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
desires our joys encrease Such raptures never cloy nor fail to bless Such fouls with everlasting happiness The world if we consider right Doth dazle rather than delight With wealth and honours that decay With strength and power that pass away Vain objects full of hopes and fears Freight with few joys and frequent tears Where pride or lust or gluttony excell We see short hours of true contentment dwell Though our Creator hath the Creatures made For men he has ordain'd them all to fade That nothing here might fix our wandring Sense But his divine and heavenly influence On Humane Frailty LOrd I confess when I at mid-night wake And think how Christ did suffer for my sake When all the world seems dead and I alone Freed from my Cares and Care 's confusion Then does thy Spirit bear the only sway Taking the burthen of my sins away Then does thy dazling beams of glory free My heart from fears with joy to worship thee Then with an humble holy confidence I row my self on thy Omnipotence Which fills my painting heart with such excess Of bliss methinks those joys should ne'er go less But when the Sun appears and I do rise The world betrays my heart deceives my eyes With wonted vanities as heretofore And I forget my vows to sin no more Thus I grow worse and worse and cannot frame My thoughts to perfect holiness though shame And trouble at the danger I am in Makes me abhorr the slavishness of sin Nature and Custom has in me begot Such earthliness I cannot move a jot Towards Heaven until thou think'st it fit To cure my fancy and restore my wit That by thy grace I may enable be To fix my heart upon eternity On Repentance REpentance easie seems when we regard Either the punishment or the reward We can confess and moan our wretched state And humbly our offences aggravate To sigh to weep to sorrow for what 's past Because our sins our souls and bodies waste Does but attrition prove and shew some sense Of our condition 't is not penitence Until we cast our vanities away And learn to make our appetites obey Till we can all habitual crimes forsake Hate him we love and a new pleasure take To raise our souls to such an holy choice That each thought may of Heav'n make us rejoice 'T is such a total change a self-denial Causes the only penitential trial At which the Angels joy and for our sake Do an high holy-day in Heaven make On Christmas-Day COme oh come let us rejoice and wonder When the King of Kings lays by his thunder And will in gentle language have it said His only Son was in a Manger laid To shew the poor the humble and the proud More glory in that lowness than a crowd Of Princes with their trains did ever bring To celebrate the birth of earthly King Thus homely born we read this heavenly Lad As Ioseph's Son was ever meanly clad Until the purple Robe and thorny Crown Became the Iewish shame and his renown Who would submit to that mock-dignity In highest scorn to his Divinity Who might command all Princes then to meet And lay their crowns and scepters at his Feet Foolish Herod how blind how strange a strife Shewd'st thou to murder the young Lord of Life Unmindful of that new-created Star Which guided those wise Worshippers so far To justifie the Prophecies of old By his Forefathers so precisely told On Good-Friday THe Iews by ancient Prophecies not taught Nor by those miracles Christ daily wrought Nor at his death would they converted be When they did high and mighty wonders see The darkned Sun the Temple Veil quite rent The cloven Rocks nor risen Saints then sent Could e'er persuade those mis-believing men T' avoid those miseries befell them then Yet we more foolish and more blind than they Anew do crucifie him ev'ry day Our high contempts do aggravate our sin 'Cause we believe the glory he is in To us his Resurrection has reveal'd What his Humanity from them conceal'd VVhat yearly tribute should we Christians pay VVhat Sacrifice will best become this Day On which the Lord of Life was then content To dignifie an earthly monument May we rejoice to find our selves set free From all the guilt of past impiety Or must we blush at our own Crimes for shame To see Christ feel the pains due to our blame Both we must do both eyes dissolv'd in tears Must raise our grief must wash away our fears And yet our frighted souls may justly bring Joys mix'd with sorrows for his suffering On Easter-Day LOok look rejoice and wonder see O see The Lord is risen by whose Spirit we Must rise and find our souls more int'rest have In this his Resurrection than his Grave Though we attend at Golgotha there fall With our High-Priest who was Aaronical On this Day let new Vows our Hearts new deck That we may rise with our Melchisedeck Whose Blessing shews that we more int'rest have In this his Resurrection than his Grave On the Lord's Supper on Easter-Day THe Table is prepar'd the King attends His Guests come slowly in yet still he sends Ambassadours abroad to summon all And chide in such as come not at first call Strange Kindness that we dust and ashes are So much his business and so much his care That nothing less than his own Flesh and Blood Shall this day be to us mysterious Food Haste then and put thy wedding garment on This is the Bridegroom's Coronation And thou my soul envited art to be VVash'd from all stains and cloath'd with purity A blessed Feast and highest honour this Each worthy guest to God invited is And ev'ry heart that heretofore was Hell Will now turn Paradise where God will dwell Thus thus we may a prepossession take Of Heav'n and God who only for our sake Came down from Heav'n that he himself might be The guide and way to our felicity On the Fear of Death WHy dost thou shrink my soul what terrour see To cause such high impiety That thus from age to age thou would'st endure Pray'st thou for his for such a Cure As may more time in Vanity mis-spend To what doth this averseness tend That thus thou still enamour'd art Of thy disease and smart Or do'st thou grudge the dirty grave Should thy dead Carcase have This Giant Death which hath so long controll'd The VVorld submits unto the bold His threatning dart nor point nor sharpness hath To men of piety and faith Thou know'st all this my soul yet still dost cry Thou wouldst not die and know'st not why If thou be'st frighted by a Name Then thou art much to blame And poorly weak if terrour-struck By a fantastick look Women and Children teach thee a disdain To fear the passage or the pain The ancient Heathens courted Death to be Remembred by Posterity And shall those Heathens then more Courage show Than thou that dost thy Maker know The misbelieving Christian may Shake at
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
his latter day Till then not mindful of his sin Nor the danger he is in But thou that hast convers'd with God and Death In Speculation shall thy Breath Unwillingly expire into his hand That comes to fetch it by Command From God that made thee art thou loth to be Possess'd of thy Felicity Because thy Guide looks pale and must Convey thy flesh to dust Though that to worms converted be What is all this to thee Thou shalt not feel Death's sting but instant have Full joys and triumph o'er the Grave Where thy long lov'd Companion Flesh shall rest Until it be refin'd new drest For thy next wearing in that holy place That Heav'n where thou shalt face to face With Saints and Angels daily see Thy God and ever be Replenish'd with celestial Bliss Oh my Soul think on this On God's wondrous Works GReat are the works of God and wonders all The first we hear of we do Chaos call But in the Scripture it is no-where said How or of what Chaos it self was made We only know from that confused Name That lump of something Nothing all things came Great and good was the work of the first hour 'Cause Chaos then had no resisting power All things did naturally then submit Without dispute to what our God thought fit Till man was made the Prince of all the rest And Free-will given which taught him to contest With his Creator and resist his hand Whose word alone does Heav'n and Earth command To shew us greater wonders yet behind Miracles of a more transcendent kind Our Saviour's Birth and Resurrection Pre-design'd by God for man's redemption 'T is strange to think and wonderful to see That man to God so great concern should be Whose heart is full of high antipathy To his Commands fierce to impiety By nature cross by industry so fram'd That by it self it never can be tam'd Which most accurs'd resisting quality Only belongs to its carnality So that God's greatest work we may conclude Is when man 's heart by grace is so subdu'd That all its appetites converted be From its own nature unto purity Of life towards God which justly may be thought The highest Miracle that e'er was wrought To the Repiner DOst thou repine vain man 'cause thou art born Subject to pains to scandals and to scorn When Christ himself in all perfection made Felt more than thou and was himself betray'd Alas poor wretched miserable thing That must be dust suppose thou wert sole King Of all this Earth and didst the World controul What would it signifie if thy own Soul This minute may Be ta'en away When that sad hour shall come what horrours then Possess the hearts of such wise worldly men As present joys do seek and ne'er pretend To Heav'n until it be too late to mend Till sudden death their joys surprize and Fear In high amazement doth unmask'd appear Then those Repiners will want a pretence To Courage and their frighted Souls fly hence As men were made To be afraid Thus the Repiners do create their shame While those inspir'd with a bright Christian flame Humbly submit to all from Heaven sent Are thankful and most happily content When the Divine Hand does remove those toys Which the Repiner counts his only joys But if the holy Spirit do thy heart Possess there dwell thou truly happy art Can'st not repine While God is thine On lost Time IT is our Business every day To pass the time we cannot stay This minute 's mine but it is gone Past call while it is thinking on 'T is pleasant and we think it fine To spend our time on a design To get some honour and encrease Our wealth till the hour of our decease Not using what we do possess In hopes to gain more happiness Thus for some nothing or a toy We lose the time we might enjoy So that indeed we do believe And only dream that we do live To be thus vain and thus profuse Of Time admits of no excuse While our desires do still make room For some new pleasure that 's to come Wishing more wings to Time for haste Not thinking how our selves do waste How much we lose how little gain When we our wishes do obtain Till age and our experience brings Our Souls to long for heavenly things Which is the sure and only way To call Time ours make it obey Our Wishes and in some degree May join Time to Eternity A Good Conscience is a continual Feast THo' Flesh and Blood be so imperfect made That we must sin yet be not thou afraid For a pure Heart with the Soul that 's resign'd To God does Pardon and Protection find When our whole Hearts endeavour to do all That God commands then that endeavour shall Accepted be if it endure the Test Grace will encrease and we are surely bless'd Who ever does attain to this degree Of Faith will be so fill'd with Piety That neither pains nor losses can annoy It will convert all sorrows into joy A heart thus set and firmly fix'd must needs Produce delicious Fruits such holy Seeds Bring forth such heavenly Thoughts in Souls refin'd That every minute does new feast the mind With pious strivings which do raise the state Of humble hearts and Grace on Grace create Till we get interest in God and then Converse with Angels as before with Men. And thus our high-grown Fancies will behold Pleasures too great too glorious to be told On Temptation TEmptation rightly scann'd and understood Is certainly ordain'd to do us good To shew that our frail nature ever needs Our prayers for Grace to justifie our deeds Never to be tempted leaves no trial To measure Vertue by Self-denial Is the scale 't is no merit to forbear To do the things for which we do not care To be tempted is no crime but to yield Unto temptation and to quit the field To a known Enemy is worthy blame When our resistance would the Tempter shame Still to be tempted by some high delight And piously resist that appetite Does exercise our Faith 't is the only way T' express our Love and shew that we obey To be tempted Honour is if we do Forbear to act and quit the object too Such skirmishes will much advantage gain Till we a perfect Victory obtain To be tempted is a bliss if we find Sufficient Grace to satisfie the mind For when we make our master-sin our slave We joy in Life and triumph o'er the Grave To be tempted unawares by a thought Or a wish it is nature and no fault If Grace does nip the bud of our desires Custom in time will teach to quench those fires To master all temptation is a sign That we have something in us more divine Than Nature can afford by which we know God's Spirit does such Victories bestow To be Regenerate TO be regenerate to be new-born We rise like the clear Sun in a fair morn After a dismal night of rain and winds For such are