Why this is but nature whereas to go to Heaven 't is necessary we walke in a supernaturall Path much contrary to nature wherefore sure this cannot be right Light There are two things in Man which are call'd Nature one Reason which truly is his Nature ruling all his actions as he is Man and distinguishing him from Beasts The other is this frame of our Materiall Instruments which we call our Body consisting of Motion of Blood and Spirits which have a course in us so depending from other causes that neverthelesse a great part is in our power Of these two Natures Reason often contradicts the Inferiour and therefore Grace and our supernaturall way must do the same Whereas for Reason Grace never contradicts it but guides it and shewes it that many things which otherwise it would never have attain'd to are very reasonable and by force of reason it self ought to be enacted and put in execution For our supernaturall life is like a Graft which though it bear a better fruit then the Stock yet can it bring forth nothing but by means of that and in the season wherein the Stock of it self flourishes Soul Then I must employ my time in gaining knowledge and governing my self according to it but what should I seek to know Light Your enquiry may be fully satisfied if you confine your search to these two Heads To learn the things that concerne you in the next life which are chiefly Heaven and Hell in Heaven I comprehend all that belongs to Almighty God as well to his Godhead as his Humanity And secondly to study what in this life imports you which is the real valuation of those motives that govern mankind here and the true and straight way that leads to blisse hereafter Soul Surely this cannot chuse but be a pleasant and delightsome Method For what more pleasant then to know especially such truths as most are ignorant of what more delightsome then to enjoy a clear serenity of mind free from those errours we see our Neighbours tossed and turmoyl'd in But above all what can be so ravishing as to understand we are in the direct path towards those great felicities promised us in the next life Light If you take the right course and ply it diligently you shall instead of that anxious and troublesome way you walk possesse all this pleasure and much more whereof as yet you have no feeling nay which you little think your whole pursuit shall be after pleasures and those the highest this life can afford For since Reason is our Nature which hath the greatest stroak in all our actions and whatever is conformable to Nature the more powerfull Nature is the more pleasant that must be it follows the pleasures of Reason are greater far then those of Sense Now Grace being but an heightening of Reason what is conformable to Grace must be still more pleasing to Nature Soul I can easily apprehend the Contemplation of Heaven must be full of pleasure especially if the Contemplatour findes in himself hopes of attaining thither but I know not how the dreadfull consideration of Hell and Death and Judgement should be pleasing being of themselves such frightfull things Light As for those fearfull objects you need not trouble your self yet if you find the considerations of Heaven take hold of your Soul which when they are once settled and well possess'd of your heart will alone so entertain and fill you that you will be free and secure from the irksomenesse of other apprehensions but you must first strive to be in love with heaven and heavenly things if possibly you can Soul I confesse hitherto my considerations have been very dry I not being able to make any apprehension of what pleasure can possibly be found where all that gives us content here will be wanting The second discourse Light NOw if you were sure to find there the same pleasures you enjoy here in this only changed that what ever makes them short noysome tedious or allayes them here with any other discommodity is not there to be found so that the pleasure is there more clear more sweet perpetuall and never cloying you must of necessity make a good apprehension of a desirable place and lovely end to aim at Soul If you can make me see this I hope I shall be better affected to Heaven that with a naturall tye Whereas now I force my self to love a thing which I cannot understand what it is Light Well then do you take pleasure in company of friends with whom you can be free Soul Very much especially if their discourse be such as goes down with some smartnesse and delight Light At least then there 's one pleasure in heaven which you can relish for friends and acquaintance you cannot want there all that are in Heaven knowing all being familiar with all and their hearts lying open to all so that what delight you can imagine in conversation you shall have there a thousand fold multiplied above what it is here Soul But that which pleases me here is to be with a friend in a corner where no body may hear our discourse for it would be a great annoyance to have any one partaker of our secrets Light And why if you have reflected upon it is it troublesome to have overhearers of your discourse Soul Because some would laugh at my follyes or imperfections and jeere at my conceits different from theirs others would carry tales abroad and make a businesse of nothing others are indiscreet and altogether unable to give me either advice or comfort but talk nonsense and rather trouble me then do me good Light Then if the company were such that from every one you could promise your self all respect love prudence and such parts as should be fit to improve heighten the content you aimed at the plurality of those with whom you converse would rather strengthen your pleasure then any way diminish it Soul 'T is true but I cannot conceive if the company be greater then a certain proportion which by interchange may still keep life in the discourse but that the conversation must either be hindred by many speaking at once or dull by one party's speaking so seldome Light But on the contrary if you did apprehend the whole multitude without intermission speaking together and that he that speaks perfectly understood all the rest and himself also were perfectly understood by every one so that each continually declared his own mind without the least impediment to understand perfectly at the same time what all others said and this not onely to himself but any one to any other do you not see what the proportion of content by such discourse would be to the satisfaction you find here when you are in the fullest careere of joy that ever you experimented or can wish or even imagine according to the course of our conversation Soul If this were true I see an extreme increase of pleasure in Heaven over the greatest our
the most rich and excellent piece of all in his own particular property and degree The fifth discourse Soul AS you put me in mind of one thing I should have forgotten so you have embolden'd me to ask another I should else have been asham'd to propose and yet I confesse it has a great power mastery over my affections 't is that I love to be beloved If any shew the least signe of kindnesse for me methinks presently they are the best persons in the world neither is there so poor a wretch but if I see in him a hearty expression of love towards me I cannot chuse but love him again Alas what do I talk of Men if a little Dog or Bird or any other dumb Creature come once to take a haunt to me and be delighted in my pany 't is a death to see any harm befall them and I find a very great satisfaction and content to see them play and pleas'd according to their low manner Now if this love be wanting in Heaven I fear 't will put me out of conceit with the pleasures there Light You are too fearfull and too little considerate of the joyes you aim at Think but with your self that Charity is nothing but the love of God and your Neighbour that 't is the way to Heaven and that of our three guides and conducters thither onely that remains with us and see then whether there can be any fear you shall want love Consider that the principall and main employment in Heaven is nothing else but to love and be beloved and those there are the greatest lovers who are in the greatest favour and highest glory For God himself is love and none is in God or God in them but by love Measure therefore with your thoughts the scope of Heaven from Gods eternall throne to the least child which by Baptisme is made partaker of the Adoption of Christ and be sure that all these shall love you you especially love you as much as if there were no others to be belov'd but only your self that the higher and greater every one is the more ardent expressive and effectuall shall his love be to you in person in particular by name and design What do you now conceit of the base love of this world of the love of Dogs and Birds raise a little your thoughts and look up at true love where it reignes in its full glory where it shewes it self in its Magnificence fly at it there fear not if you love it cannot escape you make but your approaches it will meet you 't is too ethereall for this cloudy region lift but your self above your body and of it self it will bend and stoop to your Arms. Soul What you have said cannot chuse but be a great comfort but I have a foolish scruple if you will give me leave to utter it yet I need not be so coy since you know enough by me this ' t is I have been taught that we should strive to love all men for Almighty Gods sake and so I suppose it passes in Heaven that all these great lovers which you have express'd to be there are of this Nature that they will love me because God Almighty commands it And this alas according to my low apprehension gives me but little satisfaction for this love and good will is not to me but to Almighty God whereas my perversenesse is such that I my self would be beloved and I mark in my self a great difference between when I give money to some little child I am pleas'd with when I bestow an Almes on a poore body that askes me for Gods sake in the one I find that affection I desire others should bear to me towards the Beggar I have no such inclination and the cause as I conceive is that one seems to deserve my love the other only to need it Now if you tell me that in Heaven they shall love me but I shall not deserve it I confesse as my affections now stand 't will be a great cooling to the esteem I desire to have of their love Light How truly spake he that said I know my self a Man that is a proud and yet a wretched thing Is it possible you cannot endure to be belov'd beyond your desert I fear you endure it often enough in this world but here self-conceit makes you easily think not only all love and esteem due to you which is offer'd but for the most part that too little is offer'd Yet I have observ'd sometimes it happens that we truly conceit another to shew more affection towards us then we have deserved though I never heard any offended at such excesse but rather highly pleas'd and engag'd to an endeavour of deserving it Neverthelesse I 'le strive to give you content even in this point Therefore tell me what you think of a person in whom reason governs in full measure so that not a thought passes but according to the pure direction of it do you believe in such a person any love can be unreasonable Soul No certainly so far is past doubt Light And if we love any thing more then it is amiable do you think that love is reasonable Soul I perceive whither you aime that since in Heaven all 's govern'd by reason none there can love otherwise then according to desert but withall I see there may be that desert in another and not in me as for example they shall love me because God who deserves to be obey'd commands them and if only thus I rest as unsatisfied as before Light Why do you conceive that God can command any unreasonable thing especially there where reason is in it's perfection for here I know not what the mixture of bodily qualities with reason may make it reasonable for God to command or if God would command others to love you beyond desert yet do you think that himself being the essence of reason and understanding can love you so or that any one by his command can love you more then himself does Soul This is right again Yet I see we love many things for the connexion they have with some other and not for themselves a Dog a Book a Glove from a beloved person is much made of not for it self but because the using it kindly is an expression or rather a practise of our love towards the person to whom it belongs So I imagine because I am a creature of Almighty God's making and have cost his only Son so dear a price those blessed spirits inflam'd with the love of God may also expresse an affection to me which you see is wholly by the desert of another not mine and however it may be infinitely more then I deserve yet is it not that which I express'd to be requisite to my content Light Your palate is very nice and delicate yet you shall be pleas'd What think you then where reason as I asked before is in full height can any thing there be
Nature is capable of here but withall I see it is impossible men should hear and understand so many persons together and speak to them all in exchange Light I confesse this is hard to be believ'd by one that hath not yet reached to the nature of a Spirit but he that could conceive all this we call Body and diffusion of bignesse and parts must of necessity be resum'd in the indivisible thing we call a Spirit so that all the imaginable operations of materiall substances can never arrive to equall the activity of the least Spirit he would easily allow it this priviledge of being capable to do as much as a thousand tongues and a thousand eares at once But 't is not my task now to evince a possibility only to exact a belief of this opinion and upon supposal of its truth shew you how infinitely greater the content in Heaven must necessarily be then the highest pleasure this world can afford Soul But unlesse I talk of such persons and things as both my self and they with whom I converse know and are acquainted with the circumstances of every passage the conversation is dry and unpleasing Now here they are very few who have knowledge of the same particulars that I have for their number is confin'd to such as I live withall and I know not whether I can expect to meet many of them in heaven the straitnesse of the way and the paucity of the enterers being so often and so strongly inculcated to us Light It were a very hard question to determine the number of those that go to heaven and at this time would divert our discourse only this I will say that the paucity of the blessed may well stand with this truth that many of such Christians as live innocently in the world are saved Wherefore I fear not but you may have enough to converse with who are acquainted with the particulars your self are But what will you think if every one hath as cleare a sight of all your circumstances as your own heart for it were a great simplicity to imagine the Soul abstracted from the Body hath no means to know things without it since in the Body it hath and if it be furnisht with any means it is not possible but it should know whatever it pleases But as I said before the proof of these things is to be sought elsewhere here we are onely to consider how great and full the pleasure of a blessed Soul is these things being so as I have declared Soul I must confesse you have now made Heaven a tractable thing to me for by these considerations I do not onely find a common apprehension of good but I can lay hands upon intelligible pleasures whereby to content my naturall desires and with hope thereof make them pursue the endeavours and undergoe the difficulties necessary to the attaining them Light Reflect then a little and summe up or rather conclude what kind of life in Heaven this pleasure will afford you Remember some afternoon or couple of houres in which your pleasing conversation hath been at height remember the twinkling of some one conceit which especially carryed away your heart and for the time possessed it wholly think with your self had the whole two houres continu'd like that minute how unspeakable your pleasure had been Then elevate your fancy and conceive in Heaven not houres nor dayes nor yeares but ages of ages but an eternity will be of that dainty ravishing contentment Joyne if you are able all these encreases and advantages which we have expressed whereof there is not one but drawes an incomparable extremity with it and if only this were once well master of your thoughts I do not see how any temporall thing could either please or discontent you or that you would not as much long for death as now you adhorre and fear it Soul The world 's chang'd with me I find my self refresht with this thought and in a cheerfull disposition Light Yes for the present but it will not stay long with you unlesse you play your part and cultivate the opening seeds which now ferment in your heart and this must be by often thinking of and remembring these and such other considerations partly at set times and partly whenever you find your self in a fitting disposition that is at ease alone your mind free or peradventure inclin'd to good thoughts lose not these tides as I may call them for they bring great waves of spirituall profit In the happy opportunity strive to penetrate with a cleer understanding the verity of such points then turn your self upon your self and see what you do and what you should do according to these truths Encourage your self to what is wanting amend what is amisse and sigh after the great reward we all labour for The third discourse Soul HItherto it goes well but in so great a happinesse and so glorious a State is there but one content Light If there were no other then what is already declared I believe there were more not only then you can wish in this world but also then you would be weary of in the next Neverthelesse since your palate is so dainty that it must have varieties think with your self what other thing there is here wherein you take great pleasure and love to spend your time Soul The next that comes to my mind is that I am much delighted with Masks and Shews and in going to Court especially when there are grea meetings and bravery there these things extreamely take me in so much that I can endure to expect a great while as half a day or more in some disease to be present at such sights and Assemblies Light And when these things are in their perfection can you tell what it is that therein delights you Soul I think it is those passages which meeting afterwards with others that have or have not been there I use to discourse of and commend And all those being either Things or Persons in Things I commend the greatnesse beauty or good proportion some fine conveyance some rare and new invention in Persons I praise their comlinesse the gracefulnesse of their behaviour the perfection and compleatnesse of their actions These I conceive for the most part are the principal causes of the delight and relish I find in such encounters Light I hope then you will not want this contentment also in heaven For to begin with Persons you shall have in your company those who have ever been the greatest and worthiest in all considerations Adam the beginner of the World Noah its restorer you shall have Abraham the Father of that Nation which after so many ages continuance in the Prerogative of the Elect people of Almighty God is now by their dispersion into all Nations become to them a Testimony of Christianity you shall have Moses who like the Lieutenant of the highest in all sorts of miracles establisht the Law the Field wherein Christianity was blazoned you
successe relieves the afflicted In fine if any word or deed come in very pat and unexpectedly I am highly ravish'd These things I observe both please me in the reading or seeing and afterwards I find my self great with desire till I have discharged my self of them to some other whom I conceive apt to take pleasure in such passages In true Histories and Newes I am affected with a kind of sober satisfaction and if I have heard or read half a story I feel a want of content till I know the rest and be fully possest of the whole proceeding As for home-bred Curiosities I cannot conceive what entertains our affections concerning them except the common desire to know which I imagine is greater towards those things whereof we have already a beginning for so I see this Itch is pleased chiefly in the businesse of mine own acquaintance Light And do you think that the common desire of Knowing is a Passion of so triviall a consequence which peradventure if all things were throughly look't into would appeare the chief or sole cause of all our pleasure at least it being the inclination of our understanding and reason that is the most substantiall and principall part of us it must necessarily have great influence upon all our actions But besides this I see another delight which is a kind of tickling our affections whereat they move and have their course as strings tuned to certain notes answer one another And this happens in all humane affaires but chiefly in such as bear a particular relation to our own state and private circumstances We heare not of any action done by another man but it presently strikes a key in our breasts either of pleasure or displeasure because it has a proper and particular report to our condition Now consider how small a time you can endure to sit ruminating on a businesse that no way concerns you how impossible it is to take off your hearts from thoughts wherein your interest or affections are notably engag'd and then reflect on the choice which in heaven you shall have where according to what is declared the whole course of the sons of Adam shall be clear before your eyes none of their actions or secretest thoughts hidden from you Think how one reflection will preoccupate another how one delight will surcharge another If you will see the Counsels of Statesmen and great Princes there opens it self a Carriere aperte de vieu as the French say If you will see how Scholars came to their profound learning how Artificers to their great experience If you will see how petty fellows shew as much cunning in a little circle as the Grandees of the world in their deep and politick designes If you will see the increase as it were of souls from the babling of children that know not how to spell their letters to the learned Sermons and sublime Speculations of the most famous and renowned Masters in every kind an excesse of examples a world of particulars will display themselves to you all different in some respects yet all agreeing in generall heads all inviting and enticeing by their specialty all contenting and satisfying by shewing their source in evident and common principles Nor shall therebe in the whole multitude any one that shall not affect you with some particular relish and satisfaction by its speciall conformity or difformity to your nature for both these in that state shall yield content as you see here we laugh and are delighted with that in another whereat we should be asham'd and displeas'd if it were in our selves Soul Truly you tell me of a great content but I have been taught that it is the propriety of Almighty God to see hearts and that none else can penetrate into what passes there but by revelation from him Wherefore pray make me know what you mean when you say No mans thoughts are hidden from the Blessed for this I hear is grounded in the holy Scriptures so a dangerous matter to be meddled with Light Those who consider not that the Scriptures are written to men that is to people living in a vale of ignorance and darknesse may perhaps too hastily passe their censure upon the City of Light whereof we discourse But as far as I can understand them there is not a word in our holy books excluding the heavenly Jerusalem from this-knowledge and our Masters use to give a rule that speeches are to be taken secundum subjectam materiam according to the matter we treat of for he that speaks is suppos'd to confine himself to the particular subject of the discourse he undertakes neverthelesse you have not yet heard me say the celestiall habitation enjoyes this priviledge without Revelation for here I do not display the principles upon which their conclusions depend but onely declare to you admitting such positions to be true the excesse of pleasure and content you are to reap in that harvest if you cultivate your land in this world as you are commanded Soul Then I 'le believe what you say without farther enquiry For truly I see that if the day of Judgement declare the justice of Almighty God this cannot be done without full and generall discovery of all hearts and if then every secret thought shall be laid open before the whole world me thinks 't is no great matter the blessed should in joy the priviledge of knowing them before Besides it would be an unhandsome maime both to their knowledge and content if seeing the effects they should be depriv'd of seeing the causes which for the most part reside in the inward thoughts And so have I fallen upon no small subject of delight to me that I shall see the Motives and true Sources of all effects a thing I observe much aimed at by men of sharpest understandings whence 't is that Historians are so desirous to dive into the secrets of affaires those being accounted the best who are thought most truly to have found the deepest ground and bottom of matters of great consequence Light 'T is a good and ingenuous reflection And if you will take the paines to examine also the inconveniences which here you find in talking reading or fitting at a Play peradventure by comparison of your pleasures below you will make a fuller conceit of the content you shall meet above finding there all the delights sincere and pure without the mixture of those bitter and distastfull contingencies which are so frequently offensive here Soul I have not so ill and slowly follow'd you but of my self I can understand that there I shall not have that incertitude of reports which here we wholy rely upon and yet they are generally so fallible that it were a great indiscretion to believe above the tenth part of what is told us Nay even when I heare any strange relation from parties who were present whose eyes and eares saw and heard what pass'd yet am I often troubled how to understand their words some for Interest
Natures their Operations their Quires their Hierarchies And now there is but one great step more to behold the influence of the Divinity upon all and in all manners but in none so great and admirable as in shewing its self its Face its Essence to the blessed Spirits That Blessing that Adoption that Deification as it is the most wonderfull of all Gods works so will it be strangely ravishing to behold in others as well as feel in our selves Soul I have not the least scruple but that these delights are farre beyond all you have hitherto mention'd they clearly deserving that estimation and rank by the Excellence and Nobility of the Objects and the pleasure which I feel even in the meanest of them for those I confesse most affect me as being most suitable to my low and heavy disposition Light So 't is with you for the present but if much and solid contemplation make you able to manage this point you will in time experience that even here these sublime things overdraw all others Look upon the pains a Democritus an Archimedes a Plato and other Philosophers have taken to know the lowest of Truths The first is said to have put out his eyes that he might contemplate the better The second to have been so absorpt that he suffer'd death for not taking notice of the danger before him The third to have travailed through all parts where he could hear of learned men to be their Scholar Another to have liv'd in the fields two and twenty years to discover the customes and operations of Bees Think you not these excellent witts found great pleasure in their contemplations who was ever mov'd to so difficult undertakings by any worldly designe As for your Alexanders and Cesars if their lives be well look'd into they had many collaterall respects and by-invitements alwayes conversing amongst multitudes of men who crying up their conquests as actions of immortall fame still encourag'd them to go on and finish their triumphs Soul When time and experience shall have encreased my force I shall be able I hope to grapple with these motives But in the mean while is there nothing in these secrets of Nature which may touch my self and so make me more quick and sensible of the pleasures thereof Light If it so little move you that this knowledge is the proper mark at which your nature aimes at least consider that the knowledge of your self is a speciall part of it and if you believe you are concern'd in your self if delighted with your own parts and perfections you shall not want cause of content What would you have would you be the Center of this great Circumference would you have nothing done but you should have a share in 't If no lesse will satisfie you let 's see how much is true of this What think you are any two things exactly like one another Soul Peradventure yes I conceive it no paradoxe to believe so Light Then they would be in the same place have the same figure c. whereby they would be the same and not alike Soul That 's true I confesse therefore no two things are absolutely alike Light Can two things in any respect unlike one another proceed from the same causes in no respect differing from one another Soul Certainly they cannot for wherein they vary there must necessarily be some cause of their dissimilitude but the same causes still work the same therefore the causes must some way be different if there be difference in the effects Light This is well Then you and all the circumstances had not been the same if any one of the causes which concurred to the making of them had been alter'd in any thing concerning your making Soul That 's very true Light Then cast with your self what part of Nature you draw with you of all that pass'd before you Soul I see well that neither the causes immediately concurring to the making of me nor any that concurr'd to the making of them such as they ought necessarily to be for the making of me could from the beginning of the world to this hour be other then they have been if I were to be what I am But how farre this extends it self I do not clearly see Light Looke well into the causes of your body Doe you thinke the Aire contributes nothing Soul Yes certainly for it piercing all tender bodyes by Perspiration must of necessity alter much the disposition of either Man or Child if it self be different Light And if the very next Aire to that which enters into your body be different can that which enters be the same Soul Clearly it cannot for the next part in so fluid and penetrable a body must of necessity have great Influence into that which pierces my Body Light And how far reaches this operation Soul Marry in this way going from one to another and still arguing If the next be altered this cannot be the same I see no stop as far as the Air or any other such penetrable Body extends it self but the same consequence must be applyed to the whole Light You have forgotten your agreement with me in this point that the Air contributes to the bodies which are in it else you would easily have seen that all which communicate in the same Air must be chang'd if any the least thing in you were alter'd Soul Then if it be true what I see Astronomers now almost consent in that there are no Sphears but a continuall Aire or other subtile body runs through the whole frame of Nature all bodies that are must be alter'd for the alteration of any one unlesse Almighty God or some other Spirit by a particular and extraordinary interposure make an unexpected and preternaturall change in some one or more of them Light You are in the right but do you reflect upon the consequence that nothing created before you could be otherwise if you were to be what you are nor any thing following you could become what it is to be were not you what you are So that you shall find your self a partiall cause of all either before or after you Soul 'T is easie to conceive I may be cause of what comes after me because when once I have a being I can work and some effects may flow from me but before I my self am how can I be cause of any thing Light Do you not know that God creates nothing but he foresees and fore-wills all the good which is to follow upon such a production and makes it with designe that such good may proceed from 't Whence you may safely conclude that he intended you out of all that went before you and you are not ignorant that among the four kindes of Causes the finall or good intended is the chief and principall so that you are more the cause of what 's past then of what 's to come The eighth discourse Soul THough I know not what to answer to your Discourse nay though it seem clear
of bread without a thankfull lifting up to the Feeder let me not put on a ragg without bending my heart and tuning its strings to the love of him by whom I am rendered the But and Scope of the whole World's government What shall I say to Thee my heart-o'rewhelming Love when I consider how many millions are swallowed in eternall perdition whilest I am one of that small number Thou hast brought to the light and height of knowing Thee and finding the narrow path to salvation That Thou art not unjust I easily see for all is thine and in thy hand to give and dispose according to thy liberality to which he where Thou extendst it not can pretend no claim having more already to thank Thee for then he is able to esteem But why then didst Thou set set thine Eye upon me preferring this wretch before so many thousands Was I nobler or more excellent then they O no Angels and Hosts of heaven whose Being or Nature I am not able to apprehend lye chain'd in Sulphure and darknesse Was my Wit or Parts beyond others O no the Sages of India and the subtile Riddlers of the East were ignorant of thy Law and perisht in their Ignorance Was I mightier or richer then they O no the Conquerours of Kingdomes and the Gyants powerfull in warre were not chosen by Thee much lesse the Sons of Agar the Merchants that traverse the world to purchase treasure and heap up the wealth of Nations were called to thy light Let me sound as deep as I can nothing but thy self-Goodnesse Wisdome and Power without the least preceeding disposition in me can I find to be the source and spring of all this advantage O My Soul What dost expect if this be not enough to set thee on fire yet look but about thee and behold a farther endearment See thine own Countrey thy Neighbours Acquaintance thy Kindred and Friends how many maist thou observe in all degrees more worthy of acceptation then thou yet they neglected and Mercy indulged thee think but on those whose good nature and innocent life makes thy self many times compassionatly grieve at their unhappinesse and desiring to be the means of bringing them to that great good wherein thou art a sharer and reflect that former Ages and the vast spatiousnesse of the Earth afford many millions of such yet all permitted to undo themselves and run upon their everlasting ruine Consider this strange partiallity of mercy And yet thou canst doubt yet thou canst say Were I sure of Gods love But why did I ask whether I was better then others so deserving preferrence since I have or can have no good but from Thee Could I pre-ordain my self to be born of Christian and Catholick Parents who should take care to incorporate me into the Family of the Heirs of Blisse by the Sacraments instituted and afforded by Thee Might I be the cause why my Mother Nurses fed me as soon with wholesome Doctrine as with their Milk why they prepar'd Priests Masters to guide frame my tender Age was 't I that led me to a liking of the true Religion that only Path of Heaven or brought I my self to believe and hope in Thee to love Thee and those Rewards thou hast prepar'd for them that follow thee No no dear and dread Providence Thou art our Alpha and Omega If I do any Good Thou provid'st and fittest the means for it if I abstain from Evil Thou divert'st the Occasions Thou presentest awing Fears and shak'st perpetually the Bridle over my head that I may not be lawlesse and undisciplin'd If I consult of any acceptable work Thou preparest me Motives by Books by Teachers by Friends by Opportunities Thou directest my Thoughts and apprehensions ordering my Spirits in my Brain that what will be efficacious should occurre Thou enlightenest my Judgement to discern the consequence of Truths necessary to my Resolution Thou quellest my Appetite that it hinder not those Truths from setling in me If I resolve Thou so rangest all things that I chuse what is best not only for the present but what shall be so too in future occasions whereof I know nothing And as I am utterly ignorant of the things that are to fall out many moneths and years after which neverthelesse depend on this Resolution and in their season so take their force from it that they would certainly fail if it had not been made right no more or rather much lesse know I any thing or did I co-operate in the least to that long Chain of Causes which bred in me all those parts and little circumstances every one so necessary to this Resolution that if any had miss'd the Resolution had miscarried more or lesse not proving the same nor producing the same effects So that let me reflect on any action great or little long or short or however qualified I find that 't is I indeed do it but the force and vertue by consequence the honour and praise is thine I do it but as the Child to whom the Nurse gives Nuts or Beads and holding his hand throwes them into a hole whilst he alas thinks 't is he playes so well and pleases himself as with his own act not having the wit to consider 't is his Nurses aime Just so my God and my tender Sustainer just so dost thou with me whilst I often forget thee my weak brains reaching no farther then to see that I do the deed without being able through dulnesse or pride to passe my self and discern thee the only true cause and root of all my good But seeing my self consult resolve and do I often take this wretch for as primary as Thou for thy coefficient and helper not purely thine instrument and wholly depending on thee Which since I barely am and that vertuous action my chiefest good proceeds so entirely from Thee what is left for me but to love ever love and nothing else but love Thus far reach the Entry and Porch of Love's Palace Then we discover Its great Hall when we begin to contemplate the Essentiall Deity macerated and steep'd for our sakes in all the Miseries of Mankind That God of Gods lap'd up in a Virgin 's Wombe delivered naked into freezing winds and the smart stroaks of night-aire swath'd in bands and clouts hanging at a Maidens breasts short in Age weak in limbs and not forgetting to fulfill all infirmities of his Brethren Soon after led by his Mothers hand setling his tender steps feeding on the fruits of our earth following his Parents to Jerusalem lost and sought and not found with teares subject to his Mother and her Husband growing in Wisdome and Vertue as well as in Body After this working with his reputed Father and in no visible fashion differing from the life of his Parents till he was baptiz'd by Saint John his holy Precursor Then fasting forty dayes in the Wildernesse gathering Disciples instructing them working miracles before them living on the
He loves improves and raises every ones happinesse to a farre higher degree in that it makes all them love one another and publishes his particular Love of thee to be known and esteem'd by all the loves Nor is there the least subject of any Envy or Jealousie He can wait on All entertain All fill All content All blesse and beatifie All at once And now my glorious Lord having sifted and rack't my brains to find some exception against Thee some excuse to palliate my withholding the Duty I owe Thee some Cross-knot to dull the piercing of thy two-edg'd sword dividing my Soul and Spirit behold nothing imaginable but all sweetness all heat all light O then let me turn my course and joy at my missing desired misfortune Let me sit with the happy Spouse so pleas'd with every part of her Lover Let me delight my self to consider the Greatnesse of every Perfection in Thee and the Infinitenesse of All. Let me compare Thy Eternity to the weak imitation of humane Nobility and scorning This joy in the immense eminency of That Let the vast extent of thy Power in widenesse and profundity to all effects and to Huge ones make me laugh at the narrow-compass'd and beggarly ends which the ambitious Hearts of this world aim at O the poor Treasures that can be hoarded in caves in houses or towers what proportion do they bear to Thy wealth O the scant presence and jealous absence of Lovers in this world the outwardnesse of them and hearts to-be-guess'd-at what bitter-sweets must they of necessity cause Besides their shallow wits and short reaches in no other respect to be esteem'd but because we find no better their hungry benefits and pinching prodigalities proportion'd to their petty affections their by-ends and base aims in their most reall and truest professions their weak and impertinent passions their fond and changeable inclinations easily consum'd in a few triviall disgusts What miserable penurious blasts are these to blow the coals of Love And yet have these so long mov'd my Heart whilst it has lyen so heavy and restiff to lift it self up and follow thee O my onely Good henceforth for ever make me run like the blessed Magdalen without care or consideraton after the Odours of thy Perfumes Make it all my pleasure to sit hours and dayes and nights weighing every Excellency of thine and considering how good it is for all Creatures and particularly for me that Thou art so rich in glory so full of perfections but above all how thy adorable Attributes become Thy self how bright and beautifull they sit upon Thee Make me spend all my forces in blessing Thee that Thou art such in rejoycing at it in protesting that 't is all reason all fitnesse all justice it should be so that 't is the blisse of thy Creatures but yet a greater good and farre more excellent in it self Make me vapour away into Acts and Wills to have it so to render it such were it not so and in my power to procure it and that for what it is to me but much more for what it is to Thee But oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish darksome partiall and Enigmaticall shall be turn'd into manly noon-like full and clear Vision O how unmeasurably must my Love be there increas'd where the Object cannot fail to deserve infinitely more then I can employ yet shall I then employ infinitely more then I can now imagine and as the degrees of Love are multiplied the degrees of Joy must still grow higher and the more the Joy is so much more must the Love be redoubled thus raising still one the other to the very breaking in pieces the Adamantine sinews of my Soul whilest the Object ever stretches by its infinite perfection the bounds of a capacity ever yielding to embrace it O how shall I cling to and incorporate with him not for fear of losing but for eager desire of more enjoying O how shall I melt into esteemings and praisings and Love-breathing Dittyes how shall I inessence my self into that Fountain of Goodnesse Oh come oh come that happy day come even now I fear neither Hell nor Judgement for I know Thou canst bear no wrath against those that love Thee Come then come while these sweet sighs call on Thee wrest my soul from this loading this loathsome body skrew up even these very aspirations to such a pitch that they become the happy instrument to break my heart-strings those fetters and bonds of my imprison'd Soul which keep it from the sight of my so-beloved Spouse and Master and set me at liberty in the eternall freedome of thy Palace and everlasting glory of thy celestiall Presence Fiat Fiat BReath a while my Soul and recall a little thy Spirits This Stupendious Palace of Love still deserves a more curious search 't is not impertinent here to be humbly inquisitive Let 's see whether there be not yet some farther secret worthy our discovery And behold a Lock and little Door Oh 't is Loves Cabinet Certainly He there reserves some rare Jewel to enrich and adorn thee Knock call aloud and if he delay to open at least peep through the key-hole and see what 's within O Glory 't is the very Quintessence of Loves Object I see how because God is sole Eternall all things must be made by Him and since nothing can give but what it has nor make but what it is I see the whole frame of all that is or can be must be in Him with all their joynts and intriques wherewith they are intangled in their flowing from Him Whence I plainly discern that by knowing Him I shall know all things and all causes of all things O vast and spacious Wisdome O incredible content For since my Soul is nothing else but a Vessel and capacity of knowledge and This alone is the knowledge of all things by their proper Causes too and those resolv'd into theirs even to the very highest cause not ascending backward but beginning at the Spring-head and most knowing it and from it descending even to the lowest the most impartible grain of Sand or Dust what can my Soul wish more what can it imagine greater Yes my prospect opens it self farther and I see that since all created things are in themselves dispers'd and multiplied with infinite variety and sometimes incompossibility and contradiction but in God refin'd and resum'd into a most simple and indivisible Being they must infinitely be better in Him then in themselves He yet infinitely better then they For as four cannot be different from three but because it has somewhat that three has not so God must have something that is not in Creatures to be different from them and this being of a higher order and more eminent rank must of it self be better then all they put together and of a far nobler and richer glorious possession I see yet more that since God is cause of all other things out of