so infinite obligations of thy favours And thus having look't inward into ourselves and taken an impartiall view of our own vilenesse it will be requisite to cast our eyes upward unto heaven and there to see against whom we have offended even against an infinite Majesty power an infinite mercy an infinite justice That power and Majesty which hath spread out the heavens as a Curtain and hath laid the foundations of the earth so sure that it cannot be moved who hath shut up the sea with bars and doors and said Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shalt thou stay thy proud waves who doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth who commandeth the Devils to their chains able therfore to take infinite vengeance on sinners That mercy of God the Father who gave his own Son out of his bosome for our redemption That mercy of God the Son who thinking it no robbery to be equall unto God for our sakes made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and being found in fashion as a man humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the accursed death of the Crosse That mercy of God the holy Ghost who hath made that Christ mine and hath sealed to my soule the benefit of that blessed Redemption Lastly that justice of God which as it is infinitely displeased with every sin so will be sure to take infinite vengeance on every impenitent sinner And from hence it will be fit and seasonable for the devout soul to look downward into that horrible pit of eternall confusion and there to see the dreadful unspeakable unimaginable torments of the damned to represent unto it selfe the terrors of those everlasting burnings the fire and brimstone of that infernall Tophet the mercilesse and unwearible tyranny of those hellish executioners the shrieks and howlings and gnashings of the tormented the unpitiable interminable unmitigable tortures of those ever-dying and yet never-dying souls By all which we shall justly affright our selves into a deep sense of the dangerous and wofull condition wherein we lie in the state of nature and impenitence and shal be driven with an holy eagernesse to seek for Christ the Son of the ever-living God our blessed Mediator in and by whom only we can look for the remission of all these our sins a reconcilement with this most powerfull mercifull just God and a deliverance of our soules from the hand of the nethermost hell SECT XIII IT shall not now need or boot to bid the soul which is truely apprehensive of all these to sue importunately to the Lord of life for a freedome and rescue from these infinite paines of eternall death to which our sinnes have forfeited it and for a present happy recovery of that favour which is better than life Have we heard or can wee imagine some hainous Malefactor that hath received the sentence of death and is now bound hand and foot ready to be cast into a Den of Lions or a burning furnace with what strong cries and passionate obsecrations he plies the Judge for mercy wee may then conceive some little image of the vehement sute and strong cries of a soul truly sensible of the danger of Gods wrath deserved by his sin and the dreadful consequents of deserved imminent damnation Although what proportion is there betwixt a weak creature and the Almighty betwixt a moment and eternity Hereupon therefore followes a vehement longing uncapable of a denial after Christ and fervent aspirations to that Saviour by whom only we receive a ful and gracious deliverance from death and hell and a full pardon and remission of all our sins and if this come not the sooner strong knocking 's at the gates of heaven even so loud that the Father of mercies cannot but hear open Never did any contrite soul beg of God that was not prevented by his mercy much more doth he condescend when he is strongly intreated our very intreaties are from him hee puts into us those desires which he graciously answers Now therfore doth the devout soul see the God of all comfort to bow the heavens and come down with healing in his wings and heare him speak peace unto the heart thus throughly humbled Fear not thou shalt not die but live Be of good cheare thy sins are forgiven thee Here therefore comes in that divine grace of Faith effectually apprehending Christ the Saviour and his infinite satisfaction and merits comfortably applying all the sweet promises of the Gospel clinging close to that all-sufficient Redeemer and in his most perfect obedience emboldning it selfe to challenge a freedome of accesse to God and confidence of appearance before the Tribunal of heaven and now the soule clad with Christs righteousnesse dares look God in the face and can both challenge and triumph over all the powers of darknesse For being justified by faith we have peach with God through Jesu Christ our Lord. SECT XIV BY how much deeper the sense of our misery and danger is so much more welcome and joyfull is the apprehension of our deliverance and so much more thankfull is our acknowledgement of that unspeakable mercy The soule therefore that is truly sensible of this wonderfull goodnesse of it's God as it feels a marvellous joy in it self so it cannot but break sorth into cheerfull and holy though secret gratulations The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long suffering and of great goodnes he keepeth not his anger for ever he hath not dealt with me after my sins nor rewarded me after mine iniquities What shal I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will thank thee for thou hast heard me hast not given me over to death but art become my salvation O speak good of the Lord all ye works of his Praise thou the Lord O my soul SECT XV. THe more feelingly the soul apprehends and the more thankfully it digests the favours of God in its pardon and deliverance the more freely doth the God of mercy impart himself to it and the more God imparts himself to it the more it loves him and the more heavenly acquaintance and entirenesse grows betwixt God it and now that love which was but a spark at first grows into a flame and wholly takes up the soul This fire of heavenly love in the devout soul is and must be heightned more and more by the addition of the holy incentives of divine thoughts concerning the means of our freedome and deliverance And here offers it self to us that bottomlesse abysse of mercy in our Redemption wrought by the eternall Son of God Jesus Christ the just by whose stripes we are healed by whose bloud we are ransomed where none will befit us but admiring and adoring notions We shall not disparage you O ye blessed Angels and Arch-angels of Heaven if we
THE DEVOVT SOUL OR Rules of heavenly DEVOTION ALSO THE FREE PRISONER OR The Comfort of RESTRAINT By Jos. H. B. N. London Printed by W. H. and are to be sold by George Latham Junior at the Bishops-head in St. Pauls Church-yard M. DC L. TO All Christian Readers Grace and Peace THat in a time when we heare no noise but of Drums and Trumpets and talk of nothing but armes and sieges battels I should write of Devotion may seem to some of you strange unseasonable to me contrarily it seems most fit and opportune For when can it be more proper to direct our adress to the throne of grace than when we are in the very jawes of Death or when should we goe to seek the face of our God rather than in the needfull time of trouble Blessed be my God who in the midst of these wofull tumults hath vouchsafed to give me these calm holy thoughts which I justly suppose he meant not to suggest that they should be smothered in the breast wherein they were conceived but with a purpose to have the benefit communicated unto many Who is there that needs not vehement excitations and helps to Devotion and when more than now In a tempest the Mariners themselves doe not only cry everyman to his God but awaken Jonah that is fast asleep under the hatches and chide him to his prayers Surely had we not bin failing in our devotions we could not have been thus universally miserable That duty the neglect whereof is guilty of our calamity must in the effectuall performance of it be the meanes of our recovery Be but devout and we cannot miscarry under judgements Wee is mee the teares of penitence were more fit to quench the publique flame than bloud How soone would it clear up above head if wee were but holily affected within Could wee send our zealous Ambassadours up to heaven we could not fail of an happy peace I direct the way God bring us to the end For my owne particular practice God is witnesse to my soule that as one the sense of whose private affliction is swallowed up of the publique I cease not daily to â—ly the Father of mercies with my fervent prayers that hee would at last be pleased after so many streames of bloud to passe an Act of Pacification in heaven And what good heart can do otherwise Brethren all ye that love God and his Church and his Truth and his Anointed and your Countrey your selves and yours joyn your forces with mine and let us by an holy violence make way to the gates of Heaven with our petition for mercy and peace and not suffer our selves to be beaten off from the threshold of Grace till wee be answered with a condescent He whose goodness is wont to prevent our desires will not give denyals to our importunities Pray and farewell NORWICH March 20. 1643. THE DEVOUT SOVLE SECT I. DEvotion is the life of Religion the very soule of Piety the highest imploiment of grace and no other than the prepossession of heaven by the Saints of God here upon earth every improvement whereof is of more advantage and value to the Christian soul than all the profit contentments which this world can afford it There is a kind of Art of Devotion if we can attain unto it whereby the practice thereof may bee much advanced We have known indeed some holy soules which out of the generall precepts of piety and their own happy experiments of Gods mercy have through the grace of God grown to a great measure of perfection this way which yet might have been much expedited and compleated by those helps which the greater illumination and experience of others might have afforded them Like as we see it in other faculties there are those who out of a naturall dexterity and their own frequent practice have got into a safe posture of defence and have handled their weapon with commendable skill whom yet the Fence-schoole might have raised to an higher pitch of cunning As nature is perfited so grace is not a little furthered by Art since it pleaseth the wisedome of God to work ordinarily upon the soul not by the immediate power of miracle but in such methods and by such means as may most conduce to his blessed ends It is true that all our good motions come from the Spirit of God neither is it lesse true that all the good counsails of others proceed from the same Spirit that good Spirit cannot be crosse to itself he therefore that infuses good thoughts into us suggests also such directions as may render us apt both to receive and improve them If God be bounteous we may not be idle and neglective of our spirituall aids SECT II. IF you tell me by way of instance in a particular act of Devotion that there is a gift of prayer and that the Spirit of God is not tied to rules I yeeld both these but withall I must say there are also helps of prayer and that we must not expect immediate inspirations I find the world much mistaken in both They thinke that man hath the gift of prayer that can utter the thoughts of his heart roundly unto God that can expresse himself smoothly in the phrase of the holy Ghost and presse God with most proper words passionate vehemence And surely this is a commendable faculty whersoever it is but this is not the gift of prayer you may call it if you will the gift of Elocution Doe wee say that man hath the gift of pleading that can talk eloquently at the Barre that can in good termes loud and earnestly importune the Judge for his Client and not rather hee that brings the strongest reason and quotes his books and precedents with most truth and clearest evidence so as may convince the Jury and perswade the Judge Do wee say hee hath the gift of Preaching that can deliver himself in a flowing manner of speech to his hearers that can cite Scriptures or Fathers that can please his auditory with the flowers of Rhetorick or rather he that can divide the Word aright interpret it soundly apply it judiciously put it home to the Conscience speaking in the evidence of the Spirit powerfully convincing the gainsayers comforting the dejected and drawing every soule nearer to heaven The like must we say for prayer the gift whereof hee may be truely said to have not that hath the most rennible tongue for prayer is not so much a matter of the lips as of the heart but he that hath the most illuminated apprehension of the God to whom he speakes the deepest sense of his own wants the most eager longings after grace the ferventest desires of supplies from heaven and in a word whose heart sends up the strongest groanes and cries to the Father of mercies Neither may we look for Enthusiasmes immediate inspirations putting our selves upon Gods Spirit in the solemn exercises of our invocation without heed or meditation the
must needs follow a renewed act of true thankfulnes of heart to our good God that hath both given us his dear Son to work our redemption his blessed Sacrament to seal up unto us our redemption thus wrought and purchased And with souls thus thankfully elevated unto God we aproach with all reverence to that heavenly Table where God is both the Feast-master and the Feast What intention of holy thoughts what fervour of spirit what depth of Devotion must we now find in our selves Doubtlesse out of heaven no object can be so worthy to take up our hearts What a clear representation is here of the great work of our Redemption How is my Saviour by all my senses here brought home to my soul How is his passion lively acted before mine eyes For lo my bodily eye doth not more truely see bread and wine than the eye of my faith sees the body and bloud of my dear Redeemer Thus was his sacred body torn and broken Thus was his precious bloud poured out for me My sins wretched man that I am helped thus to crucifie my Saviour and for the discharge of my sins would he be thus crucified Neither did hee only give himselfe for me upon the Crosse but lo both offers and gives himself to me in this his blessed institution what had his generall gift been without this application Now my hand doth not more sensibly take nor my mouth more really eate this bread than my soule doth spiritually receive and feed on the bread of life O Saviour thou art the living bread that came dome from heaven Thy flesh is meat indeed and thy bloud is drink indeed Oh that I may so eate of this bread that I may live for ever He that commeth to thee shall never hunger he that beleeveth in thee shall never thirst Oh that I could now so hunger and so thirst for thee that my soul could be for ever satisfied with thee Thy people of old were fed with Manna in the wildernesse yet they dyed that food of Angels could not keep them from perishing but oh for the hidden Manna which giveth life to the world even thy blessed self give me ever of this bread and my soule shall not dye but live Oh the precious juice of the fruit of the Vine wherewith thou refreshest my soul Is this the bloud of the grape Is it not rather thy bloud of the New Testament that is poured out for me Thou speakest O Saviour of new wine that thou wouldest drink with thy Disciples in thy Fathers Kindome can there be any more precious and pleasant than this wherewith thou cheerest the beleeving soule our palate is now dull and earthly which shall then exquisite and celestiall but surely no liquor can be of equall price or soveraignty with thy bloud Oh how unsavory are all earthly delicacies to this heavenly draught O God let not the sweet taste of this spirituall Nectar ever goe out of the mouth of my soul Let the cōfortable warmth of this blessed Cordiall ever work upon my soul even till and in the last moment of my dissolution Dost thou bid me O Saviour do this in remembrance of thee Oh how can I forget thee How can I enough celebrate thee for this thy unspeakable mercy Can I see thee thus crucified before my eyes and for my sake thus crucified and not remember thee Can I find my sins accessary to this thy death and thy death meritoriously expiating all these my grievous sins and not remember thee Can I hear thee freely offering thy selfe to me and feele thee graciously conveighing thy self into my soul and not remember thee I doe remember thee O Saviour but oh that I could yet more effectually remember thee with all the passionate affections of a soul sick of thy love with all zealous desires to glorifie thee with all fervent longings after thee and thy salvation I remember thee in thy sufferings Oh doe thou remember me in thy glory SECT XXIX HAving thus busied it self with holy thoughts in the time of the celebration the devout soul breaks not off in an abrupt unmannerlinesse without taking leave of the great master of this heavenly feast but with a secret adoration humbly blesseth God for so great a mercy and heartily resolves and desires to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus whom it hath received and to consecrate it selfe wholly to the service of him that hath so dearly bought it and hath given it these pledges of its eternall union with him The Devout Soul hath thus supt in heaven and returns home yet the work is not thus done after the elements are out of eye and use there remains a digestion of this celestiall food by holy meditation and now it thinks Oh what a blessing have I received to day no lesse than my Lord Jesus with all his merits and in and with him the assurance of the remission of all my sins and everlasting salvation How happy am I if I be not wanting to God my self How unworthy shall I be if I doe not strive to answer this love of my God and Saviour in all hearty affection and in all holy obedience And now after this heavenly repast how do I feel my self what strength what advantage hath my faith gotten how much am I nearer to heaven than before how much faster hold have I taken of my blessed Redeemer how much more firm and sensible is my interest in him Neither are these thoughts and this examination the work of the next instant onely but they are such as must dwell upon the heart and must often solicite our memory and excite our practise that by this means we may frequently renew the efficacy of this blessed Sacrament and our souls may batten more and more with this spirituall nourishment and may be fed up to eternall life SECT XXX THese are the generalities of our Devotion which are of common use to all Christians There are besides these certaine specialties of it appliable to severall occasions times places persons For there are morning and evening Devotions Devotions proper to our board to our closer to our bed to Gods day to our own to health to sicknesse to severall callings to recreations to the way to the field to the Church to our home to the student to the souldier to the Magistrate to the Minister to the husband wife child servant to our owne persons to our families The severalties whereof as they are scarce finite for number so are most fit to to be left to the judgement and holy managing of every Christian neiis it to be imagined that any soul which is taught of God and hath any acquaintance with heaven can be to seek in the particular application of common rules to his own necessity or expedience The result of all is A devout man is he that ever sees the invisible and ever trembleth before that God he sees that walks ever here on earth with the God of heaven and still adores
that Majesty with whom he converses That confers hourly with the God of spirits in his own language yet so as no familiarity can abate of his aw nor fear abate ought of his love To whom the gates of heaven are ever open that he may go in at pleasure to the throne of grace none of the Angelical spirits can offer to challenge him of too much boldness Whose eyes are well acquainted with those heavenly guardians the presence of whom hee doth as truly acknowledge as if they were his sensible Companions He is well known of the King of glory for a daily sutor in the Court of heaven and none so welcome there as he He accounts all his time lost that falls beside his God and can be no more weary of good thoughts than of happinesse His bosome is no harbour for any knowne evill and it is a question whether hee more abhorres sin or hell His care is to entertain God in a clear and free heart and therefore he thrusts the world out of doors and humbly beseeches God to welcome himself to his owne He is truly dejected and vile in his owne eyes Nothing but hell is lower than he every of his slips are hainous every trespasse is aggravated to rebellion The glory and favours of God heighten his humiliation He hath lookt down to the bottomlesse deep and seen with horror what he deserved to feel everlastingly His cries have been as strong as his fears just and he hath found mercy more ready to rescue him than he could be importunate His hand could not be so soon put forth as his Saviours for deliverance The sense of this mercy hath raised him to an unspeakable joy to a most fervent love of so dear a Redeemer that love hath knit his heart to so meritorious a deliverer and wrought a blessed union betwixt God and his soul That union can no more be severed from an infinite delight than that delight can bee severed from an humble cheerfull acquiescence in his munificent God And now as in an heavenly freedome he pours out his soul into the bosome of the Almighty in all faithfull sutes for himself and others so he enjoyes God in the blessings received and returns all zealous prayses to the giver He comes reverently to the Oracles of God and brings not his eye but his heart with him not carelesly negligent in seeking to know the revealed will of his Maker nor too busily inquisitive into his deep counsels not too remisse in the letter nor too peremptory in the sense gladly comprehending what hee may and admiring what he cannot comprehend Doth God call for his ear He goes awfully into the holy presence and so hears as if he should now hear his last Latching every word that drops from the Preachers lips ere it fall to the ground and laying it up carefully where hee may be sure to fetch it Hee sits not to censure but to learn yet speculation and knowledge is the least drift of his labour Nothing is his own but what he practiseth Is he invited to Gods feast he hates to come in a soul and slovenly dresse but trims up his soul so as may be fit for an heavenly guest Neither doth he leave his stomach at home cloyed with the world but brings a sharp appetite with him and so feeds as if he meant to live for ever All earthly Delicates are unsavory to him in respect of that celestiall Manna Shortly he so eates and drinks as one that sees himself set at Table with God and his Angels and rises and departs full of his Saviour and in the strength of that meal walks vigorously and cheerfully on towards his glory Finally as he well knows that he lives and moves and hath his being in God so he refers his life motions and being wholly to God so acting all things as if God did them by him so using all things as one that enjoyes God in them and in the mean time so walking on earth that he doth in a sort carry his heaven with him THE FREE PRISONER OR The COMFORT of RESTRAINT Written Some while since in the Tower BY I. H. B. N. The Free Prisoner OR The Comfort of Restraint SECT I. SIR WHiles you pity my Affliction take heed lest you aggravate it and in your thoughts make it greater than it is in my own It is true I am under restraint What is that to a man that can be free in the Tower and cannot but be a prisoner abroad Such is my condition and every Divine Philosophers with me Were my walks much straiter than they are they cannot hold me in It is a bold word to say I cannot I will not be a prisoner It is my soul that is I my flesh is my partner if not my servant not my self However my body may be immured that agile spirit shall flie abroad and visit both earth heaven at pleasure Who shall hinder it from mounting up in an instant to that supreme region of blisse and from seeing that by the eye of faith which S. Paul saw in extasie and when it hath viewed that blessed Hierarchy of heaven to glance down through the innumerable and unmeasurable globes of light which move in the firmament and below it into this elementary world and there to compass seas and lands without shipwrack in a trice which a Drake or Cavendish cannot doe but with danger and in some years navigation And if my thoughts list to stay themselves in the passage with what variety can my soul be taken up of severall objects Here turning in to the dark vaults and dungeons of penall restraint to visit the disconsolate prisoners and to fetch from their greater misery a just mitigation of mine own There looking in to the houses of vain jollity and pitying that which the sensuall fools call happiness Here stepping in to the Courts of great Princes in them observing the fawning compliances of some the trecherous underworking of others hollow friendships faithless ingagements faire faces smooth tongues rich suits viewing all save their hearts and censuring nothing that it sees not There calling in at the low cottages of the poor and out of their empty cupbord furnishing it self with thankfulnesse Here so overlooking the Courts of Justice as not willing to see rigour or partiality There listning what they say in those meetings w ch would passe for sacred and wondring at what it hears Thus can and shal and doth my nimble spirit bestirre it selfe in a restlesse flight making onely the Empyreall heaven the bounds of its motion not being more able to stand still than the heavens themselves whence it descended Should the Iron enter into my soul as it did into that good Patriarchs yet it cannot fetter me No more can my spirit be confined to one place than my body can bee diffused to many Perhaps therefore you are mistaken in my condition for what is it I beseech you that makes a prisoner Is it an