when you go into your Closet and betake your self to your private retirements I am going to God my exceeding joy to my happiness to my hearts delight Welcome beloved hour which hast more of eternal life in Thee than of Time Rejoyce my Soul that thou art among Angels now and not among men Yea let my flesh be glad to become of a poor Souls Cottage the Temple of the most High God! Look upon Prayer as that which brings down Heaven to you and upon Praise and Thanksgiving as that which lifts you up to Heaven and upon Meditation as that which is the bond of the two Worlds and ties Heaven and Earth together Yea let every other good action seem a favour rather than a charge a recreation rather than a work And then for your notions of God do not look upon him as a rigid and unmerciful exactor of your labours but as a loving Father who is easily pleased and makes a most gracious allowance for your weaknesses and unavoidable impediments and is ready to forgive your many oversights and frequent neglects When we represent him to our selves as exceeding angry at every little indisposition and dulness that seises on us that very thought makes us more dull and indisposed because we imagine that we shall never be able to please him Or if we deem him though not implacable yet much in love with revenge and ready to strike upon every offence that we give him I know no readier way to render his service a most tedious task unto us because we shall go in perpetual fear of thunderbolts hanging over our heads and ready to fall down to do some mischief or other to us As we ought to have a great and scrupulous care to avoid all that is evil so we must believe when we commit a fault against our will and design that there is an Advocate with our Father who is a propitiation for our sins And when we look upon him thus as one ready to forgive that had rather do us all good than any harm and desires rather to see his commands better observed than the penalties for the breach of them inflicted this will incourage us to address our selves with a fresh chearfulness to his service and breed in our hearts a great love to him which above all other things hath a most powerful hand upon our obedience The more you heighten your love to God the more motion and activity will the heat of it give you and the more you heighten his love to you the greater flames will there arise in your heart to him Just as you see the Sun in its nearest approaches to us when its beames are directly over our heads produces a vigorous heat and life in all Creatures but when it is in the Southern Countries and looks upon us with an oblique aspect is not able to make us warm by its rayes So it is with the Divine Goodness which is the life and comfort of our hearts If we think that he looks asquint upon us and cares very little for us we shall be cold and frozen like so many dead Creatures in our affections to him but if we think his face is towards us and that his eye and the light of his countenance as the Scripture speaks is full upon us that he highly favours us and his heart is very desirous to pour down a world of blessings into us it will make our Souls leap for joy our love will spring up apace and the odors of it will be like the smell of Spices sweet both to God and to our selves We love God commonly if not always in the beginning of our friendship with him because of the good that he doth or that we think he will do to us and though afterward this breeds a strong inclination in us to love that most excellent Nature from which all good comes yet that inclination will still grow stronger by the continued thoughts of his kindness to us And therefore this belief is by all means to be nourished and preserved in our hearts especially considering that the stronger our love and inclination towards him grows by frequent reflecting upon his love and good will to us the more chearful and constant obedience shall we pay to him I have represented this so largely in another Discourse which you know very well that it may seem unnecessary to add any thing to it it here But it will not be unprofitable I am sure to recommend to you this one consideration more That the hearty love of God which naturally springs out of a stedfast and unmovable belief of his love to us is a thing so comprehensive and so powerful that it includes in it all the means which are necessary for the accomplishment of our end and contains the force of all those rules helps and furtherances which are commonly prescribed for the better observing of Gods commands Let me instance in these Five great Exercises to which you are often exhorted both in Sermons and good Books for the preserving you in his Obedience First To live as in Gods sight Secondly To pray continually Thirdly To watch Fourthly To depend on God for his assistance And Fifthly To look for his mercy to Eternal Life and plainly show you that they are all comprehended in Divine Love and cannot be separated from it For the first it is well known that this passion is not wont to let the Object on which it is fixed be absent from it but at whatsoever distance it be removed love brings it near and sets it ever before the eyes of him to whom it is dear And therefore if our hearts be full of love to God we cannot be without his Presence but shall live as in his sight Or to speak in the language of David Psal 16.8 We shall set the Lord always before us Whatsoever we do we shall think of him and consequently do it well and exactly we shall study purity of heart and the greatest clearness in our intentions because he sees us and penetrates into our secret thoughts There is no more easie observation than this that nothing makes a Man so diligent so curious so circumspect so decent and comely in all his behaviour as to be continually under the eye of one whom he loves to whom he desires every way to approve himself And it is as certain that ardent love makes a Person ever present to us and will not let us be divided from him When Phidias the famous statuary made the Image of Jupiter Olympius one of the goodliest that ever was he could not forbear but he must privately ingrave upon his little Finger the Name of one whom he dearly loved in these words PANTARCES IS FAIR 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not Jupiter saith Clemens Alexandrinus from whom I have this story who was fair in Phidias his eyes but the youth whom he loved The thoughts of his God could not put out of his mind the thoughts of him
I forget to look continually towards this Immortal Life And what is that should make me forget it How come I to lose that sense and let go my hopes of Immortal Life O wonderful Love O patient goodness which still waits and attends upon me to remind my Soul of its everlasting bliss May I after so long a time of sleep and such forgetfulness be favoured with a sight of it Will my love and free obedience be yet accepted Awake awake then all the hidden powers of my Soul rise up and call him blessed Who can with-hold his heart from devoting it self affectionately to him With what pleasures can I entertain my self comparable to those which grow out of the hope of Immortal Life Or what service can be unpleasant which is undertaken for so great an happiness The thoughts of it make my Soul light and aërial even under the burden of this Body I feel it drawing me up above from whence when I look down upon all the men of this lower World how do they appear but as so many little Ants busily creeping on a Mole-hill while I sit upon the holy Hill of God O that my mind could dwell there Or since I cannot reach so high a felicity it may never descend from thence but with a lively remembrance of the joys of that Celestial Hope which may bear me up above all the petty temptations of this World For what is it that I labour and toil with such restless thoughts and desires For what am I troubled and discontented Can any thing make him absolutely unhappy who hopes to live for ever with God No I will rejoyce in my Lord always again I say I will rejoyce I will bear at least even all my dulness and listlesness to my duty with a quiet and composed mind in hope one day to be more full of life Here my Pen is very forward and would be running on further than my design will allow And therefore I must restrain it and abbreviate also the remaining Counsels having been so long in some of the foregoing lest instead of a little Book to carry about with you and refresh you I should send you a tedious Volume that will quite tire you Let me only annex before I leave this a Prayer to God which relates to what hath been now said and with which you are not unacquainted A PRAYER O Most Holy and blessed for ever more Who art the most excellent Nature the Perfection of beauty happy in thy self alone and needest not the Company of any of thy Creatures to make thee happier than thou art It is we poor beggarly things that stand in need of thy continued grace and love who art the Father of our spirits the only hope and stay of our hearts the joy and comfort of our life that filling and satisfying good in whom alone our desires can meet with perfect rest and repose The most glorious of all the Heavenly Host can find no higher pleasures than those of loving and praising and obeying thee whose Ministers they are and delight to be in executing the commands of thy holy will in every thing For thy will is guided by the best and most excellent reason and is so propense we see to goodness benignity and charity that all its commands must needs be reasonable and good too and intend the greatest kindness to those that are obedient to them Every Creature in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea obeys thy Almighty Word declaring thee to be as good as thou art great Rev. 5.13 and giving not only glory and power but blessing and honour unto thy Divine Majesty and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Yea that blessed Son of thy love when he came into the World freely chose to do thy will and not his own saying I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal XL. 7. What is there then in Heaven or Earth that I can wish but to be united in hearty devout and chearful affection together with my dearest Saviour and all the Saints and Heavenly Host to that most holy will of thine by a free and constant obedience to it It is infinitely fit and desirable I am sure that we above all the rest of thy Creatures should take a perfect contentment and pleasure in serving thee who hast not only gratified all our senses with great and delightful variety of good things in this World but also sent thy Son from Heaven to entertain our Spirits with joyful hopes of having our weak and short obedience here rewarded with great and endless pleasures at thy right hand in the World to come Lord what is man that thou shouldest have such a regard unto him And what hearts have we if after all thy grace we should delight in any thing more than thee or be weary and faint in our minds while we are doing thy blessed will O how deeply should we have been indebted to thee if thou hadst only admitted us to the happiness of knowing and loving thee and complying with thy good will while we dwell in this body But that thou shouldest design when we expire to recompense the meer discharge of our duty here with the continued happiness of being with thee and enjoying thee for ever is an expression of thy bounty that exceeds all our wonder and admiration If a full sense of this thy stupendious goodness should now possess our spirits they would grow I believe too big and large for our bodies and bursting forth in passionate love would make their way into Eternity which only is wide and long enough to admire and love and praise thee in But be pleased O Lord of love in thy infinite goodness to give me at present such a true and lively feeling of it as may make me think of nothing so much or with so much delight and satisfaction of heart and as may inflame me with such a fervent love unto thee that it may melt and dissolve my will into thine and consume all my corrupt desires and abate at least the chilness and indifference of my spirit and offer me up a whole burnt Sacrifice to thee my God And then stay I most humbly beseech thee for the fulness of my love and praises and joyful acknowledgments till I come to that happy liberty of having nothing else to do but to love and thank and magnifie thy Name for ever and ever It is my daily and repeated desire according as our Lord hath taught us that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven to which both now and ever I say most heartily Amen O purge and refine my nature to such a degree of vertue and goodness that I may at least delight to do thy will as those heavenly Creatures do O that those little little acts of Piety and Charity which I am able to exercise in this World may never want this complacence in the performance of them
by despairing to do otherwise Bless the Lord O my Soul that we are aware of this dangerous mistake And let us not despond though we have no reason to boast and glory in our resolution Was not this the condition of other of the Saints long before I was born Am I the only example of an heavy and sluggish Soul Must I be recorded the first in the Catalogue for inconstancy What helps and assistances then had they to restore themselves and to preserve them to the end which are strangers to our eares Must I dispatch a message to some Forreign Country for their Recipe's as we send for Drugs and Spices Cannot we tell without the charge of going to Hippo what Holy Austine strengthned himself withall Must we take a Pilgrimage to Rome to learn St. Hierome's Medicines Sure my Soul thou hast the same gracious Saviour the same compassionate High-Priest the same cordial promises the very same hope of the Gospel which revived and supported their hearts or if thou hast not speak that I may go and seek them Look then on thy blessed Saviour look on his holy Apostles nay look upon all those excellent Persons in the Church that have succeeded them Shall we not follow such glorious Leaders Are their Examples impossible to be imitated If they be they are not examples How can we be cold when we think of the flames of their love How can we be lazy and unwilling to do when we see how forward how vehemently desirous they were to suffer What should hinder us from going on when we have such a Multitude of Triumphant Souls before our eyes whom nothing could drive back Shall pleasures shall the incumbrance of business shall Relations and Friends yea shall dangers shall Death No I am not inchanted I am not affrighted with these words Be gone you false and deceitful pleasures How dare you perplex me you impertinent imployments No more of your importunity I charge you if you will be my Friends Welcome contempt welcome reproach welcome poverty or any other thing which will certainly bring me nearer to my God But what is it that gives you this suddain confidence How come you of a coward to grow thus couragious Of a Snail who made you thus to mount up in your thoughts like an Eagle Who will believe that thou wilt do such things I will believe it may you answer again to your self whatsoever can be objected against it Why are these called suddain thoughts which are my most deliberate resolutions Through the Lord I shall do valiantly He it is that shall tread down mine enemies under me The like discourse you may have with your self about God or any other subject You may consider not only that he is gracious and merciful but cry out O how great how great is his goodness Is there any thing thou canst name comparable to his loving-kindness What makes thee then so unwilling to go to him What 's the cause of such a diffidence and unbelief as hath deadned and dispirited thine heart Could I think that any thing would make thee fall into this stupidity Didst thou not once look upon him as the first Beauty as the joy the health and the life of our Souls Who is it that is altered and hath suffered a change He or thou Is he not the same to day yesterday and for ever Why shouldest not thou be the same too Or why shouldst thou not think that he will make thee the same again How many times is it repeated in the Book of God that his mercy endureth for ever For whom was it but such trembling Souls as thou that he proclaims himself so often to be abundant in mercy goodness and truth But must we not then believe it Is this the way to obtain his mercy by distrusting of him What a preposterous course is this How unseemly nay how unkind is it to question these gracious declarations of his love Let us be confidently perswaded he hath a greater desire than we that we should be true and faithful to him Let us rest our thoughts in this conclusion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now when you find any benefit by such expostulations and reasonings with your self hope it would do you some good if you should use the like in an humble address to God you may be furnished with several strains of devout Admiration and Pathetical Appeals to his all-seeing Majesty out of the Holy Scriptures There are Examples also of the other but expostulations with God are not to be imitated without much caution and holy fear and ought not to be commonly used It may be sufficient to conclude the foregoing Meditations with some such form of words as this A PRAYER O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is miserable man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Lord what honour is that which thou hast conferred on him in setting him now in the Person of Jesus above the Angels themselves For to which of the Angels didst thou say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again Let all the Angels of God worship him Who in the Heaven can be compared unto the Lord Who among the mighty can be likened unto the Lord And therefore whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My Soul thirsteth for Thee and longeth after Thee O when wilt thou come unto me There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Show me thy self and it sufficeth Lord what wait I for Truly my hope is in Thee My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him By thee O Lord have I been holden up from the Womb thou art he that took me out of my Mothers bowels My Praise shall be continually of Thee But who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord Who can shew forth all his praise Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the Sons
travel together And the Beast as some Philosophers call our Body which we carry along with us will not be so soon tired if we let it have some to follow and bear it company Whether it be that the forwardness of others spurs us up to mend our pace or whether it be that love to them makes us like them I know not but so it is that they who have the goodness of others to help and incourage them are wont to find themselves better disposed than otherwise they should have been if they had lived alone It is Solomon's Observation XIII Prov. 20. that He who walketh with wise men shall be wise but a Company of Fools shall be the worse for it We have an example of the former part of it saith R. Eliezer in Lot who by the pious Example of Abraham with whom he lived became a good Man imitating his works and walking in his steps For as Abraham when he dwelt in Charran was wont to exercise hospitality and to receive strangers So did Lot when he dwelt in Sodom whereby he had the happiness to entertain Angels As a Man saith he who goes into the Shop of one that sells Spices though he cheapen and buy nothing yet receives a grateful odor and carries away a refreshment So does he that converses with the just partake of their good manners and carries away a sweet remembrance of their works Therefore either society or death is a common Proverbial wish among the same Hebrews One cannot tell which is the greater desert as Nausiclides was wont to speak as Athenaeus tells us a place where there is no spring or where there are no good Neighbours He must be more than a Man whose spirits do not fail him if he want this refreshment He will soon be gone to another World if he have no society in this It is a thing so necessary that company not so good as we would wish proves now and then better than none at all if it be but to make us more contented when we are alone and the more to prize our solitary opportunities And if we cannot have the society of many yet we may find great use of one special Friend if well chosen Nay it is the advice of the wise Son of Syrach VI. Ecclus 6. Be in peace with many nevertheless have but one counsellour of a thousand O how great a good is this for a Man to meet with a well-prepared Heart wherein to lay up his secrets more safe than a Jewel in his Cabinet whose conscience and fidelity he shall stand in less fear of than his own whose discourse shall lenifie his carefulness whose Opinion shall dispatch his Counsels whose chearfulness shall dissipate his sorrowâ—â— and whose very aspect is delightful This is a Jewel worth ones seeking and he that hath him not is but half a Man A man without a Friend is like the left hand without the right as one of the Jewish Doctors speaks He is an imperfect Creature and according to this Man's Opinion wants the better part of Himself But howsoever we may take Solomon's word for it that two are better than one If we have the use of another Mans parts time and labours it is as if we had two Souls and as many Bodies and did see with four Eyes and think with two understandings He illustrates this in that place IV. Eccles 9 10 c. by putting three Cases which may be easily applied to our spiritual concernments wherein the benefit of a vertuous friendship plainly appears First In the case of inward weakness he saith if the one fall the other will lift up his fellow When we slip a good Friend will support us or if we be down he will presently restore us to our selves again Secondly In case of dulness if the one be cold the other may communicate some heat to him If any Person think himself so strong that he is not in danger to fall yet the best grown man may feel some chilness spiritual numbness creep upon his Soul for alas we are at a great distance from the Sun in compare with those who are above and it is as it were a Winter with us while we are here in this lower World Now how can one saith he be warm alone But if two lie together then they have heat As two Fire-sticks will singly cast no warmth but let their Flame dye whereas both together will make a good Fire in the Chimney so will two Friends that lie close to each others hearts keep themselves from that coldness which separated would seise upon them both And Thirdly In the case of worldly troubles and violent enemies that outwardly assault them though they may prevail against one yet two he saith shall withstand them When we have a second we may venture to go into the Field and by a double strength we may take up the Bucklers and hope to overcome when we might justly doubt of our own single valour But I cannot better represent the truth of all this than in the words of Simplicius In Epict. Cap. 37. an excellent Philosopher who hath briefly but fully demonstrated the many happy advantages of pure and hearty Friendship in a discourse to this effect There is a truth in what is commonly said that when a Man hath got a Friend he hath no longer one but two Souls and Bodies And then who can doubt but that they who are possessed of each others Persons will have a communion in their external goods But what is this in compare with that great light of truth which shines in united Souls and with that compleat vertue which arising out of what excels in each and being brought as it were into one common stock is countenanced by the Heavenly Powers who shine upon it because of its perfection They are safer than other Men in their Counsels they are less apt to trip in their actions which are corroborated both by Prudence and by Power Nay suppose a Mans occasions call him into a far Country he is present by his faithful Friend to all the relations he leaves behind him at home Nay not only while he lives but when he is dead and departed to another World he is as secure of their happiness during the life of his Friend as if he still remained himself and conversed among them And what is there more pleasant than the sight of a Friend What more grateful than to hear his voice and to behold his worthy actions And as for trust and confidence neither Kindred nor alliance to great Persons nor Riches nor any thing else can so much assure it as generous friendship And therefore Alexander was not ill advised who pointed to his Friends when some asked where was his Treasures There is no such Instructor and Tutor as a Friend None can perswade us with so much ease nor can any Man reprove us with so little offence nor do we fear to offend and do amiss upon the account
direction how both shall be employed But so it falls out that as the Slaves and the Souldiers sometimes prove mutinous and unruly and combining their forces together make themselves masters of the Conservators of the true peace and liberty so have the violent desires that are in us of enjoying a sensual good and of avoiding all outward evils and inconveniencies grown to such a head-strong and unbridled humor that they have overtopt reason and refuse to hearken to the authority and to obey the dictates of our understanding Many wayes have been tryed both by God and Man to reduce them to a good agreement again But though all fair satisfaction hath been offered and is allowed to the lower part it would not yield to a surrender of that power and soveraignty which it hath usurped As a company of Factious people that strive for superiority over their Governours when they have compassed their designs and possessed themselves of the throne are with more difficulty suppressed than they were before kept in subjection So it is with the multitude of mens furious lusts and passions now that they have dethroned reason advanced themselves into the seat of Government Having tasted very strongly of a sensual good and felt the sweetness as they take it of being absolute they are loth to be denyed the license which they have so long enjoyed and will by no means grant any obedience to be due to an higher power God was pleased therefore to manifest himself in our flesh to countenance the claim and assert the title of our Mind and Understanding and by shewing its undoubted right of Government to take up this controversie and put an end to these sad contests which have hapned to the ruin of mankind In the Lord Jesus there appeared such an absolute and constant dominion of the Spirit as in the first Adam after his fall there did of the Flesh And he came not only to give us a glorious Example to overawe all unruly motions in us by his divine Authority and to inspire our feeble Spirits with some courage by his great and precious promise of eternal life but to comfort us by his Death Resurrection and Exaltation at the right hand of the Majesty on high with the hopes of a mighty power from above to aid and assist us in our Christian conflict with all unreasonable desires This he actually sends into our souls to give them sufficient force and ability for the doing of their duty redeeming themselves from this slavery and recovering their ancient rights and liberty And in all those who attend unto his holy Counsels and receive his Divine grace and are renewed and led by his good Spirit there appear many happy tokens of the Souls victory and they are daily winning new conquests over the flesh with all the affections and lusts thereof The heavenly good seems so great in their eyes that they cannot upon any terms think of submitting their souls any longer to attend wholly or chiefly upon the pleasures and satisfactions of the lower man The mind is furnished with such right opinons the Will is become so tractable and compliant with their resolutions the Affections grow so subject and obedient to the orders and commands of both in short God and his will is so seriously loved and their Spirit strives so earnestly after the ardors and fervent Devotion of love that the ancient Government is again restored its lost authority rights and royalties are manifestly recovered and they live in good hope to be more than conquerors over all temptations from the World the Flesh and the Devil aspiring to an humble rejoycing glorying and triumph over all these enemies But notwithstanding all this these men remain still both flesh and spirit The Body is not destroyed the goods wherein it delights have not altered their nature its habitation is not removed from their neighbourhood and it retains the same inclination to them and they are often remembring it of its forepast fruitions and which is worst of all the Soul cannot presently recover its perfect health and soundness but feels the maimes and the bruises that it got when it was formerly beaten down and oppressed by them Hence it comes to pass that for some time at least there are many motions made for a revolt and every thing in the world is tampering with the heart to corrupt and bring it over again to their party and the mind it self in some fits almost wearied with their importunity may be ready to lend half an ear to these solicitations There is not such a perfect peace established but there will be some endeavours of the fleshly part to resume its power and get into its hand its pretended liberty Yea by the violence of many outward accidents the mind may sometimes fall into a dream and be tempted to muse whether there be sufficient reason to prefer those future and unseen goods before present enjoyments The Will may begin to bend it self to some civil carriage and fair complyance with the flesh the Affections being much wooed and complimented may feel themselves in danger to be inveigled or the heat at least and liveliness of Devotion may in such a condition be much abated and impaired And indeed it is not to be expected that the Body should go along as nimbly as the Spirit would have it towards a good with which it is not acquainted All that the Mind can do is to take a very great care that it move it self with as slow a pace towards that good to which the other is most inclined That we love these outward things cannot be blamed but it will require much diligence to keep our hearts from doting on that for which we naturally have no small affection That we hold some acquaintance with them can by no means be avoided but that we grow not too familiar with them ought to be our prudent care and cannot without some difficulty be prevented There will some kindnesses pass between us and we cannot deny the Body these sensible pleasures but that our Souls should thereby suffer themselves to be undermined and their interest betrayed there is no small danger For while the Good of the body is near at hand and the Good of the soul is at some distance while that which is near seems great and that which is remote seems small while the one is present and the other future while things present call upon us and we must earnestly call for things future while the one is alwayes before us and the other comes but at certain seasons while the one is of old and the other but of a late acquaintance we having been bred up with the one and being but brought to the other the one coming first and the other thereby prejudiced as long I say as there are these plain advantages on the one side if we use not attentive diligence to give the soul just and true information they will prevail with it inconsiderately to slight the
Soul therefore I say again an unmoveable belief of Christs great and precious promises and present them to your heart that it may be affected with them and value them according to their worth Then you will not be unwilling to do nor backward to suffer any thing that he would have you This will give you a great spirit and courage and joy in both You will take a great pleasure in godliness which hath such a recompense of reward Nay all the afflictions of this present time will seem inconsiderable in compare with the glory that shall be revealed Can any heart think much to abstain a while from sinful pleasures when he believes nay tastes the pleasures he shall shortly enjoy at Gods right hand Will not any covetous desires be content to be denied when you see it is for a Kingdom and a Crown of Life Of what should a Soul be ambitious beside whose desires are pitcht upon so noble a good as honour glory and immortality with Christ Who would not watch and pray unweariedly that he may come to this Celestial Rest with the People of God Can there be any higher pleasure than to lift up our mind to our heavenly Country and to think of the happiness which there expects us In what can we better spend our time than in meditating of the great love of God which hath prepared such excellent things for those that love him It is a good thing sure to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto his high and holy Name There can be no more delicious life than this which will conclude in his everlasting praises And suppose we must sometime take up a cross where is the mischief of it what should render it intolerable if we look at Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despising the shame is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God From thence he stretches forth his hands to call us there his Armes are open to embrace us and there he would gladly see us Out of that glorious place he holds forth a crown of life to us saying Follow me and let none of these things dismay you Behold the Majesty wherein I am enthroned see the glory to which I am promoted Do not faint in your mind nor be weary of well-doing but press on towards the mark for the prize of the high-calling of God in me your Saviour There is nothing sure can hinder us or pull us back unless we cease to look at Jesus and turn away our Eares from hearkning to his gracious voice For do you not see what power a worldly faith hath over Mens hearts How fast one rides to take possession of an Estate of which he hears he is left the Heir How another sailes through dreadful dangers because he believes he shall arrive at a rich Country which will send him home laden with precious Commodities at the last Why should we think then the Christian Faith is less powerful or fancy that we are in truth indued with it unless our belief of the other World have the same effects Let it lay its commands upon all the powers of our Soul and engage them to do their several works Let it excite our minds and our wills and our affections and our endeavours to a constant pursuit of these Heavenly enjoyments that we may know indeed that we believe to the saveing of the Soul Look upon that faith which was built on weaker grounds and lesser evidences and darker promises See how it wrought in Abraham Isaac and Jacob and in the rest of the ancient Patriarchs whose belief of the Word of God made them forsake their own Countries quit all their Possessions when he required it live as Pilgrims and strangers in the Earth and depend meerly on the love and care of his never failing providence By faith they slighted the pleasures of Kings Courts the Honour of a Throne and the Riches of Egypt By Faith they wrought Righteousness subdued Kingdomes stopped the mouths of Lyons indured all reproaches and afflictions would not accept of deliverance and life it self that they might obtain a better Resurrection Now since the Christian Belief relies upon better Promises a clearer Revelation and stronger grounds of hope by the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead what a shame will it be if we do nothing worthy the name of Men much less of the Disciples of Christ and of the Sons of God To what cause can it be imputed but because there is no Faith in the Earth or it rests only in the brain and floats in the imagination but never descends to touch the heart and affections Bring it down then My Friend and stir up your self to a serious and affectionate belief of the life to come Spare no pains to consider and lay to heart that which is the greatest comfort of your life all the glorious things which you read of in the Gospel of Gods grace which Christ hath sealed by his blood and God confirmed by his Resurrection and hath been attested by signs and wonders of the Holy Ghost and by the Life and Death of a number of great Souls who have followed Jesus even to his Cross and declared their belief of those things by sacrificing all that was dear unto them here to win his favour in another World Look often upon their constancy upon their zeal upon their contempt of Riches and Pleasures and Life it self when it came in competition with the will of Christ for whose sake they rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer especially since he had assured them their present troubles should work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And then in imitation of them you will put on their resolution and lifting up your Eyes to Heaven will be moved to speak to this effect O blessed God how much am I beholden to thee that thou hast shewed me such things as these How much am I beholden to thee that thou hast inclined my heart to make them my choice I would not be as I was before for all the World Away you frivolous temptations you vain delights you unprofitable labours Never renew your importunities for I will not hearken I tell you I will not listen to you any more I am resolved to proceed in this holy course to the end of my days You will but make me meditate the more and pray the more and lay to heart the more the love of my God I shall but fix my Eyes the more stedfastly on that blessed place where Jesus my Saviour is at Gods right hand At his will I hold my riches my honours yea and my life also Let him dispose of them as he pleases And let it please the Lord of life and glory to accept of this most hearty oblation which I make of all I have unto him Let it please him to strengthen me in my holy resolutions to open my eyes that I
may still see more of that wonderful love which he hath discovered in his Gospel and to accompany me with his grace till I arrive at his heavenly Court O let his good Spirit breath upon me and carry away my Soul in holy desires towards him Let it guide my course through this troublesome Sea wherein I am tossed Let it shine upon me and prosper my endeavours Let it bring me safely to a quiet haven in Eternal Rest and Peace These pious aspirations you may still pursue at the end of these Meditations in some such Prayer as this A PRAYER I Praise Thee I magnify thy wise and mighty Goodness O Lord who hast made this great World the Heavens and the Earth with all things contained therein to the everlasting honour of thy Name I thank Thee with all my Soul for bringing me into it and for advancing me so much above the rest of thy Creatures here below that I see the glory of thy Majesty shining every where and hear thy Name proclaimed and praised by all thy works of wonder But above all I acknowledg thy bounty with the most admiring thoughts and the devoutest affections of my heart for sending Jesus Christ upon Earth to open unto us the Kingdom of Heaven and to show us the glories of another World O the exceeding greatness of that love which gave him to dye for us and rewarded all his sufferings with a blessed Resurrection and then translated him to Heaven and appointed Him Heir of all things and setled his Throne for ever and ever on the right hand of thy Majesty on high From thence he hath sent the Holy Ghost to be witness of the fulness of his Royal Power and Love and hath shown himself sometime in Majesty and Glory above the Sun when it shineth in its strength that we might hope in thee for the like Resurrection to a glorious immortality in the Heavens No tongue can utter nor heart conceive what Honour Glory and Peace what joy and gladness of heart thou hast prepared there for those that love Thee But blessed for ever blessed be the riches of thy grace whereby I understand so much as to feel most earnest longings in my Soul after a fuller sense of that which thou hast made me taste and relish beyond all the pleasures of this Life O raise and inlarge my Spirit unto clearer more comprehensive thoughts of that supreme blessedness Thou who entertainest all thy Creatures with so much liberality who causest thy Sun to shine upon the good and the bad and the showers of Heaven to fall on the just and the unjust deny not to satisfie the pious desires of a Soul in whom thou hast excited an ardent thirst after its proper and eternal good But inlighten the eyes of my understanding that I may know more and more what is the hope of thy Heavenly calling and what the riches of the glory of thy Inheritance in the Saints and what the exceeding greatness of thy power to us-ward who believe according to the working of thy mighty power which wrought in Christ when thou raisedst him from th dead and set him at thy own righâ— hand in the heavenly places O life up my mind to that high and holy place where thou dwellest and where Jesus is inthroned and where the Angels and Saints continually behold and praise with joyful hearts the Majesty of thy glory and where our Lord hath promised all the faithful shall live and reign with him for ever Help me to climb up daily by all thy Creatures on which thou hast set such marks of thy Greatness Wisdome and Goodness to the contemplation of that Celestial Bliss And possess me with such a constant sense and desire of it that nothing here may ingage my heart which will indispose me for the happy company and society of the blessed Assist me good Lord by such Meditations as these to discern more and more the incomparable and surpassing greatness of that felicity which thy Royal bounty will bestow upon our advanced spirits and bodies in the world of rewards and recompences Affect my heart more powerfully with it and fill me with love and joy unspeakable and full of glory when I turn my eyes towards it Stir me up thereby to prepare my self with diligence and care by a lively resemblance of the Lord Jesus for the day of his appearing and to wait with patience for that blessed Hope when I shall not see as now through a Glass darkly but face to face and be made compleatly like him by seeing him as he is Enable me always to live upon this Hope and according to it that growing in all goodness by a chearful obedience to his holy commands I may be found of him in peace and be so happy as to hear at last those gracious words of his Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Amen III. I Need say no more to excite one of your vertue to the frequent exercise of such Meditations as these which are no less delightful than they are useful Let me next unto this advise you to study the truest notions of God and of Religion the love of which is the way to that transcendent bliss and happiness of which I have spoken As you must believe things unseen and perswade your self thoroughly that they are so it is necessary you should inform your mind aright what they are And in particular look upon Religion as a most pleasant thing and represent it to your self with a face as fair and beautiful as you can If it seem cloudy dark and melancholy it will make you to be of the same complexion But if it have a lovely and chearful aspect it will encline you always to smile upon it The poor Norwegian whom stories tell of was afraid to touch Roses when he first saw them for fear they should burn his Fingers He much wondered to see that Trees as he thought should put forth flames and blossomes of Fire before which he held up his hands to warm himself not daring to approach any nearer But as he you may be sure was happily undeceived when he came not only to touch but likewise to smell those innocent Flowers which seemed to burn in his eyes so will it be with us when we come rightly to understand and feel the pleasure that Religion gives us which at first sight before we come acquainted with it looks as if it intended to make us Martyrs but not to crown us with any joys or contentments As the Martyr said of the real fire wherein he was covered that it seemed to him as if it were a Bed of Roses so shall we say of true Religion which we are afraid will scorch us and prove too hot for us Its flames are but the flames of love and it makes us not lye down in sorrow but in the most comfortable sense of the tender love of our dearest Lord. Think with your self therefore
whom he loved better If therefore we had such a love to God as others have to the things of this World the thoughts of them could not quite thrust out the thoughts of him But still we should be apt to write if I may so speak upon the very forehead of every earthly good God is most lovely or God is my exceeding joy the Lord is my portion O how amiable are his Courts or as an holy man who it is said could never get these words out of his mouth My God and all things Where he is there in effect are all things and where his love dwells there he will be sure to be We shall meet him every where see him in every beautiful thing and taste him before we have done in all the delightful enjoyments of this life 2. And as it comprehends in it the practice of making God present which some Masters in Divinity have said may serve instead of all other Rules for the ordering of our life aright so it contains in it likewise the very spirit of Prayer to God which all acknowledg to be not only a great part of a godly life but a great help and furtherance to us in all the rest of our Christian duty If by Prayer we understand as some have explained it the ascent or raising up of the Soul to God it is love only which continually aspires towards him and carries the heart aloft from other things to be joyned to him Or if we call it the converse of the Soul with God which are the words of Gregory Nyssen or a holy conference and discourse with the Divine Majesty as it is termed by S. Chrysostome it is manifest the love of God includes this in it for it is the nature of this passion to make us frequent the company of those whom we love Their conversation is most welcome their discourse delightful we are exceedingly desirous to impart our mind to them and especially to let them know how much we love them For which purpose it needs not alwayes the help of the tongue but can frame a language of its own and speak by the very countenance and the eyes and make use of silence instead of words to declare its inclinations According to the admirable expression of the Psalmist who setting forth the pious affections of the People to God their Deliverer saith Praise is silent for thee O God in Sion so the Hebrew hath it as your Margin tells you to Thee shall the vow be performed But let us take it simply for the desiring and requesting good things of God and then we must needs acknowledg that love being a passion full of desires cannot but comprehend in it as I said at first the very spirit of Prayer and Supplication You know how much we long for that to which we have given our hearts And therefore if they be devoted in love to God we cannot chuse but be ever breathing after more sensible apprehensions and tastes of him So much as we love him so much we shall thirst after a larger communication of his Divine Grace to us It will make us sigh for more tokens of his favour and wait for a greater power of his Holy Spirit and vehemently long to be more transformed and changed into his Image What was it but this that made David say Psal 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God The chased Deer in a great Forrest and in the midst of Summer did not more long after the streames of Water than this good Man being it is likely in the Wilderness of Judah and so denyed the favour of going to the Tabernacle of God did ardently desire the happiness which there he had sometime tasted in the Divine Presence He opens his mouth and pants after this with a thirst so vehement that it makes him cry out in the following words O when shall I come and appear before God It is the heat of that Creature to whose pantings David compares the longings of his Soul which is the cause of its thirst and that being a constant desire which goes not off by continuance as many inconveniences do but rather more encreases it beares the greater resemblance to this Divine passion of love whose fervours and ardent longings are perpetual and do not abate by length of time but grow still greater and greater There is nothing so likely as this to enable us to fulfil that exhortation of the Apostle Pray without ceasing and to make us importunate and unwearied in it which are the two qualifications our Saviour requires in our devout addresses to God Luk. 18.1 Where you read a Parable of his to this end that Men ought alwayes to pray and not faint It marvelously disposes us also for the Divine favour by moving us to quit all that is inconsistent with our desires in hope of that which we pray God to bestow upon us There was a Monarch you have heard perhaps who offered his Kingdome for a Cup of cold Water in a time of extreme thirst And therefore what is it which the heat of this heavenly affection will not make us resign to God and absolutely part withall that it may obtain its Petitions and have its desires satisfied Besides it hath one wonderful power in it which nothing else can furnish us withall to make our Prayers prevalent and that is by fixing our thoughts and fastning our minds to the business which we are about For love you know doth not willingly stir from the Object to which it is devoted It is this flame which keeps our heart close to the Holy Sacrifice and will not easily suffer us to wander from the Gate of Heaven It sets us in the Presence of God it keeps our eye upon him it makes us converse attentively with him and while the power of it lasts our very hearts are tyed to him and cannot go aside from him But as soon as ever it begins to dye or decay then it is that the mind steales away and gads about the World till this flame revive again and make us fly back to the Altar of God The best Soul that is I confess may feel some loosness and distraction of spirit especially at some untoward season some ashes may dim and dull the Fire but yet this love and ardent desire will keep the greater part of our thoughts together and knit our heart so to our duty that there shall be no long nor wide breaches in it but it shall still be strong and fervent and effectual with our Heavenly Father Thus you see how wisely these two are joyned together by St. Jude v. 20. Who after he had exhorted the Faithful to Pray in the Holy Ghost immediately bids them keep themselves in the love of God There is nothing comparable to this to inspire us with devout and earnest desires And it hath an equal force also to excite us to Praise and Acknowledg our great Benefactor who gives
us so many good things even before we desire them Do you not see how Men delight to commend extol and magnify that they love And how lavishly they are wont sometime to bestow those praises There is not any thing in this World so excellent but they will borrow a Metaphor from it wherewith to adorn their beloved They go to the precious stones and to the stars nay to the Sun it self to fetch some lustre from them for their expressions And more than this it 's usual with love as every one may observe to go beyond the nature and value of things and to make those hyperboles not uncomely which in other cases are ridiculous And as for gratitude we are all sensible that nothing is so acknowledging as love Every favour it esteems a Treasure and studies all means to express its resentments So that if it become a divine passion you may learn from King David how much it will dispose our hearts to admire and extol the perfections of God and excite us to give him thanks because he is good and his mercy endureth for ever Do but read the beginning of the 103. Psal and observe how he calls up all the faculties of his Soul to assist in this Holy Duty of praising and blessing the Name of God And then being conscious to himself of his own disability to offer him the praises that are due unto his Great and Glorious Name you may take notice how in other places he goes to all his Friends and begs of them that they would joyn in consort with him saying Psal 33.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints and 34.3 O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together Let Israel now say Psal 118. that his Mercy endureth for ever Let the house of Aaron now say that his Mercy endureth for ever Let them now that fear the Lord say that his Mercy endureth for ever O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever And lest all these should not be able to make this joyful sound loud enough he invites all strangers to come and help them to the discharge of this debt saying Psal 100. and 117. O make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his Presence with singing O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye People For his merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever Praise the Lord. Yea it is frequent with him to extend his entreaties to the Angels that they would lend him their help to acquit himself 103.20 and he calls Psal 148. upon all the lower Hosts of God who are in the Heavens nearer us and in the Earth also that if they can do any thing they would bear a part in his Song of Praise which he composed in honour of him And in the very conclusion of his Heavenly Book that he might say all he could he thus bespeaks the voice of all things which either by Nature or Art are framed for delight and pleasure Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. All which Observations I thought good to annex to this Discourse of the Power of Love in Prayer because when we have said all we can there is nothing so prevalent for a new favour as praising God and being heartily thankful for the benefits we have already received To which the love of God disposing us so effectually that it never thinks it can praise or acknowledg him enough it must needs obtain much of the Divine Grace for us and consequently secure our obedience to him above all other things Especially since 3. Love is ever Watchful which is another means to be joyned with Prayer to keep us from entering into temptation It always hath its light burning and its loynes girded It is ready and forward to apprehend and imbrace any occasion of serving him to whom it is engaged It is jealous of every thing which would rob it of that good which it ardently desires And therefore hath its eyes always open and by reason of its heat will not easily fall asleep nor suffer that dulness and weariness to infest it wherewith others are usually surprised I need not pursue this Argument any further it being so apparent that fervent love and affection chases away all drowsiness of Spirit and makes a Man slip no opportunity to do that which is pleasing in the eyes of God And I am the more willing to quit it because I have been so long in the former and have two other Considerations still to add 4. One of them is which I shall but briefly touch that it will breed in us a pious confidence of the succours of Gods holy Spirit in the power of which we shall be able to undertake any thing that he commands It is impossible to have any heart to do well if we have not this hope rooted in us and it is as impossible to doubt of it if we feel the love of God burning in our hearts Which is both a testimony of his Divine Power already working in us and an argument that he is as willing to do any thing further for us as we find thereby that we are to do any thing for him It doth not only widen the heart to impart but also to receive And the very same motion which carries it out towards God and towards others in sincere affection brings home large assurances that he will abundantly communicate himself to it on all occasions for the encouraging and assisting of its faithful endeavours to do his will in every thing 5. The other is this which shall put an end to this part of my discourse that it hath no less power to make us fully assured both of the blessed rewards I spoke of in the other World and of the greatness of them which are the strongest Motives to our obedience There is nothing so sharpens the sight to discern or enlarges the heart to conceive the things of God as this doth For God is love as St. John tells us and therefore he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him Among all the goods of this World we find no where such repose and quiet as in hearty love and true friendship Nothing give us such a taste of pleasure and if the Object be worthy such satisfaction Of two it makes one so that they communicate in each others happiness And this satisfaction is wont to make them forget all other things at that instant For love is of such a nature that it endeavours to take up all the room in the heart and would leave none for any thing else that it may be intirely and wholly possessed of that which it loves And therefore when it is turned towards God and settles it self in him it must needs give us a lively sense of future bliss by uniteing our hearts and gathering up our minds as I
though a Slave or a Servant be ours yet they are so but in part The first gives us power over him out of fear and the second for reward But it is a power over their Bodies only and not over the men Because neither fear of punishment will tye up a Slave from rebellious thoughts nor hope of reward oblige a Servant to a chearful obedience in his will He only hath intirely gain'd a man and so added to himself something better than any possession in this World who enjoys a Friend and hath won an absolute power over the heart and affection of another Person This is a rich man indeed especially when the Person he enjoys is one of real worth having a mind stored with the Treasures of Divine wisdom and an heart full of the love of God Otherways it must be confessed a Man loses by this gain and hath the less by this accession of seeming riches It was an audacious fancy of Boccalin's and an unjust estimate which he made when in his Ballance wherein he weighs all the States of Christendom he supposes England which he throws into the Scales for a counterpois to France to weigh the lighter upon the addition of Scotland to it But if we conceive the like Ballance for our purpose we shall find it too true that he who contracts a Friendship with a prating Companion or a Person of no inward worth and value will feel himself the poorer and the weaker when he comes to weigh what he hath got for his pretended increase and the annexing of a Friend will be an heaviness and not a refreshment to his mind Whoso feareth the Lord therefore shall direct his friendship aright as the Son of Syrach speaks VI. Ecclus. 17. for as he is so shall his Neighbour or Familiar be also God loves ever as the ancient Greek saying was to bring like to like He will guide a good man in his choice and lead him by the hand to one that is good In whom he will make account he hath found such a plentiful fortune that he will not be content to forgo it and take his portion in some other goods For you may trust the same wise man Nothing doth countervail a faithful Friend and his excellency is unvaluable v. 15. It is a great comfort to us but to think that we have such a treasure for we receive no small benefit by him even when he is only the companion of our thoughts and is not otherwise present with us And therefore change not a Friend for any good by no means neither a faithful Brother for the Gold of Ophir VII 18. Covet his company above all others and do not think you can press too near him or be too familiar with him Love him exceedingly and be not willing on any occasion to be divided from him There can be no danger you should clash by being ever together For as one of the Hebrews excellently expresses it A Needles eye is not too strait for two Friends and all the World is not wide enough for two Enemies And if you must live at a distance from him be not jealous of him nor suspect his constancy For solid love whose root is vertue can no more dye than vertue it self as Erasmus excellently speaks in a Letter of his to one of our Country-men When covetousness saith he Lib. 9. Epist 12. makes Men Friends their love and their gain must needs end together And they whom pleasure allures to friendship will make an end of loving when they are satiated with it And lastly they who have a great kindness one for another out of a childish forwardness or a juvenile heat will forsake one another with the same levity that they embraced Our kindness relies on stronger Pillars for it was neither hope of gain nor pleasure nor youthful affection but an honest love of wisdome and our common studies which joyned us together For good men are linkt and chained to each other by their admiration and esteem of the same things And since the study of vertue is not subject to those alterations and changes of fortune that other things undergo the benevolence of good men must needs be perpetual and is not in danger to suffer that decay which is wont to be the fate of vulgar friendship But that it may be the better preserved and maintained it is necessary that Friends frequent the company and conversation of each other as much as they can For as Themistius well notes Exercise is all in all things and mutual conversation Orat. 3. or correspondence is the exercise of friendship But it is time to make an end of this which I have the longer continued for the reason now named because the writing of all this is a good exercise of my Friendship to you Let me only cast in this one Rule at the bottom of it It is good to observe when any chilness and heaviness creeps upon you from what quarter it comes I mean you must follow the stream backward to the Fountain and inform your self of the cause of the alteration If it be too much company then as soon as you can seek retirement and betake your self to private Meditation If too much solitariness then find out some agreeable company or run to your Friend If the change of weather then wait if there be no other relief till it change again If you know not what then believe you shall find a remedy in Gods goodness you know not how And it may give you some pleasure perhaps when you are most indisposed as to think of your Friend so to send up this short Prayer to Heaven for him and for all those that heartily love you and to hope that they also are making the same address upon your account I put them all together indistinctly it is in your power at any time to make it as particular as you please A PRAYER THou art love O God and art to be infinitely loved above all things Blessed be thy goodness who wouldst have us dwell in love that we may dwell in Thee and Thou in us Blessed be thy goodness that I am capable of such happiness especially of loving so great a good as thy self who art the fountain of all other good from whom comes every good and perfect gift To thee I owe my Health my Peace my Plenty my Wit and all other Indowments either of my body or of my mind I am exceedingly indebted to Thee for the inconceivable felicity which thou hast put me in hope of in the other World and that thou art pleased to let me begin it here in the company and society of good men especially in the love of kind and faithful Friends I thank thee again O God and can never thank thee enough for this and all other thy gifts wherewith thou hast enriched me Beseeching thee that my love may grow more fervent by the daily consideration of thy love to us all and that I may have
you In brief This is an holy Feast where our Lord not only makes you good chear for the present but renews your decayed strength and begets in you a greater liveliness for the future One great end of the institution of publique Feasts among all Nations in the World was for the maintaining of unity love and friendship among the People that lived under the same Laws and for the recreating of those who were tired with their constant labours And it is the design we likewise see of our private Feasts which are times of ease and refreshment for our neighbours and preserve also good will among them according to that of Ben Syra a famous Person among the Jews Spread the Table and contention ceases We are all good Friends at a Feast Upon which account Plato was of Opinion that their Gods themselves in much pitty to Man-kind whose life is full of labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 2. de Leg. did appoint those Festival times for them that they might have a little relaxation and be incouraged by those publique joyes to proceed without any murmuring in their several imployments We are very sure that God hath instituted by his particular command this Holy Feast like to which none ever was and which we may celebrate as oft as we please upon the Body and Blood of his dear Son Whereby a great love sure will be begot in our hearts to him and his service whose guests we are and at whose cost the entertainment is made meerly out of his extraordinary grace and royal favour towards us This sure will be a singular refreshment and restorative to our spirits when we grow weary and almost spent in the work of our Lord. The sweetness of this will be like Wine to the Heart or like Marrow and Fatness to the Bones It will stir us up when we are listless and comfort us when we are sad and put life into us when we are dead and make us not only able but willing to be Religious being both our pleasure and our food Seneca speaking of times of relaxation and rest from labours saith he knew some great Men L. de tranq animi who once a Moneth would give themselves a Day of play and others that every Day would allow some Hours wherein they would not so much as write a Letter or meddle with any thing that had the show of business If we in like manner did though not every Day yet every Moneth take this sweet repast if out of love to Christ and consideration of our own necessities we did lay aside all other thoughts and give up our selves to those delightful Meditations which here present themselves unto us it would ease us of many cares and troubles and make us more chearfully do the will of God at other times and dispose us to attend the whole business of Religion as the pleasure rather than the labour of our life But if you be cast into a place where you have not the opportunity so frequently to celebrate the remembrance of Christ's death by receiving the outward and visible signs and pledges of his Divine Grace then you may the oftner communicate with him spiritually in your own heart and represent his dying love as lively as you can to it in your retired thoughts Beseeching him to accept of your unfeigned desires to make him your publick acknowledgments and to joyn with all those pious Souls which are then met together throughout the Christian World to show forth his praise and to offer up themselves in holy love to him and to our blessed Redeemer Christ Jesus For which purpose I would advise you to make use of all such Meditations Prayers and Thanksgivings as are wont to attend those Solemnities altering only those words which relate to your actual receiving at the Table of the Lord. The profit of such a frequent remembrance of our Lord one way or other will be exceeding great for the securing your duty and the making all those Counsels which I have given you the more effectual It will put you in mind of the worth and dignity of your Soul for which Christ hath done and suffered so much and on whom he bestows such precious tokens of his love It will quicken your love to him which is the life of Religion You shall taste how sweet it is beyond all comparison to be Religious whereby we have such hope in God There you shall be remembred how gainful it is to be good beyond all the purchases of this World for Christ imparts himself to you and all his benefits There you pray with the greatest devotion and offer up Spiritual Sacrifices and you represent also the Sacrifice of Christ to prevail for blessings for you And there you are most likely to have the most plentiful communications of God's Holy Spirit to you and to feel your Heart dilated in the largest affection unto Him There you confirm your promises to God and he seales his to you You cannot there be of another judgment if you would than this that since Christ dyed to give you life you ought not henceforth to live to your self but unto him which dyed for you and rose again This I make no doubt is one reason why those promises wherein Men stand engaged to God are no better performed because they do not frequently repeat this holy action in the exercise of which they find their hearts at present fully resolved for God and goodness This is the cause that they waver again and all their Promises and Vows wherein they bind themselves fall off like cords of vanity Whereas did they upon all occasions communicate with our Saviour they would find their resolutions grow so strong and stedfast that no temptation would be able to break them They would be like Bands of Iron or Chains rather of Gold that would hold them for ever to their duty You have heard I believe the story of Mithridates who by often use of the Antidote which he invented so fortified his Spirits that they resisted the force of all Poyson Insomuch that when to avoid the Roman slavery he would have dispatched himself by a strong venemous draught he was not able to effect it Such a soveraign vertue you will find in the frequent devout receiving of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood It will secure the life of your Soul confirm your strength arm you against the bitings of the old Serpent and make it in a manner impossible for you to be impoisoned by any naughty affections But I have writ so much on this Subject in other Books already that I need not say any more of it here You find I hope those Treatises useful to the stirring up Devotion and to the making a Soul more forward and unwearied in Gods service And there likewise you may meet with a particular Prayer for Love to the Holy Communion wherefore let me proceed without any stop to the next Advice XIII IF
into timorousness and hurt your Soul And this indeed is the skill we should all learn to behave our selves with such caution and evenness in the exercise of fear that it do not make us Superstitious nor through a despondency of Spirit cast us into that dulness and weakness which we are striving to avoid You must let your Fear therefore be tempered with so much of a Divine Faith that like heat and moisture they may make up one healthful constitution Faith in God I say is another thing that you must carefully and daily foster in your Soul if you would be constant in his Service Be verily perswaded that he loves you infinitely more than you love him and therefore is more desirous than you can be to see you do well and continue in well doing to the end Think that his eye is upon you that his arm is under you that he is as near to you as you are to your self for in all regards we live and move and have our Being in Him Think therefore that you behold Him the Father of Lights sending in rayes of light into your mind as you see the Sun looking in at your Windows and filling the room with its chearful beams and that you feel Him pouring in life constantly into your will as the Heart spurts out blood into all the Arteries of the Body Never entertain such a thought of Him as though he was willing to desert you and cast you out of his friendship now that he hath done so much for you and you have been so long acquainted By no means hearken to any jealous thoughts that are but whispered of his goodness whatsoever the jealousies be which you have of your own inconstancy Was it not He that called us when we were in horrid darkness and forgetfulness of him bending all our thoughts and desires to our own ruine and his dishonour Was it not He that assisted us to get the victory over so many Enemies Who but He is it that hath hitherto enabled us in our study to live vertuously and please Him in all things What should now move him to alter his mind After such numerous tokens of his love what is it should make him hate us Will he bear with no weaknesses or shall a fault that we have committed wholly alienate his affection from us If when we lay in our filthiness he took pitty on us pulled us out of the Mire and laid us in his bosome now that we are washed all over will he shake us off and cast us out of his embraces because our Feet as our Lord speaks still need some washing He that invited us so kindly when we were strangers and took us into his house and made us become not his servants only but his Children will he now turn us out of doors presently and thrust us into the wide world again because we have offended Him When we had no strength did he inspire us and hath he thus long tenderly followed us and trained us up in his service and will he now forsake the conduct of us and abandon us to the mercy of our Enemies Why did He then with so much labour purchase our love Why hath He been at such vast expence on our account Why would He take such incredible care to lose us when we might have perished by his no care of us O unworthy thoughts of so gracious a Master so loving a Father so tender a Husband Rather let us think the Sun may refuse to rise and shine upon us or the Sea may be dryed up than imagine that He should be willing to cast us into our former darkness and not let the current of his grace still run towards us Let us at least make him as good as an ordinary Mother who not only suckles her Child when it is young and indures many tedious Days and wearisome Nights in the midst of its cries and froward humours but likewise loves and looks after it when it can go alone and make some provision for its own good and safety Far be it from us to make him like the silly Birds that attend their young no longer than they are in the Nest and leave them to shift for themselves when they have once taught them to use their Wings Will not the Divine love think you indure far more untowardness peevishness and waywardness in our hearts when our grace is but in its infancy and childhood than a tender Mother indures in her little one before it can speak and tell its mind And will he not bear then with some indiscretions or faults afterwards but cast us out as Sarah did Ishmael and the Handmaid into a Wilderness where there is no provision for us Nay will He that took compassion on that poor outcast and his Mother to whom he sent his Angel for their preservation leave his dear Children to become a prey to the wild Beasts of the Desert Far be it from the Father of Mercies the God of love and all comfort to deal so with us And let me tell you that the more confidence we repose in his love the more he hates to use us so unkindly What man is there so hard-hearted that seeing his Neighbour ready to fall and hurt himself will deny him his help and with-draw his support especially when he falls into his armes and desires wholly to lean Himself on his Breast Who can indure to fail a Man and let him be undone that comes and puts his estate and his life into his hands though otherwise he be undeserving If a poor Bird fly to us for protection from the ravenous Kite that persecutes it Can we find in our hearts to throw it into its Enemies claws Who can then suspect that God who hath declared himself otherwayes willing to do us good should then cast us off and forsake us when we altogether rely upon his goodness clemency wisdom and power to help and relieve us When we fly to none else for shelter when we say as David doth LXII Psal 1 2 5. Truly my Soul waiteth upon God from Him cometh my Salvation He only is my rock and my salvation he is my defence The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God Who can let it enter into his thoughts that then He will turn away from us and suffer us to be greatly moved But more than this there is no Man among us unless he will make himself most infamous can fail and desert another who upon his earnest invitation and kind proffers of security comes and puts Himself wholly under his Wing and trusts to his Covert for safe protection Men are not arrived yet at such inhumanity but are ashamed to be so barbarous as to inveigle Men with fair promises and shows of kindness to come and take Sanctuary with them and then betray them Let the Lord of Heaven then never be held in the least suspicion of such unfaithfulness as well as unkindness to us whom he hath invited
and perswaded to confide and put their whole trust in him Never so much as imagine that he will disappoint those good Souls that rely and depend on nothing in their obedience to him but his undoubted promises Let it not come into any our minds or let the thought of it be abhorred and rejected with indignation that after he hath made us such assurances of his Care and Love he will break his word and let us fall when we have fast hold of his Mercy and his Truth Men may prove false and treacherous there may be such Monsters whose kindnesses are but flatteries and their invitations but insnarements But faithfulness it self cannot be unfaithful God's Goodness cannot mock us His infinite perfections will not let Him have any unworthy designs upon us or any ways delude us What deceive a Confident and fail a Friend Such God is pleased to esteem us when we devote our selves in love to his Service which is a farther consideration of greater moment than any else to secure us of his faithful kindness For if our heart will not serve us to let a poor neighbour fall to the ground when we can easily support him much less to desert one that hath intirely trusted us with all he hath and who by our desire reposed this trust in us then least of all can we be enclined to abandon the care of him who by long conversation with us and experience of us is become our Friend This gives him a new and a stronger title to all that we can do for him and because we have been so kind will be the best reason why we should continue to be so still Consider but the Natural works of God doth He begin to form the life of a Child in the Womb and leave it before it become a perfect Creature yea if it be but a Chicken in an Egg doth he not bring it to its full growth unless in either case something extraordinary hinder Why then should we dream that he will desist and forsake the formation of his Son Christ in us the lively Image of whom he hath already begun It must be some strange violence which we offer to our selves some very ill use of our Souls and great straining of the conscience that can make us miscarry I have askt the Question you know elsewhere and let me briefly repeat it again in this place Who was it that bid S. Peter to walk upon the Water At whose command did his body though apt to sink like a stone tread in that soft and yielding Element Was it not our Saviour that said Come and that was enough His word made the floods that they could not swallow him up He felt no more difficulty or danger in those paths as long as he believed our Saviour's Power than if he had walked on dry Land Then it was that he began to sink when his faith turned into fear His heart sunk before his body and his courage yielded before the Waters Just so it is with us who are compounded of earthly materials and yet are bid to wade through this world to heaven A Miracle it is that our dull Nature which hangs downward and is inclined to sink into the soft delights of sense should be able to look up above and not be swallowed up in a gulph of sin and misery For this we stand indebted to the Divine Power upholding and aiding our weakness And He that hath called us as he did Peter and bid us come to him continues his mighty word with us and bids us go on in the ways of his Commandements What need we fear as long as we have him in our company to go along with us And when is it that we are in danger of drowning but when we grow diffident as St. Peter did and our minds are fixed more upon the Wind and the Waves the hardships and the hazards that threaten us than upon the grace and power of our Lord that takes the charge of us And yet if through our fearfulness and distrust we chance to stagger and waver in our resolution we are not utterly undone but have a Remedy very near us Our Lord will put forth his hand even in the midst of these fears and hold us up as he did that faint-hearted Disciple of his when we cry out to Him in his words Lord save me It is stoutly resolved by an Heathen that seeing all disorders in man arise partly from the weakness of those reasons that are in his mind and partly from the excessive abundance of gross matter to which he is chained and seeing those Reasons Notions are Divine and near of Kin to the Gods themselves the insuperable and irresistible power of the Gods will come to the assistance of their Kindred Proclus L. 1. in Timaeum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and so revive renew those Reasons so comfort cherish their weakness that they shall be able to conquer the heaviness and dulness of the bodily impediments Let us much more resolutely conclude that seeing our Souls though here in this Prison are the off-spring of God and seeing likewise he is manifested in our flesh and hath married it as I may say to himself he will mightily incourage strengthen the one and help us to disburden the other and purifie both and that he will never despise the faintest essayes of any honest Soul that faithfully strugles for greater liberty but assist it in all its attempts and endeavours to be unloaded and made more free and chearful in his service These very motions derive themselves from Heaven and may as confidently expect to be succoured from thence as a Child to receive relief from his Parents when he is in distress and when by his order also he is ingaged to apply his weakness to a mighty work which without his help he knows cannot be accomplished It is incredible that the Father of Mercies should expose that which is born of him to be undone and perish which will certainly be the fate of all that is good in us without his constant care and assistance for its preservation Do not doubt but God will look after his own and see that the little portion of goodness which is remaining in this World be countenanced and incouraged In assurance of which you may address your self unto him after this manner A PRAYER O Lord who hast breathed into me the breath of life and indued me with an Immortal Spirit which looks up unto thee and remembers it is made after thine own Image and that thou hast sent Jesus Christ from Heaven to repair and renew that Image in wisdome righteousness and holiness Behold with grace and favour the ardent desires which are in mine heart to recover a perfect likeness of Thee By thine Almighty Love all Praise be unto Thee my mind is already awakened to some sense of Thee and my will overcome to yield up it self intirely to obey Thee and I have been assisted
able than we are And particularly I would advise you on such occasions to lift up your Soul frequently to God in earnest desires beseeching Him to preserve you from cheating your self and that he would help you to discern clearly when it is the flattery and when it is the meer weakness of Flesh and Blood that hinders you from doing as you were wont When you cast a glance I say towards Heaven and send up a sigh thither now and then as you are able let this be one of your desires that God would be so gracious as to give you to feel plainly when meer necessity requires your attendance on your Body and when it calls for more than it needs For he loves that in every thing we should make known our requests to Him and will certainly some way or other satisfie your mind in such concernments And when you have used the best judgment you have and can procure together with your Prayers about them then I hope you will be chearful and let your thoughts trouble you no more Or if a thought should happen to start up and strike your mind telling you that you are lazy yet believe I beseech you your more deliberate and not these suddain conclusions There is one case I know of this kind wherein though it be certain that it is impossible for us to do as we were wont and that we are not hindred by any fault in our will but by the meer indisposition of nature yet it may be hard sometime to avoid dejected and complaining thoughts upon this account It is in sickness when the Mind necessarily languishes with the Body You may chance then to imagine that some sin or other is the cause of this Correction and so you have drawn this disability upon your self for which you cannot now be humbled as you desire But I hope My Friend that you take such an exact view of your life that sickness will not let you see any fault that was not visible to you before And I know you to be wiser than to torment your self with a fancy that there is some sin lurking in you though you cannot find it out But if any thing should discover it self to you which was not so evident before let me beseech you not to pass any hard censure upon your self But to remember that this hath been bewailed whensoever you lamented the general infirmity of your nature and that now perhaps it is represented to you more ugly than it doth deserve or if it be not yet it is sufficient only to beg of God to accept your hearty confession and your promise of amendment when you are able and to desire your spiritual guide to be the witness of your sincere resolution and to give you absolution and his blessing and so rest satisfied But there may be another reason likewise assigned of our heaviness at certain seasons which I have noâ— yet named and that is the withholding in a great measure of thaâ— strength and power which was upon us from the Holy-Ghost to raise and elevate us to an high pitch of love activity and joy in well doing For as the help of that doth lift us up above our selves so when it much abates we are apt to fall as much below our selves and to be surprised with sadness and dejection of spirit to see our selves so strangely changed And this may be denyed us for several causes either because we have not improved it so well as we might or because our Lord sees that our Nature cannot bear always such extraordinary motions or that he may make us more sensible of his favours and raise their price and value in our esteem or that he may try our strength as a Mother le ts go her hold of the Child to make it feel its Feet or that he may thereby bow our wills more absolutely to his and break our self-self-love which desires nothing but pleasure or that he may prove whether we will love him for himself and not for the delicate entertainments which he gives us or for some such cause unknown to you and me and every body else And shall we not yield submission quietly to a thing for which there may be so many reasons and those not at all to our prejudice but to our profit Let me say a few words concerning the two last things mentioned and show you that if our Patience be exercised upon those accounts it will prove very beneficial to our Souls I cannot say as some have done that we ought not to desire goodness for our own good but meerly because it is pleasing to God No this seems to me a very absurd doctrine and utterly impossible that we should separate these two Piety and our own good We cannot so much as desire to be good but we shall feel a satisfaction in it For the very Name of good carries a respect in it to something in us to which it is agreeable and convenient We do not mean when we bid you love God for himself that you should not therein love your self and seek your own contentment for you cannot chuse but be pleased in the love of God and vertue But this I may affirm with safety that there may be sometimes too much of self-love in our vehement desires after the extraordinary pleasures and joyes of piety and that if we could be content after we used due diligence with our driness and barrenness of spirit with our dulness and want of vigour nay with our frailties and faults too meerly out of submission to God and because he thinks not fit to give us the pleasure of being wholly without them it would be highly acceptable to him and no less advantageous to us If in all things I mean we could rest satisfied that God's will is done though ours be denyed if we could forbear to prosecute our own will even in those matters and desire him to give us as much Life and Spirit and chearfulness and joy as he pleases we should be so far from offending him that he would take it for a very grateful piece of service to him This is not to teach any remisness in your desires and endeavours but it supposes you do your best and only advises you that if notwithstanding you cannot be as you would you do not let your spirit fall into any impatience or fretfulness For this is to prefer God's pleasure above your own It is a subjection of your will to his in those points wherein you are most desirous to have it gratified It is an unusual instance of resignation to him which declares there is nothing so dear to you but you are willing to quit it so you may but do well and be accepted with Him And here remember these two things First that our solid comfort doth not depend upon doing every thing so readily easily and delightfully as we would but in accomplishing Gods will however it be done And 2dly That Humility Patience and Submission to God
in the midst of our infirmities may be more acceptable to him than that complacence and joy which we feel to arise meerly from the sense that we have of our strength and abilities To be pleased in our successes is not so pleasing to God as to be patient in our Contests Nay to rejoyce and triumph in our Victories is nothing so good as to be constant and resolved notwithstanding that we are a little overcome In those spiritual consolations which we thirst after we do not always receive so much profit as we do pleasure but in the want of them if our wills be thereby more perfectly subdued to his we receive both a very great benefit and in the issue no small pleasure You have seen perhaps or you may imagine the smoak of a Potters Furnace how thick and black it is as if it would make a Picture of Hell it self Who would think that the Vessels of Clay which are baked there would not be burnt to ashes by the fury of the Fire or that at lest they would come out as black as soote by the foulness of the smoak And yet when the Fire is put out and the Vessels unfurnaced you see there is no such thing But that which was soft and yielding is become hard and strong and its complexion likewise is so much mended that a Prince need not disdain the use of some of these Cups Just thus it is with a distressed Soul when it is covered with a Cloud and wrapt in darkness and burns thereby in a great and sore displeasure against it self It is apt to think that this sure is the Gate of Hell that it is forsaken of God and shall either perish in this condition or not escape out of it without much loss But after a while when the work of God is done and the vapours are vanished and disappear it findes it self to be grown much in firmness purity and splendor and that it is made a Vessel of honour fit for the Masters use There is no loss of any thing but of its self-will Nothing is consumed but its softness and delicacy which made it loth to be toucht The like may be said of many little passions and disorderly desires to which our frail Natures are subject If we can free our selves from one inordinate passion which is a too vehement desire to be quite rid of them it might bring us little less peace than if we were and our profiting would no less appear in continuing still to do our duty of which we complain that they are so great an hinderance However there is no reason for such conclusions as those which good minds have been apt to make in a gloomy day that if God loved them he would not treat them after that manner There is rather great reason considering what hath been said to be not only patient but thankful to him in such a condition For it is not inconsistent with his care and infinite kindness to let us be obnoxious to those changes and those weaknesses too which I have mentioned but you see plainly it must be so and therefore it is best to be well pleased with these Methods of our Heavenly Father at least contented that it should be so And let me add this for a conclusion of this Discourse that God may suffer some Persons to be thus overcast with darkness and he may with-hold his gracious influences from them for the sins of their former life before they were converted which deserved he should never have afforded his grace unto them at all What are we should such Men say that we should expect to live always under the light of his countenance Alas one age of darkness is too good for us and we have reason to thank him if we be not eternally banished from his sight Why should such poor things as we think to receive every day some extraordinary tokens of his Divine favour when one good look from him is enough to oblige us as long as we live How much more reason have we to praise him that all our days are not gloomy that our Sun is not always eclipsed or rather that our life is but one long Night than to complain that a Cloud sometimes passes over us or a Mist gathers about us It is but fit that we should be hereby taught what it is to sin against God and it is well for us that we were not sent to learn it in outer darkness We are not ill dealt withall if we can learn at so cheap a rate the value of pardoning mercy but shall have cause in Heaven to praise God that we paid no dearer for it Is this all the punishment that is due for our many faults Doth he not use us very kindly if we be not quite cast out of his Presence O what a joy will it be to us to find that we are in his favour in the other World And we may be content if he please to stay for our joy till that time when we shall certainly know whether we have reason to rejoyce or no. But I shall say no more of this to you who have spent your time so innocently and vertuously that there is reason you should reap the fruit of it now in perpetual joy and satisfaction of heart from the consideration of God's goodness to you And I had wholly omitted this last Advice did not I know the weakness of humane Nature to be so great that the best disposed Souls may sometimes feel such alterations in them as may make it very necessary In which case if ever you should find your self doubt not to approach to God and say to him with all humility of spirit some such words as these A PRAYER I Acknowledg O great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth that I am not worthy of the least glimpse of thy divine favour It is sufficient that I live and behold the light of the Sun and am not banished into outer darkness And it is more than enough for so wretched a thing as I am that thou art pleased at any time of my life to bestow upon me the smallest testimony of thy love But that I live in hope to pass through all these Clouds and to behold my blessed Saviour in inconceivable splendor and rejoyce with him for ever O what a grace is it How infinitely am I indebted to Thee for such riches of mercy It ought to make me contented with any condition here and exceeding thankful to Thee that it is no worse Deal with me O merciful God even as thou pleasest so that I may but have this humble hope preserved in my heart of seeing and loving my Lord not as now darkly and dully but in the clearest light and with the most ardent love in Immortal Glory I submit to thy Infinite Wisdome under all that heaviness and listlesness of spirit wherewith I am oppressed from which I know thy Infinite Power if thou didst judg it most convenient is able
to deliver me Thou art not unwilling neither I know to gratifie the desires of pious hearts who sincerely long after a state of more perfect love to Thee and would gladly with more active and unwearied spirits serve thee and all mankind But since thou art pleased to leave us to contend with many and great infirmities of our mortal Nature thy will be done I deserved none of that power and strength from above which I have received O that I could say that I have alwayes imployed it or been so thankful for it as I ought By thy grace I am what I am And by its assistance I hope to persevere in my duty and in thy love though thou denyest me all the satisfaction which I am inclined to desire I am content to serve thee on any terms yea desirous to have my will subdued in every thing perfectly unto thine O that I may but feel my Soul growing more humble more submissive more patient more intirely resigned to thy pleasure and I shall think my self a great gainer by all the loads and pressures under which I groan O that they may depress me more in my own thoughts and make me more admire thy indulgent kindness which exercises no greater severity upon me and raise in me an higher esteem of those favours which thou art pleased at any time to communicate to me and make me place my satisfaction in a constant and resolute obedience to Thee whatsoever discouragements I meet withall and in the expectation of an happy translation from this earthly state to an Heavenly which thou hast promised as the reward of faithful obedience Into thy hands O Lord I now commend my Spirit as I must do when I leave this World I trust my self with Thee beseeching thee to conduct me safe through all varieties and changes both bodily and spiritual unto thy eternal rest And for that end bestow upon me such an attentive and sincerely discerning spirit that I may never be cheated by the laziness of fleshly Nature nor call that my infirmity which is my carelesness and negligence Preserve me from all affected Ignorance from idleness from rashness from self-flattery and presumption as well as from all causless jealousies of my self and too much sadness and dejection of spirit Help me to overgrow daily the unsteadiness of my mind and thoughts and that backwardness which is in my will and affections together with all other imperfections and weaknesses of this state But as for all the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye or the pride of life O my God I hope I shall be a perfect stranger to them and far removed from them Help me in all conditions stedfastly to love the good which thou hast commanded and the good which thou hast promised And enable me as patiently to bear the evil which thou inflictest and as vehemently to hate the evil which thou forbidest and to be much afraid of the evil which thou threatnest and to be well pleased with every thing that thou sendest If thou makest me rich keep me from being wanton or proud or in love with this World or loth to leave it Help me discreetly to taste of these good things but to live upon those which are Heavenly And if thou art pleased to reduce me into want keep me from all repining thoughts from distrust of Thee and from too great carefulness and solicitude of mind and help me then to remember that I have still the same most loving Father who fed me in the days of my fulness and prosperity While I have my health good Lord make me serviceable that if I be sick I may not be disconsolate nor uneasie to my self and others In all my employments dispose me to be chearful in all my enjoyments thankful and on all occasions very watchful that I fall not into temptation And be thou my Guide my Helper my Defender my Comforter and indulgent Father also that if I do fall I may not utterly be cast down but live in hope to recover more strength and to Glorifie Thee by bringing forth much and better Fruit through Christ Jesus our blessed Saviour By whom I believe in Thee who hast raised Him from the Dead and given Him Glory 1 Pet. 1.21 that our Faith and Hope might be in Thee our GOD. Amen THUS My Friend I have finished this little Labour of Love to speak in the Language of St. Paul 1 Thess 1.3 which I wish may prove so serviceable to you that it may do more than produce that Patience of hope in you which he mentions in the same place I would have you to be filled with the joy of hope or as he speaks in another Epistle XV. Rom. 13. with all joy and peace in believing It becomes one of your understanding and goodness nor is there any greater effect of true Wisdome as Seneca hath observed than the equality and evenness of our joy Nothing sure can hinder it in you but the inequality perhaps at sometimes of your bodily temper which is not to be avoided But in that case I have instructed you what to do and I am sure you will not fail to follow my Directions therein and in all the rest whatsoever pains it cost you For I need not send you to Musonius to learn this great truth of which you are as sensible as it is incourageing that if a Man do any good thing with labour the labour passes soon away but the good remains and if he do any evil with pleasure the pleasure presently flies away but the evil remains So great is the difference between doing well and doing ill that you can never I know be tempted from the one unto the other It is too late now to put a cheat upon you The pleasures of sin cannot deceive one whose senses are so well exercised to discern between good and evil You may be abused it is possible with fears and jealousies of your self and be cast down when you have no list to do any thing that is good or when you mistake or have committed a little fault but as I said in the beginning so I conclude be sure you hold fast an unmoveable belief of the goodness of God to you which will defend you from the danger of those assaults and prevent all the mischief which otherwise they might do you He doth not expect Children without all faults and you may be sure cannot be unwilling to pardon them when he knows that's the way to incourage them to grow better There is no reason to suspect his sincerity when he tells us that he desires not the Death of a Sinner Or to imagine that he secretly undermines us while he openly professes love and friendship to us or to fear that he intends to make us the Trophees of his meer Power and Greatness or to draw us after Him as his Captives in any other Chariot than that of his Omnipotent Goodness in which he rides all the World over
Believe this and it will never let you despond in the worst condition nor suffer you to be jealous of any of his commands or fancy that he will lay impossible tasks upon you And you will have as little cause to be suspicious of his Providence or to take too heavily any thing that he doth but will still believe notwithstanding any objections or contrary appearances that all things shall work together for your good And whatsoever there is that might dishearten you this will make you persist in a resolute perswasion that GOD is willing and desirous to receive your Petitions and will grant a gracious answer He cannot envy his blessings to any nor loves he to suppress his kindness within himself For envy proceeds from weakness and from want which incline a Person to seek how he may ingross every thing and appropriate it to his own particular being But he who in his own Nature is so perfect that he can want nothing is inclined no doubt to let others participate with him in his happiness since he will still remain as full as he was You think it is impossible as Proclus well sayes that darkness should approach the Sun who is the Parent of Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is more impossible that any envy should touch God whose Nature is so excellent that he hath given to all what they have What is there left for him to envy who hath already all that can be For what want can there be in Infinite Fulness What Weakness and Infirmity in the Omnipotent Deity Who is there that can share and go halfs with the Fountain of all Good Let Us not therefore look upon GOD as if we thought Him afraid that we should be too good or enjoy too much good or as if He were unwilling we should be exceeding happy For He is such a Good that He hath filled and replenished all things and doth good and bestows Benefits continually upon them all And why should you think your self excluded out of the vast compass of his Love or imagine after He hath done so much for you that his Bounty is exhausted Do you not feel what kindness GOD hath implanted in our Hearts towards each other How free how diligent how unwearied a Friend is in serving a Person whom he loves intirely And what is there better natur'd than that Religion which Christ hath taught Us the top of which is Love and Charity and that is both a Bountiful and a Meek and a Patient Vertue For it suffers long and is kind so St. Paul begins its Character it beares all things and indures all things so he ends it And is it possible do you think that GOD should give Us that which is not in Himself Or that He should command Us to accomplish our Souls with that Perfection which is not eminent in his own most excellent Nature We are sure that our loving kindness is but a weak imitation of His. And therefore may conclude that He will have Patience with Us and not be easily provoked but bear with our Infirmities and be exceeding kind in bestowing his Blessings and Pardoning our Offences and delight in doing both because there is nothing He so much delights to see in Us as this Image of His loving kindness So the greatest Men in the Church of CHRIST have resolved Some empty their Bags saith Gregory Nazianzen others macerate their Flesh Orat. 17. and there are those who quite abandon the World and retire out of it and some who have consecrated their dearest pledges to GOD. But thou needest do none of these there is one thing thou mayest bring and offer to Him in stead of all and that is loving kindness forgiving of Injuries and doing Benefits in which God rejoyces more than in all the rest put together A proper Gift an unspotted Gift a Gift that provokes the Divine Bounty to be still more Liberal in His Favours to Us. For it is impossible that He should be out-done by Us or that we should equal Him in tenderness and compassion of which He hath given Us such a surprising and glorious instance in the Son of his love Christ Jesus that we should be very unjust as well as ungrateful and unkind if we should not expect more from him than we would do from the best Friend in the World We see in our Lord what the Divine Love will incline Him to do We are satisfied beyond all reasonable cause of distrust how propitious and gracious He is So that you ought to be confident whatsoever defects you find in your self that He who hath begun a good work in you will peâ—form it unto the Day of CHRIST JESUS It is but handsome and becomeing that you should have this Opinion of Him Judge by your self and your own good inclinations whether you ought not to have such high thoughts of Infinite Love You owe to Him all the good you have and there is more Reason as I told you that He should perfect his own work than there was that He should begin it And therefore let your Eyes be ever towards the Lord. Commit your Self to Him in assured hope of His continued Love to you Beseech him to fulfill in you all the good pleasure of his goodness and that according to the trust you have reposed in Him He would keep you from falling and present you faultless before the Presence of his Glory with exceeding joy I cannot tell you how oft I have said AMEN to this nor how much I am inclined to continue this Discourse further than I have designed For Wisdome it self as the same Gregory Nazianzen hath observed which give measures to all things else sets none to Friendship which ought to know no bounds nor be confined within any limits Orat. 12. But I shall contain my self within the compass which I prescribed my self at first and add no more unless it be that Prayer of R. ElieZar with which he is said to have concluded Daily all his other Prayers Let it be thy good pleasure O Lord that Love and Brotherly kindness may dwell in our lot For why should I prolong this Letter in making any needless declarations how much I am where or how-soever our lot falls Yours in love unfeigned S. P. THE END