SUSURRIUM CUM DEO SOLILOQVIES: OR, Holy Self-Conferences of the DEVOUT SOUL, upon sundry choice Occasions, With Humble Addresses to the Throne of Grace. Together with The Souls farewell to Earth, AND Approaches to Heaven. The second Edition. By JOS. HALL, B. Norwich. LONDON, Printed by Will: Hunt, and are to be sold by George Lathum junior, at the sign of the Bishop's Head in St Paul's Churchyard. 1651. THE AUTHORS supplicatory DEDICATION. TO thee only, O my God, who hast put these holy Thoughts into my soul, do I most humbly desire to Dedicate both myself and them; Earnestly beseeching thee graciously to accept of both: And that thou wouldst be pleased to accompany and follow these my weak practical Devotions, with a sensible blessing in every Reader. Let these good Meditations not rest in the eye, but descend into the bosom of the Perusers: and effectually work in their Hearts, that warmth of pious Affections, which I have here presumed to exemplify in mine; To the glory of thy great Name, and our mutual comfort, in the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus. Amen. THE Heads of the several Soliloquies. 1. The best Prospect. 2. The happy Parting, 3. Heavenly conversation. 4. Love unchangeable. 5. The Happiest Object. 6. unchangeable duration. 7. Trust upon trial. 8. angelical Familiarity. 9 The unanswerable Christian. 10. Hellish Hostility. 11. False Joy. 12. True Light. 13. bosom-discourse. 14. The insensible fetters. 15. Satan's Prevalence. 16. leisurely growth. 17. Allowable variety. 18. Misconstructions of holiness. 19 Two Heavens in one. 20. The stock employed. 21. Love of Life. 22. equal Distribution. 23. The body's subjection. 24. The ground of unproficiency. 25. The sure Refuge. 26. The light Burden. 27. Joy intermitted. 28. universal Interest. 29. The spiritual Bedleem. 30. The difference of actions 31. The necessity of labour. 32. Acquaintance with heaven. 33. The All-sufficient knowledge. 34. Poor Greatness. 35. Acceptation of desires. 36. Heavenly joys. 37. Mixed Contentments. 38. True Wealth. 39 False Light. 40. The haste of Desire. 41. death's remembrancers. 42. faith's victory. 43. The unfailing friend. 44. Quiet Humility. 45. Sure Mercies. 46. Dangerous Prosperity. 47. cheerful Obedience. 48. Heavenly accordance. 49. Divine Bounty. 50. Sweet use of Power. 51. The power of conscience. 52. Proud Poverty. 53. The happiest Society. 54. Honey from the Rock. 55. Sure Earnest. 56. Heavenly Manna. 57 The heart's treasure. 58. The narrow way. 59 God's various proceedings. 60. The waking Guardian. 61. The sting of guiltiness. 62. beneficial want. 63. Interchange of conditions. 64. The rule of devotion. 65. hell's triumph. 66. dumb homage. 67. Indifferency of events. 68 The transcendent love. 69. Choice of seasons. 70. The happy return home. 71. The confinements of Age. 72. Sin without sense. 73. The extremes of devotion. 74. The sick man's vows. 75. The suggestions of a false heart. 76. Sacred Melody. 77. Blemishes of the holy Function. 78. The blessed reward. 79. Presages of judgement. 80. unwearied motion, and rest eternal. June the 26th 1650. I Have perused these divine and holy Soliloquies between God and the faithful soul, and do find them to be so pious and profitable, so sweet and comfortable, and full of pious and spiritual devotion, that I judge them well worthy to be Printed and Published. John DOWNAME. Self-conference. Soliloq. I. The best Prospect. O My God, I shall not be worthy of my eyes, if I think I can employ them better, than in looking up to thy heaven: and shall I not be worthy to look up to heaven, if I suffer my eyes to rest there, and not look through heaven at thee, the Almighty Maker and Ruler of it; who dwellest there in all glory and Majesty; and if seeing thee I do not always adore thee, and find my soul taken up with awful and admiring thoughts concerning thee: I see many eyes have looked curiously upon that glorious frame else they could not have made so punctual observation of the fire, and motion of those goodly Globes of light, which thou hast placed there, as to foretell all their Conjunctions, and Oppositions, for many hundred years before; but, whiles they look at the Motions, let me look at the Mover; wondering, not without ravishment of spirit, at that infinite Power and Wisddome, which keeps up those numberless and immense bodies in so perfect a regularity, that they all keep their just stations, and times, without the least varying from the course which thou settedst them in their first Creation; so whiles their observation makes them the wiser, mine shall make me the holier. Much variety of Objects hast thou given us, here below, which do commonly take up our eyes; but it shall be my fault, if all those do not rather lead my thoughts to thee, than withdraw them from thee; since thy power and Majesty is clearly conspicuous in them all. O God, whiles I have eyes, let me never but see thee in all things, let me never but enjoy thee; Let me see thee here as thou Mayest be seen, by the eye of faith, till I may see, as I am seen, hereafter, in glory: 1 Cor. 13.12. Let me see thee as through a glass darkly here on earth, till I may come to see thee face to face in Heaven. Soliloq. II. The happy parting. Euthym in Praefat. Psalmorum. I Have lived divers years longer than holy David did; yet I can truly say with him; if that psalm were his which hath the Title of Moses; We have brought our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told: Me thinks, Psal. 90.9. O my soul, it is but yesterday since we met; and now we are upon parting; neither shall we, I hope, be unwilling to take leave; for what advantage can it be to us to hold out longer together? One piece of me cannot but grow more infirm with use and time; and thereupon must follow a decay of all faculties, and operations: Where the tools are grown bad and dull, what work can be exquisite? Thou seest it then necessary, and inevitable that we must yield to age, and grow worse with continuance. And what privilege can mere time give us in our duration? We see the basest of stones last longer than the durablest plants; and we see trees hold out longer than any sensitive Creatures; and divers of those sensitive Creatures outlast man, the Lord of them all: neither are any of these held more excellent because they wear out more hours: Gen. 5.2.24.27. we know Henoch was more happy that was fetched away at three hundred sixty five years, than Methuselah at nine hundred sixty and nine: Difference of age doth nothing but pull down a side where there are not supplies of increasing abilities. Should we continue our partnership many years longer, could we hope for more health and strength of body, more vigour of understanding and judgement, more heat of good affections? And can we doubt that it will be elsewhere better with us? Do we not know what abides for us above? Are we not assured that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 2 Cor. 5.1. an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Why therefore, oh, why, should ye be loath to part upon fair terms? Thou, O my soul, to the possession of that happy Mansion, which thy dear Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his father's house: and thou, O my body, to that quiet repository of thy Grave, till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the just, never, never to be severed? Soliloq. III. Heavenly Conversation. IT matters not a little with whom we hold our familiar Conversation; for commonly we are transformed into the Dispositions and manners of those whose company we frequent: We daily see those who by haunting the society of Drunkards, and debauched persons, have from civil and orderly men grown into extremity of lewdness; and on the contrary, those who have consorted themselves with the holy and virtuous, have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity: Why shouldst thou not then, O my soul, by a continual conversation with God, and his Angels, improve to an heavenly disposition? Thou canst not, whiles thou art here, but have somewhat to do with the world; that will necessarily intrude into thy presence, and force upon thee businesses unavoidable; and thy secular friends may well look to have some share in thy sociable entertainments: But these are but goers and comers, easily and willingly dismissed, after some kind interlocutions: The Company that must stick by thee is spiritual, which shall never leave thee, if thou have the grace to apply thyself to them upon all occasions. Thou Mayst hold fair correspondence with all other not offensive companions; but thy entireness must be only with these. Let those other be never so faithful, yet they are uncertain; be their will never so good, yet their power is limited; these are never but at hand, never but able, and willing to make and keep thee happy. O my God, thou seest how subject I am to distractions; Oh hold me close to thee: Let me enter into the same company here in my Pilgrimage, which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my home. Solilo. IV. Love unchangeable. OUr younger years are wont to be delightted with variety, and to be much affected to a change, although to the worse: The child is better pleased with his new Coat, though the old be far handsomer: Whereas age and experience fixeth our desires and teacheth us to set the greatest value upon those good things wherewith we have been longest acquainted. Yea, it is the general disposition of nature to be cloyed with continued blessings, and upon long fruition to complain of that good which we first commended for pleasing, and beneficial: Exo. 16.13. Deut. 8.3. Exo. 16.31. What could relish better with the Israelites the first morning than the angel's food which fell down from heaven every day about their camp? the taste whereof was like to wafers made with honey: If we stay but a while, we shall, ere many years, hear them calling for the Onions and garlic of Egypt; and crying out: Num. 11.6. Now our soul is dried away; there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes. Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings, both of earth and heaven, and to nauseate with store: Neither is any thing more tedious to us, than the enjoined repetition of a daily-tasked Devotion. But contrarily, Grace endears all blessings to us by their continuance, and heightens our affections, where they are rightly placed, by the length of the time of their enjoying. O God, it is thy mercy that thou hast vouchsafed to allow me an early interest in thee, even from my tender years,: the more and longer I have known thee, the more cause have I still found to love thee, and adore thee; Thou art ever one and unchangeable; Oh make thou my heart so; Devote thou me wholly unto thee; and by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections, inflame it so much the more in my love to thee. Solil. V. The happiest Object. IF we could attain to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God, it would put us unto the comfortable exercise of all the affections that belong to the soul: For surely, if we could conceive aright of his Omnipotent power, and transcending glory, and incomprehensible infiniteness, we could not but tremble before him, and be always taken up with an adoring fear of him: And, if we could apprehend his infinite goodness both in himself and to mankind, we could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him, and should think ourselves happy, that we might be allowed to love such a God; and if we could conceive of that absolute beauty of his holiness, and blissful presence, we could not but be inflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God; and if we could apprehend all these; we could not be but both transported with an unspeakable joy, that we have a sure interest in a God so holy, so good, so almighty, so glorious, and stricken with an unexpressible grief, that we should either offend him, or suffer ourselves to want but for a moment the feeling presence of that all-sufficient, and all-comprehending Majesty: On the contrary, those men begin at the wrong end, who go about to draw their affections to God first, and then after seek to have their minds enlightened with right conceits of his Essence and Attributes: who meeting with those occurrent Temptations, which mainly cross them in their desires and affections, are straight set off from prosecuting their good motions, and are as new to seek of a God, as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven. O God, let it be the main care of my life, to know thee, and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ thy Son my Saviour. I cannot through thy mercy fail of an heavenly disposition of soul whiles I am here, and of a life of eternal glory with thee hereafter. Solilo. VI. Unchangeable duration. IN the first minute wherein we live, we enter upon an eternity of being; and, though at the first, through the want of the exercise of reason, we cannot know it; and afterwards, through our inconsideration, and the bewitching businesses of time, we do not seriously lay it to heart, we are in a state of everlastingness; there must upon the necessity of our mortality be a change of our condition, but with a perpetuity of our being; the body must undergo a temporary dissolution, and the soul a remove, either to bliss or torment; but both of them, upon their meeting, shall continue in an unchangeable duration, for ever and ever: And if we are wont to slight transitory and vanishing commodities, by reason of their momentany continuance, and to make most account of things durable; What care and great thoughts ought I to bestow upon myself, who shall outlast the present world; and how ought I to frame my life so, as it may fall upon an eternity infinitely happy and glorious? O God, do thou set off my heart from all these earthly vanities, and fix it above with thee. As there shall be no end of my being, so let there be no change of my affections; Let them beforehand take possession of that heaven of thine, whereto I am aspiring: Let nothing but this clay of mine be left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is mouldering; Let my spiritual part be ever with thee whence it came, and enter upon that bliss which knows neither change nor end. Soliloq. VII. Trust upon trial. WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world, which both produceth them to their being, and overrules, and carries them on, to and in their dissolution without their knowledge, or intended cooperation; but for those whom God hath endued with the faculty of ratiocination, how easy is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with them, how that all-wise God contrives their affairs and events quite beyond, and above the power of their weak projections; how he prevents their Desires, how he fetches about inexpected and improbable occurrences to their hindrance, or advantage; sometimes blessing them with success, beyond all their hopes, sometimes blasting their projects, when their blossoms are at the fairest? Surely, if I look only in a dull stupidity upon the outsides of all accidents, that befall me, and not improve my reason and faith to discern, and acknowledge that invisible power, that orders them to his own, and their ends, I shall be little better than brutish; and if upon the observation of all that good hand of God, sensibly leading me on, in all the ways of my younger, and riper age, in so many feeling and apparent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections, I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my days, and the happy close of that life which he hath so long, and mercifully preserved, the favours of a bountiful God shall have been cast away upon a barren, and unthankful heart. O God, I am such as thou hast made me, make up thy good work in me, and keep me that I do not mar myself with my wretched unbelief, I have tried thee to the full; Oh that I could cast myself wholly upon thee; and trust thee both with my body and soul, for my safe passage to that blessed home; and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory, in thine. Soliloq. VIII. Angelical Familiarity. THere is no reason to induce a man to think that the good Angels are not as assiduously present with us, for our good, as the evil Angels are for our hurt; since we know that the evil spirits cannot be more full of malice to work our harm, than the blessed Angels are full of charity, & well-wishing to mankind; and the evil are only let loose to tempt us by a permission of the Almighty, whereas the good are by a gracious delegation from God encharged with our custody; Now, Heb. 1. ult. that the evil spirits are ever at hand, ready upon all occasions to present their services to us for our furtherance to mischief, appears too plainly in their continual temptations which they inject into our thoughts; in their real and speedy operations with the spells and charms of their wicked Clients, which are no less effectually answered by them, immediately, upon their practice, than natural causes are by their ordinary and regular productions. It must needs follow therefore, that the good Angels are as close to us, and as inseparable from us: and though we see neither, yet he that hath spiritual eyes perceives them both, and is accordingly affected to their presence. If then wicked men stick not to go so far as to endanger, and draw on their own damnation, by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits; Why should not I for the unspeakable advantage of any soul affect an awfully-familiar Conversation with those blessed Angels which I know to be with me? The language of spirits are thoughts: Why do not I entertain them in my secret cogitations, and hold an holy discourse with them in mental allocutions; and so carry myself as that I may ever hold fair correspondence with those invisible companions, and may expect from them all gracious offices, of holy motions, careful protection, and at last an happy conveyance to my glory? O my soul, thou art a Spirit, as they are; do thou ever see them, as they see thee; and so speak to them, as they speak to thee; and bless thy God for their presence, and tuition; and take heed of doing aught that may cause those heavenly guardians to turn away their faces from thee as ashamed of their charge. Soliloq. Ix.. The unanswerable Christian. IT is no small grief to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, to see how utterly unanswerable the greater sort of men that bear the name of Christ are to the example and precepts of that Christ whose name they bear: He was humble and meek, they proud and insolent; he bade us love our enemies, they hardly can love their friends; he prayed for his persecutors, they curse; he that had the command of all, cared not to possess any thing, they not having right to much, would possess all; he bade us give our Coat also to him that takes our Cloak, they take both Coat and cloak from him that hath it; he bade us turn our cheek for the other blow, they will be sure to give two blows for one; he paid obedience to a Foster Father, and tribute to Caesar, they despise Government; his trade was only doing good, spending the night in praying, the day in preaching and healing; they debauch their time, revelling away the night, and sleeping away, or mispending the day; he forbade Oaths, they not only swear and forswear, but blaspheme too; he bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, they make Mammon their God; he bade us take up his cross, they impose their own; he bade us lay up our treasure in heaven, they place their heaven in earth; he bids us give to them that ask, they take violently from the owners; he bade us return good for evil, they for good return evil; he charged his Disciples to love one another, they nourish malice and rancour against their brethren; he left peace for a Legacy to his followers, they are apt to set the world on fire: His business was to save, theirs to destroy. O God, Psal. 119.136. let rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel. Give grace to all that are called by thy name, to walk worthy of that high profession whereto they are called: And keep me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed pattern which thou hast set before me: Oh let me never shame that great name that is put upon me: Let me in all things approve myself a Christian in earnest; and so conform myself to thee, in all thy example and commands, that it may be no dishonour to thee to own me for thine. Soliloq. X. Hellish Hostility. I Cannot but observe how universal it is in all kinds for one creature to prey upon another, the greater fishes devour the less, the birds of Rapine feed upon the smaller fowls, the ravenous wild beasts sustain themselves with the flesh of the weaker and tamer cattle; the Dog pursues the Hare, the Cat the Mouse; Yea the very mole under the earth hunts for the worm, and the Spider in our Window for the fly: Whether it pleased God to ordain this antipathy in nature, or whether man's sin brought this enmity upon the creature I inquire not, this I am sure of; that both God hath given unto man (the Lord of this inferior world) leave and power, to prey upon all these his fellow-creatures; and to make his use of them, both for his necessity, and lawful pleasure; and that the God of this world is only he that hath stirred up men to prey upon one another; some to eat their flesh, as the savage Indians; others to destroy their lives, estates, good names: this proceeds only from him that is a murderer from the beginning. O my soul, do thou mourn in secret to see the great enemy of mankind so woefully prevalent as to make the earth so bloody a shambles to the sons of men; and to see Christians so outrageously cruel to their own flesh: And O thou that art the Lord of Hosts, and the God of peace, restrain thou the violent fury of those which are called by thy name, and compose these unhappy quarrels amongst them that should be brethren. Let me (if it may stand with thy blessed will) once again see peace smile o'er the earth, before I come to see thy face in glory. Soliloq. XI. False Joy. AMongst these public blusters of the World, I find many men that secretly applaud themselves in the conceit of an happy peace which they find in their bosom: Where all is calm and quiet; no distemper of passions, no fear of evil, no sting of remorse, no disturbance of doubts; but all smoothness of brow, and all tranquillity of mind; whose course of life, yet, without any great enquiry hath appeared to be not over-strict and regular. I hear them boast of their Condition, without any envy of their happiness, as one that had rather hear them complain of their inward unquietness, than brag of their peace. Give me a man that after many secret bickerings, and hard conflicts in his breast, upon a serious penitence, and sense of reconciliation with his God hath attained to a quiet heart, walking conscionably and close with that Majesty with whom he is atoned; I shall bless and emulate him as a meet subject of true joy: For spiritually there is never a perfect calm but after a tempest; the wind and earthquake and fire make way for the soft voice. 1 Kin. 19 But I pity the flatteries, and self-applause of a careless and impenitent heart: This jollity hath in it much danger, and without some change, death. Oh saviour, I know thou cam'st to send fire on the earth; Luk. 12.49. yea fire into these earthen bosoms, whereof the very best hath combustible matter enough for thee to work upon; and what will I (thou sayst) if it be already kindled; O blessed Jesus, my will agrees with thine; I desire nothing in the world more than that this fire of thine may flame up in my soul, and burn up those secret corruptions which have lain smothering within me: Set me at full variance with myself, that I may be at peace with thee. Soliloq. XII. True Light. Mat. 6.23. THou hast taught us, O Saviour, that even the light of man may be darkness, and that the light endarkned causeth the greatest darkness: neither can it be otherwise; since the very obscuring of the light maketh some kind of darkness, the utter extinction of it must needs make the darkness absolute. Now what is darkness but a mere privation of light: There is but a double spiritual light, the absence whereof causeth darkness: Thine Evangelist hath justly said of thee, John 1.9. Thou art the true light, that enlightnest every man that cometh into the world; Psa. 119.105. Thy Psalmist hath said of thy Divine Oracles, Thy Word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my steps; whosoever wants both, or either of these, cannot but be in darkness, yea his pretended light cannot but be darkness itself. I see, O Lord, there is much of this dark light in the World; In one I observe a kind of Glow-wormelight, which in a summer's evening shines somewhat bright, but he that should offer to light his Candle at it would be much deceived; this is justly a dark light, since it shines not at all by day, neither is at all communicable to another, no not to the bearer itself: In another, I see the light of a dark Lantern; which casts out some Gleams of light, but only to him that bears it; even this man's light is darkness also, to all the world besides himself: In a third I see a resemblance of that meteoricall light, which appears in Moorish places, that seems fire, but is nothing but a slimy glittering exhalation, causing both the wonder and error of the traveller; leading him, through the impulsive motion of the air, into a Ditch; and of this kind I find too much variety; all of them agreeing in this, that they pretend Visions and Revelations of the Spirit even for contrary projections. O Saviour, what light soever is not derived from thee, is no better than darkness: Thou hast sufficiently revealed thyself and thy will to us in thy Word; as for any new lights (except it be a clearer manifestation of the old) O Lord give me the grace not to follow them: I find a double light to proceed from thee, one which is a general light, that enlightens every man that comes into the world; the other a special light of thy spirit illuminating the soul of every believer with a right apprehension of thee and heavenly things: O do thou shine into my soul with this heavenly light of thine; and if this be not enough to make me happy, (without the acce●sion, and with the rejection of other new lights) let me sit in perpetual darkness. Soliloq. XIII. Bosom-discourse. O Lord, if I had the skill, and grace to be ever communing with my own heart, and with thee, I should never want either work, or company, never have cause to complain of solitariness, or tedious hours: For there is no time wherein there is not some main business to be done between thee and my soul; one while finding my heart dull and stupid, I should have cause to rouse it up by some quickening meditation; another while finding it dejected with some inexpected cross, I should be cheering it up with some comfortable Applications: One while finding it distracted with some scrupulous doubts, I should be labouring to settle it in just resolutions; another while perceiving it to incline towards idle thoughts, I should be cheeking it with a seasonable reprehension: One while, finding it faint and slack in holy duties, I should chide it into a more sensitive vigour; another while, finding it more cheerful in the performances of Devotion, I should encourage it with the assurance of a gracious acceptation: One while I should find cause to fortify it against temptations; another while to erect it after a foil: one while to Conflict; another to Triumph: One while to examine my condition; another while either to deplore, or congratulate it: One while I should find time to sue to thee my God for the supply of some want; another while to bless thee for favours received: One while to bemoan my wretchedness, another while to adore thy infinite greatness: One while to renew my vows; another while to beg pardon for my omissions: One while to seek thee with tears and due Humiliation; another while to rejoice in thy great salvation: The varieties of my ever-changing condition, whiles I am in this vale of misery, cannot want the perpetual employment of a busy soul. O God, let me be dumb to all the world, so as I may ever have a tongue for thee, and my own heart. Soliloq. XIV. The insensible Fetters. WHat a subtle devil we have to deal with? He will be sure to give the sinner line enough, so he may be sure to hold him: he shall have his full scope and freedom to all honest, and religious practices; so as by some one secret sin that evil spirit may have power over his soul, both to ensnare, and retain it: he cares not how godly we seem, how conscionable we are in all other actions, so as he may still in one dear sin keep us fast entangled: whereupon it often comes to pass, that not only the eyes of the World, but even our own are too often deceived in the judgement of our spiritual estate: We profess strict holiness; and give good proofs, upon occasion, of a tender, and well-guided Conscience, so as this glorious show wins us the reputation of rare virtue and exemplary piety: yet still that wicked devil hath a tie upon our heel: there is some peccadillio of smothered lust, or concealed pride, or zealous cruelty, and uncharitableness, that gives him the command of our souls at pleasure: and this shall no less fetch us within his power and mercy, than if we were locked up under a thousand chains. O God, thou who art infinite both in wisdom and power, do thou enable me not only to resist the power, but to avoid the wiles of that cunning Spirit: let me give him no advantage by the close entertainment of any bosom sin: Let my holiness and obedience be as universal, as either thy commands, or his mischievous intentions. Soliloq. XV. Satan's prevalence. HOw busy and prevalent Satan is, in this present age, above all former times, appears too plainly in those universal broils, and combustions which he hath raised all the world over; whereof no nation of the whole known habitable earth is at this day free; in the strange number and variety of Sects, schisms, Heresies, set on foot by him, everywhere; the like whereof were never heard of, in the preceding times of the Church; in the rifeness of bold and professed atheism; and most clearly, in the marvelous multitude of Witches abounding in all parts. Heretofore one of those Clients of Hell in a whole Country was hooted at as a strange Monster; now, hundreds are discovered in one shire; and (if Fame deceive us not) in a village of fourteen houses in the North parts are found so many of this damned breed: heretofore, only some barbarous, and wild Deserts; or some rude uninhabited Coasts, as of Lapland, and Finland, &c. were thought to be haunted with such miscreant guests; now the civilest, and most religious parts are frequently pestered with them: heretofore some silly poor and ignorant old women were thus deluded by that infernal impostor; now we have known those of both sexes which have professed much knowledge, holiness, devotion, drawn into this damnable practice: What shall we say to all these over-pregnant proofs of the unusually prevailing power of hell? Certainly, either Satan is now let loose (according to the prediction of the holy Evangelist in Pathmos) towards the end of the world: Or because he finds his time but short, he rageth thus extremely; as if what he must lack in time, he would make up in fury: But, oh blessed God, thine infinite wisdom and omnipotence, knows how to make a just advantage of that increased power, and success, which thou hast permitted to this great enemy of mankind; Thy Justice is hereby magnified in thy just judgements, upon the wicked; and thy mercy in the gain that hence accrues to thy chosen; for certainly, thy true Saints would not be so eminently holy, if Satan were not so malicious: Thou who in natural causes are wont to work by contraries, (so as inward heat is ordinarily augmented by the extremity of an ambient cold) canst, and wilt do so much more in spiritual; What thy visible Church loseth in the number of formal professors, is abundantly made up in the vigorous graces of thy real Saints. Still and ever do thou so order and overrule these busy workings of the powers of darkness, that thou Mayest repay thine unreclaimeable enemies with judgements, and heighten the piety, vigilancy and zeal of thy faithful ones. Soliloq. XVI. Leisurely growth. We are all commonly impatient of leisure; and apt to over-hasten the fruition of those good things we affect: one would have wealth, but he would not be too long in getting it; he would have golden showers rain down into his lap, on the sudden: Another would be wise and learned; yet he cannot abide to stay for grey hairs, or to spend too much oil in his tedious lucubrations: One would be free, but he would not wear out an apprenticeship: Another would be honourable, but he would neither serve long, nor hazard much: One would be holy, but he would not wait too long at the door-posts of God's house, nor lose too many hours in the exercise of his stinted Devotions: Another, would be happy, but he would leap into heaven suddenly, not abiding to think of a leisurely towering up thither by a thousand degrees of ascent, in the slow proficiency of grace. Whereas the great God of Heaven, that can do all things in an instant, hath thought good to produce all the effects of natural agency not without a due succession of time. When I look into my Garden, there I see first a small spire look out of the earth, which in some month's time grows into a stalk; then after many day's expectation, branches forth into some leaves; at last appears the hope of a flower, which ripened with many suns and showers, arises to its perfection, and at last puts forth its seed for a succeeding multiplication. If I look into my Orchard, I see the well-grafted scions yield first a tender Bud; itself after many years is bodied to a solid stock, and under the patience of many hard Winters, spreads forth large arms; at last being grown to a meet age of vegetation, it begins to grace the Spring with some fair blossoms, which falling off kindly, give way to a weak Embryon of fruit; Every day now adds something to the growth, till it attain in autumn to a full maturity: Why should I make account of any other course in my spiritual proceedings? O God, I shall be always ready to censure my slow pace in grace, and holy obedience, and shall be ever ambitious of aspiring higher in thy gracious favour; but when I shall have endeavoured my utmost, I shall wait with humble patience upon thy bountiful hand; as one that desires thankfully to acknowledge the little that I have received, and meekly to attend thy good pleasure for what I may receive. So thou bring me to Heaven, take what time, and keep what pace thou pleasest. Soliloq. XVII. Allowable Variety. IT is a great and insolent wrong in those men, who shall think to reduce all dispositions, and forms of Devotion and usages to their own; since in all these there may be much variety; and all those different fashions may receive a gracious acceptation in heaven: One thinks it best to hold himself to a set form of Invocation; another deems it far better to be left free to his arbitrary and unpremeditated expressions: one pleases himself with this notion of that Omnipotent Deity whom he implores; another thinks that may be more proper, and affective: one thinks this posture of body may be the meetest for his humble address to the throne of Grace, or to the Table of the Heavenly Manna; another likes that better: one is for a long prayer; another for short ejaculations: one desires to raise up his spirits (with the Prophet) by the aid of an harmonious melody; another holds them better fixed in a sad silence: one holds it best to set forth God's service in a solemn state and magnificence; another approves better of a simple and inceremonious Devotion: One requires a sacred place, and a peculiar habit, as best becoming God's public worship; another makes no difference of either room, or dress: One makes scruple of coming otherwise than fasting to the Lord's Table: another conceives it more seasonable after a Love-Feast: One thinks his Christian Liberty allows him the moderate scope to all not-unlawful Recreations: another's austerity interdicts all pastimes: One judgeth this hair, and that attire not lawful only, but comely: another thinks he espies sin in both: O God, as thou hast ever showed thyself justly severe in the avenging of sin, so I know thee graciously indulgent in allowing thy servants much latitude in the free use of all that thou hast not prohibited, In imitation whereof, give me an heart holily zealous to abhor every thing that is truly evil, and charitably affected to the favourable censure of all usages that are merely indifferent. Let my main care be to look to the sincerity of my soul, and to the sure grounds of warrant for my actions; For other circumstantial appurtenances, where thou art pleased to be liberal, let me not be strait-handed. Soliloq. XVIII. Misconstructions of holiness. IT is no marvel if there be nothing that undergoes more variety of constructions from the lookers on, than holiness; for that being an inward gracious disposition of the soul, conformed to God, in all the renewed faculties thereof, lies so close in the bosom, that it can only be guessed at by such uncertain emanations of words, and actions, as flow from it to the ears, and eyes of others: The particular graces and affections of Love, fear, Hope, Joy, godly Sorrow, zeal, and the rest break forth apparently in such symptoms, and effects as may win a certainty of belief from the beholders, neither indeed are easily concealed from the view of others: all these may be read in the face: but, if the heart itself could be seen, and that curiously dissected, yet even thus could not holiness be discovered. Beside the closeness, every man is apt to measure his judgement of holiness, by a false rule of his own, whereby it comes to pass that it is so commonly mistaken. One thinks him holy that forsakes the World, and retires into some wild Desert, or mures up himself in an Anchorites Cell: Another judges him holy that macerates his body with Fasting, that disciplines his hide with whips and hair clothes, that lies hard, and fares hard: that abstai from all that relates to flesh in his Lent, and Embers: that passionately hugs his Crucifix, and tosses his Beads, and duly observes his Shrifts, and canonical hours: Now this man that in their way is in danger of Canonization for a Saint, is by the professor of an opposite holiness decried to hell for superstition and Idolatry: One styles him holy, who segregates himself from the contagious Communion of formal Christians, professing to serve his God in a purer way of worship; rejecting all stinted forms of Prayer and Psalmony; spitting at the mention of an Hierarchy, allowing no head sacred, but by the imposition of what we miscall, laic hands; abandoning all Ceremonies of human Institution; abiding no Circumstances of Divine Worship but apostolical: Another allows him only holy, who is already a Citizen of the new Jerusalem, advanced to such an entireness with God as that he is no less than glorified; he hath left the Scriptures below him as a weak and dead Letter, and is far above all whatsoever Ordinance; Yea (which I tremble to report) above the blood of Christ himself. A third reputes him only holy, who having left the Society of all Churches as too impure, stands now alone, waiting for some Miracles from Heaven to settle his Resolution. Now, Lord, after all these and many more weak and idle misprisions, upon the sure and unfailing grounds of Truth (thy Word is Truth) I know that man to be truly holy, whose understanding is enlightened with right apprehensions of thee and Heavenly things; whose Will and Affections are rightly disposed to thee, so as his heart is wholly taken up with thee; whose Conversation is so altogether with thee, that he thinks all time lost, wherein he doth not enjoy thee, and a sweet and heavenly Communion with thee; walking perpetually with thee; and labouring in all things to be approved of thee. O God, do thou work me up to this temper, and keep me still in it; and then, however I may differ in a construction of holiness from others, that think themselves more perfect, howsoever, I may be censured as defective in my judgement or affections, yet I do, not without sound and sensible comfort, know, that my Judge is in Heaven, and my witness in my bosom. Soliloq. XIX. Two Heavens in one. I Was wont to say, It is in vain for a man to hope for, and impossible for him to enjoy a double heaven; one below, and another above: since our sufferings here one earth must make way for our future glory: but, now I find it in a better sense, very feasible for a true Christian to attain both: for, as we say, where the Prince resides, there is the Court: so surely, where the supreme and infinite Majesty pleases to manifest his presence, there is heaven: whereas therefore God exhibits himself present two ways, in grace, and in glory; it must follow, that the gracious presence of God makes an heaven here below, as his glorious presence makes an heaven above. Now it cannot but fall out, that as the lower material heaven comes far short of the purity of the superior Regions, being frequently overcast with Clouds, and troubled with other both watery and fiery Meteors: so this spiritual heaven below, being many times darkened with sad desertions, and blustered with temptations, cannot yield that perfection of inward peace, and happiness, which remains for us above this sphere of mutability: yet affords us so much fruition of God as may give us a true Title, and entrance into blessedness. I well see, O God, it is no Paradox to say that thy Saints reign with thee here on earth; though not for a thousand years, yet during the time of their sojourning here below; not in any secular splendour and magnificence, not in bodily pleasures, and sensual contentments: Yet in true spiritual delectation, in the joys of the holy Ghost unspeakable, and full of glory. O my God, do thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy heaven: put thou my soul into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness: so shall I cheerfully spend the remainder of my days in a joyful expectation of the full consummation of my glory. Soliloq. XX. The Stock employed. WHat are all excellencies without respect of their use? How much good ground is there in the World, that is neither cultured nor owned? What a world of precious metals lies hid in the bowels of the earth, which shall never be coined? What store of rich pearls and Diamonds are hoarded up in the earth and sea, which shall never see the light? What delicacies of Fouls and Fishes do both Elements afford, which shall never come to the Dish? How many great wits are there in the world, which lie willingly concealed? whether out of modesty, or idleness, or lack of a wished opportunity. Improvement gives a true value to all blessings: A penny in the purse is worth many pounds, yea talents in an unknown mine: That is our good which doth us good. O God, give thou me grace to put out my little stock to the public bank; and faithfully to employ those poor faculties thou hast given me, to the advantage of thy Name, and the benefit of thy Church; so besides the gain of others, my pounds shall be rewarded with Cities. Soliloq. XXI. Love of Life. WE are all naturally desirous to live; and though we prize life above all earthly things, yet we are ashamed to profess that we desire it for its own sake, but pretend some other subordinate reason to affect it. One would live to finish his building, or to clear his purchase; Another to breed up his children, and to see them well-matched: One would fain outlive his trial at law; Another wishes to outwear an emulous corrival: One would fain outlast a lease, that holds him off from his long-expected possessions; Another would live to see the times amend, and a re-establishment of a public peace: Thus we that would be glad to give skin for skin, and all things for life, would seem to wish life for any thing, but itself: After all this hypocrisy, nature above all things would live; and makes life the main end of living; But grace has higher thoughts, and therefore though it holds life sweet and desirable, yet entertains the love of it upon more excellent, that is, spiritual terms. O God, I have no reason to be weary of this life, which, through thy mercy, long acquaintance hath endearead to me (though sauced with some bitter disgusts of age;) but how unworthy shall I approve myself of so great a blessing, if now, I do not more desire to continue it for thy sake, than my own? Soliloq. XXII. Equal Distribution IT was a most idle question which the Philosophers are said to have proposed to Barnabas the Colleague of Saint Paul: Why a small Gnat should have six legs, Clement. de gestis Petri. and wings beside; whereas the Elephant, the greatest of beasts, hath but four legs, and no wings? What pity it is that those wise Masters were not of the Counsel of the Almighty, when he was pleased to give a being to his Creature; they would surely have devised to make a winged Elephant, and a corpulent Gnat: A feathered man, and a speaking Beast. Vain fools, they had not learned to know and adore that infinite wisdom wherein all things were made: It is not for that incomprehensible Majesty and power to be accountable to wretched man for the reasons of his all-wise, and mighty Creation; yet so hath he contrived it, that there is no part of his great workmanship, whereof even man cannot be able to give an irrefragable reason, why thus framed, not otherwise. What were more easy than to say, that six legs to that unwieldy body had been cumbersome, and impeditive of motion, that the wings for so massy a bulk had been useless. I admire thee, O God, in all the works of thy hands; and justly magnify not only thine omnipotence both in the matter and form of their Creation; but thy mercy and wisdom in the equal distribution of all their powers and faculties, which thou hast so ordered, that every Creature hath some requisite helps, no Creature hath all: The fowls of the air, which are ordained for flight, hast thou furnished with Feathers to bear them up in that light Element; The Fishes, with smooth scales and fins for their more easy gliding through those watery Regions: the Beasts of the Field, with such limbs and strong Hides as might fit them for service: As for man, the Lord of all the rest, him thou hast endued with Reason, to make his use of all these: whom yet thou hast so framed, as that in many qualities thou hast allowed the brute Creatures to exceed their Master: Some of them are stronger than he; some of them swifter than he, and more nimble than he: he were no better than a mad man that should ask, why man should not fly as well as the bird, and swim as well as the Fish, and run as fast as the Hart? Since that one faculty of Reason wherewith he is furnished is more worth than all the brutish excellencies of the world put together. O my God, thou that hast enriched me with a reasonable soul, whom thou mightest have made the brutest of thy Creatures, give me the grace so to improve thy gift, as may be most to the glory and advantage of thy own name; Let me in the name and behalf of all my brute fellow-Creatures bless thee for them; and both for them and myself in a ravishment of Spirit cry out with the Psalmist; O Lord my God, how wonderful and excellent are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all. Soliloq. XXIII. The body's subjection. 1 Tim. 4.8. BOdily exercise, saith the Apostle, profits little: Little sure in respect of any worth that it hath in itself; or any thank that it can expect from the Almighty: For what is it to that good and great God, whether I be full or fasting, whether I wake or sleep, whether my skin be smooth or rough, ruddy or pale, white or discoloured; whether my hand be hard with labour, or soft with ease; whether my bed be hard, or yielding; whether my diet be course, or delicate: But though in itself it avail little; yet so it may be, and hath been, and aught to be improved, as that it may be found exceedingly beneficial to the soul: Else the same Apostle would not have said, 1 Cor. 9.27. I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. In all the records of History, whom do we find more noted for holiness, than those who have been most austere in the restraints of bodily pleasures and contentments? In the Mount of Tabor who should meet with our Saviour in his Transfiguration, but those two eminent Saints, which had fasted an equal number of days with himself? And our experience tells us, that what is detracted from the body is added to the soul. For the flesh and spirit are not more partners, than enemies; one gains by the others loss: The pampering of the flesh, is the starving of the soul: I find an unavoidable emulation between these two parts of myself. O God, teach me to hold an equal hand betwixt them both; Let me so use them, as holding the one my favourite, the other my drudge; not so humouring the worse part, as to discontent the better; nor so wholly regarding the better, as altogether to discourage the worse: Both are thine, both by gift, and purchase; enable thou me to give each of them their Dues, so as the one may be fitted with all humble obsequiousness to serve; the other to rule and command with all just authority, and moderation. Soliloq. XXIV. The ground of Vnproficiency. WHere there is defect in the Principles, there can be no possibility of prevailing in any kind: Should a man be so foolish as to persuade his horse that it is not safe for him to drink in the extremity of his heat; or to advise a child that it is good for him to be whipped, or in a case of mortal danger, to have a fontinell made in his flesh, how fondly should he misspend his breath? bebecause the one wants the faculty, the other the use of reason. So if a man shall sadly tell a wild sensualist, that it is good for him to bear the yoke in his youth; that it is meet for him to curb and cross his unruly appetite; that the bitterest cup of afflictions ought to be freely taken off, as the most sovereign medicine of the soul; that we ought to bleed and die for the name of Christ; Rom. 8.18. that all the suffering of the present times are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us; his labour is no less lost, than if he had made an eloquent Oration to a deaf man; because this carnal hearer lacks that principle of grace and regeneration which only can enable him to apprehend and relish these divine counsels: I see, O God, I see too well, how it comes to pass that thy Word sounds so loud, and prevails so little; even because it is not joined with faith in the hearers: The right principle is missing, which should make the soul capable of thy divine mysteries: Faith is no less essential to the true Christian, than reason is to man, or sense to beast: O do thou furnish my soul with this heavenly grace of thine; and than all thy sacred Oracles shall be as clear to my understanding, as any visible object is to my sense. Soliloq. XXV. The sure Refuge. SUfficient unto the day is the evil thereof, saith our Saviour: Lo, Every day hath its evil, and that evil is load enough for the present, without the further charge of our anticipated cares. Surely the life of man is conflicted with such a world of crosses succeeding each other, that if he have not a sure refuge to flee unto, he cannot choose but be quite over-laid with miseries: One while his estate suffers, whether through casualty, or oppression; another while his Children miscarry, whether by sickness, or death, or disorder: One while his good name is impeached; another while his body languishes: One while his mind is perplexed with irksome suits; another while his soul is wounded with the sting of some secret sin: One while he is fretted with domestical discontents; another while distempered with the public broils: One while the sense of evils torments him; another while the expectation. Miserable is the case of that man, when he is pursued with whole Troops of Mischiefs, hath not a Fort wherein to succour himself: and safe and happy is that soul, that hath a sure and impregnable hold whereto he may resort. O the noble example of holy David; Never man could be more perplexed than he was at his Ziklag; His City burnt, his whole stock plundered, his Wives carried away, his people cursing, his soldier's mutining, pursued by Saul, cast off by the Philistines; helpless, 1 Sam. 30.6 hopeless: But David fortified himself in the Lord his God: There, there, O Lord, is a sure help in the time of trouble, a safe protection in the time of danger, a most certain remedy of all complaints: Let my Dove get once into the holes of that Rock, in vain shall all the birds of prey hover over me for my destruction. Soliloq. XXVI. The light burden. WHy do we complain of the difficulty of a Christian profession, when we hear our Saviour say, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light? Certainly he that impoposed it, hath exactly poised it, and knows the weight of it to the full: It is our fault if we make or account that heavy, which he knows to be light: If this yoke and burden be heavy to our sullen nature, yet to grace they are light: If they be heavy to fear, yet they are light to love: what is more sweet and easy than to love? and love is all the burden we need to take up: For love is the fulfilling of the Law; and the Evangelical law is all the burden of my Saviour. O blessed Jesus, how willingly do I stoop under thy commands: It is no other than my happiness that thou requirest; I shall be therefore my own enemy, if I be not thy servant: Hadst thou not bidden me to love thee, to obey thee, thine infinite goodness, and perfection of divine beauty would have attracted my heart to be spiritually enamoured of thee; now thou bidst me to do that which I should have wished to be commanded; how gladly do I yield up my soul to thee? Lay on what load thou pleasest; since the more I bear, the more thou enablest me to bear, and the more I shall desire to bear: the world hath so clogged me this while, with his worthless and base lumber, that I have been ready to sink under the weight, and what have I got by it, but a lame shoulder, and a galled back? O do thou free me from this unprofitable, and painful luggage; and ease my soul with the happy change of thy gracious impositions; so shall thy yoke not be easy only but pleasing, so shall thy fulfilled will be so far from a burden to me, that it shall be my greatest delight upon earth, and my surest and comfortablest evidence for heaven. Soliloq. XXVII. Joy intermitted. WHat a lightsomeness of heart do I now feel in myself, for the present, out of a comfortable sense of thy presence, O my God, and the apprehension of my interest in thee? Why should it not be thus always with me? Surely thine Apostle bids me rejoice continually, and, who would not wish to do so? for there is little difference betwixt joy and happiness; neither was it guessed ill by him that defined that man only to be happy that is always delighted; and certainly, there is just cause, why I should be thus always affected: Thou, O my God, art still and always the same: yea the same to me, in all thy gracious relations, of a merciful Father, a loving Saviour, a sweet Comforter: Yea thou art my head, and I am a limb of thy mystical Body. Such I am, and shall ever be; Thou canst no more change, than not be: and for me, my crosses and my sins are so far from separating me from thee, that they make me hold of thee the faster. But, alas, though the just grounds of my joy be steady; yet my weak disposition is subject to variableness; Whiles I carry this flesh about me, my soul cannot but be much swayed with the temper of my body; which sometimes inclines me to a dull listlessness, and a dumpish heaviness of heart, and sadness of spirit; so as I am utterly unapt to all cheerful thoughts, and find work enough to pull my affections out of this stiff clay of the earth, and to raise them up to heaven. Besides, this joy of the holy Ghost is a gift of thy divine bounty, which thou dispensest, when, and how thou pleasest; not always alike to thy best Favourites on earth: Thou that givest thy Sun and rain, dost not command thy Clouds always to be dropping, nor those beams to shine continually upon any face: there would be no difference betwixt the proceedings of nature and grace, if both produced their effects in a set and constant regularity: and what difference should I find betwixt my pilgrimage, and my home, if I should here be taken up with a perpetuity of heavenly joy? should I always thus feelingly enjoy thee, my life of faith should be changed into a life of sense: It is enough for me, O God, that above in those Regions of bliss, my joy in thee shall be full and permanent: if in the mean while it may please thee, that but some flashes of that celestial light of joy may frequently glance into my soul: It shall suffice if thou give me but a taste of those heavenly pleasures, whereon I shall once liberally feast with thee to all eternity. Soliloq. XXVIII. Universal Interest. IT was a noble praise that was given to that wise Heathen, Cato. that he so carried himself as if he thought himself born for all the world: Surely the more universal a man's beneficence is, so much is it more commendable; and comes so much nearer to the bounty of that great God, who openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness: There are too many selfish men, whose spirits as in a close retort, are cooped up within the compass of their own concernments; whose narrow hearts think they are born for none but themselves: Others that would seem good natured men, are willing enough to enlarge themselves to their kindred; whom they are careful to advance with neglect of all others, however deserving; some yet, more liberal minded, can be content to be kind and openhanded to their neighbours; and some perhaps reach so far, as to profess a readiness to do all good offices to their countrymen; but here their largesse finds its utmost bounds: All these dispositions are but enclosures; Give me the open champain of a general and illimited benefacture: Is he rich? he scatters his seed abroad by whole handfuls over the whole ridge, and doth not drop it down between his fingers into the several furrows; His bread is cast upon the waters also: Is he knowing and learned? He smothers not his skill in his bosom: but freely lays it out upon the common stock; not so much regarding his private contentment, as the public proficiency: Is he deeply wise? He is ready to improve all his cares and counsels to the advancement and preservation of peace, justice, and good order amongst men. Now although it is not in the power of any but persons placed in the highest orb of Authority, actually to oblige the world to them; Yet nothing hinders but that men of meaner rank may have the will to be thus universally beneficent, and may in preparation of mind be zealously affected to lay themselves forth upon the common good: O Lord; if thou hast given me but a private and short hand, yet give me a large and public heart. Soliloq. XXIX. The spiritual Bedleem. HE that with wise Solomon affects to know not wisdom only, but madness and Folly, let him after a serious observation of the sober part of the world, obtain of himself to visit Bedleem, and to look into the several Cells of distracted persons; where, it is a world to see what strange varieties of humours, and passions shall present themselves to him: Here he shall see one weeping, and wringing his hands for a meerely-imaginary disaster; there another, holding his sides in a loud laughter, as if he were made all of mirth: here one mopishly stupid, and so fixed to his posture, as if he were a breathing statue; there another apishly active and restless: here one ragingly fierce, and wreaking his causeless anger on his chain; there another gloriously boasting of a mighty stile of Honour, whereto his rags are justly entitled; and when he hath wondered a while at this woeful spectacle, let him know and consider that this is but a slight image of those spiritual frenzies, wherewith the world is miserably possessed; The persons affected believe it not; surely should I go about to persuade any of these guests of Bedleem, that in deed, he is mad, and should therefore quietly submit himself to the means of cure, I should be more mad than he: Only dark rooms, and cords, and Ellebore are meet receipts for these mental distempers; In the mean while, the sober and sad beholders too well see these men's wits out of the socket, and are ready out of Christian charity, to force upon them due remedies, who cannot be sensible of their own miseries. Now having learned of the great Doctor of the Gentiles to distinguish man into spirit, 1 Thes. 5.23. soul, and body, (whereof the body is as the earthly part, the soul as the ethereal, the spirit as the heavenly: the soul animal, the spirit rational, the body merely organical,) it is easy for him to observe that as each of these parts exceeds other in dignity, so the distemperatures thereof is so much greater, and more dangerous, as the part is more excellent; When therefore he shall hear the Prophet Hosea say, Hos. 9▪ 7. The spiritual man is mad, he cannot think that charge less than of the worst of frenzies: And such indeed they are which have been epidemical to all times: Could they pass for any other than sottishly mad, that would worship Cats, and Dogs, and Serpents? so did the old Egyptians, who thought themselves the most deeply learned of all nations. Could they be less mad than they, that of the same Tree, would make a block for their fire, and a God for their Adoration? Esa. 44.16. so did Isaiah's Idolaters. Could they be any better, who when they had molten their earrings, and with their own hands had shaped a golden Calf, could fall down and worship it, and say, these be thy Gods, O Israel, Exod. 32.4 which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt? so did they which should have known themselves God's peculiar people. Could they be any other than mad men, 2 Kin. 20.23. that thought there was one God of the hills, another of the valleys? so did the Syrian Courtiers. Could they be any other than stark mad that would lance, 1 Kin. 18.28. and gash their own flesh, because their Block did not answer them by fire? so did the Baalites. Lastly, could they be other than the maddest of men, who would pass their own Children through the fire, 2 Kin. 23.11. and burn them to ashes in a pretence of Devotion? so did the Clients of Moloch. Yea, what speak I of the times of ignorance? even since the true light came into the world, and since the beams of his glorious Gospel shined on all faces, there hath been no less need of dark rooms and manacles than before: Can we think them other than notoriously mad, that having good clothes to their backs, would needs strip them off, and go stark naked? so did the Adamites of old, about the year of our Lord, 194. So did certain Anabaptists of Holland at Amsterdam in the year 1535. so did the cynical Saint Francis in the streets of Assissium. Could they be other than mad which would worship Cain, Judas, the Sodomites? So did those good Devotionists which were called Caiani, about the year 159. Nay, were they not worse than mad, who if we may believe Hosius, and Lindanus, and Prateolus, worshipped the devil ten times every day? so did those heretics which were in the last age called Demoniaci. Could they be better than mad which held that beasts have Reason as well as man, that the Elements have life, that Plants have sense, and suffer pain in their cutting up? so did the Manichees. Could they be other than blasphemously mad, that held there are two Gods, one good the other evil, and that all creatures were made by the latter? so did the gnostics. Were there ever mad men in the World, if they were not such who would beseech, yea force passengers to do them the favour to cut their throats, in a vain affectation of the praise of martyrdom? so did the Circumcellions, a Faction of Donatists in the year 349. But above all other, did not those surpass in madness, who allowed of all Heresies, and professed to hold all opinions true? so did Rhetorus and his followers: St. Augustine's Charity sticks at the belief of so impossible a Tenet; I must crave leave to wonder at his reason: For (saith he) many opinions being contradictory to each other, no man that is compos mentis can think both parts can be verifiable: as if it could be supposed that a Rhetorius, thus opening, could be any other than beside all his wits: Surely had he been himself, so impossible an absurdity could not have fall'n from him: neither could any of these forecited practices or opinions have been incident into any but brains highly distempered. But what do we raking in the ashes of these old forgotten lunatics; would to God we had not work more than enough to look for the prodigious frenzies of the present age, than which there were never since the world began either more or worse, Can there be under the cope of heaven a madder man, than he that can deny there is a God? such a monster was rare and hooted at in the times of paganism: Cicer. de Natur. Deorum, initio. The Heathen Orator tells us of but two in those dark ages before him, that were so far forsaken of their wits; and we know that the old Athenians, when a bold Pen durst but question a Deity, sentenced the book to the fire, and the Author to exile. But now, alas, I am ashamed to say that this modern age under so clear beams of the Gospel hath bred many professed Atheists, who have dared, not in their heart only, as in David's time, but with their blasphemous lips to deny the God that made them. And are the frenzies of those insolent souls any whit less wild and outrageous, Heart bleedings for Professors abominations; Set forth under the hands of 16 Churches of Christ baptised into the name of Christ. p. 5.6, 7. &c. that dare boast themselves to be God; and stick not to style themselves absolutely deified? avowing that the soul in their body is the only Christ, or God in the flesh; That all the acts of their beastly and abominable lusts are the works of righteousness; that it is their perfection, and the highest pitch of their glory to give themselves up to all manner of abominations, without any reluctation; that there is no hell, but a dislike of, and remorse for, their greatest villainies: Now show me amongst the savagest of Pagans any one that hath been thus desperately brainsick, and let me be branded for a slanderer. What should I need to instance in any more, or to contract a large Volume of Hereseology? In short, there is no true heretic in the world, that is not in some degree a madman; And this spiritual madness is so much worse than the natural, as in other regards, so especially in this; that whereas that distemper of the brain contains itself in its own bounds, without any danger of Diffusion to others, the spiritual, is extremely contagious, spreading its infection to the peril of all that come within the air of it. In this sad case what is to be done? Surely we may, as we do, mourn for the miserable distractions of the world; but it is thou only, O Lord, that canst heal them. O thou, that art the great and sovereign Physician of souls; that after seven years' brutality, restoredst the frantic Babylonian to his shape and senses, look down mercifully upon our Bedleem, and restore the distracted World to their right temper once again: as for those that are yet sound, keep them O God, in their right wits unto the end, preserve them safe from all the pestilent taintures of Schism and heresy: And for me, the more insight thou givest me into, and the more sense of, these woeful distempers, so much the more thankful do thou make me to thine infinite goodness, that thou hast been graciously pleased to keep me within compass. And O, do thou still and ever keep me within the compass of thy revealed will, and all just moderation; and suffer me not to be miscarried into any of those exorbitances of judgement which may prove a trouble to thy Church, and a scanned all to thy Name. Soliloq. XXX. The difference of actions. THere is great difference in sins, and actions whether truly or seemingly offensive; there are Gnats, and there are Camels; neither is there less difference in Consciences: There are consciences so wide and Vast, that they can swallow a Camel; and there are consciences so straight, as that they strain at a Gnat; Yea, which is strange to observe, those very consciences which one while are so dilated that they strain not at a Camel, another while are so drawn together by an anxious scrupulousness that they are ready to be choked with a Gnat. How palpably was this seen in the chief Priest and Pharisees and Elders of the Jews: Joh. 18.28. the small Gnat of entering into the judgement Hall of the Roman Governor, would by no means down with them; that heinous act would defile them, so as they should not eat the Passeover; but in the mean time the huge Camel of the murder of the Lord passed down glib, and easily through their throats: They are ready to choke with one poor ear of corn pulled on a Sabbath by an hungry passenger; Yet whole houses of widows, the while, pass down their gorges with ease: An unwashen had or cup was piacular; Mat. 23.25 whiles within their hearts are full of extortion and excess. I wish the present age did not abound with instances: It is the fashion of Hypocrites to be seemingly scruplous in small things, whiles they make no conscience at all of the greatest: and to be so much less conscionable of greater matters of the Law, Judgement, Mercy and faith; as they are more scrupulously punctual in their Mint, Anise, and Cummin. O God, I would not make more sins than thou hast made; I desire to have an heart wisely tender, not fondly scrupulous; Let my soul endure no fetters but thine; If indifferent things may be my Gnats, let no known sin be other than a camel to me; and let me rather choke in the passage, than let down such a morsel. Soliloq. XXXI. The necessity of Labour. THe great and wise God that hath been pleased to give to all creatures their life and being, without their endeavour or knowledge, hath yet ordained not to continue their being, without their own labour, and cooperation; so as he hath imposed upon them all a necessity of painstaking for their own preservation: The wild beasts of the desert must walk abroad, and forage far for their prey; The beasts of the field must earn their Pasture with their work, and labour in very feeding to fill a large maw with picking up those several mouthfuls, whereby they are sustained; The fowls of several kinds must fly abroad to seek their various Diet, some in the hedges, some in the fields, some in the waters; The Bee must with unwearied industry gather her stock of wax and honey out of a thousand flowers; Neither know I any that can be idle and live: But man, as he is appointed to be the Lord of all the rest, so he is in a special manner borne to labour; as he upon whom the charge lies to provide both for himself, and all the creatures under his command; being not more impotent than they in his first entrance into the world, than he is afterwards by the power of his reason more able to govern them, and to order all things that may concern both their use, and conservation. How willingly, O Lord, should I stoop to this just condition of my Creation? Labour is my destiny, and labour shall be my trade: Something I must always do; both out of thy command, and my own inclination; as one whose not un-active spirit abhors nothing more than the torment of doing nothing: O God, do thou direct me to, and employ me in, those services that may be most for thy glory, for the good of others, and my own discharge and comfort. Soliloq. XXXII. Acquaintance with Heaven. WHat an high favour is it in the Great God of heaven, that he is pleased to stoop so low as to allow wretched man here upon earth to be acquainted with so infinite a Majesty? yet in the multitudes of his mercies, this hath he condescended unto: so far hath he yielded to us, as that he is pleased we should know him; and to that end he hath clearly revealed himself to mankind, and more than so, he is willing and content that we should enjoy him, and should continually make a comfortable use of his presence with us; that we should walk with him, and impart all our secret thoughts and counsels to him; that we should call for his gracious aid upon all our occasions; that we should impart all our wants and fears and doubts to him, with expectation of a merciful and sure answer, and supply from heaven; Yea, that he should invite us, silly wretches, to his presence, and calls us up to the throne of grace, and encourage us poor souls, dejected with the conscience of our unworthiness, to put up our suits boldly to his merciful hands; Yea, that he should give this honour to dust and ashes as to style us his friends: how shamefully, unthankful, and how justly miserable shall I be, if I make not an answerable use of so infinite a mercy? O God, how utterly unworthy shall I be of this grace, if notwithstanding these merciful proffers and solicitations, I shall continue a willing stranger from thee, and shall make no more improvement of these favours than if they had never been rendered? O let me know thee, let me acknowledge thee, let me adore thee, let me love thee, let me walk with thee, let me enjoy thee; let me, in an holy and awful familiarity be better and more entirely acquainted with thee than with the World, than with myself; so I shall be sure to be happy here, and hereafter glorious. Soliloq. XXXIII. The All-sufficient knowledge. I find much inquiry of curious wits, whether we shall know one another in heaven; There is no want of arguments on both parts, and the greatest probabilities have seemed to be for the affirmative: But, O Lord, whether or no we shall know one another, I am sure we shall all thy glorified Saints know thee; and in knowing thee we shall be infinitely happy; and what would we more? Surely, as we find here, that the Sun puts out the fire, and the greater light ever extinguisheth the less: so why may we not think it to be above? When thou art all in all to us, what can the knowledge of any creature add to our blessedness? And if when we casually meet with a Brother, or a Son before some great Prince, we forbear the ceremonies of our mutual respects, as being wholly taken up with the awful regard of a greater presence; how much more may we justly think, that when we meet before the glorious Throne of the God of heaven, all the respects of our former earthly relations must utterly cease, and be swallowed up of that beatifical presence, divine love, and infinitely blessed fruition of the Almighty. O God, it is my great comfort here below to think and know that I have parents, or children, or brothers and sisters, or friends already in possession of glory with thee, and to believe assuredly that in my time I shall be received to the association of their blessedness: but if upon the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle, I may be admitted to the sight of thy all-glorious essence, and may set eye upon the face of my blessed Saviour, now sitting at the right hand of thine incomprehensible Majesty, attended with those millions of his heavenly Angels, I shall neither have need, nor use of enquiring after my kindred, according to the flesh. What can fall into my thoughts or desires, beside, or beyond that which is infinite? Soliloq. XXXIV. Poor greatness. I Cannot but look with much pity mixed with smiles upon the vain worldling, that sets up his rest in these outward things, and so pleases himself in this condition, as if he thought no man happy but himself: how high he looks, how big he speaks, how proudly he struts? with what scorn and insultation doth he look upon my dejectedness? the very language of his eye is no other than contempt, seeming to say, Base Indigent, thou art stripped of all thy wealth, and honour; thou hast neither flocks, nor herds, nor lands, nor manors, nor bags, nor barne-fulls, nor titles, nor dignities, all which I have in abundance; no man regards thy meanness; I am observed with an awful veneration. Be it so, great Sir, think I; enjoy you your height of honour, and heaps of treasure, and ceremonies of state, whiles I go shrugging in a threadbare coat, and am glad to feed on single dishes, and to sleep under a thatched roof; But let me tell you, set your all against my nothing, if you have set your heart upon these gay things, were you the heir of all the earth, I would be loath to change conditions with your eminence; and will take leave to tell you, that at your best, you shall fall within my commiseration: It is not in the power of all your earthly privileges to render you other than a miserable vassal: If you have store of gold, alas, it is but made up into feetters and manacles; and what is all your outward bravery but mere matter of opinion? I shall show you an Indian slave, that shall no less pride himself in a Bracelet of glass beads, that you can in your richest Jewels of Rubies and Diamonds: All earthly things are as they are valued: The wise and Almighty Maker of these earthen Mines, esteems the best Metals, but as thick Clay; and why should we set any other price of them than their Creator? And if we be wont to measure the worth of all things by their virtues and uses, and operations, what is it that your wealth can do? Can it free you from cares? can it lengthen your sleeps? can it keep you from headaches, from Gouts, Dropsies, fevers and other bodily distempers? can it ransom you from death? can it make your account easier in the great day of reckoning? Are you ever the wiser, ever the holier, ever the quieter for that which you have purchased with tears, and blood? And were it so precious as you imagine, what hold have you of it? what assurance to enjoy it, or yourself but one hour? As for despised me, I have wealth that you know not of; My riches are invisible, invaluable, interminable: God all-sufficient is mine; and with him all things: My treasure is not locked up in earth, or in heaven, but fills both: My substance is sure; not obnoxious to plunder or loss, or diminution: No man hath bled, no widow or orphan hath wept for my enriching; The only difference is this; You are miserable, and think yourself happy; I am happy whom you think miserable: How ever our thoughts may bear us out in both for a while, yet at the last, except truth itself can deceive us, the issue must fall on my side. O God, be thou my portion, and the lot of mine inheritance, let the scum of the world spit in my face as the most despicable of all creatures, I am above the despite of men and devils, and am secretly happy, and shall be eternally glorious. Soliloq. XXXV. Acceptation of Desires. WHat a comfort it is to us weak wretches that we have to deal with a merciful God, that measures us not by our performances, but by the truth of our desires: David had a goodmind to build God an House, his hands were too bloody to lay the foundation of so holy a fabric; Yet God takes it as kindly from him, as if he had finished the work; and rewards the intention of building an house to his Name; with the actual building of an house to David for ever. Good Ezekiah knew how easy and welcome a suit he made, when after all endeavours of sanctifying the people, for the celebration of that great Passeover, he prayed, The Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, 2 Chro▪ 30.18, 19▪ the Lord God of his Fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary. Alas, we cannot be but lame in all our obediences: What can fall from defective causes, but imperfect effects? If we pray, we are apt to entertain unmeet notions of the infinite Spirit to whom we address our supplications, and sudden glances of wandering thoughts; If we read or hear, we are subject to vain distractions; if we approach God's table, our souls fail of that exact preparation & purity wherewith they should be decked, when they come to that celestial banquet; If we do the works of Justice, or Mercy, it is not without some light touch of self-respect; & well may we say with the blessed Apostle, Rom. 7.19▪ The good that I would, I do not: we should therefore find just cause of discouragement in ourselves, if our best actions were to be weighed by their own worth; and not by our better intentions: But that gracious God, who puts good desires into us, is so ready to accept of them, that he looks not so much at what we have done, as at what we wished to have done; and without respect to our defect, crownes our good affections. All that I can say for myself, O my God, is, that the desire of my heart is to please thee in all things: my comfort then is, though my abilities fail in the performance, yet thy mercies cannot fail in my acceptation. Soliloq. XXXVI. Heavenly joys. DOubtless, O God, thou that hast given to men, even thine enemies, here upon Earth, so excellent means to please their outward senses; such beautiful faces, and admirable flowers to delight the eye; such delicate scents from their garden, to please the smell; such curious confections, & delicate sauces, to please the taste; such sweet music from the birds, and artificial devices of ravishing melody from the art of man, to delight the ear; hast much more ordained transcendent pleasures, and infinite contentments for thy glorified Saints above. My soul, whiles it is thus clogged and confined, is too straight to conceive of those incomprehensible ways of spiritual delectation, which thou hast provided for thy dear chosen ones, triumphing with thee in thy heaven: O teach me to wonder at that which I cannot here attain to know, and to long for that happiness which I there hope to enjoy with thee for ever. Soliloq. XXXVII. Mixed Contentments. WHat a fool were I, if I should think to find that, which Solomon could not; contentment upon earth? his greatness, wealth and wisdom gave him opportunity to search, where my impotency is shut out: Were there any thing under heaven free from vanity and vexation, his curious inquisition could not have missed it. No, alas, all our earthly contentments are like a Jewish Passeover, which we must eat with sour herbs: Have I wealth? I cannot be void of cares: Have I honour? I cannot be rid of envy: Have I knowledge? He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow, saith the Kingly Preacher: Have I children? it were strange, if without crosses: Have I pleasures? not without a sting: Have I health? not without the threats of disease: Have I full diet? not without the inconveniences of satiety: Have I beauty? not without a snare to my soul. Thus it is in all our sublunary comforts; I cannot have the Rose, but I must be content with the prickles: Pure and absolute pleasure dwells elsewhere, far above the reach of this vale of misery. O God, give me to seek it there only: not without a contemptuous neglect of all those deceitful vanities which would withdraw my soul from thee; and there let me find it, whiles I am here by faith, when I remove hence by personal fruition: In the mean time, let me take what thou givest me with patience, and thankfulness: thankfulness for the meat, and patience with the sauce. Soliloq. XXXVIII. True Wealth. ALL a man's wealth or poverty is within himself: It is not the outward abundance or want that can make the difference. Let a man be never so rich in estate, yet if his heart be not satisfied, but he is still whining, and scraping and pining for more, that man is miserably poor; all his bags cannot make him other than a stark beggar. On the other side, give me a man of small means whose mind is throughly content with his little, and enjoys his pittance with a quiet and thankful heart, that man is exceeding rich; all the World cannot rob him of his wealth. It is not having, by which we can measure riches, but enjoying: The Earth hath all Treasures in it, yet no man styles it rich: Of these which the world call goods of Fortune, only opinion sets the value: Gold and Silver would be metals whether we think them so, or not; they would not be riches, if men's conceit and institution did not make them such. O my soul, be not thou carried away with the common Error to covet and admire those things which have no true worth in themselves: If both the Indies were thine, thou shouldest be no whit the wealthier; Labour for those riches whereby thy stock may be advanced: The great Lord of all, who knows best where his Wealth lies, and where thou shouldst hoard up thine, hath told thee where to seek it, where to lay it: Mat. 6.19. Lay not up for yourselves Treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break thorough and steal; But lay up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven: There thou shalt be sure to find it entire, free from plunder, and all danger of diminution. O God, give me to covet that my mind may be rich in knowledge, that my soul may be rich in grace, that my heart may be rich in true contentation; as for this pelf of the World, let it make them miserable that admire it. Soliloq. XXXIX. False Light. LOoking forth one starry evening, my eye met with a glorious light, that seemed fairer than its fellows: Whiles I was studying what Planet it might be, it suddenly glided down, and vanished. O God, how can we hope to avoid delusions upon earth, when even the face of heaven may thus deceive us? It is no otherwise in the firmament of the Church: How many have there been, that have seemed eternally fixed in that high sphere, which have proved no other than base Meteors, gilded with fair beams; they appeared stars, their substance was but slime. Woe were to the earth, if a true star should fall; Yea, I doubt whether the fabric of heaven would stand, if one of those glorious Lights should drop down: If therefore the star Wormwood shall fall, and embitter the waters, he shall show himself to be but a false star, and a true Impostor; else, heaven should fall as soon as he. O my God, give me grace to know the truth of my substance and the firmness of my station: Let me hate all counterfeit exhalations; Let me know myself the least and most insensible star in thy galaxy; so shall I be happy in thee, and thou shalt be by me glorified. Soliloq. XL. The haste of Desire. HOw slowly the hours seem to pace when we are big with the desire and expectation of any earthly contentment? we are ready to chide the time for standing still, when we would over-hasten the fruition of our approaching comfort: So the schoolboy longs for his playday, the Apprentice for his freedom, the Ward for his livery, the Bride for her nuptials, the heir for his inheritance: so approvedly true is that of wise Solomon, Pro. 13.12. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Were it not, O my soul, for that wretched infidelity, which cleaves so close unto thee, thou couldst not but be thus affected to thy heaven; and shouldst be yet so much more, as the joys there are infinitely more exquisite than which this earth can afford: Surely thou dost but flatter me with the overweening conceit of the firm apprehension of my faith; whiles I find thee so cool in the longing desires of thy glorification: What? hast thou no stomach to thy happiness? Hath the world benumbed thee with such a dull stupidity that thou art grown regardless and insensible of eternal blessedness? Oh shake off this lethargic heaviness of spirit, which hath possessed thee, and rouse up thyself to those ardent desires of glory which have sometimes inflamed thee: Yea, Lord, do thou stir up that heavenly fire that now lies raked up in the Embers of my soul, and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation. Soliloq. XLI. Death's Remembrancers. EVery thing that I see furnishes me with fair monitions of my dissolution: If I look into my garden, there I see some flowers fading, some withered; If I look to the earth, I see that mother, in whose womb I must lie; If I go to Church, the graves that I must step over in my way, show me what I must trust to; If I look to my Table, death is in every Dish, since what I feed on did once live. If I look into my glass, I cannot but see death in my face; If I go to my bed, there I meet with sleep the Image of death; and the sheets, which put me in mind of my winding up. If I look into my study; what are all those books, but the monuments of other dead authors? O my soul, how canst thou be unmindful of our parting, when thou art plied with so many monitors? Cast thine eyes abroad into the world, what canst thou see but killing and dying? Cast thine eyes up into heaven, how canst thou but think of the place of thy approaching rest? How justly then may I say with the Apostle, By our rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus, I die daily: And, Lord, 1 Cor. 15.31. as I daily die in the decay of this frail nature; so let me die daily in my affection to life, in my preparation for death. O do thou fit me for that last, and happy change. Teach me so to number my days that I apply my heart to wisdom, and address it to ensuing glory. Soliloq. XLII. Faith's Victory. We are here in a perpetual warfare, and fight we must; Surely, either fight, or die; some there are that do both; That is according as the quarrel is, and is managed: There are those that fight against God; these meddling with so unequal a match, cannot look to prevail. Again, The flesh warreth against the spirit; this intestine rebellion cannot hope to prosper; but if with the chosen vessel, I can say, I have fought a good fight, I can neither lose life, 2 Tim. 4.7. nor miss of victory: And what is that good fight? Even the same Apostle tells me, the fight of faith; 1 Tim. 6.2. this is the good fight indeed, both in the cause and managing, & the issue: Lo this faith it is, that wins God to my side, that makes the Almighty mine; that not only engages him in my cause, but unites me to him; so as his strength is mine: In the power of his might therefore I cannot but be victorious over all my spiritual enemies by the only means of this faith: For Satan; Eph. 6.16. This Shield of faith is it that shall quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one. For the world; this is the victory that overcomes the world; 1 Ioh. 5.4. even our faith. Be sure to find thyself furnished with this grace; and than say, O my soul, thou hast marched valiantly: the powers of Hell shall not be able to stand before thee; they are mighty and have all advantages of a spiritual nature, of long duration, and experience; of place, of subtlety: Yet this conquering grace of faith is able to give them the foil, and to trample over all the powers of darkness. O my Lord God, do thou arm and fortify my soul with a lively and steadfast faith in thee, I shall not fear what man or devil can do unto me: settle my heart in a firm reliance upon thee, and turn me lose to what enemy thou pleasest. Soliloq. XLIII. The unfailing Friend. NExt to the joy of a good conscience, there is no greater comfort upon earth, than the enjoyment of dear friends; neither is there any thing more sad than their parting; and by how nearer their relations are, so much greater is our sorrow in foregoing them: What moan▪ did good David make, both for Absalon as a son, (though ungracious) and for Jonathan as a friend: Surely, when our dear ones are pulled away from us, we seem to have limbs torn away from our bodies; yet this is a thing must be looked for; we are given to each other, (or lent rather) upon condition of parting, either they must leave us, or we them; a parting there must be, as sure as there was a meeting: It is our fault if we set our hearts too much upon that, which may, yea, which must be lost. Be wise, O my soul, and make sure of such friends as thou canst not be bereaved of: Thou hast a God, that hath said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee: It was an easy suit, and already granted which the holy Psalmist made: Cast me not off in the time of old age, Psal. 71.9. forsake me not when my strength faileth: And again, Psal. 27.10. When my Father and my Mother forsake me (in their farewell to a better world) yet than the Lord will take me up. It is an happy thing to have immortal friends: stick close unto them, O my soul, and rejoice in them evermore, as those that shall sweetly converse with thee here, and shall at last, receive thee into everlasting habitations. Soliloq. XLIV. Quiet Humility. HE is a rare man that is not wise in his own conceit; and that says not within himself, I see more than my neighbours: For we are all borne proud, and self-opinionate; and when we are come to our imaginary maturity, are apt to say with Zedechiah, to those of better judgement than our own, 1 Kin. 22.24. which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee? Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wild paradoxes, both in Philosophy and Religion, wherewith the world abounds everywhere. When our fancy hath entertained some uncouth thought, our selfe-love is apt to hatch it up, our confidence to broach it, and our obstinacy to maintain it; and (if it be not too monstrous) there will not want some credulous fools to abet it: so as the only way both to peace and truth, is true Humility; which will teach us to think meanly of our own abilities, to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgements, to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity, greater sanctity, deeper insight of our blessed Predecessors. This only will keep us in the beaten road, without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths: Teach me, O Lord, evermore to think myself no whit wiser than I am; so shall I neither be vainly irregular, nor the Church troublesomely unquiet. Soliloq. XLV. Sure Mercies. THere is nothing more troublesome in human society than the disappoint of trust, and failing of friends: For besides the disorder that it works in our own affairs, it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to others: The leaning upon a broken Reed gives us both a fall and a wound: Such is a false friend, who after professions of love, and real offices, either slinks from us, or betrays us: This is that which the great pattern of patience so bitterly complains of, as none of his least afflictions, My Kinsfolk have failed me, Job 19.14. and my familiar friends have forgotten me. It went to the heart of David, Psal. 41.9. that his own familiar friend, in whom he trusted, which did eat of his bread, should lift up his heel against him: And surely, those that are staunch, and faithful in themselves, cannot but be so much the more deeply affected with the perfidious dealing of others; and yet also so much the more, as their confidence and entireness was greater; this was that which heightened the vexation of that man who is so famous for the integrity of his heart. Psal. 55.13, 14. It was thou, O man, mine equal, my guide, my acquaintance; we took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company. And still our daily experience gives us miserable instances in this kind: he hath had little to do in the world that hath not spent many a sigh upon others faithlesness. And now, O my soul, the more sad proof thou hast had of the untrusty disposition and carriage of men, the more it concerns thee to betake thyself, in all zealous & absolute affiance, unto the sure protection and never-failing providence of thy God? the God who being Truth itself, never did, never can forfeit his Trust to any soul that relied upon his most certain promises, upon his promised mercies, upon his merciful and just performances. My soul wait thou only upon God; Psal. 61.7. for my expectation is from him; He only is my Rock, and my salvation; In God is my salvation and my glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. It shall not trouble thee to send men false, whiles thou hast such a true God to have recourse unto. Soliloq. XLVI. Dangerous Prosperity. IT was a just and needful precaution, O God, which thou gavest of old to thine Israel. Deut. 6.11, 12. When thou shalt have eaten, and art full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord: There was not so great fear of forgetting thee, whiles they were in an hungry and dry Wilderness, although even there they did too often forget themselves, in an ungracious murmuring against thee and their Leaders; the greatest danger of their forgetting Thee would be, (thou knewest) when they should come to be pampered in the Land that flowed with Milk and Honey: Deut. 32.15. There it was that accordingly Jesurum waxed fat and kicked; there being grown thick and covered with fatness, he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Nothing is more difficult than to keep ourselves from growing wanton by excess; whereas nature kept low is capable of just obedience: Like as in the body also, a full feed breeds superfluous and vicious humours, whereas a spare diet keeps it both clean and healthful. Do not I see, O Lord, even the man that was after thine own heart whiles thou kepst him in breath, with the prosecution of an unjust Master, how tenderly conscientious he was; remorsed in himself for but cutting off a lap of the robe of his causeless pursuer: 1 Sam. 24.5 who yet when he came to the full scope of his ease, and Courtly jollity, made no scruple of the adulterous bed of fair Bathsheba, or the bloody murder of a faithful Uriah. Who was I, O Lord, that I should promise myself an immunity from the peril of a prosperous condition under which thy holier servants have miscarried. It was thy goodness and wisdom who fore-seest not what shall be only, but what might be also, in prevention of the danger of my surfeit, to take away the dish, whereon I might have overfed. O God, I do humbly submit to thy good pleasure; and contentedly rest upon thy Providence, which hast thought fit rather to secure me in the safe use of my little, than to exercise me with the temptations of a bewitching plenty. Soliloq. XLVII. Cheerful Obedience. IT is not so much the work that God stands upon as the mind of the worker. The same act may be done with the thank and advantage of one agent, and with frowns and disrespect to another. If we do our business grudgingly, and because we must, out of the necessity of our subsistence, we shall have as much thank to sit still: It is our own need that sets our hands on work, not our obedience: So as herein we are our own slaves, not God's servants; Whereas, if we go about the works of our calling cheerfully, offering them up to God, as our willing sacrifice in an humble compliance with his commands, and an awful and comfortable expectation of his gracious acceptance, we are blessed in our holy endeavours, and cannot fail of an Euge from our Master in Heaven. Alas, Lord, it is but little that I can do, and, without thy enabling, nothing. Thou that vouchsafest to give me an abilitation to the work, put into me also good affections to thee in performing of it: Let me do thy will here, as thy Angels do in heaven, with all gracious readiness, and alacrity; and be no less glad that I shall do it, than that it is done: so whiles carnal hearts shall languish under their forced tasks, my labour shall be my pleasure; and I shall find unspeakable comfort both in the conscience of my act, and the crown of my obedience. Soliloq. XLVIII Heavenly Accordance. AS our condition here upon earth is different; so must our affection needs be also: that which is one man's joy is another's grief; one man's fear is another man's hope: neither can it be otherwise, while our occasions draw us to so manifest contradictions of disposition: These diversities and contrarieties of inclination and desire, are the necessary symptoms of our wretched mortality; and the nearer we grow to the perfection of our blessedness, the more shall we concentrate in the united scope of all our actions, and affections, which is the sole glory of our Creator: Know then, O my soul, that the closer thou canst gather up thyself in all the exercise of thy faculties, and proposals of thy desires, to the only respect of the honour of that great and good God which gave thee thy being, thou aspirest so much nearer to thy heaven, where all the blessed Saints and Angels agree together in one perpetual employment of praising their Maker; and sweetly accord in that one most perfect ditty and note of an eternal Allelujah to him that sits upon the Throne of that celestial glory. O God, do thou draw in my heart more and more from this variety of earthly distractions, and fix it upon this one heavenly work: put me upon that blessed task here below, which shall never know any end, but endure for ever in heaven. Soliloq. XLIX. Divine Bounty. HAd not the Apostle said so, yet our own sense and experience would have told us, that every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights: For sure, Iam. 1.17. from below it cannot come. How should any perfect gift arise from the region of all imperfection? How should evil afford any good? What is below but earth and hell? whereof the one yields nothing but torment, the other nothing but misery, and sin: If therefore it be perfect, or good, (since nothing can give what it hath not) it must needs come from above: And from whom above? Not from those lightsome bodies of the stars, whose influences cannot reach unto the soul, whose substance is not capable of any spiritual power, whether to have, or give perfect gifts: Not from the blessed Spirits, which are Angels of Light: They may help, through God's gracious appointment, to convey blessings to us, they neither will or can challenge an original and primary interest in the blessings which they convey. Only therefore from the Father of Lights; who as he is light, so is the Author of all whatsoever light, both inward and outward, spiritual and sensible: and as light was the first good and perfect gift which he bestowed on the world, so it well may employ all the spiritual blessings conferred on the Creature: So as he that said, Let there be light; said also, Let this man be wise; Let that be learned; Let that other be gracious and holy: whence then, O whence can I look for any good thing, Iam. 1.5. but from thy hands, O my God, who givest to all men liberally and upbraidest not: whose infinite treasure is not capable of any diminution; since the more thou givest, thy store is not the less, thy glory more. Thou dost not sell thy favours, as we men are apt to do, looking through our small bounty, at an expected retribution; but thou givest most freely, most absolutely: neither dost thou lend thy best blessing, as looking to receive them back again, but so conveyest them to us, as to make them our own for ever: since therefore thy gifts are so free, that all thy heavenly riches may be had for asking; how worthy shall I be to want them if I do not sue for them to the Throne of thy grace; Yet even this (since it is a good thing) I cannot do without thee. O then give thou me the grace that I may be ever begging faithfully of thee; and give me the graces that I beg for. Soliloq. L. Sweet use of Power. I See that great, wise, and holy God, who might most justly make use of his absolute power, yet proceeds sweetly with his creature in all his ways: he might force some to salvation in spite of their wills; He might damn others merely for his pleasure, without respect to their sin: But he doth not, he will not do either of these; but goes along graciously and gently with us, inviting us to Repentance, and earnestly tendering to us the means of salvation on the one side with effectual persuasions, and strong motives, and kindly inclinations to an answerable obedience; on the other side, laying before us the fearful menaces of his judgements denounced against sinners, urging all powerful dissuasions, and using all probable means to divert us from all the ways of wickedness; and when those prevail not, justly punishing us for our wilful disobedience, impenitence, and infidelity. O God, how should we learn of thee to proceed with all our fellow-Creatures, (but much more with our Christian Brethren) not according to the rigour of any pretended prerogative of power, but in all merciful tenderness, in all gentle and fair means of their reclamation on the one side, & on the other, in an unwilling and constrained severity of necessary justice. And how much doth it concern thee, O my soul, not to stay till thy God shall drag thee to Repentance and salvation, but gladly to embrace all those happy opportunities, and cheerfully to yield to all those merciful solicitations, which thy God offers thee for thy full Conversion; And carefully to avoid those ways of sin and death which he hath under so dreadful denunciations graciously warned thee to shun: Else thy God is cleared both in his justice and mercy, and thy perdition is of thyself. Soliloq. LI. The power of Conscience. IT is a true word of the Apostle, God is greater than our Conscience; and surely, none but he: under that great God, the supreme power on earth is the conscience. Every man is a little world within himself; and in this little world there is a Court of Judicature erected, wherein next under God the Conscience sits as the supreme Judge, from whom there is no appeal; that passeth sentence upon us, upon all our actions, upon all our intentions; for our persons, absolving one, condemning another; for our actions, allowing one, forbidding another: If that condemn us, in vain shall all the World besides acquit us; and if that clear us, the doom which the World passeth upon us, is frivolous▪ and ineffectual. I grant this Judge is sometimes corrupted with the Bribes of Hope, with the weak fears of loss, with an undue respect of persons, with powerful importunities, with false witnesses, with forged evidences, to pass a wrong sentence upon the person, or cause; for which he shall be answerable to him that is higher than the highest; but yet this doom, (though reversible by the tribunal of Heaven) is still obligatory on earth: So as it is my fault that my conscience is misled; but it is not my fault to follow my Conscience. How much need have I therefore, O my God, to pray that thou wouldst guide my Conscience aright; and keep this great Judge in my bosom from Corruption and error? and what need hath this intestine arbiter of mine to take special care that he may avoid all misinformations that may mislead his judgement, and all the base suggestions of outward advantage, or loss that may deprave his affections? And, O thou, that only art greater than my Conscience, keep me from doing aught against my Conscience: I cannot disobey that but I must offend thee; since that is but thine Officer under thee, and only commands for thee. Soliloq. LII. Proud Poverty. THat which wise Solomon observed in the temporal estates of men, holds no less true in the spiritual: Prov. 13.7. There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches: On the one side, we meet with a proud but beggarly Laodicean, Rev. 3.17. that says, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; which will not know that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; This man when the means of further grace are tendered him, can say, as Esau did of the proffered herds, I have enough my Brother; and with the bragging Pharisee can boast of what he is not, and of what he is; of what he hath, of what he doth; admiring his own nothing, and not caring to seek for more, because he thinks he hath all; this fond Justiciary can overdo his duty, and supererogate; contemning the poverty of souls better furnished than his 〈◊〉; and laying his merits in the dish of the Almighty. On the other side, there is an humble soul, that is secretly rich in all spiritual endowments; full of knowledge, abounding in grace, which out of the true poverty of spirit under-values himself, and makes no show of aught but a bemoaned disability: as we have seen those grounds wherein the richest Mines are treasured, bewray nothing but barrenness in their outside. O my soul, what estimation soever others may set upon thee, thou art conscious enough of thy own wants; be thankful for the little thou hast, and abased for the much thou lackest; and if thou wilt needs be advancing thyself above others, let it be in the contestation of thy greater humbleness, and lower dejection. Thy grace shall be no less because thou thinkst it so: but shall rather multiply by a modest diminution. And, O Blessed Lord, thou who resistest the proud, and givest grace to the humble, give me more humility, that I may receive more grace from thee; and thou whose gracious rain shelves down from the steep mountains, and sweetly drenches the humble valleys; depress thou my heart more and more with true lowliness of Spirit, that the showers of thy heavenly grace may soak into it, and make it more fruitful in all good affections, and all holy obedience. Soliloq. LIII. The happiest Society. I find, O Lord, some holy men that have gone aside from the world, into some solitary wilderness, that they might have their full scope of enjoying thee freely, without any secular avocations; who no doubt improved their perfect leisure to a great entireness of conversation with thee. Surely I could easily admire the report of their holiness, and emulate their mortified retiredness, if I did not hear them say, The wolf dwells in the Wood, and that they could as soon leave themselves, as the World behind them. There is no desert so wild, no mountains or rocks so craggy, wherein I would not gladly seek thee, O my God, and which I would not willingly climb up to find thee, if I could hope that solitude would yield a spiritual advantage of more enjoying thee. But, alas, I find our weak powers are subject to an unavoidable lassitude; and we can no more contemplate always those divine Objects, than our bodily eyes are able to fix themselves on the body of the Sun in his brightest splendour: so as, if our minds should not be sometime taken off with a safe variety of Cogitations, we should be overwhelmed with thy Glory, and with too much light blinded: by this means it comes to pass that these small interspirations set an edge upon our reassumed speculations, and renewed Devotions: Although also in the mean time, I should hate all secular diversions, if they should take thee for a moment quite out of my sight; If I did not find that I may still refer them to thee, and enjoy thee in them. O God, do thou so fix my soul upon thee, that what ever occasion shall take me up, I may never be out of thy blessed society, and make me so insensible of the noise of the world, that even in the midst of the Market I may be still alone with thee. Soliloq. LIV. Honey from the Rock. O God, thou didst miraculously refresh thy murmuring Israel of old with water out of the Rock, in that dry wilderness; and now I hear thee say, If they had harkened to thy voice, and walked in thy ways, Psal. 81.16. with honey out of the Rock thou wouldst have satisfied them. Lo, that which thou wouldest have done to thine ancient people, if they had obeyed thee, thou hast abundantly performed to thine Evangelical Israel. With honey out of the Rock hast thou satisfied them; The Rock that followed them was Christ my Saviour: 1 Cor. 10. Lo, out of this Rock hath flowed that honey whereby our souls are satisfied; Out of his side (saith the Evangelist) came water and blood, This Rock of our salvation affordeth both what Israel had, and might have had. Surely, O my God, there can be no honey so sweet, as the effect of the precious blood of my Saviour to the soul of the believer; Heb. 9.12. Eph. 1.7. By that blood we have eternal redemption from death, and Remission of all our sins; Rom. 5.9. By that blood are we justified in the sight of our God, and saved from the wrath to come; By that blood we have our Peace made in Heaven, Col. 1.20. and are fully reconciled to our God; Heb. 9.22. By that blood we are cleansed and purged from all our iniquity; Heb. 13.12, 14. 1 Pet. 1.2. By that blood we are sanctified from our Corruptions; Heb. 9.15. By that blood we receive the Promise and possession of an eternal inheritance. O the spiritual honey so sweet, that the material honey is but bitterness to it! 1 Sam. 14.29. Jonathan of old did but dip his spear in the honey of the wood, and but with one lick of that sweet moisture had his eyes cleared, and his spirits revived; O God, let me but taste, and see how sweet the Lord Jesus is, in all his gracious Promises, in all his merciful and real Performances, I shall need no more to make me happy. Thy Solomon bids me to eat honey: Lo, Pro. 14.23. this is the honey that I desire to eat of; Give me of this honey and I shall receive both clearness to my eyes, and vigour of my spirits to the foiling of all my spiritual enemies. This is nothe honey whereof I am bidden not to eat too much: Pro. 25.16. No, Lord, I can never eat enough of this celestial honey; Here I cannot surfeit; Or, if I could, this surfeit would be my health. O God, give me still enough of this honey out of the rock, so shall my soul live, and bless thee, and be blessed of thee. Soliloq. LV. Sure Earnest. O My God, what a comfortable assurance is this which thou hast given to my soul? Thou hast, in thy great mercy, promised and agreed to give me heaven; and now because thou dost not put me into a present possession, thou hast given me earnest of my future inheritance; Eph. 1.14. and this earnest is that good Spirit of thine, which thou hast graciously put into my soul. Even we men, whose stile is deceitful upon the balance, think ourselves sure when in civil transactions we have received an earnest of the bargain; and much more when we have taken that small piece of coin, as part of the bargained payment; How then can I fear to fail thee, my God, whose Title is faithful and True; whose Word is Yea, and Amen. It is ordinary with the World to cheat my soul with fair promises, and faithless engagements of yielding me those contentments, which it neither can, nor meant to perform. Mat. 24.35 But for thee, O Lord, heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot of thy Word shall pass unfulfilled: Hadst thou then, but given me that Word of thine, I durst have set my soul upon it, with all firm confidence; but now that thou hast seconded thy Word with thy Earnest, what place can be left for my doubt? What then, what is it that thou canst stick at, O my soul? Canst thou make question of the truth of the Earnest? Thou knowest that thou canst not; the stamp is too well known to be misdoubted; the impressions are full and inimitable; this seal cannot be counterfeit; the graces of the Spirit which thou hast received, thou feelest to be true and real; thou findest in thyself a faith, though weak, yet sincere; an unfeigned repentance joined with an hearty detestation of all thy sins; a fervent love of that infinite goodness that hath remitted them, a conscionable care to avoid them, a zealous desire to be approved to God in all thy ways: Flesh and blood cannot have wrought these graces in thee; It is only that good Spirit of thy God, which hath thus sealed thee to the day of Redemption. Walk on therefore, O my soul, confidently and cheerfully in the strength of this assurance, and joyfully expect the full accomplishment of this happy contract from the sure hands of thy God: Let no temptation stagger thee in the comfortable resolutions of thy future glory; But say boldly with that holy patriarch, O Lord I have waited for thy salvation. Soliloq. LVI. Heavenly Manna. VIctory itself is the great reward of our fight; but what is it, O God that thou promisest to give us as the reward of our Victory? even the hidden Manna: Surely were not this gift exceeding precious, thou wouldst not reserve it for the remuneration of so glorious a Conquest. Behold that material and visible Manna, which thou sentest down from heaven, to stop the mouths of murmuring Israel, perished in their use; and if it were reserved but to the next day, putrified, and instead of nourishing, annoyed them; But the hidden Manna, that was laid up in the ark, was incorruptible, as a lasting monument of thy power, and mercy to thy people; But now, alas, what is become both of that Manna, and of that ark? Both are vanished (having passed through the devouring jaws of time) into mere forgetfulness. It is the true spiritual Manna that came down from the highest heaven, and ascending thither again is hidden therein the glorious ark of Eternity, that thou wilt give to thy Conqueror: That is it, which being participated of here below, nourisheth us to eternal life; and being communicated to us above, is the full consummation of that blessed life, and glory. O give me so to fight that I may overcome, that so overcoming, I may be feasted with this Manna. Thou that art, and hast given me thyself, the spiritual Manna, which I have fed on by faith; and the symbolical Manna, whereof I have eaten sacramentally; give me of that heavenly Manna, whereof I shall partake in glory: It is yet an hidden Manna, hid from the eyes of the world, yea in a sort from our own; hid in light inaccessible: Colos. 3. For our life is hid with Christ in God; but shall then be fully revealed: for it shall then not only cover the face of the earth round about the tents of Israel. but spread itself over the face of the whole heaven, yea fill both heaven and earth. I well thought, O my God, that if heaven could afford any thing more precious than other, thou wouldst lay it up for thy Victor: for it is an hard service that thy poor Infantry here upon earth are put unto; to conflict with so mighty, so malicious, so indefatigable enemies; and therefore the reward must be so much the greater, as the warfare is more difficult. O do thou who art the great Lord of Hosts, give me courage to fight, perseverance in fighting, and power to overcome all my spiritual enemies, that I may receive from thee this hidden Manna, that my soul may live for ever, and may for ever bless thee. Soliloq. LVII. The heart's Treasure. IT is a sure Word of thine, O Saviour, that where our Treasure is, there our hearts will be also; neither can we easily know, where to find our hearts, if our Treasure did not discover them: Now, Lord, where is my Treasure? Surely I am not worthy to be owned of thee, if my Treasure be anywhere but in heaven: my lumber and luggage may be here on earth, but my Treasure is above; there thou hast laid up for me the richest of thy mercies, even my eternal salvation: Yea Lord, what is my richest Treasure but thyself? in whom all the Treasures of wisdom and Knowledge, yea of infinite Glory are laid up for all thine: All things that this world can afford me, are but mere pelf in comparison of this Treasure; or, if the earth could yield aught that is precious, yet I cannot call that Treasure. Treasure implies both price, and store of the dearest Commodities: never so great abundance of base things cannot make a Treasure; neither can some few pieces of the richest metals be so accounted; but where there is a large congestion of precious Jewels, and metals, there only is Treasure: If any at all, surely very little, and mean is the wealth which I can promise myself here; perhaps some brass Farthing, or light and counterfeit coin, mere earthy dross, which may load but cannot enrich my soul; my only true riches are above with thee; and where then should my heart be but there? My hand and my brain too must necessarily be sometimes here below, but my heart shall be still with my Treasure in heaven. It is wont to be said, that however the memory of old age is short, yet that no old man ever forgot where he laid up his Treasure. O God, let not that celestial Treasure which thou hast laid up for me, be at any time out of my thoughts; let my eye be ever upon it; let my heart long for the full possession of it; and so joy in the assured expectation of it; that it may disrelish all the contentments, and contemn all the crosses which this World can afford me. Soliloq. LVIII. The narrow Way. O Saviour, I hear thee say, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and yet again, thou (who art Truth itself) tellest me, that the way is narrow, and the gate straight that leadeth unto life: Surely, thou who art the living Way, art exceeding large; so wide that all the World of believers enter into life by thee only: but the way of our walk towards thee is straight and narrow; Not, but that thy commandment in itself is exceeding broad; Psal. 119. for Lord, how fully comprehensive it is of all moral and holy duties? and what gracious latitude hast thou given us in it of our Obedience? and how favourable indulgence and remission in case of our failings? But narrow in respect of the weakness and insufficiency of our obedience? It is our wretched infirmity that straitens our way to the. Lo, heaven, which is thy All-glorious Mansion, when we are once entered into it, how infinitely large and spacious it is; even this lower contignation of it, at how marvelous distance it archeth in this Globe of air, and earth, and waters? and how is that again surrounded with several heights of those lightsome Regions, unmeasurable for their glorious dimensions? But the heaven of heavens, the seat of the blessed, is yet so much larger, as it is higher in place, and more eminent in glory; yet thou wouldst have the way to it narrow, and the gate of it straight: And even thus it pleaseth thee to ordain in the dispensation of all thine inferior blessings; Learning dwells fair within, but the entrance is straight through study, watching, bending of brains, wearing of spirits: the house of honour is sumptuous and goodly within, but the gate is straight that leads into it; which is through danger, attendance, plots of emulation: Wealth hath large elbowroom of lodging, but the gate is straight; hard labour, careful thrift, racking of thoughts, painful adventures. How much more wouldst thou have it thus in the best of all blessings, the eternal fruition of heaven? And why is this way narrow, but because it is untracked, and untrodden? If I may not rather say the way is untracked and found by few, because it is narrow, and not easy to tread in. Surely grace is the way to glory, and that path is not for every foot: the straighter and narrower it is, O my God, the more let me strive and shoulder to enter into it. What vain quarrels do we daily hear of for the way; but Lord enable me to strive for this way even to blood: And if thou have been pleased to set me a deep way, or a rough way through many tribulations, to that happy and eternal life, let me pass it with all cheerful resolution. How oft have I not grudged to go a foul way to a friend's house, where I knew my entertainment kind and cordial? O let me not think much to come to those thy everlasting Mansions of bliss, through tears and blood. The end shall make an abundant amends for the way; If I suffer with thee, I shall reign with thee. Soliloq. LIX. God's various Proceedings. WHat strange varieties do I find in the workings of God with men: onewhere I find him gently, and plausibly inviting men to their Conversion; another-where, I find him frighting some others to heaven: some he trains up in a goodly education, and without any eminent change, calls them forth to an exemplary profession of his Name; some others he chooseth out of a life notoriously lewd, to be the great patterns of a sudden Reformation; One that was only formal in his Devotion without any true life of grace, is, upon a grievous sickness, brought to a lively sense of godliness; another comes to God's house with a purpose to sleep or scoff, and through the secret operation of God's Spirit working with his Word, returns full of true compunction of heart, with tears in his eyes, and resolutions of present amendment of life: One that was proud of his own righteousness is suffered to fall into some foul sin, which shames him before men, and is thus brought down to an humble acknowledgement of his own frailty; another, that was cast down with a sad despair of God's mercy, is raised up by the fall of an unbroken glass, or by some comfortable dream, or by the seasonable word of a cheerful friend: One is called at the sixt hour, another not till the eleventh; one by fair and probable means, another by contraries; so as even the work of Satan himself hath been made the occasion of the conversion of his soul. O God, thy ways are infinite, and past finding out: It is not for us to prescribe thee what to do, but humbly to adore thee in what thou dost. Far be it from me, so to cast myself upon thy All-working providence, as to neglect the ordinary means of my salvation: enable me cheerfully to endeavour what thou requirest, and then take what way thou pleasest; so that thou bringst me to the end of my hope, the salvation of my soul. Soliloq. LX. The waking Guardian. IT is a true word which the Psalmist said of thee, O God; Thou that keepest Israel, neither slumberest, nor sleepest: Psal. 12.14. Fond Tyrants think that thou winkest at their cruel persecutions of thy Church, because thou dost not speedily execute vengeance upon them, whereas, if the fault were not in their eyes, they should see thine wide open, and bent upon them for their just destruction; only thou thinkst fit to hold thy hand for a time from the infliction of judgement, till the measure of their iniquity be full, and then they shall feel to their cost, that thou sawest all their secret Plots and Conspiracies against thine Israel. Mat. 8.24, 25, &c. Mat. 4.37. Luk. 8.13. The time was, O Saviour, when in the days of thine human infirmity thou sleptest in the stern of the Ship, on a pillow, when the Tempest raged and the Waves swelled; yet even then when thy Disciples awoke thee and said, Lord save us we perish, thou rebukedst them sharply, with, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Their danger was apparently great, but yet thou tellest them their fear was causeless, and their faith weak, that they could not assure themselves that thy presence (though sleeping) was a sufficient preservative against the fury of winds and waters: How much more now, that being in the height of thine heavenly glory, and ever intentively vigilant for the safeguard of thy chosen ones, may we rest secure of thy blessed protection, and our sure indemnity? O God, do thou keep my eyes ever open, that I may still wait upon thee, for thy gracious tuition, and the merciful accomplishment of thy salvation: Thou seest I have to do with those enemies that are never but waking, never but seeking all advantages against my soul; What can they do when thine eye is ever over me for good? O then let mine eyes be ever unto thee, Psa. 141.8. O God my Lord; in thee let me still put my trust: so shalt thou keep me from the snares that they have laid for me, and the grins of the workers of iniquity. Soliloq. LXI. The sting of guiltiness. Guiltiness can never think itself sure; if there were no Fiends to torment it, like a bosom-devil, it would ever torture itself: no Guard can be so sure, no Fort so strong as to secure it from terrors. The first Murderer after his bloody fratricide, when there is no mention of any man (beside his Father) upon earth, yet can say, It shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me; Gen. 4 14. and I marvel that he added not; if none else will do it, I shall do that deadly office to myself: he was sure he could meet with none but Brethren or nephews; and even the face of those was now dreadful to him: he that had been so cruel to him that had lain in the same womb with himself, fears that no neereness of blood can shield him from the violence of the next man. Conscience when once exasperated, needs not stay for an accuser, a witness, a solicitor to enforce the evidence, a Judge; but itself alone acts all these parts, and ofttimes also the executioners to boot. It was a just question of the wisest of men, A wounded spirit who can bear? But there are divers and different degrees of the wounds of spirit: All are painful, some mortal; as in the body, there may be some wounds in the outward and fleshly part, which have more pain than peril, but those of the principal, and vital parts are not more dolorous than dangerous, and often deadly: so it is in the soul, there are wounds of the inferior and affective faculties, as grief for crosses, vexation for disappointment of hopes, pangs of anger for wrongs received, which may be cured with seasonable remedies; but the wounds of conscience inflicted by the sting of some heinous sin, which lies belching within us, carries in it horror, despair, death. O God, keep me from blood-guiltiness, and from all crying and presumptuous sins; but if ever my frailty should be so foully tainted, do thou so work upon my soul, as that my repentance may walk in equal paces with my sin, ere it can aggravate itself by continuance. Apply thy sovereign plaster to my soul whiles the wound is green, and suffer it not to fester inwardly through any impenitent delay. Soliloq. LXII. Beneficial want. IT is just with thee, O God, when thou seest us grow wanton, and unthankfully neglective of thy blessings, to withdraw them from us, that by the want of them we may feel both our unregarded obligations, and the defects of our duty: So we have seen the Nurse, when the child begins to play with the dug, to put up the breast out of sight. I should not acknowledge how precious a favour health is, if thou didst not sometimes interchange it with sickness; nor how much I am bound to thee for my limbs, if I had not sometimes a touch of lameness: Thirst gives better relish to the drink, and hunger is the best sauce to our meat. Nature must needs affect a continuance of her welfare; neither is any thing more grievous to her, than these cross interceptions of her contentments: but thou, who art wisdom itself, knowest how fit it is for us, both to smart for our neglect of thy familiar mercies, and to have thy blessings more endeared to us by a seasonable discontinuance. Neither dost thou want to deal otherwise in the managing of thy spiritual mercies. If thy Spouse, the faithful soul, shall (being pampered with prosperity) begin to grow secure and negligent, so as at the first knock of her beloved, she rise not up to open to Him, but suffers his head to be filled with Dew, and his locks with the drops of the night; Cant. 5.2.3.4.5.6.7.8. she soon finds her beloved withdrawn and gone: she may then seek him, and not find him; she may call, and receive no answer; she may seek him about the streets, and in stead of finding him lose her veil, and meet with blows and wounds from the watchmen. O God, keep thou me from being resty with ease; hold me in a continual tenderness of heart: continue me in a thankful, and awful use of all thy favours: but, if at any time thou seest me decline to a careless obduration, and to a disrespective forgetfulness of thy mercies, do thou so chastise me with the fatherly hand of thy afflictions, and so work me to a gracious use of thy desertions, that my soul may seek thee with more vigour of affections, and may recover thee with more sensible comfort. Soliloq. LXIII. Interchange of Conditions. IT is not for nothing, O my God, that thou hast protracted my time so long, and hast given me so large experience of thy most wise and holy dealing with myself and others. Doubtless it is, that I might see, and feel, and observe, and teach the gracious changes of thy carriage towards thy poor sinful Creatures upon earth. Thou dost not hold us always under the rod, (though we well deserve a perpetual correction) as considering our miserable impotence, and aptness to an heartless dejection; Thou dost not always keep our hearts raised up to the jollity of a prosperous condition, as knowing our readiness to presume, and to be carried away with a false confidence of our unmoveableness; but graciously interchangest thy favours with our sufferings: When thou seest us ready to faint, and to be discouraged with our adversity, thou takest off thy hand, and givest us a comfortable respiration from our miseries; When thou seest us puffed up with the vain conceit of our own worth, or success, thou takest us down with some heavy cross. When thou findest us overlaid with an unequal match, and ready to be foiled in the fight, thou givest us breath, and puttest new strength into our arms, and new courage into our hearts; When thou findest us insolent with our Victory, thou sham'st us by an unexpected discomfiture. And as for the outward estate of the Nations and kingdoms of the earth, thou whirlest them about in a perpetual, yet constant vicissitude; Peace breeds plenty, Plenty wantonness and pride, Pride Animosity, from thence follows war, war produces Vastation and want, Poverty causeth Industry, and (when nothing is left to strive for) Peace, an industrious peace brings plenty again, and in this gyre thou hast ordained the world still to turn about. Be not too much moved then, O my soul, when thou findest thyself hard pressed with afflictions, and conflicted with strong temptations, but bear up constantly in the strength of thy faith, as being assured, that having rid out this storm, thou shalt be blessed with an happy calm; Neither be thou lifted up too much when thou findest thyself carried on with a fair gale of prosperity, since thou know'st not what tempests may suddenly arise; and many hopeful vessel hath been sunk in sight of the Port: And when thou seest the world everywhere full of woeful combustions, be not overmuch dismayed with the sight and sense of these public Calamities, but wait patiently upon that Divine Providence; which, after those revolutions of change, shall happily reduce all things to their determinate posture: To which purpose, O God, do thou fix my heart firmly upon thee; do thou keep me from the evil of prosperity, from dejectedness in affliction, from the prevalence of temptation, from misprision of thy Providence: work me to that due temper which thy Solomon hath prescribed me; Eccle. 7.14. In the day of prosperity be joyful; but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. Soliloq. LXIV. The rule of Devotion. THy will, O God, as it is always holy, so in what thou hast decreed to do with us, is secret, and in what thou wouldst have us do to thee, is revealed: It is thy revealed will that must regulate both our Actions, and our Prayers. It may be that I may lawfully sue to thee for what thou hast decreed not to grant: As Samuel ceased not to pray for thy favour to that Saul, whom thou hadst rejected; and many an Israelite prayed for rain in that three years and an half, wherein thou hadst commanded the clouds to make good the prophecy of thine Elias; yea, thine holy Apostle prayed thrice to have the Messenger 1 Cor. 12. of Satan taken off from him; and heard no answer, but, My grace is sufficient for thee: So, Lord, we pray for the removal of thy judgements from this sinful and deplored Nation, which for aught we know, and have cause to fear, thou hast decreed to ruin and de●●station; and many a good soul prays for a comfortable sense of thy favour, whom thou thinkest fit to keep down for the time in a sad desertion; and I thy unworthy servant may pray to be freed from those temptations, wherewith thou seest it fit that my faith should be still exercised. O God, give me the grace to follow thy revealed will, and to submit myself to thy secret. What thou hast commanded, I know I may do; what thou hast promised, I know I may trust to; what thou hast in a generality promised to do, may in some particular cases by the just decree of thy secret counsel be otherwise determined: If I ask what thou hast decreed to do, I know I cannot but obtain; If I ask what thou hast warranted (notwithstanding the particular exception of thy secret will) though I receive it not, yet I receive not pardon only, but acceptation. O God, give me grace to steer myself, and my prayers by thy revealed Will; and humbly to stoop to what the event shows to have been thy secret will. Soliloq. LXV. Hell's Triumph. THou hast told us, O Saviour, Luk. 15.10. that there is joy in the presence of thine Angels, for a sinner's repentance; those blessed Spirits are so far from envying our happiness, that as they endeavour it here, so they congratulate it in heaven: and we well know, that these good Spirits do not more rejoice in the conversion of a sinner, than the evil Spirits do in the miscarriage of a convert. The course of the holy obedience of thy servants here is doubtless a pleasing object to thine Angels, neither are those malignant spirits less pleased with the wicked practices of their Vassals; but the joy arises to both from the contrary condition of those parties, over which they have prevailed: The allegiance of a good subject (though wel-accepted) yet is no news to a gracious sovereign; but the coming in of some great rebel is happy tidings at the Court: On the contrary, where there is a rivality of sovereignty, for a professed enemy to do hostile actions, is no other than could be expected; but for a subject or a domestic servant to be drawn into the conspiracy, is not more advantage than joy to the intruder. O God, thou hast mercifully called me out of the world to a profession of thy Name; I know what eyes those envious Spirits have ever upon me: Psal. 5.8. O do thou lead me in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; If thine Angels have found cause to joy in my conversion, O do thou keep me from making music in hell by my miscarriage. Soliloq. LXVI. Dumb Homage. HOw officious, O God, do I see thy poor dumb Creatures to us? how do they fawn, or crouch, as they see us affected? how do they run and fetch, and carry, and draw at our command? how do they bear our stripes with a trembling unresistance? how readily do they spend their strength, and their lives in our service? how patiently do they yield us their milk and their fleeces for our advantage? and lie equally still to be shorn, or slain at our pleasure? expecting nothing from us in the mean time but a bare sustenance, which, if it be denied them, they do not fall furiously upon their cruel Masters, but meekly bemoan themselves in their brutish language, and languish, and die; If granted them, they are fattened for our use. I am ashamed, O God, I am ashamed to see these thy creatures so obsequiously pliant unto me, whiles I consider my disposition and deportment towards thee my Creator: Alas, Lord, what made the difference betwixt me and them, but thy mere good pleasure? thou mightest have made them rational, and have exchanged my reason for their brutality; They are my fellows by Creation, and owe both their being and preservation to the same hand with myself: Thou art the absolute Lord of both, to whom I must be accountable for them; they are mine only by a limited substitution from thee; why then should they be more obedient to my will, than I am to thine; since they have only Sense to lead them in their Way, I have both Reason and Faith to teach me my duty. Had I made them, I could but require of them their absolute submission: Why should I then exact of them, more than I am ready to perform unto thee? O God, thou that hast put them under my hand, and me under thy own, as thou hast made me their Master for command, so let me make them my Masters to teach me obedience. Soliloq. LXVII. Indifferency of Events. THou givest us daily proofs, O God, of the truth of that observation of wise Solomon, That all things come alike to all, Eccl. 9.1, 2. and that no man knows love or hatred by all that is before them: In these outward things thy dearest friends have not fared better than thine enemies; Thy greatest enemies have not suffered more than thy beloved Children. When therefore I look abroad, and see with what heavy afflictions thou art pleased to exercise thy best Favourites upon earth, I cannot but stand amazed to see what horrible Torments of all kinds have been undergone by thy most precious Martyrs, whose patience hath overcome the violence of their executioners: and to see those extreme tortures which some of thy faithful servants have endured in the beds of their sickness; one torn, and drawn together with fearful convulsions, another shrieking under the painful girds of an unremovable stone; one wrung in his Bowels with pangs of colic, and turning of guts, another possessed with a raging gout in all his limbs; one whose bladder after a painful incision is ransacked, another whose Leg or arm is cut off to prevent a mortal Gangrene: I cannot but acknowledge how just it might be in thee, O God, to mix the same bitter cup for me; and how merciful it is, that knowing my weakness thou hast forborn hitherto to load me with so sad a burden. What thou hast in thine eternal council determined to lay upon me, thou only knowest. If thou be pleased to continue thy gracious indulgence to me still, make me truly thankful to thee for health and ease, as the greatest of thy outward favours; but let me not build upon them, as the certain evidences of thy better mercies: and if thou think fit to interchange them with a vicissitude of sickness and pain, let me not misconstrue thy severe chastisements as arguments of thy displeasure: But still teach me to fear thee in my greatest prosperity, and to love thee in my greatest sufferings; and to adore thine infinite wisdom, Justice, and mercy in both. Soliloq. LXVIII. The transcendent Love. HOw justly do I marvel, O God, to see what strength of natural affection thou hast wrought in poor brute Creatures towards their Masters, and towards their own Mates, towards their dams and their young: We have plentiful instances of those whom Death could not separate from their beloved Guardians, some that have died for their Masters, some with them; some that have fearlessly hazarded their own lives for the preservation of their young ones, some that have fed their aged dams with that food which they have spared from their own maws Amongst the rest how remarkable is that comparison of thine, O Saviour, wherein thou wert pleased to set forth thy tender care of thine Israel by the resemblance of an Hen gathering her Chickings under her wings? Mat. 23.37. how have I seen that poor Fowl, after the patience of a painful hatching, clocking her little brood together? and when she hath perceived the Puttock hovering over her head, in a varied note calling them hastily under the wing of her protection, and there covertly hiding them not from the Talons only, but from the eye of that dangerous enemy, till the peril hath been fully over; after which she calls them forth to their liberty and repast, and with many a careful scrape discovers to them such grains of food as may be fit for them, contenting herself to carve for them with neglect of her own sustenance. O God, thou who hast wrought in thy silly creatures such an high measure of indulgence and dearness of respect towards their tender brood, how infinitely is thy love and compassion towards the children of men, the great masterpiece of thy Creation? How past the admiration of men and Angels, is that transcendent proof of thy divine love, in the more than marvelous work of our Redemption? How justly glorifiable is thy name in the gracious, and sometimes miraculous, preservation of thy Children? In the experience whereof, if I forbear to magnify thee, or dare not to trust thee, how can I be but unworthy to be owned of thee, or blessed by thee? Soliloq. LXIX. Choice of Seasons. HOw regularly, O God, hast thou determined a set season for all thy Creatures, both for their actions and their use? The stork in the heaven, saith thy Prophet Jeremy, knoweth her appointed times, Ier. 8.7. and the Turtle and the Crane, and the Swallow observe the time of their coming: Who hath seen the * Oecolampad. in locum Ierem. Stork before the Calends of August, or a Swallow in the Winter? Who hath heard the Nightingale in the heat of harvest? or the Bittern bearing her base in the coldest months? Yea the Fishes in the Sea know and observe their due seasons, and present us with their shoals only when they are wholesome and useful; The Herring doth not furnish our Market in the Spring, nor the Salmon, or mackerel in Winter: Yea the very flies both have and keep their days appointed; the silkworm never looks forth of that little Cell of her Conception, till the mulberry puts forth the leaves for their nourishment; and who hath ever seen a butterfly, or an Harnet in Winter? yea there are Flies we know appropriate to their own months, from which they vary not: Lastly, how plain is this in all the several varieties of Trees, Flowers, herbs? The Almond tree looks out first, the Mulberry last of all other; The Tulip, and the Rose, and all other the sweet Ornaments of the earth are punctual in their growth and fall: But as for Man, O God, thou hast in thy infinite wisdom endued him with that power of reason, whereby he may make choice of the fittest seasons of all his actions. Eccl. 3.1. Thou that hast appointed a time for every purpose under heaven, hast given him wit to find and observe it. Even lawful acts unseasonably done, may turn evil; and acts indifferent, seasonably performed, may prove good, and laudable. The best improvement of morality, or civility, may shame us, if due time be not as well regarded, as substance: only Grace, Piety, true virtue can never be unseasonable. There are no seasons in Eternity; There shall be one uniform and constant act of glorifying thee: Thy Angels and Saints praise thee above, without change or intermission; The more we can do so on earth, the nearer shall we approach to those blessed Spirits. O God, let my heart be wholly taken up evermore with an adoration of thine infinite Majesty, and let my mouth be ever sounding forth of thy praise; and let the Hosannahs, and Hallelujahs which I begin here, know no measure but Eternity. Soliloq. LXX. The happy return home. EVery Creature naturally affects a return to the original whence it first came. The Pilgrim, though faring well abroad, yet hath a longing homeward; fountains and Rivers run back with what speed they may to the Sea whence they were derived; all compound bodies return to their first Elements; The vapours rising up from the earth, and waters, and condenssed into clouds, fall down again to the same earth, whence they were exhaled; This body that we bear about us, returns at last to that dust whereof it was framed: And why then, O my soul, dost not thou earnestly desire to return home to the God that made thee? Thou knowest thy original is heavenly, why are not thy affections so? What canst thou find here below worthy to either withdraw, or detain thee from those heavenly Mansions? Thou art here in a Region of sin, of misery and death; Glory waits for thee above: Fly then, O my soul, fly hence to that blessed immortality; If not as yet in thy dissolution: (for which thou must wait on the pleasure of thy dear Maker & redeemer) yet in thy thoughts, in thy desires and affections; soar thou up thither, and converse there with that blessed God and Father of Spirits, with those glorious Orders of Angels, and with the souls of just men made perfect; And if the necessity of these bodily affairs must needs draw thee off for a time, let it be not without reluctation and hearty unwillingness, and with an eager appetite of quick return to that celestial society. It will not be long ere thou shalt be blessed with a free, and uninterrupted fruition of that glorious Eternity: In the mean time do thou prepossess it in thy heavenly dispositions; and contemning this earth, wherewith thou art clogged, aspire to thy heaven, and be happy. Soliloq. LXXI. The confinements of Age. DOst thou not observe, O my soul, how time and age confines, and contracts, as our bodies, so our desires and motions here upon earth, still into narrower compasses? When we are young the world is but little enough for us; after we have seen our own Island, we affect to cross the Seas, and to climb over Alps, and Pyrennes, and never think we have roved far enough; when we grow ancient, we begin to be well-pleased with rest; now long and unnecessary journeys are laid aside. If business call us forth, we go, because we must; As for the visits of friendship, one Sun is enough to measure them, with our returns; And still, the older we grow, the more we are devoted to our home; there we are content to sit still, and enjoy the thoughts of our youth, and former experience, not looking farther than a kind neighbourhood: But, when Age hath stiffened our joints, and disabled our Motions, now, our home-pastures, and our Gardens become our utmost boundaries; from thence a few years more confine us to our own floor; Soon after that, we are limited to our chamber, and at last to our chair, then to our bed, and, in fine, to our Coffin. These natural restrictions, O my soul, are the appendences of thy weary Partner, this earthly body: but for thee, the nearer thou drawest to thy home, the more it concerns thee to be sensible of a blessed enlargement of thy estate and affections▪ Hitherto thou art immured in a straight pile o● clay; now, heaven itself shall be but wide enough for thee: The world hath hitherto taken thee up●… which (though large is yet but finite;) now, thou art upon the enjoying of that God who alone is infinite, in all that he is: O how inconsiderable is the restraint of the worse part, in comparison of the absolute enlargement of the better? O my God, whose mercy knows no other limits than thy essence, work me in this shutting up of my days to all heavenly dispositions, that whiles my outward man is so much more lessened, as it draws nearer to the centre of its corruption, my spiritual part may be so much more dilated, in, and towards thee, as it approacheth nearer towards the circumference of thy celestial glory. Soliloq. LXXII. Sin without sense. ALas, Lord, how tenderly sensible I am of the least bodily complaint that can befall me? If but a tooth begin to ache, or a thorn have rankled in my flesh, or but an angry corn vex my Toe, how am I incessantly troubled with the pain? how feelingly do I bemoan myself? how carefully do I seek for a speedy remedy? which till I feel, how little relish do I find in my wonted contentment? But for the better part, which is so much more tender, as it is more precious, with what patience (shall I call it,) or stupidity, do I endure it wounded (were it not for thy great mercy) no less than mortality? Every new sin (how little soever) that I commit, fetches blood of the soul; every willing sin stabs it; the continuance wherein festers inwardly; and, without repentance, kills. O God, I desire to be ashamed, and humbled under thy hand for this so unjust partiality; which gives me just cause to fear that sense hath yet more predominance in me than Faith. I do not so much sue to thee to make me less sensible of bodily evils, (whereof yet too deep a sense differs little from impatience) as to make me more sensible of spiritual: Let me feel my sin more painful than the worst disease; and rather than wilfully sin, let me die. Soliloq. LXXIII. The extremes of Devotion. I Acknowledge it to be none of thy least mercies, O God, that thou hast vouchsafed to keep me within the due lines of devotion; not suffering me to wander into those two extremes, which I see and pity in others. Too many there are, that do so content themselves in mere formalities, that they little regard how their heart is affected with the matter of their prayers: so have I grieved to see poor misdevout souls under the Papacy, measuring their Orisons, not by weight, but by number; not caring which way their eye strayed, so their lips went; resting well apaid that God understood them, though they understood not themselves: too near approaching whereunto, are a world of well-meaning ignorant souls at home, that care only to pray by rote, not without some general intentions of piety, but so, as their hearts are little guilty of the motion of their Tongues; Who, whiles they would cloak their carelessness, with a pretence of disability of expressing their wants to God, might learn that true sense of need never wanted words to crave relief: Every beggar can with sufficient eloquence importune the Passenger for his alms. Did they not rather lack an heart than a tongue, they could not be defective in bemoaning themselves to heaven for what they lack; Especially, whiles we have to do with such a God, as more esteems broken clauses made up with hearty sighs, than all the compliments of the most curious Eloquence in the world. On the other side there are certain zealous Devotionists, which abhor all set forms, and fixed hours of Invocation, teaching (and so practising) that they may not pray, but when they feel a strong impulsion of God's Spirit to that holy work; whereupon it hath come to pass, that whole days, yea, weeks, have gone over their heads, unblessed by their prayers; who might have taken notice, that, under the Law, God had his regular course of constant hours for his morning and evening Sacrifices; that the ancient Saints under the old Testament, held close to David's rule, Psal. 55.17. Evening and Morning, and at Noon to pray and cry aloud; so as the very Lions could not fright Daniel from his task: And even after the veil of the Temple was rent, Act. 2.1. Peter and John went up together to God's house, at the ninth hour, to Evening Prayer. Yea, what stand we upon this? when the Apostle of the Gentiles charges us, 1 Thes. 5.17. To pray continually: Not that we should in the midst of a sensible indisposedness of heart fall suddenly into a fashionable Devotion; but that by holy Ejaculations, and previous Meditation, we should make way for a feeling Invocation of our God, whose ears are never but open to our faithful Prayers. If we first (though silently) pray that we may pray, the fervour of our Devotion shall grow upon us in praying: these holy Waters of the Sanctuary, that at first did but wet the soles of our feet, shall, in their happy process, rise up to our chins. I thank thee, O God, that thou hast given me a desire to walk even between these extremities: As I would be ever in a praying disposition to thee, so I would not willingly break hours with thee; I would neither sleep nor wake without praying; but I would never pray without feeling. If my heart go not along with forms of words, I do not pray, but babble; and if that be bent upon the matter of my suit, it is all one to thee, whether the words be my own, or borrowed. Let thy good Spirit ever teach me to pray, and help me in praying: Let that ever make intercessions for me with groanings which cannot be expressed; Rom. 8.26. and then, if thou canst, send me away empty. Soliloq. LXXIV. The sick man's vows. THe answer was not amiss, Aeneas Sylv. de Reb. gest▪ Alph. which Theodoricus Bishop of Coleine is said to have given to Sigismond the Emperor, who demanding how he might be directed the right way to heaven, received answer; If thou walk so, as thou promisedst in thy painful fit of the Stone, or Gout. Our extremities commonly render us holy: and our pain is prodigal of those vows, which our case is as niggardly in performing. The distressed Mariner, in the peril of a Tempest, vows to his Saint a Taper as big as the Mast of his ship; which upon his coming to shore, is shrunk into a rush-candle. There was never a more stiffnecked people than that, which should have been God's peculiar, yet, upon every new plague, how do they crouch and creep to the power, which their murmurs provoked? And we daily see Desperation makes those Votaries, whom health dispenseth with, as the losest of Libertines. Were it essential to prosperity, thus to pervert and debauch us, it were enough to make a good heart out of love with welfare, since the pleasure and profit of the best estate is far too short of recompensing the mischief of a depraved jollity: but now, the fault is in our own wretched indisposition; the blessing is God's, the abuse is ours. Is the Sun to be blamed that the traveller's cloak swelts him with heat? Is the fruit of the Grape guilty of that drunkenness which follows upon a sinful excess? Can we not feed on good meat without a surfeit? And whose fault is it but ours, if we forget the engagements of our sick beds? Rather than health should make us godless, how much better were it for us to be always sick? O my God, I do acknowledge, and bewail this wretched frailty of our corrupt nature; we are not the same men sick and whole; we are apt to promise thee fair, and to pay thee with disappointment; and are ready to put off our holy thoughts with our biggens: It is thou only that canst remedy this sickness of our health, by working us to a constant mortification. O do thou ever bless thy servant, either with sanctified crosses, or a temperate prosperity. Soliloq. LXXV. The suggestions of a false heart. SUrely, if thousands of souls perish by the flattery of others, more perish by their own; whiles their natural self-love soothes them with plausible, but untrue suggestions, concerning their estate: Is the question concerning grace? the false heart tells a man he is stored to superfluity, and excess; when he is indeed more bare and beggarly than the proud Pastor of Laodicea. Is the question of sin? It proclaims him, not innocent only but a Saint; it tells him his hands are pure, when he is up to the elbows in blood; that his tongue is holy, when it is foul with perjury and blasphemy; that his eye is honest and chaste, when it is full of adultery; that his soul is clean, when it is defiled with abominable lusts, or with cruel rancour, and malice. Is the question concerning virtue? It tells a man he is just, when he is all made up of rapine, and violent oppression; that he is eminently wise, when he hath not wit enough to know himself a fool; that he is free handed and munificent, when he sticks not to rob beggars; that he is piously religious, whiles he pulls down Churches: Thus is the man still hid from himself, and is made to see another in his own skin: He cannot repent, because he thinks himself faultless; he cannot amend, because he is ever at the best: his only ease and advantage is, that he is carried hoodwinked into hell. If the question be concerning some scrupulous act to be done or omitted, now self-respect plays its prizes at all weapons; what shifting and traversing there is to avoid the dint of a present danger? what fine colours, and witty Equivocations doth the soul find out, to cozen itself into a safe offence. If the question be of a sinful act already committed, what a shuffling there is to face it out by a stout justification? maugre conscience, it was not lawful only, but (such as the circumstances were) expedient also; And if it be so foul, that an apology is too odious, yet an extenuation cannot but be admitted: be it amiss, yet, not heinous, not unmeet for pardon. One would think Hell should have little need of the fawning assentation of others, when men carry so dangerous Parasites in their own bosoms: But sure both together must needs help to people that Region of darkness. Take heed, O my soul, how thou givest way to these flattering thoughts, whether arising from thy own breast, or injected by others; and know, thou art never in more danger, than when thou art most applauded: look upon thine Estate, and Actions with unpartial and severe eyes; Behold thine own face, not in the false glass of opinion, and mercenary Adulation, but in the true and perfect glass of the royal Law of thy Creator; that shall duly represent unto thee, whether the beauty of thy graces, or the blemishes of thy manifold imperfections; that alone shall tell thee how much thou art advanced in a gracious proficiency, and how shamefully defective thou art in what thou oughtedst to have attained: Judge of thyself by that unfailing rule, and be indifferent what thou art judged of by others. Soliloq. LXXVI. Sacred Melody. WHat a marvailously cheerful service was that, O God, which thou requiredst, and hadst performed, under the Law: Here was not a dumb and silent act in thy Sacrifices, a Beast bleeding before thy Altar, and a smoke, and Flame arising out of it; Here was not a cloudy perfume quietly ascending from the golden Altar of thine Incense: but, here was the merry noise of most melodious music, singing of psalms, and sounding of all harmonious instruments. 2 Chro. 29.25, 28. 2 Chro. 5.12, 13. The Congregation were upon their knees, the Levites upon their Stage sweetly singing, the Priests sounding the Trumpets, together with Cymbals, Harps, Psalteries, making up one sound in praising and thanking the Lord. Me thinks I hear, and am ravished to hear in some of thy solemn days, an hundred and twenty of thy Priests sounding with Trumpets; Thy Levites in greater number, singing aloud with the Mixture of their musical instruments; So as not the Temple only, but the Heaven rings again; and even in thy daily Sacrifices, each morning and evening, I find an heavenly Mirth; music, if not so loud, yet no less sweet, and delicate; no fewer than twelve Levites might be standing upon the stage every day singing a divine Ditty over thy sacrifice; Mamonides in Cle. hamikdash. c. 3 Psalteries not fewer than two, nor more than six; Pipes, not fewer than two, nor more than twelve; Trumpets two at the least, and but one cymbal; so proportioned by the Masters of thy Chore, as those that meant to take the heart through the ear: I find where thy holy servants, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, (Doubtless by thy gracious direction, yea, by thy direct command * Chro▪ 29.25, 28. ) both appointed, and made use of these melodious Services; I do not find where thou hast forbidden them: this I am sure of, since thou art still and ever the same, under both Law and gospel, that thou both requirest, and delightest in the cheerful devotions of thy servants; If we have not the same sounds with thy legal worshippers, yet we should still have the same affections. As they might not wait upon thee, sorrowful; so it is not for us to praise thee with drooping and dejected spirits. O God, do thou quicken my spiritual dulness in thy holy service; and when I come to Celebrate thy great Name, whiles the Song is in my mouth, let my heart be the stage, wherein Trumpets and Psalteries, and Harps shall sound forth thy praise. Soliloq. LXXVII. Blemishes of the holy function. I Cannot but bless myself at the sight of that strange kind of curiosity, which is reported to have been used in the choice of those, who were of old admitted to serve at the Altar; If Levi must be singled out from all Israel, yet thousands must be refused of the Tribe of Levi: we are told, that, notwithstanding that privilege of blood, no less than an hundred and forty blemishes might exclude a man from this sacred Ministration; Maymon. in giath hamikdash. whereof nineteen in the eyes, nine in the ears, twenty in the feet; such an holy niceness there was in the Election of the legal Priesthood, that, if there were not found an exact symmetry of all parts of the body, & not comeliness only, but a perfection of outward form in those Levitical Candidates, they might by no means be allowed to serve in the Sanctuary; they might have place in some out-roomes, and cleave Wood for the Altar; and might claim a portion in the holy things; but they might not meddle with the sacred Utensils, nor set foot upon the floor of the holy place. It was thy charge, O God, that those Sons of Aaron, which drew near to thee, should be void of blemish; thou, which wouldst have the beasts of thy Sacrifice free from bodily imperfection, wouldst much more have thy Sacrificers so: The generality of the Command was thine; the particularities of the numbers are traditional: And well might the care of these outward observations agree with the pedagogy of that law, which consisted in external rites; but we well know, it was the inward purity of the heart, and integrity of an unspotted life, that thou meantest to aim at, under the figure of these bodily perfections, which, if it were wanting, it was not a skin-deep beauty, and exquisiteness of shape, that could give a son of Aaron an allowed access to thine Altar: Hophni and Phinehas, the ill sons of good Eli, were outwardly blemishlesse, else they had not been capable of so holy a●… attendance; but their insolences and beastliness made them more loathsome to thee, than if they had been Lepers, or Monsters of outward deformity: And can we think that thou hast less regard to the purity of the Evangelical ministry, than thou formerly hadst of the legal? Can we think the spiritual blemishes of thine immediate servants under the Gospel, can be a less eyesore to thee, than the external blemishes of thy Priesthood under the Law? Oh that my head were waters, Ier. 9.1. and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep night and day for the enormities of those, who profess to wait on thy Evangelical Sanctuary? My sorrow and piety cannot but bewail them to thee, though my charity forbids me to blazon them to the world. Mal. 3.2. Oh thou, that art as the Refiners fire, and the fuller's soap, do thou purify all the sons of thy spiritual Levi: Mal. 3.4. Do thou purge them as Gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness; Then shall the Offerings of our Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. Soliloq. LXXVIII. The blessed Reward. WHen Paulinus came first into this Island, Beda Eccles. Hister. l. 2. cap. 13. to preach the gospel, to our then-Pagan Ancestors, King Edwin thought good to consult with his Priests, and Nobles, whether it were best to give any entertainment to the Christian Religion, which was by that stranger Preached, and recommended to his people. Up starts one Coifi, the archpriest of those Heathen Idols, and freely says; There is no virtue or goodness, O King, in this Religion, which we have hitherto embraced; There is none of all thy Subjects, that hath more studiously addicted himself to the Service and worship of our gods, than myself; Yet I am sure there are many that have prospered better, and have received more favours from thee, than I have done; And if our gods could do any thing, they would rather have been beneficent to me, that have most carefully served them: It remains then, that if these new doctrines, which are preached to us, be found upon examination, to be better, and more available, that without all delay we do readily receive, and welcome them. Thus spoke a true Idols Priest, that knew no Ell whereby to measure Religion, but Profit; no proof of a just Cause, but success; no Conviction of Injustice, but miscarriage. Yea, even thine Altars, O righteous God, were never quit of some such mercenary attendants, who seek for only gain in godliness: Ier. 44.17, 18. If the Queen of Heaven afford them better penny worths and more plenty than the King of Heaven, she shall have their Cakes, and their Incense, and their hearts to boot. I know thee, O Lord, to be a munificent Rewarder of all that serve thee; yet if thou shouldest give me no wages, I will serve thee; If thou shouldest pay me with hunger and stripes, and prisons, and death, I will serve thee. Away base thoughts of earthly remuneration, I will honour and serve thee, O God, for thine own sake, for thy services sake; yet I have no reason not to regard thine infinite bounty; It is no less than a Crown that thou hast promised me; and that I shall humbly aspire unto, and expect from thee, not as in the way of my merit, but of thy mere mercy; My service is free in a zealous and absolute Consecration to thee, thy hand is more free in my so gracious Retribution: If thou be pleased to give thy servant such a weight of glory, the glory of that Gift is thine: My service is out of my just duty, thy Reward is of thy Grace, and divine Beneficence. Do thou give me to do what thou bidst me, and then deal with me as thou wilt. As the glory of thy Name is the drift of all my actions, so the glory that thou givest me cannot but redound to the glory of thine infinite mercy. Blessed be thy Name in what thou givest, whiles thou makest me blessed in what I receive from thee. Soliloq. LXXIX. Presages of Judgement. Seldom ever do we read of any great mutation in Church or State, which is not ushered in, with some strange Prodigies; either raining of blood, or apparitions of Comets, or airy Armies fighting in the Clouds, or Sea-Monsters appearing, or monstrous Births of men, or Beasts, or bloody Springs breaking out, or direful noises heard; or some such like uncouth premonitors; which the great and holy God sends purposely to awaken our Security, and to prepare us either for expectation, or prevention of Judgements; wherein, the mercy of God marvellously magnifies itself towards sinful mankind, that he wills not to surprise us with unwarned evils, but would have his punishments anticipated by a seasonable repentance: But of all the foretokens of thy fearfullest plagues prepared for any Nation, O God, there is none so certain, as the prodigious sins of the people committed with an high hand against Heaven, against so clear a light, so powerful Convictions. The monstrous and unmatchable Heresies, the hellish Blasphemies, the brutish Incests, the savage murders, the horrible Sacrileges, Perjuries, Sorceries of any People, can be no other than the professed Harbingers of Vengeance; these are our showers of blood; these are our ill-boding Comet; these are our misshapen Births; which an easy augury might well construe to portend our threatened destruction. 1 King, 18.44. The Prophet did not more certainly foretell, when he heard of an hand-broad Cloud arising from the Sea, that a vehement Rain was coming, than God's Seers might foreknow, when they saw this dark Cloud of our sins mounting up towards Heaven, that a Tempest of Judgement must necessarily follow. But, Esa. 63.15. Oh thou God of infinite mercy and compassion, look down from Heaven upon us, and behold us from the Habitation of thy holiness: Where is thy zeal, and thy Strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards us? Are they restrained? If so, it is but just; For surely we are a sinful Nation, a People laden with iniquity: Esa. 1.4. We have seen our Tokens, and have felt thy Hand; yet we have not turned to thee from our evil ways: to us therefore justly belongeth confusion of Faces, Dan. 9.8. because we have sinned against thee: But to thee, O Lord our God, 9 belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against thee; Oh spare, spare the remnant of thy people: Dan. 9.16. Let thine Anger and thy fury be turned away from thy chosen inheritance. 17. O my God, hear the Prayer of thy servant, and his Supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary that is desolate: Dan. 9.19. O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord harken, and defer not for thine own sake, O my God. Soliloq. LXXX. Unwearied Motion, and Rest eternal. I See thy Heavens, O God, move about continually, and are never weary of their revolution; whereas all sublunary Creatures are soon tired with their motions, and seek for ease, in their intermissions: Even so, O my soul, the nearer thou growest to celestial, the more constant shall thy courses be, and the freer from that lassitude that hangs upon thine earthly part. As it is now with me, thou seest, I soon find an unavoidable defatigation in all things. I am weary of labour, and, when that is done, I am no less weary of doing nothing; weary of the day, and more weary of the night; weary of all postures; weary of all places; weary of any one (if never so pleasing) employment; weary, even of varieties; weary of those, which some men call, recreations; weary of those (wherein I find most delight) my Studies. But, O my soul, if thou be once soundly heavenized in thy thoughts, and affections, it shall be otherwise with thee; then thou shalt be ever (like this Firmament) most happily restless; thou shalt then find ever work enough to contemplate that infinite Deity, who dwells in the Light inaccessible; to see (with ravishment of spirit) thy dear Saviour in his glorified humanity, adored by all the powers of heaven; to view the blessed Orders of that celestial Hierarchy, attending upon the throne of Majesty; to behold, and admire the unspeakable, and incomprehensible glory of the Saints: These are Objects, with the sight whereof thine eye shall never be satisfied, much less cloyed: Besides that the hopes and desires of enjoying so great felicity, and the care of so composing thyself, as that thou Mayest be ever readily addressed for the fruition of it, shall wholly take thee up, with such contentment, that all earthly pleasures shall be no better than torments in comparison thereof. O, then my soul, since (as a spark of that heavenly fire) thou canst never be but in motion, fix here above, where thy movings can be no other than pleasing, and beatifical. And as thou, O my God, hast a double Heaven, a lower heaven for motion, and an empyreal heaven for rest; One, patent to the eye, the other visible to our faith: so let my soul take part with them both; Let it ever be moving towards thee, and in thee, (like this visible heaven) and (since the end of all motion is rest) let it ever rest with thee, in that invisible Region of glory. So let it move ever to thee whiles I am here, that it may ever rest with thee in thine eternal glory hereafter. Amen. FINIS. THE souls FAREWELL TO EARTH, AND APPROACHES TO HEAVEN. BY J.H. B.N. THE souls Farewell to Earth, AND Approaches to Heaven. SECT. I. BE thou ever, O my soul, holily ambitious; always aspiring towards thine heaven; not entertaining any thought that makes not towards blessedness: For this cause therefore put thyself upon thy wings, and leave the earth below thee; and when thou art advanced above this inferior world, look down upon this Globe of wretched mortality, and despise what thou wast, and hadst; and think with thyself: There was I not a sojourner, so much, as a prisoner, for some tedious years; there have I been thus long tugging with my miseries, with my sins; there have my treacherous senses betrayed me to infinite evils both done and suffered: How have I been there tormented with the sense of others wickedness, but more of my own? What insolence did I see in men of power? What rage in men of blood? What gross superstition in the ignorant? What abominable sacrilege in those that would be zealous? What drunken revelings, what Sodomitical filthiness, what hellish profanations in Atheous ruffians? What perfidiousness in friendship, what cozenage in contracts, what cruelty in revenges; Shortly, what an Hell upon Earth? Farewell then sinful world, whose favours have been no other than snares, and whose frowns no less than torments: farewell for ever; for, if my flesh cannot yet clear itself of thee, yet my spirit shall ever know thee at a distance; and behold thee no otherwise than the escaped Mariner looks back upon the rock whereon he was lately split. Let thy bewitched Clients adore thee for a Deity, all the homage thou shalt receive from me shall be no other than Defiance, and if thy glorious shows have deluded the eyes of credulous Spectators, I know thee for an Impostor: Deceive henceforth those that trust thee, for me, I am out of the reach of thy fraud, out of the power of thy malice. Thus do thou, O my soul, when thou art raised up to this height of thy fixed contemplation, cast down thine eyes contemptuously upon the region o● thy former miseries, and be sure ever to keep up in a constant ascent towards blessedness; not suffering thyself to stoop any more upon these earthly vanities: For, tell me seriously, when the World was disposed to Court thee most of all, what did it yield thee but unsound joys sauced with a deep anguish of spirit; false hopes shutting up in an heart-breaking disappointment; windy proffers mocking thee with sudden retractions; bitter pills in sugar; poison in a golden cup. It showed thee perhaps stately Palaces, but stuffed with cares; fair and populous Cities, but full of toil and tumult; flourishing Churches, but annoyed with schism, and Sacrilege; rich Treasures, but kept by ill spirits; pleasing beauties, but baited with temptation; glorious titles, but surcharged with Pride; goodly semblances with rotten insides; in short, Death disguised with pleasures and profits. If therefore heretofore thy unexperience have suffered thy feathers to be belimed with these earthly entanglements, yet now, that thou hast happily cast those plumes, and quit thyself of these miserable encumbrances; thou Mayest soar aloft above the sphere of Mortality; and be still towering up towards thine heaven; And as those that have ascended to the top of some Athos or Tenariffe see all things below them in the valleys small, and scarce, in their diminution, discernible; so shall all earthly objects in thy spiritual exaltation seem unto thee; either thou shalt not see them at all, or at least so lessened, as that they have to thee quite lost all the proportion of their former Dimensions. SECT. II. IT will not be long, O my soul, ere thou shalt absolutely leave the world in the place of thine habitation, being carried up by the blessed Angels to thy thy rest and glory; but in the mean time, thou must resolve to leave it in thy thoughts, and affections: thou Mayst have power over these even before the hour of thy separation; and these rightly disposed have power to exempt thee beforehand from the interests of this inferior World, and to advance thine approaches to that World of the blessed. Whiles thou art confined to this Clay, there is naturally a luggage of Carnality that hangs heavy upon thee, and sways thee down to the earth, not suffering thee to mount upward to that bliss whereto thou aspirest; this must be shaken off, if thou wouldst attain to any capacity of happiness; Even in this sense, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: It behooves thee to be, so far as this composition will admit, spirituallized, ere thou canst hope to attain to any degree of blessedness. Thy conjunction with the body doth necessarily clog thee with an irrational part, which will unavoidably force upon thee some operations of its own; and thy senses will be interposing themselves in all thy intellectual employments, proffering thee the service of their guidance in all thy proceedings: but if thou lov'st eternity of blessedness, shake them off as importunate suitors; gather up thyself into thine own regenerated powers, and do thy work without, and above them. It is enough that thou hast at first taken some hint from them of what concerns thee; as for the rest, cast them off as unnecessary, and impertinent; the prosecution whereof is too high, and too internal for them to intermeddle with: thou hast now divine and heavenly things in chase, whereof there cannot be the least sent in any of these earthly faculties. Divest thyself therefore (what thou possibly Mayest) of all materiality both of objects, and apprehensions; and let thy pure, renewed, and illuminated intellect work only upon matter spiritual, and celestial; And above all, propose unto thyself, and dwell upon that purest, perfectest, simplest, blessedest Object, the glorious and incomprehensible Deity: there thou shalt find more than enough to take up thy thoughts to all eternity. Be thou, O my soul, ever swallowed up in the consideration of that infinite self-being Essence, whom all created spirits are not capable sufficiently to admire: Behold and never cease wondering at the Majesty of his Glory. Thy bodily eyes dazzle at the sight of the sun, but if there were as many suns as there are stars in the Firmament of Heaven, their united splendour were but darkness to their All-glorious Creator: Thou canst not yet hope to see him as he is: but lo thou beholdest where he dwells in light inaccessible; the sight of whose very outward verge is enough to put thee into a perpetual ecstasy. It is not for thee as yet to strive to enter within the veil; Thine eyes may not be free where the Angels hide their faces; What thou want'st in sight, O my soul, supply in wonder. Never any mortal man, O God, durst sue to see thy face, save that one entire servant of thine, whose face thy Conference had made shining and radiant; but even he (though enured to thy presence) was not capable to behold such glory, and live: Far be it from me, O Lord, to presume so high; only let me see thee as thou hast bidden me; and but so, as not to behold thee (after thy gracious revelation) were my sin: Let me see, even in this distance, some glimmering of thy divine Power, Wisdom, Justice, Mercy, Truth, Providence, and let me bless and adore thee in what I see. SECT. III. OH the infiniteness of thine Almighty power, which thou not haste, but art, beyond the possibility of all limitations of objects or thoughts: In us, poor finite Creatures, our power comes short of our will; many things we fain would do, but cannot; and great pity it were that there should not be such a restraint upon our unruly appetites; which would otherwise work out the destruction both of others, and ourselves. But, O God, thy Power is beyond thy Will; Thou canst do more than thou wilt: Thou couldst have made more worlds when thou mad'st this one; And even this one, which thou hast made, Lord, how glorious a one it is: Lo, there needs no other demonstration of thine omnipotence. Oh what an heaven is this which thou hast canopied over our heads? how immensely capacious? how admirably beautiful? how bestudded with goodly Globes of Light? Some one whereof hath in it such unspeakable glory, as that there have not wanted nations, (and those not of the savagest) which have misworshipped it for their God: And if thou hadst made but one of these in thy firmament, thy workmanship had been above our wonder; for even this had surpassed the whole frame of this lower world; but now as their quality strives with their greatness, so their magnitude strives with their number, which of them shall more magnify the praise of their Almighty Creator; and these three are no less than matched by the constant regularity of the perpetual motion of those mighty bodies; Which having walked their daily rounds about the World above this five thousand six hundred and sixty years, yet are so ordered by thy inviolable Decree, that they have not varied one inch from their appointed Line, but keep their due course and just distance each from other: although not fixed in any solid orb, but moving singly in a thin and yielding sky, to the very same point whence they set forth. And if the bodily and visible part of thine heavenly host, O God, be thus unconceivably glorious, where shall we find room to wonder at those spiritual and living powers which inhabit those celestial Mansions, and attend upon the Throne of thy Majesty: the thousand thousands of thy blessed Angels, archangels, cherubin, Seraphin, Thrones, Principalities, Dominions, which in thy presence enjoy a bliss next to infinite? any one of which if we could see him, were enough to kill us with his glory: Not one of those millions of mighty spirits, but were able to destroy a World: Oh then how infinitely transcendent is that power of thine, which hast both created all this heavenly Hierarchy, and so movest in them, that only in and by thee they are thus potent. Yea, Lord, let me but cast mine eyes down to this earth I tread upon, and view thy wonders in the deep, how manifestly do these proclaim thy divine Omnipotence? When I see this vast Globe of earth, and waters, dreadfully hanging in the midst of a liquid Air, upheld by nothing but by the powerful word; When I see the rage of the swelling waves (naturally higher than the shores they beat upon) restrained to their bounds by thine overruling command: When I see the earth beautifully garnished with marvelous variety of trees, herbs, flowers; richly stuffed with precious metals, stones, minerals: When I see (besides a world of men) the numberless choice and differences of the substance, forms, colours, dispositions, of Beasts, fowls, fishes, wherewith these lower Elements are peopled, how can I be but dissolved into wonder of thine Almighty power? SECT. IV. NEither is thy power, O God, either more, or more thyself than thy wisdom, which is no less essential to thee, than infinite. What have we to do, silly and shallow wretches, with that incomprehensible wisdom which is intrinsical to thy divine Nature; the body of that sun is not for our weak eyes to behold: it is enough for me if I can but see some rays of that heavenly light which shines forth so gloriously upon thy creature: in the framing and governing whereof, whether thy Power or wisdom did and do more exhibit itself, thou only canst judge. O the divine Architecture of this goodly fabric of Heaven, and Earth, raised out of nothing to this admirable perfection! What stupendious artifice of composition is here! What exquisite symmetry of parts, what exact Order of Degrees, what marvelous analogy betwixt beasts, fishes, plants, the natives of both Elements! Oh what a comprehensive reach is this of thine Omniscience, which at once in one act beholdest all the actions and events of all the creatures that were, are, or shall be in this large Universe? What a contrivance of thine eternal counsel, which hast most wisely and holily ordered how to dispose of every Creature thou hast made, according to the pleasure of thy most just will? What a sway of Providence is this that governs the world? overruling the highest, and stooping to the meanest piece of thy Creation? concurring with, and actuating the motions and operations of all second causes of whatsoever is done in heaven, or in earth? Yea, Lord, how wonderful are those irradiations of knowledge and wisdom, which thou hast beamed forth upon thine intelligent creatures, both Angels and men? As for those celestial spirits which see thy face continually, it is no marvel if they be illuminated in a degree far above human apprehension; but that the rational soul of man, even in this woeful pilgrimage below, notwithstanding the opacity of that earth wherewith it is encompassed, should be so far enlightened, as that it is able to know all the motions of the Heavens, the magnitudes and distances of stars, the natures, properties, influences of the Planets, the instant of the Eclipses, Conjunctions and several Aspects of those celestial bodies; that it can discover the secret Treasures of Earth and Sea; and knows to unlock all the close Cabinets both of art and nature; O God, what is this but some little gleam of that pure and glorious light, which breaks forth from thine infiniteness upon thy creature: Yet were the knowledge of all men on earth, and all the Angels in heaven, multiplied a thousand fold, how unable were it being united together, to reach unto the height of thy divine Counsels, to fathom the bottom of thy most wise and holy Decrees? so as they must be forced to cry out with that Saint of thine, who was rapt into the third heaven, Rom. 11.33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out! SECT. V. BUt with what a trembling adoration, O my soul, must thou needs look upon the infinite Justice of thy God; whose inviolable rule is to render to every man according to his works. Alas, the little good thou wert able to do, hath been allayed with so many, and great imperfections, that it can expect no retribution but displeasure; and for the many evils whereof thou art guilty, what canst thou look for but the wages of sin, Death? not that temporary, and natural only, which is but a separation of thee, a while, from thy load of earth; but the spiritual and eternal separation from the presence of thy God, whose very want is the height of torments. Lo, whatever become of thee, God must be himself: In vain shouldst thou hope that for thyself he will abate aught of his blessed Essence, of his sacred Attributes: That righteous doom must stand, The soul that sins shall die: Hell claims his due; Justice must be satisfied; where art thou now, O my soul? what canst thou now make account of but to despair and die? surely, in thyself, thou art lost: there is no way with thee but utter perdition. But look up, O soul, look up above the hills whence cometh thy salvation; see the heavens opening upon thee; see what reviving, and comfortable rays of grace and mercy shine forth unto thee from that excellent glory; and out of that heavenly light hear the voice of thy blessed Saviour, saying to thee, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, Ose. 13.9. but in me is thy help. Even so, O Jesu, in thee, only in thee is my help: wretched man that I am; in myself I stand utterly forfeited to death and hell: it is thou that hast redeemed me with no less ransom than thy precious blood. Death was owing by me, by thee it was paid for me, so as now my debt is fully discharged, and my soul clearly acquitted: Rom. 8.33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect? 34. It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again. Lo now the rigor of thine inviolable justice is taken off by thine infinite mercy; the sum that I could never pay, is by the power of that faith which thou hast wrought in me, set off to my all-sufficient surety, & by thy divine goodness graciously accepted as mine; I have paid it in him, he hath paid it for me; Thy justice is satisfied, thy debtor freed, and thy mercy magnified. SECT VI. THere are no bounds to be set unto thy thoughts, O my soul, since whatsoever thy God either is, or hath done comes within thy prospect: There, besides the great work of his Creation, thou Mayest dwell upon the no less almighty work of his Administration of this universal world, whereof the preservation and government is no less wonderful than the frame; there thou shalt see the marvelous subordination of creatures, some made to rule, others to obey; the powerful influences of the celestial bodies upon the inferior; the continual transmutation of elements, forsaking their own places and natures to serve the whole; forms dying, matter perpetual; all things maintained by a friendly discord of humours, out of which they are raised; the circular revolution of fashions, occurrences, events; the different and opposite dispositions of men overruled to such a temper; that yet government is continued in the hands of few, society and commerce with all: shortly, all Creatures whiles they do either naturally, or voluntarily act their own part, doing unawares the will of their Creator. But that which may justly challenge thy longer stay, and greater wonder, is the more-than-transcendent work of man's Redemption; 1 Pet. 1.12. the mysteries whereof the holy Angels have desired to look into, but could never yet sufficiently conceive or admire: That the son of God, the Lord of Glory, coeternal, coequal to his Father, God blessed for ever, should take upon him an estate lower than their own; should clothe his Deity with the rags of our flesh; should stoop to weak and miserable manhood, and in that low and despicable condition, should submit himself to hunger, thirst, weariness, temptation of Devils, despite of men, to the cruelty of tormentors, to agonies of soul, to the pangs of a bitter, ignominious, cursed death, to the sense of his father's wrath for us wretched sinners, that had made ourselves the worst of Creatures, enemies to God, slaves to Satan, is above the reach of all finite apprehension. O never-to-bee-enough-magnified mercy! Bernard. Serm. de passione Domini. Thou didst not, O Saviour, when thou sawest mankind utterly lost, and forlorn, content thyself to send down one of thy cherubin, or Seraphin, or some other of thy heavenly Angels to undertake the great work of our deliverance (as well knowing that task too high for any created power) but wouldst, out of thine infinite love and compassion, vouchsafe, so to abase thy blessed self, as to descend from the Throne of thy celestial glory to this Dungeon of earth; and not leaving what thou hadst, and what thou wast, to assume what thou hadst not, man; and to disparage thyself by being one of us, that we might become like unto thee, coheirs of thy glory and blessedness. Thou that art the eternal son of God, wouldst condescend so low, as to be man; that we who are worms and no men might be advanced to be the sons of God; thou wouldst be a servant, that we might reign; thou wouldst expose thyself to the shame and disgrace of thy vile Creatures here, that thou mightst raise us up to the height of heavenly honour with thee our God, and thy holy Angels; thou wouldst die for a while, that we might live eternally. Pause here a while, O my soul, and do not wish to change thy thoughts; neither earth nor heaven can yield thee any of higher concernment, of greater comfort: only withal, behold the glorious person, of that thy blessed Mediator, after his victories over death and hell, sitting triumphant in all the Majesty of heaven, adored by all those millions of celestial Spirits, in his glorified humanity; and (what thou Mayst) enjoy the vision of him by faith, till thou shalt be everlastingly blessed with a clear, and present intuition. Long after that day; and be ever careful in the mean time to make thyself ready for so infinite an happiness. SECT. VII. ANd now, O my soul, having left below thee all the trivial vanities of Earth; and fixed thyself (so far as thy weak eyes will allow thee) upon thy God, and Saviour, in his Almighty works, and most glorious Attributes, it will be time for thee (and will not a little conduce to thy further address towards blessedness) to fasten thyself upon the sight of the happy estate of the Saints above, who are gone before thee to their bliss, and have (through God's mercy) comfortably obtained that which thou aspirest unto: thou that wert guided by their example, be likewise heartened by their success: thou art yet a Traveller, they comprehensors; thou art panting towards that rest which they most happily enjoy; thou art sweating under the cross, whiles they sit crowned in an heavenly magnificence. See the place wherein they are, the heaven of heavens, the paradise of God: infinitely resplendent, infinitely delectable; such as no eye can behold, and not be blessed: shouldst thou set thy Tabernacle in the midst of the Sun, thou couldst not but be encompassed with marvelous light; yet even there it would be but as midnight with thee in comparison of those irradiations of glory which shine forth above in that empyreal Region; For thy God is the Sun there: Rev. 21.23 by how much therefore those divine rays of his exceed the brightest beams of his Creature; so much doth the beauty of that heaven of the blessed surpass the created light of this inferior & starry firmament. Even the very place contributes not a little to our joy, or misery; It is hard to be merry in a goal; Nehe. 2.2. and the great Persian Monarch thought it very improper for a Courtier to be of a sad countenance within the verge of so great a Royalty. The very devils conceive horror at the apprehension of the place of their torment, Luk. 8.31. and can beseech the overruling power of thy Saviour not to command them to go out into the deep. No man can be so insensate to think there can be more dreadfulness in the place of those infernal tortures, than there is pleasure and joy in the height of that sphere of blessedness; sith we know we have to do with a God that delights more in the prosperity of his Saints, than in the cruciation, and howling of his enemies. How canst thou then, O my soul, be but wholly taken up with the sight of that celestial Jerusalem, the beauteous City of thy God, the blessed Mansions of glorified Spirits? Surely, if earth could have yielded any thing more fair, and estimable than gold, pearls, precious stones, it should have been borrowed to resemble these supernal habitations: but, alas, the lustre of these base materials doth but darken the resplendence of those divine excellencies. With what contempt now, dost thou look down upon those muddy foundations of earth, which the low spirits of worldlings are wont to admire? and how feelingly dost thou bless and emulate the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12.23 who are honoured with so blissful an habitation. But what were the place, O my soul, how goodly & glorious soever in itself, if it were not for the presence of him whose being there makes it heaven? Lo there the Throne of that heavenly Majesty, which filling and comprehending the large circumference of this whole, both lower and superior world, yet there keeps and manifests his state, with the infinite magnificence of the King of eternal glory: there he in an ineffable manner communicates himself to blessed Spirits, both Angels and men: and that very Vision is no less to them than beatifical: Surely, were the place a thousand degrees lower in beauty and perfection than it is, yet that presence would render it celestial; the residence of the King was wont to turn the meanest Village or Castle, into a Court: The sweet singer of Israel saw this of old, and could say, in thy presence is the fullness of joy; and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. It is not so in these earthly and finite Excellencies: A man may see mountains of treasure, and be never a whit the richer; and may be the witness and agent too in another's honour (as Haman was of Mardochees) and be so much more miserable; or may view the pomp and splendour of mighty Princes, and be yet still a beggar: but the infinite graces of that heavenly King are so communicative, that no man can see him but must be transformed into the likeness of his glory. SECT. VIII. EVen thy weak and imperfect Vision of such heavenly Objects, O my soul, are enough to lay a foundation of thy blessedness; and how can there choose but be raised thence as a further degree towards it, a sweet complacency of heart in an appropriation of what thou seest; without which nothing can make thee happy? Let the Sun shine never so bright, what is this to thee if thou be blind? Be the God of heaven never so glorious, yet if he be not thy God: be the Saviour of the World never so merciful, yet if he be not merciful to thee: be the heaven never so full of beauty and Majesty, yet if thou have not thy portion in that inheritance of the Saints in light; so far will it be from yielding thee comfort, that it will make a further addition to thy torment. What an aggravation of misery shall it be to those that were children of the kingdom, Mat. 8.11. that from that outer darkness whereinto they are cast, they shall see aliens come from the East and West, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven? Cease not then, O my soul, till by a sure and undefaisible application, thou hast brought all these home to thyself; and canst look upon the great God of Heaven, the gracious Redeemer of the world, the glory of that celestial Paradise as thine own. Let it be thy bold ambition, and holy curiosity to find thy name enroled in that eternal Register of Heaven: And if there be any one room in the many Mansions of that celestial Jerusalem, lower and less resplendent than other, thither do thou find thyself (through the great mercy of thy God) happily designed. It must be the work of thy faith that must do it: that divine grace is it, the power whereof can either fetch down heaven to thee, or carry thee beforehand up to thy heaven; and not affix thee only to thy God, and Saviour, but unite thee to him, and (which is yet more) ascertain thee of so blessed an union. Neither can it be but that from this sense of appropriation there must necessarily follow a marvellous contentment, and complacency in the assurance, of so happy an interest. Lord, how do I see poor worldlings please themselves in the conceit of their miserable proprieties? Dan, 4.30. One thinks, Is not this my great Babylon which I have built? Another, Are not these my rich Mines? Another, Is not this my royal and adored Magnificence? And how are those unstable minds transported with the opinion of these great (but indeed worthless) peculiarities; which after some little time moulder with them into dust? How canst thou then, be, but pleasingly affected, O my soul, with the comfortable sense of having a God, a saviour, an heaven of thine own? For in these spiritual and heavenly felicities, our right is not partial and divided, as it useth to be in secular inheritances; so as that every one hath his share distinguished from the rest, and parceled out of the whole; but here each one hath all; and this blessed patrimony is so communicated to all Saints, as that the whole is the propriety of every one Upon the assurance therefore of thy God's gracious promises made to unsavoury true believer, find thou thyself happily seized of both the King, and Kingdom of heaven, so far as thy faith can as yet feoff thee in both; and delight thyself above all things in these unfailing pledges of thine instant blessedness, and say with the holy Mother of thy redeemer, My soul doth magnify the Lord; Luk. 1.46.47. and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour. SECT. ix.. FRom this feeling complacency in the owning of thy right to glory and happiness, there cannot but arise a longing desire of the full possession thereof: for thou canst not so little love thyself, as what thou knowest thou hast a just title unto, and withal apprehendest to be infinitely pleasing and beneficial, not to wish that thou Mayst freely enjoy it. If thou have tasted how sweet the Lord is, thou canst not but long for more of him, yea, for all: It is no otherwise even in carnal delights, the degustation whereof is wont to draw on the heart to a more eager appetition; much more in spiritual; the pleasures whereof as they are more pure, so they are of the heavenly-minded with far greater ardency of spirit affected. The covetous man's heart is in his bags; what he hath doth but augment his lust of more; and the having of more doth not satiate but enlarge his desires; he that loveth silver, Eccl. 5.10. shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: but these celestial riches are so much more allective, as they are more excellent, than those which are delved out of the bowels of the earth. O my soul, thou hast through the favour of thy God sipped some little of the cup of immortality, and tasted of that heavenly Manna the food of Angels; and canst thou take up with these slight touches of blessedness? Thou hast (though most unworthy) the honour to be contracted to thy Saviour here below; thou knowest the voice of his Spouse, Draw me and we shall run after thee; Cant. 1.4. stay me with flagons, 2.5. comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love; 8.14. make haste my beloved, and be thou like to a Roe, or to a young Hart upon the mountains of Spices: Where is thy love if thou have not fervent desires of a perpetual enjoyment? if thou do not earnestly wish for a full consummation of that heavenly match? O my Lord and Saviour, as I am not worthy to love thee; so I were not able to love thee (how amiable soever) but by thee. O thou that hast begun to kindle this fire of heavenly love in me, raise thou it up to a perfect flame; make me not only sick of thy love, but ready and desirous to die for thee, that I may enjoy thee: Oh let me not endure that any worldly heart should be more enamoured of these earthly beauties, which are but varnished rottenness, than I am of thee who art of absolute and infinite perfections; and bestowest them in being loved. Oh when shall the day be, wherein thou wilt make up these blessed Nuptials; and endow me with a full participation of that glory wherewith thou art invested, from, and to all eternity? whereto have all thy sweet favours, and gracious love-tokens tended, but to this issue of blessedness? Oh do thou Crown all thy mercies in me, and me with immortality. SECT. X. Upon this desire of fruition, (if thou wouldst be truly happy) there must follow a constant prosecution of that desire: for if thy wishes be never so fervent, yet if they be only volatile and transient, they shall be able to avail thee little; slight and flickering motions of good, if they be not followed with due endeavours, sort to no effect. Content not thyself therefore, O my soul, that thou hast entertained into thyself some affective thoughts of thy beatitude; but settle thyself in firm resolutions to pursue, and perpetuate them: Let them not call in as strangers, but dwell in thee as inmates, never to be, by any secular occasions, dislodged. These morning dews of holy dispositions, which are ready to be exhaled with every gleam of worldly prosperity, as they find little acceptance from God, so they are able to afford small comfort to thee; as whose condition is such, that they leave thee more disconsolate in their vanishing, than they yielded thee pleasure in their momentany continuance. Be thou able to say with holy David, my heart is fixed, Psal. 57.7. O God, my heart is fixed; and then thou Mayest well add, I will sing and give praise; otherwise thy distracted thoughts will admit no cause of sound joy. In this case it falls out with thee, O my soul, as with some fond child, who eagerly following a Bee in hope of her bag, sees a gay butterfly cross his way; and thereupon leaves his first chase, and runs after those painted wings; but in that pursuit seeing a Bird flie close by him, he leaves the fly in hope of a better purchase; but in the mean time is disappointed of all, and catcheth nothing. It mainly behooves thee therefore to keep up thy Cogitations and Affections close to these heavenly objects; and to check them whensoever thou perceivest an inclination to their wandering: like as the careful Huntsman, when he finds his Hound offering to follow after a new game, rates him off; and holds him to his first sent. Whither are ye straying, O my thoughts? what means this sinful and lossefull inconstancy? Can ye be happier in a change? Is there any thing in this miserable world that can be worthy to carry you away from the hopes and affectations of blessedness? Have ye not full often complained of the worthlessness, and satiety of these poor vanities here below? Have ye not found their promises false, their performances unsatisfactory, their disappointment irksome? Away than ye frivolous temptations, and solicit those minds that are low, and empty like yourselves: For me, I disdain your motions; and being taken up with higher employments, scorn to descend to your base suggestions, which tend to nothing but mere earthliness. But (as there is no fire which will not go out if it be not fed) it cannot be enough that thou hast entertained these gracious resolutions, unless thou do also supply and nourish them with holy meditations, devout prayers, continual ejaculations, and the due frequentation of all the holy ordinances of thy God; without which, if they shall languish through thy neglect, thou shalt find double more work, and difficulty, in reviving them, than there could have been in maintaining, and upholding them in their former vigour. Be not therefore wanting to thyself in the perpetual exercise and improvement of all those holy means, that may further and perfect these heavenly longings after salvation; thy God shall not be wanting to thee in blessing thee with an answerable success. SECT. XI. IT is the just praise of the marvelous bounty of thy God, O my soul, Psal. 145.19 that he will fulfil the desires of them that fear him. If therefore thou canst hunger and thirst, after righteousness, if thy heart can yearn after heaven, he shall be sure to satisfy thee with goodness; and not only shall bring thee home at the last to that land of promised blessedness, but in the mean time also put thee into an inchoate fruition of happiness; which is the next degree of thine ascent to heaven. That which is complete may be the surest rule of knowing and judging of that which is imperfect: Wherein doth the perfection of heavenly bliss consist, but in a perpetual enjoying the presence of God, in a clear vision of the divine Essence, in a perfect union with God, and an eternal participation of his life and glory? Now as grace is glory begun, and glory is grace consummate, so dost thou, O my soul (being wrought to it by the power of the Spirit of thy God) even in this life (how weakly soever) enter upon all these acts and privileges of Beatitude: Even here below thou art never out of the presence of thy God; and that presence can never be other than glorious; and that it is not beatifical here, is not out of any deficiency in it, but in thine own miserable incapacity; who, whiles thou abidest, in this vale of tears, and art clogged with this flesh, art no fit subject of so happy a condition. Yea that blessed presence is ever comfortably acknowledged by thee, and enjoyed with such contentment and pleasure that thou wouldst not part with it for a world, and that thou justly accountest all earthly delights but mere vexations to that alone; Whom have I in heaven but thee? Psal. 73.24. and what do I desire on earth in comparison of thee? Num. 24.17. A Balaam could say (how truly soever) I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not nigh: But, Lord, I see thee even now; I behold thee so nigh me, that I live in thee, and would rather die than live without thee; I see thee, though weakly and dimly, yet truly and really; I see thee as my God all-sufficient, as my powerful Creator, my merciful Redeemer, my gracious comforter; I see thee the living God, the Father of Lights, the God of Spirits, dwelling in light inaccessible, animating, filling, comprehending this glorious world; and do awfully adore thine infiniteness. Neither do I look at thee with a trembling astonishment, as some dreadful stranger, or terrible avenger; but I behold thy majesty so graciously complying with my wretchedness, that thou admittest me to a blessed union with thee: I take thee at thy Word, O dear Saviour, even that sweet word of impetration, which thou wert pleased to utter unto thy coeternal Father, immediately before thy meritorious passion, Ioh. 17.20. I pray not for these alone; but for them also which shall believe on me through their Word; 21. That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they may be One in us: 22. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, 23. that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. I know thou couldst not but be heard in all that thou prayedest; and therefore I take what thou suedst for, as done. Lord, 1 Cor. 6.17. I do believe in thee, unite thou me to thee: make me one spirit with thee: It is no presumption to sue and hope for what thou hast prayed for, and promised to perform: Oh make me according to the capability of my weak humanity, 2 Pet. 1.4. partaker of thy divine nature; Vouchsafe to allow me, even me poor wretched soul, to say of thee, I am my beloved's, Can. 6.3. and my beloved is mine: And by virtue of this indissoluble union, why shouldst thou not, O my soul, find thyself endowed with a blessed participation of that heavenly life and glory, which is in, and with him? In that thou art united to thy body, thou impartest to it vegetation, sense, motion; and givest it a share in the exercise of all thy noble faculties: how much more entire and beneficial is the spiritual union of thy God, and thee? Alas, that bond of natural conjunction is easily dissolved by ten thousand ways of death: this heavenly knot is so fast tied, that all the powers of hell cannot unloose it; And the blessings communicated to thee by this divine match are so much more excellent, as the infinite giver of them is above thy meanness: Lo, now thou art actually interessed in all that thy God is, or hath; his kingdom is thine, his glory is thine to all eternity. SECT. XII. ANd what now can follow, O my soul, upon the apprehension of thus enjoying the presence of thy God, and the vision of so blessed an object; and thine union with him, and participation of him, but a sensible ravishment of Spirit with a joy unspeakable, and full of glory? Heretofore, if some great friend should have brought me to the Court, and having showed me the splendour and magnificence of that seat of Majesty, should have brought me in to the sight of his Royal person; and should have procured me not only a familiar conference with him, but the entire affection of a favourite; and from thence there should have been heaped upon me, Titles of honour, and large revenues, and (yet higher) a consociation of Princely dignity: How should I have been transported with the sense of so eminent an advancement? how great and happy should I have seemed, not more in others eyes, than in my own? what big thoughts had hereupon swollen up my heart in the days of my vanity? But, alas, what poor things are these in comparison of those heavenly promotions? I might have been brought into the stateliest Court of this World; and have been honoured not only with the presence, but the highest favours, of the best and greatest of Kings, and yet have been most miserable: Yea, which of those Monarchs, that have the command, and dispensation of all greatness, can secure himself from the saddest infelicities? But these spiritual prerogatives are above the reach of all possible misery; and can, and do put thee (in some degree) into an unfailing possession both real and personal of eternal blessedness. I cannot wonder that Peter when with the other two Disciples upon Mount Tabor, he saw the glorious transfiguration of my Saviour, was out of himself for the time, Mar. 9.6. Luk. 9.33. and knew not what he said; yet, as not thinking himself and his partners, any otherways concerned, than in the sight of so heavenly a vision, he mentions only three Tabernacles, for Christ, Moses, Elias, none for themselves; it was enough for him, if without doors he might be still blessed with such a prospect: But how had he been wrapped from himself, if he had found himself taken into the society of this wondrous transformation, and interessed in the communion of this glory? Thy renovation, and the power of thy faith, O my soul, puts thee into that happy condition; thou art spiritually transfigured into the similitude of thy blessed Saviour, Rom. 12.2 Eph. 4.24. shining with his righteousness and holiness; so as he is glorified in thee, and thou in him; Glorified, Ioh. 17.10. 2 Thes. 1.12. not in the fullness of that perfection which will be, but in the pledge and earnest of what shall, and must be hereafter. O then, with what unspeakable joy, and jubilation, dost thou entertain thy happiness? How canst thou contain thyself any longer within these bounds of my flesh, when thou feelest thyself thus initiated into glory? Art thou in heaven and know'st it not? Know'st thou not that he who is within the entry, or behind the screen, is as truly within the house, as he that walks in the Hall, or sits in the parlour? And canst thou pretend to be within the verge of heaven, and not rejoice? What is that makes heaven, but joy and felicity? thy very thought cannot separate these two, no more than it can sever the Sun and light: For both these are equally the originals and fountains of light and joy; from whence they both flow, and in which both are complete; there is no light which is not derived from the Sun; no true joy but from heaven: as therefore the nearer to the body of the Sun, the more light and heat, so the nearer to heaven, the more excess of joy. And certainly, O my soul, there is nothing but infidelity, can keep thee from an exuberance of joy, and delight in the apprehension of heaven. Can the weary Traveller after he hath measured many tedious miles, and passed many dangers both by sea and land, and felt the harsh entertainments of a stranger, choose but rejoice to draw near in his return to a rich, and pleasant home? Can the Ward, after an hard pupillage choose but rejoice that the day is coming wherein he shall freely enjoy all his Lordly revenues and royalties? Can a Joseph choose but find himself inwardly joyed, when out of the dungeon he shall be called up, not to liberty only, but to honour; and shall be arrayed with a vesture of fine linen; and graced with Pharaoh's ring, and chain; and set in his second Chariot, and in the next chair to the throne of Egypt? And canst thou apprehend thyself now approaching to the glory of the heaven of heavens, a place and state of so infinite contentment and happiness, and not be ecstasied with joy? There, there shalt thou, O my soul, enjoy a perfect rest from all thy toils, cares, fears; there shalt thou find a true vital life, free from all the encumbrances of thy miserable pilgrimage; free from the dangers of either sins, or temptations; free from all anxiety and distraction; free from all sorrow, pain, perturbation; free from all the possibility of change, or death: A life wherein there is nothing but pure and perfect pleasure; nothing but perpetual melody of Angels and Saints, singing sweet Allelujahs to their God; A life which the most glorious deity both gives, and is: A life wherein thou hast the full fruition of the ever-blessed godhead, the continual society of the celestial spirits, the blissful presence of the glorified humanity of thy dear Saviour: A life wherein thou hast ever consort with the glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of the patriarchs, and Prophets, the noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors, the celestial synod of all the holy fathers, and illuminated Doctors of the Church; Shortly, the blessed Assembly of all the faithful Professors of the Name of the Lord Jesus, that having finished their course, sit now shining in their promised glory: See there that yet-unapproachable light, that divine magnificence of the heavenly King; See that resplendent Crown of righteousness, which decks the heads of every of those Saints, and is ready to be set on thine, when thou hast happily overcome those spiritual powers, wherewith thou art still conflicting; See the joyful triumphs of these exsulting victors; See the measures of their glory different, yet all full, and the least unmeasurable; Lastly, see all this happiness not limited to thousands, nor yet millions of years, but commeasured by no less than eternity. And now, my soul, if thou have received the infallible engagement of thy God, [in that having believed, Eph. 1.13. thou art sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of thine inheritance, 14. until the full Redemption of thy purchased possession] if, through his infinite mercy, thou be now upon the entering into that blessed place and state of immortality, 1 Thes. 1.6. forbear (if thou canst) to be raised above thyself with the joy of the holy Ghost, to be enlarged towards thy God with a joy unspeakable and glorious: See if thou canst now breathe forth any thing but praises to thy God, and songs of rejoicing; bearing evermore a part in that heavenly ditty of the Angels; Blessing, and Glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, Rev. 7.12. and Honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever, and ever. SECT XIII. ANd now what remains, O my soul, but that thou do humbly and faithfully wait at the gate of heaven for an happy entrance (at the good pleasure of thy God) into those everlasting Mansions. I confess, should thy merits be weighed in the balance of a rigorous Justice, another place (which I cannot mention without horror) were more fit for thee, more due to thee: for, alas, thou hast been above measure sinful, and thou knowest the wages of sin, death. Psal. 59.10. But the God of my mercy hath prevented thee with infinite compassion: Psal. 86.13. and in the multitudes of his tender mercies hath not only delivered thee from the nethermost hell, but hath also vouchsafed to translate thee to the Kingdom of his dear Son; In him thou hast boldness of access to the Throne of Grace; Col. 1.13. thou, who in thyself art worthy to be a child of wrath, art in him adopted to be a coheir of Glory; and hast the livery and seisin given thee beforehand of a blessed possession; the full estating wherein I do in all humble awfulness attend. All the few days therefore of my appointed time will I wait at the threshold of grace until my changing come; with a trembling joy, with a longing patience, with a comfortable hope. Only, Lord, I know there is something to be done, ere I can enter; I must die, ere I can be capable to enjoy that blessed life with thee: one stroke of thine angel must be endured in my passage into thy Paradise; And lo, here I am before thee ready to embrace the condition; Even, when thou pleasest, let me bleed once to be ever happy. Thou hast, after a weary walk through this roaring wilderness, vouchsafed to call up thy servant to Mount Nebo, and from thence aloof off, to show me the land of Promise, a land that flows with milk and honey; Do thou but say, Die thou on this Hill, with this prospect in mine eye, and do thou mercifully take my soul from me, who gavest it to me; and dispose of it where thou wilt in that Region of Immortality. Amen, Amen. Come Lord Jesu, Come quickly. BEhold, Lord, I have by thy Providence dwelled in this house of Clay more than double the time wherein thou wert pleased to sojourn upon earth; Yet I may well say with thine holy patriarch, Gen. 47.9. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage: Few in number, evil in condition: Few in themselves, but none at all to thee, with whom a thousand years are but as one day. But had they been double to the age of Methusaleh, could they have been so much as a minute to eternity? Yea, what were they to me (now that they are past) but as a tale that is told and forgotten. Neither yet have they been so few, as evil. Lord what troubles and sorrows hast thou let me see, both my own and others? What vicissitudes of sickness and health? What ebbs and flows of condition? How many successions and changes of Princes both at home, and abroad? What turnings of times? What alterations of Governments? What shiftings and downfalls of Favourites? What ruins and desolations of Kingdoms? What sacking of Cities? What havocks of war? What frenzies of rebellions? What underminings of treachery? What cruelties and barbarisms in revenges? What anguish in the oppressed and tormented? What agonies in temptations? what pangs in dying? These I have seen, and in these I have suffered: And now, Lord, how willing I am to change time for eternity, the evils of earth, for the joys of heaven, misery for happiness, a dying life for immortality? Even so, Lord Jesus, Take what thou hast bought; Receive my soul to thy mercy, and crown it with thy glory. Amen. Amen. Amen. FINIS. A Catalogue of the several books written by the Author in and since his 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 and his Members. To which is added, 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. Satan's fiery Darts quenched, Or, Temptations repelled; In 3 Decades. 12. Resolutions and Decisions of divers practical cases of Conscience; In 4 Decades. Select Thoughts, one century, with the breathing of the Devout Soul. 13. Susurrium cum Deo, &c. This present Tract, newly Reprinted.