temptation, or tribulation withdrawing, another comes on: Yea, and before the former conflict is over, feveral new ones unexpectedly come upon us.

IV. And how is it poffible to love a life, thus embitter'd, thus befet with Calamities and Miferies? Nay, can that deferve the very name of Life, which is productive of fo many deaths, and plagues? And yet lov'd it is, and many feek content and happinefs in it. The world is often blamed, as deceitful, and vain; yet it is not easily forfaken, because the flesh and its affections bear too great a fway. But fome things incline us to love it, others to defpife it. The luft of the flesh, the luft of the eye, and pride of life, incline to the love of the world: But the Pains and Miferies that these vices and fins by a juft Judgment draw after them, create in us in their turns a hatred, and loathing of the world.

1

V. But alas! the pleafure of fin overcomes the foul given up to the world, and fhe thinks delicacies to be under thorns; because fhe hath neither feen, nor tafted the fweetness that is in GoD, and the internal amiablenefs and charms ofVirtue. But thofe,

■ 1 John. ii, 16.

on

on the other hand, who have gained an abfolute contempt of the world, and make it their business to live unto God by a steady courfe of fevere virtue; thefe are no ftrangers to the divine and unfpeakable pleafures promised to the true Renouncers; and more clearly difcern how groffly the world is mistaken, and what manifold cheats and impostures it fuffers it felf to be deluded with.

CHAP. XXI.

That we ought to repofe our Souls in GoD above all Goods and Gifts of Nature and Grace.

1.

A

THE SOUL.

my

BOVE all things, and in all things, thou fhalt repofe thy felf, O foul, in the Lord evermore; because he is the eternal reft of the Saints. Grant me, fweetest and most loving Saviour, to rest in thee above all created things; above all health and beauty; above all glory and honour; above all power and dignity; above all knowledge and refined understanding; a

a

bove all riches and arts; above all chearfulnefs and exultation of fpirit; above all reputation and praife; above all the fweets of comfort and confolation in affliction; above all hopes and promifes; above all virtues and holy defires; above all the gifts and graces which thou thy felf canft give and infufe; above all raptures and tranfports of joy, that the heart of man is capable of receiving and feeling: Finally, above Angels and Arch-angels, and above all the Hoft of Heaven; above all things vifible and invifible; and above every thing which thou my GoD art not.

II. Because thou, my Lord and my GOD, art above all things fuperlatively Beft: Thou alone most high: Thou alone most powerful: Thou alone most fufficient and most full: Thou alone most sweet and most abundantly comforting and refreshing: Thou alone most beautiful and most amazingly loving: Thou alone most noble and most glorious above all things: In whom all goods. meet, as in their proper center, and are in their fovereign perfection, and ever were fo, and fhall be to all Eternity: And therefore poor and infufficient is it, whatsoever

In the Original: Above all Merits and holy Defires.
R

thou

thou giveft me befides thy felf, or revealeft of thy felf, or doft promife; whilft thou thy felf art not seen, nor fully enjoy'd. Because indeed my heart cannot poffibly have any true repofe, nor be perfectly fatisfied, till it reft in thee, and foar above all gifts and graces, and all created things whatsoever.

III. O thou deareft Spouse of my foul, Jefus Chrift, fource of moft pure love, Sovereign Lord of universal Nature! Who will give me the wings of true liberty, that I may take my flight, and reft in thee! Oh! when fhall it be granted me to be fully and entirely free, and to taste. at leisure, how fweet thou art, my Lord and my GOD! When fhall I gather up my felf wholly into thee, and have all my thoughts swallowed up in the contemplation of thy beauties, fo as for love of thee, to forget and perfectly lofe my felf, and to have no tafte or fenfe of any thing but thee alone, in a manner infinitely raised above all fenfe, and not known to every body! At prefent I groan frequently, and bear with pain the weight

of

my mifery. Because many evils occur in this vale of tears, which often disturb my fpirit, deject and grieve, cloud and darken my mind; which often obftruct my endeavours, and distract my thoughts, or allure

and

and entangle my affections; fo that I cannot have a free approach to thee, nor enjoy thy ravishing embraces, in company with the bleffed Spirits for evermore. Incline thine ears to my fighing, and remember my manifold defolation upon earth.

IV. O Jefus, thou ineffable fplendor of eternal glory, thou only folace of the pil grim foul in her abfence from thee; my heart, without voice or language, is prefent with thee, and fpeaketh unto thee in filent tears and groans unutterable. "How long "will my Lord, how long will he delay his

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coming? O that he would come to me "his poor afflicted fervant, and make me glad with the joy of his countenance! O "that he would put forth his hand, and "fnatch me, wretched man, from every an"guish! Come, Lord Jefus, come quick"ly; for without thee, no day, no hour "will pafs with joy or comfort: For thou "art my comfort, thou art my joy, and " without thee my table is empty. I am "wretched, and in a manner imprisoned, " and loaded with irons; till thou revive me " with the light of thy prefence, and restore me to liberty, and thew me the favour of thy countenance.

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