betweene Faith and profession but if his Workes bee good and godly thou maist boldly presume that the Sunne of righteousnesse is risen on him and hath with his beames of Religion enlightned him wherefore James saith Pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widowes in their adversities and to keep himselfe unspotted of the world marke how he judgeth of Religion not by Faith but obedience and yet there is no Religion pure but by Faith because Faith is also to be tried by obedience in the sight of men as obedience by Faith before God And Christ useth the same direction Hereby shall all men know you are my Disciples if yee love one another and love as yee know containeth all duties of the Law and hence is Christs answer in the Gospell to such as shall say at the day of judgment Have not wee taught and preached and done great Workes in thy name Depart from me I know you not all yee workers of iniquity Christ looked not on their profession but practice There is a knowledge of the truth and that wee have from Faith beleeving in the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and there is an experience of the truth when the vertue of these things beleeved doth worke in our lives as when by the power of Christs Death wee die unto sinne and by the power of his Resurrection wee arise unto newnesse of life and by the power of his Ascension are heavenly minded When wee are come to knowledge wee passe on to trust and confidence by applying to our selves the promises of the Gospell so when wee are come to this trust wee must passe on to experience and triall in our lives by imitating those things in our selves which Christ hath done for us this is that which Saint Paul saith wee all behold as in a mirrour the glory of the Lord with open face and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the spirit of God God sheweth his face open to us in the Gospell wee behold it by Faith wee are changed into the same by speciall trust and confidence that the things there promised belong unto us as remission of sinnes the righteousnesse of Christ freedome from death and the gift of eternall life and wee passe from glory to glory by the experience spoken of when the vertue of the things wee beleeve doth worke in our lives and make us holy as he is holy and wee have both righteousnesse inherent and imputed and for this cause Paul speaking of the same matter to the Philippians doth not count himselfe perfect or to have as yet attained the full end of his calling for though he had begun in the first degree to beleeve and gone forward to the second for application yet had he much to doe in the last as long as it should please God to lend him life But you will say what doth the vertue of Christs Passion Resurrection and Ascension belong to us As the sap of the stock belongs to the graft so wee being grafted into Christ by a lively Faith that vertue of his whereby hee overcame death rose againe and ascended must needs grow up in us to bring forth like fruits and to signify this union he in other places is called the head and the faithfull members of the same body a vine and the faithfull branches of the vine and how this union is made betweene Christ and the faithfull the Sacrament of Christs blessed body and bloud doth not only represent but that it is done also as often as the faithfull doe rightly receive the same it doth testify and therefore there is not bare bread or a signe only but the body and bloud of Christ really yet not grosly as the Papists imagine but after a heavenly manner to the Soule to Faith neither is it necessary for this union and the benefit thereof that it should be locall so as Christs body must enter into ours but when Faith doth embrace Christ crucified for us that the Spirit whose power is not tied to distance of places make the faithfull man partaker of those gifts and graces of his redemption which can be no otherwise derived unto him but from the humane nature of Christ which suffered and as hee is a member of Christ Meditation 11. Of Merit THere is a great question betweene the Papists and us what workes please God best either such as are done to Merit or of duty they say workes done of duty have lesse zeale but belike they separate duty from love wee say workes done to Merit savor more of pride and cannot please God of themselves because they want duty and if wee should joine with them in an issue about zeale it might bee proved that their zeale for the glory of God is not so great which worke to Merit as the others Saint Paul as appeareth in his Epistle to the Philippians wrought not to Merit but of duty and love he which worketh to Merit must remember what is past and examine all his workes from the beginning to the end whether they be worhty that reward which he meanes to challenge but Saint Paul working of duty forgot what was past as though he had done nothing and his mind was only on that which he might be able to do farther as long as God would give him life according to that of our Saviour When yee have done all that you can say you are unprofitable servants as if he should say thinke so meanly of what you have done that you count it your duty to doe much more as long as you live even as much as you can and yet shall you be unprofitable servants both in respect of the grace used and not turned to the best advantage and in respect of the glory to bee received for which you can give no worthy recompence saving that it is the fathers will for my sake to give it to you what he hath promised he will in justice performe Belike Christ when he spake so much of duty meant to take zeale from workes nothing at all but to adde the more love and willingnesse which is the cause of zeale to the base and slavish mind a benefit past is of no force whereas the free and gentle heart is disposed towards a good turne received but because both they and wee agree thus farre that good workes are necessary let us rather busy our selves about doing well then disputing wittily God grant that I may remember I am a Christian if this bind me not to doe good nothing will if I doe unfeignedly what I can God will bee mercifull where I faile and Christ will rather want merits then I shall want reward Meditation 12. Pastorall cure THey which know what belongs to a flock are not ignorant of the care of a Shepheard or the necessities of Sheep neither is it an unworthy consideration for out of Shepheards have been taken Kings and Kings in time
and when thou wouldest doe any thing thy great weakenesse dost thou not oft thinke so I am well all is well what a hard charge is this to love my enemy how unsutable to policy what a crosse to my life thou dost preferre thy reputation before common peace thine owne advantages before thy brothers soules health and dost not consider how that thou maist not be well except thou doe well and doe well thou dost not if any thing in thee bee wanting why thy brother is not so too more thy particular depends upon the common God if it bee hard to love thy enemy yet it is godly and for Gods cause whose wisedome if wee follow let us bee counted fooles Thou knowest whose speech it is Am I my brothers keeper the wicked crush one another with such thoughts and specially are cruell to the good but they which are Christs quite and quiet one another with love oft times man is a keeper of beasts Why should not one man have care of each other if so why not much more of a brother if not of a brother of whom if of none he which keeps thy brother will not keep thee Meditation 28. A good conscience GOd is possessed by love and the profession of the truth maintained by keeping a good conscience A good beliefe must bee strengthned by a godly life and a godly life seasoned with a good beliefe they are as the two twinnes which did live together and die together The Christian is in this world as it were in a broad Sea his profession teacheth him that his Heaven is Heaven and there is no Card or Compasse can so well direct him in a good course unto it as a good conscience whose direction if once he leave he soone makes shipwrack of his profession for to use thy faith with a bad conscience is as it were to meet with a rock or whirle-poole in thy course and as it is said of danger they that love it shall fall into it so they which love the danger of an ill conscience fall by it by the just judgment of God into the gulph of divers errors contrary to their profession Dost thou desire to continue in this holy profession unto thy lives end I know thou dost then look well unto thy conscience All men are sinners by propagation that 's originall and by imitation that 's actuall and this is as true that every one doth best know his own sinne and is lesse privy to other mens sins wherfore the just man is the first accuser of himselfe for he presumeth as well of others as possibly he can and assumeth nothing to himselfe of all his goodnesse but freely consesseth that sinne is his owne for which he doth dayly aske pardon with the rest of Gods children as Forgive us our trespasses A Christian ought to bee that towards his Conscience which a cleanly huswife is in her house if shee see any filth in the floore or cobwebs in the walls or roofe shee takes the beasome in hand sweeps them out so ought wee still to have an eye on our Conscience and if there bee any thing offensive let us labour to remove it leaving nothing within which is not pleasing to God and comfortable to our selves then shall God delight to dwell in such a Conscience and wee shall delight to dwell at home in our selves the wicked because they have no care to keep cleane their Consciences when they returne home to themselves which is very seldome find all things out of order and unquiet which forth with makes them seek abroad for some outward comfort to forget the strife at home as they which are chidden out a doores by their curst wives these cannot abide to look on their owne faces but cast away the glasse which doth discover their deformity they are like bad debters which cannot abide to cast up their accounts and come to a reckoning whereas the good man findeth all his comfort laid up in his owne breast and hath there the light of cleare beames though all the world else be benighted Oh my soule if thy Conscience bee the Lords house how cleanly ought it to be kept above all other roomes if his temple how oughtest thon to perfume it with the sweet odours of holy thoughts meditations purposes resolutions and prayers the bells wherein should bee continuall thanksgivings to sound aloud the praises of thy God And this shall be thy warrant that doing as thou professest thou shalt bee still the more in love with thy profession Meditation 29. Consideration ALI the learned commend Contemplation Philosophers Divines but give me Consideration I find my selfe oft in danger for want not of knowledge but Conscience not of apprehension but reprehension I know that contemplation is a great help to consideration as much as wisedome is to prudence for that is an act of the one and this of the other and they are both compared one to the Sunne the other to the Moone one to the Well the other to the streame for prudence doth borrow her light from wisedome and her fruitfull streames issue from that fountaine yet like I better for my necessity the pipe which conveyeth the streame unto me then a conduit which holdeth the water whereof I have no use Contemplation is this conduit filled up from the well of wisedome but Consideration is the pipe by which prudence in a true levell doth bring this water home to my house use Contemplation is a beame of the understanding cast directly forth but Consideration a beame of the understanding turned and reflected on it selfe contemplation cleares my understanding Consideration orders my will Contemplation makes mee skilfull in the Theorick of goodnesse but Consideration perfect in the Practique of it Contemplation gives mee eies Consideration hands Contemplation stayeth it selfe within one bare proposition This God is good and here it beholdeth how many waies God is good of himselfe originally in himselfe effentially in his work in his word statutes judgments punishments corrections promises every way every where good yea when he suffereth us to bee evill but Consideration proceedeth farther to an application how this doth concerne himselfe that I ought to bee good and to seek that good which I want in him who is goodnesse it selfe and concludes with a resolution to use the meanes which may cause mee to be good Consideration is the exercise of conscience and reason mutually helping one another or a conscience grounded on reason which hath his owne light or is enlightned from above or is by teaching or by use and experience directed Consideration setteth before mee things past maketh mee provident for things to come and plucks mee by the eare not to neglect things present which it doth by comparing and matching all these together things past with things to come and conceiving a like forme in both doth by things already acted enter into a right course of action Contemplation hath generall grounds of truth from which many
the good of others as his owne and they do all drinke of the same well of eternall life Landed men desire to have perfect surveyes and true plots of their States of inheritance willing not onely to satisfie their minds touching the value but also their eyes beholding under one aspect the houses courtelages wayes walkes ponds parkes woods coppize hills bottomes arable grounds meadowes and pasture and they would have nothing lye hid as though they should seeme to neglect any one jot of their transitory happinesse Oh vaine men are we which take so much paine about the world wherein wee live not onely with beasts which have a better part in this kind of happinesse but also with wicked men worse than beasts whence come unto us envie malice variance deceit violence wrong yea murthers massacres and desolations And this ourinheritance we stand so much on what serveth it but for our bodily necessities and that for a very small time though we use to say to mee And to my heires for ever whereas oft-times the third man doth scarse enjoy a foot thereof The soule is nothing the richer though thou leave it nothing the wiser nothing the better neither can it claime any part of it to follow her when it must depart hence to another world where such earthly provision stands in no stead And if the earth it selfe be but a point in respect of the firmament every least starre thereof being eighteene times greater than the whole what is thy goodly inheritance in comparison of the highest heavens but a shadow or dreame of nothing But this heavenly inheritance may be called so rightly in deed and is worth the seeking for worth the having though a man should sell all and lose his life too to which comes nothing that ill is and from which goodnesse never departs an excellent place of entertainment where comfort hath an everlasting spring not parched with heat or nipped with cold or beaten with violence of windes what can be spoken more gloriously here is God in the height of his favour here are thousands of Angels and Saints like so many Starres about this infinite light at whose presence the Sunne is darknesse here is Christ that died for us and hath life in his hands to bestow on us Come enter into thy Masters joy Canst thou dislike this company how ever thou dost like it thou canst not come to it by nature or art it is not blood or birth that must preferre thee thou canst not claime it by descent and in truth so great did our Lord esteeme it that he spared not one drop of his blood but willingly shed it to purchase this inheritance for thee and if all the crosses or troubles of the world were put together and weighed in the ballance with this masse of glory they would not hold in weight so much as one graine of the insinite greatnesse thereof Holy men in times past have thought no labours too hard no poverty too deepe no death too sharpe if so induring all their daies they might be thought worthy to be made partakers of this grace for true it is that no man brings worthinesse with him to claime such an unvaluable consideration but as it is grace that makes us first to know our unworthinesse and then to imbrace Christ who hath purchased for us this inheritance and hath the right to bestow it on us so is it grace that leading us by the hands of obedience humility doth bring us into the possession of glory this is an inheritance not for the body onely but for the soule also not while wee live here a few yeares but to live above with God for ever this right is such as neither can be taken from us nor exclude us from taking benefit with others which have an inheritance as large as ours What earthly inheritance hath such priviledges to be free from sinne and all punishment following it as shame and misery to see God face to face This O man is worthy thy survay by what title it may be possessed what things they are which bee spoken of this heavenly Jerusalem what mansions and commodities it hath what freedome the dwellers enjoy which there abide that lightned by faith and lifted up on the toppe of holy meditation thou maist so clearely and fully behold the plot of this blessednesse as that from henceforth it may wholly withdraw thy love from this transitory vaine and vile world to an unsatiable desire of it selfe Be sober therefore O my soule be thankfull and in thy ravishment remember thou hast not yet attained it but this do forget that which is behind and endeavour thy selfe unto that which is before and follow hard towards the marke for the high prise of the calling of God in Christ and this is a point so necessary that Saint John saith Every one that hath this hope purgeth himselfe as hee is pure And here my pen stoppeth my meditations never Soli Deo Laus Contempt of the world THe worlds vanity which John reduceth unto three heads the lust of the flesh by which we may understand all kind of delicacy and wantonnesse the lust of the eye which may well intend covetousnesse and the pride of life whereby may be meant ambition about honour are not from God which made the world but from man who forsaking God hath abused the world and made both it and himselfe both vaine miserable many out of the greatnesse of their mindes have despised the world counting themselves too good for it and the world too base for their imployment they have rejected honors as not worth the travell or taking up pleasures as too beastlike riches as heavy and idle burthens and all this they did from the equity of nature which is contented with a little and offended at excesse which beares necessary and common harmes and is onely moved to avoid her owne follies Christians fetch their contempt from a higher Principle What is time to eternity a candle to the Sunne a droppe to the Sea a molehill to a mountaine this world to the World to come the creature to the Creator and yet how few Christians grow to that contempt of the world for the love of God and godlinesse which the Philosophers did in time past for the love of naturall knowledge or morall vertue Yee may see indeed amongst Christians many contemne the World out of a carelesse contempt what become of themselves whether to sinke or swimme because they are not such as they have beene nor could never yet learne to be the men they should of whom the world is as weary as they are of it but how few see you contemne it out of the true account which a Christian ought to have of his owne value I am the member of Christ shall I couple the body of Christ to such a Harlot as pleasure is I am Gods favourite shall I by ambition hunt after that favour which comes from man I am a Citizen of Heaven shall I digge deepe into the earth for a treasure there Many Christians do not so much as the Philosopher did by the eye of reason but looke on things onely with the eye of the sense how can they then be equall judges of these matters which reason it selfe could never reach unto To the naturall eye this world doth so interpose it selfe that it seemes onely great and the world to come nothing at all but faith which lifteth it selfe up and beholdeth God is made partaker of such a heavenly vision that this inferiour world seemeth unto it to have neither goodnesse to be desired nor greatnesse to be admired nor assurance to be trusted unto onely it sees many seeke it which perish by it and they which thrive in it to part from it much the worse for the onely having it Know my soule that this world is but a market if thou be in it as a buyer or a seller thou shalt bee much distracted if as a looker on thou shalt have content using it as though thou didst not use it thou mayst be acquainted with the world but beware of familiarity open not thy selfe unto her for the day will come that you two will be at ods and if thou love her thou wilt say then I have gotten nothing by her and perhaps it will cast thee in the teeth that it hath bestowed too much on thee How happy are they which keepe even reckoning with the world at all times that as they call nothing of the world so the world can challenge nothing in them but are ready still to depart out of it with a saving hand provided for a better Sit Deo Gloria FINIS