let her ever be tasting of thy loves and ever love thee by tasting them Let the savour of thy oyntments whose very breath is love be ever in her nostrills that she may ever love thee for that savour and by it Give me the flagons of the new wine of the kingdome which may lift up my soule above her selfe in her loves and give her better loves than her owne where with to love him that is farre better than her selfe Yea let her drinke plentifully that she may be mounted up in a divine extasie above her carnall and earthy station that she may forget the low and base griefes and cares and distractions of carnall and worldly love and by an heavenly excesse be transported into an heavenly love to embrace her beloved who is the Lord from heaven with a love that is like him O my beloved thou art most lovely even when I love thee not yet then art thou most lovely and when my soule covered with flesh sees not thy beauty yet then art thou most beautifull and most worthy to be beloved But then thy lovelinesse is lost to me because love loves not what it sees not Therefore ever anoynt mine eyes with thine eye-salve that my soule may ever see thy lovelinesse and seeing it to be most lovely love it with her best loves and despise a world of beauties in comparison of thine and a world of loves in comparison of those loves wherewith shee loveth thee Let my love rest in nothing short of thee neither let it be content meerely to rest in thee but kindle it enflame it enlarge it that it may rest largely in thee Enlarge the crany which thy spirit hath bored through the flesh into my spirit that I may largely see thee and so largely love thee Enlarge the arteries and conduit pipes by which thou the head and fountaine of loves flowest into thy members that being abundantly quickened and watered with the spirit of love I may abundantly love thee And doe not onely come much but often into me and let my spirit often be one spirit with thee in communicative and fruitive unions For such often unions with thy spirit will make my spirit more spirituall and the more spirituall shee is the more will she love him who is a spirit Againe the more spirituall she is the more will he who is a spirit love her and the more he loves her the more will he visit her with his spirit and the more he visits her the more lovely and beloved shall she be Wherefore by often visitations put thy owne image and beauty more and more on my soule and then love thy owne beauty in my soule and my soule for thy owne beauty which thou hast put on her and let my soule love thee infinitely for being infinitely more beautifull than that beauty which thou hast put on my soule and therefore infinitely more lovely than that which thou lovest in my soule Wilt thou my Lord love the image and shall not the image much more love the patterne O thou most lovely my love to thee should be farre greater than thy love to me because my object of love in thee is infinitely greater than thine in me But I being a poore and narrow creature have not love enough to love thee sufficiently an infinite Creatour and indeed there is no love but thy owne sufficient to love thee whose love onely is equall to thy lovelinesse Thy being is lovelinesse it selfe and thy being is love it selfe for God is love Come therefore into me O thou that art love and love thy selfe in me Come into me and by thy owne most excellent love fitly love thy owne most excellent lovelinesse And while thou lovest thy selfe in my soule let my soule according to her measure taste and see and love that love Let her with all her might though that might be far too weake for this worke consent and approve that love of thine and on the torrent of thy love let her most active strongest and largest affections swimme to thee O thou Ocean and unbounded fulnesse both of lovelines and love And thus though shee cannot make her owne love sufficient to love thee yet let her make thy all-sufficient love her owne by receiving some of it into her according to her capacity by assenting to it by approving magnifying it and by a desire to resemble it as much as a poore measured creature may resemble that which is unmeasurable It is thy owne word O thou lover of soules that where there is a willing minde thou acceptest that which a soule hath and not that which she hath not But Lord though that love which I have attaine not to that measure which is unmeasurable yet Lord let it be a full measure which thou pourest into me and let there bee nothing void in my heart and unfilled with thy love Yea let thy spirit of love come so fully into my soule that it stretch and enlarge her measure and make her to grow from the measure in which she is unto the measure in which shee should be even to that stature which is appointed her in thy body And thus by fulnesse in a lesse measure let her grow to a fulnesse in a greater measure growing still in measure and growing still in that which filleth her measure Yea let the measure sometimes be not onely full but running over even running over to a spirituall drunkennesse but not unto drowning for these extasies and excesses of love shall somewhat advance my ability of loving thee For when my understanding will and affections are all overflowne overcome and amazed then shall my wonder gaze on thee and my very faintings shall be enflamed toward thee and melt me into thee Neyther doth my soule desire the pleasure of this loue and Ioyes of thy vnion meerly for pleasure But I desire that the ioy and sap of thy spirit powred into mine when they two are one spirit may be generatiue and fruitfull Far be it from my soule to loue thee like an harlot and not like a wife let mee desire vnion with thee because I love thee and because I love thee let mee desire to bring forth fruite vnto thee Yea I will not cease to cry vnto thee Give mee children or else I die For thou canst not reply vnto mee Am I in Gods stead to give the fruit of the wombe For verily thou art that God who giveth the fruite of the wombe both spirituall and corporall Give me therefore children by this vnion with thee euen fruites of thy spirit which may resemble thee and be pledges to me of thy vnion with me And when I have brought them forth let me give the praise vnto thee For thou onely makest the barren to beare and to be a fruitfull mother of children And when thou hast made mee fruitfull by coming to mee come more often to mee be cause thou hast made mee fruitfull It was the voice of a naturall
taste of God and God being tasted overfloweth and steepeth and drencheth the soule with overcomming and inebriating sweetnesse For a high and large and mighty joy poured into a low and measured and weake spirit overcommeth her with quantity and quality and so carries her away into extasie and ravishment she is too narrow and feeble to containe and beare a joy that is too large and strong for her and therefore having filled her to the utmost capacity it goes beyond and runnes over So is she blessed in that fulnesse which her measure containeth yea she is more than blessed even blessed in a kinde of excesse by being overcome and overflowed with blessednesse And if we will consider the quality of this joy as well as the quantity there is no joy to the spirituall joy the joyes of the body being base in comparison of it the spirituall joy is pure piercing and full of activity the joy of bodies is grosse heavie dull and earthy In the bodily wine it is the spirit of the wine that rejoyceth the spirits of the body But a wine that is all spirit and spirit in the height and top of spiritualnes and newly drawne and sucked from the prime and chiefest spirit how doth that rejoyce how doth that ravish the spirits that drinke it when mans highest part doth tast the highest good Man hath no higher part whereby to taste and receive happinesse neither is there any higher happinesse to be tasted and received Therefore the soule that tasteth this wine at her spirituall marriage saith as the Master of the Feast at the earthly marriage Lord Thou hast kept the best wine untill the last And this being best the soule gives it the best place in her judgement and affection she forgets that which is behinde and indeavours to that which is before she will not rest in the low and backward joyes of the bodie but strives toward the high and forward joyes of the spirit and having attained them she rests in them as in the best joyes yet so rests in them in this life of growth that she desires to grow by them presently to a greater capacity of them and finally to a full large and everlasting fruition of them in a nearer accesse unto the very spring and fountaine of joyes But when all is said of this marriage-happinesse one taste of it wil tell thee more than all that is or can be said The true knowledge of the sweetnes of God is gotten by tasting and therefore taste first and then see how sweet and gracious the Lord is The taste of it will truly tell him that tasteth it how sweet it is but hee that knoweth this sweetnes by tasting cannot deliver over the full and perfect image of this sweetnes to him that hath not tasted it For this sweetnes surmounts all knowne sweetnesse of the creatures and by that which is knowne must that which is unknowne be made knowne But if that which is knowne be lesse and lower than that which is unknown that which is knowne may teach and tell us what the unknowne is not but not what it is So the joy of love and union in an earthly marriage cannot expresse a heavenly joy that is spiritually pure and purely active Only these and the like comparisons may serve for staires whereby to ascend even above these comparisons and to set our foot on something beyond them For if the soule rests on these she rests short of the knowledge of the sweetnesse which is beyond these shee is still in the sweetnesse of the creature and hath not attained the sweetnesse of the Creatour Therefore when she hath gone as farre as she may in the sweetnesse of the creature let her advance one step more into that spirituall union wherein is to be tasted and seene by tasting the sweetnes of the Creatour and ther shall shee see more by tasting than all the creatures could shew her by resembling she hath met with that joy which onely can truly teach it selfe and therefore it is called unspeakable And whereas before it was tasted the being of it was doubted and much more the manner and shape of it was unknowne now it is both knowne to be and the shape and manner of it is also known And being knowne all other sweetnesses which before were alone knowne and esteemed are now despised as it were unknown For this is that blessed estate of spirituall love and union whereof the spouse of Christ truely saith If a man would give all the substance of his house for loue it would utterly bee contemned And indeed the spouse having Christs love she hath that which is better than all things and having Christ with his love how can she with him but have all things also Christ is the heire of all things and the soule having married this heire is a joynt-heire annexed with Christ. She hath him by whom the worlds were made and therefore she hath also the worlds made by him yet he that made the worlds being Infinitely better than the worlds made by him she despiseth the worlds in respect of him that made them she quencheth her thirst in the fountaine onely and she accounts it a folly and a losse to leave the fountaine and to run after the streames Therefore setting her mouth to this fountaine she is filled with the waters of life with the oyle of gladnesse with the new wine of the kingdome of God with the joy of the holy Ghost even a joy unspeakable and glorious In Christ Iesus she hath all-sufficiency all safety all supply shee receives from Christ that spirituall oyntment which gives her spiritual light power goodnesse love and life yea it adorneth the soule with the most excellent beauty even the likenesse and image of God himselfe And being thus lovely the bridegroom kisseth and embraceth her with spirituall visitations he tells her his counsailes and his eyes are ever toward her even when hee seemes to be turned from her For she is set as a signet upon his heart and much water cannot quench his love she also looketh on him and is changed from glory to glory as the Moon when with more open face shee beholdeth the Sunne But of the particular benefits ane advantages of this blessed Marriage more hereafter Thus happy and thus growing in happinesse shee walkes on in this life of marriage inchoate untill she come to the eternall life of marriage consummate She is happy now in her union with happinesse and she shall be happy hereafter in a full fruition of happinesse She is happy now in the earnests and peeces of that happinesse which shall be full hereafter yea daily more and more happy here by a daily enlarging of those earnests and peeces and shee shall be the more happy hereafter by how much more these earnests and peeces of happinesse have beene here enlarged And thus shall she walke by happines unto happines and by the increase of happines
comforters that wound and smite her and if shee meete with that one of a thousand that speakes right words and tells her true comforts yet while the inward Comforter is wanting that should turne the words into deedes they remaine bare words and are like the white of an egge that hath no taste in it For the soule sayes still Call mee not Naomi but Marah for my Lord hath dealt bitterly with me Yet still she lookes out for her husband but sees him not shee calls to remembrance his former loves that so shee may enjoy him in the representations of her former enjoyings But then a world of fleshly and fearefull thoughts rush in upon her and with a cloud cover that sight of him which memorie would give her and if she yeeld not to them she is vexed with importunity and if she yeeld to thē she is vex't with guilt self-accusation the Tempter buffets her with sharp and thornie temptations to drive her to yeeld and when shee yeelds hee buffets her with fearful accusations Now what can bee added to her misery Her best friend is gone from her and her worst enemies are round about her yea her best friends seemes to have surrendred her into the hands of her worst enemies for shee feeles a mighty force of her enemies but no strength of her beloved Therefore her heart failes her and shee thinkes that shee hath wholly lost both her selfe and him I opened saith she to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawne himselfe and was gone I sought but I could not finde him I called him but hee gave no answer The watchmen that went about the City found me they smote me they wounded me But yet be of good comfort thou wearie wounded and distressed soule thy husband is a God that comforteth the abject that makes light to shine out of darknesse that gives refreshing to the weary and heavie-laden that brings life out of death Thy Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and as a wife of youth when thou wast refused saith thy God For a small moment hath he forsaken thee but with great mercies will hee gather thee The mercies of God even when they seeme to faile thee then doe they gather thee yea they gather thee by their seeming to faile thee Thy husband is God and God is love and love doth ever good to the beloved Yea thou lovest him and he hath told thee that all things shall turne to good to them that love him therefore even these desertions though never so dreadfull and discomfortable the almightinesse of Gods love shall make usefull and advantageable This is so true that many of these uses and advantages may particularly be named and I doubt not but thy husband himselfe will teach them to thee experimentally yet because while the cloud of desertion is upon thy soule she can hardly see by her owne light another that hath light for the time though perchance clouded himselfe as much or more another time may tell her what hee sees by his light And indeede when the soule is in the darke and her owne light shines not she may doe well to get a guide and to take heede to borrowed light untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in her owne heart A first advantage then that may come to the soule by the desertions of her husband is by desertions to prevent desertions for by loosing him shee may learne not to loose him and by the miseries of her former ill keeping him learne hereafter to keepe him better Perchance thou wast too careles in holding him when thou hadst him or in admitting him when he came to visite thee and to bring these thy faults to remembrance that by remembring them thou maist amend them he is now gone from thee Remember whether thou didst not heare such a voice as this Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with deaw and my lockes with the drops of the night Remember also whether this was not thy answer I have put off my coate how shall I put it on I have washed my feete how shall I defile them Thou hadst taken up some rest in the flesh and hadst put thy selfe into a method of ease and then it was a marring of thy method and a fowling of thy feete to step into any action or passion for thy beloved Hee that was thy true happinesse was growne very cheape to thee and thou wast content to part from him rather than to give the price of a little paines for him And art thou not well worthy to lose him whom thou thoughtest so little worth the keeping But now thou art put to learne the value of him by absence whom thou didst so much undervalue being present And when by absence thou hast learned this lesson thou hast gained more by absence than thou wouldest have done by presence for thou hast gained the true valuation of thy Lord by absence which through thy fault and frailty thou forgatest in his presence so by this first gaine thou shalt come to a second for by absence thou shalt gaine his presence For absence having taught thee truly to value him and accordingly to desire and thirst after him and to give him due entertainment when he comes hereafter and offers his love unto thee then shalt thou by this benefit of absence come to enjoy his presence Thy fulnesse brought thee to hunger and thy hunger now brings thee to fulnesse for he filleth the hungry with good things and the full he sends empty away He will fill thee not onely with good things but with goodnesse it selfe for he wil fill thee with himselfe and hee is goodnes yea thou shalt yet have a farther gaine by this absence for when he comes againe thou wilt holde him faster and keepe him surer and so enjoy him nearer longer Now thou wilt embrace him and cleave to him and winde thy selfe about him and when thine eye sleepeth thy heart shall wake that thou maist still keepe his presence whose absence was so bitter unto thee Thou wilt bring him into the chamber of the soule and binde him with the cords of love thou wilt claspe thy affections about him and hold him fast that hee may no more escape from thee And being thus bound by the cords of love and love loving to be bound by love hee willingly abides in the bands which hee loveth for both love and faith are mighty with the Almighty and make the spouse an Israel even a prevailer with God Shee that loveth Christ much may embrace him much and kisse him much and holde him much and if any man doe trouble her hee himselfe will say Why trouble yee the woman And thus thrives the Spouse by her losses while by losing her husband for a time shee loves him better and being returned enjoyes him the more and holdes him stronger and longer But
of the soule even the image of the most excellent Deity shine brightly in his eyes being anoynted with fresh oyle and let her be lovely to him by those oyntments which make him lovely to her Let her often goe out of the body yea out of the world by heavenly contemplations and treading on the top of the earth with the bottome of her feet stretch her selfe up to looke over the world into that upper world where her treasure her joy her beloved dwelleth Let her stand in this watch-tower and looke out for her lover as the watch-man looks out for the morning and then the day-spring from on high shall visite her Turne thy face away from the enchantments of this world from dreames of earthly profit and preferment and turne thy face to the wildernesse even turne this world into a wildernesse and a nothing before thy face and the spirit of God shall come upon thee and thou shalt see the vision of the Almighty And when this Sunne of the soule shineth upon her let the eye of the soule made cleare and piercing by faith like the eye of an Eagle looke on the Sunne for this Sunne looks on the eye that lookes on him yea he loves the eye of a faith working unto love and cries out that he is wounded by this one of her eyes It is his owne speech to the soule Seeke my face continually and it is an answer which he loves to receive from the soule Thy face O Lord will I seeke And thus beholding Christ Iesus with open face thou shalt see and feele things inutterable thou shalt also bee changed from beauty to beauty from glory to glory by the spirit of this Lord. The more the soule seeth and is seene of him the more lovely shall shee grow and the more lovely she is the more will hee delight to see and be seene of her Againe if with that hearty lover whose heart was according to the heart of his well-beloved thou canst truly say Mine eyes are alwayes to the Lord having procured his comming thou shalt also stay him from going Thy heart shall watch him and keepe him and holde him for where he is so watched and held from going he is willing to abide The story is well knowne that though hee seemed as though hee would have gone further yet when they constrained him hee went in to tarry with them And though he should after some tarrying vanish out of sight yet if our hearts be thinking and talking of him hee will eftsoones stand in the midst of them and bring his peace with him And that thou maist keep his love fresh and fervent to thee keepe thy owne love fresh and fervent to him For love draweth love and fervent love makes love fervent like it selfe Love is like burning coales and burning coales will kindle coales that are not burning Therefore kindle thy love and make it to flame by thinking on his beauty on his sweetnes on his goodnes Kindle it by renewing the olde tastes of him which thou hast formerly tasted Kindle thy love by reviving the images of loves past put thy selfe into the same thoughts wherein thou wast when thou didst enjoy him And so if thy minde be fitted and put into a state of enjoying it is likely that hee will come into a minde so fitted and thou shalt enjoy him And if hee come not yet into thee stirre up thy spirituall concupiscence and therewith let the soule lust mightily for him and let her lusts and desires ascend up to him in strong cryes and invocations then by his spirit he will descend unto thee Be carefull that there be a perpetuall consent of thy will unto his will and a perpetuall issuing of thoughts and actions from this consent and conformity In the house of this husband there must be but one will and that is the husbands The wifes will must be melted into the will of the husband and her will must not live but her husbands will must live in her And then this husband will delight to be much at home where he may be Master and he will delight often to give the unity of fruition where there is an unity of will and affection but where the wifes will doth crosse the will of the husband there is he wearied away and that house is to him as a place of continuall dropping offensive and indeed unfit to entertaine that Lord who is the King of glory A King loves to be in his Kingdome where he commandeth and is obeyed and therefore if thou wilt have this King to visit and dwell with thee let him command and reigne in thee for he hath told thee himselfe If any man love mee and keepe my commandements I will love him and will appeare plainly to him Wherefore if the soule desire to please her selfe by the fruition of his presence let her especially and mainely strive to please him for by pleasing him she shal be pleased by him whose pleasure is infinitely greater than that which ariseth out of her pleasing of her selfe Let her give away her owne will for his will and in so doing shee shall be a double gainer for she changeth a worse will for a better and withall gaines him whose the better will is and who is infinitely better than her selfe Wherefore strive to please him and to give him his will yea strive to give it much and mainly for the more thou givest it the more thou receivest into thee a most excellent will and a most excellent husband Thus shalt thou please thy selfe most by pleasing him and not thy selfe What husband is there who seeing his wife to neglect her selfe for him but hee will love and cherish that wife the more the more shee neglects her selfe for him And then by how much his love and cherishing is more advantageable and pleasing than her owne so much is her gaine advanced by loving and pleasing him more than her selfe And because there is some beauty and good in the creature though indeed subject to vanity and blasted with a curse and there is a law of the members reigning in the worst and not wholly rooted out of the best which loves to looke on the creature and by looking lusts after it let the soule married to Christ be very wary how she turnes her eye and fixeth it on the creature For if her eye goe much after it and fettle long upon it her love is likely to come after her eye She may looke on it and behold the goodnesse of it but in beholding the goodnesse of it shee must againe look from it to that transcendent originall and infinite goodnesse of her husband of whom this goodnesse was borrowed For by him all things were made that were made Againe she may looke on it to see the vanity of it that by seeing the vanity of it shee may looke from it to her Lord and Husband in whom is stability and perpetuall
felicity And yet againe she may looke on it to see the curse that is cast upon it and in the terriblenesse of that curse shee may see the horrour of sinne that looking from it againe to her Lord and Saviour she may see the excellency of his love and inestimable value of his person who hath taken away the curse and the sinne from his beloved Spouse and gives her a blessed use of the creature and full blessednesse in the eternall fruition of the Creatour Thus looking to the creature by looking to it shee lookes from it she rests not in it but passeth by it to her only true rest And indeed by these and the like removals the soule should ever bee kept loose from the world For as when we would not have things to glue and fasten we doe often touch and turne and moove them so the soule being apt to glue and fasten to the world wee must by these and the like meditations often touch and remove her that so she may be kept continually loose from it But because the cyment which joynes the soule to the world is the flesh and she must adulterate first with this old husband before she can prostitute her selfe to the world let the soule take especiall care to watch and resist the approaches of this fly but deadly enemy that commeth in the shape of a lover This is he whom the true husband whose name is jealous doth perfectly hate for there is a perfect contrariety betweene them Therefore so much as thou admittest the flesh so much thou expellest thy Lord and Saviour But so much as thou banishest the flesh so much roome doest thou make for Christ to come into thee by his spirit Therefore bee thou so farre from loosing thy husband for this old adulterer that thou gaine him the more by expelling and killing the other The flesh is good for nothing but to be slaine and therein there is this gaine that the more he dyeth the more thy love and life loveth thee and liveth in thee Therefore whereas the flesh would make it thy pleasure to live after the flesh doe thou make it thy pleasure to kill the flesh let the hunting pursuing and killing of the lusts of the flesh be thy pastime and pleasure even the hunting and destroying of these foxes that would destroy thy vineyard And then will the Lord of the vineyard get up early to his vineyard the vine shall flourish and the tender grape appeare and there shall he give thee his loves But if through thy owne remisnesse or the fleshes importunity the soule by concupiscence hath conceived sinne make haste to the fountaines set open for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash and to be cleane Wash thy selfe in teares and bloud the spirit of penitence contrition and conversion washeth white the bloud of the Lambe washeth whiter than snow And by the cleansing spirit is given to thee the cleansing bloud That false husband whom thou hast pleased hee hath defiled thee and thy true husband whō thou hast offended he it is that must wash thee therefore hee came by water and bloud to wash thy guilt with his bloud and thy filth by his spirit that thus being washed thou maist be without spot and blemish and againe lovely in his eyes and acceptable in the eyes of his Father And being thus made faire by his washing he will yet againe embrace thee and put thy evill out of his remembrance by his owne overcomming goodnesse But then let his goodnesse overcomming thy evill teach thee to overcome thy owne evill with goodnesse Hate and resist all sinne and especially that sinne by which thou hast most offended so loving a husband and hate and resist that false husband who tempted thee to this sin Love thy true husband the more the more thou hast offended him and the more he hath forgiven thee And the more thou lovest him the more strive not to offend him And if thus after thy sinne thou art the farther from sinne more faire in holinesse and fuller of love to thy heavenly husband thou shalt heare from his mouth the voice of ioy and gladnesse and shalt feele from his mouth a kisse of peace in thy soule And this spirituall kisse shall drop a spirituall oyntment the very pledge and seale of pardon and peace even a testimony of his spirit speaking to thy spirit Thy sinnes are forgiven thee And having regained him make thy selfe more one with him and increase thy communion with him Touch him hard with thy faith sucke him strongly with thy love that more vertue may come out of him to cure that issue of sinne yet abiding in the remnant of the flesh and to make thee more one and uniforme with him For as a bough the more hee suckes from the tree the larger is his union with the tree and the more is his likenesse to the tree so the more a soule draws from Christ the more is she one with him and the more is shee like him And againe the more shee is like him the more will hee delight to bee one with her and thus shall she goe on in an endlesse circle of happines The highest and happiest and sweetest harmony is when the soule is in an unizon with her Saviour and husband every touch and sound of the soule thus tuned to Christ Iesus resoundeth in him toucheth and moveth him And as with the sound of outward musicke the spirit of God came upon the Prophet so with the sound of this inward musicke be it in holy contemplations ardencies desires invocations resolutions the spirit of Christ Iesus commeth more powerfully and plentifully into the soule And when hee comes doe thou draw from him that spirituall sappe and nourishment by which thou maist grow up to the stature appointed thee By the supply of this head grow up to this head in a due proportion even to the fulnesse of that part which thou holdest in his body And let not the head be the head of a man yea of the fairest and goodliest of men and thou a starved dwarfish crooked or mishapen hand or foote but both in measure and shape strive to be a member proportionable to so comely an Head And that thou maist thus grow let not swelling but growth be the end of thy sucking Desire the sincere milke and hony and wine of the Deity that thou mayst growe thereby in solide substance not in frothy and puffy imaginations Growe thou in the reall excellence of a divine Nature and not in the empty swellings of a fleshly pride For the flesh hath sometimes a desire of spirituall excellencyes but it is for a fleshly end even to puffe it selfe up by thē But seeke not these pearls to cast it to these Swine nor this Bread of heaven to give it to such dogs Rather buffet this flesh and beate it downe lest a messenger of Satan be sent to buffet thee for not