his power away he that climbed can hardly crawle and he that had Feathers to fly can scarce finde Feet to follow for so much do the words of our subject import Draw me and I will run after thee And now with a free will answer me all free welwillers you that have still the power your Father had in Paradice that can overthrow Sinne and conquer Sathan shut up Hell and open Heaven and baffle all those principalities and powers temptations and corruptions which often in our Journey to Heaven doe make us lye becalmed does not thine eye check to see our subject does not thy heart smite thee to reade thine inability Peradventure thou wilt aske how God drawes the Soule I could answer severall wayes God is not ty'd to the education condition meanes time matter nor manner of his creature And his wayes are above our thoughts as far as an infinite Creator is beyond a finite creature it is the prerogative of his grace to draw one man one way and another man another way all of which for their number and nature are past our finding out neverthelesse I shall name five wayes and they be these By his Workes By his Word By his Lash By his Light And by his Love First God draws by his workes and this I believe would puzzle the Intellects of Angels to rehearse who I think are the fittest Orators to utter the glory of his greatnesse since they are not clouded with a vaile of flesh but can behold those works of wonder in a more perfect forme which I believe doth not a little amaze those glorious creatures while they bow before the Immortall throne What meanes the forming of this spacious universe and the setting so faire a fabrick in such a curious frame the Imperiall Heavens where Argelâ—sing Hallelujahs I shall not speak of that sence it passeth the highest capacity and in relation of which many abler pens than mine have been already dull'd it being circkled with such brightnesse and glory in such a capacious Orbe that no mortall can behold and not drop downe and dye And when Aurora sets open her golden gates in what a Majesty the Sun arises as from a bed of Roses to rouze up sleepy mortals and lend his light to all unmuzling Darknesse from the lower World And with what swiftnesse doth he hurry through the Zodiack adding Summers heat and Winters cold and sometimes a Medium when he mingles his sire with the cold and freezing Aire and how welcome is his approach to the Earth who against the returne of his Chariot wheeles doth cast off her mantle of mourning and adornes her selfe with costly fruits sweet flowers perfumed finells rich odours amorous glances sweet smiles beauty bravery dignity and glory wrapt in a robe of the purest dye and flourishing in a never-fading livery of green Beside the Moon Planets and fixed Starres and all those Royall Armies that spangle the Canopie that in their nightly Watches they might adorne the darkned Throne when Darknesse drawes a sable Curtaine o're the Skie and the Sun hath done the day What shall I say for the time would faile me to tell you of the Royall Armies of Heaven their secret workings in their severall Orbes the Golden Mines costly Jemms rich Jewels of the Earth her pompous Apparell delitious fare Physicall Herbes gallant Fruits sweet Flowers the wonders of Art the hidden fecresies of Nature that lye in the boundlesse Earth unfathom'd Sea unseen Fire and perfumed Aire What meane the shining Lamps of Heaven that chase away darknesse from the world the dividing of the unruly Elements the hanging of the Earth just in the Center of the Heavens her wondrous motion between the two Poles her equall distance from the flaming Chariot of the Sun and the hidden region of Fire lest with contagious heate our hearts should faile lest we should suck up hot lightning and imbrace in our bosomes Fire in the stead of Aire The workes of God have in all ages drawn Souls as may witnesse the Plagues of Egypt the Prosperity of Israel the overthrow of Nations the clashing of Kingdomes the dividing of the red Sea the Manna in the Wildernesse the thundering of the Law on Mount Sina the Birth of our Saviour the deeds that he did the Sick that were healed the Eyes that were opened â—â—e Devills dispossessed the Wicked converted the Lame that were cured the Lepers that were cleansed the Dead that were raised the calming of the Sea to the Disciples the Holy Ghost that was given to the Apostles the draught of Fishes to Peter the Vision from Heaven to Paul These works of God I say have in all ages wrought on both Sinners and Saints causing the one to admire and the other to adore Secondly God drawes by his word and if it were demanded what word I should answer the sweetest words that Art or Love can frame the word of the Gospell what directions dehortations what councels and comforts what inticements and allurements every Line is penn'd with Love every Page hath its promise that he that runs may read and if it were not so how should the poore Pilgrim wander to the holy land when on the one hand the world presents him with riches and rarities honour and pleasure presumption and pride dignity vaine-glory stately buildings costly faire trampling Horses rich Jewels rare Musick inchaunting faces amorous glaunces sweet smiles when his journey to Heaven is strewed with Briars and Thornes difficulties and dangers afflictions desertions trialls temptations being despised disgraced afflicted tormented and abused with envy and folly discourtesie disloyalty opinion and disdaine and how often doe these poore Soules strike Saile and lye becalm'd when the Heavens are covered with blacknesse and darknesse and the Sun of glory is mantled in a sable cloud and hath turned the glorious morn into a gloomy day Therefore the Almighty wisdome thought best to draw by his word and no part of his word so prevalent as promises to support the Soule in the midst of sorrow they being the promises of this life and of that which is to come the promises of pardon of sinne of rest for the Soule of protection from danger of deliverance from Feare of communion with the Spirit of fellowship with the Sonne of eternall life and the Fathers love and how exceeding great and precious are they great in the superlative the greatest All that we have are nothing to promises they are like Spikenard in the Kings Palace or Manna in the Wildernesse or Solomons Chariot paved with Love or Balme in Gilead or Moses rod or the ointment poured on Jesus Christ or that perfume that ran about the head of Aaron being for our security in the possession of the Prince of Peace built upon the rock of ages the Usurer it may be hath rusty prosperity the high-borne flashy dignity the Prodigall a puffe of Pleasure the Souldier a blast of honour But tell me thou Silkeworme or speak thou glorious slave how long will
Crowns policy of States purity of Saints nor power of Angels that could redeem thee from eternall death till I did pay the price and wilt not thou believe me now except my profferred love and let me lead through this darkned vale thou canst not finde the way alone see if I will not bring thee to my Fathers house and lay thee under the Canopie of Love though dangers were before thee as thick as Starres above thee my hand should crush them all and with an angry breath I 'le blast their fury in their height of pride Soul Oh my deare let me not see paradice in a vision that when I wake it may appeare a dreame I know thou canst doe all things but I am so stained with Spots and drest in raggs of such deformity that I shall but fall as dirt upon thy Cheeks or Ashes in thine Eyes the best I have is but unwilling willingnesse why dost thou descend below thy incomparable throne to trouble thine eares with me Alas what can I give thee for all thy paines but Rebellion and sure the saving of such a wretch as I will not advance thy glory but speak apace my Sighs my best Orators I faine would resigne my will to thee for ever Oh guide and direct me for I am wholly thine Christ How comely are thy eyelids in their Tears which sit upon thy face like Arythrian Pearl with a Vermylian dye they shine like to the eye-lids of the morne for when the Sun retires behinde a cloud a while to weep alone unseen methinkes he lookes like thee those drops upon thy cheeks are like the early dew that comes to kisse the Rose and in a Summer morne doth fall into the bosome of a flower the Courts of Kings or Princes Palaces are poor habitations I had rather live with thee than with the greatest Monarchs of the World Soul Oh what is there in me worthy of love I shall be the unworthiest Instrument that ever was made to celebrate thy praise The Organs of my soul are all untuned and every noble faculty of my spirit is obscure I am poore and despis'd and the world rejects me but 't is no matter if thou wilt love me though I be hated of all but how shall I spend my weary houres when thou art gone away Christ I 'le send the Spirit to beare thee company when thou dost sit alone and sometimes dropst a teare his hand shall wipe it away and glad thy heart teach sorrow how to sing and when thou walkest abroad a guard of Angels shall secure thee from injury my love Soul When I am sad alone my busie thoughts shall fly on wings of contemplation and see thee in Heaven and I will watch and pray till stealing slumbers with soft and airy wings shall bring my languishing Spirit to the Visions of Eternity where I may dream of thee and when I wake I 'le walk and view the world and when I see the spangled Canopie and behold the wondrous motion of the Orbs I 'le thinke upon thy glory there Christ I 'le goe prepare a place for thee a place in eternity above the teeth of time there where the grey-ey'd morne ushers the flaming Chariot of the day surrounded in brightnesse and glory where we will dwell in temples not made with hands in streets of Gold like to transparant glasse and when the houre-glass of thy life is run and time hath brought thy journey to an end I le dresse thy temples in a victors Orbe and arch them with a Crowne Soul Well while I live here I 'le be exceeding humble and if I can holy in all my actions I 'le resemble thee If sinfull thoughts begin to staine my Soule I 'le weep them o're ere I have thought them out If I am abused I will get upon the wings of prayer and tell thee all my wrongs my life shall be a continuall repentance I will not back-slide rather than so I will wast my Soule with Sobs and Sigh away my Body into aire Christ Farewell dearest farewell make hast and meet me in Heaven let not the assaults of sin daunt thee but with an Heroick heart stand the fiery trialls remaine as spotlesse as my love I will goe before to the Palace of Peace scituated in Eternity the purest milke white robes shall be our vestments for the Marriage day and our Musick the Halleluja's of Angels run then with patience for when thou comest to the end of the race I will welcome thee home And wee 'l knit fast the bands Of Marriage and in glory joyne our hands Soul And doth this empty world deserve thus much of me to steale my heart in the prime of all my age that I should lift up my voice in my best tunes chaunting amorous Sonets hourely to its praise no every of these have left me now dull melancholy the picture of my sorrow Oh how the object of my Soules delight did please himselfe to incourage me did I enjoy that happinesse for ever I should have some of Heaven here but now what joy have I to live whose life is but a trouble this world this poore this low this transitory world is but a scene of sorrow 't is but a dying life or living death and that which troubles me is how long it will be ere I shall have his company againe when he went away me thoughts he resembled the flod Sun when downe the Westerne world he drives his teem leaving the Vniverse in a mantle of mourning and I could wish my night were coming too why do I languish thus since I cannot see his face I will goe heare his word that I may learne to doe his will methoughts he had me fight against temptations and look for fiery tryalls I will doe it and for the love of him I will passe a thousand dangers In which my courage shall Stand up Victorious or in battle fall Ye Sons of Honour Heires of Glories Crown whose sacred feet must trample the Holy Fields what is it that makes you sing in sorrow and gloâ—y in your shame that crownes your hearts with courage and beautifies your faces with a smile that sets fortitude upon your browes and places sweetnesse in your amorous eyes that doth advance you in adversity makes you rich in poverty and glory in indignity is it not Love 〈◊〉 what is it that will keep up your spirits at that Dreadfull Day when the Trumpet shall be sounded the World shall be startled the Graves shall be opened the Dead shall be raised and the Unjust shall be Judged will it not be Love when the Fabrick of the World shall be shaken and the Axletrees or the Earth broken and Time shall lose his way when the Kings of the Earth and all their mighty Armies shall looke pale and their winged Bulwarks grapple and their battered Kingdomes fly about their eares in clouds of dust when the Spheres are sweltting in flames the Earth surrounded by fire and bufling windes beat Thunder out of Aire when with terror from on high the day shall be as black as if Don Phoebus frighted from his chaite left ugly darknesse on his Chariot wheels and indeed Love may be compared to Wine with which Kings sometimes have drunke themselves to such a height of kindnesse that they have remembred Majesty no more alas every Christian hath his crosse every day its difficulty every time its trouble and every action a a severall temptation the best of what is here is but Sunshine mixt with Raine sweet with fower and every smile intermingled with a frowne but then ye shall put off your flâ—shly garments â—â—…corruption and be drest in the habit of Heaven out of the wardâ—â—p of glory and be entertained with the pleasures of Paradice where there are incomparable delicates for the taste sweet persumes for the smell rare musick for the Eare ravishing objects for the Eye where thou shalt lye on a Bed of Roses in swelling soft Eternity and be lul'd in Angels armes but it being beyond description too high for imagination impossible for the minde to conceive it unlawfull for the tongue to utter it I shall conclude the Book for methinkes a gloomy Cloud doth stop the passage of my Pen and I can write no more FINIS
they last Many men have great Estates but they have but a little time the children of Israel murmured for want of bread and 't was that which made Hagar sad when her bottle of water was out but you that travel to the holy land your water shall never faile Consider then how they ennoble the minde how they make us partakers of the Divine Nature how they purge away Sinne and sanctifie the Soule how in all afflictions they give us strong Consolations that there is no danger but we shall be delivered from it no crosse but we shall be able to beare it nor no duty but we shall be able to doe it Consider how they open the Eares how they enlighten the Eyes how they direct the Feet to walke and teach the Fingers to fight how they give us rest for wearinesse courage for faintnesse and kindle fire in the stead of feare Object But it may be objected why doth God make promises of reward if the Creature cannot worke or why doth he command when we have not ability to obey Answ God gave Man his portion in Paradice he was indued with excellency when he came out of his hands and God is not bound to give him a new stock though he hath found out many inventions to run out the old God is no more bound to preserve us than he was to create us therefore Mans inability doth not discharge him from his duty God still reteineth his prerogative royall though we have lost a Subjects Loyalty he hath not lost his Kingly Dignity but still may command though we poor we have no ability to obey God calls on all men every where to repent will it therefore follow Man can repent No but it is our duty to doâ— it and our misery that we cannot But farther God hath made an everlasting covenant with us and workes that in us which he requireth of us and hath undertaken to doe that which he hath commanded us to doe John 6.5 6. therefore having removed this Objection let us goe forward to see what strong consolation promises doe afford us the truth of it is the promises are those that make our lives comfortable in the world we are travelling to Heaven and all the portion we have is in promises to assure us we shall lack nothing in our Journey Heb. 6.17 18. Thy portion is in thy Fathers hand and therefore whether it be losses crosses temptations desertions or persecutions that trouble thee be contented for ere long thou shalt passe through all thy poverty and when thou comest home shalt feed on husks no more what joy will the Father and all his holy Angels make at thy arrivall then all teares shall be wiped from thine eyes and thou shalt soon forget thy light afflictions and momentany miseries when thou shalt sit smiling in eternity and thy head impaled in such an exceeding weight of glory Thirdly God draws by his Lash Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have learned thy Statutes Psal 119.67 but there being so many things extant for the supporting of afflicted Soules I shall onely say thus much that conquering is as well by strâ—â—king as striking howbeit our Heavenly Father knowes best how to drive one and draw another who are to be affrighted with a frowne and who to be allured by love Linnen is made whiter by Bucking and Woolen cleaner by Beating Sufferings and Sorrowes come not upon us without a cause though to them that have too little Faith or too much of slavish feare they serve but as Water in the Ship or rough Windes to the Sailes that sinks the one and blows away the other because they see not the hand that sends them but like the Dogge bite at the Stone and minde not the Man Fourthly God drawes the Soule by his Light when night appeares in her spangled Canopie and mounts her darkned throne to follow her flying predecessor when with too long delay she shakes her dewy locks as she rides upon the backs of downy Ravens sleek and sable Plumes and hurles black darknesse from her Chariot wheels wrapping the world in a Mantle of mourning by the charming power of her sable Hemisphere then the forsaken Universe is lost a while and drowsie Mortalls rockt in her charming lullabies in the midst of danger sleep secure notwithstanding the terrors of the night and the dangers of the dark those fearefull visions and strange apparitions that affright languishing lovers and sometimes glaunce before unquiet eyes Thus the poore Soule in the time of Ignorance is like the Egyptians that grovelled in the darke or the blinde Sodomites that could not finde the door who were in the midst of distraction hurried to destruction the first buried alive in the Water the last burned to death in the Fire Alas there is no coming to Paradice by pleasure nor gaining Heaven by honour not Honour nor Dignity Pleasure vaine-glory a Kingly Throne nor a transitory Crowne It is not coyne can purchase Canaan nor Money merit Mercy Nay to come nearer it is not Earths happinesse nor the Creatures holinesse Mans sincerity nor his mindes purity that can merit Heaven not by Prayers nor Promises Duties nor Indeavours Which when the Sun of Righteousnesse hath discovered to the Soule when he sees there is no contentment in the Creature till it centers in the Creator no satisfaction in it selfe no rest in the Soule but that the redemption thereof depends on another therefore in a selfe abhorrencie he mutters to himselfe these or the like speeches The World shall never have my heart no more no though I should sit at the upper end thereof in Princes Palaces and had the peculiar treasure of Kings though I were drest in robes of the purest die and far'd deliciously every day though I were drawne in a Chariot of Ebonie or sate upon a chaire of Downe or did ride upon the wings of Fame though I had stately buildings and could for recreation retire a while into curious Gardens rare Walks and gallant Groves where I might heare the birds sing out their ravishing tones in a well-measured evennesse and be lull'd asleep with the still musick of murmuring Water and perfumed Aire though I had all the beauties of the Arcadian Court and had every roome adorned with White Greene and Blue hangings fastned with Cords of fine Linnen and Purple and Silver Rings and though my Bed were of Gold hung round with Diamond and Pearle and stood upon a pavement of Red and Blue and White and Black Marble Deluding Vanities I 'le teare you from my heart what doe you here weake chaines my Pride presumed once you had the power to fetter Hell and guard me from the terrors of the evill day I once believed you could have brought content when your delights dropt in my Soule like dew into the bosome of a flower and thou poore flattered heart whom oft I have esteemed pure I thought my prayers once would open Heaven and bring down Guardian