God God himself Innocent c. What and how grievous things he suffered So many griefs So great Ignominy He hath born our griefs Behold the Man Behold and see were there ever sufferings like his And all this for his Enemies ungrateful sinners and me in particular to Reconcile them to God Reflect Oh the Obedience Humility Patience Perseverance Charity of his sufferings Wednesday What passed in the Garden His Agony His Soul was heavy even to Death He sweat drops of Blood He Prayed against the bitter Cup but with a Resignation to his Fathers Will. Thy will not mine be done And soon after with unparallell'd Fortitude surrendred himself If you seek me let these go their ways desiring to tread the Wine-press of God's Wrath alone Thursday Our Saviour's Vsage before Annas Caiphas Herod and Pilate Before Annas Questioned for his Doctrine In Caiphas's house false Witnesses were brought against him He was kept Prisoner there all Night Mockt by the Souldiers and others Denyed by Peter Before Herod despised Before Pilate first declared Innocent but afterwards Condemned by him for Treason to please the People and secure his own Interest with them St. Peter's Repentance very speedy But the Obstinacy of the Jews continues to this very day Friday Our Saviour's Vsage at the Pillar his Crown of Thorns his Journey to Mount Calvary bearing his Cross his barbarous Crucifixion the Wounds he received the sweet words he uttered Father forgive them c. yet the Rocks were more Compassionate than the Jews and We. Saturday Of our Saviours Burial Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea his Blessed Mother and St. Mary Magdalene and some other Honourable and Holy Persons were concerned in it They wash'd his Wounds with their holy Tears and Embalmed his Body with their Sighs and Prayers and Richest Odours He made his Sepulcher with the Rich and Honourable but yet the malicious Jews sealed the Stone and set a Watch to prevent if possible his rising again to Glory Sunday Of our Saviour's Resurrection Ascension and sending of the Holy Ghost 1. The manner of his Resurrection His Conversing Fourty days upon Earth Comforting his Freinds Strengthening his Disciples and giving them charge over his Flock 2. his Ascention into Heaven siting on the right hand of God that our Hearts and Affections might thither also ascend 3. His sending the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost his Disciples having Fasted Watch'd and Pray'd continually day and night for ten days before Reflect His Resurrection the first Fruits and earnest of ours His Ascension to draw us and our affections after him His sending the Holy Ghost that the same Spirit that raised up him the Head might also quicken us his Members CHAP. IV. Meditations for the fifth Week MOnday Of the Nobility of the Soul 1. Created by God after his own Image 2. God giveth his Angels Charge over it As the Hills stand about Jerusalem so standeth the Lord round about them that fear him 3. Of so great value is the Soul that our Saviour left the Bosom of his Father to redeem it even with the price of his Blood Tuesday Of a pure Conscience a right Faith and doing all things for God's Honour These Three constitute the good Christian for the Life we now live is by Faith And the pure in heart shall see God shall have a clear and more naked perception of him even in this Life No Image or Idea can represent a Spirit such as God is He is Purity it self perceptible only to the pure in Heart after an ineffable manner and void of all sensible Idea's Reflect The purging therefore our Consciences is to be carefully minded Wednesday Of the Presence of God With the thoughts of this so great Presence many holy Persons have preserv'd themselves from sin Enoch walked with God and was translated Abraham walked before God and was perfect King David set God always before him that he should not sin So Elijah and Elisha God liveth in whose sight and presence I stand And nothing more certain than that God filleth and worketh in all his Creatures In him we live and move and have our being and all things subsist and are upheld by his immediate hand But he more nearly dwells and inhabits in every good Man and directs him by the Interiour Language of his Inspirations and gives him leave also to Communicate to him as to a most faithful Freind all his Wants Desires Resolutions Infirmities Temptations c. And the oftner he recollects his Faculties from external objects and retireth into himself to God so much the better and his progress in holiness greater and more easy Reflect How great a folly therefore is it to live insensible of the Assistance of so great a presence so near us even within us Thursday Of the Conjunction of the Soul with God Which consists in a Conformity of our Will to the Divine We must Will the same thing with God and the same means to it My Son give me thy heart says God by Solomon It is good for me to cleave to God says David And St. Paul nothing could separate from Christ Neither Life nor Death c. 2. Such a Person is always Examining his Conscience Keep 's a strict guard that his thoughts wander not abroad or be over long busied in outward Affairs for fear of losing that presence that Consolation he always carries about with him in his Soul Prayers Meditation Contemplation Recollection the Holy Sacraments are in a manner the entertainment of his whole Life Reflect All these things are irksome and nauseous to the Carnal Worldly Man Friday Of Humility 1. The Humble man retains a true sence of God's Favours What great things he hath both done and suffered for him and that out of a free and most amazingly generous Goodness without any the least merit on his side And on the contrary what returns he hath made how many and how great wickednesses committed against that good God So that he knows not which way to turn himself Thinks no place vile enough for him who for his sins deserves the greatest Afflictions the greatest Torments He hath no way but to humble himself before God with Confusion of Face and Offer and Resign himself wholly to his boundless Mercy to deal with him as his Compassion pleases 2. The true Humble Man is Servant of all Especially his lawful Governours and Teachers to whose wiser Judgment he readily submits his own less wise As knowing they have more ability to judge than himself and more assistance also promised not to mistake To these therefore he submits as to Christ himself being commanded so to do Ezek. 33.7 8. Heb. 13.17 3ly Being contemned he rejoiceth being honoured he referrs the honour to God and so all other Benefits he receives But the shame of his sins he takes to himself and confesses with the poor Publican that he is not worthy to lift up his eyes to Heaven 4ly What humilty can equal that of our Lord in all
in his 45 Epistle encourageth a chaste Married Couple to persist unalterably in their Holy Intention of abstaining by urging to them some great Examples and telling them that Wedlock may still be maintained without Carnality by preserving entire the affection of the mind Since then those Marriages are to be Esteemed most Chast which come nearest to a Single Life Single Life and allow most time for Devotion and since also there are none in a Married State so pure as to propose nothing else by Marriage but the having of Children and bringing them up in the fear of God and so filling Heaven with immortal Souls without any mixture of gross sensual Pleasure and Carnal Satisfaction to themselves and that many times beyond the bounds fixed and allowed by almighty God who ordained Man and Wife to be helps to one another chiefly in spirituals it must be granted in favour of those few few Comparatively speaking who in Colleges Inns-of-Court and the like make choice of a Single Life that such a manner of Life when truly Vertuous hath the Preheminence of the Married State ordinarily speaking even in its greatest purity For 1st though the Married-bed be undefiled i. e. with sin yet is the Virgins Bed more undefiled more Angel-like in respect of Corporeal purity Luk. 20.35 And therefore hereafter not to Marry nor be given in Marriage but to be like the Angels of God is reckoned as a thing more Honourable for the body Concupiscence indeed hath a share in the Single Life as well as in the Married But before the fall there was no such thing in humane Nature as Concupiscence and since the fall it is manifest the Single Life aims at a higher Degree of that Primogeneral Virginal purity that was in Man in the State of Innocency What else can be the meaning of that Expression of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7.34 The Virgin careth c. that she may be holy both in Body and Spirit Holy that is certainly more holy and more pure than she could have been in a Married state 2ly The Single Life is freeâ— from Distractions Worldly Cares and Impediments than the Married Life can be When a Man hath double Obligations relating to this World and the next and both of them require the greatest part of his time he is as it were divided between two and knows not which to attend to first or how to quit his Obligations to one without incurring the displeasure of the other Whereas if a Man have his Liberty which when we can have we are rather to use it 1 Cor. 7.21 and is not entangled with the present World hath no Wife or Family and none to take care of but himself what can hinder him from Dedicating himself his time and all that he can do or suffer to the Glory and Service of God I would have you saith the Holy Spirit by St. Paul to his Corinthians be as much as may be without carefulness 1 Bor. 7.32 especially the Pastors and Watchmen of Gods Church who are to give an account of the Souls committed to their charge Heb. 13.17 And it follows in the same Verse He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord but he that is Married careth for the things of the Woâ—ld how he may please his Wife and so she that is Married how she may please her Husband And yet the Married both Men and Women must endeavour also to please the Lord who hath an absolute power over them precedent to all others and so are divided in their thoughts and cannot attend upon the Lord in Prayer and other holy Duties without great distraction and solicitude For indeed nothing can be more contrary to Spiritual Exercises such as Prayer Fasting and the like than Carnal Pleasures which by the very Excesses they feed upon and are therewith kept alive discompose our Temper and divide and divert our Love and Affections to the Creature which are always best spent upon and consecrated to the Creator himself The Prophet Elijah who was the first that set up the Standard of Virginity upon Mount Carmel was also himself a true Emblem of it as being all Fire and Zeal for the service of God Prophesying and Preaching the Truth boldly even at Court without having any regard either to worldly interest or his own safety And therefore after a Pure Virginal Angelical Life here God Translated him by an extraordinary manner that he should not see Death 2 King 2.11 Gen. 5.22 24. Which indeed happened also to Enoch a Married Person for his walking with God and giving a good Example in those early days of Religion before the World was come to such perfection as to know the Excellency of Virginity and the Single Life and besides that good Patriarchs Family being then perhaps the only Church of God he might justly think the encreasing of it to be then of absolute necessity Especially since even in our times there are not wanting some Eminent Persons who Marry for no other end than to raise up Godly Families that shall imitate themselves in Piety and Devotion and in walking like Enoch with God Which nevertheless tho' it be the most perfect Scope of Marriage yet comes not up to the Purity and Perfection of Virginity and the Single Life that is always sitting at the feet of Jesus and incessantly attending on the service of God It is upon this very account that St. Paul in his comparing these two States together in his 1st Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 7.38 gives the preference to a single Life before Marriage He that giveth her in Marriage doth well but he that giveth her not in Marriage doth better And so of a Widow Vers 40. the same Apostle pronounceth her happier in his Judgment if she so abide Better and happier then is the Single Life to those that can live continently and who ever used the means of Fasting Prayer frequent Communicating avoiding Occasions c. with sincerity and failed because such being freed from Worldly cares which occasion distractions their Affections and Understanding are better disposed for meditating and contemplating on Divine things and for receiving more and more Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit and so may be said to live more sensible of the Presence as well as the Blessing of Almighty God which is the only happiness in this vale of miseries of humane life And such Single Persons as are of meaner Understandings and so not capable of these higher matters have yet by living Single more leisure for Works of Charity towards their Neighbour which are altogether as acceptable to God but yet not without the other necessary Duties even of the most ignorant Christians such as daily Prayers frequenting the Blessed Sacrament Spiritual Pastours c. which ought not to be omitted upon any even pious Pretence whatsoever The Encomiums of a Single Life are endless St. Paul recommends it to all
live without Care or any sort of Seriousness keep what the World calls the best Company have their choice of Women and Wine and deny themselves nothing of Sensuality And all this as the World now goes without running any great Hazard of losing their Reputation but not of losing their immortal Souls which sure ought most to be regarded by them To these supine Christians and Slaves to their own Lusts who know better but yet as it were in their own Defence take the Liberty not only of living Counter to but also of drolling upon all that is serious or sacred even the Holy Scriptures and our blessed Saviour himself rather than be stopp'd or check'd in their Career or in the leastwise hindred the following the full Swinge of their own unbridled Appetites and ungovernable Wits I can only propose First The Impurity and Filthiness of such Sins and Secondly The severe Punishments that inseparably attend them CHAP. II. Of the Impurity and Filthiness of such Sins PAssions Frailties and Infirmities are the common Plea and Pretence of Sinners Whereas the defect and proneness of our Nature to sin is in it self no Sin so long as not compli'd withall and besides is abundantly repaired and supernatural Assistance recovered by the Incarnation of our Saviour and the Means he hath afforded us to a holy Life if we are not wanting in the Application The loss of our Innocency hath not deprived us of any of our Faculties Our Understanding and Will are still the same and we have the same freedom to chuse the Good and reject the Evil nor is the divine Assistance God be thanked denied to any that seek it So that the Commission of Sin is entirely from our selves Perditio tua ex te Thy Destruction is from thy self Hos 13.9 says the Prophet and the preventing of it wholly in our own power And one would think we should not readily fall in love with so great deformity My present Subject however is those grosser Sins the Sins of the Flesh as being most rise amongst us and such as destroy all seriousness the foulness and filthiness whereof appears 1st From the great offence they give to God's own Holiness and Purity To which every evil even in Thought is opposite Sanctity being his great and most proper Attribute than which the Seraphims could find none greater when they sung Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbaoth Besides the Divine Nature being absolute Purity without any Mixture or Composition whatsoever and being also absolute Perfection so that no defect or want of any good thing is in him it must needs be that what is contrary to those as is all imperfection and evilness must also be opposite to him Which speaking according to the manner of men is to be displeasing to be grievous to be loathsome and odious to him but most of all these grosser sins And this we know also from God's putting all along in Scripture a particular mark of his displeasure upon them setting them in the front as the Captains and Ring-leaders of the rest These are the members we are to mortify upon Earth Col. 3.5 Fornication Vncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence c. So again 1 Cor. 6.9 be not deceived neither Fornicators c. nor Adulterers Rom. 1 24 c. Thess 4.5 Eph. 4.1 nor Effeminate Persons nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God These are the sins with which the Gentiles when they offended God most of all before the light of the Gospel shone amongst them stand every where in Scripture principally charged Nay so great an offence are these sins to the Holiness of Almighty God that he seems to equal them to the greatest sin of all 1 Cor. 6.9 Rev. 22.15 Col. 3.5 And therefore in Holy Write we find them ordinarily linked together with the sin of Idolatry And sometimes also with Covetousness taken in its largest sence for Coveting either Persons or Riches which last is said also to be Idolatry And the former may be called so too for the same reason because it is hard to say which of the two Harlots or Money is most powerful and most idolized in this lower World The Impurity and filthiness of Fornication and other grosser sins of the Flesh appears yet farther from their oppositeness to that Holiness and Cleanness which ought to be in the Body as well as in the Soul of all those who profess themselves Members of Christ Not that this filthiness of the Flesh is any External Deformity in the Body or any Diseases Ulcers or Sores For we find Job Lazarus and many other great Saints who had been well pleasing in God's sight were before men very loathsom Persons But it is a real defilement of the Body as the Body is the honourable Instrument and Associate of the Soul and ought by it to be employed to a more noble end even together with the Soul to be employed to the Glorifying God and one day also to be presented with it before him in his Heavenly Tabernacle 1 Thess 4.4 This is the will of God saith St. Paul even your Sanctification that you should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel i. e. his body in Sanctification and Honour Vers 7. not in Lust of Concupiscence for God hath called us not to uncleanness but unto holiness And the same Apostle in his first Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.20 addresses himself to the Men of this Age as well as those of all others after a most prevailing manner Know you not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and not your own or at your own disposing for ye are bought with a price the precious Blood of our Lord to be also his Spouse and his Members therefore ought to glorifie God both in Body and Soul which are God's And is there not good reason that after being purchased even our body as well as soul at so dear a rate as the Inestimable Blood of our Lord we should at least in gratitude sanctifie and devote our selves wholly to his honour and service But to compell us to it unless we will deny our selves to be Men and rational Creatures the Apostle's Argument here and in his other Epistles runs thus The Church is the Spouse of Christ Eph. 5.29 30 c. 1 Cor. 6.17.6 13. whom he bought and purchased to himself with his own Blood and Life whom he Cherisheth also with the like care as the same Flesh and Bone and the same Spirit with himself And for the same reason is now our Body as wel as our Soul for the Lord and the Lord for the Body If therefore the Wife have not power over her own Body but the Husband no more hath Christ's Spouse the Church or we her Members 1 Cor. 7.34 power over our selves but Christ And tho' it be said only of
are those high things so far surpassing our Understanding that according to St. Paul Eye hath not seen 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Cor. 12.4 nor Ear heard nor hath it ever entred into the heart of Man to conceive them And if none or all of these Meditations and innumerable others relating to our Saviour and another World with which the Holy Scriptures and other good Books amply supply us cannot prevail to secure us it is certainly much better rudely to quit the Company and leap out of the flames than to stay out of Complaisance to be burnt in them CHAP. VI. The Second Rule Of Suggestions THE Second Instruction is To take great care of Suggestions and to observe from what Principle or Cause they proceed Whether 1st From our selves or our own Lusts Or 2ly From the Devil Or 3ly From the H. Spirit of God and accordingly we are either to entertain or reject them Now it is not easie even for the greatest Asceticks to discern upon all occasions from which of these Principles a Suggestion arises but if it be such as tempteth us to any Notorious sin any Filthy uncleanness we may presently know from whence it comes And then it is much better and easier to suppress it in its very beginning to stifle it in the Embryo before it be conceived in us by our consenting to it or at least before it break forth into any outward action which when finished brings forth Death Jam. 1.15 Filthy unclean Suggestions we cannot always prevent but we may refuse consenting to them or taking any delight in them and so suppress and keep them under by God's Assistance till at length we Totally extinguish them O that God's Holy Spirit would take such full possession of my heart as not to suffer any unclean Suggestion to enter there But if the sin to which we are tempted be habitual to us or the sin which doth most easily of all others beset us Heb. 12.1 we are then to bend all our forces against it make the strongest resolutions we can for some short time at least suppose for a day and so renew our resolutions every Morning the known practice of a Renowned Bishop of the Church of England in Point of Matrimony taking particular Notice how often it assaults us and in the midst of the Temptation using some external action if nothing but violence will do such as throwing our selves down upon our knees or face beating our Breast supplicating our Lord with sighs and tears when God pleases to give them for his assistance who hath promised that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able 1 Cor. 10.13 but will with the Temptation make a way for our Escape or enable us to bear the pressure of it At least it is wisdom to delay the Execution of the foul Act to which we are tempted for by deferring it our reason may gather new forces our Passions abate or some External Accidents may intervene Some pious reflection of our own may occurr or some good Friend may come in to whom we may impart our deplorable Condition and ask his good Advice who at such a time is much better able than we our selves to give it and in this sence chiefly it is that the bearing one anothers burdens is the fulfilling of the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 After the vanquishing of such a Temptation and the leaving as far as we can our own Nature to go over to Grace there usually comes an Angel to comfort us or what is better some holy Inspiratons of the Divine Spirit to encline us who of our selves cannot so much as think a good thought to thank God for our deliverance 1 Cor. 3.5 and to pray for more Grace and Strength against another time Such holy Inspirations we must take care not to repell for that would be more or less to Resist Grieve and Quench the Holy Spirit of God in us But on the contrary we must Cherish all good Thoughts and by them endeavour to introduce by little and little Vertues instead of our ill Habits When once we intend to begin a new Course of Life we must not in the least consult with Flesh and Blood but rather fall immediately upon it If at any time why not now if not now perhaps never Was the saying of St. Austin And in the acquiring of any Vertue suppose Continency Chastity or the like we may with the same Father boldly throw our selves upon God who will not withdraw himself to let us fall Projice te in Deum c. But yet our own sincere Endeavours after a pure mind and right intention must not be wanting to which God always gives a Blessing tho' we are not always sensible of it Now some perhaps may think Solemn Resolutions to one Just beginning to break a long custom and habit of any filthy sin to be both Rash and Dangerous because when once broken as many times first Resolutions are the ill habit being as yet much stronger than the good one to be introduced the over-grown Sinner is apt to be either too much discouraged and so fall into despair or to be more hardned in his most shameful Vice and so Incorrigibly go on still in his old wonted Road of Debauchery It may therefore be much safer for a beginner to make a limited Conditional Promise and such as is Releasable upon a Forefeiture Suppose for Example we resolve to abstain from such a filthy sin from such lewd Company for so long a time or if we do not we will indispensibly pay so much Money to be given to the poor say so many Prayers fast so many Meals shut up our selves so many Days from all Company and the like and this besides and over and above the necessary requisites of our Repentance which present forefeiture or punishment in our Purse or otherwise many times hath a greater Influence upon us towards the breaking off a Debauched Custom than either the fears or hopes of what may and certainly will happen to us according to our deserts in another World Moreover the resolving upon such a Penalty for the Forefeiture as does really afflict the Body such as Fasting long Retirement Watching c. or diminishing our beloved treasure and substance by giving large Alms to Prisons Hospitals poor House-keepers c. will certainly fix in our memory an hatred of the sin and so mind us of every Suggestion of it and deterr us from embracing it because if a temporal punishment be immediately to follow it much lessens the desire of the imaginary pleasure and oftentimes occasions the reflecting also on the future real punishment eternal Death which is the final Doom and the Inseparable wages of all unrepented Rom. 6.23 unforsaken sin But then to every good purpose we must not forget to joyn this Resolution also that if we should at any time by infirmity or surprize relapse into the detestable sin against which we have resolved
written and allowed of by the Ancient Fathers and the whole Church of God in all Ages And then as to the necessity of Prayer if we consider our many wants Temporal and Spiritual to be relieved many sins wherein we still offend God to be pardoned many Temptations and Dangers from which to be preserved many Benefits and Assistances received and all these with a respect also to our Fellow Christians we cannot but acknowledge every moment of our Lives had we no other necessary Duties too little to be spent in this one Great Duty of Continual Prayer 1 Thess 5.17 Our good Lord assist us by his Holy Spirit in the diligent and sincere performance thereof The other Chief Means of our obtaining Divine Assistances against our Lusts is 2ly Frequen Communicating as many good Christians now do and the Primitive Christians did almost every day I do not intend here to treat largely of this Holy Sacrament there being many good Books Written designedly on that Subject but only recommend to the Reader without medling with God's power therein which transcends all Humane Conception and Comprehension the Immense Benefit of this Holy Mystery to each worthy Communicant in reference to his particular Necessities For obtaining Remission of this or that Sin a Remedy of this or that Infirmity a Deliverance from this or that Affliction for receiving a Benefit or giving thanks for a Benefit received for helping our Neighbour for encreasing the Holy Spirit and Love of God in us Because as by one Spirit in Baptism We are made one Mystical Body of Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 so likewise in the Eucharist are we made to drink into the partaking of one Spirit The Blessed Eucharist being as necessary for the continuing and encreasing as Baptism for the first receiving the Holy Spirit Because also this is that particular Nourishment instituted by Christ for the preserving our Body and Soul to Everlasting Life that particular Pledge and Assurance of our Resurrection that true Bread from Heaven which mystically also Incorporates us into Christ and makes us continue and grow up into perfect Members of his Body that so thus partaking of the Nature and Spirit of the Second Adam the Heir of all things we may become with him Sons of God Heirs of Eternal Life as we were by the First Adam of Eternal Death That true Heavenly Bread lastly so Exalting and Assimulating our Nature into Christ when worthily Communicating as to make us one with him as he and the Father are one According to our Saviour's Prayer when he was Instituting this Blessed Sacrament I pray thee Father John 17. that they may be one as we are one O Blessed Union between poor Man and his Maker O happy those Souls who here worthily feed on this Heavenly Bread the only true Nourishment of the Life of Grace enabling them in the Strength thereof to walk even to the Mount of God the Life of Glory The Conclusion THE Summ of this Discourse is The Sins of the Flesh are most dangerous because most natural to us And by reason of their filthiness most loathsome to Almighty God and most severely punished by him For not only those of the greater magnitude Fornication Adultery Incest Sodomy Beastiality are followed with God's most Tremendous Judgments but also we find in Scripture Vncleanness and Laciviousness Gal. 5.19 Eph. 5.3 destinct from the foregoing and of a less denomination every where joyned with such Sins as exclude the Practisers thereof from the Kingdom of Heaven The way to prevent such Sins and to avoid the punishment of them is To mortify our Passions our Memory and Imagination to beware of impure Suggestions cheirsh Holy Inspirations and avoid all the occasions of such Sins to Improve lastly the Grace of God in us by Assiduous Prayer daily Examination of our selves perfect Repentance frequent Communicating and all other holy means pressing still farther to higher and higher Gifts particularly to the attaining that most excellent Gift of Charity which makes us love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves hate even our own Lives for love of Him who first loved us undergoing the the greatest sufferings with Thankfulness and Complacency performing all our Actions on purpose to please him referring them to his Honour offering them up to his Praise and Glory To whom Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour Praise and Glory to all Eternity Amen God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.24 Grace and Truth i. e. means of Salvation came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves but to him who dyed for them Gal. 4.6 2 Cor. 5.15 Wretched is that man who is all for the good things of this Life a good House good Apparel good Provision c. and is content to have a bad Soul Int. Christ Some Short Directions and Heads of Meditation for the Persons Concerned in the Preceeding Discourse CHAP. I. Of Meditation it's Requisites and how it differs from Contemplation MEditation is called the first Essential part of Prayer leading to Contemplation Thanksgiving Petition c. in which all the Principal Faculties of the Soul the Memory Vnderstanding Will and Affections are severally employed The Memory recollects the matter to be Meditated upon and also placeth the Soul in the Divine Presence The Vnderstanding judgeth of the Subject and its Vertues and accordingly proposeth it to the Will The Will excites in us divers Acts and Affections either of Love Affiance Gratitude c. towards God Or of Hatred Compunction desire of doing better c. towards our selves which is indeed the main Scope and end of Meditation Then follows our Praying and representing to Almighty God our Miseries Necessities Temptations which we most earnestly beg him to redress for his own Love and Compassion's sake and the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ But when the Faculties of the Soul are unactive or slow in their Operations as it often happens they are to be excited by the help of good Books which ought always to be at hand when we Meditate and in all such holy exercise we are to approach the Divine Presence with our greatest Reverence and Humiliation And it is also necessary before every Meditation to make a strict Examen of Conscience 1. What Benefits we have received that day from Almighty God for which we are to return Thanks 2. What Sins we have that day committed running through every hour in thought word and deed for which we are to beg pardon 3. We are to resolve upon an amendment in every particular by the Grace of God After such strict Examination of all our Thoughts Desires Words and Works judging our selves that we be not judged of the Lord and Confessing our Sins in the bitterness of our Soul as the Church requires and taking also