Fear not O Spouse thy Beloved is not wholly departed Be not troubled if thy journey to Canaan be through the wilderness of this world and if in thy way to Sion thou pass through the valley of Baca since Christ is a Cloud and Pillar to direct thee Thus by the Gates of Hell doth God oftentimes shew us the way to Heaven He who is not tyed alwayes to bring a Soul thither by one and the same Road can make Death the way to life The Sun of Righteousness is stil bright though behind a Cloud and not seen to us The Nurse is withdrawn oftentimes that the Mother may get the chiefest affections of the Child And though God leave a poor Soul labouring in the Pangs of Desertion yet through the Sun-shine of Gods countenance ripening its Graces cloudy weather still advantageth her growth and her Barrenness at last yeelds a fruitful Harvest Gods relief comming alwaies in the best time and she patiently attends his help from Heaven even until the fourth which is the last watch of the Night And when vvith Peter she is freed out of the Prison of strong Temptation and God is pleased to come in unto her with abundance of comfort Oh! how is she raised to bless the Lord who hath forgiven her sinnes and healed all her infirmities The waves of Terrours and flouds of Afflictions never beat so violently upon her neither did she so much complain of spiritual wants as now she saw the wonders of God in the deep and the infinitenefs of his Wisdom in the dispensations of comfort and joy of grief and terrour The Souls complaint now is no longer Where is my God become or that There is no soundness in her flesh because of his anger All her distempers seem but as so much Physick to clense her from her manifold sins Yea she now seems even drown'd in sweetness and in sinking cryes out Oh the breadth of thy unfathomable love what Saint what Tongue what Angel can speak out thy unexpressible kindness Ephes 5.17 Thou hast loosed my Bonds Oh that my heart could burn in love towards thee Oh that I could as I desire make known to others hovv good thou hast been to me in preserving strengthning and fixing my fiath on a Rock not to be over-born vvith the storms and swelling Surges of Satans Temptations Methinks I meet thee every where O blessed Jesus with a hundred arms unfolded to do me good what place what time what moment is not filled vvith thy Bounty Though passions have for a time assailed my mind and thy Terrours have affrighted my spirits yet behold now thy Grace hath shot through the dark Clouds of my Sin and doubting thy Darts have pierced the Center of my heart with quickning sparklings my spirits are come again Ah how my Soul is fill'd with joy ravishment and admiration Oh God! who is he who beholds the fading shadows of the world this dismal place where cares and sorrows are still growing young and never die that would ever betray his Soul Heaven and his God to yield obedience thereunto who vvould betray an Eternity of blessing for a Pleasure so short and wretched who would build Tabernacles here to lose a Mansion among Celestial Souls where Love onely Reigns who would not give a farewel to those earthly Cottages to ascend those mounts of Bliss vvhere every season is a constant Spring who vvould desire to make his name great here on Earth and desire to have them enrolled among the Saints in Heaven O what Celestial mirth what an expansion of all the faculties of the Spirit yea what rejoycing is there in the heart of Man vvhen Christ begins to make it his Throne all Powers do him homage all Passions render him service Who can conceive what joy passeth in the Soul vvhen Jesus is pleased to take up his lodging in it Hovv is the heart excited awakened and enflamed towards Heaven what distaste is there of all things in the world It is as light to bleared eyes It is as food to hungry Travellers It is the repose to the wearied the Country of poor Pilgrims and the Crown of all our happiness Nothing but Fires Desires Sweetness Affections Joyes and Admirations will transport our Souls having once regained our wel-beloved our thoughts will wholly be employed upon Jesus we shall be dead and insensible to all the Objects of the world All the Thornes wherewith it is encompassed will seem as Roses If we swim in the Tears of Wotmwood it will be no other then sweet water All the wounds we receive will be but like Rubies and Pearls Our Maladies will prove but sports our Calumnies will be our blessings yea Death it self no other then a happy life When the Soul sleeps Jesus is in her sleep vvhen she speaks Jesus is under her Tongue when she Writes Jesus is under her Pen and when she is merry she chaunts forth the praises of her Jesus in her solitude she seems all environed with Raptures And vvhen any reproves her for being alone she cries out nothing less before she vvas interrupted with their company In the morning she grieves to think how often she shall offend God before Night Being about to rest she bitterly vvith scalding Tears laments that she shall have no more power over her Dreams but offend her Saviour while she slept Thus is her mind alwayes running after her dear Spouse Se is in a prison of Love vvhere her Thoughts her Hopes her Joyes were Chains And still doth she elevate her self upon the wings of Faith in the highest postures she can towards Heaven taking the choisest affections vvith her vvhereby to ascend that Mountain of pure and inexpressible light She vvell knew that true Pleasure vvas to be found no vvhere but in God vvhose Joyes are like those Gardens which never vvither but are perpetually watered vvith immortal Graces And oh How if it vvere possible vvould she express her love to him by daily offering her self a hundred times for him in as many Sacrifices as she hath Thoughts and Body Members Never Ship laden vvith Gold arrived more gladly at the Haven after many tedious Tempests and a thousand disasters among Pirates at Sea as the poor soul novv seems to take content in the love of God And having spun out all the Web vvhich he gave her cryes out I have ended all the hopes of the vvorld why stayest thou O my God! to receive my Soul which I bear in my lips O Jesus at whose name the Heaven the Earth and Hell do bend the knee I now care not what I suffer for thee so I sin not against thee so I may for ever injoy thee Thus the love of God is like Lightning in a Cloud still striving to break forth and suffers the Soul to take little rest in any thing but what it undertakes for the glory of her Maker Joh. 11. who many times defers the cure that his power may be the more manifest the heats of
deploring the evil effects of Covetousness namely That the life of man was miserable because Avarice like a spirit of Storms and Tempests had poured it self on Mortals and that it were to be wished that the best Physicians might meet together to cure the Disease The same may we say of Love since it is the fatal Plague among all Passions and no simple malady but one composed of all the evils in the world A Passion which maketh charms and illusions to march before it and draggeth on Furies disasters and rapines after it Was it not this which sharpned the sword which transfixed Ammon Which shaved and blinded Sampson Which gave a Halter to Phillis Alas How many wretched and caitif souls how many ship-wracked Spectacles may we behold standing on Promontory tops who tell us of the ruines which this Passion hath caused Simon Magus was undone by a Hellen being more bewitched by her love then he enchanted others by his Sorcery Apelles was corrupted by Phylumene Donatus by Lucilia Montanus by Maximilla Women having ended amongst all these what Heresie and Magick had but begun which made one wittily to say That Heaven was most happy in having a God In Coelo Angelus Angela c. Tertul. adversus Val. and Angels and no Goddesses since it might be feared that if there were diversity of Sex it would alter somthing of its tranquility Was it not the love of Women which caused Sampson's David's and Solomon's shipwracks Hath it not besotted the wise conquered the strong deceived the prudent corrupted Saints and humbled the mighty Hath it not trodden down Scepters and Crowns blasted the Lawrels of the greatest Conquerours troubled the most flourishing States Hath it not thrown Schism into Churches corruption among Judges and the greatest cruelties into Arms Hath it not acted Treasons Furies firings poysons murthers and ransackings And how should it spare its enemy since it is so cruel to its self It kills and murders those that have most constantly served it drinking their blood and insensibly devouring them and making many to sink in the twinkling of an eye It will open a Flood-gate to a Deluge of miseries and cares It will by some invisible hand as it were shoot Arrows amidst the Vermilion of Roses and the whiteness of Lilies It is the worm which gnaweth all our great actions the moth which eateth all the vigour of our spirit the Labyrinth which hindreth our chief designs yea it is the true snare of our soul which too often hides poison and death under a seeming sweetness See here the goodly sacrifices of Lust Behold the transfigurations of sottish Love What Nothing but Poyson Gibbets Massacres and Precipices Nothing to be seen but smoak flames darkness despairs and the sad complaints of unfortunate Lovers O God! What is he who beholding these Pictures would ever betray his soul heaven and his God to yeild obedience to loathsome lust In time then let us behold the disasters which wait on the experience of this miserable sin which is so ruinous to our body soul estate and reputation so full of fetters and snares It being impossible to write all the Tragedies which arise from this Passion for which all Pens are too weak all Wits too dull and all Tongues would be dryed up Neither is it to be wondred at what the Wise man said That the too free familiarity with Women was a firebrand in the bosome Prov. 6.27 and as another said It was as easie to live among burning coals as to converse with this Sex and not to wound the soul How careful then should we be to avoid whatsoever may endanger the scortching not only of our Body but our precious Soul yea how should we fear our Relapses and shun all occasions which may re-enkindle the flame For if vain Love be a Tree the fruit flowers and leaves whereof are nothing but sorrows if it be a Sea full of Tempests and Storms where a Haven is not to be hoped for but with the loss of our selves If it be a Passion which causeth a continual drunkenness of Reason If this Banquet which seems to be the source of life brings an Edict of Death with it and the best sports thereof are ordinarily bloody why should we embrace such cruelty as is mingled with delights Or that pleasure which is attended with Funerals O my Make us to bury all our concupiscences before we go to the Grave and so strive to live as that when death comes it may finde us prepared and that we may have little other business then to die That Love in its self is not a Vice but the Soul of all Vertues when it is tyed to its proper Object which is the Soveraign Good NEver shall the soul of man act any thing great in this world if he retain not holy fire in his veins since from the beginning of the world all things are held together by this Divine tye Concord which in its union causeth the happiness of all things and those sacred influences of Love have woven eternal chains to tye indissolubly all the parts of the Vniverse True joy is nothing else but a satisfaction of the soul in enjoying what it loves neither is the accomplishment of Pleasure any thing but the presence possession and fruition of the good which is known to us and which we love We cannot have one silly spark of love for God unless it be inspired into us by himself That which the Ayr is in the Elementary world the Sun in the Celestial and the Soul in the Intelligible the same is he throughout All He is the Ayr which all the afflicted desire to breathe in the Sun which dispelleth all our clouds the Soul which giveth life to all things and therefore he that is thus the Lover of our souls ought really to be the object with which our soul ought everlastingly to be in love And oh how happy are they who entertain this chaste and spiritual love for things Divine who embrace the wisdom of heaven which is so far beyond all humane Beauties as the light of the Stars surpass the petty sparklings and flitting fires of the earth but miserable are those who mount not above the flatteries and fading Beauty of the world From hence it was that the beauties of Solomon's Mistresses were no sooner adored but that through the neglect of his former Zeal and Courage Idols were worshipped That Sampson was no sooner blinded with love but that Dalilah forthwith blinded the eyes of his reason and body together Hence was it that David paid so dear for that unhappy cast of his eye on Bathsheba all which God is pleas'd to place as broken masts on the top of a mountain to make others take heed of the shipwracks of love And great care surely ought to be taken in the whole course and progress of our life sin being usually killed by flying the occasions of it Absence resistance coldness silence labour and diversion have overcome many assaults
of the enemy solitude of heart fasting prayer and the Word of God are weapons of an excellent force and which the Word teacheth us to use in our conflicts And sure it imports us much to fight valiantly and to bring with us the hearts of Lions what honour can we expect by yeilding to the first Temptation How many Martyrs have been roasted in burning flames because they would not speak an ill word Let us consider also the Crown we shall get at last by fixing our love aright If God be the Essence of Essences why do we please our selves by making so many nothings If God be a Spirit why should we our selves be perpetually fixed to carnal pleasures which only flatter to strangle us Why should not the day yeild up all our thoughts to him Why should the night which seemeth made to arrest the agitations of our spirit any way raze the remembrance of him from our heart Oh the unconquerable fire of holy love that can neither be quenched with many waters nor drowned with mighty floods but like the Ark in the Deluge by how much the waters swell higher by so much the more it ascendeth towards the place of its birth and first original the bosome of him who is the Author and Father of it Did we but behold all humane things from the top of the Palace of eternity O how would they seem like rotten pieces yea alas How often would the heavens and the elements conspire against thy affections which thou hast so unworthily and disasterously placed Or did we but see the miseries attending us in the violent pursuit of our desires who alas is it who would enter into this Hell of torment to rob himself of the joys of chastity and to live like Ixion on the wheel of Eternal vexation Were it not much better to throw away this frantick love this troublesome curiosity this rashness of judgement and all that fomenteth and nourisheth so ill a passion O my God! Make me from henceforth to enter into the bottom of my soul and to silence all those tempting and troublesome creatures these inordinate affections which so often bereave me of the happiness of thy sight and my eternal welfare O thou which canst draw Being out of the Abyss of nothing and bring the shades of death into light make me to put a difference between true love and concupiscence the which being once enjoyed dies and is ofter resolved into the smoak of disgrace and the ashes of hate whereas the other is still more ardent towards the thing beloved by possessing and enjoying it O unexhaustible Fountain of all Beauty whither shall I go to quench those violent distempers and wicked thirst kindled within my soul but to thee O Saviour who canst shew me my stains and give me water to wash them to thee who only canst quench those in-lets of sin with the tears of repentance O then melt that heart which hath retained so many vain and lustful thoughts in the sacred Limbeck of thy Love and distil it out by my eyes Why should any impure thoughts pollute that soul which thou hast sanctified Why should any profane words pollute that Tongue which thou hast commanded to be the Organ of thy Praises Why should any unchaste action rend the vail of that Temple wherein thou hast pleased to enter and chusest for thy habitation And thrice happy shall all those be who can seal up all their senses from vain objects and suffer them to be wholly possessed with Religion fortified with prudence watchfulness and mortification and have bound up their eyes and heart from all strange and disorderly affections and have so far watered them with the smoak which ariseth from the fire of this worlds prosperity as to finde delight in nothing here below neither to prefer any thing before the hopes and expectation of celestial glory Of the Nature and Qualities of Divine Love and wherein it exceeds all other Love ALL things here below being transitory and frail little is the support we can find in them until God hath poured his holy Love into our heart which can alone purifie our life and eternize our Souls It is he which inspireth the love with which he will be loved It is his gift alone by which we love him above all and all for him God in the first place gives us a taste of his Word and makes us to taste sweetness therein and he only it is who gives us good resolutions towards the amendment of our life Consider then O Soul redeemed with the blood of the Son of God that thou canst not live without Love since on what side soever thou turnest thou must necessarily love and God who is the Author of Love and makes of the lightnings thereof eruptions whereby to communicate himself to man seeing this necessity would that thou take the object of his love for the object of thy own who is altogether lovely neither is there spot or blemish in him And O my soul when thou hast heedfully contemplated his Beauty strive to finde a reciprocal love enkindled in thy breast towards him who loved thee when there was nothing lovely in thee who made no love to Beauties to gold or greatness but loved thy very poverty and miseries From this Love it is that we are diligent and assiduous in praying to him that we endeavour the keeping of our Conscience unspotted that sin is weakned his Law observed our lusts abated that humane considerations and all the respects of flesh and blood are trod under foot yea that we account all things worse then a Dunghil to gain Jesus Christ Hence further it is that we are patient in adversities that we embrace the Cross that we love our enemies and do good to those that persecute us Behold the accomplishment also of true love left us in the pattern of our blessed Saviour who made himself the highest example thereof in laying down his life to save us Few there are who in an unshaken constancy persevere till death we read indeed of strange examples of Amity and Affection between †Luci. Toxorh friends as of him who left his whole family in a fire to carry â—ut his dearest Friend on his shoulders of another who gave his own eyes for the ransom of him he tenderly affected We finde mention also of many Women tyed with the indissoluble chains of vertuous inclinations As Valeria who said Though her husband were dead to others he was not so to her Of Sulpitia who in spite of her Mother broke doors and locks to run after her banished Husband Of Eponina many years shut up with her Husband in a hollow Tomb. Of Mithridates Queen who in the midst of all his Captains followed him through snows storms and wildernesses But especially of Mary Magdalen that mirrour of Love and ardent affection whose soul dissolved and melted with spiritual languor on the heart of her beloved Saviour We read also of some who have licked whole
a most certain sorrow and uncertain contentment Yea we should then say of all the most ravishing Objects thereof How senseless was I when I Courted you O deceitful World Thou didst appear great to me when I saw thee not as thou art but so soon as I did see thee aright thou wert no mo more to me but just nothing Whither then dost thou straggle O my Soul Whither dost thou fly O seek out him who hath marked his steps with his great Conquests Who hath made visible his way by his own light paved it with his wounds and watered it with his most precious blood Say unto him at least O my Jesus Stay with me for it is late in my heart and the night is far advanced by the want of true light Alas O my Lord wherefore art thou pleased to hide thy self from a Soul that languisheth for thee Ah! Take away the vail from my eyes and suffer thy self to be seen in the habit of thy excellent Beauties Oh my God! If I cannot enter as sorrowful as I would into my grave I will yet go repentant into some obscure and savage Cave where the Sun shall no more shine on a head so sinful as mine or trace some desart mountains where with freedom I may pour forth my sighs and complaints There will I make that mouth which hath been often the gate of unchaste and idle speeches to become a Temple of thy Praises There shall those arms and hands which have been the chains of wanton embracements have room enough to be lifted up in prayer to heaven mine eyes O mine eyes which first received that fire which hath so passionately devoured my Soul shall there turn Fountains and want no water to wash that heart which hath so long been a burning Furnace of worldly lusts and affections and those feet which have strayed in the ways of sin and wickedness shall there traverse and weary themselves in the desolate paths of Furies and wilde Beasts Briefly O my God! Since I have so betrayed my heart abused my youth spent prodigally thy treasures and made Crowns of silver to the Idol of my own inventions since I have forsaken thee who art the unchangeable eternal and incomparable goodness and without whom all other goods are nothing to follow the wanton fires of my own lusts where alas shall I finde Tears sufficient to wash away my Offences Where shall I finde parts enow of my body to be offer'd up as the Sacrifice of my Repentance Wash me wash me again O my Jesus Make clean I beseech thee merciful Saviour my most sinful Soul What though it were as black as hell yet being once in thy hands how soon will it become more white then that Dove of silver wings whereof the Prophet speaks Oh my God! Have some pity on that heart which is so many times torn in pieces and strays among so great a multitude of Objects which estrange and draw me from thee Draw me O Lord from the great throng of so many inferiour things that so I may retyre into my own heart and finde peace in thee Make me to see the first beams of that Liberty which thou grantest to thy children Ah! When shall my thoughts return from wandring in those barren Regions where thou art not acknowledged When shall they cease to run in full career after all that pleaseth their sense and account thy Cross only and the Throne on Mount Calvary to be the true Path-way to heaven Here I am I confess in the Wilderness of sin in the Desart of this world O when shall I be re-united and so purifyed by thy favours that I may celebrate continual days of Feasting in my Soul I was one of those and I cannot deny it that through my sins helped to apprehend thee in that obscure and dolorous night wherein thou wert betrayed and when thou enteredst into the Garden of Mount Olivet to expiate the sin committed in a Garden by our first Parents Were not my sins then the Traytors that laid hold on thee Were they not my sins which drew those bitter sorrows from those most dainty Sweets Which made thee suffer pains in a place of delight and turn'd that place which was made for Recreation into a dismal Den of Desolation Oh sad change Ah my Jesus What hath my sins brought upon thee Those Olives which were tokens of Peace did there denounce War against thee the Plants there did groan the Flowers were flowers of death and those clear Fountains were turn'd to fountains of sweat and blood What then remains but that I be now ashamed of all the fading curiosities of the world Ah! Shall I not study this Garden And forsaking all other pleasures make my heart fit ground for Jesus to reside and delight in O beautiful Garden since made so by the sighs of my dear Saviour Here let me only breathe in thy walks let me lose my self that I may never be lost with my God Let me gather thy flowers since thou hast deckt them with thy blood Let me wash my self in those Fountains which thou hast sanctified with thy sweat O my dear Saviour Let me have no other Will but thine Wilt thou be abridged of thy own Will to give me an example of mortifying my Passions and shall I retain any wicked or inordinate appetite Hast thou like the Dove of Noah's Ark escaped the Deluge of so many Passions and torrents of dolours falling headlong so fast on one another to bring me green Olive-branch of peace and shall my soul be so audacious as to wage war against thee by my sins O what earth could then open wide enough to swallow me What thus to live with a hand stretched out against heaven which pours out for nothing but Flowers and Roses Out alas No no Raign O my dear Saviour within all the conquered powers of my Soul Let thy Wounds be the adored Altars of my Vows Let me hereupon promise an inviolable fidelity to thy service Let me live no more but for thee since thou makest my life to flourish with thy tryumphant Resurrection Ah my Soul Dost thou want any thing to provoke thy Love Is there not a Sea of Love here before thee Cast thy self in then and swim in the Ocean thereof Sit no longer under the weeping banks of worldly sorrow Thou hast long sate mourning with Hagar Gen. 21.15 1 Kin. 19.6 2 King 6.16 in this Valley of Tears Thou hast long been in the posture of Elias sitting down under the Tree forlorn and solitary yea desiring rather to die then to live Nay how many times hast thou cryed out with Elisha Alas What shall I do and with passionate Jonah I am weary of my life When shall I be out of this frail this corruptible Body this ruinous ensnaring and deceiving flesh O when shall I be out of this vexatious world whose vain pleasures are but deluding Dreams What remains then O my Soul But that thou strive to get out
enquire to pray and yet not finde the light of thy presence But O Lord Leave not this poor Soul of mine but make it to understand the unmeasurableness of thy Bounties and Mercy Oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish and darksome shall be turned into a full and clear Vision O happy darkness if thus to become lightsome The more hidden thou art now blessed Saviour the more glorious wilt thou be then Ah that my heavie thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft amongst those celestial Quires Me-thinks I see when thou shalt be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortal body which now detains me from thy presence and interrupts the view of thy glory how nothing will be able to hinder the eagerness of my Soul from flying to thee Me-thinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy thee Surely there 's no possibility of pleasure without thee no faculty of Soul to wish or think any thing but thee yea my Soul would more willingly wain into nothing then part with thee Thee my only incomprehensible and Eternal All my dear dearest Lord and God! Adieu then those charming warbles of a fleeting and deceitful world O merciful Father Behold my prodigal Soul which returns unto thee Receive me as a mercenary servant if thou wilt not receive me as a Son for I resolve no longer now to run after the salt waters of worldly pleasures and contentments The light of thy countenance is far better then life it self being able to turn the shaddows of death into life and the midnight of the sharpest adversities into the noon-tide of joy and chearfulness Oh how great is the clemency of God to hide from us the greatest part of things which will befal us in the world The knowledge whereof would continually overwhelm our wretched life with sadness and affrightment and give us no leave to breathe among the delicious Objects of the earth Had many great and eminent persons mounted on the highest degree of honour but seen how they were still falling into endless Abysses or beheld the change of their Fortune and the bloody ends of their life it is impossible but the joys of their Tryumphs would have been moistned with Tears and through a perpetual fear of inevitable necessity they would have lost all the moments of their felicity And did the poor and seemingly forsaken Soul thorowly at once apprehend the severe anger of an omnipotent God what alas would it do when it sees it self menaced by the hideous and affrightful terrors and mischiefs of Satan What shall the poor heart do when God is pleas'd to write bitter things against it when he shall scare it with dreams and terrifie it with Visions Surely not pains imprisonments poverty or death it self can be more troublesome to it Whereas the comforts of a quiet conscience becalmed with the gracious in-comes of Gods gracious presence and enlightned with his glorious Beams which expel the darkness and ignorance of our cursed Nature as are so many threads of gold which involve us here below in precious repose and a certain expectation of beatitude until at last we finde wings to take our flight to the City of Peace and Refuge promised unto us by that mouth which never erred and whose Laws are established upon foundations stronger then the pillars of heaven and earth and where we shall receive the excellent Promises and clearest revelations of Eternity The Soul admires the infinite Riches of her Saviours Love in taking Humane Nature upon him WIth what admiration is not the heart of man seized on when he entereth into the great Abysses which are discovered in our Redemption and when he seeth Jesus a Saviour to reveal unto us the secrets and wisdome of heaven by his blessed Incarnation For what saw he in our Nature but a brutish body and a Soul all covered over with crimes and wholly drenched in remediless miseries Or what could he set before him but a miserable ungracious wretch cast forth upon the face of the Earth wallowing in uncleanness abandoned to all sorts of scorns and injuries And yet behold how the Prince of Glory looking on us with the eyes of his mercy taketh us washeth cloatheth adorneth and tyeth us to himself by a hand of infinite Love He laid aside the beautiful Angels and came upon earth to seek this lost creature though a Foe to his Honour and injurious to his Glory See O my Soul How that God far beyond all other created Essences hath been so liberal as to bestow himself on thee He bowed the Heaven and came down rendering his sacred Person subject to all the misery of humanity to bruises to tearings to shatters to violences oppositions and tyrannies and all to accomplish a King of sorrow calamity and scorn He laid aside all the Prerogatives of his most perfect Soul exposing it to labours to tears and griefs to those stupendious Throws in the Garden which made him cry out in those expressive words My God! My God! To what a point hast thou let me to be brought and in the end to be commended even to death it self How alas didst thou abandon thy body to heat to cold to weakness to hunger to thirst to travel to weariness to fear to sadness of Soul and death it self What was it but Love and Love alone that brought down God from heaven to be incarnate in the womb of a Virgin and to suffer all the hardships not sinful to which humane Nature is subject So that thou art not able to conceive the multitude and greatness nor any way comprehend the worth of his mercies And what then canst thou say but only lie gasping with admiration of so vast so unknown a goodness and sigh out the rest in the Center of thy heart Good God What sublimate is made in the Limbeck of Love What attractive was there in Humane Nature to draw thee from the highest part of the heavens to its love Thou out of thy goodness wouldst not lose him who through his own weakness delighteth to lose himself O miracle That humane Nature should be thus tyed to the Divine That glory should be separated from the estate and condition of glory yeilding his Soul up as a prey to sadness O dear Saviour Thou stretchest out thy hand to him who turns his back to thee Man flyeth as a Fugitive and thou pursuest him even to the shaddow of Death What may we say more of so profuse a Bounty Oh how thou courtest sinful flesh Being not content to pardon his crimes but even through thy own death to procure him a Kingdom All the ancient Patriarchs who were persecuted in times past and all the glorious Martyrs who since our Saviour have endured such torments made but a tryal of his Dolours Impatient souls then as we are Can we expect a greater motive to suffering then to have our Saviour for an example Who then will complain Or who is the man who cannot bear a
know ah little indeed the glory and blessedness of this love little dost thou know the excellency of this Love Is there any thing here below but baseness in espect of thy enjoyments above are the heavy sufferings the unsatisfying vanities of this world really sutable to thy desires or canst thou find any place more sutable to thy misery then that of mercy or of nearer interest or Relation then that of Heaven Come away then O my Soul stop thine ears to the ignorant language of the world what is the Beauty the Riches the Honours thou hast so much admired Canst thou but even close thine eyes and thou wilt think it all darkness and deformity What is the beauty thou hast so much admired alas when the night comes it will be nothing to thee whilst thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away doâ—h not the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age or some other deformity make it as loathsome as it was once delightful Ah then O miserable man that thou art unworthy Soul how canst thou love a skinful of dirt and canst no more love the heavenly Glory art thou not a Soul is not heaven the onely lovely Object art thou not a Spirit and is not Earth a Dungeon to Celestial Glory shall Gold or Greatness or worldly Pomp be thy Idols vvhich are all dirt and dung to Christ come forth then O my dull and drowsie Soul thou hast lain long enough in these earthly Cells where cares have been thy Fetters where sorrows have been thy lodgings and Satan thy Jaylor The Soul calling to mind the infinite Love of her Saviour bewailes her ungratefulness and the coldness of her returns WHen holy David considered the vvorks of Gods hands the Sun and the Moou which he had made Psal 8.3 4. he immediately breaks forth into thoughts of humility touching the frail and sad estate of man But blessed Lord what can we say for our great neglect of that Love which hath stretched it self for us even to the death of the Cross and what stupidity is it to forget that that bloody Banquet which was to us the source of life should bring with it the Edict of death O poor Sinner What hast thou done look upon a Deed that vvas worthy of none but thy cruelty stretch out thy hands put thy fingers into those wounds vvhich thou hast made bedew thy hands like unbelieving Thomas in that sacred stream vvhich flowed from thy Saviours side Drink miserable vvretch of that River vvhich there thou seest glide to quench thy thirst Look and behold those dead eyes which accuse thy nakedness and which thou still dost wound with the aspect of thy wickedness alas they are not shut so much by the necessity of death as by the horrour of thy Luxury Behold the great temper of thy Saviours Soul in his most horrible sufferings what could be invented which he endured not what could be undergon which he met not vvith Oh high effect of an infinite Love vvhich found no belief in senses no perswasion in minds no example in manners nor resemblance in nature It is storied of a Prince vvho being desirous to offer himself to death for the preservation of his Subjects took the habite of a Clown the better to facilitate his death he laid down his Crown and Purple and all the Ensigns of Royalty onely retaining those of Love and lost his life in his Enemies hands But alas this was but a mortal life and in giving it he onely paid that tribute to Nature which at last he must of necessity yield But where have we read that a man glorious by Birth and immortal by condition hath espoused that humility which all the world despiseth that mortality which all must partake of that mercy which none can equalize and for no other occasion then to dye for his friend O dear Jesus thou wert by nature immortal and impregnable against all exterior violences thou took'st not the Body of a Peasant nor a body of Air but a true body of Flesh personally united to the word of God Thou O blessed Saviour consumedst thy body with Travails thou quailedst it with toils thou castedst tottered Rags over thy Purpleâ— thou laid'st our miseries upon thy own shoulders and at last resignedst thy selfe as a Prey to a most dolorous death My God! What a Prodigie is this Thou foundest a way to accord infirmity with Soveraignty Honour with Ignomy Life with Death and Time with Eternity O God of Glory O mild Saviour all this hast thou done it was not possible that sole God should suffer death nor sole Man should vanquish it but God and Man hath overcome it Ought not then thy pains to be as much adored by our wills as they are incomprehensible to our understandings And alas how much ought we to be ashamed since instead of enkindling our Affections with the sacred fires of thy Eternal Love we have sought after prophane fire from the eyes of earthly Beautie and have opened our hearts to Forreign flames Ah ungrateful Soul art thou not afraid to hear those heart-piercing words Cant. 5.6 I opened to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone my soul failed when I spake I sought him but I could not find him Shall the love of God be so communicative as to stream forth by those two conduit-pipes of Glory and Beauty and art thou not hereupon even confounded to see thy heart so narrow and streightned in the exercise of holiness and good works Oh blessed Saviour thou didst spend thy time in continual pain and labours here on Earth for the redemption of the world Many were the scorns reproaches and miseries thou endurest for us Thou didst even melt and dissolve under the ardors of unspeakable affection and zeal for our salvation and at last exposedst thy self to languors sorrows extasies and the cruel punishment of the Cross and shall ingratitude be all the return thou reapest for such infinite mercy How justly maist thou many many times question with me as thou did once with S. Peter Joh. 21.17 Lovest thon me Thou seemest indeed poor soul to love me But why then dost thou not keepe my Commandements Doth not fond love which ordinarily delights to see what it cannot attain find too much admiration for thy eyes and food for its flame Ah that ever thou shouldst spend so many hours endure so much pain and run so many hazards to seek after an unhappy loathsomness Oh that ever thou shouldst take away thy love from me to place it on Creatures which so little deserve it And why should the faculties of the eye which was ordained for light be thus applyed to darkness Shall that which was Created for the use of Life be the cause of Death Alas what canst thou gain by imbracing thy Lusts O poor deceived Soul what Snares what Traps what Tempests beset thee on all sides O Man miserable wretch drenched in the waters of bitter Tears where alas wilt