THE DEVOVT SOUL OR Rules of heavenly DEVOTION ALSO THE FREE PRISONER OR The Comfort of RESTRAINT By Jos. H. B. N. London Printed by W. H. and are to be sold by George Latham Junior at the Bishops-head in St. Pauls Church-yard M. DC L. TO All Christian Readers Grace and Peace THat in a time when we heare no noise but of Drums and Trumpets and talk of nothing but armes and sieges battels I should write of Devotion may seem to some of you strange unseasonable to me contrarily it seems most fit and opportune For when can it be more proper to direct our adress to the throne of grace than when we are in the very jawes of Death or when should we goe to seek the face of our God rather than in the needfull time of trouble Blessed be my God who in the midst of these wofull tumults hath vouchsafed to give me these calm holy thoughts which I justly suppose he meant not to suggest that they should be smothered in the breast wherein they were conceived but with a purpose to have the benefit communicated unto many Who is there that needs not vehement excitations and helps to Devotion and when more than now In a tempest the Mariners themselves doe not only cry everyman to his God but awaken Jonah that is fast asleep under the hatches and chide him to his prayers Surely had we not bin failing in our devotions we could not have been thus universally miserable That duty the neglect whereof is guilty of our calamity must in the effectuall performance of it be the meanes of our recovery Be but devout and we cannot miscarry under judgements Wee is mee the teares of penitence were more fit to quench the publique flame than bloud How soone would it clear up above head if wee were but holily affected within Could wee send our zealous Ambassadours up to heaven we could not fail of an happy peace I direct the way God bring us to the end For my owne particular practice God is witnesse to my soule that as one the sense of whose private affliction is swallowed up of the publique I cease not daily to â—ly the Father of mercies with my fervent prayers that hee would at last be pleased after so many streames of bloud to passe an Act of Pacification in heaven And what good heart can do otherwise Brethren all ye that love God and his Church and his Truth and his Anointed and your Countrey your selves and yours joyn your forces with mine and let us by an holy violence make way to the gates of Heaven with our petition for mercy and peace and not suffer our selves to be beaten off from the threshold of Grace till wee be answered with a condescent He whose goodness is wont to prevent our desires will not give denyals to our importunities Pray and farewell NORWICH March 20. 1643. THE DEVOUT SOVLE SECT I. DEvotion is the life of Religion the very soule of Piety the highest imploiment of grace and no other than the prepossession of heaven by the Saints of God here upon earth every improvement whereof is of more advantage and value to the Christian soul than all the profit contentments which this world can afford it There is a kind of Art of Devotion if we can attain unto it whereby the practice thereof may bee much advanced We have known indeed some holy soules which out of the generall precepts of piety and their own happy experiments of Gods mercy have through the grace of God grown to a great measure of perfection this way which yet might have been much expedited and compleated by those helps which the greater illumination and experience of others might have afforded them Like as we see it in other faculties there are those who out of a naturall dexterity and their own frequent practice have got into a safe posture of defence and have handled their weapon with commendable skill whom yet the Fence-schoole might have raised to an higher pitch of cunning As nature is perfited so grace is not a little furthered by Art since it pleaseth the wisedome of God to work ordinarily upon the soul not by the immediate power of miracle but in such methods and by such means as may most conduce to his blessed ends It is true that all our good motions come from the Spirit of God neither is it lesse true that all the good counsails of others proceed from the same Spirit that good Spirit cannot be crosse to itself he therefore that infuses good thoughts into us suggests also such directions as may render us apt both to receive and improve them If God be bounteous we may not be idle and neglective of our spirituall aids SECT II. IF you tell me by way of instance in a particular act of Devotion that there is a gift of prayer and that the Spirit of God is not tied to rules I yeeld both these but withall I must say there are also helps of prayer and that we must not expect immediate inspirations I find the world much mistaken in both They thinke that man hath the gift of prayer that can utter the thoughts of his heart roundly unto God that can expresse himself smoothly in the phrase of the holy Ghost and presse God with most proper words passionate vehemence And surely this is a commendable faculty whersoever it is but this is not the gift of prayer you may call it if you will the gift of Elocution Doe wee say that man hath the gift of pleading that can talk eloquently at the Barre that can in good termes loud and earnestly importune the Judge for his Client and not rather hee that brings the strongest reason and quotes his books and precedents with most truth and clearest evidence so as may convince the Jury and perswade the Judge Do wee say hee hath the gift of Preaching that can deliver himself in a flowing manner of speech to his hearers that can cite Scriptures or Fathers that can please his auditory with the flowers of Rhetorick or rather he that can divide the Word aright interpret it soundly apply it judiciously put it home to the Conscience speaking in the evidence of the Spirit powerfully convincing the gainsayers comforting the dejected and drawing every soule nearer to heaven The like must we say for prayer the gift whereof hee may be truely said to have not that hath the most rennible tongue for prayer is not so much a matter of the lips as of the heart but he that hath the most illuminated apprehension of the God to whom he speakes the deepest sense of his own wants the most eager longings after grace the ferventest desires of supplies from heaven and in a word whose heart sends up the strongest groanes and cries to the Father of mercies Neither may we look for Enthusiasmes immediate inspirations putting our selves upon Gods Spirit in the solemn exercises of our invocation without heed or meditation the
dangerous inconvenience wherof hath been too often found in the rash and unwarrantable expressions that have fallen from the mouths of unwary suppliants but we must addresse our selves with due preparation to that holy worke we must digest our sutes fore-order our supplications to the Almighty so that there may be excellent and necessary use of meet rules of our Devotion He whose Spirit helps us to pray and whose lips taughts us how to pray is an all-sufficient example for us all the skill of men and Angels cannot afford a more exquisite modell of supplicatory Devotion than that blessed Saviour of ours gave us in the mount led in by a divine and heart-raising preface carried out with a a strong and heavenly enforcement wherein an awfull compellation makes way for petition and petition makes way for thanksgiving the petitions marshalled in a most exact order for spirituall blessings which have an immediate concernment of God in the first place then for temporall favours which concern our selves in the second so punctuall a method had notbeen observed by him that heareth prayers if it had been all one to him to have had our Devotions confused and tumultuary SECT III. THere is commonly much mistaking of Devotion as if it were nothing but an act of vocall prayer expiring with that holy breath and revived with the next taske of our invocation which is usually measured of many by frequence length smoothnesse of expression lowdnes vehemence Whereas indeed it is rather an habituall disposition of an holy soul sweetly conversing with God in all the forms of an heavenly yet awfull familiarity and a constant entertainment of our selves here below with the God of spirits in our sanctified thoughts and affections One of the noble exercises whereof is our accesse to the throne of grace in our prayers whereto may be added the ordering of our holy attendance upon the blessed word sacraments of the Almighty Nothing hinders therefore but that a stammering suppliant may reach to a more eminent devotion than hee that can deliver himself in the most fluent and patheticall formes of Elocution and that our silence may bee more devout than our noise We shall not need to send you to the Cels or Cloysters for this skill although it will hardly be believed how far some of their Contemplative men have gone in the Theory hereof Perhaps like as Chymists give rules for the attaining of that Elixir which they never found for sure they must needs fail of that perfection they pretend who erre commonly in the object of it alwayes in the ground of it which is faith stripped by their opinion of the comfortablest use of it certainty of application SECT IV. AS there may be many resemblances betwixt Light and Devotion so this one especially that as there is a light universally diffused through the aire and there is a particular recollection of light into the body of the Sun and Stars so it is in Devotion There is a generall kind of Devotion that goes through the renewed heart and life of a Christian which wee may terme Habitual and Virtual and there is a speciall and fixed exercise of Devotion which we name Actuall The soule that is rightly affected to God is never void of an holy Devotion where ever it is what ever it doth it is still lifted up to God and fastned upon him and converses with him ever serving the Lord in feare and rejoycing in him with trembling For the effectuall performance whereof it is requisite first that the heart bee setled in a right apprehension of our God without which our Devotion is not thanklesse onely but sinfull With much labour therefore agitation of a mind illuminated from above we must find our selves wrought to an high awfull adorative and constant conceit of that incomprehensible Majesty in whom wee live and move and are One God in three most glorious Persons infinite in wisdome in power in justice in mercy in providence in all that he is in all that he hath in all that he doth dwelling in light inaccessible attended with thousand thousands of Angels whom yet we neither can know neither would it availe us if we could but in the face of the eternall Son of his Love our blessed Mediatour God and Man who sits at the right hand of Majesty in the highest heavens from the sight of whose glorious humanity we comfortably rise to the contemplation of that infinite Deity whereto it is inseparably united in and by him made ours by a lively Faith finding our persons and obedience accepted expecting our ful redemption and blessednesse Here here must our hearts be unremoveably fixed In his light must we see light no cloudy occurrences of this world no busie imployments no painfull sufferings must hinder us from thus seeing him that is invisible SECT V. NEither doth the devout heart see his Grd aloof off as dwelling above in the circle of heaven but beholds that infinite Spirit really present with him The Lord is upon thy right hand saith the Psalmist Our bodily eye doth not more certainly see our owne flesh than the spirituall eye sees God close by us Yea in us A mans own soule is not so intimate to himselfe as God is to his soule neither do we move by him only but in him What a sweet conversation therefore hath the holy soul with his God What heavenly conferences have they two which the world is not privy to whiles God entertains the soul with the divine motions of his Spirit the soul entertaines God with gracious compliances Is the heart heavy with the grievous pressures of affliction the soule goes in to his God and pours out it selfe before him in earnest bemoanings and supplications the God of mercy answers the soule again with seasonable refreshings of comfort Is the heart secretly wounded and bleeding with the conscience of some sinne it speedily betakes it selfe to the great Physician of the soul who forthwith applyes the balm of Gilead for an unfailing and present cure Is the heart distracted with doubts the soule retires to that inward Oracle of God for counsail he returnes to the soule an happy settlement of just resolution Is the heart deeply affected with the sense of some speciall favour from his God the soul breaks forth into the passionate voice of praise thanksgiving God returns the pleasing testimony of a cheerful acceptation Oh blessed soul that hath a God to go unto upon all occasions Oh infinite mercy of a God that vouchsafes to stoop to such intirents with dust ashes It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed now breathing towards heaven That he should change his place not his company His conversation was now before hand with his God and his holy Angels the only difference was that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life in that region of glory above whom he had truly though with weaknes and
imperfection injoyed in this vale of tears SECT VI. NOw that these mutuall respects may be sure not to coole with intermission the devout heart takes all occasions both to thinke of God and to speak to him There is nothing that hee sees which doth not bring God to his thoughts Indeed there is no creature werein there are not manifest footsteps of omnipotence Yea which hath not a tongue to tell us of it's Maker The heaven declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-worke one day telleth another and one night certifieth another Yea O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome hast thou made them all The earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide sea where are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts Every herb flower spire of grasse every twig and leaf every worm and fly every scale and feather every billow and meteor speaks the power and wisdom of their infinite Creator Solomon sends the sluggard to the Ant Esay sends the Jews to the Ox and the Asse Our Saviour sends his Disciples to the Ravens to the Lillies of the field There is no creature of whom we may not learn something we shall have spent our time ill in this great schoole of the world if in such store of Lessons we be non-proficients in Devotion Vaine Idolaters make to themselves Images of God whereby they sinfully represent him to their thoughts and adoration could they have the wit and grace to see it God hath taken order to spare them this labor in that he hath stamped in every creature such impressions of his infinite power wisdome goodnes as may give us just occasion to worship and praise him with a safe and holy advantage to our soules For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead And indeed wherefore serve all the volumes of Naturall History but to be so many Commentaries upon the severall creatures wherein we may read God and even those men who have not the skill or leisure to peruse them may yet out of their own thoughts and observation raise from the sight of all the works of God sufficient matter to glorifie him Who can be so stupid as not to take notice of the industry of the Bee the providence of the Ant the cunning of the Spider the reviving of the Flye the worms endeavour of revenge the subtilty of the Foxe the sagacity of the Hedge-hog the innocence and profitablenesse of the Sheep the laboriousnesse of the Oxe the obsequiousness of the Dog the timorous shifts of the Hare the nimblenesse of the Dear the generosity of the Lion the courage of the Horse the fiercenesse of the Tiger the chearful musick of Birds the harmlesnesse of the Dove the true love of the Turtle the Cocks observation of time the Swallows architecture shortly for it were easie here to be endlesse of the severall qualities and dispositions of every of those our fellow-creatures with whom we converse on the face of the earth and who that takes notice of them cannot fetch from every act and motion of theirs some monition of duty and occasion of devout thoughts Surely I fear many of us Christians may justly accuse our selves as too neglective of our duty this way that having thus long spent our time in this great Academy of the world we have not by so many silent documents learned to ascribe more glory to our Creator I doubt those creatures if they could exchange their brutality with our reason being now so docible as to learn of us so far as their sense can reach would approve themselves better Scholars to us than we have been unto them Withall I must add that the devout soul stands not alwaies in need of such outward monitors but findes within it selfe sufficient incitements to raise up it self to a continuall minding of God and makes use of them accordingly and if at any time being taken up with importunate occasions of the world it finds God missing but an hour it chides it selfe for such neglect and sets it self to recover him with so much more eager affection as the faithfull spouse in the Canticles when she finds him whom her soul loved withdrawn from her for a season puts her self into a speedy search after him and gives not over till shee have attained his presence SECT VII NOw as these many monitors both outward inward must elevate our hearts very frequently to God so those raised hearts must not entertain him with a dumbe contemplation but must speak to him in the language of spirits All occasions therefore must be taken of sending forth pious and heavenly ejaculations to God The devout soul may doe this more than an hundred times a day without any hindrance to his speciall vocation The Huswife at her Wheel the Weaver at his Loome the Husbandman at his Plough the Artificer in his Shop the Traveller in his way the Merchant in his Warehouse may thus enjoy God in his busiest imploiment For the soule of man is a nimble spirit and the language of thoughts needs not take up time and though we now for examples sake cloath them in words yet in our practice we need not Now these Ejaculations may bee either at large or Occasionall At large such as that of old Jacob O Lord I have waited for thy salvation Or that of David O save me for thy mercies sake And these either in matter of Humiliation or of Imploration or of Thanksgiving In all which we cannot follow a better pattern than the sweet singer of Israel whose heavenly conceptions we may either borrow or imitate In way of humiliation such as these Heal my soul O Lord for I have sinned against thee Oh remember not my old sins but have mercy upon mee If thou wilt be extreme to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Lord thou knowest the thoughts of man that they are but vaine O God why abhorrest thou my soul and hidest thy face from me In way of Imploration Up Lord and help me O God Oh let my heart bee sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Lord where are thy old loving mercies Oh deliver me for I am helplesse and my heart is wounded within me Comfort the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord doe I lift up my soul Go not far from me O God O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy name Thou art my helper and redeemer O Lord make no long tarrying Oh be thou my helpe in trouble for vain is the help of man Oh guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory My time is in thy hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies Oh withdraw not thy mercy from me O Lord. Lead me O
thy heart who ever wouldst be a true Client of Devotion search all the close windings of it with the torches of the law of God and if there be any iniquity found lurking in the secret corners therof drag it out and abandon it and when thou hast done that thy fingers may retaine no pollution say with the holy Psalmist I will wash my hands in innocence so will I goe to thine Altar Presume not to approach the Altar of God there to offer the Sacrifice of thy Devotion with uncleane hands Else thine offering shall be so far from winning an acceptance for thee from the hands of God as that thou shalt make thine offering abominable And if a beast touch the Mount it shall dye SECT X. AS the soul must be clean from sin so it must bee clear and free from distractions The intent of our Devotion is to welcome God to our hearts now where shall we entertain him if the rooms be full thronged with cares and turbulent passions The Spirit of God will not endure to be crowded up together with the world in our strait lodgings An holy vacuity must make way for him in our bosoms The divine patterne of Devotion in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily retires into the Mount to pray he that carried heaven with him would even thus leave the world below him Alas how can we hope to mount up to heaven in our thoughts if wee have the clogs of earthly cares hanging at our heels Yea not only must there bee a shutting out of all distractive cares and passions which are professed enemies to our quiet conversing with God in our Devotion but there must be also a denudation of the minde from all those images of our phantasie how pleasing soever that may carry our thoughts aside from those better objects We are like to foolish children who when they should be stedfastly looking on their books are apt to gaze after every butter-fly that passetin by them here must be therefore a carefull intention of our thoughts a restraint from all vaine and idle rovings and an holding our selves close to our divine taske Whiles Martha is troubled about many things her devouter sister having chosen the better part plyes the one thing necessary which shall never be taken from her and whiles Martha would feast Christ with bodily fare she is feasted of Christ with heavenly delicacies SECT XI AFter the heart is thus cleansed and thus cleared it must bee in the next place decked with true humility the cheapest yet best ornament of the soul If the wise man tel us that pride is the beginning of sin surely all gracious dispositions must begin in humility The foundation of all high and stately buildings must be laid low They are the lowly valleys that soak in the showres of heaven which the steep hils shelve off and prove dry and fruitlesse To that man will I look saith God that is poore and of 〈◊〉 contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Hence it is that the more eminent any man is in grace the more he is dejected in the sight of God The father of the faithfull comes to God under the stile of dust and ashes David under the stile of a worm and no man Agur the son of Jakeh under the title of more brutish than any man and one that hath not the understanding of a man John Baptist as not morthy to carry the shooes of Christ after him Paul as the least of Saints and chiefe of sinners On the contrary the more vile any man is in his owne eyes and the more dejected in the sight of God the higher he is exalted in Gods favour Like as the Conduict-water by how much lower it fals the higher it riseth When therefore we would appeare before God in our solemn devotions we must see that we empty our selves of all proud conceits and find our hearts fully convinced of our own vilenesse yea nothingness in his sight Down down with all our high thoughts fall wee low before our great and holy God not to the earth only but to the very brim of hell in the Conscience of our owne guiltinesse for though the miserable wretchednesse of our nature may bee a sufficient cause of our humiliation yet the consideration of our detestable sinfulnesse is that which will depresse us lowest in the sight of God SECT XII IT is fit the exercise of our Devotion should begin in an humble confession of our unwordâ—â—nesse Now for the effectual furtherance of this our self-dejection it will be requisite to bend our eyes upon a threefold object To look inward into our selves upward to heaven downwards to hell First to turne our eyes into our bosomes and to take a view not without a secret self-loathing of that world of corruption that hath lien hidden there therupon to accuse arraign and condemn our selves before that awful Tribunall of the Judge of heaven and earth both of that originall pollution which we have drawn from the tainted loins of our first parents and those innumerable actuall wickednesses derived there-from which have stained our persons and lives How can we bee but throughly humbled to see our souls utterly overspread with the odious and abominable leprosie of sin We find that Uzziah bore up stoutly a while against the Priests of the Lord in the maintenance of his sacrilegious presumption but when he saw himself turn'd Lazar on the suddain he is confounded in himselfe and in a depth of shame hastens away from the presence of God to a sad and penitentiall retirednes We should need no other arguments to loath our selves than the sight of our own faces so miserably deformed with the nasty and hatefull scurse of our iniquity Neither only must we be content to shame and grieve our eyes with the foule nature and condition of our sins but we must represent them to our selves in all the circumstances that may aggravate their nainousnesse Alas Lord any one sin is able to damne a soul I have committed many yea numberlesse they have not possessed me single but as that evill spirit said their name is Legion neither have I committed these sins once but often Thine Angels that were sinned but once and are damned for ever I have frequently reiterated the same offences where then were it not for thy mercy shall I appear neither have I only done them in the time of my ignorance but since I received sufficient illumination from thee It is not in the darke that I have stumbled and faln but in the midst of the clear light and sun-shine of thy Gospel and in the very face of thee my God neither have these been the slips of my weaknesse but the bold miscarriages of my presumption neither have I offended out of inconsideration and inadvertency but after and against the checks of a remurmuring conscience after so many gracious warnings and fatherly admonitions after so many fearfull examples of thy judgements after