the most rich and excellent piece of all in his own particular property and degree The fifth discourse Soul AS you put me in mind of one thing I should have forgotten so you have embolden'd me to ask another I should else have been asham'd to propose and yet I confesse it has a great power mastery over my affections 't is that I love to be beloved If any shew the least signe of kindnesse for me methinks presently they are the best persons in the world neither is there so poor a wretch but if I see in him a hearty expression of love towards me I cannot chuse but love him again Alas what do I talk of Men if a little Dog or Bird or any other dumb Creature come once to take a haunt to me and be delighted in my pany 't is a death to see any harm befall them and I find a very great satisfaction and content to see them play and pleas'd according to their low manner Now if this love be wanting in Heaven I fear 't will put me out of conceit with the pleasures there Light You are too fearfull and too little considerate of the joyes you aim at Think but with your self that Charity is nothing but the love of God and your Neighbour that 't is the way to Heaven and that of our three guides and conducters thither onely that remains with us and see then whether there can be any fear you shall want love Consider that the principall and main employment in Heaven is nothing else but to love and be beloved and those there are the greatest lovers who are in the greatest favour and highest glory For God himself is love and none is in God or God in them but by love Measure therefore with your thoughts the scope of Heaven from Gods eternall throne to the least child which by Baptisme is made partaker of the Adoption of Christ and be sure that all these shall love you you especially love you as much as if there were no others to be belov'd but only your self that the higher and greater every one is the more ardent expressive and effectuall shall his love be to you in person in particular by name and design What do you now conceit of the base love of this world of the love of Dogs and Birds raise a little your thoughts and look up at true love where it reignes in its full glory where it shewes it self in its Magnificence fly at it there fear not if you love it cannot escape you make but your approaches it will meet you 't is too ethereall for this cloudy region lift but your self above your body and of it self it will bend and stoop to your Arms. Soul What you have said cannot chuse but be a great comfort but I have a foolish scruple if you will give me leave to utter it yet I need not be so coy since you know enough by me this ' t is I have been taught that we should strive to love all men for Almighty Gods sake and so I suppose it passes in Heaven that all these great lovers which you have express'd to be there are of this Nature that they will love me because God Almighty commands it And this alas according to my low apprehension gives me but little satisfaction for this love and good will is not to me but to Almighty God whereas my perversenesse is such that I my self would be beloved and I mark in my self a great difference between when I give money to some little child I am pleas'd with when I bestow an Almes on a poore body that askes me for Gods sake in the one I find that affection I desire others should bear to me towards the Beggar I have no such inclination and the cause as I conceive is that one seems to deserve my love the other only to need it Now if you tell me that in Heaven they shall love me but I shall not deserve it I confesse as my affections now stand 't will be a great cooling to the esteem I desire to have of their love Light How truly spake he that said I know my self a Man that is a proud and yet a wretched thing Is it possible you cannot endure to be belov'd beyond your desert I fear you endure it often enough in this world but here self-conceit makes you easily think not only all love and esteem due to you which is offer'd but for the most part that too little is offer'd Yet I have observ'd sometimes it happens that we truly conceit another to shew more affection towards us then we have deserved though I never heard any offended at such excesse but rather highly pleas'd and engag'd to an endeavour of deserving it Neverthelesse I 'le strive to give you content even in this point Therefore tell me what you think of a person in whom reason governs in full measure so that not a thought passes but according to the pure direction of it do you believe in such a person any love can be unreasonable Soul No certainly so far is past doubt Light And if we love any thing more then it is amiable do you think that love is reasonable Soul I perceive whither you aime that since in Heaven all 's govern'd by reason none there can love otherwise then according to desert but withall I see there may be that desert in another and not in me as for example they shall love me because God who deserves to be obey'd commands them and if only thus I rest as unsatisfied as before Light Why do you conceive that God can command any unreasonable thing especially there where reason is in it's perfection for here I know not what the mixture of bodily qualities with reason may make it reasonable for God to command or if God would command others to love you beyond desert yet do you think that himself being the essence of reason and understanding can love you so or that any one by his command can love you more then himself does Soul This is right again Yet I see we love many things for the connexion they have with some other and not for themselves a Dog a Book a Glove from a beloved person is much made of not for it self but because the using it kindly is an expression or rather a practise of our love towards the person to whom it belongs So I imagine because I am a creature of Almighty God's making and have cost his only Son so dear a price those blessed spirits inflam'd with the love of God may also expresse an affection to me which you see is wholly by the desert of another not mine and however it may be infinitely more then I deserve yet is it not that which I express'd to be requisite to my content Light Your palate is very nice and delicate yet you shall be pleas'd What think you then where reason as I asked before is in full height can any thing there be
omitted which is reasonable to be done Soul No certainly Light And is it not reasonable that every lovely thing should be lov'd and if any person have any lovelinesse that there should be a poize and proportion of love for every grain of it in him Soul All this is just and reasonable Light Take notice then there shall not be the least good quality in you which shall not by every one be lov'd for its being what it is and your self be belov'd for its being in you wherefore sit down and consider what the things are for which in this world you reasonably desire to be esteem'd and know you shall be lov'd for them above as much as they can deserve as much as you can wish Soul Peradventure they are things I shall not carry with me as wholly or in part belonging to my body Light No matter You shall be belov'd there because you had such things in time and place wherein 't was fit to have them Soul Now surely I have ground enough without farther curiosity or dispute to presume upon the content I desire since you have so plainly and evidently demonstrated it But I know not whether I am arriv'd at my hopes for I feel in my self an expectation that my familiar friends and kindred and such as I my self particularly love should likewise return me a speciall love Light Fear not you shall have that also For mark well the principle I told you that there should not be the least thing love-worthy in you but you shall be especially belov'd for it Now then if Friendship Kindred Acquaintance c. be things which put a particular obligation of love upon those persons betwixt whom they are you will be more lovely to them for these very respects wherefore all those will love you more especially then any others which I think is that you express'd to be your desire Soul Yes this is well but yet a little difficulty molests me I have been taught that God loves most and next to himself the Angels or Saints according as they are in degree under him then if the lowest love me as much as I deserve others will love me more then I deserve which is against reason and so impossible Light Two things are to be considered in love first the comparison of one beloved object to another and this way all will love you according to your desert for none shall prefer any thing lesse lovely before you nor you before any thing more lovely a second consideration is the strength of the affection we call Love which being according to the nature out of which it proceeds in all above your condition will be greater then you deserve in all under you weaker according to the proportion of their natures and strengths Soul Yet one thing more comes into my mind I see some strong natures in whom though by reall effects it evidently appeares they love their friend yet there is no tendernesse you can observe no motion of love in their hearts no shew in their change of countenance such a love gives me small content Shall we therefore have in Heaven a melting sweet delicious love or onely those strong and solid thoughts which as they are very good so are they far from giving that pleasure which this other soft and gentle love affords Light Would you not think that man unreasonable who being cold and brought to a good fire should refuse to warm himself because there was no smoak he having been alwayes accustomed to smoaky fires Soul Yes certainly for he contradicts his own pretence smoak being a hindrance to the heating he desires besides other inconveniences which render it offensive Light Such is the passion you call Love to that which truly is Love for everything being to be discern'd by the effects you shall see those who are most given to this whining sort of love least active to help themselves but wholly abandoned up to the following of their Passion without indeavouring to procure what they desire So in grief if you see one fit still weeping and despairing you count him womanish and not so much that his sorrow is great as that a little overcomes him Besides this passion is but an expression of the inward mind or rather a wasting of it for we see that ordinarily weeping eases and discharges the heart which becomes lighter after such venting of it self by tears So that this which you desire to have in Heaven is not love but an expression or concomitant of it weakning and disturbing the affection for the present and wasting it for the future and therefore not fit to give content to such as understand the happinesse of enjoying a place in Heaven The sixth discourse Soul THere 's yet another thing wherein I find a great inclination and drawing of Nature and certainly 't is agreeable to some principle within me though this kind of delight appears not so sensibly 't is in hearing and understanding what passes in the world I cannot espie a whisper but I long to know about what ' t was If any of my neighbours or acquaintance have met with any change of fortune I cannot endure to have it concealed from me nay the more secret such an accident is the greater is my eagernesse to know it though as I said I observe not those sensible effects in this sort of Pleasure as in the former unlesse there happen a speciall reason out of some other consideration to raise them And perhaps the curiosity of hearing news proceeds from the same cause and belongs to the same head as also the love I have to reading Histories knowing what pass'd in our forefathers times for this I perceive I long after though I finde not therein such apparent delight as in other entertainments Light And why do you not mention too the feign'd Histories Romances which the world is full of find you no delight in them Soul Yes very great sensible they being wholy contriv'd and fram'd both in subject fashion and style to move nay even violently to force our delight These therefore I did not range under this Head as likewise seeing of Playes because the content arising from them seems to be of a higher order then those other pleasures I mentioned Light See you not that other Histories and these are of one nature though of different fashions So that the delight reap'd out of both must also of necessity be of the same nature And as for Playes they are but the ample expression of some little part of that which compriz'd more shortly makes a History so that they all agree in substance though differ from one another in circumstances Tell me then what is it that pleases you in all these things Soul For playes and feigned Histories I perceive my self taken with the Passions due to the subject represented I see I have a tendernesse and compassion towards those who suffer imnocently I abhor cruel and unnaturall actions I am glad when good
her Spouse is not pleased to sit by her self and stedily fix her thought upon him wishing for the day she shall once meet and enjoy him till then love and honour him in his Picture see him in every one that has seen and known him and be overjoyed with all Tokens that come from him Whereof what variety my soul hast thou from thy God All we have hitherto discours'd is nothing else Heaven and earth and all that is in them His Divinity his Humanity his Body Blood and Soul Thy self all thou hast all thou dost all thou hast done or ever shalt do Se Nascens dedit socium Convescens in Edulium se Moriens in Pretium se regnans dat in Praemium But retire thy self a little my soul from the multitude of the Creatures His benefits to thy more united thoughts for Love's Palace to be compleat must have a with-drawingroom Thither then retire and consider this Great Courtier that makes so many Embassyes to thee for thy Love Know who He is whether He be the best worthy thy Affections First what 's His Extraction Is He Noble and of an ancient race He is the First of things whence all Nobility derives its esteem His Ancientnesse is Eternity higher driven then Time His Creature and Off-spring which yet is the measure of all other Auncestry True it is He is the First of his House but the Last too His nobility is not by derivation from others and a participation of their worth 't is entirely His Own out-wearing the long Pedegrees of Mankind's successions by the never-changing greatnesse of His Own Person Is He powerfull All things except himself are his Creatures and the Works of his Hand they depend for their being all they have all they are worth on his breath and would perish if he did not perpetually drop them from his omnipotent Fingers He works them and turns them as he lists with a Fiat and none can breath a wish to resist him but by his permission nor is Himself able to make a Thing of such strength that it can break his least Order or Will Is He rich Sea and Land and all their Treasures are His Beasts and Birds Fishes and Trees and Plants are the store of his Basse-Court the mines of the Earth and the Jewels of the Ocean are the refuse of his plenty All that lies hidden behind the dazling starres whose riches we cannot imagine all 's His. There 's no end of his Wealth and his Creatures are not able to make use of the least part of it All this is well But peradventure He is a great way off and I cannot come near Him He is every where He makes Place it self He is in all Things and their Places to be separated from him is to be Nothing and No where He is in thy very Heart and in the bottome of thy Soul the inmost thing thou canst finde in thy self is He nor canst thou look upon any thing without or within thee but He is to be found and seen in it if thou hast Eyes turned towards him and a Mind to discern him Thou canst never want his light but by thine own fault never be excluded from his Presence but when thou turnest thy back to him which yet can be but from his favours not from his Power With all this is he wise The Device of the World is His He contriv'd the Order of Heaven and Earth The Planets roul by his measures Night and Day proceed by his direction the Waters in the Sea expect his beck turning and winding just as he pleases He joynted the Beasts every one to his peculiar motion and frames the Little-ones in the Damm's Wombes He prevents and casts the counsels of Men catching those who think themselves crafty in their own snares and over-reaching them in their most premeditated projects He changes Kingdomes and States making Tyrants the instruments of their own ruine In a word He governs the Fates of Men and Angels and brings them to those Ends he thinks fittest Is He Bountifull and magnificent Behold the Earth we walk on all this he gave to One Man Alas we but trample on the out-side and fill a small part of it there 's a thousand times more we never come to see and of this surface we inhabite what vast Deserts are possest onely by Beasts and Birds whilst all the Sea covers is stor'd onely with Fishes Think what abundance of Plants Beasts Birds and Fishes live and die without the knowledge of Men yet all bestowed on them and created for them Remember what a heap of Benefits thou found'st laden upon thy self and know that Others have no lesse See the Sun and Moon lighted like Torches to wait upon us one farre greater the other not much lesse then the whole Earth See in a fair night how the huge world about us is bestudded with glorious Gemms that serve for nothing but witnesses of his great Magnificence and unbounded Prodigality to us But Is He Purely Loving and has no Ends in all He does When no Creature had a Being He was brim-full of Glory and infinitely satiated with his own happinesse being Essentially Joy and Pleasure to Himself to Himself Honour and Praise and all He could wish He could desire nothing nor aim at obtaining any thing Now He has made Creatures He 's never the better for them his Heart is not touch'd with their praises or good-works no more then 't is molested with their dispraises or mis-deeds nor can any possible Creature have force to move his Will more then my weaknesse has to change the course of the Sun and Moon He made all Creatures therefore not for any good in them or love conceiv'd from them but meerly out of the Intrinsecall Goodnesse of His Own Nature and the strong Inclination which Himself is to do Good because He is what He is an Inclination stronger and more naturall then any Lover in this world can have with as much advantage as God's Nature has over a Creatures So not without reason is His Love but totally Reason as not kindled by thinking or casting to obtain any End but perfectly from Nature and Essence and no more to be wrested from Him then can His own Being yet neverthelesse most perfectly free and rationall This is much But He Loves a great many so that I fear I shall have a small portion in His Affection O no His Heart is whole where it is and as He comprehends perfectly all things with so high an eminency that he knowes every one as well as if there were nothing else to be known so He loves every one as dearly as if there were no other He is with one without parting from another He fills one without emptying another and as a Rainbow in a Multitudes Eyes or Thunder in all the Worlds Eares He is Whole in All and Whole in Every one His Affection his Care his Tendernesse is intire indivisible to every one the Multitude of those
of Mankinde thy senses the most quick and delicate that could be sifted from the finest dust of Adam Was it for this thou wert nurst by the purest of Women and carried in the hands of Angels lest thou shouldst at any time offend thy tender feet Were all these diligences used all these priviledges bestowed onely to prepare thee a body for the rack a subject to practise on a thousand intolerable affronts a person to be made the unparallell'd example of prodigious calamities Such ought the Lamb to be that 's brought to the Altar for sacrifice without blemish without spot A just and reasonable Law but here too severely interpreted too cruelly applied O unfortunate Adam now the effects of thy fond disobedience are become too sadly evident now thou art cleerly convinc'd the unnaturall murtherer of thy Posterity now that mortall wound thou gavest mankinde is rendred incurable Rise up with all thy numerous children about thee whose repentance expects a blessed eternity force the gates of Limbo with your sighs and let your strong groans tear the bowels of the earth that opening a wide passage towards heaven and this Garden fruitfull in miseries your cries and exclamations may be heard Protest to God and Angels and Men and all creatures that Hell is too gentle a pain eternity too short a time to punish your misdemeanours Let the Devils invent some more exquisite torture then their wits and malice have yet devis'd and stretch the measure of time beyond infinity that you may pay your debts and dis-engage this immaculate Lamb of God this inestimable pearl of the Deity Contest the Judge of righteousnesse to lay the punishment where he findes the fault charge him with his word that 't is not his part to chastise the innocent with the wicked but every one bear his own burthen But why do I cry and murmure I hear my complaints contradicted by Him they most concern I hear him in that weak voice is left him humbly say How then shall the Scripture be fulfilled My Father has promis'd can he deny himself my Father is all Truth dare I offer to falsifie his Word my Father is essentially Goodnesse can I make him go lesse No no let us march on confidently towards my Passion for behold him at hand who is to betray me And now my Soul Thou who hast been a witnesse of this great spectacle a searcher of this profound mystery Thou who hast discover'd the source of this impenetrable secret and knowest God had no need of us took not our nature on him to please himself but we and I in particular were the chief mark he aim'd at and all these excesses and heights of incomparable goodness contriv'd to exalt our affections towards him nor this because our loves refresh or better him but purely for this sole motive that they are our good and contain in them our eternall felicity If thou art able to look at so glorious a light to balance so great a weight to judge of and value so infinite a Charity tell me what I have to do After this can I love any thing but my Lord JESUS CHRIST can I love any thing but the Love of my blessed SAVIOUR Father and Mother Brothers and Sisters Kinsfolk and Friends what is 't you have done for me what goods have you wisht me what wishes can you make to deserve the least share in my Affection Health and Pleasure Riches and Honour what charmes have you comparable to this ravishing object of love dull and fleeting appearances take away your deceitfull flatteries Turn thou thy face to me sweet JESUS that I may every day still more and more understand and admire thy love Make it the businesse and delight of my life to study how much thou lovest me Set me in solitude to consider thy works upon me to repeat thy benefits to me Let nothing but desires and affections towards thee entertain my thoughts nothing but strains and tunes of thy Bounty and Goodnesse sound in my Eares The End ERRATA Page 115. line ult for set set read only set p. 132. l. 1. for rishes read rishest The STATIONER to the READER THough the equality and strength not-to-be-counterfeited which evidently shines in what ever proceeds from this prodigious Brain will sufficiently secure all considering persons that is all that deserve to read him against mistaking for His any of those lesse generous Issues born frequently into the world of Parents honour'd with the same name yet aswell to render that security both more easie and universall as readily to addresse those whom a happy familiarity with this tempting Branch may have rais'd to the ambition of a farther acquaintance with the numerous rest of its Family and Bloud by a singular prerogative all perfectly agreeing together all worthy such a Father I have thought it a duty of civill Charity to subjoin this Catalogue which both the learned and devout World longs and hopes to see much enlarg'd A Catalogue of the severall Books written by Mr. THO. WHITE THe learned Dialogues DE MUNDO in Latine printed at Paris 4o. The elaborate Preface before Sir Kenelm Digbyes DEMONSTRATIO IMMORTALITATIS ANIMAE printed also at Paris in Folio INSTITUTIONES PERIPATETICAE c. first printed at Paris and afterwards at London in 8o. INSTITUTIONES SACRAE c. in 2. Tom. printed at Paris in 8o. QUAESTIO PRAEVIA Mens Augustini de Gratia in 12o. Villicationis suae de MEDIO ANIMARUM STATU Ratio at Paris in 12o. MEDITATIONES in Gratiam Sacerdotum Cleri Anglicani c. in 16o. RICHWORTH'S DIALOGUES or the judgement of Common sense in the choice of Religion two Editions at Paris in 12o. A CATECHISM in English c. in 24o. MEDITATIONS in English in 12o.
enjoy eternally all that can be desired a Strength irresistable an Agility so swift and active that the Soul cannot sooner command then the Body obey a Health firm and constant which nothing can either diminish or endanger lastly a Beauty now no beauty but pure Light and Glory Light You are in the right and I am very glad to observe your affection to that happy state from the kindnesse of your expressions concerning it only as for beauty of which some are particularly curious I shall propose this speculation It may be so comprised in a generall symmetrie of the body that neverthelesse every individuall person may enjoy such a singular and speciall temperament as shall be a degree of best the joyes of the soul darting their beams and diffusing their influences throughout the very body and rendering it the most lovely and desireable sight that can be imagined And now having driven our discourse up to this height that we are come within the view of heaven it self what remaines but burning desires perpetuall thoughts of and a dwelling even whilst we are here in our conceived happinesse above which only to understand and desire is to gain and for ever possesse But if neither eâ—ternall Felicities can allure us nor everlasting Miseries fright us into our evident duty what shall we answer at that Great Day if we find our selves upon the wrong hand What pretence can we offer to be placed on the right What excuse can we alledge against the dreadfull Nescio Vos Wherefore to avoid that unhappy separation to prevent that irrevocable banishment from our dear JESUS let us make our selves familiar with him here who by a thousand favours solicites our love and by a thousand titles deserves our service having spent His age and shed His precious bloud to redeem us from sin and draw us to himself to deliver us from the bondage of Satan and bring us to His own Kingdome rewarding us with the Crowns and Sceptres of Eternity To whom be given all possible honour and glory from all things for all things and in all things Amen FINIS AN EXERCISE OF LOVE WITH A DESCANT ON THE Prayer in the GARDEN By the same Authour S. Ign. ad Rom. Amor meus Crucifixus est AT PARIS Printed in the YEARE 1654. TO THE Right HONOURABLE THE Lady SOMMERSET MADAM AS your Commands have been able to strain all the Sinews of my Soul into a quick and faithfull Obedience So had they the power to imbue it with that gentle softnesse and tender Devotion whence themselves proceeded this my Pen had bled out the sweetest pangs that ever swelld the Breast of any Seraphin But finding my Heart-strings too cough and restiff for pliance to such delicious charmes they leave a necessity on me to beseech your cautious perusall of these Lines wherein the jarring discords of my confus'd apprehensions and rugged expressions may otherwise prove too offensive to the harmony of so equall so well tun'd a Soul in which I can complain of this only fault Your imposing so strong and weighty a task upon so slight so weak though MADAM Your Honours most perfectly subjected Servant Tho White Paris 9. Sept. 1653. AN EXERCISE OF LOVE PErmit me my Lord my God to confesse to thee thy Mercies and repeat in thy presence thy infinite Bounties that I may love and honour and praise Thee with my whole heart and forces Let me remember how from all Eternity I was nothing till by thy order I sprung up a tender Imp and bud testifying my Origin by my weaknesse and inability to help my self Nor did my Father or Mother those kind instruments to whom thou would'st have me beholding for my Being know or intend me when they serv'd thee to make me but thou before all time hadst among millions rejected named me and sign'd my happy lot whilest I lay sleeping in my nothingnesse and unbeing What could'st thou see in me dread Lord that might move thy will to select me from that Masse of non-Entity Peradventure did I love Thee Alas I who was not what could I love yet if I could have lov'd surely nothing lesse then Thee who wast most contrary to my Nullity But though I was not to love Thee Thou wast who could'st love me and love me as I was not able to love Thee nor yet any thing else for I cannot love but what is and by its amiablenesse produces a liking in me How miserable then were I if Thou lov'dst not me till I could afford something that might please Thee But thou didst love me when I could not love Thee and sealedst Thy love stamping Thine Own Image on my face on the face of my Soul first giving me a power to love Thee and consequently on my Body as 't is fitted to such a Soul The Marks of thy bounty are no lesse then all I am and have Ah wretched I that continually weare about me all those Tokens of thy kindnesse and yet not love Thee and yet fear that perhaps Thou lov'st not me Dear Lord make me love Thee that I may not fear Thou lov'st not me for True love knowes not what it is to fear But Thou art not content to have made me of Nothing if thou hadst not surrounded me with innumerable Helps and created as it were the whole World for me If the Aire and Fire did not afford me breath and warmth the Land and Sea with their infinite Issue variety of food and cloathing and these not what confines with my place of residence but even from their utmost bounds If I look upon my Table I see Fish from the Frozen Zone Sugar from the Torrid and Spices from the East and the West If on my Attire the Profundities of the Earth and Water the Longitude and Latitude of Mans Habitation meet all in me as in a Centre to bestow their Rarities upon me O Great God! who set the multitudes of unhappy Creatures buried in the bowels of Metallick Hills and consumed in the Marishes of Brasil to labour for me Who commands the Sea-men to burn under the Equator and freeze by the Poles to replenish me with Dainties Who ordained Kings and Potentates Counsellers and Souldiers to beat their braines forget their sleep and hazard their lives to produce me Quiet and Abundance Not they themselves who for the most part are carried with vile and wretched appetites to pursue unworthy ends neither knowing nor dreaming of me but only Thou my Lord and God who marshallest Heaven and Earth for those thou art pleased to blesse who heapest thy favours on a generation of dull stupid Creatures that can receive all thy gifts without returning the least love to the Giver that live and move and have their being from Thee never so much as acknowledge thy Bounty Why permittest Thou so unsufferable ingratitude Why dost Thou not either suspend thy mercies or make us more sensible of our duties From this houre Dear Lord let not my hand touch a bit
same meats dyeting and lodging with them maintain'd by Alms having no certain aboad but most commonly among the poor and simple Fishermen Farther we see him weary thirsty hungry forgetting hunger for love of souls envy'd slander'd blasphem'd threatned now ready to be stoned now to be precipitated flying hiding himself troubled in spirit weeping for his friends weeping for his Countrey contradicted persecuted conspired against His confidents corrupted his followers excommunicated his friends sought to death others not daring to acknowledge him and a thousand such indignities But the State of Love shewes it self first in the Garden O the dolefull unheard cryes to Heaven O the bitter Agony and deadly Sweat of bloud O the ravenous throats of devouring Wolves led on by one of his own dearest houshold See with what outcryes and howlings and noyse they drag him through the streets of Jerusalem every one looking out at their windowes to fill their eyes with gazing at this strange wonder See how He is toss'd from one Tribunal to another here revil'd and buffetted there flouted and spit on every where despis'd and maliciously affronted But what wofull spectacle is that Pilate presents to the People which causes so great and loud cries The Stature is of a Man but the Head of a Monster A Crown of piercing Thornes bloody and bloodying all that is near it Hair such as ravish'd the heart of the delicious Spouse but clotted with gore sticking some to his Neck and Flesh some to the horrid Thorns all rudely ruffled in a hideous disorder A Face and Eyes able to subdue all hearts if stripes and buffets and bloud and swellings and marks of blind rage permitted them to beseen Well-shap'd Limbs but disfigur'd and hidden in their own bruises and tearings and shatters A red ragged Mantle and a Sceptre of a Reed to accomplish a King of sorrow calamity and scorn And why all this this ingenious cruelty to disguise a poor Man into so monstrous an Object of disdainfull Malice Alas all 's but to glut the blood-thirsty jaws of an unfaithfull and rebellious Multitude which no longer then five dayes since sung praises and Hosanna's to this very Person and strewed their garments and Palm-branches in his way A People infinitely oblig'd and no wayes offended by him A people that cannot accuse him of the least crime that have seen him cleered in all Tribunalls the Judge himself pleading His Innocence Yet no lesse then his heart's last drop will satisfie them though it be at the cost of their own and all their posterities Nor can they tell why more then that they are push'd on by those who abuse and pillage them and who have conceiv'd this implacable hatred against him only because he discovered their violences oppressions and tyrannyes over these very people that so furiously exclaim against him Well if there be no remedy charge those wounded shoulders with thy heavy Cross dear Saviour and shew us on Mount Calvary a greater and stranger Transfiguration able to dim That of Mount Tabor I see thy spread Arms thy nailed Hands and Feet thy rack't Sinews thy pierced Side thy bended Neck thy faln Looks thy torn Body thy pale and bloudlesse Flesh thy Company of infamous Thieves and thy miserable Favourite and forlorn Mother I hear thy last Words and breath'd-out Soul into the Hands of thy Father not as they command Heaven but as they reach to Hell O Love canst thou love or expresse it beyond this Yes heark and consider Those higher-endearing Charms of heaven The Father the most tender and perfectly-loving Father whose Essence is pure distill'd spirit of love He put his Onely-his Equall-his Intimate-his Co-essentiall Son with His own hands nay with This Son 's own commanded Will and hands to all these and infinite more unspeakable tortures and miseries for thy sake for thine my soul that thou mightest not complain thou wantedst an Object a Motive thou hadst not a Teacher a Pattern an Exciter an Enforcer to Love IF there be a Hall for all comers certainly there 's a Parlour too for select and choice friends where they may confer together of thine infinite perfections and often repeat with joy thy unspeakable bounties where they may retire from the noise and distractions of the World and entertain their thoughts with the sweet still-musick of contemplation where they may sit alone excluding even themselves and be chastly ravisht with the dear embraces of the Divine Spouse of Souls O what Droanes are our highest-strain'd Lovers whose memories in all languages affect immortality for their fantastick passions what dull buzzing of Beetles are their kindest expressions to the melting notes of this heavenly harmony But is there no further admittance O glorious King of Love for those who have so happily enter'd thy Palace I remember a large upper-room furnisht by thy self and richly prepared to give yet a more noble treatment and methinks I hear something within me bid me advance a few steps further What fair gilt door is that which dazzles so my sight to look on Sure 't is the holy place we seek sealed up for thy peculiarly beloved Open it some bright and flaming Seraphin O my God what do I see what 's this my eyes behold Manna raining from Heaven for those that can get to the shoar of that former Red Sea of loves flouds Truly my God my Lord Love has transported thee even to extasie it has made thee do extravagant and frenetick actions extravagant indeed and freneticall if measured by the narrow and short judgement of poor humanity but heights and depths and Abysses if referr'd to thy uncircled wisdome and unlimited reach of bounty and goodness Behold the Body that hang'd on the Crosse that was anointed in the Grave that rose again and ascended to the right hand of the heavenly Creator Behold It falls down in wheaten drops like Coriander Seeds to feed and feast the wretches descended from Adam Behold the Body the Blood the Soul the eternall Person the Deity the Trinity all couch'd as it were in a corn of Bread The Omnipotency that made Heaven the Wisdome that link'd all possibilities into the Chain of all Beings the Bounty that crowded into Natures teeming bosome all that was Best these all these lie here covered like a Chymical pill in a Sugared wafer Those looks from which Heaven and Earth amazedly flie in whose Presence the Princes of the celestiall hosts and the Pillars of the World tremble that Head on which depends the fate of Souls both past and to come that Tongue which shall doom in one word the Nations of all Ages All are here humbly stoop'd and subjected to me and other such wretches even to be abused by our wickednesse Yes yes all these are as truly Here as they are on thy Throne in Heaven as they will be in the midst of the blessed on the Day of thy Triumph over Nations What do I say as truly and not even more in a far more excellent manner
of resistance at every pulse of my breath repeating this onely Burden Do thy pleasure upon me Again Thou hast seen my Soul that far beyond all created Essences God has been so liberall as to bestow Himself on thee He bowed the Heavens and came down rendring his sacred Person subject to all the miseries of Humanity He laid aside all the prerogatives of his most noble and most perfect soul exposing it to labours to teares to griefs to those stupendious throwes in the Garden even to such a height that it admired it self in those expressive words My God my God! to what a point hast Thou let me be brought And in fine to be commanded even to Hell He abandoned his Body to heat to cold to weaknesse to hunger and thirst to wearinesse to torments to death and not content with this after the Resurrection in Its state and season of Glory he sent it again into the World to be subject to a thousand more indignities scorns and abusings Here now my soul compare seriously thy sufferings with His and consider First Since nor health nor wealth nor any other good thou possessest is thine or from thy self but onely vouchsaf'd thee during his pleasure and discretion all thy sufferings can be but a not-enjoying any longer what is no way due to thee but He was incapable of any wants in himself if his own Will had not taken upon him both a Nature that could want and its necessities Again what commodities He at any time seem'd to have he held them from himself and His purely they were wherefore He truly suffered when they were ravish'd from him whereas we through ignorance attribute to our selves what we possesse being really but Trustees not Masters of the least pile of grasse Farther yet our mis-call'd sufferings if rightly used are indeed blessings for if we lose our Fortunes alas they made us not know our selves if our Health 't is to disaffect us to this world if we prove unhappy in our Children what greater distraction had we from the love of our hoped glory then our care and tendernesse to them But Christ's sufferings could have no such advantagious effects no they were chiefly to shew us the straitest Path to that life He promis'd us and to assure by his own Example who could not but know and embrace what was best that the way of Tribulation is the high-Road to Heaven And canst thou my Soul after this think any Crosse heavy and affliction hard to endure canst thou chuse but be vexed and enraged at thy Flesh and Blood which against all evidence will force thee to esteem unfortunatenesse an Evil O my great and sole Good suppresse these unreasonable follies which boyl in my breast Make me know whatever happens good or bad to me is securely my best because it comes from Thee whilst my onely care ought to aim at this how to improve it to my best advantage Make me understand that whatever I beare with patience I suffer for thy sake because I take it as from Thee because I do as Thou commandest because 't is in imitation of Thee and lastly because it is to obtain Thee my chief my onely my most entire Treasure O rich Treasure O masse of Glory in proportion to whose attainment all the labours and tribulations that Men and Devils can heap on me are nothing nothing considerable not deserving even the slightest esteem Lastly My Soul thou hast seen with what ambition and exaggeration of Courtship with what unparallel'd addresse and exquisite inventions thy Lord has sought and woo'd thy love First He gave thee heaven and Earth with all their Creatures for thy Motives to know and love Him Next He made Himself thy Fellow and Brother in flesh and bloud that thou mightst not strain thy self but familiarly conversing be caught with his love Beyond that He has pass'd all those fabulous imaginations of dangers and misfortunes in which idle witts have fram'd Errant Ladies to have engaged their Servants for proof of their fond obstinate loyalty He has heap'd on thee all the names and titles of endearment which either nature or use have introduc'd among Mankind He is thy Maker thy Father thy Spouse thy Brother thy Ransomer out of thraldome thy Deliverer from danger thy Saviour from misery and death thy Friend even thy very Play-fellow He has gone beyond all this He is thy Food thy Drink thy Self for since when thou eatest Him His Flesh becomes thine as truly as the bread whereof we encrease and nourish our substance which by the power of matter and conformity of quality remains in us how can we chuse but be his Members so that if we dishonour our body we dishonour His how can we chuse but have a share of Him perpetually in us and in plain truth be Reliques of Him of His glorious Flesh and immortall Bloud O Eternall Wisdome how truly didst Thou say It was thy delight to be with the Sons of Men Can Angels boast of such priviledges of such tendernesses of such Extasies of Thy love No none but so weak a Nature as ours was able to necessitate Goodnesse it self to so deep a condescendence as this and none but all Goodnesse could so appropriate it self to all Infirmities O melting Goodnesse that fillest every corner and chink Thou findest capable of thy perfections wave not this poor soul of mine but make it understand the unmeasurablenesse of thy bounties and Mercy Shall I for ever apprehend my past sinnes still in fear whether they are forgiven Shall I not rather in the very moment of terrour turn me to Him of whose readinesse to receive me I cannot doubt Mark how easy thou art to pardon thy self and consider thou art one of his Members whence be assured as soon as thou sayest I have sinned thou shalt hear thy sin is taken away Shall I fear that I am not in state to receive his Body when the very preparing my self and having a true will to go meet Him puts me in state Shall I seek outward Medicines for my wounds whose ulcerousnesse onely consists in bereaving me of Love O my dearest Lord make me love and joy in thee make me take pleasure to come even corporally to Thee but much more to delight and solace my self in thinking of thee in remembring how Thou lov'st me how Thou art my Friend my Spouse my Father and whatever dear name by which Thou hast been pleased to expresse so blest a relation Make me place my chief felicity in contemplating how happy I shall be when once I see Thee face to face and familiarly converse with Thee as a Friend does with his Friend Mean while establish firmly in my soul this absolute judgement that the greatest pleasure and advantage this world can afford me is often and long and heartily to practice here on earth that sweet and holy conversation which is to be consummated in Heaven What Maid whose Parents have promis'd her a person compleatly qualified for
He loves improves and raises every ones happinesse to a farre higher degree in that it makes all them love one another and publishes his particular Love of thee to be known and esteem'd by all the loves Nor is there the least subject of any Envy or Jealousie He can wait on All entertain All fill All content All blesse and beatifie All at once And now my glorious Lord having sifted and rack't my brains to find some exception against Thee some excuse to palliate my withholding the Duty I owe Thee some Cross-knot to dull the piercing of thy two-edg'd sword dividing my Soul and Spirit behold nothing imaginable but all sweetness all heat all light O then let me turn my course and joy at my missing desired misfortune Let me sit with the happy Spouse so pleas'd with every part of her Lover Let me delight my self to consider the Greatnesse of every Perfection in Thee and the Infinitenesse of All. Let me compare Thy Eternity to the weak imitation of humane Nobility and scorning This joy in the immense eminency of That Let the vast extent of thy Power in widenesse and profundity to all effects and to Huge ones make me laugh at the narrow-compass'd and beggarly ends which the ambitious Hearts of this world aim at O the poor Treasures that can be hoarded in caves in houses or towers what proportion do they bear to Thy wealth O the scant presence and jealous absence of Lovers in this world the outwardnesse of them and hearts to-be-guess'd-at what bitter-sweets must they of necessity cause Besides their shallow wits and short reaches in no other respect to be esteem'd but because we find no better their hungry benefits and pinching prodigalities proportion'd to their petty affections their by-ends and base aims in their most reall and truest professions their weak and impertinent passions their fond and changeable inclinations easily consum'd in a few triviall disgusts What miserable penurious blasts are these to blow the coals of Love And yet have these so long mov'd my Heart whilst it has lyen so heavy and restiff to lift it self up and follow thee O my onely Good henceforth for ever make me run like the blessed Magdalen without care or consideraton after the Odours of thy Perfumes Make it all my pleasure to sit hours and dayes and nights weighing every Excellency of thine and considering how good it is for all Creatures and particularly for me that Thou art so rich in glory so full of perfections but above all how thy adorable Attributes become Thy self how bright and beautifull they sit upon Thee Make me spend all my forces in blessing Thee that Thou art such in rejoycing at it in protesting that 't is all reason all fitnesse all justice it should be so that 't is the blisse of thy Creatures but yet a greater good and farre more excellent in it self Make me vapour away into Acts and Wills to have it so to render it such were it not so and in my power to procure it and that for what it is to me but much more for what it is to Thee But oh for that day when this knowledge of mine now childish darksome partiall and Enigmaticall shall be turn'd into manly noon-like full and clear Vision O how unmeasurably must my Love be there increas'd where the Object cannot fail to deserve infinitely more then I can employ yet shall I then employ infinitely more then I can now imagine and as the degrees of Love are multiplied the degrees of Joy must still grow higher and the more the Joy is so much more must the Love be redoubled thus raising still one the other to the very breaking in pieces the Adamantine sinews of my Soul whilest the Object ever stretches by its infinite perfection the bounds of a capacity ever yielding to embrace it O how shall I cling to and incorporate with him not for fear of losing but for eager desire of more enjoying O how shall I melt into esteemings and praisings and Love-breathing Dittyes how shall I inessence my self into that Fountain of Goodnesse Oh come oh come that happy day come even now I fear neither Hell nor Judgement for I know Thou canst bear no wrath against those that love Thee Come then come while these sweet sighs call on Thee wrest my soul from this loading this loathsome body skrew up even these very aspirations to such a pitch that they become the happy instrument to break my heart-strings those fetters and bonds of my imprison'd Soul which keep it from the sight of my so-beloved Spouse and Master and set me at liberty in the eternall freedome of thy Palace and everlasting glory of thy celestiall Presence Fiat Fiat BReath a while my Soul and recall a little thy Spirits This Stupendious Palace of Love still deserves a more curious search 't is not impertinent here to be humbly inquisitive Let 's see whether there be not yet some farther secret worthy our discovery And behold a Lock and little Door Oh 't is Loves Cabinet Certainly He there reserves some rare Jewel to enrich and adorn thee Knock call aloud and if he delay to open at least peep through the key-hole and see what 's within O Glory 't is the very Quintessence of Loves Object I see how because God is sole Eternall all things must be made by Him and since nothing can give but what it has nor make but what it is I see the whole frame of all that is or can be must be in Him with all their joynts and intriques wherewith they are intangled in their flowing from Him Whence I plainly discern that by knowing Him I shall know all things and all causes of all things O vast and spacious Wisdome O incredible content For since my Soul is nothing else but a Vessel and capacity of knowledge and This alone is the knowledge of all things by their proper Causes too and those resolv'd into theirs even to the very highest cause not ascending backward but beginning at the Spring-head and most knowing it and from it descending even to the lowest the most impartible grain of Sand or Dust what can my Soul wish more what can it imagine greater Yes my prospect opens it self farther and I see that since all created things are in themselves dispers'd and multiplied with infinite variety and sometimes incompossibility and contradiction but in God refin'd and resum'd into a most simple and indivisible Being they must infinitely be better in Him then in themselves He yet infinitely better then they For as four cannot be different from three but because it has somewhat that three has not so God must have something that is not in Creatures to be different from them and this being of a higher order and more eminent rank must of it self be better then all they put together and of a far nobler and richer glorious possession I see yet more that since God is cause of all other things out of
Himself He himself can have no cause and that they having their being from Him may be and not be as compos'd of being and what is only God has no such composition wherefore since He cannot be what is without being He is being without what is whereas all Creatures Substance is what is and being an Accident to them This I find that God is not only none of these things we see but nothing like any of them of a higher and super-excellent strain not agreeing with them in any name that can signifie Substance infinitely above our utmost conceptions incomparably sublimer nobler more wonderfull more deserving knowledge and more stirring and straining an appetite of it Beyond all this I see that God is not such an Existence and being as we apprehend by this name we give it and which we exalt above what is by it but as far retir'd above it as that 's above what is He is not a being by which a thing is but a being which is a thing a Substance He is a being redoubled upon it self giving and receiving being to and from it self and yet neither for this is impossible but a higher inexpressible force implying both without their contradiction I see that all I have said and can say are pure follyes not expressing in the smallest degree the thing which I see is and the more I force my self to understand it the farther I am from it one abysse still calling upon another because it is infinite and unsoundable but only to God himself O happy darknesse if once to become lightsome the more hidden thou art now the greater blisse wilt thou be then Oh that my heavy thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft and towre height upon height till I came within view of these celestiall Quires not to discern Thee my dread Lord for I should be never the nearer but to quicken my desire and encrease my longing O how fix'd would mine eyes stare upon Thee when thou shouldst be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortall body that now intercepts the view of thy glory and demolish the strong-wall that as yet unhappily detains me from thy Presence Methinks I see that no violence of nature no falling weight no bent of forced steel no earth-bursting vapour no tower-shivering thunder or bulwark-tossing mines could expresse the eagernesse of my Souls embracing Thee Methinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy Thee in and that my Soul would sooner wane to nothing then part from Thee Methinks there 's no possibility of Pleasure which is not in Thee nor any out of Thee no faculty in my Soul to wish or think of any other thing but Thee Thee my onely my eternall incomprehensible All my dear dearest Lord and my God If the good God has reserved for his Friends be so immense and the joy and blisse it brings the Soul so extream who can doubt but the losse must be proportionable and the grief and anguish of missing it be measured by the same weights what then must thou do my poor Soul wavering yet betwixt hope and fear of these so important contraryes what must thou do to assure thy chief interest and make thy self secure Mistresse of so great so glorious pretensions Peradventure spend thy time in wishes and flashing thoughts like the Northern Fire-drakes or the lightning breathings of fair Sommer nights which but vent their own heat without firing any thing No no these goads pierce too deep to be contented with palliating and superficiall remedies Adieu then those so charming warbles of Father Friend Spouse another self and whatever else the Wit of Man or even the Spirit of God has invented to tickle materiall fancy and to revive Taraâ—â—nteliz'd Souls These are Milk for beginners Lenitives to take away the angrinesse of their festring hearts when they first tear off from worldly toyes Metaphoricall expressions which have no proper and solid meaning to feed the truth-hungry mind The affections growing out of these are grounded upon love to our selves even then when we wish more good to another then to our selves even when in comparison we wish harm to our selves But that God is our Good and finall End is as true as that He is our Maker and the very Essence of our Soul is nothing else but a pure capacity and emptinesse of Him all its strength by nature or grace nothing but an inclination to apply it self to Him and be replenished by Him Here all the sinews of nature are rack't to their height to this the Soul 's more strongly bent then to its own being since we see our thoughts are first driven outwards and from the Objects return to make us reflect on our selves only at this Object we aim not to make it ours but to make us its All other knowledges are but as it were divers figurations and dispositions of our Soul this is an adhering and union of our Soul to another thing All Ends are Masters of our wills as far as they are Ends the Medium's only master'd by us the last End therefore must be the absolute commander and forcer of the very Essence of our Will And as the basis of a Statue had it an appetite proportion'd to its nature would not wish to be above but to lye under and support the Statue or as the motion and way towards a form and term would wish to perish in bringing the thing alter'd or mov'd to that state whereto its Essence imployes its service so our Soul rightly affected can wish no other then to be most subject most conformable and most entirely fitted to its last End That then my Soul which thou hast to do is in the greatest peace and discretion and quiet of thy Heart to cast about and seriously consider in what course of life all things maturely ponder'd thou art likeliest to cultivate and improve thy self best and render thy thoughts most apprehensive of this only this eternall Good which having once found with thy whole strength with the neglect of all other things as far as they avail not to this be sure to prosecute vigorously never sitting down or so much as looking back and in all considerable actions even in this chosen way still have a pure eye open to discern what most conduces to this only necessary work or least deviates thee from it O Gregory Lopez Thou after the Apostles unparallell'd Master of Christian life who will give me that prodigious unheard-of constancy of thine in every breath for moneths and yeares continually to fix my thoughts upon this main aim of my being till I had made it hard and almost impossible for me to restrain them from it But since this is more Angelicall then Humane obtain me grace at least from our Generall thy immediate Master every day to spend some competent space of time in framing a lively view of this Great truth and settling a strong resolution to continue in it for ever Still may I strive by the following