Soliloq. I. The best Prospect.

O My God, I shall not bee worthy of my eyes, if I think I can im­ploy them better, than in looking up to thy heaven: and shall I not be worthy to look up to heaven, if I suffer my eyes to rest there, and not looke through heaven at thee, the Almighty Maker and Ruler of it; who dwell'st [Page 2] there in all glory and Ma­jesty; and if seeing thee I doe not alwaies adore thee, and find my soul ta­ken up with awfull and admiring thoughts concer­ning thee: I see many eyes have looked curiously up­on that glorious frame else they could not have made so punctuall obser­vation of the fire, and mo­tion of those goodly Globes of light, which thou hast placed there, as to fortell all their Con­junctions, and Oppositi­ons, for many hundred yeeres before; but, whiles they look at the Motions, let me look at the Mover; wondring, not without ra­vishment of spirit, at that infinite Power and Wisd­dome, [Page 3] which keepes up those numberlesse and im­mense bodies in so perfect a regularity, that they all keepe their just stations, and times, without the least varying from the course which thou settedst them in their first Creati­on; so whiles their obser­vation makes them the wiser, mine shall make me the holier. Much varie­ty of Objects hast thou gi­ven us, here below, which do commonly take up our eyes; but it shall bee my fault, if all those doe not rather lead my thoughts to thee, than withdraw them from thee; since thy power and Majesty is clearly conspicuous in them all. O God, whiles I [Page 4] have eyes, let me never but see thee in all things, let me never but enjoy thee; Let me see thee here as thou maiest be seen, by the eye of faith, till I may see, as I am seen, hereafter, in glory: 1 Cor. 13.12. Let me see thee as through a glasse darkly here on earth, till I may come to see thee face to face in Heaven.

Soliloq. II. The happy parting.

Euthym in Praefat. Psalmorum.I Have lived divers yeers longer than holy David did; yet I can truely say with him; if that Psalme were his which hath the Title of Moses; We have [Page 5] brought our yeares to an end, as it were a tale that is told: Me thinks, Psal. 90.9. O my soule, it is but yesterday since we met; and now we are upon parting; neither shall we, I hope, be unwil­ling to take leave; for what advantage can it bee to us to hold out longer together? One peece of me cannot but grow more infirme with use and time; and therupon must follow a decay of all faculties, and operations: Where the Tooles are growne bad and dull, what worke can be exquisite? Thou seest it then necessary, and inevitable that we must yeeld to age, and grow worse with continuance.

And what privilege can [Page 6] meer time give us in our duration? We see the ba­sest of stones last longer than the durablest plants; and we see trees hold out longer then any sensitive Creatures; and divers of those sensitive Creatures out-last man, the Lord of them all: neither are a­ny of these held more ex­cellent because they weare out more houres: Gen. 5.2.24.27. Wee know Henoch was more happy that was fetcht a­way at three hundred six­ty five yeares, than Methu­selah at nine hundred sixty and nine: Difference of age doth nothing but pull downe a side where there are not supplies of increa­sing abilities. Should we continue our partnership [Page 7] many yeares longer, could wee hope for more health and strength of body, more vigour of understan­ding and judgement, more heate of good affections? And can wee doubt that it will be else-where better with us? Doe wee not know what abides for us above? Are we not assu­red that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 2 Cor. 5.1. an house not made with hands, e­ternall in the heavens. Why therefore, oh, why, should ye be loath to part upon faire termes? Thou, O my soule, to the posses­sion of that happy Mansi­on, which thy deare Sa­viour hath from eternity [Page 8] prepared for thee in his Fathers house: and thou, O my body, to that quiet repository of thy Grave, till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resur­rection of the just, never, never to be severed?

Soliloq. III. Heavenly Conversation.

IT matters not a little with whom wee hold our familiar Conversati­on; for commonly wee are transformed into the Dispositions and manners of those whose company we frequent: We daily see those who by haun­ting the society of Drun­kards, [Page 9] and debauched per­sons, have from civill and orderly men growne into extremity of lewdnesse; and on the contrary, those who have consorted them­selves with the holy and vertuous, have attained to a gracious participation of their sanctity: Why shouldst thou not then, O my soule, by a continuall conversation with God, and his Angels, improve to an heavenly disposition? Thou canst not, whiles thou art here, but have somewhat to doe with the world; that will necessa­rily intrude into thy pre­sence, and force upon thee businesses unavoidable; and thy secular friends may well looke to have [Page 10] some share in thy socia­ble entertainements: But these are but goers and commers, easily and wil­lingly dismissed, after some kind interlocutions: The Company that must stick by thee is spirituall, which shall never leave thee, if thou have the grace to ap­ply thy selfe to them upon all occasions.

Thou maist hold faire correspondence with all other not offensive com­panions; but thy entire­nesse must be onely with these.

Let those other be ne­ver so faithfull, yet they are uncertaine; bee their will never so good, yet their power is limited; these are never but at [Page 11] hand, never but able, and willing to make and keepe thee happy. O my God, thou seest how subject I am to distractions; Oh hold mee close to thee: Let me enter into the same company here in my Pilgrimage, which I shall for ever enjoy hereafter in my home.

Solilo. IV. Love unchangeable.

OUr younger years are wont to bee delight­ted with variety, and to be much affected to a change, although to the worse: The childe is bet­ter pleased with his new [Page 12] Coat, though the old be farre handsomer: Where­as age and experience fix­eth our desires and teach­eth us to set the greatest vallue upon those good things wherewith we have been longest acquainted.

Yea, it is the generall disposition of nature to be cloyed with continued blessings, and upon long fruition to complaine of that good which we first commended for pleasing, and beneficiall: Exo. 16.13. Deut. 8.3. Exo. 16.31. What could relish better with the Israelites the first mor­ning than the Angels food which fell downe from heaven every day about their Campe? the taste whereof was like to wa­fers made with honey: If [Page 13] we stay but a while, wee shall, ere many yeeres, heare them calling for the Onions and Garlike of E­gypt; and crying out: Num. 11.6. Now our soule is dried a­way; there is nothing but this Manna before our eyes. Our wanton appetite is apt to be weary of the best blessings, both of earth and heaven, and to nauseate with store: Neither is a­ny thing more tedious to us, than the enjoyned re­petition of a daily-tasked Devotion. But contrarily, Grace endeares all bles­sings to us by their conti­nuance, and heightens our affections, where they are rightly placed, by the length of the time of their enjoying. O God, it is [Page 14] thy mercy that thou hast vouchsafed to allow mee an early interest in thee, even from my tender yeeres,: the more and lon­ger I have known thee, the more cause have I still found to love thee, and a­dore thee; Thou art ever one and unchangeable; Oh make thou my heart so; Devote thou me whol­ly unto thee; and by how much cooler my old age is in all other affections, in­flame it so much the more in my love to thee.

Solil. V. The happiest Object.

IF we could attaine to settle in our thoughts a right apprehension of the Majesty of God, it would put us unto the comforta­ble exercise of all the affe­ctions that belong to the Soule: For surely, if wee could conceive aright of his Omnipotent power, and transcending glory, and incomprehensible in­finitenesse, we could not but tremble before him, and be alwaies taken up with an adoring feare of him: And, if we could ap­prehend his infinite good­nesse both in himselfe and [Page 16] to mankinde, wee could not but be ravished with a fervent love to him, and should thinke our selves happy, that we might bee allowed to love such a God; and if we could con­ceive of that absolute beauty of his holinesse, and blissefull presence, we could not but be enflamed with a longing desire to enjoy such a God; and if wee could apprehend all these; we could not bee but both transported with an unspeakeable joy, that we have a sure interest in a God so holy, so good, so almighty, so glorious, and stricken with an un­expressible griefe, that we should either offend him, or suffer our selves to want [Page 17] but for a moment the fee­ling presence of that all­sufficient, and all-compre­hending Majesty: On the contrary, those men begin at the wrong end, who go about to draw their affe­ctions to God first, and then after seeke to have their mindes enlightned with right conceits of his Essence and Attributes: who meeting with those occurrent Temptations, which mainly crosse them in their desires and affecti­ons, are strait set off from prosecuting their good motions, and are as new to seeke of a God, as if they had never bent their thoughts towards heaven. O God, let it be the maine care of my life, to know [Page 18] thee, and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ thy Son my Saviour. I cannot through thy mercy fail of an heavenly disposition of soule whiles I am here, and of a life of eternall glory with thee hereafter.

Solilo. VI. Ʋnchangeable duration.

IN the first minute wher­in wee live, we enter up­on an eternity of being; and, though at the first, through the want of the exercise of reason, we can­not know it; and after­wards, through our incon­sideration, and the be­witching businesses of [Page 19] time, we doe not seriously lay it to heart, we are in a state of everlastingnesse; there must upon the neces­sity of our mortality be a change of our condition, but with a perpetuity of our being; the body must undergo a temporary dis­solution, and the soule a remove, either to blisse or torment; but both of them, upon their meeting, shall continue in an un­changeable duration, for ever and ever: And if wee are wont to slight transi­tory and vanishing com­modities, by reason of their momentany continu­ance, and to make most account of things durable; What care and great thoughts ought I to be­stow [Page 20] upon my selfe, who shall outlast the present world; and how ought I to frame my life so, as it may fall upon an eternity infinitely happy and glori­ous?

O God, doe thou set off my heart from all these earthly vanities, and fix it above with thee. As there shall bee no end of my be­ing, so let there bee no change of my affections; Let them before-hand take possession of that heaven of thine, whereto I am as­piring: Let nothing but this clay of mine bee left remaining upon this earth whereinto it is moul­dring; Let my spirituall part bee ever with thee whence it came, and enter [Page 21] upon that blisse which knows neither change nor end.

Soliloq. VII. Trust upon Triall.

WHat a Providence there is over all the creatures in the world, which both produceth them to their being, and over-rules, and carries them on, to and in their dissolution without their knowledge, or intended cooperation; but for those whom God hath indued with the faculty of ratio­cination, how easie is it to observe the course of the divine proceedings with [Page 23] them, how that all-wise God contrives their af­faires and events quite be­yond, and above the pow­er of their weak projecti­ons; how he prevents their Desires, how he fetches a­bout inexpected and im­probable occurrences to their hinderance, or advan­tage; sometimes blessing them with successe, beyond all their hopes, sometimes blasting their projects, when their blossomes are at the fairest? Surely, if I looke onely in a dull stu­pidity upon the outsides of all accidents, that befall me, and not improve my reason and faith to dis­cerne, and acknowledge that invisible power, that orders them to his owne, [Page 22] and their ends, I shall bee little better than bruitish; and if upon the observati­on of all that good hand of God, sensibly leading mee on, in all the waies of my younger, and riper age, in so many feeling and appa­rent experiments of his gracious provisions and protections, I shall not have learned to trust him with the small remainder of my daies, and the happy close of that life which he hath so long, and merci­fully preserved, the favours of a bountifull God shall have been cast away upon a barren, and unthankfull heart. O God, I am such as thou hast made me, make up thy good worke in me, and keep me that I do not [Page 24] marre my selfe with my wretched unbeliefe, I have tryed thee to the full; Oh that I could cast my selfe wholly upon thee; and trust thee both with my body and soule, for my safe passage to that blessed home; and for the perfect accomplishment of my glory, in thine.

Soliloq. VIII. Angelicall Familiarity.

THere is no reason to induce a man to thinke that the good An­gels are not as assiduously present with us, for our good, as the evill Angels are for our hurt; since we [Page 25] know that the evill spirits cannot bee more full of malice to work our harm, than the blessed Angels are full of charity, & wel-wishing to mankinde; and the evill are only let loose to tempt us by a permissi­on of the Almighty, wher­as the good are by a gra­cious delegation from God encharged with our custody; Now, Heb. 1. ult. that the evill spirits are ever at hand, ready upon all oc­casions to present their services to us for our fur­therance to mischiefe, ap­peares too plainly in their continuall temptations which they inject into our thoughts; in their reall and speedy operations with the spels and charmes [Page 26] of their wicked Clients, which are no lesse effectu­ally answered by them, immediately, upon their practice, than naturall causes are by their ordina­ry and regular produ­ctions. It must needs fol­low therefore, that the good Angels are as close to us, and as inseparable from us: and though we see neither, yet hee that hath spirituall eyes per­ceives them both, and is accordingly affected to their presence. If then wicked men sticke not to goe so far as to endanger, and draw on their owne damnation, by familiarly conversing with malignant Spirits; Why should not I for the unspeakable ad­vantage [Page 27] of any soule affect an awfully-familiar Con­versation with those bles­sed Angels which I know to be with me? The lan­guage of spirits are thoughts: Why doe not I entertaine them in my se­cret cogitations, and hold an holy discourse with them in mentall allocuti­ons; and so carry my selfe as that I may ever hold faire correspondence with those invisible compani­ons, and may expect from them all gracious offices, of holy motions, carefull protection, and at last an happy conveyance to my glory? O my soule, thou art a Spirit, as they are; doe thou ever see them, as they see thee; and so speak [Page 28] to them, as they speake to thee; and blesse thy God for their presence, and tui­tion; and take heed of do­ing ought that may cause those heavenly guardians to turne away their faces from thee as asham'd of their charge.

Soliloq. IX. The unanswerable Christian.

IT is no small griefe to any good heart that loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, to see how utter­ly unanswerable the grea­ter sort of men that beare the name of Christ are to the example and pre­cepts of that Christ whose [Page 29] name they beare: He was humble and meeke, they proud and insolent; hee bade us love our enemies, they hardly can love their friends; he prayed for his persecutors, they curse; hee that had the command of all, cared not to possesse any thing, they not having right to much, would possesse all; hee bade us give our Coat al­so to him that takes our Cloak, they take both Coat and Cloake from him that hath it; he bade us turne our cheek for the other blow, they will bee sure to give two blowes for one; he paid obedi­ence to a Foster Father, and tribute to Caesar, they despise Government; his [Page 30] trade was onely doing good, spending the night in praying, the day in preach­ing and healing; they de­bauch their time, revelling away the night, and slee­ping away, or mispending the day; he forbad Oaths, they not onely sweare and forsweare, but blaspheme too; hee bade us make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnes, they make Mammon their God; hee bade us take up his Crosse, they impose their own; he bad us lay up our treasure in heaven, they place their heaven in earth; he bids us give to them that ask, they take violently from the owners; he bade us return good for evill, they for good return evill; he char­ged [Page 31] his Disciples to love one another, they nourish malice and rancor against their brethren; hee left peace for a Legacy to his followers, they are apt to set the world on fire: His businesse was to save, theirs to destroy. O God, Psal. 119.136. let ri­vers of waters run downe mine eyes because they do no better keep the law of thy Gospel. Give grace to all that are called by thy name, to walke worthy of that high profession wher­to they are called: And keepe me thy unworthy servant that I may never deviate from that blessed patterne which thou hast set before me: Oh let mee never shame that great name that is put upon me: [Page 32] Let mee in all things ap­prove my self a Christian in earnest; and so conform my selfe to thee, in all thy example and commands, that it may be no disho­nour to thee to owne mee for thine.

Soliloq. X. Hellish Hostility.

I Cannot but observe how universall it is in all kindes for one creature to prey upon another, the greater fishes devoure the lesse, the birds of Rapine feed upon the smaller Foules, the ravenous wild beasts sustaine themselves with the flesh of the wea­ker [Page 33] and tamer cattle; the Dog pursues the Hare, the Cat the Mouse; Yea the very Moale under the earth hunts for the worm, and the Spider in our Window for the flye: Whether it pleased God to ordain this antipathy in nature, or whether mans sin brought this enmity upon the creature I en­quire not, this I am sure of; that both God hath given unto man (the Lord of this inferiour world) leave and power, to prey upon all these his fellow-creatures; and to make his use of them, both for his necessity, and lawfull pleasure; and that the God of this world is only hee that hath stirred up men to [Page 34] prey upon one another; some to eat their flesh, as the savage Indians; others to destroy their lives, e­states, good names: this proceedes only from him that is a murtherer from the beginning. O my soule, doe thou mourne in secret to see the great enemy of mankinde so wofully pre­valent as to make the earth so bloody a sham­bles to the sons of men; and to see Christians so outra­giously cruell to their own flesh: And O thou that art the Lord of Hosts, and the God of peace, restraine thou the violent fury of those which are called by thy name, and compose these unhappy quarrels a­mongst them that should [Page 35] be brethren. Let me (if it may stand with thy blessed will) once again see peace smile ore the earth, before I come to see thy face in glory.

Soliloq. XI. False Joy.

AMongst these pub­licke blusters of the World, I finde many men that secretly applaud themselves in the conceit of an happy peace which they find in their bosom: Where all is calme and quiet; no distemper of pas­sions, no fear of evill, no sting of remorse, no distur­bance of doubts; but all [Page 36] smoothnesse of brow, and all tranquility of minde; whose course of life, yet, without any great enquiry hath appeared to bee not over-strict and regular. I hear them boast of their Condition, without any envy of their happinesse, as one that had rather heare them complaine of their inward unquietnesse, than brag of their peace. Give me a man that after many secret bickerings, and hard conflicts in his breast, upon a serious pe­nitence, and sense of recon­ciliation with his God hath attained to a quiet heart, walking consciona­bly and close with that Majesty with whom he is attoned; I shall bless and [Page 37] emulate him as a meet subject of true joy: For spiritually there is never a perfect calme but after a tempest; the winde and earthquake and fire make way for the soft voice. 1 Kin. 19. But I pitty the flatteries, and selfe-applauses of a care­lesse and impenitent heart: This jollity hath in it much danger, and without some change, death. Oh Sa­vior, I know thou cam'st to send fire on the earth; Luk. 12.49. yea fire into these earthen bo­somes, whereof the very best hath combustible mat­ter enough for thee to worke upon; and what will I (thou saist) if it be already kindled; O bles­sed Jesu, my will agrees with thine; I desire no­thing [Page 38] in the world more than that this fire of thine may flame up in my soul, and burne up those secret corruptions which have lyen smothering within me: Set me at full vari­ance with my selfe, that I may be at peace with thee.

Soliloq. XII. True Light.

Mat. 6.23.THou hast taught us, O Saviour, that even the light of man may be darknesse, and that the light endarkned causeth the greatest darknesse: nei­ther can it be otherwise; since the very obscuring of [Page 39] the light maketh some kind of darknesse, the ut­ter extinction of it must needs make the darkenesse absolute. Now what is darknesse but a meere pri­vation of light: There is but a double spirituall light, the absence whereof causeth darknesse: Thine Evangelist hath justly said of thee, John 1.9. Thou art the true light, that enlightnest every man that commeth into the world; Psa. 119.105. Thy Psalmist hath said of thy Divine Oracles, Thy Word is a Lanterne unto my feet, and a light unto my steps; whosoever wants both, or either of these, cannot but be in darkness, yea his pretended light cannot but be darkness it selfe.

[Page 40]I see, O Lord, there is much of this dark light in the World; In one I ob­serve a kinde of Glow-wormelight, which in a Summers evening shines somewhat bright, but he that should offer to light his Candle at it would be much deceived; this is justly a darke light, since it shines not at all by day, neither is at all communi­cable to another, no not to the bearer it selfe: In ano­ther, I see the light of a dark Lantern; which casts out some Gleams of light, but only to him that bears it; even this mans light is darknesse also, to all the world besides himselfe: In a third I see a resemblance of that meteoricall light, [Page 41] which appears in Moorish places, that seems fire, but is nothing but a slimy glit­tering exhalation, causing both the wonder and er­rour of the Travailer; lea­ding him, through the im­pulsive motion of the air, into a Ditch; and of this kind I find too much vari­ety; all of them agreeing in this, that they pretend Visions and Revelations of the Spirit even for con­trary projections. O Savi­our, what light soever is not derived from thee, is no better than darknesse: Thou hast sufficiently revealed thy selfe and thy will to us in thy Word; as for any new lights (except it be a clea­rer manifestation of the [Page 42] old) O Lord give me the grace not to follow them: I finde a double light to proceed from thee, one which is a generall light, that enlightens every man that comes into the world; the other a speciall light of thy spirit illuminating the soul of every beleever with a right apprehension of thee and heavenly things: O do thou shine into my soule with this heavenly light of thine; and if this bee not enough to make me happy, (with­out the acce [...]sion, and with the rejection of other new lights) let mee sit in perpe­tuall darknesse.

Soliloq. XIII. Bosome-Discourse.

O Lord, if I had the skill, and grace to be ever communing with my owne heart, and with thee, I should never want either worke, or company, never have cause to complaine of solitarinesse, or tedious houres: For there is no time wherein there is not some maine business to be done betweeen thee and my soul; one while finding my heart dull and stupid, I should have cause to rowse it up by some quickning meditation; a­nother while finding it de­jected with some inex­pected [Page 44] Crosse, I should be chearing it up with some comfortable Applications: One while finding it di­stracted with some scru­pulous doubts, I should be labouring to settle it in just resolutions; another while perceiving it to in­cline towards idle thoughts, I should bee cheeking it with a seasona­ble reprehension: One while, finding it faint and flacke in holy duties, I should chide it into a more sensitive vigour; a­nother while, finding it more cheerfull in the per­formances of Devotion, I should encourage it with the assurance of a gracious acceptation: One while I should find cause to forti­fie [Page 45] it against temptations; another while to erect it after a foile: one while to Conflict; another to Tri­umph: One while to exa­mine my condition; ano­ther while either to de­plore, or congratulate it: One while I should finde time to sue to thee my God for the supply of some want; another while to blesse thee for fa­vours received: One while to bemoane my wretched­nesse, another while to a­dore thy infinite greatness: One while to renew my vowes; another while to beg pardon for my omis­sions: One while to seeke thee with teares and due Humiliation; another while to rejoyce in thy [Page 46] great salvation: The vari­eties of my ever-changing condition, whiles I am in this vale of misery, cannot want the perpetuall im­ployment of a busie soule. O God, let me be dumbe to all the world, so as I may ever have a tongue for thee, and my owne heart.

Soliloq. XIV. The insensible Fetters.

WHat a subtile De­vill wee have to deale with? He will be sure to give the sinner line enough, so he may be sure to hold him: he shall have his full scope and freedom [Page 47] to all honest, and religious practices; so as by some one secret sin that evill spi­rit may have power over his soul, both to ensnare, and retaine it: Hee cares not how godly we seem, how conscionable we are in all other actions, so as he may still in one dear sinne keep us fast intangled: Wherupon it often comes to pass, that not onely the eyes of the World, but e­ven our own are too often deceived in the judgement of our spirituall estate: We profess strict holiness; and give good proofes, up­on occasion, of a tender, and well-guided Consci­ence, so as this glorious shew wins us the reputati­on of rare vertue and ex­emplary [Page 48] piety: yet still that wicked Devill hath a tie upon our heel: there is some peccadillio of smo­thered lust, or concealed pride, or zealous cruelty, and uncharitableness, that gives him the command of our soules at pleasure: and this shall no less fetch us within his power and mercy, than if we were lockt up under a thousand chaines. O God, thou who art infinite both in wisdom and power, do thou enable me not only to resist the power, but to avoid the wiles of that cunning Spi­rit: let me give him no ad­vantage by the close enter­tainment of any bosome sin: Let my holiness and obedience be as universall, [Page 49] as either thy commands, or his mischievous intenti­ons.

Soliloq. XV. Satans prevalence.

HOw busie and preva­lent Satan is, in this present age, above all for­mer times, appeares too plainly in those universall broiles, and combustions which he hath raised all the world over; whereof no nation of the whole knowne habitable earth is at this day free; in the strange number and varie­ty of Sects, Schismes, He­resies, set on foot by him, every where; the like [Page 50] whereof were never heard of, in the preceding times of the Church; in the rifenesse of bold and pro­fessed Atheisme; and most clearly, in the marveilous multitude of Witches a­bounding in all parts. Heretofore one of those Clients of Hell in a whole Country was hooted at as a strange Monster; now, hundreds are discovered in one shire; and (if Fame deceive us not) in a village of fourteen houses in the North parts are found so many of this damned breed: heretofore, onely some barbarous, and wild Deserts; or some rude un­inhabited Coasts, as of Lapland, and Finland, &c. were thought to bee haun­ted [Page 51] with such mis-creant guests; now the civillest, and most religious parts are frequently pestered with them: heretofore some silly poore and igno­rant old women were thus deluded by that Infernall impostor; now we have known those of both sexes which have professed much knowledge, holiness, devotion, drawne into this damnable practice: What shall we say to all these o­ver-pregnant proofes of the unusually prevailing power of hell? Certainly, either Satan is now let loose (according to the prediction of the holy E­vangelist in Pathmos) to­wards the end of the world: Or because he finds [Page 52] his time but short, hee ra­geth thus extremely; as if what he must lack in time, he would make up in fury: But, oh blessed God, thine infinite wisdome and om­nipotence, knows how to make a just advantage of that increased power, and successe, which thou hast permitted to this great ene­my of mankind; Thy Ju­stice is hereby magnified in thy just judgements, upon the wicked; and thy mer­cy in the gaine that hence accrues to thy chosen; for certainly, thy true Saints would not be so eminent­ly holy, if Satan were not so malicious: Thou who in naturall causes are wont to work by contraries, (so as inward heat is ordina­rily [Page 53] augmented by the ex­tremity of an ambient cold) canst, and wilt doe so much more in spirituall; What thy visible Church loseth in the number of formall professors, is abun­dantly made up in the vi­gorous graces of thy reall Saints. Still and ever doe thou so order and over­rule these busie workings of the powers of darknes, that thou maiest repay thine unreclaimeable ene­mies with judgements, and heighten the piety, vigilan­cy and zeale of thy faith­full ones.

Soliloq. XVI. Leasurely growth.

WEE are all com­monly impatient of leasure; and apt to o­ver-hasten the fruition of those good things wee affect: one would have wealth, but he would not be too long in getting it; hee would have golden showres raine downe into his lap, on the suddaine: Another would bee wise and learned; yet hee can­not abide to stay for gray haires, or to spend too much oile in his tedious lucubrations: One would be free, but he would not weare out an Apprenti­ship: [Page 55] Another would bee honourable, but he would neither serve long, nor ha­zard much: One would be holy, but he would not wait too long at the door­posts of Gods house, nor lose too many houres in the exercise of his stinted Devotions: Another, would be happy, but he would leape into heaven suddainly, not abiding to thinke of a leasurely tow­ring up thither by a thou­sand degrees of ascent, in the slow proficiency of grace. Whereas the great God of Heaven, that can doe all things in an instant, hath thought good to pro­duce all the effects of natu­rall agency not without a due succession of time. [Page 56] When I looke into my Garden, there I see first a small spire looke out of the earth, which in some moneths time growes into a stalke; then after many daies expectation, branches forth into some leaves; at last appeares the hope of a floure, which ripened with many Sunnes and Showres, arises to its per­fection, and at last puts forth its seed for a succee­ding multiplication.

If I looke into my Or­chard, I see the well-graf­ted Siens yield first a ten­der Bud; it self after ma­ny yeeres is bodied to a solid stock, and under the patience of many hard Winters, spreads forth large Armes; at last being [Page 57] growne to a meet age of vegetation, it begins to grace the Spring with some fair blossoms, which falling off kindly, give way to a weake Embryon of fruit; Every day now addes something to the growth, till it attaine in Autumne to a full maturi­ty: Why should I make account of any other course in my spiritu­all proceedings? O God, I shall be alwaies ready to censure my slow pace in grace, and holy obedience, and shall bee ever ambiti­ous of aspiring higher in thy gracious favour; but when I shall have endea­voured my utmost, I shall wait with humble pati­ence upon thy bountifull [Page 58] hand; as one that desires thankefully to acknow­ledge the little that I have received, and meekely to attend thy good pleasure for what I may receive. So thou bring mee to Heaven, take what time, and keepe what pace thou pleasest.

Soliloq. XVII. Allowable Variety.

IT is a great and insolent wrong in those men, who shall think to reduce all dispositions, and forms of Devotion and usages to their owne; since in all these there may bee much variety; and all those [Page 59] different fashions may re­ceive a gracious acceptati­on in heaven: One thinkes it best to hold himselfe to a set forme of Invocation; another deems it farre bet­ter to be left free to his ar­bitrary and unpremedita­ted expressions: one plea­ses himselfe with this noti­on of that Omnipotent Deity whom he implores; another thinkes that may be more proper, and af­fective: one thinks this posture of body may bee the meetest for his humble addresse to the throne of Grace, or to the Table of the Heavenly Manna; a­nother likes that better: one is for a long prayer; another for short ejacula­tions: one desires to raise [Page 60] up his spirits (with the Prophet) by the aid of an harmonious melody; a­nother holds them better fixed in a sad silence: one holds it best to set forth Gods service in a solemne state and magnificence; a­nother approves better of a simple and inceremoni­ous Devotion: One re­quires a sacred place, and a peculiar habit, as best becomming Gods publike worship; another makes no difference of either roome, or dresse: One makes scruple of comming otherwise than fasting to the Lords Table: another conceives it more seasona­ble after a Love-Feast: One thinkes his Christian Liberty allowes him the [Page 61] moderate scope to all not-unlawfull Recreations: a­nothers austerity inter­dicts all pastimes: One judgeth this haire, and that attire not lawfull onely, but comely: another thinks he espies sinne in both: O God, as thou hast ever shewed thy selfe justly severe in the aven­ging of sin, so I know thee graciously indulgent in al­lowing thy servants much latitude in the free use of all that thou hast not pro­hibited, In imitation whereof, give me an heart holily zealous to abhorre every thing that is truely evill, and charitably af­fected to the favourable censure of all usages that are meerely indifferent. [Page 62] Let my maine care bee to look to the sincerity of my Soule, and to the sure grounds of warrant for my actions; For other cir­cumstantiall appurtenan­ces, where thou art plea­sed to be liberall, let mee not be strait-handed.

Soliloq. XVIII. Misconstructions of holi­nesse.

IT is no marvell if there bee nothing that under­goes more variety of con­structions from the loo­kers on, than holinesse; for that being an inward gracious disposition of the soule, conformed to God, [Page 63] in all the renewed facul­ties thereof, lyes so close in the bosome, that it can only be guessed at by such uncertaine emanations of words, and actions, as flow from it to the eares, and eyes of others: The par­ticular graces and affecti­ons of Love, Feare, Hope, Joy, godly Sorrow, Zeale, and the rest breake forth apparently in such symp­tomes, and effects as may win a certainty of beliefe from the beholders, nei­ther indeed are easily con­cealed from the view of others: all these may bee read in the face: but, if the heart it self could be seen, and that curiously disse­cted, yet even thus could not holinesse be discove­red. [Page 64] Beside the closenesse, every man is apt to mea­sure his judgement of ho­linesse, by a false rule of his own, whereby it comes to passe that it is so com­monly mis-taken. One thinkes him holy that for­sakes the World, and re­tires into some wilde De­sert, or mures up himselfe in an Anchorites Cell: Another judges him holy that macerates his body with Fasting, that disci­plines his hide with whips and haire clothes, that lies hard, and fares hard: that abstaines from all that re­lates to flesh in his Lent, and Embers: that passio­nately hugges his Cruci­fix, and tosses his Beads, and duely observes his [Page 65] Shrifts, and Canonicall houres: Now this man that in their way is in dan­ger of Canonization for a Saint, is by the professor of an opposite holinesse decryed to hell for super­stition and Idolatry: One stiles him holy, who se­gregates himselfe from the contagious Communion of formall Christians, pro­fessing to serve his God in a purer way of worship; rejecting all stinted formes of Prayer and Psalmony; spitting at the mention of an Hierarchy, allowing no head sacred, but by the im­position of what we mis­call, Laick hands; aban­doning all Ceremonies of humane Institution; abi­ding no Circumstances of [Page 66] Divine Worship but A­postolicall: Another al­lowes him onely holy, who is already a Citizen of the new Jerusalem, ad­vanced to such an entire­nesse with God as that hee is no lesse than glori­fied; hee hath left the Scriptures below him as a weake and dead Letter, and is farre above all whatsoever Ordinance; Yea (which I tremble to report) above the blood of Christ himselfe. A third reputes him one­ly holy, who having left the Society of all Chur­ches as too impure, stands now alone, waiting for some Miracles from Hea­ven to settle his Resolu­tion. Now, Lord, af­ter [Page 67] all these and many more weake and idle mis­prisions, upon the sure and unfailing grounds of Truth (thy Word is Truth) I know that man to bee truely holy, whose understanding is enlighte­ned with right apprehen­sions of thee and Heaven­ly things; whose Will and Affections are right­ly disposed to thee, so as his heart is wholly ta­ken up with thee; whose Conversation is so alto­gether with thee, that he thinkes all time lost, wherein hee doth not en­joy thee, and a sweet and heavenly Communi­on with thee; walking perpetually with thee; and labouring in all things [Page 68] to bee approved of thee. O God, doe thou worke me up to this temper, and keepe me still in it; and then, however I may differ in a construction of holinesse from others, that thinke themselves more perfect, howsoever, I may bee censured as defective in my judgement or affe­ctions, yet I doe, not without sound and sen­sible comfort, know, that my Judge is in Heaven, and my Witnesse in my bosome.

Soliloq. XIX. Two Heavens in one.

I Was wont to say, It is in vaine for a man to hope for, and impossible for him to enjoy a double heaven; one below, and another above: since our sufferings here one earth must make way for our future glory: but, now I finde it in a better sense, very faisible for a true Christian to attaine both: for, as we say, where the Prince resides, there is the Court: so surely, where the supreme and infinite Majesty pleases to mani­fest his presence, there is heaven: whereas there­fore [Page 70] God exhibits himself present two waies, in grace, and in glory; it must follow, that the gracious presence of God makes an heaven here below, as his glorious presence makes an heaven above. Now it cannot but fall out, that as the lower materiall hea­ven comes far short of the purity of the superior Re­gions, being frequently o­ver-cast with Clouds, and troubled with other both watery and fiery Meteors: so this spirituall heaven below, being many times darkened with sad deser­tions, and blustred with temptations, cannot yeeld that perfection of inward peace, and happines, which remaines for us above this [Page 71] sphere of mutability: yet affords us so much fruition of God as may give us a true Title, and entrance into blessednesse. I well see, O God, it is no Para­dox to say that thy Saints reigne with thee here on earth; though not for a thousand yeers, yet during the time of their sojour­ning here below; not in a­ny secular splendor and magnificence, not in bodi­ly pleasures, and sensuall contentments: Yet in true spirituall delectation, in the joys of the holy Ghost unspeakeable, and full of glory. O my God, doe thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy hea­ven: put thou my soule into this happy condition [Page 72] of an inchoate blessedness: so shall I cheerfully spend the remainder of my daies in a joyfull expectation of the full consummation of my glory.

Soliloq. XX. The Stock imployed.

WHat are all excellen­cies without respect of their use? How much good ground is there in the World, that is neither cul­tured nor owned? What a world of precious metals lies hid in the bowels of the earth, which shall ne­ver be coined? What store of rich Pearles and Dia­monds are hoarded up in [Page 73] the earth and sea, which shall never see the light? What delicacies of Fouls and Fishes doe both Ele­ments afford, which shall never come to the Dish? How many great wits are there in the world, which lie willingly concealed? whether out of modesty, or idlenesse, or lacke of a wished opportunity. Im­provement gives a true va­lue to all blessings: A pe­ny in the purse is worth many pounds, yea talents in an unknown mine: That is our good which doth us good. O God, give thou me grace to put out my little stocke to the publike banke; and faithfully to imploy those poore facul­ties thou hast given me, to [Page 74] the advantage of thy Name, and the benefit of thy Church; so besides the gaine of others, my pounds shall be rewarded with Cities.

Soliloq. XXI. Love of Life.

WE are all natural­ly desirous to live; and though we prize life a­bove all earthly things, yet we are ashamed to profess that we desire it for its owne sake, but pretend some other subordinate reason to affect it. One would live to finish his building, or to cleare his purchase; Another to [Page 75] breed up his children, and to see them well-matched: One would faine outlive his triall at law; Another wishes to outweare an e­mulous corrivall: One would faine out-last a lease, that holds him off from his long-expected possessions; Another would live to see the times a­mend, and a re-establish­ment of a publike peace: Thus wee that would bee glad to give skin for skin, and all things for life, would seeme to wish life for any thing, but it selfe: After all this hypocrisie, nature above all things would live; and makes life the maine end of living; But grace has higher thoughts, and therefore [Page 76] though it holds life sweet and desirable, yet enter­taines the love of it upon more excellent, that is, spirituall termes. O God, I have no reason to bee weary of this life, which, through thy mercy, long acquaintance hath endea­read to me (though sauced with some bitter disgusts of age;) but how unwor­thy shall I approve my selfe of so great a blessing, if now, I do not more de­sire to continue it for thy sake, than my owne?

Soliloq. XXII. Equall Distribution

IT was a most idle que­stion which the Philo­sophers are said to have proposed to Barnabas the Colleague of Saint Paul: Why a small Gnat should have six legges, Clement. de gestis Petri. and wings beside; whereas the Ele­phant, the greatest of beasts, hath but foure legs, and no wings? What pi­ty it is that those wise Masters were not of the Counsel of the Almighty, when hee was pleased to give a being to his Crea­ture; they would surely have devised to make a winged Elephant, and a [Page 78] corpulent Gnat: A fethe­red man, and a speaking Beast. Vaine fooles, they had not learned to know and adore that infinite wisdome wherin all things were made: It is not for that incomprehensible Ma­jesty and power to bee ac­countable to wretched man for the reasons of his all-wise, and mighty Cre­ation; yet so hath he con­trived it, that there is no part of his great work­manship, whereof even man cannot bee able to give an irrefragable rea­son, why thus framed, not otherwise. What were more easie than to say, that six legges to that un­weildy body had beene cumbersome, and impe­ditive [Page 79] of motion, that the wings for so massie a bulk had been uselesse.

I admire thee, O God, in all the workes of thy hands; and justly magni­fie not onely thine omni­potence both in the matter and forme of their Crea­tion; but thy mercy and wisdome in the equall di­stribution of all their pow­ers and faculties, which thou hast so ordered, that every Creature hath some requisite helpes, no Crea­ture hath all: The Foules of the aire, which are or­dained for flight, hast thou furnisht with Feathers to beare them up in that light Element; The Fishes, with smooth scales and finnes for their more easie [Page 80] gliding through those wa­tery Regions: the Beasts of the Field, with such Limbes and strong Hides as might fit them for ser­vice: As for man, the Lord of all the rest, him thou hast endued with Reason, to make his use of all these: whom yet thou hast so framed, as that in many qualities thou hast al­lowed the brute Creatures to exceed their Master: Some of them are stron­ger than he; some of them swifter than he, and more nimble than he: he were no better than a mad man that should aske, why man should not flye as well as the bird, and swimme as well as the Fish, and run as fast as the Hart? Since [Page 81] that one faculty of Reason wherewith he is furnished is more worth than all the brutish excellencies of the world put together. O my God, thou that hast enricht me with a reaso­nable soule, whom thou mightest have made the brutest of thy Creatures, give me the grace so to improve thy gift, as may be most to the glory and advantage of thy owne name; Let me in the name and behalf of all my brute fellow-Creatures blesse thee for them; and both for them and my selfe in a ravishment of Spirit cry out with the Psalmist; O Lord my God, how wonderfull and excellent are thy workes, in wise­dome [Page 82] hast thou made them all.

Soliloq. XXIII. The Bodies subjection.

1 Tim. 4.8.BOdily exercise, saith the Apostle, profits lit­tle: Little sure in respect of any worth that it hath in it selfe; or any thanke that it can expect from the Almighty: For what is it to that good and great God, whether I be full or fasting, whether I wake or sleepe, whether my skinne be smooth or rough, ruddy or pale, white or discolou­red; whether my hand be hard with labour, or soft with ease; whether my [Page 83] bed be hard, or yeelding; whether my dyet bee course, or delicate: But though in it selfe it availe little; yet so it may bee, and hath been, and ought to be improved, as that it may be found exceedingly beneficiall to the soule: Else the same Apostle would not have said, 1 Cor. 9.27. I keepe under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any meanes, when I have preached to others, I my selfe should be a cast-away. In all the records of History, whom doe we finde more noted for holinesse, than those who have been most au­stere in the restraints of bodily pleasures and con­tentments? In the Mount [Page 84] of Tabor who should meet with our Saviour in his Transfiguration, but those two eminent Saints, which had fasted an equall num­ber of dayes with himself? And our experience tells us, that what is detracted from the body is added to the soule. For the flesh and spirit are not more partners, than enemies; one gaines by the others losse: The pampering of the flesh, is the starving of the soule: I finde an una­voidable emulation be­tween these two parts of my selfe. O God, teach me to hold an equall hand betwixt them both; Let me so use them, as holding the one my favourite, the other my drudge; not so [Page 85] humouring the worse part, as to discontent the better; nor so wholly re­garding the better, as al­together to discourage the worse: Both are thine, both by gift, and purchase; inable thou me to give each of them their Dues, so as the one may be fitted with all humble obsequi­ousnesse to serve; the o­ther to rule and command with all just authority, and moderation.

Soliloq. XXIV. The ground of Ʋnprofi­ciency.

WHere there is de­fect in the Princi­ples, [Page 86] there can be no pos­sibility of prevailing in a­ny kinde: Should a man be so foolish as to per­swade his horse that it is not safe for him to drinke in the extremity of his heate; or to advise a child that it is good for him to be whipt, or in a case of mortall danger, to have a fontinell made in his flesh, how fondly should hee mispend his breath? be­because the one wants the faculty, the other the use of reason. So if a man shall sadly tell a wild sen­sualist, that it is good for him to bear the yoake in his youth; that it is meet for him to curbe and cross his unruly appetite; that the bitterest cup of afflicti­ons [Page 87] ought to bee freely taken off, as the most soveraigne medicine of the soule; that wee ought to bleed and die for the name of Christ; Rom. 8.18. that all the suffering of the pre­sent times are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall bee revea­led in us; his labour is no lesse lost, than if hee had made an eloquent Oration to a deafe man; because this carnall hearer lacks that principle of grace and regeneration which onely can enable him to appre­hend and relish these di­vine Counsailes: I see, O God, I see too well, how it comes to passe that thy Word sounds so loud, and prevailes so little; even [Page 88] because it is not joyned with faith in the hearers: The right principle is mis­sing, which should make the soule capable of thy divine mysteries: Faith is no lesse essentiall to the true Christian, than rea­son is to man, or sense to beast: O doe thou furnish my soule with this heaven­ly grace of thine; and then all thy sacred Oracles shall bee as cleare to my understanding, as any visi­ble object is to my sense.

Soliloq. XXV. The sure Refuge.

SUfficient unto the day is the evill thereof, saith [Page 89] our Saviour: Lo, Every day hath its evill, and that evill is load enough for the present, without the further charge of our an­ticipated cares. Surely the life of man is conflicted with such a world of cros­ses succeeding each other, that if he have not a sure refuge to flee unto, he can­not chuse but bee quite o­ver-laid with miseries: One while his estate suf­fers, whether through ca­sualty, or oppression; ano­ther while his Children miscarry, whether by sick­nesse, or death, or disor­der: One while his good name is impeached; ano­ther while his body lan­guishes: One while his minde is perplexed with [Page 90] irksome sutes; another while his soule is woun­ded with the sting of some secret sinne: One while he is fretted with Dome­sticall discontents; ano­ther while distempered with the publike broiles: One while the sense of e­vills torments him; ano­ther while the expectati­on. Miserable is the case of that man, when hee is pursued with whole Troops of Mischiefs, hath not a Fort wherein to suc­cour himself: and safe and happy is that soule, that hath a sure and impregna­ble hold whereto hee may resort. O the noble exam­ple of holy David; Never man could bee more per­plexed than hee was at his [Page 91] Ziklag; His City burnt, his whole stock plunde­red, his Wives carryed a­way, his people cursing, his Souldiers mutining, pursu­ed by Saul, cast off by the Philistims; helplesse, 1 Sam. 30.6 hope­lesse: But David fortified himselfe in the Lord his God: There, there, O Lord, is a sure helpe in the time of trouble, a safe protecti­on in the time of danger, a most certaine remedy of all complaints: Let my Dove get once into the holes of that Rock, in vaine shall all the birds of prey hover over me for my de­struction.

Soliloq. XXVI. The light burden.

WHy do wee com­plaine of the diffi­culty of a Christian pro­fession, when we heare our Saviour say, My yoak is ea­sie, and my burden is light? Certainely hee that impo­posed it, hath exactly poi­sed it, and knowes the weight of it to the full: It is our fault if we make or account that heavy, which he knowes to be light: If this yoake and burden be heavy to our sullen na­ture, yet to grace they are light: If they be heavy to feare, yet they are light to love: what is more [Page 93] sweet and easie than to love? and love is all the burden wee need to take up: For love is the fulfil­ling of the Law; and the Evangelicall law is all the burden of my Saviour. O blessed Jesu, how willing­ly doe I stoope under thy commands: It is no other than my happinesse that thou requirest; I shall bee therefore my owne ene­my, if I be not thy servant: Hadst thou not bidden me to love thee, to obey thee, thine infinite goodness, and perfection of divine beau­ty would have attracted my heart to bee spiritually inamoured of thee; now thou bidst me to doe that which I should have wisht to bee commanded; how glad­ly [Page 94] doe I yeeld up my soule to thee? Lay on what load thou pleasest; since the more I bear, the more thou enablest me to bear, and the more I shall desire to bear: the world hath so clogg'd me this while, with his worthlesse and base lumber, that I have beene ready to sinke under the weight, and what have I got by it, but a lame shoul­der, and a galled backe? O doe thou free me from this unprofitable, and pain­full luggage; and ease my soule with the happy change of thy gracious impositions; so shall thy yoake not bee easie onely but pleasing, so shall thy fulfilled wil be so far from a burden to me, that it [Page 95] shall bee my greatest de­light upon earth, and my surest and comfortablest e­vidence for heaven.

Soliloq. XXVII. Joy intermitted.

WHat a lightsome­nesse of heart do I now feele in my selfe, for the present, out of a com­fortable sense of thy pre­sence, O my God, and the apprehension of my inte­rest in thee? Why should it not be thus alwaies with me? Surely thine Apostle bids me rejoyce continual­ly, and, who would not wish to do so? for there is little difference betwixt joy and happinesse; nei­ther was it ghessed ill by [Page 96] him that defined that man onely to be happy that is alwayes delighted; and certainely, there is just cause, why I should be thus alwaies affected: Thou, O my God, art still and al­waies the same: yea the same to me, in all thy gra­cious relations, of a merci­full Father, a loving Savi­our, a sweet Comforter: Yea thou art my head, and I am a limb of thy mysti­call Body. Such I am, and shall ever be; Thou canst no more change, than not be: and for me, my crosses and my sinnes are so farre from separating me from thee, that they make mee hold of thee the faster. But, alas, though the just grounds of my joy be stea­dy; [Page 97] yet my weake disposi­tion is subject to variable­nesse; Whiles I carry this flesh about me, my soule cannot but be much sway­ed with the temper of my body; which sometimes inclines me to a dull list­lesnesse, and a dumpish heavinesse of heart, and sadnesse of spirit; so as I am utterly unapt to all cheerfull thoughts, and finde work enough to pull my affections out of this stiffe clay of the earth, and to raise them up to hea­ven. Besides, this joy of the holy Ghost is a gift of thy divine bounty, which thou dispensest, when, and how thou pleasest; not alwaies alike to thy best Favou­rites on earth: Thou that [Page 98] givest thy Sun and Raine, dost not command thy Clouds alwaies to be dropping, nor those beams to shine continually upon any face: there would bee no difference betwixt the proceedings of nature and grace, if both produced their effects in a set and constant regularity: and what difference should I finde betwixt my pilgri­mage, and my home, if I should here be taken up with a perpetuity of hea­venly joy? should I al­waies thus feelingly enjoy thee, my life of faith should bee changed into a life of sense: It is enough for me, O God, that above in those Regions of blisse, my joy in thee shall be full [Page 99] and permanent: if in the mean while it may please thee, that but some flashes of that Celestiall light of joy may frequently glance into my soule: It shall suf­fice if thou give me but a taste of those heavenly pleasures, whereon I shall once liberally feast with thee to all eternity.

Soliloq. XXVIII. Ʋniversall Interest.

IT was a noble praise that was given to that wise Heathen, Cato. that hee so carried himselfe as if hee thought himselfe born for all the world: Surely the more universal a mans be­neficence [Page 100] is, so much is it more commendable; and comes so much neerer to the bounty of that great God, who openeth his hand, and filleth all things living with plenteousness: There are too many selfish men, whose spirits as in a close retort, are cooped up within the compasse of their owne concern­ments; whose narrow hearts think they are born for none but themselves: Others that would seeme good natur'd men, are wil­ling enough to enlarge themselves to their kin­dred; whom they are carefull to advance with neglect of all others, how­ever deserving; some yet, more liberall minded, can [Page 101] be content to be kinde and open-handed to their neighbours; and some per­haps reach so farre, as to professe a readinesse to do all good offices to their Countrey-men; but here their largesse findes its ut­most bounds: All these dispositions are but inclo­sures; Give mee the open Champaine of a generall and illimited benefacture: Is he rich? hee scatters his seed abroad by whole handfulls over the whole ridge, and doth not drop it downe betweene his fin­gers into the severall fur­rowes; His bread is cast upon the waters also: Is he knowing and learned? He smothers not his skil in his bosome: but freely [Page 102] laies it out upon the com­mon stock; not so much regarding his private con­tentment, as the publike proficiency: Is he deepely wise? Hee is ready to im­prove all his cares and counsels to the advance­ment and preservation of peace, justice, and good or­der amongst men. Now al­though it is not in the power of any but persons placed in the highest Orbe of Authority, actually to oblige the world to them; Yet nothing hinders but that men of meaner ranke may have the will to bee thus universally beneficent, and may in preparation of mind be zealously affected to lay themselves forth up­on the common good: O [Page 103] Lord; if thou hast given me but a private and short hand, yet give mee a large and publick heart.

Soliloq. XXIX. The spirituall Bedleem.

HE that with wise Solo­mon affects to know not wisedome onely, but Madnesse and Folly, let him after a serious obser­vation of the sober part of the world, obtaine of him­selfe to visit Bedleem, and to looke into the severall Cells of distracted persons; where, it is a world to see what strange varieties of humors, and passions shall present themselves to him: [Page 104] Here he shall see one wee­ping, and wringing his hands for a meerely-ima­ginary disaster; there a­nother, holding his sides in a loud laughter, as if hee were made all of mirth: here one mopishly stupid, and so fixed to his po­sture, as if he were a brea­thing statue; there another apishly active and restless: here one ragingly fierce, and wreaking his causeless anger on his chaine; there another gloriously boa­sting of a mighty stile of Honour, whereto his rags are justly intitled; and when he hath wondred a while at this woefull spe­ctacle, let him know and consider that this is but a slight image of those spi­rituall [Page 105] phrensies, where­with the world is misera­bly possessed; The persons affected believe it not; surely should I goe about to perswade any of these guests of Bedleem, that in deed, he is mad, and should therefore quietly submit himselfe to the meanes of cure, I should be more mad than he: Only dark rooms, and cords, and Ellebore are meet receits for these mentall distempers; In the meane while, the sober and sad beholders too well see these mens wits out of the socket, and are ready out of Christian charity, to force upon them due re­medies, who cannot be sen­sible of their owne mise­ries.

[Page 106]Now having learn'd of the great Doctor of the Gentiles to distinguish man into spirit, 1 Thes. 5.23. soule, and body, (whereof the body is as the earthly part, the soule as the ethereall, the spirit as the heavenly: the soul animall, the spirit ra­tionall, the body meerely organicall,) it is easie for him to observe that as each of these parts exceeds other in dignity, so the distemperatures thereof is so much greater, and more dangerous, as the part is more excellent; When therefore he shall hear the Prophet Hosea say, Hos. 9▪ 7. The spirituall man is mad, hee cannot thinke that charge lesse than of the worst of phrensies: And such indeed [Page 107] they are which have been epidemicall to all times: Could they passe for any other than sottishly mad, that would worship Cats, and Dogs, and Serpents? so did the old Egyptians, who thought themselves the most deeply learned of all nations. Could they be lesse mad than they, that of the same Tree, would make a block for their fire, and a God for their Ado­ration? Esa. 44.16. so did Isaiah's Ido­laters. Could they be any bettter, who when they had molten their Earings, and with their own hands had shaped a golden Calf, could fall down and wor­ship it, and say, these bee thy Gods, O Israel, Exod. 32.4 which brought thee out of the [Page 108] Land of Egypt? so did they which should have knowne themselves Gods peculiar people. Could they bee any other than mad men, 2 Kin. 20.23. that thought there was one God of the hils, another of the vallies? so did the Syrian Courti­ers. Could they bee any other than stark mad that would lance, 1 Kin. 18.28. and gash their owne flesh, because their Block did not answer them by fire? so did the Baalites. Lastly, could they be other than the maddest of men, who would passe their owne Children through the fire, 2 Kin. 23.11. and burn them to ashes in a pretence of Devotion? so did the Clients of Moloch. Yea, what speake I of the times [Page 109] of ignorance? even since the true light came into the world, and since the beams of his glorious Gos­pel shined on all faces, there hath been no lesse need of darke roomes and manicles than before: Can we thinke them other than notoriously mad, that ha­ving good clothes to their backes, would needs strip them off, and go stark na­ked? so did the Adamites of old, about the yeare of our Lord, 194. So did cer­taine Anabaptists of Hol­land at Amsterdam in the yeer 1535. so did the Cy­nicall Saint Francis in the streets of Assissium. Could they bee other than mad which would worship Cain, Iudas, the Sodomites? [Page 110] So did those good Devo­tionists which were called Caiani, about the yeer 159. Nay, were they not worse than mad, who if we may beleeve Hosius, and Linda­nus, and Prateolus, worshipt the Devill ten times every day? so did those Here­ticks which were in the last age called Demoniaci. Could they be better than mad which held that beasts have Reason as wel as man, that the Elements have life, that Plants have sense, and suffer paine in their cutting up? so did the Manichees. Could they be other than blasphemously mad, that held there are two Gods, one good the o­ther evill, and that all crea­tures were made by the [Page 111] latter? so did the Gnosticks. Were there ever mad men in the World, if they were not such who would beseech, yea force passen­gers to doe them the fa­vour to cut their throats, in a vain affectation of the praise of Martyrdome? so did the Circumcellions, a Faction of Donatists in the year 349. But above all o­ther, did not those surpass in madnesse, who allowed of all Heresies, and profes­sed to hold all opinions true? so did Rhetorus and his followers: St. Augu­stines Charity sticks at the beleefe of so impossible a Tenet; I must crave leave to wonder at his reason: For (saith hee) many opi­nions being contradictory [Page 112] to cach other, no man that is compos mentis can thinke both parts can bee verifia­ble: as if it could be sup­posed that a Rhetorius, thus opening, could bee any o­ther than beside all his wits: Surely had he been himselfe, so impossible an absurdity could not have falne from him: neither could any of these fore-ci­ted practises or opinions have been incident into a­ny but braines highly di­stempered. But what doe we raking in the ashes of these old forgotten Luna­ticks; would to God wee had not work more than enough to looke for the prodigious phrensies of the present age, than which there were never [Page 113] since the world began ei­ther more or worse,

Can there be under the cope of heaven a madder man, than hee that can de­ny there is a God? such a monster was rare and hooted at in the times of Paganisme: Cicer. de Natur. Deo­rum, initio. The Heathen Orator tels us of but two in those darke ages before him, that were so far for­saken of their wits; and we know that the old A­thenians, when a bold Pen durst but question a Dei­ty, sentenced the booke to the fire, and the Author to exile. But now, alas, I am ashamed to say that this modern age under so clear beames of the Gospel hath bred many professed A­theists, who have dared, [Page 114] not in their heart onely, as in Davids time, but with their blasphemous lips to deny the God that made them.

And are the phrensies of those insolent soules any whit lesse wilde and out­ragious, Heart blee­dings for Professors a­bominations; Set forth under the hands of 16 Churches of Christ bap­tized into the name of Christ. p. 5.6, 7. &c. that dare boast themselves to be God; and sticke not to stile them­selves absolutely deified? avowing that the soule in their body is the onely Christ, or God in the flesh; That all the acts of their beastly and abomina­ble lusts are the workes of righteousnesse; that it is their perfection, and the highest pitch of their glo­ry to give themselves up to all manner of abomina­tions, without any relu­ctation; [Page 115] that there is no hell, but a dislike of, and remorse for, their greatest villanies: Now shew mee amongst the savagest of Pagans any one that hath been thus desperately brain-sick, and let me bee branded for a slanderer.

What should I need to instance in any more, or to contract a large Vo­lume of Hereseology? In short, there is no true He­retick in the world, that is not in some degree a mad­man; And this spirituall madnesse is so much worse than the naturall, as in o­ther regards, so especially in this; that whereas that distemper of the braine containes it self in its own bounds, without any dan­ger [Page 116] of Diffusion to others, the spirituall, is extreemly contagious, spreading its infection to the perill of all that come within the aire of it.

In this sad case what is to bee done? Surely wee may, as we doe, mourn for the miserable distractions of the world; but it is thou onely, O Lord, that canst heale them. O thou, that art the great and sove­raigne Physician of soules; that after seven yeares brutality, restoredst the frantick Babylonian to his shape and senses, looke downe mercifully upon our Bedleem, and restore the distracted World to their right temper once a­gaine: as for those that are [Page 117] yet sound, keepe them O God, in their right wits unto the end, preserve them safe from all the pe­stilent taintures of Schism and Heresie: And for me, the more insight thou gi­vest me into, and the more sense of, these woefull di­stempers, so much the more thankfull doe thou make me to thine infinite goodnesse, that thou hast beene graciously pleased to keep me within com­passe. And O, do thou still and ever keep mee within the compas of thy revealed will, and all just modera­tion; and suffer me not to be miscarried into any of those exorbitances of judgement which may prove a trouble to thy [Page 118] Church, and a scand all to thy Name.

Soliloq. XXX. The difference of actions.

THere is great diffe­rence in sins, and acti­ons whether truly or see­mingly offensive; there are Gnats, and there are Ca­mels; neither is there lesse difference in Consciences: There are consciences so wide and Vast, that they can swallow a Camel; and there are consciences so strait, as that they straine at a Gnat; Yea, which is strange to observe, those very consciences which one while are so dilated [Page 119] that they straine not at a Camel, another while are so drawne together by an anxious scrupulousnesse that they are ready to bee choaked with a Gnat.

How palpably was this seen in the chief Priest and Pharisees and Elders of the Jewes: Joh. 18.28. the small Gnat of entring into the judge­ment Hall of the Roman Governor, would by no meanes down with them; that hainous act would de­file them, so as they should not eat the Passeover; but in the mean time the huge Camel of the murther of the Lord passed down glib, and easily through their throats: They are ready to choak with one poor ear of corn pulled on [Page 120] a Sabbath by an hungry passenger; Yet whole houses of widowes, the whiles, passe down their gorges with ease: An un­washen had or cup was pi­acular; Mat. 23.25 whiles within their hearts are full of extortion and excess. I wish the pre­sent age did not abound with instances: It is the fa­shion of Hypocrites to bee seemingly scruplous in small things, whiles they make no conscience at all of the greatest: and to bee so much less consciona­ble of greater matters of the Law, Judgement, Mercy and faith; as they are more scrupulously pun­ctuall in their Mint, Anise, and Cummin. O God, I would not make more sins [Page 121] than thou hast made; I de­sire to have an heart wise­ly tender, not fondly scru­pulous; Let my soule en­dure no fetters but thine; If indifferent things may be my Gnats, let no known sin be other than a Camell to me; and let mee rather choak in the passage, than let down such a morsell.

Soliloq. XXXI. The necessity of Labour.

THe great and wise God that hath been pleased to give to all crea­tures their life and being, without their endeavour or knowledge, hath yet or­dained not to continue their being, without their owne labour, and co-ope­ration; [Page 120] so as hee hath im­posed upon them all a ne­cessity of paines-taking for their owne preservation: The wild beasts of the de­sart must walk abroad, and forrage far for their prey; The beasts of the field must earne their Pasture with their worke, and la­bour in very feeding to fill a large maw with picking up those severall mouth­fulls, whereby they are sustained; The Fowles of severall kindes must flye abroad to seek their vari­ous Diet, some in the hed­ges, some in the fields, some in the waters; The Bee must with unwearied in­dustry gather her stock of wax and honey out of a thousand flowers; Neither [Page 121] know I any that can bee idle and live: But man, as hee is appointed to be the Lord of all the rest, so hee is in a speciall manner borne to labour; as he up­on whom the charge lies to provide both for him­selfe, and all the creatures under his command; being not more impotent than they in his first entrance into the world, than he is afterwards by the power of his reason more able to governe them, and to or­der all things that may concerne both their use, and conservation. How willingly, O Lord, should I stoop to this just conditi­on of my Creation? La­bour is my destiny, and la­bour shall bee my trade: [Page 124] Something I must alwaies doe; both out of thy com­mand, and my owne incli­nation; as one whose not un-active spirit abhorres nothing more than the tor­ment of doing nothing: O God, doe thou direct mee to, and imploy me in, those services that may be most for thy glory, for the good of others, and my own dis­charge and comfort.

Soliloq. XXXII. Acquaintance with Hea­ven.

WHat an high fa­vour is it in the Great God of heaven, that he is pleased to stoop so [Page 125] low as to allow wretched man here upon earth to be acquainted with so infi­nite a Majesty? yet in the multitudes of his mercies, this hath hee condescended unto: so farre hath hee yeilded to us, as that hee is pleased wee should know him; and to that end hee hath clearly revealed him­self to mankind, and more then so, he is willing and content that we should en­joy him, and should conti­nually make a comforta­ble use of his presence with us; that we should walke with him, and impart all our secret thoughts and counsels to him; that wee should call for his graci­ous aid upon all our occa­sions; that we should im­part [Page 124] all our wants and feares and doubts to him, with expectation of a mer­cifull and sure answer, and supply from heaven; Yea, that hee should invite us, silly wretches, to his pre­sence, and calls us up to the throne of grace, and in­courage us poor souls, de­jected with the conscience of our unworthinesse, to put up our sutes boldly to his mercifull hands; Yea, that hee should give this honour to dust and ashes as to stile us his friends: how shamefully, unthank­full, and how justly mise­rable shall I bee, if I make not an answerable use of so infinite a mercy? O God, how utterly unwor­thy shall I be of this grace, [Page 125] if notwithstanding these mercifull proffers and soli­citations, I shall continue a willing stranger from thee, and shall make no more improvement of these fa­vours than if they had ne­ver been rendred? O let me know thee, let me ac­knowledge thee, let me a­dore thee, let me love thee, let mee walke with thee, let me enjoy thee; let me, in an holy and awfull familiarity bee better and more entirely acquainted with thee than with the World, than with my self; so I shall be sure to be hap­py here, and hereafter glo­rious.

Soliloq. XXXIII. The All-sufficient know­ledge.

I Finde much inquiry of curious wits, whether wee shall know one ano­ther in heaven; There is no want of arguments on both parts, and the greatest probabilities have seemed to bee for the affirmative: But, O Lord, whether or no wee shall know one a­nother, I am sure we shall all thy glorified Saints know thee; and in know­ing thee wee shall be infi­nitely happy; and what would wee more? Surely, as we finde here, that the Sun puts out the fire, and [Page 129] the greater light ever ex­tinguisheth the lesse: so why may wee not think it to be above? When thou art all in all to us, what can the knowledge of any creature adde to our bles­sednesse? And if when we casually meet with a Bro­ther, or a Son before some great Prince, we forbeare the ceremonies of our mu­tuall respects, as being wholly taken up with the awfull regard of a greater presence; how much more may we justly think, that when wee meet before the glorious Throne of the God of heaven, all the re­spects of our former earth­ly relations must utterly cease, and bee swallowed up of that beatificall pre­sence, [Page 128] divine love, and infi­nitely blessed fruition of the Almighty.

O God, it is my great comfort here below to thinke and know that I have parents, or children, or brothers and sisters, or friends already in possessi­on of glory with thee, and to believe assuredly that in my time I shall bee recei­ved to the association of their blessednesse: but if upon the dissolution of this earthly Tabernacle, I may be admitted to the sight of thy all-glorious essence, and may set eye upon the face of my blessed Savi­our, now sitting at the right hand of thine incom­prehensible Majesty, atten­ded with those millions of [Page 129] his heavenly Angels, I shall neither have need, nor use of enquiring after my kin­dred, according to the flesh. What can fall into my thoughts or desires, be­side, or beyond that which is infinite?

Soliloq. XXXIV. Poor Greatnesse.

I Cannot but look with much pitty mixed with smiles upon the vaine worldling, that sets up his rest in these outward things, and so pleases him­selfe in this condition, as if he thought no man happy but himselfe: how high he looks, how big he speakes, [Page 132] how proudly hee struts? with what scorne and in­sultation doth he look up­on my dejectednesse? the very language of his eye is no other than contempt, seeming to say, Base Indi­gent, thou art stript of all thy wealth, and honour; thou hast neither flocks, nor heards, nor lands, nor mannors, nor bagges, nor barne-fulls, nor titles, nor dignities, all which I have in abundance; no man re­gards thy meanenesse; I am observed with an aw­full veneration. Be it so, great Sir, thinke I; enjoy you your height of honor, and heaps of treasure, and ceremonies of state, whiles I go shrugging in a thred­bare coat, and am glad to [Page 133] feed on single dishes, and to sleepe under a thatched roofe; But let me tell you, set your all against my no­thing, if you have set your heart upon these gay things, were you the heire of all the earth, I would be loath to change conditions with your eminence; and will take leave to tell you, that at your best, you shall fall within my commise­ration: It is not in the power of all your earthly privileges to render you other than a miserable vas­sall: If you have store of gold, alas, it is but made up into feetters and manicles; and what is all your out­ward bravery but meere matter of opinion? I shall shew you an Indian slave, [Page 132] that shall no lesse pride himselfe in a Bracelet of Glasse beades, that you can in your richest Jewels of Rubies and Diamonds: All earthly things are as they are valued: The wise and Almighty Maker of these earthen Mines, e­steemes the best Metals, but as thicke Clay; and why should we set any o­ther price of them than their Creator? And if we be wont to measure the worth of al things by their vertues and uses, and ope­rations, what is it that your wealth can do? Can it free you from cares? can it lengthen your sleeps? can it keepe you from head-aches, from Gouts, Dropsies, Feavers and o­ther [Page 133] bodily distempers? can it ransome you from death? can it make your account easier in the great day of reckoning? Are you ever the wiser, ever the holier, ever the quieter for that which you have pur­chased with teares, and blood? And were it so precious as you imagine, what hold have you of it? what assurance to enjoy it, or your self but one hour? As for despised me, I have wealth that you know not of; My riches are invisi­ble, invaluable, intermina­ble: God all-sufficient is mine; and with him all things: My treasure is not lockt up in earth, or in heaven, but fils both: My substance is sure; not ob­noxious [Page 136] to plunder or loss, or diminution: No man hath bled, no widow or orphan hath wept for my enriching; The onely dif­ference is this; You are mi­serable, and think your self happy; I am happy whom you think miserable: How ever our thoughts may beare us out in both for a while, yet at the last, ex­cept truth it selfe can de­ceive us, the issue must fall on my side. O God, be thou my portion, and the lot of mine inheritance, let the scum of the world spit in my face as the most despi­cable of all creatures, I am above the despight of men and devils, and am secretly happy, and shall be eter­nally glorious.

Soliloq. XXXV. Acceptation of Desires.

WHat a comfort it is to us weake wretches that we have to deal with a mercifull God, that measures us not by our performances, but by the truth of our desires: David had a goodmind to build God an House, his hands were too bloody to lay the foundation of so holy a fabrick; Yet God takes it as kindly from him, as if hee had finished the work; and rewards the intention of building an house to his Name; with the actuall building of an house to David for ever. [Page 146] Good Ezekiah knew how easie and welcome a sute he made, when after all en­deavours of sanctifying the people, for the celebration of that great Passeover, he prayed, The Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seeke God, 2 Chro▪ 30.18, 19▪ the Lord God of his Fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purifica­tion of the Sanctuary. A­las, we cannot be but lame in all our obediences: What can fall from defec­tive causes, but imperfect effects? If we pray, we are apt to entertaine unmeet notions of the infinite Spi­rit to whom wee addresse our supplications, and sud­dain glances of wandring thoughts; If we read or [Page 137] hear, wee are subject to vaine distractions; if wee approach Gods table, our souls fail of that exact pre­paration & purity where­with they should be deck­ed, when they come to that celestiall banquet; If we doe the workes of Ju­stice, or Mercy, it is not without some light touch of self-respect; & well may we say with the blessed A­postle, Rom. 7.19▪ The good that I would, I do not: we should therefore finde just cause of discouragement in our selves, if our best actions were to bee weighed by their own worth; and not by our better intentions: But that gracious God, who puts good desires in­to us, is so ready to accept [Page 140] of them, that he looks not so much at what wee have done, as at what we wisht to have done; and with­out respect to our defect, crownes our good affecti­ons. All that I can say for my selfe, O my God, is, that the desire of my heart is to please thee in all things: my comfort then is, though my abilities fail in the performance, yet thy mercies cannot faile in my acceptation.

Soliloq. XXXVI. Heavenly Ioyes.

DOubtless, O God, thou that hast given to men, even thine enemies, here [Page 141] upon Earth, so excellent meanes to please their out­ward senses; such beauti­full faces, and admirable flowers to delight the eye; such delicate sents from their garden, to please the smell; such curious confe­ctions, & delicate sauces, to please the taste; such sweet Musick from the birds, and artificiall devises of ravi­shing melody from the art of man, to delight the eare; hast much more or­dained transcendent plea­sures, and infinite content­ments for thy glorified Saints above. My soule, whiles it is thus clogged and confined, is too straight to conceive of those incomprehensible waies of spirituall delecta­tion, [Page 140] which thou hast pro­vided for thy dear chosen ones, triumphing with thee in thy heaven: O teach me to wonder at that which I cannot here attaine to know, and to long for that happinesse which I there hope to enjoy with thee for ever.

Soliloq. XXXVII. Mixed Contentments.

WHat a fool were I, if I should thinke to finde that, which Solo­mon could not; content­ment upon earth? his greatnesse, wealth and wis­dome gave him opportu­nity to search, where my [Page 141] impotency is shut out: Were there any thing un­der heaven free from va­nity and vexation, his curi­ous inquisition could not have missed it.

No, alas, all our earthly contentments are like a Jewish Passeover, which wee must eate with soure herbes: Have I wealth? I cannot bee void of cares: Have I honour? I cannot bee rid of envy: Have I knowledge? Hee that in­creaseth knowledge, in­creaseth sorrow, saith the Kingly Preacher: Have I children? it were strange, if without crosses: Have I pleasures? not without a sting: Have I health? not without the threats of dis­ease: Have I full diet? not [Page 144] without the inconvenien­ces of satiety: Have I beauty? not without a snare to my soul. Thus it is in all our sublunary com­forts; I cannot have the Rose, but I must be content with the prickles: Pure and absolute pleasure dwels elsewhere, far above the reach of this vale of misery. O God, give me to seeke it there onely: not without a contemptuous neglect of all those deceit­full vanities which would withdraw my soule from thee; and there let me finde it, whiles I am here by faith, when I remove hence by personall fruition: In the mean time, let me take what thou givest me with patience, and thankfulness: [Page 145] thankfulnesse for the meat, and patience with the sauce.

Soliloq. XXXVIII. True Wealth.

ALL a mans wealth or poverty is within himselfe: It is not the out­ward abundance or want that can make the diffe­rence. Let a man bee never so rich in estate, yet if his heart be not satisfied, but he is still whining, and scraping and pining for more, that man is misera­bly poore; all his bagges cannot make him other than a starke beggar. On the other side, give mee a [Page 146] man of small means whose minde is throughly con­tent with his little, and en­joyes his pittance with a quiet and thankefull heart, that man is exceeding rich; all the World cannot rob him of his wealth. It is not having, by which we can measure riches, but enjoy­ing: The Earth hath all Treasures in it, yet no man stiles it rich: Of these which the world call goods of Fortune, onely o­pinion sets the value: Gold and Silver would bee me­tals whether wee thinke them so, or not; they would not bee riches, if mens conceit and instituti­on did not make them such. O my soule, bee not thou carried away with the [Page 147] common Error to covet and admire those things which have no true worth in themselves: If both the Indies were thine, thou shouldest bee no whit the wealthier; Labour for those riches whereby thy stocke may bee advanced: The great Lord of all, who knowes best where his Wealth lies, and where thou shouldst hoord up thine, hath told thee where to seeke it, where to lay it: Mat. 6.19. Lay not up for your selves Treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where theeves break thorow and steale; But lay up for your selves Treasures in Hea­ven: There thou shalt bee sure to finde it entire, free [Page 148] from plunder, and all dan­ger of diminution. O God, give me to covet that my minde may bee rich in knowledge, that my soule may be rich in grace, that my heart may bee rich in true contentation; as for this pelfe of the World, let it make them miserable that admire it.

Soliloq. XXXIX. False Light.

LOoking forth one star­ry evening, my eye met with a glorious light, that seemed fairer than its fel­lowes: Whiles I was stu­dying what Planet it might be, it suddainly gli­ded [Page 149] downe, and vanished. O God, how can we hope to avoid delusions upon earth, when even the face of heaven may thus de­ceive us? It is no other­wise in the firmament of the Church: How many have there been, that have seemed eternally fixed in that high sphere, which have proved no other than base Meteors, gilded with fair beames; they appea­red starres, their substance was but slime. Woe were to the earth, if a true starre should fall; Yea, I doubt whether the Fabrick of heaven would stand, if one of those glorious Lights should drop downe: If therefore the star Worm­wood shall fall, and imbit­ter [Page 150] the waters, hee shall shew himselfe to be but a false star, and a true Im­postor; else, heaven should fall as soon as hee. O my God, give mee grace to know the truth of my sub­stance and the firmnesse of my station: Let me hate all counterfeit exhalations; Let me know my selfe the least and most insensible star in thy Galaxie; so shall I bee happy in thee, and thou shalt be by me glori­fied.

Soliloq. XL. The haste of Desire.

HOw slowly the houres seem to pace when we [Page 151] are big with the desire and expectation of any earthly contentment? we are ready to chide the time for stan­ding still, when wee would over-hasten the fruition of our approaching comfort: So the School-boy longs for his play-day, the Ap­prentice for his freedome, the Ward for his livery, the Bride for her nuptialls, the Heire for his inheri­tance: so approvedly true is that of wise Solomon, Pro. 13.12. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Were it not, O my soule, for that wret­ched infidelity, which cleaves so close unto thee, thou couldst not but bee thus affected to thy hea­ven; and shouldst bee yet so much more, as the joyes [Page 152] there are infinitely more exquisite than which this earth can afford: Surely thou dost but flatter mee with the over-weening conceit of the firm appre­hension of my faith; whiles I finde thee so cool in the longing desires of thy glorification: What? hast thou no stomack to thy happinesse? Hath the world benummed thee with such a dull stupidity that thou art growne re­gardlesse and insensible of eternall blessednesse? Oh shake off this Lethargick heavinesse of spirit, which hath possessed thee, and rouze up thy selfe to those ardent desires of glory which have sometimes en­flamed thee: Yea, Lord, [Page 153] do thou stir up that heaven­ly fire that now lies raked up in the Embers of my soule, and ravish my heart with a longing desire of thy salvation.

Soliloq. XLI. Deaths Remembrancers.

EVery thing that I see furnishes me with fair monitions of my dissoluti­on: If I look into my gar­den, there I see some flow­ers fading, some withered; If I look to the earth, I see that mother, in whose wombe I must lie; If I goe to Church, the graves that I must step over in my way, shew me what I must [Page 154] trust to; If I look to my Table, death is in every Dish, since what I feed on did once live. If I look into my glasse, I cannot but see death in my face; If I goe to my bed, there I meet with sleepe the Image of death; and the sheets, which put mee in minde of my winding up. If I look into my study; what are all those books, but the monuments of other dead authors? O my soul, how canst thou bee unmindfull of our parting, when thou art plyed with so many monitors? Cast thine eyes abroad into the world, what canst thou see but killing and dying? Cast thine eyes up into heaven, how canst thou but thinke [Page 155] of the place of thy ap­proaching rest? How just­ly then may I say with the Apostle, By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Je­sus, I die daily: And, Lord, 1 Cor. 15.31. as I daily die in the decay of this fraile nature; so let me die daily in my affecti­on to life, in my prepara­tion for death. O do thou fit me for that last, and hap­py change. Teach me so to number my daies that I apply my heart to wis­dom, and addresse it to en­suing glory.

Soliloq. XLII. Faiths Victory.

WEE are here in a perpetuall war­fare, [Page 156] and fight wee must; Surely, either fight, or dye; some there are that doe both; That is accor­ding as the quarrell is, and is managed: There are those that fight against God; these medling with so unequall a match, can­not looke to prevaile. A­gain, The flesh warreth a­gainst the spirit; this in­testine rebellion cannot hope to prosper; but if with the chosen vessell, I can say, I have fought a good fight, I can neither lose life, 2 Tim. 4.7. nor misse of victo­ry: And what is that good fight? Even the same A­postle tels me, the fight of faith; 1 Tim. 6.2. this is the good fight indeed, both in the cause and managing, & the issue: [Page 157] Lo this faith it is, that wins God to my side, that makes the Almighty mine; that not only inga­ges him in my cause, but unites me to him; so as his strength is mine: In the power of his might there­fore I cannot but be victo­rious over all my spiritu­all enemies by the onely meanes of this faith: For Satan; Eph. 6.16. This Shield of faith is it that shall quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one. For the world; this is the victory that overcomes the world; 1 Ioh. 5.4. even our faith.

Be sure to finde thy self furnished with this grace; and then say, O my soule, thou hast marched valiant­ly: the powers of Hell [Page 158] shall not bee able to stand before thee; they are mighty and have all ad­vantages of a spirituall na­ture, of long duration, and experience; of place, of subtilty: Yet this conque­ring grace of faith is able to give them the foile, and to trample over all the powers of darknesse. O my Lord God, doe thou arme and fortifie my soule with a lively and stedfast faith in thee, I shall not feare what man or Divell can doe unto me: settle my heart in a firme reliance upon thee, and turne mee loose to what enemy thou pleasest.

Soliloq. XLIII. The unfailing Friend.

NExt to the joy of a good conscience, there is no greater comfort up­on earth, than the enjoy­ment of dear friends; nei­ther is there any thing more sad than their par­ting; and by how nearer their relations are, so much greater is our sorrow in forgoing them: What moane▪ did good David make, both for Absalon as a Sonne, (though ungraci­ous) and for Jonathan as a friend: Surely, when our dear ones are pulled away from us, we seeme to have limbes torne away from [Page 160] our bodies; yet this is a thing must bee lookt for; wee are given to each o­ther, (or lent rather) upon condition of parting, ei­ther they must leave us, or we them; a parting there must bee, as sure as there was a meeting: It is our fault if we set our hearts too much upon that, which may, yea, which must be lost. Be wise, O my soul, and make sure of such friends as thou canst not be bereaved of: Thou hast a God, that hath said, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee: It was an ea­sie sute, and already gran­ted which the holy Psal­mist made: Cast me not off in the time of old age, Psal. 71.9. forsake me not when my [Page 161] strength faileth: And a­gaine, Psal. 27.10. When my Father and my Mother forsake me (in their farewell to a better world) yet then the Lord will take me up. It is an happy thing to have immortall friends: sticke close unto them, O my soule, and rejoyce in them evermore, as those that shall sweetly converse with thee here, and shall at last, receive thee into e­verlasting habitations.

Soliloq. XLIV. Quiet Humility.

HE is a rare man that is not wise in his owne conceit; and that saies not [Page 162] within himselfe, I see more than my neighbours: For wee are all borne proud, and selfe-opinionate; and when we are come to our imaginary maturity, are apt to say with Zedechiah, to those of better judge­ment than our own, 1 Kin. 22.24. which way went the Spirit of God from me to speak un­to thee? Hence have arisen those strange varieties of wilde paradoxes, both in Philosophy and Religion, wherewith the world a­bounds every where. When our fancy hath entertained some uncouth thought, our selfe-love is apt to hatch it up, our con­fidence to broach it, and our obstinacy to maintain it; and (if it bee not too [Page 163] monstrous) there will not want some credulous fools to abet it: so as the onely way both to peace and truth, is true Humility; which will teach us to thinke meanly of our own abilities, to be diffident of our own apprehensions and judgments, to ascribe much to the reverend antiquity, greater sanctity, deeper in­sight of our blessed Prede­cessors. This onely will keepe us in the beaten road, without all extrava­gant deviations to untrod­den by-paths: Teach me, O Lord, evermore to think my self no whit wiser than I am; so shall I neither bee vainly irregular, nor the Church troublesomely unquiet.

Soliloq. XLV. Sure Mercies.

THere is nothing more troublesome in humane society than the disappoint of trust, and fai­ling of friends: For besides the disorder that it works in our owne affaires, it commonly is attended with a necessary deficiency of our performances to o­thers: The leaning upon a broken Reed gives us both a fall and a wound: Such is a false friend, who after professions of love, and re­all offices, either slinkes from us, or betrayes us: This is that which the great patterne of patience [Page 165] so bitterly complaines of, as none of his least afflicti­ons, My Kinsfolk have fai­led me, Iob 19.14. and my familiar friends have forgotten me. It went to the heart of Da­vid, Psal. 41.9. that his owne familiar friend, in whom hee tru­sted, which did eate of his bread, should lift up his heele against him: And surely, those that are stanch, and faithfull in themselves, cannot but bee so much the more deeply affected with the perfidi­ous dealing of others; and yet also so much the more, as their confidence and en­tirenesse was greater; this was that which heightned the vexation of that man who is so famous for the integrity of his heart. Psal. 55.13, 14. It [Page 166] was thou, O man, mine e­quall, my guide, my ac­quaintance; we took sweet counsell together, and walked to the house of God in company. And still our daily experience gives us miserable instances in this kinde: Hee hath had little to doe in the world that hath not spent many a sigh upon others faith­lesness.

And now, O my soule, the more sad proofe thou hast had of the untrusty disposition and carriage of men, the more it concernes thee to betake thy selfe, in all zealous & absolute affi­ance, unto the sure prote­ction and never-fayling providence of thy God? the God who being Truth [Page 167] it selfe, never did, never can forfeit his Trust to any soule that relyed upon his most certaine promises, upon his promised mer­cies, upon his mercifull and just performances.

My soule wait thou on­ly upon God; Psal. 61.7. for my ex­pectation is from him; He onely is my Rock, and my salvation; In God is my salvation and my glory, the Rocke of my strength, and my refuge is in God. It shall not trouble thee to send men false, whiles thou hast such a true God to have recourse unto.

Soliloq. XLVI. Dangerous Prosperity.

IT was a just and need­full precaution, O God, which thou gavest of old to thine Israel. Deut. 6.11, 12. When thou shalt have eaten, and art full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord: There was not so great feare of forgetting thee, whiles they were in an hungry and dry Wilderness, al­though even there they did too often forget them­selves, in an ungracious murmuring against thee and their Leaders; the greatest danger of their forgetting Thee would be, (thou knewest) when they [Page 169] should come to be pampe­red in the Land that flow­ed with Milk and Honey: Deut. 32.15. There it was that accor­dingly Jesurum waxed fat and kicked; there being growne thick and covered with fatnesse, he forsooke God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Nothing is more difficult than to keep our selves from growing wanton by excess; where­as nature kept low is capa­ble of just obedience: Like as in the body also, a full feed breeds superfluous and vicious humors, wher­as a spare diet keeps it both clean and healthfull. Do not I see, O Lord, even the man that was after thine owne heart whiles [Page 170] thou kepst him in breath, with the prosecution of an unjust Master, how tender­ly consciencious hee was; remorsed in himselfe for but cutting off a lappe of the robe of his causelesse pursuer: 1 Sam. 24.5 who yet when he came to the full scope of his ease, and Courtly jollity, made no scruple of the adulterous bed of faire Bathsheba, or the bloody murther of a faithfull Ʋri­ah. Who was I, O Lord, that I should promise my self an immunity from the perill of a prosperous con­dition under which thy holier servants have mis­carried. It was thy good­nesse and wisdome who fore-seest not what shall be onely, but what might [Page 171] bee also, in prevention of the danger of my surfeit, to take away the dish, whereon I might have o­ver-fed. O God, I do hum­bly submit to thy good pleasure; and contentedly rest upon thy Providence, which hast thought fit ra­ther to secure me in the safe use of my little, than to exercise mee with the temptations of a bewitch­ing plenty.

Soliloq. XLVII. Cheerfull Obedience.

IT is not so much the worke that God stands upon as the mind of the worker. The same act may [Page 172] bee done with the thanke and advantage of one a­gent, and with frowns and disrespect to another. If we doe our businesse grud­gingly, and because we must, out of the necessity of our subsistence, we shall have as much thanke to sit still: It is our owne need that sets our hands on work, not our obedience: So as herein wee are our own slaves, not Gods ser­vants; Whereas, if we go about the workes of our calling cheerfully, offering them up to God, as our willing sacrifice in an humble compliance with his commands, and an aw­full and comfortable ex­pectation of his gracious acceptance, we are blessed [Page 173] in our holy endeavours, and cannot faile of an Euge from our Master in Hea­ven. Alas, Lord, it is but little that I can doe, and, without thy enabling, no­thing.

Thou that vouchsafest to give me an abilitation to the worke, put into me also good affections to thee in performing of it: Let me doe thy will here, as thy Angels doe in hea­ven, with all gracious rea­dinesse, and alacrity; and be no lesse glad that I shall doe it, than that it is done: so whiles carnall hearts shall languish under their forced taskes, my labour shall be my pleasure; and I shall finde unspeakable comfort both in the con­science [Page 174] of my act, and the crown of my obedience.

Soliloq. XLVIII Heavenly Accordance.

AS our condition here upon earth is diffe­rent; so must our affection needs be also: that which is one mans joy is anothers griefe; one mans fear is a­nother mans hope: neither can it be otherwise, while our occasions draw us to so manifest contradictions of disposition: These di­versities and contrarieties of inclination and desire, are the necessary symp­tomes of our wretched mortality; and the nearer [Page 175] we grow to the perfection of our blessednesse, the more shall we concentrate in the united scope of all our actions, and affections, which is the sole glory of our Creator: Know then, O my soul, that the closer thou canst gather up thy selfe in all the exercise of thy faculties, and propo­sals of thy desires, to the only respect of the honour of that great and good God which gave thee thy being, thou aspirest so much nearer to thy hea­ven, where all the blessed Saints and Angels agree together in one perpetuall imployment of praising their Maker; and sweetly accord in that one most perfect ditty and note of an [Page 176] eternall Allelujah to him that sits upon the Throne of that Celestiall glory.

O God, doe thou draw in my heart more and more from this variety of earthly distractions, and fixe it upon this one hea­venly worke: put me up­on that blessed Taske here below, which shall never know any end, but endure for ever in heaven.

Soliloq. XLIX. Divine Bounty.

HAd not the Apostle said so, yet our owne sense and experience would have told us, that every good and perfect [Page 177] gift is from above, and commeth downe from the Father of Lights: For sure, Iam. 1.17. from below it cannot come. How should any perfect gift arise from the region of all imperfection? How should evill afford a­ny good? What is below but earth and hell? where­of the one yeelds nothing but torment, the other no­thing but misery, and sin: If therefore it be pefect, or good, (since nothing can give what it hath not) it must needs come from a­bove: And from whom a­bove? Not from those lightsome bodies of the Starres, whose influences cannot reach unto the soule, whose substance is not capable of any spiritu­all [Page 178] power, whether to have, or give perfect gifts: Not from the blessed Spi­rits, which are Angels of Light: They may helpe, through Gods gracious ap­pointment, to convey bles­sings to us, they neither wil or can challenge an ori­ginall and primary inte­rest in the blessings which they convey. Onely there­fore from the Father of Lights; who as he is light, so is the Author of all whatsoever light, both in­ward and outward, spiri­tuall and sensible: and as light was the first good and perfect gift which hee bestowed on the world, so it well may imploy all the spirituall blessings confer­red on the Creature: So as [Page 179] he that said, Let there bee light; said also, Let this man be wise; Let that bee learned; Let that other be gracious and holy: whence then, O whence can I look for any good thing, Iam. 1.5. but from thy hands, O my God, who givest to all men liberally and upbrai­dest not: whose infinite treasure is not capable of any diminution; since the more thou givest, thy store is not the lesse, thy glory more. Thou dost not sell thy favours, as we men are apt to do, looking through our small bounty, at an ex­pected retribution; but thou givest most freely, most absolutely: neither dost thou lend thy best blessing, as looking to re­ceive [Page 180] them back again, but so conveyest them to us, as to make them our owne for ever: since therefore thy gifts are so free, that all thy heavenly riches may be had for asking; how worthy shall I bee to want them if I doe not sue for them to the Throne of thy grace; Yet even this (since it is a good thing) I cannot do without thee. O then give thou mee the grace that I may bee ever begging faithfully of thee; and give mee the graces that I beg for.

Soliloq. L. Sweet use of Power.

I See that great, wise, and holy God, who might [Page 181] most justly make use of his absolute power, yet proceeds sweetly with his creature in all his wayes: Hee might force some to salvation in spight of their wills; He might damne o­thers meerely for his plea­sure, without respect to their sin: But he doth not, hee will not doe either of these; but goes along gra­ciously and gently with us, inviting us to Repentance, and earnestly tendring to us the meanes of salvation on the one side with effe­ctuall perswasions, and strong motives, and kindly inclinations to an answe­rable obedience; on the o­ther side, laying before us the fearfull menaces of his judgements denounced a­gainst [Page 182] sinners, urging all powerfull disswasions, and using all probable meanes to divert us from all the waies of wickednesse; and when those prevaile not, justly punishing us for our wilfull disobedience, impe­nitence, and infidelity.

O God, how should we learne of thee to proceed with all our fellow-Crea­tures, (but much more with our Christian Bre­thren) not according to the rigour of any pretended prerogative of power, but in all mercifull tenderness, in all gentle and faire meanes of their reclamati­on on the one side, & on the other, in an unwilling and constrained severity of ne­cessary justice.

[Page 183]And how much doth it concerne thee, O my soule, not to stay till thy God shall drag thee to Repen­tance and salvation, but gladly to embrace all those happy opportunities, and cheerfully to yeeld to all those mercifull solici­tations, which thy God of­fers thee for thy full Con­version; And carefully to avoid those waies of sinne and death which he hath under so dreadfull denun­ciations graciously warned thee to shun: Else thy God is cleared both in his ju­stice and mercy, and thy perdition is of thy self.

Soliloq. LI. The power of Conscience.

IT is a true word of the Apostle, God is greater than our Conscience; and surely, none but he: under that great God, the su­preme power on earth is the conscience. Every man is a little world within himselfe; and in this little world there is a Court of Judicature erected, where­in next under God the Conscience sits as the su­preme Judge, from whom there is no appeale; that passeth sentence upon us, upon all our acti­ons, upon all our intenti­ons; for our persons, ab­solving [Page 185] one, condemning another; for our actions, allowing one, forbidding another: If that condemn us, in vaine shall all the World besides acquit us; and if that cleare us, the doom which the World passeth upon us, is frivo­lous▪ and ineffectuall. I grant this Judge is some­times corrupted with the Bribes of Hope, with the weake feares of losse, with an undue respect of per­sons, with powerfull im­portunities, with false wit­nesses, with forged eviden­ces, to passe a wrong sen­tence upon the person, or cause; for which hee shall be answerable to him that is higher than the highest; but yet this doom, (though [Page 186] reversible by the Tribunall of Heaven) is still obliga­tory on earth: So as it is my fault that my consci­ence is mis-led; but it is not my fault to follow my Conscience. How much need have I therefore, O my God, to pray that thou wouldst guide my Con­science aright; and keepe this great Judge in my bo­some from Corruption and errour? and what need hath this intestine ar­biter of mine to take speci­all care that he may avoid all misinformations that may mislead his judgment, and all the base suggesti­ons of outward advantage, or losse that may deprave his affections? And, O thou, that only art greater [Page 187] than my Conscience, keep mee from doing ought a­gainst my Conscience: I cannot disobey that but I must offend thee; since that is but thine Officer under thee, and only com­mands for thee.

Soliloq. LII. Proud Poverty.

THat which wise Solo­mon observed in the temporall estates of men, holds no lesse true in the spirituall: Prov. 13.7. There is that maketh himselfe rich, yet hath nothing; There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches: On the one side, we meet with [Page 188] a proud but beggarly Lao­dicean, Rev. 3.17. that saies, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; which will not know that he is wretched, and misera­ble, and poor, and blinde, and naked; This man when the means of further grace are tendred him, can say, as Esau did of the pro­fered herds, I have enough my Brother; and with the bragging Pharisee can boast of what he is not, and of what he is; of what hee hath, of what he doth; ad­miring his owne nothing, and not caring to seek for more, because he thinks he hath all; this fond Justici­ary can overdoe his duty, and supererogate; con­temning the poverty of [Page 189] soules better furnished than his [...]; and laying his merits in the dish of the Almighty.

On the other side, there is an humble soule, that is secretly rich in all spiritu­all endowments; full of knowledge, abounding in grace, which out of the true poverty of spirit un­der-values himselfe, and makes no shew of ought but a bemoaned disability: as wee have seen those grounds wherein the rich­est Mines are treasured, bewray nothing but bar­rennesse in their outside.

O my soul, what estima­tion soever others may set upon thee, thou art consci­ous enough of thy owne wants; be thankfull for the [Page 190] little thou hast, and abased for the much thou lackest; and if thou wilt needs bee advancing thy selfe above others, let it be in the con­testation of thy greater humblenesse, and lower dejection. Thy grace shall be no lesse because thou thinkst it so: but shall ra­ther multiply by a modest diminution.

And, O Blessed Lord, thou who resistest the proud, and givest grace to the humble, give me more humility, that I may re­ceive more grace from thee; and thou whose gra­cious raine shelves downe from the steep mountains, and sweetly drenches the humble vallies; depresse thou my heart more and [Page 191] more with true lowliness of Spirit, that the showers of thy heavenly grace may soke into it, and make it more fruitfull in all good affections, and all holy obedience.

Soliloq. LIII. The happiest Society.

I Finde, O Lord, some holy men that have gone aside from the world, into some solitary wilder­nesse, that they might have their ful scope of enjoying thee freely, without any secular avocations; who no doubt improved their perfect leisure to a great entirenesse of conversation [Page 192] with thee. Surely I could easily admire the report of their holinesse, and e­mulate their mortified re­tirednesse, if I did not hear them say, The Woolfe dwels in the Wood, and that they could as soone leave themselves, as the World behind them. There is no Desart so wild, no Mountaines or Rockes so craggy, wherein I would not gladly seeke thee, O my God, and which I would not willing­ly climbe up to finde thee, if I could hope that soli­tude would yeeld a spiri­tuall advantage of more enjoying thee. But, alas, I find our weak powers are subject to an unavoidable lassitude; and wee can no [Page 193] more contemplate alwaies those divine Objects, than our bodily eyes are able to fix themselves on the body of the Sun in his brightest splendor: so as, if our mindes should not bee sometime taken off with a safe variety of Cogitati­ons, wee should be over­whelmed with thy Glory, and with too much light blinded: by this meanes it comes to pass that these small interspirations set an edge upon our re-assumed speculations, and renewed Devotions: Although also in the mean time, I should hate all secular diversions, if they should take thee for a moment quite out of my sight; If I did not finde that I may still refer them to [Page 194] thee, and enjoy thee in them. O God, doe thou so fix my soul upon thee, that what ever occasion shall take me up, I may never be out of thy blessed socie­ty, and make me so insen­sible of the noise of the world, that even in the midst of the Market I may bee still alone with thee.

Soliloq. LIV. Honey from the Rock.

O God, thou didst mira­culously refresh thy murmuring Israel of old with water out of the Rock, in that dry wilder­nesse; and now I hear thee [Page 195] say, If they had hearkened to thy voice, and walked in thy waies, Psal. 81.16. with honey out of the Rock thou wouldst have satisfied them. Loe, that which thou wouldest have done to thine ancient people, if they had obeyed thee, thou hast abundant­ly performed to thine E­vangelicall Israel. With Hony out of the Rock hast thou satisfied them; The Rock that followed them was Christ my Saviour: 1 Cor. 10. Lo, out of this Rock hath flowed that hony where­by our soules are satisfied; Out of his side (saith the Evangelist) came water and blood, This Rock of our salvation affordeth both what Israel had, and might have had. Surely, O [Page 196] my God, there can be no hony so sweet, as the effect of the precious bloud of my Saviour to the soul of the Beleever; Heb. 9.12. Eph. 1.7. By that bloud we have eternall re­demption from death, and Remission of all our sinnes; Rom. 5.9. By that bloud are we ju­stified in the sight of our God, and saved from the wrath to come; By that bloud we have our Peace made in Heaven, Col. 1.20. and are fully reconciled to our God; Heb. 9.22. By that blood wee are cleansed and purged from all our iniquity; Heb. 13.12, 14. 1 Pet. 1.2. By that bloud we are sanctifi­ed from our Corrupti­ons; Heb. 9.15. By that blood we re­ceive the Promise and pos­session of an eternall inhe­ritance. O the spirituall [Page 197] Hony so sweet, that the materiall Hony is but bit­ternesse to it! 1 Sam. 14.29. Jonathan of old did but dip his Speare in the honey of the wood, and but with one licke of that sweet moisture had his eies cleared, and his spirits revived; O God, let me but taste, and see how sweet the Lord Jesus is, in all his gracious Promises, in all his mercifull and re­all Performances, I shall need no more to make me happy. Thy Solomon bids me to eat honey: Lo, Pro. 14.23. this is the honey that I desire to eat of; Give me of this honey and I shall receive both clearnesse to my eies, and vigour of my spirits to the foiling of all my spi­rituall enemies. This is no­the [Page 198] honey whereof I am bidden not to eate too much: Pro. 25.16. No, Lord, I can never eat enough of this Celestiall honey; Here I cannot surfet; Or, if I could, this surfet would be my health. O God, give me still enough of this ho­ney out of the Rocke, so shall my soul live, and bless thee, and bee blessed of thee.

Soliloq. LV. Sure Earnest.

O My God, what a comfortable assu­rance is this which thou hast given to my soule? Thou hast, in thy great [Page 199] mercy, promised and a­greed to give me heaven; and now because thou dost not put me into a present possession, thou hast given me earnest of my future inheritance; Eph. 1.14. and this ear­nest is that good Spirit of thine, which thou hast gra­ciously put into my soule. Even we men, whose stile is deceitfull upon the bal­lance, think our selves sure when in civill transactions we have received an ear­nest of the bargaine; and much more when we have taken that small piece of coine, as part of the bargained payment; How then can I fear to fail thee, my God, whose Title is faithfull and True; whose Word is Yea, and Amen. [Page 200] It is ordinary with the World to cheat my soule with fair promises, and faithlesse engagements of yielding me those content­ments, which it neither can, nor meant to per­forme. Mat. 24.35 But for thee, O Lord, heaven and earth shall passe away, but not one jot of thy Word shall passe unfulfilled: Hadst thou then, but given mee that Word of thine, I durst have set my soul upon it, with all firme confidence; but now that thou hast se­conded thy Word with thy Earnest, what place can be left for my doubt? What then, what is it that thou canst sticke at, O my soul? Canst thou make question of the truth of [Page 201] the Earnest? Thou know­est that thou canst not; the stamp is too well known to be misdoubted; the impressions are full and inimitable; this seale can­not be counterfeit; the graces of the Spirit which thou hast received, thou feelest to be true and reall; thou findest in thy selfe a faith, though weak, yet sincere; an unfeigned re­pentance joyned with an hearty detestation of all thy sinnes; a fervent love of that infinite goodnesse that hath remitted them, a conscionable care to a­void them, a zealous desire to bee approved to God in all thy waies: Flesh and bloud cannot have wrought these graces in [Page 202] thee; It is onely that good Spirit of thy God, which hath thus sealed thee to the day of Redemption.

Walke on therefore, O my soule, confidently and chearfully in the strength of this assurance, and joy­fully expect the full ac­complishment of this hap­py contract from the sure hands of thy God: Let no temptation stagger thee in the comfortable resoluti­ons of thy future glory; But say boldly with that holy Patriarke, O Lord I have waited for thy salva­tion.

Soliloq. LVI. Heavenly Manna.

VIctory it selfe is the great reward of our fight; but what is it, O God that thou promisest to give us as the reward of our Victory? even the hidden Manna: Surely were not this gift excee­ding precious, thou wouldst not reserve it for the remuneration of so glorious a Conquest. Be­hold that materiall and visible Manna, which thou sentest down from heaven, to stop the mouths of mur­muring Israel, perished in their use; and if it were reserved but to the next [Page 204] day, putrified, and instead of nourishing, annoyed them; But the hidden Manna, that was laid up in the Arke, was incorrup­tible, as a lasting monu­ment of thy power, and mercy to thy people; But now, alas, what is become both of that Manna, and of that Arke? Both are vanished (having passed through the devouring jawes of time) into meer forgetfulnesse. It is the true spiritual Manna that came down from the highest hea­ven, and ascending thither again is hidden therein the glorious Arke of Eternity, that thou wilt give to thy Conqueror: That is it, which being participated of here below, nourisheth [Page 205] us to eternall life; and be­ing communicated to us above, is the full consum­mation of that blessed life, and glory. O give me so to fight that I may overcome, that so overcomming, I may bee feasted with this Manna. Thou that art, and hast given me thy selfe, the spirituall Manna, which I have fed on by faith; and the symbolicall Manna, whereof I have eaten sa­cramentally; give me of that heavenly Manna, whereof I shall partake in glory: It is yet an hidden Manna, hid from the eies of the world, yea in a sort from our owne; hid in light inaccessible: Colos. 3. For our life is hid with Christ in God; but shall then bee [Page 206] fully revealed: for it shall then not onely cover the face of the earth round a­bout the tents of Israel. but spread it self over the face of the whole heaven, yea fill both heaven and earth. I well thought, O my God, that if heaven could afford any thing more precious than other, thou wouldst lay it up for thy Victor: for it is an hard service that thy poore In­fantry here upon earth are put unto; to conflict with so mighty, so malici­ous, so indefatigable ene­mies; and therefore the re­ward must be so much the greater, as the warefare is more difficult. O doe thou who art the great Lord of Hosts, give me courage to [Page 207] fight, perseverance in figh­ting, and power to over­come all my spirituall ene­mies, that I may receive from thee this hidden Manna, that my soul may live for ever, and may for ever blesse thee.

Soliloq. LVII. The Hearts Treasure.

IT is a sure Word of thine, O Saviour, that where our Treasure is, there our hearts will be al­so; neither can wee easily know, where to finde our hearts, if our Treasure did not discover them: Now, Lord, where is my Trea­sure? Surely I am not [Page 208] worthy to bee owned of thee, if my Treasure be a­ny where but in heaven: my lumber and luggage may be here on earth, but my Treasure is above; there thou hast laid up for me the richest of thy mer­cies, even my eternall sal­vation: Yea Lord, what is my richest Treasure but thy selfe? in whom all the Treasures of Wisdome and Knowledge, yea of in­finite Glory are laid up for all thine: All things that this world can afford me, are but meere pelfe in comparison of this Trea­sure; or, if the earth could yeeld ought that is preci­ous, yet I cannot call that Treasure. Treasure im­plies both price, and store [Page 209] of the dearest Commodi­ties: never so great abun­dance of base things cannot make a Treasure; neither can some few peeces of the richest mettals bee so ac­counted; but where there is a large congestion of precious Jewels, and Me­talls, there onely is Trea­sure: If any at all, surely very little, and mean is the wealth which I can pro­mise my selfe here; per­haps some brasse Farthing, or light and counterfeit Coine, meer earthy dross, which may load but can­not enrich my soule; my only true riches are above with thee; and where then should my heart bee but there? My hand and my braine too must neces­sarily [Page 210] bee sometimes here below, but my heart shall be still with my Treasure in heaven. It is wont to be said, that however the me­mory of old age is short, yet that no old man ever forgot where hee laid up his Treasure. O God, let not that Celestiall Trea­sure which thou hast laid up for me, be at any time out of my thoughts; let my eye be ever upon it; let my heart long for the full possession of it; and so joy in the assured expectation of it; that it may disrelish all the contentments, and contemne all the crosses which this World can af­ford me.

Soliloq. LVIII. The narrow Way.

O Saviour, I hear thee say, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and yet again, thou (who art Truth it selfe) tell'st me, that the way is nar­row, and the gate straight that leadeth unto life: Surely, thou who art the living Way, art exceeding large; so wide that all the World of Beleevers enter into life by thee only: but the way of our walke to­wards thee is straight and narrow; Not, but that thy Commandement in it self is exceeding broad; Psal. 119. for Lord, how fully compre­hensive [Page 212] it is of all morall and holy duties? and what gracious latitude hast thou given us in it of our Obedience? and how fa­vourable indulgence and remission in case of our faylings? But narrow in respect of the weaknesse and insufficiency of our o­bedience? It is our wretch­ed infirmity that straitens our way to the. Lo, hea­ven, which is thy All-glo­rious Mansion, when wee are once entred into it, how infinitely large and spacious it is; even this lower contignation of it, at how marvailous distance it archeth in this Globe of aire, and earth, and waters? and how is that again sur­rounded with severall [Page 213] heights of those lightsome Regions, unmeasurable for their glorious dimensions? But the heaven of heavens, the seat of the blessed, is yet so much larger, as it is higher in place, and more eminent in glory; yet thou wouldst have the way to it narrow, and the gate of it straight: And even thus it pleaseth thee to ordain in the dispensation of all thine inferiour blessings; Learning dwells fair with­in, but the entrance is straight through study, watching, bending of braines, wearing of spirits: the house of honour is sumptuous and goodly within, but the gate is straight that leads into it; which is through danger, [Page 214] attendance, plots of emu­lation: Wealth hath large Elbow-roome of lodging, but the gate is straight; hard labour, careful thrift, racking of thoughts, pain­full adventures. How much more wouldst thou have it thus in the best of all blessings, the eternell fruition of heaven? And why is this way narrow, but because it is untrack­ed, and untrodden? If I may not rather say the way is untracked and found by few, because it is narrow, and not easie to tread in. Surely grace is the way to glory, and that path is not for every foot: the straighter and narrow­er it is, O my God, the more let me strive and [Page 215] shoulder to enter into it. VVhat vaine quarrels doe we daily heare of for the way; but Lord enable me to strive for this way even to blood: And if thou have been pleased to set me a deep way, or a rough way through many tribu­lations, to that happy and eternall life, let me passe it with all cheerfull resoluti­on. How oft have I not grudged to go a foule way to a friends house, where I knew my entertainement kind and cordiall? O let me not think much to come to those thy everlasting Man­sions of bliss, through tears and blood. The end shall make an abundant amends for the way; If I suffer with thee, I shall reign with thee.

Soliloq. LIX. Gods various Procee­dings.

WHat strange varie­ties doe I finde in the workings of God with men: One-where I finde him gently, and plausibly inviting men to their Con­version; another-where, I finde him frighting some others to heaven: some he traines up in a goodly edu­cation, and without any e­minent change, calls them forth to an exemplary profession of his Name; some others he chuseth out of a life notoriously lewd, to be the great patternes of a suddain Reformation; [Page 217] One that was only formall in his Devotion without any true life of grace, is, upon a grievous sicknesse, brought to a lively sense of godlinesse; another comes to Gods house with a purpose to sleep or scoffe, and through the secret o­peration of Gods Spirit working with his Word, returnes full of true com­punction of heart, with teares in his eyes, and reso­lutions of present amend­ment of life: One that was proud of his owne righte­ousnesse is suffered to fall into some foule sin, which shames him before men, and is thus brought down to an humble acknow­ledgement of his owne frailty; another, that was [Page 218] cast down with a sad des­pair of Gods mercy, is rai­sed up by the fall of an un­broken glasse, or by some comfortable dreame, or by the seasonable word of a cheerfull friend: One is called at the sixt hour, ano­ther not till the eleventh; one by faire and probable meanes, another by contra­ries; so as even the worke of Satan himself hath been made the occasion of the conversion of his soule. O God, thy waies are infinite, and past finding out: It is not for us to prescribe thee what to do, but hum­bly to adore thee in what thou doest. Far be it from me, so to cast my self upon thy All-working provi­dence, as to neglect the or­dinary [Page 219] means of my salva­tion: Inable me chearfully to endeavour what thou requirest, and then take what way thou pleasest; so that thou bringst me to the end of my hope, the salva­tion of my soul.

Soliloq. LX. The waking Guardian.

IT is a true word which the Psalmist said of thee, O God; Thou that keepest Israel, neither slumbrest, nor sleepest: Psal. 12.14. Fond Tyrants thinke that thou winkest at their cru­ell persecutions of thy Church, because thou dost not speedily execute ven­geance [Page 220] upon them, where­as, if the fault were not in their eyes, they should see thine wide open, and bent upon them for their just destruction; onely thou thinkst fit to hold thy hand for a time from the infli­ction of judgment, till the measure of their iniquity be full, and then they shall feel to their cost, that thou sawest all their secret Plots and Conspiracies a­gainst thine Israel. Mat. 8.24, 25, &c. Mat. 4.37. Luk. 8.13. The time was, O Saviour, when in the daies of thine hu­mane infirmity thou slept'st in the sterne of the Ship, on a pillow, when the Tempest raged and the Waves swelled; yet even then when thy Disciples a­woke thee and said, Lord [Page 221] save us we perish, thou re­bukedst them sharply, with, Why are yee fear­full, O yee of little faith? Their danger was appa­rently great, but yet thou telst them their feare was causelesse, and their faith weake, that they could not assure themselves that thy presence (though sleeping) was a sufficient preserva­tive against the fury of windes and waters: How much more now, that be­ing in the height of thine heavenly glory, and ever intentively vigilant for the safegard of thy chosen ones, may we rest secure of thy blessed protection, and our sure indemnity? O God, do thou keep my eies ever open, that I may still [Page 222] wait upon thee, for thy gracious tuition, and the mercifull accomplishment of thy salvation: Thou seest I have to doe with those enemies that are ne­ver but waking, never but seeking all advantages a­gainst my soul; What can they doe when thine eye is ever over me for good? O then let mine eyes be ever unto thee, Psa. 141.8. O God my Lord; in thee let me still put my trust: so shalt thou keepe me from the snares that they have laid for me, and the grins of the workers of iniquity.

Soliloq. LXI. The sting of guiltinesse.

GUiltinesse can never thinke it selfe sure; if there were no Fiends to torment it, like a bosome-Devill, it would ever tor­ture it selfe: no Guard can bee so sure, no Fort so strong as to secure it from terrors. The first Murde­rer after his bloody fratri­cide, when there is no men­tion of any man (beside his Father) upon earth, yet can say, It shall come to passe that every one that findeth me shall slay mee; Gen. 4 14. and I marvaile that he ad­ded not; if none else will doe it, I shall do that dead­ly [Page 224] office to my selfe: Hee was sure hee could meet with none but Brethren or Nephewes; and even the face of those was now dreadfull to him: hee that had been so cruell to him that had laine in the same wombe with himselfe, feares that no neereness of bloud can shield him from the violence of the next man.

Conscience when once exasperated, needs not stay for an accuser, a witnesse, a solicitor to enforce the e­vidence, a Judge; but it selfe alone acts all these parts, and oft-times also the executioners to boot. It was a just question of the wisest of men, A wounded spirit who can bear? But [Page 225] there are divers and diffe­rent degrees of the wounds of spirit: All are painefull, some mortall; as in the bo­dy, there may bee some wounds in the outward and fleshly part, which have more pain than peril, but those of the principall, and vitall parts are not more dolorous than dan­gerous, and often deadly: so it is in the soul, there are wounds of the inferiour and affective faculties, as griefe for crosses, vexation for disappointment of hopes, pangs of anger for wrongs received, which may be cured with seaso­nable remedies; but the wounds of conscience in­flicted by the sting of some hainous sin, which lies bel­king [Page 226] within us, carries in it horror, despaire, death. O God, keep me from bloud­guiltinesse, and from all crying and presumptuous sins; but if ever my frailty should be so fouly tainted, do thou so work upon my soul, as that my repentance may walke in equall paces with my sin, ere it can ag­gravate it selfe by continu­ance. Apply thy soveraign plaister to my soule whiles the wound is greene, and suffer it not to fester in­wardly through any im­penitent delay.

Soliloq. LXII. Beneficiall VVant.

IT is just with thee, O God, when thou seest [Page 227] us grow wanton, and un­thankfully neglective of thy blessings, to withdraw them from us, that by the want of them we may feel both our unregarded obli­gations, and the defects of our duty: So we have seen the Nurse, when the childe begins to play with the dugge, to put up the breast out of sight. I should not acknowledg how precious a favour health is, if thou didst not sometimes inter­change it with sicknesse; nor how much I am bound to thee for my Limbes, if I had not sometimes a touch of lamenesse: Thirst gives better relish to the drinke, and hunger is the best sauce to our meate. Nature must needs affect a [Page 228] continuance of her well­fare; neither is any thing more grievous to her, than these crosse interceptions of her contentments: but thou, who art wisdome it selfe, knowest how fit it is for us, both to smart for our neglect of thy familiar mercies, and to have thy blessings more endeared to us by a seasonable discon­tinuance. Neither dost thou want to deale other­wise in the mannaging of thy spirituall mercies. If thy Spouse, the faithfull soul, shall (being pampe­red with prosperity) begin to grow secure and negli­gent, so as at the first knock of her beloved, she rise not up to open to Him, but suf­fers his head to bee filled [Page 229] with Dew, and his lockes with the drops of the night; Cant. 5.2.3.4.5.6.7.8. she soon findes her beloved withdrawne and gone: she may then seeke him, and not finde him; she may call, and receive noe answer; she may seek him about the streets, and in stead of finding him lose her vaile, and meet with blowes and wounds from the watch-men. O God, keep thou me from being resty with ease; hold mee in a continuall tendernesse of heart: continue me in a thankfull, and awfull use of all thy favours: but, if at any time thou seest me de­cline to a careless obdura­tion, and to a disrespective forgetfulnesse of thy mer­cies, doe thou so chastise [Page 230] me with the fatherly hand of thy afflictions, and so work me to a gracious use of thy desertions, that my soul may seeke thee with more vigour of affections, and may recover thee with more sensible comfort.

Soliloq. LXIII. Interchange of Conditions.

IT is not for nothing, O my God, that thou hast protracted my time so long, and hast given me so large experience of thy most wise and holy dea­ling with my selfe and o­thers. Doubtlesse it is, that I might see, and feele, and observe, and teach the gra­cious [Page 231] changes of thy carri­age towards thy poore sin­full Creatures upon earth. Thou dost not hold us al­waies under the rod, (though we well deserve a perpetuall correction) as considering our miserable impotence, and aptnesse to an heartlesse dejection; Thou dost not alwaies keep our hearts raised up to the jollity of a prospe­rous condition, as knowing our readinesse to presume, and to bee carried away with a false confidence of our unmoveablenesse; but graciously interchangest thy favours with our suf­ferings: When thou seest us ready to faint, and to be discouraged with our ad­versity, thou takest off thy [Page 232] hand, and givest us a com­fortable respiration from our miseries; When thou seest us puft up with the vaine conceit of our owne worth, or successe, thou ta­kest us downe with some heavy crosse. When thou findest us overlaid with an unequall match, and ready to bee foiled in the fight, thou givest us breath, and puttest new strength into our armes, and new cou­rage into our hearts; When thou findest us in­solent with our Victory, thou sham'st us by an un­expected discomfiture.

And as for the outward estate of the Nations and Kingdomes of the earth, thou whirlest them about in a perpetuall, yet con­stant [Page 233] vicissitude; Peace breeds plenty, Plenty wan­tonnesse and pride, Pride Animosity, from thence followes war, VVar pro­duces Vastation and want, Poverty causeth Industry, and (when nothing is left to strive for) Peace, an in­dustrious peace brings plenty againe, and in this gyre thou hast ordained the world still to turne a­bout.

Be not too much moved then, O my soule, when thou findest thy selfe hard pressed with afflictions, and conflicted with strong temptations, but beare up constantly in the strength of thy faith, as being assu­red, that having rid out this storme, thou shalt bee bles­sed [Page 234] with an happy calme; Neither bee thou lifted up too much when thou fin­dest thy selfe carried on with a fair gale of pros­perity, since thou knowst not what tempests may suddenly arise; and many hopefull vessell hath been sunke in sight of the Port: And when thou seest the world every where full of woefull combustions, bee not over-much dismaied with the sight and sense of these publike Calamities, but waite patiently upon that Divine Providence; which, after those revolu­tions of change, shall hap­pily reduce all things to their determinate posture: To which purpose, O God, do thou fix my heart firm­ly [Page 235] upon thee; doe thou keep me from the evill of prosperity, from dejected­nesse in affliction, from the prevalence of temptation, from misprision of thy Providence: VVorke me to that due temper which thy Solomon hath prescri­bed me; Eccle. 7.14. In the day of prosperity be joyfull; but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should finde nothing after him.

Soliloq. LXIV. The rule of Devotion.

THy will, O God, as it is alwaies holy, so [Page 236] in what thou hast decreed to doe with us, is secret, and in what thou wouldst have us doe to thee, is revealed: It is thy re­vealed will that must re­gulate both our Actions, and our Prayers. It may be that I may lawfully sue to thee for what thou hast decreed not to grant: As Samuel ceased not to pray for thy favour to that Saul, whom thou hadst reje­cted; and many an Israe­lite prayed for raine in that three yeeres and an halfe, wherein thou hadst commanded the Clowds to make good the prophe­cie of thine Elias; yea, thine holy Apostle pray­ed thrice to have the Mes­senger 1 Cor. 12.of Satan taken off [Page 237] from him; and heard no answer, but, My grace is sufficient for thee: So, Lord, we pray for the re­movall of thy judgements from this sinnefull and de­plored Nation, which for ought we know, and have cause to feare, thou hast decreed to ruine and de­ [...]station; and many a good soule prayes for a comfortable sense of thy favour, whom thou think­est fit to keepe downe for the time in a sad desertion; and I thy unworthy ser­vant may pray to be freed from those temptations, wherewith thou seest it fit that my faith should be still exercised. O God, give me the grace to fol­low thy revealed will, and [Page 238] to submit my selfe to thy secret. What thou hast commanded, I know I may doe; what thou hast pro­mised, I know I may trust to; what thou hast in a generality promised to do, may in some particular cases by the just decree of thy secret Counsell bee o­therwise determined: If I aske what thou hast de­creed to do, I know I can­not but obtaine; If I aske what thou hast warranted (notwithstanding the par­ticular exception of thy secret will) though I re­ceive it not, yet I receive not pardon onely, but ac­ceptation. O God, give me grace to steer my selfe, and my prayers by thy re­vealed Will; and humbly [Page 239] to stoop to what the event shews to have been thy se­cret will.

Soliloq. LXV. Hels Triumph.

THou hast told us, O Saviour, Luk. 15.10. that there is joy in the presence of thine Angels, for a sinners repentance; those blessed Spirits are so far from en­vying our happinesse, that as they endeavour it here, so they congratulate it in heaven: and we wel know, that these good Spirits do not more rejoyce in the conversion of a sinner, than the evill Spirits do in the mis-carriage of a convert. [Page 240] The course of the holy o­bedience of thy servants here is doubtlesse a plea­sing object to thine An­gels, neither are those ma­lignant spirits lesse pleased with the wicked practises of their Vassals; but the joy arises to both from the contrary condition of those parties, over which they have prevailed: The alleagance of a good sub­ject (though wel-accepted) yet is no newes to a graci­ous Soveraigne; but the comming in of some great Rebell is happy tidings at the Court: On the contra­ry, where there is a rivali­ty of soveraigntie, for a professed enemy to do ho­stile actions, is no other than could bee expected; [Page 241] but for a subject or a do­mestick servant to bee drawne into the conspira­cie, is not more advantage than joy to the intruder. O God, thou hast merci­fully called me out of the world to a profession of thy Name; I know what eies those envious Spirits have ever upon me: Psal. 5.8. O doe thou lead me in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies; If thine Angels have found cause to joy in my conversion, O doe thou keepe me from making musicke in hell by my miscarriage.

Soliloq. LXVI. Dumbe Homage.

HOw officious, O God, doe I see thy poore dumbe Creatures to us? how doe they fawne, or crouch, as they see us af­fected? how doe they run and fetch, and carry, and draw at our command? how doe they beare our stripes with a trembling unresistance? how readily doe they spend their strength, and their lives in our service? how patient­ly doe they yield us their milk and their fleeces for our advantage? and lie e­qually still to be shorne, or slain at our pleasure? ex­pecting [Page 243] nothing from us in the mean time but a bare sustenance, which, if it bee denyed them, they do not fall furiously upon their cruell Masters, but meekly bemoane themselves in their bruitish language, and languish, and die; If granted them, they are fatned for our use. I am a­shamed, O God, I am a­shamed to see these thy creatures so obsequiously pliant unto me, whiles I consider my disposition and deportment towards thee my Creator: Alas, Lord, what made the dif­ference betwixt me and them, but thy meere good pleasure? thou mightest have made them rationall, and have exchanged my [Page 244] reason for their brutality; They are my fellowes by Creation, and owe both their being and preservati­on to the same hand with my selfe: Thou art the ab­solute Lord of both, to whom I must bee accoun­table for them; they are mine onely by a limited substitution from thee; why then should they bee more obedient to my will, than I am to thine; since they have onely Sense to lead them in their Way, I have both Reason and Faith to teach me my du­ty. Had I made them, I could but require of them their absolute submission: Why should I then exact of them, more than I am ready to performe unto [Page 245] thee? O God, thou that hast put them under my hand, and me under thy owne, as thou hast made me their Master for com­mand, so let me make them my Masters to teach me obedience.

Soliloq. LXVII. Indifferency of Events.

THou givest us daily proofes, O God, of the truth of that observation of wise Solomon, That all things come alike to all, Eccl. 9.1, 2. and that no man knowes love or hatred by all that is before them: In these out­ward things thy dearest friends have not fared bet­ter [Page 246] then thine enemies; Thy greatest enemies have not suffered more than thy beloved Children. When therefore I looke abroad, and see with what heavy afflictions thou art pleased to exercise thy best Fa­vourites upon earth, I can­not but stand amazed to see what horrible Tor­ments of all kindes have beene undergone by thy most precious Martyrs, whose patience hath o­vercome the violence of their executioners: and to see those extreme tortures which some of thy faith­full servants have endured in the beds of their sick­ness; one torne, and drawn together with fearefull convulsions, another shrie­king [Page 247] under the painefull girds of an unremoveable stone; one wrung in his Bowels with pangs of cho­licke, and turning of guts, another possessed with a raging gout in all his Limbes; one whose blad­der after a painefull incisi­on is ransack'd, another whose Leg or Arme is cut off to prevent a mortall Gangrene: I cannot but acknowledge how just it might be in thee, O God, to mix the same bitter cup for me; and how merciful it is, that knowing my weakness thou hast for­born hitherto to load mee with so sad a burthen. What thou hast in thine eternall Councell deter­mined to lay upon mee, [Page 248] thou onely knowest. If thou bee pleased to conti­nue thy gracious indul­gence to me still, make me truly thankfull to thee for health and ease, as the greatest of thy outward favours; but let mee not build upon them, as the certaine evidences of thy better mercies: and if thou thinke fit to interchange them with a vicissitude of sickness and paine, let mee not misconstrue thy severe chastisements as arguments of thy displeasure: But still teach mee to feare thee in my greatest prosperity, and to love thee in my greatest sufferings; and to adore thine infinite Wisdome, Justice, and mercy in both.

Soliloq. LXVIII. The transcendent Love.

HOw justly doe I mar­vaile, O God, to see what strength of naturall affection thou hast wrought in poore brute Creatures towards their Masters, and towards their owne Mates, towards their dammes and their young: We have plentifull instan­ces of those whom Death could not separate from their beloved Guardians, some that have died for their Masters, some with them; some that have fear­lesly hazarded their owne lives for the preservation of their young ones, some [Page 250] that have fed their aged dammes with that food which they have spared from their own Mawes A­mongst the rest how re­markable is that compari­son of thine, O Saviour, wherein thou wert pleased to set forth thy tender care of thine Israell by the re­semblance of an Hen ga­thering her Chickings un­der her wings? Mat. 23.37. how have I seen that poor Fowl, af­ter the patience of a pain­full hatching, clocking her little brood together? and when she hath perceived the Puttock hovering over her head, in a varied note calling them hastily under the wing of her protection, and there covertly hiding them not from the Talons [Page 251] onely, but from the eye of that dangerous enemy, till the perill hath been fully over; after which she calls them forth to their liberty and repast, and with many a carefull scrape discovers to them such grains of food as may bee fit for them, contenting her self to carve for them with neg­lect of her owne suste­nance. O God, thou who hast wrought in thy silly creatures such an high measure of indulgence and dearnes of respect towards their tender brood, how infinitely is thy love and compassion towards the children of men, the great Master-peece of thy Crea­tion? How past the admi­ration of men and Angels, [Page 252] is that transcendent proof of thy divine love, in the more than marvelous work of our Redemption? How justly glorifiable is thy name in the gracious, and sometimes miracu­lous, preservation of thy Children? In the experi­ence whereof, if I forbeare to magnifie thee, or dare not to trust thee, how can I be but unworthy to bee owned of thee, or blessed by thee?

Soliloq. LXIX. Choice of Seasons.

HOw regularly, O God, hast thou determined a set season for all thy [Page 253] Creatures, both for their actions and their use? The Storke in the heaven, saith thy Prophet Jeremy, know­eth her appointed times, Ier. 8.7. and the Turtle and the Crane, and the Swallow observe the time of their comming: Who hath seen the Oecolam­pad. in locū Ierem. Stork before the Ca­lends of August, or a Swal­low in the Winter? Who hath heard the Nightin­gale in the heat of harvest? or the Bittern bearing her base in the coldest Mo­neths? Yea the Fishes in the Sea know and observe their due seasons, and pre­sent us with their Shoales only when they are whol­some and useful; The Her­ring doth not furnish our Market in the Spring, nor [Page 254] the Salmon, or Mackerell in Winter: Yea the very flies both have and keepe their daies appointed; the Silke-worme never looks forth of that little Cell of her Conception, till the Mulbery puts forth the leaves for their nourish­ment; and who hath ever seen a Butter-flie, or an Harnet in Winter? yea there are Flies wee know appropriate to their owne moneths, from which they vary not: Lastly, how plain is this in all the se­verall varieties of Trees, Flowers, Herbes? The Almond tree looks out first, the Mulberry last of all other; The Tulip, and the Rose, and all other the sweet Ornaments of the [Page 255] earth are punctuall in their growth and fall: But as for Man, O God, thou hast in thy infinite VVisdome indued him with that power of reason, whereby he may make choice of the fittest seasons of all his a­ctions. Eccl. 3.1. Thou that hast ap­pointed a time for every purpose under heaven, hast given him wit to finde and observe it. Even lawfull acts unseasonably done, may turne evill; and acts indifferent, seasonably performed, may prove good, and laudable. The best improvement of mo­rality, or civility, may shame us, if due time bee not as well regarded, as substance: Onely Grace, Piety, true Vertue can ne­ver [Page 256] be unseasonable. There are no seasons in Eternity; There shall bee one uni­forme and constant act of glorifying thee: Thy An­gels and Saints praise thee above, without change or intermission; The more we can do so on earth, the nea­rer shall wee approach to those blessed Spirits. O God, let my heart be whol­ly taken up evermore with an adoration of thine infinite Majesty, and let my mouth bee ever soun­ding forth of thy praise; and let the Hosannahs, and Hallelujahs which I begin here, know no measure but Eternity.

Soliloq. LXX. The happy return home.

EVery Creature natu­rally affects a return to the originall whence it first came. The Pilgrim, though faring well abroad, yet hath a longing home­ward; Fountaines and Rivers run back with what speed they may to the Sea whence they were derived; all compound bo­dies return to their first E­lements; The vapors rising up from the earth, and wa­ters, and condenss'd into clouds, fall down again to the same earth, whence they were exhaled; This body that we beare about [Page 258] us, returnes at last to that dust whereof it was fra­med: And why then, O my soul, dost not thou ear­nestly desire to returne home to the God that made thee? Thou know­est thy Originall is hea­venly, why are not thy af­fections so? What canst thou finde here below worthy to either with­draw, or detain thee from those heavenly Mansions? Thou art here in a Region of sin, of misery and death; Glory waites for thee a­bove: Fly then, O my soul, fly hence to that blessed immortality; If not as yet in thy dissolution: (for which thou must waite on the pleasure of thy deare Maker & redeemer) yet in [Page 259] thy thoughts, in thy desires and affections; soar thou up thither, and converse there with that blessed God and Father of Spirits, with those glorious Orders of Angels, and with the soules of just men made perfect; And if the neces­sity of these bodily affairs must needs draw thee off for a time, let it bee not without reluctation and hearty unwillingnesse, and with an eager appetite of quick returne to that Ce­lestiall society. It will not be long ere thou shalt bee blessed with a free, and un­interrupted fruition of that glorious Eternity: In the meane time doe thou prepossesse it in thy hea­venly dispositions; and [Page 260] contemning this earth, wherewith thou art clog­ged, aspire to thy heaven, and be happy.

Soliloq. LXXI. The confinements of Age.

DOst thou not observe, O my soule, how time and age confines, and con­tracts, as our bodies, so our desires and motions here upon earth, still into nar­rower compasses? VVhen we are young the world is but little enough for us; after wee have seen our own Island, wee affect to crosse the Seas, and to climbe over Alpes, and Pyrennes, and never [Page 261] thinke we have roved far enough; VVhen we grow ancient, wee begin to bee well-pleased with rest; now long and unnecessary journeyes are laid aside. If businesse call us forth, wee go, because we must; As for the visits of friendship, one Sun is enough to mea­sure them, with our re­turnes; And still, the older we grow, the more we are devoted to our home; there we are content to sit still, and enjoy the thoughts of our youth, and former experience, not looking farther than a kind neigh­bour-hood: But, when Age hath stiffened our joynts, and disabled our Motions, now, our home-pastures, and our Gardens [Page 262] become our utmost boun­daries; from thence a few yeares more confine us to our owne floor; Soon after that, we are limited to our chamber, and at last to our chaire, then to our bed, and, in fine, to our Coffin. These naturall restrictions, O my soule, are the appendences of thy weary Partner, this earth­ly body: but for thee, the nearer thou drawest to thy home, the more it con­cernes thee to bee sensible of a blessed inlargement of thy estate and affections▪ Hitherto thou art immu­red in a straight pile o [...] clay; now, heaven it selfe shall be but wide enough for thee: The world hath hitherto taken thee up [...] [Page 263] which (though large is yet but finite;) now, thou art upon the enjoying of that God who alone is infinite, in all that he is: O how in­considerable is the restraint of the worse part, in com­parison of the absolute in­largement of the better? O my God, whose mercy knowes no other limits than thy essence, worke me in this shutting up of my daies to all heavenly dis­positions, that whiles my outward man is so much more lessened, as it drawes nearer to the Center of its corruption, my spirituall part may be so much more dilated, in, and towards thee, as it approacheth nea­rer towards the circumfe­rence of thy celestiall glo­ry.

Soliloq. LXXII. Sin without sense.

ALas, Lord, how ten­derly sensible I am of the least bodily com­plaint that can befall mee? If but a tooth begin to ake, or a thorn have rankled in my flesh, or but an angry Corne vexe my Toe, how am I incessantly troubled with the pain? how fee­lingly doe I bemoane my selfe? how carefully do I seek for a speedy remedy? which till I feel, how little relish doe I finde in my wonted contentment? But for the better part, which is so much more tender, as it is more precious, with [Page 265] what patience (shall I call it,) or stupidity, doe I en­dure it wounded (were it not for thy great mercy) no lesse than mortality? Every new sin (how little soever) that I commit, fetches bloud of the soule; every willing sin stabs it; the continuance wherein festers inwardly; and, without repentance, kills. O God, I desire to be asha­med, and humbled under thy hand for this so unjust partiality; which gives me just cause to fear that sense hath yet more predomi­nance in me than Faith. I do not so much sue to thee to make mee lesse sensible of bodily evills, (whereof yet too deep a sense differs little from impatience) as [Page 266] to make me more sensible of spirituall: Let me feele my sin more painefull than the worst disease; and ra­ther than wilfully sin, let me die.

Soliloq. LXXIII. The extremes of Devo­tion.

I Acknowledge it to bee none of thy least mer­cies, O God, that thou hast vouchsafed to keepe mee within the due lines of de­votion; not suffering mee to wander into those two extremes, which I see and pitty in others. Too many there are, that doe so con­tent themselves in meer [Page 267] formalities, that they little regard how their heart is affected with the matter of their prayers: so have I grieved to see poore mis­devout soules under the Papacy, measuring their Orisons, not by weight, but by number; not caring which way their eie stray­ed, so their lips went; re­sting well apaid that God understood them, though they understood not them­selves: too neer approach­ing whereunto, are a world of wel-meaning ig­norant soules at home, that care only to pray by rote, not without some generall intentions of piety, but so, as their hearts are little guilty of the motion of their Tongues; Who, [Page 268] whiles they would cloake their carelesnesse, with a pretence of disability of expressing their wants to God, might learn that true sense of need never wan­ted words to crave reliefe: Every begger can with sufficient eloquence im­portune the Passenger for his Almes. Did they not rather lack an heart than a tongue, they could not be defective in bemoaning themselves to heaven for what they lack; Especial­ly, whiles we have to doe with such a God, as more esteemes broken clauses made up with hearty sighes, than all the comple­ments of the most curious Eloquence in the world.

On the other side there [Page 269] are certain zealous Devo­tionists, which abhorre all set formes, and fixed hours of Invocation, teaching (and so practising) that they may not pray, but when they feele a strong impulsion of Gods Spirit to that holy work; where­upon it hath come to pass, that whole daies, yea, weekes, have gone over their heads, unblessed by their prayers; who might have taken notice, that, un­der the Law, God had his regular course of constant hours for his morning and evening Sacrifices; that the ancient Saints under the old Testament, held close to Davids rule, Psal. 55.17. Eve­ning and Morning, and at Noon to pray and cry a­loud; [Page 270] so as the very Lions could not fright Daniel from his taske: And even after the vaile of the Tem­ple was rent, Act. 2.1. Peter and Iohn went up together to Gods house, at the ninth hour, to Evening Prayer. Yea, what stand we upon this? when the Apostle of the Gen­tiles charges us, 1 Thes. 5.17. To pray continually: Not that wee should in the midst of a sensible indisposednesse of heart fall suddainly into a fashionable Devotion; but that by holy Ejaculations, and previous Meditation, wee should make way for a feeling Invocation of our God, whose eares are ne­ver but open to our faith­full Prayers. If wee first (though silently) pray that [Page 271] we may pray, the fervour of our Devotion shall grow upon us in praying: these holy Waters of the Sanctuary, that at first did but wet the soles of our feet, shall, in their happy processe, rise up to our chinnes. I thanke thee, O God, that thou hast given me a desire to walk even between these extremities: As I would be ever in a praying disposition to thee, so I would not willingly break houres with thee; I would neither sleepe nor wake without praying; but I would never pray without feeling. If my heart goe not along with formes of words, I do not pray, but babble; and if that be bent upon the mat­ter [Page 272] of my sute, it is all one to thee, whether the words be my own, or borrowed. Let thy good Spirit ever teach me to pray, and help me in praying: Let that e­ver make intercessions for me with groanings which cannot be expressed; Rom. 8.26. and then, if thou canst, send me away empty.

Soliloq. LXXIV. The sick mans Vowes.

THe answer was not amisse, Aeneas Sylv. de Reb. gest▪ Alph. which Theodo­ricus Bishop of Coleine is said to have given to Sigis­mond the Emperor, who demanding how he might be directed the right way [Page 273] to heaven, received an­swer; If thou walk so, as thou promisedst in thy painfull fit of the Stone, or Gout. Our extremities commonly render us holy: and our paine is prodigall of those Vowes, which our case is as niggardly in per­forming. The distressed Mariner, in the perill of a Tempest, vows to his Saint a Taper as big as the Mast of his ship; which upon his comming to shoare, is shrunk into a rush-candle. There was never a more stiffe-necked people than that, which should have been Gods peculiar, yet, upon every new plague, how doe they crouch and creep to the power, which their murmurs provoked? [Page 274] And wee daily see Despe­ration makes those Vota­ries, whom health dispen­seth with, as the loosest of Libertines. Were it essen­tiall to prosperity, thus to pervert and debauch us, it were enough to make a good heart out of love with welfare, since the pleasure and profit of the best estate is far too short of recompensing the mis­chiefe of a depraved jolli­ty: but now, the fault is in our owne wretched indis­position; the blessing is Gods, the abuse is ours. Is the Sun to be blamed that the Travellers cloak swelts him with heat? Is the fruit of the Grape guilty of that Drunkennesse which fol­lowes upon a sinful excess? [Page 275] Can we not feed on good meate without a surfet? And whose fault is it but ours, if wee forget the en­gagements of our sicke beds? Rather than health should make us godlesse, how much better were it for us to be alwaies sicke? O my God, I do acknow­ledge, and bewaile this wretched frailty of our corrupt nature; Wee are not the same men sick and whole; we are apt to pro­mise thee fair, and to pay thee with disappointment; and are ready to put off our holy thoughts with our biggens: It is thou on­ly that canst remedy this sicknesse of our health, by working us to a constant mortification. O do thou [Page 276] ever blesse thy servant, either with sanctified cros­ses, or a temperate prospe­rity.

Soliloq. LXXV. The suggestions of a false heart.

SUrely, if thousands of souls perish by the flat­tery of others, more perish by their own; whiles their naturall selfe-love soothes them with plausible, but untrue suggestions, concer­ning their estate: Is the question concerning grace? the false heart tells a man he is stored to superfluity, and excesse; when hee is indeed more bare and beg­garly [Page 277] than the proud Pa­stor of Laodicea. Is the question of sinne? It pro­claimes him, not innocent only but a Saint; it tells him his hands are pure, when hee is up to the el­bows in blood; that his tongue is holy, when it is foule with perjury and blasphemy; that his eye is honest and chaste, when it is full of adultery; that his soul is clean, when it is de­filed with abominable lusts, or with cruell ran­cour, and malice. Is the question concerning Ver­tue? It tels a man hee is just, when he is all made up of rapine, and violent oppression; that hee is e­minently wise, when hee hath not wit enough to [Page 278] know himselfe a fool; that he is free handed and mu­nificent, when he sticks not to rob beggars; that he is piously religious, whiles he puls downe Churches: Thus is the man still hid from himself, and is made to see another in his owne skin: He cannot repent, be­cause hee thinkes himselfe faultles; he cannot amend, because hee is ever at the best: his only ease and ad­vantage is, that he is carri­ed hoodwinkt into hell. If the question be concerning some scrupulous act to bee done or omitted, now self-respect plaies its prizes at all weapons; what shifting and traversing there is to avoid the dint of a present danger? what fine colours, [Page 279] and witty Equivocations doth the soule finde out, to cozen it self into a safe of­fence. If the question be of a sinfull act already com­mitted, what a shuffling there is to face it out by a stout justification? maugre conscience, it was not law­full onely, but (such as the circumstances were) expe­dient also; And if it be so foul, that an apology is too odious, yet an extenuation cannot but be admitted: be it amisse, yet, not hainous, not unmeet for pardon. One would thinke Hell should have little need of the fawning assentation of others, when men carry so dangerous Parasites in their owne Bosomes: But sure both together must [Page 280] needs helpe to people that Region of darkness. Take heed, O my soul, how thou givest way to these flatte­ring thoughts, whether a­rising from thy own breast, or injected by others; and know, thou art never in more danger, than when thou art most applauded: Looke upon thine Estate, and Actions with unparti­all and severe eies; Behold thine owne face, not in the false glasse of opinion, and mercenary Adulation, but in the true and perfect glasse of the Royall Law of thy Creator; that shall duely represent unto thee, whether the beauty of thy graces, or the blemishes of thy manifold imperfecti­ons; that alone shall tell [Page 281] thee how much thou art advanced in a gracious proficiency, and how shamefully defective thou art in what thou oughtedst to have attained: Judge of thy selfe by that unfailing rule, and bee indifferent what thou art judged of by others.

Soliloq. LXXVI. Sacred Melody.

WHat a marvailous­ly chearfull service was that, O God, which thou requiredst, and hadst performed, under the Law: Here was not a dumbe and silent act in thy Sacrifices, a Beast [Page 282] bleeding before thy Altar, and a Smoake, and Flame arising out of it; Here was not a cloudy perfume qui­etly ascending from the golden Altar of thine In­cense: but, here was the merry noise of most me­lodious musick, singing of Psalmes, and sounding of all harmonious instru­ments. 2 Chro. 29.25, 28. 2 Chro. 5.12, 13. The Congregation were upon their knees, the Levites upon their Stage sweetly singing, the Priests sounding the Trumpets, together with Cymbals, Harps, Psalteries, making up one sound in praising and thanking the Lord. Me thinks I hear, and am ravished to hear in some of thy solemne daies, an hundred and twenty of [Page 283] thy Priests sounding with Trumpets; Thy Levites in greater number, singing aloud with the Mixture of their musicall instruments; So as not the Temple one­ly, but the Heaven rings a­gain; and even in thy dai­ly Sacrifices, each morning and evening, I find an hea­venly Mirth; Musicke, if not so loud, yet no lesse sweet, and delicate; no fewer than twelve Levites might bee standing upon the stage every day sing­ing a divine Ditty over thy sacrifice; Mamonides in Cle. ha­mikdash. c. 3 Psalteries not fewer than two, nor more than sixe; Pipes, not fewer than two, nor more than twelve; Trum­pets two at the least, and but one Cymball; so pro­portioned [Page 284] by the Masters of thy Chore, as those that meant to take the heart through the eare: I finde where thy holy servants, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, (doubtlesse by thy graci­ous direction, yea, by thy direct command Chro▪ 29.25, 28.) both appointed, and made use of these melodious Servi­ces; I doe not finde where thou hast forbidden them: this I am sure of, since thou art still and ever the same, under both Law and Gos­pell, that thou both requi­rest, and delightest in the chearfull devotions of thy servants; If wee have not the same sounds with thy legall worshippers, yet we should still have the same affections. As they might [Page 285] not waite upon thee, sor­rowfull; so it is not for us to praise thee with droo­ping and dejected spirits. O God, doe thou quicken my spirituall dulnesse in thy holy service; and when I come to Celebrate thy great Name, whiles the Song is in my mouth, let my heart be the stage, wherein Trumpets and Psalteries, and Harps shall sound forth thy praise.

Soliloq. LXXVII. Blemishes of the holy function.

I Cannot but blesse my selfe at the sight of that strange kinde of curiosity, which is reported to have been used in the choice of [Page 286] those, who were of old admitted to serve at the Altar; If Levi must bee singled out from all Israel, yet thousands must bee re­fused of the Tribe of Levi: Wee are told, that, not­withstanding that privi­ledge of bloud, no lesse than an hundred and for­ty blemishes might ex­clude a man from this sa­cred Ministration; Maymon. in giath ha­mikdash. where­of nineteen in the eyes, nine in the eares, twenty in the feet; such an holy nicenesse there was in the Election of the legall Priesthood, that, if there were not found an exact symmetrie of all parts of the body, & not comelines onely, but a perfection of outward forme in those [Page 287] Levitical Candidates, they might by no meanes be al­lowed to serve in the San­ctuary; they might have place in some out-roomes, and cleave Wood for the Altar; and might claime a portion in the holy things; but they might not med­dle with the sacred Uten­sils, nor set foot upon the floor of the holy place. It was thy charge, O God, that those Sons of Aaron, which drew neare to thee, should be void of blemish; thou, which wouldst have the beasts of thy Sacrifice free from bodily imper­fection, wouldst much more have thy Sacrificers so: The generality of the Command was thine; the particularities of the num­bers [Page 288] are Traditionall: And well might the care of these outward observati­ons agree with the peda­gogie of that law, which consisted in externall rites; but we well know, it was the inward purity of the heart, and integrity of an unspotted life, that thou meant'st to aime at, under the figure of these bodily perfections, which, if it were wanting, it was not a skin-deep beauty, and ex­quisitenesse of shape, that could give a son of Aaron an allowed accesse to thine Altar: Hophni and Phine­has, the ill sonnes of good Eli, were outwardly ble­mishlesse, else they had not been capable of so holy a [...] attendance; but their in­solencies [Page 287] and beastlinesse made them more loath­some to thee, than if they had been Lepers, or Mon­sters of outward deformi­ty: And can wee thinke that thou hast lesse regard to the purity of the Evan­gelicall Ministerie, than thou formerly hadst of the Legall? Can we think the spirituall blemishes of thine immediate servants under the Gospel, can be a lesse eye-sore to thee, than the externall blemishes of thy Priesthood under the Law? Oh that my head were waters, Ier. 9.1. and mine eies a fountaine of teares, that I might weep night and day for the enormi­ties of those, who professe to waite on thy Evangeli­call [Page 288] Sanctuary? My sor­row and piety cannot but bewaile them to thee, though my charity forbids me to blazon them to the world. Mal. 3.2. Oh thou, that art as the Refiners fire, and the Fullers soap, doe thou pu­rifie all the sonnes of thy spirituall Levi: Mal. 3.4. Do thou purge them as Gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousnesse; Then shall the Offerings of our Judah and Jerusalem bee pleasant to the Lord, as in the daies of old, and as in former yeers.

Soliloq. LXXVIII. The blessed Reward.

WHen Paulinus came first into this Island, Beda Eccles. Hister. l. 2. cap. 13. to preach the Gos­pell, to our then-Pagan Ancestors, King Edwin thought good to consult with his Priests, and No­bles, whether it were best to give any entertainment to the Christian Religion, which was by that stran­ger Preached, and recom­mended to his people.

Up starts one Coifi, the Arch-Priest of those Hea­then Idols, and freely saies; There is no vertue or goodnesse, O King, in this Religion, which wee have [Page 290] hitherto embraced; There is none of all thy Subjects, that hath more studiously addicted himselfe to the Service and worship of our gods, than my selfe; Yet I am sure there are many that have prospered better, and have received more favours from thee, than I have done; And if our gods could doe any thing, they would rather have been beneficent to me, that have most care­fully served them: It re­maines then, that if these new doctrines, which are preacht to us, bee found upon examination, to bee better, and more availea­ble, that without all delay we do readily receive, and welcome them. Thus [Page 291] spake a true Idols Priest, that knew no Ell whereby to measure Religion, but Profit; no proofe of a just Cause, but successe; no Conviction of Injustice, but mis-carriage. Yea, e­ven thine Altars, O righ­teous God, were never quit of some such merce­nary attendants, who seek for onely gain in godliness: Ier. 44.17, 18. If the Queene of Heaven afford them better penny worths and more plenty than the King of Heaven, she shall have their Cakes, and their Incense, and their hearts to boot. I know thee, O Lord, to be a mu­nificent Rewarder of all that serve thee; yet if thou shouldest give me no wa­ges, I will serve thee; If [Page 292] thou shouldest pay mee with hunger and stripes, and prisons, and death, I will serve thee. Away base thoughts of earthly remu­neration, I will honour and serve thee, O God, for thine owne sake, for thy services sake; yet I have no reason not to re­gard thine infinite bounty; It is no lesse than a Crown that thou hast promised me; and that I shall hum­bly aspire unto, and expect from thee, not as in the way of my merit, but of thy meer mercy; My ser­vice is free in a zealous and absolute Consecrati­on to thee, thy hand is more free in my so graci­ous Retribution: If thou be pleased to give thy ser­vant [Page 293] such a weight of glo­ry, the glory of that Gift is thine: My service is out of my just duty, thy Re­ward is of thy Grace, and divine Beneficence. Doe thou give me to doe what thou bidst me, and then deal with me as thou wilt. As the glory of thy Name is the drift of all my acti­ons, so the glory that thou givest mee cannot but re­dound to the glory of thine infinite mercy. Blessed bee thy Name in what thou givest, whiles thou makest mee blessed in what I re­ceive from thee.

Soliloq. LXXIX. Presages of Judgement.

SEldome ever doe wee read of any great muta­tion in Church or State, which is not usher'd in, with some strange Pro­digies; either raining of Bloud, or apparitions of Comets, or airy Armies fighting in the Clouds, or Sea-Monsters appearing, or monstrous Births of men, or Beasts, or bloudy Springs breaking out, or direfull noises heard; or some such like uncouth premonitors; which the great and holy God sends purposely to awaken our Security, and to prepare [Page 295] us either for expectation, or prevention of Judge­ments; wherein, the mer­cy of God marvellously magnifies it selfe towards sinnefull Man-kind, that he wills not to surprise us with unwarned evills, but would have his punish­ments anticipated by a seasonable repentance: But of all the fore-tokens of thy fearefullest plagues prepared for any Nation, O God, there is none so certain, as the prodigious sinnes of the people com­mitted with an high hand against Heaven, against so cleare a light, so power­full Convictions. The monstrous and unmatch­able Heresies, the hellish Blasphemies, the brutish [Page 296] Incests, the savage Mur­thers, the horrible Sacri­leges, Perjuries, Sorceries of any People, can be no other than the professed Harbingers of Vengeance; these are our shoures of bloud; these are our ill-boding Comet; these are our mishapen Births; which an easie Augurie might well construe to portend our threatned de­struction.

1 King, 18.44.The Prophet did not more certainely foretell, when he heard of an hand-broad Cloud arising from the Sea, that a vehement Rain was comming, than Gods Seers might fore­know, when they saw this darke Cloud of our sins mounting up towards [Page 297] Heaven, that a Tempest of Judgement must necessa­rily follow.

But, Esa. 63.15. Oh thou God of infinite mercy and com­passion, looke downe from Heaven upon us, and be­hold us from the Habitati­on of thy Holines: Where is thy Zeale, and thy Strength, the sounding of thy Bowells, and of thy mercies towards us? Are they restrained? If so, it is but just; For surely wee are a sinfull Nation, a Peo­ple laden with iniquity: Esa. 1.4. We have seen our Tokens, and have felt thy Hand; yet we have not turned to thee from our evill waies: to us therefore justly be­longeth confusion of Fa­ces, Dan. 9.8. because we have sinned [Page 298] against thee: But to thee, O Lord our God, 9. belong mercies and forgivenesses, though wee have rebelled against thee; Oh spare, spare the remnant of thy people: Dan. 9.16. Let thine Anger and thy fury be turned a­way from thy chosen in­heritance. 17. O my God, hear the Prayer of thy servant, and his Supplications, and cause thy face to shine up­on thy Sanctuary that is desolate: Dan. 9.19. O Lord heare, O Lord forgive, O Lord hearken, and defer not for thine owne sake, O my God.

Soliloq. LXXX. Ʋnwearied Motion, and Rest Eternall.

I See thy Heavens, O God, move about con­tinually, and are never weary of their revolution; whereas all sublunary Creatures are soon tyred with their motions, and seek for ease, in their in­termissions: Even so, O my soule, the nearer thou growest to celestiall, the more constant shall thy courses be, and the freer from that lassitude that hangs upon thine earthly part. As it is now with me, thou seest, I soone find an unavoidable defatigation in all things.

[Page 300]I am weary of labour, and, when that is done, I am no lesse weary of do­ing nothing; weary of the day, and more weary of the night; weary of all postures; weary of all pla­ces; weary of any one (if never so pleasing) imploy­ment; weary, even of vari­eties; weary of those, which some men call, re­creations; weary of those (wherein I finde most de­light) my Studies. But, O my soule, if thou be once soundly heaveniz'd in thy thoughts, and affections, it shall bee otherwise with thee; then thou shalt be e­ver (like this Firmament) most happily restlesse; thou shalt then finde ever worke enough to contem­plate [Page 301] that infinite Deity, who dwels in the Light inaccessible; to see (with ravishment of spirit) thy deare Saviour in his glori­fied humanity, adored by all the powers of heaven; to view the blessed Orders of that Celestiall Hierar­chy, attending upon the throne of Majesty; to be­hold, and admire the un­speakable, and incompre­hensible glory of the Saints: These are Objects, with the sight whereof thine eie shall never bee satisfied, much lesse cloy­ed: Besides that the hopes and desires of enjoying so great felicity, and the care of so composing thy selfe, as that thou maiest be ever readily addressed for the [Page 302] fruition of it, shall wholly take thee up, with such con­tentment, that all earthly pleasures shall bee no bet­ter than torments in com­parison thereof. O, then my soule, since (as a spark of that heavenly fire) thou canst never be but in moti­on, fix here above, where thy movings can bee no o­ther than pleasing, and be­atificall.

And as thou, O my God, hast a double Heaven, a lower heaven for motion, and an Empyreall heaven for rest; One, patent to the eye, the other visible to our faith: so let my soule take part with them both; Let it ever bee mo­ving towards thee, and in thee, (like this visible hea­ven) [Page 303] and (since the end of all motion is rest) let it e­ver rest with thee, in that invisible Region of glory. So let it move ever to thee whiles I am here, that it may ever rest with thee in thine eternall glory here­after. Amen.