The love of God OR Love Divine Being the subject of these ensuing Meditations Collected out of Mr Gorings English Translation originally penned by Peter Du Moulin Preacher to the Reformed Church in PARIS Digested into Divine Poems by William Wood a Native and free Citizen of the Citie oâ— York now resient at Ekington in the Countie of Darby Printed at York by Tho Broad for the Author 1656. To all that love God especially the Magistracie Ministery and Commonalty of the Honourable Citie of Yorke and famous Town of Newcastle upon Tyne The Prologue York gave me birth Newcastle gave me breeding Blest be they both for love Law Cloth and feeding Having out liv'd the years of seventy four So that my seeing sence can see no more To Write or Read or to discern a Letter Yet still to Heav'n I stand oblig'd a Debter For lack and losse of this my nat'rall sight God gives me better his internall light As Vnderstanding Will and Memory His love to land his Name to glorifie My heart bethought me what I ought to tender For Gods great love 't was love for love to render Therefore on love Divine my meditations Come next in place with lovely Contemplations W Wood. Divine Poems Of true and false love LOve hath her Objects either false or true Which all our spirits restlesly pursue That which is pond'rous here in massive things Love in our soulâ— the same effect it brings As weight bowes earthly bodies to their rest True love allures our souls to that is best This love is that which gives the soul content Which in esteem is super-excellent Whereas false love is meer imagination Irregular and wild'ring agitation A whirling gadding giddy endlesse motion In true love's lore which hath no spirituall notion Such is fallacious love fil'ld with this dyet Of ill digestion breedeth much disquiet And 's often weary often doth despair Which is no rest because 't is clogg'd with care Deâ—ire doth still continue for a fit Like a tiâ—'d horse which often gnawes his bit The most desire the thing they least can do What they obey it often works their woe If we with ease enjoy that thing we love This we distast and often dis-approve That which we covet and atcheive with gain The lucre's often lost proves void and vain For worldly love resistance sets on fire And nuâ—st with dolour danâ—eth our desire If gâ—zing man shall fix his wandring eye On Mundane pleasures which in hast do flie All passe away but as a glimpse of glory The richest Geâ—â—m is worthlesse transitory Instead of durance stable firme content A Chain of cares turns to his detriment Linked together for his future woe For will he nill he Providence saith so The gravest sweets are sometimes sower and tart Befool the gust and fatuates the heart Riches and honour vain and worldly pleasure Do wast or wain or 's rapt by casuall seizure Uncertain are we of this worlds possession But sure we are to leave it to succession If these by casuall means they do not leave us Death shall at last of all our all bereave us These are imparted on the wicked train For no end else but to augment their pain Man to expose his love to things below Is as to chase the wind each where doth blow For when these things as good may termed be Thei 're frail and finite every hour we see The mark-man when the fowl in ayre doth flie Can take no aim by levell of his eye Nor we assurance have in pomp or pleasure By our designes to gourmandize base treasure For we must search for rest some other where Then on the earth in Heav'n we 're sure 't is there For as the lower Regions in their kind Are mixt with vapours tempests storms and wind But that approacheth nearer Sions hill Is calm and quiet peaceable and still So shall our love be restlesle wanting peace Whiles terrene troubles cause this love to cease But if in Heav'n she aim to build her nest In 's precious promises she shall find rest And for this cause the Pilot close doth stand Near to the Card to save from shelf and sand His floating ship lest that she should be wreck't By needles point he doth his course direct In semblant sort each faithfull Christians heart Amidst confuse afflictions noisome smart He shall enjoy those joyes shall never cease In that his love aims at the God of peace Which is the onely object of our love Most absolute the Saints do all approve This love can make us lovely for that she Can make us happy in a high degree And which alone and absolutely caâ— Most happy make the wretched state of man Man's ear nor 's eye hath heard nor seen nor 's heart Can comprehend what God will hence impart On those in chief sincerely do him love His speechlesâ—e mercies that 's reserv'd above Gods love doth move mankind to admiration For that mans soul is made Gods habitation His pleasant Palace which he likes full well His Spirits fair Temple where he loves to dwell This Maxime Athens Schooles did first ordain That God or nature nothing made in vain Mans boundlesse thoughts surge as the Marine flood Nothing can saâ—â— it but the Supreame good Which here on earth the wisest never found Must be in Heav n transcending this vast round Adde hereunto that God the world did frame For mans own use and man to blesse his name Amongst the various formes of every creature God made us men according to his feature In stature formed staight erect upright Lovely and comely in his Makers sight That he might love his God whose forme he bears Lift his desires above the Starry spheares Adde that we cannot gain the Spirits perfection Untill the Spirit of spirits unite affection Which to the creature doth communicate His vertue as the Sun in clearest state Darts forth his beams and doth his lustre lend To lower Lights which do on him depend True love is that which doth transform the Lover Into the thing beloved and no other Now if a man deform'd in 's extern part Love a corporeall beauty in his heart Nâ—'re shall he by that love correct his own Defectivenesse which generally is known Contrariwise by loving God we shall Be like to God who is our all in all As in a mirrour plainly we do see God face to face and changed then are we Of love 't is said that beauty is the first Hot spark or flame that sets this love on thirst Considerately we shall discern and see What we call love doth not with truth agree But such a love that 's superficiall Which covereth filth is but extrinsicall But God 's that light all beauties doth excell Whose radient rayes no mortall tongue can tell God being then the first and purest light Paternally of shining Lamps most bright By consequence Heav'ns Oracles have proved That he 's the light most worthy to be loved Yet humane wisdome much doth disagree With that 's
let Which doth not onely to the eyes give light But also to our eyes he giveth sight Guesse at the brightnesse of the King of Kings Wherâ— Angels vail their faces with their wings Whose eyes are dazled 'fore the glorious Throne Where his Majestick brightnesse on them shone If at the fight of Christs humanity The nat'rall Sun as then shall dark'ned be As some dark light when brighter doth appear His light Divine must needs be much more clear If on the life of God we contemplate Ours is as dust and dung so vile of rate Mans life 's a fluxe and hath of parts succession But God at once hath all his in possession He who desires comparingly to know Gods life from Mans at Sea doth ebbe and flow The Sea with some small Brook he may compare At so great distance differently they are The Sea is very great the Brook but small Seas keep their bounds but Brooks keep none at all The Sea is owner of her floods in store The Brookes have none but from the Seas before Gods life and mans are semblant in such sort God's infinite Man 's as a moment short His life consisteth doubtlesly in rest And all at once is instantly possest God's all â—n all his life depends on none Our life our all is from our God alone Earth as it was before doth earth become The Spirit Gods gift to him returneth home Gods knowledge is a pit that 's so profound That humane reason cannot reach nor sound God knowes all things ev'n such as yet are not Past present and to come he all doth note We things alternately do here espie But God seeth all at once with his clear eye We see things present why because they be But why things are is God that doth them see For God to see it is as if to will His wil'ls to do all this he doth fulfill Here for to know things we them look upon But God to know things views himself alone Because God's absolute and perfect wise All Modells are transparent to his eyes And in his will as Judge he doth deâ—â—â—e And sentence every chance what it shall be His holinesse it ought to be admired The Saints and Angels have not like acquired Ev'n as Gods Word the highest Heav'n doth call The Heav'n of Heav'ns for it incloseth all Others inferior and of lesse degree Within the highest that included be So God is nam'd by proper appellation Holy of holies in his heav'nly station Of Creatures holinesse a quality is all But God is sanctity it self substantiall God's self is holy are men or Angells no If they prove Saints 't is cause God makes them so Justice 'twixt God and Men we ought to know Men are deem'd just because just things they do Contrarily in God they are just things Being done by him on whom all justice hings Wherefore hee 's just for this no other cause Working his will prescribed in his Lawes Which in his Mandates us he sets before Still to obey observe for evermore And to our minde he doth the same impart And it engraves within our hidden heart He loveth justice truth and equity He hates the workers of iniquity He rootes out lyars and the men doth hate That thirst for blood he doth abominate Of his great goodnesse what ought we to say Which loves them hate him and do go a stray By which upon the just and wicked crew Daily his Sun doth shine and still râ—new By which he powrs his blessings down in rain Into their mouthes which do blaspheme his Name In chief this goodnesse that 's so infinite Shines in his Sonne his onely dear delight This Sonne before all time he did beget Eternally he him begetteth yet Sonne of his Father yet of equall date Both infinite and both interminate Eternall wisdome word essentiall God everlastingly beatificall This Sonne whom Esay calls the eternall Father Would make himself the Son of man the rather That we might be Gods children noâ—â—orlorn He was content in Stable to be born That we might have of Heav'n the full fruition ' Mongst beasts was born in poor and low condition He who er'st was and is of life the bread Did suffer hunger that we might be fed He who 's the Well of life he did not shrink To thirst himself that we might freely drink He who is life it self was pleas'd to dye That we might live and that eternally All this for Creatures vile which did rebell That he might free them from the jawes of hell These are the depths of grace no bottome hath We understand not we must reach by faith These recreate our hearts cause admiration Likewise no lesse adds to our consolation Here are the highest Tests can be exprest Of Gods great love to man so manifest The riches of that grace Angels admir'd To pry into have earnestly desir'd Now to what end may all these sayings move us But to love God who did so greatly love us And to admire the treasures of his grace With such like joy as Saints that see his face O God since that thy greatnesse hath no end Which dust and ashes cannot comprehend Thy bounties boundlesse past imagination Our Spirits are stopped with this contemplation Our words much lower are then is our mind Our thoughts beneath the truth are still confin'd Of this Gods greatnesse speak we stammeringly Our praises thee abase and villifie We draw the picture of the Sun most bright With a black Coal the Embleme of the night O God raise up our Spirits and Souls to thee And if our knowledge shall too feeble be Inflame our love with such an ardent zeal As thy pure Word is pleased to reveal Thou pleas'd to be our Father by dilection O touch our hearts with filliall affection Thou that dost daily give us apt occasion Of loving thee addict our inclination Though we be poor in means uncapable Thou only canst make us most acceptable All these and many more considerations Ingage our love by numerous obligations These raise our Spirits not for our selves to love This God but for his sake it doth us move Our God he duplicates this word it 's I it 's I For mine own sake saith sinners shall not dye His Church he doth resemble to a flock Which bears his name and his peculiar stock He safely guards her both by night and day Least she to Sathan should become a prey The third degree is not onely to love God above all things and more then our selves but also not to love any thing in the world but for Gods love THe third degree it is our God to love As both in Heav'n and Earth all things above And in this world what ere our God did make Nought must we love but onely for his sake This world hath many objects that we find From loving them we cannot stay our mind Yea on account it would be reckoned ill If we should not hold on to love them still A Father loves his Children and a
catch a fall As in a crosse-way man is set to stand Sometimes the spirit then flesh gets upper hand Between the love of God and worldly love Some strange suggestions do him try and prove How oft iâ— it after Gods love prevailed By fresh assaults the faithfull â—â—e assailed And the fresh forces the Spirit do withstand Against Gods fear and love themselves do band The faithfull being by these appetites Beset with lusts and such like lewd delights Shall feel this love of God within his heart Thus speaking Man whence is it thou doest start O wretched man whether now wilt thou go Doth not God see 't thy inclination know Despisest thou his menace and his frown Rejectest thou his promises to own Forgettest thou thy honoured high vocation Dares thou provoke Gods Spirit to indignation Why shouldst thou on his Church a scandall bring Since Christ thereof is Soveraign Lord and King Where are the promises which thou hast made him For guifts receiv'd as yet thou hast not paid him Is this the way to Heaven thou dost devise And being fall'n art thou assured to rise And for short pleasures which have lost their tast Thy peace of Conscience must it be displac'd For pottage wilt thou of thy right bereave Thy self and vainly so thy birth-right leave At these suggestions will the faithfull stay Crosse his desires and let them bear no sway But all 's not done our frailtie's yet not quelled Nor froward flesh which hath so long rebelled For after these our holy resolutions We have great dulnesse causing diminutions And then the Divell doth espy occasion Makes a fresh onset by a re-invasion If we be idle use bad company Neglecting pray'r or duties else of piety Then our desires do rouze themselves again The Flesh and Spirit for mastery strive amain Which makes the faithfull in this restlesse strife Desire his death and 's weary of his life O wretched nature it selfs enemy Destroyes it self pursuing misery O thou corruption that takes root so deep O mutinous sedition that doth keep In us hostility and doth not slack But us as slaves to Egypt would bring back Which like Lots wife lookes back with her desire On sinfull Sodom flaming all with fire If we have thoughts that fixed are on death Our flesh will whisper we may yet long breath If we shall hear or read Gods sacred Word Threatning our ruine by his glittering sword It soothes us up and doth us so perswade VVe are secure to others it is said If we Heav'ns glory shall recount consider It will suggest we shall come early thither If thou incited be to help the poor Iâ— doth suggest it will impair thy store If thy friends frailty thou wouldst reprehenâ— 'T will over-aw thee lest thou him offend Each good affection hath ev'n as it were Like to a Pot on either side an ear By which the world and flesh take hold upon Striving to lett the execution Rebekah's steps we next must imitate VVho great with Childe her God did supplicate VVho instantly resolved her request Two striving Twinns they did her Womb molest A lively figure not so old as true Of man it represents the old and new The old man's carnall by corrupted nature The other new is the regenerate Creature As in a conflict both do daily strive And are at odds so long as wee 're alive Unto Rebekah's suit God did decree The old unto they young should subject be The flesh unto the spirit must be subjected And by that means shall be of God accepted The fift degree is that wherewith we shall love God in the life to come NOw here remains the last and chief degree This highest step is Heav'ns felicity VVhich is the love wherewith at last we shall Love God in 's glory that 's Coelestiall For we love things by nature here below According as by science we them know VVe therefore shall God love much better then VVith love of Saints and not as mortall men Now as th'Apostle saith we know in part But then revealed open and apart As in a Glasse we see but here obscurely But then perspicuously as Christall purely VVhen he in glory shall consummate grace Then shall we see as it were face to face Our love which here dstractedly doth stand And sees farâ— off shall then see near at hand Our love on God shall onely fixed be Being the obiect of felicity As when two swelling Rivers proud and high Encountring each other furiously They joyn in force and by their strong invasion Do make a marvellous flood and inundation So that the love of God and self affection Are like two Streams on earth have no connexion Which no where else hencforth shall have their meeting 'Till they in Heav'n each other give the greeting When these affections twain shall be commixt And in one love are fast and firmly fixt For then in loving God our selves may love Because that league God doubtlesse will approve And dwell in us where he delights to dwell Resembling him whose north no tongue can tell For Saints and Angels they undoubtedly Do love themselves with ardent fervency Let us forbear to love untill that time Our selves or ought in us doth not incline Our hearts and make them hopefull of this love Which is eterniz'd in the Heav'ns above But now for that this love wherewith we shall Love God in Heav'n is supernaturall Springs from the view and lovely contemplation Of his own face beyond all admiration Love is not kindled else but by the sight Let 's learn what sight this is brings this delight Our bodies eyes two wayes discern and see Or apprehending what the image be For so the bodies to our view exposed They are apparent visibly disclosed Or by in letting to our nat'rall sight The thing we see which truely is the light So do we see the day no otherwise Then that it daily enters in our eyes Now God that is the chief supremest light In 's glory will shew souls that hee 's most bright For in his Saints he keeps his habitation And 's in them all in all without cessation But in this life we in his works behold His wondrous workmanship so manifold In which he made an abselute impression As 't were his vertues Picture past expression Therefore as now we see the nat'rall light Then shall we see our God with such a sight But now we see it not but with these eyes The bodies windowes and no otherwise For then the light of God through all our parts We shall receive which holifies our hearts Ev'n as a man were only eye throughout As he should see at once things round about This sight of God it will assuredly Transform us like himself in puritie For as a mirrour by the Suns reflection Shines like the same in clearnesse sans defection For God receiveth none to contemplate His face save those are in Celestiall estate He doth transform them that the semblant prove Like to himself irradiate in love As God himself is perfect love and charity It man behoves to imitate his paritie Upon this view and heavenly radiation Should be inflam'd with loves association And burn with heat of this hot spirit'all fire Whose ardency the Saints in light acquire A fire which to the Seraphims gives name So call'd because their ardour aye inflame The summe of all is their officious love Their fervent zeal their service to improve Here these degrees and steps of love must end For higher Heav'n-ward we cannot ascend Of Jacobs ladder this step is the last By which we mount where speechlesse joyes are plac't FINIS
wife She loves her husband dearly as her life Our allies neighbours and our next of kinne They ought to share and have a part therein So man may love his Study House and Health Yea and with all his justly gotten wealth Of these who tends a man to dispossesse 'T were Barb'rous doctrine wisdome will confesse The sacred Scriptures us this truth doth tell Who starves his house hee 's worse then 's Infidell For pietie doth not eradicate These good affections but agricolate And of imperious Mistresses they were Makes them but handmaids to Gods love and fear No more then Joshua would the Gibeonites kill But them subjected for to do Gods will For then a Father doth his Children love Bringing them up that they fair Plants may prove Which in good time may bud and fructifie Gods glorious house to garnish and supplie If so remembring he their Father is To be more mindfull still that God is his Then man doth love his friends as is required When they love God the most to be desired So to this end we do not health affect Because its pleasant painlesse in effect But rather makes us rigorous to attend Our high vocation that 's it's proper end In lâ—ke sort knowledge honour we may love So that their love from God doth not remove Our mindes but rather us the more incite Unto good works therein to take delight And as there is not any Brook so small But in the Ocean at the last doth fall So let Gods goodnesse though but small in shew Induce our thoughts his goodnesse to pursue Briefly our lives and neighbourly affections Shall well be squared out by these directions When of Gods love they be both Brooks and Branches Our sights reflection on Gods image glances Love not the person for his Garments gay But inside vertues which his worth bewray If yee advance a man for honours sake And notice else of him you none can take Yee are mistaken erre egregiously That by bare titles yee him dignify Which things when as they are from him bereft There 's nothing lovely in this person left Ev'n as a Horse that bears an Idol pack He hath no reverence when 't is of his Back Contrariwise if you a man shall love ' Cause he beleeves and fears his God above Read in Gods Law to speak the truth addicted Just in his acts relieves the poor afflicted Burning with zeal of Gods own habitation Such sorts to love you 'l never want occasion If honour goods or life from him 's bereft His pristine precious vertues still are left And that rare excellence doth still inherit Rests in Gods image given by his Spirit I know the secrets of mans hidden heart To none but God are open and apart And often times those friends we vertuous deem Do vicious prove though otherwise they seem For he that loves his God should reprehend And if he can he should reforme his friend Flattery hath taâ—ne away from friendship true All 's tearms save by reproach for to pursue To chide ones friend who ere shall be afraid 'T is crueltie for so the wise hath said As when hee 's near to drowning thou shouldst fear To save his life by renting of his hair As Moses rod whiles such as rod he used But turning Serpent then the same refused Such as the Brain is to the strong tough Nerves And veins from out the Liver life preserves And as the Heart is to the Arteries Such is Gods love to mens societies That is they are but points which do depend On God their Center Alpha and their end This love Divine unlesse it be therein Friendships no friendship at the best 't is sin A conspiration and a joynt accord To disagree with God the Soveraign Lord Friendships thats fixt on pleasure or on gain Do loose their tast as these do ebbe or wain But friendships grounded on that firm foundation The love of God do alwaies hold their station Which love ought to advance it self so high As friends and foes shall have a share thereby Because amongst these enmities it 's clear Some marks of Gods own Image yet appear For that like Rodds God holds them in his hand Us to correct and be at his command The fourth degree is to hate our selves for Gods sake IN this ascension we must climbe yet higher For God to hate our selves we must aspire As there 's no love more strong more naturall Then is that love the which self-love we call So it 's that love which breeds resistance still To be subdu'd doth alwayes crosse our will Such as our Shirt is which we put off last So self-affections cleaves to us full fast A combate great by force we here must fight Against the roaring Lyon much of might It 's Sathans last intrenchment and his stay From whence Gods power must drive the Fiend away None loves God truly as it is his due Hates not his nature it's desires eschew Against these Rebells doth not daily fight Untill these mortall foes he put to flight Being desirous with firm resolution To end this warre by death and dissolution And of his blood here to be prodigall So that Gods glory suffer not at all And of this body to waxe wondrous weary As the poor Captives long in prison tarry Like to the prisoner looking though the Grate Longs for enlargment by his liberate Look not for out-let at the prison gate But for your freedom when 't is ruinate He with himself holds warre and doth not cease He with his God shall have perpetuall peace He that himself doth not assume to pardon God him remits with his free grace for guerdon He that despiseth life the same doth hate Shall save his life bought with a precious rate We 're on the fourth degree or step of love The highest in this life we Heav'nward move 'T was this degree enforced Paul to cry Ah who shall free me from this misery Who shall deliver me whiles I have breath From this bigge burden body of this death Of love it was this step or this degree Which caused David in his Soveraignty Having quite quell'd his foes and them supprest With wealth and honour dignifide possest Confesse himself a stranger here to be Waifaring through the vale of misery In that our Martyrs sufferings were approved 'T was God they lov'd and were of him beloved Bodies of brasse and muscles arm'd with steel They did not wear but had the sence to feel For fire and sword no rackings ought could pain them God in their suffering did all times sustain them If their thus suffering cause no reformation Then doubtlessely they 'll serve for condemnation Those that to this degree of love attain A hard sharp conflict they must all sustain Our flesh is mutinous and doth rebell Rooted in evill hard for to expell Iâ— hand or foot or member that 's most dear Dismember them if vicious they appear Victorious are we after bonds and thrall But we must wrestle though we