in eating up thy seede thou makest the time of sowing to be the time of reaping yea thou eatest up thy seede which being sowne would have given thee an ensuing harvest True it is that ioyes are given thee here and they are given thee to be enjoyed but even this enjoying is but a sowing for thereby are sowne in thee new supplies of faith hope and love and of all spirituall strength even the seeds of future active and passive services Thou art by these joyes mightily encouraged fortified and enabled to an unwearied industry in the labours of the Lord since by this which is paid thee in hand thou seest and feelest and tastest that thy labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thou doest not receive thy earnest-penny to bee still gazing on it much lesse to bound thy thoughts with it or to thinke thy selfe rich enough in it but thereby to be drawne on to a chearful running in the race that leadeth to the infinite treasure which is in heaven whereof this penny is an earnest Wherefore if any man will set up his rest in present joyes and speake of building Tabernacles in them let him know what was said of him that said so and see whether the same agrees not also to another that saith the same agrees not also to another that saith the same Hee wist not what he said Surely this is not our rest neither have wee here a continuing City but wee seeke one to come our Sabbath here is but one day in seven but the eternall Sabbath commeth not untill we be past the workes of the sixe dayes There remaineth a rest to the children of God and that which remaineth is not presently Therefore seeing that rest remaineth let us labour to enter into that rest let us enter into this rest by labour not by rest or if by rest by that rest which encourageth and enableth us to labour Having eaten with Elias let us walke with Elias having taken the earnest let us doe the worke having eaten Manna let us walk on to Canaan Let us not grow restive by that which was given to make us active neither let us looke to tie these joyes together in this life of action which are therefore intermitted that there may be times for action as well as for enjoying Therefore if Iesus doe sometimes vanish out of sight and withdraw himselfe into heaven imagine you heard the Angel saying unto you Why stand ye gazing into heaven The same Iesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come as yee have seene him goe into heaven He hath times of going and times of returning He hath visited thee and is gone out of sight expecting the fruite of his former visitation As thou hast seene him going so thou shalt see him comming when thy worke is well done hee will come and comfort and encourage thee to the worke that is to bee done But still remember that his best comming is his last comming then will hee come to thee and cause thee to come to him and this comming together shall be without any more going asunder Then shalt thou rest and onely rest for even thy actions which now are labours shall then be rest And then shall it be no griefe of heart to thee that thou hast had here interpositions of labours betweene thy rests since these labours here shall there be turned into the joyes of a rest eternall Neither shall it be a griefe of heart to thee then that thou hast had some abatements here of a temporall rest when those abatements have beene occasions of increased degrees in a rest and glory everlasting Thou shalt have thy joyes increased according to the increase of thy labours for thy works shall follow thee and if they follow thee in abundance they shal bee followed with abundance of joyes If thy labours have made thy five talents to bee ten thy Lord shall make thee Ruler over ten Cities and then shalt thou finde it best to enjoy most in the place of most enjoying And surely that must needs be the place of most and best enjoying where both soule and body are enlarged and clarified to the greatest capacity of enjoying and where this greatest capacity doth meete with the greatest perfection and fulnesse of joy And this fulnesse of joy is at that right hand where the Bridegroome sitteth preparing a place for his Bride And into that place of fulnesse of joy shall this husband receive his wife having passed through the labours and sufferings of love and there they shall be changed to her into large full and everlasting joyes CAP. V. The Spouses estate in desertions though seemingly miserable is indeede profitable THE Spouse of Christ is now willing to labour and to suffer for her husband yea contented that sometimes joyes be intermitted for labours and sufferings which hereafter shall be exchanged into full and eternall joyes But this she is both willing and able to doe through her Christ that strengthens her and she is contented to doe it so that he be ever with her thogh not stil smiling and embracing yet still supporting and strengthening her But shee heares and shee sayes she feeles that sometimes hee withdrawes himselfe and then her heart is full of woe even of Woe to her that is alone She hath left all things for him for that shee knew to bee the price of him and she thought him well worth it but now he for whom she hath left all things hath left her and so she is left of him and all things Yea he seemes not onely to leave her but to send terrours to her even terrours without and terrours within Within the remnants of the olde husband stirre up the loathed images of the olde not love but lust and though the head of this serpent be broken yet the end of it will still be moving And while she sees nothing but these ugly shapes in the dark night of desertions she is affrighted at them and at her owne estate for now she thinkes this to be her true and onely estate because she sees no other but this And without the old enemy of soules and the first cursed marriage-maker betweene the soule and sinne renewes his olde businesse and would yet againe make a bad match betweene the dying olde man and a living soule And when hee cannot bring the soule to consent he will will perswade her that she hath consented and strive to make her beleeve that shee hath done it even because he cannot prevaile to make her to doe it He would have had her to perish by giving her consent to sinne and seeing he cannot doe that he will strive to destroy her by this desperate thought that she is nothing but sin and nothing else shall be seeing she is forsaken of him who onely takes away both the guilt and reigne of sin And thus being filled with bitternesse if she looke out to men for comfort there she finds many miserable
the stocke of thy memorialls and remembrances for future encouragements and consolations Lastly let the peeces and earnests of heavenly joyes stirre up thy desires and affections to the fruition of the fulnesse of joyes let these drops of Gods sweetnesse enflame thy soule with a thirst and longing to enjoy God the fountaine of this sweetnesse Let these kisses of Christ Iesus kindle in thee such a fervent love of Christ that thy soule may pant to bee united to him in a perfect and consummate marriage And out of the heate of these longings and enflamed desires send up the aspirations and breathings of thy burning soule in vehement wishes and groaning complaints My soule thirsteth for God when shall I come and appeare before God My teares have beene my meate day and night while the flesh saith to the spirit VVhere is thy God I desire to bee dissolved and to bee with Christ which is best of all Surely Christ is best of all and therefore is it best of all to bee with Christ. Thou hast tryed in the drops of his sweetnesse which thou hast tasted that hee is best of all for the taste of Christ in them hath distasted all the taste of the creatures Thou hast tasted and seene that the goodnesse creating is better than the goodnesse created and therfore Christ is best of all These droppes of the Creatour are better than all the visible creature and he that is the fountaine is better than the drops that distill from the fountaine and so is he better than that which is better than the creature and therefore is best of all and if he be best surely it is best for thee to bee with him the enjoying of the best is the best enjoying Therefore call unto him O send out thy light and thy truth let them leade mee let them bring mee unto thy holy hill let thy good spirit leade mee and bring mee to thy blessed presence that as I have seene thee in these modells and mirrours and earnests so I may beholde thee face to face And though thy pilgrimage be prolonged and being present in the body thou art absent from the Lord yet desire rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Accordingly let thy affections bee ever rowing in these streams of the Deity to the Deity it selfe by these patternes of rich oare having discovered a farre richer mine doe not stand gazing on the patternes nor thinke thy selfe rich enough in them but by them be stirred up to get and possesse the full riches of the Mine Indeede the patterne shewes thee the richnesse of the Mine it being a part of that riches which the Mine will give thee But remember it is but a peece and a peece cannot be equalled to the whole for the whole hath an infinite fulnesse of such peeces in it And hereby there is such oddes betweene a peece and the whole that a peece is more valuable for being an earnest of the whole than for his owne value It is more to be prized for that which it promiseth than for that which it exhibiteth Therefore value it highly for the worth which it hath in it self but value it infinitely more highly for that excessively exceeding weight of glory which it promiseth Looke upon it for the goodnesse that is in it but much more on the goodnesse without it which the goodnesse within it promiseth So by looking on it looke from it even beyond and above it for though these earnests first doe call thy affections to them yet being considered as earnests then doe they remove thy affections to that whereof they are earnests our rest is not in them but in him that gave these earnests who gave them for this end that they might direct our faith and hope to him who is our rest Wherefore as God spake to Israel by Moses so speaketh he to the true Israel by these earnests Goe forward Why stand yee still gazing and resting on these earnests when even the earnests themselves call on you to goe forward The earnests call on you to goe forward from earnests to full performances from grace to glory from faith to vision from the drops of the Deity to the Deity it selfe the onely true rest and Sabbath of the soule And when God saith Goe forward If any man draw backe his soule shall have no pleasure in him But of all drawing backe let us most of all beware of drawing backe from God to the world This were yet a farther degree of going back from God for whereas the drawing backe from God to the earnests is one degree this going back from the earnests to the world is a second and a most fearefull degree This is a true returning from Canaan to Egypt but let us remember what the Apostle saith of the right possessours of these earnests Wee are not of them who draw backe unto perdition but of them that beleeve to the saving of the soule If we beleeve we doe looke forward and goe forward for faith lookes not on things seene but on things not seene and such are the things before us yet because the strong taste of the onions of Egypt even of fleshly lust doth sticke still in our teeth and often would make Manna to seeme but a dry meate it is not amisse that this word Goe forward be often sounded in the eares of the heavenly pilgrims These earnests are Manna and this Manna is not such a dry meate as the flesh would make it for it serves to carry us unto the land of eternall felicity it both calls upon us to goe to our husband who is our happinesse and it enables us to goe that journey whereunto it calleth us Therefore let us hearken to the voice of it when it calleth because the same that calleth us doth also enable us We have received the earnest of the Spirit therefore are we alwayes bold and willing to be with the Lord whose earnest we have received We would put off these bodies of dust and lust that our soules may put on Christ in a full and fruitive union Yet neither would we wholly be uncloathed of our bodies but put them off to put off their basenesse and sinfulnesse and to put them on againe glorious and holy And then shall it be a fit garment for the soule in the day of her gladnesse and capable with her of the consummate marriage with the King of glory And for this marriage doth the spirit and the bride say Come the bride saith it by the spirit and the spirit saith it in the bride This is the voice of the bride and not of her tongue onely but of her spirit and not of her spirit onely but of the spirit in her spirit If then thou have the same spirit of love because thou lovest doe thou also speake and say Come Lord Iesus come quickly CAP. VII The signes and markes of the true and right visitations of
as a thiefe and adulterer A theefe he is for he hath stollen the foule from her first Lord and husband even the Lord that made her and an adulterer he is for he lives with her that belongs to another and while hee lives with her he keeps her not for love but lust wherefore let the soule give her consent to his death that thereby her true husband may recover his right in her and that she may receive her true husband and in him life liberty and felicity And indeed she may well be weary of the old for her living with him is most unreasonable most slavish and most miserable It is most unreasonable for there is no sense in the mariage of a soule with lust What good can lust do to a soule there being no likenesse but a meere contrariety betweene them and wee know that things are cherished and augmented by their like but they are destroyed by their contraries The soule is light and lust is darknesse and can darknesse give any increase of being or wellbeing to light Yea doth not darknesse goe about to lessen to quench and kill light Againe lust hath in it a venome contrary to goodnesse and can evill give any accesse or addition of goodnesse to the soule Yea this venome hath in it a force and power to draw the wil and affections from that soveraigne good which is the true and onely beatificall object of the soule and to glue and fasten her to objects of vanity yea of death and misery Againe the soule in her substance is a spirit and what kindly or naturall pleasure or profit can a spiritual essence receive from grosse and fleshly lust The soule hath no savour in the ranke and grosse pleasures of the flesh but they are to her as the onions and garlike of Egypt to a dainty delicate taste Surely so well may the earth lighten the Sunne and a tempest give rest to the sea as lust can give light or life or rest or happinesse to the soule but darknesse and death and misery it can and doth give and so under the shape of an husband it is a cruell enemy and a very murtherer of the soule And surely hee could be no other but a mortall enemy of the soule that made such a marriage betweene the soule and her mortall enemy And hee had neede to be as cunning as malicious to put a shew of reason upon a match so absurd and unreasonable And if in a second place wee beholde the slavery of the soule in this marriage with lust the teares that bewailed the virginity of Iephthahs daughter are not sufficient to bewaile this slavish marriage The body commands the soule earth heaven and dust that noble and divine essence which was breathed into man even from Gods owne mouth and had his owne image imprinted on it Neither is it the body of dust onely that commands the heavenly soule but the body it selfe being commanded by lust doth command the soule so is lust the chiefe lord both of body and soule even a certaine venome itch and fury dwelling in this earth of man There may be some proportion betweene the dust which God turned into a body and that soule which God made with his breath though in a large and remote distance and difference But betweene the soule which God made according to his owne image and this blinde and wilde lust which God made not in man there is no portion or part of proportion whereupon any right or power of command may be grounded Yet in this base and wretched marriage vile and odious lust spurs up the soule with his commands and makes her to trudge up and down in businesses of darknesse filthinesse and wretchednes The soule is set on work in things that are no kin to her no good to her yea that are contrary to her being and well-being For contrary they are to that image of God which is in her and consequently contrary to that God whose image this is and to whō this image points and leades her as to her soveraigne good And thus have wee a third mischiefe of this marriage even misery annexed to slavery For as the image of God in the soule turnes the eye and heart of the soule to looke unto God her chiefe happinesse so lust turnes about the eye and heart of the soule from her happinesse and what can her prospect and object be then but misery And if the eye of the soule happen to cast up some glances to heaven and happinesse yet the heart even the will and affections are hurried away by this lust to objects and workes of vanity and misery so that the soule can onely say I see the better things and follow the worse I see happines and runne after misery Thus by slavery shee buyeth misery and slavery it selfe being misery by misery she earneth misery And indeed is it not the true misery of an Egyptian bondage that the soule should bee still set on worke by lust in a fiery fornace yea be beaten and tormented when shee doth not worke though her worke concerne her selfe nothing but onely to strengthen her owne bondage and to increase her owne misery And indeede therefore is she kept so hard at this worke that she may haue no leisure to thinke beyond bondage and misery Accordingly if the soule at any time doe but lift up her eyes above her present bondage to that Lord of life liberty and happinesse which would once have married her and still makes new offers unto her this tyrannous husband like a Taske-master strikes in deepe lashes into her side and tells her she is idle though she thinkes on her nearest businesse and dearest happinesse If it be in the morning there is a bargaine of profit imposed on her and this lot of bricke must be made that day and about it must the soule goe being pierced throgh with the thorns of covetousnesse by the violent hand of her false husband that she may have no leisure respiration or rest And if at night the soule be weary of this dayes worke and would faine goe to bed with the body the night is lusts day as it is the Owles for both are blinde and then there is a wife whose husband is from home and the poore soule being a spirit must crafficke in this errand for the flesh to make a wary but a wicked meeting betweene her owne lewd husband and another mans wife and while she plots it she doth a worke of slavery and when she hath done it she shall have no other but the wages of misery But endlesse were it to set forth the whole story of this Aegyptian bondage Let the carnall man reade over the story of his owne life and he may see the one in the other And all being summed together amounts to this that the marriage betweene the soule and lust is monstrous as betweene a woman and a beast slavish as betweene a woman and a tyrant mischievous and mortall