Upon the sudden withering of beautiful flowers, i bid
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
the affections ofvainman, yet it is as fuddenlyblastedas the beauty of a flower†.
" How frail is beauty! In how short a time " It fades, like roses, which have past their prime.
" So wrinkled age,the fairest face willplow, " And caftdeep furrows on the smootheftbrow.
" Then where's that lovely tempting face ? Alas !
" Yourselves would blush to view it in a glass."
If then thou delightest in beauty, O my soul! chuse that which is lasting.
There is a beauty which never fades, even the beautyofholiness upon the innerman; this abides fresh and orient for ever, and sparkles gloriously, when thy face (the feat of natural beauty) is become an abhorrent and loathsome spectacle.
Holiness enamels and sprinkles over the face of the soul with a beauty, upon which Christ himself is enamoured ; even imperfect holiness on earth is a rose that breathes sweetly in the bud; in heaven it will be full-blown, and abide in its prime to all eternity.
MEDIT.
VII.
Upon the tenderness of some choice flowers.
OW much care is necessary to preserve the life of some H flowers ! they must beboxed up in the winter, others must be covered with glasses in their springing up, the finest and richest mould must be sifted about the roots, and affiduouflywatered,and all this little enough,and sometimes too litde to preserve them; whilst other common, and worthless flowers, grow without any help of ours : Yea, we have no less todotorid our gardens of them, than we have to make the former grow there.
Thus stands the case with our hearts, in reference to the motions of grace and fin. Holy thoughts of God must be affiduouflywateredbyprayer, earthedup by meditation, and defended by watchfulness ; and yet all this is sometimes too little to preserve them alive in our souls.
Alas ! the heart is a foilthat † Form a bonum fragile eft, quantumque acceditad annos.
Fit minor,etspatio carpitur ipfafuo.
Necfemper violae, necfemper liliaflorent, Et riget amissaspina relicta rosa Tempus erit quo vosspeculum vidissepigebit,
Jamveniunt rugæquæ tibi corpus a rent, &c.
Ovid, deArt, VOL. VI.
Husbandry Spiritualized ; or, agrees not with them, they are tender things, and a smallmat terwillnip and kill them. To this purpose is the complaint of the divine Poet.
Who would have thought a joy focoy To be offendedfo, andgo So suddenly away?
Hereafter I had need take heed.
Joys among other things Have wings, And watch their opportunities of flight, Converting in a moment,day to night.
HERBERT.
But vain thoughts, and unholy suggestions, these spread themselves,and root deep in the heart; they naturally agree with the foil : So that it is almost impossible, at any time, to be rid of them.
It is hard to forget, what is our fin to remember.
MEDIT.
VIII.
Upon the strange means of preserving the life of vegetables.
I Observe that plants and herbs are sometimes killed by frosts, and yet without frosts they would neither live nor thrive : They are sometimes drowned with water, and yet without water they cannot subsist : They are refreshed and cheared by the heat of the fun, and yet that fun sometimes kills and scorches them up.
Thus lives my foul : Troubles and afflictions seem to kill all its comforts ; and yet without these, its comforts could not live. The sun-blasts of prosperity sometimes refresh me, and yet those sun-blasts are the likeliestway to wither me : By what seeming contradictions is the life of my spirit preserved ! what a mystery, what a paradox is the life of a Christian ?
Welcome, my health, this sickness makes me well.
Med'cines adieu.
When with diseases I have lift to dwell, I'll wish for you.
Welcome, my strength, this weakness makes me able.
Powers adieu.
The Heavenly Use of Earthly Things.
When I am weary grown of standing stable, I'llwish for you.
Welcome, my wealth, this loss hath gain'dme more.
Riches adieu.
When I again grow greedy to be poor, I'llwish for you.
Welcome, my credit, this disgrace is glory.
Honours adieu .
When for renown and fame I shall be sorry, :
I'll wish for you.
Welcome content, this sorrow is my joy.
Pleasures adieu.
When I desire such griefs as may annoy, I'll wish for you.
Health, strength, and riches, credit and content, Are spared best sometimes when they are spent.
Sickness and weakness, loss, disgrace and sorrow, Lend most sometimes, when most they seem to borrow.
And if by these contrary and improbable ways the Lordpreferves our souls in life, no marvel then we find such strange and seemingly contradictory motions of our hearts, under the various dealings of God with us, and are still restless, in what condition soever he puts us ; which restless frame was excellently expressed in that pious epigram of the reverend Gataker, made a little before his death.
I thirst for thirstiness, I weep for tears, :
Well pleas'd I am to be displeased thus :
The only thing I fear, is want of fears, Suspecting I am not suspicious.
I cannot chuse but live, because I die ; And when I am not dead,how glad amI ?
Yet when I am thus glad for sense of pain, And careful am, lest I should careless be ;
Then do I grieve forbeingglad again, And fear, left carefulness take care for me.
Amiast these restless thoughts this rest I find, For those that restnothere, there's rest behind.
Jam tetigi portum, valete.
Ff2
[ 228
NAVIGATION
SPIRITUALIZED :
Or, A NEW COMPASS for SEAMEN, Consisting of XXXII. POINTS ; Pleasant OBSERVATIONS, Of Profitable APPLICATIONS, and Serious REFLECTIONS.
All concluded with so many Spiritual POEMS.
What good might seamen get, if once they were But heavenly minded ? If they could but steer
The Christian's course, the soul might then enjay Sweet peace, they might like seas o'erflow withjay.
WereGodour all, how would our comforts double Upon us ! thus the seas of all our trouble
Would be divinely sweet : men should endeavour TofeeGod now, and be with him for ever.
To all Masters, Mariners, and Seamen ; especiallyfuch as belong to the Borough of Clifton, Dartmouth, and Hardness, in the county of Devon.
SIRS, I Find it storied of Anacharsis, that when one asked him whether the living or the dead were more ? He returned this answer, You must first tell me(faith he) in which num
• ber I must place seamen:
Intimating thereby, that seamen are, as it were, a third fort of persons,to be numbered neither with the living nor the dead; their lives hanging continually in suspense before them. And it was ancientlyaccountedthe mostdesperateemployment, and theylittlebetter than loftmen that used the seas.
Through all my life (faithAristotle) three ⚫things do especially repent me:
1. That ever I revealed a secret to a woman.
2. That ever I remained one daywithoutawill.
3. That ever I went to anyplacebysea,whither 1,
The Epistle Dedicatory.
I might have gone by land.'
' Nothing (faith another) is •more miserable, than to fee a virtuous and worthy person upon the sea.'
And although custom, and the great im provementofthe art of navigation, have made it less formidable now, yet are you no further from death than you are from the waters,which is but a remove of two or three inches. Now you that border sonigh upon the confines of death and eternity every moment, maybe well supposed to be menoffingular pietyand scriousness: For nothing more composes the heart to such a frame, than the livelyapprehenfions of eternity do; and none have greater external advantages for that, than you have.
But, alas ! for the generality,what fort of men are more ungodly, and stupidly insensible of eternal concernments ? living, for the most part, as if they had made a covenant with death, and with hell were at agreement.
It was an ancient saying, Quinefcit or are, difcat navigare, He that knows not how to pray,lethimgoto sea. Butwemaysaynow,(alas ! that we may say so in times of greater light) hethatwouldlearn tobeproe fane, to drink and swear, and dishonourGod,let him go to sea.
As for prayer, it is a rarethingamong seamen, they count that a needless business: they fee the profane and vile delivered as well as others ; and therefore, what profit is there if they pray unto him ? Mal. iii. 4.
As I remember, I have read of aprofanefoldier,who was heard swearing, though he stood in a place ofgreatdanger; and when one that stood byhimwarned him, saying, Fellow-soldier, do not fswear, the bullets fly ;' he answered,
They that swear come off as well as they that pray."
Soon after a shot hit him,and down he fell.
Platodiligently admonished all men to avoid the sea; For (faith he) it is the • schoolmaster of all vice and dishonesty.' Sirs ! it is a very fad confiderationtome,that you who float upon the great deeps, in whose bottom so many thousand poor miserable creatures lie, whose fins have funk them down, not only into the bottom of the sea,but of hell also, whither divine vengeance hath purfuedthem: That you, I say,who daily float, and hoveroverthem, and have the roaring waves and billows that swallowed them up, gaping for you as the next prey, should be no more affect edwith these things. Oh what a terrible voice doth God utter in the storms ! " It breaks the cedars, shakes the wilder- " ness, makes the hinds tocalve," Psal. xxix. 5. And can it not shake your hearts ? This voice of the Lord is full of majesty,but his voice in the word is more efficacious and powerful, Heb. iv. 12. to convince and rip up the heart.
This word is exalted above all his name, Psalm cxxxviii. 3. and if
The Epistle Dedicatory. itcannotawakenyou, it is no wonder you remain secure and dead, when the Lord utters his voice in the most dreadful storms and tempests.
But if neither the voice of God uttered inhisdreadfulworks, or in his glorious gospel, can effectually awaken and rouze, there is an Euroclydon, a fearful storm coming, which will so awaken your fouls, as that they shall never sleep any more, Psal. xi. 6. " Upon the wicked he shall
" rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest :
" This is the portion of their cup."
You that have been at sea in the most violent storms, never felt such a storm as this, and the Lord grant you never may ; no calm small follow this storm.
There are some among you, that, I am persuaded, do truly fear thatGodinwhosehandtheir life and breath is ; men that fear an oath, and are anhonour to their profession ; who drive a tradeforheaven, and are diligent to securethehappiness of their immortal souls,in the insurance-office above;but for the generality, alas ! theymindnone of these things. How many of you are coasting to and fro, from one country to another ?
But never think of that heavenly country above, nor how you maygetthemerchandize thereof, which is better than the gold ofOphir.
How oft do you tremble to fee the foaming waves dance about you, and wash over you ? Yet confider not how terrible it will be to have all the waves andbillows of God's wrath to go over your fouls, and that for ever. How glad are you after you have been long tossed upon the ocean, todescry land ? And how yare and eagerly do you look out for it, who yet never had your hearts warmed with the consideration of that joy which shall be among the faints, when they arrive at the heavenly Arand, and set foot upon the shore of glory.
O Sirs ! I beg of you, if you have any regard to those precious,immortal souls of yours,which are alsoimbarked for eternity, whither all winds blow them, and will quickly be at their portofheavenor hell,that you will seriously mind these things, and learn to steer your course to heaven, and improve all winds
(I mean opportunities and means) to waft you thither.
Here you venture life and liberty, run through many difficulties and dangers, and all to compass aperishing treasure; yet how often do you return disappointed in your design ? Or if not, yet it is but a fading short-lived inheritance, which like the flowing tide, for a while, covers the shore, and then returns, and leaves it naked and dry again : and are not everlasting treasures worth venturing for ? Goodfouls be wife for eternity: I here present you with the fruit of a few spare hours, redeemed for your fakes, from my other studies and employ
The Epistle Dedicatory.
ments, which I have put into a new dress and mode.
I have endeavoured to cloath spiritual matters in your own dialect and phrases, that they might be the more intelligible to you ; and added some pious poems, with which the several chapters are concluded, trying by all means to assault your several affections, and as the apostle speaks, "to catch you with guile."
I can fay nothing of it; I know it cannot be without its manifold imperfections, since I am conscious of so many in myself; only this I will adventuretosayofit,that how defective or empty soever it be in other respects, yet it is stuffed and filled with much true love to,and earnest desires after the salvation and prosperity of your souls. And for the other defects that attend it, I have only two things to offer, in way of excuse ; it is the first essay that I ever made in this kind,wherein I find no precedent : and it was hastned for your fakes,toofoon out of my hands, that it might be ready to wait upon you, when you undertake your
! next voyage: so that I could not revise and polish it. Nor indeed was I folicitous about the stile; I confider, I write not for critical and learned persons; my design is not to please your fancies any further,than I might thereby get advantage to profit your souls. I will not once question your welcome reception of it : if God thall bless these meditations to the conversionofany among you, you will be the gainers, and my heart shall rejoice, even mine. How comfortably should we shake hands with you,when you go abroad, were we persuaded yourfoulswere interested in Christ,and secured from perishing, in the new covenant ? What life would it put intoourprayers for you, when you are abroad, to confider that Jesus Christ is interceding for you in heaven,whilst we are your remembrancershereonearth ? How quiet would our hearts be, when you are abroad in storms, did we know you had a special interest in him whom winds and seas obey ? To conclude, what joy would it be to your godly relations, to see you return new creatures ?
Doubtless more than if you came home laden with the riches of both Indies.
Come, Sirs ! set the heavenlyJerufalem upon the point of your new compass ; make all the fail you can for it ; and the
Lord give you a prosperous gale, and a safe arrival in that land ofreft.
So prays Your most affectionate friend to serve you in foul concernments,
JOHN FLAVEI