THE DEVOUT SOUL, OR, Rules of heavenly DEVOTION.  
ALSO, THE FREE PRISONER, OR, The Comfort of RESTRAINT.  
By Jos. H. B. N.  
London, Printed by W. H. and are to be sold by George Latham, Junior, at the Bishops-head in St. Paul's Churchyard.  
M. DC. L.   

TO All Christian Readers, Grace and Peace,  
THat in a time when we hear no noise but of Drums and Trumpets, and talk of nothing but arms, and sieges, & battles, I should write of Devotion, may seem to some of you strange & unseasonable; to me, contrarily, it seems most fit and opportune; For when can it be more proper to direct our address to the throne of grace, than when we are in the very jaws of Death? or when should we go to seek the face of our God, rather, than in the needful time of trouble?  
Blessed be my God, who in the midst of these woeful tumults, hath vouchsafed to give me these calm, & holy thoughts; which I justly suppose, he meant not to suggest, that they should be smothered in the breast wherein they were conceived, but with a purpose to have the benefit communicated unto many. Who is there that needs not vehement excitations, and helps to Devotion? and when more than now? In a tempest the Mariners themselves do not only cry everyman to his God, but awaken Jonah, that is fast asleep under the hatches, and chide him to his prayers. Surely, had we not been failing in our devotions, we could not have been thus universally miserable; That duty, the neglect whereof is guilty of our calamity, must in the effectual performance of it, be the means of our recovery. Be but devout, and we cannot miscarry under judgements; We is me, the tears of penitence, were more fit to quench the public flame, than blood. How soon would it clear up above head, if we were but holily affected within? Could we send our zealous Ambassadors up to heaven, we could not fail of an happy peace. I direct the way; God bring us to the end; For my own particular practice; God is witness to my soul, that (as one, the sense of whose private affliction is swallowed up of the public) I cease not daily to ●ly the Father of mercies with my fervent prayers, that he would, at last, be pleased, after so many streams of blood, to pass an Act of Pacification in heaven: And what good heart can do otherwise? Brethren, all ye that love God, and his Church, and his Truth, and his Anointed, and your Country, & yourselves, and yours, join your forces with mine, and let us by an holy violence make way to the gates of Heaven with our petition, for mercy and peace; and not suffer ourselves to be beaten off from the threshold of Grace, till we be answered with a condescent. He, whose goodness is wont to prevent our desires, will not give denials to our importunities.  
Pray, and farewell. NORWICH. March 20. 1643.   

THE DEVOUT SOUL.  

SECT. I.  
DEvotion is the life of Religion, the very soul of Piety, the highest employment of grace; and no other than the prepossession of heaven by the Saints of God here upon earth; every improvement whereof is of more advantage and value to the Christian soul, than all the profit & contentments which this world can afford it.  
There is a kind of Art of Devotion (if we can attain unto it) whereby the practice thereof may be much advanced: We have known indeed some holy souls, which out of the general precepts of piety, and their own happy experiments of God's mercy, have, through the grace of God, grown to a great measure of perfection this way; which yet might have been much expedited, and completed, by those helps, which the greater illumination and experience of others might have afforded them: Like as we see it in other faculties; there are those, who out of a natural dexterity, and their own frequent practice, have got into a safe posture of defence, and have handled their weapon with commendable skill, whom yet the Fence-school might have raised to an higher pitch of cunning: As nature is perfited, so grace is not a little furthered by Art; since it pleaseth the wisdom of God, to work ordinarily upon the soul, not by the immediate power of miracle, but in such methods, and by such means, as may most conduce to his blessed ends. It is true, that all our good motions come from the Spirit of God; neither is it less true, that all the good counsels of others proceed from the same Spirit; & that good Spirit cannot be cross to itself; he therefore that infuses good thoughts into us, suggests also such directions, as may render us apt both to receive and improve them: If God be bounteous, we may not be idle, and neglective of our spiritual aids.   

SECT. II.  
IF you tell me (by way of instance in a particular act of Devotion) that there is a gift of prayer, and that the Spirit of God is not tied to rules; I yield both these; but withal, I must say there are also helps of prayer, and that we must not expect immediate inspirations: I find the world much mistaken in both; They think that man hath the gift of prayer, that can utter the thoughts of his heart roundly unto God, that can express himself smoothly in the phrase of the holy Ghost, and press God with most proper words, & passionate vehemence: And surely this is a commendable faculty whersoever it is: but this is not the gift of prayer; you may call it, if you will, the gift of Elocution. Do we say that man hath the gift of pleading, that can talk eloquently at the Bar, that can in good terms loud and earnestly importune the Judge for his Client; and not rather he that brings the strongest reason, and quotes his books, and precedents with most truth, and clearest evidence, so as may convince the Jury, and persuade the Judge? Do we say he hath the gift of Preaching, that can deliver himself in a flowing manner of speech, to his hearers, that can cite Scriptures, or Fathers, that can please his auditory with the flowers of Rhetoric; or rather, he, that can divide the Word aright, interpret it sound, apply it judiciously, put it home to the Conscience, speaking in the evidence of the Spirit, powerfully convincing the gainsayers, comforting the dejected, and drawing every soul nearer to heaven? The like must we say for prayer; the gift whereof he may be truly said to have, not that hath the most rennible tongue, (for prayer is not so much a matter of the lips, as of the heart) but he, that hath the most illuminated apprehension of the God to whom he speaks, the deepest sense of his own wants, the most eager longings after grace, the ferventest desires of supplies from heaven; and in a word, whose heart sends up the strongest groans and cries to the Father of mercies.  
Neither may we look for Enthusiasms, & immediate inspirations; putting ourselves upon God's Spirit, in the solemn exercises of our invocation, without heed, or meditation; the dangerous inconvenience whereof hath been too often found in the rash, and unwarrantable expressions that have fallen from the mouths of unwary suppliants; but we must address ourselves with due preparation, to that holy work; we must digest our suits; & fore-order our supplications to the Almighty; so that there may be excellent and necessary use of meet rules of our Devotion.  
He, whose Spirit helps us to pray, and whose lips taughts us how to pray, is an all-sufficient example for us: all the skill of men, and Angels, cannot afford a more exquisite model of supplicatory Devotion, than that blessed Saviour of ours gave us in the mount; led in by a divine, and heart-raising preface, carried out with a a strong and heavenly enforcement; wherein an awful compellation makes way for petition; and petition makes way for thanksgiving; the petitions marshaled in a most exact order, for spiritual blessings, which have an immediate concernment of God, in the first place; then for temporal favours, which concern ourselves, in the second; so punctual a method had notbeen observed by him that heareth prayers, if it had been all one to him, to have had our Devotions confused, and tumultuary.   

SECT. III.  
THere is commonly much mistaking of Devotion, as if it were nothing but an act of vocal prayer, expiring with that holy breath, and revived with the next task of our invocation; which is usually measured of many, by frequency, length, smoothness of expression, loudness, vehemence; Whereas, indeed it is rather an habitual disposition of an holy soul, sweetly conversing with God, in all the forms of an heavenly (yet awful) familiarity; and a constant entertainment of ourselves here below with the God of spirits, in our sanctified thoughts, and affections; One of the noble exercises whereof, is our access to the throne of grace in our prayers; whereto may be added, the ordering of our holy attendance upon the blessed word & sacraments of the Almighty: Nothing hinders therefore, but that a stammering suppliant may reach to a more eminent devotion, than he that can deliver himself in the most fluent and pathetical forms of Elocution; and that our silence may be more devout than our noise. We shall not need to send you to the Cells or Cloisters for this skill; although it will hardly be believed, how far some of their Contemplative men have gone in the Theory hereof; Perhaps, like as Chemists give rules for the attaining of that Elixir, which they never found; for sure they must needs fail of that perfection they pretend; who err commonly in the object of it, always in the ground of it, which is faith; stripped, by their opinion, of the comfortablest use of it, certainty of application.   

SECT. IV.  
AS there may be many resemblances betwixt Light and Devotion, so this one especially; that as there is a light universally diffused through the air, and there is a particular recollection of light into the body of the Sun and Stars; so it is in Devotion; There is a general kind of Devotion that goes through the renewed heart and life of a Christian, which we may term Habitual, and Virtual; and there is a special, and fixed exercise of Devotion, which we name Actual.  
The soul that is rightly affected to God, is never void of an holy Devotion; where ever it is, what ever it doth, it is still lifted up to God, and fastened upon him, and converses with him; ever serving the Lord in fear, and rejoicing in him with trembling.  
For the effectual performance whereof, it is requisite first, that the heart be settled in a right apprehension of our God; without which, our Devotion is not thankless only, but sinful: With much labour therefore, & agitation of a mind illuminated from above, we must find ourselves wrought to an high, awful, adorative, and constant conceit of that incomprehensible Majesty, in whom we live, and move, and are; One God, in three most glorious Persons, infinite in wisdom, in power, in justice, in mercy, in providence, in all that he is, in all that he hath, in all that he doth; dwelling in light inaccessible, attended with thousand thousands of Angels; whom yet we neither can know, (neither would it avail us if we could) but in the face of the eternal Son of his Love, our blessed Mediator God and Man; who sits at the right hand of Majesty in the highest heavens; from the sight of whose glorious humanity, we comfortably rise to the contemplation of that infinite Deity, whereto it is inseparably united; in and by him, (made ours by a lively Faith) finding our persons, and obedience accepted, expecting our full redemption, and blessedness. Here, here must our hearts be unremovably fixed; In his light must we see light: no cloudy occurrences of this world, no busy employments, no painful sufferings must hinder us from thus seeing him that is invisible.   

SECT. V.  
NEither doth the devout heart see his Grd aloof off, as dwelling above, in the circle of heaven, but beholds that infinite Spirit really present with him; The Lord is upon thy right hand, saith the Psalmist. Our bodily eye doth not more certainly see our own flesh, than the spiritual eye sees God, close by us; Yea in us; A man's own soul is not so intimate to himself, as God is to his soul; neither do we move by him only, but in him: What a sweet conversation therefore, hath the holy soul with his God? What heavenly conferences have they two, which the world is not privy to; whiles God entertains the soul with the divine motions of his Spirit, the soul entertains God with gracious compliances? Is the heart heavy with the grievous pressures of affliction? the soul goes in to his God, and pours out itself before him in earnest bemoanings, and supplications; the God of mercy answers the soul again, with seasonable refresh of comfort: Is the heart secretly wounded and bleeding with the conscience of some sin? it speedily betakes itself to the great Physician of the soul, who forthwith applies the balm of Gilead for an unfailing and present cure: Is the heart distracted with doubts? the soul retires to that inward Oracle of God for counsel, he returns to the soul an happy settlement of just resolution: Is the heart deeply affected with the sense of some special favour from his God? the soul breaks forth into the passionate voice of praise & thanksgiving; God returns the pleasing testimony of a cheerful acceptation: Oh blessed soul, that hath a God to go unto upon all occasions; Oh infinite mercy of a God, that vouchsafes to stoop to such intirents with dust & ashes. It was a gracious speech of 
Dr. Preston  a worthy Divine upon his deathbed, now breathing towards heaven, That he should change his place not his company: His conversation was now before hand with his God, and his holy Angels; the only difference was, that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life, in that region of glory above, whom he had truly (though with weakness and imperfection) enjoyed in this vale of tears.   

SECT. VI  
NOw, that these mutual respects may be sure not to cool with intermission, the devout heart takes all occasions both to think of God, and to speak to him. There is nothing that he sees, which doth not bring God to his thoughts. Indeed, there is no creature, werein there are not manifest footsteps of omnipotence; Yea, which hath not a tongue to tell us of its Maker. The heaven declare 
Psa. 19 1, 2  the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork; one day telleth another, and one night certifieth another: Yea, O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom 
Psa. 104. 24.  hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy riches, so is the great and wide sea, where are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts: Every herb, flower, spire of grass, every twig and leaf; every worm and fly; every scale and feather; every billow and meteor, speaks the power and wisdom of their infinite Creator; Solomon sends the sluggard to the Ant; Esay sends the Jews to the Ox and the Ass; Our Saviour sends his Disciples to the Ravens, & to the Lilies of the field; There is no creature of whom we may not learn something; we shall have spent our time ill in this great school of the world, if in such store of Lessons, we be non-proficients in Devotion. Vain Idolaters make to themselves Images of God, whereby they sinfully represent him to their thoughts and adoration; could they have the wit and grace to see it, God hath taken order to spare them this labour, in that he hath stamped in every creature such impressions of his infinite power, wisdom, goodness, as may give us just occasion to worship and praise him with a safe and holy advantage to our souls: For the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. And indeed, wherefore serve all the volumes of Natural History, but to be so many Commentaries upon the several creatures, wherein we may read God; and even those men who have not the skill, or leisure to peruse them, may yet out of their own thoughts, and observation, raise from the sight of all the works of God sufficient matter to glorify him. Who can be so stupid as not to take notice of the industry of the Bee, the providence of the Ant, the cunning of the Spider, the reviving of the Fly, the worms endeavour of revenge, the subtlety of the Fox, the sagacity of the Hedgehog, the innocence and profitableness of the Sheep, the laboriousness of the Ox, the obsequiousness of the Dog, the timorous shifts of the Hare, the nimbleness of the Dear, the generosity of the Lion, the courage of the Horse, the fierceness of the Tiger, the cheerful music of Birds, the harmlessness of the Dove, the true love of the Turtle, the Cock's observation of time, the Swallows architecture, shortly, (for it were easy here to be endless) of the several qualities, and dispositions of every of those our fellow-creatures, with whom we converse on the face of the earth; and who that takes notice of them, cannot fetch from every act, and motion of theirs, some monition of duty, and occasion of devout thoughts? Surely, I fear many of us Christians, may justly accuse ourselves as too neglective of our duty this way; that having thus long spent our time in this great Academy of the world, we have not, by so many silent documents, learned to ascribe more glory to our Creator; I doubt those creatures if they could exchange their brutality with our reason, being now so docible as to learn of us so far as their sense can reach, would approve themselves better Scholars to us, than we have been unto them.  
Withal, I must add that the devout soul stands not always in need of such outward monitors, but finds within itself, sufficient incitements to raise up itself to a continual minding of God; and makes use of them accordingly; and, if at any time, being taken up with importunate occasions of the world, it finds God missing but an hour, it chides itself for such neglect, and sets itself to recover him with so much more eager affection: as the faithful spouse in the Canticles, when 
Cant. 5. 6.  she finds him whom her soul loved, withdrawn from her for a season, puts herself into a speedy search after him, and gives not over till she have attained his presence.   

SECT. VII.  
NOw as these many monitors both outward & inward, must elevate our hearts very frequently, to God; so those raised hearts must not entertain him with a dumb contemplation, but must speak to him in the language of spirits: All occasions therefore must be taken of sending forth pious and heavenly ejaculations to God; The devout soul may do this more than an hundred times a day, without any hindrance to his special vocation: The Huswife at her Wheel, the Weaver at his Loom, the Husbandman at his Plough, the Artificer in his Shop, the Traveller in his way, the Merchant in his Warehouse may thus enjoy God in his busiest employment; For, the soul of man is a nimble spirit; and the language of thoughts needs not take up time; and though we now, for example's sake, cloth them in words, yet in our practice we need not: Now these Ejaculations may be either at large, or Occasional: At large, such as that of old Jacob, O Lord I have waited for thy salvation; Or that of David, O save me for thy mercy's sake: And these either in matter of Humiliation, or of Imploration, or of Thanksgiving: In all which, we cannot follow a better pattern than the sweet singer of Israel, whose heavenly conceptions we may either borrow, or imitate.  
In way of humiliation, such as these. Heal my soul O Lord, for I have sinned against thee. 
Psa. 41. 4.  Oh remember not my old sins, 
79. 8.  but have mercy upon me. If thou wilt be extreme to mark 
130 3.  what is done amiss, O Lord who may abide it? Lord thou knowest the thoughts of man 
94. 11.  that they are but vain. O God why abhorrest thou my soul, and hidest thy face from me.  
In way of Imploration. Up Lord, and help me O God; Oh 
3. 7.  let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed. Lord, where are thy old loving 
89. 48.  mercies? Oh deliver me, for I am helpless, and my heart is 
109. 21.  wounded within me. Comfort the soul of thy servant, for unto 
86. 4.  thee O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Go not far from me O 
Psal. 71. 10.  God. O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy name. 
86. 11.  Thou art my helper and redeemer, 
70. 6.  O Lord make no long tarrying. Oh be thou my help in trouble, for vain is the help of 
60. 11.  man. Oh guide me with thy 
71. 23.  counsel, and after that receive me to thy glory. My time is in thy hand, deliver me from the 
31. 17.  hands of mine enemies. Oh withdraw not thy mercy from 
40. 14.  me, O Lord. Led me O Lord 
5. 8.  in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. O let my soul 
119. penult.  live, and it shall praise thee.  
In way of Thanksgiving: Oh God, wonderful art thou in 
68 35.  thine holy places. O Lord, how glorious are thy works! 
92. 5.  & thy thoughts are very deep. Oh God, who is like unto thee! 
71. 17.  The Lord, liveth, and blessed 
18. 47.  be my strong helper. Lord, thy loving kindness is better 
Psa. 63. 4.  than life itself. All thy works praise thee, O Lord, and thy 
145. 10.  Saints give thanks unto thee. Oh how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou 
04. 25.  made them all. Who is God but 
18. 31.  the Lord, and who hath any strength except our God? We will rejoice in thy salvation, 
20. 5.  and triumph in thy name O Lord. O that men would praise 
107. 8.  the Lord for his goodness. Oh how plentiful is thy goodness, 
31. 21.  which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee! Thou Lord 
9 10.  hast never failed them that seek thee. In thy presence is the 
16. 12.  fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore. Lord, what is man 
8. 4.  that thou art mindful of him? Not unto us Lord, not unto us, 
115. 1.  but unto thy Name give the praise.   

SECT. VIII.  
Occasional Ejaculations are such, as are moved upon the presence of some such object as carries a kind of relation or analogy to that holy thought which we have entertained. Of this nature I find that, which was practised in S. Basils' time; that, upon the lighting of candles, the manner was to bless God in these words, Praise be to God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy ghost; which that Father says was anciently used; but who was the Author of it he professeth to be unknown: to the same purpose was the Lucernarium, which was a part of the evening office of old; For which, there may seem to be more colour of reason, than for the ordinary fashion of apprecation, upon occasion of our sneesing; which is expected, and practised by many, out of civility: Old and reverend Beza was wont to move his hat with the rest of the company, but to say withal, Gramercy Madame la Superstition; Now, howsoever in this, or any other practice, which may seem to carry with it a smack of Superstition, our Devotion may be groundless and unseasonable, yet nothing hinders but that we may take just & holy hints of raising up our hearts to our God. As when we do first look forth, and see the heavens over our heads, to think, The heavens declare thy glory O God. When we see the 
Psal. 19 1.  day breaking, or the Sun rising, The day is thine, and the night is thine, thou hast prepared 
74. 17.  the light and the Sun. When the light shines in our faces, Thou deckest thyself 
97. 11.  with light as with a garment; or, Light is sprung up for the 
36. 9  righteous. When we see our Garden embellished with flowers, The earth is full of 
39 5.  the goodness of the Lord. When we see a rough sea, The waves of the sea rage horribly, 
93. 5.  and are mighty; but the Lord that dwelleth on high, is mightier than they. When we see the darkness of the night, The darkness is no darkness with thee. When we rise 
Psa. 139. 11  up from our bed, or our seat, Lord thou knowest my 
139. 2.  down-sitting, and my uprising; thou understandest my thoughts afar off. When we wash our hands, Wash thou me, O Lord, 
51. 7.  and I shall be whiter than snow. When we are walking forth, O hold thou up my goings 
17. 5.  in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. When we hear a passing-bell, Oh teach me to 
90. 12.  number my days, that I may apply my heart to wisdom: or, Lord, let me know my end, 
39 5.  and the number of my days.  
Thus may we dart out our holy desires to God, upon all occasions; Wherein, heed must be taken that our Ejaculations be not, on the one side, so rare, that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God, but that they may be held on in continual acknowledgement of him, and acquaintance with him; and, on the other side, that they be not so overfrequent in their perpetual reiteration, as that they grow to be (like that of the Romish votaries) fashionable; which if great care be not taken, will fall out, to the utter frustrating of our Devotion. Shortly, let the measure of these devout glances be, the preserving our hearts in a constant tenderness, & godly disposition; which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities, by the exercises of our more enlarged, and fixed Devotion: Whereof there is the same variety that there is in God's services, about which it is conversant.  
There are three main businesses wherein God accounts his service, here below, to consist; The first is, our address to the throne of Grace, and the pouring out of our souls before him in our prayers: The second is, the reading and hearing his most holy Word; The third is, the receipt of his blessed Sacraments; In all which there is place and use for a fettled Devotion.   

SECT. IX.  
TO begin with the first work of our actual, and enlarged Devotion: Some things are pre-required of us, to make us capable of the comfortable performance of so holy and heavenly a duty; namely, that the heart be clean first, and then that it be clear: clean from the defilement of any known sin; clear from all entanglements and distractions: What do we in our prayers, but converse with the Almighty? and either carry our souls up to him, or bring him down to us; now, it is no hoping, that we can entertain God in an impure heart: Even we men loathe a nasty and sluttish lodging; how much more will the holy God abhor an habitation spiritually filthy? I find that even the unclean spirit made that a motive of his repossession, that he found the house swept 
Luk. 11. 25  and garnished: Satan's cleanliness is pollution; and his garnishment, disorder and wickedness; without this he finds no welcome; Each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature; How much more will that God of spirits, who is purity itself, look to be harboured in a cleanly room? Into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor 
Wisd. 1. 4.  dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. What friend would be pleased that we should lodge him in a Lazar-house? or who would abide to have a Toad lie in his bosom? Surely, it is not in the verge of created nature to yield any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man, as sin is to that absolute, and essential Goodness: His pure eyes cannot endure the sight of sin; neither can he endure that the sinner should come within the sight of him; Away from me, ye wicked, is his charge, both here, and hereafter. It is the privilege and happiness of the pure in heart, that they shall see God; see him both in the end, and in the way; enjoying the vision of him, both in grace, and in glory: this is no object for impure eyes: Descend into thyself therefore, and ransack thy heart, who ever wouldst be a true Client of Devotion; search all the close windings of it, with the torches of the law of God; and if there be any iniquity found lurking in the secret corners thereof, drag it out and abandon it; and when thou hast done, that thy fingers may retain no pollution, say with the holy Psalmist; I will wash 
Psa. 26. 6.  my hands in innocence, so will I go to thine Altar. Presume not to approach the Altar of God, there to offer the Sacrifice of thy Devotion, with unclean hands: Else thine offering shall be so far from winning an acceptance for thee, from the hands of God; as that thou shalt make thine offering abominable. And if a beast touch the Mount, it shall die.   

SECT. X.  
AS the soul must be clean from sin, so it must be clear and free from distractions. The intent of our Devotion is to welcome God to our hearts; now where shall we entertain him, if the rooms be full thronged with cares, and turbulent passions? The Spirit of God will not endure to be crowded up together with the world in our straight lodgings; An holy vacuity must make way for him in our bosoms. The divine pattern of Devotion, in whom the Godhead dwelled bodily, retires into the Mount to pray; he that carried heaven with him, would even thus leave the world below him. Alas, how can we hope to mount up to heaven in our thoughts, if we have the clogs of earthly cares hanging at our heels: Yea, not only must there be a shutting out of all distractive cares, and passions, which are professed enemies to our quiet conversing with God in our Devotion, but there must be also a denudation of the mind from all those images of our fantasy (how pleasing soever) that may carry our thoughts aside from those better objects: We are like to foolish children, who when they should be steadfastly looking on their books, are apt to gaze after every butterfly, that passetin by them; here must be therefore a careful intention of our thoughts, a restraint from all vain, and idle rovings, and an holding ourselves close to our divine task: Whiles Martha is troubled about many things, her devouter sister, having chosen the better part, plies the one thing necessary, which shall never be taken from her; and whiles Martha would feast Christ with bodily fare, she is feasted of Christ with heavenly delicacies.   

SECT. XI.  
AFter the heart is thus cleansed and thus cleared, it must be in the next place decked with true humility, the cheapest, yet best ornament of the soul. If the wise man tell us, that pride is the beginning of sin; surely, all 
Ecl. 10.  gracious dispositions must begin in humility. The foundation of all high and stately buildings must be laid low: They are the lowly valleys that soak in the showers of heaven, which the steep hills shelve off, and prove dry and fruitless. To that man will I look (saith 
Esa. 66. 2.  God) that is poor, and of 〈◊〉 contrite spirit, and trembleth at my Word: Hence it is, that the more eminent any man is in grace, the more he is dejected in the sight of God; The father of the faithful comes to God under the 
Gen. 18. 27  stile of dust, and ashes: David under the stile of a worm and no man; Agur the son of Jakeh, 
Pro. 30. 2.  under the title of more brutish than any man, and one that hath not the understanding of a man; John Baptist, as not morthy to carry the shoes 
Mat. 3. 11.  of Christ after him; Paul, as 
Ephes. 3. 8.  the least of Saints, and chief of sinners: On the contrary, the more vile any man is in his own eyes, and the more dejected in the sight of God, the higher he is exalted in God's favour: Like as the Conduict-water, by how much lower it falls, the higher it riseth. When therefore we would appear before God, in our solemn devotions, we must see that we empty ourselves of all proud conceits, and find our hearts fully convinced of our own vileness, yea nothingness in his sight. Down, down with all our high thoughts; fall we low before our great and holy God; not to the earth only, but to the very brim of hell, in the Conscience of our own guiltiness; for though the miserable wretchedness of our nature may be a sufficient cause of our humiliation, yet the consideration of our detestable sinfulness is that which will depress us lowest in the sight of God.   

SECT. XII.  
IT is fit the exercise of our Devotion should begin in an humble confession of our unword●●nesse. Now for the effectual furtherance of this our self-dejection, it will be requisite to bend our eyes upon a threefold object; To look inward into ourselves, upward to heaven, downwards to hell. First, to turn our eyes into our bosoms, and to take a view (not without a secret self-loathing) of that world of corruption that hath lain hidden there; & thereupon to accuse, arraign, and condemn ourselves before that awful Tribunal of the Judge of heaven and earth; both of that original pollution, which we have drawn from the tainted loins of our first parents; and those innumerable actual wickednesses derived therefrom; which have stained our persons and lives. How can we be but throughly humbled, to see our souls utterly overspread with the odious and abominable leprosy of sin: We find that Uzziah bore up stoutly a while, against the Priests of the Lord, in the maintenance of his sacrilegious presumption, but when he saw himself turned Lazar, on the sudden, he is confounded in himself, and in a depth of shame hastens away from the presence of God to a sad, and penitential retiredness. We should need no other arguments to loathe ourselves, than the sight of our own faces, so miserably deformed with the nasty and hateful scurse of our iniquity: Neither only must we be content to shame, and grieve our eyes with the foul nature and condition of our sins, but we must represent them to ourselves in all the circumstances that may aggravate their nainousnesse. Alas, Lord, any one sin is able to damn a soul; I have committed many, yea numberless: they have not possessed me single, but, as that evil spirit said, their name is Legion; neither have I committed these sins once, but often; Thine Angels (that were) sinned but once, and are damned for ever; I have frequently reiterated the same offences, where (than were it not for thy mercy) shall I appear? neither have I only done them in the time of my ignorance, but since I received sufficient illumination from thee; It is not in the dark that I have stumbled, and fallen, but in the midst of the clear light and sunshine of thy Gospel, and in the very face of thee my God; neither have these been the slips of my weakness, but the bold miscarriages of my presumption; neither have I offended out of inconsideration, and inadvertency, but after and against the checks of a remurmuring conscience; after so many gracious warnings, and fatherly admonitions, after so many fearful examples of thy judgements, after so infinite obligations of thy favours.  
And thus having looked inward into ourselves, and taken an impartial view of our own vileness, it will be requisite to cast our eyes upward unto heaven, and there to see against whom we have offended; even against an infinite Majesty, & power, an infinite mercy, an infinite justice; That power and Majesty which hath spread out the heavens as a Curtain, and hath laid the foundations of the earth so sure that it cannot be moved; who hath shut up the sea with bars and doors, and 
Job 38.  said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves; who doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth; who commandeth the Devils to their chains, able therefore to take infinite vengeance on sinners. That mercy of God the Father, who gave his own Son out of his bosom for our redemption; That mercy of God the Son, who, 
Phil. 2. 6, 7, 8, etc.  thinking it no robbery to be equal unto God, for our sakes made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant; and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient to the death, even the accursed death of the Cross; That mercy of God the holy Ghost, who hath made that Christ mine, and hath sealed to my soul the benefit of that blessed Redemption; Lastly, that justice of God, which as it is infinitely displeased with every sin, so will be sure to take infinite vengeance on every impenitent sinner.  
And from hence it will be fit and seasonable for the devout soul, to look downward into that horrible pit of eternal confusion; and there to see the dreadful, unspeakable, unimaginable torments of the damned; to represent unto itself the terrors of those everlasting burnings; the fire and brimstone of that infernal Tophet; the merciless and unwearible tyranny of those hellish executioners; the shrieks, and howl, and gnash of the tormented; the unpitiable, interminable, unmitigable tortures of those ever-dying, and yet never-dying souls. By all which, we shall justly affright ourselves into a deep sense of the dangerous and woeful condition wherein we lie in the state of nature and impenitence, and shall be driven with an holy eagerness to seek for Christ, the Son of the everliving God, our blessed Mediator; in and by whom only, we can look for the remission of all these our sins, a reconcilement with this most powerful, merciful, just God, and a deliverance of our souls from the hand of the nethermost hell.   

SECT. XIII.  
IT shall not now need, or boot to bid the soul which is truly apprehensive of all these, to sue importunately to the Lord of life for a freedom, and rescue from these infinite pains of eternal death, to which our sins have forfeited it; and for a present happy recovery of that favour, which is better than life. Have we heard, or can we imagine some heinous Malefactor, that hath received the sentence of death, and is now bound hand, and foot, ready to be cast into a Den of Lions, or a burning furnace, with what strong cries, and passionate obsecrations he plies the Judge for mercy? we may then conceive some little image of the vehement suit, and strong cries of a soul truly sensible of the danger of God's wrath deserved by his sin, and the dreadful consequents of deserved imminent damnation; Although what proportion is there betwixt a weak creature, and the Almighty; betwixt a moment, and eternity?  
Hereupon therefore follows a vehement longing (uncapable of a denial) after Christ; and fervent aspirations to that Saviour, by whom only we receive a full and gracious deliverance from death and hell; and a full pardon and remission of all our sins; and if this come not the sooner, strong knockings at the gates of heaven, even so loud that the Father of mercies cannot but hear & open: Never did any contrite soul beg of God, that was not prevented by his mercy; much more doth he condescend when he is strongly entreated; our very entreaties are from him, he puts into us those desires which he graciously answers: Now therefore doth the devout soul see the God of all comfort to bow the heavens, and come down with healing in his wings; and hear him speak peace unto the heart thus throughly humbled; Fear not, thou shalt not die but live. Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee: Here therefore comes in that divine grace of Faith, effectually apprehending Christ the Saviour, and his infinite satisfaction and merits; comfortably applying all the sweet promises of the Gospel; clinging close to that all-sufficient Redeemer; and in his most perfect obedience emboldening itself, to challenge a freedom of access to God, and confidence of appearance before the Tribunal of heaven; and now the soul clad with Christ's righteousness, dares look God in the face, and can both challenge and triumph over all the powers of darkness: For, being justified by faith, we have peach 
Rom. 5. 1.  with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.   

SECT. XIV.  
BY how much deeper the sense of our misery and danger is, so much more welcome and joyful is the apprehension of our deliverance; and so much more thankful is our acknowledgement of that unspeakable mercy: The soul therefore that is truly sensible of this wonderful goodness of its God; as it feels a marvellous joy in itself, so it cannot but break forth into cheerful and holy (though secret) gratulations: The 
Ps. 103. 8.  Lord is full of compassion, and mercy, long suffering, and of great goodness; he keepeth not his anger for ever; he hath not dealt with me after my sins, nor rewarded me after mine iniquities. What shall I render unto 
Ps. 116. 12, 13.  the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will thank 
Ps. 119. 18, 21, etc.  thee, for thou hast heard me, & hast not given me over to death, but art become my salvation. O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his; Praise thou the Lord O my soul.   

SECT. XV.  
THe more feelingly the soul apprehends, and the more thankfully it digests the favours of God in its pardon, and deliverance, the more freely doth the God of mercy impart himself to it; and the more God imparts himself to it, the more it loves him, and the more heavenly acquaintance and entireness grows betwixt God & it; and now that love which was but a spark at first grows into a flame; and wholly takes up the soul. This fire of heavenly love in the devout soul, is, and must be heightened more and more, by the addition of the holy incentives of divine thoughts, concerning the means of our freedom and deliverance. And here, offers itself to us that bottomless abyss of mercy in our Redemption, wrought by the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ the just, by whose stripes we are healed; by whose blood we are ransomed; where none will befit us but admiring and adoring notions. We shall not disparage you, O ye blessed Angels, and Archangels of Heaven, if we shall say, ye are not able to look into the bottom of this divine love, wherewith God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life: None, oh none can comprehend this mercy, but he that wrought it. Lord what a transcendent, what an infinite love is this? what an object was this for thee to love? A world of sinners Impotent, wretched creatures, that had dispighted thee, that had no motive for thy favour but deformity, misery, professed enmity? It had been mercy enough in thee, that thou didst no● damn the world; but that thou shouldst love it, 〈◊〉 more than mercy. It was thy great goodness to forbear the acts of just vengeance to the sinful world of man; but to give unto it tokens of thy love, is a favour beyond all expression. The least gift from thee had been more than the world could hope for; but that thou shouldst not stick to give thine only begotten Son, the Son of thy love, the Son of thine essence, thy coequal, coeternal Son, who was more than ten thousand worlds, to redeem this one forlorn world of sinners, is love above all comprehension of men and Angels. What diminution had it been to thee and thine essential glory, O thou great God of heaven, that the souls that sinned should have died, and perished everlastingly? yet so infinite was thy loving mercy, that thou wouldst rather give thy only Son out of thy bosom, than that there should not be a redemption for believers.  
Yet, O God, hadst thou sent down thy Son to this lower region of earth, upon such terms, as that he might have brought down heaven with him, that he might have come in the port and Majesty of a God, clothed with celestial glory, to have dazzled our eyes, and to have drawn all hearts unto him; this might have seemed, in some measure, to have sorted with his divine magnificence; But thou wouldst have him to appear in the wretched condition of our humanity: Yet, even thus, hadst thou sent him into the world, in the highest estate, and pomp of royalty, that earth could afford, that all the Kings and Monarches of the world should have been commanded to follow his train, and to glitter in his Court; and that the knees of all the Potentates of the earth should have bowed to his Sovereign Majesty, and their lips have kissed his dust, this might have carried some kind of appearance of a state next to divine greatness; but thou wouldst have him come in the despised form of a servant: And thou, O blessed Jesus, wast accordingly willing for our sakes, to submit thyself to nakedness, hunger, thirst, weariness, temptation, contempt, betraying, agonies, scorn, buffeting, scourge, distension, crucifixion, death: Oh love above measure, without example, beyond admiration! Greater love (thou sayest) hath no man, than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; But, oh, what is it then, that thou, who wert God and man, shouldst lay down thy life, (more precious than many worlds) for thine enemies! Yet, had it been but the laying down of a life, in a fair and gentle way, there might have been some mitigation of the sorrow of a dissolution; there is not more difference betwixt life and death, than there may be betwixt some one kind of death and another; Thine, O dear Saviour, was the painful, shameful, cursed death of the cross; wherein yet, all that man could do unto thee was nothing to that inward torment, which, in our stead, thou enduredst from thy father's wrath; when in the bitterness of thine anguished soul, thou cried'st out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Even thus, thus wast thou content to be forsaken, that we wretched sinners might be received to mercy; O love stronger than death which thou vanquishedst! more high, than that hell is deep, from which thou hast rescued us!   

SECT. XVI.  
THe sense of this infinite love of God cannot choose but ravish the soul, and cause it to go out of itself, into that Saviour who hath wrought so mercifully for it; so as it may be nothing in itself, but what it hath, or is, may be Christ. By the sweet powers therefore of Faith and Love the soul finds itself united unto Christ, feelingly, effectually, indivisibly: so as that it is not to be distinguished betwixt the acts of both: To me to live is Christ, saith 
Phil. 1. 21.  the blessed Apostle; and elsewhere, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and 
Gal. 2. 20.  the life which now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. My beloved is mine, and I am his, 
Cant. 2. 16.  saith the Spouse of Christ in her Bridal Song. O blessed union, next to the hypostatical, whereby the humane nature of the Son of God is taken into the participation of the eternal Godhead.   

SECT. XVII.  
OUt of the sense of this happy union ariseth an unspeakable complacency and delight of the soul in that God and Saviour, who is thus inseparably ours, and by whose union we are blessed; and an high appreciation of him above all the world; and a contemptuous undervaluation of all earthly things, in comparison of him; And this is no other than an heavenly reflection of that sweet contentment, which the God of mercies takes in the faithful soul; Thou hast ravished my 
Cant. 4. 9 6. 4, 5.  heart, my sister, my Spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes. Thou art beautiful, O my Love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me. How fair is thy love, my sister, my Spouse? How much better is thy love than wine, and the smell of thine ointments better than all spices. And the soul answers him again in the same language of spiritual dearness; My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief est 
Cant. 5. 10.  among ten thousand. Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a 
8. 6.  seal upon thine arm, for love is as strong as death: And as in an ecstatical qualm of passionate affection; Stay me with fiaggons, and comfort me 
2. 5.  with apples, for I am sick of love.   

SECT. XVIII.  
UPon this gracious complacency will follow an absolute self-resignation, or giving up ourselves to the hands of that good God, whose we are, and who is ours; and an humble contentedness with his good pleasure in all things; looking upon God with the same face, whether he smile upon us in his favours, or chastise us with his loving corrections; If he speak good unto us, Behold the servant of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word; If evil, It is the Lord, let him do whatsoever he will: Here is therefore a cheerful acquiescence in God; and an hearty reliance, and casting ourselves upon the mercy of so bountiful a God; who having given us his Son, can in and with him deny us nothing.   

SECT. XIX.  
UPon this subacted disposition of heart will follow a familiar (yet awful) compellation of God; and an emptying of our souls before him in all our necessities. For that God, who is infinitely merciful, yet will not have his favours otherwise conveyed to us than by our supplications. The style of his dear ones is, his people that prayeth, and his own stile is, the God that heareth prayers: To him therefore doth the devout heart pour out all his requests with all true humility, with all fervour of spirit, as knowing, that God will hear neither proud prayers, nor heartless: wherein his holy desires are regulated by a just method; First, suing for spiritual favours, as most worthy; then for temporal, as the appendances of better; and in both, aiming at the glory of our good God, more than our own advantage: And in the order of spiritual thngs, first and most for those that are most necessary, and essential for our souls health, than for secondary graces, that concern the prosperity & comfort of our spiritual life: Absolutely craving those graces that accompany salvation, all others, conditionally, and with reference to the good pleasure of the munificent giver; Wherein, heed must be taken, that our thoughts be not so much taken up with our expressions, as with our desires; and that we do not suffer ourselves to languish into an unfeeling length, and repetition of our suits: Even the hand of a Moses, may in time grow heavy; so therefore must we husband our spiritual strength, that our devotion may not flag with overtiring, but may be most vigorous at the last. And as we must enter into our prayers, not without preparatory elevations, so must we be careful to take a meet leave of God, at their shutting up: following our supplications, with the pause of a faithful, and most lowly adoration; and as it were sending up our hearts into heaven, to see how our prayers are taken; and raising them to a joyful expectation of a gracious and successful answer from the father of mercies.   

SECT. XX.  
UPon the comfortable feeling of a gracious condescent, follows an happy fruition of God in all his favours; so as we have not them so much, as God in them; which advanceth their worth a thousand fold, and as it were brings down heaven unto us; whereas, therefore, the sensual man rests only in the mere use of any blessing, as health, peace, prosperity, knowledge, and reacheth no higher; the devoute soul, in, and through all these, sees, and feels a God that sanctifies them to him, and enjoys therein his favour, that is better than life. Even we men are wont, out of our good nature, to esteem a benefit, not so much for its own worth, as for the love, and respect of the giver: Small legacies for this cause, find dear acceptation; How much more is it so betwixt God and the devout soul? It is the sweet apprehension of this love that makes all his gifts, blessings. Do we his gifts, blessings. Do we not see some vain churl, though cried down by the multitude, herein secretly applauding himself that he hath bags at home? how much more shall the godly man find comfort against all the crosses of the world, that he is possessed of him that possesseth all things; even God All-sufficient; the pledges of whose infinite love he feels in all the whole course of Gods dealing with him?   

SECT. XXI.  
OUt of the true sense of this inward fruition of God, the devout soul breaks forth into cheerful thanksgivings to the God of all comfort, praising him for every evil that it is free from; for every good thing it enjoyeth: For, as it keeps a just Inventory of all God's favours, so it often spreads them thankfully before him and lays them forth (so near as it may) in the full dimensions; that so, God may be no loser by him in any act of his beneficence. Here therefore every of God's benefits must come into account; whether eternal or temporal, spiritual or bodily, outward or inward, public or private, positive or privative, past or present, upon ourselves or others. In all which, he shall humbly acknowledge both Gods free mercy, and his own shameful unworthiness; setting off the favours of his good God the more, with the soil of his own confessed wretchedness, and unanswerableness to the least of his mercies.  
Now as there is infinite variety of blessings from the liberal hand of the Almighty, so there is great difference in their degrees; For, whereas there are three subjects of all the good we are capable of; The Estate, Body, Soul; and each of these do far surpass other in value, (the soul being infinitely more worth than the body, and the body far more precious than the outward estate) so the blessings that appertain to them, in several, differ in their true estimation accordingly. If either we do not highly magnify God's mercy for the least, or shall set as high a price upon the blessings that concern our estate, as those that pertain to the body, or upon bodily favours, as upon those that belong to the soul, we shall show ourselves very unworthy, and unequal partakers of the Divine bounty. But it will savour too much of earth, if we be more affected with temporal blessings, than with spiritual and eternal. By how much nearer relation then, any favour hath to the Fountain of goodness, and by how much more it conduceth to the glory of God, and ours in him, so much higher place should it possess in our affection and gratitude. No marvel therefore if the Devout Heart be raised above itself, and transported with heavenly raptures, when, with Stephen's eyes, it beholds the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God, fixing itself upon the consideration of the infinite Merits of his Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession, and finding itself swallowed up in the depth of that Divine Love, from whence all mercies flow into the soul; so as that it runs over with passionate thankfulness, and is therefore deeply affected with all other his mercies, because they are derived from that boundless Ocean of Divine goodness. Unspeakable is the advantage that the soul raises to itself by this continual exercise of thanksgiving; for the grateful acknowledgement of favours, is the way to more; even amongst men (whose hands are short and straight) this is the means to pull on further beneficence; how much more from the God of all Consolation, whose largest bounty diminisneth nothing of his store? And herein the devout Soul enters into its heavenly Task; beginning upon earth those Hallelujahs, which it shall perfect above in the blessed Chore of Saints and Angels, ever praising God, and saying, Blessing, and Glo-ry, and Wisdom, and Thanksgiving, and Honour, and Power, and Might, be unto our God for ever and ever.  
Amen.   

SECT. XXII.  
NOne of all the services of God can be acceptably, no not unsinfully performed without due devotion; as therefore in our prayers and thanksgivings, so in the other exercises of Divine Worship, (especially, in the reading and hearing of God's Word, and in our receipt of the blessed Sacrament) it is so necessary, that without it, we offer to God a mere carcase of religious duty, and profane that sacred name we would pretend to honour. First then, we must come to God's Book, not without an holy Reverence, as duly considering both what and whose it is; Even no other, than the Word of the everliving God, by which we shall once be judged. Great reason have we therefore, to make a difference betwixt it, and the writings of the Holiest men, even no less than betwixt the Authors of both: God is true, yea, truth itself: and that which David said in his haste, S. Paul 
Psal. 116. Rom. 3. 4  says in full deliberati on, Every man is a liar. Before we put our hand to this Sacred Volume, it will be requisite to elevate our hearts to that God whose it is, for both his leave and his blessing: Open mine eyes, saith the sweet singer 
Psal. 119. 8.  of Israel, that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law. Lo, David's eyes were open before to other objects; but when he comes to God's Book, he can see nothing without a new act of apertion: Letters he might see, but wonders he could not see, till God did unclose his eyes, and enlighten them. It is not therefore for us, presumptuously to break in upon God, and to think by our natural abilities to wrest open the precious Caskets of the Almighty; and to fetch out all his hidden treasure thence, at pleasure; but we must come tremblingly before him, and in all humility crave his gracious admission. I confess I find some kind of envy in myself, when I read of those scrupulous observances of high respects given by the Jews to the Book of God's Law: and when I read of a Romish Saint, that never read 
Carolus Borachia romaeus.  the Scripture but upon his knees, and compare it with the careless neglect whereof I can accuse myself, and perhaps some others: Not that we should rest in the formality of outward Ceremonies of reverence, wherein it were more easy to be superstitious than devout; but that our outward deportment may testify, and answer the awful disposition of our hearts: whereto we shall not need to be excited, if we be throughly persuaded of the Divine Original, and authority of that Sacred Word. It was motive enough to the Ephesians zealously to plead for, and religiously to adore the Image of their Diana, that it was the Image that fell down 
Acts 19 35.  from Jupiter. Believe we, and know, that the Scripture is inspired by God; and we can entertain it with no other than an awful address, and we cannot be Christians if we do not so believe.  
Every Clause therefore of that God-inspired Volume, must be, as reverently received by us, so seriously weighed, and carefully laid up; as knowing, that there is no tittle therein without his use. What we read, we must labour to understand; what we cannot understand, we must admire silently, and modestly inquire of. There are plain Truths, and there are deep mysteries. The bounty of God hath left this Well of Living-water open for all; what runs over is for all comers; but every one hath not wherewith to draw. There is no Christian that may not enjoy God's Book, but every Christian may not interpret it; those shallow Fords that are in it, may be waded by every Passenger, but there are deeps wherein he that cannot swim, may drown. How can I without a Guide, said that Ethopian Eunuch: Wherefore serves the tongue of the Learned, but to direct the Ignorant? Their modesty is of no less use than the others skill. It is a woeful condition of a Church when no man will be ignorant.  
What service can our eyes do us in the ways of God without our thoughts? our diligent and frequent reading, therefore, must be attended with our holy meditation: we feed on what we read, but we digest only what we meditate of. What is in our Bible is Gods; but that which is in our hearts, is our own: By all which our care must be, not so much to become wiser, as to become better, labouring still to reduce all things to godly practice.  
Finally, as we enter into this task with the lifting up of our hearts for a blessing, so we shut it up in the ejaculations of our thanksgiving to that God, who hath blessed us with the free use of his Word.   

SECT. XXIII.  
OUr eye is our best guide to God our Creator, but our ear is it that leads us to God our Redeemer. How shall they believe except they hear? Which that we may effectually do, our devotion suggests unto us some duties before the act, some in the act, some after the act.  
It is the Apostles charge, that we should be swift to hear, but heed must be taken, that we make not more haste than good speed: we may not be so forward as not to look to our foot when 
Eccles. 5. 1.  we go to the house of God, lest if we be too ready to hear, we offer the sacrifice of Fools. What are the feet of the soul, but our affections? If these be not set right, we may easily stumble, and wrench at God's threshold. Rash actions can never hope to prosper; as therefore to every great Work, so to this, there is a due preparation required; and this must be done by meditation first, then by prayer. Our meditation first, sequesters the heart from the world, and shakes off those distractive thoughts, which may carry us away from these better things: for what room is there for God, where the World hath taken up the lodging? We cannot serve God and Mammon. Then secondly, it seizes upon the heart for Gof, fixing our thoughts upon the great business we go about; recalling the greatness of that Majesty into whose presence we enter, and the main importance of the service we are undertaking; and examining our intentions wherewith we address ourselves to the work intended; I am now going to God● House; Wherefore do I go thither? Is it to see, or to be seen? Is it to satisfy my own curiosity in hearing what the Preacher will say? Is it to satisfy the law, that requires my presence? Is it to please others eyes, or to avoid their censures? Is it for fashion? Is it for recreation? Or is it with a sincere desire to do my soul good, in gaining more knowledge, in quickening my affections? Is it in a desire to approve myself to my God, in the conscience of my humble obedience to his command, and my holy attendance upon his Ordinance? And where we find our ends amiss, chiding and rectifying our obliquities; where just and right, prosecuting them towards a further perfection.  
Which that it may be done, our meditation must be seconded by our prayers. It is an unholy rudeness to press into the presence of that God whom we have not invoked: Our prayer must be, that God would yet more prepare us for the work, and sanctify us to it, and bless us in it; that he would remove our sins, that he would send down his Spirit into our hearts, which may enable us to this great service; that he would bless the Preacher in the delivery of his sacred message, that he would be pleased to direct his Messenger's tongue to the meeting with our necessities; that he would free our hearts from all prejudices and distractions; that he would keep off all temptations, which might hinder the good entertainment, and success of his blessed Word: Finally, that he would make us truly teachable, and his ordinance the power of God to our salvation.  
In the act of hearing, Devotion calls us to Reverence, Attention, Application. Reverence to that great God, who speaks to us, by the mouth of a weak man; for, in what is spoken from God's Chair, agreeable to the Scriptures, the sound is man's, the substance of the message is Gods; Even an Eglon, when he hears of a 
Judg. 3. 20.  message from God, riseth out of his seat. It was not St. Paul's condition only, but of all his faithful servants, to whom he hath committed the word of reconciliation; They are Ambassadors 
2 Cor. 5. 20  for Christ; as if God did beseech us by them, they pray us in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God: The Embassy is not the bearers, but the Kings; and if we do not acknowledge the great King of heaven in the voice of the Gospel, we cannot but incur a contempt.  
When therefore we see God's messenger in his pulpit, our eye looks at him as if it said with Cornelius, We are all here present before 
Acts 10. 33.  God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God; whence cannot but follow together with an awful disposition of mind, a reverend deportment of the body; which admits not a wild & roving eye, a drowsy head, a chatting tongue, a rude and indecent posture; but composes itself to such a site a may befit a pious soul in s● religious an impoiment. Neither do we come as authorized Judges to sit upon the Preacher, but as humble Disciples to sit at his feet.   

SECT. XXIV.  
REverence cannot but draw on Attention; We need not be bidden to hang on the lips of him whom we honour. It is the charge of the Spirit, Let him that hath an ear hear; Every one hath not an ear, and of those that have an ear, every one heareth not; The soul hath an ear as well as the body; if both these ears do not meet together in one act, there is no hearing: Common experience tells us that when the mind is otherwise taken up, we do no more hear what a man says, than if we had been deaf, or he silent. Hence is that first request of Abigail to David; Let thine handmaid speak to 
1 Sam. 25. 24.  thine ears, and hear the words of thine handmaid; and Job so importunately urgeth his friends, Hear diligently my 
Job 13. 17.  speech and my declaration with your ears. The outward ear may be open, and the inward shut; if way be not made through both, we are deaf to spiritual things. Mine ear hast thou boared, or 
Psa. 40. 6.  digged, saith the Psalmist; the vulgar reads it, my ears hast thou perfitted: Surely our ears are grown up with flesh; there is no passage for a perfect hearing of the voice of God, till he have made it by a spiritual perforation.  
And now that the ear is made capable of good counsel, it doth as gladly receive it; taking in every good lesson, and longing for the next: Like unto the dry and chopped earth, which soaks in every silver drop, that falls from the clouds, and thirsteth for more; not suffering any of that precious liquor to fall beside it.   

SECT. XXV.  
NEither doth the devout man care to satisfy his curiosity, as hearing only that he might hear; but reducts all things to a saving use; bringing all he hears, home to his heart, by a self-reflecting application; like a practiser of the art of memory, referring every thing to its proper place; If it be matter of comfort, There is for my sickbed, There is for my outward losses, There for my drooping under afflictions, There for the sense of my spiritual desertions; If matter of doctrine, There is for my settlement in such a truth, There for the conviction of such an error, There for my direction in such a practice; If matter of reproof, he doth not point at his neighbour, but deeply chargeth himself; This meets with my dead-heartedness and security, This with my worldly-mindedness, This with my self-love and flattery of mine own estate, This with my uncharitable censoriousness, This with my foolish pride of heart, This with my hypocrisy, This with my neglect of God's services, and my duty; Thus in all the variety of the holy passages of the Sermon, the devout mind is taken up with digesting what it hears; and working itself to a secret improvement of all the good counsel that is delivered, neither is ever more busy, than when it sits still at the feet of Christ. I cannot therefore approve the practice (which yet I see commonly received) of those, who think it no small argument of their Devotion, to spend their time of hearing, in writing large notes from the mouth of the Preacher; which, however it may be an help for memory in the future, yet cannot (as I conceive) but be some prejudice to our present edification; neither can the brain get so much hereby, as the heart loseth. If it be said, that by this means, an opportunity is given for a full rumination of wholesome Doctrines afterwards: I yield it, but withal, I must say that our after-thoughts can never do the work so effectually, as when the lively voice sounds in our ears, and beats upon our heart; but herein I submit my opinion to better judgements.   

SECT. XXVI.  
THe food that is received into the soul by the ear, is afterwards chewed in the mouth thereof by memory, concocted in the stomach by meditation, and dispersed into the parts by conference and practice; True Devotion finds the greatest part of the work behind; It was a just answer that john Gerson reports, given 
Serm. ad Eccles. cautelam.  by a Frenchman, who being asked by one of his neighbours if the Sermon were done; no saith he, it is said, but it is not done, neither will be, I fear, in haste. What are we the better if we hear and remember not? If we be such auditors as the Jews were wont to call sieves, that retain no moisture that is poured into them? What the better if we remember, but think not seriously of what we hear; or if we practise not carefully what we think of? Not that which we hear is our own, but that which we carry away: although all memories are not alike, one receives more easily, another retains longer; It is not for every one to hope to attain to that ability, that he can go away with the whole fabric of a Sermon, and readily recount it unto others; neither doth God require that of any man, which he hath not given him; Our desires and endeavours may not be wanting where our powers fail; It will be enough for weak memories, if they can so lay up those wholesome counsels which they receive, as that they may fetch them forth when they have occasion to use them; & that what they want in the extent of memory, they supply in the care of their practice; Indeed that is it, wherein lies the life of all religious duties, and without which they are but idle formalities; that which the Philosopher said of all virtue, I must say of true godliness, that it consists in action; Our Saviour did not say, Blessed are ye if you know these things; But, If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them. The end of our desire of the sincere milk of the Gospel, is, that we may grow thereby in the stature of all Grace, unto the fullness of 
1 Pet. 2. 2. Eph. 3. 9  God.   

SECT. XXVII.  
THe highest of all God's services are his Sacraments; which therefore require the most eminent acts of our Devotion. The Sacrament of initiation, which in the first planting of a Church is administered only to those of riper age and understanding, calls for all possible reverence, and religious addresses of the receivers; wherein the Primitive times were punctually observant, both for substance, and ceremony; now, in a settled and perpetuated Church, in which the virtue of the Covenant descends from the parent to the child, there seems to be no use of our preparatory directions: Only, it is fit that our Devotion should call our eyes back, to what we have done in our infancy, and whereto we are ever obliged; that our full age may carefully endeavour to make our word good, and may put us in mind of our sinful failings. That other Sacrament of our spiritual nourishment, which our Saviour (as his farewell) left us for a blessed memorial of his death and passion, can never be celebrated with enough Devotion. far be it from us to come to this feast of our God, in our common garments; the soul must be trimmed up, if we would be meet guests for the Almighty. The great Master of the feast will neither abide us to come naked, nor ill clad: Away therefore, first with the old beastly rags of our wont corruptions: Due examination comes in first, and throughly searches the soul, and finds out all the secret nastiness, and defilements that it hides within it; and by the aid of true penitence, strips it of all those loathsome clouts, wherewith it was polluted; Sin may not be clothed upon with grace; Joshuah's filthy garments 
Zach. 3.  must be plucked off, ere he can be capable of precious robes: Here may be no place for our sinful lusts, for our covetous desires, for our natural infidelity, for our malicious purposes, for any of our unhallowed thoughts; The soul clearly devested of these and all other known corruptions, must in the next place in stead thereof, be furnished with such graces and holy predispositions, as may fit it for so heavenly a work. Amongst the grace's requisite, Faith justly challengeth the first place, as that which is both most eminent, and most necessarily presupposed to the profitable receipt of this Sacrament; for whereas the main end of this blessed banquet is the strengthening of our faith, how should that receive strength, which hath not being? to deliver these sacred viands to an unbeliever, is to put meat into the mouth of a dead man: Now therefore must the heart raise up itself to new acts of believing, and must lay faster hold on Christ, and bring him closer to the soul; more strongly applying to its self, the infinite merits of his most perfect obedience, & of his bitter death and passion; and erecting itself to a desire and expectation of a more vigorous and lively apprehension of its omnipotent Redeemer. Neither can this faith be either dead, or solitary; but is still really operative, and attended (as with other graces, so) especially with a serious repentance; whose wonderful power is, to undo our former sins, and to mould the heart and life to a better obedience: A grace so necessary, that the want of it (as in extreme corruption of the stomach) turns the wholesome food of the soul into poison; An impenitent man therefore coming to God's Board, is so far from benefiting himself, as that he eats his own judgement: Stand off from this holy table, all ye that have not made your peace with your God; or that harbour any known sin in your bosom; not to eat is uncomfortable, but to eat in such a state is deadly; yet rest not in this plea, that ye cannot come because ye are unreconciled; but (as ye love your souls) be reconciled that you may come.  
Another Grace necessarily pre-required is charity to our brethren, and readiness to forgive; For this is a communion, as with Christ the head, so with all the members of his mystical body: This is the true Love-feast of God our Saviour, wherein we profess ourselves inseparably united both to him and his; If there be more hearts than one at God's Table, he will not own them; These holy elements give us an Emblem of ourselves: This bread is made up of many grains, incorporated into one mass; and this wine is the confluent juice of many clusters; neither do we partake of several loaves, or variety of liquors, but all eat of one bread, and drink of one cup. Here is then no place for rancour and malice; none for secret grudge and heart-burnings; Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the Altar, and there 
Mat. 5. 23.  remember'st that thy brother hath aught against the, Leave there thy gift, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and them come and offer thy gift.  
Neither may we do, as those two emulous Commanders of Greece did, who resolved to leave their spite behind them at Mount Athos, and to take it up again in their return; here must be an absolute, and free acquitting of all the back-reckoning of our unkindness, that we may receive the God of peace into a clear bosom.   

SECT. XXVIII.  
BEsides these graces there are certain holy predispositions so necessary that without them our souls can never hope to receive true comfort in this blessed Sacrament; whereof the first is an hungering and thirsting desire after these gracious means of our salvation: What good will our meat do us without an appetite? Surely without it, there is no expectation of either relish, or digestion; as therefore those that are invited to some great feast, care first to seed their hunger ere they feed their body; labouring by exercise to get a stomach, ere they employ it; so it concerns us to do here: and, as those that are listlesse, and weak stomached, are wont to whet their appetite with sharp sauces; so must we by the tart applications of the law, quicken our desires of our Saviour here exhibited.  
Could we but see our sins, and our miseries by sin; Could we see God frowning, and hell gaping wide to swallow us, we should not need to be bidden to long for our deliverer; and every pledge of his favour would be precious to us.  
Upon the apprehension of our need of a Saviour and so happy a supply thereof presented unto us, must needs follow a renewed act of true thankfulness of heart to our good God, that hath both given us his dear Son to work our redemption, & his blessed Sacrament to seal up unto us our redemption thus wrought and purchased; And with souls thus thankfully elevated unto God, we approach with all reverence, to that heavenly Table, where God is both the Feast-master and the Feast. What intention of holy thoughts, what fervour of spirit, what depth of Devotion must we now find in ourselves? Doubtless, out of heaven no object can be so worthy to take up our hearts. What a clear representation is here of the great work of our Redemption? How is my Saviour by all my senses here brought home to my soul? How is his passion lively acted before mine eyes? For lo, my bodily eye doth not more truly see bread and wine, than the eye of my faith sees the body and blood of my dear Redeemer; Thus was his sacred body torn and broken; Thus was his precious blood poured out for me; My sins (wretched man that I am) helped thus to crucify my Saviour; and for the discharge of my sins would he be thus crucified: Neither did he only give himself for me, upon the Cross, but lo, both offers and gives himself to me in this his blessed institution; what had his general gift been without this application? Now my hand doth not more sensibly take, nor my mouth more really eat this bread, than my soul doth spiritually receive, and feed on the bread of life; O Saviour, thou art the living bread that came doom from heaven; Thy flesh is meat indeed, and thy blood is drink indeed: Oh that I may so eat of this bread, that I may live for ever. He that cometh to thee, shall never hunger; he that believeth in thee, shall never thirst: Oh that I could now so hunger, and so thirst for thee, that my soul could be for ever satisfied with thee; Thy people of old, were fed with Manna in the wilderness, yet they died; that food of Angels could not keep them from perishing; but oh, for the hidden Manna, which giveth life to the world, even thy blessed self, give me ever of this bread, and my soul shall not die but live: Oh the precious juice of the fruit of the Vine, wherewith thou refreshest my soul! Is this the blood of the grape? Is it not rather thy blood of the New Testament, that is poured out for me? Thou speakest, O Saviour, of new wine that thou wouldst drink with thy Disciples, in thy Father's Kingdom, can there be any more precious and pleasant, than this, wherewith thou cheerest the believing soul? our palate is now dull and earthly, which shall then exquisite and celestial; but surely, no liquor can be of equal price or sovereignty with thy blood; Oh how unsavoury are all earthly delicacies to this heavenly draught! O God, let not the sweet taste of this spiritual Nectar ever go out of the mouth of my soul; Let the comfortable warmth of this blessed Cordial ever work upon my soul, even till, and in, the last moment of my dissolution. Dost thou bid me, O Saviour, do this in remembrance of thee? Oh, how can I forget thee? How can I enough celebrate thee for this thy unspeakable mercy? Can I see thee thus crucified before my eyes, and for my sake thus crucified, and not remember thee? Can I find my sins accessary to this thy death, and thy death meritoriously expiating all these my grievous sins, and not remember thee? Can I hear thee freely offering thyself to me, and feel thee graciously conveying thyself into my soul, and not remember thee? I do remember thee O Saviour; but oh that I could yet more effectually remember thee; with all the passionate affections of a soul sick of thy love; with all zealous desires to glorify thee, with all fervent longings after thee, and thy salvation; I remember thee in thy sufferings, Oh do thou remember me in thy glory.   

SECT. XXIX.  
HAving thus busied itself with holy thoughts in the time of the celebration, the devout soul breaks not off in an abrupt unmannerliness, without taking leave of the great master of this heavenly feast, but with a secret adoration, humbly blesseth God for so great a mercy, and heartily resolves and desires to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus, whom it hath received, and to consecrate itself wholly to the service of him that hath so dearly bought it, and hath given it these pledges of its eternal union with him.  
The Devout Soul hath thus supped in heaven, and returns home, yet the work is not thus done: after the elements are out of eye and use, there remains a digestion of this celestial food, by holy meditation; and now it thinks, Oh what a blessing have I received to day! no less than my Lord Jesus, with all his merits; and in and with him, the assurance of the remission of all my sins, and everlasting salvation: How happy am I, if I be not wanting to God & myself? How unworthy shall I be, if I do not strive to answer this love of my God and Saviour, in all hearty affection, and in all holy obedience?  
And now after this heavenly repast, how do I feel myself? what strength, what advantage hath my faith gotten? how much am I nearer to heaven than before? how much faster hold have I taken of my blessed Redeemer? how much more firm and sensible is my interest in him?  
Neither are these thoughts, and this examination the work of the next instant only, but they are such, as must dwell upon the heart; and must often solicit our memory, and excite our practice, that by this means we may frequently renew the efficacy of this blessed Sacrament, and our souls may batten more and more, with this spiritual nourishment, and may be fed up to eternal life.   

SECT. XXX.  
THese are the generalities of our Devotion, which are of common use to all Christians; There are besides these certain specialties of it, appliable to several occasions, times, places, persons; For there are morning, and evening Devotions; Devotions proper to our board, to our closer, to our bed, to God's day, to our own; to health, to sickness, to several callings, to recreations; to the way, to the field, to the Church, to our home; to the student, to the soldier, to the Magistrate, to the Minister, to the husband, wife, child, servant; to our own persons, to our families; The severalties whereof, as they are scarce finite for number, so are most fit to to be left to the judgement, and holy managing of every Christian; neiiss it to be imagined, that any soul which is taught of God, and hath any acquaintance with heaven, can be to seek in the particular application of common rules to his own necessity or expedience.  
The result of all is,  
A devout man is he that ever sees the invisible, and ever trembleth before that God he sees; that walks ever, here on earth, with the God of heaven; and still adores that Majesty with whom he converses; That confers hourly with the God of spirits in his own language; yet so, as no familiarity can abate of his awe, nor fear abate aught of his love. To whom the gates of heaven are ever open; that he may go in at pleasure to the throne of grace, & none of the Angelical spirits can offer to challenge him of too much boldness: Whose eyes are well acquainted with those heavenly guardians, the presence of whom he doth as truly acknowledge, as if they were his sensible Companions. He is well known of the King of glory, for a daily suitor in the Court of heaven, and none so welcome there, as he: He accounts all his time lost that falls beside his God; and can be no more weary of good thoughts, than of happiness.  
His bosom is no harbour for any known evil; and it is a question whether he more abhors sin, or hell; His care, is to entertain God in a clear and free heart, and therefore he thrusts the world out of doors, and humbly beseeches God to welcome himself to his own: He is truly dejected, and vile in his own eyes: Nothing but hell is lower than he; every of his slips are heinous, every trespass is aggravated to rebellion; The glory and favours of God heighten his humiliation; He hath looked down to the bottomless deep, and seen with horror what he deserved to feel everlastingly; His cries have been as strong, as his fears just; and he hath found mercy more ready to rescue him, than he could be importunate: His hand could not be so soon put forth as his Saviour's, for deliverance. The sense of this mercy hath raised him to an unspeakable joy, to a most fervent love of so dear a Redeemer; that love hath knit his heart to so meritorious a deliverer, and wrought a blessed union betwixt God and his soul. That union can no more be severed from an infinite delight, than that delight can be severed from an humble, & cheerful acquiescence in his munificent God; And now, as in an heavenly freedom, he pours out his soul into the bosom of the Almighty, in all faithful suits for himself and others; so, he enjoys God in the blessings received, and returns all zealous praises to the giver.  
He comes reverently to the Oracles of God, and brings not his eye, but his heart with him; not carelessly negligent in seeking to know the revealed will of his Maker, nor too busily inquisitive into his deep counsels; not too remiss in the letter, nor too peremptory in the sense: gladly comprehending what he may, and admiring what he cannot comprehend. Doth God call for his ear? He goes awfully into the holy presence and so hears, as if he should now hear his last: Latching every word that drops from the Preachers lips, ere it fall to the ground, and laying it up carefully where he may be sure to fetch it. He sits not to censure, but to learn, yet speculation and knowledge is the least drift of his labour; Nothing is his own but what he practiseth. Is he invited to God's feast? he hates to come in a soul and slovenly dress; but trims up his soul, so, as may be fit for an heavenly guest: Neither doth he leave his stomach at home cloyed with the world, but brings a sharp appetite with him; and so feeds as if he meant to live for ever. All earthly Delicates are unsavoury to him, in respect of that celestial Manna: Shortly, he so eats and drinks, as one that sees himself set at Table with God, and his Angels; and rises and departs full of his Saviour; and in the strength of that meal walks vigorously and cheerfully on towards his glory. Finally, as he well knows that he lives, and moves, and hath his being in God, so he refers his life, motions, and being wholly to God; so acting all things, as if God did them by him, so using all things, as one that enjoys God in them; and in the mean time so walking on earth, that he doth in a sort carry his heaven with him.    

THE FREE PRISONER: OR, The COMFORT of RESTRAINT.  
Written Some while since in the Tower, BY I. H. B. N.   

The Free Prisoner: OR, The Comfort of Restraint.  

SECT. I.  
SIR,  
WHiles you pity my Affliction, take heed lest you aggravate it, and in your thoughts make it greater than it is in my own; It is true, I am under restraint; What is that to a man, that can be free in the Tower, and cannot but be a prisoner abroad? Such is my condition, and every Divine Philosophers with me. Were my walks much straighter than they are, they cannot hold me in; It is a bold word to say, I cannot, I will not be a prisoner: It is my soul that is I: my flesh is my partner, (if not my servant) not myself: However my body may be immured, that agile spirit shall fly abroad, and visit both earth & heaven at pleasure. Who shall hinder it from mounting up (in an instant) to that supreme region of bliss, and from seeing that, by the eye of faith, which S. Paul saw in ecstasy; and when it hath viewed that blessed Hierarchy of heaven, to glance down through the innumerable, and unmeasurable globes of light (which move in the firmament; and below it) into this elementary world; and there to compass seas and lands, without shipwreck, in a trice, which a Drake, or Cavendish cannot do, but with danger, and in some years' navigation; And if my thoughts list to stay themselves in the passage; with what variety can my soul be taken up of several objects; Here, turning in to the dark vaults, and dungeons of penal restraint, to visit the disconsolate prisoners, and to fetch from their greater misery, a just mitigation of mine own; There, looking in to the houses of vain jollity, and pitying that which the sensual fools call happiness; Here stepping in to the Courts of great Princes, & in them observing the fawning compliances of some, the treacherous underworking of others; hollow friendships, faithless engagements, fair faces, smooth tongues, rich suits, viewing all save their hearts, and censuring nothing that it sees not; There calling in at the low cottages of the poor, and out of their empty cupboard furnishing itself with thankfulness; Here so overlooking the Courts of Justice, as not willing to see rigour or partiality; There listening what they say in those meetings which would pass for sacred, and wondering at what it hears. Thus can, and shall, and doth my nimble spirit bestir it self in a restless flight, making only the Empyreal heaven, the bounds of its motion; not being more able to stand still, than the heavens themselves, whence it descended: Should the Iron enter into my soul, as it did into that good Patriarches, yet it cannot fetter me: No more can my spirit be confined to one place, than my body can be diffused to many. Perhaps therefore you are mistaken in my condition; for what is it I beseech you that makes a prisoner? Is it an allotment to the same room without change, without remove? What is that still to a mind that is free?  
And why is my body then more a prisorer than the best man's soul; that, you know, is peremptorily assigned, for inhabitation to this house of clay till the day of dissolution: Why more than the stars of heaven, which have remained fixed in their first stations ever since they were first created? Why more than those great persons which keep up for state; or dames for beauty? Why more than those Anachorites whom we have seen willingly cooped up for merit? How much more scope have we than they? We breathe fresh air, we see the same heavens with the freeest travellers.   

SECT. II.  
BUt we have (you will say) bounds for our restraint which the free spirit hates; as never being pleased, but with a full liberty both of prospect and passage; Any bar, whether to the foot, or to the eye, is a death: Oh vain affectation of wild, and roving curiosity! If their desires cannot be bounded, yet their motions must; When they have the full sight of heaven above them, they cannot climb up into it; they cannot possibly see that whole glorious contignation; and when the whole earth lies open before them, they can measure but some small pieces of it. How can they be quiet till they have purchased Tycho Brahe his prospective trunk of thirty two foot long, whereby they may discover a better face of heaven; some lesser Planets moving round about the Sun, and the Moonets about Saturn and Jupiter, & the mountains, seas and valleys in the Moon? How can they rest till having acquainted themselves with the constellations of our Hemisphere, they have passed the Equinoctial, and seen the triangle, the cross, and the clouds, and the rest of the unknown stars that move above the other Pole? And when all this is done, they are but who they were, no whit better, no whit wiser, and perhaps far less happy than those, who never smelled any but their own smoke; never knew any star, but Charls-wayn, the morning star, and the seven. For me, I do not envy, but wonder at the licentious freedom, which these men think themselves happy to enjoy; and hold it a weakness in those minds, which cannot find more advantage and pleasure in confinement, & retiredness; Is it a small benefit, that I am placed there, where no oaths, no blasphemies beat my ears? where my eyes are in no peril of wounding objects; where I hear no invectives, no false doctrines, no sermocinations of Iron-mongers, Feltmakers, Cobblers, Broom-men, Grooms, or any other of those inspired ignorants; no curses, no ribaldries: where I see no drunken comessations, no rebellious routs, no violent oppressions, no obscene rejoinings, nor ought else that might either vex or affright my soul. This, this is my liberty: who whiles I sit here quietly locked up by my keeper, can pity the turmoils & distempers abroad, and bless my own immunity from those too common evils.   

SECT. III.  
IS is the necessity, and force of the restraint; since those things which we do voluntarily, are wont to pass from us with delight, which being imposed seem grievous to us? Why should not I have so much power over my will as to make that voluntary in me, to undergo, which another wills forceably to inflict? the mind that is truly subacted to Grace, can so frame itself to what it must suffer, as that it finds a kind of contentment in patience; Thus we daily do to the Almighty, whose will, by our humble submission, we make ours; and pray that we may do so: And who can restrain us without him? If therefore my wise and holy God think it best to cage me up, by the command of authority (upon what cause soever) why should not I think this enclosure a better liberty: who know there is perfect freedom in his obedience? So then, if constraint make a prisoner, I am none; who am most willingly, where my God will have me: And, if my will did not often carry me out of my own walls at home, why cannot it as well confine me to a larger compass of the Tower?   

SECT. IV.  
IS it solitude and Infrequence of visitation? This may perhaps be troublesome to a man that knows not to entertain himself; but, to him that can hold continual discourse with his own heart, no favour can be greater; For of all other, these self-conferences are most beneficial to the soul; Other men's communication may spend the time with more advantage of learning, or mirth; but none can yield us so much spiritual profit, as our own soliloquies: And when all is done, the Greeks 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  said well; It is not much, but useful that makes truly wise. Besides this, we can never have the opportunity of so good company, as when we are alone: Now, we enjoy the society of God, and his Angels, which we cannot so freely do in a throng of visitants: When God would express his greatest entireness with his Church, Ducam eam in solitudinem, saith he: I will bring 
Hos. 2. 14.  her into the wilderness, and there speak comfortably to her. We cannot expect so sweer conversation with God, in the presence of others, as apart. Oh the divine benefit of an holy solitariness, which no worldly heart can either know, or value! What care I for seeing of men, when I may see him that is invisible? What care I for chatting with friends, when I may talk familiarly with the God of heaven? What care I for entertaining mortal guests, when I may with Abraham & his Nephew Let feast the Angels of God: and (which were too great a word, if God himself had not spoken it) be attended by them?   

SECT. V.  
IS it the reproach and ignominy that commonly attends the very name of an imprisonment? weak minds may be affected with every thing: but, with solid judgements, it is not the punishment, but the cause that makes either the Martyr, or the malefactor. S. Paul's bonds were famous: and Petrus and vincula is not without a note of yearly celebrity: and it were hard, if so many blessed Martyrs, and Confessors, who have lived, and died in Jails, for the truth's sake, should not have brought prisons (such as they may be) into some credit. Shortly, as notorious crimes may be at liberty, so even innocence may be under restraint; yet those crimes no whit the better, nor this innocence the worse.  
Besides (that which perhaps came not within your freer thoughts) every restraint is not for punishment; there is a restraint for safety, a salva custodia, as well as arcta, such is this of ours: This strong Tower serves not so much for our prison, as for our defence; what norror soever the name may carry in it: I bless God for these walls, out of which I know not where we could (for the time) have been safe from the rage of the mis-incensed multitude: Poor seduced souls, they were taught it was pieto to be cruel; and were mispersuaded to hate and condemn us for that, (which should have procured their reverence, and honour) even that holy station which we hold in God's Church; and to curse those of us, who had deserved nothing but their thanks and prayers: railing on our very profession in the streets; and rejoicing in our supposed ruin: Father, forgive them, for they knew not what they did: Here we were out of the danger of this misraised fury, and had leisure to pray for the quenching of those wildfires of contention, and causeless malice, which (to our great grief) we saw wicked incendiaries daily to cast amongst God's dear, & well-minded people. Here we have well & happily approved with the blessed Apostle, that (what ever our restraint be) the Word of God is not bound; With what liberty, with what zeal, with what success hath that been preached by us to all comers? Let them say, whether the Tower had ever so many, such guests, or such benedictions; so as if the place have rendered us safe, we have endeavoured to make it happy; Wherein our performances have seemed to confute that 
Non enim potest mens attrita & oneribus & importunitatibus gravata, tantum boni peragere, quantum delectata, & oppressionibus solut a. Cornel. ep. 2. Rufo Coepiscopo.  which Cornelius Bishop of Rome long since observed, that the mind laden with heavy burdens of affliction, is not able to do that service, which it can do when it is free and at ease; Our troubles through God's mercy made us more active, and our labours more effectual.   

SECT. VI  
Add unto these (if you please) the eminent dignity of the place, such as is able to give a kind of honour to captivity, the ancient seat of Kings, chosen by them, as for the safe residence of their Royal Persons, so for their Treasury, their Wardrobe, their Magazine; all these precious things are under the same custody with ourselves; sent hither, not as to prison, but a repository; and why should we think ourselves in any other condition? How many worthy inhabitants make choice to fix their abode within these walls, as not knowing where to be happier? the place is the same to us, if our will may he the same with theirs; they dearly purchase that, which cost us nothing but our fees; nothing makes the difference, but the mere conceit of Liberty, which, whiles I can give to myself, in my thoughts, why am I pitied as miserable, while their happiness is applauded?  
You see then, how free I am in that which you miscall my prison; see now, how little cause I have to affect this liberty, which you imagine me to want; since I shall be, I can be no other than a Prisoner abroad: There is much difference of Prisons; One is strait and close locked, so far from admitting visitants, that it scarce allows the Sun to look in at those crosse-barred grates; another, is more large and spacious, yielding both Walks and access; Even after my discharge from these Walls, I shall be yet sure to be a Prisoner, both these ways; For, what is my body but my prison in the one? and what is the world, but my prison in the other kind?   

SECT. VII.  
TO begin with the former, never was there a more close prisoner than my soul is for the time to my body; Close in respect of the essence of that spirit, which since its first Mittimus, never stirred out from this straight room; never can do, till my Gaole-delivery.  
If you respect the improvement of the operations of that busy soul, it is any where, it is successively, every where; no place can hold it, none can limit it; but if you regard the immortal, and immaterial substance of it, it is fast locked up within these walls of clay, till the day of my changing come; even as the closest Captive may write letters to his remotest friends, whilst his person is in durance; I have too much reason to acknowledge my native Jail, and feel the true Symptoms of it to my pain; what darkness of sorrow have I here found? what little-ease of melancholic lodgings? what manacles and shackles of cramps? yea what racks of torturing convulsions?  
And if there be others, that find less misery in their prison, yet there is no good soul, but finds equal restraint: That spiritual substance, which is imprisoned within us, would fain be flying up to that heaven whence it descended; these walls of flesh forbid that evolation, (as Socrates called it of old) and will not let it out, till the God of spirits (who placed it there) shall unlock the doors and free the prisoner by death; He that infused life into Lazarus, that he might call him from the prison of the grave, must take life from us, when he calls us out of this prison of flesh; I desire to be loosed, and to be with Christ, (saith the Apostle) as some versions express it; whiles we are chained to this flesh, we can have no passage to heaven, no free conversation with our Saviour; Although it was the singular privilege of that great Doctor of the Gentiles, that he was in heaven before his dissolution: whether in the body, or out of the body, he knew not: How far that rapture extended, whether to both soul and body, if he knew not, how should we? But this we know, that such ecstasy and vision was in him, without separation of the soul from the body; which another should hope for in vain: And for him, so he saw this glory of Paradise, that he could not yet enjoy it: Before he, or we, can be blessed with the fruition of Christ, we must be loosed, that is, freed from our clog, & our chain of this mortal body.  
What but our prison walls can hinder us here, from a free prospect? What but these walls of flesh can hinder me from a clear vision of God? I must now, for the time, see as I may: Nothing can enter into my soul, but what passes through my senses, & partakes, in some sort, of their earthliness; when I am freed from them, I shall see as I am seen; in an abstracted & heavenly way; so as one spirit apprehends another: I do now, at the best, see those spiritual objects darkly, by the eye of faith, as in a glass; and that not one of the clearest neither: (Alas, what dim representations are these, that I can attain to here, of that Majesty, whose sight shall make me blessed?) I shall once see as I am seen, face to face; the face of my glorified soul shall see the face of that all-glorious Deity, and in that sight be eternally happy; It is enough for a prisoner in this dungeon of clay, to know of, and fore-expect, such felicity, whereof these earthly gyves render him as yet uncapable.   

SECT. VIII.  
WOE is me! how many prisons do we pass? so soon as ever this divine soul is infused into this flesh, it is a prisoner; neither can any more pass out of this skin, till this frame of nature be demolished: And now, as the soul of this Embryon is instantly a prisoner to the body, so the body is also a prisoner in the womb, wherein it is form: what darkness, what closeness, what uneasinesie, what nuisance is there in this Dungeon of nature? There he must lie in an uncouth posture, for his appointed month, till the native bonds being loosed, and the doors forced open, he shall be by an helpful obstetrication drawn forth into the larger prison of the world; there indeed he hath elbow-room enough: but all that wide scope cannot free him from a true incarceration: Who knows not that there are many differences, and latitudes of restraint? A Simeon may imprison and enchain himself in the compass of a pillar, not allowing himself the ease of his whole dimensions; Peter may be locked up in a larger Jail, betwixt his two Leopards (as that Father terms them;) S. Paul may 
Acts ult.  be two years allowed to be a Prisoner in his own hired house, but under the guard of his keeper, and not without his chain: There are those, who upon heinous, and dangerous occasions may be kept close under many locks; there are prisoners at large, who have the liberty of the Tower; yet even these last notwithstanding the allowance of spacious walks, & fresh gardens, are no other than acknowledged prisoners: Such is my condition to the world, when I am at my fullest liberty. It is true, that when I look back to the straitness of my first, and native prison, and compare it with the large extent of that wide world, into which I am brought, I may well with Isaac's Herds-mensay, Rehoboth, 
Gen. 36. 22  For now, the Lord hath made me room: but when I compare that world, wherein I am, with that whereto I aspire, and which I know to be above, and look to enjoy; I can see nothing here, but mere prison-walls, and profess my life to be no other than a perpetual durance.   

SECT. IX.  
IF Varro said of old, that the world was no other than 
Magna domus homuli.  the great house of little man, I shall be bold to add what kind of house it is; It is no other than his prison, yea, his dungeon.  
Far be it from me to disparage the glorious work of my omnipotent Creator: I were not worthy to look upon this large, and glittering roof of heaven, nor to see the pleasant varieties of these earthly landscapes, If I did not adore that infinite power, and wisdom which appears in this goodly, and immense fabric; and confess the marvellous beauty of that majestic, and transcendent workmanship; Rather when I see the Moon and the Stars, which thou hast 
Psal. 8. 3, 4.  ordained, I say with the Psalmist, Lord what is man?  
But, O God, it is no dishonour to thee, that though this be a fair house, yet thou hast one so much better than it, as a Palace is beyond a Jail.  
This beauty may please, but that ravisheth my soul: Here is light, but dim, and dusky, in respect of that inaccessible light, wherein thou dwellest: Here is a glorious Sun, that illumineth this inferior world, but thou art the Sun who enlightenest that world above: Thou, to whom thy created Sun is but a shadow.  
Here we converse with beasts, or at the best, with men; there with blessed souls, and heavenly Angels: Here some frivolous delights are intermixed with a thousand vexations; There in thy presence is the fullness of joy: So then, let the sensual heart mis-place his paradise here in the world, it shall not pass for other with me, than my prison: How can it? Why should it? for what other terms do I find here?  
What blind light looks in here at these scant loopholes of my soul? Yea, what darkness of ignorance rather possesses me? what bolts and shackles of heavy crosses do I bear about me? how am I fed here with the bread of affliction? how am I watched and beset with evil spirits? how contumeliously traduced? how disdainfully looked upon? how dragging the same chain with the worst malefactors? how disabled to all spiritual motions? how restrained from that full liberty of enjoying my home, and my God in it, which I daily expect in my dissolution? when therefore, I am released from these walls, I am still imprisoned in larger. and so shall be till the Lord of the Spirits of all flesh (who put me here) shall set me free; and all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till this my changing come.   

SECT. X.  
YOu see then by this time, how little reason I have to be too much troubled with this imprisonment, or my friends for me; But indeed, there are some sorts of Prisoners, which neither you nor I can have tears enough to bewail: and those especially of two kinds.  
The one, those that are too much affected with an outward bondage: The other, those that are no whit affected with a spiritual.  
In the first rank are they that sink under the weight of their Irons: Poor impotent souls, that groaning under the cruelty of a Turkish thraldom, or a Spanish Inquisition, want Faith to bear them out, against the impetuous violences of their tormentors: I sorrow for their sufferings; but for their fainting more: Could they see the Crown of Glory, which the righteous Judge holds ready for their victorious Patience, they could not but contemn pain, and all the pomp of Death, and confess that their Light affliction (which is but for a moment) works for them a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory. But alas, it is the weakness of their eyes, that they only look at the things that are seen, close walls, heavy fetters, sharp scourges, merciless racks, and other dreadful engines of torture, and see not the things which are not seen, the glorious reward of their victory, blessedness. Had they had Stephen's eyes, they would have emulated his martyrdom; Surely whosoever shall but read the story of the mother and the seven brothers in the Maccabees, & that of the forty Armenian Martyrs frozen to death, reported by Gaudentius, and shall there see the fainting revolter dying uncomfortably in the Bath, whiles the other thirty and nine (together with their new converted Keeper) are crowned by an Angel from heaven, cannot choose (except he have nothing but ice in his bosom) but find in himself a disposition emulous of their courage, & = ambitious of their honour; But alas, what ever our desires, and purposes may be, it is not for every one to attain to the glory of Martyrdom; this is the highest pitch, that earthly Saints are capable of: He must be more than a man, whom pain and death cannot remove from his holy resolutions, and especially, the lingering execution of both. It is well if an age can yield one, Mole: In what terms shall I commemorate thee, O thou blessed Confessor, the great example of invincible constancy, in these back-sliding times (if at least thy rare perseverance be not more for wonder than imitation) whom thirty years tedious durance in the Inqusitory at Rome, could not weary out of thy sincere profession of the Evangelical truth? All this while thou wert not allowed the speech, the sight of any, but thy persecutors: Here was none to pity thee, none to exhort thee; If either force of persuasion, or proffers of favour, or threats of extremity, could have wrought thee for thy perversion, thou hadst not at last died ours. Blessed be the God of all comfort, who having stood by thee, & made thee faithful to the death, hath now given thee a Crown of life and immortality; and left thee a noble pattern of Christian Fortitude, so much more remarkable, as less frequently followed.  
Whether I look into the former, or the present times, I find the world full of shrinking professors.  
Amongst the first Christians, persecution easily discovered four sorts of cowardly Renegadoes; The first, and worst, whom they justly styled Idolaters, that yielded to all the public forms of worship to those false Gods: The second, Sacrificers, who condescended so far, as to some kind of immolation unto those feigned deities, or, at least, to a tasting of those things which were thus offered: The third, Incensers, such as (with Marcellinus himself) came on so far, as to cast some grains of incense into the Idols fire: The last were their Libellaticks, such as privately by themselves, or by some allowed proxey, denied the Faith, yet with their money bought out this ignominy, and sin of any public Act of Idolatry.  
Not to speak of those many thousands which fell down before Solyman the second, and held up their finger to signify their conversion to his Mahometism, for ease of their taxations? how many do we hear of daily of all nations, and some (which I shame and grieve to say) of our own, who yield to receive circumcision, and to renounce their Saviour? Oh the lamentable condition of those distressed Christians! If constant to their profession, they live in a perpetual purgatory of torment; If revolting, they run into the danger of an everlasting damnation in hell; Even this gentle restraint puts me into the meditation of their insupportable durance; Why do not all Christian nhearts bleed with the sense of their deplorable estate? why is not our compassion heightened, according to the depth of their peril, and misery?  
What are our bowels made of, if they yearn not at their unexpressible calamity? Ye rich Merchants, under whose employment many of these poor souls have thus unhappily miscarried, how can you bless yourselves in your bags, whiles you see themembers of Christ your Saviour, thus torn from him, for want of a petty ransom? Ye eminent persons whom God hath advanced to power & greatness, how can you sleep quietly upon your pillows, whiles you think of the cold and hard lodgings, the hungry bellies, the naked and walled backs of miserable Christians? Lastly, what fervent prayers should we all, that profess the dear name of Christ, pour out unto the God of heaven for the strengthening of the faith & patience of these afflicted souls against the assaults of violence? and for their happy and speedy deliverance out of their woeful captivity?   

SECT. XI.  
THese prisoners are worthy of our deep compassion; as those, who are too sensible of their own misery; Others there are, who are so much more worthy of greater pity, by how much they are less apprehensive of their need of it; plausible prisoners under a spiritual tyranny; whose very wills are so captived to the powers of darkness, that to choose they would be no other than bondmen; pleasing themselves in those chains, whose weight is enough to sink their souls into hell; such are they, who have yielded themselves over to be enthralled by any known sin; No men under heaven do so much applaud themselves in the conceit of their liberty; none so great slaves as they; If the very Stoic Philosophers had not enough evinced this truth, Divinity should: Indeed, the world is a worse kind of Algiers, full of miserable captives; here lies one so fettered in lust, that he rots again; there another, so laden with drunken excess, that he can neither go nor stand, and in very deed is not his own man: here, one so pinched with golden fetters, that he can neither eat, nor sleep, nor at all enjoy himself; there, another so pined with envy, that he is forced to feed on his own heart: here, one so tormented with anger that he is stark mad for the time; and cares not how he mischiefs himself in a furious desire to hurt others: there, another so racked with ambition, that he is stretched beyond his own length, and lives in the pain of a perpetual self-extension.  
These, and all others of this kind are most miserable prisoners, chained up for everlasting darkness: So much more worthy of our pity, as they are less capable of their own: Spend your compassion (if you please) upon these deplorable subjects; But for me, wish me (if you will) as free from any imputation of evil, as I was, and am from the thought of it; wish me in your free champain, where I may have no hedge so much as to confine my eye: wish me happy in the society of so dear and noble a Friend; but in the mean while, think of me no otherwise, than as a Free Prisoner, And  
Yours thankfully devoted in all faithful observance, I. N.   
FINIS.   

Several Tractates written by Dr. Hall B. of Norwich, In and since his Imprisonment and Retiring. Namely,  

1. THe Devout Soul, and Free Prisoner.  
2. The Remedy of Discontentment, Or, A Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever condition.  
3. The Peacemaker, laying forth the right way of Peace in matter of Religion.  
4. The Balm of Gilead, Or, Comforts for the distressed; both Moral and Divine.  
5. Christ Mystical, Or, The blessed union of Christ & his Members: To which is addded, An holy Rapture, Or, A Pathetical Meditation of the love of Christ. Also, The Christian laid forth in his whole disposition and carriage.  
6. A Modest Offer, tendered to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster.  
7. Select Thoughts in two Decades, with the breathing of the Devout Soul.  
8. Pax Terris.  
9 Imposition of Hands.  
10. The Revelation unrevealed— Concerning, The thousand years' reign of the Saints with Christ on Earth.  
11. Susurrium cum Deo. Or, Holy Selfe-Conferences of the Devout Soul, upon sundry choice Occasions. Now in the Press, and never before Printed.