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
discover to us the state of the fallen angels and of the rich glutton and the state of the damned if no profitable use could be made of it no place is so barren as a barren heart each dead tree will yield some fruit to us if the soul be not dead I have pluckt here and there a flower as others have done before me and he that comes after us may finde as good as any we have gotten Those I have gathered are rather to comfort the heart then to please the fancy rather to benefit the soul with their vertue then to please the eye with their beauty their nature if I mistake them not is to draw the heart and affections to God and cool and deadden it to the world and sin But a gracious heart is then required to make the extraction for if it be mixt with the dregs of hypocrisy it will prove useless The hypocrite like a puppet in a play may counterfeit mans shape and gestures yea like a parrat his voice when he understands not what he saith or doth yea such a one mars all he sets his hands to but a good man hath an holy heart as well as a holy tongue and this will prove a soul-satting Ordinance to such a man this will raise up the heart to hoaven which is one of our surest evidences for heaven If any yet pleade there are too many books on this subject extant already the more shame for us then that the duty is so much neglected that is not sufficiently taught that is not sufficiently learnt and I fear those that are readiest to make the objection are not the most conscientious in the performance of the duty There are many that make conscience of morning and evening prayers in their families that spend little time in this duty if any quarrel at the language these meditations speak let them know my designe is to make men live better and not to make them speak better if they speak the language of Canaan they will be understood by true Israelites and will be owned by those that had rather be fed then flattered it is a distempered stomack that must be fed with kickshaws truth looks best in the plainest dress and a diamond needs no painting via trita est via tuta and plain sence is the best orthography of an honest heart In short the reason why I write upon this subject is not to please mens humours or satisfy squeasy stomacks but because I judge this to be a necessary though much neglected duty and therefore most necessary to be treated of As for the last of your demands why I praefix your names to it I think there are none that knows both you and me and my engagements to you that need stumble at it but I shall answer it first negatively and then affirmatively I do it not because I think you have more need of it then others for I know but few better able then you to gather such flowers as these for your selves But it is because I think you are better able to judge of it then most are and if you think I have not mist my way I care not much what those say that never travailed in this road I speak to those that understand the language for to others haply I may seem a barbarian A hypocrite may pretend to the language but understands it not he spoils this as well as all his other duties I present this first to you for if it pass this text I matter not much what many others say of it And also that thereby I may tell the world rather then you what my thoughts are of you and to point them out a pattern for their imitation for I verily believe and I think upon serious observation that the several branches of both your families do maintain the vitals of religion and the power of godliness in as eminent a manner as any family of your rank that I know in the Nation and keep themselves as unspotted in the world and as free from the contagious diseases of the times And he that is the searcher of all hearts knows I speak my thoughts without flattery or fauning and I do it for no sinister end but as Solomon did commend the good huswife Pro. 31.29 that God may be glorifyed for his bounty to you and your hands may be strengthned in well doing and others may take example by you and your lives may be for their imitation I cannot praise my present any further then from the truth of the heart that sends it had it been better it had been sent with a better will I send it as a poor man doth a present to his superiour not to supply his wants but to manifest his love thankfulness and dependence upon him or as a debtor to his creditor who when he cannot pay the debt pays the interest or at least testifyes his willingness if ability be wanting What I have done in this my undertaking I judged to be my duty David bids us commune with our own hearts Psal 4.4 and he calls upon others Psal 66.16 come and hear all ye that fear the Lord and I will declare what he hath done for my soul I have not the confidence to think that this or any thing I can do can pass the test of this critical age or indeed can contribute much to the adorning of the spouse of Christ I know a handfull of goats-hair was not formerly rejected neither will a cup of cold water where there is no better nor two mites where there is no more by him from whom I expect my reward When you can write fairer then the Copy which will quickly be you may lay it aside and give it to some one that cannot for whose sake it was chiefly written but that it may prove beneficial both to you and yours and to the Church of God for the advancing of the the power of godliness and the life of religion and the restoring this too much neglected duty of holy meditation shall be and is the desire and prayer of him who is Eaton Jan. 12. 1676. Your ever obliged Servant Edward Bury To the Reader Courteous Reader I Have here presented thee with a bundle of Meditations most of them occasional I am not so conceited as to imagine there is any great excellency in them nor so foolish to trouble my self to write or others to reade them did I judge them altogether useless the duty I know is necessary and beneficiall and many Christians can write a probatum est upon it and say it hath been so to them however it is too much neglected by the most I have not long since published some directions how to perform the several parts of Gods worship amongst the rest this of meditation was one and that which is set or solemn was chiefly insisted upon but that which is occasional more briefly touch't which indeed cannot well be bounded but is varied according as the time place
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 flâ—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
nothing flourisheth but weeds and nothing appears but confusion and the whole appearing more like a wilderness then a garden This sight brought to my minde the state of the poor soul when it is neglected and not heedfully observed then all run to ruine and tends to confusion nothing that good is prospers nothing that is bad but flourisheth corruption and sin get the upper hand and grace is kept under the fence is let down the watch is neglected and the devil that wilde boar of the forrest destroys the tender vines roots up every good inclination spoils every good motion intention and resolution and lays all waste how many have I known who when they have been under good Masters good parents good Ministers have been very hopeful and towardly and were likely to have made good instruments in the Church for Gods glory if not pillars in the house of God while their graces and good inclinations were well watered and they received encouragement in their religious courses then the flowers of grace seemed to flourish and good desires holy intentions and resolutions to bud forth and hopeful beginnings shewed themselves and promising parts gave hopes of future encrease But when these fire-sticks not well kindled were once removed from those that set them a burning they were soon extinguished when they had changed their habitations their company when they were left to themselves or to those that were careless of them they went out of themselves and vanished in a smoak or in a snuff then their corruptions soon gathered head and their graces were at an under they soon grew rude and bruitish and given to sensuality and the hearb of grace for want of rain and nourishment watering and weeding was soon suffocated by vice and in short time these men lost that which they seemed to have and their souls looked no more like a watered garden but a barren wilderness or a dunghill covered with noysome weeds and the dam which religious education had erected being broken down the stream ran more violently and it is not unusual to see vice so much prevailing that they turn persecutors of what before they profest oh my soul is not this in part thy case are there not sensible decays of love in thee is not thy zeal for God abated and thy courage in his cause decayed are not thy graces choaked with weeds and the wheat overrun with tares where is the kindeness of thy youth and the love of thy espousalls when thou wentst after God in the wilderness hast thou not with the Church of Ephesus lost thy first love dost thou not grow more strange with thy God and doth not God grow more strange with thee where is that heart and fervour which did appear in thee that life and activity in his service hath not the cooling winde of the world abated this and thou beginnest to be as the world calls it more moderate or as God calls it more lukewarm the weeds of sin begin to overtop the hearb of grace do not these grow rank and flourishing when grace grows weak and feeble grace like the house of Saul grows weaker and weaker when sin like the house of David gathers strength well beware betimes if thou grow lukewarm God will spew thee out of his mouth if thou bear wilde grapes he will pluck down thy fence and lay thee waste if thou art barren he will cut thee down and cast thee into the fire oh my God without thy assistance I shall bring forth no fruit or worse then none wilde grapes grapes of sin and disobedience my sins like a bloud-hound will dog me at the heels and finde me out the weeds of sins and the thorns of cares will suffer no good herb nor flower to flourish if God weed them not out Oh pluck up those weeds keep under those thorns and make up those decays in this thy garden let the north-winde and the south blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out Cant. 4.16 that I may be serviceable to thee and profitable to man let my fruits be ripened my graces greatned by the breathing of the Holy Ghost then shall I serve thee with thy own and give thee of thy own 1 Chron. 29.14 Upon the fading of Beautifull flowers 13. Med. WAlking in the garden I fixed my eyes upon the flowers there growing I considered the variety beauty and splendour of them how glorious they appeared after a cooling shower of rain and the refreshing beams of the shining Sun how pleasantly they lookt how sweet they smelt filling the ambient air with their sweet savour delighting the beholders senses with their colour shape and scent and when on the other side I considered how vain and fading all this glory was how transitory these beautifull creatures were and how their glory past was as the morning dew which when the Sun in his glory appears quickly vanisheth when I considered that the same day I saw them in the heighth of their pride and in their lowest debasement to day they are saith Christ and to morrow they are cast into the oven the same day ofttimes sees them both admired and despised hug'd in the bosome and cast out upon the dunghill me thought this did lively resemble the vanity of all humane felicity how transitory it is and uncertain and how little solidity is to be found in any thing under the sun Now they flatter and seem beautifull to the eye and suddenly they wither vanish and disappear If we look upon their little Lord and the owner of these things we shall finde him as frail and brittle as fading and transitory as these this day you may see him in the strength of his youth and his bones full of marrow and to morrow death seizeth upon him and the worm sweetly feeds upon him Job 24.20 they are cut down as the grass and wither as the flower of the field Psal 37.12 13. How frequent is it in Scripture to compare man to grass and to a fading flower Esay 40.6 7. all flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass Psal 92.7 when the wicked springeth as the grass and when the workers of iniquity flourish it is that they may be out off for ever and as man is thus frail and brittle fading and transitory so are all these sublunary things there is no stability no sollidity in them they are like the moon every day shewing a new face now waxing now waning or like the Sea sometimes ebbing sometimes flowing now a full sea and a few howers after low water we may see many men flourish like green bay-trees and suddenly taken away and the place that knew them shall know them no more now in the height of honour and suddenly in the gulph of disgrace now flourishing in riches and quickly pincht with poverty our age can witness all
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 mâ—â—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-scowâ—iâ—g of all things reckon therefore reproach … â—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
of Saints is heaven upon earth believers are members of the mystical body of Christ and it is with believers as with members in the natural body they have the same care one for another if one suffer all suffer and if one be honoured all rejoyce 1 Cor. 12.25 26. they are like lute-strings if one be strucken all the rest sound but more clear this sympathy would be if it were not for the remaining corruption that is in us oh my soul dost thou meet with hardship in the world wonder not at it thou art in an enemies Countrey the world will love her own but never loved Christ nor any of his hast thou broke satans prison no wonder if there be hue and cry sent after thee to bring thee back the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent did never yet agree Christ hath told thee in the world thou shalt have tribulation yet be of good comfort he hath overcome the world this world is the Saints purgatory not paradice and why shouldst thou expect pleasure it is like the straights of Magellan where it is observed which way soever a man bends his course out the winde will be against him it is an own mother to the wicked but a step-mo-to the godly and will starve them if their father lookt not to them the godly and the wicked fight under two captains the one under the banner of Christ the other under the devils standard and therefore there is no hopes of reconciliation fire and water are not more contrary then Christ and Belial oh my soul manifest thy self the seed of the woman not by making peace but by maintaining war with Christs enemies and by sympathizing with his children mourn with those that mourn and rejoyce with those that rejoyce and be like affectioned one to another like the members of the same body when one is distempered the other suffers when one stands in need all the rest yield their help and assistance Oh my God is there such an antipathy in the hearts of wicked men against thine image in the hearts of thy people what cause have we to admire thy patience that sufferest such enemies to live upon the face of the earth and feedest and maintainest them at thy own cost and charge and what cause have I to admire that thou bearest with me so long when I was in that relation and what cause have we to admire thy wisdom and power in preserving a handful of thy people like lambs in the midst of numerous wolves that seek their destruction when for ought we know there are hundreds to one against them that vow their destruction Lord let me manifest my self to be thine by my antipathy to sin and the works of darkness and my sympathy with the godly those children of light Upon the Marigold and other flowers 36. Med. WHen I considered the marigold and sundry other flowers in the garden that closed in the evening and opened in the morning and all the day turned their heads according to the course of the sun as if they scorned any other beauty and would admit of no other suitor and as if no temptation could divert them from their beloved from whom they received their life and being and in the winter when the sun is remote they bury themselves in the ground and disappear I thought this much resembles a Christian when he acts like a Christian and is a fit embleme of grace in the soul for a gracious soul as he scorns to make love to any other but God so he scorns that proffered love that others make to it or to entertain any in competition with Christ from whom he receiveth life and breath and being In all a gracious man doth Christ is in his eye and if he can please him he matters not who is offended his eye is always upon Christ as these flowers have their eye upon their beloved sun his heart runs out to him and scorns to open to any other when God is present the heart is expatiated when absent it is contracted he retires himself then into himself and thinks there is no company worth having he depends upon him as a childe doth upon his fathers providence and fears not want so long as there is bread enough in his fathers house and as he draws out all from God so he draws out all for God and for his service heart and hand and tongue and all shall be employed for him there is not a dram of love in the heart but it shall run in this channel he shall have it if he have a tongue to speak it shall speak for God if a hand to act it shall act for him and all he can do seems too little for him a gracious soul that is espoused to Christ behaves her self like a chast wife to her beloved husband When suitors come to wooe for her affections they shall have a peremptory deniall my affections are set already I cannot I will not remove them my vows are upon me I cannot yeild I have devoted my self to my husband and will not prove false and it is her trouble she is forced to hear such solicitations and temptations it is so with the soul she repels with disdain the temptations and allurements laid before her the devil knocks by his temptations she will not answer the world knocks she will not open riches honours friends and favourites cannot prevail such a spirit was in Jerome though my father saith he lay upon his knees before me and my mother hanged about my neck and my brethren and sisters lay in my way to keep me from Christ I would throw off my father tread upon my mother run over my brethren and sisters to come to Christ when he calls me a believer is semper idem always the same whether with David upon the throne or with Job upon the dunghill or with Jeremy in the stocks he will still keep his integrity as these flowers do whereever planted in field or garden however honoured or despised no other benefactour shall be owned but the sun when the hypocrite is like the planet Mercury good in a good conjunction and bad with a bad a gracious heart is like Lot good in Sodom temperate amidst the intemperate or like Noah upright in a sinful world or like Joseph holy in a sinful Egypt like the needle in the compass always pointing the same way and never settles in a wrong point however disturbed by a jog of temptation like clear water in a glass which remains clear after all the shaking when the hypocrite hath mud in the bottom which is discovered by the stirring oh my soul is it thus with thee art thou as faithful to this sun of righteousness as these poor flowers are to their beloved that will admit neither moon nor stars nor any other lover to have any room in their affections nor any favour in their eye nor one pleasing look or cast of their head dost thou point right
for heaven and can no jog of temptation divert thee or make thee settle in a wrong point If so how comes it to pass that thou art so much taken with the worlds glory that not only thy eyes but thy heart goes after it why art thou so bewitched with her smiles and so cast down with her frowns why hast thou so few serious thoughts of God and so few glimps of him even in the ordinances were thy heart in order thou wouldst always have Christ in thine eye both in thy heavenly and earthly imployments and wouldst soon be sensible when the sun of righteousness was either clouded ecclypsed or set upon thee as these flowers are in the like case if thou art why dost thou not mourn and hang the head in his absence as they do in the like case they will another day rise up against thee and condemn thee as being more faithful to their benefactour then thou art to thy husband oh my God I am sensible of my guilt and the faithfulness of these flowers shames me for my unfaithfulness they have but a natural instinct to incline them to their benefactor and own him but I have reason and Scripture yea my vows are upon me and engage me to my husband Christ Lord divert my affections from the world which doth but flatter me to deceive me incline my heart to Christ that would save me and make me happy let neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord nor rend me out of his arms nor draw my affections from him Upon a rose among thorns 37. Med. WHen I beheld and considered how the rose grew and flourished and came to perfection amongst the thorns and prickles that surrounded it and was not hurt but rather defended by them and kept and preserved from their other enemies I thought it represented the Church here in the world for as here there are a thousand prickles for one rose and yet this rose is preserved so in the world it may probably be conjectured there are a thousand wicked men which are compared to thorns for one that is godly the Church in her militant condition while she is in the world is compared to the lilly among the thorns Con. 2.2 as the lilly among the thorns saith Christ so is my love among the daughters these are indeed as the Gibionits pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides yet not altogether useless wicked men are called briars Micah 7.4 the best of them is a briar and the most upright sharper then a thorny hedge and God threatens to fold them together as thorns and burn them as dry stubble Nahum 1.10 Isay 27.4 but these briars are not useless he hedges us about with them that he may keep us in compass he pricks us with these thorns that he may let out ill humours and happy thorns to us if they open a vein for sin to gush out his house of correction is his school of instruction Psal 94.12 whether the rose in the creation was thus guarded and fenced I know not some think these thorns also are a fruit of the curse yet sure I am before the fall the Church was not pestered with such thorns as now it is man before the fall had not the nature and property of thorns but as thorns by Gods providence are made serviceable for the defence of better fruit so the wicked often prove serviceable to the Church and a defence to better men but no thank to them but to the overruling providence of God God preserves his people from their rage and makes them dwell safe by them as lambs among wolves and not only so but makes one wolf to defend them from another or sets one wolf to worry another while the lambs escape the Gibionites though briars and thorns were yet usefull to Israel and the earth helpt the woman and swallowed up the flouds which the dragon cast out of his mouth after her Rev. 12.16 As the Persians and others drink up the floud which the Turk at this day threatens to overwhelm all Christendome with The Philistins though briars and thorns are a defence to David when he was persecuted by Saul and in a great strait being compassed round about by Sauls army in that nick of time they invaded the land and Saul and his army drew back 2 Sam. 23.27 wicked Pharaoh gave entertainment to Jacob and his family and made provision for them in the seaven years famine and David and his fellows were promoted by a wicked man so was Mordicai and the Jewes and the Barbarians shewed Paul no little kindness Acts. 28.2 and sometimes the sheep finde shelter under a thorny hedge yet the nature of wicked men is not to do good but to rent and tear but God alters their nature at least restraineth their rage for his peoples sake The Church of God is as a bush burning but not consumed for when potent Princes have sought their destruction God hath frustrated their designes sometimes by setting the dogs to worry one another the poor hare escapes so Geball and Ammon and the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroy each other when they had decreed to destroy Israel 2 Chron. 20.23 and the counsell could not agree against Paul Act. 23.7 God maintaineth Noah against a world of wicked men and Lot in the midst of Sodom and Israel in Egypt and Mordicai against Haman and all his enemys and oft gives them favour in the eyes of those that were they not restrained would become their mortall enemies and their bloudy persecutors God turning those thorns which would devour them into a defence for them and into a hedge for his peoples security Oh my soul admire the providence and wisdome of God that can bring light out of darkness order out of confusion good out of evill and can turn a curse into a blessing and make his Churches enemies to become their friends thou wast one of those thorns and thy nature was as bad and if God hath taken thee off the stock of nature and planted thee in that choise vine bless his name it was no thanks to thee If now thou art a rose though encompassed by a thousand thorns he will defend thee If thy ways please God thy enemies themselves shall be at peace with thee Pro. 16.7 sin is the only make-bate between God and the soul and if God have a controversy with the sinner all the creatures are presently up in arms to bring in the rebel and wait but for a commission to take away his life but if God be reconciled to thee no enemy can hurt thee no weapon formed against his Church shall ever prosper Esay 54.17 When Jacob had made his peace with God neither Laban nor Esau could quarrel with him though it is thought both came forth with murderous
what cause then hath poor man to hugg such a viper in his bosome that feels so much the sad effects of it which is the cause of all temporal spiritual and eternal miseries which without repentance will cause not only a seperation of the soul from the body but also of the body and soul from God I considered also that though man were subjected to more care and trouble then other creatures were yet if he did his work well he was promised a greater reward and better wages then any other he shall be well paid for his pains and who will not take pains for profit it is fit that man that is promised a kingdome for one days work should work harder then he that hath but ordinary wages yea God hath gracious ends in these afflictions to his people by this means he lets them know their rest is not here and weans them from the love of the world which would undo them who otherwise would with Peter say it is good being here we are travellers and cannot expect rest in a journey or security in an enemies countrey the Samaritans would not entertain Christ because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem Luk. 9.53 and the world will not entertain Gods people because they have their faces heâ—â—enward Christ tells us in the world we shall have tribulation John 16.33 this is not a paradice but a purgatory to the saints we may say of this as one doth of the Straits of Megellan when a man is there which way soever he bends his course the winde will be against him but Christ hath overcome the world and will subject this enemy to us It is a great mistake to take this for our rest yet many do and rest here and it is all the rest they are like to have and a miserable portion it is to those that have the most of it there are none here live free from misery though some sinfully pass away their time idly sorrow will follow sin as the shadow doth the substance and if any can patch up a miserable happiness here yet it is short-lived and they know not whether it will be a day older when death comes eternal miseries will take date oh my soul art thou under suffering and hast no free-day do they come like waves of the sea one in the neck of another thank thy self and thy sin for it these are the fruits of thy beloved lusts when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Jam. 1.15 never expect to be free from suffering till thou be free from sin when thou smartest by affliction avenge thy self on thy sins and make thy heart smart for sin if sin be not forsaken thy sufferings will be more God will make thee bend or break under his hand but if thy sins be hated and repented despair not at thy troubles it is but the portion of Gods own people Abel began a health and all the saints that ever were are or shall be have pledg'd it round and some have drunk very deep and Christ himself drunk up the very dregs of it but if thou suffer for righteousness sake thou shalt be sufficiently rewarded yea thou maist rejoice and be exceeding glad for great will be thy reward in heaven Mat. 5.11.12 Oh my God thou hast afflicted me less then I deserve help me to patience under thy hand with correction give instruction and let no twig of thy rod be in vain fit my back for the burthen and then lay on what thou pleasest On the difference between a well manured and neglected Orchard 74. Med. WHen I observed the difference between a well-manured well-ordered and well-husbanded orchard and one that was slieghted neglected and carelesly heeded I observed the difference between diligence and negligence in the one I beheld the trees orderly ranked not too near nor at too great a distance carefully prun'd and freed from superfluous branches suckers clensed from moss and other offensive enemies manured dung'd fenced from the violence of cattle and in a word in a comely form and handsome to behold and the fruit answered expectation and made amends for the care and cost but the other was neither handsome to the eye nor profitable to the owner lying open to the beasts of the feild out of order and shape some too thick others too thin overgrown with moss suckers cankers and unprofitable branches the ground over-run with briars brambles nettles docks and other unprofitable weeds and the fruit thus choaked and spoiled proved accordingly by this I saw the difference between a good husband and a bad Solomon tells us the king himself is served by the field Eccl. 5.9 and so doubtless he is by the orchard but then it must be well husbanded Uzziah loved husbandry 2 Chr. 26.10 the orchard yields both meat and drink both food and physick profit and delight is here to be had but not without labour and diligence In all labour saith Solomon there is profit Pro. 14.23 that is all honest labour we should work with our hands the thing that is good some labour diligently to do mischief and take pains to go to hell there is small profit in this work and some as one saith do magno conatu magnus nugas â—gere they do take great pains to small purpose some take as much pains to spend their estate as others do to get it and more pains in the way to hell then others in the way to heaven but diligence even in earthly business is doubtless a commanded duty and negligence is a forbidden sin the one brings profit and the other loss diligence in an orchard brings in more then ordinary profit the Apostle commands those that will not labour that they shall not eat 2 Thes 3.10 paradice that was mans store-house was his work house also those idle persons that have little to do are usually set on a work by the devil for he takes up and employs such wanderers those that like body-lice live upon other mens sweat are not fit to live in a well-ordered common-wealth it is an apostatical command that we labour with our hands that we may be able to give to those that need Eph. 4.28 he shall be poor saith Solomon that dealeth with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich Pro. 10.4 doing there must be or the beggar will catch us by the back it follows he that gathereth in summer is a wise son but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame he that lets the offered opportunity slip may haply never recover the loss diligence usually though not constantly is attended with abundance but the sluggard shall be covered with rags we reade Pro. 24.30 that Solomon went by the field of the sluggard and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding and it was grown over with thorns thistles also had covered the face thereof the stone-wall thereof was broken down
be but a trouble so may a great estate to a godly man I might have like that young man mentioned Mat. 19.20 c. parted with Christ for a trifle had he had but a small estate who knows but he might have proved a true convert he cheapens heaven bids fair for it but they disagreed about the price a great estate breaks the bargain as in the world it breaks many a marriage the persons like and love but the womans portion will not answer the mans estate this occasioned Christ to tell us how hard a thing it was for a rich man to be saved Mat. 19.24 it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God most mens honours change their manners and they are the worse for their wealth if heaven be to be had upon no other terms many will refuse it they would be gainers by their religion however they resolve to lose nothing many like Diana's Craftsmen get their living by it they will launch no further into the deep then they may return safe to the shore many come to Christ hastily as this young man but return heavily when they hear the rate All men love Abrahams bosome but few men love Dives door all men love the jewel but few will go to the price all men would have the crown but they love not the cross that leads to it Most men especially great ones will meddle with no more religion then will do them good or boot their needs or serve their designes they will lanch no further into the seas then they can see the shoar pride breeds in wealth as worms do in apples and he is a rich man indeed that thinks himself never the greater or never the better for his wealth oh world how hast thou deceived those that trust in thee and how hast thou bought their profession out of their hands for a trifle and hast had their souls into the bargain how many write themselves happy when they are loaden with thick clay alass what will this do for them in their greatest need poor Spira was betrayed by thee to the shipwrack of faith and a good conscience so were Judas Demas Ananias and Saphira and a thosand more these knew not the worth of the soul nor the vanity of the world that let the devil have so cheap a penyworth they grasp so greedily after gold that they lost their God and loved their sin more then their souls but what good will it do them when they want a drop of water to cool their tongues Luk. 16.24 oh my soul bless God that hath freed thee from many temptations that others are overcome by Covet not overmuch a prosperous condition lest God give it thee for thy portion scorn with the Eagle to stoop so low as to seek thy meat upon a dunghill undervalue not thy self so much as to entertain so poor a suitor as the world is when the sun of God makes love to thee who alone can pay thy debts and make thee happy thou canst not buy this gold too dear but the world thou maist and most men do when they purchase it with the bloud of their souls thou canst not over-value this jewel it is ten thousand times better then thou canst value it oh my God give me Christ and it sufficeth I need no other portion I desire no other happiness let me have him at any rate Vpon trees green in summer but stript off all in winter 86. Med. OBserving further that those trees so fair and specious so green and flourishing in the summer yet when autumn came were stript of all their gallantry and appeared bare and ill favoured dead and dry and looked not like the same they were It presently struck into my minde that this would shortly be the condition of all wicked men let their prosperity be never so great and their enjoyments in the world never so many or large the time is coming all these like leaves will fly away with the winde the nipping frost of death and the winde of affliction will make them fall some carry Lordships on their backs some Earldomes some Dukedomes and some few Kingdomes among the Clergy some carry several steeples on their backs yea some Deanaries and some Bishopricks all these are but leaves and will fall when Autumn winde blows they cannot stand a winter-blast death will level the great and the small the one with the other and the Kings head shall then shew no impression of a crown Many rich men are like sumpter-horses richly laden with gold and silver and costly gems and Jewels all the day but when night comes and come it will ere long they are stript of all turned into a dirty stable and nothing to bring off but their gal'd backs so these at death have nothing left but a gal'd conscience a pregnant example of this we have in the rich man mentioned Luk. 16.19 there was one cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day but it was but a little time before all those leaves were stript off and he had not left him one drop of water to cool his tongue and he that a little before as some imagine denyed a crumb of bread to Lazarus is now denyed a drop of water Another example we have Luk. 12.16 of a rich man that had abundance and began to sing a requiem to his soul eat drink and be merry thou hast goods laid up for many years he was a right Epicure that made his gut his God another Sardanapalus eating that in earth that Augustine saith he must digest in hell little thinking his death was so near his glass was run when he thought it was but new turned thou fool saith Christ this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose are these he was shot as a bird with the bolt while he was staring at the bow of rich men the Psalmist saith their glory will not follow them neither shall they take any thing with them Psal 49.17 then when death entreth into their lodging and knocks at their doors they may bid farewell to their well contriv'd houses sumptuous buildings pleasant gardens and delightful walks yea to all their bags of gold so painfully got so carefully kept and so warily employed even to the wounding of their consciences the hardning of their hearts and the loss of their souls then farewell all their pleasures their merry meetings and their pot companions with their drunken revels farewell then their cocks their hawks their hounds and their whores they must never more delight and recreate themselves with these for though whoremasters and whores shall burn together in hell yet shall they not there burn in lust one to the other but their company shall be their torment not their recreation all these are but leaves the wind of death will blow away Here are no may-games nor morris-dances or deluding shews to entertain