THE Spiritual Chymist OR SIX DECADS Of Divine Meditations On several Subjects By William Spurstow D. D. Sometime Minister of the Gospel at Hackney near London My meditation of him shall be sweet Psal 104. 34. LONDON Printed in the Year 1666. The Preface to the Reader Christian Reader THe natural Sun in the Firmament whether we consider the vastness of its Globe or the splendour and dazling of its light or the variety and beneficialness of its motion and operations attended with duration and perpetuity is the top and Prince of all inanimate beings Yet the least insect that the most Artificial Microscope can discern life in is able to weigh against it and in genere entium is more perfect How excellent a being then is the Soul of man that doth not only out-strip the Sun but all other sensitive things even those that have the most lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher calls them which the Oratour translates Virtutum simulacra the faint imitations of Reason Now among the many demonstrations of the excellency of the Humane Soul the operations of it do abundantly witness for it and among them to go no farther the operations of those two supream Faculties the Understanding and Will in apprehending and loving God These are more excellent than the Suns enlightning the world I choose to instance in that because the ornament beauty life of all things depend upon it for to what purpose were these things made were it not that the light of the Sun made them Proximè visibilia Yet this is nothing in compare with the Soul of man in its apprehending and loving God This speaks the Subject endued with a principle not to be transcended but only in degree in perfection You cannot have more persect operations in heaven in kind though you may in degree Angels and Souls made perfect it is true do this more intirely more perfectly more constantly and unweariedly But in knowing God and making choice of him in loving and cleaving to him the souls of holy men do according to the capacity of the present state communicate with them Now these two have a mutual aspect on each other and the happy Conjunction of Knowledge and Devotion speak the Soul Regular and Uniform in its Acts and to be in a good measure of spiritual health When Knowledge doth guide and steer as it were Devotion and Devotion doth in a kind of gratitude warm and enflame our Knowledge which otherwise is apt to chil and grow cold as experience shews in many knowing Creatures in whom the waters of the Sanctuary have put out the fire And as the separation of the love of God from the knowledge of God breeds swarms of hypocrites in the visible Church so the separation of the knowledge of God from affection to God begets a strange kind of wild fire in the Spirits of men and while they have Zeal for God which is nothing but Affection in its full stature got out of its swadling cloaths without Knowledge they are but like a Ship without a Rudder or Ballast that is a prey to every Pirate and if it miss them is carried by its own levity and the winds impetuousness on its own ruine When therefore the blessed Spirit comes to work in the soul he first enlightens the mind and sets open 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gates of light and then the Will ecchoes to the Understanding and certainly that action is most congruous to so excellent a being as the Soul when the Mind takes its aime before the Affections shoot For otherwise though the action doth prove materially good yet it is no more commendation to him that doth it than to him that shuts both his eyes and then contingently hits the mark The apprehensions and affections of Mans Soul being thus regulated and conjoyned do admirably fit and dispose for that we call Meditation I mean Divine and Christian Meditation which is the off-spring of a good heart and a good head How excellent and sweet an employment this is none can know but those that have tasted it and have the skill to spiritualize all objects and providences turning every thing by a Divine Chymistry in succum sanguincm into spirit and nourishment Making the Word and Works and Ordinances of God as so many Rounds to climbe up to a more clear Vision and fervent love of God and then descending make these a clear Mirrour wherein they see themselves and to be like windows to let in that light into the private and dark recesses of the heart that discovers the hidden works of darkness and so provokes the soul to endeavour a more through purgation of it self which it is the more easily exstimulated to being under a deep sence of Gods purity and a serious affection to be like him But this duty of Divine and Spiritual Meditation is a thing that in this degenerate age the generality of Christians are utter strangers to and very hardly brought to the practice of Though there was never any time wherein the thoughts and minds of men were more busie and active and the helps inducements and encouragements more plentiful and cogent and the calls and invitations on Gods part both by his Word and Works more frequent Yet it is a work of inexpressible difficulty to bring these subtil and volatile acts of the mind to a fixation to make any considerable immoration upon those subjects that are in themselves of the greatest worth and to us of the nearest consequence Now considering that man is by God made a providential Creature and doth naturally cast up damages and gain and project the obtaining the one and avoiding the other I have therefore thought it worth the enquiring what should be the reason of their awkness to this beneficial employment and considering that Knowledge and Love are the two things that dispose for it I have thought it might arise from some defect in these and sometimes thus argued Surely this wisdom is too high for fools that men that have incrassated their souls and almost extinguished this Divine Lamp by shooting themselves so deep in sensuality and worldliness that they who have well-nigh forgot their God their own being their happiness should ever be able to mount so high as Meditation But when I considered how stupid or sottish soever these men were by debauchery or pretended to be through want of education yet they were ingeniously wicked and could in their minds lay Schemes of villany and that their phantasies were alwaies minting and forging wicked devices which they could in their second thoughts revise and polish and like a Second Edition make the Model to be Auctior nequior larger and more wicked I then saw no excuse for them that had wit enough to be wicked but none to do good And therefore looking further into the ground of it I found it arose from the second want of love to God which is the stream that sets all the Wheels of the soul
Sun may be as well accused of Darkness because Dim and Purblind Eyes can see little or nothing of the light of it Let them be asked who have Sequestered themselves from the Vanities of the World that they might enjoy God and themselves the better whether they have wanted that satisfaction which they expected or have missed what they have left or have cause to complain of what they endure And they will tell such Questionists that they have not left their Delights but exchanged them that Religion is Joyful though not Dissolute that it hath its Songs though not its Frolicks that a good Conscience can Feast it alwayes though it cannot Revell it that Gods Service is Free though not Lawless that they can do what is Decent Expedient or Lawfull though not what is Sinfull How vain then are the Cavils with which Worldlings like malicious Elimasses pervert the strait wayes of God And how causeless are the Scornes which they poure forth upon those that walk in them will they not at length like the Drivel of those that spit against the Wind return upon their own Faces or like Arrowes shot up against the Sun fall upon those that undertake such vain attempts Lord though many will not believe what others have seen and testifie yet let not me ever disavow what thou hast been pleased to let me see and know But let me alwayes confidently say with David I have seen an end of all Perfection but thy Commandements are exceeding broad Meditation XII Upon strength and length in Prayer VVHen Cicero was asked which of Demosthenes his Orations he thought best he wittily replyed the longest But if the question should be which of Prayers are the best the answer then must not be the longest but the strongest not the Prayer that exceeds in quantity but that which excells in quallity In Morall actions the Manner of working is a Swaying Circumstance a Man may sin in doing good but not in doing well how few then are there which manage this duty of holy Prayer aright Some mistake the Language of Prayer and think it consists of nothing else then the cloathing of their meaning in apt expressions with a tuneable delivery of it Others presume that if necessity have put an edge upon their Requests and stirred up some passions of Self-love that they cannot fail of acceptance Others again put much in the length of their Prayers measuring them by the time which is spent rather then by the intention which is exercised in them But alass how wide are all such apprehensions from the truth and how fruitless will such duties be to those that are no otherwise busied in them The Prayer which is as delightful Musick in Gods Eares is not that which hath the quaint Note of the Nightingale but that which hath the mournful Tones of the Dove Broken sighs and groans are the best Eioquence with God and become Prayer as unexpected stops and rests made by Musicians do grace the Musick with a kind of Harmonical Aposiopesis or Elipsis it is not the Prayer that Indigency and natural desires do sharpen but which the Spirit doth enliven that is prevalent with God The one is as the cry of the young Ravens and the other is as the voice of Children that are taught to cry Abba Father It is not the many words of a proud Pharisee that obtain the blessing but the pit by and short Confession of a penitent Publican who is sent away justified Ah Father may sometimes be more effectual with God who searcheth the hearts and knoweth the mind of the Spirit than a prayer that is stretched forth like an Evening shadow to a wonderful length The one though it be short may like a small figure in a Number stand for much and the other though great like a volume of Cyphers may signifie nothing Let therefore such who are frequent in the duty of prayer especially young Converts who are apt to think above what is meet of their own enlargements endeavour to turn their length into strength and to remember that there is a wide difference between the gift and grace of prayer and that it is one thing to have Commerce with God in duties and another to have Communion with him The one is such which strangers may have in their mutual traffick but the other is proper to friends who are knit together in love Meditation XIII Vpon the Morning Dew THe Meditation of this Subject is no less facile than delightful like Jacobs Venison it is soon come by because God hath brought it to my hand having often in his Word resembled the Dew which makes the earth fruitful to his Grace that makes the hearts of men naturally barren to bring forth fruits of righteousness so that it is no difficult task for to draw an useful parallel between the one and the other in sundry respects The Dew is of an heavenly original the nativity thereof is from the womb of the Morning it â—arrieth not for man nor waiteth for the Sons of men And is it not thus in the grace of Conversion Is not that wholly from above without any Preparations Congruities Concurrencies that do or can arise from the flesh We are made active by grace but we are not at all Agents in fitting our selves for Grace As no man can be antecedently active to his first birth so neither can he be to his second birth Of Gods own Will we are begotten by the Word of Truth The Dew also in its descent and fall is silent and imperceptible it flies every sense of which it may seem to be a proper object It is so subtle as that the sharpest eye cannot see it so silent as that the quickest ear cannot hear it and so thin as that the naked hand cannot feel it When it is come it is visible but how it comes who can tell After such a secret manner oft times are the illapses of the Spirit and the operations of his grace upon the heart his Teachings his Tractions his Callings are all efficacious to draw to perswade yet the way is hidden and the soul ere ever it is aware is made like the Chariots of Aminadab The Dew again as Naturalists observe is most abounding in calm and serene seasons when the Heavens are least disturbed with winds and storms Ros est humidum quid è serenitate concretum minutatim labens it is a moysture drawn up by the Sun in the day and then falling by small innumerable drops in the night And is it not thus in the grace of God Are not those hearts refreshed most with it that are least disquieted with Earthly Cares and tossed too and fro with Anxieties Are not such like Gideons Fleece plentifully wet with the Evidences of Gods love when others like the ground about it are wholly dry Lastly The Dew is of a growing and reviving nature which brings a life and verdure to Fields Vineyards Gardens Flowers which the cold would chill or the
heat would scorch Therefore when God promised to Israel the beauty of the Lilly the stability of the Cedâ—r the fruitfulness of the Olive to effect all this he saith he will be as the dew And what ground can but bring forth when he who is the Father of the Rain and begetteth the drops of the dew shall himself descend upon it in bounty and goodness Who can but love him with a love of duty whom he shall thus tender with a love of mercy Who can but love him with a love of Concupiscence as being more desirous of new Influences than satisfied with former Receipts whom he so freely loves with a love of Beneficence O Lord my Soul thirsteth for thee as the gaping and chapped earth doth for the moysture of the Heavens I am nothing I can do nothing without thee my fruitfulness my growth my life depend wholly upon the droppings of thy grace when they dew lieth all night upon my Branch my glory is fresh in me and my whole man is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Be not therefore unto me O my God as a Cloud without Rain left I be as a Tree without fruit But let thy grace alwaies distill upon me as the dew and as the small rain upon the tender herb and then shall I be as the ground which drinketh in the showers that come oft upon it and bringeth forth fruit meet for him by whom it is dressed and receive also new blessing from God Meditation XIV Vpon a Pearl in the Eye VVHat specious names have Physicians put upon diseases who call a Plague Sore a Carbuncle and the white film which taketh away the delightful sight a Pearl in the Eye Do they gild over Diseases as they do their Pills or a Bolus that so their Patients may less fear and feel the evil of the one as they less taste the bitterness of the other And are any by such slender Artifices brought into an opinion that a Carbuncle is less mortal or loathsome than any other swelling that hath not so gay a name Or that blindness which is caused by a Pearl in the Eye is more comfortable than the loss of sight that comes by other accidents Methinks Reason should not run at so low an ebb in any as to please themselves in such fancies may not a Poyson have a name that sounds better to the ear a colour more pleasing to the eye and a taste that is more grateful to the Pallate than the Antidote which expels it May not Alchimy glister when Gold looks pale And yet alas in spiritual maladies in which the danger is so much the greater by how much the soul is of more value than the body with what strange delusions are many transported who when their minds are poysoned with Errour and Blasphemy do then put upon their corrupt Opinions and Tenents the glorious names of Revelations Visions Raptures refined notions and what not that may confirm themselves in their own dotages and win others into an admiration of their persons Thus Montanus gave out himself to be the Comforter that Christ had promised to send forth into the World Arius proudly boasted that God had revealed something to him which he hid from his Apostles And Eunomius fondly imagined that he was taken up to Heaven as Elias was and had seen Gods face as had Moses and was wrapt up to the third heaven as was Paul But what other thing are these Follies or rather Phrensys than as if an Israel te infected with the botch of Egypt and overspread with it from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head should boast that he had robbed the Egyptians of their most precious Jewels and had decked himself with them Would not men pitty his distemper rather than believe his confidence Would not they offer medicines to heal him rather than suffer him to perish under his miserable delusion of possessing great riches How is it then that in matters of faith in which there is both clear evidence and certainty Hereticks that are no other than ulcerous persons fitter for Dogs to lick than Christians to love should throughout all Ages so easily gain to themselves such a great multitude of Proselytes only by putting fair Names upon foul Errours It is because men for their lusts sake will not see but willingly corrupt themselves in those things which they know or is it because God hath smitten them with a spirit of blindness that they shall not see for their not receiving of the truth in the love of it Surely whatever the cause be such is the infatuation as that I had need both to tremble and to pray To tremble at the sad woe which is denounced by God himself against those that call evil good and good evill That put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter And to pray as David did Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy name Meditation XV. Vpon Spiritual and bodily sickness THe soul hath its maladies as well as the body and such that for their likeness to them do often borrow their names from them Pride is a Timpany Avarice a Dropsie Security a Lithargy Lust a Calenture Apostacy an Epilepsie And yet though these names of bodily diseases do happily serve to point and shadow out the nature of spiritual how wide is the difference between the Patients of the one and of the other in regard of those qualities which may dispose them for a cure and recovery out of them In the diseases of the body it matters not whether the Patient know the name of his disease or understand the vertue of the medicines which are prescribed or be able to judge of the increase height and declination of his distempers by the beatings of his pulse the whole business is managed by the care and wisdom of the Physician who oft times conceals the danger on purpose least fear and fancy should work more than his Physick and hinder the benefit of what he applies But in the maladies of the soul it is far otherwise the first step unto spiritual health is a distinct and clear insight of sin such which makes men to understand the Plague of their own hearts Christ heals by light as well as by Influence he first Convinceth them of sin and then gives the pardon he discovers the disease to them and then administers the medicine Ignorance is a bar to the welfare of the soul though not of the body and makes the divine remedies to have as little effect upon it as Purges or Cordials have upon the Glasses into which they are put It is Solomons peremptory Conclusion that a soul without knowledge is not good nor indeed can be because it wants a principle which is as necessary to goodness as a visive power to the eye to enable it to discern its object How can he ever value holiness who understands not what sin is Or
its own concernments If there were but a clear insight into that Blessedness into which Peace of Conscience doth Estate a Believer it could not be but that it being laid in the Ballance with the health of the Body it should as far over-weigh it as a full Bucket a single drop or as the Vintage of Wine a particular Cluster True it is that health of Body is the Salt of all outward blessings which without it have no relish or savour neither Riches nor Honours nor Delights for the Belly or Back can yield the least Pleasure where this is wanting So that the enjoyment of it alone may well be set against many other Wants And better it is to enjoy health without other additional-comforts then to possess them under a load of Infirmities And yet I may still say Quid Palea ad Triticum What is the Chaff to the Wheat Though it be the greatest outward good that God bestowes in this Life it is nothing to that Peace which passeth all understanding Sickness destroyes it Age enfeebles it and Extremities imbitter it But it is the Excellency of this divine Peace that it worketh joy in Tribulation that it supports in Bodily languishments and creates confidence in death Who is it that can throw forth the Gauntler and bid defiance to Armies of Trialls to persecution distress famine nakedness peril and sword But he whose heart is established with this Peace the ground of which is Gods free love the Price of which is Christs satisfaction the Worker of which is the Holy Spirit and the Subject of which is a Good Conscience This was it that filled old Simeons heart with joy and made him to beg a Dimission of his Saviour whom his eyes had seen his armes embraced and his Soul trusted in What a strange thing is it then that there should be so few Marchant-men that seek this goodly Pearl which is far above all the Treasures of the Earth that are either hid in it or extracted from it Many say Who will shew us any good but it is David onely that Prayes Lord lift up the light of thy Countenance upon us Others like the scattered Israelites in Egypt go up and down gathering of Straw and Stubble when he like an Israelite indeed in the Wilderness of this World seeks Manna which his Spirit gathers up and feeds upon with delight and then cries out Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased It is the love of God shed abroad in the heart that doubleth the sweetness of prosperity and sweetens also the bitterness of asfliction A wonder onely therefore it is not that few should seek but a much greater that any in this World should live without it Can any live well without the Kings Favour either in his Court or Kingdom And yet there are many places wherein such Persons may lie hid in his Dominions when the utmost ends of the Earth cannot secure them against Gods frownes But if any be so profligate as Cleopatria-like to dissolve this Jewel of Peace in his Lusts and to drink down in one prodigious draught that which exceeds the World in its price and yet think they can live well enough without it let them consider how they will do to die without it Sweet it is in life but it will be more sweet in death â—t is not then the Sun-shine of Creatures but Saviourshine that will refresh them It is not then Wine that can cheere the heart but the Blood of Sprinkling that will pacifie it The more Perpendicular Death comes to be over our head the lesser will the shadow of all Earthly comforts grow and prove useless either to asswage the paines of it or to mitigate the feares of it What is a fragrant posie put into the hands of a Malefactor who is in sight of the Place of Execution and his Friends bidding him to smell on it or what is the delivering to him a Sealed Conveyance that Intitles him to great Revenues who hath a few minutes onely to live But O what excess of joy doth fill and overflow such a poor Mans heart when a Pardon from his Prince comes happily in to prevent the Stroak of death and to assure him both of Life and Estate This is indeed as health and marrow to the bones And is it not thus with a dying Sinner who expects in a few moments to be swallowed up in those flames of wrath the heat of which already scorch his Conscience and cause Agonies and Terrors which imbitter all the comforts of life and extract cries from him that are like the yellings of the damned I am undone without hope of recovery Eternity it self will as soon end as my misery God will for ever hold me as his enemy and with his own breath will enliven those Coles that must be heaped upon me Of what value now would one smile of Gods Face be to such a person how joyfull would the softest whisper of the Spirit be that speakes any hope of Pardon or Peace would not one drop of this Soveraign Balm of Gods favour let fall upon the Conscience heal and ease more then a River of all other delights whatsoever Think therefore upon it O Christians so as not any longer through your own default to be without the sense of this Blessing in your hearts that so in life as well as in death you may be filled with this Peace of God which passeth all understanding If Prayer will obâ—ain it beg every day a good look from him the light of whose Countenance is the onely health of yours If an holy and humble Walking will preserve it be more carefull of doing any thing to lose your Peace then to endanger your health remember that Peace is so much better than health as the Soul is better then the Body But Grant Holy Father however others may neglect or defer to seek Peace with thee and from thee yet I may now find thy Peace in me by thy Pardoning all my iniquities and may be found of thee in Peace without Spot and blameless in the great day Meditation LV. Vpon a Looking-Glass VVHat is that which commendeth this Glass is it the Pearl and other precious stones with which the Frame that it is set in is richly decked and enammelled or is it the impartial and just representation which it makes according to the Face which every one that beholds himself brings unto it Surely the Ornaments are wholly forraign and contribute no more to its real worth then the Cask doth to the goodness of the Wine into which it is put or the â—ichness of the Plate to the Cordial in which it is administred That for which the Glass is to be esteemed is the true and genuine resemblance which it makes of the object which is seen in it when it neither flatters the Face by giving any false Beauty to it nor yet injures it by detracting ought from it To
divine Excellencies Do they not take the Wings of the Morning and fly to the utmost end of the Earth in their musings and thoughts to find out riches that will not profit in the day of wrath when their Essaies to Heaven are as weak as the Grashoppers who give only a small slirt upwards and then falls down to the Earth again O that I could with plenty of tears bemoan that monstrous Ataxie and perverseness which sin hath wrought in the most noble parts of man Was not that agility of mind given unto him by God that he might have his Conversation in Heaven though his abode was on Earth And that he might enter into the holy of holies not like the High Priest once in a year but in every prayer and duty like a winged Angel behold the face of God and look into those things that are within the Veil But now alas he can only like that lapsed Angel compass the earth to and fro in his thoughts and descend as low as hell in his lusts but cannot raise himself above the world to the performance of the least good I feel O my God continually the sad change which sin hath made in me not so much destroying my Faculties as perverting them I have not lost the use of them but the rectitude of them I am no more weary of sinning than a swift stream of running the same weight of sin that hinders me from running the race which is set before me hurries me to evil and makes me through the impulsions of Satan to gather strength by an accessory impression In the births of sin I am like the Hebrew women lively and quick of delivery but in the bringing forth of whatever is good like a slow Egyptian that needs the aide of a Midwife l therefore beg of thee holy Lord to heal my distempers by thy grace and to renew me in the spirit of my mind that I may run the way of thy Commandments when thou hast enlarged my heart Meditation XXXVII Vpon a Sun-Dyal and a Clock THese two Artificial measures of time give one and the same account of its motions but in a very differing if not contrary manner The Clock doth it by a motion of its own but the Sun-Dyall while it self is fixed by an extrinsick motion of the Sun upon those Lines drawn upon it effects the same thing And this occasioned me to think in what a differing way the same services and duties of Religion are done by those that profess it Some like Clocks have a Spring of motions in themselves and the weight that quickens and actuates it is love They pray confer exercise holiness in their Conversation in a progressive manner Salvation being nearer to them than when they first believed Others again are like Sun-Dyals that are as useless posts in a gloomy day and are destitute of all principles of motion The Sun moveth upon them but they stand still The Spirit comes upon them as it did on Saul but themselves are not in the least moved by those duties that others may think they profit by There is a light and shine which passeth upon their gifts and abilities that may render them useful as well as visible unto others but it effecteth no alteration in their hearts to the bettering of themselves What divine Visions and Prophesies did Balaam both see and utter concerning Israel And how remarkable is the Preface which he sets before them The man whose eyes are open hath said yet his heart is fixed to his lust of Covetousness and he is so far from taking the least step towards their Tents which with admiration he beholds to be goodly as that he gives Balack counsel how to destroy them Let not then any rest in a bare illumination or transient work of the Spirit upon them as if that such things would be sufficient evidences of the goodness of their conâ—ition Light may make a good head but it is heat and motion that must make a good heart without which all profession of Religion is but an unsavoury Carkass Be wise therefore O Christians and build not the foundation of your eternal happiness upon such uncertain principles May not the Spirit assist where it never inhabits May it not move upon him whom it never quickens Were not many workers of iniquity who were workers of miracles Were not many famous for their Prophesies who were infamous for their Profaneness Are not such things made by Christ the plea of many in the last day for their admittance into heaven whom he will not know Why then should any be so foolish to make that a Plea to the Judge which he knows beforehand will be rejected The best way to discern our condition is not to argue the goodness of it from the light which the Spirit darts in upon us but by the motions which it produceth in us As many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God in a constant way of progression from grace to grace from vertue to vertue Such light as it is sudden in its Eruptions so it is also in its Interruptions the one oft times are as speedy and momentary as the other Look therefore to the attractions of the Spirit by which you are moved drawn to walk in holy waies rather than to such motions of the Spirit which pass only upon you but do not beget any motion or stirring in you Meditation XXXVIII Vpon the payment of a Pepper-corn LOgicians have a Maxime that Relationes sunt minimae entitatis maximae efficaciae Relations are of the smallest Entity and of the greatest efficacy The truth of which may appear in the payment of a single Pepper-corn that Freeholders pay to their Landlord they do it not with any hope or intent to enrich him but to acknowledge that they hold all from him To effect the one it is of too mean a value yet it preserves the Lords right as fully as a greater Rent and aggravates the Tenants folly to withhold more than if the demands had been higher To such an one may be justly said what Naamans Servant spake unto him If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee wash and be clean If the condition which meer bounty happily hath made so easie had been by the same hand and power restrained to a more costly and â—mple homage ought it not to have been performed How much more when nothing is required but what may witness a dependency and not burden it How inexcusable then must the ingratiâ—ude of those men be who receiving all their blessings from God withhold that Pepper-corn of praise and honour from him which is the only thing that they can pay or that he expects To câ—st the least Mite into his Treasury which may adde to its riches is beyond the Line of men or Angels for if it could admit an increase the abundance of it
of any necessity of death As God made us living Creatures so his power was able to sustain us immortal creatures we had bodily life by our soul in our body and spiritual life by Gods Image in both but sin brought on us death of all sorts Death spiritual in the loss of Gods Image death bodily in the begun corruption of our body and death eternal in the endless ruine of both And whom would not this single thought afflict with dread and sorrow to see what a change sin hath made in the condition of man If Adam would have lived without sin he might have lived without end But now by his credulous receiving the Serpents Poyson Death is glued to our nature necessity of evil to the freedom of our will and all misery to our selves Another dark and posing thought did arise from the progress of death which keeps no order or method It thrusts its sickle not only into the ripe corn but the green blade it nips the blossom as well as gathers the fruit it dissolves the knot that was but new made between the soul and the body as well as that which age and years had conâ—â—rmed There were I observed skulls of all Sizes There were some who had never seen the Sun to pass from one Tropick to the other Others there were whose life could not be reckoned by daies or hours but by minutes they dropt only from the Womb to the Grave And is not this amongst the secrets of God that thousands should thus pass through the world and be determined to different Estates for Eternity What can I say But that the waies of God are unsearchable and his Judgements past finding out As it now shews his Soveraignty thus to deal with his Creatures as it pleaseth him so the Great Day will manifest the Wisdom and Justice of God that is wrapt up in these mysterious providences He that is the Judge of all will be found to be righteous towards all A third sad thought The consuming power of the grave did stir up within me so that I was ready to say Can these dry bones live Can these mingled dusts be distinguished Can the dusts that are scattered into distances be ever united Doth not the Noble and the Base the Saint and the Sinner lye equally under the power of corruption Who then would not dread to descend into the Grave and make Hemans question Will God shew wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise him But when I consider that Believers in their ascending into heaven do only let fall their bodies to the earth as Elijah dropt his Mantle when he was taken up and that their Spirits return to God that gave them That Death striketh not on the New man but on the Tabernacle which is a common Lodging both to Flesh and Spirit my fears are greatly Alleviated for who is much solicitous for the Cabinet when the Jewel is safe Yea when I think that death which separates our persons from the world our soul from the body and every part of our body from another cannot dissolve our Union with Christ but that then we sleep in him and shall be raised by him and conformed to him as the pattern of our glory O how do these most radiant thoughts dispell both the black fears of death and the lightsome comforts of the world as the rising Sun makes the bright stars of heaven to vanish as well as the dark shades of the night How little then doth the love of this life or the difficulties of death abate the desires of a Believer to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Who can wonder at old Simeons importunity to depart in peace when his eyes had seen the Salvation of God and his arms embraced it Who would not be of the same mind that hath once tasted of the Clusters of the heavenly Canaan to long after the full Vintage How pathetical is that of Austin upon Gods answer to Moses Thou canst not see my face for no man can see me and live Who replies with great confidence Lord is that all that I cannot see thy face and live Eja Domine moriar ut te videam videam ut hic moriar nolo vivere volo mori dissolvi cupic essecum Christo I pray thee Lord then let me dye that I may see thy face Or let me see thee that I may dye in this place I would not live I would dye I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus also have other Saints been affected who have had death in desire and life in patience O what a strange change then hath Christ made in death and the grave and his grace in the heart and affections of Believers Death which sin brought into the world is now become the only means to destroy and kill sin Death which is only contrary unto life is now turned into a Port and passage into life So that when we pass out of this life we lose neither life nor being but are admitted to a more glorious life and being than ever we had Death that before was an armed Enemy is now made a reconciled and firm friend a Physician to cure all our diseases and an Harbinger to make way for glory The Grave also by Christs lying in it is become a bed of rest in which his Saints fetch a short slumber untill he awaken them to a glorious Resurrection It is the Chamber into which he invites his beloved ones to hide themselves untill his indignation be past the Arke into which he shuts his Noahs whilest he destroyes the world with an overflowing deluge of his wrath and displeasure And therefore it is that by his grace they are not afraid to meet Death which others would shun and make it as a voluntary offering unto God which others pay only as a necessary debt Yea they esteem it as one of the choicest Jewels in that exact Inventory that Paul hath made of the riches of Believers and next unto Jesus Christ bless God for it as the greatest mercy O holy Saviour do thou then who art the Lord both of the dead and of the living unto whom all ought to live and all ought to dye enable me thy servant to love thee above life which of all blessings is the sweetest and to hate sin above death which of all evils is the bitterest to nature that so I may have this testimony of the power of thy grace in the change of my heart that for the enjoyment of perfect Communion with thee I can gladly lose my life and be separated from sin can willingly undergo death which is of all evidences the Clearest Meditation XLIX Vpon a Spring in an high ground THe additional blessing which Achsah sought of Caleb her Father was Springs of water for her south or dry land who gave her the upper and the nether Springs If the distinct recording of this particular in Scripture carry any thing of
upwards to the heavens which will after all climbing to them seem to be still at the like distance as they were at first Suppose that a man after hard labour and toyl in reaching the top of some high and steep Cliff should conclude that he had wearied himself to no purpose in the gaining of a delightful prospect because the Sun appears to be at the same distance and also of equal bigness as when he was at the bottom of it or that the Stars seem still to be but as so many twiâ—ckling watch lights without the least encrease of their dimensions or variation of their figure Might he not be easily refuted by bidding him to look down to those Plains from whence he had ascended and behold into what narrow scantlings and proportions those stately buildings and Towers were shrunk and contracted whose greatness as well as beauty he erewhile so much admired And may I not with the like facility answer and resolve the discouraged Christian who calls in question the truth of his heavenly progress because all those glorious objects which his Faith eyes and his soul desires to draw nigh unto seem still to be as remote from him as at his first setting out by wishing him to consider whether he cannot say that though heavenly objects do not encrease in their magnitude or lustre by the approach that he makes to them that yet all earthly objects do sensibly lose theirs by the distance that he is gone from them And if he can but so do surely he hath no cause of despairing to obtain heaven who hath travelled so far on the way as to lose well near the sight of Earth If once his faith hath raised him to that height as to make the glory of the world to disappear and to be as a thing of nought it will quickly land him in heaven where his fears of miscarrying as well as his lassâ—ude in working will be swallowed up in an everlasting rest And he that did once believe more than he saw shall for ever see far more than ever he could have believed Lord therefore do thou who givest power to the faint and to them that have no might encrease strength to me who wait upon thee renew my strength that I may mount up with wings as an Eagle and may run and not be weary and walk and not faint untill I come to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills and behold thy face in glory Meditation LVII Vpon the Bible QUintilian who makes it a question why unlearned â—en in discourse seem ofâ— times more free and copious than the Learned gives this as the answer That the one without either care or choice express whatsoever their present thoughts suggest to them Cum doctis sit electio modus When the other are both careful what to say and to dispose also their Conceptions in due manner and order If any thing make this Subject difficult to my Meditation it is not want but plenty which is so great as that I must like Bezaleel and Aholiab be forced to lay aside much of that costly stuff which presents it self to me And what to refuse or what to take in is no easie matter to resolve It will I am sensible require and deserve also more exactness in chusing what to say and what not to say concerning its worth and excellency and how to digest what is spoken than what is meet for any to assume unto himself I shall therefore account that I have attained my end if I can but so imploy my thoughts as to encrease my veneration to this Book of God which none can ever too much study or too highly prize and with which to be well acquainted is not only the chief of duties but the best of delights and pleasures What would be our condition in this world if we had not this blessed Book among us would it not be like Adams when driven out of Paradise and debarred from the Tree of Life Would it not be darker than the Earth without the Sun If the world were fuller of Books than the heaven is of Stars and this only wanâ—ing there would be no certain way and rule to Salvation But if this alone were extant it would enlighten the eyes make wise the simple and guide their feet in the paths of life True it is that for many years God made known himself by Visions Dreams Oracles to persons of noted holiness that they might teach and instruct others But it was while the Church of God was of small growth and extent and the persons to whom Gods Messâ—ges were Concredited of unquestioned Authority with the present Age. But afterward the Lord spake to his Church both by Word and Writing the one useful for further revealing Divine Truths and the other for the recording of them that when the Canon was once compleated all might appeal unto it and none take the liberty of coyning Divine Oracles to himself or of obtruding his fancies upon others And were there no other use of this Book of God than this that it should be the Standard for the trial of all Doctrines it were to be highly prized for its worth without which the minds of men would be in a continual distraction through the multitude of Enthusiasts that would be pretending Commissions from heaven none knowing what to believe in point of Faith or what to do in point of Obedience or whereby to difference the good and evil Spirit from each other But this single benefit though it can never enough be thankfully acknowledged to God by us is but as a Cluster to the Vintage or as an Ear of Corn to the Harvest in respect of those many blessings that may be reaped from it Doth not Paul ascribe unto it an universal influence into the Welfare of Believers when he ennumerates so many noble Ends for which all Scripture is profitable What is it that makes any man wise to Salvation Is it not the Scripture What is it that instructs any in Righteousness and makes him perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works Is it not the Scripture Is not this the only Bock by which we come to understand the heart of God to us and learn also the knowledge of our own hearts Both which as they are the breasts of mysteries so they are of all knowledge the best and fill the soul with more satisfaction than the most exact discovery of all created Beings whatsoever What if a man could like Solomon speak of Trees from the Cedar that is in Lebanon to the Hysop that groweth upon the Wall and of Beasts Fowls and Fishes and yet were wholly ignorant of his own heart would not the light that is in him be darkness Or what if a man could resolve all those posing questions in which the Schoolmen have busied themselves concerning Angels and yet know nothing of the God of Angels would he not become as a sounding Brass and a tinckling Symbal Is the knowledge of