which is from above is full of Mercy therefore that which is Cruel and Merciless is Sensual Worldly and Devillish Mercifulness is an Attribute of God wherein he seems to Glory he makes it his Name whereby he would be known and call'd The Lord proclaimed the Name of the Lord The Lord God Merciful and Gracious Long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for Thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34. 6 7. Here are ten Phrases of like importance And as for his Justice it is onely added in short that he will by no means clear the guilty What Comparison can there be in Infinites And yet the Psalmist exalting the Merciful nature of God tells us that his Mercies are over all his Works and else where his Mercies are far above the Heavens Angels and Good Men are commended for this The Angels watch for the good and safety of the Elect and bear them up in their hands Good men are Merciful they Give they Lend they Pity they Help and Heal they do Good to Enemies they Forgive and Pray that God would do so too Lord lay not this sin to their charge On the other hand the nature of the Devil is cruel murderous He was a Murderer from the beginning and his eldest Son Cain imitated him exactly for Envy and Murder There is a great deal of cruelty in taking away the life of a man unjustly in extream corrections that do not reach the life yea in the execution of a just sentence of death or punishment there may be much cruelty in the Executioner or Spectators according to that true saying of the Moralist Ferus est qui fruitur paena In many other things there is much cruelty There are not onely bloody Souldiers cruel Gladiators and Assassinates but cruel Masters to Servants both in imposing of work and withholding of maintenance Cruel Landlords that squeeze and grind their poor Tenants Cruel Patrons that consume what their Clients have in procuring for them what they want Cruel Physicians and Chirurgions who maintain Diseases and prolong Sores who take pleasure in the pain and find their own health in the sickness of their Patients Cruel Magistrates who govern their People with Scorpions instead of Scepters Cruel Ministers that either starve or poyson the Souls of men Nay there are Cruel Friends I expect it will be asked How that can be For ought I see the greatest cruelties are practised under the notion of friendship The oppressing Usurer would have you think he befriends you when he consumes you that he supports you when he supplants you that he heals your disease when he encreases it that he secures you when indeed he secures your Estate to himself A kindness much like that of him who open'd our Mother Eve her eyes a little at present but spoyl'd her sight for ever after Your oppressing Neighbour would be thought friendly when he gives you the bitter pill of a dear bargain sugar'd with six months time for Payment This kind of Friendship is just like Hercules his dealing with Anteus in the story you would have thought he had been lovingly hugging and embracing the Giant in his arms when he was indeed choaking and strangling him They that have no compassion on the miserable whether they be poor or sick or sinful much more they that trample upon those whom God hath cast down scorn them whom men have harm'd and take away the garment of the naked from him as Eliphaz speaketh are nothing of kin to God nor God to them nor shall ever be owned for his children till Ostriches are found hatcht under the wings of Storks The Cruel Worldly Wisdom is that which is cunning to invent torments Many Heathenish Tyrants of old have been famous for this hellish ingenuity And the Modern Papists have endeavoured to match them as may appear to any that reads the story of the Persecutions in Picdmont written by the ingenious and faithful Historian Sir Samuel Morland and by the History of the Irish Rebellion The Holy History furnishes us with Examples of many whom the Devil the great Proloctonus has inspir'd with Cruel Wisdom Thus Cruelly wise was Achitophel aginst the life of good King David and Haman and his Accomplices against the Jews What an hellish Device was that to cut off such a mighty Nation Man Woman and Child by the edge of the Sword and all for a little Unmartialness found in one Male-content Melancholist amongst them The offering up of poor children to Molech was cruel and unmerciful But the Wisdom of this cruelty appear'd in the loud beating of Drums and other noises made on purpose to secure their ears from any complaints that might affect them and baracado up their hearts against all compassion To burn the children was cruelty to drown their cry was cruel wisdom And do we not every day see what devices and shifts unmerciful men use that they may not shew Mercy and to prevent all occasions or temptations so to do stopping their ears shutting their doors getting out of the way pretending not to be at home or not at leisure when the poor would beg or borrow ought of them The Comedian Plautus has well describ'd this churlish uncharitable wisdom in the person of Euclio and the wise Solomon in his Prov. 3. 28. Go and come again to morrow Lord let me be rather accounted a pooor shiftless fool than either be wise to do evil or not to do good MEDITAT LXXXXIX Of Unfruitful Wisdom THe Heavenly Wisdom is full of good fruits the unfruitful then must needs be earthly and worldly Concerning Unfruitfulness I have in part prevented my self in my Meditation of Idleness But yet there are several things to be considered further To do ill and to do nothing are both kinds of Idleness And though it may not look like good Grammer I am sure it is good Divinity that to be wise to do nothing is to be wise to do evil Eliphaz indeed in Job says that he that is wise may may be profitable to himself and sure he ought to be profitable to others also Whatever gifts the good Spirit of God sheds forth upon men are given them to profit with saith the Apostle The most precious mettals profit nothing Nisi temperato splendeant usu and elsewhere Celata virtus paulum distat inertiae A fool holding his tongue they say may pass for a wise man But sure I am that a wise man holding his tongue differs little from a fool Is there not a wise man amongst you The Apostle implyes that it becomes wise men to be active to do good to compose differences Oh but our wise men account it a piece of their wisdom not to put their fingers into the fire as they call it when there is no need It is very true but if there be never so much need it is all one with many of these wise men For my part I beleive it will be an hard thing to find any place of
enjoy the Supreme Good Now this I think supposes a quitting of this Life and a putting off this Body This Thirst after Happiness is often made a character of the Lovers of God and of his Son Jesus Christ desir'd that where he was his followers might be also and why should not his Followers be so kind to themselves If we view those Texts seriously which describe the Lovers of God we shall find this ever and anon to be their character That they love the appearance of Christ Jesus and that they wait for the mercy of Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life But is it not a sin to be discontent at our stay in this world To be discontent at the Will of God must needs be evil for true happiness consists in conformity of will to the Will of God But to long after rest and that in God cannot be interpreted to be an intemperate Act. It is an Act of Faith and Patience to be content to live To desire death out of weariness of afflictions and the Discipline of God is weak and cowardly But to be weary of our distance absence imperfect state and to long after Perfection and daily to grow up into it is safe good proper generous and commendable O God loosen my heart break the League I pray if I may not pray that thou wouldst break the Bonds If I may not leap out of the body make me very desirous to go out when the way is open If my captive Soul may not break Prison and free it self yet make it willing to go out when the great Redeemer shall open the Prison doors and say to the Captive Go forth Is it not enough O my Soul to have the Prison doors set ope but wilt thou say also Nay but let them come themselves and fetch me out What entertainment findest thou in husks that thou art so unmindful of the Bread of Life What an unseemly thing is it to be haled home to hide thy self with Saul amongst the stuff when thou art sought for to be crowned Lord That I could wait for thee more than they that wait for the morning more than the servant desireth the shadow or the hireling looketh for the reward of his work Oh that I might never think my self well but when I am sick sick of love MEDITAT XXX Of the Profits of the World NOW I will consider the World in a Theological sense and thus it denotes any thing that has opposition to God And so we read of the Spirit of the World the Wisdom of the World the Men of the World the Fashions of the World the Sorrow of the World c. The World in general is whatsoever is not God and so even Self may be called the World Whosoever loveth any thing or cleaves to it more than to God or habitually prefers it before him is a lover of the world But I will view more particularly what the Scripture comprehends under the Notion of the World in a Theological Sense And here I shall begin with the profits of the world the riches and treasures of it which have almost engrost the name of the world as being a principal part of it to which the generality of men are addicted This I take especially to be meant by Mammon which one cannot serve in consistency with God Whosoever prefers the profits and riches of the world before God the same is a lover of the World To speak my judgment freely I think there are many things more valuable than silver and gold Learning and Valour are better all the ornaments and accomplishments of the Mind are better than they friends are better health and peace are better It is a wonder to me that men should lose their peace forfeit their friends expose their health for these things Although I confess it is not Idolatry because these things are not God yet it is absurd unseemly and disingenious to prefer riches before these things because these are really better To say I had rather be a Prince than a Philosopher argues a low mind But to value these riches more than God more than truth goodness and purity makes an idolatrous lover of the World To seek these more then the Kingdom of God to hunger after them more than after righteousness to confide in them more than in the Promise and Providence of God doth denominate the accursed person here spoken of MEDITAT XXXI Of Stealing UNder this head of the love of the profits of the world come to be condemned Injustice Worldly confidence Covetousness Carefulness Discontentedness and Vncharitableness and the several Branches of these I begin with Injustice They are all unjust who either use undue means or a due means in an undue manner to get worldly advantage and therein are lovers of the World more than of God The first sort of Injustice is in the use of undue means And so Stealing Defrauding Lying Oppressing Bribery are a preferring the world before Righteousnesse Truth and Mercy and Consequently denominate a lover of the World more than of God According to this Method I must begin with Stealing God is righteous the righteous Lord loveth righteousness whosover therefore loves not it loves not him whosoever Steals prefers the World before it and consequently does not love it Sealing is a violation of property Let property be what it will in its own nature be it not a sacred thing be it a necessary evil or be it a good not simply necessary yet it is now necessary as things go with mankind It cannot well be deny'd Theft supposes property and property supposes Apostasie If Man had continued in his Primative Estate it is likely the Earth had been as free to his innocent Off-spring as the Air is at this day At first there was no enclosure but of one poor Tree neither shall there be any in the World to come though we should grant the Doctrine of the Saints Reigning upon the Earth In utmost extremity to violate property for the preservation of life is no theft or at least that theft is no sin yea it becomes a duty For no man can be necessarily placed between two evils The one of them will be a duty Since the fall of Man Property is necessary to avoid confusion which the lusts of men would introduce yet perhaps it is not so determinate and severe as some men imagine The poor have an interest in the Estates of the rich they have a part which yet these ought to give not the other to take If they do not give it they are the thieves For detaining a right is thievery as well as taking any thing away wrongfully I cannot deny but that every thief is covetous but I do also affirm that every covetous man is a thief If we could suppose the sons of Men free from all self-interest and worldly love there would be no need of property neither would there be any poor for there is enough in the World to serve all men that
the Children get up and come into the house when they please We do indeed read of the hour of Prayer but it is hard to say which hour it was or if we could Where is the Divine Authority the stamp of God for the observation of it But the Lord's day is certain known commanded to be observed They that then ordinarily prefer the management of worldly business before the worship of God appear to be Lovers of the world I know we must allow here for the works of necessity and mercy these are to take place of the Sabbath The preservation of Life though it be but of a Beast is an act of mercy which God himself prefers before Sacrifice and so did the Lord of the Sabbath by his example teach us to do A Physician is excusable in travelling to relieve his Patient so that it be in the sight of God rather in merciful Care than worldly Covetousness But if the expectation and desire of a Fee be most predominant it is in vain to pretend necessity God shall find it out before him it will bear them out but badly to plead The Law allow'd it But who shall excuse the Lawyers and other men that travel Journies upon ordinary occasions and upon business of light moment and violate the Lord's day to save a little money or a little labor or for more convenient dispatch of worldly business To contrive to take a Sermon in their way to be at Church at such a place by such an hour I doubt will not salve the matter before a jealous God Christ says Ye cannot serve God and Mammon But these ingenious Worldlings have found out a way to do it They can travel a good days journey of 20 or 30 miles perhaps and yet contrive to be at some Church twice the same day Then they say to God Lo there is that which is thine the rest is my own Why may I not make the best use of it Thus they divide the day betwixt God and the world But whether he that requires a whole day for his service will accept such partnership viderint illi it is good to consider well of it MEDITAT XXXVIII Of Worldly Confidence AFter Injustice comes worldly Confidence to be condemn'd Trust and Confidence is a part of Worship Worldly Confidence therefore is Idolatry Yea it is Blasphemy to rest in and upon the Creature inasmuch as God alone is the Rest of Souls and the Confidence of the Ends of the Earth To confide in the duration of Riches is a piece of Foolery because they are winged and so uncertain Thou Fool this night c. But this is not the Folly that I mean To trust in Riches to râ—pose ones self upon them therefore to account our selves happy or safe because we have them to rejoice mainly in them crying Be merry Thou hast Goods laid up for many years This is the worldly Confidence that God has so often cursed baffled and forbidden God shall destroy thee for ever sayes the Psalmist Psal 52. The righteous shall laugh at him saying Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches Job reckons it amongst the highest of wickednesses to say to Gold Thou art my Hope or to the fine Gold Thou art my confidence Job 31. 24. They that trust in Riches Riches shall not profit them either to bribe the Enemy who shall despise their Silver and Gold as the Prophet speaks or to purchase health in time of sickness strength and swiftness shall not avail God will baffle these by making the Enemy swifter and stronger to pursue Ye said we will ride upon the swift therefore shall they that pursue you be swift Isa 30. 16. Charge them that are rich in this world that they do not trust in uncertain riches says the Apostle Lord what a strange thing is Man He must not only be admonish'd but charg'd Why what 's the matter That he do not trust in Riches uncertain Riches Why if they be uncertain there is no danger of trusting in them Yes they are uncertain and he knows it yet he must be charg'd not to trust in them It were endless to give an account of the disappointments of those that have rely'd upon and thought themselves safe in their temporal Prosperity and worldly Riches out of Sacred and Prophane History or of the Princes of the Earth that have been miserably befool'd with the number and strength of Men Horses and Ships wherein they have confided more than in the Lord of Hosts MEDITAT XXXIX Of Covetousness or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Will now consider of Covetousness which is an undue desire of worldly wealth This desire is undue by the kind of the wealth or by the degree of the desire And so we are covetous either when we lust after that which is another mans or intemperately desire worldly wealth of our own though we use no indirect means to obtain it The first of these is that Covetousness directly aimed at in the Tenth Commandment called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is a sort of invading of another Mans Right There is a good Covetousness a coveting earnestly the best Gifts but this improperly called Covetousness For to speak properly we are not to covet the Gifts and Graces that are in other men although in themselves they are covetable yet as they are other mens they are not the object of our desires There may be a bad desire of a good thing Evil Covetousness is of earthly things and it supposes an impotent and worldly mind and an over-high valuation of earthly things it argues us to be led by our Senses and not by right Reason This Covetousness is a kind of spiritual Adultery Not only he that looks upon his Neighbors Wife but he that looks upon his Neighbors House or Land or Goods to covet them is guilty of worldly Love and that is spiritual Adultery A sin little regarded I doubt but certainly very dreadful The first unchaste glances of the Eye towards any thing that is our Neighbors is forbidden and it becomes us to be offended at them to make haste to suppress them to repent of them But if we allow them to grow up into wilful and steddy desires they are that predominant Love of the World that the Apostle tells us is so pernicious See what severe notice God takes of this kind of Covetousness how he visited it in Eve who coveted an evil Covetousness to her Posterity in Achan and Ahab who coveted an evil Covetousness to their own Houses There is no Man that is over-greedy of having but will sometimes desire to have what is none of his own If this be the standing Maxim Oportet habere We must have it will follow Unde habeat quaerit nemo It is no matter how he comes by it They deceive themselves that excuse their Covetousness by saying I covet nothing of yours I desire nothing but mine