of any necessity of death As God made us living Creatures so his power was able to sustain us immortal creatures we had bodily life by our soul in our body and spiritual life by Gods Image in both but sin brought on us death of all sorts Death spiritual in the loss of Gods Image death bodily in the begun corruption of our body and death eternal in the endless ruine of both And whom would not this single thought afflict with dread and sorrow to see what a change sin hath made in the condition of man If Adam would have lived without sin he might have lived without end But now by his credulous receiving the Serpents Poyson Death is glued to our nature necessity of evil to the freedom of our will and all misery to our selves Another dark and posing thought did arise from the progress of death which keeps no order or method It thrusts its sickle not only into the ripe corn but the green blade it nips the blossom as well as gathers the fruit it dissolves the knot that was but new made between the soul and the body as well as that which age and years had conâ—â—rmed There were I observed skulls of all Sizes There were some who had never seen the Sun to pass from one Tropick to the other Others there were whose life could not be reckoned by daies or hours but by minutes they dropt only from the Womb to the Grave And is not this amongst the secrets of God that thousands should thus pass through the world and be determined to different Estates for Eternity What can I say But that the waies of God are unsearchable and his Judgements past finding out As it now shews his Soveraignty thus to deal with his Creatures as it pleaseth him so the Great Day will manifest the Wisdom and Justice of God that is wrapt up in these mysterious providences He that is the Judge of all will be found to be righteous towards all A third sad thought The consuming power of the grave did stir up within me so that I was ready to say Can these dry bones live Can these mingled dusts be distinguished Can the dusts that are scattered into distances be ever united Doth not the Noble and the Base the Saint and the Sinner lye equally under the power of corruption Who then would not dread to descend into the Grave and make Hemans question Will God shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise him But when I consider that Believers in their ascending into heaven do only let fall their bodies to the earth as Elijah dropt his Mantle when he was taken up and that their Spirits return to God that gave them That Death striketh not on the New man but on the Tabernacle which is a common Lodging both to Flesh and Spirit my fears are greatly Alleviated for who is much solicitous for the Cabinet when the Jewel is safe Yea when I think that death which separates our persons from the world our soul from the body and every part of our body from another cannot dissolve our Union with Christ but that then we sleep in him and shall be raised by him and conformed to him as the pattern of our glory O how do these most radiant thoughts dispell both the black fears of death and the lightsome comforts of the world as the rising Sun makes the bright stars of heaven to vanish as well as the dark shades of the night How little then doth the love of this life or the difficulties of death abate the desires of a Believer to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Who can wonder at old Simeons importunity to depart in peace when his eyes had seen the Salvation of God and his arms embraced it Who would not be of the same mind that hath once tasted of the Clusters of the heavenly Canaan to long after the full Vintage How pathetical is that of Austin upon Gods answer to Moses Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live Who replies with great confidence Lord is that all that I cannot see thy face and live Eja Domine moriar ut te videam videam ut hic moriar nolo vivere volo mori dissolvi cupic essecum Christo I pray thee Lord then let me dye that I may see thy face Or let me see thee that I may dye in this place I would not live I would dye I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus also have other Saints been affected who have had death in desire and life in patience O what a strange change then hath Christ made in death and the grave and his grace in the heart and affections of Believers Death which sin brought into the world is now become the only means to destroy and kill sin Death which is only contrary unto life is now turned into a Port and passage into life So that when we pass out of this life we lose neither life nor being but are admitted to a more glorious life and being than ever we had Death that before was an armed Enemy is now made a reconciled and firm friend a Physician to cure all our diseases and an Harbinger to make way for glory The Grave also by Christs lying in it is become a bed of rest in which his Saints fetch a short slumber untill he awaken them to a glorious Resurrection It is the Chamber into which he invites his beloved ones to hide themselves untill his indignation be past the Arke into which he shuts his Noahs whilest he destroyes the world with an overflowing deluge of his wrath and displeasure And therefore it is that by his grace they are not afraid to meet Death which others would shun and make it as a voluntary offering unto God which others pay only as a necessary debt Yea they esteem it as one of the choicest Jewels in that exact Inventory that Paul hath made of the riches of Believers and next unto Jesus Christ bless God for it as the greatest mercy O holy Saviour do thou then who art the Lord both of the dead and of the living unto whom all ought to live and all ought to dye enable me thy servant to love thee above life which of all blessings is the sweetest and to hate sin above death which of all evils is the bitterest to nature that so I may have this testimony of the power of thy grace in the change of my heart that for the enjoyment of perfect Communion with thee I can gladly lose my life and be separated from sin can willingly undergo death which is of all evidences the Clearest Meditation XLIX Vpon a Spring in an high ground THe additional blessing which Achsah sought of Caleb her Father was Springs of water for her south or dry land who gave her the upper and the nether Springs If the distinct recording of this particular in Scripture carry any thing of
if thou wilt say Son all that is laid up is thine though thou hast little or nothing of what is laid out but I will pray Turn Lord mine eyes from beholding and my heart from affecting earthly vanities and fix all my desires upon heaven that I may look and long for it in which there is nothing that can offend but every thing that will delight and satisfie to Eternity Meditation II. Vpon a piece of Battered Plate IT is methinks a meet Emblem of a suffering Saint who by afflicting strokes may lose somewhat of his accidental beauty but nothing of his real worth In the Plate the fashion is only marred but the substance is neither diminished or embased If you bring it to the Scale it weighs as much as it did if you try by the Touchstone it is as good Silver as it was And is it not thuâ— with a Sâ—inâ— when bruised and broken with many sore pressures His lustre and repute with men mâ—y be pâ—euâ—iced and eâ—lipsed by them but not his person or his wâ—rth with God if he be weighed in his unerring Ballance he will not be found the lighteâ— if exâ—mined by â—his Test he will noâ— be esteemed the less precious It is noâ— the Cross that makes vilâ—â— but Sin not the passive evils which we suffer but the active evils which we do The one mâ—y render us unamiable to men but the other makes us unholy before God The one rase the Casket and the other makes a flow in the Jewel Hâ—ppy and wise therefore is that man who maketh Moses his choice to be his pattern in chusing Affliction rather thâ—n Sin esteeming it better to be an oppressed Hebrew that builds the Houses and Pallaces of Brick than an uncircumcised Egyptian to dwell in them for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Meditation III. Vpon the Galaxia or milky-way THe milkie way according to Aristotle is a shine or Brightness caused by the joynt raies of a multitude of imperceptible Stars and not a Meteor But it is not my purpose so much to find out or determine what it is as to meditate a little upon the place where iâ— is The Milkie way is in Heaven the true Canaan and Land of Promise in which Rivers of pleasure and sweetness do everlastingly overflow and while we are absent from it we are like Israel in the Desart apt to complain of dayly wants and to be discouraged with various fears How greatly therefore is it becoming us who profess to seek such a Country to long earnestly after it in our desires and to travel towards it in patience not fearing the difficulty of the way but animating our selves with the perfection of the end in which rest and glory which are here divided shall both meeâ— and for ever dwell together If Mare rubrum the Red Sea of Affliction be the passage Via lactea the milkie way of life and blisse will be the end And is it nor better to wade through a Sea of bloud to a Throne of glory than to glide along the smooth stream of pleasure unto an Abysse of endless misery A good end gives an amiableness to the means though never so unpleasing The bitter Potion which brings health is gladly taken down by the Patient But Poyson in a golden Cup when made as pleasing as Art and Skill can temper it can never be welcome to any who understand the sweetness of life or dread the terrour of death The way is good saith Chrysostome if iâ— be to a Feast though through a blind Lane if to an Execution not good though through the fairest Street of the City himself was bidden to a Marriage Dinner and was to go through divers Lanes and Allies crossing the high street he met with one led thorow it to be Executed he told his Auditors Non qua sed quo not the way but the term whither it led was to be thought upon Lord then let not me be anxious what the path is that I tread whether it be plain or thorny pleasant or difficult bloudy or milky so it lead to thee who art Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending of blessedness but to walk chearfully in it till I come to thee my everlasting rest Meditation IV. Vpon a Picture and a Statue IN what a differing manner is the Image and representation of the same Person brought into these two pieces of Art In the one it is effected by the soft and silent touches of the Penfill which happily convey likeness and beauty together In the other it is formed by the rough and loud stroakes of the hammer and by the deep cuttings and Sculptures of Instruments of Steel In as strange and far differing way is the heavenly Image of God formed in the souls of new Converts when first made partakers of the Divine Nature In some God Paints as I may so speak his own Likeness by a still and calm delineation of it upon the Table of their hearts In others he Carves it by afflicting them with a great measure of terrours and wounding their souls with a thorough sense both of the guilt and defilement of Sin But in this diversity of working God is no way necessitated or limited by the disposition and temper of the matter as other Agents are but is freely guided by the Counsel of his own will which is the sole rule and measure of all his Actions towards the Creature as his Word is of theirs towards him Lord therefore do with me what thou pleasest Let me be but thine and I will not prescribe thy Wisdom the way to make me thine bruise breake wound yea Kill Lord so that I may be made alive again by thy power and bear thy holy Image according to which I was first made and to which by thy grace and might only I câ—n be restored Meditation V. Vpon a Graff IT was an ancient Saying of the Râ—bbins Lumen soepernum nunquam descendit sine indumento that Divine Light doth never descend without some Cloathing While we are vailed with Mortality Truth must vail it self too that it may the better sute our capacity for in this our imperfect Estate its native Lustre is too excessive for our weak eyes and its spiritual being too refined for our narrow understandings which â—o imbibe and take in their objects by the mediation of the sences with which they have contracted an entire league and amity Observable therefore it is that in Scripture the highest and most divine Mysteries of the Gospel are imbodied in the terrene Expressions of Meâ—aphors Similitudes Allegories and so represented to our view Thus the efficacy and secresie of the New Birth is set forth by the winds blowing when and where it listeth The Resurrection of the body by Corn sown which is not quickned except it dye The Glory of Heaven by a Marriage Feast And among others our Mystical Union with Christ by
desire a Saviour who hath no sence of his need O therefore blessed Lord do thou dayly more open my eyes that I may see my self to be among the sinzers and not among the righteous among the sick and not among the whole that so I may be healed by thee who camest not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance nor to save the whole but the sick Be thou my Physician and let me be thy Patient untill thou makest me to say I am not sick because thou hast forgiven me all mine iniquities Meditation XVI Vpon a Lamp and a Star SUch is the disparity between a Lamp and a Star as that happily it may not a little be wondred at why I should make a joynt Meditation of them which are so greatly distant in respect of place and far more in respect of quality the one being an earthly and the other an heavenly body What is a Lamp to a Star in regard of influence duration or beauty Hath it any quickning raies flowing from it Or is its light immortal so as not to become despised by expiring Can it dazle the beholder with its serene lustre and leave such impressions of it self upon the eye as may render it for a time blind to any other objects Alas these are too high and noble effects for such a feeble and uncertain light to produce and proper only to those glorious bodies that shine in the Firmament But yet this great inequallity between the one and the other serves to make them both more meet Emblems of the differing estate of Believers in this and the other life who in Scripture while they are on this side Heaven are compared to wise Virgins with Lamps burning and when they come to Heaven to Stars shining which endure for ever and ever Grace in the best of Saints is not perfect but must like a Lamp be fed with new supplies that it go not our and be often trimmed that it be not dim Ordinances are as necessary to Christians in this life as Manna to the Israelites in the wilderness though in Canaan it ceased And therefore God hath appointed his Word and Sacraments to drop continually upon the hearts of his Children as the two Olive trees upon the golden Candlestick What mean then those fond conceits of perfectists who dream of living above all subsidiary helps and judge Ordinances as useless to them as oyl for a Star or a snuffing of the Sun to make it shine more bright It is true when we come to heaven such things will be of no more use to our souls than meat or drink will be to our bodies but yet while we are on the Earth the body cannot live without the one nor the soul without the other Do thou therefore holy God perserve in me a due sense of my impotency and wants whose light is fading as well as borrowed that so I may dayly suck supplies from thee and acknowledge that I live not only by grace received but by grace renewed and while I am in this life have light only as a Lamp in the Temple which must be fed and trimmed and not as a Star in Heaven Meditation XVII Vpon a Chancery Biâ—l ONe cause and original can have but one orderly and genuine birth else what means our Saviours question Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles Or that of Sâ— James Doth a fountain at the same place send forth water sweet and bitter May it not then justly be the opinion and mind of many that the least fruit of any holy Meditation can never grow from such a bramble of Contention as a Chancery Bill And that from such a spring of Marah a sweet and delightful stream can never issue Yea who will not be ready to take up Nathanaels question Can any good thing come out of Nazareth And then what better answer can I return to such than Philips Come and see And now let me say what I have often thought That between such a Bill and most mens Confessions of sin in prayer in which they implead themselves to God there is too great a likeness in this respect that the complaints in both have more of course and form than truth and reality In the one it is Mos curiae the usage and custome of the Court for the Plaintiffe to pretend Fraud Rapines Combinations Concealments done and made to the prejudice of his right which yet he never intends to prove against the Defendant but only to make use of as a ground of inquiry And is it not thus also in the other Are there not in Prayer large Catalogues and Enumerations of sin which many charge themselves with before God as if it were their great work to justifie God in their self condemnation Pride Wantonness Hypocricy Contumacy are the black shall I say or Scarlet sins that are among others instanced in And yet what other thing is intended by them than to make up the outside of a Prayer These sins are only placed in it as dark shadows in a Picture to set it off with more advantage and to commend it rather to men than to God In the doing of the duty they think not in the least the worse of themselves for what they say against themselves nor would have others so to do else how comes it to pass that in charging themselves so deeply at Gods Tribunal there is as little appearance of shame or sorrow in their face as there was of a Cloud in the Heavens when Elijahs Servant returned this Answer that there was nothing Now though it be no part either of my work or purpose to justifie or condemn the practises of humane Judicatories which admit loose suggestions that are Arrows shot at random because that now and then they serve for a discovery Yet I cannot but condemn and abhor that the confession of sin in prayer should be as slight and overly as the complaints of a Chancery Bill and that particular sins specified in it and aggravated with hainous Circumstances should be no other than things of course done rather to lengthen out the duty then affect the heart to discover quickness of Parts rather then truth of grace What is this but to make Prayer iâ— self which should be as sweet Incense burning upon the Golden Altar to be as an Offering of Sulpher or Assafaetida What is this but to mock God the great searcher of the heart with vain words and to publish to the World how little they fear his anger or vallue his pardon for if the Confession of Sin be formal how can the seeking of forgiveness be real O holy Lord preserve me from such hypocrisie and remember not what in this kind I have been guilty of my desire is to judg my self not in word but in truth and unfeignedly to beg that I who am in the court of thy justice wholly inexcusable may in the Chancery of thy Mercy become altogether inaccusable Meditation XVIII Vpon the philosophers stone
divine Excellencies Do they not take the Wings of the Morning and fly to the utmost end of the Earth in their musings and thoughts to find out riches that will not profit in the day of wrath when their Essaies to Heaven are as weak as the Grashoppers who give only a small slirt upwards and then falls down to the Earth again O that I could with plenty of tears bemoan that monstrous Ataxie and perverseness which sin hath wrought in the most noble parts of man Was not that agility of mind given unto him by God that he might have his Conversation in Heaven though his abode was on Earth And that he might enter into the holy of holies not like the High Priest once in a year but in every prayer and duty like a winged Angel behold the face of God and look into those things that are within the Veil But now alas he can only like that lapsed Angel compass the earth to and fro in his thoughts and descend as low as hell in his lusts but cannot raise himself above the world to the performance of the least good I feel O my God continually the sad change which sin hath made in me not so much destroying my Faculties as perverting them I have not lost the use of them but the rectitude of them I am no more weary of sinning than a swift stream of running the same weight of sin that hinders me from running the race which is set before me hurries me to evil and makes me through the impulsions of Satan to gather strength by an accessory impression In the births of sin I am like the Hebrew women lively and quick of delivery but in the bringing forth of whatever is good like a slow Egyptian that needs the aide of a Midwife l therefore beg of thee holy Lord to heal my distempers by thy grace and to renew me in the spirit of my mind that I may run the way of thy Commandments when thou hast enlarged my heart Meditation XXXVII Vpon a Sun-Dyal and a Clock THese two Artificial measures of time give one and the same account of its motions but in a very differing if not contrary manner The Clock doth it by a motion of its own but the Sun-Dyall while it self is fixed by an extrinsick motion of the Sun upon those Lines drawn upon it effects the same thing And this occasioned me to think in what a differing way the same services and duties of Religion are done by those that profess it Some like Clocks have a Spring of motions in themselves and the weight that quickens and actuates it is love They pray confer exercise holiness in their Conversation in a progressive manner Salvation being nearer to them than when they first believed Others again are like Sun-Dyals that are as useless posts in a gloomy day and are destitute of all principles of motion The Sun moveth upon them but they stand still The Spirit comes upon them as it did on Saul but themselves are not in the least moved by those duties that others may think they profit by There is a light and shine which passeth upon their gifts and abilities that may render them useful as well as visible unto others but it effecteth no alteration in their hearts to the bettering of themselves What divine Visions and Prophesies did Balaam both see and utter concerning Israel And how remarkable is the Preface which he sets before them The man whose eyes are open hath said yet his heart is fixed to his lust of Covetousness and he is so far from taking the least step towards their Tents which with admiration he beholds to be goodly as that he gives Balack counsel how to destroy them Let not then any rest in a bare illumination or transient work of the Spirit upon them as if that such things would be sufficient evidences of the goodness of their conâ—ition Light may make a good head but it is heat and motion that must make a good heart without which all profession of Religion is but an unsavoury Carkass Be wise therefore O Christians and build not the foundation of your eternal happiness upon such uncertain principles May not the Spirit assist where it never inhabits May it not move upon him whom it never quickens Were not many workers of iniquity who were workers of miracles Were not many famous for their Prophesies who were infamous for their Profaneness Are not such things made by Christ the plea of many in the last day for their admittance into heaven whom he will not know Why then should any be so foolish to make that a Plea to the Judge which he knows beforehand will be rejected The best way to discern our condition is not to argue the goodness of it from the light which the Spirit darts in upon us but by the motions which it produceth in us As many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God in a constant way of progression from grace to grace from vertue to vertue Such light as it is sudden in its Eruptions so it is also in its Interruptions the one oft times are as speedy and momentary as the other Look therefore to the attractions of the Spirit by which you are moved drawn to walk in holy waies rather than to such motions of the Spirit which pass only upon you but do not beget any motion or stirring in you Meditation XXXVIII Vpon the payment of a Pepper-corn LOgicians have a Maxime that Relationes sunt minimae entitatis maximae efficaciae Relations are of the smallest Entity and of the greatest efficacy The truth of which may appear in the payment of a single Pepper-corn that Freeholders pay to their Landlord they do it not with any hope or intent to enrich him but to acknowledge that they hold all from him To effect the one it is of too mean a value yet it preserves the Lords right as fully as a greater Rent and aggravates the Tenants folly to withhold more than if the demands had been higher To such an one may be justly said what Naamans Servant spake unto him If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee wash and be clean If the condition which meer bounty happily hath made so easie had been by the same hand and power restrained to a more costly and â—mple homage ought it not to have been performed How much more when nothing is required but what may witness a dependency and not burden it How inexcusable then must the ingratiâ—ude of those men be who receiving all their blessings from God withhold that Pepper-corn of praise and honour from him which is the only thing that they can pay or that he expects To câ—st the least Mite into his Treasury which may adde to its riches is beyond the Line of men or Angels for if it could admit an increase the abundance of it
wickedness Is it not solly to refuse the warm breast and to suck the Milk from the bottle when it is dispirited and hath lost both its warmth and lively taste and what less difference is there between a Sermon in the Pulpit and in the Prâ—ss Is it not also wickedness to offer Sacriledge for Sacrifice and to rob God of one Duty to pay him another to withhold the greater and to seem Conscientious in the less Are they not in thus doing fures de se thieves to their own Soules depriving themselves of the profit of both while they are willfull neglecters of each Be wise therefore O Christians in keeping up an high esteem of the Word Preached and be alwayes as Babes for hunger and desire after it though not for knowledg and understanding in it And remember that there is no way so dangerous to lessen your desires as to keep your selves fasting from it For the Word of God still creates new appetites as it satisfies the old and enlargeth the capacities of the Soul as it fills it Use good Books as Apothecaries do their Succedanea one simple to supply the want of another when the Preacher cannot be had then make use of them but let it rather be to stay the stomach in the absence of an Ordinance then to satisfie it And when you enjoy both say as Aristotle sometimes did of the Rhodian and Lesbian Wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter Holy Books are good and relish well but the Word Preached is more sweet the one is as the Wine the Bridegroom provided at the Marriage Feast and the other as that which Christ made which was easily discerned by the Governour who knew not whence it was to be by far the better Meditation XLII Vpon Mixtures THe wise God hath so tempered the whole Estate of Man in this life as that it consisteth altogether of Mixtures There is no sweet without sower nor sower without sweetness All simples in any kinde would prove dangerous and be as uncorrected drugs which administered unto the Patient would not recover him but destroy him Constant Sorrow without any Joy would swallow us up and simple Joy without any Grief would puff us up both extreames would agree alike in our ruine he being in as dangerous a case who is swolne with Pride as he who is overwhelmed with Sorrow This Mixture then though it seem penall and prejudicial to our comfort is yet Medicinall and is by God as a wise Physician ordered as a Diet most sutable to our Condition and if we did but look into the grounds of it we shall find cause to acknowledge Gods wise Providence and to frame our hearts to a submission of his will without murmuring at what he doth For have we not two Natures in us the Spirit and Flesh the New and Old Man have we not twins in our Womb our Counter-lustings and our Counterwillings Are we not as Plants that are seated between the two different Soiles of Earth and Heaven Is there not then a necessity of a mixed Diet that is made up of two contraries The Physician is not less loyal to his Prince if he give to him an unpleasing Vomit and to a poor Man a cheering Cordiall because his Applications are not according to the dignity of the Person but to the quality of the Disease neither is God the less kind when he puts into our hand the bitter Cup of asfliction to drink of then when he makes us to caste of the Flaggons of his sweetest wine Paul his Thorn in the Flesh what ever the meaning of it be was usefull to keep down that tumor of pride which the abundance of Revelations might have exposed him unto and so joyned together they were like the rod and the Honey which enlightned Jonathans eyes when he had tasted the sweetness of the one God would have him feel the smart of the other At the same time also when God blessed Jacob he Crippled him that he might not think above what was meet of his own strength or ascribe his prevailing to the vehemency of his Wrâ—stling rather then to Gods gracious condescention Yea who is it that hath not experienced such Mixtures to be the constant Methods which he useth towards his dearest Children what are the lives of the best Christians but as a Rainbow which consists half of the moisture of a Cloud and half of the light and beames of the Sun Weeping saith David may endure for a Night but Joy cometh in the Morning And what other thing doth the Apostle speak of himself when he gives the Corinthians an account of his Condition As dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowfull and yet alwayes rejoycing as poore yet making many rich as having nothing but yet possessing all things Blessed then is he who doth without repining yield himself to the dispose of Divine Providence rather then accuse it and looks not so much to what at present is gratefull to the sense as to what for the future will be profitable to the whole For in these Mixtures Magna latent beneficia 〈◊〉 non fulgeant great advantages do lye hid though not shine forth Hereby we are put upon the exercise of all those Graces which are accommodated to our imperfect state here below whose acts shall not be compleated in Heaven but shall all cease as being not capacitated for a Fruition and yet are of great use while we are on this side Heaven How necessary is Patience to bear up the Soul under trials that it fret not against God who inflicts them How greatly doth Hope temper any present souer by its expectation of some happy change that may and will follow and so worketh joy in the midst of sadness How even to wonder doth Faith manifest its power in all distresses when it apprehends that there are no degrees of extremity unrelieveable by the Arm of God or inconsistent with his compassions and friendship Again such Mixtures serve to work in us a greater hatred of sin and an earnest longing after Glory in which our life light joyes are all pure and everlasting Our life is without any seed of death our light without any shadow of darkness and our joyes endless Hallelujahs without the interruption of one sigh Therefore are we burdened in our Earthly Tabernacle that we should the more groan to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven Therefore yet have we the remainders of sin by which we are unlike God and the first-fruits onely of the spirit by which we resemble him that we might long and wait for the Adoption and Redemption wherein what ever is blended and imperfect shall be done away When not to sin which is here onely our Duty shall be the top branch of our reward and blessedness O holy Lord I complain not of my present lot for though it be not free from mixture yet it is
upwards to the heavens which will after all climbing to them seem to be still at the like distance as they were at first Suppose that a man after hard labour and toyl in reaching the top of some high and steep Cliff should conclude that he had wearied himself to no purpose in the gaining of a delightful prospect because the Sun appears to be at the same distance and also of equal bigness as when he was at the bottom of it or that the Stars seem still to be but as so many twiâ—ckling watch lights without the least encrease of their dimensions or variation of their figure Might he not be easily refuted by bidding him to look down to those Plains from whence he had ascended and behold into what narrow scantlings and proportions those stately buildings and Towers were shrunk and contracted whose greatness as well as beauty he erewhile so much admired And may I not with the like facility answer and resolve the discouraged Christian who calls in question the truth of his heavenly progress because all those glorious objects which his Faith eyes and his soul desires to draw nigh unto seem still to be as remote from him as at his first setting out by wishing him to consider whether he cannot say that though heavenly objects do not encrease in their magnitude or lustre by the approach that he makes to them that yet all earthly objects do sensibly lose theirs by the distance that he is gone from them And if he can but so do surely he hath no cause of despairing to obtain heaven who hath travelled so far on the way as to lose well near the sight of Earth If once his faith hath raised him to that height as to make the glory of the world to disappear and to be as a thing of nought it will quickly land him in heaven where his fears of miscarrying as well as his lassâ—ude in working will be swallowed up in an everlasting rest And he that did once believe more than he saw shall for ever see far more than ever he could have believed Lord therefore do thou who givest power to the faint and to them that have no might encrease strength to me who wait upon thee renew my strength that I may mount up with wings as an Eagle and may run and not be weary and walk and not faint untill I come to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills and behold thy face in glory Meditation LVII Vpon the Bible QUintilian who makes it a question why unlearned â—en in discourse seem ofâ— times more free and copious than the Learned gives this as the answer That the one without either care or choice express whatsoever their present thoughts suggest to them Cum doctis sit electio modus When the other are both careful what to say and to dispose also their Conceptions in due manner and order If any thing make this Subject difficult to my Meditation it is not want but plenty which is so great as that I must like Bezaleel and Aholiab be forced to lay aside much of that costly stuff which presents it self to me And what to refuse or what to take in is no easie matter to resolve It will I am sensible require and deserve also more exactness in chusing what to say and what not to say concerning its worth and excellency and how to digest what is spoken than what is meet for any to assume unto himself I shall therefore account that I have attained my end if I can but so imploy my thoughts as to encrease my veneration to this Book of God which none can ever too much study or too highly prize and with which to be well acquainted is not only the chief of duties but the best of delights and pleasures What would be our condition in this world if we had not this blessed Book among us would it not be like Adams when driven out of Paradise and debarred from the Tree of Life Would it not be darker than the Earth without the Sun If the world were fuller of Books than the heaven is of Stars and this only wanâ—ing there would be no certain way and rule to Salvation But if this alone were extant it would enlighten the eyes make wise the simple and guide their feet in the paths of life True it is that for many years God made known himself by Visions Dreams Oracles to persons of noted holiness that they might teach and instruct others But it was while the Church of God was of small growth and extent and the persons to whom Gods Messâ—ges were Concredited of unquestioned Authority with the present Age. But afterward the Lord spake to his Church both by Word and Writing the one useful for further revealing Divine Truths and the other for the recording of them that when the Canon was once compleated all might appeal unto it and none take the liberty of coyning Divine Oracles to himself or of obtruding his fancies upon others And were there no other use of this Book of God than this that it should be the Standard for the trial of all Doctrines it were to be highly prized for its worth without which the minds of men would be in a continual distraction through the multitude of Enthusiasts that would be pretending Commissions from heaven none knowing what to believe in point of Faith or what to do in point of Obedience or whereby to difference the good and evil Spirit from each other But this single benefit though it can never enough be thankfully acknowledged to God by us is but as a Cluster to the Vintage or as an Ear of Corn to the Harvest in respect of those many blessings that may be reaped from it Doth not Paul ascribe unto it an universal influence into the Welfare of Believers when he ennumerates so many noble Ends for which all Scripture is profitable What is it that makes any man wise to Salvation Is it not the Scripture What is it that instructs any in Righteousness and makes him perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works Is it not the Scripture Is not this the only Bock by which we come to understand the heart of God to us and learn also the knowledge of our own hearts Both which as they are the breasts of mysteries so they are of all knowledge the best and fill the soul with more satisfaction than the most exact discovery of all created Beings whatsoever What if a man could like Solomon speak of Trees from the Cedar that is in Lebanon to the Hysop that groweth upon the Wall and of Beasts Fowls and Fishes and yet were wholly ignorant of his own heart would not the light that is in him be darkness Or what if a man could resolve all those posing questions in which the Schoolmen have busied themselves concerning Angels and yet know nothing of the God of Angels would he not become as a sounding Brass and a tinckling Symbal Is the knowledge of