distill and drop down into Gods bottle as their Receiver Psal 56. 8. 3. The great book of nature with its three leaves of Heaven Earth and Sea as well as the blessed Book of Scripture may hereby afford you a rich spirit and quintessence The first leaf of that book to wit Heaven may afford you many divine lectures as first the purity of Heaven may teach you the purity of its Maker who made it of such pure matter as you behold and the purity also that ought to be in your heart that this pure God may dwell in it as in his palace temple and lower heaven yea and the purity of your life likewise as becometh one that expects to live for ever in that pure heaven into which no impure thing can ever enter 4. When you behold 2ly the glory and splendor of Heaven both by night and by day 1. By night how it is bespangled with glittering and glorious Stars then think with your self that this splendid firmament which I behold is but the outside of the palace of God and the under-seiling only thereof and if that have so much lustre and beauty how much more hath the inside where the divine transcendent Majesty of the Trinity with innumerable both of glorious Angels and of glorified Saints shineth forth 5. And 2ly by day when you behold how one Sun makes a most glorious Morning when it ariseth and when you arise out of your bed then meditate Oh what shall the morning of the Resurrection be 't will be ten thousand times more glorious when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise and with him Myriads of Saints and Angels which shall be all seven times brighter than the Sun of the firmament If it be a pleasant thing as Solomon telleth you to behold the Sun then think how 't is more pleasant yea and profitable too for you to behold the Sun of Righteousness that in his light you may see light Psal 36. 9. 6. When you view the changeableness of the face of Heaven and its outward appearance unto you this may teach you in the third place that as the Heaven is somtimes bright and sometimes clouded not all night nor all day the Sun sometimes over-cast with a black cloud and sometimes breaking out in its splendor and glory and as the Moon hath her changes her borrowed light ruling the night as the Sun the day so you may not expect any fixed constancy in any condition upon earth while there is such changeableness in the face of heaven 7. When you consider 4ly the firmness of the body of heaven how it hath continued firm and unworn notwithstanding its motion which wears all other things is with incredible swiftness from the Creation of the World then did the Lord spread out that heaven like a curtain and it hath continued spread for almost six thousand years yet not one hole can be discerned in that curtain to this day Oh how may this teach you the unchangeableness of God who was the Creator and is the upholder of Heaven and what a safe place heaven is to lay up your treasure in so far out of the reach of all rust and robbery The second leaf in the book of Nature is 1. the Earth which the Heaven oft hears and waters with showers of blessing sometimes God stops up those of heaven and sometimes he opens them Speak to the earth and it shall teach you Job 12.8 How the clouds are Gods watering pot and his spunges which he squeezes with a gentle hand that the rain may softly descend and drop fatness upon the furrows of the earth Consider Oh what dependency hath man upon God! the rain hath no father but God the vanities of the Gentiles cannot give rain Jer. 14. 22. 2. Meditate how the air blows upon the earth yet is invisible and although it be so yet is it the preserver of your life which is nothing but a vapour and a little warm breath turned up and down the nostrils how may this put you in mind of the invisible God who filleth all things and in whom you live move and have your being 3. When you consider how the Earth hangeth in the midst of the air poized equally every way and yet not reeled out of its place this five thousand years and upward notwithstanding the hideous tempests that hath been upon it and the dreadful Earthquakes that hath been within it Psal 104. 5 6 God laid the foundations of the earth that it cannot be removed for ever And he hangeth the earth upon nothing Job 26. 7. Now if the whole massy body of the Earth hang so steadily and stedfastly upon the powerful precept of God O then bethink your self how firmly you ought to hang upon the precious promise of God both for your safety in this world and for your salvation in the world to come 4. Behold the fruits of the Earth and consider that a woman when about fifty years of age is past child-bearing yet this great mother the Earth though she be above five thousand years old is not past fruit-bearing still and whence comes it but from the word of the great Jehovah Seed-time and harvest shall not cease Gen. 8. 22. You see the Earth is yearly loaden with fruit Oh then consider what are the riches of the Throne of God if there be so much upon his footstool say also within your self doth your ground and your garden answer your expectation and shall not you the expectation of your God he will have his visiting time Cant. 6. 11. and will come with his basket upon his arm to gather the fruit of his Vine-yard if he find none to fill his basket he will lay down his basket and take up his axe and cut you down that you may not cumber the ground any more 5. Your beholding of the grass of the field while you are walking ro meditate there as Isaac did Gen. 24. 63. may mind you of your mortality and of your withering condition All flesh is grass Isa 40. 6 7. that grass which the sythe cuts not down in Summer while 't is young and juicy the sharp frosts of an hard Winter will wither away so though you escape the sythe of death in the summer of your youth while your bones are full of marrow and your veins of blood yet the winter of old age will wither you 6. When you behold that variety of trees it may teach you the difference among men some are wild trees trees of the wood that is out of the Church whose fruit be crabs and acorns mask for hogs not meat and medicine for men as Ezek. 47. 12. Others are trees of Righteousness planted and watered by the Lord Isa 61. 3. as the other by the Devil and thus ordinary objects as birds and beasts c. may be hallowed to an heavenly end The ox knows his owner the swallow her season 1. The third leaf in the book of Nature is the Sea the great and
Canaanites Chariot-horses Josh 11. 6 9 and David Zobah's 2 Sam. 8. 4 so intreat thy Joshuah thy Jesus the Son of David to hough thy carnal affections that as Phaetons Chariot-horses they set not all on fire then delight in God and thou 'lt need less the delights of the world The third Natural action is feeding your belly 1. The 3d Natural action is feeding your belly which is daily work for our tottering tabernacles of clay stand in need to be supported with the staff of daily bread and therefore is our life call'd the life of our hands Isa 57. 10. As our hands are daily yea hourly administring something either to back or belly to support our life Those common actions of feeding and clothing us are steps in our Christian conversation and therefore ought not to be despised but are rather to be regulated and reformed to their supream scope to wit Gods glory 1 Dir. Hence your first Direction is Be sure you eat and drink with an aim at the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. You must eat for God and drink for God Quicquid agas propter Deum agas do all in reference to God receive not any of Gods blessings with a carnal frame of heart but look upon all your Temporal mercies set before you on the Table with a spiritual eye and improve them with a spiritual heart Good old Isidore wept at his Table crying out I am ashamed that I should feed on corruptible beasts whereas I was created to be a companion of Angels and to feed upon heavenly food with them A worthy Minister of Scotland was said to eat drink and sleep eternal life for in those earthly and natural actions he still kept an heavenly and spiritual heart The main weight of his Meditations was laid upon God the giver of them and his glory Oh could you but eat to his glory and drink to his glory you would not so easily sin in them 2. Dir. The second Direction Feed your self with a God-blessing heart which is the true spiritual heave-offering Numb 15. 19. When your heart is heaved or lifted up to God and in every thing gives thanks saying Oh what charges do you put God to in consuming his corn and his cattel Hos 2. 8 9. As Jacob calls God the God that fed him all his life long Gen. 48. 15. Yet what an unprofitable servant are you and what an undutiful son even such as God complains of Isa 1. 2 I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me You must admire and adore God that is so good and does so good to you who are so evil and do so evil to him cry I am less than the least of all thy mercies Gen. 32. 10. Have high thoughts of God and low of your self the same Jacob that had pleaded his merit with Laban Gen. 31. from 38 to 41 yet here sets a low rate on himself to God 3 Dir. The third Direction Whatever sweetness you find in any creature you feed upon let it lead you to the spring-head of that sweetness do you say Is there so much savour in those derivative gifts there must needs be much more in the original giver Labour to swim up those streams till you reach the spring crying If mercy be so good Oh what is the God of mercy Oh that I may come at him as well as at his mercies and learn to love God for himself as well as for his benefits delighting your self in Gods goodness as well as in that of the creatures Neh. 9.25 4 Dir. The fourth Direction You may not feed your self without fear as those in Jud. 12 1. But first sanctifie it by prayer 1 Tim. 4. 4 5. Look on that bread which is not got in an honest Vocation and sanctified by an holy Invocation to be no wholsome bread but such as may prove diseases to your body and sin to your soul If wicked men say We will neither eat nor drink till we have killed Paul Act. 23. 12 then godly men must say We will neither eat nor drink till we have call'd on God as 1 Sam. 9. 31. Mark 6.41 Act. 27. 35. That God may command his blessing Deut. 28. 8. upon your Table that you have your mercies not only with his leave but also with his love not only from his hand but also from his heart not only out of the Court of Christs general Providence but also out of the Court of special Favour 2ly Feed soberly sobriety will reclaim you from being either unseasonable in time or unreasonable either in matter or measure either in quantity or quality 1. Not unseasonable as to time Eccles 10. 16 not as luxurious Princes that serve their bellies in the morning that golden hour for prayer before they serve their God nor as those in Amos 6. 4 6 that feasted riotously without laying to heart the afflictions of Joseph while Joseph was in the pit alas his brethren pitied him not Gen. 37. 23. 2ly Neither must it be unreasonable either for matter or measure 1. Not for matter or quality as the rich glutton that fared deliciously every day Luk. 16. 19 as purple and silk was his daily clothing so costly delicacies was his daily food but alas it was all his heaven he had as Abraham told him when he was in Hell You must set a knife to your throat that is to your concupiscible appetite which stands more in need of a bridle than a spur as to those things Prov. 23. 2 3 20 and say with David Let me not eat of their dainties Psal 141. 4. And with Daniel refrain from them for fear of a snare Dan. 1. 8. Nor 2ly must it be unreasonable for measure or quantity fulness of bread was Sodoms sin Ezek. 16. 49 her food was fewel for her lasciviousness you may not make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13. ult then is your fulness an excess when it overcharges you Luk. 21. 34 and disenables you for the duties of either your general or particular calling 3ly When you have eaten and are full then bless the Lord your God Deut. 8. 10 when you are as Napthali satisfied with favour and filled with the blessings of the Lord Deut. 33. 23 then give God solemn thanks for all and be not like prophane Esau that sat down to eat and drink and rose up and went his way never reflecting upon himself nor blessing God for his mercies nor like the hog under the apple-tree that gluts himself with the fruit that falls but never looks up to the tree from whence they fall This is not to eat every morsel as dipt in Christs blood and is strain'd through the Covenant to take off the curse inflicted on all creatures for the first sinner The fourth Natural action is clothing your body The fourth Natural action is clothing your body wherein the pride of your heart may deceive you Obad. 3. Therefore take these Directions 1. The
first Direction Ponder the Original of your clothing it was not in the state of innocency for then was there neither parching heat nor pinching cold and nakedness was then no shame but a glorious comeliness shame is the daughter of sin which brought in the first clothing as well as distemperature of air in heat and cold the fruits of the fall Remember that nakedness of the soul brought in the first clothing for the body so that 't is but the badg of mans shame and the token of his rebellion against his Maker it carries along with it a secret confession of his own guilt You may not then be proud of your apparel for that is to be proud of your own shame no man is proud of a plaister on his sore for that demonstrates there is a wound no thief is proud of his fetters for they declare he hath offended the law and that heinously neither must you be of your garments which are the cover of your shame and the sign of your sin 2. The second Direction Take notice that all your clothing are but borrowed things how do you borrow the skin hair and wool of bruit beasts to cover your nakedness withal and what are your silks but the spittle and excrements of a poor worm all as it were the very cast-apparel of unreasonable creatures Man lives on borrowing and that from things that are worse than himself in respect of their nature Therefore you may not be proud of these things that you borrow no creature so beggarly so needy as man is in point of clothing for every creature brings its clothing into the world with it but you were born a naked creature and must borrow all to cover you Ezek. 16. 4. 6 and will you be proud as the Crow in the fable of your borrow'd feathers you may well know that your God doth not cover you for any such end 3. The third Direction instead of proud reflections on your self use holy Soliloquies with your self saying 1. I have a naked soul to cover as well as a naked body and therefore must look out for the wedding garment to wit the righteousness of Christ both imparted and imputed I must put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13. 14 that I may not be found naked Rev. 16. 15 but that I may be comely to God as well as to man 2ly The putting off your clothing at night should mind you of putting off the old man c. Eph. 4. 22 and of putting off your tabernacle of corruption 2 Pet. 1. 14. 2 Cor. 5.2 3 4. and then must you go down to the bed of the grave there to sleep till the morning of the Resurrection 3ly When you put on your clothing again in the morning it should mind you that you must be rais'd out of the bed of the grave and then corruption shall put on incorruption and mortality shall be swallow'd up of life 1 Cor. 15. 53. 2 Cor. 5. 4. If you have put on the new man the image of God in Christ The second sort of Actions are Civil as your Commerce and trading with others The second sort of Actions are Civil as your commerce and trading with others 1. Direction the first That you may be kept from sinning herein get your heart fraught with the fear of God as Joseph Gen. 42. 18 and Neh. 5.9 15 those good men had a curb upon them to restrain them from wronging others and where this curb is not men will not stick at any sin as Gen. 20. 11. 2 Direct Lay your souls under that command of God in the Old Testament Levit. 25. 14 In buying and selling ye shall not oppress one another And under that in the New 1 Thes 4. 6. Defraud not one another and fall down before the authority of those commands as one that must give an account of all 3 Dir. As you are to observe Gods precepts so must you godly presidents especially that of father Abraham Gen. 23. 15 The land is worth 400 shekels if so then Abraham cannot be cozened here is fair dealing from heathens the seller doth not ask too much nor doth the buyer bid too little only one price is pitch'd upon and paid down and all is done for such bargains be made among Christians 4 Direct Put your self in your Chapmans stead and do to him as you would have him do to you in the like case Mat. 7. 12. Job 16.4 the buyer should put himself in the sellers stead and the seller in the buyers 5 Dir. Get your heart weaned from all immoderate love of the world the love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10 hence comes all cozenage supposing that gain is godliness which is no other than a worshipping of Mammon View but in your Contemplations once a day the joys of Heaven and 't will wean you by degrees from those toys of the earth 6 Direct Esteem highly of honesty and holiness in all actions and that far above wealth or honour 't is indeed wages to itself Ps 19. 11 in keeping them there is great reward But you may say of defrauding as Gen. 27. 12 It will bring a curse and not a blessing The third sort of Actions are Religious The third sort of Actions are Religious which are either private or publick the first of which will discover your state best to you for every man is what he is in private and a truly pious soul will be found in Religious actions as well in the shade as in the Sun he will make conscience of duty as well when no body sees him for he knows he 's always under the all-seeing eye as when any or many see him you must go beyond the hypocrite in the practice of secret duty As 1 In hearty bewailings of your own imperfections 2 In hearty bleeding acknowledgments of your unkindnesses to Christ and to his gracious Spirit 3 In pantings and inquietations of foul after Union and Communion with God 4 In hungrings and longings after spiritual refreshment and transforming of soul in every duty The unsound heart is a stranger to those and to secret addresses to God or at most but slight in them if found in that work at all he is careless in self-examination cursory in meditation saint in heart-watchings and feeble in mortification but nothing at all in loving and walking with God and delighting in him Do you more than he in all these and be but a good Christian in private duties and you cannot be a bad one in publick 1. More particularly concerning Religious Actions And 1. Of Meditation that most necessary and much neglected duty this must be 1 your spiritual ladder as Jacob had his whereon you ascend in divine Contemplations of the excellency of your blessed and bleeding Saviour till your heart be ravished therewithal 2. Meditation must be 2 your spiritual limbeck whereby the choicest and noblest spirit may be extracted Oh how this divine limbeck will cause tears to