taken off from him and heard no answer but My grace is sufficient for thee So Lord we pray for the removall of thy judgements from this sinnefull and deplored Nation which for ought we know and have cause to feare thou hast decreed to ruine and deâ—â—station and many a good soule prayes for a comfortable sense of thy favour whom thou thinkest fit to keepe downe for the time in a sad desertion and I thy unworthy servant may pray to be freed from those temptations wherewith thou seest it fit that my faith should be still exercised O God give me the grace to follow thy revealed will and to submit my selfe to thy secret What thou hast commanded I know I may doe what thou hast promised I know I may trust to what thou hast in a generality promised to do may in some particular cases by the just decree of thy secret Counsell bee otherwise determined If I aske what thou hast decreed to do I know I cannot but obtaine If I aske what thou hast warranted notwithstanding the particular exception of thy secret will though I receive it not yet I receive not pardon onely but acceptation O God give me grace to steer my selfe and my prayers by thy revealed Will and humbly to stoop to what the event shews to have been thy secret will Soliloq LXV Hels Triumph THou hast told us O Saviour that there is joy in the presence of thine Angels for a sinners repentance those blessed Spirits are so far from envying our happinesse that as they endeavour it here so they congratulate it in heaven and we wel know that these good Spirits do not more rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner than the evill Spirits do in the mis-carriage of a convert The course of the holy obedience of thy servants here is doubtlesse a pleasing object to thine Angels neither are those malignant spirits lesse pleased with the wicked practises of their Vassals but the joy arises to both from the contrary condition of those parties over which they have prevailed The alleagance of a good subject though wel-accepted yet is no newes to a gracious Soveraigne but the comming in of some great Rebell is happy tidings at the Court On the contrary where there is a rivality of soveraigntie for a professed enemy to do hostile actions is no other than could bee expected but for a subject or a domestick servant to bee drawne into the conspiracie is not more advantage than joy to the intruder O God thou hast mercifully called me out of the world to a profession of thy Name I know what eies those envious Spirits have ever upon me O doe thou lead me in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies If thine Angels have found cause to joy in my conversion O doe thou keepe me from making musicke in hell by my miscarriage Soliloq LXVI Dumbe Homage HOw officious O God doe I see thy poore dumbe Creatures to us how doe they fawne or crouch as they see us affected how doe they run and fetch and carry and draw at our command how doe they beare our stripes with a trembling unresistance how readily doe they spend their strength and their lives in our service how patiently doe they yield us their milk and their fleeces for our advantage and lie equally still to be shorne or slain at our pleasure expecting nothing from us in the mean time but a bare sustenance which if it bee denyed them they do not fall furiously upon their cruell Masters but meekly bemoane themselves in their bruitish language and languish and die If granted them they are fatned for our use I am ashamed O God I am ashamed to see these thy creatures so obsequiously pliant unto me whiles I consider my disposition and deportment towards thee my Creator Alas Lord what made the difference betwixt me and them but thy meere good pleasure thou mightest have made them rationall and have exchanged my reason for their brutality They are my fellowes by Creation and owe both their being and preservation to the same hand with my selfe Thou art the absolute Lord of both to whom I must bee accountable for them they are mine onely by a limited substitution from thee why then should they bee more obedient to my will than I am to thine since they have onely Sense to lead them in their Way I have both Reason and Faith to teach me my duty Had I made them I could but require of them their absolute submission Why should I then exact of them more than I am ready to performe unto thee O God thou that hast put them under my hand and me under thy owne as thou hast made me their Master for command so let me make them my Masters to teach me obedience Soliloq LXVII Indifferency of Events THou givest us daily proofes O God of the truth of that observation of wise Solomon That all things come alike to all and that no man knowes love or hatred by all that is before them In these outward things thy dearest friends have not fared better then thine enemies Thy greatest enemies have not suffered more than thy beloved Children When therefore I looke abroad and see with what heavy afflictions thou art pleased to exercise thy best Favourites upon earth I cannot but stand amazed to see what horrible Torments of all kindes have beene undergone by thy most precious Martyrs whose patience hath overcome the violence of their executioners and to see those extreme tortures which some of thy faithfull servants have endured in the beds of their sickness one torne and drawn together with fearefull convulsions another shrieking under the painefull girds of an unremoveable stone one wrung in his Bowels with pangs of cholicke and turning of guts another possessed with a raging gout in all his Limbes one whose bladder after a painefull incision is ransack'd another whose Leg or Arme is cut off to prevent a mortall Gangrene I cannot but acknowledge how just it might be in thee O God to mix the same bitter cup for me and how merciful it is that knowing my weakness thou hast forborn hitherto to load mee with so sad a burthen What thou hast in thine eternall Councell determined to lay upon mee thou onely knowest If thou bee pleased to continue thy gracious indulgence to me still make me truly thankfull to thee for health and ease as the greatest of thy outward favours but let mee not build upon them as the certaine evidences of thy better mercies and if thou thinke fit to interchange them with a vicissitude of sickness and paine let mee not misconstrue thy severe chastisements as arguments of thy displeasure But still teach mee to feare thee in my greatest prosperity and to love thee in my greatest sufferings and to adore thine infinite Wisdome Justice and mercy in both Soliloq LXVIII The transcendent Love HOw justly doe I marvaile O God to see what strength of naturall affection thou hast wrought in poore brute
and attend upon the Throne of thy Majesty the thousand thousands of thy blessed Angels Arch-angels Cherubim Seraphin Thrones Principalities Dominions which in thy presence enjoy a bliss next to infinite any one of which if wee could see him were enough to kill us with his glory Not one of those millions of mighty spirits but were able to destroy a World Oh then how infinitely transcendent is that power of thine which hast both created all this heavenly Hierarchy and so movest in them that onely in and by thee they are thus potent Yea Lord let me but cast mine eies downe to this earth I tread upon and view thy wonders in the deep how manifestly do these proclame thy divine Omnipotence When I see this vaste Globe of earth and waters dreadfully hanging in the midst of a liquid Air upheld by nothing but by the powerfull word When I see the rage of the swelling waves naturally higher than the shores they beat upon restrained to their bounds by thine over-ruling command When I see the earth beautifully garnished with marvailous variety of trees herbs flowers richly stuffed with precious metals stones minerals When I see besides a world of men the numberless choice and differences of the substance formes colours dispositions of Beasts fowles fishes wherewith these lower Elements are peopled how can I be but dissolved into wonder of thine Almighty power SECT. IV. NEither is thy power O God either more or more thy selfe than thy Wisdome which is no lesse essentiall to thee than infinite What have we to doe silly and shallow wretches with that incomprehensible wisdom which is intrinsecall to thy divine Nature the body of that Sunne is not for our weak eies to behold it is enough for mee if I can but see some raies of that heavenly light which shines forth so gloriously upon thy creature in the framing and governing whereof whether thy Power or Wisdome did and doe more exhibite it selfe thou only canst judge O the divine Architecture of this goodly Fabricke of Heaven and Earth raised out of nothing to this admirable perfection What stupendious artifice of composition is here What exquisite symmetrie of parts what exact Order of Degrees what marvailous analogie betwixt beasts fishes plants the natives of both Elements Oh what a comprehensive reach is this of thine Omniscience which at once in one act beholdest all the actions and events of all the creatures that were are or shall be in this large Universe What a contrivance of thine eternall Counsell which hast most wisely and holily ordered how to dispose of every Creature thou hast made according to the pleasure of thy most just will VVhat a sway of Providence is this that governes the world over-ruling the highest and stooping to the meanest peece of thy Creation concurring with and actuating the motions and operations of all second causes of whatsoever is done in heaven or in earth Yea Lord how wonderfull are those irradiations of knowledge and wisdome which thou hast beamed forth upon thine intelligent creatures both Angels and men As for those Celestiall spirits which see thy face continually it is no marvaile if they be illuminated in a degree farre above humane apprehension but that the rationall soule of man even in this woefull pilgrimage below notwithstanding the opacity of that earth wherewith it is encompassed should bee so far enlightned as that it is able to know all the motions of the Heavens the magnitudes and distances of Starres the natures properties influences of the Planets the instant of the Eclipses Conjunctions and severall Aspects of those Celestiall bodies that it can discover the secret Treasures of Earth and Sea and knowes to unlock all the close Cabinets both of art and nature O God what is this but some little gleame of that pure and glorious light which breakes forth from thine infiniteness upon thy creature Yet were the knowledge of all men on earth and all the Angels in heaven multiplied a thousand fold how unable were it being united together to reach unto the height of thy divine Counsels to fadome the bottome of thy most wise and holy Decrees so as they must bee forced to cry out with that Saint of thine who was rapt into the third heaven O the depth of the riches both of the VVisdome and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out SECT. V. BUt with what a trembling adoration O my soul must thou needs look upon the infinite Justice of thy God whose inviolable rule is to render to every man according to his workes Alas the little good thou wert able to do hath been allayed with so many and great imperfections that it can expect no retribution but displeasure and for the many evills whereof thou art guilty what canst thou look for but the wages of sinne Death not that temporary and naturall only which is but a separation of thee a while from thy load of earth but the spirituall and eternall separation from the presence of thy God whose very want is the height of torments Lo whatever become of thee God must be himselfe In vain shouldst thou hope that for thy selfe he will abate ought of his blessed Essence of his sacred Attributes That righteous doome must stand The soule that sinnes shall die Hell claimes his due Justice must bee satisfied where art thou now O my soul what canst thou now make account of but to despair and die surely in thy self thou art lost there is no way with thee but utter perdition But looke up O soul look up above the Hils whence commeth thy salvation see the heavens opening upon thee see what reviving and comfortable raies of grace and mercy shine forth unto thee from that excellent glory and out of that heavenly light hear the voice of thy blessed Saviour saying to thee O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thy helpe Even so O Jesu in thee onely in thee is my helpe wretched man that I am in my selfe I stand utterly forfeited to death and hell it is thou that hast redeemed me with no lesse ransome than thy precious bloud Death was owing by me by thee it was payed for me so as now my debt is fully discharged and my soule clearly acquitted Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Lo now the rigor of thine inviolable justice is taken off by thine infinite mercy the sum that I could never pay is by the power of that faith which thou hast wrought in me set off to my all-sufficient surety by thy divine goodnesse graciously accepted as mine I have paid it in him he hath paid it for me Thy justice is satisfied thy debtor freed and thy mercy magnified SECT VI THere are no bounds to bee set unto thy thoughts O my soul since whatsoever thy God
we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the heavens Why therefore oh why should ye be loath to part upon faire termes Thou O my soule to the possession of that happy Mansion which thy deare Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his Fathers house and thou O my body to that quiet repository of thy Grave till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the just never never to be severed Soliloq III. Heavenly Conversation IT matters not a little with whom wee hold our familiar Conversation for commonly wee are transformed into the Dispositions and manners of those whose company we frequent We daily see those who by haunting the society of Drunkards and debauched persons have from civill and orderly men growne into extremity of lewdnesse and on the contrary those who have consorted themselves with the holy and vertuous have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity Why shouldst thou not then O my soule by a continuall conversation with God and his Angels improve to an heavenly disposition Thou canst not whiles thou art here but have somewhat to doe with the world that will necessarily intrude into thy presence and force upon thee businesses unavoidable and thy secular friends may well looke to have some share in thy sociable entertainements But these are but goers and commers easily and willingly dismissed after some kind interlocutions The Company that must stick by thee is spirituall which shall never leave thee if thou have the grace to apply thy selfe to them upon all occasions Thou maist hold faire correspondence with all other not offensive companions but thy entirenesse must be onely with these Let those other be never so faithfull yet they are uncertaine bee their will never so good yet their power is limited these are never but at hand never but able and willing to make and keepe thee happy O my God thou seest how subject I am to distractions Oh hold mee close to thee Let me enter into the same company here in my Pilgrimage which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my home Solilo IV. Love unchangeable OUr younger years are wont to bee delightted with variety and to be much affected to a change although to the worse The childe is better pleased with his new Coat though the old be farre handsomer Whereas age and experience fixeth our desires and teacheth us to set the greatest vallue upon those good things wherewith we have been longest acquainted Yea it is the generall disposition of nature to be cloyed with continued blessings and upon long fruition to complaine of that good which we first commended for pleasing and beneficiall What could relish better with the Israelites the first morning than the Angels food which fell downe from heaven every day about their Campe the taste whereof was like to wafers made with honey If we stay but a while wee shall ere many yeeres heare them calling for the Onions and Garlike of Egypt and crying out Now our soule is dried away there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings both of earth and heaven and to nauseate with store Neither is any thing more tedious to us than the enjoyned repetition of a daily-tasked Devotion But contrarily Grace endeares all blessings to us by their continuance and heightens our affections where they are rightly placed by the length of the time of their enjoying O God it is thy mercy that thou hast vouchsafed to allow mee an early interest in thee even from my tender yeeres the more and longer I have known thee the more cause have I still found to love thee and adore thee Thou art ever one and unchangeable Oh make thou my heart so Devote thou me wholly unto thee and by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections inflame it so much the more in my love to thee Solil V. The happiest Object IF we could attaine to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God it would put us unto the comfortable exercise of all the affections that belong to the Soule For surely if wee could conceive aright of his Omnipotent power and transcending glory and incomprehensible infinitenesse we could not but tremble before him and be alwaies taken up with an adoring feare of him And if we could apprehend his infinite goodnesse both in himselfe and to mankinde wee could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him and should thinke our selves happy that we might bee allowed to love such a God and if we could conceive of that absolute beauty of his holinesse and blissefull presence we could not but be enflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God and if wee could apprehend all these we could not bee but both transported with an unspeakeable joy that we have a sure interest in a God so holy so good so almighty so glorious and stricken with an unexpressible griefe that we should either offend him or suffer our selves to want but for a moment the feeling presence of that all-sufficient and all-comprehending Majesty On the contrary those men begin at the wrong end who go about to draw their affections to God first and then after seeke to have their mindes enlightned with right conceits of his Essence and Attributes who meeting with those occurrent Temptations which mainly crosse them in their desires and affections are strait set off from prosecuting their good motions and are as new to seeke of a God as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven O God let it be the maine care of my life to know thee and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ thy Son my Saviour I cannot through thy mercy fail of an heavenly disposition of soule whiles I am here and of a life of eternall glory with thee hereafter Solilo VI Vnchangeable duration IN the first minute wherin wee live we enter upon an eternity of being and though at the first through the want of the exercise of reason we cannot know it and afterwards through our inconsideration and the bewitching businesses of time we doe not seriously lay it to heart we are in a state of everlastingnesse there must upon the necessity of our mortality be a change of our condition but with a perpetuity of our being the body must undergo a temporary dissolution and the soule a remove either to blisse or torment but both of them upon their meeting shall continue in an unchangeable duration for ever and ever And if wee are wont to slight transitory and vanishing commodities by reason of their momentany continuance and to make most account of things durable What care and great thoughts ought I to bestow upon my selfe who shall outlast the present world and how ought I to frame my life so as it may fall upon an eternity infinitely happy and glorious O God doe thou set off my heart
from all these earthly vanities and fix it above with thee As there shall bee no end of my being so let there bee no change of my affections Let them before-hand take possession of that heaven of thine whereto I am aspiring Let nothing but this clay of mine bee left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is mouldring Let my spirituall part bee ever with thee whence it came and enter upon that blisse which knows neither change nor end Soliloq VII Trust upon Triall WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world which both produceth them to their being and over-rules and carries them on to and in their dissolution without their knowledge or intended cooperation but for those whom God hath indued with the faculty of ratiocination how easie is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with them how that all-wise God contrives their affaires and events quite beyond and above the power of their weak projections how he prevents their Desires how he fetches about inexpected and improbable occurrences to their hinderance or advantage sometimes blessing them with successe beyond all their hopes sometimes blasting their projects when their blossomes are at the fairest Surely if I looke onely in a dull stupidity upon the outsides of all accidents that befall me and not improve my reason and faith to discerne and acknowledge that invisible power that orders them to his owne and their ends I shall bee little better than bruitish and if upon the observation of all that good hand of God sensibly leading mee on in all the waies of my younger and riper age in so many feeling and apparent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my daies and the happy close of that life which he hath so long and mercifully preserved the favours of a bountifull God shall have been cast away upon a barren and unthankfull heart O God I am such as thou hast made me make up thy good worke in me and keep me that I do not marre my selfe with my wretched unbeliefe I have tryed thee to the full Oh that I could cast my selfe wholly upon thee and trust thee both with my body and soule for my safe passage to that blessed home and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory in thine Soliloq VIII Angelicall Familiarity THere is no reason to induce a man to thinke that the good Angels are not as assiduously present with us for our good as the evill Angels are for our hurt since we know that the evill spirits cannot bee more full of malice to work our harm than the blessed Angels are full of charity wel-wishing to mankinde and the evill are only let loose to tempt us by a permission of the Almighty wheras the good are by a gracious delegation from God encharged with our custody Now that the evill spirits are ever at hand ready upon all occasions to present their services to us for our furtherance to mischiefe appeares too plainly in their continuall temptations which they inject into our thoughts in their reall and speedy operations with the spels and charmes of their wicked Clients which are no lesse effectually answered by them immediately upon their practice than naturall causes are by their ordinary and regular productions It must needs follow therefore that the good Angels are as close to us and as inseparable from us and though we see neither yet hee that hath spirituall eyes perceives them both and is accordingly affected to their presence If then wicked men sticke not to goe so far as to endanger and draw on their owne damnation by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits Why should not I for the unspeakable advantage of any soule affect an awfully-familiar Conversation with those blessed Angels which I know to be with me The language of spirits are thoughts Why doe not I entertaine them in my secret cogitations and hold an holy discourse with them in mentall allocutions and so carry my selfe as that I may ever hold faire correspondence with those invisible companions and may expect from them all gracious offices of holy motions carefull protection and at last an happy conveyance to my glory O my soule thou art a Spirit as they are doe thou ever see them as they see thee and so speak to them as they speake to thee and blesse thy God for their presence and tuition and take heed of doing ought that may cause those heavenly guardians to turne away their faces from thee as asham'd of their charge Soliloq IX The unanswerable Christian IT is no small griefe to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity to see how utterly unanswerable the greater sort of men that beare the name of Christ are to the example and precepts of that Christ whose name they beare He was humble and meeke they proud and insolent hee bade us love our enemies they hardly can love their friends he prayed for his persecutors they curse hee that had the command of all cared not to possesse any thing they not having right to much would possesse all hee bade us give our Coat also to him that takes our Cloak they take both Coat and Cloake from him that hath it he bade us turne our cheek for the other blow they will bee sure to give two blowes for one he paid obedience to a Foster Father and tribute to Caesar they despise Government his trade was onely doing good spending the night in praying the day in preaching and healing they debauch their time revelling away the night and sleeping away or mispending the day he forbad Oaths they not onely sweare and forsweare but blaspheme too hee bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnes they make Mammon their God hee bade us take up his Crosse they impose their own he bad us lay up our treasure in heaven they place their heaven in earth he bids us give to them that ask they take violently from the owners he bade us return good for evill they for good return evill he charged his Disciples to love one another they nourish malice and rancor against their brethren hee left peace for a Legacy to his followers they are apt to set the world on fire His businesse was to save theirs to destroy O God let rivers of waters run downe mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel Give grace to all that are called by thy name to walke worthy of that high profession wherto they are called And keepe me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed patterne which thou hast set before me Oh let mee never shame that great name that is put upon me Let mee in all things approve my self a Christian in earnest and so conform my selfe to thee in all thy example and commands that it may be no dishonour to thee to owne mee for thine Soliloq X.
spirits O God doe thou quicken my spirituall dulnesse in thy holy service and when I come to Celebrate thy great Name whiles the Song is in my mouth let my heart be the stage wherein Trumpets and Psalteries and Harps shall sound forth thy praise Soliloq LXXVII Blemishes of the holy function I Cannot but blesse my selfe at the sight of that strange kinde of curiosity which is reported to have been used in the choice of those who were of old admitted to serve at the Altar If Levi must bee singled out from all Israel yet thousands must bee refused of the Tribe of Levi Wee are told that notwithstanding that priviledge of bloud no lesse than an hundred and forty blemishes might exclude a man from this sacred Ministration whereof nineteen in the eyes nine in the eares twenty in the feet such an holy nicenesse there was in the Election of the legall Priesthood that if there were not found an exact symmetrie of all parts of the body not comelines onely but a perfection of outward forme in those Levitical Candidates they might by no meanes be allowed to serve in the Sanctuary they might have place in some out-roomes and cleave Wood for the Altar and might claime a portion in the holy things but they might not meddle with the sacred Utensils nor set foot upon the floor of the holy place It was thy charge O God that those Sons of Aaron which drew neare to thee should be void of blemish thou which wouldst have the beasts of thy Sacrifice free from bodily imperfection wouldst much more have thy Sacrificers so The generality of the Command was thine the particularities of the numbers are Traditionall And well might the care of these outward observations agree with the pedagogie of that law which consisted in externall rites but we well know it was the inward purity of the heart and integrity of an unspotted life that thou meant'st to aime at under the figure of these bodily perfections which if it were wanting it was not a skin-deep beauty and exquisitenesse of shape that could give a son of Aaron an allowed accesse to thine Altar Hophni and Phinehas the ill sonnes of good Eli were outwardly blemishlesse else they had not been capable of so holy aâ—… attendance but their insolencies and beastlinesse made them more loathsome to thee than if they had been Lepers or Monsters of outward deformity And can wee thinke that thou hast lesse regard to the purity of the Evangelicall Ministerie than thou formerly hadst of the Legall Can we think the spirituall blemishes of thine immediate servants under the Gospel can be a lesse eye-sore to thee than the externall blemishes of thy Priesthood under the Law Oh that my head were waters and mine eies a fountaine of teares that I might weep night and day for the enormities of those who professe to waite on thy Evangelicall Sanctuary My sorrow and piety cannot but bewaile them to thee though my charity forbids me to blazon them to the world Oh thou that art as the Refiners fire and the Fullers soap doe thou purifie all the sonnes of thy spirituall Levi Do thou purge them as Gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousnesse Then shall the Offerings of our Judah and Jerusalem bee pleasant to the Lord as in the daies of old and as in former yeers Soliloq LXXVIII The blessed Reward WHen Paulinus came first into this Island to preach the Gospell to our then-Pagan Ancestors King Edwin thought good to consult with his Priests and Nobles whether it were best to give any entertainment to the Christian Religion which was by that stranger Preached and recommended to his people Up starts one Coifi the Arch-Priest of those Heathen Idols and freely saies There is no vertue or goodnesse O King in this Religion which wee have hitherto embraced There is none of all thy Subjects that hath more studiously addicted himselfe to the Service and worship of our gods than my selfe Yet I am sure there are many that have prospered better and have received more favours from thee than I have done And if our gods could doe any thing they would rather have been beneficent to me that have most carefully served them It remaines then that if these new doctrines which are preacht to us bee found upon examination to bee better and more availeable that without all delay we do readily receive and welcome them Thus spake a true Idols Priest that knew no Ell whereby to measure Religion but Profit no proofe of a just Cause but successe no Conviction of Injustice but mis-carriage Yea even thine Altars O righteous God were never quit of some such mercenary attendants who seek for onely gain in godliness If the Queene of Heaven afford them better penny worths and more plenty than the King of Heaven she shall have their Cakes and their Incense and their hearts to boot I know thee O Lord to be a munificent Rewarder of all that serve thee yet if thou shouldest give me no wages I will serve thee If thou shouldest pay mee with hunger and stripes and prisons and death I will serve thee Away base thoughts of earthly remuneration I will honour and serve thee O God for thine owne sake for thy services sake yet I have no reason not to regard thine infinite bounty It is no lesse than a Crown that thou hast promised me and that I shall humbly aspire unto and expect from thee not as in the way of my merit but of thy meer mercy My service is free in a zealous and absolute Consecration to thee thy hand is more free in my so gracious Retribution If thou be pleased to give thy servant such a weight of glory the glory of that Gift is thine My service is out of my just duty thy Reward is of thy Grace and divine Beneficence Doe thou give me to doe what thou bidst me and then deal with me as thou wilt As the glory of thy Name is the drift of all my actions so the glory that thou givest mee cannot but redound to the glory of thine infinite mercy Blessed bee thy Name in what thou givest whiles thou makest mee blessed in what I receive from thee Soliloq LXXIX Presages of Judgement SEldome ever doe wee read of any great mutation in Church or State which is not usher'd in with some strange Prodigies either raining of Bloud or apparitions of Comets or airy Armies fighting in the Clouds or Sea-Monsters appearing or monstrous Births of men or Beasts or bloudy Springs breaking out or direfull noises heard or some such like uncouth premonitors which the great and holy God sends purposely to awaken our Security and to prepare us either for expectation or prevention of Judgements wherein the mercy of God marvellously magnifies it selfe towards sinnefull Man-kind that he wills not to surprise us with unwarned evills but would have his punishments anticipated by a seasonable
onely sick of thy love but ready and desirous to die for thee that I may enjoy thee Oh let me not endure that any worldly heart should be more enamoured of these earthly beauties which are but varnished rottennes than I am of thee who art of absolute and infinite perfections and bestowest them in being loved Oh when shall the day be wherein thou wilt make up these blessed Nuptials and endow me with a ful participation of that glory wherewith thou art invested from and to all eternity whereto have all thy sweet favours and gracious love-tokens tended but to this issue of blessednesse Oh doe thou Crown all thy mercies in me and mee with immortality SECT. X. VPon this desire of fruition if thou wouldst be truly happy there must follow a constant prosecution of that desire for if thy wishes be never so fervent yet if they be onely volatile and transient they shall be able to availe thee little slight and flickering motions of good if they be not followed with due indeavours sort to no effect Content not thy selfe therefore O my soule that thou hast entertained into thy selfe some affective thoughts of thy beatitude but settle thy selfe in firme resolutions to pursue and perpetuate them Let them not call in as strangers but dwell in thee as in-mates never to be by any secular occasions dislodged These morning dewes of holy dispositions which are ready to be exhaled with every gleam of worldly prosperity as they finde little acceptance from God so they are able to afford small comfort to thee as whose condition is such that they leave thee more disconsolate in their vanishing than they yielded thee pleasure in their momentany continuance Be thou able to say with holy David my heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed and then thou maiest well adde I will sing and give praise otherwise thy distracted thoughts will admit no cause of sound joy In this case it fals out with thee O my soul as with some fond child who eagerly following a Bee in hope of her bag sees a gay Butterflie crosse his way and thereupon leaves his first chase and runs after those painted wings but in that pursute seeing a Bird flie close by him hee leaves the flie in hope of a better purchase but in the meane time is disappointed of all and catcheth nothing It mainely behoves thee therefore to keep up thy Cogitations and Affections close to these heavenly objects and to check them whensoever thou perceivest an inclination to their wandring like as the carefull Huntsman when he findes his Hound offering to follow after a new game rates him off and holds him to his first sent Whither are yee stray O my thoughts what means this sinfull and lossefull inconstancy Can yee bee happier in a change Is there any thing in this miserable world that can be worthy to carry you away from the hopes and affectations of blessednesse Have yee not full often complained of the worthlesnesse and satiety of these poore vanities here below Have yee not found their promises false their performances unsatisfactory their disappointment irksome Away then yee frivolous temptations and solicit those mindes that are low and empty like your selves For me I disdaine your motions and being taken up with higher imployments scorne to descend to your base suggestions which tend to nothing but meer earthliness But as there is no fire which will not go out if it be not fed it cannot be enough that thou hast entertained these gracious resolutions unlesse thou doe also supply and nourish them with holy meditations devout prayers continual ejaculations and the due frequentation of all the holy ordinances of thy God without which if they shall languish through thy neglect thou shalt finde double more worke and difficulty in reviving them than there could have been in maintaining and upholding them in their former vigour Bee not therefore wanting to thy selfe in the perpetuall exercise and improvement of all those holy meanes that may further and perfect these heavenly longings after salvation thy God shall not be wanting to thee in blessing thee with an answerable successe SECT. XI IT is the just praise of the marvailous bounty of thy God O my soule that he will fulfill the desires of them that feare him If therefore thou canst hunger and thirst after righteousnesse if thy heart can yearn after heaven he shall bee sure to satisfie thee with goodnesse and not onely shall bring thee home at the last to that land of promised blessednesse but in the meane time also put thee into an inchoate fruition of happinesse which is the next degree of thine ascent to heaven That which is complete may bee the surest rule of knowing and judging of that which is imperfect Wherein doth the perfection of heavenly blisse consist but in a perpetuall enjoying the presence of God in a cleare vision of the divine Essence in a perfect union with God and an eternall participation of his life and glory Now as grace is glory begun and glory is grace consummate so dost thou O my soule being wrought to it by the power of the Spirit of thy God even in this life how weakely soever enter upon all these acts and privileges of Beatitude Even here below thou art never out of the presence of thy God and that presence can never be other than glorious and that it is not beatificall here is not out of any deficiency in it but in thine own miserable incapacity who whiles thou abidest in this vale of tears and art clogged with this flesh art no fit subject of so happy a condition Yea that blessed presence is ever comfortably acknowledged by thee and enjoyed with such contentment and pleasure that thou wouldst not part with it for a world and that thou justly accountest all earthly delights but meer vexations to that alone Whom have I in heaven but thee and what doe I desire on earth in comparison of thee A Balaam could say how truly soever I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh But Lord I see thee even now I behold thee so nigh me that I live in thee and would rather die than live without thee I see thee though weakly and dimly yet trulie and reallie I see thee as my God all-sufficient as my powerfull Creator my mercifull Redeemer my gracious comforter I see thee the living God the Father of Lights the God of Spirits dwelling in light inaccessible animating filling comprehending this glorious world and doe awfully adore thine infinitenesse Neither doe I looke at thee with a trembling astonishment as some dreadfull stranger or terrible avenger but I behold thy majesty so graciously complying with my wretchednesse that thou admittest mee to a blessed union with thee I take thee at thy Word O dear Saviour even that sweet word of impetration which thou wert pleased to utter unto thy coeternal Father immediately before thy meritorious passion