be performed at another time so they will not wait upon us and stay our leisure and that as they pass away so we know not when they will come again For May as the Proverb is comes not every Moneth and a fit opportunity lies not in every lock of Times head And if there should yet it is bald behind and we cannot call back that which is gone which may be better than will be presented to us again And if we find by experience that these occasions do excite our Souls then the observing and embracing them will be an excellent means to keep us from dulness because it is likely that God will favour us with more of them when he sees that we use those well which he hath given us already But yet you ought to be cautious that this do not prove matter of scruple and perplexity to you if you neglect an occasion when you are otherwise necessarily employed For both prudence and the forwardness of our affections and every thing else must give way to a real necessity and of two necessary things that seems to be most necessary in which we are already engaged Make therefore a short Address to God and both comfort and quicken your self after this manner when you are dull and indisposed or otherwise apt to be perplexed upon such accounts as these A PRAYER O My God whose Name is most excellent in all the Earth and ought to be celebrated with the highest and continual Praises of Men and Angels How happy are they whose minds are ever delighted in the thoughts of Thee and whose hearts constantly burn with ardent affection and devotion to Thee It is some satisfaction to think of that vehement love wherewith the Holy Spirits above perpetually acknowledg thy bounty to them to us and to all thy Creatures and to feel my self desirous if it were possible to accompany them at all times with the like affections of a most chearful and joyful heart in that Heavenly employment Accept I most humbly beseech thy Divine Goodness of these sincere desires that thou hast wrought in me Graciously accept of these pantings of my Soul after a freer and more delightful converse with Thee And pitty the great weakness and dulness of my nature which will not permit such ardours of love to continue always as by thy grace I sometimes feel in my heart towards Thee Pitty O pitty and take compassion upon me when I am so heavy as not to be able to lift up mine eyes towards Heaven or when I move so slowly and faintly as if I had no lift to serve thee in the works of piety righteousness and charity O that I may feel my spirit stirred with a greater zeal and carried with stronger desires at all other times when I am better disposed for thy service that then I may run the ways of thy Commandments when thou hast enlarged my heart And endue me likewise with prudence equal to that uprightness and integrity of heart which I hope I shall always carefully preserve That I may neither neglect any occasion of exciting and expressing a most fervent love to Thee nor dispirit my self by an indiscreet heat and forwardness to the performance of any part of my Christian duty Dispose me but to be ever serious resolved stedfast and watchful to be always well or innocently imployed and to be still going on with continued and constant motions to perfect holiness in thy fear and I shall hope by thine Infinite grace to finish my course at last with joy and to arrive at the happiness of that blessed company who as they do thy Commandments hearkning to the voice of thy Word so they are not weary in their obedience to Thee but with incessant Praises and Thanksgivings serve Thee World without end Amen V. YOU see already how necessary it is well to understand our selves and therefore lest you should think the pleasures of Religion to be other than they are it will concern you My Friend in the next place to Distinguish carefully between those consolations that are spiritual and those that are sensible For your receiving benefit by this Rule you must consider that the spirit of man being as I said joyned to a body and made a member of this World and yet belonging to another Country hath several sorts of faculties which we call its upper and lower powers whereby it converses with both With the former which are the mind understanding and will it hath entercourse with God and Invisible things and is fitted to improve all lower objects to an heavenly end with the other which we call sense imagination and sensitive appetite we can maintain acquaintance with nothing but this outward World Or rather this one Soul of Man is fitted with Capacities of such different kinds that it can hold correspondence with God and the higher World and likewise with the goods of the body in this World which is sensible to us Now such a friendship there is between the Soul and the Body by reason of their nearness and between the upper and lower faculties of the Soul if you so conceive of it by reason as I may call it of their oneness that they do mutual good offices for each other when they are able And as the Soul lends such a great part of it self to serve the Bodies necessities so the bodily spirits likewise are ready to assist the Soul in their better Moods to a freer pursuit of its own concernments in its motion towards God and the things above And more than this the pleasures of the one redound to the other what the Soul doth for the Body returning upon the mind it self and the bodily spirits likewise oft-times feeling the contentment of which the mind tasteth Hence it is that by discreet use of bodily enjoyments and due attendance to the outward Mans moderate satisfaction the spirits ofttimes are made so mild and sweet so chearful and compliant that the Mind finds them more ready and forward to accompany it in the contemplation of Diviner objects and it serves it self the more by serving the Body for a while And on the contrary part when the mind converses with Heavenly things they so powerfully touch it at certain Seasons that they make a motion there all over even as far as the very skirts of its Territories The Heart is glad the Spirits leap and dance for joy and the very blood in our Veins runs the smoother for it Now while we have this sensible delectation in the borders of our Soul by the agitation of the Animal Spirits to which the mind communicates its resentments there is no part of us but can be well content to accompany the mind in its devotions and they will not be enclined to with draw their attendance from these delightful services But on the other side if the Mind through incapacity it is like of the Body to receive them cannot impress its perceptions upon the Spirits nor make such a warmth and
greatest repute in his faculty to look after their health and administer Medicines to them Just thus it is in the case of our Souls it is too much presumption and careless confidence to rely upon our own counsel alone in the setlement of our everlasting estate or in the Cure of those Disorders and Distempers in our mind which threaten danger we ought to take good advice and for fear of mistake have the judgement of some more skilful Person to secure us as well as our own And indeed from hence you may learn what account God makes of your Soul and how highly it ought to be valued by your self for the safety of which He hath made such careful and plentiful provision Having next to the gift of his Son and of the Holy-Ghost setled an order of men to minister unto Souls to look after them and see that they do not perish for want of instruction or good advice As he would have our Saviour lay down his life for them so he hath thereby made him a most compassionate High-Priest and preferred him to a Kingdome which is nothing else but an Office Power and Authority to take care of Souls and do them good continually By vertue of which he hath committed Authority unto others in a perpetual succession that they should watch for Mens souls as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks declaring to them their own worth and his love ingrafting that Word in them which is able to save them calling them to repentance establishing them in the Faith incouraging their Progress in vertue ordering their goings feeding them with his blessed Body and Blood absolving them from their sins assisting them in their last agony that they may finish their course with joy This is the effect of a peculiar kindness to Souls He hath not dealt so with our Bodies for we never heard of a Company of Men appointed by God to invent pleasures and contrive ways for the feasting of our Senses There are none separated and set apart by him to teach the World how to get riches and improve their Estates and fill their Coffers But all the wisdom of Heaven is employed to other purposes having ordained Men to teach us how to live above those things and to replenish our minds with his knowledg and our wills with his love This he hath made their constant function and perpetual employment to the Worlds end And therefore be not slack to use their Ministry nor doubt of the blessing of God upon it But have so much love to your Soul as to apply your self to them for assistance who are particularly concerned to give it and so much love to God as to be confident he will make those means successful which he hath particularly ordained for your good A PRAYER I Adore Thee O Lord the Father of Mercies who hast designed Mankind to the greatest felicity in everlasting Life And hast not left us in pursuance of it to the uncertain guesses of our own Mind but sent thy dear Son into the World both to assure us of that happiness and to direct us by his holy Doctrine and Example how we may attain it Blessed be the tender mercy of our God whereby the Son of Righteousness hath visited us from on high to give light to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Great is thy love O Lord which after he had left the World sent his Apostles and other Ministers of thy Word to be the Messengers of Reconciliation and Peace the Leaders and Conducters of Souls the Stewards of thy Mysteries and the Guides unto Blessedness Great is thy love which to this day continueth a merciful care over Souls in providing a succession of faithful Pastors and Instructors to teach us our duty to reduce us when we go astray to resolve us when we doubt to help us when we are weak or weary and by their counsels admonitions and comforts to bring our Souls back again safe to Thee the Father of Spirits I see O Lord how dear and precious our Souls are in thy sight for which our Saviour hath done and suffered so much and imployeth still the care and pains of so many Persons to take the charge and oversight of them and guide them unto their Rest My Soul blesses Thee and all that is within me praises thy holy Name as for all other thy Benefits so for the many good Instructors I have met withall the many good Lessons I have been taught and the pious Counsels and Advices I have received I thank thee for putting me into the Hands of such Friendly and skilful Guides and that I have never hitherto wanted some to conduct me in all the dangerous and troublesome passages of my Life Be pleased still to favour me with the continuance of the like happiness enduing me with wisdome to chuse and grace to follow such a person who may on all occasions clearly inlighten my understanding settle my doubts confirm my resolutions quicken my endeavours direct my zeal keep all my passions in order and secure my goings in thy paths That so I may neither miss my way nor proceed with irregular motions nor be discouraged in it but hold an even steady and constant course in well doing till they to whom thou hast committed the care of me deliver me up in peace and safety into the hands of the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls Christ Jesus To whom be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen XIV BUT when you are in your best moods and think your self furthest off from danger it will be good to exercise an Holy Fear and Jealousie over your self least you should give way to any thing which may make you grow worse Remember how false and treacherous the conquered Enemy is and therefore it ought to be narrowly watcht Though it promise fair Remember that you must not trust it without a constant Guard And mark the least beginings of an evil for fear if they be slighted as small faults they draw you into a greater Though we must not be dejected for our little irregularities yet we must not pass them over neither without a serious observance If a Father laugh or smile when he chides a wanton Child it is so far from being a check to his follies that it doth the more embolden him to play those idle tricks for which he is reproved And so it is to be feared we shall find our selves disposed if we be not in good earnest displeased at our selves for any thing that borders upon Vice and do not reprove our selves seriously for making too much use of our liberty We may be in danger by this mildness and gentleness to take the boldness to proceed to further transgressions But I may seem to forget to whom I write and considering what a great quantity you have of this fear I had need give it a large dash of some other mixture least it turn
direction how both shall be employed But so it falls out that as the Slaves and the Souldiers sometimes prove mutinous and unruly and combining their forces together make themselves masters of the Conservators of the true peace and liberty so have the violent desires that are in us of enjoying a sensual good and of avoiding all outward evils and inconveniencies grown to such a head-strong and unbridled humor that they have overtopt reason and refuse to hearken to the authority and to obey the dictates of our understanding Many wayes have been tryed both by God and Man to reduce them to a good agreement again But though all fair satisfaction hath been offered and is allowed to the lower part it would not yield to a surrender of that power and soveraignty which it hath usurped As a company of Factious people that strive for superiority over their Governours when they have compassed their designs and possessed themselves of the throne are with more difficulty suppressed than they were before kept in subjection So it is with the multitude of mens furious lusts and passions now that they have dethroned reason advanced themselves into the seat of Government Having tasted very strongly of a sensual good and felt the sweetness as they take it of being absolute they are loth to be denyed the license which they have so long enjoyed and will by no means grant any obedience to be due to an higher power God was pleased therefore to manifest himself in our flesh to countenance the claim and assert the title of our Mind and Understanding and by shewing its undoubted right of Government to take up this controversie and put an end to these sad contests which have hapned to the ruin of mankind In the Lord Jesus there appeared such an absolute and constant dominion of the Spirit as in the first Adam after his fall there did of the Flesh And he came not only to give us a glorious Example to overawe all unruly motions in us by his divine Authority and to inspire our feeble Spirits with some courage by his great and precious promise of eternal life but to comfort us by his Death Resurrection and Exaltation at the right hand of the Majesty on high with the hopes of a mighty power from above to aid and assist us in our Christian conflict with all unreasonable desires This he actually sends into our souls to give them sufficient force and ability for the doing of their duty redeeming themselves from this slavery and recovering their ancient rights and liberty And in all those who attend unto his holy Counsels and receive his Divine grace and are renewed and led by his good Spirit there appear many happy tokens of the Souls victory and they are daily winning new conquests over the flesh with all the affections and lusts thereof The heavenly good seems so great in their eyes that they cannot upon any terms think of submitting their souls any longer to attend wholly or chiefly upon the pleasures and satisfactions of the lower man The mind is furnished with such right opinons the Will is become so tractable and compliant with their resolutions the Affections grow so subject and obedient to the orders and commands of both in short God and his will is so seriously loved and their Spirit strives so earnestly after the ardors and fervent Devotion of love that the ancient Government is again restored its lost authority rights and royalties are manifestly recovered and they live in good hope to be more than conquerors over all temptations from the World the Flesh and the Devil aspiring to an humble rejoycing glorying and triumph over all these enemies But notwithstanding all this these men remain still both flesh and spirit The Body is not destroyed the goods wherein it delights have not altered their nature its habitation is not removed from their neighbourhood and it retains the same inclination to them and they are often remembring it of its forepast fruitions and which is worst of all the Soul cannot presently recover its perfect health and soundness but feels the maimes and the bruises that it got when it was formerly beaten down and oppressed by them Hence it comes to pass that for some time at least there are many motions made for a revolt and every thing in the world is tampering with the heart to corrupt and bring it over again to their party and the mind it self in some fits almost wearied with their importunity may be ready to lend half an ear to these solicitations There is not such a perfect peace established but there will be some endeavours of the fleshly part to resume its power and get into its hand its pretended liberty Yea by the violence of many outward accidents the mind may sometimes fall into a dream and be tempted to muse whether there be sufficient reason to prefer those future and unseen goods before present enjoyments The Will may begin to bend it self to some civil carriage and fair complyance with the flesh the Affections being much wooed and complimented may feel themselves in danger to be inveigled or the heat at least and liveliness of Devotion may in such a condition be much abated and impaired And indeed it is not to be expected that the Body should go along as nimbly as the Spirit would have it towards a good with which it is not acquainted All that the Mind can do is to take a very great care that it move it self with as slow a pace towards that good to which the other is most inclined That we love these outward things cannot be blamed but it will require much diligence to keep our hearts from doting on that for which we naturally have no small affection That we hold some acquaintance with them can by no means be avoided but that we grow not too familiar with them ought to be our prudent care and cannot without some difficulty be prevented There will some kindnesses pass between us and we cannot deny the Body these sensible pleasures but that our Souls should thereby suffer themselves to be undermined and their interest betrayed there is no small danger For while the Good of the body is near at hand and the Good of the soul is at some distance while that which is near seems great and that which is remote seems small while the one is present and the other future while things present call upon us and we must earnestly call for things future while the one is alwayes before us and the other comes but at certain seasons while the one is of old and the other but of a late acquaintance we having been bred up with the one and being but brought to the other the one coming first and the other thereby prejudiced as long I say as there are these plain advantages on the one side if we use not attentive diligence to give the soul just and true information they will prevail with it inconsiderately to slight the
far greater advantages on the other Just as you see sometimes a wild-headed and unthrifty Heir though there be no comparison between his future inheritance and a small sum of present money yet for the pleasing of a violent passion sells the reversion of an estate which after some years would make him very rich and happy So do souls that are not serious and deliberate heedlesly resign for mere trifles their apparant title to such things as are of most importance to their true and lasting felicity Though the possessions of the other world be as far beyond all our enjoyments here as this world is above nothing yet because these things here are present and because they are ever soliciting and offering themselves to us and because they entertain our desires with pleasure and because they put us to little pains to give our selves the fruition of them they are wont to prevail with sleepy and careless minds to purchase them though they part with all their interest in the other world as the price of the bargain From hence there grows a necessity of that precept of vigilance and watchfulness which our Lord Christ hath given his Souldiers lest through subtle insinuations or frequent and violent assaults this old enemy get up again and establish it self in a new and more grievous tyranny Augustus deservedly reproved the folly of Alexander who as the story goes was troubled in his mind for want of imployment after the conquest as he imagined of the whole world for he should have considered said that great Emperour that there is no less pains and wisdom requisite to keep a possession than there is to win it We must not think that we have ended our warfare when we have reduced the flesh to some terms of obedience and peace but the strongest soul will find it necessary to keep a constant guard or else that enemy whose weakness consists in our watchfulness will succeed in its indeavours to get all into its hands once more and settle it self in that throne from whence it was so happily depos'd Whensoever we grow remiss the experience of all the world tells us our souls lose as much in a week as they have been acquiring by a whole years labour To fall down is very easie and we tumble apace but we cannot climb the hill without difficulty and by little steps and slow motions we advance towards the upper world and the celestial blessedness which will cost us much patience and unwearied industry before we approach it But what will keep the Mind may you demand from this remisness what remedies can you prescribe to preserve a feeble spirit from being stupified and lull'd asleep sometimes with these gaudy Poppies these fair and soft enjoyments which appear every where and continually surround us who is able to keep a perpetual watch and never take a nap In such a long work who can chuse but be sometimes weary When I consider my own infirmity and the enemies strength my natural love to these worldly things and their restless importunity the length of my journey and my aptness to be tired and especially when I see so many seeming Champions that have been overcome so many that did run well who have grown slack or retired I am afraid may your heart say that I shall never hold out to the end and maintain the ground stedfastly on which I stand And indeed it must be confessed that the spirit is not alwayes alike able to make a valiant resistance and couragious opposition But what through the defect and disorder of the bodily instruments which it uses and what through strange occasions and unusual accidents that it meets withal to surprise it and what through the strength of some one object either of joy or grief or such like that seises mightily upon the imagination and what through its own timorousness which makes the enemy grow confident and what through the want now and then of those delectable motions of Gods good Spirit and those heavenly consolations wherewith it hath been transported it may fall into some listlesness and dulness and grow so faint that it hath but little heart to maintain its Christian warfare But yet for all this you ought not to despond nor be quite discouraged at the thoughts that you may possibly one day find your self in these unhappy circumstances You are not left without a Remedy either for the preventing of the fall of your soul into this condition or for the delivery and raising of it up should it chance to slide into it or for its safety and preservation that it may receive no harm whilst it lies therein and can for the present meet with no means to rid it self of so great a burthen This little Book comes to bring you some relief and lend you some support and aid in such a case It hath no other business but to give your soul the best assistance that mine can afford it for its security that whatsoever assault may be made upon you whatsoever weaknesses you may feel in your self and whatsoever advantage the enemy may make of them the flesh notwithstanding may never be able to draw you back again underits power but your Spirit may stand fast in its pious resolution and come off with victory and triumph at the last And let the Divine Spirit of Wisdom and Grace I humbly beseech the Father Almighty so guide my Pen that your Soul may receive no less benefit by the reading of these Papers than mine doth contentment in the writing of them and that the Good they do you may be proportionable to the Love from whence they come Amen I. AND in the first place let me advise you to bring your self into as great an acquaintance and familiarity as ever you can with unseen and spiritual things and to make your mind so sensible of them that they may seem the most real and substantial beings You easily discern how sutable this Counsel is to the foregoing discourse and you can tell your self how much of our listlesness and want of spiritual appetite proceeds from hence that these outward things press continually very hard upon us and make us feel that they have a being and a solid subsistance but the other rarely touch us with any force and so appear as if they were only in our fancy Our soul seems to us in our careless thoughts as if it were but a breath or a thin vapour But our Body we perceive to be a massy bulk of whose concerns we are therefore very apprehensive The Divine being though the cause of all others seems but like a shadow on whom our Soul having no fast hold it is no wonder that we rather catch at those things which we can grasp and feel to have some substance in them The report of immortal life and bliss in heaven comes to us like a common story of which there is some probability but no certainty and that inclines us to close so greedily with the
enjoyments of this life which make more strong impressions on our body than the other on our Spirit The glass through which we look upon this lower world makes every thing we desire appear exceeding great nay multiplies and increases it to vast dimensions but when we cast our eyes upward towards our heavenly countrey alas things appear there as if we had turn'd about the perspective so little so remote so like nothing that we can scarce discern them or retain any remembrance of them We have a kind of opinion and half perswasion concerning these inward and intellectual objects but we have a sense and full apprehension of our outward enjoyments Now though opinion may govern us and we may follow it while there are no considerable impediments to oppose it yet when any difficulty arises or something crosses our way to which we stand very much affected it will soon submit it self and leave us to our new inclinations because it is but an opinion We must confirm our souls therefore in a full belief of those spiritual things which thus differs from a bare opinion of them The one is grounded only upon probable reasons or on good reason but half considered and feebly assented unto the other upon clear and manifest evidences well digested and fully entertained So that the one leaves us weak and wavering because it leaves us half in and half out of the arms of Truth but the other makes us firm constant and unmoveable because it puts us compleatly and intirely into its embraces All those times then which are so favourable as to let your mind be free and unclog'd spend some of your retired thoughts in the company of immaterial beings and approach so near them that you even feel and handle them and remain perswaded they are no less real than those which you see and hear and touch with your outward man By which means they will infinitely more engage your affections and tie your heart unto them than any thing else can do because of the vast disproportion which every one acknowledges supposing their existence between them and all that you love in this sensible world 1. Think first of all that your Body is but the clothes and garments of your Soul and that this indeed is the man And undress your self in your own thoughts strip your self of these robes and conceive that you are only a naked Spirit This you can do and thereby you will both make your Soul think more of it self and you will likewise plainly prove it is quite distinct from your body in whose society though it live yet is not of its lineage but of another nature and original For nothing can think it self not to be since by its very thinking so it proves that it hath a being But we can quite put off all thoughts that we have this body hanging about us and the Soul can think it self to be what now it is though it look not through these eyes nor speak with this tongue nor write with these hands nor have any other thing about it but its own thoughts And therefore it is not such a thing as this Body but some better and more noble substance It is that which tells you that you have a Body If you believe it you have reason to believe withal that it self is some other being of more force and longer continuance because you can now think you have castoff your body and conceive it lying in the dust your soul still remaining as it is full of these and other such like thoughts but you can never think you have no soul because even by that conception you prove that you have and shew your self to be a thoughtful thing 2. When you have thus therefore discoursed your self into some feeling of your Soul think in the next place very seriously that whatsoever you clearly apprehend by this though it be perceived by none of your outward senses yet is no less real and certain than what you use with them Disbelieve your eyes and think that your ears bring you a false report rather than doubt of any thing which your mind doth plainly and distinctly perceive Though you cannot but yield an assent to the relation which any of your senses make you yet since the mind is the more excellent Principle and it hath a most certain existence give the greatest credit to what it affirms when none of them can afford you any evidence 3. And then you will presently find that your mind asserts nothing so strongly as the being of a God without whom it could not be Perswade your self therefore as confidently of him as you do of that which your eyes behold Though your eyes see him not as they do the Sun yet say to your self my Soul doth which gives as sound an evidence on his behalf as my eyes do for the Sun That great Light and all the rest of those Globes of Fire which I see in the Skies declare him as clearly to my mind as they do themselves to my outward Sense I cannot think of them nor of my self nor of any thing else in this great World but a Divine Being presents it self before me by whose incomparable wisdom and Almighty goodness they were at once produced and set in this beautiful and useful order in which I behold them Exhort your self therefore to look about you as often for this end as you are apt to do for other little purposes that you may see God in this goodly Temple which he hath built himself for his own glory Set your Soul in that Divine Presence which fills all things Open your eares listen to the wide World and hear as Gregory Nazianzen excellently speaks that great and admirable Preacher of his Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 43. Is it possible as Athanasius well reasons to come into a great City consisting of a Multitude of Inhabitants of different sorts great and small rich an◠poor old and young Men Wome◠and Children Slaves Souldiers an◠Tradesmen and to see all things ordered so handsomely that every on◠of these though opposite in their inclinations agree and conspire together for the common good the Rich not grieving the Poor nor the strong oppressing the weak nor the young rising up against the aged Can one possibly I say behold all this and not conclude that there is a wise and powerful Governour there though we see him not by whose Authority they enjoy this happy concord Why then should we not draw the same Conclusion from the sight of this great World composed of divers contrary Beings moving several ways and to distant ends but making as good harmony alltogether as the various strings of a Lute whose sweet Musick coming to our eares proves there is some excellent Artist Orat. contra Gentes though hid from our eyes by whom they are tuned and touched Confusion is a sign of anarchy but order demonstrates a Governour 4. If then there be a God
but the good are best instructed by their enjoyments Ingrateful People think of God when he takes away his blessings from them but ingenuous and thankful minds have a great regard to him when his favours are in their hands Nor do they only think it a duty but feel it a pleasure to reflect on the bounty of their great Benefactor which endeares the practise of it and makes it still both more facile and more frequent In so much that in the use of all these outward and carnal things a pious heart may soon learn to turn its thoughts and raise up its affections to a more spiritual good and nobler fruitions Do you not observe how the Holy Ghost is wont to express the joyes of the World to come by such pleasures as are most acceptable to us here What is the reason of it if it be not in compassion to the weakness of our apprehensions and to let us see that all bodily delights administer occasion for pious thoughts and holy desires after diviner enjoyments God would preserve us from sinking into a fleshly sense by our daily conversation with and use of fleshly things He shows us how we may lift up our minds even by those things which are apt to depress them and take an advantage from these inferiour comforts to climb up towards those higher satisfactions Hence it is that the happy enjoyments of the other World are compared so often to the pleasures of eating and drinking whereby our hunger and thirst is asswaged and our bodily life supported Yea to a Feast which is a more liberal entertainment of that kind and is the meaning of that phrase in the Gospel which represents Lazarus carried by Angels into Abrahams bosome placed that is in the uppermost Room at that Heavenly Feast and treated as the noblest and most beloved guest Yea to a Marriage-Feast which being a time of the greatest joy Men are wont to make the largest provision of good chear that their friends may rejoyce together with them And lastly to a Marriage-Feast made by a King a Royal entertainment such as a Monarch would make at the Wedding of his Son All which may serve to provoke good minds to look up above such things as these which are most enticing in this World and to be so far from being swallowed up in sensual pleasures as to give themselves thereby a more lively taste of that excessive joy which God will impart unto them when they shall live with him and be feasted by him in his Heavenly Kingdom The like benefit you may reap from all other things which you converse withall and though the World will attract your thoughts to it and imploy a great many of your hours yet you may draw at last something from thence which will pay you well for the time which you have spent upon it As for Example when you look about you and behold the delightful Objects wherewith you are inviron'd on every side which present themselves continually to your Eyes or your Eares or your Tast or other of your Senses you may think with your self 1. If God have provided such a multitude of pleasant things for the entertainment of this poor body in this present life What are the joys and delights which he hath prepared for my better part in the life which is to come This is the World of Bodies the other of Souls and Spirits Therefore if this little Carkase which is but as the Grass of the Field be so well accomodated if there be so many rare things in the Earth and the Sea and the Air for its refreshment and pleasure What may I not expect hereafter for my mind in those Celestial those spacious Regions which I see above O the inconceivable felicity which is provided in the Paradise of God for this more wide and capacious Spirit which beares his own Image and like himself is to live for ever 2. Again you may think with your self if there be such pleasure to be found in a Creature O what is there then in the Creator of all If the sight of the Sun the Moon the Stars and all the rest of the beauties of this World be so glorious What will it be to see my God to be filled with that wisdom which contrived and with that goodness which produced this vast this goodly and comely Fabrick If the melodies of Musick be so charming O what an ecstasie of joy will it cast me into to hear God himself say I love thee I delight in thee for ever If the love of a true Friend do so much ravish and transport my Spirit what pleasure is it that I shall feel when my Soul shall love him as much as its most enlarged Powers will enable it and know how much I am beloved by him There is a delicious Meditation in St. Austin to this effect who thus speaks to God in one of his Confessions Lib. 10. Cap. 6. I love thee O my God thou hast smitten my heart with thy Word and I have loved thee Nay the Heavens and the Earth and all things contained therein admonish me on every side that I should love thee and they cease not to say the same to all Men else so that they are inexcusable if they do not love thee But what do I love when I love thee Not the beauty of a Body not the grace and comeliness of time not the brightness of light and yet O how friendly and agreeable is that to these eys not the sweet melodies of well-composed Songs not the fragrant odors of Flowers or unguents or costly Spices not Manna not Honey not the embraces of the dearest and most lovely Person these are not the things that I love when I love my God And yet I love a certain light and a certain voice and a certain grateful odor and a certain food and a kind of embracement when I love my God the true light the melody the food the satisfaction and the embracement of my inward man Where that shines to my Soul which no place can contain where that sounds which no time can snatch away where that scents which no Wind can disperse and scatter abroad where I taste that which eating cannot diminish where I cleave to that which no fulness no satiety can force away This is that which I love when I love my God And what is this I askt the Earth and it said I am not I askt the Sea and the Deeps and all living Creatures and they answered We are not thy God look above us and enquire after him for here he is not I askt the Air and all its Inhabitants yea the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars and they confessed We are not him whom thy Soul seeketh And I spake to all things whatsoever that stand round about the Gates of my Flesh saying Ye tell me that ye are not my God but tell me something of him And they all cried out with a loud voice He made
Liquor which by long labour and many Operations you have fetcht out of a number of excellent Herbs or Spices or other rare Ingredients For though you must not have recourse to them every day yet there may be a season you see when they will do you so high a pleasure that you may owe your life or your chearfulness to them They may stand you at least in so much stead as to preserve you from utter distast of your self and despair of Gods favour when you are apt to droop nay sink under the weight of your Body or any other load that lies very heavy upon you Chear up your Soul then with some of its own sublimer thoughts and turning your self to the Father of Mercies say A PRAYER O My God What pledges of thy Love are these which I have received already from Thee How precious are thy thoughts towards me and how dear and precious have they been in mine eyes O how great is the summe of them I see I see how gracious thou art I am not without many tokens of thy readiness to help me and of thy kind intentions to promote me by patient continuance in my duty to everlasting happiness O how sweet is the remembrance of that time when thou wast pleased to visit me and inspire my heart with devout affections to thee How joyful hast thou made me with the light of thy countenance which is better than life it self Accept of such thanks as I am now able to offer thee for thy abundant goodness to me Blessed be thy goodness that I have not lived all my days as a stranger to thee that my Soul hath not always grovelled on the earth but been lifted up sometime unto Heaven Blessed be thy goodness that it hath not lay'n continually as a barren Wilderness but been fruitful in some good thoughts and pious affections and zealous resolutions and worthy designs to do thee honour and service in the World O that this remembrance of thy past loving-kindness and of the powerful operations of thy holy Spirit in my heart may at this time mightily move and excite me to the like devout expressions of my love to thee O that I may feel it renewing my strength or reviving my Spirit at least to a comfortable hope in thee that thou wilt never utterly forsake me There is all reason I confess most thankfully that I should confide in thee and wait upon thee still with a stedfast faith for fresh influences from Heaven to make me howsoever persevere with a constant mind notwithstanding all the discouragements I conflict withall in a careful and exact observance of all thy commands This I know is the best proof of my love to thee And therefore help me as to pray always so to exercise my self in works of mercy to do justly to be clothed with humility to preserve my body and soul in purity and to discharge all the duties of my place and relations with an upright heart willing mind And when thou graciously vouchsafest to enlarge my Spirit in abundance of delightful thoughts of thee and to raise me to the highest pitch of love to thee O that it may not only please me but make me better Lift me up thereby above all the temptations of this World and quicken me to be the more fruitful in all good works and to excell in vertue to increase especially and abound so much in love towards my Brethren and towards all Men that my Heart may be established unblameable in Holiness before Thee my God and Father 1 Thess 3.12 at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints Amen VIII AND here I cannot but commend to you frequent Meditation and serious consideration which you might expect to have heard of before as of singular use for the continuance either of your diligence or of those delectable affections in it For the Soul is a thing so entire in it self that if one part be strongly moved the other will be so too just as when the Nave of a Wheel turns round it makes the outermost circumference to circle about with it Much is said by many on this subject and therefore I shall only direct you how to Meditate when you are dull and unfit as you imagine for any thoughts When we discourse you know with a Servant and desire to affect him with what we say if he be stupid and heavy and seems not at all to be concerned in our words then we are wont to make use of interrogations beseechings objurgations exclamations corrections of our selves admirations and such like ways to rouse his apprehension For we find that if an object touches any of our senses gently and softly we mind it not while we are intent upon other matters but if it strikes us with some smartness and comes with a vehemency and importunity it alarmes the whole Soul and makes it not only hear but demand what 's the matter And thus it is in our discourses if they barely present themselves before Mens Souls that are otherwise ingaged they regard them not unless by some such form of speech as I have mentioned they put on some sharpness and be armed with some Authority If we speak for example to one that hath committed a fault in such terms as these Indeed you are very much to blame You ought not to have done thus it is contrary both to God and to your self the World will cry shame of you no body will endure you c. He stands perhaps as if he were marble and had been composed of insensible materials But if we say what did you mean when you did such or such an action Whither were your wits and your conscience gone Could you do thus and not tremble at Gods displeasure Nay answer me do you think that God is an Idol who regards you not and cannot strike Oh that any Man should be so sottish that he should be such an ill Friend to himself Ill Friend did I say such a desperate Enemy I meant such a fury such a Devil to his own Soul c. This kind of language it is likely may make him seem a Man one that is made of flesh and not of stone In such like manner then may you learn to Meditate alone by discoursing with your own Soul after the way of expostulation chiding reprehension and such like wherein there is great variety and therefore great easiness and no less pleasure It was a more awakening expression for David to say Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me XLII Psal 5 than if he had only said I do not do well to be dejected on this fashion it is to no purpose to afflict and trouble my self far better and more seemly were it for me to rest contented And the repetition of this again V. 11. and XLIII 5 gives it a greater force and adds a sharper edge to it than if it had been but a single question And
ADVICE TO A FRIEND DEPRESSA RESVRGO ECCLUS xiv 13. Do good unto thy Friend before thou dye GREG. NYSSEN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for R. Royston Book-seller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXIII AN ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE PVBLISHER TO THE READER Reader I Have nothing to say either of this Boâ—k or of its Author But only desire the Reader if he like the Counsels which are here given for the promoting and better ordering of Devotion and for the preserving of a pious Soul in peace and chearfulness that he would be so kind and faithfull to himself as to follow them And the hope I have that after a perusal they will invite him so to do makes me secure the Author will not be displeased to see that exposed to publique view which was at first intended only for a private Persons use For if the Advice be good the more common it grows so much the better it is and it will not be the less mine when it is gone into other hands Plato I am told calls Love the Ornament of all both of the Gods and of Men the fairest and most excellent Guide whom every man ought to follow and celebrate with Hymnes and Praises And what is there in which we can better express and declare it to others than in communicating to them that which we hold in highest esteem our selves It was that which first produced this Treatise and from thence it comes abroad That which the same Person saith is the Father of delights of mirth of whatsoever is gracefull and desirable was the Parent of this Book And therefore let it be accepted with the same kindness wherewith it was writ and is now Printed Let all the faults if you find any be overlookt with a friendly eye and do not discourage so excellent a vertue as Friendship to which we owe the best things in the World by severe and harsh censures of any thing that it produces But I need not I think be solicitous about this the pious design of the Book being sufficient to give it protection if it cannot gain it approbation It hurts no body and therefore may pass it self with more safety and it offers its service to do every body good which me thinks should be taken kindly even by those who stand in no need of it As for those who shall make use of it and find any benefit by it they will complain perhaps only of the Author's thriftiness and wish he had been more liberal of his Advice And so it 's like he would if he had not consulted his Friends ease more than his own and considered rather what would be usefull than what would make a great show You will take a wrong measure of his kindness if you judg of it by the bulk of the Book which was purposely contracted into a little room that it might be a constant Companion and as easie to carry in mind as it is to carry in ones hand And let the defects of it be what they will they may be supplied out of one of the Rules you here meet with if you please to make use of it which is to chuse a good Guide from whom you may receive further Advice in any thing that is necessary for your Progress in Piety or for the setling your Conscience in peace And that we may none of us ever want such a faithful and skilful Person to conduct us and that we may receive a benefit by these and all other good Counsels let us heartily joyn in that Prayer to God which is the Collect for this Day and add it often to the ensuing Devotions Leave us not we beseech Thee destitute of thy manifold Gifts nor yet of Grace to use them alway to thy Honour and Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen St. Barnabie's Day 1673. IMPRIMATUR Sam. Parker R. Rmo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gilberto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi. Ep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis Maii 14. 1673. Ex Aed Lambeth ADVICE TO A FRIEND My Friend MAN bears some resemblance and may not unfitly be compared to a Diamond or such like precious stone whose darker parts confess that it is of the earth but the brighter look as if it had borrowed some rayes from the Sun or Stars He is a substance I mean consisting of a terrestrial Body and celestial Spirit with his Feet he touches the earth but with his Head he touches Heaven Though the neighbourhood knows whence his Body came and remembers the time perhaps when it lay in the dark Cell of his mothers womb yet his Soul doth absolutely deny that it is of so mean extraction And casting its eyes upward calls to mind its high descent and parentage and takes it to be no presumption to affirm that we are the off-spring of God He cannot therefore but find in himself propensions and desires not only different from but contrariant to each other For since two worlds meet in him and he is placed in the confines of heaven and earth his will must needs hang between two widely distant goods the one propounding pleasures to his body and the other to his mind And though once there was a time when these two preserved such a friendship and gave such due satisfaction to one anothers just interests and inclinations that they did not break out into an open war yet this peace lasted not so long as to let us feel the blessings and happiness thereof But that part whose kindred and acquaintance was in this world apprehended the first occasion that offered it self to quarrel with the other whose native countrey was not so visible through walls of flesh and denying to consent unto it plainly rebelled and entred into a state of hostility against it This it might do with the more ease because two parts of those three into which the Soul is ordinarily divided stand very much affected to the Body and its concernments The Desiring part that is always ready to run to any thing and embrace it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath the appearance of a bodily good the Angry part that is no less forward to shun and to make defence against whatsoever seems to be a bodily evil to the Rational is committed the direction and government of these which that it may manage aright it is to maintain a constant conversation with an higher good to which all the lower desires and passions ought to be subordinate and subject These are handsomely compared by a noble Greek Philosopher to the Three Ranks or Orders of men that are in a City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proclus L. 1. in Timaeum The Servants the Souldiers and the Magistrates The first of which are to do all the work and make such provisions as are necessary for its support The second serve for a guard to protect and defend it from all dangerous assaults And the third sits in Counsel pronounces Judgment issues out Orders makes Rules and gives
and you feel your self a Being that can subsist and enjoy it self if he please without a Body excite in your Soul a most passionate desire to be so happy that when it quits the place of its present abode it may approach nearer to his blessed Majesty and have a clearer sight of his surpassing glory Put your self in hope also that his Divine Goodness which hath planted in you such strong inclinations and filled you with such desires will not let them want the pleasure of satisfaction Look up above and think that when your Spirit shall take its flight from hence there is some other Company to entertain it in another World whose acquaintance is far more desirable than the society of the dearest Friend we have here who perhaps as soon as he hath gained our love takes his leave of us and goes his way thither What comfort have we remaining in this and other innumerable cases but the hope of Immortality Which is the only thing that can raise our Spirit above the pleasures and the troubles too of this mortal Body This is our chiefest good on which we should set our heart This is the inheritance to which we are born as Lactantius speaks and for which we are form'd by vertue and piety the only inheritance of which we can be secure that we shall never be defeated For all this World we must leave behind us we can carry nothing away with us but an innocent and well-passed life and the hopes which accompany it He only comes to God rich and plentiful and abounding in wealth as his words are whom continence mercy patience charity and faith shall attend and conveigh into his Presence 5. To assure your self therefore of this great good on which our principal strength and comfort relies consider in the next place that your mind plainly tells you and its testimony is indubitable that God must needs be true and that whatsoever he saith ought immediately without any hesitation to be firmly believed For as he can never be deceived himself so we are sure he cannot deceive us 6. Now God hath been pleased at last to speak to us by his own dear Son as a voice from Heaven and a World of mighty deeds have testified 7. And seeing Jesus hath not only comprised in his Doctrine all the holy wisdome and all the goodness that ever was thought or spoken of since the beginning of time but hath likewise added a lively discovery of that state of good things which the heart of man naturally wishes and longs for in another World 8. And seeing in the last place God hath confirmed his exceeding great and precious promises of Eternal Life by his Resurrection from the Dead and his Ascension into Heaven and the sending of the Holy Ghost You ought to perswade your self of the truth of these invisible things and represent them so often to your mind till they seem no less real and certain than what you see with your Eyes and feel with your Hands Nay till all the pleasures and delights which the bounty of Heaven gives you in Friends or any other good things here seem but as shadowes and faint Images of the better enjoyments which you expect hereafter Those wise Men who were guided onely by the light of their own mind made no greater account of them And yet all the Philosophers of greatest fame were but little Children compared with Christian People in the knowledg of this great Point L. 1. praepar Cap. 4. as Eusebius justly glories We are not left to gather this truth as another of the Ancients speaks from the weak conjectures and imperfect reasonings of our own Lactant. L. 7. Cap. 8. but we know it from a Divine Tradition It is delivered to us by the Son of God who hath put an end to all disputes by coming from Heaven to us with the Words of Eternal Life Lay up his Words therefore most carefully in your heart let them dwell richly and plentifully in you in all wisdom and possess you at once with a mighty sense of God and of the dignity of your Soul and of Immortality and of the Joy of the Invisible World The Benefits of this Exercise are so evident that I may leave you to relate them when you have felt them It will be sufficient for me to suggest to you that the Heart must needs become by this means very cold and dead to those earthly enjoyments which were wont to bewitch and inchant it with their deceitful Pleasures If the Soul be cloathed as the Platonists fancied with as many Garments as there are Elements through which it passed as it descended into this Body and if it be so mufled in them that it doth but fumble in its thoughts and hath much ado to feel it self hereby it will be able in some measure to devest it self of those thick Blankets wherein it is wrapped and throw off those heavy coats that dangle about its heeles and incumber its motions as it sets its Feet forward to walk toward the Father of its Being It is no contemptible discourse which their Master makes concerning Felicity Plato in Phaedone which he rightly places in the contemplation and love of the Soveraign Good How that no Man can attain unto it in this Life by reason of the lumpish matter to which the Soul is fast tyed and by reason of the multitude of Worldly affairs which require our attendance yea and of the fancies and toyes that will fill our thoughts do what we can Whence he concludes that either no Man shall be happy which he thinks is very absurdly affirmed or he must arrive at his Happiness after he is dead And if when we are dead saith he the Blessed Time is come wherein we may enjoy as we would that greatest good then the nearer any Man approaches unto Death the nearer he comes within the reach of his Felicity If a Man therefore will with-draw Himself from the World if he will abstract his mind from sensible things and take his heart from bodily pleasures and turn himself into himself which they judged as the Holy Writers do a kind of Death he shall be in the beginnings of his Happiness There I know my Friend you desire to find your self and for that cause I pray you learn thus to steal out of the company of Worldly things which by hindring us from beginning our Happiness would keep us in perpetual misery Converse as often as you can with your nobler self and contract an intimate acquaintance with those divine Inhabitants which are lodged there Grow into an high esteem of that unseen Power which knows God and the Life to come which thinks and guides and gives orders desires and loves and doth all things else belonging to this Life And calling to mind continually its worth and dignity and considering for what heavenly enjoyments it was designed disdain to let it be condemned to so base a slavery as to serve the Body only
may still see more of that wonderful love which he hath discovered in his Gospel and to accompany me with his grace till I arrive at his heavenly Court O let his good Spirit breath upon me and carry away my Soul in holy desires towards him Let it guide my course through this troublesome Sea wherein I am tossed Let it shine upon me and prosper my endeavours Let it bring me safely to a quiet haven in Eternal Rest and Peace These pious aspirations you may still pursue at the end of these Meditations in some such Prayer as this A PRAYER I Praise Thee I magnify thy wise and mighty Goodness O Lord who hast made this great World the Heavens and the Earth with all things contained therein to the everlasting honour of thy Name I thank Thee with all my Soul for bringing me into it and for advancing me so much above the rest of thy Creatures here below that I see the glory of thy Majesty shining every where and hear thy Name proclaimed and praised by all thy works of wonder But above all I acknowledg thy bounty with the most admiring thoughts and the devoutest affections of my heart for sending Jesus Christ upon Earth to open unto us the Kingdom of Heaven and to show us the glories of another World O the exceeding greatness of that love which gave him to dye for us and rewarded all his sufferings with a blessed Resurrection and then translated him to Heaven and appointed Him Heir of all things and setled his Throne for ever and ever on the right hand of thy Majesty on high From thence he hath sent the Holy Ghost to be witness of the fulness of his Royal Power and Love and hath shown himself sometime in Majesty and Glory above the Sun when it shineth in its strength that we might hope in thee for the like Resurrection to a glorious immortality in the Heavens No tongue can utter nor heart conceive what Honour Glory and Peace what joy and gladness of heart thou hast prepared there for those that love Thee But blessed for ever blessed be the riches of thy grace whereby I understand so much as to feel most earnest longings in my Soul after a fuller sense of that which thou hast made me taste and relish beyond all the pleasures of this Life O raise and inlarge my Spirit unto clearer more comprehensive thoughts of that supreme blessedness Thou who entertainest all thy Creatures with so much liberality who causest thy Sun to shine upon the good and the bad and the showers of Heaven to fall on the just and the unjust deny not to satisfie the pious desires of a Soul in whom thou hast excited an ardent thirst after its proper and eternal good But inlighten the eyes of my understanding that I may know more and more what is the hope of thy Heavenly calling and what the riches of the glory of thy Inheritance in the Saints and what the exceeding greatness of thy power to us-ward who believe according to the working of thy mighty power which wrought in Christ when thou raisedst him from th dead and set him at thy own righâ— hand in the heavenly places O life up my mind to that high and holy place where thou dwellest and where Jesus is inthroned and where the Angels and Saints continually behold and praise with joyful hearts the Majesty of thy glory and where our Lord hath promised all the faithful shall live and reign with him for ever Help me to climb up daily by all thy Creatures on which thou hast set such marks of thy Greatness Wisdome and Goodness to the contemplation of that Celestial Bliss And possess me with such a constant sense and desire of it that nothing here may ingage my heart which will indispose me for the happy company and society of the blessed Assist me good Lord by such Meditations as these to discern more and more the incomparable and surpassing greatness of that felicity which thy Royal bounty will bestow upon our advanced spirits and bodies in the world of rewards and recompences Affect my heart more powerfully with it and fill me with love and joy unspeakable and full of glory when I turn my eyes towards it Stir me up thereby to prepare my self with diligence and care by a lively resemblance of the Lord Jesus for the day of his appearing and to wait with patience for that blessed Hope when I shall not see as now through a Glass darkly but face to face and be made compleatly like him by seeing him as he is Enable me always to live upon this Hope and according to it that growing in all goodness by a chearful obedience to his holy commands I may be found of him in peace and be so happy as to hear at last those gracious words of his Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Amen III. I Need say no more to excite one of your vertue to the frequent exercise of such Meditations as these which are no less delightful than they are useful Let me next unto this advise you to study the truest notions of God and of Religion the love of which is the way to that transcendent bliss and happiness of which I have spoken As you must believe things unseen and perswade your self thoroughly that they are so it is necessary you should inform your mind aright what they are And in particular look upon Religion as a most pleasant thing and represent it to your self with a face as fair and beautiful as you can If it seem cloudy dark and melancholy it will make you to be of the same complexion But if it have a lovely and chearful aspect it will encline you always to smile upon it The poor Norwegian whom stories tell of was afraid to touch Roses when he first saw them for fear they should burn his Fingers He much wondered to see that Trees as he thought should put forth flames and blossomes of Fire before which he held up his hands to warm himself not daring to approach any nearer But as he you may be sure was happily undeceived when he came not only to touch but likewise to smell those innocent Flowers which seemed to burn in his eyes so will it be with us when we come rightly to understand and feel the pleasure that Religion gives us which at first sight before we come acquainted with it looks as if it intended to make us Martyrs but not to crown us with any joys or contentments As the Martyr said of the real fire wherein he was covered that it seemed to him as if it were a Bed of Roses so shall we say of true Religion which we are afraid will scorch us and prove too hot for us Its flames are but the flames of love and it makes us not lye down in sorrow but in the most comfortable sense of the tender love of our dearest Lord. Think with your self therefore
whom he loved better If therefore we had such a love to God as others have to the things of this World the thoughts of them could not quite thrust out the thoughts of him But still we should be apt to write if I may so speak upon the very forehead of every earthly good God is most lovely or God is my exceeding joy the Lord is my portion O how amiable are his Courts or as an holy man who it is said could never get these words out of his mouth My God and all things Where he is there in effect are all things and where his love dwells there he will be sure to be We shall meet him every where see him in every beautiful thing and taste him before we have done in all the delightful enjoyments of this life 2. And as it comprehends in it the practice of making God present which some Masters in Divinity have said may serve instead of all other Rules for the ordering of our life aright so it contains in it likewise the very spirit of Prayer to God which all acknowledg to be not only a great part of a godly life but a great help and furtherance to us in all the rest of our Christian duty If by Prayer we understand as some have explained it the ascent or raising up of the Soul to God it is love only which continually aspires towards him and carries the heart aloft from other things to be joyned to him Or if we call it the converse of the Soul with God which are the words of Gregory Nyssen or a holy conference and discourse with the Divine Majesty as it is termed by S. Chrysostome it is manifest the love of God includes this in it for it is the nature of this passion to make us frequent the company of those whom we love Their conversation is most welcome their discourse delightful we are exceedingly desirous to impart our mind to them and especially to let them know how much we love them For which purpose it needs not alwayes the help of the tongue but can frame a language of its own and speak by the very countenance and the eyes and make use of silence instead of words to declare its inclinations According to the admirable expression of the Psalmist who setting forth the pious affections of the People to God their Deliverer saith Praise is silent for thee O God in Sion so the Hebrew hath it as your Margin tells you to Thee shall the vow be performed But let us take it simply for the desiring and requesting good things of God and then we must needs acknowledg that love being a passion full of desires cannot but comprehend in it as I said at first the very spirit of Prayer and Supplication You know how much we long for that to which we have given our hearts And therefore if they be devoted in love to God we cannot chuse but be ever breathing after more sensible apprehensions and tastes of him So much as we love him so much we shall thirst after a larger communication of his Divine Grace to us It will make us sigh for more tokens of his favour and wait for a greater power of his Holy Spirit and vehemently long to be more transformed and changed into his Image What was it but this that made David say Psal 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God The chased Deer in a great Forrest and in the midst of Summer did not more long after the streames of Water than this good Man being it is likely in the Wilderness of Judah and so denyed the favour of going to the Tabernacle of God did ardently desire the happiness which there he had sometime tasted in the Divine Presence He opens his mouth and pants after this with a thirst so vehement that it makes him cry out in the following words O when shall I come and appear before God It is the heat of that Creature to whose pantings David compares the longings of his Soul which is the cause of its thirst and that being a constant desire which goes not off by continuance as many inconveniences do but rather more encreases it beares the greater resemblance to this Divine passion of love whose fervours and ardent longings are perpetual and do not abate by length of time but grow still greater and greater There is nothing so likely as this to enable us to fulfil that exhortation of the Apostle Pray without ceasing and to make us importunate and unwearied in it which are the two qualifications our Saviour requires in our devout addresses to God Luk. 18.1 Where you read a Parable of his to this end that Men ought alwayes to pray and not faint It marvelously disposes us also for the Divine favour by moving us to quit all that is inconsistent with our desires in hope of that which we pray God to bestow upon us There was a Monarch you have heard perhaps who offered his Kingdome for a Cup of cold Water in a time of extreme thirst And therefore what is it which the heat of this heavenly affection will not make us resign to God and absolutely part withall that it may obtain its Petitions and have its desires satisfied Besides it hath one wonderful power in it which nothing else can furnish us withall to make our Prayers prevalent and that is by fixing our thoughts and fastning our minds to the business which we are about For love you know doth not willingly stir from the Object to which it is devoted It is this flame which keeps our heart close to the Holy Sacrifice and will not easily suffer us to wander from the Gate of Heaven It sets us in the Presence of God it keeps our eye upon him it makes us converse attentively with him and while the power of it lasts our very hearts are tyed to him and cannot go aside from him But as soon as ever it begins to dye or decay then it is that the mind steales away and gads about the World till this flame revive again and make us fly back to the Altar of God The best Soul that is I confess may feel some loosness and distraction of spirit especially at some untoward season some ashes may dim and dull the Fire but yet this love and ardent desire will keep the greater part of our thoughts together and knit our heart so to our duty that there shall be no long nor wide breaches in it but it shall still be strong and fervent and effectual with our Heavenly Father Thus you see how wisely these two are joyned together by St. Jude v. 20. Who after he had exhorted the Faithful to Pray in the Holy Ghost immediately bids them keep themselves in the love of God There is nothing comparable to this to inspire us with devout and earnest desires And it hath an equal force also to excite us to Praise and Acknowledg our great Benefactor who gives
may speak wholly unto it It participates with that supreme good to which it is united It carries in it self a great deal of the life of God it is a part of Heaven and the business of the other World But besides the solace which is inseparable from it there is this remarkable property in the passion of love that it strangely disposes us to believe all the kind expressions of our friends and makes us easily receive whatever they say for certain truth Upon which account the love of God will incline us above all other things to entertain every thing that he shall communicate of his mind unto us And there is nothing so great nothing so magnificent declared in the Gospel of his Grace but he that loves God will presently believe it and lay it up in his heart as a singular expression of his divine favour For he feels by the power and force of this affection in his own heart what God is enclined to do for those whom he loves and takes delight in though it seem incredible to other Men. And therefore as it doth not pose his belief who loves God when he hears that the Word was made Flesh for the good of men that the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily in Jesus that he dyed for sinners and lay'd down his life for the Redemption of Enemies So the Resurrection of Christ from the dead his Ascension to Heaven the exaltation of our Nature in his Person at Gods right hand the Glory and Majesty in which he is said to shine there and in which we are told we shall at last appear together with him are no riddles nor incredible things to him No Love sees him there preparing a place for us making all ready for the joyful Marriage to be celebrated in his glorious Kingdome coming in the Clouds of Heaven to call us up thither and to advance all his Subjects to reign as so many Kings together with him This makes a man presently understand how God should design to reward our poor endeavours those services to which we stand obliged though but weakly performed with an everlasting inheritance How he should compensate our present sufferings which are but for a moment and not worthy to be named with a far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory Hyperbole's go down easily with this Mans Faith He can believe beyond them all and see what is far beyond that far more exceeding Eternal weight of Glory as the Apostles words import 2 Cor. 4.17 He is assured the love of Heaven will enkindle a new life in our dead ashes He beholds it sublimating this earth to an Heavenly state And can well conceive this thick Clay shining as the Sun and made like to the glorious Body of Christ This Soul also as pure as the light saluting its new born Body and possessed with a mighty love rejoycing for ever in Gods bounteous kindness to it All this it sees nay feels being already filled as St. Paul speaks with all the fulness of God For it feeling First what a vast difference there is between it self now and what it was before when it was pent up in scant and narrow affection to these petty goods here below makes no doubt there may be as wide a difference between what it shall be hereafter and what it is now It presently concludes that the same powerful goodness which roused up and called forth its sleepy thoughts and drowsie desires towards it self can still further awaken and raise all its faculties to a more quick and lively sense or call forth some hidden power and vertue in the Soul which hath as yet no more appeared than those motions which now it feeles did before it was touched by his Almighty hand And Secondly finding its own nature by this touch of the Divine Love made so free and benign so abundant and overflowing in kind affection to others so open-hearted and gracious it concludes that the Almighty goodness not only can but will do more for it and confidently expects to be lifted up to an higher state of bliss proportionable to the superabundant kindness of that most excellent Nature which hath produced already such good inclinations in it It is impossible for a Man to be under the power of love to feel the huge force of its flames to perceive of what a spreading and communicative Nature it is and not conceive very magnificently of the bounty of God and have a faith in him as large and capacious as his love Love God therefore My Friend as much as ever you can with the greatest passion and most ardent affection and you shall find Heaven coming apace into you and taste the good things of the promised World to come You shall not only guess at your future state and make conjectures about it but in some measure know and feel the all-filling joy of our Lord and possess that quiet tranquillity and peace which passeth all understanding For this Divine love is the right sense whereby Heavenly things are apprehended It is that which fits the mind rightly to understand and the will firmly to believe those great and transcendent things which the Scripture reports as the portion of the Saints in light It gives us a sight of things as much differing from all other which we have meerly by dry reasoning and which we spin out by thoughtful Discourses as the sight of a great beauty before our Eyes differs from the description of it which we read in a Book or as the warmth of fire on the hearth doth from that we see in a Picture which cannot loosen and inliven our stark and benummed Joynts And if you would love God I have told you the ready way to it which is by preserving in your mind a constant and lively sense of his infinite love and good will already expressed to you for this will naturally and easily produce a reciprocal love to him and that will make you look for more of his mercy even to Eternal Life This you understand so well that I shall not say a word to you more about it but proceed to the next when I have left a few words with you to say to God A PRAYER O God how great is thy love how excellent is thy loving kindness towards us thy unworthy Creatures To whom thou takest such pleasure in communicating thy blessings that thou dost not stay till we ask them of thee but pourest them down plentifully before and beyond all our desires O the inconceivable depth of that love from whence thy Son Jesus was sent to dwell among us who hath done so much for us that he hath left us nothing to do but to consider and lay to heart thy love which hath so marvelously abounded towards us For all things I know are easie and pleasant to those that love Thee Great Peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them O possess this heart which opens it self to thy gracious influences
part I think it is best not to be over long in your Devotions I have heard of a very good man who was wont to pray to God that he would forgive him his long Prayers Which though they proceeded from an honest zeal yet wanted their efficacy by being indiscreetly tedious For whilst Men study to stretch and wire-draw their Meditations to the utmost length what they gain that way they lose another having the less of strength and solidity the more they have of length No Metal you know is more massy and ponderous than Gold yet it may be beaten so thin that it may be blown away with ones breath or broken with the least touch of ones Finger So many times it is with our Devotions which have some weight and force in them if they be contracted and gathered into a little room but while we spread them and beat them out to a tedious length they become so thin and weak that very Object which stirs blowes away our thoughts and great breaches are made in them by the least imagination that thrusts in it self upon them This is capable to be abused I am well aware by Souls that are not truly pious but those that are may as much abuse themselves unless they understand and use it Indeed when the Soul is very strong and full of heat or when it is awakned by some remarkable stroke of Divine Providence or when the mighty hand of the good Spirit of God is upon it then it may and will let it self run without any cautions or restraints and we shall have nothing to do but to follow those thoughts willingly which in another case we could not perswade to follow our wills Our mind then will run as it were before us our hearts will be pregnant and teeming with many good Meditations which at another time we shall not be able to draw after us nor make to conceive or bring forth one thought that pleases us But now you must take great heed lest at this or any other such happy time you think to attain presently to the perfection you desire Alas My Friend it is a great way thither and it cannot be safe to make too much hast though you find your self never so willing and forward For many there are who running full speed have strain'd themselves by fetching too great a leap and disabled their Souls for some time after And therefore run not your self out of breath from an eager desire to be at the very end of your Race Let fair and softly be your ordinary Rule though sometimes in a very smooth Rode and when your Spirits are brisk you may make as much speed as you can for a little way But we have seen several ride upon the Spur especially in the Morning when they first set out who have been left behind in the Afternoon by those whom they seemed to have many Miles over-stripped And therefore it is necessary counsel to those chiefly who are beginners to Travel so in the Christian Path as we hope we may be able to hold out and not to be so fiery at first as to make us dread Zeal when there may be good use of it There is another thing so nearly related to this matter that it would have challenged the next place in this Discourse did your necessities require it And that is to take heed you do not tire your self with any one thing for that will make you indisposed to all the rest This I take to be good advice to my self who ought to be cautious lest by over-much study I so dull and blunt my Spirits that even Devotion it self become irksome to me And I doubt there are too many of the Gentry and better rank who so dis-spirit themselves by some of their recreations that they are fit for nothing but to lye down and sleep But to such as you I need only say that You must not weary your self with any one pious Exercise For I can tell by my Imployment that if I keep one Author company so long that I grow weary of him I shall have no mind to return in hast to him and all others will find me more morose and indisposed for Society with them Let me only add that you will the better do this if you labour to understand the true reason why you do every thing and mark the fittest occasions wherein it may be done The difference between the grounds as we speak or reasons of our motions and the occasions of them is this The former perswade our will either to decline or to pursue something that appeares either good or evil and therefore the stronger the Reasons and Motives are the more shall we be induced either to avoid or embrace what is before us The latter is only the opportunity or season the advantage of time or place which doth not so properly move us to do a thing as to do it now Time and Tide we say stayes for no Man and because the opportunity doth not always happen therefore it stirs up our Soul which is already engaged by some reason to work more powerfully at this present than otherwise it would have done So that if you understand not only good Reasons for your actions but mind also the Occasions you will be mightily inclined by the one alwayes and more mightily by the other at certain times To grow in Knowledg and Wisdome is exceeding necessary not only because it presents us with great variety of things to entertain our mind withall and makes Religion more pleasant and renders our Soul more firm and strong more solid and compact but likewise because while we search into the reason of our actions we shall discern whether the thing be only lawful or it be convenient also and prudent and withall necessary to be done And accordingly we shall know how to make a proportionable allowance of our time and strength and earnestness unto it If the business be meerly lawful you will do it when you have nothing else to do If it be necessary you will give it a more certain and likewise a larger portion of your time and strength and the very thought of its necessity will enforce you to it And it it be judged though not absolutely necessary yet convenient and more acceptable to God if you perform it then you will do it when you are best disposed and in the fittest temper to do him that more pleasing service And then being possessed with an habitual love to God and to Religion upon such satisfactory Reasons as you have propounded to your self and well considered the observing of the Occasions which either time or place or company or such like circumstances present you to express it must needs be a mighty awakening to your Spirit to bestir it self with all diligence in the improvement of such an advantage And these occasions are therefore of such force to call up our endeavours because we know that as much may be done then which cannot
heat in them that they are pleased and move delightfully though it really hath no less of God in it self than it had before when they skipt for joy yet now the Body becomes like a lump of Clay and cannot endure to be drawn any longer to these Holy Duties Yea the Soul it self unless it duly consider will begin hereat to be greatly dejected and to have little list to that which gives so small contentment to it as it is an Inhabitant in Flesh and which makes its abode nothing pleasant and comfortable for the present But if in this state the Mind recollect it self and consider that for its part it doth what it did before though it doth not feel it self and perceive its power in the same manner and that it is not bound to produce these pleasurable motions in the lower man and that they are more pleasing to us than unto God it might presently have rational satisfaction and tranquillity in its own breast which is the best of all other joys and be perswaded to hold on in its course notwithstanding this seeming discouragement And if the Mind by these or such like considerations be induced to do as it was wont then I cannot see but all its performances would be both more acceptable to God and in the issue more delightful to it self For there is more strength of a Mans reason and will in them now that he wants that pleasing assistance which the Body used to afford him in the doing of them His love to God is the more fervent and unconquerable in that it will not cease its motion towards him though all things else fail it but only the force of its own inclination He is not in true understanding more weak and feeble now but a Person of greater might and courage than he was before He breaks through all difficulties and will not suffer himself to be overborn by the great load that lies upon his Spirits I said just now that the lower man finding a delectation in Gods service might be well contented with it if not desirous of those Holy Duties and so the Soul in doing them gave no great proof at such a time of the power and vigour of its own affections to them because there was no impediment or reluctance in the other party But when there is nothing but a sense of its duty to invite it and all beside begin to withdraw their consent then it is that it showes its resolution and what it can do by it self Then a man demonstrates his heart to be so set towards God and to be so much in love with him that he will please him though he cannot please half of himself in what he doth in obedience to his commands And besides by a right understanding of this that I have said there may be some way perhaps found of recovering these sensible joyes which are so grateful to us that we never think we have enough of them Either 1 by more preparing our Mind and labouring to work in it a deeper apprehension of what we go about And if the fault be there this will cure it Or 2 by gratifying our outward man with some recreations and sensible goods that it is in love withal whereby its spirits may be better cheared than they can be for the present with Divine exercises Seeing it cannot now have a good liking of that which the mind doth most desire let the mind make no scruple to comply more freely with it and entertain it with those innocent pleasures which agree best with its inclinations And if the fault lye there and arise from its lumpishness this may be a Remedy for it Or 3 by using humiliations of the Body by abstinence and fasting if through too much fulness it be indisposed or by smiting on our Breast casting down our selves on our Face if through too strong a taste of earthly joyes it be grown untractable and if the fault be partly in the mind and partly in the body it may be in this manner removed No body doubts but discreet Fasting is very profitable in some cases and for the other we find so many examples of them in the Holy Books that we cannot think they are to be despised Nay it is likely that good men found by an outwardly humbled body that the mind was more affected and apt to be humbled therewith But then remember that it is far better when the Mind affects the Body than when the Body affects the Mind and we should strive rather after that though we should not reject the help of this I will give you an instance which shall at once prove this and show withall the influence the Body hath upon the Mind Let a Man Pray or Preach in a melting tone with much action of his hands and with earnest looks and motions of his Head and the affections of the People shall be exceedingly stirred when as the very same matter and words delivered after another manner shall not half so much work upon them Nay if the Voice be but sweet and the carriage graceful though there be little action of the Body and no arts of insinuation to conjure up the affections yet the discourse which comes with these advantages shall find more favour and better entertainment with the Hearers than that which proceeds from an harsher mouth and a less plausible behaviour though otherwise it be of far greater weight and moment And so we see many People chuse to sit in the Ministers face rather than behind a Pillar or the Pulpit because they say their minds are made more attentive and their hearts more engaged thereby From all which you are satisfied how much the Soul many times is beholden to the eyes and eares and those stirrings in the blood which outward Objects create But yet you know very well also that one strong touch or stroke that the Mind gives it self by a piercing consideration is of far greater force to breed even a sensible delectation if the Body be disposed than all the commotions and agitations in the Body are to beget a rational satisfaction and contentment of mind though it be never so desirous of it And the affections you know likewise that are raised by those outward means are not half so much worth as those which the mind it self excites from the matter and not the manner of what is delivered These sensible consolations then are not to be slighted but it is far better to look after the other And if when we desire them it were as a step and help to the other they were the more to be valued and endeavoured after As the pleasant trembling and warmbling I may call it of the Spirits doth much clarify them just as the Air is purified by being shaken upon that account it is desirable for the affording our mind a freer sight of its own objects But if we love it only for the harmony and ravishing delight that is in it self then it may prove
which is the only thing that can give any value to them It is a shame that I should groan or go heavily under the sweet the easie and gentle Yoke of my most loving Saviour none of whose Commandments are grievous but all his wayes pleasantness and his pathes peace But there is nothing more frightful than to think that I have at any time opposed his will and thrown off the light burden of obedience which he layeth on me I adore thy pardoning mercy and wait on thee likewise for power from above to save me from reproaching his Religion by so much as any unwillingness to obey him I implore thy Divine Inspirations to preserve in my heart that delightful sense of Thee which may render it no less my contentment than my duty to follow Jesus in his humility and condescension of spirit in his meekness and patience in his kindness and tenderness in his holiness and purity in his love to thee and to all man-kind in doing good and suffering evil in resolved denyal of my own will when contrary to thine and in every thing giving thanks to thee O Father of Mercies which is thy will concerning us in Christ Jesus To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen VII AND having thus poured forth your Soul to God you may feel your self sometimes so mightily moved that your heart runs out with much pleasure in abundance of pious thoughts and holy affections which you are not wont to find at other times And then My Friend let me tell you it would be of singular use if you would set down those extraordinary thoughts and passionate effusions of your Soul which you feel in your greater enlargements These are as so many Records which you have to show of the Spirits prevalency and triumph over the dull flesh They are the flights of your Soul whereby you see to what it aspires and how great and happy it may be when God pleases They are the tokens of Gods love whereby he would indear himself to your heart And you may look upon them as if they were Golden Chains let down from Heaven to draw and attract you thither and bind you fast but willingly to your duty It is great pity to throw away such sweet flowers after once smelling of them to lay by such good thoughts as we do a common Book after the first reading I would wish you to find some safe repository for them and to lay up carefully such expressions of your mind in Meditation or Prayer as are most lively and affecting and to fetch them out for your use when any dulness or straitness shall oppress you As a good Student when he reads a Book though he may let pass the most of it which he knew before yet remarks and preserves in his Notes the choicest parts in which he finds great strength of reason or sharpness of wit or may be any ways useful to him in his design so would I have you mark those passages in your converse with God and Divine things which have in them some fulness of sense some liveliness of conceit some elevation of mind and are so much beyond the ordinary strain of thinking as if they were some beam of light darted from an higher hand or the utmost endeavour of the Soul to be with God When you find I say your conceptions so fit and proper that you seem to behold the bare face of truth when some thing smites your heart with such a force of reason that you are constrained to yield or when such an holy breath comes into you that your Soul swells and grows too big for your body let them be noted as carefully as the Moneth and the Day was by your Parents which brought you into the World or as you remember the happy time when God bestowed some singular blessing on you which made this World a more comfortable place than otherwise you should have found it Examples you know are wont to move us much and therefore of what power may we suppose it to be when we can propound our selves for an Example to us This Copy as I may call it of our selves besides that it will make us blush at another time to see how unlike we are to our selves will also excite us to recover the same countenance and aspect that once we had and make some colour come into our Faces and warmth into our Spirits when we are pale and cold in the service of God It will remember us likewise of the pleasurable motions that were then in our hearts and remembrance is the way to call them back again It will furnish us also with some matter for our thoughts when they are barren and can bring forth nothing For though reading of some good Book in this case may be very advantageous to us yet nothing can more assist us than a Book of our own making the births as I may term them of our own mind Both because they best sute with our notions and can soon find the place where they lay before and because they will remember us also of Gods grace and goodness to us so that either shame or love or hope will make us strain to do the same again or to excel our selves When no thoughts will stir within we must call for some helps without to move us and what is there that will so easily enter as that which was once within us before Nothing sure can better fit us than that which our own Souls have cut out and shaped for themselves As a Chymist therefore that is drawing out the more retired spirits of things if he grows faint in his work takes a drop or two of his own extracts to bring his Soul back again so should we do when our liveliness begins to forsake us and our Soul complains of its weak and fainting Fits We must pour in some of those thoughts which we have formerly drawn out of our hearts which are as it were the quintessence of our Souls and the very spirits of our Devotion that they may recall the life that is flying away And tell me I beseech you what a reviving it is but to think that we once had such thoughts in our mind What a Cordial is it to the languishing Soul to feed as I may say upon its own Honey and taste of its own sweetness How greedily will it embrace and how gladly will it smile upon the Children of its own Womb How pleasant will it be but to hope that it may become fruitful again as well as it was before to behold the Picture of what it may be as well as of what it hath been in former times Save therefore some of these and let them not all be spilt as they distill from your Soul Lay them up in store considering the time may come when your Soul will be glad to have them restored to it and will receive them as so many drops of Balm Keep them by you as you do some precious
travel together And the Beast as some Philosophers call our Body which we carry along with us will not be so soon tired if we let it have some to follow and bear it company Whether it be that the forwardness of others spurs us up to mend our pace or whether it be that love to them makes us like them I know not but so it is that they who have the goodness of others to help and incourage them are wont to find themselves better disposed than otherwise they should have been if they had lived alone It is Solomon's Observation XIII Prov. 20. that He who walketh with wise men shall be wise but a Company of Fools shall be the worse for it We have an example of the former part of it saith R. Eliezer in Lot who by the pious Example of Abraham with whom he lived became a good Man imitating his works and walking in his steps For as Abraham when he dwelt in Charran was wont to exercise hospitality and to receive strangers So did Lot when he dwelt in Sodom whereby he had the happiness to entertain Angels As a Man saith he who goes into the Shop of one that sells Spices though he cheapen and buy nothing yet receives a grateful odor and carries away a refreshment So does he that converses with the just partake of their good manners and carries away a sweet remembrance of their works Therefore either society or death is a common Proverbial wish among the same Hebrews One cannot tell which is the greater desert as Nausiclides was wont to speak as Athenaeus tells us a place where there is no spring or where there are no good Neighbours He must be more than a Man whose spirits do not fail him if he want this refreshment He will soon be gone to another World if he have no society in this It is a thing so necessary that company not so good as we would wish proves now and then better than none at all if it be but to make us more contented when we are alone and the more to prize our solitary opportunities And if we cannot have the society of many yet we may find great use of one special Friend if well chosen Nay it is the advice of the wise Son of Syrach VI. Ecclus 6. Be in peace with many nevertheless have but one counsellour of a thousand O how great a good is this for a Man to meet with a well-prepared Heart wherein to lay up his secrets more safe than a Jewel in his Cabinet whose conscience and fidelity he shall stand in less fear of than his own whose discourse shall lenifie his carefulness whose Opinion shall dispatch his Counsels whose chearfulness shall dissipate his sorrowâ—â— and whose very aspect is delightful This is a Jewel worth ones seeking and he that hath him not is but half a Man A man without a Friend is like the left hand without the right as one of the Jewish Doctors speaks He is an imperfect Creature and according to this Man's Opinion wants the better part of Himself But howsoever we may take Solomon's word for it that two are better than one If we have the use of another Mans parts time and labours it is as if we had two Souls and as many Bodies and did see with four Eyes and think with two understandings He illustrates this in that place IV. Eccles 9 10 c. by putting three Cases which may be easily applied to our spiritual concernments wherein the benefit of a vertuous friendship plainly appears First In the case of inward weakness he saith if the one fall the other will lift up his fellow When we slip a good Friend will support us or if we be down he will presently restore us to our selves again Secondly In case of dulness if the one be cold the other may communicate some heat to him If any Person think himself so strong that he is not in danger to fall yet the best grown man may feel some chilness spiritual numbness creep upon his Soul for alas we are at a great distance from the Sun in compare with those who are above and it is as it were a Winter with us while we are here in this lower World Now how can one saith he be warm alone But if two lie together then they have heat As two Fire-sticks will singly cast no warmth but let their Flame dye whereas both together will make a good Fire in the Chimney so will two Friends that lie close to each others hearts keep themselves from that coldness which separated would seise upon them both And Thirdly In the case of worldly troubles and violent enemies that outwardly assault them though they may prevail against one yet two he saith shall withstand them When we have a second we may venture to go into the Field and by a double strength we may take up the Bucklers and hope to overcome when we might justly doubt of our own single valour But I cannot better represent the truth of all this than in the words of Simplicius In Epict. Cap. 37. an excellent Philosopher who hath briefly but fully demonstrated the many happy advantages of pure and hearty Friendship in a discourse to this effect There is a truth in what is commonly said that when a Man hath got a Friend he hath no longer one but two Souls and Bodies And then who can doubt but that they who are possessed of each others Persons will have a communion in their external goods But what is this in compare with that great light of truth which shines in united Souls and with that compleat vertue which arising out of what excels in each and being brought as it were into one common stock is countenanced by the Heavenly Powers who shine upon it because of its perfection They are safer than other Men in their Counsels they are less apt to trip in their actions which are corroborated both by Prudence and by Power Nay suppose a Mans occasions call him into a far Country he is present by his faithful Friend to all the relations he leaves behind him at home Nay not only while he lives but when he is dead and departed to another World he is as secure of their happiness during the life of his Friend as if he still remained himself and conversed among them And what is there more pleasant than the sight of a Friend What more grateful than to hear his voice and to behold his worthy actions And as for trust and confidence neither Kindred nor alliance to great Persons nor Riches nor any thing else can so much assure it as generous friendship And therefore Alexander was not ill advised who pointed to his Friends when some asked where was his Treasures There is no such Instructor and Tutor as a Friend None can perswade us with so much ease nor can any Man reprove us with so little offence nor do we fear to offend and do amiss upon the account
grace to improve and make the best use of this blessing to my further increase in Wisdom and Goodness which are the greatest treasures of all O that I may feel my heart disposed and enclined by a particular love to some to be kind and loveing to all other men and especially to love thee and our blessed Lord the more my best and my eternal Friend Bestow upon those to whom I am united in friendly affection all that I can desire for my self An healthful body a long life a clear understanding a ready apprehension an exact prudence a vertuous will an unwearied diligence a constant chearfulness a sweet and obliging behaviour an useful conversation and good success in all their undertakings Requite all their kindnesses to me in multitude of blessings and above all with a sense of thy Divine favour and with the perpetual joy and comfort of the Holy Ghost O blessed Lord hear all their own Prayers Hear them for themselves and for me also And stir us up all to pray with greater ardency with a more zealous affection to thy Honour and each others good and with a most inflamed desire to be as like thee as possibly we can That after a constant and hearty friendship here in this World we may have a comfortable departure out of it and rest in a joyful hope to meet together in the other life and embrace in the bosome of our blessed Lord Christ Jesus Amen Amen XI IN the next place I must exhort you to exercise a great faith in Gods good Providence which rules in all affairs This is of great force to banish all perplexing thoughts and consequently to make you of a chearful spirit and to be good company for your self when you are alone or about your necessary employments And it hath not only this oblique aspect upon our Souls to defend them from that heaviness sadness which is too apt to oppress them but is of a more direct and manifest influence to comfort and enliven them on all occasions By removing that is those impediments out of the way which are a clog and a burden to our spirits and by begetting likewise an higher faith in Gods goodness to our better part which takes such care of our lower concernments For what is it that makes our heart unwilling to go to God and to wait upon him as Mary sate at our Saviours Feet but the multitude of businesses wherewith like Martha we incumber and trouble our selves We imagine we can never take care enough about those things and when we have done our best still we remain solicitous about the success And so our Souls being already filled crowded with these thoughts there is no room left to admit of any other till they be thrust out And suppose now our own Conscience begin in this case to reprove us and bid us go to our God yet if it be that only which urges us and not a quiet faith in his good providence how do we hear those things calling us off again and inviting nay drawing our hearts to them as being indeed their own It is nothing else that distracts us but these cares which are not ejected by faith but only silenced and stilled a little by natural conscience which tells us we do amiss Or if they have lain quiet a while and given us leave to pray to God and think of better things how easily do they thrust out all our good Meditations and pious affections when they return again Nay how do they eat up and prey on the very Soul it self as well as on all the good notions which are within it If we be necessarily engaged then in more affairs than willingly we would it is as necessary we should be strongly perswaded of the Care which God takes of all things that they shall go well with those who trust in him That so we may use but a moderate diligence and not trouble our selves about issues and events and that we may save abundance of time for better thoughts and that these affairs may not take up our hearts both while we are in them and when we are out of them too That 's too much familiarity with them when they will never let us alone And we ought to endeavour that though they employ our minds for many Hours yet when we have done our work they may not then ingross our time also The care of Religion is great enough we need not take upon us the care of the World too With what reason do we complain that we find it difficult to govern our selves when it seems we think our selves meet to govern this World and all No wonder that we are weary of our work when we have not only our own to do but will needs undertake Gods work likewise We may well sigh and be discouraged when we carry such a vast burden upon our Shoulders There is no end of these Cares which intermix themselves not only with our particular businesses but trouble us continually with sad and fearful thoughts about the affairs of Nations and the state of the publique wherein our private wealth is embarqued And this is the mischief of it that when we are discouraged by this means it is a sin and not meerly our misery because we will meddle with more than belongs unto us We put our selves to an unnecessary pain to put our selves out of the favour and care of him who would ease us of this burden by casting it upon his merciful providence It is an uncomfortable and a sinful condition which is aggravated by this that it is a needless and a bold intrusion into his business who governs the World It is as if I should be very solicitous whether the Sun will shine to morrow or not when I have occasion to stay all Day about my affairs at home Let us do what concerns us and leave God to dispose of all the rest And let us believe that he will assist us in our dispatches and a great deal the more if we will not stretch our selves to meddle beyond our line He will help us to do what we ought when we do no more than we should When we are not oppressed I mean with fear that we shall not be able to go thorough our employments and when we are not too careful what will become of them after we have finished our work God will take care that we shall do them and that they shall have the best success when they are done Look upon your self as a part of the World and upon God as the Governour of the whole And then by faith in him make your self as it were a part of himself that so he may have a particular concernment in your affairs Look upon your self not only as one of his Family and therefore under his General Providence but also as one of his Children for whose good he will more than ordinarily provide And be always confident he will provide the better for you because
you trust him and leave your self wholly to his Wisdom and Kindness I could entertain you here with a delightful Discourse on this Argument were it not that I would not burden you as I said before with too great a Book Let me only advise you of this which shall excuse me from adding a Prayer at the end of this Discourse especially since you know where to find one in another place That as it is most for our ease to recommend all we have and do to Gods good providence and resolutely to rest satisfied in what he determines so the most effectual course to obtain this resignation to him and confidence in him is rather to exercise it in our Devotions by acts of resignation and expressions of our trust in his great goodness than to be petitioning him continually to bestow upon us this grace Say therefore with the heartiest affection upon all occasions in the words of David Thou art my hope O Lord thou art my trust from my Youth I trust in the Mercy of God Psal 71.5.14.52.8.141.8.56.3.92.2.118.9.37.2.5 for ever and ever Mine eyes are unto thee O God the Lord I will hope continually and will yet praise Thee more and more What time I am afraid I will trust in thee I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and my fortress my God in him will I trust It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes I will therefore trust in the Lord and do good I will commit my way unto him that he may bring it to pass Behold O Father of Mercies how intirely I confide in thee I absolutely resign my self and all I have unto thee I rely upon thy bounty for what thou judgest fit and needful for me Thy Goodness is the greatest treasure thy Truth and Faithfulness is my best security thy gracious Promises and careful Providence is my comfort thy Wisdom is my satisfaction in all events and accidents thy Power is my support protection and safeguard Lead me whither thou pleasest and I will follow thee with a chearful heart I refuse nothing which comes from thy hands O most loving Father I submit to thy orders and hope that all things shall work together for my good And I trust in thy grace that I shall always do as I do now stedfastly adhering thus unto thee and never suffering any thing that befalls me to pull me away from this humble faith in thy wise and almighty Goodness to which I refer my self now and ever And the more to awaken you to this let me tell you My Friend that we find examples of it even in the Heathens themselves who in a strange fit of devotion have sometime cryed out on this fashion O man what dost thou Why dost thou not free thy self from all this trouble Adventure at last Arrian Epict. L. 2. Cap. 16. with eyes lifted up to God to say unto him Use me at thy pleasure O God for the time to come Thou hast my perfect consent I am of the same mind that thou art I have a mind to nothing but what thou thinkest good Wilt thou have me bear an Office or shall I lead a private life Must I stay or must I fly Shall I be poor or shall I be rich I am ready to obey I will defend thee against all the World I will apologize for thy providence about these things to every body I say that all is good because thou art so Thus they exhorted men to follow God chearfully in a belief that he is Wise and Good for we can never be happy said they if we follow him sighing and groaning as a man doth one that is stronger than he who pulls him after him when he hath no mind to go Let us begin every thing saith the same Philosopher in another place without too much desire or aversation Let us not incline to this or to the other way But behave our selves like a Traveller who when he comes to two ways asks him whom he meets next which of those he shall take to such a place having no inclination to the right hand rather than to the left but desiring only to know the true and direct way that will carry him to his Journeys end Just so must we come to God as to a Guide as to one who shall dispose of our motions as he pleases We must not look about us and desire of him this or the other thing which we fancy We must not direct Him what course he should take with us nor desire him to show us this rather than that but embrace that which he proposes and desire only he will conduct us in the right way to happiness This is our duty and our safety Whereas now you shall see Men run to him and say Lord have Mercy upon me deliver me from such and such a thing Wretch that thou art Wouldst thou have any thing but what is best And who can tell what that is Is there any thing best but that which seems so to God Why then dost thou endeavour as much as in thee lies to corrupt him who is to judg and to seduce Him who is thy Counsellour and to move him by thy cries to do otherways than he thinks good Cease these clamours and do not urge him to incline to thy desires but suffer him to follow his own Wisdom It cannot be any delight to him to cross and vex us If what we are inclined to desire be conformable to his judgment he will not deny it us meerly because we are inclined to desire it But he will give us that which is good in his eyes as the holy Scripture speaks And what would we have more Will it not suffice us to have our own hearts desire And what should that be if we are well advis'd but this that we may have what unsearchable Wisdom united with Infinite Power and Goodness shall think to be fittest for us and most convenient Of this we need not doubt And this is sufficient for any Mans satisfaction XII AND as a means to all this which hath been said in the foregoing Advices I cannot but desire you in the next place to Receive as often as you can the Holy Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood For there you have an ample testimony of Gods tender love to you and care over you There a number of Christian Brethren and good Friends meet to rejoyce together There your Soul is excited to the noblest thoughts and sublimest Meditations of your Saviour's love and of the purchase he hath made for you The sight of which will not let you stand in need of being chidden by your self into the devoutest affections and the most chearful resignation to him who having given so great a gift as his Son to you will not deny you may be confident to bestow lesser benefits when he sees them expedient for
you In brief This is an holy Feast where our Lord not only makes you good chear for the present but renews your decayed strength and begets in you a greater liveliness for the future One great end of the institution of publique Feasts among all Nations in the World was for the maintaining of unity love and friendship among the People that lived under the same Laws and for the recreating of those who were tired with their constant labours And it is the design we likewise see of our private Feasts which are times of ease and refreshment for our neighbours and preserve also good will among them according to that of Ben Syra a famous Person among the Jews Spread the Table and contention ceases We are all good Friends at a Feast Upon which account Plato was of Opinion that their Gods themselves in much pitty to Man-kind whose life is full of labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 2. de Leg. did appoint those Festival times for them that they might have a little relaxation and be incouraged by those publique joyes to proceed without any murmuring in their several imployments We are very sure that God hath instituted by his particular command this Holy Feast like to which none ever was and which we may celebrate as oft as we please upon the Body and Blood of his dear Son Whereby a great love sure will be begot in our hearts to him and his service whose guests we are and at whose cost the entertainment is made meerly out of his extraordinary grace and royal favour towards us This sure will be a singular refreshment and restorative to our spirits when we grow weary and almost spent in the work of our Lord. The sweetness of this will be like Wine to the Heart or like Marrow and Fatness to the Bones It will stir us up when we are listless and comfort us when we are sad and put life into us when we are dead and make us not only able but willing to be Religious being both our pleasure and our food Seneca speaking of times of relaxation and rest from labours saith he knew some great Men L. de tranq animi who once a Moneth would give themselves a Day of play and others that every Day would allow some Hours wherein they would not so much as write a Letter or meddle with any thing that had the show of business If we in like manner did though not every Day yet every Moneth take this sweet repast if out of love to Christ and consideration of our own necessities we did lay aside all other thoughts and give up our selves to those delightful Meditations which here present themselves unto us it would ease us of many cares and troubles and make us more chearfully do the will of God at other times and dispose us to attend the whole business of Religion as the pleasure rather than the labour of our life But if you be cast into a place where you have not the opportunity so frequently to celebrate the remembrance of Christ's death by receiving the outward and visible signs and pledges of his Divine Grace then you may the oftner communicate with him spiritually in your own heart and represent his dying love as lively as you can to it in your retired thoughts Beseeching him to accept of your unfeigned desires to make him your publick acknowledgments and to joyn with all those pious Souls which are then met together throughout the Christian World to show forth his praise and to offer up themselves in holy love to him and to our blessed Redeemer Christ Jesus For which purpose I would advise you to make use of all such Meditations Prayers and Thanksgivings as are wont to attend those Solemnities altering only those words which relate to your actual receiving at the Table of the Lord. The profit of such a frequent remembrance of our Lord one way or other will be exceeding great for the securing your duty and the making all those Counsels which I have given you the more effectual It will put you in mind of the worth and dignity of your Soul for which Christ hath done and suffered so much and on whom he bestows such precious tokens of his love It will quicken your love to him which is the life of Religion You shall taste how sweet it is beyond all comparison to be Religious whereby we have such hope in God There you shall be remembred how gainful it is to be good beyond all the purchases of this World for Christ imparts himself to you and all his benefits There you pray with the greatest devotion and offer up Spiritual Sacrifices and you represent also the Sacrifice of Christ to prevail for blessings for you And there you are most likely to have the most plentiful communications of God's Holy Spirit to you and to feel your Heart dilated in the largest affection unto Him There you confirm your promises to God and he seales his to you You cannot there be of another judgment if you would than this that since Christ dyed to give you life you ought not henceforth to live to your self but unto him which dyed for you and rose again This I make no doubt is one reason why those promises wherein Men stand engaged to God are no better performed because they do not frequently repeat this holy action in the exercise of which they find their hearts at present fully resolved for God and goodness This is the cause that they waver again and all their Promises and Vows wherein they bind themselves fall off like cords of vanity Whereas did they upon all occasions communicate with our Saviour they would find their resolutions grow so strong and stedfast that no temptation would be able to break them They would be like Bands of Iron or Chains rather of Gold that would hold them for ever to their duty You have heard I believe the story of Mithridates who by often use of the Antidote which he invented so fortified his Spirits that they resisted the force of all Poyson Insomuch that when to avoid the Roman slavery he would have dispatched himself by a strong venemous draught he was not able to effect it Such a soveraign vertue you will find in the frequent devout receiving of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood It will secure the life of your Soul confirm your strength arm you against the bitings of the old Serpent and make it in a manner impossible for you to be impoisoned by any naughty affections But I have writ so much on this Subject in other Books already that I need not say any more of it here You find I hope those Treatises useful to the stirring up Devotion and to the making a Soul more forward and unwearied in Gods service And there likewise you may meet with a particular Prayer for Love to the Holy Communion wherefore let me proceed without any stop to the next Advice XIII IF
into timorousness and hurt your Soul And this indeed is the skill we should all learn to behave our selves with such caution and evenness in the exercise of fear that it do not make us Superstitious nor through a despondency of Spirit cast us into that dulness and weakness which we are striving to avoid You must let your Fear therefore be tempered with so much of a Divine Faith that like heat and moisture they may make up one healthful constitution Faith in God I say is another thing that you must carefully and daily foster in your Soul if you would be constant in his Service Be verily perswaded that he loves you infinitely more than you love him and therefore is more desirous than you can be to see you do well and continue in well doing to the end Think that his eye is upon you that his arm is under you that he is as near to you as you are to your self for in all regards we live and move and have our Being in Him Think therefore that you behold Him the Father of Lights sending in rayes of light into your mind as you see the Sun looking in at your Windows and filling the room with its chearful beams and that you feel Him pouring in life constantly into your will as the Heart spurts out blood into all the Arteries of the Body Never entertain such a thought of Him as though he was willing to desert you and cast you out of his friendship now that he hath done so much for you and you have been so long acquainted By no means hearken to any jealous thoughts that are but whispered of his goodness whatsoever the jealousies be which you have of your own inconstancy Was it not He that called us when we were in horrid darkness and forgetfulness of him bending all our thoughts and desires to our own ruine and his dishonour Was it not He that assisted us to get the victory over so many Enemies Who but He is it that hath hitherto enabled us in our study to live vertuously and please Him in all things What should now move him to alter his mind After such numerous tokens of his love what is it should make him hate us Will he bear with no weaknesses or shall a fault that we have committed wholly alienate his affection from us If when we lay in our filthiness he took pitty on us pulled us out of the Mire and laid us in his bosome now that we are washed all over will he shake us off and cast us out of his embraces because our Feet as our Lord speaks still need some washing He that invited us so kindly when we were strangers and took us into his house and made us become not his servants only but his Children will he now turn us out of doors presently and thrust us into the wide world again because we have offended Him When we had no strength did he inspire us and hath he thus long tenderly followed us and trained us up in his service and will he now forsake the conduct of us and abandon us to the mercy of our Enemies Why did He then with so much labour purchase our love Why hath He been at such vast expence on our account Why would He take such incredible care to lose us when we might have perished by his no care of us O unworthy thoughts of so gracious a Master so loving a Father so tender a Husband Rather let us think the Sun may refuse to rise and shine upon us or the Sea may be dryed up than imagine that He should be willing to cast us into our former darkness and not let the current of his grace still run towards us Let us at least make him as good as an ordinary Mother who not only suckles her Child when it is young and indures many tedious Days and wearisome Nights in the midst of its cries and froward humours but likewise loves and looks after it when it can go alone and make some provision for its own good and safety Far be it from us to make him like the silly Birds that attend their young no longer than they are in the Nest and leave them to shift for themselves when they have once taught them to use their Wings Will not the Divine love think you indure far more untowardness peevishness and waywardness in our hearts when our grace is but in its infancy and childhood than a tender Mother indures in her little one before it can speak and tell its mind And will he not bear then with some indiscretions or faults afterwards but cast us out as Sarah did Ishmael and the Handmaid into a Wilderness where there is no provision for us Nay will He that took compassion on that poor outcast and his Mother to whom he sent his Angel for their preservation leave his dear Children to become a prey to the wild Beasts of the Desert Far be it from the Father of Mercies the God of love and all comfort to deal so with us And let me tell you that the more confidence we repose in his love the more he hates to use us so unkindly What man is there so hard-hearted that seeing his Neighbour ready to fall and hurt himself will deny him his help and with-draw his support especially when he falls into his armes and desires wholly to lean Himself on his Breast Who can indure to fail a Man and let him be undone that comes and puts his estate and his life into his hands though otherwise he be undeserving If a poor Bird fly to us for protection from the ravenous Kite that persecutes it Can we find in our hearts to throw it into its Enemies claws Who can then suspect that God who hath declared himself otherwayes willing to do us good should then cast us off and forsake us when we altogether rely upon his goodness clemency wisdom and power to help and relieve us When we fly to none else for shelter when we say as David doth LXII Psal 1 2 5. Truly my Soul waiteth upon God from Him cometh my Salvation He only is my rock and my salvation he is my defence The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God Who can let it enter into his thoughts that then He will turn away from us and suffer us to be greatly moved But more than this there is no Man among us unless he will make himself most infamous can fail and desert another who upon his earnest invitation and kind proffers of security comes and puts Himself wholly under his Wing and trusts to his Covert for safe protection Men are not arrived yet at such inhumanity but are ashamed to be so barbarous as to inveigle Men with fair promises and shows of kindness to come and take Sanctuary with them and then betray them Let the Lord of Heaven then never be held in the least suspicion of such unfaithfulness as well as unkindness to us whom he hath invited
hitherto in performing my duty to Thee Yea I have tasted so often how gracious thou art that I account thy service the most perfect freedome and find that in keeping of thy Commandements there is great reward My Hope is that thou Lord who hast never failed those that seek thee Psal 9.10.19.11.138.8 wilt perfect that which concerneth me and not forsake the works of thine own hands It is Thee whom my Soul seeketh that I may have a more lively and prevailing sense of Thee that I may most ardently love Thee and constantly adhere to thy will and do Thee honour by a chearful observance of all thy Commands And from Thee it is that I have received these good inclinations and holy desires They are the fruit of thy love and therefore cannot but be thy delight which makes me still trust in Thee that thou wilt rejoyce over me and do me good I have thy Word to incourage me upon which thou hast caused me to hope And I know that thy Word is true from the begining 119. Psal 90.160 and that thy faithfulness is unto all Generations They are not the things which thou hast never promised us that I come to beg of Thee riches honours long life or the rest of the goods of this World for which I refer my self to thy wisdom to give me what portion of them thou pleasest but thy Holy Spirit which my Saviour hath told me thou wilt as readily give to those that ask it as a tender-hearted Parent will give food to his hungry Children when they cry unto him I desire only that thy own life may be nourished and protected in me and vanquish all its enemies and be compleated in a blessed Immortality I beg of thee more of the Grace of Humility of Meekness of Temperance of Patience of Brotherly-kindness and of Charity Endue me with moderate desires of what I want and a sober use of what I enjoy with more contentedness in what is present and less solicitude about what is future with a patient mind to submit to any loss of what I have or to any disappointment of what I expect with a pious care to improve my precious time in all other actions of a Christian life and with a willingness to conclude my days and return back to thee to be with Christ which is best of all Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness in these things be for my comfort 119. Psal 58.76 1. Colos 9.1 Phil. 11.15 Rom. 13.14 1. Pet. 5.10.48 Psal 14. according to thy Word unto thy Servant I entreat thy favour with my whole Heart Be merciful unto me according to thy Word Which hath pronounced those blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness and promised that they shall be filled Fill me O Lord with the knowledge of thy will in all wisdome and spiritual understanding Fill me with goodness and the fruits of righteousness And fill me with all joy and peace in believing that thou wilt never leave me nor forsake me but make me perfect stablish strengthen settle me and be my God for ever and ever my Guide even unto Death Amen XV. AND now is there any need to use many words to show how much force there is in the Meditation of Death to make you lively It is the common opinion that all things intend themselves more earnestly and act in the extremity when they meet with their contrary which threatens their destruction As Springs are hottest in the coldest seasons and Fire it self most scorching in frosty weather Even so if we set Death very seriously before our mind and laid the thoughts of it close to our heart would it cause our life to be more full of Life We should gather together all our might to do as much as we can if we lookt upon our selves as going to the Grave where there is no work to be done at all The mind of Man is too apt to feed it self with the fancy of several pleasures that either Nature affords or Art hath invented Among all which a good natur'd mind findes none so delicious as the conceit which frequently starts up in it of the excessive pleasure he should enjoy were he always in the company of a Friend whom he loves intirely and might they spend their days even as they list themselves and dispose of all their Hours according to their own inclinations But if a thought of Death interpose it self when he is in the height of this delight it dashes all these fine Bubbles of the imagination in pieces All 's gone and vanishes into a sigh or there is nothing of them remains but a drop as big as a tear And therefore if it be so sharp a curb to the forwardness of our desires and serve as a Bridle to hold in our head-strong passions we may use it also as a good Spur to prick them on when they are too sluggish and to stir them up when they have no list to move at all When we are ready to fall asleep did we but think of dying it would make us start and say Who would sleep and dream away his time in this manner when for any thing he knows he hath but a few Sands left in his Glass Death is coming to draw the Curtains about me and to make my Bed for me in the dust Awake then up and be doing because there is a long Night near at hand wherein we must rest and not work And is it not a very great grace if for so small so short a work we shall receive so vast so long a reward It is a great shame to stand all the day idle if it be but for this very reason that our best diligence though it could be continued for many more years than it is like to be can never deserve such a recompence Place your self therefore as if you were upon your Death-bed and think with what ardent desires with what passionate groans with what an heartful of sighs you would seek after God if your Soul was just taking its flight out of this Body and perhaps this will send it out beforehand in the like sighs and groans which will help to waft You towards Heaven Just as when a man is to write to the dearest Friend he hath in the World and thinks they are the last Lines that ever he shall send him his very heart dissolves and drops it self into his Pen So would all our affections melt and flow forth towards God if we seemed to our selves as if we should never speak to him more with a Tongue of Flesh nor look upon him through these Windows of Clay but should shortly dwell in silence and go down into the House of Darkness O how would our Souls thirst for God as David speaks for the living God! How much should we love him and endeavour to confirm our friendship with him that when our Bodies are disposed of into the Earth our Souls might still live and rejoyce with Him in
Heaven expecting also a blessed Resurrection And if you say that in this state of dulness that I am speaking of a Soul is fit to think of nothing this thing will tell you how it alarms the heart and makes it muster up its thoughts and collect its scattered Forces that it may be in a readiness to receive the approaches of Death and its assault upon us And the thoughts of it at such a time are the more natural and easie because there is nothing more like to Death than this unactive and sluggish temper when the Soul seems as if it were buried in the Body and intombed already in this Vault of Flesh And it would be very easy to show how much every one of the foregoing counsels would be improved by our frequent conversation on all occasions with our Graves It would excite our minds to enquire after another World and make us very desirous to find it out It would raise our esteem of the great love of God who hath given us such assurance of a never dying life It would carry away our thoughts from this Earth as not the place of our setled abode It would presently send them above and bid them see the pleasures which we do but imagine here in their full growth and perfection of joy and happiness there O how delightful would Religion and Vertue be unto us which is the only thing we can carry away with us How curious should we be to judg aright that Death may not be the first thing that shall undeceive us How would it open our heart as I said to pour out it self in devout affections to God and what a comfort would these be to us if the records of them were spread before us at our dying hour This is so far from being an enemy to chearfulness that it is a forcible reason why we should freely enjoy all that God hath given us because we must shortly leave it Our Friends also we shall therefore be enclined to embrace more ardently and do them the more good and covet their company because we have not long to stay with them For when I said the thoughts of Death are apt to restrain our too forward desires I did not mean that it checks or abates our love to our Friends No Love is strong as Death and hard or unyielding as the Grave the Coals thereof are Coals of Fire a most vehement flame as Solomon speaks VIII Cant. 6. It burns that is like the Fire on the Altar for in the Hebrew the last words are the Flame of God which came down from Heaven and never went out Nothing can conquer it no not Death which conquers all Flesh That can only teach us not to place our chief contentment in any thing here no not in the best good in this World though never so dear unto us because it may shortly leave us only its shaddow the image of it in our memory which putting us in mind of our forepast pleasures will make us so much the more sad if we have not hope to find that good improved by its departure from us in another World And is not the use of a Friend then most visible when we think of our departure by whom as I said in one of the former Discourses we shall still remain with those whom we leave behind But what Friend is there like to our blessed Lord whose love we shall the oftner remember by commemorating his Death if we think of our own We cannot chuse but be excited to prepare our selves thereby for an happy and chearful dissolution And why should we not trust God with all we have for a little time whom we must shortly intrust with Soul and Body to all Eternity But I list not to prolong this Discourse with such collections as these which I will leave to your own thoughts with this Prayer wherewith you may awaken your mind when you find it necessary A PRAYER THou art worthy O Lord of all Praise Glory and Honour by whose Omnipotent Will and for whose pleasure all things in Heaven and Earth were created and by whose indulgent Providence they are continually maintained and preserved They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment 102. Psal 26.73.26 as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy Years shall have no end I prostrate my self before Thee in an humble sense that I am but sinful dust and ashes who have nothing to glory in neither riches nor strength nor wisdome but only this O how happy is it for me that I know thee the ever living God the Rock of Ages the only solid foundation of our comfort and joy who when my Flesh and my Heart faileth wilt be the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever I am now presenting my Soul and Body to Thee in perfect health but cannot tell where I shall be the next moment or whether I shall live to breath out the desires of my Soul once more unto Thee For in thy hand is the breath of our Nostrils and when thou pleasest we are turned to destruction We dwell in Houses of Clay whose foundation is in the dust and they are daily crumbling and mouldering away so that we know not how soon they will vanish and be seen no more O how serious should the thoughts of this make me in all my addresses unto Thee How dead to all the sinful enjoyments of this World How holy and pure How heavenly minded and spiritual How ready to do good and to communicate to others those things which I must shortly leave How diligent to assure my self thereby of better enjoyments to make friends in Heaven that when I go hence I may be received into everlasting Habitations I see O Lord now that I think of my departure how unprofitable my too many cares are for the things of this life How vain my eager desires after unnecessary riches and honours how trifling all my pleasures and that there is no solid happiness but in thy love and a pious hope of immortality O my God be so good to me as to turn my thoughts frequently toward my latter end and to fix in my mind a lively sense of the uncertainty of my being and the fickleness of all things belonging to it That since I must shortly leave them all even my dearest Friends and Kindred and this body too which must be turned into corruption I may most zealously endeavour to secure thy love and friendship in a better life by the constant chearful and earnest exercise of all godliness and vertue while I tarry here Help me to be as humble and lowly as the dust to which I am going to bury all anger hatred and enmities since we must needs dye 2 Sam. 14.14 and be as Water spilt upon the Ground which cannot be gathered up again to discharge my mind of all superfluous cares and
of immoderate love of dying things to enjoy them innocently and chearfully to do good with them heartily and to envy no Man's greater prosperity to suffer evil and to take the loss of them patiently to admire that mercy which still prolongs so frail a life as mine is and especially to admire the gracious terms of thy holy Gospel which for our short labours or sufferings here hath promised us the reward of an endless life in a better place Dispose me likewise to be willing to leave this World and to be always in a readiness for my departure that I may never be surprised with sudden Death nor obey thy summons with an heavy heart but freely resign my spirit unto Thee who gavest it O how much do I desire the continuance of these holy thoughts and inclinations that so I may have such a love to this world as is consistent with my hope of Heaven and be so busied in earthly affairs that my heart may be there where my treasure is and be tyed to my friends in such affection that we may not be eternally divorced And the nearer I draw to that eternal World O that I may be the more pure and separated from all worldly mixtures and the clearer sight and prospect I may have of my happiness and attain the greater assurance of thy love and be the fuller of joy in hope of thy glory Pitty my present weakness increase my strength help me not only to resist but to overcome all temptations enable me to discharge the duties of my several relations prepare me for all varieties of conditions that in prosperity I may not forget Thee nor imagine in adversity that thou forgettest me but in all I may be the same and have the same thoughts of thee love to thee and delight in Thee till I come to an unchangeable goodness and happiness with the Lord Jesus Amen XVI BUT if you be so much discomposed at any time that you cannot get your thoughts close to this business nor find any relief in any of the foregoing counsels I must then in the last place send you to a never failing remedy which is to Exercise a great deal of patience towards your self I am so well assured of your goodness and that my judgment is not herein blinded by my affection to you that I dare conclude with this Advice Be content to be dull sometime and able to do nothing as you would and yet do not think the worse of your self for it But if it do stir up any suspicions in your mind of you do not know what fault yet never bluster at your self but with a calm and gentle spirit suffer this distemper Look upon your self as sick and think that it is not good now to stir any humours And therefore strive not too much neither with your self do not distrust this counsel when you are thus melancholy for that will but cast you more into it You will be the sooner eased if you do as well as you can and add not a greater load to your spirit by your own fretful thoughts at this untoward indisposition You must consider that our Bodies being a part of this World will be obnoxious to those changes which are in things adjacent to them And that your Soul being united to your Body cannot but feel its vicissitudes Just as when the House smoaks the Inhabitant is offended unless he can step out of Doors Consider also that the same work is not required of a weak and of a stronger Person The Nemalim and the Gemalim as the Jews speaks must not be alike loaded that is the Ants cannot carry such a Burden as the Camels You must thank God it is no worse with you and that you have not quite forgot Him Thank him I say that you have any use of patience and that you are not under an absolute stupidity Remember likewise that it will be better with you As long as there is the same Sun in Heaven the Clouds will be dispersed and we shall have fair days as well as foul and as long as our Lord lives and changes not there will be a brighter season and we shall be warm as well as cold Think likewise how unworthy the best of us is to live always under the Sun-beames And that as there are many Countrys more North 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gland who in the depth of our Winter are in a long and dismal Night so there are many Souls who are in a colder case and more remote from the Sun of righteousness than yours is But however think that after you have done what you can it is the will of God that you should be as you are And if this dulness please him it need not displease you Remember also that he is not perfect in patience who can bear with others but not with himself And again that there is good reason you should bear with your self because accidentally this dulness will breed a greater activity when you come out of it Both out of justice that you may make some recompence for that drowsiness and out of gratitude to him by whose goodness you were delivered from it For Nature you know instructs us to be very kind to those who have helpt us ou◠of a very great distress and it is not easie to blot their readiness to relieve us out of our memories And besides it is manifest there are some kinds of dulness and indisposition which arise from the meer necessity of Nature With which we can no more reasonably quarrel than we do because it rains or snows when we would have it fair weather Can it be expected for instance that a Woman with Child should be so vigorous as she was wont She must be content perhaps to spend that time in vomiting which once she did in praying It must not put her to pain in this case that she cannot read or think so long or with so much delight or with such clearness of understanding as formerly she could but she must comply with her condition and considering no more can be done in such circumstances believe that God requires no more There is as much reason to be troubled because she hath not Wings to fly or cannot walk now as fast up her stairs as when she had no burden as to chide her self that she cannot be so earnest so long so chearful as formerly in the performance of Holy Duties There are many cases like to this in which there is no more caution necessary but to see that too much care of our ease and indulgence to our present infirmity which must at such a time be liberally allowed do not tempt us to be negligent in that which it is in our power to perform We may often retire to God in shorter thoughts and affectionate longings and pantings after him and thereby keeping our hearts in a glowing temper we may prevent that chilness and laziness which otherwise might creep upon us and make us imagine our selves less
in the midst of our infirmities may be more acceptable to him than that complacence and joy which we feel to arise meerly from the sense that we have of our strength and abilities To be pleased in our successes is not so pleasing to God as to be patient in our Contests Nay to rejoyce and triumph in our Victories is nothing so good as to be constant and resolved notwithstanding that we are a little overcome In those spiritual consolations which we thirst after we do not always receive so much profit as we do pleasure but in the want of them if our wills be thereby more perfectly subdued to his we receive both a very great benefit and in the issue no small pleasure You have seen perhaps or you may imagine the smoak of a Potters Furnace how thick and black it is as if it would make a Picture of Hell it self Who would think that the Vessels of Clay which are baked there would not be burnt to ashes by the fury of the Fire or that at lest they would come out as black as soote by the foulness of the smoak And yet when the Fire is put out and the Vessels unfurnaced you see there is no such thing But that which was soft and yielding is become hard and strong and its complexion likewise is so much mended that a Prince need not disdain the use of some of these Cups Just thus it is with a distressed Soul when it is covered with a Cloud and wrapt in darkness and burns thereby in a great and sore displeasure against it self It is apt to think that this sure is the Gate of Hell that it is forsaken of God and shall either perish in this condition or not escape out of it without much loss But after a while when the work of God is done and the vapours are vanished and disappear it findes it self to be grown much in firmness purity and splendor and that it is made a Vessel of honour fit for the Masters use There is no loss of any thing but of its self-will Nothing is consumed but its softness and delicacy which made it loth to be toucht The like may be said of many little passions and disorderly desires to which our frail Natures are subject If we can free our selves from one inordinate passion which is a too vehement desire to be quite rid of them it might bring us little less peace than if we were and our profiting would no less appear in continuing still to do our duty of which we complain that they are so great an hinderance However there is no reason for such conclusions as those which good minds have been apt to make in a gloomy day that if God loved them he would not treat them after that manner There is rather great reason considering what hath been said to be not only patient but thankful to him in such a condition For it is not inconsistent with his care and infinite kindness to let us be obnoxious to those changes and those weaknesses too which I have mentioned but you see plainly it must be so and therefore it is best to be well pleased with these Methods of our Heavenly Father at least contented that it should be so And let me add this for a conclusion of this Discourse that God may suffer some Persons to be thus overcast with darkness and he may with-hold his gracious influences from them for the sins of their former life before they were converted which deserved he should never have afforded his grace unto them at all What are we should such Men say that we should expect to live always under the light of his countenance Alas one age of darkness is too good for us and we have reason to thank him if we be not eternally banished from his sight Why should such poor things as we think to receive every day some extraordinary tokens of his Divine favour when one good look from him is enough to oblige us as long as we live How much more reason have we to praise him that all our days are not gloomy that our Sun is not always eclipsed or rather that our life is but one long Night than to complain that a Cloud sometimes passes over us or a Mist gathers about us It is but fit that we should be hereby taught what it is to sin against God and it is well for us that we were not sent to learn it in outer darkness We are not ill dealt withall if we can learn at so cheap a rate the value of pardoning mercy but shall have cause in Heaven to praise God that we paid no dearer for it Is this all the punishment that is due for our many faults Doth he not use us very kindly if we be not quite cast out of his Presence O what a joy will it be to us to find that we are in his favour in the other World And we may be content if he please to stay for our joy till that time when we shall certainly know whether we have reason to rejoyce or no. But I shall say no more of this to you who have spent your time so innocently and vertuously that there is reason you should reap the fruit of it now in perpetual joy and satisfaction of heart from the consideration of God's goodness to you And I had wholly omitted this last Advice did not I know the weakness of humane Nature to be so great that the best disposed Souls may sometimes feel such alterations in them as may make it very necessary In which case if ever you should find your self doubt not to approach to God and say to him with all humility of spirit some such words as these A PRAYER I Acknowledg O great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth that I am not worthy of the least glimpse of thy divine favour It is sufficient that I live and behold the light of the Sun and am not banished into outer darkness And it is more than enough for so wretched a thing as I am that thou art pleased at any time of my life to bestow upon me the smallest testimony of thy love But that I live in hope to pass through all these Clouds and to behold my blessed Saviour in inconceivable splendor and rejoyce with him for ever O what a grace is it How infinitely am I indebted to Thee for such riches of mercy It ought to make me contented with any condition here and exceeding thankful to Thee that it is no worse Deal with me O merciful God even as thou pleasest so that I may but have this humble hope preserved in my heart of seeing and loving my Lord not as now darkly and dully but in the clearest light and with the most ardent love in Immortal Glory I submit to thy Infinite Wisdome under all that heaviness and listlesness of spirit wherewith I am oppressed from which I know thy Infinite Power if thou didst judg it most convenient is able
of men What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved My Hands also will I lift up to thy Commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy Statutes O how I love thy Law it shall be my Meditation every day How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my mouth Through thy Precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Do I not hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name So will I praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore Amen IX AND that you may be the more humbly confident both of Gods continued goodness and your own fidelity and the more fit likewise for pious Meditations labour I intreat you as much as ever you can to maintain a constant chearfulness of spirit and lightsomness of heart Without this it will be always night with you or but a cold Winters day and as you will have no list either for meditation or any other employment so you will be apt to live in perpetual suspicion of God and of your Friends and of your self Melancholy is a dull lumpish humour which makes us of a frozen disposition and a Leaden temper It inclines us not only to think worse of our selves than we are but to do worse than otherwise we should It represents those things as exceeding difficult which may be done with ease and those as impossible which have in them any considerable difficulty It benums and stupifies our Souls and will let us feel nothing but it self It quite dispirits us and will not suffer us to do any thing because it imagines we cannot stir It shows us to our selves in an ugly Glass and then no wonder we look amiss upon all things else Some things it makes to appear bigger than they are and then all the rest appear less And having conceived them otherways than they are it nourishes the conceit till we believe it real As under the weight of some sluggish matter in the blood a man sometimes fancies his Arms are as big as Posts and then his Hands seem as heavy as a Pig of Lead and he thinks he is unable to lift them up to his Head so it is with our minds when they are oppressed with the burden of a sad and melancholy humour It makes all our duty seem very great and our strength to be none at all All impediments it renders as big as Mountains but our selves not of force enough to remove a straw It first binds up all the powers of the Soul and then will not let them be unloosed It makes us very fearful of that which it perswades us we cannot avoid And it afflicts us for that which yet it makes us fancy we cannot do In an heat it pushes us forward but suddenly it cools and says we cannot go If it catch fire it makes us wild and when it hath spent that flame it leaves us sots and fools It pricks us forward sometimes to an enterprize but it self is the shackles and fetters that will not let us move This heaviness you must take heed of and give no indulgence to it For it is the worm of the mind as one of the Antients expresses it which eateth up its Parent that brought it forth Contrary to the nature of other births it pleases us much when we bring it forth but proves a miserable torment to us as soon as it is born Melancholy musings I mean are at first a very delightful entertainment to the mind but they grow in a little time to be a very troublesome brood They are a dangerous maze in which a Man may easily lose himself and from whence he cannot without much difficulty get forth Honey is not sweet to a feaverish man nor are the sweetest truths acceptable to the sad Clogs are not a greater impediment to the Feet than this humour to the motions of the Soul The eyes are not more darkned with some kind of fumes and vapours than the understanding is with its black imaginations The Ayr is not more poysoned when it is charged with a thick and stinking mist than the mind is offensive to it self and others when it is buried in its Clouds And as the Sun when it looks through a Fog seems as if it were all bloody So do the fairest objects even God himself appear in a dismal and horrid shape when these sullen exhalations gather about us Labour then continually to disperse them and blow them away by such means as you find by experience to be most available to that purpose For chearfulness causes the Soul to breath in a pure Air and to dwell in a wholsome and sweet inclosure It makes our work seem easie and difficulties seem little and God seem good and so our strength seem great and irresistable It inlightens the mind it incourages the heart it adds wings to the affections and therefore he that forbids it to our Souls keeps out the welcomest Guest and the best Friend that Nature hath It misbeseems none but the wicked in whom it is commonly a light mirth and a foolish jollity As you see fine ornaments and curious dresses set off an handsome Face though they render those who are ugly more ill-favoured So doth chearfulness exceedingly become good Souls though in bad men it be most ridiculous For which cause it is neither unmeet to use any helps that Nature affords us to acquire it nor to call in the assistance of innocent arts and pretty inventions to invite it to keep us company Socrates blushed not to be found at Boyes-play with his Children The wise and solemn Cato sometimes stooped to be a little frollick The great Scipio thought it not unbecoming his triumphal body as Seneca calls it to use grave dances and trip about a Room in decent measures Some devout men indeed have pronounced of such like pastimes as Physicians do of Mushromes that the best ordered are worth nothing but they did not mean sure to decry all those pleasures which of themselves are indifferent and which the intention alone can render good as well as evil You ought not to refuse any ingenious or harmless recreations which you find will cherish or refresh your spirit though by Souls of a dark complexion they be deemed fooleries It is too great a burden to impose on your self such restraints as not to dare so much as laugh for fear of giving occasion of suspicion to the weak or of slander to the wicked But since
a spirit free and full of life is most useful being indued with more strength and ability than any other it ought to be preserved in its alacrity and when it droops and languishes be excited to recover its chearfulness again I know you do not think it a crime to laugh nor are you in love with a studied face You are none of those who take innocence and severity to be such inseparable companions that they can never be found asunder nor that judg a free carriage to be a certain sign of an ill mind and a merry humour to be a constant token of levity of spirit or want of judgment But I desire that you would not only think it lawful but necessary to be pleasant and that you would by no means suffer your self to become sad under the notion of being serious The Ancient Christians were so cautious in this Point that we read in Palladius of an old Hermite who having five hundred Scholars would never dismiss them without this Lesson My Friends be chearful do not forget I beseech you to be chearful This was his constant lecture which he repeated as often as St. John did those words which he is reported always to have had in his mouth My little Children love one another He took it I suppose out of St. Paul who gives this admonition thrice to the Philippians III. 1. IV. 4. Rejoyce in the Lord. Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce It is an unseemly thing for you to be sad and heavy who serve so good a Master from whom you shall receive the reward of an Eternal Inheritance If they that traffick in earthly Goods rejoyce in an advantageous bargain Why should not Religious People whose Merchandise is Wisdome a choiser thing than Silver or Gold who have many divine blessings already in possession and are in certain hope of more and greater cherish a perpetual joy and ever be of good comfort By which you may see whence we are to derive our chearfulness and to what we must be principally beholden for it It springs out of an hearty and solid belief of the blessed Gospel and out of a sincere obedience to it and increases with our growth in spiritual knowledg and understanding and in love to God and all our Brethren All which it would be easie to show you is comprehended in those words of the Apostle to the Colossians 11.2 3. where he expresses his earnest desire for them and other Christian People that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge But when our natural spirits fail and sink within us we must use natural remedies to recruit them and raise them up again None are to be rejected which are not sinful or will endanger to make us so But those especially are to be chosen which will chear the Body and yet do no injury but rather prove beneficial to the Mind Of which sort I shall recommend one to you when I have concluded this Advice as I have done the rest with a short Prayer to God A PRAYER O Father of Mercies and God of all comfort who hast given us everlasting consolation and good hope through thy grace in Christ Jesus Blessed be thy abundant love which hath exceeded towards us in him beyond all our desires O how excellent is thy loveing kindness O God which hath so blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus that it is become our duty to rejoyce in him alway and to be exceeding glad even in the midst of all the troubles of this life O that I could keep such a perpetual and fresh remembrance of his benefits in my mind as may make me rejoyce evermore That so I may recommend the Religion of our Lord Jesus to all others and testify to all the World by my alacrity in doing and suffering his blessed will that his Yoke is easie and his burden is light Possess me with such right notions and apprehensions of thee and bless me also with such integrity of heart that I may both have the peace of a good conscience which is a continual feast and be filled likewise with joy in the Holy-Ghost out of a sense of thy divine favour to me which is better than life it self Deliver me both from unprofitable sadness and from vain mirth Preserve me constantly in an equal tranquillity of mind and a becoming chearfulness of spirit Bear me up I beseech thee above all the afflictions which may befall me by the joyes of faith and hope and love And when I shall need the relief of inferiour pleasures O that they may never make me lose the tast of Heavenly delights but rather dispose me by the refreshments of my body to a more lively discharge of all my duty and to a quicker sense of all divine enjoyments And teach me to be so wise in the choice of my pleasures that they may not leave me sad afterward but I may remain innocent and unblameable before thee and be better pleased also in the humble expectation of the times of refreshment which shall come from the Presence of our Lord. Amen X. THIS puts me in mind to speak a little of Good Company as a singular means not only to chear and refresh your spirits but to quicken and improve your mind also in wisdome or vertue The joy of one Soul is no joy say the Hebrews in their common Proverb which is much-what the same with that of the Greeks One man is no man Good Company will help to divert our thoughts and yet not let us spend our time unprofitably It will make us chearful and yet wise and serious It will delight us and do us no harm but make us rather much better Some chearfulness I confess is supposed in a Mans spirit to make him good Company for his Neighbours for it renders his conceits quick and pleasant his words gracious and acceptable and his very countenance smooth and obliging But if some dulness at present make him not to be a good Companion for them yet they may be the better company for him and their chearfulness may serve to revive his spirits and make him as brisk and well pleased as themselves For it is not more natural to us to yawn when others do than to be uncloudy in our countenances when the Faces of others shine We can scarce refrain from sighing when we are entering upon a very long Journey through ways in which there are many dangers and which we have never gone before But to perform it all alone is so uncomfortable that we are apt to grow weary as soon as we have begun it and therefore are mighty inclined to seek for some Fellow-travellers to make it seem less tedious Our very Horses will go the better when they