mankind Mortality is as it were essential to our Nature neither could wee have had our souls but upon the tearms of a re-delivery when they shall be called for If the holiest Saints or the greatest Monarchs sped otherwise wee might have some colour of repining Now grieve if thou wilt that thou art a man grieve not that being man thou must die Neither is the benefit inferiour to the necessity Lo here the remedy of all our cares the physick for all our maladies the rescue from all our feares and dangers earnestly sued for by the painfull dearly welcome to the distressed Yea lo here the Cherub that keeps the gate of Paradise there is no entrance but under his hand In vain do we hope to passe to the glory of Heaven any other way then through the gates of Death The second is the Conscience of a well-led life Guiltinesse vvill make any man fowardly unable to looke danger in the face much more Death whereas the innocent is bold as a Lion What a difference therefore there is betwixt a Martyr and a Malefactor this latter knows he hath done ill and therefore if he can take his death but patiently it is well the former knows he hath done well and therefore takes his death not patiently onely but chearfully But because no mortall man can have so innocently led his life but that he shall have passed many offences against his most holy and righteous God here must be Thirdly a finall peace firmly made betwixt God and the soul Two powerfull agents must mediate in it a lively Faith and a serious Repentance for those sins can never appear against us that are washed off with our tears and being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Now if we have made the Judge our friend what can the Sergeant doe The fourth is the power and efficacy of Christs death applyed to the soul Wherefore dyed he but that we might live Wherefore would he who is the Lord of life die but to sanctifie season and sweeten death to us Who would goe any other way then his Saviour went before him who can fear that enemy whom his Redeemer hath conquered for him who can run away from that Serpent whose sting is pulled out Oh Death my Saviour hath been thy death and therefore thou canst not be mine The fifth is the comfortable expectation and assurance of a certain resurrection and an immediate glory I doe but lay me down to my rest I shall sleep quietly and rise gloriously My soul in the mean time no sooner leaves my body then it enjoys God It did lately through my bodily eyes see my sad friends that bade me farewell with their tears now it hath the blisse-making vision of God I am no sooner lanched forth then I am at the haven where I would be Here is that which were able to make amends for a thousand deaths a glory infinite eternall incomprehensible This spirituall Ammunition shall sufficiently furnish the soul for her encounter with her last enemy so as she shall not only endure but long for this Combat and say with the chosen Vessell I desire to depart and to be with Christ SECT XVIII The miseries and inconveniences of the continued conjunction of the soul and body NOw for that long conversation causeth entirenesse and the parting of old friends and partners such the soul and body are cannot but be grievous although there were no actuall pain in the dissolution It will be requisite for us seriously to consider the state of this conjunction and to enquire what good offices the one of them doth to the other in their continued union for which they should be so loth to part And here wee shall finde that those two however united to make up one person yet as it fals out in crosse matches they are in continuall domestique jars one with the other and entertain a secret familiar kind of hostility betwixt themselves For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other One says well that if the body should implead the soul it might bring many foul impeachments against it and sue it for many great injuries done to that earthly part And the soul again hath no fewer quarrels against the body betwixt them both there are many brawls no agreement Our Schools have reckoned up therefore eight main incommodities which the soul hath cause to complain of in her conjunction with the body whereof the first is the defilement of Originall sinne wherewith the soul is not tainted as it proceeds alone from the pure hands of its Creator but as it makes up a part of a son of Adam who brought this guilt upon humano nature so as now this composition which we call man is corrupt Who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean saith Job The second is a pronenesse to sinne which but by the meeting of these partners had never been the soul if single would have been innocent thus matched what evill is it not apt to entertain An ill consort is enough to poyson the best disposition The difficulty of doing well is the third for how averse are we by this conjunction from any thing that is good This clog hinders us from walking roundly in the ways of God The good that I would doe I doe not saith the chosen Vessell The fourth is the dulnesse of our understanding and the dimnesse of our mentall eies especially in the things pertaining unto God which now we are forced to behold through the vail of flesh if therefore we mis-know the fault is in the mean through which we doe imperfectly discover them The fift is a perpetuall impugnation and self-conflict either part labouring to oppose and vanquish the other This field is fought in every mans bosome without any possibility of peace or truce till the last moment of dissolution The sixt is the racking solicitude of cares which continually distract the soul not suffering it to rest at ease whiles it carries this flesh about it The seventh is the multiplicity of passions which daily bluster within us and raise up continuall tempests in our lives disquieting our peace threatning our ruine The eight is the retardation of our glory for flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of God wee must lay down our load if we would enter into Heaven The seed cannot fructifie unlesse it die I cannot blame nature if it could wish not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon but so hath the eternall wisdome ordered that we should first lay down ere we can take up and be devested of earth ere we can partake of Heaven Now then sith so many and great discommodities doe so unavoidably accompany this match of soul and body and all of them cease instantly in the act of their dissolution what reason have we to be too deeply affected with
familiarity can abate of his aw nor fear abate ought of his love To whom the gates of heaven are ever open that he may goe in at pleasure to the throne of grace and none of the Angelicall spirits can offer to challenge him of too much boldnesse Whose eies are well acquainted with those heavenly guardians the presence of whom he doth as truly acknowledge as if they were his sensible companions He is well known of the King of glory for a daily suitor in the Court of heaven none so welcome there as he He accounts all his time lost that fals beside his God and can be no more weary of good thoughts then of happinesse His bosome is no harbour for any known evill and it is a question whether he more abhorres sin or hell His care is to entertain God in a clear and free heart and therefore he thrusts the world out of doors and humbly beseeches God to welcome himself to his own He is truly dejected and vile in his own eies Nothing but hell is lower then he every of his slips are hainous every trespasse is aggravated to rebellion The glory and favours of God heighten his humiliation He hath lookt down to the bottomles deep seen with horror what he deserved to feel everlastingly His crys have been as strong as his fears just he hath found mercy more ready to rescue him then he could be importunate His hand could not be so soon put forth as his Saviours for deliverance The sense of this mercy hath raised him to an unspeakable joy to a most fervent love of so dear a Redeemer that love hath knit his heart to so meritorious a deliverer and wrought a blessed union betwixt God and his soul That union can no more be severed from an infinite delight then that delight can be severed from an humble and cheerfull acquiescence in his munificent God And now as in an heavenly freedome he pours out his soul into the bosome of the Almighty in all faithfull suits for himself and others so he enjoys God in the blessings received and returns all zealous praises to the giver He comes reverently to the Oracles of God and brings not his eye but his heart with him not carelesly negligent in seeking to know the revealed will of his maker nor too busily inquisitive into his deep counsels not too remisse in the letter nor too peremptory in the sense gladly comprehending what he may and admiring what he cannot comprehend Doth God call for his ear He goes awfully into the holy presence and so hears as if he should now hear his last Latching every word that drops from the Preachers lips ere it fall to the ground and laying it up carefully where he may be sure to fetch it He sits not to censure but to learn yet speculation and knowledge is the least drift of his labour Nothing is his own but what he practiseth Is he invited to Gods feast he hates to come in a foul and slovenly dresse but trims up his soul so as may be fit for an heavenly guest Neither doth he leave his stomach at home cloyed with the world but brings a sharp appetite with him and so sâ—eds as if he meant to live for ever All earthly delicates are unfavoury to him in respect of that celestiall Manna Shortly he so eats and drinks as one that sees himself set at Table with God and his Angels and rises and departs full of his Saviour and in the strength of that meal walks vigorously and cheerfully on towards his glory Finally as he well knows that he lives and moves and hath his beeing in God so he referres his life motions and beeing wholly to God so acting all things as if God did them by him so using all things as one that enjoyes God in them and in the mean time so walking on earth that he doth in a sort carry his heaven with him THE FREE PRISONER OR The COMFORT of RESTRAINT Written Some while since in the Tower BY I. H. B. N. The Free Prisoner OR The Comfort of Restraint SECT I. SIR WHiles you pity my affliction take heed lest you aggravate it and in your thoughts make it greater then it is in my own It is true I am under restraint What is that to a man that can be free in the Tower and cannot but be a prisoner abroad Such is my condition and every Divine Philosophers with me Were my walls much straiter then they are they cannot hold me in It is a bold word to say I cannot I will not be a prisoner It is my Soul that is I my flesh is my partner if not my servant not my self However my body may be immured that agile spirit shall flye abroad and visit both earth and heaven at pleasure Who shall hinder it from mounting up in an instant to that supream region of blisse and from seeing that by the eye of faith which S. Paul saw in extasie and when it hath viewed that blessed Hierarchy of heaven to glance down through the innumerable and unmeasurable globes of light which move in the firmament and below it into this elementary world and there to compasse seas and lands without shipwrack in a trice which a Drake or Cavendish cannot doe but with danger and in some years navigation And if my thoughts list to stay themselves in the passage with what variety can my soul be taken up of severall objects Here turning in to the dark vaults and dungeons of penall restraint to visit the disconsolate prisoners and to fetch from their greater misery a just mitigation of mine own There looking in to the houses of vain jollity and pitying that which the sensuall fools call happinesse Here stepping in to the Courts of great Princes and in them observing the fawning compliances of some the trecherous underworking of others hollow friendships faithlesse ingagements fair faces smooth tongues rich suits viewing all save their hearts censuring nothing that it sees not There calling in at the low cottages of the poor and out of their empty cupboard furnishing it self with thankfulnesse Here so over-looking the Courts of Justice as not willing to seerigour or partiality There listing what they say in those meetings which would passe for sacred and wondring at what it hears Thus can and shall and doth my nimble spirit bestir it self in a restless flight making onely the Empyreall heaven the bounds of it's motion not being more able to stand still then the heavens themselves whence it descended Should the iron enter into my soul as it did into that good Patriarchs yet it cannot fetter me No more can my spirit be confined to one place then my body can be diffused to many Perhaps therefore you are mistaken in my condition for what is it I beseech you that makes a prisoner Is it an allotment to the same room without change without remove What is that still to a minde that is free And why is my body then
but their thanks and prayers rayling on our very profession in the streets and rejoycing in our supposed ruine Father forgive them for they knew not what they did Here we were out of the danger of this mis-raised fury and had leisure to pray for the quenching of those wilde fires of contention ' and causlesse malice which to our great grief we saw wicked incendiaries daily to cast amongst Gods dear well-minded people Here we have well and happily approved with the blessed Apostle that what ever our restraint be the Word of God is not bound With what liberty with what zeal with what successe hath that been preached by us to all commers Let them say whether the Tower had ever so many such guests or such benedictions so as if the place have rendered us safe we have endeavoured to make it happy Wherin our performances have seemed to confute that which Cornelius Bishop of Rome long since observed that the mind laden with heavy burdens of affliction is not able to doe that service which it can doe when it is free and at ease Our troubles through Gods mercy made us more active and our labours more effectuall SECT VI. ADde unto these if you please the eminent dignity of the place such as is able to give a kinde of honour to captivity the ancient seat of Kings chosen by them as for the safe residence of their royall persons so for their treasury their wardrobe their Magazine all these precious things are under the same custody with our selves sent hither not as to a prison but a repository and why should we think our selves in any other condition How many worthy inhabitants make choice to fixe their abode within these wals as not knowing where to be happier the place is the same to us if our will maybe the same with theirs they dearly purchase that which cost us nothing but our fees nothing makes the difference but the meer conceit of Liberty which whiles I can give to my self in my thoughts why am I pityed as miserable whiles their happinesse is applauded You see then how free I am in that which you mis-call my prison see now how little cause I have to affect this liberty which you imagine me to want since I shall be I can be no other then a prisoner abroad There is much difference of prisons One is strait and close locked so far from admitting visitants that it scarce allows the sun to look in at those crosse-barred grates another is more large and spacious yeelding both walks and accesse Even after my discharge from these wals I shall be yet sure to be a prisoner both these ways For what is my body but my prison in the one and what is the world but my prison in the other kinde SECT VII TO begin with the former never was there a more close prisoner then my soul is for the time to my body Close in respect of the essence of that spirit which since it's first Mittimus never stir'd out from this strait room never can doe till my gaole-delivery If you respect the improvement of the operatiōs of that busie soul it is any where it is successively every where no place can hold it none can limit it but if you regard the immortall and immateriall substance of it it is fast lockt up within these wals of clay till the day of my changing come even as the closest captive may write letters to his remotest friends whilest his person is in durance I have too much reason to acknowledge my native Jayle and feel the true Symptomes of it to my pain what darkness of sorrow have I here found what little-ease of melancholick lodgings what manacles and shakles of cramps yea what racks of torturing convulsions And if there be others that finde less misery in their prison yet there is no good soul but findes equall restraint That spirituall substance which is imprisoned within us would fain be flying up to that heaven whence it descended these wals of flesh forbid that evolation as Socrates cal'd it of old and will not let it out till the God of spirits who placed it there shall unlock the doors and free the prisoner by death He that insused life into Lazarus that he might call him from the prison of the grave must take life from us when he cals us out of this prison of flesh I desire to be loosed and to be with Christ saith the Apostle as some versions expresse it whiles we are chained to this flesh we can have no passage to heaven no free conversation with our Saviour Although it was the singular priviledge of that great Doctor of the Gentiles that he was in heaven before his dissolution whether in the body or out of the body he knew not How far that rapture extended whether to both soul and body if he knew not how should we But this we know that such extasie and vision was in him without separation of the soul from the body which another should hope for in vain And for him so he saw this glory of Paradise that he could not yet enjoy it Before he or we can be blessed with the fruition of Christ vve must be loosed that is freed from our clog and our chain of this mortall body What but our prison wals can hinder us here from a free prospect What but these wals of flesh can hinder me from a clear vision of God I must now for the time see as I may Nothing can enter into my soul but what passes through my senses and partakes in some sort of their earthlinesse when I am freed from them I shall see as I am seen in an abstracted and heavenly way so as one spirit apprehends another I do now at the best see those spirituall objects darkly by the eye of faith as in a glasse and that not one of the clearest neither Alas what dim representations are these that I can attain to here of that Majesty whose sight shal make me blessed I shall once see as I am seen face to face the face of my glorified soul shall see the face of that all-glorious Deity and in that sight be eternally happy It is enough for a prisoner in this dungeon of clay to know of and fore-expect such felicity vvhereof these earthly gieves render him as yet uncapable SECT VIII WOE is me how many prisons do we passe so soon as ever this divine soul is insused into this flesh it is a prisoner neither can any more passe out of this skin till this frame of nature be demolished And now as the soul of this Embryon is instantly a prisoner to the body so the body is also a prisoner in the womb wherein it is formed what darknesse what closenesse what uneasinesse what nuisance is there in this dungeon of nature There he must lie in an uncouth posture for his appointed month till the native bonds being loosed the doors forced open he shall
THREE TRACTATES The Devout Soul The Free-Prisoner The Remedie of Discontentment To which may be added The Peace-maker BY JOS. HALL D. D. and B. N. LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for NAT BUTTER M. DC XLVI TO ALL CHRISTIAN READERS Grace and Peace THat in a time when wee heare no noise but of drums Trumpets and talk of nothing but arms and sieges and battels I should write of Devotion may seem to some of you strange and unseasonable to me contrarily it seems most fit and opportune For when can it be more proper to direct our addresse to the Throne of Grace then when we are in the very jaws of Death Or when should we goe to seek the face of our God rather then in the needfull time of trouble Blessed be my God who in the midst of these wofull tumults hath vouchsafed to give me these calme and holy thoughts which I justly suppose he meant not to suggest that they should be smoothered in the brest wherein they were conceived but with a purpose to have the benefit communicated unto many Who is there that needs not vehement excitations and helps to Devotion and when more then now In a tempest the Mariners themselves doe not onely cry every man to his God but awaken Jonah that is fast asleep under the hatches and chide him to his prayers Surely had we not been failing in our Devotions we could not have been thus universally miserable That duyy the neglect wherof is guilty of our calamity must in the effectuall performance of it be the meanes of our recovery Be but devout and we cannot miscarry under judgements Woe is me the teares of penitence were more fit to quench the publique flame then blood How soon would it cleare up above head if we were but holily affected within Could we send our zealous Ambassadours up to heaven we could not faile of an happy peace I direct the way God bring us to the end For my own particular practice God is witnesse to my soule that as one the sense of whose private affliction is swallowed up of the publique I cease not dayly to ply the Father of mercies with my fervent prayers that he would at last be pleased after so many streames of blood to passe an act of Pacification in heaven And what good heart can doe otherwise Brethren all ye that love God and his Church and his Truth and his Anointed and your Country and your selves and yours joyn your forces with mine and let us by an holy violence make way to the gates of heaven with our Petition for mercy and peace and not suffer our selves to be beaten off from the threshold of Grace till we be answered with a condescent He whose goodnesse is wont to prevent our desires will not give denials to our importunities Pray and Farewell Norwich March 20. 1643. THE DEVOVT SOULE SECT I. DEvotion is the life of Religion the very soul of Piety the highest imploiment of grace and no other then the prepossession of heaven by the Saints of God here upon earth every improvement whereof is of more advantage and value to the Christian soule then all the profits and contentments which this world can afford it There is a kind of Art of Devotion if we can attain unto it whereby the practice thereof may be much advanced Wee have known indeed some holy souls which out of the generall precepts of piety and their own happy experiments of Gods mercy have through the grace of God grown to a great measure of perfection this way which yet might have been much expedited and compleated by those helps which the greater illumination and experience of others might have afforded them Like as we see it in other faculties there are those who out of a naturall dexterity and their own frequent practice have got into a safe posture of defence and have handled their weapon with commendable skill whom yet the Fence-schoole might have raised to an higher pitch of cunning As nature is perfited so grace is not a little furthered by Art since it pleaseth the wisdome of God to work ordinarily upon the soul not by the immediate power of miracle but in such methods and by such means as may most conduce to his blessed ends It is true that our good motions come from the Spirit of God neither is it lesse true that all the good counsails of others proceed from the same Spirit and that good Spirit cannot be crosse to itselfe he therefore that infuses good thoughts into us suggests also such directions as may render us apt both to receive and improve them If God be bounteous we may not be idle and neglective of our spirituall aids SECT II. II you tell me by way of instance in a particular act of Devotion that there is a gift of prayer and that the Spirit of God is not tyed to rules I yeeld both these but withall I must say there are also helps of prayer and that we must not expect immediate inspirations I finde the world much mistaken in both They think that man hath the gift of prayer that can utter the thoughts of his heart roundly unto God that can expresse himselfe smoothly in the phrase of the holy Ghost and presse God with most proper words and passionate vehemence And surely this is a commendable faculty wheresoever it is but this is not the gift of prayer you may call it if you will the gift of Elocution Doe we say that man hath the gift of pleading that can talk eloquently at the Barre that can in good termes loud and earnestly importune the Judge for his Client and not rather he that brings the strongest reason and quotes his books and precedents with most truth and clearest evidence so as may convince the Jury and perswade the Judge Doe we say he hath the gift of preaching that can deliver himselfe in a flowing manner of speech to his hearers that can cite Scriptures or Fathers that can please his auditory with the flowers of Rhetorick or rather he that can divide the Word aright interpret it soundly apply it judiciously put it home to the conscience speaking in the evidence of the Spirit powerfully convincing the gainsayers comforting the dejected and drawing every soul nearer to heaven The like must we say for prayer the gift whereof he may be truly said to have not that hath the most rennible tongue for prayer is not so much a matter of the lips as of the heart but he that hath the most illuminated apprehension of the God to whom he speaks the deepest sense of his own wants the most eager longings after grace the ferventest desires of supplyes from heaven and in a word whose heart sends up the strongest groans and cries to the Father of mercies Neither may we look for Enthusiasmes and immediate inspirations putting our selves upon Gods Spirit in the solemn exercises of our invocation without heed or meditation the dangerous inconvenience whereof hath been too often
found in the rash and unwarrantable expressions that have fallen from the mouths of unwary suppliants but we must addresse our selves with due preparation to that holy work we must digest our suits and fore-order our supplications to the Almighty so that there may be excellent and necessary use of meet rules of our Devotion He whose Spirit helps us to pray and whose lips taught us how to pray is an alsufficient example for us all the skill of men and Angels cannot afford a more exquisite modell of supplicatory Devotion then that blesser Saviour of ours gave us in the mount led in by a divine and heart-raising preface carried out with a strong and heavenly enforcement wherein an awfull compellation makes way for petition and petition makes way for thanksgiving the petitions marshalled in a most exact order for spirituall blessings which have an immediate concernment of God in the first place then for temporall favours which concern ourselves in the second so punctuall a methode had not been observed by him that heareth prayers if it had been all one to him to have had our Devotions confused and tumultuary SECT III. THere is commonly much mistaking of Devotion as if it were nothing but an act of vocall prayer expiring with that holy breath and revived with the next task of our invocation which is usually measured of many by frequence length smoothnesse of expression lowdnesse vehemence Whereas indeed it is rather an habituall disposition of an holy soul sweetly conversing with God in all the forms of an heavenly yet awful familiarity and a constant intertainment of ourselves here below with the God of spirits in our sanctifyed thoughts and affections One of the noble exercises whereof is our accesse to the throne of grace in our prayers whereto may be added the ordering of our holy attendance upon the blessed word and sacraments of the Almighty Nothing hinders therefore but that a stammering suppliant may reach to a more eminent devotion then he that can deliver himselfe in the most fluent and pathetical forms of Elocution and that our silence may be more devout then our noise We shall not need to send you to the Cels or cloysters for this skill although it will hardly be beleeved how far some of their contemplative men have gone in the Theory hereof Perhaps like as Chymists give rules for the attaining of that Elixir which they never found for sure they must needs fail of that perfection they pretend who erre commonly in the object of it always in the ground of it which is faith stripped by their opinion of the comfortablest use of it certainty of application SECT IV. AS there may be many resemblances betwixt Light and Devotion so this one especially that as there is a light universally diffused through the ayre and there is a particular recollection of light into the body of the sun and starres so it is in Devotion There is a generall kind of Devotion that goes through the renewed heart and life of a Christian which we may term Habituall and Virtuall and there is a speciall and fixed exercise of Devotion which wee name Actuall The soul that is rightly affected to God is never void of an holy Devotion where ever it is what ever it doth it is still lifted up to God and fastned upon him and converses with him ever serving the Lord in feare and rejoycing in him with trembling For the effectuall performance whereof it is requisite first that the heart be setled in a right apprehension of our God without which our Devotion is not thanklesse only but sinfull With much labour therefore and agitation of a mind illuminated from above we must find our selves wrought to an high awfull adorative and constant conceit of that incomprehensible Majesty in whom we live and move and are One God in three most glorious Persons infinite in wisdome in power in justice in mercy in providence in al that he is in al that he hath in all that he doth dwelling in light inaccessible attended with thousand thousands of Angels whom yet we neither can know neither would it avail us if we could but in the face of the eternall Son of his Love our blessed Mediatour God and Man who sits at the right hand of Majesty in the highest heavens from the sight of whose glorious humanity we comfortably rise to the contemplation of that infinite Deity whereto it is inseparably united in and by him made ours by a lively Faith finding our persons and obedience accepted expecting our full redemption and blessednesse Here here must our hearts be unremoveably fixed In his light must we see light no cloudy occurrences of this world no busie imployments no painfull sufferings must hinder us from thus seeing him that is invisible SECT V. NEither doth the devout heart see his God aloof off as dwelling above in the circle of heaven but beholds that infinite Spirit really present with him The Lord is upon thy right hand saith the Psalmist Our bodily eye doth not more certainly see our own flesh then the spirituall eye sees God close by us Yea in us A mans own soul is not so intimate to himselfe as God is to his soul neither doe we move by him only but in him What a sweet conversation therefore hath the holy soule with his God What heavenly conferences have they two which the world is not privy to whiles God entertaines the soule with the divine motions of his Spirit the soul entertains God with gracious compliances Is the heart heavy with the grievous pressures of affliction the soule goes in to his God and pours out it self before him in earnest bemoanings and supplications the God of mercy ansers the soul again with seasonable refreshings of comfort Is the heart secretly wounded and bleeding with the conscience of some sin it speedily betakes it self to the great Physitian of the soul who forthwith applies the balme of Gilead for an unfailing and present cure Is the heart distracted with doubts the soul retires to that inward Oracle of God for counsail he returns to the soul an happy setlement of just resolution Is the heart deeply affected with the sense of some special favour from his God the soul breaks forth into the passionate voice of praise and thanksgiving God returns the pleasing testimony of a cheerfull acceptation Oh blessed soul that hath a God to go unto upon all occasions Oh infinite mercy of a God that vouchsafes to stoop to such intirenesse with dust and ashes It was a gracious speech of a worthy Divine upon his death-bed now breathing towards heaven that he should change his place not his company His conversation was now before-hand with his God and his holy Angels the only difference was that he was now going to a more free and full fruition of the Lord of life in that region of glory above whom he had truely though with weaknesse and imperfection enjoyed in this vale of tears SECT
VI. NOw that these mutuall respects may bee sure not to cool with intermission the devout heart takes all occasions both to think of God and to speak to him There is nothing that he sees which doth not bring God to his thoughts Indeed there is no creature wherin there are not manifest footsteps of omnipotence Yea which hath not a tongue to tell us of its Maker The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work One day telleth another and one night certifieth another Yea O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all The earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide sea where are things creeping innumerable both small and great beasts Every herbe flower spire of grasse every twigge and leafe every worm and flye every scale and feather every billow and meteor speaks the power and wisdome of their infinite Creator Solomon sends the sluggard to the Ant Esay sends the Jews to the Oxe and the Asse Our Saviour sends his Disciples to the Ravens and to the Lillies of the field There is no creature of whom we may not learn something we shall have spent our time ill in this great school of the world if in such store of Lessons we be non-proficients in devotion Vain Idolaters make to themselves images of God wherby they sinfully represent him to their thoughts and adoration could they have the wit and grace to see it God hath taken order to spare them this labour in that he hath stamped in every creature such impressions of his infinite power wisdome goodnes as may give us just occasion to worship and praise him with a safe and holy advantage to our souls For the invisible things of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternall power and Godhead And indeed wherefore serve all the volumes of Naturall history but to be so many Commentaries upon the severall creatures wherein we may reade God and even those men who have not the skill or leisure to peruse them may yet out of their own thoughts and observation raise from the sight of all the works of God sufficient matter to glorifie him Who can be so stupide as not to take notice of the industry of the Bee the providence of the Ant the cunning of the Spider the reviving of the Flye the worms indeavour of revenge the subtilty of the Fox the sagacity of the hedge-hog the innocence and profitablenesse of the sheep the laboriousnesse of the Oxe the obsequiousnesse of the Dog the timerous shifts of the Hare the nimblenesse of the Dear the generosity of the Lion the courage of the Horse the fiercenesse of the Tiger the cheerfull musick of Birds the harmlesnesse of the Dove the true love of the Turtle the Cocks observation of time the Swallows architecture shortly for it were easie here to be endlesse of the severall qualities and dispositions of every of those our fellow-creatures with whom we converse on the face of the earth and who that takes notice of them cannot fetch from every act and motion of theirs some monition of duty and occasion of devout thoughts Surely I fear many of us Christians may justly accuse our selves as too neglective of our duty this way that having thus long spent our time in this great Academy of the world we have not by so many silent documents learned to ascribe more glory to our Creator I doubt those creatures if they could exchangetheir brutality with our reason being now so docible as to learn of us so far as their sense can reach would approve themselves better scholars to us then we have been unto them Withall I must adde that the devout soul stands not always in need of such outward monitors but finds within it self sufficient incitements to raise up it self to a continuall minding of God and makes use of them accordingly and if at any time being taken up with importunate occasions of the world it finds God missing but an hour it chides it self for such neglect and sets it self to recover him with so much more eager affection as the faithfull Spouse in the Canticles when she finds him whom her soul loved withdrawn from her for a season puts her self into a speedy search after him and gives not over till she have attained his presence SECT VII NOw as these many monitors both outward and inward must elevate our hearts very frequently to God so those raised hearts must not entertain him with a dumb contemplation but must speak to him in the language of spirits All occasions therefore must be taken of sending forth pious and heavenly ejaculations to God The devout soul may doe this more then an hundred times a day without any hinderance to his speciall vocation The Huswife at her Wheel the Weaver at his Loom the Husbandman at his Plough the Artificer in his Shop the Traveller in his way the Merchant in his Warehouse may thus enjoy God in his bufiest imployment For the soul of man is a nimble spirit and the language of thoughts needs not take up time and though we now for examples sake cloath them in words yet in our practice we need not Now these Ejaculations may be either at large or Occasionall At large such as those of old Jacob O Lord I have waited for thy salvation or that of David O save me for thy mercies sake And these either in matter of Humiliation or of Imploration or of Thanksgiving In all which we cannot follow a better pattern then the sweet singer of Israel whose heavenly conceptions we may either borrow or imitate In way of Humiliation such as these Heal my soul O Lord for I have sinned against thee Oh remēber not my old sins but have mercy upon me If thou wilt be extream to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Lord thou knowest the thoughts of man that they are but vain O God why abhorrest thou my soul and hidest thy face from me In way of Imploration Vp Lord and help me O God Oh let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed Lord where are thy old loving mercies Oh deliver me for I am helplesse and my heart is wounded within me Comfort the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord due I lift up my soul Goe not far from me O God O knit my heart unto thee that I may fear thy Name Thou art my helper and redeemer O Lord make no long tarrying Oh be thou my help in trouble for vain is the help of man Oh guide me with thy counsell and after that receive me to thy glory My time is in thy hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies Oh withdraw not thy mercy from me O Lord. Lead me O Lord in thy righteousnesse because of mine enemies
O let my soul live and it shall praise thee In way of Thankesgiving Oh God wonderfull art thou in thine holy places Oh Lord how glorious are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep Oh God who is like unto thee The Lord liveth and blessed be my strong helper Lord thy loving kindnesse is better then life it self All thy works praise thee O Lord and thy Saints give thanks unto thee Oh how manifold are thy works in wisedome hast thou made them all Who is God but the Lord and who hath any strength except our God We will rejoyce in thy salvation and triumph in thy Name O Lord. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse Oh how plentifull is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee Thou Lord hast never failed them that seek thee In thy presence is the fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise SECT VIII OCcasionall Ejaculations are such as are moved upon the presence of some such object as carries a kinde of relation or analogy to that holy thought which we have entertained Of this nature I finde that which was practised in S. Basils time that upon the lighting of candles the manner was to blesse God in these words Praise be to God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost which that Father says was anciently used but who was the Authour of it he professeth to be unknown to the same purpose was the Lucernarium which was a part of the evening office of old For which there may seem to be more colour of reason then for the ordinary fashion of apprecation upon occasion of our sneesing which is expected and practised by many out of civility Old and reverend Beza was wont to move his hat with the rest of the company but to say withall Gramercy Madame la Superstition Now howsoever in this or any other practice which may seem to carry with it a smack of superstition our devotion may be groundless and unseasonable yet nothing hinders but that we may take just and holy hints of raising up our hearts to our God As when vve doe first look forth and see the heavens over our heads to think the Heavens declare thy glory O God When we see the day breaking or the Sun rising The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sun When the light shines in our faces Thou deckest thy self with light as with a garment or Light is sprung up for the righteous When we see our Garden imbellisht with flowers The earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord. When we see a rough sea The waves of the sea rage horribly and are mighty but the Lord that dwelleth on high is mightier then they When we see the darknesse of the night The darknesse is no darknesse with thee When we rise up from our bed or our seat Lord thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising thou understandest my thoughts afar off When we wash our hands Wash thou me O Lord and I shall be whiter then snow When we are walking forth Oh hold thou up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not When we hear a passing bell Oh teach me to number my days that I may apply my heart to wisdome or Lord let me know my end and the number of my days Thus may we dart out our holy desires to God upon all occasions Wherein heed must be taken that our Ejaculations be not on the one side so rare that our hearts grow to be hard and strange to God but that they may be held on in continuall acknowledgement of him and acquaintance with him and on the other side that they be not so over-frequent in their perpetuall reiteration as that they grow to be like that of the Romish votaries fashionable which if great care be not taken will fall out to the utter frustrating of our Devotion Shortly let the measure of these devout glances be the preserving our hearts in a constant tendernesse and godly disposition which shall be further actuated upon all opportunities by the exercises of our more enlarged and fixed Devotion Whereof there is the same variety that there is in Gods services about which it is conversant There are three main businesses wherein God accounts his service here below to consist The first is our addresse to the throne of Grace and the pouring out of our souls before him in our prayers The second is the reading and hearing his most holy Word The third is the receit of his blessed Sacraments In all which there is place and use for a setled Devotion SECT IX TO begin with the first work of our actuall and enlarged Devotion Some things are pre-required of us to make us capable of the comfortable performance of so holy and heavenly a duty namely that the heart be clean first and then that it be clear clean from the defilement of any known sin clear from all intanglements and distractions What doe we in our prayers but converse vvith the Almighty and either carry our souls up to him or bring him down to us now it is no hoping that we can entertain God in an impure heart Even we men loath a nasty and sluttish lodging how much more will the floly God abhorre an habitation spiritually filthy I finde that even the unclean spirit made that a motive of his repossession that he found the house swept and garnished Satans cleanlinesse is pollution and his garnishment disorder and wickednesse without this he findes no welcome Each spirit looks for an entertainment answerable to his nature How much more will that God of spirits who is purity it self look to be harboured in a cleanly room Into a malicious soul wisdome shall not enter nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin What friend would be pleased that we should lodge him in a Lazar-house or who would abide to have a toad lie in his bosome Surely it is not in the verge of created nature to yeeld any thing that can be so noisome and odious to the sense of man as sin is to that absolute and essentiall Goodnesse His pure eyes cannot endure the sight of sin neither can he endure that the sinner should come within the sight of him Away from me ye wicked is his charge both here and hereafter It is the priviledge and happinesse of the pure in heart that they shall see God see him both in the end and in the way injoying the vision of him both in grace and in glory this is no object for impure eyes Descend into thy self therefore and ransack thy heart who ever wouldst be a true Client of
direct his messengers tongue to the meeting with our necessities that he would free our hearts from all prejudices and distractions that he would keep off all temptations which might hinder the good entertainment and success of his blessed Word Finally that he would make us truly teachable and his ordinance the power of God to our salvation In the act of hearing Devotion cals us to Reverence Attention Application Reverence to that great God who speaks to us by the mouth of a weak man for in what is spoken from Gods Chair agreeable to the Scriptures the sound is mans the substance of the message is Gods Even an Eglon when he hears of a message from God riseth out of his seat It was not Saint Pauls condition onely but of all his faithfull servants to whom he hath committed the word of reconciliation They are Ambassadours for Christ as if God did beseech us by them they pray us in Christs stead to be reconciled to God The Ambassy is not the bearers but the kings and if we doe not acknowledge the great King of heaven in the voice of the Gospel we cannot but incur a contempt When therefore we see Gods messenger in his Pulpit our eye looks at him as if it said with Cornelius We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God whence cannot but follow together with an awfull disposition of mind a reverent deportment of the body which admits not a wild and roving eye a drouzy head a chatting tongue a rude and indecent posture but composes it self to such a site as may befit a pious soul in so religious an imployment Neither do we come as authorized Judges to sit upon the preacher but as humble Disciples to sit at his feet SECT XXIV REverence cannot but draw on Attention We need not be bidden to hang on the lips of him whom we honour It is the charge of the Spirit Let him that hath an ear hear Every one hath not an eare and of those that have an ear every one heareth not The soul hath an ear as well as the body if both these ears doe not meet together in one act there is no hearing Common experience tels us that when the mind is otherwise taken up we doe no more hear what a man says then if we had been deaf or he silent Hence is that first request of Abigâ—il to David Let thine handmaid speak to thine ears and hear the words of thine handmaid and Job so importunately urgeth his friends Hear diligently my speech and my declaration with your ears The outward ear may be open and the inward shut if way be not made through both we are deaf to spirituall things Mine ear hast thou boared or digged saith the Psalmist the vulgar reads it my ears hast thou perfected Surely our ears are grown up with flesh there is no passage for a perfit hearing of the voyce of God till he have made it by a spirituall perforation And now that the ear is made capable of good counsell it doth as gladly receive it taking in every good lesson and longing for the next Like unto the dry and chopped earth which soaks in every silver drop that falls from the clouds and thirsteth for more not suffering any of that precious liquor to fall beside it SECT XXV NEither doth the devout man care to satisfie his curiosity as hearing only that he might hear but reducts all things to a saving use bringing all he hears home to his heart by a self-reflecting application like a practiser of the art of memory referring every thing to it's proper place If it be matter of comfort There is for my sick bed There is for my outward losses There for my drouping under afflictions There for the sense of my spirituall desertions If matter of doctrine There is for my settlement in such a truth There for the conviction of such an error There for my direction in such a practice If matter of reproof he doth not point at his neighbour but deeply chargeth himself This meets with my dead-heartednesse and security This with my worldly mindednesse This with my self-love and flattery of mine own estate This with my uncharitable censoriousnesse This with my foolish pride of heart This with my hypocrisie This with my neglect of Gods services and my duty Thus in all the variety of the holy passages of the Sermon the devout mind is taken up with digesting what it heares and working it self to a secret improvement of all the good counsell that is delivered neither is ever more busie then when it sits still at the feet of Christ I cannot therefore approve the practice which yet I see commonly received of those who think it no small argument of their Devotion to spend their time of hearing in writing large notes froÌ„ the mouth of the Preacher which however it may be an help for memory in the future yet cannot as I conceive but be some prejudice to our present edification neither can the brain get so much hereby as the heart loseth If it be said that by this means an opportunity is given for a full rumination of wholesome Doctrines afterwards I yeeld it but withall I must say that our after-thoughts can never doe the work so effectually as when the lively voice sounds in our ears and beats upon our heart but herein I submit my opinion to better judgments SECT XXVI THe food that is received into the soul by the ear is afterwards chewed in the mouth thereof by memory concocted in the stomach by meditation and dispersed into the parts by conference and practice True Devotion findes the greatest part of the work behinde It was a just answer that John Gerson reports given by a Frenchman who being askt by one of his neighbours if the Sermon were done no saith he it is said but it is not done neither will be I fear in hast What are we the better if we hear and remember not if we be such auditours as the Jews were wont to call sieves that retain no moisture that is poured into them What the better if we remember but think not seriously of what we hear or if we practice not carefully what wee think of Not that which we hear is our own but that which we carry away although all memories are not alike one receives more easily another retains longer It is not for every one to hope to attain to that ability that he can goe away with the whole fabrick of a Sermon and readily recount it unto others neither doth God require that of any man which he hath not given him Our desires and endeavours may not be wanting wher our powers fail It will be enough for weak memories if they can so lay up those wholesom counsels which they receive as that they may fetch them forth when they have occasion to use them and that what they want in the extent
our redemption and his blessed Sacrament to seal up unto us our redemption thus wrought and purchased And with souls thus thankfully elevated unto God we approach with all reverence to that heavenly table where God is both the Feast-master and the Feast What intention of holy thoughts what fervour of spirit what depth of Devotion must we now finde in our selves Doubtlesse out of heaven no object can be so worthy to take up our hearts What a clear representation is here of the great work of our Redemption How is my Saviour by all my senses here brought home to my soul How is his passion lively acted before mine eyes For lo my bodily eye doth not more truly see bread and wine then the eye of my faith sees the body and bloud of my dear Redeemer Thus was his sacred body torn and broken Thus was his precious bloud poured out for me My sins wretched man that I am helped thus to crucifie my Saviour and for the discharge of my sins would he be thus crucified Neither did he onely give himself for me upon the crosse but lo he both offers and gives himself to me in this his blessed institution what had his generall gift been without this application now my hand doth not more sensibly take nor my mouth more really eat this bread then my soul doth spiritually receive and feed on the bread of life O Saviour thou art the living bread that came down from heaven Thy flesh is meat indeed and thy bloud is drink indeed Oh that I may so eat of this bread that I may live for ever He that commeth to thee shall never hunger he that beleeveth in thee shall never thirst Oh that I could now so hunger and so thirst for thee that my soul could be for ever satisfied with thee Thy people of old were fed with Manna in the wildernesse yet they died that food of Angels could not keep them from perishing but oh for the hidden Manna which giveth life to the world even thy blessed self give me ever of this bread and my soul shall not die but live Oh the precious juice of the fruit of the Vine wherewith thou refreshest my soul Is this the bloud of the grape Is it not rather thy bloud of the New testament that is poured out for me Thou speakest O Saviour of new wine that thou wouldest drink with thy Disciples in thy Fathers kingdome can there be any more precious and pleasant then this wherewith thou chearest the beleeving soul our palate is now dull and earthly which shall then be exquisite and celestiall but surely no liquor can be of equall price or soveraignty with thy bloud Oh how unsavoury are all earthly delicacies to this heavenly draught O God let not the sweet taste of this spirituall Nectar ever goe out of the mouth of my soul Let the comfortable warmth of this blessed Cordiall ever work upon my soul even till and in the last moment of my dissolution Doest thou bid me O Saviour doe this in remembrance of thee Oh how can I forget thee How can I enough celebrate thee for this thy unspeakable mercy Can I see thee thus crucified before my eies for my sake thus crucified and not remember thee Can I finde my sins accessary to this thy death and thy death meritoriously expiating all these my grievous sins and not remember thee Can I hear thee freely offering thy self to me and feel thee graciously conveighing thy self into my soul and not remember thee I doe remember thee O Saviour but oh that I could yet more effectually remember thee with all the passionate affections of a soul sick of thy love with all zealous desires to glorifie thee with all fervent longings after thee and thy salvation I remember thee in thy sufferings Oh doe thou remember me in thy glory SECT XXIX HAving thus busied it self with holy thoughts in the time of the celebration the devout soul breaks not off in an abrupt unmannerlinesse without taking leave of the great Master of this heavenly feast but with a secret adoration humbly blesseth God for so great a mercy and heartily resolves and desires to walk worthy of the Lord Jesus whom it hath received and to consecreate it self wholly to the service of him that hath so dearly bought it and hath given it these pledges of it's eternall union with him The devout soul hath thus sup't in heaven and returnes home yet the work is not thus done after the elements are out of eye and use there remains a digestion of this celestial food by holy meditation and now it thinks Oh what a blessing have I received to day no lesse then my Lord Jesus with all his merits and in and with him the assurance of the remission of all my sins and everlasting salvation How happy am I if I be not wanting to God and my self How unworthy shall I be if I doe not strive to answer this love of my God and Saviour in all hearty affection and in all holy obedience And now after this heavenly repast how doe I feel my self what strength what advantage hath my faith gotten how much am I neerer to heaven then before how much faster hold have I taken of my blessed Redeemer how much more firm sensible is my interest in him Neither are these thoughts this examination the work of the next instant onely but they are such as must dwell upon the heart and must often solicite our memory and excite our practise that by this means we may frequently renue the efficacy of this blessed Sacrament and our souls may batten more and more with this spirituall nourishment and may be fed up to eternall life SECT XXX THese are the generalities of our Devotion which are of common use to all Christians There are besides these certain specialties of it appliable to severall occasions times places persons For there are morning and evening Devotions Devotions proper to our board to our closet to our bed to Gods day to our own to health to sicknesse to severall callings to recreations to the way to the field to the Church to our home to the student to the souldier to the Magistrate to the Minister to the husband wife child servant to our own persons to our families The severalties whereof as they are scarce finite for number so are most fit to be left to the judgement and holy managing of every Christian neither is it to be imagined that any soul which is taught of God and hath any acquaintance with heaven can be to seek in the particular application of common rules to his own necessity or expedience The result of all is A devout man is he that ever sees the invisible and ever trembleth before that God he sees that walks ever here on earth with the God of heaven and still adores that Majesty with whom he converses that confers hourely with the God of spirits in his own language yet so as no
made thee faithfull to the death hath now given thee a crown of life and immortalitie and left thee a noble pattern of Christian fortitude so much more remarkable as lesse frequently followed Whether I look into the former or the present times I finde the world full of shrinking professors Amongst the first Christians persecution easily discovered four sorts of cowardly Renegadoes The first and worst whom they justly styled Idolaters that yeelded to all the publike forms of worship to those false Gods The second Sacrificers who condescended so far as to some kind of immolation unto those fained deities or at least to a tasting of those things which were thus offered The third Incensers such as with Marcellinus himself came on so far as to cast some grains of incense into the Idols fire The last were their Libellaticks such as privately by themselves or by some allowed proxey denyed the faith yet with their mony bought out this ignominy sin of any publique Act of Idolatry Not to speak of those many thousands which fell down before Solyman the second and held up their finger to fignifie their conversion to his Mahometisme for ease of their taxations how many doe we hear of daily of all nations and some which I shame and grieve to say of our own who yeild to receive circumcision and to renounce their Saviour Oh the lamentable condition of those distressed Christians If constant to their professio they live in a perpetual purgatory of torment If revolting they run into the danger of an everlasting damnation in hel Even this gentle restraint puts me into the meditatioÌ„ of their insupportable durance Why doe not all Christian hearts bleed with the sense of their deplorable estate why is not our compassion heightned according to the depth of their perill and misery What are our bowels made of if they yearn not at their unexpressible calamity Ye rich Merchants under whose imployment many of these poor souls have thus unhappily miscarried how can you blesse your selves in your bags whiles you see the members of Christ your Saviour thus torn from him for want of a petty ransome Ye eminent persons whom God hath advanced to power and greatness how can you sleep quietly upon your pillows whiles you think of the cold and hard lodgings the hungry bellies the naked and waled backs of miserable Christians Lastly what fervent prayers should we all that professe the dear name of Christ powre out unto the God of heaven for the strengthning of the faith and patience of these afflicted souls against the assaults of violence and for their happy and speedy deliverance out of their wofull captivity SECT XI THese prisoners are worthy of our deep compassion as those who are too sensible of their own misery Others there are who are so much more worthy of greater pity by how much they are lesse apprehensive of their need of it plausible prisoners under a spirituall tyranny whose very wils are so captived to the powers of darkness that to choose they would be no other then bondmen pleasing themselves in those chains whose weight is enough to sink their souls into hell such are they who have yeelded themselves over to bee enthralled by any known sin No men under heaven doe so much applaud themselves in the conceit of their liberty none so great slaves as they If the very Stoick Philosophers had not enough evinced this truth Divinity should Indeed the world is a worse kind of Algier full of miserable captives Here lies one so fettered in lust that he rots again there another so laden with drunken excesse that he can neither goe norstand and in very deed is not his own man Here one so pinched with golden fetters that he can neither eat nor sleep nor at all enjoy himself there another so pined with envy that he is forced to feed on his own heart Here one so tormented with anger that he is stark mad for the time and cares not how he mischieves himself in a furious desire to hurt others there another so racked with ambition that he is stretched beyond his own length and lives in the pain of a perpetuall self-extention These and all others of this kinde are most miserable prisoners chained up for everlasting darknesse So much more worthy of our pity as they are lesse capable of their own Spend your compassion if you please upon these deplorable subjects But for me wish me if you wil as free from any imputation of evill as I was and am from the thought of it wish me in your free champian where I may have no hedge so much as to confine my eye wish me happy in the society of so dear and and noble a Friend but in the mean while think of me no otherwise then as a Free prisoner And Yours thankfully devoted in all faithfull observance I. N. THE REMEDY OF DISCONTENTMENT OR A TREATISE OF CONTENTATION in whatsoever condition Fit for these sad and troubled Times By Jos. HALL D. D. and B. of N. Phil. 4. 1◠〈…〉 have learned in whatsoever estate I am therewith to be content 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound Every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to want LONDON Printed by M. F. for Nat. Butter 1646. I Have perused this Treatise entituled The Remedy of Discontentment and judging it to be very pious profitable and necessary for these sad and distracted times I license it to be printed and published and should much commend it to the Christian Reader if the very name of the Authour were not in it self sufficient without any further testimony JOHN DOVVâ—AMâ— TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Grace and Peace WHat can be more seasonable then when all the world is sick of Discontentment to give counsels and Receits of Contentation Perhaps the Patient will think it a time is chosen for physick in the midst of a Fit But in this case we must doe as we may I confesse I had rather have stayed till the Paroxys me were happily over that so the humors being somewhat setled I might hope for the more kindly operation of this wholsome medicine But partly my age and weaknesse despairing to out-live the publique distemper and partly my judgement crossing the vulgar opinion for the season of some kinde of Receits have â—â—w 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this safe and 〈…〉 â—nscription God is 〈…〉 that I wrote this 〈…〉 of mine own afflictions the particulars whereof it were unseasonable to trouble the world withall as one that meant to make my selfe my own Patient by enjoyning my self that course of remedies that I prescribe to others and as one who by the powerfull working of Gods Spirit within me labour to finde my heart framed to those holy dispositions which I wish and recommend to every Christian soul If there be no remedy but the worst of outward troubles must afflict us it shall be happy
their parting Yea how should we rather rejoyce that the houre is come wherein we shall be quit both of the guilt and temptations of sinne wherein the clogge shall bee taken away from our heels and the vail from our eies wherein no intestine wars shall threaten us no cares shall disquiet us no passions shall torment us and lastly wherein we may take the free possession of that glory which we have hitherto lookt at only afar off from the top of our Pisgah SECT XIX Holy dispositions for Contentment and first Humility HItherto we have dwelt in those powerfull considerations which may work us to a quiet contentment with whatsoever adverse estate whether of life or death after which we addresse our selves to those meet dispositions which shall render us fully capable of this blessed Contentation and shall make all these considerations effectuall to that happy purpose Whereof the first is true Humility under-valuing our selves setting an high rate upon every mercy that we receive For if a man have attained unto this that he thinks every thing too good for him and self lesse then the least blessing and worthy of the heaviest judgement he cannot but sit down thankfull for small favours and meekly content with mean afflictions As contrarily the proud man stands upon points with his Maker makes God his debter looks disdainfully at small blessings as if he said What no more and looks angerly at the least crosses as if he said Why thus much The father of the faithfull hath practically taught us this Lesson of humility who comes to God with dust and ashes in his mouth And the Jewish Doctors tell us truly that in every Disciple of Abraham there must be three things a good eye a meek spirit and an humble soul His Grandchilde Jacob the Father of every true Israelite had well taken it out whiles he can say to his God I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant And indeed in whomsoever it be the best measure of Grace is Humility for the more Grace still the greater Humility and no Humility no Grace Solomon observed of old and Saint James took it from him That God resisteth the proud and giveth Grace to the humble so as he that is not humble is not so much as capable of Grace and he that is truly humble is a fit subject for all Graces and amongst the rest for the Grace of Contentation Give me a man therefore that is vile in his own eies that is sensible of his own wretchednesse that knows what it is to sin and what belongs to that sin whereof he is guilty this man shall think it a mercy that he is any where out of Hell shall account all the evils that he is free from so many new favors shall reckon easie corrections amongst his blessings and shall esteem any blessing infinitely obliging Whereas contrarily the proud begger is ready to throw Gods alms at his head and swels at every lash that he receives from the divine hand Not without great cause therefore doth the royall Preacher oppose the patient in spirit to the proud in spirit for the proud man can no more bee patient then the patient can be discontent with whatsoever hand of his God Every toy puts the proud man beside his patience If but a flie be found in Pharaohs cup he is straight in rage as the Jewish tradition lays the quarrell and sends his Butler into durance And if the Emperour doe but mistake the Stirrup of our Countreyman Pope Adrian he shall dance attendance for his Crown If a Mardochee doe but fail of a courtesie to Haman all Jewes must bleed to death And how unquiet are our vain Dames if this curle be not set right or or that pinne mis-placed But the meek spirit is incurious and so throughly subacted that he takes his load from God as the Camel from his Master upon his knees And for men if they compell him to goe one mile he goes twain if they smite him on the right cheek hee turns the other if they sue away his Coat he parts with his Cloak also Heraclius the Emperour when hee was about to passe through the golden gate and to ride in royall state through the streets of Jerusalem being put in minde by Zacharias the Bishop there of the humble and dejected fashion wherein his Saviour walked through those streets towards his passion strips off his rich robes lays aside his Crown with bare head bare feet submissely paces the same way that his Redeemer had caried his Crosse towards his Golgotha Every true Christian is ready to tread in the deep steps of his Saviour as well knowing that if hee should descend to the Gates of Death of the Grave of Hell he cannot bee so humbled as the Son of God was for him And indeed this and this alone is the true way to glory He that is Truth it self hath told us that he who humbles himself shall be exalted And wise Solomon Before honour is humility The Fuller treads upon that cloth which he means to whiten And he that would see the starres by day must not climbe up into some high Mountain but must descend to the lower Cels of the earth Shortly whosoever would raise up a firm building of Contentation must bee sure to lay the foundation in Humility SECT XX. Of a faithfull selfe-resignation SEcondly to make up a true contentment with the most adverse estate there is required a faithfull selfe-resignation into the hands of that God whose wee are who as he hath more right in us then our selves so he best knows what to doe with us How graciously hath his mercy invited us to our own ease Bee carefull saith he for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests bee made known unto God we are naturally apt in our necessities to have recourse to greater powers then our own even where we have no engagement of their help how much more should we cast our selves upon the Almighty when he not onely allows but solicits our reliance upon him It was a question that might have befitted the mouth of the best Christian which fell from Socrates Since God himselfe is carefull for thee why art thou solicitous for thy selfe If evils were let loose upon us so as it were possible for us to suffer any thing that God were not aware of we might have just cause to sink under adversities but now that we know every dram of our affliction is weighed out to us by that all-wise and all-mercifull Providence Oh our infidelity if we doe make scruple of taking in the most bitter dose Here then is the right use of that main duty of Christianity to live by faith Brute creatures live by sense meer men by reason Christians by faith Now faith is the substance of things hoped for