phet Isaiah, "He shall fill them with the spirit of the fear of the Lord;" and, again, we are charged to work out our salvation" with fear." But there cannot be an act more opposite to faith, than to fear distrustfully, to despair in fearing none more injurious either to God or our own souls for surely, as Cyril well says, "The wickedness of our offences to God, cannot exceed his goodness toward us:" the praise whereof from his creature he affects and esteems so highly, as if he cared not, in any other notion, to be apprehended by us; proclaiming himself no otherwise in the Mount, than, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands; forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin; adding only one word, to prevent our too much presumption, "that will by no means clear the guilty," Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7: which to do, were a mere contradiction to his justice. Of all other, therefore, God hates most to be robbed of this part of his glory. Neither is the wrong done to God more palpable, than that which is done herein unto ourselves, in barring the gates of heaven upon our souls, in breaking open the gates of hell to take them in, and, in the mean time, striving to make ourselves miserable, whether God will or no. And, surely, as our experience tells us concerning the estate of our bodily indispositions, that there is more frequent sickness in summer, but more deadly in winter, so we find it here: other sins and spiritual distempers are more common, hnt this distrustful fear and despair of mercy, which chills the soul with a cold horror, is more mortal.

For the remedy whereof, it is requisite that the heart should be thoroughly convinced of the superabundant and ever-ready mercy of the Almighty; of the infallible and unfailable truth of all his gracious engagements; and, in respect of both, be made to confess, that heaven can never be but open to the penitent. It is a sweet word and a true one of St. Bernard, "In thy book, O Lord, are written all that do what they can, though they cannot do what they ought." Neither doth God admit only, but he invites, but he entreats, but he importunes men to be saved. What could he do more, unless he would offer

violence to the will, which were no other than to destroy it, and so to undo the best piece of his own workmanship? It is the way of his decree and proceedings, to dispose of all things sweetly; neither is it more against our nature, than his, to force his own ends; and when he sees that fair means will not prevail to win us from death, he is pleased feelingly to bemoan it, as his own loss; Why will ye die, O house of Israel?" As for the stable truth of his promises, it is so everlasting, that heaven and earth, in their vanishing, shall leave it standing fast: his title is, "Amen ;" and, "Faithful is he, that hath promised, who will also do it." His very essence can no more fail, than his word. He who fears, therefore, that God will be less than his promise, let him fear that God will cease to be himself. It was the motto of that witty and learned Doctor Donne, the late dean of St. Paul's, which I have seen more than once, written in Spanish with his own hand," Blessed be God, that he is God:" divinely, like himself: as the being of God is the ground of all his blessed ascriptions, so of all our firmitude, safety, consolation; since the veracity and truth of God, as his other holy attributes, are no other than his eternal essence. Fear not, therefore, O thou weak soul, that the Almighty can be wanting to himself in failing thee. He is Jehovah, and his counsels shall stand. Fear and blame thine own wretched infirmities. But the more weak thou art in thyself, be so much the stronger in thy God: by how much more thou art tempted to distrust, cling so much the closer to the Author and Finisher of thy salvation.

Thus, if we shall hold an even course, betwixt security on the one part, and horror and distrust on the other; if the fortified and exalted eyes of our souls, being cleared from all inward and ambient impediments, shall have constantly fixed themselves upon the ever-present majesty of God; not without a spiritual lightsomeness and irradiation, and, therewith, an awful complacency of soul in that glorious sight; and, from thence, shall be cast down upon our own vileness, thoroughly apprehending how much worse than nothing we are, in and of ourselves, in the sight of God; we shall be put into a meet capacity of a holy and well mixed fear. And, if now, our hearts, thus

enlightened, shall be taken up with an inward adoration of the infinite power and greatness of God, manifested in the framing and ordering of this visible world; and of the infinite goodness and mercy of God, shewed in the marvellous work of man's redemption; and shall be careful to express this inward worship in all due reverence, upon all occasions, to the name, the word, the services, the house, the messengers of the Almighty; withal, if our humble souls shall meekly subject and resign themselves over to the good pleasure of God in all things, being ready to receive his fatherly corrections with patience, and his gracious directions with obedience; lastly, if we shall have settled in our hearts a serious care of being always approved to God in whatsoever actions, and a child-like lothness and dread to give any offence unto so dear and glorious a Majesty; we shall have attained unto this blessed fear which we seek for; and be happily freed from that wicked indevotion and profaneness, to which the world is so much and so dangerously subject: which I beseech the God of Heaven to work out in all readers, to his glory in their salvation. Amen.

THE ART

OF

DIVINE MEDITATION

EXEMPLIFIED:

WITH TWO PATTERNS OF MEDITATION; THE ONE OF ETERNAL LIFE, THE OTHER OF DEATH.

CHAPTER I.

The Benefit and Uses of Meditation.

Ir is not, I suppose, a more bold than profitable labour, after the endeavours of so many contemplative men, to teach the art of meditation; a heavenly business, as any that belongeth either to man or Christian, and such as whereby the soul doth unspeakably benefit itself; for by this do we ransack our deep and false hearts; find out our secret enemies, buckle with them, expel them, arm ourselves against their re-entrance. By this we make use of all good means, fit ourselves to all good duties. By this we descry our weakness, obtain redress, prevent temptations, cheer up our solitariness, temper our occasions of delight, get more light to our knowledge, more heat to our affections, more life to our devotion. By this we grow to be, as we are, strangers upon earth; and, out of a right estimation of all earthly things, into a sweet fruition of invisible comforts. By this we see our Saviour, with Stephen; we talk with God, as Moses; and by this we are ravished, with blessed Paul, into paradise, and see that heaven which we are loth to leave, which we cannot utter. This alone is the remedy of security and worldliness, the pastime of saints, the ladder of heaven, and, in

short, the best improvement of Christianity. Learn it who can, and neglect it who list. He shall never find joy, either in God or in himself, who doth not both know and practise it.

And however of old some hidden cloisters have engrossed it to themselves and confined it within their cells, who, indeed, professing nothing but contemplation, through their immunity from those cares which accompany an active life, might have the best leisure to this business; yet seeing there is no man so taken up with action, as not sometimes to have a free mind: and there is no reasonable mind so simple, as not to be able both to discourse somewhat and to better itself by her secret thoughts; I deem it an envious wrong to conceal that from any, the benefit of which may be universal. Those who have but a little stock, had need to know the best rules of thrift.

CHAPTER II.

The Description and Kinds of Meditation.

THE rather for that whereas our divine meditation is nothing else but a bending of the mind upon some spiritual object, through divers forms of discourse, until our thoughts come to an issue. And this must needs be either extemporal and occasioned by outward occurrences offered to the mind; or deliberate, and wrought out of our own heart; which again is either in matter of knowledge, for the finding out of some hidden truth and convincing of a heresy by profound traversing of reason; or in matter of affection, for the enkindling of our love to God. Sending to the schools and masters of controversies, the former of these two, we search after the latter, which is both of larger use, and such as no Christian can reject as either unnecessary or over-difficult: for, both every Christian had need of fire put to his affections, and weaker judgments are no less capable of this divine heat, which proceeds not so much from reason as from faith. One saith, and I believe him, that God's school is more of