wife long agoe Now will my husband dwell with me because I have borne him six sons Let it be said now also by a spiritual wife Now will my husband dwell with me because his dwelling with mee hath made me fruitfull Make my soule a fruitfull paradise bearing every good fruit of love divine and humane and then come often into thy garden to behold gather the fruits of it And that I may bring forth fruites wholly thine and not anothers beside thee burne and consume whatsoeuer would grow one with my soule besides thee Thou art a burning and consuming fire and the spirit by which thou art one with my spirit baptizeth with fire O let the fire of thy spirit so wholly turne my soule into spirituall fire that the drosse of the flesh the world being wholly consumed shee may be onely spirituall and so bring forth fruites onely to thy spirit Thus and thus saith my soule to her beloved but when she saith thus her beloved is not farre from her for by him she speakes to him when he is neare his oyntments yeeld their savour and the savour of his ointments draweth soules to run after him There hath beene of late a fruitive union and such fruitive unions doe individuate and enflame the love of the soule to him whom she hath enjoied in that union But alas the husband of the soule is sometimes like that husband which is not at home but is gone a long journey He is gone so farre from me as if hee were not mine yea so far sometimes as if he were not at all The summer is gone from my soule and the winter is come and the true olive so draweth in his fatnesse that my soule though a branch yet doubteth whether there bee a root that beareth her The ointments of light and love are not seene or felt and how can she love the lovelinesse that she sees not and if she saw it how can she love it without love In such a darknesse the greatest lovelinesse affects not the eye and in such a deadnesse there is no love wherewith to love the greatest lovelinesse The soule doth not now taste how sweete her Lord is and therefore his sweetnesse is to her as a thing forgotten or a thing mistaken or at best as a thing which was and is not and will be no more The often unions that are passed are wholly past and the very images and representations of them are neare wholly vanished And now my soule that will ever bee a lover of something and a seeker of good in one object or other being left to the flesh by the enchantment of the flesh runneth to the creature to seeke good in it For as the spirit runneth to Christ so doth the flesh to the creature But alas the dove of Christ thus flowne from the Arke in her thoughts and affections findeth no rest for shee is gone from her rest and how can she finde rest by going from rest Put forth thy hand O thou lover of soules and take her in unto thee yea first make her to returne to thee by finding her when she seeks thee Seeke her O Saviour when she goes astray from thee like a lost sheepe for even when shee thus goes astray she hath not utterly forgotten thee thy loves nor thy lawes One looke of thine will awake her love and make her weepe bitterly that she loved thee so little whom to love sufficiently her best and mightiest loves are most insufficient Prevent her seeking with thy seeking and be thou present with her in thy providence and preserving power even when thou seemest to be farre off in the tasts of thy sweetnesse and fruition of thy loves Love her even when thou doest not give her thy loves yea love her by not-giving them Doe her good even by the subtraction of thy goodnesse shew her that her safety is not in her owne hands shew her that her goodnesse is not her owne shew her that she is nothing in her selfe but that which is worse than nothing and that thou and thy grace make her wholly to be that which she is Then shall she be more humble by seeing her owne vilenes in thy absence and thou shalt bee more lovely and precious to her whose presence gives her all her worth and excellence VVhen she hath regained thee she will hold thee more hardly and keepe thee more fastly and love thee more vehemently Shee will value thy loves above treasures yet she will love thee more than thy loves and she will provide a stocke of loves in the summer against the winters if they perchāce shal return again For in these loves shee will behold the pledges of a love eternall in these joyes of thy presence she will behold the earnests of eternall joyes in an eternall presence and for the sure hope of these eternall joyes she will patiently endure the sorrowes of these temporall absences Yet let these temporall absences be as thornes in the sides of my soule to stirre her up to the desire of that eternall presence And be not lacking overlong O thou life and love and guide of my soule but ever and anon visit her with thy presence stay her with thy flagons comfort her with apples for she is sicke of love when shee wanteth her beloved Whē thou wast here on earth thou hadst compassion on the multitude that had nothing to eate and wouldest not send them away fasting lest they should faint by the way O sweete Saviour thou art no lesse mercifull in heaven than thou wert on earth and an hungry soule is a fitter object of mercy than an hungry body and my hungry soule hath a farther way to goe than their bodies for shee must goe from earth unto heaven O refresh her and that right soone with thy mercies with the joyes of thy presence with the bread of heaven and water of life which thy spirit plentifully giveth to my spirit when thou commest unto her Be thou her guide even to the life which is beyond death and grant that through these changes of temporall presences and absences she may runne in one even and unchanged path of love and holinesse untill she come unto that eternall presence where is the fulnesse of joy without ebbes and perpetuity of joy without interruptions There shall shee see her beloved clearely and plainely even face to face and there shall shee enjoy her beloved so fully as she seeth him clearely yea she shall enjoy him with all her might of enjoying Her being shall be the measure of her enjoying for as much as she is so much shall shee enjoy shee shall be in a perpetuall union with her beloved and in a perpetuall fruition by union and so in a perpetuall rack extent and vttermost of joy The fountaine of joy shall flow continually into the mouth of the soule the new wine of the kingdome shall still overcome her and set her up
THE MYSTICALL MARRIAGE Experimentall Discoveries of the heavenly Marriage betweene a Soule and her Saviour By F. ROVS LONDON Printed by William Iones dwelling in Red-crosse-street 1631. TO THE BRIDE THE LAMBES WIFE A REASON OF THIS WORKE IF any man fearefull of waste doe ask To what end serveth this labour I answer To the maine end Gods glory by mans edification And to this I thinke it conduceth many wayes First by the fitnesse of it to all times and seasons either of prosperity or adversity For if the times be joyfull this subject brings the best joy with it and enables us to rejoyce with them Yea it rectifies amends and exalts our joyes for upon an earthly it sets a crowne of heavenly joy And indeede without this joy we may say to joy Thou art mad and to laughter What is it that thou doest But if the times prove sad and dangerous by pestilence famine sword or other calamities this Doctrine brings strong consolation even stronger than all sorrowes and discomforts For our Communion with Christ is a fastning of the soule to a mighty and impregnable Rocke that makes her stedfast even against the gates of hell By this Communion we are made Temples of the holy Ghost the very Comforter himselfe and by him there is a Sanctuary made within us into which the soule may fly for rest safety and comfort amid all feares and dangers For into this Sanctuary the Avenger may not enter There is a chamber within us and a bed of love in that chamber wherein Christ meetes and rests with the soule and the force of friends or men either dares not or cannot breake in to disturbe the rest of Christ with the soule nor of the soule with Christ. It is an undeniable Axiome We are more than conquerours through him that loveth us An omnipotent lover gives an excessively conquering and unconquerable safety And for this safety of us and our joy we have also the immediate word of the lover himselfe I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall none take from you No wonder then if the Disciple beloved of this Lover doe tell us that writing of this communion hee writes that our joy may bee full for in this communion stands the fulnesse of joy both for soundnesse measure and safety And surely with these last times of the world it hath too great a fitnesse For it hath beene foretold that in these times the love of many should waxe colde and what fitter remedy is there for love when it hath taken cold than to kindle a fire to it even that spirituall fire which issueth frō the spirit that baptiseth with fire A second advancement to edification is this that that it presents to the view of the world some bunches of grapes brought from the land of promise to shew that this land is not a meere imagination but some have seene it and have brought away parcels pledges and earnests of it In these appeares a world above the world a love that passeth human love a peace that passeth naturall understanding a joy unspeakable and glorious a taste of the chiefe and soveraigne good Neither doth the benefit of it rest onely in the conviction of the understanding but thirdly it goes on to the will and affections It warmes and drawes them and by them the whole man to partake of the same pledges and by the incouragement of these pledges to goe on laboriously and constantly to the possession of the whole And that as by a borrowed sight men are provoked to come to tasting so by their owne tasting they may come to a sight of their owne which onely tasting can teach them But withall that by these foretastes they may be led on to that fulnesse wherewith the soule shall eternally be satisfied Fourthly it may provoke others of this Nation to bring forth more boxes of this precious oyntment even of that mysticall loue which droppeth downe from the Head Christ Iesus into the soules of the Saints living heere below For so the house of God shall bee filled with the savour of his oyntments and we know that because of the savour of his oyntments the Virgins love him And loving him they cry Draw me and I will runne after thee So the more savour of this oyntment the more love of Christ the more love the more running after Christ. But if the number of those who have written on this subject of mysticall and experimentall Divinity be tolde I thinke this worke will not be found supernumerary THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE I. The soule seeketh a Husband and findes him I WAS first breathed frō heaven and I came from God in my Creation I am divine and heavenly in my originall in my essence in my character and therfore my happines must be divine and heavenly For to a divine and heavenly essence can agree no other but a divine and heavenly happinesse I am a spirit though a low one and God is a Spirit even the highest one and God who is a Spirit is the fountaine of this spirit Where should a low spirit finde happinesse but in the highest Spirit and where should a created Spirit seeke happinesse but in the Spirit that created it Wherefore being a Spirit I will fasten my selfe on a spiritual happinesse and this spirituall happinesse I will looke for in no other but in the first and best Spirit beyond whom there is neither good nor being Then what hast thou to doe O soule any longer among these grosse thicke and bodily things here below to cast thy love on them or to seeke happinesse in them what are they to thee or what agreeablenesse is there betweene thy purity and their grossenesse The bodie that lives by breathing the thinne element of ayre may as well live in the bottome of the thicke water as thou canst live continue much lesse better thy Being by sucking these grosse and bodily Creatures Thy being is of a higher and purer nature and therefore thy well-being must bee fetched from something that is higher and purer than they The maine use of them is to serve the body which is some kinne to their grossenesse but remember that the bodie it selfe is to serve the soule and what base felicity must that be which she shall find in her servants servant Much more reasonable were it for the soule to fetch her well-being from some being higher and better than her selfe for such onely can better her and withall to lift up the body to the participation of the soules high and spirituall happinesse for there is a naturall body and there is a spirituall body then that the body should draw downe the soule to the grosse and transitory things that are given to serve the body in the bodies service of the soule And thus may man be perfectly happy the soule a spirit by union with the highest Spirit and the body by union with the soule united also to that Spirit And now the
as a thiefe and adulterer A theefe he is for he hath stollen the foule from her first Lord and husband even the Lord that made her and an adulterer he is for he lives with her that belongs to another and while hee lives with her he keeps her not for love but lust wherefore let the soule give her consent to his death that thereby her true husband may recover his right in her and that she may receive her true husband and in him life liberty and felicity And indeed she may well be weary of the old for her living with him is most unreasonable most slavish and most miserable It is most unreasonable for there is no sense in the mariage of a soule with lust What good can lust do to a soule there being no likenesse but a meere contrariety betweene them and wee know that things are cherished and augmented by their like but they are destroyed by their contraries The soule is light and lust is darknesse and can darknesse give any increase of being or wellbeing to light Yea doth not darknesse goe about to lessen to quench and kill light Againe lust hath in it a venome contrary to goodnesse and can evill give any accesse or addition of goodnesse to the soule Yea this venome hath in it a force and power to draw the wil and affections from that soveraigne good which is the true and onely beatificall object of the soule and to glue and fasten her to objects of vanity yea of death and misery Againe the soule in her substance is a spirit and what kindly or naturall pleasure or profit can a spiritual essence receive from grosse and fleshly lust The soule hath no savour in the ranke and grosse pleasures of the flesh but they are to her as the onions and garlike of Egypt to a dainty delicate taste Surely so well may the earth lighten the Sunne and a tempest give rest to the sea as lust can give light or life or rest or happinesse to the soule but darknesse and death and misery it can and doth give and so under the shape of an husband it is a cruell enemy and a very murtherer of the soule And surely hee could be no other but a mortall enemy of the soule that made such a marriage betweene the soule and her mortall enemy And hee had neede to be as cunning as malicious to put a shew of reason upon a match so absurd and unreasonable And if in a second place wee beholde the slavery of the soule in this marriage with lust the teares that bewailed the virginity of Iephthahs daughter are not sufficient to bewaile this slavish marriage The body commands the soule earth heaven and dust that noble and divine essence which was breathed into man even from Gods owne mouth and had his owne image imprinted on it Neither is it the body of dust onely that commands the heavenly soule but the body it selfe being commanded by lust doth command the soule so is lust the chiefe lord both of body and soule even a certaine venome itch and fury dwelling in this earth of man There may be some proportion betweene the dust which God turned into a body and that soule which God made with his breath though in a large and remote distance and difference But betweene the soule which God made according to his owne image and this blinde and wilde lust which God made not in man there is no portion or part of proportion whereupon any right or power of command may be grounded Yet in this base and wretched marriage vile and odious lust spurs up the soule with his commands and makes her to trudge up and down in businesses of darknesse filthinesse and wretchednes The soule is set on work in things that are no kin to her no good to her yea that are contrary to her being and well-being For contrary they are to that image of God which is in her and consequently contrary to that God whose image this is and to whō this image points and leades her as to her soveraigne good And thus have wee a third mischiefe of this marriage even misery annexed to slavery For as the image of God in the soule turnes the eye and heart of the soule to looke unto God her chiefe happinesse so lust turnes about the eye and heart of the soule from her happinesse and what can her prospect and object be then but misery And if the eye of the soule happen to cast up some glances to heaven and happinesse yet the heart even the will and affections are hurried away by this lust to objects and workes of vanity and misery so that the soule can onely say I see the better things and follow the worse I see happines and runne after misery Thus by slavery shee buyeth misery and slavery it selfe being misery by misery she earneth misery And indeed is it not the true misery of an Egyptian bondage that the soule should bee still set on worke by lust in a fiery fornace yea be beaten and tormented when shee doth not worke though her worke concerne her selfe nothing but onely to strengthen her owne bondage and to increase her owne misery And indeede therefore is she kept so hard at this worke that she may haue no leisure to thinke beyond bondage and misery Accordingly if the soule at any time doe but lift up her eyes above her present bondage to that Lord of life liberty and happinesse which would once have married her and still makes new offers unto her this tyrannous husband like a Taske-master strikes in deepe lashes into her side and tells her she is idle though she thinkes on her nearest businesse and dearest happinesse If it be in the morning there is a bargaine of profit imposed on her and this lot of bricke must be made that day and about it must the soule goe being pierced throgh with the thorns of covetousnesse by the violent hand of her false husband that she may have no leisure respiration or rest And if at night the soule be weary of this dayes worke and would faine goe to bed with the body the night is lusts day as it is the Owles for both are blinde and then there is a wife whose husband is from home and the poore soule being a spirit must crafficke in this errand for the flesh to make a wary but a wicked meeting betweene her owne lewd husband and another mans wife and while she plots it she doth a worke of slavery and when she hath done it she shall have no other but the wages of misery But endlesse were it to set forth the whole story of this Aegyptian bondage Let the carnall man reade over the story of his owne life and he may see the one in the other And all being summed together amounts to this that the marriage betweene the soule and lust is monstrous as betweene a woman and a beast slavish as betweene a woman and a tyrant mischievous and mortall
taste of God and God being tasted overfloweth and steepeth and drencheth the soule with overcomming and inebriating sweetnesse For a high and large and mighty joy poured into a low and measured and weake spirit overcommeth her with quantity and quality and so carries her away into extasie and ravishment she is too narrow and feeble to containe and beare a joy that is too large and strong for her and therefore having filled her to the utmost capacity it goes beyond and runnes over So is she blessed in that fulnesse which her measure containeth yea she is more than blessed even blessed in a kinde of excesse by being overcome and overflowed with blessednesse And if we will consider the quality of this joy as well as the quantity there is no joy to the spirituall joy the joyes of the body being base in comparison of it the spirituall joy is pure piercing and full of activity the joy of bodies is grosse heavie dull and earthy In the bodily wine it is the spirit of the wine that rejoyceth the spirits of the body But a wine that is all spirit and spirit in the height and top of spiritualnes and newly drawne and sucked from the prime and chiefest spirit how doth that rejoyce how doth that ravish the spirits that drinke it when mans highest part doth tast the highest good Man hath no higher part whereby to taste and receive happinesse neither is there any higher happinesse to be tasted and received Therefore the soule that tasteth this wine at her spirituall marriage saith as the Master of the Feast at the earthly marriage Lord Thou hast kept the best wine untill the last And this being best the soule gives it the best place in her judgement and affection she forgets that which is behinde and indeavours to that which is before she will not rest in the low and backward joyes of the bodie but strives toward the high and forward joyes of the spirit and having attained them she rests in them as in the best joyes yet so rests in them in this life of growth that she desires to grow by them presently to a greater capacity of them and finally to a full large and everlasting fruition of them in a nearer accesse unto the very spring and fountaine of joyes But when all is said of this marriage-happinesse one taste of it wil tell thee more than all that is or can be said The true knowledge of the sweetnes of God is gotten by tasting and therefore taste first and then see how sweet and gracious the Lord is The taste of it will truly tell him that tasteth it how sweet it is but hee that knoweth this sweetnes by tasting cannot deliver over the full and perfect image of this sweetnes to him that hath not tasted it For this sweetnes surmounts all knowne sweetnesse of the creatures and by that which is knowne must that which is unknowne be made knowne But if that which is knowne be lesse and lower than that which is unknown that which is knowne may teach and tell us what the unknowne is not but not what it is So the joy of love and union in an earthly marriage cannot expresse a heavenly joy that is spiritually pure and purely active Only these and the like comparisons may serve for staires whereby to ascend even above these comparisons and to set our foot on something beyond them For if the soule rests on these she rests short of the knowledge of the sweetnesse which is beyond these shee is still in the sweetnesse of the creature and hath not attained the sweetnesse of the Creatour Therefore when she hath gone as farre as she may in the sweetnesse of the creature let her advance one step more into that spirituall union wherein is to be tasted and seene by tasting the sweetnes of the Creatour and ther shall shee see more by tasting than all the creatures could shew her by resembling she hath met with that joy which onely can truly teach it selfe and therefore it is called unspeakable And whereas before it was tasted the being of it was doubted and much more the manner and shape of it was unknowne now it is both knowne to be and the shape and manner of it is also known And being knowne all other sweetnesses which before were alone knowne and esteemed are now despised as it were unknown For this is that blessed estate of spirituall love and union whereof the spouse of Christ truely saith If a man would give all the substance of his house for loue it would utterly bee contemned And indeed the spouse having Christs love she hath that which is better than all things and having Christ with his love how can she with him but have all things also Christ is the heire of all things and the soule having married this heire is a joynt-heire annexed with Christ. She hath him by whom the worlds were made and therefore she hath also the worlds made by him yet he that made the worlds being Infinitely better than the worlds made by him she despiseth the worlds in respect of him that made them she quencheth her thirst in the fountaine onely and she accounts it a folly and a losse to leave the fountaine and to run after the streames Therefore setting her mouth to this fountaine she is filled with the waters of life with the oyle of gladnesse with the new wine of the kingdome of God with the joy of the holy Ghost even a joy unspeakable and glorious In Christ Iesus she hath all-sufficiency all safety all supply shee receives from Christ that spirituall oyntment which gives her spiritual light power goodnesse love and life yea it adorneth the soule with the most excellent beauty even the likenesse and image of God himselfe And being thus lovely the bridegroom kisseth and embraceth her with spirituall visitations he tells her his counsailes and his eyes are ever toward her even when hee seemes to be turned from her For she is set as a signet upon his heart and much water cannot quench his love she also looketh on him and is changed from glory to glory as the Moon when with more open face shee beholdeth the Sunne But of the particular benefits ane advantages of this blessed Marriage more hereafter Thus happy and thus growing in happinesse shee walkes on in this life of marriage inchoate untill she come to the eternall life of marriage consummate She is happy now in her union with happinesse and she shall be happy hereafter in a full fruition of happinesse She is happy now in the earnests and peeces of that happinesse which shall be full hereafter yea daily more and more happy here by a daily enlarging of those earnests and peeces and shee shall be the more happy hereafter by how much more these earnests and peeces of happinesse have beene here enlarged And thus shall she walke by happines unto happines and by the increase of happines
he finde thee watching that so when he knocks thou maist readily open and he may readily enter and that by thy slacknesse hee doe not turne away to the flockes of thy companions And in the second place take heede that thou give not thy selfe over to a desperate idlenesse to doing nothing because thou canst not doe as thou wouldest This were a double offence both because it is impatience and because it is idlenesse This is to cut off the hands because they are feeble and because the feete halt to turne them out of the way But it were farre better to strengthen thy weake hands and that thou maist doe by exercise though it be but weake exercise and it were better for thee to halt in the right way than to runne or rest in a false way Wherefore if thou canst not doe the higher workes doe the lower for doing is thy way though thou goe but softly in it but idlenes is a false way And when thy Master Lord and Husband commeth and findeth thee doing according to that which thou hast thou shalt be blessed in thy deede by him who accepteth our worke if it come from a willing minde according to that which wee have and not according to that which wee have not If thou art faithfull in little hee will make thee ruler over much thy Masters joy shall shortly enter into thee and thou shalt shortly enter into thy Masters joy But contrarily looke for no gaine from idlenesse but the gaine of losse and punishment Thou maist lose him the longer the lesse thou doest to please him yea hee may come unto thee with a rod when thou expectest him to come with the spirit of meeknesse and consolation To the workers hee comes with a penny even with a reward favour and a good eye but to the idlers he comes with a frowne and a checke Why stand yee all the day idle Rather doe that which may winne him to come may please him being come than by doing nothing keep him from comming or make him angry when hee commeth And if thou aske what thou shalt doe Thy most ordinary worke is the worke of thy ordinary calling yet maist thou give times and turnes to those workes that more immediatly concerne thy heavenly calling even such as immediatly call for thy heavenly Lord to come into thy soule sigh and pray and reade and heare and by heavenly meditations let thy soule be trimmed as a bride that lookes for her husband yea with thy earthly labours maist thou mixe these heavenly thoughts thou maist worke and sigh worke and wish worke and pray in short ejaculations and thus working and thus waiting working in profitable duties and waiting with submissive patience he that loveth both thy workes and thy patience will come unto thee and say I know thy patience and thy workes yea hee will come with such an increase of grace that he will also say Thy last shall bee more than thy first Finally these desertions are advantageable to the soule while they draw her eye and affection from this place of interrupted joyes to the place of incessant and everlasting joyes The Bridegroome here doth but looke in upon the soule at a crany and the soule seeth him but by glimpses but there shall she behold him face to face and this beholding as it is full so it shall also be perpetuall The soule is here walled up in an house of clay and the trafficke betweene her and her husband is but by some chinke which the spirit hath bored But this clay which is now in it selfe nothing but darknesse and keepes out light shall hereafter be made all glorious and lightsome yea whereas the soule is now much carnall then the body shall be made spirituall and if the body be spirituall and lightsome how pure and spirituall shall the soule be which is now a spirit Surely then shall wee be as it were all eye even all clarity and purity and so most capable of light and glory and according to the capacity of our receiving shall the light and glory and joy of our husband enter into us and fill us And of this fulnesse of joy and glory there is no end no interruption Wherefore our husband wisely and profitably drawes us by these desertions from earnests unto full fruition from broken peeces to whole and entire joyes If the soule might still have these glimpses shee would perchance be contented with them and this were no other than to be contented with perpetuall star-light even a light fitted for this life of vanity which is but a night being compared to the bright day of eternity Yet lying in the bed of love she would be content to looke on her beloved by this lesser light and would not desire the perfect day wherein the Sun of glory might arise unto her and by a large and glorious light make her largely and gloriously to see him who is the fountaine of that large and light by which she seeeth him VVherefore this lesser light is profitably taken from her to stirre her up to the seeking of the greater and her beloved doth chastise her by desertions to beate her away from resting in lesser and interrupted joyes and to beate her unto the seeking of fuller loves mightier joyes and everlasting fruitions And indeede the earnests should have taught her this lesson but because they did not these interruptions are sometimes sent to teach it her The earnests shold have taught her to look out for the full exhibition of that whereof they are earnests but because the soule in stead of looking by them beyond them fastens and stayes her eye on them they are taken from that eye which was unduely stayed on them that so by wanting them it may looke beyond them which it should have done but did not by them And now the soule seeing that these earnests are not onely but drops and parcells of an infinite fulnesse but withall drops and red forth and his actions are answerable to his name As he was annoynted with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellows so doth he give of his oyntmentes to the Bride which is joyned in communion and fellowshipp with him For of his fulnesse doth shee receive even grace for grace The pretious Oyntment drops from this head unto his body the Church and thereby she is made all glorious within glorious shee is now within by grace and shee shall hereafter be glorious both within and without with perfect glorie Among the benefites of this glorious Grace wherewith the Church is inwardly beautified when the Bridegrome visits her with his spiritual ointments this is a great one that the heavenly oyle giveth light to the soule the soule is a lamp with this oile is the Lampe of the wise Virgins trim'd and becomes a burnning a shining light They have that light from the bridegroom by which they looke out for the Bridegroome The eye salve is gotten from Christ by which
the eyes of the Church being annoynted doe see him and all things that cōcerne him Spirituall things are spiritually to bee discerned and Christ and his spouse are one spirit and by that spirit wherby she is one with Christ doth shee discerne spiritual things The husband of the Church is the wisedome of his Father and when wisdome goes into a soule he giveth wisedome to the soule The Spirit by which he enters into us taketh of his and giveth it to us Therefore as he is wisdome in himselfe so is he also made wisedome to us Christ is light and when light and the soule are knit together by that vnion with light there is a Communion of light The wine of the Spirit is herein quite contrary to the bodily wine The bodily wine whē it inebriates darkens the understanding and being grosser than the soule casts a mist upon the soule But the spirituall wine being purer than the soule enlightens and clarifies her and even then when it brings her to an extacie it doth it not by the diminution but by the excesse of light Wherefore let the soule make speciall use of this precious light which shineth within her in the accesses of her husband let her marke and learne and record the discoveries of that light for a spirit so enlightened will discover more than seven men upon a watch-tower There are some mysteries and secrets which thy husband wil whisper unto thee by his spirit in the bed of love and then let him that hath an eare heare what his spirit saith But if he doe not speake to thee doe thou speak to him know of him those things that are needfull for thee to know and bring to his light those things that thou wouldest have truly seene and discerned Goe into this Sanctuary and there receive Oracles and Answeres for there shalt thou finde resolutions of those things that were before too high and too hard for thee and when thou hast truly seene them beleeve them to be that which by this light thou seest them to be and resolve never to beleeve the flesh hereafter when it shall put any other shapes upon them For darknesse puts false and imaginary shapes upon things but it is light that makes all things truly manifest For example when this light shines in upon the soule looke out for thy happinesse and that thou maist finde it set all things before this light which are briefly these The Creatour and the creature God and the world and having done this thou maist plainly see where is true solid and permanent felicity and where is vanity transitorinesse and misery And when thou hast seene it know it to be the very truth which thou hast seene and that which is once truth is truth for ever If thou wantest the skil of truly measuring time and eternity so that a short life seemes to thee like eternity and eternity lesse than a short life when this light shines in thy soule bring the life of man and eternity together in one view before it and thou shalt quickly learne the art of numbring the few dayes of thy life and withall thou shalt learne that the dayes of eternity cannot bee numbred There is not so much proportion or likenesse between them as there is betweene the very lowest and least point of the earth and the circle of the uppermost sphere And what thou hast now seene to be true beleeve to be true ever even when this light is so obscured that thou seest not the truth of it If thou doubt which is better the prosperity of the wicked or the adversity of the godly bring them before this light even into the Sanctuary and Temple of thy soule wherein the holy Ghost dwelleth and shineth and there shalt thou see that prosperitie ending in a never-ending misery and that adversity ending in a never-ending felicity Besides thou shalt see the prosperity to bee but a light vanity yet followed with a weghty misery and thou shalt see adversity to be but a light affliction yet followed with a weighty glory And having seene this thou maist easily judg which is the better and as they appeare now to thy judgement such let thy memory present them to thee for ever If thou art doubtfull of thy way and thy path seeemes to be covered with darknesse search thy way by this light for it shall be to thee instead of a voice saying This is the way walke in it VVhen after some darke nights the soule is visited through the loving kindnesse of her beloved with these day-springs and mornings of grace then let her say Cause mee to see and know the way wherein I shall walke and then The good Spirit will leade thee into the land of uprightnesse If the word written be darke to thee bring it to this light and if it be fit for thy measure and the glory of thy Lord this light shall reveale it For the Spirit doth reveale the hid things of God If the infidelity of men without thee or of thine owne flesh within thee cast a mist of doubts on the Gospel of Christ Iesus with this light beholde this Gospell and thou shalt see in it a plot of divine wisedome and a mysterie of high and supernaturall truth Yea thou shalt see the face of him who is the summe of the Gospell as the face of the onely begotten Sonne of God full of grace and glory For God who commanded light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. It is an ancient promise They shall be all taught of God And when will God sooner teach than when he visiteth a soule with his spirit which communicates both his light and his love unto her For both light and love are discoverers of secrets light makes manifest things hidde in darknesse and love tels counsels unto the beloved It is our Saviours owne inference I have called you friends therefore I tell you my counsels But remember that the knowledge which thou learnest from this teacher of hearts be laid up by thee safe as a precious stocke or treasure and account it thy best learning which thou hast learned of the best Teacher Having bought this truth sell it not keepe it and it shall keepe thee When thou goest thy steps shall not be straitned and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble Therefore take fast holde on this instruction let her not goe keepe her for shee is thy life Secondly these seasons of love are seasons of prayer If thou want any thing now aske it for in these heates of love thy husband will deny thee nothing These be the times when the spirit moveth the waters therefore now cast in thy petition and what soever griefe it hath in it thou shalt be cured of it Now the King holds out his golden Scepter therefore let
the heavenly Bridegroome IT is necessary to shew what these visitations are to convince that they are and so to undeceive those that thinke they are not It is also necessary to free those from errour who beleeving that they are yet doe mistake those that are not for those that are Such visitations there are for they are seene and felt by men seeing and waking and seeing and waking not onely with the bodily eyes but with two better eyes the one of humane reason and the other farre excelling that divine and heavenly light Spirituall light beholds these spirituall sights and shews them to the understanding which being convinced by that which it sees beleeves them it selfe and would also deliver over the sight and the beleefe of them to others But the thoughts of man are narrower than these joyes and words are narrower thā thoghts But which is worst of al the heart of an earthly man is narrower than the narrow words of a spirituall man for the carnall man perceiveth not spirituall things though they be held up before his fleshly eyes yet in the mouth of two or three eye-witnesses a word should stand and stand it doth though blinde men see it not standing before them and therfore stumble at it But who knowes whether an Ephatah may come downe from heaven that while a spirituall object is proposed a spirituall sight may be infused Howsoever the words of heavenly wisedome are not spoken in vaine to the children of wisedome and especially those who are yet but children and not perfect in tae art of discerning good and evill must not be left to the dangers of errour and mistaking The black Angel sometimes changeth himselfe into an Angel of light and then may he also make some shewes of lightsome visitations There is also a sanguine and naturall lightsomnesse and a bright beame of adustion that sometimes shine in the mind and these also may be mistaken to be divine But the spirit is not flesh much lesse is hee that evill spirit which is contrary to him And because the spirit is that which these are not the visitations are such as those imaginations are not which come from these And that this difference may the better be discerned let let us beholde the true characters of a spirituall visitation which the soule seeth when the husband of soules doth visit her A first marke and signe of his presence is light a light not fitted for the eye but the soule even a light spirituall and shining spirit and truth into the soule and spirit For the Lord is a spirit and when hee comes into the soule hee comes with abundance of that spirit which leadeth into all truth Hee is the light of the world even of the great world of mankinde and therefore when he comes into the little world of one man how great is his light And when this light shineth brightly then the soule by it doth see spirituall things as truly and assuredly as the corporall eye doth corporall things For there is an agreement betweene a spirituall eye and spirituall objects as there is betweene the bodily eye and bodily object By this light things formerly not knowne are seene and discovered and spirituall things knowne before onely by a carnall which is a false knowledge are spiritually and so truly discerned for the light is that which maketh manifest and this light being spirituall maketh spirituall things so manifest that it gives a full assurance of understanding and makes us know that wee know thē Even those things which before seemed fables and foolishnesse to the carnall eye to this spirituall sight and light appeare plainly to be deepe mysteries and most wise truthes Especially the great Bridegroom of soules who to the Iewes is a stumbling blocke and to the Grecians foolishnesse to this light appeares clearely to be the wisedome of God and the power of God For the light begotten acknowledgeth the light begetting and Christ is seene in the soule by his owne beames Hee is seene there as a Head and Husbād to the Church as a roote of life as an All-sufficient Saviour fit and able to restore a decayed and lost creation to disperse and treade downe a combined association of adversary and mighty spirits and to unite and recapitulate the scattered members of a mysticall body both in heaven and earth each to other and all to the Deity Hee is beheld as the fairest of men the soules well-beloved an infuser of that blessed sap of spirituall life by which the soule is purified here and made capable of the beatificall vision in an eternall life hereafter And as this derived light sheweth us the primitive light which begate it and being spirituall shewes us that Lord who is the spirit from whom it proceeded so doth it also discover to us divers other spirituall truthes and is a kinde of Oracle that gives divine answeres and resolutions Now that wee may certainely know this light to be a truth and not an imagination and withall to be truly spirituall and heavenly and not carnall earthly much lesse infused by a counterfeit Angel of light let us first observe that this light of the spirit doth agree with the light of the word The same spirit of God which shineth now in our soules in these heavenly visitations did first shine in the word so that the light of the word and the light in our soules are twinnes and resemble each other and agree like brethren If therefore there be this agreement then there is this brotherhood and if no agreement then there is no brotherhood Therefore to the law to the testimony if thy thoughts speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them for indeed if our thoughts be truly enlightened wee shall finde some words in the word of God confirming them yea many times this light within will call up some place of the word without for a witnesse to it to confirm a truth which in that place was not formerly perceived Such is the harmony and power of harmony betweene the spirit and the word that when you hit a spirituall truth in your soule there will often come a sound answer and eccho from some place in the word agreeable to it And as the word doth approve this light so doth this light approve the word It loves to looke on it it seeth a heavenly wisdome in it yea it seeth secrets in it yea many times it will in some short sentence yea in some single word find out a Mine of heavenly doctrine and as at a little crany discover a world of divine truths And so the light of the spirit doth approve it selfe not onely by being approved of the word but by approving and improving it This is a sufficient tryall and touchstone of this heavenly light though if neede were I might adde the willing resignation of reason even of the naturall light of the soule to the soveraignty of this divine and heavenly
parts of the soule to water the roote of her and to give her true kindly and reall increase As mudde is to the thirsty bodies so are these to thirsty soules they cannot drinke them in nor quench their thirst with them But the spirituall joyes enter in and enlarge the very soule of man they make her who is a spirit more spirituall for shee opens her mouth wide to them and then shee is filled with that spirituall and divine sappe which accompanieth them and wherein they are founded And then as shee hath heard so she hath seene and tasted that an heavenly joy is to the soule a restaurative medicine and that when she enjoyeth her Saviour in the contemplations and tastes of his love then is she filled with marrow and fatnesse But I hasten to a third Marke of spirituall visitations and that is holinesse For when Christ visiteth the soul as he doth clarifie her with light and ravish her with joy so he doth beautifie her with holinesse Externall joyes and joyes of the body have not this vertue neither can they give it to the soule but when Christ commeth into the soule by his spirit the same spirit that doth enlighten and glad her doth also hallow her yea as by the light she is directed to holinesse so by the gladnesse shee is lifted up encouraged and actuated unto holines In these accesses of Christ there are heights of union and the increases of union bring with them increases of uniformity The spirit of union is fire and fire turnes that into it selfe to which it is united and the fuller and closer this union is the more is this turning So Christ Iesus the more hee comes into a soule by his spirit the more spirituall doth he make her yea the more doth hee melt a soule into himselfe the more doth hee turne her will into his will and the more doth hee increase his owne image in her and wee know that his image is righteousnesse and true holinesse He brings with him those oyntments for which the Virgins love him and those oyntments also make them more lovely Hence are they inwardly more glorious and hence outwardly they smel more sweetly in their conversations The Kings daughter is all glorious within and her garments smell of myrrhe aloes and cassia In these touches of Christ if in any other there comes forth vertue frō him The spirit of the lover passeth into his beloved and makes her of one heart and will with him and this conformity of the will with Christ is true holinesse The spirit by which Christ visiteth his spouse is an holy spirit and a spirit of power and accordingly when this spirit is shed into the soule there is power holynes infused with him and by him And hēce it is that they who receaue the true oyntments of the spirit in true visitacions they passe beyond a speculatiue discoursing holynes even beyond a forme of godlines and advance to the power of it to a fruitful expression of this power Yea I may say that hereunto the very loue of Christ constrayneth vs. For in these visitacions and by them the loue of Christ is shed into our harts The spirit of power holines is the spirit of loue and this loue giuen by the spirit may be called holinesse for it is the fulfilling of the law They that love Christ are certainely willing to please him and to keep his commandements and they that have the spirit of love cannot but love him Yea they cannot but love him for the union they have with him and the joyes of this union And loving him they wil desire to bring forth fruite unto him and by him even fruite that may be like him The pleasure of love and union in outward marriage is a kinde of hire of fruitfulnes and in the spirituall marriage the joy of love and union is the hire of a fruitfull holinesse Wherefore those that truly enjoy Christ in these spiritual accesses both desire and obtaine this spirituall fruitfulnesse for the spouse of Christ is most truly that vine which is fruitfull by the sides of the house and whose children stand like olive plants yea in olde age is shee full of fruite Wherefore if with light and joy the soule doe feele that the spirit of Christ by spirituall heate power and love have wrought a powerfull and fruitfull holinesse in her let her know that Christ Iesus himselfe hath beene with her Carnall and corporall things cannot doe this evill Angels neither can nor will doe it good Angels though they rejoyce to see it done yet they doe it not but that spirit alone both can doe it doth it which is the power and right hand of God which onely writeth the lawes of God in the hearts and soules of men He it is alone that giveth the soule the new wine of the kingdome wherewith the soule being once refreshed shee rejoyceth as a gyant to runne the race of holinesse It is the spirit of Christ alone that so anoynteth the soule that shee runneth after Christ in the wayes of righteousnesse And as it was said to this Head and Husband of the Church Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnesse above thy fellowes So it may bee also said to the Spouse Thou hast loved righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnes above all those that were thy fellowes by carnall generation For there is no oyle of gladnesse that hath with it the love of righteousnesse but that wherewith Christ Iesus the Head was principally anoynted and which dropping from Christ the Head to the Members and Spouse of Christ makes her to excell the rest in vertue and holinesse And as there was not any such spice as the Queen of Sheba brought unto Salomon so there are no such oyntments of grace and gladnesse as a greater than Salomon doth give to his Queen when hee and shee are met in the heates of a spirituall conjunction and the excesses of a fruitive union CAP. VIII A Corollary of counsailes and directions to those that are entred into the estate of this blessed Marriage LEt it be the maine endeavor of a soule married to Christ to keepe her selfe still in that point wherein she may keepe him and so keepe him that she may still say and feele what she sayes My well-beloved is mine and I am my well-beloveds To this end let her still cast and consider with her selfe what those things are which hee most loves and make her most lovely in his eyes for the spirit of this lover loves to be there where his love is Therefore if there be any praise any vertue thinke on those things and set them as pearles and jewells about thy soule to make her glorious and amiable in his sight Let the face
in a continuall trance and extasie of joy Her life shall be rejoycing and her life shall be eternall and so shall be her rejoycing Her life shall be love and this love shall give an overcōming sweetnesse to the enjoying of him whom she loveth and the sweetnesse of her enjoying shall enflame her love to him by whom she enjoyes this sweetnes and thus shal she run an everlasting course between the pleasure of love the sweetnesse of enjoying Therefore thus saith my soule to her beloved Come away my beloved and be as a Roe on the tops of the mountaines My life is hid with thee my love Appeare quickly thou which art my life that I may quickly appeare with thee in the glorie and happines of a consummate mariage Make mee faire with thy spirit and put the golden vesture and the needle-worke of thy manifold graces vpon mee and bring me speedily into the presence of the great King Let the day of gladnes quickly come wherein both soule and body even my whole selfe may eternally enioy thee For thy spirit being now in both makes both to thirst for thee and my flesh fainteth as well as my soule and ech panteth after thee Neither will they stil be put off with these tasts and earnests but their love and longing is rather enflamed by them to the fruition of thee The very voice of these earnests is come yea they scarse know any other language but Come therefore again again they say come Yea after they have said come as if that were not enough they say Come quickly Now thou who knowest the meaning of the spirit give an answere to the speaking sighes and grones of the spirit Thou who hast enflamed the heart of thy spouse to speake vnto thee in this silent yet lowde language of ardent desires speake againe to the hart of thy spouse and answer the desires which thou hast made to speak vnto thee But harken for hee speaketh Those lips speake which are full of grace and such lips cannot but speake grace peace to his spouse to his beloved Hearken therefore and heare what he saith Beholde I come quickly O hony and sweetnesse it selfe to the soule that loveth her beloved comes quickly her consummate marriage comes quickly her full joy and perfect happinesse comes quickly And now what can the soule say more to her Lord Onely as before shee still said Come so now will she still say Amen and Even so come Lord Iesus Amen and Amen FINIS 1 Ioh. 1. Esay 54. Gal. 5.17 Cant. 3.4 Ioh. 14.21 2 Cor. 12.2 Eph. 4. Rom. 8.13 1 Pet. 2.11 1 Pet. 1.8 Cant. 8.7 Rom. 8.32 Heb. 1. 1 Cor. 3.22 Cap. 4 5 6. Eccles 3. Mat. 11.29 Heb. 12. Phil. 4.13 Col. 1.11 Psal. 19.10 Psal. 19.5 Ier. 31 33 35 36. Cant. 8.6 Rev. 12.11 Acts 5.41 Dan. 3. Acts 4.17 18. Acts 21.13 Mark 10.30 2 Cor. 1.5 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Pet 1. phil 2.17 1 Thes 1.6 c. Rev 14.13 2 Cor. 9.6 Nehem. 8.10 Luke 9.33 Heb. 4.9 Vers. 6.11 Acts 1. Eccles 4.10 Iob 6.6 Ruth 1.20 Cant. 5 Esay 54.6 7. Rom 8.28 Cant 5.2 Gen. 32.28 Luke 7.37 Matth. 26.10 Prov. 6.34 Hab 1,32 2 Cor. 3.5 Rev. 17. Rev. 3. Esay 66.1 2. Ioh. 15.13 Mat. 15.27 Col. 3.3 Iohn 3.8 Iohn 2.4 Iudg. 13.25 Iohn 5.4 Psal. 123.2 Psa. 37.34 1 Sam. 2.30 Psal. 37. Psal. 4.6 7 Psal. 42.2 102.2 130.6 Heb. 12.12 2 Cor. 8.12 Mat 10. Rev. 2.19 1 Cor 15.44 Ioh 17.14 1 Cor 1.30 Psal 73.17 Psa 90.12 Psal. 73. 2 Cor 4.17 Esay 30.21 Psal 143 8-10 1 Cor 2.10 Iohn 1.14 2 Cor 4.6 Esa 54.13 Ioh. 15.15 Pro 23.23 4.12 Mat. 6 33. 1 Kings 8 38 2 Chron 7 14 15 Zach 12.10 Rom. 8.26 2 Tim 1.7 Ioh 13.36 Acts 4.8 Iudg 15. 16. Acts 13.6 1 Sam. 14.29 30. Eph 5.9 Phil. 4.13 Neh 8.10 Heb. 12 Psal. 19. Ioh. 4.34 2 Pet. 1. Psa. 89.15 Iohn 20.27 28 Heb. 13 8. Gen. 38.25 2 Pet. 1.16 1 Iohn 1. Rom. 8.16 Gal 4.6 7 2 Cor 5.5 6 Cant. 1. 2. Luke 24 15 19. Psa 42.2 Phil 1.23 Psal. 43.3 2 Cor 5.8 Exod 14.15 Heb. 10.38 Heb. 10.39 Num 11 6 Iosh. 5 12. 2 Cor. 5. 1 Cor. 1.23 24. Esay 8.20 Psal. 94.19 2 Cor. 4.16 Luk. 24.15.17 Psal. 30.11 Matth. 5.3 4 6. Numb 20 10. 2. King 4. 2 Cor. 8.12 1. Thes. 1.6 1. pet 1.6 Psal. 112.4 2 Cor. 4.6 Psal. 4. Phil. 3.8 2 Cor. 12.9 10. Rom. 5.3 Rom. 8.5 Prov. 17.22 Psal. 63.5 Eph. 4.24 Psal. 45. Mark 5.30 Luke 1.35 2 Tim. 1.7 Rom. 13.10 Ioh 14.21 Rom. 7.4 Psal. 128. Psal 92.14 Ezek. 11.19 20. 2 Cor. 3.3 Psal. 45. Numb 24 Cant. 4.9 Psal. 27.8 2 Cor. 3.18 Psal. 25.15 Luke 24.28 c. Luk. 11.13 Ioh. 14.21 Iohn 1.3 Exod. 34.14 Gal 5.17 Gant 2.18 Cant. 7.12 Zach. 13.1 Psal. 51.7 Rev. 7.14 Esay 1.16 1. Luke 7.47 Psal. 51.8 Rom. 5.1 5.11 Hebr. 10. 19,22 2 King 3.15 Eph. 4.15 16. 1 Pet. 2. Num. 11.4 Eccl. 10 17 Psal. 19.10 Gal. 6.16 Rev. 22.14 Psal. 45. Iudg. 9.11 1 King 19 Deu. 32.25 1 Cor. 4.4 Psal. 145. 15. Cant. 5.2 Luk. 23.43 Eccl. 12.1 Rev. 3.20 Mark 4.33 Gal. 2.20 5.6 1 Ioh. 3.14 1 Cor 4.11 2 Cor. 11.23 Gen. 30. Rom. 7.4 Ioh. 15.5 psal 113.9 Gen 30.20 Ioh 14.23 Cant 4.16 Prov. 7.19 Psal. 119. 176 Luke 22.61,62 1 Cor. 10. 13. 1 Pet. 1.5 6. Gant 2.5 Mat. 15.32 Heb. 4.15 16. Psal 63.1 Rom. 8.23 Rev. 22.20