by despairing to do otherwise Bless the Lord O my Soul that we are aware of this dangerous mistake And let us not despond though we have no reason to boast and glory in our resolution Was not this the condition of other of the Saints long before I was born Am I the only example of an heavy and sluggish Soul Must I be recorded the first in the Catalogue for inconstancy What helps and assistances then had they to restore themselves and to preserve them to the end which are strangers to our eares Must I dispatch a message to some Forreign Country for their Recipe's as we send for Drugs and Spices Cannot we tell without the charge of going to Hippo what Holy Austine strengthned himself withall Must we take a Pilgrimage to Rome to learn St. Hierome's Medicines Sure my Soul thou hast the same gracious Saviour the same compassionate High-Priest the same cordial promises the very same hope of the Gospel which revived and supported their hearts or if thou hast not speak that I may go and seek them Look then on thy blessed Saviour look on his holy Apostles nay look upon all those excellent Persons in the Church that have succeeded them Shall we not follow such glorious Leaders Are their Examples impossible to be imitated If they be they are not examples How can we be cold when we think of the flames of their love How can we be lazy and unwilling to do when we see how forward how vehemently desirous they were to suffer What should hinder us from going on when we have such a Multitude of Triumphant Souls before our eyes whom nothing could drive back Shall pleasures shall the incumbrance of business shall Relations and Friends yea shall dangers shall Death No I am not inchanted I am not affrighted with these words Be gone you false and deceitful pleasures How dare you perplex me you impertinent imployments No more of your importunity I charge you if you will be my Friends Welcome contempt welcome reproach welcome poverty or any other thing which will certainly bring me nearer to my God But what is it that gives you this suddain confidence How come you of a coward to grow thus couragious Of a Snail who made you thus to mount up in your thoughts like an Eagle Who will believe that thou wilt do such things I will believe it may you answer again to your self whatsoever can be objected against it Why are these called suddain thoughts which are my most deliberate resolutions Through the Lord I shall do valiantly He it is that shall tread down mine enemies under me The like discourse you may have with your self about God or any other subject You may consider not only that he is gracious and merciful but cry out O how great how great is his goodness Is there any thing thou canst name comparable to his loving-kindness What makes thee then so unwilling to go to him What 's the cause of such a diffidence and unbelief as hath deadned and dispirited thine heart Could I think that any thing would make thee fall into this stupidity Didst thou not once look upon him as the first Beauty as the joy the health and the life of our Souls Who is it that is altered and hath suffered a change He or thou Is he not the same to day yesterday and for ever Why shouldest not thou be the same too Or why shouldst thou not think that he will make thee the same again How many times is it repeated in the Book of God that his mercy endureth for ever For whom was it but such trembling Souls as thou that he proclaims himself so often to be abundant in mercy goodness and truth But must we not then believe it Is this the way to obtain his mercy by distrusting of him What a preposterous course is this How unseemly nay how unkind is it to question these gracious declarations of his love Let us be confidently perswaded he hath a greater desire than we that we should be true and faithful to him Let us rest our thoughts in this conclusion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now when you find any benefit by such expostulations and reasonings with your self hope it would do you some good if you should use the like in an humble address to God you may be furnished with several strains of devout Admiration and Pathetical Appeals to his all-seeing Majesty out of the Holy Scriptures There are Examples also of the other but expostulations with God are not to be imitated without much caution and holy fear and ought not to be commonly used It may be sufficient to conclude the foregoing Meditations with some such form of words as this A PRAYER O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is miserable man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Lord what honour is that which thou hast conferred on him in setting him now in the Person of Jesus above the Angels themselves For to which of the Angels didst thou say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again Let all the Angels of God worship him Who in the Heaven can be compared unto the Lord Who among the mighty can be likened unto the Lord And therefore whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My Soul thirsteth for Thee and longeth after Thee O when wilt thou come unto me There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Show me thy self and it sufficeth Lord what wait I for Truly my hope is in Thee My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him By thee O Lord have I been holden up from the Womb thou art he that took me out of my Mothers bowels My Praise shall be continually of Thee But who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord Who can shew forth all his praise Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the Sons
I forget to look continually towards this Immortal Life And what is that should make me forget it How come I to lose that sense and let go my hopes of Immortal Life O wonderful Love O patient goodness which still waits and attends upon me to remind my Soul of its everlasting bliss May I after so long a time of sleep and such forgetfulness be favoured with a sight of it Will my love and free obedience be yet accepted Awake awake then all the hidden powers of my Soul rise up and call him blessed Who can with-hold his heart from devoting it self affectionately to him With what pleasures can I entertain my self comparable to those which grow out of the hope of Immortal Life Or what service can be unpleasant which is undertaken for so great an happiness The thoughts of it make my Soul light and aërial even under the burden of this Body I feel it drawing me up above from whence when I look down upon all the men of this lower World how do they appear but as so many little Ants busily creeping on a Mole-hill while I sit upon the holy Hill of God O that my mind could dwell there Or since I cannot reach so high a felicity it may never descend from thence but with a lively remembrance of the joys of that Celestial Hope which may bear me up above all the petty temptations of this World For what is it that I labour and toil with such restless thoughts and desires For what am I troubled and discontented Can any thing make him absolutely unhappy who hopes to live for ever with God No I will rejoyce in my Lord always again I say I will rejoyce I will bear at least even all my dulness and listlesness to my duty with a quiet and composed mind in hope one day to be more full of life Here my Pen is very forward and would be running on further than my design will allow And therefore I must restrain it and abbreviate also the remaining Counsels having been so long in some of the foregoing lest instead of a little Book to carry about with you and refresh you I should send you a tedious Volume that will quite tire you Let me only annex before I leave this a Prayer to God which relates to what hath been now said and with which you are not unacquainted A PRAYER O Most Holy and blessed for ever more Who art the most excellent Nature the Perfection of beauty happy in thy self alone and needest not the Company of any of thy Creatures to make thee happier than thou art It is we poor beggarly things that stand in need of thy continued grace and love who art the Father of our spirits the only hope and stay of our hearts the joy and comfort of our life that filling and satisfying good in whom alone our desires can meet with perfect rest and repose The most glorious of all the Heavenly Host can find no higher pleasures than those of loving and praising and obeying thee whose Ministers they are and delight to be in executing the commands of thy holy will in every thing For thy will is guided by the best and most excellent reason and is so propense we see to goodness benignity and charity that all its commands must needs be reasonable and good too and intend the greatest kindness to those that are obedient to them Every Creature in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea obeys thy Almighty Word declaring thee to be as good as thou art great Rev. 5.13 and giving not only glory and power but blessing and honour unto thy Divine Majesty and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Yea that blessed Son of thy love when he came into the World freely chose to do thy will and not his own saying I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal XL. 7. What is there then in Heaven or Earth that I can wish but to be united in hearty devout and chearful affection together with my dearest Saviour and all the Saints and Heavenly Host to that most holy will of thine by a free and constant obedience to it It is infinitely fit and desirable I am sure that we above all the rest of thy Creatures should take a perfect contentment and pleasure in serving thee who hast not only gratified all our senses with great and delightful variety of good things in this World but also sent thy Son from Heaven to entertain our Spirits with joyful hopes of having our weak and short obedience here rewarded with great and endless pleasures at thy right hand in the World to come Lord what is man that thou shouldest have such a regard unto him And what hearts have we if after all thy grace we should delight in any thing more than thee or be weary and faint in our minds while we are doing thy blessed will O how deeply should we have been indebted to thee if thou hadst only admitted us to the happiness of knowing and loving thee and complying with thy good will while we dwell in this body But that thou shouldest design when we expire to recompense the meer discharge of our duty here with the continued happiness of being with thee and enjoying thee for ever is an expression of thy bounty that exceeds all our wonder and admiration If a full sense of this thy stupendious goodness should now possess our spirits they would grow I believe too big and large for our bodies and bursting forth in passionate love would make their way into Eternity which only is wide and long enough to admire and love and praise thee in But be pleased O Lord of love in thy infinite goodness to give me at present such a true and lively feeling of it as may make me think of nothing so much or with so much delight and satisfaction of heart and as may inflame me with such a fervent love unto thee that it may melt and dissolve my will into thine and consume all my corrupt desires and abate at least the chilness and indifference of my spirit and offer me up a whole burnt Sacrifice to thee my God And then stay I most humbly beseech thee for the fulness of my love and praises and joyful acknowledgments till I come to that happy liberty of having nothing else to do but to love and thank and magnifie thy Name for ever and ever It is my daily and repeated desire according as our Lord hath taught us that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven to which both now and ever I say most heartily Amen O purge and refine my nature to such a degree of vertue and goodness that I may at least delight to do thy will as those heavenly Creatures do O that those little little acts of Piety and Charity which I am able to exercise in this World may never want this complacence in the performance of them
ADVICE TO A FRIEND DEPRESSA RESVRGO ECCLUS xiv 13. Do good unto thy Friend before thou dye GREG. NYSSEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXIII AN ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE PVBLISHER TO THE READER Reader I Have nothing to say either of this Boâ—k or of its Author But only desire the Reader if he like the Counsels which are here given for the promoting and better ordering of Devotion and for the preserving of a pious Soul in peace and chearfulness that he would be so kind and faithfull to himself as to follow them And the hope I have that after a perusal they will invite him so to do makes me secure the Author will not be displeased to see that exposed to publique view which was at first intended only for a private Persons use For if the Advice be good the more common it grows so much the better it is and it will not be the less mine when it is gone into other hands Plato I am told calls Love the Ornament of all both of the Gods and of Men the fairest and most excellent Guide whom every man ought to follow and celebrate with Hymnes and Praises And what is there in which we can better express and declare it to others than in communicating to them that which we hold in highest esteem our selves It was that which first produced this Treatise and from thence it comes abroad That which the same Person saith is the Father of delights of mirth of whatsoever is gracefull and desirable was the Parent of this Book And therefore let it be accepted with the same kindness wherewith it was writ and is now Printed Let all the faults if you find any be overlookt with a friendly eye and do not discourage so excellent a vertue as Friendship to which we owe the best things in the World by severe and harsh censures of any thing that it produces But I need not I think be solicitous about this the pious design of the Book being sufficient to give it protection if it cannot gain it approbation It hurts no body and therefore may pass it self with more safety and it offers its service to do every body good which me thinks should be taken kindly even by those who stand in no need of it As for those who shall make use of it and find any benefit by it they will complain perhaps only of the Author's thriftiness and wish he had been more liberal of his Advice And so it 's like he would if he had not consulted his Friends ease more than his own and considered rather what would be usefull than what would make a great show You will take a wrong measure of his kindness if you judg of it by the bulk of the Book which was purposely contracted into a little room that it might be a constant Companion and as easie to carry in mind as it is to carry in ones hand And let the defects of it be what they will they may be supplied out of one of the Rules you here meet with if you please to make use of it which is to chuse a good Guide from whom you may receive further Advice in any thing that is necessary for your Progress in Piety or for the setling your Conscience in peace And that we may none of us ever want such a faithful and skilful Person to conduct us and that we may receive a benefit by these and all other good Counsels let us heartily joyn in that Prayer to God which is the Collect for this Day and add it often to the ensuing Devotions Leave us not we beseech Thee destitute of thy manifold Gifts nor yet of Grace to use them alway to thy Honour and Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen St. Barnabie's Day 1673. IMPRIMATUR Sam. Parker R. Rmo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi. Ep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis Maii 14. 1673. Ex Aed Lambeth ADVICE TO A FRIEND My Friend MAN bears some resemblance and may not unfitly be compared to a Diamond or such like precious stone whose darker parts confess that it is of the earth but the brighter look as if it had borrowed some rayes from the Sun or Stars He is a substance I mean consisting of a terrestrial Body and celestial Spirit with his Feet he touches the earth but with his Head he touches Heaven Though the neighbourhood knows whence his Body came and remembers the time perhaps when it lay in the dark Cell of his mothers womb yet his Soul doth absolutely deny that it is of so mean extraction And casting its eyes upward calls to mind its high descent and parentage and takes it to be no presumption to affirm that we are the off-spring of God He cannot therefore but find in himself propensions and desires not only different from but contrariant to each other For since two worlds meet in him and he is placed in the confines of heaven and earth his will must needs hang between two widely distant goods the one propounding pleasures to his body and the other to his mind And though once there was a time when these two preserved such a friendship and gave such due satisfaction to one anothers just interests and inclinations that they did not break out into an open war yet this peace lasted not so long as to let us feel the blessings and happiness thereof But that part whose kindred and acquaintance was in this world apprehended the first occasion that offered it self to quarrel with the other whose native countrey was not so visible through walls of flesh and denying to consent unto it plainly rebelled and entred into a state of hostility against it This it might do with the more ease because two parts of those three into which the Soul is ordinarily divided stand very much affected to the Body and its concernments The Desiring part that is always ready to run to any thing and embrace it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath the appearance of a bodily good the Angry part that is no less forward to shun and to make defence against whatsoever seems to be a bodily evil to the Rational is committed the direction and government of these which that it may manage aright it is to maintain a constant conversation with an higher good to which all the lower desires and passions ought to be subordinate and subject These are handsomely compared by a noble Greek Philosopher to the Three Ranks or Orders of men that are in a City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proclus L. 1. in Timaeum The Servants the Souldiers and the Magistrates The first of which are to do all the work and make such provisions as are necessary for its support The second serve for a guard to protect and defend it from all dangerous assaults And the third sits in Counsel pronounces Judgment issues out Orders makes Rules and gives
but the good are best instructed by their enjoyments Ingrateful People think of God when he takes away his blessings from them but ingenuous and thankful minds have a great regard to him when his favours are in their hands Nor do they only think it a duty but feel it a pleasure to reflect on the bounty of their great Benefactor which endeares the practise of it and makes it still both more facile and more frequent In so much that in the use of all these outward and carnal things a pious heart may soon learn to turn its thoughts and raise up its affections to a more spiritual good and nobler fruitions Do you not observe how the Holy Ghost is wont to express the joyes of the World to come by such pleasures as are most acceptable to us here What is the reason of it if it be not in compassion to the weakness of our apprehensions and to let us see that all bodily delights administer occasion for pious thoughts and holy desires after diviner enjoyments God would preserve us from sinking into a fleshly sense by our daily conversation with and use of fleshly things He shows us how we may lift up our minds even by those things which are apt to depress them and take an advantage from these inferiour comforts to climb up towards those higher satisfactions Hence it is that the happy enjoyments of the other World are compared so often to the pleasures of eating and drinking whereby our hunger and thirst is asswaged and our bodily life supported Yea to a Feast which is a more liberal entertainment of that kind and is the meaning of that phrase in the Gospel which represents Lazarus carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome placed that is in the uppermost Room at that Heavenly Feast and treated as the noblest and most beloved guest Yea to a Marriage-Feast which being a time of the greatest joy Men are wont to make the largest provision of good chear that their friends may rejoyce together with them And lastly to a Marriage-Feast made by a King a Royal entertainment such as a Monarch would make at the Wedding of his Son All which may serve to provoke good minds to look up above such things as these which are most enticing in this World and to be so far from being swallowed up in sensual pleasures as to give themselves thereby a more lively taste of that excessive joy which God will impart unto them when they shall live with him and be feasted by him in his Heavenly Kingdom The like benefit you may reap from all other things which you converse withall and though the World will attract your thoughts to it and imploy a great many of your hours yet you may draw at last something from thence which will pay you well for the time which you have spent upon it As for Example when you look about you and behold the delightful Objects wherewith you are inviron'd on every side which present themselves continually to your Eyes or your Eares or your Tast or other of your Senses you may think with your self 1. If God have provided such a multitude of pleasant things for the entertainment of this poor body in this present life What are the joys and delights which he hath prepared for my better part in the life which is to come This is the World of Bodies the other of Souls and Spirits Therefore if this little Carkase which is but as the Grass of the Field be so well accomodated if there be so many rare things in the Earth and the Sea and the Air for its refreshment and pleasure What may I not expect hereafter for my mind in those Celestial those spacious Regions which I see above O the inconceivable felicity which is provided in the Paradise of God for this more wide and capacious Spirit which beares his own Image and like himself is to live for ever 2. Again you may think with your self if there be such pleasure to be found in a Creature O what is there then in the Creator of all If the sight of the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the rest of the beauties of this World be so glorious What will it be to see my God to be filled with that wisdom which contrived and with that goodness which produced this vast this goodly and comely Fabrick If the melodies of Musick be so charming O what an ecstasie of joy will it cast me into to hear God himself say I love thee I delight in thee for ever If the love of a true Friend do so much ravish and transport my Spirit what pleasure is it that I shall feel when my Soul shall love him as much as its most enlarged Powers will enable it and know how much I am beloved by him There is a delicious Meditation in St. Austin to this effect who thus speaks to God in one of his Confessions Lib. 10. Cap. 6. I love thee O my God thou hast smitten my heart with thy Word and I have loved thee Nay the Heavens and the Earth and all things contained therein admonish me on every side that I should love thee and they cease not to say the same to all Men else so that they are inexcusable if they do not love thee But what do I love when I love thee Not the beauty of a Body not the grace and comeliness of time not the brightness of light and yet O how friendly and agreeable is that to these eys not the sweet melodies of well-composed Songs not the fragrant odors of Flowers or unguents or costly Spices not Manna not Honey not the embraces of the dearest and most lovely Person these are not the things that I love when I love my God And yet I love a certain light and a certain voice and a certain grateful odor and a certain food and a kind of embracement when I love my God the true light the melody the food the satisfaction and the embracement of my inward man Where that shines to my Soul which no place can contain where that sounds which no time can snatch away where that scents which no Wind can disperse and scatter abroad where I taste that which eating cannot diminish where I cleave to that which no fulness no satiety can force away This is that which I love when I love my God And what is this I askt the Earth and it said I am not I askt the Sea and the Deeps and all living Creatures and they answered We are not thy God look above us and enquire after him for here he is not I askt the Air and all its Inhabitants yea the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars and they confessed We are not him whom thy Soul seeketh And I spake to all things whatsoever that stand round about the Gates of my Flesh saying Ye tell me that ye are not my God but tell me something of him And they all cried out with a loud voice He made
may still see more of that wonderful love which he hath discovered in his Gospel and to accompany me with his grace till I arrive at his heavenly Court O let his good Spirit breath upon me and carry away my Soul in holy desires towards him Let it guide my course through this troublesome Sea wherein I am tossed Let it shine upon me and prosper my endeavours Let it bring me safely to a quiet haven in Eternal Rest and Peace These pious aspirations you may still pursue at the end of these Meditations in some such Prayer as this A PRAYER I Praise Thee I magnify thy wise and mighty Goodness O Lord who hast made this great World the Heavens and the Earth with all things contained therein to the everlasting honour of thy Name I thank Thee with all my Soul for bringing me into it and for advancing me so much above the rest of thy Creatures here below that I see the glory of thy Majesty shining every where and hear thy Name proclaimed and praised by all thy works of wonder But above all I acknowledg thy bounty with the most admiring thoughts and the devoutest affections of my heart for sending Jesus Christ upon Earth to open unto us the Kingdom of Heaven and to show us the glories of another World O the exceeding greatness of that love which gave him to dye for us and rewarded all his sufferings with a blessed Resurrection and then translated him to Heaven and appointed Him Heir of all things and setled his Throne for ever and ever on the right hand of thy Majesty on high From thence he hath sent the Holy Ghost to be witness of the fulness of his Royal Power and Love and hath shown himself sometime in Majesty and Glory above the Sun when it shineth in its strength that we might hope in thee for the like Resurrection to a glorious immortality in the Heavens No tongue can utter nor heart conceive what Honour Glory and Peace what joy and gladness of heart thou hast prepared there for those that love Thee But blessed for ever blessed be the riches of thy grace whereby I understand so much as to feel most earnest longings in my Soul after a fuller sense of that which thou hast made me taste and relish beyond all the pleasures of this Life O raise and inlarge my Spirit unto clearer more comprehensive thoughts of that supreme blessedness Thou who entertainest all thy Creatures with so much liberality who causest thy Sun to shine upon the good and the bad and the showers of Heaven to fall on the just and the unjust deny not to satisfie the pious desires of a Soul in whom thou hast excited an ardent thirst after its proper and eternal good But inlighten the eyes of my understanding that I may know more and more what is the hope of thy Heavenly calling and what the riches of the glory of thy Inheritance in the Saints and what the exceeding greatness of thy power to us-ward who believe according to the working of thy mighty power which wrought in Christ when thou raisedst him from th dead and set him at thy own righâ— hand in the heavenly places O life up my mind to that high and holy place where thou dwellest and where Jesus is inthroned and where the Angels and Saints continually behold and praise with joyful hearts the Majesty of thy glory and where our Lord hath promised all the faithful shall live and reign with him for ever Help me to climb up daily by all thy Creatures on which thou hast set such marks of thy Greatness Wisdome and Goodness to the contemplation of that Celestial Bliss And possess me with such a constant sense and desire of it that nothing here may ingage my heart which will indispose me for the happy company and society of the blessed Assist me good Lord by such Meditations as these to discern more and more the incomparable and surpassing greatness of that felicity which thy Royal bounty will bestow upon our advanced spirits and bodies in the world of rewards and recompences Affect my heart more powerfully with it and fill me with love and joy unspeakable and full of glory when I turn my eyes towards it Stir me up thereby to prepare my self with diligence and care by a lively resemblance of the Lord Jesus for the day of his appearing and to wait with patience for that blessed Hope when I shall not see as now through a Glass darkly but face to face and be made compleatly like him by seeing him as he is Enable me always to live upon this Hope and according to it that growing in all goodness by a chearful obedience to his holy commands I may be found of him in peace and be so happy as to hear at last those gracious words of his Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Amen III. I Need say no more to excite one of your vertue to the frequent exercise of such Meditations as these which are no less delightful than they are useful Let me next unto this advise you to study the truest notions of God and of Religion the love of which is the way to that transcendent bliss and happiness of which I have spoken As you must believe things unseen and perswade your self thoroughly that they are so it is necessary you should inform your mind aright what they are And in particular look upon Religion as a most pleasant thing and represent it to your self with a face as fair and beautiful as you can If it seem cloudy dark and melancholy it will make you to be of the same complexion But if it have a lovely and chearful aspect it will encline you always to smile upon it The poor Norwegian whom stories tell of was afraid to touch Roses when he first saw them for fear they should burn his Fingers He much wondered to see that Trees as he thought should put forth flames and blossomes of Fire before which he held up his hands to warm himself not daring to approach any nearer But as he you may be sure was happily undeceived when he came not only to touch but likewise to smell those innocent Flowers which seemed to burn in his eyes so will it be with us when we come rightly to understand and feel the pleasure that Religion gives us which at first sight before we come acquainted with it looks as if it intended to make us Martyrs but not to crown us with any joys or contentments As the Martyr said of the real fire wherein he was covered that it seemed to him as if it were a Bed of Roses so shall we say of true Religion which we are afraid will scorch us and prove too hot for us Its flames are but the flames of love and it makes us not lye down in sorrow but in the most comfortable sense of the tender love of our dearest Lord. Think with your self therefore
Liquor which by long labour and many Operations you have fetcht out of a number of excellent Herbs or Spices or other rare Ingredients For though you must not have recourse to them every day yet there may be a season you see when they will do you so high a pleasure that you may owe your life or your chearfulness to them They may stand you at least in so much stead as to preserve you from utter distast of your self and despair of Gods favour when you are apt to droop nay sink under the weight of your Body or any other load that lies very heavy upon you Chear up your Soul then with some of its own sublimer thoughts and turning your self to the Father of Mercies say A PRAYER O My God What pledges of thy Love are these which I have received already from Thee How precious are thy thoughts towards me and how dear and precious have they been in mine eyes O how great is the summe of them I see I see how gracious thou art I am not without many tokens of thy readiness to help me and of thy kind intentions to promote me by patient continuance in my duty to everlasting happiness O how sweet is the remembrance of that time when thou wast pleased to visit me and inspire my heart with devout affections to thee How joyful hast thou made me with the light of thy countenance which is better than life it self Accept of such thanks as I am now able to offer thee for thy abundant goodness to me Blessed be thy goodness that I have not lived all my days as a stranger to thee that my Soul hath not always grovelled on the earth but been lifted up sometime unto Heaven Blessed be thy goodness that it hath not lay'n continually as a barren Wilderness but been fruitful in some good thoughts and pious affections and zealous resolutions and worthy designs to do thee honour and service in the World O that this remembrance of thy past loving-kindness and of the powerful operations of thy holy Spirit in my heart may at this time mightily move and excite me to the like devout expressions of my love to thee O that I may feel it renewing my strength or reviving my Spirit at least to a comfortable hope in thee that thou wilt never utterly forsake me There is all reason I confess most thankfully that I should confide in thee and wait upon thee still with a stedfast faith for fresh influences from Heaven to make me howsoever persevere with a constant mind notwithstanding all the discouragements I conflict withall in a careful and exact observance of all thy commands This I know is the best proof of my love to thee And therefore help me as to pray always so to exercise my self in works of mercy to do justly to be clothed with humility to preserve my body and soul in purity and to discharge all the duties of my place and relations with an upright heart willing mind And when thou graciously vouchsafest to enlarge my Spirit in abundance of delightful thoughts of thee and to raise me to the highest pitch of love to thee O that it may not only please me but make me better Lift me up thereby above all the temptations of this World and quicken me to be the more fruitful in all good works and to excell in vertue to increase especially and abound so much in love towards my Brethren and towards all Men that my Heart may be established unblameable in Holiness before Thee my God and Father 1 Thess 3.12 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints Amen VIII AND here I cannot but commend to you frequent Meditation and serious consideration which you might expect to have heard of before as of singular use for the continuance either of your diligence or of those delectable affections in it For the Soul is a thing so entire in it self that if one part be strongly moved the other will be so too just as when the Nave of a Wheel turns round it makes the outermost circumference to circle about with it Much is said by many on this subject and therefore I shall only direct you how to Meditate when you are dull and unfit as you imagine for any thoughts When we discourse you know with a Servant and desire to affect him with what we say if he be stupid and heavy and seems not at all to be concerned in our words then we are wont to make use of interrogations beseechings objurgations exclamations corrections of our selves admirations and such like ways to rouse his apprehension For we find that if an object touches any of our senses gently and softly we mind it not while we are intent upon other matters but if it strikes us with some smartness and comes with a vehemency and importunity it alarmes the whole Soul and makes it not only hear but demand what 's the matter And thus it is in our discourses if they barely present themselves before Mens Souls that are otherwise ingaged they regard them not unless by some such form of speech as I have mentioned they put on some sharpness and be armed with some Authority If we speak for example to one that hath committed a fault in such terms as these Indeed you are very much to blame You ought not to have done thus it is contrary both to God and to your self the World will cry shame of you no body will endure you c. He stands perhaps as if he were marble and had been composed of insensible materials But if we say what did you mean when you did such or such an action Whither were your wits and your conscience gone Could you do thus and not tremble at Gods displeasure Nay answer me do you think that God is an Idol who regards you not and cannot strike Oh that any Man should be so sottish that he should be such an ill Friend to himself Ill Friend did I say such a desperate Enemy I meant such a fury such a Devil to his own Soul c. This kind of language it is likely may make him seem a Man one that is made of flesh and not of stone In such like manner then may you learn to Meditate alone by discoursing with your own Soul after the way of expostulation chiding reprehension and such like wherein there is great variety and therefore great easiness and no less pleasure It was a more awakening expression for David to say Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me XLII Psal 5 than if he had only said I do not do well to be dejected on this fashion it is to no purpose to afflict and trouble my self far better and more seemly were it for me to rest contented And the repetition of this again V. 11. and XLIII 5 gives it a greater force and adds a sharper edge to it than if it had been but a single question And
though a Slave or a Servant be ours yet they are so but in part The first gives us power over him out of fear and the second for reward But it is a power over their Bodies only and not over the men Because neither fear of punishment will tye up a Slave from rebellious thoughts nor hope of reward oblige a Servant to a chearful obedience in his will He only hath intirely gain'd a man and so added to himself something better than any possession in this World who enjoys a Friend and hath won an absolute power over the heart and affection of another Person This is a rich man indeed especially when the Person he enjoys is one of real worth having a mind stored with the Treasures of Divine wisdom and an heart full of the love of God Otherways it must be confessed a Man loses by this gain and hath the less by this accession of seeming riches It was an audacious fancy of Boccalin's and an unjust estimate which he made when in his Ballance wherein he weighs all the States of Christendom he supposes England which he throws into the Scales for a counterpois to France to weigh the lighter upon the addition of Scotland to it But if we conceive the like Ballance for our purpose we shall find it too true that he who contracts a Friendship with a prating Companion or a Person of no inward worth and value will feel himself the poorer and the weaker when he comes to weigh what he hath got for his pretended increase and the annexing of a Friend will be an heaviness and not a refreshment to his mind Whoso feareth the Lord therefore shall direct his friendship aright as the Son of Syrach speaks VI. Ecclus. 17. for as he is so shall his Neighbour or Familiar be also God loves ever as the ancient Greek saying was to bring like to like He will guide a good man in his choice and lead him by the hand to one that is good In whom he will make account he hath found such a plentiful fortune that he will not be content to forgo it and take his portion in some other goods For you may trust the same wise man Nothing doth countervail a faithful Friend and his excellency is unvaluable v. 15. It is a great comfort to us but to think that we have such a treasure for we receive no small benefit by him even when he is only the companion of our thoughts and is not otherwise present with us And therefore change not a Friend for any good by no means neither a faithful Brother for the Gold of Ophir VII 18. Covet his company above all others and do not think you can press too near him or be too familiar with him Love him exceedingly and be not willing on any occasion to be divided from him There can be no danger you should clash by being ever together For as one of the Hebrews excellently expresses it A Needles eye is not too strait for two Friends and all the World is not wide enough for two Enemies And if you must live at a distance from him be not jealous of him nor suspect his constancy For solid love whose root is vertue can no more dye than vertue it self as Erasmus excellently speaks in a Letter of his to one of our Country-men When covetousness saith he Lib. 9. Epist 12. makes Men Friends their love and their gain must needs end together And they whom pleasure allures to friendship will make an end of loving when they are satiated with it And lastly they who have a great kindness one for another out of a childish forwardness or a juvenile heat will forsake one another with the same levity that they embraced Our kindness relies on stronger Pillars for it was neither hope of gain nor pleasure nor youthful affection but an honest love of wisdome and our common studies which joyned us together For good men are linkt and chained to each other by their admiration and esteem of the same things And since the study of vertue is not subject to those alterations and changes of fortune that other things undergo the benevolence of good men must needs be perpetual and is not in danger to suffer that decay which is wont to be the fate of vulgar friendship But that it may be the better preserved and maintained it is necessary that Friends frequent the company and conversation of each other as much as they can For as Themistius well notes Exercise is all in all things and mutual conversation Orat. 3. or correspondence is the exercise of friendship But it is time to make an end of this which I have the longer continued for the reason now named because the writing of all this is a good exercise of my Friendship to you Let me only cast in this one Rule at the bottom of it It is good to observe when any chilness and heaviness creeps upon you from what quarter it comes I mean you must follow the stream backward to the Fountain and inform your self of the cause of the alteration If it be too much company then as soon as you can seek retirement and betake your self to private Meditation If too much solitariness then find out some agreeable company or run to your Friend If the change of weather then wait if there be no other relief till it change again If you know not what then believe you shall find a remedy in Gods goodness you know not how And it may give you some pleasure perhaps when you are most indisposed as to think of your Friend so to send up this short Prayer to Heaven for him and for all those that heartily love you and to hope that they also are making the same address upon your account I put them all together indistinctly it is in your power at any time to make it as particular as you please A PRAYER THou art love O God and art to be infinitely loved above all things Blessed be thy goodness who wouldst have us dwell in love that we may dwell in Thee and Thou in us Blessed be thy goodness that I am capable of such happiness especially of loving so great a good as thy self who art the fountain of all other good from whom comes every good and perfect gift To thee I owe my Health my Peace my Plenty my Wit and all other Indowments either of my body or of my mind I am exceedingly indebted to Thee for the inconceivable felicity which thou hast put me in hope of in the other World and that thou art pleased to let me begin it here in the company and society of good men especially in the love of kind and faithful Friends I thank thee again O God and can never thank thee enough for this and all other thy gifts wherewith thou hast enriched me Beseeching thee that my love may grow more fervent by the daily consideration of thy love to us all and that I may have
so be you find your Dulness and backwardness to your Duty at any time continue so long and increase so much that you are afraid there is danger in it and it may prove pernicious to your Soul then go and take counsel of your spiritual Physician to whom I would have you open your case as plainly and fully as you can There is no small safety in taking a good Guide by the hand at all turns as you walk in your way to Heaven But then especially it is a necessary piece of wisdome to ask about your way betime when you fear you may be out and to open your grief at the beginning when you are wounded with sad apprehensions before the Sore fester And if your Physician or Director could be your Friend also then you would have a three-fold advantage for your relief by the advice of a good Man a Friend and one of Gods Officers For I believe the same words spoken by him and by another are not the same They are the more acceptable when they come from a Friend and carry the greater Authority from the Mouth of God's Minister And therefore be no more backward to reveal the secrets of your Soul to Him when it is beyond your own skill to heal your distempers than you are to let a Physician know those Maladies in your Body which must be beholden to him for a Cure He may furnish you with incentives if you need quickning He may revive you when you seem as if you were a dying He may lend you his supports and comforts when you are feeble and disconsolate He may help you to distinguish between your fears and real dangers between your weakness and your wilfulness between your laziness and your caution between your bodily and your spiritual infirmities He will be as a good Pilot to steer your Soul when you are tossed like a Ship in a dangerous Sea and a dark Night in the doubts and waverings of your own Mind Yea in your best estate he may be of singular use to you to keep you within the bounds of prudence that you be not over-born with the too violent gusts of your own awakned affections and desires A Ship needs a Pilot in fair weather as well as in a storm when it hath a prosperous Gale as well as when it is driven with rough and furious or with cross Winds She may be in danger then by undiscovered Shelves and Rocks or by carrying too great a Sail as in the other case she is by Tempests and Hurricans which tear her Sails in pieces And she must never sail at randome but steer to some certain Port which cannot be performed without his direction and must be the effect of his skilful guidance Even so it is in the case of our Souls which may be overturn'd in our spiritual fervours unless we have some to manage us When all things favour us we may strain our selves too much and be overset if there be none to govern our Motions Our zeal may be indiscreet if we have not a wise and faithful Adviser It may spend it self on little things or those that are unprofitable if there be none to give directions about it Or it may drive at no certain end but flote as it happens unless some body sit at the stern to order and rule it We may hoyse up too high a Sayle and by making too much hast be indangered if we have not the assistance of one that can judg what we are able to bear and that shall sometimes slacken us in our too speedy course In short a great deal of time may be spent in some cases to small purpose without a greater prudence than our own to husband it and lay it out for us I must commend to you therefore the Rule which one of the Jewish Doctors gave his Scholars half of which you have had already Provide your self In Pirke Aroth Cap. 1. of a good Teacher and a good School-fellow A good Guide and a good Companion you will find exceeding useful to you Especially the Guide who may sometime be your Companion too Such the holy Scripture calls our Leaders Rulers we render it XIII Hebr. 17 the Conductors and Governours of our motions in the way to Heaven Those that take us by the hand as I said both to guide and to support us by their advice and counsel by their admonitions and exhortations by Prayer and Blessing by comforts and spiritual consolations They are Ministers of the Word Expounders of the holy Books Monitors to our Duty Mediators with God and Dispensers of the Mysteries of Salvation And therefore it will not be safe to travel without the Instructions of some or other of them To whom when you have committed your self look upon Him as your good Genius or tutelar Angel by which Name the highest Ministers in the Church are called whom you would have as near you as you can and in whose company and under whose care and tuition you may hope to arrive in safety at your Journeys end To him it will be necessary to repair on all occasions that He may instruct and teach you in that whereof you are Ignorant or awaken you when you are sleepy or refresh and chear you when you are weary or cure you when you are sick and ill at ease or resolve you in your doubts or quicken your dulness or bridle your fervours in short that he may illuminate your mind to make a difference between truth and falshood reality and appearance good and evil and excite your will to embrace the one and refuse the other with a constant affection For suppose to give an instance any Man should make a tendry to you of some Principles which he labours to prove you ought to receive as Articles of the Christian Faith How can you be secure that you shall not drink in some poysonous Conceits under the sugared Name of Truth unless you take advice of those that have their Senses more exercised to discern than your self And so in all other cases know for certain you will never be so well able to instruct and counsel your self as they never so well understand the Sacred Books as by the help of their Interpretations nor be so well satisfied you do your duty as by consulting with them whose work it is to search and make enquiries into the Laws of God Every Man may know so much of the Law as to keep him from quarrelling or trespassing upon his Neighbours But he will not depend upon his own knowledg in every thing that concerns his estate especially when any part of it is in dispute or he would have it well setled according to his hearts desire And though some ordinary things in Physick the vertues of certain Herbs and Plants may be understood by any Body with a little pains yet none will trust themselves or their next Neighbours in case of a sharp Disease but send if they be able for a Man of the
hitherto in performing my duty to Thee Yea I have tasted so often how gracious thou art that I account thy service the most perfect freedome and find that in keeping of thy Commandements there is great reward My Hope is that thou Lord who hast never failed those that seek thee Psal 9.10.19.11.138.8 wilt perfect that which concerneth me and not forsake the works of thine own hands It is Thee whom my Soul seeketh that I may have a more lively and prevailing sense of Thee that I may most ardently love Thee and constantly adhere to thy will and do Thee honour by a chearful observance of all thy Commands And from Thee it is that I have received these good inclinations and holy desires They are the fruit of thy love and therefore cannot but be thy delight which makes me still trust in Thee that thou wilt rejoyce over me and do me good I have thy Word to incourage me upon which thou hast caused me to hope And I know that thy Word is true from the begining 119. Psal 90.160 and that thy faithfulness is unto all Generations They are not the things which thou hast never promised us that I come to beg of Thee riches honours long life or the rest of the goods of this World for which I refer my self to thy wisdom to give me what portion of them thou pleasest but thy Holy Spirit which my Saviour hath told me thou wilt as readily give to those that ask it as a tender-hearted Parent will give food to his hungry Children when they cry unto him I desire only that thy own life may be nourished and protected in me and vanquish all its enemies and be compleated in a blessed Immortality I beg of thee more of the Grace of Humility of Meekness of Temperance of Patience of Brotherly-kindness and of Charity Endue me with moderate desires of what I want and a sober use of what I enjoy with more contentedness in what is present and less solicitude about what is future with a patient mind to submit to any loss of what I have or to any disappointment of what I expect with a pious care to improve my precious time in all other actions of a Christian life and with a willingness to conclude my days and return back to thee to be with Christ which is best of all Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness in these things be for my comfort 119. Psal 58.76 1. Colos 9.1 Phil. 11.15 Rom. 13.14 1. Pet. 5.10.48 Psal 14. according to thy Word unto thy Servant I entreat thy favour with my whole Heart Be merciful unto me according to thy Word Which hath pronounced those blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness and promised that they shall be filled Fill me O Lord with the knowledge of thy will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding Fill me with goodness and the fruits of righteousness And fill me with all joy and peace in believing that thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me but make me perfect stablish strengthen settle me and be my God for ever and ever my Guide even unto Death Amen XV. AND now is there any need to use many words to show how much force there is in the Meditation of Death to make you lively It is the common opinion that all things intend themselves more earnestly and act in the extremity when they meet with their contrary which threatens their destruction As Springs are hottest in the coldest seasons and Fire it self most scorching in frosty weather Even so if we set Death very seriously before our mind and laid the thoughts of it close to our heart would it cause our life to be more full of Life We should gather together all our might to do as much as we can if we lookt upon our selves as going to the Grave where there is no work to be done at all The mind of Man is too apt to feed it self with the fancy of several pleasures that either Nature affords or Art hath invented Among all which a good natur'd mind findes none so delicious as the conceit which frequently starts up in it of the excessive pleasure he should enjoy were he always in the company of a Friend whom he loves intirely and might they spend their days even as they list themselves and dispose of all their Hours according to their own inclinations But if a thought of Death interpose it self when he is in the height of this delight it dashes all these fine Bubbles of the imagination in pieces All 's gone and vanishes into a sigh or there is nothing of them remains but a drop as big as a tear And therefore if it be so sharp a curb to the forwardness of our desires and serve as a Bridle to hold in our head-strong passions we may use it also as a good Spur to prick them on when they are too sluggish and to stir them up when they have no list to move at all When we are ready to fall asleep did we but think of dying it would make us start and say Who would sleep and dream away his time in this manner when for any thing he knows he hath but a few Sands left in his Glass Death is coming to draw the Curtains about me and to make my Bed for me in the dust Awake then up and be doing because there is a long Night near at hand wherein we must rest and not work And is it not a very great grace if for so small so short a work we shall receive so vast so long a reward It is a great shame to stand all the day idle if it be but for this very reason that our best diligence though it could be continued for many more years than it is like to be can never deserve such a recompence Place your self therefore as if you were upon your Death-bed and think with what ardent desires with what passionate groans with what an heartful of sighs you would seek after God if your Soul was just taking its flight out of this Body and perhaps this will send it out beforehand in the like sighs and groans which will help to waft You towards Heaven Just as when a man is to write to the dearest Friend he hath in the World and thinks they are the last Lines that ever he shall send him his very heart dissolves and drops it self into his Pen So would all our affections melt and flow forth towards God if we seemed to our selves as if we should never speak to him more with a Tongue of Flesh nor look upon him through these Windows of Clay but should shortly dwell in silence and go down into the House of Darkness O how would our Souls thirst for God as David speaks for the living God! How much should we love him and endeavour to confirm our friendship with him that when our Bodies are disposed of into the Earth our Souls might still live and rejoyce with Him in
Heaven expecting also a blessed Resurrection And if you say that in this state of dulness that I am speaking of a Soul is fit to think of nothing this thing will tell you how it alarms the heart and makes it muster up its thoughts and collect its scattered Forces that it may be in a readiness to receive the approaches of Death and its assault upon us And the thoughts of it at such a time are the more natural and easie because there is nothing more like to Death than this unactive and sluggish temper when the Soul seems as if it were buried in the Body and intombed already in this Vault of Flesh And it would be very easy to show how much every one of the foregoing counsels would be improved by our frequent conversation on all occasions with our Graves It would excite our minds to enquire after another World and make us very desirous to find it out It would raise our esteem of the great love of God who hath given us such assurance of a never dying life It would carry away our thoughts from this Earth as not the place of our setled abode It would presently send them above and bid them see the pleasures which we do but imagine here in their full growth and perfection of joy and happiness there O how delightful would Religion and Vertue be unto us which is the only thing we can carry away with us How curious should we be to judg aright that Death may not be the first thing that shall undeceive us How would it open our heart as I said to pour out it self in devout affections to God and what a comfort would these be to us if the records of them were spread before us at our dying hour This is so far from being an enemy to chearfulness that it is a forcible reason why we should freely enjoy all that God hath given us because we must shortly leave it Our Friends also we shall therefore be enclined to embrace more ardently and do them the more good and covet their company because we have not long to stay with them For when I said the thoughts of Death are apt to restrain our too forward desires I did not mean that it checks or abates our love to our Friends No Love is strong as Death and hard or unyielding as the Grave the Coals thereof are Coals of Fire a most vehement flame as Solomon speaks VIII Cant. 6. It burns that is like the Fire on the Altar for in the Hebrew the last words are the Flame of God which came down from Heaven and never went out Nothing can conquer it no not Death which conquers all Flesh That can only teach us not to place our chief contentment in any thing here no not in the best good in this World though never so dear unto us because it may shortly leave us only its shaddow the image of it in our memory which putting us in mind of our forepast pleasures will make us so much the more sad if we have not hope to find that good improved by its departure from us in another World And is not the use of a Friend then most visible when we think of our departure by whom as I said in one of the former Discourses we shall still remain with those whom we leave behind But what Friend is there like to our blessed Lord whose love we shall the oftner remember by commemorating his Death if we think of our own We cannot chuse but be excited to prepare our selves thereby for an happy and chearful dissolution And why should we not trust God with all we have for a little time whom we must shortly intrust with Soul and Body to all Eternity But I list not to prolong this Discourse with such collections as these which I will leave to your own thoughts with this Prayer wherewith you may awaken your mind when you find it necessary A PRAYER THou art worthy O Lord of all Praise Glory and Honour by whose Omnipotent Will and for whose pleasure all things in Heaven and Earth were created and by whose indulgent Providence they are continually maintained and preserved They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment 102. Psal 26.73.26 as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy Years shall have no end I prostrate my self before Thee in an humble sense that I am but sinful dust and ashes who have nothing to glory in neither riches nor strength nor wisdome but only this O how happy is it for me that I know thee the ever living God the Rock of Ages the only solid foundation of our comfort and joy who when my Flesh and my Heart faileth wilt be the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever I am now presenting my Soul and Body to Thee in perfect health but cannot tell where I shall be the next moment or whether I shall live to breath out the desires of my Soul once more unto Thee For in thy hand is the breath of our Nostrils and when thou pleasest we are turned to destruction We dwell in Houses of Clay whose foundation is in the dust and they are daily crumbling and mouldering away so that we know not how soon they will vanish and be seen no more O how serious should the thoughts of this make me in all my addresses unto Thee How dead to all the sinful enjoyments of this World How holy and pure How heavenly minded and spiritual How ready to do good and to communicate to others those things which I must shortly leave How diligent to assure my self thereby of better enjoyments to make friends in Heaven that when I go hence I may be received into everlasting Habitations I see O Lord now that I think of my departure how unprofitable my too many cares are for the things of this life How vain my eager desires after unnecessary riches and honours how trifling all my pleasures and that there is no solid happiness but in thy love and a pious hope of immortality O my God be so good to me as to turn my thoughts frequently toward my latter end and to fix in my mind a lively sense of the uncertainty of my being and the fickleness of all things belonging to it That since I must shortly leave them all even my dearest Friends and Kindred and this body too which must be turned into corruption I may most zealously endeavour to secure thy love and friendship in a better life by the constant chearful and earnest exercise of all godliness and vertue while I tarry here Help me to be as humble and lowly as the dust to which I am going to bury all anger hatred and enmities since we must needs dye 2 Sam. 14.14 and be as Water spilt upon the Ground which cannot be gathered up again to discharge my mind of all superfluous cares and