A Funeral Sermon.

1 John 3. 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be.

GLorious things are spoken in Scripture
concerning the future Reward
of the Righteous; and all the
words that are wont to signifie
what is of greatest Price and Value,
or can represent the most enravishing
objects of our desires are made use of by the
Holy Ghost, to recommend unto us this transcendent
State of Blessedness: Such are these;
Rivers of pleasures, A fountain of living water,
A treasure that can never be wasted, nor
never taken from us; An inheritance in light,
An incorruptible Crown, A Kingdom, The Kingdom
of God, and the Kingdom of Christ; The
Kingdom of Glory, A Crown of Glory and Life,
and Righteousness, and Immortality; The Vision
of God; Being fill'd with all the fulness of
God, An exceeding eternal weight of Glory,
NoValue, Words
strangely emphatical, that can't be put into
English; and if they could, they would not be

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able to convey to our minds the Notion that
they design: for it is too big for any Expressions;
and, after all that can be said, we must
resolve with our Apostle, It does not yet appear
what we shall be.
At this distance we cannot make any likely
guesses or conjectures at the glory of that future
state. Men make very imperfect descriptions
of Countries or Cities, that never were there
themselves, nor saw the Places with their
own eyes. It is not for any mortal Creature
to make a Map of that Canaan that lies above:
It is to all us that live here on the hither-side
of Death, an unknown Countrey, and an
undiscover'd Land. It may be, some heavenly
Pilgrim, that with his holy thoughts and ardent
desires, is continually travelling thitherward,
he arrives sometimes near the borders
of the promis'd Land, and the Suburbs of the
new Jerusalem, and gets upon the top of Pisgah,
and there he has an imperfect Prospect of
a brave Countrey, that lies a far way off; but he
can't tell how to describe it, and all that he hath
to say, to satisfie the curious Enquirer, is only
this, If he would know the glories of it, he
must go and see it. It was believ'd of old, that
those places that lie under the Line, were
burnt up by the continual heat of the Sun,
and were not habitable, either by man or beast:
But later Discoveries tell us, that there are the
most pleasant Countries that the Earth can
shew; insomuch that some have plac'd Paradise
it self in that Climate. Sure I am, of all
the Regions of the Intellectual world, and the
several Lands that are peopled, either with
Men or Angels, the most pleasant Countries
they lie under the Line, under the direct
beams of the Sun of Righteousness, where
there is an eternal Day, and an eternal Spring;
where is that Tree of Life, that beareth twelve
manner of Fruits, and yieldeth her Fruit every
Month: Thus we may use Figures, and Metaphors,
and Allegories, and tell you of fruitful
meads, and spacious fields, and winding
rivers, and purling brooks, and chanting
birds, and shady groves, and pleasant gardens,
and lovely bowers, and noble Seats, and stately
Palaces, and goodly People, and excellent
Laws, and sweet Societies; but this is but to
frame little comparisons to please our childish
fancies: and just such discourses as a blind man
would make concerning Colours; so do we
talk of those things we never saw; and disparage
the state whilst we would recommend it.
Indeed it requires some Saint or Angel from
Heaven to discourse upon this Subject; and

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yet that would not do neither: for though
they might be able to speak some thing of it,
yet we should want ears to hear it. Neither
can those things be declar'd but in the language
of Heaven, which would be little understood
by us, the poor inhabitants of this
lower world; they are indeed things too great
to be brought within the compass of words.
Saint Paul, when he had been rapt up into the
third Heaven, he saw NoValue, things unlawful,
or unpossible to be uttered; and, Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into
the heart of man to conceive, what God hath
prepared for them that love him; and, It does not
yet appear what we shall be, said that beloved
Disciple, that lay in the bosom of our Saviour.
You will not now expect, that I should give
you a relation of that which cannot be uttered,
nor so much as conceiv'd; or declare unto
you what our Eagle-sighted Evangelist tells us
does not yet appear: But, that you may understand,
that that which sets this state of happiness
so beyond the reach of all imagination, is
only its transcendent excellency; I shall tell
you something of what does already appear of
it, and may be known concerning it.
First of all we are assur'd that we shall then
be freed from all the evils and miseries that we
now labour under: Vanity and Misery they
are two words that speak the whole of this
present world; the enjoyments of it are
dreams and fancies, and shadows, and appearances;
and, if any thing be, it is only Evil and
Misery that is real and substantial. Vanity
and folly, labour and pains, cares and fears,
crosses and disappointments, sickness and diseases,
they make up the whole of our portion
here. This life it is begun in a Cry, and it
ends in a Groan; and he that lives most happily,
his life is checker'd with black and white,
and his dayes are not all Sun-shine, but some
are cloudy and gloomy, and there is a Worm
at the root of all his joy, that soon eats out
the sap and heart of it; and the goard in whose
shade he now so much pleases himself, by to
morrow will be wither'd and gone. But
Heaven is not subject to these mixtures and
uncertainties; it is a Region of calmness and
serenity, and the Soul is there gotten above
the clouds, and is not annoyed with those
storms and tempests that are here below. All
tears shall then be wip'd from our eyes; and
though sorrow may endure for the night of
this World, yet joy will spring up in the
morning of Eternity.
We are sure we shall be freed from this

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earthly, and cloath'd with an heavenly and
glorified Body. These bodies of ours they are
the graves and sepulchres, the prisons and
dungeons of our Heaven-born souls; and
though we deck and adorn them, and pride
our selves in their beauty and comeliness, yet,
when all is done, they are but sinks of corruption
and defilement: they expose us to many
pains and diseases, and incline us to many
lusts and passions, and the more we pamper
them, the greater burden they are unto our
minds; they impose upon our reasons, and by
their steams and vapours cast a mist before our
understandings; they clog our affections, and
like a heavie weight depress us unto this earth,
and keep us from soaring aloft among the
winged Inhabitants of the upper-Regions: But
those robes of light and glory, which we shall
be cloath'd withall at the Resurrection of the
Just, and those Heavenly Bodies which the
Gospel hath then assur'd unto us, they are not
subject to any of these mischiefs and inconveniences,
but are fit and accommodate instruments
for the soul in its highest exaltations.
And this is an argument that the Gospel does
dwell much upon, viz. the Redemption of
our bodies, that He shall change our vile bodies,
that they may be like unto His glorious body;
and we are taught to look upon it as one great
price of our Reward, that we shall be cloath'd
upon with our house which is from heaven; that
this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and
this mortal immortality: that, as we have born
the image of the earthly, so we must bear the
image of the heavenly Adam, who was NoValue,
of heaven heavenly; as the first man was,
NoValue, of the earth earthy. And therefore,
I think, the Schools put too mean a Rate upon
this great Promise of the Gospel, The Resurrection
of our bodies; and, I believe, it might
be demonstrated from the principles of sound
Philosophy, That this Article of our Christian
Faith, which the Atheist makes so much sport
withall, is so far from being chargeable with
any absurdity, that it is founded upon the
highest Reason; for, seeing we find by too great
an experience, that the Soul has so close and necessary
a dependence upon this gross and
earthly Mass that we now carry about with us;
it may be disputed with some probability, whether
it be ever able to act independently of all
matter whatsoever: at least, we are assur'd, that
the state of conjunction is most connatural to
her; and that, Intellectual pleasure it self is
not onely multiplied, but the better felt, by
its redundancy upon the body and spirits: and

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if it be so, then the purer and more defecate
the Body is, the better will the Soul be appointed
for the exercise of its noblest operations;
and it will be no mean piece of our
reward hereafter, that that which is sown
NoValue, an animal, shall be raised a heavenly
body.
We are sure, that we shall then be free from
sin, and all those foolish lusts and passions that
we are now enslaved unto. The life of a Christian,
it is a continual Warfare; and he endures
many sore conflicts, and makes many sad
complaints, and often bemoans himself after
such a manner, as this: Wo is me, that I am
forc'd to dwell in Mesech, and to have my habitation
in the Tents of Kedar; that there
should be so many Goliah's within me, that defie
the host of Israel; so many sons of Anak
that hinder my entrance into the Land of Promise,
and the Rest of God; that I should toil
and labour among the bricks, and live in bondage
unto these worse than Egyptian Task-Masters.
Thus does he sit down by the Rivers of
Babylon, and weep over those ruines and desolations
that these worse than Assyrian Armies
have made in the City, and House of his God.
And many a time does he cry out in the bitterness
of his soul, Wretched creature that I am!

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Who shall deliver me from this body of death?
And though, through his faith, and courage, and
constancy, he be daily getting ground of his
spiritual enemies, yet it is but by inches, and
every step he takes, he must fight for it; and
living as he does in an Enemies countrey, he is
forc'd alwayes to be upon his Guard; and if he
slumber never so little, presently he is surpriz'd
by a watchful Adversary. This is our portion
here, and our lot is this; but when we arrive
unto those Regions of bliss and glory that are
above, we shall then stand safely upon the
shore, and see all our enemies, Pharaoh and
all his host, drown'd and destroyed in the Red
Sea; and being delivered from the World, and
the Flesh, and the Devil, Death, and Sin, and
Hell, we shall sing the Song of Moses, and of
the Lamb, an Epinicion, and Song of eternal
triumph unto the God of our Salvation.
We shall be sure to meet with the best company
that Earth or Heaven affords: Good
company it is the great pleasure of the life of
man; And we shall then come to the innumerable
company of Angles, and the general Assembly
of the Church of the First-born, and to the
Spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus
the Mediator of the New Convenant. The Oracle
tells Amelius, enquiring what was become of

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Polinus's soul, that he was gone to Pythagoras,
and Socrates, and Plato, and as many as
had born a part in the Quire of heavenly love.
And I may say to every good man, that he shall
go to the Company of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
Moses, David, and Samuel; all the Prophets
and Apostles, and all the holy men of
God that have been in all the ages of the
World: All those brave and excellent persons
that have been scattered at the greatest distance
of time and place, and in their several generations
have been the salt of the earth to preserve
mankind from utter degeneracy and corruption;
These shall be all gathered together,
and meet in one Constellation in that Firmament
of Glory.
O Præclarum diem, cum ad illud
divinorum animorum concilium, cœtumque
proficiscar, atque ex hac turba ac colluvione discedam!
O that blessed day, when we shall make
our escape from this medly and confused riot, and
shall arrive to that great Council and general
Randevouz of divine and godlike Spirits!
But, which is more than all, we shall then
meet our Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of our
Recovery, whose story is now so delightful
unto us, as reporting nothing of him, but
the greatest sweetness and innocence, and
meekness and patience, and mercy and tenderness,
and benignity and goodness, and what
ever can render any person lovely or amiable;
and who out of his dear love and deep compassion
unto mankind, gave up himself unto
the death for us men, and for our salvation.
And if St. Augustine made it one of his wishes,
to have seen Jesus Christ in the flesh; how
much more desirable is it, to see him out of his
terrestrial weeds, in his robes of Glory, with
all his redeemed Ones about him! And this I
cannot but look upon, as a great advantage and
priviledge, of that future State; for I am not
apt to swallow down that Conceit of the
Schools, that we shall spend Eternity in gazing
upon the naked Deity; for certainly the
happiness of man consists in having all his faculties,
in their due subordinations, gratified
with their proper objects; and I cannot but
believe, a great part of heaven to be the blest
Society that is there; Their enravishing beauty,
that is to say, their inward life and perfection,
flowing forth and raying it self thorow their
glorified bodies; The rare discourses wherewith
they entertain one another; The pure and
chast and spotless, and yet most ardent Love,
wherewith they embrace each other; The ecstatick
Devotions wherein they joyn together:
And certainly every pious and devout soul will
readily acknowledg with me, that it must
needs be matter of unspeakable pleasure, to be
taken into the Quire of Angels and Seraphims,
and the glorious Company of the Apostles, and
the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets, and the
noble Army of Martyrs; and to joyn with them
in singing Praises, and Hallelu-jahs, and Songs
of joy, and Triumph unto our great Creator and
Redeemer, The Father of Spirits, and the Lover
of Souls, unto Him that sits upon the Throne,
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
We are sure we shall then have all our capacities
fill'd, and all our desires answered. They
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; for the
Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne, shall
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains
of waters. What vast degrees of perfection
and happiness the nature of man is capable
of, we may best understand, by viewing
it in the person of Christ, taken into the
nearest union with Divinity, and made God's
Vice-gerent in the World, and the Head and
Governour of the whole Creation. In this
our narrow and contacted state we are apt
to think too meanly of our selves, and do not
understand the dignity of our own natures,
what we were made for, and what we are capable
of: but, as Plotinus somewhere observes,
We are like Children, from our birth brought
up in ignorance of, and at a great distance
from, our Parents and Relations; and have forgot
the Nobleness of our Extraction, and rank
our selves and our fortunes among the Lot of
Beggers, and mean and ordinary persons;
though we are the off-spring of a great Prince,
and were born to a Kingdom. It does indeed
become creatures to think modestly of themselves;
yet, if we consider it aright, it will be
found very hard, to set any bounds or limits
to our own happiness, and say, Hitherto it
shall arise, and no further. For that wherein
the happiness of Man consists, viz. Truth
and Goodness, and Communication of the Divine
Nature, and the Illapses of Divine Love,
it does not cloy, or glut, or satiate; but every
participation of them does widen and enlarge
our Souls, and fits us for further and
further Receptions; the more we have, the
more we are capable of; the more we are
fill'd, the more room is made in our Spirits;
and thus it is still and still, even till we arrive
unto such degrees as we can assign no measures
unto.
We shall then be made like unto God
NoValue; said
the Areopagite, Salvation can no otherwaies be
accomplish'd, but by becoming God-like; It
does not yet appear what we shall be, but when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, sayes our
Evangelist; for we shall see him as he is. There
is no seeing God as he is, but by becoming like
unto him; nor is there any enjoying of him,
but by being transform'd into his Image and
Similitude. Men usually have very strange
Notions concerning God, and the enjoyment
of him; or rather, these are words, to which
there is no correspondent conception in their
minds: but if we would understand God aright,
we must look upon him as Infinite Wisdom,
Righteousness, Love, Goodness, and
whatever speaks any thing of Beauty and Perfection;
and if we pretend to worship him,
it must be by loving and adoring his transcendent
Excellencies; and if we hope to enjoy
him, it must be by conformity unto him, and
participation of his Nature. The frame and
constitution of things is such, that it is impossible
that Man should arrive to Happiness any
other way. And if the Soveraignty of God
should dispense with our obedience, the nature
of the thing would not permit us to be
happy without it: If we live only the Animal
Life, we may indeed be happy, as Beasts are
happy; but the Happiness that belongs to a
Rational and intellectual Being, can never be
attain'd but in a way of holiness and conformity
unto the Divine Will: for, such a temper
and disposition of mind is necessary unto Happiness,
not by vertue of any arbitrarious constitution
of Heaven; but, the eternal Laws of
Righteousness, and immutable respects of
things, do require and exact it: Yea, I may truly
say, That God and Christ without us cannot
make us happy: for we are not conscious to
our selves of any thing, but only the operations
of our own minds; & tis not the person of God
and Christ, but their Life and Nature, wherein
consists our formal happiness: For, What is
the happiness of God himself, but only that
pleasure and satisfaction that results from a
sense of his Infinite perfections? And how is it
possible for a creature to be more happy, than
by partaking of that, in its measure and proportion,
which is the happiness of God himself.
The Soul being thus prepar'd, shall live in
the presence of God, and lie under the influences
and illapses of Divine love and goodness;
Father I will that they whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am, that the may
behold my glory. They that fight manfully under
the Banners of Heaven, and overcome their
spiritual Enemies, They shall eat of the hidden

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Manna, and become Pillars in the Temple of
God, and shall go no more out. They shall stand
before the Throne of God continually, and serve
him Day and Night in his Temple, and he that
sitteth on the Throne shall dwell amongst them>;
God shall put under them his everlasting
Arms, and carry them in his bosom; and they
shall suck the full Breasts of eternal goodness:
For now there is nothing can hinder the most
near and intimate conjunction of the Soul
with God; for, things that are alike, do easily
mingle with one another: but the mixture
that is betwixt Bodies, be they never so homogeneal,
comes but to an external touch; for
their parts can never run up into one another.
But there is no such NoValue, or resistance, amongst
spiritual Beings; and we are estranged
from God NoValue not by distance
of place, but by difference and diversity
of Nature; and when that is remov'd, He
becomes present to us, and we to Him:
NoValue &c.
like the Magnitudines congruæ in Mathematicks,
Quando prima primis, media mediis,
extrema extremis, partes denique partibus usquequaque
respondent, each of whose parts do
exactly answer one to the other. This therefore
is the Soul's progress from that state of
purgation to illumination, and so to Union.
There are several faculties in the Soul of Man,
that are conformed to several kinds of objects;
and, according to that Life a Man is awaked into,
so these faculties do exert themselves; and
though whilst we live barely an Animal Life,
we converse with little more than this outward
World, and the objects of our Senses; yet
there are Faculties within us that are receptive
of God, and when we arrive once unto a due
measure of purity of Spirit, the Rayes of Heavenly
Light will as certainly shine into our
minds, as the beams of the Sun, when it arises
above the Horizon, do illuminate the clear
and pellucid air: And from this sight and illumination,
the Soul proceeds to an intimate
union with God, and to a tast and touch of him.
This is that NoValue, that silent touch
with God that fills the Soul with unexpressible
joy and triumph: For, if the objects of
this outward world that strike upon our senses
do so hugely please and delight us; What
infinite pleasure then must there needs be in
those touches and Impresses, that the Divine
Love and goodness shall make upon our Souls?
But these are things that we may talk of, as we
would do of a sixth Sense, or something we
have no distinct Notion or Idea of; but the perfect

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understanding of them belongs only to
the future state of Comprehension.
Lastly, we shall have our Knowledge, and
our Love, which are the most perfect and
beatifying Acts of our Minds, employed about
their noblest objects in their most exalted Measures;
For a Man to resolve himself in some
knotty Question, or answer some stubborn Argument,
or find out some noble Conclusion,
or solve some hard Probleme, what ineffable
pleasure does it create many times to a contemplative
mind? We know, who sacrific'd a Hecatomb
for one Mathematical Demonstration;
and another that upon the like occasion cry'd
out, NoValue, in a kind of Rapture: To
have the secrets of Nature disclos'd, and the mysteries
of Art reveal'd; but above all, the Riddles
of Providence unfolded, are such Jewels
as I know many searching and inquisitive Spirits
would be willing to purchase at any Rate;
when we come to Heaven I will not say, We
shall see all things, in the mirror of Divinity,
for that it may be is an Extravagancy of the
Schools; nor, that any one true Proposition through
the concatenation of Truth, will then
multiply it self into the explicit knowledge of
all Conclusions whatsoever, for I believe that
a Fancy too, but our Knowledge shall be
strangely enlarg'd, and, for ought I can determine,
be for ever receiving new Additions,
and fresh Accruements; The Clew of Divine
Providence will then be unravell'd, and all
those Difficulties which now perplex us, will
be easily assoyl'd, and we shall then perceive
that the Wisdom and Goodness of God, is a vast
and comprehensive Thing, and moves in a far
larger Sphear than we are aware of in this
state of narrowness and imperfection: But
there is something greater and beyond all this;
and S. John has a strange Expression, That we
shall then see God even as he is; And God, we
know, is the well-spring of Perfection and Happiness,
the Fountain and Original of all Beauty;
he is infinitely glorious, and lovely, & excellent;
and if we see him as he is, all this Glory must descend
into us and become ours: for we can no
otherwaies see God as I said before but by
becoming Deiform, by being changed into
the same Glory. But Love, that is it, which
makes us most happy, and by that we are most
intimately conjoyn'd unto God, For he that
dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and God in
him: And how pleasant beyond all imagination
must it needs be, to have the Soul melted
into a flame of Love, and that Fire fed and nourish'd
by the enjoyment of it's Beloved; To be

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transported into Ecstasies, and Raptures of Love;
to be swallowed up in the embraces of eternal
sweetness; to be lost in the Sourse and Fountain
of Happiness and Bliss, like a spark in the
Fire, or a beam in the Sun, or drop in the Ocean.
It may be you will tell me, I have been all
this while confuting my Text, and giving you
a Relation of that which S. John tells us, does
not yet appear what it is; But my design has
been the same with the Holy Evangelist's; and
that is, to represent unto you, how transcendently
great, that State of Happiness must
needs be; when as, by what we are able to
apprehend of it, it is infinitely the object of
our desires, and yet we are assur'd by those
that are best able to tell, That the best and
greatest part of the Countrey is yet undiscover'd,
and that we cannot so much as guess
at the pleasure of it, till we come to enjoy
it: And indeed it is impossible it should be
otherwise; for Happiness being a matter of
Sense, all the words in the World cannot
convey the Notion of it unto our Minds, and it
is only to be understood by them that feel it;
NoValue
But though it does not yet appear what we
shall be; yet so much already appears of it,
that it cannot but seem the most worthy object
of our endeavours and desires; and by
some few Clusters that have been shewn us of
this good Land, we may guess what pleasant
and delightful Fruit it bears: And if we have
but any reverence of our selves, and will but
consider the dignity of our Natures, and the
vastness of that Happiness we are capable of;
methinks we should be alwayes travelling
towards that Heavenly Countrey, though
our way lies through a Wilderness, and be
striving for this great Prize and immortal
Crown, and be clearing our eyes, and purging
our sight, that we may come to this Vision
of God; shaking off all fond passions,
and dirty desires, and breathing forth our
Souls in such aspirations as these:
My Soul thirsteth for thee, O Lord, in
a dry and barren Land, where no Water is; O
that thou wouldst distill, and drop down the
Dew of thy Heavenly Grace into all it's secret
Chinks and Pores; One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after, That I
may dwell in the House of the Lord all the
dayes of my Life, and behold his Glory,
for a day in thy Courts is better than a thousand,
and I had rather be a Door-keeper in
the House of the Lord, than dwell in the
Tents of wickedness. All the Kings of the
Earth, they are thy Tributaries; the Kings
of Tarshish, and of the Isles, bring Presents
unto thee; the Kings of Sheba and Seba offer
Gifts! O that we could but pay thee, that
which is so due unto thee, the tribute of
our Hearts! The Heathen are come into thine
Inheritance; thy holy Temple have they defi'ld:
Help us, O God of our Salvation, and
deliver us, and purge away our sins from us,
for thy Name's sake! O that the Lord whom
we seek, would come to his own House, and
give Peace there, and fill it with his Glory!
Come and cleanse thine own Temple, for we
have made it a Den of Thieves, which should
have been a House of Prayer! O that we
might never give sleep to our eys, nor slumber
to our eye-lids, till we have prepar'd a
House for the Lord, and a Tabernacle for
the God of Jacob! The Curse of Cain it is
fallen upon us, and we are as Vagabonds
in the Earth; and wander from one Creature
to another! O that our Souls might come at
last to dwell in God, our fixed and eternal
Habitation! We, like silly Doves, fly up and
down the Earth, but can find no rest for the
sole of our feet; O that after all our weariness
and our wandrings, we might return
into the Ark, and that God would put forth his
hand and take us & pull us in unto Himself! We
have too long lived upon Vanity and Emptiness,
the wind and the whirle-wind; O that
we may now begin to feed upon Substance,
and delight our selves in Marrow and Fatness!
O that God would strike our rocky Hearts,
that there might spring up a Fountain in the
Wilderness, and Pools in the Desart; that
we might drink of that Water, whereof whosoever
drinks, shall never thirst more; that
God would give us that Portion of Goods
that falleth to us, not to waste it with riotous
living, but therewith to feed our languishing
Souls, lest they be weary and faint by the
way! We ask not the Childrens Bread, but
the Crums that fall from thy Table; that
our Baskets may be fill'd with thy Fragments,
for they will be better than Wine, and
sweeter than the Hony, and the Hony-Comb,
and more pleasant to us than a Feast of fat
things! We have wandred too long in a
barren, and howling Desart, where wild
Beasts, and doleful Creatures, Owls and
Bats, Satyrs and Dragons, keep their haunts;
O that we might be fed in green Pastures,
and led by the still Waters, that the Winter
might be past, and the Rain over and gone,

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that the Flowers may appear on the Earth,
and the time of the singing of Birds may
come, and the Voice of the Turtle may be
heard in our Land! We have lived too long
in Sodom, which is the place that God at
last will destroy: O that we might arise and
be gone; and while we are lingring, that
the Angels of God would lay hold upon
our hands, and be merciful unto us, and
bring us forth, and set us without the City;
and that we may never look back any more,
but may escape unto the Mountain, and
dwell safe in the Rock of Ages! Wisdom
hath killed her Beasts, she hath mingled her
Wine, and furnish'd her Table; O that we
might eat of her Meat, and drink of the
Wine which she hath mingled! God knocks
at the doors of our Hearts; O let us open
unto him, those everlasting Gates, that he
may Sup with us, and we with him; for he
will bring his Chear along with him, and will
feast us with Manna, and Angels food! O that
the Sun of Righteousness might arise and melt
the Iciness of our Hearts! That God would
send forth his Spirit, and with his warmth
and heat, dissolve our frozen Souls! That
God would breathe into our minds, those still
and gentle Gales of Divine Inspirations, that
may blow up, and increase in us the flames
of heavenly Love! That we may be a whole
burnt Offering, and all the substance of our
Souls be consum'd by fire from Heaven, and
ascend up in Clouds of Incense! That as so
many sparks we might be always mounting
upward, till we return again into our proper
Elements! That like so many particular Rivulets,
we may be continually making toward
the Sea, and never rest till we lose our
selves in that Ocean of Goodness, from
whence we first came! That we may open
our Mouths wide, that God may satisfie them!
That we may so perfectly discharge our selves
of all strange Desires and Passions, that our
Souls may be nothing else but a deep Emptiness,
and vast Capacity to be fill'd with
all the fulness of God! Let but these be the
breathings of our Spirits, and this Divine
Magnetism will most certainly draw down
God into our Souls, and we shall have some
Prælibations of that Happiness; some small
glimpses, and little discoveries whereof, is all
that belongs to this state of Mortality.