whom he loved better If therefore we had such a love to God as others have to the things of this World the thoughts of them could not quite thrust out the thoughts of him But still we should be apt to write if I may so speak upon the very forehead of every earthly good God is most lovely or God is my exceeding joy the Lord is my portion O how amiable are his Courts or as an holy man who it is said could never get these words out of his mouth My God and all things Where he is there in effect are all things and where his love dwells there he will be sure to be We shall meet him every where see him in every beautiful thing and taste him before we have done in all the delightful enjoyments of this life 2. And as it comprehends in it the practice of making God present which some Masters in Divinity have said may serve instead of all other Rules for the ordering of our life aright so it contains in it likewise the very spirit of Prayer to God which all acknowledg to be not only a great part of a godly life but a great help and furtherance to us in all the rest of our Christian duty If by Prayer we understand as some have explained it the ascent or raising up of the Soul to God it is love only which continually aspires towards him and carries the heart aloft from other things to be joyned to him Or if we call it the converse of the Soul with God which are the words of Gregory Nyssen or a holy conference and discourse with the Divine Majesty as it is termed by S. Chrysostome it is manifest the love of God includes this in it for it is the nature of this passion to make us frequent the company of those whom we love Their conversation is most welcome their discourse delightful we are exceedingly desirous to impart our mind to them and especially to let them know how much we love them For which purpose it needs not alwayes the help of the tongue but can frame a language of its own and speak by the very countenance and the eyes and make use of silence instead of words to declare its inclinations According to the admirable expression of the Psalmist who setting forth the pious affections of the People to God their Deliverer saith Praise is silent for thee O God in Sion so the Hebrew hath it as your Margin tells you to Thee shall the vow be performed But let us take it simply for the desiring and requesting good things of God and then we must needs acknowledg that love being a passion full of desires cannot but comprehend in it as I said at first the very spirit of Prayer and Supplication You know how much we long for that to which we have given our hearts And therefore if they be devoted in love to God we cannot chuse but be ever breathing after more sensible apprehensions and tastes of him So much as we love him so much we shall thirst after a larger communication of his Divine Grace to us It will make us sigh for more tokens of his favour and wait for a greater power of his Holy Spirit and vehemently long to be more transformed and changed into his Image What was it but this that made David say Psal 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God The chased Deer in a great Forrest and in the midst of Summer did not more long after the streames of Water than this good Man being it is likely in the Wilderness of Judah and so denyed the favour of going to the Tabernacle of God did ardently desire the happiness which there he had sometime tasted in the Divine Presence He opens his mouth and pants after this with a thirst so vehement that it makes him cry out in the following words O when shall I come and appear before God It is the heat of that Creature to whose pantings David compares the longings of his Soul which is the cause of its thirst and that being a constant desire which goes not off by continuance as many inconveniences do but rather more encreases it beares the greater resemblance to this Divine passion of love whose fervours and ardent longings are perpetual and do not abate by length of time but grow still greater and greater There is nothing so likely as this to enable us to fulfil that exhortation of the Apostle Pray without ceasing and to make us importunate and unwearied in it which are the two qualifications our Saviour requires in our devout addresses to God Luk. 18.1 Where you read a Parable of his to this end that Men ought alwayes to pray and not faint It marvelously disposes us also for the Divine favour by moving us to quit all that is inconsistent with our desires in hope of that which we pray God to bestow upon us There was a Monarch you have heard perhaps who offered his Kingdome for a Cup of cold Water in a time of extreme thirst And therefore what is it which the heat of this heavenly affection will not make us resign to God and absolutely part withall that it may obtain its Petitions and have its desires satisfied Besides it hath one wonderful power in it which nothing else can furnish us withall to make our Prayers prevalent and that is by fixing our thoughts and fastning our minds to the business which we are about For love you know doth not willingly stir from the Object to which it is devoted It is this flame which keeps our heart close to the Holy Sacrifice and will not easily suffer us to wander from the Gate of Heaven It sets us in the Presence of God it keeps our eye upon him it makes us converse attentively with him and while the power of it lasts our very hearts are tyed to him and cannot go aside from him But as soon as ever it begins to dye or decay then it is that the mind steales away and gads about the World till this flame revive again and make us fly back to the Altar of God The best Soul that is I confess may feel some loosness and distraction of spirit especially at some untoward season some ashes may dim and dull the Fire but yet this love and ardent desire will keep the greater part of our thoughts together and knit our heart so to our duty that there shall be no long nor wide breaches in it but it shall still be strong and fervent and effectual with our Heavenly Father Thus you see how wisely these two are joyned together by St. Jude v. 20. Who after he had exhorted the Faithful to Pray in the Holy Ghost immediately bids them keep themselves in the love of God There is nothing comparable to this to inspire us with devout and earnest desires And it hath an equal force also to excite us to Praise and Acknowledg our great Benefactor who gives
with such a mighty love to thee as may set Thee alway before me and carry forth my Soul in ardent desires after thee and fill me with an humble confidence in thee and make me watchful active and zealous in my duty and never suffer me to distrust thy pitty and indulgence when I unwillingly offend thee and assure me of thy kind intentions in all the cross accidents of this life which are most offensive to me I doubt not O Lord of a power from above continually to attend me now that I feel thy love so strong and powerful in me I believe thou wilt do more for me both here and eternally than heart can conceive O how great things hast thou laid up for those that fear thee O the heighth of that joy which thou hast set before us to encourage us in our Christian race O the comfort of those gracious words which promise us after our short pains and trouble here a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory How pleasant is it to wait for thy Son Jesus from Heaven to give a Crown of righteousness to me and to all those that love his appearing Preserve I beseech thee this holy love and faith most fresh and lively in my heart to my great increase in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus unto thy glory and praise Maintain in me such chearful thoughts of thee that Religion may be my delight as much as it is my duty and I may alway approach unto Thee with a joyful heart being glad to leave the company of all other things to go to thee my God my exceeding joy Reconcile me so perfectly to every other part of my Christian duty that all the actions of an holy life may be but so many motions of hearty love to thee and I may so feel the ease and satisfaction of all well doing as to love and delight the more in thee whose wayes are wayes of pleasantness and all whose paths are Peace I am sensible of the uncertainty of all things else but only of thy love which will inspire me I hope to behave my self worthy of the greatness of it in every state and condition of life O that in prosperity I may think I have an opportunity to show how much I love Thee above the World by exercising humility heavenly-mindedness charity temperance and purity and in adversity how much I love thee more than my self by expressing all patience meekness forgiveness of others chearful submission to Thee and confidence in Thee with thankfulness for all thy past and remaining mercies Be they always acknowledged and never forgotten by me For which end I again consecrate my Soul to be thy holy Temple wherein may dwell continually pious and religious thoughts devout Meditations of Thee and remembrance of thy loving kindness intire love to Thee sending up perpetual Hymnes of Praise and Thanksgiving together with the constant sacrifice of an humble and obedient heart That so I may be filled with the comfort and joy of the Holy Ghost at present and hereafter be admitted into the fellowship of Saints and Angels with them to rejoyce and praise Thee in fulness of love World without end Amen IV. BUT as I would have you exceedingly in love with Religion so I must advise you not to charge your self with too many or too long exercises of Devotion For Honey it self will cloy us and a perpetual scent of Roses may become offensive to us Observe therefore what you can do with ease and a pleasantness of Spirit And when you find your self to be free and forward then you may be the longer and more enlarged in your Devotions But when you are very heavy and straitned then it is not fit to tire your spirits and drag them along with you whither they have no strength to accompany you nor any disposition to comply with your desires Our Body is such a beast and sometimes so dull and restife that if we spur it on to a faster pace it not only quite tires but will have no list to travel any more Whereas if we bait it a while and suffer it to take some repast and give it some rest it will go along with us to the end of our Journey When our spirits are dull already we make them more dull by our restless importunity to do as we would have them As a Child you may have observed when he cannot think of his Lesson the more his Teacher chides and calls upon him the more blockishly he stands and the further it is beat out of his memory so it is very frequently with the natural spirits of every one of us They are so oppressed and stupid at certain seasons that if we labour to set them in motion it doth but dispose them the more to stand stock-still But if we let them alone and for that time leave them they will be like the same Child who in a short time comes to himself and is able to say his Lesson perfectly They will go whither we would have them and perhaps run before us We must do then with our selves as one that is weak and going up an high and steep Hill When he feels his Legs begin to fail him and complain that they are weary he rests a while and sits him down to recruit himself And it will not be long before he hear his mind calling on him to try if he hath not gathered some new strength with which he marches a little further according as it will carry him And if he hath any cordial spirits in his Pocket a little taste of them may much revive him in this languishing condition Yea the pleasant prospect of the Fields round about him and the various Objects that gratefully entertain his eyes if he cast them on every side will be a fit divertisement for his mind to turn it from thinking of his weariness Thus I say My Friend it is adviseable for you to do rest your self a while and make a pause when you perceive your spirits begin to flag Break your Devotions into little parts and take not the Journey you have set your self all at once When your mind tels you that now you are better able or prompts you to try your strength then up again and go forward And between whiles turn your mind aside to something or other that is wont to please you much Think of some good Friend of the many fair accommodations that God hath afforded you of the pleasant Meadows as I may call them and the still Waters by which he leads you or betake your self to some Divine promise and take a taste of the love of God contained therein which is as a Cordial to chear and refresh the Spirits or run to the extract or quintessence that you have drawn as I shall direct you anon out of former Meditations and some of these its possible may make you quite forget that you were faint and weary And truly for the most
be performed at another time so they will not wait upon us and stay our leisure and that as they pass away so we know not when they will come again For May as the Proverb is comes not every Moneth and a fit opportunity lies not in every lock of Times head And if there should yet it is bald behind and we cannot call back that which is gone which may be better than will be presented to us again And if we find by experience that these occasions do excite our Souls then the observing and embracing them will be an excellent means to keep us from dulness because it is likely that God will favour us with more of them when he sees that we use those well which he hath given us already But yet you ought to be cautious that this do not prove matter of scruple and perplexity to you if you neglect an occasion when you are otherwise necessarily employed For both prudence and the forwardness of our affections and every thing else must give way to a real necessity and of two necessary things that seems to be most necessary in which we are already engaged Make therefore a short Address to God and both comfort and quicken your self after this manner when you are dull and indisposed or otherwise apt to be perplexed upon such accounts as these A PRAYER O My God whose Name is most excellent in all the Earth and ought to be celebrated with the highest and continual Praises of Men and Angels How happy are they whose minds are ever delighted in the thoughts of Thee and whose hearts constantly burn with ardent affection and devotion to Thee It is some satisfaction to think of that vehement love wherewith the Holy Spirits above perpetually acknowledg thy bounty to them to us and to all thy Creatures and to feel my self desirous if it were possible to accompany them at all times with the like affections of a most chearful and joyful heart in that Heavenly employment Accept I most humbly beseech thy Divine Goodness of these sincere desires that thou hast wrought in me Graciously accept of these pantings of my Soul after a freer and more delightful converse with Thee And pitty the great weakness and dulness of my nature which will not permit such ardours of love to continue always as by thy grace I sometimes feel in my heart towards Thee Pitty O pitty and take compassion upon me when I am so heavy as not to be able to lift up mine eyes towards Heaven or when I move so slowly and faintly as if I had no lift to serve thee in the works of piety righteousness and charity O that I may feel my spirit stirred with a greater zeal and carried with stronger desires at all other times when I am better disposed for thy service that then I may run the ways of thy Commandments when thou hast enlarged my heart And endue me likewise with prudence equal to that uprightness and integrity of heart which I hope I shall always carefully preserve That I may neither neglect any occasion of exciting and expressing a most fervent love to Thee nor dispirit my self by an indiscreet heat and forwardness to the performance of any part of my Christian duty Dispose me but to be ever serious resolved stedfast and watchful to be always well or innocently imployed and to be still going on with continued and constant motions to perfect holiness in thy fear and I shall hope by thine Infinite grace to finish my course at last with joy and to arrive at the happiness of that blessed company who as they do thy Commandments hearkning to the voice of thy Word so they are not weary in their obedience to Thee but with incessant Praises and Thanksgivings serve Thee World without end Amen V. YOU see already how necessary it is well to understand our selves and therefore lest you should think the pleasures of Religion to be other than they are it will concern you My Friend in the next place to Distinguish carefully between those consolations that are spiritual and those that are sensible For your receiving benefit by this Rule you must consider that the spirit of man being as I said joyned to a body and made a member of this World and yet belonging to another Country hath several sorts of faculties which we call its upper and lower powers whereby it converses with both With the former which are the mind understanding and will it hath entercourse with God and Invisible things and is fitted to improve all lower objects to an heavenly end with the other which we call sense imagination and sensitive appetite we can maintain acquaintance with nothing but this outward World Or rather this one Soul of Man is fitted with Capacities of such different kinds that it can hold correspondence with God and the higher World and likewise with the goods of the body in this World which is sensible to us Now such a friendship there is between the Soul and the Body by reason of their nearness and between the upper and lower faculties of the Soul if you so conceive of it by reason as I may call it of their oneness that they do mutual good offices for each other when they are able And as the Soul lends such a great part of it self to serve the Bodies necessities so the bodily spirits likewise are ready to assist the Soul in their better Moods to a freer pursuit of its own concernments in its motion towards God and the things above And more than this the pleasures of the one redound to the other what the Soul doth for the Body returning upon the mind it self and the bodily spirits likewise oft-times feeling the contentment of which the mind tasteth Hence it is that by discreet use of bodily enjoyments and due attendance to the outward Mans moderate satisfaction the spirits ofttimes are made so mild and sweet so chearful and compliant that the Mind finds them more ready and forward to accompany it in the contemplation of Diviner objects and it serves it self the more by serving the Body for a while And on the contrary part when the mind converses with Heavenly things they so powerfully touch it at certain Seasons that they make a motion there all over even as far as the very skirts of its Territories The Heart is glad the Spirits leap and dance for joy and the very blood in our Veins runs the smoother for it Now while we have this sensible delectation in the borders of our Soul by the agitation of the Animal Spirits to which the mind communicates its resentments there is no part of us but can be well content to accompany the mind in its devotions and they will not be enclined to with draw their attendance from these delightful services But on the other side if the Mind through incapacity it is like of the Body to receive them cannot impress its perceptions upon the Spirits nor make such a warmth and
which is the only thing that can give any value to them It is a shame that I should groan or go heavily under the sweet the easie and gentle Yoke of my most loving Saviour none of whose Commandments are grievous but all his wayes pleasantness and his pathes peace But there is nothing more frightful than to think that I have at any time opposed his will and thrown off the light burden of obedience which he layeth on me I adore thy pardoning mercy and wait on thee likewise for power from above to save me from reproaching his Religion by so much as any unwillingness to obey him I implore thy Divine Inspirations to preserve in my heart that delightful sense of Thee which may render it no less my contentment than my duty to follow Jesus in his humility and condescension of spirit in his meekness and patience in his kindness and tenderness in his holiness and purity in his love to thee and to all man-kind in doing good and suffering evil in resolved denyal of my own will when contrary to thine and in every thing giving thanks to thee O Father of Mercies which is thy will concerning us in Christ Jesus To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen VII AND having thus poured forth your Soul to God you may feel your self sometimes so mightily moved that your heart runs out with much pleasure in abundance of pious thoughts and holy affections which you are not wont to find at other times And then My Friend let me tell you it would be of singular use if you would set down those extraordinary thoughts and passionate effusions of your Soul which you feel in your greater enlargements These are as so many Records which you have to show of the Spirits prevalency and triumph over the dull flesh They are the flights of your Soul whereby you see to what it aspires and how great and happy it may be when God pleases They are the tokens of Gods love whereby he would indear himself to your heart And you may look upon them as if they were Golden Chains let down from Heaven to draw and attract you thither and bind you fast but willingly to your duty It is great pity to throw away such sweet flowers after once smelling of them to lay by such good thoughts as we do a common Book after the first reading I would wish you to find some safe repository for them and to lay up carefully such expressions of your mind in Meditation or Prayer as are most lively and affecting and to fetch them out for your use when any dulness or straitness shall oppress you As a good Student when he reads a Book though he may let pass the most of it which he knew before yet remarks and preserves in his Notes the choicest parts in which he finds great strength of reason or sharpness of wit or may be any ways useful to him in his design so would I have you mark those passages in your converse with God and Divine things which have in them some fulness of sense some liveliness of conceit some elevation of mind and are so much beyond the ordinary strain of thinking as if they were some beam of light darted from an higher hand or the utmost endeavour of the Soul to be with God When you find I say your conceptions so fit and proper that you seem to behold the bare face of truth when some thing smites your heart with such a force of reason that you are constrained to yield or when such an holy breath comes into you that your Soul swells and grows too big for your body let them be noted as carefully as the Moneth and the Day was by your Parents which brought you into the World or as you remember the happy time when God bestowed some singular blessing on you which made this World a more comfortable place than otherwise you should have found it Examples you know are wont to move us much and therefore of what power may we suppose it to be when we can propound our selves for an Example to us This Copy as I may call it of our selves besides that it will make us blush at another time to see how unlike we are to our selves will also excite us to recover the same countenance and aspect that once we had and make some colour come into our Faces and warmth into our Spirits when we are pale and cold in the service of God It will remember us likewise of the pleasurable motions that were then in our hearts and remembrance is the way to call them back again It will furnish us also with some matter for our thoughts when they are barren and can bring forth nothing For though reading of some good Book in this case may be very advantageous to us yet nothing can more assist us than a Book of our own making the births as I may term them of our own mind Both because they best sute with our notions and can soon find the place where they lay before and because they will remember us also of Gods grace and goodness to us so that either shame or love or hope will make us strain to do the same again or to excel our selves When no thoughts will stir within we must call for some helps without to move us and what is there that will so easily enter as that which was once within us before Nothing sure can better fit us than that which our own Souls have cut out and shaped for themselves As a Chymist therefore that is drawing out the more retired spirits of things if he grows faint in his work takes a drop or two of his own extracts to bring his Soul back again so should we do when our liveliness begins to forsake us and our Soul complains of its weak and fainting Fits We must pour in some of those thoughts which we have formerly drawn out of our hearts which are as it were the quintessence of our Souls and the very spirits of our Devotion that they may recall the life that is flying away And tell me I beseech you what a reviving it is but to think that we once had such thoughts in our mind What a Cordial is it to the languishing Soul to feed as I may say upon its own Honey and taste of its own sweetness How greedily will it embrace and how gladly will it smile upon the Children of its own Womb How pleasant will it be but to hope that it may become fruitful again as well as it was before to behold the Picture of what it may be as well as of what it hath been in former times Save therefore some of these and let them not all be spilt as they distill from your Soul Lay them up in store considering the time may come when your Soul will be glad to have them restored to it and will receive them as so many drops of Balm Keep them by you as you do some precious
of any ones displeasure so much as his When he is present he improves our pleasures and augments our prosperity And as for our cares he very much lightens them and eases us of their burden And what is there that can teach us civility and an obliging conversation so much as he Observe how willing or rather glad we are to yield him the precedence in all things We readily pass by his faults and overlook his errors We declare our mind to him simply and without any disguise We are studious how to requite his favours and preserve at least a grateful remembrance of his good turns And as for humanity kindness and good nature there is none to whom we extend it with so much alacrity as to a Friend For whom we are not unwilling to expose our selves to any danger in so much that if there were an Army of Friends listed a few Persons would conquer great Multitudes And therefore if a Man exercise himself in these things diligently towards such a Person and make them familiar and easie to him by means of this friendly sympathy without all doubt he will be disposed when occasion requires to do the same proportionably and as far as is meet unto all other Men. Behold the benefit of Friendship whose sweet influences all the neighbourhood feels and fares the better for it For it is not unworthy of remark that it is Friendship which is the best bond and ties us fastest to natural Relations Nothing but this can link us to them with a strong affection and make us truly forward in their service For whether they be Brethren and Sisters or Parents and Children or Husband and Wife if they be not Friends also though they be obedient to good Precepts and perform the duties of their natural Relations they will not discharge them with a chearful will and with gladness of heart They may be constrained to serve each other lest they should seem to neglect their duty but it is not nearness of blood nor any thing else that will make them freely apply themselves to it as a good that they love and on which they have set their delight They must be beholden for this to friendly affection which alone can make these relations happy Whose power is therefore so predominant because it is the daughter of the will the fruit of a voluntary choice This makes it excell all natural affections as much as the rational and voluntary operations transcend all the other motions in humane Nature But what 's all this though great and wonderful to that which may be still said in its praise We have spoken hitherto but of an humane good That which is the greatest of all and the most Divine thing in it is not taken notice of viz. the approaches it makes to the other World For sincere friendship contracting the Souls of two into one is the most excellent indeavour of humane nature after union and conjunction with God The union of Souls who are near of kin here is the preparation for the Heavenly union and it is impossible without this to be a consort of the better Beings The sense of which made the Pythagoraeans prefer friendship before all other good qualities and to call it the bond and combination of all the vertues For no Man that is unjust or intemperate or fearful or ignorant and foolish can be capable of it But he that would be a Friend must purge himself from all the brutal affections of the Soul and then seek for his like And when he hath found him let him embrace that Person as if he had met according to the fable of Aristophanes with the other half of himself But the difficulty you will say is in finding him True and it requires some judgement to make a right choice We must deliberate of all things with our Friend but first of our Friend himself And therefore you must remember the advice of the Son of Syrach VI. Ecclus 7. If thou wouldest get a Friend prove him first and be not hasty to credit him For though Friendship begin in conversation where Men soon find a mutual liking of each others Persons Words and Actions yet they cannot so soon discover that likeness of humour and disposition and that sympathy in desires which hath the greatest power to unite Souls In so much that when by continuance of conversation and mutual liking and happy agreement in all things they are made one the state of things is so altered that as at the first the Person was liked for what he said or did now the speeches and actions shall be liked because they are said and done by that Person But I shall scarce say any thing new in this Argument of which you know where to find a larger discourse and therefore I shall only add this which is sutable to the business in hand When you want such an one let him not be a Person that is sad and melancholy or that loves always to be complaining for though he be never so honest and faithful he will prove but an heavy Companion And on the contrary one that is too merry and jocund will be no less disagreeing to a serious spirit and be apt to offend more by his levity and imprudence than he gives content by his liberty and mirth The happy mixture of both these humours which will serve for a remedy to each other compounds that Person after whom we enquire Just as the Romans it is observed by an ingenious Person esteemed best those Tribunes who testified most inclination to the Senate and among the Senators thought those the best who favoured most the Peoples side So it seems that the best of the pleasant humours are those that come nearest to the melancholy and the best of the melancholy those that approach nearest to the pleasant For where there is this temperature the first sort will be more discreet and prudent and the latter less austere and incompliant And if such a person have a quick sense of Divine matters and be of a pittiful and sympathizing disposition free from envy patient of labours and temperate in his pleasures if he have done us good before he was asked and when he had done it keeps it as a secret and speaks not of it which Aristotle observes is a sign he doth it for our sake L. 2. Rhetor. cap. 4. and for no other end you may repose the greater confidence in him as one that is both more able and more willing to do you service And therefore when you have found such an one think you have found great riches though you should be never so poor Great Riches did I say Rather the greatest Treasure in this World For if a Man be more worth than all the World as our Saviour supposes IX Luk. 25. then he is the most wealthy Person who intirely possesses a worthy Man that 's like himself And there is no way to acquire such a possession but only this For
and perswaded to confide and put their whole trust in him Never so much as imagine that he will disappoint those good Souls that rely and depend on nothing in their obedience to him but his undoubted promises Let it not come into any our minds or let the thought of it be abhorred and rejected with indignation that after he hath made us such assurances of his Care and Love he will break his word and let us fall when we have fast hold of his Mercy and his Truth Men may prove false and treacherous there may be such Monsters whose kindnesses are but flatteries and their invitations but insnarements But faithfulness it self cannot be unfaithful God's Goodness cannot mock us His infinite perfections will not let Him have any unworthy designs upon us or any ways delude us What deceive a Confident and fail a Friend Such God is pleased to esteem us when we devote our selves in love to his Service which is a farther consideration of greater moment than any else to secure us of his faithful kindness For if our heart will not serve us to let a poor neighbour fall to the ground when we can easily support him much less to desert one that hath intirely trusted us with all he hath and who by our desire reposed this trust in us then least of all can we be enclined to abandon the care of him who by long conversation with us and experience of us is become our Friend This gives him a new and a stronger title to all that we can do for him and because we have been so kind will be the best reason why we should continue to be so still Consider but the Natural works of God doth He begin to form the life of a Child in the Womb and leave it before it become a perfect Creature yea if it be but a Chicken in an Egg doth he not bring it to its full growth unless in either case something extraordinary hinder Why then should we dream that he will desist and forsake the formation of his Son Christ in us the lively Image of whom he hath already begun It must be some strange violence which we offer to our selves some very ill use of our Souls and great straining of the conscience that can make us miscarry I have askt the Question you know elsewhere and let me briefly repeat it again in this place Who was it that bid S. Peter to walk upon the Water At whose command did his body though apt to sink like a stone tread in that soft and yielding Element Was it not our Saviour that said Come and that was enough His word made the floods that they could not swallow him up He felt no more difficulty or danger in those paths as long as he believed our Saviour's Power than if he had walked on dry Land Then it was that he began to sink when his faith turned into fear His heart sunk before his body and his courage yielded before the Waters Just so it is with us who are compounded of earthly materials and yet are bid to wade through this world to heaven A Miracle it is that our dull Nature which hangs downward and is inclined to sink into the soft delights of sense should be able to look up above and not be swallowed up in a gulph of sin and misery For this we stand indebted to the Divine Power upholding and aiding our weakness And He that hath called us as he did Peter and bid us come to him continues his mighty word with us and bids us go on in the ways of his Commandements What need we fear as long as we have him in our company to go along with us And when is it that we are in danger of drowning but when we grow diffident as St. Peter did and our minds are fixed more upon the Wind and the Waves the hardships and the hazards that threaten us than upon the grace and power of our Lord that takes the charge of us And yet if through our fearfulness and distrust we chance to stagger and waver in our resolution we are not utterly undone but have a Remedy very near us Our Lord will put forth his hand even in the midst of these fears and hold us up as he did that faint-hearted Disciple of his when we cry out to Him in his words Lord save me It is stoutly resolved by an Heathen that seeing all disorders in man arise partly from the weakness of those reasons that are in his mind and partly from the excessive abundance of gross matter to which he is chained and seeing those Reasons Notions are Divine and near of Kin to the Gods themselves the insuperable and irresistible power of the Gods will come to the assistance of their Kindred Proclus L. 1. in Timaeum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and so revive renew those Reasons so comfort cherish their weakness that they shall be able to conquer the heaviness and dulness of the bodily impediments Let us much more resolutely conclude that seeing our Souls though here in this Prison are the off-spring of God and seeing likewise he is manifested in our flesh and hath married it as I may say to himself he will mightily incourage strengthen the one and help us to disburden the other and purifie both and that he will never despise the faintest essayes of any honest Soul that faithfully strugles for greater liberty but assist it in all its attempts and endeavours to be unloaded and made more free and chearful in his service These very motions derive themselves from Heaven and may as confidently expect to be succoured from thence as a Child to receive relief from his Parents when he is in distress and when by his order also he is ingaged to apply his weakness to a mighty work which without his help he knows cannot be accomplished It is incredible that the Father of Mercies should expose that which is born of him to be undone and perish which will certainly be the fate of all that is good in us without his constant care and assistance for its preservation Do not doubt but God will look after his own and see that the little portion of goodness which is remaining in this World be countenanced and incouraged In assurance of which you may address your self unto him after this manner A PRAYER O Lord who hast breathed into me the breath of life and indued me with an Immortal Spirit which looks up unto thee and remembers it is made after thine own Image and that thou hast sent Jesus Christ from Heaven to repair and renew that Image in wisdome righteousness and holiness Behold with grace and favour the ardent desires which are in mine heart to recover a perfect likeness of Thee By thine Almighty Love all Praise be unto Thee my mind is already awakened to some sense of Thee and my will overcome to yield up it self intirely to obey Thee and I have been assisted
of immoderate love of dying things to enjoy them innocently and chearfully to do good with them heartily and to envy no Man's greater prosperity to suffer evil and to take the loss of them patiently to admire that mercy which still prolongs so frail a life as mine is and especially to admire the gracious terms of thy holy Gospel which for our short labours or sufferings here hath promised us the reward of an endless life in a better place Dispose me likewise to be willing to leave this World and to be always in a readiness for my departure that I may never be surprised with sudden Death nor obey thy summons with an heavy heart but freely resign my spirit unto Thee who gavest it O how much do I desire the continuance of these holy thoughts and inclinations that so I may have such a love to this world as is consistent with my hope of Heaven and be so busied in earthly affairs that my heart may be there where my treasure is and be tyed to my friends in such affection that we may not be eternally divorced And the nearer I draw to that eternal World O that I may be the more pure and separated from all worldly mixtures and the clearer sight and prospect I may have of my happiness and attain the greater assurance of thy love and be the fuller of joy in hope of thy glory Pitty my present weakness increase my strength help me not only to resist but to overcome all temptations enable me to discharge the duties of my several relations prepare me for all varieties of conditions that in prosperity I may not forget Thee nor imagine in adversity that thou forgettest me but in all I may be the same and have the same thoughts of thee love to thee and delight in Thee till I come to an unchangeable goodness and happiness with the Lord Jesus Amen XVI BUT if you be so much discomposed at any time that you cannot get your thoughts close to this business nor find any relief in any of the foregoing counsels I must then in the last place send you to a never failing remedy which is to Exercise a great deal of patience towards your self I am so well assured of your goodness and that my judgment is not herein blinded by my affection to you that I dare conclude with this Advice Be content to be dull sometime and able to do nothing as you would and yet do not think the worse of your self for it But if it do stir up any suspicions in your mind of you do not know what fault yet never bluster at your self but with a calm and gentle spirit suffer this distemper Look upon your self as sick and think that it is not good now to stir any humours And therefore strive not too much neither with your self do not distrust this counsel when you are thus melancholy for that will but cast you more into it You will be the sooner eased if you do as well as you can and add not a greater load to your spirit by your own fretful thoughts at this untoward indisposition You must consider that our Bodies being a part of this World will be obnoxious to those changes which are in things adjacent to them And that your Soul being united to your Body cannot but feel its vicissitudes Just as when the House smoaks the Inhabitant is offended unless he can step out of Doors Consider also that the same work is not required of a weak and of a stronger Person The Nemalim and the Gemalim as the Jews speaks must not be alike loaded that is the Ants cannot carry such a Burden as the Camels You must thank God it is no worse with you and that you have not quite forgot Him Thank him I say that you have any use of patience and that you are not under an absolute stupidity Remember likewise that it will be better with you As long as there is the same Sun in Heaven the Clouds will be dispersed and we shall have fair days as well as foul and as long as our Lord lives and changes not there will be a brighter season and we shall be warm as well as cold Think likewise how unworthy the best of us is to live always under the Sun-beames And that as there are many Countrys more North 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gland who in the depth of our Winter are in a long and dismal Night so there are many Souls who are in a colder case and more remote from the Sun of righteousness than yours is But however think that after you have done what you can it is the will of God that you should be as you are And if this dulness please him it need not displease you Remember also that he is not perfect in patience who can bear with others but not with himself And again that there is good reason you should bear with your self because accidentally this dulness will breed a greater activity when you come out of it Both out of justice that you may make some recompence for that drowsiness and out of gratitude to him by whose goodness you were delivered from it For Nature you know instructs us to be very kind to those who have helpt us ou◠of a very great distress and it is not easie to blot their readiness to relieve us out of our memories And besides it is manifest there are some kinds of dulness and indisposition which arise from the meer necessity of Nature With which we can no more reasonably quarrel than we do because it rains or snows when we would have it fair weather Can it be expected for instance that a Woman with Child should be so vigorous as she was wont She must be content perhaps to spend that time in vomiting which once she did in praying It must not put her to pain in this case that she cannot read or think so long or with so much delight or with such clearness of understanding as formerly she could but she must comply with her condition and considering no more can be done in such circumstances believe that God requires no more There is as much reason to be troubled because she hath not Wings to fly or cannot walk now as fast up her stairs as when she had no burden as to chide her self that she cannot be so earnest so long so chearful as formerly in the performance of Holy Duties There are many cases like to this in which there is no more caution necessary but to see that too much care of our ease and indulgence to our present infirmity which must at such a time be liberally allowed do not tempt us to be negligent in that which it is in our power to perform We may often retire to God in shorter thoughts and affectionate longings and pantings after him and thereby keeping our hearts in a glowing temper we may prevent that chilness and laziness which otherwise might creep upon us and make us imagine our selves less
in the midst of our infirmities may be more acceptable to him than that complacence and joy which we feel to arise meerly from the sense that we have of our strength and abilities To be pleased in our successes is not so pleasing to God as to be patient in our Contests Nay to rejoyce and triumph in our Victories is nothing so good as to be constant and resolved notwithstanding that we are a little overcome In those spiritual consolations which we thirst after we do not always receive so much profit as we do pleasure but in the want of them if our wills be thereby more perfectly subdued to his we receive both a very great benefit and in the issue no small pleasure You have seen perhaps or you may imagine the smoak of a Potters Furnace how thick and black it is as if it would make a Picture of Hell it self Who would think that the Vessels of Clay which are baked there would not be burnt to ashes by the fury of the Fire or that at lest they would come out as black as soote by the foulness of the smoak And yet when the Fire is put out and the Vessels unfurnaced you see there is no such thing But that which was soft and yielding is become hard and strong and its complexion likewise is so much mended that a Prince need not disdain the use of some of these Cups Just thus it is with a distressed Soul when it is covered with a Cloud and wrapt in darkness and burns thereby in a great and sore displeasure against it self It is apt to think that this sure is the Gate of Hell that it is forsaken of God and shall either perish in this condition or not escape out of it without much loss But after a while when the work of God is done and the vapours are vanished and disappear it findes it self to be grown much in firmness purity and splendor and that it is made a Vessel of honour fit for the Masters use There is no loss of any thing but of its self-will Nothing is consumed but its softness and delicacy which made it loth to be toucht The like may be said of many little passions and disorderly desires to which our frail Natures are subject If we can free our selves from one inordinate passion which is a too vehement desire to be quite rid of them it might bring us little less peace than if we were and our profiting would no less appear in continuing still to do our duty of which we complain that they are so great an hinderance However there is no reason for such conclusions as those which good minds have been apt to make in a gloomy day that if God loved them he would not treat them after that manner There is rather great reason considering what hath been said to be not only patient but thankful to him in such a condition For it is not inconsistent with his care and infinite kindness to let us be obnoxious to those changes and those weaknesses too which I have mentioned but you see plainly it must be so and therefore it is best to be well pleased with these Methods of our Heavenly Father at least contented that it should be so And let me add this for a conclusion of this Discourse that God may suffer some Persons to be thus overcast with darkness and he may with-hold his gracious influences from them for the sins of their former life before they were converted which deserved he should never have afforded his grace unto them at all What are we should such Men say that we should expect to live always under the light of his countenance Alas one age of darkness is too good for us and we have reason to thank him if we be not eternally banished from his sight Why should such poor things as we think to receive every day some extraordinary tokens of his Divine favour when one good look from him is enough to oblige us as long as we live How much more reason have we to praise him that all our days are not gloomy that our Sun is not always eclipsed or rather that our life is but one long Night than to complain that a Cloud sometimes passes over us or a Mist gathers about us It is but fit that we should be hereby taught what it is to sin against God and it is well for us that we were not sent to learn it in outer darkness We are not ill dealt withall if we can learn at so cheap a rate the value of pardoning mercy but shall have cause in Heaven to praise God that we paid no dearer for it Is this all the punishment that is due for our many faults Doth he not use us very kindly if we be not quite cast out of his Presence O what a joy will it be to us to find that we are in his favour in the other World And we may be content if he please to stay for our joy till that time when we shall certainly know whether we have reason to rejoyce or no. But I shall say no more of this to you who have spent your time so innocently and vertuously that there is reason you should reap the fruit of it now in perpetual joy and satisfaction of heart from the consideration of God's goodness to you And I had wholly omitted this last Advice did not I know the weakness of humane Nature to be so great that the best disposed Souls may sometimes feel such alterations in them as may make it very necessary In which case if ever you should find your self doubt not to approach to God and say to him with all humility of spirit some such words as these A PRAYER I Acknowledg O great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth that I am not worthy of the least glimpse of thy divine favour It is sufficient that I live and behold the light of the Sun and am not banished into outer darkness And it is more than enough for so wretched a thing as I am that thou art pleased at any time of my life to bestow upon me the smallest testimony of thy love But that I live in hope to pass through all these Clouds and to behold my blessed Saviour in inconceivable splendor and rejoyce with him for ever O what a grace is it How infinitely am I indebted to Thee for such riches of mercy It ought to make me contented with any condition here and exceeding thankful to Thee that it is no worse Deal with me O merciful God even as thou pleasest so that I may but have this humble hope preserved in my heart of seeing and loving my Lord not as now darkly and dully but in the clearest light and with the most ardent love in Immortal Glory I submit to thy Infinite Wisdome under all that heaviness and listlesness of spirit wherewith I am oppressed from which I know thy Infinite Power if thou didst judg it most convenient is able
may speak wholly unto it It participates with that supreme good to which it is united It carries in it self a great deal of the life of God it is a part of Heaven and the business of the other World But besides the solace which is inseparable from it there is this remarkable property in the passion of love that it strangely disposes us to believe all the kind expressions of our friends and makes us easily receive whatever they say for certain truth Upon which account the love of God will incline us above all other things to entertain every thing that he shall communicate of his mind unto us And there is nothing so great nothing so magnificent declared in the Gospel of his Grace but he that loves God will presently believe it and lay it up in his heart as a singular expression of his divine favour For he feels by the power and force of this affection in his own heart what God is enclined to do for those whom he loves and takes delight in though it seem incredible to other Men. And therefore as it doth not pose his belief who loves God when he hears that the Word was made Flesh for the good of men that the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in Jesus that he dyed for sinners and lay'd down his life for the Redemption of Enemies So the Resurrection of Christ from the dead his Ascension to Heaven the exaltation of our Nature in his Person at Gods right hand the Glory and Majesty in which he is said to shine there and in which we are told we shall at last appear together with him are no riddles nor incredible things to him No Love sees him there preparing a place for us making all ready for the joyful Marriage to be celebrated in his glorious Kingdome coming in the Clouds of Heaven to call us up thither and to advance all his Subjects to reign as so many Kings together with him This makes a man presently understand how God should design to reward our poor endeavours those services to which we stand obliged though but weakly performed with an everlasting inheritance How he should compensate our present sufferings which are but for a moment and not worthy to be named with a far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory Hyperbole's go down easily with this Mans Faith He can believe beyond them all and see what is far beyond that far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory as the Apostles words import 2 Cor. 4.17 He is assured the love of Heaven will enkindle a new life in our dead ashes He beholds it sublimating this earth to an Heavenly state And can well conceive this thick Clay shining as the Sun and made like to the glorious Body of Christ This Soul also as pure as the light saluting its new born Body and possessed with a mighty love rejoycing for ever in Gods bounteous kindness to it All this it sees nay feels being already filled as St. Paul speaks with all the fulness of God For it feeling First what a vast difference there is between it self now and what it was before when it was pent up in scant and narrow affection to these petty goods here below makes no doubt there may be as wide a difference between what it shall be hereafter and what it is now It presently concludes that the same powerful goodness which roused up and called forth its sleepy thoughts and drowsie desires towards it self can still further awaken and raise all its faculties to a more quick and lively sense or call forth some hidden power and vertue in the Soul which hath as yet no more appeared than those motions which now it feeles did before it was touched by his Almighty hand And Secondly finding its own nature by this touch of the Divine Love made so free and benign so abundant and overflowing in kind affection to others so open-hearted and gracious it concludes that the Almighty goodness not only can but will do more for it and confidently expects to be lifted up to an higher state of bliss proportionable to the superabundant kindness of that most excellent Nature which hath produced already such good inclinations in it It is impossible for a Man to be under the power of love to feel the huge force of its flames to perceive of what a spreading and communicative Nature it is and not conceive very magnificently of the bounty of God and have a faith in him as large and capacious as his love Love God therefore My Friend as much as ever you can with the greatest passion and most ardent affection and you shall find Heaven coming apace into you and taste the good things of the promised World to come You shall not only guess at your future state and make conjectures about it but in some measure know and feel the all-filling joy of our Lord and possess that quiet tranquillity and peace which passeth all understanding For this Divine love is the right sense whereby Heavenly things are apprehended It is that which fits the mind rightly to understand and the will firmly to believe those great and transcendent things which the Scripture reports as the portion of the Saints in light It gives us a sight of things as much differing from all other which we have meerly by dry reasoning and which we spin out by thoughtful Discourses as the sight of a great beauty before our Eyes differs from the description of it which we read in a Book or as the warmth of fire on the hearth doth from that we see in a Picture which cannot loosen and inliven our stark and benummed Joynts And if you would love God I have told you the ready way to it which is by preserving in your mind a constant and lively sense of his infinite love and good will already expressed to you for this will naturally and easily produce a reciprocal love to him and that will make you look for more of his mercy even to Eternal Life This you understand so well that I shall not say a word to you more about it but proceed to the next when I have left a few words with you to say to God A PRAYER O God how great is thy love how excellent is thy loving kindness towards us thy unworthy Creatures To whom thou takest such pleasure in communicating thy blessings that thou dost not stay till we ask them of thee but pourest them down plentifully before and beyond all our desires O the inconceivable depth of that love from whence thy Son Jesus was sent to dwell among us who hath done so much for us that he hath left us nothing to do but to consider and lay to heart thy love which hath so marvelously abounded towards us For all things I know are easie and pleasant to those that love Thee Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them O possess this heart which opens it self to thy gracious influences
hitherto in performing my duty to Thee Yea I have tasted so often how gracious thou art that I account thy service the most perfect freedome and find that in keeping of thy Commandements there is great reward My Hope is that thou Lord who hast never failed those that seek thee Psal 9.10.19.11.138.8 wilt perfect that which concerneth me and not forsake the works of thine own hands It is Thee whom my Soul seeketh that I may have a more lively and prevailing sense of Thee that I may most ardently love Thee and constantly adhere to thy will and do Thee honour by a chearful observance of all thy Commands And from Thee it is that I have received these good inclinations and holy desires They are the fruit of thy love and therefore cannot but be thy delight which makes me still trust in Thee that thou wilt rejoyce over me and do me good I have thy Word to incourage me upon which thou hast caused me to hope And I know that thy Word is true from the begining 119. Psal 90.160 and that thy faithfulness is unto all Generations They are not the things which thou hast never promised us that I come to beg of Thee riches honours long life or the rest of the goods of this World for which I refer my self to thy wisdom to give me what portion of them thou pleasest but thy Holy Spirit which my Saviour hath told me thou wilt as readily give to those that ask it as a tender-hearted Parent will give food to his hungry Children when they cry unto him I desire only that thy own life may be nourished and protected in me and vanquish all its enemies and be compleated in a blessed Immortality I beg of thee more of the Grace of Humility of Meekness of Temperance of Patience of Brotherly-kindness and of Charity Endue me with moderate desires of what I want and a sober use of what I enjoy with more contentedness in what is present and less solicitude about what is future with a patient mind to submit to any loss of what I have or to any disappointment of what I expect with a pious care to improve my precious time in all other actions of a Christian life and with a willingness to conclude my days and return back to thee to be with Christ which is best of all Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness in these things be for my comfort 119. Psal 58.76 1. Colos 9.1 Phil. 11.15 Rom. 13.14 1. Pet. 5.10.48 Psal 14. according to thy Word unto thy Servant I entreat thy favour with my whole Heart Be merciful unto me according to thy Word Which hath pronounced those blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness and promised that they shall be filled Fill me O Lord with the knowledge of thy will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding Fill me with goodness and the fruits of righteousness And fill me with all joy and peace in believing that thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me but make me perfect stablish strengthen settle me and be my God for ever and ever my Guide even unto Death Amen XV. AND now is there any need to use many words to show how much force there is in the Meditation of Death to make you lively It is the common opinion that all things intend themselves more earnestly and act in the extremity when they meet with their contrary which threatens their destruction As Springs are hottest in the coldest seasons and Fire it self most scorching in frosty weather Even so if we set Death very seriously before our mind and laid the thoughts of it close to our heart would it cause our life to be more full of Life We should gather together all our might to do as much as we can if we lookt upon our selves as going to the Grave where there is no work to be done at all The mind of Man is too apt to feed it self with the fancy of several pleasures that either Nature affords or Art hath invented Among all which a good natur'd mind findes none so delicious as the conceit which frequently starts up in it of the excessive pleasure he should enjoy were he always in the company of a Friend whom he loves intirely and might they spend their days even as they list themselves and dispose of all their Hours according to their own inclinations But if a thought of Death interpose it self when he is in the height of this delight it dashes all these fine Bubbles of the imagination in pieces All 's gone and vanishes into a sigh or there is nothing of them remains but a drop as big as a tear And therefore if it be so sharp a curb to the forwardness of our desires and serve as a Bridle to hold in our head-strong passions we may use it also as a good Spur to prick them on when they are too sluggish and to stir them up when they have no list to move at all When we are ready to fall asleep did we but think of dying it would make us start and say Who would sleep and dream away his time in this manner when for any thing he knows he hath but a few Sands left in his Glass Death is coming to draw the Curtains about me and to make my Bed for me in the dust Awake then up and be doing because there is a long Night near at hand wherein we must rest and not work And is it not a very great grace if for so small so short a work we shall receive so vast so long a reward It is a great shame to stand all the day idle if it be but for this very reason that our best diligence though it could be continued for many more years than it is like to be can never deserve such a recompence Place your self therefore as if you were upon your Death-bed and think with what ardent desires with what passionate groans with what an heartful of sighs you would seek after God if your Soul was just taking its flight out of this Body and perhaps this will send it out beforehand in the like sighs and groans which will help to waft You towards Heaven Just as when a man is to write to the dearest Friend he hath in the World and thinks they are the last Lines that ever he shall send him his very heart dissolves and drops it self into his Pen So would all our affections melt and flow forth towards God if we seemed to our selves as if we should never speak to him more with a Tongue of Flesh nor look upon him through these Windows of Clay but should shortly dwell in silence and go down into the House of Darkness O how would our Souls thirst for God as David speaks for the living God! How much should we love him and endeavour to confirm our friendship with him that when our Bodies are disposed of into the Earth our Souls might still live and rejoyce with Him in