and you feel your self a Being that can subsist and enjoy it self if he please without a Body excite in your Soul a most passionate desire to be so happy that when it quits the place of its present abode it may approach nearer to his blessed Majesty and have a clearer sight of his surpassing glory Put your self in hope also that his Divine Goodness which hath planted in you such strong inclinations and filled you with such desires will not let them want the pleasure of satisfaction Look up above and think that when your Spirit shall take its flight from hence there is some other Company to entertain it in another World whose acquaintance is far more desirable than the society of the dearest Friend we have here who perhaps as soon as he hath gained our love takes his leave of us and goes his way thither What comfort have we remaining in this and other innumerable cases but the hope of Immortality Which is the only thing that can raise our Spirit above the pleasures and the troubles too of this mortal Body This is our chiefest good on which we should set our heart This is the inheritance to which we are born as Lactantius speaks and for which we are form'd by vertue and piety the only inheritance of which we can be secure that we shall never be defeated For all this World we must leave behind us we can carry nothing away with us but an innocent and well-passed life and the hopes which accompany it He only comes to God rich and plentiful and abounding in wealth as his words are whom continence mercy patience charity and faith shall attend and conveigh into his Presence 5. To assure your self therefore of this great good on which our principal strength and comfort relies consider in the next place that your mind plainly tells you and its testimony is indubitable that God must needs be true and that whatsoever he saith ought immediately without any hesitation to be firmly believed For as he can never be deceived himself so we are sure he cannot deceive us 6. Now God hath been pleased at last to speak to us by his own dear Son as a voice from Heaven and a World of mighty deeds have testified 7. And seeing Jesus hath not only comprised in his Doctrine all the holy wisdome and all the goodness that ever was thought or spoken of since the beginning of time but hath likewise added a lively discovery of that state of good things which the heart of man naturally wishes and longs for in another World 8. And seeing in the last place God hath confirmed his exceeding great and precious promises of Eternal Life by his Resurrection from the Dead and his Ascension into Heaven and the sending of the Holy Ghost You ought to perswade your self of the truth of these invisible things and represent them so often to your mind till they seem no less real and certain than what you see with your Eyes and feel with your Hands Nay till all the pleasures and delights which the bounty of Heaven gives you in Friends or any other good things here seem but as shadowes and faint Images of the better enjoyments which you expect hereafter Those wise Men who were guided onely by the light of their own mind made no greater account of them And yet all the Philosophers of greatest fame were but little Children compared with Christian People in the knowledg of this great Point L. 1. praepar Cap. 4. as Eusebius justly glories We are not left to gather this truth as another of the Ancients speaks from the weak conjectures and imperfect reasonings of our own Lactant. L. 7. Cap. 8. but we know it from a Divine Tradition It is delivered to us by the Son of God who hath put an end to all disputes by coming from Heaven to us with the Words of Eternal Life Lay up his Words therefore most carefully in your heart let them dwell richly and plentifully in you in all wisdom and possess you at once with a mighty sense of God and of the dignity of your Soul and of Immortality and of the Joy of the Invisible World The Benefits of this Exercise are so evident that I may leave you to relate them when you have felt them It will be sufficient for me to suggest to you that the Heart must needs become by this means very cold and dead to those earthly enjoyments which were wont to bewitch and inchant it with their deceitful Pleasures If the Soul be cloathed as the Platonists fancied with as many Garments as there are Elements through which it passed as it descended into this Body and if it be so mufled in them that it doth but fumble in its thoughts and hath much ado to feel it self hereby it will be able in some measure to devest it self of those thick Blankets wherein it is wrapped and throw off those heavy coats that dangle about its heeles and incumber its motions as it sets its Feet forward to walk toward the Father of its Being It is no contemptible discourse which their Master makes concerning Felicity Plato in Phaedone which he rightly places in the contemplation and love of the Soveraign Good How that no Man can attain unto it in this Life by reason of the lumpish matter to which the Soul is fast tyed and by reason of the multitude of Worldly affairs which require our attendance yea and of the fancies and toyes that will fill our thoughts do what we can Whence he concludes that either no Man shall be happy which he thinks is very absurdly affirmed or he must arrive at his Happiness after he is dead And if when we are dead saith he the Blessed Time is come wherein we may enjoy as we would that greatest good then the nearer any Man approaches unto Death the nearer he comes within the reach of his Felicity If a Man therefore will with-draw Himself from the World if he will abstract his mind from sensible things and take his heart from bodily pleasures and turn himself into himself which they judged as the Holy Writers do a kind of Death he shall be in the beginnings of his Happiness There I know my Friend you desire to find your self and for that cause I pray you learn thus to steal out of the company of Worldly things which by hindring us from beginning our Happiness would keep us in perpetual misery Converse as often as you can with your nobler self and contract an intimate acquaintance with those divine Inhabitants which are lodged there Grow into an high esteem of that unseen Power which knows God and the Life to come which thinks and guides and gives orders desires and loves and doth all things else belonging to this Life And calling to mind continually its worth and dignity and considering for what heavenly enjoyments it was designed disdain to let it be condemned to so base a slavery as to serve the Body only
you trust him and leave your self wholly to his Wisdom and Kindness I could entertain you here with a delightful Discourse on this Argument were it not that I would not burden you as I said before with too great a Book Let me only advise you of this which shall excuse me from adding a Prayer at the end of this Discourse especially since you know where to find one in another place That as it is most for our ease to recommend all we have and do to Gods good providence and resolutely to rest satisfied in what he determines so the most effectual course to obtain this resignation to him and confidence in him is rather to exercise it in our Devotions by acts of resignation and expressions of our trust in his great goodness than to be petitioning him continually to bestow upon us this grace Say therefore with the heartiest affection upon all occasions in the words of David Thou art my hope O Lord thou art my trust from my Youth I trust in the Mercy of God Psal 71.5.14.52.8.141.8.56.3.92.2.118.9.37.2.5 for ever and ever Mine eyes are unto thee O God the Lord I will hope continually and will yet praise Thee more and more What time I am afraid I will trust in thee I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and my fortress my God in him will I trust It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes I will therefore trust in the Lord and do good I will commit my way unto him that he may bring it to pass Behold O Father of Mercies how intirely I confide in thee I absolutely resign my self and all I have unto thee I rely upon thy bounty for what thou judgest fit and needful for me Thy Goodness is the greatest treasure thy Truth and Faithfulness is my best security thy gracious Promises and careful Providence is my comfort thy Wisdom is my satisfaction in all events and accidents thy Power is my support protection and safeguard Lead me whither thou pleasest and I will follow thee with a chearful heart I refuse nothing which comes from thy hands O most loving Father I submit to thy orders and hope that all things shall work together for my good And I trust in thy grace that I shall always do as I do now stedfastly adhering thus unto thee and never suffering any thing that befalls me to pull me away from this humble faith in thy wise and almighty Goodness to which I refer my self now and ever And the more to awaken you to this let me tell you My Friend that we find examples of it even in the Heathens themselves who in a strange fit of devotion have sometime cryed out on this fashion O man what dost thou Why dost thou not free thy self from all this trouble Adventure at last Arrian Epict. L. 2. Cap. 16. with eyes lifted up to God to say unto him Use me at thy pleasure O God for the time to come Thou hast my perfect consent I am of the same mind that thou art I have a mind to nothing but what thou thinkest good Wilt thou have me bear an Office or shall I lead a private life Must I stay or must I fly Shall I be poor or shall I be rich I am ready to obey I will defend thee against all the World I will apologize for thy providence about these things to every body I say that all is good because thou art so Thus they exhorted men to follow God chearfully in a belief that he is Wise and Good for we can never be happy said they if we follow him sighing and groaning as a man doth one that is stronger than he who pulls him after him when he hath no mind to go Let us begin every thing saith the same Philosopher in another place without too much desire or aversation Let us not incline to this or to the other way But behave our selves like a Traveller who when he comes to two ways asks him whom he meets next which of those he shall take to such a place having no inclination to the right hand rather than to the left but desiring only to know the true and direct way that will carry him to his Journeys end Just so must we come to God as to a Guide as to one who shall dispose of our motions as he pleases We must not look about us and desire of him this or the other thing which we fancy We must not direct Him what course he should take with us nor desire him to show us this rather than that but embrace that which he proposes and desire only he will conduct us in the right way to happiness This is our duty and our safety Whereas now you shall see Men run to him and say Lord have Mercy upon me deliver me from such and such a thing Wretch that thou art Wouldst thou have any thing but what is best And who can tell what that is Is there any thing best but that which seems so to God Why then dost thou endeavour as much as in thee lies to corrupt him who is to judg and to seduce Him who is thy Counsellour and to move him by thy cries to do otherways than he thinks good Cease these clamours and do not urge him to incline to thy desires but suffer him to follow his own Wisdom It cannot be any delight to him to cross and vex us If what we are inclined to desire be conformable to his judgment he will not deny it us meerly because we are inclined to desire it But he will give us that which is good in his eyes as the holy Scripture speaks And what would we have more Will it not suffice us to have our own hearts desire And what should that be if we are well advis'd but this that we may have what unsearchable Wisdom united with Infinite Power and Goodness shall think to be fittest for us and most convenient Of this we need not doubt And this is sufficient for any Mans satisfaction XII AND as a means to all this which hath been said in the foregoing Advices I cannot but desire you in the next place to Receive as often as you can the Holy Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood For there you have an ample testimony of Gods tender love to you and care over you There a number of Christian Brethren and good Friends meet to rejoyce together There your Soul is excited to the noblest thoughts and sublimest Meditations of your Saviour's love and of the purchase he hath made for you The sight of which will not let you stand in need of being chidden by your self into the devoutest affections and the most chearful resignation to him who having given so great a gift as his Son to you will not deny you may be confident to bestow lesser benefits when he sees them expedient for
may speak wholly unto it It participates with that supreme good to which it is united It carries in it self a great deal of the life of God it is a part of Heaven and the business of the other World But besides the solace which is inseparable from it there is this remarkable property in the passion of love that it strangely disposes us to believe all the kind expressions of our friends and makes us easily receive whatever they say for certain truth Upon which account the love of God will incline us above all other things to entertain every thing that he shall communicate of his mind unto us And there is nothing so great nothing so magnificent declared in the Gospel of his Grace but he that loves God will presently believe it and lay it up in his heart as a singular expression of his divine favour For he feels by the power and force of this affection in his own heart what God is enclined to do for those whom he loves and takes delight in though it seem incredible to other Men. And therefore as it doth not pose his belief who loves God when he hears that the Word was made Flesh for the good of men that the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in Jesus that he dyed for sinners and lay'd down his life for the Redemption of Enemies So the Resurrection of Christ from the dead his Ascension to Heaven the exaltation of our Nature in his Person at Gods right hand the Glory and Majesty in which he is said to shine there and in which we are told we shall at last appear together with him are no riddles nor incredible things to him No Love sees him there preparing a place for us making all ready for the joyful Marriage to be celebrated in his glorious Kingdome coming in the Clouds of Heaven to call us up thither and to advance all his Subjects to reign as so many Kings together with him This makes a man presently understand how God should design to reward our poor endeavours those services to which we stand obliged though but weakly performed with an everlasting inheritance How he should compensate our present sufferings which are but for a moment and not worthy to be named with a far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory Hyperbole's go down easily with this Mans Faith He can believe beyond them all and see what is far beyond that far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory as the Apostles words import 2 Cor. 4.17 He is assured the love of Heaven will enkindle a new life in our dead ashes He beholds it sublimating this earth to an Heavenly state And can well conceive this thick Clay shining as the Sun and made like to the glorious Body of Christ This Soul also as pure as the light saluting its new born Body and possessed with a mighty love rejoycing for ever in Gods bounteous kindness to it All this it sees nay feels being already filled as St. Paul speaks with all the fulness of God For it feeling First what a vast difference there is between it self now and what it was before when it was pent up in scant and narrow affection to these petty goods here below makes no doubt there may be as wide a difference between what it shall be hereafter and what it is now It presently concludes that the same powerful goodness which roused up and called forth its sleepy thoughts and drowsie desires towards it self can still further awaken and raise all its faculties to a more quick and lively sense or call forth some hidden power and vertue in the Soul which hath as yet no more appeared than those motions which now it feeles did before it was touched by his Almighty hand And Secondly finding its own nature by this touch of the Divine Love made so free and benign so abundant and overflowing in kind affection to others so open-hearted and gracious it concludes that the Almighty goodness not only can but will do more for it and confidently expects to be lifted up to an higher state of bliss proportionable to the superabundant kindness of that most excellent Nature which hath produced already such good inclinations in it It is impossible for a Man to be under the power of love to feel the huge force of its flames to perceive of what a spreading and communicative Nature it is and not conceive very magnificently of the bounty of God and have a faith in him as large and capacious as his love Love God therefore My Friend as much as ever you can with the greatest passion and most ardent affection and you shall find Heaven coming apace into you and taste the good things of the promised World to come You shall not only guess at your future state and make conjectures about it but in some measure know and feel the all-filling joy of our Lord and possess that quiet tranquillity and peace which passeth all understanding For this Divine love is the right sense whereby Heavenly things are apprehended It is that which fits the mind rightly to understand and the will firmly to believe those great and transcendent things which the Scripture reports as the portion of the Saints in light It gives us a sight of things as much differing from all other which we have meerly by dry reasoning and which we spin out by thoughtful Discourses as the sight of a great beauty before our Eyes differs from the description of it which we read in a Book or as the warmth of fire on the hearth doth from that we see in a Picture which cannot loosen and inliven our stark and benummed Joynts And if you would love God I have told you the ready way to it which is by preserving in your mind a constant and lively sense of his infinite love and good will already expressed to you for this will naturally and easily produce a reciprocal love to him and that will make you look for more of his mercy even to Eternal Life This you understand so well that I shall not say a word to you more about it but proceed to the next when I have left a few words with you to say to God A PRAYER O God how great is thy love how excellent is thy loving kindness towards us thy unworthy Creatures To whom thou takest such pleasure in communicating thy blessings that thou dost not stay till we ask them of thee but pourest them down plentifully before and beyond all our desires O the inconceivable depth of that love from whence thy Son Jesus was sent to dwell among us who hath done so much for us that he hath left us nothing to do but to consider and lay to heart thy love which hath so marvelously abounded towards us For all things I know are easie and pleasant to those that love Thee Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them O possess this heart which opens it self to thy gracious influences
Liquor which by long labour and many Operations you have fetcht out of a number of excellent Herbs or Spices or other rare Ingredients For though you must not have recourse to them every day yet there may be a season you see when they will do you so high a pleasure that you may owe your life or your chearfulness to them They may stand you at least in so much stead as to preserve you from utter distast of your self and despair of Gods favour when you are apt to droop nay sink under the weight of your Body or any other load that lies very heavy upon you Chear up your Soul then with some of its own sublimer thoughts and turning your self to the Father of Mercies say A PRAYER O My God What pledges of thy Love are these which I have received already from Thee How precious are thy thoughts towards me and how dear and precious have they been in mine eyes O how great is the summe of them I see I see how gracious thou art I am not without many tokens of thy readiness to help me and of thy kind intentions to promote me by patient continuance in my duty to everlasting happiness O how sweet is the remembrance of that time when thou wast pleased to visit me and inspire my heart with devout affections to thee How joyful hast thou made me with the light of thy countenance which is better than life it self Accept of such thanks as I am now able to offer thee for thy abundant goodness to me Blessed be thy goodness that I have not lived all my days as a stranger to thee that my Soul hath not always grovelled on the earth but been lifted up sometime unto Heaven Blessed be thy goodness that it hath not lay'n continually as a barren Wilderness but been fruitful in some good thoughts and pious affections and zealous resolutions and worthy designs to do thee honour and service in the World O that this remembrance of thy past loving-kindness and of the powerful operations of thy holy Spirit in my heart may at this time mightily move and excite me to the like devout expressions of my love to thee O that I may feel it renewing my strength or reviving my Spirit at least to a comfortable hope in thee that thou wilt never utterly forsake me There is all reason I confess most thankfully that I should confide in thee and wait upon thee still with a stedfast faith for fresh influences from Heaven to make me howsoever persevere with a constant mind notwithstanding all the discouragements I conflict withall in a careful and exact observance of all thy commands This I know is the best proof of my love to thee And therefore help me as to pray always so to exercise my self in works of mercy to do justly to be clothed with humility to preserve my body and soul in purity and to discharge all the duties of my place and relations with an upright heart willing mind And when thou graciously vouchsafest to enlarge my Spirit in abundance of delightful thoughts of thee and to raise me to the highest pitch of love to thee O that it may not only please me but make me better Lift me up thereby above all the temptations of this World and quicken me to be the more fruitful in all good works and to excell in vertue to increase especially and abound so much in love towards my Brethren and towards all Men that my Heart may be established unblameable in Holiness before Thee my God and Father 1 Thess 3.12 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints Amen VIII AND here I cannot but commend to you frequent Meditation and serious consideration which you might expect to have heard of before as of singular use for the continuance either of your diligence or of those delectable affections in it For the Soul is a thing so entire in it self that if one part be strongly moved the other will be so too just as when the Nave of a Wheel turns round it makes the outermost circumference to circle about with it Much is said by many on this subject and therefore I shall only direct you how to Meditate when you are dull and unfit as you imagine for any thoughts When we discourse you know with a Servant and desire to affect him with what we say if he be stupid and heavy and seems not at all to be concerned in our words then we are wont to make use of interrogations beseechings objurgations exclamations corrections of our selves admirations and such like ways to rouse his apprehension For we find that if an object touches any of our senses gently and softly we mind it not while we are intent upon other matters but if it strikes us with some smartness and comes with a vehemency and importunity it alarmes the whole Soul and makes it not only hear but demand what 's the matter And thus it is in our discourses if they barely present themselves before Mens Souls that are otherwise ingaged they regard them not unless by some such form of speech as I have mentioned they put on some sharpness and be armed with some Authority If we speak for example to one that hath committed a fault in such terms as these Indeed you are very much to blame You ought not to have done thus it is contrary both to God and to your self the World will cry shame of you no body will endure you c. He stands perhaps as if he were marble and had been composed of insensible materials But if we say what did you mean when you did such or such an action Whither were your wits and your conscience gone Could you do thus and not tremble at Gods displeasure Nay answer me do you think that God is an Idol who regards you not and cannot strike Oh that any Man should be so sottish that he should be such an ill Friend to himself Ill Friend did I say such a desperate Enemy I meant such a fury such a Devil to his own Soul c. This kind of language it is likely may make him seem a Man one that is made of flesh and not of stone In such like manner then may you learn to Meditate alone by discoursing with your own Soul after the way of expostulation chiding reprehension and such like wherein there is great variety and therefore great easiness and no less pleasure It was a more awakening expression for David to say Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me XLII Psal 5 than if he had only said I do not do well to be dejected on this fashion it is to no purpose to afflict and trouble my self far better and more seemly were it for me to rest contented And the repetition of this again V. 11. and XLIII 5 gives it a greater force and adds a sharper edge to it than if it had been but a single question And
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
greatest repute in his faculty to look after their health and administer Medicines to them Just thus it is in the case of our Souls it is too much presumption and careless confidence to rely upon our own counsel alone in the setlement of our everlasting estate or in the Cure of those Disorders and Distempers in our mind which threaten danger we ought to take good advice and for fear of mistake have the judgement of some more skilful Person to secure us as well as our own And indeed from hence you may learn what account God makes of your Soul and how highly it ought to be valued by your self for the safety of which He hath made such careful and plentiful provision Having next to the gift of his Son and of the Holy-Ghost setled an order of men to minister unto Souls to look after them and see that they do not perish for want of instruction or good advice As he would have our Saviour lay down his life for them so he hath thereby made him a most compassionate High-Priest and preferred him to a Kingdome which is nothing else but an Office Power and Authority to take care of Souls and do them good continually By vertue of which he hath committed Authority unto others in a perpetual succession that they should watch for Mens souls as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks declaring to them their own worth and his love ingrafting that Word in them which is able to save them calling them to repentance establishing them in the Faith incouraging their Progress in vertue ordering their goings feeding them with his blessed Body and Blood absolving them from their sins assisting them in their last agony that they may finish their course with joy This is the effect of a peculiar kindness to Souls He hath not dealt so with our Bodies for we never heard of a Company of Men appointed by God to invent pleasures and contrive ways for the feasting of our Senses There are none separated and set apart by him to teach the World how to get riches and improve their Estates and fill their Coffers But all the wisdom of Heaven is employed to other purposes having ordained Men to teach us how to live above those things and to replenish our minds with his knowledg and our wills with his love This he hath made their constant function and perpetual employment to the Worlds end And therefore be not slack to use their Ministry nor doubt of the blessing of God upon it But have so much love to your Soul as to apply your self to them for assistance who are particularly concerned to give it and so much love to God as to be confident he will make those means successful which he hath particularly ordained for your good A PRAYER I Adore Thee O Lord the Father of Mercies who hast designed Mankind to the greatest felicity in everlasting Life And hast not left us in pursuance of it to the uncertain guesses of our own Mind but sent thy dear Son into the World both to assure us of that happiness and to direct us by his holy Doctrine and Example how we may attain it Blessed be the tender mercy of our God whereby the Son of Righteousness hath visited us from on high to give light to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Great is thy love O Lord which after he had left the World sent his Apostles and other Ministers of thy Word to be the Messengers of Reconciliation and Peace the Leaders and Conducters of Souls the Stewards of thy Mysteries and the Guides unto Blessedness Great is thy love which to this day continueth a merciful care over Souls in providing a succession of faithful Pastors and Instructors to teach us our duty to reduce us when we go astray to resolve us when we doubt to help us when we are weak or weary and by their counsels admonitions and comforts to bring our Souls back again safe to Thee the Father of Spirits I see O Lord how dear and precious our Souls are in thy sight for which our Saviour hath done and suffered so much and imployeth still the care and pains of so many Persons to take the charge and oversight of them and guide them unto their Rest My Soul blesses Thee and all that is within me praises thy holy Name as for all other thy Benefits so for the many good Instructors I have met withall the many good Lessons I have been taught and the pious Counsels and Advices I have received I thank thee for putting me into the Hands of such Friendly and skilful Guides and that I have never hitherto wanted some to conduct me in all the dangerous and troublesome passages of my Life Be pleased still to favour me with the continuance of the like happiness enduing me with wisdome to chuse and grace to follow such a person who may on all occasions clearly inlighten my understanding settle my doubts confirm my resolutions quicken my endeavours direct my zeal keep all my passions in order and secure my goings in thy paths That so I may neither miss my way nor proceed with irregular motions nor be discouraged in it but hold an even steady and constant course in well doing till they to whom thou hast committed the care of me deliver me up in peace and safety into the hands of the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls Christ Jesus To whom be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen XIV BUT when you are in your best moods and think your self furthest off from danger it will be good to exercise an Holy Fear and Jealousie over your self least you should give way to any thing which may make you grow worse Remember how false and treacherous the conquered Enemy is and therefore it ought to be narrowly watcht Though it promise fair Remember that you must not trust it without a constant Guard And mark the least beginings of an evil for fear if they be slighted as small faults they draw you into a greater Though we must not be dejected for our little irregularities yet we must not pass them over neither without a serious observance If a Father laugh or smile when he chides a wanton Child it is so far from being a check to his follies that it doth the more embolden him to play those idle tricks for which he is reproved And so it is to be feared we shall find our selves disposed if we be not in good earnest displeased at our selves for any thing that borders upon Vice and do not reprove our selves seriously for making too much use of our liberty We may be in danger by this mildness and gentleness to take the boldness to proceed to further transgressions But I may seem to forget to whom I write and considering what a great quantity you have of this fear I had need give it a large dash of some other mixture least it turn