through vast and dangerous Wildernesses and borne with much patience the excess of heat and cold Have not others out of a coveâ—ous desire of gain parted with Friends and Country for many yeares may I not then send the faint-hearted Christian to learn of the resolute Worldling as Solomon doth the Sluggard to the Pismire shall he set an higher estimate upon Earthly Treasures then you upon Heavenly shall he out-face dangers that you shrink at shall he quit Parents and Children that are pieces of himself and imbrace solliâ—ude in forraign Regions and shall you reckon your self as free among the dead while you do the same thing O what advantages have you above him both to do and suffer In your sollitude you may say as Christ did in his Yet am I not alone because the Father is with me In your Sorrowes you may glory as Paul did This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our Conversation in the World ln the loss and spoil of your Estates you may pray as Paulinus did when the Gothes ransacked Nola Domine ne excrucier propter auram argentum ubi enim omnia mea sunt tu scis Lord let not the loss of these things disquiet me for thou knowest where I have said up all my treasures In your Banishment you may comfort your self with the common lot of all believers who are no other then Pilgrims and Strangers while they are at home in the Body and absent from the Lord I shall add no more but an excellent saying of Basil Cui adhuc patria solùm dulcis est nimis delicatus est cui omnis terr a patria forâ—is est cui omnis terra exilium sanctus est He to whom his Native Countrey is onely sweet is too delicate he to whom every Land is his Countrey is valiant and he to whom al 's Earth is a Banishment is truely holy Meditation XLI Vpon the Breast and the sucking-Bottle THe Word of God by which Men are turned from darkness unto light is sometimes compared unto Seed and sometimes unto Milk and the Ministers of it sometimes unto Fathers and sometimes unto Nurses This double relation points forth their double Duty which is not onely as spiritual-Fathers to beget Men unto Christ but as nursing Mothers to give them the full Breasts of the sincere Milk of the Word that they may grow thereby and of new-borne Babes may become strong in the Faith and filled with all knowledge and wisdome in the things of God But how is this done is it by Reading onely the Scriptures without giving the Sense though that be a Publick Ordinance of God and highly to be honoured of all or by a diligent and well digested Preaching of them in which the Truths delivered are sucked in as Milk from the Breast that partakes of the warmth and spirits of the Nurse Some Ministers who have consulted more for their own Ease then their Peoples Profit have endeavoured to maintain Reading to be Preaching as if that were a sufficient discharge of their Duty But what then will become of the Apostles question Who is sufficient for these things it should then be rather who is not sufficient or of what use will be his Counsel To Preach in season and out of season and to divide the Word of God aright as a workman that needeth not be ashamed True it is that if Preaching be taken largely sor any Declaration or Publishing of the Word of God it cannot be denyed to be Preaching but if it be taken strictly for Preaching by way of Office and for Ministerial Publishing of the Gospel then it is quite another thing Was there not a wide difference between the Woman of Samaria her making known of Christ and the Apostles Preaching of him or between Andrewes calling of his brother Peter before he was puâ— into his Apostolical Office and his Preaching of Christ when Commissionated by him and what less difference is there between a Naked Reading of the Scripture or some other set Discourses and the Powerfull Preaching of the Word But if Trial and Experience could better Evince than Argument those who justifie the Opinion by their Practise I could wish that such might bring forth their Children who have lived wholly upon the singular meanes of Reading and let their Countenance be looked upon and the Countenance of those who have had the Word duly Preached unto them and then let others Judge whether their Countenance appear as fair and fat as their Brethrens O how quickly would it be discerned which they are which have received their nourishment from the Breast and which from the Bottle it would soon be judged that the weak are the Flock of Laban and the strong the Flock of Jacob which God hath by far blessed above the other Think then upon it O ye sloathfull ones to whose care God hath commited the wellfare of many Soules hoâ— you will answer your neglect to God â— If the Chief Officer was afraid that his withholding the Kings appointed Meat from Daniel and his Companions might indanger his head to his Lord should he see their Faces worse liking than the Children of their sort what cause will ye have to fear the displeasure of Christ when he shâ—ll behold thâ— wan and pale lookes of those for whom he died by your deâ—eining the Breast from them who should have been nourished up in the words of Faith and good Doctrine Nor shall ye O Christians who slight Ordinances and turn your back upon the Breasts of Consolation which are held forth unto you escape any better then the Ministers who deny them to their People If it be a sin to do the one it is no less if not greater in you to do the other They sin against the Soules of others and you sin against your own Soules And yet how great are the numbers upon whom the guilt of this Crime may be Charged Some think that they are past their Childhood and therefore Wean themselves they know as much as their Teachers can tell them and to what end then should they still give them their Attendance to hanker after the Breast is for Babes not for grown Persons But are not they who thus speak puffed up and know nothing as they ought Is not this whole life a state of Infancy in respect of persection doth not the Apostle say that we see but darkly and know but in part Why then should the old Mnasons be more ashamed of these Breasts then the young Timothies David Professed himself as a weaned Child from the World but never from the Word Others please themselves that though they go not to Hear yet they Read good Books and better Sermons at home than their Ministers can make and so take themselves not to be less zealous but onely more discreet than their Brethren who do not the like And yet who can excuse such Persons from the guilt both of folly and
wickedness Is it not solly to refuse the warm breast and to suck the Milk from the bottle when it is dispirited and hath lost both its warmth and lively taste and what less difference is there between a Sermon in the Pulpit and in the Prâ—ss Is it not also wickedness to offer Sacriledge for Sacrifice and to rob God of one Duty to pay him another to withhold the greater and to seem Conscientious in the less Are they not in thus doing fures de se thieves to their own Soules depriving themselves of the profit of both while they are willfull neglecters of each Be wise therefore O Christians in keeping up an high esteem of the Word Preached and be alwayes as Babes for hunger and desire after it though not for knowledg and understanding in it And remember that there is no way so dangerous to lessen your desires as to keep your selves fasting from it For the Word of God still creates new appetites as it satisfies the old and enlargeth the capacities of the Soul as it fills it Use good Books as Apothecaries do their Succedanea one simple to supply the want of another when the Preacher cannot be had then make use of them but let it rather be to stay the stomach in the absence of an Ordinance then to satisfie it And when you enjoy both say as Aristotle sometimes did of the Rhodian and Lesbian Wine when he had tasted of both that the Rhodian was good too but the Lesbian was the pleasanter Holy Books are good and relish well but the Word Preached is more sweet the one is as the Wine the Bridegroom provided at the Marriage Feast and the other as that which Christ made which was easily discerned by the Governour who knew not whence it was to be by far the better Meditation XLII Vpon Mixtures THe wise God hath so tempered the whole Estate of Man in this life as that it consisteth altogether of Mixtures There is no sweet without sower nor sower without sweetness All simples in any kinde would prove dangerous and be as uncorrected drugs which administered unto the Patient would not recover him but destroy him Constant Sorrow without any Joy would swallow us up and simple Joy without any Grief would puff us up both extreames would agree alike in our ruine he being in as dangerous a case who is swolne with Pride as he who is overwhelmed with Sorrow This Mixture then though it seem penall and prejudicial to our comfort is yet Medicinall and is by God as a wise Physician ordered as a Diet most sutable to our Condition and if we did but look into the grounds of it we shall find cause to acknowledge Gods wise Providence and to frame our hearts to a submission of his will without murmuring at what he doth For have we not two Natures in us the Spirit and Flesh the New and Old Man have we not twins in our Womb our Counter-lustings and our Counterwillings Are we not as Plants that are seated between the two different Soiles of Earth and Heaven Is there not then a necessity of a mixed Diet that is made up of two contraries The Physician is not less loyal to his Prince if he give to him an unpleasing Vomit and to a poor Man a cheering Cordiall because his Applications are not according to the dignity of the Person but to the quality of the Disease neither is God the less kind when he puts into our hand the bitter Cup of asfliction to drink of then when he makes us to caste of the Flaggons of his sweetest wine Paul his Thorn in the Flesh what ever the meaning of it be was usefull to keep down that tumor of pride which the abundance of Revelations might have exposed him unto and so joyned together they were like the rod and the Honey which enlightned Jonathans eyes when he had tasted the sweetness of the one God would have him feel the smart of the other At the same time also when God blessed Jacob he Crippled him that he might not think above what was meet of his own strength or ascribe his prevailing to the vehemency of his Wrâ—stling rather then to Gods gracious condescention Yea who is it that hath not experienced such Mixtures to be the constant Methods which he useth towards his dearest Children what are the lives of the best Christians but as a Rainbow which consists half of the moisture of a Cloud and half of the light and beames of the Sun Weeping saith David may endure for a Night but Joy cometh in the Morning And what other thing doth the Apostle speak of himself when he gives the Corinthians an account of his Condition As dying and behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowfull and yet alwayes rejoycing as poore yet making many rich as having nothing but yet possessing all things Blessed then is he who doth without repining yield himself to the dispose of Divine Providence rather then accuse it and looks not so much to what at present is gratefull to the sense as to what for the future will be profitable to the whole For in these Mixtures Magna latent beneficia 〈◊〉 non fulgeant great advantages do lye hid though not shine forth Hereby we are put upon the exercise of all those Graces which are accommodated to our imperfect state here below whose acts shall not be compleated in Heaven but shall all cease as being not capacitated for a Fruition and yet are of great use while we are on this side Heaven How necessary is Patience to bear up the Soul under trials that it fret not against God who inflicts them How greatly doth Hope temper any present souer by its expectation of some happy change that may and will follow and so worketh joy in the midst of sadness How even to wonder doth Faith manifest its power in all distresses when it apprehends that there are no degrees of extremity unrelieveable by the Arm of God or inconsistent with his compassions and friendship Again such Mixtures serve to work in us a greater hatred of sin and an earnest longing after Glory in which our life light joyes are all pure and everlasting Our life is without any seed of death our light without any shadow of darkness and our joyes endless Hallelujahs without the interruption of one sigh Therefore are we burdened in our Earthly Tabernacle that we should the more groan to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven Therefore yet have we the remainders of sin by which we are unlike God and the first-fruits onely of the spirit by which we resemble him that we might long and wait for the Adoption and Redemption wherein what ever is blended and imperfect shall be done away When not to sin which is here onely our Duty shall be the top branch of our reward and blessedness O holy Lord I complain not of my present lot for though it be not free from mixture yet it is
afford shelter So is not God who is a full store-house as well as a free refuge a Sun as well as a Shield Secondly By way of Eminency all perfections whatsoever either for degree or kind which put a worth or value upon the Creature are to be found insinitely more in God Is a Rock strong and dashing in pieces all resistance made against it God is incomparably more He saith Job is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Is a Rock durable and not subject to change by the many revolutions of Ages that pass over it God is far more immutable his yeares are throughout all Generations he is the same yeseerday and to day and for ever In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Is the shadow of a great Rock desirable in a weary Land to bear off the scorchings of the Sun and to revive the fainting Traveller what a covert and hiding place then is God against all stormes and heates whatsoever raised either by the rage of Men or by the Estuations of a troubled Conscience and fomented by the Malice of Satan Is a Rock of an awfull aspect for its height and apt to work upon the head of him that looks down from the top of it How great then is God whose glory is above the Heavens whose faithfulness reacheth unto the Cloudes whose righteousness is like the great Mountaines and whose Judgments are a great deep And now methinks I may say to my Soul as David did unto his Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Cannot God keep him in perfect peace whose Minde is stayed on him is not he a very present help in the times of trouble what evil can befall me under which his everlasting Armes cannot support me What Seas of Tryalls can overwhelm when God shall set me upon a Rock that is higher than I As I my self cannot climbe it so neither can my Enemies power ever reach it A Believer can onely be wounded by his own feares as the Diamond is onely cut by its own dust Peter sunk not till his Faith failed him if his confidence had risen as the Winde and Billowes did he would have greatly honoured his Lord as his Rock upon whom he was built and have been highly commended by him as he was for the good Confession he made of him But O blessed Saviour if Peter cry out Save Master I perish how much more shall I who fall far short of his little Faith and am apt to fear not onely in the deep Seas but in the shallow Brookes not onely when the Waves roar but when the petty Streames murmur Do thou therefore holy Lord teach me to know what a Rock thou art and cause all thy glory to pass before me as thou didst before Moses that so I may see every attribute of thine as so many Clefts in the Rock to which I may run in time of danger and rejoyce to find how I am compassed about with thy power wisdome faithfulness and goodness from whence more sure comfort will arise than if a numerous host of Angells should pitch their Tents round about me Meditation LIII Vpon a Counterfeit piece of Coyne VVHit Physicians say of some Diseases Illi morbi sunt pericâ—losissimi qui sanitatem Imitantur That they are most dangerous dangerous which seem to imitate and come nearest unto health may be applyed fitly to adulterous and spurious Coynes that the greater resemblance and likeness they have to the true and genuine the more pernicious and destructive they are to the Publick wasting though insensibly not onely private Estates but the common Treasure and Riches of a Nation And therefore the falsifying of Coyn which beares the Image or Armes of the Prince as the general Warrant to ratifie the goodness of it hath been made a Crime of the same Complexion with the highest attempt or act done against his Person the same Capital Punishment being inflicted upon him that is found guilty of the one as is upon him that is guilty of the other What can be done more to deter any from such Practises then the loss of Name Estate Life in a gastly and ignominious death and yet these severities which should be as the Boundaries at the foot of the Mountain to keep all from offending are insufficient to restrain many whom the love of gain and the hope of secrecy do embolden to run a sad hazard that they may enjoy the sweet Secrecy in sinning though in some respect it exâ—enuates a sin as making it less scandalous and less contagious yet it is a powerfull attractive to incline to the Commission of a sin Josâ—phs Mistriss was most vehement in her solliciting of him to folly when none of the Men of the house were within The Harlot in the Proverbs makes that as her Plea to the Young Man to hearken unto her That the good Man is not at home he is gone a long journey he hath taken a bag of Money with him and will come at the day appointed It was that which put an edge upon the Covetousness of Achan to take the goodly Babylonish Garment the two hundred shekels of Silver and the wedge of Gold that he could do it without the privity of any so that none could charge him with the breach of that strict Command which God had given of not taking the accursed thing least they make themselves accursed and the Camp of Israel accursed and trouble it Usually when shame and punishment are the sole Motives to deter from sin the secrecy of doing it by which both may be declined swayes prevailingly to the commission of it But how far more presumptuous are they who adulterate not the Coynes of Princes but the Truths of God and stamp his Name upon their Inventions to give a Credit and value unto them Have such workers of iniquity any darkness and shadow of death where they may hide themselves Do they think that though Kings cannot discover those oft times that violate the Dignities of their Crown that they also can escape the knowledge of the most High or is not he as jealous of his Word which he hath magnified above all his Name as they are of every piece that carries their Image and Inscription upon it hath he not declared himself to be against those that Prophesie the deceits of their own heart and use their Tongues and say the Lord saith Yeâ— hath he not denounced the most dreadful of Curses against all Embasers or Clippers of his Heavenly Coyn To the one he threatens all the Plagues that are written in the Word of Truth and for the other he shall take away his part out of the Book of Life out of the holy City and from the things that are written in the Book of God Who can read such a Sentence and not tremble at the thoughts of it And yet though God be as Bernard speakes Sapiens Nummâ—larius qui non