Richard Baxter's dying thoughts upon Phil. I, 23 written for his own life and…

God need not flatter such Worms as we, nor promise us that which he never meaneth to perform: He hath laid the rudiments of our hope, in a nature capable of desiring, seeking, and thinking of another life: He hath called me by Grace, to actual desires and endeavours: And some foretasts he hath vouchsafed: I look for no Heaven, but the Perfection of Divine Life, Light, and Love in endless Glory with Christ and his holy Ones: And this he hath begun in me already: And shall I not boldly hope when I have the capacity, the promise, and the earnest and foretaste? Is it not God himself that hath caused me to hope; was not Nature, Promise, and Grace from him? And can a Soul miscarry and be deceived, that departeth hence in a hope of God's own causing and encouraging? Lord, I have lived in hope? I have prayed in hope: I have laboured, suffered and waited in hope: And by thy Grace I will die in hope? And is not this according to thy Word and Will? And wilt thou cast away a Soul that hopeth in thee, by thine own Command and Operation▪ Had Wealth and Honour, or continuance on Earth, or the favour of Man, been my reward & hope, my hope & I had died together: Were this our best, how vain were Man? But the Lord liveth, and my Redeemer is glorified and intercedeth for me! And the same Spirit is in Heaven, who is in my Heart; (As the same Sun is in the Firmament which is in my House:) And the Promise is sure to all Christ's Seed: And Millions are now in Heaven, that once did live and die in hope; they were Sinners once as now I am: They had no other Saviour, no other Sanctifier, no other Promise than I now have, confessing that they were Strangers here, they looked for a better Country, and for a City that had Foundations, ⟨p. 236⟩even a heavenly where now they are: And shall I not follow them in hope that have sped so well? Hope then O my Soul unto the end, 1 Pet. 1. 13. From henceforth and for ever hope in the Lord, Psal. 131. 13. I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more; my Mouth shall show forth thy Righteousness and Salvation, Psal. 71. 14, 15. The Lord is at my right Hand; I shall not be moved: My Heart therefore is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my Flesh also shall dwell confidently and rest in hope; for God hath showed me the path of Life; in his presence is fullness of joy, and at his right Hand are pleasures for evermore, Psal. 16. 8, 9, 10, 11.

God need not flatter such Worms as we, nor promise us that which he never meaneth to perform: He hath laid the rudiments of our hope, in a nature capable of desiring, seeking, and thinking of another life: He hath called me by Grace, to actual desires and endeavours: And some foretasts he hath vouchsafed: I look for no Heaven, but the Perfection of Divine Life, Light, and Love in endless Glory with Christ and his holy Ones: And this he hath begun in me already: And shall I not boldly hope when I have the capacity, the promise, and the earnest and foretast? Is it not God himself that hath caused me to hope; was not Nature, Promise, and Grace from him? And can a Soul miscarry and be deceived, that departeth hence in a hope of God's own causing and encouraging? Lord, I have lived in hope? I have prayed in hope: I have laboured, suffered and waited in hope: And by thy Grace I will die in hope? And is not this according to thy Word and Will? And wilt thou cast away a Soul that hopeth in thee, by thine own Command and Operation▪ Had Wealth and Honour, or continuance on Earth, or the favour of Man, been my reward & hope, my hope & I had died together: Were this our best, how vain were Man? But the Lord liveth, and my Redeemer is glorified and interceedeth for me! And the same Spirit is in Heaven, who is in my Heart; (As the same Sun is in the Firmament which is in my House:) And the Promise is sure to all Christ's Seed: And Millions are now in Heaven, that once did live and die in hope; they were Sinners once as now I am: They had no other Saviour, no other Sanctifier, no other Promise than I now have, confessing that they were Strangers here, they looked for a better Countrey, and for a City that had Foundations, ⟨p. 236⟩even a heavenly where now they are: And shall I not follow them in hope that have sped so well? Hope then O my Soul unto the end, 1 Pet. 1. 13. From henceforth and for ever hope in the Lord, Psal. 131. 13. I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more; my Mouth shall shew forth thy Righteousness and Salvation, Psal. 71. 14, 15. The Lord is at my right Hand; I shall not be moved: My Heart therefore is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my Flesh also shall dwell confidently and rest in hope; for God hath shewed me the path of Life; in his presence is fulness of joy, and at his right Hand are pleasures for evermore, Psal. 16. 8, 9, 10, 11.

III. What then remaineth, O my Soul, but that in TRUST and HOPE thou LOVE thy God, thy Saviour, thy Comforter, the Glorious Society, thy own Perfection in Glorious, Endless, Heavenly Life, and Light, and Love, and the Joyful Praises of Jehovah, better then this burden of painful and corruptible Flesh, and this howling Wilderness, the Habitation of Serpents and untamed Brutes, where unbelief and murmuring, Lust and Folly, Injustice and Uncharitableness, Tyranny and Divisions, Pride and Contention, have long provoked God, and wearied thee? Where the Vintage and Harvest is Thorns and Thistles, Sin and Sorrows, Cares and Crosses, manured by manifold Temptations! How odious is that darkness and unbelief, that unholiness and disaffection, that deadness and stupidity, which maketh such a work as this, so reasonable, necessary, and pleasant a work, to seem unsuitable or hard! Is it unsuitable or hard to the Eye to see the Sun and Light? Or by it to see the beautified World? Or for a Man to love his Life or Health; his Father or his Friend? What should be easier to a Nature that hath rational ⟨p. 237⟩LOVE, than to Love him, that is Essential LOVE itself: He that loveth all, and giveth to all the Loving faculty, should be loved by all: And he that hath specially loved me should be specially loved by me?

III. What then remaineth, O my Soul, but that in TRUST and HOPE thou LOVE thy God, thy Saviour, thy Comforter, the Glorious Society, thy own Perfection in Glorious, Endless, Heavenly Life, and Light, and Love, and the Joyful Praises of Jehovah, better then this burden of painful and corruptible Flesh, and this howling Wilderness, the Habitation of Serpents and untamed Bruits, where unbelief and murmuring, Lust and Folly, Injustice and Uncharitableness, Tyranny and Divisions, Pride and Contention, have long provoked God, and wearied thee? Where the Vintage and Harvest is Thorns and Thistles, Sin and Sorrows, Cares and Crosses, manured by manifold Temptations! How odious is that darkness and unbelief, that unholiness and disaffection, that deadness and stupidity, which maketh such a work as this, so reasonable, necessary, and pleasant a work, to seem unsuitable or hard! Is it unsuitable or hard to the Eye to see the Sun and Light? Or by it to see the beautified World? Or for a Man to love his Life or Health; his Father or his Friend? What should be easier to a Nature that hath rational ⟨p. 237⟩LOVE, than to Love him, that is Essential LOVE itself: He that loveth all, and giveth to all the Loving faculty, should be loved by all: And he that hath specially loved me should be specially loved by me?

Love is the Perfection of all thy Preparations: It desireth to Please God; and therefore to be in the most pleasing state, and freed from all that is displeasing to him; which is not to be hoped for on Earth: It desireth all suitable nearness, acquaintance, union and communion: It is weary of distance, estrangedness, and alien society, and affairs: It taketh advantage of every notice, intimation, or mention of God, to renew and exercise these desires: Every Message, and Mercy from him is fuel for Love, and while we are short of Perfection stir up our desires after more! When Love tasteth of the Grapes it would have the Vine: When it tasteth of the Fruits it would dwell where they grow, and possess the Land! Its thoughts of Proximity and fruition are sweet. No other Person or Thing can satisfy it. The Soul is where it loveth: If our Friend dwell in our Hearts by Love; and if fleshly Pleasure, Riches, and Honour, do dwell in the Heart of the Voluptuous, the Covetous, and the Proud, surely God and our Redeemer, the heavenly Society, Holiness, and Glory, do dwell in the Heart which loveth them with a fervent Love! And if Heaven dwell in my Heart, shall I not desire to dwell in Heaven? Light and Light, Fire and Fire are not more inclined to union then Love and Love; Gracious Love, and Glorious Love: Would Divine Original, Universal LOVE, communicate and pour out itself more plentifully upon my Heart, how easy would it be to leave this Flesh and World? And to hear the Sentence of my departure to my God? Death and the Grave would be but a Triumph ⟨p. 238⟩for victorious Love: It would be easier to die in Peace and Joy, than to rest at Night, or to come home from my Travel to my beloved Friends, or to go when I am hungry to a Feast: A Little Love hath made me study willingly, and preach willingly, and write willingly, yea, and suffer somewhat willingly; and would not more make me go more willingly to God? Shall the imagination of House, Gardens, Walks, Libraries, Prospects, Meadows, Orchards, Hills, and Rivers, allure the desires of deceived Minds? And shall not the Thoughts of the heavenly Mansions, Society and Delights, much more allure and draw up my desires? The reading of a known Fiction of a Civitas Solis, an Utopia, an Atlantis, &c. hath pleased many:

Love is the Perfection of all thy Preparations: It desireth to Please God; and therefore to be in the most pleasing state, and freed from all that is displeasing to him; which is not to be hoped for on Earth: It desireth all suitable nearness, acquaintance, union and communion: It is weary of distance, estrangedness, and alien society, and affairs: It taketh advantage of every notice, intimation, or mention of God, to renew and exercise these desires: Every Message, and Mercy from him is fewel for Love, and while we are short of Perfection stir up our desires after more! When Love tasteth of the Grapes it would have the Vine: When it tasteth of the Fruits it would dwell where they grow, and possess the Land! Its thoughts of Proximity and fruition are sweet. No other Person or Thing can satisfie it. The Soul is where it loveth: If our Friend dwell in our Hearts by Love; and if fleshly Pleasure, Riches, and Honour, do dwell in the Heart of the Voluptuous, the Covetous, and the Proud, surely God and our Redeemer, the heavenly Society, Holiness, and Glory, do dwell in the Heart which loveth them with a fervent Love! And if Heaven dwell in my Heart, shall I not desire to dwell in Heaven? Light and Light, Fire and Fire are not more inclined to union then Love and Love; Gracious Love, and Glorious Love: Would Divine Original, Universal LOVE, communicate and pour out itself more plentifully upon my Heart, how easy would it be to leave this Flesh and World? And to hear the Sentence of my departure to my God? Death and the Grave would be but a Triumph ⟨p. 238⟩for victorious Love: It would be easier to die in Peace and Joy, than to rest at Night, or to come home from my Travel to my beloved Friends, or to go when I am hungry to a Feast: A Little Love hath made me study willingly, and preach willingly, and write willingly, yea, and suffer somwhat willingly; and would not more make me go more willingly to God? Shall the imagination of House, Gardens, Walks, Libraries, Prospects, Meadows, Orchards, Hills, and Rivers, allure the desires of deceived Minds? And shall not the Thoughts of the heavenly Mansions, Society and Delights, much more allure and draw up my desires? The reading of a known Fiction of a Civitas Solis, an Utopia, an Atlantis, &c. hath pleased many:

Should I not love a Lovely and a Loving World much better than a World where there is comparatively […] little Loveliness or Love? All that is of God is Good and Lovely: But it is not here that his Glory shineth in felicitating Splendour: I am taught to look upward when I pray, and to say, Our Father which art in Heaven: God's works are amiable even in Hell; and yet though I would know them, I would not be there: ⟨p. 240⟩And, alas, how much of the works of Man, are mixed here with the works of God? Here is God's Wisdom manifest; but here is Man's obstinate folly: Here is God's Government; but here is Mans Tyranny and Unruliness: Here is God's Love and Mercies; but here are m•ns Malice, Wrath and Cruelty, by which they are worse to one another than Wolves or Tigers, depopulating Countries, and filling the World with Bloodshed, Famine, Misery, and Lamentations; proud Tyrants being worse than raging Plagues; (which made David choose the Pestilence before his Enemies pursuit:) Here is much of God's beauteous order, and harmony: But here is also much of Man's madness, deformity and confusion. Here is much historical Truth, and some Civil and Ecclesiastic Justice; but, alas, with how much odious falsehood, and injustice is it mixed? Here is much precious Theological Verity: But how dark is much of it to such blind and negligent and corrupted minds, as every where abound: Here are wise judicious Teachers and Companions to be found; but, alas, how few in comparison of the most? And how hardly known by those that need them? Here are Sound and Orthodox Ministers of Christ: But how few that most need them know which are they, and how to value them or use them? And how many Thousands of seduced or sensual Sinners are made believe that they are but Deceivers, or as they called Paul, pestilent fellows, and movers of Sedition among the People: And in how many parts of the World are they as the Prophets that Obadiah hid in Caves, or as Micatah, or Elijah among the Lying Prophets, or the Baalites? Though such as of whom the World is not worthy. (And is that World then more worthy of any love than Heaven?) There ⟨p. 241⟩are Worthy and Religious Families which honour God, and are honoured by him: But, alas, how few?

Should I not love a Lovely and a Loving World much better than a World where there is comparatively 〈…〉 little Loveliness or Love? All that is of God is Good and Lovely: But it is not here that his Glory shineth in felicitating Splendor: I am taught to look upward when I pray, and to say, Our Father which art in Heaven: God's works are amiable even in Hell; and yet though I would know them, I would not be there: ⟨p. 240⟩And, alas, how much of the works of Man, are mixed here with the works of God? Here is God's Wisdom manifest; but here is Man's obstinate folly: Here is God's Government; but here is Mans Tyranny and Unruliness: Here is God's Love and Mercies; but here are m•ns Malice, Wrath and Cruelty, by which they are worse to one another than Wolves or Tigers, depopulating Countries, and filling the World with Bloodshed, Famine, Misery, and Lamentations; proud Tyrants being worse than raging Plagues; (which made David choose the Pestilence before his Enemies pursuit:) Here is much of God's beauteous order, and harmony: But here is also much of Man's madness, deformity and confusion. Here is much historical Truth, and some Civil and Ecclesiastick Justice; but, alas, with how much odious falsehood, and injustice is it mixed? Here is much precious Theological Verity: But how dark is much of it to such blind and negligent and corrupted minds, as every where abound: Here are wise judicious Teachers and Companions to be found; but, alas, how few in comparison of the most? And how hardly known by those that need them? Here are Sound and Orthodox Ministers of Christ: But how few that most need them know which are they, and how to value them or use them? And how many Thousands of seduced or sensual Sinners are made believe that they are but Deceivers, or as they called Paul, pestilent fellows, and movers of Sedition among the People: And in how many parts of the World are they as the Prophets that Obadiah hid in Caves, or as Micatah, or Elias among the Lying Prophets, or the Baalites? Though such as of whom the World is not worthy. (And is that World then more worthy of any love than Heaven?) There ⟨p. 241⟩are Worthy and Religious Families which honour God, and are honoured by him: But, alas, how few?

And usually by the temptations of Wealth and Worldly Interest, how full even of the sins of Sodom, Pride, Fullness of Bread, and abundance of Idleness, if not also Unmercifulness to the Poor: And how are they tempted to plead for their sins and snares, and account it rustic Ignorance which contradicteth them: And how few Pious Families are there of the greater sort that do not quickly degenerate, and Posterity by false Religion, Error or Sensuality, grow most contrary to the minds of their Pious Progenitors? There are many that educate their Children wisely in the fear of God, and have accordingly comfort in them: But how many are there that having devoted them in Baptism to God, do train them up in the service of the Flesh, the World, and the Devil, which they renounced, and never understood, or at least intended, for themselves, or Children, what they did profess: How many Parents think, that when they offer their Children to God in Baptism without a sober and due consideration of the nature and meaning of that great Covenant with God, that God must accept and certainly regenerate and save them? Yea, too many Religious Parents forget, that they themselves are Sponsors in that Covenant, and undertake to use the means on their part, to make their Children sit for the Grace of the son, and the Communion of the Spirit, as they grow up, and think God should absolutely sanctify, keep and save them at Age, because they are theirs and were Baptized, though they keep them not from great and unnecessary temptations, nor teach them plainly and seriously the meaning of the Covenant which was made for them with God as to the nature, benefits or conditions of it: How ⟨p. 242⟩many send them to others to be taught in Grammar, Logic, Philosophy, or Arts; yea, and Divinity, before their own Parents ever taught them, what they did with God in Baptism, what they received? And what they promised and vowed to do? They send them to Trades, or secular Callings, or to travel in foreign Lands, among a Multitude of Snares, among tempting Company, and tempting Baits, before ever at home they were instructed, armed, and settled against those Temptations which they must needs encounter, and which if they overcome them, they are undone:

And usually by the temptations of Wealth and Worldly Interest, how full even of the sins of Sodom, Pride, Fulness of Bread, and abundance of Idleness, if not also Unmercifulness to the Poor: And how are they tempted to plead for their sins and snares, and account it rustick Ignorance which contradicteth them: And how few Pious Families are there of the greater sort that do not quickly degenerate, and Posterity by false Religion, Errour or Sensuality, grow most contrary to the minds of their Pious Progenitors? There are many that educate their Children wisely in the fear of God, and have accordingly comfort in them: But how many are there that having devoted them in Baptism to God, do train them up in the service of the Flesh, the World, and the Devil, which they renounced, and never understood, or at least intended, for themselves, or Children, what they did profess: How many Parents think, that when they offer their Children to God in Baptism without a sober and due consideration of the nature and meaning of that great Covenant with God, that God must accept and certainly regenerate and save them? Yea, too many Religious Parents forget, that they themselves are Sponsors in that Covenant, and undertake to use the means on their part, to make their Children sit for the Grace of the son, and the Communion of the Spirit, as they grow up, and think God should absolutely sanctifie, keep and save them at Age, because they are theirs and were Baptized, though they keep them not from great and unnecessary temptations, nor teach them plainly and seriously the meaning of the Covenant which was made for them with God as to the nature, benefits or conditions of it: How ⟨p. 242⟩many send them to others to be taught in Grammar, Logick, Philosophy, or Arts; yea, and Divinity, before their own Parents ever taught them, what they did with God in Baptism, what they received? And what they promised and vowed to do? They send them to Trades, or secular Callings, or to travel in forreign Lands, among a Multitude of Snares, among tempting Company, and tempting Baits, before ever at home they were instructed, armed, and settled against those Temptations which they must needs encounter, and which if they overcome them, they are undone:

How ordinarily when they have first neglected this great duty of their own for their fortification, do they plead a necessity of thrusting them out on these temptations, though utterly unarmed from some Punctilio of Honour or Conformity to the World, to avoid the Contempt of worldly men, or to adorn their (yet naked) Souls, with some of the Plumes or painted Trifles, Ceremonies or Complements, which will never serve instead of heavenly Wisdom, Mortification, and the Love of God and Man: As if they were like to learn that fear of God in a crowd of diverting and tempting Company, Baits and Business, which they never learnt under the teaching, nurture and daily oversight of their religious Parents in a safer station: Or as if for some little reason they might send them as to Sea without Pilot or Anchor, and think that God must save them from the Waves: Or as if it were better to enter them into Satan's School or Army, and venture them upon the notorious danger of Damnation, than miss of Preferment and Wealth, or of the Fashions and Favour of the Times? And then when they hear that they have forsaken God, and true Religion, and given up themselves to Lust and Sensuality, ⟨p. 243⟩and perhaps as Enemies to God and good men, destroy what their Parents laboured to build up, these Parents wonder at God's Judgments, and with broken Hearts lament their infelicity, when it were better to lament their own misdoing, and it had been best of all to have prevented it.

How ordinarily when they have first neglected this great duty of their own for their fortification, do they plead a necessity of thrusting them out on these temptations, though utterly unarmed from some Punctilio of Honour or Conformity to the World, to avoid the Contempt of worldly men, or to adorn their (yet naked) Souls, with some of the Plumes or painted Trifles, Ceremonies or Complements, which will never serve instead of heavenly Wisdom, Mortification, and the Love of God and Man: As if they were like to learn that fear of God in a croud of diverting and tempting Company, Baits and Business, which they never learnt under the teaching, nurture and daily oversight of their religious Parents in a safer station: Or as if for some little reason they might send them as to Sea without Pilot or Anchor, and think that God must save them from the Waves: Or as if it were better to enter them into Satans School or Army, and venture them upon the notorious danger of Damnation, than miss of Preferment and Wealth, or of the Fashions and Favour of the Times? And then when they hear that they have forsaken God, and true Religion, and given up themselves to Lust and Sensuality, ⟨p. 243⟩and perhaps as Enemies to God and good men, destroy what their Parents laboured to build up, these Parents wonder at God's Judgments, and with broken Hearts lament their infelicity, when it were better to lament their own misdoing, and it had been best of all to have prevented it.

Thus Families, Churches and Kingdoms run on to blindness, ungodliness and confusion: Self-undoing and serving the malice of Satan, for fleshly Lust, is the too common employment of Mankind: All is wise, and good, and sweet which is prescribed us by God, in true Nature or Supernatural revelation: But folly, sin, and misery, mistaking themselves to be Wit, and Honesty, and Prosperity, and raging against that which nominally they pretend to and profess, are the ordinary case and course of the most of men: And when we would plead them out of their deceit and misery, it's well if we are not tempted to imitate them, or be not partly infected with their Disease, or at least reproached and oppressed as their Enemies: Such a Bedlam is most of the World become, where madness goeth for the only Wisdom, and he is the bravest Man that can sin and be damned with reputation and renown, and successfully drive or draw the greatest number with him unto Hell: To which the World hath no small likeness, forsaking God, and being very much forsaken by him.

This is the World which standeth in competition for my Love, with the Spiritual blessed World: Much of God's Mercies and Comforts I have here had: But their sweetness was their taste of Divine Love, and their tendency to heavenly Perfection. What was the end and use of all the Good that ever I saw, or that ever God did for my Soul or Body, but to teach me to Love him, and to long for more? How many weaning ⟨p. 244⟩experiences? How many Thousand bitter or contemning Thoughts have I had of all the glory and pleasures of this World? How many Thousand love tokens from God have called me to believe and taste his Goodness? Where ever I go, and which way soever I look, I see VANITY and VEXATION written upon all things in this World, so far as they stand in competition with God, and would be the end and portion of a fleshly Mind: And I see HOLINESS TO THE LORD written upon every thing, so far as it declareth God and leadeth me to him as my ultimate end. God hath not for nothing engaged me in a War against this World, and commanded me to take and use it as mine Enemy: The emptiness, dangerousness, and bitterness of the World, and the All-sufficiency, Trustiness, and Goodness of God have been the Sum of all the experiences of my life? And shall a worldly backward Heart overcome the teachings of Nature, Scripture, the Spirit of Grace, and all Experience? Far be it from me!

This is the World which standeth in competition for my Love, with the Spiritual blessed World: Much of God's Mercies and Comforts I have here had: But their sweetness was their taste of Divine Love, and their tendency to heavenly Perfection. What was the end and use of all the Good that ever I saw, or that ever God did for my Soul or Body, but to teach me to Love him, and to long for more? How many weaning ⟨p. 244⟩experiences? How many Thousand bitter or contemning Thoughts have I had of all the glory and pleasures of this World? How many Thousand love tokens from God have called me to believe and taste his Goodness? Where ever I go, and which way soever I look, I see VANITY and VEXATION written upon all things in this World, so far as they stand in competition with God, and would be the end and portion of a fleshly Mind: And I see HOLINESS TO THE LORD written upon every thing, so far as it declareth God and leadeth me to him as my ultimate end. God hath not for nothing engaged me in a War against this World, and commanded me to take and use it as mine Enemy: The emptiness, dangerousness, and bitterness of the World, and the All-sufficiency, Trustiness, and Goodness of God have been the Summ of all the experiences of my life? And shall a worldly backward Heart overcome the teachings of Nature, Scripture, the Spirit of Grace, and all Experience? Far be it from me!

But, O my God, LOVE is thy great and special gift: All Good is from thee: But LOVE is the Godlike Nature, Life, and Image: It is given us from the Love of the Father, the Grace of the Son, and the quickening, illuminating and sanctifying Operation of the Holy Spirit: What can the Earth return unto the Sun but its own reflected Beams? (If those.) As how far soever Man is a Medium in Generation, Nature and that Appetite which is the moving pondus in the Child is thy work; so whatever is Man's part in the Mediate work of Believing and Repenting, (which yet is not done without thy Spirit and grace,) certainly it is the blessed Regenerator which must make us New Creatures by giving us this Divine Nature, holy LOVE, which is ⟨p. 245⟩the holy Appetite and Pondus of the Soul. Come down, Lord, into this Heart, for it cannot come up to thee. Can the Plants for Life, or the Eye for Light, go up unto the Sun? Dwell in me by the Spirit of Love, and I shall dwell by Love in Thee. Reason is weak, and Thoughts are various, and Man will be a slippery uncertain Wight, if LOVE be not his fixing Principle, and do not incline his Soul to Thee! Surely through thy Grace I easily feel, that I love thy Word, I love thy Image, I love thy Work, and O how heartily do I Love to Love thee! And long to Know and Love thee more! And if all things be of Thee, and through Thee, and to Thee, surely this Love to the Beams of thy Glory here on Earth, is eminently so! It's Thee, Lord, that it meaneth! To Thee it looketh: It's Thee it serveth! For Thee it mourns, and seeks, and groans! In Thee it Trusteth! And the Hope, and Peace, and Comfort which support me, are in Thee! When I was a returning Prodigal in rags, thou sawest me afar off, and mettest me with thy embracing, feasting Love: And shall I doubt whether he that hath better clothed me, and dwelt within me, will entertain me with a Feast of greater love in the heavenly Mansions, the World of Love?

But, O my God, LOVE is thy great and special gift: All Good is from thee: But LOVE is the Godlike Nature, Life, and Image: It is given us from the Love of the Father, the Grace of the Son, and the quickning, illuminating and sanctifying Operation of the Holy Spirit: What can the Earth return unto the Sun but its own reflected Beams? (If those.) As how far soever Man is a Medium in Generation, Nature and that Appetite which is the moving pondus in the Child is thy work; so whatever is Man's part in the Mediate work of Believing and Repenting, (which yet is not done without thy Spirit and grace,) certainly it is the blessed Regenerator which must make us New Creatures by giving us this Divine Nature, holy LOVE, which is ⟨p. 245⟩the holy Appetite and Pondus of the Soul. Come down, Lord, into this Heart, for it cannot come up to thee. Can the Plants for Life, or the Eye for Light, go up unto the Sun? Dwell in me by the Spirit of Love, and I shall dwell by Love in Thee. Reason is weak, and Thoughts are various, and Man will be a slippery uncertain Wight, if LOVE be not his fixing Principle, and do not incline his Soul to Thee! Surely through thy Grace I easily feel, that I love thy Word, I love thy Image, I love thy Work, and O how heartily do I Love to Love thee! And long to Know and Love thee more! And if all things be of Thee, and through Thee, and to Thee, surely this Love to the Beams of thy Glory here on Earth, is eminently so! It's Thee, Lord, that it meaneth! To Thee it looketh: It's Thee it serveth! For Thee it mourns, and seeks, and groans! In Thee it Trusteth! And the Hope, and Peace, and Comfort which support me, are in Thee! When I was a returning Prodigal in rags, thou sawest me afar off, and mettest me with thy embracing, feasting Love: And shall I doubt whether he that hath better cloathed me, and dwelt within me, will entertain me with a Feast of greater love in the heavenly Mansions, the World of Love?

The suitableness of things below to my fleshly Nature, hath detained my affections too much on Earth! And shall not the suitableness of things above to my Spiritual Nature, much more draw up my Love to Heaven. There is the GOD whom I have sought and served: He is also here; but veiled, and but little known: But there he shineth to heavenly Spirits in heavenly Glory. There is the Saviour in whom I have believed: He hath also dwelt in Flesh on Earth: B•t clothed in such meanness, and humbled to such a Life ⟨p. 246⟩and Death, as was to the Jews a stumbling Block, and to the Gentiles matter of reproach: But he Shineth and Reigneth now in Glory, above the malice and contempt of Sinners. And I shall there Live because he liveth; and in his Light I shall have Light. He loved me here with a Redeeming, Regenerating and preserving Love: But there he will love me with a perfecting, glorifying joyful Love. I had here some Rays of heavenly Light: But interpositions caused Eclipses and Nights, yea, some long and winter Nights: But there I shall dwell in the City of the Sun, the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is no Night, Eclipse or Darkness! There are the heavenly Hosts whose holy Love and Joyful Praises I would fain be a partaker of? I have here had some of their Loving assistance, but to me unseen, being above our fleshly way of Converse. But there I shall be with them, of the like Nature, in the same Orb, and of the same Triumphant Church and Chore! There are perfected Souls gathered home to Christ: Not, as here, striving like Esau and Jacob in the Womb, not yet as John when he leaped in the Womb, because of his Mothers joy; nor as wrangling Children that are hardly kept in the same House in Peace: Not like the Servants of Abraham and Lot, like Paul and Barnabas, like Epiphanius and Chrysostom, like Luther and Carolostadius, like Ridley and Hooper, or the many striving Parties now among us; nor like the Disciples striving who should be the greatest: Not like Noah's Family in a wicked World, or Lot in a wicked City, or Abraham in an Idolatrous Land, nor like Elijah left alone, nor like those that wandered in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins, destitute, afflicted, and tormented, hid in Dens and Caves of the Earth; not like Job on the Dunghill, or ⟨p. 247⟩like Lazarus at the rich Man's Doors: Not like the African Bishops whose Tongues were cut out;

The suitableness of things below to my fleshly Nature, hath detained my affections too much on Earth! And shall not the suitableness of things above to my Spiritual Nature, much more draw up my Love to Heaven. There is the GOD whom I have sought and served: He is also here; but vailed, and but lit•le known: But there he shineth to heavenly Spirits in heavenly Glory. There is the Saviour in whom I have believed: He hath also dwelt in Flesh on Earth: B•t cloathed in such meanness, and humbled to such a Life ⟨p. 246⟩and Death, as was to the Jews a stumbling Block, and to the Gentiles matter of reproach: But he Shineth and Reigneth now in Glory, above the malice and contempt of Sinners. And I shall there Live because he liveth; and in his Light I shall have Light. He loved me here with a Redeeming, Regenerating and preserving Love: But there he will love me with a perfecting, glorifying joyful Love. I had here some Raies of heavenly Light: But interpositions caused Eclipses and Nights, yea, some long and winter Nights: But there I shall dwell in the City of the Sun, the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is no Night, Eclipse or Darkness! There are the heavenly Hosts whose holy Love and Joyful Praises I would fain be a partaker of? I have here had some of their Loving assistance, but to me unseen, being above our fleshly way of Converse. But there I shall be with them, of the like Nature, in the same Orb, and of the same Triumphant Church and Chore! There are perfected Souls gathered home to Christ: Not, as here, striving like Esau and Jacob in the Womb, not yet as John when he leaped in the Womb, because of his Mothers joy; nor as wrangling Children that are hardly kept in the same House in Peace: Not like the Servants of Abraham and Lot, like Paul and Barnabas, like Epiphanius and Chrysostom, like Luther and Carolostadius, like Ridley and Hooper, or the many striving Parties now among us; nor like the Disciples striving who should be the greatest: Not like Noah's Family in a wicked World, or Lot in a wicked City, or Abraham in an Idolatrous Land, nor like Elijah left alone, nor like those that wandred in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins, destitute, afflicted, and tormented, hid in Dens and Caves of the Earth; not like Job on the Dunghil, or ⟨p. 247⟩like Lazarus at the rich Man's Doors: Not like the African Bishops whose Tongues were cut out;

nor like the Preachers silenced by Papist imposers, (in German) by the Interim or elsewhere;) Nor like such as Tzegedine, Peucer and many other worthy men, whose maturest Age was spent in Prisons: Not as we poor bewildered Sinners, feeling evil, and fearing more, confounded in folly, and mad contention, some hating the only way of Peace, and others groping for it in the dark, wandering and lost in the clearest Light, where the illuminated can but pity the Blind, but cannot make them willing to be delivered: What is Heaven to me, but GOD? GOD who is LIFE, and LIGHT, and LOVE, communicating himself to blessed Spirits, perfecting them in the Reception, Possession and Exercise of LIFE and LIGHT, and LOVE, FOR EVER. These are not the Accidents, but the Essence of that God who is Heaven and All to me; should I fear that Death which passeth me to Infinite Essential Life? Should I fear a darksome passage into a World of perfect LIGHT? Should I fear to go to LOVE itself? Think, O my Soul, what the Suns quickening Light and Heat is to this lower corporeal World? Much more is GOD, even Infinite, LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE to the blessed World above: Doth it not draw out thy desires to think of going into a World of LOVE? When LOVE will be our Region, our Company, our Life: More to us than the Air is for our Breath! than the Light is for our sight; than our Food is for our Life, than our Friends are for our Solace: And more to us than we are to our selves, and we more for it as our ultimate end, than for our selves. O excellent Grace of Faith which doth foresee, and blessed Word of Faith that doth foreshow, this World ⟨p. 248⟩of LOVE! Shall I fear to enter where there is no WRATH, no fear, no strangeness, nor suspicion, nor selfish separation, but LOVE will make every holy Spirit as dear and lovely to me as my self, and me to them as lovely as themselves, and God to us all more amiable than our selves and all: Where LOVE will have no defects or distances, no damps or discouragements, no discontinuance or mixed disaffection; but as LIFE will be without Death, and LIGHT, without Darkness, (a perfect everlasting Day of Glory,) so will LOVE be without any hatred, unkindness, or allay.

nor like the Preachers silenced by Papist imposers, (in German) by the Int•rim or elsewhere;) Nor like such as Tzegedine, Peucer and many other worthy men, whose maturest Age was spent in Prisons: Not as we poor bewildred Sinners, feeling evil, and fearing more, confounded in folly, and mad contention, some hating the only way of Peace, and others groping for it in the dark, wandring and lost in the clearest Light, where the illuminated can but pitty the Blind, but cannot make them willing to be delivered: What is Heaven to me, but GOD? GOD who is LIFE, and LIGHT, and LOVE, communicating himself to blessed Spirits, perfecting them in the Reception, Possession and Exercise of LIFE and LIGHT, and LOVE, FOR EVER. These are not the Accidents, but the Essence of that God who is Heaven and All to me; should I fear that Death which passeth me to Infinite Essential Life? Should I fear a darksom passage into a World of perfect LIGHT? Should I fear to go to LOVE itself? Think, O my Soul, what the Suns quickening Light and Heat is to this lower corporeal World? Much more is GOD, even Infinite, LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE to the blessed World above: Doth it not draw out thy desires to think of going into a World of LOVE? When LOVE will be our Region, our Company, our Life: More to us than the Air is for our Breath! than the Light is for our sight; than our Food is for our Life, than our Friends are for our Solace: And more to us than we are to our selves, and we more for it as our ultimate end, than for our selves. O excellent Grace of Faith which doth foresee, and blessed Word of Faith that doth foreshew, this World ⟨p. 248⟩of LOVE! Shall I fear to enter where there is no WRATH, no fear, no strangeness, nor suspicion, nor selfish separation, but LOVE will make every holy Spirit as dear and lovely to me as my self, and me to them as lovely as themselves, and God to us all more amiable than our selves and all: Where LOVE will have no defects or distances, no damps or discouragements, no discontinuance or mixed disaffection; but as LIFE will be without Death, and LIGHT, without Darkness, (a perfect everlasting Day of Glory,) so will LOVE be without any hatred, unkindness, or allay.

As many Coals make one Fire, and many Candles conjoined make one Light, so will many living Spirits make one Life, and many illuminated Glorious Spirits, one Light and Glory, and many Spirits innaturalized into LOVE, will make one Perfect LOVE of GOD, and be LOVED as One by God for ever: For all the Body of Christ is One; even here it is One in initial Union of the Spirit, and Relation to One God, and Head, and Life, 1 Cor. 12. throughout. Eph. 4. 1. to 17. and shall be presented as beloved and spotless to God, when the great Marriage Day of the Lamb shall come, Eph. 5. 24, 25, &c. Rev. 21. & 22.

Had thou not given me, O Lord the LIFE of Nature, I should have had no conceptions of a Glorious everlasting Life: But if thou give me not the Life of Grace, I shall have no sufficient delightful inclination and desire after it. Hadst thou not given me Sight and Reason, the Light of Nature, I should not have thought how desirable it is to live in the Glorious Light and Vision; but if thou give me not the Spiritual Illumination of a seeing Faith, I shall not yet long for the Glorious Light, and beatifical Vision. Hadst thou not given me a Will and Love which is part of my very ⟨p. 249⟩Nature itself, I could not have tasted how desirable it is, to live in a World of Universal, perfect, endless LOVE: But unless thou also shed abroad thy LOVE upon my Heart, by the Spirit of Jesus the Great Medium of LOVE, and turn my very Nature or Inclination into Divine and Holy LOVE, I shall not long for the World of LOVE. Appetite followeth Nature: O give me not only the Image and the Art of Godliness; the approaches towards it, nor only some forced or unconstant acts; but give me the Divine Nature, which is Holy Love, and then my Soul will hasten towards thee, and cry, How long, O Lord, How long! O come, come quickly, make no delay. Surely the fear of dying intimateth some contrary Love that inclineth the Soul another way; and some shameful unbelief and great unapprehensiveness of the Attractive Glory of the World of LOVE: Otherwise no frozen Person so longeth for the Fire, none in a Dungeon so desireth Light, as we should long for the heavenly Light and Love.

God's Infinite Essential SELF-LOVE, in which he is Eternally delighted in himself, is the most Amiable Object, and Heaven itself to Saints and Angels: And next to that His Love to all his Works, to the World, and to the Church in Heaven speaketh much more of his Loveliness than his Love to me. But yet due Self-love in me, is his work, and part of his natural Image; and when this by sin is grown up to excess, (through the withdrawing of a contracted narrow Soul, from the Union and due Love to my fellow Creatures, and to God) I must also, I cannot but, enquire after God's Love to me, and by this my desires must much be moved: For I am not so capable of ascending above Self-interest, and Self-love, as in the state of Glorious Union I shall be. I am glad to perceive that others do love God; and ⟨p. 250⟩I love those most that I find most love him: But it is not other mens love to God that will be accepted by him instead of mine: Nor is it God's Love to others (which yet rejoiceth me) that will satisfy me without his love to me. But when all these are still before me, God's Essential Self-love and Delight, his Love to his Creatures, especially the Glorified, and his Love to me also, even to me a vile unworthy Sinner; what then should stay my ascending Love, or discourage my desires to be with God?

God's Infinite Essential SELF-LOVE, in which he is Eternally delighted in himself, is the most Amiable Object, and Heaven itself to Saints and Angels: And next to that His Love to all his Works, to the World, and to the Church in Heaven speaketh much more of his Loveliness than his Love to me. But yet due Self-love in me, is his work, and part of his natural Image; and when this by sin is grown up to excess, (through the withdrawing of a contracted narrow Soul, from the Union and due Love to my fellow Creatures, and to God) I must also, I cannot but, enquire after God's Love to me, and by this my desires must much be moved: For I am not so capable of ascending above Self-interest, and Self-love, as in the state of Glorious Union I shall be. I am glad to perceive that others do love God; and ⟨p. 250⟩I love those most that I find most love him: But it is not other mens love to God that will be accepted by him instead of mine: Nor is it God's Love to others (which yet rejoiceth me) that will satisfie me without his love to me. But when all these are still before me, God's Essential Self-love and Delight, his Love to his Creatures, especially the Glorified, and his Love to me also, even to me a vile unworthy Sinner; what then should stay my ascending Love, or discourage my desires to be with God?

And dost thou doubt, canst thou doubt, O my Soul, whether thou art going to a God that loveth thee? If the Jews discerned the great love of Christ to Lazarus by his Tears, canst not thou discern his Love to thee in his Blood? It is never the less but the more obliging and amiable, that it was not shed for thee alone, but for many. May I not say as Paul, Gal. 2, 20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God, that hath loved Me, and given himself for me! Yea, it is not so much I that live, as Christ Liveth in me? And will he forsake the Habitation which his love hath chosen? And which he hath so dearly bought! O read often that triumphing Chapter, Rom. 8. and conclude, What shall separate us from the Love of God? If Life have not done it, Death shall not do it. If leaning on his Breast at Meat, was a token of Christ's special love to John, is not his dwelling in me by my Faith, and his living in me by his Spirit, a sure token of his love to me: And if a dark saying, [If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?] raised a report that the beloved Disciple should not die, why should not plain Promises assure me that I shall live with him that loveth me for ever? Be not so unthankful, O my Soul, as to question doubtingly whether thy heavenly Father, and thy Lord ⟨p. 251⟩doth love thee? Canst thou forget the sealed Testimonies of it? Did I not even now repeat so many as should shame thy doubts? A multitude of thy Friends have loved thee so entirely, that thou canst not doubt of it? And did any of them signify their love with the convincing evidence that God hath done? Have they done for thee what he hath done: Are they Love itself; Is their love so full, so firm and so unchangeable as his? I think the sweetlier of Heaven because abundance of my ancient Lovely and Loving Holy Friends are there, and am the willinger by Death to follow them. And should I not think of it more pleasedly because my God and Father, my Saviour, and my Comforter is there? And not alone, but with all the Society of Love. Was not Lazarus in the Bosom of God himself? yet it is said, that he was in Abraham's Bosom; as the Promise runs, that we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God. And what maketh the Society of Saints so sweet as holy Love? It is comfortable to read that, To love the Lord our God with all our Heart, and Soul, and might, is the First and great Commandment;

And dost thou doubt, canst thou doubt, O my Soul, whether thou art going to a God that loveth thee? If the Jews discerned the great love of Christ to Lazarus by his Tears, canst not thou discern his Love to thee in his Blood? It is never the less but the more obliging and amiable, that it was not shed for thee alone, but for many. May I not say as Paul, Gal. 2, 20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God, that hath loved Me, and given himself for me! Yea, it is not so much I that live, as Christ Liveth in me? And will he forsake the Habitation which his love hath chosen? And which he hath so dearly bought! O read often that triumphing Chapter, Rom. 8. and conclude, What shall separate us from the Love of God? If Life have not done it, Death shall not do it. If leaning on his Breast at Meat, was a token of Christ's special love to John, is not his dwelling in me by my Faith, and his living in me by his Spirit, a sure token of his love to me: And if a dark saying, [If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?] raised a report that the beloved Disciple should not die, why should not plain Promises assure me that I shall live with him that loveth me for ever? Be not so unthankful, O my Soul, as to question doubtingly whether thy heavenly Father, and thy Lord ⟨p. 251⟩doth love thee? Canst thou forget the sealed Testimonies of it? Did I not even now repeat so many as should shame thy doubts? A multitude of thy Friends have loved thee so entirely, that thou canst not doubt of it? And did any of them signifie their love with the convincing evidence that God hath done? Have they done for thee what he hath done: Are they Love itself; Is their love so full, so firm and so unchangeable as his? I think the sweetlier of Heaven because abundance of my ancient Lovely and Loving Holy Friends are there, and am the willinger by Death to follow them. And should I not think of it more pleasedly because my God and Father, my Saviour, and my Comforter is there? And not alone, but with all the Society of Love. Was not Lazarus in the Bosom of God himself? yet it is said, that he was in Abraham's Bosom; as the Promise runs, that we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God. And what maketh the Society of Saints so sweet as holy Love? It is comfortable to read that, To love the Lord our God with all our Heart, and Soul, and might, is the First and great Commandment;