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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Friendship never more to be afraid Of his most sick alarms in disguise Nor of his quickest Summons by surprize And thus the greatest Cowards in the Land For Valour may in competition stand With any Hero's of the former age Or those who now in a just cause engage When Courage is a Vertue to be brave And sets a Crown on such a Soldier 's grave On Relapsed Man in Paradise WHen Youth with strength wealth and beauty flourish Some short joys our wanton hearts may nourish But when old age is much decrepid grown We ought with sighs and tears great Sorrows own For idle hours that we have vainly spent Without the sense of shame or punishment And if we die in that unhappy state All hopes of mercy then will come too late So that if age revive and propagate Past sins till they do greater Crimes create 'T will turn old Age's Blessings into hate Then let no mortal man presume to think He cannot see when he is pleas'd to wink For no Man yet was ever such a Sot That Age his former Crimes had so forgot That on his Crutches thinks 't is boldly brave Loaden with Crimes to creep into the Grave Much worse than Youth when cross'd in his desire In a mad fit dares leap into the fire Which shows that all our Ages here ne'er can Retrieve the Curses of relapsed Man Till faith in Christ create a brighter flame Impow'ring men to have a surer claim To Heaven at our blessed Saviour's cost Than that which Adam's disobedience loft By which we the intrinsick Treasure find Of future joys in a Seraphick mind On the Power of Faith IF all Men did our Christian Graces understand That like good Heraulds we might rank them according to their antiquity and merit Faith may claim the highest dignity and place as of just right to be the most fixed foundation on the blessed Rock of our Salvation which will unmov'd with stand the greatest Storms when lofty Structures built on Sand are with Wind and Rain soon tumbled down And if we mind those mighty Miracles of the first Ages they all relate unto Faith Our blessed Saviour also used to say Whosoever believeth in me shall never die Do you believe that I can do this and then Be it done according to your Faith Thy Faith has made thee whole The Woman with the bloody Issue had no other application for her Cure but Faith Without Faith what signifies our Creed And to what purpose did our Saviour bleed If we all Doubting could from Faith divide Pure Faith would then in greatest triumph ride God grant all those the Power of Faith that die In joyful Hopes of bless'd eternity When their departing Souls will gladly own By faith they rise from Dunghills to a Throne How to delight in GOD. THe Text says Delight in the Lord and he will give thee thy hearts desire And no doubt but if we delight in him with the highest faculty of our Souls above all carnal appetites with contemplation of his glorious Essence and Attributes in frequent servent Prayers with continual Gratitude for his daily Mercies To adore him as we might we should find such a rejoycing in God to be the most voluptuous felicity that the heart of Man is capable ofâ— But we mock our selves too often with a belief of this Felicity by a careless searching short in our own Hearts for a clear proof of the divine Perfection of this delighting in God which every Man must find in himself for no Man can correct the unseen Errours of his Neighbour's heart So that it must be every Man's concern to examine his own Conscience how much he rejoyces in God more than in all worldly Fruitions and according to his proportion in excelling therein his peace of Conscience will prove the more exalted joyful Feast and will create in him the greatest hope of his heart 's promised desire and is the furest way to remove our natural Fear of Death who only can lead us to glory which all Men ought to think on more than all other affairs in this World For if we delight in God as we ought We should the clear intrinsick value find When Grace enriches a delighted Mind That trusts in God and by such bless'd converse Excells all pleasures of the Universe Which no Man's Faith nor Fancy can conceive Till that delightful practice gives him leave Then Souls enlightned by that holy fire Will pass to Paradise when they expire An higher Bliss can no Man's heart desire Though worldly joys may all our Senses please The Soul's joy makes them all but a disease But when God's glory in our Souls doth shine It shews those holy Raptures are divine Yet we ought not to think that every petty pleasing Object that assaults our Senses doth deserve the Name of a Delight more than little Children have for every new Baby they do see But when the Soul 's supreme delight is so fixed on God that every address brings men as near to him as Souls can come while they are involved in Clay yet by a flaming Zeal and such high mounting Faith as doth believe that God is every-where and Heaven with him and them are altogether at that time there Where such joys may grow up to such a divine Delight in God as will come nearest unto his beatick sight tho' few Men seek it by such practice as we might and therefore cannot fansie such transcending Bliss on Earth as those hermetick Livers have who daily do converse in Heaven with great delight in expectation of a quick Summons thither and such Piety may be truly called Delighting in God 'T is said my Book does need apology To beg a Pardon for tautology Which is a Crime I never understood If the repeated matter be all good David's Example as my Pattern may Excuse that Errour and for pardon pray On the Power of Divine Meditation DAvid says God requires no Sacrifice But Penitence and Faith he does despise The Blood of Beasts We are to thank and praise His holy Name and honour him always And if we trust him as we ought Mankind Will be by frequent Comforts so refin'd That we on Earth shall have a daily taste Of his eternal Peace and joys at last If David's Rules authentick be That God Had rather use his Mercy than his Rod And proffers Heaven at so cheap a rate T' invite us to become regenerate What labour less can mortal Men invent To gain God's favour and 'scape his punishment If thus our Duty may his Favour claim All Men will trust and honour his great Name Such Ecstasies in Meditation will Men's heads with glorious heavenly Visions fill And by degrees our Souls with joys advance To think that we are there in such a trance And find that such enlightning Zeal as this Is emanation for our future Bliss A Dream of Heaven THough Sleep Death's Image be I have been now I know not where convey'd I know not how Where something
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