CHAP. XX. They who love God in the Highest degree, do not think the Yoak and Burthen of Christ to be Heavy or Troublesome, but ra∣ther Easie and Light.

ALas! How many heavy and intolle∣rable Burthens do we see, which in this miserable State, the Love of this World and our Fleshly uncleanness, and corrupt inclinations, make very easie and desirable. In order to get Riches we see the Merchant exposeth himself to the Raging Sea, breaks his Sleep, and shor∣tens his Life: To arrive to Honour and Dignity a man abandons himself to a continual slavery at Court, and to all that which is hurtful and grievous to Soul and Body: For the sake of Lust and impure Love, more especially that Page  127which men bear to Women, and Wo∣men to Men, what intolerable burthens are not readily, willingly and gladly Born? For Love, alas! is so fast rooted and riveted in our Flesh and Blood, that beyond any other thing whatsoever no body without the special Grace and Assu∣rance of God, can any longer moderate, curb or restrain it, much less quite root it our. The inclination of the heart brought the Love of Women along with it into Paradise, and we suck the same from our Mothers Breasts; yea we take it from our Mothers hearts, whilst we are yet hid in the Womb. For the sake of Women (saith• Zorobabel, as we find it in 1 Esdras 4.14, 15, 16.) Men forsake and abandon their Honour, Lives and Goods, yea Vertue and Reason, and become captiva∣ted, yea senseless and distracted by Reason of the Love they bear to them. This inborn and inbred Love, neither Frock nor Cowl, neither Church nor Convent, nei∣ther Cell nor Dungeon can keep out, except the grace of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ come in to our help: But indeed when that once comes, the work is Light and Easie; for if that Page  128once sweetly impresseth and ingraves the unutterable Love of God on the heart, then all other Loves must pack up and be gone; and the more clearly she ma∣nifests her self, and the more amiably she imageth or forms her self in the Soul; so much the more speedily must Flesh and Blood sink and perish. Yea sometimes she appears so sweet to the Soul, that all Creatures become distast∣ful to it. Here it is that our Iron-hard heart becomes soft, pliant, and yielding, the heavy and troublesome yoak be∣comes sweet and easie, and insuportable Burthen, light and pleasurable, and all this because God doth amiably move and affect our Spirits. VVould you have me Communicate this Art to you, and tell you how it is able to perform these great things? Pray resolve me first of a matter which is a thousand times less: How comes it to pass that he heavy lumpish Iron runs to the embraces of the Load Stone, and why as soon as a dish or bason, wherein Iron lies, is touched with the Load stone, doth the Iron raise it self, and begin to move that way to which the Load Stone draws it. Dost Page  129thou say the Stone is able to do this, tho thou canst not tell me how, or by what means? Then wonder no more how the Creator of Nature can so freely and powerfully move his own work, or how the unutterable Loveliness of God tasted and felt in the Heart, doth sublime and raise the spirit in Love, kindle it, melt it, and make it triumphantly joyful, and full of Jubilee. Doth the stone draw the Iron to it self, without so much as touching it, how much more then must needs the most Rocky and obdurate Soul, being touched by the Eternal Heavenly Load-stone, be raised above it self, and run into the Embraces of this powerful Drawer?* Or how can it be otherwise, but that after this taste of the transcen∣dent Divine sweetness, all Tribulation and Suffering strewed over with this Sugar must needs become sweet and desirable? Or how is it possible but that all the sweetness of the Love, opposite to this, must needs lose its taste and become bit∣ter and loathsome; seeing the common Proverb assures us, that to him who rel∣lisheth the Spirit, the Flesh becomes di∣tasteful Page  130and abominable. For the Na∣ture and Property of the Holy Spirit of the self-subsisting Love of God is this, that wheresoever she touches, she draws and allures; where she is rellished, she drives and impells; where she is felt and experienced, she rejoyceth the Heart. Moreover she has this particular proper∣ty, that she robs the Flesh of all its sweetness, like as the Meridian Bright∣ness of the Sun, discountenances and darkens the Light of a Candle. Fur∣thermore she hath this also amongst the rest of her properties that she sweetens all pains and griefs; comforts and re∣lieves Misery and Wretchedness, restores all weakness, makes all labour light and easie, turns weeping into laughter, and sorrow into joy. He that experimentally finds her, rejoyceth to suffer for the sake of Christ, from his very heart desires to bear the Cross with Christ, and longs for the Fire of Temptation, that therein his Love, being tried, and refined from all Dross, may purely and nakedly cleave to God, and therefore cries out with the divine Spouse: Ca•tic. 4.16. Arise thou North wind, and come on East wind, and Page  131blow upon my Garden, that my Spices may flow forth and give their sweet Odour: As if she had said; come Temptation from all quarters, try and prove my Vertues and Graces, that they may become pure Gold, and be for the amendment and e∣dification of all that hear or see them. O Holy and Divine Spirit! O sweetest Guest and Inmate of the Soul! O only life of men! He that wants thee, tho' alive is dead before God; and he that hath got thee, can never die with God, tho the world be carrying him forth to his grave! Thou art far more necessary to the Soul, then the Soul is to the Body! VVhere thou art not, there the outward dying is the beginning of Eternal death, but where thou art, of Eternal Life! In thee most Holy God we are, in thee we live, in thee we are savingly moved, and all this from the Merits and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Re∣deemer of the VVorld, in whom the un∣utterable Mercy of God, and over great Love to us, is so clearly manifested, and through thee, O Holy Ghost, so plainly i∣maged and deeply imprinted in our hearts, that we cannot look for any Page  132thing else but Love from the Father, Son and Spirit; so that it is now no more possible for us to take any strange God for our God, than it is possible for any one else to shew us such transcendent and unmeasurable Mercy, Kindness and Love, as thou hast made us partakers of. It is possible, and it hath oft happened, that even wicked Men have wrought Miracles, being the same thing Scrip∣ture testifies, that Antichrist shall do at his coming. It is also possible, that the Enemies of God may in outward Gifts of Charity shew themselves more liberal to the Eyes of Men, than ever thou hast done, and to make others by their Liberality rich and powerful and such like. But all these are but uncertain signs and marks of the right true Love. To suffer and die for the sake of the Be∣loved Object, is a true and infallible sign of Love; when this is done for Gods sake, it shews a Love sufficient to Salva∣tion; and if it be done for the sake of a Friend, then is it an expression of the highest degree of Human Love, as the Lord Jesus witnesseth. No Man can have greater Love than this, that he lay down his Page  133life for his friend Joh. 15.31. But if this Love rise get higher, even to that degree as to make a Man willing to suffer and die for his Enemy, then is it a certain Mark of the Love of God alone. VVe read of Antichrist, that he shall do his utmost en∣deavour and diligence, as far as is possible, to appear outwardly like to Christ in Mi∣racles, VVorks of VVonder, and in all his other Actions and Behaviour; yea to be more kind and beneficent in outward Gifts and Liberality. He will, as was be∣fore hinted, by his Liberality make those Rich and Powerful that believe in him, and will also draw to his Party such as are Rich and Powerful, with rigour and severity, and by fear compel them; for he will horribly afflict, torment and put to Death, such as will not believe in him, But it will never please him to suffer for his Enemies, and to die for those that hate him, by which it appears, that his Love is so far from being the true Divine Love, that it is not so much as the high∣est Degree of Human Love. VVhere∣fore also all these pompous Shews of his Love, will be of no force with the Elect of God to deceive them. Out of Christ Page  134alone, as was said before, the highest Love of God breaks forth and manifests it self; out of him alone flow forth the waters of Grace. Neither is there any other Name under Heaven, wherein, and whereby, we may be saved, save only the sweetest Name Jesu, to whom alone therefore we point and direct all, who are desirous to be inflamed with the Love of God; for in him alone we meet with all that ought and must be sought for in order to our Salvation.