changes and neither of them long lasting that we many times apprehend things to come that do not come and that our expectations do as often fail us in our fears as in our hopes that in dangers imminent our fear of them may exceed the dangers we fear death it self may be overfeared so that by running from it we may run into it Nabal died for fear of dying that those hazards that threaten us most may break up of themselves as we see the clouds that gather and look black upon us do often blow over without a shower that great appearances of evil are some times averted by petty accidents as some say that lightening may be put by with the wind of a mans hat and that it is good therefore to intermix hope with fear and fear with hope so to contemper and ballance one affection with another But these Philosophers are like Meteors something above earth and a great deal below Heaven O my Soul have faith in God and let thine heart be fixed on him and thou shalt not be afraid of evil tidings thou shalt never be moved Take no thought for the morrow as to the evil thereof for the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self Thou art a poor captive exile yet do not make hast thorough unbeleif to be loosed who art thou that fearest the fury of the Oppressor as if he were ready to destroy who shall himself be destroyed and made as grass and where is the fury of the Oppressor O my God my time is in thine hand and what can man do unto me nay what can the Devil do He may by a divine permission for a season if need be cast me into prison but it shall be only to try and purifie and whiten me It is not in his power to do me so much hurt but for my greater good He cannot take my liberty and my life both from me but in taking the one he must give me the other he cannot take my life but withal he must restore me my liberty and that in such a way as he can never take it away from me more The worst that he can do is but that which is best of all and therefore at what time I am afraid I will trust in God Lord sanctifie this dispensation to me this rod of thine own appointment and teach me to understand the language of it I confess I have abused my former liberty to a licentiousness and therefore this restraint is but a due reward unto me and the proper wages of my sin O my God unto thee belongeth mercy for thou hast rendred to me according to my work It is of thy never failing compassion that I am not consumed Thou art merciful in thy justice and just in thy mercy O take what vengeance thou wilt of mine inventions so thou forgive my sin lay what bands soever it shall please thee upon my body so thou free my soul and inlarge my heart to run the way of thy Commandments Give me not only a patient but a thank 〈…〉 sense of any sufferings which I may or do undergo for the advancement of thy glory and let me never think my penny too little which I receive from thee if it be accompanied with the honour of bearing the heat of the day in thy service but give me the grace to look upon that honour as the best part of my pay and until the time that thy Word do come for my deliverance let thy Word try me so shall I at last come out gold in the mean while in the worst of Prisons I shall be thy free-man which is the best and most noble of all conditions MEDITAT XI Vpon my Release WHen the Lord turned again my captivity I was like them that dream Me thought I had been made a Prisoner for divers years by a tumultuary violence and in that condition tossed like a ball from one place to another remote from my relations where I was as unknown yet well known as dying and yet living persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed and me thoughts upon the sudden all these as it were sufferings vanished and I was restored to my liberty to my family and friends again At the first like Peter I was in a manner intraunced as if I had seen a Vision and I could hardly beleive mine eyes but recollecting my self I found sufficient reason to acknowledge as that great Apostle did that the Lord had sent his Angel and delivered me out of the hand of mine enemies and from all the expectation of those that hated me What shall I do or what shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men thou art exalted above all thanksgiving and praise Lord open my lips and I shall be inabled at once both to praise thee for this mercy and to praise thee for opening my lips and inabling me to praise thee How sweet is liberty after a restraint certainly a prosperous condition is never so well relish'd as after an affliction as wine is then best tasted when we have first tasted a bitter Olive But as hony is good and yet in the excess thereof nauseous So liberty how sweet soever in it self may if taken beyond the measure of sufficiency draw on a furfet of licentiousness It is in that as Physicians say it is in health a high degree thereof may be dangerous O my Soul labour to moderate thine affections in all conditions and now that God hath been pleased to fill thy cup again pray for a steddy hand that thou maist carry it without spilling Otherwise this suddain change from such a confinement to such an inlagement will be but like a suddain good signe immediatly after a bad one which according to the old rule of divination by the intrails of beasts was accounted to be of unlucky Signification it may be a prognostick that a worse thing will happen unto thee In all time not only of my tribulation but of my weal and prosperity good Lord deliver me But it may be a moot point whether I am much safer now then I was before My former restraint was in the nature of a safegard or of a harbour to me where though I were in a manner landlockt yet I lay secure and out of the wind now that I am abroad I may say I have more Sea roome but withall I am more exposed to foul weather then I was before There is no condition under the Sun so purely and simply good but that it hath an allay of evil in it and that to such a proportion that as it is in base mony the allay is for the most part more then the true mettal But is liberty then so indifferent a thing that there should be but a measuring cast between it and imprisonment there must needs be a wider difference between them then so for it is said that God doth not willingly greive the Children of men to crush under his feat the Prisoners of
special note I would by the by allow my self a traffick with sundry authors as I happned to light upon them for my recreation and I would make the best advantage that I could of them but I would fix my study upon those only that are of most importance to fit me for action which is the true end of all learning and for the service of God which is the true end of all action Lord teach me so to study other mens works as not to neglect mine own and so to study thy word which is thy work that it may be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path my candle to work by Take me off from the curiosity of knowing only to know from the vanity of knowing only to be known and from the folly of pretending to know more then I do know and let it be my wisdome to study to know thee who art life eternal Write thy law in my heart and I shall be the best book here MEDITATION VI. Vpon an entertainment of Godly Friends WHat a deal of Heaven is there in in this company methinkes like Abraham I entertain Angels the comfort and illumination that I receive from them hath so much of that society in it Certainly there is no pleasure in this world comparable to the enjoyment of the Communion of Saints where good people are compacted and united together in affection and judgment and interest as fellow members of one body which though many have but one heart and one head and are so one another that they are members one of another that they are all one in Christ But in the name of wonder what is it that should be so taking in this company where is the wine and the strong drink where are the costly ointments and the Crownes of rosebuds the Musick dancing laughing the world understands the language of these jollities without the help of an interpreter But for people to meet only to talk one another into gravity and to spend time in speculative discourses of another world when they might give themselves the pleasure of this if this be mirth what doth it It may seem a strange and an impertinent advice of this great Moralist to his friend Lucilius that above all things he should be careful to learnâ— how to be merry one would think there should go no great matter of Philosophy to that But there is a mistake in it True mirth is Metaphysical and supernatural It is not the crackling of thornes under a pot a blaze and a noise and a nothing the laughter of a mad man is not mirth but it is a severe and I may say a Divine thing It is an anticipation of the joyes of Heaven in the delightful society of a good conscience when we are alone and together with that of conscientious friends when we are in company They are the merry hearts that keep the continual Feast It is one of the Devils lyes and that of which he hath made as great advantage as of any that Religion is a dull flat melancholy thing whereas in truth there is no such cleere defecate mirth as that which cometh from the Springs above The Prophet Isaiah speaking of the coming of our Saviour in the flesh gave this Character of him That he should not be sad so it is rendered in the vulgar translation that he should not be of a sullen retired disposition but amicable and free and it was verified in his conversation He was anointed with the oyle of gladness and we have that Spiritual unction from him Let the men of the world deride this heavenly mirth as the Covetous Pharisees derided the true riches which Christ spake of as a fantastical thing they do but like those that make themselves merry at the sight of a company dancing a farr off when they cannot hear the musick whereby their gestures and motions are directed and therefore judge them to be antick and ridiculous They take this mirth to be no other then a folly and laugh at they know not what because being at such a distance from the godly they cannot take notice of the heavenly harmony and accord that is between their orderly conversation and the aires of Gods spirit quickening and inlivening them with joyes unspeakable and full of glory Nothing but ignorance is the mother of this misopinion But what are these friends that are so wellcom are they persons of honour or interest is there any thing to be gotten by them the fashion of the world is to serve the Ball only to those that can return it and to bid those only that can bid againe It is a sad word Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish weak base inconsiderable things of the world things that are nothings to route and confound all humane wisdome and might and to annul things that are The Lord seeth not as man seeth vainglorious fooles may pride themselves in that which is none of their own the vertue and generosity of their ancestors or in that which hath no being at all but in fancy riches and estate It is not flaggs and pedegree but a noble heart that makes a noble person true goodness is true greatness and Gods blessing the true riches he that hath that hath all â—s slight account as there is made of these good people and of such as these they are the Children of the King of heaven and though possibly their names may not be extant in the Heralds bookes they will be found written in the book of life Our little great ones of the world may think them only fit to stand at the lower end of the roome or to sit under the footstoole but with their good leave they that shall one day sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven are good enough now to be guests at the best table upon earth How happy are the hours that are spent in such company as this to speak more properly they are not spent but gaind So much time thus redeemed is so much life clearly gotten there is a prolongation of life in a holy Conversation it is one thing to be in the world and another to live in it They only live that live well Vitious persons that give themselves up to their pleasures are dead whilst they live and are but a kind of walking Ghosts but the living the living they praise God and they onely live that do praise him There is nothing that hath a greater influence upon our lives than the company we keep generally Men are like that Mercurial Planet good or bad according to their conjunction with others There is in all societies an attracting and assimilating quality and altho thorough the corruption that is predominant in our natures this is more apparent in the operation of evil rather than of Good Company yet there is true grace this Magnetick Vertue will shew it self
thee not to lie still but to arise and be doing to walke whilst thou hast light humbly with thy God and honestly with thy neighbour as a child of the day Up then my Soul and cast off the workes of darkness night clothes are not a fit weare for the day He whom thou lovest calleth thee do not say I have put off my coat how shall I put it on but without delay eccho that call with a lo I come to do thy will But where are my clothes O my God what a beggerly creature am I that have nothing to put on but what I am faine to borrow if it were not for the supply which I receive from a poor worme from a silly sheep I could neither be fine nor warme By right the borrower should be servant to the lender but Lord thou hast given me dominion over these serviceable creditors How should I at once be humbled under the sense of mine own indigence and thankfully exalted in the apprehension of thy goodness to me But what is man nay which is worse what am I surely I am more brutish then any man more sottish then those brute creatures unto whom I am so much indebted They are not proud of those habiliments which they impart to me I live upon their collections and yet am apt to pride my self in this beggery O my soul this glorying is not good what is it but a glorying in shame nakedness was the original bravery of our first parents in Paradise and shall be our last bravery in heaven when we shall be in the Angels mode Lord correct this depraved nature in me by thy grace that I may no longer fashion my self according to my former lusts and vanities but be conformed to that inward dress which in thy sight is of greatest price so though mine outside may be plain and bare I shall be sure to be all Glorious within But yet O my God thou knowest I have need of raiment as well as of food and other outward accommodations and thou art pleased to allow me a providential though not a sollicitous care for what I shall put on I beseech thee so to order my thoughts that in the pursuit of these things I may follow thy prescribed method of husbandry first to seek thy Kingdom and thy righteousness and then in the use of good means to trust thee for the rest But in what a new case am I when I am apparelled how warmed and comforted blessed be God that I have not that curse upon me mentioned in the Prophecy of Haggai to be cloathed and not warm those cloaths cannot but do me good that are lined with thy blessing It is the common opinion that our cloaths warm us but the truth is we warm our cloaths and they do but keep us warm with our own heat As it is in this so it is in all earthly comforts which have nothing of satisfaction in themselves but that placency which we take to be in them is but a resultance from our own minds a warmth which we give them Lord sanctifie these outward things unto me that in the fruition of them I may so use them as not to abuse them by looking for that in them which is only to be found in thee Thou art the blessing of all blessings from thee I have all in thee I enjoy all and without thee all is nothing O my God it is the desire of my Soul to be dressed and fitted to wait upon thee in the way wherein thou wouldest have me to go but I dare not think of coming into thy presence in an unseemly Garment in the nasty rags of the old man and I have no other sute of mine own but that O do thou give that happy word of command to have that filthy Garment taken away from me and say unto my Soul behold I have caused thine iniquity to pass away and I will cloath thee with change of rayment I beseech thee furnish thy poor Creature out of thy divine wardrobe with those graces that may most adorn my profession above all vouchsafe to cloath me with the Garment of mine elder Brother that is the best Robe and under that covert grant me thy blessing so what ever may befal me here I shall be sure to rise in a happy hour at the last day when being clothed with his righteousness I shall be clothed upon with his Glory MEDITATION IV. Vpon my retirement into my Closet HOw little doth the world know the happiness of a Closet But it is no wonder for this happiness is not of the world and therefore by those that can discern nothing spiritually it is esteemed as no other then a delight in a sedentary sluggish life or as no better then a melancholy discontented humour But my Soul thou art above these misapprehensions Go in shall I say into this room or rather into this other world into thy world for when thou art abroad thou art abroad thou art in a common world wherein every person hath an inter-right with thee but here within the inclosure of these Walls thou art in a particular world of thine own and all is thine own In this little Monarchy methinks I may say without offence Soul take thine ease and with quiet senses enjoy thine own company it is something for a man to be his own inmate to dwell with himself and no small happiness in that cohabitation to live quietly and without a dropping house There is a physical vertue in quietness some diseases in the body and most distempers in the mind are cured by it I may add further that there is a heavenliness in it those Regions that are highest are quietest and God himself who is higher then the highest is in the fruition of himself the most quiescent O my God whilst others affect the wings of an Eagle to fly high let it be my prayer to have the wings of a Dove to fly away and be at rest that being sequestred from the vexatious vanities of the world I may enjoy a free conversation with thee in heaven so shall my quietness be my strength and this rest a prelibution of my eternal rest But yet my Soul take heed unto thy self in this solitude it is possible for thee to be in ill company when thou art alone Be not rash but think what thou wouldst think do not affect a free will in thinking evil thoughts have an evil communication in them and may corrupt good manners slight not vain thoughts the thought of foolishness is sin and every foolish thought as well as every idle word must be accounted for bar them out as much as thou canst and though they may clamour at it and challeng a prescription for a thorough fare in thee and thou art not able altogether to hinder their way but that they will break thorough yet never let it be with thy consent and sufferance and so long the trespass will be on their side Above all be sure to
and those that are touched with it will endeavour to work upon others and to make them like themselves so Philip will draw Nathaniel Andrew will draw Peter and Peter when converted wil strengthen his Brethen And of this the worst times are the best Witnesses when thorough the common opposition of wicked men the affections of those that are good are the more inflamed each to other for as Roses and Garlick set near together do by extraction of contrary juices out of the Earth become both in their several kinds the stronger sented and the Roses are the more sweet and oderate by the fetide and stinking neighbourhood of the Garlick so by the contrary workings of opposite parties the Good are made very Good and the Bad very Bad and those that are good are meliorated and imbettered even by the illness of those that are bad O my Soul be wary with whom thou dost associate it may be discretion to carry a fair civility to those that are without but let thy delight be fixed upon the Saints that are in the Earth the touch of their conversion will derive vertue to thee Be not conformed to the Men of the world but let their contrary qualities serve as by a spiritual Antiperistasis to strengthen thy vertue and to make it the more compact in it self so if thou canst not amend others thou shalt be sure however to be amended thy self But alas what are all worldly comforts this good fellowship will not hold We cannot sit by it like those long lived Fathers before the flood who might meet and be merry together two or three hundred years and part with a promise to see one another againe so many hundred yeares after We are but of Yesterday and know not what to morrow may bring forth a few yeares or months or possibly a less time may determine all our jollity This were sad indeed if we had no hope but having that anchor hold we may comfort one another with this that wherever we are separated we can enjoy the Communion of one anothers praiers and meet together at the Throne of Grace And tho death may part us here for a while it will be but with a good night one to another as when we go to bed and to morrow we shall meet never to part In the mean time O my Soul think what a blessing it is to have the eternal God to be thy friend who in the defailliance of all these transitory comforts will not faile to make up all losses with himself But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth will the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity vouchsafe to humble and abase himself so low as not only to take notice of but in an infinite condescention to enter into covenant into friendship with poor mortal sinful creatures with such a despicable worme as I am to call me friend as he doth those that obey his commands what friend worme friend dust O the depth Lord what is man what am I poor no man a nothing that thou so regardest me O my God I am unworthy to be called thine in any relation unworthy to be reckoned in the number of thine hired Servants much more to be accounted in the rank of thy friends but it is thy pleasure to call things that are not as if they were and such is the influence of thy power that by vertue of that call thou canst make things to be what they were not O let the power of thy gracious vocation have a perfect work upon me to change me and I shall be changed to convert me and I shall be converted so though by nature I am enmity against thee by grace I shall be reconciled to thee I shall then fear thee and thy goodness shall fear and love thee and I shall love those that are conformable to thy goodness because I fear thee I shall not only have fellowship with thine excellent ones here upon earth but together with them enjoy society with thee O Father Son and holy spirit to all eternity in heaven MEDITAT VII Vpon the sight of a full Table LOrd do not hold it a presumption in thy poor dust and ashes that I humbly desire as thy Prophet Jeremy did to talk with thee what is man that thou takest knowledge of him thy word is mine answer that tells me it is a pittiful thing compounded and made up of sin and corruption its Father was earth and its Grand-father was nothing it walketh in a vain shew and is in its greatest estate a Lye and at its best altogether vanity which is so much less then nothing before thee But behold I have taken upon me to speak unto thee O let not my Lord be angry if I ask thee now what man is not that thou makest such account of him and so providest for him thine other creatures even those that are the cheif of thy wayes are contented with their single portions thy Behemoth is satisfied with that ordinary which the mountaines bring him forth and he lookes no further so is the Leviathan pleased with his recreation in the great and wide sea and that element is enough for him But man as if all were too little for his grandeur hath no bounds thou hast put all things under his feet Earth Sea Aire Fire pay contribution to his subsistance and comfort what couldst thou have done unto him that thou hast not done O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name all thy workes praise thee how should man praise thee for whose service thou hast made all thy workes what a deal of labour is here for the mouth what a concurrence of art with nature to please the gluttony not only of the mouth but of the eye people affect an ingenuity in luxury as if their wits lay in their bellies and not in their braines It is not enough to have good meat if it have not a rellish of the East-Indies it must be so spiced that an Aegyptian would think it were rather imbalmed to be buried and kept for Mummy then seasoned to be eaten it must be so diversisied and so disguised in the dressing that every dish must be a riddle as if it were a special point of reputation for a man to eat he knowes not what If our Forefathers could see our hachees and olliaes and hodgpodges and such like commixtures as we make of several meats together they would take them to be no better then the discharges of full stomacks and think that like doggs we affected to eat our meat twice But to what purpose is this waste how many empty stomacks might this superfluity have filled possibly less at the table and more at the door might have done better Certainly we are not the better for it this high feeding doth but cloud the understanding with fumes and vapours and pampers lust and breeds ill humours and makes provision for wormes and ends in excrement and who would place any felicity in that
to dye to morrow The vain as well as wicked Nero when he had built his Pallace to to that vastness that the Epigrammatist made it a question whether the house stood in the City of Rome or the City of Rome in the house he called it Transitory and that not insignificantly whatsoever he intended by it for there is a transitoriness and as I may say a mortality in buildings as well as in persons Man dyes and where is he his place shall know him no more The house decayes and falls and where is that within a few years no body shall know the place of that any more the memorial of both is perished with them And yet such is the sottish stupidity of people that though they see and cannot but know these things yet they figure to themselves imaginary perpetuties and adopt their houses in their own names and please themselves with the inward thought that their dwelling places shall continue for ever unto all generations this their way is their folly yet their posterity approve their sayings O my Soul never look to be well seated in this low morish vale of tears Whatever is built here must needs sink for want of a solid foundation which this loose rotten ground will not admit There is no foundation standeth sure but that which is of God Except he build the house and the house be built upon him upon his blessing it will never be weather proof Take example therefore from that feeble folk that make their houses in the rock build upon that rock which is Christ and with that good and noble Eleazar take up thy habitation in his wounds embrace that rock and thou shalt never want a shelter no not in that day when the dens and rocks of the mountaines shall not afford that curtesy to the greatest upon earth and when thine earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved thou shalt have a building of God and be clothed upon with thy house which is from Heaven and shall stand for ever MEDITAT XIII Vpon the sight of Pictures in a Gallery HOw many artificial miracles are there in this roome how are mine eyes at once pleased and distracted I may truly say the eye is not satisfied with seeing How many wayes at once have I to look here without taking the pains to go abroad I can go abroad within doores and in a small table see a whole Contry diversified with Hills and Dales with Boscage Campagnes Cities Rivers Sea's all so perfectly represented that a Poet would make a question upon it whether it were a natural work of art or an artificial work of nature In another place I can behold a beauty drawn with that sweetness and ingenuity of aspect that it might pass for a picture of a mind as well as of a face There is a peace of devotion set forth so movingly that it would move devotion to see it and near unto that a picture of a dead friend so exactly resembling him and with that vivacity that if the eyes were to be the only judges one would think it lived and spake and were the party and not the picture To fill up the measure of mine admiration all this variety is expressed by the help of a few colours blended together and laid on with a pencil made up of a few hoggs haires such materials and utensils as an ignorant stander by would judge only fit to foule ones fingers and spoil ones clothes O my God whilst I feed mine eyes upon these workes of mens hands I cannot but glorify and adore thine excellent working who hast created all things and who dost worke all our workes in us Let others admire the men that made these pictures I admire the God that made these men I admire that picture as I may so call it which was of Gods own making the impression of his image in man There is no peace in the world comparable to that Pleasant pictures such as are meerly for recreation and diversion may seem to be inoffensive and yet in a bedrol of sins enumerated by the Prophet Isaiah I find them mentioned with a particular denunciation against them There is nothing so innocent in the world but by a too much affection may be abused and turned into sin I would therefore make use of the pleasures of this world as I would do of the pictures in this gallery walk by them and look upon them with a transient eye but not stop my way nor spend my time upon them What is this sublunary world but as it were a painters shop wherein we see nothing but appearances and fancies and not any thing of reallity All the glory of it is but a painted bubble it swells and lookes bigg and Casts fine colours and then breaks and vapours into nothing The friendship of the world which if any thing should be real is for the most part but so much picture and complement but daubing Plato calls it by a right name Rhetorical friendship and Rhetorick is no other then a kind of painted language What are the beauties of the world which vaine men so much admire and are so inveigled with but at the best in their native favour deceitful and vaine and thus far resembling pictures as all their comeliness consisteth in the due proportion of lineaments and in the clearness and freshness of colours which are the very elements of painting As for others many of them may pass for no other then living pictures so painted and patcht that being compared with their pictures which are made for them it might be a question which were the principals and which the copies for both are painted like only of the two their own faces may be said to be the worst because they are not like themselves I could wish that we had not too many Christians in Picture such hypocrites as think it religion enough to seem religious These are double fac'd pictures one way so putting to shew the beauty of holiness in their profession as if according to the language of the Lycaonians Gods were come down in the likeness of men another way so representing the ugliness of sin in their practice as if men were come up in the likeness of Devils I confess that of late the number of these kind of peeces thorough an inundation of debauchery and profaness among us is so much abated that a man with the safety of his charity might wish there were more hypocrites stirring again for tho those painted Sepulchres might by their specious appearance deceive some these open Sepulchres do by their pestilential corruptions infect more Between both all roomes are filled up if there be fewer seemingly righteous then there were there are the more that are openly vicious such as have the resemblance of beasts as of Goats Swine Apes Peacocks Asses and so we are sufficiently furnished with pictures still The world loves to be cousened and as it is in juggling the more curious the deceit is the
more it pleaseth tho it be known to be a deceit so the picture of the grapes that cousened the birds and that of the vaile that cousened the painter were therefore held excellent peeces because they deceived the sight with so much art How commendable is truth when the meer resemblance thereof is enough to give commendation to falshood Likeness to nature is the perfection of art and likeness to the God of nature is the perfection of grace God is the Original of all perfection and we are expressly commanded to be conforme unto his Image that is not in his power and glory the Angels affected that and fell nor in his knowledg and wisdome our first parents coveted that and transgressed but in his holiness and righteousness in being good and doing good Lord teach me to copy out thy divine nature in those attributes wherein thou art imitable that since I cannot be like thee as thou art the most high I may indeavour to resemble thee as thou art the most lowly and meek and holy and beneficent God It is my misery as well as my crime that I have so long borne the image of the first man which was of the earth earthly vouchsafe I beseech thee to stampe the image of the second man the Lord from heaven upon my corrupt nature and by the renewing of my mind so transform me that whilst others please themselvs in their walk thorough the gallery of this world with beholding vain objects and entertaining the lust of their eyes with them mistaking shadowes for substances and pictures for realities calling but not in thy sence things that are not as if they were I may have the eyes of my faith fixed upon thine image as the only object of my delight so shall I be satisfied when I awake out of this dreaming life with thy likeness and be like unto thee when I shall see thee as thou art in glory MEDITAT XIV Vpon the sight of a Parret in a Cage WHat hath this poor bird committed that she should be made a Prisoner I see others of our own climate fore at liberty whilst this far fetcht stranger is in hold Surely our vanities are sharp set when they come to stoop at a feather But what is it that the lust of the eyes will not fly at to trade for Apes and Peacocks is no new thing The world hath ever been given to affect trifles and the mischeif is that while we take them up they take us and so we are in the cage too We shall never be able to set a just price upon any thing so long as we suffer our fancy to be the cleark of the Market If this Parret had been of a common plumage she might to this day have pearcht where she was hatcht now her unfortunate beauty hath betraied her to this captivity Thus many times the things that should be for our advantage become unto us an occasion of falling But what language is this who would not think but that the Devil were in the Parret as well as he was in the Serpent and yet it is but a speaking into the air and of little signification there are such babblers to be found among us without the help of a lanthorne that have the art of speaking much and saying nothing and I wish it were a rarer thing to hear Parrets speak like men then to hear men speak like Parrets But yet I see this good language houlds but during pleasure upon the least provocation the bird returns to her own natural clamour again How many are there that can bestow goodly words upon God so long as he is pleased to please them and yet are ready to curse him to his face if he do but touch them in their persons or estates such trencher disciples as can follow Christ with a plausible formality so long as they may eat of the loaves and be filled but when persecution ariseth are by and by offended O God whilst the world is taken with garish toyes and things that cannot profit let it be the delight of my Soul to apprehend thee and to be apprehended by thee Teach me so to look upon thy works that they may be a lesson not a snare to me So shall I even in the vanity of the creature read thy glory and from the folly of the world receive some instruction MEDITATION XV. Vpon hearing good Musick I cannot but think that Soul out of tune that is not affected with Musick For tho I am not of the opinion of that fidling Philosopher that defined the Soul to be a harmony yet I do really believe that there is nothing that striketh so immediatly and incorporeally upon the powers thereof as Musick doth It insinuateth into the Spirits and hath such a secret familiarity with them that it disposeth them to variety of passions conformable to the several changes and inflexions thereof It stilleth the child at the nurses breast and layeth it a sleep it cheareth the labourer at his work the gally slave at his Oar it rouzeth the Souldier in the field and exciteth him to action History telleth us of Pythagoras his practice of physick by Musick and of his curing of diverse sicknesses by that meanes and experience verifieth the possibility thereof in the recovery of those that are stung with the Tarantula by the same way As to the operation thereof upon the mind every one almost that hath ears to hear may be called to witness whether some aires and tunes do not sensibly attrist others comfort some move others moderate affections To say nothing of those fables of Orpheus and Amphion the one reported to have charmed birds and beasts the other said to have moved stocks and stones by their harmonious accents the moral whereof tended only to signify the power of perswasion and the efficacy thereof to reduce brutish and ignorant people to civility and cohabitation and politie tho withall inferring in that allusion to Musick that even in those rude times of old there was a sense of the operation of it upon the Spirits and natures of men for which cause both Plato and Aristotle recommended the use of it in their states and common weals as beneficial to the regulation of manners It may be enough to say that there is a kind of divine power in harmony working even upon those Spirits which are of a nature exalted above the Spirts of men this sufficiently witnessed by the word of God in those famous examples of Saul and Elisha What the reason of these strange effects should be is beyond the compass of reason to imagine Lord whilst this harmony delights mine ear let the consideration of thine infinite wisdome whereby thou hast made all things in number weight and measure in a harmony to be seen affect my heart that so while I admire thee in what I hear and see I may adore thee in what I cannot comprehend How ravishing is this pleasure and how is my Soul elevated with it even