Pleasures of this World in comparison of it This Joy overcomes all Difficulties it tramples them down and flies above them it burns and consumes them and makes the greatest Labours to become a Pleasure The Masters of the Synagogue called the Apostles before them reproved them scourged them threatned them and commanded them that they should not Preach sending them away not only punished but reproached and shamefully affronted but they go out and presently Preach again with exceeding Joy as the Text saith that they were thought worthy to suffer for the Lord's sake Take heed say some to the Apostles it is not two Months since the Jews crucified your dear Master and if you do not forbear to Preach they will do the same to you What care we answered they if the Joy we feel outweighs that fear nay that Joy hath already banished it and made us utterly insensible of it arming us against the worst that they can do This Joy and this Courage continued in their Successors many of which so readily embraced Martyrdom A Tyrant commands St. Lawrence to give him up the Treasures of the Church who replies he will do it very willingly He goes and distributes the Treasure amongst all the Poor he could find and brings an Army of Lame and Blind of weak and diseased Persons unto that Covetous Praetor saying very chearfully to him Here I have brought you the Treasures of the Church Take heed good Man the Tyrant will be revenged on thee Let him do what he can I care not for my Joy in serving God is dearer to me than my Life They lay him upon a Grid-Iron with live Coals under it which kindle the fire of his Joy and of his Love at the same time that the flames do scorch his Body yet he smiling and jesting says to the Tyrant Now this side is broyl'd enough it is time to turn the other and you may eat of it Who among such real Torments among that Fire Smoak and Confusion could produce that holy Jest that Joy that chearfulness that pleasantness of Wit and Contentment God and none but God who was pleased to make that Martyr's Joy to Triumph over all his Sufferings Who made St. Andrew the Apostle to sing the Praises of the Lord when he was fastened upon the very Cross but this Joy this wondrous Fruit of the Spirit Certainly there is no Chearfulness no Contentment no Joy but in God Rejoyce and be glad in the Lord ye righteous says David and in another place Great is the joy of those that fear the Lord. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad says our Saviour when ye shall suffer for my Names-sake for great is your reward in Heaven and Christ himself for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame Thus that inward Joy drives away and banishes all the toils and troubles and all the Sufferings of the Spiritual Life This Fruit then of the Spirit which is called Joy contains in it both Honour and Profit and is well worth thy praying for since it facilitates and sweetens all thy Pains and will make thee forward and chearful in giving up thy self to undergo any thing for the Lord's sake and will thereby make thee to be favoured and be loved by him For as the Scripture tells us God loveth a chearful giver Of the Fruit of Patience The Fruit of Patience is more properly called a Fruit than the rest because Christ literally calls it so where speaking of those that keep the good Seed of his Divine Word and of his holy Inspirations in their hearts and lay them up and put them in practice He says they shall bring forth their fruit in Patience that is because a chearful and resigned Patience is one of the most excellent Fruits of the Holy Spirit and the most profitable and necessary to serve God with Purity the most profitable because the Lord says In Patience ye shall possess your souls which is the greatest profit that can be attained or thought of in this life as who should say if your Life be Spiritual full of Tribulations and a sharp continual War both within and without if it be a Conquest that consist in dying not in killing not in Persecuting and Oppressing others but suffering Persecutions and in subduing ones self certainly Patience is very necessary for that War And as in those of the World Men get the Victory by Impatience by Anger and Fury by Force and by Revenge so in the Spiritual Warfare we must Conquer by Suffering and by Humility for the Combat here is to undergo Pains and Hardship to live and die with bearing and with Patience This Fruit is also necessary because by it the rest are preserved The Apostle explains it where he says Patience is necessary for you that ye may obtain the Promises and in another place That ye may be made worthy of the promises of Christ that is that ye may obtain the Blessings which are set forth in the Eight Beatitudes and in many other places where the Lord says Your name is written in the Book of Life and that there ye shall receive an hundred-fold whatsoever ye shall have forsaken here for the love of God Patience is necessary because neither Faith Hope nor Charity nor any other of the Moral and Cardinal Vertues without Patience are of any worth for in losing that they lose their Beauty and become vain and ineffectual Finally if this be a life of Labours and Afflictions of Slanders and Reproaches what Vertue can be more profitable more necessary more important and of more frequent use than Patience For all the blows both inward and outward that are struck at the Mind of Man must be receiv'd upon the Shield of Patience and he that wants that can never be able to sustain the Combat therefore St. Paul when he furnishes the Christian with Spiritual Arms puts upon his left Arm the in-expugnable Shield of Patience that he may be able to withstand the fiery Darts of his Enemy Assumens scutum inexpugnabile Equitatem observing that in the word Equitatem he not only meant to express ordinary Patience but an equality of Mind which is the Excellent and Heroick Patience and that is the Fruit here spoken of as who should say It must be a Patience full of Equality receiving Crosses and Afflictions with as great a Chearfulness and Contentment as thou couldst do their contraries Take notice that St. Paul says not that thy Patience should be equal but even Equality itself Consider the Joy thou hast for the Favours of God thou oughtest to have the very same when he sends Tribulations for they also are his Favours Give not thy Affections more to things that are Delightful than to those that are Disgustful to Pleasure than to Pain to Comfort than to Affliction Thy Chearfulness ought to be equal in Sufferings as in Joys in Rebukes as in Applauses in being pull'd down as in being advanc'd and in suffering Affronts as
places and orders of Men which sad and lamentable Evil as it is the desire of all good Men as far as in them lies to remedy so he believes an impartial and diligent perusal of this and such-like Spiritual Treatises will by the assistance of God's Grace be Instrumental to the producing of that blessed effect He found by reading this Book that in it were laid down the most profitable and useful Instructions the most affecting and forcible Arguments to allure to the Service of God and the most solid and substantial Nourishment that can be administred to Souls And this gave him Encouragment to undergo the pleasing Trouble of preparing it for a Publick Reading Which being effected his hearty Prayers to Almighty God are that his Endeavours may have their desired influence upon the Hearts and Minds of all that shall vouchsafe to peruse them and that that Devout and Heavenly Spirit may in some measure be communicated to them whereby the Spiritual Author of this Spiritual Year was acted in Designing and Perfecting so Divine and Profitable a Work THE Author's PREFACE THE Design of this Piece is to draw Souls to the serious Consideration of Eternity to move their Affections to the Love of Heavenly things and to bring them to a Contempt of those that are Temporal and transitory In it they will see much of what is treated at large in divers Spiritual Books and the substance of what lies dispersed in them summed up in this one not with that Spirit and Learning wherewith those Authors wrote but with equal desire for the good of Souls Indeed that which we are able to do is nothing in respect of what God does by that Grace which he hath tyed to the Ministry for without all doubt 't is He that does all He that moves all He that directs all He that amends all and brings all to Perfection Though St. Paul was a Vessel of Election full of the Spirit and might have had as great confidence in himself as any other Apostle yet this made him say That his Planting was nothing and his Watering nothing but that it was God that gave the Increase However it much animates the Labourers of the Gospel in the Spiritual Work to find that it often happens to them as it does to Husband-men who scatter their Seed on their Land with perfect heedlesness part of it falling beside and part being thrown from them with an uncertain direction only with a purpose to fill the Field with Seed and yet returning home afterwards to take their rest God while they are asleep sends Rain upon the Inheritance moistens the Earth disposes the Seed tempers the Heat seasons the Elements makes it rot revive and rise again so that even in Corruption it takes Root grows up and brings forth the full Ear. What did the Sower more than cast away the Seed from him as if he regarded it not And yet it springs up and gives an abundant increase All that he did was to prepare the Matter that God might work the Miracle which as St. Austin says is only little in Man's Consideration because he sees God work it so often This hope encourages me to scatter the Seeds of the Divine Word into the Hearts of the Faithful trusting that God who is the Worker of all that we do will give his Blessing his Grace and Power to the end that the Fruit may be multiplied which Effect in the Parable of the Sower his Divine Majesty intimates he useth to produce in those Souls who receive it with Attention and with a pious holy Affection it taking Root in them as in a fertile Soil But it may be some will say there be already so many Books of Devout Meditations that this might well have been spared they being so Holy and Spiritual and this not so being written by so wretched a sinner as I am To this I answer that though all other Persons might be questioned why they make Spiritual Treatises since there are so many yet that account ought not to be demanded from Bishops since it is a thing as proper to their Ministry to Write to Teach and Instruct as the very Name of a Pastor And in that Work 't is lawful for a Prelate to Teach not only Opportunely but in a manner Importunely as St. Paul teaches his Disciple Timothy who was Bishop of Ephesus Preach the Word be instant in season and out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine that is by Sermons by Writing by Conversing and by Example And therefore We Bishops ought ever to fear the contrary Censure and Question Why do ye not write Spiritual Books And this being the more dreadful Censure we ought to embrace that which we have least need to fear and to avoid that which can most condemn us Moreover 't is a very affected and unreasonable Complaint of the Politick Censurer who is troubled that so many Spiritual Treatises come forth into the World for God can never be too much praised thereby nor can Evangelical Counsels be too often repeated nor Discourses that aim at the Salvation of Souls be too frequent though consisting of one same Matter To say the truth we have seen nothing else in the Church of God from the time that His Divine Majesty settled it with his Blood but this Succession of Doctrine which has accompanied that of those same Ministers whom by their Vocation and excellent Abilities he called and appointed for Masters of Christian Instruction The Four Evangelists wrote those four Books which contain all the Treasures of Grace in the Life and Death of our Saviour yet St. John did not forbear to write his three Epistles and the Revelation St. Luke the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter two Epistles and St. Paul fourteen St. James one St. Jude another and their Disciples Ignatius Polycarp and others did also write though they might have contented themselves with what the Apostles had done who were the General Ministers and Teachers of the Faith After these succeed the Doctors of the Greek and Latine Churches who filled the World with Writings without any prejudice to those or rather proceeding upon the same Doctrine and using it according to their purpose have enlightened and enriched the Church to the great profit and comfort of Souls That Book of the Imitation of Christ made by Thomas a Kempis which some call the Contempt of the World and others The Christian Pattern though it be a very little one is yet so full of weight that those other Spiritual Treatises which have been written since might seem superfluous yet for all that the Venerable Lewis de Granada having translated and incorporated it into his Meditations with those of another excellent Author which are very Heavenly both in their Spirit Style and Matter did not only make others after them but wrote also the Guide of Sinners which has reduced converted and guided so many as likewise the Symbol of the Faith and several
Mind to bear for God's sake what is laid upon us by men and is as necessary for the Spiritual Life as Breath is for the Natural Think how impossible it is for one that is continually shot at with Bows and Guns to escape unless he have some defence against the Bullets and Arrows As impossible it is for thee to live in the Spiritual Life without being defended with the shield of Patience All things assault and shoot at him that loves God The Devil persecutes him the World slanders him the Flesh tempts him he is afflicted from without he is drawn and allured from without his Superiours trample upon him his Equals despise him his Inferiours presume to affront him and even the Lord himself whom he adores does seem also sometimes to be his Enemy because he has a mind to make trial how far his Courage and Constancy will reach Thus it is said in the Book of Wisdom That God proves the Good to the end he may find them worthy of himself And Job complained of this and said Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Wilt thou break a Leaf driven to and fro and wilt thou pursue the dry Stubble Thou writest bitter things against me c. Consider what Patience he had need to have who is persecuted by God by the World by the Flesh by the Devil and by his own self In short the Spiritual Life is a fruitful Seed-plot of Thorns and the way of Afflictions and therefore it is necessary at every step to have the Staff of Patience in thy hand to support thee Is it not the way of the Cross Why then have Patience Is it not the way of Difficulties Why then have Patience Is it not a way of Tribulations Why then have Patience By this one Vertue alone many Vices are destroyed Without Patience thou would'st throw the Cross from thy shoulders and run over to the Party of thy Enemies which are thy Delights and the Devils for this reason the Lord recommended Patience to his Disciples above all other Vertues saying In patience possess your Souls He sent them out as Lambs into the midst of Wolves he sent them to preach teach and to give light to a foolish perverse and a wicked World what could they look for but Pains Crosses Death and Torments And how should they be able to make any advantage of them without Patience and Suffering In another place he tells us That the good bring forth fruit in patience as inferring That without Patience there is no Fruit at all of Vertue This is most certain That the Vertues how many soever they be can neither consist with one another nor have any Life Subsistence or Perseverance in themselves without Patience And reason shews it for all of them make it their business to subdue the Appetite and to give Reason her Sceptre and Empire The Appetite resists and desires Superiority Reason on the other side sights and makes opposition so that to hold out such a cruel obstinate continual and internal War there is a necessity of having a great deal of Patience Affronts Calumnies and Persecutions assault the Spiritual Man What other Remedy has he but Patience He walks with Temptations round about him What Remedy is there but Patience He falls into Imperfections and Miseries and the Enemy tempts him to Desperation What other Remedy but Patience Patience Humility Constancy and Perseverance which are all Sisters do crown the Soul and make it triumphant in the Spiritual Life What else was the Life of Christ our blessed Example but a long constant repeated and enlarged Patience Behold him suffering cold in the Manger the smart of a Knife in Circumcision heat and weariness in his flying to Egypt slanders revilings and insolencies from some Ministers of the Law in his Manifestation Scourging Thorns Wounds Death and the Cross in his Passion In all this he consecrated Patience and the same Vertue was practis'd by his Mother in the Torments of her Son suffering in her tender heart what our Lord suffered in his Divine Person What Complaints were heard from our sweet Master Jesus O the innumerable Injuries that were done him But what resentments did he shew Why to teach to give light to guide to suffer to entreat and to pray for his Enemies Patience is not only a Merit and a Merit of very great excellency but it is Comfort Peace and Joy and very great Wisdom Who is the Wise man says one of the Fathers of the Church and answers that doubt The Patient man And who is more wise He that is more Patient And who is the wisest of all He that is most Patient of all Of Anger Believe me Anger is an ugly fierce ignorant and unruly Vice for it vexes afflicts disquiets precipitates and works nothing but confusion coming very short in Means and in Remedies Patience will free thee from all this for it enlarges the Heart encreases the Understanding and gives strength and depth to our Discourse What dost thou think that Anger is but a short madness for the angry man and the mad man differ only in time not in action The furious mad man is angry for a long time and the furious angry man is mad for a short time Would'st thou see the Picture of Anger Look in a Glass when thou art angry and thou shalt see a terrible ugliness in thy Face thine Eyes sparkle with rage thy Brows wrinkled with Frowns thy Complexion discompos'd and enflam'd with redness and all thy actions sudden and disorder'd What a kind of thing is Anger in the Soul which thus transforms the Countenance and deformes the whole Person The Lord in that holy Precept of loving Enemies had an Eye not only to the good of the Enemy and the Person hated but also to that of the Friend by whom he would have him to be loved His aim was not only that the one should not die but also that the other might live and which is more he desir'd not only to prevent a Christian from defiling his Soul with hatred but also to preserve him from the vexation and torment of so unquiet a Passion His intent in this most sweet and gentle Precept was to give the Christian a Temporal as well as an Eternal Life Eternal by his obedience and Temporal by his quiet To hate is rage disquiet anguish and death and so he banished Anger from the Soul to free it from death anguish and disquiet Dost thou think that by thy hatred thou takest revenge upon thine Enemy Thou art deceived it is he that is revenged on thee What greater punishment can thy Enemy inflict upon thee than that to which thou condemnest thy self meerly by thy hatred Thou frettest thou stormest thou vexest and tormentest thy self thou abhorrest on the one side and longest eagerly on the other and livest in a continual Affliction between the earnestness of thy Desires and Aversions tossing and turning to and fro biting thy Lips grinding
the Occasion Thou shalt be with me thou that dyest with me shalt go with me but if thou hadst not kept me Company in Death thou shouldst not have kept me Company in Paradise All which are rare Singularities which if they do not shorten the Power of God and his Grace towards others yet St. Austin notes that they may well make Man's Presumption tremble Finally we have more reason to fear in this case God's Justice for that the other Thief was not sav'd though he was so near our Saviour because he had delayed his Repentance till Death than to be too confident of his Mercy who saved the good Thief with so many limitations What is all this but to warn us to do well while we live and enjoy our Youth our Health and our Strength and not to defer our Amendment till the hour of our Death And to make us observe that good living and good dying go together and that evil living and evil dying do so too and that to expect those Miracles when we die which only happened at the Death of our Saviour will instead of making him our Friend while we live most certainly provoke him to be our Enemy at our Death and Judgment Thus Good Works are the probable Signs of a good Death to follow and an ill Death is the sign of Evil Works which went before FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. THE Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus the Roman Emperour concerning himself Treating of a Natural Man's Happiness wherein it consisteth and of the means to attain unto it Translated out of the Original Greek with Notes By Meric Causabon D. D. The Fifth Edition To which is added The Life of Antoninus with some select Remarks upon the whole by Monsieur and Madam Dacier Never before in English In 8o. 1692. The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation In two Parts viz. The Heavenly Bodies Elements Meteors Fossils Vegetables Animals Beasts Birds Fishes and Insects more particularly in the Body of the Earth its Figure Motion and Consistency and in the Admirable Structure of the Bodies of Man and other Animals as also in their Generation c. By John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society The Second Edition very much enlarged In 8o. 1692. Three Discourses concerning the Changes and Dissolution of the World The First of the Creation and Chaos The Second of the General Deluge Fountains formed Stones Subterraneous Beds of Shells Earthquakes and other Changes in our Terraqueous Globe The Third of the General Conflagration Dissolution and means of bringing them to pass Of the Future State c. The Second Edition Corrected and very much enlarged and Illustrated with Copper Plates By John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society In 8o. 1692. A Treatise of Church-Government Or A Vindication of Diocesan Episcopacy against the Objections of the Dissenters in Answer to some Letters lately Printed concerning the same Subject By Robert Burscough M. A. In 8o. 1692. Several Books Written by the Reverend Dr. Rich. Lucas Vicar of St. Stephen's Coleman-street Practical Christianity Or An Account of the Holiness which the Gospel enjoyns with Motives to it and the Remedies it proposes against Temptations with a Prayer concluding each distinct Duty In 8o. 1685. Enquiry after Happiness in several Parts c. The Second Edition enlarged In 8o. 1692. The Duty of Apprentices and Servants 1. The Parents Duty how to Educate their Children that they may be sit to be employed and trusted 2. What Preparation is needful for such as enter into Service with some Rules to be observed by them how to make a wise and happy Choice of a Service 3. Their Duty in Service towards God their Master and themselves with suitable Prayers to each Duty and some Directions peculiarly to Servants for the Worthy Receiving the Holy Sacrament Published for the Benefit of Families In 8o. A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Mr. Tho. Lamb July 23d 1686. In 4o. A Sermon Preached at the Assizes held at Horsham in Sussex August 23. 1691. Christian Thoughts for every day of the Month with a Prayer wherein is represented the Nature of Unfeigned Repentance and of Perfect Love towards God In 12o. 1692. The Plain Man's Guide to Heaven Containing First his Duty towards God Secondly towards his Neighbour With proper Prayers Meditations and Ejaculations Designed chiefly for the Country-man Tradesman Labourer and such like In 12o. 1691. Devotion and Charity A Sermon Preached before the Lord Mayor March 30. 1692. The Christan Race A Sermon Preached before the Queen July 31. 1692. Mr. Thornton's Sermon at the Assizes held at Chelmsford in Essex September 2d 1691. Mr. Gee's Sermon before the Queen Aug. 7. 1692. Dr. Stanley's Sermon at the Consecration of Thomas Lord Bishop of Lincoln January 10. 1691 2. The History of the Roman Conclave Containing the Rites and Ceremonies used and observed at the Death Election and Coronation of the Pope As also an Exact Description of the State of Rome during the Vacancy of that Chair Together with a brief Account of the Life of this present Pope Innocent XII By W. B. M. A. 1691. Medicinal Experiments Or A Collection of Choice Remedies for the most part Simple and easily prepared which being cheap may be made Serviceable to poor Country People By the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq late Fellow of the Royal Society Licensed Nov. 18. 1691. by Sir Robert Southwell President of the Royal Society and the major part thereof Printed before the Author's Death who Deceased Decemb. 30th 1691. To which is annexed a Catalogue of all his Theological and Philosophical Works together with the Order of Time wherein each of them hath been Published respectively In 12o. 1692. Of the Reconcileableness of Specifick Medicines to the Corpuscular By the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq Fellow of the Royal Society In 8o. 1686. Miracles Works above and contrary to Nature Or an Answer to a late Translation out of Spinosa's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Mr. Hobs's Leviathan c. In 4o. 1683. History of the Original and Progress of Ecclesiastical Revenues By the Learned P. Simon 1685.