this dulnesse is to converse with God and to keep our hearts in ure with him by calling to mind every day his benefits generall particular corporall spirituall what he hath done for thy Soule already what he will doe farther then to examine thy selfe how thou hast beene answerable that day for such kindnesse and love unto thee then to fall to prayer asking pardon for thy sinnes with a faithfull and penitent heart and entring into a new league betweene God and thy Soule to forsake sinne more earnestly and to serve God more carefully then in times past Meditation 14. Of Joy IT is good to rejoyce ever and never to rejoyce I meane carnally wee must not set up Joy as an Idol in our hearts as though there were no higher matter if a man ask us why wee are merry wee can say nothing but because wee love to be merry yet ought wee to preferre God to our Joy and the glory of God the good of our Neighbour and the health of our Soules wee must so rejoyce in temporall things that wee barre not our selves from heavenly comforts wee must be so familiar with outward things that wee grow nothing the more strange with God if otherwise wee sell our birth-right for Esaus Broth Canaan for the flesh-pots of Egypt and as it is commonly said Wee goe out of Gods blessing into a warme Sunne Take heed then to thy selfe it is lawfull for thee to use the blessings of God for thy necessity I say more for thy comfort and recreation so farre forth as doth concerne thy person yea thy state and calling but if thou use them for thy recreation only and have no farther or better end thou wilt quickly fall to the abuse respecting rather what thy appetite doth crave then God allowes God allowes no such use of his creatures as makes thee the lesse able or willing to serve him wherefore a restraint at least in affectation touching these things is better then by loosing too much the reins to our unruly flesh to suffer it to take the bridle and runne away let the feare of God be the steward of our expences and it shall make a good account for us if it cause us to passe by many worldly delights yet wil yield unto our consciences the sounder comfort for God doth bring unto him the joyes of the Holy Ghost which willingly forsakes outward pleasures the later end of such joyes is woe but of this it is said No man shall take it from you Wilt thou rejoyce ever me thought I heard thee say so bee sad ever to the world if thou smile with it let it bee from the teeth outward ingage not thy heart A strange Paradox that a man should bee sorry to make himselfe merry and these as strange wee must stand in feare to make our selves bold wee must bee fooles to bee made wise wee must die that wee may live Meditation 15. Humane reason IS not this our common answer Have I not reason to do as I doe yet are wee not to live by reason but by faith wheras we should rather say Doth not Gods word warrant mee to do as I do If Religion were but the improvement of Reason how would men entertaine it as their owne wheras now they suspect it as a stranger Many have thought that the Articles of Religion might winne credit from principles evident to the light of nature and that Philosophy hath laid as good grounds as Divinity Surely Humane learning can convince us well enough of many things wee doe but cannot bring us forward In that wee ought to doe for salvation it was a power in nature created to obey and beleeve if it would but now in nature decaied it is a want and it is not in mans will to beleeve and obey the truth and the misery is that it knoweth not how to find what it hath lost nor so much as that it hath lost any thing without a borrowed light the word of God is the powerfull meanes whereby the Holy Ghost which worketh inwardly in our hearts doth impart this light unto us our Reason is naturall Faith supernaturall Reason is the begining of Knowledge but Faith of Religion The Papists will say they have more Reason for their Religion then we for Free will Satisfaction Merits Purgatory Prayers Latine Service Images Pilgrimages Hierarchy stand all upon good grounds of Reason Let us give them what they aske wee may the more boldly challenge truth without which there is no Religion and to protest freely what wee maintaine and wherein wee desire by Gods grace to die wee follow not Reason in making choice of Religion but Gods word searching to understand the harder places and easy keeping our selves within the proportion of Faith refusing not the helpe of Humane learning for the phrase or story neither the testimony of better times by this word wee learne that man hath no good will nor hath his will power to returne to God untill grace make the will willing which of it self is unwilling and then but not till then doth it work with grace What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By the word of God wee learne that there is no satisfaction for sins besides the death of Christ no merit to eternall life but his righteousnesse that sinnes are all mortall by nature though not equall that mans righteousnesse though done in grace is unperfect What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By the word of God wee learne that bread in the Sacrament is not turned into the very body of Christ nor wine into his bloud yet that it is his very body and bloud to the faithfull communicant who is made partaker of whole Christ not by a grosse and fleshly incorporation but a ghostly and effectuall union What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By Gods word wee learne that worshipping of Images amongst Christians is but a setting up of Idols as amongst the Heathen that Prayers in a strange tongue for the dead are neither devotion nor charity What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By Gods word wee learne that Religion consisteth not in Popish shrift Penance difference of Meats Apparell Fasting Pilgrimage Reliques Crossing Holy-oile Holy-water Holy-bread Holybeades Holy-bells What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary to the decay of Christian obedience which consisteth in an inward mortisication and outwardly in a patient bearing of Christs crosse By the word of God wee learne that Christ is the only head of the Church and doth still governe the same by his spirit and word from which Gods Ministers or Priests fetch all their authority and hath not given over his place to another which should take authority above the word What if Reason deny this and teach the contrary By the word wee learne that the Scriptures have sufficient instruction to salvation What if Reason deny it and put us farther over to traditions revelations miracles to enforce doctrines contrary to the
offended at the blemishes and wants of those Churches wherein they did live and have gone so farre in this humour as not to hold these assemblies for Churches though otherwise having the word soundly preached and Sacraments rightly administred wherein they saw so many hypocrites and loose livers and in the end have made a Separation from their Churches and sought unto themselves new conventicles as they thought pure and holy wherein as they did great wrong unto Christian charity and unity which was not in this cause to be broken so found they not that which they sought for and surely it cannot be that in this world there should be any visible Church so pure as they dreame of it that there should be in it Wheat without Tares Sheep without Goates for it is compared to a draw Net which gathereth Fishes of all kindes and it is a society wherein are men of all sorts and no doubt it is the providence of God which ordereth all things wisely that the good and bad should not live asunder parted with great Seas and Mountaines but mingled one with the other in this life which maketh much for the bettering of the good in the exercise of vertue and for the staying of the wicked from all kind of vice if all the good should live together how should their patience charity integrity of life constancy in the truth be exercised or appeare to the glory of God if the wicked should live all together what meanes might there be to reclaime them but as they be now bad so they would dayly grow worse one encouraging another and having none amongst them whose good examples might reprove them And therefore the good are to the bad like a piece of leaven the leaven is the least part yet it hath a powerfull force to turne the whole lump into his owne quality so are the good very few in respect of the bad yet conversing amongst them dayly they draw the world by little and little to their disposition and make a great alteration in their manners For such is the power of vertue above vice that though vice cannot root out vertue out of a mind well setled nor doe any hurt at all save unto it selfe yet vertue is of ability to drive vice out of that mind which hath beene long accustomed thereunto and doth good not only to it selfe but to many others which walk as it were but in the shew thereof Bee men bad the more need is there that good men should live among them None have so much need of the Physitian as those that are sick it is reserved for the Angels in the last day to make a separation betwixt the Sheep and Goates and not for men who were redeemed from sinne and Hell by Christ uncharitably to forsake their weak brethren But perchance this Separation is because those which should execute good lawes are corrupted or that certaine ceremonies are retained in the Church which at other times have beene abused unto superstitious uses or in that where the doctrine is condemned as repugnant to the truth certaine rites of indifferency tolerated by authority are not therewithall abolished But what partiality were this to hate the good conditions in any man for the rest of his bad qualities and what disorder would this be in religion to teach obedience unto Princes and to reserve a liberty to our selves of infringing his equall lawes what breach of charity is this to offend the conscience of a weak brother in denying habits and ceremonies Suppose they be used by Idolaters yet was Asa and other Kings of Israel commended for pious neither did the Prophets forsake their Countrey or charges although the high places were not taken away with the abuses Oh my soule disdaine not the Church for her spots neither be so offended at the bad as to forsake the fellowship of the good looke well into thy selfe and thou shalt find more amisse there then thou art aware of at first wherefore beginne to amend thy owne faults as one of the worst and after be as leaven to season other for such as think otherwise pity their weaknesse and pray for their amendment Meditation 34. Resolved constancy VVEe may observe two men borne in one Towne brought up under one and the same master keeping like company using the same diet aire and exercise to whom all things are as like as may be yet one of these two giving place to his owne appetite following his owne passions led away by vice and a loose kind of life to wax worse and worse the other obeying reason and framing himselfe earnestly after the goodnesse of his education to prove better and better whence is this difference If from outward causes as Gods providence the starres evill spirits or our owne unhappy condition which is past all recovery why are they not both bad seing they are partakers of the same nature of the same affections set forward in the same kind of education continued in the same company the wicked indeed rather then they will acknowledge their own fault will impute it to any thing rather then to themselves notwithstanding this doth plainly appeare to be the maine difference that the one of them is idle variable inconstant carelesse and so easily carried away with vanity the other well setled constant resolute in his purpose and determination industrious laborious and so overcomming all difficulties takes courage to go on in the course of vertue The course then which good men take doth depend on their owne godly choise of mind purpose resolution and the ill grow worse and worse because they do not wish unto themselves the thing that is good they doe not purpose to be vertuous but are altogether carelesse and uncertaine in their carriage Marke this yet more plainly for in this cause examples are more pregnant proofes then demonstration from reasons farre fetcht Have you lived sometimes in any populous City there might you have observed a world of courses which the Citizens follow some going about their owne businesse some attending their neighbours occasions some going to the Church to heare Sermons or to be at divine Service and all these are well employed if they deale honestly pray devoutly and heare submissively others againe are there idly walking about the Streets or dropping into a Tipling house or frequenting the Theatre or making fraies with them they meet or drinking and carowsing in Tavernes or sporting away the time in gaming places or solliciting their queanes in lewd houses and these are ill employed Now if a man should aske whence there is such odds betweene the men that live within the same Walls under the same Law and in the same time what may be said more likely and agreable to reason but this that the better sort amoved by grace out of the honest choice purpose and resolution of their mind to follow vertue with all diligence do take these commendable courses and the worser sort addicted to their lusts and pleasures
conclusions may more specially bee deduced but the life of action lies in circumstances the soule where of is Consideration wherefore contemplation reades mee over a lesson which Consideration doth make mee perfect in by observation experience correction Blessednesse which is the perfection of man hath his beginning from Contemplation but his consummation in us by Consideration for as by that I know God who is the cause of causes so by this I love God who is the last end The soule doth performe some actions without discourse so doth it move the body receive digest bestow the meat for nourishment and in those it so falls out because the end is as present as the meanes namely the life of the body but those actions which tend unto her owne proper end or rather of the whole shee doth not produce without discourse because the meanes are nearer and the end farther of Angels for the perfection of their nature doe all their actions without discourse but as the Angels herein are above men so man by the priviledge of discourse above all other Creatures for as in a Mill the stones know not what thing meale is nor to what end neither the wheeles nor the Water which driveth them about but the Miller only which sets the Mill to worke so none of the Creatures of this world know their owne worth or employment but only man which is Lord over them and hath not only the use of particular objects but of common notions also and beholding causes in their effects and ayming at a farther by the next doth sort convenient means to their proper ends and all ends to the chiefe end What a high art is Consideration which doth effect such wonderfull things out of one good it multiplies many and makes her advantage of evill it takes on her the cure of our weakest and worst parts and addeth both comelinesse and grace to the best where Consideration is all things are done orderly but they which by chance doe a good without it doe lose the commendation of their worke for want of it yea of such force is it that actions not speeding in the end yet set a foot by Consideration retaine still the praise of vertue it hath as it were the true touch of that stone whereby Gold is knowne from other metals for so by it wee discerne betweene that which is honest profitable and pleasing preferring honesty to the rest as Gold to other metals it doth cause profit and pleasure to give place to honesty and out of honesty requites us with true profit and pleasure but if profit and pleasure strive with honesty to have their turnes served first or without it then it sheweth them to be base metall and nothing worth that such profit is but losse such pleasure but sorrow and that indeed there is nothing either profitable or pleasant which agreeth not with honesty As they which behold other mens buildings walke in other mens Parkes solace themselves in other mens Gardens make a use to themselves though the possession belong to another so doe we neither heare any thing spoken or see any thing done neither is there any object proposed unto us whereof by Consideration wee may not make some use unto our selves though the matter belong to others And herein is the busy body faulty which medling with all kind of matters doth desire to be a party in possession where he hath nothing to doe whereas if he had Consideration he might take notice of any mans dealing for his owne use and doe no wrong for he cannot bee accounted a busibody which out of Consideration observeth for his owne use from those things which belong not unto him Excesse of anger or pleasure is the greatest enemy to Consideration and the promoter of all hasty and forward attempts which end in sorrowfull events but the feare of death and other miseries are lessened by Consideration Meditation 30. Subjection BEtter well markt then a whole eare is the husbandmans Proverb for the beast which straies away is the sooner owned and brought home againe with a marke but without it lost better to be under government then to follow a loose and lawlesse life better to be trained up under the discipline of the Church then to range at liberty as an Ethnick It was the better for the prodigall youth that he went out a sonne though he returned a sinner and hee receives more liberty by his comming home then he found abroad his Father knowes him the house receives him the fat Calfe is provided for him and all make merry with him The Church doth exercise authority over them which beare the mark of Christ and if there be cause why it doth correct them according to the quality of their faults sometimes by words chiding them sometimes by deeds suspending them from the Sacraments or excommunicating them from the society of the Church and if the Church perceive that any hath entred through hypocrisy and is now discovered by blaspheming the truth which is a casting off of Christs marke such a one it doth remove by the eternall curse Atha Maranatha and for such a one indeed had it beene better never to have received that mark and for those also which in the end doe fall from the Church contemning the order thereof though not cursed but they which are the true members of the Church take great profit by those censures for though they fall oft times through humane frailty yet the Church doth not cease to acknowledge them for her owne because they beare the marke of Christianity and taking a speciall care of them doth by this discipline bring them againe to repentance and amendment of life they are converted they are received they are confirmed more then before and the Church is glad of them as a woman of the child wherewith shee hath long travailed howbeit with them which are without the Church medleth not therefore runne they on still in sinne to their owne perdition as they which are utterly lost in the waste of this world because they have not the mark of Christ Count it thy greatest good in this life that Christ hath markt thee for his owne by baptisme that thou livest under the discipline of that Church wherof he is the head and therefore suffer thy selfe to be rebuked privately openly and if any greater correction befall thee humble thy selfe repent amend and this priviledge that thou art markt by Christ shall restore thee againe to thy former estate and thou shalt be his more then before only beware of hypocrisy which one day shall be discovered and turne not back like a dogge to his vomit for such have their end worse then their beginning and it is better never to have knowne the way of righteousnesse then afterwards to depart from the holy commandement by a wilfull heart into which extremity they are at last led which use not their most honourable profession with a good conscience The fall of a starre is fearefull