special note I would by the by allow my self a traffick with sundry authors as I happned to light upon them for my recreation and I would make the best advantage that I could of them but I would fix my study upon those only that are of most importance to fit me for action which is the true end of all learning and for the service of God which is the true end of all action Lord teach me so to study other mens works as not to neglect mine own and so to study thy word which is thy work that it may be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path my candle to work by Take me off from the curiosity of knowing only to know from the vanity of knowing only to be known and from the folly of pretending to know more then I do know and let it be my wisdome to study to know thee who art life eternal Write thy law in my heart and I shall be the best book here MEDITATION VI. Vpon an entertainment of Godly Friends WHat a deal of Heaven is there in in this company methinkes like Abraham I entertain Angels the comfort and illumination that I receive from them hath so much of that society in it Certainly there is no pleasure in this world comparable to the enjoyment of the Communion of Saints where good people are compacted and united together in affection and judgment and interest as fellow members of one body which though many have but one heart and one head and are so one another that they are members one of another that they are all one in Christ But in the name of wonder what is it that should be so taking in this company where is the wine and the strong drink where are the costly ointments and the Crownes of rosebuds the Musick dancing laughing the world understands the language of these jollities without the help of an interpreter But for people to meet only to talk one another into gravity and to spend time in speculative discourses of another world when they might give themselves the pleasure of this if this be mirth what doth it It may seem a strange and an impertinent advice of this great Moralist to his friend Lucilius that above all things he should be careful to learnâ— how to be merry one would think there should go no great matter of Philosophy to that But there is a mistake in it True mirth is Metaphysical and supernatural It is not the crackling of thornes under a pot a blaze and a noise and a nothing the laughter of a mad man is not mirth but it is a severe and I may say a Divine thing It is an anticipation of the joyes of Heaven in the delightful society of a good conscience when we are alone and together with that of conscientious friends when we are in company They are the merry hearts that keep the continual Feast It is one of the Devils lyes and that of which he hath made as great advantage as of any that Religion is a dull flat melancholy thing whereas in truth there is no such cleere defecate mirth as that which cometh from the Springs above The Prophet Isaiah speaking of the coming of our Saviour in the flesh gave this Character of him That he should not be sad so it is rendered in the vulgar translation that he should not be of a sullen retired disposition but amicable and free and it was verified in his conversation He was anointed with the oyle of gladness and we have that Spiritual unction from him Let the men of the world deride this heavenly mirth as the Covetous Pharisees derided the true riches which Christ spake of as a fantastical thing they do but like those that make themselves merry at the sight of a company dancing a farr off when they cannot hear the musick whereby their gestures and motions are directed and therefore judge them to be antick and ridiculous They take this mirth to be no other then a folly and laugh at they know not what because being at such a distance from the godly they cannot take notice of the heavenly harmony and accord that is between their orderly conversation and the aires of Gods spirit quickening and inlivening them with joyes unspeakable and full of glory Nothing but ignorance is the mother of this misopinion But what are these friends that are so wellcom are they persons of honour or interest is there any thing to be gotten by them the fashion of the world is to serve the Ball only to those that can return it and to bid those only that can bid againe It is a sad word Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish weak base inconsiderable things of the world things that are nothings to route and confound all humane wisdome and might and to annul things that are The Lord seeth not as man seeth vainglorious fooles may pride themselves in that which is none of their own the vertue and generosity of their ancestors or in that which hath no being at all but in fancy riches and estate It is not flaggs and pedegree but a noble heart that makes a noble person true goodness is true greatness and Gods blessing the true riches he that hath that hath all â—s slight account as there is made of these good people and of such as these they are the Children of the King of heaven and though possibly their names may not be extant in the Heralds bookes they will be found written in the book of life Our little great ones of the world may think them only fit to stand at the lower end of the roome or to sit under the footstoole but with their good leave they that shall one day sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of Heaven are good enough now to be guests at the best table upon earth How happy are the hours that are spent in such company as this to speak more properly they are not spent but gaind So much time thus redeemed is so much life clearly gotten there is a prolongation of life in a holy Conversation it is one thing to be in the world and another to live in it They only live that live well Vitious persons that give themselves up to their pleasures are dead whilst they live and are but a kind of walking Ghosts but the living the living they praise God and they onely live that do praise him There is nothing that hath a greater influence upon our lives than the company we keep generally Men are like that Mercurial Planet good or bad according to their conjunction with others There is in all societies an attracting and assimilating quality and altho thorough the corruption that is predominant in our natures this is more apparent in the operation of evil rather than of Good Company yet there is true grace this Magnetick Vertue will shew it self
their own lusts and passions and interests It is not evil to suffer but to do evil But I am hear immured in an obscure base condition What then true vertue is a jewel that can give a lustre in the dark If the worth of a meer moral man as was Socrates could be thought sufficient to take off the ignominy and reproach of a prison upon the account of his lying there how much more should the honour of a Christian illustrate and dignify the basest Dungeon But I am separated and cut off from the society of the world The further off the better except the world were better What is there in the world but the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and what can there be more proper for remedy of these evils then this confinement wherein as to the first my body is sufficiently kept under and brought into subjection for although I cannot say that I am lodged as our King Edward the Second was in a vault among dead carcasses yet in a civil way I am buried here and am but a kind of a living Corps a mortification to my self As for mine eyes they are secured from the temptation of any vain objects having little else to behold but bare old ruinous walls the emblems of mine own decayed condition and in this desolate forlorn habitation what exercise can there be for pride except it be in a holy way to despise the world company and not solitude is the Scene of pride O my Soul is it not an happiness to be freed from these snares wilt thou be disquieted for being shut out of a pest-house What though thou beest as a Sparrow alone and that no eye take notice of thee It is for players to be out of countenance when no body sees them act a good Conscience is a thousand spectators Nay be not deceived thou art not alone when thou art most alone God is here and he that is higher then the highest regardeth thee Christ so with thee that he is in thee persecuted in thee and afflicted in thine affliction the Holy Ghost is thy comforter the Angels are thy Guardians they keep thee they Minister unto thee and is not this good company But there is a dishonour that sticks to this condition which is usually followed with contempt and scorn True if the cause of committment were dishonorable if I suffered as a malefactor But when the cause is Gods and that I suffer for doing well I am so far from being ashamed of my chain that I glory in it as in a favour from Gods own hand What have I that I have not received my very sufferings as well as the grace of believing are to be reckoned among my receipts to me it is given not only to believe but to suffer As to the contempt of the world there is nothing more contemptible no man is subject to that but he that lyes under a contempt within himself Retain thine own dignity O my Soul and thou art above it But possibly thou maist shrink at the apprehension of poverty and want which are usual concomitants of a captive estate be not cast down nor disquieted with this He that hath himself and is in possession of his own Soul hath lost nothing I am yet richer then I was when I came into the world Blessed be God I have yet all that Jacob could wish bread to eat and rayment to put on whilst many better then I have not so much Whatsoever is more then that is more then needs Job gave God thanks when he had nothing before him Paul when he had nothing had all I can claim nothing from God as due unto me but the wages of my sins and that is something worse then nothing Be thankful O my Soul for what thou hast be humbled for what thou hast not in all conditions labour to be content and in that contentment with Gods blessing thou wilt find all But it is the continuance of an imprisonment that may seem tedious and be grievous Certainly that cannot be long for the life of man is but of short continuance It can be but like an ill lodging in an Inn and we should bear it accordingly what tho the night be long it is but a night and we shall be gone in the morning Remember O my Soul that a long imprisonment is not so bad as an everlasting one Bless God that thou art not laid in chaines of darkness with the Devil and his Angells reserved unto the judgment of the last dreadful day Be not weary of well suffering no more then of well doing think of the glorious Army of Martyrs How did many of them languish with a desire to be in thy condition and reckoned themselves in prison till they were in prison thou hast not yet resisted unto blood as they did thou art in the hands of thine heavenly Physitian who best knowes thine infirmity and thy constitution and complexion and what is fittest for thee beyond all that thou canst think what if he seeing that sharp and quick remedies be not so proper for thee and that thou canst not bear them do put thee in this slow course of Physick to spend thy disease by a strict restrained diet wilt thou presume to dispute his prescription do not but obey and follow it But what if this imprisonment should be but praecursory to a further a greater and it may be a capital punishment I may consider in what hands I am that I am under the power of a frantick People that have cast off their obedience to all lawful authority and know not how to weigh out Justice unto any without putting their sword into the scales O my Soul thou mayest do wisely to look beforehand thorough thy danger to the uttermost end thereof and to arm thy self against the worst that may be but in taking this perspective make use of thy reason not of thy passion a provident care and a solicitous despondency are two things Do not punish thy self with may be 's Do not antidate afflictions and make thy self miserable at present by an apprehension that thou mayest come to be miserable hereafter He that in a timerous solicitous way takes thought for to morrow labours under that suffering to day which he apprehendeth for to morrow and cannot but fear more then he should because he fears sooner then he should He doth in a sort put the lye upon our blessed Saviour as if the evil of the day were not sufficient unto it These querulous fancies argue an unfixedness of heart as the creaking of a board sheweth it to be loose and not well fastened The Moralists can tell us in this case that there is nothing more easily deceived then humane foresight That in such future contingencies as it is observed in acute diseases our predictions are very uncertain that there is a levity in evil as well as in good fortune both alike subject to vicissitudes and
to an extasy that whether it be in the body or out of the body me thinks I can hardly say certainly there is nothing of greater use for the raising and sweetning of our affections towards God then the singing of his high praises in Psalmes and Hymmes and Spiritual Songs The primitive Christians were so taken with it that in the times of persecution at their conventicles before day they could not forbear making their melody to the Lord though many times they were discovered by it to their extream hazard It is written by a Father that in the little Town of Bethleem near unto which he lived there was nothing almost to be heard but that heavenly musick resounding in all places from the shop to the plough there was no mirth but in singing Psalms O the goodness of God who knowing our infirmity how much more we are inclined to that which delights then to that which profiteth hath so contrived it that by borrowing from melody that pleasure which toucheth our ears he doth by the smoothness and softness thereof as by a holy stealth convey a treasure of Good things into our hearts so that whilst we think we sing we learn and in doing that wherein we delight we are taught that whereby we profit It is observable that the sweetness of Musick consisteth in discords high low mean there can be no harmony in Vnisons If there be not a distinction in sounds how shall it be known what is piped or harped but then those discords must be proportionately accorded or the sound will be ingrate and odious and it is no otherwise in the point of Government there must be a distinction of degrees observed a superiority and an inferiority with a due order held between them every one retaining his proper place the treble must not be strung where the base should be nor the mean where the treble should be every one must be kept in his proper tone neither too flat nor too sharpe one pin should not be wound up too high nor another let down too low which was noted by Apollonius to have been Nero's fault in Government but every one in his peculiar station must be kept in a due harmony So we see Octaves or Diapazons though so many notes distant yet as by a secret simpathy correspond the one to the pulse and touch of the other and make the sweetest concord Parity at the best is but a kind of orderly confusion there can be no Musick in it But there be some strings which are called false ones which by reason of the inequality and unevenness of their making will never be brought to accord with the rest but will perpetually jar It were well if we had not too many Spirits of that Vneven jarring temper that nothing will ever work them to any agreement I would they were cut off that trouble the harmony But what a deal of time is spent in tuning before we can come to have any Musick and how easily and quickly is that delight of the Sons of men interrupted by the slipping or breaking of a string or the mistopping of a fret the case is alike in our most pleasing earthly enjoyments there is hardly any pleasure we take but it costs us pains to take it and when we have it every little accident is enough to discompose it If we set our hearts upon it and make it our businness we stop upon a wrong fret and if we scrue it up too high in our estimation or let it down too low to the service of base unworthy ends we run the hazard of making it break or stip or yeild no sound at all to please us There is nothing more sure then that there is nothing sure under the Sun O my Soul if there be so much pleasure to be taken in that which we call Musick hear which when all comes to all is but a sound arising from the percussion of a few guts or wire strings fastened to a concave frame or instrumet of wood moved by the fingers of men and it may be accompanied with their voices raise thy self upon the wings of faith and love to the contemplation of that truly melodious harmony whereof thou shalt by the grace of God be a partaker in the quire of Heaven without interruption to all eternity when the voices of Saints and Angells shall be conjoyned with the harpes of God in everlasting Hallellujas unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Lord I have had enough and enough of the scraping of this world which although it may for the time afford some pleasure to mine ear yet it is so momentary and to my Soul so unsatisfactcry that I humbly beseech thee to fit me for a better consort even that celestial one where all mouths shall be filled with thy praise and with thy honour and where my lips shall rejoyce when I sing unto thee and my Soul which thou hast redeemed Here the best of thy Servants have been weary of their crying there the meanest of them shall never be weary of their singing they shall rest from their labours but they shall never rest from their Holy Holy Holy'es to the Lord God almighty that labour shall be their rest There shall need no keeping time in that blessed Musick for none shall be out in their part and time shall be no more O my Soul what dost thou here I waite for thy Salvation O Lord but Lord how long MEDITAT XVI Vpon the sight of a pleasant Garden THere is no humane pleasure that hath so much of antiquity and of the state of innocency in it as the pleasure of a Garden The first notice and mention that we have of pleasure in the world is with reference to that garden in Eden which was of Gods own plantation and wherein he gave intertainment to our first Parents as in a room drest up on purpose to receive them and to give them delight But yet all was not made for meer delight there there was that which was good good for foood as well as that which was pleasant to the sight All the pleasures that are of Gods making are good vanity came in with sin How happy might we have been in that Primitive condition if sin had not corrupted it when without fears for to day or cares for to morrow we might have lived immortally blessed in a constant communion with God and in the affluence of all good things in him when our roses should have had no briers when our pleasures should have had nothing but an innocent sweetness in them and we might have gathered them without scratching our fingers without raveling our Consciences when the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden would have been an invitation to us to have walked with him and not a terrour to have driven us from his presence O Adam what hast thou done what a happy estate hast thou forfeited for an inconsiderable trifle How hast
in a violent passionate way and with unseemly expressions 1 Job â—â— 13. So did not Job and so would not I for every Master hath a Master in heaven 2 Ephes 6. 9. with whom there is no respect of persons from the highest to the lowest all are in the same relation fellow servants unto him He that made me made them and nothing but his free grace put the distinction between us without which I might have held a Trencher to them as well as they to me I would therefore so use them as I would be used by them if I were in their quality My indevour should be to give them that which were just and equal to take care of them upon all occasions to shew my self affable to them 1 Ephes 6. 9. forbearing threatning and harshness and by that crriage to oblige them to be not only faithful Servants to me but according to Seneca's phrase 2 Sen. Ep. 47. humble friends But in case I should find my self necessitated to take notice of faults and to express a sharpness upon it as sometimes and too often there might be occasion for it which if I should not be sensible of I might quickly be Servant-ridden and reduced to that Proverbial condition of the Major of Senegalia in Italy to command and do it my self I would be careful to bridle my passion so as that it might not run away with me but that I might be able to manage it and to keep it within the ring and compass of these considerations 1. I would shew a present sence of any dishonor offered to God either by prophane Speeches or wicked actions with a further allowance to my self to chide in this case then in any else both as the concernment is higher and as I might with more safety trust my dull heavy affections for mounting too fast upward But then I would intermingle mine anger with greif as our Saviour did 1 Mark 3. 5. for the hardness of their hearts that had so offended and indevour to convince them of their sin and to reduce them to repentance 2. I would not discover mine anger too often or upon light occasions for that like the frequent and ordinary giving of hot water would abate the operation of it and at last render it ineffectual and despicable 3. I would not chide the air when my Servant had misdemeaned himself but six the blame upon the person and that as Paul rebuked Peter to his face 2 Galat. 2. 11. for to make a clamour against any behind their backs and to say nothing to them when they came in presence would be but a disturbance to my self a jeast to those that should have the reproof and an emendation to no body 4. I would be moderate in chiding when soever I were put to it He that goes beyond that measure deserves to be chidden himself as Plutarch was justly told his own and reproached as a person not worthy to be called a Philosopher for that having written so much against anger he himself gave so much way unto it against his Servant 5. I would be careful not to retaine mine anger too long least it should grow sower there may be a passant anger in a wise man 1 Eccles 7. 9. but we know in what bosome it resteth 6. I would avoid occasions of anger and not be too curious an dinquisitive after all words that are spoken least I should hear my Servant curse me 2 Eccles 7. 21. and therefore if my Servant would not amend by fair means I would resolve to part with him rather then to keep him to the hazard of my making my self the worse by my passion because he would not be bettered by my reason Lastly if at any time I should find my self transported to sin in this way I would labour to be humbled for it and to be angry with my sin which is the right way to be angry without sin 3. I would take heed unto mine actions 1. Not to do any thing that might give occasion of Scandal whereby I should at once dishonor God open the mouths of the wicked to blaspheme greive the Spirits of good people and wound mine own conscience I like not the humour of those that dispise a bad fame for none do that so much as those that despise the vertues that produce a good fame and this shewes worst in those that are greatest as the scandals they give are more exemplary then others for the faults of great men can never be small But there is a twofold scandal the one real the other imaginary and in appearance only I would if I could avoid both but it should be with more solicitude for the one than the other For the first I hope I should as soon choose to dive into the bottom of the Sea with a Mill-Stone about my neck as in a real way be guilty of it as to the scandalizing of the least of Christs little ones but for the other which I reckon an offence taken and not given such as is grounded upon unsound and depraved opinions about things indifferent or impertinent I would not asservile my self to any mens fancies and Chymera's and I know not what dominations and spirits of the Air but either give a rational satisfaction for what I did or if that would not be taken for good payment acquiesce in the satisfaction of mine own conscience and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made me free I had rather never have been born than that it should be said of me that I had committed murder or adultery or felony but if any should charge me with preciseness or fanaticism for not going to a Play or a Tavern or for not using that freedom and liberty in my discourse and conversation that others did I should be so far from being troubled at it that it should be a comfort to me to be found guilty of such innocent scandals I would be wary not to give the men of the World advantage to tax me in the course of my life with any thing of dishonor but if all the occasion they could find against me were but concerning the law of my God and my devotion to his service I hope I should never shut the window for it I would therefore make it my care and constant indevour to provide that whatsoever I did might not only be good but of good report and honest in the sight of honest and good men that my good might not be evil spoken of by them But for those that are without I shall say no more 2. I would be careful as to do good so to do that good in a good manner which is to do it well for a thing done may be good in the substance of the work and yet vitiated in the manner of the doing of it Cain and Abel the Pharisee and the Publican performed both the one and the other the same duties but with so much