Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A27456
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Historical applications and occasional meditations upon several subjects written by a person of honour.
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Berkeley, George Berkeley, Earl of, 1628-1698.
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1667
(1667)
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Wing B1963; ESTC R8483
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20,594
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142
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HISTORICAL Applications AND OCCASIONAL Meditations UPON Several Subjects Written by A Person of Honour LONDON Printed by J. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY 1667. BOld is the man that dares ingage For Piety in such an Age. Who can presume to find a Guard From Scorn when Heaven 's so little spar'd Divines are pardon'd they defend Altars on which their Lives depend But the Prophane impatient are When Nobler Pens make this their care For why should these let in a Beam Of Divine Light to trouble them And call in doubt their pleasing Thought That none believes what we are taught High Birth and Fortune warrant give That such men write what they believe And feeling first what they indite New credit give to Ancient Light Amongst these few our Authour brings His well-known pedegree from Kings This Book the Image of his Mind Will make his Name not hard to find I wish the Throng of Great and Good Made it less eas'ly understood WALLER To the Lady HARMONIA MADAM YOur Ladyship was pleased to incourage me to write Religious Meditations therefore to you I dedicate the First-fruits of my obedience to your Commands in this particular Your Ladyship can experimentally say what high advantages pious Contemplations afford Some of which are a just Divertisement from both worldly and sinful Imployments a great Complacency and Delight in the present Composure besides the satisfaction to our Consciences the Improvement of the Divine Graces in us and a rendring our Souls alwaies in an Harmonious sweet temper in which your Ladyship does so eminently excell being alwaies in a praying capacity having a willingness to resign our Wills to God's in all things whether in Life or Death If this way of applying all our Discourses and Conceptions to a Religious sense were made more generally practical the Power of Godliness as well as the Form would so govern us in all our actions that in this present Age neither the Speculative nor the Practicall Atheists would dare with so much impudence to shew their faces nor maintain their detestable Principles so horridly and dis-ingenuously as now they do the Age would then be reformed and we should be good Company to our selves for when we converse with God we are never less alone then when alone Next to pious Meditations Godly Friends are to be made choice of for our Conversation such as is your Ladyship who without the least suspicion of Flattery I dare affirm it may justly be styled the Beauty of Society and Harmony of Friendship your Civility being so great and Carriage so gaining that you are able to convert a Barbarian into good manners and make a man of a reprobate nature become a good Christian. Your Example I confess is easier to be admired then imitated Your Precepts adequate and proportionable to so great a Pattern and those delivered to your Friends and Servants with such winning mildness and Concern as if it were your duty to be more ingaged for the welfare of our Souls and good Names then we ought to be our selves Madam I need say no more but pray for you that God would multiply upon you who are both Good and Great and upon yours all Temporal and Eternal Blessings increase the number of such Excellent Saints as is your Ladyship Then we should injoy a part of Heaven out of Heaven while we had our beings upon the Earth I had taken the freedome to have named you by a Title you are more known by but that I feared your so nice and scrupulous Modesty would have reprehended me disowning my celebration of this just Character And should I have given an account of my own Name it would not be difficult for very many to conjecture to whom I presumed to make this Address I am Madam Your greatest Honourer and most obedient Servant who as an admirer of your Vertues am ambitious to deserve of your Ladyship the Appellation of CONSTANS A Prayer O Lord God I confesse mine iniquities and my sins are ever before thee secret as well as known sins Create in me a new heart and renew a right spirit within me Cleanse the wicked and damnable thoughts of my heart by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit forgive my wicked thoughts as well as my evil vile words and actions Give me thy Grace that I may not onely leave sin for a time but that I may loath sin that I may look upon Jesus Christ not onely as a Saviour which the very worst of men would be glad to do at their Deaths but as a Sovereign to rule and reign in my heart It may be in vain for me with wicked Balaam to desire to die the death of the righteous if I do not live the life of the righteous While I live in the World let me not be of the World but be pleased to indue me with so great a measure of thy Spirit that I may make it the great pleasure of my life to doe thee service whose service is perfect freedome Make me humble charitable and obedient willing to doe good not onely to my friends but to my very enemies heartily forgiving them as I desire to be forgiven and returning to them good for evil But Lord to my Relations Friends return their kindness double into their own bosomes Take from me good Lord both in my health and sicknesse all that sinfull misbecoming Impatience which so much prevails over me Let not the fear of Death so much terrifie and discompose my spirits but so moderate my Affections that I may willingly and entirely submit to thy Divine will and pleasure whether in Life or Death natural or violent But I most humbly beseech thee Heavenly Father to prepare me for a better World before thou takest me out of this So prepare me O Lord by sealing to me a Pardon for all my sins past and giving me such an assured well-grounded Faith in Christ Jesus and such an application of his imputative Righteousnesse that when I come to die I may have nothing else to doe but to die and to surrender though a sinful yet a penitent Soul into the hands of a gracious Redeemer While I live here give me Grace that I may have dying thoughts that when I come to die I may have living hopes Grant I may live here in thy fear die in thy favour and at the end of my days attain the end of my hopes even the Salvation of my Soul in and through Christ Jesus my blessed Saviour and Redeemer Amen Amen Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Our Father c. Historical Applications AND Occasional Meditations I. THE Society of Gresham Colledge is composed of very ingenious and eminent Persons whose Conversation is desirable in many respects their endeavours to improve Arts and Sciences Mechanical and Liberal their inquisition into the works of Nature may be both delightfull and profitable to themselves and others If this
be granted let us raise our Meditations higher and consider how advantageous it will be for us to meditate of the God of Nature to advance his Glory expressing our Love to him by singing his praises while we have a being here which is the delight and employment of Beatified Souls to all Eternity II. LEt us consider why so many of us so often miscarry in the Designs and actions of this Life even when we have most confidence and assurance The Reason is very obvious We place too much trust in secondarie Causes and in the son of man whose breath is in his nostrils but in the beginning of every enterprise neglect to implore the Divine assistance and wholly to rely upon his Wisdome with an humble and dutifull acquiescence in his will whether he shall please to blast our purposes or to prosper the action God knowing what is better for us then we do for our selves If so we are sure our Designs and endeavours will be successfull or we shall have as much reason to be satisfied as if they were being free from all repining murmuring thoughts because we submit to his Providence who is the sole disposer of all persons actions and times which is the happy priviledge as well as duty of a Christian. III. O Lord I confesse because I slept unquietly the last night being troubled with melancholick Dreams and found my body indisposed this morning I was more discomposed in my mind then when I have wilfully offended thy Divine Majestie by sinning against thee thus sinfully preferring the health of my Body before the quiet and tranquillity of my Soul perishing things before eternal I beseech God to forgive me this and all other my offences and for the time to come give me grace that I may be but little concerned for my Body making it my great interest as it ought to be to take care for the eternal welfare of my Soul which is best secured by a good imployment of my Time and Talent looking upon it not onely as the Design and businesse of my life but to be my greatest pleasure and delight to doe thee service in whose service is perfect freedome Amen IV. O Lord how short and momentany is this Life in respect of Eternity and yet what great care do we take to provide for the things of this Life as if all our Eternity were here and not hereafter However we must look upon Death which is natural and must come it may be to morrow as the greatest Good to us which is to be desired or as the greatest Evil to be feared Fear it we may but we cannot avoid it and therefore it is in vain to be transported with a foolish fear which disquieteth our thoughts but no way secures us from what we fear but by arming against it which thus a good Christian ought to do To arme himself by putting on the Breast-plate of Righteousnesse and flying for Sanctuary to him who hath had victorie over death by a lively Faith in his Merits Then the King of Terrors cannot be able to hurt us but will doe us great service in giving us a passage to the enjoyment of a blessed Immortality where we shall enjoy rest and ease and happinesse unspeakable such as Ear hath not heard nor Eye hath seen neither hath it entred into the Heart of man to conceive To which place God of his mercy bring us for his sake who hath so dearly bought us our blessed Saviour Christ Jesus Amen V. MY Soul and Body are two great Friends having been Companions many years and therefore are unwilling to part But let us consider Friends are most sad who fear when they are parting they shall never meet more But O my Soul 't is certain at the last day there must be a conjunction between thee and my Body though you part for a season yet when you meet again after this life you shall never part more Therefore be not dejected to separate when the Body dies which must of necessity be according to the inevitable decree of Nature nay of the God of Nature but be careful so to demean your selves while you both live together here that you may both part willingly and meet joyfully hoping for a blessed Immortality which God of his infinite mercy grant for Christ Jesus his sake Amen VI. IT is said of Plutarch that he should say of himself It were better there had never been such a man as Plutarch then that they should justly report him unmercifull and unjust It was a worthy saying of an heathen and might well become the meditation of a Christian. There are many who go under the notion and profession of Christians few are really such comparatively but better were it we never were born then that we should be Christians onely in profession not in practice having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power of it in our lives and conversations For then we have cause to fear the pronouncing of the sad Sentence Go ye cursed c. for we have but little hopes of finding Christ our Saviour at our Deaths if we do not own him for a Sovereign while we live VII IT is reported in story of a great Politician at Rome That he made it his whole Design for many years to secure the election of his intimate Friend to the Popedome after the death of the present Pope who was very aged and having for some considerable time impatiently expected an happy issue to his so much desired hopes the Pope dies his Friend succeeds Now he accounts himself a happy man It is but ask and have of what is within the Pope's power and this is confirmed to him by a solemn promise from the mouth of his Holinesse But mark the unhappy issue Whilst our Politician is considering what places of Honour or Profit will be most gratefull to his Ambitious mind his Friend the Pope dies too and he finds all his endeavours are rendred fruitlesse Upon the news of his death he vainly laments his losse and says it was not in his power to secure himself against such a misfortune Thus it fares very often with the men of the World who put their trust and confidence in Princes and in the Son of man whose breath is in his nostrils If we wholly rely upon our earthly Friends when they die we lose our expectation of what advantage their friendship and kindnesse can afford us But if we rely upon God and secure him to be our Friend he will comfort us when our Friends fail when they die he can raise us new ones he will be our Friend when we have most need of him not onely in our lives but at our Deaths and continue so to all eternity O what an unspeakable honour and happinesse is it to gain God to be our Friend even the highest frail man is capable of It is our greatest Concern to make Friendship with the Almighty Was it not a great honour for Abraham the Father of the