THE ART OF HAPPINESS.  

Consisting of three parts, whereof 


The first searcheth out the happiness of man.  
The second, particularly discovers and approves it.  
The third, showeth the means to attain and increase it.      
BY FRANCIS ROUS.  
Summa Philosophia est, quae exquirit summum Bonum.  
Man's chiefest wisdom is, To find out his chief and sovereign Good.  
LONDON Printed by W. Stansby for john Parker, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Ball. 1619.   

TO HIS MUCH HONOURED FATHER, Sr. ANTHONY ROUS of Halton in Cornwall, Knight.  
SIR,  
IF the Author and the work be considered, it is no hard matter to find, to whom the Author should first of all offer his work. A son cannot present his labours more fitly then to a Father, especially when they bring with them so excellent a thing as Blessedness. And although I know you have been an ancient travailer in the path of Felicity, so that the commendation of your posterity shall be to follow your steps, yet I am assured, it cannot but be a comfort to you, to see some increase from above, where your careful education hath planted & watered below; in which you have far exceeded the usual providence of Fathers, that ordinarily looks no farther than the body, pride, and earth. I confess, the outward shows of this world had so far transported me, that I was very unlikely to have made this kind of Matter the main business of my Time, but I took ship to go to Tarsus, even to foreign Countries, and in mine own began the study of the Law, until a storm from heaven chased me away to the study of Eternity, wherein I have found so much comfort and assistance from above, that the encouragement thereof is to me in stead of a voice speaking in mine ear; This is the way, walk in it: And in this way I desire to walk as steadfastly, as bodily infirmity, and the necessary distractions of this life will permit, until my Time shall be no more, that so I may pass immediately from the contemplation of Felicity, unto the fruition. This felicity I likewise wish unto you with most humble and hearty prayer, and that this work following may give some (though small) advancement to it, that so you may reap a little, where you have sown much.  
From my house in Laurake, April 29. Your son in all duty and observance. FRANCIS ROUS.   

TO man..  
HAVING cast mine eyes on the frame of this World, & somewhat particularly considered the works which are wrought under the Sun; I beheld Man, placed as the top and chief of the Creatures, and I saw in Man the sparks of an excellent soul, which might seem to justify this his pre-eminence: but withal having searched the depth and breadth of the life of Man, to see what great actions this Eminent thing produced, or what extraordinary happiness he enjoyeth suitable to his excellence; I find generally, that this Head of the World doth usually spend himself in base works of Vanity, Labour, and Wickedness; and is himself spent away by Misery, Sickness and Death. His actions are either no actions at all, but idle, foolish, and superfluous recreations; or mere labours for his own body, that he may be to morrow, not better, but the same that he was to day; or that he may better his estate by making himself worse, even by the loss or diminution of his own goodness; and yet at last, this estate which he hath bought with himself, will turn him out most unkindly and unthankfully from possessing it. And as for Man's happiness, most commonly he sends it before him, by proposing high and remote objects to his desires; which either he never overtakes, or if he do, it doth often vanish into Nothing, as being made of mere Imagination; or if it will needs seem something being attained, yet it is at last digested into perfect Nothing, when that and the Owner thereof, are both devoured by the wide mouth of Death, that eats up all the thoughts and works of perishing Mankind. But before Man arrives to this point of dissolution, by which he comes to be rid of his vain happiness; misery, sickness, and mutual vexation (Man to Man being a continual Hangman and Tormentor) by smarting and still-returning stripes, most often cut his little happiness to lesser pieces, and overcome the slight and slender sweetness thereof, with the inter-mingled gall of solid and substantial grief.  
Now this being the state of Things, what is all that we see, and to what purpose is it? Are we here met together to play the Wretches and Fools? Is this our appointed task to labour for Vanity? and to be imaginarily pleased, and really tormented? or to take great care and pains to come to Nothing? Is this the fruit of this huge mass of Creatures, and of glorious Man, the principal of them? Surely, if we should lie down in this opinion, we might also lie down in amazement, wondering what we make here, and why Man was created unto so great folly and misery. We might rightly cry out, that in regard of this World, the day of Death is better than the day of Birth, and that not to be at all, is better than them both. But here we may not rest, for then all the Creatures, which we see, would rise up against us like so many Adversaries, and Objections. For it were a great injury to the Creator, to see and acknowledge (which acknowledgement is extorted even from mere natural men) a great wisdom in the Matter and Form of the Creatures, and not to acknowledge a great wisdom likewise in the End of the Creatures; that he which made every thing so orderly in his parts, should make a confusion in the whole; and that he who hath made so excellent things for Man, should make Man for baseness, vanity, and misery. Therefore I thought it most likely and safe, to believe that the Creator had not failed in his Creation, but that the Creature had erred from the course and scope of his Creation, and that Man by some fault of his own, was gone out of the way, both in regard of employment and happiness; which two, in all probability, should be found in one path, it being most agreeable to wisdom, that a Creature should then be in the best and happiest case, when he doth the work appointed him by his Creator. Then also it seemed necessary to inquire what was that right way, from which Man had strayed; even to search what was the true end of Man's actions, and the true scope of his desires; his duty and his felicity.  
What I have met with, in this search, I have here discovered; and because there are three sorts of men, which especially do err in the matter of happiness, for these especially have I fitted the parts of this Discourse. One sort of these are they, That come blind into the world, and so go out, neither knowing, nor caring, nor ask, what they have to do here, nor what is chief good for them while they be here, nor whether there be any other place for them when they depart hence. These for the most part do what they see done, or what their own lusts will have done, and so having spent their time according to Custom and Concupiscence, they live to no purpose, and die to no end, for aught they know. A second sort is of them, That think there is a happiness, and a way to it; and which is more, they think they have it; yet all the while they go without it, even for this reason, because they think they have it. For, not having it, by their belief that they have it, they cease from seeking, and so from finding of that which may only be found by seeking. A third sort is, of such as think it enough to come within the reach of happiness, but care not much to fasten it or to increase it, but please themselves in looking on it, or only in a little taste of it. It is good to be happy, they think, but it is not good to be too happy, and therefore they will gladly traffic some superstitious happiness, for a little folly and vanity. To all these (which are almost all) are the chief parts of this Treatise directed, as Nails to drive out Nails, even rules of Light and Bliss, to drive out the usual and received rules of darkness and misery; and to stand fast in their room. Of these and the like directions let wretched and ignorant mankind lay hold, as upon Boards & Masts in this great shipwreck of Nature. Let them by such helps lift up their heads above the element of Baseness and Vanity, wherein the sons of corrupted and degenerate Nature, like Fishes do swim and live, and die. And let them mount up into that higher Region, wherein only true and very Men are to be found, the rest being but the resemblances of Men, and in substance the true Companions of brute and unreasonable Creatures.  
A Seeker of Happiness for himself and thee, F. Rous.   

THE ART OF HAPPINESS. The first Part. Which is a search of Man's Happiness.  

CHAP. I. That the Seeker of Happiness must propose an End, and it must be the best End.  
Whosoever will better and advance himself (which is naturally every man's desire) he must find out and propose to himself an End which is good; and toward this End must so strive, that he may continually draw nearer to it, until he have attained it; and he must grow in the degrees of enjoying, when he hath attained. He that proposeth no Mark, nor main End to himself, can never increase himself, but is a man lost, and comes to nothing; such a one is like a ship that aimeth at no harbour, and therefore cannot make any voyage of advantage. He that proposeth an End, yet such a one as is but transitorily or narrowly good, he can receive but a transitory and narrow advancement. He that proposeth for an End, a seeming good, but a real evil, may by attaining, puff up his imagination, but shall substantially lessen and ruin himself. But he that sets before him a Mark & End truly and perfectly good, by attaining it, shall make himself truly and perfectly happy, and the more happy in degrees, as in more degrees he doth enjoy it. But, amidst the infinite changes of things seemingly good, how shall man find out that one thing which is truly and perfectly good? It is indeed an impression of Man's nature, to seek for good, but the corruption of the same nature is such, that it makes every thing seem good to itself, which itself (though falsely) apprehendeth to be good. And so hence it comes, that many men run an unsatisfied course, through divers changes of things seemingly good, and most men choose the less good for the better good; yea, the most evil for the most good. But he that will seriously inquire for true happiness, must in his inquiry lay aside▪ his body and the doctrines thereof; and he must retire into his innermost, and most secret closet of Light and Reason, and there ask of his Soul assured truths and resolutions, concerning his chief and sovereign Good. Yea, because the darkness of a heavy and sensual body, since the fall, subject to corruption, hath much dimmed the light of the Soul; she hath need to return to that uppermost Light, by which at first she was kindled, thence to receive a second enlightening, that by an addition of the highest Light, she may find out her highest & chiefest happiness. The souls thus rectified, labour, and in some measure attain to behold things in their truth, as also to see the difference of things confounded or misordered by the ignorance of corruption, and to place each thing in his due rank, and consequently the chief and sovereign good, far above all; as indeed to the eye of wisdom it shines in a notable and manifest supereminence. And as she gives due acknowledgement to this good, being discovered, so she calls aloud to the will and affections to strive towards it, being known and acknowledged, she adviseth them to set up their rest upon it, to adventure all for it, and never to leave labouring, until the soul and happiness be joined together.   

CHAP. II. How that must be conditioned which is the end and happiness of man..  
NOw if with such wise Searchers of felicity we shall make the like inquiry, examining all things in their weight and worth; we must needs meet in one Truth, Truth being but one, even a common Centre, in which all rectified understandings meet. The more wise a man is, the more possession hath he of this truth; and therefore whosoever can challenge to himself to be the wisest of Men, he must also be the largest discoverer of happiness, and with him especially shall other wisdoms meet, even of necessity.  
Now that we firmly ground our discovery, let us first inquire what conditions that thing must have which shall be the happiness of man.. That which shall make Man happy, must first be able to bestow on Man an absence of misery: for Happiness & Misery cannot dwell together in one subject. Again, it must give a man a real possession and enjoying of the chiefest good, and that in perpetuity & everlastingness. Man must possess the sovereign Good; for he can never be happy by enjoying imperfection, but that only which is perfectly good, can make a man perfectly happy. He must also enjoy this sovereign Good in a perpetuity, else the fear of losing happiness, must needs lose part of it before it be lost; and if not so, yet he cannot be termed happy, who shall have a time when he shall be without happiness. And surely, if we find a sovereign Good which is everlasting, it will bestow itself on us in it own nature, even everlastingly. Lastly, the beatifical object of Man, must be the most agreeable object of his most excellent part. Now, Man's chiefest part is a lightsome, reasonable, and understanding spirit. Therefore that from which can issue unto Man the greatest joy, must be a most wise, reasonable, and lightsome spirit; likeness, agreeableness, and harmony, being the foundations of pleasure; and consequently, the most excellent Like, pouring into his inferior Like, the most conformable, natural, and kindly joys; from which ariseth an enjoying, even in perfection, contentment, & rest. Having thus found out some conditions of Man's sovereign good, let us now seek out that thing which beareth these conditions: to this purpose let us search the length and breadth, the height and depth of Essences and Being's, which if we draw into a sum, we shall find to be no other, than the Creature and the Creator, God and the World. Let us therefore inquire, which of these is qualified with the abilities of perfect felicity.   

CHAP. III. Whether the World, or part of it, be Man's happiness. And first, of Honour.  
IF we would begin with the World, & first ask of it, whether it be able to give us happiness; surely, it prevents our ask most commonly, and teacheth us by blows, and not by words, that it is our misery rather than our happiness: even a great treasury of imperfections, infirmities, griefs, cares, oppressions, wickedness, transitoriness, and vanity. There is in it no fit object for the soul, no full and stable happiness for the body. The best things in it that concern Man, are of a goodness mixed or uncontinuing. It is full of confusion; all things coming alike to all, and not the best to the best. Folly sits very often in judgement upon Wisdom, or which is worse than Folly, Wickedness; and Wisdom, and Righteousness are as often condemned: yea, Wickedness hath the reward of Righteousness. To conclude, all things are full of change, the World still changeth her owners, and one generation driveth out another. Even these with whom the World makes most dalliance, the same World turns out of favour and being; as many Princes do their Favourites. But if generalities, by reason of their hugeness, may not easily enter into the narrow capacities of men: Let us examine some chief particulars and Masterpieces of the world, and so try whether any part can be better than the whole; or whether any part can be free from that Law under which the whole is concluded. And surely, if the best parts of the world being examined, be found to be vanity, and their ashes nothing; the inferior parts must, if it were possible, be an extremer kind of nothing. And though many Volumes handling these things, have almost prevented these latter ages of any new matter, truth in the same thing, being still the same; yet, because truth is infinite in latitude and largeness, and all mankind is not an equal match to the breadth thereof: Let every man search for more truths, and if he cannot find them, he may do well yet to ratify and confirm the old. And first, let us look upon Honour, a chief flower of this world's flight and false happiness, and we shall find it hath justly been discovered to borrow valuation from opinion, & opinion itself is of all other a most groundless, mutable, vain, and witless thing. It is the thought of a dark & blind multitude, which catcheth at things like mad Dogs, suddenly, rashly, and unconsiderately; not staying for reason, or at most, only for a show of reason. But if thy honour have a better ground thy own merit, and the estimation of wise and good men, I confess, it is then a sweet ointment which pleaseth and delighteth the judgement, but doth not fill and satisfy it. It is not food strong enough for the soul of a wiseman, nor for the body of a hungry man: the mind of man still reacheth beyond it, and cries, it is far from being the true rest of the soul. How many sick men, how many sad, yea but wisely severe men have looked upon it, and examined it when they had it, and became merry or angry, that they found no more in it! But I need not much trouble myself with examining this kind of honour; for the World little troubles itself with seeking or finding it. But that which chief pleaseth them, is a vizard of honour, which makes them honourable to the eyes and opinions of men, no wiser nor better than themselves. But if Fools ride on horseback with this kind of honour, and Princes for wisdom go on foot without it; What mad good thing is this, which sets up folly above wisdom? Of this I need to say the less: for the very Huntsmen of this honour have bitterly complained on it; they say, it leads them into many pits and down falls, over many mires and dangerous precipices; the mind hath many strong counterbuffs and affronts, the conscience is forced to make wide steps for it, and to leap over many blocks of stumbling and offence. Again, they complain that it keeps the heart from rest and enjoying; being attained, it is digged at by Envy, and makes this often appear, that it hath climbed for ruin. Finally, one degree of honour attained, is but a degree, not a bound of the desires; and a farther honour desired and not attained, takes away the savour of whatsoever honour is already gotten. Hence it plainly appears, that there is in it little substance or solid satisfaction, since that pleaseth most, which we have not, that little, and left which we have.   

CHAP. FOUR Of pleasures and riches, that they are not Man's happiness.  
But if neglecting honour, we look on pleasures, to find happiness in them; How do pleasures die in enjoying? Their end devoureth their beginning: their backside is more loathsome than their face is pleasant. They that are past, have not satisfied; they that are to come, will be but the same, and shall not satisfy. There is nothing left of the former, neither shall there be of the latter, but all are bounded within one and the same vanity. Again, pleasures never stand still, but while they be, they be lessening & going to nothing. Therefore of laughter it may be said, Thou art mad, and of pleasure, What is it that thou dost? And surely, if we could obtain a continued course of pleasures, through the race of a whole life, yet this only or chief concerns the body, but the soul hath no object the while to give her any full pleasure or delight. As the body tasteth not spiritual joys, so the soul tasteth not bodily pleasures. Yea carnal pleasures have this venom ordinarily in them, that their height groweth, or continueth, by the diminishing or suppression of the reasonable soul; and commonly the excellent soul is used but as a slave to supply the lusts of the body with base satisfaction, whiles herself goes away without any wages of pleasure or advantage; yea, she groans under the burden of so vile a bondage; then especially sinking, suffering, and retiring, when the body enjoys his chiefest pleasures. But if sober toward pleasures, we yet stand in reverence of profit, after which the greatest part of the world runs a whoring; let us turn our eyes from Multitude unto Truth, which usually by Multitude is most forsaken. There is a sure saying, that a competent portion, fit to defend us from hunger and nakedness (that is, a measure able to serve and satisfy our natural uses) hath attained the fullness of the substantial goodness thereof. We are travailing through this world to death; if we have enough to bear our necessary charges by the way, how is not superfluity rather a burden then a comfort to a travailer? whatsoever is beyond our use, we can but behold with our eyes, or put a vain confidence in it, which often hath deceived those that trusted in it; for even that which they have put their trust in, hath been the same thing that hath betrayed them. Therefore it is fit that care and fear (as commonly they do) should accompany Abundance, as well as Pride and Confidence. And if so, then what a motley and minggled happiness ariseth from a doubtful and careful superfluity? And surely, very commonly and very justly the owners of this excess, are called miserable. For, beside that it often delivers them up into the hands of misery, it makes them most wretched in themselves, because most wretched to themselves. There is a beastly kindred between the heart of man & money, and this kindred begets such a love, that the heart will go near to starve itself before it will part from its most beloved object. Yea, money begets the love of money, and stirs up the affection in such a vehemency towards it, that pos session doth inflame the desire, and not satisfy it. Now what can give rest to such a miserable Soul? when obtaining, which in other things gives some (though short) satisfaction, yet to this man it gives new appetite, farther motion, & a longer business? yet this abundance thus brought forth by the Midwifery of torment and perplexity, many times flies away like an Eagle by the following generations, Folly or Luxury; and this certainly is a great vanity and wretchedness of riches, that they are so often left to a foolish son, who is less kin to a true wise man, than an honest stranger; that sometimes they are left to a son, that is no son, and sometimes left, and there is not a second to enjoy them. Howsoever, left they must be, even all things wherein thou hast showed thyself wise and industrious, and that to some who laboured not in them, to some whom thou knowest not, after two or three generations; & therefore knowest not, whether they shallbe wise or foolish, whether they shall perform thy purposes and desires with thy substance; yea, whether they shall turn it into the price of a Whore or a Dog, which both are an abomination in the sight of Wisdom. But if riches might escape all this succeeding misery; yet is not the present possessor of them happy. The common misery of man lays claim to all, and will not be bought out by Riches. Therefore the Rich man shall meet with crosses, & losses, in friends or estate; he shall be sick in mind, and sick in body, yea fullness itself shall make him sick in both. And if he might escape all this, yet riches, which are the Servants of his body, cannot make his soul happy, which is better than the body: for far be it from the soul to find her happiness in her servants servant; especially such a fugitive vagabond & uncertain servant. These massy and gross riches are too course an object, for a pure and spiritual Essence; they carry no likeness or proportion unto it, and therefore can give the soul no addition of her natural pleasure or profit, much less of her perfect happiness, wherein she must have a part, so far greater than the body, as she is more excellent than it.   

CHAP. V Of Knowledge.  
BUT some moral wizard will tell me, that Knowledge hath some high privilege above Misery, and such a one as can give Happiness to this (in spite of it) unhappy life. Indeed, knowledge is a dim light, which is better than very darkness. It hath an excellency, as dawning above night, but though it be better, it is not that chief good which can make us happy. It may indeed be used as an instrument for the discovery of happiness, though seldom it be put to that use. But in itself neither in any thing created shall it ever be able to discover it. Yea rather it shall find in itself and in all things of this world, many imperfections, and failings of those just conditions, absolutely necessary to be found in Man's sovereign good. Our knowledge is but of a short reach; the things beyond it, are infinitely more than the things on this side of it. Therefore when knowledge is come to a supposed perfection, a special quality of it is, to know itself to be imperfect: even those things which are within the compass of it, it searcheth by piecemeal, part after part, as one that reads a great Volume in the dark with a Glow-worm; which shows him but letter after letter: so a great deal of trouble goes to a very little profit. Hence are our Sciences, but many littles pieced together while the great body of truth & wisdom stands beyond our sight; and by the incomprehensibleness thereof accuseth our knowledge, even to itself, of weakness, as the glory of the Sun doth our eyes, by dazzling them. And this magnified little knowledge which we have, what extraordinary vantage doth it bring unto Man? Surely, it often bestows vexation on the owners of it, and by increasing, increaseth sorrow; for to the greatest knowledge, the vanity and misery of man doth present itself in a most full appearance; yea, great knowledges usually take up aforehand evils to come, and make them present. Hence it is that many learned Philosophers have vexed their lives with the consideration of their deaths, which many ignorant and sturdy Clowns without premeditation have undertaken, with more ease, as missing the troubles of anticipation; & have dispatched with less business and wrestling, as being hoodwinked with a blind contentment, to do as their fathers have done before them. For this cause also some of our greatest knowers have winked against knowledge, and have desired that ignorance should cousin them of their griefs, to which knowledge would continually and loudly awake them. Surely, when the knowledge of man hath discovered throughout this frame of the world, an excellent wisdom and order, when it sees that there is an excellent beauty in the face of Goodness, yea, some excellence in knowledge itself; how, must not this needs torment the heart of the knower, while the same knowledge seethe also the actions of mankind to run so madly and confusedly, whiles it sees justice, or at least Power, treading upon the face of goodness, and exalting wickedness, while it sees an undistinguishing chance to come unto all; and finally, while knowledge seethe knowledge despised, and yet not able to help itself, not any of those evils which it sees. Certainly these things are a vexation of mind to the men of knowledge, and make them loath the works that are wrought under the Sun, even to hate life itself. And as this misery comes of knowledge being gotten, so even the getting of knowledge is itself a misery; for usually it is acquired by two means. The one is a vehement and continual labour of the mind, which takes up one half of the life, to instruct the other half; yea, many time's knowledge is a funeral garment, all the life in working, & worn but the last journey to the grave. A second means, is an extraordinary instrument of the soul, which is called the dry beam; by which the soul seethe most clearly & swiftly, and will discourse out of a present apprehension, as sound as some will do by much study and premeditation: but we must know that in this case, the window of the soul is usually enlarged by the flaw of the body, and the body and mind do often suffer some indisposition, when these beams of the soul are over-active. Hence may we truly guess, that such greatness of wit hath commonly to accompany it some touch of madness or sickness. And now, that we may give a conclusion to the poor knowledge of man, as before it was convinced to be a spy for grief, while it beholds the confusion, misery, and vanity of this world: so may we truly say, that it can never be an Intelligencer of happiness, while it surveys the beauty and glory of this world, and sends us news of them alone. For among the varieties of this world's best & most excellent parts, knowledge can never find any object worthy of the soul of man; nothing that may give it the true happiness of a soul, nor any thing that may lift up man above misery, there to give him a rest of safety and perpetuity, yea, much rather it sees the soul made a drudge to the body, and trudging in the errands of corruption, wickedness & vanity; and if sometimes she delight herself in her own light, that light is but as the shooting of a star, for man eftsoones falls down into his old station of grossness & misery. And though sometimes it gives a man some ease in lesser evils and troubles, yet is knowledge itself usually astonished with sudden encounters, even in little matters, and commonly overborne with mighty tempests of greatly-sensible evils. Therefore we may conclude, that knowledge rather shows man that he is ill, then makes him to be well, & it seems that some great knowledge hath subjecteth man to an unresistible revolution of misery, from which all lesser knowledges can never free him, without the help of the greater.   

CHAP. VI The universal vanity of the World.  
But if in all this, I had said nothing, but that still in spite of all that hath been said, these and the like masterpieces of the world, would of force bestow some happiness on Man, yet herein I cannot choose but to say something; that is, when deadly sickness, either casual or natural, cometh upon us; When the grinders are weak, the keepers tremble, and the lookers out by the windows, yea by the windows of the soul, grow dark; What can honour, riches, pleasures or knowledge then confer unto Man thus buried in himself, and uncapable of any outward comfort? upon this consideration, that old Man did wisely, who refused the pleasures of the Court, being invited to them; because his ear did no longer taste the sweetness of Music, nor his palate did any longer relish the savourinesse of meat. The gates of Man are shut up, by which the trade between the Soul and the World, doth pass to and fro, and therefore Man cannot traffic any longer with his old customers of this outward and visible world. But now the dregs of life are come to the spending, wherein thou shalt confess that there is nothing but labour and sorrow. And if yet I had in this said Nothing, because some Philosophers invented a way to prevent this misery, by ridding themselves of themselves, yet this must needs be something, that Death, the thaw of all cold and frozen comforts, dissolveth both thee and all thy imaginary felicities into nothing, even into that which such felicities do nothing concern. Surely, whatsoever titles thou hast enjoyed, whatsoever pleasures thou hast tasted, whatsoever riches thou hast possessed, whatsoever plots or inventions thou hast contrived or conceived, Death cuts them wholly from thee, or thee from them; there is no more relation between you, neither do they any longer concern thee. Therefore in regard of all outward things, hath there been a just outcry: What remaineth to Man of all his works under the Sun? The dust of Man hath no feeling nor knowledge of the things of this life; neither those things which have been nor those which are. Death hath digested all man's works and concernments into vanity; whether he hath been poor or rich, wise or foolish, sad or merry. Yea, death is most terrible to them commonly, who have most sought a happiness in the things of this life, and seems to be revenged on them for this their folly & error. Therefore are the miserable and wretched most familiar with Death, and take most pleasure in it, for which reason they may seem to be happier than the others. For, if present ease and pleasure sweeten all former grief and bitterness, but present grief and bitterness doth give a distaste to all former pleasures; then these to whom ease and pleasure are present in the last place, have a recompense and counterpoise to their sorrows: and they to whom grief and vexation are last of all present, feel an extinguishment of their former pleasures: and hence it seems the miserable go hence in some degree of happiness, the voluptuous in a great degree of wretchedness. Howsoever, be what thou wilt, O worldling, do what thou wilt, thou shalt go into emptiness and vanity thou and thy thoughts shall perish, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remains of thee in the world, shallbe of an equal condition to that mould wherein it is enclosed; and the world shall conserve thy dust no more than it doth thy fellow-dust, which lieth next unto thee.   

CHAP. VII. What remains of necessity to be the happiness of man..  
NOw, the world being thus shut up and bounded with vanity, there remains only that highest Essence, the Cause and Fountain of all things, in whom Man may seek his happiness, Man is enforced to climb up above this world of vanity, to reach his true felicity. His soul must set up the ladder of contemplation, & thereon she must ascend up to her Maker, to seek in him a remedy of her misery, an object of blessedness, of perpetuity. And surely, whither can she more fitly repair, then to the Source of her being, there to receive a reparation of herill being, and an eternity of well being? For he that made Man, is in all probability most able to amend Man when he is marred, yea, there is none, but he, can do it. Again, God being the Father of Spirits, what can more rejoice them then their Father & Fountain, by continual supplies of life and joy? Now, that God is a most blessed Spirit the true beatifical object of Spirits blessed, his supremity in Excellence, wisdom, and power, do strongly persuade: and first for excellence, even in our vulgar estimation, gross things are base things, and purity is accounted excellency. Glass is preferred before Clay, and Crystal before Glass, and the Diamond before Crystal. Among Men, the heavy and earthly minds are most contemned, and they that are of the quickest & sharpest spirits, are held most noble and generous: If then we will frame any conception of a transcendent and uppermost excellency; we must also conceive a most absolute purity. Therefore if God be most excellent, he is also most pure. Now what is to be thought more pure than a glorious, single, un-compounded Essence, such as a Spirit is, and that Spirit most, which is the Cause, and Fountain, and Father of Spirits? And no less doth a spiritual Essence fit best with wisdom; For wisdom being a most pure and piercing thing, which by the sharpness & subtlety thereof can pierce into the most hidden and secret profundities, what Essence fitteth wisdom better, than a pure, subtle, and piercing Essence, such as is that of a Spirit? Wisdom is a light, and we find the higher any thing is sublimated, and refined, and as it were unbodied, the more capable it is of light. So Earth, which is a lump of darkness, by fire lifted up and clarified into the pureness of Glass, becomes especially capable of light. And surely, if we search but a little depth into wisdom: it will appear to our understandings to be the child, conceivement, and issue of a Spirit; even of a clear, pure, and single essence, which in their models our own souls do represent unto us, and teach by pattern. Thirdly, in regard of Power, as the Creator of all things must excel all things in power; so Power hath his residence most fitly and especially in a Spirit. Accordingly we see in daily experience, that the heavy and massy things are moved and commanded by things uncorporeall & unseen. The huge Sea is moved to and fro in her Tides, by an invisible and unbodily Power. There is no hand that toucheth it, no arm that holdeth it back, or thrusteth it forward. In living things, even those that live but a growing life, the massy part is moved in growing by a power unvisible and unperceivable. In Beasts, the purest and most incorporeal part of them is that which moveth, increaseth, and directeth their grossness and greatness. The Wind is a thing invisible & of a great thinness and subtlety. Yet in Earthquakes it tears Rocks asunder, & removes Mountains; in Tempests it brings the Sea upon the Land, and equals Towers with their own foundations. Surely, Power is then most pure & absolute, when it is least clogged with weight; and massines doth load it, rather than increase it. And as it is of itself clear and uncorporeall, so it cannot but proceed from a clear, and pure Essence, things ever proceeding from their like: and what purer than a Spirit? And to shut up all in an experimental conclusion: We find in ourselves an excellent essence, intelligent, uncorporeall, invisible, un-touchable, (which are the expressions of a Spirit) whereby many great works are performed, and thereby give evident testimonies thereof. If therefore there be such an essence in us, we may imagine the Creator to be purer than his work, and therefore he must be more spiritual than we, or more than spiritual, but cannot be less. But be that granted which we seek, that God is a Spirit, most wise, most powerful, that can both free us from misery, and give us the true and natural happiness of Spirits; What availeth it us that God is able to do it, except it be done? There must be a communication of this ability unto Man else Man only knows where he might be happy, but knows not that he shall be happy. And without this knowledge, the life of Man is but a continual fear and bondage. Wherefore it concerns us to make a new survey of all Nations and all Doctrines of happiness, enquiring among them, whether any of them can tell us the glad tidings of a communion and intercourse between God and man.. Let us diligently examine the universal Teachers of knowledges, & ask whether there hath been any act of the Creator, performed for the reparation of miserable mankind, and the deliverance of him from this prison of wretchedness & vanity, into the glorious liberty of blessed Spirits. For my part (as every man is bounded with his own knowledge) I have heard or read of one alone; and that is so fully medicinable to Man's misery, so fully sufficient to give Man perfect felicity; That this is the very doctrine of happiness, or else Man must still remain a sensual, wretched, and unprofitable creature, which to say, were a blasphemy against the wisdom of creation. In this doctrine is God discovered to be the repairer of his own fallen creature. And the remedy is every way equal, yea, prevalent to the disease, so that it well becomes the highest God to be the Author thereof. And though the manner of it be not fetched from man's vainglorious imaginations, nor grounded upon Nature (GOD being able equally to be an immediate Father of Man's reparation, as of his creation of grace as of nature) yet containeth this doctrine no unreasonable contrarieties, or repugnances, but only things high above common reason, such as well befit a Deity, higher by far then his own creature. And notwithstanding this height, yet they that duly converse in this doctrine, and by meditation enter into the mystery thereof, they, I say, shall find an excellent harmony & correspondence between it and Man's present estate, and between all the parts of itself. For the sore of Man is so justly covered with an answerable plaster: That it must needs be confessed, that he who framed the remedy, must be he alone that knoweth the secrets of the heart, even the depth and root of our malady. Philosophy hath endeavoured to cure the Gangrene of Man's corruption, by cutting off the very parts corrupted, which must be upon the matter, by cutting off Man from himself, as indeed some have done, by leaving him as a mere trunk without feeling, and without affection. But this doctrine leaveth the parts whole, but mainly opposeth the corruption, it leaves man to be as much a man as he was, but only it so purgeth him, that he is not so much evil, nor so much miserable as he was; yea, that at length he shall be neither evil nor miserable. And this is so strongly sealed into the heart of Man, that it leaves an evident proof of a divine power, accompanying and justifying it. For none but the Creator can pierce into the heart of man, and bind his will and affections, even against his will and affections, with such powerful and mighty chains, that neither the wit of Man, which hath been fruitful in inventions of torment, nor the power of Emperors, which hath ruined mighty Kingdoms, could change or alter them.  
Concerning this Art of Arts, what I have received, I purpose to deliver to others, through his help, who is the Author thereof: and surely, this knowledge is only worthy of a man; other knowledges, except they serve this, they are but weariness and vanity: for man is as miserable, and sometimes more, when he hath gotten their perfections, as when he entered into their beginnings. And becauseit gives a great light to Man's reparation, to know how he came to have need of it, and because it concerns the glory of the Creator, to show that at first he created not misery and corruption: Therefore most fitly doth this Doctrine begin with the first estate of man, and the loss thereof, even a created perfection, and a purchased corruption; A learning, which all Philosophy could never reach. For she is the child of man, and therefore cannot tell the beginning of her own Father. For man was before she was, yea man was lost, before she was found: and so she which was since corruption, cannot tell how that corruption came which was before her, much less can she speak of that perfection which was again before this corruption. But the truth is, bade she finds us, and not knowing the cause, she can never find the cure; and therefore as she found us, so she leaves us miserable.    

THE ART OF HAPPINESS. The second Part. Which particularly sets forth the happiness of Man, and the restoring of it when it was lost.  

CHAP. I. Of the Creator and the Creation, and the purpose of the Creator in the Creation.  
THe Creator is the beginning of all things, and therefore must he needs be without beginning. For from the things which have their beginning of him, himself cannot take beginning, neither can he be his own beginning, for that were to say, he was before he was. But God is an eternal Essence, that by himself upholdeth himself, and all things else. For all other things have no being of their own, but they borrow their being from him; and in him is their foundation: and for this cause may he alone rightly, because alone originally, say, I am. And as he is the fountain and beginning from which all things flow, so is he the end to which all things return; either by their own wills conformed to his will, or by the overruling of his power, which subdueth the unwilling to his will. And thus must it needs be; for the Creator is his own end in his Creation, and doth all things for himself. If we allow not a Creator, we confess no Author of the things we see; but either we make them Eternal, which is to make meaner gods, and to deny the more excellent, or we frame some imagination of our own to be their beginning which shall never fit with them so well, as a wise, powerful, and eternal Spirit; and lastly, we rob man's soul of a true rest & happiness. For if the Spirit of man had not some sovereign Spirit, to give it eternal Bliss, than were miserable man shut up unto this present life, as unto his sovereign good, into which a wise & good man would never re-enter, if he were once well discharged of it. Let us then seek a GOD higher than these visible things, and a happiness higher than these miserable things; and let us not reason with the brutish Sensualists; He is not a God whom we cannot see with our eyes; but let us say with the Souls enlightened; He is fittest to be a God, whose pureness doth excel the gross capacity of bodily senses. For the purer the Essence is, the more fit to be a God, and the more pure, the more invisible to a gross and carnal sight. Let us therefore believe the Creator to be a most clear, lightsome, and glorious Spirit, and to be seen only by Spirits and bodies, sublimated into a spiritual kind of being.  
This glorious & eternal Spirit, manifesteth himself to our apprehensions in three Persons, the print and impression of each person being found in every creature, and there being an absolute necessity, that every one of the three should concur in all Creation. The first, in order of Consideration, though there be no first in order of Time, is the great and infinite Mind or Understanding, which begetteth a great Wisdom, Thought, or Word; even the first and radical Light, the almighty Begetter of the second Light; and this person is called GOD the Father. The second, is the begotten & second Light; even the Wisdom & Conceivement of the mind or understanding; an Image & issue thereof, and this person is called GOD the Son. The third, is the Virtue & Power, which breatheth or floweth from the God head, whereby GOD loveth and enjoyeth himself, and puts in execution whatsoever he will have done for himself, and this person is called GOD the holy Ghost. These three are one God, and do so necessarily join in every Creation, that without any one of them nothing can be created. For how can there be any Creation, but that the Mind or Father must beget a wise purpose, by Wisdom his Son, & what he hath purposed and projected by the Son, he must effect by the power of the holy Ghost?  
Accordingly, this God, who is the end of himself for himself intended, and brought forth a Creation. To himself he would have glory, and to his Creature happiness; yea, this happiness of the Creature, should be by the glory of the Creator: so in the glorifying of God, should Men and Angels be glorified. But on the contrary, they that would not give glory to God, should not have happiness to themselves; yet, though unwillingly, shall they glorify him by serving his justice in misery, who would not serve his Goodness in felicity. To effect this in six days, God made this great mass of Creatures, called the World, which he fitted for the service of Man, and Man for the service of his God. Now, as this great Frame came from this one God, so the infinite disagreings of several parts reconciled to an Unity, point to some great unity as the Cause of this reconciliation, which can deserve to be called by no other name, then by a supreme and sovereign Name, and such a Name is God. Again, the infinite diversity of Forms, and that large heap of Matter, neither of which were before, and of which it is alike easy to the Creator, to make Matter as Forms, direct our eyes to some great Wisdom & Power, which could both invent and produce them. Yea more nearly, the drops and streams of wisdom powered into the Creatures in their several instincts, and into Man with his soul plainly confess, that there is some Spring of infinite wisdom from which these Rivulets might flow, and some infinite power which could actuate them into the Creatures. And if so, then necessarily must we also allow some pure and infinite Essence, wherein this infinite. Wisdom & Power might dwell, which purity chief excelleth in a Spirit, and to such a Spirit can agree no other, but the highest Name of God. Thus the things sealed, bearing the Image of the seal, teach us the seal; even these visible Creatures, bearing the impression of the Deity, represent to us the same Deity, as their Cause and Beginning, and in their dumb language they preach unto us their original.  
The world thus trimmed up with the variety of innumerable things, both for use and ornament, as a royal Palace for some great Prince, man (though now a contemptible & wretched thing) was then thought a fit Owner and Commander of so glorious a Creation. And this not without order; for though by his body, he was of kin to the Earth, yet his soul was of kin to the Deity; being a Spirit breathed into man by the Father of Spirits. So Glory and Humility were married together in man at his first Creation; the issues whereof should still be continued; even apprehensions of an excellent soul, to keep us from sinking into the baseness of sensuality and earthiness; and considerations of a clay body, to stay us from mounting up in pride, and ascending into the place of the most High.  
And now even at the first beginning, God did make man know both what was the baseness of man, and what was the happiness of man: he showed man that his service was the business of man, yea, he showed him how he would be served. For God planted in man a reasonable soul, in which was written an Image & counterpane of the Deity, although not equal in degrees, yet like in resemblance. Now, the reason of this soul could find, that a Creator creates things for himself, & by whom things are, they are also for him. Therefore man having his being from God, he is to return his being unto God. And if Man would know the manner how to please and serve God; this very manner of his creation will teach him. For the Creator was a Spirit himself, and he gave to man a Spirit resembling him both in substance and faculty. The substance was spiritual, & the faculty, an understanding and wil In the understanding was a light, which could show unto man the will of God; and inform Man what was right in God's understanding. So was it a created revelation of the Law of God, the sparks and pieces whereof serve at this day, both to inform and accuse the natural man. Now upon the understanding thus informed, the will was ready to attend; and upon the will, the affections, yea all the members, to execute and perform the will of God certified to them by the understanding. Now there being such an aptness and ability of conformity between God and Man, and all things being delighted with harmony and conformity, especially that purest Essence which is vanity itself; surely, it cannot be imagined, but the chiefest pleasure and service most acceptable to the Creator, was, when these lower and lesser spirits did carry themselves, & the bodies which they ruled in a perpetual consent and conformity to that great Spirit which made them. And as Man's workmanship did thus show him his work, so did it also his happiness. Towards the discovery hereof, let us set down these rules. First, the most excellent happiness of Man must be the happiness of Man's most excellent part. Secondly, Man's chiefest part being a Spirit, the object of his happiness must be a Spirit; Spirits enjoying Spirits, as Bodies do Bodies, & chief the chiefest. Thirdly, this chiefest Spirit is not to be found among the Creatures, but must only be the Creator; for the Creator must needs exceed all the Spirits that issue from him, as the highest cause doth his inferior effects. And to this also conspireth this conception even of human reason, that in him must be the chiefest exaltation of Man's being, from whom the being itself did first proceed. Yet neither doth our merciful Father leave this Truth without a witness, but by that great & reverend mystery of the Sabbath, he telleth us outwardly, what before he inwardly taught us; even that God is our blessedness, and that holiness is the way to him. For God is said to have created the world in six days, and to have rested, blessed, and hallowed the seventh. Now God needed not six days to create a world, which he can equally do in a moment. Neither needed he to rest the seventh day, for any weariness gotten by Creation. But these things are of an higher meaning, and include Doctrines more excellent, and so more agreeable to the nature and dignity of God. God chose to make his work distinctly in six several days, and in every day distinctly considered the work which that day he had made and upon this distinct and several consideration, he pronounced this sentence upon each days work, that the work of that day was good. Yet he saith only that it was good; he saith not that it was goodness: it was good enough in his kind for service, but not for happiness. But the seventh day he ceaseth, both from Creation and this consideration of the good Creatures; and withdraweth himself into himself; He returneth from without, to the enjoying of himself & his own rest; and to the contemplation of this rest enjoyed; and there only he findeth & pronounceth to be perfect holiness, and perfect blessedness. To make this known unto Man, God takes this Seventh day, wherein he retired to his rest, and imprints on it the qualities of his rest, holiness and blessedness; that the holiness and blessedness of that day might be a pattern to us of the holiness and blessedness, which is in God: that we reading therein the blessedness of God, might set our whole hearts & desires thereon; and reading therein the holiness of God, might fit ourselves by holiness to his Holiness; which, as it is inseparable from happiness in God, so must it be also in all that will see Good; for nothing contrary or unlike to God, may approach unto him. Thus the Seventh day, crowned by the employment of that day; & the other six days left unblessed, by the works of those days, by a manifest difference point unto us, that the end and happiness of Man, are not to be sought in the works of the six days, but in the blessed Holiness and holy Blessedness of the Seventh. And to the same truth the order of Creation doth likewise invite us. For, all Creatures being first made; Man was made after Creatures, and so set before them as their end, to whom they should look, & whom they should serve. But Man being thus placed as the end of the Creatures, in this great mystery of the Sabbath, solemnized after Man's creation, God and his blessed Rest is set before Man, as the end and happiness of man.. So as Man is set before the face of the Creatures, so is God in the Sabbath set before the face of man.. The Creatures should look to Man, and Man should look to God; Man must turn his back to the Creatures, and his face toward God. The Creatures must serve & follow Man, and Man must serve & follow God. And when God is served in holiness, then shall he be enjoyed in happiness; when God is proposed as the end of Man's being, then shall God be enjoyed as the end of Man's desire.   

CHAP. II. How Man fell from happiness into misery.  
MAN being thus created; with his duty and happiness written in him, and set before him; his business was by walking in the duty, to walk toward the happiness. To do this, he was to look unto God as the rule of his obedience (of whom also that little Image, which he carried about him, was a representation) and upon the same God as the consummation of his felicity. In sum, he was to walk with God unto God; and having pleased God in this world, he was to enjoy the pleasures at the right hand of God in the world above. And now, as Man was to see in God, both what was good to be done, and what was good to be desired, so also was he to see by God what was the evil to be left undone, and the evil to be loathed in regard of suffering. For, the same rule which showeth us rightness, serves also to find out crookedness. And accordingly as the Will of GOD was the rule of that which was good and righteous, & the goodness of God was Man's good and happiness; so on the contrary, what was against God's will, was the evil of unrighteousness, or what was separated from God's goodness, or had an influence contrary to it, was the evil of misery. Thus was Man set with his countenance toward God, to behold him as the highest mark & aim to whom he should fit his actions and affections. Yea, God and Man looked each on other; God to Man, for the service of love: Man to God, for holiness and happiness.  
And now, because this most wise Creator knew, that a Creature, like a stream, must have continuance from the same spring, from which it took beginning, & that the same hand must support him from falling, which made him able to stand; he gave unto Man a Tree of Life; a most divine Sacrament; by the partaking whereof, he might have truly eaten of that Word of God, by whom Man was first made, and who only is Life, and is even now the Tree of Life in the Paradise which is above. In this Word is the Life and Light of Men, and by the partaking of Him, Man may continue in the Life and Light received from Him. And if ADAM would have eaten of this Tree, he might have been established in the state of righteousness and happiness.  
But that it might be in the choice of Man to choose Life or Death, there was also set before him a Tree of death, a Tree to which was annexed this curse, That at what time soever Man eateth thereof, he shall die the death. And great reason there was, that the Eater thereof should die, for it had a quality powered into it, or annexed unto it, to overthrow all that the Tree of Life would have preserved. It carried with it a spiritual drunkenness, that would so captivate the understanding, and turn about the will and affections, that they should not look to God, as the rule of good & evil, to be done or undone; nor to the same God, as the rule of that good and evil, which is happiness and misery.  
But this new fruit will teach Man to know good and evil, after a new fashion. For from the venom thereof there issueth a blind lust & concupiscence, which blotteth out the Image of God in the soul, by which we once looked unto God. And this lust sitteth itself as God in this Temple of God. When this fruit is eaten, the understanding, will, and affections, are to be managed by lust; yea, even the whole soul and body of man, and that must be good or evil which lust approveth or disliketh. God must be no longer the happiness of man, neither the absence or opposition of God, the misery of man; God must be no longer the pattern of Man's obedience, neither shall man care to walk with God unto God, nor to decline from the evil of suffering, by declining from the evil of doing. But lust that bestrideth the soul and body, frameth up new happiness & new misery, even new good and evil, to which the actions of Man must be wholly leveled, even to avoid the evil, and to obtain the good. And this must be done with such authority, that the preciseness of the former course, which fitted all actions to the rule of righteousness, being trodden under foot, as carrying with it a scrupulous baseness; these actions shall now only, and seriously been judged Good or Evil, which are apprehended and proposed by Lust. Let the things supposed good by this fleshly wisdom, be never so empty of goodness; yea the certain means of misery, yet if this knowledge know them to be good, and persuade the will and affections to embrace them as good, Man must mightily employ himself for the attaining of them. Accordingly, if this new knowledge tell us that worshipping of stocks, murder, yea misery itself is good, we are bound to believe it, yea to run over the whole Country, and sometimes out of the Country, for the attaining and execution of such apprehensions of Good and Evil. Neither doth this hold only in some men of extravagant humours, but it appears since the eating of this fruit, to be a general fruit of that eating. For generally mankind is in bondage to this sensual wisdom, & generally the lives of men are framed and leveled thereby, and commonly in the course of every natural man, we shall find some one thing especially proposed as his chief good & happiness; the contrary whereof is his chief evil and misery; neither of which are such, as they be esteemed. Yea, the sway of this knowledge is so mighty, that in many plain and evident causes of good and evil, the poor ruins of reason, even the broken remnants of God's Image in the soul, are put out of countenance, and are ashamed to give up their verdict; wherefore, many times, by men of understanding, for fear or flattery, evil is called good, and good, evil. There are honourable Miseries, which Reason plainly sees to be miseries, yet in the Court it is ashamed to call them so. There are also glorious Murders, which Reason knows to be very butcheries, yet among the lusty sons of this lustful wisdom, it is ashamed to say so. There is a supposal of a God head, or divine power, to dwell in a piece of wood or metal, and this, Reason sees to be vanity, yet in some countries, King's bow to such imaginations, and the Subjects must do the same; else for want of bowing, they shall be brought to breaking. As in these, so in infinite other things appears man's mistaking of good and evil, even the good of righteousness and happiness; and the evil of wickedness and misery yea, in those very instincts, which are left as the principal guides of natural men, and by which their state is continued and preserved (and if such had not been left, mankind being yielded up to the guiding of his natural corruption, must needs have decayed and destroyed itself) even these instincts are exceedingly tainted by this knowledge of good and evil. Natural instinct tells Man, that by Woman, succession is preserved, and natural help maintained, and that she that is thine, is thyself; Lust comes in with his doctrines often, and says, Love one that thou hast not, for the good of variety, and it is evil and fulsome to love but one, though she be thine own flesh. Natural instinct tells us, it is good to love our children, and best, the best. Lust comes in many times and tells us, It is good to love them better than ourselves; to wrong ourselves & others, to increase them, and sometimes to love that child best that deserves worst. Yea, sometimes on the contrary it tells us, that it is foolish and evil to debar ourselves from any excess or vanity, for their sakes, and then the carelessness is as bad as the care was before. Natural instinct tells us, there must be an order among men for their preservation, that some must be the heads and keepers of this order Hence ariseth the necessity of Kings and States. Fleshly wisdom comes in, and tells many Kings, they must rule men for their own pleasures, and to satisfy their own sensual desires. And the same wisdom tells many Subjects, Why should ye be subject to one of your kind? and if so, why not others to you, as well as you to others? Thus is the new knowledge of good and evil, like a Bias to the soul, and makes it run awry, both in regard of probity and felicity. And surely, the Philosophers troubled themselves much with the discovery of such a disease, but neither knew whence it came, nor how to rid it away. Indeed they plodded for remedies, and to that purpose wrote of the ends of good and evil, and framed their Distinctions of seeming good and evil, and true good and evil. One of these prophets cries out, There is no evil, but what thou thinkest to be evil; and another says, Every man's lust is his guide; and another, Every man's lust is his god. But while they groped in the dark, the day-star is risen upon us, and hath discovered to us, by the light thereof, the true root of Man's corruption, and how they first went out of the right path of the true knowledge of good and evil, into the infinite bypaths of a knowledge deceived, and deceiving.  
Thus these two trees of Life and Death, being subject to the choice of man, this choice and power of Free-will, which in itself is an excellent privilege, yet to a solitary and unsupported creature, it easily becomes a door unto misery. For while man is left to Free-will, he is left to himself, and himself is but a Creature, and a Creature may be circumvented by another Creature, that exceedeth it both in cunning and power. This knew well those fallen and corrupted Creatures, the evil and depraved angels, who being subtle, and powerful in knowledge, and withal malicious against happiness, because themselves were miserable, employed their cunning & power, to the seducing of inferior man; inferior, because a Spirit clothed & veiled with Dust.  
The way which they chose, was by conference; wherein they made use of a visible Creature; and the ground of their conference was, to bring Man into jealousy of God. Their drift was to persuade Man, that the Tree which was forbidden to Man, was denied out of an envy of man's preferment; for there was in that Tree (say they) such a supereminent knowledge, that it could equal Man with God, and make Man to become a god unto himself. And lest fear should be an hindrance to credulity, the death which was threatened to follow, was utterly denied. Miserable man besieged with so strong a temptation! for what resistance hath Man against such a temptation, but a firm belief in the words of his Creator? & the same temptation bringeth the Creator into suspicion; that his Word may be thought rather to forbid preferment, than sin and misery.  
Accordingly, GOD is unbelieved; the Tempter is trusted; the hand is reached out; and the fruit of misery is devoured. The eating is most wicked, and the digestion most wretched; Lust as the juice of this fruit, entereth into the soul and body of Man; it obtaineth a conquest over the parts and powers of the Eaters; and taynteth them with a fleshly wisdom & a sensual knowledge Man is become as a god, by being become a rule of good and evil to himself. His happiness and misery must be taught him by his own heart, and his lust shall be the Oracle & Guide of his life. And now the eyes of Man are opened; but by a knowledge of appearances, not of truths; and accordingly, Nakedness, which was the state of perfection, is censured as shameful; whereas Nakedness, while Man was pure & glorious, was also glorious; for it did plainly and manifestly set forth Man's purity & glory. But the new shame, for which Nakedness is now blamed, is the shame of the new Lust; which was not caused by Nakedness, but only discovered; Nakedness excellently became glory, for glory is the more glorious by being manifest & evident; but shame becomes shameful by it, and publisheth itself thereby to its own disgrace. But this is the fault of shameful Lust, to come into Nakedness, which is the habit of glory; and not (as Man foolishly in his new wisdom complained) the fault of Nakedness, to discover the shame of Lust; which by wrongful intrusion entered into it, and showed itself shameful by that, which was appointed to show forth Man's perfection in glory. And as in this, so in Man's whole course doth this erroneous knowledge prevail; and no marvel; for the body was first guided by the soul, and the soul by the Image of God, yea by God himself: But now this lustful knowledge guideth the body, and the body, for the most part, tuneth and guideth the soul. Thus the Image of God, in Man, is reversed and defaced. He answereth not, he looketh not any longer to God; he neither loveth him, neither is loved of him. Man is become a stranger to God, & God to Man; and hence it comes, that there is at this day such a multitude of foolish children, that know not their own Father and Creator.  
Man being thus cut off from God his end, and become his own God and end; he is abased, deformed, and wholly overthrown by his new preferment: He left his true end and happiness, when he would not bond himself within the happiness of a Creature; but striving after the happiness of a Creator, he lost both what he would have, and what before he might have. And now God and the Law of God being taken out of Man's heart, & a false god with a new law placed in their stead; what shall become of such a wicked and corrupted thing? Can a Creator quietly see himself rob of his creature? Can he without indignation and jealousy behold an Idol set up in his room? or can he contentedly look on Pollution, sitting on the face of that soul, wherein before with pleasure he beheld his own resemblance? No; but much rather it is fit, that a Creature thus running away from his Maker, should be branded with a curse for a Vagabond; that the new pride and godhead of the flesh should be battered & abased; that this wry and false estate of Man should have no long continuance, but that this stolen and corrupt happiness should soon be dissolved by real misery. Accordingly, God calls his sinful Creatures to an account, and having convicted them by a confession of their own, extorted from them, by necessary and infallible consequences of transgression, on the Woman he imposeth a yoke of subjection, even to be subject to the Husband, whom she tempted to sin. He also fasteneth unto her such an heavy pain of childbirth, that to this day it witnesseth of itself, that it is the stroke of an offended Deity. Surely, as the bitter fruit of Lust, it punisheth the fault of his own root; and it is most justly tied to the Generation, to which Man's fall had before tied Pollution. But neither may the Man pass away safe with his new purchase of false happiness, but the swelling of his pride must be pricked and vented. Though the Woman gave him the fruit, it was not the giving, but the eating that defiled him. Therefore to Man is the earth cursed, that it shall not traffic her fruit, but for the sweat of his brows. The new godhead is taken down; for it must either starve or labour; and he, who might have been served by a voluntary contribution of the Creatures, and might have been next unto God over them; now by stepping up into God's place, is cast into a slavery unto the Creatures, and his life is a continual seeking of them. This great Earth hath a great curse of barrenness, or a barren fruitfulness of thorns and briars: yea, from the little Earth, which is man, shall spring the thorns of cares, the briars of fears and sorrows, which prick and tear, and torment the heart that beareth them. The brute Creatures being freed from their natural allegiance, shall henceforth yield unto Man an obedience forced or artificial. The enmity of the wicked angels shall continually persecute the mankind, which they have deceived. And finally, Man being driven from the divine Sacrament of the Tree of Life, his body shall be subject to infirmity and diseases, and at last by death shall melt into dust, from whence it was taken; and his soul now darkened with Concupiscence, shall be driven into the darkness of the absence and wrath of God, which is the second and most fearful death. Thus is vengeance taken on disobedience; thus is the new pride crushed and taken down; the false gods being turned into most miserable men, & true misery being applied as a corrosive to false felicity. Man shall not much enjoy his iniquity, for it is either turned into bitterness or vanity; it shall not please or it shall not last; but the misery following it, shall last for ever. Man is wholly deceived by the Tempter. God, who is lost, is Man's true happiness; and the outward and worldly objects, which Lust turns into Idols and false gods in the heart of Man, are by God turned into cursedness. And this curse is so fastened, that if Man go about to repair it, himself shall be swallowed of it, and become a prey to that which he would have destroyed. For Man is taken and enclosed with the wrath of the Almighty, as a wild Bull in a net or toil; and wrestling cannot free him, it may more entangle him.  
And now assemble yourselves together, all ye Philosophers and wizards, & behold Man thus dressed up in corruption and misery, and heal him, if you have any Medicine equivalent to his Disease. The truth is, you have taken great pains to make something of this wretched Nothing, called Man: you would feign have restored him to the use of reason, the ancient Image of his Maker. You would have fitted an happiness for him, as Virtue, Pleasure, or some such fantasy and imagination. And that Man might the more hearty apply himself to your devised happiness, and sovereign good, by obscure gropings, you have discovered in Man, a deceitful knowledge of good and evil, and from this you would have freed him, by showing him what was truly good and truly evil. But the whiles ye are all miserable comforters, and all Physicians of no value. Man is really cursed, and he cannot be verbally healed. Be your words never so sweet and sententious, yet Man is still corrupt, and cursed in his very ground work and foundation: you have no fit expiation for a guilt of so high a nature; neither have ye an expurgation of so foul a corruption. Indeed, your charms may with their plesantness bring man's corruption into short slumbers, but it awaketh eftsoons, and rageth as before, yea it never ceaseth a continual opposition or aversion, from and against the Creator. Surely, the root of this corruption lies fastened in the grounds of Nature, and Philosophy cannot pull it up, but it must only be cured by the hand of the first Creator. Therefore behold your folly; you put restoratives, (and those not true but feigned) into the mouth of a dead man, and then ye set him on his feet, to see whether he will stand or walk. But, lo, he is not raised above his wretched being; in spite of your Spells, he falleth down into his true Station of vanity, misery, and death. The hand of a Giant hath bound him, & the voice of a child can never lose him.   

CHAP. III. How Man is restored to happiness.  
WHat shall then be done for this unhappy and wretched thing? we find no Balm on earth, nor physic among the sons of men. Misery hath seized on this world; and misery is far from being able to cure misery, neither may it be both a disease and a medicine. What remains then, but that our eyes are enforced to lift up themselves above the world, to seek a Saviour, where they found a Creator. The goodness and power of him which created, are only able to restore; but how canst thou expect goodness, O rebellious Man, of a God for saken, disobeyed, and provoked to wrath? yea, if thou couldst hope against hope, yet how mayest thou conceive that the decree of GOD'S justice, concerning thy death, shall be fulfilled, & yet death by thee should be avoided? Shall God be true, then how canst thou not die? Shalt thou not die, then how is God's sentence to be fulfilled, which hath pronounced that thou shalt die? Surely, thou couldst not think a remedy to be likely or possible: and therefore at this day thy sons reject it, and put that out of their belief, which is out of their imagination and invention. But God who is goodness, to a vessel of deserved wrath, gave free and voluntary mercy. And God who is wisdom, to Man blindfolded in misery, gave an unknown & unsearchable remedy. It was beyond the hope of Man, it is above his reach, and so it well becomes it to be. For far be it from Man with his shallow reach, to sound the bottom of the incomprehensible Deity. Let him first understand the Creatures which are daily before him, and stand as beams in his eye, and mockers of his poor & simple understanding. These ride in triumph, as having conquered the wits of Man; and still they dare them to come out of their dens of instincts, intelligences, and hidden qualities, to encounter them, before they lift up weapons against their Almighty Creator. But the while, let sober minds wonder rather that GOD would give a remedy, then that he could give it; rather let them admire, that his goodness would bestow his gifts on Traitors and Runagates; and not that his wisdom could devise what his goodness would have devised. When Man was dust, this dust knew not how it might be made man. And when Man is corrupted, this corrupt Man cannot conceive how he should be restored: yet let him with a little clearness behold this mystery of restoring, and he shall find it exceeding suitable to every part of Man's misery; he shall find it agreeable to a true justice, a deep Wisdom, an infinite Power, a free Mercy, and an exact Holiness.  
This recovery of Man was thus bestowed on him; when none could save us; yea, none could see how to be saved, God that made us, stretched out his hand to save us, and in the curse of the Serpent bestowed blessedness on man.. In one sentence GOD overthrew our Overthrower, and by his overthrow raised us. The outward Serpent was doomed to eat, and walk on the dust whereof Man was; and the inward Serpent to compass this world of dust wherein Man is, yea to nibble and bite at the dust which is man.. But from this Man of dust, shall arise a Son of glory, who shall crush the Serpent upon the head, and dissolve all the works of the Devil. The Serpent may walk on this earth as a Prince of the world; he may compass his Dominion to and fro; his malice may feed on the souls & bodies of men, by tempting them to sins, and devoting them with persecutions; but at last this Eater shall become meat, even the food and fuel of justice; for, the Son of Man shall take him and bind him, and cast him into utter darkness: And those men whom he would have devoured, but God will have preserved, shall stand with the Son of Man to judge him; and being delivered from him, shall jointly deliver him to eternal torment. Thus is there a twofold Kingdom set up in this world; a Kingdom of darkness, of sin, and of misery; and a Kingdom of light, of holiness, and of happiness: and the King of the one, is the chief of evil spirits; and the King of the other, is the chief of men, even the chief Son of man.. But how can the Son of Man satisfy for Man, the infinite wrath, of God, for all mankind? How shall he give stability to mankind, which being once made pure, hath once also fallen? Finally, how shall this Son overcome the Dragon, who hath already overcome the Father of this Son? Surely, even for these works, is there provided an all-sufficient means. The Man, who shall do this, God will join to himself, and so whatsoever wanteth in the Manhood, shall be supplied by the Godhead; the Treasury of power and perfection. The Word which made Man, joineth with Man to new make him. Man fell, standing by himself; but the Godhead now doth stably support him, & leads him by God unto God. And because of this Union with an infinite Essence, the actions & passions of the Manhood so united, are of an infinite value; able to satisfy for an infinite number of sinners and sins, able to satisfy an infinite justice, able to procure an infinite love. And as by the Godhead only the Manhood could perform this, so by the Manhood the Godhead would perform it. For when Man joined to God doth overthrow him, who overthrew Man standing without God, than the difference plainly appears between a creature alone, and a creature joined to the Creator. Besides, by Man the end of Man is performed, even a perfect and true obedience. Again, the justice of God offended by Man, by Man is satisfied, and that Word of justice. When then eatest, thou shalt die. Finally, by this means, Man becomes a Father of mankind in the state of happiness, as Man was the father of mankind in the state of misery. And now let the Greek by his Philosophical wisdom, scorn and contemn the meanness of a suffering Saviour, and let the jews with their ambition of outward pomp, count a man of sorrow and humility too base a thing to set up a Kingdom of glory; but the whiles the truly wise are forced to know & confess, that there is most glory and power, where power worketh by infirmity It becomes weak man, to seek for power to strengthen and abet him; but it becomes best the Almighty to seek weakness, for the better manifestation of his power. For God will have his glory evident and whole, which is neither evident nor whole, by joining any thing that may share glory with him, but that only which puts away all glory from itself unto God. It is a piece of man's foolish wisdom, to adorn the Creator with the glory of the Creature, but it is Gods most true and highest wisdom, to give light unto darkness, power to weakness, glory to baseness. It is the glory of the Sun to give light to the dark and un-shining body of the Moon, but it were a foolish glory for the Sun to borrow those inferior and bestowed beams of the Moon, to deck himself withal in his progress. Let men therefore take heed that they be not so wise, as to amend the most unmatchable pattern of a Saviour & Redeemer, since if they do so, their wisdom must needs be folly; for they shall find that their amending will make worse, & they shall diminish God's honour, by the same means by which they think to increase it. But be it the joy of our hearts, fixed and unremovable, that God hath given us so full and perfect a means of restoring us to our duty and felicity, and of freeing us from corruption and misery. Turn we back our faces from ourselves and all things visible, and look we up unto God, leading us by God unto God, and that by the service of Man united unto God. In this Man-God is the remedy of all whereof we can complain, and the supply of all that we can desire. So is he a Refuge from misery, a Fountain of goodness, the Way to felicity, yea Felicity itself. The Manhood united to the Godhead, is the Door of happiness, and the Godhead united to the Manhood, is Happiness itself. The life which in Paradise might have been received from the Tree of Life, is now to be received from that Manhood which is the Bread of Life: And he, in whom is the Sabbath, will now lead us unto the Sabbath, which is in himself.   

CHAP. FOUR The particular fitness of Man's restoring: How it freeth him from misery, and in all points possesseth him of happiness.  
IT hath appeared, how Man exchanged that which was his true felicity, but seemed not to be so, for that which seemed to be true felicity, but was indeed true misery. Now let us see again, how he can exchange his misery for felicity, or rather, how God doth it for him. For God-in-Man, our blessed Restorer, hath done all things that may be required, for exchanging wretchedness into blessedness, and whatsoever God hath done, is most fit, yea necessary for such an exchange.  
To find the perfectness of our restoration in some measure, let us consider the misery which we have gotten, and the excellence and happiness which we have lost. In our misery we may with chiefest sorrow behold a root of sin, an issue of corruption, which being ugly itself, begets also many sins ugly like itself, and so altogether they provoke the wrath and detestation of a pure GOD; whereon attend all plagues temporal and eternal. Man is the slave of Wickedness, and Wickedness is the slave of justice: Wickedness commands Man to offend, & justice commands Wickedness to be punished. Here is the foundation of diseases, famines, pestilence heartbreaking cares, and sorrows, the temporal death of the body, and the thousand times more fearful eternal death both of body and soul. For, Man being become a Nursery of wickedness, wickedness becomes the fuel of wretchedness. And as all these real and positive distresses afflict most miserable Man: so hath he certain privations and absences of that excellence and happiness, wherein and whereunto he was created. He hath lost the ability of doing the duty of his Creation: he hath lost the end and glory of that duty; For he hath lost obedience to God, and he hath lost the Crown of that obedience, eternal fruition of God his sovereign felicity. And now, when the sore of mankind was grown to this vastness, that the whole world could not fit it with an equal plaster, GOD, who only made Nature, and can only restore parts of Nature, which are cut off and destroyed, by his own right hand and holy arm, got himself the victory over our misery. God doth put himself into the recovery of mankind: and if God be on our side, Who can be against us? for he that will be against us, must needs be a Creature; and therefore inferior to him who made all things. God being united to Man, hath in himself an infinite storehouse of blessedness, infinitely exceeding our misery, and whatsoever he will bless, shall be blessed. This blessedness God imparts unto Man, either by turning bitterness into sweetness, evil into good, or by taking away the bitter evil, and putting the good sweetness in the stead thereof. And first, toward the perfecting of this cure, God in our Saviour strikes at the root of our misery. Sin is the foundation of misery; our being against God, who is holiness, sets God, who is also happiness, against us, and after this we need not to look for any farther cause of wretchedness. Neither is it a sufficient cure to heal us of our old guilt of sins past, because we still incur a new by running into new sins, because sin by lust hath dominion over us. Therefore the chains of this slavery unto sin must be broken a sunder, as well as the guilt of former sins purged; Man being cleared from obligation unto punishment, must also be freed from obedience and obligation unto that which obligeth unto punishment. This therefore our Saviour undertaketh, and by a most precious Death and Passion satisfies the justice of GOD offended with our sins; and after in a glorious Resurrection raiseth himself to a new life free from sin (which took away his former life) and this free life, by the spirit of liberty, he bestoweth on his members, thereby discharging them from the slavery of sin; and consequently, of death, the effect of sin. And that the justice of God might not yet complain, that though the breaches of the Law were satisfied, yet the obedience unto the Law was not fulfilled (which was a yoke imposed on mankind by the justice of God in the Creation.) Therefore he who freeth us from the guilt of sin, and from the slavery of sin, performeth also for us a righteousness, perfect without sin; that so the Law might claim nothing of Man, which by Man was not acquitted. And this Righteousness as he performed through his whole life, so in that one action of his Passion, he fulfilled a whole and entire Righteousness, even the length and breadth of the Law, while for the love of God and Man (which is the substance of the Law) he laid down his life; even for the glory of God, and the felicity of man.. Neither let the large communicablenes of this his absolute satisfying and bounding of the Law, and justice of God, be questioned, much less censured by Man's foolish knowledge of good and evil; for he who made this satisfaction, is equivalent, yea infinitely prevalent to all mankind; his person is of more dignity than all our persons, and as an ordinary King, is more worth than a thousand of his subjects; so this King of Kings is more worth than all the thousands of us his Creatures. And as his Person by reason of the Deity, is of such excellence, so are also his actions, even of greater worth than if mankind had joined in the performance of them. For according to the worth of the person, is the worth of the action: Now the person of Christ must surmount all creatures in dignity, for the worth of all Creatures floweth from the worth of Christ, and the worth that gives worth, must needs be more than the worth given. But if it be confessed that there is in Christ a sufficient worthiness, but there remains a doubt how this may be given to another; It is answered, that union makes a community, & the things of persons united, are common to both by being one. If a King marry the daughter of a mean person, yet by the union of marriage, his royalty is communicated to her, by which, though before a beggar, she must of force become a Queen.  
And now, Man being freed from the burden of the Law, and from the sin and sinfulness which did sting us by the Law, the punishments which did before attend upon sin, either altogether fall away, or cease to be punishments. Eternal death is a thing that cannot be made good, no more than Darkness can be made Light while it is Darkness, and therefore from the justified & sanctified is that wholly taken away. But sorrow, sickness, temporal death, and all other outward evils, may cease to be evils, yea they may be turned into benefits, and indeed are so by the excellence of him that dwelled in us. But yet our Restorer ceaseth not, in a mere delivery of us from positive evils, but he goes farther in his bounty, & restoreth to us a certain ability of performing our duty, & right of beholding our Creator; yea, a stabilitiein both, which is more than formerly was given to man.. As he freeth us from Death, so he giveth us life; as he freeth us from being disobedient to God, so he giveth us an obedience pleasing to God, as he payeth for our defacing of God's Image, so he restoreth again to us the Image itself; and finally, as he taketh from us the wrath and terrors of God, so he gives us the pleasures and happiness which are in the presence of God for evermore. And all these benefits doth our Saviour give by one instrument or conveyance, and by one action. The means by which he bestows and imparts his benefits, is his Spirit, and the action, is Regeneration. The Spirit of God, is the breath and virtue of the Highest, which communicates life & power to those whom he unites to himself, even as the Tree sends sap into the graff, which it striveth to adopt after a sort, and knit unto itself. By this Spirit is the unity and community between Christ and his members really performed, for by this Spirit Christ liveth in his members, and CHRIST'S members live in him, Christ partaketh their miseries, and takes them on himself, and Christ's members partake his Excellence, and all the benefits of his being a Saviour. This Union is the knot of blessedness, it is the very graffing into the Tree of Life; that which our first Parents lost both by eating and not eating, hereby is recovered & given to us: for by this Union we are one with God, and GOD is one with us, which is the bond of perfection: the action in which the Spirit of God entereth uniting, is Regeneration, or a new-making, by which, Man of sinful and corrupt, is made holy, & according to the Image of his Maker: and from a slave of sin, he is made an obedient son of God. And now as we beheld Man before in his misery, let us behold Man restored to felicity. What evil can we find that is not taken away? at least from being evil? What good can we think of, that is not supplied in a greater degree than our thoughts can comprehend? And if this be not the true remedy of our misery, and our true exaltation to happiness, we are all lost: for the world can show us no better; After a supply of obedience to the Law, and justice of God, there is also a Sacrificé and satisfaction for the disobedience against the Law. The greatest misery of eternal death is utterly taken away. The evils of life are turned from punishments into exercises of the Spirit dwelling in us, or into chastisements of the corruption yet remaining with us; so are they benefits and no longer evils. For the Spirit which is our life, groweth by exercise, as bodily strength doth by bodily labour; and the sadness of the heart many times chasteneth profitably the remaining corruption of the flesh, as frost doth the weeds. As for corporal death, which is commonly feared as the greatest evil, it is turned into the greatest benefit. For it is a door, both to go out of this life of wretchedness, and to go into a life of happiness; whereof the one is darksome, full of Serpents, and haunted with spirits; and the other glorious in light, full of shining Angels, and glorified Saints in Eternal blessedness. As a door in a partition between two rooms, so is death between two lives; it no sooner lets us out of the one, but it lets us into the other; so that we do not so much go out of life, as go into Life; for that only deserves the name of life, which is full of happiness, and that in perpetuity; and not that, which is filled with miseries, and whose special commendation is brevity. Therefore let it be far from us, from henceforth to call that evil, which delivereth us from misery into felicity. Moreover, whereas we were in a continual slavery unto corruption, even to that false knowledge of good and evil; by which also we were obedient slaves unto the Devil, the master and teacher of this knowledge; Now that authority and command of corrupt and fleshly wisdom, is broken down; foolishness, sin, and the Serpent have no longer dominion over us, neither are we at the direction of Lust, to know and to do only what it teacheth and approveth. Evils being thus altered and taken away from Man, we may also behold Man placed in his duty, which first, and still is his way to happiness. Accordingly, one and the same Spirit breatheth holiness, & breatheth life; and in the same seed, whereby the Image of God is renewed, the life of God is communicated, and by one new birth we are sons; that is, conformable to God, and Heirs of God. Thus are we most blessedly changed; our miseries are cast behind our backs, we are placed in the path of duty, and therein we walk on to happiness, which stands as a mark before us: and here let us settle our foot, let us fasten our steps in this path chalked out by the Spirit, for the Spirit will both defend us in this way, and at last bring us to the ways end, which is eternal felicity. In this path of the Spirit is perpetual safety and protection, the Serpent cannot bite us, and if he do bite, his venom is turned into a medicine, so that he doth rather heal, than poison. For the Spirit is more good, than any thing is evil, it will sanctify and bless whatsoever befalleth us, and the malice of evils inflicted on us, is cured and made wholesome by the sovereign Spirit which dwelleth in us. But perchance it will be asked, Why these seeming evils be not wholly taken away, as well as altered, it being better to the judgement of Man, that there were nothing bitter, then that there should be a bitterness, though recompensed with sweetness. Again, it may be asked, why the remnant of corruption is so grent in Man, that it leadeth Man captive often to do that which he would not, and the power of the Spirit is in so small a degree, that he cannot do that which he would. To these and the like questions, if the will of the Restorer were brought for an answer, it might stand for an answer sufficient. For it being Gods mere mercy to restore us, who can require him to show undeserved mercy in any other manner or degree, than himself shall please? But yet we have other reasons given; one is, that this place of our present being, having been overthrown & made accursed by the fall of man, God lets it alone, and suffers it to run on in the course of misery, purposing to blot it out wholly by a last fire, and reserving perfection for the life to come. Another, that the wretchedness of Man fallen being continually felt, may be a continual document and reacher of the weakness of Man, without God, of the odiousness of sin in the sight of God, and the pointing of a finger to turn our eyes from this wretched world, to the happiness which is above. For, present grief is a sharp spur to the heart of Man, & provokes him to run hastily from these remnants of misery, unto perfect felicity. Again, misery sweeteneth joy, and the sorrows of this life shall, like a dark vail, give a lustre to the glory of the next. As for the strong remnant of corruption, and the small portion of grace (which is the second question) we must know, that both by it, and by the remnants of misery, God is mightily glorified, and Man's glory in the presence of GOD greatly increased. For God's glory must needs be great, when by a little seed of the Spirit, he manageth, steereth, and guideth Man through a mass of corruption, and a throng of outward evils, into a Port of blessedness. The lesser the means, and the greater the opposition, the more is the glory of him who by little means doth overcome a great opposition: yea, it is greater glory to God, to turn evils into good by overmastering them, then wholly to take them away. And for our part, our glory shall be increased, because we have served God's glory in a bitter conflict and a difficult combat. The more is the present labour, the more shall be the future joy; the hardness of the Victory shall increase the glory of the triumph; and opposition itself shall become our advancement. Accordingly, the greatest seekers (which commonly are the greatest finders) of happiness, are usually placed in the forefront of the battle against the thickest press of remaining evils, and the push of most fierce and fiery temptations. And surely, while they suffer present evils for future glory, while they fight fearful conflicts against remaining corruption, and the king thereof, that they may not impair their future joys, as thereby they preserve and increase these joys, so be they Heralds and proclaimers of the exceeding happiness of the presence of God, they are the witnesses of God to the world, that this world is nothing comparable to the next, and that neither the miseries nor felicities of it, are any way equal to that transcendent joy which is to come. Finally, when corruption over-masters us, the sufficience of God's grace doth relieve us, forgiveness supplying or covering the defects of infirmity.  
But yet Man is not quiet; he is not in good liking with this kind of happiness; for he complaineth it is thin and airy, and his fleshly palate hath more savour in the taste of flesh, then in the taste of a spiritual happiness. Again, he saith, it is long in coming, and a Man may be weary with looking for it, before it comes. To the first, I grant indeed, that the fleshly taste relisheth not spiritual joys, but yet are they not therefore the worse, but the better. For, the grossness of the one, and the purity of the other, are the causes of this dislike. So doth the stomach of the country Swain despise the delicate and nice diet of the finer Dames, not that he can find any ill in it, but because it is too slight to satisfy his gross and mighty appetite. This was truly patterned in the Israelites, whose strong stomachs desired the Onions and Melons of Egypt, but loathed the pure and excellent Bread of heaven. Therefore this must be the rule in this matter; every appetite pleaseth itself most in an object, fitting & proportionable to itself, and it is not the excellency of the object, but the agreeableness, that makes it delightful. According to this is that of the Poet; the Lioness hunteth the Wolf, the Wolf seeketh the Kid, and the Kid delighteth in the green grass. Wherefore I expect not, that gross flesh should find extraordinary comfort, in a most pure and spiritual glory. But a spiritual Man only relisheth spiritual things, because they are only agreeable to such a man. Accordingly, as far as a man is spiritual, so far takes he comfort in a spiritual happiness, which indeed is here but in part, so that we do but look as through some cranny into the glory of Heaven, and we do love this glory, but with a part of our affection; yet in some Saints hath it been so fervent, that they have sent challenges to Death, in strong desires to be dissolved, and would have built Tabernacles in this spiritual blessedness. But when the Spirit of God, in the great Day, shall have fully purged our souls and bodies with that divine fire, and refined our grossness, corruption, and dross; then, to us made fully spiritual, shall the most high & sovereign Spirit be the chief and sovereign good; for, Man being made spiritual, shall delight in Spirits, & chief in the chiefest. And then these gross pleasures, desired now by gross lusts, shall be loathsome and contemptible, as too base for so pure & divine Essences. Wherefore, if we would take pleasure in things of excellence, we must strive to raise ourselves to their excellent degree, we must lift ourselves up to a nature proportionable unto them. And by such an indenour, we shall purchase a higher station, and a higher happiness; whereas otherwise we lie down basely in our own dregs, & complain like Owls of the glory of the Sun, when the fault is in our own eyes: wherefore, let this be the most commendable ambition, of a truly-noble and generous Spirit, to advance his mind to a purity and excellence, proportionable to a supereminent object and happiness. And be it reputed the quality of a base, worthless, and muddy thing, to bring down happiness to his low, groveling, and gross desires, and when he cannot do so, to accuse it.  
To the second, Who is troubled so much with the delay of payment, and the deferring of Happiness; for an answer, I would ask him, how long he would willingly stay to be Heir of a Crown? Here, if I may speak for him, I think he would confess that he would be contented, if he might have it but seven years before his death. Now I will desire him to stay but seven years more, and then he shall have this Crown, that far excels the other. And to comfort him in this odds of expectation, I can tell him, that those who have known, and (now) worn both these Crowns, have made a far greater odds between them, than a few years patience, preferring a day in the Courts of heaven, before a thousand in the Courts of Princes. But that we may come lower, do not we see it an ordinary thing, that a man continues thirty years in a course of learning, that he may be a learned man, but thirty years more, perchance not twenty, not ten. And not much otherwise the Lawyer and Merchant fret out one half of their time in Education, Labours, and Adventures, that they may be rich; the other half, yea peradventure a very short part of their time remaining. And wilt not thou spend so much more time gladly & willingly, in expectation of an infinite Glory which no time can end, nor measure can limit? Surely, an endless & incomparable happiness, is well worthy of a short life's patience and expectation, especially when the same life is so often worn out in expectation oftemporall & uncertain things. But indeed we deceive ourselves in this matter, for this is not our disease, that we cannot stay, but that we do not verily see and believe that, which being believed, would easily give us a patiented willingness to stay: if we believed that there were such an unmatchable felicity prepared for us, we might indeed somewhat eagerly long to beat it, but withal, the assured hope of it would support us joyfully in the deferring of it. For most true is that which is spoken of hope, Hope maketh not ashamed; that is, it suffers not to be disheartened, to be confounded, but it keeps up the heart from sinking, and makes it bear up in troubles present, by the expectation of joys to come. And this common experience shows us in worldly actions and sufferings; for hope hath borne out mankind, through pains almost intolerable, unto comforts steadfastly seen & apprehended by it. Wherefore do not make a fault of the futurenesse of thy happiness; but find and amend the true fault of thy belief & hope. Yet neither are we altogether thrust upon hope, but even in this life have we some fruition of this happiness, and the privileges thereof. For (as before) even here have we a cranny opened, by which some beams of the divine Glory shine into our hearts, & give us a glimpse of that, whereof hereafter we shall have a full enjoying. They that have had but such flashes of happiness, have been ravished up in heavenly trances far above the world, and have as much despised the world, as the world hath despised these joys. They have cried out, as men that have taken possession of true rest and felicity; let us here build up our Tabernacles. Surely, as there is nothing more comfortable to the bodily sight, then beholding the Sun shining in his glory: so nothing can be more comfortable to the sight of the soul, then to behold the Sun of the Sun, even that high and purest Light, which shineth upon the Sun and all other things that shine, but especially on Spirits, himself being a Spirit. Again, the very substance of the Spirit in us, is a kind of heavenly oil, which makes glad, not so much the face as the very heart of man.. It hath in it a taste and relish of the Deity, and therefore above all other, this is the true oil of gladness. The heart anointed herewith, as it finds a light to guide it, and a virtue moving it to good, and freeing it from the slavery of sin, so also it feeleth in itself a blessed rest, an heavenly Sabbath, a joy glorious and unspeakable, an harmony & peace with God, which passeth all understanding. Hence come those vehement pangs and expressions of love & joy, uttered by the Spouse of Christ, and penned by the wisest of men, which flesh knoweth not how to understand but by the flesh; but the spiritual Man that discerneth all things, fully discerneth and relisheth them as spiritual truths. From the sound of this harmony come those dance and exultations of many of the sons of God, who for this joy of heart have danced before him, who hath filled them with joy. But then flesh and blood, seeing only the dance, and not hearing the music, mocketh and despiseth the effect, whereof it sees not the cause. But the Beholder of hearts, knows these motions of the heart, to be chief reasonable, and therefore principally allows them. And indeed, how should they not be approved, since this joy is from the best, and this joy is in the best, and therefore must needs be the very best joy. It is a joy beyond the reach of mortal power, yea beyond the reach of infernal power, a joy which no man, nay nothing can take from us. It is a board in shipwreck, a refuge in trouble, a retiring place from the powers of darkness. Besides these blessings we have another blessing, the Author of these, and all other, even an union with God, who is blessedness. This blessedness is spiritual, seen and felt by the spiritual; It is seen by the eye of the soul, while it beholds a godly Nature, even the seed of God, powered into the heart of Man, otherwise wholly polluted with the lust of Generation. It is felt chiefly in the will and affections, while in them a filial love, joy, and fear is perceived toward God; who before was regarded as a stranger, but now as a father; who now is the end and rule of our conversation, but before was put far below the satisfaction of Lust and Concupiscence. And from this union & the feeling of this union, proceeds both that strength of Christians, that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against them, and that strong confidence, that if God kill them, yet they will trust in him: And why? they are assured that God is with them: and then they are also as much assured, that if God be with them, nothing can be against them, except it be to be conquered by them. For he that is in us, is stronger than he or all they that be in the world: to this union with God, we may add another union with the sons of God. The first was the union of a Father and a Child, and this is a union of Brethren, for it is a spiritual Brotherhood. Every son of God hath all God's sons to his brethren. And as many brethren, so many friends, so many lovers, so many helpers. So many that rejoice in his comforts, so many that bewail his troubles, so many to encourage him standing, so many to raise him being fallen, so many to advise him in doubts, so many to relieve him in necessities. In sum, the true children of God ever were, and still are of one heart and mind, loving and beloved; They account themselves as one, & therefore no part of this unity can lack, what the other part thereof enjoyeth. He that is a son, hath in him this love, and he that hath not this love in him, is not a son; for he must needs love his spiritual kindred, who is spiritually begotten. He must needs love them, because of Unity, because of Uniformity, because of Purity, and because the Spirit which begets him, is the Spirit of love. And as we have an interest in our brethren, so have we in their prayers: they still commend us to God, and many times when our own deadness of heart doth slack the hand of GOD toward us, their fervency doth cause his countenance to shine favourably on us. Finally, if the name of friendship be sweet, if love on earth be a chief comfort; and again, if the friendship and love of good men, of men wise in the chiefest wisdom, of men true & single in heart, be the eminence of this eminent comfort; then have we all this in the Saints and sons of God. For these are our friends unto the death, yea after death; their love is more equal & stable than the love of Women. For goodness, they are the salt of the world, and without them the world is unsavoury; for wisdom, they have that chief wisdom, which is to know and obtain the sovereign Good; and for truth, they have that sincerity of heart, which may give rest to the heart that puts confidence in them. Wherefore, if it be a special addition in matches, to match into a good family, let us know, that in our marriage with our Saviour, we match into the best family in the world; the family of Saints, even a household of Love, of Faith, of Holiness, and of Happiness.  
Besides, by our union with Christ, we have a new right in the Creatures. We were disinherited by the fault of our first Parents, and no part of our Father's goods belonged unto us: so the use of God's Creatures was a very robbery of God; for it carried a mere absurdity, that they whose lives were a continual enmity against God, should preserve the same wicked lives by the benefits of God. Therefore the despisers of God, have no title in regard of God, to the Creatures of God. And though in regard of men they may seem to have a property in them (it being not in the judgement of men to define, who is not, and shall not be the Child of God) yet hereafter, by the judgement of God, which shall make hidden things manifest, it shall plainly appear, that this property was not by right, but by usurpation, and by the long suffering of a most patiented God. And then shall they be cast into prison, until they have paid the utmost farthing, for their unlawful use of the blessings of God. I must confess they have these benefits, & that in the greatest abundance, but it is no otherwise then a prodigal borrower hath heaps of money lent, or rather as a thief hath bags of treasure stolen. The repayment of the borrower, makes the remembrance of the heaps loathsome unto him, because the more they were, the greater is the burden and account. The arraignment of the Thief makes him to curse the hugeness of his bags, for the greater the theft, the harder the pardon, and the more strict his sentence. Therefore, as in the things of this world there hath been an honest, wise, and safe Proverb, that a little of a man's own, is better than a great deal of another man's: so in the Words of God we shall find a holier, wiser, and safer Proverb, that a little thing to the Righteous, yields more steadfast and undoubtful contentment, than the greatest revenues of the wicked can yield to their unfaithful & ungrounded consciences. And no marvel, for they take the goods without the leave of the Owner, and transport them to the service of his Enemies, fleshly lusts, and an adversary angel; and what shall the Lord of these things do, when he cometh to judgement? He must needs render vengeance in flaming fire, to these that have rob him of his Creatures, and of the service and glory due by them. But they that are one with Christ, are one with him who is true Heir of all things. All things were made by him, and therefore all things are his own, and by our marriage with him we have a right in his goods. Therefore truly may we say, If Christ be ours, all things be ours; for he whose all things are, is ours. And by his own reason, if he give us the greatest gift, which is himself, he cannot withhold from us the lesser, which is, his Creatures.  
Besides these, there is also a continual eye of Fatherly providence, that watcheth over us. The Redeemer of Israel is the Watchman of Israel, and the Watchman of Israel doth not slumber or sleep, but at all times beholdeth all his flock. As the Sun seemeth directly to behold & look on every man that looketh up to the Sun; so, and much more doth the eye of GOD'S providence settle itself fully on every one that is indeed a Man, even a Man of God, which with the eye of his soul still looks up unto his God. And then by his providence God doth hedge him about in safety, for he seethe his dangers, to prevent them, and his necessities to relieve them. The same providence sends sometimes good Angels to guard him, and when he wanders, it sends buffeting Angels, to beat him home into the path of happiness; and through the divers exercises of humiliation and exaltation, it keeps him in one steady course to his sovereign Good. Surely, it is an especial comfort to an heavenly Soldier, to perform his service in the sight of his Prince; whose eye encourageth him, fight valiantly, whose power reseveth him being oppressed, and whose bounty scores up all his adventures and sufferings unto a final reward. And this reward is of such a glory, that the highest degree of suffering, is not worthy of the least and lowest degree of this Glory.  
Lastly, (though it be hard to give a taste of God's blessing in this life) the Spirit of Christ, besides the light of direction and clarification, besides the Oil of gladness, besides that highest and supremest Union, it gives also to the members of Christ, a Testimonial and Patent of their salvation and happiness. The light of direction sometimes grows dim; the light of glory, and the vanishing brightness are often extinguished; the savour of the ointment for which the Virgin-Spouse doth love her Lord Christ jesus, sometimes is drawn up into heaven, and the feeling of that Divine Union is for a time wholly lost. But though heaven and earth do pass, yet one word of God cannot pass. Now the Word of God's Spirit, is the Word of God; for God speaketh to us by his Spirit. If therefore that Spirit hath given thee his testimony, that thou art the son of God; if it have showed thee thy Regeneration, and caused thee to behold the true Image of God thy Father in thee; from henceforth thou mayst fear and serve God without fear; even without the fear of total and final desertion. The seed of this Regeneration, is like the Father of it; an immortal God, and an immortal Seed: therefore it cannot die, if once it hath had life in thee. Then though the windows of thy Soul be shut up, that no light can shine into thee; though the voice of joy and gladness be not heard; yea though thy own corruption stand up before thine eyes, like a Wall or Mount of separation between thee and thy God; yea, though the terrors of God do seem to fight against thee: yet believe thou the Word of the Lord, which he hath spoken to thee by his Spirit; for his record is true, and he must be believed under hope, against hope. The Spirit which establisheth us, hath warranted our stability, and this Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, and what is once Truth, is still Truth, & must stiffly be retained, against all contrary probabilities & appearances. Therefore are we and may we be always bold, amidst tribulations and afflictions, amidst terrors without, and terrors within: for the seal of God remaineth upon us inviolable, and the Lord, who knows who are his, hath told us that we are his. Now that we may have the comfort of this Testimony, let us often examine ourselves, and search our hearts, to see whether they resemble God, or not; & let us lay up in our memories, yea in memorials, & records, the witnessings of the Spirit to our Spirits, against the day of Exercise and Trial.  
Thus we see, that even in this Life, we are not left comfortless, but we have both Comforts and a Comforter. Yet we still say that our chief Comfort is in the next Life; yea, the next Life is the chief Comfort of this Life, to those whose eyes see things invisible, and make future things present. Wherefore amidst the comforts of this life, let our eyes and hearts be especially fixed on that, because comforts in this life are but baitings and encouragements in our way unto Happiness, but are not themselves our ways end.    

THE ART OF HAPPINESS. The third Part. Wherein is showed, how Man hieth hold on happiness, retaineth, and increaseth it; and finally, is put into the full fruition of it.  

CHAP. I. How Man fasteneth himself unto happiness.  
WE have seen what is our Sovereign Good, and we have seen how this sovereign Good imparts itself unto Man; now it concerns us to search, by what means Man may apply this sovereign Good to himself, or rather himself to it. In vain to us it is that there is an happiness; In vain it is that there is an hand stretched out, to deliver this happiness to us, if we have not also a hand to receive it. For if there be an happiness, and an offered happiness, if we receive it not, if we have no property in it, we continue in misery, even in the sight of happiness. We are not happy, except happiness be ours; and not the being, but the communication of happiness makes us happy. And even for this communication & application, is there an instrument given us by him who is our happiness: he that hath given a mouth to the body, to receive the food of the body, hath given a mouth to the soul, to receive the food of the soul. Yea, he hath taught us how to open this mouth wide, that it may admit and receive a great fullness of happiness. But if in stead of telling thee how this is done, I should ask thee, what thou wouldst do for that which is better than all things; How canst thou return any other answer, but this, That thou wouldst give all things, for that which is better than all things? For, even at that rate thou shalt be a gainer. And if thy mind be like this answer, thou art in a good preparation for the receipt of blessedness, thou drawest near unto it, and that thou mayst not fail, receive these directions following. The soul of Man hath two especial parts or powers, the Understanding and the Will. The understanding is appointed to be the guide of the will, and upon the will moved by the understanding, should the affections, and all the members attend, yea all things that are ours. Now, if thou wilt receive and apply happiness offered in that God and Man, our most blessed Restorer; first, thy understanding must be opened by knowledge; for it must know & acknowledge God in Christ to be that which he is, even the bliss of mankind, and the means to that bliss. As he is God, so he is Blessedness: as he is Man united to God, so is he a Mediator between Blessedness and man.. This thou must know, and thou must know that this thy knowledge of him is true & right. For, CHRIST being thus known, the eye of the soul is turned from all other shows and means of happiness; and the same is fixed only on the only Lord and Saviour. Being thus settled in the full assurance of understanding, thou hast performed a good part of thy promise, for thou hast given thy understanding, even a chief part of thy soul, wholly to CHRIST. And if further thou desirest a sign, to know whether thou hast done this truly and really; this may serve for a sign unto thee; If the knowledge of any thing for happiness, or the means to happiness, besides God in Christ, be unto th●● as dross and filth, and ●●●lishnesse. But 〈…〉 understanding must proceed to work upon thy will, & it must move the will to open itself wide unto happiness, and being open, to suck, cleave, and fasten itself by an ardent love, rest, and settlement unto happiness, certainly discovered in Christ by the understanding. And indeed in Spirits, either uncorrupted or rectified, this is a natural course; For in such the understanding having assuredly descried the sovereign Good, the will presently moveth itself to it being deseryed, and draws with it all the parts and powers subject unto it. And as for all other offers of feigned happiness it gives them this answer; Whither shall I go for this is he that hath the words of eternal Life & Blessedness? Wherefore that the whole promise be performed, and that all may be given for happiness, let the will follow the understanding, and wholly and unmovably will and love this Treasure of felicity, discovered in Christ jesus; forsaking, selling, and abandoning all things for it; I say, let the will stick to Christ alone by a fervent love & desire, as unto the alone happiness, and let the same will stick to Christ alone by a strong trust and confidence, as the alone Mediator of happiness; And finally, with an earnest hunger and thirst, let it surrender up itself, and all things subject to it, unto his saving or imparting of blessedness, which he doth by the Spirit. For thus far must the will proceed in working, and then only comes the crown of the work. For it is not enough barely to know that God is happiness, nor to put thy trust in no other but the Son, for the imparting of this happiness, but thou must also surrender up thyself wholly to the Holy Ghost, by whom the Father poureth and sealeth blessedness into us through Christ his Son. When therefore we have proposed and settled the Deity for our happiness, & have yielded ourselves up to the three Persons of the same Deity united to the Humanity, for the conferring of happiness (I mean to God the Father, redeeming us by the Son, and regenerating us by the holy Ghost) then hath the understanding and will wrought home, even to the entertainment of blessedness: and thus knowing God in Christ, even to the welcoming of the Spirit, resting on him, resigning ourselves to him, we suck happiness from him, who is both the Fountain & the Conduit of happiness. Having done this, I know not how to enjoin thee more, though happiness be infinitely more worth: for how can Man give more than all? And how can he receive more than all salvation, and a whole Saviour? But if thou dost not this, thou art short of that which thou art able to do: And Mercy that accepts the utmost of thy little power, will not accept a voluntary defect & scantness. Now this great dependence, fixing, and surrender of the whole soul to the whole Saviour, is that blessed affiance, trust, and belief. Famous in holy wisdom for knitting souls unto the same Saviour. Which as it hath been approved, because it is the highest, fullest, and mightiest endeavour of the soul; so also it is justified by the fitness it hath of receiving, and by the fitness and proportionableness it hath with Christ's manner of entering. It is fit to receive, for the eye of the soul being fixed in Christ, stands as an open window, ready to receive him who enters by a lightsome and illuminating Spirit. The eye of the Spouse thus in lightened, reflects the light to him which sent it, and with spiritual glances, shoots the arrows of love into the heart of her beloved; so that he confesseth, Thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes. And no otherwise the will wholly willing, desiring, and gasping after Christ, is a door wide opened to receive the same Christ, entering into us by a quickening and sanctifying Spirit. Yea, the Will hath in it a power to hold and knit what it hath received, even by a knot of unity. So the heart of JONATHAN was knit unto DAVID; and the Spouse of Christ is knit unto Christ, and runs after him as one tied unto him, and drawn by the cords of this unity. And surely, the soul thus knitting itself unto Christ Christ also knitteth himself unto the soul, and this is the knot of happiness. Then gins that Song of joy, I am my Wel-beloveds, and my Well-beloved is mine. To confirm this, we have also divers promises, which have told us, that he who gives happiness, will enter with the gift of happiness into this posture and station of the soul. GOD himself hath promised the Seekers to find, and the Hungry to be filled, and the Sellers of all for the Treasure of happiness, to be the Buyers of that Treasure, for which they sold all. He telleth the Understanding, that to know God and his Son Christ, is Life eternal; and that in the knowledge of God, is Man's chiefest glorying, and therefore by the knowledge of God, is man's chiefest happiness. He telleth the Will and Affections; I will be found of them that seek me, even of them that seek me with their whole heart. He that cleaveth to God by a strong & vehement love, shall dwell in his holy Mountain; He that cometh to Christ (that is, upon the feet of the soul, which can be no other than these two, the Understanding and Will) shall never thirst. Let us therefore go out of ourselves, as out of tabernacles of misery, and leave a large and open room for him to enter, who is the fullness of infinite felicity.  
Next, if we consider Christ's manner of entering; Christ enters into us, killing and giving life: killing our old nature, and begetting in us a new. These works are chief and fundamentally wrought in the understanding & will. But if the understanding know not Christ to be happiness, it will not stand still to have the film of natural blindness taken from it, neither to have an unknown light and wisdom (contrary to the old nature) infused into it. If the will be not wholly devoted to Christ as to the sovereign Good, and do not trust in him alone, as the only giver of this sovereign Good, it will never suffer the fleshly nature, which hath so much delighted it, to be cut off & slain by the sword of the Spirit; nor a new inclination to be inspired into it, by which it shall be subject to Laws and Commandments; and things future and unseen, shall be wholly preferred before things present & visible. But if Christ be known, willed, and trusted as our chiefest good, and the way unto it, then let him enter circumcising, cutting, and slaying; Our heart is only on our happiness: He may do what he will, so we may obtain that blessed object of our understandings and wills. Again, our union with Christ is by a spiritual marriage. Now let us consider how such a marriage may most fitly be made. Surely, we must first know him to be the fairest of men, to be anointed with the beatifical oil of gladness and happiness, above all his fellows; and then forgetting our father's house, even all the pleasures of the old ADAM, we must wholly fasten our hearts on him, and wholly cleave unto him, resolving to be his alone, and to put ourselves wholly under his shadow & protection, and then the King will have pleasure in our beauty; Yea, he will love us, and come and dwell with us; If Christ be the light of our eyes, and the joy of our hearts, If his love be pleasanter than Wine, even all earthly Comforts; If it be he alone whom our soul loveth, If we take delight, and sit down under his shadow, Cant. 2. 3. Then will he set us as Signets upon his hand; and as seals upon his heart; he will bring us into the marriage Chamber, and call us his Love, his Dove, and his Spouse: Love shall be his Banner over us: this fruit shall be sweet to our mouth, and we shall be no longer too; but one flesh and one Spirit. Now if this great affiance which worketh dedication, resignation, and so an application of the Soul, yea of the whole Man unto Christ, be the Key of our hearts, which openeth those everlasting Doors, that the King of glory may enter in; let us take heed that this Key be put home into the lock, that our hearts be fully opened unto him; otherwise as much of our hearts as is shut unto him, so much of happiness is shut out of us. Let us be careful that this Key of Faith be not stayed and stopped within our understandings; but let it proceed to our wills and affections, and make way to the bottom of our hearts, that Christ may enter just as far, even to the bottom. For as far as this Faith enters, so far Christ follows. And as far as Christ enters, happiness follows. Therefore let not thy faith leave entering, until it hath made made room enough for Christ to take up his full rest in thee. It seems that the understanding is but the Porch, but the Will attended with the Affections, is the chief room of Christ's rest and residence. When the will is so seasoned by Faith that it hateth all felicities, but God, but willeth and desireth him as the only felicity, when the will toward the attainment of this felicity dependeth, trusteth, and leaneth on no other means but Christ jesus, but on Christ it resteth fully as the only Mediator of happiness; & when the will toward the attainment of Christ, and the virtues of his mediation yieldeth itself up to no other human invention, but fully and wholly surrenders itself to the holy Ghost, regenerating & newbegetting, then is Christ sealed in thy heart, he is come into thee, and his feet tread on the very bottom of thy soul. Thou hast taken up thy rest in him, and he hath taken up his rest in thee; and this is the inward Sabbath of this life, and an earnest & beginning of the eternal Sabbath. Accordingly, he calls out unto Man; My son, give me thy heart, for in the hearts of men is the Throne of his Kingdom, and except he reign in our hearts, we cannot reign in his glory. Thy knowledge of God in Christ must not be dead, but effectual and working; and the work thereof must be the kindling of a servant love, dependence and affiance in thy will and affections. Thy will again must work by this dependence and love, and the work thereof must be a dedication, and resignation of all unto God, in Christ, taking possession of thee by the Spirit. Till thou comest to this point, thou art short of happiness; For this is the Centre of descending to the Spirit of Christ, and in the very ground of the heart doth the Spirit only fasten his roots. Wherefore give the inmost of thy heart to the Spirit of blessedness, and know, that in giving, thou dost rather receive then give. For thy gift is but the gift of a sinful heart, & that which belongeth to it and serveth it: But thy receipt is the receipt of the Spirit of Life, & joy eternal. Wherefore it concerns thee, not to be niggardly to thy own soul; for, as much of thy soul as thou keepest, so much of it thou losest; and as much as thou givest, so much dost thou crown with happiness. Thou mayst perchance think it enough to believe he is thine, but if thou have no better warrant than such a thought, he may not be thine. For thou believest that he is thine too soon, if thou believest it, before this work of faith hath in some measure wrought home upon thee. It is not a rash presumption, nor a bare thought, that can snatch at Christ & make him thine, it must cost thee thyself before thou▪ have him. The getting of Christ is by the way of traffic, thou must not think wholly to gain upon him; but as much as we would have him to be ours, so much must we strive to yield ourselves to be his CHRIST'S Kingdom is a Kingdom of power, and he will enter into thee as a King of power; and it is not a bare imagination that makes way for this Kingdom, but an affiance of the heart, which actually and effectually surrenders us up to his Sceptre and Rule. Therefore the best way is, hereby to get him first into thee, and after to believe he is thine. Many have lost Christ, because not having him, they thought they had him. For they sought not him whom they thought they had, and so lost him, who is found by seeking. But on the other side, if thou hast felt the depth of this faith, though in a narrow breadth, know that Christ is thine, for whom thou hast ceased to be thine own. As much as thou hast gone out of thyself to possess him, so much hath he entered into thee to possess thee; so much as thou leavest to Christ, & yieldest thyself to the renewing of his Spirit, so much dost thou knit Christ unto thee, and so much thou drawest, yea suckest his Spirit into the innermost part of thy soul. He who is Goodness itself and died for us, when we were sinners, cannot restrain his Spirit from us; when with a full trust we have cast ourselves wholly upon him, and with a whole resignation have given up ourselves fully unto him. He who is Love, cannot resist love; but he is overcome and taken, by the fervour of our hungry and thirsty souls, & gives us to drink freely of the waters of Life. Christ is the Physician of our souls, and to be cured by him, we must deal with him as with a Physician. Now to be cured by a Physician, it is not enough only to believe that the Physician can cure us, nor that he will cure us, but this confidence in the Physician must work in us a willingness and resolution, to take and admit his receipts by which he may cure us. Even so it is between Christ and our sick souls; it is not enough barely to think that Christ can cure us, or that he will cure us, but our belief must open the mouth of our souls, to receive his medicines given us in the Cup of salvation. This Cup of salvation is the Spirit by which he communicates to us his Redemption, his Holiness, his Eternity. Therefore must we so believe, that we receive Christ; for such only as receive him, have the prerogative to be the sons of God: so must we believe, that we be baptised with the holy Ghost; for those only who are so baptised, shall be saved. And if we thus believe, he who never sent away any uncured of their corporal infirmities, that sought him here on earth, surely, he will not deny his saving health to any believing soul, that thus hearty thirsts after him, sitting in heaven. For, the spiritual physic was Christ's truest & most proper profession, and the cure of bodies, was especially to draw our faith thereby to behold, believe, & receive his cure of souls. Therefore especially, ye sick souls, be of good comfort, for you the Master calleth especially. But when ye come to him, remember that ye desire to be cured of the whole spiritual malady; even of sin and of sinfulness; of the corruption of sin, as well as of the guilt and misery that follow it: For Christ will enter into none to cure the death of sin, but withal he will give death unto sin; neither will he by his Spirit give any one the Life of glory, to whom by the same Spirit, he doth not first give the life of Piety.   

CHAP. II. How a Man may get this faculty which uniteth Man to God.  
But Man is brutish and sensual, both in understanding & will; and so it is impossible for him, while he is such, to discern a spiritual happiness, and the means of attaining it; and much more hard it is to esteem and love the one or other. He believes that which he sees, & he loves that which he tastes and feels, but his gross palate doth not relish this celestial and unpalpable happiness. Therefore Man must be lifted up above this low estate of sensual and carnal knowledge; and to effect this, there needs a second hand of the first Creator. If the bodily sight be extinguished, He which made the first sight, can only make a new, and when the eye of the soul is so far put out, that it seethe not him that made it, He that made it, only can give it a new sight, whereby himself may be seen. Wherefore if thou which readest thus far, yet believest not what thou readest, I wonder not, for I know what thou art: I look not that blindness should see, or carnality should savour spiritual joys. Thou art bounded with thy own flesh, which is thy Horizon & limit of discerning. Thy candle cannot see thorough the thick Lantern of thy body, to perceive the mystery of the blessedness of Spirits, nor the glory that is above the vail of this visible heaven.  
But perchance thou wilt ask; If the opening of the eyes be from God alone, to what purpose shall advice begiven to thee, in a matter that lieth not in thee, and which is not effected by advice, but by supernatural operation? To this I answer, That although the power that must enlighten thee, doth descend from above, yet usually it doth communicate itself unto us by the service of certain means, left with us here below. Again, when grace doth first breath upon us, it worketh by degrees; which degrees being by some neglected, or misconstrued, it hath bred unto them a greater difficulty & hardness of travail in the new birth; but being perceived and duly entertained, they turn into Testimonials unto us, yea to encouragements unto farther degrees of grace. But if thou ask me again, how thou shalt like or use the means, when thou neither seest nor likest the happiness intended by the means: To this I must reply, That without God, thou canst not so much as love the means, yet as a natural man thou mayest consider these things following: first, If thou look into the best sort of heavenly Philosophers, thou shalt see among them Men wise and understanding, just & righteous, enjoying both wealth and honour; and if thou talk with those Men, they will tell thee seriously, that they most certainly see and feel an estate of happiness; and that they came to the sight of such an estate, by frequenting the means left with us here on earth. Secondly, if thou wilt search some special works of men, thou shalt find Writers of undeniable worthiness, who by Miracles, Prophecies, Oracles, Success, and Victory against oppositions, have proved the verity of Christian learning; it being impossible that a Doctrine, mainly contrary to flesh & blood, should be advanced so much among men, whose very frame is flesh & blood, without the maintenance of an Omnipotent LORD. Thirdly, do but consider what this Doctrine, which is the instrument & means of Life, proposeth to thee and requireth of thee. It proposeth to thee an eternal felicity, it requireth of thee Piety and Purity, things of themselves desirable & excellent. But thou wilt say, that this purity will cost thee dear; for it is sure to cost thee all thy sinful pleasures, and may cost thee much pain, yea thy life itself. But to this I may answer, That though it may cost thee something, yet upon the matter it loseth thee nothing; for whatsoever pleasures of sin thou canst enjoy, being enjoyed, they die, and come to nothing: yea life itself comes at last to nothing, & that for nothing: so the condition required of thee, is only this, That what shall be nothing, if it be, may be nothing, by not being; and to encourage thee herein, thou hast for advantage an adventure for Eternity. In sum, thou art required, at the most, but to lose that which will be lost, for an happiness, which may and shall be found for ever. Yea for these gross pleasures, even in this life, thou shalt have joys unspeakable. Howsoever, whether thou receive the means of happiness, or refuse it, certain it is, that to all those that receive the Life of blessedness, the Doctrine of God, left unto us in writing, and unfolded by his servants properly, deputed to this office, is the usual conveyance of this life. God alone invented and conceived the remedy of Man's misery, and a way from misery unto felicity. The same God who only knew it, could only tell it, and only by telling, can men know and believe it, and only by knowing and believing, can men strive toward it, and so finally attain it. So we see that men must know and believe happiness to obtain it, and happiness must be taught, if they will know & believe it; and to teach this happiness, there needeth a word of Revelation; and to reveal this, GOD himself must speak unto us, who alone was the Founder and Knower of this mystery. Therefore must we esteem this Word highly, as a great second Mercy, by which the first great Mercy delivered to us. Before this Doctrine, our happiness was locked up in Gods unsearchable purpose: but by this Doctrine, happiness is reached out to us, and issueth from the heart of God into the heart of man.. Wherefore let us be far from accounting it a vain Word, for it is our life, and the length of our days, and by it we receive eternal Life from the Ancient of days. For, while it is taught unto us without, the Virtue and Spirit of God entereth into us within, and makes us capable of that happiness which is taught unto us.  
Now, the degrees by which this Spirit usually worketh upon us, are these. First, it causeth us somewhat to discern, & allow the truth of this Word. And next, it moves a desire of more knowledge, and of a greater taste of the Word of Life; which is also made known to God in Prayer. And at length, the heart is moved with so servant a love unto it, that it desires to be wholly savoured, salted, and seasoned therewith, that the natural Man may no longer live in the heart, but that CHRIST'S Kingdom may be set up therein. And so the Word, or CHRIST in and by the Word, becomes the Treasure of the heart, and therefore from thenceforth, the heart is ever thinking on his treasure, it thirsts after it, it seeks it with eye and ear.  
But that thou mayst not be discouraged in thy first beginnings, thou must also know, in what manner and order the Doctrine and Art of felicity doth present it, self unto thee. It will first offer to thy knowledge and meditation, the lamentable face of human misery, so that thy flesh perchance will fear to go on, half despairing, how thou canst ever come through so great misery unto felicity. But fear not; the beginning and the end are contrary. Thy natural estate is indeed very miserable; And this Doctrine doth not make it to be so; but shows it to be so. The corruption of nature made thee miserable, and hid thy misery from thee, and so made thee contentedly to continue in misery. But this Doctrine showeth thee thy misery, that by showing it, it may cure it. It shows thee indeed the ugly face of thy misery, but not to this end only, to terrify thee; but that by terrifying, it may make thee run apace from misery to felicity. Wherefore take courage, and come with me, profitably to behold the countenance of misery; which (as heretofore hath been mentioned) presents itself in a double aspect; the misery of corruption, and the misery of punishment inflicted on this corruption; To discover thy corruption, thou shalt find a strict and severe Law, the Counter-pane whereof is placed in thine own heart, and when thou comparest thy actions with this Law, thou canst not choose but say thou art a Creature, fallen from the duty of thy Creation, for ill do thy actions become him, whom the Creator hath appointed to be his servant, and the Lord of the World. Now if thy deeds be so unrighteous in the sight of thy Maker, how must not that highest Lord be displeased exceedingly with these lower Lords, when he seethe his perfection and justice crossed and contraried, with their imperfection & injustice? when he seethe his Creatures hired by so many inestimable benefits, only to do him the service of Righteousness (which is a thing of itself to be loved) to renounce their allegiance, yea to rebel against their Creator with a course of opposition, and to love wickedness, more than a bountiful God commanding Righteousness? Surely, the wrath of the Almighty must needs smoke against such Traitors, and rebellious Runagates: And if the Lion roar, how shall not the Beasts of the Forests be afraid? Hence therefore the misery of our corruption, leads us to the consideration of the misery of punishment. And that there is such a connexion between sin & punishment, reason, experience, & Gods own Word do teach us. Reason tells us, that he who hath brought this great frame to an unity consisting of disagreeing parts, by proportion, weight, and measure, is himself a God of Wisdom, Order, and Proportion: And if he be such, he must needs expect that Creatures of Reason, & Understanding, should also observe Order, justice and Righteousness. For to say the truth, as by this harmony the Word was founded, so by the same is it still preserved. But if these Creatures which have in them a power of resembling, & pleasing their Maker, cross him with a cross of contrary actions, it must needs be expected, that the Lord being crossed by his servants in disobedience, must also cross them in punishment, and being mightily enraged, he will return the malice of their own works on their own heads. Now we know as the person is, so is his wrath, and as the wrath is, so is the punishment: An infinite person, an infinite Wrath, and an infinite punishment. The very instincts of decayed Nature, have inspired the acknowledgement hereof into the terrified hearts of guilty & self-accusing Heathens, who not knowing God but by the knowledge of nature, yet because of their wicked lives, upon the hearing of thunder and tempests, have feared and shunned the fury of an Omnipotent justice. But now I shall little need to tell thee, what experience hath already taught thee. For I doubt not, but to most that consider the life of Man, it hath appeared that the main course of human life, is a connexion or succession of unrighteousness and wretchedness. Man liveth as out of the sight of his Maker, and Man liveth as out of the cherishing and fostering of his Maker, being generally thrust out unto a war against brambles and briars, against the barrenness and staruednesse of a cursed earth, which he must resist and overcome with the sweat of his brows. Yea, each man eateth other men, though not with the teeth of the body, yet with the jaws of a fraudulent overreaching and violent soul. And yet there are further miseries waiting upon Mischief: for besides visible and palpable examples of sudden justice, executed, and sent from heaven upon divers eminent and outrageous crimes, we see in general, that this sinful life at the best, is but wise vanity, pleasant vanity, or glorious vanity; and at the worst, vexation of spirit, vexation of body, loss of goods, and loss of friends. Yea, Man is but a piece of reasonable misery; He hath reason to foresee misery, and so to take it to his heart: when reason cannot prevent it, reason to foresee death, but not to avoid it. For as sure as wickedness is present, so sure shall death be present; for death and sin, we see daily, are in every Man unseparable. Now the combining of sin and misery in this bodily life (for this life concerns the body most, & the soul least, and so doth the misery of this life) points our expectation to another life; even that there shall be a pursuit of punishment after sin, in that life which is most proper to the soul, & that then the bodily miseries of this life shall be seconded with spiritual torments. But if we leave these darker characters of reason and experience, and come to divine Revelations: there we may read running the fall and misery of man.. And these before are described out of the same holy Writings, but here again they must be considered by the Learner of the doctrine of happiness, that by the full search and tenting of his misery, his misery may be cured.  
Briefly therefore, to speak what hath been spoken; he shall find in God's Word, that wickedness and sin is the transgression of the Law; that the Law being transgressed and offended, is the ministery of death: That this death is both of soul and body, in an eternal darkness & absence from God, who is Light, yea in an eternal suffering of the fire of the wrath of God. For God's wrath is a Worm & a Fire, ever feeding on the tormented souls and bodies of disobedient, wicked, and sinful men. And now when thou hast found thyself a sinner, and findest also the terror & wrath of God against sinners, I know thou canst not choose, but think thyself awhile the child of death, and thy estate fearful. Thou wilt cry, Woe is me, a man of sorrow, and, Wretched man that I am, and call thy body a body of death. But as I told thee before, this terror is but thy way, and not thy ways end. It is but thy entrance into happiness, yea it is thy advancement unto happiness. For the burden of thy misery will move thee to seek for one to ease and refresh thee. The bitterness of thy wretchedness will make thee more comfortably to relish the sweetness of a Saviour; and the fearfulness of the Valley of death, will make thee more steadfastly to list up thy eyes to the Hil of God, from whence cometh thy salvation. And surely, this fruit of Humility doth God expect before he will exalt. He will have us confess our misery to be fearful, and desperate in itself, he will have us to feel it to be a burden intolerable; we must tell him in words and deeds, that we are weary and over-heavy laden, and then is it for his glory, to help confessed-incurable, and desperate misery. And to this end may we reasonably believe, that the fullness of time appointed for the coming of our Saviour in the flesh, was so long in fulfilling, and that during the space between the Promise and exhibiting of a Saviour, there was so spare and rare, and secret notices given of him; even that there might be a manifest and confessed need of him; before he should be generally & manifestly offered and showed.  
The whole World left to the state of nature, must be odiously and unsufferably corrupted; the Nation of the Jews taken out as the top of mankind, and a chief part to convince the whole, lifted up, propped, and supported by a clear revealed Law, by Statutes, Ordinances, and Ceremonies, and these again enforced by Prophets, Miracles, and Signs, I say, this Nation must be laden with iniquity, and wholly defiled from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, and so both among jews and Gentiles, there must be none that worketh righteousness, no, not one, and then is the fullness and fitness of time for the coming, and publishing of a Saviour.  
Being thus humbled in ourselves, and made both needy and thirsty of salvation, then will God open our eyes, as he did the eyes of despairing AGAR, that we shall see a spring of waters of eternal Life. Christ jesus with the beams of his saving health, will shine in upon our understandings, and show them his beauty, and upon our wills through our understandings to comfort, ravish, and draw them, and this will be do, just at that time when we feelingly complain and find, that we are in the state of darkness, and in the shadow of death. And now, Christ jesus entering into our souls with free mercy and grace, to heal and refresh them, our souls in faith and fervency clasp the will and affections about him, and lay fast hold on the Lord of glory and blessedness. And then the soul kisseth him with the kisses of her mouth, and as she needeth him most before she found him, so she loveth him best after she hath found him. This is the path of Faith: walk therein, and live for ever.   

CHAP. III. That we should strive to increase our happiness, and by what means.  
BEing knit unto hap pinnace by the knot of a most high and blessed Union, wrought by that Faith in Christ, which surrenders us up to the sanctification of the Spirit, what remains but that we strive to preserve and increase ourselves therein? It is no less wisdom to keep then to get; yea it is more folly negligently to lose a thing gotten, & the labour by which it was gotten, then having taken no pains for it, nor having tasted the sweetness of it, to have been altogether without it. And though the renewing Spirit be strong in apprehension, and where it once takes root, it will not wholly quit the ground, yea we must know that the recklessness & hard heartedness of Man, by shutting up the heart against the dew of heaven, and by cherishing the weeds of natural corruption, may so much grieve & afflict him, that the seed of grace and glory, sown in us, may be much withered and pined. For the Spirit which is within us, as it holdeth us, so it looks to be held by us; as it quickens us, so it looks to be quickened and inflamed by us; And on the other side, it grieves, it pines, it drieth, it dieth (to our feeling, though not in itself) when it wanteth comforting, encouraging, cherishing. And the Spirit being thus quenched within us, the spiritual trading for happiness decayeth, & so our loss of heavenly joys doth daily increase, yea the comforts of God in our way to happiness do still abate, and we are often left in a temporal hell, even in horror of mind, & vexation of conscience, which is the night of the soul, Wisd. 17.14. far be it therefore from us, to kill that which giveth us life, to quench that which is the Light of our darkness, to pull back our hand from this hand of God, which offers to lead us to eternal Life. But let it be the most earnest endeavour of our hearts and souls, to comfort and cherish this heavenly Seed, wherein lies wrapped our everlasting glory and happiness. Let us be merciful to ourselves, by being kind to it; for thou canst not sow to this Spirit, but thou must sow also to thy own glory; for the Spirit is a most sure Rewarder of all the service done unto it. And to whom it hath been an Author of sowing in labour, to them it will also be a Giver of a most blessed harvest in glory: yea, according to the measure of sowing, shall be the measure of reaping. Wherefore let us not be content, only to get this glorifying Spirit, nor having gotten it, only to keep it, but let us in an unsatiable covetousness, ever be increasing it, ever be getting upon it. How can a Man be full enough of happiness? How canst thou stint thy seeking, since there is no stine of an infinite felicity? and such is that which thou seekest. Surely, if thou ever didst taste thy Sovereign Good, thou canst not but over hunger and thirst after him, thou canst not but cry out, Evermore give me this water of life. Let thy worldly covetousness reach thee the manner of a spiritual covetousness. That tells thee, that goods are good, and thou canst not have too much of that which is good Now the Spirit tells thee, that God is goodness itself, and the sum of all things that are good. Wherefore thou shouldest be still hungry, still thirsty, after the living God; never having enough of that happiness, whereof there is still some degree beyond that which thou hast.  
Wherefore fastening one foot, that thou slide not back in the path of happiness, advance the other, & so march on steadfastly to the Congregation of the first-born, to the spirits of just and perfect Men, to the Mediator of the new Alliance and Covenant, and to the happy presence of the living God. Thy path is in the Spirit; walk in the Spirit, and thou walkest toward God; walk fervently in the Spirit, let it in flame thee, and be inflamed by thee; & thou walkest swistly towards God; and the more this fire of Grace is kindled in thee, the more shall thy shining be, when thou art a Star in glory. For the same Spirit which is the seed of Sanctification, is also the seed of Glorification: the first it brings forth in this life, the other in the next. As certainly as it shows the first, so certainly will it bestow the latter, and the latter in the degree of the former. For according to the power of the quickening Spirit within us, shall be the power & excellence of the Spirit raising us, and according to the power of the Spirits sanctifying, is the power of the Spirits quickening: Sanctifying and quickening being knit together, and so prospering together in the prosperity of one and the same Spirit. Therefore to increase our glory, we must strive to increase our holiness; and by holiness and other helps advancing, and supporting holiness to in crease, comfort and cherish the Spirit, by which both holiness and glory may be increased.  
Now to know what these helps are, we must seek in the Oracles of God, whose office and main purpose is to shine as a Light to mankind, that standeth in the dark place of a clouded and corrupted soul, and to guide their feet into the way of Peace and Rest. This sure Word of GOD, was given by GOD unto Man, to direct Man unto God; And to effect this, it hath a power to make the children of men, the sons of God; Yea it hath a power to nourish this spiritual and heavenly sonship, & so bestoweth a gift of growth, as well as a gift of life: for it causeth the sons and heirs of God to grow unto their perfect stature of Grace & Glory. The great Spirit of God, which poureth that portion of the Spirit into us, wherein lies our sanctification and sealing, powered also in the Prophets, Seers, and Apostles, the Word and Counsel of God. So the Spirit within us, and the Word without us, are near of kin; they have one Father, even the Spirit, which is God and being brethren, they must needs cherish, love, and strengthen each other. Yea the Spirit of GOD which best knows, how the Spirit issuing from him, may be cherished, hath by that Word, of purpose showed us sundry means, by which that which he hath given us, may be increased. And God expects, that we which were dead and are now raised to life by him, though in our deadness we could not move towards him, yet being quickened, we should by employments and exercise stir up the life bestowed on us, kindling it by those helps which his Word ministereth unto us. So behold, O Man, a double mercy; one, that the endeavours of the Saints may increase their glory; another, that means, helps, and directions are given for the advancement and execution of such endeavours. We must not be still like Embrious, and children in their first conception, to have the nourishment of life, sent in o us without our knowledge and will; but being now at least babes in Christ, we must desire and suck the sincere Milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby; or, being strong men, we must desire and digest the solid meat, by which we may grow from strength to strength; we must by manly exercises seek to fortify the power of Christ in us, and we must work towards the increase of our spiritual estate, by heavenly traffic and merchandise, that the talents of grace being increased, may increase the talents of glory.  
But now perchance it will be demanded what these helps are, by which the Man of GOD may enlarge his stature, and grow up to his head Christ jesus. For satisfaction to which demand, I would point him to the Word of God, which is the Treasure of the perfect knowledge of this Art of felicity; but yet to give some stay to hungry souls, that presently desire the prosperity of the Spirit, & will not be delayed, I may name some of the chiefest, though likewise I may leave others unnamed, to stir them up somewhat to seek for their own provision. And here, as the first means of increasing the Spirit, I will name the increasing of those means, by which the Spirit was first received; we must strive to increase that faith and affiance, by which we cleaving unto Christ, Christ clave unto us. For the more we cleave unto Christ, the more Christ cleaveth unto us; the more we comprehend him, the more he doth comprehend us by a larger and fuller possession of us. Faith increased, increaseth our capacity of Christ jesus, and as we are enlarged in our own bowels by faith, so doth Christ enlarge himself within us by his Spirit. To this end let us remember what hath been formerly set forth, as the means of breeding faith, and in those means let us be the more conversant, as we would be the more plentiful in faith, and more engraffed in the object of faith, Christ jesus. Briefly, let us fervently and continually pray with the Disciples, unto the Author and Finisher of our faith, Lord, increase our faith: Let us be frequently conversant with Christ jesus, and often behold him lively described in the Word, in the Sacraments, by hearing, by seeing, by receiving, by meditation. The more Christ is looked on, the more trust, and the more love, and so the more Union. We cannot look on the fairest of Men, but we shall be ravished with his love; for, he kindleth our affections as coals of fire, and as a vehement flame. And surely, if we look into his Word, and into the seals of his Word, we cannot choose (if we be spiritual) but we must plainly look on Christ himself. For the Word of Christ is the Image of Christ; he hath stamped on it his own likeness, and therein we may see him borne, living, teaching, dying, & rising again. Therein may we behold his graces and gifts, his excellency and dignity, his love unto Men, and his labours for Men. The Sacraments also Christ hath imprinted with his own resemblance; and they are the characters and representations of Christ. So in them may we see Christ redeeming by passion, and washing by regeneration, feeding and quickening by vivification, yea performing his part of the whole Covenant of Life. And CHRIST being thus discerned, what dull heart will not rise up toward him in a stronger affiance, in a more fiery love? Wherefore walking along with the staff of Prayer in our hands, let us still be tasting of these restoratives of Faith, that so faith being cherished, may cherish the Spirit, and the Spirit being cherished, may cherish our life eternal.   

CHAP. FOUR Other helps of retaining and increasing happiness. The first is, quick obedience.  
AN especial furtherance and nourisher of the Spirit, is a ready and prompt obedience to the motions of the same Spirit. The business of our life is indeed no other, but an attendance on the Spirit, in whom lies our duty and happiness, and all other businesses that are not subordinate to this business, are inordinate. Wherefore to the holy lusts of this living and moving Spirit, must our continual care be attentive, that when it moveth us, we may be moved by it, and that the commands thereof be answered by a speedy obedience. For the Spirit is the issue of the God of power, and is itself a power proceeding from that great power: now power rejoiceth in action, yea these second powers grow more powerful by action. In natural things we see that motion makes a thing more apt to move, and by how much more the strength of Man is exercised, the more able and mighty it groweth. No otherwise doth the Spirit in us. It grows mighty by a free and prosperous exercise of his might: It grows more vigorous and active by doing, and by moving it is more ready to move. If it be well followed in a combat with a Bear, ●●en a terrible and ugly temptation, it will after lead us on to the conquest of a Lion, even of some reigning wickedness, and at last will bring us to triumph over a Giant, even the prince of wickedness. And as it will lead us to the increase of the ruin of vice, so it will also lead us to the increase of virtue, & finally, to increase the reward of virtue in eternal felicity. For as it is the natural and kindly desire of the Spirit to bear fruit, so is it likewise his desire to bear more fruit, and by obtaining this desire, it goes on to a farther desire, and so to a farther obtaining, if our following be proportionable to his leading. When the Spirit moveth us to a good work, by fulfilling it, we have a double profit. One is, the reward of that work in glory; the other is, the increase of the Spirit by working; who being increased, will increase more works unto more glory. On the other side, by neglecting & disobeying the Spirit when it moveth, we have a double loss; the first, a loss of the good work, and the reward pertaining to it; a second is an impoverishing, discouragement, and weakening of the Spirit, against another like occasion: for it must needs move weaker the next time to that work, to which before it hath moved in vain. Now far be it from us to stop and shorten our own perfection; even the perfection of holiness and happiness; which two are inseparable, & one the measure of the other. Let it be far from us to abate our felicity, by lesning our obedience; yea far be it from us, to grieve & stop that Spirit, which demandeth of us, but an excellent and necessary duty, which is holiness, and that with a condition annexed of the most excellent thing which is happiness. Surely, we discomfort our Comforter, we go into a spiritual consumption, we dead our life, we grudge ourselves the increase of felicity, when we resist or neglect the sacred instincts & blessed influences of this sovereign Spirit. Whereas on the other side, by a ready obedience we inflame the Spirit, we add fuel to this heavenly fire, we give that thing food & nourishment, which giveth food & nourishment to our life Eternal. For the motion of the Spirit tends to this, that we would do good to ourselves, by doing good to it, and that by sowing unto it in a speedy and large obedience, we may reap a more full and large harvest of glory. Wherefore let us be careful to accept every proffer of the Spirit, as that wherein is an united gift of grace and glory. If the Spirit would exercise itself in the practice of some virtue, let our members, as ready servants, run to the execution thereof. If the Spirit stir us up to a strong resolution, to make a straighter covenant with our God, & to draw nearer unto him by an increased service, let us make room in our heart for the settlement of this pillar, and let us give way until this nail be driven up to the head. If the Spirit lust for a vacation from the world, and complain that it is oppressed with an heap of earthly employments, let us ease it of weight, & take from it that which surchargeth; yea let us give it full and steady times of respiration and breathing, that it may converse with his Fountain, and suck new streams of refreshing from that abundant and everslowing Spring. If the Spirit desire to war with the flesh, and particularly with some especial infirmity, let us come willingly to the fight, and help the Lord in his battles; even this Spirit of God against the enemies of God and our felicity; and if we serve him in the fight, we shall triumph with him for the victory. Finally, if the Spirit long to cherish itself with the food of the Word, or the precious and last Banquet of our dying Redeemer, let us be careful to feed the hunger thereof with the food of God in due season. So shall we increase the life of our life; and by the growth of the Spirit, we shall grow more gracious here in the sight of our Creator, and we shall grow more glorious hereafter by the increased sight of the same Creator.   

CHAP. V Another furtherance of the Spirit, is watchfulness.  
AS Obedience doth cheer, and as it were, make joyful the Spirit within us, so Obedience itself is supported by Watchfulness. Therefore (though in a second & removed degree) is Watchfulness a help to the Spirit, & so an Increaser of our felicity. For a Christian consisting of a double nature, one spiritual, and another carnal, and twofold motions proceeding from this twofold nature, and each adverse, yea hurtful to the other, herein must Watchfulness help us, that the motions of the nature of corruption and misery, be quickly apprehended and suppressed; and that the motions of the Nature of blessedness and grace be soon espied and furthered. Else on the one side, the egg of Concupiscence being grown to a Cockatrice, before it be seen, may kill; and on the otherside, the excellent desires and pregnancies of the Spirit, which would have brought forth the fruit of glory, may come to abortion by a barren, miserable, and inglorious neglect. Beyond these also hath Watchfulness a profitable employment: for it ought to stand as upon the top of a Tower, to espy a far off as well as near at hand; even to descry the remote occasions of such motions, and to sound the Bell to the soul, that she shut out the Messengers of the enemies of her peace, and lovingly admit the friends of her happiness. We are safest from evil, when evil is kept a good distance from us; and evil is kept at a good distance, when we espy the occasions of evil a far off and avoid them. Many times the occasion is admitted with a hope of not admitting the evil; but commonly the evil throngs in close after the occasion, and approaching near unto us, it over-comes us at handy blows, whom it could not at the Pikes point. It is far easier to kill sin in the occasion, then in itself; and to grant the occasion, and to deny the sin, is almost as bad Logic in practice, as to grant the former Propositions, and to deny the Conclusion, is in reasoning. Therefore let us keep the eye of our soul broad-waking, that we lie not like waste ground, un-hedged and un-kept, and so become the prey and food of every wandering Beast, even of every beastly affection. Let us also stand watching in the door of our Tent, with the Father of the faithful, that when Angels descend unto us, even the graces of God through jesus Christ our Mediator, we may be ready to entertain them; feeding them with the slain concupiscences of our brutish flesh, and the kisses of our hearts, which are more comfortable than wine.  
To add intention and earnestness to our watchfulness against sin, three things must be considered. First, the presentness of the evil; for our flesh is like Gunpowder, it presently takes fire, it breaks out suddenly upon us, & there is no way to be before it, but by watchfulness. For when a man meets an occasion of Anger, of Lust, or of some other passion, if he be out of his watching, his house is by temptation set on fire about his ears, before he sees that he was tempted. But the watchful man is still in his spirit, and so is still before the temptation; yea the temptation comes still before him, and not behind him, even in his sight, and under his view. Therefore he forewarns his own soul, and so forewarns her to prevent the harm which approacheth towards her. Watchfulness tells the Soul, here comes a temptation of Wrath: there a temptation of Covetousness, and another way a temptation of Lust: and then the soul knows her business, which is, to walk in the Spirit, and not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh: but the heedless man; he hath raged, he hath lusted, he hath coveted, before he thought he did so; and as a bird only by being taken, takes too late a knowledge of the snare; so the unwatchfull man doth first fall into some odious extremity, and then by the feeling of his fall, knows to no purpose that he is fallen, and that such a temptation was the cause of his fall; whereas watchfulness by foreseeing the temptation, would have kept him from falling. And when a Man is fallen into sin, then as much goodness as there is in such an one, so much sorrow there is in him also; whereas a little care before would have saved both the sin and the sorrow. The soul may be kept clean with less pain, than she may be cleansed being defiled; for now she must be washed with tears, and hardly rubbed with the rough hand of sorrow, before our Saviour will come near to wash away the guilt by his passion. Now that thy Watching may be sure to prevent temptation, as soon as thou watchest bodily, watch also spiritually, and let thy watching Bee more early than Temptation. Know that thou awakest among Philistiens, therefore shake thyself up, and stir up the gift of God which is in thee, and so put on the Armour of God, that thou mayest stand in the evil day. Put thy very first thought in order, for the further our thoughts run astray with DINAH, the more danger of ravishment, & the harder is their recovery. But the heart being set in tune like a clock in the morning, it will go the truer all the day after. Wherefore set thy heart betimes in the way of GOD'S Commandments, commit it to the Spirit to be guided in this way; for the Spirit is the fiery Chariot, that carrieth our souls through the way of Piety, to the Country of Felicity. But having thus set forth in thy way, still keep close to thy Guide, that thou continue in thy way: for, he that keepeth his way, keepeth his life, and he that keepeth his Guide, keepeth his way; but he that for saketh his Guide, hazzardeth the loss both of way and life. Surely, if the heart running astray from the Spirit, be suffered to take a full taste of natural things, it will hardly in a long time relish spiritual things, and therefore it is best both to season the heart, first with spiritual things, and after to watch that it do not carnally (that is over-greedily) devour carnal things.  
Yea beyond this, thou must even watch thy watching, that it be not stolen from thee; for the crafty Serpent will often cast before thee some pleasant or cumbersome temptation, to rob thee of thy watching, if it be not watched. For security which is so easy to Man, is also a chief ease to Satan; For by it the gates of the soul stand always open to him, and he may go and come whensoever he listeth. On the other side, watching is something painful to a man, and contrary to Satan, and therefore man will the sooner be persuaded to forego it, and Satan will be ready still to persuade him. But let such know, who complain of the hardness of this, and other divine exercises, that custom makes hard things easy, and assured happiness makes hard things pleasant. Let them believe that the wages shall infinitely overmatch the work, and it is enough. If they believe this, they will throng violently into heaven, and no pains shall stop them; if they believe not this, they are no Scholars for the School of happiness; for, belief is the ground of this learning; their portion must be a sensual, brutish, vanishing, and dying life.  
A second reason of watchfulness is, the affinity and kindred between our flesh and the world. There was an old contract made between them in Man's fall, and the world still continues the suit, though we be new married to the Spirit: there are certain cartropes of sin, which were once fast tied between the flesh and the world, which as the good Spirit hath out off by the knife of Circumcision, so the wicked spirit seeks to knit again by conversation; for well knows Satan, that if the flesh draw the world into the heart, himself also rides in upon the world. For this is one of PHARAOHS Chariots, which still pursueth the Israelites; the Flesh is in stead of the lusty and proud horses, the World is the chariot, and the Devil is the Rider; and this Triplicity sighteth against the Trinity in us. Let us therefore be ever wary, lest some tricks of the old love pass unespied: let us be careful that the corrupt flesh nibble not too long, yea not at all on the world; for it will grow hungry by eating; and the taste will be so pleasant, that it will not be contented until it eat with greediness, and then woe be unto us, for we have received deeply the love of the world, which as much as it is, so much it excludeth the love of God, and so much it bittereth the sweetness of the Spirit: yea, even in the lawful love of lawful things, let our watchfulness continue, for such have betrayed many souls; and while that which is lawful, hath been too carelessly admitted, or too carefully sought; a thing lawful in matter, hath been used in a fleshly manner, & so things lawful have been carnally and un-lawfully enjoyed. The flesh hangeth so fast on us, that it will hang fast on our actions, if we shake it not speedily from our hands as PAUL did the Viper. To do this, let us still mistrust the old alliance, and let this mistrust breed watchfulness, and let our watchfulness still keep us in a right fashion and standing toward the things of the world. Let the soul behold the world as a thing from which she is divorced, as a thing made to be her servant and slave; finally, as a thing folded up in the state of perishing and vanity. Accordingly, let her look soberly, chastened, and coldly upon it: let her use it as a servant, not as a Companion, much less as a Master; yea let her use it, as if she used it not; even as one ready not to use it, when happiness shall call her from the world; or when vanity, loss, and decay shall call for the world from her.  
A third reason of watchfulness is, the watchfulness of our Adversary; even that crooked Serpent, who is the Prince of darkness, and the enemy of Man's happiness. This is the roaring Lion, who still seeketh whom he may devour; and of this kind are specially, careless and secure men, for such he is sure may most easily be devoured. This is the envious man, that soweth tars among the wheat, while the good man sleepeth; even in the sleeping time of our security, he watcheth most for a mischievous & malicious seed-time. Neither let any man marvel, that this keeper of the dungeon of infelicity, is so vigilant and careful to fill his prison: for Envy as a main disease having thoroughly seized him, this gnawing malady gives him no ease but in the ruin and destruction of others; and the only comfort of his wretchedness is, to get good store of company to be wretched with him. Neither need we to go far for an example & pattern of the same thing; for very violent is the same sickness among men, and in them is also a communication of the same serpentine nature: for they can excellently repine at superiority, & there is no greater quarrel among many than this, that one doth excel and go before another. And if it be so powerful in men, we may allow it to be more powerful in mere Spirits; for the greater is the eminence of their nature, the greater is the eminence of the corruption of that nature; according to the rule, the corruption of the best is worst. But let us make a medicine of this Scorpion; and this we shall do, if the same Envy, which keeps him waking, to devour, be a remembrance to us to keep ourselves waking, that we be not devoured. Is not our own preservation as sweet to us, as our destruction is to him? If our envious neighbour promise to watch us a good turn, we will watch ourselves that we may have no need of his good turn; but this spiteful Serpent from the beginning is sealed under a covenant of continual enmity; and shall not his malice be a spur in our sides, and a thorn in our breasts to keep us waking? therefore give no sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids, while thou art in a life of combat; but still believe (for it is plain enough to be believed) that a watching Angel is too hard for a secure and sleeping man. Indeed it is true, he is too hard for us in our best watching, did not a higher Watchman keep us, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. The watchful eye of that greatest Spirit, is our Preserver against the watchful, cursed, inferior spirit; but this withal we must know, that God loves to watch over them, that watch over themselves; his watching is an example to us, not a discouragement; he will have us to do what we can for ourselves, and then what we endeavour to do and cannot, he will do for us: the Mariners must stay in PAUL'S ship to do their endeavours, else those could not be safe, whom God did mean to save. He hath given us souls, and these souls he hath enlightened and sanctified, that we might discern and foresee Satan's policies; this gift of his he will have us to make use of, and not to look to have that done by him, which he hath given us power to do ourselves. But if we take away our own watching, we provoke GOD also to take away his; for if we be not worth our own watchfulness, much less are we worth his. And then if we be wholly forsaken both of God and ourselves, woe to him that is thus alone, he is one of those that are fittest to be devoured. Evil and mortal concupiscences enter in by swarms into such a soul, & all good thoughts are presently carried away, as seed by the Fowls of the air. The Vine of our soul dressed with the blood of Christ, and watered with the Spirit, is abandoned to the wildest Boar of this world's wide Forest. But on the other side, you cannot anger this Destroyer worse, then to spy his nets and his traps; and if he see you make a custom of marking and shunning them, it is great odds, but he will remove his engines. His first plot was, to cast us into a drunken darkness, that he might handle us, being blind, at his will and pleasure. And this darkness is the devils pale at this day, by which he encloseth the sons of darkness, even natural men, that they are taken at his pleasure. Yea such men wonder, when they see the sons of light, watchful in their ways, & they hold them to be but scrupulous fellows, to watch against one whom they neither see nor fear. But indeed, the less he is seen, the more he is to be feared; for he doth far more hurt to them that see him not, than he can do to them that see him. Therefore the children of wisdom lighten their eyes with the Spirit and Word of God, & by these Lamps, through the night of their own nature, they espy the snares of Satan and avoid them. For this double-united Light, is the thread that must lead us through this Maze of temptations, unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God. If we abide in this Light, we are out of the jurisdiction of the kingdom of darkness; we are escaped into the protection of the Father of Light, and in this light of his, we walk into his own primitive Light. But being translated into this Kingdom of Light, let us not then make ourselves secure, but still stand upon our watch: for sleeping becomes the night and not the light. And as we have before received some incitements to watch our enemies, so now let us consider some motives which may encourage us to watch and welcome our friends, even the Messengers of grace, which are sent to lead us into the Eternal habitations. To this end, let us first weigh who it is, even how great is that Prince which visiteth us by such messages of grace; it is even the King of glory that knocks at our soul's gates, by the fresh supplies of his Spirit: Majesty vouch safeth to visit Misery, and Omnipotence sendeth strength to Infirmity; what remains then, but that the everlasting Doors of our souls presently open themselves wide, that the King of glory may readily enter in? We must open large windows in our hearts, that the Sun of righteousness may power in a large light and heat, when he visiteth us in the mornings of grace. But far be it from us, to be far from home, when God cometh to see us. Far be it from us, to let him pass as a stranger that lodgeth not for a night. And surely, if he be unregarded, & unwelcommed, how can he choose but scorn us being neglected, whom he might justly have despised being sought? we are sinful and miserable creatures: and God might well have loathed us, & left us in our blood; but now he that might have loathed, loveth and visiteth; and shall we dare to neglect the most great and holy One, that cometh to us, most wretched and impure, for our own felicity? let us rather with watchful souls espy, and with humble and devout affections entertain these heavenly Guests, the issues and sparks of the Deity: Let us wonder at our own happiness, that our lowliness should be regarded by the Almighty: finally, let us yield up to him the whole room of this Tabernacle of ours, that he may fully rule and reign in us; for in his reigning in us, is included our reigning with him.  
For a second motive let us consider, what it is that this great God sendeth to us. Surely, it is the sap of the Tree of Life, a juice of Eternity, a food of life everlasting. When his Spirit cometh into us, it is a Light to our darkness, a Purifier of our pollution, a conveyance of our Redemption, a celestial Fire to warm the benumbed coldness of our spiritual blood, a seed of living and perpetual felicity. It offers to guide us, it offers to sanctify us, it offers us justification, it offers us zeal, it offers us eternal Glory. These are presents well becoming such a Giver; of infinite worth, as he is in finite; and the least is of more worth than he is that shall receive them. So the greatest giveth us gifts greater than ourselves; and what remains but that we be enlarged in our affection, thereby to enlarge our capacity of them, & if it were possible to equal those gifts with love & welcome, which our own persons do not? Let us with a watchful care, with a servant love, with hungry and thirsty souls, receive the bounty of heaven; still remembering, that free mercy is the Ladder, by which these blessings descend upon us; by which mercy alone, God becomes so familiar with Man, as to visit him. And as God is free to be merciful, so he is free to be angry, if his mercy be contemned. And if once the Ladder of mercy be taken up into heaven, then shall we see a great Gulf of distance and separation between GOD and man.. Man is far unable and unfit to approach to the same God being angry, whom with a confident boldness he might entreat & behold being merciful. The way is cut off between GOD & Man, by changing mercy into fury, and he is become admirable in severity, who before was wonderful in familiarity. Therefore to day let us hear his voice; in the present time, without delay, without stay, or let. Let us not put him off unto to morrow, lest we be a generation that grieves him, and so may not enter into his rest. But if our Well-beloved put in his hand by the door, let us be affectioned to him, yea let us rise and open to our Well-beloved: & that we may be ready to perform this, though we sleep, yet let our hearts wake. Amidst the dreams of worldly pleasure, & profit, which are all but vanity, let our hearts watch for the graces of Eternity. Let us give heed to that One kind of things which is only necessary, & let our hearts be only in earnest, when they regard the things of solidity, permanence, and perpetuity. Doth the Spirit cast forth his beams to enlighten the Temple of the Spirit? let Watchfulness be ready to see this Light; and by this Light things otherwise invisible and inutterable: for surely, a soul thus enlightened, will see more than seven Men on a Watch-towre. Doth the Spirit stir up in thee a desire of meditation, and a motion to go aside into heaven, by the raptures of contemplation? watch, apprehend, and follow; and let Watchfulness deliver thee over to obedience. Hast thou motions unto Prayer? unto spiritual joy? unto feeding on the Word, or the seals of the Word? attend and obey, and let him that hath an ear, hearken what the Spirit saith unto the Church. For thus shall watchfulness become a true factor and servant of obedience. The Spirit speaketh, Watchfulness heareth, Obedience performeth, and the Spirit prospereth.   

CHAP. VI Of Prayer.  
AN inseparable companion of watchfulness, and an especial advancement of spiritual prosperity, is Prayer: for among all the furtherances of the Spirit, Prayer goes directly to the fountain of the Spirit, & seeks the gift of the Giver himself. And indeed, whither should our endeavours most address themselves, but where is most of that which we seek? and who should exceed him in bounty, who exceeds all in that which may be given, yea in that goodness which is the cause of giving? Wherefore since God alone hath the true abundance of Spirit, yea since he hath promised by his Son to give the Holy Ghost (Luk. 11. 13.) to them that ask, why do we not haste to this eternal and bottomless Spring of the waters of Life, where we may fill ourselves freely by ask? Grace is a chief gift of the chiefest Giver: To be admitted into the presence of the chiefest Giver, is a great privilege; but being admitted, to obtain also a chief gift, is a high prerogative. Why dost thou not then make great use of this thy great privilege? yea, why dost thou not at once purchase to thyself spiritual honour, and spiritual profit, which both in prayer are together bestowed? For if thou art one of those, whom God graceth by hearing, thou art also one of those to whom God will give the grace of his Spirit for thy speaking. And surely, as Prayer is honourable and profitable, so it is pleasant and comfortable; for we may term it a little salvation, since the soul in Prayer, clearing herself by Faith from fleshly darkness, looketh directly to the face of God, the vision of whom is our perfect beatitude: if light be pleasant, it is far more pleasant to behold the Father of light: which, though it be but by the glimpses of faith, yet so much as it is, so much happiness it is. The soul, for the time, is in heaven, & beholdeth God; yea beholdeth God, beholding her with a gracious countenance, through our elder Brother Christ jesus. We see in natural things, how joyfully the young-ones run to their dams, yea, children with earnestness apply themselves to the breasts of their mothers. Surely, Man hath but one true and very Father, but one true Cause and Creator; & how joyfully should Man run to this his Original, how earnestly should he suck from God by prayer, the nourishment and increase of that spiritual life, which himself hath begotten in us? Therefore draw near unto God by prayer, and that continually and earnestly. Let thy prayer be continual, because there is in GOD continual abundance to be prayed for: yea, because GOD knows the excellency of his gift, and that it is worth long seeking, and therefore if he use long delay in the grant of thy Petition, thereby he teacheth thee the worth of his gift, and demands of thee a large price of earnest and continual prayer. Surely, we make no ill bargain, if with the Prayers of a whole temporal life, we obtain that which is to be enjoyed by a life Eternal. Therefore be not weary of continuance in seeking, for whiles thereby thou acknowledgest the great worth of that which thou seekest, and thine own great need of the bounty and supply of thy Creator, God that takes pleasure in this acknowledgement of thy prayers, will grant what pleasing & acceptable prayers do request of him. And indeed, where canst thou in thy wants better bestow thy thoughts, and whither wouldst thou turn them from God; since our help standeth only in the Name of the Lord, and there is none but God that heareth and granteth prayers? In GOD alone is the Sabbath and rest of our souls, battered with necessities, cares, and temptations. And therefore God invited us by his Apostle to take cares and sorrows out of our own hearts, and to lay them in his hands; for he careth for us himself. Surely, if with the King of judah, before the Ark of God's presence we unfold the letters of defiance, which the infernal enemy sends us in his fiery temptations; if with the same King being near unto death, especial the death spiritual, we morn before God as Doves, and lift up our eyes to him on high, no doubt but he that dwelleth on high will send down his Angels of deliverance, to rebuke Satan, & to chase him away into the deep; and will also send the Spirit of life, to add life unto our decaying life. And though prayers of length and continuance, do not work merely by their length, yet are they powerful by another means. For God being a Spirit, hath professed himself to be pleased by the service of the Spirit, and the more service of the Spirit, the more GOD is pleased. So while in the length and continuance of Prayer, much of the Spirit is powered out, there is much acceptation of the same with God, who is greatly delighted with spiritual sacrifices. And as much Spirit in continued prayer is powerful with GOD, so much Spirit vented and darted forth, even in one petition, is forcible with the same God. God suffers himself to be overcome by the fervency of the Spirit, whether by degrees uttering itself, or all at once. SALOMON in a long Prayer, and the Publican in a short, were both heard; the Publican shooting forth the whole strength of his soul in one petition, which SALOMON dispersed into many. But in the length of our prayers, let us remember this, that the Spirit is the wingednes of Prayer, by which it pierceth the heavens; and it is no longer prayer but babbling, when some measure of the Spirit doth not express itself therein. Now we know that we pray in the Spirit, so long as by the light thereof we behold God in Christ to whom we pray; and the fitness and necessity of the things for which we pray, and by the fervency thereof we earnestly desire and thirst after the things we pray for. I must needs confess, that sometimes the Spirit of prayer & supplication doth hide and withdraw itself, so that we cannot perfectly fulfil all these parts, but then let us lament our own dullness, and pray, or at least groan some groan of the Spirit, for the Spirit of prayer; let us be earnest with God that he will open our lips, that our mouth may speak to his praise, & we shall seldom departed without a blessing. And if God yet delays us (for he seldom finally denies us) let us cast up short ejaculations, desiring God to accept our desires to pray, and to give us those things which he knows to be best; (which our hearts do implicitly pray for, though not openly) and finally, to forgive us our dullness, and to hear Christ jesus praying for us. But in the shortness of prayer, let us take heed that we do it not out of idleness, or neglect of God, as if God were not worthy of more labour, or prayer were a thing of little profit or value; but let such short Petitions be vented forth, either by reason of impotency in prayer, or upon a fullness of the heart, by reason of some incident meditation, or because of our shame and confusion of face, for some loathsome sin; when with the Publican we be ashamed to lift up our eyes to heaven, and to enter into a sudden familiarity with God, being so newly polluted, and having so lately offended him; and than it may be in stead of prayer with PETER, to weep bitterly (for GOD heareth the voice of PETER'S tears aswell as of ABEL'S blood) and anon to cast forth, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. I know GOD forgiveth at once, yet the comfort of that which he doth at once, must we receive by degrees, and we must not too suddenly leap out from the sorrow for sin, into the comfort of God's promises; but with MIRIAM we must for a certain time (and that proportionably greater or less, according to the measure of the sin) I say, we must bear the shame of offending so high a Majesty, and by undergoing some burden & punishment of sorrow, acknowledge the weight of sin, make sin loathsome to us, and feel it burdensome and intolerable; and being armed to this point, that voice of Christ is then both sweetest and fittest to be heard; Come unto me, ye heavy laden, and I will refresh you. DAVID having his pardon pronounced by the Prophet, yet after he ceaseth not to feel the loathsomeness of his sin, and in the 51. Psalm prayeth, that his sin may be pardoned, and his iniquity purged; that which was at once done in heaven he desires with time to feel more sealed and imparted to him on earth. Lastly, such may use short prayer, to whom bodily infirmity alloweth not the bent of long meditation; of such, GOD requires according to that they have, and not according to that they have not, and to them a short Petition may be accepted for a long Prayer, yea a sigh of the Spirit, may be like a Diamond of great value, though it lie in a little room. But ordinarily let us think it best to imitate the ancient Saints, who have worshipped God in a continuing and combined form of prayer, the patterns whereof are often to be found in the Word of life. And as our prayers must be continual, so still let us strive to make them earnest, servant, and vehement; that it may still appear unto God, that we have an earnest desire to be heard. Otherwise, coldness in ask, may well deserve coldness in granting, and since giving is more than ask, that which doth not merit the lesser, how may we think it should procure the greater? Again, God himself, by the Parable of the unjust judge, like SAMSON hath showed us how he may be bound, for he hath taught us, that importunity is a way to overcome him. Earnest prayer useth violence toward him, and thereby, we that are weakness, are too hard for him who is infinite power. But how cometh this to pass, that we who have no strength but from GOD, should overcome him, from whom we have our strength? surely, if we look nearly unto it, we shall find that prayer persuades God to overcome himself. It moves his own goodness to overcome his own power, so that we feel only the effects of power mastered and conquered with goodness. Therefore is God by prayer, as it were, troubled and stopped in some actions, outwardly proposed to have been effected. So LOT holdeth the Angel's hand from destroying of Zoar, a town of the sinful Plain, and to her growth equally liable for wickedness to fire and brimstone. And MOSES hindereth and doth not let GOD alone, when in his fury he would destroy Israel, but diverteth the plague denounced against them. Goodness cannot deny the importunity of beloved-ones: The bad whereof is in an earthly father, whose bowels are turned within him, if he cannot give what his hungry child doth crave of him. But the root here of is God, who is goodness itself, in whom is the Fountain of that drop which we call good Nature in Men. The same God who is goodness, is also love, & loveth his Children far more tenderly then earthly fathers; and love works upon the will to make it willing, to communicate to the beloved the fruits and effects of goodness. The same God is also Almighty, so that whatsoever streams of goodness, the will moved by love would particularly distribute, the Almightiness of GOD is able to fulfil & accomplish. Wherefore in confidence of the great goodness, the love & the power of God; let us boldly, hopefully, yet humbly repair unto him, believing that a power so mastered with goodness & love, cannot deny a vehement & importunate prayer. But if we fail of obtaining, it is certainly some impediment on our own side; so that either we have asked in an ill manner, or for an ill matter, or to an ill end, or else we have limited the most High, telling him how and when we will have our request. But if we ask for good things in a good manner, to a good end, submitting the conditions and seasons to that infinite Wisdom, to whom to submit is man's chiefest wisdom, then let us be assured that we are in the way of hearing, let us fasten our foot in that way, and resolve never to turn from it, though checked with the woman of Canaan, and deferred with JOB. This way ends assuredly in granting, and thou shalt either have the same thing thou cravest, or a better. For as all God's actions to his children are for their good and advantage, so are also his deferings and denials. And this the daily experience of the Saints can testify, who have found that they were then heard when they thought themselves most neglected. The vision and message of the most High (as that of DANIEL) was botimes sent forth, though the time of accomplishment was appointed to be later. GOD will not break the Covenant of Prayer; but would raise thy faith to that high pitch; even to believe that God is good to Israel, even when thou feelest the smart of thine own misery, and seest the prosperity of the wicked; or he would raise thy patience to such a degree, that though GOD should kill thee, yet thou wouldst submit thyself to his mighty hand; or he would humble, chastise, and nurture thee, that he might do thee good in thy latter end. Therefore stand thou strong in the path of prayer, and therein especially hunger & thirst after Righteousness, even spiritual graces, for therewith thou shalt surely be filled. But if with the stubborn King of Israel, being grieved, thou say, It is the Lord, Why should I seek him any more? thou turnest thyself out of the way of obtaining, thou forsakest him who is the only giver of every good and perfect gift, thou changest him who only heareth and granteth prayers, for miserable helpers, who without him (like jeroboams politic Calves) through a wise foolishness, shall become their Master's destruction.  
Now that our prayer may yet have a farther increase of force, and so a fuller prevailing, let our prayers partly consist of praise. Let the remembrance of benefits past, accompany the Petition of benefits to come, let us pray that God's Name may be hallowed, when we pray that his Kingdom may come more into us. In the Law of Nature, thankfulness for one benefit, inviteth another, and much more with the Father of Grace and Nature, do thanks for a less degree of Grace, persuade for a greater. Praise & glory to God, is the end and fruit of God's gifts, and where God reapeth this fruit abundantly, there will he abundantly sow the seed of this fruit. For if Christ called his Father an Husbandman, we may boldly say he is a good Husbandman; and therefore he will not commit that ill husbandry, to sow little that he may reap little, when he sees that by much sowing he may reap much. GOD will not be wanting to his own glory, by sowing small grace, where by much grace he might reap much glory. That this was agreeable to the heart of God, well knew that holy Man, who was according to GOD'S heart, and therefore continually he mixeth his prayers with praises; yea sometime he plainly discovereth the secrets of this skill; as when he saith: Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee, then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, even our God, shall give us his blessing. Examples confirm this instruction. NOAH gave a sacrifice of praise for his delivery from the flood, and God being praised for that one deliverance, perpetuateth his benefit, and promiseth an everlasting deliverance to the earth from any more floods. When salomon's Levites, Singers, and Priests, made one sound in praising the Lord, the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. When the Singers of JEHOSAPHAT praised the Lord, because his mercy endureth for ever; God laid ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, and they slew one another. What do these things show, but that prayer is sharpened with praise, and it enters more powerfully into the acceptation of the Highest? They teach us plainly, that God willingly opens his ear to receive his due praises, and into his ears so opened, the adjoined Petitions have more speedy admittance. Surely, God well accepts his own glory; he accepts his glorifier; and with his person, his prayers. But as far on the other side, doth unthankfulness shut up the bounty of God, and make it fast against ourselves; God will not long give benefits, whereof himself may have no benefit; but if there be gifts like benefits, bestowed on the unthankful; let it be thought that these seeming benefits are very curses; even gifts given in wrath, as Quails, and a King unto Israel. For how can a Creator continue his bounty, when he sees his Creature doth only make use of him, that he sorues his own turn upon him, and makes himself the end of God, and not God the end of himself? Therefore evenholy HEZEKIAH, while he is more careful to show the glory of his Treasures to the Heathen Ambassadors, then to give glory to God for his health, by which he enjoyed them, the treasures must be carried away to the same Babylon, whose Ambassadors he had entertained with the sight of them. The heart of man being filled with blessings, must not be lifted up within itself, but it must be lifted up with praise and thankfulness to the Author of those blessings. Therefore having received some Talents of grace, let us return unto God some other Talents of glory; and then to us by whom he receives advantage, shall more be given: but if otherwise, that which we have, shall be taken away. God hath put all things in order to himself, and upon this order the God of order raineth his blessings. If then we will be under his blessings, we must be under this order; we must look towards him, glorifying & praising, if we will have him look towards us, blessing & sanctifying. Therefore in sum, Let us pray continually, and fervently, and in all things give thanks, which is the will of God in Christ jesus towards us. If we conclude our Psalm 33. with Prayer, Let thy mercy and grace be multiplied upon us, as we trust in thee, let us begin it with thankfulness; Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for it becometh upright men to be thankful. For, if thus, Psal. 66. we call to him with our mouth, and also exalt him with our tongue, God will hear us, and will consider our prayer, we shall again praise God, who doth not put back our prayer, nor his mercy from us.   

CHAP. VII. Of Meditation.  
ANother special preservative and restaurative of the Spirit, is Meditation. Hereby the beams of the heavenly Spirit are contracted into a point upon the soul, as the beams of the Sun by a Crystal, whereby the light and heat of grace are increased and multiplied into a spiritual Fire. The soul goeth in from the flesh into the Spirit, and bathing and anointing herself in that Oil of gladness, she sharpeneth her sight, and quickeneth her might, & becomes much abler to see into heaven, to see into herself, & to see and judge the things on earth. Hereby she groweth in the knowledge & acquaintance of her sovereign Good; hereby she takes out Lessons of a comfortable departing out of this world of vanity, unto her City of blessedness; and hereby she judgeth best of her own fitness, for that happy voyage. And having judged her self in Meditation, by the same, she studies to increase that which is right in her, through the remembrance of profitable motives and documents, heard, read, or conceived, and she endeavoureth to cast away all that presseth down, and whatsoever sin hinders by cleaving on too fast. If we would speak of the subject of Meditation, we might name all that is: for all things have in them some profitable doctrine, and are Teachers of the glory of their Creator. But if we ask for the chiefest Matter, and that which is most advantageable to the Citizens of the New jerusalem, which is our present business: Then let the soul fly up from this place of misery, and take up her rest in her only Rest. Let her thoughts be on her happiness, and the way unto it, and let that be her chief meditation, which is her chief concernment. And that she may draw nearer unto happiness, by the wings of an inflamed affection: Let her consider the beauty of the highest Essence; let her think upon a glory, creating and uncreated; let her think on the Light of that Light, which darkeneth and shadoweth the Sun, & when she hath thus thought, let her know, the glory & happiness which she shall enjoy, is more beyond her highest imagination, than imagination can be beyond any thing which is seen. Let us also consider what God hath been, and is to us, as well as what he is in himself: and to this end, let us cast our inward eye on the great love of him, who is both our Fountain and Felicity, our Beginning and End. Let us consider how great things this infinite love hath done for us, from how great a misery he hath translated us, to make us partakers and intoyers of himself, and by the greatness of the effects, let us guess at the infiniteness of the Cause. There is nothing greater than Himself, and this greatest Himself, hath he given to Man, by a wonderful and mysterious Incarnation. He hath also given the Blood and Life of this incarnate Deity, to ransom us the slaves & bondmen of guilt and punishment, from eternal death. He hath given us also his most pure & sacred Spirit, to purge the most loathsome corruption of our lustful generation. He hath given us infinite blessings of this life; and all these, that we might serve him in holiness, without the fear of our enemies, and hereafter may enjoy him in that Kingdom, wherein we shall triumph over these enemies. But having weighed (though the weak balances of our understandings be far unable to bear and contain the exceeding weight of) this infinite love of God, then let us consider, how we ought to answer this love with love, & his mercies by thankfulness and obedience. And when we have found out our duty, then let us examine our performance; even whether the goodness of God hath had a perfect working upon us, and hath brought forth fruits answerable to it, and whether we have sufficiently yielded up ourselves unto God, in his blessed work of making us blessed. And herein let us rip up our souls, even the very bowels of our consciences, and let us tent the bottom of our hearts, to feel what is sound and what unsound in them, that the sound parts may be cherished, and the unsound healed. If we see any spark of the Spirit, let us kindle it into a fire, & let the infiniteness of that love which is our pattern, draw us on by imitation, to a continual enlargement of our love, and of the fruit of love, obedience. If by Meditation we taste the sweetness of God in the Spirit dwelling in us: Let us thirst afresh for the living GOD: who the more he is thirsted after, the more he gives of the waters of Life. So shall thirst increase that which satisfies thirst, and the satisfying of the thirst shall increase our thirst, that so the satisfaction may still increase. The River of Regeneration, points us to the Ocean of Regeneration, even the Spirit within us, unto the great Spirit above us. From him it confesseth that it cometh, to him it desires to return, that so it may come larger from him, than it returned to him. But if by the inquest of our meditation we find, that some rebellious & aspiring sin hath assayed and undertaken the conquest and death of the Spirit: And on the other side, we find the Spirit grieved, yea fainting and gasping for life: Let the soul and all the powers thereof rise up in arms, for the suppressing of the body of death, and for the rescuing of life Eternal. Not a common fire, but the fire of Hell hath feized; not upon our common houses, but upon the Temples of the holy Ghost; what haste or care can be great enough to rescue such unvaluable habitations, from so abominable a desolation? Let us run therefore, and that speedily, into the water of Baptism, to quench the fiery darts of Satan; let us steep our souls therein, until the flame of sin be extinguished, our souls washed clean, restored to their former beauty, yea made fairer than before. For even by sins may the Spirit take occasion to increase grace, though not by the nature of sins, but by the sovereignty of that Spirit, which powerful above all things, turneth all things to his own advantage; of sins maketh a plaster against sin, and by falls makes us more safe from falling. The mighty Spirit of God is as powerful as over: when with AARON'S rod we be changed into serpents, God can turn us again into rods bearing blossoms and fruit. But that we fail not in this precious Art which turns Scorpions into medicines, and judgement in to mercy: Let us observe the true rules of just proceeding. And first, sitting down in the Court of Meditation; let the sin which hath laid violent hands on the Spirit, be brought before our consideration, even in the ugliness thereof. Let it appear just as it is, ragged, putrefied, and loathsome, without the covering of fig-leaves, even of partial and deceitful pretences. Now that we may the more carefully view and judge our sin; let us remember that this judgement is the judgement of God, and not of Man: we sit as in God's place to judge ourselves, that God may not have need to sit himself in judgement upon us. For if we do not judge ourselves well, God will come himself to judge us better; he will by his punishments set our sins in order before us; and his punishments will be double; One for the sins which we have committed; another for the partial and corrupt judgement of the same sins. Wherefore without showing mercy on these Canaanites, which show cruelty to us, by being thorns in our sides pricking us unto death; let us take our sins and strip them stark naked, that every part and circumstance of them may appear. Having done this, let us in one sight, even in a view of comparison, at once behold the pureness and holiness of our Maker expressed in his Law, joining therewith the infinite love which hath powered itself out upon us in his inestimable benefits: And even then let us also look on our deformed sins, so contrary to his purity, and on ourselves offending by those sins, against so great a Goodness. And when we thus have seen so pure and so gracious a Creator, and withal behold so impure, ungrateful, and rebellious creatures, how can the soul choose but fly into her own face, to tear herself in pieces, for disobeying the voice, and crossing the goodness of a most pure and bountiful God? The sin being compared to the Law, will appear crooked and full of deformity, it will be called foolishness, and filthiness, because it transgresseth the Law of the highest wisdom and purity.  
In sum, the Soul in zeal, indignation, and revenge will pronounce judgement against herself and her accomplice the body; she will pronounce the body worthy of smart and punishment eternal, and in testimony that she believes what she says, she will perchance chastise him with mourning, fasting, and aspetity; which also may be profitable to this end; that the sinful body tasting some degree of his own deservings, may loathe that sin which deserved to feel without end and measure, the punishment which she for a season only, and in measure inflicteth on it: And on herself will she likewise power forth judgement; That she who was made to the Image of God, and should have guided herself and the body according to that Image, for forsaking her function, hath deserved to lose both the Image of God, and the sight of God for evermore. She judgeth herself worthy to pass from the darkness of sin, unto the darkness of punishment and eternal horror. And in testimony hereof, she sets the Understanding, Will, and Affections against themselves, to accuse, upbraid, and loath their own filthiness; so that the soul which hath doomed herself to deserve eternal trouble, ratifies her sentence on herself, by a selfe-vexation. But is this the end of judgement, that souls may thereby despair and die? No surely: But this humiliation and Prostration is the foot of the valley, which they must descend into, that will ascend to the height of the Mountain of God: We are the sons of death, and to us is appointed a space to abide in the valley of death; That is our natural, and first walk, and in it must we do the homage of our natural condition, before we may comfortably look up to the bills from whence cometh our salvation.  
In sum, God will have our misery, & consequently our need of a Saviour acknowledged, before a Saviour shall be imparted.  
But having condemned ourselves and our sins, even to the pit of hell, and being as sick of sorrow, as we are of sin, then may we hopefully go to the Physician of our souls, who came into the world only to cure the sick, and to give them only Light, who sit in darkness, and the shadow of death.  
Behold, thou selfe-iudgeing and selfe-condemning Soul, thou hast prevented the judge of the world, thou hast done upon thyself, his work of justice, and hast left him nothing to do but this work of Mercy. Accordingly he offers thee the waters of Baptism, which are the waters of Life: Wash and be clean. And that thou mayest know how to wash unto cleanness, know and consider the divers conditions of thy filthiness, and the divers operations of this Water proportionable to that divers condition; that so to thy several kind of defiling, thou mayest fit a several kind of washing. In thy sin thou hast contracted thy old contrariety unto God, thou hast brought back the flesh upon the soul, thou hast for the time healed up the cut of Circumcision, and art become one with thy flesh, from which by Regeneration thou wert divorced. So by touching this Pitch, is there come upon thy soul a spot of thy old corruption; and to this is added the guilt of a sin which hath proceeded from this corruption. So art thou in a double disease; thou art defiled by the touch of thy flesh, and thou are arrested & seized by guilt, the fruit of Sin, the fruit of the flesh. Thou art filthy, and thou art guilty. Now in the water of Baptism there is also a double virtue, fitted for thy double misery. There is one that washeth away thy guilt; And another that washeth away thy corruption; one that washeth away the fruit of the flesh, and another that washeth away the flesh itself: One of these is the blood of Christ, the other is the Spirit of Christ; one is justification, the other is Sanctification. And these two CHRIST hath inseparably conjoined, because he will have them inseparable; for he importeth his justifying blood, by a sanctifying Spirit. Whom Christ cleanseth, he will throughly cleanse, not taking away the guilt, and leaving the corruption; nor taking away the corruption, & leaving the guilt; but at once clearing both corruption and guilt, by sanctification and justification. Wherefore when we come to be washed by Christ, and have recourse to his waters of Purification (whose cleansing was applied mainly and generally to the whole body of sin, in Baptism, if accompanied with Regeneration; but the virtue thereof is also particularly to be applied through our whole life; to the particular sinful fruits of that body of sin) we must beware of three faults; The one, that we beg not the water of justification, and leave unasked the water of Sanctification; that we seek not forgiveness only, but also amendment: For if we will have but one, we shall have neither; this gift of Christ being always double, or not at all: but thou must (upon better reason) say, as that Disciple of Christ said, Not my feet only, but my head also; so say thou, Not the defiled feet of the guilt of my sins, but the polluted head & root of those sins; so shalt thou be wholly clean. The healing and closing flesh, must be new ripped from the soul, by the sword of the Spirit, even by holy Conversion, Repentance, and Amendment; the face of the soul must be washed with the Oil of the Spirit, to take away the spots & blemishes received by the pitchy touch of sin; and then the blood of CHRIST will take from us the guilt of sins, being formerly abandoned, forsaken, and thrust out of doors by the Spirit. A second fault is, a vehement desire and endeavour, and performance of this part and duty of sanctification, without the comfortable hope & confidence of justification. This infirmity is most usually found in broken & afflicted souls, who most vehemently desire renewing and reformation, yet dare not to lay hold on justifying and absolving. These are contrary to the former offenders; for they presently lay hold on Christ for mercy, but neglect the holiness, without which no man shall see GOD; and these striving mainly for holiness, by doubt go about to put from them that right in Christ's blood, which belongeth chief to such as they are, even to the humble and meek, to them that hunger and thirst for Righteousness. A third fault is, the misordering and misapplying of these Waters: such is the washing away of guilt, by the water of Sanctification, & of corruption by the water of justification. For though they be both joined together, and do not at all divide themselves; yet being joined, they are not confounded; neither doth the one properly perform the work of the other. Christ's Blood justifies, Christ's Spirit sanctifies; the justification is not without Sanctification; neither is the Sanctification without justification; yet justification is not Sanctification, neither is Sanctification justification: the justice of God is satisfied with blood, and his holiness is pleased with pureness in the inward parts, & in these two thus distinguished, lieth the Tenor of the new Covenant. For, thus we find it described, He will take away our sins, and he will give us new hearts. But after we have sinned, the renewing of our hearts is not a purgation of our guilt, but of our corruption: the purgation of our guilt being wrought by the blood of Christ, though imparted and sealed to our spirits by the same Spirit, by which we are renewed; yea even the same time: now, because in this change and renewing of our minds, the Spirit entereth into us with fresh grace, by which entry the virtue of Christ's satisfaction entereth also, & offereth itself to comfort and heal up our consciences, with assurance of forgiveness (all Christ's benefits being reached to us by one only Spirit) therefore many times is Repentance said to be the cause of forgiveness: not (as some otherwise Venerable, have anciently misse-conceived) that the grace of Repentance is a sacrifice for sin, or that Contrition & Conversion by themselves, can satisfy for the guilt of sin, but because in the grace of Repentance the Spirit entereth, bringing also with him the grace of CHRIST'S justification. In sum, by the admitting of CHRIST'S Spirit renewing, we receive Christ, acquitting and renewing us as the point of the Needle of the Spirit, by which the Spirit pierceth itself into our hearts, bringing the pardon of sins repent into our souls, and the same sent from God for his Christ's sake, but imparted, sealed, and ratified by the Spirit.  
This washing thus fully and duly performed, and the Spirit restored to his former dominion, he commonly fortifies himself, by the remembrance of his late loss, and he strives to take deeper root, because his weaker roots were before so much moved and shaken. He keeps a more careful watch against the enemy, and (with a kind of malice) especially against that sin that before had foiled him. He sucks harder from henceforth by more fervent desires, at the great Spirit, whose Ocean supplieth him, and filleth the Creeks of all empty, dry, and thirsty souls: and thus is sin turned into a medicine against sin, and grace prospereth by her losses.  
To this large and weighty kind of Meditation, which asketh both length and strength of Intention, and requires the soul to be at leisure for it, we may add a lesser and a shorter sort, as it were in a portable and manual form to carry still about us for our continual use, to which we may have continual recourse, amidst the continual distractions of this troublesome and toilsome life. This is to be still in the hand of a Christian, as a Level in the hand of a Builder, that he may square out his actions & conversations rightly thereby. The most profitable fashion of this portable Meditation, is, when in few words it comprehends the sum of our business and duty, whereof there are patterns to be found in the holy Scriptures; or if we list, we may fit the words ourselves, so we fetch the matter from thence. A good one shall we find in the Epistle to TITUS: The Grace of God hath appeared, which teacheth us to deny ungodly lusts, and to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world. And in the second to the Corinthians: Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God; and that of the Royal Preacher: Fear God, and keep his Commandments, for this is the whole of man.. If this be practised by us, we shall find this double benefit thereby: First, if we be in the beginning of an ill action, like a Rule, it will presently show us the crookedness of it, & point us to the right way from whence we have strayed: and if it have been too long deferred, so that the sin is passed before it was called for, then will it be a Seer unto thee, to tell thee thy sin, and to deliver thee over to the larger meditation of Repentance. Secondly, if thou art in a good and right action, it stands by thee to abet and encourage thee, thou art in the path of God's protection, in the way where the Angel's guard and watch; Go on valiantly & fear not, what man, nor evil angels can do unto thee. Thus shall the soul continued her flight towards heaven, if ever among she anoint her feathers with this Oil of the Spirit. For in this respect she is not unlike those flying fishes, whose wings by flying grow dry, and by being dry, lose their flying, so that still they must have recourse to the Sea, by the moisture thereof still to make good their flight. So the soul, flying through this world unto heaven, her wings, even her cogitations, purposes, and conceptions will grow dry by earthly conversation, and therefore must be new oiled with grace, if they will carry her thoroughly to her journeys end. The cares and temptations of this life, quickly dry up the heavenly Unction, and so the soul is in danger to fall, if she do not often moisten herself in the Rivers of Oil, which flow from the eternal Spirit: and thither doth this short Meditation direct us.  
Lastly, we may adjoin hereunto, incident & occasional Meditations; which will be very useful upon the receiving of extraordinary blessings, or the suffering of unwonted chastisements. It is fit we should search out God's meaning (as near as we may) by the light of his Word, when he speaketh to us in his favours and frowns. His blessings should be esteemed, like so many bands of obedience, and thou shouldest acknowledge both in heart and actions, that each of them calls to thee for more Love, more Thankfulness, more Holiness. Yea, thou art by them led unto Humility; for when thou lookest on God's blessings, and thy sinful self at once, thou must needs cry out; I am less than the least of thy blessings; and what is man, that the Lord regardeth and visiteth him? yea, the bounty of God leadeth thee to Repentance, and God is often to us a pattern of overcoming evil with good, even our sins, with his Mercies. He dresseth and manureth many times a fruitless Tree, that he may receive fruit from it. Therefore be thou amended by his benefits, and increase thy fruit; otherwise blessings made unfruitful, are the forerunners of cursings; and dressing, if to no purpose, is the way to digging up and casting into the fire. Likewise, let the chastisements of God be entertained by Meditation, unto thy profit and advancement. They would have thee either to examine thyself of some neglected sin, or they would have thee repent even for thy secret sins (for though thou know nothing by thyself, yet art thou not thereby acquitted;) or they would have thee humble thy proud heart under the mighty hand of God, or they would spur thee to a speedier and more active Zeal, or they would teach thee the skill of that excellent virtue Patience, and instruct thee to love God afflicting, and to trust in him slaying. Some of these are commonly the purposes and ends of affliction: and if thou take occasion by chastisements, to put them all in execution, thou shalt be the surer to hit the right one, and so to be a gainer by thy sufferings.  
But (before we leave this subject) if we would know which is generally the best and fittest habitude of Man for the receiving of profit by the larger and more leisurable kind of Meditation: Surely it is when the body lest burdeneth the soul, especially, when she is least clogged with the gross vapours of fullness and repletion. It is truly said by the Wiseman, That the corruptible body weigheth down the soul: and therefore as truly it may be said, That the body rarefied and lessened by abstinence, lighteneth the soul, when the eyes or ears, which see and hear the soul, are stopped up by thick exhalations, the soul cannot tell the dull body what the Spirit of God doth tell it. But since spiritual things are spiritually discerned, surely then are spiritual things best discerned, when the body is most spirit-like, and least bodily. When the Lantern of the flesh is pared and thinned by Abstinence, than the Light of the soul shineth most clearly through it. Saint PAUL spoke of the Man that saw Revelations unutterable, that whether he were in the body, or out of the body he knew not: so if we will see Revelations (otherwise inconceivable) we must strive to go out of the body so far by abstinence, as we may with preserving the body. For certain it is, That the soul enlightened by Grace, if it were not for the cloud of the body, would shine out to us in many notable and excellent Truths; and therefore he takes the true course to meet them, that goes a little out of his body towards them. And, surely such souls so walking toward God, by going out of the flesh into the Spirit, GOD hath often met with heavenly Visions, whereas others shutting up their windows by continual fullness, have lost great Revelations; To DANIEL fasting, GABRIEL appeared; to PETER fasting, the Sheet was let down from Heaven; and to CORNELIUS fasting, even to the ninth hour, an Angel was sent from God. And surely this latter kind of fasting seems most profitable for Meditation; even the fast of the Morning, rather than of the Evening. For in the Morning after rest the Spirits are freshest, and most capable both of Light and Action; they are most lightsome & most active for Meditation. And as fasting kindles the bright flame of Meditation: so the true and kindly fire of Meditation sends up to Heaven the smoke and incense of Prayer. For fasting is an excellent Preparative to Meditation, and Meditation to PRAYER. Without abstinence, Meditation lesseneth her Light; without Meditation, Prayer lesseneth her might: but Meditation joined to Abstinence, mounteth the higher; and Prayer mounted on Meditation, pierceth the swifter, and reacheth the nearer to Heaven. Again, as by Abstinence we are made the fit to meditate, and by Meditation made the fit to pray: so by Prayer we get a greater fitness and ability both for Abstinence and Meditation. Such Prayer blesleth the means, by which it is begotten, by going to the Father of blessings, and it is of a great power with GOD; even so powerful, that some kind of Devils go not out but by it. Let us therefore often abstain, that we may often meditate; and when we have dwelled awhile in Meditation, let us go forth into Prayer. For Prayer thus inflamed by Meditation, is as the Sacrifice of Israel, kindled by the fire of Heaven; and such a Sacrifice is indeed only acceptable. Without fire it is no Sacrifice: for every sacrifice must be salted with fire, with strange fire (as of superstition or the flesh) it is worse than no Sacrifice; and therefore it must even be the heavenly fire of Grace, which makes the Sacrifices acceptable; and this is most fitly kindled by Meditation. And thus if we kindle the fire of Grace by the bellows of Meditation, this fire that now guideth, moveth, and comforteth our souls in the Pilgrimage of this life, shall in the next life break out into a flame of Glory, wherein we shall be enthroned like the Sun, shining before the lesser Stars in brightness, as we have here excelled them in Holiness.   

CHAP. VIII. Of Association.  
AS every strong thing is made stronger by the combination of a like thing unto it; and as the heat is the more increased, by the meeting of divers things that have heat: So is also the Spirit increased in us, by the fellowship of them that have the Spirit. When spiritual Men join their spiritual strength together, they will, like DAVID'S valiant men, break more strongly thorough the Hosts of the Philistians temptations, objections, and afflictions, and fetch away more safely and sound the Waters of Grace from the Fountain of Life. This Association of Saints is that Bed of SALOMON, wherein two lying together, have heat: but he lieth in the Bed of woe, that lies alone. When two strings of divers Instruments are set to one Tune, if one of them be moved, the other leapeth, and danceth: And how can it be, but that when two men tuned by one Spirit, do meet, the Spirit of the one must needs rejoice and be lively, when it heareth the voice of the Spirit in the other? JOHN BAPTIST being sanctified with Grace in his Mother's womb, even in that womb springeth for joy, at the voice of that Virgin, who was entitled, Full of Grace. Yea, ELIZABETH herself falleth into an heavenly Trance; and rising above herself, she is filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesieth the blessedness of the Virgins Son. Surely, there is not a more pleasant and comfortable thing than Harmony: for it is indeed the ground of all pleasure: Now the chiefest Harmony is of the chiefest things, and these are, Spirits: The highest of this kind, is in the highest Spirit, even of himself, with himself. The second, between the highest and the lower: And the third, between the lower themselves. From this last Harmony doth arise both joy and encouragement; our Spirit first is cheered, then encouraged, and so advanced in the way of Holiness. The Saints of God, either by their gracious words, or holy Examples, stir up the gifts of God in us; they either add something to our Zeal, or something to our knowledge: yea, if they be inferior to us in both, yet by instructing and provoking them, we many times instruct and provoke ourselves. Surely there issueth oft-times from the meanest something which may better the best, either immediately, or by the consequence of some Meditations, awaked by conference. Even in the communication of the Spirit, the Spirit increaseth, and our Talon, by lending, multiplieth in the most profitable and commendable Usury. For the Spirit is so excellently good, that it desires to have his goodness communicated, yea, it will reward thee that givest it abroad, by increasing thy ability of giving. So art thou made a great gainer, for it is doubly multiplied to thee; as it is the Bread of Life for thy eating; and as it is the Seed of Life for thy sowing; the more thou sowest, the more mayest thou eat, and the more mayest thou sow.  
Wherefore let us not, as some do, forsake the fellowship & communion of Saints; Let us not make the Spirit in us both dumb & deaf by separation and division; for such it is when it cannot hear, nor speak the language of heaven. Let us not deprive ourselves of the great benefits of spiritual traffic & commerce; thereby knitting up and stopping the prosperity, growth, and enlargement of the Spirit. Let us not bind ourselves to our own infirmities, falls and wants, for lack of opening and communicating our estates; for many have fallen and never risen again, because they have gone alone, neglecting the company of such who could have given them the hand, to raise them from their falls. We are all Brethren and Countrymen, and withal Pilgrims in a strange Country; How glad should Brethren and Countrymen be to meet in a strange Land? especially in the Land of enemies, such as this World is. For this World shuneth us, it hateth us; our persons and our courses are odious, because contrary to them. How should their strangeness & malice increase our mutual love and conversation? How much more need have we to counsel & confer each with other, since we live as it were in a siege of temptations and persecutions? And if the wisdom of Religion cannot persuade us, let the patterns of Nature, which are the books of the Ignorant, teach us; let the herds of Beasts, and the swarms of Bees, & the flights of Doves instruct thee, to believe that things of one kind preserve and cherish one another by mutual society. But if for all this, we will needs be strangers one to another, differing and dissenting among ourselves. Let us be sure that we then rip that love from ourselves which is the badge of the Family of God; we lose the comfort of love, which is one of the greatest in our way to happiness; we separate those whom God hath knit together; we lose good instructions and good examples; and finally, we weaken ourselves by division, and make the scattered Army of God, a prey unto their pursuing enemies. Let us much rather, with the Prince & Prophet, rejoice in them which excel in virtue. Let our delight be in the Saints on earth, and let the sons of God love their Brethren, begotten by the same Father. Let us confirm and provoke one another to good works. Let us associate ourselves to them, who by word or deed can supply our spiritual defects; from whose speech we may learn what we know not, and by whose exhortation we may be moved to perform that, which we know and do not; and by whose examples we may have virtues patterned unto us, & showed to be possible, yea easy to the resolute man of God. But nevertheless, in this Christian good fellowship do not pull out thy own eyes, that thou mayest love all alike that carry the title of Christians. Think not all them to be Israel, that put on the name of Israel. Where thou seest no contrary cause, there let charity carry away thy affection, but in a degree, according to the degree of virtue. Yea, though thou seest false and slips, if acknowledged and recovered, restore such a one with the Spirit of meekness, lest thou have need also to be restored by him. But if thou seest one covering a continual Covetousness, Pride, Malice, Oppression, and such other sins, with a long & thick cloak of Religion, let thy company to such a one be a conversation of reproof, and the doctrine of SIMON PETER to SIMON MAGUS, or let it be no company at all. These are they, for whom chief the Name of God is ill spoken of among our Heathen Christians. These be they, that set Religion to the basest & lowest service, even to the attendance and supportation of sin, which of all things else it most hateth and detesteth. These be they, that make Religion to be most dangerous and hurtful to those who have most Religion, if withal they have not the wisdom to discern Spirits. These be they, that use the Word of God, to advance & prosper their own wickedness, and consequently, their own damnation, and certainly their damnation sleepeth not, but every Sermon which they hear, increaseth their heap of wrath, against the Day of wrath.  
Now as we should generally apply ourselves unto the society of the Saints, so should we strive to bring Saints into the places of nearest use and society. For goodness being so near us, will continually be doing good unto us. Whereas on the contrary, gracelessness by the continuance of conversation, will be still infecting quenching, and killing of grace. Ancient examples of wretched Memory, have confirmed this at large; the greatest and the broadest miseries having been brought on mankind, by the mischief of such infectious society. There was but one man at the first, and in him was all mankind; and in him all mankind fell into destruction, by his believing a seduced wife, and their both associating and believing a seducing Serpent. Yea there is before us but one great World, and by the conversation of the daughters of men with the sons of God, this world was both corrupted and drowned. After that deluge there was but one Nation chosen by God, as a pattern and Masterpiece of the World, in which God, by miracles & precepts, mounted and improved mankind to his utmost height, to see what Man could do towards his own happiness and salvation, & this chief Nation, yea the chiefest one of that Nation became abominably sinful by conversing with sinners. And can a part think to stand, where the whole hath fallen? Or can our weakness think to overcome that enemy, before whom such strength and wisdom lies vanquished and subdued? It cannot be expected. Our vain and groundless presumptions may puff us up with an opinion of conquering, but that very presumption is the main thing, that by such persuasions leads us to be conquered; and by telling us of Victory, it leads us on valiantly to be beaten. And let us assuredly believe this, that if there be the like profane marrying, and the like taking in marriage, as there was in the days of NO; the like eating and drinking, even such wicked & heathenish good fellowship; the world that now is, will be as ripe for Fire, as it was then for Water; it will have as much need of burning, as it had then of drowning. But let the wise of heart hasten this day rather by their prayers, than their sins; and to prevent sin, let them walk as sons of Light, with the children of Light, and have no fellowship with the works, or workers of darkness.  
I know right well, that the fewness of those, who enter into the strait gate, doth impose upon us a difficulty of fitting ourselves round with the society of Saints. I know also, that the necessities of this life, do forcibly carry us into the companies of profane & godless men. Yet let us remember to strive still for the best, to account the evil as thorns in our sides, and let us find willingly a trouble & vexation in their company; but never satisfaction, rest, and contentment. Let our hearts be to the Saints still, even to the seed of the Woman's seed, and let there ever be a horror in us, and reluctation against the seed of the Serpent. Let us do our endeavour continually to unwind ourselves from the wicked, and from the need of their society. And let us take heed, that we do not too easily despair of accommodating our uses and occasions by some of those sanctified few, especially in that place of nearest Union, which requires but one; and that one in the Lord: GOD hath promised the seekers to find, and that he will withhold no grace, nor blessing from them, which seek blessings for his Glory.  
To conclude, converse also with the dead; hear and read their Actions and Say; thou shalt find that the dead will quicken the dead, as the dead Prophet did the dead Soldier. The spirit of the dead will enter into thy dead heart, when thou considerest their excellent Actions and heavenly Meditations; The zealous heat of their spirits remaineth yet in their words and actions, and by these will enter into thee, to raise thee up to the same degree of fervence in the Spirit. The first Love was the best Love, and the first lovers were the best lovers. The Apostles that were nearest to Christ, were nearest to him in Love; & those that succeeded the Apostles in time, succeeded them best in Love: for than did the Kingdom of Heaven suffer greatest violence. I know that God is still mighty in his Saints, but I know also, that in these first times the fire of Love was more generally vehement; for than they did even dote upon Martyrdom, and by their forwardness of suffering, daunted many times the fury of their Persecutors. But on the other side, it hath been foretold, that in these last Times, Love shall wax cold, and men shall love pleasures more than God: whereupon the World shall be consummate. Therefore let our cold Love warm itself by the communion of their hot Love, and let no man so much condemn the Fathers for Errors, as admire and imitate them for Zeal. Let us be followers of them that followed so vehemently after Christ, yea, of all such which since their days and even at this day, have been followers of those followers of Christ. Thus compassed with a cloud of witnesses, the testimonies of their love will powerfully persuade us, to cast away all that presseth down, and the sin which hangeth so fast on, and to run more actively and swiftly in the race of Piety & Glory which is set before us.   

CHAP. IX. Of Humility.  
TO increase in the Spirit, and so to grow in happiness, we must carry about us a perpetual Humility. For Humility is the Forerunner of Grace, and it never goes before, but Grace follows after. This excellent Virtue casts out the old ADAM, and makes room for the New; it puts away the fullness by which we are full of ourselves, and so makes place for Christ, that we may be full of his Spirit. Man (as before) hath gotten a Godhead into him, he is filled and puffed up with his knowledge of good & evil, even with a selfe-happines, which keeps out the true Happiness. God will not have any gods but himself, neither will he allow Man to have two Felicities, but he imposeth a necessity on him to love the one, and hate the other, to lose the one, and to gain the other. Therefore as much as we retain of this corrupt felicity, so much do we abate of true Happiness; and the room that is given to the one, is denied to the other. And surely too true it is, that even after our Regeneration, there abides a great remnant of our proud corruption. It is of kin to the Serpent which persuaded it; when the head of it is broken in pieces, the tail will still be moving. And in what degree this corruption remaineth, in that degree is grace abated; but in what degree this swelling evil is abated, in the same degree is Grace increased. Therefore if we be much proud, we are much graceless, if we be much humble, we be much gracious. Wherefore let us take up Humility, which as a Corrosive will fret away the proud flesh, & make way for the prosperity of the lively and quickening Spirit. Towards this, let us consider that the Natural Man, being stuffed up with himself, and not regarding any thing beyond the Lust and Law of his own heart, sits down in himself, and takes up his rest, Sabbath, and felicity in his own imagination. But while God is unregarded and unsought, he also as little regardeth these unregarders; yea he beholdeth the proud a-far-off. He knows the weight and end of their swelling, that it is Nothing, that ere long it shall come to Nothing; and that at last these swellers must come before him as a judge, who refused him here for a Saviour, and happiness. On the other side, the spiritual Man plainly seethe, that this imaginary happiness of pride, is true misery: since Man, the more he stands upon himself without God, the more weakly & wretchedly he stands; and the fuller Man is of himself, the fuller is he of Corruption, Vanity, and Misery. Therefore desireth he to go out of himself into God, & to unlade himself of himself, that he may be filled with God; he purgeth his heart of the tree of false knowledge, that he may satiate it with the Tree of Life. And Humility having thus fulfilled her Work, then enters Grace into the Soul so swept and trimmed; for the same God who resisteth the Proud, giveth Grace to the humble. God will be a welcome, and not a fulsome Guest: he loves not to come when there is no need of him, he desires not to thrust unnecessary Happiness upon Men sufficiently happy. But the hungry souls he filleth with good things, he guideth the meek & humble, in his ways, and the poor in Spirit are allowed only to receive the Gospel. These have set open their doors to the King of Glory; they have forgotten their Father's house, even their natural condition, and therefore the LORD hath pleasure in their beauty. His Light takes pleasure, yea, gets Glory in coming into confessed Darkness; his Grace is delighted, and magnified, by pardoning and sanctifying an acknowledged corruption, and his blessedness rejoiceth in blessing apparent and desperate misery. Wherefore let us strive for a practical skill of this profitable humility; that by not loving ourselves, we may love our souls best; & by the greatest emptiness, we may purchase the most true & happy fullness. To this end let us ever be pricking the tumors of our nature, that we die not of a spiritual Timpany. Let us strive to make ourselves nothing, that he which made all things of nothing, may make something of us. Let us willingly walk down into the Vale of humility, from whence God calls for all whom he exalteth up to his holy Mountain. And for the furtherance of this holy virtue, let watchfulness undertake, as a special part of this task, to mark the first swellings of the heart, that they may be abated, as soon as lifted up. Let no degree be allowed to that, which so much as it is; so much evil, so much loss it is; so much have we offended God, and so much have we abated his Grace. But still let us be paring and fretting off the proud flesh, with meditations of our own natural misery; and miserable condition, with the asperity of the exercises of Humiliation, & with fervent and violent Prayer sent up to the Giver of perfect gifts. Let us entreat him, that he will discover unto us, ourselves, & himself; our own vileness, & his Glory; that so we may rightly glory in Gods true Glory, & not (like Fools) in our own shame. In our Meditations let us fasten our eyes on the wickedness of Man, & the wretchedness deservedly annexed to it. In our wicked corruption, let us first see our own blindness, and bring our darkness into the light. There shall we see, that we see little or nothing; yea, in the main matters of our life, such as are our beginning and end; whence we come, and whither we go, we are naturally blind. Therefore our life is but a thing at random, without knowing what it doth, and wherefore it is. And if we have gotten a little knowledge, then let us behold our filthiness: How do we defile ourselves in the things which we know? how weak are our resolutions of Piety & Virtue? they are like a Mist or the Morning dew, blown away and dried up with every blast of Temptation: So that they seem to be set up only for shows; and to stand no longer than nothing toucheth them. But the motions of our concupiscence are strong, and continual. The flesh of Man is powerful upon the Soul, and in Man that opinion is verified, that the Earth runs round, and the Heaven stands still: For there breatheth up from the defiled body, even the Earth of Man, a continual, and mighty Venom, which by perpetual motion changeth the aspect and influence of the heavenly Soul, as itself lifteth. But the whiles it fasteneth and naileth the Soul, that she cannot stir about her own business of Immortality, but she must wholly fix and employ herself in a careful study, how to execute fitly the lusts of this beastly dust. And if at any time the Soul loathing the filth and mire wherewith she hath sullied herself, even to ugliness, lay down a plot for repentance, even for the clean washing of her face; how soon doth the old dirt of sin spout into her visage again; so that her business in this life, if it be a life of penitence, seems to be nothing, but a washing of that which is fouled, and a fouling of that which was washed? and if we turn our eyes from this filthiness unto the bordering wretchedness, we shall find ourselves subject to a thousand infirmities: Misery & Vanity have both livery and seisin in us, and we are their Tenants for term of life. One trouble calleth to another, as the waves of the Sea; and miseries, like Beacons, give notice one to the other, until the whole life of man be set on fire. The sound of the old is but newly gone out of our ears, but there is a new which presently soundeth as ill as the old. It is the very kind of man to be miserable while he breatheth; as it is the kind of sparks to fly upward. And if a man strive to cure his present misery with present mirth, commonly the misery of such is not taken away but changed, and of temporal made eternal. The rich Man that was every day gorgeously arrayed, and every day fared deliciously, ended his luxury in misery, and his judgement is, Thou hast taken thy pleasure, therefore art thou now tormented. The cure of our misery must be by vulneraric potions, not by outward plasters, by the blood and Spirit of Christ inwardly received, not by the natural Balm of Gilead, even the pleasures of this world. The things of this world are, to serve and cherish us in our way to happiness, not to be taken as our happiness, or the absolute cure of our misery. For if so used, they cure our misery, but with a greater misery, and by making us happy, they make us lose a greater happiness. Thus must man be content to see himself of himself, wretched and miserable. He must needs cry out, What is Man, that he is so regarded? And Man is of a short continuance, and his life is full of trouble; & surely, Man is altogether vanity. He must also complain of his filthiness; our righteousness is as a filthy cloth, and if we should wash ourselves, our clothes would defile us. In iniquitic have we been begotten, & conceived in sin: And who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness? Thus loathing and condemning ourselves, and being weary of ourselves, Christ JESUS stands with open arms, ready to receive such weary & laden souls, and to refresh them. He will refresh us with the River of the City of God, even with fresh streams of grace: and the holy Oil shall drop down from the head of our high Priest unto us who are the skirts, even the humblest parts of his garment: And then shall we be filled with the sweet savour of Holiness, and life Eternal.   

CHAP. X. Of Patience.  
LAstly, for the preservation & advancement of the estate of Happiness, we have great need and use of Patience. Our need of patience is absolute, because the Saints of God are here with the rest, in a world of misery, and beyond the rest in a world of enmity. Every hour there is a likelihood of some trouble and temptation; and every trouble without patience (which is the Ward of the soul) breaketh in upon the soul, and carries her away into tumultuous, enormous, and unreasonable perturbations. But on the other side, Patience raileth in the soul amidst the press of temporal evils, and keepeth her in a continual quietness and repose, & consequently in an ability of judgement, discretion, and direction; and this is a first and chief use and benefit of Patience. For doth not that greatly advantage us, and the graces bestowed on us, which makes us Owners and Masters of ourselves & them? By Patience we can, with the Centurion, call for this servant, and he cometh; and send that Soldier, and he goeth. We can make use of our understandings, and by our understandings, of those very evils, which are the subjects of our patience. We can make use of our wills and affections, to will and love God; to will and love that which GOD wills and loves; yea to will and love the very troubles and encumbrances, which urge and press us. Hence come those excellent voices; Though God kill me, yet will I trust in him: and, Before I was chastised, I went astray, but now do I keep thy Laws: &, Blessed is the man that beareth the yoke in his youth. He sitteth solitary and is quiet, because God hath laid it on him. By Patience we can make use of our memories, to call to mind the mercies of God in old time; how our Fathers trusted in him, & were delivered; yea how often God hath been our helper, and therefore we need not to fear what man can do against us. Hereby we may also call to mind, those wise and holy Precepts and counsels, which every wise and holy man doth prepare, and lay up for times of trouble and temptation. For it is fit that in calms we should provide for storms; we should in the quiet times of life sit down, and according to our saviours most prudent advice, cast up our reckonings, what the forces of our enemies be, what kind of fight they use, how their wounds may be prevented, and how cured, if suffered for want of prevention. He that hath performed this act of consideration, he fitteth himself with spiritual armour, proper to each kind of conflict. As soon as he sees the trouble, he chooseth out a fit shaft to pierce and encounter it; when he sees the blow coming, he knows the Ward that must defend it. And all this is put in execution by the benefit of patience. For the impatient lies open to all blows; his wits are confounded, & when he should hold up his shield, he striketh with his sword, and when he should take an arrow from the quiver of the Spirit, he catcheth at a club proffered to him by the flesh. To such a one all things are confused, he is beside himself, and therefore knows not the choice of actions. Again, by patience we have the use of Charity, a principal and Mother-grace: For hereby even in the midst of persecutions, we can pray for our Persecutors, and say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do; and, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. This quality of overcoming evil with good, and likewise the help of patience toward the performance of it, must we believe to be a chief preferment to a Christian in this race unto glory. For certainly it is so near a resemblance of the perfection of God, that God exceedingly delighteth in the doers thereof, and takes special notice of such; as those who are lifted up above the dregs of human corruption, into a high participation of a divine and godly Nature. They are good out of an inward goodness, and not because they look on good and pleasant objects. For whatsoever their object is, they are still good, & account the excellency of goodness, and the favour it hath with God, to be sufficient causes of goodness though in the world they see nothing but evil, which of itself deserveth only evil. And that this must needs procure a great love & blessing from God, doth appear by the effects it worketh in creatures infinitely inferior to God, yea impure and depraved. For, even SAUL himself, whom the Devil drove to the hunting of DAVID, as a Partridge in the Mountains; this Saul's evil and wicked rage, melteth away with the beams of DAVID'S shining and glorious goodness; and being preserved by him, whom he sought to slay, he is so overcome and changed by that goodness of DAVID, that he is enforced to bless him as a son, whom he had taken such pains to slay as an enemy. And if a cursed man can do this, how shall he bless, that is the Father of blessings? Surely, let our souls firmly dwell in this Truth, that those actions which are most perfectly referred to God, and have no end but God, are most fully rewarded of God; and as much as any outward thing doth share in the end, so much do we lose of our reward, and so much of our reward must we look of that End which did set us on work. Now where evil is offered, goodness cannot well propose any end, but God, in bestowing itself for evil. By patience also, we make room for Faith, and like a good child it cherisheth the parent that begat it: for, while patience keeps the house of Man in quietness, the unruly and tumultuous affections being suppressed and stilled, the soul is at leisure to look abroad with the eye of Faith; even to look within the vail, and there to see & comfort herself in eternal joys, presently possessed by Hope, which as an Anchor both sure and steadfast, is there already unmoovably fastened. By Patience also, have we time and place for the excellent instrument of Prayer, to fulfil her work of piercing the heavens, & presenting our necessities & griefs to the Throne of Grace. And commonly the prayer of the patiented returns with this comfortable answer: In a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I heard thee: for, the patiented abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever. And that we may yet be a little more in love with this beautifying and beautiful patience, let us look her somewhat steadfastly on the face, and particularly descry her excellent proportion. If thus we do, we shall find, that patience is placed by God in the heart of man against troubles; as the cliffs against the waves of the Sea; for, by patience God saith to the floods of persecutions & vexations, Hitherto shall ye come & no farther, and here shall ye stay your proud waves. It is the hedge of GOD'S Vineyard, even of the blessed Spirits of the Saints, which hath fenced them in the bloodiest times, against the wildest Boars, even the fiercest Tyrants. The body might be broken by torments, but this brazen wall of the soul could never be battered; it is a kind of metal that is fitted of purpose to endure the fire, even a fiery trial, and to be made brighter thereby. This she doth, and how can she do otherwise? for she is borne of heavenly Ancestors, and fetcheth her original from the Highest. The power of the most Mighty doth sustain her, & how can it be but she must then be mighty and powerful? For Patience fetcheth her strength and life from Hope, Hope from Faith, Faith from Christ, Christ from God. If it were not for Hope, the heart would break with impatience; if it were not for Faith, Hope would die and starve, as being without a root; if it were not for Christ, Faith would perish for want of an object. And without the Godhead, the Manhood of Christ were not a sufficient foundation of Faith. But now the Godhead supporteth and enableth the Manhood of Christ by a mighty Union; Faith groundeth an unmovable foundation upon Christ, being God & Man; Hope violently lays hold on the joys truly discovered by Faith, and Patience takes just courage and comfort from Hope, because Hope tells her she must wait but a little, and the promises shall certainly be received. And as Patience by this means powerfully supporteth, and sustaineth the Soul, and the graces infused into her, so is she also an excellent means for the increase of the same graces. Patience is the calm of the Soul; and as it is best sowing of visible Grain in a time of calm, so in the calm of the Soul, is it best sowing of the Invisible seed of the Word and Spirit. Then can we most truly say, My heart is ready, and, Speak, Lord, for thy Servant is at leisure to hear thee and then with Marie; are we most fit for that thing which is necessary, when by Patience we have excluded the many things that are troublesome. The Spirit delighteth in a meek and quiet Spirit, it cometh in the still wind, and not in the storm and tempest. Accordingly experience teacheth us, that the Patient have ever received spiritual consolations: and even this experience is a consolation to Patience. For this experience, that the love of God is shed abroad into the hearts of the patiented, so affects the patiented, that they be not ashamed. And if we would rather believe Examples, than Positions, Let us examine the Stories of JOB, and DAVID, and let us remember what end God made with them. The latter end of the patiented, hath recompensed his beginning; his patiented sowing in tears, hath brought forth the carrying of sheaves with joy. God will be suffered, loved, and trusted, even when he afflicteth, and chastiseth; he will have the Soul to repose her Happiness in him, while the body feeleth temporal misery. And if he be still trusted, and loved, if the heart still cleaveth unto him, than he cometh at length, with a large measure of comfort, he performeth indeed, what he hath spoken in his Word: Whoso trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him. It is no great glory to GOD, nor excellency in Man to trust in GOD, when with THOMAS we feel and handle the favours of God. The body may have a share in this kind of trust: But the sight of things invisible is the highest pitch of the Soul; this commends Man unto God, yea, it glorifies God unto Man; for it brings down certain news, that there is Grace and Mercy with God, when the body utterly denies it, because it feels the strokes of seeming Wrath and Punishment. And in this testimony delivered and received, GOD exceedingly delighteth; even to be trusted under hope against hope, & he abundantly recompenseth it, as in ABRAHAM, so in the sons of ABRAHAM. Another advantage of Grace by the mediation of Patience, is this, that the patiented afflicted, and he only, useth afflictions, as incentives to spiritual fervency, and being by troubles driven out the flesh, and the comforts thereof, he goes more mightily and wholly into the Spirit. He quitteth the battered and polluted tabernacle of his loathsome flesh, and he entereth into the secret of the Highest, where, by his Spirit GOD himself resideth. There doth he warm himself by the heavenly flames, he blows and kindles them, seeking by all means, that as sufferings abound, so consolations may also abound, and that temporal sorrow be at least counterpoised by spiritual joys. So through Patience, troubles drive us nearer to Christ, and sharpen our stomachs to suck more earnestly and eagerly the nourishment of Life Eternal. But on the other side, besides the loss of advantages, a multitude of evils rusheth in upon the Soul unfenced by Patience. Surely she is a continual prey to every trouble, she is never owner of herself, but like a light and unballasted vessel, she is at the command of every wave, of every wind. As continual as the misery of Man is, so continual is the distemper of Men impatient; and as often as troubles do happen, so often be they lifted up from the hinges of their souls, and removed into the habitations of their blind and uncomfortable flesh. Such a one is clean besides himself, even besides his Soul; which is the reason that he can neither advise, nor comfort himself. For the understanding which should direct, is as a Candle put out, or covered with a Bushel; the will and affections, which by the succours of Reason should support and strengthen, are drawn away from lending their service to Reason, and so to Man, and are become slaves of Passion and Perturbation. And so it comes to pass, that in such cases, a man's own will and affections, which should sustain and cherish him, do distract and tear him to pieces. And commonly it falls out with the impatient, that to the evil of affliction (which might have been turned to good) he addeth two evils more of his own; evil actions, and evil passions; committing foolish things, and doing cruel things, against his own Soul and Heart. And these two are commonly the greater kind of evils, and which the enmity of Grace most intendeth, and therefore by us especially should be prevented. Satan in spoiling the Flocks, in destroying the Children, in tormenting the body of holy JOB, did not so much aim to make him poor, childless, and full of pain; as to make him desperate, and rebellious against his Creator and Saviour by impatience. His greatest Malice is against our greatest Happiness; he knows we are still blessed, while God is one with us, though we be poor, naked, and full of sores as LAZARUS, who in this life tormented, yet was after exalted to ABRAHAM'S bosom: He values our chief Felicity, at a higher and a truer rate, than many of us do, and he values temporal things at a lower rate, than many of us do; Therefore he will indifferently take or give temporal things, to diminish our eternal joys; he will assay either by proffers, or by plagues, to draw us from our sovereign Good: And we more foolishly, and ignorantly, are ready to forsake eternal felicity, whensoever Satan will hire us with temporal commodity, or beat us from it with momentany afflictions. But it becometh us not to be ignorant of Satan's policies; where Satan's eye is most settled to hurt us, let our eye be there most fixed for our preservation. Toward this, let us thus far join with Satan, yea learn of him, if we knew it not before, that the union and agreement of our Soul with God, is the union of felicity; and therefore whatsoever we lose, let us not part from that. If Satan rob us of a bag of Silver, let us not call after him, and bid him take a bag of Gold also. If he afflict us outwardly, yet surrender not to him thy inward and everlasting Happiness. He is a Prince in this World, and so can do great things in the World. He can persecute, he can exalt, he can torment. But he is a slave us concerning the other World, which is called the Kingdom of Heaven. He cannot reach to this Kingdom which is in the Soul, where GOD is the King. Therefore by the things of this life, on which he hath power, he reacheth to the things of the next life, on which he hath no power, that by his own, he may prevail on that which is Gods. But we on the other side, as we know the devils purpose, so let us know his bounds, and then we shall be safe. Let us know that he can only stretch his power to temporal and outward things, and no further; and the inward things he must get by surrender, or else he cannot conquer them. Wherefore be careful to keep him at his true distance; if Satan have leave to winnow thee outwardly; yet pray to thy Mediator, that he pray, that thy faith fail not: if he cause thy outward man to perish, be thou careful that thy inward man be renewed daily; and take heed that thou give not more to him, than he hath already; especially give not thy eternity for his vanity, neither give him an usurped power over the Kingdom of Heaven, to which he is a base slave, and by which he shall be judged. Cast not to him thy soul after thy body, nor thy soul and body after thy goods; if the Prince of this World will have the things of the World, yield to this Prince, what must needs be given to this Prince: but the things of GOD, give only to GOD; the things of Grace and Glory, reserve for the Author of Grace, and the King of Glory. For want of this restraint and limitation of Satan's power, have many Saints of God lost the possession of their souls, and in those times of ecstasy, have undertaken doleful actions and executions, which have grieved and pined the Spirit within them, and have made work for a long-after-sorrow, and vexation of soul. Surely NABALS churlishness entered too far into DAVID'S spirit, and the injury of the Thessalonians, too much delivered away the soul of THEODOSIVS into fury, and the questions of the High Priests Servants, stole away too much of PETER'S Courage and Resolution. These holy men, sometimes by their frailty, gave too much way, and yielded too great advantage to Satan: But some there be, who are perfect in Satan's art of impatience, and therefore are his highest and greatest scholars. Let the Devil throw but one cross to them, they will take their souls, and throw them to the devils head; for they break out either into some cursed rage, or into the rage of cursing, or into some cursed action. Such a one is the devils Water-spaniel, he goes and brings what the Devil sends for; and if he bid him bring his own soul, he carries it many times to him in his own mouth, even in a mouth of Reviling, Revenge, Curses, and Execrations. But let us rather consider, that Mankind stands between two Spirits, the Spirit of Light, and the Spirit of Darkness, and each of them hath a several door into Man's heart, to possess and inhabit it. The Spirit of Blessedness comes in by the door of the Spirit, and this is opened unto him by the Key of Patience; The spirit of Hell enters by the door of the flesh, and this is unlocked to him by impatience. Now troubles & afflictions knock at both these doors, they knock at the door of the Spirit, calling to us to open to the Lord of Life, with the Key of Patience; who is now coming by afflictions, to nurture, and to instruct us, even to increase us in the fruits of Righteousness. But afflictions knock likewise at the door of the flesh, and by the feeling of smart, persuade Impatience to open to the prince of darkness, since so grief may be eased, and it seems a vain thing to please & serve an afflicting and chastizing God. But take heed thou open not the door of Death, to admit the Prince of Death, but by Patience admit the King of Glory, and give him the possession of thy soul; for his stripes are healers, his chastisements are restoratives, and his strokes are the strokes of a Father. So shalt thou prosper in grace, by afflictions, through the good husbandry of Patience, and on the other side thou shalt prevent all Satan's mischievous purposes, even all the evils that usually do issue from a tottered, disjointed, and abandoned spirit. Now that thou mayst provide for thyself such a strong Patience, which may be a Coat of proof to the soul; thy Patience must be tempered and steeled with Resolution. This Resolution is the Armour of thy Armour; even the keeper of thy Patience, which is the keeper of thy soul and the Graces bestowed upon it. For hereby we are constantly prepared to endure all the crosses and troubles of this transitory race of misery: And this Resolution to be good, must also issue from faith, that sees GOD our felicity, who otherwise is invisible, and from hope, by which future blessedness, though absent, yet assured, yields us comfort above all vanishing miseries. Thus the Soldier of God, warfaring against the Enemies of his heavenly Country, stands invincible against the gates of Hell, and himself being wounded or slain, yet his Patience, and consequently his soul, is safe and alive. But if thou hast not this Resolution still ready at hand, thou art impatient, as soon as thou feelest a blow, & thou must needs run away; for thou didst never resolve to fight. Thou hast not made thy computation what the Kingdom of Heaven will cost thee, or at least when thou sawest the reckoning, thou didst not resolve to be at the charge: Therefore thou art not for the Army of Christ; for all his Soldiers have resolved to sell all, to take up his Cross, and to follow him, in the way of suffering, unto the Crown of Glory.  
To conclude, that we may yet be more secured, that neither our Patience nor Resolution fail us in the day of trial; Let us know by whose strength we may stand, and in that strength, let us especially seek strength. We may do well, to open the Eye of Faith, to behold the joys of Heaven which are eternal: for Christ on the cross beheld this Glory, & therefore endured the Cross, & no doubt, the same joys, seen with the same sight, may work the same Resolution. We may do well to apply the Oil of hope to the sores and wounds, made by troubles & temptations; we may do well to behold the love of GOD, which we cannot think, intends to punish or torment, but to amend and exalt, and we may do well to look upon the print of God's seal in our hearts, by which that love is assured to us. Yet when we have done all this, it is the power of God that makes all this profitable to us. If GOD draw in his breath, we shall be troubled in the midst of our Contemplations, and Resolutions, we shall after many protestations deny him with PETER; all these helps will help us no more than the Law did the jews, without the strong Helper. For even Christ himself, by the power of God, endured the wrath of God, and by being GOD, despised the shame imposed for the sins of men. The Glory proposed comforted him, but by the Comforter; & the Spirit which he had, not by measure, did above measure quicken him with the sight of those joys. Wherefore let us especially by earnest Prayer, resort to our chief and only strength, without whom no man shall be strong in his own strength. Let us seek of God that power, by which PAUL being strengthened, was able to do all things, Let us put our trust in God alone, and with DAVID call him our Rock, our Fortress, our Shield, and our strength. We are but Dwarves to Satan; and he that is in the World, is far greater than we. But if God be in us, he is far greater than he that is in the World; and he can make our weakness to exceed Satan's strength. Therefore disclaiming the keeping of ourselves, let us commit ourselves to GOD, trusting that he will keep to the end, what we have committed unto him. Let us draw near unto GOD, and to the power of his right hand; let us take up our rest under the shadow of his wings. In his Name, and not in our own, may we boast all the day long, for it is his right hand that will get himself the victory in us. If thus we seek the Lord, he will be found of us; if we ascribe power to the Lord, the power of God will descend to those that glorify his power; if we trust in the God of Battles, of weak we shall be made strong, as the faithful have been in the days of old. And if we can once say, The Lord girdeth me with strength to the battle, we may also say, Those that rise against us, shalt thou subdue under us. Let Principalities & Powers muster up things present, and things to come, height, and depth, life and death, yet in all these shall we be more than conquerors, through him that loveth and sustaineth us. Our Patience and our Resolution are grounded upon the Rock of Omnipotence; though the winds blow, & the floods beat, they shall stand for they are grounded on a Rock, and while Patience standeth, the Soul flourisheth; where God seethe Patience, he seethe also that the works are more at last, then at the first; for that, and that alone, is a good and fruitful ground, which bringeth forth fruit with Patience.   

CHAP. XI. Of the final possession and, fruition of Happiness.  
THis World, though of itself, it be unto Man, but Misery, or Vanity, yet by the Mercy of the Creator, it is made unto Man a Nursery unto Happiness. For the Creator having lost his Creation, recovered it by Redemption. And by this Redemption, the World, which otherwise is but troublesome & transitory, yet it serves to fit us for joy and Eternity: yea, the troubles and transitories themselves are employed to do much of it: For the troubles of this life beat us on to ward future bliss, and the transitoriness delivers us up to everlastingness. In this life is the Bride trimmed and dressed; here is she decked for the Day of her Gladness, and here being made glorious within, she goes hence to be made perfectly glorious, both within and without; having glorified God by an inward Purity, she goes to be glorified by God, in a shining Eternity. But what tongue of Man can express the Glory of this felicity, which the Heart of Man cannot conceive? The Tongue must receive it from the Heart, and the Heart itself doth not receive it. The Tongue is more narrow than the Heart, and the Heart is infinitely too narrow for the receipt of these joys; so how narrow must be Man's relation of this Happiness, which must issue from that which is narrower, then that which is infinitely narrower than Happiness? And how can it be otherwise? for this Marriage is between the Creature and the Creator. And how can the Creature comprehend the Creator, especially, since we have here only a little glimpse of Faith, whereby to behold him? Again, it is a spiritual Marriage, and we are here more carnal than spiritual; so the tabernacle of corruptible flesh, doth much cloud and darken the Spirit, in the view of incorruptible joys. Yet are we not left here wholly ignorant of that, which here we cannot wholly know; but he who is our Happiness, hath showed some sparkles of that which he is, & hath delivered it to us, in this World of ignorance, by some palpable expressions, fitting rather to our dull capacity, then to his supernatural Excellency. Too much light darkens and dazzles a weak sight: and therefore the full appearance of felicity, is reserved for a perfect & most absolute Pureness, and clarity. In the mean time let us firmly lay hold on those revealed Truths which GOD hath set apart unto us, for our allotted portion of Light, in this dark place, until we come unto the perfect Day. Among them we find this most certainly proclaimed, That as there went out at first a Word of Creation, so shall there go out a Word of Dissolution, and therewith also a Word of Resurrection. The mighty voice of the Lord of Heaven, shall make Heaven and Earth to shake, the Elements to melt with fire, and the World to be dissolved. The face of this Visible frame shall be wiped away, it shall be rolled up as a Scrol: And all the false happinesses of Man shall pass away into nothing. But the Allseeing Providence of the Almighty Creator, who numbereth the hairs of our heads, and the sands of the Sea (for without his appointed number they could not have the quantity or number which they have) knoweth all Mankind both dead and alive, yea, every part of every scattered Man; and calleth up all Men, as he doth the Stars in their turns, Arise, ye Mortals, from Death and Mortality, and come unto judgement. The Earth is but a Ball in the hand of God, whereof every Mote or Atom was placed by his Wisdom; and the WISDOM that made all, cannot but know all that it hath made; yea, the thing made, cannot go out of the reach of the Maker: for it must be by a Power given from the Maker, that it is able to do those actions, by which it striveth, or seemeth to avoid his Maker. And this Power can be disposed, but at the will or permission of the Giver, and so it is still subject to his reach and comprehension. Accordingly, God, the Infinite cause of all these finite things, fully searcheth and comprehendeth his own Creation, yea, every change and variety thereof, neither can any thing in the World escape his knowledge, whose knowledge is the very Fountain of all those changes which would seem to escape it. Wherefore if we will allow a Wisdom wise enough to create, we must also allow a Wisdom wise enough to know, and to master in knowledge the things created. And if we allow a Power able to create without matter, we should much more allow the same Power to be able to renew of something, what was first created of nothing. Be this therefore the assurance of the blessed; that the Trump shall blow, and the dead shall rise, and that the spruce of this Creation shall return to the hand that first did plant it. As God is the beginning of his Works, so is he the end of them; all things that went from him with Power, must return to him with Glory; and the Seed-time of Creation, must be answered with the Harvest of a final judgement. God hath not made the World to no purpose, neither hath he cast out from him so great a Creation, as a thing contemned and neglected. He hath not been wise in an excellent Creation to no end; he hath not set Man here as a wild beast of the Forest, only to run after his lusts, neither seeing his Maker, nor seen of him. The Soul of Man had in it the power of a reasonable service; it could see, and know, and please his Creator. And Nature hath truly discovered, that GOD makes nothing for nothing. Therefore the Soul with her Subject the Body, must come and stand at the Bar of judgement, to be tried by her works, whether in the Body she hath pleased him that form her. And though many vagabond souls have run from their Maker, and have endeavoured to put themselves out of his service & command; yet he will not lose his property in them; they may fly from his Obedience, but never from his Power, justice, and Vengeance; they shall be forced to serve him, who is the end of all his Creatures, by the sufferings of justice, who would not serve him in the Righteousness of Mercy. Accordingly in this great Day of Trial, their appearance shall be in the ugliness of Gods defaced Image; their blind, foul and leprous souls shall appear in a perfect, & naked deformedness; and their many sins shall come again to visit them, & shall stand before them, as so many unnatural accusers of them that begat them. The pleasure that once encouraged to the commission of them, shall now be stripped from them, and sins shall then appear only sinful, filthy, and detestable. And so by them, sinners being loathsome to the God of purest Eyes, they shall be carried from the Eyes whom they offend; yea, the Eyes of Mercy and Glory shall be shut up from them. But on the contrary side, the Eyes of Wrath and justice shall sparkle out fire against them, and this fire shall seize and feed on their Sinfulness; for sin unto justice, is as fuel unto fire. Burn it shall for ever, in a tormenting, but not a consuming flame; It shall have the agony and vexation, but not the consumption and abolition of fire; for the torment must be like the wrath; the wrath of an eternal God, and the torment of an eternal fire. Thus blind and dark toward the God of Comfort, and the Comforts of God, they shall be open-sighted toward their own Gild, Horror, and Amazement. Their guilt shall beget fear, and their fear amazement, by reason of desperation, and hopelessness of release. What depth of vexation, or rather, how bottomless a horror it is when the Soul cannot see beyond torments, but is whole lie swallowed up of anguish by the contemplation of an immortal misery? These are they, whose portion is the Creature, and whose Happiness is in this Life. And as they lived without God in this World, yea, against God, so shall they live without GOD in the next World, and God will be against them. He who might have been their felicity, but was neglected, shall now, because neglected, become their misery; their Habitation shall be the blackness of darkness, and their business shall be eternal anguish, vexation, and gnashing of teeth.  
But the blessed sons and servants of the Highest God, who have set their rest on their Creator, and have made him the end of their being, and the means to the end, even a God to rule, a Saviour to redeem, and a happiness to bless; these arise with the Image of God in their foreheads; God seethe his face, in the face of their souls, & their works also testify the same for them. These are clothed with pure White, the Righteousness of Christ, and the Righteousness of the Spirit; with the first, the justice of GOD is satisfied; with the last, the Mercy of God is pleased; and by the last, the first is adjudged to them. They have fed, clothed and visited Christ, in his hungry, naked, and imprisoned members; these works are the fruits of Love, and Love is the fruit of Sanctification, and Sanctification is an inseparable companion, condition, and witness of justification. So by the works of Love, they are proved and approved to be the sons of God, who is Love; and if sons, than also heirs; & if heirs, they shall for ever dwell in the house of Glory, even in the presence of God. Their right to eternal Glory, is by inheritance, even by being heirs annexed with Christ; but their admittance into their right, is by the Evidences, and Testimonies of the works of Holiness. For it is a true Rule, That none but the pure in heart, can see God, and again, None can be pure in heart, but he must first be new begotten by God, even a son and heir of God. And now to these is sounded forth that most blessed voice, which openeth the door of eternal Felicity, a voice that consummateth that Supremest Marriage, wherein Man is matched to the highest Essence, the chiefest Bliss: Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you. In this Kingdom, the ragged and filthy garment of the body of sin, the diseased infirmities of this sinful body, the tears of oppression, yea, all grief is wiped away. And in stead of these, Man is infinitely purified, sublimated, and so▪ fitted for the presence of the highest Being. In the Purity of Holiness, he is pure without blemish; washed from guilt, by the blood of the Lamb, and from corruption, by the holy Ghost, yea, there is a new Light, as a new Eye planted in the understanding, exceedingly quickened and enlarged to a spacious view of Truth, and Glory. Likewise, new Virtue anointeth and bedeweth the Will, steeping and seasoning it in a Divine Nature, by which it excellently agreeth in harmony with the will of God, and is holy as he is holy. In the purity of Substance, the Soul shall be highly clarified, until it be capable of the uppermost and chiefest Light. And the body shall be lifted up into a proportion with the Soul; for the body shall then be a spiritual Body: even a Body like a Soul; even so pure shall they both be, that they shall admit into themselves the beams of the Fountain of Light, until they be filled with Light and Glory. God will be their Sun, and he will shine into them as into Crystal, and in his Light they shall have the fullness of Light. Then shall the Knowledge of Man ascend into Perfection, far above these poor, pieced, and patched knowledges, which we call Arts and Sciences. Even the highest Degree of knowledge, which in this misty time of Ignorance & Imperfection, justly holdeth the highest degree of Eminence, shall then be the bottom and lownes of this new knowledge; and then shall it be known that this kind of Learning is of use, much like to that of a Lantern. It may do us service in this Night of Man's fall and corruption, but in the Orient brightness of the Kingdom of Glory, the new light by surmounting it, shall make it useless, yea, darken and discountenance it. For whereas now we do but flutter about the branches, and extremities of Wisdom, then shall we behold Wisdom in the root: The Glory and Fabric of the Creature, shall be seen in the Original, even in the Creator; in whom it was first made within, before it was made without. In him shall we read the Resolution of all profitable unknowntruths; and his Wisdom shall be a most perfect Oracle, instructing all glorified and blessed Souls. And with this Wisdom shall we also behold an infinite Treasure of Power and Almightiness. The right Hand, and holy Arm of the Omnipotent God shall be revealed unto us, and then shall we wonder at this Power alone, and not at the mighty Wonders which this Power hath done: for than shall we plainly see, that such Power might well work such Wonders. And while we view and consider this Power, the Power of GOD will point us to the love of God. For so mean a thing as Man, may well be amazed at so infinite Power and Majesty; but that at once with the power there appears an infinite Love; which tells the Soul, that though Power not matched with Love, be a Terror; yet tempered with love, it is the very Safety, Rest, and Bliss of Souls beloved: For as much power as there is in God, so much is God able to bless those, whom he loves; and as much love as there is in GOD, so much willing is he to bless those, whom by his Power he is so much able to bless. Thus from God's Wisdom, his Power, his Love, and his Light, issue continual objects, and spectacles of joy.. Yet is not this all of that, which cannot all be expressed: For this while there flows from the Deity, into the Heart of Man, a most pleasant stream of the gladding Spirit, wherein is the extremest power & virtue of rejoicing. This is the new Wine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which makes the Soul drunken with high comforts, raptures, and ecstasies: which inward comforts meeting and clasping with outward joys, fill up a Man with an excess of joy and Happiness, that he shall be even swallowed up and over-ravished with joy.. And yet their Happiness stinteth not; for there is an addition of a most delectable and soule-pleasing Harmony. Harmony is a chief pleasure, and the most excellent Harmony is the chiefest of this chief pleasure; and the most excellent Harmony is the chiefest of this chief Pleasure; and the Harmony of the most excellent Essences, is the most excellent Harmony; and the most excellent Essences, are Spirits; and the Harmony of Spirits is in the Kingdom of glory. This Music of Spirits exceedingly exceedeth the Music of mortal voices; yea, that chief Music of hearts, which between men is called Friendship, and between Man & Wife, is called Marriage-love, is but a counterfeit resemblance, and carries but some small relishes of that Divine and Celestial Harmony. For in the Choir of Heaven, the Saints and Angels, even the blessed Spirits, agree in a perfect Unison of Truth and Love. Their understandings think one thing: their hearts, even their wills, love themselves and their companions with one love; They delight themselves each in other, & especially all in God. For as there is between themselves a perfect consent, so there is also a true agreement between these Spirits, and the chiefest Spirit, which is the very top of pleasure and delight. What perfection can be higher than that of the highest Creator? And how can a Creature be more perfect, then when he is consorted, & tuned to this highest perfection? God speaketh to the hearts of these blessed Souls, and the hearts of these blessed Souls, think and utter thoughts agreeable to the heart of God. God, that saw his Works of Creation that they were good, and pleased himself in their goodness; Now beholdeth his work of Blessing and Glorification, and rejoiceth in the rest & joy which he hath given to his Beloved. The glorified Souls behold and admire the Goodness and Mercy of God, that gave not only the works of the six days, but the rest of the Seventh to rebellious dust, and sinful ashes. In the infinite Love of God, their love still steepeth and drowneth itself; and the more it seethe the Love of God, the more it loves God; and the more it loves God, the more it is beloved. And out of the feeling of this surpassing Love of God, break out those Songs of joy, and Voices of Exultation, Glory, and Honour and Praise be to him that sitteth on the throne, & to the Lamb for evermore. And, Halleluiah; For the Kingdom of the Lord God Almighty is come. And, Let us be glad, and rejoice and give Glory to God, for the Marriage of the Lamb is come, his Wife is ready, and she is arrayed in pure and shining Silk. And yet this felicity is not all; but that it may be as long as it is large, and as infinite in continuance, as it is in extent, there issues from the Deity, into the glorified Souls, the sap and nourishment of an eternal Life. The Tree of Life nourisheth eternally the branches of the same Tree; Death is swallowed up into victory, and itself dieth by the Word which is Life. But the Souls partakers of God, from him who is Eternal, do suck Eternity, and so become that Kingdom, whereof there is no end. And yet this is not all of that inexpressible Felicity, but the greatest and chiefest is yet left in silence: for that must needs be greatest which cannot enter into the heart of man.. But let the transcendence of that which is unknown, be a double spur unto us in this Race of Happiness; one, because it is transcendent, another, because unknown. Let the Eminence provoke our Ambitions, & the Secrecy our Curiosities. Let us desire and strive earnestly to enter into that, which now by reason of wonderful excellence cannot enter into us. Let us endeavour carefully to walk in the light of Grace, which will bring us to the full Revelation of the yet inaccessible light of Glory; where Happiness shall at once be fully known, and fully enjoyed.  
In the mean time, it may be sufficient for me to discover, That the Souls seated in Beatitude, pass their time, which shall never be passed, in the very top of Bliss and Delectation: They laugh at sorrows past, and are secure for infinite joys to come. God is theirs, and they are Gods, and in this Unity is the fullness of Felicity.   
FINIS.