the world makes to their pride the consideration of their owne parts gifts indowments abilities eminencies whatsoever As then most truly and throughly humbled when thou risest to thy highest station and takest the fullest view of all thy excellencies As seeing nothing but what thou hast of him in him and for him the onely ground of humilitie because of glory To see thy selfe thus and thus richly qualified and yet to see thy selfe to be miserable poore blinde and naked to have so much and yet to have nothing argueth that the Candle of God hath shined over thy head in its brighter beames and his secrets have dwelt more intimately more abidingly in thy Tabernacle While seeing thy selfe of the noblest stocke of the choysest of nations as touching learning with the learned'st concerning zeale with the most active touching the righteousnesse in the Law blamelesse c. and yet to treade and trample all these things under thy feete with the utmost indignation and detestation as the most despicable drosse and dunge in comparison of one thought of revealed Christ that hast knowne or rather art knowne of Him that is the onely excellency I such a light shining in upon the soule and out-shining the most glorious Sunne even at mid day is that which will cast the greatest Apostle upon his face and make him cry out that he is lesse then the least of Saints And certainly there may be a due and selfe-denying acknowledgement of parts indowments performances c. while there may be an impudently modest and selfe-seeking selfe-denyall of all the most desperate the most detestable hypocrisie Besides for a man to carry himselfe lowly dejectedly discontentedly upon the meere convincements of his defects and faults may be meere basenesse and pusilanimitie that will soone upon the least conceit of its owne worth turne into and indeed narrowly looke into proceeds from and carries along with it pride and selfe-love Neither is that to bee thought true humilitie that is not a furtherance to thankefulnesse And the only course to keep from boasting being to learn how to know all of grace how to glory boast in the Lord. We being onely so farre humbled as outed of our selves so far outed of our selves as filled with God so far as he is pleased gloriously to condescend to humble himselfe unto us and graciously to take us up to advance us into himselfe There being nothing that layes the soule lower in its owne eyes then its highest exaltation in Gods Nothing that makes it better know better keepe its distance in an humble lovefull trembling joyfull every-way-duly-affectionate active obedient walking before him then the knowledge then the assurance of its communion of its union with him I know the wisedome of God is foolishnesse to the world it is ignorant it is wulfully ignorant of it But I speake to them whose hearts have the minde of Christ and can sensibly interpret the meaning of his spirit And certainly he that speaks not nonsence to nature speakes but little supernaturall sence Besides nature may have a kinde of Ahab-like Judas-like humilitie on the apprehensions of evills morrall or naturall But to be humbled at the thoughts of our selfe-sufficiency in him who is our onely sufficiency our new selfe this of grace While our hearts understand that sweet harmony of that seeming contradiction I and yet not I but the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in me that humble meeke gentle spirit Thou whose maine whose principall study is to know all the excellencies of the World in the face of Christ to know it by them and them by it that through it thou maist know him who hath ordained it as the conveying Medium of the light of the knowledge of his Glory Thou whose world-and selfe-contemning behaviour speakes thee one of those finding seekers and seeking finders that with asweet sharpenesse and unsatisfied satisfaction followest on to the knowledge of him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Thou sweetly passionated heart that knowest what are those flutterings of the soule to flie those holy efforts those lanchings forth into the great depths what it is to be given up to to lye under the power of the Divine Spirit while on thy water-like diffused soule it hatcheth new formes of the Divine nature Thou tender humbled shivered and shivering spirits that worke out thy salvation with feare and trembling while thou biddest defiance to the gates of Hell and laughest death and destruction in the face Thou who though often assaulted with Thornes in the flesh with buffetings in thy spirit art kept in such a compleate peace in the sense of the Al-sufficient Grace and canst glory canst pleasure in count gaines of thy infirmities thy distresses necessities persecutions c. as the advancers of the overcomming strength of thy Christ thy only joy glory gaine Thou poore weake feeble wretch that canst doe nothing and yet canst doe all things through him that strengthens thee Thou whose inward and heart-disolving sighes are the daily harbingers for thy speedy admission to that great and eternall Supper of thy solemniz'd espousalls Thou whose love-sicke Christ-inamoured soule bursts for the longings that it hath that it alwayes hath after the full and never-interrupted imbraces of thy deare thy onely deare beloved Thou that countest every minute an age till thou art with Him and yet countest seaven and seaven yeares ages and ages spent in the greatest hardship he shall appoint thee but as a minut in thy sweete waitings on him Thou whose Heaven-visited soule cannot but break forth in exalting exclamations O the beauties the harmonies the sweetnesses the riches the glories the Crownes the inexpressiblenesses the inconceivablenesses of the knowledge of the love of God in Christ Jesus by his holy Spirit Thou who art Heaven inside and outside Who art cloathed with the Sunne and treadest the Moone under thy feete while thou hast that within thee that could it be seene would dazle the eyes of the world into an envious astonishment In whom is the Kingdome of Heaven the righteousnes the peace the joy in the Holy-ghost unspeakable glorious Thou that countest the doing of his Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven the turning of Heaven into Earth and men into Angels And therefore seest infinite more beautie in the poorest Priest-deridest Mecanicke conscionably and sincerely busied in his calling though but in the shoveling up of dirt and sweeping of Chimnies then thou dost in all the guildings and paintings the Copes and Surplusses c. all the sumptuous gallant trickings of the Beast in the wilfull sensuall hypocriticall worship of God Yea then in the hearing the reading of Sermons meditating praying conferring c. or whatever more immediate services more world-withdrawing exercises so as excluding the seasonable discharge of thy severall relations the performance of thy dutie to God in and through that to men As knowing the worth of every thing to be as it is to the will of God
command them off is indeede to command a mans selfe the most noble conquest And surely this magnanimitie this inlargeing this heighthning heate and vigour of heart is conveyed in equally with those beames of divine illumination Which wonderfully marvellous light which kingdome of Heaven first entering into us and wee into it at our first entrance on Mount Sion workes thus diffusively on the understanding-the-heart-the whole All things are as they are compared to God but him in the face of Christ I see the onely good and therefore as contraries illulustrate each other whom have I in earth in Heaven but Thee I see nothing in the whole creation in its best and setledest state but a blacke and horrid Caos of vanitie of deformitie farther then it partakes of him farther then I can espie in it the scatterings of the divine Raies And surely the men of the world comparing themselves with themselves and the things with the things of the world are not wise Rectum est index sui obliqui The light of the manifestation of it selfe and darkenesse He then that doth truth commeth to this light to see whether his workes be of God T 's the shining Sunne discovers those motes of sinne Those subtler mists of fleshie steames betweene Our spirit our light our life and us those beames Of shadowing lusts that darke our lightfull beames Still shine lo'd Sunne discovering still dispell And in dispelling discover our heart-bred hell Those uncouth Cells those shades of dismall death Those haunts of horrid Fiends whose mickle skeath Of mortall wounds hous'd in a golden sheath Of minion comforts steale away the breath With fatall kisses whilst th' guile-favouring night Maskes their infernall shapes till th' friendly light Of faithfull truth appeare and put to flight Their wilely force b' its wisely succouring might Thus more commended it my triumph more Increast such enemies so triumphed o're Thus the sincere heart brings himselfe and all the world to this all-revealing Sunne to see what they have of him in whom hee hath approved the onely and onely fincere-making excellencies by that single eye of faith that singles him out as its onely object as desiring to see nothing but him at least mediately if not immediately And though this latter is the way wherein the earnestly heartie desires of the soule run after the full and uninterrupted in oyment of God yet in regard of the frailtie of the flesh the weakenesse slendernesse imbecilitie of the intermediate spirits that are as the ties and ligaments betwixt the foule and the body and could not long conteine themselves without being utterly dissolved shud they be unintermittedly bent and held up to that extensive intensivenesse whereunto they are wrought by those great and glorious thoughts of those savoury and cordiall apprehensions which in the Lord Christ they have and without him they cannot have of that simple and infinite good which not onely carry forth the soule in a glad venture but transport it in an eager pursuit of this happy dissolution yet bethinking it self that there may be a selfe-seeking in this selfe-loosing that it is to live to others not it selfe to doe not receive it is willingly forced with a kind of unpleasant pleasantnesse to further entertaine its faith in naturall sense least it should wholly vanish into supernaturall So may our soules O Lord be incessantly continually devoted to thy feare so may they be devout even in all their earthly affaires may se devovere vow themselves from themselves and pay their vowes continually So may they ever live in thy fight in thy light that they may never depart from thy feare that they may never more give the lie to their professed knowledge fellowship with the light by walking in the wayes of darknes but shew forth the glory of their father in Heaven by the reflection of their serene sincere light some conversation on earth And certainly could we stand with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this stretching forth of the head in an earnest looking on him and longing for him wee shu'd have such an assuence of light and life breake in upon our soules and shine on our wayes that we shu'd walke up and downe like starres shot from Heaven till having dazled the eyes of the world into an envious astonishment wee shu'd remount for ever fixed in our highest spheare Now according as our aspect is on Him so is it also to others if that but oblique this but dimme and obscure but if that perpendicular this lively and glorious O that wee were more excellently skilled in these holy optickes we cu'd not but be in Theologie and therefore in Ethicks Oeconomicks c. And cu'd we but live soberly righteously and godlily upon as we ran not but cannot chuse but upon the sight of God avant then false lights false comforts for ever then he that shall come will come and will not tarry for the Lord is certainly waiting to bee gratious to that soule that is thus stedfastly waiting to be guided by him This indeed being the product the effect of the sense of that Neither know I any such if any other sincere and constant seeking as that when I thought of an absent God I was troubled and refused to be comforted by any thing but himselfe as knowing nothing else true comfort Neither can there be such seeking but from a true and lively saith not such a waiting but from a sincere-and-fervent love therefore not unlikely the Apostle thus intimating the nature of these graces translates those passages of Esaiah 11.10 with Rom. 15.12 1 Cor. 2.9 with Isa 64.4 seeke trust waite love Seeking faith and waiting love Here is that great Art of a Christian to be seeking still seeking the face of God I have set the Lord Alwayes before my face therefore c. Seeke yee the Lord and seeke his face Evermore I am Continually With thee Be in the feare of the Lord all the day long Here is that great difference of sinceritie and hypocrisie Will the hypocrite pray alwayes Will he seeke God in prosperitie as well as in adversitie At mid day in his businesse all the day long hourely and minutely as well as morning evening and at the solemne assembly Will he live the life of faith in the flesh in all sensuall things is he crucified to the world and the world to him Is he dead and this that even his mortall body lives is it by the quickning of the spirit doth hee walke up and downe the world as a man that hath neither life nor soule but onely as inlivened as animated hence is he ever lifting up his face to God that that flood of light and life that thence with such mighty incomes flowes in upon the soule might beare downe before it every thought that exalts it selfe against the kingdome of the Lord Christ c. that wholy given over to the power sway and guidance of it wholly casting it selfe into its imbracings while it
lies drown'd as it were in a Sea of loves and sweetnesses in a blessed astonishment and stupefaction it is elevated in the highest advancement of life and spirits in the Lord of life and glory that descended and ascended to draw up with him all that adheres to him O were the soule wound up to this pitch and watched at it and wound up againe if never so little slipt downe how might we live O still still let us be in this blessed vision of God with more continued intentivenesse contracting thence or rather dilating those Coexistant inherent essentiall which we call attributed species Then others beholding the stedfastnesse of our faith could not but there see more of that radiant image in its deputed Majestie the ball of the sensuall eye not more naturally expressing the Idea of the directly opposite and neighbouring visage then this of the spirituall of faith doth that of God And certainly no sence doth furnish us with more and more cleare conceptions of God then the sight being for its ready commence with the soule for its extention and intention the properest most conducible and advantagious of all being the most spatious farthest reaching pure simple active and therefore most apprehensive and next to that the hearing being the lesse grosse and earthly of all the rest But to keepe to that As the Sunne conveyeth heate and activitie inseperably with and proportionably to its light so is the truth loved and done so farre and onely so farre as it is seene The actions are spurious and illigitimate that are not conceived in the heart and begotten by the eye it will be our wisedome then so truly to informe the latter at we desire the well and right forming and performing of the other Let us looke on him then by no other Organ then faith thorough no other medium then Christ at no other distance then the mearest approaches even to such an unitie that wee see our selves in him and him in us When with the wicked wee put God farre from us and see the world draw nigh us then seemes he little and this great but when we draw neere to him what a pointile what an atome what a nothing it seemes nay it is And as the medium is ever the fame so is the Organ then best when most refined abstracted metaphysicall subtilized sublimed and sence-rarified cause then most proportionable and sutable to the simplicitie and puritie of the object it intends and therefore consequently to the extensivenesse and infinitie of it God being simply infinite and infinitely simple And therefore as wisedome consists in the clearenesse and quicknesse so in the inlargednesse of the understanding but since that knowledge that light in every thing wee draw from him is the onely true wisedome wee are then wisest when our understandings are most clarified by him most acted on him And surely this clarifying of our faith is according to the intimatenesse of our humbly bold accesse unto him the nature of this Sunne being to give light to the blind and that more or lesse according as we are more off or apply our selves nearer to Him And surely while we thus see God in the holiest of holies all the kingdomes of the earth in their freshest and heart-stealingest lovelinesse and that set forth in the most rich and glorious accoutrements will lie at our feete as a dead and rotten carkasle so farre shall we be from committing folly with it so farre that though then too our spirits be at the liveliest as they cannot but be yet because wee nay therefore because we be as crucified as dead to it as it is to us Such power hath this sight to fill the heart with love this love to hold the soule close to God from any thing that would part it from him and to carry it forth in all readinesse of obedience with him When contrarily while we are looking on the world without God we are but looking on so many lying vanities that dead the heart to reall and full contentments withholding it from God and setting the hand on worke in the wayes of sinne which still estrange the soule from Him and keep Him at a distance from the soule that more deading the heart that c. so the soule running on in a round of wickednesse if God not gratiously breake in and hinder its course Which when he doth his presence makes grace to grow by the interchangeable officiousnesse of all its undivided parts The sight of God inflaming the affections they inciting to actions these againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stirring up the fire in more fervent flames they giving in greater light that discovering more beautie that kindling more fire that animating to more action this againe c. so truely infinitely infinitely infinitely sweet is the comfort of the God-conversing soule The soule that hath received the truth in the love thereof and he that loves mee keepes my Commandements he that doth my will shall know my will he that hath my Commandements as his possession riches c. and keepes them as his greatest joy comfort life he it is that loves me and to him will I manifest my selfe Now this manifestation againe fills the heart with more operative and effectuall love this againe c. Thus Faith worketh by love the fulfilling of the Law the end of the Commandement out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained the sinceritie whereof must needs be according to the sight it hath of God according to the lovelinesse worth chooseablenesse that it seeth in him Faith then I take to be by what of light in this night of blindnesse and darkenesse I can see such a light as shining on the intentively beholding soule through the face of Christ hath that influence and attractive power with it to draw it up and make it cleave and adhaere with all its might and strength to God to lift up the heart to and make it goe along with him in all his wayes While like the Helitrophion it turnes and winds shuts and opens with the motion of the Sunne of righteousnesse And this light thus influenced thus working how ever clouded and obscured to a Christians selfe to be wisedome unto salvation that effectuall knowledge of God his Christ comming into and received of the soule that is life eternall already taken hold of and ere long fully prossessed or thus Faith is a promise-lighted seeking light Burnes with pure fervent love whose active might In every radiant precept shining bright Reflects its glory to the father-Father-Light Thus these three-one obedience-faith-and love Unite my soule to those Thee-One Above John 11.5.7 A seeking Isaiah 11.10 with Romans 15.13 Satisfying John 5.44 with John 14.1 Faith John 1.4.19 a sincere Phil. 1.10 Matth. 6.22 Eph. 6.24 Fervent Cant. 8.6.7 love John 14.15 an universall Psal 119.6 Jam. 2.10 Ephe. 4.23 Matth. 5.10 Constant Cor. 1.15.58 Obedience So that grace is faith understanding faith affecting faith acting
perfect in weakenesse concording discord And if it be the glory of God to bring light out of darkenesse good out of evill how can we but rejoyce that by being subjects of the one we come to bethe instruments of the other 2 Cor. 12. 1 Cor. 2.5 And if good be the object of the concupiscible facultie why shu'd we make our affections the object of our irascible The Lord strengthen us with joy in the inner man and then goe it how it will with the outer So may we gladly keepe the word of his patience in the saddest and patience-assaultingst times so shall hee keepe us from or at least in and therefore from the houre of temptation that shall come upon all the world to try them Now is it a time for the patience of the Saints for them that keepe the Commandements of God and the faith of Jesus Now is it a time for those that have held fast this inviolable knot in the bond of love to hold up their heads in rejoycing as then knowing the greater redemption drawes nigh when the greater calamitie approaches Thus what ever of these things we may know already feelingly in the heart if not notionally perspicuously in the head let us not faile to put one another alwayes in remembrance Alwayes striving together in our Prayers and that with no small conflict of heart that we may be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mistery of God and the Father and of Christ Had we more godly and brotherly love wee should have more comfort and that would hunger after more knowledge and that fill with more assurance and that furnish with more grace and all acknowledge the mistery of the puritie of the wisedome of the love of the Godhead So much spirit so much faith so much faith so much Christ so much Christ so much love so much love so much knowledge so much knowledge so much fulnesse of God Eph. 3.16 c. Come then what may come befall what may befall to the flesh The Lord be with the Lord will be with will be our Spirits Ruat Mundus Restat Deus PLay on about the Candle wanton flie Play sindge thy wings consume thy soule and die Make jests of Scripture-jeere the God of heaven Laugh at the Light-mock them who hath receiven It in their hearts-and shine it in their lives Invent unheard of opprobries contrive New fashion'd obloquies scum hell for scurrulous wit Or dive th'lowest depths of the unfathom'd pit 'T will furnish thee with just sufficient store To make thy selfe a foole and nothing more Enough and but enough to over-reach And cheate thy selfe th' infernall cheater'l teach Else shud'st be wiser then thy master shud Thy wit have wit enough to make thee good On madnesse belch thy deadly Antipathie To heaven in thy horrid blasphemy Cast up thy workes and reare thy mounts on high Heape fetch on fetch to overtop the skie Shield thee with distinctions say it is not him Thou shoot'st at but his word Saint Image Limbe Not God but God in them While merrily along To the correcting stocks the foole holds on His heedlesse way tickled with the high desert Of h's flattering wit into his endlesse smart PUritan the invention of Hell the Character of a Christian the language of prophanenesse the blasphemy of God the evomition of a heart desperately wicked a glorious defamation an undermining of an open thrust at the very heart life and power of Religon an evident preferring of Pharisaicall formes and Laodecean neutralitie a Match-divillian device to kindle sire in Church and State a slie practise of the old Serpents old maxime Divide and Raigne a word that is as it is made enterteined And what indeed is this Puritan but a Protestant drawing naturall conclusions from his owne praemises beleeving and living according to his owne profession at the highest pitch of his owne principles Nor know I indeed how one differs otherwise from the other then a Papist from an Arminian A perfect birth from an Embrio a Bird from an Egge Time and due heate Cateris non obstantibus will give them both their full maturity And as I have had it from good hands confessed by a Papists that Protestanisme not kept down wu'd naturally grow up to Puritanisme And surely that which doth not is but a dry and dead stumpe without branches or at farthest leaves without fruite Is that tree which cumbers the ground is that ground which is nigh unto cursing to the executed sentence of its amendment-unaverted judgement Let then this or whatsoever other synonymous Nickname any divill-brooded braine hath latelier hatched be sent forth drest in the gavest feathers of proud and selfe-conceited and therefore desperately foolish wit yet shall they prove but finer colour'd excrements but ensignes of their vanitie and therefore not seasonably prevented of their eternall vexation of spirit But what then those more blacke and darke aspersions of impudently-forheaded calumniators with the very thoughts where of I abhorre to defile my memory Whose empty whose witlesse wit is so taking with because so easily apprehensible by so aptly sutable to corrupt nature While the substantiall wisedome of heaven is only justified by her children Who have learnt of her how ever these scoffers deceive themselves God whom in his word Saints c. they mock will not be mocked Jude 15. Act. 4.9 Matth. 25.42 c. Try all things hold fast that which is good REject the Branne reteine the flower All things abide their sifting houre Perfection onely in Heaven is 'T is knowledge here to know we misse But they who studdy not to advance Are ignorant of their ignorance But we that follow on to know In floods of lights and loves shall flow Baptiz'd in glory till wee see Th' unseene in all his Puritie But what O what then shall we be Who so much of him here can see Chant in a fire of humble zeale Soule-loosing hymns of restlesse weale Ravish't and ravish't while we rest Hugg'd in his aye-fomenting brest Surrounded in a Maze of blisse Distracted with felicities While firmely resident in one In whom All knowables are knowne The things that neither eye eare heart Can see heare thinke the milliont'h part Who see nor love simplicitie Inf'nit Invisibilitie O what what then who this now know Yet know not ought as w' ought to know T Is calme within and so I sang before 'T is calme without so sing what sang before My head-my heart-my hand shall sing My God my Prophet Priest and King These three below with those above Shall make six parts unite in love And so I sang in the extreamest storme And what else can I'n the serenest calme O Teach thy servant to be humble for the humble thou wilt teach Let him see thee and he dies and he lives for ever Send forth thy Light and thy Truth and let them lead him in thy presence Cause thy face to shine upon him and it will teach him they statutes Thy loving kindnesse is better then life O let it never depart from him O Comfort him with thy Aples and refesh him with thy Cordialls For his soule is sicke is sicke with love O thou Discerner of hearts Why are thy Chariot wheeles so slow How long shall he looke out of the window How how long shall those beauties be masked and the God of glory vailed When shall this night of ignorance turne day and these thicke clouds be dispersed Why hast thou showne thee and but shown thee O fully abidingly Thou hast wounded his heart with thy glories and it bleedeth inwardly It sinkes it falls it dies for want of more wounding 'T is sweetly imbittered with thy inconceavable thy insupportable Loves What bounds can hold it what thing detaine it what expressions describe it How long shall it languish in thy strength and expire in thy breathings O never never shall these gratious visitations forsake it THus all my life 's a course of seeking Thee Who liv'd who lost Thy life in seeking me Such is my faith such shall my finding be Whose love hath found the way to waite on Thee With righteous works which can't extended be To Thee but thou wu't meete so doing me So running from my selfe to be Ingulph't in ever-blessed Thee So twining streames in sweete confusion Till know my Love without allusion Clos'd in a Close without Conclusion I have gasped after thy Salvation O Lord Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly
show Drawne in Thy stateliest Chariot thou' rt too low Too base an object for my high disdaine Contemne the world I wud wer 't worth contempt Or give my indignation footing or On what shalt trample tell me of somewhat for My vilifying or how w'lt cause more contempt then tempt All th' world is lesse then nothing none is but Who is I Am and by whom every thing Is what it is they 're not then rich that bring Th' world in possession since when 't is got 't is not I De have the World at will And yet I care No more for 't then to buy me food and frize I de have 't th' obedient toole I de make to reare My building soule and when my Master sees It meet lay 't by and take me to my hands Faith freer workes the lesse the sence withstands And this is all I care for th' carefull world To keepe it by my hand and from my heart To have 't an inferiour helpe away to hurle't When told here is a worke of curious art Derides the bunglings of unskilfull sense A heaven-silenc'st active patience THe World 's a straw through which I draw My Canaan-milke's sweet nourishment But if 't be tane away I gaine The wider draughts of deep content While he thinkes fit I 'le sucke through it But if he speake but halfe a word A way it goes and well he throwes That hath i' th' steede such store confer'd DId not I feare Thee Lord The world hath not the cord Cu'd binde this strong desire From what it doth require So vehement yet so stai'd 'S the motion 'ts not afraid Of Hell Onely thy Love Maintaines the fight and proves Of power to withhold What else were uncontrol'd And yet the fight is sore And yet I can't give ore O were I not so free Or had more libertie And yet if neither must Thou' rt very good and just Even this too is for good The more the selfe 's withstood The more the spirit is That crownes with victories Good very good are all thy wayes Thou onely wise and he who staies His marking minde thereon shall know What loving kindnesse thou dost show THou heart-rein-searching spirit-pondering God Turne mine eyes inward teach my head to plod To looke to what thou look'st the maine the man The soule the selfe for when I gadding ranne So oft abroad the divill he gat him home And made my wanton heart the teeming wombe Of stolen pleasure stoale th' word and sow'd instead A world of tares a world of griefe doe breed Still may I watch my yessell keepe sincere Th'infusion else corrupts though ne're so cleare And yet if thou deare God wu't please to come Into my heart my heart'l sincere become Tho' ne're so foule And long'nough may 't contrive Wayes how to cleanse it and to th' utmost strive And all in vaine unlesse that foulenesse cu'd Make faire My sorrowes watchings cares what good Can all from him who of himselfe is all Pollution VVu't heare the humble call O come come come away and doe not stay Untill thou comest and then for ever stay Sure there is somewhat of thee here so longs To see thee while my spirits in such throngs Come forth to welcome thee nay a' nt I all Lovely in my Christ unto thy sight yet shall My blacke abide still will I sweetly grone To hast thy comming till I 'm to mine owne Then come blest day come inside outside turne And try each thought by th' all discerning Sunne How humbly then sinceritie shall smile When proud Hipocrisies unpainted guile Shall show her devill-like face More humble were I I must needes become the more sincere Cause I have more o' th' God-of-puritie Sincerity holinesse and while I spie More beautious glories th' obstacles more remov'd He needs must be more humbly belov'd POwre out the pretious oyntment of thy name That sumptuous box inrich'd with all 's divine Upon my wounded soule so heale the same Allay its dolours make its surface shine Smooth 'ts rigor's cleare its rust soften its hard Make dulnesse nimble mend what pride hath mard Perfume the roome thy guests doth entertaine Free't from those brimstone fumes o'ne overcame My tender Virgin-thoughts had not I tane A scent of life to life so aptly came With rescuing redolencies O open 't wide Powr 't freely forth thou hast enough beside O how these welcome Savours steale my heart And make me shrug for joy at this depart O how this pawne e'ne makes me wish more hearts That I might feele such more desir'd departs O how I love these sweets my sweet O how My pleased midriffe trims my smiling brow O how my humble thoughts revived aspire Borne up with spirits to their high desire How how my unstraitned soule doth boundlesse flie Its gazing circuits through the highest high Where am I now am I a man I see I see but cannot say Mine eyes have borrowed all they may Of tongue of all doe what I can My assembled spirits cannot yet devise To tell my tongue the pleasure of mine eyes Stupendious sights O cu'd I reade The world a lecture of those joyes The cleere-eyd soules so richly feed How they'd indigne these cheating toies And hourely watch at wisedomes gate a glance Might ope their eyes and thence their soules advance Transcendent sounds O too too rare 'S this Nay too grosse these carnall eares O tones O tunes what compasse beare's This stately consorts curious Aires Their strings are true high wound incessant play Musitians skilfull play well well they may Pure understanding zeale responds To God Christ h's Spirit Endlesse straines Of multiplied blisse detaines The blessed soules in boundlesse bonds But if such sights such sounds such distance brings O what 's the mid'st where Glory shines Grace sings O Cud I keepe me in this Option I Wu'd wish to live because I wish to die How like a little God I wu'd converse With men let downe a while here to rehearse Those joyes above till I had drawne up more Harbour'd their Hearts upon thy Haven's shore He onely lives wh ' inthron'd In 's mansion can Yet condescend to sejourne with for man He onely lives who in his Jesus lives But he so liv'd who h's life to if for gives How he derides his feares his cares his griefe That seeke to hast his so-much-sought reliefe O how he pleasure's pleasure 's in his paine That but contrives more treasure to his gaine Christ is his life his death is more of Christ His joy 's now high but then shall be at th' high'st Now ebbes now flowes then an e're-flowing tide O're flowes and swallowes all the woes of pride Morne even eclipse now then a constant no one Th' Sunne lights to th' earth-uninterposed moone O draw this earthy Curtaine draw that darkes M' inlightned eyes from their beloved sparkes Those lovefull beames of dreadfull Majestie In whose exchanged rayes my life doth lie O how I strive I wrastle to be
knoweth that hath God for his God Faile then heart and strength yet shall the strength of our heart faile never Shall be with us in the fire and in the water bee an Arke to his Noah a Zoar to his Lot Et pater mater dosunt nec restat amious Nec manet ulla domus noc manet ulla salus Tot haud habere sentias necem mala Omnia quae multis dantur tibi nulla sed ipsum Quod vel perpaucis reddidit ille Deus Hic instar omnium fit atque praevalet MY neare and deare friend in the Lord Jesus I cannot but according to your desire acquaint you with present passages and passages I may well say for all these things are but passing shadowes nothing Were we in our own place we might look down upon them as little fleeting vapoury clouds without raine Or else see our selves so far above them in this third region as wee need not feare the storme It is unworthy the thought of a Christian that hath already laid hold of eternall life to shrink at the appearing losse of a mortall But we are men But God is God And he is our own God the God of our salvation c. O that we could that we alwayes could see our selves so partakers of the divine nature so filled with all the fulnesse of God that we could look upon life and death principalities powers c. as things given in unto us and all as things under our feet at our command for so they are to him that beleeves for all are ours and we are Christs and Christ is Gods Our faith must fall before we and our God before our faith For it is founded on that rock that living stone that is the life of all the building Let us stand therefore having taken us unto the whole armour of God for what can the man doe that comes after the devill And surely little nay no cause have we to feare in adversity that can stand in prosperity That soule and only that soule that in this estate can follow God fully be so satisfied with the hourely minutely presence of God that in all things it crosses it selfe of its own will as not enduring the least estrangement from him certainly in the other the mercies of God shall so follow him so shall he delight himselfe continually in him as that in all things hee will crosse men and devils of their wills against him and so over-powre him with the light of his countenance without which he was dead in the dearest injoyments and with which he lives in the deadliest confusions as shall make them gnash their teeth to see such a divine reflect from that light unspeakable and glorious whereby he shall be able to laugh death and destruction in the face But shall we not feare not grieve He is no true Christian that doth not Shall the Lion roare and we not tremble Yet must we be confident in this feare and joy in this sorrow And indeed the feare of God is strength Prov. 14.26 Psal 112.1 with ver 7. and 8. And by the humility of our heart is our trust in the Lord Prov. 28.25 But audaciousnesse and pride will shrinke in the wetting Neither will James his joy 1.2 hold good without Pauls sorrow 2 Cor. 7.7 Nor his sorrow without his joy It is not the excesse of feare and griefe but the defect of confidence and joy that hurts us Our own weaknesse can never too much fright us Our own and others sins grieve us Neither will it be found so proper and soveraign a salve to those happily languishing consciences to tell them they are too much dejected cast down sorrowfull but rather they have too little lifted up Christ in their hearts and their hearts in Christ It is impossible to think too basely of our selves and if there may be degrees in impossibility more impossible to think too highly of Him When we are led back by any particular sin to the Originall source of all as wee must if we mean to know it to any purpose and see the horrid shape of it and become sensible of the malignity the universality the inherencie of it c. with all those infinite as to us actuall breakings out of rebellion from it or rather the divers kinde of breaking out of one continued unintermitting act now while the soule is thus taking a bottome-and through-searching view of it selfe by a beame of the divine Light and Love shed abroad in its heart without which it could make no through no true discovery of it and thereupon throwes it selfe below the lowest hell in a sensible self-condemning while it is still held up by the hand of faith in an unspeakably blessed distraction now to see this Sun of Righteousnesse still rising and rising with its infinite-surpassing infinitenesse of glory splendor lovelinesse upon the lighttransformed soule lying under the gracious droppings of its healing wings O how sweet is that healing How how glorious that Sun But the seeing the feeling soul where is it How high how low How lost between both Be then as sorrowfull my soule as may be thou canst not be enough for sin As joyfull as may be thou canst not be enough for grace Abate not of that sorrow but increase this joy Goe as low as thou canst but bee sure thou risest higher by it To be so dejected and cast down as not to be heightned raised by it in the admiration the love the life of thy Saviour is indeed to have proud and haughty thoughts of thy selfe and low and undervaluing of thy Christ Never feare thy livelinesse and cheerfulnesse so far as duely objected on him Nor lessen so much thy love to the creature as augment it to Him thy Creator Affect with the strongest and heartiest indearement any thing beside him and yet abhorre it with the most detesting and abominating hatred for him There is nothing that I set my eye on that I wu'd not love as proceeding from him as subsisting in him But so far as degenerate from him as comming in competition with him the indignation wherewith it affects me is inutterable Thus shall Cesar best have his due and God his Himself and what is subordinate to him God takes away no affection no nor the intensivenesse of it but onely its obliquitie to the object Nay I am perswaded that all worldly feare all worldly sorrow fall farre short of spirituall the one being from a displeasing world which is finite the other from a displeased God who is infinite But how great then is that consident joy to which this fearing griefe is but a set off For these to overcome the soule and them for Christ to come and overcome that conquest what a triumph will there be Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God c. And blessed ever blessed be our God that we are not of them from whom hee hath hid the mistery of godlinesse strength made