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plication. If I look into my orchard, I see the well-grafted scions yield, first a tender bud: itself, after many years, is bodied to a solid stock; and, under the patience of many hard winters, spreads forth large arms: at last, being grown to a meet age of vegetation, it begins to grace the spring with some fair blossoms, which, falling off kindly, give way to a weak embryon of fruit: every day now adds something to the growth, till, it attain, in autumn, to a full maturity. Why should I make account of any other course, in my spiritual proceedings? O God, I shall be always ready to censure my slow pace, in grace and holy obedience; and shall be ever ambitious of aspiring higher, in thy gracious favour: but, when I shall have endeavoured my utmost, I shall wait with humble patience upon thy bountiful hand; as one, that desires thankfully to acknowledge the little that I have received, and meekly to attend thy good pleasure for what I may receive. So thou bring me to heaven, take what time and keep what pace thou pleasest.

XVII.

ALLOWABLE VARIETY.

Ir is a great and insolent wrong in those men, who shall think to reduce all dispositions, and forms of devotion, and usages, to their own: since, in all these, there may be much variety; and all those different fashions may receive a gracious acceptation in heaven. One thinks it best, to hold himself to a set form of invocation; another deems it far better, to be left free to his arbitrary and unpremeditated expressions: one pleases himself with this notion of that Omnipotent Deity whom he implores; another thinks that may be more proper and affective one thinks this posture of body may be the meetest for his humble address to the Throne of Grace, or to the Table of the Heavenly Manna; another likes that better: one is for a long prayer; another, for short ejaculations: one desires to raise up his spirits, with the Prophet, by the aid of a harmonious melody; another holds them better fixed in a sad silence: one holds it best to set forth God's service in a solemn state and magnificence; another approves better of a simple and inceremonious devotion: one requires a sacred place and a peculiar habit, as best becoming God's public worship; another makes no difference of either room or dress: one makes scruple of coming otherwise than fasting to the Lord's Table; another conceives it more seasonable after a Love-Feast: one thinks his Christian liberty allows him the moderate scope to all not-unlawful recreations; another's austerity interdicts all pastimes: one judgeth this hair and that attire, not lawful only, but comely; another thinks he espies

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sin in both. O God, as thou hast ever shewed thyself justly severe, in the avenging of sin; so I know thee graciously indulgent, in allowing thy servants much latitude, in the free use of all that thou hast not prohibited in imitation whereof, give me a heart holily zealous to abhor every thing that is truly evil, and charitably affected to the favourable censure of all usages that are merely indifferent. Let my main care be, to look to the sincerity of my soul, and to the sure grounds of warrant for my actions: for other circumstantial appurtenances, where thou art pleased to be liberal, let me not be strait-handed.

XVIII.

MISCONSTRUCTIONS OF HOLINESS.

It is no marvel, if there be nothing that undergoes more variety of constructions from the lookers on, than holiness: for that, being an inward gracious disposition of the soul, conformed to God in all the renewed faculties thereof, lies so close in the bosom, that it can only be guessed at, by such uncertain emanations of words and actions, as flow from it to the ears and eyes of others. The particular graces and affections of love, fear, hope, joy, godly sorrow, zeal, and the rest, break forth apparently in such symptoms and effects, as may win a a certainty of belief from the beholders; neither, indeed, are easily concealed from the view of others: all these may be read in the face: but, if the heart itself could be seen, and that curiously dissected, yet even thus could not holiness be discovered. Beside the closeness, every man is apt to measure his judgment of holiness, by a false rule of his own; whereby it comes to pass, that it is so commonly mistaken. One thinks him holy, that forsakes the world, and retires into some wild desert, or mures up himself in an anchorite's cell: another judges him holy, that macerates his body with fasting, that disciplines his hide with whips and hair cloths, that lies hard and fares hard; that abstains from all that relates to flesh, in his Lent and Embers; that passionately hugs his crucifix, and tosses his beads, and duly observes his shrifts and canonical hours: now this man, that, in their way, is in danger of canonization for a saint, is, by the professor of an opposite holiness, decried to hell, for superstition and idolatry. One styles him holy, who segregates himself from the contagious communion of formal Christians; professing to serve his God in a purer way of worship; rejecting all stinted forms of prayer and psalmody; spitting at the mention of a hierarchy; allowing no head sacred, but by the imposition of what we miscall, laie hands; abandoning all ceremonies of human institution; abiding no circumstances of divine worship, but apostolical: another

allows him only holy, who is already a citizen of the new Jerusalem; advanced to such an entireness with God, as that he is no less than glorified; he hath left the Scriptures below him, as a weak and dead letter, and is far above all whatsoever ordinance; yea, which I tremble to report, above the blood of Christ himself: a third reputes him only holy, who, having left the society of all Churches as too impure, stands now alone; waiting for some miracles from heaven, to settle his resolution. Now, Lord, after all these and many more weak and idle misprisions, upon the sure and unfailing grounds of truth, (thy Word is Truth,) I know that man to be truly holy, whose understanding is enlightened with right apprehensions of thee and heavenly things; whose will and affections are rightly disposed to thee, so as his heart is wholly taken up with thee; whose conversation is so altogether with thee, that he thinks all time lost, wherein he doth not enjoy thee, and a sweet and heavenly communion with thee; walking perpetually with thee, and labouring in all things to be approved of thee. O God, do thou work me up to this temper, and keep me still in it: and then, however I may differ in a construction of holiness from others that think themselves more perfect, howsoever I may be censured as defective in my judgment or affections; yet I do not, without sound and sensible comfort, know, that my Judge is in heaven, and my witness in my bosom.

XIX.

TWO HEAVENS IN One.

I WAS wont to say, "It is in vain for a man to hope for, and impossible for him to enjoy, a double heaven; one below, and another above: since our sufferings here on earth must make way for our future glory:" But now I find it, in a better sense, very feasible for a true Christian to attain both: for, as we say, where the Prince resides, there is the Court; so, surely, where the Supreme and Infinite Majesty pleases to manifest his presence, there is Heaven. Whereas, therefore, God exhibits himself present two ways, in grace and in glory; it must follow, that the gracious presence of God makes a heaven here below, as his glorious presence makes a heaven above. Now, it cannot but fall out, that, as the lower material heaven comes far short of the purity of the superior regions, being frequently overcast with clouds, and troubled with other both watery and fiery meteors: so, this spiritual heaven below, being many times darkened with sad desertions and blustered with temptations, cannot yield that perfection of inward peace and happiness, which remains for us above this sphere of mutability; yet affords us so much fruition of God, as may give us a true title and entrance into blessedness. I well see, O God, it is

no paradox, to say, that thy Saints reign with thee here on earth: though not for a thousand years; yet during the time of their sojourning here below: not in any secular splendour and magnificence, not in bodily pleasures and sensual contentments; yet in true spiritual delectation, in the joys of the Holy Ghost, unspeakable and full of glory. O my God, do thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy heaven. Put thou my soul into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness: so shall I cheerfully spend the remainder of my days in a joyful expectation of the full consummation of my glory.

XX.

THE STOCK EMPLOYED.

WHAT are all excellencies, without respect of their use? How much good ground is there in the world, that is neither cultured nor owned! What a world of precious metals lie hid in the bowels of the earth, which shall never be coined! What store of rich pearls and diamonds are hoarded up in the earth and sea, which shall never see the light! What delicacies of fowls and fishes do both elements afford, which shall never come to the dish! How many great wits are there in the world, which lie willingly concealed; whether out of modesty, or idleness, or lack of a wished opportunity! Improvement gives a true value to all blessings. A penny in the purse is worth many pounds, yea talents, in an unknown mine. That is our good, which doth us good. O God, give thou me grace, to put out my little stock to the public bank; and faithfully to employ those poor faculties thou hast given me, to the advantage of thy Name, and the benefit of thy Church: so, besides the gain of others, my pounds shall be rewarded with cities.

XXI.

LOVE OF LIFE.

WE are all naturally desirous to live; and, though we prize life above all earthly things, yet we are ashamed to profess that we desire it for its own sake; but pretend some other subordinate reason to affect it. One would live to finish his building, or to clear his purchase; another, to breed up his children, and to see them well matched: one would fain outlive his trial at law; another wishes to outwear an emulous corrival: one would fain outlast a lease, that holds him off from his longexpected possessions; another would live to see the times amend, and a re-establishment of a public peace. Thus we, that would be glad to give skin for skin and all things for life, would seem to wish life for any thing but itself. After all this hypocrisy, nature, above all things, would live; and makes life.

the main end of living: but grace has higher thoughts; and, therefore, though it holds life sweet and desirable, yet entertains the love of it upon more excellent, that is, spiritual terms. O God, I have no reason to be weary of this life, which, through thy mercy, long acquaintance hath endeared to me; though sauced with some bitter disgusts of age: but, how unworthy shall I approve myself of so great a blessing, if now I do not more desire to continue it for thy sake, than my own!

XXII.

EQUAL DISTRIBUTION.

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It was a most idle question, which the philosophers are said to have proposed to Barnabas, the colleague of St. Paul: "Why a small gnat should have six legs, and wings beside; whereas the elephant, the greatest of beasts, hath but four legs, and no wings." What pity it is, that those wise masters were not of the counsel of the Almighty, when he was pleased to give a being to his creature! they would surely have devised to make a winged elephant, and a corpulent gnat; a feathered man, and a speaking beast. Vain fools! they had not learned to know and adore that infinite wisdom, wherein all things were made. It is not for that Incomprehensible Majesty and Power, to be accountable to wretched man, for the reasons of his all-wise and mighty creation: yet so hath he contrived it, that there is no part of his great workmanship, whereof even man cannot be able to give an irrefragable reason, why thus framed, not otherwise. What were more easy, than to say, that six legs to that unwieldy body had been cumbersome, and impeditive of motion; that the wings for so massy a bulk had been useless? I admire thee, O God, in all the works of thy hands and justly magnify, not only thine omnipotence, both in the matter and form of their creation; but thy mercy and wisdom, in the equal distribution of all their powers and faculties, which thou hast so ordered, that every creature hath some requisite helps, no creature hath all. The fowls of the air, which are ordained for flight, hast thou furnished with feathers, to bear them up in that light element: the fishes, with smooth scales and fins, for their more easy gliding through those watery regions: the beasts of the field, with such limbs and strong hides, as might fit them for service: as for man, the lord of all the rest, him thou hast endued with reason, to make his use of all these. Whom yet thou hast so framed, as that, in many qualities, thou hast allowed the brute creatures to exceed their master: some of them are stronger than he; some of them swifter than he, and more nimble than he: he were no

Clement. de gestis Petri.

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