ness but thou wouldest have him come in the despised form of a servant. And thou, O Blessed Jesu, wast accordingly willing, for our sakes, to submit thyself to nakedness, hunger, thirst, weariness, temptation, contempt, betraying, agonies, scorn, buffetings, scourgings, distention, crucifixion, death: O love, above measure, without example, beyond admiration! Greater love, thou sayest, hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; but, Oh, what is it then, that thou, who wert God and Man, shouldest lay down thy life, more precious than many worlds, for thine enemies! Yet, had it been but the laying down of a life in a fair and gentle way, there might have been some mitigation of the sorrow of a dissolution. There is not more difference betwixt life and death, than there may be betwixt some one kind of death and another. Thine, O Dear Saviour, was the painful, shameful, cursed death of the Cross; wherein yet all that man could do unto thee was nothing to that inward torment, which, in our stead, thou enduredst from thy Father's wrath; when, in the bitterness of thine anguished soul, thou criedst out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Even thus, thus wast thou content to be forsaken, that we wretched sinners might be received to mercy: O love, stronger than death, which thou vanquishedst! more high, than that hell is deep, from which thou hast rescued us! [6.] The sense of this infinite love of God cannot choose but ravish the soul; and cause it to go out of itself, into that Saviour, who hath wrought so mercifully for it: so as it may be nothing in itself; but what it hath, or is, may be Christ's. By the sweet powers, therefore, of faith and love, the soul finds itself United unto Christ Feelingly, Effectually, Indivisibly: so as that it is not to be distinguished betwixt the acts of both. To me to live is Christ, saith the blessed Apostle; Phil. i. 21 and, elsewhere, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life, which now I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me; Gal. ii. 20. My beloved is mine, and I am his; saith the Spouse of Christ, in her Bridal Song; Cant. ii. 16. O blessed union, next to the hypostatical; whereby the Human Nature of the Son of God is taken into the participation of the eternal Godhead! [7.] Out of the sense of this happy union, ariseth an unspeakable Complacency and Delight of the Soul in that God and Saviour, who is thus inseparably ours, and by whose union we are blessed; and a high appreciation of him, above all the world; and a contemptuous under-valuation of all earthly things, in comparison of him. And this is no other, than a heavenly reflection of that sweet contentment, which the God of Mercies takes in the faithful soul: Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart, with one of thine eyes; Cant. iv. 9. Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah; comely, as Jerusalem. Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me; vi. 4, 5. How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse ! How much better is thy love, than twine ; and the smell of thine ointments better, than all spices ! iv. 10. And the soul answers him again, in the same language of spiritual dearness: My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand ; v. 10. Set me as a seal upon thy heart; as a seal upon thine arm: for love is as strong as death; viii. 6. and, as in an ecstatical qualm of passionate affection; Stay me with flaggons, and comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love; ii. 5. [8.] Upon this gracious complacency, will follow an Absolute Self-resignation; or giving up ourselves to the hands of that good God, whose we are, and who is ours: and an humble contentedness with his good pleasure in all things; looking upon God with the same face, whether he smile upon us in his favours, or chastise us with his loving_corrections. If he speak good unto us; Behold the servant of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word: if evil; It is the Lord; let him do whatsoever he will. Here is therefore a cheerful acquiescence in God; and a hearty reliance, and casting ourselves upon the mercy of so bountiful a God; who, having given us his Son, can in and with him deny us nothing. [9.] Upon this subacted disposition of heart, will follow a familiar, yet awful, compellation of God; and an Emptying of our Souls before him in all our Necessities. For that God, who is infinitely merciful, yet will not have his favours otherwise conveyed to us, than by our supplications. The style of his dear ones is, His people, that prayeth; and his own style is, The God, that heareth prayers, To him, therefore, doth the devout heart pour out all his requests, with all true humility, with all fervour of spirit; as knowing, that God will hear neither proud prayers, nor heartless. Wherein his holy desires are regulated by a just method: first, suing for spiritual favours, as most worthy; then, for temporal, as the appendances of better; and, in both, aiming at the glory of our good God, more than our own advantage. And in the order of spiritual things, first and most for those, that are most necessary, and essential for our soul's health; than for secondary graces, that concern the prosperity and comfort of our spiritual life: absolutely, craving those graces, that accompany salvation; all others, conditionally, and with reference to the good pleasure of the Munificent Giver. Wherein, heed must be taken, that our thoughts be not so much taken up with our expressions, as with our desires; and that we do not suffer ourselves to languish into an unfeeling length and repetition of our suits. Even the hands of a Moses may, in time, grow heavy : so, therefore, must we husband our spiritual strength, that our devotion may not flag with over-tiring; but may be most vigorous, at the last. And, as we must enter into our prayers, not without preparatory elevations; so must we be careful to take a meet leave of God, at their shutting up: following our supplications with the pause of a faithful and most lowly adoration; and, as it were, sending up our hearts into heaven, to see how our prayers are ta ken; and raising them to a joyful expectation of a gracious and successful answer, from the Father of Mercies. a [10.] Upon the comfortable feeling of a gracious condescent, follows a Happy Fruition of God in all his Favours: so as, we have not them, so much as God in them; which advanceth their worth a thousand fold, and, as it were, brings down heaven upon us. Whereas, therefore, the sensual man rests only in the mere use of any blessing, as health, peace, prosperity, knowledge, and reacheth no higher; the devout soul, in and through all these, sees and feels God that sanctifies them to him, and enjoys therein his favour that is better than life. Even we men are wont, out of our good nature, to esteem a benefit, not so much for its own worth, as for the love and respect of the giver: small legacies, for this cause, find dear acceptation: how much more is it so, betwixt God and the devout soul! It is the sweet apprehension of this love, that makes all his gifts blessings. Do we not see some vain churl, though cried down by the multitude, herein secretly applauding himself, that he hath bags at home? how much more shall the godly man find comfort against all the crosses of the world, that he is possessed of Him, that possesseth all things, even God All-sufficient; the pledges of whose infinite love he feels, in all the whole course of God's dealing with him! [11.] Out of the true sense of this inward fruition of God, the devout soul breaks forth into Cheerful Thanksgivings to the God of all Comfort; praising him, for every evil that it is free from, for every good thing that it enjoyeth; for, as it keeps a just inventory of all God's favours; so it often spreads them thankfully before him, and lays them forth, so near as it may, in the full dimensions; that so God may be no loser by him, in any act of his beneficence, Here, therefore, every of God's benefits must come into account; whether eternal or temporal, spiritual or bodily, outward or inward, public or private, positive or private, past or present, upon ourselves or others; in all which, he shall humbly acknowledge both God's free mercy, and his own shameful unworthiness; setting off the favours of his good God the more, with the foil of his own confessed wretchedness, and unanswerableness to the least of his mercies. Now, as there is infinite variety of blessings, from the liberal hand of the Almighty; so there is great difference in their degrees: for, whereas there are three subjects of all the good we are capable of; the estate, body, soul; and each of these does far surpass other in value, the soul being infinitely more worth than the body, and the body far more precious than the outward estate: so, the blessings, that appertain to them, in several, differ in their true estimation accordingly. If either we do not highly magnify God's mercy, for the least; or shall set as high a prize upon the blessings that concern our estate as those that pertain to the body, or upon bodily favours as upon those that belong to the soil; we shall shew ourselves very unworthy and unequal partakers of the divine bounty. But, it will savour too much of earth, if we be more affected with tempo ral blessings, than with spiritual and eternal. By how much nearer relation, then, any favour hath to the fountain of goodness; and, by how much more it conduceth to the glory of God, and ours in him; so much higher place should it possess, in our affection and gratitude. No marvel therefore, if the Devout Heart be raised above itself, and transported with heavenly raptures, when, with Stephen's eyes, it beholds the Lord Jesus standing at the right-hand of God; fixing itself upon the consideration of the infinite Merits of his Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession; and finding itself swallowed up in the depth of that Divine Love, from whence all mercies flow into the soul: so as that it runs over with passionate thankfulness ; and is therefore deeply affected with all other his mercies, because they are derived from that boundless ocean of divine goodness. Unspeakable is the advantage, that the soul raises to itself, by this continual exercise of thanksgiving: for the grateful acknowledgment of favours, is the way to more. Even amongst men, whose hands are short and strait, this is the means to pull on further beneficence: how much more from the God of all Consolation, whose largest bounty diminisheth nothing of his store! And, herein, the devout soul enters into its heavenly task; beginning upon earth those Hallelujahs, which it shall perfect above, in the blessed choir of saints and angels; ever praising God, and saying, Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God, for ever and ever. Amen. SECT. 2. Of our Reading and Hearing God's Word. (1.) In Reading, we must [1.] Come to God's Book with Holy Reverence. [2] Seriously Weigh and Carefully lay up every Clause. [3] Shut up in the Ejaculations of our Thanksgiving. (2.) In Hearing, [1.] Before, we must prepare (a.) By Meditation: (b.) By Prayer. [2.] In the Act, Devotion calls us to (a.) Reverence: (b.) Attention: (c.) Application. [3] After Hearing we must chew our food by Memory, concoct it by Meditation, and, disperse it by Conference and Practice. NONE of all the services of God can be acceptably, no not unsinfully performed, without due Devotion. As, therefore, in our prayers and thanksgivings, so in the other exercises of divine worship; especially, IN THE READING AND HEARING OF GOD'S WORD, and in our receipt of the Blessed Sacrament; it is so necessary, that, without it, we offer to God a mere carcass of religious duty; and profane that Sacred Name, we would pretend to honour. (1.) In Reading, we must [1] First, come to God's Book, not without a Holy Reverence; as duly considering both what and whose it is; even no other, than the Word of the Ever-living God, by which we shall once be judged. Great reason have we therefore, to make a difference, betwixt it and the writings of the holiest men; even no less, than betwixt the authors of both. God is true; yea, truth itself: and that, which David said in his haste, St. Paul says in full deliberation, Every man is a liar; Ps. cxvi. 11. Rom. iii. 4. Before we put our hand to this Sacred Volume, it will be requisite to elevate our hearts to that God, whose it is; for both his leave and his blessing. Open mine eyes, saith the sweet singer of Israel, that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law; Ps. cxix. 18. Lo, David's eyes were open before, to other objects; but, when he comes to God's Book, he can see nothing, without a new act of apertion letters he might see, but wonders he could not see; till God did unclose his eyes, and enlighten them. It is not, therefore, for us presumptuously to break in upon God; and to think, by our natural abilities, to wrest open the precious caskets of the Almighty; and to fetch out all his hidden treasure thence, at pleasure but we must come tremblingly before him; and, in all humility, crave his gracious admission. I confess, I find some kind of envy in myself, when I read of those scrupulous observances of high respects given by the Jews to the book of God's Law; and when I read of a Romish Saint *, that never read the Scripture but upon his knees; and compare it with the careless neglect, whereof I can accuse myself, and perhaps some others. Not that we should rest in the formality of outward ceremonies of reverence; wherein it were more easy to be superstitious, than devout: but, that our outward deportment may testify and answer the awful disposition of our hearts. Whereto we shall not need to be excited, if we be thoroughly persuaded of the divine original and authority of that Sacred Word. It was motive enough to the Ephesians, zealously to plead for and religiously to adore the image of their Diana, that it was the image, that fell down from Jupiter; Acts xix. 35. Believe we and know, that the Scripture is inspired by God; and we can entertain it, with no other, than an awful address: and we cannot be Christians, if we do not so believe. [2.] Every clause therefore of that God-inspired Volume, must be, as reverently received by us, so Seriously Weighed and Carefully Laid Up; as knowing, that there is no title there, without his use. What we read, we must labour to understand: what we cannot understand, we must admire silently, and modestly enquire There are plain truths; and there are deep mysteries. The bounty of God hath left this well of living-water open for all: what runs over is for all comers; but every one hath not, wherewith to draw. There is no Christian, that may not enjoy God's Book; but every Christian may not interpret it. Those shallow fords, that are in it, may be waded by every passenger; but there are deeps, *Carolus Borromæus, |