Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
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A56594
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Advice to a friend
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing P738; ESTC R10347
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111,738
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356
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us so many good things even before we desire them Do you not see how Men delight to commend extol and magnify that they love And how lavishly they are wont sometime to bestow those praises There is not any thing in this World so excellent but they will borrow a Metaphor from it wherewith to adorn their beloved They go to the precious stones and to the stars nay to the Sun it self to fetch some lustre from them for their expressions And more than this it 's usual with love as every one may observe to go beyond the nature and value of things and to make those hyperboles not uncomely which in other cases are ridiculous And as for gratitude we are all sensible that nothing is so acknowledging as love Every favour it esteems a Treasure and studies all means to express its resentments So that if it become a divine passion you may learn from King David how much it will dispose our hearts to admire and extol the perfections of God and excite us to give him thanks because he is good and his mercy endureth for ever Do but read the beginning of the 103. Psal and observe how he calls up all the faculties of his Soul to assist in this Holy Duty of praising and blessing the Name of God And then being conscious to himself of his own disability to offer him the praises that are due unto his Great and Glorious Name you may take notice how in other places he goes to all his Friends and begs of them that they would joyn in consort with him saying Psal 33.23 O love the Lord all ye his Saints and 34.3 O magnifie the Lord with me and let us exalt his Name together Let Israel now say Psal 118. that his Mercy endureth for ever Let the house of Aaron now say that his Mercy endureth for ever Let them now that fear the Lord say that his Mercy endureth for ever O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever And lest all these should not be able to make this joyful sound loud enough he invites all strangers to come and help them to the discharge of this debt saying Psal 100. and 117. O make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye Lands Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his Presence with singing O praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all ye People For his merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever Praise the Lord. Yea it is frequent with him to extend his entreaties to the Angels that they would lend him their help to acquit himself 103.20 and he calls Psal 148. upon all the lower Hosts of God who are in the Heavens nearer us and in the Earth also that if they can do any thing they would bear a part in his Song of Praise which he composed in honour of him And in the very conclusion of his Heavenly Book that he might say all he could he thus bespeaks the voice of all things which either by Nature or Art are framed for delight and pleasure Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. All which Observations I thought good to annex to this Discourse of the Power of Love in Prayer because when we have said all we can there is nothing so prevalent for a new favour as praising God and being heartily thankful for the benefits we have already received To which the love of God disposing us so effectually that it never thinks it can praise or acknowledg him enough it must needs obtain much of the Divine Grace for us and consequently secure our obedience to him above all other things Especially since 3. Love is ever Watchful which is another means to be joyned with Prayer to keep us from entering into temptation It always hath its light burning and its loynes girded It is ready and forward to apprehend and imbrace any occasion of serving him to whom it is engaged It is jealous of every thing which would rob it of that good which it ardently desires And therefore hath its eyes always open and by reason of its heat will not easily fall asleep nor suffer that dulness and weariness to infest it wherewith others are usually surprised I need not pursue this Argument any further it being so apparent that fervent love and affection chases away all drowsiness of Spirit and makes a Man slip no opportunity to do that which is pleasing in the eyes of God And I am the more willing to quit it because I have been so long in the former and have two other Considerations still to add 4. One of them is which I shall but briefly touch that it will breed in us a pious confidence of the succours of Gods holy Spirit in the power of which we shall be able to undertake any thing that he commands It is impossible to have any heart to do well if we have not this hope rooted in us and it is as impossible to doubt of it if we feel the love of God burning in our hearts Which is both a testimony of his Divine Power already working in us and an argument that he is as willing to do any thing further for us as we find thereby that we are to do any thing for him It doth not only widen the heart to impart but also to receive And the very same motion which carries it out towards God and towards others in sincere affection brings home large assurances that he will abundantly communicate himself to it on all occasions for the encouraging and assisting of its faithful endeavours to do his will in every thing 5. The other is this which shall put an end to this part of my discourse that it hath no less power to make us fully assured both of the blessed rewards I spoke of in the other World and of the greatness of them which are the strongest Motives to our obedience There is nothing so sharpens the sight to discern or enlarges the heart to conceive the things of God as this doth For God is love as St. John tells us and therefore he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him Among all the goods of this World we find no where such repose and quiet as in hearty love and true friendship Nothing give us such a taste of pleasure and if the Object be worthy such satisfaction Of two it makes one so that they communicate in each others happiness And this satisfaction is wont to make them forget all other things at that instant For love is of such a nature that it endeavours to take up all the room in the heart and would leave none for any thing else that it may be intirely and wholly possessed of that which it loves And therefore when it is turned towards God and settles it self in him it must needs give us a lively sense of future bliss by uniteing our hearts and gathering up our minds as I
of men What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved My Hands also will I lift up to thy Commandments which I have loved and I will meditate in thy Statutes O how I love thy Law it shall be my Meditation every day How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my mouth Through thy Precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Do I not hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name So will I praise thee O Lord my God with all my heart and I will glorifie thy Name for evermore Amen IX AND that you may be the more humbly confident both of Gods continued goodness and your own fidelity and the more fit likewise for pious Meditations labour I intreat you as much as ever you can to maintain a constant chearfulness of spirit and lightsomness of heart Without this it will be always night with you or but a cold Winters day and as you will have no list either for meditation or any other employment so you will be apt to live in perpetual suspicion of God and of your Friends and of your self Melancholy is a dull lumpish humour which makes us of a frozen disposition and a Leaden temper It inclines us not only to think worse of our selves than we are but to do worse than otherwise we should It represents those things as exceeding difficult which may be done with ease and those as impossible which have in them any considerable difficulty It benums and stupifies our Souls and will let us feel nothing but it self It quite dispirits us and will not suffer us to do any thing because it imagines we cannot stir It shows us to our selves in an ugly Glass and then no wonder we look amiss upon all things else Some things it makes to appear bigger than they are and then all the rest appear less And having conceived them otherways than they are it nourishes the conceit till we believe it real As under the weight of some sluggish matter in the blood a man sometimes fancies his Arms are as big as Posts and then his Hands seem as heavy as a Pig of Lead and he thinks he is unable to lift them up to his Head so it is with our minds when they are oppressed with the burden of a sad and melancholy humour It makes all our duty seem very great and our strength to be none at all All impediments it renders as big as Mountains but our selves not of force enough to remove a straw It first binds up all the powers of the Soul and then will not let them be unloosed It makes us very fearful of that which it perswades us we cannot avoid And it afflicts us for that which yet it makes us fancy we cannot do In an heat it pushes us forward but suddenly it cools and says we cannot go If it catch fire it makes us wild and when it hath spent that flame it leaves us sots and fools It pricks us forward sometimes to an enterprize but it self is the shackles and fetters that will not let us move This heaviness you must take heed of and give no indulgence to it For it is the worm of the mind as one of the Antients expresses it which eateth up its Parent that brought it forth Contrary to the nature of other births it pleases us much when we bring it forth but proves a miserable torment to us as soon as it is born Melancholy musings I mean are at first a very delightful entertainment to the mind but they grow in a little time to be a very troublesome brood They are a dangerous maze in which a Man may easily lose himself and from whence he cannot without much difficulty get forth Honey is not sweet to a feaverish man nor are the sweetest truths acceptable to the sad Clogs are not a greater impediment to the Feet than this humour to the motions of the Soul The eyes are not more darkned with some kind of fumes and vapours than the understanding is with its black imaginations The Ayr is not more poysoned when it is charged with a thick and stinking mist than the mind is offensive to it self and others when it is buried in its Clouds And as the Sun when it looks through a Fog seems as if it were all bloody So do the fairest objects even God himself appear in a dismal and horrid shape when these sullen exhalations gather about us Labour then continually to disperse them and blow them away by such means as you find by experience to be most available to that purpose For chearfulness causes the Soul to breath in a pure Air and to dwell in a wholsome and sweet inclosure It makes our work seem easie and difficulties seem little and God seem good and so our strength seem great and irresistable It inlightens the mind it incourages the heart it adds wings to the affections and therefore he that forbids it to our Souls keeps out the welcomest Guest and the best Friend that Nature hath It misbeseems none but the wicked in whom it is commonly a light mirth and a foolish jollity As you see fine ornaments and curious dresses set off an handsome Face though they render those who are ugly more ill-favoured So doth chearfulness exceedingly become good Souls though in bad men it be most ridiculous For which cause it is neither unmeet to use any helps that Nature affords us to acquire it nor to call in the assistance of innocent arts and pretty inventions to invite it to keep us company Socrates blushed not to be found at Boyes-play with his Children The wise and solemn Cato sometimes stooped to be a little frollick The great Scipio thought it not unbecoming his triumphal body as Seneca calls it to use grave dances and trip about a Room in decent measures Some devout men indeed have pronounced of such like pastimes as Physicians do of Mushromes that the best ordered are worth nothing but they did not mean sure to decry all those pleasures which of themselves are indifferent and which the intention alone can render good as well as evil You ought not to refuse any ingenious or harmless recreations which you find will cherish or refresh your spirit though by Souls of a dark complexion they be deemed fooleries It is too great a burden to impose on your self such restraints as not to dare so much as laugh for fear of giving occasion of suspicion to the weak or of slander to the wicked But since