sense but my Saviour It is none of the least sins of our youth that we are carelesse and forgetfull of Thee our Creatour and no wonder we are so insensible of the Joyes to Come that live in such a constant and continued neglect of Heaven Make me therefore O my God to consider that had I the fruition of all that I can wish or long for here I should not onely not be satisfied but in the end find how miserable he is that setteth his heart on any thing but Thy selfe teach me therefore so to enjoy the World that I lose not thee nor the memory of that Blessed reward thou hast promised to them that Honour Thee GEN. Chap. 2. v. 8. And the Lord God planted a Garden East-ward in Eden WHat an airy fancy was it of some then to place Paradise beyond the middle region could they transplant the earth at pleasure or did the clouds like so many moving walks become a seminary of vegetables Was Erasmus of this opinion when he wisht himselfe encaged betwixt heaven and earth How vaine is ambitious frailty in its quest after knowledge We search for Paradise with more Curiosity then Adam lost it and when we cannot find it here yet we will fancy it a place though above our reach That there was a Paradise we need not doubt He that made it tells us so but where to find it he that lost it knowes not So suddenly doth sin blast our most innocent pleasures Scarce had Man taken a view or walke in Paradise but this expell'd him the earth was but in its youth scarce warm'd by the new born Sun when this wither'd it into a sterill and decrepit Complexion nay the heavens scarce seated in their orbs were shaken by it and interrupted almost in their Motions by the pride and fall of Angells No sooner had the Serpent breath'd out his Contagion but Paradise changed it's vordure The Creatures fly from the Garden of the world and infected Man is shut out from his beautifull enclosure he that was an Inhabitant of pleasure it self for whom the most choise and various fragrancies of the New Created earth were epitomised together is stript and cheated of his happinesse by the Spirit of lies and is glad to be beholding to a Figtree for his first vestment How perfectly hath his naked Issue inherited his fortune how many of his wretched sons have been ever since selling their Paradise for an Apple How does the Covetous wretch adore his Mammon his yellow God and Coines heaven and his Salvation into Money though the stamp be Hell or the image of the beast how readily will ambition Court Hell it selfe to serve his interest make no scruple to sell his Soul for a Glorious vanity and worship Satan for a kingdome how does the Sensualist make his life an enterlude leaving Paradise for Tantalus his Garden and makes wantonnesse his heaven pleasure his Divinity and never thinks of a better or another life but when he is in danger of losing this How many upstart lights hath Satan sprung to darken Religion and eclipse the Gospell how many eyes hath he put out by opening pretending to cloathe us with more Knowledge and Sanctity that he might dismantle us of heaven and happinesse I had rather be for ever blind then use an eye-salve of the Divells prescribing and be for ever ignorant then learne Satans lesson to belie heaven and distrust my Maker So miserable hath sin made us O Lord that by it we have lost not onely Paradise but heaven too forfeited not onely the pleasures of this life but also the joyes to Come and with the true Comforts of the world are stript of thy favour too He whom thou madest the Monarch of the Creatures grones under the bondage of sin and by the Misery of his Crimes hath cancell'd almost the glory and miracles of thy work And now might we have been extinguisht in our guilt had not He who is the brightness of thy Glory dropt a new life into our eclipsed natures by the power of his Blood and Merits and by reconciling us to thy selfe given us an admission to better and more enduring pleasures Grant therefore that having obtained mercy we may walke accordingly that being bought for heaven we may no more sell our selves to sin nor vainely preferre a few moments of pleasure before an eternity of joy that so when our souls shall expire with our breath they may be transplanted to that Paradise that never fades and enjoy the pleasures of eternity in the bosome of thy Glory 1 King Chap. 10. v. 18. Moreover the King made a great Throne of Ivory and overlay'd it with the best Gold T was fit that the best of Kings should be sutably serv'd and now he sees himselfe in so glorious a condition he need not repent of that happy and eternall election he made in Gibeon where amongst all his Sacrifices there was none so pleasing as that which he made of himselfe to the disposall of his God Did the Princes of the world but make Solomon their Pattern they might participate of his fortune and find a more Glorious Hand supporting their Scepters beyond the reach of the most admired Achitophel 'T is not the paint but the piety of a Throne that both secures and adornes it He must needs be the greatest of Princes whom God Crownes the richest Monarch that besides the enjoyments of the world receives even a Treasure from heaven Piety never went unrewarded God can bestow on his as well the felicities of this life as that which is hereafter But if Solomon bow downe to Harlots his Crown must fal and if he forsakes God sin dethrones him Greatnesse cannot priviledge from punishment nor the eminency of a Throne excuse the guilt thereof He that breath'd out so many Divine Songs is struck dumbe at the aires of a female tongue and those Ivory steps the seat of Honour grow black with sin Had his Guard of Lyons proved true they would have quickly dismembred those Syrens that having lost their vertue had nothing but their vices left to charm their fury with Solomons youthfullnesse in his old age praecipitated him the sooner to his end the end both of his life and Glory O Lord if Solomon's Throne was so glorious how infinitely transcendent must Thine be from whom Solomon received his that under which the pillars of the earth tremble and in comparison of which the lustre of the heavens is but a spark Though thou hast many thrones yet the most glorious one is that of thy Mercy which thou art pleas'd to open to the penitent Sinner I will look upon the glittering guilded eminencies of the world with more delight because I see the footsteps of thy Glory in them and the royalties of the earth shall make me but with the greater reflection aspire after the enjoyment of that Throne whose beauty and holinesse ravishes the Seraphick Attendants with joy unspeakeable and full of Glory 1 King ch 19.
labours to refound back in dolefull and despairing Ecchoes How sadly doth it expostulate with heaven My dearest God what is become of that Lovely attribute thy Mercy are the treasures of it shut up from a poore sinner and wilt thou be a God of mercy to the whole world and wilt not to me O let me for ever dwell in dungeons deep beyond the reach and sight of man so I may but enjoy the brightnesse of thy face Let me live more poore and disconsolate then Job upon his Dunghill in a naked and forsaken deformity so I may but hide my spots and put on a Beauty in my soul which may invite thine eye again Who ever thou art that now riotts it in the world and dalliest with damnation didst thou but know the agonies of guilt the cruelties of a Murdering sin and the stings thy pleasures leave behind them how quickly wouldest thou sacrifice thy life to nobler services and employ thy time in sweeter thoughts Wert thou now to die how would the terrours of an evill Life affright thee when every sin would appear a Messenger of horrour and the flattering world prove but an infernall Comforter Shew me that Gyant-Conscience this would not at length Master that frozen soul these flashes would not melt and blast againe that Steel-backt sinner whom gentle loades will not at length numerously over-burden The world knowes not a misery like it the terrours of the Grave are trifles to it which could it but shroud the Guilty soul and in it's dark and solitary regions promise a freedome from future Misery how willingly will it buy its peace with death and beg its sharpest Dart for a speedier passage losse of friends or fortune Crosses to the very bone are but Scratches to these wounds give me a Catalogue of afflictions and there is none I think except this which is not tolerable But a wounded spirit who can bear How unsupportable O Lord is the burden of a Wounded Spirit how terrible are the Stings of Conscience and the apprehensions of thy wrath how miserable is he that securely wraps himselfe in Sinne and grows insensible of his guilt till the memory of his Crimes revive it and when death puts him in mind of the World to come hath nothing but the horrours of his Life before him Thou hast plac't an impartial Register in our bosomes which no flattery can bribe nor teares Silence from reminding us of thy Justice and yet how many are there whose Leviathan-consciences break the Silver Cords of thy Law like threds of Towe and are so farre from acknowledging their guilt that they are hardned in impenitence But teach me O Lord as I sinne so to sorrow dayly that so when I shall come and appeare before Thee I may find no other terrours no other sins my accusers then those which I have if not throughly crucified yet at least seriously repented of in my selfe before Eccles Chap. 12. v. 13. Feare God and Keepe his Commandements for this is the whole Duty of Man ANd yet how few are there that performe it which yet is not so much our duty as it ought to be our delight He that hath but once got the habit of adoring his Maker will quickly finde Religion but a pleasure and that Law which seemes so hard and unpleasing to the World will be but a recreation to his Soul But alas How little is there of Davids piety amongst us now when instead of delighting in Gods Law we deface it more are so far from meditating in it either day or night that we never think upon it at all 'T is the duty of the world now to sin confidently and an argument of much valour to banish this timorous religion of fearing either God or his Law The Preachers doctrine is now grown worse then a paradox mere Apocrypha 't is heresie to revive it To tell us of our duty is to scandalize the times that so officiously break the Law And no wonder there are so many Atheists there was never such a time to engender them as now Track Antiquity to its first rise and you cannot match this age again The world never multiplied so fast in sin abhominable Sects like Colonies new plant the earth prophaness is grown hereditary and sprouts out by propagation so that in time posterity may perhaps become Heathens Were God and his promise mutable a deluge would be but a sleight punishment We do not onely sin but glory in it more whilst some not content to be private and silent Atheists proclaim it loud and are mad to have the credit of being known so as if we could not be ingenious enough unless we denyed our Maker No wonder religion is out of tune when there is no harmony of a Church of that Christianity sounds low when common Morality is not heard And yet it is a lesson we cannot learn too well a tribute we cannot pay too much too often We owe our beeings to the bounty of his hand what homage then can we better pay then that which by glorifying of him purchaseth a Crown for our selves Tell me ye blind followers of the world what 's the glory ye pretend to Ye that laugh at heaven and make divinity a mantle for unrighteousnesse that with the Pharisee count formality your religion and make an outside-piety your duty Alass Heaven is not got by pious frauds guilded crimes or fortunate transgressions nor the divine Eye to be deluded with a painted zeal 'T is not a pretended sanctity that can cloathe us with immortality nor a fashionable devotion onely that will carry us to heaven How miserable is he whose god is the world and makes it his religion to neglect his Maker What didst Thou bestow our reason on us for O Lord but to harken unto the voice of thy Law that the Celestiall Oratory of thy Word might at least win us from an ignorant prophanesse Shall Heathens that had no other end no other reward for their piety than some temporary applause or the inward triumphs of their Spirits for doing well out-strip us in the beauties of a Morall life and we that have higher and purer hopes be scarce honest for thy sake Shall they that knew Thee not be more passionately Good than we that have found out Heaven and expect eternity to succeed Though it was not in the power of Man to find Thee till Thou didst reveal thy selfe in Christ yet now having so richly and fully shewn us the Treasures of thy Love shall we not strive to doe something for thy Glory Make us we beseech Thee to consider the advantages that are in thy Service the happinesse that attends obedience and that Crown which is the reward of Faith that so out affections being mortified unto these perishing objects here below may be enlivened onely with desires after those Eternall Excellencyes that are in Thee Luke Chap. X. v. 25. And a certaine Lawyer stood up and tempted him Saying Master what shall I doe
v. 9. And he came thither unto a Cave and lodged there SEe how malice hath forced Eliah to a Cave and he that could not have the Liberty either of Life or Conscience amongst the Children of his People was glad to finde out a narrower Inclosure to save both The Prophet that spake so many Wonders is for the time become an Hermite 't was but a kind of a type and praeludium of after-Ages For when through him I look on those famous Votaries of the Church who to overcome the World relinquisht it turning Caves into Oratories Caverns into Chappels and filling the hollownesse of a silent Grot with diviner Ecchoes than nature knew I cannot chuse but admire the purity of that zeal which made solitude its mirth and the freedome of a melancholy devotion the onely object of their Glory sequestring themselves from men that they might be fitter companions for Angels and leaving all other Imployments that they might exercise their Graces These divine Retirers put Satan to the trouble of comming out of his way to tempt them and so wel obey'd their Masters rule Fast and pray that their whole Lives were a Lent When they could not dye they liv'd his Martyrs If these Pious Exiles whose Vertue hath more Praises then Practices men loving now the World too well to leave it have by so noble a Confinement made their memory as sacred as their Lives How great a miracle must he be that lives a religious and devout recluse among the croud of sinners and when the objects of the World face him Conquers more nobly by opposing than retreating He was a true Souldier that spatt his tongue into the Harlots face lest it should comply with the wantonnesse of hers and taught his Bloud by nobler motions to obey his Vertue not his Nature And he is the divine Hermit who by not Loving the World leaves it whilst he lives in it and excluding himselfe more from the sinne than the society of men shews he would not be beholding to solitude for the Glory his Vertue can acquire Happy hee that by thus Injoying both Conquers and Deserts the World and makes his way to felicity through those Sirens that Salute him O My Saviour if I cannot follow Thee in the Wildernesse yet I will Worship thee in the Garden where those Divine accents of thy Voice thrice subdued thy Murtherers Teach me to conforme my selfe to that life which hath so astonisht the World those sufferings that made the highest Horrour a pleasure and the Losse of Life a Satisfaction in saving mine Thou hast taught me that the noblest way to Conquer is in the midst of Enemies Job ch 11. v. 10. In all this did not Job sin with his lips BEhold this Miracle of patience from whom Hell it self could not extort one mis-becomming accent One that could turn his sighs into Musick breathe Divinity in Groanes and Conquer Satan in his tortures that could turn his Sorrows into Sermons his Pains into pious Lectures and in all his Misery not vent the least Invective that might staine the purity of his Maker What an admirable Creature is the valiant though afflicted Soul whose hopes are mounted above the World that makes his Crosse his Triumph and bears his Sufferings with so much patience you would think he felt them not as if Piety had made him insensible his Humility hath taught him to entertain his pressures with so much pleasure you would think he were in love with Misery so nobly that he becomes his very misfortunes and makes them amiable his Devotion like the Philosophers Stone turnes all into Gold and though he live never so poor yet he is sure to dye rich His very grave becomes a Cabinet of Pretious dust and his reward is Heaven to compare him to a Rock that out-braves the waves and lyes fixt when 't is over-whelmed to say that his Piety like the Sunne becomes more transparent by being clouded or that like the Palm hee Conquers the very clogs that load him these are but poor Encomiums for so Divine a Spirit like the lower Spheres that carried about by a higher Orbe yet have a motion of their own Though he be surrounded and hurried away with storms yet still his heart is the true Load-stone that points at Heaven Tell me of Stones that expell poyson herbs that fright away Thunder-spels or incantations these are but poor Vertues Compared with his Like a Diamond his afflictions do but shape and point him to a Lustre fit to be enchaste among Saints and Rings of Seraphins his flames doe but purifie and make his stamp the brighter and he is not ashamed of his misery because he thinks it as much glory to live as to dye a Martyr How often did Satan call Job Coward for his patience in hopes at least to make him rayle against Heaven He knew he had no other way to conquer him but by himselfe indeed God is then best pleased when he seems to frown at us and He makes us Sufferers that he might make us Saints The Israelites must passe thorough a breast of Enemies if they would come to Canaan He deserves not to win Heaven whose piety is such a coward that he dares not fight for it And shall the leight afflictions of this present World O Lord discourage us from thy Service and drive us from the Joyes to come Thou discoverest thy Love even in our punishments and thy Goodnesse in the midst of our Misfortunes Whilst we prophanely question thy Providence and grumble to entertaine the smallest trouble for thy Sake Were we sensible of thy Glory and the brightnesse of our reward we should not only submit in a comely obedience to thy Will but also triumph in our Sufferings and rejoyce even in the meanest Condition that we might shevv how much we value thy favour beyond the interests of the World Cant. Ch. 11. V. 1. I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lilly of the Valleys NAture's perfume the Rose displayes its treasures through the aire enveigling our senses at once both with its Beauty and Odours Other flowers like Hippocrates have more Colour then smell but this growes Lovely in its witherings and retains a sweetnesse even in its dust and when it leaves to be a poesy may be turn'd into a Cordiall as if Nature had Epitomiz'd the vertues as well as the beauties of other Vegetals into one and made its Paradise in a Rose I see I can cull not only Physick but Divinity from it and discover the wonders of Creation in the blushing enclosures of a flower The smallest Violet as the poet sings breathes a Diety and every Plant weares the Livery of Heaven but in the Crimson attire of a Rose I find a more Lovely Embleme of Him who is the Rose of Sharon A Rose in his immaculate Conception in the beauty and purity of the Divinest Life that ever was or can be A Rose in his Crown Crown of thornes the perfume of his prayers and the
fragancy of his miracles Were the whole earth turn'd into an Arabia and it 's richest odours sublimed to a perfume were nature rifled of all it's sweets and it 's most ravishing vegetables crowded to a posy yet were they infinitly below the sweetnesse of this Rose Not that Centinel of nature the Marigold the early nymph of the goddess of the morne that rises from it's golden bed at the first appearance of its Lover not the Suns wooer the Heliotrope that strives to kiss and Circulate with that beaming Mover as if nature had flowerd the earth with Stars or made it's Coloured progeny idolaters of the Skie nor all those growing Prodigies that enamour both our eye and thoughts to admiration are not worthy to be Compared to this Heavenly Mirror the Rose Sharon O my Saviour I will run after the odour of thy perfumes and pant after those spirituall delights that stream from thy Throne Thou art infinitly amiable O imprint on my soul a purity that makes men capable of thy heavenly infusions the Divine irradiations of thy Grace and Love What is the Comelinesse of the Creatures but a drop of that transcendent excellency that is in thee O let it be my delight as it is my felicity to imitate the perfect innocency of thy life that through the sweetness of thy merits my Sacrifices may be found pleasing and that when this corruptible shall be changed and this mortall put on immortality I may receive the reward of the faithfull the inheritance of the just and be made partaker of everlasting Glory in thy presence for evermore Genes Chap. 28. v. 12. And he dreamed and behold a Ladder set upon the earth and the top of it reached unto heaven and behold the Angells of God ascending and descending on it NO sooner had Jacob made a stone his pillow such is the happiness of contented humility but a glorious Vision salutes his eye that obedience which brought him from his father on a journey to Syria became a nobler guide and shewed him the way to heaven those divine Travellers the Angels ascending and descending before him Happy solitude that met with such heavenly company the hardship of his lodging was abundantly recompenced by this blessed interview when the God of his father the Lord of all creatures appeared unto him reviving him with the gratious supports of his promises and providence When I look upon the posture of this happy sleeper I cannot chuse but wonder at the vanity of those that expect visions from heaven on their beds of down and look for revelations amidst their pleasures their tender spirits would grow fick and out of love with piety should it disturb or contradict their ease How quickly would their devotion catch cold should they with David get up at midnight to pray God drops not his miracles into the lap of the wanton nor communicates the riches of his glory but to those who are resigned to him John must be an Exile before he can be the Divine and have conference with none but Angels if he would be a fit Notary for heaven Those holy men that had no other company than solitude and their prayers could not have traffick'd so purely with heaven had they not disclaimed all commerce with the world and disroabing themselves of all secular interests obtained a nobler furniture of grace and became vessels of honour Jacob here had no other Canopy but the aire no other lights to his bed than the lamps of heaven and the Angels pass too and fro as it were a guard to secure him How securely doth he rest that leans on Providence and makes That the depository of his soul Repose thus blest becomes a Sanctuary nor need he fear to be disturbed in his sleep that makes God his keeper or that his pious night-thoughts shall have any other dreams than those of peace Jacob had no sooner closed his eyes but those holy Porters unlock the Heavens and invite him up but 't is by a ladder We cannot climb heaven in a moment the way to happiness is but by degrees and as our Saviour tells us 't is narrow too Every vertue is a step to eternity and he is so much nearer heaven that daily treads his vices under We cannot be too good proficients in a holy life or thinke that in the smallest acts of piety we have enough to carry us to happinesse 't is not a few steps but a constant progress that mounts us thither O how bad is he that thinks himselfe too good to be made better The Promises of thy Glory are infinite O Lord and yet how carelesly do we embrace them Thou hast shewen us the way unto thy Self and yet we are not only unwilling but even weary of walking to thee Alas Are the joyes of thy kingdome not worth the coming to can we think to climbe up unto thy Throne by a lame idle Devotion how nimbly do we pursue the vanities of the world but pretend a faintnesse in thy service We can run after the perishing concernments of this life but make little or no progresse in the race which Thou hast set before us Quicken us O Lord and make us more earnest and zealous in thy service and as thou hast sent thy son to bring us to thy Self do thou likewise send thy Spirit to sanctifie us for Thy self and then we who of our selves can scarce move unto thine Altar will by the assistance of thy Grace run the way of thy Commandements Proverbs 18. v. 14. But a Wounded Spirit who can beare NOt the purest temper not the vastest Bulke the world it self that hospitall of sinners cannot for it groanes and travailes it self to be delivered Heaven was no longer a place for those ambitious spirits who exchang'd their glory for those flames which torture them not so much as that infinite despaire which for ever secludes and sequesters them from it No wonder some think there is no other hell then this for its torments are not to be matcht Stakes or Gridirons are but flea-bites to this vulture tortures of the newest fashion are pleasant Martyrdoms easie paines compar'd to this Those dying miseries do but storme and affright sense whilst this living death this killing Life displayes its cruelties on a more heavenly object and striving to destroy and rifle an Immortall part makes death it selfe a gentle murtherer to it Skreeks of Owles that add blacknesse to the very night it selfe groanes of parting souls that fill the eare and room with trembling Epitaphs writt in characters mournful as the grave silence are harmonies to the dying Elegies of a wounded spirit that breathes nothing but bleeding Satyrs against it selfe See how with David it goes mourning all the day and all the night too surrounded with black and fatal Ideas and turnes his bed into a bath which those weeping springs his eyes have made and instead of bright and gentle aires breathes nothing but dark trembling accents which the buisy Divell
blind us more It was a reall not affrighted luminary that steer'd the Wisemen here who triumph't to behold that day which we study to forget If they were not Kings yet their very fortunes would have made them Illustrious Never had Travellours before so splendid a Convoy so bright a Guid. The heavens proclaime thy glory O Lord and the firmament reveals the excellence of thy wisedome 'T was fitt that thou who hast cloathed the world with light and inricht it with so many rowling mirrours shouldst have one to be the herald of thy nativity All the creatures even with delight obey thy will whilst we rebelliously stop our eares to the harmony of thy law The wise men had no sooner notice of thy birth but they grew angry with time it selfe till they began their journey and that they might be sure not to loose their way thou sentest out a Convoy a Starr becomes an Evangelist and runs post to guide them So fortunate are good motions when they are put in practice they that would seek thee shall not want meanes to find thee though it be by miracle Thou canst steere us by a brighter lustre than that of a Starre even the illuminations of thy grace and Spirit Philip. Chap. 4. v. 12. I know both how to abound and to suffer need DIvinest Saint how few besides thy self have learn't it 'T is a Lesson the world hath long ago putt by not so much because 't is so hard as because its unpleasant Were the way to heaven but set with pleasures for sense to revell in 't would quickly become an open and an easy walke were there no rubs no tryalls to to be past thorough who would not become a Saint The Crowne of Glory would be as Common as a Garland were there not one of Thorns to be worne first The world cares not for a Religion that carries neither pompe nor pleasure with it but instead of rich and high enjoyments preaches temperance and patience onely Even some of them that pretend heaven most would not willingly learn this but abundantly provide for their better fortunes and those wants our Apostle learn't so nobly to sustaine too many out of better devotion labour not to know He that bids us seek heaven first tells us that to long for earthly enjoyments is a Heathens wish For after all these things do the Gentiles seek And shall Christians live like heathens still and looke no higher then the world shall they that make eternity their sphere sit and rowle themselves in the bosome of an under element and poorely make the pleasures of mortality their aime alone Was it for this He that made the heavens bowed them and came down leaveing his throne to bring us thither that we should lie and grovel in our phlegme for ever How vile and vaine a Creature is that man that wraps up his felicity in the dull enjoyments of this life and still resignes himselfe to sense alone Tell me O thou that swimmest in plenty and drownest heaven in oblivion should the luminaries put on their purple robe and changing their lustres like bleeding Meteors turne their rayes into crimson streams were the aire now filled with blasts of the last Trump ecchoing an approaching judgement how prodigious would that change looke what vast and horrid affrightments would the memory of thy prophane and irreligious fullnesse then strike and scare thee with Alass the enjoyments of the world are so poore that he which places his hopes in their fruition will quickly find himselfe but an eternall Begger a miserable Dives And yet such is the sanctity of the world to laugh ar religious poverty and deride the exigences of a pious life as an enemy to nature He knowes not the joyes of an expected eternity that thinks there is no felicity beyond this span Did we but know the reward shall crowne that the world calls Misery the happinesse that waits on the most suffering and dejected devotion we should triumph in our wants be in love with hardship and embrace even beggery with delight We should be content not onely to die but to live martyrs rejoyce even in the lowest ebb to win heaven and cheerefully learne with the Apostle to want here for that fullnesse which knowes none hereafter And yet how hardly can we endure even the smallest trouble for thy sake O Lord So insensible are we of thy goodnesse so forgetfull of thy power that we do not onely in our wants accuse and condemne thy Providence but are ready even to turn infidels in our misfortunes Make us therefore O Lord to see the vanity both of the world and our owne hearts that the pleasures of it may neither drowne nor the crosses of it deject our hope or discourage our obedience Let that glory which thou hast promised to those that conquer the world for thy sake be ever in our eye that so in whatsoever condition we are in we may still be found crowned and triumphing in Faith Luke c. 19. v. 9. This day is Salvation come to this House NO wonder Zacheus then made such haste to come down and quickly forsooke the friendly branches at such Newes Hee whose ambition climb'd no higher then a Sight of Jesus was all transported at the Honour of receiving Him Had he been taller perhaps he had not been so happy it was his Littlenesse exalted him and he who was not onely the Lowest but perhaps the meanest of the Company for his fortune became the Envie of the Multitude He that dwells in Everlasting splendours and treads the Heavens under exposed Himselfe to the Courtesie of the World whose Charity was so Cold that he must invite himselfe and be beholding to a Sinner for his entertainment Had the Princes of the World but known Him they would have quickly sure surrendred up their Thrones and counted theiâ— pallaces too poor a Lodging for the Lord of Glory And the Vaine Jewes whilst they expect a Messias all in pompe a Redeemer that should come into the World in Majesty and tr umph are become not so much the relicks as ruines of a Nation a wandring Monument of prodigious impiety throughout the earth Stand still ye Monarchs of the World and behold your Maker now beneath you and if ye have not plac't all your happinesse in a Kingdome heere Learn Humility from so Blest a President He that came to save Sinners thought it no dishonour to be in their Company and as it were to make amends for his entertainment and to make Zacheus compleately happy He tells him This day is Salvation come to this House A reward which none besides Hims lfe could give and which he that hath need never fear being poor againe Who would not welcome his Saviour on such termes and Sacrifice even all his fortunes at once to be so infinitely repa ' d We cannot make too much provision for our happinesse nor welcome Heaven at too much charge And yet how many are there of so sparing a zeal
they will be at no Expences in their Worship like the thrifty Disciple they will not goe to the Cost of Serving God Handsomely How happy was Zacheus whose poore habitation our Saviour pickt out beyond the rest to harbour in and Honour with his presence nor yet was so Rich a Mercy confined to him alone but extended to the whole World too Every family may if they will share in the same fortune This day is Salvation come to every one Hear this then whoever thou art that Sacrificest thy Soul to any thing but Heaven that dancest to the Musick of the World and makest Eternity a Stranger to thy thoughts Canst thou deny thy Saviour an admission or thinke it a trouble to leave the foolish interests of the World and welcome the most Holy Jesus Behold the Miseries of our Natures which will not be perswaded to become happy but suffer an immortall joy to be lost for ever in embraces heere Thou hast brought us from Nothing O Lord that we might see thy Salvation that we who might have been for ever without Thee might through the Knowledge of Thy selfe be made partakers of thy Glory O Enliven us that we may give up our selves wholly to thy Service and perpetually study to do something to the Honour of thy Name that we may not throw away those Soules on the vanities of the world which thou hast given us for Thy selfe and to be employed in thy Service but that Sacrificing our Wills to Thine and our lives to a perfect Love of Thee we may find that joy which accompanies thy Grace heere and that Glory which knows no end or change hereafter in Thy presence for evermore Math. Chap. 13. v. 43. Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father WHo then would not be ambitious of so bright a change to become purely Coelestiall to have his body turn'd into a Luminary and every part transformed to lustre when man shall become not onely a Living soul but a Living splendour too and his immortal breath in it's reunion instead of parts find beames to quicken Heare this ye blind admirers of the world that look no higher then a Diadem a purple robe or some honourable trifle and sell your brightest inheritance for a splendid toy Heare this ye Beauries that carry charmes of Lustre in your faces and think your eyes are not onely spheares but treasuries of Light whose attire Emulates the starrs and carries splendour with it that weare your happiness on your back and count a silver vanity your Glory Heare this who ever thou art that canst dote on shadowes the flashes of a transitory pomp and for a glorious Mortality bidst adiew to heaven and an Immortall-blisse Couldst thou put on a roabe of Starrs or pull rayes from that Royall luminary that embrightens the world they would be but gloomy splendours bright obscurities to that Glory that enwraps a Saint The lustre of the heavens is but an emblem of our owne the Prince of planets that dishevells his rays and revels it in splendour the great Magazine that stocks the world with light is but a Curtaine to that Tabernacle that shall invest us Our toombs are our wardrobes for heaven and those Chambers of death whose hangings are winding sheets overlaid with dust are the out-rooms that strip us for our robe of immortality the opening of our Graves is the beginning of our happinesse and we are gather'd to our fathers that we may be gather'd to eternity If that Glimpse which the Disciples saw in the mount made them wish for three tabernacles or an eternall abode there how shall the beauty of revealed Heaven and the glory of an ascended Saviour ravish us with desires after its enjoyment It was the Martyrs comfort amidst their tortures that though their members were in peeces yet the haires of their head were numbred Wert thou bottomed in the seas depth his power can buoy the up if crusted into the earths rubbish he can abstract and forme thee a finer creature then ever thou wert If Peters shadow could cure the sick how powerfull must He be who is Peters Glory He whose name is in the Book of Life dies here but to be laid as it were in a Presse to be extracted a purer modell for eternity Who then would not onely despise the world but welcome even misery for so invaluable a reward triumph in his greatest eclipse and become cheerfull in the midst of chaines He that knowes the glory of his inheritance will little value those pleasant trifles those rich nothings the world admires the painted joyes of an imaginary felicity but in nobler and Diviner expectations prepares himselfe for that change which knowes none where he shall have nothing else to do but to live forever and be eternally received as once the Disciple into the Bosome of his Saviour Thou didst make us for thy selfe O Lord and when we by our sins and follies had for ever lost thee Thou didst restore us to thy selfe againe that we might not be eternally deprived of Thee our onely Good O fill us with perpetuall meditations of thy Love let those joyes which are so much above our thoughts be ever in them let our inability to comprehend the happiness of thy kingdome heighten the piety of our ambition after it more that we may walke in some measure worthy of so Divine a purchase as heaven and as thou hast prepared it for us do thou prepare us for it Prepare us with all those heavenly graces that may entitle us to it and with all those spirituall desires that may make us breathe and long after it that so our hearts being there before we our selves may come after and being transported in our desires may be also in our persons to everlasting enjoyments Luke 18. v. 11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus God I thanke thee that I am not as other men are c. HOw ungratefully does the Proud Pharisee thank heaven how strangely hath pride altered him He that used to make long prayers intends to be but short now he stands up He comes not to pray but to bray not to adore God but to commend himself Here is not in the humour of being very devout being so taken up and ravisht with his owne graces that he had scarce either the time or the patience to remember the divine Author whose goodnesse he would seem to acknowledg but t is so colldy 't were better he were unthankfull still He exceeded other men indeed for his impudence was superlative Had he known himselfe better he would have been more thankfull and lesse proud How largely doth he urge heaven with his worth but makes no apology for his Pride he thanks God indeed but t is in transitu rather a complement then a Prayer though it be a sin to worship images he thinks it none to be his owne idolater and therefore dares present God with a catalogue of his own merits How perfectly
that we may not for a present enjoyment in this life lose the hopes and inheritance of a better Luke Chap. 15. v. 10. There is joy in the presence of the Angells of God over one sinner that repenteth SO great are the Concernments of an immortall Soul that it's recovery from the world sets heaven in a triumph and it 's return to it's Maker is welcom'd back in Quires the angells sing his recantation and rejoyce as if they themselves were made happier by his conversion And yet is not the joy of Angells greater then that of the soul it selfe when it hath found and regain'd it's Maker its sighs are turnd into songs and it's teares to raptures each drop is not onely counted and kept up but turn'd into a streame of joy His sorrowes are turnd to consolation his troubles into peace and the stormes of conscience into calmes of love Such are the fruits of a holy penitence the happinesse of a religious contrition He that went mourning all the day and turned Anchoret for greif whose life was a torment and the grave his feare that desired not to live and yet was afraid to die is now transformed into sweeter passions and breathes nothing but the praises of his Deliverer See with what indignation he lookes upon the world whose embraces had so long imprisoned him to whose false allurements he had been so much a servant Those pleasant trifles he once admired are now his contempt and those shadowes of felicity he once so much pursued he hath now exchanged for more celestiall enjoyments and enduring pleasures And indeed Who that hath once truly tasted heaven can well rellish the world againe whose choisest feasts are worse then an Egyptian diet to this Manna and its largest roade of pleasure but a precipice to that way whose narrowest path carries freedome and felicity He that hath once found the goodnesse of his Maker and those joyes that flow from his service will sacrifice himselfe in pious resolves and grieving that he was so long a stranger to his law all transported beg both pardon and support Tell me who can character the pleasures of this new birth the joyes of a converted soul restored to heaven and his maker He that feels it can expresse it but in raptures and silent signes the ecchoes of his heart Even the Angells here can sing it onely not describe it and in Seraphick consorts give us notice not a copy of it Thus the heavens become harmonious the frame of nature that groaned under the disorder of mans sin is againe revived and set in tune by pardon And no wonder if the creation feel a silent musicke in it's limbs when the Lord our Maker is not onely the Author but a partner in this triumph proclaming even his delight in such happy renovations and that he is best pleased when sinners flie to the refuges of his mercy and humbly beg the riches of that Grace and favour which he onely can give and which he never refuses to them that seek him So infinitely good art thou O Lord that thou dost not onely invite but bring us to thy self and not onely call but cause us to returne We know thou desirest not the the death of a sinner having so freely sacrificed thy Son for sin and that thou delightest in pardoning it for thou hast proclaimed thy self so Though thou didst not spare thine Angells when they fell yet in the riches of thy mercy thou hast contrived a Redemption for our souls even by the blood of Jesus Fill us with perpetuall adorations of thy love that thy goodnesse which is so ready to pardon sin may encourage us to beg it and to continue constant waiters on thee in thy worship here till we are made companions of those blest spirits hereafter that rejoyce in the recovery and salvation of a sinner Matth. c. 6. v. 33. But seeke yee first the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you AND He that loved his Saviour would no Question do it but alass that which ought to be the first is scarce the last of our thoughts the least and worst of our performances Such Lovers are wee of Heaven that we think it no sinne to serve our selves first and make our Creatour waite the leisure of our Devotion Miserable Creatures whose Religion reaches no higher then their bodyes for whose very Superfluities wee study to provide whilst our Brighter part lyes all naked and unthought of Such Strangers are we even to our own Soules so insensible of the joyes to come that we looke no higher then the World and in sphearing all our hopes within Mortality as if we had nothing durable beyond our breath suffer Eternity to be forgotten Wee cannot live without our Maker and yet how do our lives neglect Him how eager how ambitious after an enjoyment heere but carry not the smallest passion for his Glory The jollities of the World swallow up all thoughts of Heaven and in the pleasures of sense we can drown Immortality What is that we sacrifice our selves to but the hopes of a felicity The very Pagans rather then want a Blisse would fancy one in lovely shades and place the triumphs of immortality in those amorous walkes their Ghosts should revell in And who can hope for Heaven that neglects it or expect the joyes of this Kingdome that looks not after it Without Holynesse no man shall see God and he cannot be Master of much Sanctity that prophanely loses himselfe in sinne and is a Stranger to that piety which can truly Enrich Him beyond all the treasures of the most splendid and fortunate transgression How miserable are they then whose pleasures onely divert them from their Maker and have no other Apologie for their neglect of Heaven than what sinne can make that Court the World and for a fading embrace exchange a Diadem of Blisse a Crown of Life Were the whole World turn d into a Seraglio of delight and every region to an Arabia could every field become a Paradise and every object we meet bring a Magazine of pleasure with it had we all the enjoyments this Life can triumph in yet we should quickly finde them without God but miserable fruitions Is there any thing dearer then our lives and yet even these are of no valew in respect of a better the very exigencies of Nature are trifles to the concernments of our Soules It is better to starve then dye for ever and lose God 't is better to goe naked then not to be cloathed with immortality 't is better we should want heere then hereafter that fullnesse which knows none And yet How many are there that had rather lose Heaven then the World pawn their Consciences sooner then want and for a fortune sell away their very Christianity How many make sinne their study and thinke it a credit to invent new methods of impiety and are such carefull providers for Eternity that they will be
Chymia Coelestis DROPS FROM HEAVEN OR PIOUS MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS On severall places of Scripture By Ben. Parry Gent. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his shop at the Prince's Armes in St Paul's Church-yard 1659. To His Highly Honored Friend WILLIAM GLYNNE Esquier Deare Sir GIve me leave to present you with a few meditations which owe their birth to that place wherein your Honourable Father received his and therefore by a kind of Alliance may seem to challenge your acceptance The solemne retirements of those silent walks gave life to these thoughts which now under your name dare shew themselves abroad and from the society of Groves and Ecchoes take the liberty of a more open view They are not that which the world usually calls by the name of study though heaven cannot be too much studied on but the exercise only of a few spare thoughts sometimes on a pious subject a tribute which no Godly mind can pay too often And I was the more ambitious they should receive the honour of their Dedication from your hand as being so well acquainted with your vertue and the noblenesse of your spirit which is already become its owne Herauld beyond the loudest Encomium my pen can give Let Philosophers count the orbes and reckon up the starres none can speak so feelingly of Heaven as he that loves it best Of all Knowledge experimentall is the noblest and of all Meditation that which informs not onely the mind but the manners too The end of Divine Contemplation is reformation and he is but a dry Christian whose life consists more in speculation then in practise and though I am no Preacher yet I hope without putting me to the trouble of a Complementall excuse for being in print you will pardon my ambition if desirous to acknowledg my engagements to your Noble Relations as a testimony of my respects to your selfe I have made choice of this having no other way to manifest how much I desire to be esteemed SIR Your affectionate servant BEN. PARRY Oxford Novemb. 1658. The Epistle to the READER READER PErhaps the Title may Invite thy Eye though the meannesse of the Comment may not merit thy Perusal They are indeed the experiments of but a very young pen though the subjects are so divine they would finde worke enough for the Gravest in that Profession And they have so little of any affected or elaborate Curiosity that I need not tell thee They are onely the sudden effusions of a few pious minutes in my vacancies from other studies And who can Imploy his thoughts better at any time And therefore I took no other pains than not to breathe them to the Ayre onely but some Noble Conservator that might recal my thoughts and put me in mind againe of That which so equally concernes all Eternity If you wonder at their hasty ambition of being in Print It was not indeed the Request of Friends or any such thred-bare motive that stole them out I knew not well what else to do with them and therefore thought it as good to let them be lost in the World as in my Trunck And though I am not so confident as to think they are so good as to merit thy Applause yet I hope they are not so bad but they may be worth the Reading Farewell Chymia Coelestis Drops from Heaven OR Pious Meditations and PRAYERS ECCLES chap. 12. v. 1. Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth REmember thy Creatour c. It is one of the best expressions in the Preacher's Sermon For who knows whether he shall live to be old And yet that voice which speaks so loudly to the whole World and still will tell the end thereof is scarce audible in the eares of many 'T is one of this Divine Singer's most harmonious Lessons and yet the World is not pleas'd with the tune Strange that the Sweetest of Preachers should have so few followers being his oratory is so Divine and yet it is a Text which though they will neither hear nor read they cannot chuse but see for the whole world is but a Comment on it Every Creature we do but look on preaches this Doctrine which we can so carelesly sleep out with our eyes open Nature carries this memento in her forehead the very Brutes in this can reason with us and it is strange that Man should forget his Maker did he but remember himself But alass youth loves not to be put in mind of Heaven 't would spoyle his memory and make him thinke of his Prayers too often Piety will but dull his blood Religion makes him look old the thoughts of Heaven and another World will make him graver then becomes his yeers his blood tels him he is not yet in a temper to turne Divine he may serve God time enough when he can doe nothing else Thus these earthly objects of Pleasure hurrie away our thoughts from Heaven and its Purer Joyes we can spend the beauty of our years in vice and think to please God well enough with the deformities of age wee can revell our piety and time away in vain delights and thinke our selves strong enough to force Heaven and become religious when we are wither'd with infirmities and have nothing left us but repentance and a tomb We are so well pleased with the sweetnesse of sense that wee are careless of any other felicity and so much delighted with the happinesse of sinning freely that we could willingly be of that Religion which tolerates vice most We place our devotion with the Epicure in the riots of Nature sportfull meetings are our religious Exercises a Sermon is as troublesome as a Funeral to us to hear of our end amidst our pleasure sounds like a death's Lecture the unwelcome eccho of the Grave Let the Preacher lesson us never so well to remember our Maker Wee had rather follow Satan's doctrine to Injoy the World as long as we can and thinke of Heaven at our leisure And shall the Lusts of the World O Lord be greater in my Soul then the Love of thee shall the temporary delights of sin drown the memory of thy glory My Life is but a Span and yet I beseech thee shorten that rather then it should be spent in a neglect of Thee better this Earthly tabernacle should be dissolved then become a Theatre for sin to revell in Let me pay Nature the debt I owe her sooner then perhaps she would call for it rather than run in score with thy Justice 't is better I should dye and be lost in the memory of the World than forget Thee Thou broughtest me from nothing not to sin but to serve thee and hast imprinted in me a ray of Thy self that I might not seek mine own but Thy Will nor pursue the World but Heaven make me therefore to see the solid and ravishing consolation that is in serving thee what Joy accompanies thy grace that so I may no longer follow my
to Inherite Eternall Life IT was the best Question that ever he put and gain'd him more then all his Pleading ever did besides nor could it be any dishonour to him from a Lawyer to turne Sollicitor in such a suite This was the highest Case he ever met with for 't was his Soul's and where hee could better be his owne Clyent then Counsellour All his Law could never have divided it had Hee not so fortunately met with Divinity it selfe to resolve him How blinde are they that thinke to finde out the hidden Mysteries of Salvation by their owne shallow brain that grope for happinesse and eternity in Natures bosome onely that make Aristotle their Bible and goe no further than his Ethicks to learne Divinity whose curiosity is their Religion and triflingly pour out the happinesse of their time on some Learned Manuscript Sacrificing their Nobler Meditations to Nature onely They study the World so long that they forget Heaven and are so taken with the Pen of some Witty Mortall that they seldome peruse Scripture that Language of Life the Celestiall Oratory of the Spirit The good Lawyer hath so long laboured in other mens businesse he had almost forgot his owne his many motions had well nigh talkt away his better part 't was now time to speak for himselfe and after all his wrangling thinke of a VVritt of Ease How naturall are the Thoughts and Enquiries after happinesse in every one The very Pagans would have a Paradise as well as gods of their owne making and rather then want a felicity they would phancy an Elizium 'T is the genuine Ambition of the Soul to thirst for something beyond the World how vain are they then that make the World their happinesse and place Heaven in their Injoyments heere how Inquisitive are some Lawyers of the World whose question it is How they may grow Rich whose Divinity it is to become wealthy and count a good purchase the best inheritance See how the Ambitious man gapes after preferment and places his felicity in his fortune making honour his Heaven worshipping the Glittering world and sels Eternity for a title See how the Covetous wretch locks up Heaven in his Chest and ties his happinesse in a bagge whose Diety is his Money and still his Question is how to get more See how the sensualist Courts the world and makes pleasure his happinesse that spends a good inheritance on his lusts but never seeks how to get a better So sadly do our vices drown Religion that we are inquisitive after any thing but Heaven we all run after happinesse but cannot over-take it because it is not to be grasp't within the armes of Mortality 'T is not all the flattering honours and guilded frailties of the World that can match Eternity and bring us to a never dying Mansion we must looke for somewhat that is as immortall as our Soules more durable then time and cannot receive a period with our breath 'T is every Mans Case as well as the Lawyer 's and every Lawyer 's as well as his 't is a Question that will become any Profession for it concernes all to enquire betimes what shall they doe to inherit Eternall Life With what pleasure O Lord do we embrace and runne after our earthly advantages but seldome reflect upon that time when wee and all things with us shall receive a period Wee can entertaine any thing with more delight then that which concernes us most the happinesse of the World to Come Wee are more earnest after the perishing interests of this Life then in laying up a treasure for eternity and making provision for our inheritance above We beseech thee make us to see the little use but the great vanity that is in this World that so the pleasures of it may not steale away our thoughts from the Contemplation of a Better Mathew Chap. 15. v. 28. And he said unto her O Woman Great is thy faith HAppy she that was found worthy so great an expression her female tongue made amends for all its former follies having now by its pious answers merited so divine an encomium Poor woman how rich was she in whose breast was minted a treasure which Kings and Princes compared are beggers to All Palestine with its balm and spices could not furnish her with an antidote to revive her child and charme away the Divell See the miracles of Faith that could save two souls the Mother 's and the Daughter's So miraculous that even a graine of it can remove Mountaines levell Hills and plaine the most rugged and lofty Soul into an humble and fruitfull valley 'T was this that smoothed the surface of the Ocean that made the waves a walk and turned their furious curles into a pavement for Peter's feet 'T was the Centurion's faith that stav'd death away from his servant which all his Guard could never have kept off that restored the blind mans eyes again and made him see better than nature could have done All the wonders of the Gospell were still closed up with Thy faith hath healed thee And yet that Faith which then wrought so many miracles is now become the greatest miracle it self whilst some take the signe for the thing they place the greatnesse of their faith in the greatnesse of their works and have so good an opinion of themselves that they think it faith enough meerly to do well Others hope to be canonized for their doctrines though not for their lives scorn the company of all religious duties and think to travell to heaven by their faith which is alone Obedience true sorrow for sin that lovely robe of a mourning soul and the nobler ornaments of our spiritual warfare are but empty ceremonies both these men's Creeds are of their own making but heaven is not got by speculation onely He that placeth his faith in his braine and thinks religion hath not its agenda too may like Moses view and talke of Canaan a farre off but never enter it Our Obedience must be lowder then our Pretensions 't is not a noise that will Saint us 't is not our Professions onely but our Practices too that proclaime our faith Though our Merits cannot reach heaven yet our indeavours may if unfeigned because there is a mercy that will pardon our defects all the blossoms of our Piety sprout out from this stem and he that either believes or loves his Saviour cannot think he strives too much to live well This was the womans Faith here and she had scarce pour'd it out with her Teares when Satan all affrighted forsakes his hold not able to abide the Eccho of its sound seconded by the diviner accent of our Saviours Lips And this faith must be our Amulet against sin and by its diviner charmes drive Satan to his chaine 'T is this that prepares heaven for us that makes us survive our toombs become Immortall in our graves and promises eternity to our dust t is this that seales our happinesse and brings us
head He that was ready to have feasted wormes now feasts himselfe and is risen from his dead companions a guest amongst rhe living We read indeed of some that all pale and liveless were stretcht out for a coffin but reviv'd again when that little spark of life that lay glimmering in the expiring embers in a corner of the panting heart recovered its flames But here death and Lazarus had imbrac't too closely to be so parted His soul had likely taken its flight before and his body lay so long in his mothers armes 't was just dissolving into its principles againe and behold him now above ground as if but newly risen from his bed all fresh with life and vigour he hath changed his chamber and from the lower regions of the other world is returnd to his old lodgings where he is now at supper throng'd with multitudes of people that come not for almes but to be spectators of this wonder Had the end of the world been then or a resurrection of others for company Lazarus at his arrivall to the world againe might well have phansied with his countrymen that the second life should be on earth and heaven kept in pleasures here No Lazarus though now alive thou must dye againe to live for ever nor must thy revivall now con ummate thine but manifest Gods glory though it be thine too above expression to have been thus the subject of it Thou needst not feare to dye againe having done it once nor doubt but that hee who raised thee now will do it hereafter too Didst thou ever thinke to have injoyed this world againe or to have been freed from thy imprisonment till the great and generall delivery 'T was beyond thy Sister's faith till she saw it and now having had two lives if thou spentest the former on thy selfe or the world thou didst wholly sacrifice the latter to thy divine Restorer How many expiring soules all frighted with the horror of their crimes could they but have their span a little lengthned or after an age's durance in their graves but revive a litle before their doome how gladly would they turne their songs of pleasure into penitentiall anthems their profane notes into diviner ayres and tune out their lives in pious straines But alasse he that cannot imploy this life well in vaine expects to do it in another which he is not worthy of might it be obtained He whose piety here hath reacht him a taste of heaven a glimpse of happinesse will be so little in love with the vanities of this world that instead of desiring a longer or another life here he will be but ambitious of leaving This. It was by thy power O Lord That Lazarus carried out to his grave should returne alive That Mournefull expression thy friend is dead drew thee to the discovery of thy love and power in his resurrection O let there be the same concurrence of thy Grace and spiit to the raising and reforming of my soul to a new and holy life it was the misery of expiring man that drew thee from the bosome of thy Father to redeem him O let the Scepter of thy word and truth be as powerfull in its heavenly influence upon my soul as the Prophet's staffe that reviv'd the dead that so dying daily I may live for ever and being pâ—epared for my death may enter into that life from which nothing but sin can exclude me Joh. Chap. 13. v. 23. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosome one of his Disciples whom he loved SEe how sweetly is the Disciple Couch't how boldly doth he make his Master's breast his pillow loading him with a double burden his sins and himselfe Blest familiarity Would not Kings leave their thrones to have been in his room and ambitiously forsake their Golden Canopies for suâ—h a teposure Here might the vastest ambition both seat and satiate it selfe without aspiring higher the greatest Avarice might here have found a treasure beyond which it could not cover What Lover would not scorne the lap of the most admired female for such an enjoyment and become a Diviner Amorist Was not this Disciple above the rest If this be not a precedency what is a dignity which none besides himselfe succeeded in Happy Favorite Who would not have trampled Crownes and Scepters for such preferment Had Mary in whose bosome once Love's Cradle so many wantons lull'd themselves that turn'd her eyes into Living Mineralls and her haire into a towell of the newest fashion been graced with such a priviledge not her eyes onely but the noblest rivolets of her blood would have overflowne all transported out in gratefull streames How pleasingly doth the Disciple lay his eare to that Heart which was the life of the world as if he would count its motions and by its Divine pulse be rockt asleep in raptures Behold O my soul and see in the posture of this happy man the Emblem of thy owne felicity the place of thy reception and future Glory Art thou ambitious of it here then behold him on his Crosse with his armes extended to receive thee O run and rowle thy selfe on that Breast the fear of Love wherein lies all the treasures of thy happinesse Thou hast a priviledge even beyond the Disciple for thou mayst not only leane and depend but embrace him too Incircle him now then with the choisest endeerments of thy soule the most passionate raptures of a Lively faith and so the same Jesus that permitted the Disciple here to lean on his breast will receive thee likewise in his arms hereafter and place thee for ever in the bosome of his Glory Math. Chap. 16. v. 26. For what is a man profited if he shall gaine the whole world and lose his owne soul ANd yet men had rather lose their souls than the world He for whom the world was made makes himselfe for the world disappointing himselfe of all his Glory and by a more then brutish transmutation buries the Divinity of his soul all in earth Heare this then ye Inhabitants of the world yee that fowle all in sense and climb no higher then the elements for Heaven that can pawne your souls for a fading pleasure and count a delightfull misery your felicity Hear this thou aspiring Vapour whose ambition elevates thee to consume thy selfe thou that wilt worship Satan for a Kingdome and do him homage for a Crowne paying him a revenue worth a thousand worlds the immortall tribute of a soul till thy triumphs be turned to torments thy revellings of honour into regrets of horrour and thy Chaire of state into a bed of flames Heare this thou Sensualist whose soul is as unconfined as Brutes that pantest for pleasure more then ever the Camaelion did after aire thou that wadest all in sin and overwhelmest Morality in floods of vice bathing thy selfe in those wanton streames that drown thee that countest religion but a fable the lives of Saints a melancholly Romance and laughest at heaven as if eternity were but a
fancy Heare this O thou Miser whom the Silver Rhetorick of a bag can court to Hell and art greedily wonne to damne thy selfe at the Musick of a purse that canst gaze thy selfe blind at the splendour of a Gemme and cursest Geography for describing riches beyond thy reach wishing thy selfe an Indian that thou mightest dwell among Treasures and inhabit Mines till thy very haire became silver indeed till thou thy selfe went all turnd to Ore and and every Bone into a wedge of Gold Heare this ye Gallants that are so enamounted with the fashions of this world that ye have lost all Idaea's of a better ye that live meerly to please your sense and feed your luxury with the curious martyrdom of a thousand creatures As ye have purer veins have purer passions too and have nobler inclinations for heaven the riches of your attire wil not cloathe you with immortality should you sell your estates when ye die 't would not purchase paradise It was the best speech the old Oratour ever uttered when he said he would not buy repentance so deare 'T was but an extemporary expression and yet all his Rhetorick could never match it that one straine was worth all his Orations and will outfame the labours of his pen. Could we treble the lives of Patriarchs and with them the pleasures of the grandest Epicures Could we like Cleopatra in a dissolv'd pearl swallow the treasure and pleasure of a kingdome at a draught or command the Creatures as peremptorily as ever the Centurion did his servants had we all the enjoyments we can either wish or fancy what ever the ambition of the most vaine and carnall appetite can long for were the whole earth turnd into a paradise or a constant spring beautifying its face Could we live and not grow old or being old not feele the miseries of age could we unwind time againe and reverse it's wheels stop the coelestiall Mercuries the posts of heaven in their course and set the Great Clock of the world backward againe nay were our bodies as durable as our soules that we could out live Time it self and be above ground even when the world shall receive its period yet what shall we get if after all our imaginary felicities and sliding contentments we become a sacrifice for hell enlisted in the cursed catalogue of the damned crue a victime for eternal flames lost for ever from God and Heaven Then tell me who ever thou art and aske Dives himself What is man profited though he should gaine the whole world and lose his owne soule What is there in the world O Lord that we should love it thus weary our selves in vaine desires and make the pleasures of this life our felicity How hard is it for him that is a stranger to thy law to perceive the emptinesse of those enjoyments he hath so long rowled himselfe in to resist the tempting advantages of sin and undervalew the flashes of this life for that glory Thou wilt impart My God teach me so to enjoy the world that I lose not Thee let the blessings thou bestovvest quicken and increase not dul my devotion raise up my obedience not drowne my gratitude that so the vanities of the world may be my scorne and the joyes of heaven my onely ambition that I may never for a perishing fruition in this life lose both my soule and thy grace together Matth. Chap. 5. v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God WHo then would not strive to become pure No wonder David was so earnest for a clean heart and a right Spirit if this be the reward of Piety who would not become religious Blest Spirits how happy how pure are ye that behold the face of your Heavenly Father who would not labour to imitate you heer that he might be like you there and possesse joyes such as raptures never knew Shall the false and treacherous vanities of the World steale away our hearts and rob us of the hopes of this Glory the fruition of this Sight A Sight in Comparison whereof the royalties of the World the triumphs and splendours of the eye and the beauty of the whole Creation is not worth the looking at A sight which no eye ever saw but may if it do not blindly lose it selfe on objects heere No Ear ever heard its perfect description but may the Harmony and Halelujahs of it if it bow not to the charms of sinne and the musick of the flesh 'T is a sight whose Ideae cannot be drawn by the most lively and subtile Speculations of any Scholastick brain though never so Angelical 't is not fancy but piety can reach it The Divine Traveller St. Paul himselfe though newly there could not give us a Copie of it and Scripture Characters it out but in Similitudes to shew how infinitely transcendent is that Glory which is so much above expression so much above all comprehension Were all the Diamonds the earth is mother of mustred to a Splendour they would not match the smallest glance of the Sun's eye and yet that noble Luminary surrounded with so many waiting Starrs that begge their lustre from him is but a sparke to the Brightnesse of of His face Who then would sacrifice that part to the World which may become the instrument of so much happinesse and suffer the extravagancies of his blood to revell there where nobler passions and flames should triumph He that would dwell among the Spirits of the just must teach his own to become so and turne his body to a Temple wherein his heart must be the the Altar and Sacrifice too or rather a kinde of Sanctum Sanctforum for the choisest Gifts of the Spirit to inhabite The Seat of Life must be turn'd into the Seat of Love and the pallace of the Spirits into a Court of Graces and then that part which as Naturalists observe is the first that lives and the last that dyes shall become purely vitall and not dye at all Nothing but a Trinity can fill this Triangle which we must therefore shape to the purest forme and teach it in all its pulses to beate nothing but Heaven and Sanctity Our breasts must become Clossets of Devotion and our hearts the Cabinets of innocency and prayer enricht with that great diamond a lively faith the Lamp at which all our smaller Graces as Candles light themselves and like Stars borrow their Lustre from this Luminary 'T is not a heart that can dance to the Tune of any Religion and pretend a Sanctity which it wears onely in its face that makes Fancy its Conscience and stiffnesse of humour tendernesse of Spirit No 't is a heart robed with Humility and Crowned all with Love perfum'd by Prayers the odours of Charity and the fragancies of a pious life that couches it self within the arms of our Saviour's Spouse and becomes a mourner in its perfections that looks upon the World as the Enemy of its Glory and had rather dye then be a
Rebell against Heaven 'T is such a Heart that prepares us for this Vision and happy is he that 's such a Puritan Strengthen us therefore O Lord against the vanities of the World and raise up our thoughts to the Contemplation of thy Glory Levell in us every proud thought that dares exalt it selfe against the power and purity of thy Law and Sanctifie us for thy selfe and thy Service more that the practise of a Holy life may be as it ought our chiefest employment that so when we depart from hence we may be received to Thee and being seen no more heere may for ever see there what before neither eye hath seen nor eare heard nor heart conceived the Glory thou wilt impart in the fruition of Thy selfe Matth. Chap. 8. Verse 2. Lord if thou wilt Thou canst make me cleane IS not sinne a Leprosie Then the Lepers Prayer is every Sinners too Hee that had seen the Leper's body would not have wondred at his Prayer and yet could he but have viewed his Soul he might perhaps have seen objects of more prodigie and Horrour the miseries of his blood which had lost its verdure and become but an unprofitable friend to Nature every part being as it were dead-alive by so unnatural a Nutrition taught his tongue this Necesary though Mournfull kind of Confidence Lord if thou wilt And Hee whose Compassion never failes to shew that his Goodnesse was as great as his power would not reject a Suite wherein his Mercy was concerned and those limbes which might have been sooner drown'd then bathed into a Cure re-assume new life and beauty by the bounty of a Touch. Thus the Leper is new bodyed againe but we read not of any Cure wrought upon his better part and that perhaps had more need The bedrid Man his Successour was farre happier whose sinne and disease were both taken away together How many are there that like the Leper looke no higher then their bodyes whose Superficies is all their religion whilst the nobler peece that gives them life lyes all neglected under some Chronicall infection Our blood shall have all the delicacies that Art or the most Chymicall Luxury can invent to feed its flames whilst our brighter part the Divine and Celestiall fire which inspires us lyes all quencht and rob'd of its immortall aliment and can carry back nothing but a dimme and Hectick lustre to it Maker The torment of Limbe shall teach us more devotion in an houre then all the concernments of our Soules could do in a yeer before and the deformity of the meanest part will be an object of more shame and sorrow to us then those pale and infernall shapes that attend sinne and disfigure Heaven in us Of all plagues this is the greatest and yet least feared as if Hell were but a Toy Damnation a Pleasure and the miseries of our Soules a Recreation to us Shew me that beauty that 's not a Leper that innocence which carries not a guilt to blush at that Saint that infant man that knowes not what it is to sinne Were our veines purer then the lips of Violets that perfume the Chymistry of the aire the drops of the Morne were Adam's sinne a stranger to our blood and our birth cleer as the Morn innocent as the new-blown Rose yet the deformity of our lives would soon teach us this prayer and the blacknesse of our very thoughts would silently proclaime our ugliness And yet was not there not in those dayes a Generation that were cleane in their own eyes that justified themselves even in their impurity and counted all the World but Lepers to them Was not the Pharisee a greater Leper than the Publican though so proudly he displayed his best plumes His very Pride carried more Contagion with it than the other Mans Sinns all put together Hee that trusts to the merit of his owne paint may lose Heaven and those joyes which an humbler Confidence secures O Lord though I am not so bad perhaps as some yet am I so bâ—d in my selfe that the Leper heere is a beauty to my Soul Lazarusse's Corps a comelinesse to my sores yet were I more impotent then the Cripple of Bethesda more Leprous then the Nine whose ingratitude was more loathsome then their disease were those Legions ejected by thy word received in me were I as bad as Satan could wish to make me yet I know thy Goodness and I do not doubt thy power For Lord if Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean Matth. Chap. 24. v. 39. And knew not untill the Flood came and took them all away HOw securely did these sinners cram themselves for destruction or as if forseeing their inundation they would by full stomacks labour to prevent an entrance Life and luxury were such inseparable companions here that nothing but Death could part them They had waded so long in an Ocean of sin it was impossible to escape drowning and not be surrounded with the depths of a quick and overflowing judgment Noah might have preach't himselfe dumb and have sooner talk't himself asleep in mild and fluent admonitions than awake these drunkards had not the waves made use of a rougher language and in their owne swelling dialect the prodigious roring of the depths buried them and their riotts in silence together Had not God otherwise promised the world how often had it since been delug'd They were but eating drinking but we do even glut and carrouse it in sin commit ryots upon Hell and can teach the Epicure himselfe to revell Our forefathers were but dwarfs to us in sin whose transgressions have to far transcended theirs in bulk that we are become greater Giants in iniquity then those of the first age So monstrous is Sin still in its productions that the whole earth like an infernal Africk brings forth new prodigies of vice daily that were the world in a consumption as some think 't is in vertue onely and the iniquities of the times when they seem to be quite full are but increasing still They were but cold phlegmatick crimes that drown'd the world to the fiery sins of this hotter age that shall and have already almost set it in a combustion 'T is another element then that of water must punish the feared Consciences of this age and chaines of darknesse must fetter those that run after new lights the metors of their owne invention The world was already drown'd in sin when the waters to compleat it's excesse came and carried away these living-dead men and buried them in the same grave together Such is the fruit of a carelesse life the miseries of a retchlesse impenitency they were revelling in their feasts when the greedy element devoured them and they that drank iniquity like water had a fit punishment for their iniquity The waves grow high and mount up to a tombe the sea becomes a spatious monnument both to hide and wash away their sin and they that swam in mirth are now swallowed up in streames and
little dreaming of their deaths are shipwrackt in their very houses in the midst of their pleasures being fatally suprized by a terrible and unwelcome guest So righteous art Thou O Lord and infinitely pure that thy Justice though it may seeme to winke at yet will not pardon impenitence nor passe by the resolv'd impieties of wilfull transgressours and yet so infinitely good that thou never heightenest thy punishments but when men do their iniquities nor are thy judgments epidemicall but when sin is so Thou that desirest not the death of a sinner wouldst not have destroyed so many even all had not their transgressions been so universally prodigious that they came up in a cry together to pull downe thy justice And though thou hast since out of the greatnesse of thy love and compassion promised a security from the same yet not from all punishment Let the memory therefore of those that perisht by thy wrath for their neglect remind us of our duty and thy glory that so the examples of thy judgments upon others may teach us by a lively repentance to prevent our owne Luke Chap. 7. v. 5. For he loveth our nation and hath built us a Synagogue BEhold the character of a good Magistrate one that might well be styled the father of his country though a Roman whose patronage so eminently extended itselfe over both and the best part of their commonwealth This man was Cheife not onely in place but in piety too all Judea could not match him which since it lost its freedome was not wont to find or enjoy the happinesse of such Rulers and had they not hated Idolatry they would have worshipped this lover of their nation Herod indeed did re-build their Temple but it was more for feare then love 't was not out of piety but policy the better to get the crowne 't was his ambition not his devotion that founded that stately edifice not somuch out of zeale to God or his countrey as out of pure religion of becoming King Such is the Sanctity of the world which makes Gods Honour not the foundation but a passage to their owne turnes religion into a footstool for ambition and makes heavenly pretensions a stair-case to iniquity The Centurion here was a benefactor to the Nation out of pure zeal and if not of their religion yet a great freind to it whose charity not content to shew it selfe in the management of their civill interests only so nobly employed its power for the good of their souls and Church Unlike the Rulers of the world whose Religion it is to have none at all and are such lovers of sacred Foundations that instead of laying new they are the onely new fashion Templers that dare fight for to ruine the old and defend their pulling down Piety is lovely even in the meanest but in Kings and governours it carries a splendour like those rayes that surround the head of a pictur'd Saint Pyramids whose proud-reach dares justle the clouds and make them stumble in their race Piles of Alablaster carv'd to various shapes and pictures lively as the dead and the more like because both breathlesse Tombes of marble Vaults of brass are but poor monuments worthlesse conservatours to that building without hands wherein deceased Piety eternally shall live The Centurion here by building Synagogues rais'd a structure to his owne memory that hath out lasted them and the Jewes ravish't with such unwonted favours in a Ruler to expresse their Gratitude run in streames to Jesus and petition him to heal his Son pressing him with an argument of great force with them for He hath loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue Such honour have all they that Honour Thee O Lord whose zeale for thy Glory seldome returnes empty to themselves the meanest offering to thy Altar is not onely accepted but rewarded too and they that make it their Ambition to exalt thy Name shall not have theirs forgotten Let not those that knew Thee not be more passionate for thy Glory then we whose very Profession ought to adorne our Religion whose bodies ought to become Temples fit to entertaine thy Spirit the spirit of Holinesse of Love Thou wilt now no more be worshipt in Synagogues but more spirituall Assemblies Teach us therefore to turne our souls into Sanctuaries and to raise up our thoughts in more lively addresses that we may not so much endeavour to obtaine the worlds time by a moral fame as by the Sacrifice of obedience the Righteousnesse of eternity Luke Chap. 9. v. 57. Lord I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest IT was the best resolution he ever made nor can any blame him for his boldnesse when it was his glory to have been an intruder he might have gone on long and farre enough and not have met with such heavenly Company Was it his Confidence or his Love to Jesus that put him on See with how pious an importunity he accosts him whom perhaps he had never seen nor known before but by his Miracles onely and that life which so astonish't the eyes of the world could not but attract his and his heart too and therefore thinking it no presumption to use all meanes of bettering himselfe nor willing to lose so fair an opportunity of becoming happy ambitious of an admission all in raptures without any other Complement then an humble earnestnesse salutes Him Lord c. Nor could our Saviour's poverty stop or weaken his resolve or discourage his intention being not onely Content but Ambitious to share even in the miseries of so good a Master in whose very wants he should find a felicity beyond all the enjoyments of the earth Is not this Man a president for the whole world He that will not follow Jesus out of love yet let him not for shame suffer a Jew or Publican to out-step and strip him too Are the joyes of an everlasting Blisse of so poor a value that they are not worth the coming to or shal we think any step too weary that brings us to happinesse Were the way to heaven but strewed with roses or a thousand pleasures to revive the flesh the sensualist would turne a constant walker there and be the formost in those pathes the rich Man cannot follow Jesus for his pretious Luggage with which because he cannot without it he will not stirre The Epicure will not be of a Religion that prescribes him temperance for although perhaps he might make a shift to pray he cannot tell how to fast The way to heaven is too narrow for Ambition whose lofty port loves not to be strained in its passage but must have a road wide as the world or Hell can make him wherein his traine of sinfull glories may follow him in a breast together So difficult a thing it is to leave the world even for heaven and strive against the blandishments of sense for an invaluable blisse as if all our hopes all our happinesse were lap 't and tied up in the Concernments of this
life onely and no other expectation for us besides the pleasures of Mortality And yet how many are there that pretend to follow Jesus but are meer strangers to his footsteps that pursue tracks not of his making but their owne finding That path which so many holy men have footed before us is too common too prophane for them to tread in they have found out a neerer Cut of their own and think they shall come to Heaven the sooner by turning out of the way So unfortunate is that zeal which will needs be wandring after spurious and impostur'd Lights and scorning the usuall footsteps of the Church loses it selfe in the blind and dark Meanders of Enthusiasme The way to heaven is not in a Corner and however narrow is open still 't is a path whose prospect is happinesse nor need he feare to lose his way that doth not wilfully turne out of it the poore Man here all transported runs to Jesus and mixing Humility with Resolution because he will not be denyed in a begging kind of Confidence tells him Lord c. Who would not foot it even through wants and wildernesses to come to Canaan He that followes Jesus shall have no Cause to repent his journey He shall find such treasures even in the poverties of religion so much of Heaven and Contentment in the seeming miseries of a pious life that he will not need much perswasion to make it his own resolution here and cheerfully leave all to follow Jesus Do thou therefore elevate our souls from the world O Lord and make them covetous of seeking thee and the things that are above Thou art ascended to thy Throne in the rapture of Glory draw our souls after thee in the raptures of Love and spirituall exaltation that we may make the virtues and perfection of thy Life the rule of ours and grant that we may not be so affected with the things of this world that we should have no passion for thy Glory but make us to walke Cheerfully in that way which thou hast gon and set before us that as we live by thy Goodnesse we may live to thy Glory and as we move in Thee we may be ever moving towards Thee till we enjoy the Happinesse of an eternall rest in thy Kingdome Matth. Chap. 9. v. 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that He would send forth more labourers into his harvest NO Prayer more necessary than this nor this ever so much as now Who would not burne and labour in his devotions and earnestly press heaven with restlesse and religious votes to Compassionate our want Every one may well make it his vocation now without encroching on anothers office and turne labourers in so pious a work as this to pray for the prosperity of the Gospell Who can see the Garden of the Lord become a desart folds of Lambs inhabited by foxes the House of prayer turn'd into the ruines of Sacriledge and the Messengers of our peace glad to become the objects of our pitty without mournfull and Compassionate reflections How vainely do they pretend affection that strip their Mother and count the exorbitances of their Phansies the decencies of the Gospell Can there be any want of Labourers where so many are where every man becomes one himselfe when sheep become shepheards and Flocks are Metamorphosed into Pastors Every one can now handle the religious sickle he that can but talk or smatter Scripture thinks himselfe divinely calld sufficiently inspired for a Sermon and out of the simplicity of his zeal will needs be climbing up a pulpit Thus multitudes of teachers produce a scarcity and we want the more by having so many We may well pray then for a new Mission or the taking away of those that do not hedge but devour the vineyard He that loves his Saviour will delight and triumph in the felicity of his spouse in whose armes alone we can mount to happinesse and ever beg a perpetuity of its Glory He deserves not to reape or share in the bliss of an immortall harvest that will neither labour himself nor pray for the prosperity and increase of them that do And who O Lord can cast his Eye upon thy bleeding Spouse without a teare or upon its unruly Adversaries without a Sigh for its protection O let thy accustomed mercy stop the wildest Boare and root out the most mischievous foxes that may destroy it Thou hast founded It upon a Rock no storms shall ruine it and hast plac't it on high to be seen and approacht by all let us not blindly turn out of the Way or fal into praecipices for want of knowing guides Let not thy Oracles become dumbe for want of Priests or the Glad tydings of our Peace be turned to silence for want of faithfull messengers but thou O Lord both supply defects and reforme abuses that sensibly creepe in forgive the Zeale of those they know not what they do Let the Light of thy countenance graciously dispell that darknesse and confusion wherein we lye Eclips't Then shall we sing and Prayse Thy Power Matth. 2. Vers 10. And when they saw the Starre they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy COuld a Starre become such a welcome object to Astrologers whose eyes had contracted an acquaintance with the Spheres and taught the Planets to become familiar Or was it the appearance of a new born Light that crown'd their Joy That Stars should become guides and not only light but Leade me too 't was indeed a wonder they never saw before and which no Astronomer besides themselves though never so celestiall could yet Parallel Had Aristotâ—e known this he would have made the Stars the Dieties of the Sphears and not pearcht Intelligences at their backs to roule them This was some living splendour sure that could both shine and shew the way A luminary more quicking then that Giant one that spreads the Morne and carries Time within his armes And they whose ruder devotion whose Idolatry taught them to adore the Sun could not but religiously salute the Herauld of a brighter One they came to worship See how Pagans foot it from the East and cheerfully make it but a walke from the remotest Climate to come and worship a Redeemer while some will scarce travell from their chambers to present a cheaper offering of gratitude than this They counted it the best journey they ever made and for a testimony of their joy presented offerings the richest their Countries yeilded and made the Inne their Temple to pay the tribute of their adoration in to the Lord of Glory whilst some sacrilegiously strip him of his Divinity for the greater honour of his name They had but a single starre to guide them but we can shew multitudes of new lights to darken the Gospell troops of Quaking comets the Apparition of whose zealous and fiery aspects would rather fright then lead the way Thus pretended Illuminations of our owne making do not embrighten but eclipse religion and instead of opening
hath the world learnt his lesson How do the Catholicke Pharises pride themselves in a supererogatory devotion and thinke to climbe heaven by a ladder of their owne making glorying in a superabundant piety and triumphing in a meritorious excesse of dooing even more then they need How nimbly do our Trembling Enthusiasts too follow their leaders steps here in a sanctimonious pride by a supercilious purity presuming to reforme the world and new modell it againe That saint themselves Stylo novo and with the Pharisee not onely thanke but tell God plainly they are not as other men That raylingly proclaime themselves the great light of the world and in a pious Lunacy would new gospell it againe extravagantly proscribing all religions but their own These melancholy Pretenders seclude themselves from others and by a sullen devotion are become so strangely divine that they have almost lost their humanity So that if the Pharisee was not as other men yet these are as like the Pharisee as may be having so exactly learnt both his nature and religion So naturall is it for us O Lord to be deluded even in our best Performances and whilst we vainly thinke our selves not onely better then others but good enough in Thy Sight to be carried into presumption 'T is humility crownes all our Graces and puts a Beauty on our requests whilst the confidence of our owne merits does not onely deforme but seclude us from thee Teach us therefore with such gratitude to use thy gifts that we become not forgetfull of our selves or Thee Whilst others Pride themselves in a meritorious supererogation let us indeavour humbly to confesse and bewaile our imperfections Let not a spirituall Pride seise upon our souls so shall we be innocent from the Great Transgression Romans Chap. 6. v. 21. For the end of those things is death WHo then would propose that for his happinesse which shall perish with himself whose end is not only death but hell and will destroy him not onely now but hereafter too Indeed were there no hope that our remains should revive again or the ruins of our frame rise up to a finer shape we might well drown our selves in enjoyments heere and fixe our felicity in pleasures Every man might then without sin become an Epicure and he that could invent new fashions of luxury would not only be more ingenious but more fortunate too Morality would be all vice yet vice it self no more a crime but our felicity not to be extravagant then were a sin against nature he that is most Brutish would be most Rational Law would then become an enemie to Humanity there could be no society but in confusion and in spight of policy were there no heaven no hell we should pleasantly mingle to a chaos and obey no other discipline then that of riot Every one might then turne Atheist without scandall to be without God in the world would be no misfortune every man might be his own without blasphemy Could they that live dye like Brutes too and revive no more the comfort of not being damned would be greater then the sweets of sin But alas he that dies now must live againe that his life may be rememberd nor yet is it somuch the feare of Death as the horrours of a guilty conscence the terrible presages of a future eternity that scares the departing soul The pangs of expiring nature are nothing to those stings the memory of our crimes bring with them The sorrowes of the Grave and our being here no more for ever are joyes to the miseries that are to come Tell me thou that hug'st the world then and gropest for paradise in a grove of sins thou that makest earth thy treasure and wrap'st up the riches of thy hopes in time's bosome or the enclosure of a span when those bright and nimble guides of life thy eyes shall grow weak with age or weary with paine when every limbe shall become an object of sorrow and those parts that were so officiously employed in sin shall become instruments of despaire When that delicious frame that darling edifice thy Body shall by its tottering qualmes and trembling convulsions affrighten its disconsolate owner how will the flashes of a future justice and the terrours of thy end confound thee Can those enjoyments that flattered away thy soul restore it now can those pleasures that stole heaven from thee recover it again can thy vanities asswage thy sorrowes or the memory of thy sins the misery of thy end Where 's that musick whose aires like Davids harpe might charme the cries of conscience and by its straines drop a harmony that might still the trouble of thy anguisht soul Where are those trophies thy ambition purchased at the easy rate as onely sinning for that Honour for which thou hast sold heaven that soveraignty for which thou becamst a slave thy selfe and lost the freedome of thy soul Cannot all thy Greatnesse raise thee up a litle and by a power once so much feared and applauded reprieve thee from the grave or a more eternall prison Where are those treasures thou soldest thy best inheritance for whose ravishing splendours took away thy sight and made thee blinder then themselves Can they neither bribe nor buy thy pardon or will the grave know no other fee then so rich a misery Where are all those diversions that robb'd thee of thy piety and the thoughts of thy Maker those pleasing vanities that took away all sense of heaven and foresight of thy end Are all vanisht to a toomb and an unwelcome period are all thy jollities terminated in a Coffin and no other object left to keep thee company but thy Crimes and those terrours thy guilt presents Behold now then ye Lovers of the world more then of God and see the picture of your end those ruines you have so smoothly built on Try if all your imaginary felicities are proofe against this shaft or can secure you from this intruder the single Conquerour of the world whose very prison is but a reserve for a worse and its execution here but a repriefe for a more lasting and yet living death He that liv'd in pleasures must live in flames and having revell'd it in sin riot it in tortures and the misery is that wishing not to live he can never die And yet how vaine are our desires still after the world O Lord how soon how smoothly are we led by the false and transitory pleasures of this life from Thee The wages of sin is death and yet how foolishly do we preferre its service before thine whose reward is life The end of prophaness is eternall ruine and the pleasures of impiety period in confusion and yet we sadly embrace the proffers of sin before the promises of thy glory Pitty O Lord the frailties of our natures and forgive the irregularities of our lives fill us with noble desires after Thee that the vanities of the world may be our scorne and thy Glory onely our Ambition
laboriously wicked and for a profitable iniquity think it no loss to be thrivingly damn'd Are there not nobler wayes of living then by losing our names and Souls at once Is infidelity a preservative against misery and must we build our supports on the ruines of our faith Piety makes no man poorer nor does religion robbe us of our enjoyments but makes them sweeter Our contentments are not lessened but enlarged and lengthned by adoring the Giver nor is he the further from but the neerer to a blessing that begins with Heaven and preferres his Saviour before the World Designes thus founded are not ever unfortunate and he that plots for his Soul as well as his body shall learne a policy will bafle the World and non-plus its wisest Generations when after all his losses he shall finde a reward richer then all the revenues of the Earth together And yet so insensible are we O Lord both of thy Glory and our own felicity that we can entertaine any thing with more pleasure then the thoughts of an eternity we can spend the allowance of our time in sin and sacrifice even all our yeares to vice but count a moment too long too much to be employed in thy service we can dwell and drown our selves in pleasures and think a few spare minutes a faire gift of time for our devotion The treasures of the world are a poore gaine for the Morgage of a Soul and the losse of thy favour even the richest enjoyments of this life are but wretched contentments without Thee Do thou therefore elevate our Souls and withdraw them from these beggerly elements to purer and more celestiall addresses let thy Kingdome be not our refuge onely but our choice and the perfect resolution of our souls to despise the flatteries of the world for that glory which nothing but our sins can deprive us of And as thou hast made us for thy self O Lord inable us to continue so that as we have received all that we have from thy bounty we may sacrifice all our desires to thy glory knowing that as nothing in this life can make us happy without thee so nothing can make him miserable that hath Thy Kingdome for his Inheritance A Prayer O Lord who inhabitest Eternity Thou art Exalted above all Principalities and powers Saints and Seraphims are ravished with thy Glory Angels and Archangels adore thy Greatnesse Holinesse and Honour waite upon Thy Throne the Scepter of thy Kingdome is an everlasting Scepter Thou lovest Righteousnesse and hatest iniquity and therefore they that come before Thee must worship Thee in Spirit and in Truth if they would be either heard or received of Thee Wee confess we are not worthy to appeare in Thy Presence that can present unto Thee no other offering than Sinfull and deformed Soules which deserve no longer to be accounted thine having lost that purity and likenesse which made them so We are not worthy to receive any more tenders of Mercy that have so often despised it nor to see what is the riches of thy Love that have so unworthily preferred the trifles of this Life before the treasures of thy Grace Thou mad'st it the end of our Creation that we should Glorifie Thee but we of all thy Creatures have least performed it That time which we should have employed in adorning and devoting our lives to thy Worship which is our most rationall and religious service have we Sacrificed to sinne and the pleasures of the World Thou art so infinitely Good that thou desirest but unfaigned Sorrow for sinne to excuse it and yet so miserable and deeply guilty are we that we cannot bring so much as humble and contrite Spirits to plead for our selves Thou didst so love the World that Thou sentest thy Son to dye for it But we have so lov'd the World that we have despised Heaven and our Saviour rejected the Holy One whom Thou hast sent and by our unworthy lives dishonoured that happy Name whereby we are called Thine and intitled to thy Kingdome But though our sinnes cry aloud for punishment yet the voyce of thine owne mercy and Our Saviours blood begs more powerfully for Pardon O Let His Sufferings be our reconciliation his punishment for sin our freedome from it let the bitternesse of thy wrath on Him be turn'd into the sweetnesse of thy love to us that his crosse may be our triumph and the merits of his passion the purchase of our peace and grant that having obtained mercy we may walk accordingly that being bought for heaven we may no more sell our selves to sin nor prefer a few moments of pleasure before an eternity of joy Make us to consider those Divine ties that bind us to serve Thee the infinit and abundant testimonies of thy love which invite our gratitude and that happinesse which is the reward of them that seek Thee O let not the motions of sinne be more powerfull in us than the obligations of thy grace nor the pleasures of this life of more value to us than the joyes that are to come But make us to walke cheerfully in that way which thou hast set before us that our temptations may but strengthen us more that neither the crosses nor yet the pleasures of this life may be able to deject or drowne our piety but that in whatsoever condition wee are we may be still found crowned and triumphing in faith O thou infinite Goodness teach us to a dore Thee with our whole heart and to conforme our lives unto thy law with a perfect constancy Make us to consider that exceeding weight of glory which thou hast promised to those that strive to conquer the world for thy sake O let those joyes which are so much above our thoughts be ever in them let our inability to comprehend the happinesse of thy kingdome heighten the piety of our Ambition after it more that the greater thy goodnesse is the greater may our desire after it be the greater thy love the greater our obedience and the lesser our deserts the greater our humility Make us to see the litle use but the great vanity of this world that so the pleasures of it may not steale away our hearts from the contemplation of a better but that our lives may be a perfect and perpetuall sacrifice of obedience ever pleasing in thy eyes O let thy service be ever most delightfull to us that we may labour to improove our selves before Thee by our inward and onely desires after thee that whatever defects attend our actions this may be inseparable in us even to feare thy name That so leading holy lives here we may lead happy and heavenly lives hereafter and being filled with Righteousnesse we may be filled with glory and possesse joyes unspeakable for evermore A Poenitentiall Prayer THe flesh evermore rebelleth against the spirit in me O my God and the infirmities of my nature are too strong for me of my self to conquer Behold how my frailties fight against my soul and have