of men What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved My Hands also will I lift up to thy Commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy Statutes O how I love thy Law it shall be my Meditation every day How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my mouth Through thy Precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Do I not hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name So will I praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore Amen IX AND that you may be the more humbly confident both of Gods continued goodness and your own fidelity and the more fit likewise for pious Meditations labour I intreat you as much as ever you can to maintain a constant chearfulness of spirit and lightsomness of heart Without this it will be always night with you or but a cold Winters day and as you will have no list either for meditation or any other employment so you will be apt to live in perpetual suspicion of God and of your Friends and of your self Melancholy is a dull lumpish humour which makes us of a frozen disposition and a Leaden temper It inclines us not only to think worse of our selves than we are but to do worse than otherwise we should It represents those things as exceeding difficult which may be done with ease and those as impossible which have in them any considerable difficulty It benums and stupifies our Souls and will let us feel nothing but it self It quite dispirits us and will not suffer us to do any thing because it imagines we cannot stir It shows us to our selves in an ugly Glass and then no wonder we look amiss upon all things else Some things it makes to appear bigger than they are and then all the rest appear less And having conceived them otherways than they are it nourishes the conceit till we believe it real As under the weight of some sluggish matter in the blood a man sometimes fancies his Arms are as big as Posts and then his Hands seem as heavy as a Pig of Lead and he thinks he is unable to lift them up to his Head so it is with our minds when they are oppressed with the burden of a sad and melancholy humour It makes all our duty seem very great and our strength to be none at all All impediments it renders as big as Mountains but our selves not of force enough to remove a straw It first binds up all the powers of the Soul and then will not let them be unloosed It makes us very fearful of that which it perswades us we cannot avoid And it afflicts us for that which yet it makes us fancy we cannot do In an heat it pushes us forward but suddenly it cools and says we cannot go If it catch fire it makes us wild and when it hath spent that flame it leaves us sots and fools It pricks us forward sometimes to an enterprize but it self is the shackles and fetters that will not let us move This heaviness you must take heed of and give no indulgence to it For it is the worm of the mind as one of the Antients expresses it which eateth up its Parent that brought it forth Contrary to the nature of other births it pleases us much when we bring it forth but proves a miserable torment to us as soon as it is born Melancholy musings I mean are at first a very delightful entertainment to the mind but they grow in a little time to be a very troublesome brood They are a dangerous maze in which a Man may easily lose himself and from whence he cannot without much difficulty get forth Honey is not sweet to a feaverish man nor are the sweetest truths acceptable to the sad Clogs are not a greater impediment to the Feet than this humour to the motions of the Soul The eyes are not more darkned with some kind of fumes and vapours than the understanding is with its black imaginations The Ayr is not more poysoned when it is charged with a thick and stinking mist than the mind is offensive to it self and others when it is buried in its Clouds And as the Sun when it looks through a Fog seems as if it were all bloody So do the fairest objects even God himself appear in a dismal and horrid shape when these sullen exhalations gather about us Labour then continually to disperse them and blow them away by such means as you find by experience to be most available to that purpose For chearfulness causes the Soul to breath in a pure Air and to dwell in a wholsome and sweet inclosure It makes our work seem easie and difficulties seem little and God seem good and so our strength seem great and irresistable It inlightens the mind it incourages the heart it adds wings to the affections and therefore he that forbids it to our Souls keeps out the welcomest Guest and the best Friend that Nature hath It misbeseems none but the wicked in whom it is commonly a light mirth and a foolish jollity As you see fine ornaments and curious dresses set off an handsome Face though they render those who are ugly more ill-favoured So doth chearfulness exceedingly become good Souls though in bad men it be most ridiculous For which cause it is neither unmeet to use any helps that Nature affords us to acquire it nor to call in the assistance of innocent arts and pretty inventions to invite it to keep us company Socrates blushed not to be found at Boyes-play with his Children The wise and solemn Cato sometimes stooped to be a little frollick The great Scipio thought it not unbecoming his triumphal body as Seneca calls it to use grave dances and trip about a Room in decent measures Some devout men indeed have pronounced of such like pastimes as Physicians do of Mushromes that the best ordered are worth nothing but they did not mean sure to decry all those pleasures which of themselves are indifferent and which the intention alone can render good as well as evil You ought not to refuse any ingenious or harmless recreations which you find will cherish or refresh your spirit though by Souls of a dark complexion they be deemed fooleries It is too great a burden to impose on your self such restraints as not to dare so much as laugh for fear of giving occasion of suspicion to the weak or of slander to the wicked But since
by despairing to do otherwise Bless the Lord O my Soul that we are aware of this dangerous mistake And let us not despond though we have no reason to boast and glory in our resolution Was not this the condition of other of the Saints long before I was born Am I the only example of an heavy and sluggish Soul Must I be recorded the first in the Catalogue for inconstancy What helps and assistances then had they to restore themselves and to preserve them to the end which are strangers to our eares Must I dispatch a message to some Forreign Country for their Recipe's as we send for Drugs and Spices Cannot we tell without the charge of going to Hippo what Holy Austine strengthned himself withall Must we take a Pilgrimage to Rome to learn St. Hierome's Medicines Sure my Soul thou hast the same gracious Saviour the same compassionate High-Priest the same cordial promises the very same hope of the Gospel which revived and supported their hearts or if thou hast not speak that I may go and seek them Look then on thy blessed Saviour look on his holy Apostles nay look upon all those excellent Persons in the Church that have succeeded them Shall we not follow such glorious Leaders Are their Examples impossible to be imitated If they be they are not examples How can we be cold when we think of the flames of their love How can we be lazy and unwilling to do when we see how forward how vehemently desirous they were to suffer What should hinder us from going on when we have such a Multitude of Triumphant Souls before our eyes whom nothing could drive back Shall pleasures shall the incumbrance of business shall Relations and Friends yea shall dangers shall Death No I am not inchanted I am not affrighted with these words Be gone you false and deceitful pleasures How dare you perplex me you impertinent imployments No more of your importunity I charge you if you will be my Friends Welcome contempt welcome reproach welcome poverty or any other thing which will certainly bring me nearer to my God But what is it that gives you this suddain confidence How come you of a coward to grow thus couragious Of a Snail who made you thus to mount up in your thoughts like an Eagle Who will believe that thou wilt do such things I will believe it may you answer again to your self whatsoever can be objected against it Why are these called suddain thoughts which are my most deliberate resolutions Through the Lord I shall do valiantly He it is that shall tread down mine enemies under me The like discourse you may have with your self about God or any other subject You may consider not only that he is gracious and merciful but cry out O how great how great is his goodness Is there any thing thou canst name comparable to his loving-kindness What makes thee then so unwilling to go to him What 's the cause of such a diffidence and unbelief as hath deadned and dispirited thine heart Could I think that any thing would make thee fall into this stupidity Didst thou not once look upon him as the first Beauty as the joy the health and the life of our Souls Who is it that is altered and hath suffered a change He or thou Is he not the same to day yesterday and for ever Why shouldest not thou be the same too Or why shouldst thou not think that he will make thee the same again How many times is it repeated in the Book of God that his mercy endureth for ever For whom was it but such trembling Souls as thou that he proclaims himself so often to be abundant in mercy goodness and truth But must we not then believe it Is this the way to obtain his mercy by distrusting of him What a preposterous course is this How unseemly nay how unkind is it to question these gracious declarations of his love Let us be confidently perswaded he hath a greater desire than we that we should be true and faithful to him Let us rest our thoughts in this conclusion that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now when you find any benefit by such expostulations and reasonings with your self hope it would do you some good if you should use the like in an humble address to God you may be furnished with several strains of devout Admiration and Pathetical Appeals to his all-seeing Majesty out of the Holy Scriptures There are Examples also of the other but expostulations with God are not to be imitated without much caution and holy fear and ought not to be commonly used It may be sufficient to conclude the foregoing Meditations with some such form of words as this A PRAYER O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy glory above the Heavens When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is miserable man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Lord what honour is that which thou hast conferred on him in setting him now in the Person of Jesus above the Angels themselves For to which of the Angels didst thou say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again Let all the Angels of God worship him Who in the Heaven can be compared unto the Lord Who among the mighty can be likened unto the Lord And therefore whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee O God thou art my God early will I seek thee My Soul thirsteth for Thee and longeth after Thee O when wilt thou come unto me There be many that say Who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me Show me thy self and it sufficeth Lord what wait I for Truly my hope is in Thee My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him By thee O Lord have I been holden up from the Womb thou art he that took me out of my Mothers bowels My Praise shall be continually of Thee But who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord Who can shew forth all his praise Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the Sons
though a Slave or a Servant be ours yet they are so but in part The first gives us power over him out of fear and the second for reward But it is a power over their Bodies only and not over the men Because neither fear of punishment will tye up a Slave from rebellious thoughts nor hope of reward oblige a Servant to a chearful obedience in his will He only hath intirely gain'd a man and so added to himself something better than any possession in this World who enjoys a Friend and hath won an absolute power over the heart and affection of another Person This is a rich man indeed especially when the Person he enjoys is one of real worth having a mind stored with the Treasures of Divine wisdom and an heart full of the love of God Otherways it must be confessed a Man loses by this gain and hath the less by this accession of seeming riches It was an audacious fancy of Boccalin's and an unjust estimate which he made when in his Ballance wherein he weighs all the States of Christendom he supposes England which he throws into the Scales for a counterpois to France to weigh the lighter upon the addition of Scotland to it But if we conceive the like Ballance for our purpose we shall find it too true that he who contracts a Friendship with a prating Companion or a Person of no inward worth and value will feel himself the poorer and the weaker when he comes to weigh what he hath got for his pretended increase and the annexing of a Friend will be an heaviness and not a refreshment to his mind Whoso feareth the Lord therefore shall direct his friendship aright as the Son of Syrach speaks VI. Ecclus. 17. for as he is so shall his Neighbour or Familiar be also God loves ever as the ancient Greek saying was to bring like to like He will guide a good man in his choice and lead him by the hand to one that is good In whom he will make account he hath found such a plentiful fortune that he will not be content to forgo it and take his portion in some other goods For you may trust the same wise man Nothing doth countervail a faithful Friend and his excellency is unvaluable v. 15. It is a great comfort to us but to think that we have such a treasure for we receive no small benefit by him even when he is only the companion of our thoughts and is not otherwise present with us And therefore change not a Friend for any good by no means neither a faithful Brother for the Gold of Ophir VII 18. Covet his company above all others and do not think you can press too near him or be too familiar with him Love him exceedingly and be not willing on any occasion to be divided from him There can be no danger you should clash by being ever together For as one of the Hebrews excellently expresses it A Needles eye is not too strait for two Friends and all the World is not wide enough for two Enemies And if you must live at a distance from him be not jealous of him nor suspect his constancy For solid love whose root is vertue can no more dye than vertue it self as Erasmus excellently speaks in a Letter of his to one of our Country-men When covetousness saith he Lib. 9. Epist 12. makes Men Friends their love and their gain must needs end together And they whom pleasure allures to friendship will make an end of loving when they are satiated with it And lastly they who have a great kindness one for another out of a childish forwardness or a juvenile heat will forsake one another with the same levity that they embraced Our kindness relies on stronger Pillars for it was neither hope of gain nor pleasure nor youthful affection but an honest love of wisdome and our common studies which joyned us together For good men are linkt and chained to each other by their admiration and esteem of the same things And since the study of vertue is not subject to those alterations and changes of fortune that other things undergo the benevolence of good men must needs be perpetual and is not in danger to suffer that decay which is wont to be the fate of vulgar friendship But that it may be the better preserved and maintained it is necessary that Friends frequent the company and conversation of each other as much as they can For as Themistius well notes Exercise is all in all things and mutual conversation Orat. 3. or correspondence is the exercise of friendship But it is time to make an end of this which I have the longer continued for the reason now named because the writing of all this is a good exercise of my Friendship to you Let me only cast in this one Rule at the bottom of it It is good to observe when any chilness and heaviness creeps upon you from what quarter it comes I mean you must follow the stream backward to the Fountain and inform your self of the cause of the alteration If it be too much company then as soon as you can seek retirement and betake your self to private Meditation If too much solitariness then find out some agreeable company or run to your Friend If the change of weather then wait if there be no other relief till it change again If you know not what then believe you shall find a remedy in Gods goodness you know not how And it may give you some pleasure perhaps when you are most indisposed as to think of your Friend so to send up this short Prayer to Heaven for him and for all those that heartily love you and to hope that they also are making the same address upon your account I put them all together indistinctly it is in your power at any time to make it as particular as you please A PRAYER THou art love O God and art to be infinitely loved above all things Blessed be thy goodness who wouldst have us dwell in love that we may dwell in Thee and Thou in us Blessed be thy goodness that I am capable of such happiness especially of loving so great a good as thy self who art the fountain of all other good from whom comes every good and perfect gift To thee I owe my Health my Peace my Plenty my Wit and all other Indowments either of my body or of my mind I am exceedingly indebted to Thee for the inconceivable felicity which thou hast put me in hope of in the other World and that thou art pleased to let me begin it here in the company and society of good men especially in the love of kind and faithful Friends I thank thee again O God and can never thank thee enough for this and all other thy gifts wherewith thou hast enriched me Beseeching thee that my love may grow more fervent by the daily consideration of thy love to us all and that I may have