Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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B05844
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Divine breathings: or, A pious soul thirsting after Christ
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T. S. (Thomas Sherman); Perin, Christopher.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing S3388A; ESTC R184098
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42,078
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222
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of mercy If God do so much for a Slave on Earth what will he do in Heaven for a Son Therefore ye holy ones that are so offended at the flourishing of the wicked Oh leave your envy and see your glory for Heaven lyes above ground As the adversity of the Saints shall therefore give me a glimpse of Hell so the prosperity of the wicked shall give me a glance of Heaven LXX Meditat. GOd hath made all things for his elect and his elect for himself All is yours and you are Christs I will therefore serve my God in all things my self in nothing LXXI Meditat. THe Creature hath a goodness in it no further than it stands in reference to the chiefest good if you cut the stream off from the fountain it will quickly lose its sweetness pureness and it self at length the comforts and enjoyments of the wicked because they flow not from the spring of love they are but like dainty Channels mudded and imbittered with the wrath of God fading Brooks which at length will make the soul ashamed so that he which only enjoyes the creature in it self shall lose the creature and himself The purest and the sweetest mercies only run in the rivulets which are fed by the upper celestial springs of mercy Therefore O Lord Whatsoever I enjoy let it stream from the fountain of thy love and flow to me in the blood of thy Son LXXII Meditat. AS the Rivers which flow from the Sea run back again into the Sea So those blessings wich come from God must alwayes be employed for God What I have received from God in his mercy he must have it back again in his glory Therefore Lord Whatever I enjoy let me find thee in it and serve thee with it LXXIII Meditat. LOve should alwayes be the life of motion Amor meus pondus meum eo terror quocunque terror That soul goes true that hath true love to way it and that soul loves truly that hath a true object to center it a gracious spirit loves the Lord not because he does good but because he is good I will not weigh that friends affection that loves a fluent sweetness before an inherent goodness that soul that loves Christ for himself though you take away all weights else yet there is strength enough in love to move and constrain the soul O blessed be that Saint Lord that 's so taken with thy love that can truly say Were there neither Heaven nor Hell yet sin should be my Hell and holiness my Heaven LXXIV Meditat. TO speak the truth our Life what is it but a vital death The Poet being asked What he did Answered very well Paulatim morior I dye by little and little We do but then begin to live indeed when we begin to live to God our life before is but a race to the sepulcher but when we live to God then we are in our way to eternity As Alexander when he reckoned up his age counted not his years but his victories so when I take an account of my life I will not reckon up my time but my duties LXXV Meditat. O Thou precious Saint thou gracious Soul Three questions calls for thy answer thy answer for thy praise 1. What wast thou 2. What art thou 3. What shalt thou be 1. What wast thou A Rebel to thy God a Prodigal to thy Father a Slave to thy Lust an Alien from the Common-wealth of Israel 2. What art thou The Son of God the Spouse of Christ the Temple of the Holy Ghost begotten of the Immortal Seed born of the Blood Royal of Heaven made free among the Denizens of Sion written among the living of Jerusalem 3. What shalt thou be A glorious Saint a Companion of Cherubins a triumphant Victor a crowned King and an Attendant on the Lamb wheresoever he goeth a spectator of those soul-ravishing and ineffable excellencies that are in God the beholding of the King of glory face to face and enjoying immediate communion with Jesus Christ Nay more made one with Jesus Christ cloathed with his excellencies enthroned with his glories crowned with his eternity filled with his felicity The glory which thou hast given me I have given them Oh! Stand amazed at free grace and seeing God hath made thy soul a vessell filled with his mercy make thy self thy life a spring flowing with his praise LXXVI Meditat. THe Soul takes its rise from every creature to Heaven When I see the Stars Lord I think if one Star be of such magnitude what are the dimensions of those Heavens in which so many are fixed Nay how immensible is that God whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain When I see the Sun I think if one Sun make such a glorious and lustrious day what a glorious Heaven will that be wherein every Saint shall be a Sun and every Sun so farr brighter than this as this is brighter than our bodies And yet all these Suns are but a shadow to the Sun of righteousness Again when I consider the rising Sun how by the perfection of his beams he puts beauty life and joy upon the face of the whole Creation paints the Flowers guilds the Corn puts a flourish upon the Plants chears and exhillarates the Birds and makes the Valleys shout for joy I then think what shall be the shining beauty and soul ravishing delights of that soul upon which the brightness of thy glory shall fully rise and rest and into which the glorious splend our of thy beauty shall clearly shine to all eternity And when I consider the Air this is my thought That as here I cannot think at all unless I draw in this Air so I cannot think well at all except thou puts goodness into my thought Lord When I view the variety of thy Creatures and see one excell in beauty another in strength another in wisdome another in love and of others in swiftness Lord I think these are but beams of thy brightness and streams of thy fulness as they had only their being from thy hand so they have only their perfection in thy essence here they are mixt but there they are pure how happy then shall that soul be that enjoyes all perfection in God and God infinitely above all Lord I see stately buildings shady groves and crystal brooks and pleasant meadows and yet perhaps a wicked man the owner why then I think if Simeon goes away with such a mess what will Benjamin's portion be If the Children of the Concubines have so large a gift what shall be the inheritance of a Son of Promise Again when I look upon my self in temporals Lord I bless thee that I have a convenient sufficiency a goodly heritage my tents are by the wells of Elim my portion is from the hands of thy wisdome and though corruption may think it of the least yet wisdome it self knows it to be best Now Lord if thou givest me so much in the time of my vanity what wilt thou do
INRI Oh how â—â—iable When shall I come and appear before thee DIVINE Breathings Or A Pious Soul Thirsting after CHRIST The fourth Edition very much Corrected Quid enim mihi est in Coelo à te quid volui super terram LONDON Printed for Robert Pawlett at the Sign of the Bible in Chancery-Lane near Fleet-street 1671. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER WE know that Christ accepted the Widows Mite This Orphan is to thee the zealous offering of its Parent whose intention is to furnish thee with holy Desires which are a Christians wings to fly to Heaven and therefore challenges thy acceptance We have in Holy Writ the Psalmes of David left us for our Example wherein we read his longing to be with God desiring the wings of a Dove that he might flye away and be at rest and assimulating his thirsting after Christ to the Hart As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God! Loe Hear one that hath learnt by David's rules and fain would have thee learn by his and doubtless in imitation of that holy Prophet purposely penn'd these his pious Ejaculations to leave them for posterity to be a furtherance in the way to bliss And though the Authors name is not prefixt his Piety these heavenly Breathings speak which being found by a Person of no mean degree among the writings of an eminent Divine have been by him communicated only to his dearâ—st relations as a celestial Dove to carry the Olive-branch of peace into their Souls It being my happiness to receive a Copy my own affections for the good of others instantly inflamed my desirs to publish it being seconded not only by the approbations but earnest solicitations of my friends I have assented and here present it to thee hoping thy devotions may be hereby raised thy holy desires increased and thy Soul have a relish on Earth of the unspeakable joyes in Heaven which that thou mayest have the fruition of is the hearty Prayer of Thy Cordial Friend CHRISTOPHER PEâ—IN Divine Breathings I. MEDITATION MEditation and Prayer are like the Spies that went to search the Land of Canaan the one views and the other puts down and both brings â—ome à taste of the fairest and sweetest fruits of Heaven Meditation like the â—ye views our mercies and Prayer like the hand reacheth in those mercies or Meditation is like a Factour which lyeth abroad to gather in what we want and Prayer like a ship goeth forth and brings in what we desire It is my misery that I cannot be so perfect as not want but it is my mercy that I cannot be so miserable as not to be supplied Meditation cannot find out-areal want but Prayer will fetch in an answerable comfort Lord If mercy be so free I will never be poor but I will meditate to know it never know it but I will pray to supply it and yet not rest until thou shalt do more for me than I am able to ask or think II. Meditat. SAint Bernard sweetly compares Contemplation to the Eagle For as the Eagle is still fastening her eye upon the radiant beams of the beautiful Sun So Contemplation is still viewing the glorious beams of the Sun of Righâ—eousness it is still conâ—ersant about the high and profitable things of Salvation Or else I may compare it to those Birds of whom David speaks who â—uild their nests by the Alâ—ar of God This is that â—elestial Bird that builds her nest about the Throne of Glory This is the Bee which flyeth into the sweetest Gardens and sucks Honey from every Flower of Paradise By Meditation I can converse with God solace my self in the bosome of my beloved bathe may self in rivers of pleasure tread the paths of my rest and view the mansions of my eternity What makest thou then O my soul in this valley of tears Up upon the mount and view the Land of promise What makest thou in this wildernesse oâ— trouble Up upon thâ— wing and take thy flight tâ— Heaven let thy thought be where thy happiness is and let thy heart be where thy thoughts are though thy habitation may be on Earth yet thy conversation shall be in Heaven III. Meditat. WHat art thou O my Soul a spiritual Essence an Incorporeal substance the very breath of God and Epitomy of Heaven What satisfies thee O my immortal Soul none but the immortal God in whom all fullness dwells he onely â—can fill the Soul that fills Heaven and Earth the insufficient creature may fill the Soul with vexation none but the all-sufficient God can fill the Soul with contentation O Lord as no action of mine will satisfie thee without my self so no creature of thine will satisfie me without thy self therefore O Lord take thou my heart and give me thy self IV. Meditat. WHat want'st thou O my Soul with what imaginable excellency would'st thou cloath thy self What desirable object would'st thou pitch upon Is it beauty The righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of Heaven and the wise as the brightness of the Firmament for ever and ever Is it riches Wealth and riches are in the house of God every one in his family shall have a rich a glorious and incorruptible and an eternal inheritance amongst the Saints What is it then Is it honour What honour like to this to be a friend and a favourite of God and a spouse of Christ to have a Crown of righteousness of life and of glory Yet more a farr more exceeding and eternal weight of glory set upon thy head Yet again is it pleasure The Just shall enter into their Masters joy and there are rivers of pleasures at his right hand for evermore In a word What would'st thou have Oh my flesh A confluence of all the glorious things both in Heaven and in Earth Why Godliness hath the promise of this life and of that which is to come If Heaven and the righteousness thereof be the thing that thou dost seek both Heaven and Earth with the excellencies thereof is that which thou shall find Lord make me holy and then I am sure I shall be happy V. Meditat. WIse Agents do alwayes propound their Ends before they set upon their Work And then direct their actions to that end they did propound If the Mariner launch it is that he may get to such a harbour Therefore he sayls by Compass that he may compass that he sayls for A Christian should have always one eye upon his end and the other eye upon his way That man lives a bruitish life that knows not what he lives for and he acts but a fools part that aims at Heaven and lives at randome A wise Christian his end of living is that he may live without end and therefore his way of living is that he may live continually to spend his life in the ways of life he is alwayes walking in those paths where he sees Heaven before him O my Soul What is