La scala santa, or, A scale of devotions musical and gradual being descants on the fifteen Psalms of Degrees, in metre : with contemplations and collects upon them, in prose, 1670.

CONTEMPLATIONS and COLLECTS ON THE Fourteenth PSALM of DEGREES, BEING The CXXXIII. PSALM.

O Blessed Father! who hast made many of us of one Blood and Kind: O blessed Saviour! who hast made us many of one Bread, and one Lump: O blessed Spirit! who art the Love, both of the Father, and of the Son, shed this abroad into all our Hearts abundantly; look upon us graciously, O thou only one, most loving and pitying Lord God! that we may look upon thee better (though it be but darkly at the best) in that Sea of Glass before the Throne, in that clearest mirror and reflection of thy favour to Mankind, to wit, in Christ incarnate, in whom God is most won∣derfully, wisely, and kindly seen to reconcile the World (what is that but Vileness, Vanity, and Vexation, Frailty, and a Curse) unto himself, that Man might be far more able than he was by the Glasses and Laver of the Tabernacle, both to see his Spots and Pollutions to get clean from them, and that God might be consider'd and admired not so much in the broken Glass of Nature, nor in the blotted Book of the Creature, (which shew us his power and greatness) as in the Face of a Redeemer, in the Testament of the holy Jesus, which most plainly, and yet most gloriously speaks thy Love and Goodness, and calls for ours; since if thou hast so loved this naughty World, and us that help to make it worse, how ought we to love thee, and also to love one another?

O how good, as well as how pleasant, a thing it is to know Christ as our Head, and we our selves his Members! This is as sweet and useful as Life it self, to make our short Lives here not tedious to our selves or others; nay, this is Life Eternal, because Charity never fails: We shall have that Grace for all if we are Christians, we shall keep it always if we are Saints, for it is Holiness, and will be Happiness; it is the Oyl that from our Head, from our everlasting Aaron, falls down to the very Skirts of his Clothing, to revive and refresh the lowest and most humbled Sinner (if believing), and it is that Anointing from above which we must not want, especially at the last Article of Life, in the greatest extremities of Temptation, but we must carry it along with us into our Father's presence; then shall we be in his sight as a Field which the Lord hath blest, then will he smell the Odour of our elder Brother's Vest upon us, and we shall inherit the Promises, and abide in his Love in the participation, and in the propa∣gation thereof, Divine Love being the Dew of Heaven that causes the fruitfulness of the Earth; it makes us high and white like Hermon, pleasant and safe as Mount Sion; it makes our Superiours, and the

great ones of the Earth, not to be Rocks of Offence to us, but to be rather, as the shadows of a Rock in a dry Land, needful Supports, convenient Sanctuaries and Refreshments, and it causes God to com∣mand a Blessing on us from all degrees of People above us, and of conditions round about us. Therefore,

Dear Lord! help us to live in such Concord and brotherly Kindness, as that we may be Blessed from all our Relations, from our Superiours, by having the Oyl of Spiritual Blessings, and the Dew of Temporal Favours bestowed on us, Love and good Will from Equals, Prayers and good Wishes from Inferiours; being so careful and affectionate, both for thy Priests, and for our Princes, as that neither Moses nor Aaron may be murmured at, but obeyed by us, and we may be prote∣cted and guided by their Hands in the Spirit and Practice of all true Love and Charity, for the honour of our Christian Profession, and for the glory of thy holiest Name, O Christ Jesus our Lord! who livest and reignest, &c.