quench those riuers of brimstone that feede this flame where there is no intermission of complaints no breathing from paine and after millions of yeeres no possibility of comfort And if the rod wherewith thou chastisest thy children O Lord euen in this life be so smart and galling that they haue been brought downe to the brim of despaire and in the bitternesse of their soule haue intreated death to release them What shal I think of their plagues in whose righteous confusion thou insultest and sayest Aha I wil auenge me of mine enemies Euen that thou shalt not bee thus miserable O my soule is some kind of happines but that thou shalt bee as happie as the reprobate are miserable how worthy is it of more estimation than thy selfe is capable of Chap. 25. AFterthis oppositiō the mind shall make cōparison of the matter meditated with what may neerest resemble it and shall illustrate it with fittest similitudes which giue no small light to the vnderstanding nor lesse force to the affection Wonder then O my soule as much as thou canst at this glory and in comparison thereof contemne this earth which now thou treadest vpon whose ioyes if they were perfect are but short and if they were long are imperfect One day when thou art aboue looking downe from the height of thy glory and seeing the sons of men creeping like so many Ants on this mole-hill of earth thou shalt thinke Alas how basely I once liued was yonder silly dungeon the place I so loued and was so loath to leaue Thinke so now before-hand and since of heauē thou canst not yet account of the earth as it is worthy How hartlesse and irkesome are yee O yee best earthly pleasures if ye be matched with the least of those aboue Howe vile are you O ye sumptuous buildings of kings euen if all the entrailes of the earth had agreed to enrich you in compason of this frame not made with hands It is not so hie aboue the earth in distance of place as in worth and maiestie we may see the face of heauen from the heart of the earth but from the neerest part of the earth who can see the least glory of heauen The three disciples on mount Tabor sawe but a glimpse of this glory shining vpon the face of their Sauiour and yet being rauished with the sight cryed out Master It is good being here and thinking of building of three Tabernacles for Christ Moses Elias could haue been content themselues to haue lien without shelter so they might alwaies haue enioyed that sight Alas how could earthly Tabernacles haue fitted those heuēly bodies They knewe what they sawe what they said they knew not Lo these 3. disciples were not trāsfigured yet how deeply they were affected euē with the glory of others how happy shal wee be when our selues shal be changed into glorious and shall haue Tabernacles not of our own making but prepared for vs by God and yet not Tabernacles but eternal mansions Moses sawe God but a while and shined How shal we shine that shal behold his face for euer What greater honour is there than in Souereignty what greater pleasure than in feasting This life is both a kingdome and a feast A kingdome He that ouercomes shall rule the nations and shall sit with me in my Throne O blessed promotion Oh large dominion and royall seate to which Salomons throne of yuory was not worthy to become a footestoole A feast Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage supper of the Lambe Feastes haue more than necessitie of prouision more than ordinary diet but marriage-feasts yet more than common abundance But the marriage-feast of the Sonne of God to his blessed spouse the Church must so farre exceed in all heauenly munificence and varietie as the persons are of greater State and Maiestie There is new wine pure Manna and all manner of spirituall dainties and with the continuall cheare a sweete and aunswerable welcome while the bridegrome louingly cheares vs vp Eate O Friends drinke make you merrie O welbeloued yea There shalt thou be my soule not a guest but how vnworthy soeuer the Bride her selfe whom hee hath euerlastingly espoused to himselfe in truth and righteousnesse The contract is passed here belowe the mariage is cōsummate aboue and solēnized with a perpetual feast So that now thou mayest safely say My welbeloued is mine and I am his Wherefore hearken O my soule and consider and incline thine eare forget also thine owne people and thy fathers house thy supposed home of this world so shall the King haue pleasure in thy beauty for hee is thy Lord and worship thou him Chap. 26. THE verie Names and Titles of the matter cōsidered yeeld no small store to our Meditation which being commonly so imposed that they secretly comprehend the nature of the thing which they represent are not vnworthy of our discourse What neede I seeke these resemblances whē the very name of life implieth sweetnesse to men on earth euen to them which confesse to liue with some discontentment Surely the light is a pleasant thing and it is good to the eyes to see the Sunne yet when Temporall is added to Life I know not how this additiō detracteth somthing and doth greatly abate the pleasure of life for those which ioy to thinke of Life grieue to thinke it but Temporall So vexing is the ende of that whose continuance was delightfull But nowe when there is an addition aboue Time of Eternitie it makes life so much more sweete as it is more lasting and lasting infinitelie what can it giue lesse than an infinite contentment Oh dying and false life which wee enioy here and scarce a shadowe and counterfeit of that other What is more esteemed than glory which is so precious to men of spirit that it makes them prodigall of their blood proud of their wounds carelesse of themselues and yet alas how pent and how fading is this glory affected with such dangers and deaths hardly after all Trophees and monuments either knowen to the next sea or suruiuing him that dyes for it It is true glorie to triumph in heauen where is neither enuie nor forgetfulnesse What is more deare to vs than our Countrey which the worthy and faithfull Patriotes of all times haue respected aboue their parēts their children their liues counting it onely happie to liue in it and to die for it The banisht man pines for the want of it the trauailer digests all the tediousnesse of his way all the sorrowes of an ill iourney in the only hope of home forgetting all his forraine miseries when hee feeles his owne smoake Where is our Countrey but aboue Thence thou camest O my soule thither thou art going in a short but weary pilorimage O miserable men if wee account our selues at home in our pilgrimage if in our iourney we long not for home Doest thou see men so in loue with their natiue soyle that euen when it is
throgh their immunitie from those cares which accompany an actiue life might haue the best leasure to this busines Yet seeing there is no man so taken vp with action as not sometimes to haue a free minde and there is no reasonable minde so simple as not to bee able both to discourse somewhat and to better it selfe by her secret thoughts I deeme it an enuious wrong to conceale that from any whose benefit may bee vniuersall Those that haue but a little stocke had neede to knowe the best rules of thrift Chap. 2. THe rather for that whereas our Diuine Meditation is nothing else but a bending of the mind vpon some spirituall obiect through diuers formes of discourse vntill our thoughts come to an issue and this must needs be either Extemporall and occasioned by outward occurrences offred to the mind or Deliberate and wrought out of our owne heart which againe is either in Matter of Knowledge for the finding out of some hidden trueth and conuincing of an heresie by profound trauersing of reason or in Matter of Affection for the enkindling of our loue to God the former of these two last wee sending to the Scholes and masters of Controuersies search after the later which is both of larger vse and such as no Christian can reiect as either vnnecessary or ouer-difficult For both euery Christian had neede of fire put to his affections and weaker iudgements are no lesse capable of this diuine heate which proceedes not so much from reason as from faith One sayes and I beleeue him that Gods Schoole is more of Affection than Vnderstanding Both lessons very needefull very profitable but for this our age especially the later For if there bee some that haue much zeale little knowledge there are more that haue much knoweledge without zeale And hee that hath much skill and no affection may do good to others by information of iudgement but shall neuer haue thanke either of his own heart or of God who vseth not to cast away his loue on those of whom hee is but knowen not loued Chap. 3. OF Extemporal Meditatiō there may be much vse no rule forasmuch as our conceits herein varie according to the infinite multitude of obiects and their diuers manner of profering thēselues to the minde as also for the suddennesse of this acte Man is placed in this Stage of the worlde to viewe the seuerall natures and actions of the creature To view them not idly without his vse as they doe him God made all these for man and man for his owne sake Both these purposes were lost if man should let the creatures passe carelesly by him onely seene not thought vpon He onely can make benefit of what he sees which if hee doe not it is all one as if hee were blind or brute Whēce it is that wise Salomon puttes the sluggard to schoole vnto the Ant and our Sauiour sends the distrustfull to the Lillie of the field In this kinde was that Meditation of the Diuine Psalmist which vpon the viewe of the glorious frame of the Heauens was led to woonder at the mercifull respect GOD hath to so poore a creature as man Thus our Sauiour tooke occasion of the water fetcht vp solemnely to the Altar from the Well of Shilo on the day of the great HOSANNAH to meditate and discourse of the Water of life Thus holy and sweete AVGVSTINE from occasion of the water-course neere to his Lodging running among the pebbles sometimes more silently sometimes in a baser murmure and sometimes in a shriller note entred into the thought and discourse of that excellent order which God hath settled in all these inferiour things Thus that learned and heauenly soule of our late Estye when wee sate together and heard a sweet consort of Musicke seemed vpon this occasion carried vp for the time before-hand to the place of his rest saying not without some passion What Musicke may we thinke there is in heauen Thus lastly for who knowes not that examples of this kinde are infinite that faithfull and reuerend Deering when the Sunne shined on his face now lying on his death-bed fell into a sweet meditation of the glory of God and his approaching ioy The thoughts of this nature are not onely lawfull but so behooueful that we cannot omit them without neglect of God his creatures our selues The creatures are halfe lost if wee only imploy them not learne somthing of thē GOD is wronged if his creatures bee vnregarded our selues most of all if wee reade this great volume of the creatures and take out no lesson for our instruction Chap. 4. WHerein yet cautiō is to be had that our Meditatiōs be not either too farre-fetcht or sauouring of Superstition Farre-fetcht I cal those which haue not a faire easie resemblāce vnto the matter frō whēce they are raised in which case our thoghts proue loose heartles making no memorable impression in the mind Superstitious when we make choice of those grounds of Meditation which are forbidden vs as Teachers of Vanity or imploy our owne deuices though well grounded to an vse aboue their reach making them vpon our owne pleasures not only furtherances but parts of Gods worship in both which our Meditations degenerate and growe rather perillous to the soule Whereto adde that the minde bee not too much cloyed with too frequent iteratiō of the same thought which at last breedes a wearinesse in our selues and an vnpleasantnesse of that conceit which at the first entertainement promised much delight Our nature is too ready to abuse familiaritie in any kinde and it is with Meditations as with Medicines which with ouer-ordinary vse lose their Soueraignety and fill in stead of purging God hath not straited vs for matter hauing giuen vs the scope of the whole world so that there is no creature euent action speach which may not afford vs new matter of Meditation And that which we are wont to say of fine wittes we may as truely affirme of the Christian hart that it can make vse of any thing Wherefore as trauellers in a forreine countrey make euery fight a lesson so ought wee in this our pilgrimage Thou seest the heauen rolling aboue thine head in a constāt and vnmoueable motion the starres so ouer-looking one another that the greatest shewe little the least greatest all glorious the ayre full of the bottles of raine or fleeces of snowe or diuers formes of fiery Exhalations The sea vnder one vniforme face full of strange and monstrous shapes beneath the earth so adorned with variety of plants that thou canst not but tread on many at once with euery foote besides the store of creatures that flie aboue it walke vpō it liue in it Thou idle Truant doest thou learn nothing of so many masters hast thou so long read these capitall letters of Gods great booke and canst thou not yet spell one worde of them The brute creatures see the same things with as cleare perhaps
come when all this wretched worldlines remoued I shall solace my selfe in my God Behold as the Hart brayeth for the riuers of water so panteth my soule after thee O GOD My soule thirsteth for God euen for the liuing God Oh when shal I come and appeare before the presence of God Chap. 31. AFter this Wishing shall follow hūble Confession by iust order of nature For hauing bemoned our want and wished supplie not finding this hope in our selues we must needes acknowledge it to him of whom only we may both seek find wherin it is to bee duely obserued how the mind is by turnes depressed and lifted vp Being lifted vp with our Taste of ioy it is cast downe with Complaint lift vp with Wishes it is cast downe with Confession which order doeth best hold it in vre and iust temper and makes it more feeling of the cōfort which followes in the Conclusion This Confession must derogate all from our selues and ascribe all to God Thus I desire O Lord to bee right affected towards thee and thy glory I desire to come to thee but alas how weakly how heartlesly Thou knowest that I can neither come to thee nor desire to come but from thee It is Nature that holds me from thee this treacherous Nature fauors it selfe loues the world hates to thinke of a dissolution and chooses rather to dwell in this dungeon with continuall sorrow and complaint than to endure a parting although to liberty and ioy Alas Lord it is my misery that I loue my paine How long shall these vanities thus besot me It is thou onely that canst turne away mine eyes frō regarding these follies and my heart from affecting them Thou onely who as thou shalt one day receiue my soule into heauen so now before-hande canst fixe my soule vpon heauen and thee Chap. 32. AFter Confession naturally followes Petition earnestly requesting that at his handes which we acknowledge our selues vnable and none but GOD able to performe Oh carie it vp therefore thou that hast created and redeemed it carie it vp to thy glorie Oh let mee not alwayes bee thus dull and brutish Let not these scales of earthly affection alwayes dimme and blind mine eyes Oh thou that layedst clay vpon the blind mans eyes take away this clay from mine eyes wherewith alas they are so dawbed vp that they cannot see heauen Illuminate thē from aboue and in thy light let me see light Oh thou that hast prepared a place for my soule prepare my soule for that place prepare it with holinesse prepare it with desire and euen while it soiourneth on earth let it dwell in heauen with thee beholding euer the beauty of thy face the glory of thy Saints and of it selfe Chap. 33. AFter Petition shall followe the Enforcemēt of our request from argument and importunate obsecration wherin we must take heede of complementing in tearmes with God as knowing that hee will not be mocked by any fashionable forme of sute but requires holy and feeling intreatie How graciously hast thou proclaimed to the worlde that who-euer wants wisedom shal aske it of thee which neither deniest nor vpbraidest O Lord I want heauenly wisedome to conceiue aright of heauen I want it and aske it of thee giue me to aske it instantly and giue me according to thy promise abundantly Thou seest it is no strange fauour that I begge of thee no other than that which thou hast richly bestowed vpon all thy valiant Martyrs Confessors seruants from the beginning who neuer could haue so chearfully imbraced death and torment if through the middest of their flames and paine they had not seene their crowne of glorie The poore theefe of the Crosse had no sooner craued thy remembrance when thou camest to thy kingdome than thou promisedst to to take him with thee into heauen Presence was better to him than remembrance Behold now thou art in thy kingdome I am on earth remember thine vnworthy seruant and let my soule in conceit in affection in conuersation be this day for euer with thee in Paradise I see man walketh in a vaine shadow and disquieteth himself in vain they are pitifull pleasures hee enioyeth while he forgets thee I am as vaine make me more wise Oh let mee see heauen and I knowe I shall neuer ennie nor followe them My times are in thine hande I am no better than my fathers a stranger on earth As I speake of them so the next yea this generation shall speake of mee as one that was My life is a bubble a smoake a shadowe a thought I knowe it is no abiding in this thorow-fare Oh suffer me not so madde as while I passe on the waye I should forgette the ende It is that other life that I must trust to With thee it is that I shall continue Oh let mee not bee so foolish as to settle my selfe on what I must leaue and to neglect eternitie I haue seene enough of this earthe and yet I loue it too much Oh let mee see heauen another while and loue it so much more than the earth by howe much the things there are more worthy to be loued Oh God looke downe on thy wretched Pilgrim and teach mee to looke vp to thee and to see thy goodnesse in the land of the liuing Thou that boughtest heauen for me guide mee thither and for the price that it cost thee for thy loue and mercies sake in spight of all tentations enlighten thou my soule direct it crowne it Chap. 34. AFter this Enforcement doeth followe Confidence wherin the soule after many doubtfull and vnquiet bickerings gathers vp her forces and cheerefully rouzeth vp it selfe and like one of Dauids Worthies breaks through a whole armie of doubts and fetches comfort from the Well of life which though in some later yet in all is a sure reward from GOD of sincere Meditation Yea bee thou bolde O my soule and doe not meerely craue but challenge this fauour of God as that which hee owes thee Hee owes it thee because hee hath promised it and by his mercie hath made his gift his debt Faithfull is hee that hath promised which will also doe it Hath hee not giuen thee not onely his hand in the sweete hopes of the Gospell but his seale also in the Sacraments Yea besides promise hand seale hath hee not giuen thee a sure earnest of thy saluation in some weake but true graces Yet more hath hee not giuen thee besides Earnest possession while he that is the Trueth and Life saith Hee that beleeueth hath euerlasting life and hath passed from death to life Canst thou not then bee content to cast thy selfe vpon this blessed issue If God be faithfull I am glorious I haue thee already O my life God is faithfull and I doe beleeue who shall separate mee from the loue of Christ from my glorie with Christ who shall pull mee out of my heauen Goe to then and returne to thy rest O my