a little clog at her foot I took notice how when she endevoured to mount up she was always hindred and pluckt back again and all her endeavours proved vain as prisoners that are in for flagitious offences have fetters shackles and great store of irons clapt upon them to prevent their escape and hinder their flight so it fared with this poor bird she had a weight that she could not lift I perceived she had a will to be gone but power was wanting she was not content with her slavery â—ut how to remedy it she knew not endeavours were not wanting but a wished success succeeded not I thought this much resembled the state of the poor soul by nature who was taken prisoner by satan at the fall and ever since kept under restraint and the devil leads her captive at his pleasure and he hath to secure his prisoner shackled and fettered her ever since for fear of an escape from which she cannot free her self but remains still under bondage nay the unregenerate man is so fettered and clog'd and as it were lockt to a post that he cannot stir or so much as lift up his eyes or heart to heaven and so infatuated withall that he cannot heartily desire his liberry or pray for it Satan hath put such a force upon him that he is content to have his ear bored and to serve him for ever he is so acquainted with his service that he thinks there is no better Master nor no better work he is like a bruit beast still grovelling upon the earth and thinks there is no greater happiness he is like Ulisses his men fabled by Circes charmes to be turned into swine and being put to their choise were content so to remain and not assume their human shape again so these are so bewitcht by Satan that they are unwilling to be Gods free men they know no other happiness then to have their swill and to wallow in the mire and are angry with them that would help them out they finde more pleasure in their drinking and drabbing then ever they did in praying and hearing upon these we may write the Lord have mercy upon them for they have a plague-sore running upon them they are sick to death and yet feel nothing ailing them there is but one physitian in the world can cure them and that must be with a plaister of his blood but we pass by these as yet wholly at the devils command and in his power But there are another sort of men that have this clog at the heel and that is the regenerate that have the skales of ignorance in some measure wiped from their eyes and have a principle of life in them yet are not free from this clog though they are weary and fain would be free but cannot and though their clog be lightned and many of their shackles and bolts knockt off yet cannot they mount up as they desire they cannot content themselves with their earthly enjoyments fain they would have a better portion yet corruption hangs so fast on they have much ado to mount up to take a veiw of their heavenly mansion they dare not espouse their souls to any creature-comfort and yet can maintain but little communion with their husband Christ if they do mount upon the wings â—f contemplation and get a Pisgah-sight of heaven and a veiw of those invisible things at Gods right hand yet how soon are they down again and much ado to get a glimps of Christ they are like a man that is looking at a star through an Optick-glass held with a palsey hand it is but now and then they can get a sight their corruption therefore that remains unmortified makes them cry out with the Apostle Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Oh my soul is not this thy condition how comes it otherwise to pass that thou prayest so coldly and hearest so drowsily praisest God so faintly and performest every duty so carelesly is not heaven worth the having and all the pains thou canst bestow about it is not thy soul worth the saving and eternity worth minding canst thou be zealous about trifles and negligent in things of greatest concernment sure there are heavy clogs lie upon thy heels that thou runnest no faster why art thou such a stranger to divine Meditation thou canst think of the world without weariness though it be from morning to night why then are thy thoughts of heaven so few and forced why art thou so soon tired in duty so soon weary of ordinances and so overly in them that many times thou hast scarce a glimps of Christ in a duty and but little communion with him at best why dost thou feed upon the husks of duty and content thy self with the bare performance though thou meet not with Christ in the duty will this feed thee will it make thee fat how comes it to pass so many vain thoughts roving imaginations impertinent wandrings are mixt with thy holiest dutys and most solemn services do not those evidence to thy face that corruption remains strong in thee and grace weak and why contentest thou thy self with these fetters and strivest not prayest not more against them Oh my God when shall I be freed from these when wilt thou knock off these bolts and free me from these fetters and inlarge my feet that I may run the ways of thy commandments then will my soul mount up to thee with chearfulness then shall I serve God without weariness or distraction oh fit me for my change and then come Lord Jesus come quickly give me oyl in my vessel grace in my heart and the wedding-garment of sincerity for my soul and then come at what hour thou pleasest Upon birds observing their seasons of coming and returning 70. Med. WHen I observed the cuckoe the swallow and many other sorts of birds how exactly they observed their seasons both in coming and returning and all other birds in their building and breeding how exact they were and lost not the opportunity nor neglected the season It brought to my minde Gods complaint against Israel his own people and thought how justly it might be charged against us Jer. 8.7 The stork of the heaven knows her appointed time the turtle the crane and the swallow know the time of their coming but my people know not the judgments of the Lord as if he should say these silly birds by a natural instinct without the use of reason know the times and seasons of their going and returning but my people that have greater helps and furtherances yet take no notice of the seasons of grace and of the times of their visitation he complains likewise Esay 1.3 the oxe knows his owner and the ass his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people do not consider and is not this Englands case few consider the time of their visitation or take notice of the footsteps of Gods departure Christ also
95 l. 9. for then r. that p. 102. l. 3. f. stars r. clouds p. 102. l. 17. for word r. clouds p. 120 l. 9. f. and r. of p. 139 l. 11. for this stake r. the stake p. 153 l. 11. for way r. wall p. 161. l. 13. for savages r. slaves p. 169 l. 13. for occulta r. occultae p. 181. l. 17. f. David r. Daniel p. 184. l. 23. for petivit r. petunt p. 200 l. 27. for ware r. wine p. 200. l. 29. for volunt r. nolunt p. 215. l. 13. bane left out Divine Meditations Consisting of Observations Applications And Supplications Vpon the Earth I. Meditation WAlking in the garden in the cool of the day among other things that offered themselves to my consideration I observed my mother the Earth whence I had my original and out of whose womb I had my being I considered how near of kin I was to those senceless clods that lay under my feet and that I was made of the same matter a little more refined and moulded up in a better form and was made by God a little walking breathing clay and shortly must return to my first matter for dust thou art saith God and unto dust thou shalt return These and the like thoughts had a various operation upon my soul sometimes it put me on to admire the workman that out of such a rude and indigested mass such course stuff could make so glorious a piece as the body of Man is and could indue it with such excellent parts and such noble faculties and make it such a rich cabinet fit to hold that precious Jewel the soul which when I had a little considered I began to glory that I was made a man and did not remain a senseless clod But on the other side when I considered my original and the rock whence I was hewn and the hole of the pit whence I was digged and that I could say to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister Job 17.14 I who was even now proud that I was a man began to vail my peacocks plumes when I beheld my black feet and to wonder at my own folly and when I beheld my mother and my relations I saw there was small cause of pride and little cause to boast of birth or bloud or great parentage or relations 't is a shame and sin for an angel to be proud much more for a dunghill-bird Oh my soul bless God that thou wast made a man and not a clod of clay a rationall creature and not a brute beast thou wast clay in the hands of this potter and mightest have been the most despicable creature that ever dropt from his fingers but he hath made thee little lower then the Angels and crowned thee with honour and dignity what cause then hast thou to admire thy Creator who made thee thus to differ and made thee capable of communion with him here and enjoying him for ever but beware of pride that raigning damning sin that turned Angels out of heaven Adam out of Paradice and many thousands into hell boast not of the greatnesse of thy stock the nobleness of thy bloud the honour of thy progenitors except thou ascend as high as thy great Grandmother the Earth who opened her womb to bear us all and ere long will open her mouth to receive us all where we shall be resolved into our first matter then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God that gave it 't is true thou hadst a more noble Father in whose image thou wast made but this image is lost and thou art become more deformed then thy Mother Oh my God! as thou hast indewed me with more noble faculties then many other of thy creatures that I might be better able to serve thee enable me so to do renew thy image in me which was lost by the fall and give me sincerity without which my condition will be worse then the beast that perisheth whose misery ends with his life but mine will begin at my death where much is given much will be required as thou hast made me a man let me act as a rational creature and answer the ends of my Creation Vpon digging the Earth 2. Med. DIgging and delving into the bowels of my Mother the Earth to bury those seeds from whence I expected a future encrease that portion of Scripture came fresh into my minde Gen. 3.19 In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread till thou return to the ground out of which thou wast taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return me thoughts my work as it was a just punishment laid upon me for my sin so it did much resemble the digging of my grave and put me in minde of my mortality I began to think that ere long some one would do that for me which I did for these poor seeds lay me to sleep in the grave till the Resurrection and that my mother earth was as ready to receive me as them the pains and aches I felt the sensible decays in nature my gray hairs c. fastned this cogitation more home upon me I then began to think of the vanity of man that was but even now crept out from being earth and for a time made a great stir and bustle in the world and then made as much haste out again and like as stage-players every one acting a part upon the stage of the world some longer some shorter some better and some worse and then an exit comes and they disappear The godly they act a Comedy which begins bad but ends well the wicked a Tragedy which always ends in confusion yet whatever part men act few are willing to go off the stage the old man that hath out-lived his teeth his hair his sight and hearing and can hardly use his limbs and senses yet is loath to die too evident a signe his work for which he came into the world is not done viz. to make his peace with his God and to get an interest in Christ and title to glory the godly while they are here are every day quenching those coals which sin hath kindled with the tears of true repentance the wicked are carrying every day a faggot to encrease that fire that never shall be quenched thus 't is in the world as in a Fair or market there is a great crowd some going one way some another and every one driving on some designe or other O my soul must thou ere long be separated from the body by death how stands the case with thee art thou prepared for such a change or art thou not how doth thy pulse beat suppose this were to be the day of thy dissolution couldst look death in the face with comfort hast thou made thy peace with thy God hast thou got an acquittance sealed with the blood of Christ a discharge of all thy debts hast
body so he gives to every peculiar species his own proper colour shape odour and vertue and to every individual of the species and to every rational creature his own proper face and feature all lovely amiable and comely and yet different one from another all agreeing in the main and yet disagreeing in one thing or other Oh the omnipotent power and wisdome of the great God how unsearchable are his counsels and his ways past finding out And as they differ in bodily shape so also in the endowments of the minde there is very great variety and diversity amongst men scarce two can be found in an age alike qualified very few of the same minde in all things quot homines tot sententiae is a saying not more antient then true so many men so many mindes for where shall we finde a perfect agreement between any two how various also are the gifts of the same spirit to the sons of men God doth not intrust any one man with all neither is there any that have not some talent 1 Cor. 12.43 now there are diversity of gifts but the same spirit c. for to one is given by the spirit the word of wisdome to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another the gift of healing by the same spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophesie to another discerning of spirits to another diverse kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues but all these worketh that one and the self same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will c. and to one is given ten talents to another five and to another one according to the place and imployment they are set in and the work God requires at their hands as the diverse smells of flowers comes from the same influence and the diverse sounds in the organ from the same breath so divers-operations from the same spirit and all for the good of the whole he that is not fit to serve the body is not fit to be of the body God gives to every man according to his place and station and will require an account of what he gives some are deeply skil'd in the original tongues and other languages others excell in philosophical notions some search natures garden from end to end and become excellent artists there some excell in one science some in another some in the law some in physick some in divinity some in geometry some excell for deep inventions others are good artists c. and among Christians some excel in one grace and some in another some are deep in humiliation some have a great measure of self-denial some excell in faith some in patience c. among Ministers each hath his peculiar gift some are good Textuaries and some criticks some are good in case-divinity some are skil'd in controversies and are excellent disputants some are for explication and some are best at application some for conviction and others for comforting afflicted consciences and all for the common good Ephe. 4.11 12. and he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying the body of Christ Oh my soul hast thou any one of these gifts hath God lent thee any talent why hast thou not improved it how comes it to pass in all this time that thou hast not increast it God will require it at thy hand ere long and it is wonder it had not been taken away ere now hadst thou been diligent thou mightest as others with the good servant Luk. 19.16 have said Lord thy one pound hath gained ten pounds when alas it is to be feared thou canst not say it hath gained two though God will not blame thee that thou hast received no more yet will he blame thee for improving that no better the time is coming God will call his servants to an account as well as his enemies and reckon with them take heed of receiving any grace in vain nor envy those that have received more perhaps they received no more but have better imployed what they had let this put thee on to diligence not to murmuring covet grace rather then gifts and to to pray fervently rather then rhetorically stammering Moses shall be heard as soon as Eloquent Aaron had idleness been a lawful calling we should have had many good husbands as well as good fellows but God disowns such and it is no hard matter to discern a wane and decay in such mens gifts and parts and that the Lord is taking away his talents from them and giving them to some other that will better improve them and is laying them aside as broken vessels and ere long they shall be as dead men out of minde when the diligent shall be had in everlasting remembrance oh my God lay not to my charge my former folly my sloth and negligence take not away thy talent from me but give me a heart better to improve it let me double my diligence and amend my pace that thou maist never say to me as to that unfaithful and unprofitable servant Mat. 25.26 take him binde him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness Upon withering herbs and flowers 28. Med. UPon the sight of some withered herbs and flowers that a little before were fresh and flourishing and made a beautiful shew in the hand and bosome but now were fit for nothing but the dunghill I began to consider thus it is with many of the professors of our age many that have made a fair shew and held out a large profession in the sight of the sun are already dead and withered and many more begin to hang the head and droop and their death is dayly expected and all for want of root the sun of persecution shining upon them hath killed many if it should arise indeed many more would wither feigned conversion proves unfeigned apostasy how much salt hath already lost its savour and is now become good for nothing no not for the dunghill How many glorious lamps have I seen in my days blown out or extinguished for lack of oyl yea went out in a snuff and some of them stunk in the socket they had a name to live but they were dead Rev. 3.1 God knows his own sheep and those given to Christ he will not lose one but these saith the Apostle are gone from among us because they were not of us they with the Jewes cry the temple of the Lord when they matter not the Lord of the temple these are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you feeding themselves without fear clouds they are without water carried about with windes trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame wandring-stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever
eternity of torments will be little enough to pay the debt which I owe but her debts being nothing but death will be soon discharged oh my soul if God do not distinguish thee from wicked men by grace as well as from this toad by reason thy misery will be far worse then hers and thy condition more forlorn Oh poor man whither art thou fallen thou wast in the creation made the glory of this Universe and all the creatures to be thy servants yea the angels to be Ministring spirits for thy good and now if God assist not in a new creation the meanest and most despicable of the creatures is in a better condition then thou art Oh sin what woful work hast thou made among us and of what a bewitched nature art thou and how hast thou infatuated us still to doat upon thee and to think thee lovely oh my God how good hast thou been to me and how evilly have I requited thee for thy good and how foolishly have I behaved my self to my own soul thou createdst me after thine own image in knowledge righteousness and true holiness and gavest me dominion over thy creatures thou madest me little lower then the angels and crownedst me with honour and dignity Psal 8.4 5 6. such I was when I past out of thy hand but I have lost this image by the fall and this supremacy and now this poor creature is in a better condition then I am by nature and never transgress thy laws as I have done but Lord thou canst renew thine image in me and bring me to my primitive happiness Lord do it then shall I praise thee with unfained lips that thou hast made me a man Upon the coursing of a hare 46. Med. BEing occasionally present at the coursing of a hare and my affection being tickled with the sport to see what turnings windings shifts and cunning evasions she had to delude her enemy and make an escape but all too little for she after came to be their prey that sought her life and to suck her bloud when I felt my affections thus to heat and close with the sport I began to check my self for it and to expostulate the case thus with mine own heart vain man what art thou doing whither art thou going art thou in heaven or on the earth that thy affections are so pleased is it God or the creature that gives thee this content alass what poor fading perishing joy is this and canst thou finde more delight in it then in the service of God or in communion with Christ Nay but art thou sure that these delights are lawfull if not thou hast cause to bewail it the thing may be disputable was it not the sin of man that brought this enmity and antipathy between the creatures and made them thirst after one anothers bloud Reverend Mr Bolton tels us this is the judgement of the best Divines that it was a fruit of our rebellion against God now if this misery was laid upon them for our faults it should be rather matter of our grief then sport and taking pleasure in their bloud is a vexing of their very vexation and we discover those weeds and seeds of cruelty to be too rank and luxurious in the soul and we degenerate in this below the beast of the field who as it is observed take not content in hurting one another but in case of hunger or anger they satisfy their appetite and rage sometimes with bloud but never their eye or their fancy Is the fruits of our sin become the matter of sport this consideration might work in us a contrary effect and I think much better but grant for no body will deny it that we have liberty given us to make use of this antipathy for the destroying of hurtful creatures and the enjoying of those that are usefull as these now under consideration which no doubt are given to us for food as well as others and grant that they cannot be so well taken any other way and their flesh to be best when it is thus hunted and chased yet it still remains disputable whether their death were ever appointed by God to be a matter of sport or a lawfull recreation to us to kill them is no doubt lawfull but to sport our selves in their death seems cruel and bloudy to delight more in seeing the shifts the poor creature hath to save her life an instinct given her by nature and to see her in the mouths of her bloud-thirsty enemies rending and tearing her in peeces without mercy then they do in the flesh it self which should be I think the cheifest end in this action seems cruel and bloudy recreation suppose thou heardest such a poor creature giving up the ghost to speak after this manner for it is no absurdity to fain such a speech oh man what have I done to thee or what evil is found in me that like a cruel enemy thou sportest thy self at my death I have lived upon my fathers allowance and never transgrest my masters will nor makers laws as thou hast done If thou take away my life what needst thou make a sport at my death If a sparrow fall not to the ground without Gods providence surely he takes notice of my death and the manner of it and I am part of the goods thy master commends to thee as a steward and for which thou must give an account I am thy fellow-creature made of the same matter by the same hand it was not all the men on earth could have created me or given me life my life was given me by God and now it is taken away in sport to please man take heed vain man that thus dost satiate thy self with my bloud lest at last thy condition be worse then mine and thy account heavier my debt is now paid by my death and my own sufferings but thine will never be discharged by thy self to eternity this pleasure thou hast now taken will be dearly bought and this flesh of miâ—e must be satisfied for hereafter if Christ be not thy surety nay O man thou knowest not but there are some enemies if God restrained them not that do as earnestly thirst after thy bloud as thou hast done after mine and would be glad to wash their hands in it however the devil is a more cruel bloud thirsty enemy to thy soul then these dogs are to my body and goes about day and night like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and take heed lest those dogs which have now drunk my bloud and are too often fed with the poors portion and deserve death as well as I being every way as noxious do not rise up against thee another day c. Oh my soul spend no more time in recreation then thou canst afford and that is but a little till thy main work be done and then spend no more in recreation then thy state will afford and that will not be much take heed that the poors
should be like lute-strings when one is touched all the rest sound like to ingenious children when one is beaten the rest all cry the Apostle adviseth 1 Cor. 10 24. let no man seek his own but every man anothers wealth Phil. 2.4 look not every one on his own things but every man also on the things of others the very heathens could say we were not born for our selves but for others good but alass this shews man as man is degenerate even below the beast yea insensible creatures the sun moon stars earth beasts birds fishes who seem to be created for others use and not their own good Paul himself could finde no man like Timothy to take care for the state of the Church for all saith he seek their own things and not the things of Christ Tit. 2.19.20 21. These poor insects also resemble a diligent Christian that improves every thing for his Masters glory and the inriching of his own soul and gathers honey from flowers and weeds and here the slothful Christian may be sent to school to the Bee as Solomon sends him to the ant to learn diligence for both these provide in summer for winter and there are too many such dust-heaps in the world such sluggards that are degenerated below the beasts themselves There is great reason why men should be more diligent then these their dilligence is for the soul the others for the body they are in greater danger if idle the Bee works for honey the other for heaven if the one want death ends her misery if the other want death begins his torment these poor creatures have nothing to excite them but a natural instinct but man hath the use of reason the directions of the Scripture and the assistance of the spirit Ministry conscience c. to animate him these have indeed flowers and herbs trees and weeds c. to gather honey from man hath a larger field to wander over even the whole creation will supply him there is not a stock or stone or dead tree or withering branch or falling leaf or decaying flower but will yield him honey if he have the heavenly art of extracting it they are feeble creatures man is indewed with more strength we have a better prize before us and have better help we can work by day or by night in winter and summer in frost and snow when they are hindred and yet to our shame be it spoken they are more diligent and we more negligent oh my soul how may these poor insects rise up in judgment against thee and condemn thee thou hast past the spring the flower of thy age and done little winter is drawing on apace what provision hast thou made the night approcheth when no man can work what honey hast thou gotten thou hast had as seasonable a summer as most in the world have had and a long harvest and yet art thou unfurnished what will be the issue of it will the season of grace always last the bridegroom is coming where is thy oyl the marriage feast is near where is thy wedding garment oh my God pardon my former neglects and mispence of precious time Lord keep me close to my work my little time that yet remains and succeed me in it that I may gather honey against the winter comes and may not be unprovided at death Upon the taste of honey 52. Med. WHen I had a little considered the workman and the work I desired to taste of the fruits of her labours but when I had tasted of the honey and found the sweetness of it and cast mine eyes upon the little workman a poor small insect a contemptible fly that yet may challenge all the artists in the world by their Chymistry to extract such excellent food out of stinking weeds sinks dunghills and other filthy places as she doth and that without the help of fire or any other instrument then what God hath indewed her with and when it is extracted to place and dispose of it in such an excellent order and comely manner as she doth for she furnisheth her house so exquisitly so uniformly as she doth that one little hole or cell cannot be found in the whole fabrick in a disorderly form and all the materials being taken from such varieties of flowers herbs and weeds the quintescence being extracted is so orderly disposed the wax to build the house and the honey to furnish it that it is wonderful to behold and yet the herbs and flowers thus robbed to our knowledge receive no detriment nor their owners no dammage for when it is gone it cannot be mist When I considered also the vertues and the operations both of the honey and wax the work of these poor creatures how useful and beneficiall it was not only for food but for physick and surgery and for many other uses it made me cry out the finger of God the finger of God that hath instructed such a poor fly in such an excellent art as this is and made them so painful so diligent for the good of man to help them to what they could not otherwise have nor well be without but if God be the schoolmaster no matter who be the schollars all the men on earth cannot do the like much less teach another fly this art nay we finde God himself seems to glory in this creature how small soever as well as in the great Leviathan and Unicorn and Behemoth Job 41.1 c. and 40.15 and 35.9 When he commends Canaan he frequently calls it a land flowing with milk and honey which is the glory of all lands Exod. 3.8 17. and 33.3 Lev. 20.24 and many other places In other Scriptures also we may see it commended Pro. 24.13 my son eat honey because it is good and the honey-comb which is sweet to thy taste thus Christ accepting the duties and delighting in the graces of his people tells us Cant. 5.1 He hath eaten his honey-comb with his honey and hath drunk his wine with his milk and calls upon his friends to drink abundantly also I considered also how good God was to us as well as unto Canaan in England that have such store of these blessings as well as them and wondred that our provoking sins had not forced him to deal by us as he hath dealt by them and to make our land spew us out also yea to lay a curse upon the land also as he did upon theirs for it is conceived that Judea is at this day far more barren and sterile then heretofore it was so true is that of the Psalmist Psal 107.33.34 He turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water-springs into dry ground a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein I considered also if there be so much sweetness in the creature what is in the Creator this being but a shadow and resemblance of his infinite perfections all the excellency that is in the creature being but a drop to this ocean a
despight of his enemies if they take away their meat saith the Martyr God can take away their hunger why not as well as he doth the life of other creatures and he will do it rather then his promise shall fail Elijah goes in the strength of one meal forty days and had God pleased it might have been forty years for he could have preserved the Israelites forty years in the wilderness without food as well as with food from heaven and as well as he preserved their garments from waxing old Deut. 29.5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness your cloaths are not waxen old upon you and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot they needed not to care what they should eat or what they should drink or wherewithall they should be cloathed for God made provision of all this they were maintained at Gods proper cost and charges methoughts also this cessation of action in these creatures in winter did much resemble sleep which if God pleased might be as long in other animals and were it not common would be thought wonderful and little differing from death it self and yet experience shews us that which seems to destroy nature doth restore and refresh it or it is like to a swoon when the symptomes of death are upon a man yea in some distempers the symptomes of life for many hours together are scarcely discerned but above all it resembles our lying in the grave and our rising again at the resurrection for the body sleeps in the dust till the last day as these creatures do in their holes till the winter is past and the spring approacheth and the silkworm never receives life till the Mulbery-trees leaves which is their food and then they shall be revived by the sun of righteousness and life put into them then these dry bones shall live This I know some question and some deny possibly because they cannot fathome the depth of this providence and were they not convinc't by yearly experience of the other they would deny that also and would think it could not be that creatures should have their life preserved the one half of the year at least without food because they know not how it should be But I think few articles of our faith are more clearly proved in Scripture then this of the resurrection but many men I fear are wilfully blinde their lives and conversations being so debaucht they would believe at least wish they could believe there were no resurrection of the body yea that the soul were mortal as well as the body and that the death of the one were the destruction of the other also but the time is coming they shall finde the contrary to their sorrow both scripture and reason speak plainly that the soul is immortal and that the body partaking with it in holiness or sin shall also partake with it in weal or wo and that there will be a day of retribution when those that now suffer for Christ shall then reign with him and those that sin shall suffer for their sin the contrary to this cannot stand with scripture-revelations the threatnings of the law the promises of the Gospel nor with divine justice it self and why should any think it impossible for God to gather our dust together and raise up our dead bodies at the last who do believe that there is a God and that he hath made not only man but the whole creation of nothing and that this God is just and will make good both his promises and threatnings and nothing is too hard for an omnipotent arm oh my soul distrust not Gods word question not his power he that can make all things of nothing can of thy scattered ashes raise up thy dead body to life and re-unite it to thy hould and he that saith he will do it will certainly perform it heaven and earth shall pass but not one tittle of his word shall pass till all be fulfilled call not in question the power and providence of God but labour to have a part in the first resurrection that the second death may have no power get fitted for death and judgement get sin pardoned and subdued which is the sting of death get grace implanted and thy soul married unto Christ then needst thou not fear death nor the resurrection oh my God strengthen my faith confirm my hope and encrease my love to thee and let me long for the time that I may enjoy thee in glory and lie for ever in the arms of my beloved Vpon beggers at the door 60. Med. WHen I saw some lusty able persons fit for service and other employment begging at the door I began to consider how disagreeing this course of life was to the word of God who had commanded men in the sweat of their brows they should eat their bread this is a law laid upon all sorts of men to sweat out a poor living brow or brain must sweat for it or our bread is eaten ere it be earned God would not have a begger in Israel and the Apostles will was those that would not labour should not eat 2 Thes 3.6 10 14. those that have enough to live on must not be idle much less those that have nothing yet many live like rats and mice only to devour what others labour for paradice that was mans store-house was also his work-house God set him to dress the garden and there should be none that like body-lice feed upon other mens sweat such idle persons often times are set on work by the devil for idleness is the hour of temptation and standing-waters are usually full of vermine Nay how disagreeing is this course of life with the laws of the land which making other provision for the poor stigmatize these wanderers by the name of rogues and appoint them to be stockt and whipt and sent back to the place of their birth or last abode and inflicts a penalty upon those that relieve them The great Turk that grand Seignior is not excepted for he hath a trade and is dayly to labour with his hands yea Divines in all ages ancient and modern and of all perswasions have exclaimed against this course of life and esteemed such persons to be the plague-sore of the Nation and not to be tolerated in a well-ordered Common-wealth they are a dishonour to the Church they live in and to the Countrey they inhabit and the heathens as well as the Christians have made laws to punish them These and the like considerations made me think correction to be the fittest alms and their restraint might hinder a great deal of sin acted by them and be a means to reduce them under government civil and Ecclesiastical which now live like lawless persons under none and neither fear God nor obey men but are the unprofitable burthens of the earth But on the other side when I considered how little provision notwithstanding in the law was made for the poor in most places and
our youthfull gallant no stage-plays for their divertisement no pleasant Comedies acted but a dismal Tragedy wherein they are like to be the miserable Actors but will never come off with applause there is no modish garb for our well-drest gallant no headtire but a flaming periwig here is no use for looking-glass nor tiring woman no use of patches powders paints or frisling irons all these are out of mode and fashion in those Territories here are no healths to pledge but that of damnation they so oft drunk in the days of their life but never knew what it was till now but now must pledge them to all eternity But this is not all their loss will be greater for they must lose the beatifical vision of God blessed for ever in whose presence there is joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore then must they be everlastingly separated from him who is the chiefest good Now they say to him depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Job 21.14 and then God will have none of their company but will say depart from me c. Mat. 7.22 and 25.41 oh direfull and dreadfull sentence such as may make their heart-strings crack and their hearts break in pieces it breaths out nothing but fire and brimstone stings and horrours wo and alass seas of vengeance the worm that never dies and the fire that never shall be quenched torments without end and past imagination in this life they cannot endure the company of the godly they are either the object of their scorn or malice but then they shall be eternally separated as far as heaven is from hell or Dives from Lazarus between whom there is a great gulph fixed Luk. 16.26 Then they shall lose their souls which is incomparably their richest jewel which they sold for a trifle and now it will be required and they must stand to their bargain not that they shall be annihilated that news is too good to be true neither shall they lose the faculties of them these shall be inlarged to their further torments but they lose their God which is the life of their souls and put them into the devils hands to be eternally tormented they shall lose their bodies also for whose sake they sold their souls in a word all their happiness and all their hopes and all they accounted dear shall then be stript away all these like leaves shall fly before the winde of death and in the room of these everlasting destruction of body and soul shall succeed oh death what a change wilt thou make at thy coming and how unwelcome wilt thou be to those that live at case in possession oh my soul remember the days of darkness for they are many Eccl. 11.8 provide against this time that this may not be thy case for ere long all these leaves will be blown down provide therefore treasures that neither man nor devil can strip from thee provide a mansion in heaven before this earthly tabernacle be dissolved Lord assist me in this work without thee my endeavours are vain Upon a tree green all the winter 87. Med. WHen I observed how green some trees were all the winter and how flourishing even in the frost and snow when others are stript naked and left bare and seem dead and withered and that neither the pinching frost nor blustring windes neither storms nor tempests could disroab them or change their summer-suit to winter colours that neither summers sun nor scorching heat could make them wither nor winter cold nor storms could make them cast their leaves nor turn their lusty green to any other colour I began to think these trees much resemble a Christian that had the life of grace within him and is planted into that generous vine Christ and sucks sap and nourishment from this root these also are green when others that stand upon their own root wither and decay But these trees of righteousness are planted by the rivers of water and bring forth their fruit in due season and their leaf also shall not wither but whatsoever they do it shall prosper Psal 1.3 c. when others are driven like chaff before the winde from the face of the earth yet the sun-shine of prosperity cannot wither those nor the winde of adversity blow them down or their fruit nor remove their leaves Job was one of these trees of righteousness green at all times winter and summer in his prosperity his leaf flourished for God himself gives as ample a testimony of him as ever he did of mortal man Job 1.8 Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and upright man one that feareteh God and escheweth evill and when he was in adversity he still retains his integrity Job 27.5.6 till I die I will not remove my integrity from me my righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live and see what end God makes with him he crowns him and chronicles him for his sincerity and patience all his affliction could not make him lose one leaf Joseph when he was in prosperity fears God and when in adversity he fears him also when he was a bondslave in Potiphars house he resisteth the temptations of his mistriss with this consideration how shall I commit this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.11 Joseph remains in Egypt like a pearl in a puddle he had set God at his right hand and would not be moved though Satan knock oft at the door there was none within to answer though the iron as the Psalmist saith entred into Josephs soul yet sin could not when the devil could not prevail against him by his hard bondage he trys to do it by a Dalilahs temptation he struck fire oft but it fell among wet tinder Joseph was semper idem when he was wrongfully cast into prison he keeps his integrity still and God owns him and gave him favour and after when he was advanc't to honour and made enter in Egypt he did not forget his God nor God did not forget him all the hot gleams of prosperity nor all the blustring storms of adversity could not shake down any of his fruit or stir any of his leaves it is true wicked men in their prosperity are said to be spreading themselves like a green bay-tree but this denotes the prosperity of the body not of the soul these leaves at death will drop as well as others and their prosperity and happiness will draw to an end and all their enjoyment will be but as a thin mist before the winde soon scattered but mark the upright and behold the just for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 I shall be saith the Psalmist as a green olive-tree in the house of God Psal 52.5 when those that trust not in the Lord shall be destroyed It was not banishment that could separate David from the stock
but like rotten shining wood many that have had lamps in their hands have had them blown out for lack of oyl Many have seemed like corn fresh and flourishing but proved like that on the stony ground or on the house-top never came to maturity when the winde turns they soon kick up their profession and steal away from their colours or when the sun of persecution is up wither oh my soul promise not thy self great things in the world neither content thy self with small things for eternity be as serious for grace as others are for gold and make as sure for heaven as others do for the world if thou wilt plant let it be in a better soil then maist thou expect a better encrease neither winde nor sun frost nor snow thunder nor lightning can blast or nip those flowers of paradice Lord take off my affection from the world and set them upon Christ then shall I never be disappointed of my hopes Upon leaves falling in Autumn 90. Med. WHen I observed in autumn after a nipping frost seconded by a gust of winde how fast the leaves fell from the trees that in a short time those that were cloathed in a lusty green began to look withered dead and dry and to put on their winter coat methought this resembled much our mortality when the autumn of age comes upon us these bodies of ours like leaves fall of themselves into deaths lap but seldom do they hang on so long some casual accident or other oft bears them down before they wither ofttimes some common calamity as the sword or pestilence or other contagious disease like a violent tempest doth bear all down before it two hundred thousand together in Ireland and very many in England death mowed down in a few days where they fell as leaves before the winde or as corn before the reapers hook it is noted that in one years space a hundred thousand fell in our chief city blown down by the blast of death and thus in all the world throughout men are swept away as with a sweeping storm some few are gathere in in a good old age but the most of men blown down while they are yet green the falling of these leaves did also seem to me to resemble the apostacy and downfall of hypocrites the house of whose profession is built upon the sand and cannot resist the winde and waves this is a foolish builder that neither sat down first to reckon the charges neither was at the cost to lay a firm foundation neither considered the rain would fall the windes blow and the flouds beat and overthrow his buildings they follow Christ as a dog follows his master tiâ—l he meets with carion and then turns him up as Orphah made a fair proffer of going along with Naomi but better considering returned back It is noted of the chesunt if it be not broken at the top when east into the fire it leaps out again so doth a hypocrite when he comes to be tried he is like a false jade in a teem which being put to a stress turns tail and tramples but the godly hold on and persist In the summer when the sun of the gospel shines upon them they hold on and look fresh and fragrant and seem to be not only members but pillars of the Church as the Apostles had a good opinion of Judas so that they rather mistrusted themselves then him and cryed out Master is it I so true believers rather mistrust themselves then those forward professors yet in persecuting times these fall as leaves before the winde and wither as the corn on the stony ground or that which grows upon the hose top and discover a fruitless bulk and withering root the stony ground received the word with joy and endured for a while but when the sun was up they were quickly offended Herod may hear the word gladly and endure for a time but being not sound at the heart he fals off a branch in a moist place though it have no root may for a while bud and leave but when heat comes will certainly wither and the leaves fall when Christianity is in credit many will cry Hosanah to the sun of David and when in contempt they will cry crucify a hypocrite will be catching at comforts as children do at sweet-meats ere they are soundly humbled and are stuffing themselves pillows with the promises that they may sin more securely when the Jews were in savour many turn Jews for fear of the Jews and when in danger their seeming friends prove their sorest enemies they are professors upon designe and they will be religious while religion suits their interest and promotes their advantage but when it hinders them they lay it aside as the workman doth the tool he needs not or will not serve his turn and takes another if profaness yea persecution serves his designe better he will make use of that if a few prayers or outside duties which are like to cost them little they are content to go to heaven this way but if it come to sufferings or forsaking any thing for Christ vadet Christus cum suo Evangelio let Christ go with his gospel and keep his heaven to himself for he will have none of it they will not buy heaven at so dear a rate The Gospel hath many swallow-friends which will be gone at the approach of winter when the corn is gone the rats leave the barn and when no secular advantage is in sight but rather storms appearing many professors will be no longer religious but Christ tells us he that loveth father or mother son or daughter more then him is not worthy of him Mat. 10.37 because he holdeth any one worthy of more love then Christ God will set no lower a rate on his son and glory he that will have this pearl must part with all Mat. 13.44.45 and he that doth so makes a good bargain we cannot buy this gold too dear or give too much for heaven and happiness he that thinks to grasp and hold both heaven and earth in the same hand and lodge them in the same heart may as well imagine he can reconcile fire and water and hide them together in the same bosome when two men walk together we know not whose servant it is that follows them but when they part the servant owns his own Master oh my soul take heed of dissembling with God that will not be mocked close with him and he will close with thee build upon the rock so shalt not thou be shaken and though at death thy body fall like a leaf yet thy root shall remain oh my God let me not deceive my self let me lay a good foundation then shall I stand in all storms Vpon a fruit-tree pelted with stones 91. Med. WHen I beheld a fruit-bearing-tree that was richly laden with the choisest fruit and perceiving that this tree above all the rest was preyed upon by the passengers for almost every one had a stick
better provided the soul here wears the body as a garment which when it is worn out the saints shall have a better suit they shall be choathed with the Lord Jesus Christ death will not spare the best there is no coming to paradice but under the flaming sword of this guardian that stands at the porch no wiping all tears from our eyes but with our winding-sheet assurance of Gods love makes a man even willing to die but the cook on the dunghill knows not the worth of this jewel oh the blindness madness and stupidity of man whose care is to lade himself with thick clay and to take care what he shall eat or what he shall drink or wherewithall he shall be cloathed and makes no provision for the soul but depends upon that for comfort that can do no good when most need is they can provide in the day for the night in the summer for the winter on the market-day for the whole week and at a Fair for the whole year and yet make no provision in life for death or in time for eternity if a coelestial habitation be not provided against those houses of clay our bodies wherein the soul lodgeth as a tenant at will be dissolved our lodging will be worse then with toads and serpents even with the devil and his angels in endless easeless and remediless torments oh my soul how fares it with thee or what preparation hast thou made long it cannot be before night comes where then will be thy lodging the earth then will be to thee as the waters to Noahs dove thou wilt finde no rest here for the sole of thy foot it is in heaven that the weary be at rest Job 3.17 oh my God enable me to clear up my interest in Christ who is the only sanctuary for a troubled soul Upon sickness spoiling all earthly delights 98. Med. WHen I had fitted things to my minde and began to take delight in the works of my hands when I began to sing a requiem to my self and my heart with Solomons rejoyced in all my labour Eccl. 2.10 yea when I had promised my self content in what I had done I was suddenly forced to say with wise Solomon Eccles 14. behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit nothing in themselves yet sufficient to vex and perplex us sin hath produced a confusion in the world and stampt vanity upon the creature every man saith David in his best estate is altogether vanity this is the impartiall verdict brought in by one that could best tell and to this I was forc't to subscribe for God immediatly humbled me for setting my affection upon creature-comforts and let me see the vanity of them by visiting me with a fit of sickness that I was taken off from setting my delight or taking satisfaction in or upon them or taking any pleasure in any thing that I had done nay I was troubled that I had not spent my time better and that I had not planted set or sown in a more fertile soil where I might have expected a more plentiful encrease and had a better crop this providence seemed to speak to me as Christ did to the rich man Luk. 12.16 c. that set his heart on his riches and was not rich to God thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose are these this shewed me more of the vanity of humane felicity then I had before observed I plainly saw there was a double uncertainty in all earthly felicity and in sublunary enjoyments for they themselves are very uncertain and many times short-lived and may leave us or we may by death be arrested and then we shall leave them God sometimes takes them from us they take themselves wings and fly away and shall we set our eyes upon things that are not Pro. 23.5 there is no solid substance in them though the foolish world call it by that name they are as transitory as a hasty headlong torrent but if they remain we shall remove for our life passeth away as a shadow or post or weavers shuttle and continueth not and then those winged fouls that now sit upon our trees shall sit upon other mens sometimes God blows upon them and blasts them that though we do enjoy them they prove but a vexation to us sometimes he disables us to use them and sometimes imbitters them to us mixing them with gall and wormwood that we can finde no pleasure in them and assuredly they will do us little good when we have most need suppose a man to have what the world can afford yea all the delights of the sons of men yea all that his heart can wish as Solomon had Eccl. 2.27 yet one hours sickness spoils all his mirth and robs him of all the comfort he promised to himself one fit of the collick gout strangury or other raging pain yea the extream pain of an aking tooth puts a man besides all these his enjoyments yet how greedily do men grasp after the world as if it included the highest degree of happiness and hug it in their bosome and lodge it nearest to the heart which will prove no better nay much worse then a bush of thorns if graspt too hard so this the harder it is handled the worse it hurts oh folish man cannot these earthly enjoyments give ease to an aking head or heart can they not mitigate the pains of the gout collick stone or strangury and can it be imagined they can ease the conscience or cure a sinsick soul if not what good can they do it could Judas Achitophel Spira and others fetch any comfort here in their extremity no no they are like Jobs friends miserable comforters at such a time what good will gold do at death and judgment this coin is not currant in the other world nay in this world it brings little content if God frown if one spark of hell-fire flash in the conscience all these things cannot extinguish it one drop of it will mar a whole cup of earthly delights that in the midst of laughter the heart will be sorrowful and the end of that mirth will be heaviness Pro. 14.13 nulla est sincera voluptas wicked men may dance to the timbrel and harp but suddenly they turn into hell Job 21.12 13. and their merry dance ends in a miserable downfall the candle of the wicked shall out in a snuff and what will all these outward enjoyments signify then Jobs flower Jonahs gourd and Davids green bay-tree will soon wither and their beauty will fade all these things will leave us at death many times before how much need then have we to make preparation before-hand of something that will stand us instead This sickness of mine also taught me how unfit a time this was for repentance and yet how many post it off till then oh how unfit was I to examine my heart and call my sins to minde to repent of them when racking pains brought
oh my God let not the devil by his wiles nor the world by her frowns or smiles make me break my peace with thee Vpon cold winter-weather 100. Med. IN stormy cold and winter-weather when the fields were unfit for action and the husbandman was retired into his cell as the Souldier into his winter-Garison I considered how necessary how desirable how delightful a dry house fire food cloathing lodging and other necessaries were to cherish and nourish and shelter us from the violence of the cold and how unpleasant it was for man or beast to be abroad in the fields and how unsuitable for action there this season was then considered I the folly of those that made not preparation for such a season that those sluggishly pass away the Summer-season that is fit for action in the field and made no preparation in the harvest and so are destitute of food of fewel and other necessaries to make their lives comfortable in the winter for those the holy Ghost sends to school to the ant or pismire Pro. 6.6 go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise which having no guide overseer or ruler provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest poor man that was once captain in Gods school is now turned down into the lowest form and to be taught by the meanest creatures sometimes to the birds and to the lillies of the field that depend upon divine providence sometimes to the oxe and to the ass to learn dependence and here to the ant to learn diligence these poor creatures may be called lay-mens books for in them they may learn their duty and not as many do in diem vivere as the fouls of the air do we should learn dependence of them but a provident care must be had as one saith no promus sit fortior condo that our layings out be not more then our layings up there is a care of the head lawful but it is the care of the heart that is forbidden a care of diligence there may be a care of diffidence there must not be but some fail on the one hand some on the other and it is hard to walk in the direct road I also pitied those that wanted the necessaries I enjoyed and could not tell how to prepare them when all their diligence and industry fell short of necessaries as there are too many poor families amongst us which should be looked after and I fear God will look after those stewards he hath intrusted to feed them and they neglect it see Mat. 24.48 Mat. 25.41 I then called to minde the estate of poor Christians in Ireland in the beginning of the rebellion that were suddenly stript of all turned out naked and hungry exposed to winde and weather to hunger and cold to frost and snow to the loss of many thousands of their lives and to very much hardship to those that escaped this example on the one side discovered to me what injuries and wrongs what hardship and miseries poor creatures may be exposed to how uncertain these transitory enjoyments are and how soon they may be lost and for ought I know this may be my own condition how soon I know not and what would I then give to be in such a condition that I now am although it be not altogether free from some troubles and hardship it minded me also on the other side of the cruelty of bloud-thirsty enemies and what we may expect from them if ever we fall into their hands or lie at their mercy and this made me admire Gods goodness to this nation in general and to my self in particular that it is so well with us as it is yea this consideration made me more contented with my condition then before and to bless God that he had made such plentiful provision for me that had deserved so little at his hands when he suffered those Worthys of whom the world was not worthy to have triall of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned sawn in sunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in desarts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth Heb. 11.36 I considered that though the enjoyment of these things be no certain sign of the love of God yet are they great engagements to engage the heart to God and they are much too blame yea shall give a severe account that willfully waste or abuse them in drunkenness idleness pride prodigality gaming whoring or any other vicious courses yea they are too blame that withhold good from the owners thereof or detain the poors portion from them to whom it is due These considerations had I raised my Meditations a little higher and considered that if an earthly habitation be so necessary in winter for the body to shelter it from the violence of the weather how necessary then will an habitation for the soul be against these houses of clay be disolved to keep off the storms of divine vengeance for what will become of those then that have nothing to shelter them or as good as nothing the garments of their own righteousness which are too short to cover them and too thin to defend them and cannot shelter the soul from divine vengeance no better then a spiders web can the body from a cannon-bullet these doubtless are bad husbands for the soul though they may have care enough of the body oh my soul what condition dost thou stand in in reference to eternity thou hast been often summoned by death and sometimes made to look it in the face and yet thy days with Hezekiahs are lengthened out and God hath given thee more time to do thy work in what preparation hast thou made for it hast thou provided an habitation against thou shalt be turned out of this house of clay hast thou cleared up thy evidence for heaven and thy title to glory if not give thy self no rest till thy work be done for then and not till then thou wilt be fit do dye it is not a bare profession that will serve thy turn the root of the matter must be in thee Job 19.28 a profession without practise will do thee no good oh my God without thy divine assistance I shall miscarry and without a lamp lighted by thy holy spirit I shall never finde out the deceits that are in my own heart Lord grant that these my Meditations may be beneficial to my self and others that they may never rise up in judgment against me another day Amen FINIS
THE Husbandmans COMPANION CONTAINING One Hundred Occasional Medirations Reflections and Ejaculations Especially Suited to Men of that Employment Directing them how they may be Heavenly-minded while about their Ordinary Calling By Edward Bury Late Minister of Great Bolas in Shropshire Psal 77.12 I will meditate also of thy works and talk of thy doings LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 3 Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and at the Bible on London-bridge 1677. Licensed and Entred according to Order To the Worshipful his much Honoured Friend Rowland Hunt of Boare-Eatton In the County of Salop Esquire And to the Virtuous and truly Religious Lady Frances Daughter to the Right Honourable the Lord Paget his Pious Consort E. B. Wisheth Encrease of Grace here and Glory hereafter Sir and Madam I Foresee there may two or three questions arise upon this my undertaking in which you may desire satisfaction the first may be why I write at all the second why I write on this subject and the last why I prefix your Names to what I write To these I shall answer in order For the first though I hope Gods glory and the publique good be chiefly intended yet my own satisfaction is also included for I being set apart in my Education for the work of the Ministry and dedicated thereunto in my Ordination and though I have but one talent I would not have it wrapt in a napkin when an account is required how I have employed it lest I be found speechless Aulaedus sit qui Citharaedus esse non potest a man may be useful that is not excellent and therefore I thought it my duty what howrs I could spare from my secular employments should be improved and employed for the good of souls as for your second demand why I write upon this subject seeing so many have gone before me and what I do is but Alcinoo pomo dare or in our English dialect to light a candle when the sun shines or bring coals to Newcastle to this I answer if this lesson be so well taught it is a shame it is no better learnt I fear there is not one of ten amongst Christians but are guilty of the neglect of this profitable duty which I suppose would bring the soul more real benefit then many litigious controversies about the modes and circumstances of worship about which many argue themselves not only out of Charity but out of their Christianity and lose the substance while they strive about the shadow and fill their heads with notions rather then their hearts with graces I conceive it is real communion with Christ and the life of faith that makes the soul fat and flourishing and I think that meditation doth conduce as much to this as any duty whatsoever prayer I know brings in supplys from heaven and so doth this and these two usually are concomitant and where the one is neglected the other is seldome well performed Meditation like the Bee fetches honey both from flowers and weeds yea this divine Alchymist extracts gold out of the coursest Mettles and is the true Philosophers stone that turns all into gold and gold it self into a spiritual substance those books which reduce religion into practice which in our days lyes much in the theorick and serve to reconcile the head and the heart and maintain the vitals of religion and the power of godliness and further our great designe for heaven should be well studied and of them I think store is no sore By this heavenly art of divine meditation wisdome may be extracted out of folly as Solomon gained instruction by beholding the field of the sluggard Pro. 24.30 c. and doubtless man was not plac't in the world as Leviathan in the Sea to play therein nor indowed with so many excellent faculties to be like bruit beasts only idle spectatours of the works of God The use of reason doubtless was given for an higher end to help us to view the Creator in the glass of the creature and every thing lends a helping hand to a willing minde in this work There is no man so busy if not sinfully employed but may finde some time every day to converse with God and now and then make a journey to heaven and view those Caelestial mansions prepared for those that love God There is none so dull-witted if honest hearted but may learn some profitable lessons in natures school the least worm or gnat or leaf of a tree will point out God to an observant Christian That Meditation is a Christian duty none that pretend to religion or to reason it self will deny and that to meditate upon Gods works as well as his word is our duty is evident God sometimes sends us to the oxe and ass to learn our duty Jsay 1.3 sometimes to fowls of heaven the stork the crane and the swallow Jer. 8.7 sometimes to the pismire or ant those despicable insects Pro. 6.6 and 30.25 and all to learn our duty David learned humility by beholding the moon and the stars Psal 8.3 4. and Christ grounds many of his excellent sermons upon the various occurrences that dayly fell out as we see in the parable of the sower and the seed the tares of the field and the draw-net cast into the Sea the leaven the mustard seed the fruitless figtree and many others what heavenly use doth he make of earthly things and all this is for our imitation that by this means we may of these earthly materials frame to our selves a Jacobs ladder to ascend to heaven for all those visibles will mount us up to beholde invisibles and give us a Pisgah sight of the heavenly Canaan even of those things within the vail And that soul that hath this heavenly art can set it self on work and need not be idle or ill imployed for time will fail us and death surprize us before we can have searched natures garden from end to end or gathered hony from the several flowers here we may walk at liberty and crop what flowers we please and no man is damnified thereby in other respects our bounds are set hitherto may we go and no further but in this we have an unlimitted circuit meum tuum which hath set the world in a flame hinders not in this case the poor here hath as much liberty as the rich and the servant as his master for with the Bee we may suck sweetness from our neighbours fields and flowers without his leave or licence and feed upon his pasture without any dammage to him 'T is true in these my meditations I have contented my self with a small plot and but seldome past the bounds of a garden or orchard but had the publishing of it been designed at the first I should not have tied up my self in so short a lether when the whole creation lay before me The book of the creature stands open to us and God may be read in every line of it otherwise why doth God
thou provided another habitation against this shall be disolved and moulder into dust when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved hast thou a building not made with hands but eternal in the heavens hast thou acted thy part well upon the stage of the world that thou maist go off with applause â—f not … s better thou hadst not been born for if death meet thee unprepared as thy body moulders into dust so must thou down to everlasting darkness there to suffer eternally the demerit of thy sin Oh my God! take me not away before I be fit to be lodged in thy bosome kill me not before my sin be killed if any thing that is necessary be wanting Lord give it in and let me not be deceived in so great a thing as the salvation of my soul Let my sins die and let my soul live Let me see the funeral of my vices before others see the funeral of my body Vpon a Tuft of green Grass 3. Med. WAlking into the Garden as at other times to take the ayr I fastened my eyes upon a green tuft of grass that grew besides me the sight of it brought to my remembrance what I had often heard and read viz. that the damned in hell should suffer exquisite torments such as the tongue of men or angels are not able to express and that for as many millions of years as there are grass-piles upon the earth sands on the sea shoar stars in heaven and motes in the Sun and yet after all this long tract of time their torments shall be no nearer to an end nor they to a delivery then they were the first day they were cast in This made me a little to consider the number of piles that was in this little tuft and when I found it too hard for me to number them I considered what was this tuft to one pasture or that to one Parish or that to one County or that to one Kingdome or that to the whole world this made me to cry out Oh Eternity Eternity who can conceive of thee who can fathom thee Oh the horrible nature of sin that provokes a mercifull God to lay such heavy strokes upon his poor creatures Oh the love and pains of our dear Redeemer what did he suffer to quench those flames and discharge those debts for his people in suffering what was due for their sins and oh the madness of men and my own folly that knowing there is such a remediless gulf before us run on so madly towards it and that for momentary pleasures deceitfull riches worthless honour or filthy sin do venture the soul upon the pikes of danger Oh the misery of poor unregenerate wretches what will you do in the latter end who amongst us shall dwell with devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burning Esay 33.14 Tophet is prepared of old even for the King it is prepared the pile thereof is fire and much wood and the breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone doth kindle it Esaiah 30.33 Were a man compelled to lie upon a feather bed but one year without turning or stirring though other comforts were afforded how painful how tedious would that year seem but what is this one year to eternity or what is a featherbed to scalding lead and burning brimstone or what is that to hell torments Oh Satan how dost thou deceive us Oh world how dost thou insnare us Oh sin how dost thou bewitch us Oh heart how dost thou betray us to this deadly danger Oh earth how dost thou betray thy fastest friends and payest them off with pains for pleasure and buyest their souls for a thing of naught Oh Satan who would be thy servant if this be thy wages and yet how many fish come to thy net and how prosperous hast thou been when thou hast baited thy hooks with the world Oh my soul is Eternity such a fathomless gulf without bank or bottom how stands the case with thee art thou for everlasting joy or endless torment what interest hast thou in the one or what hopes to avoid the other what hast thou that a hypocrite cannot have or what dost thou that he cannot do God surely expects great difference in the work when there is so much in the reward give thy eyes no sleep nor thy eye-lids no slumber till thou hast some comfortable assurance of the love of God in the pardon of thy sins and the salvation of thy soul make peace with thy Creditour before thou art cast into prison otherwise there must thou remain till thou hast paid the utmost farthing If death surprize thee before thou art ready hell will be thy lodging get oyl trim up thy lamp get on thy wedding-garment that thou be not shut out into utter darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh my God! make me such as thy own soul delights in give me in the qualifications thou hast made necessary to Salvation thou knowest my wants Lord supply them my debts oh forgive them my corruptions Lord subdue them and binde up my soul in the bundle of life write my name in thy book and at last lay me up amongst thy Jewels Vpon a barren plat of ground 4. Med. WHen I perceived one plot in my garden fruitful and another barren and observed the difference between the one and the other how lovely how amiable how pleasant the fruitful plat seemed to me how fresh and fragrant how green and ardent it was how it was diapred with various coloured flowers beautiful and lovely and how lothsome unseemly and unhandsome the other lookt where nothing appeared but briars and thorns weeds and thistles with stones and rubbish which was a fit receptacle for toads and serpents and other venemous vermine I began to consider it was yet possible to reduce this plot into a better form and turn it to a better use And hereupon I caused the rubbish to be stockt up the weeds to be pluckt up and the stones pickt out and after I digged and manured it and had an effect answerable to my expectation for when it was sown with better seed it brought forth better fruit The unlovelinesse of this plot when overgrown with weeds and rubbish produced this following Meditation I thought it lively represented a heart barren of grace and goodnesse but fruitfull of briars and thorns sin and wickednesse which is more odious to God then this plot was to me and yet how lovely a fruit bearing Christian is in his eye the one is like a loathsome muck-heap which stinks the other like a watered garden that yields a sweet favour like a garden of spices Cant. 4.14 the one brings forth fruit for Gods basket the other fewell for the devils fire all the seed sown upon it is lost and choakt with briars and thorns and all the rain that falls upon it doth but make the weeds more rank and flourishing their grape is the grape of Sodom and of the fields of
bring forth much fruit Upon a sudden Drought 22. Med. WHen I had digged manured sown and fenced my garden and done what lay in me to do and began from the hopefull springing up of the seed to have comfortable hopes of a plentifull encrease and began to rejoyce in the works of my hands behold an unexpected judgement fell upon it for God withheld the showers of rain and restrain'd the influence of heaven and caused that it should not rain upon the earth and the clouds which were wont to drop fatness and by which God was used to open his treasure and to give a blessing to his people Deut. 28.12 now proved empty clouds promising much but paying nothing hereupon the earth languished and could not nourish what she had brought forth for though she had not a miscarrying womb yet had she dry breasts so that hearbs and flowers yea the grass of the field languished hanged down the head withered and died and their beauty faded away as mans will if he want food as we may see Lam. 4.7 8. Her Nazarites were purer then snow they were whiter then milk they were more ruddy in body then rubies their polishing was of saphire their visage is blacker then a coal they are not known in the street their skin cleaveth to their bones it is withered and is become like a stick c. This providence made me consider how vain and fruitless all our endeavours are either for this life or that to come if God succeed them not with his blessing and that all the men that live upon the face of the earth had they joined with their united counsels with policy and power they could not have removed this judgement had they taken in all the gods of the heathens to assist them Can any of the vanities of the gentiles give rain Jer. 14.22 it is in vain to hope for salvation from the hills or from the mountains in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel When God blows upon our creature-comforts they vanish and prove unsatisfying Haggai 1.9 ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it c. ye have sown much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but you are not filled with drink ye cloath you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages putteth it into a bag with holes ver 6. the earth cannot bring forth without the influence of heaven and these cannot be had without a commission from God Jer. 14.22 Can the heavens give showers art not thou he O Lord our God therefore we wait upon thee for thou hast made all these things It is he that cloatheth the heavens with blackness Isay 50.3 Hose 2.21.22 I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oyle and they shall hear Jezreel but when God refuseth to hear all others cry in vain they may all say as the King of Israel to the woman that cryed to him 2 Kin. 6.26 if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee out of the barn floors or out of the wine-press yet how doth vain man reckon without his host and promise himself a plentifull encrease and much happiness in the enjoyment of it like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 12.16 c. when the event ofttimes proves otherwise if their designe succeed as sometimes it doth for all things fall alike to all as to the good so to the bad the sun shines upon the just and the unjust they give not the glory to God but sacrifice to their own nets and burn incense to their drags Hab. 1.16 they think their own arm saveth them and their own wisdom and endeavours enricheth them they are like the king of Assyria that said Isai 10.13 by the strength of my hand I have done it and by my wisdome for I am prudent but what had all my labour profited me or what good would theirs have done them if God had not given rain I went yet further in my consideration of the great mercy and benefit of water without which it were impossible that man or beast or fish or foul or hearb or plant or any other creature sensitive or vegetable should live or prosper and wondred at my own and others stupidity that we took so little notice of the mercy and gave God so little thanks for it but this mercy was more prized by the ancient by Israel in the wilderness by Jacob yea by Ahab 1 Kin. 18.5 And Ahab said to Obadiah go into the land unto all fountains of water and unto all brooks peradventure we may finde grass to save the horses and the mules alive and they divided the land between them c. When I had a while considered of these things I raised my Meditation a little higher and considered if rain were so refreshing to the thirsty earth and so necessary for the fruits thereof what was the dew of heaven to the poor soul without it all the Ordinances would prove of little use and all the sowing planting and manuring would signifie little the soul under those enjoyments would be like the heath of the desart that sees not when good comes what cause then have we to depend upon God for the one and for the other oh my soul are thy endeavors crost and thy labour lost learn to depend upon God for the time to come concern not thy self overmuch in the world if it smile upon thee let it not steal away thy affection if it frown on thee trouble not at it for these things are at the dispose of thy father and he mindes thy good use diligence and providence because they are commanded duties but beware of murmuring and repining because they are forbidden sins when thou hast gone as far as thou canst leave the success to God and whatever the issue be acquiesce in his will if thy endeavours be blasted think it was best they should be so because God thought thus if he succeed them bless him if he cross them bless him also The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away saith Job blessed be the name of the Lord seek not great things in the world expect no more then God hath promised lest if they fall short of expectation thou be discouraged hast thou neither poverty nor riches but food convenient this was Agars petition hast thou food and rayment the Apostle was therewith content But for the soul thou must not take up with a small portion labour after the highest pitch of godliness and content not thy self with a low frame of spirit be as covetous for grace as others are for gold use the means diligently but trust not to the means though Paul and Apollo's may plant and water it is God gives the encrease he only can speak to the heart and say to thy sins die and to thy soul live oh my
God forgive I beseech thee my carnal confidence trusting to the arm of flesh both in reference to my body and soul let me see the vanity of all creature-confidences how little they can avail without thy blessing and however thou crossest my designes for the world Lord succeed my designes for heaven with thy blessings leave me not to the teaching of man but teach me thy self water me with the dew of heaven and let thy clouds drop fatness incline my heart to thy testimonies and not to coveteousness Upon flowers seemingly dead in winter yet flourishing in the spring 23. Med. WHen I observed some flowers in the garden that all the winter long when the sun was remote in the Southern climate hid their heads withered seemed to die and to be extinct and buried themselves in their mother earth yet at the return of the year when their beloved smiled upon them when the sun came to the aequinoctial and began to court them and shine upon them with a more direct ray and warmer gleam they crept out of their grave revived sprang again and flourished like a love sick woman killed with a frown and recovered with a smile those that before go in their mourning-weeds now put on their best apparel This consideration made me compare it to the state of a poor soul in desertion when God the Sun of righteousness her beloved hides his face and stands at a remote distance then it is winter with the soul then it droops hangs down the head and is ready to die and cry out with the spouse stay me with flagons comfort me with apples I am sick of love but there may be life in the root when it appears not in the branches when the Sun of righteousness ariseth in the soul with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 these dry bones will live these dead branches will bud these swouning fainting souls will revive and these buried flowers will spring out again though they are in the shadow of death light shall spring out to them The hearb of grace will not die in a hard winter when the spring comes it will bud and break forth the best of Saints oft have had their fainting-fits David that man after Gods own heart though well acquainted with the incomes of the spirit the smiles of God and spirituall consolations yet had many qualms and fainting-fits upon the apprehension of Gods departure but God though he seem to be long absent will not forsake those that are not willing to leave him Esay 4.14.15 but Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me can a woman forget her sucking-childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee A father sometimes hides himself behinde the wall to try the affections of his little son to see whether he will miss him what moan he will make in his absence or whether he minde his play and be content without him when yet he is so far from forsaking him that every tear goes to his heart so God in his withdrawings from his people is much concerned in the moan they make and his bowels yearn at their complaints as he did at Ephraims when he bemoaned himself Jer. 31.18 19 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself c. Is Ephraim my dear son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord who is among you saith the prophet that feareth the Lord and walketh in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay himself upon his God Esay 5.10 Here we see a man may fear God and yet be in darkness sometimes the Sun may he ecclipsed sometimes clouded but it will break forth again those that have their eyes enlightned shall see it though the blinde discern not between day and night light and darkness the greatest part of the world know not what it is to have the Sun of righteousness to arise in their hemisphere But it is the greatest grief to a believer that ever befell him in his life to have the face of his beloved to be clouded from him and his sun to set at noon then he goes with the spouse seeking him sorrowing did ye see him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3.3 when they seek him and cannot finde him when they call him and he gives them no answer Cant. 5.6 they seek from ordinance to ordinance from Minister to Minister and enquire after him every room in the house may witness their moan and their complaint but when they finde they rejoyce with the Martyr Oh Austin he is come he is come oh my soul how stands the case with thee art thou apprehensive of the approaches and departures of God from thy soul dost thou rejoyce in his presence as these poor flowers in the presence of their beloved dost thou mourn at his absence as they do and hide thy head dost thou hunger and thirst after him as the thirsty man for drink or the thirsty land for drops of rain if thou make little matter of him it is a signe thou hast little benefit by him or little love to him or never knewest what it was to have communion with him he is the chiefest of ten thousand therefore the virgins love him get as strong an apprehension of his love to thee and thine to him as possibly thou canst this will keep the soul from stragling thou wilt never leave him whom thou lovest and he will never leave one that loves him his withdrawings are but to try thy affections and he oft loves dearly those he seems to loathe if thou forsake not him he will never forsake thee and an evidence of his love will bear up the heart above trouble the Psalmist when he was so troubled that he could not speak yet comforted himself in considering the days of old and the years of ancient times and calling to his remembrance his songs in the night Psal 77.4 5 6. when there is a calm and tranquillity in the soul examine thy self by Scripture-evidences whether there be the truth of grace in thy soul or no and if thou finde it lay up these records against a stormy-day when the sun is clouded and out of sight then when thou canst not reade thy own heart or see grace in thy soul yet maist thou say at such a time in such a place I examined my self by such and such marks grounded upon such and such Scriptures and plainly and impartially judged my graces were true now true grace cannot be lost and therefore I know there is fire though under the ashes and true grace though buried under corruption and he that then loved me will love me to the end yea with an everlasting love oh my God assist me in this work of examination and not only give
saw whereever life is in the root it will shew forth it self in the branches oh my soul thou hast had a long and sharp winter what effect hath in wrought in thee thou hast lain in the furnace of affliction is thy dross consumed or is it not I have been under pining sickness brought to the gates of death yet hath God said to me live I have been threatned with pinching wants yet more frightned then hurt and when stript of all God let me see that he could make provision and was able to provide and furnish a table in the wilderness the barrel of meal wasted not and the cruse of oyl did not fail God blessed a little and it sufficeth when I was driven from friends and relations he raised me up friends more true then many of my relations and in due time he said to me as sometime to Jacob Gen. â—2 9 return into thy own countrey and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee sometimes I have been under a cloud and then again the cloud hath been scattered and the sun hath broke out again many have been the dispensations of providences I have been under oh my soul how dost thou answer Gods expectations in these providences affliction springs not out of the dust neither doth trouble rise out of the ground is there evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it whoever is the instrument God hath a hand in the work whoever be the rod it is he that layes it on it hath a voice and we should hear it he hath an end and that is thy reformation dost thou answer his end if the rod be removed before the childe be reformed either he intends to get a bigger rod or leaves thee off as incorrigible which is the sorest judgement The winter now is past and the singing of birds is come the earth and all things therein look lovely and each vegetable where life is discovers it and is it only winter with thee and doth no fruit appear God justly may say to thee as of the fruitless fig-tree never fruit grow more on thee for ever if all his labour be lost and all his expectations frustrated and all his plowing sowing and manuring vain he will say of thee as sometimes of his vineyard what could I have done more for him then I have done wherefore then when I expected fruit doth he bring forth wilde grapes canst imagine God will always bear with a barren fruitless tree in his orchard or an unprofitable unfaithfull servant in his house or a hard and stony heart that neither summers sun nor winters frost can work upon neither judgements nor mercies mollify many a year he hath been seeking fruit and findeth none and yet hath been prevailed with to try thee one year more but his patience will not long bear with thee if reformation prevent not the sentence will ere long be past cut him down why cumbers he the ground many a time the sun hath shone with a favourable aspect upon thee and many a time the dew of heaven hath been showred down many a faithfull skilfull husbandman hath been sent to dress thee and manure thee and must Christ when he seeks fruit still meet with disapointments art thou so hard and rocky that no furnace will melt thee nor hammer break thee or bring the into form meet for his building then must thou be thrown out amongst the rubbish Oh my God this is my condition by nature but thou canst change my nature thou hast a furnace will melt me and bring me into any form thou hast a hammer can break me and fit me for thy work thou canst soften me and make me pliable thou canst take away the stony heart and give me a heart of flesh Lord is it not thy promise make it good to me blow upon my soul and the graces of thy spirit will bud and break forth speak the word and my soul shall live Lord teach me thy self and leave me not to the teaching of man there is no other can reach the heart they speak only to the ear Upon a withering knot of herbs 30. Med. WHen I beheld a knot of herbs mixt with flowers in the garden in a decaying withering condition some part dead others languishing and but a few alive and flourishing I left off weeding dressing cutting and manuring them as those that never were likely to answer my pains or recompence my labour but considering there were some living which were likely to be choaked with weeds if let alone and disregarded I transplanted them into better soil leaving the dead ones to themselves for the fire or any other use I mattered them not I considered then how gastly and unseemly the place was when the living herbs were removed what a confused heap and worthless piece it was of no profit pleasure or benefit the thoughts of this strait brought to my minde that as I had dealt with these withering herbs and flowers so God oftentimes doth by a withering Church some of them he takes into his bosome others he transplants and findes them a better place and then roots up the rest or reserves them for the fire or some other judgement perhaps lets them alone a while to bear a place and perhaps the name of flowers till at last they are rotten-ripe and fit for nothing but burning Thus he preserved Noah for another plot which he was about to make when he destroyed the old world which before was his garden when the plants were most dead He removed Lot into another soil when he rooted up his garden in Sodom he would not fence a place for so few living herbs but laid it waste and burnt it up he transplanted Abraham from the place of his nativity and found room by his providence for Isaac and Jacob whose posterity he transplanted into Egypt where for a long time they did thrive and prosper till in the end overrun with weeds briars and thorns he transplanted Israel into Canaan and cast the Egyptians those dead and worthless plants those weeds and thorns into the Red-sea and since that time hath laid waste many a garden which formerly did flourish when they withered and decayed witness the seven famous Churches of Asia mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters and suffereth briars and thorns to overrun the places I considered that when God removes his own plants either into his bosome or elsewhere it is time for the other to look about them Esay 57.1 the righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evill to come When Gods jewels are removed his care of that place is over when his flowers are gone he will pluck up his hedge and throw down his wall and let it be eaten up and troden down he will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged and there shall come up briars and thorns and he will command
the clouds that they rain no rain upon it Esay 5.5 6. and how gastly doth that place look which is thus fore-let and forsaken by God This consideration made me think it is time for England to look about them gray hairs are here and there upon us yet we consider it not Hosea 7.9 we may see many a withering branch and dying Christian amongst us fetching the last gasp that formerly seemed flourishing fat and in good liking when men employ not their talents well no wonder if God take from them that which they seemed to have this is verified in many that have had fresh and fragrant parts and gifts and have formerly excelled others but these parts are withered for want of use and the diligent Christian formerly below them now excels them and the unprofitable servant is reserved for utter darkness and how ill favoured do those look that are thus withered nay have we not great cause to fear God is leaving his garden in England seeing he hath transplanted so many of his choisest flowers into America and of late hath taken so many into his own bosome and there are so few left that really flourish and so many are on the dying hand and reall holiness and the power of godliness is so scarce oh my soul art not thou one of these dead or at least withering plants art thou fallen from thy first love where are the love of thy espousals or these affections and the zeal manifested in thy younger years hath thy age encreased thy wisdome and is that seen in growing more strange with thy God and more luke-warm in his service and in having less care of thy soul and in taking less pains for heaven time was thou wast more fresh and flourishing and like to a green bay-tree but now thou growest old and dry and little sap and vigour doth appear is this the fruit of all the pains God hath bestowed upon thee is it to make thee more dry and barren the trees of righteousness planted by the rivers of water should never want fruit nor leaf yea should bring forth fruit to old age yea thy fruit in age may be expected to be more and mellower ripened by age and a more mature judgment thou hast born the burthen and heat of the day and wilt thou now quit the vineyard or cease and slack thy work when thou shouldst come and receive thy wages if thou turn back Gods soul will have no pleasure in thee if thou put thy hand to the plow and look back thou art not fit for the kingdom of heaven neither will thy righteousness be remembred in thy sin thou shalt dye thou art ready to go off the Stage of the world and wilt act thy last scene worst and be hist at in the end wilt thou lose all the pains that ever thou hast taken in heavens way and at last remit thy zeal when thou shouldst double thy diligence is it not he that holds out to the end that shall be saved didst thou ever yet repent of any pains thou didst take for heaven and dost thou think thou shalt ever have cause to repent hereafter art thou affraid thy reward will be too great or thy crown of glory too heavy or that God will love thee too well or that thou shalt make heaven too sure if not why dost thou slack thy pace dost thou expect a better master or better work or better wages if not take heed by thy negligence lest thou force God to put thee out of his service oh my God keep my heart upright in thy service and direct my steps that I turn not aside keep me from the rage of satan that I be not captivated by him he seeks my soul to undo it and fain would make me lose my reward Lord make me faithfull to the death and then give me a crown of life Upon the unknown vertues of many vegetables 31. Med. WHen upon the strictest search and scrutiny that I could possibly make I could not finde out the natures properties vertues operations ends and uses of several vegetables and other simples nor indeed the full use vertue and benefit of any one of them and I suppose I have cause to think that the greatest artist in natures garden cannot do it nay if all pretenders to this art should join heart and hand in the work and combine themselves together and use their utmost diligence yet would they fall short of making a perfect discovery of it though I know every age makes some further progress in it then the preceding did yet very many things lie hid from the choisest wits this made me admire the wisdome of the Creator that hath made nothing in vain and hath put such admirable vertues into such despicable weeds that did we know their worth we should prize them at a higher rate that now we despise and if we cannot finde out the vertues and operation of those things which we are every day conversant with no wonder if we are ignorant of God of the Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ and those more abstruce points of Religion more remote from our sences and above our capacity he that cannot attain to know the nature of his own soul no wonder if he be ignorant of the nature of angels my thoughts upon this account roved further and I considered several small seeds so much resembling one another that my eye could scarcely difference them the one from the other and yet I saw when those were sown together in the same plot nourisht in the same mould refreshed with the same Sun and watered with the same showers they produced plants much differing in nature colour scent quantity quality vertue and operations this made me cry out the finger of God that hath put such vertues in so small despicable seeds it minded me also of the Apostles words God hath given to every seed his own body 1 Cor. 15.38 wheresoever these vegetables are sown planted or replanted still the species are continued neither do they degenerate into another kinde When I considered that such efficacy and vertue should be virtually included in so small a seed I thought it matter of admiration yea that so small a thing as a nut or acorn or the kernel of an apple or pear should produce so great a tree of so vast a bulk as the Oak the apple-tree or the pear-tree this made me to admire the wisdom power and providence of the great God which Christ himself seems to take notice of in the mustard seed which being so very small produceth a plant of such a bigness that the birds build their nests in the branches this minded me also of the nature of grace and sin which from small beginnings come to great perfection and whereever they are they become fruitful grace proceeds from a grain to a tree and as a little leaven leaveneth the lump so grace encreaseth till it makes a universal change in the whole man it makes a man
rather comfort It is not always those that can speak loudest that speaks best but he that speaks wisest the empty barrel makes the greatest sound that Sermon 〈◊〉 not always best that hath most gaudy notions and rhetorical flourishes but that which savours most of Christ and the divine Eloquence of his holy spirit he is the best preacher that woos for Christ and not for himself and would set the crown upon his head and not his own it is not the best physitian that speaks most latine greek and hebrew but he that gives the surest and safest directions to recover health it is not the tickling of the fancy a preacher should so much minde as to speak convincingly to the conscience oh my soul judge not by the outward but the inward qualification neither cover hypocrisy by a mask of seeming sincerity for God will ere long pluck off such vizors slight no man meerly upon the account of poverty for God thinks never the worse of them admire no man meerly for his riches for God thinks never the better of him this is but to worship a golden calf the time is coming that the king must leave his robes behinde him and the beggar his rags and it is the inward qualifications that must distinguish between the one and the other Dives and Lazarus when they come to stand on even ground shall by these be tried and so must all by what means or titles soever they have been dignifyed distinguished or called it is our works and worth not our wealth will follow us whereever tâ—ou seest Christ in any own him for God will own him esteem grace in the soul more then money in the purse and the robes of righteousness above the most costly jewels a drachm of grace is worth thousands of gold and silver for thy councellors take the wisest not the wealthiest for wisdom and wealth many times dwell not together in the same house esteem that preacher best that speaks home to the heart and conscience not him that seeks to tickle the ear and please the fancy he that woos for Christ and not for himself and seeks to put the crown upon his head and not his own esteem that Sermon best where thou findest most of Christ and not that which is drest with gaudy notions and rhetorical flourishes which serve to darken and not illustrate the matter and are as king James was wont to say like red and blew flowers fine to look upon good for little but pester the corn a diseased man had rather have medicum sanantem quam eloquentem one that will rather do well then speak well oh my God should I cover my prophanness or hypocrisy with the vizor of seeming holiness thou wilt soon discover it and unmask me for thou searchest the heart and triest the reins and all things are open and apparent to thee Lord give me sincerity and truth in the inward part for this is thy gift make me such as thy own soul delights in let me not be deceived by my own deceitful heart nor think to deceive others for I cannot deceive thy all-seeing eye Upon the constant supply the vegetables need 33. Med. WHen I seriously considered that these beautiful creatures which now adorn the earth with their flowers and enamel it with their various shapes and colours and enrich it with their odours vertues and operations yet without a constant supply of mans labour pains and diligence and also of the influences of the heavens they would soon wither die and come to nothing some of them must be yearly set or sown or transplanted others preserved both from heat and cold and all need some manure care and pains weeding watering fencing or other cares this minded me of the condition of all earthy delights or enjoyments they must be renewed or they will soon vanish all things by sin are become subject to decay there is a vicissitude of earthly comforts and a constant change Mans life cannot be preserved without food and physick and other necessaries the four Elements fire air earth and water are so necessary that if eâ—â—her be denied mans life is at an end the houses we dwell in must be repaired or they will soon come to ruine and fall about our ears The most famous fabricks that ever the Sun saw are come to ruine The Piramides of Egypt the walls of Carthage the tomb of Mansolus or if there were any thing more famous or more durable yet time hath consumed and brought it to a ruinous heap the most impregnable castle the most invincible strong-hold if not repaired by labour and industry time levels with the ground we cannot say now of our garments as Moses of Israels cloaths Deut. 8.4 thy rayment waxed not old neither did thy foot swell this forty years it was not the worse for the wearing but as some imagine probably it grew as their bodies did they needed not to trouble themselves with anxious thoughts what to eat or what to drink or wherewith to be cloathed God brought them food to their tent-doors and provided rayment without their care or pains but with us all such comforts must be renewed with care and diligence with a care of the head though not of the heart or they will quickly be gone this consideration made me think what a great deal of confusion sin had brought into the world and subjected all things to vanity and vexation of spirit every thing saith Solomon is full of labour for as it brought death into the world so likewise all other miseries had it not been for sin we had never had aking head or aking heart or loss or cross or any thing to molest us and now every thing becomes a trouble man is born to trouble saith Job as the sparks fly upwards yet alass how doth the world bewitch men that they had rather be drudges and savages here and moil and toil and cark and care and live as it were in a dungeon and work as in the very fire then die and come to God this they make their portion this is their delight and all that they care for they sell their ease their pleasure and their very souls oh earth how dost thou bewitch us O satan how dost thou infatuate us oh heart how dost thou deceive us what disappointments doth foolish men meet with here and yet will take no warning we never did finde content and yet we are always promising our selves happinesse here where never any yet could finde it alass what proportion is there between a piece of gold and an immortal soul Oh my soul canst thou love this sin which hath brought all this misery and confusion into the world canst thou hug this viper in thy bosome which will sting thee to eternal death if not kil'd and mortified and canst thou place thy happiness in these vanishing perishing and withering vanities will these serve thy turn or boot thy needs or make thee happy can they pay thy debts or save thy
soul alass they cannot they cannot procure thee one days respite out of hell or one days freedome from sickness or from death they cannot give thee any satisfaction here for content grows not in the worlds garden there are indeed joys worth having pleasures worth minding and riches worth labouring for happiness that shall never have an end that are not subject to changes nor vicissitudes as earthly enjoyments are but they are to be sought for above in the enjoyment of God in whose presence alone true happiness dwells The happiness the world promiseth are meer delusions a little honey and many stings a little bitter sweet pleasures that perisheth ere it bud in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heaviness their joy is but like the crackling of thorns under a pot soon in soon out if thou wilt trade let it be in a surer commodity and not with the merchant have fortunam rudentibus aptam thy estate depending winde and weather if thou wilt be planting let it be in a better soil and not where thorns and thistles are like to be thy reward there is a treasure to be had a pearl of great price to be bought Mat. 13.44 45. whosoever deals in these cannot lose by them in comparison of which pearls and diamonds and precious rubies are not to be named these are they that make the soul rich all other riches doth it no good this makes it rich to God and lovely comely amiable in his sight oh my God give me this treasure and it sufficeth though I have nothing else all other things I can spare Christ I cannot spare he is the breath of my life and the life of my soul let the world take their portion alass it is a miserable portion I envy them not but Lord put me not off with such pittifull poor things let me have an interest in Christ and communion with him let me lie for ever in his bosome and let the enjoyment of him be my portion let me be an inhabitant in the city of pearl where no dirty dog shall tread upon the pavement my heart pants after this as the chased hart after the water-brooks when Lord shall I come and appear before thee come Lord Jesus come quickly Upon the sudden withering of flowers 34. Med. WHen I beheld the beauty splendour and glory of several herbs and flowers and other vegetables when they were in their pride and in their prime and invited all eyes to behold them and to do them homage and when I considered withall how short-lived they were how soon they withered vanished and perished and their glory passed away and came to nothing I thought this was a fit embleme to set forth humane frailty and the worlds glory by for both are transitory and vain for man himself who is Lord of these flowers he soon fades and is withered as a flower yea many times in the flower of his age how frequently doth the Scripture compare man to the grass and to the flower of the field which this day flourisheth and to morrow fadeth their glorious beauty is as a fading flower and as the hasty fruit before the summer c. Esay 28.1 4. all flesh is grass and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass the grass withereth and the flower fadeth away 1 Pet. 1.24 man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble he cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not Job 14.1 2. Now they are fresh and flourishing and sudenly they decline now in the heigth of youthfull vanity and sudenly they pass away and the place that knew them shall know them no more if they live cares and fears sickness and old age succeed of which they are forc't to say they have no pleasure in them death it self many times calls men off the stage when they think they have but begun to act their parts and puts an exit to them and their work is done and their part ended But suppose life were more certain yet our earthly enjoyments and our happiness here are transitory and vain and all the felicity the world brags of is but a meer fancy and a very cheat at the best it is but a mixture of sweet and sowr a little honey and a great deal of gall and the end of that mirth is heaviness if the happiness be such what is the misery man himself is but a bubble how great soever he may seem and with what titles soever he be dignified and soon shall he be prickt by death and the winde let out and then a great bubble and a little one cannot be distinguished and all the pleasures which vain man takes in all his youthful follies is but like a bush of thorns and wisp of straw on fire make a sudden blaze and is forthwith extinguished they make a noise for a while and then vanish into smoak youthfull pleasures are soon over and carking care treads out their steps and old age makes them forgotten youth is like young lambs they leap and frisk awhile while they have the dug to run to when they are hungry but when they are once weaned and set to shift for themselves the sport is over so youth under their parents providence minde their sports but when once at their own provision cares and pains spoil the mirth and make it little minded The world also frowns and smiles upon the same man many times the same day and useth him as a tennisball now lifts him up and sudenly casts him down raiseth him to the top of honour and then plungeth him into the gulph of disgrace Now it shews him abundance of riches and then pincheth him with extremity of poverty now it mixeth him a cup with pleasure and presently fills it with gall and wormwood that which the world calls pleasures and for which so many sell their souls are but like those of the drunkard that last but while he is swallowing the drink and then succeeds belchings and vomitings sickness and sorrow wallowing in the mire and such like or like that of the adulterer which is often attended with pains aches rottenness filthy diseases not fit to be named and death it self and indeed these two beastly sins have much of that which the world calls pleasure but the effects shew it is wrong named sickness succeeds health and deformity beauty sorrow treads upon the heels of pleasure and adversity follows prosperity and there is a vicissitude and change in all humane affairs he is a stranger in the world that knows not these things David tells us Psal 37 35. I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and lo he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found whether he have reference to Saul and his family I know not yet in the next generation how was his
then a woman can do builds a finer house then a man can do in manner and form like an Emperours tent she draws her web out of her own bowels When I had a while pleased my self with the curiosity of the work and commended the diligence of the workman I began to consider what her end might be of all this pains or what benefit did accrue to her by this her diligence I could guess at no other or at least no higher an end then to make a net to catch flys which I saw became her prisoners when otherwise she could not take them and when they were in her power she proved their mortal enemy few escaping her with life I perceived that when the Bee laboureth to preserve life her work was to destroy I thought when I had considered it her work did much resemble the devils for he like the spider is ever busy and never well employed he goes about like a roaring lyon seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 he envies man the happiness that he lost he is that venimous spider that poysons us his very breath is infectious the nets and snares are his temptations and poor souls are the flys he hunts for which fall faster into his nets then flys do into the spiders webs and when they are at his mercy nothing will serve but their death and utter destruction he like a cunning Fisher baits his hooks and like a fowler spreds his nets to catch unwary souls and spares none high nor low rich nor poor young nor old fair nor foul but he hath one bait or other suited to their condition he attemps all Christ himself not excepted for whom he prepared one of his choisest seldom failing baits all this will I give thee but all in vain his wilde-fire fell upon wet tinder although a thousand times ten thousand have been taken with it yet like a great fly he broke through and spoil'd the web and by the strength of the Captain Christian souldiers also break his nets repell his temptations and become more then conquerors he yet infects a great part of the world with the poyson of this temptation and it is a rare man that escapes sometimes yea too frequently he baits his hooks with a beautifull woman and is too successful thus he fisht for a strong Sampson with a beautiful Dalilah for a holy David with a Bathshebah and wise Solomon was oft deceived by this bate and swallowed this hook sometimes he catcheth men with a golden hook thus he did Achan Judas Ananias and Saphira with Dâ—â—as and many others sometimes he baits with honours and then ambitious Herod will soon bite as also Haman Achitophel and many more sometimes with pleasures and then the youth are in danger A poor withering gourd is a temptation to Jonah and makes him quarrel with God himself friends and relations often prove sore temptations and dangerous snares to a man a beloved husband a dear wife a cockered childe a near and dear relation ofttimes are made use of to undo those to whom the greatest love is pretended Jobs wife though she could not prevail to ruine him yet she proved a heavy burthen to him but Spira's relations undid him in making him to deny Christ Peter that great Apostle was an offence to Christ himself in advising him to spare himself and not to suffer no doubt by the instigation of satan but Christ answers him with indignation get thee behinde me satan thou art an offence to me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16.23 he easily saw the devil in a beloved friend and many times satan speaks to us by them many times a professed Christian yea one good man is a snare to another leading them into errours or factions but of all the baits the devil uses riches honours and pleasures are the surest and seldomest fail him by this he often buys mens souls and hath their profession out of their hands into the bargain meat and drink are necessaries yet many mens tables becomes their snare Cloathes are needful but this also proves a temptation to pride learning and parts also which are great ornaments to the minde become dangerous snares yea what can be named but may be abused and what enjoyment can we have but the devil will fly-blow it grace it self is not free nay humility sometimes proves an excitement to pride O the subtilty of satan that can thus cheat the soul and fly-blow all our duties and oh the mercy of a merciful Saviour that hath broke the nets of this cunning hunter or otherwise none could ever have escaped out of his hands oh my soul beware of those snares which are spread for thy feet in every place in every company in every enjoyment and in every duty walk as circumspectly as thou wouldst do amidst snakes and serpents or enemies that sought thy life sleep not in the cradle of security listen not to the Syren-songs of the inchanting world taste not touch not gaze not upon any forbidden fruit the devil will deceive thee by it as he did Eve though it seem sweet in the mouth it will be gravel in the stomack be moderate in the use of lawfull things or they will prove unlawful drink not poyson in a golden cup set not thy affections upon any earthly enjoyment they will prove like Dalilahs to betray thee into thy enemies hands oh my God I walk among snares and am apt to be taken in them be thou my guide and direct my steps preserve me from the snare of the fouler he is too cunning for me but thou knowest how to deliver me and to preserve my soul from sinning and my feet from falling Upon small flys caught in a spiders web 49. Med. WHen I had veiwed the spiders web and seriously considered the end it was made for which as I said seemed to me to be principally if not only to catch flys and to captivate those little creatures which otherwise were too quick for her I then observed the event and whether this little fowler could this way be recompensed for all the pains she had taken I saw upon diligent observation how small flys were taken and made a prey to their poysonous enemy who paid their ransome with their lives yet whether they were the food she fed upon or whether it were an innate antipathy in her to them that thus she sought their destruction I was not well able to discern but withall I observed that the great flys brake through the net and sometimes bare away both the weaver and the web as Sampson did the gates and posts of Gaza and so the workman and the work were like to perish together this minded me of the saying of the Psalmist Psal 9.15 16. the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands the heathen are sunk down into the pit that they made in the net that they hid is their own foot taken I considered that
also that rob the poor will be found to reproach their maker Pro. 14.31 God is the poor mans king and he will defend him destroy his enemies and will not suffer the injuries offered them to be unpunished winter will come when these wasps will dye oh my God suffer me not now to feed upon those morfels that I must chew for ever in hell if I have but little let it not be with a curse Upon the painted Butterfly 57. Med. WHen I observed the curious gaudy dress of the painted butterfly her various colours and her specious shew and took notice how she spent her time in paint and plaister and all to adorn her self and make her seem beautiful when the laborious Bee improved her time to better ends and purposes viz. to provide in summer for winter and to gather her food in the harvest I considered also that notwithstanding all this paint this proud creature was but a poor infect nay an unprofitable creature doing hurt but no good and when I caught her to take a further view she did but foul my fingers I considered also what would be the end of this so proud so sluggish and so useless a creature and found against winter she put her head into a hole and died and there was the end of all her bravery when the painfull Bee hath her life preserved by her dilligence this made me think that this creature did much resemble many of the Gallants of our times especially of the female sex though others may take it ill if they be excluded which are good for little but to paint and dress and spend their time as vainly as ever the butterfly doth these content not themselves with their own native beauty or with the form and fashion God made them in but cast themselves into another mould and take upon them another shape then God made them and it is to be feared God will never own them for his when they are thus transformed or rather deformed themselves with their own hands and what is the reason of all this paint and plaister but to make traps to catch fools their hair are snares to catch men as the fisher of his hairs makes lines to catch fish or as the spiders web is to take flys for if there be no wine in the cellar why hangs the bush what doth this gaudy dress signifie but a lascivious minde and to let the world know in what ware they deal and how welcome such a motion that brings profit or pleasure with it would be to them and like the signe at the ale-house-door promises entertainment for money what doth this gawdy dress signify less then a lascivious minde when they spend great part of their time in attiring painting dressing and spotting themselves this is their morning devotion and their afternoon service is not much unlike for that is mostly spent in sports and merryments in plays and interludes in idle visits or perhaps worse employments the devil many times makes use of these gaudy flys to fish for souls wherewith he baits his hooks and many unwary youths are caught with these lime-twigs Is it not a wonder that any of Adams sons or Eves daughters and yet both sexes are guilty should take more pains for hell then others do for heaven yea and be at more cost and care also for pride is more costly then humility yea is it not a wonder to see persons pride in that which is the fruit of sin and a cover to shame viz. their cloaths which usually are but the excrements of beasts or insects or at least of as poor an original this is a sure signe of a worthless piece to be like a bubblâ— or bladder blown up with a little winde how many are there that are like the Cinamon-tree the bark is better then the body yea sometimes the cloaths are better then all the estate besides Many that are ashamed of their deformity yet when their crooked ill-shap't bodies are covered are proud of their beauty but what will become of those at death that have spent their time in paint and spot and neglected to adorn the soul it were well with them if with the butterfly they could finde a hole to dye in that they might never more be seen but this will not be they must be seen in their own colours when all the varnish will vanish sincerity will abide the fire I fear others also are guilty of this paint and flourish as some Ministers who paint their Sermons not to profit but to please and preach not in that plain convincing way Christ and his Apostles did but woo more for themselves then for Christ and fish not for souls but for popular applause and seek not to set the crown upon Christs head but their own oh my soul beware of these three grand enemies to thy salvation pride idleness and hypocrisy where these bear sway the soul never prospers pride is the master-pock if it strike to the heart it will surely kill thee pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble Jam. 4.6 he defies those that deify themselves witness Herod and Lucifer grace grows not in high mountains but in low vallies the least degree of pride sets it self against God the highest degree sets it self above God 2 Thes 2.4 and as pride so idleness is a deadly sin pride fulness of bread and abundance of idleness were Sodoms sin and doubtless they are Englands sins also and make many thousands fall short of heaven and the time is coming hypocrisy also will appear in its own colours the paint will not abide the fire oh my God how many poor souls split themselves upon these rocks and make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience Lord keep me humble make me sincere and help me to be diligent so shall I be happy for ever Upon a gnat playing with the candle 58. Med. WHen I observed a gnat play so long with the candle that at length she burnt her wings was taken prisoner suffered for her folly paid dear for pleasure and was exposed to a cruel death even to end her life in the flames I thought this resembled poor man that so long dallies with sin and plays with the devils temptations that at last he is snared in his limetwigs and fettered in his gins and led captive by him at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26 those that he thus takes in his snares he useth worse then Sampson was used by the Philistins he puts out their eyes and then makes them grinde in his mill poor man is like a fish nibling so long at the bait till at last he swallows the hook or like the unwary bird so eagerly falls upon the prey that they are taken in the net the devil like a cunning fowler holds out the bait covers the hook and hides himself behind the bush so that they see not the hand that holds it he doth not usually
will he lay down his basket and take up his axe and say his spirit shall not always strive with man Shiloe was his house but he forsook it the temple of Jerusalem was his habitation but he left it Judah was his pleasant plant but he hath forsaken it he did walk among the seven golden candlesticks in the Churches of Asia but he hath removed those candlesticks and the Lord grant he may never give England a bill of divorce oh my soul art thou a barren branch then maist thou fear the pruning hook if thou be a barren tree thou maist fear the axe and the fire is like to be thy end if thou bear but a little fruit if God spare thee thou maist expect cutting and pruning by affliction it is better bleed then burn answer Gods ends in his afflicting thee bring forth more fruit if he take any thing from thee 't is but what thou canst well spare yea what fed some excrescence and rendred thee more useless oh my God use me as thou wilt only cut me not down for the fire our me and prune me at thy pleasure but forsake me not nor lay me waste Upon suckers in a fruit-bearing tree 78. Med. FRom those suckers before observed in a fruit-bearing tree I had also this following meditation for observing how they grew rank by the nourishment that should have fed the tree and loftily lift up the head above them and suckt that sap that should have made other branches to bear and as they were unprofitable themselves so they rendred the rest almost useless I thought they much resembled some new upstart opinions which some unwary professors espouse to themselves and because they differ from others they therefore think themselves more holy then their neighbours and hold their heads higher and verily believe growing in opinion is growing in grace In Arragon there were some hereticks who called themselves the illuminati as if they only had been in the light and all the world besides had been in darkness the Gnosticks would be the only knowing men the Manichees thought whatsoever they taught was food from heaven and the Family of Love boast of their Evangelium regni and of late the Ranters and Quakers boast of the infallible conduct of the spirit Now those opinions are ofttimes the brats of their own brain and many times pernicious errours or at least unprofitable things or matters of no great concernment yet they being thus espoused they suffer these opinions to suck all the sap that should maintain the vitalls of Religion that the whole tree is thereby rendred useless and unprofitable How many are there in our age that might have brought God much glory and his Church much good who have set themselves with might and main and spent their time and their strength and laid out their zeal and all for the promoting their own opinion perhaps an errour or at best but some lesser disputable truth perhaps about some circumstance of worship when in the mean time the very fundamentals of religion are neglected and the very vitals languish for want of nourishment for seldome do you see a wrangling Christian eminent in the power of godliness Many men when they have espoused an opinion make provision to maintain it they subject not their opinions to the rule but bring the rule to them and make it truckle under them for it is victory and not truth that many seek and therefore they spend their time and strength this way yea shut their eyes against all that makes not for them they are as zealous for their opinion as if the whole of religion consisted in it and as if they could hardly be Christians which were not of their minde when perhaps for sixteen hundred years they cannot finde a man of their judgement and all this while forgetting that the power of godliness and an holy life is the main of religion for whatever is in the brain if this be not in the heart all is worth nothing these mens knowledge floating in the brain makes them top-heavy but by reason of some obstructions their knowledge sinks not down into nor seasons the heart or the life Many are like the two men in the fable that contended about the shadow of the ass they had found who should go in it in a hot day till at last while they contended the ass got loose and escaped or like the dog in the fable that catching at the shadow lost the substance so these contend about trifles and neglect the main they are like children that have the rickets the head grows too big for the body the head thrives but the whole body pines they spend so much of their strength and zeal for externals that they neglect the internals they have so much zeal for or against ceremonies that they neglect the substance yet mistake me not my designe is not to make men careless in lesser points but more carefull in greater I would not have them think any sin small or to neglect any known duty but I would have them proportion their zeal according to the weight of the matter and not spend it all upon lesser matters and neglect the main concerns I would have no man neglect his little finger yet would I have him in the first place secure his head and heart he may be a man if he want his little finger but not without his head and his heart he may be a Christian though he erre about the modes and circumstances of worship but he cannot without holiness and sincerity some Christians are like the Salamander always in the fire of contention but these mens graces rather then corruptions are like to be burnt I like not those men that moddle religion in their own brain and make their own conceptions the center of unity and like Procrustes make his own bed fit all comers Let all things saith the Apostle be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 a necessary rule but so extremely wrackt that I conceive through mens corruption it hath produced more indecency and disorder then any one Scripture besides the Papists and others making this the foundation of all their needless ceremonies but to return to the point in hand my desire and designe is to perswade men to maintain the vitalls of Religion in the first place and let the strength of their zeal be laid out here and for lesser points if disputable let every man be satisfied in his own conscience and grant some allowance to others that differ in their judgements till they themselves are infallibly sure that they hold no errors take Christs counsel Mat. 7.1 judge not that you be not judged for with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again many men are quick-sighted abroad but blinde at home reade also the Apostles counsel Rom. 14.1 2 3. c. Oh my soul spend not thy time and strength in trifles when thou
dead soul to God though the unsavoury smell of it be not perceived by natural men for how can one dead man smell another you may as well expect good fruit from a dead tree as any good action from a dead man perhaps something good for the matter may be done by a natural man as prayer fasting and almes-deeds from the Pharisees but the manner or ends spoil all but he that can say to dry bones live can say to a dead soul live and he that at the first brought light out of darkness can enlighten a darkned understanding The soul can act nothing truly good or acceptable to God till it be taken off the stock of nature and planted into that generous vine Christ then will it bear good fruit when it is nourished with sap from this root it must needs germinate and bring forth but without this there is neither bud nor blossome the soul by nature brings forth briars and brambles thorns and thistles weeds and baggage for to these it is not dead but only to good works these other are the fruits of the curse and these will choak the good seed and render it unprofitable the heart is alive to those but dead to grace and holiness of natural men God saith their vine is the vine of Sodom and of the field of Gomorrha their grapes are grapes of gall and their clusters are bitter their wine is the poyson of dragons and the cruel venime of asps their works yea their best works are pernitious the vine is their corrupt nature and the grapes their evil works which proceed from this vine their spot is not the spot of Gods people Deut. 32.5 the saints have their spots but these are not like theirs they are not so deeply ingraven wicked mens spots are like the Leopards not only in the skin but in the flesh yea in the very heart and therefore can be cured by none but Christ the great Physitian they cannot be cured by the art of man or washt away by any water the sin of the saints is but like the viper on Pauls hand through Gods mercy they hurt him not how many of these dead trees may we observe among us yea how few that be alive and few bear so much as a leaf they make no profession of Religion at all but deform the place where they are and procure a curse upon it I fear it may be said of England in a spiritual sence as once it was said of Egypt there was not a family that there was not some dead person in it and I fear there are very few free amongst us nay are not most familyes all thus spiritually dead and it appears they are dead when after twenty years dressing pruning watering and manuring and that by the most skilfull husbandmen who have spent their time their strength and their lives in the work yet they do not bring forth one leaf much lesse any good fruit and there is none can cure them but he that can put life into them and say to a dead soul live and can transplant them from the stock of nature into that noble vine Christ that they are dead is apparent for their souls have all the symptoms of death upon them they have neither heat nor breath nor sence nor motion if God call they hear not if his hand be stretched out they observe it not if a load of sin ly upon them as heavy as a mountain of lead they feel it not nor the deep gashes sin makes in the soul present before a dead man the bloudiest spectacle that ever was beheld or the pleasantest sight that ever was seen all is one he sees neither the one nor the other the roaring cannon and the sweetest musick is all one the sweetest savour and the fulsomest stink he cannot difference the lightest feather and the heaviest mountain signify the same the sweetest meat and the rankest poyson and why because he is dead no more can a dead soul judge of spiritual things promises and threatnings are all alike he is moved neither with the one or with the other oh my soul this hath been thy case thou hast been spiritually dead dead in trespasses and sins thou hast been spiritually deaf and dumb and blinde and lame and if it be better with thee bless God for it for it was he and not thy self put life into thee bring forth now fruit sutable to a tree that hath life that is transplanted into Christ that hath had such planting dressing and manuring as thou hast had that Gods labour be not lost upon thee oh my God remove those obstructions that hinder me from bearing fruit and purge me that I may bring forth more fruit put life into me and I shall live Upon a tree seemingly dead in winter 84. Med. WHen I observed in the winter-season those trees formerly green and flourishing and richly laden not with leaves only but good fruit but now were stript of all and had neither leaf nor fruit but lookt withered dead and dry and no difference appeared between the fruitfull and the barren yea scarce any between the living and the dead yet in the spring following when the sun shone upon them with a more direct ray and warm beams and the rain from heaven watered them and refresht them they revived sprung again budded bloomed and bare fruit I thought this did lively resemble a poor deserted souls condition in her widowhood when her husband hath forsaken her and seems to give her a bill of divorce when the sun of righteousness is either set upon her clouded or ecclipst or at least very remote from her sight then with the Marigold she droops hangs the head and is contracted into her self it is then winter with her and little difference appears between her and a dead soul at least in her own apprehensions when God hides his face from the soul or any thing interposes between them that she cannot see him then is she in a languishing condition and crys out with the spouse did ye see him whom my soul loveth Cant. 3.3 she cannot hide this fire in her bosome or conceal this love but it will break out then she goes from one Ordinance to another from one Minister to another enquiring after her husband Christ every corner of the house can witness her moan for his absence nothing will satisfie nothing will content but him give me Christ or else I die never did hungry man more earnestly desire meat nor thirsty man desire drink or Rachel desire children then an hungry soul desires Christ But when the sun of righteousness doth arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 the soul that before was cold and chill now becomes lively and active these cherishing rays make her bud and bloom and bring forth what Job speaks of a tree seemingly dead and withered yet saith he through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant Job 14.7 c. is really true of
be but a trouble so may a great estate to a godly man I might have like that young man mentioned Mat. 19.20 c. parted with Christ for a trifle had he had but a small estate who knows but he might have proved a true convert he cheapens heaven bids fair for it but they disagreed about the price a great estate breaks the bargain as in the world it breaks many a marriage the persons like and love but the womans portion will not answer the mans estate this occasioned Christ to tell us how hard a thing it was for a rich man to be saved Mat. 19.24 it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God most mens honours change their manners and they are the worse for their wealth if heaven be to be had upon no other terms many will refuse it they would be gainers by their religion however they resolve to lose nothing many like Diana's Craftsmen get their living by it they will launch no further into the deep then they may return safe to the shore many come to Christ hastily as this young man but return heavily when they hear the rate All men love Abrahams bosome but few men love Dives door all men love the jewel but few will go to the price all men would have the crown but they love not the cross that leads to it Most men especially great ones will meddle with no more religion then will do them good or boot their needs or serve their designes they will lanch no further into the seas then they can see the shoar pride breeds in wealth as worms do in apples and he is a rich man indeed that thinks himself never the greater or never the better for his wealth oh world how hast thou deceived those that trust in thee and how hast thou bought their profession out of their hands for a trifle and hast had their souls into the bargain how many write themselves happy when they are loaden with thick clay alass what will this do for them in their greatest need poor Spira was betrayed by thee to the shipwrack of faith and a good conscience so were Judas Demas Ananias and Saphira and a thosand more these knew not the worth of the soul nor the vanity of the world that let the devil have so cheap a penyworth they grasp so greedily after gold that they lost their God and loved their sin more then their souls but what good will it do them when they want a drop of water to cool their tongues Luk. 16.24 oh my soul bless God that hath freed thee from many temptations that others are overcome by Covet not overmuch a prosperous condition lest God give it thee for thy portion scorn with the Eagle to stoop so low as to seek thy meat upon a dunghill undervalue not thy self so much as to entertain so poor a suitor as the world is when the sun of God makes love to thee who alone can pay thy debts and make thee happy thou canst not buy this gold too dear but the world thou maist and most men do when they purchase it with the bloud of their souls thou canst not over-value this jewel it is ten thousand times better then thou canst value it oh my God give me Christ and it sufficeth I need no other portion I desire no other happiness let me have him at any rate Vpon trees green in summer but stript off all in winter 86. Med. OBserving further that those trees so fair and specious so green and flourishing in the summer yet when autumn came were stript of all their gallantry and appeared bare and ill favoured dead and dry and looked not like the same they were It presently struck into my minde that this would shortly be the condition of all wicked men let their prosperity be never so great and their enjoyments in the world never so many or large the time is coming all these like leaves will fly away with the winde the nipping frost of death and the winde of affliction will make them fall some carry Lordships on their backs some Earldomes some Dukedomes and some few Kingdomes among the Clergy some carry several steeples on their backs yea some Deanaries and some Bishopricks all these are but leaves and will fall when Autumn winde blows they cannot stand a winter-blast death will level the great and the small the one with the other and the Kings head shall then shew no impression of a crown Many rich men are like sumpter-horses richly laden with gold and silver and costly gems and Jewels all the day but when night comes and come it will ere long they are stript of all turned into a dirty stable and nothing to bring off but their gal'd backs so these at death have nothing left but a gal'd conscience a pregnant example of this we have in the rich man mentioned Luk. 16.19 there was one cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day but it was but a little time before all those leaves were stript off and he had not left him one drop of water to cool his tongue and he that a little before as some imagine denyed a crumb of bread to Lazarus is now denyed a drop of water Another example we have Luk. 12.16 of a rich man that had abundance and began to sing a requiem to his soul eat drink and be merry thou hast goods laid up for many years he was a right Epicure that made his gut his God another Sardanapalus eating that in earth that Augustine saith he must digest in hell little thinking his death was so near his glass was run when he thought it was but new turned thou fool saith Christ this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose are these he was shot as a bird with the bolt while he was staring at the bow of rich men the Psalmist saith their glory will not follow them neither shall they take any thing with them Psal 49.17 then when death entreth into their lodging and knocks at their doors they may bid farewell to their well contriv'd houses sumptuous buildings pleasant gardens and delightful walks yea to all their bags of gold so painfully got so carefully kept and so warily employed even to the wounding of their consciences the hardning of their hearts and the loss of their souls then farewell all their pleasures their merry meetings and their pot companions with their drunken revels farewell then their cocks their hawks their hounds and their whores they must never more delight and recreate themselves with these for though whoremasters and whores shall burn together in hell yet shall they not there burn in lust one to the other but their company shall be their torment not their recreation all these are but leaves the wind of death will blow away Here are no may-games nor morris-dances or deluding shews to entertain
of the Chaliph of Babilon that he was shut up amidst the infinite treasures of gold silver and precious stones which he had covetously heaped together and there was starved to death by the great Cham of Cataia who yet willed him to eat and make no spare and it is no strange thing for gold and silver were never appointed or blest by God for mans sustentation food and rayment not junkets are necessary meat and drink saith Jerome are a Christians riches and well may we be content with this if we knew the want of it many poor creatures yea able Christians better then our selves have suffered much in Germany and of late years in Ireland so that dogs horses rats and mice and such like vermine were esteemed good food in the seige of Samaria there was such a famine that an asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver and the fourth part of a cab of doves dung for five pieces of silver 2 Kin. 6.25 and in Samaria and afterwards in Jerusalem the hands of the pitiful women sod their own children and eat them these were their meat in their distress 2 Kin. 6.28 Lam. 4.10 but blessed be God we know not want nor feel not sorrow but what good would all the wealth in the world do us if we wanted food Jems and Jewels would be little worth crowns and kingdomes would yield us no comfort bread would be of more worth to us then its weight in gold yet without the blessing of God this would not serve our turn or preserve our lives how then dare men provoke this God by abusing these his blessings man lives not by bread only but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Mat. 4.4 that is by every thing that God blesseth to that end if we want bread therefore let us depend upon him that can preserve us without bread as one of the Martyrs said when he was threatened to be famished if God take away my meat he can take away my hunger Psal 37.3 trust in the Lord and do good so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed one promise will do us more good then all our gold Hab. 3.17 18. though the fig-tree should not blossome and there be no fruit in the vine though the labour of the olive should fail and the field should yield no meat though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stall yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation though Hagars bottle be empty God will shew her the well though the ship be broken God will prepare a plank oh my soul trust in God for thy bodily food he that feeds the ravens will not starve the children but rest not satisfied till thy soul be fed with the bread of life oh my God on thee I depend for food both for body and soul Lord feed both and with food give a blessing that â—oth soul and body may be nourished by it The world is not a resting-place 97. Med. WHen I had been recreating my self in the garden tired with studyes and other employments I found some divertisement for a while among the various delights that there offered themselves to my sences and unbent the bow that was beginning to grow weak through over-intent studies and other imployments I passed the time for a season in the viewing and observing of Natures garden not without some delightful observations but at last night approached and my pleasures began to vanish The birds which before delighted my ears with their melodious harmony were now gone to rest and those herbs and flowers which before delighted my sences now disappeared and their various colours forms and shapes could not be distinguished but were all died in one sable colour for universal darkness had spread her sable mantle over all and every thing was stained in the same die-fat and I was left alone though in the midst of company deprived of the delights which before I had the cold air began to pierce me and the croaking frogs and toads which all this while had hid themselves from my sight were now crept forth and were like to be my bed-fellows if I lodged there and bats and owls those birds of the night were my companions this made me to consider how unpleasant this place of delights the greatest recreation I had in the world for my body would be to me at this time had I no other habitation and how unpleasant the night would be to me here I lay open to winde and weather liable to be wet with the dew of heaven and was like to have the air for my supper and with Jacob a stone for my pillow I considered now though I too often forget it the great goodness of God to the just and to the unjust to cause his sun to shine upon them one sun makes a day but the moon and all the stars make but a night but what a mercy is it then when the sun of righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings The unpleasantness of the present season to me made me pitty many poor creatures that are necessarily exposed to these and worse then these hardships as souldiers lodging in the fields yea many wandring people that in the winter-season suffer much as for those that designedly endure this life rather then expose themselves to labour are not to be pittied correction is a fitter salve for their sore but there are many aged and impotent lame and unable that should be better cared for and I fear God hath a controversy with the nation upon this account this consideration driven up to the head made me bless God this was not my condition and to fear lest my sins and unthankfulness might provoke God to make it my condition This raised my meditation a little higher and I thought with myself if this garden this place of delights be no comfortable abiding-place for the body when night comes sure then the world is no resting-place for the soul for death will come here in the day-time of life man may take some delight but the night will come when no man can work and when all these things shall vanish I must seek out for some better shelter some better lodging some better resting-place for my soul when night comes and the sun is set upon me all these delightful objects will be gone will forsake me and hide their heads and they will yeeld no delight no comfort or refreshment crowns and kingdoms dirt and dung will then be valued alike and a piece of lead will be as good as a piece of gold or an heap of diamonds these outward things can afford neither food nor physick neither lodging nor entertainment neither pleasures nor profit to the weary soul these earthly tabernacles ere long will be dissolved and these houses of clay will moulder into dust 2 Cor. 5.1 and what shall we then do if we are no
of the fruits 39. Med. AT the end of the year when I received in the crop the fruits of the earth for which I had laboured and for which I had long waited I began to consider what a poor reward this is for all my labour if I must expect no more and what a sad condition poor labouring men are in that moil and toil and cark and care and have much ado for bread to eat and cloaths to put on and this is their all yea they run in arrears to God for this also and are like to be cast into prison for ever and yet we may see the folly of the most they take no care for any other riches but frame to themselves a poor pittifull happiness in these and are never like to have any pleasure here or hereafter but what they fancy to themselves in some sinfull vanity the receiving in of these fruits of the earth as the reward of my labour put me in minde of the reward which believers shall receive at the last day at the hand of God for all the labour toil and trouble they have had which will be a better recompense then the earth can give the husbandman for his pains let us not then be weary of well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6.9 he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting ver 8. he that cares only to feather his nest store up riches fit the back and fill the belly and lets the soul sink or swim he is like to have a miserable harvest but they that sow in tears shall reap in joy he that goeth forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.5 6. Be patient therefore brethren saith the Apostle till the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth and hath long patience for it till he receiveth the early and the latter rain be you also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Jam. 5.7 8. Now believers sow the seed and water it with their tears but it is not long before the reward comes behold I come quickly saith Christ and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22.12 hold out faith and patience saith the Martyr your work will presently be at an end hope holds up the husbandmans heart and may much more the Christians these things also put me in minde of the great harvest at the end of the world when the great husbandman shall send out his servants the angels to reap down his field and gather in his corn Mat. 13.38 the field is the world the good seed are the children of the kingdom the tares are the children of the wicked one the enemy that sows them is the devil the harvest is the end of the world the reapers are the angels as therefore the tares are gathered together and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world the day is coming that all shall be brought to judgment and the precious shall be seperated from the vile the good corn shall be brought into the barn but the tares are reserved for the fire the tares and the wheat may grow together in one field but shall never lodge together in the same barn for as the tares cannot well be weeded out which in the blade some say much resemble the wheat and is hardly known till the fruit appears so though God can discern the hypocrite from the sincere yet hypocrisy may be spun with so fine a thread that the best discerning Christian can hardly do it but the time is coming the angels shall know them and they are not to go into the same garner they must be bundled up for the fire when the wheat must be brought into Gods barn oh my soul what seed hast thou sown against that harvest hast thou sown to the flesh then of the flesh thou wilt reap corruption if to the spirit thou wilt of the spirit reap life everlasting what grain art thou art thou wheat or tares then maist thou know whether thou art to go to the fire or into the garner rest not satisfied till thou know that thou art wheat and neither with the tares bring forth bad fruit nor with the chaff fly away with the winde it is not enough to have a flourishing blade so the stony ground had and yet came to nothing it is not enough to make a profession of religion so the foolish virgins did they had lamps but no oyl a profession but no grace it is not enough to have talents but thou must improve them or thou wilt be sentenced to outer darkness it is not enough to grow in the same field be manured by the same hand heated by the same sun and watered with the same showers thus the tares were but there must be good feed well-rooted springing up and bearing fruit in thy heart thou maist live under the same Minister enjoy the same ordinance with the wheat and yet still be but a tare oh my God discover my self to my self and let me not be deceived by a cunning devil and a deceitful heart if I be a tare Lord let me know it ere it be too late that I may sow better seed in my field that I may be gathered into thy barn and not be bundled up with the tares for the fire let my heart bring forth good fruit fit for the basket good wheat fit for thy barn solid wheat that may not be blown away with the winde and much fruit that I may glorify thy name let me not sow to the flesh but to the spirit that I may not reap corruption but life everlasting let me not be deceived in so great a business as the salvation of my soul Upon the beating out of the seed 40. Med. WHen I had gathered in the seed and the fruits of the earth my next work was to make a separation the good from the bad for though some separation was already made and the weeds and other trash were cast out and left behinde yet still there were stalks and husks and chaff adhering to it to this end I threshed rubbed pounded or beat it out according as I saw occasion for I saw it would not out without some violence and that which was most stubborn and gave most resistance received most blows till at length my end was obtained and the separation made this put me in minde of the necessity of affliction how needful it was for the soul which is pestered more with chaff and rubbish then any corn can be though now saith the Apostle for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations c. 1 Pet. 1.6 when the heart grows too light God makes it heavy with manifold
temptations physick sometimes is as necessary as food and conduceth more to our health the soul hath as much need of threshing and winnowing as the corn Solomon tels us Pro. 22.15 foolishness is bound up in the heart of a childe but the rod of correction will fetch it away old Ely for want of this brought up his sons to bring down his house a lesson set on with whipping is best remembred now this is true of men as well as children for corruption and folly remains in them also till God fetch it out sanctified affliction is the way to consume it It was good for me saith David that I was afflicted before I was afflicted I went astray but now I learn to keep thy Commandments Gods rod as well as his staff comforted him Psal 23.4 as corn must be threshed winnowed ground and baked before it is fit for use or good for food so by affliction men are fitted for Gods service here and for glory hereafter yet as some corn requires not so much threshing as others doth yet all must have some so some men need not so much affliction as others though some be necessary but he that gives man understanding in the one best knows what is necessary for the other Isay 28.24 doth the plowman plow all day to sow doth he open and break the clods of his ground when he hath made plain the face thereof doth he not cast abroad the fetches and scatter the cummin and the appointed barly and rye in their place for his God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him for the fetches are not threshed with a threshing-instrument neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin but the fetches are beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod bread-corn is bruised c. he that gives man wisdom shall not he understand the great husbandman that instructs others will not lay on more stroaks or heavier then needs must the goldsmith suffers not his gold to lie in the furnace one hour longer then is requisite God observes when his work is done upon Mount-Zion and then will punish the stout heart of the King of Assiria Esay 10.12 we are apt to be playing in the dust and minde not our fathers house and till we are frightned or beaten we shall not return home but minde our sport the prodigal mindes not his father while he had any thing left to eat oh death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that lives at ease in his possession and hath nothing to vex him but hath prosperity in all things Ecclus 41.1 physick as I said is sometimes as necessary as food and sickness as health and poverty as plenty we are apt to surfet on sweet-meats our heavenly father who is the best physitian knows best what is best for us were we to choose our food and our physick we should kill our selves sometimes he prepares a diet-drink for us and mixeth it with our tears Psal 42.3 my tears have been my meat day and night Psal 80.4 5. O Lord God of hosts how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people thou feedest them with the bread of tears and givest them tears to drink in great measure he also seasoneth it with their groans to many he prescribes also a spare diet for every man cannot bear a prosperous estate no more then every mans head can bear much wine oh my soul matter not though thou be thresht and winnowed and ground and bak't so thou maist be made bread for thy Masters table all Gods people have tasted of the cup of affliction and canst thou expect to go free Abel began the round and drank a health to all his followers which hitherto they have all pledged and some of them have drunk very deep and Christ himself drunk up the very dregs If God preserve thee no matter whether it be in salt or sugar If thou suffer for him thou shalt reign with him and these light afflictions which are but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 it is but winking said the Martyr and we shall be in heaven presently though thou maist lose something for Christ thou wilt lose nothing by him for every handful of muck thou partest with for his sake thou shalt have a handful of angels afflictions when once past are soon forgotten as a womans pangs in childe-bearing when a man-childe is born into the world John 16.21 to which a Christians sufferings are oft resembled Esay 26.17 Jer. 6.24 but many Christians mourn and overmourn for their losses and become like Mary Magdalen blear-eyed and cannot see Christ for their tears and think God cannot love them because he beats them see how these are mistaken Heb. 12.6 7 8. whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son that he receiveth if you endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he that the father chasteneth not but if you be without chastizements whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sons he hath learned little in Christianity that hath not learnt to suffer corrections are pledges of our adoption and badges of our sonship one son God had without sin but none without sorrow Luther thought the Pope was not Gods son quod sine cruce regnat oh my God whatever affliction lies upon me never let me have a revolting heart and if I suffer let it be for thee and not as an evil-doer if thou hast appointed suffering times for me Lord fit me for them with suffering graces and a suffering spirit fit the back before thou lay on the burthen Lord give me strength to bear it and then lay on what thou wilt and while thou wilt Upon the winnowing of the seed 41. Med. WHen the seed was thus thresht or beat out the next work was winnowing it whereby the chaff and refuse and lightest emptiest part was blown away with the winde but the solid substantiall weighty grain was not hurt by it but benefitted it was refined and purified I saw what the furnace was to mettle such is the fan to the corn that which seperateth purgeth and purifyeth it this made me compare temporal with spirituals and to consider that God hath many ways to purge and try his people sometimes he casts them into the furnace of affliction and trys them this way others had trials of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments c. Heb. 11.36 and sometimes he trys them with the fan to see what solidity is in them the messenger of the Covenant shall come but who may abide the day of his comming or who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers soap and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver c. then many a guilded piece will be found counterfeit and many a glittering professor found to be but a