well to be angry even unto death O Lord how doth this shew me the madness of this passion of anger and discontent which doth for the present so far distract us that we are ready to justifie a fault in stead of begging pardon for it O Lord I do therefore most humbly beseech thee to inable me to be slow to anger remembring that thou hast told me that he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that governs his Sipirit than he that takes a City and he that hath no rule over his spirit is as a City that hath no wall O bring all my passions into subjection to my reason and my reason to my Religion Let me not fret my self in any wise to do evil nor to be angry and sin in my Anger but give me a meek quiet contented spirit which is in thy sight of great value Let me learn of thee to be meek and lowly that I may find rest unto my soul REFLECT III. Mark 9.5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus master it is good for us to be here LOrd when I peruse these words of Peter's that it is good to be here this makes me reflect upon my self in relation to this present World who am often times when I am delighted with any thing here below which doth please my sensual appetite ready to say 't is good to be here But O Lord I beseech thee do thou then say to me up and be going for here is not your rest Look beyond things temporal to those which are eternal these worldly pleasures dye in the birth and therefore are not worthy to come into the Bill of Mortality make me to consider these things cannot satisfie me for a moment much less for eternity and that though the world seems to kiss me 't is but to stab me though it makes me sport 't is but to put out my eyes it promises much but performs nothing and therefore let me not say 't is good to be here but let me seek after that city that hath foundations whose maker and builder is God after that better country that is an heavenly REFLECT IV. John 4.28 The woman left her waterpot LOrd when I read that after thou wert pleased to instruct the Samaritan woman that thou wert the Christ the Saviour of the world she presently left her water-pot and went into the City to inform others that they also might come and be blessed with a sight of him who is the desire of all Nations O Lord this doth indeed convince me that the Soul that once findeth thee is presently content to part with all For this woman before thy revealing thy self to her was busied about her water-pot and her worldly imployments but after she had found the Messias she could as it were for joy forget her water-pot and willingly part with it to inform her Neighbours what she had found that they also might have a part with her O Lord that thou wouldst inable me also to leave all to follow thee and that I may like Simon Peter who when thou calledst him from his fishing left his nets straight-way and followed thee leave all my worldly wealth and follow thee and count all things dung and dross to gain thee and with the man spoken of in the Gospel sell all to obtain the pearl of greatest price that having found Jesus I may willingly part with all for thee and having thee may say I have enough Lord I am willing if thou call'st me to it to leave my water-pot and my nets and all for thee REFLECT V. Acts 24.25 And as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgement to come Felix trembled and answered Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will hear thee LOrd when I peruse this Verse and see that thy chosen Vessel though a Prisoner as he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come could make Felix tremble and yet he could put him off to another season This makes me to reflect upon my self in regard of the good motions that the holy Spirit many times comes to me with as it were in the cool of the day when the heat of temptation is over saying Dost thou well to be angry dost thou well to love this world Dost thou not remember God hath bid the not to love this world nor to consume thy days in vanity nor to be vain in thy imaginations But God has bid thee work out thy salvation with fear and trembling and give all diligence to make thy calling and election sure Remember thou hast a great work to do and thou hast but a little moment to do it in thy body is but dust and must soon return to dust but thy soul is made for eternity it must last for ever it s more worth than an whole world therefore seek rest for that therefore look beyond things temporal to those that are eternal Lay up for thy self treasure in heaven and let thy heart be there also O Lord how often hath thy blessed Spirit thus as it were whispered into my Soul and though upon such serious considerations I have with Felix trembled for the present yet I have with him also said Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will hear thee But O Lord I beseech thee pardon this procrastination and putting off good resolutions for the time past and now inable me to make haste and not delay to keep thy commandments and to follow the example of the Prodigal who said he would arise and go to his Father and he straight-way arose and went according to his resolution and promise Make me Lord to remember that it is to day if I will hear thy voice that I must not harden my heart and that now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Let me therefore now work the work of God whilst it is day for the night cometh wherein no man can work Lord make me to consider that if it be hard to repent to day it will be much harder to morrow and that I have no assurance that I shall live till to morrow Make me therefore to remember thee my Creator in the days of my youth before the evil days come wherein I shall say I have no pleasure in them and with the wise Virgins to prepare to meet the Bridegroom of my soul with my lamp ready and well furnished with oyl that when thy blessed Spirit next knocks at the door of my heart by any good motion I may presently entertain it with caresses and satisfaction and not say with Felix Go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will hear thee REFLFCT VI. 2 Sam. 12.5 And Davids anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye LOrd when I read of Nathans coming to David and by a parable shewing
that he that sows sparingly shall reap sparingly And let me not only now and then drop a little for charity but make me one of those persons mentioned in thy word who being liberal devise liberal things and by so doing be established Oh make me as it were an open Flood-gate to water my Neighbours Necessities that so I may as much as in me lies be an Imitater of thy Divine Bounty who dost good to all Oh make me to do so as far as I am able but especially make me remember the hooshold of faith that so I may shew my love to him that begetteth by loving him that is begotten And seeing my goodness extendeth not to thee let it do so to thine Make me to feed hungry mouths and cloath naked Backs that at the last day I may be amongst those to whom thou wilt say Come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry c. MEDITAT II. Vpon the Consideration of the different manner of the working of a Bee and a Spider WHile I am minding this despicable Spider which for all its being so hath some of its kind that have the honour to inhabit the Courts of the most glorious Potentates for the inspired Volumes tell us they are in Kings Palaces It makes me consider that the work they are so busily employed in while they spin their Webs which is all spun out of their own Bowels without having any help from any thing without them is when it is finished good for nothing but is soon brush'd down and flung away Whilst the industrious Bees that are busily employed in making of their useful Combs do daily fly abroad to enable themselves to do so And flying from one Flower to another gather from every of them that which both renews their own strength and yields others sweetness By the Spiders work I am minded of a Formalist or proud Professor who works all from himself and his own strength and never goes out of himself to a Promise to get strength for his performances or to work by And therefore his thin-spun Righteousness is good for nothing and will be flung away The Bees going out minds me of the Real Christian who is renewed in the Spirit of his mind and that he may be enabled to work the great work he he came into the World for he goes out to an Ordinance and to Christ in a promise for strength to work by and by them obtains it and this makes his work give hony and become good for something O Lord I do most humbly beseech thee let me not dare to work from my self but to go out daily to thee for ability to work my great and indispensable work with That I may deny my own Righteousness and make mention of thine only And may thereby find such sweetness from every Ordinance and Promise that my Soul may be like a Garden which the Lord hath blessed and may prosper and thrive exceedingly MEDITAT III. Vpon feeding the Poor at the Gate with some broken meat left at a Feast HOw thankful are these poor necessitous persons for the fragments of that Feast which was so plentiful to those who sate within at the Table Improve this O my Soul by considering the different Estate of the Church Triumphant and that which is yet Militant That is in possession of eternal bliss happy in the fruition of God and enjoys him in his fullest love and is every day feasted with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb when This being present in the body and absent from the Lord as yet without the door of Heaven is glad of some tasts of those Elixirs of pleasures which are earnests of the purchased possession and previous gusts of it and as it were some crumbs and parings of Glory some of the broken meat of those blessed Inhabitants of the new Jerusalem's full and delicious every days feasts O Lord I most humbly beseech thee entertain me sometimes with some tasts of those joys which those partake of who are present with thy self Let me see thee through the Lattice till I can see thee as the pure in heart shall see thee in another world That so I may long to be dissolved and to be with Christ and believing in thee let me even here rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Which may make me thankful to thee for what I here enjoy of thee Knowing that Christ possessed by Faith is young Heaven Glory in the bud and thereby do thou raise my desires to go to those celestial mansions where Glory is full blown and where I shall be entertained with Rivers of pleasures at thy Right Hand for evermore MEDITAT II. Of my Gardeners chusing fine young thriving Stocks to graft on and rejecting old and withered ones MY Gardiners care now he is grafting in chusing young and flourishing Stocks and passing by those which are old or withered minds me of Gods dealings with his Creatures in grafting his Grace upon their hearts He seldom doing it upon old decrepid withered sinners those old Stocks being oft neglected by him because they willingly forgat their Creator in the days of their youth when they had an inspired Precept to remember him and would go on in ways of sin and live so wholly without God in the world that he was but seldom in their thoughts they resolving to indulge themselves in all forbidden pleasures thinking that at last a death bed Repentance and crying of God mercy and saying Lord Lord would be enough to fit them for those eternal mansions whereinto no unholy thing shall enter And so boldly go on to add sin to sin upon presumption of mercy while death is ready to close their eyes not considering that there is not in the God-breathed Oracles one example that I remember of sick-bed saving Repentance And though there is one of the Thief upon the Cross kept upon record to keep real penitents from despairing of mercy at the close of their days yet there is but one to prevent bold impenitent sinners from presuming of mercy And though the mercy of God ought not to be confined to any Age yet we may observe he doth not frequently work saving Grace in old and withering Creatures but chuses young Disciples and loves and delights to graft his Grace on such that they may go on to bring forth more fruit in their Age having given God the Spring and May of their lives by a solemn Act of an early self-dedication to him and chusing to walk in all his ways And who by setting forth betimes in their journey to Heaven have a long time to glorifie God in and to be examples and encouragers to others to come in to serve God by assuring them that all his ways are pleasantness and his paths peace And that his yoak is easie to those who take it on them though it may gall their Necks that struggle at it and are unwilling
wanton lascivious despisers of others wasters of their time Idolizers of their own reflections in a Glass and careless or afraid to behold the image of their impurer Souls in the Crystal of God's Law and more afraid of being sick or dying than of a thousand Sins or Hells Secondly deceiving and destroying silly Men through whose Livers * Prov. 7.23 the seats of Lust those mortal Darts do strike which an invisible Bow shoots from their wanton Glances and bewitching Smiles and Arts. And by parity of reason the like may be said of all the other perishing empty lying vanities honours riches strength the wisdom of the flesh and learning meerly humane which are but adventitious Goods at best and seldom make Men better often worse What shall I say shall I praise you for these I praise you not nor will God ever praise you or reward you for them Nay I must rather drive such false Hucsters for true praise out of the Temple of lasting Honour with such a Scourge as the Prophet Jeremiah long since prepared for that purpose Let not the wise man glory in wisdom Jer. 9.23 nor the witty woman in her wit Let not the strong man glory in his strength nor the fair woman glory in her Beauty Let not the rich man glory in his riches nor the fine woman glory in her dress Let not the honourable Man glory in his Honour nor the courted Mistress glory in her Favour Let not the learned Man glory in his being Natures Secretary nor the wanton woman in being skilled in the depths of Satan But let him and her that would glory and not be ashamed or glory in their shame glory in this that they know the Lord and love and fear him in sincerity and truth Which brings me to the positive part and is the foundation which Solomon lays whereon to build a Pyramid of lasting Fame Not the graceful Pulchritudinem existima animi ornatum non in corporis forma sed in moribus pulchritudo sita est Corn. a Lapide ex Chrys but the gracious woman not she who glories in her face but she who like the King's Daughter is all glorious within even the woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised In which positive part we have the good Womans Character and Crown 1. Her Character which hath two parts for the new creature also consists of Soul and Body an inside and an outside 1. She fears the Lord there 's the Soul of her Virtue the root of the matter within ground Grace in the Heart 2. She hath fruitful hands there 's the Body of her Virtue the good Tree above ground works in her life 2. Her Crown Praise and Renown Which is 1. Promised to her She shall be praised 2. Commanded for her Give her of the fruit of her hands let her own works praise her in the gates 3. Performed concerning her Thou excellest them all As briefly as may be concerning these Particulars and first let us view both Pages on which her Character is written 1. A woman that feareth the Lord that is who is sincerely religious good in good earnest Nothing is more frequent or obvious in Scripture than such Synechdoches as put one eminent Grace for all the Chain of Graces So sometimes the Love of God sometimes Trust in God and most commonly the Fear of God is put for being truly religious or is made the Periphrasis of a godly Man As in that signal promise of the New Covenant Jer. 32.38 39 40. They shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their Children after them And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Job 1.1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil so vers 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil vers 9. Doth Job fear God for nought Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments that is the whole of Man Psal 15.4 He honoureth them that fear the Lord where the godly Man is under this Denomination of one that feareth the Lord opposed to the wicked called there a vile person 'T is also an infallible sign of the presence of all other Graces in the exercise of which true Godliness consists for as the Law is copulative so are the Graces by which we obey it and as where the Soul is discovering it self by one vital act all its faculties and powers are so where the Spirit of God is working one Grace in truth the Spirit of all Grace is for the Spirit can no more be without its Graces than the Soul without its Faculties yea the fear of God contains all Graces in it therefore when Abraham offered up his Son Isaac which was a mighty act of Faith and Love God saith Now I know thou fearest me Gen. 22.12 And as 't is so frequent it would be endless to cite all so 't is so obvious 't is needless to cite more 2. The other Page hath this Inscription Fruitful hands the good Woman is like Dorcas full of good works 1. Hands two Hands to hold the two Tables of the Law Deut. 9.15 as Moses came down from the Mount with the two Tables in his two hands in each hand one neither empty nor idle The first in the Right Hand there 's Religion towards God The second Table in the Left Hand there 's Righteousness and Charity towards Men. 2. These Hands bear Fruit good works spring and grow naturally freely seasonably easily maturely as fruits from a prolifique Tree planted in a good soil and by the Waters side as the godly Man is described in the first Psalm called Fruits of Righteousness Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. where S. Paul hath a signal Antithesis betwixt Graces and Vices calling the first Fruits the other Works the Works of the Flesh vers 19. There 's servile drudgery in them Fruits of the Spirit vers 22. There 's a spiritual easiness in the production of them by the new Nature 3. They are Fruits in the plural for variety of kinds for number in every kind First various acts of Devotion Prayers Prayses Reading Hearing Meditation Conference Preparing Communicating and all these reiterated the Morning and the Evening Sacrifice the weekly Sabbaths solemn Fasts and Festivals secret private publick Devotions Morning Evening and at Noon day Psal 119. yea at Midnight seven times a day yea in a sober sense all the day long nay all day and all night too as it is testified of Anna Luk. 2.37 That she departed not from the
Temple but served God with fasting and prayers night and day 1 Thes 5. Rom. 12.12 Pray without ceasing continuing instant in prayer giving thanks continually and in all things And the Left Hand though it grow on another Arm draws Sap and Virtue from the same Tree and Root to make it fruitful in variety and multitude of Acts of Justice and Charity 1. Of Justice thinking speaking no evil of any Man but dealing honestly with all Men Superiors Equals Inferiours in all natural moral civil Actions in all concernments of Body Goods and Name wronging no Man defrauding no Man but doing to others as they would others should do to them and observing this rule constantly and in all occasions and occurrences and so doing righteousness at all times 2. In Charity Matth. 25. relieving the distressed feeding the hungry cloathing the naked visiting the afflicted by sickness prison or any other pressures instructing the ignorant comforting the feeble-minded and supporting them who are cast down under any temptation Eccl. 12.6 â— and this not once or twice or to one or two but sowing this seed in the Morning and not withholding in the Evening giving this portion to seven and also to eight casting Bread upon the waters yea scattering by all waters This briefly of the good Womans character 2. Her Crown Praise Praise is the shadow which attends the Body of Virtue The Eccho which sounds an honorary Testimony 1. From the Consciences of all Men even those who will not practise it themselves cannot but approve it and applaud it in them that do if there be any virtue if there be any praise the Apostle of the Gentiles nay the Consciences of the very Gentiles hath annexed them so close together Se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur they cannot be parted for as no vicious and guilty person can be absolved though he were to be his own Judge so no virtuous person can be condemned Rom. 2. though to be judged by his Enemies That law written in the heart cannot but approve the Transcript and Counter-part and Copy of it self where ere it meets it 2. From the Mouths of all good Men and those especially who have found and felt its beneficial influence Beloved thou dost faithfully whatever thou dost to the Brethren 3 Joh. 5.6 and to Strangers which have born witness of thy Charity before the Church S. Paul even boasted of the forward zeal of them of Achaia 2 Cor. 9.12 13. 2 Cor. 8.3 and God was glorified for their liberal distribution to all Men. And of the Churches of Macedonia he bears record That to their power yea and beyond their power they were willing of themselves Job 31.20 The Loyns of the poor blessed Job who were warmed by the sleece of his Sheep Her children rise up and call her blessed for the care of their tender and pious education and her husband for her chaste conversation and faithful industry of which he is not only a witness but reaps the benefit of it and for those he praiseth her 3. From the whole Chorus of the Heavenly Hierarchy the Angels Joy in Heaven is the most landative acclamation to her Virtues 4. From God and Christ whose Euge Well done good and faithful servants whose Come ye blessed of my Father whose testimony I was hungry Matth. 25. and ye fed me naked and ye cloathed me is the highest praise imaginable or possible Now this praise is first promised She shall be praised God leaves us not without encouragements to make us good Promises and Threats Rewards and Punishments are the great instruments of Government both with God and Men and all Rewards include Praise and are the silent yet the loudest commendations A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Life is provided and fore-promised to them that fight the good Fight that keep the Faith that are faithful unto death Great and precious promises 2 Cor. 6.7 that God will receive us be our Father and our God to provoke us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God 1 Pet. An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven Rivers of pleasure fulness of joy an eternal Kingdom and everlasting life And in the Letter the highest praise Rom. 2.28 for he that is circumcised in heart and spirit that is a Christian within his praise shall be of God and he is approved indeed whom God commendeth Ps 11.26 and we have God's word for it that the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance 2. 'T is commanded and given in charge concerning her to others Give her of the fruit of her hands let her works praise her in the Gates Let them be spoken of and mentioned to her honour in the Assemblies of the great Men and in the concourse of the people which use to be most frequent in the Gates God gives not only leave but charge and 't is not only an allowable courtesie but a just debt and tribute due to virtuous persons to declare and celebrate their famous Acts. 'T is an Apostolical precept to the Philippians concerning Epaphroditus who for the work of Christ was near unto death hold him and not him only but such as he in reputation Phil. 2.29 Yea our Lord himself concerning Mary who anointed him and wrought a good work upon him Mat. 26.13 Praedicendo praecepit Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her And God will have the Virtues and the Victories of his Saints recorded to provoke our imitation of them and encourage our weakness to war against vice saith S. Gregory 3. It 's performed concerning her thou excellest them all 1 Cor. 14.12 we should labour to excel in Duty Seek that you may excel What do you more than others See that ye abound more and more so run out-run others that ye may obtain and praise shall be proportionable Thou excellest them all We find such Encomiums frequent in Scripture Thus of Hezekiah 2 King 18.5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him of all the kings of Israel nor any that was before him that is for strength of Faith So of Josiah 2 King 23.25 And like unto him there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to the Law of Moses neither after him arose any like him So God's testimony of Job Job 1.8 is That there was not a Man like him in all the earth So S. Paul testifies of Timothy Phil. 2.20 I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your estate Thus have I lightly shaken the principal Branches of this goodly Tree and the ripe and pleasant Fruit
beginning of the last winter about to leave her her last farewel she took was in these words Now I have done my drudgery meaning her business I will set to the renewing of my preparations for Eternity and she made it the repeated business of the last winter In the beginning of the last March she set to the making of her Will anew and signed and sealed it on the twelfth day of the same Month and on the Tuesday in Passion Week March 26. was taken with some indisposition loss of Appetite and aguish distemper and had four or five Fits which yet in that season were judged both by Physicians and her Friends more advantageous to her health than dangerous to her life And in this state she continued freed from her fits in her own apprehension and in our hopes till Friday the twelfth of April on which day she rose with good strength and after sitting up some time being laid upon her Bed discoursing cheerfully and piously one of the last sentences she spake was this turning back the Curtain with her hand Well Ladies if I were one hour in Heaven I would not be again with you as well as I love you Having then received a kind visit from a Neighbouring Lady at her departure she rose from her Bed to her Chair in which being set she said she would go into her Bed but first would desire one of the Ministers then in the house to go to prayer with her and asking the company which they would have presently resolv'd her self to have him who was going away because the other would stay and pray with her dayly and immediately he being called and come her Ladyship sitting in her Chair by reason of her weakness for otherwise she always kneeled holding an Orange in her hand to which she smelt almost in the beginning of the Prayer she was heard to fetch a sigh or groan which was esteemed devotional as she used to do at other times But a Lady looking up who kneeled by her saw her look pale and her hand hang down at which she started up affrighted and all applyed themselves to help and the most afflictively distressed of them all if I may so speak when all our sorrows were superlative catch'd her right hand which then had lost it's pulse and never recovered it again Thus lived thus died this Right Honourable Lady this Heroick Woman this Blessed Saint this incomparable pattern of flaming zeal for the glory of God and burning charity for the good of men in the actual exercise of prayer by which she so often anticipated Heaven by pregustation and which now wafted her longing soul into the Holy of Holies within the vail at the kiss of God's mouth as Moses did though not full of years yet full of mature fruits and Graces when all men judged her worthy of a longer but God the only unerring Judge found her full ripened for a better life And in a sweeter Euthanasia than Augustus could wish himself might claim a more triumphant Plaudite than he Yea might have sung her Nunc demittis with good old Simeon nay with the holy Apostle that joyful Epinichion I have fought a good Fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing You have heard though too too dryly how she serv'd and honoured God I should now shew to encourage you to do the like how he honoured her according to his word by Samuel Him that honours me I will honour And that of our Saviour He that serveth me him will my Father honour But I have much prevented my self by what is interwoven through all the preceding discourse The greatest honour God can put upon his creatures is to vouchsafe to use them and to make them Vessels of Honour fitted for their Master's service And this he conferred upon her in eminent and redoubled measures He imprinted on her the fairest impress of his most amiable Image and rendred her habile and ready to every good word and work He gave her riches and honour in abundance as is said of Jehosophat 2 Chron. 17.5 6. and yet her heart was not puffed up by them but lifted up under them in the ways of the Lord as it there follows He gave her the Heaven upon earth after some shivering scruples and trembling fears the blessed calm of a purified pacified serene and well-assured conscience He gave her the fragrant perfume of an odoriferous name and more than unspotted a bright and resplendent reputation He gave her many endeared Cordial Friends faithful to her as her own Soul to assist counsel comfort help her and carry her through her greatest difficulties and entangling affairs concerning one of whom she us'd often with much thankfulness to say He was a Friend of God Almighty's giving even beyond her own expectation He gave her many merciful deliverances one very like to that Gregory Nazianzen insists so largely on in his Funeral Oration for his Sister Gorgonia the Mules in whose Chariot running away not only bruised but brake her Bones and yet God miraculously restor'd her So when the Horses in our Lady's Coach excussed the Coach-man ran furiously away God almost miraculously hung the Coach against a Post in the way stopped their fury rescued her life from most eminent hazard and healed the bruises she received with safety This happened July 23. 1661. He gave her the affectionate esteem of all her Neighbours to such a degree that she was like Titus Deliciae humani generis the delight and darling of her Country and with so loving a willingness did they delight to serve her that you might see fifty fresh brave and gallant Teams day after day bringing in her provisions without other invitation than the bare knowledge of the time which themselves would enquire out and nothing would grieve them more than to be prevented in paying this Tribute of Honorary Respect He gave her such an esteem for her prudent integrity and discreet and impartial Righteousness that she began to be an employ and honour not usual to her Sex the Arbitress and Umpress of all the controversies amongst adjacent Neighbours many of which she reconciled happily and all which she decided wisely and justly He gave her the universal approbation love admiration of all that knew her that the Proverb was confuted which saith Who hath no Enemies hath no Friends For either she had none or her ways so pleased the Lord he made her Enemies to be at peace with her For honourable and mean rich and poor of all degrees and which is more of all perswasions paid her most kind respect honoured and lov'd her Finally he prevented her with the blessing of goodness and crown'd her with loving kindness and tender mercy He made her glad with the light of his countenance
to God as to a most loving Father with a confidence that he will supply them The Scripture tells you That the effectual fervent prayer of a righteour man availeth much and it tells you that though Elias was a man subject to like passions with us yet God heard him and granted his requests to encourage us to come with boldness to the Throne of Grace Therefore do not only make conscience to pray but make conscience also how to pray Pray with zeal and fervency do not satisfie your self with the body of the duty without the Soul but as pious Hanna did pour out your spirit before the Lord in the name of Christ for things what you stand in need of And remember that David said that the Lord had heard the voice of his weeping And therefore if you can weep for your sins at least mourn that you cannot mourn for sinning against so gracious a Father that so the mercies of God may melt into an ingenuous sorrow And do not leave your prayers till you have enjoyed some Communion with God in them and then you will be fit to go chearfully about your worldly imployments Forget not God hath intrusted you with Children and therefore remember to take care they be bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to season them in their young and tender years with Principles of Piety and Honour that so setting them forth in the way wherein they should go when they are old they may not depart from it Remember also you have a Family to govern and take up good Josuah's resolution that you and your house will serve the Lord and David's who said that his eyes should be on the Faithful in the Land that they might serve him and he that telleth lyes should not tarry in his sight Therefore have a care not to keep any that is openly profane and scandalous but at least let them be morally civil and let God be solemnly twice a day publickly worshipped by your self and Family and set them good Examples and say unto them as Gideon did to his men in another case Look on me and do likewise When you have thus spent your morning then I am not so rigid as to forbid you all Recreations no I think them very necessary for Diversion but I must be so severe as to forbid you such as may put you into any passion or disorder which may be hurtful both to Soul and Body Therefore I would absolutely forbid you Dice and Cards too unless it be sometimes when you must keep these limitations First not to play all day long as if you were made only to eat and drink and rise up to play For certainly God did not give us time as we give Children Rattles only to play withal Remember what your good Friend Dr. Taylor says That he that spends his time in sports and calls it Recreation is as he whose garment is nothing but fringes and and his meat nothing but sauce Therefore I shall advise you that your Recreations may be as your sauce not as your full meat The second limitation I would advise is not to play for more than you care whether you win or lose Remember that Mr. Herbert in his excellent Poems says Game is a Civil Gunpowder in Peace Blowing up houses with their whole increase My next Advice to you is to make a good choice of your friends and to keep company most with those of them that are civil and religious and ingenious for such company will be both pleasant and advantagious to you but the ranting Gamesters company ought to be displeasing to you for I am sure you may get a great deal of ill by them but no good therefore let such Company be rather a punishment than a choice Next I would desire you to be as chearful as you can and to that purpose I would recommend to you that gaity of goodness that will make you most pleasing to your self and others And now my Lord as your Friend you must give me leave to give you not only good counsel but my own experiences too like Nurses who feed their Children with nothing but what they have first themselves digested into milk and to assure you that however the Devil and wicked men may perswade you That Religion will make you melancholy yet I can assert from my own experience that nothing can give you that comfort serenity and composedness of mind as a well and orderly led life This will free you from all those sad disquieting remorses and checks of conscience which follow an ill action and give you that peace of God that passes all understanding and that continual feast of a good conscience This will make you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory This will calm your desires and quiet your wishes so as you shall find the consolations of God are not small You will find you have made a happy exchange having Gold for Brass and Pearls for Pebles For truly my Lord I am upon tryal convinced that all the pleasures of this world are not satisfactory We expect a great deal more from them than we find For pleasures die in their Birth and therefore as Bishop Hall says are not worthy to come into the Bills of Mortality I must confess for my own part though I had as much as most people in this Kingdom to please me and saw it in all the Glories of the Court and was both young and vain enough to endeavour having my share in all the Vanities thereof yet I never found they satisfied me God having give me a Nature uncapable of satisfaction in any thing below the highest Excellency I never in all my life found real and satisfying Comforts but in the ways of God and I am very confident your Lordship never will neither Therefore I beseech you try this and then I verily believe you will be of my opinion That all her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace When you have spent what time you think fit in your Recreations or visiting Friends or receiving Visits from them then I would have you every day set some time apart for reading good Books and Meditation do not fear that a little time alone should make you melancholy for the way not to be alone is to be alone and you will find your self never less alone than when you are so For certainly that God that makes all others good company must needs be best himself Be often in the profitable work of self-examination be not a stranger at home but pray S. Austins Prayer Lord make me know thee and my self You will find the practice of this Rule conduce much to the good of your Soul This will make you see what sin is most predominant and what grace is most weak and therefore had need be strengthened It will keep sin from growing undiscerned by you Remember my Lord the best Gardens had need often to be weeded or else they will
soon be over-run and the most delicate neat House must be often swept or else there will be much dirt and dust in it Meditation is a most profitable Duty I would therefore have you meditate sometimes on the transitoriness and dissatisfyingness of all this Worlds glories Your Lordship your self has as young as you are seen such strange Revolutions as are sufficient to convince you that there is nothing certain in this life but that there is nothing so and that all is vanity and vexation of spirit God has in our Age cast contempt upon Princes and stained all the glory of humane Excellencies to make us cease to put confidence in man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of God hath famished all the gods of the Earth that he might be God alone and hath imbittered the Stream that we might come to the Fountain Therefore often meditate on this and it will keep you from over-loving any sublunary thing Next I would have you meditate sometimes upon the shortness of your life and the uncertainty of the time of your death On the black Abyssus of Eternity and on the great account you must give of all you have done in the flesh whether it be good or evil For we must all appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ to receive according to what we have doue in the flesh whether good or evil I would not keep you upon such melancholy thoughts as these too long and therefore I would have you think of the Joys of Heaven of that Rest that remains for the People of God of that better Country that is a heavenly one of that City that hath a foundation whose Maker and Builder is God and of those Joys which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it ever entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath laid up for them that love him For Heaven will make us happy not as Philosophy pretends to do by the confining but by the fruition of our desires There we shall be past doing as well as past suffering ill There all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall fly away Those are unmixt blessings which are reserved for the other life We shall then enjoy health without sickness joy without sorrow and happiness to Eternity but that which is above all we shall be ever with the Lord and see him who shall be all in all to us yea we shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Such Meditations as these I would have you frequent in that whilst you are musing the fire of Heavenly Devotion may burn and inflame your heart with love to God that so your Meditation of him may he sweet I would also recommend to you the frequenting of the publick Ordinances which are excellent helps to Devotion for Faith comes by hearing and God has promised that those who wait upon him shall renew their strength and that he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer I know your Lordship too well to say much to perswade you to works of Charity for I am not ignorant that your Lordship abounds in good Works only to encourage you to continue in the exercise thereof I would put you mind of some promises how that God hath said He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that whosoever gives unto a Disciple in the name of a Disciple though but a cup of cold water shall in no wise lose his reward And now my Lord I fear I have tired you with my too tedious Rules and therefore I shall put an end to them when I have given you this one which is to conclude the day always with Prayer and not to give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eye-lids till you have called your self to an account what mercies you have received that day that you may praise God for them and what sins you have committed that day that you may be humbled for them Remembring what the good Primate of Armagh said That the best man living did enough in the day to bring him upon his knees at night Therefore every night make your peace with God remembring that many have shut their eyes in a healthful sleep and yet waked in another World My Lord I have now done with my Rules which I should never have ventured upon had you not assured me that you are confident they would by Gods blessing do you good and also faithfully promised me that you would practise them Which promise I must beg your Lordship to perform and then I shall be much satisfied for I assure your Lordship I am so much your Friend as I cannot but with great earnstness desire the Salvation of your Soul and indeed all professions of friendship that are made are but empty professions if they do not aim and design all they can to make their Friends eternally happy which I beseech your Lordship to believe is the earnest desire of My Lord Your affectionate Friend and most humble Servant Occasional Meditations UPON SUNDRY SUBJECTS WITH Pious Reflections UPON SEVERAL SCRIPTURES By the Right Honourable Mary late Countess Dowager of Warwick LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS MEDITATION I. Vpon a Damm made to stop the Water THis Damm that is put up purposely by this person to keep to himself the water declares him to be no good natured man Because though he is supplyed by Neighbouring Springs with more water than he needs for his necessary uses yet stops the Current of it from his Neighbours who want it desiring to keep all for himself Turn this O my Soul into an Occasional Meditation which may be useful to thee By considering that this may not very improperly be compared to rich persons to whom God hath given with a liberal hand great plenty of this worlds wealth by which he designs that they should not only be watered themselves but water others also But they instead of distributing to the necessitous poor inclose to themselves all that God hath bestowed upon them to bestow it upon their excesses in rich Cloaths and Furniture with which they adorn their persons and walls which expences are the Damm which stops the current of their charity and keeps it back from the poor and indigent whose wants would be comfortably supplied by their superfluities O Lord I beseech thee to humble me exceedingly under the remembrance of my former guiltiness in this kind and make me for the future when thou art pleased to pour thy benefits upon me to consider thou designest I should be thy Almoner to conveigh as through a Conduit-Pipe thy Alms to thy necessitous poor and let me never more dare to stop and damm up what I ought with a liberal hand to sow for the refreshing of others O let me willingly starve a lust to feed a Saint And let me remember