Thomas Traherne · 12 of 19

The Third Century · Part 4

O clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto Cod with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible, He is a Great King over all the Earth. He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion; on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. Walk about Sion and go round about her, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following For this God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death.

As in the former psalms he propeseth true and celestial joys, so in this following he discovereth the of false imaginations. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means his brother, or give unto God a ransom for him. For the of their soul is precious and it ceaseth forever. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and brutish person perish; and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names. This their way is their folly, yet their Posterity reprove their sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed sweetly on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. Man that is in honour and understandeth not, is like the beast that perisheth.

Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee. I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt oferings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he-goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell thee; for the World is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. When I was a little child, I thought that everyone that lifted up his eyes to behold the sun, did me in looking on it, wonderful service. And certainly being moved thereby to praise my Creator, it was in itself a service wonderfully delightful. For since God so much esteemeth praises, that He preferreth them above thousands of rams and tens of thousands of rivers of oil: if I love Him with that inflamed ardour and zeal I ought His praises must needs be delightful to me above all services and riches whatsoever. That which hinders us from seeing the glory and discerning the sweetness of praises hinders us also from knowing the manner how we are concerned in them. But God knoweth infinite reasons, for which He preferreth them. If I should tell you what they are, you would be apt to despise them. Divine and heavenly mysteries being thirsted after till they are known, but by corrupted nature undervalued. since correcteth the perverseness of nature, and tasteth in a better manner, it shall not be long, till somewhere we disclose them.

Are not praises the very end for which the world was created? Do they not consist as it were of knowledge, complacency, and thanksgiving? Are they not better than all the fowls and beasts and fishes in the world? What are the cattle upon a thousand hills but carcases, without creatures that can rejoice in God, and enjoy them? It is evident that praises are infinitely more excellent than all the creatures because they proceed from men and angels. For as streams do, they derive an excellency from their fountains, and are the last tribute that can possibly be paid to the Creator. Praises are the breathings of interior love, the marks and symptoms of a happy life, overflowing gratitude, returning benefits, an oblation of the soul, and the heart ascending upon the wings of divine affection to the Throne of God. God is a Spirit and cannot feed on carcases: but He can be delighted with thanksgivings, and is infinitely pleased with the emanations of our joy, because Himself is admired and His works are esteemed. What can be more acceptable to love than that it should be prized and magnified? Because therefore God is love, and His measure infinite, He infinitely desires to be admired and beloved, and so our praises enter into the very secret of His Eternal Bosom, and mingle with Him who dwelleth in that light which is inaccessible. What strengths are there even in flattery to please a great affection? Are not your bowels moved, and your affections melted with delight and pleasure, when your soul is precious in the eye of those you love? When your affection is pleased, your love prized, and they satisfied? To prize love is the highest service in the whole world that can be done unto it. But there are a thousand causes moving God to esteem our praises, more than we can well apprehend. However, let these inflame you, and move you to praise Him night and day forever.

Of our Saviour it is said, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared me, all Sacrifices being but types and figures of Himself, and Himself infinitely more excellent than they all. Of a broken heart also it is said, Thou desirest not sacrifice else I would give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. One deep and serious groan is more acceptable to God than the creation of a world. In spiritual things we find the greatest excellency. As praises, because they are the pledges of our mutual affection, so groans, because they are pledges of a due , are the greatest sacrifices. Both proceed from love, and in both we manifest and exercise our friendship. In we show our for having offended, and by that are fitted to rehearse His praises. All the desire wherewith He longs after a returning sinner, makes Him to esteem a broken heart. What can more melt and dissolve a lover than the tears of an offending and returning friend? Here also is the sailing verified, The falling out of lovers is the beginning of love, the renewing, the repairing, and the strengthening of it.

An enlarged soul that seeth all the world praising God, or by bewailing their offences and converting to Him, hath his eye fixed upon the joy of Angels. It needeth nothing but the sense of God to inherit all things. We must borrow and derive it from Him by seeing His, and aspiring after it. Do but clothe yourself with Divine resentments and the world shall be to you the valley of vision, and all the nations and kingdoms of the world shall appear in splendour and celestial glory.

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. But I will sing of Thy power, yea I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning. For Thou host been my defence in the day of my trouble. The deliverances of your former life are objects of your felicity, and so is the vengeance of the wicked. With both which in all times and places you are ever to be present in your memory and understanding. For lack of considering its objects the soul is desolate.

My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. To see Thy power and Thy glory so as I have seen Thee in the Sanctuary. Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee while I live, I will lift up mine hands in Thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall raise Thee with joyful lips. O Thou that Nearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of this house, even of this Holy Temple. See how is the 65th psalm he introduceth the: meditation of God’s visible works sweetly into the Tabernacle and maketh them to be the fatness of His house, even of His Holy Temple. God is seen when His love is manifested. God is enjoyed when His love is prized. When we see the glory of His wisdom and goodness and His power exerted, then we see His glory. And these we cannot see till we see their works. When therefore we see His works, in them as in a mirror we see His glory.

Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands, sing forth the honour of His name, make His praise glorious. Say unto God,, how terrible art Thou in Thy works? Through the greatness of Thy power shall Thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee. All the earth shall worship Thee, and sing unto Thee, they shall sing to Thy name. Come and see the works of God, He is terrible in his doing towards the children of man. The prospect of all. Nations praising Him is far sweeter than the prospect of the fields or silent Heavens serving them, though you see the skies adorned with stars, and the fields covered with corn and flocks of sheep and cattle. When the eye of your understanding shineth upon them, they are yours in Him, and all your joys.

God is my King, of old working salvation in the midst of the Earth. He divided the sea by His strength. He brake the heads of Leviathan in pieces. His heart is always abroad in the midst of the earth; seeing and rejoicing in His wonders there. His soul is busied in the ancient works of God for His people Israel. The day is thine, the night also is thine, Thou hast prepared the Light and the Sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter. He proposeth more objects of our felicity in which we ought to meet the goodness of God, that we might rejoice before Him. The day and night, the light and the sun are God’s treasures, and ours also.

In the 78th psalm, he commandeth all ages to record the ancient ways of God, and recommendeth them to our meditation, shewing the of God, that fathers should teach their children, and they another generation: which certainly since they are not to be seen in the visible world, but only in the memory and minds of men. The memory and mind are a strange region of celestial light, and a wonderful place, as well as a large and sublime one, in which they may be seen. What is contained in the souls of men being as visible to us as the very heavens.

In the 84th psalm he longeth earnestly after the Tabernacle of God, and preferreth a day in His courts above a thousand. Because there, as Deborah speaketh in her song, was the place of drawing waters, that is of ; and of rehearsing the righteous acts of the Lord, which it is more blessed to do than to inherit the palaces of wicked men.

Among the Gods there is none like unto Thee. Neither are there any works like unto Thy works. All nations whom Thou hast made, shall come and worship Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy name. For Thou art great, and doest wondrous things. Thou art God alone. This is a glorious meditation, wherein the psalmist gives himself liberty to examine the excellency of God’s works, and finding them infinitely great and above all that can be besides, rejoiceth and admireth the goodness of God, and resteth satisfied with complacency in them. That they were all his, he knew well, being the gifts of God made unto him, and that he was to have communion with God in the enjoyment of them. But their excellency was a thing unsearchable and their incomparableness above all imagination, which he found by much study to his infinite delectation.

In his other psalms he proceedeth to speak of the works of God over and over again: sometimes stirring up all creatures to praise God for the very delight he took in their admirable perfections, sometimes shewing. God’s goodness and mercy by them, and sometimes rejoicing himself and triumphing in them. By all this teaching us what we ought to do, that we might become divine and heavenly. In the 103rd psalm he openeth the nature of God’s present mercies, both towards himself in particular, and towards all in general, turning emergencies in this world into celestial joys. In the 104th psalm he insisteth wholly upon the beauty of God’s works in the creation, making all things in Heaven and Earth, and in the heaven of heavens, in the wilderness and the sea his private and personal delights. In the 105th and 106th psalms he celebrateth the ways of God in former ages with as much vehemency, zeal and pleasure as if they were new things, and as if he were present with them seeing their beauty and tasting their delight that very moment. In the 107th psalm he contemplates the ways of God in the dispensations of His , over travellers, sick men, seamen, &c., shewing that the way to be much in heaven is to be much employed here upon Earth in the meditation of divine and celestial things. For such are these, though they seem terrestrial. All which he concludeth thus: Whoso considereth these things, even he shall understand this lovingkindness of the Lord. In the 119th psalm, like an enamoured person, and a man ravished in spirit with joy and pleasure, he treateth upon Divine laws, and over and over again maketh mention of their beauty and perfection. By all which we may see what inward life we ought to lead with God in the Temple. And that to be much in the meditation of God’s works, and laws, to see their excellency, to taste their sweetness; to behold their glory, to admire, and rejoice and overflow with praises is to live in Heaven. But unless we have a communion with David in a rational knowledge of their nature and excellency, we can never understand the grounds of his complacency, or depth of his resentments*.

In our outward life towards men the psalmist also is an admirable precedent: In weeping for those that forget God’s law, in publishing His praises in the congregation of the righteous, in speaking of His testimonies without cowardice or shame even before princes, in delighting in the , in keeping promises though made to his hurt, in tendering the life of his enemies, and clothing himself with sack-cloth when they were sick, in showing mercy to the poor, in enduring the songs and mockings of the drunkards, in taking care to glorify the Author of all Bounty; with a splendid temple arid musical instruments in this world, in putting his

*This word is here and elsewhere used in its original and proper sense of a deep feeling or sentiment.‑Ed.

trust and confidence in God among all his enemies, evermore promoting His honour and glory, instructing others in the excellency of His ways, and endeavouring to establish His worship in Israel. Thus ought we to the best of our power to express our gratitude and friendships to so great a benefactor in all the effects of love and fidelity, doing His pleasure with all our might, and promoting His honour with all our power.

There are psalms more clear wherein he expresseth the joy he taketh in God’s works and the glory of them. Wherein he teacheth us at divers times and in divers manner to ponder on them. Among which the 145th psalm (and so onward to the last) are very eminent. In which he openeth the nature of God’s Kingdom, and so vigorously and vehemently exciteth all creatures to praise Him, and all men to do it with all kind of musical instruments by all expressions, in all nations for all things, as ten thousand vents were not sufficient to ease his fulness, as if all the world were but one Celestial Temple in which he was delighted, as if all nations were present before him, and he saw God face to face in this earthly Tabernacle, as if his soul like an infinite ocean were full of joys, and all these but springs and channels overflowing. So purely, so joyfully, so powerfully he walked with God, all creatures, as they brought a confluence of joys unto him, being pipes to ease him.

His soul recovered its pristine liberty, and saw through the mud walls of flesh and blood. Being alive, he was in the spirit all his days. While his body therefore was inclosed in this world, his soul was in the temple of Eternity, and clearly beheld the infinite life and omnipresence of God: Having with invisible, spiritual, and immaterial things, which were its companions, itself being invisible, spiritual and immaterial. Kingdoms and Ages did surround him, as clearly as the hills and mountains: and therefore the Kingdom of God was ever round about him. Everything was one way or other his delight and transcendent pleasure, as in Heaven everything will be everyone’s peculiar treasure.

He saw these things only in the light of faith, and yet rejoiced as if he had seen them by the Light of Heaven, which argued the strength and glory of his faith. And whereas he so rejoiced in all the nations of the earth for praising God, he saw them doing it in the light of prophesy, not of history: Much more therefore should we rejoice, who see these prophecies fulfilled, since the fulfilling of them is so blessed, divine, and glorious, that the very prevision of their accomplishment transported and ravished this glorious person. But we wither and for lack of sense shrivel up into nothing, who should be filled with the delights of ages.

By this we understand what it is to be the Sons of God, and what it is to live in communion with Him, what it is to be advanced to His Throne, and to reign in His Kingdom, with all those other glorious and marvellous expressions that are applied to men in the Holy Scriptures. To be the Sons of God is not only to enjoy the privileges and the freedom of His house, and to bear the relation of children to so great a Father, but it is to be like Him, and to share with Him in all His glory, and in all His treasures. To be like Him in spirit and understanding, to be exalted above all creatures as the end of them, to be present as He is by sight and love, without limit and without bounds, with all His works, to be Holy towards all and wise towards all, as He is. Prizing all His goodness in all with infinite ardour, that as glorious and eternal kings being pleased in all, we might reign over all for evermore.

This greatness both of God towards us, and of ourselves towards Him, we ought always as much as possible to retain in our understanding. And when we cannot effectually keep it alive in our senses, to cherish the memory of it in the centre of our hearts, and do all things in the power of it. For the Angels when they come to us, so fulfill their outward ministry, that within they nevertheless maintain the beatific vision ministering before the Throne of God, and among the sons of men at the same time. The reason where of St. Gregory with is this: The the Spirit of an Angel be limited and circumscribed in itself, yet the Supreme Spirit, which is God, is uncircumscribed. He is everywhere and wholly everywhere: which makes their knowledge to be dilated everywhere. For being wholly everywhere, they are immediately present with His omnipresence in everyplace and wholly. It filleth them for ever.

This sense that God is so great in goodness, and we so great in glory, as to be His sons, and so rich as to live in communion with Him, and so individually united to Him, that He is in us, and we in Him, will make us do all our duties not only with incomparable joy but courage also. It will fill us with zeal andfidelity, and make us to overflow with praises. For if which one cause alone the knowledge of it ought infinitely to be esteemed. For to be ignorant of this, is to sit in darkness, and to be a child of darkness: it maketh us to be without God in the world, exceeding weak, timorous, and feeble, comfortless and barren, dead and unfruitful, lukewarm, indifferent, dumb, unfaithful. To which I may add, that it makes us uncertain. For so glorious is the face of God and true religion, that it is impossible to see it, but in transcendent splendour. Nor can we know that God is till we see Him infinite in goodness. Nothing therefore will make us certain of His Being but His Glory.

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To enjoy communion with God is to with Him in the fruition of His Divine and Eternal Glory, in all His attributes, in all His thoughts, in all His creatures, in His Eternity, Infinity, Almighty Power, , &c. In all those works which from all Eternity He wrought in Himself; as the generation of His Son, the proceeding of the , the eternal union and communion of the blessed , the counsels of His bosom, the attainment of the end of all His endeavours, wherein we shall see ourselves exalted and beloved from all Eternity. We are to enjoy communion with Him in the creation of the world, in the government of Angels, in the of mankind, in the dispensations of His , in the of His Son, in His passion, resurrection and ascension, in His shedding abroad the , in His government of the Church, in His judgment of the world, in the punishment of His enemies, in the rewarding of His friends, in Eternal Glory. All these therefore particularly ought to be near us, and to be esteemed by us as our riches; being those delectable things that adorn the house of God which is Eternity; and those living fountains, from we seek forth the streams of joy, that everlastingly overflow to refresh our souls.