deste de

Good Reader, if thou wilt fee the reaches of a devout foule after this love of Chrift, expreffed in these pious Sermons, reade this Soliloquy following.

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DEVOVT SOYLE TO CHRIST 2 PANTING AFter the love of the LORD 1 Esus.

MORADAN TO

Thou Love of all loves, thou chiefeft of ten thousand; thou lovedft me before I was, thou doft love me when I am, thou doeft love me (if I bee thine) when I am here no more. Thy Laves are better then wine, but mine are worse the gall and wormewood Thou lovelt mee who de ferve leffe then nothing, I love not thee who deferveft more then all things. I have hid my felfe from thee as Adam, yet thou haft pierced through the darke cloud, and loved me. Thou haft opened thy felfe inthe face of my foule, yet in the fight of this Sun I have not loved thee, No bafeneffe

of

of mine hath closed thy eyes, and kept thy heart from me: yet every bafe pleasure, and pleafing luft hath kept my heart and eye from thee. With out my love to thee I cannot have my happineffe applyed, and enjoyed. It is Faith that marries thee to me: but this faith muft worke by love, or my marriage will end in a fruitleffe barrenneffe, and faithleffe feparation. Hitherto there fore I have loved thee, but for luft,not for love. I would have thee fave me, but I would not honour, and please thee. I can thus think of my difloyalty towards thee; but thou knewest it before 1 thought it, and more then I can fpeake or thinke. Thou doeft thinke thoughts of love and peace to me, but I minde the abufe of thy love, and the too late repentance of thee upon my owne termes. How can I be acceptable to thee,(My Love, my Dove, my undefiled,) Thou fpreadeft out thy hands, and art ready for blessing me; but if I open my head, heart, hand, I am apt to receive nothing but Anathema, Maranatha from thee. Can love come to enmity, heaven to hell? I am hell (my Lord) thou art heaven: I am hatred, thou art Love. Thou sheweft hatred, yet in my wifdome am I very enmity. Can I then expect either to have the blessing of Love, or to avoide the curfe of not loving? oh fhew methy face,for it is comly. Thou haft often fhewed me thy riches, and I have loved them: but oh fhew me thy felfe, that I may love thee, I have feen thy goodnes,mer cy, compaffion, merit, falvation, and have cried out, ( My blessed Iefus) make thefe mine. Now

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let

let me fee thy felfe, that thou my beloved mayft be mine, and all thofe riches in thee. From the fight of thy riches I have defired to preserve my felfe: from feeing thy felfe I fhall defire to draw neere tothee, and to cleave to thee for ever. O thou whom my foule defires to love,fhew me then where thou lieft at noone, that I may see thee! I know where I fhall finde thee at the night of my life. I fhall finde thee fitting on yonder throne, ready to fay, either, Come ye bleffed, or, Goe yee curfed. I doc not know whether fo fhort a view fhall bring me to heare either the one, or the othre. Shew me then where thou lieft at this my noone. Now thy Sun doth fhine upon this my tabernacle, and I have fome time to behold thy beauty, that I may be in love with thy perfon: where then fhall I finde thee? if I looke to mount Tabor, I fee thee in glory, and I cannot but love thee for that. If I looke to the garden, I. for thee lying on the cold ground, fweating drops of blond for mee, and I cannot but love thee for that. If I looke to Golgotha, I fee thee nayled to the Croffe, and thy heart broa ched,that I may drinke thy blood and live, and I cannot but love thee for that. If I looke to mount Olivet, I fee thee afcending farre above all heavens, and I cannot but love thee for that alfo. Indeed in Tabor thou hadst visible glory, but it foone vanished in the Garden and Golgotha, thou hadft little vifible beauty why I fhould defire thee: and in Olivet, thou waft quite carried out of my fight If then thou lieft for mee no where elfe what hope have I to love thee, O thou to be be loved