Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A47384
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Mid-night and daily thoughts in prose and verse / by Sir William Killigrew.
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Killigrew, William, Sir, 1606-1695.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing K462; ESTC R22780
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45,259
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108
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Mid-night and Daily Thoughts In PROSE and VERSE BY Sir WILLIAM KILLIGREW LONDON Printed for Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall M DC XC IV. To Sir William Killigrew On view of his Book of Mid-night and daily Thoughts WHen first I read your pious Sheets it wrought Within my Soul such sympathetick Thought I seem'd your Transcript joying so to be Or else transported as your Simile Thus ravish'd with my self I further tried To gain converse with you that amplify'd I found and more improv'd what I had took Your constant Practice doth expound your Book With this difference only I might call That the Copy you the Original I am so full of you whate'er I write Flows from your Pen and you do mine indite Your Dream of Heaven is so drawn and plac'd As if of Heaven it self you had a taste And prepossession which will ever last And your angelick Thoughts so scatter'd where If Heaven can be on Earth sure it is there Your Dream of Hell I cannot barely name Vnless I snatch my Finger from your Flame I feel the sting of your Expressions so As if in pain and forc'd to undergo Death you 've drawn to life so clear that I In love with life by reading chuse to die Vnless I liv'd like you exalted quite With future Ioys and holy Anchorite Your Poems run so natural you indite It seems a self-denial not to write 'T is much that in your Age of Eighty eight Your Mind 's so full of vigour and of weight Truly inspired and as your Days decline The more you write still that is more Divine There 's nothing languid all your Lines last long Like Honey in a Lion sweet and strong Proceed bless'd Sir and prove exemplar even To make Disciples here and Saints in Heaven Ri. Newman On Sir Willian Killigrew's Nightly and Daily Thoughts WHat Muse a lofty Fame for him can raise Whose whole Ambition is to fly from praise Or fix him gracious with the Multitude Who only courts a sacred solitude Whose Commerce when awake in Vision lies When sleeping dreams him up into the Skiesâ— All that his Friends can do is to invite Others to reap what he alone can write Without the help of Learning or of Toil As genuine Plants spring from their native Soil And that 's true Fancy which one cannot shun Flowing like Emanations from the Sun Most Poets strive to make the World admire To be believ'd is all he needs desire Whose Doctrine to gain Faith wants no relief But his high untaught Pen strains our Belief Sincere Devotion Midwife to his Brain Bows to the lowest his angelick strain And his Example Grace abroad do breed Making him read by those who cannot read A broken Spirit is his soundest part And th' humble Style suits best his soaring heart Hen. Birkett To my Honoured Friend Richard Newman Esq SIR I Live so much alone that I have not found a Friend to whom I could communicate this new Bundle of my Mid-night and Daily Thoughts on which I dare not trust my own Judgment nor shew to any of my own Relations who are such Criticks in Devotion Eloquence and Wit that my mean Talent doth beget Contempt left I should suffer in the World's Opinion Yet it is not my Design to flatter you or to commend my self but to beg a real Favour of you to read them And if you do without a Compliment think them fit for the meanest Understandings to gain Profit by them they shall be printed else not I want skill to search Learned Authors for a lofty Strain to gain Applause and only write such Emanations as my dull Brain afford me From whence the Benefit I find and Pleasure that I have in spending my solitary Hours thus is ample Recompence besides the Hope of doing good to others beyond the Vanity of being praised Who am Your most Humble Servant W. Killigrew To Sir William Killigrew SIR SInce you are pleased to communicate to me before others the Book of your Mid-night and Daily Thoughts and in the Front thereof ennobled my Name by way of Dedication I have not only diligently but devoutly pernsed and applied the same to my own Heart and find my self both elevated and bettered by it I have also imparted it to some of my most dear and learned Friends who stick not to say with me That they admire such Heavenly Inspirations which cannot be called by any other Name and with they could write the like and all agree to pray you that it may be forthwith printed for the Devotional Part thereof transcending for some Uses all the deep Notions and Learning in the World one Practical Page thereof being in my Opinion more acceptable to GOD and comfortable to the Reader than a Library of critical Authors And methinks I can say as our Blessed Saviour in another case I thank thee O heavenly Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so in seemeth good in thy sight Luke 10.23 I shall only add this That whereas you seem in your Letter to give me leave to put out any of your late Meditations or to correct or transpose any of them because of some Repetitions you are told are in them I must really tell you I am afraid of doing any such thing for fear or violating such sacred Raptures casting with my self that though they seem to me Repetitions yet they are no more to be rejected than the Repetitions of the Lord's Prayer which hath been so used and sanctified by our Saviour's own Lips Thus concluding I and my Friends nameless desire you to have them printed before you die From Your Affectionate Friend Ri. Newman An Answer to my kind Friend's Preface in his Letter SInce God Himself is pleas'd to guide my Pen To rectifie the Steps of unlearn'd Men I am much pleas'd yet dare no Praises own All which I know are due to God alone But daily pray that I may take delight To practise these great Lessons that I write Tho' I 'm afraid this Book will have the fate That better Books than mine have had of late To be laid by when once it is read o'er And ne'er be look'd on nor e'er thought on more Like those Romantick Stories that are writ To shew their Author's Eloquence and Wit But when good Meditations fill a Mind Which by the Holy Spirit is refin'd Each Paragraph which such good Men shall read Devotion will receive and in them breed Fresh flaming Zeal produc'd by holy Seed Whose Soul 's with various Joys will entertain And let their still-encreasing Stock remain Till their devout experimental Part By Faith the intrinsick value of this Art Shall such Angelick Fire in them create As may with them Heaven's Bliss participate And as their glitt'ring Bubbles do decay Their lightned Souls with holy Vigour may So fix their Minds and all their Hopes imploy Make them assur'd of their
eternal Joy Mid-night and Daily THOUGHTS On Christian Epicurism IF all the Epicurisms in the World were join'd in one they could not produce one moment of such serene Delights unto the Heart of Man as is comparable to the Soul's Joy in a divine Elevation unto God by Meditation for when such sacred Illuminations in Devotion do defeend from above to enlighen the Souls of pious Men with transporting Joy inessable and not to be described Tho' they be but saint Idea's of Heaven they beget such Comforts while those holy Flames last that Men may guess thereby those illustrious Glories they shall participate of when they come to the possession of their eternal Bliss in the presence of GOD which a great reprobate become regenerate can best judge of even as well as if a Man risen from the dead should bring the same News to him Thus St. Paul the greatest Sinner became an Epecurean Saint When Age and Zeal by Grace have luft subdu'd Let not foul Gluttony thy Soul delude Left carnal Fancies should to Age prescribe Luxurious Diets more Wine t'imbibe Than Nature does require for our Support Or Conscience can admit in any sort For when our Surfeits do our Sense abuse Such Drunkenness no Language can excuse Reader THE Author is advise instead of an elaborate Preface from some kind Friend to publish this little Book of his Midnight and daily Thoughts without being polished by a more learned Pen. Tho' some great Clerks do not allow illiterate Men to write Devotion this Writer does believe that all Men ought to do some good in this World proportionable to the Talent given them by God and doth therefore humbly hope to shew such unlearned People as himself that the Plowman and the Cobler may find the way to Heaven without Greek or Latin by an usual exercise of divine Meditations and also to shew some plain Products of his own Time so spent by which his Heart does find much Joy by serving God entirely by frequent practice thereof with great comfort of Grace here and some encouraging assurance of Glory in the next World Which he hopes also may raise other Men's Thoughts to an higher degree of Pleasure and Piety than his Talent can reach though he does endeavour to think himself into Heaven before he is called thither really believing that a sincere hearty Devotion is as acceptable to God in plain Language as in Wit and Eloquence which the generality of Mankind understand not If thou a Scholar art thou soon wilt find That I am none I pray thee be so kind As all Grammatick Errours to excuse I know not Latin nor the Grammar use Or if thou art a nice dogmatick Wit And wilt dispute 'gainst all that I have writ I then must into Heaven for refuge fly Because I seek not Praise but Piety And have desired if then till I am dead These private Papers be not published In truth these Meditations were not made For publick view and I am much afraid That you will say so too my Mid-night Thoughts They are without art contriv'd full of Faults Throughout but yet some pious learned Men Approve Devotion from my vulgar Pen Which shew my freer Spirit who have writ Plain Lessons without Eloquence or Wit Fit to be printed for the Publick Good That may be the meer Mobb be understood On my old Friend's Hieroglyphick Pictures of Enternity T'Hy Time is with thy Life of equal date And should be priz'd as equally thy fate Then lay thy Wonder by without delay Prepare to claim a share in that long Day Thou need'st no Serpent-Skull nor Skeliton To mortifie thy Heart by looking on When thy own Glass doth shew thee ev'ry day How thy Bleer-eyes and wrinkled Face decay Emblem to make thee see and teach thee why Thou shouldst live ev'ry moment fit to die With joyful Thoughts and most divine Content To be thy own eternal Monument Thou know'st that God's all-seeing Eye observes What ev'ry motion in Man's Heart deserves Since nothing from his Knowledge can be hid Do thou do nothing that he has forbid But now redeem thy mis-spent Time that 's past To gain a bless'd Eternity at last So reconcil'd that a short Summons may Thy Soul from hence to Paradise convey By blessed Angels to Seraphick Peace Where Joys on Joys eternally encrease On Divine Ambition HAppy are they who can this World despise And firmly serve their God without disguise With no design of Avarice or Pride Or any other vicious Acts to hide But have Ambition to be rich and great To shelter the oppress'd that need retreat To help the Blind the Hungry and the Lame In honour to their own and God's great Name To shew their Power and have it understood They seek the Nation 's and therein their good On the Five Senses Awake dull Soul left this lethargick Fit Benumb thy Senses and thou fall by it Thus to permit thy Appetites to sway Will ruine them and cast thy self away I. When Earth and Air and Seas are vex'd to find Excessive Rareties of ev'ry kind To please thy Palate cook'd with cost and care Wish then some heavenly Manna were thy fare II. When rich Arabian Spices shall be spent To make sweet Odours to delight thy Scent Think on that costly Ointment that was shed With such Devotion on thy Saviour's Head III. When Lutes and Harps do cast away thy Cares Abate thy Sorrows and do please thy Ears And mortal Voices do great solace bring Think on the Choirs of Angels how they sing IV. When thou art ravish'd with some gentle touch Think if the Spear or Crown of Thorns were such Or when much pleas'd with what ' doth softest feel Think when whose Hands were pierced thro' with Steel V. When thy vain Eyes are dazled at the fight Of some bright Beauty with too much delight Look upward to the Throne of Grace there see More glorious Rays sent thence to lighten thee Thus may my Soul rejoice in either sence Be satisfied and yet learn good from thence The world enjoy and yet from Crimes be free By turning Pleasure into Piety On Man's Frailty Frail Man whose highest Comfort is To create hopes and dream of Bliss Born still to learn by learning find The more we see the more we 're blind Desire does all our Joys imply Fruitions cloy not satisfie Our wished ends attain'd we still create New thoughts which new desires do animate From age to age repining at our lot We still desire to have what we have not Our active souls no contentation have No fix'd delight between the womb and grave Yet though our God have thought it good Thus to endow our flesh and blood With frail desires to earthly things Which nought but pain and sorrow brings He hath our souls created free T' enjoy much more felicity When our hearts flame with his celestial fire He will the object be of our desire There may our fancies work and never cease And then will our