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Ambition.
MY Lord, I will not ••inely desire to pry into thy Ca∣binet of secrets, to finde out what was the reason, why thou didst cast down those sometime bright Angels in Heaven, now tormenting & tormented spirits in hel; but I have heard that some have thought that it was for having too ambitious and too high desires.
My Lord! Could their desires be rais'd higher then are mine? for I confesse mine reach unto thy Throne; Nothing will now satisfie me, but to be inthron'd with thee in glory. I am grown so confident too, that I aver those high desires in me to be lawfull, and know that for them thou wilt not cast me from thee, but wilt in∣throne me with thee,
My Lord! I see 'tis dangerous to doe any thing in thy service without a command, or a message from thee: For I see many things done by thy command, blest with felicity, when without, punisht with misery. I finde no command given them for such desires; but methinkes I hear that blest Apostle of thine, When returned from his heavenly rapture, cals to me, and tels me from thee, that I must seek those things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and that my life is hid in Christ with thee: so that now I seeking to attaine my high desires, made lawfull by thy command, am not onely placed on thy Throne, by thee, but I am in thee; and those rebellious Spirits that sought to obtain their ambitious desires, without thy commands, are not onely cast out of thy blessed presence, but also are for ever to be tormented in eternall misery.