the heavenly Bridegroome IT is necessary to shew what these visitations are to convince that they are and so to undeceive those that thinke they are not It is also necessary to free those from errour who beleeving that they are yet doe mistake those that are not for those that are Such visitations there are for they are seene and felt by men seeing and waking and seeing and waking not onely with the bodily eyes but with two better eyes the one of humane reason and the other farre excelling that divine and heavenly light Spirituall light beholds these spirituall sights and shews them to the understanding which being convinced by that which it sees beleeves them it selfe and would also deliver over the sight and the beleefe of them to others But the thoughts of man are narrower than these joyes and words are narrower thā thoghts But which is worst of al the heart of an earthly man is narrower than the narrow words of a spirituall man for the carnall man perceiveth not spirituall things though they be held up before his fleshly eyes yet in the mouth of two or three eye-witnesses a word should stand and stand it doth though blinde men see it not standing before them and therfore stumble at it But who knowes whether an Ephatah may come downe from heaven that while a spirituall object is proposed a spirituall sight may be infused Howsoever the words of heavenly wisedome are not spoken in vaine to the children of wisedome and especially those who are yet but children and not perfect in tae art of discerning good and evill must not be left to the dangers of errour and mistaking The black Angel sometimes changeth himselfe into an Angel of light and then may he also make some shewes of lightsome visitations There is also a sanguine and naturall lightsomnesse and a bright beame of adustion that sometimes shine in the mind and these also may be mistaken to be divine But the spirit is not flesh much lesse is hee that evill spirit which is contrary to him And because the spirit is that which these are not the visitations are such as those imaginations are not which come from these And that this difference may the better be discerned let let us beholde the true characters of a spirituall visitation which the soule seeth when the husband of soules doth visit her A first marke and signe of his presence is light a light not fitted for the eye but the soule even a light spirituall and shining spirit and truth into the soule and spirit For the Lord is a spirit and when hee comes into the soule hee comes with abundance of that spirit which leadeth into all truth Hee is the light of the world even of the great world of mankinde and therefore when he comes into the little world of one man how great is his light And when this light shineth brightly then the soule by it doth see spirituall things as truly and assuredly as the corporall eye doth corporall things For there is an agreement betweene a spirituall eye and spirituall objects as there is betweene the bodily eye and bodily object By this light things formerly not knowne are seene and discovered and spirituall things knowne before onely by a carnall which is a false knowledge are spiritually and so truly discerned for the light is that which maketh manifest and this light being spirituall maketh spirituall things so manifest that it gives a full assurance of understanding and makes us know that wee know thē Even those things which before seemed fables and foolishnesse to the carnall eye to this spirituall sight and light appeare plainly to be deepe mysteries and most wise truthes Especially the great Bridegroom of soules who to the Iewes is a stumbling blocke and to the Grecians foolishnesse to this light appeares clearely to be the wisedome of God and the power of God For the light begotten acknowledgeth the light begetting and Christ is seene in the soule by his owne beames Hee is seene there as a Head and Husbād to the Church as a roote of life as an All-sufficient Saviour fit and able to restore a decayed and lost creation to disperse and treade downe a combined association of adversary and mighty spirits and to unite and recapitulate the scattered members of a mysticall body both in heaven and earth each to other and all to the Deity Hee is beheld as the fairest of men the soules well-beloved an infuser of that blessed sap of spirituall life by which the soule is purified here and made capable of the beatificall vision in an eternall life hereafter And as this derived light sheweth us the primitive light which begate it and being spirituall shewes us that Lord who is the spirit from whom it proceeded so doth it also discover to us divers other spirituall truthes and is a kinde of Oracle that gives divine answeres and resolutions Now that wee may certainely know this light to be a truth and not an imagination and withall to be truly spirituall and heavenly and not carnall earthly much lesse infused by a counterfeit Angel of light let us first observe that this light of the spirit doth agree with the light of the word The same spirit of God which shineth now in our soules in these heavenly visitations did first shine in the word so that the light of the word and the light in our soules are twinnes and resemble each other and agree like brethren If therefore there be this agreement then there is this brotherhood and if no agreement then there is no brotherhood Therefore to the law to the testimony if thy thoughts speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them for indeed if our thoughts be truly enlightened wee shall finde some words in the word of God confirming them yea many times this light within will call up some place of the word without for a witnesse to it to confirm a truth which in that place was not formerly perceived Such is the harmony and power of harmony betweene the spirit and the word that when you hit a spirituall truth in your soule there will often come a sound answer and eccho from some place in the word agreeable to it And as the word doth approve this light so doth this light approve the word It loves to looke on it it seeth a heavenly wisdome in it yea it seeth secrets in it yea many times it will in some short sentence yea in some single word find out a Mine of heavenly doctrine and as at a little crany discover a world of divine truths And so the light of the spirit doth approve it selfe not onely by being approved of the word but by approving and improving it This is a sufficient tryall and touchstone of this heavenly light though if neede were I might adde the willing resignation of reason even of the naturall light of the soule to the soveraignty of this divine and heavenly
as betweene a woman and a serpent And I wish all this were sufficient to perswade the soule to give consent to the divorce and death of this usurping and bloudy husband without whose death there can be no marriage betweene her happines for though all reason and right doe joyne for his removal yet power and possession and union worke mightily for him The friends of the Bridegroome cry aloud Put off the olde man corrupt throgh deceiuable lusts put on the new created in righteousnes and holines And If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye mortifie the deedes of the flesh by the spirit ye shall live And Abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soule The authority love and reasons of these voices deserve to be heard perswading the soule to no other but a separation from a deadly enemy who can give her no dower but death eternall And I wish that thus yet the soule may be perswaded And when the soule is come even to the point of perswasion even then will lust come weeping after the soule like the false husband of Michal hee will raise up in her remembrance the images of grosse and filthy pleasures to awake the old unhappy love and to cause a cruell and unmercifull pitty For a cruell pitty it is when the soule pitties her owne murtherer and not her owne murther But rather put on a mercifull cruelty being mercifull to thy selfe by killing him that would kill thee It is better he should endure one death who is not worthy to live than that a soule should be ever dying which should live for ever If thou kill not lust now hee must shortly die with the death of the body and this short life of his will cost thee everlasting death but if thou kill him presently who must die shortly by this small oddes of death thou preservest to thy selfe everlasting life Wherefore that which shall shortly be necessary make it presently voluntary and so shalt thou turne necessity into a sacrifice even a freewill offering and by his death thou shalt change thy owne death into life eternall And know that they are but false teares which lust doth shed and his cryes are lyes for there is no such happinesse in his union as his teares would tell thee but thy happines is then most when thou art gotten free from lust even when lust is dead and the soule new maried to her Saviour For the first soule was happy before she was maried to lust and miserable onely after that accursed mariage To bee without lust is a true Paradise for man had not this lust when hee was first placed in Paradise neither could Paradise endure man when this lust was placed in him Therefore the true way to returne to Paradise or the state of happines wherof it was a type is to put off this lust wherewith began our misery And lust being put off frō the soule by death and she new maried to the Lord of life then will she say that she was never happy till then and that her former imaginary happinesse was but painted and glittering misery She will looke on dead lust as on a loathsome carkasse and shee will loath the remembrance of her former not loves but adulteries she will be like one awaked from a foolish dreame or an inchanted love and shee will wonder that shee hath so long beene bewitched with vanity folly sinne and misery But withall in her new mariage having tasted how sweete her Lord is shee will wonder and lament that shee hath so long lacked this sweetnesse Excesse of joy will be to her a cause of sorrow for her joy is now so great that she is sorry shee was no sooner partaker of this joy And in this joyfull sorrow shee will kisse the feete of her Lord and weepe on them while she kisseth them The feete of her Lord are now more precious to her than the head and top of lust for therefore she kisseth them because she loveth thē and therefore she weepeth because she hath loved lust so long a time and her Lord so little For lust that once falsly appeared to her as her greatest joy now truly appeares to her as her greatest sorrow and her now Lord in whom before she tooke no delight now appeares to be her chiefest and truest joy And both these her teares doe tell us CAP. III. The happinesse of the soule in her second Marriage NAbal being dead David marries his wife lusts name is Nabal and folly is with him and folly being dead the Sonne of David yea the Sonne of God who is the highest wisdome marriage A right kindly and blessed marriage wherein a spirit marries with a spirit a derived spirit with the originall and and roote of spirits yea with a spirit that hath abundance of spirit and so can continually refresh and nourish her with a new supply of spirit For being thus fed and supplied with a sap of her owne kinde shee growing in being and well-being she is more spirituall by receiving more juice and fatnesse of the spirit and consequently more full of divine light beauty love vertue power life joy and glory Behold the highest knot of blessednesse on earth and a preparation yea a pledge of the highest happinesse in heaven And though this inchoate marriage here on earth compared to the consummate marriage in heaven seeme but like to a betrothing yet even this betrothing compared to earthly marriages casts a shadow of darknesse on them for all the beauty all the glory all the joy in the world are but beames rayes flashes of this King of glory beauty and joy By him were all things made that were made and therfore the goodnesse of the things that are made by him must be borrowed of him that made them and then must the borrowed goodnesse needes be ashamed to be compared with his goodnesse that gave or lent it Christ Iesus is all lights in one light all glories in one glory all beauties in one beauty all joyes in one joy Whē he gave light and glory and beauty and joy to the creature he left the roote of light and glory and beauty and joy in himselfe So did he leave infinitely more in himselfe than hee gave out of himselfe for an internall and infinite fountaine hath infinitely more in it than all the streames that ever issued from it and hee is a fountaine for largenes unlimited and for spring without beginning and ending The dew of his birth is of the wombe of the morning even of that morning which hath an everlasting rising and shall be free from setting for all eternities Thus the soule being united to him is united to an eternall roote and fountaine of blessednes she is lightened with the primitive light she enjoyeth the primitive beauty she is adorned with the primitive glory shee tasteth the radicall utmost and uppermost sweetnesse Being made one with him who is God she hath the
wife long agoe Now will my husband dwell with me because I have borne him six sons Let it be said now also by a spiritual wife Now will my husband dwell with me because his dwelling with mee hath made me fruitfull Make my soule a fruitfull paradise bearing every good fruit of love divine and humane and then come often into thy garden to behold gather the fruits of it And that I may bring forth fruites wholly thine and not anothers beside thee burne and consume whatsoeuer would grow one with my soule besides thee Thou art a burning and consuming fire and the spirit by which thou art one with my spirit baptizeth with fire O let the fire of thy spirit so wholly turne my soule into spirituall fire that the drosse of the flesh the world being wholly consumed shee may be onely spirituall and so bring forth fruites onely to thy spirit Thus and thus saith my soule to her beloved but when she saith thus her beloved is not farre from her for by him she speakes to him when he is neare his oyntments yeeld their savour and the savour of his ointments draweth soules to run after him There hath beene of late a fruitive union and such fruitive unions doe individuate and enflame the love of the soule to him whom she hath enjoied in that union But alas the husband of the soule is sometimes like that husband which is not at home but is gone a long journey He is gone so farre from me as if hee were not mine yea so far sometimes as if he were not at all The summer is gone from my soule and the winter is come and the true olive so draweth in his fatnesse that my soule though a branch yet doubteth whether there bee a root that beareth her The ointments of light and love are not seene or felt and how can she love the lovelinesse that she sees not and if she saw it how can she love it without love In such a darknesse the greatest lovelinesse affects not the eye and in such a deadnesse there is no love wherewith to love the greatest lovelinesse The soule doth not now taste how sweete her Lord is and therefore his sweetnesse is to her as a thing forgotten or a thing mistaken or at best as a thing which was and is not and will be no more The often unions that are passed are wholly past and the very images and representations of them are neare wholly vanished And now my soule that will ever bee a lover of something and a seeker of good in one object or other being left to the flesh by the enchantment of the flesh runneth to the creature to seeke good in it For as the spirit runneth to Christ so doth the flesh to the creature But alas the dove of Christ thus flowne from the Arke in her thoughts and affections findeth no rest for shee is gone from her rest and how can she finde rest by going from rest Put forth thy hand O thou lover of soules and take her in unto thee yea first make her to returne to thee by finding her when she seeks thee Seeke her O Saviour when she goes astray from thee like a lost sheepe for even when shee thus goes astray she hath not utterly forgotten thee thy loves nor thy lawes One looke of thine will awake her love and make her weepe bitterly that she loved thee so little whom to love sufficiently her best and mightiest loves are most insufficient Prevent her seeking with thy seeking and be thou present with her in thy providence and preserving power even when thou seemest to be farre off in the tasts of thy sweetnesse and fruition of thy loves Love her even when thou doest not give her thy loves yea love her by not-giving them Doe her good even by the subtraction of thy goodnesse shew her that her safety is not in her owne hands shew her that her goodnesse is not her owne shew her that she is nothing in her selfe but that which is worse than nothing and that thou and thy grace make her wholly to be that which she is Then shall she be more humble by seeing her owne vilenes in thy absence and thou shalt bee more lovely and precious to her whose presence gives her all her worth and excellence VVhen she hath regained thee she will hold thee more hardly and keepe thee more fastly and love thee more vehemently Shee will value thy loves above treasures yet she will love thee more than thy loves and she will provide a stocke of loves in the summer against the winters if they perchāce shal return again For in these loves shee will behold the pledges of a love eternall in these joyes of thy presence she will behold the earnests of eternall joyes in an eternall presence and for the sure hope of these eternall joyes she will patiently endure the sorrowes of these temporall absences Yet let these temporall absences be as thornes in the sides of my soule to stirre her up to the desire of that eternall presence And be not lacking overlong O thou life and love and guide of my soule but ever and anon visit her with thy presence stay her with thy flagons comfort her with apples for she is sicke of love when shee wanteth her beloved Whē thou wast here on earth thou hadst compassion on the multitude that had nothing to eate and wouldest not send them away fasting lest they should faint by the way O sweete Saviour thou art no lesse mercifull in heaven than thou wert on earth and an hungry soule is a fitter object of mercy than an hungry body and my hungry soule hath a farther way to goe than their bodies for shee must goe from earth unto heaven O refresh her and that right soone with thy mercies with the joyes of thy presence with the bread of heaven and water of life which thy spirit plentifully giveth to my spirit when thou commest unto her Be thou her guide even to the life which is beyond death and grant that through these changes of temporall presences and absences she may runne in one even and unchanged path of love and holinesse untill she come unto that eternall presence where is the fulnesse of joy without ebbes and perpetuity of joy without interruptions There shall shee see her beloved clearely and plainely even face to face and there shall shee enjoy her beloved so fully as she seeth him clearely yea she shall enjoy him with all her might of enjoying Her being shall be the measure of her enjoying for as much as she is so much shall shee enjoy shee shall be in a perpetuall union with her beloved and in a perpetuall fruition by union and so in a perpetuall rack extent and vttermost of joy The fountaine of joy shall flow continually into the mouth of the soule the new wine of the kingdome shall still overcome her and set her up
taste of God and God being tasted overfloweth and steepeth and drencheth the soule with overcomming and inebriating sweetnesse For a high and large and mighty joy poured into a low and measured and weake spirit overcommeth her with quantity and quality and so carries her away into extasie and ravishment she is too narrow and feeble to containe and beare a joy that is too large and strong for her and therefore having filled her to the utmost capacity it goes beyond and runnes over So is she blessed in that fulnesse which her measure containeth yea she is more than blessed even blessed in a kinde of excesse by being overcome and overflowed with blessednesse And if we will consider the quality of this joy as well as the quantity there is no joy to the spirituall joy the joyes of the body being base in comparison of it the spirituall joy is pure piercing and full of activity the joy of bodies is grosse heavie dull and earthy In the bodily wine it is the spirit of the wine that rejoyceth the spirits of the body But a wine that is all spirit and spirit in the height and top of spiritualnes and newly drawne and sucked from the prime and chiefest spirit how doth that rejoyce how doth that ravish the spirits that drinke it when mans highest part doth tast the highest good Man hath no higher part whereby to taste and receive happinesse neither is there any higher happinesse to be tasted and received Therefore the soule that tasteth this wine at her spirituall marriage saith as the Master of the Feast at the earthly marriage Lord Thou hast kept the best wine untill the last And this being best the soule gives it the best place in her judgement and affection she forgets that which is behinde and indeavours to that which is before she will not rest in the low and backward joyes of the bodie but strives toward the high and forward joyes of the spirit and having attained them she rests in them as in the best joyes yet so rests in them in this life of growth that she desires to grow by them presently to a greater capacity of them and finally to a full large and everlasting fruition of them in a nearer accesse unto the very spring and fountaine of joyes But when all is said of this marriage-happinesse one taste of it wil tell thee more than all that is or can be said The true knowledge of the sweetnes of God is gotten by tasting and therefore taste first and then see how sweet and gracious the Lord is The taste of it will truly tell him that tasteth it how sweet it is but hee that knoweth this sweetnes by tasting cannot deliver over the full and perfect image of this sweetnes to him that hath not tasted it For this sweetnes surmounts all knowne sweetnesse of the creatures and by that which is knowne must that which is unknowne be made knowne But if that which is knowne be lesse and lower than that which is unknown that which is knowne may teach and tell us what the unknowne is not but not what it is So the joy of love and union in an earthly marriage cannot expresse a heavenly joy that is spiritually pure and purely active Only these and the like comparisons may serve for staires whereby to ascend even above these comparisons and to set our foot on something beyond them For if the soule rests on these she rests short of the knowledge of the sweetnesse which is beyond these shee is still in the sweetnesse of the creature and hath not attained the sweetnesse of the Creatour Therefore when she hath gone as farre as she may in the sweetnesse of the creature let her advance one step more into that spirituall union wherein is to be tasted and seene by tasting the sweetnes of the Creatour and ther shall shee see more by tasting than all the creatures could shew her by resembling she hath met with that joy which onely can truly teach it selfe and therefore it is called unspeakable And whereas before it was tasted the being of it was doubted and much more the manner and shape of it was unknowne now it is both knowne to be and the shape and manner of it is also known And being knowne all other sweetnesses which before were alone knowne and esteemed are now despised as it were unknown For this is that blessed estate of spirituall love and union whereof the spouse of Christ truely saith If a man would give all the substance of his house for loue it would utterly bee contemned And indeed the spouse having Christs love she hath that which is better than all things and having Christ with his love how can she with him but have all things also Christ is the heire of all things and the soule having married this heire is a joynt-heire annexed with Christ. She hath him by whom the worlds were made and therefore she hath also the worlds made by him yet he that made the worlds being Infinitely better than the worlds made by him she despiseth the worlds in respect of him that made them she quencheth her thirst in the fountaine onely and she accounts it a folly and a losse to leave the fountaine and to run after the streames Therefore setting her mouth to this fountaine she is filled with the waters of life with the oyle of gladnesse with the new wine of the kingdome of God with the joy of the holy Ghost even a joy unspeakable and glorious In Christ Iesus she hath all-sufficiency all safety all supply shee receives from Christ that spirituall oyntment which gives her spiritual light power goodnesse love and life yea it adorneth the soule with the most excellent beauty even the likenesse and image of God himselfe And being thus lovely the bridegroom kisseth and embraceth her with spirituall visitations he tells her his counsailes and his eyes are ever toward her even when hee seemes to be turned from her For she is set as a signet upon his heart and much water cannot quench his love she also looketh on him and is changed from glory to glory as the Moon when with more open face shee beholdeth the Sunne But of the particular benefits ane advantages of this blessed Marriage more hereafter Thus happy and thus growing in happinesse shee walkes on in this life of marriage inchoate untill she come to the eternall life of marriage consummate She is happy now in her union with happinesse and she shall be happy hereafter in a full fruition of happinesse She is happy now in the earnests and peeces of that happinesse which shall be full hereafter yea daily more and more happy here by a daily enlarging of those earnests and peeces and shee shall be the more happy hereafter by how much more these earnests and peeces of happinesse have beene here enlarged And thus shall she walke by happines unto happines and by the increase of happines