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A61207
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The spiritual chymist, or, Six decads of divine meditations on several subjects by William Spurstow ...
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Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.
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1666
(1666)
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Wing S5097; ESTC R22598
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119,345
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208
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Piety gives both to the Person and to his Services a peculiar Preheminence and Dignity above all others The Naturalists observe that the Pearles that are bred of the Morning Dew are far more bright and clear than those which are bred of the Evening Dew And so are those duties of a greater worth and beauty which are the fruits of a Morning and not an Evening Godliness It is the commendation of Hezekiahs Reformation above all others of the Kings of Judah that in the first year of his Reign in the first Moneth he opened the doores of the House of the Lord. It is that which makes Josiahs Memory to be as a Box of precious Nard that while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father It is an Honourable Testimony which Paul gives to Epenetus that he was the first-fruits of Achaia unto Christ and the like is that which he gives to Andronicus and Junia that they were in Christ before him To have a Precedency in the Faith is not onely a happiness but a dignity What glory can be greater then to be a Jeremiah sanctified from the Womb or a Timothy nourished up in the words of Faith Sâ—condly The comfort of Age is a well-spent Life When a Man comes to the Grave as a Shock of Câ—rne in its seâ—son and not as a bundle of Tares to the Fire when the Bones are full not of the Sins of Youth but of the Services that were then done to God when a Man can say as dying Hezekiah Remember O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight O it is sad when the sins of youth become the burthen of age â— if the Grashopper then be a weight to the Body what a pressure will heapes of Mountainous sins be to the Soul Age at the best hath sufficient Griefes it is of it self a Sickness and a Neighbour to Death and needs not the bad provisions of Youthfull Follies to make it worse Let then the Counsell of Wise Solomon be acceptable unto you who are yet in the spring and flower of your age to Remember your Creator in the dayes of your youth and then if Death make you Pale before Age make you Gray you will have this comfort that you are old in houres though not in yeares and bave lived much though not long as having lost no time in sowing Seed unto the Flesh as most doe who make youth a foolish Seed-time to a Mourning Age and Old Age a bitter Harvest to a foolish Youth Or if your Almond-Tree shall flourish and that a more gracious Old Age shall succeed a gracious Youth Old Age it self shall be followed with a Crown of endless Glory Meditation LII Vpon a Rock IT is the saying of the Moralists That Accidents which befall Men have a double handle by which they may be apprehended So as that if they be rightly taken they become not onely less burthensome and unpleasant but also of use and advantage to those that sustain them like bitter Herbes that are by the skill of the Physician turned into a wholsome Medicine The like may be said of this present Subject that it hath a double aspect under which it may be represented to our Consideration each of which will suggest thoughts far differing one from another and yet both have their rise from Scripture Doth not God bid us look unto the rock from whence we are hewen and to the pit whence we are digged And then what can it hold out to our view but the misery of our natural condition our deadness deformity barrenness and untractableness to any good Is it not the complaint of the best that their hearts are Stony and Rocky and that they are apt to stand it out with God and not to yield to the Work of his Grace is there any evil that in their account is more insuperable then a flinty heart When did Moses who had faith to work many Miracles most distrust but when he was to make the Rock to yield Water though God commanded him to speak onely to it yet as deeming it insufficient he smote it twice And yet is it not the Promise of God to take away the stony heart and to give an heart of flesh And is it not that which I beg that God would mollifie both my Naturall and Acquired hardness and preserve me from Judiciall hardness That so I may not resist Pharoah like his Messages his Miracles his Judgments and his Mercies and grow worse in stead of being better I would that God might be a Rock to me but I would be as Wax unto him that so I might be apt to receive Divine Impressions from him It is my sin to be as a Rock to God unflexible and sooner Broken then Bent But it is my unspeakable comfort to think that God will be a Rock to me who stand in a continual need of his aide and power to uphold me who if I be not built upon him cannot subsist and if I be not hid in him can have no salvation I cannot therefore but give some scope and line to my thoughts that I may the better take in the honey and sweetness that drops from this Metaphoricall Name of God who is often stiled in Scripture the Rock of Israel the Rock of Ages the Rock of Salvation But here I must use the help of the Schooles who rightly informe us that when any thing of the Creature is applyed to God it must be via remotionis by way of remotion and via eminentiae by way of transcendent eminency First by way of remotion All defects and blemishes whatsoever are not in the least to be attributed unto him who is absolutely perfect as Heraulds say of Bearings the resemblance must be taken from the best of their properties and not from the worst Is a Rock deformed and of unequall parts God is the first of Beauties as well as of Beings and all his attributes are equally infinite his Justice is of as large extent as his Mercy and his Wisdom as his Power Is a Rock unsensible of the straits of those that fly unto it for succour so is not God who is both a Rock and a Father of Mercies Who can read the expressions of his tenâ—erness and not be affected How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Is the strength of a Rock intransient and fixed in it self not communicating its verâ—ue to what lies upon it So is not the strength of Israel who is a living and not a dead Rock and gives both life and power to those that are united to him I can do all things saith holy Paul through Christ strengthning me Is a Rock Barren and can yield no food though it
THis Lemma or Title may happily as much affect such who make Gold their God as the sight of the Star did the Wise Men hoping that it will be both a light and guide to the discovery of that rare and matchless secret of turning the more base and inferiour Metralls into the more noble Iron into Silver and Brass into Gold and so Enrich them with an Artificial Indies But I can scâ—rce resolve my self whether the Philosophers Stone which is thus framed for wonders be not rather a Speculation than an absolute reallity or an attempt assayed by many rather than an Atcheivment attained by few or any How many have melted down Ample Revenues in their Crusibles and while they have with much labour sought the Sublimation of Mettals have sunk themselves into the deepest beggery and how have others consumed their time if not wasted their Estates in a fruitless pursuit of it and yet have seen no other change then what age and care hath made in themselves by turning their golden hair into silver hair or at the best have gleaned up some few Experiments onely which have not Compensated their cost and travel But what if any Man after long search and study can Archimedes like cry out joyfully that he hath found Yea what if every Man who have busied his thoughts and imployed his time in diving into this Mystery should be able to effect such a Change and to multiply his Treasure as the Sand yet how worthless and inconsiderable would such productions of his Philosophical Stone be found if compared with the noble and transcendent effects of the Divine or Theological Stone which Christ promiseth in the Revelation to him that overcometh whose worth as it is far greater so the way to obtain it is more facile and certain it being not a work of labour but a gift of grace This Stone is of such power and energy that whosoever is possessed of it can have nothing befâ—l him which it changeth and turneth not to his good it turneth all temporal losses into spiritual advantages all crosses into blessings all asflictions into comforts it dignifies reproach and ignomy it changeth the hardship of a Prison into the delights of a Pallace it is an heavenly Anodyne against all paines and makes the Soul to possess it self in patience in every condition It is a Panacea an universal Salve for every Sore to all acciâ—ents that can befall a Man It is as the Seal to the Wâ—x putting upon them a new stâ—mp and figure and making them to be what they were not before and what they never could have been without it Such it is that he who hath it hath all good and he that wants it whatever else he seemes to possess hath little less then nothing Who then can without mourning as well as wondering think at the prodigious folly of those Men who labour in a continual fire to effect the Stone of the Transmutation of Mettalls and yet deem this Divine Stone scarce worth the begging of God in a Prayer Is this wisdom to toile in the refining of Clay and to be able to make a dull piece of Earth to shine and then to value our happiness by it is this wisdom to set a low rate upon what God hath promised to give and highly to esteem what we can do O Lord if this be the Worlds wisdom let me become a fool I had rather have this Divine Stone of thy Promise then all the Treasures that Nature and Art can yield Let the Mountains be turned into Gold the Rocks into Diamonds the Sands into Pearles yet this Stone with the New Name written in it is to me more desirable then all as being a sure pledg of life and happiness in heaven Meditation XIX Vpon a Greek Accent ACcents are by the Hebrews aptly called Sapores Tastes or Savors because that Speech or Words without the observance of them are like Jobs White of an Egg without Salt insipid and unpleasant In the Greek they derive their name from the due tenor or tuning of words and in that Tongue words are not pronounced according to the long or short vowels but according to the accent set upon them which directs the rise or fall the length or brevity of their pronunciation now what accents are in the Greek to words that methinks circumstances are to sins which as so many Moral accents do fitly serve to shew their just and certain dimensions and teach us aright to discern how great or small they be and he that without respect had unto them doth judge of the bigness of sins is like to erre as much as a Man that should take upon him without Mathematical Instruments to give exactly the greatness of the Heavenly Bodies and to pronounce of Altitudes Distances Asspects and other appearances by the scantling of the Eye Is not this the Scripture way to set out Sin by the Place Time Continuance in it and repetitions of it doth not God thus accent Israels sins by the place in which they were done they provoked him at the Red-Sea where they saw the mighty workes of his power in making the deep to be their path to Canaan and the Aegyptians Grave They tempted him in the Wilderness where their Food Drink Clothes were all made up of Miracles the Clouds yielding them Meat the dry Rock Water and their Garments not waxing old Dotâ— he not aggravate them by the long space of their continuance in them in saying that they grieved him fourty years doth he not number the times of their Reiterated Murmurings and Rebellions and make it as a ground for his Justice to destroy them Necessary therefore it is that in the duty of Self-examination and reviewes of the Book of Conscience we do not only read over the naked Facts which have been done by us but that we look into those Apices peccati little dots and tittles which are set upon the heads of many sins the Circumstances I mean with which they were committed or else we shall never read that book aright or learn to know what sins are great or what small The Fact and the Circumstance are both noted in the Journals of Conscience though they be not haply equally legible and he that is truly peniâ—ent will make it a chief part of his work to find out one as well as the other as being the best meanes both to get the heart broken for sin and from sin What shame what fear what carefulness what revenge will a serious sight of the several aggravations that meet in the perpretation of a sin move and stir up in the heart of a sinner will he not say what a beast am I to â—in thus against so clear light to break so often my own vowes to defer so long my Repentance and Rising again what revenge shall I now take of my self to witness my Indignation what carefulness shall I exercise to evidence the truth of my return what diligence shall I use to redeem