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A65793 A manuali [sic] of divine considerations delivered and concluded by ... Thomas White ; translated out of the original Latine copie. White, Thomas, 1593-1676. 1655 (1655) Wing W1833; ESTC R10112 54,484 214

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the fault which in them appears but as light draws after it a chain of many and mighty mischiefs And lastly the punishment and dishonour of those who carry themselves negligently are intolerable and of all most horrible Conclude that an Office is a thing worthy and to be wished for but not to be demanded since thou knowest not how thou shalt manage thy self in it Nor yet is it to be refused when God according to the judgement of those whom it concerneth shall impose it upon thee because it is a great good nor mayest thou doubt of Gods assistance nor refuse it without sin when he shall be pleased to call thee up to it If thou art set in Office tremble to think with what love and care thou must labour for thy self and others and what miseries pursue sloath Stir thy self therefore up and go on and never rest secure 19. Meditation Of Scandall 1. COnsider that it is necessary for them who profess a speciall charge and love of souls not onely to abstain from those things which are evill but from those also which carry any shew of it for he that doeth any such thing with desire of a temporall commodity induceth his neighbour who is not sufficiently able to judge to imitate what is bad or blasph me his good 2. In the first place therefore he woundeth his soul diminisheth Gods honour diverts men from his service defileth his own reputation and that of others who are of like profession he hinders the profit that should proceed from their Ministery and all these are cast behinde for the pursuance of some base gain or despicable pleasure 3. Adde that the thing which he doth for the most part is not without sin for whereas humane actions ought to be estimated not according to the principles of Metaphysicks but by the morall judgement of a prudent man not every thing which to a subtile discourse but which is congruous to humane conversation is approved just and right 4. Besides the damage for the most part of our neighbour and a disturbance of the Common-weale which happen out of the bordering vice do also ordinarily proceed from such like actions Wherefore the end for which sin is prohibited is found in them and therefore it is hard to finde how they should be innocent and free from all vice Conclude that thou must live plainly and uprightly and that thou wilt avoid not onely such things as of themselves are naught but also those which carry a face of badness and that thou wilt no less beware of those things which are generally esteemed wicked then of those which are truely so indeed 20. Meditation Of Rashness 1. COnsider him who desireth any thing how he is troubled and in affliction untill he injoyeth what he desireth besides he is disquieted full of cares and burthen some to himself and others whiles he is finding out the means how to compass what his unbridled concupiscence proposeth unto him and for the most part to be ignorant and to over-value the thing that he desireth and when he hath it to esteem it nothing as taught by experience that there was nothing to be desired in it but in the interim he is tormented with a large measure of solicitude labour and pain But the greatest folly is that heplaceth his affection in that which resteth in the power of another man unto which either he can by no means come or otherwise it must be obtained with loss and painfull displeasures 2. Lastly when as the peace of mans life consisteth in the injoyment of all that which he desireth but this can onely chance two manner of wayes either by being secure to obtain whatsoever thou desirest or by desiring nothing nor other way then is in thy power to obtain since the first way is impossible and the other track is in thy own power it is manifest the totall felicity of humane life is constituted in a moderate appetite Conclude to watch carefully over thy soul by inclining thy affections to the best and withdrawing them from opinionative impressions and motions knowing that good and evill is placed in thy self and whether thou shalt live a happy or a miserable life 21. Meditation Of Martyrdome 1. COnsider how that among all things that are terrible the most terrible thing is Death and unto which the other miseries of our life are onely steps What great fortitude therefore is it to make a change of life which is most pleasant into death to be suffered by torments and this not in the fury of war nor the transporting ardor of a passion nor through inevitable necessity but with a quie minde with a constant deliberation life being offered all those that are nearest perswading to the preservation of it when it would be an honour and profitable to retain it and that it would be thought wisely done 2. How great a gain is that act of Faith whenas all thy senses denounce infallibly that they and all those things which they delight in are come now to their period that Countrey Parents Friends Honours Pleasures Wealth Power and whatsoever else to which thou hast been accustomed shall from henceforth be-sted thee nothing and again of what is to come they cannot speak or promise any thing yet relying upon the promise of such things as appear not at all to be nothing afraid to forsake and cut off those things where with thou art acquainted together all in one moment 3. What great charity is it in the twinckling of an eye to cast away all these dear and cordiall delights whereof thou art or couldest be possessed and all thy hopes of the same and thy self especially for whom all the rest of those amiable things are ordained and from whence they do assume the reason of being amiable for the love of him whom thou hast never seen nor heard of by any that could say they saw him 4. Lastly how high an act and of how great Religion is it to offer up thy self and all that is thine in one holocaust to God for a testimony to Kings that he is God whose commandments are to be observed the commands of men being contemned when ever they are contrary to them What a heap also of high honour is yielded up unto God and what kind of conceit will Nations frame of him when they shall perceive his servants to hasten to all the greatest miseries in the world rather then transgress the least of his Commandements Conclude with what honour they are to be reverenced with what admiration they are to be worshipped that do these things and with what fervour thou art to labour that thou mayest be found worthy of so great an honour 22. Meditation Of Perseverance 1. COnsider that the misery which perseverance endureth cannot be grievous for what is grievous is short how shamefull is it therefore and reproachfull to be overcome onely as it were by continuance of time and importunitie of matters of little moment 2. Besides that the
brought upon the understanding so that in naturall things what the world is and the celestiall globes what the constitution of the earth is upon which we tread very few know any thing that is worth the knowledge But concerning God and the Intelligences which have no bodies besides those things which are taught us by faith we believe mere dreams 2. What should I speak how wholly ignorant we are of humane actions and what belongeth to our very selves What is past we hear not that which is to come we are by no means able to comprehend those very things which are present which we our selves touch and which in some fashion compell us not to be ignorant of them we notwithstanding penetrate them not No man can tell what he knows nor whereof he is ignorant how able or how weak what will not an undertaker promise being in very deed of himself able to bring nothing to perfection 3. Now if we but look upon the miseries of the body From whence arise so many strifes and contentions and such losses of the goods of Fortune but sometimes through negligence and at other times through rashnesse or overmuch covetousnesse From whence are so many wars and slaughters and the threads of so many mens lives cut asunder in one day From whence are so many become maimed and creeples ●ffected by mutual wounds From whence are the swarms of so many of the rest of diseases whereof some are common and naturall This man gets a Feaver by his intemperancy another a Pleurisie by his immoderate labour besides particular torments of the intralls appropriate to particular vices the Dropsie or the Gout through too much drinking the venereall Infection or the running of the reins which pursue impure lusts How great a part of Man-kind are intangled in these calamities and their contagion spareth not even such as are most innocent Conclude with an acknowledgement of what a strange monster it is that encompasseth thee cry out and roar at the sight of it and with the whole extent of thy power labour to shake off all incumbrances and free thy self and thine 8. Meditation Of Death 1. COnsider how the last end of the foresaid effects of sin is death which in one moment in the very twinkling of an eye ravisheth away all that which in the whole course of thy life was most amiable and with which thou wert most acquainted as the food and delights of thy taste the vanities of thy garments the curiosities of thy eyes and ears the pleasing inticements of smell and touch thy Palaces Farms Honours Dignities Power Friends Wife Children the body it self and all the bodies interiour affections so that there remains to thy self thy soul alone and that all naked which before thou didst hardly take notice of by some obscure reflexion 2. Which soul moreover is wearied with the weight of terrene affections and chained with corporeall phantasmes trembling with the ignorance of it self of such things as are presently to come upon it astonished with the unknown account of life torn away by violence from the embracement of the body ignorant of all things and fearing the worst 3. To all this is joyned the extreme torment of that sad hour for if the losse of our liberty or substance if the departure for a few dayes from the place of our friends or their company if the extension or cramp of the sinewes if the dissolution of any sensitive particle causeth such intolerable griefs that the greatnesse of the sense of it doth sometimes take away sense it self of what a strange nature will that hour be when bitter death at once shall divide us from all these without any the least hope of returning 4. Adde what will make that houre more grievous the love of that which we must loose the despair of recovery the foul conscience of the sins we have committed and the horrour of future punishments 5. But that which is of exceeding terrour is that no hour or moment of our life is free from death in the morning who can promise to himself to see the evening or at the evening who can promise himself the next morning A cup of water a morsell of meat the biting of some beast an intemperate exercise and some things by the onely fight of them do break asunder the brittle thread of our life We are the scorn of all chances the slip of a foot the errour of a hand a stone falling down and infinite other accidents do force us from our lives Conclude that sin is abolished by a just fear of death acknowledge it to be the cause of all thy miseries and that the onely remedy is to abstain from it and continually to kill it in thy body 9. Meditation Of a damned Soul 1. COnsider a Soul oppressed with terrene and corporeall affections when it is separated from the body with what horrible pains and miseries it is intangled and afflicted First of all because it is in no manner able to obtain those things which it pursues with her chief affection honours for example pleasures and the like the time for the injoying whereof is now past 2. Besides she is tormented with her desires which are contrary and fighting among themselves when as one of the contraries which she coveteth cannot be had nor consist with the other 3. Besides that all these desires combat and mortally disagree with that inbred appetite of good according to reason which she carries with her in her very substance the most vehement above all her desires and never possibly to be rooted out 4. Furthermore that it cannot possibly but see the greatnesse of that which is true beatitude both according to her nature and grace likewise which are all lost and to be despaired of nor yet can it despise it when it is seen 5. Adde to these that infinite fewell of envy and impatience to see the glory of them who waged the same warre with them in this life with like or perchance worse conditions yet now injoy eternall felicity 6. On the contrary side she cannot be ignorant of the vanity of those vilegoods which the soul hath preferred before blisse which being most base flying away for all eternity and irrecoverable forsake her still most eagerly gaping after them yet she transported towards them with the whole activity and violence of a free soul with a greater force then what is heavy descends then fire burns or the Sun runs the ring of his circumference is without restraint perpetually pined and maugred 7. And which is the grievousest thing of all the fleeting passage of time being over once and ever with an unchangeable and unvaried activity roaring it cries out and ever shall cry nor shall be able to fail or die being insufferable and execrable to her self to heaven to Saints to the damned also and all creatures besides being become an eternall monument of the Divine anger and of a creatures baseness 10. Meditation The torments of a damned