a deep study fixed our eyes upon that which we the while thought not upon neither perceived that we saw So doth the Christian to these worldly glories pleasures profits whiles his minde and affections are on the things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God There Lord let me behold those things which cannot yet be seen but shall once in the sight of them make me blessed And let me not look on the things that are seen for the things that are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal XIII There is not more strangeness then significance in that charge of the Apostle That we should put on the Lord Jesus Christ The soul is as it were a body not really and properly so according to the gross error of Tertullian but by way of allusion This body of the soul then may not be naked but must be clad as our first parents were ashamed of their bodily nakedness and so still are all their not savage posterity so may we of our spiritual Every sinner is naked those rags that he hath are so far from hiding his nakedness that they are part of it his fairest moralities are but glittering sins and his sins are his nakedness Aaron had made Israel naked to their shame not so much in that they were stripped of their earings as that they were enwrapped in the sin of idolatry No marvel if we run away and hide us from the presence of God as our first parents did whiles we are guilty to our selves of our Spiritual deformity As then we are bodily naked when we come into the world so we are spiritually naked whiles we are of the world neither can it be either safe or comely for us till we be covered There is no clothing can fit the soul but the Lord Jesus Christ all other robes in the wardrobe of Earth or Heaven are too short too straight like those which the scorn of Hanun put upon Davids messengers reaching but to the hams for though the soul of man be finite the sin of the soul is scarce so and that sin must be covered else there can be no safety for the soul according to that of the Psalmist Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered None therefore but the robes of an infinite Righteousness can cover the soul so wofully dressed none therefore but the Lord Jesus Christ who is God blessed for ever can cover the soul that it may not appear unrighteous or can cleanse the soul that it may not be unrighteous and cleansed it must be ere the Lord Jesus can be put on We shall wrong his perfit holiness if we think we can slip him on as a case over our beastly rags It is with us as with Joshua the high Priest The filthy garments must first be taken off and then the Lord shall say unto us Behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee and I will clothe thee with change of rayment We put on a garment when we apply it all over to our body so as that part which is clothed appears not but is defended from the air and from the eye if we have truely put on the Lord Jesus nothing of ours is seen but Christ is all in all to us although this application goes yet deeper for we so put him on that we not onely put our selves into him but also put him into our selves by a mutual kinde of Spiritual incorporation We put him on then upon our Intellectual parts by knowing him by beleeving on him This is eternal life to know thee and whom thou hast sent saith our Saviour and for Faith no grace doth so sensibly apprehend him and make him so feelingly ours We put him on upon our wills and affections when we take pleasure in him when we love him delight in him and prefer him to our chiefest joy Thus do we put him on as our Lord in our humble and dutiful subjection as our Jesus in our faithful affiance as Christ the anointed of God to be our King in all holy obedience our Priest in our willing consecration to him our Prophet in our cheerful readiness to be instructed by him How happy are we if we be thus decked we prank up these poor carcasses of ours gaily with no small expence and when we have done the stuff or the fashion or both wears out to nothing But here is a garment that will never be out of fashion Jesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever yea the same to us here we put him on in Grace there in eternal Glory The Israelites were fourty years in the wilderness yet their shooes not worn their apparel not impaired but this attire shall not onely hold good in the time of our wandring in this desart but after we are come into the Canaan of glory and is best at last Wherefore do we put on our choisest attire on some high days but to testifie the cheerfulness of our hearts Let thy garment be white saith the Preacher for now God accepteth thy works Mephibosheth changed not his raiment since David went out as one that would have the sorrow of his heart seen in the neglect of his clothes although many a one under a gay coat hath an heavy heart but this attire doth not onely testifie but make cheerfulness in the soul Thou hast given me more joy of heart then they had in the time that their corn and their wine increased and In thy presence is the fulness of joy what can this apparel of ours do but keep us from a blast or a showre it is so far from safeguarding the soul that it many times wounds it and that to the death It was one of the main quarrels against the rich glutton that he was every day clothed in purple and byss How many souls shall once wish that their bodies had been ever either naked or clad with hair-cloth But this aray as it is infinitely rich and beautiful so it is as surely defensative of the soul and is no less then armor of proof against all assaults all miseries What a deal of cost and pains do we bestow upon these wretched bodies of ours onely to make them pleasing and lovely to the eye of some beholders as miserable perhaps as our selves and yet when we have all done we are it may be no better then hard-favord and unhandsome creatures and contemptible in those eyes from whom we desired most approbation Jezebel for all her licking is cast out of the window and troden to dirt in the streets But this robe we can not wear and not be amiable in the eyes of the holiest Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee Lo in this case the apparel makes the man neither is it in the power of any spiritual deformity to make us other then lovely in the
sight of our God whiles we have Christ put on upon us What ever therefore become of the outward man let it be my care that my soul be vested with my Lord Jesus so shall I be sure to be safe rich amiable here and hereafter glorious It was part of our Saviours charge upon the mount Take no care what to put on but it must be the main care of our lives how to put on Christ upon our souls This is the prime stole wherewith the father of the Prodigal graceth his returned son the heaven of heavens is not worth such another when I have once got this on my back I shall say though in a contrary sense with the Spouse in the Canticles I have put on my coat how shall I put it off I have washed my feet how shall I defile them XIIII With how devout passion doth the Psalmist call to all the works of the Almighty to praise him as well supposing that every creature even those that have no tongues to speak for themselves yet have a tongue to praise their Maker The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledg There is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard neither is the very earth defective in this duty Every plant sayes look on me and acknowledg the life colour form smell fruit force that I have from the power of my Creator every worm and flie sayes look on me and give God the praise of my living sense and motion every bird sayes hear me and praise that God who hath given me these various feathers and taught me these several notes every beast whiles he bellows bleats brays barks roars sayes It is God that hath given me this shape this sound yea the very mute fishes are in their very silence vocal in magnifying the infinite wisdom and power of him that made them and placed them in those watery habitations Let every thing that hath breath saith the Psalmist praise the Lord. Yea the very winds whistle and the sea roars out the praise of the Almighty who both raises and allays them at pleasure what a shame were it for man to whom alone God hath given an understanding heart a nimble tongue and articulate language wherein he can express his rational thoughts to be wanting to this so universal devotion and to be as insensible of the great works of God as the ground that he treads upon If others shall be thus unthankfully dumb Yet praise thou the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name whiles I live will I praise the Lord I will sing praises to my God whilest I have any being But alas Lord thou knowest I cannot so much as will to praise thee without thee do thou fill my heart with holy desires and my mouth with songs of thanksgiving XV. It may seem a strange errand upon which our Saviour tells us he came into the world I am come to send fire on the earth When the two fervent Disciples would have had fire sent down from Heaven upon but a Samaritan Village our Saviour rebuked them and told them they knew not of what spirit they were yet here he makes it his own business to send fire on the earth Alas may we think we have fire too much already how happy were it rather if the fire which is kindled in the world were well quenched and what is the main drift of the Prince of darkness but fire If not to send fire down from Heaven upon the inhabitants of the earth yet to send the inhabitants of the earth down to the fire of hell As then we finde divers kindes of material fire Celestial Elementary Domestique Artificial Natural so there is no less variety of spiritual fires It was in fiery cloven tongues wherein the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in their Pentecost and even this fire did our Saviour come to send down on the earth Thy word was in mee as fire saith the Prophet and did not our harts burn within us said the two Disciples in their walk to Emaus whiles he talked with us This fire he also came to send Heavenly Love and holy Zeal are fire Many waters cannot quench love My zeal hath consumed me saith the Psalmist and these fires our Saviour came to send into the hearts of men holy thoughts are no other then the beams of celestial fire My heart was hot within me whiles I was musing the fire burned and these we know he sends He maketh his Angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire These he sends forth to the earth to minister for them that shall be heirs of of salvation Besides these afflictions and persecutions are fire We have passed through fire and water Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal which is to try you as if some strange thing had happened to you and even these are of his sending The Lord hath kindled a fire in Zion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof There is no evil in the city but the Lord hath done it The Lord hath done that which he had devised he hath thrown down and not pitied But this expression of our Saviour goes yet deeper and alludes to the effect of Separation which follows upon the fire of our tryal When the lump of Oar is put into the furnace the fire tryes the pure mettal from the dross and makes an actual division of the one from the other so doth Christ by his Word and Spirit even he that is the Prince and God of Peace comes to set division in the world Surely there are holy quarrels worthy of his engagement for as the flesh lusteth and warreth against the spirit so the spirit fighteth against the flesh and this duel may well beseem God for the Author and the Son of God for the setter of it these second blows make an happy fray Nothing is more properly compared then discord to fire this Christ the first thing he does sets in every heart there is all quietness secure ease and self-contentment in the soul till Christ come there How should it be other when Satan sways all without resistance but when once Christ offers to enter there are straight civil wars in the soul betwixt the old man and the new and it fares with the heart as with an house divided in it self wherein the husband and the wife are at variance nothing is to be heard but unquiet janglings open brawlings secret opposition the houshold takes part and professes a mutual vexation This Spiritual self-division where ever it is though it be troublesom yet it is cordial it puts the soul into the state of Rebeccaâ—s womb which barren yielded no pain but when an Esau and Jacob were conceived and strugling within yielded for the time no ease
with me Dispose of me as thou wilt Only make me faithfull in all thy services resolute to trust my self with thee in all events carefull to be approved of thee in all my waies and crown my decayed age with such fruits as may be pleasing to thee and available to the good of many Lastly let me live to thee and die in thee IX How oft Lord have I wondred to see the strange carriage of thine administration of these earthly affaires and therein to see thy marvailous wisdome power goodness in fetching good out of evill Alas we wretched men are apt enough to fetch the worst of evils out of the greatest good turning the grace of thee our God into wantonnesse but how have I seen thee of liveless stones to raise up children to Abraham of sinners to make Saints out of a desperate confusion to fetch order out of a bloudy war an happy peace out of resolutions of revenge love out of the rock water out of a persecuter an Apostle How can I be discouraged with unlikelihoods when I see thee work by contraries It is not for me O my God to examine or pre-judge thy counsailes take what waies thou wilt so thou bring me to thine own end all paths shall be direct that shall leade me to blessedness X. How many good purposes O my God have I taken up let fall to the ground again without effect how teeming hath this barren womb of my heart been of false conceptions but especially when thy hand hath been smart and heavy upon me in mine affliction how have I tasked my self with duties and revived my firme resolutions of more strict obedience which yet upon the continuance of my better condition I have slackened Lord it is from thee that I purposed well it is from my own sinfull weakness that I failed in my performances If any good come me the will and the deed must be both thine The very preparations of the heart are from thee and if I have devised my way it must be thou that directest my steps O God do thou ripen and perfect all the good motions that thou puttest into my soul and make my health but such as my sickness promised XI Every man Lord is unwilling that his name should dye we are all naturally ambitious of being thought on when we are gone those that have not living monuments to perpetuate them affect to have dead if Absolon have not a son he will yet erect a pillar yet when we have all done time eates us out at the last There is no remembrance of the wise more then of the foole for ever seeing that which now is in the daies to come shall all be forgotten O God let it be my care and ambition what ever become of my memory here below that my name may be recorded in Heaven XII Thy wise providence O God hath so ordered it that every mans minde seeks and findes contentment in some thing otherwise it could not be since we must meet with so frequent crosses in the world but that mans life would be burdensome to him one takes pleasure in his hauke or hound another in his horses and furnitures one in fair buildings another in pleasant walks and beautiful gardens one in travailing abroad another in the enioying of the profits and pleasures of his home one in the increase of his wealth another in the titles of his honor one in a comfortable wife another in loving and dutiful children but when all is done if there be not somwhat els to uphold the heart in the evil day it must sink O God do thou possesse my soul of thee let me place all my felicity in the fruition of thine infinite goodness so I am sure the worst of the world hath not power to render me other then happy XIII O Lord God under how opposite aspects do I stand from the world how variously am I construed by men One pities my condition another praises my patience One favors mee out of the opinion of some good that he thinks he sees in mee another dislikes me for some imagined evil What are the eyes or tongues of men to mee Let me not know what they say or think of me and what am I the better or worse for them they can have no influence upon me without my own apprehension All is in what termes I stand with thee my God if thou be pleased to look upon me with the eye of thy tender mercy and compassion What care I to be unjustly brow-beaten of the world If I may be blessed with thy favour let me be made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men XIV Speak Lord for thy servant heareth What is it which thou wouldst have me do that I may finde rest to my soul I am willing to exercise my self in all the acts of piety which thou requirest I am ready to fast to pray to read to hear to meditate to communicate to give alms to exhort admonish reprove comfort where thou bid'st me and if there be any other duty appertaining to devotion or mercy let me serve thee in it But alas O my God howsoever I know these works are in themselves well-pleasing unto thee yet as they fall from my wretchedness they are stained with so many imperfections that I have more reason to crave pardon for them then to put confidence in them and if I could performe them never so exquisitely yet one sin is more then enough to dash all my obedience I see then O Lord I well see there is no act that I can be capable to do unto thee wherein I can finde any repose it must be thine act to me which only can effect it It is thy gracious word Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Lo this rest must be thy gift not my earning and what can be freer then gift Thou givest it then but to those that come to thee not to those that come not To those that come to thee laden and labouring under the sense of their own wretchedness not to the proud and careless O Saviour thy sinner is sufficiently laden with the burden of his iniquities lade thou me yet more with true penitent sorrow for my sins and inable me then to come unto thee by a lively faith Take thou the praise of thine own work Give me the grace to come and give me rest in coming XV. O blessed Saviour What strange variety of conceits do I finde concerning thy thousand years raign What riddles are in that prophesie which no humane tongue can aread where to fix the begining of that marvailous millenary and where the end and what manner of raign it shall be whether temporal or spiritual on earth or in heaven undergoes as many constructions as there are pens that have undertaken it and yet when all is done I see thine Apostle speaks onely of the souls of thy martyrs raigning
Select Thoughts OR CHOICE HELPS FOR A Pious Spirit A Century of Divine Breathings for a Ravished Soule beholding the Excellencies of her Lord Jesus By J HALL B. N. N B London Printed for Nath Brooke at the Angel in Cornhill 1654. TO THE Christian Reader Grace and Peace IT pleased the Alwise and holy GOD who orders all events to his own glory to make use of my late Secession for the producing of divers not I hope unprofitable Tractates wherein I much rejoyce that my declined Age even in that retiredness might be in any measure serviceable to his Church Now I send these Select Notions after their Fellows of which I wish you may finde cause to say with the Wedding-guests at Cana Thou hast reserved the best wine till now The intent of this Labor is to put some good Thoughts Reader into thy minde which would not otherwise perhaps have tendered themselves to thee such as I hope may not a little further thee on thy journey to Heaven And if in my Laboring thitherward I shall through Gods mercy be a means of forwarding any soul but some steps up that steep way how happy am I To which purpose I know no means more effectual then those Meditations which conduce to the animation and vigor of Christian practise Such I have propounded to my Self as most behooveful and necessary especially for this Age into which we are faln an Age of more brain then heart and that hath almost lost Piety in the chase of some litigious Truths And surely had I known how better to have placed my hours I should gladly have changed my task But I must needs say I have found this imployment so useful and proper as that I have looked upon those Polemical Discourses which have been forced from me as no better then meer Excursions I wis it will be long enough ere we shall wrangle our selves into Heaven It must be true contrition pure consciences holy affections heavenly dispositions hearty devotions sound Regeneration Faith working by Love an humble walking with GOD that shall help us thither and whatsoever may tend to the advancing of any of these gracious Works in us is worthy to be dear and precious Such passages Reader if thou shalt according to my hopes meet with here bless GOD with me and improve them to the best advantage of thy Soul Thus shall our gain be mutual and our account happy in the day of the Lord Jesus In whom farewel From Higham neer Norwich Febr. 7. 1647. Select Thoughts One Century I. IF miracles be ceased yet marvails will never cease There is no creature in the world wherein we may not see enough to wonder at for there is no worm of the earth no spire of grass no leaf no twig wherein we may not see the footsteps of a Deity The best visible Creature is man now what man is he that can make but an hair or a straw much less any sensitive creature so as no less then an infinite power is seen in every object that presents it self to our eyes if therefore we look onely upon the outsides of these bodily substances and do not see God in every thing we are no better then brutish making use meerly of our sence without the least improvement of our faith or our reason Contrary then to the opinion of those men who hold that a wise man should admire nothing I say that a man truely wise and good should admire every thing or rather that infiniteness of wisdom and omnipotence which shews it self in every visible object Lord what a beast am I that I have suffered mine eyes to be taken up with shapes and colours and quantities and have not lookt deeper at thee with awful adoration and wonder in every parcel of thy great Creation Henceforth let me see nothing but thee and look at all visible things but as the meer shadows of a glorious omnipotence II. Our affections are then onely safe and right when they are deduced from God and have their rise from Heaven then onely can I take comfort of my love when I can love my wife my childe my friend my self my pleasures and whatsoever contentments in God thus I may be sure not to offend either in the object or measure no man can in God love whom he should not nor immoderately love whom he should this holy respect doth both direct and limit him and shuts up his delights in the conscience of a lawful fruition the like must be said of our joy and fear and grief and what ever other affection for we cannot derive our joy from God if we place it upon any sinful thing or if we exceed in the measure of things allowed we cannot fetch our fear from Heaven if it be cowardly and desperate nor our grief if it be meerly worldly and heartless And if our affections do begin from above they will surely end there closing up in that God who is the Author and orderer of them and such as our affections are such will be the whole disposition of the soul and the whole carriage of our actions These are the feet of the soul and which way the feet walk the whole man goes happy is the man that can be so far the master of himself as to entertain no affections but such as he takes upon the rebound from Heaven III. Whence is this delicate scent in this Rose and Violet It is not from the root that smells of nothing not from the stalk that is as senceless as the root not from the earth whence it grows which contributes no more to these flowers then to the grass that grows by them not from the leaf not from the bud before it be disclosed which yields no more fragrance then the leaf or stalk or root yet here I now finde it neither is it here by any miraculous way but in an ordinary course of nature for all Violets and Roses of this kinde yield the same redolence it cannot be but that it was potentially in that root and stem from which the flowers proceed and there placed and thence drawn by that Almighty power which hath given these admirable vertues to several plants and educes them in his due seasons to these excellent perfections It is the same hand that works spiritually in his elect out of the soyl of the renewed heart watered with the dew of Heaven and warmed with the beams of his Spirit God can and in his own season doth bring forth those sweet odors of Grace and holy dispositions which are most pleasing to himself and if those excellencies be so closely lodged in their bosoms that they do not discover themselves at all times it should be no more strange to us then that this Rose and Violet are not to be found but in their own moneths it is enough that the same vertue is still in the root though the flower be vanished IIII. A man that looks at all things through the consideration of eternity makes no
feels nor sees Whiles the coast is clear every man can be ready to say with Peter Though all men yet not I If I should dye with thee I will not deny thee in any wise But when the evil hour cometh when our enemy appears armed in the lists ready to encounter us then to call up our spirits and to grapple resolutely with dangers and death it is the praise and proof of a true Christian valour And this is that which the Apostle calls standing in opposition to both falling and fleeing Falling out of faintness and fleeing for fear It shall not be possible for us thus to stand if we shall trust to our own feet In and of our selves the best of us are but meer cowards neither can be able so much as to look our enemy in the face Would we be perfect victors we must go out of our selves into the God of our strength If we have made him ours who shall yea who can be against us We can do all things through him that strengthens us All things therefore conquer Death and Hell If we be weakness he is omnipotence Put we on the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively Faith what enemy can come within us to do us hurt What time I am afraid I will trust in thee O God In thee O God have I trusted I will not fear what either flesh or spirit can do unto me The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine enemies LXXV It is disparagement enough that the Apostle casts upon all the visible things of this world That the things which are seen are temporary Be they never so glorious yet being transitory they cannot be worthy of our hearts Who would care for an house of glass if never so curiously painted and gilded All things that are measured by time are thus brittle Bodily substances of what kinde soever lye open to the eye and being seen can be in no other then a fading condition even that goodly Fabrick of Heaven which we see and admire must be changed and in a sort dissolved How much more vanishing are all earthly glories and by how much shorter their continuance is so much lower must be their valuation We account him foolish that will dote too much upon a flower though never so beautiful because we know it can be but a moneths pleasure and no care no art can preserve it from withering amongst the rest the Hemerocallis is the least esteemed because one day ends its beauty what madness then were it in us to set our hearts upon these perishing contentments which we must soon mutually leave we them they us Eternity is that onely thing which is worthy to take up the thoughts of a wise man That being added to evil makes the evil infinitely more intolerable and being added to good makes the good infinitely more desireable O Eternity thou bottomless abyss of misery to the wicked thou indeterminable pitch of joy to the Saints of God what soul is able to comprehend thee what strength of understanding is able to conceive of thee Be thou ever in my thoughts ever before mine eyes Be thou the scope of all my actions of all my indeavors and in respect of thee let all this visible world be to mee as nothing And since onely the things which are not seen by the eye of sense are eternal Lord sharpen thou the eyes of my faith that I may see those things invisible and may in that sight enjoy thy blessed eternity LXXVI What is all the world to us in comparison of the Bird in our bosome our conscience In vain shall all the world acquite and magnifie us if that secretly condemn us and if that condemn us not We have confidence towards God and may bid defiance to men and devils Now that it may not condemn us it must be both pacified and purged pacified in respect of the guilt of sin purged in respect of the corruption For so long as there is guilt in the soul the clamors of an accusing and condemning conscience can no more be stilled then the waters of the Sea can stand still in a storm There is then no pacification without removing the guilt of sin no removing of guilt without remission no remission without satisfaction no satisfaction without a price of infinite value answerable to the infiniteness of the Justice offended and this is no where to be had but in the blood of Christ God and Man All created and finite powers are but miserable comforters Physitians of no value to this one And the same power that pacifieth the conscience from the guilt must also purge it from the filthiness of sin even that blood of the Son of God who is made unto us of God Sanctification and Redemption That Faith which brings Christ home to the soul doth by the efficacy of his blessed Spirit purifie the heart from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Being justified by this faith we have peace with God When once the heart is quieted from the uproars of self-accusation and cleansed from dead works what in this world can so much concern us as to keep it so Which shall be done if we shall give Christ the possession of our souls and commit the keys into his onely hands so shall nothing be suffered to enter in that may disturb or defile it if we shall settle firm resolutions in our brests never to yield to the commission of any known enormious sin Failings and slips there will be in the holiest of Gods Saints whiles they carry their clay about them For these we are allowed to fetch forth a pardon of course from that infinite mercy of our God who hath set a Fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness by the force of our daily prayers But if through an over-bold security and spiritual negligence we shall suffer our selves to be drawn away into some heinous wickedness it must cost warm water to recover us Neither can it in such a case be safe for us to suffer our eyes to sleep or our eye-lids to slumber till we have made our peace with Heaven This done and carefully maintained what can make us other then happily secure Blessed is he whose conscience hath not condemned him and who is not faln from his hope in the Lord. LXXVII We cannot apprehend Heaven in any notion but of excellency and glory that as it is in it self a place of wonderful resplendance and Majesty so it is the Palace of the most high God wherein he exhibites his infinite magnificence that it is the happy receptacle of all the elect of God that it is the glorious rendezvous of the blessed
flesh but for him God took him and cloathed him living with immortality I finde none but him and Elijah that were thus fetcht to their Heaven It will be happy for us if we may pass in the common road to blessedness O God give me to walk close and constantly with thee and what end thou pleasest let my body pass through all the degrees of corruption so that my soul may be immediately glorious FINIS THE BREATHINGS OF THE Devout Soul I. BLessed Lord God thou callest me to obedience and fain would I follow thee but what good can this wretched heart of mine be capable of except thou put it there thou know'st I cannot so much as wish to think well without thee I have strong powers to offend thee my sins are my own but whence should I have any inclination to good but from thee who art only and all good Lord work me to what thou requirest and then require what thou wilt II. Lord God whither need I go to seek thee Thou art so with me as that I cannot move but in thee I look up to heaven there I know thy Majestie most manifests it self but withall I know that being here thou art never out of thy heaven for it is thy presence onely that makes heaven Oh give me to enjoy thee in this lowest region of thine heavenly habitation and as in respect of my naturall being I live and move in thee so let me not live and move spiritually but with thee and to thee III. Whither now O whither do ye rove O my thoughts Can ye hope to finde rest in any of these sublunary contentments Alas how can they yeeld any stay to you that have no settlement in themselves Is there not enough in the infinite good to take you up but that ye will be wandring after earthly vanities Oh my Lord how justly mightest thou cast me off with scorn for casting any affective glances upon so base a rival Truly Lord I am ashamed of this my hatefull inconstancy but it is thou only that must remedy it O thou that art the father of mercies pity my wildnesse and weak distractions Take thou my heart to thee it is thine own keep it with thee tye it close to thee by the cords of love that it may not so much as cast down an eye upon this wretched and perishing world IIII. Lord I confesse to my shame thou art a great loser by me for besides my not improving of thy favors I have not kept even-reckonings with thee I have not justly tallied up thy inestimable benefits Thy very privative mercies are both without and beyond my account for every evill that I am free from is a new blessing from thee That I am out of bondage that I am out of pain and misery that I am out of the dominion of sin out of the tyranny of Satan out of the agonies of an afflicted soul out of the torments of hell Lord how unspeakeable mercies are these Yet when did I bless thee for any of them Thy positive bounties I can feel but with a benummed and imperfect sence Lord do thou enlarge and intenerate my heart make me truly sensible as of my good received so of my escaped evils and take thou to thy self the glory of them both V. Ah my Lord God what heats and colds do I feel in my soul Sometimes I finde my self so vigorous in grace that no thought of doubt dare shew it self and me thinks I durst challenge my hellish enemies another while I feel my self so dejected and heartlesse as if I had no interest in the God of my salvation nor never had received any certain pledges of his favour What shall I say to this various disposition Whether Lord is it my wretchednesse to suffer my self to be rob'd of thee for the time by temptation or whether is this the course of thy proceedings in the dispensation of thy graces to the sons of men that thou wilt have the breathings of thy Spirit as where so how and when thou pleasest Surely O my God if I did not know thee constant to thine everlasting mercies I should be utterly disheartened with these sad intervals now when my sense failes me I make use of my faith and am no lesse sure of thee even when I feel thee not then when I finde the clearest evidences of thy gracious presence Lord shine upon me with the light of thy countenance if it may be alwaies but when ever that is clouded strengthen thou my faith so shall I be safe even when I am comfortless VI. O my God I am justly ashamed to think what favors I have received from thee and what poor returns I have made to thee Truly Lord I must needs say thou hast thought nothing either in earth or in heaven too good for me and I on the other side have grudg'd thee that weak and worthless obedience which thou hast required of me Alas what pleasure could I have done to thee who art infinite if I had sacrificed my whole self to thee as thou commandest Thou art and wilt be thy self though the world were not it is I I only that could be a gainer by this happy match which in my own wrong I have unthankfully neglected I see it is not so much what we have as how we imploy it O thou that hast been so bountiful in heaping thy rich mercies upon me vouchsafe to grant me yet one gift more give me grace and power to improve all thy gifts to the glory of the giver otherwise it had been better for me to have been poor then ingrateful VII Ah Lord What strugling have I with my weak fears how do I anticipate my evils by distrust What shall I do when I am old How shall I be able to indure pain How shall I pass through the horrid gates of death Oh my God Where is my faith that I am thus surprized Had I not thee to up-hold and strengthen my soul well might I tremble and sink under these cares but now that I have the assurance of so strong an helper as commands all the powers of heaven earth and hell what a shame is it for me to give so much way to my wretched infidelity as to punish my self with the expectation of future evils Oh for the victorie that overcomes the world even our faith Thou O God art my refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore will I not fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea VIII Lord I made account my daies should have been but an inch but thou hast made them a span long having drawn out the length of a crazie life beyond the period of my hopes It is for something sure that thou hast thus long respited me from my grave which look't for me many years ago Here I am O my God attending thy good pleasure Thou know'st best what thou hast to do
but sometimes I am foyled and go halting out of the field it is thy mercy that I live being so fiercely assaulted by those principalities and powers it were more then wonder if I should escape such hands without a wound Even that holy servant of thine who strove with thine Angel for a blessing went limping away though he prevailed what mervail is it that so weak a wretch as I striving with many evill Angels for the avoidance of a curse come off with a maime or a scar But blessed be thy name the wounds that I receive are not mortall and when I fall it is but to my knees whence I rise with new courage and hopes of victory Thou who art the God of all power and keepest the keys of hell and death hast said Resist the Devill and he will flee from you Lord I do and will by thy merciful ayd still and ever resist make thou my faith as stedfast as my will is resolute Oh still teach thou my hands to war and my fingers to fight arme thou my soul with strength and at last according to thy gracious promise crown it with victory XXIII Oh Lord God how ambitious how covetous of knowledg is this soul of mine as the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare filled with hearing no more is the mind of man with understanding yea so insatiable is my heart that the more I know the more I desire to know and the less I think I know Under heaven there can be no bounds set to this intellectuall appetite O do thou stop the mouth of my soul with thy self who art infinite Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Alas Lord if I could know all creatures with all their forms qualities workings if I could know as much as innocent Adam or wise Solomon Yea more if I could know all that is done in earth or heaven what were my soul the better if it have not attained the knowledg of thee Since as the Preacher hath most wisely observed In much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledg increaseth sorrow Oh then set off my heart from affecting that knowledg whose end is sorrow and fix it upon that knowledg which brings eeverlasting life And this is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent XXIV O my God what miserable uncertainties there are in these worldly hopes But yesterday I made account of an eminent advantage of my estate which now ends in a deep loss How did we lately feed our selves with the hope of a firme and during peace which now shuts up in too much bloud How confidently did I relie upon the promised favour of some great friends which now leave me in the suds as the scorn of a mis-called fortune In how slippery places O Lord do our feet stand If that may be said to stand which is ever sliding never fixed And not more slippery then brittle so as there is not more danger of falling then of sinking With thee O God with thee only is a constant immutability of happiness There let me seek it there let me finde it and over-looking all the fickle objects of this vain world let my soul pitch it self upon that blessed immortality which ere long it hopes to enjoy with thee XXV Lord God What a wearisome circle do I walk in here below I sleep and dress and work and eat and work again and eat again and undress and sleep again and thus wearing out my time finde a satiety in all these troublesome Lord when shall I come to that state wherein I shall do nothing but injoy thee do nothing but praise thee and in that one work shall finde such infinite contentment that my glorified soul cannot wish to do any other and shall therein alone bestow a blessed eternity XXVI O God how troublesome and painful do I find this Sun of thine whose scorching beams beat upon my head and yet this excellent creature of thine is that to which under thee we are beholden for our very life and it is thy great blessing to the earth that it may enjoy these strong and forceable rayes from it Oh Who shall be able to endure the burning flames of thy wrath which thou intendest for the punishment and everlasting torment of thine enemies And if men shall blaspheme the name of thee the God of heaven for the great heat of that beneficiall creature what shall we think they will do for that fire which shall be consuming them to all eternity Lord keep my soul from those flames which shall be ever burning and never either quenched or abated XXVII Which way O Lord which way can I look and not see some sad examples of misery One wants his limbs with Mephibosheth another his sight with Bartimeus a third with Lazarus wants bread and a whole skin One is pained in his body another plundred of his estate a third troubled in minde one is pined in prison another tortured on the rack a third languisheth under the loss of a deare son or wife or husband Who am I Lord that for the present I enjoy an immunity from all these sorrows I am sure none grones under them that hath deserved them more It is thy mercy thy meer mercy O my good God that any of these calamities have faln beside me Oh make me truly thankful for thine infinite goodness and yet onely so sensible of thy gracious indulgence this way as that when any of these evils shall seize upon mee I may be no more dejected in the sense of them then I am now over-joyed with the favor of their forbearance XXVIII O blessed God what variety of gifts hast thou scattered amongst the sons of men To one thou hast given vigor of body to another agility beauty to a third to one depth of judgment to another quickness of apprehension to one readiness and rarity of invention to another tenacity of memorie to one the knowledg of liberal arts to another the exquisiteness of manuary skill to one worldly wealth to another honour to one a wise heart to another an eloquent tongue to one more then enough to another contentment with a little to one valour to another sagacity These favors O Lord thou hast promiscuously dispersed amongst both thy friends and enemies but oh how transcendent are those spiritual mercies which thou hast reserved for thine own the graces of heavenly wisdome lively faith fervent charity firme hope joy in the holy Ghost and all the rest of that divine beauye For any competency of the least of thy common blessings I desire to be thankful to thy bounty for which of them O God can I either merit or requite but oh for a soul truly and eagarly ambitious of those thy best mercies Oh let me ever long for them and ever be insatiable of them Oh do thou fill my heart
with the desire of them and let that desire never finde it self filled XXIX How comfortable a style is that O God which thine Apostle gives to thine Heaven whiles he cals it the inheritance of the Saints in light None can come there but Saints the roomes of this lower world are taken up commonly with wicked men with beasts with Devils but into that heavenly Jerusalem no unholy thing can enter Neither can any Saint be excluded thence each of them have not only a share but an entire right to thy glory And how many just titles are there O Saviour to that region of blessedness It is thy Fathers gift it is thy purchase it is thy Saints inheritance theirs only in thy right by thy gracious adoption they are sons and as sons heires co-heirs with thee of that blessed Patrimony so feoffed upon them so possessed of them that they can never be disseized And Lord how glorious an inheritance it is An inheritance in light In light incomprehensible in light inaccessible Lo the most spirituall of all thy visible creatures is light and yet this light is but the effect and emanation of one of thy creatures the Sun and serves only for the illumination of this visible world but that supernal light is from the Al-glorious beams of thy Divine Majesty diffusing themselves to those blessed spirits both Angels and Souls of thy Saints who live in the joyful fruition of thee to all eternity Alas Lord we do here dwell in darkness and under an uncomfortable opacity whiles thy face is clouded from us with manifold temptations there above with thee is pure light a constant noon-tide of glory I am here under a miserable and obscure wardship Oh teach me to despise the best of earth and ravish my soul with a longing desire of being possessed of that blessed inheritance of the Saints in light XXX What outward blessing can be sweeter then civill peace What judgment more heavy then that of the sword Yet O Saviour there is a peace which thou disclaimest and there is a sword which thou challengest to bring Peace with our corruptions is warr against thee and that war in our bosomes wherein the spirit fighteth against the flesh is peace with thee O let thy good Spirit raise and foment this holy and intestine war more and more within me And as for my outward spirituall enemies how can there be a victory without war and how can I hope for a crown without victory O do thou ever gird me with strength to the battle inable thou me to resist unto bloud make me faithfull to the death that thou maist give me the crown of life XXXI O Lord God how subject is this wretched heart of mine to repining and discontentment If it may not have what it would how ready it is like a froward child to throw away what it hath I know and feel this to be out of that naturall pride which is so deep rooted in me for could I be sensible enough of my own unworthinesse I should think every thing too good every thing too much for me my very being O Lord is more then I am ever able to answer thee and how could I deserve it when I was not but that I have any helps of my wel-beeing here or hopes and means of my being glorious hereafter how far is it beyond the reach of my soul Lord let me finde my own nothingness so shall I be thankfull for a little and in my very want blesse thee XXXII Where art thou O my God whither hast thou withdrawn thy self it is not long since I found thy comfortable presence with my soul now I misse thee and mourn and languish for thee Nay rather where art thou O my soul my God is where he was neither can be any other then himself the change is in thee whose inconstant disposition varies continually and cannot finde it self fixed upon so blessed an object It will never be better with me O my God until it shall please thee to stablish my heart with thy free Spirit and to keep it close to thee that it may not be carried away with vain distractions with sinful temptations Lord my God as thou art alwaies present with me and canst no more be absent then not be thy self so let me be alwaies with thee in an humble and faithful acknowledgment of thy presence as I can never be out of thine all-seeing eye so let mine eyes be ever bent upon thee who art invisible Thou that hast given me eyes improve them to thy glorie and my happiness XXXIII My bosome O Lord is a Rebeccaes womb there are twins striving within it a Jacob and Esau the old man and the new whiles I was in the barren state of my unregeneration all was quiet within me now this strife is both troublesome and paineful so as nature is ready to say If it be so why am I thus But withal O my God I bless thee for this happy unquietness for I know there is just cause of comfort in these inward struglings my soul is now not unfruitful and is conceived with an holy seed which wrestles with my natural corruptions and if my Esau have got the start in the priority of time yet my Jacob shall follow him hard at the heele and happily supplant him And though I must nourish them both as mine yet I can through thy grace imitate thy choice and say with thee Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated Blessed God make thou that word of thine good in me That the elder shall serve the younger XXXIV Alas my Lord God how small matters trouble me every petty occurrence is ready to rob me of my peace so as me thinks I am like some little cock-boat in a rough Sea which every billow topples up and down and threats to sink I can chide this weak pusillanimity in my self but it is thou that must redress it Lord work my heart to so firme a setledness upon thee that it may never be shaken no not with the violent gusts of temptation much lesse with the easie gales of secular mis-accidents Even when I am hardest pressed in the multitude of the sorrows of my heart let thy comforts refresh my soul but for these sleight crosses oh teach me to despise them as not worthy of my notice much less of my vexation Let my heart be taken up with thee and then what care I whether the world smile or frown XXXV What a comfort it is O Saviour that thou art the first fruits of them that sleep Those that die in thee do but sleep Thou saidst so once of thy Lazarus and maist say so of him again he doth but sleep still His first sleep was but short this latter though longer is no less true out of which he shall no less surely awake at thy second call then he did before at thy first His first sleep and waking was singular this latter is the same with ours
we all lie down in our bed of earth as sure to wake as ever we can be to shut our eyes In and from thee O blessed Saviour is this our assurance who art the first fruits of them that sleep The first handfull of the first fruits was not presented for it self but for the whole field wherein it grew The vertue of that oblation extended it self to the whole crop Neither didst thou O blessed Jesu rise again for thy self only but the power and vertue of thy resurrection reaches to all thine so thy chosen Vessel tels us Christ the first fruits afterwards they that are Christs at his coming So as though the resurrection be of all the dead both just and unjust yet to rise by the power of thy resurrection is so proper to thine own as that thou O Saviour hast styled it the resurrection of the just whiles the rest shall be drag'd out of their graves by the power of thy God-head to their dreadful judgment Already therefore O Jesu are we risen in thee and as sure shall rise in our own persons The Loco-motive faculty is in the head Thou who art our head art risen we who are thy members must and shall follow Say then O my dying body say boldly unto Death Rejoyce not over me O mine enemy for though I fall yet I shall rise again Yea Lord the vertue of thy first fruits diffuseth it self not to our rising only but to a blessed immortality of these bodies of ours for as thou didst rise immortall and glorious so shall we by and with thee Who shalt change these vile bodies and make them like to thy glorious body The same power that could shake off death can put on glory and Majesty Lay thee down therefore O my body quietly and cheerfully and look to rise in another hue Thou art sown in corruption thou shalt be raised in incorruption thou art sown in dishonour thou shalt be raised in glory thou art sown in weaknesse but shalt be raised in power XXXVI In this life in this death of the body O Lord I see there are no degrees though differences of time The man that dyed yesterday is as truly dead as Abel the first man that dyed in the world and Methuselah that lived nine hundred sixty nine years did not more truly live then the childe that did but salute and leave the world but in the life to come and the second death there are degrees degrees of blessedness to the glorified degrees of torments to the damned the least whereof is unspeakable unconceivable Oh thou that art the Lord of life and death keep my soul from those steps that go down to the chambers of death and once set it for higher I dare not sue to go but over the threshold of glory and blessedness XXXVII O Lord my God I am as very a Pilgrime as ever walked upon thy earth Why should I look to be in any better condition then my neighbours then my forefathers Even the best of them that were most fixed upon their inheritance were no other then strangers at home It was not in the power of the world to naturalize them much less to make them enroll themselves free-Denizons here below they knew their country which they sought was above so infinitely rich and pleasant that these earthly regions which they must pass thorough are in comparison worthy of nothing but contempt My condition is no other then theirs I wander here in a strange country What wonder is it if I meet with forrainers fare hard usage and neglect Why do I intermeddle with the affaires of a nation that is not mine Why do I clog my self in my way with the base and heavy lumber of the world Why are not my affections homeward Why do I not long to see and enjoy my fathers house O my God thou that hast put me into the state of a Pilgrim give me a Pilgrims heart set me off from this wretched world wherein I am let me hate to think of dwelling here Let it be my only care how to pass through this miserable wilderness to the promised land of a blessed eternitie XXXVIII One Talent at the least O Lord hast thou put into my hand and that sum is great to him that is not worth a dram but alas what have I done with it I confess I have not hid it in a napkin but have been laying it out to some poor advantage yet surely the gain is so unanswerable that I am afraid of an Audit I see none of the approved servants in the Gospel brought in an increase of less value then the receit I fear I shall come short of the sum O thou who justly holdest thy self wronged with the style of an austere master vouchsafe to accept of my so mean improvement and thou who valuedst the poor widows mites above the rich gifts cast into thy Treasurie be pleased to allow of those few pounds that my weak indevors could raise from thy stock and mercifully reward thy servant not according to his success but according to his true intentions of glorifying thee XXXIX What a word is this which I hear from thee O Saviour Behold I stand at the doore and knock Thou which art the Lord of life God blessed for ever to stand and knock at the door of a sinful heart Oh what a praise is this of thy mercy and long suffering What a shame to our dull neglect and graceless ingratitude For a David to say I waited patiently upon the Lord Truly my soul waiteth upon God it is but meet and comely for it is no other then the duty of the greatest Monarchs on earth yea of the highest Angels in Heaven to attend their Maker but for thee the great God of Heaven to wait at the door of us sinful dust and ashes what a condescension is this what a longanimity It were our happiness O Lord if upon our greatest suit and importunity we might have the favor to entertain thee into our hearts but that thou shouldst importune us to admit thee and shouldst wait at the posts of our doors till thine head be filled with dew and thy locks with the drops of the night it is such a mercy as there is not room enough in our souls to wonder at In the mean time what shall I say to our wretched unthankfulnes and impious negligence Thou hast graciously invited us to thee and hast said knock and it shall be opened and yet thou continuest knocking at our doors and we open not willingly delaying to let in our happiness we know how easie it were for thee to break open the brasen doors of our brests and to come in but the Kingdome of Heaven suffers not violence from thee though it should suffer it from us Thou wilt do all thy works in a sweet and gracious way as one who will not force but win love Lord I cannot open unless thou that
knock'st for entrance wilt be pleased to inable me with strength to turn the key and to unbolt this unweldy bar of my soul O do thou make way for thy self by the strong motions of thy blessed Spirit into the in-most rooms of my heart and do thou powerfully incline me to mine own happiness els thou shalt be ever excluded and I shall be ever miserable XLI In what pangs couldst thou be O Asaph that so woful a word should fall from thee Hath God forgotten to be gracious Surely the temptation went so high that the next step had been blasphemie Had not that good God whom thy bold weakness questions for forgetfulness in great mercy remembred thee and brought thee speedily to remember thy self and him that which thou confessest to have been infirmity had proved a sinful despair I dare say for thee that word washed thy cheeks with many a tear and was worthy of more For O God What can be so dear to thee as the glory of thy mercy There is none of thy blessed attributes which thou desirest to set forth so much unto the sons of men and so much abhorrest to be disparaged by our detraction as thy mercy Thou canst O Lord forget thy displeasure against thy people thou canst forget our iniquities and cast our sins out of thy remembrance but thou canst no more forget to be gracious then thou canst cease to be thy self O my God I sin against thy justice hourly and thy mercy interposes for my remission but oh keep me from sinning against thy mercy What plea can I hope for when I have made my Advocate mine enemy XLI How happy O Lord is the man that hath thee for his God He can want nothing that is good he can be hurt by nothing that is evill his sins are pardoned his good indeavors are accepted his crosses are sanctified his prayers are heard all that he hath are blessings all that he suffers are advantages his life is holy his death comfortable his estate after death glorious Oh that I could feel thee to be my God that I could enjoy an heavenly communion with thee In vain should earth or hell labour to make me other then blessed XLII How just a motion is this of thine O thou sweet singer of Israel O love the Lord all ye his Saints Surely they can be no Saints that love not such a Lord Had he never been good to them yet that infinite goodness which is in himself would have commanded love from Saints Yet how could they have been Saints if he had wholly kept his goodness to himself In that then he hath made them Saints he hath communicated his goodness to them and challengeth all love from them and being made such how infinitely hath he obliged them with all kinds of mercies How can ye choose O ye Saints but love the Lord What have ye what are ye what can ye be but from his meer bounty They are sleight favours that he hath done you for the world in these his very enemies share with you How transcendent are his spirituall obligations Hath he not given you his Angels for your attendants himself for your Protector his Son out of his bosome for your Redeemer his Spirit for your Comforter his heaven for your inheritance If gifts can attract love O my God Who can have any interest in my heart but thy blessed self that hast been so infinitely munificent to my soul Take it to thee thou that hast made and bought it enamour it thoroughly of thy goodness make me sick of love yea let me die for love of thee who hast loved me unto death that I may fully enjoy the perfection of thy love in the height of thy glory XLIII Lord how have I seen men miscarried into those sins the premonition whereof they would have thought incredible and their yeildance thereto impossible How many Hazaels hath our very age yeilded that if a Prophet should have fore told their acts would have said Is thy servant a dog that he should do these great things Oh my God why do not I suspect my self What hold have I of my self more then these other miserable examples of humane frailtie Lord God if thou take off thy hand from me what wickedness shall escape me I know I cannot want a tempter and that tempter cannot want either power or malice or skill or vigilance or baits or opportunities and for my self I find too well that of my self I have no strength to resist any of his temptations O for thy mercies sake uphold thou me with thy mighty hand stand close to me in all assaults shew thy self strong in my weakness Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Let them not have dominion over me then onely shall I be upright and shall be innocent from the great transgression XLIV It is thy title O Lord and only thine that thou givest songs in the night The night is a sad and dolorous season as the light contrarily is the image of cheerfulness like as it is in bodily pains and aches that they are still worst towards night so it is in the cares and griefs of mind then they assault us most when they are helpt on by the advantage of an uncomfortable darkness Many men can give themselves songs in the day of their prosperity who can but howl in the night of their affliction but for a Paul and Silas to sing in their prison at mid-night for an Asaph to call to remembrance his song in the night this comes onely from that Spirit of thine whose peculiar style is the Comforter And surely as musick sounds best in the night so those heavenly notes of praise which we sing to thee our God in the gloomy darkness of our adversity cannot but be most pleasing in thine ears Thine Apostle bids us which is our ordinary wont when we are merry to sing when afflicted to pray but if when we are afflicted we can sing as also when we are merriest we can pray that ditty must needs be so much more acceptable to thee as it is a more powerful effect of the joy of thy Holy Ghost O my God I am conscious of my own infirmity I know I am naturally subject to a dull and heavy dumpishness under whatsoever affliction Thou that art the God of all comfort remedy this heartless disposition in me pull this lead out of my bosome make me not patient only but cheerful under my trials fill thou my heart with joy and my mouth with songs in the night of my tribulation XLV It is a true word O Lord that thy Seer said of thee long ago The Lord seeth not as man seeth Man sees the face thou seest the heart man sees things as they seem thou seest them as they are many things are hid from the eyes of men all things lie open and displaid before thee What a madness then were it in me to come disguised into
thy presence to seek to hide my counsels from thine al-seeing eyes I must be content Lord to be deluded here by fair appearances for I may not offer to look into the bosoms of men which thou hast reserved for thy self it is only the out-side that I can judg by Yea O God if I shall cast my eyes inward and look into my own brest even there I find my self baffled at home The heart of man is deceitful above all things who can know it None but those piercing eyes of thine can discover all the windings and turnings of that intricate piece What would it avail me O Lord to mock the eyes of all the world with a semblance of holiness whilst thou shouldst see me false and filthy Should I be censured by a world of men when I am secretly allowed by thee I could contemn it yea glory in their unjust reproach But if thine eye shall note me guilty to what purpose is all the applause of men O thou that art the God of truth do thou open and dissect this close heart of mine search every fibre that is in or about it and if thou findest any ill blood there let it out and if thou findest any hollowness fill it up and so work upon it that it may be approved of thee that madest it as for men it shall be alike to me whether they spend their breath or save it XLVI Lord God What a world of treasure hast thou hid in the bowels of the earth which no eye of man ever did or shall or can see What goodly plants hast thou brought forth of the earth in wilde unknown regions which no man ever beheld What great wits hast thou shut up in a willing obscurity which the world never takes notice of In all which thou shewest that it is not only the use and benefit of man which thou regardest in the great variety of thy creation and acts of administration of the world but thine own glory and the fulfilling of thine own good pleasure and if onely the Angels of heaven be witnesses of thy great works thou canst not want a due celebration of thy praise It is just with thee O God that thou shouldst regard only thy blessed self in all that thou doest or hast done for all is thine and thou art all Oh that I could sincerely make thee the perfect scope of all my thoughts of all my actions that so we may both meet in one and the same happy end thy glory in my eternall blessedness XLVII Indeed Lord as thou saist the night commeth when no man can work What can we do when the light is shut in but shut our eyes and sleep When our senses are tyed up and our limbs laid to rest what can we do but yeeld our selves to a necessary repose O my God I perceive my night hastening on apace my Sun draws low the shadows lengthen vapours rise and the air begins to darken Let me bestir my self for the time let me lose none of my few hours Let me work hard a while because I shall soon rest everlastingly XLVIII Thou seest Lord how apt I am to contemn this body of mine Surely when I look back upon the stuffe whereof it is made no better then that I tread upon and see the loathsomness of all kinds that comes from it and feel the pain that it oft times puts me to and consider whither it is going and how noisome it is above all other creatures upon the dissolution I have much adoe to hold good terms with so unequal a partner But on the other side when I look up to thy hand and see how fearfully and wonderfully thou hast made it what infinite cost thou hast bestowed upon it in that thou hast not thought thine own blood too dear to redeeme it that thou hast so far honour'd it as to make it the Temple of thy holy Ghost and to admit it into a blessed communion with thy self and hast decreed to do so great things for it hereafter even to cloath it with immortality and to make it like unto thy glorious body I can bless thee for so happy a mate and with patience digest all these necessary infirmities and now I look upon this flesh not as it is withered and wrinkled but as it will be shining and glorified O Lord how vile so ever this clay is in it self yet make mee in thine interest and my hopes so enamoured of it as if I did already finde it made celestial Oh that my faith could prevent my change and anticipate my ensuing glory XLIX Lord what a dreadful favor was that which thou shewedst to thy Prophet Elijah to send a fiery chariot for him to conveigh him up to Heaven I should have thought that the sight of so terrible a carriage should have fetcht away his soul before-hand and have left the body groveling on the earth But that good Spirit of thine which had fore-signified that fiery rapture had doubtless fore-armed thy servant with an answerable resolution to expect and undergoe it Either he knew that chariot how ever fearful in the appearance was onely glorious and not penal Or els he cheerfully resolved that such a momentany pain in the change would be followed with an eternity of happiness O God we are not worthy to know whereto thou hast reserved us Perhaps thou hast appointed us to be in the number of those whom thou shalt finde alive at thy second coming and then the case will be ours we shall pass through fire to our immortality or if thou hast ordained us to a speedier dispatch perhaps thou hast decreed that our way to thee shall be through a fiery triall O God what ever course thou in thine holy wisdom hast determined for the fetching up my soul from this vale of misery and tears prepare me thoroughly for it and do thou work my heart to so lively a faith in thee that all the terrours of my death may be swallowed up in an assured expectation of my speedy glory and that my last groans shall be immediately seconded with eternall Allelujahs in the glorious Chore of thy Saints and Angels in Heaven Amen Amen FINIS 2 Cor. 4. 18. Colos 3. 1 2. Rom. 13. 14. Gal. 3. 27. Exod. 32. 25. Psal 32. 1. Zech. 3. 4. Deut. 16. Eccles 9. 7 8. Psal 4. 7. Luk. 16. 19. Ephes 6. Cant. 1. 15. Cant. 5. 3. Psal 19. 1. Psa ult ult Psal 103. 1. 2. Psa 146. 1 2. Luk. 12. 49. Acts 2. Joh. 16. 7. Jer. 5. 14. Luk. 23. 32. Cant. 8 7. Psal 119. 139. Psal 39 4. Psal 104. 4. Heb. 1. 7. Heb. 1. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 12. Lament 4. 11. Lam. 2. 17. Judges 9. 20. Acts 2. 2 12. 2 Kings 6. 25. Psal 30. 6. Phil. 1. 23. Joh. 13. 16. Joh. 15. 8. Joh. 15. 14. Joh. 20. 17. Joh. 17. 21 22 23. Psal 2. Luk. 8. 2. Psa 80. 13. Jer. 4. 20. Esa 1. 7. Psa 89. 40. Esa 27. 11.