and Sweetness and Beauty and Bravery of the World in our apprehension that we may look upon them as things unsuitable inadequate inferiour to our Noble Natures meer Husks and Trash Dust and Gravel in Comparison of the proper food of Souls Display thy Divine Excellency Sweetnesâ— Fullness Infinite Goodness Suitableness and Allsufficiency to us that we may be throughly convinc'd that thou art altogether lovely and that all other things yea Heaven it self are to be loved for thy sake Let thy good Spirit move upon our Affections and overshadow these Souls so long till it have impregnated them with Divine Love Whether Love be like Water do thou shed it abroad in our Hearts till it overflow all our Faculties as the Waters cover the Sea or whether it be like Fire let the Breath of the Lord Blow it up into a victorious and irresistible Flame Grant good God that this Love of Thee may express it self in the Faith Love and Obedience of thy Blessed Son Jesus in the Entertainment and Prosecution of the Motions of thy Holy Spirit in a sincere Love of all Men in a singular Delight in the Saints in the constant preference of Truth Righteousness the Establishment of Peace and Order the Advancement of the Gospel the Favour of God and our own Consciences before Riches Honours Pleasures Self-pleasing the Favour of Men the Propagations of Parties and all Worldly Interest whatsoever in the preferrence of the Peace and Holiness of our Souls before the gratifications of the Body and the securing of a happy Eternity before the serving of Time Finally I beseeeh Thee O my Gracious Father be daily adding Fewel to this Holy Fire maintain and encrease this pious Ardor Keep us in thy Love waiting for the Mercy of Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life Be daily winding up these Heavy and Lingring Hearts unto Thy Self and carrying on these imperfect Longings till thou hast ripened them into Perfect Lively Fearless Endless Love and Delight in thy Heavenly Kingdom for the sake of the Son of thy Love who hath loved us and given himself for us that we might give our Selves to Thee To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Thanks Love and Obedience for evermore Amen FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Samuel Tidmarsh at the Kings-head in Corn-hill THE Triumphs of Gods Revenge against the Crying and Execrable Sin of Murther to which is added Gods Revenge against Adultery A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the time of the Romans Government and continued unto the Fourteenth of his now Majesties Reign by Sir Richard Baker The Court of the Gentiles Compleat by Theophilus Gall. The Use of Passions written in French by I. F. Senault and put into English by Henry Earl of Monmouth A Treatise of Peace and Contentment of Mind by Peter Du Moulin Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty A Treatise of Sacramental Covenanting with Christ shewing the ungodly their Contempt of Christ in their Contempt of the Sacramental Covenant by J. Rawlet An Explication of the Creed the Ten Commandments and the Lords Prayer with the Addition of some Forms of Prayer by John Rawlet Artificial Versifying a New Way to make Latine Verses whereby any one of ordinary Capacity that only knows the A. B. C. and can count 9 though he understands not one Word of Latine or what a Verse means may be painly Taught and in as little time as this is Reading over how to make Thousands of Hexameter and Pentameter Verses which shall be true Latine true Verse and good Sense by John Peter price 6d stitcht Day of Doom or a description of the day of the great and last Judgment with a Discourse about Eternity Christian Directions shewing how to walk with God all the day long A Word â—o Saints and a Word to Sinners The Young Mans Guid through the Wilderness of this World to the Heavenly Canaan shewing him how to carry himself Christian like in the whole course of his Life All three by Thomas Gouge Tables for the use of the Excise Office whereunto is added an Introduction to Decimal Arithmetick and a short Treatise of Practical Gauging also the Excise-mans Aid by John 〈◊〉 Directions with Prayers and Meditations for the worthy receiving the Blessed Sacrament by the famous Charles Drelincourt A Help to English History containing a Succession of all the Kings of England the English Saxons and the Britains the Kings and Lords of Men and Isle of Wight as also of all the Marquesses Earls Bishops thereof with the Description of the places from whence they had their Titles Martial Epigrams Helvicus Colloquia Ovidii Opera Caesars Commentaries Erasmii Collâ—quia Ovidii Metamor cum Not. Farnabii Seneca's Tragedies Virgil. cum Not. Fornab Greek Testament of a full Character
Estates to make them idle neither do Rents or Riches exempt any man from business It is a perverting of the end of Talents to wrap them up in Napkins No man need to complain for want of work whil'st there are so many businesses besides worldly business to keep men from being idle O Eternal Spirit of Life and Power inspire me with a Divine activity that I may account it nothing different from death to live unprofitably nothing different from a judicial sentence to bind my self hand and foot by my own â—lothfulness MEDITAT LV. Of Easefulness UNder the Head of Worldly Pleasure and as being much of Kin to Idleness I must now meditate a while upon Eâ—sâ— Carnal Easâ— Idleness is opposed to Action Ease to Suffering Idleness is freedom from Businesâ— Easâ— is freedom from Adversity or any thing that is grievous to the Senses as Sickness Losses Poverty Restraint Trespasses and Injuries in word or deed c. To prefer Freedom from any of these sensual Adversities before submission to the Will of God a sanctify'd use and improvement the exercise of Patience Charity Fortitude and Constancy under them is sensual and denominates a man a Lover of the world of worldly Ease I do premise which every body sure knows that we are to value our selves by our Souls not by our Bodies or secular Concernments And to prefer the Body before the Soul is all one as to prefer the World before God For that certainly is most to be loved and preferred that makes most for the perfecting of the Soul in a Christ-like Nature He that thinks himself too good so much as to be laught at or spoken ill of is a very neâ—h Christian To be shie to venture upon any Affliction to dare to venture nothing for 〈◊〉 sake not to take up any Cross is a Character of a person far from a true Discipleship For the true Disciples are described by their taking up their Cross and following their Lord. The Captain of our Salvation valued Subjection to the Will of God and Charity for the Souls of men before Sensual Ease when these came in competition he accounted him a Devil who cry'd Master spare thy self It was indeed in his power to have spared himself but he was an hardy Captain and would not save himself rather than betray us It is true Nature desires Ease from Adversity the Soul has a wonderful Sympathy with and Kindness for the Body But those soft and delicate persons that cannot endure that the flesh or any fleshly interest should smart though it be the Will of the Sovereign Wise God though this Plaister might work a Cure though Affliction might bring forth the pleasant fruits of Righteousness are strangely immur'd in flesh and sunk into Sense MEDITAT LVI Of Fear of Sickness UNder this Head of Easefulness I may seasonably meditate of Fear of Sickness And here I cannot deny but that Sickness is troublesome to the Senses yea I think I may confess that the Soul cannot but sympathize with the Body for there is a strange and unaccountable dearness which springs from their conjunction But yet the Soul hath an health belonging to it distinct from the Body called in Scripture The spirit of a sound mind The Souls Ease and Eucrasie lies in Subjection to the Will of God she ought to value her own Ease more than that of the Body to prefer Patience before Health or Recovery We know that Patience is Divine and that Health is but a worldly good and also that that may be wholsom to the Soul which is grievous to the Senses So that to be afraid of and to stand in awe of Sickness is a preferring of carnal Ease before spiritual and before the Will of God and to be more solicitous for recovery than for a sanctification and improvement is sensual Much more then to flie to undue means for prevention is a manifest preferring of the worldly fleshly interest before God and his Holy Authority It is possible it is seemly to be so master'd with the sense of the Purity and Perfection of the Divine Will as to be well pleased wiâ—h Diseases to overlook pain to embrace a Dungâ—il to hug the Worms that fill our Sores as if they were our Sister and Mother Art thou so delicate a thing O my body that thou must not be touch'd Are you my Senses so sacred that you must not be grated upon nor your interest violated Oh take heed of the young man Aâ—salâ—m though he be a Traytâ—r a Rebel an incestuous Fratriâ—â—de yet he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper Gentleman a goodly young Prince deal tenderly with him yes by all means My Soul thou haâ—â— smarted and dost smart daily for the treacher â—â—sness and flattering insinuations of the bodily Senses yea they affect the dominion of the Soul and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—throne Reason And must they be thus humor'd and cocker'd Ay do breed up a Bird to pick out thy own eyes Lord Is it true that no Sickness is joyous But though Sicknes be not joyous yet sure there may be joy in and under Sicknesâ— is well as in the spoil of Goods or in Reproaches And I do remember those that took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods and those that rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for the Name of Jesus Let me be lame all my days and a Criple so I may be the King's son and eat at the King's Table continually Let me keep my Bed all my days so thou Lord wilt but please to make it and thy Holy Spirit will vouchsafe to rest with me Let the pleasure of Submission Self-Examination and Resignation out-weigh the pain of the Gout or Stone or Strangnry If the Devil meant it of all men indifferently without exception good as well as bad Job as well as other men when he said All that a man hath will he give for his life he is a Lyar and a Slanderer and Divines do ill to justifie the Father of Lyes in this matter and to say as some do That he was in the right All that a man hath What I warrant he will give his Soul to the Devil for recovery from Sickness will he He will part with his integrity make shipwrack of a good Conscience he will curse God Thou lyest Sathan Job himself prov'd thee a Lyar who held fast his integrity although thou movedst God against him to destroy him And many of the Servants of God do confute thee who have refused to accept of recovery from Sickness upon sinful terms or by sinful means and instead of giving all that they have Soul and all for Life would not part with the peace of their minds nor the purity of their Consciences to purchase health MEDITAT LVII Of Fear of the Less of Friends ANother thing grievous to the Sensual Life is the death of Friends and beloved Relations This I foresee will fall under a following Meditation therefore I will but lightly touch upon it here although a
be known It is without Controversie the chiefest thing and most material for Man to know concerning himself what he loves best If I know that God is the Supreme Good and that it is my greatest Duty and highest Perfection to love him best it must needs follow that it is my greatest Concernment to know that I do so For if I once attain to this understanding I will not be beholden to any Fortune-teller to acquaint me with my future condition in this World nay I will thank no Divine to fore-tell me my condition in another Man has nothing Better than his Affections nothing Nobler than his Heart Love is better than Beneficence Lazarus in being able to Love had a nobler Portion than Dives in being able to Give And shall this Heart this Love be given to the World A Man may converse in the World and be concern'd about it and yet not love it that 's well that may comfort us But a Man may also know God talk of him profess him perform many Duties to him worship him with much Pomp and seeming Sanctimony and yet not love him that may startle us It is easie in all other things for a Man to tell what he loves best Cannot every man tell what Dish of Meat or what Sort of Drink pleases him best or what Neighbor he prefers most And it is not a wonder that Men should not know whether they love God or the World best Is' t not a wonder that Men should be so mad or blind as not to see themselves Lovers of the World Surely the heart of Man is deceitful and that not only to other Men as some would have the meaning of the Text to he but to himself also I never yet knew a Man that would confess himself to be covetous though all the Symptoms of Covetousness were upon him Though the Plague-spots and Sores are upon them yet they will not confess themselves to be infected To undeceive if it may be the Lovers of the World is the design of the Publication of these Meditations Lord be merciful unto its and suffer not our hearts to be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin MEDITAT VIII Of the Extent of Worldly Love IF any man c. Methinks this Phrase supposes that all sorts of Men are subject to this Evil and liable to this Disease And indeed the more I think of it whether the Text suppose it or no the truer it seems to be When I consider great Men I do not see that they are so above the World as to despise it neither are the Poor so below the World as to despair of it as it is in some Cases No all sorts of men are subject to this Plague nothing secures us from it Riches do not it should seem by the Psalmist that the increase of them rather causes Men to set their hearts upon the World If Riches increase set not your heâ—â—ts upon them Poverty does not the poorer the prouder oftentimes and sometimes the covetouser too Holy Orders do not witness the greediness of the Clergy of all Churches Retiring into a Monastery cannot as the many unclean Practices committed there will testifie Holy Profession or an early resolution in Baptism cannot witness the multitudes that fight under the Worlds Banners who then protested to fight against it to their Lives end It is a close Evil or Devil rather and is found in company with Learning with Inspiration and the Spirit of Prophecy as in Balaam in company with Prayers and Sacrifices as in Saul in company with Fortitude as in Jeroboam in company with Zeal and Profession as in Jehu in company with legal Righteousness much Gravity Demureness seeming Self-denial and Maceration as in them who in the Gospel are said to love the praise of Men more than the praise of God It is found in conjunction with Circumcision neither is it washt away by that Ordinance that is called a putting away of the filth of the flesh But if we will come to a strict Examination we must consider Man in his Moral and in his Political Capacity And this God willing I intend to do in its proper place MEDITAT IX Of the Evil of worldly Love IF any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Lord what a terrible thing is this that is predicated of so small a fault He doth not love God! Why what could have been said worse of him If a man do not love God he is as bad as a Devil he is cursed with the chiefest curse If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be anathemamaranatha Who would believe that so fearful a thing should be predicated of so small a matter If he had said If any man blaspheme God maliciously oppose him spitefully commit Murder be rebellious against all Superiors beastly in all Behavior dwelleth in all Pride and Malice or the like then it had been likely enough that he should be esteemed a hater of God But to say If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Who can believe this Is it so great a matter to love the world Yes from the Predicate we may infer how great a matter it is The Spirit of God would not have predicated this of a thing of an ordinary size every body declares against the sins of the Flesh rails at Drunkenness Adultery Murder Injustice Extortion every Body brands Thieves and such like People But the sins of the Spirit go unespy'd and damn mens Souls more effectually See how damning a thing it is to misplace affections Oh how sadly is the world mistaken How weakly do men judge How many will find themselves in Hell shortly who had hoped that they were in the Suburbs of Heaven The common cry is A very good man a very honest man a civil good-natur'd Neighbor but a little with the closest Paulo attentior ad rem A small fault they think But is Idolatry and Adultery a small Fault This love of the world is really they one had as good bow down before a graven Image as love the world It is very observable how the Commands of the Gospel are mostly calculated for the regulating of the affections of Love Care Joy Grief and how it forbids and inveighs against the sins of the Spirit Pride Malice Distruct Envy Covetousness and the like The renovation of the Will and regulation of the Affections is the great work of Regenerating Grace It is paltry Pharisaism to mind paying of Tythes and to neglect the love of God Say not oh say not it is a small thing to love the world but say oh how it defiles how it exposes how it damns what Idolatry and Adultery and Blasphemy is it Arise O my precious Soul fully not thy beautful wings by resting upon so filthy a Dunghil by preying upon so loathsom a Carrion How evil and abominable the love of the world is I shall have occasion to consider more
though it neither stammer nor stagger What then are we limited in eating and drinking to a bit or a sup as in speaking to yea and nay Lord what man upon earth so wise as to know so exact as to observe such a point Surely there is an innocent entertainment as well as a necessary relief of nature But what Casuist shall state it Any degree of eating or drinking that fits us for higher offices seems to be lawful Lord I beseech thee grant that my appetite may be allways subject to my will my will to my reason my reason to thy Holy Word Grant that I may not take undue pleasure in Wine wherein is excess but be filled with thy Holy Spirit That I may not serve my own will or lust in eating or in drinking but make it my meat and drink to do thywill That I may by a divine Communion continually eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of God in which there is no danger of surfeiting Oh there let me insatiably hunger and thirst MEDITAT XLIX Of Pleasures unlawful in the Manner PLeasure either sinful in the Matter nor Measure yet may be so in the Manner To eat and drink is in it self innocent and a natural innocent delight may be reaped from thence but to relish and sensate these innocent pleasures only as they are natural gratifications is gross and sensual The most refined Souls whilst they are in conjunctian with these Earthly bodies must needs find pleasure in what gratifies the natural Appetite But they find more pleasure than so pleasure of another nature besides that The Soul ought to tast the sweetness of God as well as the palate rellish the created sweetness of meat and drink it ought to behold the amiableness of God as well as the eye behold and admire any created beauty If we do not rise up by the particular created goodness of the creature to the uncreated goodness the Father of Lights we are gross and sensual How gross are the Amoretto's of the World who stand gazing upon the sweet Features and charming Complexion forsooth of a Mistress the Worldlings who dote upon the Fabrick of a House or the Shape of a Horse and contemplate nothing higher How can I commend the convenience of Riches the refreshingness of Meat and Drink the pleasantness of Sleep the sweetness of Friends or of Life and not climb up to Riches Refreshment Rest Love Life it self That whereby any thing is in any kind excellent is some communication from God something of and from him Why then stand we gazing and doting upon beautiful Objects Why so ravish'd with melodious Ditties Can we not contemplate Harmony in the Abstract nor Beauty exeept it be incarnate Can we enjoy nothing but what we can see or hear or handle O dull and degenerate Souls O thou most blessed and eternal Spirit refine and spiritualize my apprehensions and sensations that I may see thee in every thing that I see taste thee in every dish and draught Thou leadest me by the streams but suffer me not to lie down there but help me to pursue them up to the Fountain Oh that I were a Jacob and that every Creature were a Ladder whereby thou mightst descend upon me and my Soul might ascend up unto thee MEDITAT L. Of Pleasures unlawful as to the Season THere is a Season for every thing and the right timing of things makes them beautiful The Pleasures that are lawful and honest nay and seem almost to have some relation to Religion may at some times be intermitted The Disciples could not fast whil'st the Bridegroom was with them but that is no wonder Aaron could not feast before the Lord when such and such things had befallen him Lev. 10. and Moses could not blame him There may be a time when the very pleasant praises of the Lord may seem unpleasant and the Songs of Sion be out of Tune The Apostle by his disjunctive discourse seems to imply some such thing concerning the Christian Psalmody that it is not seasonable in a time of affliction If any be afflicted let him pray If any be merry let him sing Psalms But to lead a merry jocund Life to give up ones self to Eating and Drinking and Sports in a time when God calls to Weeping and Mourning is an Argument of a prophane and profligate Sensualist and seems to be an unpardonable presumption Isa 22. 14. It is revealed in my ears by the Lord God of Hosts Surely this iniquity shall not be purged away from you till you dye How unseemly is it for me said David to dwell in Cedar and the Ark of God in Curtains For me to go rest my self upon a soft Bed when my General lies upon the hard ground To go solace my self with my beautiful Wife whil'st the Armies of God are looking Death in the face is not seemly for me quoth that Noble Captain Vriah If Whoring had been lawful and a Gentleman-like quality yet Zimri was absurd to be Whoring when all Israel were mourning under Gods judgments The Text imputes it as an Act of great weakness in that King who was drinking himself drunk in his Tent when the Enemy was upon him and he should have been ordering his Battel which puts me in mind of the Reproof that the old man in the Comedian gives an idle Servant In ipsa turba atque in peccato maximo potasti scelus Quasi re bene gesta To be fidling when the City was on fire is a character fit for Nero For an Old Woman to dance according to the Latine Proverb Makes Death laugh in his sleâ—ve To frolick it under the afflicting hand of God upon our selves or the Church under imminent dangers in a time of Universal Wickedness with the old World to give up our selves to all fleshly pleasures is far worse than to eat flesh in Lent Lord how like is the new World to the old one But shall there not yet be newer wherein dwells righteousness why there then shall be pleasures for everwere Oh but it is the part of a brave bold spirit to be unconcern'd not to be baffled nor scared out of the enjoyment of it self Give Horace his Mistress and come on him what can What an Heroick thing is Atheism Nay rather this is a Beastly Valor Such as the courage of the Horse in Job that mocketh at fear and saith amongst the Trumpets Ha ha Or of the Leviathan that laugheth at the shaking of the Spear Lord the pleasures of the flesh are mean and beastly things at best But when they are thus unseasonable it adds wickedness to their meanness and devilishness to their beastliness Enable me to observe the operation of thy hands teach me to distinguish the time to weep from the time to laugh let my reason ever maintain a just dominion over my appetite my Senses yea and my Fancy too MEDITAT LI. Of Fantastical Pleasures THere are pleasures of the Fancy which may be distinguisht from
men to be rich as he prefer'd the Dog Hazael to be King of Syria for no good will to him but ill will to Israel Neither is Revengefulness the sin of great men only A poor man may be as revengeful and take as much pleasure in fancying and meditating Revenge as the Blades of the World in executing it who for a word spoke awry forsooth presently term'd an Affront must have Satisfaction And to the Carnal whether Rich or Poor no doubt but Revenge is very sweet and the Fancy as much tickled and delighted with the speeulation of it as the bodily Senses with any Act of Intemperance or Uncleanness Who can chuse but apprehend the pleasure that the swaggering Giant took in fancying Revenge to be taken upon Ulysses who had befool'd and blinded him when he hears the Poet expressing it thus O si quis referat mihi casus Ulyssem Aut aliquem ex sociis in quem mea saeviat ira viscera cujusdam c. Oh that some happy luck would bring That Rogue Ulysses who 's the King Of that damn'd Crew or any other Belonging to him Son or Brother That I might tear him limb from limb Before Life hath forsaken him Whose very Guts I 'ld rend and eat My fattest Venison not such meat How would I make my Teeth to meet In 's trembling Head and Hands and Feet Oh how I 'ld quaff the Rogues Hearts blood Till in my Throat I made a Flood One would think he saw him tearing the Flesh and drinking the Blood of these men And indeed what was the greatest part of the Renowned Bravery of the Romans and Grecians in their Wars but Revenge But if we will stand a little and compare the provocations done to Christ Jesus and his Behavior under them all we must confess and say so great Fortitude all the revengeful Champions in the World never shew'd as he in not revenging himself at all as he in his Father forgive them they know not what they do No nor as his dear Disciple Stephen in his Lord lay not this sin to their charge Acts 7. ult I do not think it is simply unlawful to go to Law But if any man go to Law without the least mixture of Uncharitableness or Revengefulness the same is a perfect man I doubt Lawyers do as truly live upon the Diseases of mens Minds as Physicians of their Bodies Well I see there is no Revenge allow'd me towards my Neighbor and yet there is such a kind of Appetite in my Nature I will spend it therefore upon its proper Object Though Self-Murder is the worst of of Murders yet Self-Revenge is the best of Revenges Be reveng'd upon thine eyes O my Soul not by pulling them out but by shutting them by bringing them into Covenant Have thy Senses betray'd thee Deny them their liberty in some things lawful Keep under that Body that has been petulam and troublesome It was too severe Revenge in the Pepish Saint who cut off his right hand that had suffered a too affectionate kiss of a Female But if thy Senses abuse their liberty retrench them deny them sometimes of things lawful if they will adventure upon things unlawful Oh blessed God whose infinite Purity impartial Justice all-wise Love do render thee alone fit to take Revenge and to retaliate thine own injuries and mine too perfectly mortifie in me this Appetite and all that Pride and Self-love that are the fuel of it And inasmuch as I see it is by no means safe that such a Sword be committed into the hands of such a mad fool as I am help me to commit my Cause to him that judgeth righteously without forestalling him or prescribing to him not determining the way nor hastening the time nor so much as desiring the thing Oh that I may be able to say I have not desired the evil day Lord thou knowest that I may seek the peace of Babylon though I be a Captive in it yea though in her peace I should be no sharer MEDITAT LIII Of Cursing AS a Species of Revenge or at least a Product of a revengeful mind I may here seasonably meditate a little upon Cursing There is a solemn Cursing or delivering up to mischief performed by Church-Censure which is a kind of revenging of God's quarrel a Discipline that he himself has committed into the hands of Men which they must take heed to use for him not for themselves The greatest thing for ought I know that God has committed into the hands of men This is easily but wretchedly perverted when the Ministers of it revenge their own Cause and Quarrel serve their own interest and not Gods Gratifie their own Lusts more than the Will of God when they had rather that men suffer'd than were reform'd were damn'd than amended There is an Extraordinary and Prophetical Cursing proceeding from an extraordinary motion of the Holy Spirit found only in pure minds and yet but seldom in them neither Such was Elisha's cursing the ill-bred Children 2 Kings 2. Those passages of David in the Psalms I rather take to be a Prophetical Denunciation than a Cursing of the Wicked Let us be sure we know what spirit we are of before we adventure to imitate these inspired men And alas Why should we curse the Wicked who are hastening to greater Evil than we can wish them Besides Charity would rather command us to pity them and pray for them So did Christ Jesus so did holy Stephen so did St. Paul for his Judge Agrippa and his Persecutors the Jews Acts 26. 29. There is an extraordinary Self-cursing by way of Protestation to be used sparingly in weighty matters I refer this to extraordinary Swearing There is a prophane Cursing And this is either extraordinary or ordinary and both symptoms of a worldly mind Extraordinary prophane Cursing is when People in cool blood knowing what they say from a malicious mind and sometimes with great solemnity of kneeling down lifting up their hands putting off the Hat do imprecate mischief upon a person that has wrong'd them or offended them This when it is done in its Formalities looks like a Sacrament of the Devil an Ordinance of Hell a kind of an Exorcism But a horrible presumption certainly it is a prescribing to Infinite Wisdom a taking of Gods Work out of his hands an usurpation of Divine Prerogative Wicked bold man How darest thou take upon thee the government of the world and judge any man before his time Dar'st thou imploy the Almighty in a work wherein he takes no pleasure engage Love it self to act against his own nature unmercifully To pray God not to have mercy upon man is the highest blasphemy It is as if one should pray him to cease to be God Ordinary prophane cursing is either of our selves or others and each is threefold upon slight occasion upon none at all or worse than none First of our selves When men upon every slight occasion to confirm every inconsiderable truth which it is
thâ— would'st mightily prevail in the hearts of all men thâ— whether they sit in Moses ' s Chair they may be of Moses ' s temper wishing that all the Lord's People wee Prophets Or whether they be Apostolical men they may resemble the great Apostle of the Gentiles who rejoiced and was resolved to rejoice that Christ was preached though the Preachers designed thereby to derogate from his fame and to eclipse it Or whether they be private Christians they may follow Christ who would not forbid them that shew'd Compassion to men and oppos'd the Common Enemy although they follow'd not him Oh how sweetly do these great and holy Persons conspire together with one another in the same pure and publick spirit And oh would to God we all may conspire with them MEDITAT LXXV Of Self-love AFter the Things of the World come to be considered the Persons thereof If any man prefer any person in the World before God the Love of God is not in him The World loveth its own Persons as well as Things The Persons may be divided into Ones Self Ones Reâ—tiâ—ns and other Men. First Of Self-love Self-love is directly contrary to the Love of God and where it is predominant does exclude it I have partly prevented my self in many things that might be reduced to this Head Self is the great Centre of all worldly men insomuch that Sin seems to be nothing else but the sinking down of the Soul from God into Self It is an instance of predominant Self-love to stand viewing and admiring our own particular Being as something distinct from the unbounded Essence of God and independent upon him or to seek its gratification without any reference to the Supreme Being endeavouring ultimately to accommodate it with something that shall no way redound to him To dote upon our own Perfections as if they were the distinct Excellencies of our own Beings and not Communications from God To allow that in our selves which we condemn in others of the same circumstances with our selves To love our Lives in opposition to in competition with in a way of separation from God I have already considered there is yet somewhat higher A man may be guilty of an unchaste love of his own Soul as the Stoicks with their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Self sufficiency proudly magnifying the excellency of their own Souls and their own sufficiency at least in a way of independance upon God if not of opposition to him What mean else those great Brags Sapiens contendet cum ipso Jove de foelicitate A wise man may contend with God himself for Happiness and the strange Eneomiums that they give to their wise man Compar deorum deorum conviva and the like The Stoicks sought the salvation of their own Souls in a corrupt manner Let no one boggle at the phrase of seeking the salvation of their own Souls For the salvation of the Soul is nothing but the happiness and perfection of it This they sought out of God and we if we will excel them must seek it in him They sought it as the perfection of their own Beings as something distinct from God we must seek it as a participation and enjoyment of him Will it seem strange to any to hear it said That men may be selfish in seeking their own Salvation How were the Stoicks Why may not a man be selfish in the undue love of one part of him as well as of another To account Salvation nothing else but preservation from misery and to seek such a Salvation is as compatible to the carnal as to the spiritual man To account Heaven a state of Ease Peace Honour Everlasting Safety and a Paradise of Pleasure and to desire it as such why is not this consistent with a carnal heart But further To account Salvation something positive the perfection and highest accomplishment of our Souls and to seek it as the accomplishment of our own particular Beings as something distinct from God and to set up our selves as Anti-deities what is this better than Stoicism If we take Salvation in the true Gospel-sense for the perfecting of the Soul in God then indeed we cannot seek the Salvation of our Souls more than the Glory of God But in this false Notion of it which I was just now speaking of we may the Stoicks did and many do Take it in a true Gospel-sense and it is impossible to disjoin the Glory of God and our own Salvation The stronger the love of God is the purer is the love of our own Souls The Salvation of the Soul comprehends its being perfected in Humility Self-nothingness as well as other Graces As the glorified Spirits cast down their Crowns before God ascribe all worthiness to him they seek not themselves nay they feel not themselves at all distinct from him It is perfect Nonsense in Religion to desire Heaven as a Self-accommodation Oh thou Almighty Goodness Omnipresent Life Perfect Beauty deliver me from fancying a Self sufficiency doting upon Self-excellencies and settling upon a Self-centre I am straitned at home the more I seek to wring a happiness out of my self the more I pinch and pain my self I see something beyond my self something better than I am something that I had rather be than what I am my Soul stretcheth it self upon thee Oh widen it enlarge it that it may stretch it self more upon thee Oh blessed God the Supreme and sweetest Good wrap up my mind in thy self increase my longings till they be perfected into Loves and those Loves into pure and endless Delights MEDITAT LXXVI Of the Love of Relations TO love any Relations more than God or to prefer them before him is to be a predominant Lover of the World To be pleas'd with Faults or so much as to dispense with them because they are found in our Children or any other Relations is to prefer them before Truth and Justice and consequently the World before God The Priest Eli is said to have prefer'd his Children before God because he did not severely enough correct or punish or restrain them Christ Jesus undervalued all carnal Relations in comparison of the Father his Will and the doing of it Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business He undervalued all things in comparison of his Fathers Image Whosoever doth the Will of my Father the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother And he requires us to do so Whosoever will be my Disciple let him forsake Father and Mother The Apostle Paul valued no man according to the flesh by any outward thing Riches or Poverty Relation or not Relations 2 Cor. 5. 16. When the interest of God stood in competition Levi did not know Father or Brother Deut. 33. 9. And if my Brother or Child do not walk according to the Law his Relation shall be no Relation his Circumcision accounted as Uncircumcision To prefer the Relation of Children to us before their Relation to God to love our own image
way of assistance or advice to prevent Sin or Mischief as Lot to reconcile Differences as Moses is not it I do not think that either Lot in his Nay my Brethren do not so wickedly nor Moses in his Wherefore smitest thou thy Fellow were Pragmatical as it seems they were then interpreted There is such a Fault as Pragmaticalness but a Generous Activity and Publick-Spiritedness which proceeds from an Universal Love is unjustly branded Yea I will say it is base Cowardice in some men of Abilities to hide themselves from Business and from the Necessities of Mankind that is from their own flesh under this pretence That they will not be Busie-bodies It is better to offer ones self ten times where there is no Need than to deny Assistance once where there is Blessed are the Peace-makers said the great Peace-maker And I cannot but account it a base humor to reproach Active men for Busie-bodies It 's true Christ Jesus would not meddle with things not belonging to him but as to the things belonging to him he sought opportunities for Business He went up and down doing good MEDITAT LXXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or of the Love of Worldly Business BUT there is a love of worldly Business which is intemperate and a symptom of a worldly mind And although one should say That they that are guilty of it are the best sort of Sensualists because Business and Action is a better thing less gross more agreeable to the active Nature of the Soul than the dull love of Riches yet this is very small comfort Some dote too much upon their own worldly Business which yet is materially lawful It is an easie thing to over-do to be over-diligent over-industrious over-painful Do not they dote upon Business who are employ'd about it by Day dream of it by Night pursue it with a hurry inseparable from Fear Perplexity and Discontent that will be ready to fall out with God or man if they put any stop to them in their Business Suppose Business to be lawful yet it must also be necessary or highly convenient to justifie mens zeal about it What Necessity is there or Convenience either that Rich men should be still Richer or that one man should have all the Trade of a Town To clog ones self with worldly Business in order to Self enriching and growing up into unnecessary Grandeur or unwieldy Bulk in the World argues a worldly Spirit To busie ones self in order to the molesting and troubling of other men to be Encouragers of Law Troublers of Israel argues a worldly Mind To busie ones self so in worldly matters as to exclude or retrench heavenly Business not to subordinate the former to the latter to love Business for Business-sake without respect to any good to be done thereby argues an intemperate Lover of worldly Business Some concern themselves too much in other mens Business To meddle in things that we know not or in things no way belonging to us is foolish but to meddle in the matters of other men to do them mischief is wicked The Sycophantick Delators so much inveigh'd against by the old Comedians peep'd and pry'd into every Conversation to pick Quarrels and find Faults and yet the Varlets accounted this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he in Aristophenes brags Such a kind of Fellow was Zibah the Servant of Saul Such an one the King of Israel suspected the King of Syria Naaman's Master to be 2 Kings 5. 7. David often complains of this sort of men Doeg the Pick-thank the Emblem of a Sycophantick Courtier and other of Saul's Courtiers that digg'd Pits for him laid Snares for him that said When will he slip iâ— fall that we may surprize him To love to know the Faults of men is not a good temper yea it is painful to a godly mind To look into the Faults of men to bring them to punishment may be a good work it may be done sincerely for the execution of some good Law that is of moment it may possibly be in mercy to the Offender and out of pure kindness as if one should say I love him therefore I will get him punisht But men are not generally of so pure and publick a Spirit They are so revengeful so covetous that makes the Office of Informers hardly thought of and it is accounted a fault to be inquisitive into the faults of other men It is hard to find an Informer out of pure zeal or love to truth but Mercenaries and pick-thanks enough Flatterers are generally busy-bodies For how shall they ingratiate themselves with their great mastâ—â—â— but with the faults of other men But to lay snares for the righteous to watch for their halting to seek occasions against a man in the matter of his God though a Law would favour is wicked and much resembles that great busy-body that goes up and down continually seeking to devour Daniels accusers had a Law to justify them yet I doubt not but they were wicked Informers for all that Curiosity or an intemperate desire to be acquainted with other mens secrets nothing belonging to us argues vanity of mind and a spirit not well conversant at home and may be reduc'd to the disease of â—tching ears There are secrets of Nature of Religion of ones own Soul to be enquir'd into and it â—s is as laudable to enquire into them We need not lust after the secrets of other men Besides it is uneasy to be trusted with them It makes a man a slave if he do not reveal them and a knave if he do Lord Thou art life it self and a pure Act thou art good and dost good continually thou hast endow'd me with an activenature thou hast furnisht me with business enough of mine own and other mens for this world and for the future suffer me not to hide my â—and in my bosom and to look on as an idle specta tor unconcern'd but maugre all temptations from the Flesh the Devil and the World imitate thy active and benificent Nature But O Eternal Wisdom teach me to order my Actions with discretion to lay out my self in Actions pure proper profitable Grant that I may not be impure and unprofitable like a stagnant Pool nor yet troublesome nor offensive like an overflowing Torrent ever flowing but without inundation ever running but so as ever within my own Banks not hiding my Light under a Bushel yet shining within my own sphere MEDITAT LXXXI Of the Fashions of the World THere are some things in the World that are not properly call'd Business which yet to prefer before God denominates a man worldly and these are the Fashions of the World I cannot properly call it Pride Covetousness or Voluptuousness to conform to these and yet it is carnal There are indeed civil and innocent Fashions of the World to which to conform is no Fault nay considering Man as a Member of Society seems expedient Matters of Apparel so far as ones Quality Estate Health and other