. 44.17 18. 1 King 18.44 Esa. 63.15 Esa. 1.4 Dan. 9.8 9. Dan. 9.16 17. Dan. 9.19 Rom. 11.33 Ose 13.9 Rom. 8.33 34. 1 Pet. 1.12 Bernard Serm. de passione Domini Rev. 21.23 Nehe. 2.2 Luk. 8.31 Heb. 12.23 Mat. 8.11 Dan 4.30 Luk. 1.46.47 Eccl. 5.10 Cant. 1.4 2.5 8.14 Psal. 57.7 Psal. 145.19 Psal. 73.24 Num. 24.17 Ioh. 17.20 21. 22. 23. 1 Cor. 6.17 2 Pet. 1.4 Can. 6.3 Mar. 9.6 Luk. 9.33 Rom. 12.2 Eph. 4.24 Ioh. 17.10 2 Thes. 1.12 Eph. 1.13 14. 1 Thes. 1.6 Rev. 7.12 Psal. 59.10 Psal. 86.13 Col. 1.13 Gen. 47.9
are thy workes in wisedome hast thou made them all Soliloq XXIII The Bodies subjection BOdily exercise saith the Apostle profits little Little sure in respect of any worth that it hath in it selfe or any thanke that it can expect from the Almighty For what is it to that good and great God whether I be full or fasting whether I wake or sleepe whether my skinne be smooth or rough ruddy or pale white or discoloured whether my hand be hard with labour or soft with ease whether my bed be hard or yeelding whether my dyet bee course or delicate But though in it selfe it availe little yet so it may bee and hath been and ought to be improved as that it may be found exceedingly beneficiall to the soule Else the same Apostle would not have said I keepe under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any meanes when I have preached to others I my selfe should be a cast-away In all the records of History whom doe we finde more noted for holinesse than those who have been most austere in the restraints of bodily pleasures and contentments In the Mount of Tabor who should meet with our Saviour in his Transfiguration but those two eminent Saints which had fasted an equall number of dayes with himself And our experience tells us that what is detracted from the body is added to the soule For the flesh and spirit are not more partners than enemies one gaines by the others losse The pampering of the flesh is the starving of the soule I finde an unavoidable emulation between these two parts of my selfe O God teach me to hold an equall hand betwixt them both Let me so use them as holding the one my favourite the other my drudge not so humouring the worse part as to discontent the better nor so wholly regarding the better as altogether to discourage the worse Both are thine both by gift and purchase inable thou me to give each of them their Dues so as the one may be fitted with all humble obsequiousnesse to serve the other to rule and command with all just authority and moderation Soliloq XXIV The ground of Vnproficiency WHere there is defect in the Principles there can be no possibility of prevailing in any kinde Should a man be so foolish as to perswade his horse that it is not safe for him to drinke in the extremity of his heate or to advise a child that it is good for him to be whipt or in a case of mortall danger to have a fontinell made in his flesh how fondly should hee mispend his breath bebecause the one wants the faculty the other the use of reason So if a man shall sadly tell a wild sensualist that it is good for him to bear the yoake in his youth that it is meet for him to curbe and cross his unruly appetite that the bitterest cup of afflictions ought to bee freely taken off as the most soveraigne medicine of the soule that wee ought to bleed and die for the name of Christ that all the suffering of the present times are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall bee revealed in us his labour is no lesse lost than if hee had made an eloquent Oration to a deafe man because this carnall hearer lacks that principle of grace and regeneration which onely can enable him to apprehend and relish these divine Counsailes I see O God I see too well how it comes to passe that thy Word sounds so loud and prevailes so little even because it is not joyned with faith in the hearers The right principle is missing which should make the soule capable of thy divine mysteries Faith is no lesse essentiall to the true Christian than reason is to man or sense to beast O doe thou furnish my soule with this heavenly grace of thine and then all thy sacred Oracles shall bee as cleare to my understanding as any visible object is to my sense Soliloq XXV The sure Refuge SUfficient unto the day is the evill thereof saith our Saviour Lo Every day hath its evill and that evill is load enough for the present without the further charge of our anticipated cares Surely the life of man is conflicted with such a world of crosses succeeding each other that if he have not a sure refuge to flee unto he cannot chuse but bee quite over-laid with miseries One while his estate suffers whether through casualty or oppression another while his Children miscarry whether by sicknesse or death or disorder One while his good name is impeached another while his body languishes One while his minde is perplexed with irksome sutes another while his soule is wounded with the sting of some secret sinne One while he is fretted with Domesticall discontents another while distempered with the publike broiles One while the sense of evills torments him another while the expectation Miserable is the case of that man when hee is pursued with whole Troops of Mischiefs hath not a Fort wherein to succour himself and safe and happy is that soule that hath a sure and impregnable hold whereto hee may resort O the noble example of holy David Never man could bee more perplexed than hee was at his Ziklag His City burnt his whole stock plundered his Wives carryed away his people cursing his Souldiers mutining pursued by Saul cast off by the Philistims helplesse hopelesse But David fortified himselfe in the Lord his God There there O Lord is a sure helpe in the time of trouble a safe protection in the time of danger a most certaine remedy of all complaints Let my Dove get once into the holes of that Rock in vaine shall all the birds of prey hover over me for my destruction Soliloq XXVI The light burden WHy do wee complaine of the difficulty of a Christian profession when we heare our Saviour say My yoak is easie and my burden is light Certainely hee that impoposed it hath exactly poised it and knowes the weight of it to the full It is our fault if we make or account that heavy which he knowes to be light If this yoake and burden be heavy to our sullen nature yet to grace they are light If they be heavy to feare yet they are light to love what is more sweet and easie than to love and love is all the burden wee need to take up For love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Evangelicall law is all the burden of my Saviour O blessed Jesu how willingly doe I stoope under thy commands It is no other than my happinesse that thou requirest I shall bee therefore my owne enemy if I be not thy servant Hadst thou not bidden me to love thee to obey thee thine infinite goodness and perfection of divine beauty would have attracted my heart to bee spiritually inamoured of thee now thou bidst me to doe that which I should have wisht to bee commanded how gladly doe I yeeld up my soule to thee Lay