I. The soule seeketh a Husband, and findes him.

I WAS first breathed frō heaven, and I came from God in my Creati­on; I am divine and heavenly, in my origi­nall, in my essence, in [Page 2] my character, and ther­fore my happines must be divine and heaven­ly: For to a divine and heavenly essence, can agree no other but a di­vine and heavenly hap­pinesse. I am a spirit, though a low one, and God is a Spirit, even the highest one; and God who is a Spirit, is the fountaine of this spirit. Where should a low spirit finde happi­nesse but in the highest Spirit? and where should a created Spirit seeke happinesse but in the Spirit that created it? Wherefore being a [Page 3] Spirit I will fasten my selfe on a spiritual hap­pinesse, and this spiri­tuall happinesse I will looke for in no other, but in the first, and best Spirit, beyond whom there is neither good, nor being.

Then what hast thou to doe O soule, any longer among these grosse, thicke, and bo­dily things here below, to cast thy love on them, or to seeke hap­pinesse in them? what are they to thee? or what agreeablenesse is there betweene thy pu­rity, and their grosse­nesse? [Page 4] The bodie that lives by breathing the thinne element of ayre, may as well live in the bottome of the thicke water, as thou canst live, continue, much lesse better thy Being, by sucking these grosse and bodily Creatures. Thy being is of a high­er and purer nature, and therefore thy well-be­ing must bee fetched from something that is higher and purer than they. The maine use of them is to serve the bo­dy, which is some kinne to their grossenesse, but remember that the bo­die [Page 5] it selfe is to serve the soule, and what base felicity must that be, which she shall find in her servants servant? Much more reasonable were it for the soule to fetch her well-being from some being high­er, and better than her selfe, (for such onely can better her,) and withall to lift up the body to the participa­tion of the soules high and spirituall happi­nesse, (for there is a na­turall body, and there is a spirituall body) then that the body should draw downe the soule to the [Page 6] grosse and transitory things that are given to serve the body, in the bodies service of the soule. And thus may man be perfectly hap­py, the soule a spirit by union with the highest Spirit, and the body by union with the soule, united also to that Spi­rit.

And now the soule is resolved of her choise, for she hath fixed her love on that Spirit, which is the true object of the love of spirits. But even that excellen­cy, which draweth her love, awaketh her fear, [Page 7] and beholding admira­ble purity and majesty, together with her owne impurity and lownesse, shee is moved at once both to runne to hap­pinesse, and to fly from it. Shee stands distra­cted, and in this distra­ction asketh; Will God indeede dwell with men? and will the high­est Spirit who inhabi­teth eternity, and can­not abide iniquity, dwell with low spirits that are defiled, and be full of impurity? Who shall dwell with the devou­ring fire, and who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

[Page 8]But the Lord him­selfe speaketh to her, and saith, Feare not, for thy maker is thine hus­band, Esay 54. (the Lord of Hosts is his Name) and thy Re­deemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. It is the glory of the greatest spirit to blesse the les­ser spirits, as it is the happinesse of the lesser to bee blessed by the greatest. Fulnesse is glorified most by fil­ling the greatest empti­nesse, and majesty by succouring greatest in­firmity. As for thy im­purity, true it is that [Page 9] thou art indeed too un­cleane to touch God in an immediate unity; but there is a pure coun­terpart of thy nature, and that pure humanity is immediatly knit to the purest Deity. And by that immediate u­nion, thou maist come to a mediate union. For the Deity, and that hu­manity being united, make one Savior, Head and Husband of soules; and thou being married to him who is God, in him art also one with God. He one by a per­sonall union, thou one by a mysticall. And be­ing [Page 10] thus united and married to him, his spi­rit flowes into thy spi­rit, and the sappe of the Deity sheds it selfe in­to the soule. For as man and wife in a corporall marriage, are one flesh, so in this spirituall and mysticall marriage, Christ and his spouse are one spirit. The spirit of Christ entring into our spirits, layes in them an immortal seed, and from thenceforth those whom he found impure, he makes pure; even pure in heart, so that they may see God. The Sonne of God so [Page 11] loved the soules of men, that hee would make them a wife, and marry them. And that hee might make this wife fit to be brought into his Fathers house, hee left his Father to come to his wife, that he might cleanse her frō spots & blemishes, and present her pure & glo­rious to his Father. By his precious blood he purgeth her from her guilt, & by his spirit he purifieth her from her uncleannesse; and both of these hee bestoweth on her in his marriage with her. And then the soule thus washed, [Page 12] hath boldnesse to ap­proach unto God, through her husband, the Sonne of God, who hath loued her, and gi­uen himselfe for her, and giuen himselfe un­to her. For God be­holds her, and she be­holds God, as one with his Sonne, euen as his Sonnes wife.

Then draw neere O soule to this husband of soules, the Lord is the spirit that marieth spi­rits, and makes them one spirit with him in a knot of eternall blessed­nes. Cleare vp thine eye, and fixe it on him [Page 13] as upon the fairest of men, the perfection of spirituall beauty, the treasure of heauenly joy, the true object of most feruent loue, and inflamed affections: and accordingly fasten on him, not thine eye on­ly, but thy mightiest loue, and hottest affecti­ons. Looke on him so, that thou maiest lust af­ter him, for here it is a sinne, not to looke that thou maist lust, and not to lust hauing looked. For the spirit hath his lust also;Gal. 5.17. it lusteth a­gainst things contrary to it, and it lusteth for [Page 14] things connaturall to it. Accordingly it lusteth against the flesh; but it lusteth after spirituall objects; wherof Christ Iesus is the chiefest. Let thy spirit then looke and long, and lust for this Lord who is the spirit, the chiefest spirit; let it cleaue to him, let it hang about him, and neuer leaue him till hee bee brought into the chambers of the soule. Yea tell him resolutely thou wilt not leaue him untill thou here a voyce in thy soule, saying; My wellbeloved is mine, and I am my wellbeloveds. [Page 15] To this end bee still gazing on him, and still calling on him; Kisse me with the kisses of thy mouth; Yea kisse my soule with such a kisse of thy spirit, that they may be no longer two, but one spirit: say to him whom haue I in heauen but thee, and whom haue I desired on earth besides thee? My soule thirsteth, and panteth for thee the liu­ing God. Tell him that thou art sicke of loue. Vexe him with Impor­tunity, and put him out of hope of ease, (as the widdow did the Iudge) [Page 16] but onely by satisfiing thy desires. It is the right-voyce of the spi­rit, I found him whom my soule loveth, Cant. 3.4. I held him and would not let him go. If then thou hast found him with thine eye, hold him with thine heart, and winde thy affections round about him. And if he see thee all on flame with loue, and obstinate in Impor­tunity by loue, he who is loue, cannot deny the importunity of loue. The bowels of loue in him, melt at the sound of loue in thee, as one string danceth at the [Page 17] sound of another agree­ing with it. Hee was great with loue before thou louedst him, and hee looked but for a loue to draw his loue from him. Hee was great with spirit, and did but looke for spi­rits, that by loue would draw some spirit from him. And now when his loue meeteth with thine,Ioh. 14.21 his loue joyneth with thine; when his spirit meeteth with thine, his spirit pow­reth it selfe out into thine; hee is joyned to thee, and thou art one spirit with him, his spi­rit [Page 18] and thine being uni­ted and mingled in a blessed communion.

II. The soule hath but one husband at once.

THere is a law in heaven, that the heavenly Bride may at one time have but one Husband. The first marriage on earth was a patterne of this Law, for then God gave one woman to one man: God that made this first marriage, gave not two women to one man, nor two men to one wo­man, [Page 19] but he gave one to one, that two (not three or foure) may be one flesh. According­ly the heavenly marri­age-makers espouse the Church to one hus­band, and that they may doe so,2 Cor. 12.2 they doe teach, that the former husband must be dead, before the soule can marry with another. No soule can marry with Christ Iesus, but a widow; for she must be freed from the law of her old husband by his death, before shee can come to be subject to the law of the new. [Page 20] Her olde husband was concupiscence, to who she was married in car­nall generation, and this husband must be slaine, and put off by death, if Christ Iesus the new and true hus­band of the soule shall be put on in regenera­tion. And indeede if the soule will give her consent, this new and true husband will kill the old, not so much an husband, as a thiefe and adulterer: A theefe he is, for he hath stollen the foule, from her first Lord and husband, e­ven the Lord that made [Page 21] her; and an adulterer he is, for he lives with her that belongs to an­other, and while hee lives with her, he keeps her not for love, but lust: wherefore let the soule give her consent to his death, that there­by her true husband may recover his right in her, and that she may receive her true hus­band, and in him, life, liberty, and felicity.

And indeed she may well be weary of the old, for her living with him is most unreasona­ble, most slavish, and most miserable. It is [Page 22] most unreasonable, for there is no sense in the mariage of a soule with lust. What good can lust do to a soule? there being no likenesse, but a meere contrariety be­tweene them: and wee know that things are cherished and augmen­ted by their like, but they are destroyed by their contraries. The soule is light, and lust is darknesse, and can dark­nesse give any increase of being or wellbeing to light? Yea doth not darknesse goe about to lessen, to quench and kill light? A­gaine, [Page 23] lust hath in it a venome contrary to goodnesse, and can evill give any accesse or ad­dition of goodnesse to the soule? Yea this ve­nome hath in it a force and power to draw the wil and affections from that soveraigne good, which is the true and onely beatificall object of the soule, and to glue and fasten her to ob­jects of vanity, yea of death and misery. A­gaine, the soule in her substance is a spirit, and what kindly or naturall pleasure or profit can a spiritual essence receive [Page 24] from grosse and fleshly lust? The soule hath no savour in the ranke and grosse pleasures of the flesh, but they are to her as the onions and garlike of Egypt to a dainty & delicate taste. Surely so well may the earth lighten the Sunne, and a tempest give rest to the sea, as lust can give light, or life, or rest or happinesse to the soule: but darknesse and death, and misery it can and doth give, and so under the shape of an husband it is a cruell e­nemy and a very mur­therer of the soule. And [Page 25] surely hee could be no other but a mortall e­nemy of the soule, that made such a marriage betweene the soule and her mortall enemy: And hee had neede to be as cunning as malicious, to put a shew of reason upon a match so absurd and unreasonable.

And if in a second place wee beholde the slavery of the soule in this marriage with lust, the teares that bewailed the virginity of Ieph­thahs daughter, are not sufficient to bewaile this slavish marriage. The body commands [Page 26] the soule, earth heaven, and dust that noble and divine essence which was breathed into man, even from Gods owne mouth, and had his owne image imprinted on it. Neither is it the body of dust onely that commands the heaven­ly soule, but the body it selfe being comman­ded by lust, doth com­mand the soule; so is lust the chiefe lord both of body and soule; even a certaine venome, itch and fury dwelling in this earth of man. There may be some proporti­on betweene the dust [Page 27] which God turned into a body, and that soule which God made with his breath, though in a large and remote di­stance and difference. But betweene the soule which God made ac­cording to his owne i­mage, and this blinde and wilde lust which God made not in man, there is no portion or part of proportion, whereupon any right or power of command may be grounded. Yet in this base and wret­ched marriage, vile and odious lust spurs up the soule with his com­mands, [Page 28] and makes her to trudge up and down in businesses of dark­nesse, filthinesse and wretchednes: The soule is set on work in things that are no kin to her, no good to her, yea that are contrary to her being and well-being: For contrary they are to that image of God which is in her, and consequently contrary to that God whose i­mage this is, and to whō this image points and leades her as to her soveraigne good. And thus have wee a third mischiefe of this mar­riage; [Page 29] even misery an­nexed to slavery. For as the image of God in the soule turnes the eye and heart of the soule to looke unto God her chiefe happinesse, so lust turnes about the eye and heart of the soule from her happi­nesse; and what can her prospect and object be then but misery? And if the eye of the soule happen to cast up some glances to heaven and happinesse, yet the heart, even the will and affections are hurried away by this lust to objects and workes of [Page 30] vanity and misery; so that the soule can onely say, I see the better things, and follow the worse; I see happines, and runne after misery. Thus by slavery shee buyeth misery, and sla­very it selfe being mi­sery, by misery she ear­neth misery. And in­deed is it not the true misery of an Egyptian bondage, that the soule should bee still set on worke by lust in a fiery fornace, yea be beaten and tormented when shee doth not worke, though her worke con­cerne her selfe nothing, [Page 31] but onely to strengthen her owne bondage, and to increase her owne misery? And indeede therefore is she kept so hard at this worke, that she may haue no leisure to thinke beyond bon­dage and misery. Ac­cordingly if the soule at any time doe but lift up her eyes above her pre­sent bondage, to that Lord of life, liberty, and happinesse, which would once have mar­ried her, and still makes new offers unto her, this tyrannous husband like a Taske-master, strikes in deepe lashes [Page 32] into her side, and tells her she is idle, though she thinkes on her nea­rest businesse, and dea­rest happinesse. If it be in the morning, there is a bargaine of profit im­posed on her, and this lot of bricke must be made that day, and a­bout it must the soule goe, being pierced throgh with the thorns of covetousnesse, by the violent hand of her false husband, that she may have no leisure, re­spiration or rest. And if at night the soule be weary of this dayes worke, and would faine [Page 33] goe to bed with the bo­dy, the night is lusts day, as it is the Owles, (for both are blinde) and then there is a wife whose husband is from home, and the poore soule being a spirit must crafficke in this errand for the flesh, to make a wary but a wicked meeting betweene her owne lewd husband, and another mans wife: and while she plots it, she doth a worke of sla­very, and when she hath done it, she shall have no other but the wages of misery But endlesse were it to set forth the [Page 34] whole story of this Ae­gyptian bondage: Let the carnall man reade over the story of his owne life, and he may see the one in the other. And all being summed together amounts to this; that the marriage betweene the soule and lust is monstrous, as be­tweene a woman and a beast; slavish, as be­tweene a woman and a tyrant; mischievous and mortall, as betweene a woman and a serpent.

And I wish all this were sufficient to per­swade the soule to give consent to the divorce [Page 35] and death of this usur­ping and bloudy hus­band, without whose death there can be no marriage betweene her & happines: for though all reason and right doe joyne for his removal, yet power and possessi­on, and union worke mightily for him. The friends of the Bride­groome cry aloud, Put off the olde man corrupt throgh deceiuable lusts, Eph. 4. & put on the new created in righteousnes and holines. And, If ye live after the flesh ye shall die, Rom. 8.13. but if ye mortifie the deedes of the flesh by the spirit, ye shall [Page 36] live. And, Abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight a­gainst the soule. 1 Pet. 2.11 The au­thority, love, and rea­sons of these voices, de­serve to be heard, per­swading the soule to no other, but a separation from a deadly enemy, who can give her no dower but death eter­nall. And I wish that thus yet the soule may be perswaded.

And when the soule is come even to the point of perswasion, e­ven then will lust come weeping after the soule, like the false husband of Michal: hee will [Page 37] raise up in her remem­brance the images of grosse and filthy plea­sures, to awake the old unhappy love, and to cause a cruell and un­mercifull pitty. For a cruell pitty it is, when the soule pitties her owne murtherer, and not her owne murther. But rather put on a mercifull cruelty, be­ing mercifull to thy selfe, by killing him that would kill thee. It is better he should en­dure one death, who is not worthy to live, than that a soule should be ever dying, which [Page 38] should live for ever. If thou kill not lust now, hee must shortly die with the death of the body, and this short life of his will cost thee everlasting death: but if thou kill him present­ly, who must die short­ly, by this small oddes of death, thou preser­vest to thy selfe everla­sting life. Wherefore that which shall short­ly be necessary, make it presently voluntary, and so shalt thou turne necessity, into a sacri­fice, (even a freewill offering,) and by his death thou shalt change [Page 39] thy owne death into life eternall. And know that they are but false teares which lust doth shed, and his cryes are lyes: for there is no such happinesse in his union, as his teares would tell thee, but thy happines is then most, when thou art gotten free from lust; even when lust is dead, and the soule new maried to her Saviour. For the first soule was happy before she was maried to lust, and miserable onely after that accur­sed mariage. To bee without lust is a true [Page 40] Paradise; for man had not this lust when hee was first placed in Pa­radise, neither could Paradise endure man, when this lust was pla­ced in him. Therefore the true way to returne to Paradise, (or the state of happines, wher­of it was a type) is to put off this lust, where­with began our misery. And lust being put off frō the soule by death, and she new maried to the Lord of life, then will she say that she was never happy till then, and that her former i­maginary happinesse, [Page 41] was but painted and glittering misery. She will looke on dead lust as on a loathsome car­kasse; and shee will loath the remembrance of her former not loves but adulteries: she will be like one awaked from a foolish dreame, or an inchanted love, and shee will wonder that shee hath so long beene bewitched with vanity, folly, sinne and misery. But withall in her new mariage, ha­ving tasted how sweete her Lord is, shee will wonder and lament, that shee hath so long [Page 42] lacked this sweetnesse. Excesse of joy will be to her a cause of sor­row, for her joy is now so great, that she is sor­ry shee was no sooner partaker of this joy. And in this joyfull sor­row shee will kisse the feete of her Lord, and weepe on them while she kisseth them. The feete of her Lord are now more precious to her than the head and top of lust; for there­fore she kisseth them, because she loveth thē, and therefore she wee­peth, because she hath loved lust so long a [Page 43] time, and her Lord so little. For lust that once falsly appeared to her as her greatest joy, now truly appeares to her as her greatest sorrow; and her now Lord in whom before she tooke no delight, now ap­peares to be her chie­fest and truest joy: And both these her teares doe tell us.

CAP. III. The happinesse of the soule in her second Mar­riage.

NAbal being dead, [Page 44] David marries his wife: lusts name is Nabal; and folly is with him; and folly being dead, the Sonne of David, yea the Sonne of God, who is the highest wisdome, marriage. A right kind­ly and blessed marri­age, wherein a spirit marries with a spirit, a derived spirit with the originall and and roote of spirits; yea with a spirit that hath abun­dance of spirit, and so can continually refresh and nourish her with a new supply of spirit. For being thus fed and supplied with a sap of [Page 45] her owne kinde, shee growing in being and well-being; she is more spirituall by receiving more juice and fatnesse of the spirit, and con­sequently more full of divine light, beauty, love, vertue, power, life, joy, and glory. Behold the highest knot of blessednesse on earth, and a preparation, yea a pledge of the highest happinesse in heaven. And though this incho­ate marriage here on earth compared to the consummate marriage in heaven, seeme but like to a betrothing, [Page 46] yet even this betroth­ing compared to earth­ly marriages, casts a shadow of darknesse on them: for all the beau­ty, all the glory, all the joy in the world are but beames, & rayes, & flashes of this King of glory, beauty, and joy. By him were all things made that were made, and therfore the good­nesse of the things that are made by him, must be borrowed of him that made them; and then must the borrow­ed goodnesse needes be ashamed, to be compa­red with his goodnesse [Page 47] that gave or lent it. Christ Iesus is all lights in one light, all glories in one glory, all beau­ties in one beauty, all joyes in one joy. Whē he gave light, and glo­ry, and beauty, and joy to the creature, he left the roote of light, and glory, and beauty, and joy in himselfe. So did he leave infinitely more in himselfe, than hee gave out of himselfe; for an internall, and in­finite fountaine, hath infinitely more in it, than all the streames that ever issued from it: and hee is a fountaine, [Page 48] for largenes unlimited, and for spring without beginning and ending. The dew of his birth is of the wombe of the morning, even of that morning which hath an everlasting rising, and shall be free from setting, for all eterni­ties. Thus the soule being united to him, is united to an eternall roote and fountaine of blessednes: she is lighte­ned with the primitive light, she enjoyeth the primitive beauty, she is adorned with the pri­mitive glory, shee ta­steth the radicall, ut­most, [Page 49] and uppermost sweetnesse. Being made one with him who is God, she hath the taste of God, and God be­ing tasted, overflow­eth, and steepeth, and drencheth the soule with overcomming and inebriating sweetnesse. For a high, and large, and mighty joy, pou­red into a low, and measured, and weake spirit, overcommeth her with quantity, and quality, and so carries her away into extasie and ravishment: she is too narrow and feeble to containe and beare [Page 50] a joy that is too large and strong for her; and therefore having filled her to the utmost capa­city, it goes beyond, and runnes over. So is she blessed in that ful­nesse which her mea­sure containeth, yea she is more than blessed, even blessed in a kinde of excesse, by being o­vercome and overflow­ed with blessednesse. And if we will consi­der the quality of this joy as well as the quan­tity, there is no joy to the spirituall joy, the joyes of the body be­ing base in comparison [Page 51] of it; the spirituall joy is pure, piercing, and full of activity, the joy of bodies is grosse, hea­vie, dull, and earthy. In the bodily wine it is the spirit of the wine, that rejoyceth the spi­rits of the body. But a wine that is all spirit, and spirit in the height and top of spiritualnes, and newly drawne and sucked from the prime and chiefest spirit, how doth that rejoyce, how doth that ravish the spirits that drinke it? when mans highest part doth tast the high­est good. Man hath no [Page 52] higher part whereby to taste and receive happi­nesse, neither is there any higher happinesse to be tasted and recei­ved. Therefore the soule that tasteth this wine at her spirituall marriage, saith as the Master of the Feast at the earthly marriage; Lord, Thou hast kept the best wine untill the last. And this being best, the soule gives it the best place in her judge­ment and affection; she forgets that which is behinde, and indea­vours to that which is before, she will not rest [Page 53] in the low and back­ward joyes of the bo­die, but strives toward the high and forward joyes of the spirit: and having attained them, she rests in them, as in the best joyes, yet so rests in them, in this life of growth, that she de­sires to grow by them presently to a greater capacity of them, and finally to a full, large, and everlasting fruition of them, in a nearer ac­cesse unto the very spring and fountaine of joyes.

But when all is said of this marriage-hap­pinesse, [Page 54] one taste of it wil tell thee more, than all that is or can be said. The true knowledge of the sweetnes of God is gotten by tasting, and therefore taste first, and then see how sweet and gracious the Lord is. The taste of it will tru­ly tell him that tasteth it, how sweet it is; but hee that knoweth this sweetnes by tasting, cannot deliver over the full and perfect image of this sweetnes to him that hath not tasted it. For this sweetnes sur­mounts all knowne sweetnesse of the crea­tures, [Page 55] and by that which is knowne must that which is unknowne be made knowne. But if that which is knowne be lesse and lower than that which is unknown, that which is knowne may teach and tell us what the unknowne is not, but not what it is. So the joy of love and union in an earthly marriage, cannot ex­presse a heavenly joy that is spiritually pure, and purely active. On­ly these and the like comparisons may serve for staires, whereby to ascend, even above [Page 56] these comparisons, and to set our foot on some­thing beyond them. For if the soule rests on these, she rests short of the knowledge of the sweetnesse which is beyond these; shee is still in the sweetnesse of the creature, and hath not attained the sweetnesse of the Cre­atour. Therefore when she hath gone as farre as she may in the sweet­nesse of the creature, let her advance one step more into that spiritu­all union, wherein is to be tasted, and seene by tasting, the sweetnes of [Page 57] the Creatour; and ther shall shee see more by tasting, than all the creatures could shew her by resembling: she hath met with that joy, which onely can truly teach it selfe,1 Pet. 1.8. and there­fore it is called unspea­kable. And whereas before it was tasted the being of it was doubt­ed, and much more the manner and shape of it was unknowne, now it is both knowne to be, and the shape and man­ner of it is also known. And being knowne, all other sweetnesses which before were a­lone [Page 58] knowne and estee­med, are now despised, & as it were unknown. For this is that blessed estate of spirituall love and union, whereof the spouse of Christ truely saith: If a man would give all the substance of his house for loue, Cant. 8.7. it would utterly bee contemned. And indeed the spouse having Christs love, she hath that which is better than all things; and having Christ with his love, how can she with him but have all things also?Rom. 8.32 Christ is the heire of all things,Heb. 1. and the soule having [Page 59] married this heire, is a joynt-heire annexed with Christ. She hath him by whom the worlds were made,1 Cor. 3.22. and therefore she hath also the worlds made by him: yet he that made the worlds, being Infi­nitely better than the worlds made by him, she despiseth the worlds in respect of him that made them: she quench­eth her thirst in the fountaine onely, and she accounts it a folly, and a losse to leave the fountaine, and to run af­ter the streames. There­fore setting her mouth [Page 60] to this fountaine, she is filled with the waters of life, with the oyle of gladnesse, with the new wine of the kingdome of God, with the joy of the holy Ghost, e­ven a joy unspeakable and glorious. In Christ Iesus she hath all-suffi­ciency, all safety, all supply: shee receives from Christ that spiri­tuall oyntment, which gives her spiritual light power, goodnesse, love, and life; yea it ador­neth the soule with the most excellent beauty, even the likenesse and image of God him­selfe. [Page 61] And being thus lovely, the bridegroom kisseth and embraceth her with spirituall visi­tations, he tells her his counsailes, and his eyes are ever toward her, even when hee seemes to be turned from her: For she is set as a signet upon his heart, and much water cannot quench his love: & she also looketh on him, and is changed from glory to glory, as the Moon when with more open face shee behol­deth the Sunne. But of the particular benefits ane advantages of this [Page 62] blessed Marriage more hereafter.Cap. 4, 5, 6.

Thus happy, and thus growing in happinesse, shee walkes on in this life of marriage incho­ate, untill she come to the eternall life of mar­riage consummate. She is happy now in her u­nion with happinesse, and she shall be happy hereafter in a full frui­tion of happinesse. She is happy now in the earnests and peeces of that happinesse which shall be full hereafter; yea daily more and more happy here, by a daily enlarging of [Page 63] those earnests and pee­ces: and shee shall be the more happy here­after, by how much more these earnests and peeces of happinesse have beene here enlar­ged. And thus shall she walke by happines un­to happines, and by the increase of happines to the increase of happi­nes, since the more happy shee is in time, the greater shall her happinesse be in eter­nity.

CAP. IIII. The heavenly marriage is happy not onely in the pleasures, but in the la­bours of love.

A WISE husband though most lo­ving, is not alwayes embracing: hee doth love ever, but doth not ever embrace: For there is a time to embrace,Eccles 3. and a time to be farre from embracing. There is the service and la­bour of love, as well as the pleasure of love: and accordingly as we reade once that Isaac [Page 65] sported with Rebekah, so wee reade also that she made savoury meat such as her husband loved. No doubt she had pleased him before by the like service, that she pleased him so cer­tainly now; at least she was no better than Sa­rah, who did her hus­band the service of ma­king cakes for the en­tertainment of his guests. So doth the mysticall wife also, she thinkes sometimes how she may please her hus­band by service, and not onely how she may take pleasure in him, [Page 66] and of him. For the soules husband will not onely please, but be pleased; hee will not onely give love, but take it, and the love which he takes, shall be sometimes in the la­bours of love. Hee is her Lord, and therfore he expects service from her, that shee may not call him Lord in words onely, but in deedes, even in doing his will. Neither is this service, a meere service, or a thing onely of toyle and trouble; but it is an easie yoake, and a light burthen:Mat. 11.29 yea it is [Page 67] full of profit and ad­vantage, for it bringeth and increaseth rest and happinesse to the soule. For indeede love ever seekes the good of the beloved, and accor­dingly Christ Iesus who is love, sets the soule on worke for her owne good.

For the soule hath many gaines annexed to her worke, she gaines before she workes, she gaines in her worke, and she gaines after her worke: She gaines be­fore the worke; for this is one maine cause, why those weighty [Page 68] joyes, sweete embrace­ments, and ravishing consolations are given her, that she may cheer­fully runne the race, and performe the service set before her. When An­gels bring meate to E­lijah, it is because hee hath a great journey to goe; so that he is be­holding to his great journey for his Angels foode. The outward Is­rael is fed with the bread of heaven, to maintaine him in his walke unto Canaan, and the inward Israel is fed with the true bread that commeth downe [Page 69] from heaven, to enable him in his workes, and walkes through this pilgrimage to heaven. Neither doth this course holde onely in the service of doing, but in the service of suf­fering; in the passive, as in the active obedi­ence. Christ Iesus shews his Disciples on the Mount a patterne of his heavenly glory, and then to Christ thus glo­riously transfigured, Moses and Elias doe speake of the suffering which hee should ac­complish at Ierusalem. So to the Head him­selfe, [Page 70] the glory set be­fore him is an encou­ragement to the endu­ring of the Crosse,Heb. 12. and despising the shame: And if it be so to the head, it should be such also to the body. And such it is indeed to the true members of that body, for they receive not the grace of God in vaine, but can doe, and will doe all things through Christ that strengtheneth thē.Phil. 4.13. For as they finde that they are strengthened with all might, according to Gods glorious power, so they know the end [Page 71] for which they are thus strengthened, even unto all patience and long-suf­fering with joyfulnesse. Col. 1.11. Wherefore let us think that the parcels of glo­ry, joy and strength which we now receive in the visitations of Christ Iesus, are a kind of wages paid afore­hand to encourage us more cheerfully & con­fidently to the worke of doing and suffering. And accordingly ha­ving received them, let us not dreame of rest, but of labour; not of setting up Taberna­cles, but of service and [Page 72] sufferings. And let us not doubt, but if the Angels foode be a pre­paration and call to a long, or laborious jour­ney, of doing or suffe­ring; the same foode will also strengthen and enable us to per­forme the journey unto which it calls; so that in the strength thereof we shall be able to walk even to the Mount of God.

Yet neither is all the comfort, encourage­ment, and gaine given to the soule before her worke, but even in her worke she gaineth. In [Page 73] the service of her hus­band is continuall gain, and that not of strength onely, but of pleasure and delight. For the soule having tasted Christ in an heavenly communion, so loves him, that to please him is a pleasure and delight to her selfe: Yea there is such a law of love shed into her by that communion, that his commandements are so farre from being grie­vous to her, that there is no pleasure in her taste comparable to them. No sweet things, no precious things in [Page 74] her judgement may be compared to the sweet­nes and preciousnes of cōmandements. There­fore it is the true voice of the Spouse, and therein not so much her mouth as heart spea­keth, They are more to be desired than gold, Psal. 19.10 yea than much fine golde, sweeter also than hony, and the ho­ny combe. Behold how the soule married unto Christ delights in the law of her husband; and no wonder if she love his law, when she loves him; neither if her heart be to his law, when his law is written [Page 75] in her heart. Besides, the law of his lips is a law of grace, and a law of grace is a lovely law. So she loves his law, because his law is love­ly; she loves it because it is his law whom she loves; she loves it be­cause the love of his law is written in her heart. And as she loves his law, so she loves to fulfill it; for her love will not be quiet, untill it see her words turned into her deedes. And this she doth not negli­gently, nor heavily, but like a lover, pleasantly and chearfully. Looke [Page 76] but to a carnall lover, and see how he affects the title of a servant, and is more than glad, (even proud) to receive and fulfill the com­mands of his beloved. Give then spiritual love to a soule, and she will rejoyce also to perform the spiritual commands of her beloved. If a man know not this, it is because hee loves not, but let him love, and then he will both know and doe it. For the na­ture, and law of love in the lover, naturally moveth to the fulfilling of the law of the belo­ved. [Page 77] And as the Sun in whom a law or cove­nant of motion is writ­ten, rejoyceth like a gy­ant to runne the race and motion of that co­venant, so the soule in whom this law of love is written,Psal. 19.5. rejoyceth to runne the race and mo­tion of this law. Obe­dience is the kindly fruite of a loving soule,Ier. 31: 33, 35, 36. and a loving soule brin­geth forth this fruite as kindly, as a good tree bringeth forth good fruite.

And as this law of love is active, and labo­rious, so is it strong and [Page 78] mighty. Even death it selfe cannot overcome love,Cant. 8.6. Rev. 12.11 for love is stron­ger than death. Yea love enjoyeth dangers, and death it selfe; and takes them for advanta­ges; as by which the excellence and vehe­mence of love may be really expressed. Ac­cordingly, the nearest and dearest friends of the Bridegroome re­joyce that they are counted worthy to suf­fer for his sake.Acts 5.41. The fire of diuine loue so in­flameth thē, that much water of persecution cannot queneh it; yea [Page 79] such is the nature of this fire, that it feedeth on those waters, and groweth more fervent by that which would quench it. For the fire of love upon oppositi­on kindleth another fire of an holy rage; which is full of anger and scorne, that life or death, or any other creature should offer to separate the soule from her loved Christ Iesus. And as the Bridegroom himself rejected a great Apostle with the title of Satan, when he dis­swaded him from ex­pressing his love to his [Page 80] spouse by dying for her, so the spouse her selfe is angry, when she is disswaded from ex­pressing her love to her best-beloved in the suf­ferings of love. One while being threatned with a fiery furnace, she saith, O King we are not carefull to answer thee in this matter, but bee it knowne to thee, Dan. 3. wee will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image. And another while, at other threats,Acts 4.17, 18. We can­not but speake the things that wee have seene and heard. And again, when danger was denoun­ced, [Page 81] and friends dis­swaded: I am ready not to be bound onely, Acts 21.13 but also to die for the name of the Lord Iesus. Thus may bee seene, not onely what pleasures, but what power and might doe accompany and blesse the labours and sufferings of love: love delights in doing and suffering; yea it is an­gry when it may not be suffered to suffer: And as opposition riseth a­gainst it, so it riseth a­gainst opposition, yea it riseth by it, untill it rise above it.

But besides the u­suall [Page 82] pleasure which love takes in suffering for the beloved, there are unusuall and extra­ordinary comforts al­lotted to the sufferings of love. When the Bride suffereth most for her love to the Bride­groome, the Bride­groomes love must needes be most increa­sed to the Bride; and consequently the fruits & benefits of his love. Therefore there being an hundred-fold gaine promised in this life to the sufferings of love,Mark 10.30. the more those suffe­rings are, the more [Page 83] hundred-folde is that gaine which is promi­sed to them. Besides, the Bridegroome seeth that the Bride hath then most need of com­fort, helpe and supply, when for his sake she is in most distresse: and therefore hee that is a present helpe in trou­ble, cannot but be a greater helpe, in a time of greater trouble; for hee fitteth the measure of his helpe to the mea­sure of her trouble. Hence it ariseth, that there is a peculiar height and abundance of consolations, which [Page 84] none can attaine unto, but those that have a speciall height and a­bundance of tribulati­ons. For this propor­tion the Apostle ac­knowledgeth when he saith, As the tribulati­ons doe abound, 2 Cor. 1.5 so doe the consolations. Thus is there continuall gaine in the sufferings of love, and great gaine in great sufferings; thus is the soule made a con­querour and gainer in all labours, and losses, and crosses, through him that loveth her. What she loseth in the creature, she hath re­payed [Page 85] with great ad­vantage in the Crea­tour: what she loseth in brasse, she hath re­payed in golde, not barely value for value, but weight for weight: yea the weight of the worse is farre exceeded by the weight of the better;2 Cor. 4.17 for it is but a light affliction, and it is an exceeding weight of glory, and parts of this weighty glory the soule now receiveth a­forehand as earnests of the whole; and having received them, she doth now rejoyce, (even through manifold ten­tations [Page 86] of crosses and losses) with a joy un­speakable and glorious.1 Pet: 1. Her finite, measured, and utterable tribulati­ons are overwaighed with joyes unspeaka­ble; and that they are so, we see it in the effect of them; because the soule despiseth the suf­ferings for the joyes: yea the sufferings are so overcome by the joyes, that the sufferings doe not turne her joyes in­to sadnes, but the joyes turne the sadnes of the sufferings into joy;phil: 2.17, 1 Thes: 1.6, &c. for she rejoyceth in her suf­ferings.

[Page 87]Lastly, the soule is a great gainer after the worke; for the grea­test gaine of the soule is at the end of all her la­bours: there is a time comming when shee shall rest from her la­bours;Rev: 14.13 but when shee rests from them, they shall not rest from fol­lowing her, for follow her they shall into hea­ven, and blesse her with eternall joyes. Yea the more shee hath labou­red and suffered, the more shall she be bles­sed and glorified. The more afflictions, the more weight of glory, [Page 88] for the harvest will an­swer the sowing; the present sowing in teares shall be followed with a proportionable har­vest of joy; so that he which loveth sparing­ly shall reape sparing­ly,2 Cor. 9.6. and hee that soweth plentifully, shall reape plentifully.

Vpon the conside­ration of these three­fold gaines annexed to the labours and suffe­rings of love, here ari­seth a just reproofe of those contemplative men, who by negle­cting or rather exclu­ding [Page 89] these labours and sufferings, doe neglect, & shut out these gaines. They would presently be at rest, and presently would have nothing but rest and enjoying; but it is utterly a fault and a losse to separate mystical Divinity from practicall, for howsoe­ver they may be distin­guished, they may not be separated; each ha­ving his turnes, and each giving hand to o­ther, and strengthening one another.Nehem. 8.10 The joy of the Lord is our strength, and it strengthens us for something to bee [Page 90] done or suffered, and again these labours and sufferings doe increase the joy, for as the tri­bulations doe increase, so doe the consolati­ons. True it is that the minde of man would presently bee at his workes end, and having received joyes, spend the whole time in ga­zing on them, tasting of them, or in recalling the tastes and images of them: But too much enjoying is a losse of enjoying; for it loo­seth all those gaines (formerly mentioned) annexed to doing and [Page 91] sufferings. For if a man will onely busie him­selfe in tasting present joy, how can he expect those joyes that are sent to prepare unto la­bours? or those that accompany labours? or finally, (which is of most weight) those in­finite, and unmeasura­ble, and exceeding joyes, which in the life to come are to follow afflictions and labours? Will God give joy to enable us unto services, when he seeth hee can­not have the services for which hee gave the joyes? Can we looke [Page 92] for an abundance of consolations, when we exclude the abundance of tribulatiōs to which these consolations are annexed? Or can wee looke for that excee­ding weight of glory, which shal follow light and momentany affli­ctions, and yet utterly refuse that light afflicti­on which worketh this glory? Surely whoso­ever thou art that thus doest, thy losse hereby is manifold, but especi­ally greatest in turning thy seed-time into har­vest, and in eating up thy seede: thou makest [Page 93] the time of sowing to be the time of reaping; yea thou eatest up thy seede, which being sowne, would have gi­ven thee an ensuing harvest. True it is that ioyes are given thee here, and they are gi­ven thee to be enjoy­ed; but even this en­joying is but a sowing; for thereby are sowne in thee new supplies of faith, hope, and love, and of all spirituall strength, even the seeds of future active and passive services. Thou art by these joyes mightily encouraged, [Page 94] fortified, and enabled to an unwearied indu­stry in the labours of the Lord, since by this which is paid thee in hand, thou seest, and feelest, and tastest, that thy labour is not in vain in the Lord. Thou doest not receive thy earnest-penny to bee still gazing on it, much lesse to bound thy thoughts with it, or to thinke thy selfe rich e­nough in it, but thereby to be drawne on to a chearful running in the race, that leadeth to the infinite treasure which is in heaven, whereof [Page 95] this penny is an ear­nest. Wherefore if any man will set up his rest in present joyes, and speake of building Ta­bernacles in them, let him know what was said of him that said so, and see whether the same agrees not also to another that saith the same agrees not also to another that saith the same, Hee wist not what he said. Luke 9.33 Surely this is not our rest, neither have wee here a conti­nuing City, but wee seeke one to come: our Sabbath here is but one day in seven, but [Page 96] the eternall Sabbath commeth not, untill we be past the workes of the sixe dayes. There remaineth a rest to the children of God,Heb. 4.9. and that which remaineth is not presently. There­fore seeing that rest re­maineth, let us labour to enter into that rest:Vers. 6.11. let us enter into this rest, by labour, not by rest: or if by rest, by that rest, which encou­rageth and enableth us to labour. Having eaten with Elias, let us walke with Elias, having ta­ken the earnest, let us doe the worke, having [Page 97] eaten Manna, let us walk on to Canaan. Let us not grow restive by that which was given to make us active; nei­ther let us looke to tie these joyes together in this life of action; which are therefore in­termitted, that there may be times for acti­on, as well as for en­joying. Therefore if Iesus doe sometimes vanish out of sight, and withdraw himselfe in­to heaven, imagine you heard the Angel saying unto you, Why stand ye gazing into heaven? Acts 1. The same Iesus which is taken [Page 98] up from you into heaven, shall so come as yee have seene him goe into hea­ven. He hath times of going, and times of re­turning. He hath visi­ted thee, and is gone out of sight, expecting the fruite of his former visitation. As thou hast seene him going, so thou shalt see him com­ming; when thy worke is well done, hee will come and comfort, and encourage thee to the worke that is to bee done. But still remem­ber that his best com­ming is his last com­ming: then will hee [Page 99] come to thee, and cause thee to come to him, and this comming to­gether shall be without any more going asun­der. Then shalt thou rest, and onely rest, for even thy actions which now are labours shall then be rest. And then shall it be no griefe of heart to thee, that thou hast had here interposi­tions of labours be­tweene thy rests, since these labours here shall there be turned into the joyes of a rest eter­nall. Neither shall it be a griefe of heart to thee then, that thou hast had [Page 100] some abatements here of a temporall rest, when those abatements have beene occasions of increased degrees in a rest and glory everla­sting. Thou shalt have thy joyes increased ac­cording to the increase of thy labours, for thy works shall follow thee; and if they follow thee in abundance, they shal bee followed with a­bundance of joyes. If thy labours have made thy five talents to bee ten, thy Lord shall make thee Ruler over ten Cities: and then shalt thou finde it best [Page 101] to enjoy most in the place of most enjoy­ing. And surely that must needs be the place of most, and best en­joying, where both soule and body are en­larged and clarified to the greatest capacity of enjoying; and where this greatest capacity doth meete with the greatest perfection, and fulnesse of joy. And this fulnesse of joy is at that right hand, where the Bridegroome sit­teth preparing a place for his Bride: And into that place of fulnesse of joy shall this husband [Page 102] receive his wife, having passed through the la­bours and sufferings of love, and there they shall be changed to her into large, full and e­verlasting joyes.

CAP. V. The Spouses estate in de­sertions though see­mingly miserable, is indeede profitable.

THE Spouse of Christ is now wil­ling to labour, and to suffer for her husband, yea contented that sometimes joyes be in­termitted [Page 103] for labours and sufferings, which hereafter shall be ex­changed into full and eternall joyes: But this she is both willing and able to doe through her Christ that strengthens her, and she is conten­ted to doe it, so that he be ever with her, thogh not stil smiling and em­bracing, yet still sup­porting and strengthe­ning her: But shee heares, and shee sayes she feeles, that some­times hee withdrawes himselfe, and then her heart is full of woe,Eccles: 4.10 e­ven of Woe to her that is [Page 104] alone. She hath left all things for him, for that shee knew to bee the price of him, and she thought him well worth it; but now he for whom she hath left all things, hath left her, and so she is left of him and all things. Yea he seemes not onely to leave her, but to send terrours to her, even terrours without and terrours within. With­in, the remnants of the olde husband stirre up the loathed images of the olde, not love, but lust; and though the head of this serpent be [Page 105] broken, yet the end of it will still be moving. And while she sees no­thing but these ugly shapes in the dark night of desertions, she is af­frighted at them, and at her owne estate, for now she thinkes this to be her true and onely estate, because she sees no other but this. And without the old enemy of soules, and the first cursed marriage-maker betweene the soule and sinne, renewes his olde businesse, and would yet againe make a bad match betweene the dying olde man, and a [Page 106] living soule. And when hee cannot bring the soule to consent, he will will perswade her that she hath consented, and strive to make her be­leeve that shee hath done it, even because he cannot prevaile to make her to doe it. He would have had her to perish by giving her consent to sinne, and seeing he cannot doe that, he will strive to destroy her, by this de­sperate thought, that she is nothing but sin, and nothing else shall be, seeing she is forsa­ken of him, who onely [Page 107] takes away both the guilt and reigne of sin. And thus being filled with bitternesse, if she looke out to men for comfort, there she finds many miserable com­forters that wound and smite her, and if shee meete with that one of a thousand, that speakes right words, and tells her true comforts, yet while the inward Com­forter is wanting that should turne the words into deedes, they re­maine bare words,Iob 6.6. and are like the white of an egge, that hath no taste in it.? For the soule [Page 108] sayes still,Ruth 1.20. Call mee not Naomi, but Marah: for my Lord hath dealt bitterly with me. Yet still she lookes out for her husband, but sees him not: shee calls to remembrance his for­mer loves, that so shee may enjoy him in the representations of her former enjoyings. But then a world of fleshly and fearefull thoughts rush in upon her, and with a cloud cover that sight of him which me­morie would give her: and if she yeeld not to them, she is vexed with importunity; and if she yeeld to thē, she is vex't with guilt & self-accusa­tion: [Page 109] the Tempter buf­fets her with sharp and thornie temptations, to drive her to yeeld; and when shee yeelds, hee buffets her with fearful accusations. Now what can bee added to her misery? Her best friend is gone from her, and her worst enemies are round about her; yea her best friends seemes to have surrendred her into the hands of her worst enemies; for shee feeles a mighty force of her enemies, but no strength of her beloved. Therefore her heart failes her, and shee thinkes that shee [Page 110] hath wholly lost both her selfe and him.Cant. 5: I opened (saith she) to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawne himselfe and was gone; I sought but I could not finde him, I called him, but hee gave no answer. The watch­men that went about the City, found me, they smote me, they wounded me.

But yet be of good comfort, thou wearie, wounded, and distres­sed soule: thy husband is a God that comfor­teth the abject, that makes light to shine out of darknesse, that gives refreshing to the [Page 111] weary and heavie-la­den, that brings life out of death. Thy Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken,Esay 54.6, 7. and grieved in spirit, and as a wife of youth, when thou wast refu­sed, saith thy God. For a small moment hath he forsaken thee, but with great mercies will hee gather thee. The mercies of God, even when they seeme to faile thee, then doe they gather thee; yea they gather thee by their seeming to faile thee. Thy husband is God, and God is love, and [Page 112] love doth ever good to the beloved. Yea thou lovest him, and he hath told thee that all things shall turne to good to them that love him:Rom 8.28. therefore even these desertions, though ne­ver so dreadfull and discomfortable, the almightinesse of Gods love shall make usefull and advantageable.

This is so true, that many of these uses and advantages may parti­cularly be named; and I doubt not but thy husband himselfe will teach them to thee ex­perimentally; yet be­cause [Page 113] while the cloud of desertion is upon thy soule, she can hard­ly see by her owne light, another that hath light for the time, (though perchance clouded himselfe as much or more another time) may tell her what hee sees by his light. And indeede when the soule is in the darke, and her owne light shines not, she may doe well to get a guide, and to take heede to bor­rowed light, untill the day dawne, and the day-starre arise in her owne heart.

[Page 114]A first advantage then, that may come to the soule by the deser­tions of her husband, is by desertions to pre­vent desertions: for by loosing him shee may learne not to loose him, and by the miseries of her former ill keeping him, learne hereafter to keepe him better. Per­chance thou wast too careles in holding him when thou hadst him, or in admitting him when he came to visite thee, and to bring these thy faults to remem­brance, that by remem­bring them thou maist [Page 115] amend them, he is now gone from thee. Re­member whether thou didst not heare such a voice as this;Cant: 5.2. Open to me my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with deaw, and my lockes with the drops of the night. Remember also whe­ther this was not thy answer: I have put off my coate, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feete, how shall I defile them? Thou hadst ta­ken up some rest in the flesh, and hadst put thy selfe into a method of ease, and then it was a [Page 116] marring of thy me­thod, and a fowling of thy feete, to step into any action or passion for thy beloved. Hee that was thy true hap­pinesse, was growne very cheape to thee, and thou wast content to part from him ra­ther than to give the price of a little paines for him: And art thou not well worthy to lose him, whom thou thoughtest so little worth the keeping? But now thou art put to learne the value of him by absence, whom thou didst so much un­dervalue [Page 117] being present. And when by absence thou hast learned this lesson, thou hast gai­ned more by absence, than thou wouldest have done by presence; for thou hast gained the true valuation of thy Lord by absence, which through thy fault and frailty thou forgatest in his pre­sence: & so by this first gaine thou shalt come to a second; for by ab­sence thou shalt gaine his presence. For ab­sence having taught thee truly to value him, and accordingly to de­sire [Page 118] and thirst after him, and to give him due entertainment, when he comes hereaf­ter and offers his love unto thee; then shalt thou by this benefit of absence, come to enjoy his presence. Thy ful­nesse brought thee to hunger, and thy hunger now brings thee to ful­nesse; for he filleth the hungry with good things, and the full he sends empty away. He will fill thee not onely with good things, but with goodnesse it selfe; for he wil fill thee with himselfe, and hee is [Page 119] goodnes: yea thou shalt yet have a farther gaine by this absence, for when he comes againe, thou wilt holde him faster, and keepe him surer, and so enjoy him nearer & longer. Now thou wilt embrace him, and cleave to him, and winde thy selfe a­bout him, and when thine eye sleepeth, thy heart shall wake, that thou maist still keepe his presence, whose absence was so bitter unto thee. Thou wilt bring him into the chamber of the soule, and binde him with the [Page 120] cords of love, thou wilt claspe thy affections a­bout him, and hold him fast that hee may no more escape from thee: And being thus bound by the cords of love, and love loving to be bound by love, hee willingly abides in the bands which hee lo­veth: for both love and faith are mighty with the Almighty, and make the spouse an Israel, even a prevailer with God.Gen. 32.28 Luke 7.37 Shee that loveth Christ much, may embrace him much, and kisse him much, and holde him [Page 121] much; and if any man doe trouble her, hee himselfe will say, Why trouble yee the woman? Matth. 26.10. And thus thrives the Spouse by her losses, while by losing her husband for a time, shee loves him better, and being returned, en­joyes him the more, and holdes him stron­ger and longer.

But secondly, there is yet a farther use and benefit of desertions. For it may be thou hast gone beyond neglect of thy beloved, and hast proceeded unto some offensive, crosse [Page 122] and contrary carriage toward him; thou hast entertained some thought, purpose or act, which hee cannot endure, and then it is best both for him and thee, that he hide him­selfe from thee. If thou come once to enter­taine his enemies, and to lodge them in one roome with him, how canst thou expect but that hee should leave that roome, since there is no agreement be­tweene light and dark­nesse, betweene Christ and Belial? And surely hee should neither re­gard [Page 123] himselfe, nor thee, if hee should give thee his loves, when thou entertainest his ene­mies. For since thy husband is thy happi­nesse, the enemies of thy husband are the e­nemies of thy happi­nesse, and so both his and thine enemies. Therefore is it good that thy friend should a while goe aside, when that thou grie­vest him, and hurtest thy selfe by the enter­tainment of his and thine enemies. And while thus hee is hid from thee, and thou art [Page 124] left to those enemies whom thou hast enter­tained in stead of him, thou maist learne what odds there is betweene a friend and an enemy; and what a folly it was to grieve him that lo­ved thee, by loving them that hate thee. Thou hast perchance had a touch with thy olde husband the flesh, and jealousie, (which is the rage of a man,Prov. 6.34. much more of a man that is a jealous God) is angry with thy who­rishnesse, and puts a day of wrath upon thee, wherin he seemes [Page 125] not to spare thee. Therefore thy consci­ence is let loose upon thee, and it teares thee to peeces, it breakes thy bones, and grindes thee to powder. Satan also who tempted thee hath leave to set upon thee, and to teare thee with vexations, whom he had seduced by ten­tations. And now art thou left as it were wholly in hell, who wouldest entertaine a peece of hell into thy heaven. And indeede it is both a just and mer­cifull dispensation to tyre thee with thine [Page 126] owne wayes, to make the flesh to come out at thy nostrills, to make thee weary of thine e­nemies, and to make thee long, and looke, grone, and cry for thy friend whom thou hast grieved, and driven out of thy sight. There­fore is heaven shut up, and become as brasse unto thee, and hell hath enlarged her mouth to swallow thee: yea thou art like Ionah in the belly of hell; thou art like Nebuchadnezzar cut downe by the com­mandement of the ho­ly one, and driven a­way [Page 127] from men to the beasts of the field; thou art like Sampson, when his lockes were cut off, the good Spirit leaves thee, and the evill Spi­rits like Philistims are upon thee.

But hath God for­gotten to be mercifull? and hath he shut up his tender mercies in an e­verlasting displeasure? Will hee breake the bruised reede, and deli­ver up the soule of his Turtle into the hands of her enemies? Nay, wee shall not die O Lord; Thou hast ordai­ned them for judgement, Hab: 1,32. [Page 128] and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction. The enemies of the soule are suffered to scourge her for lo­ving her enemies; so to beate that love out of her, and to beate her into that olde love from which in some great degree shee was fallen. Thus is she bea­ten by her enemies from her enemies, and the stripes sent her from her friend, bring her backe to him that sent them. Shee had grieved the spirit of her beloved, and by the griefe of her owne spi­rit [Page 129] shee now learnes what the griefe of a grieved spirit is, and thereby learnes to grieve him no more. Hereupon she resolves to cast out whatsoever hath offended him, and to put on that single­nes and purity of soule, which makes her one for one, and one fitted by holinesse for that one who is holy. She will be his alone, whose alone she is, and from henceforth shee will scorne and hate any sinne that will offer to bee a rivall with her wellbeloved, and espe­cially [Page 130] that sinne, whose rivalty hath lately cost her so deare, as the losse of his familiarity. And the soule being thus washed and trimmed by repentance, holy re­solutions, and renew­ing her covenant, the bridegroome of the soule appeareth to her againe, and giveth her his loves. And now is she like a garden wate­red after a scorching heate; the heate being overcome by moy­sture, makes her more flourishing, and more fruitfull: the belly of hell having vomited [Page 131] up the soule of a Saint, (because it could not digest her) shee then runnes much more rea­dily in the wayes of Gods cōmandements. The stumpe of the tree (for it was not pulled up by the rootes) sprin­geth and flourisheth a­gaine being watered with the dew of hea­ven, and is more glori­ous than before by a greater acknowledge­ment and glorifying of the Lord of glory. The haire (for it was onely polled) groweth again, & so doth the strength of the spirit, and grea­ter [Page 132] exploits are done a­gainst the enemies of the soule, than ever be­fore. For the soule ha­ving beene long kept fasting, feedes more heartily on the bread of life; and this being the true bread that strengthens the heart of man, the more fee­ding on it, the more strength of heart: A long drynesse of spirit hath made her very thirsty, and the more thirsty she is, the more doth shee drinke of the waters of life; and the more shee drinkes of life, the more lively [Page 133] and active shee is. The late breach of love in­creaseth her love, and by love her union with her Lord and husband: and the increase of that union is the increase of holinesse, and happi­nesse.

There is yet a third profit by spirituall de­sertions, and it is the preventing of pride, which usually ariseth upon spirituall revela­tions, or any other ex­cellencies of the spirit. It is a precious and a glorious thing to know the counsels of heaven, and the secrecies of [Page 134] that kingdome, and these mysteries doth the husband of the soule often reveale un­to her in the bed of love. There is a secret murmure of things in­utterable, and then the soule wonders at the deepe wisedome, and unspeakeable truthes which are discovered to her: yea anon she wonders at her selfe, and her owne happi­nesse, because they are discovered to her. But then the flesh, which is apt to swell upon the apprehension of any honour or eminence, [Page 135] steps in too often, and puts his swelling into the soule; and then the thoughts of the soule are changed: For whereas before shee was a spirit that did magnifie the Lord, and rejoyced in God her Saviour, because to her lowlinesse hee shewed high and great things; now shee rejoyceth in her selfe, because of that which she hath re­ceived, even as if she had not received it. She growes proud against the giver, even by his owne gifts, and boasts of a selfe-sufficiency, [Page 136] even against him from whom her sufficiencie came, and without whom she hath no suf­ficiency.2 Cor. 3.5. Accordingly as shee changeth her thoughts, so she chan­geth her voice; for now she speakes in the lan­guage of Babel, I sit as a Queene;Rev. 17. and of Laodi­cea, Rev. 3. I am rich, and have neede of nothing. But in­deed this riches is the true way to poverty and nothing. For the soule being once rich in her owne opinion, turnes her eyes from her husband, that one­ly gives her true riches, [Page 137] and so lookes from riches unto poverty. And againe, her hus­band seeing her rich in her owne opinion, strips her, and sends her naked and empty away. But what a folly and madnesse is it in the soule, (though indeede very agreeable to the blinde flesh that mad­deth her) to thinke highly of the secrets and mysteries revealed to her, and withall to stoppe the current of such revelations? For thus she doth by tur­ning away the face, and turning the backe unto [Page 138] the revealer. But on the other side, it is a great mercy and favour in the revealer, to stop his current of revelati­ons, yea to send some spirituall affliction and desertion in stead of them, to prevent or a­mend this turning a­way of the soule from her husband the giver, because of his gifts: For thus by a short absence of both, she may reco­ver both the sooner, and keepe them the longer; but if shee should have that which she will abuse, the ha­ving of it would cast [Page 139] her into the danger of a greater and a longer losse. If the Moone be­ing full, should grow proud in her fulnesse, and out of that pride neglect the Sunne, not caring though the earth did ever keepe him out of sight, were not this a way by the pride of her light to bring her to an everlasting dark­nesse? And were it not farre better for her, that the Sunne by some short eclipse and inter­position of the earth, did shew her her owne darknesse being with­out his light, that so [Page 140] she may the more stea­dily and continually be lightened by a sted­fast and continuall loo­king on him, from whom her light com­meth? And thus in­deede doth the hus­band and Sunne of the soule. Having sent light, hee sends also some turne of darknes, that by a short darknes he may prevent a lon­ger, and that by dark­nesse hee may send a greater light. Having visited the soule with his graces, hee gives a medicine and preserva­tive against pride, the [Page 141] poyson of grace, and a restorative to humility the forerunner of grace. Humility is the bed, wherein the Bride­groome lyes downe and rests with the soule: With whom shall I rest, saith hee,Esay 66.1, 2. but with the humble & contrite soule? Wherfore let the soule account it a benefit, when this bed is made by some spirituall af­fliction; for the King of grace and glory is shortly comming to lodge with her in some gracious visitation; he that giveth grace to the humble, will visit her [Page 142] with abundance of con­solations; he will give her his loves, and his loves shall againe tell her his counsailes: And then shalt thou account thy selfe a gainer, if affliction and desertion have beene so great as to bring forth a great humiliation, for a great humiliation shall bee followed with a great­ly gracious and glori­ous visitation.

Fourthly, these de­sertions are profitable to try the truth of our love; and the tryall of our love shewes us the faults of it, and by [Page 143] shewing them calls up­on us to amend them. The husband of the soule will see whether his spouse love him with the love of a wife, or of an harlot. The love of an harlot loveth a man onely for his gifts, and so in truth loveth not the man, but the gifts. And though this be secretly true, when by outward fa­shion she seemes to love him, yet it is manifest­ly true, when the gifts cease, for then her love to the man also ceaseth. But the true wife loveth her husband, even for [Page 144] himselfe, and by him­selfe, shee loves him without gifts, yea she loveth his gifts for his sake, for she would nor take the same gifts from another man. Yea the true love of a wife goes some de­grees farther; for shee doth nor onely love her husband when hee gives no gifts, neither doth shee onely love his gifts for his sake, but she loves him when he is absent from her, even when she is with­out both his presence and his gifts: for even then the memory of [Page 145] him is precious to her, shee calls to remem­brance his perfections, his vertues, and his loves. And yet the true love of a wife goes farther; for she loves her husband, even whē hee chides her, and is angry with her, though in that case an husband seemes to be more ab­sent being at home, than an husband plea­sed being from home. All these doth the true spirituall love of the spouse performe unto Christ, and Christ de­lights to see them per­formed. Christ Iesus [Page 146] loves his wife with a true love, for he hath laid downe his true his true blood and life for her.Ioh. 15.13 And greater love hath no man, than he that laid downe his life for his beloved. Now Christ thus truly lo­ving his wife, hee ex­pects a returne of true and unfained love from his wife: And that it may be tried to be true, or amended and made true if it be not so, these tryalls are sent to her in these desertions.

And indeede in most of these degrees of love are we often faulty, the [Page 147] flesh having often too great a part and influ­ence in our love. For the flesh as mainly for things present and pal­pable, and like Thomas is wholly for seeing and feeling. And hence it is that our love dotes so much on the gifts of Christ Iesus, that it cooles even to Christ Iesus himselfe, without his gifts. Wee are all for Christs light, and knowledge, for his kis­ses and embracements, for his hony and his wine, for his sweetnes­ses and ravishings: and without these Christ is [Page 148] a dry and loathed hus­band, as Manna to the fleshly Israelites was a dry and loathed food. But when it is so with us, how farre are we short of those higher degrees of love, even of that love that loveth Christ being absent and hid out of sight, or that loveth him being present in that utmost absence of anger, cha­stisement, and seeming enmity. How farre short are we of that Ca­naanitish woman, Mat. 15.27 that kissed his rodds, and made love out of those reproaches, whereby [Page 149] Christ seemed to drive her away? But since it is so, is it not high time for Christ to remove his gifts, to whom our hearts are removed from Christ, that so our hearts may againe be removed to Christ from them? It is a right proper cure of this a­dulterous love, to re­moue those things with which love did adulte­rate, that so the right object of our best love may bee sought and found, and constantly proposed. And surely this cure is profitable to our soules, as it is [Page 150] pleasing also to the husband of soules, for by it Christ hath more interest in the soule, and the soule in Christ. And if this be the fruit of desertions, then art thou againer by deser­tions.

But that thou maist be sure to gaine by them, be sure to learne that which they teach thee: they teach thee that Christ is better than his gifts, and that Christs love is better than the gifts of his love. Therefore learne especially to fasten thy love on Christ, and [Page 151] next on his love; and thinke thy selfe happy enough in having thē, though thou hast no­thing but them: yea know also that thou hast them, even when thou hast them not; they are thine when thou seest or feelest not that they are thine. He and his love see thee, when thou seest them not, yea they love thee, when thou feelest them not; and he and his love are better than the see­ing and feeling of him and his love; and it is better for thee that they are thine, than that [Page 152] they doe appeare to be thine. Yea, it is good for thee somtimes, that they do not appeare to be thine, that thou maist love them better then their appearing to bee thine; and this love do thou learne even from their not appearing.

Yea farther, Christ and his love are thine, even when he chideth and chastiseth thee, for it is his very love that chideth and chastiseth thee. And he doth it to purge thy blemishes, to trie and exercise thy vertues, and amonge others, this excellent [Page 153] love which loveth him chastening. Therefore though he kill thee, do thou trust in him and love him, for Hee that loveth thee so, that hee gave his owne life for thee, may well be trust­ed with thy life. For his owne life was infinitly better then thy life; & hee that gave so preci­ous a life for thy good, will not take so meane a life from thee but for thy good. Hence it is that even by loosing thy life thou shalt finde it, and thou shalt finde it with him, for whom thou loosest it, for [Page 154] thou shalt finde it hid with Christ in God. Col. 3.3. And when Christ which is thy life shall appeare, thē shal this hid life ap­peare with him; but not such a fraile, and base life as that which thou gavest for him; but a glorious, immortall, and incorruptible life, shall that be which he will give unto thee. Therefore at all times and in all estates, even in darkest desertions, and greatest sufferings, trust him whose love turnes all things to good, unto his belov­ed, even death unto life. [Page 155] For bee thou assured that this Almighty hus­band, out of this eater will bring meate, and out of this strong one will bring forth sweet­nes. He himselfe broke the gates and barres of death, and carried thē away, and so made a­way open for us to e­ternall life. He quicken­ed himselfe whē he dy­ed an universall death, even when all our deaths were included in his death. And as we all dyed in his death, so in his quickning & rising, doe we all rise a­gaine; as the universall [Page 156] death of the head is gi­ven particularly to all the members, so shall the vniversall Resurre­ction of the Head, be also particularly com­municated to the mem­bers. Much more easi­ly in the desertions of this life, which are a kinde of sownings and seeming deaths, will he give thee life againe, when thou hast learned by them that which thou wouldst not learne without them. When thou lovest Christ a­lone, when thou lovest him hiding himselfe, & chastising thee, then he [Page 157] that said to the woman; O woman great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt: He will say to the Spouse, O wo­man great is thy love, be it unto thee as thou wilt. Thou willest him most, be it unto thee e­ven as thou wilt. For when thou willest him most, thou shalt have him whom thou willest most; he will come un­to thee, yea hee will come much unto thee, and thy latter end shall be more then thy beginning. By wanting him, shalt thou have him more, then thou hadst [Page 158] before thou wantedst him, because by want­ing him, thou dost love him more, then thou didst when thou had­dest him.

Fifthly, these Deser­tions are profitable to the Soule, by teaching her patience; and by making patience to bring forth her kindly fruites wayting and at­tendance. The husband of the soule is a King of glory, and he will sometimes expect the honour, and service of patient attendance. He is a free agent, and his Spirit bloweth when, as [Page 159] well as where he listeth. Iohn 3.8. And to a free agent there is due a waiting patience: He that gives freely, gives when himselfe will give, and not still when the recei­ver will have. In this case, he will answer his Spouse, as hee did his Mother,Iohn 2.4. Woman, my houre is not yet come. There are times and tides, wherein the spi­rit moveth; as it is said of Sampson, Iudg. 13.25. The spi­rit of the Lord moved him at times in the campe of Dan: The Angel of the Lord, Iohn 5.4. not alwayes, but at a certaine season [Page 160] went downe and moved the waters. Now these times and seasons are in his owne hands, and it is not in the soules power, to know and appoint them. There­fore as the eyes of the handmaides are to the hands of her Mistresse, Psal. 123.2 so must the eyes of the spouse be to her Lord, untill hee regard her. Her part is patience and attendance, and the pa­tient abiding of the righ­teous shall not perish for ever. Psa. 37.34 When the soule hath submitted her will unto his will, the Lords houre wil shortly come [Page 161] wherein the water shall be turned into wine, the water of colde deserti­ons, into the warming and comfortable wine of joyfull visitations. When thy Lord hath the honour and service due to a most free and wise giver; then shalt thou have the crowne of thy patience and at­tendance. For God hath given his word, that those which honour him he will honour: 1 Sam. 2.30 and a­gaine,Psal. 37. Waite on the Lord, and commit thy way to him, and he shall bring it to passe. A blessed wai­ting which honoureth [Page 162] the Lord, and blesseth his handmaid: and a blessed absence, that procures this waiting which draweth his pre­sence, accompanied with blessednesse.

But take heede that thy patience be not the effect of dulnesse or neglect, nor a cause of idlenesse: be not pati­ent in the absence of thine husband, because thou carest not for his presence: desire his pre­sence above all earthly joyes, and the shining of his countenance a­bove all corn and wine.Psal. 4.6, 7 But let thy patience be [Page 163] meerely grounded in a submission to his will; and let his will be the cause that thy will is content to want that which above all the world it desireth. And this desire thou maist expresse in prayers, praying to drinke the cuppe of salvation, as Christ prayed not to drinke the cup of his passiō; but with Christs reservation, even with a will submitted to the will of God: Not when I will, but when thou wilt. Thou maist say unto him, My soule thir­steth for God, even for the [Page 164] living God. Psal. 42.2. And thou maist sigh out this lon­ging unto thy Saviour, When wilt thou come unto mee? & 102.2. And thou maist looke for him more than they that watch for the morning,& 130.6. even more than they that watch for the morning. For blessed shalt thou be if when he comes he finde thee watching; that so when he knocks thou maist readily o­pen, and he may readi­ly enter; and that by thy slacknesse hee doe not turne away to the flockes of thy compa­nions.

[Page 165]And in the second place take heede that thou give not thy selfe over to a desperate idlenesse, to doing no­thing, because thou canst not doe as thou wouldest. This were a double offence, both because it is impati­ence, and because it is idlenesse. This is to cut off the hands be­cause they are feeble, and because the feete halt,Heb. 12.12. to turne them out of the way. But it were farre better to streng­then thy weake hands, and that thou maist doe by exercise, though it [Page 166] be but weake exercise; and it were better for thee to halt in the right way, than to runne or rest in a false way. Wherefore if thou canst not doe the high­er workes, doe the lower; for doing is thy way, though thou goe but softly in it, but idle­nes is a false way. And when thy Master, Lord and Husband com­meth, and findeth thee doing according to that which thou hast, thou shalt be blessed in thy deede, by him, who ac­cepteth our worke,2 Cor. 8.12 if it come from a willing [Page 167] minde, according to that which wee have, and not according to that which wee have not. If thou art faith­full in little, hee will make thee ruler over much; thy Masters joy shall shortly enter into thee, and thou shalt shortly enter into thy Masters joy. But con­trarily looke for no gaine from idlenesse, but the gaine of losse and punishment. Thou maist lose him the lon­ger, the lesse thou doest to please him; yea hee may come unto thee with a rod, when thou [Page 168] expectest him to come with the spirit of meeknesse and conso­lation. To the wor­kers hee comes with a penny,Mat: 10. even with a re­ward, favour, and a good eye; but to the idlers he comes with a frowne and a checke; Why stand yee all the day idle? Rather doe that which may winne him to come, & may please him being come, than by doing nothing keep him from comming, or make him angry when hee commeth. And if thou aske what thou shalt doe; Thy [Page 169] most ordinary worke is the worke of thy or­dinary calling, yet maist thou give times and turnes to those workes that more im­mediatly concerne thy heavenly calling, even such as immediatly call for thy heavenly Lord to come into thy soule: sigh and pray, and reade and heare, and by hea­venly meditations let thy soule be trimmed as a bride that lookes for her husband: yea with thy earthly labours maist thou mixe these heavenly thoughts; thou maist worke and [Page 170] sigh, worke and wish, worke and pray in short ejaculations: and thus working, and thus wai­ting, working in profi­table duties, and wai­ting with submissive patience, he that loveth both thy workes and thy patience will come unto thee, and say, I know thy patience and thy workes: Rev. 2.19. yea hee will come with such an in­crease of grace, that he will also say, Thy last shall bee more than thy first.

Finally, these deser­tions are advantagea­ble to the soule, while [Page 171] they draw her eye and affection from this place of interrupted joyes, to the place of incessant and everlast­ing joyes. The Bride­groome here doth but looke in upon the soule at a crany, and the soule seeth him but by glimpses, but there shall she behold him face to face; and this behol­ding as it is full, so it shall also be perpetuall. The soule is here wal­led up in an house of clay, and the trafficke betweene her and her husband is but by some chinke which the spirit [Page 172] hath bored. But this clay which is now in it selfe nothing but dark­nesse, and keepes out light, shall hereafter be made all glorious and lightsome; yea whereas the soule is now much carnall, then the body shall be made spirituall:1 Cor: 15.44. and if the body be spi­rituall and lightsome, how pure and spirituall shall the soule be which is now a spirit? Surely then shall wee be as it were all eye, even all clarity and purity, and so most capable of light and glory: and accor­ding to the capacity of [Page 173] our receiving, shall the light, and glory, and joy of our husband en­ter into us, and fill us: And of this fulnesse of joy and glory there is no end, no interrupti­on. Wherefore our hus­band wisely and profi­tably, drawes us by these desertions, from earnests unto full frui­tion; from broken pee­ces to whole and entire joyes. If the soule might still have these glimpses, shee would perchance be contented with them: and this were no other than to be contented with per­petuall [Page 174] star-light, even a light fitted for this life of vanity, which is but a night, being com­pared to the bright day of eternity. Yet lying in the bed of love, she would be content to looke on her beloved by this lesser light, and would not desire the perfect day, wherein the Sun of glory might arise unto her; and by a large and glorious light, make her largely and gloriously to see him, who is the foun­taine of that large and light, by which she see­eth him. VVherefore [Page 175] this lesser light is profi­tably taken from her, to stirre her up to the seeking of the greater; and her beloved doth chastise her by deserti­ons, to beate her away from resting in lesser, and interrupted joyes, and to beate her unto the seeking of fuller loves, mightier joyes, and everlasting fruiti­ons. And indeede the earnests should have taught her this lesson, but because they did not, these interruptions are sometimes sent to teach it her. The ear­nests shold have taught [Page 176] her, to look out for the full exhibition of that whereof they are ear­nests; but because the soule in stead of loo­king by them, beyond them, fastens and stayes her eye on them, they are taken from that eye which was unduely stayed on them, that so by wanting them it may looke beyond them, which it should have done, but did not by them. And now the soule seeing that these earnests are not onely, but drops and parcells of an infinite fulnesse, but withall drops and [...] [Page 179] red forth; and his acti­ons are answerable to his name. As he was annoynted with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellows, so doth he give of his oyntmentes to the Bride which is joyned in communion and fellowshipp with him. For of his fulnesse doth shee receive, even grace for grace. The pretious Oyntment drops from this head, unto his body, the Church, and thereby she is made all glori­ous within; glorious shee is now within by grace; and shee shall [Page 180] hereafter be glorious, both within and with­out with perfect glo­rie.

Among the bene­fites of this glorious Grace, wherewith the Church is inwardly beautified, when the Bridegrome visits her with his spiritual oint­ments, this is a great one, that the heavenly oyle giveth light to the soule: the soule is a lamp, & with this oile is the Lampe of the wise Virgins trim'd, and becomes a burn­ning & a shining light. They have that light [Page 181] from the bridegroom, by which they looke out for the Bride­groome. The eye salve is gotten from Christ, by which the eyes of the Church being an­noynted doe see him, and all things that cō ­cerne him. Spirituall things are spiritually to bee discerned; and Christ and his spouse are one spirit, and by that spirit wherby she is one with Christ, doth shee discerne spi­ritual things. The hus­band of the Church, is the wisedome of his Father, and when wis­dome [Page 182] goes into a soule he giveth wisedome to the soule. The Spirit by which he enters in­to us,Ioh: 17.14 taketh of his, and giveth it to us. There­fore as he is wisdome in himselfe, so is he al­so made wisedome to us,1 Cor: 1.30 Christ is light, and when light and the soule are knit together by that vnion with light, there is a Com­munion of light. The wine of the Spirit is herein quite contrary to the bodily wine. The bodily wine whē it inebriates, darkens the understanding, and [Page 183] being grosser than the soule, casts a mist upon the soule. But the spi­rituall wine, being pu­rer than the soule, en­lightens and clarifies her, and even then when it brings her to an extacie, it doth it, not by the diminution, but by the excesse of light.

Wherefore let the soule make speciall use of this precious light which shineth within her, in the accesses of her husband, let her marke, and learne, and record the discoveries of that light; for a spi­rit [Page 184] so enlightened will discover more than se­ven men upon a watch­tower. There are some mysteries and secrets which thy husband wil whisper unto thee by his spirit in the bed of love, and then let him that hath an eare, heare what his spirit saith. But if he doe not speake to thee, doe thou speak to him; know of him those things that are needfull for thee to know, and bring to his light those things that thou wouldest have truly seene and discer­ned. Goe into this San­ctuary, [Page 185] and there re­ceive Oracles and An­sweres; for there shalt thou finde resolutions of those things that were before too high and too hard for thee:Psal: 73.17 and when thou hast tru­ly seene them, beleeve them to be that which by this light thou seest them to be, and resolve never to beleeve the flesh hereafter, when it shall put any other shapes upon them. For darknesse puts false and imaginary shapes upon things, but it is light that makes all things truly manifest.

[Page 186]For example, when this light shines in up­on the soule, looke out for thy happinesse; and that thou maist finde it, set all things before this light, which are briefly these, The Cre­atour and the creature, God and the world: and having done this, thou maist plainly see, where is true, solid, and permanent felicity; and where is vanity, transi­torinesse and misery: And when thou hast seene it, know it to be the very truth which thou hast seene; and that which is once [Page 187] truth is truth for ever. If thou wantest the skil of truly measuring time and eternity, so that a short life seemes to thee like eternity, and eter­nity lesse than a short life; when this light shines in thy soule, bring the life of man and eternity together in one view before it, and thou shalt quickly learne the art of num­bring the few dayes of thy life,Psa: 90.12 and withall thou shalt learne that the dayes of eternity cannot bee numbred. There is not so much proportion or likenesse [Page 188] between them, as there is betweene the very lowest and least point of the earth, and the circle of the uppermost sphere. And what thou hast now seene to be true, beleeve to be true ever, even when this light is so obscured, that thou seest not the truth of it. If thou doubt which is better, the prosperity of the wicked, or the adver­sity of the godly, bring them before this light, even into the Sanctua­ry and Temple of thy soule,Psal. 73. wherein the holy Ghost dwelleth and [Page 189] shineth; and there shalt thou see that prosperi­tie ending in a never-ending misery, and that adversity ending in a never-ending felicity. Besides, thou shalt see the prosperity to bee but a light vanity, yet followed with a wegh­ty misery;2 Cor: 4.17 and thou shalt see adversity to be but a light affliction, yet followed with a weighty glory. And having seene this, thou maist easily judg which is the better, and as they appeare now to thy judgement, such let thy memory present [Page 190] them to thee for ever. If thou art doubtfull of thy way, and thy path seeemes to be co­vered with darknesse, search thy way by this light, for it shall be to thee instead of a voice, saying,Esay 30.21 This is the way, walke in it. VVhen af­ter some darke nights the soule is visited (through the loving kindnesse of her belo­ved) with these day-springs and mornings of grace, then let her say,Psal: 143, 8-10. Cause mee to see and know the way wherein I shall walke: and then, The good Spirit will leade thee [Page 191] into the land of upright­nesse. If the word writ­ten be darke to thee, bring it to this light, and if it be fit for thy measure, and the glory of thy Lord, this light shall reveale it: For the Spirit doth reveale the hid things of God. 1 Cor▪ 2.10 If the infidelity of men with­out thee, or of thine owne flesh within thee, cast a mist of doubts on the Gospel of Christ Iesus, with this light beholde this Gospell, and thou shalt see in it a plot of divine wise­dome, and a mysterie of high and supernatu­rall [Page 192] truth. Yea thou shalt see the face of him who is the summe of the Gospell, as the face of the onely begotten Sonne of God,Iohn 1.14 full of grace and glory. For God who commanded light to shine out of darknesse,2 Cor: 4.6 hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the know­ledge of the glory of God in the face of Ie­sus Christ. It is an an­cient promise, They shall be all taught of God. And when will God sooner teach than when he vi­siteth a soule with his spirit,Esa: 54.13 which communi­cates [Page 193] both his light, and his love unto her? For both light and love are discoverers of se­crets: light makes ma­nifest things hidde in darknesse, and love tels counsels unto the belo­ved. It is our Saviours owne inference, I have called you friends, Ioh. 15.15 there­fore I tell you my counsels. But remember that the knowledge which thou learnest from this tea­cher of hearts, be laid up by thee safe, as a precious stocke or trea­sure, and account it thy best learning, which thou hast learned [Page 194] of the best Teacher. Having bought this truth sell it not; Pro: 23.23 & 4.12. keepe it, and it shall keepe thee: When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitned, and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble: There­fore take fast holde on this instruction, let her not goe, keepe her, for shee is thy life.

Secondly, these sea­sons of love, are sea­sons of prayer. If thou want any thing now aske it, for in these heates of love, thy husband will deny thee nothing. These be the times when the spirit [Page 195] moveth the waters; therefore now cast in thy petition, and what soever griefe it hath in it, thou shalt be cured of it. Now the King holds out his golden Scepter, therefore let the Queene come in boldly with her re­quest, though it be for a kingdome. Yea this King likes it best, If thou doe first seeke a kingdome:Mat. 6 33. wherefore whatsoever thou ask­est, be sure to aske this kingdome, yea to aske it first, and the righte­ousnesse inseparably annexed to it. It were [Page 196] a madnes in thee to of­fend him by asking a lesse gift, when thou mayst please him by asking a greater, espe­cially, since if thou aske and obtaine the greater, the lesser by promise is annexed to the greater. And ac­cordingly thou maist come down in thy pe­titions from the grea­ter, to the lesser, and having desired the mayne petitions, that the King of glory may bee glorified, by the comming of his king­dome of grace, with the righteousnes ther­of, [Page 197] then after mayst thou petition for day­ly bread to bee given thee. Yea, know that thou art now in a high degree, the Temple of the holy Ghost; and whatsoever prayer or sup­plication shall be made in this Temple by a man that shall know the plague and griefe of his owne heart, 1 Kings 8▪38 He that dwelleth in Hea­ven will heare the prayer made on earth,2 Chron: 7 14, 15 he will forgive and doe accor­ding to that prayer. The spirit of prayer & supplication is in this Temple,Zach: 12.10. and he is most [Page 198] powerfull in these sea­sons of love, & he who gives this spirit of prai­er, will heare the pray­er of the spirit which himselfe giveth. For he gave this spirit of purpose, to make those prayers in vs,Rom. 8.26 which himself might approve & grant. We know not how to pray as wee ought, for we are car­nall, and flesh will not aske so, as it may bee pleasing to a spirit. A spirit loves a spirituall prayer; and therefore hee gives the spirit, that he may have that spirituall prayer which he loves. So when he heareth his spouse, hee [Page 199] heareth himselfe, and how can any one deny his owne prayers? Christ and his Spouse are now, (and that in a height of eminence) one spirit. And if a man who is flesh, do not hate his owne flesh, but che­risheth it, surely much more assuredly the Lord who is a spirit, cannot hate his owne spirit, but loveth and cherisheth, and conse­quently heareth it.

Thirdly, when the soule is visited by the spirit of the Bride­groome, then set upon some good, yea upon some great worke. The spirit which we receive [Page 200] is a spirit of power,2 Tim: 1.7 and when the spirit flow­eth much into us in these tides of grace, we receive much power. Now great power can doe a great worke, and it were both a losse and a shame to thee, with a great power to doe a little worke, when thou maist doe a great one. Therefore if there be a worke which was be­fore too great and too hard for thee, yet now set upon it; for when thy strength is greater, thou maist doe that worke, which thou couldest not doe when [Page 201] thy strength was lesse. Our Saviour saith to Peter, Thou canst not fol­low me yet, but thou shalt follow me hereafter: Ioh: 13.36 thou canst not follow mee yet, untill thy strength be greater, by a grea­ter portion of the spirit: But when thou art more strengthened by the spirit, then thou shalt follow mee. And accordingly he that be­fore Christs resurrec­tion denied Christ at the voice of a maid, af­ter his resurrection confessed him in the face of a Councell: And no wonder, for [Page 202] for it is then said of Pe­ter, that he was filled with the holy Ghost. Acts 4.8. Neither is it true of Peter alone, that a great measure of the spirit enables to a great worke, but in o­thers also. When the spirit of the Lord comes mightily upon Sampson, he doth migh­ty workes;Iudg: 15. & 16. for hee breaketh cords as flax, and slayes a thousand with the bone of an asse. And Paul being filled with the holy Ghost,Acts 13.6. worketh a mi­racle, by which at once he confounded Elymas, and converteth the De­puty. [Page 203] Though two ta­lents gaine but two, yet five can gaine five: Therefore marke when the spirit comes migh­tily upon thee, and then attempt some mighty worke. As the Sea­man watcheth the na­turall winde and tide, so doe thou watch the winde and tide of the spirit: The spirit blow­eth when he lifteth, and when hee listeth to blow, then set forth on some noble action: when the tide of the spirit floweth, then put thy hand to the oare, for then if thou rowe [Page 204] strongly, thou maist advance mightily. The soule lying in flesh and bloud, is like a boate on ground, all the row­ing in the world will not move it, but let the tide come and set him afloate, the same tide that enables him to move, will also migh­tily advance the moti­on, which it first ena­bled. VVherefore if there be any vertue, or any worke of excel­lence, not yet well done, thinke upon it in these times and tides of grace: now set upon them, that so thou [Page 205] maist goe from vertue to vertue, untill thou be skilfull, & active in all vertues; and having attained the full num­ber of them, then strive to the fulnesse and per­fection of degrees. On the contrary, if thou have some mighty ene­mie, that hath beene too hard for thee, even some raging and wast­ing concupiscence, feare, distrust, or other tentation, now set upon him mightily, for now canst thou best see the way to conquer him, and now hast thou most might to effect [Page 206] this conquest, and to doe what thou seest. Having tasted this ho­ney, thine eyes shall be opened,1 Sam. 14.29, 30. and thy strength revived; wher­fore make thou now a more mighty slaughter of the enemies of God, and thy soule. And let thy fighting be against all these enemies, though chiefly against the chiefest. There are some little foxes that have strong holdes, and these will ask some strength, to be digged out and taken. Remem­ber that thy warfare is against the whole Na­tion [Page 207] of the Canaanites, thou maist not suffer a little one to live. Thou must strive against all sinne, and strive for all righteousnesse; for the fruite of the spirit, is all goodnesse, righteousnesse and truth. Eph: 5.9 It is the say­ing of a Saint, I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens mee. Phil. 4.13. If therfore Christ streng­then thee, strive thou to doe all things al­so.

Neither hast thou in these times, onely a greater strength to en­courage thee to great workes, but also a great [Page 208] joy.Neh: 8.10. And indeede the joy of the Lord is our strength: The joy that is in us is a peece and patterne of the joy set before us, and by this peece of joy within us, beholding the joy set before us, we may de­spise the shame,Heb. 12 and en­dure the Crosse, and runne with patience the race set before us: As sure as wee have this pawne, so sure shall wee have the perfor­mance: and therefore we may labour com­fortably in the workes of doing and suffering, because our labour is not in vain in the Lord. The [Page 209] joy which we have ex­cites us to labour, be­cause as this joy is fol­lowed with labour, so shall the labour be followed with an over-waighing joy: and the greater the labours are to which this joy of the spirit encourageth us, the greater shall those joyes be which follow these labours; for hee that soweth plentifully to the spirit in labours, shall reape plentifully of the spirit in the joyes life ever­lasting. Though no life everlasting can be longer than another, yet one life everlasting [Page 210] may bee more joyfull than another, and this greater joy shall fol­low those that dying in the Lord doe rest from greater labours. And as the joy prece­dent, and the joy sub­sequent doe encou­rage us to the labours of holinesse, so doth also the joy concomi­tant. The spirit thri­veth, growes fat, pros­pereth and rejoyceth in the doing of good workes, even like the mighty man in the run­ning of his race.Psal. 19. As the naturall man pleaseth himselfe in eating and [Page 211] drinking, so doth the spirituall man delight himselfe in well-do­ing; and it is meate and drinke to an heavenly Sonne,Ioh. 4.34. to doe the will of his heavenly Father. VVhen a thing work­eth naturally, it wor­keth pleasantly, and it is naturall to the god­ly nature to work god­linesse. Therefore by all these wayes,2 Pet. 1. Blessed is the people that knowes the joyfull sound, Psa. 89.15. they shall walke in the light of thy countenance, O Lord. They that know the joyfull sound, are bles­sed, and they are wal­kers: [Page 212] The joyfull sound is a precedent blessed­nesse, and a present blessednesse it is, to walke in the light of Gods countenance, and the future is to walke by that light unto the countenance it selfe, which is perfect bles­sednesse. The joyfull sound, and the light of Gods countenance, doe not allow any to take up their rest here, but they call on them to walke, even to walk cheerfully in good du­ties, by these streames of blessednesse, unto the ocean and fulnesse [Page 213] of blessednesse. VVher­fore let us make this use of the precedent, pre­sent, and following joyes, even to walke and runne that race of piety which is here prevented with that sound, accompanied with gladnesse and the light of Gods counte­nance, and shall be fol­lowed with the never-ending sight of that countenance which is the fountaine of that light, and which to be­hold is true felicity.

Fourthly, in these times of plenty lay up a stocke of confidence [Page 214] and comfort for times of scarsity. It hath bin tolde thee before, and thou shalt finde it true, that the Bridegroome sometimes hideth his face, and holdes backe his oyntments, and the spirit which bloweth when he listeth, blow­eth not when he listeth not. Therefore goe unto the Pismire, and learne of him in the summer of consolati­on, to provide for the winter of desertion.Iohn 20.27 28 If with Thomas thou hast seene and felt Iesus to bee Iesus in his neare [Page 215] and palpable approa­ches and visitations; and hast then truly cal­led him, My Lord, and my God: lay up this truth for the times of desertion, and beleeve that truth to bee then true, when thou feelest not the truth of it; and that though thou art changed, yet Iesus Christ is yesterday, Heb. 13, 8. to day, and the same for ever. And for the better helpe of thy memory, and assu­rance of thy soule, set downe upon record these testimonies and tokens of love, and seales of union which [Page 216] Iesus gave to thy soule when hee visited her in the bed of love. In an ill matter Tamar kept a seale and a staffe,Gen. 38.25 for the safeguard of her life: in a good matter doe thou much rather keepe these seales for the safety of thy soule. And if thine enemy, who is both a Temp­ter, and an Accuser, and in these times of deser­tion doth commonly tempt by accusing, doe call thy soule into que­stion for her life, accu­sing her to be an adul­teresse of the flesh, and not a spouse of Christ [Page 217] Iesus, bring forth thy seales & tokens which lye by thee, and tell him, that whose these are, his thou art; thy well-beloved is thine, and thou art thy well-beloveds: Tell him, That thou hast not fol­lowed cunningly devised fables, 2 Pet. 1.16 but hast beene an eye-witnesse of Christ Ie­sus and his love: And what thou hast seene and heard, 1 Iohn 1. and felt, that de­clare and shew to the face of thy accuser: tell him, The spirit of Iesus hath left a testimony with thy spirit, Rom. 8.16 Gal: 4.6, 7 that thou hast [Page 218] beene one spirit with Iesus in an heavenly marri­age; and then say al­so, Wherefore wee are no more two but one spirit; let no tempter, nor temptation put asun­der, what God hath put together. Thus in laying up the seales of union, thou layest up a stocke of confidence; and thou maist see Saint Paul making the same provision, and the same use of it; God hath given us the earnest of the spirit, 2 Cor: 5.5, 6 therefore are wee alwayes confident.

Neither do thou on­ly from these Memori­alls [Page 219] gather confidence but comfort. True it is that confidence it selfe will bring comfort, for hope is the juice of confidence, and this juice is an especiall cō ­fort and cordiall to the soule. But besides this comfort which ariseth from the apprehension of the things to come, thou mayst take com­fort in that which is past, and therewith re­fresh thy soule in times of drought and weari­nesse. By these memo­rials & pledges, call to remembrance his loves his sweetnes, his kisses, [Page 220] his oyntments. Renew the Images, and keepe them fresh in thy soule, and these shall comfort thee, when the things themselves are absent. It will be a pleasure to thee, to tast over his loves, againe & againet by renewed remem­brances of them. It will be a pleasure to thee to repeate the pleasure thy soule hath enioyed, and to say, His love was pleasanter then wine, and I eate vnder his shadow with great delight, Cant. 1. & 2. and his fruite was sweete to my tast. Thou hast tasted & by tasting seene that [Page 221] thy Lord was graci­ous, and now see and by seeing tast how gra­cious thy Lord was. For as tasting brought forth seeing at the first, so now a revived see­ing wil also bring forth a revived tasting; ech mutually begetting o­ther. Yea, many times when thou doest this only by remembrance and representation of that which is past, thou shalt bring into thee, the substance of that whose shadow thou re­callest: And so while Iesus and his sweetnes are represented to thee, [Page 222] as they have beene heretofore seene and tasted, they will even now present them­selves afresh to be ta­sted and seene by thee. While the Disciples going to Emaus talked of Iesus as of one that was absent,Luke 24, 15, 19. Iesus be­came present unto thē, and then their hearts burned with an hea­venly fire. And so while thou talkest with thy soule of Iesus, of his beauty, of his gra­ces, of his sweetnesse, he wil present himselfe to thee, and thou who wouldest have accoun­ted [Page 223] it a great comfort, to sit under the sha­dowes of his remem­brance, shalt now en­joy his reall presence, and eate of his most pleasant fruites; for when hee comes, hee comes with abundance of consolations. Thy remembrance of him, brings him into thee whom thou doest re­member; and then thou needest not to borrow comforts out of the stocke of thy former remembrances; for thou hast the Comforter himselfe to give thee new comforts, and so [Page 224] maist adde them to the stocke of thy memori­alls and remembrances, for future encourage­ments and consolati­ons.

Lastly, let the pee­ces and earnests of hea­venly joyes stirre up thy desires and affecti­ons, to the fruition of the fulnesse of joyes; let these drops of Gods sweetnesse enflame thy soule with a thirst and longing to enjoy God the fountaine of this sweetnesse. Let these kisses of Christ Iesus kindle in thee such a fervent love of Christ, [Page 225] that thy soule may pant to bee united to him in a perfect and consummate marriage. And out of the heate of these longings and enflamed desires, send up the aspirations and breathings of thy bur­ning soule in vehement wishes, and groaning complaints: My soule thirsteth for God, Psa: 42.2 when shall I come and appeare before God? My teares have beene my meate day and night, while the flesh saith to the spirit, VVhere is thy God? I desire to bee dissolved, and to bee with Christ, Phil: 1.23. [Page 226] which is best of all. Sure­ly Christ is best of all, and therefore is it best of all to bee with Christ. Thou hast try­ed in the drops of his sweetnesse which thou hast tasted, that hee is best of all, for the taste of Christ in them hath distasted all the taste of the creatures. Thou hast tasted and seene that the goodnesse cre­ating is better than the goodnesse created; and therfore Christ is best of all. These droppes of the Creatour are better than all the visi­ble creature, and he that [Page 227] is the fountaine is bet­ter than the drops that distill from the foun­taine, and so is he bet­ter than that which is better than the crea­ture, and therefore is best of all: and if he be best, surely it is best for thee to bee with him; the enjoying of the best is the best en­joying. Therefore call unto him,Psal. 43.3. O send out thy light and thy truth, let them leade mee, let them bring mee unto thy holy hill: let thy good spirit leade mee and bring mee to thy blessed presence, that as I [Page 228] have seene thee in these modells, and mirrours, and earnests, so I may beholde thee face to face. And though thy pilgrimage be prolon­ged, and being present in the body, thou art absent from the Lord,2 Cor: 5.8 yet desire rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. Accordingly let thy affections bee ever rowing in these streams of the Deity to the De­ity it selfe: by these patternes of rich oare, having discovered a farre richer mine, doe not stand gazing on the [Page 229] patternes, nor thinke thy selfe rich enough in them, but by them be stirred up to get and possesse the full riches of the Mine. Indeede the patterne shewes thee the richnesse of the Mine, it being a part of that riches which the Mine will give thee. But remember it is but a peece, and a peece cannot be equalled to the whole; for the whole hath an infinite fulnesse of such peeces in it. And hereby there is such oddes betweene a peece and the whole, that a peece is more va­luable [Page 230] for being an ear­nest of the whole, than for his owne value. It is more to be prized for that which it promi­seth, than for that which it exhibiteth. Therefore value it highly for the worth which it hath in it self, but value it infinitely more highly, for that excessively exceeding weight of glory which it promiseth. Looke upon it for the good­nesse that is in it, but much more on the goodnesse without it, which the goodnesse within it promiseth. [Page 231] So by looking on it, looke from it, even be­yond and above it; for though these earnests first doe call thy affe­ctions to them, yet being considered as earnests, then doe they remove thy affections, to that whereof they are earnests: our rest is not in them, but in him, that gave these ear­nests, who gave them for this end, that they might direct our faith and hope to him who is our rest. Wherefore as God spake to Israel by Moses, so speaketh he to the true Israel by [Page 232] these earnests,Exod 14.15. Goe for­ward. Why stand yee still gazing and resting on these earnests, when even the earnests them­selves call on you to goe forward? The ear­nests call on you to goe forward from ear­nests to full perfor­mances, from grace to glory, from faith to vi­sion, from the drops of the Deity to the Deity it selfe, the onely true rest and Sabbath of the soule. And when God saith,Heb. 10.38 Goe forward, If any man draw backe, his soule shall have no pleasure in him. But of all draw­ing [Page 233] backe, let us most of all beware of draw­ing backe from God to the world. This were yet a farther degree of going back from God; for whereas the draw­ing backe from God to the earnests is one degree, this going back from the earnests to the world is a second and a most fearefull degree. This is a true returning from Canaan to Egypt: but let us remember what the Apostle saith of the right possessours of these earnests:Heb. 10.39 Wee are not of them who draw backe unto perdition, but [Page 234] of them that beleeve to the saving of the soule. If we beleeve, we doe looke forward, and goe forward, for faith lookes not on things seene, but on things not seene, and such are the things before us; yet because the strong taste of the onions of Egypt, (even of fleshly lust) doth sticke still in our teeth, and often would make Manna to seeme but a dry meate, it is not amisse, that this word Goe forward, be often sounded in the eares of the heavenly pilgrims. These ear­nests [Page 235] are Manna, and this Manna is not such a dry meate, as the flesh would make it, for it serves to carry us unto the land of eternall feli­city:Num 11▪6 Iosh. 5▪12. it both calls upon us to goe to our hus­band who is our hap­pinesse, and it enables us to goe that journey, whereunto it calleth us. Therefore let us hearken to the voice of it when it calleth, be­cause the same that cal­leth us, doth also ena­ble us.2 Cor. 5. We have recei­ved the earnest of the Spirit, therefore are we alwayes bold, and wil­ling [Page 236] to be with the Lord, whose earnest we have received. We would put off these bo­dies of dust and lust, that our soules may put on Christ in a full and fruitive union. Yet nei­ther would we wholly be uncloathed of our bodies, but put them off, to put off their basenesse and sinful­nesse, and to put them on againe glorious and holy. And then shall it be a fit garment for the soule in the day of her gladnesse, and capa­ble with her of the consummate marriage [Page 237] with the King of glo­ry. And for this mar­riage doth the spirit and the bride say, Come: the bride saith it by the spirit, and the spirit saith it in the bride: This is the voice of the bride, and not of her tongue onely, but of her spirit; and not of her spirit onely, but of the spirit in her spirit. If then thou have the same spirit of love, because thou lovest, doe thou also speake and say, Come Lord Iesus, come quickly.

CAP. VII. The signes, and markes of the true and right visitations of the hea­venly Bridegroome.

IT is necessary to shew what these vi­sitations are, to con­vince that they are, and so to undeceive those that thinke they are not. It is also necessa­ry to free those from errour, who beleeving that they are, yet doe mistake those that are not, for those that are. Such visitations [Page 239] there are, for they are seene and felt by men seeing and waking; and seeing and waking not onely with the bodily eyes, but with two bet­ter eyes, the one of hu­mane reason, and the other farre excelling that, divine and hea­venly light. Spirituall light beholds these spi­rituall sights, and shews them to the understan­ding, which being con­vinced by that which it sees, beleeves them it selfe, and would also deliver over the sight, and the beleefe of them to others. But the [Page 240] thoughts of man are narrower than these joyes, and words are narrower thā thoghts. But, which is worst of al, the heart of an earth­ly man is narrower than the narrow words of a spirituall man; for the carnall man percei­veth not spirituall things, though they be held up before his flesh­ly eyes; yet in the mouth of two or three eye-witnesses a word should stand; and stand it doth, though blinde men see it not standing before them, and ther­fore stumble at it. But [Page 241] who knowes whether an Ephatah may come downe from heaven, that while a spirituall object is proposed, a spirituall sight may be infused? Howsoever the words of heavenly wisedome are not spo­ken in vaine to the children of wisedome; and especially those who are yet but chil­dren, and not perfect in tae art of discerning good and evill, must not be left to the dan­gers of errour and mis­taking. The black An­gel sometimes chan­geth himselfe into an [Page 242] Angel of light, and then may he also make some shewes of light­some visitations. There is also a sanguine and naturall lightsomnesse, and a bright beame of adustion, that some­times shine in the mind, and these also may be mistaken to be divine. But the spirit is not flesh, much lesse is hee that evill spirit, which is contrary to him. And because the spirit is that which these are not, the visitations are such, as those imaginations are not which come from these. And that [Page 243] this difference may the better be discerned, let let us beholde the true characters of a spiritu­all visitation, which the soule seeth when the husband of soules doth visit her.

A first marke and signe of his presence is light; a light not fitted for the eye but the soule, even a light spi­rituall, and shining spi­rit and truth into the soule and spirit. For the Lord is a spirit, and when hee comes into the soule, hee comes with abundance of that spirit which leadeth in­to [Page 244] all truth. Hee is the light of the world, even of the great world of mankinde, and there­fore when he comes in­to the little world of one man, how great is his light? And when this light shineth brightly, then the soule by it doth see spirituall things as truly and as­suredly, as the corpo­rall eye doth corporall things. For there is an agreement betweene a spirituall eye, and spi­rituall objects, as there is betweene the bodily eye, and bodily ob­ject. By this light, [Page 245] things formerly not knowne are seene and discovered, and spiri­tuall things knowne before onely by a car­nall, which is a false knowledge, are spiri­tually, and so truly dis­cerned; for the light is that which maketh manifest, and this light being spirituall maketh spirituall things so ma­nifest, that it gives a full assurance of under­standing, and makes us know that wee know thē. Even those things which before seemed fables and foolishnesse to the carnall eye, to [Page 246] this spirituall sight and light, appeare plainly to be deepe mysteries, and most wise truthes. Especially the great Bridegroom of soules, who to the Iewes is a stumbling blocke, and to the Grecians foo­lishnesse, to this light appeares clearely to be the wisedome of God,1 Cor. 1.23, 24. and the power of God. For the light begotten acknowledgeth the light begetting, and Christ is seene in the soule by his owne beames. Hee is seene there as a Head and Husbād to the Church, [Page 247] as a roote of life; as an All-sufficient Saviour, fit and able to restore a decayed and lost crea­tion, to disperse and treade downe a com­bined association of adversary and mighty spirits, and to unite and recapitulate the scatte­red members of a my­sticall body both in heaven and earth, each to other, and all to the Deity. Hee is beheld as the fairest of men, the soules well-belo­ved, an infuser of that blessed sap of spirituall life, by which the soule is purified here, and [Page 248] made capable of the beatificall vision in an eternall life hereafter. And as this derived light sheweth us the primitive light which begate it, and being spi­rituall, shewes us that Lord who is the spirit from whom it procee­ded, so doth it also dis­cover to us divers o­ther spirituall truthes, and is a kinde of Ora­cle that gives divine an­sweres and resoluti­ons.

Now that wee may certainely know this light to be a truth, and not an imagination, [Page 249] and withall to be truly spirituall and heaven­ly, and not carnall, earthly, much lesse in­fused by a counterfeit Angel of light; let us first observe that this light of the spirit doth agree with the light of the word: The same spirit of God which shineth now in our soules in these heaven­ly visitations, did first shine in the word; so that the light of the word, and the light in our soules are twinnes, and resemble each o­ther, and agree like bre­thren. If therefore there [Page 250] be this agreement, then there is this brother­hood, and if no agree­ment, then there is no brotherhood. There­fore to the law, to the testimony,Esay 8.20. if thy thoughts speake not ac­cording to this word, it is because there is no light in them: for in­deed if our thoughts be truly enlightened, wee shall finde some words in the word of God confirming them; yea many times this light within will call up some place of the word without for a witnesse to it, to confirm a truth [Page 251] which in that place was not formerly percei­ved. Such is the har­mony and power of harmony betweene the spirit and the word, that when you hit a spi­rituall truth in your soule, there will often come a sound, answer and eccho from some place in the word a­greeable to it. And as the word doth approve this light, so doth this light approve the word. It loves to looke on it, it seeth a heavenly wis­dome in it, yea it seeth secrets in it; yea many times it will in some [Page 252] short sentence, yea in some single word, find out a Mine of heavenly doctrine, and as at a little crany discover a world of divine truths. And so the light of the spirit doth approve it selfe, not onely by be­ing approved of the word, but by appro­ving, and improving it.

This is a sufficient tryall and touchstone of this heavenly light, though if neede were I might adde, the willing resignation of reason, even of the naturall light of the soule to the [Page 253] soveraignty of this di­vine and heavenly light. The understan­ding is not fettered and bound by a violent hand, but it yeelds it selfe up freely to bee subdued and captivated by a light that surpas­seth the light which it selfe hath. The reaso­nable light of man con­tinueth in man, even when this supernaturall light shineth; it knowes what other men know, and knowes what it selfe knew and thought before this light came to it; but this light being come, it yeelds [Page 254] willingly to it, and sur­renders both it selfe and the man whom it formerly guided. This homage of reason shewes a soveraignty in that spirituall light to which reason doth this homage. The go­ing out of the light of a candle, (not by quen­ching, but not-shining) acknowledgeth a grea­ter and more excellent light to be present. And indeede reason even with reason gives way, that a greater light should rather guide than a lesser; yea with reason it gives way, [Page 255] that it selfe being a les­ser light, should be in­creased and enlarged by a higher and grea­ter, that so it may dis­cerne higher and grea­ter things. And this in­crease it experimental­ly findes: for by this new and greater light, the soule sees the su­preme light which be­gate it, she sees him to be her soveraign good; shee sees the way to him, and is directed to union with him, and to the full fruition of him. And because shee sees these excellent things now, which shee saw [Page 256] not before, shee justly and wisely resignes her selfe to that light by which shee sees those excellent things which she saw not before, and to that sight by which she seeth in a more ex­cellent manner of see­ing.

A second Character and marke of a divine visitation, is ioy, even a ioy of a different kind and character from o­ther ioyes; For this ioy ariseth not originally from naturall princi­ples neither fastneth it selfe on naturall ob­iectes, but is supernatu­rall [Page 259] in the roote of it, and fixeth it selfe on supernaturall objects. It is no sanguine joy, neither made of humor and complection, for it ariseth often in the midst of sadnes within, and crosses without. The spiritual man ther­fore thus truely descri­beth the manner of thē, In the midst of the sor­rowes of my heart, Psal. 94.19 thy comforts have refreshed me. Even when the out­ward man decayeth, & dyeth away, the inward man reneweth and re­joyceth:2 Cor. 4.16 When the dis­ciples are talking doubtfully [Page 258] and are sorrow­full;Luk. 24.15.17. then Iesus appeares to them, and warmes their hearts, with an heavenly fire. When the wine of naturall joy is spent, and there is nothing left but the waters of affliction, thē doth Christ turne this water into wine. Thou hast turned (saith David) my mourning into danc­ing, thou hast put off my sackcloth, Psal. 30.11 and girded me with gladnes. There is a river that maketh glad the City of God, there is the new wine of the kingdome, that makes the heart merry; there is a heavenly oyle that maketh that face plea­sant [Page 259] and joyfull, which is the image of God; these flow forth from the throne in heaven, from the true vine, frō the right olive, and that it may appeare that they doe so, they are commonly sent into thirsty,Matth. 5.3, 4, 6. weary, mour­ning & almost despay­ring soules; that the ex­cellency of them may appeare to be of God and not of man: when the soule is parched with drynes, the sap of joy cannot naturally come out of drines; e­ven Moses himselfe saith,Numb. 20 10. Shall I fetch you water out of this rock? [Page 260] when there is no wine, and there appeares no­thing but water, even teares and sorrowes, it must bee a divine hand that turnes this water into wine. When the soule is oppressed with spirituall wants, and sees nothing but griefe within, and terrours without, it must be the worke of God to make this oyle to runne,2. King 4. un­till the vessels bee full. Therefore Saint Paul rightly infers,2 Cor. 8.12 that it is the right hand of the most High, even in an high degree, which maketh this chang. Yea [Page 261] there is in it more then a change, even a har­mony and agreement betweene contraries; Much affliction and joy in the Holy Ghost. 1. Thes. 1.6 And so Saint Peter, 1. pet. 1.6. Yee greatly rejoyce, though ye are in heavinesse: Wherefore since to the Saints there ariseth a light in the middest of darknesse,Psal. 112.4 could not make this light, but he only who is the light of the world and by whom first the light came to shine out of darknesse.2 Cor. 4.6.

And as this joy is divine and heavenly, flowing from a divine [Page 262] and heavenly fountain, so is it also divine and heavenly, because it fasteneth on divine and heavenly objects. Things that love are like: the naturall joy delights in naturall ob­jects, and a spirituall joy in spiritual objects. Accordingly while the naturall joy lookes out for corne and wine,Psal. 4. the spirituall joy lookes out for the counte­nance of God. God is a spirit, and he delights in spirit, because it is like him: and the joy of the spirit delights in God, yea delights in [Page 263] him most, because he is the supremest spirit, and consequently highest in this likenes. And be­cause the union of our spirits with this spirit is onely in Christ, with whom the soule be­comming one spirit hath union with the highest spirit, therefore the soule having found Christ, rejoyceth in him above all things, with a joy unspeakable and glorious. She re­joyceth so in him, that she will sell all naturall things,Phil. 3.8. to buy the spi­rituall happinesse that is to be found in him. [Page 264] And thus both by the absence, and by the contempt of naturall things, this joy may be knowne to be superna­turall. For as it doth not faint nor faile when naturall things are ab­sent, if Iesus be pre­sent, so doth it not fixe or feede on them being present, if Iesus also be present with them. Yea if the soule may feele Iesus to be more present, because they are more absent, she en­joyeth that absence,2 Cor. 12.9, 10. by which the presence of her beloved is more en­joyed. She delights in [Page 265] the tribulations,Rom. 5.3. whose abundance hath caused an abundance of conso­lations: shee so much loves Christ, that for his sake shee loves things that are to na­ture most hatefull, and rejoyceth in them. And thus while the soule re­joyceth in things con­trary to nature, for the love of things superna­turall, this joy cannot be naturall, and of the same kinde that those things are which it de­spiseth, but must needes be supernaturall,Rom. 8.5. and of the same kinde that those things are in [Page 266] which it especially de­lighteth.

Another property of these joyes, by which they prove themselves to be spirituall, is this, that they are nutrimen­tall to the very soule & spirit of man. They feede, they satisfie, and in their measure fill the soule, and give her an inward thriving, and increase. Bodily joyes are thicke and grosse, and by their grossenesse sticke behind in the bo­dy, and pierce not to the soule; and if any thing come to the soule from them, it is com­monly [Page] but filth, dregs, guilt, vexation or shame. Shee may bee more clouded by them, made more dull, ear­thy, and foule, by ma­teriality, or filth, cast upon her; but they enter not into the in­ward parts of the soule, to water the roote of her, and to give her true, kindly, and reall increase. As mudde is to the thirsty bodies, so are these to thirsty soules, they cannot drinke them in, nor quench their thirst with them: But the spi­rituall joyes enter in, [Page 268] and enlarge the very soule of man; they make her who is a spi­rit more spirituall, for shee opens her mouth wide to them, and then shee is filled with that spirituall and divine sappe, which accom­panieth them, and wherein they are foun­ded. And then as shee hath heard, so she hath seene and tasted,Prov. 17.22. that an heavenly joy is to the soule a restaurative medicine: and that when she enjoyeth her Saviour in the contem­plations and tastes of his love, then is she fil­led [Page 269] with marrow and fatnesse.Psal. 63.5.

But I hasten to a third Marke of spiritu­all visitations, and that is holinesse. For when Christ visiteth the soul, as he doth clarifie her with light, and ravish her with joy, so he doth beautifie her with ho­linesse. Externall joyes, and joyes of the body, have not this vertue, neither can they give it to the soule: but when Christ commeth into the soule by his spirit, the same spirit that doth enlighten and glad her, doth also hal­low [Page 270] her; yea as by the light she is directed to holinesse, so by the gladnesse shee is lifted up, encouraged, and actuated unto holines. In these accesses of Christ there are heights of union, and the in­creases of union bring with them increases of uniformity. The spirit of union is fire, and fire turnes that into it selfe to which it is united: and the fuller and clo­ser this union is, the more is this turning. So Christ Iesus, the more hee comes into a soule by his spirit, the more [Page 271] spirituall doth he make her; yea the more doth hee melt a soule into himselfe; the more doth hee turne her will into his will, and the more doth hee increase his owne image in her; and wee know that his i­mage is righteousnesse and true holinesse.Eph. 4.24. He brings with him those oyntments for which the Virgins love him, and those oyntments also make them more lovely. Hence are they inwardly more glori­ous, and hence out­wardly they smel more sweetly in their con­versations. [Page 272] The Kings daughter is all glorious within,Psal. 45. and her gar­ments smell of myrrhe, aloes, and cassia. In these touches of Christ if in any other,Mark 5.30 there comes forth vertue frō him: The spirit of the lover passeth into his beloved, and makes her of one heart and will with him, and this con­formity of the will with Christ is true ho­linesse.

The spirit by which Christ visiteth his spouse is an holy spirit and a spirit of power;Luke 1.35 and ac­cordingly when this [Page 273] spirit is shed into the soule,2 Tim. 1.7 there is power & holynes infused with him, and by him. And hēce it is that they who receaue the true oynt­ments of the spirit in true visitacions, they passe beyond a specula­tiue & discoursing ho­lynes even beyond a forme of godlines, and advance to the power of it, & to a fruitful ex­pression of this power.

Yea I may say, that hereunto the very loue of Christ constrayneth vs. For in these visita­cions, and by them, the loue of Christ is shed [Page 274] into our harts.Rom. 13.10. The spi­rit of power & holines, is the spirit of loue; and this loue giuen by the spirit may be called ho­linesse, for it is the ful­filling of the law. They that love Christ are certainely willing to please him,Ioh 14.21 and to keep his commandements; and they that have the spirit of love cannot but love him.

Yea they cannot but love him for the union they have with him, and the joyes of this union: And loving him they wil desire to bring forth fruite unto him,Rom. 7.4. [Page 275] and by him, even fruite that may be like him. The pleasure of love and union in outward marriage, is a kinde of hire of fruitfulnes: and in the spirituall marri­age, the joy of love and union is the hire of a fruitfull holinesse. Wherefore those that truly enjoy Christ in these spiritual accesses, both desire and obtaine this spirituall fruitful­nesse; for the spouse of Christ is most truly that vine,Psal. 128. which is fruitfull by the sides of the house, and whose children stand like o­live [Page 276] plants: yea in olde age is shee full of fruite.Psal 92.14

Wherefore if with light and joy, the soule doe feele, that the spi­rit of Christ, by spiri­tuall heate, power, and love, have wrought a powerfull, and fruitfull holinesse in her, let her know that Christ Iesus himselfe hath beene with her. Carnall and corporall things can­not doe this, evill An­gels neither can nor will doe it; good An­gels though they re­joyce to see it done, yet they doe it not, but that [Page 277] spirit alone both can doe it, & doth it, which is the power and right hand of God; & which onely writeth the lawes of God in the hearts and soules of men.Ezek. 11.19, 20. 2 Cor. 3.3. He it is alone that giveth the soule the new wine of the kingdome, wherewith the soule being once refreshed, shee rejoyceth as a gy­ant to runne the race of holinesse: It is the spi­rit of Christ alone that so anoynteth the soule, that shee runneth after Christ in the wayes of righteousnesse. And as it was said to this [Page 278] Head and Husband of the Church, Thou hast loved righteousnesse, and hated iniquity, therefore God even thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnesse above thy fellowes: Psal. 45. So it may bee also said to the Spouse, Thou hast lo­ved righteousnesse, and hated iniquity, there­fore God even thy God hath anoynted thee with the oyle of gladnes above all those that were thy fellowes by carnall generation. For there is no oyle of gladnesse, that hath with it the love of righ­teousnesse, [Page 279] but that wherewith Christ Iesus the Head was princi­pally anoynted, and which dropping from Christ the Head to the Members and Spouse of Christ, makes her to excell the rest in ver­tue and holinesse. And as there was not any such spice, as the Queen of Sheba brought unto Salomon, so there are no such oyntments of grace and gladnesse, as a greater than Salomon doth give to his Queen, when hee and shee are met in the heates of a spirituall conjunction, [Page 280] and the excesses of a fruitive union.

CAP. VIII. A Corollary of counsailes and directions, to those that are entred into the estate of this blessed Marriage.

LEt it be the maine endeavor of a soule married to Christ, to keepe her selfe still in that point wherein she may keepe him; and so keepe him, that she may still say, and feele what she sayes, My well-be­loved is mine, and I am [Page 281] my well-beloveds: To this end, let her still cast, and consider with her selfe, what those things are which hee most loves, and make her most lovely in his eyes: for the spirit of this lover, loves to be there where his love is. Therefore if there be any praise, any vertue, thinke on those things, and set them as pearles, and jewells about thy soule, to make her glo­rious and amiable in his sight. Let the face of the soule, even the image of the most ex­cellent Deity, shine [Page 282] brightly in his eyes, being anoynted with fresh oyle; and let her be lovely to him by those oyntments which make him lovely to her.

Let her often goe out of the body, yea out of the world by heavenly contemplations; and treading on the top of the earth with the bot­tome of her feet, stretch her selfe up, to looke over the world, into that upper world, where her treasure, her joy, her beloved dwel­leth. Let her stand in this watch-tower, and [Page 283] looke out for her lo­ver, as the watch-man looks out for the mor­ning; and then the day-spring from on high shall visite her. Turne thy face away from the enchantments of this world,Numb. 24 from dreames of earthly profit and preferment, and turne thy face to the wilder­nesse, even turne this world into a wilder­nesse, and a nothing be­fore thy face; and the spirit of God shall come upon thee, and thou shalt see the vision of the Almighty. And when this Sunne of the [Page 284] soule shineth upon her, let the eye of the soule, made cleare and pier­cing by faith, (like the eye of an Eagle) looke on the Sunne; for this Sunne looks on the eye that lookes on him, yea he loves the eye of a faith working unto love, and cries out that he is wounded by this one of her eyes.Cant. 4.9. It is his owne speech to the soule, Seeke my face con­tinually: and it is an an­swer which he loves to receive from the soule,Psal. 27.8. Thy face, O Lord, will I seeke. And thus behol­ding Christ Iesus with [Page 285] open face, thou shalt see, and feele things in­utterable; thou shalt al­so bee changed from beauty to beauty,2 Cor. 3.18 from glory to glory by the spirit of this Lord. The more the soule seeth, and is seene of him, the more lovely shall shee grow, and the more lovely she is, the more will hee delight to see and be seene of her.

Againe, if with that hearty lover, whose heart was according to the heart of his well-beloved, thou canst truly say,Psal. 25.15 Mine eyes are alwayes to the Lord; ha­ving [Page 286] procured his com­ming, thou shalt also stay him from going: Thy heart shall watch him, and keepe him, and holde him; for where he is so watched and held from going, he is willing to abide. The story is well knowne, that though hee seemed as though hee would have gone further,Luke 24.28, &c. yet when they constrained him, hee went in to tarry with them. And though he should after some tar­rying vanish out of sight, yet if our hearts be thinking and talking [Page 287] of him, hee will eft­soones stand in the midst of them, and bring his peace with him.

And that thou maist keep his love fresh, and fervent to thee, keepe thy owne love fresh and fervent to him. For love draweth love, and fervent love makes love fervent like it selfe. Love is like bur­ning coales, and bur­ning coales will kindle coales that are not bur­ning. Therefore kindle thy love, and make it to flame, by thinking on his beauty, on his [Page 288] sweetnes, on his good­nes. Kindle it by re­newing the olde tastes of him, which thou hast formerly tasted. Kindle thy love, by re­viving the images of loves past: put thy selfe into the same thoughts wherein thou wast, when thou didst enjoy him. And so if thy minde be fitted, and put into a state of en­joying, it is likely that hee will come into a minde so fitted, and thou shalt enjoy him. And if hee come not yet into thee, stirre up thy spirituall concupis­cence, [Page 289] and therewith let the soule lust migh­tily for him, and let her lusts and desires ascend up to him in strong cryes and invocations,Luk. 11.13 & then by his spirit he will descend unto thee.

Be carefull that there be a perpetuall consent of thy will unto his will, and a perpetuall issuing of thoughts and actions from this con­sent and conformity. In the house of this hus­band there must be but one will, and that is the husbands. The wifes will must be melted in­to the will of the hus­band, [Page 290] and her will must not live, but her hus­bands will must live in her. And then this hus­band will delight to be much at home, where he may be Master; and he will delight often to give the unity of frui­tion, where there is an unity of will and affe­ction: but where the wifes will doth crosse the will of the hus­band, there is he wea­ried away, and that house is to him as a place of continuall dropping, offensive, and indeed unfit to en­tertaine that Lord who [Page 291] is the King of glory. A King loves to be in his Kingdome where he commandeth and is obeyed; and therefore if thou wilt have this King to visit and dwell with thee, let him com­mand and reigne in thee: for he hath told thee himselfe, If any man love mee, and keepe my commandements, Ioh. 14.21 I will love him, and will appeare plainly to him.

Wherefore if the soule desire to please her selfe by the fruition of his presence, let her especially and mainely strive to please him: [Page 292] for by pleasing him, she shal be pleased by him, whose pleasure is infi­nitely greater than that which ariseth out of her pleasing of her selfe. Let her give a­way her owne will for his will, and in so do­ing shee shall be a dou­ble gainer: for she chan­geth a worse will for a better, and withall gaines him whose the better will is, and who is infinitely better than her selfe. Wherefore strive to please him, and to give him his will, yea strive to give it much and main­ly; [Page 293] for the more thou givest it, the more thou receivest into thee a most excellent will, and a most excellent hus­band. Thus shalt thou please thy selfe most, by pleasing him, and not thy selfe. What husband is there, who seeing his wife to neg­lect her selfe for him, but hee will love and cherish that wife the more, the more shee neglects her selfe for him? And then by how much his love and cherishing is more ad­vantageable and plea­sing than her owne, so [Page 294] much is her gaine ad­vanced, by loving and pleasing him more than her selfe.

And because there is some beauty and good in the creature, (though indeed subject to vani­ty, and blasted with a curse) and there is a law of the members reign­ing in the worst, and not wholly rooted out of the best, which loves to looke on the crea­ture, and by looking lusts after it; let the soule married to Christ be very wary how she turnes her eye, and fixeth it on the crea­ture. [Page 295] For if her eye goe much after it, and fettle long upon it, her love is likely to come after her eye. She may looke on it, and be­hold the goodnesse of it, but in beholding the goodnesse of it, shee must againe look from it, to that transcendent, originall, and infinite goodnesse of her hus­band, of whom this goodnesse was bor­rowed. For by him all things were made, Iohn 1.3. that were made. Againe, she may looke on it to see the vanity of it, that by seeing the vanity of it, [Page 296] shee may looke from it to her Lord and Hus­band, in whom is sta­bility, and perpetuall felicity. And yet againe she may looke on it, to see the curse that is cast upon it, and in the ter­riblenesse of that curse, shee may see the hor­rour of sinne, that loo­king from it againe to her Lord and Saviour, she may see the excel­lency of his love, and inestimable value of his person, who hath taken away the curse, and the sinne from his beloved Spouse, and gives her a blessed use of the crea­ture, [Page 297] and full blessed­nesse in the eternall fruition of the Crea­tour. Thus looking to the creature, by loo­king to it, shee lookes from it, she rests not in it, but passeth by it to her only true rest. And indeed by these and the like removals the soule should ever bee kept loose from the world. For as when we would not have things to glue and fasten, we doe of­ten touch, and turne, and moove them; so the soule being apt to glue and fasten to the world, wee must by [Page 298] these and the like me­ditations often touch and remove her, that so she may be kept conti­nually loose from it.

But because the cy­ment which joynes the soule to the world is the flesh, and she must adul­terate first with this old husband, before she can prostitute her selfe to the world; let the soule take especiall care to watch and resist the ap­proaches of this fly, but deadly enemy, that commeth in the shape of a lover. This is he whom the true hus­band, whose name is [Page 299] jealous doth perfectly hate,Exod. 34.14. Gal 5.17. for there is a per­fect contrariety be­tweene them. There­fore so much as thou admittest the flesh, so much thou expellest thy Lord and Saviour. But so much as thou banishest the flesh, so much roome doest thou make for Christ to come into thee by his spirit. Therefore bee thou so farre from loo­sing thy husband, for this old adulterer, that thou gaine him the more, by expelling and killing the other. The flesh is good for no­thing [Page 300] but to be slaine, and therein there is this gaine, that the more he dyeth, the more thy love and life loveth thee, and liveth in thee. Therefore whereas the flesh would make it thy pleasure to live af­ter the flesh, doe thou make it thy pleasure to kill the flesh: let the hunting, pursuing, and killing of the lusts of the flesh be thy pastime and pleasure, even the hunting and destroying of these foxes,Gant. 2.18 that would destroy thy vineyard. And then will the Lord of the [Page 301] vineyard get up early to his vineyard, the vine shall flourish, and the tender grape ap­peare, and there shall he give thee his loves.Cant. 7.12

But if through thy owne remisnesse, or the fleshes importunity, the soule by concupiscence hath conceived sinne, make haste to the foun­taines set open for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash, Zach. 13.1 and to be cleane. Wash thy selfe in teares and bloud;Psal. 51.7. the spirit of pe­nitence, contrition, and conversion wash­eth white,Rev. 7.14. Esay 1.16, 1. & the bloud of the Lambe washeth [Page 302] whiter than snow. And by the cleansing spirit is given to thee the cleansing bloud. That false husband whom thou hast pleased, hee hath defiled thee, and thy true husband whō thou hast offended, he it is that must wash thee; therefore hee came by water and bloud, to wash thy guilt with his bloud, and thy filth by his spirit; that thus being washed thou maist be without spot and ble­mish, and againe love­ly in his eyes, and ac­ceptable in the eyes of [Page 303] his Father. And being thus made faire by his washing, he will yet a­gaine embrace thee, and put thy evill out of his remembrance, by his owne overcom­ming goodnesse. But then let his goodnesse overcomming thy e­vill, teach thee to over­come thy owne evill with goodnesse. Hate and resist all sinne, and especially that sinne by which thou hast most offended so loving a husband; and hate and resist that false husband who tempted thee to this sin. Love thy true [Page 304] husband the more, the more thou hast offen­ded him, and the more he hath forgiven thee.Luke 7.47 And the more thou lo­vest him, the more strive not to offend him. And if thus after thy sinne, thou art the farther from sinne, more faire in holinesse, and fuller of love to thy heavenly husband, thou shalt heare from his mouth the voice of ioy and gladnesse,Psal. 51.8. and shalt feele from his mouth a kisse of peace in thy soule. And this spirituall kisse shall drop a spirituall oynt­ment, [Page 305] the very pledge and seale of pardon and peace;Rom. 5.1. 5.11. even a testimo­ny of his spirit spea­king to thy spirit,Hebr. 10. 19,22. Thy sinnes are forgiven thee.

And having regai­ned him, make thy selfe more one with him, and increase thy com­munion with him. Touch him hard with thy faith, sucke him strongly with thy love, that more vertue may come out of him, to cure that issue of sinne yet abiding in the rem­nant of the flesh, and to make thee more one and uniforme with him. [Page 306] For as a bough, the more hee suckes from the tree, the larger is his union with the tree, and the more is his likenesse to the tree, so the more a soule draws from Christ, the more is she one with him, and the more is shee like him. And againe, the more shee is like him, the more will hee de­light to bee one with her; and thus shall she goe on in an endlesse circle of happines. The highest and happiest, and sweetest harmony is, when the soule is in an unizon with her Sa­viour [Page 307] and husband: e­very touch and sound of the soule thus tuned to Christ Iesus, resoun­deth in him, toucheth and moveth him. And as with the sound of outward musicke the spirit of God came up­on the Prophet;2 King. 3.15. so with the sound of this in­ward musicke (be it in holy contemplations, ardencies, desires, in­vocations, resolutions) the spirit of Christ Ie­sus commeth more po­werfully and plentiful­ly into the soule. And when hee comes, doe thou draw from him [Page 308] that spirituall sappe and nourishment,Eph. 4.15, 16. by which thou maist grow up to the stature appointed thee. By the supply of this head grow up to this head in a due pro­portion, even to the fulnesse of that part which thou holdest in his body. And let not the head be the head of a man, yea of the fai­rest and goodliest of men, and thou a star­ved, dwarfish, crooked or mishapen hand or foote, but both in mea­sure and shape strive to be a member propor­tionable to so comely an Head.

[Page 309]And that thou maist thus grow, let not swel­ling, but growth be the end of thy sucking. De­sire the sincere milke, 1 Pet. 2. and hony and wine of the Deity, that thou mayst growe thereby, in solide substance, not in frothy and puffy imaginations. Growe thou in the reall excellence of a divine Nature, and not in the empty swellings of a fleshly pride. For the flesh hath sometimes a desire of spirituall ex­cellencyes, but it is for a fleshly end, even to puffe it selfe up by thē. But seeke not these [Page 310] pearls, to cast it to these Swine, nor this Bread of heaven to give it to such dogs. Rather buf­fet this flesh and beate it downe, lest a messenger of Satan be sent to buf­fet thee for not buffet­ing it, and so when thou lookest for a good spi­rit to exalt thee, an evill spirit be sent to beate & humble thee. Christ comes into thee, not to feede, but to kill the flesh; wherefore thy end and his are contra­ry, if thou desire his cō ­ing to feede that, which he comes to kill. If then thou wouldest have [Page 311] him come indeede into thee, joyne with him in the proposall of one & the same end; even the exaltation of the Spirit, and the death of the flesh: allowe not fleshly swelling to bee an end: no not a subsequent, of thy meeting with Christ; but kill it, if after this meeting it arise in thee. The flesh hath no part nor portion in this ser­vice; but to bee slaine by it: therefore let not this left hand of the flesh, know, what the right hand of the spirit doth in thee: but be thou wholly spirituall, in a spiri­tuall, [Page 312] in a spirituall bu­sines, and by it growe more spirituall, and, not more, but, lesse carnall.

Againe, desire not these sweetnesses of spi­rituall vnion, onely be­cause they are sweete; for in this the flesh also may have his part, both in desire and fruition. Be not like the children of Israell, Num. 11.4 in the wilder­nes, who desired meate for their lusts: for of such a desire there is an il beginning, & an il end may be expected, since lust is both the begin­ning and end of it. But blessed is the land, Eccl. 10 17 when [Page 313] her Princes eate for strength, and not for riot; & blessed is the Church when her Nobles eate this spirituall foode for spirituall strength, and not for lust and luxury. It is a kinde of luxury to make taste, and not strength the maine end of eating: but let the sweetnesse of the taste bee used as an encou­ragement unto eating for strength. Out of the strong one comes this sweetnesse, that by this sweetnesse thou maist be made parta­ker of his strength. Wherfore having foūd [Page 314] this honey, eate with Ionathan, that thou maist be strengthened in services to be done, and against enemies to be resisted. Eate that thou maist strengthen thy faith, and that the eyes of the inner man being enlightened, thou maist the more clearely discerne the riches of glory given to thee in Christ Iesus. Streng­then thy faith also, that thou maist more fully, and closely cleave unto him with thy will, whom thou hast seene with thy understanding to bee the treasure of [Page 315] perfect felicity. Yea let not thy faith leave growing from strength to strength, untill it bring thee beyond faith unto vision. Eate that thou maist strengthen thy hope, and that thou maist hope the more perfectly to receive the full fruition of that sweetnesse, and blessed­nesse, whereof here by this eating thou hast re­ceived the foretastes and pledges. Eate that thou maist strengthen thy love, and that thou maist love him with a love above all loves, whom thou hast seene [Page 316] and tasted to be fairer and sweeter than all that can be loved. And by strengthening thy love to him, strengthen also thy love to his will, and to his law the copie of his will. The sweetnesse which thou tastest, must needes love the law, for they are twinnes; this sweetnes being shed into our soules, and the law writ­ten in our hearts by one and the same spirit. And as the sweetnesse brings with it a love of the law, making it sweete to us,Psal. 19.10 (even sweeter than hony, and [Page 317] the hony combe,) so doth the law leade us to the fulnes and fountain of this sweetnesse.Gal. 6.16. Rev. 22.14 Be thou also strengthened by this sweetnes, more strongly to resist the e­nemies of thy soule, and of thy Lord and Saviour. Let the sweet­nesse of the spirit turne the sweetnesse of the flesh into bitternesse, and the sweetnesse of the world into con­tempt: and let it make thee to spit out against the taste of all tentati­ons, which the evill spirit shall offer thee: for how sweete soever [Page 318] the same tentations may now seeme in thy mouth, they shall at last be turned into an everlasting bitternesse and gnashing of teeth. But the sweetnesse of thy husband groweth like a river, untill it come and bring thee to a boundlesse Ocean of perpetuall sweetnesse. Briefly, let this sweet­nesse now tasted by thee, fill thy heart and soule, and life with sweetnes. Let thy gar­ments smell of myrrhe,Psal. 45. cassia, and frankincense; let thy conversation yeeld forth the sweete [Page 319] fruites of righteousnes, sweet figges, and sweet grapes,Iudg. 9.11. that cheare God and man. Having re­ceived sweetnesse from Christ, sweeten others also; and being streng­thened by this sweet­nesse strengthen thy brethren.

Be not discouraged, if he come not so often to thee, nor stay so long with thee as thou desirest. The baites of a traveller are short, and his journey long. The meales of Elijah were but two,1 King. 19 but his jour­ney was forty dayes. This kinde of foode [Page 320] hath in it an eternall nourishment, and ther­fore it may strengthen long, though but short­ly taken. Besides, if thou hadst this meate so long and so fully as thou desirest, it may be thou wouldest not so long and so fully desire and love it, as now thou doest. There is a loathing upon fulnesse, and a restivenesse upon spirituall fatnesse, as upon the bodily. Ther­fore Iesburun being fat,Deu. 32.25 kicketh against him that made her fat, and Israel being fully and daily fed with Manna, [Page 321] falls to loathing it. But thy husband, who is wisedome in perfecti­on, and knowes thee better than thou know­est thy selfe, prevents this dangerous fulnesse and fatnesse, and carries his kindnesse in so tem­perate a moderation, betweene glutting and starving, that the soule be neither too fat nor too leane. And indeede as shee is then most comely in the eye of her husband, so is she then most healthy, a­ctive, and fit for the ser­vices of her husband. Wherefore let her bee [Page 322] content with these turnes of comming and going, with short meales, and long jour­neyes. If the meales be sufficient to bring us to our journeyes end, even to Gods holy Moun­taine, we may well be contented. For these journeyes and labours that here seeme to be long in regard of the rests that come be­tweene them, shall bring us at last to an e­ternall rest which hath no interposition of la­bours. And then it shall be no sorrow of heart to us, that through [Page 323] short rests, and long la­bours we have arrived to that state of happi­nes, which hath in it no labour, but is all, rest.

Againe bee not dis­couraged, if hee come not still when thou thinkest that thou hast prepared thy soule, and made the bed of loue for him. Thou mayest perchance bee short of that fitnes which thou thinkest, for he is a God of pure eyes,1 Cor. 4.4. and thou euen when thou know­est nothing by thy selfe art not free from Impu­rity. Hee will haue thee yet more fitted for his [Page 324] comming, by a narrow­er search of thy owne blemishes and vnfitnes; yea hee will haue thee fitter for his comming, by being composed and decent without his com­ming. He will haue thee fitted and trimmed by faith, as wel as by love, and teach thee to be­leeve his love, when thou feelest it not, as well as when thou fee­lest it. And indeed that is most like faith, which beleeves what it feeles not, but how canst thou shew this vertue, if still thou hast feeling? Hee expects perchance that [Page 325] the old stocke of assu­rances in visitations and sensible aproches shold have lasted longer with thee, and thou shouldst not so soone have neede of new tokens of love on his part, and new feelings on thine owne. The former tastes and tokens of his love, shold have longer told thee, that he still loves thee, though thou doe not still receive tokens from him and tastes of his love. True it is that he seldome failes to meete a soule, duely trimmed and prepared for him. Neverthelesse he is still [Page 326] free, and perchance will have it somtimes to ap­peare so. And if he doe thus at somtimes when we are prepared, then at other times, hee comes being unexpected; and so by a compensation gives us that which we asked, though onely with a difference of time. And indeede his dispensations are wiser then our desires, and it is fittest that times and seasons should be in his hands and not ours, e­specially for his owne gifts. For we indeed do not all waies open our mouthes in due season, [Page 327] but hee alwaies openeth his hand,Psal. 145. 15. and filleth vs with his blessings in due season: and accordingly though the spouse som­times seeke him & find him not, yet another time hee is found of her that seekes him not; for when she is sleeping, he comes knocking; and saith, Open to me, my sis­ter, Cant. 5.2. my loue, my doue, my vndefiled. Wherefore let vs looke mainely to our owne part; to haue our lampes trimmed with faith, and loue; and let vs trust him with his owne part; the choise of the times and seasons of [Page 328] his comming.

Yea againe and a­gaine, be not discour­aged, though hitherto thou hast not felt the spiritual kisses of Christ Iesus, the extasyes of his wine, nor the rauish­ments of his vnion. It may be the houre of thy Lord & Sauiour is not yet come, nor the day wherein hee shall say,Luk. 23.43. This day shalt thou bee with me in Paradise. This day was the last day to him, to whom it was first said, and it may be one of thy latter dayes wherin it shall bee said to thee, this day will I [Page 329] be with thee, and make a Paradise within thee. Yet let not these dayes be late dayes, much lesse last dayes by thy delayes, howsoever late they may be his dispen­sations. Remember him in thy youth,Eccl. 12.1, and first dayes, and be thou as a servant ever ready and hearkening when his Lord will come and knocke,Rev. 3.20. that when he knockes, thou maist o­pen, and he may come in and dwell with thee for ever. It is just that the giver should chuse his owne time for his owne gifts; and it is just [Page 330] that if thou refuse his time, he should refuse thine; and then will he be like one that turnes aside to the flockes of thy companions.

And yet lesse let those be discouraged, who have small, and but small tastes of these spirituall joyes. Hee that made us knowes our frame, and what is the fittest proportion both for our age, and measure. There are babes in Christ, and we seldome give wine to children, because it is too high for them.Mark 4.33 Christ gave his do­ctrine [Page 331] so as they were able to heare it, and so gives he the joy of his spirit, as we are able to beare it. As by the strength of the same spirit the joy may be converted into into spi­tuall advantage, and not perverted by the flesh into carnall vo­luptousnesse, security, or swelling: the soule must be faithfull in lit­tle, before shee bee an owner of much; and therefore there is com­monly some time of tryall and acquaintance between Christ and the soule, before he will [Page 332] trust her with great fa­miliarity, and give her the great and high de­grees of his hidden joyes.

Besides, it must be knowne and conside­red, that Christ Iesus hath some parts, whose measure even at their full growth is so small, as the infancy of other parts. A finger in his full growth is not so bigge as the legge of an infant. And such little parts may have lesse feeling of these joyes, because of their little­nesse: and yet they may be as lively as the [Page 333] greater, for a finger li­veth as well as an arme. And indeed let such es­pecially look that their life be sound in them, & that shall they know by the actions of life. If faith and love bee active in them, then are they lively and living. For it is no other but the life of Christ in them which makes faith and love to bee lively and operative in them;Gal. 2.20. & 5.6. 1 Ioh. 3.14 and then let them not feare, for they are passed from death to life. On these fruites therefore let them es­pecially looke, for [Page 334] though they have not here many sweetnesses and joyes, yet if they have many fruites of faith and love, they shall hereafter have a greater measure of joys in heaven, than those who have had here greater joies than they, and have not improved them (as they should have done) to a fruit­fulnesse greater than theirs whose joyes were lesser.

Yet farther if this matter be duely weigh­ed, we shall see in Gods dispensations a greate wisdome and equity for [Page 335] commonly those that haue the greatest conso­lations, haue also the greatest tribulations. And the one are so bal­lanced with the other, that the soule is kept in an evennesse, the tribu­lations not making her to sinke, by reason of the counterpoising con­solations, nor the con­solations over much weighing her downe into pride, (for pride though seeming to look upward is an infernall thing) because of the counterballancing tri­bulations. Wherefore if thou envie another [Page 336] mans consolations, why doest thou not al­so envie his tribulati­ons? If thou wish to be rapt with Paul into the third heaven,1 Cor: 4.11 & 2 Cor. 11.23. wish also to be in labours of­ten, in watchings often, in perills by sea, in pe­rills by land, and under that loade of sufferings which he fulfilled for Christ. But withall take heede what thou wishest, lest thy owne wishes being granted doe sinke thee. If thou know not thine owne strength, God knowes it, and what thy vessell is able to beare both [Page 337] of the one and other. And be thou conten­ted, if with lesse tribu­lations he give thee lesse consolations, this lesser measure of both being fitted for a lesser ves­sell, and yet the same proportion betweene both, in the lesser that is in the greater.

CAP. IX. A Song of Loves.

THou hast touched my soule with thy spirit, O most be­loved, and vertue is gone out of thee into [Page 338] me, and draweth me to thee. Thy spirit is a loadstone of love, and where it toucheth spi­rits, it leaveth love, and this love makes a soule to move to her belo­ved, that touched her. So by thee doth she run after thee, O thou foun­taine and rest of loves: thy oyntments draw her to the anoynter, her loves begin and end in thee. O let my soule ever runne this circle of love; let her ever be tasting of thy loves, and ever love thee by tasting them. Let the savour of thy oynt­ments, [Page 339] whose very breath is love, be ever in her nostrills, that she may ever love thee for that savour, and by it. Give me the flagons of the new wine of the kingdome, which may lift up my soule above her selfe in her loves, and give her better loves than her owne, where with to love him that is farre better than her selfe. Yea let her drinke plentifully, that she may be mounted up in a divine extasie a­bove her carnall and earthy station; that she may forget the low and [Page 340] base griefes, and cares, and distractions, of car­nall and worldly love, and by an heavenly ex­cesse be transported in­to an heavenly love, to embrace her beloved, who is the Lord from heaven, with a love that is like him.

O my beloved, thou art most lovely; even when I love thee not, yet then art thou most lovely: and when my soule covered with flesh sees not thy beau­ty, yet then art thou most beautifull, and most worthy to be be­loved. But then thy [Page 341] lovelinesse is lost to me, because love loves not, what it sees not. Therefore ever anoynt mine eyes with thine eye-salve, that my soule may ever see thy lovelinesse, and seeing it to be most lovely, love it with her best loves, and despise a world of beauties in comparison of thine, and a world of loves in comparison of those loves wherewith shee loveth thee.

Let my love rest in nothing short of thee, neither let it be content meerely to rest in thee, [Page 342] but kindle it, enflame it, enlarge it, that it may rest largely in thee. En­large the crany which thy spirit hath bored through the flesh into my spirit, that I may largely see thee, and so largely love thee. En­large the arteries and conduit pipes by which thou the head and foun­taine of loves, flowest into thy members, that being abundantly quic­kened and watered with the spirit of love, I may abundantly love thee. And doe not onely come much, but often into me, and let my spi­rit [Page 343] often be one spirit with thee in communi­cative and fruitive uni­ons. For such often uni­ons with thy spirit will make my spirit more spirituall; and the more spirituall shee is, the more will she love him who is a spirit.

Againe, the more spi­rituall she is, the more will he who is a spirit love her; and the more he loves her, the more will he visit her with his spirit; and the more he visits her, the more lovely, and beloved shall she be. Wherefore by often visitations, put [Page 344] thy owne image and beauty more and more on my soule, and then love thy owne beauty in my soule, and my soule for thy owne beauty, which thou hast put on her, and let my soule love thee infinite­ly for being infinitely more beautifull, than that beauty which thou hast put on my soule, and therefore infinitely more lovely than that which thou lovest in my soule. Wilt thou, my Lord, love the i­mage, and shall not the image much more love the patterne? O thou [Page 345] most lovely, my love to thee should be farre greater, than thy love to me, because my ob­ject of love in thee, is infinitely greater than thine in me. But I be­ing a poore and nar­row creature, have not love enough to love thee sufficiently, an in­finite Creatour; and indeed there is no love but thy owne sufficient to love thee, whose love onely is equall to thy lovelinesse. Thy being is lovelinesse it selfe, and thy being is love it selfe, for God is love. Come therefore [Page 346] into me, O thou that art love, and love thy selfe in me. Come into me, and by thy owne most excellent love, fitly love thy owne most excellent lovelinesse. And while thou lovest thy selfe in my soule, let my soule according to her measure, taste and see, and love that love. Let her with all her might (though that might be far too weake for this worke) consent and approve that love of thine, and on the torrent of thy love, let her most active, stron­gest, and largest affecti­ons [Page 347] swimme to thee, O thou Ocean and un­bounded fulnesse both of lovelines and love. And thus though shee cannot make her owne love sufficient to love thee, yet let her make thy all-sufficient love her owne by receiving some of it into her, ac­cording to her capaci­ty; by assenting to it, by approving & mag­nifying it, and by a de­sire to resemble it, as much as a poore, mea­sured creature, may re­semble that which is unmeasurable. It is thy owne word, O thou lover of soules, that [Page 348] where there is a willing minde, thou acceptest that which a soule hath, and not that which she hath not.

But Lord, though that love which I have, attaine not to that mea­sure which is unmeasu­rable, yet Lord let it be a full measure which thou pourest into me, and let there bee no­thing void in my heart, and unfilled with thy love. Yea let thy spirit of love come so fully into my soule, that it stretch and enlarge her measure, and make her to grow from the mea­sure in which she is, un­to [Page 349] the measure in which shee should be; even to that stature which is appointed her in thy body. And thus by fulnesse in a lesse measure, let her grow to a fulnesse in a grea­ter measure, growing still in measure, and growing still in that which filleth her mea­sure. Yea let the mea­sure sometimes be not onely full, but running over; even running o­ver to a spirituall drun­kennesse, but not unto drowning, for these ex­tasies and excesses of love, shall somewhat advance my ability of [Page 350] loving thee. For when my understanding, will and affections are all o­verflowne, overcome, and amazed, then shall my wonder gaze on thee, and my very faintings shall be enfla­med toward thee, and melt me into thee.

Neyther doth my soule desire the pleasure of this loue, and Ioyes of thy vnion meerly for pleasure: But I desire that the ioy and sap of thy spirit powred into mine, when they two are one spirit may be gene­ratiue and fruitfull. Far be it from my soule to loue thee like an harlot, [Page 351] and not like a wife; let mee desire vnion with thee because I love thee; and because I love thee let mee desire to bring forth fruite vnto thee. Yea I will not cease to cry vnto thee, Give mee children or else I die. Gen. 30. For thou canst not reply vn­to mee; Am I in Gods stead to give the fruit of the wombe. For verily thou art that God who giveth the fruite of the wombe, both spirituall and corporall. Give me therefore children by this vnion with thee e­uen fruites of thy spirit which may resemble thee,Rom. 7.4. and be pledges to [Page 352] me of thy vnion with me. And when I have brought them forth let me give the praise vnto thee;Ioh. 15.5. psal. 113.9 For thou onely makest the barren to beare; and to be a fruit­full mother of children.

And when thou hast made mee fruitfull by coming to mee, come more often to mee be cause thou hast made mee fruitfull. It was the voice of a naturall wife long agoe:Gen: 30.20 Now will my husband dwell with me be­cause I have borne him six sons. Let it be said now also by a spiritual wife, Now will my husband dwell with me,Ioh: 14.23 because [Page 353] his dwelling with mee hath made me fruitfull. Make my soule a fruit­full paradise bearing e­very good fruit of love, divine and humane, and then come often into thy garden, to behold, & gather the fruits of it.Cant: 4.16

And that I may bring forth fruites wholly thine, and not anothers beside thee, burne and consume whatsoeuer would grow one with my soule besides thee. Thou art a burning and consuming fire, and the spirit by which thou art one with my spirit, bap­tizeth with fire; O let the fire of thy spirit, so [Page 354] wholly turne my soule into spirituall fire, that the drosse of the flesh & the world being whol­ly consumed, shee may be onely spirituall, and so bring forth fruites onely to thy spirit.

Thus, and thus saith my soule to her belo­ved, but when she saith thus, her beloved is not farre from her, for by him she speakes to him: when he is neare, his oyntments yeeld their savour, and the savour of his ointments draweth soules to run after him. There hath beene of late a fruitive union, and such fruitive [Page 355] unions doe individuate, and enflame the love of the soule to him, whom she hath enjoied in that union.

But alas the husband of the soule is some­times like that husband which is not at home, Prov. 7.19 but is gone a long journey. He is gone so farre from me, as if hee were not mine, yea so far some­times, as if he were not at all. The summer is gone from my soule, and the winter is come; and the true olive so draweth in his fatnesse, that my soule though a branch, yet doubteth whether there bee a [Page 356] root that beareth her. The ointments of light and love, are not seene or felt, and how can she love the lovelinesse that she sees not, and if she saw it, how can she love it without love? In such a darknesse, the greatest lovelinesse af­fects not the eye, and in such a deadnesse there is no love wherewith to love the greatest lovelinesse. The soule doth not now taste how sweete her Lord is, and therefore his sweetnesse is to her as a thing forgotten, or a thing mistaken, or at best, as a thing which [Page 357] was, and is not, and will be no more. The often unions that are passed, are wholly past, and the very images and representations of them, are neare whol­ly vanished. And now my soule that will ever bee a lover of some­thing, and a seeker of good in one object or other, being left to the flesh by the enchant­ment of the flesh, run­neth to the creature to seeke good in it. For as the spirit runneth to Christ, so doth the flesh to the creature. But alas the dove of Christ thus flowne from the Arke [Page 358] in her thoughts and af­fections, findeth no rest; for shee is gone from her rest, and how can she finde rest, by going from rest? Put forth thy hand, O thou lover of soules, and take her in unto thee, yea first make her to returne to thee, by fin­ding her when she seeks thee. Seeke her, O Sa­viour,Psal. 119. 176 when she goes astray from thee like a lost sheepe; for even when shee thus goes a­stray, she hath not ut­terly forgotten thee, thy loves, nor thy lawes. One looke of thine will awake her [Page 359] love, and make her weepe bitterly,Luke 22.61,62. that she loved thee so little, whom to love suffici­ently, her best and mightiest loves are most insufficient. Pre­vent her seeking with thy seeking, and be thou present with her in thy providence,1 Cor. 10. 13. and preserving power,1 Pet. 1.5, 6. even when thou seemest to be farre off, in the tasts of thy sweetnesse, and fruition of thy loves. Love her, even when thou doest not give her thy loves; yea love her by not-giving them. Doe her good even by the subtraction of thy [Page 360] goodnesse; shew her that her safety is not in her owne hands, shew her that her goodnesse is not her owne, shew her that she is nothing in her selfe but that which is worse than nothing; and that thou, and thy grace make her wholly to be that which she is. Then shall she be more humble by seeing her owne vile­nes in thy absence, and thou shalt bee more lovely and precious to her, whose presence gives her all her worth and excellence. VVhen she hath regained thee, she will hold thee more [Page 361] hardly, and keepe thee more fastly, and love thee more vehemently. Shee will value thy loves above treasures; yet she will love thee more than thy loves, and she will provide a stocke of loves in the summer, against the winters, if they per­chāce shal return again.

For in these loves shee will behold the pledges of a love eter­nall; in these joyes of thy presence, she will behold the earnests of eternall joyes in an e­ternall presence; and for the sure hope of these eternall joyes, she [Page 362] will patiently endure the sorrowes of these temporall absences. Yet let these temporall ab­sences be as thornes in the sides of my soule to stirre her up to the desire of that eternall presence. And be not lacking overlong, O thou life, and love, and guide of my soule, but ever and anon visit her with thy presence, stay her with thy flagons,Gant. 2.5. comfort her with ap­ples, for she is sicke of love, when shee wan­teth her beloved. Whē thou wast here on earth,Mat. 15.32 thou hadst com­passion on the multi­tude, [Page 363] that had nothing to eate, and wouldest not send them away fasting, lest they should faint by the way. O sweete Saviour, thou art no lesse mercifull in heaven than thou wert on earth,Heb. 4.15, 16. and an hun­gry soule is a fitter ob­ject of mercy, than an hungry body; and my hungry soule hath a farther way to goe than their bodies, for shee must goe from earth unto heaven. O refresh her, and that right soone with thy mer­cies, with the joyes of thy presence, with the bread of heaven, and [Page 364] water of life which thy spirit plentifully giveth to my spirit, when thou commest unto her. Be thou her guide even to the life which is beyond death, and grant that through these changes of tem­porall presences, and absences, she may runne in one even, and un­changed path of love and holinesse, untill she come unto that eternall presence, where is the fulnesse of joy without ebbes, and perpetuity of joy without inter­ruptions. There shall shee see her beloved clearely and plainely, [Page 365] even face to face; and there shall shee enjoy her beloved so fully, as she seeth him clearely; yea she shall enjoy him, with all her might of enjoying. Her being shall be the measure of her enjoying; for as much as she is, so much shall shee enjoy: shee shall be in a perpetuall union with her belo­ved, and in a perpetuall fruition by union; and so in a perpetuall rack, extent and vttermost of joy. The fountaine of joy shall flow continu­ally into the mouth of the soule; the new wine of the kingdome shall [Page 366] still overcome her, and set her up in a continu­all trance, and extasie of joy. Her life shall be rejoycing, and her life shall be eternall, and so shall be her rejoycing. Her life shall be love, and this love shall give an overcōming sweet­nesse to the enjoying of him whom she loveth, and the sweetnesse of her enjoying shall en­flame her love to him, by whom she enjoyes this sweetnes; and thus shal she run an everlast­ing course between the pleasure of love, & the sweetnesse of enjoying.

Therefore thus saith [Page 367] my soule to her belov­ed; Come away my be­loved; and be as a Roe on the tops of the mountaines. My life is hid with thee my love; Appeare quickly thou which art my life, that I may quickly appeare with thee in the glorie, and happines of a con­summate mariage. Make mee faire with thy spi­rit, and put the golden vesture and the needle­worke of thy manifold graces vpon mee, and bring me speedily into the presence of the great King. Let the day of gladnes quick­ly come wherein both [Page 368] soule and body even my whole selfe may e­ternally enioy thee.Psal: 63.1. Rom. 8.23. For thy spirit being now in both, makes both to thirst for thee; and my flesh fainteth as well as my soule, and ech pan­teth after thee. Neither will they stil be put off, with these tasts and ear­nests, but their love and longing is rather enfla­med by them to the fru­ition of thee. The very voice of these earnests is, come; yea they scarse know any other lan­guage, but, Come; there­fore again & again they say, come; Yea after they have said, come; as if that [Page 369] were not enough, they say, Come quickly. Now thou who knowest the meaning of the spirit, give an answere to the speaking sighes and grones of the spirit. Thou who hast enfla­med the heart of thy spouse, to speake vnto thee in this silent, yet lowde language of ar­dent desires, speake a­gaine to the hart of thy spouse, and answer the desires, which thou hast made to speak vnto thee

But harken; for hee speaketh: Those lips speake which are full of grace; and such lips can­not but speake grace, & [Page 370] peace to his spouse, to his beloved. Hearken therefore and heare what he saith; Beholde, I come quickly. Rev. 22.20. O hony, and sweetnesse it selfe to the soule that loveth her beloved comes quickly; her consum­mate marriage comes quickly, her full joy, and perfect happinesse comes quickly. And now what can the soule say more to her Lord? Onely as before shee still said, Come, so now will she still say, A­men; and Even so come Lord Iesus, Amen, and Amen.