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
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
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