may still see more of that wonderful love which he hath discovered in his Gospel and to accompany me with his grace till I arrive at his heavenly Court O let his good Spirit breath upon me and carry away my Soul in holy desires towards him Let it guide my course through this troublesome Sea wherein I am tossed Let it shine upon me and prosper my endeavours Let it bring me safely to a quiet haven in Eternal Rest and Peace These pious aspirations you may still pursue at the end of these Meditations in some such Prayer as this A PRAYER I Praise Thee I magnify thy wise and mighty Goodness O Lord who hast made this great World the Heavens and the Earth with all things contained therein to the everlasting honour of thy Name I thank Thee with all my Soul for bringing me into it and for advancing me so much above the rest of thy Creatures here below that I see the glory of thy Majesty shining every where and hear thy Name proclaimed and praised by all thy works of wonder But above all I acknowledg thy bounty with the most admiring thoughts and the devoutest affections of my heart for sending Jesus Christ upon Earth to open unto us the Kingdom of Heaven and to show us the glories of another World O the exceeding greatness of that love which gave him to dye for us and rewarded all his sufferings with a blessed Resurrection and then translated him to Heaven and appointed Him Heir of all things and setled his Throne for ever and ever on the right hand of thy Majesty on high From thence he hath sent the Holy Ghost to be witness of the fulness of his Royal Power and Love and hath shown himself sometime in Majesty and Glory above the Sun when it shineth in its strength that we might hope in thee for the like Resurrection to a glorious immortality in the Heavens No tongue can utter nor heart conceive what Honour Glory and Peace what joy and gladness of heart thou hast prepared there for those that love Thee But blessed for ever blessed be the riches of thy grace whereby I understand so much as to feel most earnest longings in my Soul after a fuller sense of that which thou hast made me taste and relish beyond all the pleasures of this Life O raise and inlarge my Spirit unto clearer more comprehensive thoughts of that supreme blessedness Thou who entertainest all thy Creatures with so much liberality who causest thy Sun to shine upon the good and the bad and the showers of Heaven to fall on the just and the unjust deny not to satisfie the pious desires of a Soul in whom thou hast excited an ardent thirst after its proper and eternal good But inlighten the eyes of my understanding that I may know more and more what is the hope of thy Heavenly calling and what the riches of the glory of thy Inheritance in the Saints and what the exceeding greatness of thy power to us-ward who believe according to the working of thy mighty power which wrought in Christ when thou raisedst him from th dead and set him at thy own righâ— hand in the heavenly places O life up my mind to that high and holy place where thou dwellest and where Jesus is inthroned and where the Angels and Saints continually behold and praise with joyful hearts the Majesty of thy glory and where our Lord hath promised all the faithful shall live and reign with him for ever Help me to climb up daily by all thy Creatures on which thou hast set such marks of thy Greatness Wisdome and Goodness to the contemplation of that Celestial Bliss And possess me with such a constant sense and desire of it that nothing here may ingage my heart which will indispose me for the happy company and society of the blessed Assist me good Lord by such Meditations as these to discern more and more the incomparable and surpassing greatness of that felicity which thy Royal bounty will bestow upon our advanced spirits and bodies in the world of rewards and recompences Affect my heart more powerfully with it and fill me with love and joy unspeakable and full of glory when I turn my eyes towards it Stir me up thereby to prepare my self with diligence and care by a lively resemblance of the Lord Jesus for the day of his appearing and to wait with patience for that blessed Hope when I shall not see as now through a Glass darkly but face to face and be made compleatly like him by seeing him as he is Enable me always to live upon this Hope and according to it that growing in all goodness by a chearful obedience to his holy commands I may be found of him in peace and be so happy as to hear at last those gracious words of his Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Amen III. I Need say no more to excite one of your vertue to the frequent exercise of such Meditations as these which are no less delightful than they are useful Let me next unto this advise you to study the truest notions of God and of Religion the love of which is the way to that transcendent bliss and happiness of which I have spoken As you must believe things unseen and perswade your self thoroughly that they are so it is necessary you should inform your mind aright what they are And in particular look upon Religion as a most pleasant thing and represent it to your self with a face as fair and beautiful as you can If it seem cloudy dark and melancholy it will make you to be of the same complexion But if it have a lovely and chearful aspect it will encline you always to smile upon it The poor Norwegian whom stories tell of was afraid to touch Roses when he first saw them for fear they should burn his Fingers He much wondered to see that Trees as he thought should put forth flames and blossomes of Fire before which he held up his hands to warm himself not daring to approach any nearer But as he you may be sure was happily undeceived when he came not only to touch but likewise to smell those innocent Flowers which seemed to burn in his eyes so will it be with us when we come rightly to understand and feel the pleasure that Religion gives us which at first sight before we come acquainted with it looks as if it intended to make us Martyrs but not to crown us with any joys or contentments As the Martyr said of the real fire wherein he was covered that it seemed to him as if it were a Bed of Roses so shall we say of true Religion which we are afraid will scorch us and prove too hot for us Its flames are but the flames of love and it makes us not lye down in sorrow but in the most comfortable sense of the tender love of our dearest Lord. Think with your self therefore
grace to improve and make the best use of this blessing to my further increase in Wisdom and Goodness which are the greatest treasures of all O that I may feel my heart disposed and enclined by a particular love to some to be kind and loveing to all other men and especially to love thee and our blessed Lord the more my best and my eternal Friend Bestow upon those to whom I am united in friendly affection all that I can desire for my self An healthful body a long life a clear understanding a ready apprehension an exact prudence a vertuous will an unwearied diligence a constant chearfulness a sweet and obliging behaviour an useful conversation and good success in all their undertakings Requite all their kindnesses to me in multitude of blessings and above all with a sense of thy Divine favour and with the perpetual joy and comfort of the Holy Ghost O blessed Lord hear all their own Prayers Hear them for themselves and for me also And stir us up all to pray with greater ardency with a more zealous affection to thy Honour and each others good and with a most inflamed desire to be as like thee as possibly we can That after a constant and hearty friendship here in this World we may have a comfortable departure out of it and rest in a joyful hope to meet together in the other life and embrace in the bosome of our blessed Lord Christ Jesus Amen Amen XI IN the next place I must exhort you to exercise a great faith in Gods good Providence which rules in all affairs This is of great force to banish all perplexing thoughts and consequently to make you of a chearful spirit and to be good company for your self when you are alone or about your necessary employments And it hath not only this oblique aspect upon our Souls to defend them from that heaviness sadness which is too apt to oppress them but is of a more direct and manifest influence to comfort and enliven them on all occasions By removing that is those impediments out of the way which are a clog and a burden to our spirits and by begetting likewise an higher faith in Gods goodness to our better part which takes such care of our lower concernments For what is it that makes our heart unwilling to go to God and to wait upon him as Mary sate at our Saviours Feet but the multitude of businesses wherewith like Martha we incumber and trouble our selves We imagine we can never take care enough about those things and when we have done our best still we remain solicitous about the success And so our Souls being already filled crowded with these thoughts there is no room left to admit of any other till they be thrust out And suppose now our own Conscience begin in this case to reprove us and bid us go to our God yet if it be that only which urges us and not a quiet faith in his good providence how do we hear those things calling us off again and inviting nay drawing our hearts to them as being indeed their own It is nothing else that distracts us but these cares which are not ejected by faith but only silenced and stilled a little by natural conscience which tells us we do amiss Or if they have lain quiet a while and given us leave to pray to God and think of better things how easily do they thrust out all our good Meditations and pious affections when they return again Nay how do they eat up and prey on the very Soul it self as well as on all the good notions which are within it If we be necessarily engaged then in more affairs than willingly we would it is as necessary we should be strongly perswaded of the Care which God takes of all things that they shall go well with those who trust in him That so we may use but a moderate diligence and not trouble our selves about issues and events and that we may save abundance of time for better thoughts and that these affairs may not take up our hearts both while we are in them and when we are out of them too That 's too much familiarity with them when they will never let us alone And we ought to endeavour that though they employ our minds for many Hours yet when we have done our work they may not then ingross our time also The care of Religion is great enough we need not take upon us the care of the World too With what reason do we complain that we find it difficult to govern our selves when it seems we think our selves meet to govern this World and all No wonder that we are weary of our work when we have not only our own to do but will needs undertake Gods work likewise We may well sigh and be discouraged when we carry such a vast burden upon our Shoulders There is no end of these Cares which intermix themselves not only with our particular businesses but trouble us continually with sad and fearful thoughts about the affairs of Nations and the state of the publique wherein our private wealth is embarqued And this is the mischief of it that when we are discouraged by this means it is a sin and not meerly our misery because we will meddle with more than belongs unto us We put our selves to an unnecessary pain to put our selves out of the favour and care of him who would ease us of this burden by casting it upon his merciful providence It is an uncomfortable and a sinful condition which is aggravated by this that it is a needless and a bold intrusion into his business who governs the World It is as if I should be very solicitous whether the Sun will shine to morrow or not when I have occasion to stay all Day about my affairs at home Let us do what concerns us and leave God to dispose of all the rest And let us believe that he will assist us in our dispatches and a great deal the more if we will not stretch our selves to meddle beyond our line He will help us to do what we ought when we do no more than we should When we are not oppressed I mean with fear that we shall not be able to go thorough our employments and when we are not too careful what will become of them after we have finished our work God will take care that we shall do them and that they shall have the best success when they are done Look upon your self as a part of the World and upon God as the Governour of the whole And then by faith in him make your self as it were a part of himself that so he may have a particular concernment in your affairs Look upon your self not only as one of his Family and therefore under his General Providence but also as one of his Children for whose good he will more than ordinarily provide And be always confident he will provide the better for you because
and make provision for its Lusts and Pleasures Rescue it from that thraldome and assert its liberty which is no such difficult undertaking since rightly to understand it self is sufficient for its safety and preservation And to say the truth the necessity of this Exercise is no less apparent than the benefit We had need acquaint our selves thoroughly with those Spiritual and Heavenly Beings and make them very familiar to us because these outward Objects are so near us and have gained such an interest in us that even when we are thinking of the other they will busily interpose themselves and are able in an instant to obtrude their Company though then very troublesome upon us How oft do our minds turn aside to speak with them in the midst of our Prayers How will our thoughts be discomposed at the sound of a Bell the creaking of a Door the buzzing of a Fly or some such weak and contemptible thing that affects our Senses When we are bowed down before God when our Hands and Eyes are lifted up to Heaven how doth the Memory of Yesterdays enjoyments or the fear of to Morrows troubles besides the thoughts of the present Days business start up and interrupt us we know not how or on what occasion The uneasiness of our bended Joynts the biting of a Flea the prick of a Pin some Word which we then speak any fancy that rises up by the natural motion of our Spirits will trouble our minds in our Devotion and carry us away from God It concerns us therefore very highly to work our minds into a stronger and more delightful Sense of Him and of all Spiritual enjoyments since our familiarity with the other is so intimate that the very least of them is in favour enough with us to give us an avocation from this better Company even when we are ingaged in it In order to this and all things else you know very well how necessary it is to implore the assistance of Gods grace and to beseech his Infinite Goodness that he will be pleased to represent himself more clearly than you can do unto your mind and lift it up above toward the Happiness of the other World Which you may do in some such words as these A PRAYER O God I believe that thou art and that nothing could have been without Thee who fillest all things and art every where to be seen and felt by observant minds who diligently seek Thee Vouchsafe I most humbly beseech Thee to behold a Soul that seriously aspires towards Thee and whom thou hast already filled with earnest desires to be united in Eternal love to Thee but is pulled down alas by this earthly body and in danger to sink without thy mighty aides into too great a love of these lower goods which here surround me Draw near O Father of Spirits present thy self so clearly to me and touch my mind with such a powerful sense of Thee that it may be lifted up above all earthly things and my heart may always incline towards Thee and be possessed with a constant and most ardent love of Thee Awaken in me on all occasions a lively remembrance of the worth and dignity of that Immortal Spirit which thou hast breathed into me And raise it up to as lively a belief and hope of that Eternal bliss into which Jesus our Lord is entred for us Fix my mind upon that unseen felicity and keep it in such a stedfast and delightful contemplation of it that nothing here on Earth may be able to tempt me down into an inordinate desire after it and love unto it O what glorious objects appear before me surpassing all that mine eyes behold now that my thoughts are retired a little from this outward World O what shadows do all things here seem in compare with those Heavenly enjoyments which thou presentest to me What longings do I feel excited in my heart after Thee What desires to be always with thee and to be filled still with a stronger sense of Thee O thou who art the beginner and finisher of all goood be pleased to assist my holy endeavours to withdraw my mind more and more from these sensible things that it may have a clearer sight of its Heavenly Country from whence it comes and whither it desires to return and there live for ever Preserve it thereby from the power of all temptations here and enable me to prepare it to be presented unto Thee by my Saviour adorned with that Faith Purity Patience Righteousness Mercy and such like Heavenly qualities as will dispose me for the Company of the Blessed I sigh to think O my God of the weakness of my mind which is so easily distracted and turned aside in these my addresses to Thee Pity me good Lord and knit my thoughts and affections to a closer attendance on Thee Help me to gather my mind into it self and there to enjoy thy Divine Presence with less disturbance from this outward World O that all things here may rather bring thee to my mind than carry it away from thee Dispose me so to observe the foot-steps of thy wise and mighty Goodness in all thy Creatures that I may perpetually acknowledg thee and then especially be born away far above all other things in high admiration of Thee and servent affection to Thee when I am thus prostrate in humble adoration of thy Divine Majesty And when I am so feeble as to wander after little things even while I am presenting my self before thee and offering my heart to thee Help me to long the more earnestly after that happy state wherein I shall with more steady thoughts and intire devotion give everlasting praises to Thee Amen II. NOW that you may the better preserve in your Soul these ardent desires and that they may not dye for want of continual fewel to feed and nourish them let me advise you My Friend in the next place to represent to your self as often and as sensibly as you can the incomparable greatness of that invisible happiness in the World to come In which that I may assist you as much as I am able I will direct you to such an easy way of managing your thoughts that you may pursue this counsel with no great pains and labour Justin Martyr observes in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew that therefore God laid such restraints upon that Nation and forbad them for instance the use of certain Meats the oftner to put them in mind of himself even in the most common actions of humane life and to make them remember they were under his Government and subject to his Supreme Authority which they were too prone to forget And will it not be a great shame if in these riper Ages of the World the free use that God hath given us of all things should not teach us as much as those restraints and abridgments of their liberty did them in the infancy of Divine knowledge Ill natures are taught most by their wants
and you feel your self a Being that can subsist and enjoy it self if he please without a Body excite in your Soul a most passionate desire to be so happy that when it quits the place of its present abode it may approach nearer to his blessed Majesty and have a clearer sight of his surpassing glory Put your self in hope also that his Divine Goodness which hath planted in you such strong inclinations and filled you with such desires will not let them want the pleasure of satisfaction Look up above and think that when your Spirit shall take its flight from hence there is some other Company to entertain it in another World whose acquaintance is far more desirable than the society of the dearest Friend we have here who perhaps as soon as he hath gained our love takes his leave of us and goes his way thither What comfort have we remaining in this and other innumerable cases but the hope of Immortality Which is the only thing that can raise our Spirit above the pleasures and the troubles too of this mortal Body This is our chiefest good on which we should set our heart This is the inheritance to which we are born as Lactantius speaks and for which we are form'd by vertue and piety the only inheritance of which we can be secure that we shall never be defeated For all this World we must leave behind us we can carry nothing away with us but an innocent and well-passed life and the hopes which accompany it He only comes to God rich and plentiful and abounding in wealth as his words are whom continence mercy patience charity and faith shall attend and conveigh into his Presence 5. To assure your self therefore of this great good on which our principal strength and comfort relies consider in the next place that your mind plainly tells you and its testimony is indubitable that God must needs be true and that whatsoever he saith ought immediately without any hesitation to be firmly believed For as he can never be deceived himself so we are sure he cannot deceive us 6. Now God hath been pleased at last to speak to us by his own dear Son as a voice from Heaven and a World of mighty deeds have testified 7. And seeing Jesus hath not only comprised in his Doctrine all the holy wisdome and all the goodness that ever was thought or spoken of since the beginning of time but hath likewise added a lively discovery of that state of good things which the heart of man naturally wishes and longs for in another World 8. And seeing in the last place God hath confirmed his exceeding great and precious promises of Eternal Life by his Resurrection from the Dead and his Ascension into Heaven and the sending of the Holy Ghost You ought to perswade your self of the truth of these invisible things and represent them so often to your mind till they seem no less real and certain than what you see with your Eyes and feel with your Hands Nay till all the pleasures and delights which the bounty of Heaven gives you in Friends or any other good things here seem but as shadowes and faint Images of the better enjoyments which you expect hereafter Those wise Men who were guided onely by the light of their own mind made no greater account of them And yet all the Philosophers of greatest fame were but little Children compared with Christian People in the knowledg of this great Point L. 1. praepar Cap. 4. as Eusebius justly glories We are not left to gather this truth as another of the Ancients speaks from the weak conjectures and imperfect reasonings of our own Lactant. L. 7. Cap. 8. but we know it from a Divine Tradition It is delivered to us by the Son of God who hath put an end to all disputes by coming from Heaven to us with the Words of Eternal Life Lay up his Words therefore most carefully in your heart let them dwell richly and plentifully in you in all wisdom and possess you at once with a mighty sense of God and of the dignity of your Soul and of Immortality and of the Joy of the Invisible World The Benefits of this Exercise are so evident that I may leave you to relate them when you have felt them It will be sufficient for me to suggest to you that the Heart must needs become by this means very cold and dead to those earthly enjoyments which were wont to bewitch and inchant it with their deceitful Pleasures If the Soul be cloathed as the Platonists fancied with as many Garments as there are Elements through which it passed as it descended into this Body and if it be so mufled in them that it doth but fumble in its thoughts and hath much ado to feel it self hereby it will be able in some measure to devest it self of those thick Blankets wherein it is wrapped and throw off those heavy coats that dangle about its heeles and incumber its motions as it sets its Feet forward to walk toward the Father of its Being It is no contemptible discourse which their Master makes concerning Felicity Plato in Phaedone which he rightly places in the contemplation and love of the Soveraign Good How that no Man can attain unto it in this Life by reason of the lumpish matter to which the Soul is fast tyed and by reason of the multitude of Worldly affairs which require our attendance yea and of the fancies and toyes that will fill our thoughts do what we can Whence he concludes that either no Man shall be happy which he thinks is very absurdly affirmed or he must arrive at his Happiness after he is dead And if when we are dead saith he the Blessed Time is come wherein we may enjoy as we would that greatest good then the nearer any Man approaches unto Death the nearer he comes within the reach of his Felicity If a Man therefore will with-draw Himself from the World if he will abstract his mind from sensible things and take his heart from bodily pleasures and turn himself into himself which they judged as the Holy Writers do a kind of Death he shall be in the beginnings of his Happiness There I know my Friend you desire to find your self and for that cause I pray you learn thus to steal out of the company of Worldly things which by hindring us from beginning our Happiness would keep us in perpetual misery Converse as often as you can with your nobler self and contract an intimate acquaintance with those divine Inhabitants which are lodged there Grow into an high esteem of that unseen Power which knows God and the Life to come which thinks and guides and gives orders desires and loves and doth all things else belonging to this Life And calling to mind continually its worth and dignity and considering for what heavenly enjoyments it was designed disdain to let it be condemned to so base a slavery as to serve the Body only
I forget to look continually towards this Immortal Life And what is that should make me forget it How come I to lose that sense and let go my hopes of Immortal Life O wonderful Love O patient goodness which still waits and attends upon me to remind my Soul of its everlasting bliss May I after so long a time of sleep and such forgetfulness be favoured with a sight of it Will my love and free obedience be yet accepted Awake awake then all the hidden powers of my Soul rise up and call him blessed Who can with-hold his heart from devoting it self affectionately to him With what pleasures can I entertain my self comparable to those which grow out of the hope of Immortal Life Or what service can be unpleasant which is undertaken for so great an happiness The thoughts of it make my Soul light and aërial even under the burden of this Body I feel it drawing me up above from whence when I look down upon all the men of this lower World how do they appear but as so many little Ants busily creeping on a Mole-hill while I sit upon the holy Hill of God O that my mind could dwell there Or since I cannot reach so high a felicity it may never descend from thence but with a lively remembrance of the joys of that Celestial Hope which may bear me up above all the petty temptations of this World For what is it that I labour and toil with such restless thoughts and desires For what am I troubled and discontented Can any thing make him absolutely unhappy who hopes to live for ever with God No I will rejoyce in my Lord always again I say I will rejoyce I will bear at least even all my dulness and listlesness to my duty with a quiet and composed mind in hope one day to be more full of life Here my Pen is very forward and would be running on further than my design will allow And therefore I must restrain it and abbreviate also the remaining Counsels having been so long in some of the foregoing lest instead of a little Book to carry about with you and refresh you I should send you a tedious Volume that will quite tire you Let me only annex before I leave this a Prayer to God which relates to what hath been now said and with which you are not unacquainted A PRAYER O Most Holy and blessed for ever more Who art the most excellent Nature the Perfection of beauty happy in thy self alone and needest not the Company of any of thy Creatures to make thee happier than thou art It is we poor beggarly things that stand in need of thy continued grace and love who art the Father of our spirits the only hope and stay of our hearts the joy and comfort of our life that filling and satisfying good in whom alone our desires can meet with perfect rest and repose The most glorious of all the Heavenly Host can find no higher pleasures than those of loving and praising and obeying thee whose Ministers they are and delight to be in executing the commands of thy holy will in every thing For thy will is guided by the best and most excellent reason and is so propense we see to goodness benignity and charity that all its commands must needs be reasonable and good too and intend the greatest kindness to those that are obedient to them Every Creature in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and in the Sea obeys thy Almighty Word declaring thee to be as good as thou art great Rev. 5.13 and giving not only glory and power but blessing and honour unto thy Divine Majesty and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Yea that blessed Son of thy love when he came into the World freely chose to do thy will and not his own saying I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart Psal XL. 7. What is there then in Heaven or Earth that I can wish but to be united in hearty devout and chearful affection together with my dearest Saviour and all the Saints and Heavenly Host to that most holy will of thine by a free and constant obedience to it It is infinitely fit and desirable I am sure that we above all the rest of thy Creatures should take a perfect contentment and pleasure in serving thee who hast not only gratified all our senses with great and delightful variety of good things in this World but also sent thy Son from Heaven to entertain our Spirits with joyful hopes of having our weak and short obedience here rewarded with great and endless pleasures at thy right hand in the World to come Lord what is man that thou shouldest have such a regard unto him And what hearts have we if after all thy grace we should delight in any thing more than thee or be weary and faint in our minds while we are doing thy blessed will O how deeply should we have been indebted to thee if thou hadst only admitted us to the happiness of knowing and loving thee and complying with thy good will while we dwell in this body But that thou shouldest design when we expire to recompense the meer discharge of our duty here with the continued happiness of being with thee and enjoying thee for ever is an expression of thy bounty that exceeds all our wonder and admiration If a full sense of this thy stupendious goodness should now possess our spirits they would grow I believe too big and large for our bodies and bursting forth in passionate love would make their way into Eternity which only is wide and long enough to admire and love and praise thee in But be pleased O Lord of love in thy infinite goodness to give me at present such a true and lively feeling of it as may make me think of nothing so much or with so much delight and satisfaction of heart and as may inflame me with such a fervent love unto thee that it may melt and dissolve my will into thine and consume all my corrupt desires and abate at least the chilness and indifference of my spirit and offer me up a whole burnt Sacrifice to thee my God And then stay I most humbly beseech thee for the fulness of my love and praises and joyful acknowledgments till I come to that happy liberty of having nothing else to do but to love and thank and magnifie thy Name for ever and ever It is my daily and repeated desire according as our Lord hath taught us that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven to which both now and ever I say most heartily Amen O purge and refine my nature to such a degree of vertue and goodness that I may at least delight to do thy will as those heavenly Creatures do O that those little little acts of Piety and Charity which I am able to exercise in this World may never want this complacence in the performance of them
you In brief This is an holy Feast where our Lord not only makes you good chear for the present but renews your decayed strength and begets in you a greater liveliness for the future One great end of the institution of publique Feasts among all Nations in the World was for the maintaining of unity love and friendship among the People that lived under the same Laws and for the recreating of those who were tired with their constant labours And it is the design we likewise see of our private Feasts which are times of ease and refreshment for our neighbours and preserve also good will among them according to that of Ben Syra a famous Person among the Jews Spread the Table and contention ceases We are all good Friends at a Feast Upon which account Plato was of Opinion that their Gods themselves in much pitty to Man-kind whose life is full of labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lib. 2. de Leg. did appoint those Festival times for them that they might have a little relaxation and be incouraged by those publique joyes to proceed without any murmuring in their several imployments We are very sure that God hath instituted by his particular command this Holy Feast like to which none ever was and which we may celebrate as oft as we please upon the Body and Blood of his dear Son Whereby a great love sure will be begot in our hearts to him and his service whose guests we are and at whose cost the entertainment is made meerly out of his extraordinary grace and royal favour towards us This sure will be a singular refreshment and restorative to our spirits when we grow weary and almost spent in the work of our Lord. The sweetness of this will be like Wine to the Heart or like Marrow and Fatness to the Bones It will stir us up when we are listless and comfort us when we are sad and put life into us when we are dead and make us not only able but willing to be Religious being both our pleasure and our food Seneca speaking of times of relaxation and rest from labours saith he knew some great Men L. de tranq animi who once a Moneth would give themselves a Day of play and others that every Day would allow some Hours wherein they would not so much as write a Letter or meddle with any thing that had the show of business If we in like manner did though not every Day yet every Moneth take this sweet repast if out of love to Christ and consideration of our own necessities we did lay aside all other thoughts and give up our selves to those delightful Meditations which here present themselves unto us it would ease us of many cares and troubles and make us more chearfully do the will of God at other times and dispose us to attend the whole business of Religion as the pleasure rather than the labour of our life But if you be cast into a place where you have not the opportunity so frequently to celebrate the remembrance of Christ's death by receiving the outward and visible signs and pledges of his Divine Grace then you may the oftner communicate with him spiritually in your own heart and represent his dying love as lively as you can to it in your retired thoughts Beseeching him to accept of your unfeigned desires to make him your publick acknowledgments and to joyn with all those pious Souls which are then met together throughout the Christian World to show forth his praise and to offer up themselves in holy love to him and to our blessed Redeemer Christ Jesus For which purpose I would advise you to make use of all such Meditations Prayers and Thanksgivings as are wont to attend those Solemnities altering only those words which relate to your actual receiving at the Table of the Lord. The profit of such a frequent remembrance of our Lord one way or other will be exceeding great for the securing your duty and the making all those Counsels which I have given you the more effectual It will put you in mind of the worth and dignity of your Soul for which Christ hath done and suffered so much and on whom he bestows such precious tokens of his love It will quicken your love to him which is the life of Religion You shall taste how sweet it is beyond all comparison to be Religious whereby we have such hope in God There you shall be remembred how gainful it is to be good beyond all the purchases of this World for Christ imparts himself to you and all his benefits There you pray with the greatest devotion and offer up Spiritual Sacrifices and you represent also the Sacrifice of Christ to prevail for blessings for you And there you are most likely to have the most plentiful communications of God's Holy Spirit to you and to feel your Heart dilated in the largest affection unto Him There you confirm your promises to God and he seales his to you You cannot there be of another judgment if you would than this that since Christ dyed to give you life you ought not henceforth to live to your self but unto him which dyed for you and rose again This I make no doubt is one reason why those promises wherein Men stand engaged to God are no better performed because they do not frequently repeat this holy action in the exercise of which they find their hearts at present fully resolved for God and goodness This is the cause that they waver again and all their Promises and Vows wherein they bind themselves fall off like cords of vanity Whereas did they upon all occasions communicate with our Saviour they would find their resolutions grow so strong and stedfast that no temptation would be able to break them They would be like Bands of Iron or Chains rather of Gold that would hold them for ever to their duty You have heard I believe the story of Mithridates who by often use of the Antidote which he invented so fortified his Spirits that they resisted the force of all Poyson Insomuch that when to avoid the Roman slavery he would have dispatched himself by a strong venemous draught he was not able to effect it Such a soveraign vertue you will find in the frequent devout receiving of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood It will secure the life of your Soul confirm your strength arm you against the bitings of the old Serpent and make it in a manner impossible for you to be impoisoned by any naughty affections But I have writ so much on this Subject in other Books already that I need not say any more of it here You find I hope those Treatises useful to the stirring up Devotion and to the making a Soul more forward and unwearied in Gods service And there likewise you may meet with a particular Prayer for Love to the Holy Communion wherefore let me proceed without any stop to the next Advice XIII IF
greatest repute in his faculty to look after their health and administer Medicines to them Just thus it is in the case of our Souls it is too much presumption and careless confidence to rely upon our own counsel alone in the setlement of our everlasting estate or in the Cure of those Disorders and Distempers in our mind which threaten danger we ought to take good advice and for fear of mistake have the judgement of some more skilful Person to secure us as well as our own And indeed from hence you may learn what account God makes of your Soul and how highly it ought to be valued by your self for the safety of which He hath made such careful and plentiful provision Having next to the gift of his Son and of the Holy-Ghost setled an order of men to minister unto Souls to look after them and see that they do not perish for want of instruction or good advice As he would have our Saviour lay down his life for them so he hath thereby made him a most compassionate High-Priest and preferred him to a Kingdome which is nothing else but an Office Power and Authority to take care of Souls and do them good continually By vertue of which he hath committed Authority unto others in a perpetual succession that they should watch for Mens souls as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks declaring to them their own worth and his love ingrafting that Word in them which is able to save them calling them to repentance establishing them in the Faith incouraging their Progress in vertue ordering their goings feeding them with his blessed Body and Blood absolving them from their sins assisting them in their last agony that they may finish their course with joy This is the effect of a peculiar kindness to Souls He hath not dealt so with our Bodies for we never heard of a Company of Men appointed by God to invent pleasures and contrive ways for the feasting of our Senses There are none separated and set apart by him to teach the World how to get riches and improve their Estates and fill their Coffers But all the wisdom of Heaven is employed to other purposes having ordained Men to teach us how to live above those things and to replenish our minds with his knowledg and our wills with his love This he hath made their constant function and perpetual employment to the Worlds end And therefore be not slack to use their Ministry nor doubt of the blessing of God upon it But have so much love to your Soul as to apply your self to them for assistance who are particularly concerned to give it and so much love to God as to be confident he will make those means successful which he hath particularly ordained for your good A PRAYER I Adore Thee O Lord the Father of Mercies who hast designed Mankind to the greatest felicity in everlasting Life And hast not left us in pursuance of it to the uncertain guesses of our own Mind but sent thy dear Son into the World both to assure us of that happiness and to direct us by his holy Doctrine and Example how we may attain it Blessed be the tender mercy of our God whereby the Son of Righteousness hath visited us from on high to give light to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace Great is thy love O Lord which after he had left the World sent his Apostles and other Ministers of thy Word to be the Messengers of Reconciliation and Peace the Leaders and Conducters of Souls the Stewards of thy Mysteries and the Guides unto Blessedness Great is thy love which to this day continueth a merciful care over Souls in providing a succession of faithful Pastors and Instructors to teach us our duty to reduce us when we go astray to resolve us when we doubt to help us when we are weak or weary and by their counsels admonitions and comforts to bring our Souls back again safe to Thee the Father of Spirits I see O Lord how dear and precious our Souls are in thy sight for which our Saviour hath done and suffered so much and imployeth still the care and pains of so many Persons to take the charge and oversight of them and guide them unto their Rest My Soul blesses Thee and all that is within me praises thy holy Name as for all other thy Benefits so for the many good Instructors I have met withall the many good Lessons I have been taught and the pious Counsels and Advices I have received I thank thee for putting me into the Hands of such Friendly and skilful Guides and that I have never hitherto wanted some to conduct me in all the dangerous and troublesome passages of my Life Be pleased still to favour me with the continuance of the like happiness enduing me with wisdome to chuse and grace to follow such a person who may on all occasions clearly inlighten my understanding settle my doubts confirm my resolutions quicken my endeavours direct my zeal keep all my passions in order and secure my goings in thy paths That so I may neither miss my way nor proceed with irregular motions nor be discouraged in it but hold an even steady and constant course in well doing till they to whom thou hast committed the care of me deliver me up in peace and safety into the hands of the great Shepheard and Bishop of our Souls Christ Jesus To whom be Glory and Dominion for ever Amen XIV BUT when you are in your best moods and think your self furthest off from danger it will be good to exercise an Holy Fear and Jealousie over your self least you should give way to any thing which may make you grow worse Remember how false and treacherous the conquered Enemy is and therefore it ought to be narrowly watcht Though it promise fair Remember that you must not trust it without a constant Guard And mark the least beginings of an evil for fear if they be slighted as small faults they draw you into a greater Though we must not be dejected for our little irregularities yet we must not pass them over neither without a serious observance If a Father laugh or smile when he chides a wanton Child it is so far from being a check to his follies that it doth the more embolden him to play those idle tricks for which he is reproved And so it is to be feared we shall find our selves disposed if we be not in good earnest displeased at our selves for any thing that borders upon Vice and do not reprove our selves seriously for making too much use of our liberty We may be in danger by this mildness and gentleness to take the boldness to proceed to further transgressions But I may seem to forget to whom I write and considering what a great quantity you have of this fear I had need give it a large dash of some other mixture least it turn
able than we are And particularly I would advise you on such occasions to lift up your Soul frequently to God in earnest desires beseeching Him to preserve you from cheating your self and that he would help you to discern clearly when it is the flattery and when it is the meer weakness of Flesh and Blood that hinders you from doing as you were wont When you cast a glance I say towards Heaven and send up a sigh thither now and then as you are able let this be one of your desires that God would be so gracious as to give you to feel plainly when meer necessity requires your attendance on your Body and when it calls for more than it needs For he loves that in every thing we should make known our requests to Him and will certainly some way or other satisfie your mind in such concernments And when you have used the best judgment you have and can procure together with your Prayers about them then I hope you will be chearful and let your thoughts trouble you no more Or if a thought should happen to start up and strike your mind telling you that you are lazy yet believe I beseech you your more deliberate and not these suddain conclusions There is one case I know of this kind wherein though it be certain that it is impossible for us to do as we were wont and that we are not hindred by any fault in our will but by the meer indisposition of nature yet it may be hard sometime to avoid dejected and complaining thoughts upon this account It is in sickness when the Mind necessarily languishes with the Body You may chance then to imagine that some sin or other is the cause of this Correction and so you have drawn this disability upon your self for which you cannot now be humbled as you desire But I hope My Friend that you take such an exact view of your life that sickness will not let you see any fault that was not visible to you before And I know you to be wiser than to torment your self with a fancy that there is some sin lurking in you though you cannot find it out But if any thing should discover it self to you which was not so evident before let me beseech you not to pass any hard censure upon your self But to remember that this hath been bewailed whensoever you lamented the general infirmity of your nature and that now perhaps it is represented to you more ugly than it doth deserve or if it be not yet it is sufficient only to beg of God to accept your hearty confession and your promise of amendment when you are able and to desire your spiritual guide to be the witness of your sincere resolution and to give you absolution and his blessing and so rest satisfied But there may be another reason likewise assigned of our heaviness at certain seasons which I have noâ— yet named and that is the withholding in a great measure of thaâ— strength and power which was upon us from the Holy-Ghost to raise and elevate us to an high pitch of love activity and joy in well doing For as the help of that doth lift us up above our selves so when it much abates we are apt to fall as much below our selves and to be surprised with sadness and dejection of spirit to see our selves so strangely changed And this may be denyed us for several causes either because we have not improved it so well as we might or because our Lord sees that our Nature cannot bear always such extraordinary motions or that he may make us more sensible of his favours and raise their price and value in our esteem or that he may try our strength as a Mother le ts go her hold of the Child to make it feel its Feet or that he may thereby bow our wills more absolutely to his and break our self-love which desires nothing but pleasure or that he may prove whether we will love him for himself and not for the delicate entertainments which he gives us or for some such cause unknown to you and me and every body else And shall we not yield submission quietly to a thing for which there may be so many reasons and those not at all to our prejudice but to our profit Let me say a few words concerning the two last things mentioned and show you that if our Patience be exercised upon those accounts it will prove very beneficial to our Souls I cannot say as some have done that we ought not to desire goodness for our own good but meerly because it is pleasing to God No this seems to me a very absurd doctrine and utterly impossible that we should separate these two Piety and our own good We cannot so much as desire to be good but we shall feel a satisfaction in it For the very Name of good carries a respect in it to something in us to which it is agreeable and convenient We do not mean when we bid you love God for himself that you should not therein love your self and seek your own contentment for you cannot chuse but be pleased in the love of God and vertue But this I may affirm with safety that there may be sometimes too much of self-love in our vehement desires after the extraordinary pleasures and joyes of piety and that if we could be content after we used due diligence with our driness and barrenness of spirit with our dulness and want of vigour nay with our frailties and faults too meerly out of submission to God and because he thinks not fit to give us the pleasure of being wholly without them it would be highly acceptable to him and no less advantageous to us If in all things I mean we could rest satisfied that God's will is done though ours be denyed if we could forbear to prosecute our own will even in those matters and desire him to give us as much Life and Spirit and chearfulness and joy as he pleases we should be so far from offending him that he would take it for a very grateful piece of service to him This is not to teach any remisness in your desires and endeavours but it supposes you do your best and only advises you that if notwithstanding you cannot be as you would you do not let your spirit fall into any impatience or fretfulness For this is to prefer God's pleasure above your own It is a subjection of your will to his in those points wherein you are most desirous to have it gratified It is an unusual instance of resignation to him which declares there is nothing so dear to you but you are willing to quit it so you may but do well and be accepted with Him And here remember these two things First that our solid comfort doth not depend upon doing every thing so readily easily and delightfully as we would but in accomplishing Gods will however it be done And 2dly That Humility Patience and Submission to God
in the midst of our infirmities may be more acceptable to him than that complacence and joy which we feel to arise meerly from the sense that we have of our strength and abilities To be pleased in our successes is not so pleasing to God as to be patient in our Contests Nay to rejoyce and triumph in our Victories is nothing so good as to be constant and resolved notwithstanding that we are a little overcome In those spiritual consolations which we thirst after we do not always receive so much profit as we do pleasure but in the want of them if our wills be thereby more perfectly subdued to his we receive both a very great benefit and in the issue no small pleasure You have seen perhaps or you may imagine the smoak of a Potters Furnace how thick and black it is as if it would make a Picture of Hell it self Who would think that the Vessels of Clay which are baked there would not be burnt to ashes by the fury of the Fire or that at lest they would come out as black as soote by the foulness of the smoak And yet when the Fire is put out and the Vessels unfurnaced you see there is no such thing But that which was soft and yielding is become hard and strong and its complexion likewise is so much mended that a Prince need not disdain the use of some of these Cups Just thus it is with a distressed Soul when it is covered with a Cloud and wrapt in darkness and burns thereby in a great and sore displeasure against it self It is apt to think that this sure is the Gate of Hell that it is forsaken of God and shall either perish in this condition or not escape out of it without much loss But after a while when the work of God is done and the vapours are vanished and disappear it findes it self to be grown much in firmness purity and splendor and that it is made a Vessel of honour fit for the Masters use There is no loss of any thing but of its self-will Nothing is consumed but its softness and delicacy which made it loth to be toucht The like may be said of many little passions and disorderly desires to which our frail Natures are subject If we can free our selves from one inordinate passion which is a too vehement desire to be quite rid of them it might bring us little less peace than if we were and our profiting would no less appear in continuing still to do our duty of which we complain that they are so great an hinderance However there is no reason for such conclusions as those which good minds have been apt to make in a gloomy day that if God loved them he would not treat them after that manner There is rather great reason considering what hath been said to be not only patient but thankful to him in such a condition For it is not inconsistent with his care and infinite kindness to let us be obnoxious to those changes and those weaknesses too which I have mentioned but you see plainly it must be so and therefore it is best to be well pleased with these Methods of our Heavenly Father at least contented that it should be so And let me add this for a conclusion of this Discourse that God may suffer some Persons to be thus overcast with darkness and he may with-hold his gracious influences from them for the sins of their former life before they were converted which deserved he should never have afforded his grace unto them at all What are we should such Men say that we should expect to live always under the light of his countenance Alas one age of darkness is too good for us and we have reason to thank him if we be not eternally banished from his sight Why should such poor things as we think to receive every day some extraordinary tokens of his Divine favour when one good look from him is enough to oblige us as long as we live How much more reason have we to praise him that all our days are not gloomy that our Sun is not always eclipsed or rather that our life is but one long Night than to complain that a Cloud sometimes passes over us or a Mist gathers about us It is but fit that we should be hereby taught what it is to sin against God and it is well for us that we were not sent to learn it in outer darkness We are not ill dealt withall if we can learn at so cheap a rate the value of pardoning mercy but shall have cause in Heaven to praise God that we paid no dearer for it Is this all the punishment that is due for our many faults Doth he not use us very kindly if we be not quite cast out of his Presence O what a joy will it be to us to find that we are in his favour in the other World And we may be content if he please to stay for our joy till that time when we shall certainly know whether we have reason to rejoyce or no. But I shall say no more of this to you who have spent your time so innocently and vertuously that there is reason you should reap the fruit of it now in perpetual joy and satisfaction of heart from the consideration of God's goodness to you And I had wholly omitted this last Advice did not I know the weakness of humane Nature to be so great that the best disposed Souls may sometimes feel such alterations in them as may make it very necessary In which case if ever you should find your self doubt not to approach to God and say to him with all humility of spirit some such words as these A PRAYER I Acknowledg O great God the Lord of Heaven and Earth that I am not worthy of the least glimpse of thy divine favour It is sufficient that I live and behold the light of the Sun and am not banished into outer darkness And it is more than enough for so wretched a thing as I am that thou art pleased at any time of my life to bestow upon me the smallest testimony of thy love But that I live in hope to pass through all these Clouds and to behold my blessed Saviour in inconceivable splendor and rejoyce with him for ever O what a grace is it How infinitely am I indebted to Thee for such riches of mercy It ought to make me contented with any condition here and exceeding thankful to Thee that it is no worse Deal with me O merciful God even as thou pleasest so that I may but have this humble hope preserved in my heart of seeing and loving my Lord not as now darkly and dully but in the clearest light and with the most ardent love in Immortal Glory I submit to thy Infinite Wisdome under all that heaviness and listlesness of spirit wherewith I am oppressed from which I know thy Infinite Power if thou didst judg it most convenient is able