its own concernments If there were but a clear insight into that Blessedness into which Peace of Conscience doth Estate a Believer it could not be but that it being laid in the Ballance with the health of the Body it should as far over-weigh it as a full Bucket a single drop or as the Vintage of Wine a particular Cluster True it is that health of Body is the Salt of all outward blessings which without it have no relish or savour neither Riches nor Honours nor Delights for the Belly or Back can yield the least Pleasure where this is wanting So that the enjoyment of it alone may well be set against many other Wants And better it is to enjoy health without other additional-comforts then to possess them under a load of Infirmities And yet I may still say Quid Palea ad Triticum What is the Chaff to the Wheat Though it be the greatest outward good that God bestowes in this Life it is nothing to that Peace which passeth all understanding Sickness destroyes it Age enfeebles it and Extremities imbitter it But it is the Excellency of this divine Peace that it worketh joy in Tribulation that it supports in Bodily languishments and creates confidence in death Who is it that can throw forth the Gauntler and bid defiance to Armies of Trialls to persecution distress famine nakedness peril and sword But he whose heart is established with this Peace the ground of which is Gods free love the Price of which is Christs satisfaction the Worker of which is the Holy Spirit and the Subject of which is a Good Conscience This was it that filled old Simeons heart with joy and made him to beg a Dimission of his Saviour whom his eyes had seen his armes embraced and his Soul trusted in What a strange thing is it then that there should be so few Marchant-men that seek this goodly Pearl which is far above all the Treasures of the Earth that are either hid in it or extracted from it Many say Who will shew us any good but it is David onely that Prayes Lord lift up the light of thy Countenance upon us Others like the scattered Israelites in Egypt go up and down gathering of Straw and Stubble when he like an Israelite indeed in the Wilderness of this World seeks Manna which his Spirit gathers up and feeds upon with delight and then cries out Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased It is the love of God shed abroad in the heart that doubleth the sweetness of prosperity and sweetens also the bitterness of asfliction A wonder onely therefore it is not that few should seek but a much greater that any in this World should live without it Can any live well without the Kings Favour either in his Court or Kingdom And yet there are many places wherein such Persons may lie hid in his Dominions when the utmost ends of the Earth cannot secure them against Gods frownes But if any be so profligate as Cleopatria-like to dissolve this Jewel of Peace in his Lusts and to drink down in one prodigious draught that which exceeds the World in its price and yet think they can live well enough without it let them consider how they will do to die without it Sweet it is in life but it will be more sweet in death â—t is not then the Sun-shine of Creatures but Saviourshine that will refresh them It is not then Wine that can cheere the heart but the Blood of Sprinkling that will pacifie it The more Perpendicular Death comes to be over our head the lesser will the shadow of all Earthly comforts grow and prove useless either to asswage the paines of it or to mitigate the feares of it What is a fragrant posie put into the hands of a Malefactor who is in sight of the Place of Execution and his Friends bidding him to smell on it or what is the delivering to him a Sealed Conveyance that Intitles him to great Revenues who hath a few minutes onely to live But O what excess of joy doth fill and overflow such a poor Mans heart when a Pardon from his Prince comes happily in to prevent the Stroak of death and to assure him both of Life and Estate This is indeed as health and marrow to the bones And is it not thus with a dying Sinner who expects in a few moments to be swallowed up in those flames of wrath the heat of which already scorch his Conscience and cause Agonies and Terrors which imbitter all the comforts of life and extract cries from him that are like the yellings of the damned I am undone without hope of recovery Eternity it self will as soon end as my misery God will for ever hold me as his enemy and with his own breath will enliven those Coles that must be heaped upon me Of what value now would one smile of Gods Face be to such a person how joyfull would the softest whisper of the Spirit be that speakes any hope of Pardon or Peace would not one drop of this Soveraign Balm of Gods favour let fall upon the Conscience heal and ease more then a River of all other delights whatsoever Think therefore upon it O Christians so as not any longer through your own default to be without the sense of this Blessing in your hearts that so in life as well as in death you may be filled with this Peace of God which passeth all understanding If Prayer will obâ—ain it beg every day a good look from him the light of whose Countenance is the onely health of yours If an holy and humble Walking will preserve it be more carefull of doing any thing to lose your Peace then to endanger your health remember that Peace is so much better than health as the Soul is better then the Body But Grant Holy Father however others may neglect or defer to seek Peace with thee and from thee yet I may now find thy Peace in me by thy Pardoning all my iniquities and may be found of thee in Peace without Spot and blameless in the great day Meditation LV. Vpon a Looking-Glass VVHat is that which commendeth this Glass is it the Pearl and other precious stones with which the Frame that it is set in is richly decked and enammelled or is it the impartial and just representation which it makes according to the Face which every one that beholds himself brings unto it Surely the Ornaments are wholly forraign and contribute no more to its real worth then the Cask doth to the goodness of the Wine into which it is put or the â—ichness of the Plate to the Cordial in which it is administred That for which the Glass is to be esteemed is the true and genuine resemblance which it makes of the object which is seen in it when it neither flatters the Face by giving any false Beauty to it nor yet injures it by detracting ought from it To
THE Spiritual Chymist OR SIX DECADS Of Divine Meditations On several Subjects By William Spurstow D. D. Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Hackney near London My meditation of him shall be sweet Psal 104. 34. LONDON Printed in the Year 1666. The Preface to the Reader Christian Reader THe natural Sun in the Firmament whether we consider the vastness of its Globe or the splendour and dazling of its light or the variety and beneficialness of its motion and operations attended with duration and perpetuity is the top and Prince of all inanimate beings Yet the least insect that the most Artificial Microscope can discern life in is able to weigh against it and in genere entium is more perfect How excellent a being then is the Soul of man that doth not only out-strip the Sun but all other sensitive things even those that have the most lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calls them which the Oratour translates Virtutum simulacra the faint imitations of Reason Now among the many demonstrations of the excellency of the Humane Soul the operations of it do abundantly witness for it and among them to go no farther the operations of those two supream Faculties the Understanding and Will in apprehending and loving God These are more excellent than the Suns enlightning the world I choose to instance in that because the ornament beauty life of all things depend upon it for to what purpose were these things made were it not that the light of the Sun made them Proximè visibilia Yet this is nothing in compare with the Soul of man in its apprehending and loving God This speaks the Subject endued with a principle not to be transcended but only in degree in perfection You cannot have more persect operations in heaven in kind though you may in degree Angels and Souls made perfect it is true do this more intirely more perfectly more constantly and unweariedly But in knowing God and making choice of him in loving and cleaving to him the souls of holy men do according to the capacity of the present state communicate with them Now these two have a mutual aspect on each other and the happy Conjunction of Knowledge and Devotion speak the Soul Regular and Uniform in its Acts and to be in a good measure of spiritual health When Knowledge doth guide and steer as it were Devotion and Devotion doth in a kind of gratitude warm and enflame our Knowledge which otherwise is apt to chil and grow cold as experience shews in many knowing Creatures in whom the waters of the Sanctuary have put out the fire And as the separation of the love of God from the knowledge of God breeds swarms of hypocrites in the visible Church so the separation of the knowledge of God from affection to God begets a strange kind of wild fire in the Spirits of men and while they have Zeal for God which is nothing but Affection in its full stature got out of its swadling cloaths without Knowledge they are but like a Ship without a Rudder or Ballast that is a prey to every Pirate and if it miss them is carried by its own levity and the winds impetuousness on its own ruine When therefore the blessed Spirit comes to work in the soul he first enlightens the mind and sets open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gates of light and then the Will ecchoes to the Understanding and certainly that action is most congruous to so excellent a being as the Soul when the Mind takes its aime before the Affections shoot For otherwise though the action doth prove materially good yet it is no more commendation to him that doth it than to him that shuts both his eyes and then contingently hits the mark The apprehensions and affections of Mans Soul being thus regulated and conjoyned do admirably fit and dispose for that we call Meditation I mean Divine and Christian Meditation which is the off-spring of a good heart and a good head How excellent and sweet an employment this is none can know but those that have tasted it and have the skill to spiritualize all objects and providences turning every thing by a Divine Chymistry in succum sanguincm into spirit and nourishment Making the Word and Works and Ordinances of God as so many Rounds to climbe up to a more clear Vision and fervent love of God and then descending make these a clear Mirrour wherein they see themselves and to be like windows to let in that light into the private and dark recesses of the heart that discovers the hidden works of darkness and so provokes the soul to endeavour a more through purgation of it self which it is the more easily exstimulated to being under a deep sence of Gods purity and a serious affection to be like him But this duty of Divine and Spiritual Meditation is a thing that in this degenerate age the generality of Christians are utter strangers to and very hardly brought to the practice of Though there was never any time wherein the thoughts and minds of men were more busie and active and the helps inducements and encouragements more plentiful and cogent and the calls and invitations on Gods part both by his Word and Works more frequent Yet it is a work of inexpressible difficulty to bring these subtil and volatile acts of the mind to a fixation to make any considerable immoration upon those subjects that are in themselves of the greatest worth and to us of the nearest consequence Now considering that man is by God made a providential Creature and doth naturally cast up damages and gain and project the obtaining the one and avoiding the other I have therefore thought it worth the enquiring what should be the reason of their awkness to this beneficial employment and considering that Knowledge and Love are the two things that dispose for it I have thought it might arise from some defect in these and sometimes thus argued Surely this wisdom is too high for fools that men that have incrassated their souls and almost extinguished this Divine Lamp by shooting themselves so deep in sensuality and worldliness that they who have well-nigh forgot their God their own being their happiness should ever be able to mount so high as Meditation But when I considered how stupid or sottish soever these men were by debauchery or pretended to be through want of education yet they were ingeniously wicked and could in their minds lay Schemes of villany and that their phantasies were alwaies minting and forging wicked devices which they could in their second thoughts revise and polish and like a Second Edition make the Model to be Auctior nequior larger and more wicked I then saw no excuse for them that had wit enough to be wicked but none to do good And therefore looking further into the ground of it I found it arose from the second want of love to God which is the stream that sets all the Wheels of the soul
bestowed by God upon Judea the Country which is renouned for Christs Birth is also only celebrated for this Balm all other Nations wholly wanted it or at least had none like it Moses tells us that it was anciently one of the Isâ—maelites Commodities which they carried from Gilead to Egypt And Ezekiel saith it was Israels and Judahs Merchandise to Tyrus Doth it not then genuinely poynt out unto us that the whole world must be beholding to Christ for Salvation and healing Doth it not as a spiritual Hierogliphick assert that weighty Doctrine of Peters That there is no name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved but by the name of Christ Why then do men lay out their money for that which is not Balm Why do they take hold sometimes on one Creature and sometimes one another saying Be thou our healer let this ruin be under thy hand Is it not one of those glorious Appellations which God in Scripture is pleased to take unto himself Ego Jehovah curator tuus I am the Lord that healeth thee Take heed then O Christian when thou art under any distress or under any malady to cheat thy self with false remedies to use Fig leaves instead of Figs themselves Adam took the one which did only hide his nakedness but not cure it but to restore Hezekiah God took the other Use what God hath appointed not what thou fanciest Secondly This Balsâ—me tree drops and weeps forth its Balm to heal their wounds that cut and mangle it and did not our blessed Saviour do thus What a strange requital did this great innocent and holy person make unto those from whom he suffered They mock and revile him hanging upon the Cross and he prayes and begs forgiveness for them They shed his bloud and he makes it a precious Medicine to heal their putred sores They smite and pierce him to the heart with a Spear and he erects in his heart a fountain to wash them from their sin and uncleanness Was it ever heard that a Physician would sweat and bleed for his surfeited Patient Or that an offended Prince would expiate the foul Treasons of his Subjects with his own life Surely well might the Apostle say that God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Be astonished O ye Angels of Heaven who delight to pry into Gospel mysteries at this Abyss of divine love from which Seraphims themselves cannot but detract if they should in the least conceive that they could either fathom with their knowledge or express in their praises And be ye melted O rocky hearts of sinners with the ardency and strength of such love which is stronger than death it self It was his love which held him upon the Cross to finish your salvation when death could not hold him in the grave Let this love of Christ constrain you henceforth not to live unto your selves but unto him that died for you Thirdly This Balm which distills from this wounded tree is of such vertue and efficacy as that it is Medicina omni morbia Physick to cure all diseases being applied inwardly or outwardly It allayeth the Head-ach it restoreth thy eye-sight helpeth the Astmah purgeth Ulcers cureth the poysonful Sting of Serpents healeth all kind of wounds Is not then this Balm in the Letter an apt Emblem of the Balm in the mystery of the bloud of Christ Which is of an unlimited power and excellency What is the evil that can befall any for which this is not a certain Cure Oh when taken inwardly as in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper it is both Food and Physick it enlightens the dark mind it heals the broken in heart it fills the hungry with good things When sprinkled outwardly as in Baptisme it is effectual to stop the Leprosie of Sin to cure the venome and rage of Lusts to mollifie the stony heart and to make fruitful the Barren Be then of good chear O ye drooping and afflicted souls let me say to you as Paul to those in the tempest The lives of none of you shall be lost If you complain No sins like yours let me adde There is no Salvation like Christs If you say you are a Systeme a fardle of sins and lusts hear what the Apostle saith The bloâ—d of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin No man ever miscarried for being a great sinner but only for being an impenitent sinner Be not in love with your sins as Beggars are with their sores that will not part with them and then doubt not of your Physicians skill or care It is his peculiar glory that never any Patient miscarried under his hand though such was their condition that they were all utterly incurable by any other Meditation XXX Vpon the palpitation of the heart THe Pearl which in the Oyster is a disease in the Cabinet is a Jewel of rich value and in the Ear an Ornament of an orient beauty and such a thing is this trembling or palpitation of the heart in the body it is a sad malady in the soul it is an heavenly grace They who are afflicted with the one seek earnestly to the Physician for a Cure And they who want the other importune God to obtain it from him as a blessing when once they know the excellency and worth of it Who is the Favourite of heaven with whom the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity will dwell And to whom he will look with an eye of protection with an eye of care and delight Is it not to him that is of a contrite heart and that trembleth at his word Who is the best Saint on Earth Is it not he who useth most diligence to work out his salvation with fear and trembling All duties are best done when accompanied with this holy trembling Prayer and Confession of sins are never better made than when we imitaâ—e those Penitents in Ezra who sate trembling in the street of the House of God The Word is never more awfully received as the Will and Command of a Great King than when received as the Elders of Bethlehem did Samuel who trembled at his coming O methinks I cannot without wonder read how Paul lived among the Corinthians in fear and much trembling as sensible of the weight of his Ministry and how they again received Titus Pauls Messenger with the like affection not entertaining him with costly banquets with Court-like Salutations but with fear and trembling which is the highest respect that can be showen to the Doctrine of Christ Yea the Supper of the Lord it self though it be a Feast of Love in which Christ qui est totus amor est caput coenae who is all love is the chief and onely dish that a Soul hath to feed upon is best Celebrated with a Divine trembling which may correct our joy and keep it from degenerating into a carnal mirth The sparkling raies of light which are reflected from the polished Diamond are
of any necessity of death As God made us living Creatures so his power was able to sustain us immortal creatures we had bodily life by our soul in our body and spiritual life by Gods Image in both but sin brought on us death of all sorts Death spiritual in the loss of Gods Image death bodily in the begun corruption of our body and death eternal in the endless ruine of both And whom would not this single thought afflict with dread and sorrow to see what a change sin hath made in the condition of man If Adam would have lived without sin he might have lived without end But now by his credulous receiving the Serpents Poyson Death is glued to our nature necessity of evil to the freedom of our will and all misery to our selves Another dark and posing thought did arise from the progress of death which keeps no order or method It thrusts its sickle not only into the ripe corn but the green blade it nips the blossom as well as gathers the fruit it dissolves the knot that was but new made between the soul and the body as well as that which age and years had conâ—â—rmed There were I observed skulls of all Sizes There were some who had never seen the Sun to pass from one Tropick to the other Others there were whose life could not be reckoned by daies or hours but by minutes they dropt only from the Womb to the Grave And is not this amongst the secrets of God that thousands should thus pass through the world and be determined to different Estates for Eternity What can I say But that the waies of God are unsearchable and his Judgements past finding out As it now shews his Soveraignty thus to deal with his Creatures as it pleaseth him so the Great Day will manifest the Wisdom and Justice of God that is wrapt up in these mysterious providences He that is the Judge of all will be found to be righteous towards all A third sad thought The consuming power of the grave did stir up within me so that I was ready to say Can these dry bones live Can these mingled dusts be distinguished Can the dusts that are scattered into distances be ever united Doth not the Noble and the Base the Saint and the Sinner lye equally under the power of corruption Who then would not dread to descend into the Grave and make Hemans question Will God shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise him But when I consider that Believers in their ascending into heaven do only let fall their bodies to the earth as Elijah dropt his Mantle when he was taken up and that their Spirits return to God that gave them That Death striketh not on the New man but on the Tabernacle which is a common Lodging both to Flesh and Spirit my fears are greatly Alleviated for who is much solicitous for the Cabinet when the Jewel is safe Yea when I think that death which separates our persons from the world our soul from the body and every part of our body from another cannot dissolve our Union with Christ but that then we sleep in him and shall be raised by him and conformed to him as the pattern of our glory O how do these most radiant thoughts dispell both the black fears of death and the lightsome comforts of the world as the rising Sun makes the bright stars of heaven to vanish as well as the dark shades of the night How little then doth the love of this life or the difficulties of death abate the desires of a Believer to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Who can wonder at old Simeons importunity to depart in peace when his eyes had seen the Salvation of God and his arms embraced it Who would not be of the same mind that hath once tasted of the Clusters of the heavenly Canaan to long after the full Vintage How pathetical is that of Austin upon Gods answer to Moses Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live Who replies with great confidence Lord is that all that I cannot see thy face and live Eja Domine moriar ut te videam videam ut hic moriar nolo vivere volo mori dissolvi cupic essecum Christo I pray thee Lord then let me dye that I may see thy face Or let me see thee that I may dye in this place I would not live I would dye I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus also have other Saints been affected who have had death in desire and life in patience O what a strange change then hath Christ made in death and the grave and his grace in the heart and affections of Believers Death which sin brought into the world is now become the only means to destroy and kill sin Death which is only contrary unto life is now turned into a Port and passage into life So that when we pass out of this life we lose neither life nor being but are admitted to a more glorious life and being than ever we had Death that before was an armed Enemy is now made a reconciled and firm friend a Physician to cure all our diseases and an Harbinger to make way for glory The Grave also by Christs lying in it is become a bed of rest in which his Saints fetch a short slumber untill he awaken them to a glorious Resurrection It is the Chamber into which he invites his beloved ones to hide themselves untill his indignation be past the Arke into which he shuts his Noahs whilest he destroyes the world with an overflowing deluge of his wrath and displeasure And therefore it is that by his grace they are not afraid to meet Death which others would shun and make it as a voluntary offering unto God which others pay only as a necessary debt Yea they esteem it as one of the choicest Jewels in that exact Inventory that Paul hath made of the riches of Believers and next unto Jesus Christ bless God for it as the greatest mercy O holy Saviour do thou then who art the Lord both of the dead and of the living unto whom all ought to live and all ought to dye enable me thy servant to love thee above life which of all blessings is the sweetest and to hate sin above death which of all evils is the bitterest to nature that so I may have this testimony of the power of thy grace in the change of my heart that for the enjoyment of perfect Communion with thee I can gladly lose my life and be separated from sin can willingly undergo death which is of all evidences the Clearest Meditation XLIX Vpon a Spring in an high ground THe additional blessing which Achsah sought of Caleb her Father was Springs of water for her south or dry land who gave her the upper and the nether Springs If the distinct recording of this particular in Scripture carry any thing of
heat would scorch Therefore when God promised to Israel the beauty of the Lilly the stability of the Cedâ—r the fruitfulness of the Olive to effect all this he saith he will be as the dew And what ground can but bring forth when he who is the Father of the Rain and begetteth the drops of the dew shall himself descend upon it in bounty and goodness Who can but love him with a love of duty whom he shall thus tender with a love of mercy Who can but love him with a love of Concupiscence as being more desirous of new Influences than satisfied with former Receipts whom he so freely loves with a love of Beneficence O Lord my Soul thirsteth for thee as the gaping and chapped earth doth for the moysture of the Heavens I am nothing I can do nothing without thee my fruitfulness my growth my life depend wholly upon the droppings of thy grace when they dew lieth all night upon my Branch my glory is fresh in me and my whole man is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Be not therefore unto me O my God as a Cloud without Rain left I be as a Tree without fruit But let thy grace alwaies distill upon me as the dew and as the small rain upon the tender herb and then shall I be as the ground which drinketh in the showers that come oft upon it and bringeth forth fruit meet for him by whom it is dressed and receive also new blessing from God Meditation XIV Vpon a Pearl in the Eye VVHat specious names have Physicians put upon diseases who call a Plague Sore a Carbuncle and the white film which taketh away the delightful sight a Pearl in the Eye Do they gild over Diseases as they do their Pills or a Bolus that so their Patients may less fear and feel the evil of the one as they less taste the bitterness of the other And are any by such slender Artifices brought into an opinion that a Carbuncle is less mortal or loathsome than any other swelling that hath not so gay a name Or that blindness which is caused by a Pearl in the Eye is more comfortable than the loss of sight that comes by other accidents Methinks Reason should not run at so low an ebb in any as to please themselves in such fancies may not a Poyson have a name that sounds better to the ear a colour more pleasing to the eye and a taste that is more grateful to the Pallate than the Antidote which expels it May not Alchimy glister when Gold looks pale And yet alas in spiritual maladies in which the danger is so much the greater by how much the soul is of more value than the body with what strange delusions are many transported who when their minds are poysoned with Errour and Blasphemy do then put upon their corrupt Opinions and Tenents the glorious names of Revelations Visions Raptures refined notions and what not that may confirm themselves in their own dotages and win others into an admiration of their persons Thus Montanus gave out himself to be the Comforter that Christ had promised to send forth into the World Arius proudly boasted that God had revealed something to him which he hid from his Apostles And Eunomius fondly imagined that he was taken up to Heaven as Elias was and had seen Gods face as had Moses and was wrapt up to the third heaven as was Paul But what other thing are these Follies or rather Phrensys than as if an Israel te infected with the botch of Egypt and overspread with it from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head should boast that he had robbed the Egyptians of their most precious Jewels and had decked himself with them Would not men pitty his distemper rather than believe his confidence Would not they offer medicines to heal him rather than suffer him to perish under his miserable delusion of possessing great riches How is it then that in matters of faith in which there is both clear evidence and certainty Hereticks that are no other than ulcerous persons fitter for Dogs to lick than Christians to love should throughout all Ages so easily gain to themselves such a great multitude of Proselytes only by putting fair Names upon foul Errours It is because men for their lusts sake will not see but willingly corrupt themselves in those things which they know or is it because God hath smitten them with a spirit of blindness that they shall not see for their not receiving of the truth in the love of it Surely whatever the cause be such is the infatuation as that I had need both to tremble and to pray To tremble at the sad woe which is denounced by God himself against those that call evil good and good evill That put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter And to pray as David did Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name Meditation XV. Vpon Spiritual and bodily sickness THe soul hath its maladies as well as the body and such that for their likeness to them do often borrow their names from them Pride is a Timpany Avarice a Dropsie Security a Lithargy Lust a Calenture Apostacy an Epilepsie And yet though these names of bodily diseases do happily serve to point and shadow out the nature of spiritual how wide is the difference between the Patients of the one and of the other in regard of those qualities which may dispose them for a cure and recovery out of them In the diseases of the body it matters not whether the Patient know the name of his disease or understand the vertue of the medicines which are prescribed or be able to judge of the increase height and declination of his distempers by the beatings of his pulse the whole business is managed by the care and wisdom of the Physician who oft times conceals the danger on purpose least fear and fancy should work more than his Physick and hinder the benefit of what he applies But in the maladies of the soul it is far otherwise the first step unto spiritual health is a distinct and clear insight of sin such which makes men to understand the Plague of their own hearts Christ heals by light as well as by Influence he first Convinceth them of sin and then gives the pardon he discovers the disease to them and then administers the medicine Ignorance is a bar to the welfare of the soul though not of the body and makes the divine remedies to have as little effect upon it as Purges or Cordials have upon the Glasses into which they are put It is Solomons peremptory Conclusion that a soul without knowledge is not good nor indeed can be because it wants a principle which is as necessary to goodness as a visive power to the eye to enable it to discern its object How can he ever value holiness who understands not what sin is Or
that makes our cares and fears so preposterous are we anxious for to morrow and thoughâ—less of Eternity We fear the Grave and mock at Hell we dread the Lightning and slight the Thunder-bolt O methinks such pungent Interrogations should startle the most secâ—re if they would but put Conscience upon an answer and not like Pilate only ask the question and then go their way It is mens living by sense that is that stone of stumbling upon which they ruine themselves Some surfet and over-charge themselves with sensual delights as that their Intellectuals are wholly lost to all acts of Reason others who have jealousies concerning their future estates are more willing to venture what the issue will be than undergo an impartial trial they fear more what sentence Conscience will pass than the Condemnation that God will inflict Few there be that put Time and Eternity in the Ballance and weigh them one against the other or consider that life upon which Eternity depends is a vapour a wind a span at most which the further it is stretched the more painful it is And that Eternity is a bottomless gulph which no Line can fathom no time can reach no tongue can express It is a duration alwaies present a being alwaies in being an everlasting now It swallows up all revolutions of Ages as Pharaohs lean Kine did eat up the fat which when they had eaten them up it could not be known that they had eaten them but were still as at the beginning What strange thing can we imagine that in its duration would not be effected A tear let fall from the damned once in ten thousand years would fill the earth with far more water than it was covered with in the Deluge A dust taken from the Mountains and â—neven parts of the world would in the like intervals level the Universe and turn it into a Plain and yet there would be still an Eternity behind Never never is the killing word that breaks the heart of all these hopeless Prisoners that lye buried in the flames of Hell Suppositions and possibilities which I tremble to think of if they might be but turned into promises unto them of the termination of their anguish and torment O how would their hearts revive within them and how thankfully would they acknowledge Gods goodness unto them Do thou therefore O glorious Lord who art the Ancient of daies the Rock of Ages the Father of Eternity teach me to number my daies that I may apply my heart unto true wisdom that I may walk in the way of life which is above to the wise and depart from hell beneath Meditation XLIV Vpon a Physicians feeling the Pulse HOw often and how exactly do Physicians feel the Pulse of their Patients Not a day passeth without a strict observation of the motions that it makes according unto which they judge both of the greatness and danger of the distemper and what the Issues are like to be both in respect of life and death They do not as other Visitors ask the Patient how he doth but inform him rather how he is and from the report which they make of his malady his fears and hopes are the more or less And yet how rarely do they feel their own pulse who are so seemingly anxious about anothers Daies Weeks Months do Elapse and pass away without any such studious heeding of themselves as they continually in their profession Exercise towards others And yet happily in so doing they are as the Priests in the Temple who as our Saviour saith prophane the Sabbath and are blameless But they occasion me to think of the practise of many who cannot so easily be acquitted Such who are severe observers of other mens waies and actions and as great neglectors of their own who are far more glad that they can espy a fault in others than grieved that it is committed who presume to look into the breast and to discover how the Affections which are the pulse of the soul do bear and work in every duty In some they mislike the heat of their Zeal as too much resembling an high and vehement pulse whose strength and quickness comes not from health but from a Feaver In others they condemn lukewarmness an indifferency whose affections they judge to be as a weak and slow pulse or as the Spring of a Watch that is well-nigh down which Clicks and moves very faintly In some again they observe an inequality in their Profession which is accompanied with frequent stands and pauses that they make like Asthmatical and short-breathed persons they run a while and blow longer before they can move again And upon these they look with as sad a countenance as a Physician doth upon his Patient that hath a false and intermitting pulse Few or none can be found to escape their censure who observe the failings of others as some ancient Criticks did the imperfect Verses of Homer which they learned by heart not at all regarding the many good But what can be more contrary to the Law and rule of Christianity than such practises How many Prohibitions are gone out of the Court of Heaven to stay such irregular proceedings Are we not by Christ forbid to judge that we be not judged To judge nothing before the time untill the Lord come And yet what if any man could know the true temper of the affections of others as fully as a Physician câ—n distinguish a well a sick pulse would this knowledg be any advantage unto him while he is both ignorant and regardless of his own estate Would he thereby find such joy and comfort in himself as he that by an impartial examination of himself can discover the truth and sincerity of his own heart to Christ though he can say nothing of others Surely this man as the hungry would be filled with good things when the other as the rich should be sent empty away He as the humble Publican would be justified when the other as the proud Pharisee should be condemned Let others then Physician like study the condition of others I shall look upon it as my duty and make it my work not to find out what others are but what I am in regard of my unfained love and affection unto Christ who hath transcendently merited my love though I am wholly unworthy of his Erasistratus is famed in History for discovering the love of Antiochus to his Mother-in-law which shame forced him to conceal by the motion of his pulse which he observed to move differently in her presence from what it did at other times O how happy should I deem my self if I could find the pulse of my affections alwaies working more quick and lively in me whenever I behold my Saviour present in the feast of love in which he is pleased not only to let me see him but to enjoy him or when I hear his name mentioned in a duty or when I read his name written in his Word which is therefore
afford shelter So is not God who is a full store-house as well as a free refuge a Sun as well as a Shield Secondly By way of Eminency all perfections whatsoever either for degree or kind which put a worth or value upon the Creature are to be found insinitely more in God Is a Rock strong and dashing in pieces all resistance made against it God is incomparably more He saith Job is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Is a Rock durable and not subject to change by the many revolutions of Ages that pass over it God is far more immutable his yeares are throughout all Generations he is the same yeseerday and to day and for ever In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Is the shadow of a great Rock desirable in a weary Land to bear off the scorchings of the Sun and to revive the fainting Traveller what a covert and hiding place then is God against all stormes and heates whatsoever raised either by the rage of Men or by the Estuations of a troubled Conscience and fomented by the Malice of Satan Is a Rock of an awfull aspect for its height and apt to work upon the head of him that looks down from the top of it How great then is God whose glory is above the Heavens whose faithfulness reacheth unto the Cloudes whose righteousness is like the great Mountaines and whose Judgments are a great deep And now methinks I may say to my Soul as David did unto his Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Cannot God keep him in perfect peace whose Minde is stayed on him is not he a very present help in the times of trouble what evil can befall me under which his everlasting Armes cannot support me What Seas of Tryalls can overwhelm when God shall set me upon a Rock that is higher than I As I my self cannot climbe it so neither can my Enemies power ever reach it A Believer can onely be wounded by his own feares as the Diamond is onely cut by its own dust Peter sunk not till his Faith failed him if his confidence had risen as the Winde and Billowes did he would have greatly honoured his Lord as his Rock upon whom he was built and have been highly commended by him as he was for the good Confession he made of him But O blessed Saviour if Peter cry out Save Master I perish how much more shall I who fall far short of his little Faith and am apt to fear not onely in the deep Seas but in the shallow Brookes not onely when the Waves roar but when the petty Streames murmur Do thou therefore holy Lord teach me to know what a Rock thou art and cause all thy glory to pass before me as thou didst before Moses that so I may see every attribute of thine as so many Clefts in the Rock to which I may run in time of danger and rejoyce to find how I am compassed about with thy power wisdome faithfulness and goodness from whence more sure comfort will arise than if a numerous host of Angells should pitch their Tents round about me Meditation LIII Vpon a Counterfeit piece of Coyne VVHit Physicians say of some Diseases Illi morbi sunt pericâ—losissimi qui sanitatem Imitantur That they are most dangerous dangerous which seem to imitate and come nearest unto health may be applyed fitly to adulterous and spurious Coynes that the greater resemblance and likeness they have to the true and genuine the more pernicious and destructive they are to the Publick wasting though insensibly not onely private Estates but the common Treasure and Riches of a Nation And therefore the falsifying of Coyn which beares the Image or Armes of the Prince as the general Warrant to ratifie the goodness of it hath been made a Crime of the same Complexion with the highest attempt or act done against his Person the same Capital Punishment being inflicted upon him that is found guilty of the one as is upon him that is guilty of the other What can be done more to deter any from such Practises then the loss of Name Estate Life in a gastly and ignominious death and yet these severities which should be as the Boundaries at the foot of the Mountain to keep all from offending are insufficient to restrain many whom the love of gain and the hope of secrecy do embolden to run a sad hazard that they may enjoy the sweet Secrecy in sinning though in some respect it exâ—enuates a sin as making it less scandalous and less contagious yet it is a powerfull attractive to incline to the Commission of a sin Josâ—phs Mistriss was most vehement in her solliciting of him to folly when none of the Men of the house were within The Harlot in the Proverbs makes that as her Plea to the Young Man to hearken unto her That the good Man is not at home he is gone a long journey he hath taken a bag of Money with him and will come at the day appointed It was that which put an edge upon the Covetousness of Achan to take the goodly Babylonish Garment the two hundred shekels of Silver and the wedge of Gold that he could do it without the privity of any so that none could charge him with the breach of that strict Command which God had given of not taking the accursed thing least they make themselves accursed and the Camp of Israel accursed and trouble it Usually when shame and punishment are the sole Motives to deter from sin the secrecy of doing it by which both may be declined swayes prevailingly to the commission of it But how far more presumptuous are they who adulterate not the Coynes of Princes but the Truths of God and stamp his Name upon their Inventions to give a Credit and value unto them Have such workers of iniquity any darkness and shadow of death where they may hide themselves Do they think that though Kings cannot discover those oft times that violate the Dignities of their Crown that they also can escape the knowledge of the most High or is not he as jealous of his Word which he hath magnified above all his Name as they are of every piece that carries their Image and Inscription upon it hath he not declared himself to be against those that Prophesie the deceits of their own heart and use their Tongues and say the Lord saith Yeâ— hath he not denounced the most dreadful of Curses against all Embasers or Clippers of his Heavenly Coyn To the one he threatens all the Plagues that are written in the Word of Truth and for the other he shall take away his part out of the Book of Life out of the holy City and from the things that are written in the Book of God Who can read such a Sentence and not tremble at the thoughts of it And yet though God be as Bernard speakes Sapiens Nummâ—larius qui non