wanton lascivious despisers of others wasters of their time Idolizers of their own reflections in a Glass and careless or afraid to behold the image of their impurer Souls in the Crystal of God's Law and more afraid of being sick or dying than of a thousand Sins or Hells Secondly deceiving and destroying silly Men through whose Livers * Prov. 7.23 the seats of Lust those mortal Darts do strike which an invisible Bow shoots from their wanton Glances and bewitching Smiles and Arts. And by parity of reason the like may be said of all the other perishing empty lying vanities honours riches strength the wisdom of the flesh and learning meerly humane which are but adventitious Goods at best and seldom make Men better often worse What shall I say shall I praise you for these I praise you not nor will God ever praise you or reward you for them Nay I must rather drive such false Hucsters for true praise out of the Temple of lasting Honour with such a Scourge as the Prophet Jeremiah long since prepared for that purpose Let not the wise man glory in wisdom Jer. 9.23 nor the witty woman in her wit Let not the strong man glory in his strength nor the fair woman glory in her Beauty Let not the rich man glory in his riches nor the fine woman glory in her dress Let not the honourable Man glory in his Honour nor the courted Mistress glory in her Favour Let not the learned Man glory in his being Natures Secretary nor the wanton woman in being skilled in the depths of Satan But let him and her that would glory and not be ashamed or glory in their shame glory in this that they know the Lord and love and fear him in sincerity and truth Which brings me to the positive part and is the foundation which Solomon lays whereon to build a Pyramid of lasting Fame Not the graceful Pulchritudinem existima animi ornatum non in corporis forma sed in moribus pulchritudo sita est Corn. a Lapide ex Chrys but the gracious woman not she who glories in her face but she who like the King's Daughter is all glorious within even the woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised In which positive part we have the good Womans Character and Crown 1. Her Character which hath two parts for the new creature also consists of Soul and Body an inside and an outside 1. She fears the Lord there 's the Soul of her Virtue the root of the matter within ground Grace in the Heart 2. She hath fruitful hands there 's the Body of her Virtue the good Tree above ground works in her life 2. Her Crown Praise and Renown Which is 1. Promised to her She shall be praised 2. Commanded for her Give her of the fruit of her hands let her own works praise her in the gates 3. Performed concerning her Thou excellest them all As briefly as may be concerning these Particulars and first let us view both Pages on which her Character is written 1. A woman that feareth the Lord that is who is sincerely religious good in good earnest Nothing is more frequent or obvious in Scripture than such Synechdoches as put one eminent Grace for all the Chain of Graces So sometimes the Love of God sometimes Trust in God and most commonly the Fear of God is put for being truly religious or is made the Periphrasis of a godly Man As in that signal promise of the New Covenant Jer. 32.38 39 40. They shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and their Children after them And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Job 1.1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil so vers 8. Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth a perfect and an upright man one that feareth God and escheweth evil vers 9. Doth Job fear God for nought Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments that is the whole of Man Psal 15.4 He honoureth them that fear the Lord where the godly Man is under this Denomination of one that feareth the Lord opposed to the wicked called there a vile person 'T is also an infallible sign of the presence of all other Graces in the exercise of which true Godliness consists for as the Law is copulative so are the Graces by which we obey it and as where the Soul is discovering it self by one vital act all its faculties and powers are so where the Spirit of God is working one Grace in truth the Spirit of all Grace is for the Spirit can no more be without its Graces than the Soul without its Faculties yea the fear of God contains all Graces in it therefore when Abraham offered up his Son Isaac which was a mighty act of Faith and Love God saith Now I know thou fearest me Gen. 22.12 And as 't is so frequent it would be endless to cite all so 't is so obvious 't is needless to cite more 2. The other Page hath this Inscription Fruitful hands the good Woman is like Dorcas full of good works 1. Hands two Hands to hold the two Tables of the Law Deut. 9.15 as Moses came down from the Mount with the two Tables in his two hands in each hand one neither empty nor idle The first in the Right Hand there 's Religion towards God The second Table in the Left Hand there 's Righteousness and Charity towards Men. 2. These Hands bear Fruit good works spring and grow naturally freely seasonably easily maturely as fruits from a prolifique Tree planted in a good soil and by the Waters side as the godly Man is described in the first Psalm called Fruits of Righteousness Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. where S. Paul hath a signal Antithesis betwixt Graces and Vices calling the first Fruits the other Works the Works of the Flesh vers 19. There 's servile drudgery in them Fruits of the Spirit vers 22. There 's a spiritual easiness in the production of them by the new Nature 3. They are Fruits in the plural for variety of kinds for number in every kind First various acts of Devotion Prayers Prayses Reading Hearing Meditation Conference Preparing Communicating and all these reiterated the Morning and the Evening Sacrifice the weekly Sabbaths solemn Fasts and Festivals secret private publick Devotions Morning Evening and at Noon day Psal 119. yea at Midnight seven times a day yea in a sober sense all the day long nay all day and all night too as it is testified of Anna Luk. 2.37 That she departed not from the
to bear it O Lord I do most humbly beseech thee by this occasional Meditation let my heart be lifted up in the high praises of thee my great and good God for not suffering me to continue so long under the reigning power of sin as to be cast off as an old and too withered a stock to graft Grace upon but that thou wert pleased to shew me the Beauties of Holiness betimes before the Autumn of my age Though Lord I do confess with S. Augustin that too late Lord too late I knew and lov'd thee and do heartily grieve that I did not as I should devote all the spring of my years to thee but did give some of my green time to vanity and folly being then too conformable to the wicked world and too little conformable to thy blessed Will But oh for ever admired be thy mercy that did pluck me as a Fire-brand out of the Fire and left me not to be fuel for everlasting Burnings Thou mightest then Lord justly have said to me Thou that art filthy be filthy still and mightest have punished my former sins with leaving me to die in my sins But blessed be thy name that thou didst implant in me some of the Graces of thy sweet and holy Spirit before my old age by which thou hast been pleased to give me more time to serve thee and taste the pleasures which are to be found in doing so And hast thereby enabled me to declare to others what I have my self long experimented that thou art good to the Soul that seeks thee and the purest most satisfying and lasting pleasures are to be found in an holy and strict walking with thee and that in keeping thy Commandments there is great reward And that religious persons have their joys though the blind Sodomites of the world want eyes to see them O Lord make me now in my old age bring forth more fruit that so thou mayst not say of me as as justly thou didst of the fruitless Fig-tree Cut it down why cumberest thou the ground MEDITAT V. Vpon looking out of my Window at Chelsey upon the Thames THis sweet River which I looked upon with so much pleasure and delight while it was smooth serene and calm when a sudden Tempest rose unexpectedly and made it rough and troubled proved rather frightful than delightful to me and made me shut my Window and cease looking on it This minds me what an alluring attractiveness there is in persons calm and patient free from the boisterous disorders of turbulent passions who entertain the eyes of all Beholders delightfully while they continue so But if that admired Gentleness be by a sudden eruption of their passions turn'd into fury the very form of their visage seems to be changed and looks frightful to all Beholders and very unalluring O Lord I beseech thee make me more than ever to study and practise those Christian adorning Graces of Meekness and Patience that thereby I may evince to others how great Beauty there is in being calm and free from unbeseeming and violent passions and that I may by Sweetness and Gentleness adorn my holy Profession and excite others to be imitaters of those Graces MEDITAT VI. Vpon seeing a fine Carpet taken off a dusty Table WHilst this fine Carpet was upon the Table it appeared very fine and clean but when that adorning Cover was removed how foul and dusty was it found to be This minds me of a formal Professor which puts all his Religion in formality of outward Duties and Gestures which to Beholders make him appear decently But all this while under that outside appearance of Devotion his heart is nasty and dusty his care being only like a painted Sepulchre to appear beautiful without whilst within there is all uncleanness and so thinks by putting on an hypocritical outside to hide all his faults and serve the Devil securely in Christ's Livery O Lord I humbly beseech thee suffer me not to satisfie my self with the outward formality of Duties which may seem well to my lookers on But make me mind the inward and spiritual performance and how my heart is affected in them And let me look to heart cleansing knowing that thou my great God lookest to the heart And that though I may by covering over a dusty heart with a fine outward formality deceive men I cannot deceive thee the great heart-searcher before whom all things are naked and open MEDITAT VII Vpon childrens playing in the streets and falling to fight c. THese Children by the delight they take in their play not only forget the time allotted for their recreation and slip the hour prescribed for their return to learn their Lessons in and have not only thereby ventured a whipping but have fallen out amongst themselves tearing one anothers faces which one of their offended Fathers seeing snatched up his Son and severely corrected him which other persons in the street beholding though they knew neither the Child nor the person that ended the Fray by taking away the Fighter concluded by the correction that he gave that he was the careful Father of the Child who had us'd his Rod to prevent perhaps the loss of an eye This may be useful to mind me of the great Father of all the Families of the Earth's wise proceeding with his Children when he sees them wasting of their time about things of no concernment which ought to be employed in learning what is of everlasting concernment and are quarrelling and fighting not against their lusts but one against another He doth to prevent the mischief they might do each other correct them seasonably by which he shews his fatherly care of them O Lord I do most humbly beseech thee sanctifie this Meditation to me that I may remember that though there is no knowledge either of love or hatred by all that is before us and that though thy out ward dispensations are often in the dark to us yet it is a sign of Sonship that thou corrects a disobedient careless Child And therefore let me not in an afflicted condition if thou by thy providence shalt again bring me into it think that thou hatest me but that thou art a most Gracious Father who correctest me in faithfulness to prevent what thou foreseest and I did not would mischief me MEDITAT VIII Vpon the lighting many Candles at one THis Candle that hath lighted so many still gives as much light as it did before and hath lost nothing by what it hath imparted unto them Improve this oh my Soul by considering that some excellent Christians who as the inspired Volumes tell us of that admirable person S. John Baptist who was a burning and a shining Light are so conspicuous that all Beholders take notice of their well ordered conversation their Light so shining before men that others seeing their good works are thereby excited to glorifie God and are also so communicative of that light wherewith God hath vouchsafed to enlighten their
cloathing is Silk and Purple which seems to intimate that it is not unlawful to wear Silk Scarlet and Purple and that the Silk-worm was not made only to spin for the proud Yet O Lord I do beseech thee let me never more yield to that pityful temptation of being drawn to esteem either others or my self upon the account of being set out with much bravery but let me value more others my Fellow Christians and prize more in my self the adorning of a sweet meek quiet contented spirit which is in thy sight of great value And if I be adorned with the Graces of thy Holy Spirit help me to consider they will make me beautiful to all eternity where as all my bodily adornments are pull'd of at night when I go to rest and must be all for ever parted with at the night of death by me O Lord therefore be pleased to make me often call to my remembrance the very great and sensible pleasure I have often experienced in cloathing naked Backs when thou hast let me have the honour of being thy Almoner and dispensedst thy charity through my hands to thy necessitous poor and let that make me rather to chuse to cloath naked Backs than to please idle eyes and rather to chuse to see many of my Fellow Creatures kept warm being covered with my Charity in plain but warm Apparel than to starve my Charity by putting upon my self one rich laced Gown which would if sold and distributed unto the Poor make many decent and convenient Gowns for several indigent persons MEDITAT XII Vpon desiring a friend to preserve safe for me some precious things which were kept for me till I needed them and then seasonably produced to help me HOw earnestly did I desire my Friend to lay up safe for me these things and how faithfully hath he preserved them and how seasonably hath he produced them for me at my need This may be useful to excite me to practice gratitude to my best and highest Friend to whom I have oft sent up the respirations of Soul that he would keep for me both those Truths I have learnt out of his Sacred Word and those experiences I have had of his Goodness and supports vouchfafed me under afflicting providences not daring to trust to my memory only these engaging mercies I have received lest his Word and benefits should slip out of my mind and I have petitioned him also that he would bring afresh into my mind those Truths when I most needed them O Lord I adore thee for bringing again afresh to my Memory those supporting promises to strengthen my weak Faith when I most needed them which thou did preserve for me till the times of my greatest exigencies and didst then comfort me by them And O Lord I do also thankfully acknowledge that when thou didst as a gracious Father chastise me by afflictions for my enormities and I was even ready to faint in taking that wholesome Soul Physick of thy prescribing that thou wert then pleased by my considering the benefits which had formerly accrued to my better part by sanctified afflictions to make me not only in some good measure patient under them but didst also make me to believe they would be for my spiritual good And thus thou madest my Memory a Cabinet to preserve my own experiences that they might be seasonably produc'd to keep me from doing as Issachar did crouch down under my burdens MEDITAT XIII Vpon my often waking in the night and presently falling asleep again HOw often have I awaked this Night and instantly fallen asleep again being so drowsie that I could not long keep my self from slumbring This may be useful to mind me of my Spiritual Condition having oft been in an awakened frame in which I have been put upon seeking after the great things of Eternal Concernment which have then been so realised unto me as to take deep impressions upon my heart and hath made my Soul to follow hard after God for Mercy and for power to serve him better but alas how soon have I by carnal security been drowsie and fallen asleep again and though in the Divine Records of Gods revealed Will unto us he hath bid us that we should not sleep as do others but that we should be watchful yet I have been apt to forget that Precept and to say to my self in a spiritual sense what was said of natural rest which is a shutting up of the Senses concerning Lazarus that if he slept he should do well though I slept it should be well with me But O Lord I do most humbly beseech thee do unto me as thou saidst thou wouldst do unto him come and awaken me out of my sleep O let me no longer be so unequal in my Devotions as to have my Goodness like a Morning Dew which soon passes away and so be sometimes awake and sometimes asleep But let me be kept watchful by the serious sense of my mortality and of the strict account I must give to thee of all that I have done in the flesh whether it be good or evil And when thou seest me falling again into my Spiritual Lethargy do thou say unto me as the Mariners in the storm did unto Jonah Arise thou sluggard and call upon thy God PIOUS REFLECTIONS UPON SEVERAL SCRIPTURES Pious Reflections On Several SCRIPTURES REFLECTION 1. LOrd when I read in thy Word of the man after thine own heart saying Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy commandments and yet consider that I am so far from imitating him that I can many times suffer sin to be upon my brother without so much as giving him reproof for it or advising him so much as to consider whom he offends by it Nay sometimes I am ready to make a mock of sin and to laugh at that which is a grief to thy Holy Spirit O Lord I beseech thee humble me under this consideration and make me for the time to come to imitate holy David in my charity towards my offending Brother And with thy servant Lot to have my soul vexed in hearing and seeing the filthy communication of the wicked O let me be so charitable as to weep over the Soul of my offending Brother and let me as much as in me lies help him out of the snare of sin and by my Prayers and holy Example help him towards Heaven REFLECT II. Jonah 4.9 Then said the Lord dost thou well to be angry for the gourd and he said I do well to be angry even unto death LOrd when I read of this peevish Prophet Jonah who because thou wast merciful unto the repenting Ninevites and didst not destroy them in forty days according to what he had proclaimed was so discontented that when thou expostulatedst with him and askedst him whether he did well to be angry he was so far from confessing his fault as that he seemed to dare to approve it even to thy very face by these words I do
deserve great praise 2. The object of Praise is some excellent good it must be good or it deserves reproach but it must be also excellent or no notice is taken of it Now the fear of God is excellent Psal 19. The Saints are the excellent of the earth Psal 16.3 The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour Prov. 12.26 Wisdom excelleth folly as light excelleth darkness Eccles 2.13 And the things of God's law wherein good men exercise themselves are said to be more excellent Rom. 2.18 The godly therefore are to be praised for they are excellent 3. It must be a chosen good for it would be no praise for any Man if that were possible to be good without or against his will If I do this thing willingly I have a reward 1 Cor. 9.17 Now this good woman chuseth Mary hath chosen the good part Luk. 10.42 And so did our honourable Mary if ever any and it is implyed in the reproach cast upon Sinners Prov. 1.29 That they did not chuse the fear of the Lord that the Saints do chuse it Psal 119.30 I have chosen the way of truth thy judgments have I laid before me and vers 137. I have chosen thy precepts Isa 56.4 The eunuchs which chuse the things which please me And it 's the high commendation of Moses Heb. 11.25 26. That he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt 4. It must be some permanent and abiding good not fading not like the morning cloud and early dew now the fear of the Lord endureth for ever Psal 19.9 and where it is in truth it will both continue and grow The righteous is an everlasting foundation Prov. 10.25 The good part they chuse shall not be taken away They repent not of their repentance and Christ hath prayed that their faith fail not They go from strength to strength till they appear before God perfect in Zion and bring forth more fruit in their age The path way of the just is as the shining light Pov. 4.18 which shineth more unto the perfect day 2. I shall consider the object of Praise more specially and what men are esteemed to merit praise for with respect to God their Neighbours and themselves 1. Men are praised for their well performing of their duty to God as good servants 2. For their Beneficence to men in all relations as useful just kind charitable amongst and towards all men 3. For their wisdom to themselves as being prudent discreet and wise in their own concerns Now Religion the Fear of the Lord is productive of all these in an eminent degree and therefore are they greatly to be praised in whom it is 1. This fear will make good servants to God This is a principal part of a servants duty Mal. 1.6 If I be a Master where is my fear Now this fear is the root of universal obedience he that fears God will not dare not offend him Fear God and keep his Commandments this is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 Only fear the Lord and serve him if you fear him you will not fail to serve him What doth the Lord require of thee Deut. 10.12 but to fear him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul serve the Lord with fear Psal 2. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.28 Yea the fear of God will help to clean from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 So that if it be praise-worthy to be a dutiful child and obedient servant to God as certainly nothing deserves it better the woman that feareth the Lord hath a just claim to Praise 2. The fear of the Lord will make fruitful in all good offices to our Neighbour humble and obedient to Superiours careful of and tender to Inferiours just and kind to all and munificent and liberal to those that are in want This good woman in the Text who feareth the Lord in her heart had fruitful hands and works of her own to praise her in the gates 'T is the excellency of Religion to make good in all relations Good Magistrates 't is the first qualification of Jethro's Justice Able men that fear God Exod. 18.21 So Nehemiah of himself Neh. 5.15 The former Governours which were before me had been chargeable to the people and had taken of them bread and wine and forty shekels of silver yea even their servants had rule over the people but so did not I because of the fear of God and good Subjects Fear thou the Lord and the King Prov. 24.21 Fear God and honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 One will enforce the other and will make subject for conscience sake Rom. 13.5 It will make loving and good Husbands and it will make good and obedient Wives like Sarah for holy women who trust in God are in subjection to their own husbands 1 Pet. 3. And this made this Virtuous Woman so excellent a Wife It will make good Family-Governours who will walk in their house with a perfect heart and will neither provoke their Children nor deny what 's equal to their servants whilst they remember themselves have a Father and a Master in heaven Col. 4.1 It will make dutiful children and faithful servants Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh not with eye-service as men pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God Col. 3.22 In a word it will make honest and righteous in our whole conversation S. Peter puts together Acts 10.35 Fearing God and working righteousness It renders also charitable and bountiful to them in need this good Woman vers 20. Stretcheth out her hands to the poor yea she reacheth out her hands to the needy The good man is ever merciful and lendeth yea liberal and giveth Cornelius is described Acts 10.1 A devout man that feared God and gave much alms to the people and S. James tells us that true Religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction that is to relieve them So that if to be good in all relations and to be a Benefactor and common good to mankind deserves praise the fear of God deserves it which makes men such Thirdly and lastly the fear of the Lord will make a man wise for himself to do himself good And men will praise thee when thou dost well to thy self Psal 49.18 And nothing is more praise-worthy in man's account than to be wise nor in the account of God than to be wise to salvation Now the fear of the Lord not only makes wise but is wisdom it self The fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Job 28.28 Wisdom and Godliness are synonymous words in the Holy Ghost's Language the wise man is the
it is everlasting The best Shield against Slanderers is to live so that none may believe them He that revenges an injury acts the part of an Executioner He that pardons it acts the part of a Prince Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions Man is a pile of Dust and puff of Wind. Why are we so fond of that life which begins with a Cry and ends with a Groan But I will not cloy you knowing it is safest to rise with an appetite even when we are entertained at a Banquet 4. Where she had particular kindness or personal interest she would improve the authority of her friendship to gentle but free correption and argue and perswade so strenuously that her Bow like Jonathan's seldom return'd empty and plead the cause of God and their own souls to whom she spake with so winning and insinuating sweetness that 't was hard to resist the Suada shall I say or rather the spirit by which she spake Let me refound and eccho from her lips though alas too faintly how she would with melting charms and powerful strains attempt upon the Friends for whom she had a kindness and whom she longed to rescue COme come my Friend you must be good you shall be good I cannot be so unkind nay so unfaithful to the laws of Friendship as to let you perish and perish in a way you know as well as I leads down to Hell It grieves my very soul to see so good a nature ensnared against the dictates of its own light by bad example custom or somewhat else And if they replyed with excuses she would stop them thus I pray my Friend have patience hear me out I know or guess at least what you would say and I would not have you say it 'T is bad to commit sin but 't is worse to plead for it and defend it None sin so dangerously as those who sin with excuses The Devil then ties a new snare when he gets into our tongues to fasten us to our failings and raises an out-work in our own mouths to secure the Fort he possesses in our hearts I take it for granted all other Holds were slighted easily could you conquer such or such a vice too much by custom prevailing with you Unhappy custom that dares prescribe against God's Law But Friend use no arguments that will not hold water at the day of judgment though hand joyn in hand you know what follows And no example custom number should allure us which cannot excuse us and secure us But this is the mischief of sin liv'd in it bewitches the heart to love it that it cannot leave it Cannot so men love to speak but 't is because they will not that is will use no endeavours to be rid on 't But you must leave it there 's no remedy though it cost you trouble smart and self-denial There 's as much as all this comes to in cutting off a right hand and digging out a right eye I speak to you as to one in whom I have a party to help me plead I mean your conscience and the belief of the Scriptures for if you were one of those on whom you know I use to set my mark I should not give you this trouble nor esteem my self under more than the Laws of general charity to wish you better should hardly venture my little skill to make you so But as for you who still own God's authority and believe his Word and attend his Worship Why should I despair of making one piece of your self agree with the other your practice with your convictions your conversation with your conscience And not to fright you with the Thunder-claps of wrath and vengeance and God's judging you know who listen still to the voice 't is your peculiar eminency to be kind and grateful and because there is a kind of magnetick virtue in those arguments which touch our temper and a string will move it self when another instrument is touched that 's set to the same Key and pitch I shall attack you on that side hoping the strongest excellency of your nature will prove the weakest defensasative for sin and to keep out God You therefore who are so good natured so kind so grateful that you never think you have acquit your self sufficiently to those who have been civil or as you please to call 't obliging Oh how can be so unkind and so ungrateful unto God Almighty the kindest Fiend who is so much before hand with you who hath given you so much and is so ready to forgive you all Oh that you who I dare say would take my word for any thing else would do me the honour to take my word for him who I assure you upon your sincere repentance will be fully reconciled to you in Christ and never so much as obraid your past neglects but heal your back-slidings and love you freely And do not fear that you shall have cause to repent of your repentance No man ever yet was a loser by God and you shan't be the first you shall not lose your pleasures but exchange them defiling ones for pure and clean and ravishing And let it not seem strange or incredible to you that there should be such things because perhaps you never felt them Alas you have deprived your self unhappily by being uncapable of them New wine must be put into new bottles To say nothing of what the Scriptures speak of a day being in God's courts being better than a thousand and of joys and unspeakable and full of glory of the great peace they have who keep God's law and that nothing shall offend them that wisdoms ways are pleasantness Let my weakness reason out the case with you Do you think that God's Angels which excel in all perfections have no delights because they have no flesh no sense no bodies as men and beasts or have our Souls the Angels in these houses of clay which are God's Images and the price of his Blood no objects no employments which may yield them delight and satisfaction Think not so unworthily of God or meanly of your self have not the stroaks of your own fancy or the intellectual pleasures of your mind sometimes transported you beyond all the charms of your senses when they have chimed all in tune together And cannot God think you who is a spirit and so fit an object for our souls give them as great pleasures as any object of our taste and sight Come come my Friend take my word for 't there is more pleasure in the peace of a good conscience and in well grounded hopes our sins are pardoned and in serving God and expectation of eternal life than in all the pleasures in the world Alas I was once of your mind but I assure you upon my word I have really found more satisfaction in serving God than ever I found in all the good things of the world of which you know I have had my share Try therefore dare to be good resolve
to God as to a most loving Father with a confidence that he will supply them The Scripture tells you That the effectual fervent prayer of a righteour man availeth much and it tells you that though Elias was a man subject to like passions with us yet God heard him and granted his requests to encourage us to come with boldness to the Throne of Grace Therefore do not only make conscience to pray but make conscience also how to pray Pray with zeal and fervency do not satisfie your self with the body of the duty without the Soul but as pious Hanna did pour out your spirit before the Lord in the name of Christ for things what you stand in need of And remember that David said that the Lord had heard the voice of his weeping And therefore if you can weep for your sins at least mourn that you cannot mourn for sinning against so gracious a Father that so the mercies of God may melt into an ingenuous sorrow And do not leave your prayers till you have enjoyed some Communion with God in them and then you will be fit to go chearfully about your worldly imployments Forget not God hath intrusted you with Children and therefore remember to take care they be bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to season them in their young and tender years with Principles of Piety and Honour that so setting them forth in the way wherein they should go when they are old they may not depart from it Remember also you have a Family to govern and take up good Josuah's resolution that you and your house will serve the Lord and David's who said that his eyes should be on the Faithful in the Land that they might serve him and he that telleth lyes should not tarry in his sight Therefore have a care not to keep any that is openly profane and scandalous but at least let them be morally civil and let God be solemnly twice a day publickly worshipped by your self and Family and set them good Examples and say unto them as Gideon did to his men in another case Look on me and do likewise When you have thus spent your morning then I am not so rigid as to forbid you all Recreations no I think them very necessary for Diversion but I must be so severe as to forbid you such as may put you into any passion or disorder which may be hurtful both to Soul and Body Therefore I would absolutely forbid you Dice and Cards too unless it be sometimes when you must keep these limitations First not to play all day long as if you were made only to eat and drink and rise up to play For certainly God did not give us time as we give Children Rattles only to play withal Remember what your good Friend Dr. Taylor says That he that spends his time in sports and calls it Recreation is as he whose garment is nothing but fringes and and his meat nothing but sauce Therefore I shall advise you that your Recreations may be as your sauce not as your full meat The second limitation I would advise is not to play for more than you care whether you win or lose Remember that Mr. Herbert in his excellent Poems says Game is a Civil Gunpowder in Peace Blowing up houses with their whole increase My next Advice to you is to make a good choice of your friends and to keep company most with those of them that are civil and religious and ingenious for such company will be both pleasant and advantagious to you but the ranting Gamesters company ought to be displeasing to you for I am sure you may get a great deal of ill by them but no good therefore let such Company be rather a punishment than a choice Next I would desire you to be as chearful as you can and to that purpose I would recommend to you that gaity of goodness that will make you most pleasing to your self and others And now my Lord as your Friend you must give me leave to give you not only good counsel but my own experiences too like Nurses who feed their Children with nothing but what they have first themselves digested into milk and to assure you that however the Devil and wicked men may perswade you That Religion will make you melancholy yet I can assert from my own experience that nothing can give you that comfort serenity and composedness of mind as a well and orderly led life This will free you from all those sad disquieting remorses and checks of conscience which follow an ill action and give you that peace of God that passes all understanding and that continual feast of a good conscience This will make you rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory This will calm your desires and quiet your wishes so as you shall find the consolations of God are not small You will find you have made a happy exchange having Gold for Brass and Pearls for Pebles For truly my Lord I am upon tryal convinced that all the pleasures of this world are not satisfactory We expect a great deal more from them than we find For pleasures die in their Birth and therefore as Bishop Hall says are not worthy to come into the Bills of Mortality I must confess for my own part though I had as much as most people in this Kingdom to please me and saw it in all the Glories of the Court and was both young and vain enough to endeavour having my share in all the Vanities thereof yet I never found they satisfied me God having give me a Nature uncapable of satisfaction in any thing below the highest Excellency I never in all my life found real and satisfying Comforts but in the ways of God and I am very confident your Lordship never will neither Therefore I beseech you try this and then I verily believe you will be of my opinion That all her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace When you have spent what time you think fit in your Recreations or visiting Friends or receiving Visits from them then I would have you every day set some time apart for reading good Books and Meditation do not fear that a little time alone should make you melancholy for the way not to be alone is to be alone and you will find your self never less alone than when you are so For certainly that God that makes all others good company must needs be best himself Be often in the profitable work of self-examination be not a stranger at home but pray S. Austins Prayer Lord make me know thee and my self You will find the practice of this Rule conduce much to the good of your Soul This will make you see what sin is most predominant and what grace is most weak and therefore had need be strengthened It will keep sin from growing undiscerned by you Remember my Lord the best Gardens had need often to be weeded or else they will
well to be angry even unto death O Lord how doth this shew me the madness of this passion of anger and discontent which doth for the present so far distract us that we are ready to justifie a fault in stead of begging pardon for it O Lord I do therefore most humbly beseech thee to inable me to be slow to anger remembring that thou hast told me that he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that governs his Sipirit than he that takes a City and he that hath no rule over his spirit is as a City that hath no wall O bring all my passions into subjection to my reason and my reason to my Religion Let me not fret my self in any wise to do evil nor to be angry and sin in my Anger but give me a meek quiet contented spirit which is in thy sight of great value Let me learn of thee to be meek and lowly that I may find rest unto my soul REFLECT III. Mark 9.5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus master it is good for us to be here LOrd when I peruse these words of Peter's that it is good to be here this makes me reflect upon my self in relation to this present World who am often times when I am delighted with any thing here below which doth please my sensual appetite ready to say 't is good to be here But O Lord I beseech thee do thou then say to me up and be going for here is not your rest Look beyond things temporal to those which are eternal these worldly pleasures dye in the birth and therefore are not worthy to come into the Bill of Mortality make me to consider these things cannot satisfie me for a moment much less for eternity and that though the world seems to kiss me 't is but to stab me though it makes me sport 't is but to put out my eyes it promises much but performs nothing and therefore let me not say 't is good to be here but let me seek after that city that hath foundations whose maker and builder is God after that better country that is an heavenly REFLECT IV. John 4.28 The woman left her waterpot LOrd when I read that after thou wert pleased to instruct the Samaritan woman that thou wert the Christ the Saviour of the world she presently left her water-pot and went into the City to inform others that they also might come and be blessed with a sight of him who is the desire of all Nations O Lord this doth indeed convince me that the Soul that once findeth thee is presently content to part with all For this woman before thy revealing thy self to her was busied about her water-pot and her worldly imployments but after she had found the Messias she could as it were for joy forget her water-pot and willingly part with it to inform her Neighbours what she had found that they also might have a part with her O Lord that thou wouldst inable me also to leave all to follow thee and that I may like Simon Peter who when thou calledst him from his fishing left his nets straight-way and followed thee leave all my worldly wealth and follow thee and count all things dung and dross to gain thee and with the man spoken of in the Gospel sell all to obtain the pearl of greatest price that having found Jesus I may willingly part with all for thee and having thee may say I have enough Lord I am willing if thou call'st me to it to leave my water-pot and my nets and all for thee REFLECT V. Acts 24.25 And as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgement to come Felix trembled and answered Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will hear thee LOrd when I peruse this Verse and see that thy chosen Vessel though a Prisoner as he reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Judgement to come could make Felix tremble and yet he could put him off to another season This makes me to reflect upon my self in regard of the good motions that the holy Spirit many times comes to me with as it were in the cool of the day when the heat of temptation is over saying Dost thou well to be angry dost thou well to love this world Dost thou not remember God hath bid the not to love this world nor to consume thy days in vanity nor to be vain in thy imaginations But God has bid thee work out thy salvation with fear and trembling and give all diligence to make thy calling and election sure Remember thou hast a great work to do and thou hast but a little moment to do it in thy body is but dust and must soon return to dust but thy soul is made for eternity it must last for ever it s more worth than an whole world therefore seek rest for that therefore look beyond things temporal to those that are eternal Lay up for thy self treasure in heaven and let thy heart be there also O Lord how often hath thy blessed Spirit thus as it were whispered into my Soul and though upon such serious considerations I have with Felix trembled for the present yet I have with him also said Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will hear thee But O Lord I beseech thee pardon this procrastination and putting off good resolutions for the time past and now inable me to make haste and not delay to keep thy commandments and to follow the example of the Prodigal who said he would arise and go to his Father and he straight-way arose and went according to his resolution and promise Make me Lord to remember that it is to day if I will hear thy voice that I must not harden my heart and that now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Let me therefore now work the work of God whilst it is day for the night cometh wherein no man can work Lord make me to consider that if it be hard to repent to day it will be much harder to morrow and that I have no assurance that I shall live till to morrow Make me therefore to remember thee my Creator in the days of my youth before the evil days come wherein I shall say I have no pleasure in them and with the wise Virgins to prepare to meet the Bridegroom of my soul with my lamp ready and well furnished with oyl that when thy blessed Spirit next knocks at the door of my heart by any good motion I may presently entertain it with caresses and satisfaction and not say with Felix Go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will hear thee REFLFCT VI. 2 Sam. 12.5 And Davids anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye LOrd when I read of Nathans coming to David and by a parable shewing