Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	lord_n	soul_n	10,053	5	4.7640	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30676	The husbandmans companion containing one hundred occasional meditations reflections and ejaculations : especially suited to men of that employment : directing them how they may be heavenly-minded while about their ordinary calling / by Edward Bury.	Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.	1677 (1677)	Wing B6207; ESTC R23865	229,720	483

of him or the son of man that thou regardest him thou hast made him a little lower then the angels thou hast crowned him with glory and dignity Psal 8.4 5. I considered that all this rule and dominion glory and dignity was given him that he might serve and honour his Creator whose image he did in the Creation most lively represent but above all sublunary creatures none have more deviated from the rule God hath given them nor transgressed his laws nor frustrated the ends of their creation more then man by whose fall the beauty of the newly burnisht world was soon stained and the glory of it soon ecclipsed This made me wonder that God suffered such enemies to live upon the face of the earth to be lords over the works of his hands Oh the patience and long-forbearance of a merciful God! that such rebels that have their life and breath and being from him and are guilty of so many acts of treason and rebellion against heaven should yet be preserved and provided for as they are and so many offers of mercy tendred to them Oh my soul hath God done so much for thee was this glorious fabrick of the world made for thy sake among others are the creatures yea the angels themselves set a work for thy good and doth thy great benefactor only require the pepper-corn of homage and the thankful acknowledgement of what thou hast received and obediential homage for the time to come and dost thou deny him that art thou fed and cloathed maintained and preserved by his providence and care and hast thou any meat to eat or drink to drink or cloaths to put on or health or strength or limbs or senses or peace or plenty or life or breath or any other enjoyment but what he gives thee and is a thankfull acknowledgment of these favours denyed by thee he doth not need thee neither canst thou add any thing to his glory yet he takes himself honoured by a thankfull obediential observation of his commands but alas how much time didst thou spend before thou dist cordially yield any thanks to him for his benefits and how much wanting art thou in it to this very day he makes his sun to shine upon thee and his rain to fall upon thee he gives thee fruitfull seasons and fills thy heart with food and gladness 't is doubtless then thy duty to devote thy self wholly to his service and give up not only thy name but thy heart to Christ Oh my God! dost thou expect service from me enable me to do it I am by nature a senceless stock or stone dead in trespasses and sins put life into me and I shall perform the actions of life I cannot act without thy assistance give me help from heaven for vain is the help of man open my lips then shall I shew forth thy praise inlarge my heart then shall I run the ways of thy commands touch my tongue with a coal from thy altar then shall I trumpet out thy praise seek thy servant and I shall be found Upon the plucking off the tops of weeds 10. Med. IN a dry season when the bottles of heaven were stopped and the clouds were bound up the rain restrained and the showers withheld from the earth so that it was parched hard and dry and gaped in vain for cooling moistning refreshing softning showers I observed some persons when they could not get up the weeds by the roots tare off their heads which when they had done the garden seemed pleasant to the beholders and gave content for a while to the spectators who imagined there had been a through-reformation but not long after when a shower of rain distilled upon it the cheat appeared the weeds sprung up as fresh and flourishing as before yea like hydra with more heads then at first so this partiall reformation was discovered This observation afforded this Meditation I thought it much resembled a partiall reformation in the soul when men begin their reformation at the wrong end or take a wrong course to kill the tree of sin as many do they crop and lop off some branches and let the root alone this is not the way to destroy it many tear off some of the tops of the weeds but let the root remain in the soul which when it is watered with the devils temptations and the worlds allurements and animated with fit occasions and suitable opportunities they spring forth afresh it may be with more heads then before and then the cheat appears that those sins were not kil'd but laid aside An evident example we have of this in Herod who convinced by Iohn Baptists preaching that his courses were not good sets upon a reformation falls out with many of his sins lops off here one bough and there another but lets the root remain firm which afterwards spring forth and shew themselves It is said he reformed many things but he left much work behinde undone to the undoing of his soul The sore was only skinned over and was not sound at the bottom and after broke out with more violence and greater anguish like a torrent of water dam'd up when the dam breaks it runs more furiously So did Herods corruption even to the taking away of Iohn Baptists head who before had set some stop to it And thus it is with many seeming Converts that after prove wicked apostates and persecute the truth that they did formerly profess the root of the matter was not in them Hazael did not believe so much wickedness to lodge in his heart as the Prophet spake of and afterwards appeared An apple rotten at the heart may have a fair outside but the rottenness within will in time rot the outside also when the fountain is corrupted it is impossible to purge the stream If the heart be rotten all that thence proceeds will have an ill savour This half reformation hath been the undoing of many forward Professors in our days they reformed their lives but not their hearts they lopt off some boughs but medled not with the root they went to clense the stream but not the fountain and in a little time the corruption within breaks forth into the life and conversation without and the unclean spirit that was cast out takes to himself seven more worse then himself and enters in and the last end of that man is worse then the beginning Mat. 12.45 The devil deals by such when he hath reduced them as a Jaylour with one that hath broke prison lays on more bolts Runagate Christians are the devils greatest devotes and such apostates very hardly if ever are reduced O my soul how stands the case with thee hast thou not weeded thy own garden thus and rather tore off the lops of the weeds then pluckt them up by the root how comes it else to pass that upon every showr of temptation they are so apt to spring up again look about thee if thou wilt not kill sin sin will kill thee and if

take her prisoner nor make her pay for the trespass this unexpected accident made me consider of the vanity of all humane felicity how soon the beauty of it may vanish and come to nothing and by how small a means God can blast all earthly enjoyments All that the world affords is of the nature of Jonahs gourd that grew up in a night and perished in a night no solidity to be found in any sublunary creatures some worm or other breeds in it that eats out the very heart of it and makes it wither and die and when we have the greatest expectations we meet with the greatest disappointments and when we think we are most sure many times we are in most danger and when we think to gripe it fastest we are likeliest to lose it I considered how foolish men were to promise themselves security in their enjoyments when they apprehend no danger in sight for if our ways please God he can make our enemies yea the stones of the field at peace with us but if we please not God he can raise us enemies enow to disturb our peace David a good man yet offending God had his own familiar friend Achitophel nay his own son Absolom that sought his ruine yea the poorest vermine are sometimes a scourge to the proudest tirant frogs and lice and flyes and locusts make proud Pharaoh stoop to God that before had proudly said who is the Lord that I should obey him I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go Exod. 5.2 but God made himself known to him by his judgements and compelled him to say the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked yea he hath made caterpillars cankerworms palmerworms and such like which God calleth his great army Joel 1.2 c. a scourge to potent princes and can destroy the greatest monarch on earth by these poor insects how little trust then should we put in earthly comforts when God can so easily imbitter them to us and how dangerous it is by our sins to provoke God to leave us and to punish us he can easily do it he need not raise many against us no single creature no fly no flea nor grass-pile nor hair but if it have a Commission from God will be our bane Instances of this may easily be given nay if he withhold our breath we return to our dust and all our thoughts perish and for our enjoyments he can make a worm breed in them that shall eat out the very heart of them and can imbitter that which we esteem our sweetest comforts If these earthly enjoyments are vain and perishing like their owners what need have we to make preparation of some thing that is more durable and more certain which may bear some proportion to our immortal souls we can have no abiding city here but affliction and vanity will attend us in all places for if sin go before affliction will follow after as the effect follows the cause or the shadow the substance Now if these our earthly enjoyments are in such continual danger and have enemies without within above beneath and on every side the soul is in much more danger having more potent subtill cruel and malicious enemies how watchfull then ought we to be lest these chiefest Jewels our immortal souls should be bloudily butchered or inhumanely treated what care what providence should we use that we be not made a prey to infernal furies and what need have we to invoke God to be our guardian our defender and our watchman Oh my soul here is a check for thy folly that hast overeagerly grasped after these vanities and sought content where it was not to be had take heed to thy self this will not serve thy turn a few days and thou wilt be stript of all there are better pleasures truer treasures to be had there is a worm in these will eat out their very heart there is vanity writ upon them they are but Egyptian reeds and will break in thy hand cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the living God if thou love the world the love of the father is not in thee 1 Joh. 2.15 Use it we may as a traveller doth his staff which he keeps or throws away according as it helps or hinders him in his journey these worldly things are transitory and there is a vanity writ upon them but there are riches durable as the days of heaven and run paralell with the life of God or the lines of eternity these are worth scrambling for they are laid up now and may be drawn forth a thousand years hence these our enjoyments are liable to vanity and violence when we grasp them hardest they prick us most and when we embrace them they vanish into smoke which may wring tears from our eyes but never sorrow from our hearts when others therefore lay hold upon riches do thou lay hold upon eternal life 1 Timoth. 6.12 lay hold upon that pearl in the Gospel though thou let all things else go for nothing else is worth having this will make thee rich to God the time is short thy race is long stand not still to pick up sticks and straws nor leave thy way to catch butter-flyes up and be doing let heaven be thy object and the earth will be thy abject oh my God pardon my former folly that I have spent so much time to so little purpose and made no more haste to my journeys end that I have lost my way mistaken my happiness and laboured so long in vain draw up my affections O Lord from earth to heaven and let me be as zealous for heaven as ever I have been for earth and take as much pains for my soul as ever I have done for my body Upon the springing up of the seed 21. Med. WHen I had digged the garden and sowed the seed in convenient time I observed the springing of them up and after a while I observed how fresh and fragrant that looked that a little before seemed dead and rotten among the clods this minded me of the mighty power of God that could of a small seed seemingly dead and buried and rotten in the earth raise up so great so flourishing an hearb or flower indewed with such beauty and excellent vertue yea so great so mighty a tree I considered how small a matter I did or could confer to them I only disposed them where I would have them grow but no skill nor art nor labour nor industry of mine could make them grow the earth hath a natural propensity to receive them the heavens powred out their influence upon them which through Gods blessing cooperating became effectuall 't is God alone must do the work or it will not be done 't is he that gives to every seed his own body and put life into that which hath no life all the skill industry and pains which the husbandman can use cannot make one

bring forth much fruit Upon a sudden Drought 22. Med. WHen I had digged manured sown and fenced my garden and done what lay in me to do and began from the hopefull springing up of the seed to have comfortable hopes of a plentifull encrease and began to rejoyce in the works of my hands behold an unexpected judgement fell upon it for God withheld the showers of rain and restrain'd the influence of heaven and caused that it should not rain upon the earth and the clouds which were wont to drop fatness and by which God was used to open his treasure and to give a blessing to his people Deut. 28.12 now proved empty clouds promising much but paying nothing hereupon the earth languished and could not nourish what she had brought forth for though she had not a miscarrying womb yet had she dry breasts so that hearbs and flowers yea the grass of the field languished hanged down the head withered and died and their beauty faded away as mans will if he want food as we may see Lam. 4.7 8. Her Nazarites were purer then snow they were whiter then milk they were more ruddy in body then rubies their polishing was of saphire their visage is blacker then a coal they are not known in the street their skin cleaveth to their bones it is withered and is become like a stick c. This providence made me consider how vain and fruitless all our endeavours are either for this life or that to come if God succeed them not with his blessing and that all the men that live upon the face of the earth had they joined with their united counsels with policy and power they could not have removed this judgement had they taken in all the gods of the heathens to assist them Can any of the vanities of the gentiles give rain Jer. 14.22 it is in vain to hope for salvation from the hills or from the mountains in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel When God blows upon our creature-comforts they vanish and prove unsatisfying Haggai 1.9 ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it c. ye have sown much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but you are not filled with drink ye cloath you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages putteth it into a bag with holes ver 6. the earth cannot bring forth without the influence of heaven and these cannot be had without a commission from God Jer. 14.22 Can the heavens give showers art not thou he O Lord our God therefore we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things It is he that cloatheth the heavens with blackness Isay 50.3 Hose 2.21.22 I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyle and they shall hear Jezreel but when God refuseth to hear all others cry in vain they may all say as the King of Israel to the woman that cryed to him 2 Kin. 6.26 if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the barn floors or out of the wine-press yet how doth vain man reckon without his host and promise himself a plentifull encrease and much happiness in the enjoyment of it like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.16 c. when the event ofttimes proves otherwise if their designe succeed as sometimes it doth for all things fall alike to all as to the good so to the bad the sun shines upon the just and the unjust they give not the glory to God but sacrifice to their own nets and burn incense to their drags Hab. 1.16 they think their own arm saveth them and their own wisdom and endeavours enricheth them they are like the king of Assyria that said Isai 10.13 by the strength of my hand I have done it and by my wisdome for I am prudent but what had all my labour profited me or what good would theirs have done them if God had not given rain I went yet further in my consideration of the great mercy and benefit of water without which it were impossible that man or beast or fish or foul or hearb or plant or any other creature sensitive or vegetable should live or prosper and wondred at my own and others stupidity that we took so little notice of the mercy and gave God so little thanks for it but this mercy was more prized by the ancient by Israel in the wilderness by Jacob yea by Ahab 1 Kin. 18.5 And Ahab said to Obadiah go into the land unto all fountains of water and unto all brooks peradventure we may finde grass to save the horses and the mules alive and they divided the land between them c. When I had a while considered of these things I raised my Meditation a little higher and considered if rain were so refreshing to the thirsty earth and so necessary for the fruits thereof what was the dew of heaven to the poor soul without it all the Ordinances would prove of little use and all the sowing planting and manuring would signifie little the soul under those enjoyments would be like the heath of the desart that sees not when good comes what cause then have we to depend upon God for the one and for the other oh my soul are thy endeavors crost and thy labour lost learn to depend upon God for the time to come concern not thy self overmuch in the world if it smile upon thee let it not steal away thy affection if it frown on thee trouble not at it for these things are at the dispose of thy father and he mindes thy good use diligence and providence because they are commanded duties but beware of murmuring and repining because they are forbidden sins when thou hast gone as far as thou canst leave the success to God and whatever the issue be acquiesce in his will if thy endeavours be blasted think it was best they should be so because God thought thus if he succeed them bless him if he cross them bless him also The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away saith Job blessed be the name of the Lord seek not great things in the world expect no more then God hath promised lest if they fall short of expectation thou be discouraged hast thou neither poverty nor riches but food convenient this was Agars petition hast thou food and rayment the Apostle was therewith content But for the soul thou must not take up with a small portion labour after the highest pitch of godliness and content not thy self with a low frame of spirit be as covetous for grace as others are for gold use the means diligently but trust not to the means though Paul and Apollo's may plant and water it is God gives the encrease he only can speak to the heart and say to thy sins die and to thy soul live oh my

part be not devoured by unprofitable dogs and besure the recreation thou useth be lawfull what is cruel and bloudy may be suspected let it be when true need is and to fit thee for thy general or particular calling oh my God give me wisdome that I may never delight in any thing that offends thee let me not make a mock of sin lest thou call me fool for my labour and laugh at my destruction and mock when my fear comes preserve me from my bloud thirsty enemies especialy from satan that hunts after my soul Upon the labour and pains men take about worldly things 47. Med. WHen I had wearied and almost spent my self in digging delving and moiling in the garden and had unfitted my self for better and more necessary employments I began at last to check my self for it and discourse with my self after this manner vain man what have I been doing or how have I spent my time and my strength is it for heaven or for the earth for my soul or for my body for this life or that to come is there so much pains needful for a little spot of earth which will bring in little if any advantage what pains then is necessary for heaven have I been so prodigal of my time and pains and sweat and labour for this poor empty nothing and yet negligent in the main concern when did I take so much pains for heaven and happiness for Christ and glory as I have done for these trifles when did I sweat thus in Gods service and spend my self thus in doing his work am I working for a better master or is this a more delightful employment or am I like to receive or can I expect better wages then he gives that I work harder and sweat more then I would do in his work and follow my business with more diligence care and industry if the whole world be really worth so much labour pains and industry as I have bestowed upon this little angle this worthless plot of ground what pains doth heaven deserve if to the obtaining the whole world deserves one days hard work sure heaven deserves all the rest good things are not had at easy rates the more excellent the more difficult it is so in earthly enjoyments riches cannot be had without sweat and pain without cark and care nor learning without labour and study and will heaven be had with a wet finger cannot I provide for a few days without all this adoe and can I provide for eternity with less labour will an interest in Christ and a title to glory be had so easily no no doubtless a slow pace will fall short of heaven and the sluggard is never like to come there there must be striving running contending fighting or we shall not obtain the kingdome of heavsn suffers violence and the violent take it by force those only that are carried out with strength of affection after Christ shall enjoy him those are like to have the pearl that will have it at the hardest rates though they sell all to purchase it heaven is had by the violent though the earth be inherited by the meek Mat. 5.6 those that content themselves with the least mercies here as not deserving any cannot content themselves with the greatest portion the world can make up for them because they know there is a better portion laid up for them by their father there is nothing but eternity that can make us absolutely happy or perfectly miserable eternity added to happiness or misery makes it compleat and can I attain the one or avoid the other so easily toylsom days and wearisom nights may make us willing of a change but what good will a change do if it be for the worse and not the better or how can we expect better and not make preparation for it can we expect an harvest that have sown no seed or wages that have done no work can we expect the prize that never run the race or the victory that never entred into the field to fight if we bury our selves and talents in the earth can we expect they will be there improved nay may we not expect a reckoning day when they will be taken from us and given to those that are diligent and will improve them a judging time is coming when our reward will be according to our diligence and our wages according to our work if we sow vanity we shall reap folly if we sow to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption if we sow to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap life everlasting if we trade only in earthly commodities we cannot expect rationally any other gain but what they afford which will never recompence the pains and care and loss we sustain upon that account but if we serve a better Master we may expect better wages oh my soul how justly here maist thou be reproved for thy diligence in trifles and neglect of the substance thou hast not only let the world run away with thy time thy hands and thy head but with thy heart also use the world thou maist but abuse it thou must not but so thou dost when thy affections close with it and thou committest spiritual adultery with it and lodgest it in the room where Christ should lodge in thy earthly business thy heart should be in heaven and thine eye upon Christ if thou be diligent it should be because he commands it and if thou do all in obedience to his command then dost thou engage him to be thy pay-master and maist expect a reward from him even for doing thy own work learn to make some spirituall use of all thy earthly enjoyments then by divine meditation thou maist enjoy heaven upon earth yea extract heaven out of the earth and God out of the creature that must needs be a rich soul that can with the bee extract honey out of every weed and flower oh my God I must confess I have been grossly faulty not only for spending my time and strength upon vanities but letting out my affections on them also Lord suffer me no longer to ramble from thee gather in my scattered affections to thy self Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean let me see more excellency in thee then the world can shew this will engage my heart to thee for ever Upon the dilligence of the spider 48. Med. OBserving the industry diligence and painful labour of the spider a contemptible creature how busy she was in weaving her nets how industriously she plys her work and though oftentimes she meet with disappointments had her work spoiled and her self indangered yet never a whit discouraged or disheartned she begins again this is one of these four things that Solomon had observed in the earth that were little but wise c. the spider that taketh hold with her hands and is in Kings palaces Pro. 30.24 c. she doth her work painfully and curiously spins saith one a finer thred

cast into the oven Mat. 6.30 what sweetness then is in the creator that breathed this sweetness into them is not he much more sweet and delightfull and why dost thou not place thy affections upon him that is altogether lovely Cant. 5.16 wholly desirable Moses thought him so when he preferred the reproach of Christ the heaviest piece of his cross better then all the treasures in Egypt all the excellencies here below are but the shadow and he is the substance they are but a drop to this ocean a ray to this sun and a spark to this fire Why wilt thou go to the puddle that maist go to the fountain-head and take up with a handfull of muck that maist have a handfull of angels taste and see how sweet God is he is sweetness it self thou that so admirest these vanishing flowers whose beauty suddenly is changed for deformity why wilt thou not be enamoured upon perfect beauty the sun the moon and stars are darksome spots in comparison of the beauty that is in him he is white and ruddy the chief of ten thousands his head is as the most fine gold c. Cant. 5.10.11 red and white shews a perfect symmetry a sound and sure complexion and constitution thou speakest of pleasures but at his right hand are pleasures for evermore all earthly enjoyments yield little content small pleasure and delight there is a pound of sorrow for an ounce of pleasure and those also are but bitter sweet pleasures but with him are satisfying pleasures unmixed delights yea the image of God in the hearts of his people is a thousand times a more perfect beauty then the world affords and the graces of the spirit in the garden of their souls as they shew a more perfect beauty so they yield a more fragrant savour and sweeter smell then all the flowers in the world can do to a spiritual sence here is an orchard of Pomegranats and all pleasant fruit camphire and spicknard spicknard and saffron Calamus and cynamon and all trees of frankincense myrrhe and aloes and all chief spices Cant. 4.14 15. see how precious God accounts the graces of his people which here are likened to these precious things here mentioned they smell sweet in the nostrills of God and man yea the word of God and his Ordinances these were sweeter to David then honey and the honey-comb better then thousands of gold and silver Psal 19.10 and to Job better then his appointed food and are none of these taking with thee is there more true worth in a handfull of flowers that will not please thee from morning till night then in those never-ending never-fading pleasures here presented to thee heaven and earth may stand amazed at thy folly oh my soul wallow not in the mire delight not thy self with the swine in swill when thou maist have better and more dainty food feed not upon husks when thou maist have bread enough in thy fathers house grasp not after the shadow when thou maist have the substance or with the dog in the fable lose not the substance to catch at the shadow despise peebles that thou maist have pearls lay not out money for that which is not bread nor thy labour for that which profiteth not when wine and milk are offered without money and without price Esay 55.12 fill not thy vessel with water that it can hold no wine these outward things may be of use to us but must not be abused by us though they cannot make us happy yet they can point us out where happiness may be had and happy is that soul that can with the bee gather honey from hearbs and flowers there is not the most contemptible creature that breathes nor the most despicable vegetable that lives nor the poorest thing that exists nay nothing in rerum natura but hath a finger to point us to God a fly or flea or leaf of a tree or grass-pile or if any thing be more contemptible will tell us whence they had their being and any or all of these may teach us some lessons for our instruction yea the devil which is the grand enemy to mankinde yet by this heavenly alchymy of divine Meditation may be made nourishment to the soul as of the vipers flesh may be made a soveraign antidote against the vipers sting yea it is possible to extract heaven out of hell and God out of the creature and surely that must needs be a fat soul that feeds in so many fat pastures oh my God keep my affections from closing with these earthly enjoyments and teach me the heavenly art of improving them and drawing out the spirits of them And as commonly they are snares and nets and hurtful to the soul Lord assist me that they may prove beneficiall to it let mine affections close with thee and then I need not fear falling into these snares Upon hearbs withering in a dry season 26. Med. WHen I beheld the hearbs and flowers yea the grass of the field also in a dry season how they fainted and flag'd and hang'd the head for lack of moisture the earth being not able to give them a supply without further assistance It brought to my minde how necessary a blessing from heaven was to our enjoyments upon earth and how vain these things would prove if God did but blow upon them and how foolish those men were that depended upon their own industry and promised themselves great matters like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.16 when they often finde such reckoning is without their host he we finde in the midst of his jolity like a Jay was pruning himself in the boughs and came tumbling down with the arrow in his side his glass was run as one saith when he thought it was but new turned he was shot with the boult when he gazed on the bow this was he that trusted in his riches and was not rich to God he had indeed abundance but it signified little to him but many men promise themselves plenty and never come to enjoy it how necessary is our dependance upon God for our dayly bread the greatest of us have no assurance of it neither is any exempted from seeking it daily at the hands of God I saw then that that promise was not in vain which God had made Hose 2.21 22. I will hear the heavens and the heavens shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyl and they shall hear Jezreel for though the people should cry to the corn and to the wine for relief and the corn and wine should cry to the earth for nourishment and the earth should cry to the heavens for showers and the heavens should cry to God for a commission if God should deny that petition all the prayers of the other would signify nothing the creatures have no more then what God puts into them If God give not rain the creatures must languish and the earth fail the earth must

semper idem always the same Job upon the throne and upon the dunghill is holy Job still it brings forth the fruits of the spirit whereever it is planted Gal 5.22 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law but where sin is it brings forth the fruits of the flesh it grows from one degree to another from a thought to a resolution thence to action and at length comes to a habit and hard it is to be left Bray a fool saith Solomon in a morter with a pestle like wheat yet will not his foolishness depart from him Pro. 27.22 A wolf will have a wolvish nature though his skin be stript over his ears and his bones be broken as every seed produceth its own kinde and not another species so grace and sin shew themselves in their production men gather not grapes of thorns not figs of thistles a good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit but every tree is known by his fruit oh my soul are there secrets in nature that thou understandest not yea even in those creatures that thou dost dayly converse with admire the wisdome of the Creator and see how little beholding thou art to sin which hath drawn such a vail of ignorance before thy eyes and wonder not that there are mysteries in spirituals beyond thy conceiving if thou canst not understand temporalls much less spirituals that are spiritually discerned the nature of God of Angels and of thy self lie far more remote from thy understanding There is many a man that can search natures garden from end to end that never could search his own heart many can try their evidence for lands that know not how to try their title to heaven they can finde out the state of their bodies but know not the state of their souls but when others study earth do thou study heaven the things that are necessary are attainable study Christ and him crucified this will do thee more good then if thou couldst with Solomon discourse of all the vegetables from the cedar in Lebanon to the hysop that groweth upon the way and did men study God and themselves as much as they did the creature it would bring in more profit The knowledg of these things is excellent but the knowledge of God and our selves is necessary all thy time is little enough for this study the other must be left to more curious heads and riper witts oh my God suffer me not to spend my time in any unnecessary study that should be spent in seeking thee let me not catch at the shadow and lose the substance and hunt so long after curiosities till I lose my self and know not which way to return all my time is little enough to spend in my generall and particular calling all the water is little enough to run in this channel and I have none to spare to turn any other mill let my greatest care be to know God and my self the duty I owe him and the relation I stand in to him and what interest I have in Jesus Christ Lord let this be the work of the remaining part of my life Upon some despicable weeds yet usefull 32. Med. WHen I saw some poor contemptible despicable weeds that usually grow in the fields without labour pains or care of man or are thrown out of the garden with contempt as not fit to have a being there but to be trod upon and despised as not being neither sweet for savour nor beautifull to the eye and yet when I beheld these very weeds gathered and successfully used by the greatest artists in physick and surgery for the curing of great distempers when the more glorious gorgeous and more esteemed vegetables were disregarded this made me consider how deceitfull a thing it is to judge by the outward appearance and that beauty and vertue are not alway linkt together neither go they hand in hand many have been deceived when they have pleased their eyes by beauty the devil many times baits his hook with a fair woman and many have been undone by swallowing such a hook many that have made beauty their aim have been matcht with foul conditions Samuel that man of God was deceived by his eye when he thought Eliab Davids elder brother had been the Lords annointed because he had a comely countenance 1 Sam. 16.6 and it came to pass after they were come that he looked on Eliab and said surely the Lords anointed is before him but the Lord said to Samuel look not on his countenance or on the heighth of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart Many a man under a russet coat carries more real worth more true gentillity yea nobillity then others do under their silks and sattins velvets and scarlets many a worthless piece is drest puppet-like with paint and plaister and ridiculous gewgaws but could we but see the soul through the gayish dress of the body it would appear leprous and deformed nay perhaps in the body it self there would appear visible marks of deformity as well as of infirmity paint and plaister better become a mud-wall then a marble pillar true beauty needs no varnish nor a diamond needs no painting spotted faces often cover spotted souls and their spot is not the spot of Gods people there are many that like the Cinamon-tree have the bark better then the body but it is a fool that buys a horse by the trappings or chooseth a wife by her gaudy dress or that esteems the better of himself or imagines that any wise man esteems the better of him for a fine suit of cloathes yet there was a disease amongst Christians in the Apostles time and it is almost epidemical in our days to respect the cloathes or outward ornaments of a man more then his conditions and qualifications Jam. 2.2 3. if there come into your assemblies a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel and there come in also a poor man in vile rayment and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay cloathing and say unto him fit thou here in a good place and say to the poor man stand thou here or sit here under my footstool are you not then partial in your selves c. but however man may disrespect them God hath chosen the poor rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom A poor man though wise yea though by his wisdome he save the city yet is not remembred Eccl. 9.15 this is merces mundi the worlds wages many deal by such as men do by a fruit-tree to which they run in a storm and when it is done beat him and rob him of his fruit many wise Ministers are heard with scorn or at least with disregard till men lie upon their death-bed and then they are sent unto for counsel or

hell these things are not lasting thou seest the flowers ripe at noon and withered by night like Jonah's gourd grow up in a night and wither in a night and have a worm breed in them which will eat out their heart they are like the bee they have honey in the mouth and a sting in the tail and not only vanity but vexation of spirit is writ upon them will a handful of flowers revive a dying man or comfort a languishing soul when the earth and all the works therein are burnt up where will be thy happiness then why then wilt thou moil and toil and cark and care for such vanities that never will make thee satisfaction why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not if thou wilt take pains let it be in a more fruitful soil where thou maist expect a better crop spend not thy money for that which is not bread nor thy labour for that which satisfies not these cannot satisfy and if they did cannot last long these are but swallow-comforts they hide their heads in the winter the grass will soon wither the flowers will soon fade and thy own life is no more certain and what good will these do the soul some poor vanishing delights they yield for an hour or two and then it is over but there are more satisfying pleasures more durable delights to be had then these why are they then neglected these like swallow-friends forsake when winter comes when there is most need or like Physitians leave a man when he is dying or like the devil with the witch tempt a while and then forsake her when she is in the most danger If a small spot of earth seem so delightful what is heaven and those mansions of glory provided for glorified Saints if the creature be so glorious what is the Creator who infused such a beauty and vertue in it if a flower be so sweet what is the rose of sharon and the lilly of the valley these things delight us for a moment but one day will make us weary of them especially if there be not the addition of meat and drink and sleep and lodging of health and strength and other necessaries but in heaven is nothing wanting that is necessary delightful or desirable no creature-comforts there are needful but God is better a thousand times then all the comforts the whole earth affords oh my soul labour after the substance not the shadow after Christ and a title to glory there are reall pleasures to be had rivers of pleasure at his right hand for evermore scorn then to be put off with such poor things or to let out thy affections upon such vanities or to let them grovel upon the ground wilt thou suffer thy eyes to be dazled with a few flowers when thou maist behold the sun the moon and stars those glorious lamps and beauty-spots of heaven these are greater beauties those beautify only the porch how beautiful then is the palace the throne nay the king himself These flowers thou now admirest may for ought thou knowest be cropt and made use of for thy funeral for thy body is as fading and thy life as uncertain as they are a few days will ●●ther make them uncapable of pleasing thee or thee uncapable of praising them this use thou maist make of this pleasing object be as careful of thy soul as the gardiner is of this plot of ground let neither thorn nor thistle briar nor weed of sin thrive there supply what is wanting root out what is superfluous order what is disordered and then it is a happy time thou madest this Observation oh my God what a poor pitiful foolish wretch am I thus to doat upon vanities Lord wean my affections from the world and keep them close to thy self Upon an adder lurking in the grass 44. Med. WAlking in the garden I had like to have trod upon an adder lurking in the grass and so was in unexpected danger where I least dreaded it the apprehensions of it at present put me into amaze which when it was something abated it made me consider what daily need we have of divine protection and how dangerous it is to be from under the protecting hand of God It made me also to consider that thus it is in all our earthly enjoyments there is no security in any much danger in all anguis in herba latet there is a little honey and many stings a little pleasure and much pain there is no age no calling no condition of life free riches are held by many to be the greatest happiness and most men rather desire gold then grace and to be great rather then good yet these are not without their snares neither set men out of the reach of danger they are called deceitfull riches such as choak the word when it was sown Mat. 22.13 and well they may be so called for they promise that they never pay and always deceive those that trust them they promise content satisfaction and happiness when oftentimes like strong drink in a feaver they do but inrage the disease he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver Eccles. 5.10 a man may as soon fill a chest with grace an empty stomach with air as a covetous heart with grace pauperis est numerare pecus saith the coveteous man he had never enow cattle while they might be numbred a ship may sink under the burthen that is not half full and men may have riches enough to sink them when not half enough to satisfy them non plus satiatur cor auro quam corpus aura But this is not all their vanity neither for as they are unsatisfying so they are uncertain they take themselves wings and fly away Pro. 23.5 they are never true to those that trust them they are oft as transitory as a head-long torrent but this is not all they are golden fetters to chain the souls faster in the devils clutches and faster in his service and many times the devil buys mens souls yea their very profession out of their hands for money pleasures have honey in the mouth but a sting in the tail they oft perish in the budding in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heaviness favour is deceitful and beauty is vain Pro. 31.30 and those that trust to them shall be deceived favour will fail and beauty will wither and how will they deceive mens expectation some men marry saith one by the eye and some by their fingers ends viz. for money dos non Deus makes such matches Absolom and his sister found there was danger trusting to their beauty and many more besides them to whom it hath proved a temptation honour is the emptiest of all bubbles courted by many attained by few and there is but a little distance between the highest round of the ladder and the lowest step let Haman and Achitophel prove the point Beauty many times is like a

also that rob the poor will be found to reproach their maker Pro. 14.31 God is the poor mans king and he will defend him destroy his enemies and will not suffer the injuries offered them to be unpunished winter will come when these wasps will dye oh my God suffer me not now to feed upon those morfels that I must chew for ever in hell if I have but little let it not be with a curse Upon the painted Butterfly 57. Med. WHen I observed the curious gaudy dress of the painted butterfly her various colours and her specious shew and took notice how she spent her time in paint and plaister and all to adorn her self and make her seem beautiful when the laborious Bee improved her time to better ends and purposes viz. to provide in summer for winter and to gather her food in the harvest I considered also that notwithstanding all this paint this proud creature was but a poor infect nay an unprofitable creature doing hurt but no good and when I caught her to take a further view she did but foul my fingers I considered also what would be the end of this so proud so sluggish and so useless a creature and found against winter she put her head into a hole and died and there was the end of all her bravery when the painfull Bee hath her life preserved by her dilligence this made me think that this creature did much resemble many of the Gallants of our times especially of the female sex though others may take it ill if they be excluded which are good for little but to paint and dress and spend their time as vainly as ever the butterfly doth these content not themselves with their own native beauty or with the form and fashion God made them in but cast themselves into another mould and take upon them another shape then God made them and it is to be feared God will never own them for his when they are thus transformed or rather deformed themselves with their own hands and what is the reason of all this paint and plaister but to make traps to catch fools their hair are snares to catch men as the fisher of his hairs makes lines to catch fish or as the spiders web is to take flys for if there be no wine in the cellar why hangs the bush what doth this gaudy dress signifie but a lascivious minde and to let the world know in what ware they deal and how welcome such a motion that brings profit or pleasure with it would be to them and like the signe at the ale-house-door promises entertainment for money what doth this gawdy dress signify less then a lascivious minde when they spend great part of their time in attiring painting dressing and spotting themselves this is their morning devotion and their afternoon service is not much unlike for that is mostly spent in sports and merryments in plays and interludes in idle visits or perhaps worse employments the devil many times makes use of these gaudy flys to fish for souls wherewith he baits his hooks and many unwary youths are caught with these lime-twigs Is it not a wonder that any of Adams sons or Eves daughters and yet both sexes are guilty should take more pains for hell then others do for heaven yea and be at more cost and care also for pride is more costly then humility yea is it not a wonder to see persons pride in that which is the fruit of sin and a cover to shame viz. their cloaths which usually are but the excrements of beasts or insects or at least of as poor an original this is a sure signe of a worthless piece to be like a bubbl● or bladder blown up with a little winde how many are there that are like the Cinamon-tree the bark is better then the body yea sometimes the cloaths are better then all the estate besides Many that are ashamed of their deformity yet when their crooked ill-shap't bodies are covered are proud of their beauty but what will become of those at death that have spent their time in paint and spot and neglected to adorn the soul it were well with them if with the butterfly they could finde a hole to dye in that they might never more be seen but this will not be they must be seen in their own colours when all the varnish will vanish sincerity will abide the fire I fear others also are guilty of this paint and flourish as some Ministers who paint their Sermons not to profit but to please and preach not in that plain convincing way Christ and his Apostles did but woo more for themselves then for Christ and fish not for souls but for popular applause and seek not to set the crown upon Christs head but their own oh my soul beware of these three grand enemies to thy salvation pride idleness and hypocrisy where these bear sway the soul never prospers pride is the master-pock if it strike to the heart it will surely kill thee pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Jam. 4.6 he defies those that deify themselves witness Herod and Lucifer grace grows not in high mountains but in low vallies the least degree of pride sets it self against God the highest degree sets it self above God 2 Thes 2.4 and as pride so idleness is a deadly sin pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness were Sodoms sin and doubtless they are Englands sins also and make many thousands fall short of heaven and the time is coming hypocrisy also will appear in its own colours the paint will not abide the fire oh my God how many poor souls split themselves upon these rocks and make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience Lord keep me humble make me sincere and help me to be diligent so shall I be happy for ever Upon a gnat playing with the candle 58. Med. WHen I observed a gnat play so long with the candle that at length she burnt her wings was taken prisoner suffered for her folly paid dear for pleasure and was exposed to a cruel death even to end her life in the flames I thought this resembled poor man that so long dallies with sin and plays with the devils temptations that at last he is snared in his limetwigs and fettered in his gins and led captive by him at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26 those that he thus takes in his snares he useth worse then Sampson was used by the Philistins he puts out their eyes and then makes them grinde in his mill poor man is like a fish nibling so long at the bait till at last he swallows the hook or like the unwary bird so eagerly falls upon the prey that they are taken in the net the devil like a cunning fowler holds out the bait covers the hook and hides himself behind the bush so that they see not the hand that holds it he doth not usually

so careless for the body as they are for the soul the most of us sleep in harvest and are like to beg in winter slug away the day and make no provision for night when they cannot work and lose the opportunity God affords them and have a price put into their hands but have no heart to get wisdome they provide not against the winter night of death nor the days of darkness which will be many Eccl. 11.8 for as sure as the night follows the day so sure a change will come a storm will rise and such a storm as will never be blown away to wicked worldlings There is too many professors go on in heavens way as the proverb hath it on a snails gallop we can scarce see them move and many like the crab-fish rather go backward then forward they are like those silly women mentioned 2 Tim. 3.7 ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth many have served an apprentiship in Christianity some two some three and some more and never yet understood the mystery of their profession nay not the grounds and fundamentals of Religion those that have been listed souldiers twenty or thirty years have not yet learned to handle their arms nor known the use of their weapons those that have been as long schollers in Christs school yet have not learned the first lesson of self denyal they have the same corruption unmortifyed the same grace weak or wanting the same doubts unresolved and the same fears upon their spirits as they had long since many years are past away and their work stands at a stay no more fitter for death no more assurance of heaven no more communion with God no more knowledge of the state of their own souls and all this notwithstanding the means they have had the Ministry they have enjoyed and the seasons of grace they have lived in Now is not he a monster in nature that is as big at two years old as at twenty and is it not a dullard indeed that goes to school twenty years and cannot take out one lesson Ancient professors should grow with the oak more firmly rooted and with the apple more ripe and mellow these trees of righteousness should bring forth fruit even to old age and add every year to their experience indeed there are some that grow in opinions and think this is growing in grace and in few years run the whole circle of errors and at last end where they began at profaness if not at athiesm they grow most in the head like children that have the rickets when the rest of the body pines these errors the brats of their own brain are like suckers in a tree they draw all the sap that should feed the other branches to themselves and run up into aspiring branches fruitless yea hurtfull the strength and vigor of the soul the life and heat of their zeal is spent upon these to maintain them when the power of godliness languisheth but true grace grows uniformly like a healthy body though every member grows not to the same bigness yet every member grows in proportion to the rest and so the body is compleated but alass where is this growth of grace discerned the most professors are in a languishing condition their pulse beats weakly and their natural heat abates and they are inclining to a consumption or a lethargy oh my soul is not this thy condition that is here described art not thou fitly resembled to this sluggish creature how long hast thou been in Christs school and never the better how many apprentiships hast thou served and yet art a very dullard and little more grace appears then did many years ago well double thy diligence amend thy pace set about thy work to purpose lest God turn thee out of his vineyard for a loiterer and give thee thy portion with the unfaithfull with the unprofitable servant Mat. 25.26 had idleness been a calling doubtless thou hadst been a good husband yet at last up and be doing thou canst not serve a better Master expect better work or wages O my God what shall I say to thee or how shall I answer thee mine iniquity hath found me out and my sin shews it self it is I that resemble this snail and have sluggishly served thee all my days Lord rouse me up out of my security that I may make more haste lest I fall short of my journeys end Upon a snail carrying her house along with her 72. Med. WHen I observed a snail carrying her house upon her back and in so doing carryed all she had with her in her removes it brought to my minde how the Israelites in the wilderness when ever they journeyed they removed their tents and carryed them with them and when ever they rested there they picht them and carryed all their substance for forty years space along with them and this might well put them in minde that they were strangers and pilgrims and there rest was not here I have read of heathen Stilpo when the enemy had seazed upon all he had burnt the town he lived in and took his wife and children prisoners being asked by Demetrius what he had lost replyed nothing omnia mea mecum porto I carry all-along with me esteeming his vertues his only riches which none could take from him but all loseable riches he valued not This made me further consider if any heathen could say thus how much more a Christian that hath all his vertues adopted graces and hath an interest in Christ and a title to glory for this is a Christians all and he can properly lay claim to no more for as he hath all from God so he hath all in God and having God he hath all and a rich portion it is beyond all the gold in the Indies and all the wealth in the world it is a more soul-satisfying portion then the world can afford and such a portion that is durable for the devil and all his instruments cannot deprive them of it and this they may take along with them to a prison to a gibbet yea to the utmost parts of the earth if they are banished thither The men of the world would have their portion in the world and heaven like paper and packthred into the bargain but it will not be they would carry the world upon their backs to heaven but it is too great a burthen to carry up the hill and too big to enter with at the strait gate The only way to make the best advantage of the world is to take Christs counsel Luk. 16.9 make your selves friends of the unrighteouss mammon that when they fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations this is the way to send the world before us to heaven or to improve it to the best advantage testify your faith saith the Apostle by your works improve these talents well and God will reward you for it riches are not properly ours but Gods but if we make sure

better provided the soul here wears the body as a garment which when it is worn out the saints shall have a better suit they shall be choathed with the Lord Jesus Christ death will not spare the best there is no coming to paradice but under the flaming sword of this guardian that stands at the porch no wiping all tears from our eyes but with our winding-sheet assurance of Gods love makes a man even willing to die but the cook on the dunghill knows not the worth of this jewel oh the blindness madness and stupidity of man whose care is to lade himself with thick clay and to take care what he shall eat or what he shall drink or wherewithall he shall be cloathed and makes no provision for the soul but depends upon that for comfort that can do no good when most need is they can provide in the day for the night in the summer for the winter on the market-day for the whole week and at a Fair for the whole year and yet make no provision in life for death or in time for eternity if a coelestial habitation be not provided against those houses of clay our bodies wherein the soul lodgeth as a tenant at will be dissolved our lodging will be worse then with toads and serpents even with the devil and his angels in endless easeless and remediless torments oh my soul how fares it with thee or what preparation hast thou made long it cannot be before night comes where then will be thy lodging the earth then will be to thee as the waters to Noahs dove thou wilt finde no rest here for the sole of thy foot it is in heaven that the weary be at rest Job 3.17 oh my God enable me to clear up my interest in Christ who is the only sanctuary for a troubled soul Upon sickness spoiling all earthly delights 98. Med. WHen I had fitted things to my minde and began to take delight in the works of my hands when I began to sing a requiem to my self and my heart with Solomons rejoyced in all my labour Eccl. 2.10 yea when I had promised my self content in what I had done I was suddenly forced to say with wise Solomon Eccles 14. behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit nothing in themselves yet sufficient to vex and perplex us sin hath produced a confusion in the world and stampt vanity upon the creature every man saith David in his best estate is altogether vanity this is the impartiall verdict brought in by one that could best tell and to this I was forc't to subscribe for God immediatly humbled me for setting my affection upon creature-comforts and let me see the vanity of them by visiting me with a fit of sickness that I was taken off from setting my delight or taking satisfaction in or upon them or taking any pleasure in any thing that I had done nay I was troubled that I had not spent my time better and that I had not planted set or sown in a more fertile soil where I might have expected a more plentiful encrease and had a better crop this providence seemed to speak to me as Christ did to the rich man Luk. 12.16 c. that set his heart on his riches and was not rich to God thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose are these this shewed me more of the vanity of humane felicity then I had before observed I plainly saw there was a double uncertainty in all earthly felicity and in sublunary enjoyments for they themselves are very uncertain and many times short-lived and may leave us or we may by death be arrested and then we shall leave them God sometimes takes them from us they take themselves wings and fly away and shall we set our eyes upon things that are not Pro. 23.5 there is no solid substance in them though the foolish world call it by that name they are as transitory as a hasty headlong torrent but if they remain we shall remove for our life passeth away as a shadow or post or weavers shuttle and continueth not and then those winged fouls that now sit upon our trees shall sit upon other mens sometimes God blows upon them and blasts them that though we do enjoy them they prove but a vexation to us sometimes he disables us to use them and sometimes imbitters them to us mixing them with gall and wormwood that we can finde no pleasure in them and assuredly they will do us little good when we have most need suppose a man to have what the world can afford yea all the delights of the sons of men yea all that his heart can wish as Solomon had Eccl. 2.27 yet one hours sickness spoils all his mirth and robs him of all the comfort he promised to himself one fit of the collick gout strangury or other raging pain yea the extream pain of an aking tooth puts a man besides all these his enjoyments yet how greedily do men grasp after the world as if it included the highest degree of happiness and hug it in their bosome and lodge it nearest to the heart which will prove no better nay much worse then a bush of thorns if graspt too hard so this the harder it is handled the worse it hurts oh folish man cannot these earthly enjoyments give ease to an aking head or heart can they not mitigate the pains of the gout collick stone or strangury and can it be imagined they can ease the conscience or cure a sinsick soul if not what good can they do it could Judas Achitophel Spira and others fetch any comfort here in their extremity no no they are like Jobs friends miserable comforters at such a time what good will gold do at death and judgment this coin is not currant in the other world nay in this world it brings little content if God frown if one spark of hell-fire flash in the conscience all these things cannot extinguish it one drop of it will mar a whole cup of earthly delights that in the midst of laughter the heart will be sorrowful and the end of that mirth will be heaviness Pro. 14.13 nulla est sincera voluptas wicked men may dance to the timbrel and harp but suddenly they turn into hell Job 21.12 13. and their merry dance ends in a miserable downfall the candle of the wicked shall out in a snuff and what will all these outward enjoyments signify then Jobs flower Jonahs gourd and Davids green bay-tree will soon wither and their beauty will fade all these things will leave us at death many times before how much need then have we to make preparation before-hand of something that will stand us instead This sickness of mine also taught me how unfit a time this was for repentance and yet how many post it off till then oh how unfit was I to examine my heart and call my sins to minde to repent of them when racking pains brought

THE Husbandmans COMPANION CONTAINING One Hundred Occasional Medirations Reflections and Ejaculations Especially Suited to Men of that Employment Directing them how they may be Heavenly-minded while about their Ordinary Calling By Edward Bury Late Minister of Great Bolas in Shropshire Psal 77.12 I will meditate also of thy works and talk of thy doings LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 3 Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and at the Bible on London-bridge 1677. Licensed and Entred according to Order To the Worshipful his much Honoured Friend Rowland Hunt of Boare-Eatton In the County of Salop Esquire And to the Virtuous and truly Religious Lady Frances Daughter to the Right Honourable the Lord Paget his Pious Consort E. B. Wisheth Encrease of Grace here and Glory hereafter Sir and Madam I Foresee there may two or three questions arise upon this my undertaking in which you may desire satisfaction the first may be why I write at all the second why I write on this subject and the last why I prefix your Names to what I write To these I shall answer in order For the first though I hope Gods glory and the publique good be chiefly intended yet my own satisfaction is also included for I being set apart in my Education for the work of the Ministry and dedicated thereunto in my Ordination and though I have but one talent I would not have it wrapt in a napkin when an account is required how I have employed it lest I be found speechless Aulaedus sit qui Citharaedus esse non potest a man may be useful that is not excellent and therefore I thought it my duty what howrs I could spare from my secular employments should be improved and employed for the good of souls as for your second demand why I write upon this subject seeing so many have gone before me and what I do is but Alcinoo pomo dare or in our English dialect to light a candle when the sun shines or bring coals to Newcastle to this I answer if this lesson be so well taught it is a shame it is no better learnt I fear there is not one of ten amongst Christians but are guilty of the neglect of this profitable duty which I suppose would bring the soul more real benefit then many litigious controversies about the modes and circumstances of worship about which many argue themselves not only out of Charity but out of their Christianity and lose the substance while they strive about the shadow and fill their heads with notions rather then their hearts with graces I conceive it is real communion with Christ and the life of faith that makes the soul fat and flourishing and I think that meditation doth conduce as much to this as any duty whatsoever prayer I know brings in supplys from heaven and so doth this and these two usually are concomitant and where the one is neglected the other is seldome well performed Meditation like the Bee fetches honey both from flowers and weeds yea this divine Alchymist extracts gold out of the coursest Mettles and is the true Philosophers stone that turns all into gold and gold it self into a spiritual substance those books which reduce religion into practice which in our days lyes much in the theorick and serve to reconcile the head and the heart and maintain the vitals of religion and the power of godliness and further our great designe for heaven should be well studied and of them I think store is no sore By this heavenly art of divine meditation wisdome may be extracted out of folly as Solomon gained instruction by beholding the field of the sluggard Pro. 24.30 c. and doubtless man was not plac't in the world as Leviathan in the Sea to play therein nor indowed with so many excellent faculties to be like bruit beasts only idle spectatours of the works of God The use of reason doubtless was given for an higher end to help us to view the Creator in the glass of the creature and every thing lends a helping hand to a willing minde in this work There is no man so busy if not sinfully employed but may finde some time every day to converse with God and now and then make a journey to heaven and view those Caelestial mansions prepared for those that love God There is none so dull-witted if honest hearted but may learn some profitable lessons in natures school the least worm or gnat or leaf of a tree will point out God to an observant Christian That Meditation is a Christian duty none that pretend to religion or to reason it self will deny and that to meditate upon Gods works as well as his word is our duty is evident God sometimes sends us to the oxe and ass to learn our duty Jsay 1.3 sometimes to fowls of heaven the stork the crane and the swallow Jer. 8.7 sometimes to the pismire or ant those despicable insects Pro. 6.6 and 30.25 and all to learn our duty David learned humility by beholding the moon and the stars Psal 8.3 4. and Christ grounds many of his excellent sermons upon the various occurrences that dayly fell out as we see in the parable of the sower and the seed the tares of the field and the draw-net cast into the Sea the leaven the mustard seed the fruitless figtree and many others what heavenly use doth he make of earthly things and all this is for our imitation that by this means we may of these earthly materials frame to our selves a Jacobs ladder to ascend to heaven for all those visibles will mount us up to beholde invisibles and give us a Pisgah sight of the heavenly Canaan even of those things within the vail And that soul that hath this heavenly art can set it self on work and need not be idle or ill imployed for time will fail us and death surprize us before we can have searched natures garden from end to end or gathered hony from the several flowers here we may walk at liberty and crop what flowers we please and no man is damnified thereby in other respects our bounds are set hitherto may we go and no further but in this we have an unlimitted circuit meum tuum which hath set the world in a flame hinders not in this case the poor here hath as much liberty as the rich and the servant as his master for with the Bee we may suck sweetness from our neighbours fields and flowers without his leave or licence and feed upon his pasture without any dammage to him 'T is true in these my meditations I have contented my self with a small plot and but seldome past the bounds of a garden or orchard but had the publishing of it been designed at the first I should not have tied up my self in so short a lether when the whole creation lay before me The book of the creature stands open to us and God may be read in every line of it otherwise why doth God

object and other circumstances vary and as the will or capacity of the person requireth and therefore may be better taught by example then rule This minded me of some occasional Meditations that had formerly warmed my heart and not knowing but they might warm others also and might be a means to restore this beneficiall though too much neglected duty and therefore gathering together and reveiwing my scattered papers and making some additions substractions and alterations I reduced them to the method here presented that it is every Christians duty I think none will deny and that it hath been the practice of believers is easy to prove this was Isaac's practice Gen. 24.63 and it was Davids work as the whole book of Psalmes testify see Psal 63.6 and 77.12 and 119.15 and 143.5 and many other places wherein we see he meditated both on Gods word and on his works both by night and by day and makes it the character of a childe of God or a blessed man so to do Psal 1.2 and a mark of one ripe for destruction not to regard the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands Psal 28.5 What I have here written is chiefly for thy imitation and my desire is that thou maist take out this lesson prove an artist and set up for thy self and follow this gainfull trade that hath formerly brought so much glory to God and so much profit to poor souls The method herein propounded is easy and the duty to an honest heart not hard yet remember it is the practick part that is like to do thee most good here maist thou learn to spend thy time and pass away thy solitary hours better then most men do for whether thou be at home or abroad in publick or in private this duty may be in some measure performed yea by every man in every place in every company and in every employment though all places are not alike a gracious heart can steal a thought into heaven and by a Meditation and private ejaculation hold converse wtth God at any time neither slave nor servant though in a Turky-gally can be deprived of this liberty The want of this heavenly art or the not using of it is the cause of the mispence of so much precious time and that there are so many barren empty hearts as we dayly finde for as the Bee gathers honey both from flowers and weeds so doth a diligent man from every thing he sees hears of or observes time is such a precious jewel that it should not be squandred away and I know not well how it may be better improved then by Meditation for this spiritualizeth all we set or hear of it makes a man never idle nor ill employed and drives on a rich trade for the soul and either leads the soul to heaven or brings heaven to it I know meditation may be abused some meditate how they may be rich either by hook or by crook the ambitious man how he may be honourable the voluptuous man how he may enjoy his pleasure but a Christian how he may enjoy his God and secure his soul some study mischief upon their beds some with the spiders gather poyson where the Christian like the bee gathers honey and the very business a Christian is about will furnish him with matter sufficient for his work if the heart be not barren every thing will be fruitful and there is none so dull if not spiritually dead but may gather something from visibles to minde him of invisibles No ship that sails either to the East or West Indies brings home richer lading then meditation doth if rightly steered This is the chewing of the cud that turns all to nourishment the true Philosophers stone that turns all to gold by this means the spirits and quintescence of all earthly things are extracted 't is true of a Christian endowed with his heavenly art what the Poets feign of Midas every thing they touch turns to gold and gold it self into a better substance the hardest flint the barrenest tree the most withering branch or fading leaf will yield good fruit to this artist yea better fruit then the gardens of the Hesperides which are feigned to bear golden apples and every sheep will bear a golden fleece better then ever Jason fetcht from Colchis By meditation a Christian is carried into the third heaven with Paul whether in the body or out of the body be scarcely knows and there is enabled to see things inutterable this makes invisible things visible and gives a man a Pisgah-sight of the heavenly Canaan This heavenly artist can with Daedalus make himself wings to fly aloft and can break prison at his pleasure neither need he fear the melting of the wax This keeps the heart in order and prevents its strayings it keeps vain thoughts from rising or at best from roosting There mans heart is like a mill if it want grist it sets it self on fire and if there be no corn to grinde for God the devil will throw his tares into the hopper The heart it always well or ill-employed and will never be idle holy meditation puts a man out of satans road when otherwise he is in continuall danger of falling into his snares or by being surprized by his wiles when the idle person is commonly snared and taken by this grace is strengthened and corruption weakned our evidences cleared communion with God maintained and acquaintance with our own hearts gained it is the way to store the understanding with knowledge to subject the will to Gods will to warm the ●ffections and to put life and heat into all our duties this discovers to us the sinfulness of sin and vanity of the creatures and the fulness of Christ this reacheth out to us some of Canaans grapes some Pisgah-sights of glory even of those things within the veil and a taste of those pleasures which are at the right hand of God such a taste as this made Moses despise the pleasures of Pharaohs court and Galeacius esteem all the wealth in the world not worth one days communion with God this lets us see there is a worm of vanity bred in our cheifest earthly enjoyments and eats out the very heart of them and if they are abused they will breed and feed the worm that never dies and kindle that fire that never shall go out These and a thousand such lessons meditation will teach us and fastens every lesson upon the heart who then would not follow so gainfal a trade and practice so fruitful a calling Did it enrich the body as it doth the soul we should have many proficients in this School some pretenders there are to this duty but they rather pretend then intend it they throw down the hammer before they have driven the nail to the head and lay down the premises but stay not to raise the conclusion they follow not the work till they come to resolution and practice they are like a man that strikes fire gathers

thou provided another habitation against this shall be disolved and moulder into dust when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved hast thou a building not made with hands but eternal in the heavens hast thou acted thy part well upon the stage of the world that thou maist go off with applause ●f not … s better thou hadst not been born for if death meet thee unprepared as thy body moulders into dust so must thou down to everlasting darkness there to suffer eternally the demerit of thy sin Oh my God! take me not away before I be fit to be lodged in thy bosome kill me not before my sin be killed if any thing that is necessary be wanting Lord give it in and let me not be deceived in so great a thing as the salvation of my soul Let my sins die and let my soul live Let me see the funeral of my vices before others see the funeral of my body Vpon a Tuft of green Grass 3. Med. WAlking into the Garden as at other times to take the ayr I fastened my eyes upon a green tuft of grass that grew besides me the sight of it brought to my remembrance what I had often heard and read viz. that the damned in hell should suffer exquisite torments such as the tongue of men or angels are not able to express and that for as many millions of years as there are grass-piles upon the earth sands on the sea shoar stars in heaven and motes in the Sun and yet after all this long tract of time their torments shall be no nearer to an end nor they to a delivery then they were the first day they were cast in This made me a little to consider the number of piles that was in this little tuft and when I found it too hard for me to number them I considered what was this tuft to one pasture or that to one Parish or that to one County or that to one Kingdome or that to the whole world this made me to cry out Oh Eternity Eternity who can conceive of thee who can fathom thee Oh the horrible nature of sin that provokes a mercifull God to lay such heavy strokes upon his poor creatures Oh the love and pains of our dear Redeemer what did he suffer to quench those flames and discharge those debts for his people in suffering what was due for their sins and oh the madness of men and my own folly that knowing there is such a remediless gulf before us run on so madly towards it and that for momentary pleasures deceitfull riches worthless honour or filthy sin do venture the soul upon the pikes of danger Oh the misery of poor unregenerate wretches what will you do in the latter end who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning Esay 33.14 Tophet is prepared of old even for the King it is prepared the pile thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone doth kindle it Esaiah 30.33 Were a man compelled to lie upon a feather bed but one year without turning or stirring though other comforts were afforded how painful how tedious would that year seem but what is this one year to eternity or what is a featherbed to scalding lead and burning brimstone or what is that to hell torments Oh Satan how dost thou deceive us Oh world how dost thou insnare us Oh sin how dost thou bewitch us Oh heart how dost thou betray us to this deadly danger Oh earth how dost thou betray thy fastest friends and payest them off with pains for pleasure and buyest their souls for a thing of naught Oh Satan who would be thy servant if this be thy wages and yet how many fish come to thy net and how prosperous hast thou been when thou hast baited thy hooks with the world Oh my soul is Eternity such a fathomless gulf without bank or bottom how stands the case with thee art thou for everlasting joy or endless torment what interest hast thou in the one or what hopes to avoid the other what hast thou that a hypocrite cannot have or what dost thou that he cannot do God surely expects great difference in the work when there is so much in the reward give thy eyes no sleep nor thy eye-lids no slumber till thou hast some comfortable assurance of the love of God in the pardon of thy sins and the salvation of thy soul make peace with thy Creditour before thou art cast into prison otherwise there must thou remain till thou hast paid the utmost farthing If death surprize thee before thou art ready hell will be thy lodging get oyl trim up thy lamp get on thy wedding-garment that thou be not shut out into utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh my God! make me such as thy own soul delights in give me in the qualifications thou hast made necessary to Salvation thou knowest my wants Lord supply them my debts oh forgive them my corruptions Lord subdue them and binde up my soul in the bundle of life write my name in thy book and at last lay me up amongst thy Jewels Vpon a barren plat of ground 4. Med. WHen I perceived one plot in my garden fruitful and another barren and observed the difference between the one and the other how lovely how amiable how pleasant the fruitful plat seemed to me how fresh and fragrant how green and ardent it was how it was diapred with various coloured flowers beautiful and lovely and how lothsome unseemly and unhandsome the other lookt where nothing appeared but briars and thorns weeds and thistles with stones and rubbish which was a fit receptacle for toads and serpents and other venemous vermine I began to consider it was yet possible to reduce this plot into a better form and turn it to a better use And hereupon I caused the rubbish to be stockt up the weeds to be pluckt up and the stones pickt out and after I digged and manured it and had an effect answerable to my expectation for when it was sown with better seed it brought forth better fruit The unlovelinesse of this plot when overgrown with weeds and rubbish produced this following Meditation I thought it lively represented a heart barren of grace and goodnesse but fruitfull of briars and thorns sin and wickednesse which is more odious to God then this plot was to me and yet how lovely a fruit bearing Christian is in his eye the one is like a loathsome muck-heap which stinks the other like a watered garden that yields a sweet favour like a garden of spices Cant. 4.14 the one brings forth fruit for Gods basket the other fewell for the devils fire all the seed sown upon it is lost and choakt with briars and thorns and all the rain that falls upon it doth but make the weeds more rank and flourishing their grape is the grape of Sodom and of the fields of

not of that number or otherwise thou wilt be reserved for the same condemnation O my God! such as these I was and such I had been hadst thou not made the difference and too much of that nature remains in me to this day Oh that thou wouldst throughly change me plant me into that noble Vine that I may bring forth better fruit yea purge me that I may bring forth more fruit Upon the diligence necessary to be used in a Garden 7. Med. VVHen I considered how much time and pains sweat and diligence is necessary to keep a garden in order and make it that it may answer the expectation of the owner what digging delving and manuring what planting setting sowing fencing weeding watering c. must be used and all little enough and perhaps too little to produce a good crop This Observation made me to reflect upon my own soul and to consider whether ever I had taken so much time or pains or been at so much cost for it the only garden God delights in and the chiefest I should look after as I have been for a little spot of earth here it is the herb of grace should grow and this should be a garden of spices Can. 4.10 This Consideration made me blush at my own folly when I considered how carefull I had been of a poor worthless piece of ground and had bestowed so much pains and cost upon it which yet yielded but a little pleasure and less profit and in the mean time neglected the soul which is of ten thousand times a greater concernment and when also I had considered the fruitfulness of my garden and the barrenness of my own heart I concluded had I bestowed as much time and pains in planting watering and fencing that as I have done in this garden it would have yielded better fruit then I can expect thence Well may I say with the Spouse Cant. 1.6 they made me keeper of the Vineyards but my own Vineyard I have not kept I have not taken Gods counsel Ier. 4.3 break up the fallow ground of your hearts and sow not among thorns and when I considered how unfruitful my heart was I concluded it had not been sufficiently humbled but the seed was sown among worldly cares and fears and discontents and those thorns had choaked it seeing no more fruit appears I considered therefore how needfull it was for God to plow long and deep furrows on my back by affliction that he might come to the root of the weeds and this same thing quieted me under some dark dispensations of providence I considered what a folly it was for a man that will not suffer a weed in his garden and yet will suffer the weeds of sin in his soul though they are far more pernitious to the herb of grace there planted then the most pestiferous weeds in the world can be to the choicest flowers and yet one reigning sin is a greater deformity to the soul then a thousand weeds can be to the fairest garden Oh my soul why art thou so prodigall of time and pains of cost and care of sweat and industry for a very trifle and in the mean time neglect thy greatest concerns thy self thy God and thy eternall happiness when didst thou take so much pains for heaven as thou hast done for the earth why art thou digging and delving in the earth as if happiness were hid under the clods when thou mayest be solacing thy self with thy God God hath not been wanting to thee but thou hast been wanting to thy self he gives thee time to run thy race when thou leavest thy way to run after butterflies which if thou take they will but foul thy fingers Thou hast been pruned and drest by many choice gardiners why yet art thou fruitless lay thy hands to the work tear up those weeds that hinder the flowers Dost thou expect happiness here below why else doth thy affection grovell upon the ground Will a handfull of herbs or a bosome full of flowers give thee content Oh what a poor happiness dost thou take up with Is there no better to be had serve a better master and thou shalt have better wages be a better husband and thy gains will be the greater and sow in a better soil and thou wilt have a better encrease Oh my God! what answer shall I return for all the pains and cost and time thou hast bestowed upon me O Lord how have I slighted thee O heaven how have I undervalued thee how have I suffered the world to bewitch me and steal away my heart from my God divert my thoughts rend my affection from these earthly vanities let me see more excellency in Christ then the world affords then shall I be as covetous for grace as others are for gold and take as much pains for heaven as ever I did for earth and be as zealous for God as others are for sin and improve my time for the spiritual advantage of my soul Upon Birds picking up the seed 8. Med. WHen I had sown my seed in the garden I perceived that which lay uncovered was made a prey to the fowls of the air who pickt it up and devoured it this brought to my minde our Saviours parable of the sower and the seed wherein he discovers the reason why though so much seed be sown so little fruit appears the fault is not in the seed for that is good the good word of God though sometimes the envious man may mix tares with it Neither is the fault always in the sower though sometimes it may for many of them are faithfull and painfull but for the most part it lyes in the ground in the heart where the seed should be entertained we finde here there was but one fourth part good and oh that the one tenth part of those that hear the word were really such some of the ground was high-way ground not fitted and prepared for a crop never plowed deep enough the seed indeed was sown upon it never in it it was never covered or harrowed by Meditation nor set out by consideration and therefore lyes liable to be pickt up by the wicked one who will be one at Church whoever is absent he makes a path-way over the heart and hardens it against the word this makes many so Sermon-trodden that they receive no impression some we finde was sown in stony places where it had little earth and less root these rejoice to hear it at present these have some meltings and some sudden pangs of joy but they are too violent to hold out and like a hasty rain slide away and soak not in and leave but a dew behinde them they are inlightned by a flash of lightning and not by the sun beams they are moved by some external principle as clocks or watches or other engines but the root of the matter is not in them and therefore withers away and comes to nothing like corn on the house-top for when persecution ariseth they are

soon offended and Christ may take heaven to himself for them if this be his rate of it some seed was sown among thorns and these sprung up and choaked it the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choak it few rich men can handle these thorns and not prick their fingers most overload themselves with earth and so lose heaven they set their hearts with Saul upon the asses when a kingdome is before them these like dissembling hosts welcome us into Innes and at last cut our throats and there is but a little good ground and that also brought forth variously some an hundred some sixty and some thirty-fold every man cannot excell we should strive after the highest pitch of godliness and content our selves with a low frame of spirit but not dispair though we fall short of it God accounts it good ground that brings forth any good fruit to maturity This consideration made me reflect upon my own condition and call my self to an account what sort of ground my heart was since so much seed hath been sown and so little fruit appears Oh my soul how comes it thus to pass that thou art barren and unfruitfull how comes it to pass the seed is lost after so much labour pains and care so much manuring and cultivating what could God have done more for thee by the way of means then he hath done why then bringest thou forth wilde grapes art not thou the high-way-ground and hath not the devil hardned thy heart that it is become sermon-proof and Ordinance-proof and doth he not pick up the seed which lies lose upon it and is not covered by meditation art not thou a forgetful hearer and how can that fructifie that is thus stole away or was it not sown among stones no wonder then if fruit appear not where a root cannot be had trust not to all stirring of the affections Herod heard John Baptist gladly and reformed many things but if the stone of the heart be not removed and a heart of fl●sh given thee how can corn be expected upon a rock that was never softned mortified or made fruitfull or was it not sown among thorns didst thou not suffer the thoughts the cares the fears of the world or the love desire of or delight in riches to choak it when the heart brings forth such fruits the word cannot prosper when the vessel is full of water it can receive no other liquor O my soul if this be thy case beware of it and prepare thy heart to receive the seed and harrow it in by Meditation what good will meat do if not eaten and digested or what good can physick do if not taken or a plaister if not applied or the word if not set home to the conscience and reduced into practice empty thy heart of all distrustfull cares and fears break up the fallow ground of thy heart and sow not among thorns Oh my God! if thou be not the husbandman there will be no good crop If thou direct not the plow there will be no good furrow If thou bless not the seed and the labour all is in vain Paul may plant and Apollo water but God gives the encrease If God set not a hand to the work old Adam will be too hard for young Melancthon and the devils tares will thrive better then the good seed Man can but speak to the ear God can speak to the heart no plaister can heal if God be not the Surgeon no food can nourish if God be not the nurse Lord reach my heart cure my wounds remove nay distempers empty my soul of froth and vanity that the water of life may be received Say to my ears Ephphatha be opened and they will hear and to my heart be soft and it will be done Say to these dry bones live take my stony heart into thy furnace or what good will it do to preach to a stone all the water that falls upon it will be spilt and all the means of grace lost Lord speak the word and it will be done command my heart and it will obey Upon refreshing rain after a dry season 9. Med. WHen I saw after a dry season wherein the fruits of the earth languished for want of moisture that when a refreshing shower of rain came how they flourished grew and encreased and how fresh and fragrant these were which a little before hang'd the head and droop't I plainly then saw that all the pains and all the cost and all the care which men were at even about these earthly enjoyments signifies nothing if God deny his blessing if the influences of heaven were but restrained what would all our care and labour signify we may rise early lie down late and eat the bread of carefulness and all to little purpose but how few look up to the true cause of plenty or want The most are like to hogs under the tree that eat the crabs or acorns when they fall but regard not whence they come and murmure if they have them not I considered the earth wanted the influences of heaven and the heavens wanted a commission from God and till that was sealed the creatures could not be supplied it was in vain to quarrel the one or the other nay man had no cause to quarrel at any but himself where the obstacle lay for had not he sin'd the creatures had not suffered This made me a little consider the course of nature and how one creature depends upon another and every one seems to be made for another rather then for it self The Sun the Moon and Stars those glorious lamps and beauty-spots of heaven in their uncessant and unerring courses powr out their heat and light and influence upon the earth and by this means the creatures are generated and the earth refresh't without which influence it would be but a barren dry and unprofitable heap and all things therein would languish and die The earth not ingrateful for received favours conceiveth and produceth corn and grass herbs and flowers plants and trees and other vegetables both for the use of man and beast whereby the vegetable and sensitive creatures are maintained beasts of the field fouls of the air fish of the Sea and all creeping things are fed and cherished these again offer themselves for food or service to man their little Lord and he alone is made capable of communion with his creator and especially fitted for his service When I had seriously considered this subordination among the creatures and that every one seemed to minde anothers good rather then his own this led me up to a first cause to enquire who directed them to an end they knew not and led them by a rule they understood not and when I considered that all those famous works were made and thus subordinated each to other and thus directed for the sake of man this made me break out with the Psalmist upon the like occasion Lord what is man that thou art mindefull

thou wilt kill the cursed tree stub it up by the roots and not lop off here one branch and there another for if the root be dead the branches will soon wither but if the root live the branches will revive The way to cleanse the stream is to purge the fountain for sweet water cannot proceed from a stinking puddle if the tree be good the fruit will be good also if the spring be not dried up it will sooner or later overflow the dam the way to cure the sore is to heal it at the bottome and heart-reformation is the best way to life-reformation hypocrisie within will like a botch at length break forth and a rotten heart will ere long rot the life also O my God without thy assistance all my endeavours will prove vain the devil the world and my own deceitful heart will beguile me let me not strive in my own strength nor fail of thine assisting grace rather cast me into the furnace then suffer my corruption and dross to remain in me and rather plow deeper furrows by affliction then suffer the roots of the weeds to remain in my heart turn me O Lord and I shall be turned convert me and I shall be converted let me not take up with a partial reformation and let nothing less then the death of sin give me content Upon the care men take of their Gardens 11. Med. WHen I considered how careful many men and women are to keep their garden in order and what pains and cost they are at in this thing and what time is spent to this end and how many are employed in this work walling fencing and securing it in digging dunging weeding and much more there must not a rarity be wanting that love or labour or money can procure there must not a weed be seen nor hearb nor flower out of order what is dead must be supplied what is wanting must be had and what is superfluous must be cast away the tenderest must be secured from frost and scorching sun and the whole must be formed after the newest mode and latest fashion the alleys and walks must be swept and trimmed and rowled and levelled the grass mown and kept under and all so exactly done that it may appear to be an earthly paradice a place of pleasure and delights And observing also that all this while those very persons so curious and so neat in shaddows yet neglect the substance and suffer their own souls and the souls of their Children servants and near relations the gardens God only takes delight in to be sadly out of order and though they make choise of the choisest skilfullest painfullest men for the other they let out these gardens to the devils dressing without regard who sows tares and poppy cokle and darnell weeds and rubbish thorns and thistles in them and whatsoever bad is which grows and flourishes without controul and choakes all the good seed that is there sown these men are made keepers of others vineyards but their own vineyard they have not kept these men suffer the devil to make a path-way over their hearts when they only look to the ways in their gardens I have oft wondred at their stupidity in spiritualls that are so ripe-witted in temporalls and that those that are so good husbands for the body should be such bad husbands for the soul and those that take so much pains for a little imaginary pleasure here should altogether neglect the true pleasures everlasting joys at the right hand of God for evermore Oh the stupendious folly of men to prefer pebbles before pearls and gold before grace and a handful of flowers before an heartfull of holiness and the shadow before the substance and earth before heaven and a garden before paradice well however they do now the time is coming these men will finde their mistake and will alter their minde and change their judgment when grace will be accounted the choicest flower in the garland and a dram of it will be of more value then a cabinet of Jewels and holiness will then prove the best fashion though many now disdain to wear it Oh my soul art thou not guilty thy self of those sins which thou so sharply chargest upon others doth not this shew that thou lookest too much abroad and too little at home art thou not too deep in the transgression which thou now castest upon others and puts other mens sins in the end of the wallet before and thine own behinde out of sight thou art blinde at home and quick-sighted abroad and seest the mote in thy brothers eye and not the beam in thine own hast not thou thy self been more prodigall of thy pains thy time thy cost thy sweat for meer trifles then ever thou hast been about thy greater concerns and is any mans folly more conspicuous then thy own hast thou not had thy ears open to those bewitching Syren songs of pleasure and been more tickled with earthly sensuall delight then with communion with God in his worship and service when the world hath smiled upon thee how unwilling hast thou been to die and to be with God and hast laid cut thy self thy strength thy time too much for earthly enjoyments to the neglect of heavenly riches sweep therefore before thy own doors before thou complain of the foulness of the street pluck out the beam out of thy own eye before thou offer thy helping hand to thy brother to remove his mote throw the first stone at thy self reform what is amiss and then thou maiest reprove another more boldly get thy affection weaned from the world and thy eye fixt upon better riches and more enduring pleasures lest God give thee these for thy portion and what then wilt thou do in the latter end Oh my God what shall I say to thee how shall I answer thee my iniquity is found out this day to be hatefull had I spent but my time for spirituall advantages which I have prodigally wasted for very trifles it might have been much better with me had I planted and sowed in a more fruitful field I might have had a better crop Lord wean me from the dugs of carnal delights though it be with the gall and wormwood of afflictions and suffer me not to surfet on the worlds dainties leave me not to my own will then shall I undoe my self feed me with food convenient and it sufficeth me Upon a neglected Garden 12. Med. WHen I saw by experience how soon a neglected garden grows out of form and fashion and in a short time comes to be a rude and indigested heap grown over with weeds and nettles trash and rubbish destroyed with moles inhabited with toads serpents or other vermine the wall broken down the fence decayed beasts and swine making a prey of it the one tearing off the tops the other digging up the roots of the tender plants the hearbs and flowers dying withering or decaying choaked by the weeds or starved for want of nourishment

they only bear an empty name and notion those that pursue them will finde their mistake and that they were not worth their time and pains and cark and care especially their souls which are like to be lost into the bargain but God and Christ and heaven and glory are worth our labour we cannot buy this gold to dear Oh my God this hath been my folly to hunt after these butterflys and neglect the race where a crown of glory was to be the prize and my own soul lay at the stake I have laid out my money for that which is not bread and my labour for that which satisfyeth not I have been one of these busy creatures that have made a great and confused bustle in the world to little purpose help me now to devote my self to thy service and give up not only my name but my heart to Christ then may I expect a better reward then the world hath given me and better happiness then the creatures can afford Upon the Diligence of the ants 17. Med. UPon the former occasion when I had as before was noted disturbed the ants and put them into a confusion I observed what would be the issue and saw when the present fear and amazement was a little over which put them into that disorder they unanimously with a joint consent applyed themselves with might and main to order what I had disordered with my foot and to repair the breaches I had made in their Castle or strong-hold every one laying hold of something and carrying it to the common heap methought they did resemble a well ordered well governed common-wealth where the whole community joyn heart and hand for the common interest and lay out their strength for the publick benefit but alass where is there such a government such a society to be found what a happy thing were it to see the inhabitants of a Nation of a City of a Town or Village to have publike spirits and every one to concern himself in the concerns of the whole and unanimously minde the publique good as well as their own private concerns but alass it is far otherwise both in Nation Town and Countrey yea publike persons that are in Authority and to whom the welfare of the rest is intrusted too many of them have low base private spirits and will go no further then their own private interest gain and advantage drives them yea if Christians that make more then ordinary profession of religion were of publike spirits and would sympathize with each other in weal or wo and put to a helping-hand and a willing-heart and watch over each other and assist one the other upon all occasions and exigencies for soul and for body what a growing thriving sweet communion would there be the Psalmist tels us Psal 133.1 behold how good and how pleasant it is for men to dwell together in unity it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down to the beard c. yea like the dew of hermon and the dew that descendeth upon the mountains of Zion c. but such unity is more to be wisht for then hoped for in our days wherein Christians rather worry one another then help and assist The dilligence and industry of these poor creatures also brought to my minde the counsel of Solomon to the sluggard and oh that I could speak it loud enough to my self and others that are guilty Pro. 6.6 go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise which hath no guide overseer nor ruler yet provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest The Naturalists and others have written much of the industry of these creatures not only that they gather their store but also draw it forth say some in a sun-shine-day to dry it to keep it from putrefaction These insects are as one calls them veri Laicorum libri the true Lay-mans books wherein they may learn their duty Oh man how art thou degenerated that wast made but a little lower then the angels and wast indued with reason to rule these inferiour Creatures and not only ad laborem natus sed ratione ornatus and yet now must be sent to learn wisdom not only from the oxe and the asse Isay 1.3 not only from the stork the turtle the crane and the swallow Jer. 8.1 but down to the lowest form the poorest insects the most despicable of all others and that to learn wisedom and diligence these by an instinct of nature gather their food in summer for winter and shall man that hath reason to foresee the danger be careless But how many oh too many as if they had forgot that God had said In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Gen. 3.19 live idly and cannot give account of one days work in a moneth of this sort are many of our Gentry that eat and drink and rise up to play but God never gave them their parts and their Estates for this end and an account will be required at the last and they will know that they were not the only proprietors of what they enjoy but the Stewards But there are others no less faulty perhaps more guilty and those are our idle drones that make begging their calling and follow no other employment though they are able those that content themselves in diem vivere as the fowls of the air do and some are not only idle but prodigall also and spend and consume that wastefully that might refresh their family handsomly but as one saith care should be taken ne promus sit fortior condo that our layings out be not more then our layings up But the greatest slothfulness is in reference to the soul how strangely negligent are the most of men though God rain manna about their tents yet will they not gather it but suffer the soul to starve they are like the foolish Virgins they seek not for oyl till their lamps are out and the bridegroom be come or like the wicked servant bury their talents in a Napkin Oh my soul thou hast a lesson for thy instruction or an example for thy imitation these poor yet diligent creatures justly reprove thee for sloth and negligence many of thy years are past and little of thy work is done thou hast been playing in the dust and though called neglected to come home to thy fathers house thou hast trifled out the morning and now the shadows of the evening are stretched out and the day far spent beware of idleness this will leave thee short of heaven double thy diligence and amend thy pace give diligence to make thy calling and election sure be diligent in Gods work that when the devil comes to tempt he may finde thee well employed when Christ comes to judge thee he may not finde thee idle when death comes to call thou maist be ready when the bridegroom comes thou maist have oil in thy vessel and a lamp ready trimmed in

thy hand and a wedding-garment on thy back improve thy talents well that Christ may say well done good and faithfull servant enter into thy Masters joy when others only wish for heaven do thou work for it Oh my God I have been one of these loitering truants that am justly here reproved and sent again to school to the meanest of thy creatures their diligence shames my negligence they have only an instinct of nature to guide them I have reason experience Scripture and example to put me on they labour only for the body I for the soul and body they for the meat that perisheth I for that which endureth to eternall life they for a winter I for eternity yet are they diligent and I negligent Heaven and earth may stand amazed at my folly Lord pardon what is past and incline my heart for the time to come to give diligence to make my calling and election sure Let me so run that I may obtain so fight that I may conquer and be faithfull to the death that I may receive the crown of life Upon the gorgeous dresse of Flowers 18. Med. WHen I seriously considered the various dress the curious colours of the herbs and flowers which diapred the plot I took some delight to consider the power of God in them and how far he condescended to please our fancies and delight our sences when I saw how gorgeously they were attired how beautiful they appeared it led me up to the fountain-head even to God who is beauty and comeliness it self and the greatest beauty that the world can brag of is but a spark to this fire a ray to this Sun and a drop to this ocean if the creature can be so beautiful what is the Creator end if earth be so pleasant what is heaven but when I considered also the transitory fading nature of these short-lived flowers how soon when they were in their prime they withered away and perished this put me in minde of the vanity of man which is compared to a flower which cometh up and is cut down like a flower and never continueth in one stay and not only he but all earthly enjoyments are short-lived and soon perish But when I considered their beauty with their fading nature it minded me of our Saviours words Mat. 6.28 c. Why take you thought for raiment consider the lillies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory is not arayed like one of these wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven shall he not much more clothe ye O ye of little faith c. he sends us in the former verses to the sparrows which though they neither plough nor sow reap nor mow nor carry into barns are yet fed by divine providence so here he sends to the grass and flowers who though frail vanishing things are gorgeously attired by him and all is to put us on to depend upon our fathers providence for the force of the argument is thus If God feed these worthless sparrows and not one falls to the ground without his providence and so clothe the withering grass in such a dress doubtless he will not suffer his sons and servants to want necessary food and rayment which as they are better so are a thousand times dearer to him then the fowls or flowers There is in every man by nature a conceit of self-sufficiency as if by our own diligenee we could provide for our selves and are ready to undertake Gods part of the work Now this self-confidence is the daughter of unbelief as one saith is the mother of carking care and carnal thoughtfullness Our Saviour here by many arguments disswades us from these there is a care of the head not only lawfull but commendable but there is a carking distrustfull diffident care of the heart here condemned when a man hath done his utmost endeavour in the use of lawfull means yet vexeth himself about the event what if this or that follow I fear I shall die a beggar c. One day saith David I shall perish by the hand of Saul What shall I eat or what shall I drink c. because God will not let us know how we shall be provided for therefore we are ready with Israel to question Can God provide a table in the wilderness Psa 78.19 Oh my soul how justly art thou reproved and sent to these poor creatures to school hast thou not had distracting thoughts and distrustfull fears hast thou not oft been questioning What shall I eat or what shall I drink or wherewithall shall I be cloathed what shall become of my wife and children when I am dead c. even contrary to the express command of the great God as if thou hadst had no father to provide for thee or no God to depend upon or no promise to uphold thee and though God hath ofttimes silenced thy fears and husht thy cares by an unexpected providence yet upon the apprehension of new danger new fears arise like murmuring Israel though they had seen Gods wonders in Egypt at the Red Sea in feeding them with Manna yet cry out Can he furnish a table for us in the wilderness Psal 78.19 yea though thou hast never wanted food nor rayment nor any thing truly necessary and hast a promise thou shalt never want any thing that is good and though God hath bid leave your fatherless children with me and let thy widdows trust in me yet how hard is it to commit wife and children to him if there be no visible means for their subsistance or to trust him when means are out of sight and the world doth not pass for payment what if thy food be not so dainty nor thy cloathes so fine if the one nourish thee and the other keep thee warm it matters not if thou do not fare deliciously every day nor go in purple and fine linnen thy betters have fared harder and gone more meanly clad reade Heb. 11.36 and be ashamed of murmuring others had trials of cruel mocking and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in sheeps-skins and goats-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in desarts and in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth what if thou hast no certain dwelling-house thy dear redeemer had not where to lay his head and those Worthys were worse bestead then ever thou wast Oh my God charge not upon me those distrustful thoughts but strengthen my faith in thy promises Lord I believe help my unbelief and let not this sin have dominion over me Enable me to say with Job though he kill me yet will I trust in him and with Ely 't is the Lord let him do what seemeth him

be refresht either by the clouds immediately or from the fountains by mans industry or it cannot bring forth but if God deny provision whence shall man have it they may say as the king Ahab did 2 King 6.26 if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press he is the fountain that must supply the cistern he it is that maketh the springs to run among the hills and fills our fountains out of his treasury Can any of the vanities of the gentiles give rain no they cannot and all the men on earth and devils in hell nay all the angels of heaven cannot do it if he deny it let men say what they please to the contrary and without water neither man nor beast fish nor foul hearb nor plant can long subsist this raised my Meditation a little higher I considered as it was in naturals so much more in spirituals where neither Paul nor Apollos can do the work or make the soul fruitful without God we have indeed many pipes but they are all supplyed by one common fountain if God withhold the water of consolation we may suck long enough before we be satisfied This minded me of a twofold errour in men one in the excess the other in the defect some they suck at the pipe and neglect the fountain these may suck long enough before they are satisfied the other thinking to be supplyed immediately by the fountain neglect the pipe these fail on the other hand in not using the means God hath appointed them some trust in the ordinances and think them sufficient and idolize the Ministers these many times suck at dry breasts the pipe can give no more then it receives from the fountain the other think themselves above ordinances and neglect them the ordinary way appointed by God for their supply and these ofttimes argue themselves out of their Religion though the dug be not that which feeds the childe yet the childe must suck milk through the dug from the breast or otherwise is not like to have it though the pipe cannot supply it is the usuall means of bringing the water the Ministry of the word is usually honoured with the conversion of souls though God can and no doubt sometimes doth work conversion without them yet it is rare Cornelius you finde was directed by an Angel to Peter Act. 10.4 5. though the angel certifyeth him that his alms and his prayers were accepted yet he reads not to him the doctrine of redemption though no doubt he could better have done it then Peter had God given him a commission but the office of preaching is given to the Ministers not to angels We finde Paul when he was strucken down in the way as he journeyed towards Damascus Christ did not teach him himself but sends him to Ananias Act. 9.6 c. and hereby graceth his own ordinance so Philip by the spirit of God was sent to instruct the Eunuch Acts. 8.29 now either Christ himself immediately or the angel or the spirit might have done the work had not God intended to have honoured his Messengers with the work of mans conversion and also to leave it as a standing ordinance to the world for the bringing in and building up those that shall be saved and therefore 't is not safe to contemn it Oh my soul sall not out with the pipe for this is the appointed way to bring water from the fountain fall not in love with it for of it self it can give no satisfaction use it thou must but idolize it thou must not trust not in men nor means food nor physick though thou must make use of them Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the living God all other are physitians of no value clouds without water broken cisterns that can hold no water It was Asa's failing and no doubt a gross one to seek to the physitians in the neglect of God think it not sufficient for the body to make use of the ablest physitian nor for the soul to live under the ablest Minister for many bodyes and souls perish under such if God help thee not whence shall they help thee the sun in a clear day may be seen in a pail of water but if it be clouded all the water in the world cannot shew it the ordinance is the usual place where God may be seen but till God open mens eyes there is none can see him there yet must not the ordinances be despised for usually God makes discoveries of himself there he could have sed Elijah himself or by an Angel yet sends him food by a raven he could have taught Paul as well as struck him down as is before-noted yet sends him to Ananias he seldom works otherwise where the means of grace is to be had he could have healed Hezekiah with a word yet useth a bunch of figs no matter what is the disease or what is the receipt if God bless it Oh my God afford me the means of grace the Ministry of thy word and leave me not up to a famine of thy word nor leave me not to the teaching of man but follow home every truth and set it home by thy holy spirit let me not suck an empty dug then shall I draw nothing but winde let me not draw at an empty pipe then shall I suck and not be satisfied supply the dug from a full breast and the pipe from a full fountain then shall I be fat and flourishing Upon the difference between the various sorts of flowers and vegetables 27. Med. WHen I considered the various forms features shapes colours and vertues of the several sorts of herbs flowers and other vegetables and though there are perhaps many hundred several species in the world yet every species hath a distinct colour shape and vertue different from the rest whereby they may be perfectly known found out and distinguisht one from another by a skilfull artist and all these together adorn the creation and make the earth lovely and every one hath its peculiar use While I spent some thoughts on these things and was admiring the creatures wisdome in these works of his hands and his good to mankinde to give a salve to every sore for he hath made nothing in vain it came to my minde how many thousand millions of faces are upon the face of the earth all alike and yet unlike all resembling one another and yet scarce two persons to be found out in the whole world so like but they may be differenced one from another in one thing or another by a discerning eye this also raised my meditation from the creature to the Creator to admire his wisdome and skill that hath as before noted thus distinguished between the several sort of vegetables though many hundreds and between so many hundred thousands of faces among rational creatures that as he gives to every seed his own

rather comfort It is not always those that can speak loudest that speaks best but he that speaks wisest the empty barrel makes the greatest sound that Sermon 〈◊〉 not always best that hath most gaudy notions and rhetorical flourishes but that which savours most of Christ and the divine Eloquence of his holy spirit he is the best preacher that woos for Christ and not for himself and would set the crown upon his head and not his own it is not the best physitian that speaks most latine greek and hebrew but he that gives the surest and safest directions to recover health it is not the tickling of the fancy a preacher should so much minde as to speak convincingly to the conscience oh my soul judge not by the outward but the inward qualification neither cover hypocrisy by a mask of seeming sincerity for God will ere long pluck off such vizors slight no man meerly upon the account of poverty for God thinks never the worse of them admire no man meerly for his riches for God thinks never the better of him this is but to worship a golden calf the time is coming that the king must leave his robes behinde him and the beggar his rags and it is the inward qualifications that must distinguish between the one and the other Dives and Lazarus when they come to stand on even ground shall by these be tried and so must all by what means or titles soever they have been dignifyed distinguished or called it is our works and worth not our wealth will follow us whereever t●ou seest Christ in any own him for God will own him esteem grace in the soul more then money in the purse and the robes of righteousness above the most costly jewels a drachm of grace is worth thousands of gold and silver for thy councellors take the wisest not the wealthiest for wisdom and wealth many times dwell not together in the same house esteem that preacher best that speaks home to the heart and conscience not him that seeks to tickle the ear and please the fancy he that woos for Christ and not for himself and seeks to put the crown upon his head and not his own esteem that Sermon best where thou findest most of Christ and not that which is drest with gaudy notions and rhetorical flourishes which serve to darken and not illustrate the matter and are as king James was wont to say like red and blew flowers fine to look upon good for little but pester the corn a diseased man had rather have medicum sanantem quam eloquentem one that will rather do well then speak well oh my God should I cover my prophanness or hypocrisy with the vizor of seeming holiness thou wilt soon discover it and unmask me for thou searchest the heart and triest the reins and all things are open and apparent to thee Lord give me sincerity and truth in the inward part for this is thy gift make me such as thy own soul delights in let me not be deceived by my own deceitful heart nor think to deceive others for I cannot deceive thy all-seeing eye Upon the constant supply the vegetables need 33. Med. WHen I seriously considered that these beautiful creatures which now adorn the earth with their flowers and enamel it with their various shapes and colours and enrich it with their odours vertues and operations yet without a constant supply of mans labour pains and diligence and also of the influences of the heavens they would soon wither die and come to nothing some of them must be yearly set or sown or transplanted others preserved both from heat and cold and all need some manure care and pains weeding watering fencing or other cares this minded me of the condition of all earthy delights or enjoyments they must be renewed or they will soon vanish all things by sin are become subject to decay there is a vicissitude of earthly comforts and a constant change Mans life cannot be preserved without food and physick and other necessaries the four Elements fire air earth and water are so necessary that if e●●her be denied mans life is at an end the houses we dwell in must be repaired or they will soon come to ruine and fall about our ears The most famous fabricks that ever the Sun saw are come to ruine The Piramides of Egypt the walls of Carthage the tomb of Mansolus or if there were any thing more famous or more durable yet time hath consumed and brought it to a ruinous heap the most impregnable castle the most invincible strong-hold if not repaired by labour and industry time levels with the ground we cannot say now of our garments as Moses of Israels cloaths Deut. 8.4 thy rayment waxed not old neither did thy foot swell this forty years it was not the worse for the wearing but as some imagine probably it grew as their bodies did they needed not to trouble themselves with anxious thoughts what to eat or what to drink or wherewith to be cloathed God brought them food to their tent-doors and provided rayment without their care or pains but with us all such comforts must be renewed with care and diligence with a care of the head though not of the heart or they will quickly be gone this consideration made me think what a great deal of confusion sin had brought into the world and subjected all things to vanity and vexation of spirit every thing saith Solomon is full of labour for as it brought death into the world so likewise all other miseries had it not been for sin we had never had aking head or aking heart or loss or cross or any thing to molest us and now every thing becomes a trouble man is born to trouble saith Job as the sparks fly upwards yet alass how doth the world bewitch men that they had rather be drudges and savages here and moil and toil and cark and care and live as it were in a dungeon and work as in the very fire then die and come to God this they make their portion this is their delight and all that they care for they sell their ease their pleasure and their very souls oh earth how dost thou bewitch us O satan how dost thou infatuate us oh heart how dost thou deceive us what disappointments doth foolish men meet with here and yet will take no warning we never did finde content and yet we are always promising our selves happinesse here where never any yet could finde it alass what proportion is there between a piece of gold and an immortal soul Oh my soul canst thou love this sin which hath brought all this misery and confusion into the world canst thou hug this viper in thy bosome which will sting thee to eternal death if not kil'd and mortified and canst thou place thy happiness in these vanishing perishing and withering vanities will these serve thy turn or boot thy needs or make thee happy can they pay thy debts or save thy

family and bloudy house as God calls it 2 Sam. 21.1 strangely rooted out oh my soul are all these things so vain and transitory what is the reason then that thou lets out thy affections so much upon them and concernest thy self so much above them and spendest thy money for that which is not bread and thy labour for that which satisfieth not and moilest and toylest and carkest and carest for them in the neglect of more necessary concerns why art thou so taken with them when thy business succeeds and when thy perishing goard prospers and why art thou so troubled when it withers why art thou so affected with the worlds smiles and knows that Syren-like when most she fawns she most intends a wrack why art thou so troubled at a cross providence as if thy happiness did consist in these enjoyments and in the mean while when thou hast crosses and losses in thy spiritual state and nothing there prospers thou layest it not to heart when God withholds the rain from the ground thou art affected when he withholds the dew of heaven from thy soul thou regardest it not why art thou so good a husband for thy body and so bad for thy soul is not the soul of greater concernment Do these outward things really go to the making up of thy happiness or is not the maintaining of communion with God of much greater concernment if thou losest a days work in the field thou art troubled but hast thou not lost many a days work in the congregation and heard many a Sermon and madst little use of it and is this nothing to thee oh my God this bewitching world this crafty devil and this deceitful heart of mine hath conspired my ruine and without thy assistance will accomplish it oh my folly that I should so affect what I know to be vain and transitory and to signify nothing to my eternal happiness Lord wean me from the world and engage my affections to thy self give me an understanding heart that I may expect no more from the world then it can perform nor spend no more time upon it then it will recompense me for and though the world must have my head and my hands Lord keep my heart disengaged let me lodge none there but my husband Christ Upon the sympathy and antipathy of vegetables 35. Med. WHen I considered the sympathy and antipathy that is observed to be between some vegetables which the Naturalists treat of and the Philosophers call occulta qualitatis for which no reason can be given when some had rather die then live and grow together and others never thrive well excepte they are planted near one to the other the like antipathy we may observe among sensitive creatures where one kinde seeks the destruction of another and others love and delight each in other nay something of this may be seen where is neither life nor sence as in fire and water and the strange simpathy between the loadstone and the iron between the jet and the straw c. This consideration minded me of the strange antipathy between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman mentioned Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed I considered also of the sympathy between Gods own people the former is lively expressed by the antipathy that Naturalists observe to be in the Panther to a man that bears such a perfect hatred to him that he will race out his image if he see it upon a wall In wicked men there is so perfect a hatred to God that they will if they can possibly race out the very image of God whereever they see it They hate every thing that God loves love every thing that he hates they hate every thing that is like him and that for this very reason because it is like him now no reason can be given of this why they should hate this God who is goodness it self who is also their creator and their great benefactor from whom they have their life and breath and being their food and rayment their limbs and sences their health and strength their peace and plenty without whom they cannot speak nor stir nor live a moment and yet this is the case of all wicked men on earth however cross each to other in their principles and contrary in their dispositions if they agree in nothing else yet they agree in this to oppose the power of godliness Herod and Pilate can both consent that innocent Christ shall be put to death though wicked men like snarling dogs are worrying one another yet joyn against the trembling hare so though they worry each other yet all agree against an holy man let a godly man be of never so pleasing a disposition and winning carriage never so open-hearted and open-handed yet this one ingredient holiness spoils all in the worlds account and renders him hatefull and contemptible in their eyes and the grossest drunkard swearer and adulterer shall be preferred before him Christ himself though never man spake like him and no guile was found in his mouth yet a seditious murderer Barrabbas was preferred before him oh the degenerate estate of poor man whither art thou fallen is the chiefest good become the object of thy chiefest hatred and is holiness wherein thou wast created and which is Gods image without which thou canst never be saved become thy scorn and more contemptible then the image of the devil is the devil become the better Master and is his work the better work and will also his wages be the better wages well praise in the parting the time is coming thy judgment will be altered and thou wilt be glad to eat those words that now thou speakest against the power of godliness I know all men are not actually persecutors but no thanks to them they have the same nature and have an aking tooth against holiness but for the preservation of his people the Lord restrains them thus he did Abimelech Gen. 20.6 I withheld thee from sinning against me therefore suffered I not thee to touch her and Laban God said unto him take heed that thou speak not unto Jacob either good or bad Gen. 31.24 viz. neither by flattery nor force by allurement or affrightment to bring him back God spake for him in the heart of his enemy The sympathy also that is amongst the children of God was minded by me they are sons of the same father and heirs of the same inheritance and therefore should be kindly affectioned one to another Rom. 12.10 arctior est copula cordis quam corporis they are brethren in Adam according to the flesh and brethren in Christ according to the spirit they rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 cum plangentibus plango saith Cyprian cum deflentibus defleo this is that brotherly love which the Apostle bids to continue Heb. 13.1 the communion with God and the communion

a conscience void of guilt that it cannot accuse them of any unjust or uncivil act lest the sergeant death put them into the devils hands and they be cast into prison th●se that will not now abate their fellow-servants a penny shall themselves pay the utmost farthing he that will shew no mercy shall finde none when they stand in need and those that now feed upon others death shall ere long feed sweetly on them Job 24.20 yea the never-dying worm shall feed upon them as it is fabled the vulture did upon Prometheus his liver oh my soul live so holily towards God and so uprightly towards man that thy greatest enemies may have nothing to object against thee but concerning the law of thy God Improve those talents God hath lent thee to his glory lest thou have the doom of the unfaithful servant consider thou art but a steward of what thou enjoyest and what is under thy hands thou hast but the dispose of it for thy masters use and he will require an account take heed of getting any thing unjustly keeping it unlawfully or parting with it sinfully put not the poors part in any childes portion this will be a canker to consume the rest and bring a curse upon thy posterity grinde not the faces of the poor for their redeemer is mighty and will not bear it do as thou wouldst be done by shew mercy or thou wilt miss of it when thou standst in need if thou wilt not forgive others God will not forgive thee Oh my God I have this sin of cruelty in my nature also oh curse and blast this bitter root that it may not spring up in me incline my heart to lenity and mercy yea to forgive mine enemies that I may resemble thee my father that dost good both to the good and to the bad Upon a kite soaring aloft yet minding her prey 67. Med. OBserving the Kite that bird of prey soaring aloft towring on high as if he meant to scale the clouds and look into heaven and with the Eagle to make his nest among the stars Obad. 4. And yet I observed he suddenly descended fell upon his prey and devoured it This observation satisfyed me that though he aimed at heaven and seemed to scorn these inferiour things yet his eye and minde was fixed here below and grovelled on the ground though the bodv were above the heart was below and his mounting aloft was but dissimulation and upon designe like the fox in the fable that pretended himself dead to take his prey the better so this kite to compass his ends carry on his designes and to take his unwary prey useth this stratagem I thought this was a lively Embleme of an hypocrite who seems to be all for heaven when he mindes nothing less he is only minding his prey driving on some carnal designe and when he seems to be trading for heaven and discoursing with God himself yet his heart and affections are glued to the world and he is carrying on some self-interest or fleshly designe and is like a waterman he looks one way and rows another Thus the Pharisees those noted hypocrites did for under pretence of long prayers they devoured widdows houses and fisht for popular applause with their prayers fastings and almes-deeds Mat. 6.1 2 3 c. their hearts were on earth when their hands and eyes were lifted up to heaven A hypocrite is most devout when preferment profit or applause is in sight but key-cold when there is no temptation they are burning hot in the publike lukewarm in their familyes and key-cold in their closets they are like a Cardinal I have read of and doubtless there are many more of his minde who being a poor fishermans son was for his humility and other qualifications advanced to several degrees of honour but always to minde him of his mean extraction and to keep him humble as he said he would have his Fathers Net in his dining-room that he might not forget his descent but at the last being made Pope the net was laid aside being demanded the reason he replyed when the fish is caught what need is there of the net This net and feigned humility was but to take the fish and there are many in our times fish with such a bait some that depend upon some godly great man or some religious Landlord or great benefactor counterfeit their colours and pretend to wear their livery the better to ingratiate themselves into their favour and friendship but when they have caught the fish the net is thrown aside for when they have attained their end or are frustrated of their expectation they soon cast off the sheeps-skin and appear in their own likeness they make religion but a stalking-horse to take their prey and use it for no other end and when that work is done they lay it afide they have a piece of work to do and when one tool will not do it they lay that aside and take another if profession of religion fail them they will turn persecutors and those that now cry hail master will shortly cry crucify him they follow not Christ for love but for loaves and will be his servants so long and no longer then they gain by him they put their hands to the plow and look back and will have no more of religion then will do them good while it will stand with their credit profit or worldly advantages they will be religious when they must part with any thing they will not buy heaven at so dear a rate but let such take heed of mocking God that will not be mocked or of playing with this candle lest they burn their wings or approach too neer the sun of righteousness lest like Icarus they melt their waxen wings and they deceive them God can easily see through this thin vail of dissimulation and smell the filthy savour of an hypocrites rotten lungs this fire will soon discover this paint and without oyl in the vessel as well as a lamp in the hand there is no entring into the bridechamber it is not then a Lord Lord open to us will serve turn yea often this rotten inside will rot the outside also and those ulcers at the heart will break forth in the life and conversation oh my soul beware of hypocrysy that damning sin that ruines thousands and sends them to hell and unfits a man for any office or imployment in Church or state this will make thee hatefull both to God and man man will hate thee for thy profession God will hate thee for counterfeiting his colours and serving the devil in his livery if religion be bad why wilt thou profess it if it be good why wilt thou not practice it Make the tree good and his fruit good or make the tree evill and his fruit evill be as thou seemest or seem as thou art and do not dishonour God by a great profession and an evil conversation there is no deceiving God by a fained shew who

a little clog at her foot I took notice how when she endevoured to mount up she was always hindred and pluckt back again and all her endeavours proved vain as prisoners that are in for flagitious offences have fetters shackles and great store of irons clapt upon them to prevent their escape and hinder their flight so it fared with this poor bird she had a weight that she could not lift I perceived she had a will to be gone but power was wanting she was not content with her slavery ●ut how to remedy it she knew not endeavours were not wanting but a wished success succeeded not I thought this much resembled the state of the poor soul by nature who was taken prisoner by satan at the fall and ever since kept under restraint and the devil leads her captive at his pleasure and he hath to secure his prisoner shackled and fettered her ever since for fear of an escape from which she cannot free her self but remains still under bondage nay the unregenerate man is so fettered and clog'd and as it were lockt to a post that he cannot stir or so much as lift up his eyes or heart to heaven and so infatuated withall that he cannot heartily desire his liberry or pray for it Satan hath put such a force upon him that he is content to have his ear bored and to serve him for ever he is so acquainted with his service that he thinks there is no better Master nor no better work he is like a bruit beast still grovelling upon the earth and thinks there is no greater happiness he is like Ulisses his men fabled by Circes charmes to be turned into swine and being put to their choise were content so to remain and not assume their human shape again so these are so bewitcht by Satan that they are unwilling to be Gods free men they know no other happiness then to have their swill and to wallow in the mire and are angry with them that would help them out they finde more pleasure in their drinking and drabbing then ever they did in praying and hearing upon these we may write the Lord have mercy upon them for they have a plague-sore running upon them they are sick to death and yet feel nothing ailing them there is but one physitian in the world can cure them and that must be with a plaister of his blood but we pass by these as yet wholly at the devils command and in his power But there are another sort of men that have this clog at the heel and that is the regenerate that have the skales of ignorance in some measure wiped from their eyes and have a principle of life in them yet are not free from this clog though they are weary and fain would be free but cannot and though their clog be lightned and many of their shackles and bolts knockt off yet cannot they mount up as they desire they cannot content themselves with their earthly enjoyments fain they would have a better portion yet corruption hangs so fast on they have much ado to mount up to take a veiw of their heavenly mansion they dare not espouse their souls to any creature-comfort and yet can maintain but little communion with their husband Christ if they do mount upon the wings ●f contemplation and get a Pisgah-sight of heaven and a veiw of those invisible things at Gods right hand yet how soon are they down again and much ado to get a glimps of Christ they are like a man that is looking at a star through an Optick-glass held with a palsey hand it is but now and then they can get a sight their corruption therefore that remains unmortified makes them cry out with the Apostle Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Oh my soul is not this thy condition how comes it otherwise to pass that thou prayest so coldly and hearest so drowsily praisest God so faintly and performest every duty so carelesly is not heaven worth the having and all the pains thou canst bestow about it is not thy soul worth the saving and eternity worth minding canst thou be zealous about trifles and negligent in things of greatest concernment sure there are heavy clogs lie upon thy heels that thou runnest no faster why art thou such a stranger to divine Meditation thou canst think of the world without weariness though it be from morning to night why then are thy thoughts of heaven so few and forced why art thou so soon tired in duty so soon weary of ordinances and so overly in them that many times thou hast scarce a glimps of Christ in a duty and but little communion with him at best why dost thou feed upon the husks of duty and content thy self with the bare performance though thou meet not with Christ in the duty will this feed thee will it make thee fat how comes it to pass so many vain thoughts roving imaginations impertinent wandrings are mixt with thy holiest dutys and most solemn services do not those evidence to thy face that corruption remains strong in thee and grace weak and why contentest thou thy self with these fetters and strivest not prayest not more against them Oh my God when shall I be freed from these when wilt thou knock off these bolts and free me from these fetters and inlarge my feet that I may run the ways of thy commandments then will my soul mount up to thee with chearfulness then shall I serve God without weariness or distraction oh fit me for my change and then come Lord Jesus come quickly give me oyl in my vessel grace in my heart and the wedding-garment of sincerity for my soul and then come at what hour thou pleasest Upon birds observing their seasons of coming and returning 70. Med. WHen I observed the cuckoe the swallow and many other sorts of birds how exactly they observed their seasons both in coming and returning and all other birds in their building and breeding how exact they were and lost not the opportunity nor neglected the season It brought to my minde Gods complaint against Israel his own people and thought how justly it might be charged against us Jer. 8.7 The stork of the heaven knows her appointed time the turtle the crane and the swallow know the time of their coming but my people know not the judgments of the Lord as if he should say these silly birds by a natural instinct without the use of reason know the times and seasons of their going and returning but my people that have greater helps and furtherances yet take no notice of the seasons of grace and of the times of their visitation he complains likewise Esay 1.3 the oxe knows his owner and the ass his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people do not consider and is not this Englands case few consider the time of their visitation or take notice of the footsteps of Gods departure Christ also

the Jewel we shall have the box if we buy the wine we shall have the cask and if we seek first the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof all other things shall be added Mat. 6.33 most men begin at the wrong end they make sure the world and think then all is safe and heaven sure but would they make heaven sure riches should not be wanting but most men think that scraping and keeping together is the way to be rich but the holy Ghost teacheth us that it is giving and laying out is the way Solomon tells us he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord and he will repay him Pro. 19.17 and he that gives to the poor shall not lack Pro. 28.27 so that not getting but giving is the way to wealth but he shall have judgement without mercy that will shew no mercy Jam. 2.13 rich men are Gods stewards he trusts them with his store-house to give their fellow-servants their meat in due season and blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Mat. 24.46 but if insteed of feeding them they feed themselves and eat and drink with the drunken and beat their fellow-servants their Lord shall come when they are not aware and shall give them their portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth but all places are too full of such evil servants and so is hell too such dust-heaps are found in every corner but those unmercifull men shall have their portion with the devil and the damned Mat. 25.34 when the charitable Christian shall have a portion in glory we are all Gods servants and have some talents or other to improve in his service to his glory which if we do we shall not be without our reward there is none saith God shuts the door of my house for nought or kindles a fire upon my altar for nought Mal. 1.10 he hath lent us our riches and yet if we improve them and employ them as we ought they will become our own and we shall send them to heaven before us where they will be made up into a crown for us this is the only good they can do the soul but whatsoever is not thus improved is lost yea worse then lost for it will be put upon our account and required of us when we give an account of our stewardship It is a great mistake and so it will be found when men think they have an absolute propriety in what they enjoy and may dispose of it at their pleasure Christ bids the young man sell all that he had and give to the poor and he should have treasure in heaven Mat. 19.21 and rich men are charged to be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to give that they may lay up for themselves a good foundation against the evil day 1 Tim. 6.16 c. had rich men but Moses eye to see the wealth of heaven and the worth of it it were not hard for them to make such a choise as he did worldlings if they could have heaven without labour or cost they would accept of it if not they will not buy it at so dear a rate but Christians say as Mephibosheth let Zibah take all so I may enjoy the king oh my soul here is riches worth labouring for thou canst not buy this gold at too dear a rate the world thou maist and many do with the loss of the soul here thou canst not be disappointed whatever rate thou setst upon this treasure it is ten thousand times better lay hold upon this make heaven sure to thy self improve the world to a spiritual advantage then will thy riches encrease as the oyl in the cruse or like the bread in Christs hands or the water in a spring thy good works will follow thee to heaven when the world will leave her dearest minions oh my God let it be so say amen to my prayer let me have thee and I have all things necessary Upon mens misery labour and pains 73. Med. WHen I considered that man that was the chief of Gods workmanship and next to the angels the most glorious creature of the whole creation yea in his creation was made little lower then the angels and cloathed with honour and dignity Psal 8.5 and was made Lord over the works of Gods hands Gen. 1.26 yea God created him in his own image all these inferiour creatures were made for his sake and for his use and service he was their little Lord yea the angels themselves are ministring spirits sent out for the good of those that love God Heb. 1.14 the saints are the Church the spouse the bride the members of Christ and so seem to be in nearer union to him then the angels themselves some think the devils envied this and so fell from their own station thus you see how man in the creation was exalted to honour but on the other side I considered how man above all the rest of the creatures was more subjected to misery labour and slavery yea vexation of spirit then any other and many of them even worn out with carking cares and fretting fears with moiling toyling spending labour which tires their bodies breaks their sleep in the night when other creatures which were made for their use and are their servants rest secure and free from daily cares and nightly troubles many kindes of them are preserved without their pain all without their care or fore-cast the masters care for some and maintain them and God maintains the rest but it is not so with man he must eat his bread in the sweat of his brows how true is that of Joh chap. 5.7 man is born to labour as the sparks fly upwards all things are full of labour saith Solomon Eccl. 1.8 molestation and misery meet us at every turn the world saith one is a sea of glass for it is vanity mingled with fire for it is vexation Rev. 4.6 man is in a restless condition tossed to and fro like a football and here he hath no resting place when I sought out the cause of this why this noble creature should be thus subjected to trouble and sorrow more then any others I quickly found out it was Gods will and mans desert for had man continued in his primitive purity he had never had an aking head or aking heart or loss or cross or any thing to molest him but when he had sin'd God pronounced this sentence upon him in the sweat of thy brows thou shalt eat thy bread which law never yet was reversed The beasts of the field never transgrest their makers law as man hath done and therefore never had such punishment threatned as man had though it is conceived they are sufferers for mans sin Rom. 8.20 had not sin gone before trouble and misery had never followed the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life and as sin brought death so also sorrow into the world

to the following Meditation I thought this tree did much resemble many great men which make a pompous shew and make a great coil and keep a great stir and bustle in the world and yet bear little or no good fruit but it is bitter sowr or unsavory they spread abroad their branches far wide fill a countrey have many under them that might bear much fruit but they drop such a poysonful influence upon them that they neither bear no fruit or worse then none bad fruit for they can seldome prosper or bring any good fruit to maturity neither is there any good tree or flower can live near them we may say of them and commonly of those that live under them as God doth of the like Deu. 32.32 c. their vine is the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrha their grapes are grapes of gall and their clusters are bitter their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruel venom of asps for what can you observe from many great ones and those that depend upon them but swearing drinking gluttony adultery Sabbath-breaking oppressing persecuting and an enmity of the power of godliness and there shall not a godly man live under them nor within their reach if they can help it and they do so poyson all about them that the very earth it self is cursed for their sakes and by their means toads and serpents brambles and briars those fruits of the curse can only prosper near them and harbour under their shadow and yet alass still they are but men though great men and signify no more then men and like men they shall die and death will level them with the meanest of men great men are indeed like capital Letters they bear a great bulk and possess a great room and have a more pompous dress and people are apt more to look upon them and children to admire them and yet in signification they are but the same with the rest and the other have the same sound though these commonly have the precedence and leading yet they are but letters and so are the rest and stript out of their dress are called by the same name these are but letters and great ones are but men they are indeed like the fore-man on the Jury they have liberty to speak first but their vote is but a vote they make a great bustle in the world for a time and act some great mans part but when the play is done and they are disrobed alass it is but poor man still and when the Lord of the vineyard comes and findes them barren he never regards their bulk or beauty but bids cut them down why cumber they the ground Luk. 13.7.9 those that are not for fruit are for the fire the herb of grace cannot grow near them nor within their reach they cast forth a poysonfull influence round about a godly man cannot live by them but he is poysoned by them or by persecution driven from them but their damnation sleepeth not 2 Pet. 2.3 I know some great trees are good trees trees of righteousness that bear abundantly and these are to be prized these are a shelter a shelter from the storm and to these the godly fly for refuge such was David Josiah Hezekiah and several others Abraham Job and good Obadiah but these are like black swans seldome seen yet some such we have in our days the most of our great ones bear poysonous fruit that infects those that taste of it some more moderate bear only leaves and it is well they bear no worse a bare fruitless profession they make but as they do no good so they do little hurt some bear a little fruit and a little makes a great shew in a great person but the most bear none or worse then none but prove like a blazing star and threaten ruine to the beholders those that have most oftentimes do least but it is pitty Gods good gifts should be thus abused an account of those talents shall one day be required as the Pharisees had their learning hanged in their light which of the Scribes and Pharisees have believed on him Joh 7.48 sapientes sapienter in infernum descendunt there are none so deep in hell as knowing men so rich men have too great a clog at their heels to run the ways of Gods commandements Christ tells us how hard a thing it is to be great and good for it is easier saith he for a Camel to go through a needles eye then for a rich man to enter heaven Mat. 19.24 Shimei seeking his servant lost himself and most men seeking riches pleasures and honours which should be their servants lose their souls Let such reade that flaming text James 5.1 2. c. go to now ye rich men weep and howl for the misery that shall come upon you your riches are corrupted and your garments are moath-eaten your gold and your silver is cankred and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last day ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter ye have condemned and killed the just and he could not resist you did men but consider the temptation that riches exposes them to and the dangerous events that often follow they would not so eagerly pursue them nor so greedily gape after them oh my soul bless God thou art freed in a good measure from those temptations that many others lie under and think thy own condition best hadst thou enjoyed more it might have been thy portion hadst thou had stronger temptation and more baits thou mightest have swallowed the hook as others have done thou hast less to answer for oh my God give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient give me food and rayment and let me be content but let not these things be my portion Vpon an old yet fruitful tree 81. Med. WHen I saw an old tree that promised little yet was richly laden and had not only more fruit then those that were younger and made a greater shew but the fruit was better also it exceeded not only in quantity but also in quality the other trees this Observation made me think this tree resembled much an old Christian an ancient professor that usually bears more and better fruit then the younger sort their judgements being ripened and mellowed by their experiences and usually they are not so tart and sowr so sensorious and self-wilde as the younger are who are apt to condemn all that are not just of their judgements though otherwise they hold forth as much of Christ and a Gospel conversation as they do themselves This Consideration brought to my minde what the Psalmist saith of such 92. Psal 12 13 14. the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree he shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon those that be planted in the

house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing those that draw sap from Christ and are grafted into him must need bud and bloom and bring forth fruit these are the trees planted by the rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in their season Psal 1.3 for as ancient men so especially ancient Christians have their judgement ripened by their experience and mellowed by time others may be and usually are more heady rash and sensorious and have a more hot and burning zeal but it is not according to knowledge now zeal without knowledge as one saith is like mettle in a blinde horse which ofttimes serves but to break his own or the riders neck their zeal is like that of the Apostles James and John Luk. 9.54 who would have called for fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans as Elijah did but this wilde fire was never kindled on Gods hearth as Elijahs was this became not a gospel frame of spirit but this younger fruit is not so pleasant to the taste we may say of this as Christ speaks of wine Luk. 5.39 no man having drunk old wine presently desireth new for saith he the old is better Now as age clarifies wine and ripens it so doth experience ripen mens judgements young professors make a great noise and a great shew in the world they bud and bloom and many of them bring forth fruit yet is not their fruit so pleasant till it be ripened by age and mellowed by experience they are more heady as I said and sensorious and apt to condemn those that cannot see with their eyes that differ from them though it be in circumstantials and things of small concerns yea perhaps disrobe them of their graces as if their hearts liks Jehu's were the touchstone of sincerity and their judgement the touchstone of truth but ancient Christians have learnt Christ better and studied their own hearts more and will yield a grain of allowance to others as knowing they need it themselves and where they see the vitals of Religion preserved they will reach out the right hand of fellowship though it be to men of a contrary perswasion in lesser matters yea they will love those better and value them more then they do those of their own perswasion where they cannot see such evident signes of grace but many times in young professors a little difference about circumstantialls casts such a mist before their eyes that they cannot see any grace at all in their antagonists a grown Christian owns Christ whereever he sees him yea though it be in one that hath wronged him and he verily thinks hates him or though it be in one that stands in his light or in his way to preferment there is honourable mention made of an old disciple Acts. 21.16 a gray-headed experienced Christian a father 1 Joh. 2.13 you are they saith Christ that have continued with me and I appoint unto you a kingdome as my father hath appointed unto me Luk. 22.28.29 God will reward those that are ancient servants especially Age should speak saith Elihu and multitude of years should shew wisdome Job 32.7 It was a duty commanded by God and yet is incumbent upon us to rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man Lev. 19.32 but then much more an old Christian the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness Pro. 16.31 Naturalists observe the herb Cudweed which the Herbalists call herbam impiam whose younger branches still yeeld flowers to overtop the elder such weeds grow too rise among us but it is an ill soil that produceth them Rehoboam neglecting the milder and safer counsel of his grave Senators and following the harsher counsel of green wits ruined himself and lost ten of the twelve tribes who revolted from him we seldome finde an antient professor apostatize or run into errours or heresy but it is too frequently seen in younger men there are many take up Religion suddenly and in a few weeks are above their teachers yea above all the Ministers in the Countrey and some of them get above Ordinances yea run the whole circle of errors till they end in Athiesm or profaness the place where they set out the devil deals by them as Elisha did by the Syrians 2 King 6.19 he brings them to Samaria when they thought they had been going to Dothan he leads them to hell and perswades them it is the nearest way to heaven oh my soul let not the devil thus deceive thee but ask advice of the wisest counsellors own Christ whereever thou seest him and make not thy own judgement the test to try all other mens nor with Jehu thine own heart the touchstone to try others judge the tree by the fruit not by the leaves and professors not by their words but by their works grow in grace as thou growest in years so maist thou be an old disciple oh my God make me fruitful and let my fruit be pleasant to thy taste and let the last be bitterer then the first Upon a leavy yet barren tree 82. Med. FInding a tree that at a distance shew'd fair but at hand produced nothing but leaves when I expected better fruit it minded me of the fruitless figtree mentioned Mar. 11.12 c. that deceived even Christ himself for he being hungry and seeing a figtree a far off having leaves he came if haply he might finde any thing thereon and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves for the time of figs was not yet probably the time of ripe figs was not yet but in his necessity he would have contented himself with those that were green and being thus disappointed he said never fruit grow more upon thee and the figtree withered and dyed and his Disciples marvelled and well they might for no conjurer with all his skill could have done the like me thinks this barren tree resembles many in our times that have a form of godliness but deny the power of it 2 Tim. 3.5 they have leaves but no fruit a shadow but no substance those hollow professors are like an old tree tall but pithless sapless and unsound these men do as players in a Comedy in voice and gesture act divine duties but in heart deny them formality as one saith is like a bull-rush the colour fresh the skin smooth but within nothing but a spungeous substance they have a name to live but are dead Rev. 3.1 they cry the temple of the Lord when they matter not the Lord of the temple they content themselves with a bare name without the nature of Christians they draw near to God with their mouths and honour him with their lips when their heart is far from him Mat. 15.8 all their holiness is in externals and nothing else but a brainless head and soulless body they have leaves to shew but

no fruit words but no works a shew but no substance their religion lies in the tongue and brain but never reaches the heart nor seasons the life they are most in externals little in internals they regulate their words and actions but the heart is not restrained or purified the heat of their zeal appears chiefly if not only in their words but the heart is cold enough they take up the easie cheap and safest part of duty but the difficult dangerous or costly part they meddle not with they make a shew of what they are not and brag of what they have not and then they laugh in their sleeves to think how they have couzened and put a cheat upon the world they worship that God in the Church that they matter not in the closet they do no religious duty without witness haply for fear God should deny what he hath received from them they are like rotten wood they shine in the night but look upon them in the day and you will finde the cheat they are like the red and blew flowers in the corn-field fine to look upon good for little but to pester the corn they are like candles they usually go out in an offensive snuff they are Saints abroad and devils at home and usually more dangerous when they appear like Saints then when they shew themselves in their colours and act the devils part bare-faced but doubtless these are not the men that God will accept nor this is not the service he requires he is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth yea the father seeketh such to worship him John 4.23.24 he calls for the heart my son saith he give me thy heart not thy tongue or hands but the heart for if he have that the rest will follow Pro. 23.26 as the heart is by nature God will have none of it till the heart be renewed and given to the Lord he will accept of nothing that comes from us he calls for the heart and says of it as Joseph did of Benjamin Gen. 43.3 ye shall not see my face without it or as David did of Michal 2 Sam. 3.13 thou shalt not see my face except thou bringest Michal Sauls daughter when thou comest These men would give the Lord any thing but the heart and he will own nothing without it these professors are like men in a boat they look one way and row another or like the kite that soares aloft towrs on high as if they were all for heaven and made light of all terrestriall things when still her eye is upon her prey and her heart glued to the ground and rooted in the earth they are like unto the peacock they have fine feathers but yet is but a dunghill-bird but these shews will not always serve turn God sees through their thin masks and will ere long pluck off their vizour be not deceived God is not mocked there are none can steal to heaven in a disguise God will know him well that shall enter there there is a sure guard and without this ticket of holiness none will be admitted this is Christ sheep-mark and those and those alone that have it shall stand upon his right hand at judgment when he comes to seek fruit and findes none he will take up his axe he hath long and may for a while spare the tree for the vine-dressers sake but his patience will not always last he will say pray not for this people for they are ripe for destruction when the sins of the Amorites were full their destruction drew neer when these borrowed robes are pluckt from the stageplayers backs for so the word hypocrite signifies then those that acted the parts of Kings will be found but peasants and those that acted the parts of honest men will be found but cheats indeed God hath many fans and much of this chaff is blown away in this life we have seen many that appeared to be something proved just nothing but when Christ comes with refiners fire and fullers soap who can stand before this burning the lamps of profession may light a man to death near to heaven oh my soul thou hast made profession of Religion a long time what fruit dost thou bring forth if thou hast nothing but tears thou maist expect that Christ shall say to thee as to the fruitless figtree never fruit grow more on thee for ever or if thy fruit be bad it will not be long but thou wilt be cut down what cause hast thou to fear that art so sensible of so much unsavory and rotten fruit and of so little that is good up then and be doing that thy last days may be thy best days and thy best wine last oh my good God though hypocrisy lodge in me let it not reign in me give me truth in the inward parts keep my heart sound in thy testimonies and I shall be safe Upon a dead tree 83. Med. OBserving a dead tree in the orchard that had neither fruit nor leaves and so was neither for profit nor pleasure for fruit nor ornament but rather an encumbrance to the ground and a deformity to the place I began upon this Observation to consider that this was the case of many a poor dead soul amongst us who though planted in Gods vineyard hedged about by his providence and watered with the dew of heaven and manured by the skilfullest vine-dressers yet remains dead fruitless and useless and hath done so many years and hath done nothing all this while but cumber the ground and keep a room and did but grow worse and worse and every day more fitter for the fire then other this minded me of Gods mercy and mans wickedness Gods mercy in sparing such unprofitable wretches some of them 50 or 60 years together and all that while sending his vine-dressers to dig and dung and manure them from year to year that never yielded any good fruit in their lives and mans wickedness that will not be won upon by all these entreaties and continued favours that are so hard that neither the sun nor the rain can soften neither fair means nor foul can work upon them and to this day do yet remain a reproach to the place they live in for sin saith Solomon is a reproach to any people Pro. 14.34 when righteousness exalteth a Nation True Religion and the power of godliness is the beauty and bulwark of a Nation but sin is a deformity and an evil disease it is the snuff that dims our candle yea threatens the removal of our candlestick Capernaum that once was lifted up to heaven is threatned to be cast down to hell if a dead tree deform a well-regulated orchard and is such an offence that it will not be endured by the owner nor be suffered to stand or if a dead carkass be so loathsom a thing that in a little time the nearest and dearest relations and the most intimate friends are weary of it how loathsome then is a

dead soul to God though the unsavoury smell of it be not perceived by natural men for how can one dead man smell another you may as well expect good fruit from a dead tree as any good action from a dead man perhaps something good for the matter may be done by a natural man as prayer fasting and almes-deeds from the Pharisees but the manner or ends spoil all but he that can say to dry bones live can say to a dead soul live and he that at the first brought light out of darkness can enlighten a darkned understanding The soul can act nothing truly good or acceptable to God till it be taken off the stock of nature and planted into that generous vine Christ then will it bear good fruit when it is nourished with sap from this root it must needs germinate and bring forth but without this there is neither bud nor blossome the soul by nature brings forth briars and brambles thorns and thistles weeds and baggage for to these it is not dead but only to good works these other are the fruits of the curse and these will choak the good seed and render it unprofitable the heart is alive to those but dead to grace and holiness of natural men God saith their vine is the vine of Sodom and of the field of Gomorrha their grapes are grapes of gall and their clusters are bitter their wine is the poyson of dragons and the cruel venime of asps their works yea their best works are pernitious the vine is their corrupt nature and the grapes their evil works which proceed from this vine their spot is not the spot of Gods people Deut. 32.5 the saints have their spots but these are not like theirs they are not so deeply ingraven wicked mens spots are like the Leopards not only in the skin but in the flesh yea in the very heart and therefore can be cured by none but Christ the great Physitian they cannot be cured by the art of man or washt away by any water the sin of the saints is but like the viper on Pauls hand through Gods mercy they hurt him not how many of these dead trees may we observe among us yea how few that be alive and few bear so much as a leaf they make no profession of Religion at all but deform the place where they are and procure a curse upon it I fear it may be said of England in a spiritual sence as once it was said of Egypt there was not a family that there was not some dead person in it and I fear there are very few free amongst us nay are not most familyes all thus spiritually dead and it appears they are dead when after twenty years dressing pruning watering and manuring and that by the most skilfull husbandmen who have spent their time their strength and their lives in the work yet they do not bring forth one leaf much lesse any good fruit and there is none can cure them but he that can put life into them and say to a dead soul live and can transplant them from the stock of nature into that noble vine Christ that they are dead is apparent for their souls have all the symptoms of death upon them they have neither heat nor breath nor sence nor motion if God call they hear not if his hand be stretched out they observe it not if a load of sin ly upon them as heavy as a mountain of lead they feel it not nor the deep gashes sin makes in the soul present before a dead man the bloudiest spectacle that ever was beheld or the pleasantest sight that ever was seen all is one he sees neither the one nor the other the roaring cannon and the sweetest musick is all one the sweetest savour and the fulsomest stink he cannot difference the lightest feather and the heaviest mountain signify the same the sweetest meat and the rankest poyson and why because he is dead no more can a dead soul judge of spiritual things promises and threatnings are all alike he is moved neither with the one or with the other oh my soul this hath been thy case thou hast been spiritually dead dead in trespasses and sins thou hast been spiritually deaf and dumb and blinde and lame and if it be better with thee bless God for it for it was he and not thy self put life into thee bring forth now fruit sutable to a tree that hath life that is transplanted into Christ that hath had such planting dressing and manuring as thou hast had that Gods labour be not lost upon thee oh my God remove those obstructions that hinder me from bearing fruit and purge me that I may bring forth more fruit put life into me and I shall live Upon a tree seemingly dead in winter 84. Med. WHen I observed in the winter-season those trees formerly green and flourishing and richly laden not with leaves only but good fruit but now were stript of all and had neither leaf nor fruit but lookt withered dead and dry and no difference appeared between the fruitfull and the barren yea scarce any between the living and the dead yet in the spring following when the sun shone upon them with a more direct ray and warm beams and the rain from heaven watered them and refresht them they revived sprung again budded bloomed and bare fruit I thought this did lively resemble a poor deserted souls condition in her widowhood when her husband hath forsaken her and seems to give her a bill of divorce when the sun of righteousness is either set upon her clouded or ecclipst or at least very remote from her sight then with the Marigold she droops hangs the head and is contracted into her self it is then winter with her and little difference appears between her and a dead soul at least in her own apprehensions when God hides his face from the soul or any thing interposes between them that she cannot see him then is she in a languishing condition and crys out with the spouse did ye see him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3.3 she cannot hide this fire in her bosome or conceal this love but it will break out then she goes from one Ordinance to another from one Minister to another enquiring after her husband Christ every corner of the house can witness her moan for his absence nothing will satisfie nothing will content but him give me Christ or else I die never did hungry man more earnestly desire meat nor thirsty man desire drink or Rachel desire children then an hungry soul desires Christ But when the sun of righteousness doth arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 the soul that before was cold and chill now becomes lively and active these cherishing rays make her bud and bloom and bring forth what Job speaks of a tree seemingly dead and withered yet saith he through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant Job 14.7 c. is really true of

such a soul that when she is in a deserted and as she imagines a forsaken condition seems dead and withered yet at the return of Gods pleased face seems fruitful and flourishing where there is life in the root it will spring when t is really dead winter and summer all is a case but though the winter may be long and sharp yet the spring will come and shew a difference between the living trees and the dead and though God hide his face for a season and absent himself for a time to see how his spouse will bear his absence and to try her affections yet this sun of righteousness will shine again and then where life is in the root it will shew it self in the branches for God will not forsake any really that are not dead utterly for a little while saith God I hid my face but with everlasting kindness will I remember her Isay 54.8 sometimes the poor soul verily thinks she is forsaken when God doth but like a father hide himself for a while to try the childes affection and every sigh and sob and sorrowful tear goes to the fathers heart his bowels yearn and he cannot long conceal himself that it is so between God and his children see that pregnant place Isay 49.14 c. but Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me never was tender-hearted father or indulgent mother more careful of their only childe then God is of his children he will never forsake those that do not forsake him he will never give a bill of divorce to any that are not willing to leave him so that you see here where there is life in the root the spring will come when it shall again germinate and bud but if it be really dead it can never recover but by the assistance of an omnipotent arm no more can a dead soul till it be grafted into the living vine then that which was dead before shall germinate and spring and when once thus transplanted it shall never wither though sometimes it may be winter with it and it make but a little shew yet the root of the matter is in it and when the spring returns it shall break forth God will never leave them nor forsake them See the Apostles confidence Rom. 8.35 38 39. who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword nay in all these we are more then conquerors through him that loveth us for I am perswaded 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 these men of all others have cause to live merrily yea though it be but assurance of adherence those that Christ loves he loves to the end oh my soul is it so that grace may be hid in times of desertion as the sap in the root in the winter season or as fire under the ashes or as gold in the mine or as a little Jewel in a great heap of ashes despair not then neither be discouraged though sometimes thy grace be out of sight and thy God hide his face and the sun of righteousness be clouded and thy comforts ecclipsed remember with David the days of old and the time when God did smile upon thee and though it be now winter the spring will return whom God loveth he loveth to the end yea with an everlasting love oh my God clear up my evidences for heaven and make out such discovery of thy love to my soul that I may never be willing to leave thee and then that thou wilt never forsake me Upon a great tree tossed with the winde 85. Med. WHen I observed some tall spreading trees stretching forth their branches on every side and were grown top-heavy how they were tost and tumbled with the winde and storms when smaller shrubs and lesser trees were more free and secure because they lay under the winde or had but a little inconsiderable head I saw and observed that it often came to passe that if these great trees bare any fruit it was blown down before it came to maturity and seldome came to good nay not only the fruit but the leaves also were forced off by the violent gusts and windes and storms and sometimes the boughs and branches also yea the tree it self is often born down by the tempest when those that were less and lower were more secure and brought their fruit to maturity with less danger and hazard This Observation made me think that these trees fittly resembled great men that made some profession of religion but few of them bring their fruit to maturity for these lye more open to temptations and are more liable to dangers then others are and the devil hath a greater spight at them then at others for they may do him more mischief and therefore he is more unwilling they should break prison then others and hangs more fetters and irons upon them great Commanders are more narrowly watcht if they are prisoners and more dearly ransomed then private souldiers hence it was that Elymas the sorcerer by the devils instigation sought to turn away Surgius Paulus the deputy from the faith Act. 13.8 as knowing he was like to be a leading man which way ever he took If great men have but leaves they are invyed for the leaves sake and few of them ever bring forth fruit to maturity yea the leaves themselves their very profession are oft times born down by the storm I have seen some that I verily believed were well rooted and grounded who yet upon approaching storms have truckled under them have hid their religion dissembled their profession and stole away from their colours and all for fear of leaving or losing any part of their estates This hath given me occasion sometimes to bless God that hath freed me from some of those temptations that others lie under and hath given me Agars petition neither poverty nor riches but food convenient and hath kept me almost all ●hy days in a suffering condition I considered I have the same nature as other men have had I but the same temptations I know not but I might have been as bad a great estate as it hath many cares and cumbers so many temptations accompanying it and some men cannot bear it no more then some mens heads can much wine or strong drink it is not the cage that makes the bird sing nor it is not abundance always that makes the heart light a staff may help a traveller but a bundle of staves will

our youthfull gallant no stage-plays for their divertisement no pleasant Comedies acted but a dismal Tragedy wherein they are like to be the miserable Actors but will never come off with applause there is no modish garb for our well-drest gallant no headtire but a flaming periwig here is no use for looking-glass nor tiring woman no use of patches powders paints or frisling irons all these are out of mode and fashion in those Territories here are no healths to pledge but that of damnation they so oft drunk in the days of their life but never knew what it was till now but now must pledge them to all eternity But this is not all their loss will be greater for they must lose the beatifical vision of God blessed for ever in whose presence there is joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore then must they be everlastingly separated from him who is the chiefest good Now they say to him depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job 21.14 and then God will have none of their company but will say depart from me c. Mat. 7.22 and 25.41 oh direfull and dreadfull sentence such as may make their heart-strings crack and their hearts break in pieces it breaths out nothing but fire and brimstone stings and horrours wo and alass seas of vengeance the worm that never dies and the fire that never shall be quenched torments without end and past imagination in this life they cannot endure the company of the godly they are either the object of their scorn or malice but then they shall be eternally separated as far as heaven is from hell or Dives from Lazarus between whom there is a great gulph fixed Luk. 16.26 Then they shall lose their souls which is incomparably their richest jewel which they sold for a trifle and now it will be required and they must stand to their bargain not that they shall be annihilated that news is too good to be true neither shall they lose the faculties of them these shall be inlarged to their further torments but they lose their God which is the life of their souls and put them into the devils hands to be eternally tormented they shall lose their bodies also for whose sake they sold their souls in a word all their happiness and all their hopes and all they accounted dear shall then be stript away all these like leaves shall fly before the winde of death and in the room of these everlasting destruction of body and soul shall succeed oh death what a change wilt thou make at thy coming and how unwelcome wilt thou be to those that live at case in possession oh my soul remember the days of darkness for they are many Eccl. 11.8 provide against this time that this may not be thy case for ere long all these leaves will be blown down provide therefore treasures that neither man nor devil can strip from thee provide a mansion in heaven before this earthly tabernacle be dissolved Lord assist me in this work without thee my endeavours are vain Upon a tree green all the winter 87. Med. WHen I observed how green some trees were all the winter and how flourishing even in the frost and snow when others are stript naked and left bare and seem dead and withered and that neither the pinching frost nor blustring windes neither storms nor tempests could disroab them or change their summer-suit to winter colours that neither summers sun nor scorching heat could make them wither nor winter cold nor storms could make them cast their leaves nor turn their lusty green to any other colour I began to think these trees much resemble a Christian that had the life of grace within him and is planted into that generous vine Christ and sucks sap and nourishment from this root these also are green when others that stand upon their own root wither and decay But these trees of righteousness are planted by the rivers of water and bring forth their fruit in due season and their leaf also shall not wither but whatsoever they do it shall prosper Psal 1.3 c. when others are driven like chaff before the winde from the face of the earth yet the sun-shine of prosperity cannot wither those nor the winde of adversity blow them down or their fruit nor remove their leaves Job was one of these trees of righteousness green at all times winter and summer in his prosperity his leaf flourished for God himself gives as ample a testimony of him as ever he did of mortal man Job 1.8 Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareteh God and escheweth evill and when he was in adversity he still retains his integrity Job 27.5.6 till I die I will not remove my integrity from me my righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live and see what end God makes with him he crowns him and chronicles him for his sincerity and patience all his affliction could not make him lose one leaf Joseph when he was in prosperity fears God and when in adversity he fears him also when he was a bondslave in Potiphars house he resisteth the temptations of his mistriss with this consideration how shall I commit this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.11 Joseph remains in Egypt like a pearl in a puddle he had set God at his right hand and would not be moved though Satan knock oft at the door there was none within to answer though the iron as the Psalmist saith entred into Josephs soul yet sin could not when the devil could not prevail against him by his hard bondage he trys to do it by a Dalilahs temptation he struck fire oft but it fell among wet tinder Joseph was semper idem when he was wrongfully cast into prison he keeps his integrity still and God owns him and gave him favour and after when he was advanc't to honour and made enter in Egypt he did not forget his God nor God did not forget him all the hot gleams of prosperity nor all the blustring storms of adversity could not shake down any of his fruit or stir any of his leaves it is true wicked men in their prosperity are said to be spreading themselves like a green bay-tree but this denotes the prosperity of the body not of the soul these leaves at death will drop as well as others and their prosperity and happiness will draw to an end and all their enjoyment will be but as a thin mist before the winde soon scattered but mark the upright and behold the just for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 I shall be saith the Psalmist as a green olive-tree in the house of God Psal 52.5 when those that trust not in the Lord shall be destroyed It was not banishment that could separate David from the stock

bring me without meat one meals meat would bring me more content in my need then all this for this would prove but a rich famishment oh vain man how apt art thou to thirst after that which can do thee no good for this life nor that to come and canst not thou content thy self without it though thou hast that which is far better oh bewitching gold with what charms dost thou infatuate the minds of men to doat after thee when thou canst never satisfy the minde or stomack yet art thou become the price of bloud yea the price of souls and many a man sells his soul to the devil for thee to live in endless easeless and remediless torments I found by experience that had I had all the wealth in the world and all the gold in the Indies in exchange for my meat my condition would have been worse then it is yea worse then the poorest beggar that goes from door to door yea then that of the gally-slaves in Turky and one meals meat would do me more good then all this this minded me of Gods goodness and mans unthankfulness he gives us what is necessary and satisfactory we thirst after that which is neither necessary nor satisfactory From this Consideration my meditation arose a little higher and I began to think that food was as necessary sor the soul as for the body for where life is there must be food to maintain it and spiritual life requires spiritual food I began to consider whether ever I was so sensible of the want of spiritual food as I was of temporal and found by experience how vain earthly delights were and how unsatisfactory without food but oh how little yea too little sensible I am of the want of spiritual food how little appetite have I to that bread which came down from heaven and that sincere milk of the word that heavenly mannah which is daily spread about our tents this made me also consider how it is with a poor hungring thirsting panting soul after Christ that crys out give me Christ or else I die and it is no wonder that nothing but Christ can satisfy such a hunger-starved soul for if neither sweet smels pleasant sights delightful musick nor any earthly enjoyment nay gold it self the quintescence as many imagine of all earthly happiness can satisfy an hungry man without meat or a thirsty man without drink surely then neither riches nor honours pleasures nor preferments can satisfy an hungry soul without Christ for though the devil still many that cry for Christ with the world as a nurse doth a childe that crys for gold with a counter yet where there is a knowledge of the worth of Christ and the want of Christ where there hath been a taste of Christ he cannot thus delude them an hungry man is not satisfied with a cake of clay nor an hungry soul with a painted bible oh my soul how is it with thee didst thou ever thus hunger thus thirst after Christ and nothing will satisfy but Christ doubtless God will satisfy thy longing desire but if thou art satisfyed with any other thing thy hunger is not right O my God work in me this spiritual appetite to this heavenly food and then give me this bread of life Upon the worth of meat to those that know the want of it 96. Med. WHen I had well refresht my self with meat after I had been hungry and fainty I began to know the worth of it by the want of it I found that hunger was the best sauce the full soul saith Solomon loatheth the hony-comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet Pro. 27.7 this holds true in spirituals also that which David accounts sweeter then honey and the honey-comb is now trampled upon by stall-fed beasts in whom fullness hath bred forgetfulness and saturity security the Pharisees found no sweetness in Christs own Sermons no wonder then if in our times men begin to surfet on the bread of life and loath the word the honey-comb it self but hunger seasons homely provision course fare doves dung and asses heads as in the seige of Samaria great Hunniades never fared better then in his hunger with a poor Shepherd with bread and water and onions I considered the providence of God how rich he was in his goodness not only in giving life but also in giving food to maintain life in giving a stomack to receive and digest this food otherwise the choisest food would be nauseous and in giving a blessing to this food and a nutritive faculty otherwise it would do no good if any of all these were wanting mans life could not be preserved I considered that bread which is called the staff of life and indeed the cheifest of all food for the preservation of life it springs out of the earth as all other food doth and there can be nothing but the blessing of God that differenceth it from the earth now if we eat bread we are satisfyed but if we eat earth we die for God never blessed the earth or put such a vertue into it as to nourish us now it is only Gods blessing that differences the one from the other in its operations for had God blest the earth to this end and purpose it would have sustained us as well as corn that springs out of it but that blessing is denied to the one which is given to the other the beasts of the field are fed by the grass this will not keep man alive yea the serpents food seems to be the dust Gen. 3.14 for what else they feed on I know not and it might have been ours had God pleased yea every species of the creatures hath some peculiar food appropriated to it and what is suitable to one is disagreeable to another now though there be bread provided it is necessary there must be life for what good will food do in a dead mans mouth yea it is necessary also that there be a stomack rightly qualified for if the stomack refuse it it cannot nourish and all these are Gods gifts some men we see are cloathed more richly and fed more daintily they eat the fat and drink the sweet yet languish for want of health when others are fat and well-liking with meaner food as Daniel and his fellows looked better with pulse and water then others did with the Kings meat Dan. 1.15 it is a mercy to have food and it is a mercy to have stomacks to eat it and it is no less a mercy to have the blessing of God upon it that it may nourish us for this is one of the greatest outward mercies we enjoy and tends as much to our external happiness this minded me of the Apostles injunction 1 tim 6.8 we brought nothing into the world and it is certain we shall carry nothing out and having food and rayment let us be therewith content for godliness with content is great gain true piety is true plenty it is storied

Jud. 12.13 they were never better then meteors and so they end in a snuff they are constant in nothing but inconstancy and being dead are fitted for the fire they like empty clouds promise refreshing showers but yield none and with the stony ground spring up and flourish for a season and they fall away wither and come to nothing how many Cedars of late have been blown down with the winde and many more will fall if the winde rise many great lights have been extinguished and many noted professors leave Christ with the young man in the Gospel rather then their riches Mar. 10.21 c. such blabs are soon blown up and such bubbles are soon broken with Demas these men choose the world before Christ yea perhaps with Judas they will betray him for money and why is all this but because they received not the truth in the love of it God gave them up to strong delusions to believe a lye c. 2 Thes 2.10 11. when they turned professors they took not Christs Counsel to sit down first and reckon the charges and therefore like the foolish builder began to lay the foundation and was not able to finish they took up religion upon trust and considered not what it would cost them or what God required at their hands and when reproaches losses or crosses come they soon kick it up and will not be of such a chargable profession some take it up for wrong ends and intend to make it but as a cloak to cover their designes or as a stalking-horse to take their prey and when the prey is taken or the designe brought about or they disappointed the cloak is cast aside the vizard cast off and the stalking-horse laid by as useless many drive on some carnal designe under such a disguise and use religion as a workman doth his tools as long as one will serve he useth it and when it will not he lays by that and takes another if persecution will fit the designe better then profession he takes up that it is no strange thing to see men in our age persecute what they have profest those that follow Christ for loaves not for love will cry Hosannah to day and crucifie to morrow if the winde turn for many are resolved rather to wrong their consciences then that their consciences should wrong them Oh my soul do so many flowers fade and so much corn wither for want of root are so m●●y Cedars blown down by the winde and so many forward professors turned apostates at the apprehension of danger look to thy self set strait steps to thy feet lest that which is halting be turned out of the way take heed lest if the sun of persecution ariseth thou also be offended and wither for want of root rest not therefore till thou canst say with Job the root of the matter is in me Job 19.28 let thy ends and motives be sound or otherwise thy profession will prove rotten expect sufferings and prepare to bear them or else never set up thy trade of Christianity if heaven be not worth having at the greatest rate and Christ at the dearest price never meddle wirh these commodities if they are break not for price the pearl in the Gospel is worth all that thou hast if religion be not good never profess it if it be never forsake it set down first and reckon the charges with the wise builder and whatsoever thou canst finde others have paid for it thou maiest expect the like may be required of thee and if upon this rate the bargain will do thee no good meddle not with it thou maist finde Jeremy in derision dayly every one mocked him David was the drunkards song Job the very abjects derided him the Apostles were made the off-scow●i●g of all things reckon therefore reproach … ●ay be thy portion seeing also Christ himself was not free omnis Christianus est crucianus thou maiest reade some for their religion sake were forsaken by their friends as Christ by his brethren this may be thy condition some have lost their estates and have been exposed to hardship and so maist thou some have been cast into prisons thus Jeremy Peter Paul and Silas and many more this may be thy portion some yea many thousands have been brought to this state and sacrificed their lives in the flames and who knows but it may be required of thee canst thou break through these difficulties else never set a step further in profession if heaven will not make thee amends for earth and God for the creature and eternal life for the loss of a temporal Oh my God without thy support I shall never be able to hold out but through thee I can do all things I know there is more excellency in thee then the world can afford and if I lose my God my soul my heaven and happiness to preserve my estate my life or liberty it will be a losing bargain these things I can want Christ I cannot want Lord give me him though upon the hardest terms let me have strong apprehensions of my love to thee and thine to me then shall I never leave thee nor forsake thee let not the glory of the world dazle my sight that I cannot behold thee in glory Upon the springing of herbs in the spring time 29. Med. AFter a sharp winter when the spring approached and the Sun began to look more chearfully upon the earth and to shine upon it with a more direct ray I beheld the herbs and flowers which before seemed dead and withered began now to bud and germinate and to spring forth and to look lively lovely and amiable the grass waxed green and the face of the earth was changed from what it was a few weeks ago trees leaved and all seemed to rejoyce at the suns approach and to answer the springing showers which kindely fell upon them and those flowers that even now hid their heads and were buried in the earth now crept out of their cells and in their kinde returned praise to their great benefactour and the winter which seemed to have kil'd them did but prepare them for their future encrease this made me consider if it be thus with poor vegetables that are soon sensible of the approaching spring and soon answer the sun beams darting upon them and the refreshing showers wherewith they are watered surely it should be so with the soul when it comes from under the clouds of affliction and when the sun of righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings this made me consider mine own condition whether I had answered the pains and cost which God had bestowed upon me whether my affliction which God had laid upon me the sharp winter that I had undergone and the sharp showers I had felt had wrought such an effect upon me as the winter and the influences of heaven had done upon these poor vegetables viz. made my graces germinate and break forth bud and bloom and bring forth fruit for I

saw whereever life is in the root it will shew forth it self in the branches oh my soul thou hast had a long and sharp winter what effect hath in wrought in thee thou hast lain in the furnace of affliction is thy dross consumed or is it not I have been under pining sickness brought to the gates of death yet hath God said to me live I have been threatned with pinching wants yet more frightned then hurt and when stript of all God let me see that he could make provision and was able to provide and furnish a table in the wilderness the barrel of meal wasted not and the cruse of oyl did not fail God blessed a little and it sufficeth when I was driven from friends and relations he raised me up friends more true then many of my relations and in due time he said to me as sometime to Jacob Gen. ●2 9 return into thy own countrey and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee sometimes I have been under a cloud and then again the cloud hath been scattered and the sun hath broke out again many have been the dispensations of providences I have been under oh my soul how dost thou answer Gods expectations in these providences affliction springs not out of the dust neither doth trouble rise out of the ground is there evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it whoever is the instrument God hath a hand in the work whoever be the rod it is he that layes it on it hath a voice and we should hear it he hath an end and that is thy reformation dost thou answer his end if the rod be removed before the childe be reformed either he intends to get a bigger rod or leaves thee off as incorrigible which is the sorest judgement The winter now is past and the singing of birds is come the earth and all things therein look lovely and each vegetable where life is discovers it and is it only winter with thee and doth no fruit appear God justly may say to thee as of the fruitless fig-tree never fruit grow more on thee for ever if all his labour be lost and all his expectations frustrated and all his plowing sowing and manuring vain he will say of thee as sometimes of his vineyard what could I have done more for him then I have done wherefore then when I expected fruit doth he bring forth wilde grapes canst imagine God will always bear with a barren fruitless tree in his orchard or an unprofitable unfaithfull servant in his house or a hard and stony heart that neither summers sun nor winters frost can work upon neither judgements nor mercies mollify many a year he hath been seeking fruit and findeth none and yet hath been prevailed with to try thee one year more but his patience will not long bear with thee if reformation prevent not the sentence will ere long be past cut him down why cumbers he the ground many a time the sun hath shone with a favourable aspect upon thee and many a time the dew of heaven hath been showred down many a faithfull skilfull husbandman hath been sent to dress thee and manure thee and must Christ when he seeks fruit still meet with disapointments art thou so hard and rocky that no furnace will melt thee nor hammer break thee or bring the into form meet for his building then must thou be thrown out amongst the rubbish Oh my God this is my condition by nature but thou canst change my nature thou hast a furnace will melt me and bring me into any form thou hast a hammer can break me and fit me for thy work thou canst soften me and make me pliable thou canst take away the stony heart and give me a heart of flesh Lord is it not thy promise make it good to me blow upon my soul and the graces of thy spirit will bud and break forth speak the word and my soul shall live Lord teach me thy self and leave me not to the teaching of man there is no other can reach the heart they speak only to the ear Upon a withering knot of herbs 30. Med. WHen I beheld a knot of herbs mixt with flowers in the garden in a decaying withering condition some part dead others languishing and but a few alive and flourishing I left off weeding dressing cutting and manuring them as those that never were likely to answer my pains or recompence my labour but considering there were some living which were likely to be choaked with weeds if let alone and disregarded I transplanted them into better soil leaving the dead ones to themselves for the fire or any other use I mattered them not I considered then how gastly and unseemly the place was when the living herbs were removed what a confused heap and worthless piece it was of no profit pleasure or benefit the thoughts of this strait brought to my minde that as I had dealt with these withering herbs and flowers so God oftentimes doth by a withering Church some of them he takes into his bosome others he transplants and findes them a better place and then roots up the rest or reserves them for the fire or some other judgement perhaps lets them alone a while to bear a place and perhaps the name of flowers till at last they are rotten-ripe and fit for nothing but burning Thus he preserved Noah for another plot which he was about to make when he destroyed the old world which before was his garden when the plants were most dead He removed Lot into another soil when he rooted up his garden in Sodom he would not fence a place for so few living herbs but laid it waste and burnt it up he transplanted Abraham from the place of his nativity and found room by his providence for Isaac and Jacob whose posterity he transplanted into Egypt where for a long time they did thrive and prosper till in the end overrun with weeds briars and thorns he transplanted Israel into Canaan and cast the Egyptians those dead and worthless plants those weeds and thorns into the Red-sea and since that time hath laid waste many a garden which formerly did flourish when they withered and decayed witness the seven famous Churches of Asia mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters and suffereth briars and thorns to overrun the places I considered that when God removes his own plants either into his bosome or elsewhere it is time for the other to look about them Esay 57.1 the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evill to come When Gods jewels are removed his care of that place is over when his flowers are gone he will pluck up his hedge and throw down his wall and let it be eaten up and troden down he will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged and there shall come up briars and thorns and he will command

complains of such that could discern the face of the sky but could not discern the signes of the times Mat. 16.2.3 as if he should say are you so weather-wise that you can foresee the rain and are you so ignorant of Scripture that ye know not the time when the Messiah should come Mat. 23.37 oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Luk. 19.41 42. when he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thy eyes c. they had lived under the Ministery long but no change was perceived oh poor man how art thou degenerated even below the fowls of heaven or the beasts of the earth thou wast made a prince over the works of Gods hands and all terrestrial creatures were subjected to thee and now art sent to the oxe and ass to learn of them thy duty and doth their understanding outreach thine Most men are apt enough to take advantages for the world they will not neglect seed-time nor harvest neither will they omit Fair or Market that their occasions call them to they suit their business to the season of the year the Mariner observes both the winde and tide and yet these very persons which the world calls good husbands are very fools in reference to the soul and let slip spiritual advantages they provide not in summer for winter in the day for the night nor in this life for that which is to come Now the candle of the Lord shines upon our heads and through his light we walk through darkness the secret of the Lord is upon our pavilion Job 29 3. the season of grace is yet continued the harvest is not quite over the market-day is not past and we may lay in provision for the soul and the means of grace is yet afforded us but how soon winter may approach we know not how soon the sun of the Gospel may set and night come we cannot tell when no man can work the shadows of the evening are stretched out Jer. 6.4 and the night seems to be approaching and ere long our day will be over and never dawn again there are sad symptomes that the glory is departed from Israel and that God is going from us and wo to us if he depart there are gray haires here and there upon us and we perceive them not Hos 7.9 'T is our wisdome to observe our season and strike while the iron is hot and make hay while the sun shines and work while we have the light this is the season of gathering honey with the bee and getting oyl with the wise Virgins the bridegroom is at hand and will come in an hour we know not of and at a time when we are not aware of and only those that are prepared will enter with him and the door will be shut then shall we wish as Christ doth for Jerusalem that we had known the day of our visitation but it will be too late The time of our visitation is called a day for the shortness of it and yet we are not sure this day shall have twelve hours many mens sun sets at noon God may remove his candlestick from us as he did from the seven Asian Churches or his dwelling from us as from Shiloe Jer. 7.12 and where are we then Go to my place in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel and may not he say thus of England what assurance have we more then they of Gods continued presence if our sins equal theirs the abuse of mercies the contempt of the Ordinance the abuse of his Ministers and the making light of Christ himself are crying sins and I fear we cannot wash our hands from them Oh my soul observe the seasons of grace afforded to thee by God for whether thou improve them or no they must be upon thine account take the opportunityes put into thy hands take time by the fore-lock or thou wilt finde that it is bald behinde improve every talent God hath lent thee and let none rust by thee cherish every motion of the spirit and blow it up into a flame this is thy seed-time where thou must sow what thou must reap in eternity Gal. 6.7.8 whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting and he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly this also is thy harvest-time lay in for winter it is thy market-day fetch in provision it is thy now or never neglect it not oh my God rouze up my dull and drowsy soul by some quickning considerations and let me not sleep away my time in security rather spur me on by some affection then suffer me to fall short of my journeys end let me live every day as if it were my last and perform every duty as if I were presently to give an account of it to God Upon a snail 71. Med. OBserving a snail that sluggish creature how slow she was in her motion how sloathfull her pace how much time was spent how little ground she rid and observing also that all the instigations I could use rather hindred then furthered her journey for when I prickt her forward she plucks in her horns and stood still and no means I could use could make her mend her pace this made me think this was a fit embleme of a sluggard as he is lively set forth by wise Solomon in his book of Proverbs the slothfull man saith he saith there is a lion in the way I shall be slain in the street Pro. 26.13 14. he forgets the roaring lion that prompts him to these silly excuses but never any came to hell that had not some excuse for their coming thither corrupt nature needs not be taught to tell her tail sin and shifting came into the world together men hide their sins from themselves by false glosses from others by idle excuses they would perswade the world they have some reason to be mad as the door saith Solomon turns upon the hinges so doth the sluggard upon his bed abroad there is a lion and at home there is a lusk that lives in the world to no purpose he hideth his hand in his bosome and it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth and much more to this purpose but of all other the snail resembleth the spiritual sluggard and the Lord knows there are many of them in our days yea which of us is not tainted with this disease for hardly can we finde any men so sluggish for the world as most men are for heaven or