his goodness which you will feel him pouring out on every side and in one word you will behold so much of the Beauty of Jerusalem it self that you will travel with the better courage thither But that in which I would have you spend the greatest part of those private seasons is in thinking of your own estate and comparing your life with the life of Jesus Let him be your companion when you are alone look stedfastly on his face and observe what resemblance you bear to him Pray him to draw and describe himself more exactly upon your soul and to supply all the lines that are still wanting to render you an accomplished image of him Shew him how desirous you are to be conformed in all your thoughts words desires and actions to that excellent model of perfection which he hath given you in his own example Let him know how much you are in love with him and that you wish for this above all the world to be like to him It cannot be thought that he will deny your desires or let your indeavours want his help for the making you more compleat in him You will come out of these secret places with a greater lustre and issue forth with a greater force and power to follow the steps of your Saviour Your face will be indued with such a brightness and cast such a splendor round about that it will be seen by all that you have been with Jesus Who can express the pleasures that hide themselves in these retreats or tell the contentments that are locked up in those unfrequented closets Do but enter into the first of them that presents it self and there will need nothing more then the sensible delectation which you will find in it to invite you to seek such silent retirements These quiet places are the resemblances of the serene regions above and little models of heaven They are hung round about also with a great many Pictures of Jesus which will ravish your heart and draw it out of your body to snatch it up to himself In one corner you will see him pictured as the Lover of men and in another you will behold him in the greatest abasement and humility that ever was On this side you will see him dealing his Charity to the Poor and on that he will discover himself attending on the sick Here his Meekness there his Patience will be lively represented to your eyes In one place you will find him pouring out his Instructions and in another pouring out his Blood for the Good of men And from every one of these you will receive such touches and feel your heart so wounded that you will never be more inamoured of him then when you and he thus meet alone and he makes this private visit to your Soul There he will open his very heart to you and let you see how much you are in his favour There he will impart to you his consolations and fill you with his Spirit Your mind will there be illuminated your affections inflamed your resolutions strengthned and all your faculties invigorated with a greater chearfulness in obedience to his Will And therefore do not fail as oft as you can to get out of the dust and heat of this World into these close and cool walks which Jesus frequents For though the dews of the Divine grace fall every where yet they lye longest in the shade These sugar'd drops do love most to stay in the solitary places And when you can find no where else this milk of heaven wherewith all things are nourished and refreshed you will be sure to meet with plenty of it in these hidden recesses But then I must remember you That in the greatest most open and full manifestations of the Glory of God upon Jesus he was very private too and cared not for having it published and talkt of abroad in the world When he was transfigured in the Holy mount you read that he went aside privately with a few of his Disciples which may well commend unto you the love of retirement And that brightness also wherewith he was cloathed he commanded to be concealed as a great secret till a a fit season to divulge it which may well teach us to keep to our selves what passes between God and our souls till others may be concerned in it as much as our selves You may refer this perhaps to the Humility of his Spirit but yet I thought good to advise you of it alone because it deserves a particular consideration There is a vanity you may be guilty of if you heed not this of glorying when you come abroad again of the secret communication that you have had with Jesus in the time of your Solitude For I observe it is the Genius of some who profess acquaintance with Him when they feel any delitious joyes exceeding the common sort which perhaps are indulged only in favour of their weakness and intended meerly to cherish their present childish condition to blaze them every where and report them to others without any great occasion for it They think it a piece of Religion to communicate their experiences to the next passenger they meet withall They love that others should know how nobly they are treated and so they lay a double snare one for themselves by the high conceit which they may raise in others of their excellencies and a second for their neighbours by the discouragement they may feel for want of such elevations If your spirit therefore be at any time transported if God shine into your heart very brightly and darken all this world in your eyes by causing his glory to cover you I beseech you cast a cloud about it that no body else may see it unless the good of others make it necessary that it should be revealed Draw a vail over your face when it is so radiant least by shining too brightly upon others it hurt their eyes and the reflection of it prove dangerous to your self As when you are in the World you must not forget to be private with God so when you have been the most with God it is safest to keep it private from the World It may be seasonable here to add that while He maintained this delightful Converse with God for his own benefit his life was most profitable to others Prayer and Meditation did not hinder his labours but they were spurrs to industry and made him more careful to do his work for which he was sent into the world He was not only attent to his own spirit that it might be kept with God but he watcht for advantages of bringing the hearts of others to him Much less did he spend his time in pleasing amusements to think how much he was in the favour of Heaven but he issued out of these delicious thoughts and took as great a pleasure in introducing others into the same favour There was no hour passed but he did some good or other to the world The finishing of
things more evident in any man except it was in another of the same sort who came to cheat us as a neighbour of mine said in the shape of an Angel of light This Person after a great many godly expressions whereby it is like he deceived himself into an opinion of his Saintship fell into a kind of Christian compassion and seemed to have his Bowels yerning over his Teacher saying Alas poor man my soul is grieved for him He is so weak and unquallified for the work he hath undertaken He is utterly void of the Spirit and understands not the workings of it in the hearts of Gods people I can never think of him but it pitties me to see how much he is in the dark a stranger to the power of Godliness and the mysteries of the Covenant of Grace Poor Soul who puts us upon doing and they say is careful of that himself but knows not what it is to believe Is it not a great happiness Sir that we have the teachings of the Spirit and that the vail is taken from our eyes which still hangs before the men of the World Hath not Christ done much for us who hath made us wiser then our Teachers I could not for my heart but here interrupt him knowing that the person whom he thus undervalued was a true lover of our Saviour and excellently skill'd in his Religion or else I think we should have heard as much in his own praise as we had in the others discommendation But the truth is I never heard any thing so fulsome from the mouth of man and found my self far more impatient of such filthy stuff than he could be of the Sermons at which he expressed so great dislike And to say nothing at all of the man I cannot but think that this Spirit is the very First-born of the Devil the eldest of all the daughters of Pride the Prince of Darkness in the garments of Light the dregs of Christian Pharisaism which now as much despises Christs Ministers as the Jewish did Christ and his Apostles God I hope will never suffer you to suck in this poison of the Serpent nor lick up this vomit of the old Scribes and Pharisees I discern me-thinks that you are as far from it as they were from the Kingdom of Heaven or else I should bestow more time upon you to season you against this leaven which will sowre the whole lump of your Religion and render it as offensive to God as it self is to all sober Christians But I need not have said so much I must suppose you as empty of all humanity as this disposition is of Christianity as far from Reason as it is from the Spirit of God or else hope that this Spiritual Pride this devout Devil shall never possess you For what is it but madness even in the opinion of those men for one that was never bred in the mysteries of that profession to come into an Apothecaries shop and there to condemn all his Drugs and Medicines for rotten and corrupt to spit upon his compositions and offer to throw them all out of doors as fit to be mingled with the dirt And yet there is not more sense in the humour of those persons that use the Sermons they hear after that fashion which evidently proves that they deserve not the name of Sober much less of Wise and understanding Christians Though the matter of such discourses have been long considered and duly weighed and diligently composed out of the Word of God yet these men who do not ponder them so many Minutes as their Instructers do dayes and have no more skill in those matters then in their neighbours trades which they never professed reject them at first hearing bespatter them with their ignorant censures and as if they were in a frantick fit cast them out as they would fain do their Authors like unsavoury salt that is good for nothing but to be troden under feet It will seem a wonder perhaps unto you that such men as these should esteem themselves Religious How is it possible will you be ready to say that such a notorious want of Modesty and Humility of Spirit should not make them suspect their want of true Christianity I know indeed that nothing is more confident then Ignorant heat but I marvel that in their cool moods they do not accuse themselves at least of rashenss and inconsiderate zeal And truly I should stand amazed at it too did I not know that there is such a fair counterfeit of Religion in the World that not only deceives others but those also in whom it is You behold every day many Images which have all the outward parts and proportions of men to whose similitude they are exactly formed And perhaps you have heard of a Statue that walked and that spoke also wherein the Artist indeavoured to express the motions of inward life Which may serve as a resemblance to you of such an Artificial Religion that not only the outside and the garb of Piety is represented by it but there is an imitation also of the inward motions of the soul in such affections of fear and love and joy as are in truly Religious hearts Do not think it strange nor wonder at this which I now tell you for it is a very great truth which I thought not safe to conceal from you And if you will have so much patience I will discover to you the trick of it and show you by what mechanical powers this liveless Engine for it is no better is stirred and acted in the wayes of God You know the force that Colours and Sounds and other such material Objects have upon our senses and how they excite a great many motions in our animal spirits without asking our leave or staying for our consent You cannot be ignorant neither that these motions are in the soul it self which hath resentments according to the quality of those objects that it is impressed withall And again you cannot but perceive by my discourse with you that the figures and images of things may be raised in your fancy by that means as well as conveighed by the doors of sense Suppose then that the beauty and loveliness of Christ were described to a company of men in very fresh colours and fair lineaments That he was painted before their imagination by some sweet-ton'd Orator as white and ruddy the chiefest often thousand That this speech of him should be trim'd with nothing but gems and pretious stones rayes and glories odors and perfumes crowns and diadems wherewith he saith this Prince of Glory and Woer of Souls is perpetually adorned And then he should tell them that his heart stands open to them that he intends to lay them in his very bosome that he would fain embrace them in his arms and will wash them in his blood make them amiable and fair as well as himself put upon them the robes of his righteousness cover with his glorious garments to hide
of your exact Justice your unfeigned Charity your Self-denyal your Patience your Peaceableness and above all your Meekness Humility and Modesty of Spirit that if they had a mind they may not have the face to say you have but the semblance and Apish imitation of Piety And to say the truth there is nothing will certainly evince it to your self but only this that you feel in your heart a constant powerful and prevailing inclination to all good works 1 Joh 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit If we know that he is righteous we know that every one that doth Righteousness is born of him Cap. 2.19 Let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous He that committeth sin is of the Devil Cap. 3.8 9 c. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God In this the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not Righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And indeed by this one mark last named you shall detect the Artifice of those seeming people who notwithstanding all their fair speeches whereby they deceive the hearts of the simple are never found to have a true and hearty Love to those that follow not the Sect which they have embraced It is a great while ago since a very eminent person told the world that he noted but two small wants in that sort of men viz. of Knowledge and of Love He might have bated them one of the two and yet their condition had been bad enough though if he had lived till now he would have seen their Poverty increased and that they want Humility as much as either of the other They are indeed but small wants in their account especially the two last of the three and they can be very well content without them if God will be so too They esteem themselves Rich enough in other invisible treasures nay they have one Jewel of such inestimable value viz. their Faith that it will compensate for a thousand wants that are no greater than these But either I have lost all my labour or else I have made you sensible that there is nothing more imports you than to see that you be not deficient in these two Charity and Humility I may safely I suppose refer you to your own memory for to be satisfied in their necessity and so only say this concerning the former of them That all your Faith is worth nothing which worketh not by Love and that he is a Lyer who saith he Loveth God and loveth not his Brother also That you may secure your self therefore the better from this and all other illusions what other counsel should I give you than to ponder that sentence much which I wisht you to carry along with you and to let your thoughts run as little as may be upon any other thing save Jesus only and Jerusalem Draw your mind from the things which you see in this outward world and make it to retire within unto your self that there you may talk with Jesus and behold Jerusalem and see that Glory where he is Which when you have practised a competent time as every thing will be unwelcome and painful to you which is not related to them So you will entertain every thing as very acceptable which brings you into their familiarity Not as if I would have you to neglect any business to which you are obliged in the world for whatsoever it be which either Necessity or Charity requires whether it be for your self friends or Christian Brethren I must charge you to apply your self to the doing of it with all care and exactness Jesus is not out of your eye as I shall tell you further when you are so imployed for this is the thing by which he was known above all other that he went about doing good But if it be a business of no necessity or if it be one wherein your particular person is not concerned and your neighbour challenges not your assistance let it alone and trouble not your thoughts about it And if it offer it self to you and press upon you and would make you a medler in other mens matters as most of our vain Believers are tell it you have something else to do and repeat still those words I HAVE NOUGHT AND NOUGHT DO I DESIRE BUT TO BE IN PEACE WITH JESUS AT JERUSALEM CAP. XXI Of the indeavours of his Enemies to keep him from doing good to his Brethren under a pretence of Love to God And of the Excellency of that Brotherly Charity AND here it seems very seasonable to remember you of another common subtilty whereby your Adversaries will study to deceive you and put a great stop to your progress in the way you are about to enter Which is to detain you in the amusements of contemplation and to busie your head only with Meditations and Conferences with Jesus They know that this will keep you too much at home as well as any thing else and that you will travel in your mind and thoughts only but not with your whole man to Jerusalem And therefore they will labour to perswade you of this at least that there is not half so much Piety can be exercised abroad as in your Closet and that the good we do our Brethren is nothing comparable to the Meditations we have of God and our Saviour and the Affections we express unto them This will very much hinder your proficiency and put a greater rub than you imagine in your way if you lend any belief unto it It will keep you very much behind under the pretence and colour of putting you forward and it will depress and thrust you down below others while you seem to be mounting up on high and soaring to a pitch far above them For your Enemies understand very well that God accounts all that as done to himself which is done to your Brethren for his sake He hath made over all those benefits to them which are owing to him because he is in no need of them They are become his Receivers and he hath devolved the right which he hath to our returns of Love to him upon our Brethren Be not you ignorant of this then but understand it as well as your Enemies that you never serve God better nor so well neither as when you are doing any service to your poor Neighbours You are bound you think to express such Love to God as he hath expressed to you Only you find that he is not capable to receive such effects of it as you experiment in your self from his affections to you But will you imagine now that he will lose the right he hath to your thankful retributions because he is in want of nothing No such matter he
their thinking and speaking of it This they lookt upon as a common friend to both that would translate them to those happy regions where friendship is in its Kingdom and raigns over every heart All the favour they would have beg'd if it were wont to grant any petitions was that with one stroke it would arrest them both and carry them thither together And if any body could have made good the Paracelsian promise of spinning out the life of man to a length equal with the clue of time and making our vital oil of the same durable temper with that which feeds the Lamps of Heaven All things were so in common between them that I verily think one of them would not have accepted of such a courtesie on condition to injoy it alone without the other No they rather desired as I said that the one might not see the other expire but that the same hand might cut off both their threds at once and that one moment might put out those Lamps which were not willing to burn asunder All the wishes that our Pilgrim made besides this was only that they might live so long till he could give some remarkable proof of his affection to his Guide For though he knew that he loved him above all things and could contradict even his former wishes by dying for him yet it did sometimes a little discontent him that he was in no capacity to show his tenderness but only by words and protestations Though the wisdom of his Conductor had stood him in so great stead and he could not well spare any of it yet he was so foolish now and then as to think that if he had been less wise he himself had been more happy Because then he might have stood in need to receive those counsels which now he only gave and been requited for those courtesies which now he made him a pure debtor for Many other benefits also that are usually communicated between friends he found himself utterly destitute of all means to confer they being either not in his power or his Guide in no need of them This sometimes raised a small disquiet in his mind and one day I remember he could not contain himself but he began a discourse to this purpose which shall put an end to this present Relation I should think my self said he the happiest man alive was I but able to correspond with you in the duties and offices of friendship and were I not constrain'd to return you only a weak and fruitless passion for that efficacious love which hath done me so many services It troubles me a little to find that my passion is as useless as it is extream and as void of benefit to you as it is violent in it self It is no less barren then I doubt it may be burdensome and hath as little profit as I see it hath brought you much trouble Though the honour be very great you have done me in bestowing such a place upon me in your heart yet I know not sometimes whether I should not complain in the enjoyment of a favour which as it was not in my hands to deserve so I cannot possibly requite True indeed it is that I have given my self to you but that is no more than strict Justice exacts since I have received your self as a gift to me Friendship they say is a commutation of hearts and therefore it is but fit that you should have mine in room of your own And yet alas mine is of such small value that I doubt you will be wholly a loser by the change Is there no means for me to do you service or to rest content with a will to serve you Cannot you either shew me how I may be useful to you or shew your self a disposition to it in that heart which I have given you I should be satisfied I think if you knew my will as well as my self It remains in your power not my own to settle my mind in peace if you will first believe I love you and then set a value upon that Love which you know is the cause of all well-doing and ought not to be blamed for want of power Very true said his Guide who laid hold of that word I think that I have found a treasure in your Love and I will have it pass for currant payment though it cannot express it self in such sensible effects as you would have it It is enough to me that you have such a passionate affection for me though it could never find the means to do any thing but only tell me how hearty it is I am pleased with the intentions and desires which you have to do me any good It is an extraordinary contentment to me to contemplate the imaginations which are in your mind of what you would do for me could power be courted by your will to come and joyn it self unto it They are the Vulgar who call nothing benefits but what they can feel with their fingers It is the portion of gross Souls to be insensible unless your courtesies to come at their hearts pass through their hands The purer and more refined Spirits touch the very Souls of their Friends and feel the kindness which lyes in their breasts They are so subtil as to see a courtesie while it is so young as to be but only in design They touch it before it be cloathed in matter or have passed beyond the confines of thoughts They meet it in the first rudiments and embrace it while it is only in meaning and drawn in the imagination They receive these inward acts of Love as most pure and spiritual being separate from all the terrestrial part which affect the vulgar minds And in one word there is not any thing dearer to them than those motions of the Soul which finding nothing they can do correspondent to their own greatness and force do terminate in themselves They are pleased to see them stay there and go no further because there is nothing fairer than themselves to be met withall wherein to end and rest Do not depretiate your affection therefore nor vilifie it in that manner you are wont as though it were not worthy my acknowledgement Do not tell me any more that it is no valuable Love which doth not serve our Friends for this service depends upon occasions and they depend on an higher Being and are only in the dispose of Providence All that I can be beholden to you for I have received already from you and for the rest if it could be bestowed I must make my acknowledgements to something else Be contented then that you give all that is in your hands and that if it were in them to make occasions you would still let those be wanting which most of all prove a friend Nay let me tell you I am so favourable in my opinion to your affection and so apt to give it the best advantage that I am not yet resolved but there may be