of Saints is heaven upon earth believers are members of the mystical body of Christ and it is with believers as with members in the natural body they have the same care one for another if one suffer all suffer and if one be honoured all rejoyce 1 Cor. 12.25 26. they are like lute-strings if one be strucken all the rest sound but more clear this sympathy would be if it were not for the remaining corruption that is in us oh my soul dost thou meet with hardship in the world wonder not at it thou art in an enemies Countrey the world will love her own but never loved Christ nor any of his hast thou broke satans prison no wonder if there be hue and cry sent after thee to bring thee back the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent did never yet agree Christ hath told thee in the world thou shalt have tribulation yet be of good comfort he hath overcome the world this world is the Saints purgatory not paradice and why shouldst thou expect pleasure it is like the straights of Magellan where it is observed which way soever a man bends his course out the winde will be against him it is an own mother to the wicked but a step-mo-to the godly and will starve them if their father lookt not to them the godly and the wicked fight under two captains the one under the banner of Christ the other under the devils standard and therefore there is no hopes of reconciliation fire and water are not more contrary then Christ and Belial oh my soul manifest thy self the seed of the woman not by making peace but by maintaining war with Christs enemies and by sympathizing with his children mourn with those that mourn and rejoyce with those that rejoyce and be like affectioned one to another like the members of the same body when one is distempered the other suffers when one stands in need all the rest yield their help and assistance Oh my God is there such an antipathy in the hearts of wicked men against thine image in the hearts of thy people what cause have we to admire thy patience that sufferest such enemies to live upon the face of the earth and feedest and maintainest them at thy own cost and charge and what cause have I to admire that thou bearest with me so long when I was in that relation and what cause have we to admire thy wisdom and power in preserving a handful of thy people like lambs in the midst of numerous wolves that seek their destruction when for ought we know there are hundreds to one against them that vow their destruction Lord let me manifest my self to be thine by my antipathy to sin and the works of darkness and my sympathy with the godly those children of light Upon the Marigold and other flowers 36. Med. WHen I considered the marigold and sundry other flowers in the garden that closed in the evening and opened in the morning and all the day turned their heads according to the course of the sun as if they scorned any other beauty and would admit of no other suitor and as if no temptation could divert them from their beloved from whom they received their life and being and in the winter when the sun is remote they bury themselves in the ground and disappear I thought this much resembles a Christian when he acts like a Christian and is a fit embleme of grace in the soul for a gracious soul as he scorns to make love to any other but God so he scorns that proffered love that others make to it or to entertain any in competition with Christ from whom he receiveth life and breath and being In all a gracious man doth Christ is in his eye and if he can please him he matters not who is offended his eye is always upon Christ as these flowers have their eye upon their beloved sun his heart runs out to him and scorns to open to any other when God is present the heart is expatiated when absent it is contracted he retires himself then into himself and thinks there is no company worth having he depends upon him as a childe doth upon his fathers providence and fears not want so long as there is bread enough in his fathers house and as he draws out all from God so he draws out all for God and for his service heart and hand and tongue and all shall be employed for him there is not a dram of love in the heart but it shall run in this channel he shall have it if he have a tongue to speak it shall speak for God if a hand to act it shall act for him and all he can do seems too little for him a gracious soul that is espoused to Christ behaves her self like a chast wife to her beloved husband When suitors come to wooe for her affections they shall have a peremptory deniall my affections are set already I cannot I will not remove them my vows are upon me I cannot yeild I have devoted my self to my husband and will not prove false and it is her trouble she is forced to hear such solicitations and temptations it is so with the soul she repels with disdain the temptations and allurements laid before her the devil knocks by his temptations she will not answer the world knocks she will not open riches honours friends and favourites cannot prevail such a spirit was in Jerome though my father saith he lay upon his knees before me and my mother hanged about my neck and my brethren and sisters lay in my way to keep me from Christ I would throw off my father tread upon my mother run over my brethren and sisters to come to Christ when he calls me a believer is semper idem always the same whether with David upon the throne or with Job upon the dunghill or with Jeremy in the stocks he will still keep his integrity as these flowers do whereever planted in field or garden however honoured or despised no other benefactour shall be owned but the sun when the hypocrite is like the planet Mercury good in a good conjunction and bad with a bad a gracious heart is like Lot good in Sodom temperate amidst the intemperate or like Noah upright in a sinful world or like Joseph holy in a sinful Egypt like the needle in the compass always pointing the same way and never settles in a wrong point however disturbed by a jog of temptation like clear water in a glass which remains clear after all the shaking when the hypocrite hath mud in the bottom which is discovered by the stirring oh my soul is it thus with thee art thou as faithful to this sun of righteousness as these poor flowers are to their beloved that will admit neither moon nor stars nor any other lover to have any room in their affections nor any favour in their eye nor one pleasing look or cast of their head dost thou point right
95 l. 9. for then r. that p. 102. l. 3. f. stars r. clouds p. 102. l. 17. for word r. clouds p. 120 l. 9. f. and r. of p. 139 l. 11. for this stake r. the stake p. 153 l. 11. for way r. wall p. 161. l. 13. for savages r. slaves p. 169 l. 13. for occulta r. occultae p. 181. l. 17. f. David r. Daniel p. 184. l. 23. for petivit r. petunt p. 200 l. 27. for ware r. wine p. 200. l. 29. for volunt r. nolunt p. 215. l. 13. bane left out Divine Meditations Consisting of Observations Applications And Supplications Vpon the Earth I. Meditation WAlking in the garden in the cool of the day among other things that offered themselves to my consideration I observed my mother the Earth whence I had my original and out of whose womb I had my being I considered how near of kin I was to those senceless clods that lay under my feet and that I was made of the same matter a little more refined and moulded up in a better form and was made by God a little walking breathing clay and shortly must return to my first matter for dust thou art saith God and unto dust thou shalt return These and the like thoughts had a various operation upon my soul sometimes it put me on to admire the workman that out of such a rude and indigested mass such course stuff could make so glorious a piece as the body of Man is and could indue it with such excellent parts and such noble faculties and make it such a rich cabinet fit to hold that precious Jewel the soul which when I had a little considered I began to glory that I was made a man and did not remain a senseless clod But on the other side when I considered my original and the rock whence I was hewn and the hole of the pit whence I was digged and that I could say to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister Job 17.14 I who was even now proud that I was a man began to vail my peacocks plumes when I beheld my black feet and to wonder at my own folly and when I beheld my mother and my relations I saw there was small cause of pride and little cause to boast of birth or bloud or great parentage or relations 't is a shame and sin for an angel to be proud much more for a dunghill-bird Oh my soul bless God that thou wast made a man and not a clod of clay a rationall creature and not a brute beast thou wast clay in the hands of this potter and mightest have been the most despicable creature that ever dropt from his fingers but he hath made thee little lower then the Angels and crowned thee with honour and dignity what cause then hast thou to admire thy Creator who made thee thus to differ and made thee capable of communion with him here and enjoying him for ever but beware of pride that raigning damning sin that turned Angels out of heaven Adam out of Paradice and many thousands into hell boast not of the greatnesse of thy stock the nobleness of thy bloud the honour of thy progenitors except thou ascend as high as thy great Grandmother the Earth who opened her womb to bear us all and ere long will open her mouth to receive us all where we shall be resolved into our first matter then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God that gave it 't is true thou hadst a more noble Father in whose image thou wast made but this image is lost and thou art become more deformed then thy Mother Oh my God! as thou hast indewed me with more noble faculties then many other of thy creatures that I might be better able to serve thee enable me so to do renew thy image in me which was lost by the fall and give me sincerity without which my condition will be worse then the beast that perisheth whose misery ends with his life but mine will begin at my death where much is given much will be required as thou hast made me a man let me act as a rational creature and answer the ends of my Creation Vpon digging the Earth 2. Med. DIgging and delving into the bowels of my Mother the Earth to bury those seeds from whence I expected a future encrease that portion of Scripture came fresh into my minde Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread till thou return to the ground out of which thou wast taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return me thoughts my work as it was a just punishment laid upon me for my sin so it did much resemble the digging of my grave and put me in minde of my mortality I began to think that ere long some one would do that for me which I did for these poor seeds lay me to sleep in the grave till the Resurrection and that my mother earth was as ready to receive me as them the pains and aches I felt the sensible decays in nature my gray hairs c. fastned this cogitation more home upon me I then began to think of the vanity of man that was but even now crept out from being earth and for a time made a great stir and bustle in the world and then made as much haste out again and like as stage-players every one acting a part upon the stage of the world some longer some shorter some better and some worse and then an exit comes and they disappear The godly they act a Comedy which begins bad but ends well the wicked a Tragedy which always ends in confusion yet whatever part men act few are willing to go off the stage the old man that hath out-lived his teeth his hair his sight and hearing and can hardly use his limbs and senses yet is loath to die too evident a signe his work for which he came into the world is not done viz. to make his peace with his God and to get an interest in Christ and title to glory the godly while they are here are every day quenching those coals which sin hath kindled with the tears of true repentance the wicked are carrying every day a faggot to encrease that fire that never shall be quenched thus 't is in the world as in a Fair or market there is a great crowd some going one way some another and every one driving on some designe or other O my soul must thou ere long be separated from the body by death how stands the case with thee art thou prepared for such a change or art thou not how doth thy pulse beat suppose this were to be the day of thy dissolution couldst look death in the face with comfort hast thou made thy peace with thy God hast thou got an acquittance sealed with the blood of Christ a discharge of all thy debts hast
seed fructify or one corn grow if God succeed not their endeavour oh the madness stupidity and egregious folly of Athiests that deny a diety and yet cannot make a fly or flea or the leaf of a tree without pre-existent matter nor put life into it when it is made nor know how it is done but many of them their lives are so debaucht that to still and quiet their inraged conscience they would fain race out and obliterate this principle imprinted in the soul by God himself viz. that there is a God but that there is no God they rather wish then believe but to return it is God that doth this work Mark 4.26 The Kingdom of heaven is as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring up and grow up he knows not how for the earth bringeth forth fruit of her self first the blade then the ear afterwards the full corn in the ear c. when we have done our duties we must rely upon God for the success and depend upon Gods providence if we cannot do it leave it to him that can let us do our part of the work and leave his part to him to do we cannot do his and he will not do ours it is our part to plow and sow and manure and till the ground out of which we were taken Gen. 2.15 but it is God that causeth it to fructifie and encrease he giveth us rain from heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Acts. 14.17 Diligence is our duty as the blessing upon it is his gift God placed no man upon the earth as he did Leviathan in the sea only to play therein but we are to work either with hand or head the thing that is good and in the sweat of our brow or brain we should eat our bread but when we have done all we must look higher for a blessing Deut. 28.12 the Lord shall open to thee his good treasure the heaven to give the rain unto the land in his season and to bless all the work of thy hand The stars are Gods store-houses which he opens for our profit and causeth them to pour out their influences upon the earth and thereby he scatters his riches to the world If we will cark and care about the event of things when we have done our endeavour no wonder if we faint under the burden if we take his part of the work upon us also no wonder if we truckle under it Now if his blessing be so necessary in temporals it is much more necessary in spirituals for none can make the soul fruitful but God do we not oft see the seed sown by the same hand and that it is watered by the same word yet it thrives in one field and not in another in one heart and not another why God causeth it to rain upon one field and not another and the field it raineth not on withered Amos. 4.7 those that live under the same Ministry sit in the same seat and have the same husbandry one remains barren the other fruitfull what is the cause but the north-wind and the south-wind the pleasant gales of the spirit blow upon one garden and not upon the other Cant. 4.16 when Christ was the preacher that which workt upon Peter workt not upon Judas not being made effectuall by God The springing of the seed also put me in minde of the resurrection the Apostle we finde illustrateth that point by this similitude 1 Cor. 15.35 36 37. but some will say how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall be but bare grain it may chance of wheat or of some other grain but God hath given it a body as it hath pleased him to every seed his own body the rotting of the body is but as the rotting of the seed in the ground that it may spring forth again with more vigour if God can say to this dead seed as sometime to the dry bones live why can he not say so to our dead bodies Is any thing too hard for the Almighty he that made them at the first of nothing can we imagine he cannot gather again together our scattered ashes and make it again into a body shall we think that to be impossible to God that seems hard to us if he say it shall be done shall we conclude it cannot be done Oh my soul use diligence both in thy general and particular calling but when thou hast done thy endeavour leave the success to God and not carkingly care nor doubtingly trouble thy self about the event and disquiet not thy self at what thou canst not help take not hâ—s work in hand lest thou canst not finish it leave not thy work undone for he will not do it diligence is thy duty yet promise not success to thy endeavours but depend upon him for a blessing if he give it bless him for it and let it more engage thy heart in his service if he deny it murmure not but wisely search out what was the cause some sin or other is pointed at in the suffering if thou finde it out remove the Achan and bless God for the providence it is better have a reformed heart then a full barn and as for spiritualls use diligence in the duties required but rest not in the work done if a blessing succeed let the Lord have his homage paid if that thou stand at a stay it is a signe some obstruction is between the head and heart that hinders the work rest not till it be removed if thou meet God in his ordinance bless his name for it if he absent himself let no duty please thee rest not till thou hast recovered sight of him as for the resurrection call not that to question which is so clearly held forth in his word heaven and earth shall pass but his word shall not pass till it be fulfilled what is too hard for an omnipotent arm he that made all things of nothing and he that every year raiseth a crop from dead seed why should we think it impossible for him to gather together our ashes however scattered and raise again our dead bodies to life it is thy great concern to live holily that thou mayst die happily and live with God eternally Oh my God enable me to commit all my concerns for soul and for body to thee and let me not murmure under any dark dispensation of providence however thou deal with me in reference to the body or these worldly enjoyments yet deal well with me in reference to my soul and in reference to eternity let the seed of grace grow and flourish let the weeds of sin be rooted out and let my soul like the good ground bring forth an hundred fold then shall I glorify thee when I
Jud. 12.13 they were never better then meteors and so they end in a snuff they are constant in nothing but inconstancy and being dead are fitted for the fire they like empty clouds promise refreshing showers but yield none and with the stony ground spring up and flourish for a season and they fall away wither and come to nothing how many Cedars of late have been blown down with the winde and many more will fall if the winde rise many great lights have been extinguished and many noted professors leave Christ with the young man in the Gospel rather then their riches Mar. 10.21 c. such blabs are soon blown up and such bubbles are soon broken with Demas these men choose the world before Christ yea perhaps with Judas they will betray him for money and why is all this but because they received not the truth in the love of it God gave them up to strong delusions to believe a lye c. 2 Thes 2.10 11. when they turned professors they took not Christs Counsel to sit down first and reckon the charges and therefore like the foolish builder began to lay the foundation and was not able to finish they took up religion upon trust and considered not what it would cost them or what God required at their hands and when reproaches losses or crosses come they soon kick it up and will not be of such a chargable profession some take it up for wrong ends and intend to make it but as a cloak to cover their designes or as a stalking-horse to take their prey and when the prey is taken or the designe brought about or they disappointed the cloak is cast aside the vizard cast off and the stalking-horse laid by as useless many drive on some carnal designe under such a disguise and use religion as a workman doth his tools as long as one will serve he useth it and when it will not he lays by that and takes another if persecution will fit the designe better then profession he takes up that it is no strange thing to see men in our age persecute what they have profest those that follow Christ for loaves not for love will cry Hosannah to day and crucifie to morrow if the winde turn for many are resolved rather to wrong their consciences then that their consciences should wrong them Oh my soul do so many flowers fade and so much corn wither for want of root are so mâ—â—y Cedars blown down by the winde and so many forward professors turned apostates at the apprehension of danger look to thy self set strait steps to thy feet lest that which is halting be turned out of the way take heed lest if the sun of persecution ariseth thou also be offended and wither for want of root rest not therefore till thou canst say with Job the root of the matter is in me Job 19.28 let thy ends and motives be sound or otherwise thy profession will prove rotten expect sufferings and prepare to bear them or else never set up thy trade of Christianity if heaven be not worth having at the greatest rate and Christ at the dearest price never meddle wirh these commodities if they are break not for price the pearl in the Gospel is worth all that thou hast if religion be not good never profess it if it be never forsake it set down first and reckon the charges with the wise builder and whatsoever thou canst finde others have paid for it thou maiest expect the like may be required of thee and if upon this rate the bargain will do thee no good meddle not with it thou maist finde Jeremy in derision dayly every one mocked him David was the drunkards song Job the very abjects derided him the Apostles were made the off-scowâ—iâ—g of all things reckon therefore reproach … â—ay be thy portion seeing also Christ himself was not free omnis Christianus est crucianus thou maiest reade some for their religion sake were forsaken by their friends as Christ by his brethren this may be thy condition some have lost their estates and have been exposed to hardship and so maist thou some have been cast into prisons thus Jeremy Peter Paul and Silas and many more this may be thy portion some yea many thousands have been brought to this state and sacrificed their lives in the flames and who knows but it may be required of thee canst thou break through these difficulties else never set a step further in profession if heaven will not make thee amends for earth and God for the creature and eternal life for the loss of a temporal Oh my God without thy support I shall never be able to hold out but through thee I can do all things I know there is more excellency in thee then the world can afford and if I lose my God my soul my heaven and happiness to preserve my estate my life or liberty it will be a losing bargain these things I can want Christ I cannot want Lord give me him though upon the hardest terms let me have strong apprehensions of my love to thee and thine to me then shall I never leave thee nor forsake thee let not the glory of the world dazle my sight that I cannot behold thee in glory Upon the springing of herbs in the spring time 29. Med. AFter a sharp winter when the spring approached and the Sun began to look more chearfully upon the earth and to shine upon it with a more direct ray I beheld the herbs and flowers which before seemed dead and withered began now to bud and germinate and to spring forth and to look lively lovely and amiable the grass waxed green and the face of the earth was changed from what it was a few weeks ago trees leaved and all seemed to rejoyce at the suns approach and to answer the springing showers which kindely fell upon them and those flowers that even now hid their heads and were buried in the earth now crept out of their cells and in their kinde returned praise to their great benefactour and the winter which seemed to have kil'd them did but prepare them for their future encrease this made me consider if it be thus with poor vegetables that are soon sensible of the approaching spring and soon answer the sun beams darting upon them and the refreshing showers wherewith they are watered surely it should be so with the soul when it comes from under the clouds of affliction and when the sun of righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings this made me consider mine own condition whether I had answered the pains and cost which God had bestowed upon me whether my affliction which God had laid upon me the sharp winter that I had undergone and the sharp showers I had felt had wrought such an effect upon me as the winter and the influences of heaven had done upon these poor vegetables viz. made my graces germinate and break forth bud and bloom and bring forth fruit for I
part be not devoured by unprofitable dogs and besure the recreation thou useth be lawfull what is cruel and bloudy may be suspected let it be when true need is and to fit thee for thy general or particular calling oh my God give me wisdome that I may never delight in any thing that offends thee let me not make a mock of sin lest thou call me fool for my labour and laugh at my destruction and mock when my fear comes preserve me from my bloud thirsty enemies especialy from satan that hunts after my soul Upon the labour and pains men take about worldly things 47. Med. WHen I had wearied and almost spent my self in digging delving and moiling in the garden and had unfitted my self for better and more necessary employments I began at last to check my self for it and discourse with my self after this manner vain man what have I been doing or how have I spent my time and my strength is it for heaven or for the earth for my soul or for my body for this life or that to come is there so much pains needful for a little spot of earth which will bring in little if any advantage what pains then is necessary for heaven have I been so prodigal of my time and pains and sweat and labour for this poor empty nothing and yet negligent in the main concern when did I take so much pains for heaven and happiness for Christ and glory as I have done for these trifles when did I sweat thus in Gods service and spend my self thus in doing his work am I working for a better master or is this a more delightful employment or am I like to receive or can I expect better wages then he gives that I work harder and sweat more then I would do in his work and follow my business with more diligence care and industry if the whole world be really worth so much labour pains and industry as I have bestowed upon this little angle this worthless plot of ground what pains doth heaven deserve if to the obtaining the whole world deserves one days hard work sure heaven deserves all the rest good things are not had at easy rates the more excellent the more difficult it is so in earthly enjoyments riches cannot be had without sweat and pain without cark and care nor learning without labour and study and will heaven be had with a wet finger cannot I provide for a few days without all this adoe and can I provide for eternity with less labour will an interest in Christ and a title to glory be had so easily no no doubtless a slow pace will fall short of heaven and the sluggard is never like to come there there must be striving running contending fighting or we shall not obtain the kingdome of heavsn suffers violence and the violent take it by force those only that are carried out with strength of affection after Christ shall enjoy him those are like to have the pearl that will have it at the hardest rates though they sell all to purchase it heaven is had by the violent though the earth be inherited by the meek Mat. 5.6 those that content themselves with the least mercies here as not deserving any cannot content themselves with the greatest portion the world can make up for them because they know there is a better portion laid up for them by their father there is nothing but eternity that can make us absolutely happy or perfectly miserable eternity added to happiness or misery makes it compleat and can I attain the one or avoid the other so easily toylsom days and wearisom nights may make us willing of a change but what good will a change do if it be for the worse and not the better or how can we expect better and not make preparation for it can we expect an harvest that have sown no seed or wages that have done no work can we expect the prize that never run the race or the victory that never entred into the field to fight if we bury our selves and talents in the earth can we expect they will be there improved nay may we not expect a reckoning day when they will be taken from us and given to those that are diligent and will improve them a judging time is coming when our reward will be according to our diligence and our wages according to our work if we sow vanity we shall reap folly if we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption if we sow to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap life everlasting if we trade only in earthly commodities we cannot expect rationally any other gain but what they afford which will never recompence the pains and care and loss we sustain upon that account but if we serve a better Master we may expect better wages oh my soul how justly here maist thou be reproved for thy diligence in trifles and neglect of the substance thou hast not only let the world run away with thy time thy hands and thy head but with thy heart also use the world thou maist but abuse it thou must not but so thou dost when thy affections close with it and thou committest spiritual adultery with it and lodgest it in the room where Christ should lodge in thy earthly business thy heart should be in heaven and thine eye upon Christ if thou be diligent it should be because he commands it and if thou do all in obedience to his command then dost thou engage him to be thy pay-master and maist expect a reward from him even for doing thy own work learn to make some spirituall use of all thy earthly enjoyments then by divine meditation thou maist enjoy heaven upon earth yea extract heaven out of the earth and God out of the creature that must needs be a rich soul that can with the bee extract honey out of every weed and flower oh my God I must confess I have been grossly faulty not only for spending my time and strength upon vanities but letting out my affections on them also Lord suffer me no longer to ramble from thee gather in my scattered affections to thy self Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean let me see more excellency in thee then the world can shew this will engage my heart to thee for ever Upon the dilligence of the spider 48. Med. OBserving the industry diligence and painful labour of the spider a contemptible creature how busy she was in weaving her nets how industriously she plys her work and though oftentimes she meet with disappointments had her work spoiled and her self indangered yet never a whit discouraged or disheartned she begins again this is one of these four things that Solomon had observed in the earth that were little but wise c. the spider that taketh hold with her hands and is in Kings palaces Pro. 30.24 c. she doth her work painfully and curiously spins saith one a finer thred
complains of such that could discern the face of the sky but could not discern the signes of the times Mat. 16.2.3 as if he should say are you so weather-wise that you can foresee the rain and are you so ignorant of Scripture that ye know not the time when the Messiah should come Mat. 23.37 oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Luk. 19.41 42. when he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thy eyes c. they had lived under the Ministery long but no change was perceived oh poor man how art thou degenerated even below the fowls of heaven or the beasts of the earth thou wast made a prince over the works of Gods hands and all terrestrial creatures were subjected to thee and now art sent to the oxe and ass to learn of them thy duty and doth their understanding outreach thine Most men are apt enough to take advantages for the world they will not neglect seed-time nor harvest neither will they omit Fair or Market that their occasions call them to they suit their business to the season of the year the Mariner observes both the winde and tide and yet these very persons which the world calls good husbands are very fools in reference to the soul and let slip spiritual advantages they provide not in summer for winter in the day for the night nor in this life for that which is to come Now the candle of the Lord shines upon our heads and through his light we walk through darkness the secret of the Lord is upon our pavilion Job 29 3. the season of grace is yet continued the harvest is not quite over the market-day is not past and we may lay in provision for the soul and the means of grace is yet afforded us but how soon winter may approach we know not how soon the sun of the Gospel may set and night come we cannot tell when no man can work the shadows of the evening are stretched out Jer. 6.4 and the night seems to be approaching and ere long our day will be over and never dawn again there are sad symptomes that the glory is departed from Israel and that God is going from us and wo to us if he depart there are gray haires here and there upon us and we perceive them not Hos 7.9 'T is our wisdome to observe our season and strike while the iron is hot and make hay while the sun shines and work while we have the light this is the season of gathering honey with the bee and getting oyl with the wise Virgins the bridegroom is at hand and will come in an hour we know not of and at a time when we are not aware of and only those that are prepared will enter with him and the door will be shut then shall we wish as Christ doth for Jerusalem that we had known the day of our visitation but it will be too late The time of our visitation is called a day for the shortness of it and yet we are not sure this day shall have twelve hours many mens sun sets at noon God may remove his candlestick from us as he did from the seven Asian Churches or his dwelling from us as from Shiloe Jer. 7.12 and where are we then Go to my place in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel and may not he say thus of England what assurance have we more then they of Gods continued presence if our sins equal theirs the abuse of mercies the contempt of the Ordinance the abuse of his Ministers and the making light of Christ himself are crying sins and I fear we cannot wash our hands from them Oh my soul observe the seasons of grace afforded to thee by God for whether thou improve them or no they must be upon thine account take the opportunityes put into thy hands take time by the fore-lock or thou wilt finde that it is bald behinde improve every talent God hath lent thee and let none rust by thee cherish every motion of the spirit and blow it up into a flame this is thy seed-time where thou must sow what thou must reap in eternity Gal. 6.7.8 whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting and he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly this also is thy harvest-time lay in for winter it is thy market-day fetch in provision it is thy now or never neglect it not oh my God rouze up my dull and drowsy soul by some quickning considerations and let me not sleep away my time in security rather spur me on by some affection then suffer me to fall short of my journeys end let me live every day as if it were my last and perform every duty as if I were presently to give an account of it to God Upon a snail 71. Med. OBserving a snail that sluggish creature how slow she was in her motion how sloathfull her pace how much time was spent how little ground she rid and observing also that all the instigations I could use rather hindred then furthered her journey for when I prickt her forward she plucks in her horns and stood still and no means I could use could make her mend her pace this made me think this was a fit embleme of a sluggard as he is lively set forth by wise Solomon in his book of Proverbs the slothfull man saith he saith there is a lion in the way I shall be slain in the street Pro. 26.13 14. he forgets the roaring lion that prompts him to these silly excuses but never any came to hell that had not some excuse for their coming thither corrupt nature needs not be taught to tell her tail sin and shifting came into the world together men hide their sins from themselves by false glosses from others by idle excuses they would perswade the world they have some reason to be mad as the door saith Solomon turns upon the hinges so doth the sluggard upon his bed abroad there is a lion and at home there is a lusk that lives in the world to no purpose he hideth his hand in his bosome and it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth and much more to this purpose but of all other the snail resembleth the spiritual sluggard and the Lord knows there are many of them in our days yea which of us is not tainted with this disease for hardly can we finde any men so sluggish for the world as most men are for heaven or
wood but leaves off before it be kindled and so all his labour is lost This duty enables a man with Paul to die dayly and with Stephen to see God with Moses to talk with God and with Enoch to walk with God It fits a Minister to preach and the people to hear neither of which can be well done without it that sermon that is not well set on by meditations seldom heats the preachers heart and then the people seldom feel it for a dull and drowsy preacher makes a dull and sleepy people when the minister preaches his own life and experiences this is the life of preaching This meditation is a serious bending of the minde upon some useful subject till we bring it to some profitable issue Occasionall meditation which is it we now treat of ariseth from some occasionall object presented to our sences or understanding by divine providence of which though examples may be given yet hardly can it be restrained or brought under rules for it may be varied according to the variety of the objects presented or other accidents occurrences or circumstances that offer themselvs or the will of the person or his ability the objects that offer themselves are various and innumerable for there is nothing in rerum natura but may be a fit object for occasional meditations God hath given us a large field to walk in and choise of flowers pluck what we will to put into our nose-gay we may gather honey from flowers and weeds out of our own or neighbours fields without offence which way soever we look within us or without us above us or below us before us or behinde us or on either side we may see suitable matter for our meditation above us we may see the sun moon and stars those glorious lamps of heaven who offer themselves not only to our view but also to our contemplation their light their heat their influence their various though unerring motions their magnitude altitude number nature splendor vertue and effects may breed admiration in us as well as in David Psal 8.3 4. and 19.1 or should we descend to sublunary things to the fiery or ayery regions and observe the several meteors in both that present themselves to our view we may finde matter not only for meditation but also for admiration if we consider a while the winde the snow the rain the frost the ice c. all brought out of Gods treasury Psal 135.7 the thunder and lightning with their strange effects the strange apparitions often seen in the air comets blazing-stars dragons fire-drakes c. armies fighting in the air Lyons bears horses and many other things there resembled raining bloud wheat frogs stones c. all this may raise our admiration veiw but the rain bow in its shape and various colours it deserves our consideration The powerful influence of these superiour bodies in exhaling and retaining those hugh weighty and towring clouds those bottles of heaven in the open air and watering the earth with them at their makers pleasure without which neither man nor beast could subsist who can view those things without consideration or if we look upon the earth out of which we were taken we may finde matter enough to exercise our thoughts observe this huge and massy globe hanging in the air upon nothing consider it as it is distinguished into hills and dales and woods and forrests adorned with sumptuous buildings Towns and Castles abounding with trees of all sorts with corn and grass with herbs and flowers watered with rain and showers rivers springs and fountains inhabited with a thousand times ten thousand living creatures of all sorts men and beasts fowls and creeping things all maintained at the great housholders charge who preserves them in their several kindes consider also the perenity of rivers the cause and perpetuity of springs of all sorts some hot some cold some sweet some bitter some salt some fresh some medicinal some not this observation may take up some time or should we consider the several minerals lodged in the concaves of the earth as of gold silver brass tin iron lead allom brimstone coals lime stone and much more and how useful and necessary these are to human life This may teach us many profitable lessons Or should we go to sea to see the wonders of the deep and observe how the huge and roaring element is restrained and bounded by an almighty arm that saith hitherto shalt thou go and no further or if we consider the ebbing and flowing of it a wonder in nature or the numberless number of living creatures therein which are fed and cherished by those salt and brackish waters yet retain their sweetness or if we consider the cause why those waters alone are salt and so remain though a thousand fresh rivers dayly run into it together with their strange creatures therein produced these considerations will take up much time but of all the creatures God hath made none yield more matter for meditation then angels and men Angels both the good and the bad their nature essence and offices and man considered in his body and soul the order use comliness and proportion of the several parts the vegetative sensitive and rational faculties of the soul the understanding will and affections the memory conscience and many more the several sences whereby the soul comes to understand things here below these things deserve consideration but to let pass the works of creation and consider a while Gods works of providence these will take up much of our time we may see and observe the course of nature the generation and production of the several species with their preservation protection and the provision made for them by their Creator he maintains the several species by his providence that for ought we know there is not one kinde of them extinct since the creation nay the power of man was never able to destroy those kindes that are noxious to man and therefore hated by him yet are these maintained by divine providence at his own cost and charges But his providence is more clearly seen and discovered in his providence to man especially to his own Church in maintaining a handfull of men against their numerous enemies these are preserved as lambs amongst wolves and is the bush that is ever burning yet never consumed he spred a table for them in the wilderness in dispight of their enemies the wonderful providence of God for his Church in all ages in Scripture-times and down to this day may fir us with much matter for meditation The word of God also as well as his works may yield much matter for contemplation it furnished David for meditation day and night every Book every Chapter yea every verse is fruitful abundantly that had we the years of Methusalem the time would be too little to run through the Scripture and to consider of all that is held forth therein here are precepts and promises threats and examples for our good
Gomorrah their grapes are grapes of gall and the clusters are bitter Deut. 32.32 they hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders webs vanity or villany is their trade Heb. 6.7 8. the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh off upon it and bringeth forth hearbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth a blessing from God but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned The fruitful Christian watered with the word and spirit bringing fortth a harvest of holiness and fruit-trees fit for meat were not to be destroyed Deut. 20.14 but fruitless trees are for the fire Mat. 3 10. But oh how much of this sterile barren ground is amongst us that resist all the offered means of their recovery and rave and rage against both the physitian and the physick and though often watered bring forth nothing but briars and thorns whereupon all the seed and all the rain that falls upon it is lost and when God expects fruit behold wilde fruit and yet this wilde and barren ground if well manured and God breathe upon it may prove good land this consideration made me with the servant in the Gospel cry out Lord spare them one year more that I may dig about them and dung them that it may not be my fault that they perish nor laid to my charge oh my soul art not thou this barren plot where nothing but briars and brambles can thrive or at least wise but little good fruit appear God hath done much for thee hedged thee about by his providence watered thee with the dew of heaven sent many of his servants to manure thee whence then this trash and rubbish whence then these tares and weeds was not good seed sown why hast thou not answered the great Husbandmans expectation what could God have done more for his Vineyard then he hath done for thee well look to it if thou remain fruitless ere long he will pluck up thy hedge pluck down thy wall take away thy fence and leave caring for thee and turn in the wilde boar to devour he will lay down his basket and take up his axe Oh the patience of a patient God! that hath born with thee for many years but will ere long if thou remain fruitless pronounce the sentence cut him down why cumbreth he the ground and if this be the danger of barren souls do what in thee lies to make others fruitfull also hereby saith Christ is my father glorified if ye bring forth much fruit Oh my God! Paul may plant and Apollo may water but thou givest the encrease 1 Cor. 3.6 The harp yeelds no sound till touched by the hand of the Musician and my heart will never be made good till thou strikest the stroak 't is God alone must say to dry bones live man can but speak to the ear but God speaks to the heart Lord speak home to my heart and the work will be done If means and ordinances would have served turn the work ere now would have been effected Lord leave me not to other husbandmen for they cannot make me fruitfull Oh be thou my Gardiner and my soul shall flourish blow upon thy spices and they will send forth a sweet savour Vpon the Propensity of the Earth to bring forth weeds 5. Med. VVHen I observed the natural propensity of the Earth to bring forth briars and thorns and weeds and thistles and such unprofitable trash and rubbish and that it brought forth fed and fostered those of its own accord without labour or pains or any help of man nay man without much labour and toil cannot destroy or keep them under but choice flowers profitable herbs wheat and rye and other usefull grain springs not up at so easie a rate there must be pains taken digging plowing harrowing setting sowing weeding fencing watering and a great deal more or no good crop can be expected This Observation made me think that this was the fruits of the curse laid upon the Earth for mans sake Gen. 3.17 Cursed be the ground for thy sake In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee c. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread c. me thoughts the earth in this respect did much resemble a stepmother to the best seeds and choisest fruits but an own Mother to weeds and rubbish this she brings forth and brings up as her own the other she disowns but as she is hired or forc't and if she be not carefully watcht will either starve or choak them and she will suffer her own brats to eat the meat that should nourish them and suck her breasts till they are dry and they shall flourish while the other pine This raised up my Meditations a little higher and I thought the earth in this respect much resembled the world who will willingly nourish no children but her own and plays the stepmothers part with Gods children when the wicked which are her own brats are hug'd in her bosome if their father look not to them they are thrown to the walls if any be wronged it shall be them and if any want be they shall suffer the world loves her own Joh. 15 19. however dogs worry one another yet all agree against the trembling hare Herod and Pilate are made friends when Christ is to suffer and all wicked men are enemies to the power of godliness This propensity also of the earth to bring forth weeds and to starve the choisest plants made me think it resembled also the heart of man by nature which is a fruitful field for briars and brambles and the weeds of sin which grow there without planting but 't is barren of any thing that is good 't is hard to get a good motion a good inclination a good resolution to prosper in that soil but the heart naturally produceth evil thoughts wicked words and bad actions which are the usuall product it bringeth forth The hearb of grace must be planted by the finger of God and watered with the dew of heaven or it will not prosper most of the good seed sown there by the Preachers of the Word is lost and comes to nothing for either it falls among stones or thorns or by the high-way-side and so is choak't or starved or stole away and devoured except the heart be well manured and the nature of the soil changed except it be well fenc't and guarded yea watch't and observed nothing that is good will grow there 'T is not in vain that God bids us break up the fallow ground of our hearts and sow not among thorns Ier. 4.3 Hos 10.12 and God is fain to plow deep furrows by affliction before he can reach the roots of the weeds Oh my soul art not thou this earth that lyes under the curse where nothing but trash and rubbish thrives and prospers how comes it otherwise to passe that thou art
not of that number or otherwise thou wilt be reserved for the same condemnation O my God! such as these I was and such I had been hadst thou not made the difference and too much of that nature remains in me to this day Oh that thou wouldst throughly change me plant me into that noble Vine that I may bring forth better fruit yea purge me that I may bring forth more fruit Upon the diligence necessary to be used in a Garden 7. Med. VVHen I considered how much time and pains sweat and diligence is necessary to keep a garden in order and make it that it may answer the expectation of the owner what digging delving and manuring what planting setting sowing fencing weeding watering c. must be used and all little enough and perhaps too little to produce a good crop This Observation made me to reflect upon my own soul and to consider whether ever I had taken so much time or pains or been at so much cost for it the only garden God delights in and the chiefest I should look after as I have been for a little spot of earth here it is the herb of grace should grow and this should be a garden of spices Can. 4.10 This Consideration made me blush at my own folly when I considered how carefull I had been of a poor worthless piece of ground and had bestowed so much pains and cost upon it which yet yielded but a little pleasure and less profit and in the mean time neglected the soul which is of ten thousand times a greater concernment and when also I had considered the fruitfulness of my garden and the barrenness of my own heart I concluded had I bestowed as much time and pains in planting watering and fencing that as I have done in this garden it would have yielded better fruit then I can expect thence Well may I say with the Spouse Cant. 1.6 they made me keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard I have not kept I have not taken Gods counsel Ier. 4.3 break up the fallow ground of your hearts and sow not among thorns and when I considered how unfruitful my heart was I concluded it had not been sufficiently humbled but the seed was sown among worldly cares and fears and discontents and those thorns had choaked it seeing no more fruit appears I considered therefore how needfull it was for God to plow long and deep furrows on my back by affliction that he might come to the root of the weeds and this same thing quieted me under some dark dispensations of providence I considered what a folly it was for a man that will not suffer a weed in his garden and yet will suffer the weeds of sin in his soul though they are far more pernitious to the herb of grace there planted then the most pestiferous weeds in the world can be to the choicest flowers and yet one reigning sin is a greater deformity to the soul then a thousand weeds can be to the fairest garden Oh my soul why art thou so prodigall of time and pains of cost and care of sweat and industry for a very trifle and in the mean time neglect thy greatest concerns thy self thy God and thy eternall happiness when didst thou take so much pains for heaven as thou hast done for the earth why art thou digging and delving in the earth as if happiness were hid under the clods when thou mayest be solacing thy self with thy God God hath not been wanting to thee but thou hast been wanting to thy self he gives thee time to run thy race when thou leavest thy way to run after butterflies which if thou take they will but foul thy fingers Thou hast been pruned and drest by many choice gardiners why yet art thou fruitless lay thy hands to the work tear up those weeds that hinder the flowers Dost thou expect happiness here below why else doth thy affection grovell upon the ground Will a handfull of herbs or a bosome full of flowers give thee content Oh what a poor happiness dost thou take up with Is there no better to be had serve a better master and thou shalt have better wages be a better husband and thy gains will be the greater and sow in a better soil and thou wilt have a better encrease Oh my God! what answer shall I return for all the pains and cost and time thou hast bestowed upon me O Lord how have I slighted thee O heaven how have I undervalued thee how have I suffered the world to bewitch me and steal away my heart from my God divert my thoughts rend my affection from these earthly vanities let me see more excellency in Christ then the world affords then shall I be as covetous for grace as others are for gold and take as much pains for heaven as ever I did for earth and be as zealous for God as others are for sin and improve my time for the spiritual advantage of my soul Upon Birds picking up the seed 8. Med. WHen I had sown my seed in the garden I perceived that which lay uncovered was made a prey to the fowls of the air who pickt it up and devoured it this brought to my minde our Saviours parable of the sower and the seed wherein he discovers the reason why though so much seed be sown so little fruit appears the fault is not in the seed for that is good the good word of God though sometimes the envious man may mix tares with it Neither is the fault always in the sower though sometimes it may for many of them are faithfull and painfull but for the most part it lyes in the ground in the heart where the seed should be entertained we finde here there was but one fourth part good and oh that the one tenth part of those that hear the word were really such some of the ground was high-way ground not fitted and prepared for a crop never plowed deep enough the seed indeed was sown upon it never in it it was never covered or harrowed by Meditation nor set out by consideration and therefore lyes liable to be pickt up by the wicked one who will be one at Church whoever is absent he makes a path-way over the heart and hardens it against the word this makes many so Sermon-trodden that they receive no impression some we finde was sown in stony places where it had little earth and less root these rejoice to hear it at present these have some meltings and some sudden pangs of joy but they are too violent to hold out and like a hasty rain slide away and soak not in and leave but a dew behinde them they are inlightned by a flash of lightning and not by the sun beams they are moved by some external principle as clocks or watches or other engines but the root of the matter is not in them and therefore withers away and comes to nothing like corn on the house-top for when persecution ariseth they are
soon offended and Christ may take heaven to himself for them if this be his rate of it some seed was sown among thorns and these sprung up and choaked it the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choak it few rich men can handle these thorns and not prick their fingers most overload themselves with earth and so lose heaven they set their hearts with Saul upon the asses when a kingdome is before them these like dissembling hosts welcome us into Innes and at last cut our throats and there is but a little good ground and that also brought forth variously some an hundred some sixty and some thirty-fold every man cannot excell we should strive after the highest pitch of godliness and content our selves with a low frame of spirit but not dispair though we fall short of it God accounts it good ground that brings forth any good fruit to maturity This consideration made me reflect upon my own condition and call my self to an account what sort of ground my heart was since so much seed hath been sown and so little fruit appears Oh my soul how comes it thus to pass that thou art barren and unfruitfull how comes it to pass the seed is lost after so much labour pains and care so much manuring and cultivating what could God have done more for thee by the way of means then he hath done why then bringest thou forth wilde grapes art not thou the high-way-ground and hath not the devil hardned thy heart that it is become sermon-proof and Ordinance-proof and doth he not pick up the seed which lies lose upon it and is not covered by meditation art not thou a forgetful hearer and how can that fructifie that is thus stole away or was it not sown among stones no wonder then if fruit appear not where a root cannot be had trust not to all stirring of the affections Herod heard John Baptist gladly and reformed many things but if the stone of the heart be not removed and a heart of flâ—sh given thee how can corn be expected upon a rock that was never softned mortified or made fruitfull or was it not sown among thorns didst thou not suffer the thoughts the cares the fears of the world or the love desire of or delight in riches to choak it when the heart brings forth such fruits the word cannot prosper when the vessel is full of water it can receive no other liquor O my soul if this be thy case beware of it and prepare thy heart to receive the seed and harrow it in by Meditation what good will meat do if not eaten and digested or what good can physick do if not taken or a plaister if not applied or the word if not set home to the conscience and reduced into practice empty thy heart of all distrustfull cares and fears break up the fallow ground of thy heart and sow not among thorns Oh my God! if thou be not the husbandman there will be no good crop If thou direct not the plow there will be no good furrow If thou bless not the seed and the labour all is in vain Paul may plant and Apollo water but God gives the encrease If God set not a hand to the work old Adam will be too hard for young Melancthon and the devils tares will thrive better then the good seed Man can but speak to the ear God can speak to the heart no plaister can heal if God be not the Surgeon no food can nourish if God be not the nurse Lord reach my heart cure my wounds remove nay distempers empty my soul of froth and vanity that the water of life may be received Say to my ears Ephphatha be opened and they will hear and to my heart be soft and it will be done Say to these dry bones live take my stony heart into thy furnace or what good will it do to preach to a stone all the water that falls upon it will be spilt and all the means of grace lost Lord speak the word and it will be done command my heart and it will obey Upon refreshing rain after a dry season 9. Med. WHen I saw after a dry season wherein the fruits of the earth languished for want of moisture that when a refreshing shower of rain came how they flourished grew and encreased and how fresh and fragrant these were which a little before hang'd the head and droop't I plainly then saw that all the pains and all the cost and all the care which men were at even about these earthly enjoyments signifies nothing if God deny his blessing if the influences of heaven were but restrained what would all our care and labour signify we may rise early lie down late and eat the bread of carefulness and all to little purpose but how few look up to the true cause of plenty or want The most are like to hogs under the tree that eat the crabs or acorns when they fall but regard not whence they come and murmure if they have them not I considered the earth wanted the influences of heaven and the heavens wanted a commission from God and till that was sealed the creatures could not be supplied it was in vain to quarrel the one or the other nay man had no cause to quarrel at any but himself where the obstacle lay for had not he sin'd the creatures had not suffered This made me a little consider the course of nature and how one creature depends upon another and every one seems to be made for another rather then for it self The Sun the Moon and Stars those glorious lamps and beauty-spots of heaven in their uncessant and unerring courses powr out their heat and light and influence upon the earth and by this means the creatures are generated and the earth refresh't without which influence it would be but a barren dry and unprofitable heap and all things therein would languish and die The earth not ingrateful for received favours conceiveth and produceth corn and grass herbs and flowers plants and trees and other vegetables both for the use of man and beast whereby the vegetable and sensitive creatures are maintained beasts of the field fouls of the air fish of the Sea and all creeping things are fed and cherished these again offer themselves for food or service to man their little Lord and he alone is made capable of communion with his creator and especially fitted for his service When I had seriously considered this subordination among the creatures and that every one seemed to minde anothers good rather then his own this led me up to a first cause to enquire who directed them to an end they knew not and led them by a rule they understood not and when I considered that all those famous works were made and thus subordinated each to other and thus directed for the sake of man this made me break out with the Psalmist upon the like occasion Lord what is man that thou art mindefull
of him or the son of man that thou regardest him thou hast made him a little lower then the angels thou hast crowned him with glory and dignity Psal 8.4 5. I considered that all this rule and dominion glory and dignity was given him that he might serve and honour his Creator whose image he did in the Creation most lively represent but above all sublunary creatures none have more deviated from the rule God hath given them nor transgressed his laws nor frustrated the ends of their creation more then man by whose fall the beauty of the newly burnisht world was soon stained and the glory of it soon ecclipsed This made me wonder that God suffered such enemies to live upon the face of the earth to be lords over the works of his hands Oh the patience and long-forbearance of a merciful God! that such rebels that have their life and breath and being from him and are guilty of so many acts of treason and rebellion against heaven should yet be preserved and provided for as they are and so many offers of mercy tendred to them Oh my soul hath God done so much for thee was this glorious fabrick of the world made for thy sake among others are the creatures yea the angels themselves set a work for thy good and doth thy great benefactor only require the pepper-corn of homage and the thankful acknowledgement of what thou hast received and obediential homage for the time to come and dost thou deny him that art thou fed and cloathed maintained and preserved by his providence and care and hast thou any meat to eat or drink to drink or cloaths to put on or health or strength or limbs or senses or peace or plenty or life or breath or any other enjoyment but what he gives thee and is a thankfull acknowledgment of these favours denyed by thee he doth not need thee neither canst thou add any thing to his glory yet he takes himself honoured by a thankfull obediential observation of his commands but alas how much time didst thou spend before thou dist cordially yield any thanks to him for his benefits and how much wanting art thou in it to this very day he makes his sun to shine upon thee and his rain to fall upon thee he gives thee fruitfull seasons and fills thy heart with food and gladness 't is doubtless then thy duty to devote thy self wholly to his service and give up not only thy name but thy heart to Christ Oh my God! dost thou expect service from me enable me to do it I am by nature a senceless stock or stone dead in trespasses and sins put life into me and I shall perform the actions of life I cannot act without thy assistance give me help from heaven for vain is the help of man open my lips then shall I shew forth thy praise inlarge my heart then shall I run the ways of thy commands touch my tongue with a coal from thy altar then shall I trumpet out thy praise seek thy servant and I shall be found Upon the plucking off the tops of weeds 10. Med. IN a dry season when the bottles of heaven were stopped and the clouds were bound up the rain restrained and the showers withheld from the earth so that it was parched hard and dry and gaped in vain for cooling moistning refreshing softning showers I observed some persons when they could not get up the weeds by the roots tare off their heads which when they had done the garden seemed pleasant to the beholders and gave content for a while to the spectators who imagined there had been a through-reformation but not long after when a shower of rain distilled upon it the cheat appeared the weeds sprung up as fresh and flourishing as before yea like hydra with more heads then at first so this partiall reformation was discovered This observation afforded this Meditation I thought it much resembled a partiall reformation in the soul when men begin their reformation at the wrong end or take a wrong course to kill the tree of sin as many do they crop and lop off some branches and let the root alone this is not the way to destroy it many tear off some of the tops of the weeds but let the root remain in the soul which when it is watered with the devils temptations and the worlds allurements and animated with fit occasions and suitable opportunities they spring forth afresh it may be with more heads then before and then the cheat appears that those sins were not kil'd but laid aside An evident example we have of this in Herod who convinced by Iohn Baptists preaching that his courses were not good sets upon a reformation falls out with many of his sins lops off here one bough and there another but lets the root remain firm which afterwards spring forth and shew themselves It is said he reformed many things but he left much work behinde undone to the undoing of his soul The sore was only skinned over and was not sound at the bottom and after broke out with more violence and greater anguish like a torrent of water dam'd up when the dam breaks it runs more furiously So did Herods corruption even to the taking away of Iohn Baptists head who before had set some stop to it And thus it is with many seeming Converts that after prove wicked apostates and persecute the truth that they did formerly profess the root of the matter was not in them Hazael did not believe so much wickedness to lodge in his heart as the Prophet spake of and afterwards appeared An apple rotten at the heart may have a fair outside but the rottenness within will in time rot the outside also when the fountain is corrupted it is impossible to purge the stream If the heart be rotten all that thence proceeds will have an ill savour This half reformation hath been the undoing of many forward Professors in our days they reformed their lives but not their hearts they lopt off some boughs but medled not with the root they went to clense the stream but not the fountain and in a little time the corruption within breaks forth into the life and conversation without and the unclean spirit that was cast out takes to himself seven more worse then himself and enters in and the last end of that man is worse then the beginning Mat. 12.45 The devil deals by such when he hath reduced them as a Jaylour with one that hath broke prison lays on more bolts Runagate Christians are the devils greatest devotes and such apostates very hardly if ever are reduced O my soul how stands the case with thee hast thou not weeded thy own garden thus and rather tore off the lops of the weeds then pluckt them up by the root how comes it else to pass that upon every showr of temptation they are so apt to spring up again look about thee if thou wilt not kill sin sin will kill thee and if
thy hand and a wedding-garment on thy back improve thy talents well that Christ may say well done good and faithfull servant enter into thy Masters joy when others only wish for heaven do thou work for it Oh my God I have been one of these loitering truants that am justly here reproved and sent again to school to the meanest of thy creatures their diligence shames my negligence they have only an instinct of nature to guide them I have reason experience Scripture and example to put me on they labour only for the body I for the soul and body they for the meat that perisheth I for that which endureth to eternall life they for a winter I for eternity yet are they diligent and I negligent Heaven and earth may stand amazed at my folly Lord pardon what is past and incline my heart for the time to come to give diligence to make my calling and election sure Let me so run that I may obtain so fight that I may conquer and be faithfull to the death that I may receive the crown of life Upon the gorgeous dresse of Flowers 18. Med. WHen I seriously considered the various dress the curious colours of the herbs and flowers which diapred the plot I took some delight to consider the power of God in them and how far he condescended to please our fancies and delight our sences when I saw how gorgeously they were attired how beautiful they appeared it led me up to the fountain-head even to God who is beauty and comeliness it self and the greatest beauty that the world can brag of is but a spark to this fire a ray to this Sun and a drop to this ocean if the creature can be so beautiful what is the Creator end if earth be so pleasant what is heaven but when I considered also the transitory fading nature of these short-lived flowers how soon when they were in their prime they withered away and perished this put me in minde of the vanity of man which is compared to a flower which cometh up and is cut down like a flower and never continueth in one stay and not only he but all earthly enjoyments are short-lived and soon perish But when I considered their beauty with their fading nature it minded me of our Saviours words Mat. 6.28 c. Why take you thought for raiment consider the lillies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory is not arayed like one of these wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe ye O ye of little faith c. he sends us in the former verses to the sparrows which though they neither plough nor sow reap nor mow nor carry into barns are yet fed by divine providence so here he sends to the grass and flowers who though frail vanishing things are gorgeously attired by him and all is to put us on to depend upon our fathers providence for the force of the argument is thus If God feed these worthless sparrows and not one falls to the ground without his providence and so clothe the withering grass in such a dress doubtless he will not suffer his sons and servants to want necessary food and rayment which as they are better so are a thousand times dearer to him then the fowls or flowers There is in every man by nature a conceit of self-sufficiency as if by our own diligenee we could provide for our selves and are ready to undertake Gods part of the work Now this self-confidence is the daughter of unbelief as one saith is the mother of carking care and carnal thoughtfullness Our Saviour here by many arguments disswades us from these there is a care of the head not only lawfull but commendable but there is a carking distrustfull diffident care of the heart here condemned when a man hath done his utmost endeavour in the use of lawfull means yet vexeth himself about the event what if this or that follow I fear I shall die a beggar c. One day saith David I shall perish by the hand of Saul What shall I eat or what shall I drink c. because God will not let us know how we shall be provided for therefore we are ready with Israel to question Can God provide a table in the wilderness Psa 78.19 Oh my soul how justly art thou reproved and sent to these poor creatures to school hast thou not had distracting thoughts and distrustfull fears hast thou not oft been questioning What shall I eat or what shall I drink or wherewithall shall I be cloathed what shall become of my wife and children when I am dead c. even contrary to the express command of the great God as if thou hadst had no father to provide for thee or no God to depend upon or no promise to uphold thee and though God hath ofttimes silenced thy fears and husht thy cares by an unexpected providence yet upon the apprehension of new danger new fears arise like murmuring Israel though they had seen Gods wonders in Egypt at the Red Sea in feeding them with Manna yet cry out Can he furnish a table for us in the wilderness Psal 78.19 yea though thou hast never wanted food nor rayment nor any thing truly necessary and hast a promise thou shalt never want any thing that is good and though God hath bid leave your fatherless children with me and let thy widdows trust in me yet how hard is it to commit wife and children to him if there be no visible means for their subsistance or to trust him when means are out of sight and the world doth not pass for payment what if thy food be not so dainty nor thy cloathes so fine if the one nourish thee and the other keep thee warm it matters not if thou do not fare deliciously every day nor go in purple and fine linnen thy betters have fared harder and gone more meanly clad reade Heb. 11.36 and be ashamed of murmuring others had trials of cruel mocking and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in sheeps-skins and goats-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in desarts and in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth what if thou hast no certain dwelling-house thy dear redeemer had not where to lay his head and those Worthys were worse bestead then ever thou wast Oh my God charge not upon me those distrustful thoughts but strengthen my faith in thy promises Lord I believe help my unbelief and let not this sin have dominion over me Enable me to say with Job though he kill me yet will I trust in him and with Ely 't is the Lord let him do what seemeth him
take her prisoner nor make her pay for the trespass this unexpected accident made me consider of the vanity of all humane felicity how soon the beauty of it may vanish and come to nothing and by how small a means God can blast all earthly enjoyments All that the world affords is of the nature of Jonahs gourd that grew up in a night and perished in a night no solidity to be found in any sublunary creatures some worm or other breeds in it that eats out the very heart of it and makes it wither and die and when we have the greatest expectations we meet with the greatest disappointments and when we think we are most sure many times we are in most danger and when we think to gripe it fastest we are likeliest to lose it I considered how foolish men were to promise themselves security in their enjoyments when they apprehend no danger in sight for if our ways please God he can make our enemies yea the stones of the field at peace with us but if we please not God he can raise us enemies enow to disturb our peace David a good man yet offending God had his own familiar friend Achitophel nay his own son Absolom that sought his ruine yea the poorest vermine are sometimes a scourge to the proudest tirant frogs and lice and flyes and locusts make proud Pharaoh stoop to God that before had proudly said who is the Lord that I should obey him I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5.2 but God made himself known to him by his judgements and compelled him to say the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked yea he hath made caterpillars cankerworms palmerworms and such like which God calleth his great army Joel 1.2 c. a scourge to potent princes and can destroy the greatest monarch on earth by these poor insects how little trust then should we put in earthly comforts when God can so easily imbitter them to us and how dangerous it is by our sins to provoke God to leave us and to punish us he can easily do it he need not raise many against us no single creature no fly no flea nor grass-pile nor hair but if it have a Commission from God will be our bane Instances of this may easily be given nay if he withhold our breath we return to our dust and all our thoughts perish and for our enjoyments he can make a worm breed in them that shall eat out the very heart of them and can imbitter that which we esteem our sweetest comforts If these earthly enjoyments are vain and perishing like their owners what need have we to make preparation of some thing that is more durable and more certain which may bear some proportion to our immortal souls we can have no abiding city here but affliction and vanity will attend us in all places for if sin go before affliction will follow after as the effect follows the cause or the shadow the substance Now if these our earthly enjoyments are in such continual danger and have enemies without within above beneath and on every side the soul is in much more danger having more potent subtill cruel and malicious enemies how watchfull then ought we to be lest these chiefest Jewels our immortal souls should be bloudily butchered or inhumanely treated what care what providence should we use that we be not made a prey to infernal furies and what need have we to invoke God to be our guardian our defender and our watchman Oh my soul here is a check for thy folly that hast overeagerly grasped after these vanities and sought content where it was not to be had take heed to thy self this will not serve thy turn a few days and thou wilt be stript of all there are better pleasures truer treasures to be had there is a worm in these will eat out their very heart there is vanity writ upon them they are but Egyptian reeds and will break in thy hand cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the living God if thou love the world the love of the father is not in thee 1 Joh. 2.15 Use it we may as a traveller doth his staff which he keeps or throws away according as it helps or hinders him in his journey these worldly things are transitory and there is a vanity writ upon them but there are riches durable as the days of heaven and run paralell with the life of God or the lines of eternity these are worth scrambling for they are laid up now and may be drawn forth a thousand years hence these our enjoyments are liable to vanity and violence when we grasp them hardest they prick us most and when we embrace them they vanish into smoke which may wring tears from our eyes but never sorrow from our hearts when others therefore lay hold upon riches do thou lay hold upon eternal life 1 Timoth. 6.12 lay hold upon that pearl in the Gospel though thou let all things else go for nothing else is worth having this will make thee rich to God the time is short thy race is long stand not still to pick up sticks and straws nor leave thy way to catch butter-flyes up and be doing let heaven be thy object and the earth will be thy abject oh my God pardon my former folly that I have spent so much time to so little purpose and made no more haste to my journeys end that I have lost my way mistaken my happiness and laboured so long in vain draw up my affections O Lord from earth to heaven and let me be as zealous for heaven as ever I have been for earth and take as much pains for my soul as ever I have done for my body Upon the springing up of the seed 21. Med. WHen I had digged the garden and sowed the seed in convenient time I observed the springing of them up and after a while I observed how fresh and fragrant that looked that a little before seemed dead and rotten among the clods this minded me of the mighty power of God that could of a small seed seemingly dead and buried and rotten in the earth raise up so great so flourishing an hearb or flower indewed with such beauty and excellent vertue yea so great so mighty a tree I considered how small a matter I did or could confer to them I only disposed them where I would have them grow but no skill nor art nor labour nor industry of mine could make them grow the earth hath a natural propensity to receive them the heavens powred out their influence upon them which through Gods blessing cooperating became effectuall 't is God alone must do the work or it will not be done 't is he that gives to every seed his own body and put life into that which hath no life all the skill industry and pains which the husbandman can use cannot make one
bring forth much fruit Upon a sudden Drought 22. Med. WHen I had digged manured sown and fenced my garden and done what lay in me to do and began from the hopefull springing up of the seed to have comfortable hopes of a plentifull encrease and began to rejoyce in the works of my hands behold an unexpected judgement fell upon it for God withheld the showers of rain and restrain'd the influence of heaven and caused that it should not rain upon the earth and the clouds which were wont to drop fatness and by which God was used to open his treasure and to give a blessing to his people Deut. 28.12 now proved empty clouds promising much but paying nothing hereupon the earth languished and could not nourish what she had brought forth for though she had not a miscarrying womb yet had she dry breasts so that hearbs and flowers yea the grass of the field languished hanged down the head withered and died and their beauty faded away as mans will if he want food as we may see Lam. 4.7 8. Her Nazarites were purer then snow they were whiter then milk they were more ruddy in body then rubies their polishing was of saphire their visage is blacker then a coal they are not known in the street their skin cleaveth to their bones it is withered and is become like a stick c. This providence made me consider how vain and fruitless all our endeavours are either for this life or that to come if God succeed them not with his blessing and that all the men that live upon the face of the earth had they joined with their united counsels with policy and power they could not have removed this judgement had they taken in all the gods of the heathens to assist them Can any of the vanities of the gentiles give rain Jer. 14.22 it is in vain to hope for salvation from the hills or from the mountains in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel When God blows upon our creature-comforts they vanish and prove unsatisfying Haggai 1.9 ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it c. ye have sown much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but you are not filled with drink ye cloath you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages putteth it into a bag with holes ver 6. the earth cannot bring forth without the influence of heaven and these cannot be had without a commission from God Jer. 14.22 Can the heavens give showers art not thou he O Lord our God therefore we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things It is he that cloatheth the heavens with blackness Isay 50.3 Hose 2.21.22 I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyle and they shall hear Jezreel but when God refuseth to hear all others cry in vain they may all say as the King of Israel to the woman that cryed to him 2 Kin. 6.26 if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the barn floors or out of the wine-press yet how doth vain man reckon without his host and promise himself a plentifull encrease and much happiness in the enjoyment of it like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.16 c. when the event ofttimes proves otherwise if their designe succeed as sometimes it doth for all things fall alike to all as to the good so to the bad the sun shines upon the just and the unjust they give not the glory to God but sacrifice to their own nets and burn incense to their drags Hab. 1.16 they think their own arm saveth them and their own wisdom and endeavours enricheth them they are like the king of Assyria that said Isai 10.13 by the strength of my hand I have done it and by my wisdome for I am prudent but what had all my labour profited me or what good would theirs have done them if God had not given rain I went yet further in my consideration of the great mercy and benefit of water without which it were impossible that man or beast or fish or foul or hearb or plant or any other creature sensitive or vegetable should live or prosper and wondred at my own and others stupidity that we took so little notice of the mercy and gave God so little thanks for it but this mercy was more prized by the ancient by Israel in the wilderness by Jacob yea by Ahab 1 Kin. 18.5 And Ahab said to Obadiah go into the land unto all fountains of water and unto all brooks peradventure we may finde grass to save the horses and the mules alive and they divided the land between them c. When I had a while considered of these things I raised my Meditation a little higher and considered if rain were so refreshing to the thirsty earth and so necessary for the fruits thereof what was the dew of heaven to the poor soul without it all the Ordinances would prove of little use and all the sowing planting and manuring would signifie little the soul under those enjoyments would be like the heath of the desart that sees not when good comes what cause then have we to depend upon God for the one and for the other oh my soul are thy endeavors crost and thy labour lost learn to depend upon God for the time to come concern not thy self overmuch in the world if it smile upon thee let it not steal away thy affection if it frown on thee trouble not at it for these things are at the dispose of thy father and he mindes thy good use diligence and providence because they are commanded duties but beware of murmuring and repining because they are forbidden sins when thou hast gone as far as thou canst leave the success to God and whatever the issue be acquiesce in his will if thy endeavours be blasted think it was best they should be so because God thought thus if he succeed them bless him if he cross them bless him also The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away saith Job blessed be the name of the Lord seek not great things in the world expect no more then God hath promised lest if they fall short of expectation thou be discouraged hast thou neither poverty nor riches but food convenient this was Agars petition hast thou food and rayment the Apostle was therewith content But for the soul thou must not take up with a small portion labour after the highest pitch of godliness and content not thy self with a low frame of spirit be as covetous for grace as others are for gold use the means diligently but trust not to the means though Paul and Apollo's may plant and water it is God gives the encrease he only can speak to the heart and say to thy sins die and to thy soul live oh my
cast into the oven Mat. 6.30 what sweetness then is in the creator that breathed this sweetness into them is not he much more sweet and delightfull and why dost thou not place thy affections upon him that is altogether lovely Cant. 5.16 wholly desirable Moses thought him so when he preferred the reproach of Christ the heaviest piece of his cross better then all the treasures in Egypt all the excellencies here below are but the shadow and he is the substance they are but a drop to this ocean a ray to this sun and a spark to this fire Why wilt thou go to the puddle that maist go to the fountain-head and take up with a handfull of muck that maist have a handfull of angels taste and see how sweet God is he is sweetness it self thou that so admirest these vanishing flowers whose beauty suddenly is changed for deformity why wilt thou not be enamoured upon perfect beauty the sun the moon and stars are darksome spots in comparison of the beauty that is in him he is white and ruddy the chief of ten thousands his head is as the most fine gold c. Cant. 5.10.11 red and white shews a perfect symmetry a sound and sure complexion and constitution thou speakest of pleasures but at his right hand are pleasures for evermore all earthly enjoyments yield little content small pleasure and delight there is a pound of sorrow for an ounce of pleasure and those also are but bitter sweet pleasures but with him are satisfying pleasures unmixed delights yea the image of God in the hearts of his people is a thousand times a more perfect beauty then the world affords and the graces of the spirit in the garden of their souls as they shew a more perfect beauty so they yield a more fragrant savour and sweeter smell then all the flowers in the world can do to a spiritual sence here is an orchard of Pomegranats and all pleasant fruit camphire and spicknard spicknard and saffron Calamus and cynamon and all trees of frankincense myrrhe and aloes and all chief spices Cant. 4.14 15. see how precious God accounts the graces of his people which here are likened to these precious things here mentioned they smell sweet in the nostrills of God and man yea the word of God and his Ordinances these were sweeter to David then honey and the honey-comb better then thousands of gold and silver Psal 19.10 and to Job better then his appointed food and are none of these taking with thee is there more true worth in a handfull of flowers that will not please thee from morning till night then in those never-ending never-fading pleasures here presented to thee heaven and earth may stand amazed at thy folly oh my soul wallow not in the mire delight not thy self with the swine in swill when thou maist have better and more dainty food feed not upon husks when thou maist have bread enough in thy fathers house grasp not after the shadow when thou maist have the substance or with the dog in the fable lose not the substance to catch at the shadow despise peebles that thou maist have pearls lay not out money for that which is not bread nor thy labour for that which profiteth not when wine and milk are offered without money and without price Esay 55.12 fill not thy vessel with water that it can hold no wine these outward things may be of use to us but must not be abused by us though they cannot make us happy yet they can point us out where happiness may be had and happy is that soul that can with the bee gather honey from hearbs and flowers there is not the most contemptible creature that breathes nor the most despicable vegetable that lives nor the poorest thing that exists nay nothing in rerum natura but hath a finger to point us to God a fly or flea or leaf of a tree or grass-pile or if any thing be more contemptible will tell us whence they had their being and any or all of these may teach us some lessons for our instruction yea the devil which is the grand enemy to mankinde yet by this heavenly alchymy of divine Meditation may be made nourishment to the soul as of the vipers flesh may be made a soveraign antidote against the vipers sting yea it is possible to extract heaven out of hell and God out of the creature and surely that must needs be a fat soul that feeds in so many fat pastures oh my God keep my affections from closing with these earthly enjoyments and teach me the heavenly art of improving them and drawing out the spirits of them And as commonly they are snares and nets and hurtful to the soul Lord assist me that they may prove beneficiall to it let mine affections close with thee and then I need not fear falling into these snares Upon hearbs withering in a dry season 26. Med. WHen I beheld the hearbs and flowers yea the grass of the field also in a dry season how they fainted and flag'd and hang'd the head for lack of moisture the earth being not able to give them a supply without further assistance It brought to my minde how necessary a blessing from heaven was to our enjoyments upon earth and how vain these things would prove if God did but blow upon them and how foolish those men were that depended upon their own industry and promised themselves great matters like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.16 when they often finde such reckoning is without their host he we finde in the midst of his jolity like a Jay was pruning himself in the boughs and came tumbling down with the arrow in his side his glass was run as one saith when he thought it was but new turned he was shot with the boult when he gazed on the bow this was he that trusted in his riches and was not rich to God he had indeed abundance but it signified little to him but many men promise themselves plenty and never come to enjoy it how necessary is our dependance upon God for our dayly bread the greatest of us have no assurance of it neither is any exempted from seeking it daily at the hands of God I saw then that that promise was not in vain which God had made Hose 2.21 22. I will hear the heavens and the heavens shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel for though the people should cry to the corn and to the wine for relief and the corn and wine should cry to the earth for nourishment and the earth should cry to the heavens for showers and the heavens should cry to God for a commission if God should deny that petition all the prayers of the other would signify nothing the creatures have no more then what God puts into them If God give not rain the creatures must languish and the earth fail the earth must
be refresht either by the clouds immediately or from the fountains by mans industry or it cannot bring forth but if God deny provision whence shall man have it they may say as the king Ahab did 2 King 6.26 if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press he is the fountain that must supply the cistern he it is that maketh the springs to run among the hills and fills our fountains out of his treasury Can any of the vanities of the gentiles give rain no they cannot and all the men on earth and devils in hell nay all the angels of heaven cannot do it if he deny it let men say what they please to the contrary and without water neither man nor beast fish nor foul hearb nor plant can long subsist this raised my Meditation a little higher I considered as it was in naturals so much more in spirituals where neither Paul nor Apollos can do the work or make the soul fruitful without God we have indeed many pipes but they are all supplyed by one common fountain if God withhold the water of consolation we may suck long enough before we be satisfied This minded me of a twofold errour in men one in the excess the other in the defect some they suck at the pipe and neglect the fountain these may suck long enough before they are satisfied the other thinking to be supplyed immediately by the fountain neglect the pipe these fail on the other hand in not using the means God hath appointed them some trust in the ordinances and think them sufficient and idolize the Ministers these many times suck at dry breasts the pipe can give no more then it receives from the fountain the other think themselves above ordinances and neglect them the ordinary way appointed by God for their supply and these ofttimes argue themselves out of their Religion though the dug be not that which feeds the childe yet the childe must suck milk through the dug from the breast or otherwise is not like to have it though the pipe cannot supply it is the usuall means of bringing the water the Ministry of the word is usually honoured with the conversion of souls though God can and no doubt sometimes doth work conversion without them yet it is rare Cornelius you finde was directed by an Angel to Peter Act. 10.4 5. though the angel certifyeth him that his alms and his prayers were accepted yet he reads not to him the doctrine of redemption though no doubt he could better have done it then Peter had God given him a commission but the office of preaching is given to the Ministers not to angels We finde Paul when he was strucken down in the way as he journeyed towards Damascus Christ did not teach him himself but sends him to Ananias Act. 9.6 c. and hereby graceth his own ordinance so Philip by the spirit of God was sent to instruct the Eunuch Acts. 8.29 now either Christ himself immediately or the angel or the spirit might have done the work had not God intended to have honoured his Messengers with the work of mans conversion and also to leave it as a standing ordinance to the world for the bringing in and building up those that shall be saved and therefore 't is not safe to contemn it Oh my soul sall not out with the pipe for this is the appointed way to bring water from the fountain fall not in love with it for of it self it can give no satisfaction use it thou must but idolize it thou must not trust not in men nor means food nor physick though thou must make use of them Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the living God all other are physitians of no value clouds without water broken cisterns that can hold no water It was Asa's failing and no doubt a gross one to seek to the physitians in the neglect of God think it not sufficient for the body to make use of the ablest physitian nor for the soul to live under the ablest Minister for many bodyes and souls perish under such if God help thee not whence shall they help thee the sun in a clear day may be seen in a pail of water but if it be clouded all the water in the world cannot shew it the ordinance is the usual place where God may be seen but till God open mens eyes there is none can see him there yet must not the ordinances be despised for usually God makes discoveries of himself there he could have sed Elijah himself or by an Angel yet sends him food by a raven he could have taught Paul as well as struck him down as is before-noted yet sends him to Ananias he seldom works otherwise where the means of grace is to be had he could have healed Hezekiah with a word yet useth a bunch of figs no matter what is the disease or what is the receipt if God bless it Oh my God afford me the means of grace the Ministry of thy word and leave me not up to a famine of thy word nor leave me not to the teaching of man but follow home every truth and set it home by thy holy spirit let me not suck an empty dug then shall I draw nothing but winde let me not draw at an empty pipe then shall I suck and not be satisfied supply the dug from a full breast and the pipe from a full fountain then shall I be fat and flourishing Upon the difference between the various sorts of flowers and vegetables 27. Med. WHen I considered the various forms features shapes colours and vertues of the several sorts of herbs flowers and other vegetables and though there are perhaps many hundred several species in the world yet every species hath a distinct colour shape and vertue different from the rest whereby they may be perfectly known found out and distinguisht one from another by a skilfull artist and all these together adorn the creation and make the earth lovely and every one hath its peculiar use While I spent some thoughts on these things and was admiring the creatures wisdome in these works of his hands and his good to mankinde to give a salve to every sore for he hath made nothing in vain it came to my minde how many thousand millions of faces are upon the face of the earth all alike and yet unlike all resembling one another and yet scarce two persons to be found out in the whole world so like but they may be differenced one from another in one thing or another by a discerning eye this also raised my meditation from the creature to the Creator to admire his wisdome and skill that hath as before noted thus distinguished between the several sort of vegetables though many hundreds and between so many hundred thousands of faces among rational creatures that as he gives to every seed his own
semper idem always the same Job upon the throne and upon the dunghill is holy Job still it brings forth the fruits of the spirit whereever it is planted Gal 5.22 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law but where sin is it brings forth the fruits of the flesh it grows from one degree to another from a thought to a resolution thence to action and at length comes to a habit and hard it is to be left Bray a fool saith Solomon in a morter with a pestle like wheat yet will not his foolishness depart from him Pro. 27.22 A wolf will have a wolvish nature though his skin be stript over his ears and his bones be broken as every seed produceth its own kinde and not another species so grace and sin shew themselves in their production men gather not grapes of thorns not figs of thistles a good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit but every tree is known by his fruit oh my soul are there secrets in nature that thou understandest not yea even in those creatures that thou dost dayly converse with admire the wisdome of the Creator and see how little beholding thou art to sin which hath drawn such a vail of ignorance before thy eyes and wonder not that there are mysteries in spirituals beyond thy conceiving if thou canst not understand temporalls much less spirituals that are spiritually discerned the nature of God of Angels and of thy self lie far more remote from thy understanding There is many a man that can search natures garden from end to end that never could search his own heart many can try their evidence for lands that know not how to try their title to heaven they can finde out the state of their bodies but know not the state of their souls but when others study earth do thou study heaven the things that are necessary are attainable study Christ and him crucified this will do thee more good then if thou couldst with Solomon discourse of all the vegetables from the cedar in Lebanon to the hysop that groweth upon the way and did men study God and themselves as much as they did the creature it would bring in more profit The knowledg of these things is excellent but the knowledge of God and our selves is necessary all thy time is little enough for this study the other must be left to more curious heads and riper witts oh my God suffer me not to spend my time in any unnecessary study that should be spent in seeking thee let me not catch at the shadow and lose the substance and hunt so long after curiosities till I lose my self and know not which way to return all my time is little enough to spend in my generall and particular calling all the water is little enough to run in this channel and I have none to spare to turn any other mill let my greatest care be to know God and my self the duty I owe him and the relation I stand in to him and what interest I have in Jesus Christ Lord let this be the work of the remaining part of my life Upon some despicable weeds yet usefull 32. Med. WHen I saw some poor contemptible despicable weeds that usually grow in the fields without labour pains or care of man or are thrown out of the garden with contempt as not fit to have a being there but to be trod upon and despised as not being neither sweet for savour nor beautifull to the eye and yet when I beheld these very weeds gathered and successfully used by the greatest artists in physick and surgery for the curing of great distempers when the more glorious gorgeous and more esteemed vegetables were disregarded this made me consider how deceitfull a thing it is to judge by the outward appearance and that beauty and vertue are not alway linkt together neither go they hand in hand many have been deceived when they have pleased their eyes by beauty the devil many times baits his hook with a fair woman and many have been undone by swallowing such a hook many that have made beauty their aim have been matcht with foul conditions Samuel that man of God was deceived by his eye when he thought Eliab Davids elder brother had been the Lords annointed because he had a comely countenance 1 Sam. 16.6 and it came to pass after they were come that he looked on Eliab and said surely the Lords anointed is before him but the Lord said to Samuel look not on his countenance or on the heighth of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart Many a man under a russet coat carries more real worth more true gentillity yea nobillity then others do under their silks and sattins velvets and scarlets many a worthless piece is drest puppet-like with paint and plaister and ridiculous gewgaws but could we but see the soul through the gayish dress of the body it would appear leprous and deformed nay perhaps in the body it self there would appear visible marks of deformity as well as of infirmity paint and plaister better become a mud-wall then a marble pillar true beauty needs no varnish nor a diamond needs no painting spotted faces often cover spotted souls and their spot is not the spot of Gods people there are many that like the Cinamon-tree have the bark better then the body but it is a fool that buys a horse by the trappings or chooseth a wife by her gaudy dress or that esteems the better of himself or imagines that any wise man esteems the better of him for a fine suit of cloathes yet there was a disease amongst Christians in the Apostles time and it is almost epidemical in our days to respect the cloathes or outward ornaments of a man more then his conditions and qualifications Jam. 2.2 3. if there come into your assemblies a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel and there come in also a poor man in vile rayment and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay cloathing and say unto him fit thou here in a good place and say to the poor man stand thou here or sit here under my footstool are you not then partial in your selves c. but however man may disrespect them God hath chosen the poor rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom A poor man though wise yea though by his wisdome he save the city yet is not remembred Eccl. 9.15 this is merces mundi the worlds wages many deal by such as men do by a fruit-tree to which they run in a storm and when it is done beat him and rob him of his fruit many wise Ministers are heard with scorn or at least with disregard till men lie upon their death-bed and then they are sent unto for counsel or
prayer and tear yet he cannot beget a godly childe but chaff and corruption adheres to them also nay inheres in them and they have as much need of refining as ever the father had for though a sinful man beget a sinful childe yet cannot a gracious man beget a gracious childe for he begets him as he is a man and of the sinful off-spring of fallen Adam and not as he is gracious and though God do more usually make choise of his people out of such families the covenant being with them and their seed and he hath respect to their prayers and gives a blessing to their education and exhortations yet this is not always so neither are they born thus for they are the children of wrath as well as others and though sin be hereditary grace is not Ah sin what woful work hast thou made in the world the most of men perish eternally by thee and those that escape are saved as by fire with a very great deal of pains and difficulty holy David begat a lascivious Amnon and a rebellious Absolom good Ely begat bad sons and holy Isaac a prophane Esau yea faithfull Abraham a scoffing Ishmael for as a learned man cannot beget a learned childe for learning is not a birth-priviledge but an acquired qualification so grace is not born with but freely given to them that God thinks fit to bestow it upon A rich mans childe comes into the world as naked destitute and miserably impotent and helpless as any other This as it may minde us of our miserable condition by the fall so also of our duty to our children that as we are carefull of their bodies so should we be much more carefull of their souls and as we are carefull that they get learning so should we be much more that they get grace an estate is not so needfull as an interest in Christ we should endeavour by instruction correction and good education to train them up in the fear of God and when we can do no more to go to him that is able to give it to beg grace for them for as we were instrumental in their ruine so we should endeavour their recovery But too many train them up no otherwise then they do their horses teach them to drudge and think they have done well especially if they can leave them an estate behinde them which oftentimes is so badly gotten that they entail also a curse upon them and their posterity and God doth in a visible manner punish their children to the third and fourth generation Oh my soul how stands the case with thee thou art a childe of wrath by nature as well as others is thy relation to thy God changed of an enemy art thou an adopted son t is well thou hadst dross is that consumed and the soul refined thou hadst chaff is that blown away hast thou the marks of adoption now upon thee that formerly hadst the marks of an enemy dost thou resemble thy father dost bear his image God hath no children but what have some resemblance to him he never adopts any but he changeth their nature and disposition as well as their relation he hath no unnatural children hath he made good that promise to thee 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father to them and they shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord almighty hath he performed the duty of a father in thy new birth in maintaining thee and giving the heavenly allowance in instructing and correcting thee and hast thou the nature disposition and priviledge of children hast thou communion with him doth he feed thee with bread from heaven cloath thee with the robes of righteousness and adorn thee with the jewels of his grace is there a through change wrought in thee and a new nature put into thee hast thou given up thy heart as well as thy name to Christ if it be so it is well if thou hast this priviledge for thy self seek it for thy children also as thou hast dedicated them to God do thy endeavour to make them Gods and that the work of grace may be timely wrought in their souls curb corruption while they are young a green twig will easily be bended but when old and dry the work is difficult many like the ape kill their young ones with embracing and they come to break their parents heart who thought a rod too heavy for them withhold not correction nor instruction and go to God for a blessing upon both Oh my God am I wilde by nature and hast thou planted me into the true olive hast thou taken me off my own stock and planted me into the true vine Lord what shall I render to thee for this Lord help me to give up my heart as well as my name to thee and live thanks as well as speak thanks hast thou made me a son Lord give me a son-like disposition and let me honour my God by a holy life and conversation And O that my children might live before thee Lord purge out the dross blow away their chaff make them thy sons and thy daughters Upon the pleasures of a garden 43. Med. BEing in a well contrived well-furnished well-ordered garden where there was what nature or art could bestow upon it various well-coloured well-sented flowers which chequered the knots and delighted both the sight and smell with various sorts of herbs and vegetables as well physicall as otherwise together with curious walks and shady bowers and other curious contrivances delightful delicacies and various curiosities that it seemed to me an earthly paradice a place of pelights and pleasures which when I had viewed and for a while solaced my self in it I took much pleasure in it and could contentedly have spent my time there my affections were much tickled with it and grew warm upon it and for a while I delighted my self in it but at last I began to call my self to an accompt and to check my self for it with such considerations as these oh my soul what art thou doing or whether art thou going art thou in heaven or upon the earth that thou art taking up thy station art thou like Shimei in seeking a servant dost thou lose thy self wilt thou by admiring the gift neglect the giver or court the maid before the mistress and take up with a handful of muck for a handful of angels is this a suitable portion for thee or rather a suitable match for the soul that thou art espousing thy self to it and letting out thy affections upon it will this serve thy turn or make thee happy or will it endure to eternity alas it will not when winter comes where are then thy delights nay when night comes it deprives thee of thy pleasure yea every shower of rain puts thee on to seek another happiness and a better shelter and security what then will become of thee at death or judgment if thou hast no better a refuge what good can these do thee in heaven or in
hell these things are not lasting thou seest the flowers ripe at noon and withered by night like Jonah's gourd grow up in a night and wither in a night and have a worm breed in them which will eat out their heart they are like the bee they have honey in the mouth and a sting in the tail and not only vanity but vexation of spirit is writ upon them will a handful of flowers revive a dying man or comfort a languishing soul when the earth and all the works therein are burnt up where will be thy happiness then why then wilt thou moil and toil and cark and care for such vanities that never will make thee satisfaction why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not if thou wilt take pains let it be in a more fruitful soil where thou maist expect a better crop spend not thy money for that which is not bread nor thy labour for that which satisfies not these cannot satisfy and if they did cannot last long these are but swallow-comforts they hide their heads in the winter the grass will soon wither the flowers will soon fade and thy own life is no more certain and what good will these do the soul some poor vanishing delights they yield for an hour or two and then it is over but there are more satisfying pleasures more durable delights to be had then these why are they then neglected these like swallow-friends forsake when winter comes when there is most need or like Physitians leave a man when he is dying or like the devil with the witch tempt a while and then forsake her when she is in the most danger If a small spot of earth seem so delightful what is heaven and those mansions of glory provided for glorified Saints if the creature be so glorious what is the Creator who infused such a beauty and vertue in it if a flower be so sweet what is the rose of sharon and the lilly of the valley these things delight us for a moment but one day will make us weary of them especially if there be not the addition of meat and drink and sleep and lodging of health and strength and other necessaries but in heaven is nothing wanting that is necessary delightful or desirable no creature-comforts there are needful but God is better a thousand times then all the comforts the whole earth affords oh my soul labour after the substance not the shadow after Christ and a title to glory there are reall pleasures to be had rivers of pleasure at his right hand for evermore scorn then to be put off with such poor things or to let out thy affections upon such vanities or to let them grovel upon the ground wilt thou suffer thy eyes to be dazled with a few flowers when thou maist behold the sun the moon and stars those glorious lamps and beauty-spots of heaven these are greater beauties those beautify only the porch how beautiful then is the palace the throne nay the king himself These flowers thou now admirest may for ought thou knowest be cropt and made use of for thy funeral for thy body is as fading and thy life as uncertain as they are a few days will â—â—ther make them uncapable of pleasing thee or thee uncapable of praising them this use thou maist make of this pleasing object be as careful of thy soul as the gardiner is of this plot of ground let neither thorn nor thistle briar nor weed of sin thrive there supply what is wanting root out what is superfluous order what is disordered and then it is a happy time thou madest this Observation oh my God what a poor pitiful foolish wretch am I thus to doat upon vanities Lord wean my affections from the world and keep them close to thy self Upon an adder lurking in the grass 44. Med. WAlking in the garden I had like to have trod upon an adder lurking in the grass and so was in unexpected danger where I least dreaded it the apprehensions of it at present put me into amaze which when it was something abated it made me consider what daily need we have of divine protection and how dangerous it is to be from under the protecting hand of God It made me also to consider that thus it is in all our earthly enjoyments there is no security in any much danger in all anguis in herba latet there is a little honey and many stings a little pleasure and much pain there is no age no calling no condition of life free riches are held by many to be the greatest happiness and most men rather desire gold then grace and to be great rather then good yet these are not without their snares neither set men out of the reach of danger they are called deceitfull riches such as choak the word when it was sown Mat. 22.13 and well they may be so called for they promise that they never pay and always deceive those that trust them they promise content satisfaction and happiness when oftentimes like strong drink in a feaver they do but inrage the disease he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver Eccles. 5.10 a man may as soon fill a chest with grace an empty stomach with air as a covetous heart with grace pauperis est numerare pecus saith the coveteous man he had never enow cattle while they might be numbred a ship may sink under the burthen that is not half full and men may have riches enough to sink them when not half enough to satisfy them non plus satiatur cor auro quam corpus aura But this is not all their vanity neither for as they are unsatisfying so they are uncertain they take themselves wings and fly away Pro. 23.5 they are never true to those that trust them they are oft as transitory as a head-long torrent but this is not all they are golden fetters to chain the souls faster in the devils clutches and faster in his service and many times the devil buys mens souls yea their very profession out of their hands for money pleasures have honey in the mouth but a sting in the tail they oft perish in the budding in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heaviness favour is deceitful and beauty is vain Pro. 31.30 and those that trust to them shall be deceived favour will fail and beauty will wither and how will they deceive mens expectation some men marry saith one by the eye and some by their fingers ends viz. for money dos non Deus makes such matches Absolom and his sister found there was danger trusting to their beauty and many more besides them to whom it hath proved a temptation honour is the emptiest of all bubbles courted by many attained by few and there is but a little distance between the highest round of the ladder and the lowest step let Haman and Achitophel prove the point Beauty many times is like a
eternity of torments will be little enough to pay the debt which I owe but her debts being nothing but death will be soon discharged oh my soul if God do not distinguish thee from wicked men by grace as well as from this toad by reason thy misery will be far worse then hers and thy condition more forlorn Oh poor man whither art thou fallen thou wast in the creation made the glory of this Universe and all the creatures to be thy servants yea the angels to be Ministring spirits for thy good and now if God assist not in a new creation the meanest and most despicable of the creatures is in a better condition then thou art Oh sin what woful work hast thou made among us and of what a bewitched nature art thou and how hast thou infatuated us still to doat upon thee and to think thee lovely oh my God how good hast thou been to me and how evilly have I requited thee for thy good and how foolishly have I behaved my self to my own soul thou createdst me after thine own image in knowledge righteousness and true holiness and gavest me dominion over thy creatures thou madest me little lower then the angels and crownedst me with honour and dignity Psal 8.4 5 6. such I was when I past out of thy hand but I have lost this image by the fall and this supremacy and now this poor creature is in a better condition then I am by nature and never transgress thy laws as I have done but Lord thou canst renew thine image in me and bring me to my primitive happiness Lord do it then shall I praise thee with unfained lips that thou hast made me a man Upon the coursing of a hare 46. Med. BEing occasionally present at the coursing of a hare and my affection being tickled with the sport to see what turnings windings shifts and cunning evasions she had to delude her enemy and make an escape but all too little for she after came to be their prey that sought her life and to suck her bloud when I felt my affections thus to heat and close with the sport I began to check my self for it and to expostulate the case thus with mine own heart vain man what art thou doing whither art thou going art thou in heaven or on the earth that thy affections are so pleased is it God or the creature that gives thee this content alass what poor fading perishing joy is this and canst thou finde more delight in it then in the service of God or in communion with Christ Nay but art thou sure that these delights are lawfull if not thou hast cause to bewail it the thing may be disputable was it not the sin of man that brought this enmity and antipathy between the creatures and made them thirst after one anothers bloud Reverend Mr Bolton tels us this is the judgement of the best Divines that it was a fruit of our rebellion against God now if this misery was laid upon them for our faults it should be rather matter of our grief then sport and taking pleasure in their bloud is a vexing of their very vexation and we discover those weeds and seeds of cruelty to be too rank and luxurious in the soul and we degenerate in this below the beast of the field who as it is observed take not content in hurting one another but in case of hunger or anger they satisfy their appetite and rage sometimes with bloud but never their eye or their fancy Is the fruits of our sin become the matter of sport this consideration might work in us a contrary effect and I think much better but grant for no body will deny it that we have liberty given us to make use of this antipathy for the destroying of hurtful creatures and the enjoying of those that are usefull as these now under consideration which no doubt are given to us for food as well as others and grant that they cannot be so well taken any other way and their flesh to be best when it is thus hunted and chased yet it still remains disputable whether their death were ever appointed by God to be a matter of sport or a lawfull recreation to us to kill them is no doubt lawfull but to sport our selves in their death seems cruel and bloudy to delight more in seeing the shifts the poor creature hath to save her life an instinct given her by nature and to see her in the mouths of her bloud-thirsty enemies rending and tearing her in peeces without mercy then they do in the flesh it self which should be I think the cheifest end in this action seems cruel and bloudy recreation suppose thou heardest such a poor creature giving up the ghost to speak after this manner for it is no absurdity to fain such a speech oh man what have I done to thee or what evil is found in me that like a cruel enemy thou sportest thy self at my death I have lived upon my fathers allowance and never transgrest my masters will nor makers laws as thou hast done If thou take away my life what needst thou make a sport at my death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without Gods providence surely he takes notice of my death and the manner of it and I am part of the goods thy master commends to thee as a steward and for which thou must give an account I am thy fellow-creature made of the same matter by the same hand it was not all the men on earth could have created me or given me life my life was given me by God and now it is taken away in sport to please man take heed vain man that thus dost satiate thy self with my bloud lest at last thy condition be worse then mine and thy account heavier my debt is now paid by my death and my own sufferings but thine will never be discharged by thy self to eternity this pleasure thou hast now taken will be dearly bought and this flesh of miâ—e must be satisfied for hereafter if Christ be not thy surety nay O man thou knowest not but there are some enemies if God restrained them not that do as earnestly thirst after thy bloud as thou hast done after mine and would be glad to wash their hands in it however the devil is a more cruel bloud thirsty enemy to thy soul then these dogs are to my body and goes about day and night like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and take heed lest those dogs which have now drunk my bloud and are too often fed with the poors portion and deserve death as well as I being every way as noxious do not rise up against thee another day c. Oh my soul spend no more time in recreation then thou canst afford and that is but a little till thy main work be done and then spend no more in recreation then thy state will afford and that will not be much take heed that the poors
or Parliaments in armies or Garisons in men or money in food or physick in friends or relations or in any other earthly enjoyment we shall finde disappointments for these are not God but webs of our own weaving nets of our own making which may help to sink us but never to save us yet many men as God complains Esay 59.5 6. they hatch cockatrice eggs and weave spiders webs but their web shall not become a garment neither shall they cover themselves with their work it is too thin to shelter them from a shower of divine justice and too short to cover their nakedness Psal 33.16 17. there is no king delivered by the multitude of an host a mighty man is not delivered by much strength a horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any by his great strength what then is the result of all but this Jer. 3.23 truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Psal 121.2 my help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth and as for temporals so for spirituals he that trusts for salvation from any thing but God will ere long finde his mistake and yet how many build their hopes upon a sandy foundation and trust to a broken staff some to Church-priviledges because they are baptized and go to Church they think they must needs go to heaven and that God wrongs them if he do not save them they are like the Jews that though they did steal murther and commit adultery and swear falsly and burn incense to Baal and served other Gods yet they cryed out the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 6 7. when they forgot the Lord of the temple and disobeyed him yet they thought themselves secure but what was Simon Magus the better for his baptismal water when he was still in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity Is the making of the covenant worth any thing if it be not kept it doth but encrease the guilt and add to their damnation some trust for salvation to a good nature a good disposition a good meaning meer civility common honesty and think it is sufficient I am neither whore nor thief saith one and what then must thou needs be saved do all go to heaven that avoid these sins this is good news for many heathens others trust to humane learning external gifts and parts but the greatest enemies that ever Christ had in the world were men of great learning and profound natural parts the Philosophers of old Scribes and Pharisees yea the Jesuits at this day others trust to a bare profession of religion with the foolish virgins but all this is but to a spiders web oh my soul rest not upon these rotten props or deceitful webs for temporal safety or eternal salvation for they will deceive thee they are not the Lord Jehovah who is thy only refuge lay thy foundation upon that rock that is higher then thee so neither winde nor weather storms nor tempests can molest thee all other foundations are sandy and will down they are Egiptian reeds and will break in thy hand if thou lean upon them trust Gods power and providence and his other attributes for thy temporal preservation and roul thy self upon the merits and righteousness of Christ for thy eternal welfare then wilt thou be happy here and hereafter oh my God pardon my sin and folly in expecting salvation from the hills and from the mountains in trusting to this and that arm of flesh for temporal salvation and leaning upon this and that spiders web for eternal salvation Lord assist me for the time to come to commit both soul and body to thy self who only canst provide for me Upon the painful and laborious Bee 51. Med. WHen I observed the busy and labourious bee how painful and diligent she was in her employment and how industriously she busied her self and how laboriously she toiled and moiled from morning to night in gathering both honey and wax which when she had gotten she was as industrious in the disposal of it I observed how curious how carefull how exquisite she was in furnishing her little cell with the provision she had got by her hard labour in building her combs placing her honey disposing her young ones and feeding them and was so exact in all her labours that the art or wit of man cannot reach her nor erect so exact a fabrick out of such materials so uniform that nothing redundant nothing deficient doth appear and in all her little boxes so exact a symetry doth appear as is admirable to behold and beyond my skill to declare she is so painful and diligent that from morning till night whensoever seasonable weather doth permit she is never idle but either within door or without is busily employed yea the very first day she is placed in her new habitation she rids and cleanseth it decks and adorns it and makes it fit to begin her work and from that day they all join heart and hand as we say in the work and jointly and severally all study and endeavour the common good some order and government also there seems to be among those poor insects not only in their labour where no one is to live idlely but also in resisting the common enemy as we may see how unanimously they set against the idle wasp and at the time of the year against the sluggish drone I observed also in swarming times how unanimously they agreed and followed their leaders where they fled they followed and where they knit or lodged there they aboad also and that no quarrelling nor jarring arise among them yea when one was wronged the other sought revenge I observed also in their work how they gathered honey both from flowers and weeds and as I thought made little difference but extracted the quintescence of them for their own use and that without any wrong to the owner or dammage so far as I could perceive to the hearb or flower these and some such like considerations and observations made me to think it did much resemble a well ordered common-wealth or a well-regulated City Corporation or Community of persons or a family wherein all the members study the common good rather then their own private interest and lay out themselves one for the good of another and be all touched with the sence of others infirmitys and when one suffers all suffer but alass where are such a people to be found that bear such a spirit for the publike good for all seek their own Phil. 2.21 yea Christians themselves that are united each to other in a stricter band then any other community whatsoever are much wanting here and might learn hence a lesson of brotherly love and unity they should be like affectioned one to another and mourn with those that mourn and rejoyce with those that rejoyce Rom. 12.15 they
despight of his enemies if they take away their meat saith the Martyr God can take away their hunger why not as well as he doth the life of other creatures and he will do it rather then his promise shall fail Elijah goes in the strength of one meal forty days and had God pleased it might have been forty years for he could have preserved the Israelites forty years in the wilderness without food as well as with food from heaven and as well as he preserved their garments from waxing old Deut. 29.5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness your cloaths are not waxen old upon you and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot they needed not to care what they should eat or what they should drink or wherewithall they should be cloathed for God made provision of all this they were maintained at Gods proper cost and charges methoughts also this cessation of action in these creatures in winter did much resemble sleep which if God pleased might be as long in other animals and were it not common would be thought wonderful and little differing from death it self and yet experience shews us that which seems to destroy nature doth restore and refresh it or it is like to a swoon when the symptomes of death are upon a man yea in some distempers the symptomes of life for many hours together are scarcely discerned but above all it resembles our lying in the grave and our rising again at the resurrection for the body sleeps in the dust till the last day as these creatures do in their holes till the winter is past and the spring approacheth and the silkworm never receives life till the Mulbery-trees leaves which is their food and then they shall be revived by the sun of righteousness and life put into them then these dry bones shall live This I know some question and some deny possibly because they cannot fathome the depth of this providence and were they not convinc't by yearly experience of the other they would deny that also and would think it could not be that creatures should have their life preserved the one half of the year at least without food because they know not how it should be But I think few articles of our faith are more clearly proved in Scripture then this of the resurrection but many men I fear are wilfully blinde their lives and conversations being so debaucht they would believe at least wish they could believe there were no resurrection of the body yea that the soul were mortal as well as the body and that the death of the one were the destruction of the other also but the time is coming they shall finde the contrary to their sorrow both scripture and reason speak plainly that the soul is immortal and that the body partaking with it in holiness or sin shall also partake with it in weal or wo and that there will be a day of retribution when those that now suffer for Christ shall then reign with him and those that sin shall suffer for their sin the contrary to this cannot stand with scripture-revelations the threatnings of the law the promises of the Gospel nor with divine justice it self and why should any think it impossible for God to gather our dust together and raise up our dead bodies at the last who do believe that there is a God and that he hath made not only man but the whole creation of nothing and that this God is just and will make good both his promises and threatnings and nothing is too hard for an omnipotent arm oh my soul distrust not Gods word question not his power he that can make all things of nothing can of thy scattered ashes raise up thy dead body to life and re-unite it to thy hould and he that saith he will do it will certainly perform it heaven and earth shall pass but not one tittle of his word shall pass till all be fulfilled call not in question the power and providence of God but labour to have a part in the first resurrection that the second death may have no power get fitted for death and judgement get sin pardoned and subdued which is the sting of death get grace implanted and thy soul married unto Christ then needst thou not fear death nor the resurrection oh my God strengthen my faith confirm my hope and encrease my love to thee and let me long for the time that I may enjoy thee in glory and lie for ever in the arms of my beloved Vpon beggers at the door 60. Med. WHen I saw some lusty able persons fit for service and other employment begging at the door I began to consider how disagreeing this course of life was to the word of God who had commanded men in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread this is a law laid upon all sorts of men to sweat out a poor living brow or brain must sweat for it or our bread is eaten ere it be earned God would not have a begger in Israel and the Apostles will was those that would not labour should not eat 2 Thes 3.6 10 14. those that have enough to live on must not be idle much less those that have nothing yet many live like rats and mice only to devour what others labour for paradice that was mans store-house was also his work-house God set him to dress the garden and there should be none that like body-lice feed upon other mens sweat such idle persons often times are set on work by the devil for idleness is the hour of temptation and standing-waters are usually full of vermine Nay how disagreeing is this course of life with the laws of the land which making other provision for the poor stigmatize these wanderers by the name of rogues and appoint them to be stockt and whipt and sent back to the place of their birth or last abode and inflicts a penalty upon those that relieve them The great Turk that grand Seignior is not excepted for he hath a trade and is dayly to labour with his hands yea Divines in all ages ancient and modern and of all perswasions have exclaimed against this course of life and esteemed such persons to be the plague-sore of the Nation and not to be tolerated in a well-ordered Common-wealth they are a dishonour to the Church they live in and to the Countrey they inhabit and the heathens as well as the Christians have made laws to punish them These and the like considerations made me think correction to be the fittest alms and their restraint might hinder a great deal of sin acted by them and be a means to reduce them under government civil and Ecclesiastical which now live like lawless persons under none and neither fear God nor obey men but are the unprofitable burthens of the earth But on the other side when I considered how little provision notwithstanding in the law was made for the poor in most places and
will become of my wife and children c. as if when the pipe is cut there were no water in the fountain are not these sometimes thy thoughts and fears and though thou hast had many silencing providences and God unexpectedly hath removed thy doubts and answered thy objections yet upon new apprehensions of danger how hard dost thou finde it to trust God upon his bare word when the world frowns and will not pass for payment or to depend upon him when deliverance is out of sight hath not Christ himself told thee that if thou seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof all other things shall be added to thee Mat. 6.33 grace is the way to glory and holiness to happiness if men be not gracious there is no heaven to be had if they are they shall have heaven and earth also for godliness hath the promise of this life and that to come all earthly enjoyments that are good for thee are entayled upon piety but alass the strength of the ground is so spent in nourishing weeds and trash that the good corn is starved and choaked these thorns do choak the seed and it becomes unfruitful temporall things are nec vera nec nostra but there are certain and durable riches that nec prodi nec eripi nec surripi possunt he that enjoys them cannot lose them hath not God promised he will never leave thee nor forsake thee and is not this better then if all the Kings upon earth had said so to thee that thou shalt want nothing that is good and wouldst thou have that which is hurtful was he ever known to be worse then his word and canst thou imagine he will first fail thee will he that feeds the fowls and cloaths the grass starve the children oh my soul make sure of the main and use diligence for the rest cast thy care upon God and make thy requests known to God and he can as well deny himself as deny thee in any lawful suit five thousand years experience cannot produce an instance of any godly man that was forsaken make sure of the main bargain and all other things will be given in as paper and packthred oh my God I believe help thou my unbelief pardon my distracting and distrustful thoughts increase my faith silence my doubts and fears by clearing up my evidences for heaven Upon provision made for birds in a hard winter 62. Med. WHen after a cold pinching frosty winter wherein the snow had long covered the face of the earth and hid it from man and beast the trees and bushes for many weeks together being loaded and burthened with it I saw and considered the numberless number of birds of all sorts and kindes that escaped in that hard season when all sorts of provision seemed to be cut off and survived these troubles which threatened them with death when neither the rivers which were frozen up nor the fields which were covered nor the trees nor bushes could give them relief yet God provided them their meat and they received it at his hands and were nourished by his providence when in my apprehension they were like to have been lost and starved and famished for want of food especially some of the wilder sort that neither frequent house nor barn from whom all sorts of provision seemed to be lockt up or cut off but God fed them out of his storehouse Psal 147. he gives the beast his food and the young ravens when they cry hence it is that our Saviour Christ sends his querellous and desponding servants to school to the fouls of heaven to learn to depend upon their fathers providence Mat. 6.26 consider the fouls of the air they sow not neither do they reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly father feedeth them are ye not much better then they ask the beasts saith Job and they shall teach thee and the fouls of the air and they shall tell thee or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this in whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankinde Job 12.7 8 9.10 as he made them all so he it is that maintains them he takes care for the ostriches young ones and feeds the young ravens when they cry Psal 147.9 they take no care nor have care taken for them yet are they provided for did man but look up to the birds or down to the lillies he would not so dispond and so distrust Gods providence shall the great housekeeper of the world water his flowers prune his plants fodder his cattle feed his birds and yet starve his children it cannot be is there not a sparrow can fall to the ground without his providence nor a hair from our head without his knowledge and can we think he takes no care of us Mat. 10.29 30. one pearl is more worth then many peebles and the righteous is more excellent then his neighbour as one lark is worth many kites God will have a care of his jewels they are as the apple of his eye thousand thousands of those fouls there are that man takes no care of makes no provision for knows not upon what they feed yea seek their destruction some out of envy as birds of prey others to feed upon yet God maintained them in their feveral species almost six thousand years at his own cost and charges Man by all his diligence cannot make provision for them neither can he destroy them by all his cunning God hides them as well as feeds them and they are not beholding to man for their lives The thoughts of this methinks may silence those Athiestical conceipts that are apt to arise in wicked mens hearts that there is no God when they see his providence so plainly asserted and may silence those distrustful thoughts and fears which are too apt to creep in and to disturb the quiet and tranquillity of the hearts of Gods own people upon the apprehension of approaching danger and threatning wants when they observe those lesser creatures guided by an overruling providence and if God preserve every species of his creatures notwithstanding men combine their destruction no wonder if he preserve his own Church amidst their numerous enemies oh my soul while there is life and breath in that body of thine praise bless and magnifie God for his works of providence to his creatures in making provision for all the works of his hands especially for his Church whom he feeds as a few lambs in the midst of innumerable wolves and they are not able to devour them and though many times he suffers some to be worried yet it proves rather the augmentation then the diminution of his flock the blood of the Martyrs proves the seed of his Church yet let these convincing providences to thy self never be forgotten but let them breed
so careless for the body as they are for the soul the most of us sleep in harvest and are like to beg in winter slug away the day and make no provision for night when they cannot work and lose the opportunity God affords them and have a price put into their hands but have no heart to get wisdome they provide not against the winter night of death nor the days of darkness which will be many Eccl. 11.8 for as sure as the night follows the day so sure a change will come a storm will rise and such a storm as will never be blown away to wicked worldlings There is too many professors go on in heavens way as the proverb hath it on a snails gallop we can scarce see them move and many like the crab-fish rather go backward then forward they are like those silly women mentioned 2 Tim. 3.7 ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth many have served an apprentiship in Christianity some two some three and some more and never yet understood the mystery of their profession nay not the grounds and fundamentals of Religion those that have been listed souldiers twenty or thirty years have not yet learned to handle their arms nor known the use of their weapons those that have been as long schollers in Christs school yet have not learned the first lesson of self denyal they have the same corruption unmortifyed the same grace weak or wanting the same doubts unresolved and the same fears upon their spirits as they had long since many years are past away and their work stands at a stay no more fitter for death no more assurance of heaven no more communion with God no more knowledge of the state of their own souls and all this notwithstanding the means they have had the Ministry they have enjoyed and the seasons of grace they have lived in Now is not he a monster in nature that is as big at two years old as at twenty and is it not a dullard indeed that goes to school twenty years and cannot take out one lesson Ancient professors should grow with the oak more firmly rooted and with the apple more ripe and mellow these trees of righteousness should bring forth fruit even to old age and add every year to their experience indeed there are some that grow in opinions and think this is growing in grace and in few years run the whole circle of errors and at last end where they began at profaness if not at athiesm they grow most in the head like children that have the rickets when the rest of the body pines these errors the brats of their own brain are like suckers in a tree they draw all the sap that should feed the other branches to themselves and run up into aspiring branches fruitless yea hurtfull the strength and vigor of the soul the life and heat of their zeal is spent upon these to maintain them when the power of godliness languisheth but true grace grows uniformly like a healthy body though every member grows not to the same bigness yet every member grows in proportion to the rest and so the body is compleated but alass where is this growth of grace discerned the most professors are in a languishing condition their pulse beats weakly and their natural heat abates and they are inclining to a consumption or a lethargy oh my soul is not this thy condition that is here described art not thou fitly resembled to this sluggish creature how long hast thou been in Christs school and never the better how many apprentiships hast thou served and yet art a very dullard and little more grace appears then did many years ago well double thy diligence amend thy pace set about thy work to purpose lest God turn thee out of his vineyard for a loiterer and give thee thy portion with the unfaithfull with the unprofitable servant Mat. 25.26 had idleness been a calling doubtless thou hadst been a good husband yet at last up and be doing thou canst not serve a better Master expect better work or wages O my God what shall I say to thee or how shall I answer thee mine iniquity hath found me out and my sin shews it self it is I that resemble this snail and have sluggishly served thee all my days Lord rouse me up out of my security that I may make more haste lest I fall short of my journeys end Upon a snail carrying her house along with her 72. Med. WHen I observed a snail carrying her house upon her back and in so doing carryed all she had with her in her removes it brought to my minde how the Israelites in the wilderness when ever they journeyed they removed their tents and carryed them with them and when ever they rested there they picht them and carryed all their substance for forty years space along with them and this might well put them in minde that they were strangers and pilgrims and there rest was not here I have read of heathen Stilpo when the enemy had seazed upon all he had burnt the town he lived in and took his wife and children prisoners being asked by Demetrius what he had lost replyed nothing omnia mea mecum porto I carry all-along with me esteeming his vertues his only riches which none could take from him but all loseable riches he valued not This made me further consider if any heathen could say thus how much more a Christian that hath all his vertues adopted graces and hath an interest in Christ and a title to glory for this is a Christians all and he can properly lay claim to no more for as he hath all from God so he hath all in God and having God he hath all and a rich portion it is beyond all the gold in the Indies and all the wealth in the world it is a more soul-satisfying portion then the world can afford and such a portion that is durable for the devil and all his instruments cannot deprive them of it and this they may take along with them to a prison to a gibbet yea to the utmost parts of the earth if they are banished thither The men of the world would have their portion in the world and heaven like paper and packthred into the bargain but it will not be they would carry the world upon their backs to heaven but it is too great a burthen to carry up the hill and too big to enter with at the strait gate The only way to make the best advantage of the world is to take Christs counsel Luk. 16.9 make your selves friends of the unrighteouss mammon that when they fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations this is the way to send the world before us to heaven or to improve it to the best advantage testify your faith saith the Apostle by your works improve these talents well and God will reward you for it riches are not properly ours but Gods but if we make sure
then I stood and considered it I looked upon it and received instruction yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth and thy want as an armed man viz. unexpectedly and irresistably sloth and idleness is the nurse of beggery the mother of misery and the forerunner of ruine Solomon makes some use of his observations a bee can suck honey out of every flower and weed but a fly cannot and a spiritual minde can extract good out of every object even out of other mens faults and follies he can gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles and extract good out of evil This made me raise my meditations a little higher I considered if idleness be so great an hindrance to worldly advantages what is it then to spirituall profits if ground not manured brings forth briars and thorns weeds and thistles what will the soul bring forth if it be neglected this will soon abound with sins and vices lusts and corruptions and Solomon no doubt made this spirituall use of the miscarriages of his foolish neighbour a godly man as I said will gather honey with the bee where the wasp will not the fly cannot and the spider gathers poyson for a wicked mans example is often hurtful but to none but the wise profitable a wise man with Solomon will gather some good by others miscarriages and happy is he that other mens harms do make to beware the soul is more subject to the weeds of sin then any field or garden can be to briars or thorns or other noisome things and more diligence is required to keep it in order and there is more danger in the neglect briars and thorns are not more natural to the ground since the curse then sin and corruption to the soul since the fall and as in temporals so much more in spirituals much diligence is required to keep things in order and great is the advantage when it is done oh my soul refuse no pains neglect no labour heaven will make amends for all stub up thy sins by the root and content not thy self to lop off the branches regulate thy affection subdue thy headstrong passions bring under thy will and make it submit to Gods will set a watch over thy heart look well to thy words and thoughts as well as to thy actions set a guard over thy sences those cinque-ports otherwise the enemy will enter take heed of thy company for seldome good is gotten by ill companions beware of Satans temptations and the worlds allurements avoid all occasions to sin nay all appearances of evil and know that for all the pains thou canst take thou shalt be rewarded heaven will make thee amends but the sluggard is never like to come there Oh my God I have been this spiritual sluggard it is I have neglected my field and vineyard and hence are all those briars and brambles sprung up Lord help me to double my diligence and amend my pace and so run that I may obtain and so fight as to conquer Upon a great tree springing from a small kernel 75. Med. WHen I beheld some great fruit-trees grown to a large stature the persons being yet alive that set them of small kernels and that not very many years ago and yet are come to be trees of very great bulk and bigness the consideration whereof made me to contemplate the mighty power of God that from such contemptible beginings could produce so large a body and that of the small seeds of the cypress tree such a huge bulk should so soon proceed and that a slender akorn should bring forth so vast a tree as some oaks are carrying so many tun of timber and load of wood as some do this brought to my minde the parable of the mustard seed Mat. 13.31 where Christ tells us though it be the least of seeds that it grows up to a great tree and that suddenly that the fowls of of heaven lodge in the branches of it for though in our northern climats it arrive not to that bigness yet travellers speak much of the greatness of it in those hotter Countreys our Saviour Christs intention in this parable is to teach us that as from this small seed proceeds a great tree so is also the progress of the Gospel which though at first it seems contemptible yet it proves very efficatious it is quick and powerful and wonderfull in operation whither the fowls of heaven the elect resort in prosperity for shadow in adversity for defence In the promulgation of the Gospel from small beginnings a few poor unlearned fishermen the Gospel was carryed as on eagles wings to the end of the earth and in a short time subdued potent princes that set themselves against it to the admiration of all those angels came flying with the everlasting gospel and in the reformation how strangely was it carryed on Wickliff John Hus. and Jerome of Prague these paved a way and opened a door to Luther who with a few more withstood the whole popish interest and so prevailed against them that those locusts that came out of the bottomless pit were never able by their smoak to darken the light of the Gospel again but it brake forth more and more to the perfect day even to all mens admiration in many places it was carryed on against their princes consent yea contrary to his will in Holland France Germany Scotland and many more so wonderfully did this little grain spread and in this Nation by what unexpected means was the Reformation carryed on by a prince which writ against it and set himself against it and yet was instrumental in Gods hand to carry on the work God can make use of whom he pleaseth to do his work Heathen Cyrus must be his servant to carry on his designe in Athanasius his time how did God vindicate his truth by small means against a world of Arians and made him victorious against them all the word of God is powerfull as a two edged sword to divide between the joints and the marrow Heb. 4.12 By the growth of this mustard-seed is signifyed not only the spreading abroad of the Gospel in the first promulgation of it but also of the growth of grace in a Christians heart which though it have a small beginning yet it encreaseth wonderfully Job 8.7 the later end doth greatly encrease when the new creature grace is formed in the soul by the finger of God it groweth like the childe in the womb at the first it is an Embrio imperfect and unshaped but is perfected by the degrees the heart the brain the liver and vital parts and in process of time the bones sinews arteryes nerves and other parts covered with flesh and skin till it come to perfection and when it is born an infant it grows up to maturity till it comes to a perfect man when God speaks a word secretly and suddenly to the heart it
no fruit words but no works a shew but no substance their religion lies in the tongue and brain but never reaches the heart nor seasons the life they are most in externals little in internals they regulate their words and actions but the heart is not restrained or purified the heat of their zeal appears chiefly if not only in their words but the heart is cold enough they take up the easie cheap and safest part of duty but the difficult dangerous or costly part they meddle not with they make a shew of what they are not and brag of what they have not and then they laugh in their sleeves to think how they have couzened and put a cheat upon the world they worship that God in the Church that they matter not in the closet they do no religious duty without witness haply for fear God should deny what he hath received from them they are like rotten wood they shine in the night but look upon them in the day and you will finde the cheat they are like the red and blew flowers in the corn-field fine to look upon good for little but to pester the corn they are like candles they usually go out in an offensive snuff they are Saints abroad and devils at home and usually more dangerous when they appear like Saints then when they shew themselves in their colours and act the devils part bare-faced but doubtless these are not the men that God will accept nor this is not the service he requires he is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth yea the father seeketh such to worship him John 4.23.24 he calls for the heart my son saith he give me thy heart not thy tongue or hands but the heart for if he have that the rest will follow Pro. 23.26 as the heart is by nature God will have none of it till the heart be renewed and given to the Lord he will accept of nothing that comes from us he calls for the heart and says of it as Joseph did of Benjamin Gen. 43.3 ye shall not see my face without it or as David did of Michal 2 Sam. 3.13 thou shalt not see my face except thou bringest Michal Sauls daughter when thou comest These men would give the Lord any thing but the heart and he will own nothing without it these professors are like men in a boat they look one way and row another or like the kite that soares aloft towrs on high as if they were all for heaven and made light of all terrestriall things when still her eye is upon her prey and her heart glued to the ground and rooted in the earth they are like unto the peacock they have fine feathers but yet is but a dunghill-bird but these shews will not always serve turn God sees through their thin masks and will ere long pluck off their vizour be not deceived God is not mocked there are none can steal to heaven in a disguise God will know him well that shall enter there there is a sure guard and without this ticket of holiness none will be admitted this is Christ sheep-mark and those and those alone that have it shall stand upon his right hand at judgment when he comes to seek fruit and findes none he will take up his axe he hath long and may for a while spare the tree for the vine-dressers sake but his patience will not always last he will say pray not for this people for they are ripe for destruction when the sins of the Amorites were full their destruction drew neer when these borrowed robes are pluckt from the stageplayers backs for so the word hypocrite signifies then those that acted the parts of Kings will be found but peasants and those that acted the parts of honest men will be found but cheats indeed God hath many fans and much of this chaff is blown away in this life we have seen many that appeared to be something proved just nothing but when Christ comes with refiners fire and fullers soap who can stand before this burning the lamps of profession may light a man to death near to heaven oh my soul thou hast made profession of Religion a long time what fruit dost thou bring forth if thou hast nothing but tears thou maist expect that Christ shall say to thee as to the fruitless figtree never fruit grow more on thee for ever or if thy fruit be bad it will not be long but thou wilt be cut down what cause hast thou to fear that art so sensible of so much unsavory and rotten fruit and of so little that is good up then and be doing that thy last days may be thy best days and thy best wine last oh my good God though hypocrisy lodge in me let it not reign in me give me truth in the inward parts keep my heart sound in thy testimonies and I shall be safe Upon a dead tree 83. Med. OBserving a dead tree in the orchard that had neither fruit nor leaves and so was neither for profit nor pleasure for fruit nor ornament but rather an encumbrance to the ground and a deformity to the place I began upon this Observation to consider that this was the case of many a poor dead soul amongst us who though planted in Gods vineyard hedged about by his providence and watered with the dew of heaven and manured by the skilfullest vine-dressers yet remains dead fruitless and useless and hath done so many years and hath done nothing all this while but cumber the ground and keep a room and did but grow worse and worse and every day more fitter for the fire then other this minded me of Gods mercy and mans wickedness Gods mercy in sparing such unprofitable wretches some of them 50 or 60 years together and all that while sending his vine-dressers to dig and dung and manure them from year to year that never yielded any good fruit in their lives and mans wickedness that will not be won upon by all these entreaties and continued favours that are so hard that neither the sun nor the rain can soften neither fair means nor foul can work upon them and to this day do yet remain a reproach to the place they live in for sin saith Solomon is a reproach to any people Pro. 14.34 when righteousness exalteth a Nation True Religion and the power of godliness is the beauty and bulwark of a Nation but sin is a deformity and an evil disease it is the snuff that dims our candle yea threatens the removal of our candlestick Capernaum that once was lifted up to heaven is threatned to be cast down to hell if a dead tree deform a well-regulated orchard and is such an offence that it will not be endured by the owner nor be suffered to stand or if a dead carkass be so loathsom a thing that in a little time the nearest and dearest relations and the most intimate friends are weary of it how loathsome then is a
but like rotten shining wood many that have had lamps in their hands have had them blown out for lack of oyl Many have seemed like corn fresh and flourishing but proved like that on the stony ground or on the house-top never came to maturity when the winde turns they soon kick up their profession and steal away from their colours or when the sun of persecution is up wither oh my soul promise not thy self great things in the world neither content thy self with small things for eternity be as serious for grace as others are for gold and make as sure for heaven as others do for the world if thou wilt plant let it be in a better soil then maist thou expect a better encrease neither winde nor sun frost nor snow thunder nor lightning can blast or nip those flowers of paradice Lord take off my affection from the world and set them upon Christ then shall I never be disappointed of my hopes Upon leaves falling in Autumn 90. Med. WHen I observed in autumn after a nipping frost seconded by a gust of winde how fast the leaves fell from the trees that in a short time those that were cloathed in a lusty green began to look withered dead and dry and to put on their winter coat methought this resembled much our mortality when the autumn of age comes upon us these bodies of ours like leaves fall of themselves into deaths lap but seldom do they hang on so long some casual accident or other oft bears them down before they wither ofttimes some common calamity as the sword or pestilence or other contagious disease like a violent tempest doth bear all down before it two hundred thousand together in Ireland and very many in England death mowed down in a few days where they fell as leaves before the winde or as corn before the reapers hook it is noted that in one years space a hundred thousand fell in our chief city blown down by the blast of death and thus in all the world throughout men are swept away as with a sweeping storm some few are gathere in in a good old age but the most of men blown down while they are yet green the falling of these leaves did also seem to me to resemble the apostacy and downfall of hypocrites the house of whose profession is built upon the sand and cannot resist the winde and waves this is a foolish builder that neither sat down first to reckon the charges neither was at the cost to lay a firm foundation neither considered the rain would fall the windes blow and the flouds beat and overthrow his buildings they follow Christ as a dog follows his master tiâ—l he meets with carion and then turns him up as Orphah made a fair proffer of going along with Naomi but better considering returned back It is noted of the chesunt if it be not broken at the top when east into the fire it leaps out again so doth a hypocrite when he comes to be tried he is like a false jade in a teem which being put to a stress turns tail and tramples but the godly hold on and persist In the summer when the sun of the gospel shines upon them they hold on and look fresh and fragrant and seem to be not only members but pillars of the Church as the Apostles had a good opinion of Judas so that they rather mistrusted themselves then him and cryed out Master is it I so true believers rather mistrust themselves then those forward professors yet in persecuting times these fall as leaves before the winde and wither as the corn on the stony ground or that which grows upon the hose top and discover a fruitless bulk and withering root the stony ground received the word with joy and endured for a while but when the sun was up they were quickly offended Herod may hear the word gladly and endure for a time but being not sound at the heart he fals off a branch in a moist place though it have no root may for a while bud and leave but when heat comes will certainly wither and the leaves fall when Christianity is in credit many will cry Hosanah to the sun of David and when in contempt they will cry crucify a hypocrite will be catching at comforts as children do at sweet-meats ere they are soundly humbled and are stuffing themselves pillows with the promises that they may sin more securely when the Jews were in savour many turn Jews for fear of the Jews and when in danger their seeming friends prove their sorest enemies they are professors upon designe and they will be religious while religion suits their interest and promotes their advantage but when it hinders them they lay it aside as the workman doth the tool he needs not or will not serve his turn and takes another if profaness yea persecution serves his designe better he will make use of that if a few prayers or outside duties which are like to cost them little they are content to go to heaven this way but if it come to sufferings or forsaking any thing for Christ vadet Christus cum suo Evangelio let Christ go with his gospel and keep his heaven to himself for he will have none of it they will not buy heaven at so dear a rate The Gospel hath many swallow-friends which will be gone at the approach of winter when the corn is gone the rats leave the barn and when no secular advantage is in sight but rather storms appearing many professors will be no longer religious but Christ tells us he that loveth father or mother son or daughter more then him is not worthy of him Mat. 10.37 because he holdeth any one worthy of more love then Christ God will set no lower a rate on his son and glory he that will have this pearl must part with all Mat. 13.44.45 and he that doth so makes a good bargain we cannot buy this gold too dear or give too much for heaven and happiness he that thinks to grasp and hold both heaven and earth in the same hand and lodge them in the same heart may as well imagine he can reconcile fire and water and hide them together in the same bosome when two men walk together we know not whose servant it is that follows them but when they part the servant owns his own Master oh my soul take heed of dissembling with God that will not be mocked close with him and he will close with thee build upon the rock so shalt not thou be shaken and though at death thy body fall like a leaf yet thy root shall remain oh my God let me not deceive my self let me lay a good foundation then shall I stand in all storms Vpon a fruit-tree pelted with stones 91. Med. WHen I beheld a fruit-bearing-tree that was richly laden with the choisest fruit and perceiving that this tree above all the rest was preyed upon by the passengers for almost every one had a stick
hopes yet in a moment all our hopes are dasht and they are sudenly nipt with the frost or blasted with lightning or the East-winds sometimes they are rendred unfruitful by overmuch drought and sometimes by too much wet for both may be injurious both to the tree and to the fruit and too much wet also is offensive and renders the fruit the worse if they pass these dangers and are loaden with fruit much of it is oft consumed by wasps hornets and another insects yea sometimes not only the fruit but also the leaves are eaten by locusts caterpillars and such like flys and many times with worms sometimes for want of fence they are undermined by swine or broken bruised or fed upon by other cattle and oftentimes the unripe fruit is born down by a mighty rushing winde and all our hopes thus sudenly dasht which is no unusual accident as it is said Rev. 6.13 and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken by a mighty winde that is violently and forcibly and if they escape all these accidents many prove barren and many bring forth fruit that is sowr bitter or unsavoury and very little fruit that is good appears and if it do all the danger is not over many a blow they endure and many a staff and many a stone is cast at them to unload unburthen and deprive them of their fruit and there is scarce a passenger but hath something or other to throw at them and few go away empty-handed from them and no wonder then the owners part is little and a small pittance comes to be gathered in The consideration of this made me to compare poor man to these trees of the field and to consider what is the reason so few bring forth fruit to maturity many an obstruction they meet with before the time of fruit comes which hinders the most of men from fructifying many are planted in the dry desart heath where they see not when good cometh and that never heard of a saviour come into the world or ever enjoyed one soul searching sermon and these are not like to bring forth good fruit they are like to be barren or their fruit to be wilde yea many of those that live within the pale of the Church are not much better it is true the seed is sown amongst them but much of it falls by the way-side and the fouls of the air pick it up the devil steals it out of their hearts this is that troubler of Israel that master of misrule he is one at Church whoever is the other he hath made a foot-path over the heart that the word takes no more impression then rain upon a rock these must needs be barren yea some of it fals among stones where it hath no root which though received with joy and it springs up sudenly yet wanting root must needs wither the root of the matter is not in them Job 19.28 and some falls among thorns and is choaked these saith Christ are the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and it is much ado to handle those thorns and not prick their fingers and but a little fals in good ground and that undergoes a thousand dangers ere it come to maturity many are the obstructions a Christian meets with and many pul-backs the gracious soul hath and the good seed sown hath many enemies sometimes it is parcht with the sun of prosperity and sometimes nipt with the frost of adversity the devils temptations and the worlds allurements oft spoil the fruit sometimes it withers for want of the dew of heaven to refresh it sometimes it is overwhelmed with the flouds of affliction a thousand and ten thousand are the dangers this seed of grace doth undergo before it comes to maturity many trees in the orchard are not transplanted and ingrafted into Christ and many enemies those meet with that are and the little fruit that is brought forth to maturity will have many a stick and many a stone cast at it oh my soul hast thou any stone cast at thee any reproach cast upon thee art thou persecuted and hated for doing thy duty despair not it is a signe there is some fruit the traveller seldome throws at the barren tree and the devil seldome throws down his own fruit hast thou many enemies Christ himself had not a few live uprightly toward man holily towards God that they may have no just occasion against thee but for serving God and let them throw and spare not bring forth much fruit to God and doubtless he will wall thee in and defend thee O my God mine enemies are many and subtil powerful and malicious be thou my defender and lot my fruit be pleasant to thy taste and sweet to thy smell Vpon a fair apple rotten at the core 94. Med. TAking notice of a beautiful apple glorious to the eye having a promising aspect a smoosh skin and a fair outside yet when it was cut it proved deceitful rotten at the heart and corrupted within and little good but a painted skin and the corruption within would soon have brake forth and corrupted the outside also this apple so deceitful lively represented to my thoughts an hypocrite who in outward carriage and demeanour and formalities makes a fair shew and in the external performance of duties represents a true Christian when the heart is rotten and the vitals of Religion are wanting and there is nothing but a sheepsskin drawn over a wolfs body nothing but plaster and paint yet ofttimes so artificially done that it is hard to discover it from sincerity in the external parts of Religion many times he outstrips many sincere Christians and acts his part so cunningly that many times he is taken for the man he represents he oft makes a fair shew to the world and holds out a more fairer profession in the sight of the sun then the Saints themselves for they may afford to pay more for the colour for the cloath costs them nothing what others bestow in the lining they lay it out on the outside like an old withered band rotten within and painted without but the rottenness that lies at the heart many times breaks out and rots the life and conversation also for corruption within will break out our Saviour Christ did lively represent these men by painted sepulchers and whited tombs glorious to the eye but within full of filthiness and putrefaction Mat. 23.27 wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like unto whited Sepulchres that appear glorious to the eye but within are full of dead mens bones and all uncleaness so do ye in the eye of the world appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity fair professors but foul sinners there are many with Pilate will wash their hands but few will wash their hearts Mat. 27.24 this also the Pharisees did but this is too weak an element
such a confusion upon me that my thoughts were distempered and distracted and I could not keep my heart intent upon any thing when all I could do was little enough to wrastle with my distemper this made me resolve and oh that I could hold on my resolution if ever I recovered I would remember my Creatour in the days of my health oh my soul seeing these outward things can do thee little good but if over-loved will do thee much hurt set but a little value upon them there is a treasure to be had that will hold out and pleasures that will endure which will keep up the head above water under sickness sorrow and death labour for this but ro spend time on that which one hours sickness will put us besides it is but labour lost oh my God give me that for my portion that will bear up my head and heart not only in sickness but in death it self Upon a rainy day 99. Med. IN a rainy and very tempestuous day being driven into the house by the violence of the storm and the tempest proving so violent furious that the house it self could hardly secure me from the fury of it This made me consider what a mercy it was in such a season to have a retiring place for shelter and how uncomfortable it would have been to me had I been forc't to have born the brunt of this raging storm and yet how little do we value these mercyes when we know not the want of them and how few return praise to God that hath given us houses that we builded not and vineyards that we planted not Deu. 6.11 saturity oft breeds security and fulness forgetfulness the moon at the full is furthest from the sun and ofttimes suffers ecclips by the interposition of the earth and so we are ofttimes like Jesurun that waxed fat and kicked or like full-fed hawks that will not know their master neither do we pitty those that want houses or whose houses at least are not able to secure them or keep them dry this put me in minde to bless my God that had made such a comfortable provision for me that I seldom suffered upon this account and to condole those whose condition was otherwise I considered how great a mercy rain and waters were that neither man nor beast nor tree nor plant that neither the rational the sensitive nor vegetative creature could subsist or live without it and how dear and precious it was to the Patriarks of old and in many places of the world at this day how scarce it was with the Israelites in the wilderness yea was and in many places is their constant if not only drink and many thousands have perished for want of it and how it would be prized of us did we want it yea how often when the showers of heaven are restrained do our fields languish and the fruits of the earth fail and yet who is it that is thankful when God gives us the former and the latter rain in its season and yet how much are we engaged to God in England above many other places we seldom are reduced to such straits as others are for want of water but have abundance of fresh rivers brooks and torrents yea springs and ponds in most parts of the land that man nor beast seldome want it how would such a mercy be prized in many places of the world and yet though water be such a mercy when it is abused God can turn it into a judgement he drowned the old world with it and overwhelmed the Egyptians in the Red Sea and many times in those Northern climats he punishes us with immoderate rain and showers which oft-times proves the cause of scarcity and want thereby teaching us that the greatest outward blessings if abused may be turned into curses and a fruitful land made barren for the wickedness of those that dwell therein Psal 107.34 Having spent some time on these considerations the storm continuing the present providence brought to my minde the words of Solomon Pro. 19.13 a foolish son is the calamity of his father and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping Pro. 27.15 a continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike c. this is like a tempest in the heaven most troublesome and most dangerous when a man comes home tired with his labour and travail and expects refreshing at his own house and there is entertained either with the continual dropping of rain upon his head or with an unbridled scolding tongue of an unreasonable wife both are troublesome both are uncomfortable a cross grained contentious yoak-fellow whether man or woman sowers all the comforts of life and renders that relation the most troublesome and uncomfortable of any in the world which would otherwise be the sweetest and most delightful of all others hence saith Solomon it is better live in a corner on the house-top then with a brawling woman in a wide house Pro. 21.19 a man had better abide abroad exposed to winde and weather or crib himself up in any little angle or corner then live with a contentious woman that is ever brawling and brangling for such turn conjugium into conjurgium marriage into mar-age and instead of love and amity they promote strife and emnity and multiply curses instead of prayers The marriage-relation is the most desirable or the most detestable of all others none is more delightful where love and unity is none is more hateful where strife and contention envy and hatred bears the sway and as family-peace is a desirable blessing and family-jars an unsufferable torment so peace among neighbours is a mercy and the contrary a sore judgement but many like the Salamander live in the fire they love to foment jars and contentions and are never so well as when they are sowing discord or working mischief Pro. 26.21 as coals are to burning coals and wood to fire so is a contentious man to kindle strife many men are like mad dogs they snarl at all and would if they could bite all and make them as mad as themselves some contentious Christians also there are that in this fire burn and consume their graces not their vices these grow in opinions and flourish with these leaves seldome in grace for their fruit is seldom seen or it is bitter and unsavoury they are ready to dis-roab all others of their graces that attain not to the same pitch of opinion with themselves but the Church is little beholding to them whose zeal sets all into a combustion but above all peace peace with God and peace with a mans conscience is most to be desired yea absolutely neecssary which cannot be had till we break our peace with sin and satan oh my soul study peace with all men and holiness without which you shall never see God study peace with thy relations but especially with thy God and if thy ways please him thy enemy shall be at peace with thee