considerable circumstances will allow Matters of Salutation of civil Courtesie and Respect seem to be of this sort Nay to be singular in these especially to place Religion in them and to make Conscience of Nonconformity to them seems to be an Argument of Superstition and Weakness and of a mind not understanding its just Liberty or valuing it self by false measures But to follow any evil or suspected Mode or Guise because it is a Custom and Fashionable is a fashioning ones self according to the World or being conformed to this present evil World To lust after every new Fashion though never so costly inconvenient exotick and to be catching it up greedily is an argument of a light mind and unconstant yea and it is a very troublesom thing not to be able to keep in a Fashion till one be well warm in it For a free Nation to dote upon the Fashions of other Nations seems to be ungenerous and a kind of subjecting themselves and to be a cause of confusion and it is observed to be prejudicial to the Trade and Wealth of a Nation I think I have read of Laws somewhere made against bringing in of strange Fashions At least the Precept of the wise Preacher will fairly reach them Pro. 24. 21. Meddle not with them that are given to change All following of Fashions that is in conjunction with Pride Prodigality Wantonness and is either the Parent or Child of fleshly Lust is a symptom of a worldly mind and denominates a Lover of the World And to prefer the Fashions of the World before Sobriety Modesty Charity Humility or Truth is to prefer the World before God I restrain not Fashion to Apparel but extend it toall matters of Opinion or Conversation If they be Works of Darkness we are flatly forbidden to have any fellowship with them though they be committed at Noon-day though they have a general Approbation or Publick Sanction If it be an evil though a multitude have made it a Fashion we are not to follow it Alas How great a number of People are led wholly by Example that examine nothing judge nothing make no choice of any thing but live meerly by this Maxim To do as the most do yea and that even in things relating to Religion it self The greatest part follow what is most Fashionable even in the Worship of God It may happen indeed that what is most Fashionable may be good But whether it be so or no it matters not to them for they proceed not by the Goodness of the thing but by the Fashionableness of it so that though it be good it is no vertue in them that follow it for if any other way quite different should be in Fashion they would follow that too If we could suppose a thing purely indifferent it were no Fault to follow it according as it is usual or fashionable Nay it would rather seem an argument of a proud and quarrelsome mind not to do it But I cannot conceive how any thing in actu exercito can be called indifferent For when Humane Acts are circumstantiated they become prudent or imprudent comely or uncomely fit or unfit for their ends that is good or evil all of them What is the Worship of the whole Vulgus of the Papists but an Apish imitation of a received Mode and Fashion And it were to be wish'd that Protestants who have a better Worship had generally any better ground for it than they Lord I know that Man is a sociable Creature apt to imitate what is exemplified to him loth to be singular and also that his Soul is now so sunk into his Senses that he is more prone to follow the sight of his Eyes than the light of Reason which thou hast set up to guide him Alas I see such a Fashion is not safe to imitate yet I find it hard to resist If I be carried down the stream I may be drown'd in Perdition if I strive against it I must take much pains and be counted a Fool for my pains too Oh that by thy grace thou would'st so refine exalt enable and ennoble my reason that it may exercise a just dominion over Flesh and Sense and powerfully to direct me to the pursuit of whatever is just and holy and good in thy eyes though â—â— be not fashionable in the eyes of men MEDITAT LXXXII Of Swearing AMongst the Fashions of the World I cannot but a little think and yet cannot well endure to think of Swearing I cannot well tell to what Head of the Worldly Life to reduce Swearing except it be to the Fashions of the World Sure it cannot be the love of Profit nor of Pleasure nor a desire of Honor that puts men upon this and yet it is worldly and a symptom of a prophane mind Men do not ordinarily get any thing by Swearing except it be in Cases of False Swearing where they sell their Oaths to serve another mans interest This is so hateful a Practice so like that of Judas for indeed it is a setting of God himself to Sale that though it should bring in Thirty pieces of Silver or some such small matter one would think no man should dare to make the Bargain But the ordinary fashionable Swearing in common Discourse gets nothing nor is it with any design to get that I can imagine Nay it may reasonably be supposed to be to mens Loss For it very much tends to the weakning of a mans Reputation in the apprehension of all sober men with whom it is a Maxim That he that will swear will lye and that is certainly to men Worldly disadvantage In the common notion of Pleasure it cannot be Pleasant it relieves no Hunger quenches no Thirst gratifies no Sense Nay it is harsh to the Ear and must needs be unpleasant to the Conscience that at any times reflect upon it It is shameful and dishonourable amongst all sober persons and conciliates no honour or real respect with them that are themselves addicted to it being common to the meanest and basest of men as well as to the best Gentleman of them all Nay they that are addicted to this vice do not ordinarily allow it in their Servants and Children and sometimes will not seek to tell us so And what has the Devil found out something that is devilish and damning that is neither Profitable Pleasant nor Honourable Is it not strange that that Monster should have any Voluntiers in his service that will serve him without any wages at all and serve him so vigorously too as if they would take Hell by storms and the Kingdom of darkness by violence Oh it is the Fashion it is an argument of an agreeable temper and a mind not hatefully squeamish And oh God How should thy Soul but be avenged on such a Nation as this that has entertain'd such a Fashion as this What pity can possibly be shewn to such desperate Wretches who will needs go to Hell in State and perish Modishly And is
remoteness from him as we are should sin in him Though neither of which seem incredible yet both of them seem inexplicable If we lay the fault at the door of each pre-existent Soul it seems indeed to be just but still it is as strange as it was before For so every single Soul is an Adam for purity and soundness of Constitution and how shall we do to account for the Apostasie of so many Adams if we be puzled at the Fall of one But alas The mysterious Intricacy of this is not so great but that the manifest evidence of the matter of Fact is as great It is enough Ah Lord it is more than enough to know and see which indeed we cannot hide our eyes from that this noble Vine is turned into a degenerate Plant That the Native Friends and Favorites of God are become Lovers yea Servants yea Worshippers of the World And the greatness of their Number is too too evident in these Meditations which yet I am sensible have not described all Some possibly will think these too many I cannot help it but the Discovery is in order to their Recovery Others possibly in another Extreme will think these too few and will extend the predominant Love of the World further than I do or dare Some are so fierce that every Body must needs be carnal and corrupt and of a worldly mind who is not exactly of their mind but of some Way Persuasion or Opinion different from them These cry Get thee behind me Satan And why Satan Why because thou savourest not our Things our Doctrine our Discipline our Worship our Way Theycry to every one that does not please them Thou Child of the Devil And why Child of the Devil I pray Not because they pervert the right ways of the Lord but because they oppose their Ways and weaken their Party True indeed Heresie and Schism are works of the Flesh and symptoms of a worldly mind But they are very cunning close Things which are very hard to be discern'd and of so lubricous a consideration that it is very difficult to hit of them right So difficult that even the inspired Messengers of Heaven have been mistaken for Emissaries of Hell and the very Pillars of the Church cast out of the Church for Heresie I believe Perversness is a very Devilish Temper But it is very unreasonable without any more ado to judge every man perverse that does not perhaps he cannot in all things think as I do or whom my Arguments cannot convince Some are so conceited of their own extraordinary Purity that they look down with a disdainful pity upon all the rest of miserable Mortality as if they were all irrecoverably lost and themselves with Job's Messenger left alone to tell it A person of the Apostle John's Infallibility indeed may say We know that we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness But for a Company of Pharisees impregnated with Self-conceit to conclude that all the world were born in sin but themselves and that all the vulgar sort of Mortals are ignorant and accursed This I say the Candor of Heaven it self could not endure Luke 16. 15. Ye are they that justifie your selves c. The Pseudocatharists in the Prophet Isa 65. 5. cry to their Neighbors Stand off come not near me for I am holier than thou Sanctificabo te I shall sanctifie thee that is defile thee as that word is often used As if he should say If thou touch me who am so holy thou shalt be defiled and guilty before God as those common persons were accounted who touch'd the Altar the blood of the Sacrifice or any holy thing which they ought not to touch Some are so severe as to determine flatly against the Salvation of all Rich men because Christ has declared it very difficult and to think not any of them are called because the Apostle says Not many And the Grandees for wit and wealth are meet with them crying These poor people are foolish Jer. 5. 4. they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God they know not the Law and are cursed Others pass hard Censures upon all Heathen Men yea and upon Christian Unbaptized Infants too whether true or false I know not but I could wish they were false and the Learning of some more charitable Divines has endeavor'd to prove them not true There are others besides all these who though perhaps out of no bad Principle are ready to judge many things to be Symptoms of a predominant Love of the World which are not It is true the Love of the World is so dangerous and pernicious that it ought to be the constant care of every awakened Soul to flie from it and one would almost pardon the scrupulosity and fear of those that run away from it though they should be suppos'd to run too far And the Love of God is so pure and divine a thing so great a perfection that the exercise of it admits of no Excess if the whole Soul were turn'd into a pure flame of Love it would not be a Sacrifice too costly or precious to be offer'd up to that ever blessed Being the Supreme Good neither would there be any room for the envy of Hell it self to put in a quorsum perditio haec But though it admits of no Excess yet I conceive it admits of Mistakes and though Men cannot outdo in it yet they may do amiss about it As I conceive they do how pardonable soever their mistake is who condemn them for Lovers of the World who do any works of Necessity Charity or common Civility upon the Lords day who think oftner of the world than they do of God or who in their practice sometimes prefer a worldly business that is important before a Sermon or a Prayer Devotion it self how excellent a thing it is may be irregular and there needs judgment as well as affections to denominate a Man a right Christian without which even the highest perfections of Love and Zeal do degenerate into something worse than the Notation of the words do import And although I do reckon that it is highly laudable and reasonable to live in continual weariness of this world and life and holy longings after the presence of God endeavouring to attain to the Resurrection of the dead yet I do not believe but there are many languishings and fainting Fits that befal the most devout Lovers of the Father here in the Body Neither dare â— condemn every man for a predominant Lover of the World who in some Passion some Temptation or other has almost lost his sight and taste of God and casts a fond eye upon this Life and World as wretched as it is It is best to wish with Paul to be dissolv'd It is next best to groan with Paul O wretched man that I am c. It is pious to keep up a predominant estimation of Heaven and to make the main business of
be thought not to lose the day without having taken much pains to get it Nay some I have known so Faithful forsooth to the Person that chose them that they suffer themselves to be bound up and engaged not to yield a â—ot furâ—her thâ—n he shall give them leave though Righteousness or the reason of the thing require never so much Rare Faithfulness to their Friend indeed but shameful Unfaithfulness to God and their own Consciences He that accepts of the Office of an Arbitrator upon these terms before-hand laid down betrays a great meanness and vanity of mind and he that acts by these terms afterwards betrays a great deal of Cowardice and Falsity It seems not very improper to this Head to think a little of Electors who by their Votes and Suftrages are concern'd to chuse Officers Magistrates Members of Parliament or the like For these Electors are a kind of Arbitrators determining the Case between Competitors This is a Business of great Importance all will confess as upon which the right observation of Laws and administration of Justice and Judgment and consequently the welfare of a Kingdom does much depend To have no Regard to the Qualifications of the Person to be Elected but to Vote at a Venture to Vote for him that speaks first or comes next without any Regard to his fitness for Counsel or Business is a Point of great Folly To be led by the predominant consideration of Relation or Dependance or to be acted by Humor or Pleasure of other men or by a respect to private Thanks or Rewards or Entertainments not regarding the just Qualifications of a Person fit to manage such Employment seems to add Baseness to the Folly and argues a mind preferring Private Consideration before the Publick Good that is the World before God Neither is Slavish Fear a less Worldly Principle The poor Heathens are to be pitied who worship the Devil for fear he should hurt them But to advance men whom we suspect to be of a hurtful Nature into a Capacity of hurting us for fear of being hurt by them is a Nonsensical Folly fit to be chastened If I should under this Head take occasion to reflect upon the Generality of Jury-Men at Assizes and Sessions it would make this Meditation bulky and bitter For all of those that proceed not according to Evidence that act not from Judgment and Conscience that knowingly favor the Nocent through foolish Pity base Covetousness Worldly Love or Slavish Fear or oppress the Innocent because he is Poor Friendless Speechless a Stranger or an Enemy do proclaim themselves to be Lovers of the World more than of God And O Lord how loud is this Cry It reaches to the ends of the Earth and goes up to Heaven MEDITAT XX. Of Landlords and Tenants THe Holy Psalmist somewhere sayes Psal 115. 16. The Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the Children of Men which is not to be understood according to the sense of the prophane Poet Jupiter in Coelis Caesar regit omnia Terris as if God had thrown the Earth out of his Hands and would take no more care of it or had committed it wholly to the Arbitrary Government of men For still it is true that The Earth is the Lords and however he have granted the possession of it to men yet himself still keeps the Propriety and the Rich are his Tenants and the Poor his Under-Tenants Now amongst those children of men to whom God is said to give the earth some have so little a portion of it that they may say with him that was rich but for our sakes became poor That they have not where to lay their heads or at best they can challenge no more of the Earth for theirs than where they may lay their dead bodies But yet in this unequal distribution there is no iniquity neither For although God dividing the Earth amongst Men do not proceed by the Law of Gavel-kind yet he has made provision for his poor Under Tenants having charged his Landed Tenants which we more improperly call Landlords to see that they be not starved nor so much as opprest It is true and proper speaking to say that God has appointed the rich all the rich to be Overseers of the poor and has declared that he accounts them his enemies whosoever are not their friends If any of you have this worlds good and see his brother have need and shut up his bowels against him how dwelleth the love of God in that man 1 Joh. 3. 17 God has not left it at the liberty of the rich whether they will administer to the poor or no but has as much oblig'd them to charity towards them as to Justice towards one another And it is not to be doubted but that the poor have as good a right to some part of our Estates as we have to the rest And for ought I know this may be one Principal reason of that saying of our Saviours call it Prophesy or Promise The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have always with you that there may be an opportunity for the exercising of Charity and that they that have Mammon may not want a way of doing good with it and making themselves friends of it If it be so that the first Worldly Blessing is to be Rich I think the next is that there are Poor about us The noblest use that can be made of riches is to give them away according to that Golden Sentence that it seems our Savior was often wont to use Beatius est dare quam accipere And I am sure the properest Object of Giving are those that have Little or Nothing of their Own But who can persuade the Mammonists of this world that this is good Divinity Alas how few live and act as if they believed it Oh wretched and barbarous Guardians that in stead of putting on Cloaths upon the Naked Skin pull off the Skin from the Flesh that live in all manner of Pleasure and Wantonness spending profusely upon their Lusts of Playfulness Intemperance or Uncleanness and in the mean time Exact the Money of their poor Tenants whereby these Provisions may be made for the Flesh How dwells the Love of God in that Man whose Hounds and Horses and it may be Whores too are Fat and Fair-liking and in the mean time his poor industrious Tenants and their Children so nearly related to their Landlord are almost ready to perish for want of Bread The Poor in general as Men are nearlier related to us by the Law of Nature than Dogs and Horses as Christians they are still nearer A-kin to us and as Tenants seem to be related to their Landlords in a Political Capacity and to be as it were of their Family For who can think otherwise but that God in distributing the Kingdoms and Lordships of the Earth intended that Kings should take all their Subjects to be their Children as to Paternal Care and Landlords should esteem their Tenants as their
own This cannot be every worldly-minded man is guilty of this Covetousness for the same nature and principle that prompts men so greedily to gripe their own will certainly put them upon a desire to finger other mens This kind of Covetousness has a great deal of injustice in it it is a kind of stealing He that lusts after a Woman is a Whoremaster he that hates his Brother is a Murderer and by a parity of reason he that covets is a Thief Lord who knows how oft he is guilty in one degree or other Help me to make a Covenant with my eyes lest they betray me in looking upon my Neighbor's House as well as his Wife There may be Covetousness in too vehement desiring of what is another mans though one be willing to give a sufficient price for it I do not think it will excuse Ahab from Covetousness that he offered a full price or a good exchange for Naboth's Vineyard Nay the very over-buying of a thing if it be judicious is an argument of Covetousness if some present necessity or unseen convenience do not excuse it And what can one make of them that cry I wish such a thing were mine to bestow upon you or I wish it were mine so that no body were the worse for it What I say can any man make of these but Fools and covetous To heal us of this Disease let us learn not to over-value earthly things They are all lovely onely in God In him we may enjoy the sweetness of all these things without possessing the things themselves so far as we are spiritualiz'd we live upon God and enjoy all things in him and cannot be covetous The sin of Eve was that she coveted to be like unto God in his incommunicable Properties If she had been omniscient as God then God had not been omniscient for there cannot be two Omniscietns But the onely laudable Covetousness is to covet to be like unto God in his communicable Perfections MEDITAT XL. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 AN immoderate greedy desire of worldly Things though not attended with another mans hurt or loss is Covetousness To seek an unwieldy greatness and fulness in the world to extend ones care to Childrens Childrens Children what does this speak but an over-high valuation of the world and an atheistical distrust of God To be more studious of worldly Accommodations than of enriching the mind with virtue of gaming an Estate than of saving the Soul of Portions for Children more than of their Education is palpable preferring of the World before God and rank Covetousness And what excuse can be made for those greedy Tradesmen that appoint to themselves no end no measure of getting I know indeed that an Employment is good and I know also that there are many good ways of mens employing themselves besides scraping for Riches I doubt these men do never sincerely examine themselves whether all this while in all these pains that they take they act out of pure Conscience to live in an Employment Methinks it is very agreeable to the temper of universal Charity to say Now that I have provided for my own house when shall my Brethren provide for their houses also I will make room for those that are straitned I have eaten and drunken now let them also eat and drink Or if pure Conscience of an Employment keep them in their station that they will still work with their hands the things which they account good let it be to give to him that needeth Much wealth necessarily brings along with it much care many fears doth usually increase worldly desires will be followed with great accompts And to prefer this before the peace and quietness of our minds and the easiness and passableness of our accompts savors of great imprudence and I doubt impiety I know Covetousness is hard to be discerned and it is of so ill a name that few will own it But the Searcher of hearts does discern it and his Word does describe the men that are guilty of it by their hastening to be rich by lading themselves with thick clay by their willing to be rich 1 Tim. 6. 9. by their rising up early late taking rest eating the bread of sorrows and the like And we can partly discern mens necessities their Families and their Dependents if their worldly care exceed what these do in reason call for it is to be suspected that it is degenerated into Covetousness To these intemperate Gapers after wealth I commend that plain but terrible Text of our Lords It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven What a strange task is this Yea though we should be so favourable as to interpret it of a Cable Rope which yet the spelling of the word will not endure A Camel go thorow the Eye of a Needle It implies the greatest humane impossibility Oh but says the Worldling God can effect this for the Text tells us for our comfort That with him all things are possible But I pray Friend How know you that God will Is it not that God who hath commanded you not to covet not to labour after the meat that perisheth not to be careful what to eat and to drink not to seek great things for your selves not to lay up treasures for your selves on earth Oh but they can come off at least by distinguishing By rich men are there meant Those that trust inriches Now say they we can avoid that well enough Nay not so easily neither If it were so easie a thing What need rich men be charged so severaly that they do not trust in riches It seems rather to be very difficult next to impossible in that Christ hath made having Riches and trusting in Riches to be Phrases of the same importance Mark 10. 23 24. The Scripture records those few that were rich and good as wonders of Divine Grace as instances of Omnipotence And indeed there are but very few of them He past for a Prodigy of old Quisquis ingentes oculo irretorto spectat acervos and so he may do now It is the Character of a Disciple of Christ To forsake House and Lands for his Name sake And is this an Argument of a mind so dispos'd a sign of a Soul so prepar'd to be perpetually grasping after more and to be joining House to House and Land to Land If they that hunger after Righteousness are therefore blessed because they shall be filled I am sure they must needs be cursed that hunger after the mammon of unrighteousness for they are not cannot shall not be fill'd Oh the shame that is upon the Professors of the Religion of Christ Jesus Men that pretend to a life more excellent than a Prince his to be guilty of Covetousness All their Religion is in vain who mind earthly things O Lord incline my heart to thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness MEDITAT XLI Of Carefulness I
the Pleasures of the Senses though Divines use to confound them To prefer these before God is to be a predominant lover of the World There is no sin that I know of but may be acted over in the Fancy and affect the body no further A mental dalliance with a Mistress though it gets no Bastards yet is Adultery and prefers the World before Chastity and Purity The vigour of the Fancy both prevents and survives bodily uncleanness There are earlier and later Adulteries in Fancy than in Senses Incestos amores a tenero meditatur ungui says the Poet And Fancy acts over again the uncleannesses to which the Body is insufficient Covetousness is acted yea mainly acted in the Fancy Oh the full Bags and Barns the large Fields the Mountains of Gold that are to be found in a covetous Fancy Sure these men who fancy such great things to themselves and delight in such Fancies are they whom the Prophet Ezekiel speaketh of whose heart goeth after their Covetousness Pride is acted mainly upon the Stage of Fancy though somtimes it breaks forth into words as in Nebuchadnezzer yet sometimes it never goes further than the Fancy and yet is mortal and damnable as seems to have been the case of Herod whose Fancy was pleased with the blasphemous acclamations of the people and he gave not glory to God The distractions and strange rovings of Fancy after odd impertinent things in a careless and incoherent manner is a great corruption And to give the reins to a roving desultory Fancy without seeking to reduce and reclaim it is a predominant Sensuality Methinks that even to think nonsense for an hour together should shame a wise Man what can any man think of those men that are more solicitous to reclaim the wild ranging of their dogs than of their fancies but that the beastial part doth predominate over the rational Who can sufficiently lament the sad disorder of the Fancy and the evil that it betrays us to How unseemly and unjust is it that our thoughts which are the first-born of our Souls should be so squandred away in a wild-goose chase much sillier than childrens pursuing of butterflyes or following of crows through thick and thin testaquae lutoquae O my mind hast thou so lowly an object and such important matters to bestow thy self about as God and the things of Eternal life and canst thou have leasure to dream away thy time and spend thy powers upon things that are not that need not be that never will be Dost thou laugh at the Chimerick fictions of Poets and yet spend thy strength in Poetry Dost thou account it time next to lost to read Romances and yet canst be at leasure every day to make them Lord what a fickle fluid ungovernable thing is Mans Fancy How is this contexture of the body a snare to my Soul diverting hindring spoyling its operations Fancy is a necessary faculty without which I can perform no action and alas how has sin got into it and desiled it poyson'd the very fountain To a Worldy Fancy I might add also a Worldly Memory For certainly to be able to remember all Worldly Concernments and still to forget the matters of the Soul and the World to come is a sad Symptom of a worldly mind But amongst the corrupt Pleasures of the Fancy I must insist a little upon Revenge because it is frequently acted only upon the Stage of Fancy and does not proceed into Act And all this while vain men are apt to think themselves free from it To this therefore I will now apply my Thoughts MEDITAT LII Of Revenge UNder this Head of Fantastical Pleasures I bring in Revenge partly because I do not foresee any Head that it will be so fitly reduc'd to and partly because I think it is more usually terminated in the Fancy than other sins are If a man be of a proud lustful covetous Fancy it is ten to one but he will shew it one time or other in Words Actions or Behaviors that shall be significant But Revenge may be and I doubt is usually terminated in the Fancy for want of power or opportunity to shew it self Revengefulness is a temper that does most certainly conclude the predominance of the Worldly Nature above the Divine It seems in short to be nothing else but a retaliation or retribution of Injuries either contriv'd or executed which is a thing so difficult and nice and requires so much clearness of apprehension and purity of mind that no mortal man may meddle with it It is beyond all created Skill and therefore God does challenge and appropriate it to himself alone He allows men to share with him in his other Perfections to imitate his Wisdom Mercy Patience Justice But Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord Rom. 12. 19. And again Vengeance belongeth to me saith the Lord Heb. 10. 30. It is a great mistake in men to imagine that so long as they hold their hands they have committed no Murder because forsooth no one can Indict or Arraign them For a revengeful temper is Murder He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer 1 John 3. 15. Revenge does not consist in the doing of mischief To desire it to contrive it to meditate with pleasure upon it to rejoice in it if done by any other is Revenge yea to suspend necessary and usual kindnesses not to give meat to an Enemy if he hunder yea not to love an Enemy is a degree of Revenge The Gospel excels all Philosophy in the Doctrine of Revenge The Philosophers yea and the Jews generally held it no sin to do evil to one that had hurt or wronged them They said Thou shalt hate thine Enemy But the Gospel forbids all hatred even of an Enemy and consequently all Revenge For there can be no revengefulness without some degree of hatred It is a very spiritual and close sin it may be and yet not be discerned It puts on divers shapes Sometimes it would be mistaken for Zeal as in the case of the two Disciples calling for fire from Heaven themselves in the mean time little better than set on fire from Hell Sometimes it mingles it self with Justice Bring her forth said Judge Judah and let her be burnt Yes burn her by all means rather than Shelah my youngest Son shall marry her lest he dye as his Brethren dyed Yea sometimes it would fain pass for kindness and be interpreted good Nature Thus the kind King of Israel gave his daughter Michal to Captain David to be a snare to him And the crook-footed Philosopher very charitably wish'd His shoes might fit the feet of him that had stolen them So far was he good man from Revenge A charitable revengeful man gives his Neighbor the hook Malicious Absalom entertain'd his Brother Amnon to his destruction They say the Devils Gifts are Donata Hamata there is a Hook under the Bait. And no doubt but the Devil as ill-natur'd as he is does help some
his Friend How will he then leap in up to the Chin for him Such professors Christ may well upbraid in the words of Absalâ—m to Hushai Is this thy kindness to thy friend why went est thou not with thy friend It is very observable how faithful worldly men are to their worldly designs and Dalilahs What pains does the mammonist voluntarily take what diseases and dangers does the sensualist run upon what persecutions does the ambitious expose himself to These all take up their cross and follow their Dalilah At what a chargeable and costly rate do giddy opinionists maintain error and humor at the price of confiscation and imprisonment and banishment And will not the servants of Wrath be at as much charges for her Are the children of this World not only wiser but kinder than the children of Light Surely if we were the children of wisdom we should justify her stand for her to the last drop of sweat yea and of blood too I know no reason indeed nor revelation for the courting of persecution But inasmuch as it must be the lot of all that will be godly in one kind or degree or other it is good to get our minds possest with it prepar'd for it reconcil'd to it that when it comes we may not flye from the Serpent but take him by the tail and he will turn into a rod in our hand If there be any excellency in Righteousness any thing desirable in Blessedness then sure there is some good at least eventually in persecution for they are near akin Blessed are they that are persecuted for Righteousness sake Mat. 5. 10. MEDITAT LX. Of Honour in general and of Pride THe third of the things of the world are its Honours A predominant lover of Worldly Honor denominates a man a lover of the World and consequently void of the love of God See how our Saviour opposes Faith and Ambition making them inconsistent â—o 5. 44. How can ye believe that receive honour one of another There is an Honor which is not Worldly a Praise that is of God and not of man This renders men yea the meanest and obscurest of men honourable the excellent of the earth And to be ambitious of it is an agument of a truly heroick and exalted mind I mean to desire to be a Son or a Daughter of God An immoderate affectation of Worldly Honour is Pride And to prefer it before innocence to seek it glory in it maintain it rather than truth and a good conscience makes a lover of the World To have a right sense of ones own worth in any kind is not Pride but Justice It is no man perfection to be deceived nor his duty to think woâ—â—â— of himself than he is for then he must needs think falsly which is the infirmity af the understanding whose perfection it is to apprehend things as they are But there is less fear of this less danger in it than there is of an overweening To expect a just estimation is but just and modest enough nay sometimes laudable for it may be very serviceable and may make a man seviceable So that every man may well be allow'd to be tender of his reputation But yet patiently to bear disgrace and not to stomach a disappointment is generous and to go through bad report is Christ-like To require and exact a reverent behaviour from inferiours is just though oftentimes they that stand most severely upon it miss of it most respect being such a kind of thing as often flyes from him that follows it and follows him that flyes from it There are many objects of Pride such as Birth Wit and Learning and Standing Strength and Power and Victory Riches Interest a Party and the Propagation of it Children Beauty Priviledges Apparel yea even Vertuous Actions To glory in any of these unduly is Pride and denominates a lover of the World MEDITAT LXI Of the Honour of God and the way of seeking it GOds glorifying himself is not such a thing as vain mans seeking to make himself great by carnal means It is in short The raying forth of his own Perfections the displaying of Himself the communications of his own Goodness Mens glorifying of God is not a fancying or speaking much of the glory of God But it sustains a double notion The less proper notion is the exalting of the Name and Honour of God ascribing all good to him owning him as the Fountain of all So we glorifie him in the reverend thoughts that we have of him in making honourable mention of him dedicating things to his use and service In this Sense Atheisticalness and Unbelief are dishonours to God as also all taking his Name in vain swearing spending all upon our lusts c. The more proper notion is The displaying of his Perfections imitating his Goodness Justice Patience Mercy Charity acting suitably to what his Unimitable Perfections do require as submitting to his Soveraignty depending upon his Omnipotence behaving our selves sincerely in the sense of his Omniscience observing such Rules and Measures in all our Actions as make them agreable to his holy Will In a word our Saviour who best knew 〈◊〉 â—ho was so entirely devoted to it who came into the World on this very errand has more clearly and compendiously told us what it is Jo. 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified if ye bring forth much Fruit. MEDITAT LXII Of Self-honouring MAn was not made for himself However common a thing it is it is low and base for Man to make himself his own end There is nothing more absurd or unreasonable than Pride nothing more excellent or honourable than Humility It is truly said Quo minus sibi arrogat homo eo evadit clarior et nobilior Man does most honour himself by debasing himself and so on the contrary And as there is nothing more absurd so there is nothing more dangerous It were Ten thousand times safer to stand in the fore-front of the hottest battail than that God should set him in battail aray against us and yet that is the import of that phrase He 〈◊〉 the proud There is Pride in unbelief and refusing the terms of the Gospel The wicked through the pride of his heart seeketh not after God Yea indeeed Pride seems to be the cause of all disobedience If ye will not hear says the Prophet My soul shall weep in secret places for your Pride To seek the advancement of our Names our own Credit and Estimation more than the Name of God is worldly Come see my zeal for the Lord said Captain Jehu There lies more Emphasis upon the word My than upon the Lord. How this should be pardonable in men I know not when it is no less than Treason in the Ambassador of a King Hezekiah fell into a Fit of this when he made ostentation of his Treasures and David when he numbred the People at both whom God was displeased But the one humbled himself for the pride of his heart
way of assistance or advice to prevent Sin or Mischief as Lot to reconcile Differences as Moses is not it I do not think that either Lot in his Nay my Brethren do not so wickedly nor Moses in his Wherefore smitest thou thy Fellow were Pragmatical as it seems they were then interpreted There is such a Fault as Pragmaticalness but a Generous Activity and Publick-Spiritedness which proceeds from an Universal Love is unjustly branded Yea I will say it is base Cowardice in some men of Abilities to hide themselves from Business and from the Necessities of Mankind that is from their own flesh under this pretence That they will not be Busie-bodies It is better to offer ones self ten times where there is no Need than to deny Assistance once where there is Blessed are the Peace-makers said the great Peace-maker And I cannot but account it a base humor to reproach Active men for Busie-bodies It 's true Christ Jesus would not meddle with things not belonging to him but as to the things belonging to him he sought opportunities for Business He went up and down doing good MEDITAT LXXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or of the Love of Worldly Business BUT there is a love of worldly Business which is intemperate and a symptom of a worldly mind And although one should say That they that are guilty of it are the best sort of Sensualists because Business and Action is a better thing less gross more agreeable to the active Nature of the Soul than the dull love of Riches yet this is very small comfort Some dote too much upon their own worldly Business which yet is materially lawful It is an easie thing to over-do to be over-diligent over-industrious over-painful Do not they dote upon Business who are employ'd about it by Day dream of it by Night pursue it with a hurry inseparable from Fear Perplexity and Discontent that will be ready to fall out with God or man if they put any stop to them in their Business Suppose Business to be lawful yet it must also be necessary or highly convenient to justifie mens zeal about it What Necessity is there or Convenience either that Rich men should be still Richer or that one man should have all the Trade of a Town To clog ones self with worldly Business in order to Self enriching and growing up into unnecessary Grandeur or unwieldy Bulk in the World argues a worldly Spirit To busie ones self in order to the molesting and troubling of other men to be Encouragers of Law Troublers of Israel argues a worldly Mind To busie ones self so in worldly matters as to exclude or retrench heavenly Business not to subordinate the former to the latter to love Business for Business-sake without respect to any good to be done thereby argues an intemperate Lover of worldly Business Some concern themselves too much in other mens Business To meddle in things that we know not or in things no way belonging to us is foolish but to meddle in the matters of other men to do them mischief is wicked The Sycophantick Delators so much inveigh'd against by the old Comedians peep'd and pry'd into every Conversation to pick Quarrels and find Faults and yet the Varlets accounted this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he in Aristophenes brags Such a kind of Fellow was Zibah the Servant of Saul Such an one the King of Israel suspected the King of Syria Naaman's Master to be 2 Kings 5. 7. David often complains of this sort of men Doeg the Pick-thank the Emblem of a Sycophantick Courtier and other of Saul's Courtiers that digg'd Pits for him laid Snares for him that said When will he slip iâ— fall that we may surprize him To love to know the Faults of men is not a good temper yea it is painful to a godly mind To look into the Faults of men to bring them to punishment may be a good work it may be done sincerely for the execution of some good Law that is of moment it may possibly be in mercy to the Offender and out of pure kindness as if one should say I love him therefore I will get him punisht But men are not generally of so pure and publick a Spirit They are so revengeful so covetous that makes the Office of Informers hardly thought of and it is accounted a fault to be inquisitive into the faults of other men It is hard to find an Informer out of pure zeal or love to truth but Mercenaries and pick-thanks enough Flatterers are generally busy-bodies For how shall they ingratiate themselves with their great mastâ—â—â— but with the faults of other men But to lay snares for the righteous to watch for their halting to seek occasions against a man in the matter of his God though a Law would favour is wicked and much resembles that great busy-body that goes up and down continually seeking to devour Daniels accusers had a Law to justify them yet I doubt not but they were wicked Informers for all that Curiosity or an intemperate desire to be acquainted with other mens secrets nothing belonging to us argues vanity of mind and a spirit not well conversant at home and may be reduc'd to the disease of â—tching ears There are secrets of Nature of Religion of ones own Soul to be enquir'd into and it â—s is as laudable to enquire into them We need not lust after the secrets of other men Besides it is uneasy to be trusted with them It makes a man a slave if he do not reveal them and a knave if he do Lord Thou art life it self and a pure Act thou art good and dost good continually thou hast endow'd me with an activenature thou hast furnisht me with business enough of mine own and other mens for this world and for the future suffer me not to hide my â—and in my bosom and to look on as an idle specta tor unconcern'd but maugre all temptations from the Flesh the Devil and the World imitate thy active and benificent Nature But O Eternal Wisdom teach me to order my Actions with discretion to lay out my self in Actions pure proper profitable Grant that I may not be impure and unprofitable like a stagnant Pool nor yet troublesome nor offensive like an overflowing Torrent ever flowing but without inundation ever running but so as ever within my own Banks not hiding my Light under a Bushel yet shining within my own sphere MEDITAT LXXXI Of the Fashions of the World THere are some things in the World that are not properly call'd Business which yet to prefer before God denominates a man worldly and these are the Fashions of the World I cannot properly call it Pride Covetousness or Voluptuousness to conform to these and yet it is carnal There are indeed civil and innocent Fashions of the World to which to conform is no Fault nay considering Man as a Member of Society seems expedient Matters of Apparel so far as ones Quality Estate Health and other
James He is described by the Apostle Paul as one double and unsincere by the Apostle James as one impure envious contentious harsh implacable merciless unfruitful partial and hypocritical It is evident by the light of Scripture that all these things viz. Impurity Envy Contentiousness c. are works of the Flesh Earthly Devilish and certain symptoms of the spirit of the World and of a Lover of the World in whom the Love of the Father is not It is pity to let all these pass with a general Animadversion onely they are proper Subjects of a distinct Meditation But in the mean time what matter of sorrow and astonishment does this general Observation administer Good God If these Sins of the Spirit be certain Symptoms of a Worldly Mind and Companions of the Worldly Wisdom How does the whole World lie in Wickedness How far has the Serpentine Poyson diffusâ—d it self Alas Who has not some of the Spawn of it in him I see Man did not in vain eat of the Tree of Knowledge of the Tree to be desired to make one wise For he is thereby grown very wise to do evil and the Children of this World are more skill'd in their impure Wisdom than the Children of Light in the pure MEDITAT LXXXIV Of Impure Wisdom THE Wisdom which is from above is pure says the Apostle James From whence it follows by the opposition That the worldly Wisdom is impure I take Pure to be a general description of the heavenly Wisdom and all the species following do partake of it so the worldly Wisdom is in general impure All Sin indeed is Impurity the properest description of it Therefore the Devil himself is in the Gospel describ'd by this especially The Vnclean Spirit So that I will not make Impurity in the Abstract a distinct Head of Meditation but will a little insist upon impure Wisdom in the Concrete without interfering with any of the Particulars that follow in the Text. Impure Wisdom is a Symptom of a Worldly Mind Now as the pure Wisdom is as the Apostle phraseth it to be wise unto that which is good Rom. 16. 19. So the impure Wisdom is to be wise to do evil as the Prophet phraseth it Jer. 4. 22. Of this there are several kinds besides what the Apostle reckons up in the following words They are impurely wife who make use of their cunning or subtilty to undermine or over-reach others in Transactions contrary to Plainness and Simplicity That take advantage of others Ignorance or Weakness in matter of Consultation Bargain Law or the like to hurt them That also is impure Wisdom which serves Oppression and Violence Thus wise were Pharaoh and his Egyptian Counsellors They took a wise course but what was it for To oppress and murder Exod. 1. 10. Come let us deal wisely c. Was it not a cunning way of killing to make the Midwives the Lucinae to be the Instruments of ushering the Children into the shades of death to escape the guilt of drowning them by only bidding them to drown one another That also is impure Wisdom that serves the Lust of Fornication and Adultery I have read of many witty devices for the satisfaction of Lust the Poets furnish us with abundance of them even amongst their very Gods And I think the Moral of all those Transformations of himself that Jupiter made is nothing else but to describe this amarous Impurity this impure Wisdom That of the golden shower especially is acted over every day whereby many handsome Bodies are debauched and pretty People corrupted What female constitution so hard and dry as not to be softned by a shower of gold especially if it come from above But the Scripture instance is most authentick of subtile Jonadab who taught his Friend Amnon a way how he might satisfie his Lust upon his Sister Tamar 2 Sam. 13. That also is impure wisdom that serves Ambition How wonderful witty some men are to contrive their own advancement How Courtly and Complimental is Absalom He condescends to kiss the ordinary sort of people to gain them Oh how humble is the proud Absalâ—â— Would any one have thought that his kissing their faces was only in order to their kissing his hand Yea the good man is troubled to see all Israel to be as Sheep with a Shepherd he pities them that ail'd nothing he asperses the Government though it was the Government of his Father and promises fairly if he were made Judge in the Land That also is impure wisdom that makes Laws for Snares in what kind of Society soever it be it matters not God gives no Laws but what are for our good and if men make Laws which they matter not much whether they be broken or kept so they may but have an occasion to exact the Penalty it is far from the Nature of God and the Method of Him that governs the World This is to debauch Justice and make her a Bawd to Covetousness or Revenge This was the wicked wisdom of Daniel's Enemies and of the Heaâ—hens persecuting the Christians Near of Kin to this is that wisdom that lays Baits and offers Temptations to men to cause them to offend and then punishes them for offending The Egyptians first opprest the Israelites and made them mad and then punish'd th◠〈◊〉 for Complaining and Mutiny It is good to have faithful Servants but to lay Baits for them and tempt them to unfaithfulness seems to be the method of impure wisdom Whatever may be said in commendation of Jehu's zeal in destroying the Baaâ—â—tes his wisdom in inviting them to a Sacrifice and engaging them in Idolatry first looks like a Serpentine device It is the wisdom of the Devil to make men to sin and then torment their Consciences even to despair because they have sinned There are several other kinds of impure wisdom but possibly they may fall under some of the Particulars that follow in the Text I will therefore next meditate of those Particulars MEDITAT LXXXV Of Envy and Envious Wisdom THE Earthly Fleshly and Devilish Wisdom is described more particularly by the bitter Envying with which it is attended or which it does attend upon Envy springs from Poverty And although it be found in great and rich men yet it is when they fansie themselves poor and herein indeed they are inferior to them whom they envy The more pure and perfect any Being is the more free from Envy The All-sufficient God envies no good to his Creature However these words are to be understood Now lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life c. It is plain and certain that God desires that all men should be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth He was so far from envying the station of man that he hedg'd him in with a severe Threatning and so far from envying his Recovery that he sent his Son to make a painful Inquiry a diligent Search for him to seek and to save that
which was lost The holy Angels his Menial Servants imitate him they continue their despised Ministry to wretched Man contribute what they can to his Conversion and rejoice in it The Rhetorical description that the Prophet makes of the welcome that the damned or the miserable give to the Babylonish Monarch Isa 14. 9. as fitly agrees to them Their Charity rejoices as much as the others Malignity The Sun in the Firmament as if it were afraid that Man should lie in darkness rises and rejoices to run its Race and without disdain or envy sheds abroad its influences upon the fairest and the vilest parts of the World The Rain descends upon the barren ground to enrich it and upon the Rich to make it yet richer The richer any Man is in any endowment or accomplishment the less he is grieved at the prosperity of others The contented Man be he who he will is the Richest therefore he is the freest from Envy When the Devil was fallen from his Happiness he envied the Happiness of Man yet standing and sought to bring him into the same condemnation with himself so that the Wisdom that serves Envy may well be called Devilish But it is well call'd Earthly too for it is found predominant in none but earthly minds David indeed cast an envious glance at the prosperity of the wicked men of his time Psal 73. 3. But it was but a glance he did not allow himself in it he calls himself a Fool and a Beast for it ver 22. But a predominant envious temper is worldly it is contrary to the Divine temper of Charity and to the nature of that blessed Being whose Name is Love The Wisdom that serves Envy is a worldly Wisdom Envy travels with many Plots and Projects and Serpentine Wiles to supplant its Rivals and undermine its Superiors Envious Men are the eldest Sons of the old Serpent they resemble him as being his genuine Off-spring and most natural Spawn Them therefore he inspires and assists with his Wiles and Methods O my Soul let not thinâ— Eye be evil because God's is good But rejoice rather in all the Bounty of God express'd towards all men Rejoice in them all as if they were thy own which is the honestest way of making them thine own Do Men excel thee in Vertue Imitate them Do they excel thee in Wealth Power or Preferment Rather pity them and fear for them lest their Prosperity destroy them than envy them The Instances of the Envious Wisdom are such as these One while Envy will break out into open Wars kill and slay all before it How did the two proud Princes fill all Italy with Blood and Confusion of which their own Poet assigns a cause in the character that he gives of them Nec ferre potest Coesarve priorem Pompejusve parem Another while it lays snares privily and like a deadly Pestilence walks in the dark like a Serpent in the way like an Adder in the path that biteth the Horse-heels so that his Rider shall fall backward One while it rages and professes its self an Enemy another while it glavers and makes great shew of friendship Saul possess'd with this Devil will give away his Daughter if by her he may ensnare the man that had kill'd his Thousands One while it will behave it self proudly to outvy a Competitor another while it will behave it self humbly lick the dust prostrate it self shamefully lie down under the feet of its Rival if by that means he may be made to stumble and fall He croucheth and humbleth himself that the Rival may fall by that means Sometimes it acts by Cruelty as in Cain sometimes by Policy as in the Patriarchs sometimes it is covetous and receives money as in the chief Fathers Gen. 37. sometimes it is prodigal and spends money as in the chief Priests Mat. 26. Sometimes it will put on the Vizard of Devotion as in Jezabel This same was a dear Daughter of the Serpent her he inspir'd with special Wiles to get Naboth's Vincyard as we read in the Story 1 Kings 21. All these and the like to these are Instances of the Serpentine Wisdom and such a kind of Wisdom to serve the designs of Envy is a Symptom of a Lover of the World Lord Give me that full contentment with my own condition that true valuation of things that sincere love of all men that I may not envy any and that this may be my rejoicing at the last the testimony of my Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God I have had my conversation in the world MEDITAT LXXXVI Of Contentiousness and Contentious Wisdom COntentiousness and Strivings are another work of the Flesh and a Symptom of a worldly Mind To contend and that earnestly too for the Truth is not the worldly Contention Though the Truth be never so mean we ought to contend earnestly and suffer all things rather then deny it But some Truths are so mean that a man ought not to contend for the propagation of them nor suffer for the profession of them I believe that Paul had a Cloak and I would suffer a man to take my Coat and Cloak also rather than deny it But it is such a Truth as I would not contend for the profession or propagation of nor trouble the Churches peace nor the Consciences of men about I cannot tell whether many matters of Order and Discipline may not be of the same value with the Apostles Cloak possibly they hang as loose from the Essentials of Religion as his Cloak did from him and Religion may live and be kept warm without them But to contend earnestly to strive unto blood for the defence of the Essential things of Religion is Heroical and an argument of a powerful Lover of God To contend about worldly Interests if they be weighty if they cannot be amicably adjusted so it be with moderation charity and meekness and no more zeal than bears proportion to the thing in controversie before a lawful Judge is not the Worldly Contention There is a sort of Magisterial men who will condemn every man for contentious that appears in vindication of his own right though never so duly nay that will brand every man for obstinate and quarrelsome that will not tamely suffer himself to be captivated by their reasonings be they never so weak and pin hisr Faith upon their Sleeve though it be never so ragged or rotten These men themselves are the most contentious and the truest Authors of Schism But the Worldly contention is when men contend eagerly or chargeablely about small matters or are resolv'd to part with nothing of their right in any case for peace sake When men delight to be in Controversies and to have their hand against every man As some Fishes delight in muddied or troubled waters so some men are never in their own element but then When men contend to shew their own Parts to ostentate their Power
But this dissembling becomes evil by evil accidents and is carnal if it be attended with pride unbelief slavish fear atheisticalness or if it serve a dolus malus The King of Israel might disguise himself and go into the Battail But if he think to cheat the eye or escape the hand of God by this means his atheisticalness not his hypocrisy is sinful The Queen of Israel might disguise her self and seem another woman But if she think to deceive the Prophet or the God of the Prophet therein she is Atheistical It was not Sauls disguising himself but his consulting with the Devil that was his sin What was extraordinary in Davids dissembling before Acish and Jacobs before Isaac I know not But there seems to be so much in it that I had rather excuse them charitably than boldly imitate either of them This sinful Hypocrisy is either in things Civil or Religious The Civil Hypocrisy may be very wicked and a Symptom of an earthly mind As when men profess and pretend to Trades Arts or Sciences which they understand not when men poofess to be Teacher of others when themselves had need to be taught Hereby they deceive men in imposing false Wares or Doctrines upon them Oâ— when men pretend to Love and Friendship â—n purpose to deceve to make men less jealous to trust them and relie upon them per amici fallere nomen Abner died as a fool that is by deceit as the manner of fools is to perish Or when men pretend much love and kindness and yet mean no such thing but do fail them to whom they pretend it Or pretend much love on purpose to make a prey of men as the Whore in the Proverbs of Solomon Prov. 30. 20. MEDITAT XCII Of Scripture Hypocrisy and Hypocritical Wisdom THe Hypocrisie which the Scripture so often condemns and so vehemently inveighs against is in short a pretending to that Religion which indeed a man has not And this is done two ways by the Amolition of Vice and by the Ostentation of Vertue In general all Christians taken in opposition to Heathens that are not renewed in the Spirit of their minds nor conformed to the Image of Christ are Hypocrites All Professors of Religion that profess the true God are entred into a Covenant Relation are Baptized into the Name of Christ have taken upon them to sight for him against the World the Flesh and the Devil and yet are strangers to true Regeneration are of a worldly Spirit and a fleshly mind are Hypocrites We use indeed to distinguish between the Prophane and the Hypocrites and the Prophane bless themselves that they are not Hypocrites they think they do not act deceitfully in their Profession because they make no Profession at all This were a miserable excuse if it were true but it is false For they do profess Christianity and by being concern'd in the Sacraments of the Gospel do undertake the Duties of the Gospel and lay claim to the blessings of it Nay they themselves will tell you That they hope to be saved as well as the greatest Professors of them all And sure they cannot think to be saved by a Gospel which they do not own It seems as if Hell were inhabited with these two sorts of People only Hypocrites Unbelievers as if the Text should say Unbelievers and False Believers Heathens and Christians For there must be a kind of Believing to make up an Hypocrite So then Prophaneness does not hinder men from being Hypocrites it only makes them the more gross and impudent Dissemblers the more notorious Mockers of God To profess Religion and Vertue is not of it self Hypocrisie but indeed the necessary Duty of all men especially of those to whom the Gospel is come But because the Profession of Religion has been so abused therefore some think it is best to make none at all Or rather indeed it is an argument of the great hatred that wicked men bear to Religion that they hate the very name and shew of it as they say the Panther does the very image of a man To desire to appear Vertuous is not simply Hypocrisie A man may both love Religion and love the beautiful character of Religious too To be Vertuous is for our own good to appear such is for the good of others and for the glory of God Mat. 5. 16. To be zealous for Religion and the promoting of it is not Hypocrisie however it is traduced by some and suspected by more True indeed all is not zeal pure zeal for Religion that seems so But yet there is a zeal for Religion and wherever it is in Truth it is highly commendable Alas what a careless and graceless Age are we fallen into wherein mens hearts are so coldly disposed towards Religion that it should be accounted Extasie or Hypocrisie to be zealous for the Interest of Religion which yet all profess and many profess to be their greatest glory It is not simply Hypocrisie for a man to conceal his Faults That which was Sodom's shame cannot be our Duty sure to proclaim our sin The next to being innocent is to be asham'd of our Faults And who will oftentate a thing that he is asham'd of But to pretend to Religion which we have not nor care not to have to profess it or any part of it for worldly Ends and so to make it subservient to carnal Selfishness To desire to be approved of men for any Grace or Vertue and in the mean time not to approve our selves to God in the exercise thereof is the more special sinful Hypocrisie And this Hypocrisie is very witty Many Wiles men use to serve Hypocrisie and to seem what they are not One Instance of this worldly hypocritical wisdom is when men either deny or mince their sins that they may appear righteous before men when in the mean time they love them and live in them Nay rather than not cover their sins they will make a Cloak of the Vail of the Sanctuary Thus the dissembling Pharisees in our Saviour's days made long Prayers to hide their Covetousness and cover'd their Uncharitableness and Undutifulness with the pretence of Corban The same worldly wisdom instructss the hypocrite to bann and swagger against sin in general and the sins of other men in the mean time hugging his own For would not any one think that he that Preaches frequently and severely against Covetousness were some Charitable or Heavenly Soul If a man had seen Jehu raging and hectoring against Baal would he not have thought that had perfectly abhorr'd idolatry But follow him to Dan or Bethel and you would be of another mind A great artifice whereby men make their own sins seem little or none at all is to represent other mens as big as may be Thus I have heard some men excuse their own swearing by aggravating other mens lying and deceitfulness their own formality and carelesness in religion by railing against the hypocrisy and heady zeal of another sort of men
And indeed nothing is more usual than to endeavour to drown the cry of the sins of the present times by talking loudly of the crying sins of the former Oh cry'd the Jews Our fathers what wicked men were they to kill the Prophets when themselves persecuted and hated the great Prophet of the Church An other great instance of hypocrisy is when men assume to themselves an ostentate Religion and do not heartily embrace nor love it The Worldly Wisdom has invented a great many artifices in this matter Sometimes the Hipocritical Wisdom will instruct men to commend Vertue and Vertuous persons to seem vertuous Yea it will Preach up many good works and press them most confidently I had almost said impudently with many arguments and motives that they will not meddle with the practice of bind severe duties upon their hearers which themselves will not touch with one of their fingers Who has not with astonishment and loathing heard the loose and careless exhort to Devotion and dilligent Godliness the Covetous to Liberality them require others to pray continually and the prophane to charge the rest that they swear not at all This wisdom will instruct men to pray especially if it be in a publick place where they may do it clare ut audiat hospes for many good gifts and graces which they have no mind to receive to be enabled to do many good things which yet they never so much as once go about and to be adorn'd with that holiness which they deride and hate in them that are adorned with it Sometimes the hypocritical wisdom instructs men to take a good and constant care of their outward behavior and conversation that it be dâ—mure and sober and honest and as to any scandalous thing unexceptionable All this is good and yet is nothing but an artifice of the hypocritical wisdom if the heart in the mean time be full of Pride and Covetousness Malice and Revengefulness Impurity and Impatience if the will be selfish and reluctant against the Will of God This was the devilish wisdom of the Hypocrites of old whom the wisdom of Heaven detected and told them That notwithstanding their Sheeps cloathing they were imvardly ravening Wolves notwithstanding their outward cleanliness and many washings they were inwardly full of Excess and Repine notwithstanding their external whitings and garnishings they were inwardly corrupt and rotten Another Artifice to seem Religious is to be scrupulous of little Faults and zealous for lighter Duties not but that tenderness of Conscience and zeal for all the Commands of God are excellent Accomplishments But they are nothing but an Artifice of the hypocritical wisdom when at the same time great and Camel-like sins are swallow'd down and the weighty matters of the Law are neglected Oh take heed of coming into the Judgment Hall for fear of being defiled but venture to condemn and hang the innocent if you envy him Be as punctual as may be in paying the Tythes to the Levite so exact as to be a Cutter of Cummin but it is no great matter for Faith and the Love of God All the Art is here to find out what is really little or light for according to mens prejudices a little variation in a matter of Ceremony or Order must needs be interpreted a Sin as mortal as Blasphemy and on the other hand a seemly handsome ceremonious observation have great weight laid upon it as the Love of God and our Neighbor Oh that God would give us to see the necessities of our own Souls the nature of true substantial Holiness that transfâ—rms us into the Image of God to eye the example of Christ who was not wont to lay stress upon little things And oh Lord that we may all see how odious Hypocrisie is to Truth and that if the shew of Holiness be desirable it self must needs be much more beautiful MEDITAT XCIII Of the God of this World AMongst other worldly things I read of the God of this World and the Prince of this World whom to adore and obey is certainly a Symptom of a worldly mind The Eternal Jehovah is the rightful and onely proper God and Prince of the World But yet by an improper speech the Devil is also called The God of this World 2 Cor. 4. 4. He is thus called either by a Metonymie of the Adjunct or by a Metaphor By a Metonymie a thing is said to be that which it is onely in opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thus the Devil is the God of this World in his own opinion for he venditates himself as such Matth. 4. 8 9. All these things will I give thee And Luke 4. 6 7. All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it And in the opinion of men who take and worship him for God as the Dog is said to be the God of Egypt because it is worshiped by them instead of God and the â—â—lly is said to be the God of Epicures Phil. 3. 19. Or else by a Metaphor The Name of God is Metaphorically apply'd to the Devil For as the true God administers his Kingdom of Grace in Believers and is devoutly worship'd by them so the Devil worketh his malignant works in the hearts of wicked men and is obey'd by the Children of disobedience Ephes 2. 2. that is God to every man which he doth most esteem and advance in his heart And so although there is really a difference between God and Mammon yet be Metaphorically said That Mammon is the God of covetous men When I consider how often in Scripture things are said to be that which they only seem to be or are taken to be either by a mans self or others I cannot but wonder at the unreasonable Clamor that some People make not sticking to Rail at us for Lying and Equivocating when we thus speak If the Spirit of God had not authoriz'd and consecrated this Expression of the Devils being the God of this World how may we imagine that the Pretenders to Simplicity and Propriety of Speech would have hooâ—ed it out of the World for Blasphemy And methinks the necessity of Humane Learning and particularly of Rhetorick may fairly be commended and established from this Consideration There are so many passages of this nature in Scripture that I cannot but record some few of them to stop the mouths of irrhetorical Censures The Diabolical Spectrum is expresly call'd Samuel which was only so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 28. 12. Hananiah is called a Prophet Jer. 28. because he was accounted for such And so is Epimenides called by the Apostle Tit. 1. 12. the Prophet of the Cretians for as Laertius tells us he was so accounted of by them and after his death they sacrificed to him Joseph is called the Father of Jesus Luke 2. 48. only because he was so reputed as the Text afterwards
further Prosecution of this to some following Meditations concerning motives to the Love of God and consider the last abominable thing which the Love of the World is and that is Perjury The Jews of our Saviours time had very broad Consciences and many fowl things they made a shift to swallow such as Revenge Hatred of Enemies Neglect of poor Parents and the like yet Perjury was such a Morsel as they could never get down though they had made void many of the Commands of God yet for stark shame they left this standing in its full force Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform to thy Lord thy Vows What Opinion the Heathen had of Perjury appears by the strange punishments that they say the gods inflicted upon Laomedon King of Troy for falsifying the Promissory Oath that he had made to Neptune and Apollo which vengance did not onely light upon him and his Age but reacht unto posterity So that many years after they cry'dout Laomedonteae luimus perjuria Trojae Herod that could digest Murder and Incest hard bits one would think yet boggled at Perjury though the Oath was a rash one and made but to a Girl and that upon no valuable consideration neither yet his stomach as vitated as it was so nauseated Perjury that he would perform it It seems it was accounted by them an abominable Blasphemy to call God to Witness to a lie to make truth it self a lyar but let the promise be made to whom it would how much more abominable must it needs be when that promise is made to God That is at the same time to defraud and blaspheme the Majesty of Heaven And so do all they who solemnly in the presence of God covenant and swear to fight under his Banner against the World and afterwards turn to the World and enter into a Covenant of Friendship with that which they had once declar'd their deadly Enemy Mercury in the Fable stomach'd â—t grievously that Battus should betray him to himself Et me mihi perfide prodie Me mihi prodis Certainly more intollerable affront cannot be put upon the Majesty of Heaven than that men should swear by him to him and then forsake him making themselves at once guilty of Fraud and Blasphemy which all the Lovers of the World do If now there be anything abominable in Idolatry Adultery Blasphemy Sacrilege Ingratitude Perjury the Predominant Love of the World must needs be abominable even to amazement which is really all these and what needs what can be said more to disswade us from it O Merciful God who alone canst effectually deal with the Hearts of Men perswade us thorowly of the undefiling Nature of thy Love that we may make it our great study to keep our selves unspotted of the World MEDITAT XLI General Motives to the Love of God AND now address thy self O my Soul to the last and sweetest part of thy work to Meditate of som powerful Motives to enflame thy self and the rest of the benumnâ—d World with the Love of God Strengthen me O my God this once not that I may be reveng'd upon but that I may perform the greatest kindness to thine Enemies by rescuing them out of their miserable bondage and inlarging their Souls in the most pure and generous love of thee I let down my Net once more not without thy Command Oh that by thy gracious Assistance and Blessing I may enclose a number of Souls and translate those who all their days have swam in Earthly delights and in the brackish Sea of this World into the sweet Rivers of Pleasures that are at thy right hand or rather into the pure Fountain of Peace and Joy and Pleasure which thou art for evermore And here methinks I have the whole World and all the Individuals therein thronging about me each offering its Vote each offering it self an Orator to plead the Cause of God The holy Psalmist in his 148 Psalm calls upon the whole Creation Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens and the Waters that be above the Heavens the Earth and the Deeps and all the Inhabitants of all those Angels and the Hosts of God the Lights of Heaven Vapors and flying Fowls of the Air all Men great and small young and old Beasts and Cattel and Creeping Things and all Vegetables I say he calls upon them to Praise and Celebrate the Lord but methinks I hear all these calling upon me and all Mankind to love the Lord and to delight our selves greatly in our God For certainly there is nothing in the Creation but does plainly declare the Loveliness of God and whatsoever does so does as good as Preach and say Oh love the Lord ye Children of Men. But I see I shall lose my self in this immensity I will therefore confine my self to some few Topicks from whence to fetch Arguments and Motives to the Love of God The nature of our Christian Profession the Nature of our own Souls the Nature of God the Nature of Love the Nature of the Love of God will furnish us with powerful Motives to the Love of God as well as all these with the Nature of the World and of Worldly Love â—urnisht us with disswaâ—â—ves from the Love of the World For there is as much excellency in the Nature of God and of the Love of God to recommend them as there is unsuitableness and unsatisfyingness in the World or abominableness in Worldly Love to disparage them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no hard thing for a devout Mind to fetch mighty 〈◊〉 the Love of God from the same Heads the Argument being a little altered from which the dissâ—â—asives from the Love of the World were fetcht As for Example if we should therefore not love the World because it is unsuitable and insufficient to us and not that which it seems to be then we should therefore love God because of his infinite fulness and because he is the onely substantial and agreeable good If we should therefore not love the World because by loving we give we assimulate we unite we subject our selves to the World if this be the Nature of Love then what can be more excellent and advantagious to us than the Love of God If we should therefore not oâ—e the Word because the love of the World is Abominable Idolatrous Adulterous Blasphemous Sacrilegious Ungratful and Perjurious The Love of God being on the contrary Excellent and Divine Pure Chast Just Ingeniouâ— and Reasonable ought mightily to allure and attract us unto it self And so of the rest But here also I should be tempted to be too large I will therefore limit my self to a few Considerations which I have found most powerful over my own Soul Oh would it might please God to bless them with a mighty Influence that they may come to the Hearts of those into whose hands they may come MEDITAT XLII A Particular Motive to the Love of God FIrst I am wont to consider that God loves us best of any one The Law of
338. l. 4. r. etymologies l. 25. r. notation p. 339. l. 4. r. Vetarbith p. 346. l. 1. r. it p. 351. l. 2. 〈◊〉 MAN Considered in His MORAL CAPACITY PART I. MEDITAT I. Introductory REturn O my mind Return What dost thou so early in the World Art thou not afraid lest this unseasonable Excursion should be a Symptom of a Lover of the World And think oh think what a dangerous what a deadly thing it is to be a Lover of the World Thou needest no more to convince thee of this but that one plain Text of the devout Apostle St. John If any man love the World the Love of the Father is not in him Are not these words plain to be understood Are they not startling to any one that understands them But if thou wilt think on a little further thou wilt find that the whole Gospel runs in this strain There is no Doctrine deliver'd either more plainly or more frequently than this The Apostle James does so fully consent with his Brother John in this Doctrine as if they spoke with the same mouth Jam. 4. 4. The friendship of the World is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a Friend of the World is the Enemy of God And this he speaks of either as a Truth generally known or very important as appears by the Interrogatory Form of Speech wherewith he ushers it in Know ye not As if he should either say It is a thing well known or it is a thing well worthy to be known The Apostle Paul though junior to both these yet knew this great Doctrine as well as they and delivers it almost in the same words with them Rom. 8. 7. The oarnal mind is enmity against God He makes the spirit of the world and the Spirit of God directly contrary the one to the other 1 Cor. 2. 12. writing to the Galatians he makes the plain end of Christ's giving himself for us to be that he might deliver us from this present evil world Gal. 1. 4. and chap. 6. 14. He makes this to be the great priviledge that he had by Christ Jesus that by him he was crucified to the World Writing to his Philippians he makes it the short but sure Character of the Enemies of Christ that they mind earthly things Phil. 3. 18 19. And writing to his Son Timothy he gives him the reason why Demas had forsaken him and the Work and Profession of the Gospel viz. Because he was in ove with this World plainly intimating That the Gospel and the World are inconsistent one heart cannot hold them And all these do but in different words speak that which they had heard of or had been taught by their Lord and Master who in the days of his Ministry openly declared That no Man could serve God and Mammon Mat. 6. 24. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon And at another time as I suppose in the self-same words Luke 16. 13. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon If this Doctrine delivered by so many and so worthy hands be true and cannot be spoken against Return O my Soul Return Fuge nata Deo teque immundo eripe mundo Strengthen me O my God unto the hearty and effectual Belief of this Proposition That I may be as afraid of the prevalent love of the World as I would dread to be accounted what is not to be named without horror an Hater of God! MEDITAT II. The Method of the Ensuing Meditations MY great Design shall be to determine the Lovers of the World and to distinguish them from the Lovers of the Father Inasmuch as the Love of God is the Great Commandment and the Great Test of Christians and the Love of the World is so contrary to it and exclusive of it it must needs be worthy of the most serious consideration of the most serious Christians rightly to state and know the condition of their own Souls in this matter But it will not be amiss first to take a general Survey of the words of the Apostle John 1 John 2. 15. and in a preliminary manner to gloss upon the several terms in the Text. After that I will consider the World in a Physical and in a Theological Sense And Man in a Moral and Civil Capacity The World consider'd in a Physical Sense will afford but little Matter pertinent to my Design But the World considered in a Theological Sense will comprehend the Things of the World the Persons of the World the Business of the World the Fashions of the World the Wisdom of the World and the God of the World Under the Things of the World I will comprehend the Profits of the World the Pleasures of the World and the Honours of the World Whil'st I consider of the Lovers of the Profits of the World I must meditate of Injustice Worldly Confidence Covetousness Carefulness Discontentedness Impatience and Uncharitableness When I consider of Injustice I must meditate of those that use undue means for worldly advantage and those that use due means in an undue manner Under the first of these will come to be taxt Stealing Defrauding Lying Oppression Bribery Under the second will be taxt all those that ossend in the Degree and in the Season of seeking the World When I come to meditate of the Lovers of the Pleasures of the Wotld I must consider of Fleshly Pleasures unlawful in their Matter in their Measure in their Manner and in their Season And of Fantastical Pleasures under which I must meditate of Revenge Idleness Easefulness And under this last will come to be consider'd Worldly Fear viz. Fear of Sickness Fear of the Death of Friends Fear of Poverty and of Persecution When I come to consider of the Lovers of the Honours of the World it will be proper to meditate of seeking the Approbation of Men of Pride in Birth Pride in Beauty in Apparel in Children in Wit and Learning in Riches in Strength in Priviledges in Power and Great Place in Vertuous Actions and in a Party After the Things of the World will come to be consider'd the Persons of the World And these are either ones Self ones Relations or other Men. Under the first will be consider'd Self-love and the several kinds of it To the last will be reduc'd the foul sin of Flattery When I come to consider of worldly Business it will be proper to distinguish between a Holy Activity and a Sensual Curiosity When I come to meditate of the Fashions of the World I shall have a fit opportunity to meet with the Sin of Swearing When I come to consider of the worldly Wisdom the Apostle St. James will direct me to meditate of it in this Order viz. of the Impure Wisdom the Envious Wisdom the Contentious Wisdom the Implacable Wisdom the Merciless Wisdom the Unfruitful Wisdom the Partial Wisdom and the Hypocritical Wisdom When I come to consider the God of this World I must consider his Servants his Allies and his Children Under the first
cannot give so close shut up that he may not receive shall yet be well accepted of the Father if he can love Christ Jesus has a Yoke indeed but it a Yoke of Government not of Punishment it is not galling to the Necks of his Disciples My Yoke is easie He has a burden too but it is light Christi sarcina pennas habet To love is Cheap it costs nothing Love indeed will grudge no cost will stick at no charge if it be requir'd but there is none requir'd to the exercise of Love she best way in the world for a poor man to be happy as we read the poor Woman was whose whole Inventory amounted but to two Mites and indeed a readier way for the Rich than though they should lavish Gold out of the Bag and make Oblations of Rams by thousands and Oyl by Rivers For what cares the self-sufficient God for these things What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul Deut. 10. 12. To love is pleasant The very acts of Love are pleasent to him that exerts them They had a dismal way of serving their Gods of old time in an extatick frantick manner cum sacro horrore as Baals Priests cutting and slashing themselves or as the Priests of Apollo or Bacehus swelling raging and distracted Lucane I remember somewhere in his Pharsalia describes the Devotion that the Massilians pay'd to certain dreadful deities which they Worshipt in a dark grove so terribly as would make one wish to get as far off from such Deities as possible Nay he tells us that the Priest himself that went to Atone them was afraid of nothing more than lest he should meet one of them lest they should draw night to him in his drawing nigh to them Dominumque timet deprendere luci But love divine love the love of God is serene compos'd and sweet pleasent in its very actings ravishing the Soul that exerts it who takes just so much pains in loving as the Rivers do in running the Wind in blowing or the Sun in shining Good God! How infinitely and astonishingly kind and gracious art thou to the Sons of Men all whose very commands consist with our ease and are calculated for our pleasure Lord what can be more pleasant than to love to love that which is infinitely lovely What can be safer then to trust in Almighty Power What easier sweeter way of living then to cast all our care and lay all our burden upon infinite Wisdom and Goodness What more sweet and cordial than to hope in infinite Mercy and Veracity These Oh these sweet things are the matter of thy Law And Oh thou that hast to mercifully accommodated thy Laws to my pleasure mercifully accommodate my Soul to thy Laws that I may take pleasure in them MEDITAT XIV Of the Excellency and Necessity of the Love of God THe Love of God is Excellent and Honourable it puts a Beauty and Lustre upon the Soul This beautifies dignifies glorifies yea and in a sense deifies the Soul uniting her to God and so making her one with her Maker As Worldly Love dishonours and defiles as he that is joyned to an Harlot is one with an Harlot even a Limb of a Whore and he that is joyned to the World in Spiritual Adultery is a Limb of the World so he that is joyned to Christ is a Member of Christ The Soul acts most nobly exalts it self most bravely when it spends its powers upon the supream good If there be any Apotheosis of Souls this is it The Saints are the most excellent of the Earth and this is the Character of Saints that they love God Love ye the Lord all ye his Saints Of this I shall have occasion to enlarge my Meditations hereafter I will therefore proceed to think a little of the absolute necessity of the Love of God The Love of God is so necessary to the happiness of Souls that no Soul can be happy that hath it not predominant in him The precept makes it necessary which commands it in both Testaments and that over and over again and that as the principal Duty of Man It is a Commandment nay it is a great it is the great Commandment as our Saviours words are translated Matt. 22. 38. Now after all these inculcations can we imagine that God will dispense with this nay with the leave of the Popish Casuists be it spoken he cannot for it is a necessary means of Happiness God himself cannot make a Soul happy that hates him Considering the constitution of the rational Soul it is impossible that any thing should be his happiness below Communion with God Now there can be no Communion no Converse without Love Can a Soul dwell with him for ever and be happy in so doing that does not love him Ye hated me and cast me out says Jephthah Certainly the haters of God do ipsfacto cast themselves out of the presence of God MEDITAT XV. Why called the Love of the Father THe Love of the Father is not in him But why the Love of the Father rather the Love of God This seems to be done on purpose and to be more elegant and emphatical than if he had said the Love of God For it is a great aggravation of this unnatural sin the love of the World Father is an endearing Relation as appears by many Texts but methinks by no one more than that which proceeded from the Mouth of Christ and is now in the Mouth of every Christian Our Father God is fully ouâ— Father yea and Mother too the words both of begetting and bringing forth are ascribed to him of him we are begotten and brought forth Were it not monstrous that a Man should prefer his Horse or his Hounds and the Lives of them before his Father provide for them and let his Father starve More Monstrous it is to prefer the World before God Moreover The Father seems to be put elegantly in opposition to the World As if one should say What love the World more than the Maker of it The Moralist I think it is Cicero some where inveighs against the absurdity of those Men that adore Images and do not rather admire and reverence the skill that made them and the Ingenuity of the Carvers and Painters God is the Father of the World the Father as well as our Father the Father of Light the Marker of all that is pleasant profitable and honourable the Creator of Riches the Fountain of Pleasure and Honour So that to love the World rather than the Father whether he be consider'd as our Father or the Father of the World is lewd and absurd MEDITAT XVI Of Mens Apprehensions concerning the Love of God IF any Man Love the World c. I foresee that after all that I shall meditate upon this Subject the issue will be either that Men will be secure and never mind this thundering expression it
one would give me the large heart of an Angel oh that God would fill up all my capacities and make me yet more capacious oh that he would take up all the room in me and oh that he would make for himself more room in my Soul than yet there is to entertain him And certainly this Predominant Love may be discern'd If I know not what I love best I know nothing Why may I not as well know whether I love God or the World best as I know whether I love bread or husks best By what we constantly choose when things come in competition we may know what we love best But may not the palate of the mind be so alter'd or vitiated as well as that of the body that what I choose at one time I may refuse at an other and prefer its contrary or disparate Yes certainly In every single wilful deliberate Act of Covetousnes or Impatience worldly love does predominate pro hic nunc But it will not denominate the man a lover of the world except it be habitual MEDITAT XX. Of Habitual love THe love that is so predominant as to denominate must be Habitual But may not an habitual lover of the World be converted into an habitual lover of God Yes sure This is the conversion that the Gospel speaks of To turn men from Idols to the acknowledgment of the true God is not a saving conversion To turn them from the commission or love of some single sin of the flesh as Drunkenness Whoring Swearing is a partial but not a saving Conversion The great and saving Conversion lies in changing the Temper the Nature and introducing Divine Habits The habit of worldly love may be destroyed and is destroy'd in all sincere Converts The habit of Divine love may be interrupted in its Acts weakened in its Vigor but shall not be quite destroy'd We read of some indeed that they had left their love Rev. 2. 4. But it does not appear that they had quite lost it or if we will say that they had lost it yet it was not it but some degrees of it that they lost not their love but their first love or some degrees of that love which they had at first I know not what should hinder but that every truly regenerate and habitual lover of God may make the same challenge as the Apostle did What shall sepaparate us from the love of God If it be said that the love of God towards his Elect is immutable and indefectible but so is not theirs towards him One may well reply that consequently the love of the Elect is lasting everlasting too If it be true that whom God loves he loves to the end and that he loves none with this peculiar love but those who love him it will fairly follow that their love is endless too MEDITAT XXI Lovers of the World willing to be deceiv'd ANd now methinks I see the secure world stand unconcern'd every one blessing himself Oh I am not this accursed lover of the world I do indeed now and then prefer the world my gain my pleasure my reputation before God and the observation of the dictates of my own Conscience as I perceive all men do but I do not make a constant custom of it I have no habit of it But hark a while though it be but in one single Act that thou preferrest the World before God or in a sin committed now and then yet glory not account it not a light thing It is something sure and indeed enough to humble and amaze all Men upon Earth to be now and then guilty of such folly and filthiness such Blasphemy Unrighteousness and Idolatry as this is to be but once guilty of preferring the Devil before God But examine Oh look inwardly Do not these acts proceed from an habit these sprouts from a root we had need to search narrowly and examine strictly for if we be mistaken here we are mistaken indeed fatally everlastingly mistaken The worldly mind generally denies and palliats its worldliness Men are generally asham'd to be call'd worldly minded men and very loath to believe themselves to be such notwithstanding which it is most certain that there are many such so that somewhere there will be found a deadly damning mistake MEDITAT XXII The Lovers of God most sensible of their Worldliness ON the other hand the heavenly mind the habitual lover of the Father is most sensible of and complains most of his own worldliness Lord How little do I discern this Disease or lay it to Heart in my self How little do I mourn over it in others where it is apparently praedominant notwithstanding it is so deadly If I be not a predominant lover of the Word yet alass in how many single acts have I given preference to it every one of which was horrible disloyalty and treachery Alas How early how earnestly how eagerly have I pursued the World in my Thoughts in a whole train of Thoughts from morning to evening How unseasonably too has it put it self into my Meditations how boldly intruded into my Devotions how sawcily thrust in it self to interrupt my communion with Heaven with an impudence and importunity exceeding an Harlots Fore-head Wo be to me if thinking more if speaking oftner of this World than of God be a certain mark of a predominant lover of the World who then could be saved Yet when I consider that where the treasure is the Heart will be also and again that out of the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh how can I chose but be asham'd and afraid Lord deliver me from looseness of Spirit from earthliness of Mind from meanness and ordinariness of Temper and Conversation Oh wind up my Heart to Heaven let my Converse be there and with thee Imploy my Mind in contriving my Soul in exerting acts of Love fill my Mouth with thy Praises and let Holiness to the Lord be written upon all my Actions and Enjoyments Oh how are the mighty fallen the high sunk down into a most mean and miserable condition How is the Gold become dim How shamefully does the noble Humane Nature embrace a Dung-hill and the Souls that came out of the blessed Creators hands purer than Snow have contracted a Visage blacker than a Cole Good God I believe Oh help my unbelief I love thee Oh pardon my want my weakness of love and shed abroad thy love in and quite over my dry and parched Soul Rather take from me whatever takes any part of my Heart from thee thâ—â— that I should be a partial an imperfect an unsincere lover of God! MEDITAT XXIII Notwithstanding Mens Self-deceivings there are many Lovers of the World ANd because no Man will confess himself to be a Lover of the World are there therefore none such Has the Apostle suppos'd an Impossibility or a Non Entity when he says If any Man love the World c. or are Men therefore not of the World because they say they
enjoy the Supreme Good Now this I think supposes a quitting of this Life and a putting off this Body This Thirst after Happiness is often made a character of the Lovers of God and of his Son Jesus Christ desir'd that where he was his followers might be also and why should not his Followers be so kind to themselves If we view those Texts seriously which describe the Lovers of God we shall find this ever and anon to be their character That they love the appearance of Christ Jesus and that they wait for the mercy of Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life But is it not a sin to be discontent at our stay in this world To be discontent at the Will of God must needs be evil for true happiness consists in conformity of will to the Will of God But to long after rest and that in God cannot be interpreted to be an intemperate Act. It is an Act of Faith and Patience to be content to live To desire death out of weariness of afflictions and the Discipline of God is weak and cowardly But to be weary of our distance absence imperfect state and to long after Perfection and daily to grow up into it is safe good proper generous and commendable O God loosen my heart break the League I pray if I may not pray that thou wouldst break the Bonds If I may not leap out of the body make me very desirous to go out when the way is open If my captive Soul may not break Prison and free it self yet make it willing to go out when the great Redeemer shall open the Prison doors and say to the Captive Go forth Is it not enough O my Soul to have the Prison doors set ope but wilt thou say also Nay but let them come themselves and fetch me out What entertainment findest thou in husks that thou art so unmindful of the Bread of Life What an unseemly thing is it to be haled home to hide thy self with Saul amongst the stuff when thou art sought for to be crowned Lord That I could wait for thee more than they that wait for the morning more than the servant desireth the shadow or the hireling looketh for the reward of his work Oh that I might never think my self well but when I am sick sick of love MEDITAT XXX Of the Profits of the World NOW I will consider the World in a Theological sense and thus it denotes any thing that has opposition to God And so we read of the Spirit of the World the Wisdom of the World the Men of the World the Fashions of the World the Sorrow of the World c. The World in general is whatsoever is not God and so even Self may be called the World Whosoever loveth any thing or cleaves to it more than to God or habitually prefers it before him is a lover of the world But I will view more particularly what the Scripture comprehends under the Notion of the World in a Theological Sense And here I shall begin with the profits of the world the riches and treasures of it which have almost engrost the name of the world as being a principal part of it to which the generality of men are addicted This I take especially to be meant by Mammon which one cannot serve in consistency with God Whosoever prefers the profits and riches of the world before God the same is a lover of the World To speak my judgment freely I think there are many things more valuable than silver and gold Learning and Valour are better all the ornaments and accomplishments of the Mind are better than they friends are better health and peace are better It is a wonder to me that men should lose their peace forfeit their friends expose their health for these things Although I confess it is not Idolatry because these things are not God yet it is absurd unseemly and disingenious to prefer riches before these things because these are really better To say I had rather be a Prince than a Philosopher argues a low mind But to value these riches more than God more than truth goodness and purity makes an idolatrous lover of the World To seek these more then the Kingdom of God to hunger after them more than after righteousness to confide in them more than in the Promise and Providence of God doth denominate the accursed person here spoken of MEDITAT XXXI Of Stealing UNder this head of the love of the profits of the world come to be condemned Injustice Worldly confidence Covetousness Carefulness Discontentedness and Vncharitableness and the several Branches of these I begin with Injustice They are all unjust who either use undue means or a due means in an undue manner to get worldly advantage and therein are lovers of the World more than of God The first sort of Injustice is in the use of undue means And so Stealing Defrauding Lying Oppressing Bribery are a preferring the world before Righteousnesse Truth and Mercy and Consequently denominate a lover of the World more than of God According to this Method I must begin with Stealing God is righteous the righteous Lord loveth righteousness whosover therefore loves not it loves not him whosoever Steals prefers the World before it and consequently does not love it Sealing is a violation of property Let property be what it will in its own nature be it not a sacred thing be it a necessary evil or be it a good not simply necessary yet it is now necessary as things go with mankind It cannot well be deny'd Theft supposes property and property supposes Apostasie If Man had continued in his Primative Estate it is likely the Earth had been as free to his innocent Off-spring as the Air is at this day At first there was no enclosure but of one poor Tree neither shall there be any in the World to come though we should grant the Doctrine of the Saints Reigning upon the Earth In utmost extremity to violate property for the preservation of life is no theft or at least that theft is no sin yea it becomes a duty For no man can be necessarily placed between two evils The one of them will be a duty Since the fall of Man Property is necessary to avoid confusion which the lusts of men would introduce yet perhaps it is not so determinate and severe as some men imagine The poor have an interest in the Estates of the rich they have a part which yet these ought to give not the other to take If they do not give it they are the thieves For detaining a right is thievery as well as taking any thing away wrongfully I cannot deny but that every thief is covetous but I do also affirm that every covetous man is a thief If we could suppose the sons of Men free from all self-interest and worldly love there would be no need of property neither would there be any poor for there is enough in the World to serve all men that
after his own Image or God who made him poor for even Poverty it self may be called the Gift of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he should say Shall he be reproached or wronged whom the Master of the Family has employ'd in the meanest Offices of the Family It is not the Servants Fault that he is so mean if any man reproaches he reproaches not so much him as his Master The Foot cannot help it that it is not the Head Most Men are poor of God's making but if any make themselves poor it is not for any Man to oppress them nor for every Man to reproach them neither For Reproach is a sort of punishment which every Man may not inflict There are several sorts of Oppression in Goods in Money as they that detain the hire of the Labourer in racking of Rents in selling making Men pay the more for their Necessity in Rights in Liberty c. some of which I shall have occasion to meditate of hereafter and therefore will dismiss them at present MEDITAT XXXV Of Bribery THey that take Gifts to pervert Justice or favor any Cause in Judgment are Lovers of the World for they prefer it before Truth and Righteousness I do not think that every Present is a Bribe but I think it is safest for a Minister of Justice not to take Gifts at all lest he should be corrupted There is certainly a wonderful power in Gifts to blind the eyes even of the wise Exod. 23. 8. Every man saith the wise man is a Friend to him that giveth Gifts which argues the great interest that wâ—rrldly profit hath in the heart of man and consequently how hard and noble a thing it is to be purged of worldly Love Giving is indeed Noble Beatius est dare quam accipere Giving to the Poor is a God-like Act but either to give or receive Gifts for the perverting of Justice is abominable Bribery in this respect is generally a greater sin than stealing in that stealing is mostly committed by men that have need and Bribery commonly by them that have none The lesser the Temptation the greater the sin Bribery may be committed in many things besides money the Bottle and the Bag do speak as corrupt Language as the Purse And there are many kinds of indirect Bribery per alium as bad as that which is direct and per se There is a kind of Bribery in Ecclesiasticks that hunt after popular acceptance and Chaplains that preach pleasing things or stifle Doctrines that they know will be unpleasing however edifying to gain Preferment which if the Law would allow the Exposition might perhaps more properly be called Simony than Bribery Yea there is a strange kind of blasphemous Bribery that men use towards God I doubt the greatest part of worship in the world is intentional Bribery Some go about to bribe God with their Prayers and Fastings and Forms of Devotion some with their Alms and Acts of Charity as they of old did with their Oblations and Sacrifices of whom the Satyrist speaks wittily Illorum lachrymae mentitaque munera praestant Ut veniam culpis non abnuat ansere magno Scilicet tenui Papano corruptus Osiris Nay it is to be feared that however precious a Doctrine Faith is there are many that under the Notion of believing do indeed go about to bribe the Justice of God with the Righteousness of Christ as indeed all those do who lay great stress upon the Righteousness of Christ and themselves take no care to be Righteous Although our Apostle hath so plainly told us That he that worketh righteousness is righteous There is also a great deal of Political Bribery in the world when Councellors Senators or other Trustees betray that Sacred thing their Trust for money or moneys worth Perhaps some of this will fall in when I come to consider Man in his Political Capacity if it should not I know it is easie for any man to enlarge upon it in his own Meditations MEDITAT XXXVI Of thâ—se that offend in the undue degree of seeking Riches UNder the Notion of Unjust are comprehended not only those that use undue means but also they that use due means in an undue manner to get worldly Riches and these are equally Lovers of the world These are of two sorts either such as offend in the degree or such as offend in the season of seeking the world They offend in the degree who although they follow Merchandize or Trades in themselves lawful yet pursue them so ardently so eagerly with so much intenseness of mind which is an excess of diligence as idleness is a defect of it that they plainly appear to make the world their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and other things their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world their God and the things of God a by-business They invert our Savours divine counsel and seek first the world which is the alia spoken of in Mat. 11. or rather aliena to the Soul but as for the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness they are very indifferent They work out their livelihoods with more fear and trembling than their salvation give all diligence to make their callings and the effects of them sure but little or none to make their calling and election sure They pull and hale the World as with Cartropes they rise up early sit up late eat their bread in carefulness waste their strength spend their age in toil and sorrow perhaps shorten their days with immoderate labour and will be found at last to be felo de se For a man may be a Murderer as well by employing his hands too violently for himself as by laying violent hands upon himself They are resolv'd to secure their worldly interest but they will trust God with their souls as if they hoped those would fare well enough in course To trust God with our souls is good but to pretend to do it and in the mean time to neglect them our selves is a prophane kind of Faith Men do not thus trust him with their Bodies or Estates The Faith that rightly trusts does also love and work and work by Love MEDITAT XXXVII Of those that offend in the undue season of seeking the World THey offend in the season of seeking the world who follow their worldly Employments in any season that ought to be devoted to the service of God by his special command Concerning the special season of Prayer we have nothing certain that I know of though it is most proper and seemly to begin every day with God most reasonable that the devout ejaculation of Thanksgiving or Supplication should take place of worldly Cares and Contrivances and should keep house in the soul at night when they are all dismist A Dog is a mans servant which he turns out of doors at night when he takes his children to bed with him the Dog may not enter in in the morning without leave till the door be opened for him whereas
Will descend a little lower to consider of Worldly Carefulness This is directly contrary to Faith in the Promises and Providence of God and so is a preferring of the World before him It proceeds from a distrust of God's Providence which distrust is very sinful and dishonourable nay it is as if one should refuse to take God's Word for sufficient security However light men make of it and however small a fault the Worldling represents it to himself sure I am our Saviour links it with Gluttony and Drunkenness and seems to make it as bad a fault and as dangerous as they Luke 21. 34. Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting or drunkenness or cares of this life c. It argues a want of ingenuous affiance in God and is perplexing to the mind hindring converse with God which is the highest perfection and the greatest happiness of the Souls of men What can I say worse of it than that it is unseemly uneasie unsafe and unprofitable For after all our Cares all Events depend upon God and all humane Solicitude cannot state or six one Event nor make the least change in the course of things not one hair white or black I do not remember that ever I heard Christ Jesus more industrious in arguing against any thing than against this worldly Carefulness Mat. 6. Read the Gospel throughout and I do not think you will find him to have set himself more against any sin than this Our heavenly Father is very gracious in offering his help for our relief against this Carefulness The Curse be upon me said Rebekah to her son Jacob. Kind mother Such is the kindness of our Father Cast your care upon me It is an easie and pleasant thing to depend upon another to trust to Almighty Goodness in comparison of what careful carking is Diligence is not this Carefulness Care is not so much forbidden us as Carefulness This solicitousness about the World is known to be sinful by the unseasonableness of it the immoderateness of it when men take more care and beat their brains much more about the things of the Body than of the Soul of Time than of Eternity Lord make me to understand the value of my Soul and the danger that it is in that my thoughts and cares may be mainly bestow'd about the preservation of it Let me see the particular Providence of God which reaches even to every Sparrow and single hair of my head and to believe all his gracious Promises so as not to be any more solicitous about this world MEDITAT XLII Of Discontentedness DIscontent is the Souls Tumultuation or Mutiny In Civil Affairs Mutiny is accounted a degree of Treason and it is no less in Spirituals A restlesness and unsatisfiedness of mind with our present condition is a preferring of our own wills or our own ease and accommedation before the Will of God This I distinguish from Impatience in that Impatience always supposes Evils but Discontent may be in plentiful and good condition When this Discontent is predominant it argues a worldly temper a Soul too much affected towards worldly things and an unsubduedness to the Will of God it argues I say Pride and Unbelief It is plainly our Duty to be content with such things as we have What then may some one say May we not pray to be deliver'd out of Affliction out of Prison Debt or Disease This Objection belongs to the Head of Impatience whither I refer it But may not a man pray and sâ—â—k though he have enough to have mere to be still richer and richer Answ In general it is an admirable temper to seek rather nothing If we have enough we ought not to desire more for by the same Rule we may desire still more than that and yet more and no measure will be put to our desires But it will be asked What is enough Which is a very hard Question to answer It is not thesame to all yet there is such a quantum as enough in the World To the Apostle Paul Food and Raiment were enough 1 Tim. 6. 8. To Jacob Bread to to eat and Raiment to put on were enough Gen. 28. 20. A little is enough if we reckon right if we reckon wrong nothing is Natura paucis contenta was the old saying Nature is content with few things and sure Grace desires no more Let us contemplate the Holy Jesus and consider what he accounted enough It is most certain that he might have had more therefore his was no contentment upon force so far as can be gather'd from his story a small pittance in the World was enough to him I know it may be reply'd Christ had no Children to provide for I answer That he had a great deal of Kindred whom to make great We are told in the History of Nepotismo That those that pretend to great Holiness are much given to board for their Nephews though they have no Children Suppose we have Children If we know what is truly enough for our selves we may know what is enough for them Will it certainly be the better for them to be left Rich I am sure it proves worst to many a Fuel to Vice and that is worst Poor means Children commonly prove the best not only the best Men but the best Scholars the best Artists To marry Children richly is not the way to make them better but prouder and idler The best provision for Children is Education the best matching them is the uniting of their Souls to God But what shall we say to those that covet for they know not whom that have neither Child nor Brother yet are not satisfi'd with riches Eccles 4. 8. If this be not rank vanity I know not what is But still it will be pretended We desire more onely to have to give away and to do good with This I doubt is but a pretence and a meer fallacy Has any man indeed so great a desire to do good that he will load himself with certain Accompts for the uncertain thing of doing good venture upon temptations and snares endanger his Soul to do good This were a fervent Lover of God indeed But who will shew him me Lord convince me of the wisdom of the Divine Will that cares for all men most conveniently let my Soul be so master'd with the sense of it that I may rather nothing Mortifie in me all proud preferring of my own will and wisdom before thine Suffer me not to allow my self in any Discontent but a holy weariness of my distance from thee and a holy restlesness in my motions towards my Centre Amen Amen MEDITAT XLIII Of Immoderate Mourning or Impatience IMmoderate Sorrow for the want or loss of worldly things springs from an intemperate love of the World It is certainly a preferring of worldly things before the Will and Wisdom of God Here by we contradict it resist it we would destroy it if we could and set up our own wills
Beauty THat Pride in Beauty does denominate a Lover of the World I suppose no Body will deny But the great Inquiry will be Who they are that are proud of it I will venture to answer Negatively Not they that pray for perfect healthful comely Children Nor they that esteem a comely proportion and just symmetry of parts an ornament and a blessing of God Nor they that endeavour moderately and justly to rectifie Deformities to preserve Beauty or to improve it But to speak Affirmatively All that prefer Beauty before Vertue Modesty Chastity and esteem it higher than these either in themselves or others are Lovers of the World Those that prefer it in themselves are such as seek the beautifying adorning and recommending of the Body more than the adorning of the mind with vertue or the life with good manners Such as use undue means to recommend Beauty either too costly or too garish or spend excessive time in setting it off more than in dressing the inward man Such as set off Beauty for sinful and carnaâ— Ends to dazle unwary eyes and captivate wanton minds as Tradesmen keep a gloss upon their Goods the better to expose them to Sale And what do many fair Ladies do but play the Whores with themselves and commit Uncleanness with their own Faces who stand gazing from hour to hour in their Glasses and cannot be got from them no more than Ovid's Narcissus from the Fountain Those that prefer it in others are such as esteem a fair Woman before a discreet an handsom before an honest The fairest Souls do not always inhabit the finest Bodies Ingenium Galbae male habitabat The best Guests are not always lodg'd in the best Rooms What a deform'd lustful murderous ambitious rebellious Soul dwelt in that Body of Absalom in which there was no blemish Beauty is very dangerous and a great snare Rara est concordia formae atque pudicitiae It 's hard to be fair and chaste Be sure it is fading it needs nothing but it s very Being to destroy it Dâ—m contemplamur corrumpimus whil'â—t we dote upon it we destroy it Vain Mortal Would'st thou contemplate thy Beauty to the best advantage Go then look thy face in the next fair Rose or Tulep or Lilly that thou meetest with Those will best represent thee Such Flowers which in the morning gâ—â— and fine Rise with the Sun and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heads But Nâ—â—â—â—nce past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon their Beds And tow'â—â—â—he Earth their Grave with him at Night decline And oh Where is that beautiful Woman to be found that values her self more by her Faith than by her Face by her good Manners more than by her good Features who sometimes views her self in her Glass but always in God who is unspotted Beauty who stands in awe of every thing that may defile her Soul more than of the Small Pox or a Leprosie who although this Body in its complexion and features be more lovely than her Neighbors yet despises it in comparison of the more glorious Body and desires to put off this to put on that Poor Lucretia abhor'd her own Beauty and Life too when her Chastity was violated But how many Ladies have we that therefore especially prize their Beauty because it qualifies them the more to be unchaste MEDITAT LXVI Of Pride in Apparel FRom the body I descend to the cloths By which to value ones self is the meanest and most paltry sort of Pride that can be He that values himself by his Body values himself by something that is part of himself but he that values himself by his Cloths values himself by a mean thing that is perfectly extrinsick to him and nothing at all a kin to him But the enquiry is What is this Pride in Apparrel Negatively It is not to wear good Cloths nor handsome ones nor fashionable ones nor costly ones suitable to ones quality and estate Nor is it to be careful of them to preserve them from spoyl Nor is it to express the extraordinary festivity of our minds by extraordinary Apparel But it is Pride in Apparel To prefer Apparel before Health and Modesty as naked necks and breasts do Though indeed I kâ—â—â— not well whether to call this Pride in Apparrel â—r in the want of it To prefer Apparrel before Charity and the clothing of thâ—â—â—ked is an undue valuation of it To vaâ—â—â— our selves by our Appaâ—â—â— to fancy our selves the better man for it or â—â— design that others should to reckon of us as it 〈◊〉 Herod did and Haman did is gross Pride in Apâ—â—â—â—el Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King â—â—â—ghteth to honour A proud â—ool Is â—here so much honour in a â—â—it of fine Cloths He might have thoâ—ght of twenty more regardable pieces of honour than that But there may be as great a piece of pride as any of these in an affected plainness and meanness and unfashionableness of Apparel To design that men should estimate our humility by this is as proud a part as the Pharisees desiring to recommend their worth and learning by their long robes To put on plain cloth instead of humility is deceitful a bad exchange somewhat like an image with a pillow of goats hair instead of David Men may go in Sheeps clothing plain and homely and yet be inwardly as proud as Peacocks This seems to be a worse pride than the former because it adds hypocrisy What wise or good man can value himself by that wherein many Rogues and Whores yea and Heathen yea and Birds and Beasts and Flowers do match and excel him To make gay Apparel stand instead of true nobleness and braveness of mind or homely Apparel instead of true humility of mind is a proud superstition only beseeming worldly minds A deceitful kind of Metonymy in manners putting the sign for the thing signifi'd To affect bravery in Apparel for the recommendation of beauty or ostentation of riches is a mean and oftentimes a deceitful policy Plain beauties are the loveliest to uncorrupted eyes and excessive finery serves rather to make people poor than to prove them rich Lord what a wicked thing is man to make his shame his glory to make that his pride which ought to serve for his humilitation to make that fewel for his lust which was at first a punnishment for his lusting MEDITAT LXVII Of Pride in Children TO glory in Children or prefer them before God before the Image of God in them or the Will of God in removing them is worldly To glory in their Persons Parts or Number more than in their Vertuous qualifications or Dutiful behaviour What a wicked woman was that who was content her Son should be a Murderer so he might be an Emperor ocâ—â—dat modo imperet To glory in the propagation and perpetuation of our Names by Children is foolish and unreasonable Vertue gives a better Name than Posterity and to the Vertuous God will give a Name better than of Sons and of Daughters Isa
there no plausibler Pretence than Fashion Yes some think they come off better that impute it to Passion They were angry they were affronted abused they could not be believed In short such and such things would make any man mad and who could forbear Swearing Alas what miserable shifts are these to confess madness for the excuse of folly to take Sanctuary in Scylla to escape Carybdis Shall violent passions be brought to excuse swearing when themselves cannot be excus'd If it be a sin to swear is it not a greater â—o swear in a mad mood To be at all possest with a Devil of Passion is sad and grievous though it be a dumb Devil But if it be such a Devil as we read of Luk. 9. that makes a man cry out and foame again it is much more dreadful Or shall we say that sin is lessened by being multiply'd after the manner of a River cut into many Channels A River so cut will indeed be the less River but it will have never the less water if you take it in all the Channels If swearing in a mad mood and violent passion be the less sin because of the passion yet that part of the sin which is wanting in the Oath will be found in the Passion Some excuse the matter by the seldomness of it Now and then they rap out an Oath but it is out of forgetfulness and unawares yea possibly they wipe their mouths with a God forgive me that I should swear This indeed will excuse a tanto the seldomer the better But Christ Jesus commands Swear not at all which refers to time as well as things This nowand-then-swearing is an argument of a mind forgetful of God which is a Character bad enough Allow our selves in this and it will soon multiply I wonder men should excuse themselves in this sin by the infrequency of it more than in others No body says I steal but an Horse or two in a Year I play the Whore or the Whoremaster but twice or thrice a week yet one would think there were more temptations to either of those than to Swearing How many soever the faults of good men are yet I suppose it is a very rare thing to find a Godly swearer a man of true Seriousness and hearty Religion That will adventure by this Method to vent his Passion adorn his Discourse or humour the Company If by Seldom be meant that we never swear but solemnly in a weighty matter and such an one too as cannot otherwise be known or will not be believ'd accompany'd with a just reverence of God such as we read of sometimes in the History of Abraham Jacob David and in the Writings of St. Paul let such swearing pass for a part of Gods Worship But rash and unnecessary swearing though it be never so seldom proceeds from the Devil says our Saviour and leads to him says his Apostle Jam. 5. 12. and therefore I may safely say is a prefering of the World before God If it be by the Creator it is blasphemous if by the Creature idolatrous This puts me in mind of another excuse for swearing they only swear some petty Oath no blasphemy no bloody Oaths as they call them But I hope these petty Oaths are more than yea or nay and if so they are forbidden in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swear not at all Nay that prohibition seems to be meant principally of swearing by the Creature as appears by what follows in the Text. To attest a Creature as if it knew our hearts or were able to judge us is ridiculous idolatry To swear by the Creature is to take Gods Name in vain for it is a manifest abusing of his works The Blessed Virgin was an excellent piece of Divine Handy-work but she was not made to swear by This is an Honour hatt she never dream'd of when she Prophesy'd that all Generations should call her Blessed All our Divines I think agree that Swearing is an Act of Worship How strangely then do Protestants contradict themselves that deny the worshiping of Saints and yet swear ordinarily by the Lady and yet more Nonsensically than so too when they swear by the Mass which yet they deny to be The Example of David and others saying As thy Soul liveth will not justifie The best Expositors say it is no more than As sure as thou livest Nay Estius and other learned Commentators say That Joseph's life of Pharaoh for so the words are in the Hebrew are but a vehement obâ—estation others make them a Prayer and those that make them an Oath blame him for it Sure I am the Example of Joseph will not so much justifie as the express Prohibition of Jesus will condemn And what a weight does the Apostle James lay upon this He ushers it with an Above all things my Brethren and backs it with the greatest argument danger of damnation Jam. 5. 12. God grant me to live under the authority of thy holy Word Lord charge it severely upon my heart and the hearts of all men frequently and affectionately to consider such passages of thy holy Word as these are Whatsoever is more than Yea and Nay cometh of evil Swear not â—est ye fall into condemnation for every idle word men must give account By thy words thou shalt be justify'd and by thy words thou shalt be condemned If any man bridle his tongue the same is a perfect man MEDITAT LXXXIII Of Worldly Wisdom in general AMongst other things of the World the Scripture also makes mention of worldly Wisdom This is so corrupt a thing that it is put in opposition to the Grace of God by the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 1. 12. and in the same place to simplicity and godly sincerity It is described by the Apostle James to be Earthly and Sensual and is said to be accompany'd with envyings and strivings of heart We may more fully see what it is by its opposite the Wisdom that is from above this is pure peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without hypocrisie and partiality So then the worldly Wisdom is envious contentious cruel unmerciful unfruitful hypocritical and partial and the worldly-wise-man is a hater of God This worldly-wise-man is not one that understands the World and knows the guise of it though he know it so well that a Creeple is not able to halt before him He is not one that understands the business of the World the best Markets and Bargains the most advantageous way of Trading the best seasons of Buying and Selling and getting Gain He is not one that is subtile in counsel and knows how to antevert suppress over-reach an Enemy so wise was Hushai the Friend of David the Friend of God But in general he is wise to do evil as the Devil is to advance the interest of the World and the Flesh above the Interest of God above Justice Truth Charity Peace Purity and is more particularly described by the Apostle Paul and St.
confesses Luke 3. 23. The preaching of the Gospel is call'd foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 2. only because it was so in the judgment of the wise men of the world We read of Clouds without water and wandring Stars Jude 12 13. whereas Philosophers will not yield that those are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but say they are meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor properly Stars but inflammations of the dry Air extended resembling falling Stars Ivory is often called the Elephant's Tooth wherein Varro saith The Scripture accommodateth it self to the Vulgar Opinion affirming that they are Horns having their root in the temples of the Beasts and bending down thorow the upper Jaw rise again and so resemble Teeth It is evident that Ivory is softned by Fire which does not agree to Teeth but Horn. The Text seems elsewhere to speak out Ezek. 27. 15. and calls them the Horns of Ivory It is said Mark 6. 48. that Christ would have passed by the poor distrested Disciples when he only seemed as though he would Paul's Shipmen deemed that some Countrey drew near to them Acts 27. 27. that is indeed that they drew near to some Countrey spoken according to appearance like that of the Poet Provehimur porta terraeque urbosque recedunt They come from the end of Heaven says the Prophet Isa 13. 5. A Speech borrow'd from the opinion of the Vulgar who following the judgment of their Eyes think that the Heavens are but Hemispherical and do end at the utmost parts of the Earth upon which the extremities of Heaven seem to them to rest With Allusion to which Vulgar Opinion how false soever the Mountains are said to be the Foundations of the Heavens 2 Sam. 22. 8. and the Pillars of Heavek Job 26. 11. Because it seems as if the Heavens rested upon them as upon Foundations or Pillars But to return from this Digression The Devil is the God of this Warld and all his Followers are worldly men These for Method sake I will briefly meditate of under three Ranks viz. the Servants the Children and the Confederates of the Devil By Servants of the Devil I mean Idolaters that serve dumb Idols as they are led and know not the living God By his Children I mean all that imitate him and are of his wicked nature though they be not Idolaters By his Allies I mean such as are in a formal Covenant with him who consult his pleasure and act by his power and skill To the first he is a kind of High Priest by whom they expect Reconciliation and Atonement to the second a King and to the third a Prophet so he is the Prophet Priest and King of worldly men MEDITAT XCIV Of Idolatry THat the Servants of the God of this World are worldly men will not be doubted by any but possibly it will be doubted who are his Servants All wicked men that love 〈◊〉 work the Works of darkness and uncleanâ—â—css 〈◊〉 â—ndeed his Servants but they are in Scripture also call'd his Children therefore I shall refer that general consideration of them to that Head More especially Idolatry is the service of the Devil and Idolaters are his Servants It is most generally supposed that the Apostasie and Ruine of the Devils was their aspiring to be as God And the highest pitch of Pride is described by this This was the Satanical suggestion that prevail'd with Eve to eat the forbidden Fruit Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Though the Devil mist of it then and miscarry'd fouly in his attempt yet such is the pride of his Nature and his Envy and Malignity against God that still it is his desire to be taken for a God He has prevail'd with many so to be esteemed and worship'd if not for Love yet for Fear as they report of the Indians that worship him Ne noceat lest he should do them a mischief He has put off himself to some as a great Benefactor to Mankind and so has obtain'd a reverential Worship The Devil at Delphos had obtain'd so much Reputation as that the People generally consulted him about future Contingencies which is a Divine Honour and Sacrifice to him there and elsewhere It was the Pride of the Devil that suggested to the Philosophers a twofold eternal Principle Boni Mali to make himself an Anti-Deity rather to be the God of Mischief than no God at all And from the same proud Nature it was that he directed all the ancient Heathens to feign a God of Hell as well as of Heaven a Pluto as well as a Jupiter Whether it was his Pride or Malice that put him upon tempting Christ to fall down and worship him I cannot tell but certainly he must needs have an high opinion of himself that durst make such a bold motion to the Son of God Yea 〈◊〉 him to be such a Fool as not to know him to be the Son of God it must needs argue a proud conceit of himself to suggest such a thing to any Son of man that was in his right wits It must be confest this is the grossest sort of Idolatry and possibly some will deny that it is posible that any should be so gross as to commit it But the Apostle puts it out of doubt saying The things that the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devilâ— not to God There are indeed other sorts of Idolatry more common when men worship the Sun and Moon for Gods or intentionally and yet remotely worship the true God by the medium of Images made with hands To think these Images are Gods is exceeding gross And yet it should seem by the Prophet Isaiah as if some were so gross as to esteem them so But suppose they only fansie that these Images are only inhabited by some special presence of the Deity still it is Idolatry and an interpretative worshiping of the Devil for it is a service that God has forbidden and the Devil invented Nay suppose these Images to be only Monitory and to be of no further use than to put in mind of God or to excite Devotion yet how can it escape the Brand of Idolatrous will-Will-worship For who has required this at mens hands Yea who knoweth not That God hath flatly forbidden the worshiping of him by the likeness of any thing in Heaven or Earth or under the Earth This I suppose was the Case of the Golden Calves which no one ever imagin'd to resemble the Deity nor to be inspired or inhabited by them only they served to put in mind of God and excite Devotion And yet this Mcscholatrye was cursed and abhorred of God and so were all those that were addicted to it And art thou so gross O my Soul and so sunk into matter that thou canst not see God except thou look out at the eyes of the Body Canst thou not direct thy Devotions to the invisible God except thou fix thy corporeal sight upon matter Be asham'd O Noble Spirit of the imputation of such grossness and
weakness and be afraid of such boldness lest the jealous God should interpret that damnable Idolatry which possibly thou art not convinc'd of but yet hast a suspicion of and at best hast no need of Canst thou not as well worship and pray to the invisible God without the help of a monitory Image as love and delight in thy absent Friend without the assistance of his Picture or a Present How dost thou think to see and serve God shortly when thy bodily eyes shall be full of dust and all corporeal Organs so utterly out of Tune that thou shalt not be able to make use of any of them Do that now which thou must do then And if there be any need of any Monitor of any visible help to Devotion inasmuch as in this complex state I find my Soul to be much assisted by my Senses or at least that it does desire and depend upon their help and direction Lord from what Object should I rather look for Direction and Admonition than from those that do most clearly represent thy infinite Power and Wisdom The things that thou hast made do more clearly demonstrate the invisible things of thee even thy Eternal Power and Godhead than all makements of mortal men can do Shall I that have the Heavens above me the Seas round about me and the Earth under my Feet need any humane Figment to represent thee to me or me admonish me of thy Divine Perfections If I must have have an Image Is not this glorious beautiful World a more excellent a more lively one than any thing that man can make of Gold that is one of the meanest things in it That very light yea if it be but the light of a Candle whereby I may see my monitory Image has more in it to admonish me of my God and direct me to him than the Image that I see by it Lord Help me devoutly and seriously to observe and contemplate the operation of thy hands to regard the footsteps of thy Power Wisdom and Goodness in the whole Creation to rise up by every thing that I see and hear and taste to the meditation and love of thy Name and by all these to excite my self to a dependance upon thy Power and Goodness And then I shall find no need of Admonition Direction or Excitation from any workmanship of man the finest of which is not nigh so regardable or worshipful as the skill of the Mechanist that made it MEDITAT XCV Of Formal Witchcraft THE second sort of the Devils Followers are his Allies that are in Covenant with him either Formal or Implicite It is credibly reported to us by those that have heard the Confeâ—â—â—ons of Witches that there are some who have so perfectly put off Humane Nature that they have entred into a Covenant with the Devil a League with Hell so as to profess to pâ—t their Trust in the Devil to be obedient to him to depend upon him for assistance to pray unto him to 〈◊〉 him in all difficulties And for Ratification of this Covenant they have signed Articles written with their own blood or given him a kind of possession of themselves by yielding themselves to be Nurses to the impure Spirits And yet these are professed Christians And others that have been so great with the Devil as to entertain him for their Bedfellow these impure Spirits in their assumed Bodies dallying with Mortals both as Incubi and Succubae I will not stand to question the Generation of those Heroes that are ascribed to Jupiter Apollo and the rest of them This if any thing is as the ancient Philosophy speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And men are disposed and prepared thereunto by that spiritual acquaintance and converse which they have with the Devil by the lusts of Pride Covetousness Envy and Revengefulness We read of some that have been so transported with Pride that they have entred into a formal Covenant with the Devil to be eminently instructed in some Art or indu'd with something that they accounted a great accomplishment And it is not to be doubted but that he is a great Scholar and has a singular Faculty in communicating Others have been so mad of the World that they have devoted themselves to the God of this World to be enriched by him And no doubt of it he is as good as it as any Mercury or Hercules of old was supposed to be both in recovering for them the things that they had lost or causing them to find things lost or hidden by others Oâ—hers to gratifie their Envy and Revengefulness have confest that they have bargain'd with the great 〈◊〉 or Aâ—ollyon who has accordingly when the righteous Governor of the World has been pleas'd to permit him executed their Malice upon the Goods Children and Persons of such as they have hated When the Devil espies any one of a discontent ed troubled raging mind full of Wrath and Jealousies and Blasphemies against God or fretful Envy and Malice against Men then is he ready to offer his service and to give his hand in a way of assistance if they will give him their hand in a way of Covenant And so the Bargain the fatal Bargain is struck up and the miserable Soul is gratify'd to its own destruction Neither need it seem strange the Transition is easie for having already obtain'd a possession of the Soul need it seem hard for him to get a possession of the Body for so I reckon he has of Witches having engag'd their hearts it is easie to suppose he may get them to set to their hands Neither need it seem strange that God in his righteous judgment should suffer them to give up themselves to the Father of Lyes to believe him anâ— believe in him too who have been long wilfully disobedient to the Truth that they should be suffered to enter into a Covenant with Hell who wilfully burst the Bonds of Heaven and violate their Covenant with God Lord What swift progress does Sin make in the Souls of men in how short a time do the shades of Hell over-spread the whole face of the Soul Of how great moment is it to resist the Wicked One in his first insinuations and to pluck up those Seeds that when they are grown up will make such snares for the Soul O my heart Give all diligence to keep thy self pure if it may be entertain not the first motions of Pride Covetousness Revenge or Discontent However take heed of sitting upon the Cockatrice Eggs lest thou batch them into Serpents deadly Serpents MEDITAT XCVI Of Interpretative Witchcraft BEsides this gross and formal Witchcraft there is another sort not so gross and palpable which yet denominates men Allies to the God of this World There are amongst men Allies by Covenants Articles and Formal Ratification And there are also Allies by Kindness Conjunctness of Interest and Faithful Correspondence So it is here There are many that keep Correspondence with the evil Spirit that have
not articled with him or deliver'd themselves up to him by a Formal Covenant I dare not positively conclude That the Spirit of Prophecy has quite forsaken the World But I apprehend there is not much need of it since the perfecting of the Canon of the Scripture I suppose it is very rare if it be at all and that it only rests upon pure and holy minds and upon very weighty occasions Whether the Skilful may Astrologically or Chiromantically guess at the future state of Nations or Persons has been disputed often amongst Learned men And for my part I do not see such convincing Arguments on either part as to adventure to interpose I do believe that the Devil can tell many things which we cannot and that he is very officous to them that consult him But withal I think that no man ought to consult him though it were in an important Case such as King Saul's was For he is the grand Apostate and Rebel against God And the Loyal Subjects of the Almighty commit a kind of Treason to keep any Correspondence with the Wicked One Besides it is wonderful unsafe to be so great with him for his Dona are Hamata and his very gratification of our Curiosity only serves to a further and pernicious acquaintance It is not likely he will comnunicate his skill for nothing nor his secrets without a further secret design of making his Clients to be his Votaries Besides it is imprudent For his sworn Enmity against Man is such that no man can be assured but he will deceive him He will be true to his Clients in one thing that he may deceive them in many Nay by his ambiguous Nature he often deceives even in speaking the Truth As for Necromancy I confess I know not what Converse separate Souls do hold with the embodied neither know I whether it pleases God at any time to send any of them or faster them to come amongst us upon any Errand of his or of their own But I believe it is out of the power of the Devil to disturb or employ and blessed Souls upon his Errand And if by his interest one might come to an acquaintance with some of the other sort it were unwarrantable and unsafe and indeed superfluous too for what need he be employ'd to fetch another person to tell a thing which himself can tell better But besides all these there are ordinarily a sort of bold People that consult the Devil blind folded and are kind of Conjurers and do not know it Such at least I take all the Augures and Aruspices and Priestly Persons of old to have been who consulted the Intrails of Beasts the Flying of Birds and the like thereby to know future comingent Events And amongst our selves there are many that use Rites and Ceremonies Words and Phrases of which no rational account can be given which nothing in the Scripture-Divinity does direct I confess if God do propound or direct a thing of which we can give no Philosophical account yet it in to be believed If the true Prophet whose 〈◊〉 was well known bade Go and wash in Jordan if Christ drest the Eyes of the blind Man with Mortar it is not to be wondred at nor disbelieved But when we have no Divine Authority nor can give any Philosophical Account it is very suspicable and hazardous It is observed by some That the Devil loves to be believed at a venture such is his Pride And that he loves to be worshiped in the dark his best Servants being they that do his Will without inquiring into the reason of his Commands whereas God loves to be converst with in a way of light and understanding And that the Devil should give life and operation and signification to his own Institutions and be vertually present by his influences to deceive the Simple or gratifie the Curious needs not to be wondered at Many Stories tell how fain he would be reputed a God as we have partly seen before and therefore he courts the implicite Faith of men and their blind Obedience Aaron cast the Ear-rings into the Fire and there came out this Calf How far the Devil might assist in this Action I cannot tell but it is easie to believe he does assist in the curious Inquiries and unwary Attempts of Astrological men and others and enables them by his unseen hand to predict and perform many things which yet they never give him Thanks for but either ascribe to some false natural Cause or wonder at as a stupendious secret of which no account can be given The merciful Jesus apprehended little Zacheus climbing up into the Tree out of meer Curiosity to see him and brought salvation to him The Cruel Apollyon is courteous also to gratifie the Curiosity of vain men and meet them half the way and go home with them too but it is not to bring salvation to them but them to damnation Blessed God Heal me of all Licentiousness and Unsubduedness of Understanding Cloath me with Humility that I may be wise according to what is written both on this side Heaven and on this side Hell lest by over-daring on the one hand I provoke thee to blind me or on the other hand tempt the Devil to enlighten me And as I am a reasonable Creature so grant that I may always act rationally not smothering the Candle of the Lord set up in my Soul not quitting the guidance of it to be led in ways of darkness and blind mazes wherein I can neither walk with safety nor satisfaction O my Soul Put not out thine eyes lest thy grand Enemy catch thee as they caught Sampson of old and make sport with thee yea make a Drudge of thee to grind in his Mill. Go no further in thy Inquiries or Experiments than thou canst feel firm ground to set thy foot upon than thâ—â— canst discern thy way lest in thy unwary and licentious Ramblings thou be spirited as many silly Children are caught up and defiled as it hapned to the Daughter of Jacob who was first unwary then unchaste MEDITAT XCVII Of the Children of the Devil and particularly of Self-will THE third sort of the Devil's Followers for distinction sake I call his Children a Phrase authorized by the Spirit of God and therefore not to be boggled at But here for distinctness in Proceeding I must consider the Devil under a double Notion viz. as a particular Being an Apostate Spirit or a corrupt Nature or the Spirit of Apostasie Thus I think the Scripture considers him sometimes as an Apostate Spirit as in Job 2 and Mat. 4 and frequently in the Gospel where he is said to be cast out of the Bodies of Demoniacks Sometimes as a Nature of Spirit of Apostasie The Spirit that worketh in the Children of Disobedience So Learned Interpreters by the Context interpret that of the Apostle Resist the Devil c. and that of our Saviour Get thee behind me Satan This need not seem strange for so the
proudly against him by whom we stand and to brave it against him from whom we receive all our excellencies Is it not proportionably shameful Ingratitude for Children to dishonour neglect or hate their Parents the immediate Instruments of their very Beings For Subjects to Rebel and Conspire against their kind Princes by whom they enjoy great quietness and by whose Providence worthy Deeds are done to the Nation For People to let their Pastors starve for want of their carnal things who administer to them of their spiritual things For Papists and Scholars to spit out that Learning in the faces of their Tutors and Masters which they suckt from them For those that are ransom'd from the Gallows to be the first in cutting the Throat of him that ransom'd them For the poor Abjects whom Job fed with his Morsel and clad with his Fleece to abhor him in his Calamity and spit in his honourable Face Nay Is it not shameful Ingratitude for any man to forget or ill requite the kindness of his Neighbor or Equal For Pharaoh's Butler to forget the Afflictions of Joseph who had but foretold good concerning him is branded for Disingenuity What Brand deserve they then that forget the good that is done to them done vâ—â—h care with cost perhaps with hazard too Of these Jâ—b complain'd and David complain'd Samuel complain'd Moses complain'd Men of whom one might almost say They never complain'd of any thing else These good Men all were almost provok'd to be angry at the observation of this ill Temper as may appear by David's rash resolution to cut off Nobal and his housâ— In vain have I kept all that this Fellow hath in the Wilderness c. and he hath requited me evil for good It is made an Argument of Moses's singular Meekness that he endur'd so ungrateful a People And God himself undertakes to comfort Samuel in his resentmeâ—t of the Israelites Ingratitude by taking it upon himself They have not that is Not so much rejected thee as me in desiring a King How does the Psalmist in his own Person or in the Person of the Mâ—ssiab stomack this unkindness If it had been an Enemy or if it had been a Stranger he could have born such Usage But to find such Returns from a Friend from a Confident from an Obligee nothing less than the Patience of God or a Patience Divine can bear In short I know nothing that ingenuous and good men are less able to bear nothing that God himself doth more frequently and pathetically complain of Oh loving and gracious and bountiful God who art never bâ—hinâ— hand with any of thy Creatures who givest wageâ— even to the King of Babylon if he do thy work though he do it blindfold who rewardest a Cup of cold water duly administred to one of thy fainting Children who makest the world ring of a poor Widows Mite offer'd with a devout and grateful mind Oh thou that art kind even to the unthankful Forbid Oh forbid that I should be unthankful to the kind Bestow upon me such an ingenuous temper of Soul that I may ever maintain a grateful resentment of all Benefactors and Benefits if it be in the power of my hand to do it render good for good yea agreater good for a less However Grant that I may never so far put off the Divine and Humane and put on the Devilish Nature as to return Hatred for Love and conspire against the Welfare of those that have contrived mine MEDITAT XCIX Of the Devil consider'd as a Nature COnsidering the Devil as a Nature I cannot but cry out where ever I observe Pride Envy Wilfulness Wrathfulness Revengefulness Uncharitableness Ingratitude or the like Here and there is the Devil For if Men and Devils agree in the same temper and disposition it is no great matter though they differ in Name The Devil is content men should call themselves by what Names they please yea Puritans or Jesuits so that in the mean time they will be content to Be what he is As I doubt not but that there are many men who love God and resemble him and are in the best sense Godly that is God-like men who yet cannot discourse of him Metaphysically nor understand clearly as to the Notion what Relation they stand in to him So it is not to be doubted but that many who are strangers to the person of the Devil are in a Scripture sense his children whilst they are and do all that in truth which he is and does Yea many that are afraid of the person of the Devil and almost tremble at the mention of his name and cry God bless us from him do by the impression of a devillish nature maintain converse and familiarity with him If one had been present then and seen 〈◊〉 playing with his Rod that was in his hand would he not have wondr'd and said Is not this the Serpent that this very 〈◊〉 even now ran away from And who can but stand and wonder to see the astonishment and fright of men at a discoutse of the Devil and his pranks to see them Croâ—â—â—ng and hear them Blessing themselves against him and yet at the same time taking him by the hand yea hugging him in their bosom running away from the mischievous Devil but gladly entertaining the unclean Devil Many that hate the Devil and defie him and swagger against him with all the anathema ' imaginable are yet very good friends with him For however they curse his name and the number of his name yet they receive his Mark not upon their Foreheads but upon their very Hearts Yea I believe one may say of the Devil as the Proverb says of the Fox that he is no where better entertain'd than where he is most defi'd and bann'd No man says the Apostle speaking by the Spirit of Christ calleth Christ accursed but doubtless men curse the Devil by a Devillish Spirit Perhaps the hatred of the person of the Devil is not a thing so divine as some take it to be For my own part I am more enclin'd to pity than to hate him Men do by the Devil as they say the Trojans did by the Grecians they hated them and yet at the same time unawars open'd their Gates for them and receiv'd them into the very Heart of their City Yea how many People that seem zealous for Religion and forward Reformers of the ill manners of the World may be suppos'd to be reconcil'd to yea and acted by the Devilish Nature And so Satan may cast out Satan and yet no dividing of Satan against himself neither I need not employ my Thoughts so far off as to tell how the Devil of Cruelty and Covetousness in the Spamâ—â—ds went about to reform the Devil of Idolatry amongst the Indians If we look nearer home we may see that true concerning false Christians which was fastly said concerning Christ They cast out Devils 〈◊〉 the Devils of Heresie and Stubbornness by there â—zebub of Covetousness
when People live single meerly that they may live It was accounted bad Devotion in Saul when he forced himself and offered a Sacrifice And how shall she be accounted an acceptable Virgin who though she flies from other men forces her self Pure Virginity is indeed a Delicate and Divine Thing if it be any where to be found but this does not at all disparage Conjugal Love justly placed and purely exercised and observed Nay I do verily think that there is as much or more Chastity to be found in a Conjugal state as in a Single To the Conjugal Bed it is that the Apostle gives the Epithete of undefiled I wish the Virgins can any of them say as much of theirs more I 'm sure they cannot I will allow a pure Virgin state to be excellent perhaps more excellent than a Conjugal but it 's enough for the Conjugal to be accounted Honourable and that is in plain terms by the holy Author of it God himself But whatever excellencies in some sense or other may be found in the Virgin state yet I hope its Virgin modesty is such as will forbid it to vie with the Conjugal for usefulness which I 'm sure is one famous species of excellency And indeed for goodness or excellency in general I cannot see how that can be bad now which even in the state of Innocency it self was declared to be good Gen. 2. It is good for man to have a wife MEDITAT III. Of the Votaries of Penance AS for the Votaries of Penance though it may well be doubted whether they feel a smart answerable to the shrugs and sowre faces that they make and though it may be charitably suppos'd that they sustain themselves very well with rich cordials and good fare whereby many Pilgrimages of an hundred or two hundred miles long become less troublesome to them than many a poor mans journey or labour of a day and so their pretensions are not just yet suppose all to be true that is pretended how will it certainly conclude a contempt of the World For will not Diogenes amongst the Heathens pretend to as much neglect of the pleasures of the World and the ease of the flesh by lying in his Tub as any body can do by travelling abroad bare-foot and bare-leg'd Will not the Disciples of the Pharisees put in for the severity of frequent Fasts and match the Disciples of John outdoe the Disciples of Jesus And will not the Priests of Baal put in for a share of the honour due to Lashing and Slashing Devotion as well as any Gospel Priests There will never be any firm and comfortable inference so long as it may be required what do you more than others those none of the best neither So then the Enquiry will be at whose command out of what principle for what end all these severities are executed If any of these fail the contempt of the World is but a pretence And who knows not but that the worship of the Gentiles and of the Baalitish Jews too perform'd with so much smart and sacred horror is accounted of God and all good men slavishly superstitious and a hateful will-worship If the Principle out of which all these severities are perform'd be so pure as it ought it will produce an uniform self-denial and holy obedience and a contempt of the World in all the branches of it as well as in the pleasures so that if there be not an Humility Charity Faith Hope Zeal answerable to these bodily exercises they will profit nothing If a man give his body to be burnt and in the mean time have a mind to burn his Brother he is no Martyr no nor Saint neither And may not the Worldly Life be maintain'd and cherisht in the acts of Self-love Self-seeking Self-confidence Pride and Self-feeling amidst all this abstemiousness and these severities excercis'd upon the body Yea what if all these things should be nothing but to bribe the Justice of God to tye the hands of his vengeance to establish a righteousness of ones one to purchase by merit a sorry carnal kind of heaven merely external and future If so then they are symptoms of a slavish and superstitious but are utterly inconsistent with a holy and religious mind And who knows not but that all this may be yea and evey discerning Christian does vehemently suspect that it often is From hence O my Soul take an occasion to consider that thou as to thy natural Capacity art able to act without the help of the flesh and without any dependance thereupon and consequently capable of committing sins of the Spirit as well as sins of the Flesh however in a lax sense whatever is contrary to God may in Scripture be call'd flesh and so all sins may be call'd Works of Flesh When thou hast laid aside this Flesh thou canst not reasonably think of nor patiently endure to think of a long sleep till the time that thou shalt re-assume it and if after thy release from Flesh thou shalt still be able to act then sure it may be fairly concluded that even some of thy Acts even whil'st thou art in the Body are purely spiritual and do little or nothing depend upon the Body Though thou canst not be guilty of Adultery or Drunkenness without the help of the Body yet it is no fault of the Body or a very remote one that thou art proud self-will'd unbelieving and uncharitable All filthy and unrenewed Souls will not be the less but rather much more such by leaving the Flesh Distinguish therefore carefully between the sins of the Flesh and of the Spirit and reckon that thy firm and chaste adherence to the ever blessed God thy Centre and entire Resignation of thy self to him is thy Virginity and much to be preferr'd before Temperance and Continency What if thou have kept thy hands from picking and stealing if in the mean time by Pride thou rob God of his Honour or by Unbelief Christ of his Glory How art thou honest What if thou hast not smitten with the Fist of Wickedness or Violence if by Self-Will thou have Rebelliously contended against the Authority of Heaven and secretly opposed the Will of God How art thou Loyal What if thou have not prostituted any of thy fleshly Members to Adulterous Aspects or Embraces yet if thou have in a way of Self-love fondly admired and wantonly dallied with thy own Perfections as something distinct from God How art thou Chaste What if thou hast so severely chastised the Body that thou may'st seem to have battered the Out-works of Sin yet if it still lodge in the Castle of thy Heart if thy â—ody be empty with Fasting and the Heart full of Pride and Conceits of thy own Righteousness and Merits if the Flesh by severe Discipline and many Macerations be made obsequious to thee and thou in the mean time remainest unsubdued to the Authority and Will of God What real profit hast thou by this bodily Exercise or how canst
had been a fitter comparison I think and much more congruous But to wave those several dissimilitudes that might be brought to spoil this Comparison there is just such difference between letting out Land and Houses for Rent and Money for Usury as there is between a thing allow'd of God and all Men and another thing universally forbidden The great Law-giver I suppose will at last but to our great astonishment either shew us a convincing reason for all his Commands or convince us that his Authority was reason sufficient If any one say That lending upon Usury is an Act of Charity as I have heard some say because it often proves the support of Families or at least preserves them and their Estates from Ruin for a Season until time and industry have wrought out better fortunes for them I will not say with Bishop Jewel that this relief is as if a man should pull out the Eye to cure a blemish in the sight and that Userers are so necessary to men as a rust is to Iron nor with St. Ambrose that such is the kindness of Usurers that they undoe those whom they help comparing them therefore to the Scorpion that embraceth kindly with his leggs and at the same time stingeth with his Tail whose poyson also delights men at present but afterwards kills but I will suppose that Usury has been accidentally beneficial even to the borrower And yet this is no more than what the worst things in the world have sometimes been Divines say That the Devil himself has eventually serv'd the Salvation of many Souls though I suppose no body ever yet justifi'd the Piety of his intentions or commended the justness of his methods But to speak plainly it is not the Usury but the Lending that has been found beneficial Lending indeed is a great Act of Charity and so necessary that as the world stands it could scarce stand without it But I hope there may be Lending without Usury If the minds of men were universally formed into that Charitable and Benign Temper in which they came out of the hands of God at first they would give what they could spare and lend what they could not give and compassionately wish their poor Neighbour what they have not to lend In a word they would do to others as they would that others should do to them and then I am sure there would be no need of such a thing as Usury to be a Vehicle for Charity If there be at this day a necessity of Usury it is but such an one as the lusts of men have made if there be any Charity in it it is to the Usurers sweet self it begins at home and we must thank the providence of God more than the kind intention of the Usurer if it do not end there too for I durst make any Usurer his own Casuist here to say what is his Predominant Consideration in his Usurious Contracts the relief of his Neighbour or his own gratification But is there any reason why another man should make gainful Purchases or Bargains with my Money and I not share with him in the gain To this is answer'd that there is no reason to enforce me to lend my Money to make other men Rich the poor are the object of lending as well as of giving To lend to the rich to make them still Richer is somewhat like giving to the poor to make them Idle But if you have such an excessive kindness for a Rich Friend that you will make him still Richer you may either lend him your Money freely or share with him in the hazzard and so for ought I know you may safely share with him in the gain But can God spread a Table in the Wilderness can he provide for Orphans without this ingenious expedient of Usury Yes sure he can and they have the greatest security imaginable that he will for he has as it were taken them into his own Attributes stiling himself the Father of the Fatherless However there are many ways of paying Paul and not rob Peter to do it many ways of securing and improving the Portions of Orphans and not be beholden to Usury And if there were none it were better that all the Orphans in the World broke than that the Commands of God should be broke Fait Justitia etiam ruente Coelo MEDITAT XXXII Authorities for Usury considered ALthough Usury defend it self mostly by Arguments yet of late it does somewhat insist upon Authority too and those Divine and Humane As for Divine Authority I think they despair of finding any thing in the Old Testament to countenance it but they have some hopes of better encouragement in the New This I confess one would think strange that the Gospel should fall short of the Law and that Charity should be more coldly recommended in that than in this and that Christians should be allowed a greater Severity against their Brethren than the Jews who yet were allow'd them for the hardness of their hearts This I say at the first sight may seem strange the most charitable Author in the Gospel should make void the Law in this point of Charity who in all other things of Morality perfected and fulfilled it that he that made angry words and lustful looks to be Murder and Adultery which never before were taken to be so should make Usury not to be unlawful which ever before was taken to be so Not 〈◊〉 did I say Nay if there be good Divinity in 〈◊〉 Parabolical Argumentations he makes it the duty 〈◊〉 all his Followers For so it must be inferr'd from the Parable Mat. 25. 27. Thou oughtest to have put my money to the Exchangers If we will understand the Text literally we must make it the undispensible duty of all Christians to be Usurers and we must say that none but Usurers shall be saved For it follows v. 30. Cast the unprofitable Servant into outer darkâ—ss But these Doctrines the greatest Usurer in the world I suppose will think too too abominable The meaning of the Parable then is the same with that of the unjust Steward in Luke 16. and they are both no more than this that if the men of this world are so set upon the world that they will maintain and increase their Estates even by Usury and Knavery it will be an errand shame for Children of Light not to improve the Grace of God and work out their own salvation with great Zeal and Diligence and the Covetousness and Craftiness of earthly Mammonists about so mean a thing as an Estate or Livelihood will at last condemn the coldness and carelesness of professing Christians about the important matters of Eternity This is plainly the Scope of the Parable which alone can be formed into a Doctrine But if any witty Usurer will needs raise Doctrines from the Parabolical Phrase and Mode of Speech let him preach those two which I named at first and let him add this third Doctrine which seems most naturally to
money is very Cruel and an Atheistical confronting of Divine Providence To be content our Neighbor should be subjected to all Casualties and to take no further care but to secure our own profit is filthily selfish and somewhat like the ill condition'd Generation of whom Christ Jesus complain'd who laid great and heavy burdens upon the backs of others which they themselves refus'd to touch with the least of their Fingers To seek our own advantage or enrichment by the hurt or detriment of others is flatly against the Law of Lovers and the Golden Rule of Charity which the Law commends and the Gospel magnifies and enforces To make the poor pay for the use of Money or any other thing which is meerly for the relief of their necessities is by the most favourable Interpreters granted to be directly against the plain Letter of the Law even by those I say who allow a little stricter dealing with the Rich. Let the Usurers of England clear themselves of these spots if they can if they cannot let them sit down with the mark of the World upon them till they can MEDITAT XXXIV Disswasives from the Love of the World from the Consideration of our Profession WHat shall I say more How shall I come closer Having examin'd Man in his Moral Capacity and now in his Political wherein he is more discernable than in that Modesty will not suffer me to come any nearer for I know not how except I should digito monstrare dicere hic est except I should call men by their Names and say thou John or Thomas or Richard or Robert or the like art a Lover of the World These two things I am sure of that there are but two sorts of people in the whole World viz. The Lovers of God and the Lovers of the World and that the former of these are blessed and shall be yet more blessed the later are miserable and accursed Who can chuse but infer from hence that it is most absolutely necessary for every man to examine himself which sort of men he belongs to I have given what assistance I can in this important Enquiry which I think is the highest service that can be done for the Sons of Men except it be those endeavours which are directly used to disintangle the Souls of Men from the love of the World and to engage them in the love of the Father It is not in me alas to fashion the Affections of Men. Oh thou blessed Soveraign Creator and Searcher Maker and Mender of Hearts put in thy Hand by the hole of the Door that the Bowels of Men may be mov'd to thee Come into thy Temple O God and let not that sacred thing the Hearts of Men be any longer a place of Merchandize a Den of Thieves But though I cannot change the minds of Men yet as I have shew'd sufficient Reason why they should be chang'd so I can propound motives to induce them â—o labour after a change 〈◊〉 the House must be cleansed from its filth and rubbish bâ—fore the Glory of the Lord will fill it I 〈◊〉 therefore with some disswasives from the Predominant Love of the World and here I will content my self with a few of many First If we make any reckoning of our Noble Title of Christians and Disciples of Christ Jesus if it be any thing to us that we have enterrained the Gospel and are distingâ—â—sht from Heathens let us cast out this Predomiâ—â—â—â— Love of the World otherwise we shall bear the name of Christians but be of the Nature of Heathens A Name though never so Honourable is but little available in any case but I am sure in the Case of Religion it s not available at all without a Nature either to the present Comfort or future Happiness of Men. Why a Christian loving the World is but in name onely distinguisht from a Heathen And truly methinks this is but a small Honour or Consolation either Who can reasonably bless himself that he is not an Unbeliever when in the mean time he is an Hypocrite Nay rather will not the Heathen adjudg'd to a more tolerable condemnation hereafter bless himself that he was not a Christian and had not so many obligations laid upon him to forsake this World nor such clear Revelation as we have of another It had been a goodly Errand indeed for Christ to come into the World and to gather together a company of Disciples only to bear his Name but really not to differ from other men nor from what they themselves were before Was it worthy of his Blood can we think to purchase to himself a People peculiar onely in Nominal Relation Why certainly under the specious Title of Christians we are still Heathens indeed and in truth if our Predominant Love and Care be of and for the things of this World For so the Heathen are describ'd by our Lord himself to have their minds mainly upon worldly things Mat. 6. 32. After these things do the Gentiles seek And he would have his Disciples to differ from the Gentiles in their seekings and lovings as well as in their professing MEDITAT XXXV Further Disswasives from the Consideration of the Nature of our Souls SEcondly If we value our selves onely as men Creatures of Noble Natures and large Capacities let us consider that the World with all its Trinity of Riches Pleasures and Honours in Inferior and Inadequate to our Souls below our Faculties and insufficient to our Necessities 'T is justly accounted dishonourable for Persons of Noble Extraction or Ingenious Education to mingle themselves with persons or in things mean and unsuitable to them as if it were a debasing and degrading of themselves but if this mixture be a familiarity 't is still worse and if this familiarty be an Union 't is worst of all What a stir and a clatter do we make about a Gentleman marrying his Maid or a Lady her Groom Great Indignation arises to the Gentry of the Neighbourhood presently and much wonderment to the rest But the Soul of the meanest man matching with the most splendid Object in the Creation and uniting its self thereunto incurs a far sorer Censure and requires a far greater pity The Sun stooping to Mortal Clymene or the Moon to the Sheperds Boy Endimion or Venus in the Arms of dirty Vulcan or Jupiter assuming Horns and Hoofs for the sake of a mortal Mistress or whatsoever the Poets have invented to the disparagement of their wanton Deities does but represent the infamous mixture which that off-spring of Heaven the Soul of Man does make of it self with things terrene and mortal A generous Eagle preying upon Carrion or a glorious Star falling from its Sphere and choaking it self in the dust or the Romane Emperour catching Flies are tollerable Absurdities in comparrison of that abominable and mischievous Choice which all worldly minded Men in the World do make Does the Maker of Souls who best knows the worth of them value one Soul any one
Nature suggests yea dictates and requires this that we love those that love us our Saviour takes it for granted that all men do this because the worst of men do it yea the very Beasts do it Saevis inter se conveniâ— Ursis Nay it seems that there is a kind of an agreement in Hell and an Order and Amity amongst the Devils else their Kingdom could not stand If two cannot walk together except they be agreed how much less can Four thousand for so many was a Roman Legion in our Saviours days dwell together in one Man without some mutual kindness The Nature of Love is sociable it can endure any thing but solitude this it can no more endure than the Wind can endure to be and not to blow Now what properer Object of Love can there be than one that loves us or a thing that is our own No one is our own so properly as he that loves us I am more truly possest of a Friend that loves me than of a Child that I carry in mine Arms or Wife that I lay in my bosome that cares not for me Of all the World therefore God is most ours because he loves us best The love that comes from above is strong We commonly observe that the love that comes down from Parents upon their Children is stronger than that which rises up from the Children to their Parents An Arrow falling from an high wounds deeper What deep impressions then in the hearts of Men should the Arrows of Love make that are shot from above the highest Heavens It is truly said That God hates nothing of what he hath made His hatred of the Wicked and of the Devils if we understand it aright is not so much his hatred of them as their hatred of him There is no such thing as hatred in the pure Nature of God his Name is Love and certainly he is nam'd according to his Nature But speaking after the manner of Men he is said to hate Evil-doers onely to denote a contrariety of his Nature to Sin and Wickedness as if one should say Fire hates Water or Light hates Darkness It is a passage of St. Bernard somewhere in his Meditations Diligo te Deus plusquam mea plusquam meos plusquam me That was a pure strain of Devotion and to be imitated by every Soul of Man that understands the nature of his Happiness and Relation wherein he stands to God But if we alter the Grammar of it it is as true Divinity still Deus diliget me plusquam mea plusquam mei plusquam ego God loves us better than all our Friends loves us better than we our selves love our selves Of all our Friends our Relations are suppos'd to love us best and of all Relations our Parents The Love of God towards us therefore is compared to the love that a Father bears to his Son that serves him and a Mother to her Sucking Child But it infinitely excels these for what wretched Mortal can pretend to love with that strength and wisdome as God loves If we who are by Nature evil and impotent Parents can love our Children tenderly how much more doth our Heavenly Father It is our Saviours own Argument and it concludes as strongly concerning loving as concerning giving And if giving good things be an Argument of Love God loves us better than our Parents for he has given us much more then our Parents could for he hath given us noble Souls and his Son to redeem them yea and he gave us those very Parents themselves who give us any good thing He loves us better than we love our selves I am much taken with that expression of the Satyrist speaking of the Gods and their Providence towards Men Charior est ipsis homo quam sibi Gods love towards us is purer and wiser than our own He loves us so well that he will deny us things hurtful to us though we pray for them so well that he will afflict us for our good though it be sore against our wills so well that he will remove us out of this world that we are so fond of into a much better which we poor Souls have little mind of MEDITAT XLIII A further Motive to the Love of God SEcondly I consider that I am beholden to God and it is by him that I am able to love any thing therefore I ought to love him above all things The bare possession of any thing is not the enjoyment of it it is not by having but by loving things that we enjoy them If meer possession were enough the Sparrows had enjoy'd the Altar of God as much as David and the Owls had been as happy in the full Barns of the Gospel rich Mâ—n as he himself Light is sweet but it is to them that see it and so are Meats and Drinks and Perfumes but it is only to them that can taste and smell Nâ—buchadnezzar in his distraction when the heart of a Man was taken from him had no more enjoyment of his Princely treasures than a Jack-Daw or a Mâ—â—pie has of a Thimble or a Bodkin that they have hoarded up Beauty is a pretty thing but if there were no Looking Glasses in the World to represent it the Ladies would not be so proud of it as they are nor dote upon themselves as they do I durst appeal to the greatest Mammonist in the World Whether he would think it worth his care and toyl to covet and serape together great Masses of Money if he were sure he should be depriv'd of the power of taking any pleasure in it Certainly if it be Vanity and an Evil Disease that a man should have Riches Wealth and Honour and no power to eat thereof Eccles 6. 2. It must needs be worse to have these things and not be able so much as to love them or esteem them lovely The Poets tell a pretty tale of Apâ—lle that having promised the Princess Cassandra the Gift of Prophecying for a Nights Lodging with her the afterward refusing but he not able to falâ—â—sie his word he endow'd her with the Spirit of Prophesie indeed but entail'd this mischief upon it that though she Prophesi'd never so truly she could never be believ'd Suppose God should give a man all the conveniences advantages and ornaments imaginable and should annex this onely curse to them that he should not be able in any degree to take any pleasure in any of them I wonder who would account this man happy sure I am he himself would not Is it not God that gives us those Aâ—â—ections and that Power by which we love any thing ought we not to love him above all things by whom it is that we love all things It was a reasonable Expostulation of the Prophet He that hath madâ—th Ear shall no he hear And is it not as reasonable to ask He that haâ—h made the Ear shall not he be heard He that hath created the affection of love in us shall not he