poverty of spirit under-values himselfe and makes no shew of ought but a bemoaned disability as wee have seen those grounds wherein the richest Mines are treasured bewray nothing but barrennesse in their outside O my soul what estimation soever others may set upon thee thou art conscious enough of thy owne wants be thankfull for the little thou hast and abased for the much thou lackest and if thou wilt needs bee advancing thy selfe above others let it be in the contestation of thy greater humblenesse and lower dejection Thy grace shall be no lesse because thou thinkst it so but shall rather multiply by a modest diminution And O Blessed Lord thou who resistest the proud and givest grace to the humble give me more humility that I may receive more grace from thee and thou whose gracious raine shelves downe from the steep mountains and sweetly drenches the humble vallies depresse thou my heart more and more with true lowliness of Spirit that the showers of thy heavenly grace may soke into it and make it more fruitfull in all good affections and all holy obedience Soliloq LIII The happiest Society I Finde O Lord some holy men that have gone aside from the world into some solitary wildernesse that they might have their ful scope of enjoying thee freely without any secular avocations who no doubt improved their perfect leisure to a great entirenesse of conversation with thee Surely I could easily admire the report of their holinesse and emulate their mortified retirednesse if I did not hear them say The Woolfe dwels in the Wood and that they could as soone leave themselves as the World behind them There is no Desart so wild no Mountaines or Rockes so craggy wherein I would not gladly seeke thee O my God and which I would not willingly climbe up to finde thee if I could hope that solitude would yeeld a spirituall advantage of more enjoying thee But alas I find our weak powers are subject to an unavoidable lassitude and wee can no more contemplate alwaies those divine Objects than our bodily eyes are able to fix themselves on the body of the Sun in his brightest splendor so as if our mindes should not bee sometime taken off with a safe variety of Cogitations wee should be overwhelmed with thy Glory and with too much light blinded by this meanes it comes to pass that these small interspirations set an edge upon our re-assumed speculations and renewed Devotions Although also in the mean time I should hate all secular diversions if they should take thee for a moment quite out of my sight If I did not finde that I may still refer them to thee and enjoy thee in them O God doe thou so fix my soul upon thee that what ever occasion shall take me up I may never be out of thy blessed society and make me so insensible of the noise of the world that even in the midst of the Market I may bee still alone with thee Soliloq LIV. Honey from the Rock O God thou didst miraculously refresh thy murmuring Israel of old with water out of the Rock in that dry wildernesse and now I hear thee say If they had hearkened to thy voice and walked in thy waies with honey out of the Rock thou wouldst have satisfied them Loe that which thou wouldest have done to thine ancient people if they had obeyed thee thou hast abundantly performed to thine Evangelicall Israel With Hony out of the Rock hast thou satisfied them The Rock that followed them was Christ my Saviour Lo out of this Rock hath flowed that hony whereby our soules are satisfied Out of his side saith the Evangelist came water and blood This Rock of our salvation affordeth both what Israel had and might have had Surely O my God there can be no hony so sweet as the effect of the precious bloud of my Saviour to the soul of the Beleever By that bloud we have eternall redemption from death and Remission of all our sinnes By that bloud are we justified in the sight of our God and saved from the wrath to come By that bloud we have our Peace made in Heaven and are fully reconciled to our God By that blood wee are cleansed and purged from all our iniquity By that bloud we are sanctified from our Corruptions By that blood we receive the Promise and possession of an eternall inheritance O the spirituall Hony so sweet that the materiall Hony is but bitternesse to it Jonathan of old did but dip his Speare in the honey of the wood and but with one licke of that sweet moisture had his eies cleared and his spirits revived O God let me but taste and see how sweet the Lord Jesus is in all his gracious Promises in all his mercifull and reall Performances I shall need no more to make me happy Thy Solomon bids me to eat honey Lo this is the honey that I desire to eat of Give me of this honey and I shall receive both clearnesse to my eies and vigour of my spirits to the foiling of all my spirituall enemies This is nothe honey whereof I am bidden not to eate too much No Lord I can never eat enough of this Celestiall honey Here I cannot surfet Or if I could this surfet would be my health O God give me still enough of this honey out of the Rocke so shall my soul live and bless thee and bee blessed of thee Soliloq LV Sure Earnest O My God what a comfortable assurance is this which thou hast given to my soule Thou hast in thy great mercy promised and agreed to give me heaven and now because thou dost not put me into a present possession thou hast given me earnest of my future inheritance and this earnest is that good Spirit of thine which thou hast graciously put into my soule Even we men whose stile is deceitfull upon the ballance think our selves sure when in civill transactions we have received an earnest of the bargaine and much more when we have taken that small piece of coine as part of the bargained payment How then can I fear to fail thee my God whose Title is faithfull and True whose Word is Yea and Amen It is ordinary with the World to cheat my soule with fair promises and faithlesse engagements of yielding me those contentments which it neither can nor meant to performe But for thee O Lord heaven and earth shall passe away but not one jot of thy Word shall passe unfulfilled Hadst thou then but given mee that Word of thine I durst have set my soul upon it with all firme confidence but now that thou hast seconded thy Word with thy Earnest what place can be left for my doubt What then what is it that thou canst sticke at O my soul Canst thou make question of the truth of the Earnest Thou knowest that thou canst not the stamp is too well known to be misdoubted the impressions are
from all these earthly vanities and fix it above with thee As there shall bee no end of my being so let there bee no change of my affections Let them before-hand take possession of that heaven of thine whereto I am aspiring Let nothing but this clay of mine bee left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is mouldring Let my spirituall part bee ever with thee whence it came and enter upon that blisse which knows neither change nor end Soliloq VII Trust upon Triall WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world which both produceth them to their being and over-rules and carries them on to and in their dissolution without their knowledge or intended cooperation but for those whom God hath indued with the faculty of ratiocination how easie is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with them how that all-wise God contrives their affaires and events quite beyond and above the power of their weak projections how he prevents their Desires how he fetches about inexpected and improbable occurrences to their hinderance or advantage sometimes blessing them with successe beyond all their hopes sometimes blasting their projects when their blossomes are at the fairest Surely if I looke onely in a dull stupidity upon the outsides of all accidents that befall me and not improve my reason and faith to discerne and acknowledge that invisible power that orders them to his owne and their ends I shall bee little better than bruitish and if upon the observation of all that good hand of God sensibly leading mee on in all the waies of my younger and riper age in so many feeling and apparent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my daies and the happy close of that life which he hath so long and mercifully preserved the favours of a bountifull God shall have been cast away upon a barren and unthankfull heart O God I am such as thou hast made me make up thy good worke in me and keep me that I do not marre my selfe with my wretched unbeliefe I have tryed thee to the full Oh that I could cast my selfe wholly upon thee and trust thee both with my body and soule for my safe passage to that blessed home and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory in thine Soliloq VIII Angelicall Familiarity THere is no reason to induce a man to thinke that the good Angels are not as assiduously present with us for our good as the evill Angels are for our hurt since we know that the evill spirits cannot bee more full of malice to work our harm than the blessed Angels are full of charity wel-wishing to mankinde and the evill are only let loose to tempt us by a permission of the Almighty wheras the good are by a gracious delegation from God encharged with our custody Now that the evill spirits are ever at hand ready upon all occasions to present their services to us for our furtherance to mischiefe appeares too plainly in their continuall temptations which they inject into our thoughts in their reall and speedy operations with the spels and charmes of their wicked Clients which are no lesse effectually answered by them immediately upon their practice than naturall causes are by their ordinary and regular productions It must needs follow therefore that the good Angels are as close to us and as inseparable from us and though we see neither yet hee that hath spirituall eyes perceives them both and is accordingly affected to their presence If then wicked men sticke not to goe so far as to endanger and draw on their owne damnation by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits Why should not I for the unspeakable advantage of any soule affect an awfully-familiar Conversation with those blessed Angels which I know to be with me The language of spirits are thoughts Why doe not I entertaine them in my secret cogitations and hold an holy discourse with them in mentall allocutions and so carry my selfe as that I may ever hold faire correspondence with those invisible companions and may expect from them all gracious offices of holy motions carefull protection and at last an happy conveyance to my glory O my soule thou art a Spirit as they are doe thou ever see them as they see thee and so speak to them as they speake to thee and blesse thy God for their presence and tuition and take heed of doing ought that may cause those heavenly guardians to turne away their faces from thee as asham'd of their charge Soliloq IX The unanswerable Christian IT is no small griefe to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity to see how utterly unanswerable the greater sort of men that beare the name of Christ are to the example and precepts of that Christ whose name they beare He was humble and meeke they proud and insolent hee bade us love our enemies they hardly can love their friends he prayed for his persecutors they curse hee that had the command of all cared not to possesse any thing they not having right to much would possesse all hee bade us give our Coat also to him that takes our Cloak they take both Coat and Cloake from him that hath it he bade us turne our cheek for the other blow they will bee sure to give two blowes for one he paid obedience to a Foster Father and tribute to Caesar they despise Government his trade was onely doing good spending the night in praying the day in preaching and healing they debauch their time revelling away the night and sleeping away or mispending the day he forbad Oaths they not onely sweare and forsweare but blaspheme too hee bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnes they make Mammon their God hee bade us take up his Crosse they impose their own he bad us lay up our treasure in heaven they place their heaven in earth he bids us give to them that ask they take violently from the owners he bade us return good for evill they for good return evill he charged his Disciples to love one another they nourish malice and rancor against their brethren hee left peace for a Legacy to his followers they are apt to set the world on fire His businesse was to save theirs to destroy O God let rivers of waters run downe mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel Give grace to all that are called by thy name to walke worthy of that high profession wherto they are called And keepe me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed patterne which thou hast set before me Oh let mee never shame that great name that is put upon me Let mee in all things approve my self a Christian in earnest and so conform my selfe to thee in all thy example and commands that it may be no dishonour to thee to owne mee for thine Soliloq X.
Creatures towards their Masters and towards their owne Mates towards their dammes and their young We have plentifull instances of those whom Death could not separate from their beloved Guardians some that have died for their Masters some with them some that have fearlesly hazarded their owne lives for the preservation of their young ones some that have fed their aged dammes with that food which they have spared from their own Mawes Amongst the rest how remarkable is that comparison of thine O Saviour wherein thou wert pleased to set forth thy tender care of thine Israell by the resemblance of an Hen gathering her Chickings under her wings how have I seen that poor Fowl after the patience of a painfull hatching clocking her little brood together and when she hath perceived the Puttock hovering over her head in a varied note calling them hastily under the wing of her protection and there covertly hiding them not from the Talons onely but from the eye of that dangerous enemy till the perill hath been fully over after which she calls them forth to their liberty and repast and with many a carefull scrape discovers to them such grains of food as may bee fit for them contenting her self to carve for them with neglect of her owne sustenance O God thou who hast wrought in thy silly creatures such an high measure of indulgence and dearnes of respect towards their tender brood how infinitely is thy love and compassion towards the children of men the great Master-peece of thy Creation How past the admiration of men and Angels is that transcendent proof of thy divine love in the more than marvelous work of our Redemption How justly glorifiable is thy name in the gracious and sometimes miraculous preservation of thy Children In the experience whereof if I forbeare to magnifie thee or dare not to trust thee how can I be but unworthy to bee owned of thee or blessed by thee Soliloq LXIX Choice of Seasons HOw regularly O God hast thou determined a set season for all thy Creatures both for their actions and their use The Storke in the heaven saith thy Prophet Jeremy knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow observe the time of their comming Who hath seen the * Stork before the Calends of August or a Swallow in the Winter Who hath heard the Nightingale in the heat of harvest or the Bittern bearing her base in the coldest Moneths Yea the Fishes in the Sea know and observe their due seasons and present us with their Shoales only when they are wholsome and useful The Herring doth not furnish our Market in the Spring nor the Salmon or Mackerell in Winter Yea the very flies both have and keepe their daies appointed the Silke-worme never looks forth of that little Cell of her Conception till the Mulbery puts forth the leaves for their nourishment and who hath ever seen a Butter-flie or an Harnet in Winter yea there are Flies wee know appropriate to their owne moneths from which they vary not Lastly how plain is this in all the severall varieties of Trees Flowers Herbes The Almond tree looks out first the Mulberry last of all other The Tulip and the Rose and all other the sweet Ornaments of the earth are punctuall in their growth and fall But as for Man O God thou hast in thy infinite VVisdome indued him with that power of reason whereby he may make choice of the fittest seasons of all his actions Thou that hast appointed a time for every purpose under heaven hast given him wit to finde and observe it Even lawfull acts unseasonably done may turne evill and acts indifferent seasonably performed may prove good and laudable The best improvement of morality or civility may shame us if due time bee not as well regarded as substance Onely Grace Piety true Vertue can never be unseasonable There are no seasons in Eternity There shall bee one uniforme and constant act of glorifying thee Thy Angels and Saints praise thee above without change or intermission The more we can do so on earth the nearer shall wee approach to those blessed Spirits O God let my heart be wholly taken up evermore with an adoration of thine infinite Majesty and let my mouth bee ever sounding forth of thy praise and let the Hosannahs and Hallelujahs which I begin here know no measure but Eternity Soliloq LXX The happy return home EVery Creature naturally affects a return to the originall whence it first came The Pilgrim though faring well abroad yet hath a longing homeward Fountaines and Rivers run back with what speed they may to the Sea whence they were derived all compound bodies return to their first Elements The vapors rising up from the earth and waters and condenss'd into clouds fall down again to the same earth whence they were exhaled This body that we beare about us returnes at last to that dust whereof it was framed And why then O my soul dost not thou earnestly desire to returne home to the God that made thee Thou knowest thy Originall is heavenly why are not thy affections so What canst thou finde here below worthy to either withdraw or detain thee from those heavenly Mansions Thou art here in a Region of sin of misery and death Glory waites for thee above Fly then O my soul fly hence to that blessed immortality If not as yet in thy dissolution for which thou must waite on the pleasure of thy deare Maker redeemer yet in thy thoughts in thy desires and affections soar thou up thither and converse there with that blessed God and Father of Spirits with those glorious Orders of Angels and with the soules of just men made perfect And if the necessity of these bodily affairs must needs draw thee off for a time let it bee not without reluctation and hearty unwillingnesse and with an eager appetite of quick returne to that Celestiall society It will not be long ere thou shalt bee blessed with a free and uninterrupted fruition of that glorious Eternity In the meane time doe thou prepossesse it in thy heavenly dispositions and contemning this earth wherewith thou art clogged aspire to thy heaven and be happy Soliloq LXXI The confinements of Age DOst thou not observe O my soule how time and age confines and contracts as our bodies so our desires and motions here upon earth still into narrower compasses VVhen we are young the world is but little enough for us after wee have seen our own Island wee affect to crosse the Seas and to climbe over Alpes and Pyrennes and never thinke we have roved far enough VVhen we grow ancient wee begin to bee well-pleased with rest now long and unnecessary journeyes are laid aside If businesse call us forth wee go because we must As for the visits of friendship one Sun is enough to measure them with our returnes And still the older we grow the more we are devoted to our home there we
and attend upon the Throne of thy Majesty the thousand thousands of thy blessed Angels Arch-angels Cherubim Seraphin Thrones Principalities Dominions which in thy presence enjoy a bliss next to infinite any one of which if wee could see him were enough to kill us with his glory Not one of those millions of mighty spirits but were able to destroy a World Oh then how infinitely transcendent is that power of thine which hast both created all this heavenly Hierarchy and so movest in them that onely in and by thee they are thus potent Yea Lord let me but cast mine eies downe to this earth I tread upon and view thy wonders in the deep how manifestly do these proclame thy divine Omnipotence When I see this vaste Globe of earth and waters dreadfully hanging in the midst of a liquid Air upheld by nothing but by the powerfull word When I see the rage of the swelling waves naturally higher than the shores they beat upon restrained to their bounds by thine over-ruling command When I see the earth beautifully garnished with marvailous variety of trees herbs flowers richly stuffed with precious metals stones minerals When I see besides a world of men the numberless choice and differences of the substance formes colours dispositions of Beasts fowles fishes wherewith these lower Elements are peopled how can I be but dissolved into wonder of thine Almighty power SECT. IV. NEither is thy power O God either more or more thy selfe than thy Wisdome which is no lesse essentiall to thee than infinite What have we to doe silly and shallow wretches with that incomprehensible wisdom which is intrinsecall to thy divine Nature the body of that Sunne is not for our weak eies to behold it is enough for mee if I can but see some raies of that heavenly light which shines forth so gloriously upon thy creature in the framing and governing whereof whether thy Power or Wisdome did and doe more exhibite it selfe thou only canst judge O the divine Architecture of this goodly Fabricke of Heaven and Earth raised out of nothing to this admirable perfection What stupendious artifice of composition is here What exquisite symmetrie of parts what exact Order of Degrees what marvailous analogie betwixt beasts fishes plants the natives of both Elements Oh what a comprehensive reach is this of thine Omniscience which at once in one act beholdest all the actions and events of all the creatures that were are or shall be in this large Universe What a contrivance of thine eternall Counsell which hast most wisely and holily ordered how to dispose of every Creature thou hast made according to the pleasure of thy most just will VVhat a sway of Providence is this that governes the world over-ruling the highest and stooping to the meanest peece of thy Creation concurring with and actuating the motions and operations of all second causes of whatsoever is done in heaven or in earth Yea Lord how wonderfull are those irradiations of knowledge and wisdome which thou hast beamed forth upon thine intelligent creatures both Angels and men As for those Celestiall spirits which see thy face continually it is no marvaile if they be illuminated in a degree farre above humane apprehension but that the rationall soule of man even in this woefull pilgrimage below notwithstanding the opacity of that earth wherewith it is encompassed should bee so far enlightned as that it is able to know all the motions of the Heavens the magnitudes and distances of Starres the natures properties influences of the Planets the instant of the Eclipses Conjunctions and severall Aspects of those Celestiall bodies that it can discover the secret Treasures of Earth and Sea and knowes to unlock all the close Cabinets both of art and nature O God what is this but some little gleame of that pure and glorious light which breakes forth from thine infiniteness upon thy creature Yet were the knowledge of all men on earth and all the Angels in heaven multiplied a thousand fold how unable were it being united together to reach unto the height of thy divine Counsels to fadome the bottome of thy most wise and holy Decrees so as they must bee forced to cry out with that Saint of thine who was rapt into the third heaven O the depth of the riches both of the VVisdome and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his waies past finding out SECT. V. BUt with what a trembling adoration O my soul must thou needs look upon the infinite Justice of thy God whose inviolable rule is to render to every man according to his workes Alas the little good thou wert able to do hath been allayed with so many and great imperfections that it can expect no retribution but displeasure and for the many evills whereof thou art guilty what canst thou look for but the wages of sinne Death not that temporary and naturall only which is but a separation of thee a while from thy load of earth but the spirituall and eternall separation from the presence of thy God whose very want is the height of torments Lo whatever become of thee God must be himselfe In vain shouldst thou hope that for thy selfe he will abate ought of his blessed Essence of his sacred Attributes That righteous doome must stand The soule that sinnes shall die Hell claimes his due Justice must bee satisfied where art thou now O my soul what canst thou now make account of but to despair and die surely in thy self thou art lost there is no way with thee but utter perdition But looke up O soul look up above the Hils whence commeth thy salvation see the heavens opening upon thee see what reviving and comfortable raies of grace and mercy shine forth unto thee from that excellent glory and out of that heavenly light hear the voice of thy blessed Saviour saying to thee O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thy helpe Even so O Jesu in thee onely in thee is my helpe wretched man that I am in my selfe I stand utterly forfeited to death and hell it is thou that hast redeemed me with no lesse ransome than thy precious bloud Death was owing by me by thee it was payed for me so as now my debt is fully discharged and my soule clearly acquitted Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Lo now the rigor of thine inviolable justice is taken off by thine infinite mercy the sum that I could never pay is by the power of that faith which thou hast wrought in me set off to my all-sufficient surety by thy divine goodnesse graciously accepted as mine I have paid it in him he hath paid it for me Thy justice is satisfied thy debtor freed and thy mercy magnified SECT VI THere are no bounds to bee set unto thy thoughts O my soul since whatsoever thy God
either is or hath done comes within thy prospect There besides the great worke of his Creation thou maiest dwell upon the no lesse almighty worke of his Administration of this universall world whereof the preservation and government is no lesse wonderfull than the frame there thou shalt see the marvelous subordination of creatures some made to rule others to obey the powerfull influences of the Celestiall bodies upon the Inferiour the continuall transmutation of elements forsaking their own places and natures to serve the whole formes dying matter perpetuall all things maintained by a friendly discord of humors out of which they are raised the circular revolution of fashions occurrences events the different and opposite dispositions of men over-ruled to such a temper that yet government is continued in the hands of few society and commerce with all shortly all Creatures whiles they doe either naturally or voluntarily act their own part doing unawares the will of their Creator But that which may justly challenge thy longer stay and greater wonder is the more-than-transcendent worke of mans Redemption the mysteries whereof the holy Angels have desired to look into but could never yet sufficiently conceive or admire That the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory Coeternall Coequall to his Father God blessed for ever should take upon him an estate lower than their own should cloath his Deity with the ragges of our flesh should stoop to weake and miserable man-hood and in that low and despicable condition should submit himselfe to hunger thirst wearinesse temptation of Devils despight of men to the cruelty of tormentors to agonies of soule to the pangs of a bitter ignominious cursed death to the sense of his Fathers wrath for us wretched sinners that had made our selves the worst of Creatures enemies to God slaves to Satan is above the reach of all finite apprehension O never-to-bee-enough-magnified mercy Thou didst not O Saviour when thou sawest mankind utterly lost and forlorn content thy selfe to send down one of thy Cherubim or Seraphin or some other of thy heavenly Angels to undertake the great work of our deliverance as wel knowing that taske too high for any created power but wouldst out of thine infinite love and compassion vouchsafe so to abase thy blessed selfe as to descend from the Throne of thy Celestiall glory to this Dungeon of earth and not leaving what thou hadst and what thou wast to assume what thou hadst not man and to disparage thy selfe by being one of us that wee might become like unto thee co-heirs of thy glory and blessednesse Thou that art the eternall Sonne of God wouldst condescend so low as to be man that wee who are wormes and no men might bee advanced to bee the Sonnes of God thou wouldst bee a servant that wee might reigne thou wouldst expose thy self to the shame and disgrace of thy vile Creatures here that thou mightst raise us up to the height of heavenly honour with thee our God and thy holy Angels thou wouldst dye for a while that we might live eternally Pause here a while O my soule and do not wish to change thy thoughts neither earth nor heaven can yeild thee any of higher concernment of greater comfort Onely withall behold the glorious person of that thy blessed Mediator after his victories over death and hell sitting triumphant in all the Majesty of heaven adored by all those millions of Celestiall Spirits in his glorified humanity and what thou maist enjoy the vision of him by faith till thou shalt be everlastingly blessed with a cleare and present intuition Long after that day and be ever carefull in the meane time to make thy self ready for so infinite an happinesse SECT. VII ANd now O my soul having left below thee all the triviall vanities of Earth and fixed thy selfe so farre as thy weak eies will allow thee upon thy God and Saviour in his Almighty works and most glorious Attributes it will be time for thee and will not a little conduce to thy further addresse towards blessednesse to fasten thy selfe upon the sight of the happy estate of the Saints above who are gone before thee to their bliss and have through Gods mercy comfortably obtained that which thou aspirest unto thou that wert guided by their example bee likewise heartned by their successe thou art yet a Traveller they comprehensors thou art panting towards that rest which they most happily enjoy thou art sweating under the crosse whiles they sit crowned in an heavenly magnificence See the place wherein they are the heaven of heavens the paradise of God infinitely resplendent infinitely delectable such as no eye can behold and not be blessed shouldst thou set thy Tabernacle in the midst of the Sun thou couldst not but bee encompassed with marvailous light yet even there it would bee but as midnight with thee in comparison of those irradiations of glory which shine forth above in that Empyreall Region For thy God is the Sun there by how much therefore those divine raies of his exceed the brightest beams of his Creature so much doth the beauty of that heaven of the blessed surpasse the created light of this inferior starry firmament Even the very place contributes not a little to our joy or misery It is hard to bee merry in a Goale and the great Persian Monarch thought it very improper for a Courtier to bee of a sad countenance within the verge of so great a Royalty The very devils conceive horror at the apprehension of the place of their torment and can beseech the over-ruling power of thy Saviour not to command them to go out into the deep No man can be so insensate to thinke there can bee more dreadfulnesse in the place of those infernall tortures than there is pleasure and joy in the height of that sphere of blessednesse sith we know wee have to doe with a God that delights more in the prosperity of his Saints than in the cruciation and howling of his enemies How canst thou then O my soule bee but wholly taken up with the sight of that celestiall Jerusalem the beautious City of thy God the blessed Mansions of glorified Spirits Surely if earth could have yeelded any thing more faire and estimable than gold pearles precious stones it should have been borrowed to resemble these supernall habitations but alas the lustre of these base materials doth but darken the resplendence of those divine excellencies With what contempt now dost thou looke downe upon those muddy foundations of earth which the low spirits of worldlings are wont to admire and how feelingly dost thou blesse and emulate the spirits of just men made perfect who are honoured with so blisfull an habitation But what were the place O my soule how goodly glorious soever in it self if it were not for the presence of him whose being there makes it heaven Lo there the Throne of that heavenly Majesty which filling and comprehending the large circumference of
I pray not for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their Word That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be One in us And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may bee one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may bee made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me I know thou couldst not but be heard in all that thou prayed'st and therefore I take what thou suedst for as done Lord I do beleeve in thee unite thou me to thee make me one spirit with thee It is no presumption to sue and hope for what thou hast prayed for and promised to performe Oh make mee according to the capability of my weake humanitie partaker of thy divine nature Vouchsafe to allow me even me poor wretched soul to say of thee I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine And by vertue of this indissoluble union why shouldst thou not O my soule finde thy selfe endowed with a blessed participation of that heavenly life and glory which is in and with him In that thou art united to thy body thou impartest to it vegetation sense motion and givest it a share in the exercise of all thy noble faculties how much more entire and beneficiall is the spirituall union of thy God and thee Alas that bond of naturall conjunction is easily dissolved by ten thousand waies of death this heavenly knot is so fast tied that all the powers of hell cannot unloose it And the blessings communicated to thee by this divine match are so much more excellent as the infinite giver of them is above thy meanenesse Lo now thou art actually interessed in all that thy God is or hath his kingdome is thine his glorie is thine to all eternitie SECT. XII ANd what now can follow O my soule upon the apprehension of thus enjoying the presence of thy God and the vision of so blessed an object and thine union with him and participation of him but a sensible ravishment of Spirit with a joy unspeakable and full of glorie Heretofore if some great friend should have brought mee to the Court and having shew'd me the splendor and magnificence of that seat of Majesty should have brought mee in to the sight of his Royal person and should have procured me not onely a familiar conference with him but the entire affection of a favourite and from thence there should have been heaped upon me Titles of honour and large revenues and yet higher a consociation of Princely dignitie How should I have been transported with the sense of so eminent an advancement how great and happie should I have seemed not more in others eies than in my own what big thoughts had hereupon swolne up my heart in the daies of my vanitie But alas what poor things are these in comparison of those heavenly promotions I might have been brought into the stateliest Court of this World and have been honoured not only with the presence but the highest favours of the best and greatest of Kings and yet have been most miserable Yea which of those Monarchs that have the command and dispensation of all greatness can secure himselfe from the saddest infelicities But these spiritual prerogatives are above the reach of all possible miserie and can and do put thee in some degree into an unfailing possession both reall and personall of eternall blessednesse I cannot wonder that Peter when with the other two Disciples upon Mount Tabor he saw the glorious transfiguration of my Saviour was out of himself for the time and knew not what he said yet as not thinking himselfe and his partners any otherwaies concerned than in the sight of so heavenly a vision he mentions onely three Tabernacles for Christ Moses Elias none for themselves it was enough for him if without doors he might be still blessed with such a prospect But how had he been wrapt from himselfe if he had found himselfe taken into the society of this wondrous transformation and interessed in the communion of this glory Thy renovation and the power of thy faith O my soul puts thee into that happy condition thou art spiritually transfigured into the similitude of thy blessed Saviour shining with his righteousness and holiness so as he is glorified in thee and thou in him Glorified not in the fulnesse of that perfection which will be but in the pledge and earnest of what shall and must bee hereafter O then with what unspeakable joy and jubilation dost thou entertaine thy happinesse How canst thou containe thy selfe any longer within these bounds of my flesh when thou feelest thy selfe thus initiated into glory Art thou in heaven and know'st it not Know'st thou not that hee who is within the entry or behinde the screen is as trulie within the house as he that walkes in the Hall or sits in the parlour And canst thou pretend to bee within the verge of heaven and not rejoyce What is that makes heaven but joy and felicity thy very thought cannot separate these two no more than it can sever the Sun and light For both these are equally the originals and fountaines of light and joy from whence they both flow and in which both are complete there is no light which is not derived from the Sun no true joy but from heaven as therefore the nearer to the body of the Sun the more light and heat so the nearer to heaven the more excesse of joy And certainly O my soul there is nothing but infidelity can keepe thee from an exuberance of joy and delight in the apprehension of heaven Can the wearie Traveller after he hath measured many tedious miles and passed many dangers both by sea and land and felt the harsh entertainements of a stranger chuse but rejoyce to draw near in his returne to a rich and pleasant home Can the Ward after an hard pupillage chuse but rejoyce that the day is comming wherein he shall freely enjoy all his Lordly revenues and roialties Can a Joseph chuse but finde himself inwardly joyed when out of the dungeon he shall be called up not to liberty only but to honour and shall be arraied with a vesture of fine Linnen and graced with Pharaoh's ring and chain and set in his second Chariot and in the next chair to the throne of Egypt And canst thou apprehend thy selfe now approaching to the glorie of the heaven of heavens a place and state of so infinite contentment and happinesse and not be extasied with joy There there shalt thou O my soule enjoy a perfect rest from all thy toiles cares fears there shalt thou find a true vitall life free from all the incombrances of thy miserable pilgrimage free from the dangers of either sins or temptations free from all anxiety and
Hellish Hostility I Cannot but observe how universall it is in all kindes for one creature to prey upon another the greater fishes devoure the lesse the birds of Rapine feed upon the smaller Foules the ravenous wild beasts sustaine themselves with the flesh of the weaker and tamer cattle the Dog pursues the Hare the Cat the Mouse Yea the very Moale under the earth hunts for the worm and the Spider in our Window for the flye Whether it pleased God to ordain this antipathy in nature or whether mans sin brought this enmity upon the creature I enquire not this I am sure of that both God hath given unto man the Lord of this inferiour world leave and power to prey upon all these his fellow-creatures and to make his use of them both for his necessity and lawfull pleasure and that the God of this world is only hee that hath stirred up men to prey upon one another some to eat their flesh as the savage Indians others to destroy their lives estates good names this proceedes only from him that is a murtherer from the beginning O my soule doe thou mourne in secret to see the great enemy of mankinde so wofully prevalent as to make the earth so bloody a shambles to the sons of men and to see Christians so outragiously cruell to their own flesh And O thou that art the Lord of Hosts and the God of peace restraine thou the violent fury of those which are called by thy name and compose these unhappy quarrels amongst them that should be brethren Let me if it may stand with thy blessed will once again see peace smile ore the earth before I come to see thy face in glory Soliloq XI False Joy AMongst these publicke blusters of the World I finde many men that secretly applaud themselves in the conceit of an happy peace which they find in their bosom Where all is calme and quiet no distemper of passions no fear of evill no sting of remorse no disturbance of doubts but all smoothnesse of brow and all tranquility of minde whose course of life yet without any great enquiry hath appeared to bee not over-strict and regular I hear them boast of their Condition without any envy of their happinesse as one that had rather heare them complaine of their inward unquietnesse than brag of their peace Give me a man that after many secret bickerings and hard conflicts in his breast upon a serious penitence and sense of reconciliation with his God hath attained to a quiet heart walking conscionably and close with that Majesty with whom he is attoned I shall bless and emulate him as a meet subject of true joy For spiritually there is never a perfect calme but after a tempest the winde and earthquake and fire make way for the soft voice But I pitty the flatteries and selfe-applauses of a carelesse and impenitent heart This jollity hath in it much danger and without some change death Oh Savior I know thou cam'st to send fire on the earth yea fire into these earthen bosomes whereof the very best hath combustible matter enough for thee to worke upon and what will I thou saist if it be already kindled O blessed Jesu my will agrees with thine I desire nothing in the world more than that this fire of thine may flame up in my soul and burne up those secret corruptions which have lyen smothering within me Set me at full variance with my selfe that I may be at peace with thee Soliloq XII True Light THou hast taught us O Saviour that even the light of man may be darknesse and that the light endarkned causeth the greatest darknesse neither can it be otherwise since the very obscuring of the light maketh some kind of darknesse the utter extinction of it must needs make the darkenesse absolute Now what is darknesse but a meere privation of light There is but a double spirituall light the absence whereof causeth darknesse Thine Evangelist hath justly said of thee Thou art the true light that enlightnest every man that commeth into the world Thy Psalmist hath said of thy Divine Oracles Thy Word is a Lanterne unto my feet and a light unto my steps whosoever wants both or either of these cannot but be in darkness yea his pretended light cannot but be darkness it selfe I see O Lord there is much of this dark light in the World In one I observe a kinde of Glow-wormelight which in a Summers evening shines somewhat bright but he that should offer to light his Candle at it would be much deceived this is justly a darke light since it shines not at all by day neither is at all communicable to another no not to the bearer it selfe In another I see the light of a dark Lantern which casts out some Gleams of light but only to him that bears it even this mans light is darknesse also to all the world besides himselfe In a third I see a resemblance of that meteoricall light which appears in Moorish places that seems fire but is nothing but a slimy glittering exhalation causing both the wonder and errour of the Travailer leading him through the impulsive motion of the air into a Ditch and of this kind I find too much variety all of them agreeing in this that they pretend Visions and Revelations of the Spirit even for contrary projections O Saviour what light soever is not derived from thee is no better than darknesse Thou hast sufficiently revealed thy selfe and thy will to us in thy Word as for any new lights except it be a clearer manifestation of the old O Lord give me the grace not to follow them I finde a double light to proceed from thee one which is a generall light that enlightens every man that comes into the world the other a speciall light of thy spirit illuminating the soul of every beleever with a right apprehension of thee and heavenly things O do thou shine into my soule with this heavenly light of thine and if this bee not enough to make me happy without the acceâ—sion and with the rejection of other new lights let mee sit in perpetuall darknesse Soliloq XIII Bosome-Discourse O Lord if I had the skill and grace to be ever communing with my owne heart and with thee I should never want either worke or company never have cause to complaine of solitarinesse or tedious houres For there is no time wherein there is not some maine business to be done between thee and my soul one while finding my heart dull and stupid I should have cause to rowse it up by some quickning meditation another while finding it dejected with some inexpected Crosse I should be chearing it up with some comfortable Applications One while finding it distracted with some scrupulous doubts I should be labouring to settle it in just resolutions another while perceiving it to incline towards idle thoughts I should bee cheeking it with a seasonable reprehension One while finding it faint
and flacke in holy duties I should chide it into a more sensitive vigour another while finding it more cheerfull in the performances of Devotion I should encourage it with the assurance of a gracious acceptation One while I should find cause to fortifie it against temptations another while to erect it after a foile one while to Conflict another to Triumph One while to examine my condition another while either to deplore or congratulate it One while I should finde time to sue to thee my God for the supply of some want another while to blesse thee for favours received One while to bemoane my wretchednesse another while to adore thy infinite greatness One while to renew my vowes another while to beg pardon for my omissions One while to seeke thee with teares and due Humiliation another while to rejoyce in thy great salvation The varieties of my ever-changing condition whiles I am in this vale of misery cannot want the perpetuall imployment of a busie soule O God let me be dumbe to all the world so as I may ever have a tongue for thee and my owne heart Soliloq XIV The insensible Fetters WHat a subtile Devill wee have to deale with He will be sure to give the sinner line enough so he may be sure to hold him he shall have his full scope and freedom to all honest and religious practices so as by some one secret sin that evill spirit may have power over his soul both to ensnare and retaine it Hee cares not how godly we seem how conscionable we are in all other actions so as he may still in one dear sinne keep us fast intangled Wherupon it often comes to pass that not onely the eyes of the World but even our own are too often deceived in the judgement of our spirituall estate We profess strict holiness and give good proofes upon occasion of a tender and well-guided Conscience so as this glorious shew wins us the reputation of rare vertue and exemplary piety yet still that wicked Devill hath a tie upon our heel there is some peccadillio of smothered lust or concealed pride or zealous cruelty and uncharitableness that gives him the command of our soules at pleasure and this shall no less fetch us within his power and mercy than if we were lockt up under a thousand chaines O God thou who art infinite both in wisdom and power do thou enable me not only to resist the power but to avoid the wiles of that cunning Spirit let me give him no advantage by the close entertainment of any bosome sin Let my holiness and obedience be as universall as either thy commands or his mischievous intentions Soliloq XV Satans prevalence HOw busie and prevalent Satan is in this present age above all former times appeares too plainly in those universall broiles and combustions which he hath raised all the world over whereof no nation of the whole knowne habitable earth is at this day free in the strange number and variety of Sects Schismes Heresies set on foot by him every where the like whereof were never heard of in the preceding times of the Church in the rifenesse of bold and professed Atheisme and most clearly in the marveilous multitude of Witches abounding in all parts Heretofore one of those Clients of Hell in a whole Country was hooted at as a strange Monster now hundreds are discovered in one shire and if Fame deceive us not in a village of fourteen houses in the North parts are found so many of this damned breed heretofore onely some barbarous and wild Deserts or some rude uninhabited Coasts as of Lapland and Finland c. were thought to bee haunted with such mis-creant guests now the civillest and most religious parts are frequently pestered with them heretofore some silly poore and ignorant old women were thus deluded by that Infernall impostor now we have known those of both sexes which have professed much knowledge holiness devotion drawne into this damnable practice What shall we say to all these over-pregnant proofes of the unusually prevailing power of hell Certainly either Satan is now let loose according to the prediction of the holy Evangelist in Pathmos towards the end of the world Or because he finds his time but short hee rageth thus extremely as if what he must lack in time he would make up in fury But oh blessed God thine infinite wisdome and omnipotence knows how to make a just advantage of that increased power and successe which thou hast permitted to this great enemy of mankind Thy Justice is hereby magnified in thy just judgements upon the wicked and thy mercy in the gaine that hence accrues to thy chosen for certainly thy true Saints would not be so eminently holy if Satan were not so malicious Thou who in naturall causes are wont to work by contraries so as inward heat is ordinarily augmented by the extremity of an ambient cold canst and wilt doe so much more in spirituall What thy visible Church loseth in the number of formall professors is abundantly made up in the vigorous graces of thy reall Saints Still and ever doe thou so order and over-rule these busie workings of the powers of darknes that thou maiest repay thine unreclaimeable enemies with judgements and heighten the piety vigilancy and zeale of thy faithfull ones Soliloq XVI Leasurely growth WEE are all commonly impatient of leasure and apt to over-hasten the fruition of those good things wee affect one would have wealth but he would not be too long in getting it hee would have golden showres raine downe into his lap on the suddaine Another would bee wise and learned yet hee cannot abide to stay for gray haires or to spend too much oile in his tedious lucubrations One would be free but he would not weare out an Apprentiship Another would bee honourable but he would neither serve long nor hazard much One would be holy but he would not wait too long at the door-posts of Gods house nor lose too many houres in the exercise of his stinted Devotions Another would be happy but he would leape into heaven suddainly not abiding to thinke of a leasurely towring up thither by a thousand degrees of ascent in the slow proficiency of grace Whereas the great God of Heaven that can doe all things in an instant hath thought good to produce all the effects of naturall agency not without a due succession of time When I looke into my Garden there I see first a small spire looke out of the earth which in some moneths time growes into a stalke then after many daies expectation branches forth into some leaves at last appeares the hope of a floure which ripened with many Sunnes and Showres arises to its perfection and at last puts forth its seed for a succeeding multiplication If I looke into my Orchard I see the well-grafted Siens yield first a tender Bud it self after many yeeres is bodied to a solid stock and under the patience of many hard Winters
are thy workes in wisedome hast thou made them all Soliloq XXIII The Bodies subjection BOdily exercise saith the Apostle profits little Little sure in respect of any worth that it hath in it selfe or any thanke that it can expect from the Almighty For what is it to that good and great God whether I be full or fasting whether I wake or sleepe whether my skinne be smooth or rough ruddy or pale white or discoloured whether my hand be hard with labour or soft with ease whether my bed be hard or yeelding whether my dyet bee course or delicate But though in it selfe it availe little yet so it may bee and hath been and ought to be improved as that it may be found exceedingly beneficiall to the soule Else the same Apostle would not have said I keepe under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any meanes when I have preached to others I my selfe should be a cast-away In all the records of History whom doe we finde more noted for holinesse than those who have been most austere in the restraints of bodily pleasures and contentments In the Mount of Tabor who should meet with our Saviour in his Transfiguration but those two eminent Saints which had fasted an equall number of dayes with himself And our experience tells us that what is detracted from the body is added to the soule For the flesh and spirit are not more partners than enemies one gaines by the others losse The pampering of the flesh is the starving of the soule I finde an unavoidable emulation between these two parts of my selfe O God teach me to hold an equall hand betwixt them both Let me so use them as holding the one my favourite the other my drudge not so humouring the worse part as to discontent the better nor so wholly regarding the better as altogether to discourage the worse Both are thine both by gift and purchase inable thou me to give each of them their Dues so as the one may be fitted with all humble obsequiousnesse to serve the other to rule and command with all just authority and moderation Soliloq XXIV The ground of Vnproficiency WHere there is defect in the Principles there can be no possibility of prevailing in any kinde Should a man be so foolish as to perswade his horse that it is not safe for him to drinke in the extremity of his heate or to advise a child that it is good for him to be whipt or in a case of mortall danger to have a fontinell made in his flesh how fondly should hee mispend his breath bebecause the one wants the faculty the other the use of reason So if a man shall sadly tell a wild sensualist that it is good for him to bear the yoake in his youth that it is meet for him to curbe and cross his unruly appetite that the bitterest cup of afflictions ought to bee freely taken off as the most soveraigne medicine of the soule that wee ought to bleed and die for the name of Christ that all the suffering of the present times are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall bee revealed in us his labour is no lesse lost than if hee had made an eloquent Oration to a deafe man because this carnall hearer lacks that principle of grace and regeneration which onely can enable him to apprehend and relish these divine Counsailes I see O God I see too well how it comes to passe that thy Word sounds so loud and prevailes so little even because it is not joyned with faith in the hearers The right principle is missing which should make the soule capable of thy divine mysteries Faith is no lesse essentiall to the true Christian than reason is to man or sense to beast O doe thou furnish my soule with this heavenly grace of thine and then all thy sacred Oracles shall bee as cleare to my understanding as any visible object is to my sense Soliloq XXV The sure Refuge SUfficient unto the day is the evill thereof saith our Saviour Lo Every day hath its evill and that evill is load enough for the present without the further charge of our anticipated cares Surely the life of man is conflicted with such a world of crosses succeeding each other that if he have not a sure refuge to flee unto he cannot chuse but bee quite over-laid with miseries One while his estate suffers whether through casualty or oppression another while his Children miscarry whether by sicknesse or death or disorder One while his good name is impeached another while his body languishes One while his minde is perplexed with irksome sutes another while his soule is wounded with the sting of some secret sinne One while he is fretted with Domesticall discontents another while distempered with the publike broiles One while the sense of evills torments him another while the expectation Miserable is the case of that man when hee is pursued with whole Troops of Mischiefs hath not a Fort wherein to succour himself and safe and happy is that soule that hath a sure and impregnable hold whereto hee may resort O the noble example of holy David Never man could bee more perplexed than hee was at his Ziklag His City burnt his whole stock plundered his Wives carryed away his people cursing his Souldiers mutining pursued by Saul cast off by the Philistims helplesse hopelesse But David fortified himselfe in the Lord his God There there O Lord is a sure helpe in the time of trouble a safe protection in the time of danger a most certaine remedy of all complaints Let my Dove get once into the holes of that Rock in vaine shall all the birds of prey hover over me for my destruction Soliloq XXVI The light burden WHy do wee complaine of the difficulty of a Christian profession when we heare our Saviour say My yoak is easie and my burden is light Certainely hee that impoposed it hath exactly poised it and knowes the weight of it to the full It is our fault if we make or account that heavy which he knowes to be light If this yoake and burden be heavy to our sullen nature yet to grace they are light If they be heavy to feare yet they are light to love what is more sweet and easie than to love and love is all the burden wee need to take up For love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Evangelicall law is all the burden of my Saviour O blessed Jesu how willingly doe I stoope under thy commands It is no other than my happinesse that thou requirest I shall bee therefore my owne enemy if I be not thy servant Hadst thou not bidden me to love thee to obey thee thine infinite goodness and perfection of divine beauty would have attracted my heart to bee spiritually inamoured of thee now thou bidst me to doe that which I should have wisht to bee commanded how gladly doe I yeeld up my soule to thee Lay
of Christian charity to force upon them due remedies who cannot be sensible of their owne miseries Now having learn'd of the great Doctor of the Gentiles to distinguish man into spirit soule and body whereof the body is as the earthly part the soule as the ethereall the spirit as the heavenly the soul animall the spirit rationall the body meerely organicall it is easie for him to observe that as each of these parts exceeds other in dignity so the distemperatures thereof is so much greater and more dangerous as the part is more excellent When therefore he shall hear the Prophet Hosea say The spirituall man is mad hee cannot thinke that charge lesse than of the worst of phrensies And such indeed they are which have been epidemicall to all times Could they passe for any other than sottishly mad that would worship Cats and Dogs and Serpents so did the old Egyptians who thought themselves the most deeply learned of all nations Could they be lesse mad than they that of the same Tree would make a block for their fire and a God for their Adoration so did Isaiah's Idolaters Could they be any bettter who when they had molten their Earings and with their own hands had shaped a golden Calf could fall down and worship it and say these bee thy Gods O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt so did they which should have knowne themselves Gods peculiar people Could they bee any other than mad men that thought there was one God of the hils another of the vallies so did the Syrian Courtiers Could they bee any other than stark mad that would lance and gash their owne flesh because their Block did not answer them by fire so did the Baalites Lastly could they be other than the maddest of men who would passe their owne Children through the fire and burn them to ashes in a pretence of Devotion so did the Clients of Moloch Yea what speake I of the times of ignorance even since the true light came into the world and since the beams of his glorious Gospel shined on all faces there hath been no lesse need of darke roomes and manicles than before Can we thinke them other than notoriously mad that having good clothes to their backes would needs strip them off and go stark naked so did the Adamites of old about the yeare of our Lord 194. So did certaine Anabaptists of Holland at Amsterdam in the yeer 1535. so did the Cynicall Saint Francis in the streets of Assissium Could they bee other than mad which would worship Cain Iudas the Sodomites So did those good Devotionists which were called Caiani about the yeer 159. Nay were they not worse than mad who if we may beleeve Hosius and Lindanus and Prateolus worshipt the Devill ten times every day so did those Hereticks which were in the last age called Demoniaci Could they be better than mad which held that beasts have Reason as wel as man that the Elements have life that Plants have sense and suffer paine in their cutting up so did the Manichees Could they be other than blasphemously mad that held there are two Gods one good the other evill and that all creatures were made by the latter so did the Gnosticks Were there ever mad men in the World if they were not such who would beseech yea force passengers to doe them the favour to cut their throats in a vain affectation of the praise of Martyrdome so did the Circumcellions a Faction of Donatists in the year 349. But above all other did not those surpass in madnesse who allowed of all Heresies and professed to hold all opinions true so did Rhetorus and his followers St. Augustines Charity sticks at the beleefe of so impossible a Tenet I must crave leave to wonder at his reason For saith hee many opinions being contradictory to cach other no man that is compos mentis can thinke both parts can bee verifiable as if it could be supposed that a Rhetorius thus opening could bee any other than beside all his wits Surely had he been himselfe so impossible an absurdity could not have falne from him neither could any of these fore-cited practises or opinions have been incident into any but braines highly distempered But what doe we raking in the ashes of these old forgotten Lunaticks would to God wee had not work more than enough to looke for the prodigious phrensies of the present age than which there were never since the world began either more or worse Can there be under the cope of heaven a madder man than hee that can deny there is a God such a monster was rare and hooted at in the times of Paganisme The Heathen Orator tels us of but two in those darke ages before him that were so far forsaken of their wits and we know that the old Athenians when a bold Pen durst but question a Deity sentenced the booke to the fire and the Author to exile But now alas I am ashamed to say that this modern age under so clear beames of the Gospel hath bred many professed Atheists who have dared not in their heart onely as in Davids time but with their blasphemous lips to deny the God that made them And are the phrensies of those insolent soules any whit lesse wilde and outragious that dare boast themselves to be God and sticke not to stile themselves absolutely deified avowing that the soule in their body is the onely Christ or God in the flesh That all the acts of their beastly and abominable lusts are the workes of righteousnesse that it is their perfection and the highest pitch of their glory to give themselves up to all manner of abominations without any reluctation that there is no hell but a dislike of and remorse for their greatest villanies Now shew mee amongst the savagest of Pagans any one that hath been thus desperately brain-sick and let me bee branded for a slanderer What should I need to instance in any more or to contract a large Volume of Hereseology In short there is no true Heretick in the world that is not in some degree a mad-man And this spirituall madnesse is so much worse than the naturall as in other regards so especially in this that whereas that distemper of the braine containes it self in its own bounds without any danger of Diffusion to others the spirituall is extreemly contagious spreading its infection to the perill of all that come within the aire of it In this sad case what is to bee done Surely wee may as we doe mourn for the miserable distractions of the world but it is thou onely O Lord that canst heale them O thou that art the great and soveraigne Physician of soules that after seven yeares brutality restoredst the frantick Babylonian to his shape and senses looke downe mercifully upon our Bedleem and restore the distracted World to their right temper once againe as for those that are yet sound keepe
think it to be above When thou art all in all to us what can the knowledge of any creature adde to our blessednesse And if when we casually meet with a Brother or a Son before some great Prince we forbeare the ceremonies of our mutuall respects as being wholly taken up with the awfull regard of a greater presence how much more may we justly think that when wee meet before the glorious Throne of the God of heaven all the respects of our former earthly relations must utterly cease and bee swallowed up of that beatificall presence divine love and infinitely blessed fruition of the Almighty O God it is my great comfort here below to thinke and know that I have parents or children or brothers and sisters or friends already in possession of glory with thee and to believe assuredly that in my time I shall bee received to the association of their blessednesse but if upon the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle I may be admitted to the sight of thy all-glorious essence and may set eye upon the face of my blessed Saviour now sitting at the right hand of thine incomprehensible Majesty attended with those millions of his heavenly Angels I shall neither have need nor use of enquiring after my kindred according to the flesh What can fall into my thoughts or desires beside or beyond that which is infinite Soliloq XXXIV Poor Greatnesse I Cannot but look with much pitty mixed with smiles upon the vaine worldling that sets up his rest in these outward things and so pleases himselfe in this condition as if he thought no man happy but himselfe how high he looks how big he speakes how proudly hee struts with what scorne and insultation doth he look upon my dejectednesse the very language of his eye is no other than contempt seeming to say Base Indigent thou art stript of all thy wealth and honour thou hast neither flocks nor heards nor lands nor mannors nor bagges nor barne-fulls nor titles nor dignities all which I have in abundance no man regards thy meanenesse I am observed with an awfull veneration Be it so great Sir thinke I enjoy you your height of honor and heaps of treasure and ceremonies of state whiles I go shrugging in a thred-bare coat and am glad to feed on single dishes and to sleepe under a thatched roofe But let me tell you set your all against my nothing if you have set your heart upon these gay things were you the heire of all the earth I would be loath to change conditions with your eminence and will take leave to tell you that at your best you shall fall within my commiseration It is not in the power of all your earthly privileges to render you other than a miserable vassall If you have store of gold alas it is but made up into feetters and manicles and what is all your outward bravery but meere matter of opinion I shall shew you an Indian slave that shall no lesse pride himselfe in a Bracelet of Glasse beades that you can in your richest Jewels of Rubies and Diamonds All earthly things are as they are valued The wise and Almighty Maker of these earthen Mines esteemes the best Metals but as thicke Clay and why should we set any other price of them than their Creator And if we be wont to measure the worth of al things by their vertues and uses and operations what is it that your wealth can do Can it free you from cares can it lengthen your sleeps can it keepe you from head-aches from Gouts Dropsies Feavers and other bodily distempers can it ransome you from death can it make your account easier in the great day of reckoning Are you ever the wiser ever the holier ever the quieter for that which you have purchased with teares and blood And were it so precious as you imagine what hold have you of it what assurance to enjoy it or your self but one hour As for despised me I have wealth that you know not of My riches are invisible invaluable interminable God all-sufficient is mine and with him all things My treasure is not lockt up in earth or in heaven but fils both My substance is sure not obnoxious to plunder or loss or diminution No man hath bled no widow or orphan hath wept for my enriching The onely difference is this You are miserable and think your self happy I am happy whom you think miserable How ever our thoughts may beare us out in both for a while yet at the last except truth it selfe can deceive us the issue must fall on my side O God be thou my portion and the lot of mine inheritance let the scum of the world spit in my face as the most despicable of all creatures I am above the despight of men and devils and am secretly happy and shall be eternally glorious Soliloq XXXV Acceptation of Desires WHat a comfort it is to us weake wretches that we have to deal with a mercifull God that measures us not by our performances but by the truth of our desires David had a goodmind to build God an House his hands were too bloody to lay the foundation of so holy a fabrick Yet God takes it as kindly from him as if hee had finished the work and rewards the intention of building an house to his Name with the actuall building of an house to David for ever Good Ezekiah knew how easie and welcome a sute he made when after all endeavours of sanctifying the people for the celebration of that great Passeover he prayed The Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke God the Lord God of his Fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary Alas we cannot be but lame in all our obediences What can fall from defective causes but imperfect effects If we pray we are apt to entertaine unmeet notions of the infinite Spirit to whom wee addresse our supplications and suddain glances of wandring thoughts If we read or hear wee are subject to vaine distractions if wee approach Gods table our souls fail of that exact preparation purity wherewith they should be decked when they come to that celestiall banquet If we doe the workes of Justice or Mercy it is not without some light touch of self-respect well may we say with the blessed Apostle The good that I would I do not we should therefore finde just cause of discouragement in our selves if our best actions were to bee weighed by their own worth and not by our better intentions But that gracious God who puts good desires into us is so ready to accept of them that he looks not so much at what wee have done as at what we wisht to have done and without respect to our defect crownes our good affections All that I can say for my selfe O my God is that the desire of my heart is to please thee in all things my comfort then is though my abilities fail in the
performance yet thy mercies cannot faile in my acceptation Soliloq XXXVI Heavenly Ioyes DOubtless O God thou that hast given to men even thine enemies here upon Earth so excellent meanes to please their outward senses such beautifull faces and admirable flowers to delight the eye such delicate sents from their garden to please the smell such curious confections delicate sauces to please the taste such sweet Musick from the birds and artificiall devises of ravishing melody from the art of man to delight the eare hast much more ordained transcendent pleasures and infinite contentments for thy glorified Saints above My soule whiles it is thus clogged and confined is too straight to conceive of those incomprehensible waies of spirituall delectation which thou hast provided for thy dear chosen ones triumphing with thee in thy heaven O teach me to wonder at that which I cannot here attaine to know and to long for that happinesse which I there hope to enjoy with thee for ever Soliloq XXXVII Mixed Contentments WHat a fool were I if I should thinke to finde that which Solomon could not contentment upon earth his greatnesse wealth and wisdome gave him opportunity to search where my impotency is shut out Were there any thing under heaven free from vanity and vexation his curious inquisition could not have missed it No alas all our earthly contentments are like a Jewish Passeover which wee must eate with soure herbes Have I wealth I cannot bee void of cares Have I honour I cannot bee rid of envy Have I knowledge Hee that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow saith the Kingly Preacher Have I children it were strange if without crosses Have I pleasures not without a sting Have I health not without the threats of disease Have I full diet not without the inconveniences of satiety Have I beauty not without a snare to my soul Thus it is in all our sublunary comforts I cannot have the Rose but I must be content with the prickles Pure and absolute pleasure dwels elsewhere far above the reach of this vale of misery O God give me to seeke it there onely not without a contemptuous neglect of all those deceitfull vanities which would withdraw my soule from thee and there let me finde it whiles I am here by faith when I remove hence by personall fruition In the mean time let me take what thou givest me with patience and thankfulness thankfulnesse for the meat and patience with the sauce Soliloq XXXVIII True Wealth ALL a mans wealth or poverty is within himselfe It is not the outward abundance or want that can make the difference Let a man bee never so rich in estate yet if his heart be not satisfied but he is still whining and scraping and pining for more that man is miserably poore all his bagges cannot make him other than a starke beggar On the other side give mee a man of small means whose minde is throughly content with his little and enjoyes his pittance with a quiet and thankefull heart that man is exceeding rich all the World cannot rob him of his wealth It is not having by which we can measure riches but enjoying The Earth hath all Treasures in it yet no man stiles it rich Of these which the world call goods of Fortune onely opinion sets the value Gold and Silver would bee metals whether wee thinke them so or not they would not bee riches if mens conceit and institution did not make them such O my soule bee not thou carried away with the common Error to covet and admire those things which have no true worth in themselves If both the Indies were thine thou shouldest bee no whit the wealthier Labour for those riches whereby thy stocke may bee advanced The great Lord of all who knowes best where his Wealth lies and where thou shouldst hoord up thine hath told thee where to seeke it where to lay it Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theeves break thorow and steale But lay up for your selves Treasures in Heaven There thou shalt bee sure to finde it entire free from plunder and all danger of diminution O God give me to covet that my minde may bee rich in knowledge that my soule may be rich in grace that my heart may bee rich in true contentation as for this pelfe of the World let it make them miserable that admire it Soliloq XXXIX False Light LOoking forth one starry evening my eye met with a glorious light that seemed fairer than its fellowes Whiles I was studying what Planet it might be it suddainly glided downe and vanished O God how can we hope to avoid delusions upon earth when even the face of heaven may thus deceive us It is no otherwise in the firmament of the Church How many have there been that have seemed eternally fixed in that high sphere which have proved no other than base Meteors gilded with fair beames they appeared starres their substance was but slime Woe were to the earth if a true starre should fall Yea I doubt whether the Fabrick of heaven would stand if one of those glorious Lights should drop downe If therefore the star Wormwood shall fall and imbitter the waters hee shall shew himselfe to be but a false star and a true Impostor else heaven should fall as soon as hee O my God give mee grace to know the truth of my substance and the firmnesse of my station Let me hate all counterfeit exhalations Let me know my selfe the least and most insensible star in thy Galaxie so shall I bee happy in thee and thou shalt be by me glorified Soliloq XL The haste of Desire HOw slowly the houres seem to pace when we are big with the desire and expectation of any earthly contentment we are ready to chide the time for standing still when wee would over-hasten the fruition of our approaching comfort So the School-boy longs for his play-day the Apprentice for his freedome the Ward for his livery the Bride for her nuptialls the Heire for his inheritance so approvedly true is that of wise Solomon Hope deferred makes the heart sick Were it not O my soule for that wretched infidelity which cleaves so close unto thee thou couldst not but bee thus affected to thy heaven and shouldst bee yet so much more as the joyes there are infinitely more exquisite than which this earth can afford Surely thou dost but flatter mee with the over-weening conceit of the firm apprehension of my faith whiles I finde thee so cool in the longing desires of thy glorification What hast thou no stomack to thy happinesse Hath the world benummed thee with such a dull stupidity that thou art growne regardlesse and insensible of eternall blessednesse Oh shake off this Lethargick heavinesse of spirit which hath possessed thee and rouze up thy selfe to those ardent desires of glory which have sometimes enflamed thee Yea Lord do thou stir up that heavenly fire that now lies
yeelds nothing but torment the other nothing but misery and sin If therefore it be pefect or good since nothing can give what it hath not it must needs come from above And from whom above Not from those lightsome bodies of the Starres whose influences cannot reach unto the soule whose substance is not capable of any spirituall power whether to have or give perfect gifts Not from the blessed Spirits which are Angels of Light They may helpe through Gods gracious appointment to convey blessings to us they neither wil or can challenge an originall and primary interest in the blessings which they convey Onely therefore from the Father of Lights who as he is light so is the Author of all whatsoever light both inward and outward spirituall and sensible and as light was the first good and perfect gift which hee bestowed on the world so it well may imploy all the spirituall blessings conferred on the Creature So as he that said Let there bee light said also Let this man be wise Let that bee learned Let that other be gracious and holy whence then O whence can I look for any good thing but from thy hands O my God who givest to all men liberally and upbraidest not whose infinite treasure is not capable of any diminution since the more thou givest thy store is not the lesse thy glory more Thou dost not sell thy favours as we men are apt to do looking through our small bounty at an expected retribution but thou givest most freely most absolutely neither dost thou lend thy best blessing as looking to receive them back again but so conveyest them to us as to make them our owne for ever since therefore thy gifts are so free that all thy heavenly riches may be had for asking how worthy shall I bee to want them if I doe not sue for them to the Throne of thy grace Yet even this since it is a good thing I cannot do without thee O then give thou mee the grace that I may bee ever begging faithfully of thee and give mee the graces that I beg for Soliloq L. Sweet use of Power I See that great wise and holy God who might most justly make use of his absolute power yet proceeds sweetly with his creature in all his wayes Hee might force some to salvation in spight of their wills He might damne others meerely for his pleasure without respect to their sin But he doth not hee will not doe either of these but goes along graciously and gently with us inviting us to Repentance and earnestly tendring to us the meanes of salvation on the one side with effectuall perswasions and strong motives and kindly inclinations to an answerable obedience on the other side laying before us the fearfull menaces of his judgements denounced against sinners urging all powerfull disswasions and using all probable meanes to divert us from all the waies of wickednesse and when those prevaile not justly punishing us for our wilfull disobedience impenitence and infidelity O God how should we learne of thee to proceed with all our fellow-Creatures but much more with our Christian Brethren not according to the rigour of any pretended prerogative of power but in all mercifull tenderness in all gentle and faire meanes of their reclamation on the one side on the other in an unwilling and constrained severity of necessary justice And how much doth it concerne thee O my soule not to stay till thy God shall drag thee to Repentance and salvation but gladly to embrace all those happy opportunities and cheerfully to yeeld to all those mercifull solicitations which thy God offers thee for thy full Conversion And carefully to avoid those waies of sinne and death which he hath under so dreadfull denunciations graciously warned thee to shun Else thy God is cleared both in his justice and mercy and thy perdition is of thy self Soliloq LI. The power of Conscience IT is a true word of the Apostle God is greater than our Conscience and surely none but he under that great God the supreme power on earth is the conscience Every man is a little world within himselfe and in this little world there is a Court of Judicature erected wherein next under God the Conscience sits as the supreme Judge from whom there is no appeale that passeth sentence upon us upon all our actions upon all our intentions for our persons absolving one condemning another for our actions allowing one forbidding another If that condemn us in vaine shall all the World besides acquit us and if that cleare us the doom which the World passeth upon us is frivolous and ineffectuall I grant this Judge is sometimes corrupted with the Bribes of Hope with the weake feares of losse with an undue respect of persons with powerfull importunities with false witnesses with forged evidences to passe a wrong sentence upon the person or cause for which hee shall be answerable to him that is higher than the highest but yet this doom though reversible by the Tribunall of Heaven is still obligatory on earth So as it is my fault that my conscience is mis-led but it is not my fault to follow my Conscience How much need have I therefore O my God to pray that thou wouldst guide my Conscience aright and keepe this great Judge in my bosome from Corruption and errour and what need hath this intestine arbiter of mine to take speciall care that he may avoid all misinformations that may mislead his judgment and all the base suggestions of outward advantage or losse that may deprave his affections And O thou that only art greater than my Conscience keep mee from doing ought against my Conscience I cannot disobey that but I must offend thee since that is but thine Officer under thee and only commands for thee Soliloq LII Proud Poverty THat which wise Solomon observed in the temporall estates of men holds no lesse true in the spirituall There is that maketh himselfe rich yet hath nothing There is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches On the one side we meet with a proud but beggarly Laodicean that saies I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing which will not know that he is wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked This man when the means of further grace are tendred him can say as Esau did of the profered herds I have enough my Brother and with the bragging Pharisee can boast of what he is not and of what he is of what hee hath of what he doth admiring his owne nothing and not caring to seek for more because he thinks he hath all this fond Justiciary can overdoe his duty and supererogate contemning the poverty of soules better furnished than his 〈◊〉 and laying his merits in the dish of the Almighty On the other side there is an humble soule that is secretly rich in all spirituall endowments full of knowledge abounding in grace which out of the true
full and inimitable this seale cannot be counterfeit the graces of the Spirit which thou hast received thou feelest to be true and reall thou findest in thy selfe a faith though weak yet sincere an unfeigned repentance joyned with an hearty detestation of all thy sinnes a fervent love of that infinite goodnesse that hath remitted them a conscionable care to avoid them a zealous desire to bee approved to God in all thy waies Flesh and bloud cannot have wrought these graces in thee It is onely that good Spirit of thy God which hath thus sealed thee to the day of Redemption Walke on therefore O my soule confidently and chearfully in the strength of this assurance and joyfully expect the full accomplishment of this happy contract from the sure hands of thy God Let no temptation stagger thee in the comfortable resolutions of thy future glory But say boldly with that holy Patriarke O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Soliloq LVI Heavenly Manna VIctory it selfe is the great reward of our fight but what is it O God that thou promisest to give us as the reward of our Victory even the hidden Manna Surely were not this gift exceeding precious thou wouldst not reserve it for the remuneration of so glorious a Conquest Behold that materiall and visible Manna which thou sentest down from heaven to stop the mouths of murmuring Israel perished in their use and if it were reserved but to the next day putrified and instead of nourishing annoyed them But the hidden Manna that was laid up in the Arke was incorruptible as a lasting monument of thy power and mercy to thy people But now alas what is become both of that Manna and of that Arke Both are vanished having passed through the devouring jawes of time into meer forgetfulnesse It is the true spiritual Manna that came down from the highest heaven and ascending thither again is hidden therein the glorious Arke of Eternity that thou wilt give to thy Conqueror That is it which being participated of here below nourisheth us to eternall life and being communicated to us above is the full consummation of that blessed life and glory O give me so to fight that I may overcome that so overcomming I may bee feasted with this Manna Thou that art and hast given me thy selfe the spirituall Manna which I have fed on by faith and the symbolicall Manna whereof I have eaten sacramentally give me of that heavenly Manna whereof I shall partake in glory It is yet an hidden Manna hid from the eies of the world yea in a sort from our owne hid in light inaccessible For our life is hid with Christ in God but shall then bee fully revealed for it shall then not onely cover the face of the earth round about the tents of Israel but spread it self over the face of the whole heaven yea fill both heaven and earth I well thought O my God that if heaven could afford any thing more precious than other thou wouldst lay it up for thy Victor for it is an hard service that thy poore Infantry here upon earth are put unto to conflict with so mighty so malicious so indefatigable enemies and therefore the reward must be so much the greater as the warefare is more difficult O doe thou who art the great Lord of Hosts give me courage to fight perseverance in fighting and power to overcome all my spirituall enemies that I may receive from thee this hidden Manna that my soul may live for ever and may for ever blesse thee Soliloq LVII The Hearts Treasure IT is a sure Word of thine O Saviour that where our Treasure is there our hearts will be also neither can wee easily know where to finde our hearts if our Treasure did not discover them Now Lord where is my Treasure Surely I am not worthy to bee owned of thee if my Treasure be anywhere but in heaven my lumber and luggage may be here on earth but my Treasure is above there thou hast laid up for me the richest of thy mercies even my eternall salvation Yea Lord what is my richest Treasure but thy selfe in whom all the Treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge yea of infinite Glory are laid up for all thine All things that this world can afford me are but meere pelfe in comparison of this Treasure or if the earth could yeeld ought that is precious yet I cannot call that Treasure Treasure implies both price and store of the dearest Commodities never so great abundance of base things cannot make a Treasure neither can some few peeces of the richest mettals bee so accounted but where there is a large congestion of precious Jewels and Metalls there onely is Treasure If any at all surely very little and mean is the wealth which I can promise my selfe here perhaps some brasse Farthing or light and counterfeit Coine meer earthy dross which may load but cannot enrich my soule my only true riches are above with thee and where then should my heart bee but there My hand and my braine too must necessarily bee sometimes here below but my heart shall be still with my Treasure in heaven It is wont to be said that however the memory of old age is short yet that no old man ever forgot where hee laid up his Treasure O God let not that Celestiall Treasure which thou hast laid up for me be at any time out of my thoughts let my eye be ever upon it let my heart long for the full possession of it and so joy in the assured expectation of it that it may disrelish all the contentments and contemne all the crosses which this World can afford me Soliloq LVIII The narrow Way O Saviour I hear thee say I am the Way the Truth and the Life and yet again thou who art Truth it selfe tell'st me that the way is narrow and the gate straight that leadeth unto life Surely thou who art the living Way art exceeding large so wide that all the World of Beleevers enter into life by thee only but the way of our walke towards thee is straight and narrow Not but that thy Commandement in it self is exceeding broad for Lord how fully comprehensive it is of all morall and holy duties and what gracious latitude hast thou given us in it of our Obedience and how favourable indulgence and remission in case of our faylings But narrow in respect of the weaknesse and insufficiency of our obedience It is our wretched infirmity that straitens our way to the Lo heaven which is thy All-glorious Mansion when wee are once entred into it how infinitely large and spacious it is even this lower contignation of it at how marvailous distance it archeth in this Globe of aire and earth and waters and how is that again surrounded with severall heights of those lightsome Regions unmeasurable for their glorious dimensions But the heaven of heavens the seat of the blessed is yet so much larger as it is higher in place and more
taken off from him and heard no answer but My grace is sufficient for thee So Lord we pray for the removall of thy judgements from this sinnefull and deplored Nation which for ought we know and have cause to feare thou hast decreed to ruine and deâ—â—station and many a good soule prayes for a comfortable sense of thy favour whom thou thinkest fit to keepe downe for the time in a sad desertion and I thy unworthy servant may pray to be freed from those temptations wherewith thou seest it fit that my faith should be still exercised O God give me the grace to follow thy revealed will and to submit my selfe to thy secret What thou hast commanded I know I may doe what thou hast promised I know I may trust to what thou hast in a generality promised to do may in some particular cases by the just decree of thy secret Counsell bee otherwise determined If I aske what thou hast decreed to do I know I cannot but obtaine If I aske what thou hast warranted notwithstanding the particular exception of thy secret will though I receive it not yet I receive not pardon onely but acceptation O God give me grace to steer my selfe and my prayers by thy revealed Will and humbly to stoop to what the event shews to have been thy secret will Soliloq LXV Hels Triumph THou hast told us O Saviour that there is joy in the presence of thine Angels for a sinners repentance those blessed Spirits are so far from envying our happinesse that as they endeavour it here so they congratulate it in heaven and we wel know that these good Spirits do not more rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner than the evill Spirits do in the mis-carriage of a convert The course of the holy obedience of thy servants here is doubtlesse a pleasing object to thine Angels neither are those malignant spirits lesse pleased with the wicked practises of their Vassals but the joy arises to both from the contrary condition of those parties over which they have prevailed The alleagance of a good subject though wel-accepted yet is no newes to a gracious Soveraigne but the comming in of some great Rebell is happy tidings at the Court On the contrary where there is a rivality of soveraigntie for a professed enemy to do hostile actions is no other than could bee expected but for a subject or a domestick servant to bee drawne into the conspiracie is not more advantage than joy to the intruder O God thou hast mercifully called me out of the world to a profession of thy Name I know what eies those envious Spirits have ever upon me O doe thou lead me in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies If thine Angels have found cause to joy in my conversion O doe thou keepe me from making musicke in hell by my miscarriage Soliloq LXVI Dumbe Homage HOw officious O God doe I see thy poore dumbe Creatures to us how doe they fawne or crouch as they see us affected how doe they run and fetch and carry and draw at our command how doe they beare our stripes with a trembling unresistance how readily doe they spend their strength and their lives in our service how patiently doe they yield us their milk and their fleeces for our advantage and lie equally still to be shorne or slain at our pleasure expecting nothing from us in the mean time but a bare sustenance which if it bee denyed them they do not fall furiously upon their cruell Masters but meekly bemoane themselves in their bruitish language and languish and die If granted them they are fatned for our use I am ashamed O God I am ashamed to see these thy creatures so obsequiously pliant unto me whiles I consider my disposition and deportment towards thee my Creator Alas Lord what made the difference betwixt me and them but thy meere good pleasure thou mightest have made them rationall and have exchanged my reason for their brutality They are my fellowes by Creation and owe both their being and preservation to the same hand with my selfe Thou art the absolute Lord of both to whom I must bee accountable for them they are mine onely by a limited substitution from thee why then should they bee more obedient to my will than I am to thine since they have onely Sense to lead them in their Way I have both Reason and Faith to teach me my duty Had I made them I could but require of them their absolute submission Why should I then exact of them more than I am ready to performe unto thee O God thou that hast put them under my hand and me under thy owne as thou hast made me their Master for command so let me make them my Masters to teach me obedience Soliloq LXVII Indifferency of Events THou givest us daily proofes O God of the truth of that observation of wise Solomon That all things come alike to all and that no man knowes love or hatred by all that is before them In these outward things thy dearest friends have not fared better then thine enemies Thy greatest enemies have not suffered more than thy beloved Children When therefore I looke abroad and see with what heavy afflictions thou art pleased to exercise thy best Favourites upon earth I cannot but stand amazed to see what horrible Torments of all kindes have beene undergone by thy most precious Martyrs whose patience hath overcome the violence of their executioners and to see those extreme tortures which some of thy faithfull servants have endured in the beds of their sickness one torne and drawn together with fearefull convulsions another shrieking under the painefull girds of an unremoveable stone one wrung in his Bowels with pangs of cholicke and turning of guts another possessed with a raging gout in all his Limbes one whose bladder after a painefull incision is ransack'd another whose Leg or Arme is cut off to prevent a mortall Gangrene I cannot but acknowledge how just it might be in thee O God to mix the same bitter cup for me and how merciful it is that knowing my weakness thou hast forborn hitherto to load mee with so sad a burthen What thou hast in thine eternall Councell determined to lay upon mee thou onely knowest If thou bee pleased to continue thy gracious indulgence to me still make me truly thankfull to thee for health and ease as the greatest of thy outward favours but let mee not build upon them as the certaine evidences of thy better mercies and if thou thinke fit to interchange them with a vicissitude of sickness and paine let mee not misconstrue thy severe chastisements as arguments of thy displeasure But still teach mee to feare thee in my greatest prosperity and to love thee in my greatest sufferings and to adore thine infinite Wisdome Justice and mercy in both Soliloq LXVIII The transcendent Love HOw justly doe I marvaile O God to see what strength of naturall affection thou hast wrought in poore brute
this whole both lower and superior world yet there keepes and manifests his state with the infinite magnificence of the King of eternall glory there he in an ineffable manner communicates himselfe to blessed Spirits both Angels and men and that very Vision is no lesse to them than beatificall Surely were the place a thousand degrees lower in beauty and perfection than it is yet that presence would render it celestiall the residence of the King was wont to turn the meanest Village or Castle into a Court The sweet singer of Israel saw this of old and could say in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore It is not so in these earthly and finite Excellencies A man may see mountaines of treasure and bee never a whit the richer and may bee the witness and agent too in anothers honour as Haman was of Mardochees and be so much more miserable or may view the pompe and splendour of mighty Princes and be yet still a beggar but the infinite graces of that heavenly King are so communicative that no man can see him but must bee transformed into the likeness of his glory SECT. VIII EVen thy weak and imperfect Vision of such heavenly Objects O my soule are enough to lay a foundation of thy blessednesse and how can there chuse but bee raised thence as a further degree towards it a sweet complacency of heart in an appropriation of what thou seest without which nothing can make thee happy Let the Sun shine never so bright what is this to thee if thou bee blinde Be the God of heaven never so glorious yet if hee bee not thy God bee the Saviour of the World never so mercifull yet if hee be not mercifull to thee be the heaven never so full of beauty and Majesty yet if thou have not thy portion in that inheritance of the Saints in light so far will it be from yielding thee comfort that it will make a further addition to thy torment What an aggravation of misery shall it be to those that were children of the kingdom that from that outer darknesse whereinto they are cast they shall see aliens come from the East and West and sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of heaven Cease not then O my soul till by a sure and undefaisible application thou hast brought all these home to thy self and canst look upon the great God of Heaven the gracious Redeemer of the world the glory of that celestiall Paradise as thine owne Let it be thy bold ambition and holy curiosity to finde thy name enrolled in that eternall Register of Heaven And if there bee any one room in the many Mansions of that celestiall Jerusalem lower and lesse resplendent than other thither doe thou finde thy selfe through the great mercy of thy God happily designed It must bee the worke of thy faith that must do it that divine grace is it the power whereof can either fetch downe heaven to thee or carry thee before-hand up to thy heaven and not affix thee only to thy God and Saviour but unite thee to him and which is yet more ascertaine thee of so blessed an union Neither can it bee but that from this sense of appropriation there must necessarily follow a marvellous contentment and complacency in the assurance of so happy an interest Lord how doe I see poore worldlings please themselves in the conceit of their miserable proprieties One thinks Is not this my great Babylon which I have built Another Are not these my rich Mines Another Is not this my royall and adored Magnificence And how are those unstable mindes transported with the opinion of these great but indeed worthlesse peculiarities which after some little time moulder with them into dust How canst thou then bee but pleasingly affected O my soul with the comfortable sense of having a God a Savior an heaven of thine own For in these spiritual and heavenly felicities our right is not partiall and divided as it useth to be in secular inheritances so as that every one hath his share distinguish'd from the rest and parcelled out of the whole but here each one hath all and this blessed patrimony is so communicated to all Saints as that the whole is the propriety of every one Upon the assurance therefore of thy Gods gracious promises made to eevery true beleever finde thou thy selfe happily seized of both the King and Kingdom of heaven so far as thy faith can as yet feoffe thee in both and delight thy selfe above all things in these unfailing pledges of thine instant blessednes and say with the holy Mother of thy redeemer My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour SECT. IX FRom this feeling complacency in the owning of thy right to glory and happinesse there cannot but arise a longing desire of the full possession thereof for thou canst not so little love thy selfe as what thou knowest thou hast a just title unto and withall apprehendest to bee infinitely pleasing and beneficiall not to wish that thou maist freely enjoy it If thou have tasted how sweet the Lord is thou canst not but long for more of him yea for all It is no otherwise even in carnall delights the degustation whereof is wont to draw on the heart to a more eager appetition much more in spiritual the pleasures whereof as they are more pure so they are of the heavenly-minded with far greater ardency of spirit affected The covetous mans heart is in his bags what he hath doth but augment his lust of more and the having of more doth not satiate but enlarge his desires Hee that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with encrease but these celestiall riches are so much more allective as they are more excellent than those which are delved out of the bowels of the earth O my soule thou hast through the favour of thy God sipp'd some little of the cup of immortality and tasted of that heavenly Manna the food of Angels and canst thou take up with these slight touches of blessednes Thou hast though most unworthy the honour to be contracted to thy Saviour here below thou knowest the voice of his Spouse Draw me and we shall runne after thee stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love make hast my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountaines of Spices Where is thy love if thou have not fervent desires of a perpetuall enjoyment if thou doe not earnestly wish for a full consummation of that heavenly match O my Lord and Saviour as I am not worthy to love thee so I were not able to love thee how amiable soever but by thee O thou that hast begun to kindle this fire of heavenly love in me raise thou it up to a perfect flame make me not
raked up in the Embers of my soule and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation Soliloq XLI Deaths Remembrancers EVery thing that I see furnishes me with fair monitions of my dissolution If I look into my garden there I see some flowers fading some withered If I look to the earth I see that mother in whose wombe I must lie If I goe to Church the graves that I must step over in my way shew me what I must trust to If I look to my Table death is in every Dish since what I feed on did once live If I look into my glasse I cannot but see death in my face If I goe to my bed there I meet with sleepe the Image of death and the sheets which put mee in minde of my winding up If I look into my study what are all those books but the monuments of other dead authors O my soul how canst thou bee unmindfull of our parting when thou art plyed with so many monitors Cast thine eyes abroad into the world what canst thou see but killing and dying Cast thine eyes up into heaven how canst thou but thinke of the place of thy approaching rest How justly then may I say with the Apostle By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily And Lord as I daily die in the decay of this fraile nature so let me die daily in my affection to life in my preparation for death O do thou fit me for that last and happy change Teach me so to number my daies that I apply my heart to wisdom and addresse it to ensuing glory Soliloq XLII Faiths Victory WEE are here in a perpetuall warfare and fight wee must Surely either fight or dye some there are that doe both That is according as the quarrell is and is managed There are those that fight against God these medling with so unequall a match cannot looke to prevaile Again The flesh warreth against the spirit this intestine rebellion cannot hope to prosper but if with the chosen vessell I can say I have fought a good fight I can neither lose life nor misse of victory And what is that good fight Even the same Apostle tels me the fight of faith this is the good fight indeed both in the cause and managing the issue Lo this faith it is that wins God to my side that makes the Almighty mine that not only ingages him in my cause but unites me to him so as his strength is mine In the power of his might therefore I cannot but be victorious over all my spirituall enemies by the onely meanes of this faith For Satan This Shield of faith is it that shall quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one For the world this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith Be sure to finde thy self furnished with this grace and then say O my soule thou hast marched valiantly the powers of Hell shall not bee able to stand before thee they are mighty and have all advantages of a spirituall nature of long duration and experience of place of subtilty Yet this conquering grace of faith is able to give them the foile and to trample over all the powers of darknesse O my Lord God doe thou arme and fortifie my soule with a lively and stedfast faith in thee I shall not feare what man or Divell can doe unto me settle my heart in a firme reliance upon thee and turne mee loose to what enemy thou pleasest Soliloq XLIII The unfailing Friend NExt to the joy of a good conscience there is no greater comfort upon earth than the enjoyment of dear friends neither is there any thing more sad than their parting and by how nearer their relations are so much greater is our sorrow in forgoing them What moane did good David make both for Absalon as a Sonne though ungracious and for Jonathan as a friend Surely when our dear ones are pulled away from us we seeme to have limbes torne away from our bodies yet this is a thing must bee lookt for wee are given to each other or lent rather upon condition of parting either they must leave us or we them a parting there must bee as sure as there was a meeting It is our fault if we set our hearts too much upon that which may yea which must be lost Be wise O my soul and make sure of such friends as thou canst not be bereaved of Thou hast a God that hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee It was an easie sute and already granted which the holy Psalmist made Cast me not off in the time of old age forsake me not when my strength faileth And againe When my Father and my Mother forsake me in their farewell to a better world yet then the Lord will take me up It is an happy thing to have immortall friends sticke close unto them O my soule and rejoyce in them evermore as those that shall sweetly converse with thee here and shall at last receive thee into everlasting habitations Soliloq XLIV Quiet Humility HE is a rare man that is not wise in his owne conceit and that saies not within himselfe I see more than my neighbours For wee are all borne proud and selfe-opinionate and when we are come to our imaginary maturity are apt to say with Zedechiah to those of better judgement than our own which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak unto thee Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wilde paradoxes both in Philosophy and Religion wherewith the world abounds every where When our fancy hath entertained some uncouth thought our selfe-love is apt to hatch it up our confidence to broach it and our obstinacy to maintain it and if it bee not too monstrous there will not want some credulous fools to abet it so as the onely way both to peace and truth is true Humility which will teach us to thinke meanly of our own abilities to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity greater sanctity deeper insight of our blessed Predecessors This onely will keepe us in the beaten road without all extravagant deviations to untrodden by-paths Teach me O Lord evermore to think my self no whit wiser than I am so shall I neither bee vainly irregular nor the Church troublesomely unquiet Soliloq XLV Sure Mercies THere is nothing more troublesome in humane society than the disappoint of trust and failing of friends For besides the disorder that it works in our owne affaires it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to others The leaning upon a broken Reed gives us both a fall and a wound Such is a false friend who after professions of love and reall offices either slinkes from us or betrayes us This is that which the great patterne of patience so bitterly complaines of as none of his least afflictions My Kinsfolk have
eminent in glory yet thou wouldst have the way to it narrow and the gate of it straight And even thus it pleaseth thee to ordain in the dispensation of all thine inferiour blessings Learning dwells fair within but the entrance is straight through study watching bending of braines wearing of spirits the house of honour is sumptuous and goodly within but the gate is straight that leads into it which is through danger attendance plots of emulation Wealth hath large Elbow-roome of lodging but the gate is straight hard labour careful thrift racking of thoughts painfull adventures How much more wouldst thou have it thus in the best of all blessings the eternell fruition of heaven And why is this way narrow but because it is untracked and untrodden If I may not rather say the way is untracked and found by few because it is narrow and not easie to tread in Surely grace is the way to glory and that path is not for every foot the straighter and narrower it is O my God the more let me strive and shoulder to enter into it VVhat vaine quarrels doe we daily heare of for the way but Lord enable me to strive for this way even to blood And if thou have been pleased to set me a deep way or a rough way through many tribulations to that happy and eternall life let me passe it with all cheerfull resolution How oft have I not grudged to go a foule way to a friends house where I knew my entertainement kind and cordiall O let me not think much to come to those thy everlasting Mansions of bliss through tears and blood The end shall make an abundant amends for the way If I suffer with thee I shall reign with thee Soliloq LIX Gods various Proceedings WHat strange varieties doe I finde in the workings of God with men One-where I finde him gently and plausibly inviting men to their Conversion another-where I finde him frighting some others to heaven some he traines up in a goodly education and without any eminent change calls them forth to an exemplary profession of his Name some others he chuseth out of a life notoriously lewd to be the great patternes of a suddain Reformation One that was only formall in his Devotion without any true life of grace is upon a grievous sicknesse brought to a lively sense of godlinesse another comes to Gods house with a purpose to sleep or scoffe and through the secret operation of Gods Spirit working with his Word returnes full of true compunction of heart with teares in his eyes and resolutions of present amendment of life One that was proud of his owne righteousnesse is suffered to fall into some foule sin which shames him before men and is thus brought down to an humble acknowledgement of his owne frailty another that was cast down with a sad despair of Gods mercy is raised up by the fall of an unbroken glasse or by some comfortable dreame or by the seasonable word of a cheerfull friend One is called at the sixt hour another not till the eleventh one by faire and probable meanes another by contraries so as even the worke of Satan himself hath been made the occasion of the conversion of his soule O God thy waies are infinite and past finding out It is not for us to prescribe thee what to do but humbly to adore thee in what thou doest Far be it from me so to cast my self upon thy All-working providence as to neglect the ordinary means of my salvation Inable me chearfully to endeavour what thou requirest and then take what way thou pleasest so that thou bringst me to the end of my hope the salvation of my soul Soliloq LX The waking Guardian IT is a true word which the Psalmist said of thee O God Thou that keepest Israel neither slumbrest nor sleepest Fond Tyrants thinke that thou winkest at their cruell persecutions of thy Church because thou dost not speedily execute vengeance upon them whereas if the fault were not in their eyes they should see thine wide open and bent upon them for their just destruction onely thou thinkst fit to hold thy hand for a time from the infliction of judgment till the measure of their iniquity be full and then they shall feel to their cost that thou sawest all their secret Plots and Conspiracies against thine Israel The time was O Saviour when in the daies of thine humane infirmity thou slept'st in the sterne of the Ship on a pillow when the Tempest raged and the Waves swelled yet even then when thy Disciples awoke thee and said Lord save us we perish thou rebukedst them sharply with Why are yee fearfull O yee of little faith Their danger was apparently great but yet thou telst them their feare was causelesse and their faith weake that they could not assure themselves that thy presence though sleeping was a sufficient preservative against the fury of windes and waters How much more now that being in the height of thine heavenly glory and ever intentively vigilant for the safegard of thy chosen ones may we rest secure of thy blessed protection and our sure indemnity O God do thou keep my eies ever open that I may still wait upon thee for thy gracious tuition and the mercifull accomplishment of thy salvation Thou seest I have to doe with those enemies that are never but waking never but seeking all advantages against my soul What can they doe when thine eye is ever over me for good O then let mine eyes be ever unto thee O God my Lord in thee let me still put my trust so shalt thou keepe me from the snares that they have laid for me and the grins of the workers of iniquity Soliloq LXI The sting of guiltinesse GUiltinesse can never thinke it selfe sure if there were no Fiends to torment it like a bosome-Devill it would ever torture it selfe no Guard can bee so sure no Fort so strong as to secure it from terrors The first Murderer after his bloody fratricide when there is no mention of any man beside his Father upon earth yet can say It shall come to passe that every one that findeth me shall slay mee and I marvaile that he added not if none else will doe it I shall do that deadly office to my selfe Hee was sure hee could meet with none but Brethren or Nephewes and even the face of those was now dreadfull to him hee that had been so cruell to him that had laine in the same wombe with himselfe feares that no neereness of bloud can shield him from the violence of the next man Conscience when once exasperated needs not stay for an accuser a witnesse a solicitor to enforce the evidence a Judge but it selfe alone acts all these parts and oft-times also the executioners to boot It was a just question of the wisest of men A wounded spirit who can bear But there are divers and different degrees of the wounds of spirit All are painefull some
mortall as in the body there may bee some wounds in the outward and fleshly part which have more pain than peril but those of the principall and vitall parts are not more dolorous than dangerous and often deadly so it is in the soul there are wounds of the inferiour and affective faculties as griefe for crosses vexation for disappointment of hopes pangs of anger for wrongs received which may be cured with seasonable remedies but the wounds of conscience inflicted by the sting of some hainous sin which lies belking within us carries in it horror despaire death O God keep me from bloud-guiltinesse and from all crying and presumptuous sins but if ever my frailty should be so fouly tainted do thou so work upon my soul as that my repentance may walke in equall paces with my sin ere it can aggravate it selfe by continuance Apply thy soveraign plaister to my soule whiles the wound is greene and suffer it not to fester inwardly through any impenitent delay Soliloq LXII Beneficiall VVant IT is just with thee O God when thou seest us grow wanton and unthankfully neglective of thy blessings to withdraw them from us that by the want of them we may feel both our unregarded obligations and the defects of our duty So we have seen the Nurse when the childe begins to play with the dugge to put up the breast out of sight I should not acknowledg how precious a favour health is if thou didst not sometimes interchange it with sicknesse nor how much I am bound to thee for my Limbes if I had not sometimes a touch of lamenesse Thirst gives better relish to the drinke and hunger is the best sauce to our meate Nature must needs affect a continuance of her wellfare neither is any thing more grievous to her than these crosse interceptions of her contentments but thou who art wisdome it selfe knowest how fit it is for us both to smart for our neglect of thy familiar mercies and to have thy blessings more endeared to us by a seasonable discontinuance Neither dost thou want to deale otherwise in the mannaging of thy spirituall mercies If thy Spouse the faithfull soul shall being pampered with prosperity begin to grow secure and negligent so as at the first knock of her beloved she rise not up to open to Him but suffers his head to bee filled with Dew and his lockes with the drops of the night she soon findes her beloved withdrawne and gone she may then seeke him and not finde him she may call and receive noe answer she may seek him about the streets and in stead of finding him lose her vaile and meet with blowes and wounds from the watch-men O God keep thou me from being resty with ease hold mee in a continuall tendernesse of heart continue me in a thankfull and awfull use of all thy favours but if at any time thou seest me decline to a careless obduration and to a disrespective forgetfulnesse of thy mercies doe thou so chastise me with the fatherly hand of thy afflictions and so work me to a gracious use of thy desertions that my soul may seeke thee with more vigour of affections and may recover thee with more sensible comfort Soliloq LXIII Interchange of Conditions IT is not for nothing O my God that thou hast protracted my time so long and hast given me so large experience of thy most wise and holy dealing with my selfe and others Doubtlesse it is that I might see and feele and observe and teach the gracious changes of thy carriage towards thy poore sinfull Creatures upon earth Thou dost not hold us alwaies under the rod though we well deserve a perpetuall correction as considering our miserable impotence and aptnesse to an heartlesse dejection Thou dost not alwaies keep our hearts raised up to the jollity of a prosperous condition as knowing our readinesse to presume and to bee carried away with a false confidence of our unmoveablenesse but graciously interchangest thy favours with our sufferings When thou seest us ready to faint and to be discouraged with our adversity thou takest off thy hand and givest us a comfortable respiration from our miseries When thou seest us puft up with the vaine conceit of our owne worth or successe thou takest us downe with some heavy crosse When thou findest us overlaid with an unequall match and ready to bee foiled in the fight thou givest us breath and puttest new strength into our armes and new courage into our hearts When thou findest us insolent with our Victory thou sham'st us by an unexpected discomfiture And as for the outward estate of the Nations and Kingdomes of the earth thou whirlest them about in a perpetuall yet constant vicissitude Peace breeds plenty Plenty wantonnesse and pride Pride Animosity from thence followes war VVar produces Vastation and want Poverty causeth Industry and when nothing is left to strive for Peace an industrious peace brings plenty againe and in this gyre thou hast ordained the world still to turne about Be not too much moved then O my soule when thou findest thy selfe hard pressed with afflictions and conflicted with strong temptations but beare up constantly in the strength of thy faith as being assured that having rid out this storme thou shalt bee blessed with an happy calme Neither bee thou lifted up too much when thou findest thy selfe carried on with a fair gale of prosperity since thou knowst not what tempests may suddenly arise and many hopefull vessell hath been sunke in sight of the Port And when thou seest the world every where full of woefull combustions bee not over-much dismaied with the sight and sense of these publike Calamities but waite patiently upon that Divine Providence which after those revolutions of change shall happily reduce all things to their determinate posture To which purpose O God do thou fix my heart firmly upon thee doe thou keep me from the evill of prosperity from dejectednesse in affliction from the prevalence of temptation from misprision of thy Providence VVorke me to that due temper which thy Solomon hath prescribed me In the day of prosperity be joyfull but in the day of adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should finde nothing after him Soliloq LXIV The rule of Devotion THy will O God as it is alwaies holy so in what thou hast decreed to doe with us is secret and in what thou wouldst have us doe to thee is revealed It is thy revealed will that must regulate both our Actions and our Prayers It may be that I may lawfully sue to thee for what thou hast decreed not to grant As Samuel ceased not to pray for thy favour to that Saul whom thou hadst rejected and many an Israelite prayed for raine in that three yeeres and an halfe wherein thou hadst commanded the Clowds to make good the prophecie of thine Elias yea thine holy Apostle prayed thrice to have the Messenger of Satan