SOME SHORT

MEDITATIONS, &c.

THE

"HERE is nothing in the word of God, none of the revelations be has thought fit to make mankind, that does not well deferve each one's frequent confideration. And therefore it were eafy to furnish out a large catalogue of particulars, as fome bave done, not only for every month, or week, but for every day in the year. But, not being willing to burden the fick man with too great a number of fubjects for bis ferious thoughts, at a feafon when bis faculties, perhaps, are much impaired, or, at least, fo taken up with his fickness, that he can think on little elfe for any time together, I have therefore chofen to mention only a few, leaving him either to inlarge upon them in his meditations, or to add to them, if he find himself able, and fball fee occafion for it.

I.

On the Vanity, Infufficiency, and Tranfitoriness of all Earthly Enjoyments.

Eafily fee, that thofe temporal enjoyments are great bleffings, when all things elfe concur to promote our welfare, and we are mindful to make fuch use of them, as that they may not obftruct, but help forward, our eternal falvation; when God gives them in mercy, and the poffeffor ufes them with caution, gratitude, B b

and

and charity, to the Donor's glory, and the supply of his own and others neceffities; not in luxury or extravagance, to gratify his own lufts, or oppress his meaner neighbours; and whilst he fuffers not the love of them to make him in any wife regardless of his duty at present, or of another life hereafter: which if they at any time do, they are fore judgments, and to be looked upon as such, and there is no cause to rejoice in the attainment, or other poffeffion, of them. In this cafe it may be faid of them, as of the strange woman in the (a) Proverbs, They have caft down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been flain by them. Their boufe, the place where they are to be had, is the way to bell, going down to the chambers of death.

But, fetting afide this moft, weighty confideration, and looking upon them only as they are in themselves, and with regard only to this prefent life, and the conveniencies of it, they by no means deserve to be made the chief end of any man's studies and endeavours; but especially not of a Chriftian's, who has infinitely more defirable rewards offered him, if he will but be perfuaded diligently to feek after them. Such an one fhould never fuffer himself to fet his affections upon what perhaps he has no need of, or, it may be, will ferve but to increase his cares,

For, alas! all the privileges and poffeffions of this world are, even in their moft gaudy appearances, and with their greatest advantages, but, as (b) Hipparchus the Pythagorean pronounces concerning them, asala ný ábécαia, fading and unftable, tranfitory and very uncertain. For, fuppofing a man not to miscarry in his purfuit after them, as thousands continually do, but to fucceed in his attempts, and obtain his fill of all that he can defire; yet, after all, it is daily seen, that those who are most fortunate in this respect, do not always enjoy themfelves moft. Let them have ever fo large a portion of wealth, honour, or power,

(a) Prov. vii. 26, 27. (b) Galei Fragm. Pythag. p. 12.

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they do not fleep the better for it, but perhaps the worfe; nor are their bodies the lefs obnoxious to diseases, but, it may be, the more; nor their minds freer from troubles and vexations.

Or, did ever fo great fatisfaction arife from these temporal good things, yet muft this neceffarily be of fhort duration; at moft but for this uncertain life, poffibly but for a very little part of it. (c) He that to-day ftruts in his gorgeous attire, looks big, lives high, and glories most in his peculiar happinefs above his neighbours, knows not yet to what an ebb the morrow may reduce him, and how much more miserable he may come to be, than those whom he most despises. How many have I myself known, and how many more have I heard or read of, who have been fuddenly cut off in the midst of their mirth and jollity, and, when defigning to inlarge their treafuries, and to folace themselves with the beloved fruits of their labours, have been unexpectedly stripped of their dearest enjoyments, being prefently impoverished by fire, by water, by tempefts, by loffes abroad, or by treachery at home, by their own imprudence, or ill management of their affairs, or by a fecret curse of God going along with what either their ancestors, or themselves, had unjustly gotten! And have I not feen or heard of others, whom an indifpofition of body, or uneafinefs of mind; a diforder'd understanding, or a guilty confcience; the enmity of others, or their own ungovernable avarice or ambition; a luftful manner of life, or a certain peevishness of temper, or some other the like unhappy caufe, has made miferable in the midft of the greatest plenty? Riches and fatisfaction do not always dwell together. But, had I ever fo copious an affluence of the one, it were no impoffibility for me to want the other; and fo to be ftill unhappy to a great degree.

(c) Unufque Titan vidit, atque unus dies Stantem & cadentem. Sen. Herc. Oet. v. 423.

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Or,

Or, again, if I could fuppofe myself, which is not reasonably to be fuppofed, could I fuppofe myself, I fay, to have all the fatisfaction I could defire from thefe worldly advantages, yet am I to remember, that it is only in this world that I can hope for the enjoyment of them. When Lucian fancies, that (d) Menippus must first lay aside his staff and pouch, Charmoleus his beauty, Lampichus his robes and diadem, Damafius his crowns, Crato his dignities, the philofopher his beard, and the rhetorician his eloquence, before Charon would admit them into his boat, he does but ingeniously describe the wretched ftate of those who have nothing better than these fading enjoyments to trust to at their death; inasmuch as whatever their poffeffions be here, they must be fure to leave them all behind them. They can (e) carry nothing away with them when they die; neither shall their pomp follow them. The greatest prince, the most honourable potentate, shall have no advantage in the other world above the meanest peasant; but every one shall there be rewarded according to his doings in this life, not according to what he had poffeffed in it. He will then find himfelf stripped of all he had most valued himself upon here. And, in the mean time, it is easy to observe, how all his earthly enjoyments are both uncertain and unfatisfactory, and fo can never make him truly happy; and by confequence he must have made a very dear bargain for himself, tho' he had (f) gained the whole world, if at last be lose bis immortal soul by it.

And if the whole world, with all its advantages, were too mean a price for a foul, how can I be fo ftupidly in love with it, as to forfeit my foul, and ruin myfelf to all eternity, for fo inconfiderable an inte reft in it, as I can ever hope will fall to my fhare? What an unaccountable folly and madnefs is this! And how can I poffibly find in my heart to enflave myself to what must by this means prove my inevitable deftruc(d) Char.. & Merc. inter Mortuorum Dialogos. (e) Pfal, xlix. 17. (f) Matth. xvi. 26.