Mid-night and Daily Thoughts In PROSE and VERSE BY Sir WILLIAM KILLIGREW LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall M DC XC IV. To Sir William Killigrew On view of his Book of Mid-night and daily Thoughts WHen first I read your pious Sheets it wrought Within my Soul such sympathetick Thought I seem'd your Transcript joying so to be Or else transported as your Simile Thus ravish'd with my self I further tried To gain converse with you that amplify'd I found and more improv'd what I had took Your constant Practice doth expound your Book With this difference only I might call That the Copy you the Original I am so full of you whate'er I write Flows from your Pen and you do mine indite Your Dream of Heaven is so drawn and plac'd As if of Heaven it self you had a taste And prepossession which will ever last And your angelick Thoughts so scatter'd where If Heaven can be on Earth sure it is there Your Dream of Hell I cannot barely name Vnless I snatch my Finger from your Flame I feel the sting of your Expressions so As if in pain and forc'd to undergo Death you 've drawn to life so clear that I In love with life by reading chuse to die Vnless I liv'd like you exalted quite With future Ioys and holy Anchorite Your Poems run so natural you indite It seems a self-denial not to write 'T is much that in your Age of Eighty eight Your Mind 's so full of vigour and of weight Truly inspired and as your Days decline The more you write still that is more Divine There 's nothing languid all your Lines last long Like Honey in a Lion sweet and strong Proceed bless'd Sir and prove exemplar even To make Disciples here and Saints in Heaven Ri. Newman On Sir Willian Killigrew's Nightly and Daily Thoughts WHat Muse a lofty Fame for him can raise Whose whole Ambition is to fly from praise Or fix him gracious with the Multitude Who only courts a sacred solitude Whose Commerce when awake in Vision lies When sleeping dreams him up into the Skiesâ— All that his Friends can do is to invite Others to reap what he alone can write Without the help of Learning or of Toil As genuine Plants spring from their native Soil And that 's true Fancy which one cannot shun Flowing like Emanations from the Sun Most Poets strive to make the World admire To be believ'd is all he needs desire Whose Doctrine to gain Faith wants no relief But his high untaught Pen strains our Belief Sincere Devotion Midwife to his Brain Bows to the lowest his angelick strain And his Example Grace abroad do breed Making him read by those who cannot read A broken Spirit is his soundest part And th' humble Style suits best his soaring heart Hen. Birkett To my Honoured Friend Richard Newman Esq SIR I Live so much alone that I have not found a Friend to whom I could communicate this new Bundle of my Mid-night and Daily Thoughts on which I dare not trust my own Judgment nor shew to any of my own Relations who are such Criticks in Devotion Eloquence and Wit that my mean Talent doth beget Contempt left I should suffer in the World's Opinion Yet it is not my Design to flatter you or to commend my self but to beg a real Favour of you to read them And if you do without a Compliment think them fit for the meanest Understandings to gain Profit by them they shall be printed else not I want skill to search Learned Authors for a lofty Strain to gain Applause and only write such Emanations as my dull Brain afford me From whence the Benefit I find and Pleasure that I have in spending my solitary Hours thus is ample Recompence besides the Hope of doing good to others beyond the Vanity of being praised Who am Your most Humble Servant W. Killigrew To Sir William Killigrew SIR SInce you are pleased to communicate to me before others the Book of your Mid-night and Daily Thoughts and in the Front thereof ennobled my Name by way of Dedication I have not only diligently but devoutly pernsed and applied the same to my own Heart and find my self both elevated and bettered by it I have also imparted it to some of my most dear and learned Friends who stick not to say with me That they admire such Heavenly Inspirations which cannot be called by any other Name and with they could write the like and all agree to pray you that it may be forthwith printed for the Devotional Part thereof transcending for some Uses all the deep Notions and Learning in the World one Practical Page thereof being in my Opinion more acceptable to GOD and comfortable to the Reader than a Library of critical Authors And methinks I can say as our Blessed Saviour in another case I thank thee O heavenly Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so in seemeth good in thy sight Luke 10.23 I shall only add this That whereas you seem in your Letter to give me leave to put out any of your late Meditations or to correct or transpose any of them because of some Repetitions you are told are in them I must really tell you I am afraid of doing any such thing for fear or violating such sacred Raptures casting with my self that though they seem to me Repetitions yet they are no more to be rejected than the Repetitions of the Lord's Prayer which hath been so used and sanctified by our Saviour's own Lips Thus concluding I and my Friends nameless desire you to have them printed before you die From Your Affectionate Friend Ri. Newman An Answer to my kind Friend's Preface in his Letter SInce God Himself is pleas'd to guide my Pen To rectifie the Steps of unlearn'd Men I am much pleas'd yet dare no Praises own All which I know are due to God alone But daily pray that I may take delight To practise these great Lessons that I write Tho' I 'm afraid this Book will have the fate That better Books than mine have had of late To be laid by when once it is read o'er And ne'er be look'd on nor e'er thought on more Like those Romantick Stories that are writ To shew their Author's Eloquence and Wit But when good Meditations fill a Mind Which by the Holy Spirit is refin'd Each Paragraph which such good Men shall read Devotion will receive and in them breed Fresh flaming Zeal produc'd by holy Seed Whose Soul 's with various Joys will entertain And let their still-encreasing Stock remain Till their devout experimental Part By Faith the intrinsick value of this Art Shall such Angelick Fire in them create As may with them Heaven's Bliss participate And as their glitt'ring Bubbles do decay Their lightned Souls with holy Vigour may So fix their Minds and all their Hopes imploy Make them assur'd of their
shuts up the ways that lead him into temptation may give himself as strong and comfortable an assurance that he is an adopted Child of God as if a voice from the Clouds should tell him so and is a good argument for frequent Meditations How to know when our Sins are forgiven IT has been asked How a Soul may know when her Sins are forgiven and answered thus When she finds the same affection to God with his that said I hate iniquity and all false ways I utterly abhorr Yet David who said so did die and so must we Tho' our Souls may by the same grace become of the same temper with his and our sins be forgiven too yet we may consider how few Men do slip out of this World into eternity with a joyful hearty delight to be with God through divine Love which is the highest perfection of an holy life and is our greatest assurance to manifest our sins forgiven when our Souls are by faith so fixed on God as to know no joy so great as such spiritual Comforts do raise when we desire to be in Heaven which taught David to hate iniquity and to abhorr all false ways and so reduced him from all his sins to become a man after God's own Heart On Reconciliation before we die IF we fully consider our manifold sins and the horrid Punishment due unto us for them if not forgiven before we die 't will make us tremble at the approach of Death But if we do believe in Christ's plenteous Redemption with GOD's immense Mercy to deliver us from Hell's eternal Torments and exalt us unto Heaven's eternal Joy and Glory it may be justly said Happy is that Man who can obtain such a Reconciliation with GOD before he die as daily to delight in the Meditation of a sudden Death with inward assurance of his eternal Bliss the moment he expires which is the highest Exaltation of Joy on Earth and will be the greatest Comfort at the hour of Death and ought to be the chief Business of all Men to live and die so who do march every moment from our Cradles dying towards our Graves On Heavenly Joy WHate'er we do on Earth we all pretend Heaven is our Home Heaven is our Journey 's end That 's true Seraphick Joy when we do find Such elevated Bliss as fills the Mind With high transports of God's celestial Throne And all our meaner Objects we disown Yet sometimes spoil our bless'd angelick rest To rowl on Roses when on Thorns is best Vainly thinking some diviner Grace May smooth afflictions with a smiling face When sighs and tears if they come not too late More surely can our heavenly Joys create When God observes our Zeal to do our best To please we shall assuredly be bless'd And may expect to find more Penitents Encircling of God's Throne than Innocents Which shews sincere Repentance surely can With a fix'd Faith restore relapsed Man Thus may our high-rais'd warm addresses prove Bright Ecstasies of the divinest Love Then will our Souls from dross be clean refin'd And by our sacred Chymist be calcin'd Fit for a Choir of Angels to attend Such Saints and sing them to their Journey 's end On taking heed of all our Ways WHen God reduces Sinners to take heed Of all their ways in thought in word and deed Repentance then will be of little use When all our actions will need no excuse We shall the World subdue and stoutly stand In full obedience unto God's Command And then will Death in glorious Robes descend To guide not fright us at our Journey 's end So that if we take need in all our ways We shall the Devil defeat and wear the Bays To a Friend My dear Friend I Have read in a divine Author That if God be with us he will make us see that he is with us and will not depart from our sight until he has brought us never to depart out of his Which is a Lesson of high concern to Men in his World for Thus to enjoy God here is to be in Heaven before we die When our souls are thus transported with a continual divine Conversation with Almighty God we may taste and relish his celestial Joys to some degree so as to envite us to value his spiritual Comforts above all carnal Fruitions So that our great Business is to improve this Blessing to the highest reach of humane Fancy by a daily practice of holy Meditions to contemplate and observe how God doth infuse this joyful enjoying of Him into our souls by the secret working of the Holy Ghost when we set our selves with zealous integrity to find him there to conserve with us on this great lesson of his immense Mercy with our humble prayers to be enlightned from above to participate of such angelical Delights as far as our frail Nature will admit of which by frequent use will bring us to such an habit of holy living that God God will manifest his presence ever with us by an inward Felicity of Divine Comforts to such an assurance of our Election unto eternal Bliss as is ineffable to be described So that when we raise our Thoughts with a divine Desire to know as much of God as we can know and of his being with us he will add of his Grace to enlarge our Capacities to such heavenly Trances in Devotion that we shall be with him and he with us as we do with with such a joy as will dread all diverting Occasions that shall obstruct those Emanations of his holy Spirit working in us And thus if we do entertain our selves by such frequent addresses to find God he will daily meet and ever dwell with us if we unseignedly desire to dwell with him and will give us such a glimpse of his eternal Bliss as may fix our hearts on Heaven and make us live every moment in a joyful Expectation of Death's quickest Summons thither and by this frequent entertainment of thy Soul with God Thou my Friend wilt find such a communication with God on Earth to be the highest Perfection of Piety and a felicity much more delightful than all other Diversions which can never reach such Seraphick Joys as I with to thee my Friend On the Fear of Death IF we fully consider our manifold Sins and the horrid Judgment due unto us for them it may well be said Happy is that Man who can obtain such a Reconciliation with God before he die as daily to delight in the meditation of a sudden death with inward assurance of his eternal Bliss the moment that he expires Because all our Ideas of the divine Felicities above do seldom invite Men to welcome Death with cheerful Hearts Our fears are so much stronger than our Faith that too many Men do rather think than find they do believe that Christ's plenteous Redemption will cancel all their Crimes and bring them into Heaven and therefore dare not really rejoyce to look on death but start back from such
angelick Happiness as he brings good Men to participate of in God's eternal Glory which natural infirmity of doubting can only by an illustrious Faith be removed and that Faith by frequent Prayers be obtained Then thus to live and so to die will make us live and die in great tranquility though not to reach St. Stephen's Faith who saw Heaven open to him yet to so great a degree of divine Raptures in Devotion as to be filled with elevations of an inward assurance of our Election which must come from God when the Soul is in such a blessed Trance of celestial Delight that is inessable to be described How near such joy is to the joy we read of in Paradise when servent Zeal is by a lively Faith so raised and fixed in God by frequent Meditations it is a wonder that such Men can fear to die or doubt togo to God with cheerful Hearts when thus invited and thus led by his holy Spirit with such bright illuminations of surprizing joys while those divine Flames last cheeras cannot be related When Men's hearts are warmed with such Seraphick high Transports of Love and Mercy from Almighty God to give true Penitents some taste of their eternal Glory that being thus enlightned they may not fear to die but rather welcome death who comes to carry them to Heaven which is the highest Exaltation of the Soul's joy so to delight in God that the expectation of Heaven may be more pleasant than all the momentary Fruitions of this World are compared unto a blessed incomprehensible Eternity Which neither Wit nor Fancy can express When multiplying numbers make it less When neither first nor last can e'er be known Points so far distant yet so join'd in one That the eternal Circle shews us none But is a secret known to God alone 'T is such a sacred Riddle so profound That humane Wisdom never can expound But leaves us still to wonder and adore What will be after and what was before On the Power of Faith THough Men by Nature born to fear and to avoid what may seem hurtful yet that fear by Grace and Faith may be converted into divine Valour of the highest kind as is evident by the Three Children in the fiery Furnace and by Daniel in the Lion's Den which with other the like Examples should invite such Men as trust in God not to fear what he only can prevent if he thinks fit and though a fearful Man cannot remove a Mole-hill for want of Faith much less Mountains how little Faith then have we when the noise only of Ill News does affright our unsetled Souls with dismal apprehensions of what may never happen more than the ill event brings with it if it do unto such pious men as live prepar'd to bear afflictions for few moments here with faithful joyful Thoughts of their eternal Happiness in Heaven So that we see the Power of Faith will remove the greatest terrour and work Miracles when Men dare trust in God Lord give me grace to live as I do write And as thy holy Spirit shall indite To manifest thy mighty Mercy shown To such a Reprobate as must own Christ's Doctrine to suffer CHrist's Doctrine is with patience to inure Our selves to suffer what he did endure On Earth from that malicious cursed Crew Who scorn'd his Miracles and boldly slew Their bless'd Messiah who did then submit To die because his Father did think fit That we redeemed by his precious Blood Might trust in him who dy'd to do us good And now may sighing sing and weeping pray Our death may prove our highest Holy-day When we with Christ in Paradise appear And shine amongst those blessed Angels there On the Power of Love to God TO love and fear God is what every good Christian doth own and what most Men think they do but very few I fear do understand what it is to love and fear Him as we ought with all our Heart Soul and Mind above all other Objects whatever which is a Lesson of great use to bring Men to Heaven who know that we are dying every moment that we live and can not with more pleasure here than we shall find by serving God thus For those who can love him with all their Heart and Mind will worship and adore him with the same Zeal and will obey praise thank pray and trust in him with the like servent affection in all their divine addresses with their utmost endeavours to be with him in Heaven which God never will reject nor can eternal Bliss be purchased at a lower rate of Love Thus God exposes Heaven to entice Good Men to purchase at the Market-price When Love with all its Perquisites comply To fix a blessed Immortality On such exalted Souls as take delight To meditate on his beatick sight When their enlightned Faith does bring them there Enrich'd with love they 'll bid adieu to fear And leave no arguments to justifie Such timorous Men as dare not think to die Though their eternal joy will then be such That none will have too little or too much And those who truly love will surely find Their happiness by God is predesign'd Who sees the heart and thoughts of every Man That loves and serves him to the best they can On Faith WHen Faith grows strong our Fancies will soar high To search the secrets of Eternity Which to our Souls are of so near concern That no man can a greater Lesson Learn Nor have a more serene celestial Bliss Than he 'll enjoy by practising of this Great step which by degrees will lead him on To the sacred Seat of his Adoption Where Faith 'bove all the Gifts of Grace will shine With Love in Bliss and Glory most divine On God's Mercy OUr God from us his Glory keeps conceal'd Because it would destroy us if reveal'd His essence we can never understand 'T is well if we obey his just Command For God to mortal Man will never teach Such great Secrets because what we can reach By Nature cloys as soon as had or known He therefore lets us live by Faith alone Still subject to so many hopes and fears That our prime Joys are damp'd by frequent tears Which daily do our sorrows multiply Until death comes to tell us we must die The only remedy ordain'd to cure All sorts of evils that we here endure Yet God in mercy makes amends at last To free us from all miseries are past By raising them to blifs who do their best To gain a share in his eternal rest Which best in God's esteem is to do all Was done by bless'd St. Stephen and St. Paul On true Valour HAppy are they who in these letter days Are fill'd with love with gratitude and praise To God whose joyful Soúls do ever fly With highest thoughts of their Eternity And by the actions of their lives declare That Faith in Christ has conquer'd their despair For all past Crimes and now with Death has made Strict
losses as a punishment For our past crimes we should our thoughts inure To pains our hearts and bodies must endure Something beyond easie self-denials And be armed for such fiery trials As the first Martyrs felt If God command The Grid-iron or the Rack we must not stand Amaz'd he can enable us to sustain The torments of such deaths and flight the pain His Power is still to us the same so we As great faith have and such-like piety To love and serve our God as much as they In those days did not terrours can dismay For where the holy Spirit does prevail It is not possible that strength should fail If we have faith enough there is no doubt But we may walk on fire and tread it out An Ejaculation LOrd I have done what lies in me The work does now belong to thee I have resign'd my heart 'T is thine who only art Able to keep what is thy own Which I cannot if left alone But shall fall back again And merit thy disdain It is thy pleasure and thy will I should depend upon thee still And never dare to trust The frailty of my dust Which by nature does incline To be more earthly than divine Thus I can only stand Supported by thy hand On Prayer THe Lord regards not words we may Be silent and yet pray 'T is the intention of the heart That doth our zeal impart Tho' vocal prayers be daily us'd Our sighs are not refus'd And our good deeds for prayers do go 'Cause God esteems them so Our Charity and Mercy shown Will plead our Cause alone Such acts of our obedience Is the best eloquence And does in Heav'n gain more regard For pardon and reward Than a whole age was ever known To get by words alone Our alms do double use obtain And multiply our gain When penitence does plead for sin And gratitude steps in Acknowledging the grace we have Must raise us from the grave And put us in a decent frame To call upon God's Name These practick Prayers will do the deed And help us at our need Much better than a story told In language rude and bold Such as rash fancies do throw out From wants from fears or doubt Of our Condition which may be Words without modesty When pious works fail not to bring Us Blessings from the King Of Heaven the Searcher of our hearts Beyond the reach of arts In language by him all disguis'd Formalities despis'd And the poor holy Ignorant Will sooner get a grant Of his desire than thou or I With all our Orat'ry When our good works and words agree They both accepted be On Charity WHen we hear a poor Beggar cry For food how can we him deny Or if some raiment he do need Are we not bound to cloath and feed Our Christian Brother in distress When Charity is blessedness Yet Charity does not consist In alms alone we must assist Our friends with Counsel if need be To lead them unto Piety And by our own example show That we the way to God do know Oh! 't is an acceptable thing When we can Souls to Heaven bring For though Men can no merit have They near it come that Souls do save On Discontent for Poverty HAst thou thy Fortunes lost and now Poor Man do'st live thou know'st not how And art so much bereav'd of sense As not to see God's Providence That thus without thy loss or care Provides thee of all necessary fare Why art thou then so discontent To call this Plenty Punishment It is not well to make such moan 'Cause all thou seest is not thy own Thy heart is earthly and thy mind Will neither peace nor comfort find Though the whole World thou didst enjoy Something would still thy heart annoy Did'st ever yet see any thing Did thy expected Pleasure bring Or did'st thou ever any-where Once find the Joys thou look'st for there But now methinks I hear thee cry Thou griev'st for thy Posterity While thou do'st doubt the same great hand That does the Heaven and Earth Command Should less provide for them than thee All this is great Impiety On Mercy IT is or ought to be while we do live Our Prayers to be forgiv'n as we forgive Yet I do fear that most of us offend This way too oft what e'er we do pretend For I have known some Men so full of rage When a flight injury did them engage That neither sleep nor food could do them good While their unlawful Vengeance was withstood Others there are more mild will only try Whether they can subdue their Enemy And if that fail they will not then refuse To take submission 'cause they cannot chuse And some will seem as if they did not see Nor understood a down-right Injury But will fierce Malice in their hearts retain Until they can return it back again And some do highest wrongs receive and bear Them patiently with smiles because they dare No other do unless to make it worse In private they do whisper out a Curse Some too there be so cautious and so wise All offer'd wrongs do seemingly despise But their whole lives will study how they may Return the injury the safest way And some will make their adversary know His errour and their power and then will show Such Mercy as himself may boast and be If rightly understood an injury And some so sweet and gentle are they still Remit all injuries to God who will They hope in his good time the quarrel take And of their Foes some sad example make Too few there be who rightly understand The weight and scope of this so great command This prime Christian Duty so much admir'd By heathens and so much to be desir'd Some good men there are who know Mercy is God's highest Attribute and they in this Come near unto his own Divinity When freely they forgive an injury We should do good for evil love and pray For those bad men that wrong us ev'ry day In friends or fortune life or our good name 'T is our Religion to forgive the same Lord turn the hearts and open wide the eyes Of those mistaken men our enemies Who wrong themeselves and let them timely see How much they anger thee and hurt not me On Despair AMongst Satan's chief Magazine of Arms To fight against men's Souls none does such harms As those despairs which he in clouds le ts fly At faithless men when we draw near to die He treats our Youth at first with such delights As do most please men's appetites With lusts with gluttony and avarice Or what will more our eyes and hearts entice To follow him into his hidden snares Where once engag'd he leads us to despairs And throws such mists before our dazled eyes We cannot find our selves in his surprize But do run on in pleasures and rejoice Mistaking his deceits for our own choice And so applaud our wits for our success In sin and do admire our activeness And ne'er discern this
bright Ideas of his Throne To such adopted Sons as he will own On Happiness HAppy is he who can his Joys impart Unto a trusty sympathizing heart Happy is he whose griefs are only known Unto himself and to his God alone Happy is he can do his Neighbour good And have his goodness rightly understood Happy is he who by example can Reduce a rigid misbelieving Man Happy is he whose Vertue is so strong That when he can will not revenge a wrong Most happy he who heartily can pray For such a Foe as doth his Friend betray On Devotion TRue Devotion is the supreamest Good If rightly practis'd when 't is understood But those enlightning Joys most Men do feel May prove much short of a Seraphick Zeal Pure Piety is a great mystery That puzzles our divine Philosophy Inspir'd by God's propitious fix'd Decrees Which humane Nature feels but never sees And yet doth consecrate their lives desire Who God's great Attributes do most admire And does those secret Riddles so unfold That we may understand what we are told And then by higher Raptures antedate The heavenly Pleasures of our future state By sacred Joys that fill a righteous heart With godly thoughts too lofty to impart For no Man can angelick Fancies paint But he who is or hopes to be a Saint On relapsing into Sin THo' Piety and Grace in hearts prevail Our Fancies and our Natures are so frail That ev'ry object of our old desires Are ready to unkindle such new fires That few good Men are found who dare to say They really desire to die this day On Hope WE work for wealth and honour while we live With all the Perquisites that God can give We rack our Fancies and disturb our Brains We tire our Bodies and take mighty pains When at the last our pamper'd Bodies must Be eat by worms and then return to dust Here nothing we possess but hope in time To gain our peace and pardon for our Crime But then by Grace restor'd and snatch'd from Hell We shall in bliss and glory ever dwell To my Friend to justifie my Retirement SIR I Do value your Friendship much and take your Advice very friendly To forsake my solitary Life and to return unto the Conversation of my Friends and this with very civil though with very sharp Reflections on my Retirement in the Opinion of the World as you say as if some Discontent or love to a lazie Life rather than Devotion had made me bury my self alive which my Age might very well excuse at 88 Years if I had no better Arguments to justifie my Repose this way But now you shall have my Reasons at large which I did not think fit to declare in that Company at that time For When I considered how many Years I had lived in Idleness and Vanity and such Sins as were in fashion with most Men of great Estates with as full a swing as my wild Fancy could reach In which kind of short-liv'd mistaken Felicities I found no real Satisfaction but still roving from worse to worse it pleased God to induce me to think of Heaven and how to get thither by a timely Repentance in a Retirement from all worldly Delights and all publick Concerns but do not pretend to be an inspir'd Quaker nor a profess'd Hermit though I do believe that both those Callings may have pious Men that do abhorr Hypocrisie in Devotion as much as I do who think it to be the next greatest Sin to that against the Holy Ghost Yet I must own that my solitary Life is become so delightful that my Bosom-Joys are much above all the Pleasures that I have formerly known and largely shared in the Courts of Four great Kings in which there might be many Saints though I was none By which I judge that those who live as I then did in the pomp and splendid Crowds of such great Assemblies can seldom have the opportunity to delight in frequent Prayers nor time to relish the deliciousness of such servent Addresses unto Heaven as my solitary hours afford me So that such busie Men are not often refreshed with those daily Comforts and secret spiritual Joys as slow in Souls totally resign'd to God For when God sees the Integrity of such Men's Hearts as do value their Hopes of Heaven above all earthly Fruitions he gives them a cheerful hearty Devotion to be their highest Felicity in this World with great assurance of Glory in the next And whoever will try to live so much alone with God will find such enlightning Comforts to his Soul in frequent servent Prayers and Meditations as will encrease his Joys until he go to Heaven and all the way thither will entertain his Heart with celestial Delights so much above the Pleasure of this World that they are inessable to be described by words or to be conceived but by chose who feel how much spiritual Joys in a divine Conversation with God does transcend all carnal Enjoyments with as much elevated hopes of a prepossession of Heaven as Men are capable of in this World Though I have read in a divine Author That the Soul that is upon good grounds fully assured of its future Bliss is already in Heaven and has begun to take possession of Glory If this be so as I hope it is our eternal Bliss begins and fixes here which ought to bassle the Joys and Troubles of this World and the Terrour of Death also with a constant present Felicity to be with God the moment we expire For I do believe that God mocks no Man with a hope of Heaven that he shall miss of if he seek it as he ought I do not say that I do this but I do averr That I will not change the Happiness I have in my Retirement to be a Prince without it I do own God's Mercies to me in every thing and do serve him the best I can in all things and do envy no Man's Talents who can serve him better I write not to instruct wise Men but to shew some Ideas of Devotion for such weak Brains as mine to work upon If these be not good Arguments for my Retirement I wish that you may find better in your publick Conversation Your humble Servant W. K. January 5. 1692. On Humane Weakness WE have no means to please Almighty God But to beg Mercy and avoid his Rod We have no Joys on Earth that can sustain Our Souls or free our Flesh from constant pain Our hearts alone are only ours to give And only can dispose 'em while we live And that 's so hard a Task we always find Some difficulties still divert the mind From Heaven where all good Men desire to be Yet fear to go which is a Mystery And such a Riddle that 't were worth the while Our selves unto our selves to reconcile We must all die THo' we know not when we do all know why It is decreed by God that we must die And since no remedy can
subtile Agent stand With all his wicked Instruments at hand Ready and glad to be employ'd while we Make haste to Hell by our impiety Till youth and vigour with its power decrease And cause our evil appetites to cease From wicked acts yet he 'll not give us o'er Nor quit us so He has new sins in store When wrinkled age adorns us with gray hairs He terrifies our hearts with high despairs Shews us the ills that we have done too great For pardon are and now too late to treat With Heav'n having resign'd our selves to Hell No holy Charm can e'er dissolve that Spell And dictates thus to our affrighted sense Repentance cannot balance our offence Who have so many years our God refus'd So many ways his Laws and Grace abus'd That in his Justice he can ne'er forgive Our Crimes Thus he torments us whil'st we live When flattering objects fail he thus presents Our fancies with despairing arguments That we must never hope to see God's face 'Cause we have sinn'd beyond the reach of Grace Out-gone the merit of Christ's Blood and have Done things beyond the power of God to save Thus by degrees he leads us to despair Never to hope for better than we are And thus by doubting God's Omnipotence To aggravate his wrath and our offence Unless our great and glorious God do please To free us from this Devil and this Disease So deadly to our Souls and let us see We may be yet redeem'd by Piety If we get Grace to pray and to repent With constant fervent zeal and full intent For ever to forsake and truly hate Those horrid Sins we doted on of late If we get faith to love and serve God thus No doubt he doth already pity us And will in time forgive there 's no dispute But Mercy is God's highest Attribute Severe in Justice yet of Grace not scant When chief of Sinners was the greatest Saint Our Reason must unto our Faith Submit LOrd I have search'd my heart but do still doubt It is not pure enough not clean throughout Nor can be till the Holy Ghost comes in And do assist in casting out of sin That so he may possession take for thee And I may hold my heart in Fealty To pay my God a thousand Thanks a day While thus thy Holy Spirit does bear sway O Holy Ghost when thou art once possess'd I shall not dare disturb so bless'd a Guest With a vile act or a vain thought that may Lessen my Bliss and drive my God away Thy presence will my wavering heart direct To Heaven and will from Enemies protect My Soul and me while thou art my defence Who dares contest with thy Omnipotence So cleans'd and so inform'd I shall soon learn To worship thee aright and shall discern The Mystery of Faith my Reason teach How to submit to what it cannot reach Faith shall take place my Fancy shall retire And I will be contented to admire The mighty Secrets of thy glorious Throne Which thou reserv'st unto thy self alone Lord tho' my heart can never understand The manner nor the motion of thy hand Nor all my Zeal and Fancy raise a thought To comprehend thy Essence as I ought I can persuade my Reason to give way Unto my Faith for if thy Gospel say 'T is so it is enough I do believe Tho' wonder how a Virgin did conceive And bring a Son who was both God and Man And do not doubt thy holy Spirit can Dwell in my heart and teach me to prevent Doubting that Christ is in the Sacrament Or searching of thy high Divinity How the Godhead becomes a Trinity I can see thee now in the Creation Full as great as in the Resurrection Though I know not how all these come to pass Thy Word says so it is and so it was And I believe 't while thou art mine my Faith No curiosity nor doubting hath To the Ambitious Envious Man DOes that Man's honour and his wealth abound Is his felicity sufficient ground For thee to envy what he does possess When thou dost feel no want though thine be less Such envy dwells not in a noble heart Yet I will teach thee a mysterious art Shall make ambition and thy envy swell As high as Heaven and yet thou shalt do well Thou want'st not understanding nor a wit But want'st the will and grace to manage it Let the dull Clown still multiply his Cows And make 't his business to enlarge his Mows The wary Merchant traffick on the Seas The Souldier kill as many as he please The Usurer injoy his full-stuff'd Bags And the gay Courtier boast his golden Rags And greatest Lords to highest Titles born Search all the World they never can adorn Themselves with wealth or glories that shall last Unto eternity Then do not waste Thy life on trifles let thy envy rise Do thou contest with those that Heav'n do prize With all that do pretend a better right Than thou to be God's greatest Favourite 'T is a noble and a brave Religion That allows thy envy and ambition To trample on the World in spight of fate Until thy forehead knock at Heaven Gate To the Luxurious Man ARe thy brave Statues Pictures Jewels Plate Which cost so many thousand pounds of late Destroy'd Is thy vast Building with thy Land Torn from thee by some unjust powerful hand And dost thou sit computing the great cost Of all thy Pleasures and this Treasure lost With a half broken heart and dost not see All this is to deface thy Luxury Which did thy Soul besot Till these were gone Thou hadst no leisure time to think upon Thy God who thus in Mercy and in Love Doth that calamity from thee remove That thy free heart may only Him adore And so be richer than thou wert before If Heaven and Earth be God's and he be thine Thou ought'st to thank him rather than repine Then will thy long-sick Soul recover health And thou possess an everlasting wealth Free from the Cares and Fears that daily hap To Men that seek their Bliss in Fortune's lap Love thy Neighbour as thy self IT is a prime and great Commandment To Love our Neighbour as our selves God meant Us happiness on Earth that did impose Severest Laws to make us love our Foes Including that our Friendships would not need A Law when hearts in unity agreed But we that still his Will prevaricate Do change this pleasant Precept into hate Throughout the World the daily Mischiefs show That Neighbourhood but little love do know We see the best of Men do often do What they themselves would not be done unto And few of us there be that do believe Our plenty should our Neighbour's wants relieve How few the sick do visit or endure The smallest Charges for a poor Man's Cure And yet we hope our God our selves will bless Who neither Love nor Charity express To love our Neighbour as we ought would be Mongst Men angelical Felicity My Toke is easie and
my Burthen light JESVS Christ the great Pattern of our Lives Does bid us follow him and loves who strives To imitate him most for he that can But near him come will be a blessed Man 'T is not commanded nor expected is That our own righteousness should equal His Our God from us doth nothing more require Than our utmost endeavours and desire To do his Will He only calls us to What he does give us Grace and power to do He wills us to believe obey and love But does not give us mountains to remove His yoke is easie and his Burthen light We make of Mole-hills Mountains in our sight To a strong young Man T'Hou'rt young 't is true and strong mayest yet Live many years but do not thou forget That young and healthy People often die By various accidents as suddenly As old nor yet expect that death must bring A Fever to fore-shew thou art dying When death with thee divides this minute's breath Though we call the last act of dying death Because we then do cease to die no more When we are dying all our lives before Thy youth and my gray head now dying are Thou need'st no other Summons to prepare For Heaven but observation every day What multitudes of young men drop away Only the old Man's Dream is almost gone The young Man's Dream but newly is begun The longest is like twinkling of an eye Moments compar'd unto eternity On Hypocrisie HE errs that owns his Crimes in the World's sight To avoid being thought a hypocrite We are not bound our frailties to reveal But may our shame with modesty conceal Rather than aggravate our sins 'gainst God By boasting that we do contemn his Rod. But he that does a feigned Zeal put on To cloak his sins doth scorn Religion And does not only with his base intents Contemn Obedience to Commandments But does that way design his God should shroud His wickedness under a holy cloud And does God's Goodness mock thus to presume Rudely to move his anger to consume Such mad-men as do his known power despise By daring to affront him in disguise Who thinks a Vizard on his face can hide His heart God does such hypocrites deride And will in fury finite so bold offence As undervalues his Omnipotence To GOD. WHen I look back on my past life the ills That I have done my heart with horrour fills And does amaze my frighted Soul to see Thy Judgments due to such impiety But since thy Mercy hath so long forborn To smite and thou art pleas'd at last to turn My heart to Heaven when I was running on Heaping sins on sins to my perdition I bless thy Name that would not let me go To Hell nor suffer me to perish so This Grace gives hope and does my Faith encrease To Confidence that thou wilt now release Me from the punishments and from the shame Due to my Crimes and make me love thy Name It is thy own great Work the honour 's thine I cannot own a vertuous thought for mine Shall I then fear to raise my thoughts to thee When thou dost fill my heart with Piety When my assurance is thy gift I may Approach thy glorious Throne and humbly say Thy Grace hath such a Confidence begot As cannot be in one that loves thee not Lord let this love encrease let it endure Unto my end make my Election sure That I may feast my Soul with thoughts of thee My God the Fountain of Felicity Thus fill'd with Grace and by thy Spirit led I shall for ever live when I am dead And with true courage when I come to die Shall gladly pass to my eternity On a bold profane Sinner WE may well fear great Judgments in our times That dare to boast and glory in our Crimes To sin is humane frailty but to slight Religion and to make 't our chief delight To show how we can triumph in the act Of ev'ry sin does aggravate the fact And make us worse than Heathens heretofore Who never scorn'd those Gods they did adore But Christians now do take the liberty To own no Joy but in the infamy Of their worst deeds and do a War proclaim With Heaven as if they could their God desame The Giants war by Poets feign'd came short Of those who use Devotion as a Sport And rally on their Priests who stories tell To awe the ignorant with Heaven and Hell While Wit and Courage do disdain to be Frighted from Pleasure by such Foppery Thus some gay Gallants of our age do treat Their God as if his Precepts were a cheat To make us live in fear and trembling die With idle Dreams of an Eternity If these Opinions like Contagions spread God may in rigour strike the Nation dead Then sow the Land with Dragons teeth fit seed For soil that does such monstrous people breed On Eternal Life NO sooner born than we begin to die By Nature taught to cry we know not why Till riper years do teach us wicked arts To cozen and betray our wanton hearts That boldly dare our great Creator brave By sinning from our Cradle to our Grave Sad fate for Souls thus destin'd to obey The various Vices of corrupted Clay Involv'd in dangers that we do not fear Because the certain ruine seems not near Till some diviner light our hearts inform How to fail safe in this devouring storm Bless'd be that light which does from terrour free And make us Victors in Captivity For Souls by Grace enlarg'd will quickly taste Such Joys as no Eternity can waste Thus born to live and yet ordain'd to die And live again is such a mystery As only Faith can reach and shew us how To out-live Death by pious living now Which will a prepossession take of Bliss And such angelical transports as this Will such a bless'd celestial Courage give We shall be glad to die that we may live On Valour and Fear VAlour mistaken through the World we see When rashness looks like Magnanimity When senseless Drunkards vap'ring in the Street For want of Courage quarrel all they meet When practised danger brings the meanest Clown To vie with Alexander for Renown When shame will fear remove and money hire The scum of Men to face the Cannon's fire We must some other Rules for Valour find That grows from Vertues of a higher kind These Men do not know why They do not fear to die Experience shews the Valiant and the Wife May start at the first glimpse of a surprise And may avoid such squabbles as will stain Their Courage and no jot of Credit gain High Valour and true Vertue brightly shine When they 're asserted by a Cause Divine When King and Country or thy Church wants aid 'T is basest Cowardice to be afraid True Courage will endeavour to create Safety to them though ruine be their fate These are the Men know why They do not fear to die On Repentance WHen Adam fell GOD did a Curse disperse On all