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
and Passion some for carelesnesse or ignorance some because they think it a piece of wit to mend every thing they tell so disguising and altering the truth that it requires a sharp and steady sight to discern it Now for reports how easily they rise upon what mistakes how they are increas'd going from hand to hand with what assurance even those who are accounted the best intelligencers will relate and confidently stand upon them our daily experience gives so full a satisfaction that 't is almost a folly to believe any thing certainly till a common consent has taken away all doubt And all these difficulties may in a proportion be applyed to Histories and perhaps in some respect remain lesse answerable then the objections against living reports so that I cannot but admire their levity who dare with such security ground their judgements in matters of great consequence upon the particular relations of some one or few Authours though living and present I see likewise I shall not be troubled with the drynesse the ill behaviour and importunity of such idle braines as are generally the inventers of those News nor be molested with impertinent discourses upon subjects of little moment in themselves and less concernments to me which often occur in the best Histories and Playes Neither shall my body be diseas'd my head heavy mine eyes sore my time over-slipt when businesse or rest calls upon me all which are diminishing circumstances I feel continually checking my appetite towards these delights in this world and I see all these being taken away there arises a pure a high an uninterrupted and never ending contemplatition an abundant a filling and overflowing delight Now methinks I begin to understand how the waters our Saviour promised the Samaritan can prove an everlasting Fountain of joy and refreshment perpetually springing to-eternall life But yet I do not find I shall have those pleasures that Playes and Romances aim at which consist in passion and unexpected Contrivances Nay methinks both are impossible to that State where neither Passion nor Ignorance have any place and nothing can be unexpected but what we are ignorant of untill it comes Light True it is you shall have no Passion yet shall you not want the least delight even That can afford For Passion does not please of it self but only so far as it increases our knowledge or heightens our affections Wherefore if the impression in the Soul be as great as Passion could make you shall have all the pleasure That can procure Now unexpectednesse moves us by that vertue which contraries put neer together have to encrease and set off one another such surprises being only a suddain joyning of some accident unthought on to what was formerly in full and quiet possession of our mindes For whilst our thoughts are wholly entertained and busily apply'd to any conceit we least expect to see the contrary fall out Now consider with your self the passage you must make out of the body into the state of Eternity how suddain how quick how truly indivisible it will be so that whatever surprise can be imagined in this world is dull and infinitely slower Remember farther that whatever settles in eternity can never fade or change so that how long soever you are out of the body all things shall be as fresh and new to you the last day as the first Conceit then what an unexpectednesse what a perpetuall newnesse shall be in all you know what an extream difference betwixt the conceits of them before and those you shall be endu'd with in that happy condition An able and judicious person was wont to compare this change with our going into a Court-mask when out of a darksome Gallery pestred with crowding noise and confusion by the short turn of a wheel in the twinkling of an eye we are translated as it were into a paradise of glorious light attracting spectacles and heavenly company Soul I see there will be no good thing wanting that can increase and heighten our pleasures but that only in short which would diminish and abate the great delights God hath created us for so that you need tell me no more of this point for I am fully satisfied and apprehensive of the vast joyes I shall derive out of this subject Light You must rise yet a little higher and set your self to contemplate those great Mysteries which have blinded the sharpest sights and puzzled the subtlest wits of the world Mysteries that dazled the eyes of S. Paul and struck his heart with wonder and astonishment whilst he stands admiring the depth of the riches of the wisdome and knowledge of God Think with your self that the Abysses of Gods judgement shall be layd open to your discovery the fates and destinies of Men and Angels why Jacob elected and Esau a reprobate before either of them had done or good or evil why Pharaoh obdurate and Moses made his God why S. Peter head of the Church and Judas a Devill seeing it was in the power of the Almighty to have disposed quite contrary of their fortunes or brought them all to felicity But far more content will you receive to see why the only seed of Abraham for thousands of years were the Elect people of God the rest of the nations all in heaps tumbling into eternall misery Why even since the Gospell so many and great Nations are inwrapped in no lesse darknesse and dismall unhappinesse for ever How all this can stand with God's infinite Goodnesse and Mercy Why he does not rather extinguish and annihilate the unfortunate Angels and Men then reserve them to such extremity of torments Certainly though all these secret mysterious effects are of so high a nature that we cannot reach their causes and true Motives for who is able to be the counseller of Almighty God in the fabrick disposure of the world yet may we arrive at this conclusion that of necessity there must be reasons for all Else what more unreasonable then to imagine that Almighty God who is Reason it self essentiall Understanding and absolute Omniscience does these great things without reason What more absurd then to say that whereas all upright mens wills are govern'd by reason God's will which is the Author the Exemplar and Rule of our wills is blind and wilfull What more extravagant then to think that the will which cannot swerve from doing the best should work without a best In fine what lamenesse were it in Almighty God to have his will more ample then his understanding could direct Reasons therefore there are and when you come to lay your mouth to the spring of eternall truth there shall you suck in these ineffable Mysteries there shall you see how from the essentiall goodnesse and the impossibilitie of swerving from it the world and all the variety of Creatures inevitably flow there shall you behold how by the infallible manuduction of Reason every particular is digested and ordered how by a constant line of succession the
omitted which is reasonable to be done Soul No certainly Light And is it not reasonable that every lovely thing should be lov'd and if any person have any lovelinesse that there should be a poize and proportion of love for every grain of it in him Soul All this is just and reasonable Light Take notice then there shall not be the least good quality in you which shall not by every one be lov'd for its being what it is and your self be belov'd for its being in you wherefore sit down and consider what the things are for which in this world you reasonably desire to be esteem'd and know you shall be lov'd for them above as much as they can deserve as much as you can wish Soul Peradventure they are things I shall not carry with me as wholly or in part belonging to my body Light No matter You shall be belov'd there because you had such things in time and place wherein 't was fit to have them Soul Now surely I have ground enough without farther curiosity or dispute to presume upon the content I desire since you have so plainly and evidently demonstrated it But I know not whether I am arriv'd at my hopes for I feel in my self an expectation that my familiar friends and kindred and such as I my self particularly love should likewise return me a speciall love Light Fear not you shall have that also For mark well the principle I told you that there should not be the least thing love-worthy in you but you shall be especially belov'd for it Now then if Friendship Kindred Acquaintance c. be things which put a particular obligation of love upon those persons betwixt whom they are you will be more lovely to them for these very respects wherefore all those will love you more especially then any others which I think is that you express'd to be your desire Soul Yes this is well but yet a little difficulty molests me I have been taught that God loves most and next to himself the Angels or Saints according as they are in degree under him then if the lowest love me as much as I deserve others will love me more then I deserve which is against reason and so impossible Light Two things are to be considered in love first the comparison of one beloved object to another and this way all will love you according to your desert for none shall prefer any thing lesse lovely before you nor you before any thing more lovely a second consideration is the strength of the affection we call Love which being according to the nature out of which it proceeds in all above your condition will be greater then you deserve in all under you weaker according to the proportion of their natures and strengths Soul Yet one thing more comes into my mind I see some strong natures in whom though by reall effects it evidently appeares they love their friend yet there is no tendernesse you can observe no motion of love in their hearts no shew in their change of countenance such a love gives me small content Shall we therefore have in Heaven a melting sweet delicious love or onely those strong and solid thoughts which as they are very good so are they far from giving that pleasure which this other soft and gentle love affords Light Would you not think that man unreasonable who being cold and brought to a good fire should refuse to warm himself because there was no smoak he having been alwayes accustomed to smoaky fires Soul Yes certainly for he contradicts his own pretence smoak being a hindrance to the heating he desires besides other inconveniences which render it offensive Light Such is the passion you call Love to that which truly is Love for everything being to be discern'd by the effects you shall see those who are most given to this whining sort of love least active to help themselves but wholly abandoned up to the following of their Passion without indeavouring to procure what they desire So in grief if you see one fit still weeping and despairing you count him womanish and not so much that his sorrow is great as that a little overcomes him Besides this passion is but an expression of the inward mind or rather a wasting of it for we see that ordinarily weeping eases and discharges the heart which becomes lighter after such venting of it self by tears So that this which you desire to have in Heaven is not love but an expression or concomitant of it weakning and disturbing the affection for the present and wasting it for the future and therefore not fit to give content to such as understand the happinesse of enjoying a place in Heaven The sixth discourse Soul THere 's yet another thing wherein I find a great inclination and drawing of Nature and certainly 't is agreeable to some principle within me though this kind of delight appears not so sensibly 't is in hearing and understanding what passes in the world I cannot espie a whisper but I long to know about what ' t was If any of my neighbours or acquaintance have met with any change of fortune I cannot endure to have it concealed from me nay the more secret such an accident is the greater is my eagernesse to know it though as I said I observe not those sensible effects in this sort of Pleasure as in the former unlesse there happen a speciall reason out of some other consideration to raise them And perhaps the curiosity of hearing news proceeds from the same cause and belongs to the same head as also the love I have to reading Histories knowing what pass'd in our forefathers times for this I perceive I long after though I finde not therein such apparent delight as in other entertainments Light And why do you not mention too the feign'd Histories Romances which the world is full of find you no delight in them Soul Yes very great sensible they being wholy contriv'd and fram'd both in subject fashion and style to move nay even violently to force our delight These therefore I did not range under this Head as likewise seeing of Playes because the content arising from them seems to be of a higher order then those other pleasures I mentioned Light See you not that other Histories and these are of one nature though of different fashions So that the delight reap'd out of both must also of necessity be of the same nature And as for Playes they are but the ample expression of some little part of that which compriz'd more shortly makes a History so that they all agree in substance though differ from one another in circumstances Tell me then what is it that pleases you in all these things Soul For playes and feigned Histories I perceive my self taken with the Passions due to the subject represented I see I have a tendernesse and compassion towards those who suffer imnocently I abhor cruel and unnaturall actions I am glad when good
descent of effects from causes draws out this long Play that has so many Ages been acting upon the stage of this world there you shall discern the golden threads whereby the just retrive themselves out of the Labyrinth of sinners you shall penetrate the Adamantine chain with which the wicked are confin'd to eternall flames In all you shall see the glorious Liberty casting out its Rayes in God and his Saints strengthned with an undeceivable force of Light in the wayes of Men struggling in a perpetuall Agony with contingency and servitude except where in few souls the supernall light more and more hinders the instability of its estate The seventh discourse Soul TEll me no more of these great pleasures for I feel my self already full I can endure no longer I pant for breath and languish through excessive heat of desire I doubt not henceforth but the state of eternall Blisse contains farre more and higher joyes then ever entred into mortall hearts to conceive Nor fear I whensoever I enter this great field but for ever to find a most pleasant and delightfull feeding and eternally drink of the torrent which inebriates the City of God Light You are too tender Remember that the kingdome of heaven suffers violence and the violent onely can be Masters of it You must look for a strong Purgatory of love and desire if you walk this way you must not give over without resisting even to blood As yet you are scarce got out of the Circle of Man 't is time now to cast your eyes on the rest of this glorious frame we call the World and see what pleasure it affords It is the whole whereof mankind is but a little though a principall Part. It is a thing in a manner above us in a manner our end If our understanding be but a hunger of truth and truth but the perfect possession of a thing without us you see this great machine the world is a principall end to which nature has design'd our application And truly when we reflect that the universall Masse of Beings is the most full expression of Almighty God's Essence which nature can attain to what doubt remains but that our felicity in a notable degree consists in the perfect contemplation and knowledge of it Soul This I easily believe For when I have the good fortune to hear a strange discovery of some secret of nature such as Philosophers and Astronomers use to look into I cannot understand the joy I feel in mine heart 'T is not of that kind which I have when I laugh and am taken with some witty conceit 'T is not such as when I encounter any welcome news of some advantage to my self or friends but of a higher strain mixt with admiration methinks I am better and greater then I was before methinks they who know these things are more then men and are a kind of Demi-gods And I observe that Poets and persons of great brain and capacity having spent their youth in vain and worldly pursuits desire ordinarily to consecrate their riper yeares to these Sciences Light Reflect then upon the wonders which are stored up in Nature for your content Place before your eyes the admirable government of this great Fabrick the World Consider the courses of the Sun Moon Planets and fixed Starres and hope one day to know what causes and wheels they turn upon See the Globe of the Earth and Men heels to heels walking round about it without any nayls or glew to fasten them to it yet how laborious it is to remove from it Really the serious consideration of the Antipodes renders the mystery so strange and hard to be believ'd that though we are assur'd by experience of the truth yet if we should alwayes strongly imagine our selves so walking we could not but fear still falling into the Clouds when we travail'd to one another See the perpetuall floating of the Sea like a monethly or yearly Clock warning us of the seasons with as great exactnesse as do the Moon and Starres See the various Climes with all their affections The bounds of Seas and Lands The difference of temperature in the same proportions to the Sun The diversity of Beasts Birds Fishes and Plants according to the variety of their habitations Men themselves here black there white in some parts tawny some red and their very Wills and Affections following the temperament of their bodily qualities When you are weary of these wonders look into particular Natures The mixture of Metals and Stones How Juices and Liquids penetrate all and incorporating themselves frame these strange multiplicities of things we converse with Plants more wondrous then these who can choose but be delighted to see a little Flower or Meal hidden in the earth and peep out again now green then take body and strength disperse it self into branches bud forth leaves and flowers and fruit and at last other such bags of Meal as it self was Yet Living creatures are furnisht with a farre greater plenty of wonders The Wormes the Flies the Birds the Beasts the Fishes every one affording a world of admiration and variety But above all MAN the End and Master of all is a subject of amazing contemplation Who would not think a life spent in delight to understand what composition that should be which turn'd into blood becomes first one part of a heart afterwards a whole heart what should make it spring and shoot out into other vitall parts how can a poor heart frame such a variety of Members as are necessary to the perfect body of a man What should set two Armes two Legs two Eyes just such a number of Fingers and Toes upon every man so many different parts so various in their Nature Figures Use and Service and all these to agree together and Man compos'd of all to keep so long in tune and harmony the deeper we go the greater's the admiration though the words fewer But what astonishment will it be to discover the subtil nets wherewith Power and Act as Metaphysicians call them are forbidden parting to penetrate the divisibility of substance it self to sing the loves of Matter and Form and see how by the Influence of the Overflowing Being they become the Basis and Foundation of this fair Pageant Shall I seek into the rationall Soul and see the union of the two worlds or search the Conduits and passages by which knowledge is conveyed through the Body to the Spirit How the beating of divers weights and figures upon our senses can beget the skill of knowing all things Shall I ask why the Spirit being subsistent within our limbs seems dead or asleep and can do nothing but by the impression it receives from the body But what will it be to make this an occasion of passing into the next world there to contemplate the state of so many separated souls all different yet all like one another then still to mount up higher to the never-bodied Spirits and see their Being their
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
it Therefore I beseech you oblige me with some explication of this difficulty in such an intelligible way as may feed and encourage my desire to see that Glory of Glories Light What shall I say to you If you can fix your eyes upon what Being is how although but one yet it runs through all that is in the world how not onely things and parts of things but even the most dilated and thin conceits of every thing have this Nature as necessarily as the fullest then think Almighty God is the first root and necessity of Being He is Being it self in it self and of it self because it is its self I must leave the rest to your quiet contemplations but know that in these few words if you ponder them to their just merit you shall find life and blisse Yet let me say one thing more Can you conceive how in a Bean or Acorn or a Mustard-seed lies the Herb or Tree which we see spring out of them how every Branch and Flower and Knot and what ever else is in the Off-spring lyes hidden in the Seed not that every part is distinct there but the nature of the Seed is such that out of it they have their ordinary proceeding and sprouting without fail From this low and familiar instance if you can raise your fancy to conceive that Almighty God is to all that can be or ever was as this Seed to that which comes of it not in the dull manner wherein the Seed is consider'd in reference to what springs from it but in all sorts of principall and noble causality then you have made some little entrance into the displaying of this unspeakable treasure Soul This example has a little awaken'd my brains and given me a hint how great secrets may be hidden in one uniform and simple thing but I wish you would be pleas'd to go on help my dulness to understand it better Light Have you read any of the Spirituall books which treat of Gods Attributes and shew his Essence his Infinity his Truth his Goodnesse his Eternity his Immensity his Providence his Mercy his Justice his Knowledge and Idea's and what ever else fills up those high Discourses Have you seen the volumes by which Divines strive to declare those three Mysterious Words FATHER SONNE and HOLY GHOST so plain and yet so high so simply deliver'd in our Creed and so laboriously commented upon by all the most prodigigious Witts of almost sixteen Ages Soul I have to my proportion had a view of most of those Treatises you mention and imagine your designe is to informe me that this Indivisible Essence we call GOD contains in it sublime Mysteries sufficient to satisfie any mind that is contented here with these Discourses which learned Doctours frame of God But all this avoids not the Objection that he is an Indivisible Essence when seen in himself and consequently can give but one contentment though that be very high and excessively delightfull Light You are not much amisse in my aim but you cannot deny that the entire cause of that pleasure which all these books afford is in that Indivisible Being you shall contemplate For besides that it is the same thing the one onely subject of all those Books and that clearly discover'd which humane skill can but weakly expresse under vails and shadows you shall see how this one indivisible sight is variously dispers'd and articulated in all those admirable Truths which fill those immense volumes so that on one side you shall behold the Indivisible Truth on the other the Multitude we make of it and thirdly how that Indivisible contains all this Multitude which in effect makes appear to you that this Indivisible Essence you had such fear to be cloy'd with contains large volumes and corresponds to all the Libraries in the World and farre exceeds them Nay if you reflect upon what we were discoursing by accident concerning the languages of Angels and if there be as some imagine Corporeall Rationall Creatures in other Globes besides the Earth which have new manners of apprehending and expressing different from us you shall finde in this Indivisible Essence whole volumes to entertaine and satiate with innumerable contemplations all these varieties of noble understandings Soul I now see that if a thousand Millions of writers for a thousand times as many yeares should imploy their whole studies to drain the cognoscibility and pleasure the Indivisible Deity yields it were absolutely impossible they should in the least measure exhaust it So that if I atchieve that happy enterprise if I once enter into that blessed State I fear not to be overflown with a floud of content pure beyond all content refreshing my heart with perpetuall delight for all eternity Light Since we are come so farre together I must not leave you here without proceeding to declare one quality more of this blissfull Vision Did you never observe when some hard businesse has been explicated according as you understood it or not you would say you had it or had it not Soul I have often felt such a thought passe within me but what do you inferre from thence Light Not so quick you must take along with you this notion likewise Our Masters tell us that the Soul by knowledge becomes the thing known as if it knew a House it becomes a House if an Ox or Horse it becomes that Creature Not by its being turn'd into the Object but by the assumption of the Object into its self as the Wall when the Sun shines on 't becomes the light Iron in the fire becomes red And that which perswades them to this opinion is they see Water or Iron when heated with Fire will warm or burn and have the effects of the assumed Nature and that universally nothing hath the particular operation of a thing but it s own Nature Wherefore finding that the workman who knows and has the Idea of a house can make a house that as far as we know of a Dog or Horse so far we can humour them and work according to their Natures they assure themselves that knowledge is a kind of having or being the thing we know Our Divines go farther and tell us Almighty God cannot be clearly known by similitude and therefore say 't is necessary this Essence should be immediately joyn'd to the understanding of the blessed soules or else they cannot know him Out of all which I would derive to your understanding this great truth That the sight of God is a full possession of him a kind of becoming his nature and a true and reall though accidentall Deification Wherefore if you have any esteem of Almighty God and Charity towards him if any love to your self any desire to be noble and excellent beyond all others if any consideration and rationality in you fly at this great Quarry run for this glorious Prize fight for this incomparable Crown Fear nothing only ruminate seriously upon it do but heartily desire it and long
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