A contemplation of heaven with an exercise of love, and a descant on the prayer in the garden. By a Catholick gent. White, Thomas, 1543-1676. 1654 Approx. 200 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 101 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A65777 Wing W1814A ESTC R220997 99832380 99832380 36853 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A65777) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 36853) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 2142:4) A contemplation of heaven with an exercise of love, and a descant on the prayer in the garden. By a Catholick gent. White, Thomas, 1543-1676. [8], 189, [3] p. [s.n.], At Paris : printed in the yeare 1654. Dedication signed: Tho: White. "An exercise of love, with a descant on the prayer in the garden" hasseparate dated title page; register and pagination are continuous. Includes errata and a final page of advertisements. Reproduction of the original in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Prayer -- Early works to 1800. Heaven -- Early works to 1800. 2004-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-10 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-11 John Latta Sampled and proofread 2004-11 John Latta Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A CONTEMPLATION OF HEAVEN : WITH AN EXERCISE OF LOVE AND A DESCANT ON THE Prayer in the Garden . By a Catholick Gent. PSAL. 73. 25. Quid mihi est in coelo ; & à te quid volui super terram ? AT PARIS , Printed in the YEARE 1654. To the Vertuous and Honourable LADY , The LADY KATH : VVHITE . MADAM , NO wonder if a complaint falling from your mouth , that you found the consideration of Heaven dry , and knew not how to frame a content some thought of it , was able to set a dull wit on work , and make an insipid pen distill milk and honey : for it is you that do it . Accept therefore these nine drops of oyl , which the fervour of your desire has extracted from a hard Flint . But I must advertise you , they still retein their stony nature ; and unlesse you apply the same fire , according to the Rules of Alchimy , beginning with a soft and gentle heat , and proceeding with a constant encrease ; they will neither render their sweetnesse to your sense , nor their balsamick vertue to your substance . For ( Madam ) in the perusall of these Discourses , you will easily find the best method to be , first quietly to read them , seeking no farther then onely to understand , and afterwards by more serious thoughts to imprint and sink them deep into your affections . By serious thoughts , I mean not forc'd impetuosities of your will , upon a conceit that you are rapt to supernaturall and unintelligible heights ; but onely such reflections as the care of friends , of children , or houshold affaires ( where your help is required ) use to stirre in you : for these are naturall and free , and ( apply'd to what ought to be our greatest care ) work those solid vertues which make a true Christian life the principall aim of all our desires and endeavours , and the principall wish to your Ladyship of , MADAM , Your most affectionate Brother and humble Servant , THO : WHITE . From Paris this 1. of Sept. 1653. Th' Addresse to English CATHOLICKS . BEhold that rich Comfort , whereof in vain you court and scramble to retrive the least Drop below in this your Novercall countrey ; behold it here familiarly stoop'd to woo your lips from Supernall Jerusalem , the true and free Mother of us all . The greedy thirst of One ( now inebriated above ) obtain'd for Her self some yeares since this Elixir ; which the choaking necessity of these hot Times has at length dissolv'd into a charitable diffusion of it self to the wide world . Drink you , dear Friends , jovially of it ; ( the deeper the sweeter ; ) without fear of excesse , which will surelyest render it a calm Lethe to your sufferings here , and make wider passage and room in you for that Torrent of Pleasure , it earnest's hereafter . And though this cheering Cup be proper for you alone , ( the happily enrolled Guests , already sweating in the royal way to the future Feast ; ) yet is it not grudg'd , nor wil't , I hope , be unprofitable to those many others ( invited too ) your haplesse Country-men , who either ramble through by-Lanes , miserably erring , or lie in the Hedges timorously watching , or lazily sleeping , whilst ( alas ) they pretend your Errand : since , it 's bosome Design and choice Vertue is contriv'd to rouse and rally the Spirits , and inveigling the Tast , to beget and sharpen the Appetite ; which thus , perhaps , alarm'd , might pro , voke a sollicitude , and compell them too to come in that our dread Kings house may be full . A CONTEMPLATION OF HEAVEN , Between the Soul and Light. The first discourse . Soul. WOe 's me ! why was I born to see the Sun ? why did my Mother rejoyce to hear me cry , and to receive the newes that I was a living Soul ? Light. Why dost thou moane so pittifully ? Cast thine eyes upon the Almighty , who hath so often comforted , and still surely continues his assistance to thee . Soul. Why do I moan , to whom there is left neither rest in this world , nor hope in the next ? here I do nothing but offend my God , and there what can I expect , but a just Judge of my perpetuall offences ? Light. Why do you offend him so often ? Soul. Alas ! I do what I can , I am in continuall watchfulnesse over my self , I am alwayes making Examens of my Conscience , but I find no end , no amendment . My thoughts prevent my care , and in despite of me , draw me to trespasse ; whilest I am solicitous of one , another escapes ; and thus I live a tortured life , ever seeking Innocence , and that still flying me . Light. And do you think God is displeased so highly with you , your self using all this care and diligence ? Soul. How can he choose , I offending him so perpetually ? Light. Do you hurt him , when you offend him ? Soul. No , my good does him no good , nor can my malice do him any harm , yet I offend and anger him . Light. Do you then believe he is in heart vext and griev'd , as we are , when we are angry ? Soul. Not so neither , for then he receiv'd harm and were mutable , since this boiling of anger in us is a great mischief . Light. Why , take away this , and anger is nothing but a will to punish you ; and can you think God hath such a will ? no just man , no good natur'd Creature is delighted in punishment , much lesse Almighty God. Soul. Why are we then perpetually frighted with Hell for great faults , and Purgatory for lesser ones , which two continually hang over my head , in a dreadfull manner threatning and tormenting me ? Light. Though Almighty God be not desirous to punish , yet he were not so good as your self would wish him , if , seeing your own miscarriage would lead you to great torments , he did not foretell you of them , and use all meanes apt to hinder you from falling into them : hence therefore he forbids those actions , by which you draw upon you such mischiefs , he denounces those mischiefs if you abstain not from such actions , he promises infinite rewards if you observe what he prescribes you ; which are the wayes to deal with Men , as Men. Soul. This comes but another way to the same point ; for still those terrours hang upon me , and the same carefulnesse is necessary to me ; and consequently the same torment in this life , and desperation of that to come . Light. If you are resolv'd of this , that sin offends not God , farther then as it disorders your self , you see your care must be chang'd , and your solicitousnesse in acts of Pennance and Mortification to satisfie for your sins , must be principally apply'd in correcting your disorder , and setling your heart and affections in a due way and poyze ; which will be your best means to take away the horrour of Hell and Purgatory so much afflicting you . Soul. What must I do to redresse the disorder of my soul ? or wherein consists the due ordering of it ? Light. A Soul is that by which Man excels all other Creatures ; this we see to be by knowledge and government of himself : by knowledge therefore the Soul is then in good order , when it truly knowes all things belonging to the government of Mans life , and governs the Man according to that knowledge . Soul. Why this is but nature , whereas to go to Heaven , 't is necessary we walke in a supernaturall Path , much contrary to nature ; wherefore sure this cannot be right . Light. There are two things in Man which are call'd Nature ; one Reason , which truly is his Nature , ruling all his actions as he is Man , and distinguishing him from Beasts . The other is this frame of our Materiall Instruments , which we call our Body , consisting of Motion , of Blood and Spirits , which have a course in us so depending from other causes , that neverthelesse a great part is in our power . Of these two Natures , Reason often contradicts the Inferiour , and therefore Grace and our supernaturall way must do the same : Whereas for Reason , Grace never contradicts it , but guides it , and shewes it that many things ( which otherwise it would never have attain'd to ) are very reasonable , and by force of reason it self ought to be enacted and put in execution . For our supernaturall life is like a Graft , which though it bear a better fruit then the Stock , yet can it bring forth nothing but by means of that , and in the season wherein the Stock of it self flourishes . Soul. Then I must employ my time in gaining knowledge , and governing my self according to it ; but what should I seek to know ? Light. Your enquiry may be fully satisfied , if you confine your search to these two Heads , To learn the things that concerne you in the next life , which are chiefly , Heaven and Hell ; in Heaven I comprehend all that belongs to Almighty God , as well to his Godhead as his Humanity : And secondly , to study what in this life imports you , which is the real valuation of those motives that govern mankind here , and the true and straight way that leads to blisse hereafter . Soul. Surely this cannot chuse but be a pleasant and delightsome Method : For what more pleasant then to know , especially such truths as most are ignorant of ? what more delightsome , then to enjoy a clear serenity of mind , free from those errours we see our Neighbours tossed and turmoyl'd in ? But above all , what can be so ravishing , as to understand we are in the direct path towards those great felicities promised us in the next life ? Light. If you take the right course and ply it diligently , you shall ( instead of that anxious and troublesome way you walk ) possesse all this pleasure and much more , whereof , as yet , you have no feeling : nay ( which you little think ) your whole pursuit shall be after pleasures , and those the highest this life can afford . For , since Reason is our Nature ( which hath the greatest stroak in all our actions ) and whatever is conformable to Nature , the more powerfull Nature is , the more pleasant that must be ; it follows , the pleasures of Reason are greater far then those of Sense . Now Grace being but an heightening of Reason , what is conformable to Grace must be still more pleasing to Nature . Soul. I can easily apprehend the Contemplation of Heaven must be full of pleasure , especially if the Contemplatour findes in himself hopes of attaining thither : but I know not how the dreadfull consideration of Hell and Death and Judgement should be pleasing , being of themselves such frightfull things . Light. As for those fearfull objects , you need not trouble your self yet , if you find the considerations of Heaven take hold of your Soul , which ( when they are once settled and well possess'd of your heart ) will alone so entertain and fill you , that you will be free and secure from the irksomenesse of other apprehensions : but you must first strive to be in love with heaven and heavenly things , if possibly you can . Soul. I confesse , hitherto my considerations have been very dry , I not being able to make any apprehension of what pleasure can possibly be found , where all that gives us content here will be wanting . The second discourse . Light. NOw , if you were sure to find there the same pleasures you enjoy here , in this only changed , that what ever makes them short , noysome , tedious , or allayes them here with any other discommodity , is not there to be found , so that the pleasure is there more clear , more sweet , perpetuall , and never cloying ; you must , of necessity , make a good apprehension of a desirable place , and lovely end to aim at . Soul. If you can make me see this , I hope I shall be better affected to Heaven , & that with a naturall tye . Whereas now I force my self to love a thing , which I cannot understand what it is . Light. Well then , do you take pleasure in company of friends with whom you can be free ? Soul. Very much , especially if their discourse be such as goes down with some smartnesse and delight . Light. At least then there 's one pleasure in heaven which you can relish : for friends and acquaintance you cannot want there ; all that are in Heaven knowing all , being familiar with all , and their hearts lying open to all ; so that what delight you can imagine in conversation , you shall have there a thousand fold multiplied above what it is here . Soul. But that which pleases me here , is to be with a friend in a corner , where no body may hear our discourse ; for it would be a great annoyance to have any one partaker of our secrets . Light. And why ( if you have reflected upon it ) is it troublesome to have overhearers of your discourse ? Soul. Because some would laugh at my follyes or imperfections , and jeere at my conceits , different from theirs ; others would carry tales abroad , and make a businesse of nothing ; others are indiscreet , and altogether unable to give me either advice or comfort , but talk nonsense , and rather trouble me then do me good . Light. Then if the company were such , that from every one you could promise your self all respect , love , prudence , and such parts as should be fit to improve & heighten the content you aimed at ; the plurality of those with whom you converse would rather strengthen your pleasure , then any way diminish it . Soul. 'T is true , but I cannot conceive , if the company be greater then a certain proportion , which by interchange may still keep life in the discourse , but that the conversation must either be hindred , by many speaking at once , or dull , by one party's speaking so seldome . Light. But , on the contrary , if you did apprehend the whole multitude without intermission speaking together , and that he that speaks , perfectly understood all the rest , and himself also were perfectly understood by every one ; so that each continually declared his own mind without the least impediment to understand perfectly at the same time what all others said ; and this not onely to himself , but any one to any other : do you not see what the proportion of content by such discourse would be to the satisfaction you find here , when you are in the fullest careere of joy that ever you experimented , or can wish , or even imagine , according to the course of our conversation ? Soul. If this were true , I see an extreme increase of pleasure in Heaven , over the greatest our Nature is capable of here : but withall , I see it is impossible men should hear and understand so many persons together , and speak to them all in exchange . Light. I confesse this is hard to be believ'd by one that hath not yet reached to the nature of a Spirit : but he that could conceive all this we call Body , and diffusion of bignesse and parts , must of necessity be resum'd in the indivisible thing we call a Spirit , ( so that all the imaginable operations of materiall substances can never arrive to equall the activity of the least Spirit ) he would easily allow it this priviledge of being capable to do as much as a thousand tongues , and a thousand eares at once . But 't is not my task now to evince a possibility , only to exact a belief of this opinion , and upon supposal of its truth , shew you how infinitely greater the content in Heaven must necessarily be , then the highest pleasure this world can afford . Soul. But unlesse I talk of such persons and things , as both my self and they with whom I converse , know and are acquainted with the circumstances of every passage , the conversation is dry and unpleasing . Now here they are very few , who have knowledge of the same particulars that I have ; for their number is confin'd to such as I live withall ; and I know not whether I can expect to meet many of them in heaven , the straitnesse of the way and the paucity of the enterers being so often and so strongly inculcated to us . Light. It were a very hard question to determine the number of those that go to heaven , and at this time would divert our discourse : only this I will say , that the paucity of the blessed may well stand with this truth , that many of such Christians as live innocently in the world are saved . Wherefore I fear not but you may have enough to converse with , who are acquainted with the particulars your self are . But what will you think , if every one hath as cleare a sight of all your circumstances , as your own heart ? for it were a great simplicity to imagine the Soul , abstracted from the Body , hath no means to know things without it , since in the Body it hath ; and , if it be furnisht with any means , it is not possible but it should know whatever it pleases . But ( as I said before ) the proof of these things is to be sought elsewhere : here we are onely to consider how great and full the pleasure of a blessed Soul is , these things being so as I have declared . Soul. I must confesse you have now made Heaven a tractable thing to me : for by these considerations , I do not onely find a common apprehension of good , but I can lay hands upon intelligible pleasures , whereby to content my naturall desires , and with hope thereof make them pursue the endeavours , and undergoe the difficulties necessary to the attaining them . Light. Reflect then a little , and summe up , or rather conclude what kind of life in Heaven this pleasure will afford you . Remember some afternoon or couple of houres , in which your pleasing conversation hath been at height , remember the twinkling of some one conceit , which especially carryed away your heart , and for the time possessed it wholly : think with your self , had the whole two houres continu'd like that minute , how unspeakable your pleasure had been . Then elevate your fancy , and conceive in Heaven , not houres , nor dayes , nor yeares , but ages of ages , but an eternity will be of that dainty ravishing contentment . Joyne ( if you are able ) all these encreases and advantages , which we have expressed , whereof there is not one but drawes an incomparable extremity with it : and if only this were once well master of your thoughts , I do not see how any temporall thing could either please or discontent you , or that you would not as much long for death , as now you adhorre and fear it . Soul. The world 's chang'd with me , I find my self refresht with this thought , and in a cheerfull disposition . Light. Yes for the present , but it will not stay long with you , unlesse you play your part , and cultivate the opening seeds , which now ferment in your heart : and this must be by often thinking of and remembring these and such other considerations , partly at set times , and partly whenever you find your self in a fitting disposition , that is , at ease , alone , & your mind free , or peradventure inclin'd to good thoughts ; lose not these tides , as I may call them , for they bring great waves of spirituall profit . In the happy opportunity , strive to penetrate with a cleer understanding the verity of such points ; then turn your self upon your self , and see what you do , and what you should do according to these truths . Encourage your self to what is wanting , amend what is amisse , and sigh after the great reward we all labour for . The third discourse . Soul. HItherto it goes well , but in so great a happinesse and so glorious a State , is there but one content ? Light. If there were no other then what is already declared , I believe there were more , not only then you can wish in this world , but also then you would be weary of in the next . Neverthelesse since your palate is so dainty that it must have varieties , think with your self what other thing there is here , wherein you take great pleasure , and love to spend your time . Soul. The next that comes to my mind is , that I am much delighted with Masks and Shews , and in going to Court , especially when there are grea meetings and bravery there ; these things extreamely take me , in so much that I can endure to expect a great while ( as half a day or more ) in some disease , to be present at such sights and Assemblies . Light. And when these things are in their perfection , can you tell what it is that therein delights you ? Soul. I think it is those passages which ( meeting afterwards with others that have or have not been there ) I use to discourse of and commend . And all those being either Things , or Persons ; in Things I commend the greatnesse , beauty , or good proportion , some fine conveyance , some rare and new invention : in Persons I praise their comlinesse , the gracefulnesse of their behaviour , the perfection and compleatnesse of their actions . These I conceive for the most part are the principal causes of the delight and relish I find in such encounters . Light. I hope then you will not want this contentment also in heaven . For ( to begin with Persons ) you shall have in your company those who have ever been the greatest and worthiest in all considerations ; Adam the beginner of the World , & Noah its restorer ; you shall have Abraham the Father of that Nation , which , after so many ages continuance in the Prerogative of the Elect people of Almighty God , is now by their dispersion into all Nations , become to them a Testimony of Christianity ; you shall have Moses , who , like the Lieutenant of the highest , in all sorts of miracles establisht the Law , the Field wherein Christianity was blazoned ; you shall have David and Solomon , ( if his Penance was true in his old dayes ) you shall have Kings , Captains , and Prophets , all in their degrees before Christ. What shall I say of Christ and his Apostles , of Bishops , Martyrs and Hermites ? what of the so fruitfull devouter Sexe ? All these have expressed the most generous evidence of Universall Gallantry , and shewn the noblest effects of all such vertues as breed admiration in humane hearts . What Court , what Maske , what Shew can feign or counterfit so much , as Heaven will afford you reall objects to be ravished with ? Soul. 'T is true , but I am not taken with these high and sublime vertues , which I do not well apprehend . But if I see a Gentleman Noble , Liberall , Courteous , Valiant , and Honourable of his word , such qualities make a deep impression in my affections . Light. Why then , if you find all these perfections , not onely to be in your Company above , but in a far higher degree too , and greater measure of excellency then can be in any persons here , you must certainly be charmed with a strange excesse of Pleasure . And ( to enter a little into the businesse ) I cannot doubt so much as to ask , whether you are pleased with the outward shew of these vertues , which are in the Heart . Soul. You need not , for were they counterfeit , or no greater in the heart then in the outward shew , I should lose my esteem of the persons . But out of one generous Act expressed , we imagine the heart , ready to perform a hundred , & to be as it were naturally and unchangeably fitted to do the like again , when occasion is offered : this makes me highly value and be delighted with the person . Light. Then if heaven afford you thousands and millions of hearts , which you may see into , as clearly as into the purest stream or fountain of water you can imagine , and there behold all these admirable qualities in a high perfection , and so immutably settled , that sooner heaven and earth may fall in pieces , then they decline the least tittle from that degree of worth they are exalted to ; how can you then doubt that your pleasure there , even in this very kind , will not be infinitely preferrable to the greatest the world can furnish you ? And for those high vertues , of which you say you feel little apprehension ; your state there will be so improved , that you will be able exactly to penetrate the true value of every one , which will make you see with how much passion , ignorance , and over-sight the greatest actions of this life are manag'd . You 'l discern evidently that the valour of Captains , the wisdome of Statesmen , the skill of great Clerks , are not comparable to , make no bulk or shew in comparison of that Knowledge , Prudence and Courage , which those contemned persons , and here reputed-fools ever carried enclosed in their breasts . Think what infinite pleasure and content you will infallibly receive in contemplating them , and being informed of their worths . Soul. All this I must of necessity confesse , but yet I do not see that in heaven there will be either the comelinesse of the persons , the gracefulnesse of their behaviour , or the variety of their attires , and such otherthings , wherewith ( I speak but in mine own weaknesse ) I often find my self here much taken and carried away . Light. Alas ! do you not consider that all these are but mute and imperfect expressions of the interiour mind ; and that it is the thing signified which takes you in them all , or else their artifice and conveyance ? In speaking whereof you passe into the other part , of Things , which you distinguished against the consideration of Persons . For take away the mind , and all the rest may be in a Puppet-play or motion , as they call it . Consider again with your self , that a cunning Architect is delighted as much with the Modell of a House , as you with the building it self ; a good Musician with the notes in his head , as you with the singing . Out of which I draw this great and curious truth ; that when you shall be perfect in knowledge ( as is expected in Heaven ) you will not look after these outward expressions , but the Modells which are in the hearts you will see will satisfie and fill the desires beyond all you can wish or imagine . Soul. Peradventure what you say is not only true , but extreamly efficacious , according to the state we shall be in there ; but yet I feel not that impression which wonted and well known objects use to work in me . If there are not even these corporeall motions and fashions which delight me so extreamly here with their novelty , variety , extravagance and excellency , me thinks I apprehend a droughth , not of what shall be there , but of the apprehending what I see shall be there , yet cannot make carry my fancy . Light. Since nothing will content you but the flesh and bloud you are nuzzled in , and that you must carry to heaven with you the very imperfection ( if not of your own mind yet ) of the world you live in : let us at one blow seek to give a resolution , not onely to this your desire , but also to the other part , that is , concerning those qualities which delight you in Things as well as in Persons . Do you therefore remember the answer our Saviour gave to the Sadduces concerning Marriage in the next world ? Soul. You mean , That we should neither marry , nor be married , but be like the Angels of God : This I remember well ; but I desire to know why you put me in minde of it . Light. Wherein do you conceive the likenesse to Angels consists ? For if it be onely in this Negative , why should that be promised for a happiness ? whereas we see the benedictions of marriage promised for a benefit & content . Soul. When I reflect that Angels have no bodies , and therefore all their nature is to be purely knowing Creatures , me thinks our Saviour in these words signifies to us , that the pleasures of the next world should not consist in these corporeall motions which here are gratefull to us , by reason of our bodies ; but that they should be of knowledge , such as are proportioned to Angels : and although we should have bodies , yet they should not hinder our knowledge and pleasure even by them , from being such as the Angels contentment is , at least in likenesse , if not in equality . Light. You are very right , and do you not see every man conceits that , though Angels are no bodies , yet they have means ( and those naturall means too ) to see and know any thing that passes amongst bodies ? do you not hear them set for Governours of corporeall things , even men deliver'd to their charge ? Wherefore you cannot but believe they have a naturall power and force to know all things here below at their will and pleasure . Conceive then that Souls freed from the body have the same capacity , though in a lesse degree ; and that at will they can see what passes in this world , and not onely in this Globe of earth , the world of Man , but in all the other infinite Masse of Bodies , which in truth and rigour is termed the world . Now therefore imagine your self seated upon a high hill ( such as the Devil placed our Saviour on ) with your eyes so perfect and sharp , that whatsoever you had a mind to see , no remotenesse of place , no Hills or Dales , no Clouds or darknesse , no Walls or Dungeons could hide from you : and then think , what could your heart desire in this sort of pleasure , that you were not Mistresse of ? and know that all is far short of what the state of blisse will afford you , even in this kind . For neither could you in that posture ( no not in a Masking house it self ) note all particulars to be seen , nor listen to all you would desire to hear , nor know all you would be earnest to ask ; and ( which is most of all ) you could attend but to one thing at once : whereas in the state of blisse , you shall discern every circumstance perfectly , and all things that are done at once you may know altogether , the one not hindring the other , though there be thousands of them . Soul. But shall I see then whatever I will , of all that passes in this world ? Light. It followes clearly out of what we have said , make no doubt of it , but raise your thoughts and mark . There is a Generall mustering his flourishing Troops , his Drums beating , his wanton Colours dancing in the Aire , his Commanders as glorious as the Starres in the Firmament , his Ranks and Files glittering in fearfull steel ; Majesty , beauty and strength at one sight ravishing the beholders . Here is a Marriage or entertainment of some great Prince , the wits of two Kingdomes set a work for invention of sports and Ballads ; what Water , Fire , Aire , and the dull weight of Earth can do , all scann'd by exact Artificers , and the purest quintessence reduc'd into a modell or taste , to please the ambition of empty-soul'd Lords . There is a great Admirall commanding the obedient Waves , and prancing over the Billows with Mast upon Mast , loaden with towred wings , his Streamers fluttering , his Canon roaring , his People shouting . In other places battels joining , some by Sea , some by Land ; assaults giving and repulsing , undermining of Walls , entrance upon breaches , Murtherers devouring all before them with flaming mouthes . Here great Windes and Shipwracks ; there glorious Palaces , mighty Treasures , rich Jewels , Inventions of all sorts to content those whom Industry or Fortune hath made the Masters of Money . These and a thousand other things , which at leasure you may reflect upon , ( especially those wherewith you are most affected ) consider and think that with a cast of your understanding , more quick then any twinkling of an eye , you shall see ; not one which you most desire , but all , all you can desire at once , one not hindring the other . Soul. O glory , O happinesse , O Blisse ! now you have struck me to the heart . O when will the happy day come , that I shall sit at this Fountain-head , and not need with pain to draw the water of pleasure ? When shall I arrive at this sweet ravishment and extasie ? The fourth discourse . Light. GOd Almighty be praised , who , as he created Man of Dust and slime , so forgets not what he is made of ; but provides Motives even out of that to enamour him of true blisse and happinesse . This last consideration is the slightest of all I have proposed to you , and when you come to understand your self , you will take least content in it , yet how are you now ravisht with it ? But because your distraction is great , I think I had best put you in mind of one circumstance , which peradventure you may forget . When you go to these Maskes and great meetings , do you not take pleasure to be seen , as well as to see what passes there ? Soul. What need I say Yes , to you that know better then my self the most hidden thoughts of my heart ? how can I counterfeit to the Light , which shines into every corner of my Conscience , and shewes my self so cleerly to me ? I confesse therefore that I seldome go , but to be seen hath its share in my wishes ; nay , sometimes the greater : This makes me so exact in dressing my self , that all things may contribute to their good liking of me ; this makes me choice of my Company and place , and desirous of any thing that may draw eyes upon me . Happy they that can content themselves with admiring their own perfections in a Looking-glasse ! for my part , unlesse I have the commendations of others , I little satisfie my self . Hence also it is , that if any great personage take notice of me in publick , my heart leaps to imagine the whispering of friends and strangers , the one taking notice of the favour done me , the other busily enquiring who is that so highly honoured : when if they light on any of my wel-wishers , receiving in exchange a Catalogue of all that is good , and to be esteemed in me , O this is a sweet thing . And if perchance any of their discourse come to my eares , I know not how to expresse what a pleasing motion it makes in me . But should it happen that the King or Queen were the persons that graced me before all the Company , a year were not sufficient to receive congratulatory visits , to expresse every circumstance of the favour , to professe my self undeserving and overloaden , ( though willing enough to hear others say , it was no more then I deserved . ) These things I confesse passe within me , but I am so afraid any should take notice on 't , that fain I would perswade my self many times , my actions depend on other more justifiable motives . Wonder not therefore that I expect not this in Heaven , where all hearts being open , I shall not for shame desire it . Light. How easily the comparison of this world misleads you in the estimation of the next ? since there you shall desire it without shame , and possesse it more fully then your heart can wish here . For if you look into your own desires , you shall find that two things chiefly delight you , to be known , and to be esteemed . For the former , consider here below the multitude of persons into whose knowledge you may fall , the quality of the knowledge they are to have of you , the worth of their persons , and the goodnesse of their judgements , which may make you joyfull that their verdicts passe in your favour . As for the multitude , it scarce ever exceeds one Kingdome even in Princes , and of this Kingdome not one Shire , not one Town are familiarly acquainted , no not so much as to know you , if your cloaths were changed , but you should walk undiscerned even in the streets . Soul. That is true , but all those whose spirits are a little elevated will know me , and their acquaintance is onely worth the wishing : others , whose low apprehensions cannot ascend to esteem the perfections of the higher sort of people , are to be neglected . Light. But the higher you raise their abilities , the lesser you make their multitude ; and even of those whose judgements you esteem in your whole life time , how many are you like to be known to ? Consider , amongst those you know and are well acquainted with , how many of them your self contemn : think whether every tenth person be thought fit to judge in those personall matters truly ; if either King or Kings Favourite be known to ten , ( who are able justly to judge of worth betwixt Man and Man ) I think it a great number . Turn then the leaf and look into Heaven , where no part of the Earth is excluded ; of all Nations , of all Ages there are to be found , not one but whose judgement is a touchstone of truth , the number excessive , the quality of the persons incomparable . And if yet this do not content you , cast a view upon the vale of Jeho saphat , number if you can , the two great Armies which are at once to appear , the one glorious upon the Clouds with our Saviour Jesus Christ , the other upon the Earth : see there is not a child of Adam wanting , from Abel to him that was born the evening before this great day : and remember the verse of the old Sybil — Cunctaque cunctorum cunctis arcana patebunt . every one , from the greatest to the least , shall know all that 's true of you , all that you can say for your self . Think what honour 't will be at that day , to be grac'd by him that is in power ; when all those multitudes shall see it , and clearly see as the glory you receive proceeds from the favour of the highest , so 't is proportion'd according to what of worth is really in your own person . Soul. As I am now affected , I cannot choose but wonder how ( believing what you say ) I could so long live in neglect , without ever reflecting upon these two most evident truths ; one , that the highest honour and reputation in this world is triviall and inconsiderable ; for what is it to be in the good opinion of so few as I perceive come to the perfect and inward knowledge of us ? the other , that truly Fame and Honour is to be found in the next world ; especially at the great day of Judgement , at the meeting of Ages , where whole mankind and all the quires of Angels shall see & perfectly know all that concerns us . But I 'm afraid that in so great multitudes I shall find little regard , here I 'm esteem'd amongst that small number I converse with ; and 't is a comfort that though my acquaintance be few , yet they are as many as I have need of , and my life is amongst no more : There in such an infinity , my place will be so low , and my share so small , that no body will vouchsafe me one cast of an eye . Light. Consider then with your self the esteem of the world , what it is , wherein you are confined to reflect onely upon such as have sufficient acquaintance with you , to furnish them with occasion of understanding your worth ; out of which number too you must exclude , first , all whose judgements are contemptible , because they are but half-witted people , Secondly , those who preferre unworthy respects , as Riches , Nobility , Comelinesse , Beauty , Youth , &c. before true wisdome and the parts of Virtue , really and solidly adorning your person ; I speak not of those supernaturall graces which are generally contemned by men of this World , but of such endowments as the wiser sort prefer before all those empty toyes that garboyle the fancies of the multitude : Thirdly , take out of the rest , those who ( upon designe either of jeering for their own sport , or flattering for their private interests ) counterfeit to value and esteem you ; as if some great man seem to court & honour you , what assurance can there be that his civilities proceed from his heart purely for your consideration , and not for some friends sake or particular project ; so that your back once turn'd , you are no sooner out of sight then out of mind ? Nay , even amongst those who are sincere and cordiall friends , how soon may therebe a change ? upon what slight grounds perhaps took they this opinion ? & upon as slight an occasion can they desert . Soul. You leave me no breath , no starting-hole , no where to take a little aire , to refresh my self in this world : for I see by your discourse , there is no glasse so brittle as the opinion of Men , no Dirt so base as the Multitudes favour , and nothing so contemptible as who grounds himself upon their judgements . Already I understand that the judgements of Heavenly spirits , are not subject to these blemishes and contingencies ; they are all true , all hearty , all constant , I must change if they do ; for as long as I remain with the same worth , their Sentence cannot alter . Yet can I not see that my share shall be such there as may be taken notice of , but the multitude and excesse of my betters will keep me without any respect , justly I confesse , yet to my grief and pain . Light. And why do you not reflect that Celestiall spirits are able to attend all things at once ? that neither the multitude of those who are to be esteem'd , nor the excesse of their excellency can any thing prejudice your felicity , when by every one , every degree of your perfections shall be known , consider'd , and valu'd as much , as if there were no others to be thought on but your self ? what can you desire more ? Soul. I cannot tell of what disposition I shall be in the next world , but I feel in this that no honour pleases me , unlesse it be with some preference before others ; which , I confesse , is not to be desired above , but here below : whilest we live in this vally of darknesse , true worth does not clearly shine , nor can the degrees of merit be perfectly distinguish'd , and therefore every one may desire to be above another , hoping and , for the most part , believing the priviledge of precedence due to his deserts . But this ignorance and the ambitious effects of it , must surely be banisht from Heaven . Light. I cannot grant you to be more honour'd then those who deserve better , nor that they be not more honour'd then you ; yet happily this you may hope for , that none be preferr'd before you . You may peradventure have seen great Princes , when they entertain inferiour ones , whom they will neither equall to themselves , nor yet disoblige by treating them in quality of Subjects ; they contrive therefore all things so as each may be honour'd without comparison , by having nothing common , which going from one to the other , may make an order and priority appear between them . Just so perhaps may 't passe in Heaven : every spirit being as it were a world by it self , and having a particular perfection and excellency which is found in no other ; every one therefore is chief and highest in its own kind , and by consequence eminently and supreamly esteem'd without order to , or dependance on any other then the common Father of all ; every one extreamly pleas'd with his own Excellency ; and although the inhabiting truth must needs confess others better , yet nothing more fitting for this person ; and so every one both joying in himself , and esteem'd by others as the most rich and excellent piece of all , in his own particular property and degree . The fifth discourse . Soul. AS you put me in mind of one thing I should have forgotten , so you have embolden'd me to ask another I should else have been asham'd to propose , and yet I confesse it has a great power & mastery over my affections : 't is that I love to be beloved . If any shew the least signe of kindnesse for me , methinks presently , they are the best persons in the world ; neither is there so poor a wretch , but if I see in him a hearty expression of love towards me , I cannot chuse but love him again . Alas , what do I talk of Men ? if a little Dog or Bird , or any other dumb Creature come once to take a haunt to me , and be delighted in my pany , 't is a death to see any harm befall them : and I find a very great satisfaction and content to see them play and pleas'd according to their low manner . Now if this love be wanting in Heaven , I fear 't will put me out of conceit with the pleasures there . Light. You are too fearfull , and too little considerate of the joyes you aim at . Think but with your self that Charity is nothing but the love of God and your Neighbour , that 't is the way to Heaven , and that of our three guides and conducters thither , onely that remains with us ; and see then whether there can be any fear you shall want love . Consider that the principall and main employment in Heaven is nothing else , but to love and be beloved ; and those there are the greatest lovers , who are in the greatest favour and highest glory . For God himself is love , and none is in God , or God in them , but by love . Measure therefore with your thoughts the scope of Heaven , from Gods eternall throne to the least child which by Baptisme is made partaker of the Adoption of Christ ; and be sure that all these shall love you , you especially , love you as much as if there were no others to be belov'd but only your self ; that the higher and greater every one is , the more ardent , expressive and effectuall shall his love be to you in person , in particular , by name and design . What do you now conceit of the base love of this world ? of the love of Dogs and Birds ? raise a little your thoughts , and look up at true love where it reignes in its full glory , where it shewes it self in its Magnificence , fly at it there , fear not , if you love , it cannot escape you ; make but your approaches , it will meet you : 't is too ethereall for this cloudy region ; lift but your self above your body , and of it self it will bend and stoop to your Arms. Soul. What you have said cannot chuse but be a great comfort , but I have a foolish scruple , if you will give me leave to utter it ; yet I need not be so coy , since you know enough by me : this ' t is . I have been taught that we should strive to love all men for Almighty Gods sake ; and so I suppose it passes in Heaven , that all these great lovers which you have express'd to be there , are of this Nature , that they will love me , because God Almighty commands it . And this alas , according to my low apprehension , gives me but little satisfaction , for this love and good will is not to me , but to Almighty God ; whereas my perversenesse is such , that I my self would be beloved : and I mark in my self a great difference between , when I give money to some little child I am pleas'd with , & when I bestow an Almes on a poore body that askes me for Gods sake : in the one I find that affection I desire others should bear to me , towards the Beggar I have no such inclination ; and the cause as I conceive is , that one seems to deserve my love , the other only to need it . Now if you tell me , that in Heaven they shall love me , but I shall not deserve it ; I confesse ( as my affections now stand ) 't will be a great cooling to the esteem I desire to have of their love . Light. How truly spake he that said , I know my self a Man , that is , a proud and yet a wretched thing ? Is it possible you cannot endure to be belov'd beyond your desert ? I fear you endure it often enough in this world , but here self-conceit makes you easily think not only all love and esteem due to you which is offer'd , but for the most part that too little is offer'd . Yet I have observ'd , sometimes it happens that we truly conceit another to shew more affection towards us then we have deserved , though I never heard any offended at such excesse , but rather highly pleas'd , and engag'd to an endeavour of deserving it . Neverthelesse I 'le strive to give you content , even in this point : Therefore tell me what you think of a person in whom reason governs in full measure , so that not a thought passes but according to the pure direction of it : do you believe in such a person any love can be unreasonable ? Soul. No certainly : so far is past doubt . Light. And if we love any thing more then it is amiable , do you think that love is reasonable ? Soul. I perceive whither you aime ; that since in Heaven all 's govern'd by reason , none there can love otherwise then according to desert : but withall I see there may be that desert in another and not in me ; as for example , they shall love me because God ( who deserves to be obey'd ) commands them ; and if only thus , I rest as unsatisfied as before . Light. Why , do you conceive that God can command any unreasonable thing , especially there , where reason is in it's perfection ? ( for here I know not what the mixture of bodily qualities with reason may make it reasonable for God to command . ) or if God would command others to love you beyond desert , yet do you think that himself ( being the essence of reason and understanding ) can love you so ? or that any one by his command can love you more then himself does ? Soul. This is right again : Yet I see we love many things for the connexion they have with some other , and not for themselves : a Dog , a Book , a Glove , from a beloved person is much made of , not for it self , but because the using it kindly is an expression , or rather a practise of our love towards the person to whom it belongs . So I imagine because I am a creature of Almighty God's making , and have cost his only Son so dear a price , those blessed spirits inflam'd with the love of God , may also expresse an affection to me , which you see is wholly by the desert of another , not mine ; and however it may be infinitely more then I deserve , yet is it not that which I express'd to be requisite to my content . Light. Your palate is very nice and delicate , yet you shall be pleas'd . What think you then , where reason ( as I asked before ) is in full height , can any thing there be omitted which is reasonable to be done ? Soul. No certainly . Light. And is it not reasonable that every lovely thing should be lov'd ? and if any person have any lovelinesse , that there should be a poize and proportion of love for every grain of it in him ? Soul. All this is just and reasonable . Light. Take notice then , there shall not be the least good quality in you , which shall not by every one be lov'd for its being what it is , and your self be belov'd for its being in you : wherefore sit down and consider what the things are for which in this world you reasonably desire to be esteem'd , and know you shall be lov'd for them above , as much as they can deserve , as much as you can wish . Soul. Peradventure , they are things I shall not carry with me ; as wholly , or in part belonging to my body . Light. No matter : You shall be belov'd there , because you had such things in time and place , wherein 't was fit to have them . Soul. Now , surely , I have ground enough , without farther curiosity or dispute , to presume upon the content I desire , since you have so plainly and evidently demonstrated it . But I know not whether I am arriv'd at my hopes , for I feel in my self an expectation that my familiar friends and kindred , and such as I my self particularly love , should likewise return me a speciall love . Light. Fear not , you shall have that also : For mark well the principle I told you , that there should not be the least thing love-worthy in you , but you shall be especially belov'd for it . Now then , if Friendship , Kindred , Acquaintance , &c. be things which put a particular obligation of love upon those persons betwixt whom they are , you will be more lovely to them for these very respects : wherefore all those will love you more especially then any others ; which I think is that you express'd to be your desire . Soul. Yes , this is well : but yet a little difficulty molests me . I have been taught that God loves most and next to himself , the Angels or Saints , according as they are in degree under him : then if the lowest love me as much as I deserve , others will love me more then I deserve , which is against reason , and so impossible . Light. Two things are to be considered in love ; first the comparison of one beloved object to another ; and this way all will love you according to your desert : for none shall prefer any thing lesse lovely before you , nor you before any thing more lovely : a second consideration is the strength of the affection we call Love , which ( being according to the nature out of which it proceeds ) in all above your condition will be greater then you deserve , in all under you , weaker ; according to the proportion of their natures and strengths . Soul. Yet one thing more comes into my mind : I see some strong natures , in whom ( though by reall effects it evidently appeares they love their friend yet ) there is no tendernesse ; you can observe no motion of love in their hearts , no shew in their change of countenance : such a love gives me small content . Shall we therefore have in Heaven a melting , sweet , delicious love , or onely those strong and solid thoughts , which as they are very good , so are they far from giving that pleasure , which this other soft and gentle love affords ? Light. Would you not think that man unreasonable , who being cold , and brought to a good fire , should refuse to warm himself , because there was no smoak , he having been alwayes accustomed to smoaky fires ? Soul. Yes certainly : for he contradicts his own pretence ; smoak being a hindrance to the heating he desires , besides other inconveniences which render it offensive . Light. Such is the passion you call Love , to that which truly is Love : for ( everything being to be discern'd by the effects ) you shall see those who are most given to this whining sort of love , least active to help themselves , but wholly abandoned up to the following of their Passion , without indeavouring to procure what they desire . So in grief , if you see one fit still weeping and despairing , you count him womanish ; and not so much that his sorrow is great , as that a little overcomes him . Besides , this passion is but an expression of the inward mind , or rather a wasting of it ; for we see that ordinarily weeping eases and discharges the heart , which becomes lighter after such venting of it self by tears . So that this which you desire to have in Heaven , is not love , but an expression or concomitant of it , weakning and disturbing the affection for the present , and wasting it for the future ; and therefore not fit to give content to such as understand the happinesse of enjoying a place in Heaven . The sixth discourse . Soul. THere 's yet another thing wherein I find a great inclination and drawing of Nature ; and certainly 't is agreeable to some principle within me , though this kind of delight appears not so sensibly ; 't is in hearing and understanding what passes in the world . I cannot espie a whisper , but I long to know about what ' t was . If any of my neighbours or acquaintance have met with any change of fortune , I cannot endure to have it concealed from me : nay , the more secret such an accident is , the greater is my eagernesse to know it : though , as I said , I observe not those sensible effects in this sort of Pleasure , as in the former ; unlesse there happen a speciall reason , out of some other consideration to raise them . And , perhaps , the curiosity of hearing news proceeds from the same cause , and belongs to the same head ; as also the love I have to reading Histories , & knowing what pass'd in our forefathers times : for this , I perceive , I long after , though I finde not therein such apparent delight as in other entertainments . Light. And why do you not mention too the feign'd Histories & Romances which the world is full of ? find you no delight in them ? Soul. Yes , very great & sensible , they being wholy contriv'd and fram'd , both in subject , fashion , and style to move , nay , even violently to force our delight , These therefore I did not range under this Head ( as likewise seeing of Playes ) because the content arising from them seems to be of a higher order , then those other pleasures I mentioned . Light. See you not that other Histories and these are of one nature , though of different fashions ? So that the delight reap'd out of both must also of necessity be of the same nature . And as for Playes , they are but the ample expression of some little part of that which ( compriz'd more shortly ) makes a History : so that they all agree in substance , though differ from one another in circumstances . Tell me then , what is it that pleases you in all these things ? Soul. For playes and feigned Histories , I perceive my self taken with the Passions due to the subject represented . I see I have a tendernesse and compassion towards those who suffer imnocently ; I abhor cruel and unnaturall actions ; I am glad when good successe relieves the afflicted . In fine , if any word or deed come in very pat and unexpectedly , I am highly ravish'd . These things I observe both please me in the reading or seeing , and afterwards I find my self great with desire , till I have discharged my self of them to some other , whom , I conceive , apt to take pleasure in such passages . In true Histories and Newes I am affected with a kind of sober satisfaction ; and if I have heard or read half a story , I feel a want of content till I know the rest , and be fully possest of the whole proceeding . As for home-bred Curiosities , I cannot conceive what entertains our affections concerning them , except the common desire to know , which I imagine is greater towards those things whereof we have already a beginning ; for so , I see , this Itch is pleased , chiefly , in the businesse of mine own acquaintance . Light. And do you think that the common desire of Knowing is a Passion of so triviall a consequence ? which peradventure ( if all things were throughly look't into ) would appeare the chief or sole cause of all our pleasure : at least , it being the inclination of our understanding and reason , that is , the most substantiall and principall part of us , it must necessarily have great influence upon all our actions . But besides this , I see another delight , which is a kind of tickling our affections , whereat they move and have their course , as strings tuned to certain notes answer one another . And this happens in all humane affaires ; but chiefly in such as bear a particular relation to our own state and private circumstances . We heare not of any action done by another man , but it presently strikes a key in our breasts , either of pleasure or displeasure , because it has a proper and particular report to our condition . Now consider how small a time you can endure to sit ruminating on a businesse that no way concerns you ; how impossible it is to take off your hearts from thoughts , wherein your interest or affections are notably engag'd : and then reflect on the choice which in heaven you shall have , where ( according to what is declared ) the whole course of the sons of Adam shall be clear before your eyes , none of their actions or secretest thoughts hidden from you Think how one reflection will preoccupate another , how one delight will surcharge another . If you will see the Counsels of Statesmen and great Princes , there opens it self a Carriere aperte de vieu , as the French say . If you will see how Scholars came to their profound learning ; how Artificers to their great experience : If you will see how petty fellows shew as much cunning in a little circle , as the Grandees of the world in their deep and politick designes : If you will see the increase , as it were , of souls , from the babling of children that know not how to spell their letters , to the learned Sermons and sublime Speculations of the most famous and renowned Masters : in every kind , an excesse of examples , a world of particulars will display themselves to you ; all different in some respects , yet all agreeing in generall heads ; all inviting and enticeing by their specialty ; all contenting and satisfying , by shewing their source in evident and common principles . Nor shall therebe , in the whole multitude , any one that shall not affect you with some particular relish and satisfaction , by its speciall conformity or difformity to your nature ; for both these in that state shall yield content ; as you see here we laugh and are delighted with that in another , whereat we should be asham'd and displeas'd , if it were in our selves . Soul. Truly , you tell me of a great content : but I have been taught that it is the propriety of Almighty God to see hearts ; and that none else can penetrate into what passes there , but by revelation from him . Wherefore pray make me know what you mean when you say , No mans thoughts are hidden from the Blessed ; for this , I hear , is grounded in the holy Scriptures , & so a dangerous matter to be meddled with . Light. Those who consider not that the Scriptures are written to men , that is , to people living in a vale of ignorance and darknesse , may , perhaps , too hastily passe their censure upon the City of Light , whereof we discourse . But , as far as I can understand them , there is not a word in our holy books excluding the heavenly Jerusalem from this-knowledge , and our Masters use to give a rule , that speeches are to be taken secundum subjectam materiam , according to the matter we treat of ; for he that speaks is suppos'd to confine himself to the particular subject of the discourse he undertakes : neverthelesse , you have not yet heard me say the celestiall habitation enjoyes this priviledge without Revelation ; for here I do not display the principles upon which their conclusions depend ; but onely declare to you ( admitting such positions to be true ) the excesse of pleasure and content you are to reap in that harvest , if you cultivate your land in this world , as you are commanded . Soul. Then I 'le believe what you say without farther enquiry . For truly I see , that if the day of Judgement declare the justice of Almighty God , this cannot be done without full and generall discovery of all hearts : and if then every secret thought shall be laid open before the whole world , me thinks 't is no great matter the blessed should in joy the priviledge of knowing them before . Besides , it would be an unhandsome maime both to their knowledge and content , if seeing the effects , they should be depriv'd of seeing the causes ; which , for the most part , reside in the inward thoughts . And so have I fallen upon no small subject of delight to me , that I shall see the Motives and true Sources of all effects : a thing I observe much aimed at by men of sharpest understandings ; whence 't is that Historians are so desirous to dive into the secrets of affaires ; those being accounted the best , who are thought most truly to have found the deepest ground and bottom of matters of great consequence . Light. 'T is a good and ingenuous reflection . And , if you will take the paines to examine also the inconveniences which here you find in talking , reading , or fitting at a Play ; peradventure by comparison of your pleasures below , you will make a fuller conceit of the content you shall meet above ; finding there all the delights sincere and pure , without the mixture of those bitter and distastfull contingencies , which are so frequently offensive here . Soul. I have not so ill and slowly follow'd you , but of my self I can understand that there I shall not have that incertitude of reports , which here we wholy rely upon , and yet they are generally so fallible , that it were a great indiscretion to believe above the tenth part of what is told us . Nay , even when I heare any strange relation from parties who were present , whose eyes and eares saw and heard what pass'd , yet am I often troubled how to understand their words ; some for Interest and Passion , some for carelesnesse or ignorance , some because they think it a piece of wit to mend every thing they tell , so disguising and altering the truth , that it requires a sharp and steady sight to discern it . Now for reports , how easily they rise , upon what mistakes ; how they are increas'd , going from hand to hand ; with what assurance even those who are accounted the best intelligencers , will relate , and confidently stand upon them ; our daily experience gives so full a satisfaction , that 't is almost a folly to believe any thing certainly , till a common consent has taken away all doubt . And all these difficulties may , in a proportion , be applyed to Histories ; and perhaps , in some respect remain lesse answerable then the objections against living reports : so that I cannot but admire their levity , who dare with such security ground their judgements in matters of great consequence , upon the particular relations of some one or few Authours , though living and present . I see likewise I shall not be troubled with the drynesse , the ill behaviour and importunity of such idle braines , as are generally the inventers of those News ; nor be molested with impertinent discourses upon subjects of little moment in themselves , and less concernments to me , which often occur in the best Histories and Playes . Neither shall my body be diseas'd , my head heavy , mine eyes sore , my time over-slipt , when businesse or rest calls upon me : all which are diminishing circumstances , I feel , continually checking my appetite towards these delights in this world : and I see ( all these being taken away ) there arises a pure , a high , an uninterrupted and never ending contemplatition , an abundant , a filling and overflowing delight . Now methinks , I begin to understand how the waters our Saviour promised the Samaritan , can prove an everlasting Fountain of joy and refreshment , perpetually springing to-eternall life . But yet I do not find I shall have those pleasures , that Playes and Romances aim at ; which consist in passion , and unexpected Contrivances . Nay , methinks , both are impossible to that State , where neither Passion nor Ignorance have any place ; and nothing can be unexpected but what we are ignorant of untill it comes . Light. True it is , you shall have no Passion ; yet shall you not want the least delight , even That can afford . For Passion does not please of it self , but only so far as it increases our knowledge , or heightens our affections . Wherefore if the impression in the Soul be as great as Passion could make , you shall have all the pleasure That can procure . Now , unexpectednesse moves us by that vertue which contraries , put neer together , have , to encrease and set off one another : such surprises being only a suddain joyning of some accident unthought on , to what was formerly in full and quiet possession of our mindes . For whilst our thoughts are wholly entertained and busily apply'd to any conceit , we least expect to see the contrary fall out . Now consider with your self the passage you must make out of the body into the state of Eternity ; how suddain , how quick , how truly indivisible it will be ; so that whatever surprise can be imagined in this world , is dull and infinitely slower . Remember farther , that whatever settles in eternity , can never fade or change , so that how long soever you are out of the body , all things shall be as fresh and new to you the last day as the first . Conceit then what an unexpectednesse , what a perpetuall newnesse shall be in all you know ; what an extream difference betwixt the conceits of them before , and those you shall be endu'd with in that happy condition . An able and judicious person was wont to compare this change with our going into a Court-mask ; when out of a darksome Gallery , pestred with crowding , noise and confusion , by the short turn of a wheel , in the twinkling of an eye , we are translated , as it were , into a paradise of glorious light , attracting spectacles and heavenly company . Soul. I see there will be no good thing wanting , that can increase and heighten our pleasures ; but that only ( in short ) which would diminish and abate the great delights God hath created us for ; so that you need tell me no more of this point , for I am fully satisfied , and apprehensive of the vast joyes I shall derive out of this subject . Light. You must rise yet a little higher , and set your self to contemplate those great Mysteries which have blinded the sharpest sights , and puzzled the subtlest wits of the world . Mysteries that dazled the eyes of S. Paul , and struck his heart with wonder and astonishment , whilst he stands admiring the depth of the riches of the wisdome and knowledge of God. Think with your self that the Abysses of Gods judgement shall be layd open to your discovery ; the fates and destinies of Men and Angels : why Jacob elected and Esau a reprobate , before either of them had done or good or evil ; why Pharaoh obdurate and Moses made his God ; why S. Peter head of the Church and Judas a Devill ; seeing it was in the power of the Almighty to have disposed quite contrary of their fortunes , or brought them all to felicity . But far more content will you receive , to see why the only seed of Abraham for thousands of years were the Elect people of God ; the rest of the nations all in heaps tumbling into eternall misery : Why , even since the Gospell , so many and great Nations are inwrapped in no lesse darknesse and dismall unhappinesse for ever : How all this can stand with God's infinite Goodnesse and Mercy : Why he does not rather extinguish and annihilate the unfortunate Angels and Men , then reserve them to such extremity of torments . Certainly , though all these secret mysterious effects are of so high a nature , that we cannot reach their causes and true Motives ; ( for who is able to be the counseller of Almighty God in the fabrick & disposure of the world ? ) yet may we arrive at this conclusion , that of necessity there must be reasons for all : Else what more unreasonable , then to imagine that Almighty God ( who is Reason it self , essentiall Understanding , and absolute Omniscience ) does these great things without reason ? What more absurd then to say , that ( whereas all upright mens wills are govern'd by reason ) God's will ( which is the Author , the Exemplar and Rule of our wills ) is blind and wilfull ? What more extravagant then to think that the will , which cannot swerve from doing the best , should work without a best ? In fine , what lamenesse were it in Almighty God , to have his will more ample then his understanding could direct ? Reasons therefore there are : and when you come to lay your mouth to the spring of eternall truth , there shall you suck in these ineffable Mysteries ; there shall you see how from the essentiall goodnesse and the impossibilitie of swerving from it , the world and all the variety of Creatures inevitably flow ; there shall you behold how by the infallible manuduction of Reason , every particular is digested and ordered ; how by a constant line of succession , the descent of effects from causes draws out this long Play , that has so many Ages been acting upon the stage of this world ; there you shall discern the golden threads , whereby the just retrive themselves out of the Labyrinth of sinners ; you shall penetrate the Adamantine chain , with which the wicked are confin'd to eternall flames . In all you shall see the glorious Liberty casting out its Rayes : in God and his Saints strengthned with an undeceivable force of Light ; in the wayes of Men struggling in a perpetuall Agony with contingency and servitude , except where in few souls the supernall light more and more hinders the instability of its estate . The seventh discourse . Soul. TEll me no more of these great pleasures , for I feel my self already full . I can endure no longer . I pant for breath , and languish through excessive heat of desire . I doubt not henceforth but the state of eternall Blisse contains farre more and higher joyes then ever entred into mortall hearts to conceive . Nor fear I whensoever I enter this great field , but for ever to find a most pleasant and delightfull feeding , and eternally drink of the torrent which inebriates the City of God. Light. You are too tender : Remember that the kingdome of heaven suffers violence , and the violent onely can be Masters of it . You must look for a strong Purgatory of love and desire , if you walk this way , you must not give over without resisting , even to blood . As yet you are scarce got out of the Circle of Man ; 't is time now to cast your eyes on the rest of this glorious frame we call the World , and see what pleasure it affords . It is the whole , whereof mankind is but a little , though a principall Part. It is a thing in a manner above us , in a manner our end . If our understanding be but a hunger of truth , and truth but the perfect possession of a thing without us ; you see this great machine the world , is a principall end to which nature has design'd our application . And truly , when we reflect that the universall Masse of Beings is the most full expression of Almighty God's Essence , which nature can attain to ; what doubt remains , but that our felicity , in a notable degree , consists in the perfect contemplation and knowledge of it ? Soul. This I easily believe : For when I have the good fortune to hear a strange discovery of some secret of nature , such as Philosophers and Astronomers use to look into ; I cannot understand the joy I feel in mine heart . 'T is not of that kind which I have when I laugh , and am taken with some witty conceit . 'T is not such , as when I encounter any welcome news of some advantage to my self or friends : but of a higher strain mixt with admiration : methinks I am better and greater then I was before : methinks , they who know these things are more then men , and are a kind of Demi-gods . And I observe that Poets and persons of great brain and capacity ( having spent their youth in vain and worldly pursuits ) desire , ordinarily , to consecrate their riper yeares to these Sciences . Light. Reflect then upon the wonders which are stored up in Nature for your content . Place before your eyes the admirable government of this great Fabrick , the World. Consider the courses of the Sun , Moon , Planets , and fixed Starres , and hope one day to know what causes and wheels they turn upon . See the Globe of the Earth , and Men heels to heels walking round about it , without any nayls or glew to fasten them to it , yet how laborious it is to remove from it . Really , the serious consideration of the Antipodes renders the mystery so strange and hard to be believ'd , that , though we are assur'd by experience of the truth , yet if we should alwayes strongly imagine our selves so walking , we could not but fear , still , falling into the Clouds , when we travail'd to one another . See the perpetuall floating of the Sea , like a monethly or yearly Clock , warning us of the seasons , with as great exactnesse as do the Moon and Starres . See the various Climes , with all their affections . The bounds of Seas and Lands . The difference of temperature in the same proportions to the Sun. The diversity of Beasts , Birds , Fishes , and Plants , according to the variety of their habitations . Men themselves , here black , there white , in some parts tawny , some red : and their very Wills and Affections following the temperament of their bodily qualities . When you are weary of these wonders , look into particular Natures . The mixture of Metals and Stones . How Juices and Liquids penetrate all , and , incorporating themselves , frame these strange multiplicities of things we converse with . Plants more wondrous then these : who can choose but be delighted to see a little Flower or Meal hidden in the earth , and peep out again ? now green , then take body and strength , disperse it self into branches , bud forth leaves , and flowers , and fruit , and at last other such bags of Meal as it self was . Yet Living creatures are furnisht with a farre greater plenty of wonders . The Wormes , the Flies , the Birds , the Beasts , the Fishes , every one affording a world of admiration and variety . But above all , MAN the End and Master of all , is a subject of amazing contemplation . Who would not think a life spent in delight , to understand what composition that should be , which , turn'd into blood , becomes first one part of a heart , afterwards a whole heart ? what should make it spring and shoot out into other vitall parts ? how can a poor heart frame such a variety of Members as are necessary to the perfect body of a man ? What should set two Armes , two Legs , two Eyes , just such a number of Fingers and Toes upon every man ? so many different parts , so various in their Nature , Figures , Use and Service , and all these to agree together ; and Man , compos'd of all , to keep so long in tune and harmony ? the deeper we go , the greater's the admiration , though the words fewer . But what astonishment will it be to discover the subtil nets wherewith Power and Act ( as Metaphysicians call them ) are forbidden parting , to penetrate the divisibility of substance it self ? to sing the loves of Matter and Form ; and see how by the Influence of the Overflowing Being , they become the Basis and Foundation of this fair Pageant ? Shall I seek into the rationall Soul ? and see the union of the two worlds ? or search the Conduits and passages by which knowledge is conveyed through the Body to the Spirit ? How the beating of divers weights and figures upon our senses , can beget the skill of knowing all things ? Shall I ask why the Spirit , being subsistent within our limbs , seems dead or asleep , and can do nothing but by the impression it receives from the body ? But what will it be to make this an occasion of passing into the next world , there to contemplate the state of so many separated souls , all different , yet all like one another ? then , still to mount up higher to the never-bodied Spirits , and see their Being , their Natures , their Operations , their Quires , their Hierarchies ? And now there is but one great step more , to behold the influence of the Divinity upon all , and in all manners ; but in none so great and admirable , as in shewing its self , its Face , its Essence to the blessed Spirits . That Blessing , that Adoption , that Deification , as it is the most wonderfull of all Gods works , so will it be strangely ravishing to behold in others , as well as feel in our selves . Soul. I have not the least scruple but that these delights are farre beyond all you have hitherto mention'd ; they clearly deserving that estimation and rank , by the Excellence and Nobility of the Objects , and the pleasure which I feel even in the meanest of them ; for those I confesse most affect me , as being most suitable to my low and heavy disposition . Light. So 't is with you for the present ; but , if much and solid contemplation make you able to manage this point , you will in time experience that even here these sublime things overdraw all others . Look upon the pains a Democritus , an Archimedes , a Plato and other Philosophers have taken , to know the lowest of Truths . The first is said to have put out his eyes , that he might contemplate the better . The second to have been so absorpt , that he suffer'd death for not taking notice of the danger before him . The third to have travailed through all parts , where he could hear of learned men , to be their Scholar . Another to have liv'd in the fields two and twenty years , to discover the customes and operations of Bees . Think you not these excellent witts found great pleasure in their contemplations ? who was ever mov'd to so difficult undertakings , by any worldly designe ? As for your Alexanders and Cesars , if their lives be well look'd into , they had many collaterall respects , and by-invitements ; alwayes conversing amongst multitudes of men , who crying up their conquests , as actions of immortall fame , still encourag'd them to go on and finish their triumphs . Soul. When time and experience shall have encreased my force , I shall be able ( I hope ) to grapple with these motives . But in the mean while is there nothing in these secrets of Nature which may touch my self , and so make me more quick and sensible of the pleasures thereof ? Light. If it so little move you , that this knowledge is the proper mark at which your nature aimes ; at least consider that the knowledge of your self is a speciall part of it : and if you believe you are concern'd in your self , if delighted with your own parts and perfections , you shall not want cause of content . What would you have ? would you be the Center of this great Circumference ? would you have nothing done , but you should have a share in 't ? If no lesse will satisfie you , let 's see how much is true of this . What think you ? are any two things exactly like one another ? Soul. Peradventure yes , I conceive it no paradoxe to believe so . Light. Then they would be in the same place , have the same figure , &c. whereby they would be the same , and not alike . Soul. That 's true I confesse ; therefore no two things are absolutely alike . Light. Can two things in any respect unlike one another , proceed from the same causes in no respect differing from one another ? Soul. Certainly they cannot : for wherein they vary , there must necessarily be some cause of their dissimilitude ; but the same causes still work the same : therefore the causes must some way be different , if there be difference in the effects . Light. This is well . Then you and all the circumstances had not been the same , if any one of the causes , which concurred to the making of them , had been alter'd in any thing concerning your making . Soul. That 's very true . Light. Then cast with your self what part of Nature you draw with you , of all that pass'd before you . Soul. I see well that neither the causes immediately concurring to the making of me , nor any that concurr'd to the making of them such as they ought necessarily to be for the making of me , could from the beginning of the world to this hour , be other then they have been , if I were to be what I am . But how farre this extends it self I do not clearly see . Light. Looke well into the causes of your body : Doe you thinke the Aire contributes nothing ? Soul. Yes certainly : for it piercing all tender bodyes by Perspiration , must of necessity alter much the disposition of either Man or Child , if it self be different . Light. And if the very next Aire to that which enters into your body be different , can that which enters be the same ? Soul. Clearly it cannot ; for the next part , in so fluid and penetrable a body , must of necessity have great Influence into that which pierces my Body . Light. And how far reaches this operation ? Soul. Marry in this way , going from one to another and still arguing , If the next be altered this cannot be the same , I see no stop as far as the Air or any other such penetrable Body extends it self ; but the same consequence must be applyed to the whole . Light. You have forgotten your agreement with me in this point , that the Air contributes to the bodies which are in it ; else you would easily have seen that all which communicate in the same Air , must be chang'd , if any the least thing in you were alter'd . Soul. Then if it be true , what I see Astronomers now almost consent in , that there are no Sphears , but a continuall Aire or other subtile body runs through the whole frame of Nature ; all bodies that are must be alter'd for the alteration of any one , unlesse Almighty God , or some other Spirit , by a particular and extraordinary interposure , make an unexpected and preternaturall change in some one or more of them . Light. You are in the right : but do you reflect upon the consequence , that nothing created before you could be otherwise , if you were to be what you are ; nor any thing following you could become what it is to be , were not you what you are ? So that you shall find your self a partiall cause of all , either before or after you . Soul. 'T is easie to conceive I may be cause of what comes after me , because when once I have a being , I can work , and some effects may flow from me : but before I my self am , how can I be cause of any thing ? Light. Do you not know that God creates nothing , but he foresees and fore-wills all the good which is to follow upon such a production , and makes it with designe , that such good may proceed from 't ? Whence you may safely conclude , that he intended you out of all that went before you : and you are not ignorant that among the four kindes of Causes , the finall , or good intended is the chief and principall ; so that you are more the cause of what 's past , then of what 's to come . The eighth discourse . Soul. THough I know not what to answer to your Discourse ; nay , though it seem clear and evident ; yet the strangenesse , and even incrediblenesse of the Conclusion , makes me distrust mine own understanding . But , is it possible that all these great knowledges shall fall to my share , if I come to Heaven ? Light. Why should you fear the lesse , if you be sure of the greater ? Do you , peradventure , doubt whether you shall be partaker of the sight of God ? and yet this is so farre beyond all we have hitherto spoken of , that there is no comparison between them ; not so much as of a drop of water to the whole Sea. Soul. How can this be ? since God is but one indivisible Essence , and in what you have declared , there is an infinity of most worthy and ravishing Objects . For though I doubt not but the sight of God exceeds farre the sight of any one , his perfections infinitely surpassing all ; yet methinks , when there is nothing else to be done for ever , but to see the one and the other , the variety carries so high an advantage , in respect of taking delight in knowledge , that there needs a vast excesse in any single object to counterpoise it . Light. Your own words convince you : for admit that God exceeds any one object ( compared with him , as to the pleasure of seeing , ) infinitely , that is , to the proportion of his worth and dignity ; you , by the same reason , conclude him preferrable to two or three ; and so to any number , that is , to all . However , I shall rather apply my self to give you content in your demand , then presse you severely with your own argument . First then , consider , if there were a colour or beauty of so high a degree , that our eye were not capable to see it without the assistance of some new-found spectacle ; and this , not for the littlenesse or distance of the Object , but because the purity of the light or excellency of the colour was so striking and glorious , that an eye of this composure would be blinded with the lustre of its brightnesse : do you not conceive the sight of so radiant a splendour would be nobler then the view we have of our ordinary world ? and this in the proportion that the Eye improv'd and fortified with the new spectacle , is better and nobler then of its own single nature . Soul. So far I can espie no way to escape your reason : for if both Eye and Object be heightned in a proportion , the very seeing , and by consequence the pleasure taken in it , must of necessity rise in the same degree , or I have lost my understanding . Light. Then ponder what I 'm sure you have been often taught , that the sight of God is so great , so sublime an operation , that it exceeds the power of all celestiall spirits ; not onely such as are , but even all that can be made , and the whole campasse of creatures and whatsoever is not God. Consider now how full and overflowing a measure of delight must necessarily follow upon these premisses ; I believe you 'l find it no lesse then I speak of . Soul. What may be the reason of this incredible excesse ? though I 'm a fool to ask a question you have already so fully answered , by resolving it into the infinite beauty of Almighty God , whose perfections are beyond all comparison . Light. In the beginning I bargain'd with you not to expect the causes of things in this discourse , but the effects , that is , what pleasure arises out of them , upon supposition of their truth . Yet if you understand the excesse of a Spirit above Bodies and their grosse parts , conceive that God so exceeds a Spirit , as that is more excellent then a Body : I mean not in equality of proportion , but I would onely expresse that their excellencies are cleare of a different kinde ; so that there is no comparison of worths between them , but the supereminent dignity of one so farre surpasses the other , that in respect of the first the second is no wayes estimable . A more particular account you may make your self at your leisure , by reflecting that our apprehension of things has three degrees : some we conceive as compounded , others as simple ; and one onely thing , which we call Being , has a different nature , in our very language and understanding from all the rest . Now our Masters put Almighty God in the degree of Being alone and by himself . If you could throughly penetrate these three manners of apprehending , it would be a great advance toward the knowledge you desire . For the present let me acquaint you with this observation , that many great Clerks and studied Sages have so much esteem'd this Notion , that they fear'd not to pronounce Almighty God absolutely invisible to any created understanding , and inhabiting a light by no power accessible . But herein the goodnesse of God has exceeded the wit of Man , and found a means to communicate himself to our Soules . Wherefore , wiser are our Masters of Mysticall Divinity , who acknowledge the gracious happinesse of the next life , though here they find themselves silenced . For when by long speculation they have heaped up all these great Titles of Being , Goodnesse , Truth , Eternity , Immensity , Omnipotence , Infinitenesse , and whatever else we find attributed to the Deity ; after they have some little while exulted in that height , reflecting upon what they are pleas'd withall , suddenly they turn the leaf , and with a more high Ignorance acknowledge he is none of all these ; but an unknown Nobility , whereof all these are so poor and deficient an expression , that they are asham'd of what they had said , and now rest in a mute admration ; not finding words wherewith to expresse the thing , which they onely can attain to by confessing themselves totally ignorant of it . And this is not onely true in respect of Men , but even of Angels ; whose languages if we could speak , that is , were our apprehensions and conceits as high and great as any of theirs , yet would it not profit us , because not necessarily conjoyned with Charity . However , even their languages exceed our short capacities , and are not to be expressed with the tongues of Men : which seems the cause why Saint Paul ( who was made partaker of their knowledge , though short of the sight of the face of God ) said , he had heard words of secret that were not in the power of Man to speak : for so ( as I take it ) the Originall Text beares , and not that it was unlawfull ; since , what Law was made against speaking that which we have heard ? unlesse we participate of the first Errour , conceiving God through envy to hide Mysteries & great knowledges from us . It was not then unlawfull , but impossible to declare what was revealed to Saint Paul ; no words of Man being capable to expresse the conceits of an abstracted Intelligence , amongst whom he then convers'd . Soul. You seem to drive me farther off from relishing this which you exalted as the most eminent pleasure of all others . For if you afford me no other conceit of it , then of an unapprehensible Light , of a mysterious Darkness , and a learned Ignorance , I know not how to fasten any Armes of love or liking upon it . Therefore I beseech you oblige me with some explication of this difficulty , in such an intelligible way , as may feed and encourage my desire to see that Glory of Glories . Light. What shall I say to you ? If you can fix your eyes upon what Being is ; how , although but one , yet it runs through all that is in the world ; how not onely things and parts of things , but even the most dilated and thin conceits of every thing have this Nature , as necessarily as the fullest : then think Almighty God is the first root and necessity of Being . He is Being it self , in it self , and of it self , because it is its self . I must leave the rest to your quiet contemplations ; but know that in these few words , if you ponder them to their just merit , you shall find life and blisse . Yet let me say one thing more : Can you conceive how in a Bean or Acorn , or a Mustard-seed , lies the Herb or Tree which we see spring out of them ? how every Branch , and Flower , and Knot , and what ever else is in the Off-spring , lyes hidden in the Seed ; not that every part is distinct there , but the nature of the Seed is such , that out of it they have their ordinary proceeding and sprouting without fail ? From this low and familiar instance , if you can raise your fancy to conceive that Almighty God is to all that can be or ever was , as this Seed to that which comes of it , ( not in the dull manner wherein the Seed is consider'd , in reference to what springs from it , but ) in all sorts of principall and noble causality : then you have made some little entrance into the displaying of this unspeakable treasure . Soul. This example has a little awaken'd my brains , and given me a hint how great secrets may be hidden in one uniform and simple thing ; but I wish you would be pleas'd to go on , & help my dulness to understand it better . Light. Have you read any of the Spirituall books which treat of Gods Attributes , and shew his Essence , his Infinity , his Truth , his Goodnesse , his Eternity , his Immensity , his Providence , his Mercy , his Justice , his Knowledge and Idea's and what ever else fills up those high Discourses ? Have you seen the volumes by which Divines strive to declare those three Mysterious Words , FATHER , SONNE and HOLY GHOST ; so plain , and yet so high ; so simply deliver'd in our Creed , and so laboriously commented upon by all the most prodigigious Witts of almost sixteen Ages ? Soul. I have to my proportion , had a view of most of those Treatises you mention , and imagine your designe is , to informe me , that this Indivisible Essence we call GOD , contains in it sublime Mysteries , sufficient to satisfie any mind that is contented here with these Discourses , which learned Doctours frame of God. But all this avoids not the Objection , that he is an Indivisible Essence , when seen in himself , and consequently can give but one contentment , though that be very high and excessively delightfull . Light. You are not much amisse in my aim : but you cannot deny that the entire cause of that pleasure which all these books afford , is in that Indivisible Being you shall contemplate . For besides that it is the same thing , the one onely subject of all those Books ; and that clearly discover'd , which humane skill can but weakly expresse under vails and shadows ; you shall see how this one indivisible sight is variously dispers'd and articulated , in all those admirable Truths which fill those immense volumes : so that on one side you shall behold the Indivisible Truth , on the other the Multitude we make of it , and thirdly , how that Indivisible contains all this Multitude : which in effect makes appear to you , that this Indivisible Essence you had such fear to be cloy'd with , contains large volumes , and corresponds to all the Libraries in the World , and farre exceeds them . Nay , if you reflect upon what we were discoursing by accident concerning the languages of Angels ; and if there be , as some imagine , Corporeall Rationall Creatures in other Globes besides the Earth , which have new manners of apprehending and expressing , different from us ; you shall finde in this Indivisible Essence , whole volumes to entertaine and satiate , with innumerable contemplations , all these varieties of noble understandings . Soul. I now see that if a thousand Millions of writers , for a thousand times as many yeares , should imploy their whole studies to drain the cognoscibility and pleasure the Indivisible Deity yields , it were absolutely impossible they should in the least measure exhaust it . So that if I atchieve that happy enterprise , if I once enter into that blessed State , I fear not to be overflown with a floud of content , pure , beyond all content , refreshing my heart with perpetuall delight for all eternity . Light. Since we are come so farre together , I must not leave you here , without proceeding to declare one quality more of this blissfull Vision . Did you never observe , when some hard businesse has been explicated , according as you understood it or not , you would say , you had it or had it not ? Soul. I have often felt such a thought passe within me , but what do you inferre from thence ? Light. Not so quick , you must take along with you this notion likewise ; Our Masters tell us , that the Soul by knowledge becomes the thing known : as if it knew a House , it becomes a House ; if an Ox or Horse , it becomes that Creature ; Not by its being turn'd into the Object , but by the assumption of the Object into its self : as the Wall , when the Sun shines on 't , becomes the light , Iron in the fire becomes red . And that which perswades them to this opinion is , they see Water or Iron , when heated with Fire , will warm or burn , and have the effects of the assumed Nature ; and that universally , nothing hath the particular operation of a thing , but it s own Nature . Wherefore finding that the workman , who knows and has the Idea of a house , can make a house ; that as far as we know of a Dog or Horse , so far we can humour them , and work according to their Natures : they assure themselves , that knowledge is a kind of having or being the thing we know . Our Divines go farther , and tell us , Almighty God cannot be clearly known by similitude ; and therefore say , 't is necessary this Essence should be immediately joyn'd to the understanding of the blessed soules , or else they cannot know him . Out of all which I would derive to your understanding this great truth , That the sight of God is a full possession of him , a kind of becoming his nature , and a true and reall , though accidentall , Deification . Wherefore if you have any esteem of Almighty God , and Charity towards him , if any love to your self , any desire to be noble and excellent beyond all others , if any consideration and rationality in you , fly at this great Quarry , run for this glorious Prize , fight for this incomparable Crown . Fear nothing , only ruminate seriously upon it ; do but heartily desire it , and long after it ; do but wish it , and you cannot faile ; it cannot escape you , but of it self will stoop to your lure and hand . The ninth discourse . Soul. I Can better with a deep thought and silent recollection , imprint upon my mind these glorious truths you have discovered to me , then by words expresse how sensible I am of the charming contents they afford . Now I see you have led me by degrees through all the pleasures of the mind , from the most familiar and lowest , to those of so high a pitch , that they exceed the apprehension of Men and Angels . I know not what remaines , but to enquire , since our Bodyes shall be partakers of happinesse with the Soul , whether it shall have any proper pleasure of sense , as it seems to have in this world . Light. Well said you , as it seems to have ; for really it has none : all motions which appear in beasts so orderly that they make a shew of proceeding from some degree of reason , being only the quavering of certain aeriall or watery parts of the body , so ordained by Nature , as to be the beginnings of helping it self in its wants . Now we , out of our experience of our selves , conceit they passe with knowledge in them , as we find they do in us . But marking our selves well , we shall easily perceive that in Beasts all those motions may be without any true knowledge : For if we observe our groning in diseases , we shall experience that it is but the course of our breath , which coming forcedly , by reason of some restraint within , sends forth that sad unmusicall noise , as it would do out of a Pipe so made as our bodies are in that case . By the same Instrument is performed the expression of Joy , though tuned to another key ; and every passion causing some variety in our interiour Organs , is the reason that our naturall expressions are divers ; which clearly discovers the hypocriticall ambition of such as professe to understand the language of Birds , that truly is none at all . If then we consider our body abstractedly ; as there is no knowledge in it , but only a course of windy and watery substances shut up in conduits and cases , so there is no pleasure nor grief , but all depends upon the mind , and is intirely derived from it , even then when the body so impetuously & irresistably seems to oppresse us . Soul. But at least , shall the Soul then participate by the Body such pleasures , as now she does by her senses ? Neither do I ask this out of any strong desire I have of them ; for your discourse hath weaned me from that , by demonstrating such excessive store of far more delicious entertainments : but only led on by a curiosity , to know what shall betide us in that happy Kingdome . Light. I am glad to see you so reasonable ; and therefore propose you only one question , Whether you think it fit any thing should be in that blessed state , which might bring trouble and disturbance to its rest and peace ? Soul. Nothing is more assured then that whatever is interruptive of joy , ought to be banished from so great a felicity . Light. Then go along with me in one observation more ; and remember that all sensitive pleasures are troublesome and importune , unlesse the body be in a certain disposition when such delights are seasonable : as to one whose stomach is full , not only the taste , but even the very smell of meat is nauseous . Which single instance , if particularly look'd into and improved to the uttermost , will sufficiently establish this conclusion , that no corporeall pleasure is good to Man or Beast , but in some want or distresse in the Body ; when either t is too full , and would discharge some oppressed part , or too empty , and demands something to fill it . Soul. All this I agree to , in pleasures of the tast and touch , and peradventure , of smelling , which seems to have great affinity with our tast : but how it should hold in recreations and delights conveyed to us by hearing and seeing , I do not perceive . Light. Seeing in generally in order to knowledge ; and so the pleasure , principally and purely , of the mind , not of the body : But for hearing , 't is evident enough that is so , even by the sole experience of musick ; which we plainly feel inclines us to sadnesse or mirth , according to its quality . Who has not heard that it discharges the venome of the Tarantula in Apulia ? And by what vertue think we , is this strange wonder wrought , but that musick is to our inward , as dancing or running to our outward parts ? And as Nature stirres up all young things , Boyes , and Lambs , and Kitlins , to play and run about , by which they disperse the cloggy humours that otherwise would settle in their joynts : so Musick strikes our inward aeriall parts into a quick and active motion , which discharges them of their grosser humours , and purges all into a sprightlinesse , as rivers clear themselves by running , and winds by the swiftnesse of their flying . For we feel , if we mark it , the sensible stroaks of a Lute or Bandora beat the same measure in our Breasts , as if the strings of our Heart and of the Instrument were both Unisons : and certainly there is some substance there able to receive the impression ; as we see the Aire and Water do of such things as have any quick motion in them . So that the sound of musick is sweet to us , because the tremble it makes in our ear is agreeable to our Body ; but if you take away that proportion , by which such a shake or motion is fit for us , Musick it self would be ungratefull . Wherefore if we conceive our Body shall be in the most happy and excellent disposition it can be put into , and that all Motion must , of necessity , alter it from that temperament , and by consequence , change it into a worse : we see that state is not a state of Motion , but of Rest ; and that all Motion and alteration will be displeasure to our body . To which if you joyn this reason , that all corporeall action is either Motion , or performed by it ; you may conclude there can no pleasure hereafter flow from Motion , nor passe through our senses , all whose operations depend upon it . Soul. Then is all corporeall pleasure to be left with this world ? Light. When you come into the other , or rather , after the Great Day , your body shall be inriched with all perfections its nature is capable of ; your soul with universall and almost infinite knowledge . If still you desire any farther pleasures , you shall have both skill and meanes to apply them to your self . And as for Musick , whose delight consists in the variety and connexion of proportions , those your understanding shall participate more perfectly then any sense can afford ; and this in a high and noble manner of operation , without the dull and slow assistance of eares , to convey their impression to your mind . Can you wish for more ? Soul. Not only my utmost wishes , but even my curiosity remaines fully satisfied . For other qualities of our body , I have been taught we shall enjoy eternally all that can be desired ; a Strength irresistable ; an Agility so swift and active , that the Soul cannot sooner command then the Body obey ; a Health firm and constant , which nothing can either diminish or endanger ; lastly , a Beauty , now no beauty , but pure Light and Glory . Light. You are in the right ; and I am very glad to observe your affection to that happy state , from the kindnesse of your expressions concerning it : only , as for beauty , of which some are particularly curious , I shall propose this speculation ; It may be so comprised in a generall symmetrie of the body , that neverthelesse every individuall person may enjoy such a singular and speciall temperament , as shall be a degree of best ; the joyes of the soul darting their beams and diffusing their influences throughout the very body , and rendering it the most lovely and desireable sight that can be imagined . And now , having driven our discourse up to this height , that we are come within the view of heaven it self : what remaines but burning desires , perpetuall thoughts of , and a dwelling ( even whilst we are here ) in our conceived happinesse above ? which only to understand and desire , is to gain , and for ever possesse . But if neither e●ternall Felicities can allure us , nor everlasting Miseries fright us into our evident duty : what shall we answer at that Great Day , if we find our selves upon the wrong hand ? What pretence can we offer to be placed on the right ? What excuse can we alledge against the dreadfull Nescio Vos ? Wherefore to avoid that unhappy separation , to prevent that irrevocable banishment from our dear JESUS ; let us make our selves familiar with him here , who by a thousand favours solicites our love , and by a thousand titles deserves our service ; having spent His age , and shed His precious bloud , to redeem us from sin , and draw us to himself ; to deliver us from the bondage of Satan , and bring us to His own Kingdome , rewarding us with the Crowns and Sceptres of Eternity : To whom be given all possible honour and glory from all things , for all things , and in all things . Amen . FINIS . AN EXERCISE OF LOVE , WITH A DESCANT ON THE Prayer in the GARDEN ; By the same Authour . S. Ign. ad Rom. Amor meus Crucifixus est . AT PARIS , Printed in the YEARE 1654. TO THE Right HONOURABLE , THE Lady SOMMERSET . MADAM , AS your Commands have been able to strain all the Sinews of my Soul into a quick and faithfull Obedience : So , had they the power to imbue it with that gentle softnesse and tender Devotion , whence themselves proceeded , this my Pen had bled out the sweetest pangs that ever swelld the Breast of any Seraphin . But finding my Heart-strings too cough and restiff for pliance to such delicious charmes ; they leave a necessity on me to beseech your cautious perusall of these Lines , wherein the jarring discords of my confus'd apprehensions , and rugged expressions may otherwise prove too offensive to the harmony of so equall , so well tun'd a Soul : in which I can complain of this only fault , Your imposing so strong and weighty a task upon so slight , so weak , though , MADAM , Your Honours most perfectly subjected Servant , Tho : White . Paris , 9. Sept. 1653. AN EXERCISE OF LOVE . PErmit me , my Lord , my God , to confesse to thee thy Mercies , and repeat in thy presence thy infinite Bounties , that I may love and honour and praise Thee , with my whole heart and forces . Let me remember how from all Eternity I was nothing , till by thy order I sprung up a tender Imp and bud , testifying my Origin by my weaknesse and inability to help my self . Nor did my Father or Mother ( those kind instruments , to whom thou would'st have me beholding for my Being ) know or intend me , when they serv'd thee to make me : but thou , before all time , hadst ( among millions rejected ) named me and sign'd my happy lot , whilest I lay sleeping in my nothingnesse and unbeing . What could'st thou see in me , dread Lord , that might move thy will to select me from that Masse of non-Entity ? Peradventure , did I love Thee ? Alas , I who was not , what could I love ? yet if I could have lov'd , surely , nothing lesse then Thee , who wast most contrary to my Nullity . But though I was not , to love Thee , Thou wast , who could'st love me ; and love me as I was , not able to love Thee , nor yet any thing else : for I cannot love but what is , and by its amiablenesse produces a liking in me . How miserable then were I , if Thou lov'dst not me , till I could afford something that might please Thee ! But thou didst love me , when I could not love Thee ; and sealedst Thy love , stamping Thine Own Image on my face : on the face of my Soul first , giving me a power to love Thee ; and consequently on my Body , as 't is fitted to such a Soul. The Marks of thy bounty are no lesse then all I am and have . Ah , wretched I ! that continually weare about me all those Tokens of thy kindnesse , and yet not love Thee : and yet fear , that perhaps Thou lov'st not me . Dear Lord , make me love Thee , that I may not fear Thou lov'st not me : for , True love knowes not what it is to fear . But , Thou art not content to have made me of Nothing : if thou hadst not surrounded me with innumerable Helps ; and created , as it were , the whole World , for me ; If the Aire and Fire did not afford me breath and warmth ; the Land and Sea with their infinite Issue , variety of food and cloathing : and these , not what confines with my place of residence , but even from their utmost bounds . If I look upon my Table ; I see Fish from the Frozen Zone , Sugar from the Torrid , and Spices from the East and the West . If on my Attire ; the Profundities of the Earth and Water , the Longitude and Latitude of Mans Habitation meet all in me , as in a Centre , to bestow their Rarities upon me . O Great God! who set the multitudes of unhappy Creatures , buried in the bowels of Metallick Hills , and consumed in the Marishes of Brasil , to labour for me ? Who commands the Sea-men to burn under the Equator , and freeze by the Poles , to replenish me with Dainties ? Who ordained Kings and Potentates , Counsellers and Souldiers to beat their braines , forget their sleep , and hazard their lives , to produce me Quiet and Abundance ? Not they themselves , who for the most part are carried with vile and wretched appetites to pursue unworthy ends , neither knowing nor dreaming of me : but only Thou , my Lord and God , who marshallest Heaven and Earth for those thou art pleased to blesse ; who heapest thy favours on a generation of dull stupid Creatures , that can receive all thy gifts without returning the least love to the Giver ; that live and move and have their being from Thee , & never so much as acknowledge thy Bounty . Why permittest Thou so unsufferable ingratitude ? Why dost Thou not either suspend thy mercies , or make us more sensible of our duties ? From this houre , Dear Lord , let not my hand touch a bit of bread without a thankfull lifting up to the Feeder : let me not put on a ragg without bending my heart , and tuning its strings to the love of him , by whom I am rendered the But and Scope of the whole World's government . What shall I say to Thee , my heart-o'rewhelming Love , when I consider how many millions are swallowed in eternall perdition , whilest I am one of that small number ▪ Thou hast brought to the light and height of knowing Thee , and finding the narrow path to salvation ? That Thou art not unjust I easily see ; for all is thine , and in thy hand to give and dispose according to thy liberality ; to which he , where Thou extendst it not , can pretend no claim , having more already to thank Thee for then he is able to esteem . But why then didst Thou set set thine Eye upon me , preferring this wretch before so many thousands ? Was I nobler or more excellent then they ? O no : Angels and Hosts of heaven , whose Being or Nature I am not able to apprehend , lye chain'd in Sulphure and darknesse . Was my Wit or Parts beyond others ? O no : the Sages of India and the subtile Riddlers of the East were ignorant of thy Law ; and perisht in their Ignorance . Was I mightier or richer then they ? O no : the Conquerours of Kingdomes and the Gyants , powerfull in warre , were not chosen by Thee : much lesse the Sons of Agar , the Merchants , that traverse the world to purchase treasure , and heap up the wealth of Nations , were called to thy light . Let me sound as deep as I can ; nothing but thy self-Goodnesse , Wisdome and Power , without the least preceeding disposition in me , can I find to be the source and spring of all this advantage , O My Soul ! What dost expect , if this be not enough to set thee on fire ? yet , look but about thee , and behold a farther endearment . See thine own Countrey ; thy Neighbours , Acquaintance , thy Kindred and Friends : how many maist thou observe , in all degrees , more worthy of acceptation , then thou ; yet they neglected , and Mercy indulged thee ? think but on those , whose good nature and innocent life makes thy self many times compassionatly grieve at their unhappinesse , and desiring to be the means of bringing them to that great good , wherein thou art a sharer ; and reflect that former Ages and the vast spatiousnesse of the Earth afford many millions of such : yet , all permitted to undo themselves , and run upon their everlasting ruine . Consider this strange partiallity of mercy . And yet , thou canst doubt , yet thou canst say , Were I sure of Gods love . But , why did I ask whether I was better then others ? so , deserving preferrence ; since I have or can have no good , but from Thee ? Could I pre-ordain my self to be born of Christian and Catholick Parents , who should take care to incorporate me into the Family of the Heirs of Blisse by the Sacraments , instituted and afforded by Thee ? Might I be the cause why my Mother & Nurses fed me as soon with wholesome Doctrine as with their Milk ? why they prepar'd Priests & Masters to guide & frame my tender Age ? was 't I that led me to a liking of the true Religion , that only Path of Heaven ? or brought I my self to believe and hope in Thee ; to love Thee , and those Rewards thou hast prepar'd for them that follow thee ? No , no , dear and dread Providence ; Thou art our Alpha and Omega . If I do any Good , Thou provid'st and fittest the means for it ; if I abstain from Evil , Thou divert'st the Occasions , Thou presentest awing Fears , and shak'st perpetually the Bridle over my head , that I may not be lawlesse and undisciplin'd . If I consult of any acceptable work , Thou preparest me Motives , by Books , by Teachers , by Friends , by Opportunities : Thou directest my Thoughts and apprehensions ; ordering my Spirits in my Brain , that what will be efficacious should occurre . Thou enlightenest my Judgement , to discern the consequence of Truths necessary to my Resolution : Thou quellest my Appetite , that it hinder not those Truths from setling in me . If I resolve , Thou so rangest all things , that I chuse what is best , not only for the present , but what shall be so too in future occasions , whereof I know nothing . And as I am utterly ignorant of the things that are to fall out many moneths and years after , which neverthelesse depend on this Resolution , and in their season so take their force from it , that they would certainly fail if it had not been made right : no more , or rather much lesse know I any thing , or did I co-operate in the least to that long Chain of Causes , which bred in me all those parts and little circumstances ; every one so necessary to this Resolution , that if any had miss'd , the Resolution had miscarried more or lesse , not proving the same , nor producing the same effects . So that let me reflect on any action , great or little , long or short , or however qualified , I find that 't is I indeed do it , but the force and vertue ( & , by consequence , the honour and praise ) is thine . I do it , but as the Child to whom the Nurse gives Nuts or Beads , and holding his hand , throwes them into a hole ; whilst he , alas , thinks 't is he playes so well , and pleases himself as with his own act , not having the wit to consider 't is his Nurses aime : Just so , my God and my tender Sustainer , just so dost thou with me , whilst I often forget thee ; my weak brains reaching no farther then to see that I do the deed , without being able ( through dulnesse or pride ) to passe my self , and discern thee the only true cause and root of all my good . But seeing my self consult , & resolve , and do , I often take this wretch for as primary as Thou , for thy coefficient and helper , not purely thine instrument and wholly depending on thee . Which since I barely am , and that ( vertuous action ) my chiefest good proceeds so entirely from Thee ; what is left for me , but to love , ever love , and nothing else but love ? Thus far reach the Entry and Porch of Love's Palace . Then , we discover Its great Hall ; when we begin to contemplate the Essentiall Deity , macerated and steep'd , for our sakes , in all the Miseries of Mankind . That God of Gods lap'd up in a Virgin 's Wombe : delivered naked into freezing winds and the smart stroaks of night-aire : swath'd in bands and clouts : hanging at a Maidens breasts : short in Age , weak in limbs ; and not forgetting to fulfill all infirmities of his Brethren . Soon after , led by his Mothers hand , setling his tender steps , feeding on the fruits of our earth , following his Parents to Jerusalem , lost , and sought , and not found , with teares : subject to his Mother , and her Husband : growing in Wisdome and Vertue , as well as in Body . After this , working with his reputed Father , and in no visible fashion , differing from the life of his Parents , till he was baptiz'd by Saint John , his holy Precursor . Then , fasting forty dayes in the Wildernesse , gathering Disciples , instructing them , working miracles before them , living on the same meats , dyeting and lodging with them ; maintain'd by Alms , having no certain aboad , but most commonly among the poor , and simple Fishermen . Farther , we see him weary , thirsty , hungry , forgetting hunger for love of souls , envy'd , slander'd , blasphem'd , threatned ; now ready to be stoned , now to be precipitated , flying , hiding himself , troubled in spirit , weeping for his friends , weeping for his Countrey , contradicted , persecuted , conspired against ; His confidents corrupted , his followers excommunicated , his friends sought to death , others not daring to acknowledge him : and a thousand such indignities . But the State of Love shewes it self first in the Garden . O the dolefull unheard cryes to Heaven ! O the bitter Agony and deadly Sweat of bloud ! O the ravenous throats of devouring Wolves led on by one of his own dearest houshold ! See with what outcryes , and howlings , and noyse , they drag him through the streets of Jerusalem ; every one looking out at their windowes to fill their eyes with gazing at this strange wonder . See how He is toss'd from one Tribunal to another : here revil'd and buffetted , there flouted and spit on ; every where despis'd and maliciously affronted . But what wofull spectacle is that Pilate presents to the People , which causes so great and loud cries ? The Stature is of a Man , but the Head of a Monster . A Crown of piercing Thornes ; bloody , and bloodying all that is near it . Hair , such as ravish'd the heart of the delicious Spouse ; but clotted with gore , sticking some to his Neck and Flesh , some to the horrid Thorns , all rudely ruffled in a hideous disorder . A Face and Eyes able to subdue all hearts ; if stripes , and buffets , and bloud , and swellings , and marks of blind rage permitted them to beseen . Well-shap'd Limbs ; but disfigur'd and hidden in their own bruises , and tearings , and shatters . A red ragged Mantle , and a Sceptre of a Reed , to accomplish a King of sorrow , calamity and scorn . And why all this ; this ingenious cruelty , to disguise a poor Man into so monstrous an Object of disdainfull Malice ? Alas ! all 's but to glut the blood-thirsty jaws of an unfaithfull and rebellious Multitude ; which , no longer then five dayes since , sung praises and Hosanna's to this very Person , and strewed their garments and Palm-branches in his way . A People infinitely oblig'd , and no wayes offended by him . A people that cannot accuse him of the least crime , that have seen him cleered in all Tribunalls : the Judge himself pleading . His Innocence . Yet no lesse then his heart's last drop will satisfie them , though it be at the cost of their own and all their posterities . Nor can they tell why , more then that they are push'd on by those who abuse and pillage them , and who have conceiv'd this implacable hatred against him , only because he discovered their violences , oppressions and tyrannyes over these very people that so furiously exclaim against him . Well : if there be no remedy , charge those wounded shoulders with thy heavy Cross , dear Saviour , and shew us , on Mount Calvary , a greater and stranger Transfiguration , able to dim That of Mount Tabor . I see thy spread Arms , thy nailed Hands and Feet , thy rack't Sinews , thy pierced Side , thy bended Neck , thy faln Looks , thy torn Body , thy pale and bloudlesse Flesh , thy Company of infamous Thieves , and thy miserable Favourite and forlorn Mother . I hear thy last Words and breath'd-out Soul into the Hands of thy Father ; not , as they command Heaven , but as they reach to Hell. O Love ! canst thou love , or expresse it , beyond this ? Yes : heark , and consider Those higher-endearing Charms of heaven . The Father , the most tender and perfectly-loving Father ; whose Essence is pure , distill'd spirit of love ; He put his Onely-his Equall-his Intimate-his Co-essentiall Son , with His own hands , nay , with This Son 's own commanded Will and hands , to all these and infinite more unspeakable tortures and miseries , for thy sake , for thine , my soul ; that thou mightest not complain thou wantedst an Object , a Motive , thou hadst not a Teacher , a Pattern , an Exciter , an Enforcer to Love. IF there be a Hall for all comers , certainly there 's a Parlour too for select and choice friends ; where they may confer together of thine infinite perfections , and often repeat with joy thy unspeakable bounties ; where they may retire from the noise and distractions of the World , and entertain their thoughts with the sweet still-musick of contemplation ; where they may sit alone , excluding even themselves , and be chastly ravisht with the dear embraces of the Divine Spouse of Souls . O , what Droanes are our highest-strain'd Lovers , whose memories in all languages affect immortality for their fantastick passions ! what dull buzzing of Beetles are their kindest expressions to the melting notes of this heavenly harmony ! But is there no further admittance ( O glorious King of Love ) for those who have so happily enter'd thy Palace ? I remember a large upper-room , furnisht by thy self , and richly prepared to give yet a more noble treatment : and methinks I hear something within me bid me advance a few steps further . What fair gilt door is that which dazzles so my sight to look on ? Sure 't is the holy place we seek , sealed up for thy peculiarly beloved . Open it , some bright and flaming Seraphin . O my God , what do I see ? what 's this my eyes behold ? Manna raining from Heaven for those that can get to the shoar of that former Red Sea of loves flouds ? Truly my God , my Lord , Love has transported thee even to extasie , it has made thee do extravagant and frenetick actions : extravagant indeed and freneticall , if measured by the narrow and short judgement of poor humanity ; but heights , and depths , and Abysses , if referr'd to thy uncircled wisdome , and unlimited reach of bounty and goodness . Behold the Body that hang'd on the Crosse , that was anointed in the Grave , that rose again and ascended to the right hand of the heavenly Creator : Behold , It falls down in wheaten drops , like Coriander Seeds , to feed and feast the wretches , descended from Adam . Behold the Body , the Blood , the Soul , the eternall Person , the Deity , the Trinity ; all couch'd , as it were , in a corn of Bread. The Omnipotency , that made Heaven ; the Wisdome , that link'd all possibilities into the Chain of all Beings ; the Bounty , that crowded into Natures teeming bosome all that was Best : these , all these lie here covered like a Chymical pill in a Sugared wafer , Those looks from which Heaven and Earth amazedly flie ; in whose Presence the Princes of the celestiall hosts , and the Pillars of the World tremble : that Head , on which depends the fate of Souls , both past and to come : that Tongue which shall doom in one word , the Nations of all Ages : All are , here humbly stoop'd and subjected , to me , and other such wretches ; even , to be abused by our wickednesse . Yes , yes : all these are as truly , Here , as they are on thy Throne in Heaven ; as they will be in the midst of the blessed , on the Day of thy Triumph over Nations . What do I say , as truly : and not , even , more : in a far more excellent manner ? for thy Body is in Heaven , as in another and different thing : but , in the Sacrament , substantially , in It , as mans Soul and Body are in Man ; as the adored Person of God is in my Lord Jesus Christ ; as every thing is in its self or in its whole , Thou art therefore , my Jesus , both in Heaven and in the Sacrament , truly ; but in one more properly , in the other more excellently : Reallity is in both , but the Manner different . Wherefore , I cannot complain thou hast left us , by thine Ascension ; and bereaved us of that comfortable Presence , whose force was so magneticall in thy life-time . No , no ; I see Thee as truly , as they did then : I feel thee as corporally , as did That Master of Touching , who sought thy Side and Wounds to embalme his Sense in : I Tast Thee as really , as the Chanaan-Feaster did the Wine Thou sentst him : Thou deludest not my Senses , by making me onely seem to See , Feel and Taste , when indeed I do not ; Thou entertain'st me not with other things or Qualities , which are with Thee , but not thy self . No , no ; the White I see is Thou ; the Body I hold in my hand or mouth , is Thine and Thou ; that which yeelds Savour to my tongue and palate , is thy-self , and no other thing . This thou hast told me ; this thy Church has ever apprehended and taught ; this I believe and confesse to Thee . But oh ! can I conceive without trembling , or speak without horrour ? Does Man's Hand break the Body of my Saviour ? do Mans teeth rend and mangle the Sacred vesture of Deity ? Yes , yes , my Soul ; fear not to confesse the Wonders and Mercies of thy Lord and God : they may be hard to understand , but they are the Words of Life . So farre has He subjected his glorious Body to our use , that what other bread can suffer , may be wrought upon Him. Not that we can tear a Finger from his Hand , or his Hand from his Arm , or any one member from another : but as when we break bread , every piece is still bread ; so when we divide his Body , both parts remain his whole Body ; for it was not one part that became one part of the Bread , and another the rest , but all succeeded to each part of bread . Let great Clerks in their Schools , with their subtilties search how this can be effected , ( for , seeing it is done in bread , it is not against Nature , nor unintelligible , even by That ) to me let it suffice the Church has taught me 't is so ; and that 't is the greatest benignity and most gracious condescence that God himself could expresse , to have it be so . And is this more , perhaps , then that thy immortall flesh should nourish my mortall Carcase ? that it is mingled with Mine , as Wine with Water ; as two melted Waxes incorporate themselves ? Let none tell me , 't is Quantity that is digested into my body : for then it is not Thou that nourishest me ; and I will not forgo those precious expressions , that Thou feed'st me with Thy Flesh , and giv'st me Thy Bloud to drink . So thy Words sound ; so thy Church has taught ; & so I believe . How this can be done , without thy being turn'd into me ; or how thy Substance can , unchangedly , be chang'd into mine , that thou mayest endue my Flesh with a quality of Immortality , let the Sages question : but I 'm sure 't is so ; this , I know , is the way of Love ; and the most charming Mystery , and inchanting Riddle , that ever love-spent bowels were able to sing or sigh out . ANd now , my Soul ; having thus ( perfunctorily , Alas ! ) viewed the excessive benefits of Almighty God : 't is time to reflect a little upon thy Duty ; and consider what motions and affections they should stirre and work in thee . First , Thou hast seen how all thou hast are gifts : and , not onely all ; but , wholly . If any friend has done thee kindnesse : He prepar'd that Friend ; he gave him the power , the occasion , the will to serve thee ; he blest his endeavours with efficacy & successe , If thou thy self hast done any thing to thine own improvement or advantage : He gave thee , not onely Body and Soul , with all their powers and faculties ; not only matter , opportunity , strength , will , liberty , choice ; but every least imaginable perfection of the very stroak of choise and liberty : insomuch that there is nothing , no considerability of it , so from thy self , that , even its being from thee comes not from the Almighty , in comparison to whom , no Friend , no creature ever did or can do any thing for thee . Shall then , the friendship or love of any Creature have power to draw my affection from God ? permit it not , my great Creatour ; but thorowly perfect thy work . Why am I good by half 's , since I am entirely thy Designe ? I professe , before Thee , who seest my very heart , and before Angels and Men , that I ought not to be so , that 't is folly and madnesse to be so . Give me then thy grace utterly to abhorre and detest so injurious , so unworthy an ingratitude . And since Thou vouchsaf'st thus clearly to convince me , that 't is a great indignity , and against all reason and truly-naturall inclination to join any with Thee ; grant me ever with all exactnesse to observe this duty , That as no Creature has the least part in doing me good , but merely so farre as it has it from Thee ; no , not I my self : so none , none may share with Thee in my Love , but just so farre as thy love , thine order , thy direction applies it to them . Next , my Soul , thou hast seen how the Benefits of God are not onely all thou hast , but that they are in an excessive Measure ; wide as the World ; uncountable as the sands of the Sea ; great as the Creatures can be : since neither the eminentest Men nor highest Angels are exempt from being ministring spirits , employed for thy salvation ; nay , God himself , in the two Persons of the Son and Holy Ghost , has condescended to wait on Thee . So various and superabundant they are , that they comply not onely with thy necessity , but serve even thy delights and recreations . So that thou art neither able to conceive the multitude and greatnesse , nor comprehend the worth and pleasingnesse of his favours . What then canst thou say ? but onely lie gasping with admiration of so vast , so unknown a Goodnesse , and sigh out in the centre of thy Heart , My sole-Good , my All ; I thought before I was bound to acknowledge thy Benefits , and love Thee for them , but now I renounce both : for he that acknowledges , makes a shew as if he were able to esteem ; and he that loves , seems as if he would render somewhat . Not so I , my great Master , not so . But I protest my self infinitly below all thy mercies ; unable to value the least of thy Blessings , much lesse to repay Thee any thing for them : since , had I any thing worthy thy acceptance , it were all thine , and I could offer Thee nothing but thine own . What then shall I do , but throw my heart at the feet of thy bounty , all-open , all-melted , without any self-will or power of resistance , at every pulse of my breath , repeating this onely Burden , Do thy pleasure upon me . Again , Thou hast seen , my Soul , that ( far beyond all created Essences ) God has been so liberall as to bestow Himself on thee . He bowed the Heavens , and came down , rendring his sacred Person subject to all the miseries of Humanity . He laid aside all the prerogatives of his most noble and most perfect soul ; exposing it to labours , to teares , to griefs , to those stupendious throwes in the Garden ( even , to such a height , that it admired it self , in those expressive words , My God , my God! to what a point hast Thou let me be brought ? ) And , in fine , to be commanded even to Hell. He abandoned his Body ; to heat , to cold , to weaknesse , to hunger and thirst , to wearinesse , to torments , to death : and not content with this ( after the Resurrection , in Its state and season of Glory ) he sent it again into the World , to be subject to a thousand more indignities , scorns and abusings . Here now my soul , compare seriously thy sufferings with His , and consider , First , Since nor health nor wealth , nor any other good thou possessest is thine , or from thy self , but onely vouchsaf'd thee during his pleasure and discretion ; all thy sufferings can be but a not-enjoying any longer what is no way due to thee : but He was incapable of any wants in himself ; if his own Will had not taken upon him both a Nature that could want , and its necessities . Again , what commodities He at any time seem'd to have , he held them from himself , and His purely they were ; wherefore He truly suffered when they were ravish'd from him : whereas we , through ignorance , attribute to our selves what we possesse , being really but Trustees , not Masters of the least pile of grasse . Farther yet , our mis-call'd sufferings , if rightly used , are indeed blessings : for if we lose our Fortunes ; alas , they made us not know our selves : if our Health ; 't is to disaffect us to this world : if we prove unhappy in our Children , what greater distraction had we from the love of our hoped glory , then our care and tendernesse to them ? But Christ's sufferings could have no such advantagious effects : no , they were , chiefly , to shew us the straitest Path to that life He promis'd us ; and to assure by his own Example , ( who could not but know and embrace what was best ) that the way of Tribulation is the high-Road to Heaven . And canst thou , my Soul , after this , think any Crosse heavy , and affliction hard to endure ? canst thou chuse but be vexed and enraged at thy Flesh and Blood , which , against all evidence , will force thee to esteem unfortunatenesse an Evil ? O my great and sole Good ! suppresse these unreasonable follies which boyl in my breast . Make me know whatever happens , good or bad , to me is securely my best , because it comes from Thee ; whilst my onely care ought to aim at this , how to improve it to my best advantage . Make me understand that whatever I beare with patience , I suffer for thy sake ; because I take it , as from Thee ; because I do as Thou commandest ; because 't is in imitation of Thee ; and lastly , because it is to obtain Thee , my chief , my onely , my most entire Treasure . O rich Treasure ! O masse of Glory ! in proportion to whose attainment , all the labours and tribulations that Men and Devils can heap on me are nothing , nothing considerable , not deserving even the slightest esteem . Lastly , My Soul , thou hast seen with what ambition and exaggeration of Courtship , with what unparallel'd addresse and exquisite inventions thy Lord has sought and woo'd thy love . First , He gave thee heaven and Earth , with all their Creatures , for thy Motives to know and love Him. Next , He made Himself thy Fellow and Brother in flesh and bloud , that thou mightst not strain thy self , but familiarly conversing , be caught with his love . Beyond that , He has pass'd all those fabulous imaginations of dangers and misfortunes , in which idle witts have fram'd Errant Ladies to have engaged their Servants for proof of their fond & obstinate loyalty . He has heap'd on thee all the names and titles of endearment , which either nature or use have introduc'd among Mankind : He is thy Maker , thy Father , thy Spouse , thy Brother , thy Ransomer out of thraldome , thy Deliverer from danger , thy Saviour from misery and death , thy Friend , even thy very Play-fellow . He has gone beyond all this : He is thy Food , thy Drink , thy Self : for since when thou eatest Him , His Flesh becomes thine , ( as truly as the bread , whereof we encrease and nourish our substance , which by the power of matter and conformity of quality remains in us ) how can we chuse but be his Members , so , that if we dishonour our body , we dishonour His ? how can we chuse but have a share of Him perpetually in us ? and in plain truth be Reliques of Him , of His glorious Flesh and immortall Bloud ? O Eternall Wisdome , how truly didst Thou say , It was thy delight to be with the Sons of Men ? Can Angels boast of such priviledges , of such tendernesses , of such Extasies of Thy love ? No ; none but so weak a Nature as ours was able to necessitate Goodnesse it self to so deep a condescendence as this : and none but all Goodnesse could so appropriate it self to all Infirmities . O melting Goodnesse , that fillest every corner and chink Thou findest capable of thy perfections , wave not this poor soul of mine , but make it understand the unmeasurablenesse of thy bounties and Mercy . Shall I for ever apprehend my past sinnes , still in fear whether they are forgiven ? Shall I not rather , in the very moment of terrour , turn me to Him , of whose readinesse to receive me I cannot doubt ? Mark how easy thou art to pardon thy self ; and consider thou art one of his Members : whence be assured , as soon as thou sayest I have sinned , thou shalt hear thy sin is taken away . Shall I fear that I am not in state to receive his Body , when the very preparing my self , and having a true will to go meet Him , puts me in state ? Shall I seek outward Medicines for my wounds , whose ulcerousnesse onely consists in bereaving me of Love ? O my dearest Lord , make me love and joy in thee : make me take pleasure to come even corporally to Thee : but much more to delight and solace my self in thinking of thee , in remembring how Thou lov'st me , how Thou art my Friend , my Spouse , my Father , and whatever dear name by which Thou hast been pleased to expresse so blest a relation . Make me place my chief felicity in contemplating how happy I shall be , when once I see Thee face to face , and familiarly converse with Thee , as a Friend does with his Friend . Mean while establish firmly in my soul this absolute judgement , that the greatest pleasure and advantage this world can afford me is , often , and long , and heartily to practice here on earth that sweet and holy conversation which is to be consummated in Heaven . What Maid , whose Parents have promis'd her a person compleatly qualified for her Spouse , is not pleased to sit by her self , and stedily fix her thought upon him , wishing for the day she shall once meet and enjoy him ; till then , love and honour him in his Picture , see him in every one that has seen and known him , and be overjoyed with all Tokens that come from him ? Whereof what variety , my soul , hast thou from thy God ? All we have hitherto discours'd is nothing else : Heaven and earth , and all that is in them : His Divinity , his Humanity , his Body , Blood , and Soul , Thy self , all thou hast , all thou dost , all thou hast done or ever shalt do . — Se Nascens dedit socium , Convescens in Edulium , se Moriens in Pretium , se regnans dat in Praemium . But retire thy self a little , my soul , from the multitude of the Creatures ( His benefits ) to thy more united thoughts : for Love's Palace , to be compleat , must have a with-drawingroom . Thither then retire , and consider this Great Courtier that makes so many Embassyes to thee for thy Love. Know who He is , whether He be the best worthy thy Affections . First what 's His Extraction ? Is He Noble and of an ancient race ? He is the First of things , whence all Nobility derives its esteem : His Ancientnesse is Eternity , higher driven then Time His Creature and Off-spring , which yet is the measure of all other Auncestry . True it is , He is the First of his House , but the Last too . His nobility is not by derivation from others , and a participation of their worth : 't is entirely His Own , out-wearing the long Pedegrees of Mankind's successions by the never-changing greatnesse of His Own Person . Is He powerfull ? All things , except himself , are his Creatures , and the Works of his Hand : they depend for their being , all they have , all they are worth , on his breath ; and would perish if he did not perpetually drop them from his omnipotent Fingers . He works them and turns them as he lists with a Fiat ; and none can breath a wish to resist him , but by his permission : nor is Himself able to make a Thing of such strength , that it can break his least Order or Will. Is He rich ? Sea and Land , and all their Treasures are His : Beasts and Birds , Fishes , and Trees , and Plants are the store of his Basse-Court : the mines of the Earth and the Jewels of the Ocean are the refuse of his plenty . All that lies hidden behind the dazling starres , ( whose riches we cannot imagine ) all 's His. There 's no end of his Wealth : and his Creatures are not able to make use of the least part of it . All this is well . But , peradventure , He is a great way off , and I cannot come near Him. He is every where : He makes Place it self : He is in all Things and their Places ; to be separated from him is to be Nothing and No where . He is in thy very Heart , and in the bottome of thy Soul : the inmost thing thou canst finde in thy self is He ; nor canst thou look upon any thing without or within thee , but He is to be found and seen in it , if thou hast Eyes turned towards him , and a Mind to discern him . Thou canst never want his light , but by thine own fault ; never be excluded from his Presence , but when thou turnest thy back to him ; which yet can be but from his favours , not from his Power . With all this , is he wise ? The Device of the World is His , He contriv'd the Order of Heaven and Earth . The Planets roul by his measures : Night and Day proceed by his direction : the Waters in the Sea expect his beck , turning and winding just as he pleases . He joynted the Beasts , every one to his peculiar motion ; and frames the Little-ones in the Damm's Wombes . He prevents and casts the counsels of Men , catching those who think themselves crafty , in their own snares , and over-reaching them in their most premeditated projects . He changes Kingdomes and States , making Tyrants the instruments of their own ruine . In a word , He governs the Fates of Men and Angels , and brings them to those Ends he thinks fittest . Is He Bountifull and magnificent ? Behold the Earth we walk on ; all this he gave to One Man. Alas , we but trample on the out-side , and fill a small part of it ; there 's a thousand times more we never come to see : and of this surface we inhabite , what vast Deserts are possest onely by Beasts and Birds , whilst all the Sea covers is stor'd onely with Fishes ? Think what abundance of Plants , Beasts , Birds , and Fishes live and die without the knowledge of Men : yet all bestowed on them , and created for them . Remember what a heap of Benefits thou found'st laden upon thy self , and know that Others have no lesse . See the Sun and Moon lighted like Torches to wait upon us ; one farre greater , the other not much lesse then the whole Earth . See in a fair night how the huge world about us is bestudded with glorious Gemms that serve for nothing but witnesses of his great Magnificence , and unbounded Prodigality to us . But , Is He Purely Loving , and has no Ends in all He does ? When no Creature had a Being , He was brim-full of Glory , and infinitely satiated with his own happinesse : being Essentially Joy and Pleasure to Himself : to Himself Honour and Praise , and all He could wish ; He could desire nothing , nor aim at obtaining any thing . Now He has made Creatures , He 's never the better for them : his Heart is not touch'd with their praises or good-works , no more then 't is molested with their dispraises or mis-deeds ; nor can any possible Creature have force to move his Will , more then my weaknesse has to change the course of the Sun and Moon . He made all Creatures therefore , not for any good in them , or love conceiv'd from them ; but meerly out of the Intrinsecall Goodnesse of His Own Nature , and the strong Inclination which Himself is to do Good , because He is what He is ; an Inclination stronger and more naturall then any Lover in this world can have , with as much advantage as God's Nature has over a Creatures . So not without reason is His Love , but totally Reason ; as not kindled by thinking or casting to obtain any End , but perfectly from Nature and Essence ; and no more to be wrested from Him , then can His own Being : yet neverthelesse , most perfectly free and rationall . This is much . But He Loves a great many ; so that I fear I shall have a small portion in His Affection . O no ; His Heart is whole where it is : and as He comprehends perfectly all things with so high an eminency , that he knowes every one as well as if there were nothing else to be known ; so He loves every one as dearly as if there were no other . He is with one , without parting from another : He fills one , without emptying another ; and ( as a Rainbow in a Multitudes Eyes , or Thunder in all the Worlds Eares ) He is Whole in All , and Whole in Every one . His Affection , his Care , his Tendernesse is intire , indivisible to every one : the Multitude of those He loves , improves and raises every ones happinesse to a farre higher degree , in that it makes all them love one another , and publishes his particular Love of thee , to be known and esteem'd by all the loves . Nor is there the least subject of any Envy or Jealousie : He can wait on All , entertain All , fill All , content All , blesse and beatifie All at once . And now , my glorious Lord , having sifted and rack't my brains to find some exception against Thee , some excuse to palliate my withholding the Duty I owe Thee , some Cross-knot to dull the piercing of thy two-edg'd sword , dividing my Soul and Spirit : behold , nothing imaginable ; but all sweetness , all heat , all light . O then let me turn my course , and joy at my missing desired misfortune . Let me sit with the happy Spouse , so pleas'd with every part of her Lover . Let me delight my self to consider the Greatnesse of every Perfection in Thee , and the Infinitenesse of All. Let me compare Thy Eternity to the weak imitation of humane Nobility ; and scorning This , joy in the immense eminency of That . Let the vast extent of thy Power ( in widenesse and profundity to all effects , and to Huge ones ) make me laugh at the narrow-compass'd and beggarly ends which the ambitious Hearts of this world aim at . O the poor Treasures that can be hoarded in caves , in houses , or towers ! what proportion do they bear to Thy wealth ? O the scant presence and jealous absence of Lovers in this world ! the outwardnesse of them , and hearts to-be-guess'd-at ! what bitter-sweets must they of necessity cause ? Besides , their shallow wits and short reaches , in no other respect to be esteem'd , but because we find no better : their hungry benefits and pinching prodigalities , proportion'd to their petty affections : their by-ends and base aims , in their most reall and truest professions : their weak and impertinent passions : their fond and changeable inclinations , easily consum'd in a few triviall disgusts . What miserable penurious blasts are these to blow the coals of Love ? And yet have these so long mov'd my Heart , whilst it has lyen so heavy and restiff to lift it self up and follow thee . O my onely Good , henceforth for ever make me run like the blessed Magdalen , without care or consideraton , after the Odours of thy Perfumes . Make it all my pleasure to sit hours , and dayes , and nights , weighing every Excellency of thine , and considering how good it is for all Creatures , and particularly for me , that Thou art so rich in glory , so full of perfections ; but above all , how thy adorable Attributes become Thy self , how bright and beautifull they sit upon Thee . Make me spend all my forces in blessing Thee that Thou art such , in rejoycing at it , in protesting that 't is all reason , all fitnesse , all justice it should be so ; that 't is the blisse of thy Creatures , but yet a greater good and farre more excellent in it self . Make me vapour away into Acts and Wills to have it so ; to render it such ( were it not so , and in my power to procure it ) and that for what it is to me , but much more for what it is to Thee . But oh for that day , when this knowledge of mine ( now childish , darksome , partiall , and Enigmaticall ) shall be turn'd into manly , noon-like , full and clear Vision . O how unmeasurably must my Love be there increas'd , where the Object cannot fail to deserve infinitely more then I can employ ! yet shall I then employ infinitely more then I can now imagine : and as the degrees of Love are multiplied , the degrees of Joy must still grow higher ; and the more the Joy is , so much more must the Love be redoubled : thus raising still one the other , to the very breaking in pieces the Adamantine sinews of my Soul ; whilest the Object ever stretches by its infinite perfection the bounds of a capacity ever yielding to embrace it . O how shall I cling to , and incorporate with him ! not for fear of losing , but for eager desire of more enjoying . O how shall I melt into esteemings and praisings , and Love-breathing Dittyes ! how shall I inessence my self into that Fountain of Goodnesse ! Oh come , oh come , that happy day : come even now . I fear neither Hell nor Judgement ; for I know Thou canst bear no wrath against those that love Thee . Come then , come while these sweet sighs call on Thee : wrest my soul from this loading , this loathsome body : skrew up even these very aspirations to such a pitch , that they become the happy instrument to break my heart-strings ( those fetters and bonds of my imprison'd Soul , which keep it from the sight of my so-beloved Spouse and Master ) and set me at liberty in the eternall freedome of thy Palace , and everlasting glory of thy celestiall Presence . Fiat , Fiat . BReath a while , my Soul , and recall a little thy Spirits . This Stupendious Palace of Love still deserves a more curious search : 't is not impertinent here to be humbly inquisitive . Let 's see whether there be not yet some farther secret worthy our discovery . And behold a Lock and little Door . Oh , 't is Loves Cabinet ! Certainly He there reserves some rare Jewel to enrich and adorn thee . Knock , call aloud : and if he delay to open , at least peep through the key-hole , and see what 's within . O Glory ! 't is the very Quintessence of Loves Object . I see how , because God is sole Eternall , all things must be made by Him : and since nothing can give , but what it has , nor make , but what it is , I see the whole frame of all that is or can be must be in Him ; with all their joynts and intriques , wherewith they are intangled in their flowing from Him. Whence I plainly discern that by knowing Him , I shall know all things , and all causes of all things . O vast and spacious Wisdome ! O incredible content ! For since my Soul is nothing else but a Vessel and capacity of knowledge , and This alone is the knowledge of all things , by their proper Causes too , and those resolv'd into theirs , even to the very highest cause ( not ascending backward , but beginning at the Spring-head , and most knowing it ; and from it descending even to the lowest , the most impartible grain of Sand or Dust : ) what can my Soul wish more ? what can it imagine greater ? Yes , my prospect opens it self farther , and I see that , since all created things are in themselves dispers'd and multiplied with infinite variety , and sometimes incompossibility and contradiction , but in God refin'd and resum'd into a most simple and indivisible Being ; they must infinitely be better in Him then in themselves ; & He yet infinitely better then they . For as four cannot be different from three , but because it has somewhat that three has not ; so God must have something that is not in Creatures , to be different from them : and this being of a higher order and more eminent rank , must of it self be better then all they put together , and of a far nobler and richer glorious possession . I see yet more , that since God is cause of all other things out of Himself , He himself can have no cause ; and that they having their being from Him , may be and not be , as compos'd of being and what is ; only God has no such composition : wherefore since He cannot be what is , without being , He is being without what is ; whereas all Creatures Substance is what is , and being an Accident to them . This I find that God is not only none of these things we see , but nothing like any of them : of a higher and super-excellent strain , not agreeing with them in any name that can signifie Substance ; infinitely above our utmost conceptions , incomparably sublimer , nobler , more wonderfull , more deserving knowledge , and more stirring and straining an appetite of it . Beyond all this , I see that God is not such an Existence and being , as we apprehend by this name we give it , and which we exalt above what is by it ; but as far retir'd above it , as that 's above what is . He is not a being by which a thing is , but a being which is a thing , a Substance . He is a being redoubled upon it self , giving and receiving being to and from it self , and yet neither ( for this is impossible ; ) but a higher inexpressible force , implying both without their contradiction . I see that all I have said and can say , are pure follyes , not expressing , in the smallest degree , the thing which I see is : and the more I force my self to understand it , the farther I am from it , ( one abysse still calling upon another ) because it is infinite and unsoundable , but only to God himself . O happy darknesse , if once to become lightsome ! the more hidden thou art now , the greater blisse wilt thou be then . Oh that my heavy thoughts had the wings of an Angel to soar aloft and towre height upon height , till I came within view of these celestiall Quires ! not to discern Thee , my dread Lord , ( for I should be never the nearer ) but to quicken my desire , and encrease my longing . O how fix'd would mine eyes stare upon Thee , when thou shouldst be pleas'd to remove the skreen of my mortall body , that now intercepts the view of thy glory , and demolish the strong-wall that as yet unhappily detains me from thy Presence ! Methinks I see that no violence of nature , no falling weight , no bent of forced steel , no earth-bursting vapour , no tower-shivering thunder , or bulwark-tossing mines could expresse the eagernesse of my Souls embracing Thee . Methinks I see Eternity too short to enjoy Thee in ; and that my Soul would sooner wane to nothing , then part from Thee . Methinks there 's no possibility of Pleasure which is not in Thee , nor any out of Thee ; no faculty in my Soul to wish or think of any other thing but Thee : Thee , my onely , my eternall , incomprehensible All , my dear , dearest Lord , and my God. If the good God has reserved for his Friends be so immense , and the joy and blisse it brings the Soul so extream ; who can doubt but the losse must be proportionable , and the grief and anguish of missing it be measured by the same weights ? what then must thou do , my poor Soul , wavering yet betwixt hope and fear of these so important contraryes ? what must thou do to assure thy chief interest , and make thy self secure Mistresse of so great , so glorious pretensions ? Peradventure , spend thy time in wishes and flashing thoughts , like the Northern Fire-drakes , or the lightning breathings of fair Sommer nights , which but vent their own heat without firing any thing . No , no ; these goads pierce too deep to be contented with palliating and superficiall remedies . Adieu then those so charming warbles of Father , Friend , Spouse , another self , and whatever else the Wit of Man , or even the Spirit of God has invented to tickle materiall fancy , and to revive Tara●●nteliz'd Souls . These are Milk for beginners ; Lenitives to take away the angrinesse of their festring hearts , when they first tear off from worldly toyes ; Metaphoricall expressions , which have no proper and solid meaning to feed the truth-hungry mind . The affections growing out of these are grounded upon love to our selves ; even then when we wish more good to another then to our selves ; even when in comparison we wish harm to our selves . But , that God is our Good and finall End , is as true as that He is our Maker : and the very Essence of our Soul is nothing else but a pure capacity and emptinesse of Him ; all its strength by nature or grace , nothing but an inclination to apply it self to Him , and be replenished by Him. Here all the sinews of nature are rack't to their height : to this the Soul 's more strongly bent then to its own being ; since we see our thoughts are first driven outwards , and from the Objects return to make us reflect on our selves ; only at this Object we aim not to make it ours , but to make us its . All other knowledges are but as it were divers figurations and dispositions of our Soul : this is an adhering and union of our Soul to another thing . All Ends are Masters of our wills ( as far as they are Ends ) the Medium's only master'd by us ; the last End therefore must be the absolute commander and forcer of the very Essence of our Will. And as the basis of a Statue ( had it an appetite proportion'd to its nature ) would not wish to be above , but to lye under and support the Statue ; or as the motion and way towards a form and term would wish to perish , in bringing the thing alter'd or mov'd to that state whereto its Essence imployes its service : so our Soul , rightly affected , can wish no other then to be most subject , most conformable , and most entirely fitted to its last End. That then , my Soul , which thou hast to do , is ( in the greatest peace and discretion and quiet of thy Heart ) to cast about and seriously consider in what course of life ( all things maturely ponder'd ) thou art likeliest to cultivate and improve thy self best , and render thy thoughts most apprehensive of this only , this eternall Good : which having once found , with thy whole strength , with the neglect of all other things ( as far as they avail not to this ) be sure to prosecute vigorously , never sitting down , or so much as looking back ; and in all considerable actions ( even in this chosen way ) still have a pure eye open to discern what most conduces to this only necessary work , or least deviates thee from it . O Gregory Lopez , Thou ( after the Apostles ) unparallell'd Master of Christian life ! who will give me that prodigious unheard-of constancy of thine , in every breath , for moneths and yeares , continually to fix my thoughts upon this main aim of my being ; till I had made it hard and almost impossible for me to restrain them from it ? But since this is more Angelicall then Humane , obtain me grace , at least , from our Generall ( thy immediate Master ) every day to spend some competent space of time , in framing a lively view of this Great truth , and settling a strong resolution to continue in it for ever . Still may I strive by the following Act to surpasse the precedent , as thou didst : still may I pursue the perfect Conquest of my self , till there remain in me no affection able to shew its head , no passion daring to rebell against this heaven-born Principle ; but it become sole Lord and absolute possessour of my Soul , as it was of thine . Then shall I not fear to sing a happy Nunc dimittis , when ere our just and glorious Judge shall send His warning rod , to cite me to that great to weak men , but no secret to such piercing spirits as thine ; who enjoyedst a high noon-day in this world , to break into a seven-fold light , when the welcome hand of death drew the thin and already half-transparent curtain of thy mortality . Amen . A DESCANT ON THE Prayer in the GARDEN . OBtain for me , ye beloved Disciples of our LORD Peter , James , and John , you happy favourites of the World's Redeemer , who by especiall prerogative of love are still let in to his greatest secrets , obtain for me permission to wait on you into the Garden of Gethsemani , and with an humble silence to observe what passes there . Grief has already , I see , seiz'd on your hearts , and raising drowsie humours into your heads , may suddainly perhaps surprise your eyes , and seal them up in their own tears . My heart is too stony to admit so deep an impression , my head too full of vanity to be opprest with so rationall , so religious a sadness : I 'le watch and try to improve my levity into vertue , whilst you relieve your sorrows with the short comfort of an hour's repose . But while I speak , behold my Lord whirl'd away by the vehemency of his Spirit , like a ship rent from its shoar and anchors , with a strong and suddain tempest : Behold him cast on the ground , his knees bent , his eyes o'reflown , his hands stretch'd up towards heaven , all cover'd with gloomy clouds and darknesse , his heart swoln , his lips ready to break into some loud and dolefull complaint against mans ingratitude . Oh , my Lord ! what means this unusuall strife & contention in thy own brest ? Thou wept'st indeed o're Jerusalem , and the pious Magdalen drew tears from thy eyes , but there was no such astonishment as this . Thou discoursedst of thy Passion in Mount Thabor , but with a glory that ravisht the hearts of all that beheld it , and receiv'd from Heaven it self an attestation of thy Eternall Father . Often hast thou profest a great desire to see this houre , often complain'd that the time was so long deferr'd ; and when thou cam'st this last voyage towards the Town , thou advancedst with so quick a courage , that thy swiftest followers could not equall thy pace . And now thou art arrived at the place of thy wishes , and the day thou hast so impatiently expected approches neer : horrour seizes thee , grief surrounds ▪ thee , cold and stupifying fears oppresse thee , and that strong and resolute heart seems wholly o'recome with the apprehension of this sad Tragedy . Art thou daunted at the sight of danger ? is the face of Death so frightfull to thee ? O no : but thy kind design is to be tempted in all things without sin , that we may be comforted in the faintings and tremblings of our heart . To fear , to be perplext , to grieve , is an imperfection and weaknesse in humane nature , which might , and therefore ought to be assum'd for our salvation and example ; that we may learn of thee this great & difficult lesson , how to comport our selves at the full tide of anguish and tribulation . But now the trembling aire warns us of some ringing cry that 's streaming towards our eares . Father let this cup passe from me . O my God , my Creatour , my hope , and authour of all my good , to thee it is he addresses his petition , before thee and thy mercifull eyes he humbly unbinds and layes open all his wounds , too deep to be cur'd by any but thy almighty hand , too near his heart to find remedy , but from him who is in the centre of his heart , the only searcher and perfect healer of all hearts . Hear him , most gracious and bountifull God , hear him , who so justly calls thee Father . Remember 't is he whom thou dost essentially and eternally generate . Remember that Soul-ravishing delight of God and Man wherewith thou art his Beginner . Remember thy Divinity is as truly and fully his as thine : thou hast it but to give , and 't is his to receive . Remember he is that right hand with which thou twice didst strike the barren rock of Nothing , and the plentifull fountain of All things gushed out , to refresh the desa●t of thine elect . Remember he is the light of thy eyes , that pure eternall light that rises from thy own bright bosome , and shines perpetually in thy glorious Presence . Nor canst thou alledge the exorbitancy of this request , to justifie the unkindnesse of thy refusall . He asks not a Hecatombe of men and Angels to be offer'd in sacrifice to his great name ; which yet thy Justice could not deny the Dignity of his Person . He demands not that the world's fabrick should crack , and its sinewes be strain'd in pieces , to change all Fates and Destinyes for his pleasure ; yet were not this too great a boldnesse for him that supports their poise with his power , and cements them together with his wisdome . He pretends not to honour , wealth or long life ; yet all these thou bestowedst on Solomon , as a voluntary excesse of thy bounty , and supererogation to what he ask't thee ; and behold a greater then Solomon is here . He seeks not the bloud of his Enemies , in revenge of their unjust and malicious persecution : his prayers are confin'd to his own afflicted person , for one poor life he offers up all his sighs , all his teares ; nay , not so much , for the only deferring of death ; and if that be yet too high , he humbles his petition to this low request , only a les●e cruell , a lesse intolerable death , not a whole deluge of bitternesse , not all the torments and affronts that a cursed synagogue of desperate Hypocrites could maliciously suggest , or an enraged rabble of a debauch'd and insolent multitude furiously execute . Can there be a more reasonable desire ? a more cleer and confident subject of hope ? can there be a more unquestionable plea ? a more violent and enforcing cry to heaven ? And hark how it tears its way through the shiver'd Elements in those strong and piercing words ; All things are possible to Thee . Excuse not thy self ; lay not the fault on others ; say not 't is the wicked Judas betrayed him , when Thy own hands deliver'd him to his Enemie . Say not the hearts of the Jewes are hard , since if thou pleasest , thy Grace can instantly mollifie them . Say not Herod is a proud and libertine King , Pilate an unbelieving Pagan , whose fear of Cesar was above his love to Justice : for the hearts of Kings are in thy hand , and out of stones thou art able to make start up Sons of Abraham . And though the dismall houre be come , and the Kingdome of darknesse encroach upon thy confines ; yet hast thou more then twelve legions of Angels , to countermand the course of time , and scourge the powers of Hell. Since then all things are thus at thy dispose , see how he conjures thy Almighty compassion . If it be possible , let this Cup passe from me . He that can command thy whole power , summons it all to his assistance . He whose absolute will is absolutely irresistable , with his whole strength and utmost affections solicites thy Omnipotency to rescue him from this dismall period . Behold this meek and humble heart swoln high with sighs , and running over with the vehemency of his passions . Behold thy own thoughts divided , betwixt granting what seems so unjust in it self , and denying what is so necessary to us , the finall sentence of death against an Innocent : if thou yieldest to his deliverance , Mankind is unavoidably ruin'd forever ; if thou refusest , thou seemest to destroy at once all the hopes that even Angels & Seraphims can pretend to have their prayers admitted , since thou declin'st to hear the voice of thy Son , thy beloved , eternall and onely Son. The afflicted Father in the Gospel soon received his chearfull dispatch , thy Son is well . The importune Cananean for a confident answer was doubly recompenc'd , both with the commendation , and fruit of her faith , her Daughters recovery . The mourning Sisters of Lazarus , by once repeating this short Charm thy friend is sick , drew this thy Son into the midst of his Enemies , who watch'd continually all occasions to oppresse him : and with one sorrowfull cast of their eyes , mov'd in his heart so deep a compassion , that immediately he broke the fetters of death , and opened the prison of the Grave to restore them their lost Brother , whom they only wisht for , and barely represented their condition , not thinking it necessary to ask any thing in direct terms of so noble a Benefactour . And yet ( O Father of pity ) He told us he did nothing but what he saw thee do before him . Where is then the God of Elias ? are thy bowels of mercy petrifyed into Adamant ? are the eternall springs of Libanus dryed up ? are the Heavens become of Iron , that no drop of dew can distill down to refresh a languishing Soul ? O no ; 't is only to set before our eyes a glorious lesson of perfect patience for us to copy out and be happy : for , though thou killest him , still will he hope in thee , still cry and call on this sweet Persecuter to death . Bend but thine eare to those sacred words he speaks , Not my will but thine be fulfilled . True it is my God , thou art the Authour and Conserver , the absolute & supreme Governour of all Things ; and therefore 't is just and necessary all c●eated wills be subject to thy dominion . But whence comes it ( my dearest Lord ) that those , whom thou scourgest with greatest severity , are most obedient to thy commands ? I heare thy servant Job ( the liveliest pattern of this thy afflicted Son ) cry from the depth of his Soul , Who may have so much favour with God to obtain for me , that he will be pleased to loose his hand and cut me off , lest I fall into impatience , and contradict the judgements of the most holy ? For my flesh is not of beasts , and I extreamly apprehend my weaknesse . Yet was he but an imperfect draught of this great Sample of misery , wholly wrought over and through by the sharp needles of all sorts of affliction : from whom we hear no such feares , no such complaints ; but a strong and generous deniall of himself , abridg'd into this short and cordiall protestation , Thy will be done . Ah , sweet SAVIOUR ! does not the excesse of thy griefs disturb a little thy memory ? hast thou deliberately reflected on the force and consequence of those strange engaging words ? Let me represent to thee the meaning of thy severe Father , and in his own threatning expressions , which thou wilt soon find to be too rigourous truth . I have prepar'd Clubs and Lanterns , Souldiers and Officers , the flatterers of thy enemies , to lay hands on thee , and with loud cryes and scorns carry thee to the City of Jerusalem : Jerusalem , where thy Miracles have rendred thee so famous ; Jerusalem , where thou so lately entredst with loud acclamations of joy and Triumph . Thy will be done . I have prepar'd Judges of all sorts , Priests and Divines , and Religious men , that daily minister at the holy Altar , grave and solemn persons , highly esteem'd upon the opinion of their extraordinary piety and learning , to discredit and accuse thee : Kings and Presidents , Jewes and Gentiles , and an infinite multitude of people , assembled at this great Feast to scorn and condemn thee . Thy will be done . I have prepar'd Whips and Scourges , and Buffets and Thorns to afflict thee ▪ Fools coats and a mock-Purple , and the ridiculous Sceptre of a Reed to vilifie and abuse thee ; a heavy Crosse and tearing Nailes , unmercifull Hands and ingratefull Hearts to torment and affront thee . Thy will be done . I have prepar'd a Murtherer to be preferr'd before thee , to be begg'd in thy place by thy beloved people , on whom thou hast spent thy life ; two other Theeves for thy Companions and fellow-Sufferers , and a shamefull Title of Treason to be impos'd on thy Crosse. Thy will be done . I have prepar'd multitudes of strangers to stand by unconcern'd , and with dry eyes behold all thy miseryes , and tell the whole world thy seeming crimes : nay I have found thee out a Judas amongst thy own Disciples to betray thee with the base hypocrisy of a Kisse ; the best of them to deny thee , all to forsake thee , and even now thy three choice friends lye sleeping by thee , little solicitous of their own duty to thee , or thy Suffrings for them . Thy will be done . I have prepar'd thee a desolate Mother to stand at the foot of thy Crosse , and afflict thy departing Soul with the sight of her grief , and the disconsolate condition thou leavest her in : and above all ( to verifie thy prophesied title , of Man of Sorrowes ) I will be a rigid and austere Father to thee , abandoning thee into the hands of the powers of darknesse , and strictly charging them not to spare so much as thy life's last breath . Even so , Thy will be done , not mine . O invincible courage ! O admirable fortitude ! which neither life nor death , nor things present , nor to come , nor feares , nor torments can shake or stirre one inch from its settled resolution . Pardon me , my dearest SAVIOUR , I cannot weep , I cannot pity thy Sufferings , nor contain my heart from singing Alleluia , in the midst of the strongest throes and bitterest pangs of thy Agony : For this one act makes thee more happy , more amiable , more glorious , then all the world can give , then all thy miracles can deserve . Not Mount Thabor's glory , not Palm-sunday's acclamations , not the true and hearty praises of the people fed with thy bread , and resolv'd to force thee to be their King ; not the Wisdome to confute thy adversaries , not the Power to change , at pleasure , the course of Nature ; no , not the sitting at the right hand of thy eternall Father , to command the Vertues of the Heavens , & absolutely govern the Fates of Men and Angels , can render thee so rich & contented in thy self , so beautifull and adorable to the redeemed by thy Cross , as this immovable Constancy , this admirable Resignation , this unparallell'd Tranquillity and evennesse of Mind . But beware , my Soul , thou beest not mistaken ; for his words import that his will be not fulfill'd : it is not then His will that is so constant and fixt : yet His it is , for were it His Fathers will , by which he speaks , he could not call it thine ; since he that speaks is to himself I , and not thou , and the will by which he delivers his Speech , mine and not thine . But how then can he say not mine , of that which he will have done ? 'T is therefore His ; and more his , then what he calls his : yet he calls it not His , and the opposite His. And were it not His , it would do us no good , for whom he does what he does . For we have also contrary wills ; and yet we have not two wills , following two natures , as he had : therefore even in him , these two wills , with one whereof he speaks and concerning the other , are both of his humane nature ; that by them we might cure the contrariety we find in ours . Why then is one of them his , the other his Fathers ? why ? if not because the one he had from infirmity , the other from strength ; the one from flesh and blood , the other from heavenly inspirations : what proceeds from weaknesse , from defect , from the odour of nothing , is our own ; but what comes from vertue , from strength , from Being , all that is Gods , and to be acknowledged totally from him , as Beginner and Perfecter of all things . But is there no remedy for this distressed Soul ? must he alone tread the winepresse of sour grapes , alone drink of this bitter Cup ? Ah! dearest SAVIOUR , leave no means unattempted that possibly may bring thee at least some small refreshment : arise and try whether thy old friends can afford thee any comfort ; those who were so delighted with thy glory on Mount Thabor ; who sung so cheerfully but five dayes since at thy triumphant entrance into Jerusalem ; who just now solemnly protested their readinesse to die with thee . Alas ! they are all asleep ; so fast , so dead asleep , that neither chiding , nor shame , nor compassion on their dear Masters desolate condition can awake them , to say so much as one short prayer for themselves . O weak foundation of humane Friendship ! unhappy and already deceiv'd is he that builds on so false a bottome : how farre better is it to trust in God then Man , in the Maker of Princes then the mouldring hand-work ? O ill-requited Master ? is this the fruit of all thy teachings ? is this the reward for all thy benefits ? is this the profit of all those stupendious wonders thou hast done before them ? At least Judas was tempted by the glistering shine of silver , that dazzles the eyes of all the world ; he was exasperated by the losse of the price of the Ointment , and by the publick reproach of his treason : whereas these thy beloved , thy cherished Disciples , have no plea to excuse them , but their dulnesse , but their coldnesse and want of love to their Master . Though Earth fail , Heaven may be true . Renew thy complaints , and let the fervour of thy prayers melt those azure floors the Angels tread . And already behold a bright and suddain dawning from the East , and the visible shape of a heavenly Messenger . Come down thou long expected Embassadour of peace , and fill this horrid desart with the charming musick of thy celestiall voice . But oh ! he stayes at the gates of heaven , and onely looks down afarre off , as if earth now were become an abomination , and unworthy to be approacht by sanctified persons : no glory to God , no peace to Men , no harmonious note , not so much as a cup of cold water to refresh the fainting bowels of this afflicted Sufferer . O strange mutation ! how undutifull a disobedience is this , in respect of the obsequious service tender'd him at his baptisme ? Are heavenly affections subject to change ? do Starres encrease and wane like sublunary meteors ? O no : gladly would this Spirit of happinesse stoop low as Earth , to raise the head , and support the weak members of his Lord : but that severe Fathers commands , and narrow limited permissions allow onely so farre to relieve the oppressed heart , that it may be able to drink up the very dregs of that bitter potion he has temper'd for him . O Heaven , now more cruell then Earth ! which charitably stupifies the sense , and takes away the pain by encreasing the torment ; whilst tyrannicall heaven sends fresh supplies of strength , onely to heap on a greater load of grief . O my dear Lord , all thy troubled thoughts seem'd wholly restored to their usuall calmnesse ; and , by that noble act of Resignation , all thy affections ran smoothly in their own channels : but now again the storm is raised , and louder and fiercer then before . See how it beats against that strong barrier of Thy will be done . See how the broken waves return with doubled fury to invade this Rock of patience , whose firmnesse , the more violently it is assaulted , the more steddily 't is fixt , and his prayer more extended to his eternall Father . Hear him , hear him , fountain of Pitty ; if not for thy own goodnesse , if not for respect to him , at least that we may be encourag'd to call on thee , that we may hope to be heard by thee . Thou invitest us to come to thee , shall this be our entertainment ? thou chid'st us for asking nothing in thy SON'S name , yet shut'st thine eares against His voice , begging for his own Soul. Undutifull and wicked Reuben , that had abominably defil'd his Fathers bed , found compassion for his little Brother , seeing the anguish of his heart , when he humbled himself before them , and after reproacht his brethren , that his life was justly demanded at their hands ; and will not the cry of this innocent Abel's bloud reach up to heaven , and mollifie the rigidnesse of those severe decrees ? But whither am I straid ? here on earth is subject enough to require my whole application . Behold how his bloud boyles in his veins ; his flesh grows red and swells all or'e his body ; his sinews and arteries stretch , as on a rack ; the pores of his skin open like a sive ; and , in a moment , more fountains then feed the Ocean , break from this source of misery . What 's this I see on that once-comely visage ? not crystall teares , not a gentle and trickling dew , but whole drops of ruddy and blackish sweat . Wo is me , they are ●●●●ed and knotty berries of bloud : Unfortunate fruit of this fair Tree . Physicians and Naturalists , you say thick humours cannot be purg'd by transpiration ; study me then how this is come to passe . O the most beautifull and gracious among the sons of men ! Was it for this thy body was fitted to thee of Virgin-bloud , untoucht by men and Angels ? Was it for this thou wert made the Top and Crown of Mankinde ; thy senses the most quick and delicate that could be sifted from the finest dust of Adam ? Was it for this thou wert nurst by the purest of Women , and carried in the hands of Angels , lest thou shouldst at any time offend thy tender feet ? Were all these diligences used , all these priviledges bestowed , onely to prepare thee a body for the rack ; a subject to practise on a thousand intolerable affronts ; a person to be made the unparallell'd example of prodigious calamities ? Such ought the Lamb to be that 's brought to the Altar for sacrifice , without blemish , without spot . A just and reasonable Law , but here too severely interpreted , too cruelly applied . O unfortunate Adam ! now the effects of thy fond disobedience are become too sadly evident ; now thou art cleerly convinc'd the unnaturall murtherer of thy Posterity ; now that mortall wound thou gavest mankinde is rendred incurable . Rise up , with all thy numerous children about thee , whose repentance expects a blessed eternity : force the gates of Limbo with your sighs , and let your strong groans tear the bowels of the earth ; that opening a wide passage towards heaven , and this Garden , fruitfull in miseries , your cries and exclamations may be heard . Protest to God , and Angels , and Men , and all creatures , that Hell is too gentle a pain , eternity too short a time to punish your misdemeanours . Let the Devils invent some more exquisite torture then their wits and malice have yet devis'd , and stretch the measure of time beyond infinity , that you may pay your debts , and dis-engage this immaculate Lamb of God , this inestimable pearl of the Deity . Contest the Judge of righteousnesse to lay the punishment where he findes the fault : charge him with his word , that 't is not his part to chastise the innocent with the wicked , but every one bear his own burthen . But why do I cry and murmure ? I hear my complaints contradicted by Him they most concern : I hear him , in that weak voice is left him , humbly say , How then shall the Scripture be fulfilled ? My Father has promis'd , can he deny himself ? my Father is all Truth , dare I offer to falsifie his Word ? my Father is essentially Goodnesse , can I make him go lesse ? No , no , let us march on confidently towards my Passion , for behold him at hand who is to betray me . And now , my Soul , Thou who hast been a witnesse of this great spectacle , a searcher of this profound mystery : Thou who hast discover'd the source of this impenetrable secret , and knowest God had no need of us , took not our nature on him to please himself ; but we , and I in particular , were the chief mark he aim'd at , and all these excesses and heights of incomparable goodness contriv'd to exalt our affections towards him ; nor this , because our loves refresh or better him , but purely for this sole motive , that they are our good , and contain in them our eternall felicity : If thou art able to look at so glorious a light , to balance so great a weight , to judge of and value so infinite a Charity ; tell me what I have to do . After this can I love any thing but my Lord JESUS CHRIST ? can I love any thing but the Love of my blessed SAVIOUR ? Father and Mother , Brothers and Sisters , Kinsfolk and Friends , what is 't you have done for me ? what goods have you wisht me ? what wishes can you make to deserve the least share in my Affection ? Health and Pleasure , Riches and Honour , what charmes have you comparable to this ravishing object of love ? dull and fleeting appearances , take away your deceitfull flatteries . Turn thou thy face to me , sweet JESUS , that I may every day still more and more understand and admire thy love : Make it the businesse and delight of my life to study how much thou lovest me : Set me in solitude to consider thy works upon me , to repeat thy benefits to me : Let nothing but desires and affections towards thee entertain my thoughts , nothing but strains and tunes of thy Bounty and Goodnesse sound in my Eares . The End. ERRATA . Page 115. line ult . for set set , read only set . p. 132. l. 1. for - rishes read - rishest . The STATIONER to the READER . THough the equality and strength not-to-be-counterfeited , which evidently shines in what ever proceeds from this prodigious Brain , will sufficiently secure all considering persons ( that is , all that deserve to read him ) against mistaking for His , any of those lesse generous Issues , born frequently into the world of Parents honour'd with the same name : yet aswell to render that security both more easie and universall , as readily to addresse those , whom a happy familiarity with this tempting ▪ Branch may have rais'd to the ambition of a farther acquaintance with the numerous rest of its Family and Bloud ( by a singular prerogative , all perfectly agreeing together , all worthy such a Father ) I have thought it a duty of civill Charity to subjoin this Catalogue , which both the learned and devout World longs and hopes to see much enlarg'd . A Catalogue of the severall Books written by Mr. THO. WHITE . THe learned Dialogues DE MUNDO , in Latine , printed at Paris , 4o. The elaborate Preface before Sir Kenelm Digbyes DEMONSTRATIO IMMORTALITATIS ANIMAE , printed also at Paris , in Folio . INSTITUTIONES PERIPATETICAE , &c. first printed at Paris , and afterwards at London , in 8o. INSTITUTIONES SACRAE , &c. in 2. Tom. printed at Paris , in 8o. QUAESTIO PRAEVIA & Mens Augustini de Gratia , in 12o. Villicationis suae de MEDIO ANIMARUM STATU Ratio , at Paris , in 12o. MEDITATIONES in Gratiam Sacerdotum Cleri Anglicani , &c. in 16o. RICHWORTH'S DIALOGUES , or the judgement of Common sense in the choice of Religion , two Editions at Paris , in 12o. A CATECHISM in English , &c. in 24o. MEDITATIONS in English , in 12o.