think it to be above When thou art all in all to us what can the knowledge of any creature adde to our blessednesse And if when we casually meet with a Brother or a Son before some great Prince we forbeare the ceremonies of our mutuall respects as being wholly taken up with the awfull regard of a greater presence how much more may we justly think that when wee meet before the glorious Throne of the God of heaven all the respects of our former earthly relations must utterly cease and bee swallowed up of that beatificall presence divine love and infinitely blessed fruition of the Almighty O God it is my great comfort here below to thinke 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 bee received to the association of their blessednesse 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 Greatnesse I Cannot but look with much pitty mixed with smiles upon the vaine worldling that sets up his rest in these outward things and so pleases himselfe in this condition as if he thought no man happy but himselfe how high he looks how big he speakes how proudly hee struts with what scorne and insultation doth he look upon my dejectednesse the very language of his eye is no other than contempt seeming to say Base Indigent thou art stript of all thy wealth and honour thou hast neither flocks nor heards nor lands nor mannors nor bagges nor barne-fulls nor titles nor dignities all which I have in abundance no man regards thy meanenesse I am observed with an awfull veneration Be it so great Sir thinke I enjoy you your height of honor and heaps of treasure and ceremonies of state whiles I go shrugging in a thred-bare coat and am glad to feed on single dishes and to sleepe under a thatched roofe But let me tell you set your all against my nothing if you have set your heart upon these gay things were you the heire 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 vassall If you have store of gold alas it is but made up into feetters and manicles and what is all your outward bravery but meere matter of opinion I shall shew you an Indian slave that shall no lesse pride himselfe in a Bracelet of Glasse beades 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 esteemes the best Metals but as thicke Clay and why should we set any other price of them than their Creator And if we be wont to measure the worth of al things by their vertues 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 keepe you from head-aches from Gouts Dropsies Feavers and other bodily distempers can it ransome 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 teares and blood And were it so precious as you imagine what hold have you of it what assurance to enjoy it or your self 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 lockt up in earth or in heaven but fils 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 onely difference is this You are miserable and think your self happy I am happy whom you think miserable How ever our thoughts may beare us out in both for a while yet at the last except truth it selfe 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 despight 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 weake wretches that we have to deal with a mercifull 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 fabrick Yet God takes it as kindly from him as if hee had finished the work and rewards the intention of building an house to his Name with the actuall building of an house to David for ever Good Ezekiah knew how easie and welcome a sute 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 seeke God 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 entertaine unmeet notions of the infinite Spirit to whom wee addresse our supplications and suddain glances of wandring thoughts If we read or hear wee are subject to vaine distractions if wee approach Gods table our souls fail of that exact preparation purity wherewith they should be decked when they come to that celestiall banquet If we doe the workes of Justice or Mercy it is not without some light touch of self-respect well may we say with the blessed Apostle The good that I would I do not we should therefore finde just cause of discouragement in our selves if our best actions were to bee 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 wee have done as at what we wisht to have done and without respect to our defect crownes our good affections All that I can say for my selfe 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
raked up in the Embers of my soule and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation Soliloq XLI Deaths 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 wombe I must lie If I goe to Church the graves that I must step over in my way shew 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 glasse I cannot but see death in my face If I goe to my bed there I meet with sleepe the Image of death and the sheets which put mee in minde 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 bee unmindfull of our parting when thou art plyed 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 thinke of the place of thy approaching rest How justly then may I say with the Apostle By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily And Lord as I daily die in the decay of this fraile 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 daies that I apply my heart to wisdom and addresse it to ensuing glory Soliloq XLII Faiths Victory WEE are here in a perpetuall warfare and fight wee must Surely either fight or dye some there are that doe both That is according as the quarrell is and is managed There are those that fight against God these medling with so unequall a match cannot looke to prevaile Again The flesh warreth against the spirit this intestine rebellion cannot hope to prosper but if with the chosen vessell I can say I have fought a good fight I can neither lose life nor misse of victory And what is that good fight Even the same Apostle tels me the fight of faith 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 ingages 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 spirituall enemies by the onely meanes of this faith For Satan 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 even our faith Be sure to finde thy self furnished with this grace and then say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly the powers of Hell shall not bee able to stand before thee they are mighty and have all advantages of a spirituall nature of long duration and experience of place of subtilty Yet this conquering grace of faith is able to give them the foile and to trample over all the powers of darknesse O my Lord God doe thou arme and fortifie my soule with a lively and stedfast faith in thee I shall not feare what man or Divell can doe unto me settle my heart in a firme reliance upon thee and turne mee loose 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 forgoing them What moane did good David make both for Absalon as a Sonne though ungracious and for Jonathan as a friend Surely when our dear ones are pulled away from us we seeme to have limbes torne away from our bodies yet this is a thing must bee lookt for wee are given to each other or lent rather upon condition of parting either they must leave us or we them a parting there must bee 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 easie sute and already granted which the holy Psalmist made Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth And againe When my Father and my Mother forsake me in their farewell to a better world yet then the Lord will take me up It is an happy thing to have immortall friends sticke close unto them O my soule and rejoyce 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 owne conceit and that saies not within himselfe I see more than my neighbours For wee are all borne proud and selfe-opinionate and when we are come to our imaginary maturity are apt to say with Zedechiah to those of better judgement than our own which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wilde paradoxes both in Philosophy and Religion wherewith the world abounds every where 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 bee not too monstrous there will not want some credulous fools to abet it so as the onely way both to peace and truth is true Humility which will teach us to thinke meanly of our own abilities to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity greater sanctity deeper insight of our blessed Predecessors This onely will keepe us in the beaten road without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths Teach me O Lord evermore to think my self no whit wiser than I am so shall I neither bee vainly irregular nor the Church troublesomely unquiet Soliloq XLV Sure Mercies THere is nothing more troublesome in humane society than the disappoint of trust and failing of friends For besides the disorder that it works in our owne affaires 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 reall offices either slinkes from us or betrayes us This is that which the great patterne of patience so bitterly complaines of as none of his least afflictions My Kinsfolk have
on what load thou pleasest since the more I bear the more thou enablest me to bear and the more I shall desire to bear the world hath so clogg'd me this while with his worthlesse and base lumber that I have beene ready to sinke under the weight and what have I got by it but a lame shoulder and a galled backe O doe thou free me from this unprofitable and painfull luggage and ease my soule with the happy change of thy gracious impositions so shall thy yoake not bee easie onely but pleasing so shall thy fulfilled wil be so far from a burden to me that it shall bee my greatest delight upon earth and my surest and comfortablest evidence for heaven Soliloq XXVII Joy intermitted WHat a lightsomenesse of heart do I now feele in my selfe for the present out of a comfortable sense of thy presence O my God and the apprehension of my interest in thee Why should it not be thus alwaies with me Surely thine Apostle bids me rejoyce continually and who would not wish to do so for there is little difference betwixt joy and happinesse neither was it ghessed ill by him that defined that man onely to be happy that is alwayes delighted and certainely there is just cause why I should be thus alwaies affected Thou O my God art still and alwaies the same yea the same to me in all thy gracious relations of a mercifull Father a loving Saviour a sweet Comforter Yea thou art my head and I am a limb of thy mysticall Body Such I am and shall ever be Thou canst no more change than not be and for me my crosses and my sinnes are so farre from separating me from thee that they make mee hold of thee the faster But alas though the just grounds of my joy be steady yet my weake disposition is subject to variablenesse Whiles I carry this flesh about me my soule cannot but be much swayed with the temper of my body which sometimes inclines me to a dull listlesnesse and a dumpish heavinesse of heart and sadnesse of spirit so as I am utterly unapt to all cheerfull thoughts and finde work enough to pull my affections out of this stiffe clay of the earth and to raise them up to heaven Besides this joy of the holy Ghost is a gift of thy divine bounty which thou dispensest when and how thou pleasest not alwaies alike to thy best Favourites on earth Thou that givest thy Sun and Raine dost not command thy Clouds alwaies to be dropping nor those beams to shine continually upon any face there would bee no difference betwixt the proceedings of nature and grace if both produced their effects in a set and constant regularity and what difference should I finde betwixt my pilgrimage and my home if I should here be taken up with a perpetuity of heavenly joy should I alwaies thus feelingly enjoy thee my life of faith should bee changed into a life of sense It is enough for me O God that above in those Regions of blisse my joy in thee shall be full and permanent if in the mean while it may please thee that but some flashes of that Celestiall light of joy may frequently glance into my soule It shall suffice if thou give me but a taste of those heavenly pleasures whereon I shall once liberally feast with thee to all eternity Soliloq XXVIII Vniversall Interest IT was a noble praise that was given to that wise Heathen that hee so carried himselfe as if hee thought himselfe born for all the world Surely the more universal a mans beneficence is so much is it more commendable and comes so much neerer to the bounty of that great God who openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness There are too many selfish men whose spirits as in a close retort are cooped up within the compasse of their owne concernments whose narrow hearts think they are born for none but themselves Others that would seeme good natur'd men are willing enough to enlarge themselves to their kindred whom they are carefull to advance with neglect of all others however deserving some yet more liberall minded can be content to be kinde and open-handed to their neighbours and some perhaps reach so farre as to professe a readinesse to do all good offices to their Countrey-men but here their largesse findes its utmost bounds All these dispositions are but inclosures Give mee the open Champaine of a generall and illimited benefacture Is he rich hee scatters his seed abroad by whole handfulls over the whole ridge and doth not drop it downe betweene his fingers into the severall furrowes His bread is cast upon the waters also Is he knowing and learned He smothers not his skil in his bosome but freely laies it out upon the common stock not so much regarding his private contentment as the publike proficiency Is he deepely wise Hee is ready to improve all his cares and counsels to the advancement and preservation of peace justice and good order amongst men Now although it is not in the power of any but persons placed in the highest Orbe of Authority actually to oblige the world to them Yet nothing hinders but that men of meaner ranke may have the will to bee thus universally beneficent and may in preparation of mind be zealously affected to lay themselves forth upon the common good O Lord if thou hast given me but a private and short hand yet give mee a large and publick heart Soliloq XXIX The spirituall Bedleem HE that with wise Solomon affects to know not wisedome onely but Madnesse and Folly let him after a serious observation of the sober part of the world obtaine of himselfe to visit Bedleem and to looke into the severall Cells of distracted persons where it is a world to see what strange varieties of humors and passions shall present themselves to him Here he shall see one weeping and wringing his hands for a meerely-imaginary disaster there another holding his sides in a loud laughter as if hee were made all of mirth here one mopishly stupid and so fixed to his posture as if he were a breathing statue there another apishly active and restless here one ragingly fierce and wreaking his causeless anger on his chaine there another gloriously boasting of a mighty stile of Honour whereto his rags are justly intitled and when he hath wondred a while at this woefull spectacle let him know and consider that this is but a slight image of those spirituall phrensies wherewith the world is miserably possessed The persons affected believe it not surely should I goe about to perswade any of these guests of Bedleem that in deed he is mad and should therefore quietly submit himselfe to the meanes of cure I should be more mad than he Only dark rooms and cords and Ellebore are meet receits for these mentall distempers In the meane while the sober and sad beholders too well see these mens wits out of the socket and are ready out
mortall as in the body there may bee some wounds in the outward and fleshly part which have more pain than peril but those of the principall and vitall parts are not more dolorous than dangerous and often deadly so it is in the soul there are wounds of the inferiour and affective faculties as griefe 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 hainous sin which lies belking within us carries in it horror despaire death O God keep me from bloud-guiltinesse and from all crying and presumptuous sins but if ever my frailty should be so fouly tainted do thou so work upon my soul as that my repentance may walke in equall paces with my sin ere it can aggravate it selfe by continuance Apply thy soveraign plaister to my soule whiles the wound is greene and suffer it not to fester inwardly through any impenitent delay Soliloq LXII Beneficiall VVant 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 childe begins to play with the dugge to put up the breast out of sight I should not acknowledg how precious a favour health is if thou didst not sometimes interchange it with sicknesse nor how much I am bound to thee for my Limbes if I had not sometimes a touch of lamenesse Thirst gives better relish to the drinke and hunger is the best sauce to our meate Nature must needs affect a continuance of her wellfare neither is any thing more grievous to her than these crosse interceptions of her contentments but thou who art wisdome it selfe 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 deale otherwise in the mannaging of thy spirituall mercies If thy Spouse the faithfull 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 bee filled with Dew and his lockes with the drops of the night she soon findes her beloved withdrawne and gone she may then seeke him and not finde him she may call and receive noe answer she may seek him about the streets and in stead of finding him lose her vaile and meet with blowes and wounds from the watch-men O God keep thou me from being resty with ease hold mee in a continuall tendernesse of heart continue me in a thankfull and awfull use of all thy favours but if at any time thou seest me decline to a careless obduration and to a disrespective forgetfulnesse of thy mercies doe 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 seeke 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 my selfe and others Doubtlesse it is that I might see and feele and observe and teach the gracious changes of thy carriage towards thy poore sinfull Creatures upon earth Thou dost not hold us alwaies under the rod though we well deserve a perpetuall correction as considering our miserable impotence and aptnesse to an heartlesse dejection Thou dost not alwaies keep our hearts raised up to the jollity of a prosperous condition as knowing our readinesse to presume and to bee carried away with a false confidence of our unmoveablenesse 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 puft up with the vaine conceit of our owne worth or successe thou takest us downe with some heavy crosse When thou findest us overlaid with an unequall match and ready to bee foiled in the fight thou givest us breath and puttest new strength into our armes 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 Kingdomes of the earth thou whirlest them about in a perpetuall yet constant vicissitude Peace breeds plenty Plenty wantonnesse and pride Pride Animosity from thence followes war VVar produces Vastation and want Poverty causeth Industry and when nothing is left to strive for Peace an industrious peace brings plenty againe and in this gyre thou hast ordained the world still to turne about Be not too much moved then O my soule when thou findest thy selfe hard pressed with afflictions and conflicted with strong temptations but beare up constantly in the strength of thy faith as being assured that having rid out this storme thou shalt bee blessed with an happy calme Neither bee thou lifted up too much when thou findest thy selfe carried on with a fair gale of prosperity since thou knowst not what tempests may suddenly arise and many hopefull vessell hath been sunke in sight of the Port And when thou seest the world every where full of woefull combustions bee not over-much dismaied with the sight and sense of these publike Calamities but waite 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 doe thou keep me from the evill of prosperity from dejectednesse in affliction from the prevalence of temptation from misprision of thy Providence VVorke me to that due temper which thy Solomon hath prescribed me In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him Soliloq LXIV The rule of Devotion THy will O God as it is alwaies holy so in what thou hast decreed to doe with us is secret and in what thou wouldst have us doe 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 raine in that three yeeres and an halfe wherein thou hadst commanded the Clowds to make good the prophecie of thine Elias yea thine holy Apostle prayed thrice to have the Messenger of Satan
taken off from him and heard no answer but My grace is sufficient for thee So Lord we pray for the removall of thy judgements from this sinnefull and deplored Nation which for ought we know and have cause to feare thou hast decreed to ruine and deâ—â—station and many a good soule prayes for a comfortable sense of thy favour whom thou thinkest fit to keepe downe for the time in a sad desertion and I thy unworthy servant may pray to be freed from those temptations wherewith thou seest it fit that my faith should be still exercised O God give me the grace to follow thy revealed will and to submit my selfe to thy secret What thou hast commanded I know I may doe what thou hast promised I know I may trust to what thou hast in a generality promised to do may in some particular cases by the just decree of thy secret Counsell bee otherwise determined If I aske what thou hast decreed to do I know I cannot but obtaine If I aske what thou hast warranted notwithstanding the particular exception of thy secret will though I receive it not yet I receive not pardon onely but acceptation O God give me grace to steer my selfe and my prayers by thy revealed Will and humbly to stoop to what the event shews to have been thy secret will Soliloq LXV Hels Triumph THou hast told us O Saviour that there is joy in the presence of thine Angels for a sinners repentance those blessed Spirits are so far from envying our happinesse that as they endeavour it here so they congratulate it in heaven and we wel know that these good Spirits do not more rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner than the evill Spirits do in the mis-carriage of a convert The course of the holy obedience of thy servants here is doubtlesse a pleasing object to thine Angels neither are those malignant spirits lesse pleased with the wicked practises of their Vassals but the joy arises to both from the contrary condition of those parties over which they have prevailed The alleagance of a good subject though wel-accepted yet is no newes to a gracious Soveraigne but the comming in of some great Rebell is happy tidings at the Court On the contrary where there is a rivality of soveraigntie for a professed enemy to do hostile actions is no other than could bee expected but for a subject or a domestick servant to bee drawne into the conspiracie is not more advantage than joy to the intruder O God thou hast mercifully called me out of the world to a profession of thy Name I know what eies those envious Spirits have ever upon me O doe thou lead me in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies If thine Angels have found cause to joy in my conversion O doe thou keepe me from making musicke in hell by my miscarriage Soliloq LXVI Dumbe Homage HOw officious O God doe I see thy poore dumbe Creatures to us how doe they fawne or crouch as they see us affected how doe they run and fetch and carry and draw at our command how doe they beare our stripes with a trembling unresistance how readily doe they spend their strength and their lives in our service how patiently doe they yield us their milk and their fleeces for our advantage and lie equally still to be shorne or slain at our pleasure expecting nothing from us in the mean time but a bare sustenance which if it bee denyed them they do not fall furiously upon their cruell Masters but meekly bemoane themselves in their bruitish language and languish and die If granted them they are fatned for our use I am ashamed O God I am ashamed to see these thy creatures so obsequiously pliant unto me whiles I consider my disposition and deportment towards thee my Creator Alas Lord what made the difference betwixt me and them but thy meere good pleasure thou mightest have made them rationall and have exchanged my reason for their brutality They are my fellowes by Creation and owe both their being and preservation to the same hand with my selfe Thou art the absolute Lord of both to whom I must bee accountable for them they are mine onely by a limited substitution from thee why then should they bee more obedient to my will than I am to thine since they have onely Sense to lead them in their Way I have both Reason and Faith to teach me my duty Had I made them I could but require of them their absolute submission Why should I then exact of them more than I am ready to performe unto thee O God thou that hast put them under my hand and me under thy owne as thou hast made me their Master for command so let me make them my Masters to teach me obedience Soliloq LXVII Indifferency of Events THou givest us daily proofes O God of the truth of that observation of wise Solomon That all things come alike to all and that no man knowes love or hatred by all that is before them In these outward things thy dearest friends have not fared better then thine enemies Thy greatest enemies have not suffered more than thy beloved Children When therefore I looke abroad and see with what heavy afflictions thou art pleased to exercise thy best Favourites upon earth I cannot but stand amazed to see what horrible Torments of all kindes have beene undergone by thy most precious Martyrs whose patience hath overcome the violence of their executioners and to see those extreme tortures which some of thy faithfull servants have endured in the beds of their sickness one torne and drawn together with fearefull convulsions another shrieking under the painefull girds of an unremoveable stone one wrung in his Bowels with pangs of cholicke and turning of guts another possessed with a raging gout in all his Limbes one whose bladder after a painefull incision is ransack'd another whose Leg or Arme is cut off to prevent a mortall Gangrene I cannot but acknowledge how just it might be in thee O God to mix the same bitter cup for me and how merciful it is that knowing my weakness thou hast forborn hitherto to load mee with so sad a burthen What thou hast in thine eternall Councell determined to lay upon mee thou onely knowest If thou bee pleased to continue thy gracious indulgence to me still make me truly thankfull to thee for health and ease as the greatest of thy outward favours but let mee not build upon them as the certaine evidences of thy better mercies and if thou thinke fit to interchange them with a vicissitude of sickness and paine let mee not misconstrue thy severe chastisements as arguments of thy displeasure But still teach mee to feare thee in my greatest prosperity and to love thee in my greatest sufferings and to adore thine infinite Wisdome Justice and mercy in both Soliloq LXVIII The transcendent Love HOw justly doe I marvaile O God to see what strength of naturall affection thou hast wrought in poore brute