but their thanks and prayers rayling on our very profession in the streets and rejoycing in our supposed ruine Father forgive them for they knew not what they did Here we were out of the danger of this mis-raised fury and had leisure to pray for the quenching of those wilde fires of contention ' and causlesse malice which to our great grief we saw wicked incendiaries daily to cast amongst Gods dear well-minded people Here we have well and happily approved with the blessed Apostle that what ever our restraint be the Word of God is not bound With what liberty with what zeal with what successe hath that been preached by us to all commers Let them say whether the Tower had ever so many such guests or such benedictions so as if the place have rendered us safe we have endeavoured to make it happy Wherin our performances have seemed to confute that which Cornelius Bishop of Rome long since observed that the mind laden with heavy burdens of affliction is not able to doe that service which it can doe when it is free and at ease Our troubles through Gods mercy made us more active and our labours more effectuall SECT VI. ADde unto these if you please the eminent dignity of the place such as is able to give a kinde of honour to captivity the ancient seat of Kings chosen by them as for the safe residence of their royall persons so for their treasury their wardrobe their Magazine all these precious things are under the same custody with our selves sent hither not as to a prison but a repository and why should we think our selves in any other condition How many worthy inhabitants make choice to fixe their abode within these wals as not knowing where to be happier the place is the same to us if our will maybe the same with theirs they dearly purchase that which cost us nothing but our fees nothing makes the difference but the meer conceit of Liberty which whiles I can give to my self in my thoughts why am I pityed as miserable whiles their happinesse is applauded You see then how free I am in that which you mis-call my prison see now how little cause I have to affect this liberty which you imagine me to want since I shall be I can be no other then a prisoner abroad There is much difference of prisons One is strait and close locked so far from admitting visitants that it scarce allows the sun to look in at those crosse-barred grates another is more large and spacious yeelding both walks and accesse Even after my discharge from these wals I shall be yet sure to be a prisoner both these ways For what is my body but my prison in the one and what is the world but my prison in the other kinde SECT VII TO begin with the former never was there a more close prisoner then my soul is for the time to my body Close in respect of the essence of that spirit which since it's first Mittimus never stir'd out from this strait room never can doe till my gaole-delivery If you respect the improvement of the operatiōs of that busie soul it is any where it is successively every where no place can hold it none can limit it but if you regard the immortall and immateriall substance of it it is fast lockt up within these wals of clay till the day of my changing come even as the closest captive may write letters to his remotest friends whilest his person is in durance I have too much reason to acknowledge my native Jayle and feel the true Symptomes of it to my pain what darkness of sorrow have I here found what little-ease of melancholick lodgings what manacles and shakles of cramps yea what racks of torturing convulsions And if there be others that finde less misery in their prison yet there is no good soul but findes equall restraint That spirituall substance which is imprisoned within us would fain be flying up to that heaven whence it descended these wals of flesh forbid that evolation as Socrates cal'd it of old and will not let it out till the God of spirits who placed it there shall unlock the doors and free the prisoner by death He that insused life into Lazarus that he might call him from the prison of the grave must take life from us when he cals us out of this prison of flesh I desire to be loosed and to be with Christ saith the Apostle as some versions expresse it whiles we are chained to this flesh we can have no passage to heaven no free conversation with our Saviour Although it was the singular priviledge of that great Doctor of the Gentiles that he was in heaven before his dissolution whether in the body or out of the body he knew not How far that rapture extended whether to both soul and body if he knew not how should we But this we know that such extasie and vision was in him without separation of the soul from the body which another should hope for in vain And for him so he saw this glory of Paradise that he could not yet enjoy it Before he or we can be blessed with the fruition of Christ vve must be loosed that is freed from our clog and our chain of this mortall body What but our prison wals can hinder us here from a free prospect What but these wals of flesh can hinder me from a clear vision of God I must now for the time see as I may Nothing can enter into my soul but what passes through my senses and partakes in some sort of their earthlinesse when I am freed from them I shall see as I am seen in an abstracted and heavenly way so as one spirit apprehends another I do now at the best see those spirituall objects darkly by the eye of faith as in a glasse and that not one of the clearest neither Alas what dim representations are these that I can attain to here of that Majesty whose sight shal make me blessed I shall once see as I am seen face to face the face of my glorified soul shall see the face of that all-glorious Deity and in that sight be eternally happy It is enough for a prisoner in this dungeon of clay to know of and fore-expect such felicity vvhereof these earthly gieves render him as yet uncapable SECT VIII WOE is me how many prisons do we passe so soon as ever this divine soul is insused into this flesh it is a prisoner neither can any more passe out of this skin till this frame of nature be demolished And now as the soul of this Embryon is instantly a prisoner to the body so the body is also a prisoner in the womb wherein it is formed what darknesse what closenesse what uneasinesse what nuisance is there in this dungeon of nature There he must lie in an uncouth posture for his appointed month till the native bonds being loosed the doors forced open he shall
found in the rash and unwarrantable expressions that have fallen from the mouths of unwary suppliants but we must addresse our selves with due preparation to that holy work we must digest our suits and fore-order our supplications to the Almighty so that there may be excellent and necessary use of meet rules of our Devotion He whose Spirit helps us to pray and whose lips taught us how to pray is an alsufficient example for us all the skill of men and Angels cannot afford a more exquisite modell of supplicatory Devotion then that blesser Saviour of ours gave us in the mount led in by a divine and heart-raising preface carried out with a strong and heavenly enforcement wherein an awfull compellation makes way for petition and petition makes way for thanksgiving the petitions marshalled in a most exact order for spirituall blessings which have an immediate concernment of God in the first place then for temporall favours which concern ourselves in the second so punctuall a methode had not been observed by him that heareth prayers if it had been all one to him to have had our Devotions confused and tumultuary SECT III. THere is commonly much mistaking of Devotion as if it were nothing but an act of vocall prayer expiring with that holy breath and revived with the next task of our invocation which is usually measured of many by frequence length smoothnesse of expression lowdnesse vehemence Whereas indeed it is rather an habituall disposition of an holy soul sweetly conversing with God in all the forms of an heavenly yet awful familiarity and a constant intertainment of ourselves here below with the God of spirits in our sanctifyed thoughts and affections One of the noble exercises whereof is our accesse to the throne of grace in our prayers whereto may be added the ordering of our holy attendance upon the blessed word and sacraments of the Almighty Nothing hinders therefore but that a stammering suppliant may reach to a more eminent devotion then he that can deliver himselfe in the most fluent and pathetical forms of Elocution and that our silence may be more devout then our noise We shall not need to send you to the Cels or cloysters for this skill although it will hardly be beleeved how far some of their contemplative men have gone in the Theory hereof Perhaps like as Chymists give rules for the attaining of that Elixir which they never found for sure they must needs fail of that perfection they pretend who erre commonly in the object of it always in the ground of it which is faith stripped by their opinion of the comfortablest use of it certainty of application SECT IV. AS there may be many resemblances betwixt Light and Devotion so this one especially that as there is a light universally diffused through the ayre and there is a particular recollection of light into the body of the sun and starres so it is in Devotion There is a generall kind of Devotion that goes through the renewed heart and life of a Christian which we may term Habituall and Virtuall and there is a speciall and fixed exercise of Devotion which wee name Actuall The soul that is rightly affected to God is never void of an holy Devotion where ever it is what ever it doth it is still lifted up to God and fastned upon him and converses with him ever serving the Lord in feare and rejoycing in him with trembling For the effectuall performance whereof it is requisite first that the heart be setled in a right apprehension of our God without which our Devotion is not thanklesse only but sinfull With much labour therefore and agitation of a mind illuminated from above we must find our selves wrought to an high awfull adorative and constant conceit of that incomprehensible Majesty in whom we live and move and are One God in three most glorious Persons infinite in wisdome in power in justice in mercy in providence in al that he is in al that he hath in all that he doth dwelling in light inaccessible attended with thousand thousands of Angels whom yet we neither can know neither would it avail us if we could but in the face of the eternall Son of his Love our blessed Mediatour God and Man who sits at the right hand of Majesty in the highest heavens from the sight of whose glorious humanity we comfortably rise to the contemplation of that infinite Deity whereto it is inseparably united in and by him made ours by a lively Faith finding our persons and obedience accepted expecting our full redemption and blessednesse Here here must our hearts be unremoveably fixed In his light must we see light no cloudy occurrences of this world no busie imployments no painfull sufferings must hinder us from thus seeing him that is invisible SECT V. NEither doth the devout heart see his God aloof off as dwelling above in the circle of heaven but beholds that infinite Spirit really present with him The Lord is upon thy right hand saith the Psalmist Our bodily eye doth not more certainly see our own flesh then the spirituall eye sees God close by us Yea in us A mans own soul is not so intimate to himselfe as God is to his soul neither doe we move by him only but in him What a sweet conversation therefore hath the holy soule with his God What heavenly conferences have they two which the world is not privy to whiles God entertaines the soule with the divine motions of his Spirit the soul entertains God with gracious compliances Is the heart heavy with the grievous pressures of affliction the soule goes in to his God and pours out it self before him in earnest bemoanings and supplications the God of mercy ansers the soul again with seasonable refreshings of comfort Is the heart secretly wounded and bleeding with the conscience of some sin it speedily betakes it self to the great Physitian of the soul who forthwith applies the balme of Gilead for an unfailing and present cure Is the heart distracted with doubts the soul retires to that inward Oracle of God for counsail he returns to the soul an happy setlement of just resolution Is the heart deeply affected with the sense of some special favour from his God the soul breaks forth into the passionate voice of praise and thanksgiving God returns the pleasing testimony of a cheerfull acceptation Oh blessed soul that hath a God to go unto upon all occasions Oh infinite mercy of a God that vouchsafes to stoop to such intirenesse with dust and ashes It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed now breathing towards heaven that he should change his place not his company His conversation was now before-hand with his God and his holy Angels the only difference was that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life in that region of glory above whom he had truely though with weaknesse and imperfection enjoyed in this vale of tears SECT
direct his messengers tongue to the meeting with our necessities that he would free our hearts from all prejudices and distractions that he would keep off all temptations which might hinder the good entertainment and success of his blessed Word Finally that he would make us truly teachable and his ordinance the power of God to our salvation In the act of hearing Devotion cals us to Reverence Attention Application Reverence to that great God who speaks to us by the mouth of a weak man for in what is spoken from Gods Chair agreeable to the Scriptures the sound is mans the substance of the message is Gods Even an Eglon when he hears of a message from God riseth out of his seat It was not Saint Pauls condition onely but of all his faithfull servants to whom he hath committed the word of reconciliation They are Ambassadours for Christ as if God did beseech us by them they pray us in Christs stead to be reconciled to God The Ambassy is not the bearers but the kings and if we doe not acknowledge the great King of heaven in the voice of the Gospel we cannot but incur a contempt When therefore we see Gods messenger in his Pulpit our eye looks at him as if it said with Cornelius We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God whence cannot but follow together with an awfull disposition of mind a reverent deportment of the body which admits not a wild and roving eye a drouzy head a chatting tongue a rude and indecent posture but composes it self to such a site as may befit a pious soul in so religious an imployment Neither do we come as authorized Judges to sit upon the preacher but as humble Disciples to sit at his feet SECT XXIV REverence cannot but draw on Attention We need not be bidden to hang on the lips of him whom we honour It is the charge of the Spirit Let him that hath an ear hear Every one hath not an eare and of those that have an ear every one heareth not The soul hath an ear as well as the body if both these ears doe not meet together in one act there is no hearing Common experience tels us that when the mind is otherwise taken up we doe no more hear what a man says then if we had been deaf or he silent Hence is that first request of Abigâ—il to David Let thine handmaid speak to thine ears and hear the words of thine handmaid and Job so importunately urgeth his friends Hear diligently my speech and my declaration with your ears The outward ear may be open and the inward shut if way be not made through both we are deaf to spirituall things Mine ear hast thou boared or digged saith the Psalmist the vulgar reads it my ears hast thou perfected Surely our ears are grown up with flesh there is no passage for a perfit hearing of the voyce of God till he have made it by a spirituall perforation And now that the ear is made capable of good counsell it doth as gladly receive it taking in every good lesson and longing for the next Like unto the dry and chopped earth which soaks in every silver drop that falls from the clouds and thirsteth for more not suffering any of that precious liquor to fall beside it SECT XXV NEither doth the devout man care to satisfie his curiosity as hearing only that he might hear but reducts all things to a saving use bringing all he hears home to his heart by a self-reflecting application like a practiser of the art of memory referring every thing to it's proper place If it be matter of comfort There is for my sick bed There is for my outward losses There for my drouping under afflictions There for the sense of my spirituall desertions If matter of doctrine There is for my settlement in such a truth There for the conviction of such an error There for my direction in such a practice If matter of reproof he doth not point at his neighbour but deeply chargeth himself This meets with my dead-heartednesse and security This with my worldly mindednesse This with my self-love and flattery of mine own estate This with my uncharitable censoriousnesse This with my foolish pride of heart This with my hypocrisie This with my neglect of Gods services and my duty Thus in all the variety of the holy passages of the Sermon the devout mind is taken up with digesting what it heares and working it self to a secret improvement of all the good counsell that is delivered neither is ever more busie then when it sits still at the feet of Christ I cannot therefore approve the practice which yet I see commonly received of those who think it no small argument of their Devotion to spend their time of hearing in writing large notes froÌ„ the mouth of the Preacher which however it may be an help for memory in the future yet cannot as I conceive but be some prejudice to our present edification neither can the brain get so much hereby as the heart loseth If it be said that by this means an opportunity is given for a full rumination of wholesome Doctrines afterwards I yeeld it but withall I must say that our after-thoughts can never doe the work so effectually as when the lively voice sounds in our ears and beats upon our heart but herein I submit my opinion to better judgments SECT XXVI THe food that is received into the soul by the ear is afterwards chewed in the mouth thereof by memory concocted in the stomach by meditation and dispersed into the parts by conference and practice True Devotion findes the greatest part of the work behinde It was a just answer that John Gerson reports given by a Frenchman who being askt by one of his neighbours if the Sermon were done no saith he it is said but it is not done neither will be I fear in hast What are we the better if we hear and remember not if we be such auditours as the Jews were wont to call sieves that retain no moisture that is poured into them What the better if we remember but think not seriously of what we hear or if we practice not carefully what wee think of Not that which we hear is our own but that which we carry away although all memories are not alike one receives more easily another retains longer It is not for every one to hope to attain to that ability that he can goe away with the whole fabrick of a Sermon and readily recount it unto others neither doth God require that of any man which he hath not given him Our desires and endeavours may not be wanting wher our powers fail It will be enough for weak memories if they can so lay up those wholesom counsels which they receive as that they may fetch them forth when they have occasion to use them and that what they want in the extent
familiarity can abate of his aw nor fear abate ought of his love To whom the gates of heaven are ever open that he may goe in at pleasure to the throne of grace and none of the Angelicall spirits can offer to challenge him of too much boldnesse Whose eies are well acquainted with those heavenly guardians the presence of whom he doth as truly acknowledge as if they were his sensible companions He is well known of the King of glory for a daily suitor in the Court of heaven none so welcome there as he He accounts all his time lost that fals beside his God and can be no more weary of good thoughts then of happinesse His bosome is no harbour for any known evill and it is a question whether he more abhorres sin or hell His care is to entertain God in a clear and free heart and therefore he thrusts the world out of doors and humbly beseeches God to welcome himself to his own He is truly dejected and vile in his own eies Nothing but hell is lower then he every of his slips are hainous every trespasse is aggravated to rebellion The glory and favours of God heighten his humiliation He hath lookt down to the bottomles deep seen with horror what he deserved to feel everlastingly His crys have been as strong as his fears just he hath found mercy more ready to rescue him then he could be importunate His hand could not be so soon put forth as his Saviours for deliverance The sense of this mercy hath raised him to an unspeakable joy to a most fervent love of so dear a Redeemer that love hath knit his heart to so meritorious a deliverer and wrought a blessed union betwixt God and his soul That union can no more be severed from an infinite delight then that delight can be severed from an humble and cheerfull acquiescence in his munificent God And now as in an heavenly freedome he pours out his soul into the bosome of the Almighty in all faithfull suits for himself and others so he enjoys God in the blessings received and returns all zealous praises to the giver He comes reverently to the Oracles of God and brings not his eye but his heart with him not carelesly negligent in seeking to know the revealed will of his maker nor too busily inquisitive into his deep counsels not too remisse in the letter nor too peremptory in the sense gladly comprehending what he may and admiring what he cannot comprehend Doth God call for his ear He goes awfully into the holy presence and so hears as if he should now hear his last Latching every word that drops from the Preachers lips ere it fall to the ground and laying it up carefully where he may be sure to fetch it He sits not to censure but to learn yet speculation and knowledge is the least drift of his labour Nothing is his own but what he practiseth Is he invited to Gods feast he hates to come in a foul and slovenly dresse but trims up his soul so as may be fit for an heavenly guest Neither doth he leave his stomach at home cloyed with the world but brings a sharp appetite with him and so sâ—eds as if he meant to live for ever All earthly delicates are unfavoury to him in respect of that celestiall Manna Shortly he so eats and drinks as one that sees himself set at Table with God and his Angels and rises and departs full of his Saviour and in the strength of that meal walks vigorously and cheerfully on towards his glory Finally as he well knows that he lives and moves and hath his beeing in God so he referres his life motions and beeing wholly to God so acting all things as if God did them by him so using all things as one that enjoyes God in them and in the mean time so walking on earth that he doth in a sort carry his heaven with him THE FREE PRISONER OR The COMFORT of RESTRAINT Written Some while since in the Tower BY I. H. B. N. The Free Prisoner OR The Comfort of Restraint SECT I. SIR WHiles you pity my affliction take heed lest you aggravate it and in your thoughts make it greater then it is in my own It is true I am under restraint What is that to a man that can be free in the Tower and cannot but be a prisoner abroad Such is my condition and every Divine Philosophers with me Were my walls much straiter then they are they cannot hold me in It is a bold word to say I cannot I will not be a prisoner It is my Soul that is I my flesh is my partner if not my servant not my self However my body may be immured that agile spirit shall flye abroad and visit both earth and heaven at pleasure Who shall hinder it from mounting up in an instant to that supream region of blisse and from seeing that by the eye of faith which S. Paul saw in extasie and when it hath viewed that blessed Hierarchy of heaven to glance down through the innumerable and unmeasurable globes of light which move in the firmament and below it into this elementary world and there to compasse seas and lands without shipwrack in a trice which a Drake or Cavendish cannot doe but with danger and in some years navigation And if my thoughts list to stay themselves in the passage with what variety can my soul be taken up of severall objects Here turning in to the dark vaults and dungeons of penall restraint to visit the disconsolate prisoners and to fetch from their greater misery a just mitigation of mine own There looking in to the houses of vain jollity and pitying that which the sensuall fools call happinesse Here stepping in to the Courts of great Princes and in them observing the fawning compliances of some the trecherous underworking of others hollow friendships faithlesse ingagements fair faces smooth tongues rich suits viewing all save their hearts censuring nothing that it sees not There calling in at the low cottages of the poor and out of their empty cupboard furnishing it self with thankfulnesse Here so over-looking the Courts of Justice as not willing to seerigour or partiality There listing what they say in those meetings which would passe for sacred and wondring at what it hears Thus can and shall and doth my nimble spirit bestir it self in a restless flight making onely the Empyreall heaven the bounds of it's motion not being more able to stand still then the heavens themselves whence it descended Should the iron enter into my soul as it did into that good Patriarchs yet it cannot fetter me No more can my spirit be confined to one place then my body can be diffused to many Perhaps therefore you are mistaken in my condition for what is it I beseech you that makes a prisoner Is it an allotment to the same room without change without remove What is that still to a minde that is free And why is my body then
peace nor dispose our selves towards it nor resolve ought for the effecting it without which all our Considerations all our Dispositions all our Resolutions are vain and fruitlesse Justly therefore doth the blessed Apostle after his charge of avoiding all carefulnesse for these earthly things enforce the necessity of our Prayers and Supplications and making our requests knowne unto God who both knows our need and puts these requests into our mouths When we have all done they are the requests of our hearts that must free them from cares and frame them to a perfect contentment There may be a kind of dull and stupid neglect which possessing the soul may make it insensible of evill events in some naturall dispositions but a true temper of a quiet and peaceable estate of the soul upon good grounds can never be attained without the inoperation of that holy Spirit from whom every good gift and every perfect giving proceedeth It is here contrary to these earthly occasions with men he that is ever craving is never contented but with God he cannot want contentment that prays always If we be not unacquainted with our selves we are so conscious of our own weaknesse that we know every puffe of temptation is able to blow us over they are onely our prayers that must stay us from being caried away with the violent assaults of discontentment under which a praying soul can no more miscary then an indevout soul can enjoy safety SECT XXVI The difficulty of knowing how to abound and the ill consequences of not knowing it LEt this be enough for the remedy of those distempers which arise from an adverse condition As for prosperity every man thinks himself wise and able enough to know how to govern it and himself in it an happy estate we imagine will easily manage it selfe without too much care Give me but Sea-room saith the confident Mariner and let me alone what ever tempest arise Surely the great Doctor of the Gentiles had never made this holy boast of his divine skill I know how to abound if it had been so easie a matter as the world conceives it Meer ignorance and want of selfe-experience is guilty of this errour Many a one abounds in wealth and honour who abounds no lesse in miseries and vexation Many a one is caried away with an unruly greatness to the destruction of body soul estate The world abounds every where with men that doe abound and yet do not know how to abound and those especially in three ranks The proud the covetous the prodigall The proud is thereby transported to forget God the covetous his neighbour the prodigall himself Both wealth and honour are of a swelling nature raising a man up not above others but above himself equalling him to the powers immortall yea exalting him above all that is called God Oh that vile dust and ashes should be raised to that height of insolence as to hold contestation with its Maker Who is the Lord saith the King of Egypt I shall be like to the Highest I am and there is none besides me saith the King of Babylon The voice of God and not of Man goes down with Herod And hovv will that Spirit trample upon men that dare vie with the Almighty Hence are all the heavy oppressions bloudy tyrannies imperious domineerings scornfull insultations merciless outrages that are so rife amongst men even from hence that they know not how to abound The covetous man abounds with bags and no lesse with sorrows verifying the experience of wise Solomon There is a sore evill which I have seen under the Sun riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt what he hath got with unjustice he keeps with care leaves with grief and reckons for with torment I cannot better compare these Money-mongers then to Bees they are busie gatherers but it is for themselves their Masters can have no part of their honey till it be taken from them and they have a sting ready for every one that approaches their Hive and their lot at the last is burning What maceration is there here with fears and jealousies what cruell extortion and oppression exercised upon others all from no other ground then this that they know not how to abound The prodigal feasts and sports like an Athenian spends like an Emperour and is ready to say as Heliogabalus did of old Those cates are best that cost dearest caring more for an empty reputation of a short gallantry then for the comforble subsistence of himself his family his family his posterity Like Cleopes the vain Egyptian King which was fain to prostitute his daughter for the finishing of his Pyramid This man lavisheth out not his own means alone but his poor neighbours running upon the score with all trades that concern back or belly undoing more with his debts then he can pleasure with his entertainments none of all which should be done if he knew how to abound Great skill therefore is required to the governing of a plentifull and prosperous estate so as it may be safe and comfortable to the owner and beneficiall unto others Every Corporall may know how to order some few files but to marshall many Troops in a Regiment many Regiments in a whole body of an Army requires the skill of an experienced Generall But the rules and limits of Christian moderation in the use of our honours pleasures profits I have at large laid forth in a former Discourse thither I must crave leave to send the benevolent Reader beseeching God to bless unto him these and all other labours to the happy furtherance of his Grace and Salvation Amen FINIS Dr. Preston Ps 19. 1 2. Ps 104. 24. Cant. 5. 6. Ps 41. 4. 79. 8. 130. 3. 94. 11. 3. 7. 89. 48. 109. 21. 86. 4. 71. 10. 86. 11. Ps 70. 6. 60. 11. 71. 23. 31. 17. 40. 14. 5. 8. 119. penul 68. 35. 92. 5. 71. 17. 18. 47. 63. 4. 145. 10. 104. 25. 18. 31. Ps 20. 5. 107. 8 31. 21. 9. 10. 16. 12. 8. 4. 115. 1. Ps 19. 1. 74. 17. 97. 11. 36. 9. 39. 5. 93. 5. 139. 11. Ps 139. 2. 51. 7. 17. 5. 90. 12. 39. 5. Luc. 11. 25. Wisd 1. 4. Psal 26. 6. Eccles 10. Esa 66. 2. Gen. 18. 27. Pro. 30. 2. Mat. 3. 11. Ephes 3. 1. Job 38. Phil. 2. 6 7 8 c. Rom. 5. 1. Ps 103. 8. Ps 116. 12 13. Ps 119. 18. 21 c. Phil. 1. 21. Gal. 2. 20. Cant. 2. 16. Cant. 4. 9. 6. 4 5. Can. 5. 10. 8. 6. 2. 5. Ps 116. Rom. 3. 4. Ps 119. 8. Carolus Borromaeus Acts 19. 35 Eccles 5. 1. Jud. 3. 20. 2 Cor. 5. 20 Act. 10. 33 1 Sam. 25. 24. Job 13. 17. Psal 40. 6. Serm. ad Eccles cautelam 1 Pet. 2. 2 Eph. 3. 9. Zachar. 3. â— Mat. 5. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hos 2. 14. * Non enim potest mens attrita oneribus importunitatibus gravata tanium boni peragere quantum delectata oppressionibus soluta Cornel. ep 2. Rufo Coepiscopo Acts ult Gen. 26. 22. Magna domus homuli Psal 8. 3 4. Phil. 4. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si sedeas requies est magna laboris Si multum sedeas labor est Tert. Car. Pro. 30. 8. Senec. de Tranquil Psal 23. 1. Psal 34. 9 10. Ecclus. 25. 22. Rev. 3. 17. Mat. 20. 15 2 King 7. 2 2 King 6. 33. Rev. 16. 9. 11. Ionah 4. 9. Prov. 30. 9 * Galba Otho Vitellius Ael Pertinax Didius Anno D. 1275. 1276. Gregor 10 Innocent 5 Hadrian 5 Johan 20 vel 21 Nicolaus 3 * 1 Cor. 15. 31. Gen. 15. 10 Deut. 29. 23. Prov. 23. 5. Ps 49. 12. Ludo. Vives in 3. de CivilcensuraÌ„ notatus Vellosillo Prov. ult penult Eccles 11. 10. Mat. 6. 28. Eccle. 1. 8. Ps 69. 22. Dan. 1. 12 13. Heb. 11. 13 Ps 132. 1. G. Naz. Carm. de calam suis Greg. l. 7. Epi. 12. 7. In vita Melanct. Shicardus Ambros l. 4 Epist 29. Hieron Ep. ad Hedibium 1 Tim. 6. Ep. Lucii ad Episc Gall. Hisp 1 Tim. 6. 9 Paulo primo Eremitae in spelunca viventi palma cibum vestimentum praebebat quod cum impâ—sâ—â—bâ—le vidcatur Jestemm testur Angelos vidisse me Monacbos de quibus unus per 30. annos clausus boâ—deaceo pane luâ—ulenta aqua vixit Hieron de vita Pauli Revelatur Antonio nonagenario de Paulo agente jam 113 annum esse alium se sanctiorem Monachum ibid. Plin. l. 26. c. 6. Hugo Instit Mona Reg. S. Columb Senec. Epist 38. Job 18. 4. Eccles 7. 9. Gen. 30. 1. Gen. 15. 2. Pro. 15. 13 Ps 37. 7. Jam. 5. 7. Jer. 12. 8. Ps 103. 9. Job 2. 10. Livius 2 Cor. 4. 17. Acts 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inter opera Ambrosii De moribus Brachmannorum 1 Kings 18. 13. 2 King 6. 2 3 4 5. Mat. 8. 20. Heb. 9. 27. Rom. 5. 1. Phil. 1. 23. Gal. 5. 17. Job 14. 4. Rom. 7. 19 Gen. 18. 27 Pâ—â—k Avoth Gen. 32. 10 Pro. 3. 34. Jam. 4. 6. Eccles 7. 8 Mat. 5. 39 40. Pro. 15. 33 Phil. 4. 6. Heb. 11. 1. Mat. 5. 10. Heb. 13. 5. Esa 54. 7 8 Psal 139. 8 9. Verse 10 11. Psal 68. 20 Joh. 7. 38. Joh. 6. 55. Rom. 13. 14. Rev. 22. 2. Ps 62. 6 7. Phil. 1. 21 Joh. 11. 25 1 Cor. 1. 30 Rev. 3. 23. Esa 28. 27. Gen. 43. 34. Gen. 45. 24. 2 Cor. 4. 16. Ambros de vitiorum virtutum conflictus Pro. 30. 15 Job 38. 11 Pro. 24. 13 Pro. 25. 16 Mat. 5. 6. Ambros Epist 27. Gen. 3. 2. 26. 33. 5 6. c. Acts 27. 18 19. 2 Sam. 23. 15 16 17. Phil. 4. 6. Jam. 1. 17. Exod. 5. 2. Esa 14. 14. Act. 12. 12. Eccl. 5. 13. Aelius LaÌ„prid
THREE TRACTATES The Devout Soul The Free-Prisoner The Remedie of Discontentment To which may be added The Peace-maker BY JOS. HALL D. D. and B. N. LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for NAT BUTTER M. DC XLVI TO ALL CHRISTIAN READERS Grace and Peace THat in a time when wee heare no noise but of drums Trumpets and talk of nothing but arms and sieges and battels I should write of Devotion may seem to some of you strange and unseasonable to me contrarily it seems most fit and opportune For when can it be more proper to direct our addresse to the Throne of Grace then when we are in the very jaws of Death Or when should we goe to seek the face of our God rather then in the needfull time of trouble Blessed be my God who in the midst of these wofull tumults hath vouchsafed to give me these calme and holy thoughts which I justly suppose he meant not to suggest that they should be smoothered in the brest wherein they were conceived but with a purpose to have the benefit communicated unto many Who is there that needs not vehement excitations and helps to Devotion and when more then now In a tempest the Mariners themselves doe not onely cry every man to his God but awaken Jonah that is fast asleep under the hatches and chide him to his prayers Surely had we not been failing in our Devotions we could not have been thus universally miserable That duyy the neglect wherof is guilty of our calamity must in the effectuall performance of it be the meanes of our recovery Be but devout and we cannot miscarry under judgements Woe is me the teares of penitence were more fit to quench the publique flame then blood How soon would it cleare up above head if we were but holily affected within Could we send our zealous Ambassadours up to heaven we could not faile of an happy peace I direct the way God bring us to the end For my own particular practice God is witnesse to my soule that as one the sense of whose private affliction is swallowed up of the publique I cease not dayly to ply the Father of mercies with my fervent prayers that he would at last be pleased after so many streames of blood to passe an act of Pacification in heaven And what good heart can doe otherwise Brethren all ye that love God and his Church and his Truth and his Anointed and your Country and your selves and yours joyn your forces with mine and let us by an holy violence make way to the gates of heaven with our Petition for mercy and peace and not suffer our selves to be beaten off from the threshold of Grace till we be answered with a condescent He whose goodnesse is wont to prevent our desires will not give denials to our importunities Pray and Farewell Norwich March 20. 1643. THE DEVOVT SOULE SECT I. DEvotion is the life of Religion the very soul of Piety the highest imploiment of grace and no other then the prepossession of heaven by the Saints of God here upon earth every improvement whereof is of more advantage and value to the Christian soule then all the profits and contentments which this world can afford it There is a kind of Art of Devotion if we can attain unto it whereby the practice thereof may be much advanced Wee have known indeed some holy souls which out of the generall precepts of piety and their own happy experiments of Gods mercy have through the grace of God grown to a great measure of perfection this way which yet might have been much expedited and compleated by those helps which the greater illumination and experience of others might have afforded them Like as we see it in other faculties there are those who out of a naturall dexterity and their own frequent practice have got into a safe posture of defence and have handled their weapon with commendable skill whom yet the Fence-schoole might have raised to an higher pitch of cunning As nature is perfited so grace is not a little furthered by Art since it pleaseth the wisdome of God to work ordinarily upon the soul not by the immediate power of miracle but in such methods and by such means as may most conduce to his blessed ends It is true that our good motions come from the Spirit of God neither is it lesse true that all the good counsails of others proceed from the same Spirit and that good Spirit cannot be crosse to itselfe he therefore that infuses good thoughts into us suggests also such directions as may render us apt both to receive and improve them If God be bounteous we may not be idle and neglective of our spirituall aids SECT II. II you tell me by way of instance in a particular act of Devotion that there is a gift of prayer and that the Spirit of God is not tyed to rules I yeeld both these but withall I must say there are also helps of prayer and that we must not expect immediate inspirations I finde the world much mistaken in both They think that man hath the gift of prayer that can utter the thoughts of his heart roundly unto God that can expresse himselfe smoothly in the phrase of the holy Ghost and presse God with most proper words and passionate vehemence And surely this is a commendable faculty wheresoever it is but this is not the gift of prayer you may call it if you will the gift of Elocution Doe we say that man hath the gift of pleading that can talk eloquently at the Barre that can in good termes loud and earnestly importune the Judge for his Client and not rather he that brings the strongest reason and quotes his books and precedents with most truth and clearest evidence so as may convince the Jury and perswade the Judge Doe we say he hath the gift of preaching that can deliver himselfe in a flowing manner of speech to his hearers that can cite Scriptures or Fathers that can please his auditory with the flowers of Rhetorick or rather he that can divide the Word aright interpret it soundly apply it judiciously put it home to the conscience speaking in the evidence of the Spirit powerfully convincing the gainsayers comforting the dejected and drawing every soul nearer to heaven The like must we say for prayer the gift whereof he may be truly said to have not that hath the most rennible tongue for prayer is not so much a matter of the lips as of the heart but he that hath the most illuminated apprehension of the God to whom he speaks the deepest sense of his own wants the most eager longings after grace the ferventest desires of supplyes from heaven and in a word whose heart sends up the strongest groans and cries to the Father of mercies Neither may we look for Enthusiasmes and immediate inspirations putting our selves upon Gods Spirit in the solemn exercises of our invocation without heed or meditation the dangerous inconvenience whereof hath been too often
VI. NOw that these mutuall respects may bee sure not to cool with intermission the devout heart takes all occasions both to think of God and to speak to him There is nothing that he sees which doth not bring God to his thoughts Indeed there is no creature wherin there are not manifest footsteps of omnipotence Yea which hath not a tongue to tell us of its Maker The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work One day telleth another and one night certifieth another Yea O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all The earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide sea where are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts Every herbe flower spire of grasse every twigge and leafe every worm and flye every scale and feather every billow and meteor speaks the power and wisdome of their infinite Creator Solomon sends the sluggard to the Ant Esay sends the Jews to the Oxe and the Asse Our Saviour sends his Disciples to the Ravens and to the Lillies of the field There is no creature of whom we may not learn something we shall have spent our time ill in this great school of the world if in such store of Lessons we be non-proficients in devotion Vain Idolaters make to themselves images of God wherby they sinfully represent him to their thoughts and adoration could they have the wit and grace to see it God hath taken order to spare them this labour in that he hath stamped in every creature such impressions of his infinite power wisdome goodnes as may give us just occasion to worship and praise him with a safe and holy advantage to our souls For the invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead And indeed wherefore serve all the volumes of Naturall history but to be so many Commentaries upon the severall creatures wherein we may reade God and even those men who have not the skill or leisure to peruse them may yet out of their own thoughts and observation raise from the sight of all the works of God sufficient matter to glorifie him Who can be so stupide as not to take notice of the industry of the Bee the providence of the Ant the cunning of the Spider the reviving of the Flye the worms indeavour of revenge the subtilty of the Fox the sagacity of the hedge-hog the innocence and profitablenesse of the sheep the laboriousnesse of the Oxe the obsequiousnesse of the Dog the timerous shifts of the Hare the nimblenesse of the Dear the generosity of the Lion the courage of the Horse the fiercenesse of the Tiger the cheerfull musick of Birds the harmlesnesse of the Dove the true love of the Turtle the Cocks observation of time the Swallows architecture shortly for it were easie here to be endlesse of the severall qualities and dispositions of every of those our fellow-creatures with whom we converse on the face of the earth and who that takes notice of them cannot fetch from every act and motion of theirs some monition of duty and occasion of devout thoughts Surely I fear many of us Christians may justly accuse our selves as too neglective of our duty this way that having thus long spent our time in this great Academy of the world we have not by so many silent documents learned to ascribe more glory to our Creator I doubt those creatures if they could exchangetheir brutality with our reason being now so docible as to learn of us so far as their sense can reach would approve themselves better scholars to us then we have been unto them Withall I must adde that the devout soul stands not always in need of such outward monitors but finds within it self sufficient incitements to raise up it self to a continuall minding of God and makes use of them accordingly and if at any time being taken up with importunate occasions of the world it finds God missing but an hour it chides it self for such neglect and sets it self to recover him with so much more eager affection as the faithfull Spouse in the Canticles when she finds him whom her soul loved withdrawn from her for a season puts her self into a speedy search after him and gives not over till she have attained his presence SECT VII NOw as these many monitors both outward and inward must elevate our hearts very frequently to God so those raised hearts must not entertain him with a dumb contemplation but must speak to him in the language of spirits All occasions therefore must be taken of sending forth pious and heavenly ejaculations to God The devout soul may doe this more then an hundred times a day without any hinderance to his speciall vocation The Huswife at her Wheel the Weaver at his Loom the Husbandman at his Plough the Artificer in his Shop the Traveller in his way the Merchant in his Warehouse may thus enjoy God in his bufiest imployment For the soul of man is a nimble spirit and the language of thoughts needs not take up time and though we now for examples sake cloath them in words yet in our practice we need not Now these Ejaculations may be either at large or Occasionall At large such as those of old Jacob O Lord I have waited for thy salvation or that of David O save me for thy mercies sake And these either in matter of Humiliation or of Imploration or of Thanksgiving In all which we cannot follow a better pattern then the sweet singer of Israel whose heavenly conceptions we may either borrow or imitate In way of Humiliation such as these Heal my soul O Lord for I have sinned against thee Oh remēber not my old sins but have mercy upon me If thou wilt be extream to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Lord thou knowest the thoughts of man that they are but vain O God why abhorrest thou my soul and hidest thy face from me In way of Imploration Vp Lord and help me O God Oh let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Lord where are thy old loving mercies Oh deliver me for I am helplesse and my heart is wounded within me Comfort the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord due I lift up my soul Goe not far from me O God O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy Name Thou art my helper and redeemer O Lord make no long tarrying Oh be thou my help in trouble for vain is the help of man Oh guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory My time is in thy hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies Oh withdraw not thy mercy from me O Lord. Lead me O Lord in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies
O let my soul live and it shall praise thee In way of Thankesgiving Oh God wonderfull art thou in thine holy places Oh Lord how glorious are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep Oh God who is like unto thee The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong helper Lord thy loving kindnesse is better then life it self All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints give thanks unto thee Oh how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all Who is God but the Lord and who hath any strength except our God We will rejoyce in thy salvation and triumph in thy Name O Lord. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse Oh how plentifull is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee In thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise SECT VIII OCcasionall Ejaculations are such as are moved upon the presence of some such object as carries a kinde of relation or analogy to that holy thought which we have entertained Of this nature I finde that which was practised in S. Basils time that upon the lighting of candles the manner was to blesse God in these words Praise be to God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost which that Father says was anciently used but who was the Authour of it he professeth to be unknown to the same purpose was the Lucernarium which was a part of the evening office of old For which there may seem to be more colour of reason then for the ordinary fashion of apprecation upon occasion of our sneesing which is expected and practised by many out of civility Old and reverend Beza was wont to move his hat with the rest of the company but to say withall Gramercy Madame la Superstition Now howsoever in this or any other practice which may seem to carry with it a smack of superstition our devotion may be groundless and unseasonable yet nothing hinders but that we may take just and holy hints of raising up our hearts to our God As when vve doe first look forth and see the heavens over our heads to think the Heavens declare thy glory O God When we see the day breaking or the Sun rising The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sun When the light shines in our faces Thou deckest thy self with light as with a garment or Light is sprung up for the righteous When we see our Garden imbellisht with flowers The earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. When we see a rough sea The waves of the sea rage horribly and are mighty but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier then they When we see the darknesse of the night The darknesse is no darknesse with thee When we rise up from our bed or our seat Lord thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising thou understandest my thoughts afar off When we wash our hands Wash thou me O Lord and I shall be whiter then snow When we are walking forth Oh hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not When we hear a passing bell Oh teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart to wisdome or Lord let me know my end and the number of my days Thus may we dart out our holy desires to God upon all occasions Wherein heed must be taken that our Ejaculations be not on the one side so rare that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God but that they may be held on in continuall acknowledgement of him and acquaintance with him and on the other side that they be not so over-frequent in their perpetuall reiteration as that they grow to be like that of the Romish votaries fashionable which if great care be not taken will fall out to the utter frustrating of our Devotion Shortly let the measure of these devout glances be the preserving our hearts in a constant tendernesse and godly disposition which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities by the exercises of our more enlarged and fixed Devotion Whereof there is the same variety that there is in Gods services about which it is conversant There are three main businesses wherein God accounts his service here below to consist The first is our addresse to the throne of Grace and the pouring out of our souls before him in our prayers The second is the reading and hearing his most holy Word The third is the receit of his blessed Sacraments In all which there is place and use for a setled Devotion SECT IX TO begin with the first work of our actuall and enlarged Devotion Some things are pre-required of us to make us capable of the comfortable performance of so holy and heavenly a duty namely that the heart be clean first and then that it be clear clean from the defilement of any known sin clear from all intanglements and distractions What doe we in our prayers but converse vvith the Almighty and either carry our souls up to him or bring him down to us now it is no hoping that we can entertain God in an impure heart Even we men loath a nasty and sluttish lodging how much more will the floly God abhorre an habitation spiritually filthy I finde that even the unclean spirit made that a motive of his repossession that he found the house swept and garnished Satans cleanlinesse is pollution and his garnishment disorder and wickednesse without this he findes no welcome Each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature How much more will that God of spirits who is purity it self look to be harboured in a cleanly room Into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin What friend would be pleased that we should lodge him in a Lazar-house or who would abide to have a toad lie in his bosome Surely it is not in the verge of created nature to yeeld any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man as sin is to that absolute and essentiall Goodnesse His pure eyes cannot endure the sight of sin neither can he endure that the sinner should come within the sight of him Away from me ye wicked is his charge both here and hereafter It is the priviledge and happinesse of the pure in heart that they shall see God see him both in the end and in the way injoying the vision of him both in grace and in glory this is no object for impure eyes Descend into thy self therefore and ransack thy heart who ever wouldst be a true Client of
Devotion search all the close windings of it with the torches of the law of God and if there be any iniquity found lurking in the secret corners thereof drag it out and abandon it and when thou hast done that thy fingers may retain no pollution say with the holy Psalmist I will wash my hands in innocence so will I goe to thine Altar Presume not to approach the Altar of God there to offer the sacrifice of thy Devotion with unclean hands Else thine offering shall be so far from winning an acceptance for thee from the hands of God as that thou shalt make thine offering abominable And if a beast touch the Mount it shall die SECT X. AS the soul must bee clean from sin so it must be clear and free from distractions The intent of our devotion is to welcome God to our hearts now where shall we entertain him if the rooms be full thronged with cares and turbulent passions The Spirit of God will not endure to be crowded up together with the vvorld in our strait lodgings An holy vacuity must make way for him in our bosomes The divine pattern of Devotion in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily retires into the Mount to pray he that carried heaven with him would even thus leave the world below him Alas how can we hope to mount up to heaven in our thoughts if we have the clogges of earthly cares hanging at our heels Yea not onely must there be a shutting out of all distractive cares and passions which are professed enemies to our quiet conversing with God in our Devotion but there must be also a denudation of the minde from all those images of our phantasie how pleasing soever that may carry our thoughts aside from those better objects We are like to foolish children who when they should be stedfastly looking on their books are apt to gaze after every butterfly that passeth by them here must be therefore a carefull intention of our thoughts a restraint from all vain and idle rovings and an holding our selves close to our divine task Whiles Martha is troubled about many things her devouter sister having chosen the better part plies the one thing necessary which shall never be taken from her and whiles Martha would feast Christ with bodily fare she is feasted of Christ with heavenly delicacies SECT XI AFter the heart is thus cleansed and thus cleared it must be in the next place decked with true humility the cheapest yet best ornament of the soul If the wise man tel us that pride is the beginning of sin surely all gracious dispositions must begin in humility The foundation of all high and stately buildings must be laid low They are the lowly valleys that soak in the showers of heaven which the steep hils shelve off and prove dry and fruitlesse To that man will I look saith God that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Hence it is that the more eminent any man is in grace the more he is dejected in the sight of God The father of the faithfull comes to God under the style of dust and ashes David under the style of a worm and no man Agur the son of Jakeh under the title of more brutish then any man and one that hath not the understanding of a man John Baptist as not worthy to carry the shooes of Christ after him Paul as the least of Saints and chief of sinners On the contrary the more vile any man is in his own eies and the more dejected in the sight of God the higher he is exalted in Gods favour Like as the Conduict-water by how much lower it fals the higher it riseth When therefore we would appear before God in our solemn devotions we must see that we empty our selves of all proud conceits and find our hearts fully convinced of our own vilenesse yea nothingnesse in his sight Down down with all our high thoughts fall we low before our great and holy God not to the earth only but to the very brim of hell in the conscience of our own guiltinesse for though the miserable wretchednesse of our nature may be a sufficient cause of our humiliation yet the consideration of our detestable sinfulnes is that which will depresse us lowest in the sight of God SECT XII IT is fit the exercise of our Devotion should begin in an humble confession of our unworthinesse Now for the effectuall furtherance of this our self-dejection it wil be requisite to bend our eyes upon a threefold object To look inward into our selves upward to heaven downwards to hell First to turn our eyes into our bosomes and to take a view not without a secret self-loathing of that world of corruption that hath lyen hidden there and thereupon to accuse arraign and condemn our selves before that awfull Tribunall of the Judge of heaven and earth both of that originall pollution which wee have drawn from the tainted loyns of our first parents and those innumerable actuall wickednesses derived there-from which have stayned our persons and lives How can we be but throughly humbled to see our souls utterly overspread with the odious and abominable leprosie of sin We finde that Vzziah bore up stoutly a while against the Priests of the Lord in the maintenance of his sacrilegious presumption but when he saw himself turn'd Lazar on the suddain he is confounded in himself and in a depth of shame hastens away from the presence of God to a sad and penitentiall retirednesse Wee should need no other arguments to loath ourselves then the sight of our own faces so miserably deformed with the nasty and hatefull scurfe of our iniquity Neither onely must we be content to shame and grieve our eyes with the foule nature and condition of our sins but we must represent them to our selves in all the circumstances that may aggravate their hainousnesse Alas Lord any one sin is able to damn a soul I have committed many yea numberlesse they have not possessed me single but as that evill spirit said their name is Legion neither have I committed these sins once but often Thine Angels that were sinned but once and are damned for ever I have frequently reiterated the same offences where then were it not for thy mercy shall I appear neither have I only done them in the time of my ignorance but since I received sufficient illumination from thee It is not in the dark that I have stumbled and faln but in the midst of the clear light and sun-shine of thy Gospel and in the very face of thee my God neither have these been the ships of my weaknesse but the bold miscarriages of my presumption neither have I offended out of inconsideration and inadvertency but after and against the checks of a remurmuring conscience after so many gracious warnings and fatherly admonitions after so many fearfull examples of thy judgements after so infinite obligations of thy favors And thus having
who is infinitly mercifull yet will not have his favours otherwise conveighed to us then by our supplications the style of his dear ones is His people that prayeth and his own style is The God that heareth prayers To him therfore doth the devout heart pour out all his requests with all true humility with all fervour of spirit as knowing that God will hear neither proud prayers nor heartlesse wherein his holy desires are regulated by a just method First suing for spirituall favours as most worthy then for temporall as the appendences of better and in both ayming at the glory of our good God more then our own advantage And in the order of spirituall things first and most for those that are most necessary and essentiall for our souls health then for secondary graces that concern the prosperity and comfort of our spirituall life Absolutely craving those graces that accompany salvation all others conditionally and with reference to the good pleasure of the munificent Giver Wherein heed must be taken that our thoughts be not so much taken up with our expressions as with our desires and that we doe not suffer our selves to languish into an unfeeling length and repetition of our suits Even the hands of a Moses may in time grow heavy so therefore must we husband our spirituall strength that our devotion may not flagge with overtyring but may be most vigorous at the last And as we must enter into our prayers not without preparatory elevations so must we be carefull to take a meet leave of God at their shutting up following our supplications with the pause of a faithfull and most lowly adoration and as it were sending up our hearts into heaven to see how our prayers are taken and raising them to a joyfull expectation of a gracious and successefull answer frō the father of mercies SECT XX. VPon the comfortable feeling of a gracious condescent follows an happy fruition of God in all his favours so as we have not them so much as God in them which advanceth their worth a thousand fold and as it were brings down heaven unto us whereas therefore the sensuall man rests onely in the meer use of any blessing as health peace prosperity knowledge and reacheth no higher the devout soul in and through all these sees and feels a God that sanctifies them to him and enjoys therein his favour that is better then life Even we men are wont out of our good nature to esteem a benefit not so much for its own worth as for the love and respect of the giver Small legacies for this cause finde dear acceptation how much more is it so betwixt God and the devout soul It is the sweet apprehension of this love that makes all his gifts blessings Doe we not see some vain churl though cryed down by the multitude herein secretly applauding himself that he hath bags at home how much more shall the godly man finde comfort against all the crosses of the world that he is possessed of him that possesseth all things even God Al-sufficient the pledges of whose infinite love he feels in all the whole course of Gods dealing with him SECT XXI OUt of the true sense of this inward fruition of God the devout soul breaks forth into cheerfull thanksgivings to the God of all comfort praising him for every evill that it is free from for every good thing it enjoyeth For as it keeps a just Inventory of all Gods favours so it often spreads them thankfully before him and layes them forth so near as it may in the full dimensions that so God may be no loser by him in any act of his beneficence Here therefore every of Gods benefits must come into account whether eternall or temporall spirituall or bodily outward or inward publique or private positive or privative past or present upon our selves or others In all which he shall humbly acknowledge both Gods free mercy and his own shamefull unworthinesse setting off the favours of his good God the more with the foyle of his own confessed wretchednesse and unanswerablenesse to the least of his mercies Now as there is infinite variety of blessings from the liberall hand of the Almighty so there is great difference in their degrees For whereas there are three subjects of all the good we are capable of The Estate Body Soul and each of these doe far surpasse other in value the soul being infinitely more worth then the body and the body far more precious then the outward estate so the blessings that appertain to them in severall differ in their true estimation accordingly If either we doe not highly magnifie Gods mercy for the least or shall set as high a price upon the blessings that concern our estate as those that pertain to the body or upon bodily favours as upon those that belong to the soul we shall shew our selves very unworthy and unequall partakers of the Divine bounty But it will savour too much of earth if we be more affected with temporall blessings then with spirituall and eternall By how much nearer relation then any favour hath to the Fountain of goodness and by how much more it conduceth to the glory of God and ours in him so much higher place should it possesse in our affection and gratitude No marvell therefore if the Devout Heart be raised above it self and transported with heavenly raptures when with Stephens eyes it beholds the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God fixing it self upon the consideration of the infinite Merits of his Life Death Resurrection Ascension Intercession and finding it self swallowed up in the depth of that Divine Love from whence all mercies flow into the Soul so as that it runs over with passionate thankfulnesse and is therefore deeply affected with all other his mercies because they are derived from that boundlesse Ocean of Divine goodnesse Unspeakable is the advantage that the soul raises to it self by this continuall exercise of thanksgiving for the gratefull acknowledgement of favours is the way to more even amongst men whose hands are short and strait this is the means to pull on further beneficence how much more from the God of all Consolation whose largest bounty diminisheth nothing of his store And herein the Devout Soul enters into its Heavenly Task beginning upon earth those Hallelujahs which it shall perfect above in the blessed Chore of Saints and Angels ever praising God and saying Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and Thankesgiving and Honour and Power and Might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen SECT XXII NOne of all the services of God can be acceptably no not unsinfully performed without due devotion as therefore in our prayers thanksgivings so in the other exercises of Divine Worship especially in the reading and hearing of Gods Word and in our receipt of the blessed Sacrament it is so necessary that without it we offer to God a meer carcass of religious duty and profane that Sacred Name we would
our redemption and his blessed Sacrament to seal up unto us our redemption thus wrought and purchased And with souls thus thankfully elevated unto God we approach with all reverence to that heavenly table where God is both the Feast-master and the Feast What intention of holy thoughts what fervour of spirit what depth of Devotion must we now finde in our selves Doubtlesse out of heaven no object can be so worthy to take up our hearts What a clear representation is here of the great work of our Redemption How is my Saviour by all my senses here brought home to my soul How is his passion lively acted before mine eyes For lo my bodily eye doth not more truly see bread and wine then the eye of my faith sees the body and bloud of my dear Redeemer Thus was his sacred body torn and broken Thus was his precious bloud poured out for me My sins wretched man that I am helped thus to crucifie my Saviour and for the discharge of my sins would he be thus crucified Neither did he onely give himself for me upon the crosse but lo he both offers and gives himself to me in this his blessed institution what had his generall gift been without this application now my hand doth not more sensibly take nor my mouth more really eat this bread then my soul doth spiritually receive and feed on the bread of life O Saviour thou art the living bread that came down from heaven Thy flesh is meat indeed and thy bloud is drink indeed Oh that I may so eat of this bread that I may live for ever He that commeth to thee shall never hunger he that beleeveth in thee shall never thirst Oh that I could now so hunger and so thirst for thee that my soul could be for ever satisfied with thee Thy people of old were fed with Manna in the wildernesse yet they died that food of Angels could not keep them from perishing but oh for the hidden Manna which giveth life to the world even thy blessed self give me ever of this bread and my soul shall not die but live Oh the precious juice of the fruit of the Vine wherewith thou refreshest my soul Is this the bloud of the grape Is it not rather thy bloud of the New testament that is poured out for me Thou speakest O Saviour of new wine that thou wouldest drink with thy Disciples in thy Fathers kingdome can there be any more precious and pleasant then this wherewith thou chearest the beleeving soul our palate is now dull and earthly which shall then be exquisite and celestiall but surely no liquor can be of equall price or soveraignty with thy bloud Oh how unsavoury are all earthly delicacies to this heavenly draught O God let not the sweet taste of this spirituall Nectar ever goe out of the mouth of my soul Let the comfortable warmth of this blessed Cordiall ever work upon my soul even till and in the last moment of my dissolution Doest thou bid me O Saviour doe this in remembrance of thee Oh how can I forget thee How can I enough celebrate thee for this thy unspeakable mercy Can I see thee thus crucified before my eies for my sake thus crucified and not remember thee Can I finde my sins accessary to this thy death and thy death meritoriously expiating all these my grievous sins and not remember thee Can I hear thee freely offering thy self to me and feel thee graciously conveighing thy self into my soul and not remember thee I doe remember thee O Saviour but oh that I could yet more effectually remember thee with all the passionate affections of a soul sick of thy love with all zealous desires to glorifie thee with all fervent longings after thee and thy salvation I remember thee in thy sufferings Oh doe thou remember me in thy glory SECT XXIX HAving thus busied it self with holy thoughts in the time of the celebration the devout soul breaks not off in an abrupt unmannerlinesse without taking leave of the great Master of this heavenly feast but with a secret adoration humbly blesseth God for so great a mercy and heartily resolves and desires to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus whom it hath received and to consecreate it self wholly to the service of him that hath so dearly bought it and hath given it these pledges of it's eternall union with him The devout soul hath thus sup't in heaven and returnes home yet the work is not thus done after the elements are out of eye and use there remains a digestion of this celestial food by holy meditation and now it thinks Oh what a blessing have I received to day no lesse then my Lord Jesus with all his merits and in and with him the assurance of the remission of all my sins and everlasting salvation How happy am I if I be not wanting to God and my self How unworthy shall I be if I doe not strive to answer this love of my God and Saviour in all hearty affection and in all holy obedience And now after this heavenly repast how doe I feel my self what strength what advantage hath my faith gotten how much am I neerer to heaven then before how much faster hold have I taken of my blessed Redeemer how much more firm sensible is my interest in him Neither are these thoughts this examination the work of the next instant onely but they are such as must dwell upon the heart and must often solicite our memory and excite our practise that by this means we may frequently renue the efficacy of this blessed Sacrament and our souls may batten more and more with this spirituall nourishment and may be fed up to eternall life SECT XXX THese are the generalities of our Devotion which are of common use to all Christians There are besides these certain specialties of it appliable to severall occasions times places persons For there are morning and evening Devotions Devotions proper to our board to our closet to our bed to Gods day to our own to health to sicknesse to severall callings to recreations to the way to the field to the Church to our home to the student to the souldier to the Magistrate to the Minister to the husband wife child servant to our own persons to our families The severalties whereof as they are scarce finite for number so are most fit to be left to the judgement and holy managing of every Christian neither is it to be imagined that any soul which is taught of God and hath any acquaintance with heaven can be to seek in the particular application of common rules to his own necessity or expedience The result of all is A devout man is he that ever sees the invisible and ever trembleth before that God he sees that walks ever here on earth with the God of heaven and still adores that Majesty with whom he converses that confers hourely with the God of spirits in his own language yet so as no
be by an helpfull obstetrication drawn forth into the larger prison of the vvorld there indeed he hath elbow-room enough but al that wide scope cannot free him from a true incarceratioÌ„ Who knows not that there are many differences and latitudes of restraint A Simeon may imprison and enchain himself in the compasse of a pillar not allowing himself the ease of his whole dimensioÌ„s Peter may be lockt up in a larger Jayle betwixt his two Leopards as that father terms theÌ„ S. Paul may be two years allowed to be a prisoner in his own hired house but under the guard of his keeper and not vvithout his chain There are those who upon hainous and dangerous occasions may be kept close under many locks there are prisoners at large vvho have the liberty of the Tower yet even these last notwithstanding the allowance of spacious walks fresh gardens are no other then acknowledged prisoners Such is my condition to the world wheÌ„ I am at my fullest liberty It is true that when I look back to the straitnesse of my first and native prison and compare it with the large extent of that wide world into which I am brought I may well with Isaacs Herds-men say Rehoboth For now the Lord hath made me room but when I compare that world wherein I am with that whereto I aspire and vvhich I know to be above and look to enjoy I can see nothing here but meer prison-vvals and professe my life to be no other then a perpetuall durance SECT IX IF Varro said of old that the world was no other then the great house of little man I shall be bold to adde what kind of house it is It is no other then his prison yea his dungeon Far be it from me to disparage the glorious work of my omnipotent Creator I were not worthy to look upon this large and glittering roof of heaven nor to see the pleasant varieties of these earthly landskips if I did not adore that infinite power and wisdome which appears in this goodly and immense fabricke and confesse the marvellous beauty of that majestick and transcendent workmanship Rather when I see the Moon and the Starres which thou hast ordained I say with the Psalmist Lord what is man But O God it is no dishonour to thee that though this be a fair house yet thou hast one so much better then it as a Palace is beyond a Jayle This beauty may please but that ravisheth my soul Here is light but dim and dusky in respect of that inaccessible light wherein thou dwellest Here is a glorious sun that illumineth this inferiour world but thou art the sun who enlightenest that world above Thou to whom thy created Sun is but a shadow Here we converse with beasts or at the best with men there with blessed soules and heavenly Angels Here some frivolous delights are intermixed with a thousand vexations There in thy presence is the fulnesse of joy So then let the sensuall heart mis-place his paradise here in the world it shall not passe for other with me then my prison How can it Why should it for what other terms doe I find here What blind light looks in here at these scant loopeholes of my soul Yea what darknesse of ignorance rather possesses me what bolts and shackles of heavy crosses doe I beare about me how am I fed here with the bread of afdiction how am I watched and beset with evill spirits how contumeliously traduced how disdainefully lookt upon how dragging the same chaine with the worst malefactors how disabled to all spirituall motions how restrained from that full liberty of injoying my home and my God in it which I daily expect in my dissolution when therefore I am released from these walls I am still imprisoned in larger and so shall be till the Lord of the spirits of al flesh who put me here shal set me free and all the daies of my appointed time wil I wait til this my changing come SECT X. YOu see then by this time how little reason I have to be too much troubled with this imprisonment or my friends for me But indeed there are some sorts of Prisoners which neither you nor I can have tears enow to bewaile and those especially of two kinds The one those that are too much affected with an outward bondage The other those that are no whit affected with a spirituall In the first rank are they that sinke under the weight of their Irons Poore impotent soules that groaning under the cruelty of a Turkish thraldome or a Spanish Inquisition want Faith to beare them out against the impetuous violences of their tormentors I sorrow for their suffering but for their faiâ—â—â—â— more could they see the Groâ—â—â— of glory which the right◠〈◊〉 Judge holds ready for their â—â—ctorious Patience they 〈◊〉 not but contemne paine 〈◊〉 all the pomp of Death and â—â—â—fesse that their Light affliction which is but for 〈…〉 works for them a far more â—â—â—ceeding and eternall weight of glory But alas it is the weaknesse of their eyes that they onely look at the things that are seen close walls heavy 〈◊〉 sharp scourges merciless racks and other dreadfull engines of torture and see not the things that are not seen the glorious reward of their victory blessedness Had they had Stephens eyes they would have emulated his martyrdome Surely whosoever shall but read the story of the Mother and the seaven Brothers in the Maccabees and that of the fourty Armenian Martyrs frozen to death reported by Gaudentius and shall there see the fainting revolter dying uncomfortably in the Bath whiles the other thirty and nine together with their new converted Keeper are crowned by an Angell from heaven cannot choose except he have nothing but Ice in his bosome but find in himself a disposition emulous of their courage and ambitious of their honour But alas what ever our desires and purposes may be it is not for every one to attain to the glory of Martyrdome this is the highest pitch that earthly Saints are capable of He must be more then a man whom pain and death cannot remove from his holy resolutions and especially the lingering execution of both It is well if an age can yeeld one Mole In what terms shal I commemorate thee O thou blessed Confessor the great example of invincible constancy in these backsliding times if at least thy rare perseverance be not more for wonder then imitation whom thirty yeares tedious durance in the Inquisitory at Rome could not weary out of thy sincere profession of the Evangelical truth All this while thou wert not allowed the speech the sight of any but thy persecutors Here was none to pity thee none to exhort thee If either force of perswasion or proffers of favour or threats of extremity could have wrought thee for thy perversion thou hadst not at last dyed ours Blessed be the God of all comfort who having stood by thee and
and my prayers dispell my cares but those anxieties vvhich commonly wait upon greatnesse distract the minde and impair the body It is an observation of the Jewish Doctors that Joseph the Patriarch vvas of a shorter life then the rest of his brethren and they render this reason of it for that his cares were as much greater as his place was higher It vvas not an unfit comparison of him vvho resembled a Coronet upon the Temples to a pail upon the head We have seen those who have carried full and heavy vessels on the top of their heads but then they have walked evenly and erect under that load we never saw any that could dance under such a weight if either they bend or move vehemently all their carriage is spilled Earthly greatness is a nice thing requires so much charinesse in the managing as the contentment of it cannot requite He is vvorthy of honey that desires to lick it off from thorns for my part I am of the minde of him who professed not to care for those favours that compelled him to lie waking Danger of distemper both bodily and spirituall that commonly follows great means and torment in parting with them IN the next place I see greatnesse not more pale and worn vvith cares then swoln up and sickly with excesse Too much oyle poured in puts out the Lamp Superfluity is guilty of a world of diseases which the spare diet of poverty is free from How have vve seen great mens eies surfeited at that full Table whereof their palate could not taste and they have risen discontentedly glutted with the sight of that vvhich their stomach vvas uncapable to receive and vvhen not giving so much law to nature as to put over their gluttonous meal their vvanton appetite charging them with a nevv variety of curious morsels and lavish cups they finde themselves overtaken with feverous distempers the Physitian must succeed the Cook and a second sicknesse must cure the first But alas these bodily indispositions are nothing to those spirituall evils vvhich are incident into secular greatness It is a true word of S. Ambrose seconded by common experience that an high pitch of honour is seldome held up without sinne And S. Jerome tels us it vvas a common Proverb in his time That a rich man either is vvicked or a vvicked mans heir Not but that rich Abraham may have a bosome for poor Lazarus to rest in and many great Kings have been great Saints in Heaven and there is still room for many more but that commonly great temptations follow great estates and oftentimes overtake them neither is it for nothing that riches are by our blessed Saviour styled the Mammon of iniquity wealth is by the holy Apostle branded with deceitfulnesse such as cheat many millions of their souls Add unto these if you please the torment of parting with that pelf and honour vvhich hath so grosly bewitched us such as may well verifie that vvhich Lucius long since wrote to the Bishops of France and Spain that one houres mischief makes us forget the pleasure of the greatest excesse I marvell not at our English Jew of whom our story speaks that would rather part with his teeth then his bags how many have wee knowne that have poured out their life together with their gold as men that would not out-live their earthen god yea woe is mee how many soules have beene lost in the sinne of getting and in the quarrell of leesing this thicke clay as the Prophet tearmes it But lastly that which is yet the sorest of all the inconveniences is the sadnesse of the reckoning which must come in after these plentifull entertainments for there is none of all our cates here but must be billed up and great Accompts must have long Audits how hard a thing it is in this case to have an Omnia aequè In the failing whereof how is the Conscience affected I know not whether more tormented or tormenting the miserable soul so as the great Owner is but as witty Bromiard compares him like a weary Jade which all the day long hath been labouring under the load of a great treasure and at night lies down with a galled back By that time therefore wee have summed up all and finde here envy cares sicknesses both of body and soul torment in parting with and more torment in reckoning for these earthly greatnesses wee shall be convinced of sufficient reason to be well apaid with their want SECT XII Consideration of the benefits of Poverty LEt the fifth Consideration be the benefit of Poverty such and so great as are enough to make us in love with having nothing For first vvhat an advantage is it to be free from those gnawing cares which like Tityus his Vulture feed upon the Heart of the Great Here is a man that sleeps Aethiopian-like with his doores open no dangers threaten him no feares break his rest hee starts not out of his bed at midnight and cries Theeves he feels no rack of ambitious thoughts he frets not at the disappointment of his false hopes hee cracks not his brain with hazardous plots he mis-doubts no undermining of emulous rivals no traps of hollow friendship but lives securely in his homely Cottage quietly enjoying such provision as nature and honest industry furnish him withall for his drinke the neighbour Spring saves him the charge of his Excise and when his better earnings have fraught his trencher with a warm and pleasing morsell and his cup with a stronger liquor hovv chearfully is he affected with that happy variety and in the strength of it digests many of his thinner meals Meals usually sawced with an healthfull hunger wherein no uncocted Crudities oppresse Nature and cherish disease Here are no Gouts no Dropsies no Hypochondriack passions no Convulsive fits no distempers of surfeits but a clear and wholesome vigor of body and an easie putting over the light tasks of digestion to the constant advantage of health And as for outward dangers what an happy immunity doth commonly blesse the poore man how can he fear to fall that lies flat upon the ground The great Pope Boniface the seventh vvhen hee saw many stately Buildings ruined vvith Earthquakes is glad to raise him a little Cabin of boards in the midst of a Meadovv and there findes it safest to shelter his triple Crown When great men hoist their Top-sail and launch forth into the deep having that large clew which they spread expos'd to all windes and weathers the poor man sails close by the shore and when hee foresees a storme to threaten him puts in to the next Creek and wears out in a quiet security that Tempest wherein he sees prouder Vessels miserably tost and at last fatally wracked This man is free from the perill of spightfull machinations No man whets his Axe to cut down a shrub it is the large Timber of the world that hath cause to fear hewing Neither is he lesse
mankind Mortality is as it were essential to our Nature neither could wee have had our souls but upon the tearms of a re-delivery when they shall be called for If the holiest Saints or the greatest Monarchs sped otherwise wee might have some colour of repining Now grieve if thou wilt that thou art a man grieve not that being man thou must die Neither is the benefit inferiour to the necessity Lo here the remedy of all our cares the physick for all our maladies the rescue from all our feares and dangers earnestly sued for by the painfull dearly welcome to the distressed Yea lo here the Cherub that keeps the gate of Paradise there is no entrance but under his hand In vain do we hope to passe to the glory of Heaven any other way then through the gates of Death The second is the Conscience of a well-led life Guiltinesse vvill make any man fowardly unable to looke danger in the face much more Death whereas the innocent is bold as a Lion What a difference therefore there is betwixt a Martyr and a Malefactor this latter knows he hath done ill and therefore if he can take his death but patiently it is well the former knows he hath done well and therefore takes his death not patiently onely but chearfully But because no mortall man can have so innocently led his life but that he shall have passed many offences against his most holy and righteous God here must be Thirdly a finall peace firmly made betwixt God and the soul Two powerfull agents must mediate in it a lively Faith and a serious Repentance for those sins can never appear against us that are washed off with our tears and being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Now if we have made the Judge our friend what can the Sergeant doe The fourth is the power and efficacy of Christs death applyed to the soul Wherefore dyed he but that we might live Wherefore would he who is the Lord of life die but to sanctifie season and sweeten death to us Who would goe any other way then his Saviour went before him who can fear that enemy whom his Redeemer hath conquered for him who can run away from that Serpent whose sting is pulled out Oh Death my Saviour hath been thy death and therefore thou canst not be mine The fifth is the comfortable expectation and assurance of a certain resurrection and an immediate glory I doe but lay me down to my rest I shall sleep quietly and rise gloriously My soul in the mean time no sooner leaves my body then it enjoys God It did lately through my bodily eyes see my sad friends that bade me farewell with their tears now it hath the blisse-making vision of God I am no sooner lanched forth then I am at the haven where I would be Here is that which were able to make amends for a thousand deaths a glory infinite eternall incomprehensible This spirituall Ammunition shall sufficiently furnish the soul for her encounter with her last enemy so as she shall not only endure but long for this Combat and say with the chosen Vessell I desire to depart and to be with Christ SECT XVIII The miseries and inconveniences of the continued conjunction of the soul and body NOw for that long conversation causeth entirenesse and the parting of old friends and partners such the soul and body are cannot but be grievous although there were no actuall pain in the dissolution It will be requisite for us seriously to consider the state of this conjunction and to enquire what good offices the one of them doth to the other in their continued union for which they should be so loth to part And here wee shall finde that those two however united to make up one person yet as it fals out in crosse matches they are in continuall domestique jars one with the other and entertain a secret familiar kind of hostility betwixt themselves For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other One says well that if the body should implead the soul it might bring many foul impeachments against it and sue it for many great injuries done to that earthly part And the soul again hath no fewer quarrels against the body betwixt them both there are many brawls no agreement Our Schools have reckoned up therefore eight main incommodities which the soul hath cause to complain of in her conjunction with the body whereof the first is the defilement of Originall sinne wherewith the soul is not tainted as it proceeds alone from the pure hands of its Creator but as it makes up a part of a son of Adam who brought this guilt upon humano nature so as now this composition which we call man is corrupt Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean saith Job The second is a pronenesse to sinne which but by the meeting of these partners had never been the soul if single would have been innocent thus matched what evill is it not apt to entertain An ill consort is enough to poyson the best disposition The difficulty of doing well is the third for how averse are we by this conjunction from any thing that is good This clog hinders us from walking roundly in the ways of God The good that I would doe I doe not saith the chosen Vessell The fourth is the dulnesse of our understanding and the dimnesse of our mentall eies especially in the things pertaining unto God which now we are forced to behold through the vail of flesh if therefore we mis-know the fault is in the mean through which we doe imperfectly discover them The fift is a perpetuall impugnation and self-conflict either part labouring to oppose and vanquish the other This field is fought in every mans bosome without any possibility of peace or truce till the last moment of dissolution The sixt is the racking solicitude of cares which continually distract the soul not suffering it to rest at ease whiles it carries this flesh about it The seventh is the multiplicity of passions which daily bluster within us and raise up continuall tempests in our lives disquieting our peace threatning our ruine The eight is the retardation of our glory for flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God wee must lay down our load if we would enter into Heaven The seed cannot fructifie unlesse it die I cannot blame nature if it could wish not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon but so hath the eternall wisdome ordered that we should first lay down ere we can take up and be devested of earth ere we can partake of Heaven Now then sith so many and great discommodities doe so unavoidably accompany this match of soul and body and all of them cease instantly in the act of their dissolution what reason have we to be too deeply affected with
more a prisoner then the best mans soul that you know is peremptorily assigned for inhabitation to this house of clay till the day of dissolution Why more then the starres of Heaven which have remained fixed in their first stations ever since they were first created Why more then those great persons which keep up for state or Dames for beauty Why more then those Anachorites whom we have seen willingly coop'd up for merit How much more scope have we then they We breathe fresh aire we see the same heavens with the freest travellers SECT II. BUt we have you will say bounds for our restraint which the free spirit hates as never being pleased but with a full liberty both of prospect and passage Any barre whether to the foot or to the eye is a death Oh vain affectation of wilde and roving curiosity if their desires cannot be bounded yet their motions must When they have the full sight of heaven above them they cannot clime up into it they cannot possibly see that whole glorious contignation and when the whole earth lyes open before them they can measure but some small pieces of it How can they be quiet till they have purchased Tycho Brahe his prospective Trunk of thirty two foot long whereby they may discover a better face of Heaven some lesser Planets moving round about the Sun and the Moonets about Saturn and Jupiter and the Mountains Seas and Vallies in the Moon How can they rest till having acquainted themselves with the constellations of our Hemisphere they have passed the Equinoctiall and seen the triangle the crosse and the clouds and the rest of the unknown Stars that move above the other Pole And when all this is done they are but who they were no whit better no whit wiser and perhaps far lesse happy then those who never smelt any but their own smoke never knew any star but Charles-wayn the Morning-star and the Seven For me I doe not envie but wonder at the licentious freedome which these men think themselves happy to enjoy and hold it a weaknesse in those mindes which cannot finde more advantage and pleasure in confinement and retirednesse Is it a small benefit that I am placed there where no oathes no blasphemies beat my ears where my eyes are in no perill of wounding objects where I hear no invectives no false doctrines no sermocinations of Ironmongers Felt-makers Coblers Broom-men Groomes or any other of those inspired ignorants no curses no ribaldries where I see no drunken comeslations no rebellious routs no violent oppressions no obscene rejoycings nor ought else that might either vex or afright my soul This this is my liberty who whiles I sit here quietly lock'd up by my Keeper can pity the turmoiles and distempers abroad and blesse my own immunity from those too common evils SECT III. IS it the necessity and force of the restraint since those things which we do voluntarily are wont to passe from us with delight which being imposed seem grievous to us Why should not I have so much power over my will as to make that voluntary in me to undergo which another wils forcibly to inflict the mind that is truly subacted to Grace can so frame it self to what it must suffer as that it finds a kind of contentment in patience Thus we daily doe to the Almighty whose will by our humble submission we make ours and pray that we may do so And who can restrain us without him If therefore my wise and holy God think it best to cage me up by the cōmand of authority upon what cause soever why should not I think this enclosure a better liberty who know there is perfect freedome in his obedience So then if constraint make a prisoner I am none who am most willingly where my God will have me And if my will did not often carry me out of my own walks at home why cannot it as well confine me to a larger compasse of the Tower SECT IV. IS it solitude and infrequence of visitation This may perhaps be troublesome to a man that knows not to entertain himself but to him that can hold continuall discourse with his own heart no favour can be greater For of all other these self-conferences are most beneficiall to the soul Other mens communication may spend the time with more advantage of learning or mirth but none can yeeld us so much spiritual profit as our own soliloquies And when all is done the Greeks said well It is not much but usefull that makes truly wise Besides this we can never have the opportunity of so good company as when we are alone Now we enjoy the society of God and his Angels which we cannot so freely do in a throng of visitants When God would expresse his greatest intirenesse with his Church Ducam eam in solitudinem saith he I will bring her into the wildernesse and there speak comfortably to her We cannot expect so sweet conversation with God in the presence of others as apart Oh the divine benefit of an holy solitarinesse which no worldly heart can either know or value What care I for seeing of men when I may see him that is invisible What care I for chatting with friends when I may talk familiarly with the God of heaven What care I for entertaining mortall guests when I may with Abraham his nephew Lot feast the Angels of God and which were too great a word if God himself had not spoken it be attended by them SECT V. IS it the reproach ignominy that commonly attends the very name of an imprisonment weak mindes may be affected with every thing but with solid judgements it is not the punishment but the cause that makes either the Martyr or the malefactor S. Pauls bonds were famous and Petrus ad vincula is not without a note of yearly celebrity and it were hard if so many blessed Martyrs and Confessors who have lived dy'd in Jayls for the truths sake should not have brought prisons such as they may be into some credit Shortly as notorious crimes may be at liberty so even innocence may be under restraint yet those crimes no whit the better nor this innocence the worse Besides that which perhaps came not within your freer thoughts every restraint is not for punishment there is a restraint for safety a salva custodia as well as arcta such is this of ours This strong Tower serves not so much for our prison as for our defence what horror soever the name may carry in it I blesse God for these wals out of which I know not where we could for the time have been safe from the rage of the mis-incensed multitude Poor seduced souls they were taught it was piety to be cruell and were misperswaded to hate condemn us for that which should have procured their reverence and honour even that holy station which we hold in Gods Church and to curse those of us who had deserved nothing
made thee faithfull to the death hath now given thee a crown of life and immortalitie and left thee a noble pattern of Christian fortitude so much more remarkable as lesse frequently followed Whether I look into the former or the present times I finde the world full of shrinking professors Amongst the first Christians persecution easily discovered four sorts of cowardly Renegadoes The first and worst whom they justly styled Idolaters that yeelded to all the publike forms of worship to those false Gods The second Sacrificers who condescended so far as to some kind of immolation unto those fained deities or at least to a tasting of those things which were thus offered The third Incensers such as with Marcellinus himself came on so far as to cast some grains of incense into the Idols fire The last were their Libellaticks such as privately by themselves or by some allowed proxey denyed the faith yet with their mony bought out this ignominy sin of any publique Act of Idolatry Not to speak of those many thousands which fell down before Solyman the second and held up their finger to fignifie their conversion to his Mahometisme for ease of their taxations how many doe we hear of daily of all nations and some which I shame and grieve to say of our own who yeild to receive circumcision and to renounce their Saviour Oh the lamentable condition of those distressed Christians If constant to their professio they live in a perpetual purgatory of torment If revolting they run into the danger of an everlasting damnation in hel Even this gentle restraint puts me into the meditatioÌ„ of their insupportable durance Why doe not all Christian hearts bleed with the sense of their deplorable estate why is not our compassion heightned according to the depth of their perill and misery What are our bowels made of if they yearn not at their unexpressible calamity Ye rich Merchants under whose imployment many of these poor souls have thus unhappily miscarried how can you blesse your selves in your bags whiles you see the members of Christ your Saviour thus torn from him for want of a petty ransome Ye eminent persons whom God hath advanced to power and greatness how can you sleep quietly upon your pillows whiles you think of the cold and hard lodgings the hungry bellies the naked and waled backs of miserable Christians Lastly what fervent prayers should we all that professe the dear name of Christ powre out unto the God of heaven for the strengthning of the faith and patience of these afflicted souls against the assaults of violence and for their happy and speedy deliverance out of their wofull captivity SECT XI THese prisoners are worthy of our deep compassion as those who are too sensible of their own misery Others there are who are so much more worthy of greater pity by how much they are lesse apprehensive of their need of it plausible prisoners under a spirituall tyranny whose very wils are so captived to the powers of darkness that to choose they would be no other then bondmen pleasing themselves in those chains whose weight is enough to sink their souls into hell such are they who have yeelded themselves over to bee enthralled by any known sin No men under heaven doe so much applaud themselves in the conceit of their liberty none so great slaves as they If the very Stoick Philosophers had not enough evinced this truth Divinity should Indeed the world is a worse kind of Algier full of miserable captives Here lies one so fettered in lust that he rots again there another so laden with drunken excesse that he can neither goe norstand and in very deed is not his own man Here one so pinched with golden fetters that he can neither eat nor sleep nor at all enjoy himself there another so pined with envy that he is forced to feed on his own heart Here one so tormented with anger that he is stark mad for the time and cares not how he mischieves himself in a furious desire to hurt others there another so racked with ambition that he is stretched beyond his own length and lives in the pain of a perpetuall self-extention These and all others of this kinde are most miserable prisoners chained up for everlasting darknesse So much more worthy of our pity as they are lesse capable of their own Spend your compassion if you please upon these deplorable subjects But for me wish me if you wil as free from any imputation of evill as I was and am from the thought of it wish me in your free champian where I may have no hedge so much as to confine my eye wish me happy in the society of so dear and and noble a Friend but in the mean while think of me no otherwise then as a Free prisoner And Yours thankfully devoted in all faithfull observance I. N. THE REMEDY OF DISCONTENTMENT OR A TREATISE OF CONTENTATION in whatsoever condition Fit for these sad and troubled Times By Jos. HALL D. D. and B. of N. Phil. 4. 1◠〈…〉 have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound Every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to want LONDON Printed by M. F. for Nat. Butter 1646. I Have perused this Treatise entituled The Remedy of Discontentment and judging it to be very pious profitable and necessary for these sad and distracted times I license it to be printed and published and should much commend it to the Christian Reader if the very name of the Authour were not in it self sufficient without any further testimony JOHN DOVVâ—AMâ— TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Grace and Peace WHat can be more seasonable then when all the world is sick of Discontentment to give counsels and Receits of Contentation Perhaps the Patient will think it a time is chosen for physick in the midst of a Fit But in this case we must doe as we may I confesse I had rather have stayed till the Paroxys me were happily over that so the humors being somewhat setled I might hope for the more kindly operation of this wholsome medicine But partly my age and weaknesse despairing to out-live the publique distemper and partly my judgement crossing the vulgar opinion for the season of some kinde of Receits have â—â—w 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this safe and 〈…〉 â—nscription God is 〈…〉 that I wrote this 〈…〉 of mine own afflictions the particulars whereof it were unseasonable to trouble the world withall as one that meant to make my selfe my own Patient by enjoyning my self that course of remedies that I prescribe to others and as one who by the powerfull working of Gods Spirit within me labour to finde my heart framed to those holy dispositions which I wish and recommend to every Christian soul If there be no remedy but the worst of outward troubles must afflict us it shall be happy
yet if we may find inward peace in our bosomes which shall be if we can reconcile our selves to our offended God and calme our spirits to a meek undergoing of those sufferings which the divine Providence hath thought fit to measure forth unto us This is the main drift of this ensuing labour Now the same God who hath in these blustring times put into my heart these quiet thoughts of holy Contentation blesse them in every hand that shall receive them and make them effectuall to the good of every soul that shall now and hereafter entertain them that so their gracious proficiency may in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus adde to the joy of my account Who am the unworthiest of the servants of God and his Church J. N. THE CONTENTS OF the severall Sections following Sect. I. THe excellency of Contentation and how it is to be had pag. 171 § II. The contrariety of estates wherein it is to be exercised 172 § III. Who they are that know not how to want and be abused 176 § IV. Who they are that know how to want 182 § V. Considerations leading to Contentation and first the consideration of the ficklenesse of life and of all earthly commodities Honour Beautie Strength c. 183 § VI. Consideration of the unsatisfying condition of these worldly things 192 § VII The danger of the too much estimation of these earthly comforts 196 § VIII The consideration of the divine Providence ordering and over-ruling all events 198 § IX The consideration of the worse condition of others 200 § X. The consideration of the inconveniences of great estates therein first their cares 206 § XI The danger of the distempers both bodily and spirituall that follow great means and the torment in parting with them 211 § XII Consideration of the benefits of Poverty 216 § XIII Consideration of how little will suffice Nature 221 § XIV Consideration of the inconveniences and miseries of discontentment 225 § XV. The gracious vicissitudes of Gods favours and afflictions 230 § XVI Consid of the great examples of Contentation both without and within the Church of God 236 § XVII Contentment in death it self 244 § XVIII The miseries and inconveniences of the continued conjunction of the soul and body 250 § XIX Holy dispositions for contentment the first whereof Humility 256 § XX. 2. Selfe-resignation 262 § XXI 3. The true inward riches 268 § XXII Holy resolutions and 1. That the present estate is best for us 272 § XXIII 2. Resolution to abate of our desires 279 § XXIV 3. Resolution to inure our selves to digest smaller discontentments 284 § XXV 4. Resolution to be frequent and fervent in prayer 291 § XXVI The difficulty of knowing how to abound and the ill consequences of the not knowing it 294 CONTENTATION in knowing How to want where is set forth What it is to know how to want and to be abased How to be attained in respect Of the adversities of life where must be certain 1 Considerations 1 Of the valuation of earthly things the Transitoriness of Life Honour Beautie Strength Pleasure Unsatisfying condition of them Danger of over-esteeming them 2 Of divine providence over-ruling all events 3 Of the worse condition of others 4 Of the inconvenience of great estates Cares Danger of distemper bodily spirituall Torment in parting Account 5 Of the benefits of poverty freedom from Cares Fears of keeping losing 6 Of how little will suffice Nature 7 Of the miseries of Discōtentment 8 Of the Vicissitude of Favors and Crosses 9 Examples of Cōtentation without within the Church of God 2 Dispositions 1 Humility 2 Self-resignation 3 True inward riches 3 Resolutions 1 That our present condition is best for us 2 Resol to abate of our desires 3 Resol to digest smaller inconveniences 4 Resol to be frequent fervent in prayer Of death itself Remedies against the terror of death Necessity benefit of death Conscience of a well-led life Finall peace with God Efficacy of Christs death applyed Comfortable expectation of certaine Resurrection and an immediate vision of God Miseries incōveniences of the cōtinued cōjunction of soul and body Defilement of sin Originall Pronenesse to sin Difficulty of doing well Dulnesse of understāding Perpetuall conflicts Solicitude of cares Multiplicity of passiōs Retardation of glory How to abound THE REMEDY OF Discontentment SECT I. The excellency of Contentation and how it is to be had IF there be any happinesse to be found upon earth it is in that which we call Contentation This is a flower that growes not in every Garden The great Doctor of the Gentiles tels us that he had it I have learned saith hee in what estate soever I am therewith to be content I know how to be abased and I know how to abound Lo he could not have taken out this lesson if he had not learn'd it and he could not have learnt it of any other then his Master in Heaven What face soever Philosophy may set upon it all Morality cannot reach it neither could his learned Gamaliel at whose feet he sate have put this skill into him no he learn'd it since he was a Christian and now professeth it So as it appears there is a divine art of Contentation to be attained in the schoole of Christ which whosoeeer hath learnt hath taken a degree in heaven and now knowes how to be happy both in want and abundance SECT II. The contrariety of estates wherein Contentation is to be exercised THe nature of man is extreamly querulous wee know not what we would have and when we have it we know not how to like it we would be happy yet we would not dye we would live long yet wee would not bee old wee would be kept in order yet we would not be chastised with affliction we are loath to work yet are weary of doing nothing we have no list to stir yet finde long sitting painfull we have no minde to leave our bed yet finde it a kinde of sicknesse to lie long we would marry but would not bee troubled with houshold cares when once we are maried we wish we had kept single If therefore grace have so mastered nature in us as to render us content with what ever condition we have attain'd to no smal measure of perfection Which way soever the winde blowes the skilfull Mariner knows how to turn his sailes to meet it the contrariety of estates to which wee lie open here gives us different occasions for the exercise of Contentation I cannot blame their choice who desire a middle estate betwixt want and abundance and to be free from those inconveniences which attend both extreames Wise Solomon was of this diet Give me neither poverty nor riches feed mee with the food of my meet allowance Lo he that had all desired rather to have but enough and if any estate can afford contentment in this life surely this is it in the judgement and