death prevent To free us from that fatal punishment Let us consider how we surely may The daily Terrours of that Doom allay The first thoughts then that should our hearts possess Our Souls are not depriv'd of happiness Whose lasting Essence must for ever be Immortal living by the same Decree But where the Question is for none can tell Whether he be destin'd to Heaven or Hell Till by the light of Scripture or by Grace We may be certain of the better place For then will death our blessed Souls convey To our immortal Bliss the surest way This is a Lesson for all Men to learn But is decrepid age's chief concern Who ought to watch for their last puff of Breath Which brings true life tho' we do call it Death Which only faithless Men and Children fright But to good Men proves their supream Delight On Nineveh's Repentance IF God an Angel should from Heaven send To bid us fast and pray can we pretend To feast and dance and not our God offend When we his Goodness and his Will withstand By slighting of so gentle a Command Instead of Fire and Sword when Tyrants rage Slew Saints by thousands in the former age Much greater now will our Offences prove When we despise such favour and such love When Piety and Grace so fast decay That as we ought few neither fast nor pray But careless throw our precious time away As if the world were given us to defie Our God and shew we scorned to comply Till he appears in Glory with such power As wiil both Heaven and Earth by fire devour Our wanton wealth and luxuries do look As if our stubborn Nation were forsook By God until our Nineveh repent In sack-cloth and in ashes to prevent Our fatal Doom and his just Punishment Unless our Princes do without delay Teach all the People how to fast and pray We may be all together swept away But this God's love and anger may divide So as to lay his flaming Sword aside And with his glorious Shield and Spear to rise And free us from our subtilest Foes surprize Thus we may convert God's severe Decree To love by our profound humility And find delicious Joy to fast and pray When servent sacred Zeal bears all the sway On Dying daily TO write of Dying and to spend our breath In long discourses of approaching death Is not the daily dying we should learn Nor is such practice of so much concern For we should live in every respect Like-pious Men or we that rule neglect Which is the true superlative degree Of dying daily while we living be To live in Heaven while we on Earth remain Will greater joy and highest honour gain For death by God is unto good Men sent To give eternal life not punishment On the desire of Variety 'T Is strange Man's nature should be so inclin'd To relish nothing that is most refin'd Without variety which we pursue Tho' worse than what we have because 't is new Yet thus we daily seek for more content By vicious ways which proves our punishment When down-right honesty would more prevail For bliss when all our wandring wishes fail Yet Nature will its natural desires Maintain and such variety requires That often turns our present joys to pain And makes our losses greater than our gain On a covetous rich Man IF wealth can hardly pass a needle's eye Men may with joy their poverty supply With hopes to pass who have no weighty packs Of such rich glitt'ring bundles at their backs As over-load their Souls with houshold-stuff When little food and raiment is enough To pass them through this World Such golden streams As brightest shine prove but fantastick dreams Which mock their sleep with some false pleasing sight Of shadows that do vanish with the night Tho' this unto poor me may seem most true 'T will find but little credit with rich you To part with any parcel of your store To cloth the naked and to feed the poor Tho' Christ declares 't is him whom we do feed When we relieve his Children in their need And may with justice rather curse than bless Such wicked men as do his poor oppress On negligent cold Prayers IF thy Devotion be not always alike delightful Examine thy own heart if thy Addresses to God be alike zealous if thy fervency of Spirit be not sometimes slackned and then do not wonder if God gives cold encouragement to cold Petitions he values his great Blessings at a higher price than to part with them to Men that mind not what they ask nor unto whom they pray He gives his bright shining favours only unto flaming hearts that think of God with awful reverence and pray with such angelical adoration in their approaches to the Throne of Mercy as may obtain the secret joy of a divine rapture in Devotion with such Ideas of eternal bliss as will not be purchased at an easier rate than a whole heart offer'd up to God in a daily Sacrifice On a Desire to die IT is a great mistake to think all Men desire to be with God whose afflictions make them desire to die only to be rid of their uneasiness on Earth as if they could flatter God to welcome them to Heaven who never had a thought of going thither until their Joys on Earth forsook them Such Men should consider that God's all-seeing Eye searches the heart and discerns when Men's chief arguments for love to him are his divine Perfections and their gratitude for Benefits received such a flaming Zeal may raise Men's Souls to such inessable Joys on Earth as Men truly pious can only judge of On frequent Meditation AS our Saviour said when he likened Heaven to a Grain of Mustard-feed so may I say of a Grain of divine Meditation if it be sown in a rectified heart it will in a little time grow unto so great a Joy that nothing can reach nearer to Heaven for it will raise the Soul of such a Man thither that sets himself to a constant practice of blowing those divine Sparks into a flaming love of God by frequent Meditations which ought to be the Souls food daily to make them live unto eternity in Heaven and by custom will create fresh Joys every day so fast and delightful as is inessable to be express'd by words nor can any Man's fancy reach those constant pleasures but he that feels and relishes such divine Ecstasies as a spiritualiz'd Soul can rise to On Time mis-spent TIme is the greatest Treasure that we have For use between our Cradle and our Grave Which we still study how to pass away Tho' no Man can its pace one moment stay 'T is strange that Nature should such Joys resist By which we naturally do subsist So often tir'd with idle thoughts in health As if we knew not how to spend such wealth But daily-wish we could to Time add wings Tho' his approach no welcome tiding brings Yet various hopes still in our hearts create
did appear so dazling bright I could not see its Glory for the Light My Soul supriz'd with Wonder and amaze Methought I pray'd and did forbear to gaze Frighted and pleased at what I lik'd and fear'd I found it was a Dream of Heaven appear'd Which waking fled but did my Fancy fill With blessed Ideas which abide there still With such transporting joy that I can weep To think of what I had and could not keep On a Dream of Hell STart not my Soul 't is but a Dream to show The dismal Terrors of eternal Woe Which unrepenting Sinners feel below Where Satan with his cursed Crue do dwell For their Ambition tumbled down to Hell While we rejoice on the Divine Presence Of our exalted Bliss by Penitence Those fiery Streams we seem to see May give us joy to find that we are free From that sad Doom where Torments never cease But rather to Eternity increase While our Conversion doth aloud proclaim What mighty Honour due to God's great Name Who will in Mercy save a Reprobate If his Repentance do not come too late On Death 'T Is very strange the World should still comply To think that Death is sent to make us dye By leading us to Immortality And the same moment does our souls convoy From worldly slavery to eternal joy So that we ought to find some other Name For God's great Messenger that bears our blame Alone tho' Life and Death are both the same Moment our eternal Lot to end this strife We may treat Death as our first step to Life No terror find by our remove from hence When all our Happiness proceeds from thence The Postscript IF Heaven be what we read or hear and see or do believe to be the glorious Habitation of the more glorious Trinity that we pretend to love to obey to truth worship and adore as one united God who has created Heaven and Earth the Sea and all therein and from whom we do expect eternal happiness when our Souls expire How can we justifie this Creed if in our actions we daily do transgress what we so daily do prosess as if our present moments did afford us more concern to pamper fading Flesh for being Worms meat in the Grave above the nourishing of our Souls with heavenly Manna to endure unto eternity If this be Gospel-Truth as I think it is I cannot chuse but wish and pray that my Retirement may produce the like Effects in others by reading what I write to obtain the high Felicity I privately enjoy transcending all the glittring Vanities that I have seen and too largely sharedin but now know no Felicity in this World to be compar'd unto the Joy of living ever ready to go out of it which is not so easily done as said though we endeavour all we can Now Reader I have nothing else to say But wish thee Grace to meditate and pray Which will high joys create and teach thee why True Piety will never fear to dye When arm'd with such Divine Philosophy FINIS ADDENDA On our cold desire to go to Heaven WE seem to prize the other World 'bove this But fear to go to that undoubted Bliss We find few Men who would with Enoch fly From hence to Heaven that dare soar so high Or with Elijah would take like delight To mount his Fiery Chariot in his flight Our Faith for such Celestial Joy comes short Of our Fruitions here where our Support Is what we see and what we understand Which we preferr before God's best command Tho' Reason and Religion both agree To bring us to a Bless'd Eternity In the same moment we are rais'd from hence Through Faith by God's Divinest Influence Which only can Immortal Life Create By Death destroying this our Mortal Fate So that till we with God's Decree comply We do not truly Live until we Dye To a Friend in a sit of the Gout WElcome thy pain my Friend this Gout is sent In Mercy to fore-warn and to prevent Thy Gluttonies and Epicurean Crimes Which were unpractis'd in our Fathers times This is the effect of strong Falernian Wine And pride to wash thy Feet in Muscadine By eating Mushrooms stew'd with Ambergreece And the fat Livers of the Iews fed Geese With Peacocks Eggs in gravy to support Thy Luxuries and now thou' rt punish'd for 't On the Fear of Death 'T Is strange that all Mankind should be afraid To Die nor any arguments perswade Wise Men from the terror of a Name Death is God's Messenger and we to blame To antedate his Arrant with such fear As doubts to go with Him we know not where Tho' Death's power only can our Souls convey To Heaven if we God's Holy Laws Obey But we still struggle with undaunted strife To keep our dying Bodies from true Life For want of Faith left Death should by mistake Lead our sad Souls to the Infernal Lake When such gross misdoubting Grace only can Force Death to fright a misbelieving Man Which shews the Glory of our future State Is left to our own Option not to Fate On true Devotion WHen true Devotion is our chief delight We may presume 't is pleasing in God's sight And to our Souls will sacred Bliss reveal To fix and to eternalize our Zeal And while we live our blessed thoughts direct To the Seraphick Joys of God's Elect. And will by our Adoption when we dye Declare the glory of that dignity On God's wondrous Works WHen we consider God's Word and Deed And see the products of the smallest Seed It doth our wonder greatly antedate With joy and in our hearts fixt Faith create It doth all doubtful thoughts with truth confute When fancy guides our Fingers on the Lute But yet these petty arguments of sence Must all submit to God's Omnipotence In wonders of a higher nature shown Which all the Christian World admires and own But know not how the boystrous Sea or Land Do steady stand by God's Supreme Command Who has the Sun and Moon so firmly set With Stars in their fixt Spheres that no Man yet Can by his Industry or Art declare How high or what circumference they are And yet the Seat of God's Celestial Bliss Is still to be admir'd above all this Where God himself Inthron'd is pleas'd to dwell Which must in Glory all the rest excell Tho' these be wonders of a large extent There be some of much more wonderment That God should all Offences here forgive And grant us daily comforts while we live By our Souls washing in the Crimson Flood Of our Bless'd Saviours Sacramental Blood By which he does our Claim to Heaven advance When we approach in a Seraphick Trance And own his Mercies with intire delight To glory in his bright Beatick sight The more we think the more we wonder and The less of Miracles we understand Why the same Earth should ev'ry year produce Such various Fruits and Herbs for humane use If Faith and Gratitude did not combine To think such
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
my Burthen light JESVS Christ the great Pattern of our Lives Does bid us follow him and loves who strives To imitate him most for he that can But near him come will be a blessed Man 'T is not commanded nor expected is That our own righteousness should equal His Our God from us doth nothing more require Than our utmost endeavours and desire To do his Will He only calls us to What he does give us Grace and power to do He wills us to believe obey and love But does not give us mountains to remove His yoke is easie and his Burthen light We make of Mole-hills Mountains in our sight To a strong young Man T'Hou'rt young 't is true and strong mayest yet Live many years but do not thou forget That young and healthy People often die By various accidents as suddenly As old nor yet expect that death must bring A Fever to fore-shew thou art dying When death with thee divides this minute's breath Though we call the last act of dying death Because we then do cease to die no more When we are dying all our lives before Thy youth and my gray head now dying are Thou need'st no other Summons to prepare For Heaven but observation every day What multitudes of young men drop away Only the old Man's Dream is almost gone The young Man's Dream but newly is begun The longest is like twinkling of an eye Moments compar'd unto eternity On Hypocrisie HE errs that owns his Crimes in the World's sight To avoid being thought a hypocrite We are not bound our frailties to reveal But may our shame with modesty conceal Rather than aggravate our sins 'gainst God By boasting that we do contemn his Rod. But he that does a feigned Zeal put on To cloak his sins doth scorn Religion And does not only with his base intents Contemn Obedience to Commandments But does that way design his God should shroud His wickedness under a holy cloud And does God's Goodness mock thus to presume Rudely to move his anger to consume Such mad-men as do his known power despise By daring to affront him in disguise Who thinks a Vizard on his face can hide His heart God does such hypocrites deride And will in fury finite so bold offence As undervalues his Omnipotence To GOD. WHen I look back on my past life the ills That I have done my heart with horrour fills And does amaze my frighted Soul to see Thy Judgments due to such impiety But since thy Mercy hath so long forborn To smite and thou art pleas'd at last to turn My heart to Heaven when I was running on Heaping sins on sins to my perdition I bless thy Name that would not let me go To Hell nor suffer me to perish so This Grace gives hope and does my Faith encrease To Confidence that thou wilt now release Me from the punishments and from the shame Due to my Crimes and make me love thy Name It is thy own great Work the honour 's thine I cannot own a vertuous thought for mine Shall I then fear to raise my thoughts to thee When thou dost fill my heart with Piety When my assurance is thy gift I may Approach thy glorious Throne and humbly say Thy Grace hath such a Confidence begot As cannot be in one that loves thee not Lord let this love encrease let it endure Unto my end make my Election sure That I may feast my Soul with thoughts of thee My God the Fountain of Felicity Thus fill'd with Grace and by thy Spirit led I shall for ever live when I am dead And with true courage when I come to die Shall gladly pass to my eternity On a bold profane Sinner WE may well fear great Judgments in our times That dare to boast and glory in our Crimes To sin is humane frailty but to slight Religion and to make 't our chief delight To show how we can triumph in the act Of ev'ry sin does aggravate the fact And make us worse than Heathens heretofore Who never scorn'd those Gods they did adore But Christians now do take the liberty To own no Joy but in the infamy Of their worst deeds and do a War proclaim With Heaven as if they could their God desame The Giants war by Poets feign'd came short Of those who use Devotion as a Sport And rally on their Priests who stories tell To awe the ignorant with Heaven and Hell While Wit and Courage do disdain to be Frighted from Pleasure by such Foppery Thus some gay Gallants of our age do treat Their God as if his Precepts were a cheat To make us live in fear and trembling die With idle Dreams of an Eternity If these Opinions like Contagions spread God may in rigour strike the Nation dead Then sow the Land with Dragons teeth fit seed For soil that does such monstrous people breed On Eternal Life NO sooner born than we begin to die By Nature taught to cry we know not why Till riper years do teach us wicked arts To cozen and betray our wanton hearts That boldly dare our great Creator brave By sinning from our Cradle to our Grave Sad fate for Souls thus destin'd to obey The various Vices of corrupted Clay Involv'd in dangers that we do not fear Because the certain ruine seems not near Till some diviner light our hearts inform How to fail safe in this devouring storm Bless'd be that light which does from terrour free And make us Victors in Captivity For Souls by Grace enlarg'd will quickly taste Such Joys as no Eternity can waste Thus born to live and yet ordain'd to die And live again is such a mystery As only Faith can reach and shew us how To out-live Death by pious living now Which will a prepossession take of Bliss And such angelical transports as this Will such a bless'd celestial Courage give We shall be glad to die that we may live On Valour and Fear VAlour mistaken through the World we see When rashness looks like Magnanimity When senseless Drunkards vap'ring in the Street For want of Courage quarrel all they meet When practised danger brings the meanest Clown To vie with Alexander for Renown When shame will fear remove and money hire The scum of Men to face the Cannon's fire We must some other Rules for Valour find That grows from Vertues of a higher kind These Men do not know why They do not fear to die Experience shews the Valiant and the Wife May start at the first glimpse of a surprise And may avoid such squabbles as will stain Their Courage and no jot of Credit gain High Valour and true Vertue brightly shine When they 're asserted by a Cause Divine When King and Country or thy Church wants aid 'T is basest Cowardice to be afraid True Courage will endeavour to create Safety to them though ruine be their fate These are the Men know why They do not fear to die On Repentance WHen Adam fell GOD did a Curse disperse On all
Mankind throughout the Universe And on his Issue did Contagion spread Till CHRIST appear'd to bruise the Serpent's Head Then Penitence and Piety began To be refin'd and call'd relapsed Man By Rules and Christ's Example to possess Heaven with his united happiness So that repenting sinners Heaven must fill Because there 's none on Earth but have done ill Though sighs and tears may a good Prologue be To introduce Repentance yet we see High Structures on such thin Foundations built Have tumbled with much noise and greatest guilt So that to pray and fervently desire To be enlightned by celestial Fire How to forsake our sins if not too late Denominates who is regenerate On Easter-Day HOw Christ triumph'd o'er the Grave and Hell Is joy to think tho' terrible to tell When Rods had made his sacred Body bleed And purple Robes did aggravate that Deed When Pilate to consummate all his Scorns Adorn'd his Temples with a Crown of Thorns Hard were their hearts who did endure to see Their Saviour bleeding bound to set them free Those then who did his Agonies deride When they had pierc'd his feet his hands and side Were of much harder metal made more fit For their descent into th' infernal Pit While dying Christ by a diviner fate Gave Heaven to the repenting Reprobate To shew whom Faith and Penitence sustain Will sure a place in Paradise obtain Bless'd then were those whose eyes were never dry After they saw their Lord and Saviour die Till searching in the Sepulchre they find That sacred Body could not be consin'd To Earth which was declar'd before must rise To chear their hearts and dry their blubber'd eyes When the dull mist of Nature was remov'd They saw and knew whom they ador'd and lov'd Surpriz'd with joy transported with delight They trembling do approach his awful sight Until enlightned they at last grow bold By recollecting what he had foretold Which fix'd their Faith and by a joy'd Converse He then his Resurrection did rehearse And by his Spirit made them understand And look for his Ascension then at hand Thus fill'd with heavenly Wisdom they retir'd Well satisfied with what they most desir'd And by their Records of these Truths do teach Us by a lively Faith how we may reach The same assurance and like Comforts find Unless we will be obstinately blind If we can sin subdue this world despise This day we may with Christ to Heaven rise On late Repentance VAin Men who do presume to live in sin Hoping to end as easie as begin When Custom and Time such habits do beget That easie Nature to our Wills submit And force our hardned hearts with them comply To glut our Senses till the hour we die As if one Moment were enough to gain That Mercy we for many years disdain With all our power thus blindly running on In high contests to our confusion Thus heedlesly our Youth does bear the sway And middle age too willingly obey Still thinking as our Bodies do decay We may repent But age will not give way To quit his feeble appetites grown bold By Custom then does scorn to be controul'd And when no active vigour does remain Delights to tell and think sins o'er again By such sad precedents we learn too late And march to Hell in a triumphant state A Rapture O Lord thou seest the Secrets of my heart Beyond what sighs or tears or words impart Yet I must daily worship and adore Thy Name too much neglected heretofore Now own thou art the mighty Lord of Host One God the Father Son and holy Ghost What Reason wants we must by Faith supply For finite ne'er can reach infinity Thou lov'st a zealous heart and dost require Our best endeavours then grant'st our desire When servent Prayers the greatest pleasure brings In our addresses to the King of Kings And makes our joy in carnal appetites Submit to higher and divine delights Which fire the heart and make Devotion warm That inward works like a Seraphick Charm Lord bless my age that I may end my days In a delightful Rapture of thy praise On the Felicity of constant Health THo' honour with renown and greatest wealth God's Blessings are they can't contest with health For happiness which is the root that brings More pleasure unto Beggars than to Kings When fits of Gout Strangury or the Stone Do all or any of them come alone Health makes us eat and drink and sleep at ease When wealth creates but cures not a Disease What would not a daily sick rich Man give To have a poor Man's health while he does live His Plate his Jewels with his Bags of Gold Will ease no pain tho' all he has were fold Which shews that all Mankind should daily pray For health and not by wealth be led astray For there 's no joy like a contented mind Tho' 't is with poverty and health confin'd On lost Innocence THo we cannot lost Innocence re-call Repentance will preserve from farther fall And Faith in Christ will then recover all So we by him shall Victory obtain And God by mercy will the Glory gain And thus by grace and savour of God's love We may with joy triumph all fears remove Which will our hearts revive new hopes create And raise our Souls to our first blessed state And thus from sin by Christ's great Merit freed We may as God's adopted Sons proceed With Duty and Obedience to his Will Till he in Heaven does all our hope fulfil To a young Man surpriz'd by Death THo' Death has many ways to be disguis'd We have as many not to be surpriz'd So that surprize is but a lame excuse Which rather doubly trebbles the abuse When we are plac'd by God upon the guard Who proffers life eternal for reward But thou young Man for pain may'st loudly groan Or is' st for grief to die thou mak'st such moan If by the first thou do'st find any ease 'T is well the second adds to thy disease And by a great mistake disturbs thy heart With a false fancy that thou dying art Now thy beloved Carcase does decay VVhich should unto thy Soul raise no dismay But chear thy heart and so enrich thy mind With joyful thoughts of a diviner kind For when God calls for thy last puff of Breath He 'll bring thee to eternal life not death For so 't will prove and be more truly said That thou begin'st to live when thou art dead The Dream of a reconciled Sinner SOmething I saw more glorious to behold Than can I now awake by tongue be told Such glitt'ring rays too glorious to impart When raptures flow in a Seraphick heart Which only can behold so bright a shine To testifie such Dreams must be divine That comforts sleeping Souls with such delights As are inessable to waking sights Tho' God some secret Counsels doth conceal He may a glimpse of Glory thus reveal To fix such hearts as mercy does afford When Penitents are unto Grace restor'd To show some
shuts up the ways that lead him into temptation may give himself as strong and comfortable an assurance that he is an adopted Child of God as if a voice from the Clouds should tell him so and is a good argument for frequent Meditations How to know when our Sins are forgiven IT has been asked How a Soul may know when her Sins are forgiven and answered thus When she finds the same affection to God with his that said I hate iniquity and all false ways I utterly abhorr Yet David who said so did die and so must we Tho' our Souls may by the same grace become of the same temper with his and our sins be forgiven too yet we may consider how few Men do slip out of this World into eternity with a joyful hearty delight to be with God through divine Love which is the highest perfection of an holy life and is our greatest assurance to manifest our sins forgiven when our Souls are by faith so fixed on God as to know no joy so great as such spiritual Comforts do raise when we desire to be in Heaven which taught David to hate iniquity and to abhorr all false ways and so reduced him from all his sins to become a man after God's own Heart On Reconciliation before we die IF we fully consider our manifold sins and the horrid Punishment due unto us for them if not forgiven before we die 't will make us tremble at the approach of Death But if we do believe in Christ's plenteous Redemption with GOD's immense Mercy to deliver us from Hell's eternal Torments and exalt us unto Heaven's eternal Joy and Glory it may be justly said Happy is that Man who can obtain such a Reconciliation with GOD before he die as daily to delight in the Meditation of a sudden Death with inward assurance of his eternal Bliss the moment he expires which is the highest Exaltation of Joy on Earth and will be the greatest Comfort at the hour of Death and ought to be the chief Business of all Men to live and die so who do march every moment from our Cradles dying towards our Graves On Heavenly Joy WHate'er we do on Earth we all pretend Heaven is our Home Heaven is our Journey 's end That 's true Seraphick Joy when we do find Such elevated Bliss as fills the Mind With high transports of God's celestial Throne And all our meaner Objects we disown Yet sometimes spoil our bless'd angelick rest To rowl on Roses when on Thorns is best Vainly thinking some diviner Grace May smooth afflictions with a smiling face When sighs and tears if they come not too late More surely can our heavenly Joys create When God observes our Zeal to do our best To please we shall assuredly be bless'd And may expect to find more Penitents Encircling of God's Throne than Innocents Which shews sincere Repentance surely can With a fix'd Faith restore relapsed Man Thus may our high-rais'd warm addresses prove Bright Ecstasies of the divinest Love Then will our Souls from dross be clean refin'd And by our sacred Chymist be calcin'd Fit for a Choir of Angels to attend Such Saints and sing them to their Journey 's end On taking heed of all our Ways WHen God reduces Sinners to take heed Of all their ways in thought in word and deed Repentance then will be of little use When all our actions will need no excuse We shall the World subdue and stoutly stand In full obedience unto God's Command And then will Death in glorious Robes descend To guide not fright us at our Journey 's end So that if we take need in all our ways We shall the Devil defeat and wear the Bays To a Friend My dear Friend I Have read in a divine Author That if God be with us he will make us see that he is with us and will not depart from our sight until he has brought us never to depart out of his Which is a Lesson of high concern to Men in his World for Thus to enjoy God here is to be in Heaven before we die When our souls are thus transported with a continual divine Conversation with Almighty God we may taste and relish his celestial Joys to some degree so as to envite us to value his spiritual Comforts above all carnal Fruitions So that our great Business is to improve this Blessing to the highest reach of humane Fancy by a daily practice of holy Meditions to contemplate and observe how God doth infuse this joyful enjoying of Him into our souls by the secret working of the Holy Ghost when we set our selves with zealous integrity to find him there to conserve with us on this great lesson of his immense Mercy with our humble prayers to be enlightned from above to participate of such angelical Delights as far as our frail Nature will admit of which by frequent use will bring us to such an habit of holy living that God God will manifest his presence ever with us by an inward Felicity of Divine Comforts to such an assurance of our Election unto eternal Bliss as is ineffable to be described So that when we raise our Thoughts with a divine Desire to know as much of God as we can know and of his being with us he will add of his Grace to enlarge our Capacities to such heavenly Trances in Devotion that we shall be with him and he with us as we do with with such a joy as will dread all diverting Occasions that shall obstruct those Emanations of his holy Spirit working in us And thus if we do entertain our selves by such frequent addresses to find God he will daily meet and ever dwell with us if we unseignedly desire to dwell with him and will give us such a glimpse of his eternal Bliss as may fix our hearts on Heaven and make us live every moment in a joyful Expectation of Death's quickest Summons thither and by this frequent entertainment of thy Soul with God Thou my Friend wilt find such a communication with God on Earth to be the highest Perfection of Piety and a felicity much more delightful than all other Diversions which can never reach such Seraphick Joys as I with to thee my Friend On the Fear of Death IF we fully consider our manifold Sins and the horrid Judgment due unto us for them it may well be said Happy is that Man who can obtain such a Reconciliation with God before he die as daily to delight in the meditation of a sudden death with inward assurance of his eternal Bliss the moment that he expires Because all our Ideas of the divine Felicities above do seldom invite Men to welcome Death with cheerful Hearts Our fears are so much stronger than our Faith that too many Men do rather think than find they do believe that Christ's plenteous Redemption will cancel all their Crimes and bring them into Heaven and therefore dare not really rejoyce to look on death but start back from such
Meditations are Divine When God with secret Bliss such joys imparts As does create true Zeal in pious hearts And doth their Souls with flaming Love invite To Paradise inessable to write Unless his Holy Spirit should indite To my Old Sick Friend MY good Old Friend why so sad does thy Age decline so fast that the Idea of thy Grave frights thee with fear to die Are we not all dying and none knows who shall go next nor how soon be gone if this occasion thy dismay I will teach thee an Antidote that will dispell the Poyson of that Serpent's bite and turn that universal carse of Death into a State of Bliss if thou can'st raise thy dejected Spirit to a quick sense of sharing the Eternal Joys of Heaven with those departed Saints who by Faith Prayer and Penitence are now exalted thither Let thy melancholy Meditations and Preparations for the Grave be changed from a Gaol delivery into a constant chearful zealous Conversation in thy Divine Retirements with God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by a total Resignation of thy Soul and all thy concerns unto them and think with pleasure how near thou art arrived to thy Journeys end to be with them in Paradise Then such Celestial Thoughts will be thy most pleasant entertainment and surely meet with surprising joy from Faith in Christ's plenteous Redemption which will beget a hearty speedy welcome unto Death's arrival who comes to conduct thee to Eternal Bliss and thou wilt also find that every devout step towards this felicity of thy approaching Salvation will make thy heart dance with a Saint-like delight to battle the terrors of the Grave with a serene prospect of thy Eternal Happiness at hand and so make thy last hours full of Angelical transporting joy to be with God the moment thy Soul expires fix thy heart thus and all sad Thoughts will vanish when a sincere Faith becomes predominant Thy Heart by practice will delight in this Divine Elixir of Eternal Bliss On vain Projectors NO mortal Man can limit or restrain The boundless fansies of another's brain But may such Fetters on his own Thoughts lay As will keep them from wandring much astray But naturally Men add wings to try How high their vain ambitious Hearts can fly Until like Icarus their waxen Wings Do melt and all their hopes to ruin brings But when our Souls do with Angellick Love Soar high they will Celest'al joys improve To flaming Zeal and raise our hearts so high As will discern our Immortality To my Rich Friend become Poor TEll me Old Friend and speak the truth If twenty Dishes in thy Youth Did then more please and gratifie Thy Stomach with that Gluttony Which did Diseases daily breed Till now thou dost on one Dish feed Tell me if now thy constant health Gives not more joys than thy lost Wealth Afforded by thy vast excess In frequent Treats and Wantonness Which made a noise more than content For all thy charge and time mispent When to the Poor half that expence Would have procur'd God's Providence And fav'd the loss of thy Estate Which thou hast thought upon too late Tho' now thou dost aloud prosess Thy Poverty proves Blessedness On Injustice IF Charity to Men be God's Command Justice must in much higher favor stand If neither can in wicked Men find place They slight God's Anger and despise his Grace But these are petty Crimes when Avarice Doth harden hearts for gold and Souls intice To sell Salvation at so cheap a Rate Such villanous intentions aggravate When a design'd premeditated cheat With a bold-fac'd fraud shall just Right defeat And a false Cause by power shall justifie Hell only can reward such Infamy For God with indignation does declare He will Poor Men's Oppressors never spare Against Momentary Ioys NOW let my Friend from sighs and sorrow cease For Crimes repented let thy joy increase For thy serene assurance lately gain'd Of pardon by thy Saviour's Blood obtain'd Let thoughts of thy Eternal Glory rise And scorn all Earthly Bawbles that surprise Unsteady Souls with present fading Toyes That cloud the brighter Beams of Heav'nly joys And boldly do those glitt'ring bubbles try In hope they 'll last unto Eternity Who raise their idle fancies by their wit To practise Atheism rather than submit To part with present Moments of delight To purchase Heav'n with God's Beatick sight Who with his known Decrees will not comply But think to live till they are pleas'd to dye Tho of such Men it may be truly said They are that moment both alive and dead The Terror of Death by Death is cured IF Death were not for Sin from Heaven sent It could not be esteem'd a punishment To be deliver'd from our daily woe While 'twixt our Roses Thorns and Thistles grow So that our care should be to weed our hearts From soul excrescents by such holy Arts As will that fatal sting of Sin destroy And so convert our sorrows into joy When we the Pangs of such a Death endure As doth produce both Punishment and Cure To my Old Friend on his Birth-day MY Friend thou dost well to celebrate thy Birth-day as a vow'd Sacrifice to God because he did reserve the first born to himself of Living Creatures and thou art one But let not thy Altar be adorn'd with a superfluous Treat with too many slagons of rich Wine and Tables throng'd with Wealthy Guests as if it were a Bacchanalian Feast But such a moderate Meal for thy own Servants with some Poor Neighbours that may soberly rejoyce to see a New Year begin with a propitious prospect of thy insuing happiness and pray thy Piety and charity may Shine round about thy Habitation here on Earth until thou art advanc'd to Heaven Death is the Beggars highest Holiday 'T Is but a saint Felicity that any Man can have in all the Honours Treasures and Pleasures of this World without a joyful inward assurance of his Salvation when the next moment an angry Neighbour or a Tyrant Prince can end his days Or Sickness by tormenting pains turn all his joy into sorrow while he lives with despairing terrors worse than all at the approach of Death when a poor pious Beggar will die transported full of Celestial Joys for his highest Holiday and be as welcome into Heaven as the greatest Monarch And therefore may be well and truly said Both Souls are of the same sine Substance made To my merry Friend WHY now so joyful my good Friend has thy Princes smiles this Morning added new feathers to thy Heart that makes it fly so high His frowns to morrow may turn those gay feathers into Lead tho' thou deserve not such a change Consider now such frequent sad Fates as do besal the craftiest Men that only truth in mortal accidents for their support in Princes savours and raise thy Souls delight in Service of the King of Kings whose savours will endure unto Eternity above the reach of Earthly Storms and then thy Prince's favours will have a sure foundation to subsist on with higher joys than any Sycophants black Arts by Malice or by Envy can disturb thy Peace or Pleasures when a good Conscience is so center'd and so fix'd on God For no Man can imagine the constant felicity of a strict pious Life in all conditions but he that is so reconciled with a lively Faith to God as chearfully to part with all the glitt'ring Bubbles of this World to enjoy everlasting Bliss in Heaven which ought to be the supreme hope of our best endeavours On the fear of Death THO Men by nature Born to fear to Die May still account it a great misery When Piety and Prayer can't prevail To change the pow'r of that severe Intail Tho' all our Hearts and Souls do still agree To frame our Minds to God's most bless'd Decree Because no other means like that the best To bring Mankind to his Eternal Rest. Yet our weak Faith cannot the credit gain By Heavenly joys and glory to obtain Such Courage and a Valour so Divine Rather to Die with joy than to repine To part with fading pleasures that no Age Can for one moments certain time engage They shall abide nor can find any cure That Men on Earth for ever shall endure How great a shame and folly then that we Should fear to go where we desire to be And so preferr our miseries on Earth Before a bless'd and glorious chearful Death That will in gratitude the surest way Our Souls to God in Paradise convey When Faith with such a Zeal shall so comply 'T will shew a Godly Gallantry to Die On the Art of Meditation WHO will the Art of meditation learn Must make each Paragraph his chief concern For some few moments to consider on Lest reading more create confusion And unavoidably disturb the Brain With more at once than what it can retain When Piety by Art is thus refin'd It will rejoyce the heart inrich the mind With sacred Thoughts beyond all Earthly care Till flesh be turn'd into Angelick Air. All Men should live as ever in God's sight And make Devotion their supreme delight And then observe how God does Grace return To make Seraphick Joy the brighter burn
angelick Happiness as he brings good Men to participate of in God's eternal Glory which natural infirmity of doubting can only by an illustrious Faith be removed and that Faith by frequent Prayers be obtained Then thus to live and so to die will make us live and die in great tranquility though not to reach St. Stephen's Faith who saw Heaven open to him yet to so great a degree of divine Raptures in Devotion as to be filled with elevations of an inward assurance of our Election which must come from God when the Soul is in such a blessed Trance of celestial Delight that is inessable to be described How near such joy is to the joy we read of in Paradise when servent Zeal is by a lively Faith so raised and fixed in God by frequent Meditations it is a wonder that such Men can fear to die or doubt togo to God with cheerful Hearts when thus invited and thus led by his holy Spirit with such bright illuminations of surprizing joys while those divine Flames last cheeras cannot be related When Men's hearts are warmed with such Seraphick high Transports of Love and Mercy from Almighty God to give true Penitents some taste of their eternal Glory that being thus enlightned they may not fear to die but rather welcome death who comes to carry them to Heaven which is the highest Exaltation of the Soul's joy so to delight in God that the expectation of Heaven may be more pleasant than all the momentary Fruitions of this World are compared unto a blessed incomprehensible Eternity Which neither Wit nor Fancy can express When multiplying numbers make it less When neither first nor last can e'er be known Points so far distant yet so join'd in one That the eternal Circle shews us none But is a secret known to God alone 'T is such a sacred Riddle so profound That humane Wisdom never can expound But leaves us still to wonder and adore What will be after and what was before On the Power of Faith THough Men by Nature born to fear and to avoid what may seem hurtful yet that fear by Grace and Faith may be converted into divine Valour of the highest kind as is evident by the Three Children in the fiery Furnace and by Daniel in the Lion's Den which with other the like Examples should invite such Men as trust in God not to fear what he only can prevent if he thinks fit and though a fearful Man cannot remove a Mole-hill for want of Faith much less Mountains how little Faith then have we when the noise only of Ill News does affright our unsetled Souls with dismal apprehensions of what may never happen more than the ill event brings with it if it do unto such pious men as live prepar'd to bear afflictions for few moments here with faithful joyful Thoughts of their eternal Happiness in Heaven So that we see the Power of Faith will remove the greatest terrour and work Miracles when Men dare trust in God Lord give me grace to live as I do write And as thy holy Spirit shall indite To manifest thy mighty Mercy shown To such a Reprobate as must own Christ's Doctrine to suffer CHrist's Doctrine is with patience to inure Our selves to suffer what he did endure On Earth from that malicious cursed Crew Who scorn'd his Miracles and boldly slew Their bless'd Messiah who did then submit To die because his Father did think fit That we redeemed by his precious Blood Might trust in him who dy'd to do us good And now may sighing sing and weeping pray Our death may prove our highest Holy-day When we with Christ in Paradise appear And shine amongst those blessed Angels there On the Power of Love to God TO love and fear God is what every good Christian doth own and what most Men think they do but very few I fear do understand what it is to love and fear Him as we ought with all our Heart Soul and Mind above all other Objects whatever which is a Lesson of great use to bring Men to Heaven who know that we are dying every moment that we live and can not with more pleasure here than we shall find by serving God thus For those who can love him with all their Heart and Mind will worship and adore him with the same Zeal and will obey praise thank pray and trust in him with the like servent affection in all their divine addresses with their utmost endeavours to be with him in Heaven which God never will reject nor can eternal Bliss be purchased at a lower rate of Love Thus God exposes Heaven to entice Good Men to purchase at the Market-price When Love with all its Perquisites comply To fix a blessed Immortality On such exalted Souls as take delight To meditate on his beatick sight When their enlightned Faith does bring them there Enrich'd with love they 'll bid adieu to fear And leave no arguments to justifie Such timorous Men as dare not think to die Though their eternal joy will then be such That none will have too little or too much And those who truly love will surely find Their happiness by God is predesign'd Who sees the heart and thoughts of every Man That loves and serves him to the best they can On Faith WHen Faith grows strong our Fancies will soar high To search the secrets of Eternity Which to our Souls are of so near concern That no man can a greater Lesson Learn Nor have a more serene celestial Bliss Than he 'll enjoy by practising of this Great step which by degrees will lead him on To the sacred Seat of his Adoption Where Faith 'bove all the Gifts of Grace will shine With Love in Bliss and Glory most divine On God's Mercy OUr God from us his Glory keeps conceal'd Because it would destroy us if reveal'd His essence we can never understand 'T is well if we obey his just Command For God to mortal Man will never teach Such great Secrets because what we can reach By Nature cloys as soon as had or known He therefore lets us live by Faith alone Still subject to so many hopes and fears That our prime Joys are damp'd by frequent tears Which daily do our sorrows multiply Until death comes to tell us we must die The only remedy ordain'd to cure All sorts of evils that we here endure Yet God in mercy makes amends at last To free us from all miseries are past By raising them to blifs who do their best To gain a share in his eternal rest Which best in God's esteem is to do all Was done by bless'd St. Stephen and St. Paul On true Valour HAppy are they who in these letter days Are fill'd with love with gratitude and praise To God whose joyful Soúls do ever fly With highest thoughts of their Eternity And by the actions of their lives declare That Faith in Christ has conquer'd their despair For all past Crimes and now with Death has made Strict