lies drown'd as it were in a Sea of loves and sweetnesses in a blessed astonishment and stupefaction it is elevated in the highest advancement of life and spirits in the Lord of life and glory that descended and ascended to draw up with him all that adheres to him O were the soule wound up to this pitch and watched at it and wound up againe if never so little slipt downe how might we live O still still let us be in this blessed vision of God with more continued intentivenesse contracting thence or rather dilating those Coexistant inherent essentiall which we call attributed species Then others beholding the stedfastnesse of our faith could not but there see more of that radiant image in its deputed Majestie the ball of the sensuall eye not more naturally expressing the Idea of the directly opposite and neighbouring visage then this of the spirituall of faith doth that of God And certainly no sence doth furnish us with more and more cleare conceptions of God then the sight being for its ready commence with the soule for its extention and intention the properest most conducible and advantagious of all being the most spatious farthest reaching pure simple active and therefore most apprehensive and next to that the hearing being the lesse grosse and earthly of all the rest But to keepe to that As the Sunne conveyeth heate and activitie inseperably with and proportionably to its light so is the truth loved and done so farre and onely so farre as it is seene The actions are spurious and illigitimate that are not conceived in the heart and begotten by the eye it will be our wisedome then so truly to informe the latter at we desire the well and right forming and performing of the other Let us looke on him then by no other Organ then faith thorough no other medium then Christ at no other distance then the mearest approaches even to such an unitie that wee see our selves in him and him in us When with the wicked wee put God farre from us and see the world draw nigh us then seemes he little and this great but when we draw neere to him what a pointile what an atome what a nothing it seemes nay it is And as the medium is ever the fame so is the Organ then best when most refined abstracted metaphysicall subtilized sublimed and sence-rarified cause then most proportionable and sutable to the simplicitie and puritie of the object it intends and therefore consequently to the extensivenesse and infinitie of it God being simply infinite and infinitely simple And therefore as wisedome consists in the clearenesse and quicknesse so in the inlargednesse of the understanding but since that knowledge that light in every thing wee draw from him is the onely true wisedome wee are then wisest when our understandings are most clarified by him most acted on him And surely this clarifying of our faith is according to the intimatenesse of our humbly bold accesse unto him the nature of this Sunne being to give light to the blind and that more or lesse according as we are more off or apply our selves nearer to Him And surely while we thus see God in the holiest of holies all the kingdomes of the earth in their freshest and heart-stealingest lovelinesse and that set forth in the most rich and glorious accoutrements will lie at our feete as a dead and rotten carkasle so farre shall we be from committing folly with it so farre that though then too our spirits be at the liveliest as they cannot but be yet because wee nay therefore because we be as crucified as dead to it as it is to us Such power hath this sight to fill the heart with love this love to hold the soule close to God from any thing that would part it from him and to carry it forth in all readinesse of obedience with him When contrarily while we are looking on the world without God we are but looking on so many lying vanities that dead the heart to reall and full contentments withholding it from God and setting the hand on worke in the wayes of sinne which still estrange the soule from Him and keep Him at a distance from the soule that more deading the heart that c. so the soule running on in a round of wickednesse if God not gratiously breake in and hinder its course Which when he doth his presence makes grace to grow by the interchangeable officiousnesse of all its undivided parts The sight of God inflaming the affections they inciting to actions these againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stirring up the fire in more fervent flames they giving in greater light that discovering more beautie that kindling more fire that animating to more action this againe c. so truely infinitely infinitely infinitely sweet is the comfort of the God-conversing soule The soule that hath received the truth in the love thereof and he that loves mee keepes my Commandements he that doth my will shall know my will he that hath my Commandements as his possession riches c. and keepes them as his greatest joy comfort life he it is that loves me and to him will I manifest my selfe Now this manifestation againe fills the heart with more operative and effectuall love this againe c. Thus Faith worketh by love the fulfilling of the Law the end of the Commandement out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfained the sinceritie whereof must needs be according to the sight it hath of God according to the lovelinesse worth chooseablenesse that it seeth in him Faith then I take to be by what of light in this night of blindnesse and darkenesse I can see such a light as shining on the intentively beholding soule through the face of Christ hath that influence and attractive power with it to draw it up and make it cleave and adhaere with all its might and strength to God to lift up the heart to and make it goe along with him in all his wayes While like the Helitrophion it turnes and winds shuts and opens with the motion of the Sunne of righteousnesse And this light thus influenced thus working how ever clouded and obscured to a Christians selfe to be wisedome unto salvation that effectuall knowledge of God his Christ comming into and received of the soule that is life eternall already taken hold of and ere long fully prossessed or thus Faith is a promise-lighted seeking light Burnes with pure fervent love whose active might In every radiant precept shining bright Reflects its glory to the Father-Light Thus these three-one obedience-faith-and love Unite my soule to those Thee-One Above John 11.5.7 A seeking Isaiah 11.10 with Romans 15.13 Satisfying John 5.44 with John 14.1 Faith John 1.4.19 a sincere Phil. 1.10 Matth. 6.22 Eph. 6.24 Fervent Cant. 8.6.7 love John 14.15 an universall Psal 119.6 Jam. 2.10 Ephe. 4.23 Matth. 5.10 Constant Cor. 1.15.58 Obedience So that grace is faith understanding faith affecting faith acting
SOLILOQVIES THEOLOGICALL I am alone and yet I am not stone for the Father is with mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy people shall be Munificencies free Princely Heroicalnesses thy Voluntiers in the day of thy Power thy Army in the beauties of Holinesse Psal 110. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In that day it shall be said I am for the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They stedfastly beheld him and were abundantly enlightned Psal 34.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocles Surely men of high degree are vanity men of low degree a lie to be held in the ballance they are altogether lighter than vanity Psa 62.8 Heu quantillum videmus Nil scimus nil sumus We know we are nothing And unto man he saith Behold the feare of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from evill is understanding Job They have rejected thy word therefore is there no wisdome in them Jer. By J. S. Gent. London Printed by G. Bishop and R. White for Tho. Vnderhill at the Bible in Woodstreete 1641. Christian Reader THou I mean who art not the nominall but the reall not the titular but the title-inlivening Christian Whose heart knowes the meaning of such a dreadfully glorious and gloriously dreadfull undertaking to be called by the name of God Thou that fearest the Lord greatly and art greatly awed at the least of his words Thou with whom the goodliest profession will passe but for a guilded formality that suffers it selfe to be wanting in morality As knowing there may be some vertues where there is no grace but there can be no grace where there is not all vertues As knowing where the choicest eminencies of nature come short their Christianity exceeds where the Moralist ends the Divine begins He that lives not soberly and righteously it is impossible he shud live godlily It is works that must justifie our faith as well as faith our works It is a Christ of our own making and not Jesus the Son of God that is learned otherwise While we think to be saved either by or without Obedience The two Rocks whereon the world is Shipwrackt while the God-instructed Christian keeps the narrow Channell Thou that makest more conscience of art more watchfull more carefull of the least ill word ill thought then the Christian at large of all the ill deeds of his whole life As far more willingly choosing the bitterest death then the sweetest sin as knowing thou shat find it the end of sin that was the beginning of death Thou that hast an abundant entrance administred to thee in that straite and narrow way to the Kingdome of Heaven That hast all the Commandements of God That keepest all his wayes in a Gospell acceptation in the uttermost latitude extent and spirituality of them to the very first rising of concupiscence and yet hast an easie yoke a pleasant burthen While thou art endeavouring all to the uttermost and utterly denying all thy endeavours Thou that art a wonder to thy selfe the gazing stock of men and Angels of the congratulating joyes of some of the calumniating envies of other while thou art so wonderfully and fearefully made A man of such blessed wonders being a part of that unparalelled Master-piece of the Eternall Wisdome the Lord Christ Thou that knowest what it is to lie under those pressing weighty and over-bearing apprehensions of an infinite Majesty resident in the soule crushing as it were and contriting it to the most disshivered minutest pieces while it is still firmly and intirely fixed on Him and with full purpose of heart cleaving to Him in such a sweet and blessed repose such a perfect peace that Millions of Millions of Worlds can neither give thee nor take from thee Who at thy worst to speak after the manner of men since all is good thy distractedst condition as the World calls it findest that reall substantiall that pure and as I may say infinite comfort in the most clouded darke dejected disconsolate hope that is objected on a simple and infinite God that all the unclean scanty-spirited self-imprisoned World cannot once conceive at the highest of their mad merriments and madding jollities That findest inexpressibly more content in the very longest waitings for any the least beam of grace to be glanced on thee through the face of thy Christ then thou canst nay then the joviallest themselves can while they goe laughing along with the foole to the stocks in the loudest blaze of their crackling their dying Thornes that end in a bed of ashes When thy soule shall be reposed in a bed of ever-flourishing soft and fragrant Roses The savour whereof as by a gentle winde from a garden of Spices is conveyed to thy Heaven-travelling soule And hence is it that all the world to thee that livest in so sweet and fresh a Countrey is but a miery and stinking City thou canst no way indure longer then thou hast a Pomander of this in thy nostrils Thou sincere single-eyed-single-hearted loyall soule whom nothing can please and who wilt please nothing but thy God That hast no affection for thy selfe for any but what are subordinate to Him his sweet and holy command As having learned the truth in the power the love the life thereof doest truth and therefore commest to it in its searchingst discoveries walkes in it rejoyces in it since thou hast known it as it is in Him who is the Way the Truth and the Life the true and living way In which never seducing path goe all thy affections actions motions As holding fast the faith and love which are in Him living godly in Him In Him doing being all that thou art Thou that art of all men most like an Hypocrite while of all thou dost most differ from him That art as like him to the eye of the world as a Diamond to a Bristoll Stone while thou differest from him toto coelo as much as truth from falsehood good from bad heaven from hell Thou that art incouraged by thy discouragements and furthered by thy scandals and hinderances of Christianity As knowing that Difficilia quae pulchra Excellent things are hard but when they meet with a man of an excellent spirit And then their very difficulties and excellencies make them easie because more animate and intend his spirit to their prosecution As knowing the truth sincerely the heart and realitie of Religion to be so much the more amiable lovely and choice-worthy by how much the more faire Commendable and admirable is its counterfeit As arguing that if Hypocrisie can make so goodly and delectable a shew and yet be but a shew what then is that sinceritie that is the substance if that can attaine to such an emminencie such a glory and yet be as blacke as Hell to the eyes of the all-discerning Sunne and inherit the place of the utmost and remotest darkenesse what then is this that differs as much from it as God from the devill Thou who knowest no readier and safer way to humilitie then that which
thy baite At noone and at the falling Sunne wut roule Thy wearied Limbes He that Thee did create And Re-create He shall thee recreate He feed He lodge Thee and He be thy Mate Thy Mate then like the faithfull Dove complain Watch on th' house top alone till He come back Who is not gone be all thy pleasures paine Thy Food thy Famine and thy Bed thy Wrack Till He 's all These to Thee that 's All in All No vaine no chaffie joyes thy minde forestall I can't feed on a Stone a Scorpion 'T is only Bread 't is Egge that I can eate Not on this Vanity and Vexation 'T is Angels food 't is Manna is my meate To th' poys'nous breath'd Aegyptians I resigne The Leekes and Onions the huskes unto the Swine I tell thee worldling in my meate 's such might That on one feast I forty dayes can travell Expos'd to winde and weather watch ward fight Defie the gates of Hell wu'd not this gravell Thy Earth-fed strength Keep the' an Aegyptian slave And make thee-Canaan leave to spirits more brave O how I cu'd even melt into Compassion Poure out my soule in pitty to behold Those that for godlinesse are in the fashion But for the power have they skill are they bold About them with the two edg'd Sword to play Through right left hand temptations cut their way Poore soules a taste that ne'r yet did enjoy How good is God it may be wet their Lip In a Communion Cup or like the Boy O'th'Vint'ners palates the essaying sip Commends 't for good and spurts it on the ground God in their Mouthes not in their Reines is found Poore soules that never drew their draught so deep Of this Rich Philtre that it threw their veines Into those inward hidden parts might creep There on Loves Hearth to tine the fire disdaines An Ocean which shu'd it it surprise ' Twu'd but zeales heate antiperistasize HOw oughten hath thy Servant wish'd his knees Were glu'd to 'th ground they were for did he rise The skin untorn fro'th ' flesh T 's his death who sees Such holy Beauties to divert his eyes But Thou bid'st rise Well-'t's but a turn still walk I with my God still Heare still See still Talk I turn not from but with we 've many a walk All Mercy and Truth Paths rugged lower ground Yet Could nor wrench my foot shall make to stray From Him His Angels keep me thus I found Not th' World not Hell perverts the conversation As th' heart unshoo'd with 's Gospels preparation Lord did I love Thee as I love to love Mid'st crooked Men Things can't I be upright When in afflictions waters thou dost prove My affections Sha'nt their fire increase its might But on command the world I de never touch Search me and try me if my heart been't such Wu'd I not still keep in immediate vision How ' fraid again lest Tenter-hook'd I be By mediate things lest ought should cause division Between my soul and body God and me Leade me not hence unlesse 't be in thine hand Thy Mandates Promises Promises Command I de shake off all men businesse turn Anchorite And wrap my quiet soule int's own content Hows'd from the winde and weather wu'd delight My selfe in my New World till having spent M' appointed time my wished change shu'd come And fetch me from my Cell t' my Fathers home Try Try my heart deare Lord. O where 's the man That loves his neighbour as himselfe his God Above ten thousand worlds and lives that can With filiall thankfulnesse runt ' kisse the rod And pray as heart'ly for it as his food As oft as his good Father sees it good O where 's the man that is the Inward man Whose Eyes Tongue Sences all keep still within With God n'er step without untill he can Receive his warrant thence skill strength the ginne To shun to break that lies in every thing And so thorow all himself to God Re-bring O where 's the man that watches every thought That cannot misse his God a minutes space But 's in a sowne who 's heart at th'smallest fault Boyles with revenge against himselfe Where th' face Whose smiles are all reflects all h's sadnesses Eclipses of the Sun of Righteousnesse His lookes thus a true Lookinglasse o'h's Soule His Words are Ecco's to that Word was ever With God was God he can't indure to foule His fingers with the world if fowl'd were never Never lin rubbing with his Fuller soape Till th' are more white than ever Wher 's th' man can hope Whose hope can silence all his earthly wishes Make them subscribe to heaven Tell him ' f a Crowne Of Tempes Indies He answers 'em with Pishes But name but Jesus you 'le see him strait bow downe But what No fooles Cap nor no Asses knee With 's humble'd eye rebound to heaven will he O where 's the man that glories in his shame Too many 't's true yet not enough 't's as true Millions that are a shame to God but name The man that hee 's a shame for God How few Who only wish that they may bee to be Gods glory though through greatest infamy Where 's Hee 'le make godlinesse his only gain Count so much got as got of God Account Him for his end all else as meanes refraine All paines all gaines that he sees not amount T' a thriving Summe of this will live on Bread On Water die but Hee 'le be here well fed Think'st thou deluded Worldling Christ is Thine Bid'st Him good-morrow for all day and then Hurriest to th' World toyl'st moyl'st when thy spirits decline If th'st breath enough salut'st Him with good-den Or once a week com'st with thy Dog to visit His House not Him no nor His House what is it Poore soules wu'd my Teares Eye-bright water be Unto your blinded Eyes how fast I 'd weep But godlinesse is such a mistery As God t' All save His House unknown doth keep Let thy Life say thou know'st this mistery Or thy Presumption gives but God the lie Cud'st once say thus I le ne'r indure this life Goe th' World to 'th World Not all day make a meale Upon a Promise How faint I'm I a wife Of such a husband I o' th' Common weale Of Israel Not seene my Love to day No care o's ' Kingdome then well hope I may Nay where in whom when all ill sensuals meet Hath Christ so cast in 's heart that He can turn To wine His water His bitter into sweet VVher 's He can sit and see his City burn VVhile mounted on th' high Tower of his Salvation VVarbles the Praises of his New Creation Yet be no Nero neither but from those Heights Lookes and condoles poore soules can't sit and sing In Blood and Flames keepes pauses with his sigthes And time w'th's Teares strikes flats on every string Ecco's w'th's Voice re-ecco's with his Heart VVith Ciprus face in mourning beares his part Still glitters in his eye milde