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
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
Lord What should I wait on the Lord any longer If my respects to my Saviour be for the loaves and fishes my heart is carried away with those baskets of fragments but if I can love God for his goodness sake this love shall out-last time and over-match death LVI What a wretched narrowness of heart is this which I finde in my self that when I may have all things I take up with nothing and when I may be possessed of an infinite good I please my self in grasping a little thick clay It was a large word that the Apostle said to his Corinthians Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours What shall we think they were richer then their neighbors or is not this the condition of all those of whom he can say in the next words ye are Christs There there comes in all our right to this infinite wealth of our selves we are beggars in him who is Lord of all we are feoffed in all things for whiles he saith All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods he doth in effect say Christ is yours and in him God is yours for this right is mutual How else should all things be ours if God were not ours without whom all is nothing and how should God the Father be ours without that Son of his love who hath said All things that the Father hath are mine Thou O Father art in me and I in thee No man cometh to the Father but by me If then Christ be mine all is mine and if I have so oft received him and so often renued my union with him how is he but mine O Saviour let me feel my self throughly possest of thee whether the world slide or sink I am happy LVII God will not vouchsafe to allow so much honor to wicked instruments as to make them the means of removing publike evils The Magicians of Egypt could have power to bring some plagues upon the Land but had not the power to take them away Certainly there needed a greater power to give a being to the frogs then to call them off yet this latter they cannot do who prevailed in the first Moses and Aaron must be called to fetch off that judgment which the Sorcerers have brought upon themselves neither is it otherwise still Wicked men can draw down those plagues upon a nation which onely the faithful must remove The sins of the one make work for the others intercession Do we therefore smart and groan under heavy calamities we know to whom we are beholden Thus saith the Lord to this people thus have they loved to wander they have not refrained their feet therefore he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer burnt offrings and an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence Do we desire to be freed from the present evils and to escape an utter desolation They are Moses and Aaron that must do it He said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them When our quarrel is with Heaven it is not our force or our policy that can save us Every faithful man is a favorite of the King of glory and can do more then command Legions Then is a people in some good way towards safety when they have learned to know their friends Whiles we have good mens prayers to grapple with wicked mens sins there may be hopes of recovery LVIII The ayming at a good end can be no just excuse for an unlawful act or disposition but if contentment did consist in having much it were a sore temptation to a man to be covetous since that contentation is the thing wherein the heart of man is wont to place it 's chief felicity neither indeed can there be any possible happiness without it but the truth is abundance is no whit guilty so much as of ease much less of a full joy how many have we known that have spent more pleased and happy hours under an house of sticks and walls of mud and roof of straw then great Potentates have done under marbles and cedar And how many both wise Heathen and mortified Christians have rid their hands of their cumbersome store that they might be capable of being happy Other creatures do naturally neglect that which abused reason bids us dote upon If we had no better powers then beast or fowls we should not at all care for this either white or red earth and if our graces were as great as the least of Saints we should look carelesly upon the preciousest and largest treasures that the earth can afford now our debauched reason in stead of stiring us up to emulate the best creatures draws us down below the basest of them moving us to place our happiness in those things which have neither life nor true worth much less can give that which they have not It is not for the generous souls of Christians to look so low as to place their contentment in any thing whether within the bowels or upon the face of this earth but to raise their thoughts up to the glorious region of their original and rest looking not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things that are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal LIX The holy Psalmist knew well what he said when he called the thunder in the clouds The voyce of the Lord a voyce powerful and full of Majesty The very Heathens made this the most awful act of their Jupiter which the Spirit of God expresses in a more divine language The God of glory thundreth upon this dreadful sound it is that the Psalmist calls to the mighty ones to give unto the Lord glory and strength to give unto the Lord the glory due to his name as it were advising the great Commanders of the world when they hear it thunder to fall down on their knees and to lift up their hands and eyes to that great God that speaks to them from Heaven No man needs to bid the stoutest heart to fear when this terrible sound strikes through his ear which is able to drive even Neroes and Caligulaes into bench-holes But this mighty voyce calls for an improvement of our fear to the glory of that Almighty power whence it proceeds Perhaps the presumption of man will be finding out the natural causes of this fearful uproar in the clouds but the working by means derogates nothing from the God of nature neither yet are all thunders natural That whirlwind and thunder wherein God spake to Job that thunder and lightning wherein God spake to Moses and Israel
in mount Sinai that thunder and rain wherewith God answered the prayer of Samuel in wheat-harvest for Israels conviction in the unseasonable suit for their King that thundering voyce from Heaven that answered the prayer of the Son of God for the glorifying of his Name the seven thunders that uttered their voyces to the beloved Disciple in Pathmos had nothing of ordinary nature in them And how many have we heard and read of That for sleighting of this great work of God have at once heard his voyce and felt his stroke Shortly if any heart can be unmoved at this mighty voyce of God it is stiffer then the rocks in the wilderness for The voyce of the Lord shaketh the wilderness the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh For me I tremble at the power whiles I adore the mercy of that great God that speaks so loud to me It is my comfort that he is my Father who approves himself thus omnipotent his love is no less infinite then his power let the terror be to them that know him angry let my confidence overcome my fear It is the Lord let him do what he will All is not right with me till I have attained to tremble at him while he shineth and to rejoyce in him whiles he thundreth LX. We talk of mighty warriors that have done great exploits in conquering kingdoms but the Spirit of God tells us of a greater conquest then all theirs Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Alass the conquest of those great Commanders was but poor and partial of some small spots of the earth the conquest of a regenerate Christian is universal of the whole world Those other conquerors whiles they prevailed abroad were yet overcome at home and whiles they were the Lords of nations were no other then vassals to their own lusts These begin their victories at home and enlarge their Triumphs over all their spiritual enemies The glory of those other victors was laid down with their bodies in the dust the glory that attends these is eternal What pity it is that the true Christian should not know his own greatness that he may raise his thoughts accordingly and bear himself as one that tramples the world under his feet For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life these he hath truly subdued in himself not so as to bereave them of life but of rule if he have left them some kinde of being still in him yet he hath left them no dominion and therefore may well stile himself the Lord of the world Far far therefore be it from him that he should so abject and debase himself as to be a slave to his vassals none but holy and high thoughts and demeanors may now beseem him and in these spiritual regards of his inward greatness and self-conquests his word must be either Cesar or nothing LXI I see so many kindes of phrensies in the world and so many seemingly wise brains taken with them that I much doubt whom I may be sure to account free from either the touch or at least the danger of this indisposition How many opinions do I see raised every day that argue no less then a meer spiritual madness such as if they should have been but mentioned seven years ago would have been questioned out of what Bedlam they had broken loose And for dispositions how do we see one so ragingly furious as if he had newly torn off his chaines and escaped another so stupidly senseless that you may thrust pins into him up to the head and he startles not at it One so dumpishly sad as if he would freez to death in melancholy and hated any contentment but in sorrow another so apishly jocund as if he cared for no other pastime then to play with feathers One so superstitiously devout that he is ready to cringe and crouch to every stock another so wildly prophane that he is ready to spit God in the face shortly one so censorious of others as if he thought all men mad but himself another so mad as that he thinks himself and all mad men sober and well-witted In this store and variety of distempers were I not sure of my own principles I could easily misdoubt my self now setled on firm grounds I can pity and bewail the woful distraction of many and can but send them for recovery to that divine wisdom who calls to them in the openings of the gates and uttereth her words saying How long ye silly ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledg turn you at my reproof O ye simple understand wisdom and ye fools be ye of an understanding heart Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gaâ—es But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death LXII Man as he confists of a double nature flesh and spirit so is he placed in a middle rank betwixt an angel which is spirit and a beast which is flesh partaking of the qualities and performing the acts of both he is angelical in his understanding in his sensual affections beastial and to whether of these he most enclineth and conformeth himself that part wins more of the other and gives a denomination to him so as he that was before half angel half beast if he be drowned in sensuality hath lost the angel and is become a beast if he be wholly taken up with heavenly Meditations he hath quit the beast and is improved angelical It is hard to hold an equal temper either he must degenerate into a beast or be advanced to an angel meer reason sufficiently apprehends the difference of the condition Could a beast be capable of that faculty he would wish to be a man rather then a brute as he is There is not more difference betwixt a man and beast then between an angel and a brutish man How must I needs therefore be worse then beast if when I may be preferred to that happy honor I shall rather affect to be a beast then an angel Away then with the bestial delights of the sensual appetite let not my soul sink in this mud let me be wholly for those intellectual pleasures which are pure and spiritual and let my ambition be to come as neer to the Angel as this clog of my flesh will permit LXIII There is great difference in mens dispositions under affliction Some there are dead-hearted patients that grow mopish and stupid with too deep a sence of their sufferings others out of a careless jollity are insensible even of sharp and heavy crosses We are wont to speak of some whose inchanted flesh is invulnerable this is the state of those hearts which are so bewitched with worldly pleasurâ—s that they are not to be peirced with
so long with thee not of thy raigning on earth so long with those Martyrs How busie are the tongues of men how are their brains taken up with the indeterminable construction of this enigmaticall truth when in the mean time the care of thy spirituall raign in their hearts is neglected O my Saviour whiles others weary themselves with the disquisition of thy personall raign here upon earth for a thousand years let it be the whole bent and study of my soul to make sure of my personall raign with thee in heaven to all eternity XVI Blessed be thy name O God who hast made a good use even of hell it self How many Atheous hearts have been convinced by the very operations of Devils Those which would with the stupid Saducees perswade themselves there are no spirits yet when they have sensibly found the marvellous effects wrought even by the base instruments of Satan they have been forced to confesse Doubtless there is a God that rules the world for so great powers of evill spirits must necessarily evince the greater powers of good It is of thy wise and holy dispensation that thy good Angels do not so frequently exhibite themselves and give so visible demonstrations of their presence to thy Saints as the evill Angels do to their Vassals though they are ever as present and more powerfull What need they when thou so mightily over-rulest those malignant spirits that thou forcest from them thine own glory and advantage to thy chosen Lord how much more shall all thy other creatures serve to thy praise when thy very hellish enemies shall proclaim thy justice goodness omnipotence XVII Speculation O Lord is not more easie then practice is difficult how many have we known who as it was said of the Philosophers of old know how to speak well but live ill How many have written books of Chymistry and given very confident directions for the finding out of that precious stone of the Philosophers but how many have indeed made gold Practice is that which thou O God chiefly requirest and respectest who hast said If ye know these things blessed are ye if you do them Knowledg puffeth up but love edifieth O Lord do thou enlighten mine eyes with the knowledg of thy will but above all do thou rectifie my affections guide my feet into the wayes of thy commandements apply my heart to fulfill thy statutes alway and Prosper thou the work of my hands upon me O prosper thou my handi-handi-work XVIII How oft have I wondred O Lord at the boldness of those men who knowing they must shortly die yet dare do those things which will draw upon them eternity of torments What shall I say but The fool hath said in his heart there is no God Surely men love themselves well enough and would be loth to do that which would procure them an inevitable misery and pain Did they therefore believe there were another world and that they must be called to a strict reckoning for all their actions and be doomed to an everlasting death for their wicked deeds they durst not they could not do those acts which should make them eternally miserable Let me say to the most desperate ruffian there is poyson in this cup drink this draught and thou diest he would have the wit to keep his lips close and cast the potion to the ground were it not for their infidelity so would men do to the most plausible but deadly offers of sin O Lord since I know thy righteous judgments teach me to tremble at them restrain thou my feet from every evill way and teach me so to walk as one that looks every hour to appear before thy just and dreadfull Tribunal XIX The longer I live O my God the more do I wonder at all the works of thine hands I see such admirable artifice in the very least and most despicable of all thy creatures as doth every day more and more astonish my observation I need not look so far as Heaven for matter of marvaile though therein thou art infinitely glorious whiles I have but a spider in my window or a bee in my garden or a worm under my feet every one of these overcomes me with a just amazement yet can I see no more then their very out-sides their inward form which gives them their being and operations I cannot pierce into the less I can know O Lord the more let me wonder and the less I can satisfie my self with marvailing at thy works the more let me adore the majesty and omnipotence of thee that wroughtest them XX. Alas my Lord God what poor weak imperfit services are those even at the best that I can present thee withal How leane lame and blemished sacrifices do I bring to thine altar I know thou art worthy of more then my soul is capable to perform and fain would I tender thee the best of thine own but what I would that I do not yea cannot do Surely had I not to do with an infinite mercy I might justly look to be punished for my very obedience But now Lord my impotence redounds to the praise of thy goodness for were I more answerable to thy justice the glory of thy mercy would be so much less eminent in my remission acceptance Here I am before thee to await thy good pleasure thou knowest whether it be better to give me more ability or to accept of that poor ability thou hast given me but since when thou hast given me most I shall still and ever stand in need of thy forgiveness Let my humble suit be to thee alwaies rather for pardon of my defects then for a supply of thy graces XXI O my God how do I see many profane and careless souls spend their time in jollity and pleasure The harp and the Viol the Tabret and the pipe and wine are in their feasts Whiles I that desire to walk close with thee in all conscionable obedience droop and languish under a dull heaviness and heartless dejection I am sure I have a thousand times more cause of joy and cheerfulness then the merriest of all those wilde and joviall spirits they have a world to play withall but I have a God to rejoyce in their sports are triviall and momentanie my joy is serious and everlasting One dram of my mirth is worth a pound of theirs But I confesse O Lord how much I am wanting to my self in not stirring up this holy fire of spirituall joy but suffering it to lie raked up under the dead ashes of a sad neglect O thou who art the God of hope quicken this heavenly affection in my soul and fill me with all joy and peace in believing make my heart so much more light then the worldlings by how much my estate is happier XXII What shall I do Lord I strive and tug what I may with my naturall corruptions and with the spirituall wickednesses in high places which set upon my soul
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