Beneficial to us than the right and constant management of this Office for hereby God's Holy Word will be fruitful to us A Meditating Heart is an honest and good Heart and such is very fruitful under the means of Grace If we won't step aside and take time to fix our Thoughts upon what we hear or read in God's Word and from his Messengers we should be very extravagantly conceited to imagine that we should be ever the better for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. By Meditation we may prepare our Souls for all Holy Performances As for Prayer and Reading Holy Writ and Receiving the Lord's Supper and forgiving and forgetting Injuries and all other Duties of Mercy and Charity This Exercise will compose our minds and fetch them in when they have been abroad upon the World and 't is fit we make our selves comely and orderly by this Act of Meditation before we approach to wait upon God We are not to Rush all of a sudden upon any Holy Duty but to consider Eccles. 5. 4. of it and prepare for it Now Meditation puts us into this way it causeth us to Wash and Trim up our Souls with sincerity and an awful Reverence that so we may enter into God's presence with that Decency and Order which becomes his Faithful Servants and Dutiful Children 3. Meditation will prove an excellent Reason 3. means against all our tempting Lusts and Corruptions and also a strong Bulwark for our Vertues and Graces For he who frequently fixeth his mind upon the Nature of Sin may through God's Grace be soon perswaded to hate and abhor it For the Nature of Sin is to be evil in it self and dangerous to the Soul which harbours it Now as a Landlord will by no proffers of advantage entertain a Guest which he knows to be an egregious Robber and will Plunder him of his Substance and Fire his House No more will the Soul admit of Sin when it considers that it will deprive him of God's Favour and inflame him with his Wrath and Displeasure If Men would in their serious Meditations set the pleasures and profits of Sin on one side and the loathsomness and danger of it on the other did they view her Portion and Dowry with one eye and her Deformity and Vicious Qualities with the other it would be an admirable way to make them defist from Courting her and to avoid her with the greatest abhorrency If they would in their Meditations Rev. 9. compare Sin as they aptly may to the Locusts mention'd in Sacred Writ which tho' they had Crowns like Gold on their Heads and the Faces of Men and their Hair like Womens yet withal had Teeth like Lyons and Tayls like to Scorpions that is did they but think what Shame and Death would follow their sinful delights and honours what bitterness lay at the bottom of Sins Cup Questionless such a thought would make them Crucify it to Death in its most rich and pleasing Attire Now as Pious Meditation would after this manner ruine sin so 't would be a means to save and secure Grace For the thoughts of the loveliness hereof would put Courage into us to engage for it against all its Spiritual Enemies and 't would invite us to quicken it with our warmest affections and hereupon we should place it in the Garrisons of our Hearts and keep those Garrisons with our greatest watchfulness Moreover Meditation is a means to encrease and multiply our Graces for this Duty will bring supply of Grace and by it we should know what Armory to go to that is where to be Releiv'd And besides all this it will employ them and not suffer them to perish by ease and idleness It will rouse up our Faith and kindle our Charity and fortifie our Hope and enliven our Desires and multiply our spiritual Ioys 't will also loosen our Affections from earthly things and give us a foretaste of Eternal Glory By Meditation we enjoy God here and 4. Reason see Heaven upon Earth This is the Souls Perspective Glass through which it may view things a far off by it we take a turn in Heaven and view the Beatifical Vision by it we make a Visit to God himself and enjoy the ravishing delights of his presence and by it we invite and bring him even into our own Houses for when we fix our minds upon him he will vouchsafe to draw near to us and hereby we Humbly and Reverently and submissively confer with him and speak to him and have as much of him as the Soul of Man can bear Believe it there can be no Intercourse between Heaven and Earth betwixt God and Man without Meditation but in the exercise of it there may and this will bring a large Harvest of Spiritual Ioy and Comfort into our Souls for true Meditating Christians are usually most acquainted with God and this acquaintance will procure the best Peace and the most real comfort And here Meletus having Cruised thus far in this Ocean of matter made into the next Port and furl'd up his Sails thinking it proper to give himself and his Friends an opportunity of unbending their Bow or some Relaxation of their strict attention that it might not slacken by too much use and also an occasion of fixing their minds upon what he had deliver'd and told them that he would Launch out a few more Leagues on this subject at their next meeting and upon their breaking up at that time he put them in mind that tho' delay seemed ill favour'd yet for the reasons beforemention'd it might prove the Mother of Beautiful Wisdom CHAP. IV. Meletus's Third Discourse of Meditation THE next meeting being come and Glycon having put the Assembly in mind of the occasion of it and then made some sign to Meletus to proceed in the same Path and with the same Foot he had begun he freely embrac'd the motion and broke silence after this following manner It is written saith Meletus of the Bird Vid. Causin de Symbol Egypt sapient P. 8. called Phatalia that it is wont to fill it self with Shell-fish and to vomit them up when he hath concocted them by the heat of his Stomack and then choose out of them those which were most proper to be eaten I would perswade my self that in like manner you have by Meditation put in good order what you have already heard and chose out some peculiar observations whereby you have been made more strong in Christian Virtues then you were before and that you may have fresh supply to add to your increase herein for Christians must like the Crocodile be growing as long as they live I shall now shew you the manner how the Duty of Meditation must be exercis'd and it is necessary that you be inform'd hereof for the manner of doing any good action is the main thing which renders it acceptable in God's sight and beneficial to us and the difficulty of it will require directions for its performance in
necessary and therefore should engage us in the Meditation of it because it is the most proper means for that end And when we have fix'd our thoughts to this purpose then we should fix them upon the main thing requir'd in us as We are Christians And that is set down by our Lord and Master from whom we have our Names in the Phrase of being Born again and the necessity of it is added Io. 3. 3. to stir up our diligence in assuring our selves that we are in that Condition for except it be thus we shall not see ver 3. the Kingdom of God So that we must be New or Undone Creatures live in Grace or die in Sin And next to the Necessity if it we must Meditate upon the Excellency the superlative Excellency of that New State As that it makes us partakers of the Divine Nature that is Regenerate by the 2 Cor. 5. 17. Holy Ghost or indewed with new qualities of Righteousness and Holiness wherein we resemble God as Children do their Father bearing the Image of his Wisdom and Purity And also that hereby we become Kings and Priests unto God Kings because of the Victories which in that Condition we obtain against the Flesh the World and the Devil and Priests because then we offer up to God a pure Body and Holy Prayers and the Works of Piety and Mercy The next Object we should fix upon in reference to our selves is to know what we shall be or what kind of future Life we shall live And in order hereto it will highly concern us to Meditate on the four last things namely Death Iudgment Hell Heaven These last things well consider'd will make us always last and live in spight of Death it self Now as a previous motive to six our thoughts upon the first of these Objects DEATH Let us Note that the Regular Death performance hereof may cause our Sins to Dye before they be Old and thereby secure us from the full strength and force of them in our Hearts for 't is the Nature of Sin to be stronger and more fierce when Old than Young the wither'd and drooping Body proves a Medicine for Sin 's growth and flourishing for when the Fort or Outwork of the Soul is Dismantled by many Breaches made in it by Lust and Intemperance and from the frequent Detachments and fresh Supplies sent by Satan from those vicious Habits as from a well furnish'd Magazine which he hath laid up against it then Sin retires into the Castle of Mans Soul and there un tes his Forces and makes them stronger and what Ruines the Out-work that is the Body hath suffer'd doth but Alarm Satan's Industry to make the Castle the more Invincible for himself Now the frequent thoughts of Death may out-wit Satan and prevent this his Stratagem and this should stir us up to be exercis'd in that counterplot and employment and that this will herein prove successful we may be assur'd from hence namely that the Heavenly Arithmetick of Numbering our Days that we may apply our Hearts to Wisdom must be learned by Meditation Hereby we should often visit our Sepulchres and take a turn in our Tombs and Dress our selves up in our winding Sheets By this Art we may make Death our Natures grim Enemy our choice Friend and hereby learn an Acquaintance with it and procure its familiarity and even touch and stroke it and so abate much of its fierceness when of necessity and according to Heavens Statute Law it must and doth come Believe it Meditation of it before is the best Receit to heal the anguish and sharpness of Death when it doth come and after our Thoughts have taken some Turns in the Charnel House let them come forth and by Meditation mount up to the place of Iudgment And there fix we our Minds upon the Righteous Iudge and the Glorious Tribunal and the Various Qualities and Postures of the Prisoners some smiling with their Pardons in their Hands and called by their Loving Master and Saviour from the Bar and plac'd at his Right Hand Others pale and ghastly and trembling under the terrours of a guilty Conscience and Seated on the Left Hand to be thrown down into a Prison of Eternal Darkness Meditate on the never Dying Worm that is bred in that Prison and there will fix his Venemous Teeth and Torment the Conscience for ever How to go through Hell to Heaven is a Road well known to those who have examined all the Passages which lead thither and are resolved upon that Iourney mauger all the dangers and frightful Objects and cruel usage which lye in the way to hinder them supposing it much better hereby to be scared to Happiness then to slide down delightfully to Misery we all know that the most dreadful State of those which are in Hell is express'd by Fire because it is the most terrible Element and the Meditation hereof may cause us through God's Grace to use all the proper means whereby we may escape it and that it may not be the Portion of our Cup. Now after such black and frightful thoughts which are as the Rod rather to keep us in awe and order than to assright and hurt us Let us Meditate on Heaven and this Heaven Object when duely entered upon will be so delightsome and delicious to our Souls that with the Spouse in the Canticles 2. Cap 5. they will crave whole Flaggons of it and drink so deep till they be inebriated with its sweetness For there all the precious and gracious Promises in God's Holy Word shall be fully accomplish'd and perform'd to them and what Draught can be more sweet and comfortable So that 't is our Recreation and Pleasure as well as our Obligation and Duty to Meditate on Heaven And that we may not be discourag'd from fixing our thoughts upon this Object because of the vast extent of it or surfeit them with the variety of those Delicacies which it affords For Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can Man's Heart conceive what they are Let us set this Breviate or Epitomy of it before us and Meditate thereon Namely on the Incomparable and Incomprehensible Excellency of the Place of the unexpressible Ioys laid up in that place of the Fatness of that House of the innumerable Rivers of pleasure which glide along those Banks of the Transcendent Glory that fills every part of the Noble and Seraphical Quiristers which there attend of the Ravishing Anthems which are there heard and of the Vision of God himself which is Eternal Happiness And here Meletus looking about him and perceiving by the chearful aspects and diligent attention of his Hearers that their Ears were not yet satiated with his Lecture he went on to shew them some unquestionable Reasons why they should perform this Pious Office of Meditation and to what end and for what profit they should be so employ'd And the first Reason was because there is nothing more truly
and Persons wedded to their Senses and corpulent in Vice do not apprehend it and think there 's no such Matter because they cannot see it 't is too too thin to catch hold of their Senses and they too too thick for Incorporeal and Soul Notions It will be necessary to acquaint them with another Death which is after these we have mentioned and that is Eternal Now such Persons as we have mention'd may escape the first violent Death being not capitally punished in this Life but they shall not escape this last Death if they cheat the Gibbet and seare their Consciences yet they shall meet an Eternal Death with Satan their Lord and Master Were it possible for a Man to be always stabbing and slaying his Soul with Wantonness Pride Covetousness and other Vices and yet not smart as would his Body if consum'd with Ulcers and Dropsies yet the dart of Eternal Death is too too sharp not to be felt and this will plainly appear if we consider what eternal Death is And it is the state of the Demned It is a cursed departing from Christ into Everlasting Fire It is Blackness of Darkness for ever the Worm which never dies Eternal Damnation and Everlasting Punishment And were it possible for me to tell you all the pains of loss and sense wrapt up in this shroud of Death what it is to be punish'd with everlasting Destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power what it is to dwell and to dwell for ever in a Lake of Fire fed with Brimstone what it is to have a Worm and that Worm as long as Eternity to be knawing and grinding our Souls Could I read and explain all the Deeds and Conveyances of Hell to shew you the Lease the for ever Lease that the Damned have got for their Souls and Bodies in the bottomless Pit Could I but describe to you the nature of Eternal Death you must conclude that 't is too too keen not to be perceiv'd and too certain and evident not to be avoided and they who get this Prize for their running and these Wages for their labour must needs be in a very sad and doleful condition their end is such an Eternal Death Phanias having thus confirm'd the two Propositions which his promised Method obliged him to he proceeded to give his Hearers some proper Directions whereby they might digest the full Feast of Knowledge which he had caressed them with and so they might be strong and well skill'd in opposing that politick Enemy Mistaken Wisdom which as he declar'd wars against Man's Soul And his first Direction herein was First Di 〈◊〉 that all Men would ponder and consider before they act For whilst they walk in this World they are in the company of Deceivers and they had need have their Eyes in their Heads and their Hands upon their Purses that is use all care that they be not deluded and in this Employment they should spend their time They should daily send out some Spies to give them true Intelligence and they should be as careful to get as good Law and Counsel to save their Souls as they are to secure their Bodies and Estates from the crasty Cheats and Delusions of others Believe it They should travel their Pilgrimage beset about with Guides and Opticks and all sorts of clear Glasses tied at their Girdles with Targets to defend their Heads and Eyes and with Weapons to force them away who would break and pull them from them This is their main business and this business they do or should know and own to be truly necessary and yet this is their usual Folly and Madness that they too too much neglect it They commonly pin their Welfare upon the Sleeves of Education and Custom doing as others do and have done before them and little very little regard why or wherefore they act thus or otherwise And whilst this is their course of life their Spiritual Enemies the Devil and their Lusts vanquish them for they lay Nets and Traps in their Walks and they never searching but running strait on are at length catcht and destroyed in them Now to overcome this danger this 〈◊〉 deadly danger they should fix their Thoughts upon what they do and examine what is their Rule and whither they tend They should consider whether their Enterprizes have God's Word for their Rule or only their own Wills and Desires which are naturally vain and vile They should turn their Actions this side and that and note which way their Bias leads them whether to Shame and Death or to Life and Glory whether to eternal Misery or Happiness They should pass no day without some Heavenly Soliloquy or holy dialogue with their Souls asking them what grounds they have to lay the 〈◊〉 of their Salvation on God's Mercy and their 〈◊〉 Merits How they can make it appear that they are Christ's Subjects and he their King What measure of Faith they have by which they expect the hope of Righteousness What Observance and Obedience to God by which they may be mark'd out and noted for his Friends as faithful Abraham was Such such Employs and Meditations are suitable for Christians high-born and precious Souls and when they are conversant in them they will be able to act according to the Prescriptions of true Wisdom and Knowledge Moreover since all of us are so much abus'd by our Natural Selves and our affected Folly and Knowledge wheedle us into the dark Chambers of Death let us resolve to cashiere these Enemies for ever never were such Stratagems and Delusions made use of as they exercise daily towards us They continually sport themselves with the Gulls and Cheats which they put upon us for they promise us Gardens and give us Dunghils Streams of Milk and Honey and give us an 〈◊〉 of Pitch and Brimstone Musical 〈◊〉 and delicious Banquets and only serve up to us wax'd Sweet meats and painted Venison and the Croakings of an affrighted Conscience Moreover they give us the World and at the same time snatch away our Souls and bargain to sell us some hours of Delight for an age of of Repentance and an Eternity of Woe Ask a poor Wretch who hath sadly experienc'd their Cheats what he can say in this case and he can tell you that they only shew'd him Pleasures which did bloodily scratch and bite him pleasant Groves tenanted with Tygers spacious Walks ending in bottomless Gulphs loaded Dishes and Golden Cups Canopied over with Swords and Halberds and underneath the Table lay in one place the Man made with Bones and his Dart in his Hand and hard by a ghastly Ghost with this Label from him Dying but never dead But if this Relation gain no Credit then if we dare be so bold call we up the Ghosts of Doeg Haman and Iudas and ask them how it now fares with them for their Treachery Pride and Cruelty Go go incredulous Fools and raise up Corah Dathan and Abiram
demonstrated in Prayer Did thirst to hear some apposite Lecture upon that Office and to free the Road from all Obstacles which might defeat the Efficacy of it he propounded that the Object of true Prayer might be plainly made known and the Objections arising hereupon entirely vanquished for unless this be done by a true Recognition of the true God when we pray we shall have as little success hereby as if we pray'd to Neptune or AEolus for help against an Ocean of Storms and Perils Or as those Priests of Baal had who pray'd to him to vindicate his Power and Sovereignty against the only Omnipotent and Sebagius one who pray'd to Saints Eternal Being Besides this Desire was encreased because of Sebagius who was suspected to be an erroneous if not a worse Religionist that he might receive a like Conviction from such a Lecture which himself had from the former Hereupon Theosebius a Person worthy Theosebius one who pray'd to God only of Praise for his worthy Devotions which no Battology or Impertinencies could infect was by Glycon requested to speak upon that Subject Theosebius an humble meek and zealous Man and therefore rightly qualified for the Exercise of that Duty whose Object he was solicited to discourse upon was not ready to answer this Desire But told Glycon more by his Countenance than Tongue that he was willing to decline it But Glycon by some sweet and passionate Expressions which were familiar with him beseech'd him to declare the reason of his denial and was herein complied with for Theosebius told him that he soresaw that he should meet with many rubs in his progress by many obsolete and thread-bare Oppositions and therefore could not be so current in that Undertaking as their Expectations might require Sebagius did perceive a warm Reflection to be cast upon him and that this Remora to Theosebius's Enterprize did look a squint upon his private Sentiments and therefore said with a Lip smoother than is usual with many of his Perswasion that if any thing was delivered contrary to his Iudgment he would make it known in as short Parenthesis to his design as the nature of it could bear And that he would promise that sincere Conversion should tread in the heels of Theosebius's solid Conviction and that he would ask no Questions for Contradiction but Resolution sake Upon these Conditions Theosebius denied himself some ease to give his Friends theirs by yielding to their Wishes and spake after this manner chiefly upon Prayer CHAP. IX Theosebius's Discourse of the Object of Prayer I Shall not says he only answer Glycon's Theosebius a Worshipper of God from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in him your Requests in speaking to the right and only Object of Prayer but as a preparative thereto crave leave of Luperus to enlarge upon that Duty as a proper means to change Sorrow and Affliction into Ioy and Comfort as well as those other which he hath lately made use of to finish that task And in order hereto I shall proceed to make Two Conclus good these two Conclusions namely 1. That to pray to Almighty God is the most proper and efficacious Receipt against any present comfortless Sorrow And Now concerning the first of these Conclusions Theosebius began thus It is not improbable that you have read or heard as I have That the sorrowful and distressed People amongst the Grecians were won't to lie in the Temples of AEsculapius and Apollo that they might there dream of those Prescriptions which might render them 〈◊〉 and sound semblably it would be the advantage of all Christians 〈◊〉 repair to God's House of Prayer and therein beseech him that their Nights might be turned into Days and that after they have ploughed in Darkness they might reap that Light which is by him sowed for the Righteous that is that God's Chastisements which for the present are not joyous but grievous may afterward Heb. 12. 11. yield the peaceable fruits of Righteousness to them The Royal Prophet frequently calls upon God to comfort the Soul of his sorrowful Servant and this he learned from the Example of the Patriarchs and Prophets And we all know that the whole Confidence and Hope of the dejected and sorrowful Publican lay in this Petition God be merciful to me a sinner If we have improved Meletus's first Lecture so far as rightly 〈◊〉 Meditate and consider we cannot but own the Truth of the Sufficiency of Divine Prayer in the case we are upon For herein we go to God whose Mercies are large and many and so proportion'd to all our Evils and Wants Amongst the Herd of Mankind some are useful one way and some another One may help when we are lame another when we are under sorrowful Losses another when we are in Prison or banished our Country But we can meet with none who can relieve us in all Calamities but now God hath a Plaister for every Sore and a Remedy for every Extremity and therefore 't is said O God Psal. 69. 13. in the multitude of thy Mercies hear me and he not only multiplies them as some have done their Riches and yet none are the better for them But he doth keep 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 and it his Recreation and delight to shew them for he retains not his Anger for ever because he Mic. 7. 18. delighteth in Mercy and his merciful loving kindness is not only great but Psal 117. 2. great towards us Moreover to Pray to God in the depth of our Sorrows as Ionas did in that of the Sea is an Act of Faith and engageth God to help us for he never fails those who trust in him and because David did so therefore did his heart rejoyce And faith the Prophet Thou wilt Esay 26. 3. keep him in perfect Peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee And when we come to the Throne of Grace that is Pray and do so with pious Confidence for Grace and help in Sorrows Heb. 10. then shall we find Mercy and Grace in time of need And indeed we can find apt redress against all our afflictive Sorrows no where else and by no other means for we cannot of our selves deserve and purchase it If the most just God should give us our Deserts we should never be freed from Calamities but pass on from one to another and when we have suffered much here we might suffer more hereafter and therefore our only way is to beg God's mercy in Prayer If any other way could have been found out who more likely to find it then King David a Man of Courage Conduct and Resolution and not so absolutely forsaken as to be abandon'd of all his Subjects but amidst his Sorrows his swelling Sorrows he flies not to his shifts He trusts not to the Loyalty of some of his stout Officers he puts no Confidence in his Son's want of experience and in the weakness of a new Government and in the want