Piety gives both to the Person and to his Services a peculiar Preheminence and Dignity above all others The Naturalists observe that the Pearles that are bred of the Morning Dew are far more bright and clear than those which are bred of the Evening Dew And so are those duties of a greater worth and beauty which are the fruits of a Morning and not an Evening Godliness It is the commendation of Hezekiahs Reformation above all others of the Kings of Judah that in the first year of his Reign in the first Moneth he opened the doores of the House of the Lord. It is that which makes Josiahs Memory to be as a Box of precious Nard that while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father It is an Honourable Testimony which Paul gives to Epenetus that he was the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ and the like is that which he gives to Andronicus and Junia that they were in Christ before him To have a Precedency in the Faith is not onely a happiness but a dignity What glory can be greater then to be a Jeremiah sanctified from the Womb or a Timothy nourished up in the words of Faith Sâ—condly The comfort of Age is a well-spent Life When a Man comes to the Grave as a Shock of Câ—rne in its seâ—son and not as a bundle of Tares to the Fire when the Bones are full not of the Sins of Youth but of the Services that were then done to God when a Man can say as dying Hezekiah Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight O it is sad when the sins of youth become the burthen of age â— if the Grashopper then be a weight to the Body what a pressure will heapes of Mountainous sins be to the Soul Age at the best hath sufficient Griefes it is of it self a Sickness and a Neighbour to Death and needs not the bad provisions of Youthfull Follies to make it worse Let then the Counsell of Wise Solomon be acceptable unto you who are yet in the spring and flower of your age to Remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth and then if Death make you Pale before Age make you Gray you will have this comfort that you are old in houres though not in yeares and bave lived much though not long as having lost no time in sowing Seed unto the Flesh as most doe who make youth a foolish Seed-time to a Mourning Age and Old Age a bitter Harvest to a foolish Youth Or if your Almond-Tree shall flourish and that a more gracious Old Age shall succeed a gracious Youth Old Age it self shall be followed with a Crown of endless Glory Meditation LII Vpon a Rock IT is the saying of the Moralists That Accidents which befall Men have a double handle by which they may be apprehended So as that if they be rightly taken they become not onely less burthensome and unpleasant but also of use and advantage to those that sustain them like bitter Herbes that are by the skill of the Physician turned into a wholsome Medicine The like may be said of this present Subject that it hath a double aspect under which it may be represented to our Consideration each of which will suggest thoughts far differing one from another and yet both have their rise from Scripture Doth not God bid us look unto the rock from whence we are hewen and to the pit whence we are digged And then what can it hold out to our view but the misery of our natural condition our deadness deformity barrenness and untractableness to any good Is it not the complaint of the best that their hearts are Stony and Rocky and that they are apt to stand it out with God and not to yield to the Work of his Grace is there any evil that in their account is more insuperable then a flinty heart When did Moses who had faith to work many Miracles most distrust but when he was to make the Rock to yield Water though God commanded him to speak onely to it yet as deeming it insufficient he smote it twice And yet is it not the Promise of God to take away the stony heart and to give an heart of flesh And is it not that which I beg that God would mollifie both my Naturall and Acquired hardness and preserve me from Judiciall hardness That so I may not resist Pharoah like his Messages his Miracles his Judgments and his Mercies and grow worse in stead of being better I would that God might be a Rock to me but I would be as Wax unto him that so I might be apt to receive Divine Impressions from him It is my sin to be as a Rock to God unflexible and sooner Broken then Bent But it is my unspeakable comfort to think that God will be a Rock to me who stand in a continual need of his aide and power to uphold me who if I be not built upon him cannot subsist and if I be not hid in him can have no salvation I cannot therefore but give some scope and line to my thoughts that I may the better take in the honey and sweetness that drops from this Metaphoricall Name of God who is often stiled in Scripture the Rock of Israel the Rock of Ages the Rock of Salvation But here I must use the help of the Schooles who rightly informe us that when any thing of the Creature is applyed to God it must be via remotionis by way of remotion and via eminentiae by way of transcendent eminency First by way of remotion All defects and blemishes whatsoever are not in the least to be attributed unto him who is absolutely perfect as Heraulds say of Bearings the resemblance must be taken from the best of their properties and not from the worst Is a Rock deformed and of unequall parts God is the first of Beauties as well as of Beings and all his attributes are equally infinite his Justice is of as large extent as his Mercy and his Wisdom as his Power Is a Rock unsensible of the straits of those that fly unto it for succour so is not God who is both a Rock and a Father of Mercies Who can read the expressions of his tenâ—erness and not be affected How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Is the strength of a Rock intransient and fixed in it self not communicating its verâ—ue to what lies upon it So is not the strength of Israel who is a living and not a dead Rock and gives both life and power to those that are united to him I can do all things saith holy Paul through Christ strengthning me Is a Rock Barren and can yield no food though it
none of which he wanted but in condescending to those of low degree if he might but be serviceable to them Which was apparent in that freedom of access and converse with those between him and whom there was otherwise a great disparity especially in that humbleness of mind he shewed after any large receits or performances wherein he shewed himself like Moses though his face shone he knew it not Secondly His Charity both in giving and forgiving the latter of which as it is most noble so it is the most difficult and that which is peculiar to Christ Disciples As for the former though the World might expect more visible and pompous demonstrations of it yet that charity is best which like the waters of Shiloh run softly and the more private in this case the better Our Saviour would have our good works shine and not blaze Now that he was not deficient in this may appear in that he was no hoarder nor left he any Sums behind him by which it appears plainly that he lived to the utmost if not beyond the extent of his In-come which also in vulgar estimation was double to the reality Thirdly To this may be added his Meekness and Patience the natural result of Humility in which graces he was eminent being seldom or never transported by passion or if at any time those passions which do repugn that grace did arise they soon had a counterbuff from the divine principle was in him He alwaies had an innocent and grateful chearfulness in his Converse that rendred it very acceptable being very free from that morosity of spirit which many times is like a cloud in a Diamond and like a Curtain before a Picture And yet as the sweetest Rose hath its prickles and the industrious Bee that makes the healing and mollifying Honey and Wax her sting So he had a sting of holy Zeal which wisdom had the conduct of that it was not put forth upon every trivial provocation he knew when and where and how far to shew it and in Gods Cause his Zeal was better tempered than like a brittle blade to fly in shivers and wound by-standers but it was true mettal and would cut deep so as to leave impressions behind it Fourthly Add to this his peaceable disposition a great ornament to Christianity It was his principle and practice not to have that by contention he might have by peace and for peace sake though he durst not sell the truth yet he did often Câ—dere de jure depart from his right and that Ne Evangelium detrimenti aliquid capiat for the Gospels sake that it might not suffer by him He loved those of a peaceable spirit and was grieved at the contrary spirit and practice in any though his friends He did heartily bewail our divisions and how desirous he was to obey those commands of the Psalmist and the Apostles Pursue peace ensue peace noting both the vehemency and swiâ—tness of the prosecution If some did know they would not it may be be satisfied and if others did know they would it may be be offended and therefore it is best to leave that to him whose judgement is according to truth But I remember I am to write a Preface not a Narrative of his life He was a lover of goodmen Loving and faithful in his Relations a good Child a good Father a good Husband a good Brother a good Master a good Neighbour a good Friend a good Governour a good Subject a good Minister and all because he was a good Christian He was full of heavenly Ejaculations contented and patient under the loss of his desired Relations And as they say the Swan sings sweetly before his death So was his heart drawing near his change full of thankfulness being like a Vessel that wanted vent For being graciously preserved in the Visitation and restored to his friends he expressed in all his Converses with them a deep sence of Gods mercy and a fear least we should soon forget it and grow cold in our returns of praise and obedience and therefore did advise that we would become Monitors to one another and call upon one another not to forget that God who had so eminently preserved us Thus was the blessed Spirit of God tuning him for eternal praises and winding his heart up to that sweet and heavenly work it pleased God by a short and sweet passage to take him unto His death was not so much sudden as speedy Sudden death is evil when death finds a man unprepared but speedy death is a great mercy The Prodromi and Harbingers of death being many times more terrible than death which made a good man say I bless God I fear not death yet I dare not say but I fear dying Meaning that the best Christians have something of nature in them The Jews among the several waies of dying they reckon up say that of Moses is the best who died at the mouth of the Lord God took away his soul with a kiss Yet Censorious Worldlings are ready to make strange glosses and comments upon such passages of providence which it would become them rather with a holy silence to adore than with a bold curiosity to pry into Let them remember that known saying Qualis vita finis it a He cannot have an ill death that leads a good life I would therefore exhort thee and all others so to live that we may have that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustus the Emperour prayed for and that many Saints have if it were the will of God desired in both acceptations of the Word in the preparation of soul and the easiness of dissolution That the knot of life may rather be untied than cut and that our Souls may go like Ships richly fraught with full Sails upon a calm Sea under a gentle Gale into the Haven of Happiness So praies he Qui A longè sequitur vestigia semper adorans The Contents of the Meditations Med. 1. UPon a Mote in the Eye Page 1 Med. 2. Upon a piece of battered Plate 2 Med. 3. Upon the Galaxia or milky way 3 Med. 4. Upon a Picture and a Statue 5 Med. 5. Upon a Graff 6 Med. 6. On a Glass without a foot 7 Med. 7. Upon the sight of a Lilly and a Violet 9 Med. 8. On a Crum going the wrong way 11 Med. 9. On two Lights in a Room 12 Med. 10. On building after fires 13 Med. 11. On the Torrid Zone 15 Med. 12. On strength and length in Prayer 17 Med. 13. On the Morning Dew 18 Med. 14. On a Pearl in the eye 21 Med. 15. On spiritual and bodily sickness 23 Med. 16. On a Lamp and a Star 24 Med. 17. On a Chancery Bill 26 Med. 18. On the Philosophers Stone 28 Med. 19. On a Greek Accent 30 Med. 20. On a debauched Minister 33 Med. 21. On the golden Câ—lf and brazâ—â—Serpenâ— 36 Med. 22. On the Circulation of the bloâ—d 39 Med. 23. On a multiplying Glass 41 Med. 24.
greatly differing from what others find and feel whose lines are not fallen in so fair a place But still I say when shall I dwell in that blessed Country where sorrows dye and joys cannot Into which Enemy never entred and from which a Friend never parted When shall I possess that Inheritance which is a Kingdom for its greatness and a City for its beauty where there is Society without Envy and rich Communications of good without the least diminution Meditation XLIII Vpon Time and Eternity THe two Estates of this and the other World are measured by Time and by Eternity as their just and proper measures there being nothing in this World which is not as transient as Time nor in the other which is not as fixed and lasting as Eternity How inexpressibly then must the good and evil the happiness and the misery of those two Estates differ from eacâ— other What is the duration of all earthly greatness in respect of the stability of heavenly glory but as a flash of lightning to a standing Sun in the Firmament or as a spark ascending from a furnace to a never setting Star What are the most fiery trials of this life either for intension or length unto the everlasting burnings and scorchings of hell but as the soft and gentle heat of a blushing face unto the constant flames and torments of the bowels What are Racks Stone Collick Strangury Convulsions heaped together into an extream horrour but as the simple grudgings of an Ague to the desperate rage and anguish which the least bite of that worm that dies not creates in the lowest faculty of the soul There are additions to things which are limited and diminuent terms of that to which they are annexed and contain in them as Logicians speak oppositum in opposito one opposite in another He that saith a dead man or a painted Lion by saying more saith less than if he had said but a man or a Lion only without any such additions it is all one in effect as if he had said no man no Lion For a dead man is not a man neither is a painted Lion a Lion Such are the additions of Time which put to good or evil expresse less than if nothing had been added He that saith happiness for a season or sorrow for a time saith less than if he had said happiness or sorrow only For perfect happiness or sorrow cannot be circumscribed in the narrow limits of Time no more than Immensity in the points of a place What is happiness that will expire but misery at a distance Or what is sorrow that endures only for a time but an evil supported by hope But adde Eternity to good or evil and it makes the good to be insinitely better and the evil to be infinitely worse Can I then do less than wonder that men who carry eternal souls in their bosoms such as are of kin to Seraphims yea advanced to the participation of the Divine Nature that are the immediate Subjects of Endless woe or bliss should yet so live Aâ— si fabula esset omnis eternitatas as if Eternity were a fable as if they had neither God to serve or souls to save May I not say be astonished O heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate as the Lord himself did at Israels folly What greater stupidity can there be than this which most are guilty of to busie themselves like Martha about perishing trifles and to neglect the one thing which is necessary To be thoughtfull of things below and seldom think of heaven till death summon them to leave Earth To make Salvation the by-work of their lives and the fulfilling the apperites of the flesh their chiefest task and care Were it not a strange thing if a man who is to be judged on the morrow and to receive the sentence either of a cruel death or of a rich and honourable estate could not keep in mind the concernments of the next approaching day without tying some Scarlet thread upon his finger as a significant Ceremony to remember him Or the writing of some Caveats upon the posts of the Prison which might hint unto him what danger his life is in Is it not much more strange that the weighty matters of eternal life or eternal death should not by their own greatness press the heart of man unto a constant remembrance of them especially when he knoweth not what a day may bring forth Can the miscarriage of such a person be other than dreadful when their follies as well as their pains shall make them to gnash their teeth and to curse themselves for the neglect of that great Salvation which hath been often tendred them in the Gospel When they shall feel everlastingly what they could never be perswaded for to fear When they shall be convinced that at a far cheaper rate they might have been Saints in Heaven than Salamanders in Hell O that I could therefore awaken and excite all those whom the present enjoyments of the world serve as Opium to cast them into a deep sleep and will happily be angry with those that seek to raise them out of it though they keep them from perishing in it And how can I better do it than in St. Chrysostomes expressions to this purpose Suppose a man saith he much desirous of sleep and in his perfect mind had an offer made of one nights sweet rest upon condition to be punished an hundred years for it would he except of his sleep upon such terms Now do not they who would be loath to be reputed fools do far worse that for the short fruition of a few transient delights hazard a double Eternity the loss of an Eternity of blessedness and the sustaining of an Eternity of miseries for what other proportion can all earthly things bear to heavenly in respect of their duration than a few beatings of the pulse or twinklings of the eye unto Myriads of Ages Be then timely wise ye worldlings in a frequent consideration of your eternal being that you may not pass your life away in a dream of happiness and awake in the horrour of a begun Eternity in misery Say unto your selves are we not in the world as the Child conceived is in the womb not to abide there but to come out in a due time to a more full and free life Why then do we fondly think of building Tabernacles here Why do we so please our selves in our present condition as to be wholly regardless of our future Is not death such a combate as we never enter into but once and therein are either saved or shin eternally Why do we then make little or no provision against what we know will and must certainly follow Do we think that our glory shall descend after us and screen us from Gods siery indignation Will our riches purcâ—ase heaven or bribe hell Will the first-born of our body be accepted for the sin of our soul What is it
off your Armour till you put on your Robes It is made to be worn not to be laid up nor yet to be laid down because our VVarfare and our Life are both finished together till then there is not a Truce much less a Peace for to be expected Sooner may we contract a league with Poysons that when taken down they shall not kill or with fiery Serpents and Cockatrices that they bite nor then obtain the least respit in this VVar in which the Malice of Cursed Devils is as unquenchable as the fire of Hell to which they are doomed Lord therefore do thou who art the Prince of Life the Captain of Salvation to all thy People who hast finished thine own VVarfare and beholds theirs enable me to VVrastle that I may neither faint nor fall but prevaile unto Victory shew foâ—th thy VVonders in Me whose Strength is Perfected in VVeakness that I may overcome the VVicked One. And though the Conflict should be long and bitter yet make me to know that the sweetness of the Reward will abundantly Recompense the Trouble of the Resistance and the Joy of the Triumph the Bloodiness of the War Meditation LIX Vpon going to Bed HOw like is the frail Life of Man to a Day as well for the inequality of its length as the mixture that it hath both of Cloudes and Sun-shine VVhat a kinde of exact Parelia are Sleep and Death the one being the ligation of the Senses and the other the Privation of them And of how near a kin is the Grave to the Bed when the Scripture calls it by the same Name when the Clothes that cover us do the like office with the Mould that must be cast and spread over us VVhen therefore the Day and the Labours which Man goeth forth unto are ended and the darkness of the Night disposeth unto Rest what thoughts can any better take into his Bosome to lie down with then to think that Death like the Beasts of the Forrest may creep forth to seek its prey and that when it comes there is no resistance to be made or delay to be obtained It spares no rank of Men but slayes the rich as well as the poor the Prince as well as the peasant The Glass that hath the Kings Face painted on it is not the less brittle neither are Kings that have Gods Image represented in them the less mortal And whether it comes in at the window or at the door whether in some Common or in some unwonted manner who can tell Many oft times fall asleep in this World and awake in the other and have no Summons at all to acquaint them whither they are going And yet though every Mans condition be thus uncertain and that his Breath is in his Nostrils where there is as much room for it to go out as to come in how few do make their nights repose to serve as a memorial of their last rest on their Bed to stand for a model of their Coffin Some pervert the Night which was ordained to be a Cessation of the evils of Labour to make it a season for their greater activity in the evils of sin They devise as the Prophet saith iniquity upon their Beds and when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hand Other are easily brought asleep by the riot and intemperance of the day owning their unhappy rest not to the dew of nature but unto the gross and foul vapours of sin which more darken and eclipse their reason than their sleep their Dreames having more of it in them than their Discourse Others again by their youth and health seem to be seated in such an elevation above death as that they cannot look down from their Bed into the Grave without growing dizzy such a steep Precipice they apprehend between life and death Though this distemper doth not arise from the distance between the two termes but from the imbecillity of their sense which cannot bear the least thoughts of a separation from those delights and pleasures to which their Soules are firmly wedded VVhen therefore the most of men are such unthrifts of time and like careless Navigators keep no Journal or Diary of their motions and other occurrences that fall our VVhat need have others to make the Prayer of Moses the Man of God their Prayer So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom He who was Learned in all the Sciences of the Aegyptians desires to be taught this point of Arithmetick of God so to number as not to mistake or make any error in the account of life in setting down dayes for minutes and yeares for dayes A Man would think that a little Arithmetick would serve cast up so small a number as the dayes of him whose dayes are as the dayes of an hireling few and evill and yet it is such a Mystery that Moses begs of God to be instructed in it as that which is the chief and onely knowledge Yea God himself earnestly wisheth this wisdom to Israel his People O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Can we then render the night more senseless or keep the Bed unspotted from those Impurities that are neither few nor small then by practising duely this Divine Art of numbering our dayes which is not done by any speculation or prying into the time or manner of our death but by meditating and thinking with our selves what our dayes are and for what end our life is given unto us by reckoning our day by our work and not by our time by what we do and not by what we are By remembring that we are in a continual progress to the Chambers of death no Mans life being so long at the evening as it was in the morning Night and day are as two Axes at the root of our life when one is lifted up the other is down without rest every day a Chip flies off and every night a Chip and so at length we are hewen down and fall at the Graves mouth O what a wide difference is there between those that lie down with these considerations in their Bosomes and others who pass their time in pleasures and allow not the least portion of it to think what the issues are that a day or night may bring forth How free are their Conversations from those sensualities and lusts which others commit in the day and lie down with the guilt of them in the night How profitably do they improve their time who count onely the present to be theirs and the future to be Gods above those that fancy youth and strength to be a security of the succeeding proportions of their life yea how comfortable is death to those who are in daily preparation for it as well as in expectation of it above what it is to others who are surprized by it in the midst of those delights in which they promised