of so terrible a carriage should have fetched away his soul beforehand, and have left the body grovelling on the earth: but that Good Spirit of thine, which had fore-signified that fiery rapture, had doubtless fore-armed thy servant with an answerable resolution to expect and undergo it. Either he knew that chariot, however fearful in the appearance, was only glorious, and not penal; or else he cheerfully resolved, that such a momentary pain in the change would be followed with an eternity of happiness. O God, we are not worthy to know whereto thou hast reserved us. Perhaps thou hast appointed us to be in the number of those, whom thou shalt find alive at thy Second Coming; and then, the case will be ours; we shall pass through fire to our immortality: or, if thou hast ordained us to a speedier dispatch, perhaps thou hast decreed that our way to thee shall be through a fiery trial. O God, whatever course thou, in thy holy wisdom, hast determined for the fetching up my soul from this vale of misery and tears, prepare me thoroughly for it: and do thou work my heart to so lively a faith in thee, that all the terrors of my death may be swallowed up, in an assured expectation of my speedy glory; and that my last groans shall be immediately seconded with eternal Hallelujahs, in the glorious Choir of thy Saints and Angels in Heaven. Amen. Amen.

SUSURRIUM CUM DEO.

SOLILOQUIES:

OR,

HOLY SELF-CONFERENCES OF THE DEVOUT SOUL,

UPON SUNDRY CHOICE OCCASIONS;

WITH HUMBLE ADDRESSES

TO THE

THRONE OF GRACE.

BY JOSEPH, BISHOP OF NORWICH.

THE

AUTHOR'S SUPPLICATORY DEDICATION.

To thee, only, O my God, who hast put these holy thoughts into my soul, do I most humbly desire to dedicate both myself and them: earnestly beseeching thee graciously to accept of both; and that thou wouldest be pleased to accompany and follow these my weak practical Devotions, with a sensible blessing in every reader. Let these good Meditations not rest in the eye, but descend into the bosom of the perusers; and effectually work in their hearts, that warmth of pious affections, which I have here presumed to exemplify in mine: To the glory of thy great Name, and our mutual comfort, in the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

SELF-CONFERENCES.

SOLILOQUY I.

THE BEST PROSPECT.

O MY God, I shall not be worthy of my eyes, if I think I can employ them better, than in looking up to thy heaven and I shall not be worthy to look up to heaven, if I suffer my eyes to rest there, and not look through heaven at thee, the Almighty Maker and Ruler of it; who dwellest there in all glory and majesty; and if seeing thee I do not always adore thee, and find my soul taken up with awful and admiring thoughts concerning thee. I see many eyes have looked curiously upon that glorious frame, else they could not have made so punctual observation of the fire and motion of those goodly globes of light, which thou hast placed there, as to foretell all their conjunctions and oppositions, for many hundred years before: but, while they look at the motions, let me look at the mover; wondering, not without ravishment of spirit, at that infinite power and wisdom, which keeps up those numberless and immense bodies in so perfect a regularity, that they all keep their just stations and times, without the least varying from the course which thou settedst them in their first creation; so while their observation makes them the wiser, mine shall make me the holier. Much variety of objects hast thou given us, here below, which do commonly take up our eyes: but it shall be my fault, if all those do not rather lead my thoughts to thee, than withdraw them from thee; since thy power and majesty is clearly conspicuous in them all. O God, while I have eyes, let me never but see thee in all things, let me never but enjoy thee: let me see thee as thou mayest be seen, by the eye of faith, till I may see, as I am seen, hereafter, in glory let me see thee as through a glass darkly here on earth, till I may come to see thee face to face in heaven; 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

:

II.

THE HAPPY PARTING.

I HAVE lived divers years longer than holy David did; yet I can truly say with him, if that psalm were his which hath the

title of Moses, We have brought our years to an end, as it were a tale that is tolda; Psalm xc. 9. Methinks, O my soul, it is but yesterday since we met; and now we are upon parting: neither shall we, I hope, be unwilling to take leave; for what advantage can it be to us to hold out longer together? One piece of me cannot but grow more infirm with use and time; and thereupon must follow a decay of all faculties and operations. Where the tools are grown bad and dull, what work can be exquisite? Thou seest it then necessary, and inevitable, that we must yield to age, and grow worse with continuance. And what privilege can mere time give us in our duration? We see the basest of stones last longer, than the durablest plants; and we see trees hold out longer, than any sensitive creatures; and divers of those sensitive creatures outlast man, the lord of them all. Neither are any of these held more excellent, because they wear out more hours. We know Enoch was more happy, that was fetched away at three hundred sixty-five years, than Methuselah, at nine hundred sixty and nine; Gen. v. 23, 24, 27. Difference of age doth nothing but pull down a side, where there are not supplies of increasing abilities. Should we continue our partnership many years longer, could we hope for more health and strength of body, more vigour of understanding and judgment, more heat of good affections? And can we doubt, that it will be elsewhere better with us? Do we not know what abides for us above? Are we not assured, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? 2 Cor. v. 1. Why, therefore, oh, why should ye be loth, to part upon fair terms? thou, O my soul, to the possession of that happy mansion, which thy Dear Saviour hath from eternity prepared for thee in his Father's house; and thou, O my body, to that quiet repository of thy grave, till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed resurrection of the just, never, never to be severed.

III.

HEAVENLY CONVERSATION.

It matters not a little, with whom we hold our familiar conversation; for, commonly, we are transformed into the dispositions and manners of those, whose company we frequent: we daily see those, who, by haunting the society of drunkards and debauched persons, have, from civil and orderly men, grown into extremity of lewdness; and, on the contrary, those, who have consorted themselves with the holy and virtuous,