Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	part_n	soul_n	2,761	5	5.3627	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80530	Experience, historie, and divinitie Divided into five books. Written by Richard Carpenter, vicar of Poling, a small and obscure village by the sea-side, neere to Arundel in Sussex. Who being, first a scholar of Eaton Colledge, and afterwards, a student in Cambridge, forsooke the Vniversity, and immediatly travelled, in his raw, green, and ignorant yeares, beyond the seas; ... and is now at last, by the speciall favour of God, reconciled to the faire Church of Christ in England? Printed by order from the House of Commons.	Carpenter, Richard, d. 1670?	1641 (1641)	Wing C620B; ESTC R229510	263,238	607

and for us all MEDITATION III. ANd the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his Gen. 2. 7. nostrhils the breath of life and man became a living soule For when the Angels enriched with such absolute gifts and dowries of nature by occasion of their shining and beautifull nature had lost and lost beyond recovery the fairest beauty under Heaven which is Grace God turning his Omnipotencie to the Creation of man made as if he feared the like inconvenience all that is visible in Him of Earth of base and foule earth Which lest it should continually provoke a loathing he hath changed into a more fine substance covered all over with a fair and fashionable skinne but with a condition of returning at a word and halfe a call from Heaven unto Earth and into Earth That although he might afterwards be lifted up in the scale of his soule hee might be depressed againe presently on the other side by the waight and heavinesse of his body and so might lay the deep and low foundation of humility requisite to the high and stately building of vertue If now God should turn a man busie in the commission of some haynous crime into his first earth that presently in steed of the man should appeare to us an Image of clay like the man and with the mans cloathes on standing in the posture in which the man stood when he was wholly tooke up in committing that high sinne against God Should we not all abominate so vile a man of clay lifting himselfe against the great God of Heaven and Earth And God breathed upon his face rather then upon any other part of his body because all the senses of man doe flourish in his face and because agreeably to his own ordinance in the face the operations of the soule should be most apparent as the signes of feare griefe joy and the like wherefore one calls the eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most exact and accurate images of the Damascenus in vita Isidori minde But stay I grant that God in the beginning first rais'd all things by a strange lift out of nothing And I confesse it is true not that which Pythagoras his Schollers had so often in their mouthes Ipse dixit and no farther but ipse dixit facta sunt as the Prophet David singeth God spake the word and all this gallant world rose presently out of nothing as if sencelesse nothing had heard his voyce and obeyed him And I am sufficiently convinced that God brought our first Father from cōmon earth that we cannot touch without defiling our fingers to earth of a finer making call'd flesh But how are we made by him wee come a naturall way into the world And it is not seene that God hath any extraordinary hand in the work Truly neither are the influences of the Sunne and Starres apparent to us in our composition yet are they necessary to it Sol homo generant hominem sayes Aristotle The Sunne and a Arist man betwixt them beget a child The reasonable soule is created by God in the body at the time when the little body now shapen is in a fit temper to entertaine it For the soule is so noble and excellent both in her substance and operations that shee cannot proceed originally from any inferiour cause nor be but by creation And if God should stay his hand when the body is fitly dressed and disposed for the soule the child would be borne but the meanest part of a man And doubtlesse God useth Parents like inferiour officers even in the framing of the Body For if the Parents were the true Authors and master builders of the body they should be endued naturally with a full and perfect knowledge of that which they make They should fully and perfectly know how all things are ordered and fitted in the building They should know in particular how many strings veins sinewes bones are dispensed through all the body in what secret Cabinet the braine is locked up in what posture the heart lyeth and what due motion it keepes what kinde of Cookery the stomack uses which way the rivers of the bloud turne and at what turning they meet what it is that gives to the eyes the principality of seeing to the eares of hearing to the nose of smelling to the mouth of censuring all that passes by the taste and to the skin and flesh the office of touching Nor is this all But also when the body is taken up and borded by a sicknesse or when a member withers or is cut off truly if the Parents were the only Authors of the body they might even by the same Art by which they first framed it restore it againe to it selfe As the maker of a clock or builder of a house if any parts be out of order can bring them home to their fit place and gather all againe to uniformity So that every man naturally should be so farre skill'd in Physick and Surgerie and have such an advantage of power that his Art should never faile him even in the extraordinary practice of either To this may be added that the joyning together of the soule and body which in a manner is the conjunction of Heaven and Earth of an Angell and a beast could not be compassed by any but a workman of an infinite power For by what limited art can a spirit be linked to flesh with so close a tye as to fill up one substance one person They are too much different things the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Gregory Nazianzen speaks a ray of the S. Greg. Naz Divinity the other a vile thing extracted from a dunghill Nor is there any shew of semblance or proportion betwixt them And therfore to make these two ends meet is a work which requires the hand and the onely hand of the Master Workman The Divines give three speciall reasons why God joyned a body to a soule First moved by his infinite goodnesse because he desired to admit a body as well as a spirit to the participation of himselfe and all creatures being spirituall or corporall a body could never have beene partaker of blessednesse had it not beene joyned to a spirit Secondly for the more generall exercise of vertue in the service of God for a soule could not have acted many vertues without the aide of a body as the vertues of temperance and chastity For the Devils are not delighted with the sinnes contrary to these vertues but for our guilt Thirdly the perfection of the universe For as there are creatures only spirits as Angels and creatures onely bodily as beasts and trees so it was a great perfection that there should also be creatures both spirits and bodies By which it is evident that God placed man in a middle condition betwixt Angels and beasts to the end he might rise even in this life with Elias to the sublime and superiour state of

proud that wee passe with such a noise to heare newes and to talk vainly to heap sin upon sinne and the world weary of the burthen passeth by us and presently God heapeth punishment upon punishment Foolish men and women how we sweat and spend our selves we see the spade working and deep graves digg'd every day and yet live as if we did not beleeve we should dye In the streets one goes this way another in hast that way a third crosses the way turnes againe then looks behind him and would faine goe two wayes at once It is wonderfull How stirring and busie wee are about the present things of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called by the Apostle because nothing is ours but what is present He is a fond and miserable man that pleaseth himselfe in the thought of any thing but God and Heaven Fix here my soule and thou shalt find more true and solid pleasure in one meditation of Heaven though it is absent then in all earthly things although present and before thee MEDITATION XI THe soule being created for God and bearing his image or stamp God is the most proper end of the soule as the earth if it be lawfull to compare great things with little is the most proper place of a stone And therefore a stone being tossed from the earth as soone as it can shake off vim impressam the impression of the force which mov'd it that being out of breath and spent if there be no stop it presently returnes with all possible haste as it were glad being let goe and set at liberty to the earth which ownes it And so the just soul to God The soule in statu conjunctionis in the state of her conjunction with the body being wedded to it as to a fellow-helper sees by the eyes heares by the eares and in a manner feeles by the body Now the soule having beene created in the body and never yet us'd but to this kinde of knowing by the senses is so busied so kept in continuall work and so amused with the representations of the senses that shee is little urgent in the desire of her end as being tooke up with great diversity of other imployment which being alwayes new and therefore strange begets a zealous attention in the soule and so turnes her from God It is true if she listen to the whisper of an inspiration or heare a discourse of heavenly things she likes it well and feels a pleasant tickling of sweetnesse because it is agreeable with her end and then perhaps the desire of her end awakes sits up but other occurrences calling earnestly for admittance the soule gives way and the desire of the last end lyes fairely down and sleeps again But the soul being now in statu seperationis in her state of separation from the body they having been newly divorced and missing her body and her accustomed way of knowing by the senses missing the former use of the world and the things she saw and heard in the body thinks presently where am I I am another kind of creature Then being freed from all hinderance she begins to stirre towards her end For now she is like a stone as farre in the ayre as it can goe vvhere it cannot rest but quit of the force gives back and furnished vvith Guides shee flyes vvith all readinesse to God in his Kingdome the place of installment as to her last end Here I have the reason why the Divines say that whereas there are two much different paines in Hell poena sensus the paine of sense caused by the fire of Hell and poena damni the pain of losse by the losse of God the paine of losse is the greatest For the reprobate soul being thrust out of the body and having received her doome in the very place of her expulsion is struck presently with a strong apprehension of her end and of the worth and excellency of it and of her miserable solitarinesse without it from which shee being turned the wound bleeds and shee suddenly cries out wanting a Comforter My end where is my end I misse something the best thing what God O where is God I misse my end And then shee catches at him and misses and missing cries out and catches again and still misses crying I want rest in my end in God Where is my end that is God and God that is my end There is no rest for a soul out of the body but in God as there was no true rest for a soule in the body but in God I have bin long at hard labour now in the end I would rest in my end For I cannot be at rest without my end O my end while I continue without my end my torment will continue without end O what shall I do Where shall I begin How shall I end without my end And then catching at her end shee is caught her selfe away to hell fire and carried farther from her end Where she shall be alwayes catching and alwayes missing alwayes seeking and never finding alwayes complaining either of her paine or of her losse but most of her losse or of her losse of all but her paine and her losse which she would faine lose but cannot from which most wofull estate God deliver me But the just soule presently after the first apprehension of her end shal be joyned unseperably to it in which end shall be the end of all earthly motion and therefore all rest Blessed are the dead saith St. Iohn whom Dionysius salutes by the Revel 14. 13. Dionys Areop in ep ad Joan. in exilio agente Ver 11. name of Divine which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours But of the damned hee sayes confidently in the same Chapter they have no rest day nor night Have I heard a malefactor appointed by judgement to be starved after the gnawing and devouring of his owne armes crying bread bread If I suppose he cryes rest rest it is the voyce of the damned person MEDITATION XII VVE see many times and most commonly men and women lying on their death-beds some little while before their passage or departure in wondrous traunces took away from their senses At which times some look very cheerefully smiling like Angels and send from them shoots of joy and gladnesse And some looke frightfully and fill their death-chamber with shreeks and clamours We cannot in the generall give the causes of these different effects For the most part it is thus At such a time the soule heares her house crack and now threatning a fall And she sees that after the fall all the house will be so confus'd and out of order that shee will not be able to stirre about or doe any thing belonging to the keeping of a house and that then there will be no reason why shee should rather be in her house then in any other part of the world And in a manner rising

is the great directour of the Church and enemie to the devill in his oppositions of it hee still had a blow at the Holy Ghost first in Theodoret who denied the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son and now in the Grecians But we shall heare more of him anon CHAP. 7. VVHat mervaile now if greene in Age and shallow in experience I gave up my soule into the black hands of errour The causes of my closing with the Church of Rome were three First a consideration of the great sinnes of this Kingdome and especially of that open scandalous and horrible sinne of Drunkennesse which my soule hateth And I weakly argued from a blemish of manners in particular persons to a generall and over-spreading corruption of Faith My thoughts represented a drunkard to me sometimes in this manner What is a Drunkard but a beast like a man or something lower then a beast When he is in his fit no sense will performe his fit office Spectacles in all figures appeare to him hee thinks hee sees more shapes then God ever made A cloud settles in his eyes and the whole body being overflowne they seeme to float in the floud The earth seemes to him to nod and hee nods againe to it trees to walk in the fields houses to rise from their places and leape into the Aire as if they would tumble upon his head and crush him to a Cake and therefore he makes hast to avoid the danger The Sea seemes to rore in his cares and the Guns to goe off and he strives to rore as loud as they The Beere begins to work for he foames at the mouth Hee speaks as if the greater part of his tongue were under water His tongue labours upon his words and the same word often repeated is a sentence You may discover a foole in every part of his face Hee goes like like what nothing is vile enough to suit in comparison with him except I should say like himselfe or like another drunken man And at every slip he is faine to throw his wandring hand upon any thing to stay him with his body and face upwards as God made him Vmbras saepe S. Ambr. lib. de Elia jejunio cap. 16. transiliunt sicut foveas saith S. Ambrose Comming to a shadow of a post or other thing in his way hee leapes taking it for a ditch Canes si viderint leones arbitrantur Idem ibid. fugiunt sayes the same Father if he sees a dogge he thinks it to be a Lyon and runs with all possible hast till hee falls into a puddle where hee lyes wallowing and bathing his swinish body like a hogge in the mire And after all this being restored to himselfe he forgets because hee knew not perfectly what hee was and next day returnes againe to his vomit And thus he reeles from the Inn or Tavern to his house morning and evening night and day till after all his reeling not being able to goe hee is carried out of his House not into the Taverne alas hee cannot call for what hee wants but into his Grave Where being layd and his mouth stopt with dirt hee ceases to reele till at last hee shall reele body and soule into hell where notwithstanding all his former plenty variety of drinks hee shall never be so gracious as to obtaine a small drop of water to coole his tongue Then if it be true as it is very likely which many teach that the devils in hell shall mock the troubled imagination of the damned person with the counterfeit imitation of his sinnes the devils will reele in all formes before him to his eternall confusion In vain doth S. Paul cry out to this wretch Be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse but be filled with the spirit For the same vessell Eph. 5. 18. cannot be filled with wine and with the spirit at the same time In vaine doth hee tell him that wee should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Sobriè 2 Tit. 12. saith S. Bernard nobis justè proximis pie autem Deo Soberly in our selves righteously S. Bern. in Serm. sup Ecce nos reliquimus omnia or justly towards our neighbours and godly towards God alwayes remembring that we are in this present world and that it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the present point of Time and but one instant that we enjoy at once And somtimes in this manner my thoughts shewed me a drunken man Hee is a most deformed creature one that lookes like the picture of a devill one who stands knocking at hell-gate and yet it is not able to speak a plaine word and call for mercy one that could stand and goe but now lyes all along in his owne filthinesse one that is loathed by the Court and all the Citizens of Heaven one that for the time doth not beleeve that there is a God or that Christ died for the sinnes of the world one that may be lawfully thought a man of little wit and lesse grace one who is the Ow● of all that see him and the scorne and abomination even of his drunken companions one who if he should then dye would certainly be a companion of devils in hell fit● for ever one that is ready to commit adultery murder treason to stab or hang himselfe to pull God out of Heaven or doe any thing that is not good And if it be a firme ground that putting our selves into the occasions of such and such sins we are as guilty of them as if wee had committed them although we did not formally and explicitely intend them how many great sins hath one act of drunkennesse to answer for Drunkennesse is most hatefull to God because it putteth out the light of Reason by which man is distinguished from a beast and all better lights with it and throwes a man beneath Gods creation and therefore drunkennesse is more or lesse grievous as it more or lesse impeacheth the light and sight of Reason Natura paucis contenta Nature is contented with a little quam si superfluis urgere velis saith Boetius which if you shall urge and load with superfluous Boet. things you will destroy And one over-chargeth his stomack and vainely casteth away that for want of which or the like another daily crieth in the streets with a lamentable voyce Good Sir for Gods sake pitty these poore fatherlesse children ready to starve one is hungry and another is drunken And the great end of the 1 Cor. 11. 21. Creator was to supply necessity and the necessity of every creature And Sobriety and Temperance are faire vertues which even the Glutton and Drunkard doe praise and magnifie If wee turne aside into the Church-yard wee shall finde it a dry time there There are no merry meetings under ground no musick no dancing no songs no jesting company Every body sleepes there and therefore there is no noise at all Perhaps indeed as men passe

Institution by which they differ from others is to teach and instruct secular people and to reside in Benefices and be Parish Priests Here I have a notable trick to discover and I shall ever stop and stand amazed and ponder the malice of the Jesuits when I think of it Their best and most able Schollers they send alwayes to Spaine and onely their weaker vessels to Rome in their ordinarie proceedings whereof some are lame some crooked others imperfect in the naturall part of speaking The reason of it is excellent knowledge The Schollers being with them and subordinate to them in their Colledges and now far from their Country it is a great portion of their labour to win them by favours promises threats in the by and much cunning to be Jesuits and so they never leave any if all they can doe will doe withall for the Secular Priests but the leane and bony end and the refuse of them For the Jesuits and the Secular Priests are great opposites and much contrary in their opinions and the weaknes of the one wil help negatively to the strength of the other The Pope being informed of this Jesuiticall device gave a command at Rome where his power is absolute in all kindes that every Scholler the yeare of his probation being expired should bind himselfe by an oath not to enter into any order of Religion till after three yeares durance in England And then they began to set on foot the trick I told you of But if one desires admittance into a mission who by reason of some defect for example the defect of having entred into an order and returned with dislike cannot according to their rules be a Jesuit if hee comes with strong and able commendations they will send him to Rome though he be a deserving man that he and such as he may stand like a good face or a fresh colour over the device that lyeth inward They have a very godly-fac'd answer to this objection and say these imperfect creatures are as God made them and they are sent over by their poore friends to be Priests and we that weare out our bodies and lifes in the education of Youth have good reason to chuse the sounder part and they which come to us are not taken from the Church but restored to it in a more excellent manner But first according to their own Principles they are bound to goe along with the Founders intention and the Founder intended the maintenance for able men Secondly they doe not performe their obligation of Charity towards the body of the Clergie which they notably maime and disable and yet in those places they are onely Stewards for the Clergie Thirdly they doe great injurie both to their Church and their cause which suffereth oftentimes by such Martyrs of Nature and such unskilfull Defenders Some of which cannot read Latine nor yet hard English See how God worketh for us by their sins Fourthly they delude the Popes command concerning the oath and wholly frustrate his purpose and their fourth vow of obedience to his Holinesse stands for a cypher in this businesse And much more What remaineth now but that malice is predominant in the action and that they make themselves Gods and turne all to their owne ends CHAP. 13. AT St. Omers their manner is to make triall of every one that comes what nature and spirit hee is of and what progresse he hath made in learning partly by applying subtill young Lads to him which keepe him company and turne him outward and inward againe and make returne of their observations to the Jesuits and partly by their owne sifting him either in discourse or examination or in some other more laboured exercise Which triall when I had undergone an old Jesuit gray in experience and a crafty one and one whose name you have in your minde when you think Not being then Vice-provinciall of the English Jesuits look'd soberly upon me and told me of a spirituall exercise in use amongst them which would much preferre me in the service of God if I was pleased to make use of it I yeelded And the next day in the evening I was brought into a Chamber where the Curtaines were drawne and all made very dark onely a little light stole in at a corner of the window to a Table where stood pen ink and paper and order was given me by my ghostly Father a cunning man a man that did not walk in the light that I should not undraw the Curtaines or speak with any person but himselfe for certaine dayes and what the spirit of God should inspire into my heart concerning my course of life I should write there being pen ink and paper And he left a Meditation with mee the matter of which was indeed very heavenly and hee brought every day two or three more Hee visited me two or three times a day and alwayes his question was after how doe you childe and so forth What have you wrot any thing Feel you not any particular stirrings of the spirit of God And alwayes I answered plainely and truly no. Having beene kept in darknesse some dayes and alwayes left to a more serious and attentive listning after the holy Ghost and perceiving no signes of a releasement I began to suspect what the man aim'd at And I prayed heartily that my good God would be pleased to direct me Think with me Had these Meditations beene appointed meerely and precisely for the elevation of my soule to God they had beene excellent but perverted and abused to serve mens ends they were not what they were But I thought I would know farther e're long The holy man came againe and still enquired if I knew the minde of the Holy Ghost My answer was I did hope yes but I was loth because ashamed to speak it Being encouraged by him I said That in my last Meditation the spirit of God seemed to call me to the Society Hee knew the phrase and the sense of it was God moved me to be a Jesuit He presently caught up my words and told me I was a happy man and had great cause to blesse God for so high a calling with much to that purpose And when he had his end my Meditations had their end and the Curtaines were drawne and having beene enlightned from Heaven it was granted that I should enjoy the light of the world and there was all the good man look'd for But had not the Holy Ghost spoke as he did hee would not have beene thought to speake like the Holy Ghost And now I was brought downe from my dark Cell with great joy and lightsomnesse and all the Boyes were unexpectedly sent abroad with me that afternoone to recreate their spirits and be merry with the new-borne childe Yet afterwards a performance being required of what I had promised my heart gave back For I had been counselled by some of the lesse Jesuited Schollers to goe in a mission and read farther in the practice of

to speake with a Jusuite at his chamber in London found him earnest in his study behinde a curtaine After the discussion of their businesse the Jesuit stepped hastily downe to give order concerning the entertainment of his friend And in the interim the Frier looked behinde the the curtaine and found before his chair a written book The title of the Chapter which then lay open was By what motives to stirre a widow or other free person to give her estate into the hands of the Church and how afterwards to dispose of her The Frier by whom I was informed named to me a principall man of his Order who then had one of these bookes lying by him Whatsoever the Scribes and Pharises practised I doe not read that they commended the art of devouring widowes houses to writing for the information of their posterity THe fortune of the booke as it was related to me is this The Jesuits dare not print it lest it should at any time slip besides their hands into the world And the Jesuits that are sober natur'd and seriously given are never suffered to heare of this booke it is onely permitted to practical men and at such a time after their entrance into the Order but not before I had formerly heard of this booke and that it was full of damnable conveyances My Reader may see with halfe an eye that I relate things briefely and plainely and that I build upon the testimonies which they give one of another being a sure way The learning of bookes plowes not halfe so deepe Another Frier struck both the Jesuits and the Monks in one turning of his tongue with these words The Jesuits are the daily plotters and actours of businesses which we can never answer And were not the Monks ashamed to give out the other day that a mad man of their Order wrought miracles These Friers have a sleight by which they confirme their young ones They have printed under a picture of Saint Francis Saint Francis obtained of God by his prayers that whosoever dieth in his Order and hath the benefit of confession shall insallibly goe to Heaven The Monks have made the like promise under the picture of Saint Benet But let them unloose this knot without cutting it If their confession come from a penitent heart it will bring them alone to Heaven in the opinion of the Romanists if it come not from such a bruised heart Heaven is denyed to it by all their Doctors The Jesuits are a little more solid They have a picture wherein are printed at large the Prophecies of many Jewish Rabbines foretelling that God would send a religious and learned company of men into the World in the decaying and old age of it as I imagine for the elects sake Now I began to turne my thoughts a seeking againe because I had not yet found what I looked for And therefore I pretended the want of health and loth to continue a begging Frier upon these tearmes freely begged leave to depart CHAP. VII I Was now even cloyed and surfeited with these vanities And I meditated upon a conversion to the Church of England But although I staggered having drunke deepe of the poysoned Cups of Babylon yet my whole heart was never converted neither did I ever apply my selfe with an open profession to the Church of England before this happy time And still my heart gaped for more knowledge of their wayes Wherefore I was commended to an uncloister'd Monk in Paris with whom I lived a while as a stranger and enjoyed the great benefit of a faire Library This Monk communicated with the Church of Rome but inclined very much to the Greeke Church Yet his two Monks for they were all his family inclined every way as they went being seldome sober In Paris I found the fault of Doway that many schollers lived by theft and that men threw themselves into danger of their lives who stirred abroad in the black of night as well neare the Colledges as elsewhere These are not good orders of Universities neither is this a promising and hopefull education of Priests In this Towne I lay at watch for a better occasion You shall have more hereafter Now onely one farewell to the Friers They have many Rules of a strange out-landish nature and condition He that will be rul'd by reason may judge of this Rule A Frier is licensed by his Rule to touch and receive money with his Garment his sleeve or the lappet of his coate but not with his hand He is utterly forbid to touch it with any part of his flesh I see there may be an equivocation committed as well in manners as in words And I saw this Rule kept by a Frier who received a French crowne into a paper In the defiance of this and all other Rules of the like profession I give to him who is pleased to take with his bare hand and heart Rules directory in a Christian life and founded either in themselves or in their grounds upon the received principles of Gods holy word Rule 1. REmember alwayes that God is alwayes with you about you in you and in every part of you and of all his creatures and that when you goe from one place to another you leave God behinde you and yet he goes with you and yet you finde him where you come because he was there before you came And that although not alwayes the same yet some Angels and Devils are alwayes by you watching over you and carefully observing your behaviour yea and oftentimes beholding your heart in outward actions And let your thoughts and tongue bee alwayes running and repeating Shall I commit an act of high treason against so great a King so just and severe a Judge so good so pure a God and in his presence It is he whom Joseph meant when hee said How can I doe this great wickednesse and sinne against God How sweet is God that sendeth his first and most perfect creatures his holy Angels downe from Heaven with an injunction of stooping and attending to the meane and homely affaires of men The Angels are daily conversant with us and yet are never discharged from the glorious vision of God to whom they are united being present with them wheresoever they are such a pretious mixture and composition of good things ought the life of man to be it must be compounded of holy practise and heavenly contemplation The Devill standeth ready to dash out our braines to destroy the body and to devoure the soule to disturbe the peace of nature to confound the elements to mingle Heaven and Earth to trouble all wishing earnestly and earnestly entreating that God would turne away his milde face his gentle eyes and say Goe my Executioner revenge my cause upon the World And yet God will not O the delicacie of the Divine sweetnesse Learne the nature of the Devill In one thing especially the fall of the Angels was like the fall of man For as man was more

which cryeth to God onely for helpe which is throughly obedient for Gods sake to lawfull authority bee it amongst Heathens which doth not permit and countenance sinne by which onely God is dishonoured And she cannot be the cleane spouse of Christ which God and his Truth being infallible performeth the most high and most reverend Acts of religion upon uncertainties As prayeth absolutely for a soule turned out of the body without a certaine knowledge of her being a determinate friend or enemy of God And worshipeth that with the worship of God for God which if the Priest be deficient in his intention or defective in his orders is in her owne opinion a creature And she is not the faire spouse which hath lost her attractive beauty and which all Jewes and Infidels hate and abhorre justly moved at least with a notorious shew of Idolatry And therefore I beleeve that the Church of England is the Spouse of Christ as being free from these blemishes and conformable to Scripture And in the defence of this Faith I stand ready to give up my sweete life and dearest bloud And if I die suddenly to this Faith I commend the state of my eternity An Act of hope in God I doe hope in God because hee is infinitely full of goodnesse and is like a nurse which suffereth pain in her brests till she be eased of her milke because hee is most able and most willing to helpe me because he hath sealed his love with most unbreakable promises and because hee knoweth the manifold changes and chances of the world the particular houre of my death and the generall day of judgement in all which I hope greatly this good and great God will deliver me An Act of the love of God I such a one in perfect health and memory able yet to revell in the world to enjoy wealth and pleasure to scrifice my body and soule to sensuality doe contemne and lay under my feete all goe behinde me Satan sworne enemy of Mankinde and love God purely for himselfe For put the case he had not framed this world or beene the prime cause of any creature in it put the case hee had never beene the Author of any blessing to mee yet excellencie and perfection of themselves are worthy of love and duty and as the object of the understanding is truth so the object of the will is goodnesse and therefore my will shall cheerefully runne with a full career to the love of it Saint Austin S. Aug. hom 38. hath taught me Qui amicum propter commodum quodlibet amat non amicum convincitur amare sed commodum He that loves his friend for the profit he reapes by him is easily convinced not to love his friend but the profit Wherefore although I should see in the Propheticall booke of the divine Prescience my selfe not well using the divine helpes not rightly imploying the talents commended to my charge and to be damned for ever yet still I would love him away ill thoughts touch me not I would insomuch that if it were possible I would even compound and make to meet hands the love of God and damnation For although I were to be damned yet God could not be in the fault and though I should be exceedingly miserable by damnation he would yet remaine infinitely good and great by glory and though I did not partake so plentifully of his goodnesse yet many others would O Lord I love thee so truely that if I could possibly adde to thy perfection I freely would but because I cannot I am heartily glad and love thee againe because thou art so good and perfect that thou canst not be any way more perfect or good either to thy selfe or in thy self And I most humbly desire to enjoy thee that thy glory may shine in mee and that I may love thee for ever and ever It grieves me to thinke that if I should faile of thee in my death I should be deprived in Hell not onely of thee but also of the love of thee Note pray that other vertues either dispose us in a pious way towards our neighbour as justice or doe order the things which are ours and in us as many morall vertues or they looke upon those things which appertaine to God as Religion or they direct us to God himselfe but according onely to one Attribute or peculiar perfection As the vertue of Faith giveth us to beleeve the divine authority revealing to us Gods holy truth Hope to cast Anchor upon his helpe and promises But with charity or the love of God we fasten upon all God with respect to all his perfections we love his mercie justice power wisedome infinity immensity eternity And faith hope patience temperance and other vertues leaving us at the gate of Heaven charity enters with us and stayes in us for ever An Act of Humility O Lord if others had beene stored with the divers helpes the inspirations the good examples the good counsell the many loud cals from without and yet from thee which I have had they would have beene exceedingly more quicke more stirring in thy service Many Acts which I have thought vertues in me were onely deedes of my nature and complexion My nature is be spotted with many foolish humours I am unworthy dust and ashes and infinitely more unworthy then dust and ashes A Sinner I am not worthy to call thee Father or to depend in any kinde of thee to live or to be The foule Toade thy faire creature is farre more beautifull then I a Sinner-Toade Verily if men did know of me what thou knowest or what I know of my selfe I should be the rebuke and abomination of all the world An Act of resignation to the will of God Whither shall I flie but to thee O Lord the rich store-house of all true comfort The crosse which seemeth to me so bitter came from thy sweet will Can I be angry with thy good providence Is it not very good reason that thy royall will should be done in earth as it is in heaven And though perhaps it was not thy direct and resolute will that all my crosses should in this manner have rushed upon me yet the stroke of the crosse being given it is thy direct intention that I should beare it patiently I doe therefore with a most willing hand and heart take Gaule and Vineger delivered by thy sweete hands I doe kisse and embrace both the Giver and the gift And moreover give up my selfe and all that I have to the disposition of thy most sacred will health wealth that which I best love here and liberty and life and all are ready when thou callest Crosses are good signes For the more I suffer now the greater I hope shall be my glory And therefore to thee be the glory An Act of content I am fully and absolutely contented O Lord with thy glory And it is the head of all my comforts that thou art God and doest raign over us And

is a broad way Shee sought the King of Heaven in the way to Hell And therefore shee found him not And yet she was very forward in the first onset I will rise now She had not made her own the two lessons which are ever coupled together Depart from evill and doe good But Psal 34. 14. Vers 3. what hapned The Watchmen that goe about the Citie found me to whom I said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth Is it so pretty one you that rose up now and thought to watch out the night are you took your selfe by the Kings Watchmen for a straggler for a haunter of the streets and the broad wayes It will be question'd now whether you be honest or no both of your body and your hands The watchmen will tell you having met you at such a time that you doe not look honestly that your sin is plainly written in your forehead This affliction I hope will sift and winnow you You cannot bring the Watchmen within the circle of your fault It is their office to go about the City and to surpize such as you are Resolve them now and with sound reason whence you came and whither you would The poore lost thing hath griefe enough and her afflictions have made her bold She will not be question'd For before the Watchmen can open their mouths and speake to her she is wondrous busie in the examination of them Saw yee him whom my soule loveth And now she makes it plaine that her soule loves him She goes the right way to finde him She sues for direction to her beloveds Watchmen Doe yee heare you Watchmen nay pray let me speake first my late wandring is warrantable I goe in quest of him whom my soule loveth and my love cannot sleepe Speake one of you Did yee see him whom my soule loveth Were my love towards him all tongue or all face I could forbeare his company But because it is he whom my soule loveth while I have a soule I cannot be without him But did yee see him I am in great haste pray tell me While the Watchmen were getting up out of the deepe amazement into which shee had struck them like an unwonted apparition by night She steps aside in a heate And so I come to the rest I would sing to my soule It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loveth I held him and would not let him goe As soone as ever I had passed beyond them presently after I had untwisted my sel●e of company And what then Let all the world heare and rejoyce with me I found whom my soule loveth O deare Lord have I found thee Where hast thou beene this many a day I have beene seeking thee by night and upon my bed and about the City and in the streetes and in the broad wayes and I could not finde thee And I have beene found my selfe and tooke by thy officers they are not farre hence and had not my tongue beene very quick and ready and my wit good and my cause better I had beene sent to prison and laid fast enough But I presently tooke them off from all their authority and us'd thy name and said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth But thou hast not yet told me where thou hast beene Indeed I was halfe afraid I had quite lost thee I beleeve I doe I doe that had'st not thou sought me more then I sought thee wee had never met againe And thou didst help me to seeke thee but I could not helpe thee to seeke me as I could not helpe thee to make me For I was lost my selfe not only in my selfe but also in my understanding and I knew not what directions to give for the finding of my selfe because I knew not where I was But since I have extracted from particulars by the Chymistry of experience what a bottomlesse misery it is to be lost from thee and what a solitary labour it is to seeke thee now I have found thee I will hold thee with my heart and with both my hands and armes and I will not let thee goe The soule being now close in the armes of her Beloved must exercise her spirituall acts in a more perfect manner Let me kisse that middle wound that hath foure lesser wounds to waite upon it O those blessed Quires of Angels they sing marvellously well But when they have sung over all their songs no musicke is like to Davids Harp the old instrument of ten strings to wit the keeping of the ten Commandements by the which Gods holy will is performed This All-seeing providence that all over-flowing goodnesse that immensity this infinity Lord Lord whither goe I I am quite swallowed up No tongue can speake it Doe what pleaseth thee O most good and most great whose greatnesse doth most shine in goodnesse O God who can fadome thy eternity And now I cannot hold up my eyes I must needs fall fast asleepe CHAP. XVIII I Know what will happen to many of my Readers What I have wrote will put nature to the start and a little fright the soule And therefore it will worke in them awhile though at length weakly and remissely But other passages pressing upon them passages of mirth of businesse it will grow colder and colder in them weare away and after awhile be quite forgot the Devill hammering out by little and little a golden wedge with one of a base metall If the seed hath not fell upon good ground thus it will be with them And then let them thinke of me and remember that I foretold them what would happen Aethiops in balneum niger intrat saith Saint Gregory niger egreditur The Aethiopian goes blacke into the Bath and comes again blacke out of it The Prophet David hath a divine expression If he turne not he will Psal 7. 12. whet his sword meaning God hee hath bent his bowe and made it ready Whom doe we strike with a sword him that is nigh us Whom shoote with a bow one a farre off Who is nigh God the old man For by the course of nature hee is neare death Who seemes to be farre off the young man but God can reach him with his bow Lord helpe us We are farre gone We cannot learne that which God taught from the beginning of the world And when people began to multiply taught every day and houre And that which he most teaches of all that ever hee taught And what is it that here we have no continuing City but seeke one to come Heb. 13. 14 Could we sinfull creatures fore see our own ends and the lamentable chances that lie watching for us as we passe by such a day and such an houre the hardest of us would weepe let us weepe then for the cause of all our misery our execrable sinnes Christ wept over Jerusalem because he saw the hearts and fore-saw the ends of all the people in the City He saw perhaps