to all that converse with me and I must learn to be meek even to those which I have power over to those which are under my Charge and whom I could by stripes and threatnings force into respect and obedience and when justice and conscience oblige me to punish even in that punishment my mildness must be seen I must learn to be a Lamb and to imitate the softness of Wool for nothing appeases the angry Elephant as the meekness of the former and nothing resists the fury of Cannon-shot like the softness of the other I must not give over till I have brought my self to a temper whereby my passions may be calm and quiet and serene while those about me and who chide me and are angry with me make a fearful noise and are transported with indignation My Self-resignation may possibly serve me to leave my self to the Will and Direction of God in the enjoyment of moderate Prosperity but here I must not rest but advance this Virtue to a far higher pitch that come what will whether Weakness Feebleness or Lameness or Agues or Fevers or Consumptions or Falling-sickness or the Stone or the Gout or Poverty or Nakedness or contempt or loss of Friends or loss of Father Mother Children Sisters Brothers Relations Benefactors Money Lands Houses c. I may conform entirely to the Will of God My Obedience may lead me to do several things God hath commanded but I must drive it farther and learn to obey God readily humbly chearfully universally indefatigably learn to obey him in things that cross my inclination my temper my sensual appetite that are against my profit my temporal Interest my honour and my natural desires without disputing evading or perverting his Commands and though I apprehend not the reason of his Commands My Modesty may oblige me to bashfulness in asking but I must exercise it into greater perfection till I hate detraction shun contention avoid boasting keep secrets committed to my breast fly idleness watch against imprudence strive against irreverence and leave all affectedness My Temperance may make me cautious and afraid of eating or drinking more than nature requires but this is not the only effect it must work in me but it must teach and oblige me to go on and avoid curiosity in Diet Cloaths and Furniture and bring me to Self-denial in Sleep Recreations Words Gestures to ruling of my Affections and to purifying of my Thoughts and Imaginations My Moderation is not come yet to its full growth while I do no more but fear overvaluing sublunary comforts beyond their intrinsick worth and the end for which God doth allow them but I must make the virtue larger it must grow in me like the Lillies and spread its branches as the Cedars of Lebanon I must learn to keep my delight and mirth in outward enjoyments within bounds I must learn to moderate my grief when they are taken away in a word weep as if I wept not rejoice as though I rejoiced not and buy as though I possessed not and use the World as if I used it not I must learn to be moderate in my contests with my Neighbour moderate in my censures moderate in my passions moderate in my principles moderate in my judgment moderate in disputes about Religion My Love to God is but weak if I only stand up to vindicate his Word and holy Oracles assert their Divinity and their Truth but I must blow the fire into flames learn to embrace mean and painful things for God to bear incommodities in duties with patience to be undiscouraged in succesless Labours root out Vice and plant Virtue in all that depend upon me My love must be so exercised till God becomes the life of my Soul the light of mine eyes and till I can say Lord Here I am send me give me Grace to do what thou dost command and command what thou wilt I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Let him kiss me with the kisses of his lips for his love is better than Wine O my love my life my desire my delight my riches my treasure my all my happiness my hope my comfort my beginning my end too late have I known thee too late have I loved thee O that I had loved thee sooner My Charity to my neighbour is but in its infancy while I am only civil and respectful to him without prejudicing my self but it must be exercised and it will grow large and lovely extend to his Soul as well as to his body teach me to be tender of his credit compassionate to his calamities helpful in his distress to rejoice at his prosperity to admonish him to holiness to encourage him to good Works and to forgive him even as I hope to be forgiven in the day of our Lord Jesus My Repentance must not only fill me with melancholy thoughts about another life nor teach me only to suppress the sins I have been guilty of but I must learn to strike at the root of sin it must elevate my Soul and make it fruitful in all good works and I must learn to hate sin as much as I loved it before and to answer my degrees of sin with my degrees of contrition and my measure of vanity with my measure of sanctification and righteousness My Redeeming the time must not only make me spend some hours in private devotion but I must learn to improve opportunities whereby my better part may be exalted not to allow my self in idleness to do that which is worth spending my time in not to spend it in sin or satisfactions of the Flesh to part with vain thoughts and projects to rise early if my strength will permit to be industrious in my Calling to season my natural and civil acts and the Works of my Profession with holy contemplations to remember what will stand me in most stead after death and so to number my days that I may apply my heart unto wisdom even unto that wisdom which consists in Knowing and doing the Will of God in procuring Peace and Pardon in mortification of our Lusts and in conformity to Christ's example Then I exercise all these Graces when I work them into greater solidity of seeble make them lusty and vigorous and of fickle and uncertain make them fixed constant and immoveable till I come to abound in the work of the Lord Jesus and into this strength and glory they may be wrought by the assistance of Gods Free and Generous Spirit who is nigh unto them that call upon him unto all such as call upon him in truth I dislike not the practice of some Christians that do exercise some particular Grace more than the rest and render themselves eminent in it and make it their chief business to be ready prompt and accurate in it as Gregory the Great whose excellency lay in entertaining Strangers as the pious Lucius of France who took great delight in visiting Hospitals and serving the sick with his own hands as
Dunghil O make me to know my self and discover to me my false deceitful heart and the odiousness and loathsomness of my sins that I may hate them with a perfect hatred When beholding the Sun O Thou Sun of Righteousness rise upon me with healing under thy wings and warm my Soul with thy Radiant Beams that I may love thee better than Father and Mother better than all that 's dear and pleasing to me here below When looking upon a House O my God make me in love with that City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God O when shall this Earthly House of my Tabernacle be dissolved and I received into that Building of God the House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens When seeing other Men laugh at any sin Lord let Rivers of Tears run down mine eyes because Men do not keep thy Law O give me tenderness of Soul that I may be concern'd at other Mens sins as well as mine own When beholding any Children or Infants O Lord out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings do thou prepare praises unto thy self let these Children grow up as the Lilies and spread their Branches as the Cedars of Libanon When going to visit a Friend Lord make him thy Friend and that he may be so incourage and assist him to do whatsoever thou commandest When reproved by another Lord let this reproof be as an excellent Oyl to me give me Grace to take it in good part let my Soul thrive by it let it heal my wounds and make me thankful for this opportunity When receiving any injury or ill language Sweet Jesu give me Grace to follow thy example and to tread in thy steps who being reviled didst not revile again and when thou wert threatned sufferedst it committing thy self to him that judges righteously When seeing it Snow Purge me with Hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than Snow When seeing it Rain O visit me with the former and latter Rain of thy favour and make my heart rich with thy Showers that I may bring forth the fruits of the Spirit When despised for Righteousness sake O let me esteem the reproach of Christ greater Riches than all the Treasures of the World When it Thundreth O Lord the Power of thy Thunder who can understand Let the World take notice of the Voice of God and the Inhabitants of the Earth learn Righteousness I have been the more prolix in particularizing these Ejaculations of the Mind and these Aspirations of the Heart in the various Contingencies Accidents Providences and Actions of our Lives because I would help the Ignorant and take away all colour of excuse and destroy all pretences of impossibility of this Exercise Use will make it easie And Sirs if ever you would learn to converse with God or to have your Conversation in Heaven If ever you would get a Foretaste of the Joys to come If ever you would make Religion your Business If ever you would conquer the Lusts of the Flesh If ever you would extinguish vain and evil Thoughts If ever you would arrive to a sound Mind and that inward Spiritual Worship of God without which Christ says None can please him If ever you would learn to conquer Temptations If ever you would have your Souls become strong lusty and vigorous in the Ways of God This is the way even this praying without ceasing This is the best Antidote against Sin the best Medicine to cure all Spiritual Diseases It doth not hinder you in the Works of your Calling but rather furthers and sanctifies them nor can it be uneasie to the Mind except it be to the unwilling Mind and it keeps out the Devil better than St. Teresa's Holy Water or St. Anthonies Sign of the Cross. I know what will be pleaded here That this is to make Religion burthensome a Yoak indeed and at this rate you shall never enjoy your selves But give me leave to ask you What kind of Religion would you have Would you be Religious and dissolute Would you be good and have Elbow-room in Sin Would you be pious and be kept within no bounds Cannot you enjoy your selves without you may be licentious Would you be happy and suffer no restraint to be laid upon your Sensual Pleasures If this be a yoak there have been those before your time that have cheerfully drawn in it and thought themselves most blessed for having the honor of the Employment It is a yoak which the Son of God hath taken upon himself and all the Apostles whose Memories you celebrate and whose Actions you admire have imitated their Great Master in Would you be his Disciples and live as you please Are you proud of being his Followers and scorn his Laws Do you glory in his Salvation and are you loth to follow his Example Would not you deny your selves in your ease for a Crown of Glory Would you have all that the World affords and all that Heaven affords Would you live easie here and easie hereafter too Would you lie in the lap of Sensual Delights here and from thence drop into the Bosom of Everlasting Mercy Is it rational to believe that the Spiritual delights above are purchased by brutish and beastly ones on Earth He that will have his fill of this World must not expect to have his fill of the next He that will wellcome the pleasures of Sin and Lust here must not think to drink of the Rivers of Gods pleasure hereafter He that means to Rejoyce hereafter must mourn here He that means to Laugh in the next World must weep in this Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted but thou art tormented saith Abraham to Dives Luc. 16. 25. II. Exercise Every Morning when we have paid our homage to God by Prayer and Thanksgiving to resolve and solemnly resolve to tye our selves to certain Rules of living that day An Exercise recommended to us Psal. 17. 3 4. Psal. 76. 11. Psal. 57. 7 8. Psal. 119 101 106. To this purpose Pliny saith of the Christians in Trajan's time That they used to oblige themselves or bind themselves by an Oath in the Morning before they went about their Business not to Sin not to Cheat not to Lie not to Steal not to keep any thing unjustly from their Neighbors And this Exercise was observed many hundred years before that time by David Psal. 5. 2. where our Translation renders it In the Morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up but the Original runs thus In the Morning I do order or dispose my self to thee or towards thee and watch as a Man from a high Tower watches and observes the motion of the Enemy Not but that our Translation reaches David's sense well enough but it doth not so fully express it as it might have done He had in the foregoing words spoken
as love Christ cordially and the Lillies among which they feed are the innocent and spotless lives of sincere Believers which nourish and cherish their Souls make them Lively and Vigorous Fat and Flourishing These purify their Minds These give them the whiteness of Milk and nothing digests with them better than this Heavenly Food I dislike not the practice of Papias had it been but carried on with greater discretion who was mighty inquisitive what Andrew what Philip what Peter what James what John what Matthew and what the rest of the Apostles of our Lord had done and what they used to say how they ordered their Lives what their Conversation was how they behaved themselves abroad and at home for by such enquiries a man may learn much improve himself advance in goodness and encourage himself to the severest acts of Religion which by having such patterns before us become easie and loose much of that dreadful aspect in which they do appear to Flesh and Blood Behold Christians here lies your Wisdom this is to be wise unto Salvation This is the Learning that must fit you for the University of the Third Heaven This is the Schollarship without which you loose your places in that Colledge of Glory Study this point and you 'll be Wiser than Aristotle Learneder than all the Sages at Athens all the Wisdom of Solomon without this skill would have done him but little good Behold the Fountain of your Comforts would you be supported in distress would you be preserved from fainting under troubles would you bear up under the greatest storms would you hold out in the greatest persecutions survey the Heroick actions of the Martyrs and Confessors of old and they 'll shed new Life into your Spirits strengthen you beyond expectation keep you from despair defend you against discouragements and make you weather out all the tempests that come against you Are you reproach'd look upon David how patiently he endured the railings of Shimei are you persecuted for Righteousness sake look upon the Apostles of our Lord how they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name of the Lord Jesus do you suffer wrongfully look unto Jesus the Author and Captain of your Salvation who for the Glory set before him endured the Cross and despised the shame Are you bound with Chains Look upon St. Paul how he glories in those shackles and is confident that they will promote God's Glory Do Friends forsake you Look upon Lazarus whom God took care of when none would regard or relieve him Nay in Death it self the sweet and heavenly frame of spirit that is to be found in the Saints of God will be of very great efficacy to arm your selves against the assaults of that last Enemy When Death approaches look upon the courage the joy the comfort the resolution and chearfulness of Polycarp of Ignatius of Epagathus of Sanctus Maturus Altalus Blandina Biblis Alexander and others Come forth my Soul said old Hilarion Why art thou afraid Venture into another World Why dost thou doubt Hast thou served Christ so long and dost thou tremble The Saint in Ruffinus smil'd and laught three times when he was a dying Being ask'd by his Friends that stood about him mourning and weeping why at the point of death he presumed to laugh The first time said he I laugh'd because I saw you so strangely afraid of death The second time I did so because the World deludes you so that you cannot find in your hearts to prepare for death And I smiled the third time because just now I am going from my labour to rest from my pains and toil here below to everlasting quietness in Heaven St. Jerom when he was departing thus addressed himself to his Friends that stood about him Throw off your Mourning Weeds and sing a Psalm of Praise to God for hitherto I have gone through Fire and Water but now I am entring into my Cooling-place O what a mighty gainful thing is Death to me for Christ with all his Merits and Benefits will be mine Behold my Friends the Earthly Tabernacle of my House is going to be dissolved that I may enter into another made without hands eternal in the Heavens I am going to put off Corruption that I may put on Incorruption Hitherto I have been a Traveller but now am going to my own Country I see the Prize before me for which I have been running so long I am come to my desired Haven I am passing from Darkness to Light from Poverty to great Riches from Fighting to Victory from Sorrow to Joy from a Temporal to an Everlasting Life from an Offensive Dunghill to Odoriferous Fields The Life of this World is no Life but Death The Mèrchandise of Death is more precious than that of Gold and Rubies O sweet O comfortable Death Certainly thou art no King of Terrours for thou givest true Life thou chasest Fevers and Wounds and drivest away Thirst and Famine Come then my Beloved my Spouse my Friend my Sister shew me where he feeds whom my Soul doth love Awake my Glory Lend me thy hand draw me after thee My Heart is ready I 'll rise and follow the perfume I smell till thou bringest me into my Fathers House Thou art lovely my Friend come do not tarry By thee I must go into the Garden of my Beloved that I may eat of his Fruit. The time is come for thee to have Mercy on me make haste fly to me for I am sick of love Thou art black but comely thy Lips drop Honey Thou art terrible to the Kings of the Earth and crushest the Spirits of Princes but to the Humble thou makest thy Power to be known Thou breakest the Horns of the Wicked and liftest up the Horns of the Righteous Open to me my Sister thou Gate of Life Take away my Coat this Mortal Coat which I wear and deck me with the Garment of Praise and Gladness Break the Bow and Sheild the Sword and the Battle Harden not thy Heart against me Take pity of a hungry Son that hath lived long in a strange Country and deliver him back to his own Father again Thus departed that Holy Presbyter thus he spoke and thus he died What excellent Cordials are such Patterns to a dying Christian He that takes a view of them learns what to say and how to speak to God and to his own Soul when he is going to leave this present World Hypocrites commonly compare themselves with Men that are worse than themselves and finding themselves better than the worst of Men stroak themselves for excellent Saints Because they are not so bad as others therefore they must be very admirable Christians Because they do something more than those that know not God therefore they think they do enough as much as is necessary to Salvation But a Christian indeed a Christian that is altogether so looks forward upon those that are better than himself and by