\ifi
uft
''
SS'
PRECIOUS STONES.
ALL endeavours aspire to eminency : all eminencies do beget an
admiration. And this makes me believe that contemplative
admiration is a large part of the worship of the Deity. Nothing
can carry us so near to God and heaven as this. The mind can
walk beyond the sight of the eye ; and (though in a cloud) can lift
us into heaven while we live. Meditation is the soul's perspective
glass : whereby, in her long remove, she discerneth God, as if He
were nearer hand. I persuade no man to make it his whole life's
business. We have bodies, as well as souls. And even this world,
while we are in it, ought somewhat to be cared for : contemplation
generates : action propogates. St. Bernard compares contemplation
to Rachael, which was the more fair; but action to Leah, which
was the more fruitful. I will neither always be busy and doing,
nor ever shut up in nothing but thoughts. Yet, that which some
would call idleness, I will call the sweetest part of my life : and
that is my thinking. (Owen Feltham's Resolves, p. 32.)
PRECIOUS STONES:
t0 Mlettion,
PROSE WRITERS OF THE SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH,
AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
COLLECTED BY THE
REV. ROBERT ARIS WILLMOTT,
1SCUMBEXT OF BEARWOOD, BERKS J
AUTHOR OF "JEREMY TAYLOR, A BIOGRAPHY."
LONDON:
THOMAS BOSWORTH, 215 REGENT STREET.
MDCCCLILT.
38nnuni
CURATE OF CHERTSEY, ,
THESE PRECIOUS STONES
ARE INSCRIBED BY HIS FRIEND,
K. A. WILLMOTT.
INTRODUCTION.
IT is believed that the following pages
contain some of the costliest thoughts in
our English Prose. They are the fruit
of independent reading, and the Collec-
tor has generally added distinct and
minute references ; but in a few places
they have been accidentally left im-
perfect. He would gladly have ga-
thered larger clusters from the abundant
orchards of the seventeenth century :
the flavour of these may turn eyes to
the tree. Several of the writers are not
commonly known, or read, as Henry
Smith, Archbishop Williams, Digges,
VI INTRODUCTION.
Farindon, Swinnocke, C. Ellis, Bishop
Reynolds, Sibbes, Henry More, and
others. The essays of Jeremy Collier
are recommended with particular em-
phasis. He was the antagonist, and in
his masculine eloquence may claim the
glory of being the rival, of Dry den. The
short specimens in this volume will serve
to show the resemblance in vigour of
thought, dignity of utterance, and music
of composition. We . find Johnson, in
1778, contrasting the smooth elegance
of Jortin, Sherlock, Smalridge, and
Ogden, with the inharmonious periods
of "a hundred years ago." But this
was a fallacy, like "Waller's tuning of
our language, after Spenser. The wri-
ters of the seventeenth century are.
almost constantly melodious in the con-
struction of sentences. They give the
various swell of the organ, instead of the
INTRODUCTION. Vll
sweet but ever-recurring monotones of
the flute. Davenant's preface to Gondi-
bert flows in the majesty of rhythm.
The most hasty observation discovers
two distinctive features in the prose style
of the seventeenth century. (1.) It is ex-
exceedingly rich, and ornamented with
every hue of image, and turn of expres-
sion ; but the glancing lights of imagina-
tion shoot out of the subject and form a
part of it. They are shadows arising from
the dye of the garment ; not patches of
embroidery sewed upon the stuff. (2.) Its
gorgeousness is very seldom effeminate.
The greatest preachers and authors of
the period between Elizabeth and the
second Charles, like their Master of An-
tioch, wore purple over armour. The
controversial sword cut through the folds
of a decorated and learned fancy, only
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
to be blunted on the impenetrable argu-
ment beneath it.
No classification of subjects has been
attempted, or desired. A warning, or a
consolation, is most effective when it
steals upon us by surprise. A man, who
is disposed to be angry, does not look
out for admonitions under the head of
good temper ; but the sudden confront-
ing of such a suggestion as Shenstone's
(p. 251), may startle. him into reflec-
tion. The absence of regular arrange-
ment is, therefore, intentional. Few
themes, however, of religious, or moral
interest, are left without illustration.
The design of the book is suggestive
to lead to meditation, and to furnish food
for it. Each passage is a text for the
reader to enlarge and apply. He is to
be his own preacher, and speak homilies
INTRODUCTION. IX
to his conscience. Our elder theological
literature is happily adapted for this
self-improvement. The seminal princi-
ple of reproduction is active in most
contributions of that epoch. In the
words of Lord Bacon,* " They generate
still, and cast their seeds in the minds of
others, provoking and causing infinite
actions and opinions in succeeding ages."
These " Precious Stones " will not alto-
gether disappoint the Collector, if by
their shining they happen to guide en-
quiring spirits, and especially the young,
into those fields where pearls of great
price may be sought after and found.
Mr. Coleridge said that a clergyman, in
full Orders, who had not read the works
of Bull and Waterland, has a duty yet
to perform.
* " Advancement of Learning," b. i.
X INTBODUCTION.
It is not to be supposed that every
writer in these pages is recommended to
study and admiration. In certain tracts
of country, unhealthiness of atmosphere
warns the visitor against searching for
jewels or gold. A remark of the Bishop
of Oxford * affords a necessary caution.
These aids to reflection "are not intended
to direct the reader to the other writings
of all the authors, but to be complete in
themselves to serve as key-notes for
thought and meditation." Perhaps the
book offers something of interest even to
erudite explorers. The scholar may
meet with a wise definition, a sublime
metaphor, or a touching appeal, which
had escaped his notice in the old folio.
Nor will familiar passages be without a
charm. They resemble leaves of flowers
* Biographical Sketch prefixed to " Comfort for
the Afflicted," p. 6.
INTRODUCTION. XI
preserved in an herbarium. Each sepa-
rated thought recalls the intellectual
garden from which it was gathered ; and
enables the student to bring before that
" inward eye, which makes the bliss of
solitude," the whole landscape of illumi-
nated learning and wisdom, as it lay
spreading abroad its unbroken beauty
and colours, to the Divine, or the Moralist,
in the solemn stillness and rapture of
composition ; just as one leaf of a flower,
though dry and faded, often causes to
reappear the sunny border in which it
grew, and all the little affecting circum-
stances connected with its culture, and
with the friends who loved it, and are
with us no longer.
St. Catherine's, Jan. 31, 1850.
CONTEXTS.
Eeligious Houses (LATIJCER) pas 6 ^
Transubstantiation Bejected (CRAXMER) 2
The Authority of the Scriptures and the Church
(HOOPEB) 4
Unwritten Tradition not to be followed (SANDYS)... 5
The Power of the Keys (BECOX) 7
Eeformation not Destruction (JEWELL) 8
Christian Fervour in the Cause of God (Ibid.) 9
The Agency of Man in Propagating the Gospel (Ibid.) 9
The Obedience of Christ (BILSON) 11
The Sinner's Destiny (SMITH) 12
Hypocrisy (Ibid.) IS
The Christian's Service (Ibid.) 13
The Certainty of Future Punishment (Ibid.) 14
Eeligious Knowledge (Ibid.) 14
The Euin of a Soul Forsaken by God (Ibid.) 15
Two Consciences (Ibid.) 16
Legislation to be adapted to National Character
(SPEKSEK) 18
Faith in Christ an Incentive to Self-exertion
(HOOKER) 19
Against Sudden Death_(/&irf.) - 20
The Sacredness of Poetry (SIDNEY) 22
Of Wisdom for a Man's Self (BACOS) 23
XVI CONTENTS.
A Thought on Ash- Wednesday (ANDREWS) 24
Mercy and Judgment (DONNE) page 25
Eomance and Eeality of Life (Ibid.) , 25
The Inherent Sanctity of Law (Ibid.) 26
Human Life (Ibid.) 27
The Eternal Happiness of the Eighteous (Ibid.) ... 27
The Voices of God to Man (Ibid.) 27
Against Praying to Saints (HALL) 30
The Christian in Society, Instructed by Christ
(Ibid.) 31
Spiritual Crucifixion (Ibid.) 32
Looking to Jesus (Ibid.) 33
De Piis et Probis (JONSON) 33
Ingenia (Ibid.) 34
Elegantia (Ibid.) 34
The Mystic Union of Christ and the Believer
(USHER) 35
Effectual Calling (Ibid.) 35
Suffering made the Instrument of our Sanctification
(Ibid.) 36
A Noble Spirit (OVERBURY) 37
The School of Sorrow -(WILLIAMS) 39
True Nature of Law (DIGGES) 39
Expediency Denned (SANDERSON) 40
A Thought for Christmas (H ACKET) 41
The Grief of Jesus upon the Cross (FARINDON) 43
The Redesmer's Agony (Ibid.) 44
Mental Satisfaction (REYNOLDS) 47
Varieties of Grief- (Ibid) 48
Thoughts in Spare Minutes (WARWICK) 49
How to make the Heart a Temple for Christ
(CHILLINGWORTH) 50
Momentary Sensations of Remorse (Ibid.) 51
Ordinances Ineffectual (Ibid.) 51
CONTENTS. XV11
Resurrection of the Sinner (fbid) page 52
Recollection and Forgetfulness (BROWNE) 53
Growth of Grace (HAMMOND) 54
A True Friend Sketched (HABINGTON) 55
The Moral of an Hour-glass (FULLER) 56
The Reformation (MILTON) 57
The Inward Reverence of a Man towards his own
Person (Ibid.) 58
The False Enjoyments of the World (TAYLOR) 60
Prayer and Anger (Ibid.) 62
The Last Judgment (Ibid.) 63
Sobriety of Religious Feelings (Ibid.) 65
Against Deferred Repentance (Ibid.) 66
The Catechism (NICHOLSON) 68
Mutual Dependence Inculcated (LEIGHTON) 70
The Conflagration of the "World argued from the
Power of Christ (MORE) 71
The Harmony of Providence (WILKINS) 72
God, All in All (BAXTER) 73
Loving Christ (Ibid.) 74
Zeal (CUDWORTH) . 75
Holiness never forsaken by God (Ibid.) 75
True Reputation-(CowLEz) 77
The Good Man in a Crowd (Ibid.) 77
Not Chance but Providence (Ibid.) 78
Mechanical Christians (SMITH) 79
The Divine Nature of the Human Soul (Ibid.) 80
The Sacred Moral of Nature (Ibid.) 80
Regard the End (PATRICK) 80
Heart's Ease taught by Nature (Ibid.) 81
Reparation Essential to Repentance (KIDDER) 82
The Fallen Condition of Man (HOWE) 83
Philosophic Serenity (FLECKNOE) 85
The Ancient Saints and Heroes Contrasted-(BABROw) 86
XV111 CONTENTS.
Resurrection of Christ (Ibid.) page 89
Goodness alone Kespected (Ibid.) 90
Against Rash Judgment (/bid.) 91
Man as Created in the Image of God his Under-
standing (SOUTH) 93
Parallel between Daniel and St. John (KKK) 94
Companionship (FELTHAM) 96
Against Great Eagerness (Ibid.) 96
Asking and Denying (Ibid.) 96
How to Ascend (SUTTON) 98
The Scriptures proved to be Divine (LAUD) 99
A Bruised Eeed and Smoking Flax (SIBBZS) 102
The Temptations of the Saviour Distinguished from
His Disciples' (Ibid.) 103
Jesus Christ, as Prophet, Priest, and King (Ibid.) 105
Faith, how Manifested (Ibid.) 109
Trust in God (Ibid.) 110
The Method of Trusting in God (Ibid.) Ill
Patience, the Strength of Genius (JACKSON) 112
Measure of Things (SELDEN) 113
Feel for All (HALES) 114
God's Presence in Sacred Places (MEDE) 116
The Reformed Church (Ibid.) 119
The Calendar of the Church (Cosra) 121
Against Sloth (QUAKLES) 125
The Worldly Man's Talk with Himself (Ibid.) 1 24
The Censorious Man Warned (/fcid) 125
The Pestilence and its Terrors (Ibid.) 1 26
A Gradual Change of Character the most Lasting
(Ibid.) ISO
The Keligious Man a Judge of Himself (HERBERT) . 130
Death a Bringer of Kepose (HILL) 132
Bible Mysteries Man's Checks (LIGHTFOOT) 134
Aphorisms (WHICHCOT) 136
CONTENTS. XIX
God's Foreknowledge and Man's Salvation (Gooo-
XAX) page 137
Presumptuous Professors (Ibid.) 139
Lip-talk and Heart-talk about Keligion (/fad.) 140
Our Saviour's Example within Doors (Ibid.) 141
Disputers about Religion (Ibid.) 143
No House without Care (ROGERS) 144
Grace and Free Will (PLAIFERE) 145
The Communion of Saints (PEARSON) 147
Good Works, What they Are, and Why Required
(HALE) 150
A Christian Parent's Resignation (EVELYN) 152
A Thought upon the Bible (BOYLE) 153
Great Evil and Danger of little Sins (HOPKINS) 153
Working out our Salvation (Ibid.) 160
The Regard of the Saints in Heaven (Ibid.) 164
Conscience (Ibid.) 164
Daily Confession of Sin (Ibid.) 165
The Good Man's Treasure (Ibid.) 165
Grief, Sin's Legacy (Ibid.) 166
The Good Man's Light and Shade (Ibid.) 167
The Throne of Grace (Ibid.) 168
How to use out Transgressions (Ibid.) 169
The Thorn before the Flower (BROWNING) 169
Submission to God the Soul's Way to Light and
Peace (WORTHINGTON) 170
The Strong Man Plundered (G. SWINNOCKE) 176
Bright City seen by Faith (Ibid.) 177
The Difficult and Harrow Way to Heaven (Ibid.) . . 178
The Middle State of the Soul after Death (BULL) . 179
Of Angels (Ibid.) 180
Of Angels Ministering (Ibid.) 181
The Office of Holy Angels towards the Faithful
(Ibid.) 182
XX CONTENTS.
Of Angels as our Guardians (Ibid.) page 184
The Angels' Oversight the Christian's Admonition
(Ibid.) 189
The Glory and Sorrow of Literature (DATENAST) . 189
The Influence of the Pu\pii(Ibid.) 191
Difficulties of Checking Crime by Legislation
(Ibid.) .-. 192
Education of the People (Ibid.) 193
"Wit regarded as an Exponent of Mental Power
(Ibid.) 194
God everywhere (CHAKKOCK) 195
The Believer's Share in his Lord's Glory (Ibid.) ... l?o
The True Gentleman (ELLIS) 201
Against Making Yows (STILLTNGFLEET) 202
The Sun of Righteousness (BEVERIDGE) 204
Helps against Committing Sin (HOBNECK) 205
God's All seeing Eye (BUBXET) 207
True Courage (COLLIER) ...: 208
Of Loneliness and Retirement (Ibid.) 210
The Face, an Index (Ibid.) 211
Better Wear out, than Rust out (Ibid.) 212
Of General Kindness (Ibid.) 213
Against Hero-Worship (Ibid.) 215
Time-Serving (Ibid.) 217
Entertainment of Books (Ibid.) 217
Of Liberty (Ibid.) 218
Melancholy frequently the Result of Pride (Ibid.) . 219
Of Eagerness of Desire (Ib id.) 219
Human Life : its Sufferings and Hopes ( WOLLASTON) 220
Consistency of Prayer with Divine Immutability
(Ibid.) 222
A Prayer for Peace of Mind and Comfort (KETTLE-
WELL) 223
Ifot to Return Evil for Evil (Noasis) 225
CONTENTS. XXI
A Thought upon Tombs (MATTHEW HEJTRY) ...page 226
Family Prayer (Ibid.) 226
Good Intentions and Good Works (SMALRIDGE) ... 227
An Atheistical Conjecture Illustrated (BEKTLEY) ... 229
A Moonlight Walk Improved (ADDISOIT) 230
The Eeality of our Lord's Body after His Kesurrec-
tion (SHERLOCK) 232
The Conversion of an Unbeliever shown in a Simile
(BERKELEY) 235
Intellectual Development (Ibid.) 236
Our own Knowledge no Measure of Probability
(Ibid.) 236
World above World (Ibid.) 238
Approbation and Dislike caused by Association of
Ideas (HUTCHESON) 240
Blasphemous Doctrines of Infidelity (WARBURTON) 241
Pride and Vanity Distinguished (Ibid) 242
The Moral of an Earthquake (Ibid.) 242
Heart Husbandry (JORTIH) 243
Xot to have Fellowship with Unrighteousness
(BATES) 244
Spiritual Knowledge, a Living Power (Ibid.) 244
Changes of the Earth's Surface a Picture
(SHAFTESBURT) 245
Eenewal of the Mind after Baptism (WATERLAHD) . 247
Kegeneration Explained (RIDLEY) 248
Admonitory Thoughts (SHENSTONE) 251
The Moral of a Microscope (HERVEY) 252
The Holy Communion, what it is (BRETT) 253
Sacramental Bread and Wine (COMBER) 257
The Christian's Victory over Misfortunes (JoHH-
BON the Whig) 258
Heresy not without its Uses (LESLIE) 259
Transforming Power of the Gospel (DOEDRIDGE) ... 261
XX11 CONTENTS.
Acknowledge a Fault (SEED) page 261
Domestic Love and Union Enforced (Ibid.) 262
Wisdom should be sought Early (Ibid.} 262
Against Calumny (OGDEN) 263
Good Effects of Conversation (NEWTON) 264
False Ideas of Prophecy (Huiu>) 265
The Mystery of Prophecy not Unreasonable (Ibid.) 267
Good Temper, a Characteristic of Christians (BLAIR) 268
Observation of Scenery a Help to Prophetic Inter-
pretation (GILPIN) 270
The World a Machine in God's Hand (WATSON) ... 272
Figurative Language of Holy Scripture Explained
(JONES) 273
Religious Use of Excited Feelings (ADAMS) 274
On the Disposal of Property (SKRLE) 275
Time Spent in Religious Exercises never Lost
(ROBERT HALL) 277
True Excellence always a Conqueror (Ibid.) 277
Against Excessive Love of Novel Reading (Ibid.)... 278
Doing, not Feeling, the Measure of Piety (Ibid.) 279
Always look Upward (COLERIDGE) 280
Power of Bad Habit (FOSTER) 281
Spring and its Moral Analogies (Ibid.) 281
A Summer Thought (Ibid.) 282
Autumn Warnings (Ibid.) 282
Winter (Ibid.) 283
Postscript 285
PRECIOUS STONES.
BISHOP LATIMER.
Religious Houses. [LATIMER, born 1470,
died 1555.] It is a common speech among
the people, and much used, that they say all
religious houses are pulled down ; which is a
very peevish saying, and not true, for they are
not pulled down. That man and that woman
that live together godly and quietly, doing
the works of their vocation and fear God,
hear His word and keep it : that same is a
religious house that is the house that pleas-
eth God. For religion, pure religion, I say,
standeth not in wearing of a monk's cowl,
but in righteousness, justice, and well-doings;
and, as St. James saith, in visiting the
widows that lack their husbands orphans
that lack their parents to help them when
B
PEECffOTTS STONES.
they be poor to speak for them when they
be oppressed ; herein standeth true religion.
(Sermons, p. 152 ; 1584.)
ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
Transubstantiation Rejected. [CRANMER,
born 1489, died 1555.] Was there ever any
man so destitute of reason but that he under-
standeth this, that when bread is called bread,
it is called by the proper name, as it is in deed ;
and when bread is called the body of Christ,
it taketh the name of a thing which is not
in deed, but is so called by a figurative speech.
And "calling," say you, in the words of
Christ, signifieth " making," which, if it sig-
nified when bread is called bread, then were
calling of bread a making of bread : and thus
is answered your demand, why this word "call"
in the one signifieth the truth, and in the
other not, because that the one is a plain
speech, and the other a figurative. For else,
by your reasoning out of reason, when the
cup which Christ used in His last supper
PRECIOUS STONES. 3
was called a cup, and when it was called
Christ's blood, all was one calling, and was of
like truth without figure ; so that the cup was
Christ's blood in deed. And, likewise, when
the stone that flowed out water was called a
stone, and when it was called Christ ; and the
ark, also, when it was called the ark, and
when it was called God : all these must be
one speech and of like truth, if it be true
which you here say. But as the ark was an
ark, the stone a stone, and bread very bread,
and the cup a cup, plainly, without figurative
speech ; so, when they be called God, Christ,
the body and blood of Christ, this cannot be
a like calling, but must needs be understood
by a figurative speech. For as Christ, in the
Scripture, is called a lamb for His innocency
and meekness, a lion for His might and
power, a door and way whereby we enter into
His Father's house, wheat and corn for the
property of dying before they rise up and
bring increase; so is He called bread, and
bread is called His body, and wine His blood,
for the property of feeding and nourishing ;
so that these, and all like speeches, whereas
B 2
4 PRECIOUS STONES.
one substance is called by the name of another
substance diverse and distinct in nature, must
needs be understood figuratively by some si-
militude or property of one substance unto
another, and can in nowise be understood
properly and plainly without a figure. And,
therefore, when Christ is called the Son of
God, or bread is called bread, it is a most
plain and proper speech ; but when Christ is
called bread, or bread is called Christ, these
can in nowise be formal and proper speeches,
the substances and natures of them being so
diverse, but must needs have an understand-
ing in figure, signification, or similitude (as
the very nature of all sacraments require), as
all the old writers so plainly teach. (Answer
to Gardyner : Works of Cranmer by Jenkins.,
iii. 285.)
BISHOP HOOPER.
The Authority of the Scriptures and the
Church. [HOOPER, born 1495, died 1555.]
I had rather follow the shadow of Christ than
the body of all the general councils and doc?
PRECIOUS STONES. 5
tors since the death of Christ. Unto the
rules and canons of the Scripture must man
trust and reform his errors thereby, or else he
shall not reform himself, but rather deform
his conscience. The Church of the Romans,
Corinthians, and others the seven Churches
that John writeth of in the Apocalypse were
in all things reformed unto the rule and form
prescribed by the everlasting God. The
images of these Churches I always print in my
mind. (The Office and Character of Christ.)
ARCHBISHOP SANDYS.
Unwritten Tradition not to be followed.
[SANDYS, born 1519, died 1588.] If God have
committed His laws, moral, civil, ceremonial,
evangelical, and historical also, unto writing,
there should we seek for the statutes of the
Almighty ; but in His written word the ancients
of the house of God knew no fountain of His
truth but this : they never enquired what had
been whispered in men's ears : that which they
6 PRECIOUS STONES.
believed and taught, they read it out of The
Book. In the history of Joshua it is recorded
how he did assemble the tribes, elders, heads,
judges, and officers of Israel together, shewing
them what God had spoken unto them by
Moses, but uttering unto them no speech which
was not written. Josias, with all the men of
Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the priests, prophets, and all the people small
and great, made a covenant before the Lord,
to keep His commandments, and His testi-
monies, and His statutes, with all their heart
and with all their soul. But what statutes ?
What testimonies ? " The words of the cove-
nant written in this book." Christ speaketh
many things, His apostles many things, con-
cerning the doctrine of the prophets : but no
one point of doctrine which is not found in
their books and writings. The prophet Isaiah
crieth, " To the law and to the testimony."
Consider the practice of Jesus Christ: His
proofs are " It is written." His demands are
"How dost thou read?" His apologies
are " Search the Scriptures, they bear me
record." His apostles tread in the same path :
PRECIOUS STONES.
they go not the breadth of an hair, not a whit,
from that which is written. ( Tracts of the
Anglican Fathers. T. 11. p. 291.)
THOMAS BECOtf.
The Power of the Keys.{BECQX, died 1570,
Chaplain to Cranmer.] This preaching of
remitting or retaining sins are the keys of the
kingdom of Heaven, which Christ promised
His apostles before His death, as we may see
in St. Matthew; and after His resurrection
performed His promise, as we read in the
Gospel of St. John; and by a metaphor, Christ
called the preaching of His word a key ; for,
as a key hath two properties, one to shut,
another to open, so hath the word of God. It
openeth to the faithful the treasure of the gifts
of God grace, mercy, favour, remission of
sins, quietness of conscience, and everlasting
life ; but to the unfaithful it shutteth all its
treasures, and suffereth them to receive none
of them all, so long as they persist and remain
in their incredulity and unfaithfulness. These
8 PRECIOUS STONES.
keys are given to so many as, being truly
called unto the office of ministration, preach
the word of God. They loosen, that is to say,
they preach to the faithful remission of sins
by Christ ; they also bind, that is, they declare
to the unfaithful damnation. (The Castle of
Comfort.')
BISHOP JEWELL.
Reformation not Destruction. [JEWELL,
born 1522, died 1571.] In religion no part
is to be called " little." A hair is but little,
yet it hath a shadow. I speak not this, be-
cause I think nothing at all may be left to
any special purpose ; for even in Jericho,
where was made a general destruction, God
Himself commanded that all silver and gold,
and vessels of brass and iron, should be saved,
and not saved only, but be brought into the
Lord's treasury. Howbeit, the things that
may be reserved mut not be dust, or chaff,
or hay, or stubble ; but gold and silver, and
iron and brass I mean they may not be
PRECIOUS STONES. 9
things meet to famish and maintain supersti-
tion, but such things as be strong, and may
serve either directly to serve God, or else for
comeliness and good order. Such things may
be reserved, notwithstanding they come out of
the spoil of Jericho. (Sermons : Joshua vi.)
Christian Fervour in the Cause of God.
The true and godly zeal proceedeth not from
hypocrisy or intention, but is led and trained
by understanding, and is molten into the
heart, and the vehemency and heat of it no
man knoweth but he that feeleth it. It taketh
away the use of reason : it eateth and devour-
eth up the heart even as the thing that is
eaten is turned into the substance of him that
eateth it ; and as iron, while it is burning hot,
is turned into the nature of the fire, so great
and so just is the grief that they which have
this zeal conceive when they see God's house
spoiled, or His holy name dishonoured.
(Psalm Ixix. 9.)
The Agency of Man in Propagating the
Gospel. I speak not against all civil and
10 PRECIOUS STONES.
honest lawful policy ; for I know it is the gift
of God, without the which no common State
nor the Church can be maintained. But this
seemeth to have been the meaning of the old
fathers that in the building of God's Church
the preaching of God's word must go before,
to quiet men's consciences ; and wisdom and
policy, like handmaids, must follow after.
For this honour and prerogative God claim-
eth only to Himself that His Church must be
built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. Thus Christ, at the beginning,
gathered His Church, not by laws of men,
but against all law and policy, by the preach-
ing of His word. God might have instructed
Cornelius by the angel that appeared to him,
as it appeareth in the Acts of the Apostles ;
but He would not so, but sent Peter to him,
that he might be instructed by the mouth of
a preacher. He might have taught Paul,
after He had stricken him down from his
horse, when He appeared to him and said, " I
am Jesus, whom thou persecuted ;" but He
would not so, but rather left him to be taught
by Ananias. And, as it appeareth in the
PRECIOUS STONES. 11
Acts of the Apostles, at the preaching of
Peter, three thousand people were converted
and won in one day, that it might appear by
what tools, and with what workmen, God
would have His harvest set forward. (Ser-
mon : Matthew ix. 37, 38.)
BISHOP BILSOX.
The Obedience of Christ. [BiLSOX, born
1536, died 1616.] By Christ's obedience, I
do not mean the holiness of His life or per-
formance of the law, but the obedience of the
person unto death, even the death of the cross,
which was voluntarily offered by Him, not
necessarily imposed on Him, above and be-
sides the law, and no way required in the
law ; for it could be no duty to God or man,
but only mercy and pity towards us, that
caused the Son of God to take our mortal
and weak flesh unto Him, and therein and
thereby to pay the ransom of our sins, and to
purchase eternal life for us. He must be a
Saviour no debtor ; a Redeemer no pri-
soner ; Lord of all even He humbled Him-
12 PRECIOUS STONES.
self to be the servant of all. His divine glory,
power, and majesty, make His sufferings to be
of infinite force and value. And from His
dignity and unity of person, which is the
main pillar of our redemption, if we cast our
eyes on any other cause, or devise any new
help to strengthen the merits of Christ, we
dishonour and disable His divinity, as if the
Son of God were not a full and sufficient
price to ransom the bodies and souls of all
mankind. On this foundation do the Scrip-
tures build the whole frame of man's redemp-
tion. " God purchased His Church (saith
Paul) with His own blood." (Acts xx.) : God,
noting the dignity ; His own, the unity of
His person ; and both imparting a price far
worthier than the thing purchased. ( Works,
1599.)
HENRY SMITH.
TJie Sinner's Destiny. [SMITH, born ,
died 1600.] When Iniquity hath played her
part, Vengeance leaps upon the stage; the
comedy is short, but the tragedy is long. The
PRECIOUS STONES. 13
black guard shall attend upon you ; you shall
eat at the table of sorrow, and the crown of
death shall be upon your heads, many glister-
ing faces looking upon you. (The Trumpet
of the Soul sounding to Judgment.')
Hypocrisy. When God seeth a hypocrite,
he will pull his vizard from his face, as Adam
was stripped of his fig leaves, and show the
anatomy of his heart, as though his life were
written on his forehead. (Ibid.')
The Christian's Service. Every thought,
and word, and deed, of a faithful man is a
step towards heaven ; in every place he meet-
eth Christ everything puts him in mind of
God ; he seeks Him to find Him, and when
he hath found Him he seeks Him still ; he is
not satisfied, because at every touch there
comes some virtue from Him. Jacob served
seven years for Rachel, and after them he
served seven more, and yet he was content to
serve six more ; and when he had served so
many years, they seemed unto him as nothing,
because he loved her. He which served so
14 PRECIOUS STONES.
long for Rachel served all his life for heaven ;
and if he had lived till this day, he would
have served God, and thought it nothing, be-
cause he loved Him. (Jacob's Ladder.)
The Certainty of Future Punishment.
Methinks that every one should have a feel-
ing of sin : though this day be like yesterday,
and to-morrow like to-day, yet one day will
come for all, and then wo, wo, wo, and
nothing but darkness ; and though God came
not to Adam until the evening yet He came ;
although the fire came not upon Sodom until
evening yet it came ; and so comes the Judge.
Though He be not yet come though He hath
leaden feet He hath iron hands ; the arrow
slayeth and is not yet fallen so is His wrath.
(Four Sermons, p. 129 ; 1674.)
Religious Knowledge. The star, when it
came to Christ, stood still, and went no far-
ther ; so, when we come to the knowledge of
Christ, we should stand still and go no far-
ther ; for Paul was content to know nothing
but Christ crucified. (A Looking-glass for
Christians.)
PRECIOUS STOXES. 15
The Ruin of a Soul forsaken by God. The
soul of man is called the temple of the Holy
Ghosf. As God pulled down His temple
when it became a den of thieves, so He for-
saketh the temple of the soul, and taketh His
grace from her (as from a divorced spouse)
when she lusteth after other loves. With any
talent He giveth this charge Use and in-
crease it until I come ; being left, at last He
cometh to see what we have done. The seed
was sown this year the Lord calls for fruit,
but none will come ; the next year, and the
next after, but none comes ; at last the curse
goeth forth Never fruit grow upon thee more.
Then as the fig-tree began to wither, so his
gifts begin to fade, as if a worm were still
gnawing at them ; his knowledge loseth his
relish, like the Jews' manna ; his judgment
rusts like a sword which is not used ; his zeal
trembleth as though it were in a palsy ; his
faith withereth as though it were blasted ; and
the image of death is upon all his religion.
After this he thinketh, like Sampson, to pray
as he did, and speak as he did, and hath no
power ; but wondereth, like Zedekiah, how
16 PRECIOUS STONES.
the Spirit is gone from him. Now, when
the good Spirit is gone, then cometh the
spirit of blindness, and the spirit of terror,
and the spirit of fear, and all to seduce the
spirit of man. After this, by little and little,
first he falls into error then he comes into
heresy at last he plungeth into despair ; after
this, if he enquire, God will not suffer him to
learn : if he read, God will not suffer him to
understand : if he hear, God will not suffer
him to remember : if he pray, God seemeth
unto him, like Baal, who could not hear ; at
last he beholdeth his wretchedness, as Adam
looked upon his nakedness, and mourneth for
his gifts, as Rachel wept for her children,
because they were not. {The Heavenly Thrift.)
Two Consciences. Be not deceived, for sin
doth not end as it begins ; when the terrors
of Judas come upon the soul the tongue can-
not hide his sins, for despair and horror will
not be smothered ; but he which hath Saul's
spirit haunting him will rage as Saul did.
There is a warning conscience, and a gnaw-
ing conscience. The warning conscience
PRECIOUS STONES. 17
cometh before sin; the gnawing conscience
cometh after sin. The warning conscience
is often lulled asleep ; but the gnawing con-
science waketh her again. If there be any
hell in this world, they which feel the worm of
conscience gnaw upon their hearts may truly
say that they have felt the torments of hell.
Who can express that man's horror but him-
self ? Nay, what horrors are there which he
cannot express himself? Sorrows are met in
his soul at a feast ; and fear, thought, and
anguish divide his soul between them : all the
the furies of hell leap upon his heart like
a stage. Thought calleth to Fear; Fear
whistleth to Horror ; Horror beckoneth to
Despair, and saith, Come and help me to tor-
ment this sinner. One saith that she cometh
from this sin, and another saith that she
cometh from that sin so he goes through a
thousand deaths and cannot die. Irons are
laid upon his body like a prisoner all his
lights are put out at once. (The Betraying
of Christ.)
1$ PRECIOUS STONES,
EDMUND SPENSER.
Legislation to be adapted to National Cha-
racter. [SPENSER, born 1553, died 1598.]
Laws ought to be fashioned unto the manners
and conditions of the people to whom they
are meant, and not to be imposed upon them
according to the simple rule of right ; for
then instead of good they may work ill, and
pervert justice to extreme injustice. For he
that transfers the laws of the Lacedemonians
to the people of Athens, should find a great
absurdity and inconvenience. For those laws
of Lacedemon were devised by Lycurgus, as
most proper and best agreeing with that people
whom he knew to be inclined altogether to
wars ; and, therefore, wholly trained them up
even from their cradles iii arms and military
exercises, clean contrary to the institution of
Solon ; who, in his laws to the Athenians,
laboured by all means to temper their warlike
courages with sweet delights of learning and
sciences : so that, as much as the one excelled
in arms, the other exceeded in knowledge.
(View of the State of Ireland, p, 8 ; 1633.)
PRECIOUS STOXES. 19
RICHARD HOOKER.
Faith in Christ an Incentive to Self-exertion
[HOOKER, born 1553, died 1600.] It was
not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour, in
saying " Father keep them in thy name," that
we should be careless to keep ourselves. To
our own safety, our own sedulity is required ;
and then blessed for ever be that mother's
child whose faith hath made him the child of
God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the
world may tremble under us, the countenance
of the heavens may be appalled, the sun may
lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars
their glory ; but, concerning the man that
trusteth in God, if the fire once proclaimed it-
self unable to singe a hair of his head if lions,
beasts ravenous by nature, and keen with hun-
ger, being set to devour, have, as it were,
religiously adored the flesh of the faithful
man what is there in the world which shall
change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter
his affection towards God, or the affection of
God to him ? If I be of this note, who shall
make a separation between me and my God ?
]' Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution,
C 2
20 PRECIOUS STONES.
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ?"
No. " I am persuaded that neither tribula-
tion, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine,
nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, nor death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,"
shall ever prevail so far over me. I know in
whom I have believed I am not ignorant
whose precious blood hath been shed for me :
I have a Shepherd, full of kindness, full of
care, and full of power : unto Him I commit
myself: His own finger hath engraven this
sentence on the tables of my heart : " Satan
hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but
I have prayed that thy faith fail not ;" therefore
the assurance of my hope I will labour to
keep as a jewel unto the end ; and by labour,
through the gracious mediation of His prayer,
I shall keep it. (Sermon on the Certainty
and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect.}
Against Sudden Death. Quick riddance
out of life is often both requested and bestowed
as a benefit. Commonly, therefore, it is for
PRECIOUS STONES. 21
virtuous considerations that wisdom so far
prevaileth with men, as to make them desirous
of slow and deliberate death against the stream,
of their sensual inclination ; content to endure*
the longer grief and bodily pain, that the soul
may have time to call itself to a just account
of all things past, by means whereof repen-
tance is perfected ; there is wherein to exer-
cise patience -the joys of the kingdom of hea-
ven have leisure to present themselves the
pleasures of sin and this world's vanities are
censured with uncorrupt judgment charity is
free to make advised choice of the soil wherein
her last seed may most fruitfully be bestowed
the mind is at liberty to have due regard of
that disposition of worldly things which it can
never afterwards alter ; and, because the
nearer we draw unto God, the more we are
oftentimes enlightened with the shining beams
of His glorious presence as being then even
almost in sight a leisurable departure may
in that case bring forth, for the good of such
as are present, that which shall cause them
for ever after, from the bottom of their hearts,
to pray " let us die the death of the righte-
22 PRECIOUS STORES.
ous, and let our last end be like theirs."-
(Ecclesiastical Polity, b. v.)
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.
The Sacredncss of Poetry. [SIDNEY, born
1554, died 1586.] And may I not presume a
little farther, to show the reasonableness of
this word " Vates," and say, the holy David's
Psalms are a divine poem ? If I do, I shall
not do it without the testimony of great
learned men, both ancient and modern. But
even the name of Psalms will speak for me
which, being interpreted, is nothing but songs;
then that is fully written in metre, as all
learned Hebricians agree, although the rules
be not yet fully found. Lastly, and princi-
pally, his handling his prophecy, which is
merely poetical for what else is the awak-
ing his musical instruments ; the often and
free changing of persons ; his notable proso-
popoeias, when he maketh you, as it were, see
God coming in His majesty ; his telling of the
beasts' joyfulness and hills leaping, but a
PRECIOUS STONES, 23
heavenly poesy ; wherein, almost, he sheweth
himself a passionate lover of that unspeakable
and everlasting beauty, to be seen by the eyes
of the mind only cleared by faith? But, truly;
now, having named Him, I fear I seem to pro-
phane that holy name applying it to poetry,
which is, among us, thrown down to so ridi-
culous an estimation. But they that, with
quiet judgments, will look a little deeper into
it. shall find the end and working of it such
as, being rightly applied, deserveth not to be
scourged out of the Church of God. (Defence
of Poetry, p. 9 : ed. Gray.)
LOED BACOX.
Of Wisdom for a Man's Self. [BACON",
born 1561, died 1626.] An ant is a wise
creature for itself, but is a shrewd thing in an
orchard or garden ; and certainly men that
are great lovers of themselves waste the pub-
lic divide with reason between self-love and
society. It is a poor centre of a man's actions
himself: it is right earth, for that only stands
fast upon his own centre ; whereas all things
24 PRECIOUS STONES.
that have affinity with the heavens move upon
the centre of another which they benefit
Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches
thereof, a depraved thing : it is the wisdom of
rats that will be sure to leave a house some
time before it falls ; but that which is espe-
cially to be noted is, that those which (as
Cicero says of Pompey) are sui amantes, sine
rivali, are many times unfortunate ; and
whereas they have all their time sacrificed
themselves, they become in the end them-
selves sacrifices to the inconstancy of fortune,
whose wings they thought, by their self- wis-
dom, to have pinioned.-CEssays : Of Wisdom.')
BISHOP ANDREWS.
A Thought on Ash- Wednesday. [ANDREWS,
born 1565, died 1626.] To speak of re-
pentance at the time of fasting, or of
fasting at the time of repentance, is no
way out of season : as tree and fruit
they stand. Of these fruits, fasting is one I
and this we now begin, a worthy fruit,
even from year to year, religiously brought
forth in the Church of Christ that we go
PRECIOUS STONES. 2&
not from one when we fall upon the other.
Repentance is here brought in and presented
to us as a tree with fruit upon it. (Matt. iii.
8.) The tree of God's planting: the first
medicinable of the nature of a counter-
poison, against our bane, taken by the fruit
of another tree. The fruit of this forbidden
tree had envenomed our nature ; the fruit of
this tree, to expel it. to recover and cure us
of it. (Sermon Ivi., p. 238 ; 1631.;
DONNE.
Mercy and Judgment. [DONNE, born 1573,
died 1631.] This is the difference between
God's mercy and His judgments that some-
times His judgments may be plural, compli-
cated, enwrapped in one another ; but His
mercies are always so, and cannot be other-
wise. (Sermon Ixxx., fol. 1640, p. 11.)
Romance and Reality of Life. The world,
which finds itself truly in an autumn in itself,
finds itself in a spring in our imagination.
(Hid, 161.;
26 PREtflOtTS STONES,
The Inherent Sanctity of Law. How far
human laws do bind the conscience how far
they lay such an obligation upon us, as that,
if we transgress them, we do not only incur
the penalty but sin towards God hath been a
perplexed question in all times and in all
places. But how diverse soever their opinions
be in that, they all agree in this, that no law
which hath all the essential parts of a law,
(for laws against God, laws beyond the power
of him that pretends to make them, are no
laws), no law can be so merely a human law
but there is in it a divine part. There is in
human law part of the law of God, which is
obedience to the superior. That man cannot
bind tlie conscience, because he cannot judge
the conscience, nor he cannot absolve the
conscience, may be a good argument ; but,
in laws made by that power which is or-
dained by God, man binds not, but God
himself; and then you must be subject.
not because of wrath, but because of con-
science. Though then the matter and subject
of the law, that which the law commands or
prohibits may be an indifferent action, yet
PRECIOUS STONES. 27
in all these God hath His part ; and there is a
certain divine soul and spark of God's power,
which goes through all laws and inanimates
them. (Sermon cliv.J
Human Life. An ant-hill is the same book
in decimo sexto as a kingdom is in folio a
flower, that lives but a day, is an abridgement
of a king that lives out his three score and
ten years. (Ibid.)
The Eternal Happiness of the Righteous.
A day that hath no pridie, nor postridie,
yesterday doth not usher it in, nor to-
morrow shall not drive it out. Methusalem,
with all his hundreds of years, was but a
mushroom of a night's growth to this
day ; and all the four monarchies, with all
their thousands of years, and all the powerful
kings, and all the beautiful queens of this
world, were but as a bed of flowers some
gathered at six, some at seven, some at eight,
all in the morning in respect of this day.
( Sermon Ixxiii.^
The Voices of God to Man. God multi-
plies his mercies to us in His divers ways of
28 PRECIOUS STONES.
speaking to us. Call enarrant, says David, the
heavens declare the glory of God ; and not only
by showing, but saying ; there is a language
in the heavens, for it is enarrant a verbal
declaration ; and, as it follows literally, day
unto day uttereth speech. This is the true tes-
timony of the spheres which evfery man may
hear. Though he understand no tongue but
his own, he may hear God in the motions of
the same, in the seasons of the year, in the vi-
cissitudes and revolutions of the Church and
State, in the voice of thunder and lightnings,
and other declarations of His power. God
once confounded languages that conspiring
men might not understand one another ; but
never so, as that all men might not under-
stand Him God translates Himself in par-
ticular works ; nationally, He speaks in par-
ticular judgments or deliverances to one
nation ; and domestically, He speaks that lan-
guage to a particular family; and so personally,
too, He speaks to every particular soul. God
will speak to me in that voice, and in that
way which I am most delighted with, and
hearken most to, If I be covetous, God will
PRECIOUS STONES. 29
tell me that heaven is a pearl, a treasure : if
cheerful and affected with mirth, that heaven
is all joy : if ambitious and hungry of pre-
ferment, that heaven is all glory : if sociable
and conversible, that it is a communion of
saints. God will make a fever speak to me,
and tell me His mind, that there is no health
but in Him ; God will make the frowns and
disfavour of him I depend upon speak to me,
and tell me His mind, that there is no safe
dependence, no assurance, but in Him ; God
will make a storm by sea, or a fire by land,
speak to me and tell me His mind even my
sin shall be a sermon and catechism to me ;
God shall suffer me to fall into some such sin
as, that by some circumstances in the sin, or
consequences from the sin, I shall be drawn
to hearken unto Him ; and whether I hear
Hosannas, acclamations and commendations,
or Crucifiges, exclamations, and condemnations
from the world, I shall still find the voice and
tongue of God, though in the mouth of the
devil and his instruments. God is a declara-
tory God. The whole year is to His saints a
continual Epiphany one day of manifestation!
30 PRECIOUS STONES.
In every minute that strikes upon the bell is
a syllable nay, a syllogism, from God ; and,
in my last bell, God shall speak too that
bell when it tolls shall tell me I am going
and when it rings out, shall tell you I am
gone into the hands of that God who is the
God of the living and not of the dead, for they
die not that depart in Him. Dives pressed
Abraham to send a preacher from the dead to
his brethren : this was to put God to a new
language, when he had spoken sufficiently by
Moses and the prophets. And yet, even in
this language, the tongue of the dead hath
God spoken too in his Son Jesus Christ, the
Lord of Life, and yet the first-born of the
dead. (Sermon cxx.J
BISHOP HALL.
Against Praying to Saints. [HALL, born
1574, died 1656.] Ask what I shall do for
thee, before I am taken from thee. I do not
hear him say " Ask of me when I am gone ;
in my glorified condition I shall be more able
to 'bestead thee;" but "Asfc before I go,"
PRECIOTJS STONES, 31
We have a communion with the saints de-
parted, not a commerce. (Contemplations :
the Baptism of Elijah.')
The Christian in Society, Instructed ty
Christ. I do not find where Jesus was ever
bidden to any table and refused. If a phari-
see, if a publican, invited him, He made not
dainty to go not for the pleasu& of the
dishes. What was that to Him who began
His work in a whole Lent of days, but as it
was His meat and drink to do the will of His
Father for the benefit of so winning a con-
versation ? If He sat with sinners He con-
verted them ; if with converts, He confirmed
and instructed them ; if with the poor, He
fed them ; if with the rich in substance, He
made them rich in grace. At whose board
did He ever visit and left not His host a
gainer? The poor bridegroom entertained
Him, and hath his water pots filled with wine.
Simon, the pharisee, entertains Him, and hath
his table honoured with the public remission
of a penitent sinner, and with the heavenly doc-
trine of remission. Zaccheus entertains Him;
32 PRECIOUS STONES.
salvation came that day to his house with the
Author of it. That presence made the pub-
lican a son of Abraham. Matthew is recom-
pensed for his feast with an apostleship.
Martha and Mary entertain Him, and, besides
divine instruction, receive their brother from
the dead. (Ibid Matthew called.')
Spiritual Crucifixion. Wherefore, then,
say you was the apostle's complaint Wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death ? Mark, I beseech you, it was
the body of sin, not the life of sin a body of
death, not the life of that body. Or, if this
body had yet some life, it was such a life as is
left in the limbs when the head is struck off;
some dying quivering, rather as the remainder
of a life that was, than any act of a life that
is. Or, if a further life, such an one as in
swounds and fits of epilepsy, which yields
breath but not sense ; or, if some kind of
sense, yet no motion ; or, if it have some kind
of motion in us, yet no manner of dominion
over us. What power, motion, sense, relics
of life, are in a fully crucified man ? Such
PRECIOUS STONES. 33
an one may waft up and down with the wind,
but cannot move out of any internal princi-
ple. (Ibid.)
Looking to Jesus. Those that have searched
into the monuments of Jerusalem write that
our Lord was crucified with His face to the
west ; which, however spitefully meant of the
Jews (as not allowing Him worthy to look on
the holy city and temple), yet was not without
a mystery. His eyes looked to the Gentiles,
Sfc., saith the Psalmist. As Christ, therefore'
on His cross, looked towards us, sinners of the
Gentiles, so let us look up to Him. ( Ser-
mon : Gal ii. 20.J
BEN JONSON.
De Piis et Prolis. [JoNSON, born 1574,
died 1637.] Good men are the stars the
planets of the age wherein they live, and
illustrate the times. God did never let them
be wanting to the world : as Abel, for an ex-
ample of innocency ; Enoch of purity ; Noah
of trust in God's mercies ; Abraham of faith ;
D
34 PRECIOUS STONES.
and so of the rest. These, sensual men
thought mad, because they would not be par-
takers or practisers of their madness ; but
they, placed high on the top of all virtue,
looked down on the stage of the world, and
contemned the play of fortune ; for, though
the most be players, some must be spectators.
(Discourses.)
Ingenia. Natures that are hardened to
vil you shall sooner break than make
straight : they are like poles that are crooked
and dry there is no attempting them. (Ibid.)
Elegantia. A man should so deliver him-
self to the nature of the subject whereof he
speaks, that his hearer may take notice of
his discipline with some delight ; and so ap-
parel fair and good matter that the studious
of elegancy be not defrauded ; redeem arts
from their rough and brakey seats where they
lay hid, and overgrown with thorns, to a
pure, open, and flowery light ; where they
rarely may take the eye, and be taken by the"
hand. (Ibid.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 35
ARCHBISHOP USHER.
The Mystic Union of Christ and the Be-
liever.[ USHER, born 1580, died 1656.] The
bond of this mystical union betwixt Christ
and us is on His part that quickening Spirit
which, being in Him as the head, is from thence
diffused to the spiritual animation of all His
members ; and on our part faith, which is the
prime act of life, wrought in those who are
capable of understanding by that same Spirit.
Both thereof must be acknowledged to be of
so high a nature that none could possibly, by
such ligatures, knit up so admirable a body
but that he was God Almighty. (Immanuel;
or the Mystery of the Incarnation, 1638.^
Effectual Calling. You hear much talk of
God's eternal and everlasting election, and we
are too apt to rest on this that, if we are
elected to salvation, we shall be saved ; and
if not we shall be damned, troubling ourselves
with God's work of predestination : whereas
this works no change in the party elected,
until we come unto Him in His own person.
What is God's election to me ? It is nothing
P 2
36 PRECIOUS STONES.
to my comfort, unless I myself am effectually
called, We are to look to this effectual cal-
lingthe other is but God's love to sever
me. But what is my effectual calling ? It is
that when God touches my heart, or trans-
lates me from the death of sin to the life of
grace. (Sermon ii. : Hebrews iv. 1.)
Suffering made the Instrument of our Sanc-
tification. Until the Lord humble and bring
us low in our own eyes, showing us our
misery and sinful poverty, and that in us there
is no good thing that we are stripped of all
health in and without ourselves, and must
perish for ever unless we beg His mercy we
will not come unto Him, as we see it was
with the woman whom Christ healed. (Luke
viii. 43.) How long it was before she came to
Christ ! She had been sick twelve years she
had spent all her substance upon physicians,
and nobody could help her, and this brings
her to Christ. So that this is the means to
bring us unto Christ to drive us on our
knees, hopeless as low as they may be, to show
us where hope only is to be found and run us
PRECIOUS STONES. 37
unto it. Thus, therefore, when men have no
time to come to Christ, He sends, as it were,
fiery serpents to sting them, that they might
look up unto the brazen serpent or rather
unto Jesus Christ, of which it was a type, for
help : so unto others, being strangers unto
Him, He sends varieties of great and sore
afflictions to make them come to Him that
He may be acquainted with them. As Absa-
lom sets Joab's corn on fire, because he
would not come to him, being twice sent for,
so God deals with us before our conversion,
many times, as with iron whips lashing us
home, turning lose the avenger of blood after
us ; and then, for our life, we run and make
haste to the city of refuge. (The Seal of
Salvation : Romans viii. 14. )
SIR THOMAS OVERBURY.
A Noble Spirit. [OvERBURY, born 1581,
died 1613.] He hath surveyed and fortified
his disposition, and converts all occurrences
into experience, between which experience
and his reason there is marriage ; the issue
38 PRECIOUS STONES.
are his actions : he circuits his intents, and
seeth the end before he shoots : he calls not
the vanity of the world chances, for his medi-
tation hath travelled over them, and his eye,
mounted upon his understanding, seeth them
as things underneath. Truth is his goddess,
and he takes pains to get her not to look
like her : he knows the condition of the
world, that he must act one thing like an-
other, and then another ; to these he carries
his desires and not his desires him, and sticks
not fast by the way ; but, knowing the circle of
all courses, of all intents, of all things to have
but one centre or period, without all distrac-
tion, he hasteneth thither, and ends there as
his true natural element. Unto the society of
men he is a sun, whose clearness directs their
steps in a regular motion. When he is more
particular, he is the wise man's friend the
example of the indifferent the medicine of
the vicious. Thus time goeth not from him,
but with him ; and he feels age more by the
strength of his soul, than the weakness of his
body. Thus feels he no pain, but esteems
all such, things as friends that desire to file
PRECIOUS STONES. 39
off his fetters and help him out of prison.
(Characters.)
ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS.
The School of Sorrow. [WILLIAMS, born
1582, died 1650.] A Christain soul is best
instructed which is most scourged and af-
flicted. For, as Joseph entertained his bre-
thren roughly, before he was pleased to be
discovered by them, so God will have His
children exercised with roughness, before He
will be perfectly known unto them. Job (it
seems) was no young man in the beginning,
but sure he was a young scholar, and never
put to his Christ's cross (the real alphabet of
true Christianity, which we spell out by suf-
fering, not by reading) until his latter end.
And so the Lord blessed the latter end of
Job more than the beginning. (Sermon on
Perseverance, p. 50 ; 1628.)
DUDLEY DIGGES.
True Nature of Law. [DiGGES, born 1583,
died 1639.] If we look back to the law of
40 PRECIOUS STONES.
nature, we shall find that the people would
have had a clearer and more distinct notion
of it, if the common use of calling it law had
not helped to confound their understanding,
when it ought to have been named the right
of nature ; for right and law differ as much
as liberty and bonds; and therefore,y(>r nature,
all the right of nature, which now we can
innocently make use of, is that freedom, not
which any law gives us, but which no law
takes away ; and laws are the several restraints
and limitations of native liberty. (The Un-
lawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms, fyc.
p. 40 ; 1647.)
BISHOP SANDERSON.
Expediency defined. [SANDERSON, born
1587, died 1663.] That expediency ever re-
lates to the end, we may gather from the
very notion of the words ; ovpfapetv, in the
Greek, is as much as to confer, or contribute
something, to bring in some health or further-
ance towards the attainment of the desired
end ; and expedire, in the Latin, is properly
PRECIOUS STONES. 41
to speed a business ; as the contrary thereof
(impedire) is to hinder it. The word expedi-
tion comes thence ; and so does this also of ex-
pediency. That thing, then, may not unfitly,
be said to be expedient to any end, that does
expedite, give any furtherance or avail towards
the attaining of that end ; and that, on the
contrary, to be inexpedient, that does impe-
dire, cast in any let, rub, or impediment, to
hinder the same. It must be man's first care
to propose to himself, in all his actions, some
right end ; and then he is to judge of the ex-
pediency of the means by their serviceable-
ness thereunto. ( Twelfth Sermon ad Aulam>
July 26, 1640.)
BISHOP HACKET.
A Thought for Christmas. [HACKET, born
1592, died 1670.] In the Old Testament,
says Hugo, though angels were sent to men
upon sundry occasions, yet they never came
with this property, so far as we can read, that
glory did shine about them ; but now, the Sun
of Righteousness did rise upon the earth, they
42 PRECIOUS STONES.
appear conspicuous in their colours, like the
beams of the sun By this it appears
how suitably a beam of admirable light did
concur in the angel's message to set out the
majesty of the Son of God ; and I beseech
you to observe, all you that would keep a
good Christmas, as you ought, that the glory
of God is the best celebration of His Son's
Nativity ; and all your pastimes and mirth
(which I disallow not, but rather commend in
moderate use) must so be managed, without
riot, without surfeiting, without excessive
gaming, without pride and vain pomp, in
harmlessness, in sobriety ; as if the glory of
the Lord were round about us. Christ was
born to save them that are lost, but frequently
you abuse His Nativity with so many vices,
such disordered outrages, so that you make
this happy time an occasion for your loss
rather than for your salvation. Praise Him in
the congregation of the people' praise Him
in your inward heart praise Him with the
sanctity of your life praise Him in your
charity to them that are in need and are in
want. This is the glory of God shining
PRECIOUS STONES. 43
round, and the most Christian solemnizing
of the birth of Jesus. (Century of Sermons,
fol.,p.27; 167-5.)
FARIKDON.
The Grief of Jesus upon the Cross. [FAR-
IXDOX, born 1596, died 1658.] Grieve Christ
did, and fear : He who, as God, could have
commanded a legion of angels, as man had
need of one to comfort Him : He was deli-
vered up to passions to afflict, not to swallow
Him up. There was no disorder, no jar with
reason, which was still above them; there
was no sullenness in His grief, no despair in
His complaints, no unreasonableness in His
thoughts : not a thought rose amiss, not a
word was misplaced, not a motion irregular :
He knew He was not forsaken when He
asked, Why hast thou forsaken Me ? The
bitterness of the cup struck Him into a fear.
When His obedience called for it, He prayed,
indeed, Let this cup pass from Me ; but that
was not the cup of His cross and passion, but
44 PRECIOUS STONES.
the cup of His agony. And in that prayer
it is plain He was heard ; for the text tells
us, There appeared an angel unto Him from
heaven to strengthen Him. Being of the same
mould and temper with men, He was willing
to receive the impressions, which are so visible
in man, of sorrow and fear. (Sermon : Ro-
mans viii. 32.)
THE REDEEMER'S AGONY. Is there yet
any more ? or can the Son of God be de-
livered further ? Delivered he was not to
despair, for that was impossible ; not to the
torments of hell, which could never seize on
His innocent soul, but to the wrath of God,
which withered His heart like grass, " burnt
up His bones like a hearth," and " brought
Him even to the dust of death." Look now
upon His countenance it is pale and wan ;
upon His heart it is melted like wax ; upon
His tongue it cleaveth to the roof of His
mouth. What talk we of death? The
wrath of God is truly the terriblest thing in
this world the sting of 'sin, which is the
sting of death. Look into our own souls
PRECIOUS STONES. 45
that weak apprehension of it which we some-
times have what a night and darkness doth
it draw over us ? Nay, what a hell doth it
kindle in us ! What torments do we feel
the types and sad representations of those in
the bottomless pit ! How do our delights
distaste us, and our desires strangle them-
selves ! What a Tophet is the world, and
what furies are our thoughts ! What do we
see which we do not turn from ? What do
we know which we would not forget ? What
do we think which we do not startle at ? or,
do we know what to think ? Now, what rock
can hide us ? What mountain can cover us ?
We are weary of ourselves, and could wish
rather not to be than to be under God's
wrath. Were it not for this, there would be
no law, no conscience, no devil ; but with
this the law is a killing letter, the conscience
a fury, and the devil a tormentor. But, yet,
there is still a difference between our appre-
hension and Christ's. For. alas ! to us, God's
wrath doth not appear in its full horror ; for,
if it did, we should sooner die than offend
Him. Some do but think of it; few think
46 PRECIOUS STONES.
of it as they should, and they that are most
apprehensive look upon it, as at a distance, as
that which may be turned away ; and so, not
fearing God's wrath, "treasure up wrath
against the day of wrath." To us, when we
take it at the nearest and have the fullest
sight of it, it appeareth but as the cloud did
to Elijah's servant, " like, a man's hand ;" but
to Christ " the heavens were black with clouds
and wind," and it showered down upon Him
as in a tempest of fire. We have not His
eyes, and therefore not His apprehension;
we see not so much deformity in sin as He
did, and not so much terror in the wrath of
God Divers sinners have been delivered
up to afflictions and crosses, nay, to the anger
of God ; but never any, nay, not those who
have despaired, were so delivered as Christ.
For though Christ could not despair, yet the
wrath of God was more visible to Him than
to those who bear but their own burdens :
whereas He lay pressed under the sins of the
whole world. God, in His approaches of jus-
tice, when He cometh towards the sinner to
correct him, may seem to go, like the consul
PRECIOUS STONES. 47
of Rome, with his rods and his axes carried
before him. Many sinners have felt His rod,
and His rod is comfort ; His frown, favour ;
His anger, love; and His blow, a benefit.
But Christ was struck, as it were, with His
axe. Others have trembled under His wrath ;
but Christ was even consumed by the stroke
of His ha.n<l.-(Sermons : Crucifixion of Christ)
BISHOP REYNOLDS.
Mental Satisfaction. [REYNOLDS, born
1599, died 1676.] Now, because emptiness is
the cause of appetence, we shall hereupon
find that the fullest and most contented men
are ever freest from vast desires. The more
the mind of any man is in weight, the more it
is in rest too. In Jotham's parable, the
bramble was more ambitious than the vine
or the olive ; and the vine, we see, which is
of all other the tree of desire, is weakest and
cannot stand without another to support it.
Therefore, we shall find that men's desires
are strongest when their constitutions are
weakest and their condition lowest; as we
48 PRECIOUS STONES.
see in servants that labour, and sick men that
long, whose whole life in that time is but a
change and miscellany of desires. (Treatise
of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul :
Works, fol. edit. 1658. p. 969.)
Varieties of Grief. This passion of grief is
distributed into many inferior kinds : as grief
of sympathy for the evils and calamities of
other men as if they were our own, consider-
ing that they may likewise befall us or ours,
which is called mercy ; grief of repining at the
good of another man as if his happiness were
our misery (as that pillar which was light
unto Israel to guide them, was dark unto the
Egyptians to trouble and amaze them), which
is called envy; grief of fretfulness at the
prosperity of evil and unworthy men, which
is called indignation ; grief of indigence, when
we find ourselves want those good things
which others enjoy, which we envy not unto
them, but desire to enjoy them ourselves too,
which is called emulation ; grief of fear for
evil committed, which is called repentance ;
and grief of fear for evil expected, which is
called despair. (Ibid. p. 999.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 49
ARTHUR WARWICK.
Thoughts in Spare Minutes. [WARWICK,
born , died .] When I see the hea-
venly sun buried under earth in the evening
of the day, and in the morning to find a
resurrection of his glory, why (think I) may
not the sons of heaven, buried in the earth
in the evening of their days, expect the
morning of their glorious resurrection ? Each
night is but the past day's funeral, and the
morning his resurrection : why then should
our funeral sleep be otherwise than our sleep
at night ? Why should not we as well wake
to our resurrection as in the morning ? I
see night is rather an intermission of day
than a deprivation, and death rather borrows
our life of us than robs us of it. Since, then,
the glory of the sun finds a resurrection, why
should not the sons of glory? (Spare Minutes,
p. 49. 1637.)
I see, when I follow my shadow, it flies me
when I fly my shadow, it follows me. I know
pleasures are but shadows, which hold no lon-
ger than the sunshine of my fortunes. Lest,
E
50 PRECIOUS STONES.
then, my pleasures should forsake me, I will
forsake them. Pleasure most flies me when
I follow it. (Ibid.)
It is some hope of goodness not to grow
worse : it is a part of badness not to grow
better. I will take heed of quenching the
spark, and strive to kindle a fire. If I have
the goodness I should, it is not too much
why should I make it less ? If I keep the
goodness I have, 'tis not enough why do I
not make it more ? He ne'er was so good as
he should be, that doth not strive to be better
than he is : he never will be better than he is,
that doth not fear to be worse than he was.
(Ibid.)
CHILLINGWORTH.
How to make the Heart a Temple for Christ*
.[CHILLINGWORTH, born 1602, died 1644.]
There is no receiving of Christ to dwell
and live with us, unless we turn all our other
guests out of doors. The devil, you know,
would not take possession of a house, till it
was swept and garnished ; and dares any man
PRECIOUS STONES. 51
imagine that a heart defiled, full of all un-
cleanness, a decayed ruinous soul, an earthly
sensual mind, is a tabernacle fit to entertain
the son of God ? Were it reasonable to invite
Christ to sup in such a mansion, much more
to rest and inhabit there ? (Sermon iv.)
Momentary Sensations of Remorse. These
heat-drops, this morning-dew of sorrow.
(Sermon i.)
Ordinances Ineffectual. If this hypocrisy,
this resting in outward performances, were
so odious to God under the law a religion
full of shadows and ceremonies certainly it
will be much more odious to do so under the
Gospel a religion of much more simplicity,
and exacting so much the greater sincerity of
the heart even because it disburdens the out-
ward man of the performance of legal rights
and observances ; and, therefore, if we now
under the Gospel shall think to delude God
Almighty, as Michael did Saul, with an idol
handsomely dressed instead of the true David
if we shall content and please ourselves with
E 2
52 PRECIOUS STONES.
being of such or sucli a sect or profession
with going to church, saying or hearing o
prayers, receiving of sacraments, hearing, re-
peating, or preaching of sermons, with zeal
for ceremonies or zeal against them, or, in-
deed, with anything except constant piety
towards God ; loyalty and obedience towards
our sovereign ; justice and charity towards all
our neighbours; temperance, chastity, sobriety,
towards ourselves certainly, we shall one
day find that we have not mocked God but
ourselves; and that our portion among hypo-
crites shall be greater than theirs. (Ibid.)
Resurrection of the Sinner. Even that very
body of thine which thou madest a mansion
for the devil, an instrument for any wicked-
ness that he would suggest to thee yet that
that body should be raised up ; that, to thy
extreme horror and astonishment, God would
take such particular care of that very body of
thine, that wheresoever it were lost, He would
recover it, though dispersed to the four winds
of heaven, and build it up again ; even to be
a mark against which He will empty His
PRECIOUS STONES. 53
quivers, and shoot out all the darts of fiery
indignation, in the punishing of whom He
will express His Almighty power. (Sermon
iii.)
SIR T. BROWNE.
Recollection and Forgetfulness. [BROWNE,
born 1605, died 1682.] Darkness and light
divide the course of time, and oblivion shares
with memory a great part even of our living
beings ; we slightly remember our felicities,
and the smartest strokes of affliction leave
but short smart upon us. Sense endureth
no extremities, and sorrows destroy us or
themselves. To weep into stones are fables.
Afflictions induce callosities, miseries are slip-
pery or fall like snow upon us, which, not-
withstanding, is no unhappy stupidity. To
be ignorant of evils to come, and forgetful of
evils past, is a merciful provision in nature,
whereby we digest the mixture of our few and
evil days ; and our delivered senses not re-
lapsing into cutting remembrances, our sor-
rows are not kept raw by cutting remem-
54 PRECIOUS STONES.
brances. To be nameless in worthy deeds ex-
ceeds an infamous history. (On Urn-burial')
HAMMOND.
Growth of Grace. [HAMMOND, born 1605,
died 1660.] Besides those louder voices of
God, either sounding in His Word or thun-
dering in His judgments, there is His calm,
soft, voice of inspiration, like the night vision
of old, which stole in upon the mind, min-
gled with sleep and gentle slumber. Con-
cerning the manner of the Spirit's working
I am not, I need not, to dispute. Thus far
it will be seasonable and profitable for you to
know, that many other illuminations and
holy graces are to be imputed to God's Spirit,
besides that by which we are effectually con-
verted. God speaks to us many times when
we answer him not, and shines about our
eyes when we either wink or sleep. Our
many sudden, short-winded, ejaculations to-
wards heaven our frequent but weak incli-
nations to do good our ephemcrous wishes,
that no man can distinguish from true piety
PRECIOUS srbiras. 55
but by their sudden death our every day
resolutions of obedience whilst we continue
in sin are arguments that God's Spirit hath
sinned upon us, though the warmth that it
produced be soon chilled with the damp it
meets within us. (Sermon on Ezek. xviii,
si,;
HABIXGTOIT.
A True Friend Sketched. [HABIXGT03T,
born 1605, died 1654.] He is noble and in-
herits the virtues of all his progenitors,
though happily unskilful to blazon his pater-
nal coat so little should nobility serve for
story but when it encourageth to action. He
is so valiant, fear could never be listened to
when she whispers danger; and yet fights
not, unless religion confirms the quarrel law-
ful. He submits his action to the govern-
ment of virtue not to the wild decrees of
popular opinion ; and, when his conscience is
fully satisfied, he cares not how mistake and
ignorance interpret him. He hath so much
fortitude he can forgive an injury, and when
56 PRECIOUS STONES.
he hath overthrown his opposer, not insult
upon his weakness. He hath by a liberal
education been softened to civility; for that
rugged honesty some rude men possess is an
indigested chaos, which may contain the
seeds of goodness, but it wants form and or-
der. He is no flatterer ; but, when he finds his
friend any way imperfect, he freely but gently
informs him ; nor yet shall some few errors
cancel the bond of friendship, because he re-
members no endeavours can raise man above
his frailty. He is as slow to enter into that
title as he is to forsake it : a monstrous vice
must disoblige, because an extraordinary vir-
tue did first unite. (Castara ; part ni.)
FULLER.
The Moral of an Hour-glass. [FULLER,
born 1608, died 1661.] Coming hastily into
a chamber I had almost thrown down a crys-
tal hour-glass : fear lest I had, made me
grieve as if I had broken it. But, alas ! how
much more precious time have I cast away
without any regret ? The hour-glass was
PRECIOUS STONES. 57
out crystal each hour a pearl : that but like
to be broken this, lost outright: that, but
casually this, done wilfully. A better hour-
glass might be bought ; but time once lost is
lost for ever. Thus we grieve more for toys
than for treasures. Lord ! give me an hour-
glass, not to be by me but in me. Teach me
to number my days an hour-glass to turn me
that 1 may apply my heart unto wisdom.
( Mixt Contemplations.)
MILTON.
The Reformation. [MiLTON, born 1608,
died 1674.] When I recall to mind at last,
after so many dark ages, wherein the huge
overshadowing train of error had almost
swept all the stars out of the firmament of
the Church, how the bright and blissful Re-
formation, by divine power, strook through
the black and settled night of ignorance and
antichristian tyranny, methinks a sovereign
and reviving joy must needs rush into the
bosom of him who reads or hears, and the
sweet odour of the returning Gospel imbathe
58 PRECIOUS STONES.
his soul with the fragrancy of heaven. Then
was the Bible sought out of the dusty cor-
ners where profane falsehood and neglect
had thrown it; the schools opened; divine and
human learning raked out of the embers of
forgotten tongues ; the princes and cities
trooping apace to the new erected banner of
salvation ; the martyrs, with the irresistible
might of weakness, shaking the powers of
darkness, and scorning the fiery rage of the
old red Dragon. (Of Reformation in En-
gland.)
The Inward Reverence of a Man towards
his own Person. And if the love of God, as
a fire sent from heaven to be ever kept alive
upon the altar of our hearts, be the first prin-
ciple of all godly and virtuous actions in men,
this pious and just honouring of ourselves is
the second, and may be thought as the radical
moisture and fountain-head whence every
laudable and worthy enterprize issues forth ;
and, although I have given it the name of a
liquid thing, yet it is not incontinent to bound
itself, as humid things are, but hath in it a
PRECIOUS STOSTES. 59
most restraining and powerful abstinence to
start back and globe itself upward, from the
mixture of any ungenerous and unbeseeming
motion, or any soil wherewith it may peril to
stain itself. Something, I confess, it is to be
ashamed of evil-doing in the presence of
any ; and to reverence the opinion and coun-
tenance of a good man rather than a bad,
fearing most in his sight to offend, goes so
far as almost to be virtuous ; yet this is but
still the fear of infamy, and many such, when
they find themselves alone, saving their repu-
tation, will compound with other samples,
and come to a close treaty with their dearer
\ices in secret. But he that holds himself in
reverence and due esteem, both for the dig-
nity of God's image upon him, and for the
price of his redemption, which he thinks is
visibly marked upon his forehead, accounts
himself both a fit person to do the noblest
and godliest deeds, and much better worth
than to deject and defile, with such a debase-
ment and pollution as sin is, himself so highly
ransomed and ennobled, to a new friendship
and filial relation with God. Nor can he
60 PRECIOUS STONES.
fear so much the offence and reproach of
others, as he dreads and would blush at the
reflection of his own severe and modest eye
upon himself, if it should see him doing or
imagining that which is sinful, though in the
deepest secrecy. ( Reason of Church Govern-
ment.)
JEREMY TAYLOR.
The False Enjoyments of the World.
[TAYLOR, born 1613, died 1667.] The fruits
of its present possession, the pleasures of its
taste, are less pleasant, because no sober
person, no man that can discourse, does like
it long :
" Breve sit quod turpiter aucles."
Juv. viii. 165.
But he approves it in the height of passion,
and in the disguises of a temptation ; but at
all other times he finds it ugly and unreason-
able, and the very remembrances must at
all times abate its pleasures and sour its
delicacies. In the most parts of man's life
he wonders at his own folly and prodigious
PRECIOUS STONES. 61
toadness, that it should be ever possible for
him to be deluded by such trifles ; and he
sighs next morning, and knows it over night,
and is not, therefore, certain that he leans
upon a thorn which he knows will smart, and
he dreads the event of to-morrow ! But so
have I known a bold trooper fight in the con-
fusion of a battle, and being warm with heat
and rage receive from the sword of the enemy
wounds open like a grave, but he felt them
not ; and when, by the streams of blood, he
found himself marked for pain, he refused to
consider then what he was to feel to-morrow ;
but when his rage had cooled into the temper
of a man, and clammy moisture had checked
the fiery emission of spirits, he wonders at
his own boldness and blames his fate, and
needs a mighty patience to bear his great
calamity. So is the bold and merry sinner
when he is warm with wine and lust : wounded
and bleeding with the strokes of hell, he
twists with the fatal arm that strikes him,
and cares not ; but yet it must abate his
gaiety, because he remembers that, when his
wounds are cold and considered, he must roar
62 PRECIOUS STONES.
or perish, repent or do worse; that is, be
miserable or undone. (Sermon xix. : Apples
of Sodom., p. 1.)
Prayer and Anger. Prayer is the peace of
our spirits, the stillness of our thoughts, the
evenness of recollection, the seat of medita-
tion, the rest of our cares, and the calm of
our tempests. Prayer is the issue of a quiet
mind, of untroubled thoughts ; it is the daugh-
ter of Charity, and the sister of Meekness ;
and he that prays to God with an angry
that is, with a troubled and discomposed
spirit is like him who retires into a battle to
meditate, and sets up his quarters in the out-
posts of an army. Anger is a perfect aliena-
tion of the mind from prayer, and therefore is
contrary to that attention which presents our
prayers in a right time to God. For so have
I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and
soaring upward, singing as he rises, and hopes
to get to heaven and climb above the clouds ;
but the poor bird was beaten back with the
loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his
motion made irregular and inconstant; de
PRECIOUS STONES. 63
scending more at every breath of the tempest
that it could recover by the libration and fre-
quent weighing of its wings, till the little
creature was forced to sit down, and pant, and
stay till the storm was over ; and then it made
a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as
if it had learned music and motion from an
angel, as he passed sometimes through the
air about his ministerings here below. (Ser-
mon v. : Act of Prayer.}
The Last Judgment. And when the first
day of judgment happened, that (I mean) of
the universal deluge of waters upon the old
world, the calamity swelled like the flood,
and every man saw his friend perish, and the
neighbours of his dwelling, and the relatives
of his house, and the sharers of his joys, and
yesterday's bride, and the new-born heir, the
priest of the family, and the honour of the
kindred, all dying or dead, drenched in water
and the Divine vengeance; and then they
had no place to flee unto no man cared for
their souls ; they had none to go unto for
counsel ; no sanctuary high enough to keep
64 PRECIOUS STONES,
them from the vengeance that rained down
from heaven ; and so it shall be, at the day
of judgment, when that world, and this, and
. all that shall be born hereafter, shall pass
through the same Red Sea. and be all baptized
with the same fire, and be involved in the
same cloud, in which shall be tlmnderings
and terrors infinite ; every man's fears shall
be increased by his neighbour's shrieks ; and
the amazement that all the world shall be
in, shall unite, as the sparks of a raging
furnace, into a globe of fire, and roll upon its
own principle, and increase by direct appear-
ances and intolerable reflections. He that
stands in a churchyard in the time of a great
plague, and hears the passing-bell perpetually
tolling the sad stories of death, and sees
crowds of infected bodies pressing to their
graves, and others sick and tremulous, and
death dressed up in all the images of sorrow
round about him, is not supported in his
spirit by the variety of his sorrow ; and at
doomsday, when the terrors are universal,
besides that it is so much greater that it can
affright the whole world, it is also made
PRECIOUS STONES. 6a-
greater by communication and a sorrowful
influence, grief being then strongly infec-
tious, when there is no variety of state, but
an entire kingdom of fear ; and amazement
is the king of all our passions, and all the
world its subjects; and that shriek must needs
be terrible, when millions of men and women
at the same instant shall fearfully cry out ;
and the noise shall mingle with the trumpet
of the archangel, with the thunders of the
dying and groaning heavens, and the crack of
the dissolving world, when the whole fabric
of nature shall shake into dissolution and'
eternal ashes. (Christ's Advent to Judgment
Part I.)
Sobriety of Religious Feelings. Do not seek
for deliciousness and sensible consolations in
the actions of religion, but only regard the
duty and the conscience of it. For, although
in the beginning of religion most frequently,
and ft some other times irregularly, God
.-/lies with our infirmity, and encourages
our duty with little overflowings of spiritual
joy, and sensible pleasure, and delicacies in
F
66 PRECIOUS STONES,
prayer, so as we seem to feel some little beam
of heaven, and great refreshments from the
Spirit of Consolation ; yet this is not always
safe for us to have, neither safe for us to ex-
pect and look for ; and when we do, it is apt
to make us cool in our enquiries and waitings
upon Christ when we want them ; it is a
running after him, not for the miracles, but
for the loaves ; not for the wonderful things
of God and the desire of pleasing him, but
for the pleasure of pleasing ourselves. (Holy
Living, sect. vii. ch. 14.)
Against Deferred Repentance. Can a man
be supposed so prompt to piety and holy
living a man, I mean, that hath lived
wickedly a long time together can he be of
so ready and active a nature, on the sud-
den, as to recover in a month or a week what
he hath been undoing in twenty or thirty
years ? Is it so easy to build that a weak
and infirm person, bound hand and foot, shall
be able to build more in three days than was
a- building above forty years ? Christ did it ^
in a figurative sense ; but, in this, it is not
PRECIOUS STONES. 67
in the power of any man so suddenly to be
recovered from so long a sickness. Neces-
sary, therefore, it is that all these instruments
of our conversion confession of sins pray-
ing for their pardon and resolution to lead
a new life should begin, "before our feet
stumble on the dark mountains," lest we leave
the work only resolved to be begun, which it
is necessary we should in many degrees finish,
if ever we mean to escape the eternal dark-
ness. For that we should actually abolish
the whole body of sin and death that we
should crucify the old man with his lusts
that we should lay aside every weight and
the sin that doth so easily beset us that we
should cast away the works of darkness that
we should awake from sleep and arise from
death that we should redeem the time
that we should cleanse our hands and purify
our hearts that we should have escaped the
corruption (all the corruption) that is in the
world through lust that nothing of the old
leaven should remain in us but that we be
wholly a new lump, thoroughly transformed
and changed in the image of our mind ; these
68 PRECIOUS STONES.
are the perpetual precepts of the Spirit, and
the certain duty of man ; and that to have all
these in purpose only is merely to no pur-
pose, without the actual eradication of every
vicious habit, and the certain abolition of
every criminal adherence, is clearly and dog-
matically decreed everywhere in the Scrip-
ture. " For (they are the words of St. Paul)
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts :" the work is
actually done, and sin is dead, or wounded
mortally, before they can in any sense belong
to Christ, to be a portion of His inheritance ;
and " he that is in Christ is a new creature ;'*
for, " in Christ Jesus, nothing can avail but
a new creature ;" nothing but " a keeping the
commandments of God." (Sermon : Jerem.
xiii. 16.)
BISHOP NICHOLSON.*
The Catechism. [NICHOLSON, born , died
1671.] A Catechism is a word used, in a
* The friend and assistant of Jeremy Taylor, in
Wales,
PRECIOUS STONES. 69
Church sense, signifying a little book in which
is delivered the brief sum, or chief principles,
of Christian religion. He who teacheth this
is called the Catechist, and he who is taught
is Catechumenus a disciple, a scholar, one
taught, instructed, or edified ; for KOT^X^W
is rendered by Hesychius the learnedest of
grammarians, oiKoSo^ffw " I will build or
edify." All these words are derived from ^'x o? >
a sound, from which comes our English word
echo, which is but a reciprocation of the
voice, or a return or report of what is uttered.
Not without reason, then, the Spirit of God
chose, and the wisdom of the Church retained,
those forementioned notions, because the chief
principles of Christianity were at first instilled
by the ear ; the sound of the apostles' words
going out into all lands. For at the highest
they are but echoes or sounds, whose pro-
perty is to report what is heard, which ought
to be observed accurately by all Catechists,
who are not to teach for doctrine their own
conceptions, but to sound into the ears of
others what they have heard, and nothing but
what they have heard; to wit, the certain
70 PRECIOUS STONES.
words of their Master and His Disciples first
sounded in the Gospel. (An Exposition of
the Catechism, p. 1, 1686.)
ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.
Mutual Dependence Inculcated. [LEIGH-
TON, born 1613, died 1684.] Every man
hath received some gift, no man all gifts ; and
this, rightly considered, would keep all in a
more even temper ; as, in nature, nothing is
altogether useless, so nothing is self-sufficient.
This, duly considered, would keep the meanest
from repining and discontent, even him that
hath the lowest rank in most respects ; yet
something he hath received that is not only
a good to himself, but, rightly improved, may
be so to others likewise. And this will curb
the loftiness of the most advanced, and teach
them not only to see some deficiencies in
themselves, and some gifts in far meaner
persons which they want. But, besides the
simple discovery of this, it will pat them upon
the use of what is, in lower persons, not only
PRECIOUS STONES. 71
to stoop to the acknowledgment, but even
withal to the participation and benefit of it ;
not to trample upon all that is below them,
but to take up and use things useful, though
lying at their feet. Some flowers and herbs
that grow very low are of a very fragrant
smell and healthful use. (Commentary on the
first Epistle of Peter, ch. iv. 10.)
HENRY MORE.
The Conflagration of the World argued from
the Power of Christ. [MORE, born 1614, died
1687.] That which Nature seems perpetu-
ally to threaten of herself, can it be hard for
us to believe that Christ and His glorious host
of angels, who have a power above Nature,
will be able to effect, when it shall seem good
to Him whom God has made visible Judge of
the world ? Remember what command He
had over the elements when He was in the
flesh in the lowest state of humiliation, and
what power He had over them, that for so long
time have been permitted to lord it in this
>72 PRECIOUS STONES.
grosser elementary world, whose chieftain is
called the prince of the air. What is it, then,
that He cannot do in His exalted estate, when
He returns to judgment in so exceeding great
majesty and glory, when He shall descend
with the sound of a trump, and face the earth
with His bright squadrons, and fill the whole
arch of heaven with innumerable legions of
His angels of light, the warm gleams of whose
presence are able to make the mountains to
reek and smoke, and to awake that fiery
principle, that lies dormant in the earth, into
a devouring flame. (Mystery of Godliness,
-b. 6, chap, ix.)
BISHOP WILKINS.
The Harmony of Providence. [WlLKINS,
born 1614, died 1672.] We cannot see the
whole frame of 'things, how sundry particular
events in a mutual relation do concur to make
up the beauty of the whole. He that can
discern only two or three wheels in a clock,
how they move one against another, would
PRECIOUS STOXES. 73
presently think that there were contrariety and
confusion in the work ; whereas he that be-
holds the whole frame, and discerns how all
those divers motions do jointly conduce to
the same end, cannot choose but acknowledge
a wise order in the contrivance of it. So,
likewise, is it in the fra me of times, where he
alone is fit to judge of particulars who under-
stands how they refer to the general. (A
Discourse on the Beauty of Providence, p. 52 ;
1649.)
RICHARD BAXTER.
God, All in ^//.[BAXTER, born 1615,
died 1691.] Know not, desire not, love not
any creature but purely as subordinate to
God ! Without Him, let it be nothing to you
but as the glass without the face, or scattered
letters without the sense, or as the corpse
without the soul : call nothing prosperity or
pleasure but His love ; and nothing adversity
or misery but His displeasure, and the causes
and fruits of it. Fear Him much, but love
74 PRECIOUS STONES.
Him more ! Let love be the soul and end of
every other duty ! It is the end and reason
of all the rest, but it has no end or reason but
its object. Think of no other heaven and
end and happiness of man, but love the final
act, and God the final object. (Instructions
for a Holy Life.}
Loving Christ. Christ will not take ser-
mons, prayers, fastings no, nor the giving our
goods, nor the burning our bodies instead of
love : and do we love Him, and yet care how
long we are from Him ? Was it such a joy to
Jacob to see the face of Joseph in Egypt?
And shall we be contented without the sight
of Christ in glory, and yet say we love Him ?
I dare not conclude that we have no love at
all when we are so loth to die ; but I dare
say, were our love more, we should die more
willingly : by our unwillingness to die, it ap-
pears we are little weary of sin. Did we take
sin for the greatest evil, we should not be
willing to have its company so long. (Sainfs
Best, 205.)
PRECIOUS STOKES. 75
RICHARD CUDWORTH.
&>a?. [CUD WORTH, born 1617, died 1688.]
Let us take heed we do not sometimes call
that zeal for God and his Gospel, which is
nothing else but our own tempestuous and
stormy passion. True zeal is a sweet, hea-
venly, and gentle flame, which maketh us
active for God, but always within the sphere
of love. It never calls for fire from heaven
to censure those who differ a little from us in
their apprehensions. It is like that kind of
lightning (which the philosophers speak of)
which melts the sword within, but singeth
not the scabbard : it strives to save the soul,
but hurteth not the body. (Sermons : 1 John
c. ii. v. 3, 4 ; fol. ; p. 60 ; edit. 1676.;
Holiness never forsaken by God. Let U3
not think Holiness, in the hearts of men here
in the world, is a forlorn, forsaken, outcast
thing from God, that he hath no regard of
Holiness, wherever it is, though ever so small;
if it be but hearty and sincere, it can no more
be cut off and discontinued from God, than a
76 PRECIOUS STONES.
sunbeam here upon earth can be broken off
from its intercourse with the sun, and be left
alone amid the mire and dirt of this world.
The sun may as well discard its own rays,
And banish them from itself, into some region
of darkness far more remote from it, where
they shall have no dependence at all upon it,
AS God can forsake and abandon Holiness in
the world, and leave it a poor orphan thing,
that shall have no influence at all from Him
to preserve and keep it. Holiness is some-
thing of God, wherever it is : it is an efflux
from Him, that always hangs upon Him, and
lives in Him : as the sunbeams, although they
.gild this lower world and spread their golden
wings over us, yet they are not so much here,
where they shine, as in the sun, from whence
they flow. God cannot draw a curtain be-
<twixt Himself and Holiness, which is nothing
but the splendour and shining of Himself : He
cannot hide His face from it : He cannot de-
sert it in the world. He that is once born of
God shall overcome the world, and the prince
of this world too, by the power of God in
.him. Holiness is no solitary, neglected thing:
PRECIOUS STONES. 77
it has stronger confederacies, greater alliances,
than sin and wickedness. It is in league
with God and the universe ; the whole crea-
tion smiles upon it; there is something of
God in it ; and, therefore, it must needs be a
victorious and triumphant thing. (Ibid : p.
61-62.)
C W L E Y.
True Reputation. [CowLEY, born 1618,
died 1667.] I love and commend a true
good fame, because it is the shadow of Virtue
not that it doth any good to the body
which it accompanies, but it is an efficacious
shadow ; and, like that of St Peter, cures the
diseases of others. (Essays ; Of Obscurity.)
The Good Man in a Crowd. Suppose we
were always and at all places armed and pro-
vided both against the assaults of hostility
and the mines of treachery, it will yet be but
an uncomfortable life to be ever in alarms .
though we were compassed round with fire to
defend us from wild beasts, the lodging would
78 PRECIOUS STONES.
be unpleasant, because we must always be
obliged to watch that fire, and to fear no less
the defects of our guard than the diligence of
our enemy. ( The Dangers of an Honest Man
in Company.')
Not Chance, but Providence. I have often
observed (with all submission and resignation
of spirit to the inscrutable mysteries of eter-
nal Providence), that when the fulness and
maturity of time is come that produces the
great confusions and changes in the world, it
usually pleases God to make it appear, by the
manner of them, that they are not the effects
of human force or policy, but of the Divine
justice and predestination ; and, though we
see a man, like that which we call " Jack of
the clock-house," striking, as it were, the hour
of that fulness of time, yet our reason must
needs be convinced that his hand is moved by
some secret, and to us that stand without, in-
visible direction. (Discourse on Cromwell.')
PRECIOUS STOyES. 79
JOHN SMITH.
Mechanical Christians. [SMITH, born 1618,
died 1652.] There are a sort of mechanical
Christians in the world, who, not finding re-
ligion acting like a living form within them,
satisfy themselves only to make an art of it,
and rather inform and actuate it than are in-
formed by it ; and setting it such bounds and
limits as may not exceed the short and scant
measures of their own home-born principles.
Then they endeavour to fit the motions of
their own minds, as so many examples, to it ;
and, it being a circle of their own making,
they can either enlarge or contract it, ac-
cordingly as they force their own minds and
dispositions to agree and suit with it. But
true religion, indeed, is no art, but an inward
nature that contains all the laws and mea-
sures of its motion within itself. A good
man finds not his religion without him, but
as a living principle within him. (The Ex-
cellency and Nobleness of True Religion.}
80 PRECIOUS STONEB.
The Divine Nature of the Human Soul.
All those discourses which have been written
of the soul's heraldry will not blazon it so
well as itself will do ; when we turn our eyes
in upon it, it will soon tell us its royal pedi-
gree and noble extraction, by those sacred
hieroglyphics which it bears upon itself.
(Select Discourses : Of the Immortality of the
Soul}
The Sacred Moral of Nature. And be-
cause all those scattered rays of loveliness
which we behold spread up and down, all
the world over, are only the emanations of
that inexhaustible light which is above, there
should we love them in all that, and climb up
always by those sunbeams unto the eternal
Father of lights. (The Excellency of True
Religion?)
BISHOP PATRICK.
liegard the End. [PATRICK, born 1626,
died 1707.] Moses his rod was a serpent till
he took it by the tail, and then it became
PRECIOUS STONES. 81
what it was before ; and if we lay hold of
things only by their end, we should find many
things that seem terrible and noxious to be
benign and salutiferous. (Heart's Ease :
p. 24, 1659.)
Heart's Ease taught by Nature. Compare
what thou hast not with what thou hast, and
see which is better. This will keep thee from
trouble for what thou wantest, and thy de-
sires shall not disquiet thee. Thou art poor,
but thou art well, and hast many good
friends ; or. perhaps, thou hast none ; but
thou hast all the host of heaven the sun,
moon, and stars, and all the elements, and the
providence of God, and the charity of all
well disposed people, as much as an other
man : thou mayest walk in thy neighbour's
fields, yea, even in thy enemies' ground, and
enjoy all the pleasures of the morning, and
recreate thyself with all the sweet odours,
and behold the beauty of all God's creatures,
and delight in that which God delights in
why shouldst thou be so distracted ? (Ibid :
p. 56.)
82 PRECIOUS STORES.
BISHOP KIDDER.
Reparation essential to Repentance. [KlD-
DER, born , died 1703.] Let no man
think God will hear him if he do not make
his brother amends for the wrong he hath
done him. We have a story in our books of
one Halyattes, that his soldiers did set on fire
the corn of the Milesians, and that the fire,
by the violence of the wind, caught hold of
the temple of Minerva and burnt it down. It
happened some time after this that Halyattes
falls sick, and sends to the oracle to know
what would be the success of his disease ; but
the messengers were told by the oracle that
they must not expect any answer till the tem-
ple which they had burned were first repaired.
Most certain it is that we shall have no re-
turn of our prayers from heaven, when we
confess and beg the pardon of our sin, unless
we do first make restitution where we have
wronged our brother. It cannot be thought
we have repented if we do not restore.
(Tracts of ihe Anglican Fathers; T. 11, p.
304.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 83'
JOHN HOWE.
The Fallen Condition of Man.^- [HOWE,
born 1630, died 1705.] That God hath
withdrawn Himself, and left this His temple
desolate, we have many sad and plain proofs
before us. The stately ruins are visible to
every eye that bear in their front, yet extant,
this doleful inscription " Here God once
dwelt." Enough appears of the admirable^
frame and structure of the soul of man to*
show His Divine Presence did sometimes re-
side in it : more than enough of vicious de-
formity to proclaim he is now retired and
gone. The lamps are extinct, the altar over-
turned ; the light and love are now vanished
which did, the one shine with so heavenly
brightness, the other burn with so pious fer-
vour ; the golden candlestick is displaced and
thrown away as a useless thing, to make
room for the throne of the prince of dark-
ness ; the same incense, which sent rolling up
in clouds its rich perfume, is exchanged for a
poisonous vapour. The comely order of this
house is turned all into confusion ; " tl.e
beauties of 'holiness " into noisome impuri-
G 2
84 PRECIOUS STONES.
ties ; the " house of prayer" into a " den of
thieves," and that the worst and most horrid
kind; for every lust is a thief, and every
theft, sacrilege ; continual rapine and robbery
are committed upon holy things. The noble
powers which were designed and dedicated to
divineeontemplation and delight, are alienated
to the service of the most despicable idols,
and employed unto vilest intentions and em-
' braces.
What have not the enemies done wickedly
iri the sanctuary ? How have they broken
down the carved work thereof, and that, too,
with -axes and hammers, the noise whereof
was not to be heard in building much less in
demolishing this sacred frame ! Look upon
the fragments of that curious sculpture which
ence adorned the palace of that great King ;
the relics of common notions; the- lively
prints of some undefaced truth ; the fair ideas
of things ; the yet legible precepts that relate
to practice. Behold ! with what accuracy
the broken pieces show these to have been
engraved by the finger of God, and how they
now lie torn and scattered, one in this dark
PRECIOUS STONES. 85
corner, another in that, buried in heaps of
dirt and rubbish ! There is not a system, an
entire table of coherent truths to be found, or
a frame of holiness, but some shivered par-
cels. (Christian Theology selected by Dunn ^
p. 132, 1836.)
RICHARD FLECKXOE.
Philosophic Serenity. [FLECKXOE born ,.
died 1678.] He cultivates his mind rather
like a garden than a field, delightfully, not
laboriously; with studies that may rather
render it gay and cheerful than melancholy
and sad; shunning all byways of doctrine
to avoid error, and all highways of the vul-
gar to avoid ignorance and viciousness : nor
puts he his mind on the rack of hope to ex-
tend them farther than to possible and easy
things, which, failing his expectation, he is
no more troubled than at seeing jugglers
play fast and loose. Lastly, not to live
stranger nor enemy to himself, he first makes
compact with his genius to lead him to no ill,,
and then follows it whatsoever it leads him,
86
PRECIOUS STONES.
to, doing just by it as by his horse, which he
is not still putting upon new ways, but only
spurs it when it goes on slowly in the old.
He can never be without pleasure in himself,
nor can any thing out of himself molest and
trouble him. Nor is this a happiness to be
^attained to but by long accustomance, and by
doing by our mind just as we do by our bo-
dies in time of pestilence that is, by care-
fully avoiding all commerce with those that are
. (Enigmatical Characters, 1658.)
ISAAC BARKOW.
The Ancient Saints and Heroes Contrasted.
[BARROW, born 1630, died 1677.] Examples
also do please the mind and fancy in contem-
plation of them, thence drawing a considera-
ble influence on practice. No kind of studious
entertainment doth so generally delight as
history, or the tradition of remarkable ex-
amples ; even those who have an abhorrency
and indifference to other studies (who have
no genius to apprehend the more intricate
subtleties of science, nor the patience to pur-
PRECIOUS STORES. 87
sue rational consequences) are yet often much
taken with historical narrations ; these strik-
ing them with a delectable variety of acci-
dents, with circumstantial descriptions, and
sensible representations of objects, do greatly
affect and delight their fancies ; especially the
relation of notable adventures and rare acci-
dents is wont to be attended with great
pleasure and satisfaction. And such are those
which present to us the lives and examples of
holy men. abounding with wonders of provi-
dence and grace ; no attempts so gallant, no
exploits so illustrious, as those which have
been achieved by the faith and patience, by
the prudence and courage, of the ancient
saints ; they do far surpass the most famous
achievements of pagan heroes. It was, I
dare say, more wonderful that Abraham with
his retinue of household servants should van-
quish four potent and victorious kings ; and
that Gideon, with three hundred armed men,
should discomfit a vastly numerous host, than
that Alexander, with a well-appointed army
of stout and expert soldiers, should overturn
the Persian empire. The siege of Jericho is
88 PRECIOUS STONES.
so far more remarkable than those most fa-
mous ones of Numantia and Saguntus, as it
is more strange that the blast of trumpets
and the noise of people shouting should de-
molish walls, than the shaking them with
rams, or discharging massy stones against
them. And he that carefully will compare
the deeds of Sampson and Hercules shall
find that one true exploit performed by the
former doth much in force and strangeness
surmount the twelve fabulous labours of the
other ; no triumphs, indeed, are compara-
ble to those of piety ; no trophies are so mag-
nificent and durable as those which victorious
faith erecteth ; that history, therefore, which
reports the res gestce, the acts and sufferings
of most pious men, must in reason be es-
teemed not only the most useful, but also the
most pleasant ; yielding the sweetest enter-
tainment to well-disposed minds, wherein we
see virtue expressed, not in bare idea only,
but in actual life, strength, motion ; in all its
beauty and ornaments ; than which no spec-
tacle can be more stately no object more
grateful can be presented to the discerning
PRECIOUS STONES. 89
eye of reason. (Sermon xxxi. : 1 Corinthians,
iv. 16.)
Resurrection of Christ. A man may suffer
his child to fall to the ground, and yet not
wholly lose his hold of him, but still keep it
in his power to recover and lift him up at his
pleasure. Thus the divine nature of Christ
did for a while hide itself from his humanity,,
but not desert it ; put it into the chambers of
death, but not lock the everlasting doors upon
it. The sun may be clouded and yet not
eclipsed and eclipsed but not stopped in his
course, and much less forced out of his
orb. It is a mystery to be admired that any
thing belonging to the person of Christ should
suffer ; but it is a paradox to be exploded
that it should perish. For, surely, that nature
which, diffusing itself throughout the universe,
communicates an enlivening influence to every
part of it, and quickens the least spire of
grass, according to the measure of its nature
and the proportion of its capacity, would not
wholly leave a -nature assumed into its bosom,
and what is more, into the very unity of the
90 PRECIOUS STONES.
divine person, breathless and inanimate, and
dismantled of its prime and noblest perfec-
tion. For life is so high a perfection of be-
ing, that, in this respect, the least fly or mite
is a more noble being than a star, and God
has expressly declared Himself not the God
of the dead but of the living, and this in res-
pect to the very persons of men ; but how
much more with reference to what belongs to
the person of His own Son ; for when natures
come to unite so near as mutually to inter-
change names and attributes, and to verify
the appellation by which God is said to be
man, and man to be God, surely man, so pri-
vileged and advanced, cannot for ever lie
under death, without an insufferable invasion
upon the entireness of that glorious Person,
whose perfection is as inviolable as it is in-
comprehensible. (Sermon for Easter Day :
2 Acts, 24.)
Goodness alone respected. God hath so or-
dereth it that honour is naturally consequent
on the honouring Him. God hath made
goodness a noble and a stately thing ; hath
PRECIOUS STONES. 91
impressed on it that beauty and majesty
which commands an universal love and vene-
ration, which strikes presently both a kindly
and an awful respect into the minds of all
men. Power may be dreaded, riches may be
courted, wit and knowledge may be admired ;
but only goodness is truly esteemed and
honoured. (Sermon : 1 Sam. ii. 30.)
Against Rash Judgment. A judge should
never pronounce final sentence but on good
grounds, after certain proof and on full convic-
tion. Not any slight conjecture or thin sur-
mise, any idle report or weak pretence, is
sufficient to ground a condemnation on : the
case should be irrefragably clear and sure be-
fore we determine on the worst side. " Judge
not (saith our Lord) according to the appear-
ance, but judge righteous judgment." The
Jews, seeing our Lord cure an infirm person
on the Sabbath-day, presently on that sem-
blance condemned him of violating the law,
not considering either the source of the law,
or the nature of His performance ; and this
He tenneth unrighteous judgment. Every
92 PRECIOUS STONES.
accusation should be deemed null, until, both
as to matter of fact and in point of right, it
be formally proved true; it sufficeth not to pre-
sume it may be so : to say, it seemeth thus,
doth not sound like the voice of a judge ;
otherwise, seeing there never is wanting some
colour of accusation, every action being liable
to some suspicion or sinister construction, no
innocence could be secure no person could
escape condemnation ; the reputation and in-
terest of all menliving would continually stand
exposed to inevitable danger. It is a rule of
equity and humanity, built on plain reason,
that rather a nocent person should be per-
mitted to escape, than that an innocent should
be constrained to suffer ; for the impunity of
the one is but an inconvenience the suffer-
ing of the other is a wrong : the punishment
of the guilty yieldeth only a remote probable
benefit the affliction of the blameless in-
volveth a near certain mischief: wherefore, it
is more prudent and more righteous to ab-
solve a man, of whose guilt there are probable
arguments, than to condemn any man upon
bare suspicion. (Sermon : Matt. vii. 1.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 93
SOUTH.
Man as created in the Image of God his
Understanding. [SOUTH, born 1633, died
1716.] It was then sublime, clear, and as-
piring, and, as it were, the soul's upper region
lofty and serene, free from the vapours and
disturbances of the inferior affections. It
was the leading, controlling faculty : all the
passions wore the colours of reason ; it did
not so much persuade, as command ; it was
not Consul, but Dictator ; discourse was then
almost as quick as intention ; it was nimble
in proposing, firm in concluding ; it could
sooner determine than now it can dispute.
Like the sun, it had both light and agility ; it
knew no rest, but in motion ; no quiet, but in
activity. It did not so properly apprehend,
as irradiate the object ; not so much find, as
make things intelligible. It did arbitrate
upon the several reports of sense ; and all
the varieties of imagination ; not like a drowsy
judge, only hearing, but directing their verdict.
In sum, it was agile, quick, and lively ; open
as the day, untainted as the morning, full of
PRECIOUS STONES.
the innocence and sprightliness of youth ; it
gave the soul a full and bright view into all
things ; and was not only the window, but it-
self the prospect. (Sermon : Genesis i. 27.)
BISHOP KEN.
Parallel between Daniel and St. John.
[KEN, born 1637, died 1710.] It was this
love of God which made His greatly beloved
Daniel prosperous in adversity, that gave him
freedom in captivity, friendship among ene-
mies, safety among infidels, victory over his
conquerors, and all the privileges of a native
in strange countries ; it was the love of God
that gave His greatly beloved "knowledge
and skill in all learning and wisdom, and un-
derstanding in all learning and dreams." It
was this love of God that delivered him in
dangers ; from the conspiracy and malide of
the Median princes ; from the fury of the
lions ; that sent one angel in the den to stop
their mouths ; and another angel at another
time to bring a prophet on purpose to feed
him ; that signally revenged him of his ene-
PRECIOUS STONES. 95
mies, and did by a miracle vindicate his in-
tegrity. It was the love of God that sent the
angel Gabriel to visit him, to be his interpre-
ter, to strengthen and comfort and encourage
him ; to reveal secrets to him, and to assure
him that his prayers were heard. It was the
love of God which gave him the spirit of pro-
phecy, that excellent spirit, that spirit of the
holy gods (as the Babylonians styled it), by
which he foretold the rise and period of the
four monarchies, the return of the captivity,
and wrote long beforehand the history of fu-
ture ages. But, beyond all this, it was the
love of God that presented him with a clearer
landscape of the Gospel than any other
prophet ever had : he was the beloved prophet
under the Old Dispensation, as John was the
beloved disciple under the Xew ; and, both
being animated by the same divine love, there
was a wonderful harmony between them ;.
both of them had miraculous preservations
one from the lions, the other from the burn-
ing cauldron: both engaged young in the
service of God, and consecrated their lives by
an early piety ; and both lived to a great and
D6 PRECIOUS STONES.
age to about an hundred years : both
had the like intimacy with God the like ad-
mittance into the most adorable mysteries
and the like abundance of heavenly visions :
both had the like lofty flights and ecstatic re-
velations. (Sermon preached at Whitehall,
1685.)
OWEN FELTHAM.
Companionship. [FELTHAM, born 1653,
died 1678.] Antisthenes used to wonder at
those who were curious in buying but an
earthen dish, to see that it had no cracks nor
inconveniences, and yet would be careless in
the choice of friends to take them with the
flaws of vice. Surely a man's companion is
a second genius to sway him to the white or
.bad. {Resolves : p. 211. 1631;)
Against great Eagerness. Those joys clasp
us with a friendlier arm, that steal upon us
when we look not for them. {Ibid: p. 29.)
Asking and Denying. Beware what thou
PRECIOUS STOXES. 97
askest, and beware what thou deniest; for,
if discretion guide thee not, there is a great
danger in both. We often by one request
open the windows of our heart wider than all
the endeavours of our observers can. It is
like giving of a man our hand in the dark,
which directs him better where we are than
either our voice or his own search may.
Deny not a just suit, nor prefer one that is
unjust : either, to a wise man, stamps un-
kindness in the memory. It is easier to bear
collected unkindness than that which we
meet in affronts. Ill questions are the mints
for worse answers. Our refusal is deservedly,
while our demands are either unfitting or
beyond the expedience of him that should
grant. Nor ought we to be offended with
any but ourselves when we have in such
requests transgressed the bounds of modesty ;
though in some I have known the denial of
O
one favour drowning the memory of many
fore-performed ones. (Ibid : p. 42.)
98 PRECIOUS STOXES.
SUTTOJT.
How to Ascend. [SuTTON, born 1565, died
1622.] Christ has taught us the true way
of ascending: He first descended and then
ascended. These were Christ's ascensions:
He ascended unto the mount to pray and
to teach ; He ascended the cross to weep,
the cross to suffer; and, after all, He ascended
heaven to reign in glory. These are the
true degrees of ascending. Firstly, we must
ascend to prayer : secondly, we must ascend
the mount to learn the way to blessedness :
thirdly, we must ascend the mount to con-
template of glory, as He did when He went
to be transfigured : fourthly, we must ascend
upon our carnal appetites to weep for our
sins : fifthly, we must ascend unto the cross
to be crucified unto the world : and so, last
of all, we shall ascend in good time, by the
grace of God, to rejoice with Christ in glory.
To all this, saith St. Bernard, may be an-
nexed this short form of ascending : First,
we must ascend to our heart that is, to the
knowledge of ourselves : then, in our heart
that is, to acknowledge our own infirmi-
PRECIOUS STOXES. 99
ties : next, from our heart that is, from the
love of ourselves : and, last of all, above our
heart that is, to the love of Christ. (Disce
Vivere : chap, xxix.)
ARCHBISHOP LAUD.
The Scriptures proved to Le Divine. [LAUD,
born 1573, died 1644.] To prove that the
Book of God, which we honour as His word,
is this necessary revelation of God and His
truth which must, and is alone able, to lead
in the way of blessedness or else the world
hath none comes in a cloud of .witnesses.
Some for the infidel and some for the be-
liever ; some for the weak in faith and some
for the strong ; some for all. For there first
comes in the tradition of the Church the
present Church ; so it is no heretical or
schismatical belief: then the testimony of
the former ages; so it is no new belief: then
the consent of times ; so it is no divided or
partial belief: then the harmony of the pro-
phets, and them fulfilled; so it is not a
U 2
100 PRECIOUS STONES.
devised but a forespoken belief: then the
success of the doctrine contained in this
book ; so it is not a belief stifled in the cradle,
but it hath spread through the world in de-
spite of what the world could do against it,
and increased, from weak and unbelieving
beginnings, to incredible greatness : then the
constancy of this truth ; so it is no modern
belief, for in the midst of the world's changes
it hath preserved its creed entire through
many generations : then there is nothing
carnal in the doctrine ; so it is a chaste be-
lief ; and all along it hath gained, kept, and
exercised more power upon the minds of men,
both learned and unlearned, in the increase
of learning and repression of vice, than any
moral philosophy or legal policy that ever
was. Then comes the inward light and ex-
cellency of the text itself; and so it is no
dark or dazzling belief.
And it is an excellent text ; for see the
riches of natural knowledge that are stored up
therein, as well as supernatural. Consider
how things quite above reason consent with
things reasonable. Weigh it well. What
PRECIOUS STOSES. 101
majesty lies there hid under humility : what
depth there is, with a perspicuity inimitable :
what delight it works in the soul that is de-
voutly exercised in it : here the sublime wits
find enough to employ them, while the sim-
plest want not enough to direct them. So far,
as it appears to me, the credit of Scripture to
be divine resolves finally into that faith which
we have touching God Himself, and in the
same order : for, as that, so this hath three
main grounds to which all are reducible.
The first is, the tradition of the Church; and
this leads us to a reverend persuasion of it :
the second is, the light of nature ; and this
shows us how necessary such a revealed
learning is, and that in no other way it can
be had ; nay, more, that all proofs brought
against any point of faith neither are nor
can be demonstrations, but solveable argu-
ments : the third is, the light of the text
itself, in conversing wherewith we meet with
the Spirit of God inwardly inclining our
hearts and sealing the full assurance of the
sufficiency of all there written ; and then,
and not before, we are certain that the Scrip-
102 PBECIOUS STONES.
ture is the word of God both by divine and
by in e i 1 ible proof. (Conference with Fisher.')
SIBBES.
A Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax.
[SiBBES, born 1577, died 1635.] This
bruised reed is a man that, for the most part,
is in some misery, as those were that came
to Christ for help, and by misery is brought
to see sin the cause of it ; for, whatsoever
pretences sin maketh, yet bruising or break-
ing is the end of it. He is sensible of sin
and misery even unto bruising ; and, seeing
no help in himself, is carried with restless
desire to have supply from another with
some hope, which a little raiseth him out of
himself to Christ, though he dareth not claim
any present interest of mercy: this spark of
hope, being opposed by doubtings and fears
arising from corruption, maketh him as
smoking flax : so that both these together, a
bruised reed and smoking flax, make up the
state of a poor distressed man such a one
PRECIOUS STONES. 103
as our Saviour Christ termeth poor in spirit
(Matt. v. 3) who seeth a want, and withal
seeth himself indebted to divine justice and
no means of supply from himself or the crea-
ture, and therefore mourns ; and, upon some
hope of mercy from the promise and ex-
amples of those that have obtained mercy, is
stirred up to hunger and thirst after it. ( The
Bruised Reed and Smokiny Flax, p. 18 ; Ed-
1838.)
The Temptations of the Saviour distin-
guished from His Disciples. There is a dif-
ference between Christ and us in this case,
by reason that Satan had nothing of his own
in Christ : his suggestions left no impression
at all in His holy nature ; but, as sparks
falling into the sea were presently quenched,
Satan's temptations of Christ were only sug-
gestions on Satan's part, and apprehensions
of the vileness of them on Christ's part : to
apprehend ill suggested by another is not ill :
it was Christ's grievance, but Satan's sin ;
but thus He yielded Himself to be tempted
that He might both pity us in our conflicts
104 PRECIOUS STONES.
and train us up to manage our spiritual
weapons as He did. Christ could have over-
come him by power, but He did it by argu-
ment; but, when Satan cometh to us, he
findeth something of his own in us, which
holdeth correspondency and hath intelligence
with him. There is the same enmity in
our nature to God and goodness, in some de-
gree, that is in Satan himself: whereupon his
temptations fasten for the most part .some
taint upon us. And if there wanted a devil
to suggest, yet sinful thoughts would arise
from within us : though none were cast in
from without, we have a mint of them within :
these thoughts, if the soul dwell on them so
long as to suck or draw from them and by
them any sinful delight, then they leave a
more heavy guilt upon the soul, and hinder
our sweet communion with God, and inter-
rupt our peace, and put a contrary relish into
the soul, disposing of it to greater sins. All
scandalous breakings-out are but thoughts at
the first. Ill thoughts are as little thieves
which, creeping in at the window, open the
door to greater : thoughts are seeds of action.
(Ibid. p. 60.)
PRECIOUS STONES. . 105
Jesus Christ our Prophet, Priest, and King.
There are three main defects in man since
the fall : there is ignorance and blindness :
there is rebellion in the will and affections ;
and in regard of his condition, by reason of
the sins of nature and life, a subjection to a
cursed state, to the wrath of God and eternal
damnation. Now, answerable to these three
grand ills, whosoever shall be ordained a
Saviour must provide proportionable reme-
dies for these: hereupon comes a threefold
office in Christ that is, ordained to save man,
to cure this threefold mischief and malady. As
we are ignorant and blind, He is a Prophet to
instruct us, to convince us o^the ill state we
are in, and then to convince us of the good
He intends us and hath wrought for us to
instruct us in all things concerning everlast-
ing comfort. He is such a Prophet as teacheth
not only the outward but the inward man :
He openeth the heart: He teacheth to do
the things He teacheth ; and, answerable to
the rebellion and sinfulness of our disposi-
tions, He is a King to subdue whatever is ill
in us, and likewise to subdue all opposite
10G . PRECIOUS STONES.
power without us: by little and little He
will trample all enemies under His feet, and
under our feet too, ere long. Now, as we
are cursed by reason of our sinful condition,
so He is a Priest to satisfy the wrath of God
for us : He ivas made a curse for us : He be<
came a servant, that being so He might die,
and undergo the cursed death of the cross ; not
only death, but a cursed death, and so His
blood might be an atonement as a Priest. So,
answerable to this threefold ill in us, you see
here is a threefold office in Christ.
First of all He is a Prophet: when He
was baptized the Spirit was put upon Him
as in Isaiah xli. to preach deliverance to the
captives. First, He preached wherefore He
came into the world, why God sent Him, and
discovered to the world the state they were
in ; and when He had preached as a Prophet
then as a Priest He died, and offered Him-
self a sacrifice. After death His kingly
office was most apparent ; for then He rose
again as a triumphant King over death and
all our enemies, and ascended in His tri-
umphant chariot to heaven, and there He sits
PRECIOUS STONES; 107
gloriously as a King on His throne at the
right hand of God ; so that, however, at His
baptism and before, when He was sanctified
in His mother's womb, He was both King,
Priest, and Prophet ; yet. in regard to the
order of manifestation, He manifested Him-
self first to be a Prophet, secondly a Priest,
and thirdly to be a King: for His kingly
office broke forth but seldom in the time of
His abasement ; sometimes it did to show
that He was ruler and commander of earth,
and sea, and devils : He wrought miracles,
but the glorious manifestation of His kingly
office was after His resurrection.
Now the fundamental, the chief, office to
which Ke was anointed by the Spirit, upon
winch the rest depends, was His priestly
office ; for wherefore was His teaching but
to instruct us what He must do and suffer
for us, and what benefit we have by His
sacrifice reconciliation with God, and free-
dom from the wrath of God, and right unto
life everlasting, by His obedience to the
cursed death of the cross. And how comes
He to be a King to rule over us by His holy
108 PRECIOUS STONES.
Spirit and to have a right unto us ? but
because as a Priest He died for us first. He
washed us with His blood, He purged us
with His blood, and then He made us kings
and priests (Rev. i.) All other benefits came
from this He washed our souls in His blood
first. Whatsoever we have from God is es-
pecially from the great work of Christ, as
a Priest abasing Himself and dying for us,
and thereupon he conies to be a Prophet
and a King.
Note this by the way : Christ's priestly
office includes two branches His sacrificing
Himself for us : a priest was to offer sacrifice
and to pray for the people; our Saviour
Christ did both in the days of His humilia-
tion : in His prayer in John xvii. there, as a
Priest, He commends His sacrifice to God
before He died ; and now He is in heaven,
making intercession for us to the end of the
world, He appears for us there. We see,
then, to what purpose God put the Spirit
upon Christ to enable Him to be a Prophet,
a Priest, and a King ; and, thereupon, to take
PRECIOUS STONES. 109
away those mischiefs and evils that we were
subject and enthralled to, so that we have a
supply for all that may any way abase us and
cast us down, in the all-sufficiency that is in
Christ Jesus, who was anointed with the
Spirit for this end. (A Description of Christ,
pp. 272-5 ; Ed. 1838.)
Faith, how manifested. Now, this faith is
manifested either by itself reflecting upon
itself the light of faith, discovering both itself
and other things, or by the cause of it, or by
the effect, or by all. Faith is often more
known to us in the fruit of it than in itself
as in plants, the fruits are more apparent
than the sap and root. But, the more settled
knowledge is from the cause, as when I know
I believe ; because in hearing God's gracious
promises opened and offered unto me. the
Spirit of God carrieth my soul to cleave to
them as mine own portion. Yet the most
familiar way of knowledge of our estates is
from the effects to gather the cause the
cause being oftentimes more remote and spi-
ritual the effects more obvious and visible.
110 PRECIOUS STONES.
All the vigour and beauty in nature which
we see comes from a secret influence from
the heavens which we see not: in a clear
morning we may see the beams of the sun
shining upon the tops of hills and houses
before we can see the sun itself. (The Sou? s
Conflict, p. 17; Ed. 1837.)
Trust in God. It cannot but bring strong
security to the soul to know that, in all
variety of changes and intercourse of good
and bad events, God is our God ; hath such
a disposing hand ; whatsoever befalls us, all
serves to bring God's electing love and
our glorification together. God's providence
serveth His purpose to save us. All suffer-
ings, all blessings, all ordinances, all graces,
all common gifts nay, our very falls, yea,
Satan himself, with all his instruments as
over-mastered and ruled by God, have this
injunction upon them, to further God's in-
tendment to us and a prohibition to do us no
harm. Augustus taxed the world for civil
ends ; but God's providence used this as a
meana for Christ to be born at Bethlehem.
PRECIOUS STOXES. Ill
Ahasuerus could not sleep, and, therefore,
calls for the Chronicles, the reading of which
occasioned the Jews' delivery. God often dis-
poseth little occasions to great purposes ;
and by those very ways, whereby proud men
have gone about to withstand God's counsels,
they have fulfilled them. {Hid: p. 161 ; Ed.
1837.)
The Method of Trusting in God. By prayer
and holy thoughts stirred up in the use of
the means, we shall feel divine strength in-
fused and conveyed into our souls to trust.
The more care we ought to have to maintain
our trust in God, because, besides the hard-
ness of it, it is a radical and fundamental
grace : it is, as it were, the mother root and
great vein whence the exercise of all graces
have their beginning and strength. The
decay of a plant, though it appears first from
the withering of the twigs and branches, yet
it arises chiefly from a decay in the root.
So the decay of grace may appear to the view,
first in our company, carriage, and speeches ;
but the primitive and original ground of the
112 PRECIOUS STONES.
same is weakness of faith in the heart :
therefore it should be our wisdom especially
to look to the feeding of the root. We must
(1) look that our principles and foundation
be good ; and (2), build strongly upon them ;
and (3), repair our building every day, as
continual breaches shall be made upon us
either by corruptions or temptations from
within or without; and we shall find that
the main breaches of our lives arise either
from false principles or doubts, or mindless-
ness of those that are true. All sin is a
turning of the soul from God to some other
seeming good; but this proceeds from a
former turning of the soul from God by dis-
trust. (Ibid: p. 195.)
JACKSON".
Patience, the Strength of Genius. [JACKSON,
born 1579, died 1640.] Generally, as blunt
irons thoroughly heated pierce further into
hard bodies than cold edge-tools, so wits in
themselves not the acutest, whilst accom-
PRECIOUS STONES. 113
panied with ardour of affection, conceive
most acutely and deeply of matters much
affected, and will go through such difficulties
as would turn the edge of the best wits liv-
ing, not thus backed or fortified. Nor is it
the nimbleness of conceit or apprehension,
but the relenting temper of inbred desire
and incessant sway or working of secret in-
stinct, which brings the seeds of knowledge
to just growth and maturity : as those plants
prosper best, not which shoot out fastest or
flourish soonest, but such as have the sound-
est roots and sappiest stems. (Works: Book
v., chap, li.)
SELDEX,
Measure of Tilings. [SELDEX, born 1584j
died 1054]. We measure from ourselves ;
and, as things are for our use and purpose,
so we approve them. Bring a pear to the
table that is rotten, we cry it down : 'tis
nought ; but bring a medlar that is rotten,
I
114 PRECIOUS STONES.
and 'tis a fine thing ; and yet I'll warrant
you the pear thinks as well of itself as the
medlar does. We measure the excellency of
other men by some excellency we conceive to
be in ourselves. Nash, a poet, poor enough
(as poets used to be), seeing an alderman
with his gold chain upon his great horse, by
way of scorn said to one of his companions,
" Do you see yon fellow, how big he looks?
why that fellow cannot make a blank verse !"
Nay, we measure the goodness of God from
ourselves: we measure His goodness, His jus-
tice, His wisdom, by something we call just,
good, or wise in ourselves ; and, in so doing,
we judge proportionably to the country-
fellow in the play, who said, if he were a
king, he would live like a lord, and have peas
and bacon every day and a whip that cried
"slash." (Table Talk, 121).
HALES OF ETON.
Feel for All [HALES, born 1584, died
1656.] I confess, because I wish well- to
PRECIOUS STONES. 115
all, I am willing that all should reap some
benefit by my text : Him that is weak in
the faith receive, fyc., Rom. xiv. 1. As, there-
fore, the woman in the Gospel, who, in touch-
ing only the hem of Christ's garment, did
receive virtue to cure her disease, so all weak
persons whatsoever, though they seem to
come behind and only touch the hem of my
text, may peradventure receive some virtue
from it to redress their weakness. Nay, as
the king in the Gospel that made a feast and
willed his servants to go out to the highway-
side, to the blind and the lame, and force them
in that his house might be full so what lame
or weak person soever he be, if I find him
not in my text, I will go out and force him
in that the doctrine of my text may be full,
and that the goodness of a Christian man
may be like the widow's oil, in the Book of
Kings, that never ceased running so long as
there was a vessel to receive it. Wherefore,
to speak in general, there is no kind of men,
of what life, of what profession, of what
estate and calling soever, though he be an
heathen, an idolator, unto whom the skirts
I 2
116 PRECIOUS STONES,
of Christian compassion do not reach.
(Golden Remains}.
MEDE.
God's Presence in Sacred Places. [MEDE,
born 1586, died 1638]. This specification
of the Divine Presence, whereby God is said
to be in one place more than another, I sup-
pose (under correction) to consist in His train
or retinue. A king is there where His court
is where His train and retinue are ; so God
the Lord of Hosts is there specially present
where the heavenly guard, the blessed angels,
keep their sacred station and rendezvous.
That this is consonant to the revelation of
holy Scripture, I show, first, from the collec-
tion or inference which the patriarch Jacob
makes upon that divine union of his at
Bethel ; where, having seen a ladder reach-
ing from heaven to earth, and the angel of
God ascending and descending upon it,
" Surely (said he), the Lord is in this place?
PRECIOUS STONES. 117
and I knew it not : how dreadful is this
place ! It is no other but the house of God,
even the gate of heaven" that is, heaven's
hall of judgment, heaven's court namely,
because of the angels ; for the gate was wont
to be the judgment-hall, and the place where
kings and senators used to sit, attended by
their guard and ministers. Secondly, I prove
it from that interpretation, expressively used
in the New Testament, of the Lord's descent
upon Mount Sinai where the law was given,
intimating that the specification of the Pre-
sence of the Divine Majesty there also con-
sisted in the angelical retinue there encamp-
ing. For so St. Stephen (Acts vii. 53)
You " who have received the law by the dis-
position of angels, and have not kept it."
St. Paul, twice (1 Gal. iii. 19) "The law
was added because of transgressions ordained
by angels in the hand of a Mediator :" and
again (Heb. ii. 2), he calls the law " the word
spoken by angels." Howbeit, in the story
itself, we find no such thing expressed, but
only that the Lord descended upon the Mount
in a fiery and smoky cloud, accompanied
118 PRECIOUS STONES,
with thunder and lightning, with an earth-
quake and the voice of a trumpet. Whence,
then, should this expression of St. Stephen
and the Apostle proceed, but from a supposi-
tion that the special Presence of the Divine
Majesty, wheresoever it is said to be, consisted
in the encamping of His sacred retinue, the
angels, for that of Himself. He who filleth
the heaven and the earth could not descend,
nor be in one place more than another. Yea :
all the apparitions of the Divine Majesty in
Scripture are described by this retinue.
That of the Ancient of Days coming to judg-
ment (Dan. vii. 10) " Thousand thousands
ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times
ten thousand stood before Him " to wit, of
angels. Whence we read in the Gospel
that Christ our Saviour shall come in' the
glory of His Father that is, with an host of
angels, as the Holy Ghost in the same place
Himself expounds it; for glory here signi-
fies the presence of the Divine Majesty.
In the same style, of the same appearing,
prophesied Enoch, the seventh from Adam
(Ju.de, verse 14) " Behold, the Lord cometh
PRECIOUS STORES. 119
with His holy myriads," or " ten thousands ;"
for so it ought to be rendered ; a like expres-
sion, whereunto of the Divine presence we
shall find in Moses's blessing (Deut. xxxiii.
2) " The Son (said he) came from Sinai
unto them (i.e., unto Israel), and rose up
from Sier unto them : He shined forth from
Mount Paran : He came with His holy ten
thousands or holy myriads (for so it should
be translated, then it follows) from His
right hand went a fiery law for them.'*
From whence, perhaps, that notion of the
Jewish doctors, followed by St. Stephen
and the Apostle, that the law, as given by
angels, had its beginning. And thus you have
heard out of Scripture what that is, whereby
the special Presence of the Divine Majesty
is (as I suppose) defined that is, wherein
it consists namely, such as is applicable to
all places wherein He is said to be thus
present, even to heaven itself, His throne and
seat of glory, the proper place (as every
one knows) of angelical residence. (Works,
t. i., b. ii).
The Reformed Church. When gold is
120 PRECIOUS STONES.
mixed with a greater quantity of counterfeit
metal, so that of both becomes one mass or
lump, though each metal still retains and
keeps its nature diverse from the other, yet
can they not be outwardly discerned asunder
by the eye. But, when the refiner comes
and severs them, then will each metal appear
in his own outside and in his proper colours,
whereby they are easily discerned asunder,
one from the other. Such must the state of
the Church needs be when an apostacy shall
rise out of the bowels thereof. And such do
we affirm was the state of the Church of
Christ, in that great prevailing apostacy
from which we are separated. The purer
metal of the Christian body was not out-
wardly discernible from the base and coun-
terfeit while one outside covered them both.
But when the time for refining came, then
was our Church not first founded in the
faith (God forbid !} but a part of the Chris-
tian body, newly refined from such corrup-
tions as time had gathered. As gold refined
begins not then first to be gold, though it
began first to be refined; so our Church
began, not a hundred years ago, to be a
PRECIOUS STONES. 121
Church; though then it first began to be a
Reformed Church. ( Discourses),
BISHOP COSIN.
The Calendar of the Church. [Cosix, born
1594, died 1672.] The chief use of it in the
Church is to preserve a solemn memory, and
to continue in their due time sometimes a
weekly and sometimes an annual commemo-
ration of those excellent and high benefits
which God, both by Himself, His Son, and
His blessed Spirit, one undivided Trinity,
has bestowed upon mankind for the founding
of that Christian religion which we now pro-
fess. And this faith of ours, being no other
than the very same wherein the holy angels
are set to succour us, and which the glorious
company of the apostles, the noble army of
martyrs, and the goodly fellowship of other
God's saints and servants men famous in
their generation before us have some main-
tained with the sanctity of their lives, and
some sealed with the innocency of their
122 PRECIOUS STONES.
deaths : it is for this cause that the names
of those holy and heavenly saints are still
preserved in the calendar of the Church,
there to remain upon record and register (as
of old time they did) ; where they might also
stand as sacred memorials of God's mercy
towards us as forcible witnesses of His an-
cient truth as confirmations of the faith
which we now profess to be the same that
their's then was as provocations to that
piety which they then practised and as
everlasting records to show whose blessed
servants they were on earth that are now
like the angels of God in heaven. (Z)ey0-
tions.)
QUARLES.
Against Sloth. [ QUARLES, born 1592, died
1644.] How presumptuously hast thou
transgressed the express commandments of
thy God ! How hast thou dashed thyself
against His judgments ! How hath thy un-
deserving hand usurped thy diet, and wearest
on thy back the wages of the painful soul !
PRECIOUS STONES. 123
Art thou not condemned to rags, to famine,
by Him whose law commanded thee to la-
bour ? And yet thou pamperest up thy sides
with stolen food and yet thou deckest thy
wanton body with unearned ornaments;
whilst they that spend their daily strength
in their commanded callings (whose labour
gives them interest in them) want bread to
feed and rags to clothe them. Thou art no
young raven, my soul no lily ! Where abi-
lity to labour is, there Providence meets ac-
tion and crowns it. He that forbids to cark
for to-morrow denies bread to the idleness of
to-day. Consider, O my soul, thy own de-
linquency, and let employment make thee
capable of thy God's protection. The bird
that sits is a fair mark for the fowler ; while
they that use the iving escape the danger.
Follow thy calling, and Heaven will follow
thee with His blessing. What thou hast
formerly omitted, present repentance may re-
deem ; and what judgments God hath threat-
ened, early petitions may avert. (Judgment
and Mercy fur Afflicted Souls, p. 72; Ed. 1807.)
The Worldly Man's Talk with Himself,
124 PRECIOUS STONES.
How sweet a feast is, till the reckoning
come ! A fair day ends often in a cold
night, and the road that's pleasant ends in
hell. If worldly pleasures had the promise
of continuance, prosperity, were some com-
fort ; but in this vicissitude of good and evil,
the prolonging of adversity sharpens it. It
is no common thing to enjoy two heavens :
Dives found it in the present, Lazarus in the
future. Hath thy increase met with no da-
mage ? Thy reputation with no scandal ?
Thy pleasure with no cross? Thy prospe-
rity with no adversity ? Presume not. God's
checks are symptoms of His mercy ; but His
silence is the harbinger of judgment. Be
circumspect and provident. Hast thou a fair
summer ? Provide for a hard winter. The
world's river ebbs alone it flows not. He
that goes merrily with the stream must bale
up. Flatter thyself no longer in thy pros-
perous sin ; but be truly sensible of thy own
presumption. Look seriously into thy ap-
proaching danger, and humble thyself with
contrition. If thou procure sour herbs, God,
will provide His passover. {Ibid : p. 107.)
The Censorious Man Warned. Has thy
PRECIOUS STOXES. 125
brother a beam in his eye, and hast thou no
mote in thine ? Clear thine own, and thou
wilt see better to cleanse his. If a thief be
in his candle blow it not out, lest thou
wrong the flame ; but if thy snuffers be of
gold, snuff it. Hath he offended thee ? for-
give him : hath he trespassed against the
congregation? reprove him : hath he sinned
against God ? pray for him. O, my soul,
how uncharitable hast thou been ! How pha-
risaically hast thou judged ! Being sick of
the jaundice, how hast thou censured another
yellow, and with blotted fingers made his
blur the greater ! How has the pride of
thine own heart blinded thee towards thy-
self ! how quick-sighted to another ! Thy
brother has slipped, but thou hast fallen, and
hast blanched thy own impiety with the pub-
lishing his sin. Like a fly thou stingest his
sores, and feedest on his corruption. Jesus
came eating and drinking and was judged a
glutto n John came fasting, and was chal-
lenged with being a devil. Judge not, lest
thou be judged : malign not thy brother,
lest God laugh at thy destruction. Wouldst
126 PRECIOUS STONES.
thou escape the punishment ? judge thyself.
Wouldst thou avoid the sin ? humble tliy-
self.(Ibid: p. 132.)
The Pestilence and its Terrors. How is
the language of death heard in every street,
which, by continual passing bells, proclaims
mortality in every ear ! How many, at this
instant, lie groaning in their sick beds and
marked for death, whilst others that lived
yesterday are now marked out for evening
burial ! How many that are now strong and
healthful, and laying up for many years, are
destined for the enlargement of the next
week's bill ! How many are now preparing
to secure their lives by flight, who, whilst
they run from the tyranny of their fear, fly
into the bosom of danger ! What air what
diet what antidote, can promise safety?
What shield can guard the angry angel's
blow ? What rhetoric can persuade the
heaven-commanded messenger to abate the
fury of his resolute arm ? It is an arrow
that flies by day yet who can see it ? It is
a terror that strikes by night and who can
PRECIOUS STOXES. 127
escape it ? It is the pestilence that walketh
in darkness and who can shun it ? The
strength of youth is no privilege against it ;
the soundness of a constitution is no exemp-
tion from it ; the sovereignty of drugs cannot
resist it : where it lists, it wounds ; and when
it wounds, it kills. It is God's artillery, and,
like Himself, respects no person. The rich
man's coffers cannot bribe it: the skilful
artist cannot prescribe against it : the black
magician cannot charm it. My soul, into
what a calamity art thou plunged ! With
what an enemy art thou beleaguered ? What
opposition can'st thou make ? What auxili-
aries canst thou call in ? How many bad
copies of thy destruction are daily set before
thee ? How continually is thy death acted
by others to thee ? What comfort hast thou
in that life which every minute threatens ?
What art thou but a man condemned, ex-
pecting execution ? And how is the bitterness
of thy death multiplied by the quality of thy
fears ? Were it a sickness whose distractions
took not away thy means of preparation, it
were an easy calamity: were it a sickness
128 PRECIOUS STONES.
whose contagion dissolved not the comforta-
ble bonds of sweet society, it were but half a
misery ; but, as it is sudden, solitary, in-
curable what so terrible what so comfort-
less ! Sink not beneath thy fears : thy de-
liverance is God's royalty, and under His
wing is thy salvation : in the midst of danger
no danger shall befal thee. Neither shall the
plague come nigh thy dwelling. (Ps. xci. 10).
Psalm xci. 1, 3, 4, 5. Whoso dwelleth in
the secret of the Most High shall abide in the
shadow of the Almighty. Surely he will de-
liver thee from the snare of the hunter, and
from the noisome pestilence ; he will cover thee
under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under
his feathers ; his truth shall be thy shield and
thy buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid of the
arrow thatjlieth by day, nor of the plague that
destroyeth by noon-day. A thousand shall fall
at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right
hand ; but it shall not come nigh thee.
And can the noise of death so fright thee in
the street, and the cause of death not move
thee in thy bosom ? Shall passing-bells tolling
PRECIOUS STONES. 129
for dying men affiict thee, and not the judg-
ments of the living God affright thee ? Shall
the weekly bills of a silly parish clerk more
move thee, than the sacred oracles of a holy
minister ? Shall the plague, inflicted upon
others, more startle thee than many plagues
denounced upon ; thyself ? Be wise : avoid
the cause, and thou shalt prevent the effect :
be afraid of sin, and thou needest not fear
the punishment. Fearest thou the infection ?
fly from it ; but whither ? Under the wings
of the Almighty : but thy sins deny protec-
tion there ? Then nail them to thy Sa-
viour's cross. Fearest thou yet ? O, hast
thou so long subsisted under thine own pro-
tection, and clarest thou not venture under
His ? Can there be a sanctuary more sure,
a protection more safe ? Fearest thou death
under the wings of the God of life ? or danger
under, the shadow of the Almighty? But
the suddenness of that death denies prepara-
tion : His wings continually prepare thee : it
banishes all thy friends, and in them thy com-
fort. When thou hast God to thy friend, what
130 PRECIOUS STONES.
comfort canst thou want that may not be
found by prayer l(ffld, pp. 292-297).
A. Gradual Change of Character the most
Lasting. Be not too rash in breaking an in-
convenient custom : as it was gotten, so leave
it by degrees. Danger attends upon too
sudden alterations. He that pulls down a
bad building by the great, may be ruined by
the fall ; but he that takes it down brick by
brick may live to build a better. (.Enchi-
ridion).
HERBERT.
TJie Religious Man a Judge of Himself.
[HERBERT, born 1593, "died 1635.] There
is a double state of a Christian even in this
life the one military, the other peaceable.
The military is, when we are assaulted with
temptations either from within or from with-
out. The peaceable is, when the devil for a
PRECIOUS STONES. 131
time leaves us, as he did our Saviour, and the
angels minister to us their food, even joy, and
peace, and comfort in the Holy Ghost. These
two states were in our Saviour, not only in
the beginning of His preaching, but after-
wards: also, as Matt. xxii. 35, He was
tempted ; and, Luke x. 21, He rejoiced in
Spirit ; and they must be likewise in all that
are His. Now the parson, having a spiritual
judgment, according as he discovers any of
his flock to he in one or the other state, so
lie applies himself to them. Those that he
finds in the peaceable state he adviseth to be
very vigilant, and not to let go the reins as
soon as the horse goes easy. Particularly he
counselleth them to two things first, to take
heed lest their guilt betray them (as it is apt
to do) to a coldness and carelessness in their
devotions, but to labour still to be as fervent
in Christian duties as they remember them-
selves were when affliction did blow the coals ;
secondly, not to take the full compass and
liberty of their peace ; not to eat of all those
dishes at table which even their present
health otherwise admits ; nor to store their
K 2
132 PRECIOUS STONES.
house with all those furnitures which even
their present plenty of wealth otherwise ad-
mits ; nor, when they are among them that
are merry, to extend themselves to all that
mirth which the present occasion of wit and
company otherwise admits ; but to put
bounds and hoops to their joys : so will they
last the longer, and, when they depart, re-
turn the sooner. If we would judge our-
selves, we should not be judged. ( A Priest to
the Temple, ch. xxxiv., 1652.)
HILL.
Death a Bringer of Repose. [HiLL, born
-, died .] Is it not, then, think you,
a great folly that men are so unwilling to
think of death ? Questionless it is. We see
the mariner with joy thinks of the haven :
the labourer is glad to see the evening : the
soldier is not sorry when his warfare is ac-
complished : and shall we be grieved when
the days of sin are ended 2 It seemeth by this
PRECIOUS STONES. 133
which you have said that this life of ours is
very troublesome ; for we are mariners, our
haven is happiness : travellers, our journey is
to Paradise : labourers, our hire is heaven :
and soldiers, our conquest is at death. Is,
then, our life both miserable and changeable ?
Yea, verily, for it is compared to a pilgrimage,
in which is uncertainty : a flower, in which
is mutability : a smoke, in which is vanity ;
an house of clay, in which is misery : a
weaver's shuttle, in which is volubility : a
shepherd's tent, in which is variety : a ship
on the sea, in which is celerity : a mariner,
who sitting, standing, sleeping, or waking,
ever saileth on : a shadow, which is nothing
to the body : to a thought, whereof we have
thousands in one day : to a dream, whereof
we have millions in one night ; to vanity,
which is nothing in itself: and to nothing,
which hath no being in the world (Psalm
xxxix. 5). If all this be true, as it must
needs be, because God hath said it, the hour
of death is far better than the day of our
birth. Is it so ? It is ; and that for these
reasons : (1). By it we are freed from many
134 PRECIOUS STONES.
present miseries (Rev. xiv. 13). (2). We are
delivered from many future calamities (Isaiah
Ivii. 2.) (3). Our souls are received into
glory (Luke xxiii. 43). (4). Our bodies are
reserved to like glory (Phil. iii. 20). (5).
That wise man Solomon thought so. (G).
That holy man Paul wished so (Phil. i. 23).
{The Pathway of Piety, p. 113., 1629).
LIGHTFOOT.
Bible Mysteries Han's Checks. [LiGiiT-
FOOT, born 1602, died 1675]. Men, indeed,
have made an obscure Bible ; but God never
did. As Solomon speaks. God made man
righteous, but they found out sundry inven-
tions. So God made the Bible plain as to
the main of it ; but men have found out in-
ventions of allegorizing, scepticizing, cavil-
ling, that would turn light into darkness ;
"but that " the light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehends it not," " That
PRECIOUS STONES. 135
which God hath sanctified, do not thou call
common ;" and that which God hath made
plain, do not thou darken nay, do not thou
say it is dark. How plain as to the general
is the history of Scripture ! How plain the
commands, exhortations, threatenings, pro-
mises, comforts, that are written there ! Take
a sunbeam and write, and is it possible to
write clearer ?
Those difficulties that are in Scripture
which indeed are not few are not to drive
us from the study of the Scriptures, as the
inference would be made ; but they are of
another kind of aim and tendency. They
are not unriddleable riddles and tiring-irons
never to be untied ; but they are divine and
majestical sublimities : not to check our
study of Scriptures, or of them, but to check
our self-confidence of our own wit or wisdom.
They are not to drive us from the holy
ground where God shines in majesty in the
burning bush, but to teach us to put off our
shoes at the holy ground. ( Works, t. vii.,
p. 214).
136 PRECIOUS STONES.
WHICHCOT.
ApJwrisms. [WHICHCOT, born 1609, died
1683.] It is not religion for a man to act all
the days of his life upon the principles of
his education. {Moral and Religious Apho-
risms, 1753.)
A great deal of time is contracted in op-
portunity, which is the flower of time.
(Ibid.)
In many cases it is very hard to fix the
bounds of good and evil, because these part,
as day and night, which are separated by
twilight. (Ibid.)
There ought to be a sovereignty of mind
and understanding above ^ sense and affection.
We ought to use the means and enjoy the
end. Grace is more than bodily temper, com-
plexion, and constitution. A man existing
in time ought to consider himself as lasting
to eternity. (Select Sermons, p. 136 ; Ed.
1698,}
PRECIOUS STONES. 137
GOODMAX.
God's Foreknowledge and, Maris Salva-
tion. [GOODMAN, born , died .]
Then we shall easily be led into this scrip-
tural hypothesis of the Divine decrees viz.,
that as He decreed from all eternity to send
His Son to be the Saviour of the world, so
He then also determined that as many as
should believe on Him should be saved,
and such as did not so, should be damned ;
and then, what if we should find it to follow,
from the nature of God's omniscience, that
He must foreknow the individual persons
that shall be sailed or damned ? Or, from the
nature of His determinations, that only such
and no other can be saved namely, those
He hath decreed to it : yet then it will be
evidently to no purpose to gaze up to God's
decrees ; for then, whatever hath been writ-
ten in the archives of heaven, it is certain
it cannot contradict this that if I believe
and repent, and become a good and holy man,
I shall be saved, or otherwise I shall be
damned ; and then all is plain before me, for
in this case I have nothing further to do but
138 PRECIOUS STONES.
to make use of the means of grace wiiicli God
affords me, and to look into my own heart
and life for my evidences of heaven.
Thus, as the wise Persian, who sooner found
the sun to be upon the horizon by turning
himself towards the western hills, than he
that, fixing his eyes upon the East, expected to
see the sun itself so we shall sooner find the
beams of Divine favour in the reverse and
reflection of them upon our own souls, than
by a presumptuous prying into His secret
purposes. And the consideration of truth
will engage men in all care and caution, in
all diligence and humility, in the use of
means, till they gradually improve into a
state of holiness and repose here, and to
the assurance of the kingdom of heaven here-
after ; and this is the course which the apos-
tle leads us to (2 Tim. ii. 19.) " The foun-
dation of God standeth sure, having this seal
the Lord knoweth them that are His ; and
let every one that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity." As if He had said
" It is true, indeed, God knows from eternity
whom He intends to save, and all such shall
PRECIOUS STONES. 139
eventually be saved and none else ; but our
hope and comfort cannot be built upon un-
known principles : such as are only recorded
in heaven, but upon the counterpart of an
holy life, or a conformity to those conditions
which God hath expressed in His Gospel, as
a copy from the original kept in His own
bosom." ( T/ie Old Religion Demonstrated,
p. 64.)
Presumptuous Professors. There is a
sort of men who seem to be mighty zealous
of religion ; but their heart breaks out wholly
in this way, that they fill the place wher-
ever they are with noise and clamour, with
dust arid smoke. Nothing can be said in
their presence, but instantly a controversy
is started. Scarcely anybody is orthodox
enough for them ; for they spin so fine a
thread, and have such cobweb divinity, that
the least brush against it is not to be en-
dured ; and yet withal, they are as positive
and decretal in their assertions that the Pope
himself is nobody to them. One would think
they were privy councillors of heaven, they
140 PRECIOUS STONES.
define with so great confidence what will,
and what will not please God. (J. Winter
Evening Conference, p. 61 ; llth Ed. 1720.)
Lip-talk and Heart-talk about Religion.
It is certain these two are as different
things as sense and nonsense, or as life and
varnish ; so that very paint and pageantry
bears evidence of the excellence of that sin-
cerity which I am recommending Do
not you observe that nothing so much dis-
parages a picture, as the presence of him for
whom it was drawn ? Life hath a thousand
vigours and beauties, which no hand of the
painter can reach and display. So hath spi-
ritual life when it puts forth itself a spirit,
a warmth, an air or whatever you will call
it, which cannot be so imitated, but it will
shame and detect the rival. The great mis-
chief of the world therefore, and the only
security of hypocrisy, is, that the truth and
life disappear, and give its conterfeit the stage
entirely to act upon ; but let that appear and
confront its adversary, and hypocrisy will be
sensible of an unequal match, and blush or
PRECIOUS STONES. 141
withdraw itself. When men that feel the
power of religion in their own souls will be
persuaded to express themselves habitually,
manly, and judiciously, they will baffle and
confound all theatrical pretenders to religion.
(Ibid. p. 83.)
Our Saviour's Example within Doors.
I observe Him applying every accidental
occurrence to His holy purposes, as it
were by a kind of chymistry, separating the
gross matter and subliming ordinary affairs
to heavenly Doctrine ; insomuch that there
were scarcely any common affair of life
such as eating, or drinking, or recreation
no disease or infirmity of the body ; no trade
and occupation, such as merchandise or hus-
bandry ; no building or planting, ploughing
or sowing ; nay, not so mean employment,
as women's leavening their bread, grinding
at the mill, or swe3ping an house, but He
spiritualised them, and applied them to His
designs. Now, if we would learn of Him,
we might with great ease and without all
violence, surprise men into religion; and
142 PRECIOUS STONES.
not only at every turn introduce pious dis-
course, but render the subject of it intelligi-
ble to the meanest capacities ; and withal, by
those sensible resemblances, give such lively
touches upon the minds of men, as that what
we delivered upon those occasions would
stick and remain with them.
And there is no great pains or skill required
for the doing of this : the principal requisite
to it is, a zeal of God's glory, and such a con-
stant and fixed eye upon it as shall make us
apprehensive of the opportunities that present
themselves, and then a little humility to conde-
scend to the weakness of people. Which two
things pre-supposed, a very small exercise of
fancy would draw the parallel and make the
application ; as any man will quickly find that
will set himself about it. As, for instance,
when we visit a sick friend or neighbour,
what a fair opportunity have we to discourse
of the immortality of the soul ? And what
an easy transition is it from a physician to a
Saviour ? Or why may we not as well
cheer up our afflicted friend with the com-
forts of religion, as well as amuse or divert
PRECIOUS STONES. 143
him with impertinent stories ? Or suppose
friends to be together, and disposed to be
merry, why may not some word come in
seasonably of the everlasting friendships in
heaven, or of the continual feast of a good
conscience? Why may not the common
chat about news be elevated to the conside-
ration of the good tidings of the Gospel?
What hinders but our dishes of meat may be
seasoned with a gracious word or two about
the food of our souls ? When men are talk-
ing of old age, it would be no great strain if
thence our thoughts rise up to eternal life.
Nor any great flight of fancy is requisite to
improve all the accidents of our lives to the
contemplation of divine Providence, which
orders and governs them. In a word, every-
thing is capable of improvement if we be
not wanting : we shall never want opportu-
nity if we embrace it : anything will serve an
intent mind and a devout heart to these
purposes. Ibid. 89-91).
Disputera about Religion. Whenever I
see a knot of these disputants together, it
144 PRECIOUS STOXES.
puts me in mind of a story or fable, which
you will, of a company of apes that had gotten
a glow-worrn amongst them, upon which they
heaped sticks and other combustible matter ;
and, laying their heads together, blew with
all their might, hoping to make some im-
provement of that little shining particle ; but,
when they have done all they can, are neither
able to increase the light, much less to warm
themselves by it. So these busy disputing
wits, after all their blustering, neither bring
any useful truth to light, nor warm their
own or other men's breasts with any spark
of true piety or charity ; but, contrariwise,
frequently obsure the one and extinguish
the other. (.Ibid. 63).
TIMOTHY ROGERS.
No House without Care. [ROGERS, born
, died .] Look into the country
fields, there you see toiling at the plough and
scythe ; look into the waters, there you see
PRECIOUS STONES. 145
tugging at oars and cables ; look into the
city, there you see a throng of cares, and
hear sorrowful complaints of bad times and
the decay of trade ; look into studies, and
there you see paleness, and infirmities, and
fixed eyes ; look into the court, and there are
defeated hopes, envyings, underminings, and
tedious attendance: all things are full of
labour, and labour is full of sorrow; and
these two are inseparably joined with the
miserable life of man. (A Discourse con-
cerning Trouble of Mind, 322).
PLAIFERE.
Grace and Free Will. [PLAIFEREj borri
, died .] Since his (Adam's) fall,
that freedom of man is to kind of things de-
cayed, and to things spiritual utterly lost:
whih being granted, yet this is to be added,
that God, who knew and permitted this fall
and loss, knew also how to provide and to
prepare graces of His powerful Spirit, to re-
L
146 PRECIOUS STONES.
store and supply that which was lost, and
how to give a new commandment, or make a
new covenant with man fallen, fit and pro-
portionable to the impotent will of man, and
to those graces of His Spirit which He would
be ever ready to supply : either preventing
man or working in him, or assisting, helping,
protecting, preserving him. as need shall re-
quire ; so that this noble creature still might
hold and keep the place and rank of a free
creature.
For we may not think that the wisdom of
God made such an one to show him to the
angels and to the world, and ever after to
have banished him out of the world ; or to
have admitted so notorious a defect in this
universe, that there should not be found in
it the noblest nature of things here below,
above a day or two, in the very infancy of
the world; and ever after men should all
either be necessarily evil or necessarily good.
The old saying, therefore, must be remem-
bered : " If there be not the grace of God,
how shall God save the world? If there
be no free will in man, how shall God judge
PRECIOUS STONES. 147
the world ? " Grace is to be defended, so as
we do not subvert the freedom of man's will;
and the free will of man is to be defended, so
that we do not evacuate the graces of God.
{An Appeal to the Gospel, <kc., 1652, at the
end).
BISHOP PEARSON.
TUe Communion of Saints. [P.EARSOX,
born 1612, died 1686]. The saints of God,
living in the Church of Christ, have commu-
nion with God the Father (1 John iii. 1 ;
2 Peter i. 4). II. The saints of God, living in
the Church of God, have communion with the
Son of God (1 John i. 3 ; 2 John 9 ; John
xvii. 20 23). This communion of the
saints with the Son of God is, as most evi-
dent, so most remarkable. He hath taken
unto Him our nature and infirmities: He
hath taken upon Him our sins, and the curse
due unto them, while we all have received of
His fulness grace for grace (John i. 16),
L 2
148 PRECIOUS STONES.
and are all called to the fellowship of His
sufferings, that we may be made conformable,
to His death (Phil. iii. 10). What is the
communion of members with the Head, of
branches with the Vine ? that is, the com-
munion of saints with Christ ; for God hath
called us to the fellowship of His Son Jesus
Christ (1 Cor. i. 9). Ill; The saints of God,
in the Church of Christ have communion with
the Holy Ghost. The saints are, therefore,
such because they partake of the Holy Ghost ;
for they are, therefore, holy because they
are sanctified, and it is the Spirit alone which
sanctifieth : besides, the communion with the
Father and the Son is wrought by the com-
munication of the Spirit ; for hereby do we
become the sons of God, in that we have re-
ceived the spirit of adoption, whereby we
cry, "Abba, Father" (Gal iv. 6, 7; Rom.
viii. 15). This is the communication which
" the saints enjoy with the Three Persons of
the blessed Trinity; for our Saviour hath
made us this most precious promise (John
xiv. 13). Here is the soul of man made the
habitation of God the Father and of God the
PRECIOUS STONES. 149
Son ; and the presence of the Spirit cannot
be wanting where those two are inhabiting
(1 Cor. iii. 16). IV. The saints have com-
munion with the holy angels (Heb. i. 14;
Matt. xvii. 10). They have a particular
sense of our condition (Luke xv. 10). V.
The servants of God, living in the Church of
Church, have communion with all the saints
in the same Church (1 John i. 7). We all
have the benefit of the same ordinances all
partake of the same promises all endued
with the graces of the same Spirit all united
with the same mutual love and affection,
keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace (Eph. iv. 3): all engrafted into the
same stock, and so receiving life from the
same root, all holding the same Head (Col.
ii. 19). Lastly, the saints of God are in
communion with all the saints departed out
of this life and admitted to the presence of
God. " Ye are come (saith the apostle) unto
Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect"
(Heb. xii. 22, 23). The mystical union be-
tween Christ and His Church, the spiritual
150 PRECIOUS STONES.
conjunction of the members to the Head, is
the true foundation of that communion which
one member has with another : all the mem-
bers living and increasing by the same in-
fluence which they receive from Him; but
death maketh no separation in the mystical
union, no breach of the spiritual conjunction ;
and, consequently, there- must continue the
same communion between their persons in
their life : they cannot be said to be divided
in death, which had no power over that sanc-
tity by which they were first conjoined. {On
the Creed.')
SIR MATTHEW HALE.
Good Works, WJiat they Are, and WJiy
Required. [HALE, born 1609, died 1676].
A good work, in general, is a holy or gracious
action, to the making up of which these four
things are necessary. (1). The principle
must be good from which it proceeds : it
must be from an honest and upright heart,
PRECIOUS STONES. 151
from a pure conscience, from faith unfeigned.
(2). The matter must be good. (3). It must
be well done. (4). It must be done to the
glory of God good works are necessary to
salvation ; so, as though we are not like
to be saved by works, yet we cannot be saved
without them. He that works not, shall not
eat bread in the kingdom of God. Good
works signify the same with a good life tho
doing and observing all things which God
hath commanded us ; our living holily, ho-
nestly, circumspectly, fruitfully ; the exer-
cising of all the graces of Christ faith, love,
hope; the subduing and mortifying of lust
and corruption : the governing our hearts
and tongues ; the ordering of our carriage
towards God and men ; all acts of religion,
righteousness, mercy, charity, praying, fast-
ing, hearing, sanctifying the Sabbath ; lend-
ing, giving, forgiving, peace-making, instruct-
ing, exhorting, reproving, comforting, deny-
ing ourselves, taking up our cross, following 1
Christ. (Vind., Piet.)
152 PRECIOUS STONES.
EVELYX.
A Christian Parent's Resignation.*
[EVELYN, born 1620, died 1706.]" Oh dear,
sweet, and desirable child, how shall I part
with all this goodness and virtue without
the bitterness of sorrow and reluetaney of a
tender parent? Thy affection, duty, and
love to me was that of a friend as well as a
child. Nor less dear to thy mother, whose
example and tender care of thee was un-
paralleled ; nor was thy return to her less
conspicuous. Oh ! how she mourns thy loss !
How desolate hast thou left us ! To the
grave shall we both carry thy memory!
God alone (in whose bosom thou art at rest,
and happy !) give us grace to resign thee and
all our contentments (for thou, indeed, wert
all in this world !) to His blessed pleasure.
Let Him be glorified by our submission, and
give us grace to bless Him for the graces He
implanted in thee, thy virtuous life and pious
and holy death, which is, indeed, the only
comfort of our souls, hastening, through the
1 nfinite love and mercy of the Lord Jesus,
to be shortly with thee, dear child, and with
PRECIOUS STONES. 153
thee and those blessed saints like thee, to
glorify the Redeemer of the world to all
eternity ! Amen."- (JIfarcA 10, 1685.)
BOYLE,
A Thought upon the Bible. [BOYLE,
born 1626, died 1691]. There is such ful-
ness in that Book that oftentimes it says
much by saying nothing; and not only its
expressions but its silences are teaching, like
the dial in which the shadow as well as the
light informs us. (Study of Holy Scrip-
ture.)
BISHOP HOPKINS.
Great Evil and Danger of little Sins. [HOP-
KINS, born 1633, died 1690]. The same
holy and just God, who hath commanded us
to love and fear Him with all our souls and
with all our might, hath also commanded us
154 PRECIOUS STONES.
to abstain from every vain thought, and from
every idle and superfluous word. The least
command hath power to bind the conscience
to obedience, as well as the greatest ; because
the least is enacted by that sovereign God to
whom all souls and consciences are subject
as well as the greatest. It is not the great-
ness or smallness of the coin, but the image
of the king stamped upon it, that authorizeth
it and makes it current : so truly, the holiness
and purity of God's nature, once imprinted
upon the least command, makes it fully au-
thoritative and obligatory, as if it were the
highest and the chiefest. (Sermons : edit.
1710, p. 390.)
Do you think that God's holiness will bear
with your little sins ? Believe it these
little sins do arm God's terrible power and
vengeance against you : and, as a Page may
carry the sword of a great warrior after him,
so your little sins do, as it were, bear the
Sword of God's justice, and put it into His
hands against you. (Ibid. 392.)
PRECIOUS STONES, 155
Little sins do greatly deface the image of
God in the soul. Adam was at first created
according to the similitude and likeness of
God : he had the Divine Portraiture drawn
upon his soul by the creating finger of the
Almighty ; and yet we see how little a sin
defaced it, and spoiled him of all his glory.
In curious pictures a small scratch is a great
deformity. Certainly the image of God is
such a curious piece of workmanship, that
the least scratch or flaw in it, by the least
sin, deforms and turns that which before was
the image of God, into the image of the devil.
(Ibid. 393.)
Little sins do maintain the trade and
course of sinning. The devil cannot expect
always to receive such returns of great and
crying impieties ; but yet when he keeps the
stock of corruption going, and drives on the
trade of sinning by lesser sins, believe it,
corruption will be on the thriving hand, and
you may grow rich in guilt and treasure up
156 PRECIOUS STONES.
to yourselves wrath against the day of wrath,
by adding those that you call little sins unto
the heap. It is not possible that any sinner
in the world should be always raging against
God by daring and staring sins ; for, though
the principle of corruption aims still to
exert its utmost strength, yet the faculties in
which it dwells, and by which it acts, can-
not bear so constant an intentness : there
must be, therefore, in the vilest sinners some
intermission ; but yet in this intermission
there is the continued practice and course of
small sins that tack and unite them together :
betwixt the commission of one gross sin and
another, intervenes a constant neglect ,and
forgetfulness of God a constant hardness of
heart and a constant vanity and unfruitful-
ness of life ; and by these, though sinners
look upon them as small sins, yet they still
plod on in the way to hell and destruction
without any stop or interruption.
In sharp diseases the violence of the fit
does not last so long as the disease lasts,
at times there is an intermission, but still
there is a constant distemper in the body.
PRECIOUS STOXES. 157
So wlien the pang of a violent sin is
well over, yet still there remains a con-
stant distemper in the soul, which, though
it be not outrageous, yet still continues
the soul's disease, and will bring it to its
death at last. In the fortification of a city
or town all the ramparts are not castles
and strong-holds ; but between fort and fort
there is a line drawn that doth, as it were,
join all together and makes the place impreg-
nable. So is it in the fortification of the
soul by sin. All sins are not strong-holds
of Satan : they are greater and grosser sins ;
but between these is drawn a line of smaller
sins so close that you cannot find a breach
in it, and by these the heart is fenced against
God. Now, is it nothing that your little
sins fill up all the void spaces of your lives ?
Is it nothing that you nowhere lie open to
the force and impression of the Holy Spirit ?
He by His convictions batters the greater
and more heinous sins of your lives; but
these strong-holds of Satan are impregnable,
and give Him the repulse. He seeks to enter
in by the thoughts ; but these are so fortified
158 PRECIOUS STONES.
by vanity and earthly-mindedness, and a
thousand other follies, that though they are
but little sins yet swarms of them stop up
the passage, and the soul is so full already
that there is no room for the Holy Spirit to
enter.
There is not a sinner here, if he will
make an impartial search within him, but
will find the experience of this in his own
breast. When at any time you have flown
out into the commission of any boisterous
and notorious wickedness, have you not
afterwards found that you live in a most
constant liking and allowance of little sins ?
When once a man is stunned by some heavy
blow, a small nip or pinch is not then felt by
him ; and, when once conscience is deadened
by the stroke of some great and scandalous
sin, afterwards it growa less sensible of the
guilt and evil that there is in smaller sins ; and
thus you live in them without pain or regret,
till you fall into some notorious wickedness
that more hardens the heart and more sears
the conscience : and what is this but to run
round from sin to sin, from, a small sin to a
PRECIOUS STONES. 159
great sin, and from a great sin to a small sin
again, till hell put a period to the circle ?
There are more beyond comparison that
perish and go down to hell by the commission
of little sins, than by those that are more
notorious and infamous. Here perisheth the
hypocrite and here the formal professor:
here perisheth your honest, civil, neighbourly
man, that is so fair and upright in his deal-
ing, that you can see nothing that is gross
and scandalous by him. Oh ! but yet the
blood of their precious and immortal souls
runs out and is spilt for ever, through those
insensible wounds that little sins do make.
(Ibid. 394-5.)
What great difference is there whether
your eternal burning be kindled by many
sparks, or by one firebrand ? whether you
die by many smaller wounds, or by one great
one ? Many little items may make a debt des-
perate, and the payment impossible. (Ibid,
396.)
160 PRECIOUS STONES.
Working out our Salvation. Consider,
we are all of us very busy, active, creatures ;
the frame and constitution of our nature is
such as we must be working some work or
other; and, therefore, since we must be
working, why should we not work the works
of God ? We do not simply exhort sinners
to work, neither, indeed, need we. You have
active faculties and stirring principles within
you, that must and will be still in employ-
ment ; and, when your hands cease, yet then
your hearts and thoughts are at work : your
whole lives are nothing but actions ; yea,
when your thoughts themselves are most
unbent and most remiss when they are
most vanishing and glimmering, so that
yourselves scarce know what they are yet
then are they visibly working, though you
perceive it not. Now, what is it that God
requires of you ? It is not that you should
be more employed than you are that you
should do more than you do ; for that is im-
possible, because you are never idle doing
nothing ; but it is, that what you do should
be done in order unto heaven and salvation ;
PRECIOUS STONES. 161
and how reasonable is such a command as
this ? It is not more work that God expects
from you, only other work: your thoughts
need not be more than they are, but they
must be more spiritual than they are : your
desires no more, but only more gracious:
your actions no more, but only they must be
more holy than they now are. Let but grace
regulate what nature doth, and the art of
working out your salvation is attained. The
wheels of a watch move as fast and as quick,
when it goes false, as when it goes true ; and
if the watch be but at first set right and true ;
the same activity that makes it go false, will
make the motions go right and orderly.
Truly, you yourselves are like your watches :
your faculties are the wheels of your souls,
and they move and click as fast when they
go false, as when they go right; and, if grace
doth but once set them right, the same acti-
vity of nature that makes them work falsely
and go amiss, will also continue their mo-
tion orderly and regular when once they are
set right. {Ibid. 606).
TJie Reward of the Saints in Heaven.
ME
162 PRECIOUS STONES.
This is now so great that it is impossible for
you to conceive. It is such as eye hath not
seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it ever
entered into no, nor can it enter into the
heart of man to conceive what God hath pre-
pared for them that love Him, as the apostle
speaks. If St. Paul were now preaching, and
pressing this very consideration of the infi-
nite glorious reward; it would possibly be
expected that he who suffered a translation,
and was admitted as a spy into the Land of
Promise, should at his return make some
relation of it, and discover something of the
riches and glory of that place ; and would
not all flock about him, as men do about
travellers, to enquire a description of the
country whence they come ? who the people
and inhabitants are ? ^what are their man-
ners and customs? what is their employ-
ment? who is their king, and what sub-
jection they yield unto him ? Thus inquisi-
tive, truly, our curiosity would be ; and yet
when St. Paul purposely relates his voyage
to the other world, all that he speaks of it is
only this " I knew a man caught up into
Paradise, and who heard things that no man
PRECIOUS STONES. 1G3
could, nor is it lawful for any man to utter"
The glory of heaven is such that it never can
be folly known, till it be fully enjoyed ; and
yet, if heaven were ever made crystally trans-
parent to you if ever God opened you a
window into it, and then opened the eye of
your faith to look in by that window, think
what it was that you there discovered what
inaccessible light what cherishing love
what daunting majesty what infinite purity
what over-loading joy what insupporta-
ble and smiling glory what rays and spark-
lings from crowns and sceptres, but more
from the glances and smiles of God upon the
heavenly host, who for ever warm and sun
themselves in His presence. And when you
have thought all this, then think once again
that all your thoughts are but shadows and
glimmerings; that there is dust and ashes
in the eye of your faith, that make all these
discoveries come infinitely short of the naked
glory of these things. And then you may
guess, and guess somewhat near, what heaven
is. (Ibid. 613).
164 PRECIOUS STONES.
Conscience. It hath the office of a judge
o acquit or condemn. If it hath proved us
unbelievers, strait it pronounceth us con-
demned persons ; or, if it evidences our faith
to us, presently it justifies and acquits us.
Hence it is that wicked men are haunted
with pale fears and ghastly reflections, be-
cause they are always malefactors arraigned
at a bar a bar that they carry about with
them in their own breasts, where they hear
a thousand witnesses sworn and examined
where they have their judge ten thousand times
a day pronouncing them cursed. And hence
it is also that there is sometimes diffused into
the hearts of God's children such sweet joy,
such solid peace, such calm stayedness, and
some prelibation of heavenly bliss, because
they carry in their breasts a court of judica-
ture where their earthly judge, conscience,
acquits them and assures them that their
heavenly Judge will dp so too. This is con-
science, that truthful register in every man's
bosom, that writes down the actions, dis-
courses, and cogitations .of every hour and
661.}
PRECIOUS STONES. 165
Sinners think they have good peaceable
consciences because they do not menace, tor-
ment, and worry them. And, alas, how can
they ? Their consciences are murdered :
there is no sense nor life left in them. This
is not peace, but a solitude and desolation
of conscience. {Ibid. 663.)
Daily Confession of Sin. As in the emp -
tying of a pond where there are many streams
rising and bubbling up, if we stop and inter-
mit the work, the pond grows presently full
again. Truly our hearts and consciences are
like such ponds, in which there are many
corrupt streams still spouting up. Now,
confession is the clearing of it out, which
if we do but for a while intermit, our con-
sciences again grow as full of sin and guilt
as ever. {Ibid. 671.)
The Good Man's Treasure. There is a
saying in Plutarch recorded of a rich Roman
(Crassus), that " he did not think that man,
rich who knew all that he had." Truly in
this man's account a Christian is truly rich :
166 PRECIOUS STONES.
he hath laid up more treasure than himself
knows of; yet, although a Christian knows
not how much he hath, yet he shall lose
none : it is safe, being laid up in heaven ;
every star is as a seal set upon the treasure
door. Ibid. 547.)
Suppose a sweeping shower should upon a
sudden fall, and wash away the loose dust
that lies upon your ground would you count
this a loss of your land ? Would any of you
be troubled at this, as being bereaved of a
part of your estate ? Truly to the child of
God all the things of the world are no other :
and if a tempest of Providence suddenly
sweeps them away, he is not troubled at it ;
he counts it no loss of his inheritance ; the
dust only is washed away, but the land is
safe still. (Ibid. 553.) i
Grief, Sinks' Legacy. Tears are the in-
heritance of our eyes : either our sufferings
or our sins call for them ; and nothing can
dry them but the dust of the grave. (Ibid.
581.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 167
T/ie Good Man's Ligld and Sliade. It
has been observed that those are the fixed
stars that tremble most. So Christians, \vho
are fixed immoveably in the unchangeable
love of God, are as stars fixed to the heavens
in their orbs ; yet they are most of all in trepi-
dation and trembling, when they reflect upon
themselves and think that, instead of being
stars in heaven, they might have been fire-
brands in hell. (Ibid. 644.)
It may so happen that those saints whose
joys and comforts are at one time fresh and
verdant, at another time wither and drop off,
so that they look upon themselves as rotten
trees. \JThence proceeds this? It is not
from the Spirit of God. Sometimes natural
melancholy obstructs the sense of divine com-
fort. As it is in clear water, when it is still
and transparent, the sun shines to the very
bottom ; but, if you stir the mud, presently
it grows so thick that no light can pierce into
it. So it is with the children of God : though
their apprehensions of God's love be as clear
and transparent, sometimes as the very air
168 PRECIOUS STONES.
that the angels and glorified saints breathe
in heaven, yet if once the muddy humour of
melancholy stirs they become dark, so that
no ray of comfort can break into the de-
serted soul. {Ibid. 650.)
The Throne of Grace. God hath esta-
blished a throne of grace whereon He sits,
and unto which He invites His people to ap-
proach with a becoming confidence (Heb. iv.
16). Let us come boldly to the throne of
grace. As that Emperor counted his cle-
mency disparaged, when any delivered a pe-
tition to him with shaking hand, as though
he doubted of his favour so God loves, when
we make our addresses to Him, that we should
do it with full assurance of faith, nothing
doubting of acceptance with Him and of an
answer from Him. He that asks timorously
only begs a denial from God ; but yet, that
this boldness may not degenerate into rude-
ness and irreverence, He requires that our
freedom with Him be tempered with an awful
fear of Him : we must come in all humility
and prostration of soul, with broken hearts
PRECIOUS STONES. 169
and bended knees, to touch the golden scep-
tre that He holds forth to us. (Ibid. 651.)
How to use our Transgressions. A true
Christian may gain some advantage by his
very falls. As husbandmen make use of the
very thorns and briars that grow in their
fields, to stop the gaps and strengthen the
fences about them ; so should we improve our
very sins and failings to fence our souls, that
we lie not open to the like temptations for
the future. (Ibid. 703.)
BISHOP BROWNING.
The TJwrn before the Flower. [BROWN-
ING, born , died .] The first physic
to recover our souls is not cordials, but cor-
rosives ; not an immediate stepping into
heaven by a present assurance, but mourning,
and lamentations, and a bitter bewailing of
our former transgressions. With Mary Mag-
dalene we must wash Christ's feet with our
170 PRECIOUS STONES.
tears of sorrow, before we may anoint His
head with " the oil of gladness." When the
grace of God comes to dwell with us, it is
fear and sorrow make the forcible entry,
though it be faith and love that keep the
after possession. (Sermon : Acts ii, 37.)
WORTHING TON".
Submission to God the Soul's Way to
Light and Peace. [WoRTiiiXGTOX, born
1618, died 1671.] Self-resignation is the
way to light, and that in the greatest dif-
ficulties and darkest perplexities. There is
a kind of divine oracle within the self-
resigning soul, which speaks clearly and
plainly not darkly and ambiguously, as that
oracle in Greece. There is a spiritual priest-
hood, which hath the Urini and Thummim
not upon the breast, as Aaron had (Exodus
xxvii. 30), but within the breast : light and
integrity go together. " The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him; and I^e
PRECIOUS STONES. 171
will show them His covenant" (Psalm xxv.
14) ; or, as it is better in the margin, " and
His covenant to make them know it :" that
is, it is part of God's gracious covenant not
to conceal from them, but to make them
know His will. That which concerns them
to know and practise, God will not hide
from the sincerely obedient. God makes
such " to know wisdom in the hidden part "
(Psalm li. 6) ; or, " in the hidden man of the
heart" (1 Pet. iii. 4), to use St. Peter's phrase.
That maybe safely understood and is most
true of the self-resigning soul, which the son
of Sirach doth affirm : " Let the counsel
of thine own heart stand, for there is no man
more faithful unto thee than it ; for a man's
mind is sometimes wont to tell him more,
than seven watchmen, that sit above in a high
tower" (Eccles. xxxvii. J3, 14). Now, the
doubts and solicitudes, that perplex and dis-
quiet Christians, may be chiefly ranked under
these two heads : they are either about their
duty, or about their state ; and, in both, self-
resignation is the way to light.
First. Be the doubts and perplexities
172 PRECIOUS STONES.
about our duty what we are to do. The
self-resigning soul is in the best disposition
to give a right judgment in this case ; as
also the best prepared to receive divine light,
and the guidance of God's counsel.
Such a soul is wholly made for obedience
and quiet submission to the will of God. It
is brought up at the feetof Christ ; sits there,
with Mary, in the posture arid spirit, and all
the becoming qualities of a willing and obe-
dient disciple ; and the Teacher of Souls will
not forget " to show" unto such " the path of
life " (Psalm xvi. 11). God will write His
law in the humble and obedient heart ; the
laws and rules of life and obedience shall be
written within it, by the Spirit of the living
God. " The meek shall He guide in judg-
ment : the meek shall He teach His way "
(Psalm xxv. 9). The eternal characters of
goodness and righteousness, which are in the
mind of God, are copied out and transcribed
in the soul of a resigned Christian : " We
have the mind of Christ " (1 Cor. ii. 16),
saith the apostle ; and these letters are not
dead letters, like those written with ink and
PRECIOUS STOXE8. 173
paper; but they are livingc haracters, as they
are in God, and writ on living tables ; they
are " the law of the Spirit of life " (Rom. viii.
2) an inward living principle in such souls.
The self-resigning soul is still and silent
before the Lord : lusts and corrupt interests,
which make a continual noise and clamour in
the unregenerate and unresigned by their im-
portunate solicitations, and fill them with din
and tumult, are here quieted and silenced ;
and therefore such a soul is better prepared
to hear God coming to it in " the still small
voice " (1 Kings xix. 12), as once He did to
Elias. Those soft and gentle whispers of the
Spirit, those inward manifestations of Himself,
are best discerned and attended to in this so-
lemn silence. When the wind is high, and
beats upon the windows and doors of the
house, it is hard to hear what is said within.
All tumultuous and boisterous passions must
be calmed, and the soul be in a state of due
stillness and tranquillity to hear what God
speaks to it. And when this is the language
of our hearts, as it was of Samuel " Speak,
Lord ? for thy servant heareth " ( I Sam. iii,
174 PRECIOUS STONES.
10), then it is that we hear a voice behind us,
saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it"
(Isaiah xxx. 21); and thus shall " the path of
the just be as the shining light, that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day " (Pro-
verbs iv. 18).
Be the doubts about our condition or state
what it is toward God, and in reference to
eternity ; as St. James speaks : " From
whence come' wars and fightings ?" (James
iv. 1). I may add, whence come those fears,
anxieties, and uncertainties, that are to be
observed in many about the state of their
souls those fears that have torments in
them ? Come they not hence, even from the
lusts that war in their members ? One lust
often wars against another ; but all " war
against the soul " (1 Peter ii. 11). Are not
most of those tormenting fears and troubles
in Christians, to be resolved into the want of
an entire self-resignation, as the proper and
true ground ? Men will not come thoroughly
to this. They would be indulged in something
or other, and yet would be at peace and rest :
they would be cured of their distemper, and
PRECIOUS ST03TES. 175
yet are unwilling to have the root of it taken
away.
Consider therefore: Is there not some-
thing of self-will that works, and is too power-
ful within thee ? Wouldest thou not be unre-
signed, and please thyself in this or that
thing ? Dost thou not say with Naaman the
Syrian, " The Lord pardon thy servant in
this thing " (2 Kings v. 18) ; and as Lot in
another case " Is it not a little one ?'' (Gen.
xix. 20). If it be so, God, who seeth the
heart, seeth all this, and He will not be
mocked, nor be bribed to give thee peace, by
thy making a great show of being subdued
and resigned in other things. But if by the
power of God's grace our wills be entirely
subjected to the divine will, we cannot have
the least reason, upon any account whatso-
ever, to torment ourselves with anxious
thoughtfulness about our state : we may be
sure that the outward hell shall not be our
portion, if we are delivered from the hell
within ; and that we cannot miss of the hea-
ven above, while we have a heaven within us,
and are put into a fit disposition for it by a
176 PRECIOUS STONES.
free resignation to the will of God. ( Great
Duty of Resignation to the Divine Will,
1675).
SWINNOCKE.
The Strong Man Plundered. [G. SWIN-
NOCKE, born , died 1673.] The work of
regeneration doth also reach to the body :
the strong castle of the soul being taken and
sanctified, the tower of the body commanded
by it presently yieldeth. When Satan sat on
the throne of the soul as king, the members
of the body (which the Holy Ghost termed
in unregenerate persons weapons of unrigh-
teousness (Rom. vi. 13), were his militia,
and employed to defend his unjust title, to
execute his ungodly designs, to perform his
hellish pleasure : the head to plot, the hand
to act. the feet to run, the eyes to see, the
ears to hear, the tongue to speak for him ;
but, as when an enemy is conquered^and a
magazine in war is taken, the general maketh
PRECIOUS STONES. 177
use of those arms and that ammunition for
his sendee, which before were employed
against him : so the strong man Satan, being
beaten out of his strongholds by Christ, the
stronger than he, the members of the body
which before were instruments of unrigh-
teousness unto sin, are now instruments of
righteousness unto God (Rom. vi. 13). ( The
Door of Salvation Opened, p. 35. 1660.)
Bright City seen by Faith. It is reported
of Godfrey of Bulloign, in his expedition to
the Holy Land, that when his army came
within sight of Jerusalem, beholding the high
turrets and fair fronts (which were skeletons
of far more glorious bodies), they were so
transported with joy that they gave such a
shout, that the very earth was said to ring
again. How might thine heart leap with
joy. when thou upon thy death- bed shouldst
with the eye of death behold the stately tur-
rets, and pearly gates of the new and eternal
Jerusalem ! Thou mightest contentedly
leave thine earthly habitation for thy Father's
house, and joyfully bid adieu to thy corrup-
178 PRECIOUS STONES.
tiblc silver, and airy honours, for sen. enduring
substance and [an eternal weight of glory.
(Ibid. p. 270.)
The Difficult and Narrow Way to Ilc<
Reader ! didst tliou never know of any
that were in a journey, and, coming to some
deep dirty lane, they thought to avoid it, and
broke over the hedge into the field? But
when they had rode round and round, they
could find no way out, but were forced to go
out where they got in ; and then, notwith-
standing their unwillingness, to go through
that miry lane, or else not to go that journey
truly so it is in the 'journey to heaven.
Thou art now come to this deep lane of hu-
miliation, through which all must go that
will reach that city whose builder and maker
is God. Do not think to avoid it : no, not
the least part of it ; for this is the narrow
way and straight gate that Icadeth to life.
(Ibid, p, 399.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 179
BISHOP BULL.
. The MlddU State of tJie Soul after Death.
[BuLLJ born 1634, died 1709]. The Apos-
tolic writers were wont to express the diffe-
rent place and state of good and bad men,
presently after death, by this and the like
phrases, that they went to their own proper,
due, or appointed places that is to say, places
agreeable to their respective qualities : the
good to a place of happiness, the wicked to a
place and state of misery. If there were one
common receptacle for all departed souls,
good and bad (as some have imagined), Judas
could not be said, presently after death, to
go to his own proper place, nor Peter to his ;
but Judas hath his proper place, and Peter
his. And here what avails a difference of
place, unless we allow also a difference of
state and condition ? If the joys of paradise
were in hell, hell would be paradise ; and if
the torments of hell were in paradise, para-
dise would be hell. Ju "as, therefore, is in
misery and Peter in happiness. If presently
V 2
180 PRECIOUS STONES.
after death, one common gulph of insensibility
and oblivion swallowed up the souls of good
and bad alike, the state of Judas and Peter
would be the same. The result of all which
is manifestly this that the souls of men do
not only subsist and remain after the death
of their bodies, but also live and are sensible
of pain or pleasure in that separate state:
the wicked being tormented at present with
a piercing remorse of conscience (that sleepy
lion being now fully awakened), expecting a
far more dreadful vengeance yet to fall on
them ; and, on the other side, the good being
refreshed with the peace of a good conscience
(now immutably settled), and with unspeak-
able comforts of God, and yet joyfully wait-
ing for a greater happiness at the resurrec-
tion. (Works, 1. 1 50, Edit. 1827.)
Of Angels. The starry heaven is but as it
were the floor or pavement of a heaven above
it, the supreme or highest heaven, which is
by consent of nations the place of the Al-
mighty's most especial presence : all men by
a kind of natural instinct, with minds, eyes,
PRECIOUS STONES. 181
and hands lifted up, directing thither their
prayers to God ; and can we fancy that the
universal King hath no servants to wait on
Him in His presence-chamber, when we see
so many paying their devotion to Him at so
great a distance here below ? Natural rea-
son, therefore, directs and leads us to an ac-
knowledgment that there are certain intel-
ligent creatures in the upper world who, as
they are more remote from the dregs of
matter wherein we are immersed, so they
are of a more pure, refined, and excellent
substance, and as far exceeding us in their
way of understanding and glorifying the su-
preme God, as they are of nearer admission
to the place where His glory is in the most
especial manner manifested ; and these are
they who in our sacred writings are known
by the name of Angels. (Works, t. i. p. 269.)
Of Angels Ministering. Although the
holy angels are the most excellent creatures,
yet they are but creatures ; and therefore we
must not be so scared and dazzled with their
excellence as to fall down and worship them,
182 PRECIOUS STONES.
but rather join with them in rendering all
divine honour to the supreme God alone, to
whom we are fellow-servants with them, al-
though in a lower rank or station. Hence
the angel that appeared to St. John, would
not suffer him to fall down before him for
this reason, that he was his fellow-servant
(Rev. xxii. 8, 9). We may observe, that the
angel styles himself the fellow-servant not
only of St. John and those other excellent
men the prophets (who by their office and
extraordinary mission from God were them-
selves after a sort made angels of God), but
universally of them which keep the sayings
of this book i. e., of all faithful, all truly
pious men ; so that, if the meanest sincere
servant of Christ had been in St. John's
room, and done as he did, the angel would,
after the same manner, have refused the ho-
nour done to him, and for the same reason,
because he was his fellow-servant. (Ibid.
p. 279.)
The Office of Holy Angels towards the
Faithful, We may trace the footsteps of
PRECIOUS STONES. 183
tliis secret providence over us in many in-
stances. How often may we have observed
strong, lasting, and irresistible impulses upon
our minds to do certain things, we cannot
scarce for the present tell why and where-
fore, the reason and good success of which
we afterwards plainly see ? So, on the con-
trary, there are oft-times sudden and unex-
pected accidents, as we call them, cast in our
way, to divert us from certain enterprises
we are just ready to engage in, the ill con-
sequences of which we do afterwards, but
not till then, apprehend Hither
also we may refer that lucky conspiracy of
circumstances which we sometimes expe-
rience in our affairs and business, otherwise
of great difficulty, when we light upon the
TO vvv, or nick of opportunity ; when the
persons, whose counsel or assistance we most
need, strangely occur, and all things fall out
according to our desire, but beyond our ex-
pectation. What strange ominous bodings
and fears do many times on a sudden seize
upon many certain approaching evils, where-
of at present there is no visible appearance !
184 PRECIOUS STONES,
And have we not bad some unquestionable
instances of men not inclined to melancboly,
strongly and unalterably persuaded of the
near approach of their death, so as to be
able punctually to tell the very day of it,
when they have been in good health, and
neither themselves nor their friends could
discern any present natural cause for such a
persuasion, and yet the event hath proved
that they were not mistaken ? . . . . Now, it
is no enthusiasm, but the best account that
can be given of them, to ascribe these things
to the ministry of those invisible instruments
of God's providence that guide and govern
our affairs and concerns by the angels of
God. (Ibid. 295.)
Of Angels as our Guardians. Whether
every faithful person, during his life on earth,
hath his particular Guardian Angel more
constantly to preside and watch over him ?
I answer, the affirmative hath been a re-
ceived opinion, and seems to be confirmed
by some very considerable texts of Scripture.
In the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew,
PRECIOUS STORES. 185
verse 10, our Saviour cautions all men to
take heed how they offend any of His little
ones that believe on Him ; subjoining this
reason of that caution, For I say unto you,
their angels do always behold the face of my
Father which is in heaven. They have their
guardian angels to assist them, and to avenge
all injuries done unto them ; and, therefore,
take heed how you offend them. The main
force of the proof lies in the pronoun, THEIR
angels, which plainly intimates that all
Christ's little ones who believe in Him i.e. 9
all humble and faithful persons have their
proper angels assigned to them as their
guardians and protectors.
Another text which seems plainly to coun-
tenance the opinion of guardian angels, is
that known one in the twelfth chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles, where we read that
St. Peter, having been imprisoned by Herod,
and being miraculously delivered out of
prison by an angel, presently comes to the
house of Mary the mother of John, whoso
surname was Mark, where many Christians
were met together unto prayer, and, probably,
186 PRECIOUS STONES.
praying for St. Peter's deliverance : coming
to this house, and knocking and desiring
entrance, the maid that came to the door
hearing and knowing his voice, and being
surprised with joy and wonder at his unex-
pected coming, left the door shut as it was,
and, running back to the company, tells them
that Peter was at the door. But they, being
persuaded that Peter was at that time fast
enough in his chains, slighted the' maid's
report, yea, accused her of madness. But
she soberly and constantly affirming that it
was even so as she had said, they then (sup-
posing it impossible it could be Peter him-
self) made this conclusion, It is his angel
i.e., his guardian angel, assuming at that
time his shape and voice. The whole story
you may read, verse 12-16, of that chapter.
To these two texts out of the New, I shall
add a third out of the Old Testament. It is
in the fifth chapter of Ecclesiastes, where the
wise man, having declared the necessity of
keeping all those lawful vows which we have
once made unto God, how inconvenient soever
they may afterwards appear to be (v. 4, 5),
PRECIOUS STONES. 187
ho cnforceth what he had said (v. G.) in these
words, Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy jlcsh
to sin; neither say thou, BEFORE THE ANGEL,
it ivas an error; wherefore should God be
angry at thy voice and destroy the work of
thine hand? where we have this very strong
argument to dissuade us from violating those
vows we have once made to God : and an an-
s\ver to an excuse, men commonly hold to
palliate that sin. The first argument is
drawn from the danger of bringing thereby
the judgment of God on our family, in these
words : " Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy
flesh to sin" i.e., Do not, by making vows,
which thou afterwards violatest. bring sin, or
the punishment of sin, upon thy children or
posterity, which are thine own flesh. The
second argument is' taken from the curse,
which will certainly fall upon the estate of
the offender in this kind " Wherefore, should
God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the
work of thine hands?" as if He had said,
What a folly and madness is it in thee, by
uttering a vow with thy voice, which thou
afterwards breakest in thy practice, to pro-
188 PRECIOUS STONES.
voice Almighty God to destroy and blast that
estate which was gotten by the work of thy
hands, and is the fruit of thy labour ; but be-
cause men are apt, notwithstanding, to ex-
cuse this grievous sin, by pretending that
they were in an error and did not well con-
sider what they did when they made this
vow, the wise man, therefore, obviates this
excuse in these words : " Neither say tlwu
lefore the angel, it was an error " i. <?., Do
not seek out excuses to lessen thy fault ; the
angel of God was solemnly present when thou
madest thy vow, and takes notice of thy
breach of it, and shall be the instrument of
the divine justice in punishing it.
Here we have the angel in the singular
number not the angels, in the plural to de-
note some one certain angel ; and then this
angel is described as the angel before whom,
and in whose presence, the person vowing is,
as the inspector and observer of his words
and actions, which gives us the plain notion
of a guardian angel. And, by the way, we
may farther observe from this ^text that it
belongs to the office of our guardian angel,
PRECIOUS STONES. 189
not only to secure us from dangers, but to
inspect and govern our actions ; yea, and if
need be, to chastise us when we trespass and
prevaricate. (Hid. 300-305).
The Angels' Oversight the Christian's Ad-
monition. The doctrine of the inspection of
the angels of God over us may serve to teach
us a holy fear, circumspection, and caution
in all our behaviour, even in our most secret
recesses and retirements. When we think
ourselves alone, we are not so ; but in the
most reverend and awful society. Where-
fore in every place, in every corner, revere
the presence of thy angel ; and do not that
before him, which thou wouldest be^ashamed
to do before a man like thyself. (Ibid. 321).
SIR WILLIAM DAVEXAXT.
The Glory and Sorrow of Literature.
[DAVEXANT, born 1605, died 1668.] Men
are chiefly provoked to the toil of compiling
190 PRECIOUS STONES.
books by love of fame, and often by officious-
ness of conscience, but seldom with expec-
tation of riches ; for those that spend time in
writing to instruct others may find leisure to
inform themselves, how mean the ^provisions
are which busy and studious minds can make
for their own sedentary bodies : and learned
men (to whom the rest of the world are but
infants) have the same foolish affection in
nourishing other minds, as pelicans in feeding
their young, which is at the expense of the
very substance of life. 'Tis then apparent
they proceed by the instigation of fame, or
conscience ; and I believe many are persuaded
by the first (of which I arn one), and some
are commanded by the second. Nor is the
desire of fame so vain as divers have rigidly
imagined: fame being (when belonging to
the living) that which is more gravely called
a steady and necessary reputation ; and with-
out it, hereditary power, or acquired great-
ness, can never quietly govern the world.
'Tis of the dead a musical glory, in which
God, the Author of excellent goodness, vouch-
safes to take a continual share : for the re-
PRECIOUS STONES. 191
membered virtues of great men are chiefly
such of his works (mentioned by King David)
as perpetually praise him : and the good fame
of the dead prevails by example, much more
than the reputation of the living, because
the latter is always suspected by our envy,
but the other is cheerfully allowed and reli-
giously admired : for admiration (whose eyes
are ever weak) stands still, and fixes its gaze
upon great things acted far off; but, when
they are near, walks slightly away as from
familiar objects. Fame is to our sons a solid
inheritance, and not unuseful to remote pos-
terity; and, to our reason 'tis the first, though
but a little, taste of eternity. {Hid. 29. Pre-
face to Gondibert, p. 29, Edit. 1651.)
The Influence of tlie Pulpit. If divines
have failed in governing princes, yet they
might obliquely have ruled them in ruling
the people, by whom of late princes have
been governed; and they might probably rule
the people, because the heads of the Church
wherever Christianity is preached are
Tetrarchs of time, of which they command
192 PRECIOUS STONES.
the fourth division; for to no less the Sabbaths
and days of Saints amoiint ; and during those
days of spiritual triumph pulpits are thrones,
and the people obliged to open their ears,
and let in the ordinances and commands of
preachers ; who likewise are not without some
little regency throughout the rest of the year ;
for then they may converse with the laity
from whom they have commonly such respect
and respect soon opens the door to persua-
sion as shews their congregations not deaf
in those holy seasons where speaking predo-
minates. (Ibid. p. 32).
Difficulties of Checking Crime by Legis-
lation. Laws, if very ancient, grow as doubt-
ful and difficult as letters in buried marble,
which only antiquaries read ; but if not old,
they want that reverence which is therefore
paid to the virtues of ancestors, because their
crimes come not to our remembrance ; and
yet great men must be long dead whose ills
are forgotten. If laws be new, they must be
made either by very angels, or by men that
have some vices; and those being seen make
PRECIOUS STOKES. 193
their virtues suspected: for the people no
more esteem able men whose defects they
know (though but errors incident to huma-
nity), than an enemy values a strong army,
having experience of their errors. New laws
are held but the projects of necessitous power
new nets spread to entangle us. But, be
law-makers as able as nature or experience
(which is the best art) can make them, yet,
though I will not yield the wicked to be
wiser than the virtuous, I may say offences
are too hard for the laws, as some beasts are
too wily for their hunters; and that vice
overgrows virtue, as much as weeds grow
faster than medicinal herbs ; or rather, that
sin, like the fruitful slime of Nilus, doth in-
crease with so many various shapes of ser-
pents (whose walks and retreats are winding
and unknown), that even justice (the painful
pursuer of mischief) is become weary and
amazed. (Ibid. p. 38).
Education of the People. We have ob-
served that the people, since the latter time
of Christian religion, are more unquiet than
o
194 PRECIOUS STORES.
in former ages : so disobedient and fierce, as
if they would shake off the ancient imputa-
tion of being beasts, by shewing their masters
they know their own strength; and we shall
not err in supposing that this conjunction of
four-fold power religion, arms, policy, law
hath failed in the effects of authority by a
misapplication ; for it hath rather endea-
voured to prevail on their bodies, than their
minds ; forgetting that the martial art of
constraining is the best which assaults the
weaker parts ; and the weakest part of the
people is their mind, for the want of that
which is the mind's only strength JEduca-
tion; but their bodies are strong by continual
labour ; for labour is the education of the
body. (Ibid. p. 43).
%
Wit regarded as an Exponent of Mental
Power. Wit is the laborious and the lucky
resultances of thought, having towards its
excellence (as we say of the strokes of paint-
ing), as well a happiness as a care. It is a web
consisting of the subtilest threads ; and, like
that of a spider, is considerably woven out
PRECIOUS STONES. 195
of ourselves. Wit is not only the luck and
labour, but also the dexterity of thought,
rounding the world, like the sun, with un-
imaginable motion, and bringing swiftly home
to the memory universal surveys. It is in
divines, humility, exemplariness, moderation;
in statesmen, gravity, vigilance, benign com-
placency, secrecy, patience, and despatch;
in leaders of armies, labour, painfulness, tem-
perance, bounty, dexterity in punishing and
rewarding, and a surer certitude of promise.
It is in poets a full comprehension of all recited
in all these. (Ibid. 20).
CHARLOCK,
God everywhere. [CnARNOCK, born 1628$
died 1680.] There is no space, not the least,
wherein God is not wholly according to His
essence, and wherein His whole substance
does not exist : not a part of heaven can be
designed wherein the Creator is not wholly :
as He is in one part of heaven, He is in every
02
196 PRECIOUS STONES.
part of heaven. Some kind of resemblance
we may have from the water of the sea, which
fills the great space of the world, and is dif-
fused through all ; yet the essence of water
is in every drop of water in the sea, as
much as the whole ; and the same quality of
water, though it comes short in quantity;
and why shall we not allow God a nobler
way of presence, without diffusion, as is in
that ? Or take this resmblance : since God
likens himself to light in the Scripture, " He
covereth himself with light." A crystal globe
hung up in the air hath light all about it, all
within it every part is pierced by it where-
ever you see the crystal you see the light ;
the light in one part of the crystal cannot be
distinguished from the light in the other part;
and the whole essence, of light is in every
part ; and shall not God be as much present
with His creatures, as one creature can be
with another ? (Oft the Divine Attributes,
Disc, vii.)
The Believers' Share in his Lord's Glory.
As the apostle argues in the case of the
PRECIOUS STORES. 197
resurrection, "If Christ be risen, we shall
rise" (1 Cor. xv. 13) ; so it may, upon the
same reason, be concluded, that, if Christ
entered into glory, believers shall enter into
glory ; for as from the fulness of His grace
we receive grace for grace, so from the ful-
ness of His glory we shall receive glory for
glory : and the reason is, because He entered
into glory as the Head, to take livery and
seisin* of it for every one that belongs to
Him. He entered as a forerunner, to pre-
pare a place for those that were to follow
Him ; and was crowned with glory as He is
the Captain of salvation (Heb. ii. 9) : so that
this glory was not possessed by Him merely
for Himself for He was glorious in his Deity
before but to communicate to our nature,
which He bore in His exaltation.
As immortality was given to Adam, not
only for himself but to descend to his pos-
terity, had he continued in a state of inno-
cence ; so the second Adam is clothed with a
glorious immortality, as the communicative
* Legal Delivery and Possession.
198 PRECIOUS STONES.
principle to all believers. As God, in creating
Adam, the root of mankind, did virtually
create us all ; so, in raising and glorifying
Christ, the root of spiritual regeneration, He
did virtually raise and glorify all that were
His seed, though their actual appearance in
the world, either as men or believers, were
afterwards. As the resurrection of Christ
was an acquittance of the principal debtors
in their Surety, so the advancement of Christ
was the glorification of His seed in the root.
When the head is crowned with a triumphant
laurel, the whole body partakes of the honour
of the head; and a whole kingdom has a
share in a new succession of honour to the
prince. As those that believe in Christ shall
sit with Him upon His throne (Rev. iii. 21),
so they shall be crowned with His glory ;
not that they shall possess the same glory
that Christ hath ; for His personal glory as
the Son of God, and His Mediatorial glory as
the Head of the Church, are incommunica-
ble : it hath an authority to govern joined
with it, which the highest believer is incapa-
ble of; but they shall partake of His glory
PEECIOUS STONES. 199
according to their capacity, which He signi-
fies by His desire and will : " That they
may be with Him where He is and behold
His glory" (John xvii. 24); not only with
Him where He is for so, in a sense, devils
are, because, as God, He is everywhere ;
but in a fellowship and communion with Him
in glory.
He is exalted as our Head, whereby we
have an assurance upon faith of being glo-
rified with Him. Had He staid upon earth,
we could have had no higher hopes, than of
an earthly felicity ; but His advancement to
heaven is a pledge, that His members shall
mount to the same place, and follow their
Captain ; in which sense His people are said
to sit together with Him (Eph. ii. 6). And
herein is the difference between the trans-
lation of Enoch into heaven, the rapture of
Elias in a fiery chariot, and the Ascension of
Christ. They were taken as single persons
He as a common person. Those trans-
lations might give men occasion to aspire to
the same felicity, and some hopes to attain it
upon a holy life ; but no assurance to enjoy
200 PRECIOUS STONES.
it upon faith, as the Ascension of Christ
affords to His members.
And farther, the glory of Christ seems not
to be complete, till the glorification of His
members. His absolute will is not perfectly
contented, till His desire of having His people
with Him be satisfied (John xvii. 24). The
departed saints are happy, yet they have their
desires as well as fruitions : they long for
the full perfection of that part of the family,
which is upon earth. Christ Himself is
happy in His glory, yet the same desires He
had upon earth to see His believing people
with Him in glory, very probably, do mount
up to His soul in heaven ; and though He
fills all in all, and hath Himself a fulness of
the beatific vision, yet there is the fulness of
the body mystical, which He still wants and
still desires. The Church, which is His
body, is called His fulness (Eph. i. 33). It
is then His glory is in a meridian height,
when He comes to be glorified in all His
saints about Him (2 Thess. i. 10). The
elevation then of the Head is a pledge of
the advancement of believers in their per-
PRECIOUS STONES." 201
sons, and a transporting them from this vale
of misery to the heavenly sanctuary. His
death opened heaven, and His exaltation
prepares a mansion in it His death pur-
chased the right, and His glory assures the
possession. (Discourses on Christ's Death,
Exaltation, and Intercession, pp. 197 200.
edit. 1839.)
CLEMENT ELLIS.
TJie True Gentleman. [ELLIS, born 1C33,
died 1700.] If you desire to have his pic-
ture, here it is : the true gentleman is one
that is God's servant, the world's master,
and his own man ; his virtue is his business
his study his recreation contentedness his
rest and happiness his reward : God is his
Father the Church is his mother the saints
his brethren all that need him his friends
and heaven his inheritance : religion is his
mistress piety and justice her ladies of
honour devotion is his chaplain chastity
his chamberlain sobriety his butler tern-
202 PRECIOUS STONES.
perance his cook hospitality his house-
keeper prudence his steward charity his
treasure piety his mistress of the house
and discretion the porter to let in and out as
is most fit. Thus is his whole family made
up of virtues, and he the master of his family.
He is necessitated to take the world in his
way to heaven ; but he walks through it as
fast as he can, arid all his business by the
way is to make himself and others happy.
Take him ail in two words he is a man and a
Christian. (The Gentile Sinner ; or, Eng-
land's Brave Gentleman Charactered, &c.
1660.)
BISHOP STILLINGFLEET.
Against Making Vows. [STILLINGFLEET,
born 1635, died 1699.] I think that vows
against things in themselves lawful, prove
great snares to the consciences of those who
make them ; for we strangely desire liberty
when we ha\>e abudged ourselves of it; arid
temptations oft-times prove more troublesome
PRECIOUS STONES. 203
on occasion of such vows. We have one
great vow upon us already our baptismal
vow ; if we perform that, we need not trouble
or perplex ourselves with others. I wonder
not at all to hear persons speak of great
pleasure they took in the fancy of such
things ; for it is the nature of all new things,
especially in religion, to have this effect.
If you value the peace of your own mind,
keep yourself free in what God hath left to
your choice : never think that God is better
pleased with us for any crotchets of oar own,
than with doing what He commands us.
Value His word and precepts above the direc-
tions of all men in the world. Do what He
commands, and forbear what He forbids, and
no doubt you shall be happy. Let no man
carry you beyond the bounds God hath set
you, nor make you believe he hath found a
plainer, or more certain way to heaven, than
Christ hath given us. Think nothing neces-
sary in order to the pardon of sin, but what
God hath made so ; and suspect those guides
that would carry you beyond the infallible
rule of Scripture, which alone is able to make
204 PRECIOUS STONES.
us wise to salvation. (Miscellaneous Dis-
courses, pp. 307-8-9: edit. 1735.)
BISHOP BEVERIDGE.
The Sun of Righteousness. [BEVERIDGE,
born 1638, died 1707.] He did not only
arise once, but He continually ariseth to those
who believe in God and fear Him. For thus
saith the Lord, To you that fear my name
shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with
healing in His wings. It is true He speaks
more especially of His incarnation, or visible
appearance in the world ; but, by this man-
ner of speaking, He intimates withal that
this Sun of Righteousness is always shining
upon His faithful people, more or less, in all
ages, from the beginning to the end of the
world. For in that it is said, He shall arise,
it is plainly supposed that He was the Sun
of Righteousness before, and gave light unto
the world, though not so clearly as when He
was actually risen. As we see and enjoy the
light of the sun long before he riseth, from
PRECIOUS STONES. 205
the first dawning of the day, though it grows
clearer and clearer all along, as he comes
nearer and nearer to his rising ; so the Sun
of Righteousness began to enlighten the
world, as soon as it was darkened by sin ; the
day then began to break, and it grew lighter
and lighter in every age. Adam himself
saw something of this light Abraham more ;
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, saith this
glorious Sun : He saw it and was glad (John
vii. 56). David and the prophets after him
saw it more clearly especially this, the last
of the prophets : he saw this Sun in a manner
rising so that he could tell the people that it
would suddenly get above the horizon. The
Lord whom you seek (saith he) shall suddenly
come to His temple. {Private Thoughts*
Part ii. 322. Fourth edit.)
HORNECK.
Helps against Committing Sin. [HoR-
NECK, born 1641, died 1696.] The best de-
fensative against committing sin, at any time,
206 PRECIOUS STONES.
is the remembrance of Christ's sufferings.
Not only at the Sacrament, but wherever we
are, this remembrance is an excellent shield
in the day of battle. Art thou walking, art
thou standing, art thou sitting, art thou
going out, or coming in ? set a bleeding
Saviour before thee: when sinners entice
thee, think of thy Saviour's wounds : when
thou art tempted to overreach or defraud thy
neighbour in any matter, think of the bitter
cup thy Master drank of: when any lust,
any vain desire, rises in thy mind, think of
thy dear Redeemer's groans : when thy flesh
grows weary of a duty, remember who suf-
fered on the cross : when thou art tempted
to be indifferent in religion and faint in thy
mind, look upon Him who made His soul an
offering for sin, for thy sin : when thou art
loth to overcome, think of Him who " by His
death overcame him that had the power of
death :" when impatient thoughts assault
thy mind, think of "the Lamb that before
his shearers was dumb;" and sure under this
sad scene thou wilt not dare to sin, ( The
Crucified Jews, c. 12.)
PRECIOUS STOKES. 207
BISHOP BURKE T.
Gotfs All-seeing Eye. [BuRXET, born
1643, died 1714]. Which way soever God
governs the world, and what influence soever
He has over men's minds, we are sure that
the governing and preserving His own work-
manship is so plainly a perfection, that it
must helong to a Being infinitely perfect;
and there is such a chain in things those of
the greatest consequence arising often from
small and inconsiderate ones that we can-
not imagine a Providence, unless we believe
everything to be within its care and view.
The only difficulty that has been made in ap-
prehending this, has arisen from the narrow-
ness of men's minds, who have measured
God rather by their own measure and capa-
city, than by that of infinite perfection which,
as soon as it is considered, will put an end to
all further doubtings about it. When we
perceive that a vast number of objects enter
in at our eye by a very small passage, and
yet are so little jumbled in that crowd, that
they open themselves regularly though there
208 PRECIOUS STONES.
is no great space for that neither ; and that
they give us a distinct apprehension of many
objects that lie before us, some even at a
vast distance from us, both of their nature,
colour, and size ; and by a secret geometry,
from the angles that they make in our eye,
we judge of the distance of all objects, both
from us and from pne another ; if to this we
add the vast number of figures, that we re-
ceive and retain long and with great order
in our brains, which we easily fetch up
either in our thoughts or in our discourses ;
we shall find it less difficult to apprehend
how an infinite mind should have the uni-
versal view of all things, ever present before
it. (Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles,
Art. i.)
JEREMY COLLIER.
True Courage. [COLLIER, born 1650,
died 1726.] Fortitude has light as well
as heat ; marches under discipline, and
PRECIOUS STONES. 209
has its vigour directed by discretion. He
that lets himself loose without a warrantable
motive, he that ventures beyond reason, and
runs great hazards for small returns has no
just pretensions to this virtue. A bold man
we may call him, but he is far from being a
brave one. Such a person's valour lies mostly
in the fermentation of his blood, and seems
exposed to age and accidents. 'Twill pro-
bably go off with the cooling of his spirits,
and abate with the habit of his body ; and
it may be, 'tis no difficult matter to fret or
bleed him into cowardice ; but that's true
courage, which maintains itself without
foreign assistance, and is always in condition,
and at hand ; which needs no sanguine com-
plexion, no heat of youth or passion, no mar-
tial or awakening sounds to call it forth.
'Tis made up of more lasting principles
and furnished from a better fund than this
amounts to : it subsists upon thought, and
grows out of the strength of the mind. Thus
it becomes an independent privilege, lies
ready for business, and wants nothing but an
honourable occasion to set it on work
210 PRECIOUS STORES.
Our resolution must be governed by such no-
. tions of honour, as will endure the touch-
stone, pass the Constitution and the Creed,
and stand the test of the other world.
Essays, Part iv., p. 212. 1709.)
Of Loneliness and Retirement. Solitude
promises fair, and is a -strong entertainment
to a melancholy fancy ; but were the notion
driven up, and tried in its farthest extent,
we should quickly change our opinion. Like
a great many other things, 'tis better in pros-
pect than possession. Like a summer's cloud
in the evening, it looks soft and fine at a dis-
tance, and presents us with a great many
pretty figures ; but when you come close to
the object, the colours are rubbed out, and
the substance shrinks ; and there's nothing re-
maining but empty air: nothing that will
either please the eye, or fill the grasp. Man
was never designed to be perfectly detached
and live independently of his kind : he was
not made big enough for that condition.
When expectations run high, and passions
are lavishly let loose, disappointment is a
PRLOIOUS STONES. 211
hard chapter. And because we are not
caressed in our folly, humoured in our pride,
and treated up to the extravagance of our de-
mands, we complain of ill usage, and grow
chagrine and sick of the world. And if we
can't be courted and nave our will, we fall
into a fit of retirement, and make company
no longer Thus children, \vhen they are
crossed in their fancy, walk off and stand
sullen in a corner. Some people retire to
conceal their defects : they are sufficiently
acquainted with the lean temper of the gene-
rality ; how forward the world is to spy out
a fault, and publish a disadvantage. And
therefore they are unwilling to have the im-
perfections of age or fortune gazed at and
remarked, Too much light discovers the
wrinkles, which makes them choose to sit
out of the sun. (Ibid. Part iii., pp. 260-4.)
The Face, an Index. It goes as true to
the mind, when we please, as the dial to the
sun. The orders are published as soon as
given : 'tis but throwing the will into the
face, and the inward direction appears imme-
P 2
212 PRECIOUS STONES.
diately We ought to be just in our looks,
as well as in our actions ; for the mind may
be declared one way, no less than the other.
A man might as good break his word as his
face. It may so happen that we can converse
no other way, for want of an interpretater";
but though I cannot tell what a man says, if
he will be sincere, I may easily know what
he looks. The meanings of sounds are un-
certain, and tied to particular times and
places ; but the language of the face is fixed
and universal : its consents and refusals are
every where alike. A smile has the same
form and sense in China, as with us. If looks
were as arbitrary as words, conversation
would be more in the dark ; and a traveller
would be obliged to learn the countenances,
as well as the tongues of foreign countries.
{Ibid. Part ii. p. 125.)
Setter Wear out, than Rust Out. The true
estimate of being is not to be taken from age,
but action. A mm, as he manages himself,
may die old at thirty, and a child at fourscore.
To nurse up the vital flame as long as the
PRECIOUS STONES. 213
matter will last, .is not always good hus-
bandry. 'Tis much better to cover it with
an extinguisher of honour, than let it con-
sume till it burns blue, and lies agonizing
within the socket;' and at length goes out in
no perfume. If the sun were not to risa
again, inethinks it would look bigger for him
to tumble from the sky at noon, with all his
light and heat about him, than to gain a
course of four or five hours, only to languish
and decline in. (Ibid. Part ii. p. 30.)
Of General Kindness. In good earnest,
this quality is well worth the courting ; 'tis
valuable in fortune, as well as in beauty and
humour : 'twill make a man an interest in
the world : it removes difficulties, and
smoothes the passage for business ; and, like
the marriage of princes, there is policy as
well as pleasure in the alliance. You know
the trade of life cannot be driven without
partners : there is a reciprocal dependence
between the greatest and the least. And the
best figure is but a cypher where it stands
alone. For this reason, a wise man will
214 PRECIOUS STONES.
strengthen the confederacy, and take in all
the help he can get. Now, there is nothing
so engaging as a benevolent disposition. This
temper makes a man's behaviour inoffensive,
affable, and obliging; it multiplies friends,
and disarms the malice of an enemy. He
that is kind out of principle will be so to
all the advantages of decency and compass.
That which is natural is uniform, constant,
and graceful: whereas, he who counterfeits
good nature, he who is civil only out of
breeding or design, will be apt to have breaks
and inequalities in his humour. A man can-
not always stand bent ; so that either negli-
gence, passion, or interest will sometime or
other return the posture and unmask the
pretence ; and then the labour is lost. But
the natural complexion of goodness will
hold.
Our affection to others gives us a share in
their happiness, and so becomes an addition
to our own. Wishing well enlarges a man's
capacity of being happy. He is really the better
for whatever good his neighbour enjoys
All prosperous events, all improvements of
PRECIOUS STONES. 215
industry, and blessings of Providence which
he is acquainted wich. his excellent temper
gives him an interest in ; for though he have
not the possession of these things, he has,
what is most desirable, the satisfaction of
them. Nay, I believe the generous congratu-
lation may be improved to exceed the occa-
sion ; and make a man more happy than those
he rejoices for. In this case the laws of
nature give way for the encouragement of
goodness; the stream rises higher than the
fountain; and the rebound is stronger than
the first motion. (Essays, Part I. p. 166,
1698).
Against Hero -Worship. You say it
(Fame) produces heroes : so much the
worse : 'twas well if there were fewer of
them : for I scarcely ever heard of any, ex-
cepting Hercules, but did more mischief than
good. These overgrown mortals commonly
use their will with their right hand, and
their reason wich their left. Their pride is
their title, and their power puts them in
possession. Their pomp is furnished from ra-
216 PRECIOUS STONES.
pine, and their scarlet dyed with human
blood. To drive justice, and peace, and plenty
before them, is a noble victory ; and the pro-
gress of violence goes for extent of empire.
Pray, how did Philip's glorious humour dis-
cover itself? Why, mostly by outraging and
murdering his neighbours ! 'Tis true the man
was brave; and had been severely handled by
showing it. He had fought himself almost
to the stumps, but still he went on. And am
I to admire a man because he will use him-
self ill, to use me worse ?
And, as for Alexander, what extent of
country did he ravage, and how many thou-
sands were sacrificed to his caprice ? What
famine, what inundation, what plague could
keep pace with him ? If his power had been
equal to his ambition, God could scarcely have
made the world faster than he would have
destroyed it. If wrecks, and ruins, and de-
solations of kingdoms are marks of greatness:
why do we not worship a tempest, and erect
a statue for the plague ? (Essays, Part II.,
p. 6. 1698).
PRECIOUS STONES. 217
Time- Serving. If you meddle with Diana
of the Ephesians, you must expect to lose
Demetrius's friendship. (Essays, Part II.
p. 73).
Entertainment of Books. By reading a
man does as it were antedate his life, and
makes himself contemporary with the ages
past. And this way of running up beyond
one's real nativity is much better than Plato's
pre-existence ; because here a man knows
something of the state and is the wiser for
it; which he is not in the other. In conversing
with books, we may choose our company
The reader has as it were the spirit and es-
sence in a narrow compass : like an heir, he
is born rather than made rich, and comes
into a stock of sense, with little or no trouble
of his own.
However, to be constantly in the wheel has
neither pleasure nor improvement in it. A
man may as well expect to grow stronger by
always eating, as wiser by always reading:
too much overcharges nature, and turns more
into disease than nourishment. 'Tis thought
218 PEECIOUS STONES.
and digestion which make books serviceable,
and give health and vigour to the mind.
Neither ought we to be too implicit or resign-
ing to authorities, but to examine before we
assent, and preserve our reason in its just
liberties. To walk always upon crutches, is
the way to lose the use of our limbs. (Ibid.
p. 99).
Of Liberty. Freedom within a rule is
very desirable; yet scarcely any one thing
has done more mischief than this word mis-
understood. Absolute liberty is a jest ; 'tis
a visionary and romantic privilege, and ut-
terly inconsistent with the present state of
the world. The generality of mankind must
have more understanding, and more honesty
too, than they are likely to have as long as
they live, before they are fit to be at their
own disposal. To tell people they are
free, is the common artifice of the factious
and seditious. These State-gypsies pick" the
pockets of the ignorant wich this specious
cant, and with informing them what mighty
fortunes they are all born to. ( Ibid. p. 154)-
PRECIOUS STONES. - 219
Melancholy frequently the Result of Pride.
The spleen is oftentimes nothing but a
nice and exceptions temper, which takes
check at every little disappointment. Those
who overvalue their pretentions are apt,
upon every little occasion, to think they are
ill-used A careless gesture, a word, or a
look, is enough to disconcert them. Such a
supposed neglect spreads a gloominess upon
their humour, and makes them grow sullen
and unconversable ; and when they are dis-
turbed only by their own weakness, and
doing penance for their vanity, they lay the
fault upon their constitution. (Ibid. p. 35.)
Of Eagerness of Desire. A wise man
should be satisfied with himself, and live upon
the fund of his own sufficiency. He shoaM
keep his inclinations within the compass of
his power, and wish himself always just what
he is. To say, he must have such a thing, is
to say he must be a slave. It lays him at the
mercy of chance and humour, and makes his
happiness precarious. (Ibid. p. 42.)
220 PRECIOUS STONES.
WOLLASTOff.
Human Life : its Sufferings and Hopes.
[WOLLASTON, born 1650, died 1724].
Even in many of those enjoyments which
men principally propose to themselves, they
are greatly disappointed; and experience
shows how unlike they are to the antecedent
images of them. They are commonly mixed :
the apparatus to most of them is too operose :
the completion of them seldom depends upon
ourselves alone, but upon a concurrence of
things which rarely hit all right : they are
generally not only less in practice than in
theory, but die almost as soon as they are ;
and perhaps they entail upon us a tax, to be
paid after they are gone. To go on with the
history of human life, though affairs go pros-
perously, yet still perhaps a family is increas-
ing, and with it new occasions of solicitude
are introduced, accompanied with many fears,
and tender apprehensions. At length if a
man, through many cares and toils and
various adventures, arrives at old age, then
PRECIOUS STONES. 221
he feels most commonly his pressures rather
increased than diminished, and himself less
able to support them. The business he has
to do grows urgent upon him, and calls for
despatch : most of his faculties and active
powers begin now to fail him apace: rela-
tions and friends, who might be helpful to
him, leave him never to return more : wants
and pains all the while are multiplying upon
him ; and under this additional load he
comes melancholy behind, tottering and bend-
ing toward the earth, till he either stumbles
upon something which throws him into the
grave, or, fainting, falls of himself. And must
he end here ? Is this the period of his being ?
Is this all ? Did he come into the world only
to make his way through the press, amidst
many jostlings and hard struggles, with at
best only a few deceitful little pleasures in-
terspersed, and so go out of it again ? Can
this be an end worthy a First Cause, perfectly
reasonable ? Would even any man of com-
mon sense and good nature send another
upon a difficult journey in which, though he
might perhaps now and then meet with a little
smooth way get an interval for rest and
222 PRECIOUS STOKES.
contemplation, and be flattered with some ver-
dure and the smiles of a few daisies on the
banks of the road yet upon the whole he
must travel through much dirt, take many
wearisome steps, be continually enquiring after
some clew or direction to carry him through
the turnings and intricacies of it, be puzzled
how to get a competent .viaticum and pay his
reckonings ; ever and anon be in danger of
being lost in deep waters ; and, beside, forced
all the while to fence against weathers, acci-
dents, and cruel robbers who are everywhere
lying in wait for him I say, would any one
send a man upon such a journey as this, only
that the man might faint and expire at the
end of it, and all his thoughts perish. That
is, either for no end at all, or for the punish-
ment of one, whom I suppose never to have
hurt him, nor ever to have been capable of
hurting him ? And how can we impute to
God, that which is below the common size of
men? (Religion of Nature Delineated, p.
207; Edit. 1726.)
Consistency of Prayer with Divine Immu-
J,al)ility. The respect or relation which lies
PRECIOUS STONES. 223
between God, considered as an unchangeable
Being, and one that is humble, and suppli-
cates, and endeavours to qualify himself for
mercy, cannot be the same with that which
lies between the same unchangeable God, and
one that is obstinate and will not supplicate or
endeavour to qualify himself. That is, the
same thing or being cannot respect opposite
and contradictory characters, in the same
manner. It is not, in short, that by our sup-
plication, we can pretend to produce any
alteration, in the Deity ; but, by an alteration
in ourselves, we may alter the relation and
respect lying between Him and us. (Ibid.
p. 115.)
KETTLEWELL.
A Prayer for Peace of Mind and Co.-nfort.
[KETTLEWELL, born 1653, died 1G95.]
Let me have thy peace, O Gracious Father,
and comfort my trembling and broken heart,
224 PRECIOUS STONES.
with the hopes thereof. Cause me " to hear
the voice of joy and gladness," and revive me
with the assurance of thy love. O, that I
may be able from mine own experience, to
speak great things of thy readiness to receive
and comfort returning sinners ; and thereby
drawback others to thy service, who are still
running astray from the same. O, that by
seeing thy goodness upon me, " every one
that is godly may seek to thee " in their dis-
tress, and find mercy as I have done.
But, Lord, having found thy mercy to poor
sinners, let me not abuse or presume upon it :
let me not take heart to repeat my sins, be-
cause thou art ready and glad to grant for-
giveness. When thou hast spoken comfort-
ably to me, make me careful to " sin no more,
lest a worse thing come upon me ;" but to
keep on in all holy and thankful obedience
unto thee, and never more return to folly.
Let the sense of thy mercies, O my God,
serve no other use in me but to encourage
my repentance, and to support me in thy fear,
till I come at length to enjoy thy eternal
favour, through Jesus Christ my Lord. (A
PEECIOUS STONES. 225
Companion for the Penitent, p. 25 ; Ed.
1843.)
NORRIS OF BEMERTON.
-\<>t to Return Evil for Evil. [NoRRis,
born 1657, died 1711.] To do another man
a diskindness, merely because he has done
me one, serves to no good purpose and to
many evil ones: for it contributes nothing
to the reparation of the first injury (it being
impossible that the act of any wrong should
be rescinded, though the permanent effect
may); but, instead of making up the breach
of my happiness, it increases the objects of
my pity, by bringing a new misery into the
world more than was before ; and occasions
fresh returns of malice, one begetting ano-
ther, like the encirclings of disturbed water ;
till the evil becomes fruitful and multiplies
into a long succession, a genealogy of mis-
chiefs. (Miscellanies, p. 238.)
226 PRECIOUS STONES.
MATTHEW HENRY.
A Thought upon Tombs. [MATTHEW
HENRY, born 1662, died 1714.] It is worth
noting, (1), That a burying place was the first
spot of ground Abraham was possessed of in
Canaan. When we are entering into the
world, it is good to think of our going out
of it ; for as soon as we are born we begin to
die. (2), That it was the only piece of land
he was ever possesed of, though it was all
his own in reversion. Those that have least
of this earth find a grave in it. (Commen-
tary on Genesis xxiii.)
Family Prayer. Those that would ap-
prove themselves the children of faithful
Abraham, and would inherit the blessing of
Abraham, must make conscience of keeping
up the solemn worship of God, particularly
in their families, according to the example of
Abraham. The way of family worship is a
good old way is no novel invention, but the
ancient usage of all the saints. Abraham
was very rich, and had a numerous family,
PRECIOUS STONES. 227
was now unsettled, and in the midst of ene-
mies ; and yet, wherever he pitched his tent,
he built an altar. Wherever we go. let us
not fail to take our religion along with us.
(Ibid, xii.)
BISHOP SMALRIDGE.
Good Intentions and Good Works.
[SMALRIDGE, born 1666, died 1719]. There
is the same analogy and connection between
our intentions and our actions, as there is
betwixt faith and good works. If we have
faith and are destitute of good works, this is
a dead faith : if we perform good works, and
are destitute of true faith, those works are
unprofitable. If we fast, pray, mortify our
bodies, give alms to the poor, renounce the
pleasures and diversions of the world, and
have not faith, we may possibly receive our
reward at the hands of men, but we shall
have no recompense for them before God ;
because He approves of no works but what
2
228 PRECIOUS STONES.
are entire, sincere, and in their kind perfect ;
and those which are done without faith want
that integrity, truth, and perfection, which
they ought to have : and, on the other side,
if we have faith, but do not show it by works
worthy of a true believer, we shall not be
justified in the sight of God. We are in the
true way, but we do not walk in that way
we have the foundation, but we build nothing
upon that foundation the root of the matter
is in us, but we bring forth no fruit. Good
works and a true faith joined together com-
plete the character of a good Christian : we
admire the beauty of the superstructure, when
we are sure of the firmness of the foundation ;
and we are pleased to see the tree well laden
with the goodly fruit, when we are at the
same time satisfied that there is at the root
life and sap, which will still go on to fructify.
And the same thing may be said of good
intentions and good works : it is a good in-
tention that must make our works good, and
a right faith is therefore necessary, because
it regulates the intention ; if either of these
O
be wantirjg, the letter of the law may, indeed,
PRECIOUS STONES. 229
be observed, but the purport of the law is not
answered. (Sixty Sermons, 1724, p. 156.)
BENTLEY.
An Atheistical Conjecture Illustrated.- -
[BEXTLEY, born 1662, died 1742.] If a man
should affirm that an ape, casually meeting
with pen, ink, and paper, and falling to scrib-
ble, did happen to write exactly the Levia-
tlian of Thomas Ilobbes, would an Atheist
believe such a story ? And yet he can easily
digest things as incredible as that : that the
innumerable members of the human body,
which, in the style of the Scriptures, are all
written in the Book of God, and may admit
of almost infinite variations and transforma-
tions above the twenty-four letters of the
alphabet, were at first fortuitously scribbled,
and by mere accident compacted into this
beautiful, and noble, and most wonderfully
useful frame which we now see it carry.
(Sermon ii. at the Boyle Lecture.)
230 PRECIOUS STONES.
ADDISON.
A Moonlight Walk Improved. [
born 1672, died 1719.] I was yesterday
about sunset walking in the open fields, until
the night insensibly fell upon me. I at first
amused myself with all the richness and
variety of colours, which appeared in the
western parts of heaven ; in proportion as they
faded away and went out, several stars and
planets appeared one after another, until the
whole firmament was in a glow. The blue-
ness of the ^Ether was exceedingly heightened
and enlivened by the season of the year, and
by the rays of all those luminaries that passed
through it. The galaxy appeared in its most
beautiful white. To complete the scene, the
full moon rose at length in that clouded
majesty which Milton takes notice of, and
opened to the eye a new picture of nature,
which was more finely shaded, and disposed
among softer lights, than that which the sun
had before discovered to us.
As I was surveying the moon walking in
PRECIOUS STONES. 231
her brightness, and taking her progress
among the constellations, a thought rose in
me which I believe very often perplexes and
disturbs men of serious and contemplative
natures. David himself fell into it in that
reflection : " When I consider the heavens
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars which thou has ordained ; what is man,
that thou art mindful of him, and the son of
man that thou regardest him ?" In the same
manner when I considered the infinite host
of stars, or, to speak more philosophically,
of suns, which were then shining upon me,
with those innumerable sets of planets or
worlds, which were moving round their re-
spective suns ; when I still enlarged the idea,
and supposed another heaven of suns and
worlds rising still above this which we dis-
covered, and these still enlightened by a
superior firmament of luminaries, which are
planted at so great a distance, that they may
appear to the inhabitants of the former as
the stars do to us ; in short, while I pursued
this thought, I could not but reflect on that
little insignificant figure which I myself bore
232 PRECIOUS STONES.
amidst the immensity of God's works.-
{Spectator. No. 565.)
BISHOP SHERLOCK.
fhe Reality of our Lord's Body after His
Resurrection. [SHERLOCK, born 1678, died
1761.] We are to consider Christ's vanish-
ing out of sight ; His coming in and going
out, when the doors were shut; and such
like passages. It is necessary, first, to see
what the Apostles affirm distinctly in their
accounts of these facts : for I think more has
been said for them than ever they said, or
intended to say for themselves. In one place
it is said, " HE vanished out of their sight "
(Luke xxiv. 31), which x translation is cor-
rected in the margin of our Bibles thus :
" He ceased to be seen of them" And the
original imports no more.
It is said in another place, that the disci-
ples being together, " and the doors shut,"
Jesus came and stood in the midst of them.
PRECIOUS STONES. 233
How He came, is not said : much less is it
said that He came through the door, or the
keyhole : and for anything that is said to the
contrary, He might come in at the door,
though the disciples saw not the door open,
nor Him till He was in the midst of them.
But the gentleman thinks these passages
prove that the disciples saw no real body,
but an apparition. I am afraid that the gen-
tleman, after all his contempt of apparitions,
and the superstition on which they are
founded, is fallen into the snare himself, and
is arguing on no better principles, than the
common notions which the vulgar have of
apparitions. Why else does he imagine
these passages to be inconsistent with the
reality of Christ's body? Is there no way
for a real body to disappear ? Try the ex-
periment now : do but put out the candles,
we shall all disappear. If a man falls asleep
in the day-time, all things disappear to him :
his senses are all locked up; and yet al
things about him continue to be real, and
his senses continue perfect. As shutting out
all rays would make all things disappear ; so
234 PRECIOUS STONES.
intercepting the rays of light from any par-
ticular body, would make that disappear.
Perhaps something like this was the case : or
perhaps something else, of which we know
nothing. But be the case what it will, the
gentleman's conclusion is founded on no
principle of true philosophy ; for it does not
follow that a body is not real, because I lose
sight of it suddenly. I shall be told, perhaps,
that this way of accounting for the passage
is as wonderful, and as much out of the com-
mon course of things, as the other. Perhaps
it is so, and what then ? Surely the gentle-
man does not expect, that, in order to prove
the reality of the greatest miracle that ever
was, I should show that there was nothing
miraculous in it, but that everything hap-
pened according to the ordinary course of
things. My only concern is to show that
these passages do not infer that the body of
Christ, after the Resurrection, was no real
body. I wonder the gentleman did not carry
his argument a little further, and prove that
Christ, before His death, had no real body ;
for we read that when the multitude would
PRECIOUS STONES. 235
have thrown Him down a precipice, He went
through the midst of them unseen. Now,
nothing happened after the Resurrection
more unaccountable than this that happened
before it. {Trial of the Witnesses, p 425 ;
Edit. 1816).
BISHOP BERKELEY.
The Conversion of an Unbeliever shoivn in
a Simile. [BERKELEY, born 1684, died
1753.] You see the water of yonder foun-
tain, how it is forced upwards, in a round
column, to a certain height ; at which it
breaks and falls back into the basin from
whence it rose : its ascent, as well as descent,
proceeding from the same uniform law, or
principle of gravitation. Just so, the same
principles which at first view lead to scepti-
cism, pursued to a certain point, bring men
back to common sense. (Hylas and Philo-
nous, Dial, iii.)
236 PRECIOUS STONES.
Intellectual Development, It is with our
faculties, as with our affections : what first
seizes holds fast. It is a vulgar theme that
man is a compound of contrarieties, which
breed a restless struggle in his nature, be-
tween flesh and spirit, the beast and the
angel, earth and heaven, ever weighed down
and ever bearing up. During which conflict
the character fluctuates ; when either side
prevails, it is then fixed for vice or virtue.
And life, from different principles takes a
different issue. It is the same in regard to
our faculties. Sense at first besets and over-
bears the mind. The sensible appearances
are all in all : our reasonings are employed
about them : our desires terminate in them :
we look no farther for realities or causes ;
till intellect begins to dawn, and cast a ray
on this shadowy scene. (Siris, Works ii.
p. 397).
Our own Knowledge no Measure of Pro-
bability. I never durst make my own obser-
vation or experience the rule and measure of
things spiritual, supernatural, or relating to
PRECIOUS STOXES. 237
another world, because I should think it a
very bad one, even for the visible and natural
things of this ; it would be judging like the
Siamese, who was positive it did not freeze
in Holland, because he had never known
such a thing as hard water or ice in his
own country. I cannot comprehend why any
one, who admits the union of the soul and
body, should pronounce it impossible for the
human nature to be united to the divine,
in a manner ineffable and incomprehensible
by reason. Neither can I see any absurdity
in admitting, that sinful man may become
regenerate or a new creature, by the grace
of God reclaiming him from a carnal life to
a spiritual life of virtue and holiness. And
since the being governed by sense and ap-
petite is contrary to the happiness and per-
fection of a rational creature, I do not at all
wonder that we are prescribed self-denial.
As for the resurrection of the dead, I do not
conceive it so very contrary to the analogy of
nature, when I behold vegetables left to rot
in the earth, rise up again with new life and
vigour ; or a worm, to all appearance daed
238 PRECIOUS STOXES.
change its nature, and that which, in its first
being crawled on the earth, become a new r spe-
cies, and fly abroad with wings. And, indeed,
when I consider that the soul and body are
things so very different and heterogeneous,
I can see no reason to be positive, that the
one must necessarily be extinguished upon
the dissolution of the other ; especially since
I find in myself a strong, natural desire of
immortality; and I have not observed that
natural appetites are wont to be given in vain,
or merely to be frustrated. (The Minute
Philosopher, Dial, vi., Works i. p. 459).
World above World. (Alciphron) : How
is it possible to conceive God so good, and
man so wicked ? It may, perhaps, with some
colour be alleged, that a little soft shadowing
of evil sets off the bright and luminous parts
of the creation, and so contributes to the
beauty of the whole piece; but for blots s)
large and black it is impossible to account by
that principle. (Euphranor) : Tell me, Alci-
phron, would you argue that a state was ill-
administered, or judge of the manners of
PRECIOUS STONES. 239
its citizens, by the disorders committed in
the gaol or dungeon ? (Alciphron) : I would
not. (Euphranor) : And, for aught we know,
this spot, with the few sinners on it, bears no
greater proportion to the universe of intel-
ligences, than a dungeon doth to a kingdom.
It seems we are led not only by revelation
but by common sense, observing and infer-
ring from the analogy of visible things, to
conclude there are innumerable orders of in-
telligent beings more happy and more perfect
than man, whose life is but a span, and whose
place upon this earthly globe is but a point
in respect of the whole system of God's crea-
tion. We are dazzled, indeed, with the glory
and grandeur of things here below, because
we know no better. But I am apt to think,
if we knew what it was to be an angel for one
hour, we should return to this world, though
it were to sit on the brightest throne in it,
with vastly more loathing and reluctance
than we would now descend into a loathsome
dungeon or sepulchre. ( TJie Minute Philo-
sopher. Dial. iv. p. 405).
240 PRECIOUS STONES.
HUTCHESON.
Approbation and Dislike caused by Asso-
ciation of Ideas. [HtJTCHESON, born 1694,
died, 1747.] There are many faces which at
first view are apt to raise dislike ; but this is
generally not from any positive deformity,
which of itself is positively displeasing ; but
either from want of expected beauty, or much
more, from their carrying some natural indi-
cations of morally bad dispositions, which we
all acquire a faculty of discerning in counte-
nances, airs, and gestures. That this is not
occasioned by any form positively disgusting
will appear from this that if upon long ac-
quaintance we are sure df finding loveliness
of temper, humanity, and cheerfulness, al-
though the bodily form continues, it shall
give us no disgust or displeasure ; whereas,
if anything was naturally disagreeable, or the
occasion of pain or positive distaste, it would
always continue so, even though the aversion
we might have towards it, were counter-
balanced by other considerations. There are
PRECIOUS STONES. 241
horrors raise! by some objects, which are
only the effect of fear for ourselves, or com-
passion for others, when either reason, or
some foolish association of ideas, make us
apprehend danger, and not the effect of any
thing in the form itself; for we find that most
of those objects which excite horror at first,
when experience or reason has removed the
fear, may become the occasions of pleasure ;
as ravenous beasts, a tempestuous sea, a
craggy precipice, a dark valley. (An En-
quiry concerning Beauty, sect, vi.)
BISHOP WARBURTOX.
Blasphemous Doctrines of Infidelity.
[WARBURTON, born 1698, died 1779.] No
man in his senses could mistake the value of
this new money ; especially pieces, which
have an uncommon glow, as if they came
hot from the place where they were minted.
( View of Lord Bolingbroke 's Philosophy.
Works, t. xii. p. 119.)
R
242 PRECIOUS STONES.
Pride and Vanity Distinguished. Exces-
sive vanity may be matched by pride, which
I think is a much worse quality if we may
call these two qualities, when they arise from
the same root, and only receive this circum-
stantial diversity from the different tempers
of the subject : it being in a good-natured
man what we call vanity; in an ill-natured
man, pride. (Letters to Hurd, Jan. 15,
1757.)
The Moral of an Earthquake. He lay off
Lisbon on this fatal 1st of November, pre-
paring to hoist sail for England. He looked
towards the city in the morning, which gave
the promise of a fine day, and saw that proud
Metropolis rise above the waves in wealth
and plenty, and founded on a rock that pro-
mised a Poet's eternity, at least, to its gran-
deur. He looked an hour after, and saw the
city involved in flames, and sinking in thun-
der. A sight more awful mortal eyes could
not behold on this side the day of doom. And
yet does not human pride make us miscalcu-
late ? A drunken beggar shall work as
PRECIOUS STONES. 243
horrid a desolation with a kick of his foot
against an ant-hill, as subterraneous air and
fermented minerals to a populous city. And
if we take in the universe of things rather
with a philosophic than a religious eye,
where is the difference in point of real im-
portance between them ? A difference there
is, and a very sensible one in the merits of
the two societies. The little Troglodytes
amass neither superfluous nor imaginary
wealth ; and, consequently, have neither
drones nor rogues among them.
Ixxxvii.)
JORTIN.
Heart- Husbandry. [JoRTiN, born 1698,
died 1779]. One being asked, what could
be the reason why weeds grew more plenti-
fully than corn, answered, Because the earth
was the mother of weeds, but the step-mo-
ther of corn ; that is, the one she produced
R 2
244 PRECIOUS STONES.
of her own accord, the other not till she was
compelled to it by man's toil and industry.
This may not unfitly be applied to the human
mind, which, on account of its intimate union
with the body, and commerce with sensible ob-
jects, easily and willingly performs the things
of the flesh, but will not bring forth the spi-
ritual fruits of piety and virtue, unless cul-
tivated with assiduity and application.
(S&rmona, t. iii. p. 6.)
BATES.
Not to have Fellowship with Unrighteous-
ness. [BATES, born 1625, died 1699]. We
are not in paradise, where the viper and the
asp were innocent, and might be handled
without danger from their poison ; but in a
contagious world, full of corrupters and cor-
rupted. (Spiritual Perfection, p. 1.)
Spiritual Knowledge, a Living Power.
PRECIOUS STOXES. 245
The knowledge of some things is merely
speculative. One knows that the eclipse of
the sun is from the interposing of the moon
between that globe of light and our sight, and
the mind acquiesces in the theory ; but it is
of no moral practical use. But the know-
ledge that sin separates between God and us,
and intercepts the light of His countenance
from shining upon us, is infinitely profitable
to make us fearful to offend Him, that we
may not be deprived of the joyful sense of
His love. (.Ibid. p. 100.)
LORD SHAFTESBURY.
Changes of the Earths Surface a Picture,
[SHAFTESBURY, born 1670, died 1712.]
But behold ! through a vast tract of sky be-
fore us, the mighty Atlas rears his lofty head,
covered with snow above the clouds. Beneath
the mountain's foot, the rocky country rises
into hills, a proper basis of the ponderous
mass above, where huge embodied rocks lie
246 PRECIOUS STONES.
piled upon one another, and seem to prop the
high arch of heaven. See ! with what trem-
bling steps poor mankind tread the narrow
brink of the deep precipices; from whence
with giddy horror they look down, mistrust-
ing even the ground which bears them ;
whilst they hear the hollow sound of torrents
underneath, and see the ruin of the impend-
ing rock : with falling trees, which hang with
their roots upwards, "and seem to draw more
ruin after them. Here thoughtless men,
seized with the newness of such objects, be-
come thoughtful, and willingly contemplate
the incessant changes of the earth's surface.
They see, as in one instant, the revolutions
of past ages, the fleeting forms of things, and
the decay of even this our globe; whose
youth and first formation they consider,
while the apparent spoil and irreparable
breaches of the wasted mountain show them
the world itself only as a noble ruin, and
make them think of its approaching period.
(The Moralists, t. ii. p. 389 ; Ed. 1727).
PRECIOUS STONES. 247
WATERLAXD.
Renewal of the Mind after Baptism.
[WATERLAXD, born 1683, died 1740.]
Though we find no Scripture exhortations
made to Christians (for Nicodemus was a
Jew) to become regenerated, yet we meet
with several made to them to be again and
again renewed. " Be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind " "Be renewed in
the spirit of your mind." " The inward man
is renewed day by day" (Rom. xii. 2 ; Eph.
iv. 23 ; 2 Cor. iv. 16). And when Christians
have once fallen off, the restoring them again
is not called regeneration, but renewing them
again to repentance (Heb. vi. 6). If such
persons fall away by desertion and disobe-
dience, still their baptismal consecration, and
their covenant state consequent, abide and
stand, but without their saving effect, for the
time being ; because without present renova-
tion, the new birth, or spiritual life, is in a
manner sinking and drooping. Their rege-
nerate state, upon their revolt, is no longer
248 PRECIOUS STONES.
such in the full, saving sense, wanting one of
its integral parts: like as a ruined house
ceases to be a house when it has nothing
left but walls. But yet, as a house, while
there are walls ' left, does not need to be re-
built, but repaired only, in order to become a
house as before ; so a person once savingly
regenerated will not want to be regenerated
again, but reformed only. Perfect regenera-
tion is, to the spiritual life, what perfect
health is to the natural ; and the recoveries
of the spiritual health, time after time, are
not a new generation, but a restoring or im-
proving of the old. (Sermon on Regeneration').
GLOUCESTER RIDLEY.
Regeneration Explained. [RiDLEY, born
1702, died 1774.] This wonderful change
in all our faculties, as it were annihilating
our former selves, and making other creatures
of us than we were before, is also at its com-
mencement called " regeneration." Not that
PRECIOUS STONES. 249
this change is at once, or at all perfected in
this world, so as that none of the dregs of
our old nature and original corruption re-.
main ; our Christian course is only " a going
on " to perfection, and not the arrival at it :
it is the abounding " more and more," and
not a full attainment. The guilt of original
corruption may be blotted out, and the
punishment remitted, but the stain continues
and sullies our best performances : the blood
of Christ once shed did not wash it out ; but
the graces of the Holy Spirit, repeated and
continued, gradually diminish it. So that
regeneration, if it be applied to the whole
and entire change of a man, is a progressive
state, the perfection of which is in another
world, the commencement and degrees in
this. The commencement of it, when in-
stead of children of wrath we are received
into God's favour, and have the Spirit given
us, a principle of new life, gradually to un-
fold itself hereafter, as we shall nourish
and comply with it, is usually called more
particularly our regeneration, as it is our
250 PRECIOUS STONES.
being born of the Spirit, and it is the first
beginning of a new and spiritual life. The
degrees of it, our growth in grace and pro-
gress towards a perfect change of nature,
as it is the daily alteration and improve-
ment of our minds, is generally distinguished
by the name of "renovation," inducing by
degrees a new form into the mind, and " re-
newing the inward man day by day."
Regeneration means our being born again into
God's family, and receiving in the graces of
the Holy Ghost a principle of new life, which
is at baptism : and renovation is the gradual
new formation of the mind, wrought by the
continued presence and operation of the Holy
Ghost, and not an instantaneous creation.
And T think all saving grace attainable in
this life is comprehended under these two
general heads illumination, or believing
with the heart, and sanctification of the
Spirit to obedience ; and so St. Paul sums it
up, ascribing the salvation of the Thessalo-
nians to sanctification of the Spirit, and be-
lief of the truth. (Sermon, Acts xix. 2.)
PRECIOUS STOXES. 251
SHENSTONE.
Admonitory Thoughts. [SHENSTONE,born
1714, died 1763.] Think, when you are en-
raged at any one, what would probably be-
come your sentiments should he die during
the dispute. ( Works, t. ii., p. 209.)
I think I have observed universally that
the quarrels of friends, in the latter part of
life, are never truly reconciled. A wound in
the friendship of young persons, as in the
bark of young trees, may be so grown over
as to leave no scar. The case is very diffe-
rent in regard to old persons and old timber.
The reason of this may be accountable from
the decline of the social passions, and the
prevalence of spleen, suspicion, and rancour,
towards the latter part of life. (Ibid. p. 142.)
How melancholy is it to travel, late and
252 PRECIOUS STONES.
fatigued, upon any ambitious project on a
winter's night, and observe the lights of cot-
tages, where all the unambitious people are
warm and happy, or at rest in their beds.
{Ibid. p. 220.)
HERVET.
The Moral of a Microscope. [HERVEY,
born 1714, died 1758], You know the use
of that solar microscope, and are able to
inform me of its effects. You have seen the
body of an insect accommodated to the sur-
prising instrument. When in this situation,
the animal was pricked by a very fine needle ;
your eye, your naked eye, just perceived the
puncture ; and discovered, perhaps, a speck
of moisture oozing from the orifice. But in
what manner were they represented by the
magnifying instrument ? ( Theron) : The
puncture was widened into a frightful gash.
The speck of moisture swelled into a copious
stream ; and flowed like a torrent from the
gaping wound. An ox, under the sacrificing
PRECIOUS STONES. 253
knife, scarce looks more bulky or bleeds
more largely. (Aspasio) : Don't you appre-
hend my design ? If we, short-sighted mor-
tals, and almost blinded with self-love, if we
cannot but be sensible of our faults how
flagrant must they appear, in what enormous
magnitude, and with what aggravating cir-
cumstances, to an EYE perfectly pure and
infinitely penetrating ? (Dialogues, t. i. 257).
BRETT.
The Holy Communion, what it is.
[BRETT, born 1667, died 1743]. He says,
" My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed." That flesh and blood of
mine which I but now promised you that " I
will give for the life of the world," is, indeed,
true life giving meat and drink. " He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwel
leth in me and I in him." He is in me as a
member of my mystical body, and I in Him
by imparting to Him of my life-giving Spirit.
" As the living Father sent me. and I live by
254 PRECIOUS STONES.
the Father, so he that eateth me shall live
by me." As the Father (see John v. 26)
hath life in Himself which He received from
no other, and has given to me His Son to
have life in myself, so I will impart true life
to him that feeds on me. " This is that
bread which came down from heaven ; not
as your fathers did eat manna and are dead :
he that eateth of this bread shall live for
ever." The bread which I purpose to give
you is true heavenly bread, not like that
which was rained down in the wilderness,
which though your fathers eat plentifully of
it, yet they died in their sins ; but this bread
shall cleanse you from sin, and by the virtue
of it those who feed upon it shall live for
ever. " These things said He in the syna-
gogue, as He taught in Capernaum. Many
therefore of His disciples, when they heard
this, said, This is an hard saying, who can
bear it?" Who can believe that we must
become cannibals and feed upon this man's
flesh and blood ? or without such feeding
must be deprived of eternal life or hap-
piness ? " When Jesus knew in Himself
PRECIOUS STONES. 255
that His disciples murmured at it, He said
unto them, Does this offend you ? " Do you
stumble at this ? Does the faith you have
pretended to have now fail you ? " What
and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up
where He was before ? " Will ye not then
think the feeding on my flesh more incredible
than you do now ? For how can you feed
upon it when it is here no more ? There-
fore, I will a little explain myself and tell
you that, " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ;
the flesh profiteth nothing :" bare flesh and
blood without life and spirit in them can
quicken or give life to nothing. " The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit
and they are life." The promises that I have
made you concerning giving you my flesh
and blood to eat and drink, if you had
attended to them, might have satisfied you
that I spake of such flesh and blood, as
should have a quickening Spirit conveyed
with them : for I plainly told you that, as " I
live by the Father, so he that eateth me
shall live by me." I will quicken or give
him life by my Spirit, that Spirit by which
256 PRECIOUS STONES.
my body lives, and whose quickening or life-
giving virtue I will impart to that material
thing which I shall make my body and blood,
when I give this natural body and blood of
mine " for the life of the world," or the re-
demption of mankind. It is not Christ's
doctrine that quickens and gives us life ; but
His Spirit, that Spirit which gave light to
His own body, and which together with
His body and blood, or something which
He dignifies with that name. He has ap-
pointed to give us life. The body and blood
then, or flesh and blood, which in this chap-
ter He promised to give (saying, " My flesh
which I will give") for our food which should
nourish us unto eternal life, can be no other
than that bread and wine which He gave
when He instituted the Holy Eucharist or
Lord's Supper, at which time He dignified
them with the name and virtue of His body
and blood. And so the holy and most
ancient fathers (who lived nearest to the
apostles' days, and, therefore, best under-
stood the apostles' language and doctrine,
consequently could best expound them) have
PRECIOUS STONES. 257
interpreted this passage, as appears from
St. Ignatius particularly, who, being the dis-
ciple of John who wrote the Gospel where
alone this discourse of our Saviour is re-
corded, is to be preferred to all other expo-
sitors; and he tells us that the Holy Eu-
charist is the medicine of immortality, our
antidote that we should not die, but live for
ever in Christ Jesus. (Scripture Account of
the Holy Eucharist, p. 113.)
DEAN COMBER.
Sacramental Bread and Wine, [COMBER,
born 1645, died 1699]. We do believe that
every duly disposed communicant doth really
receive the body and blood of Christ in and
by these elements, but it is by faith and not
by sense. If we receive them in the manner
and to the end which Christ appointed, they
give us a lively remembrance of His love and
all-sufficient merit, and thereby invite our
faith to embrace this crucified Redeemer, as
the satisfaction for our sins ; whereupon He
s
258 PRECIOUS STONES.
(who is most ready to close with penitent
sinners) doth by this rite, of His own ap-
pointing, give Himself and the salutary be-
ne6ts of His death unto such ; and, although
the manner be mysterious, yet the advantages
are real, and the effect more certain than if
we eat or drank His natural flesh and blood.
(Companion to the Temple, 547).
JOHNSON THE WHIG.
The Christian's Victory over Misfor-
tunes. [JOHNSON, born 1688, died 1763.]
" More than conquerors ! " How can that
be ? It is as if the apostle had said, " We not
only disarm and overcome them, but we bring
them over to be of our party ; so that they
fight for us and war on our side." This is
that which renders a Christian so highly vic-
torious over the troubles of this life : he con-
quers their enmity and makes them his
friends, which other conquerors, with all
their power, are not able to do in their im-
PRECIOUS STONES. 259
perfect victories. They subdue the bodies, but
they cannot win the heart and affections of
their captives. So that good Christians are
more than conquerors over all calamities ;
for they not only subdue them and take from
them all power of hurting, but they likewise
make friends of them, and reap considerable
advantages by them, and are much the better
for them. It is good for me that I have been
afflicted, says David : he congratulates the
troubles he had passed through, as the means
of his spiritual benefit and improvement;
for before I was afflicted I ivent astray, but
now have I kept thy commandments.
(Works, fol. 1710, p. 468).
LESLIE.
Heresy not without its Uses. [LESLIE, born
about 1650, died 1722.] But now that, from
all the proofs of the certainty of the Reve-
lation, we are come to fix in Christianity, our
labour is not yet at an end ; for here you see
S 2
PRECIOUS STONES.
multiplicity of sects and divisions, which our
blessed Saviour foretold should come for the
probation of the elect ; as some Canaanites
were left in the land to teach the Israelites the
art of war, lest, by too profound a peace, they
might grow lazy and stupid, and become an
easy prey to their enemies. So might Chris-
tianity be lost among us : if we had nothing
to do, it would dwindle, and decay, and cor-
rupt by degrees, as water stagnates by stand-
ing still ; but, when we are put to contend
earnestly for the faith, it quickens our zeal,
keeps us upon our guard, trims our lamp,
and furbishes the sword of the Spirit, which
might otherwise rust in its scabbard ; and it
gives great opportunity to show us the won-
derful providence and protection of God over
His Church, in preserving her against a
visibly unequal force. And in this contest,
to some this high privilege is granted, in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him,
but also to suffer for His sake. (A Short
and Easy Method with the Deists, p. 19,
Edit. 1838).
PRECIOUS STONES. 261
DODDRIDGE.
Transforming Power of the Gospel.
[DODDRIDGE, born 1702, died 1751.] Moses
saw the Shechinah, and it rendered his face
resplendent, so that he covered it with a veil,
the Jews not being able to bear the reflected
light : we behold Christ, as in the glass of
His word, and (as the reflection of a very
luminous object from a mirror gilds the face
on which the reverberated rays fall) our faces
shine too ; and we veil them not, but diffuse
the lustre, which, as we discover more and
more of His glories in the Gospel, is continu-
ally increasing. (The Family Expositor ',
2 Cor. iii. 18, note).
SEED.
Acknowledge a Fault. [SEED, born ,
died 1747.] Be not ashamed to confess you
262 PRECIOUS STONES.
have been in the wrong. It is but owning
what you need not be ashamed of that you
now have more sense than you had before
to see your error more humility to acknow-
ledge it, and more grace to correct it. We
double the greater part of our faults by the
excuses which we make use of to justify
them excuses, which are a kind of patches
when a rent is made ; far more unseemly and
misbecoming than the rent itself. (Sermons,
i. p. 65).
Domestic Love and Union Enforced.
Goodness does not only communicate favours
and kindnesses it even in some measure
communicates itself. Just as those, who have
been long among the most fragrant objects,
not only are delighted with the odour that
breathes from them ; some of the very fra-
grancy cleaves to, and remains with them.
They become fragrant themselves, by staying
long among objects that are so. (Ibid.
P . 71).
Wisdom should be sought Early. The
PRECIOUS STONES. 263
fire of a glowing imagination (the property
of youth) may make folly look pleasing, and
lend a beauty to objects which have none in-
herent in them ; just as the sunbeams may
paint a cloud, and diversify it with beautiful
stains of light, however dark, unsubstantial,
and empty in itself. But nothing can shine
with undiminished lustre, but religion and
knowledge, which are essentially and intrin-
sically bright. (Ibid. 209).
OGDEN.
Against Calumny. [OGDEN, born 1716,
died 1778.] Reputation, of all possessions,
is the most valuable, next to a good con-
science ; to which, indeed, it of right belongs,
and from which it naturally springs. The
root lies out of reach of injury. Your inno-
cence, by God's grace, no one can take from
you, without your own consent : but the fruit
of a fair reputation, so beautiful and fragrant,
and in all respects so precious, this, alas !
2G4 PRECIOUS STONES.
hangs exposed to the assault of every pas-
senger; the lowest, as he goes along, can
fling a stone upwards, and laugh to see the
prize fall, though he cannot gather it.
We have an account somewhere of a cer-
tain tribe of savages who are possessed of a
persuasion, that, whenever they have slain a
man, they are immediately endowed with all
his good qualities ; which they think ard
transfused from the soul of the dead into
the person that has killed him. You will not
wonder that murders are frequent in that
country ; and that it is very dangerous, for a
man of merit, to be found unguarded among
people of such principles. (Sermons, t. ii.
254-5, Edit. 1788).
BISHOP NEWTON.
Good Effects of Conversation. [NEWTON,
born 1703, died 1782.] Our reading will be
of little use without conversation, and our
conversation will be apt to run low without
PRECIOUS STONES. 265
reading. Reading trims the lamp, and con-
versation lights it: reading is the food of the
mind, and conversation the exercise. And as
all things are strengthened by exercise, so is
the mind by conversation. There we shake
off the dust and stiffness of a recluse, scho-
lastic life : our opinions are confirmed or
corrected by the good opinions of others:
points are argued, doubts are resolved, diffi-
culties cleared, directions given, and fre-
quently hints started, which, if pursued,
would lead to the most useful truths, like a
vein of silver or gold that directs to a mine.
( Works, t. iii. p. 515.)
BISHOP HURD.
False Ideas of Prophecy. [HuRD, born
1719, died 1808.] Judging for ourselves,
and by the light of human investigation only,
there might be some ground for supposing,
that, if it should please God at any time to
confer the gift of prophecy on His favoured
266 PRECIOUS STONES.
servants, they would be solely or chiefly com-
missioned to unfold the future fortunes of
the most conspicuous states and kingdoms in
the world ; that so divine a power would
embrace, as its peculiar object, the counsels
and enterprises, the successes and triumphs,
of the most illustrious nations ; those espe-
cially which should rise to the summit of
empire by generous plans of policy, and by
the efforts of public virtue ; of free States,
in a word, such as we know to have flou-
rished in the happier ages of Greece, and
such as we still contemplate with admira-
tion in the vast and awful fabric of Consular
Rome. This we might think a fit object for
the prophetic spirit to present to us, as corres-
ponding in some degree to the sublime cha-
racter of a prophet ; and as most worthy, in
our conceptions, of the divine attention and
regard.
But how are we surprised to find that
this astonishing power, the most signal gift
of Heaven to mankind, hath, in its immediate
application at least, been chiefly employed,
and, as we are ready to express it, thrown
PBECIOUS STONES. 267
away on one single state, or rather family ;
inconsiderable in the extent of its power
or territory ; sequestered from the rest of
the nations, and hardly known among them ;
with some mention, perhaps, of greater things,
but incidentally touched, as it may seem, and
as they chanced to have some connection
with the interests of this sordid people.
Was this a stage on which it might be
expected that the God of heaven would con-
descend to display the wonders of His pre-
science ; when He kept aloof, as it were, from
more august theatres, and would scarcely
vouchsafe to have the skirts of His glory
seen, by the nobler and more distinguished
nations of the world ? Such questions as these
are sometimes asked: but they are surely
asked by those, who consider the prophets as
acting wholly on human views and motives,
and not as over-ruled in all their predictions
by the Spirit of God. ( Works, t. v. pp. 4-7.
1811.)
T7te Mystery of Prophecy not unreasonable.
It was to be expected that prophecy would
268 PRECIOUS STONES.
not be one cloudless emanation of light and
glory. If it be clear enough to serve the ends
for which it was designed : if, through all its
obscurities, we be able to trace the hand and
intention of its divine Author, what more
would we have ? How improvidently, indeed,
do we ask more of that great Being, who,
for the sake -of the natural world, clothes
the heaven with blackness (Isaiah 1. 3); and, in
equal mercy to the moral world, veils His
nature and providence in thick clouds, and
makes darkness His pavilion (Psalm xvii. 11.)
( Works, v. p. 70.)
BLAIR.
Good Temper a Characteristic of Chris-
tians. [BLAIR, born 1718, died 1800.]
Passions are quick and strong emotions,
which by degrees subside. Temper is the
disposition which remains after these emo-
tions are past, and which forms the habitual
propensity of the soul. The one are like
PRECIOUS STONES. 269
the stream when it is swollen by the torrent,
and ruffled by the winds ; the other re-
sembles it, when running within its bed, with
its natural velocity and force. The influence
of temper is more silent and imperceptible
than that of passion: it operates with less
violence ; but, as its operation is constant, it
produces effects no less considerable. It is
evident, therefore, that it highly deserves to
be considered in a religious view.
Many, indeed, are averse to behold it in
this light : they place a good temper upon
the same footing with a healthy constitution
of body : they consider it as a natural feli-
city which some enjoy, but for the want of
which others are not morally culpable, nor
accountable to God ; and hence the opinion
has sometimes prevailed, that a bad temper
might be consistent with a state of grace.
If this were true, it would overturn the
whole doctrine of which the Gospel is full,
that regeneration, or change of nature, is the
essential characteristic of a Christian. It
will readily be admitted that some, by the
original frame of their minds, are more
270 PRECIOUS STONES.
favourably inclined than others, towards cer-
tain good dispositions and habits. But this
affords no justification to those, who neglect
to oppose the corruptions to which they are
prone. Let no man imagine that the human
heart is a soil, altogether unsusceptible of
culture ; or that the worst temper may not,
through the assistance of grace, be reformed
by attention and discipline. Settled depravity
of temper is always owing to our own indul-
gence. (Sermon on the Government of the
Heart, Proverbs iv. 23.)
GILPIN OF BOLPRE.
Observation of Scenery a Help to Prophetic
Interpretation. [GlLPIN, born 1724, died
1804.] The colouring of these mountains (in
the Highlands) was very beautiful. It was
an early hour; the sun just rising had not
strength to dissipate the blue mists which
hung upon them ; but yet its faint radiance,
here and there, tinged their broken points,
PRECIOUS STOXES. 271
and shed an effusion of the softest and most
delicate light. There is a passage in the
prophet Joel, which I think nobly descriptive
of such a scene as this. He is describing
the day in which the Lord cometh to execute
judgment : " It is a day of darkness and
gloominess, a day of clouds and thick dark-
ness, as the morning spread upon the moun-
tains.''' .... The Bishop of London allows
the morning to be the usual sense of the
Hebrew word in this place ; but, as the same
word also signifies gloom, he rather prefers
that word here, because the morning, he
thinks, is an incongruous idea.
If the bishop had ever paid any attention
to the effects of morning lights in a moun-
tainous country, (which the* prophet, who had
always lived in such a country, probably did),
he would not, perhaps, have taxed the vulgar
translation of this passage with incongruity.
By a very easy and elegant metonymy, the
morning, which is the cause, may stand for
the brightened gloom, which is the effect. If,
on the other hand, we understand by the
morning only a gloom, the sentiment gains
272 PRECIOUS STONES.
nothing. (Observations on Highlands of Scot-
land, t. ii. 1 8).
BISHOP WATSON.
The World a Machine in God's Hand.
[WATSON, born 1737, died 1816.] We are
perfectly ignorant how the sun was formed,
how the planets were projected at the crea-
tion, how they are stiil retained in their
orbits by the power of gravity ; but we admit,
notwithstanding, that the sun was formed,
that the planets were then projected, and
that they are still retained in their orbits.
The machine of the universe is in the hand
of God. He can stop the motion of any part,
or of the whole of it, with less trouble, and
less danger of injuring it, than you can stop
your watch. (Apology for the Bible, p. 47).
PRECIOUS STONES. 273
JONES OF XAYLAXD.
Figurative Language of Holy Scripture
Explained. [JoxES, born 1726, died 1809.]
To one or other of these five heads, the
spiritual language of the Scripture may be
reduced, and from them the matter of it is
borrowed : 1. From the images of nature,
or visible things, as representations of things
invisible. 2. From the institutions of the
law. as prefiguring the things of the Gospel.
3. From the persons of the prophets, as types
of the great Prophet and Saviour that was to
come. 4. From the history of the Church
of Israel, as an ensample to the Christian,
world. 5. From the miraculous acts of
Moses, Christ, and others, as signs of the
saving power of God towards the souls of
men. All these things compose the figura-
tive language of the Bible ; and that inter-
pretation which opens and applies them to
the objects of faith, is called a spiritual in-
terpretation ; as being agreeeable to that
testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of pro-
T
274 PRECIOUS STONES.
phecy. (On the Figurative Language of the
Holy Scripture, Lecture ii.)
ADAMS.
Religious Use of Excited Feelings.
ADAMS, born 1707, died 1789.] " August
13th, 1765. I had for many hours a strong,
lightsome, and overpowering sense of joy,
without any preceding cause of reading,
thought, meditation, or action of any kind,
to be the ground of it ; but found myself all
on a sudden drawn to God, laid at the Re-
deemer's feet in faith, admiration, and thank-
fulness, desiring to be led by the Spirit ; and
making professions of love and obedience. I
know such comforts are not to be lived upon,
nor are proofs of a high state of spirituality.
Supposing them to be real influxes of the
Spirit, they are to be considered as calls to
greater sincerity, circumspection, and faith-
fulness, if not forerunners of trials and suffer-
ings. (Private Thoughts, c. i.)
PRECIOUS STONES. 275
AMBROSE SERLE.
On the Disposal of Property. [SERLE,
born 1742, died 1812.]-^ There are those
who make arbitrary or capricious bestow-
ments, slighting the rules of- God's word, the
proverbial claims of nature, and those rea-
sonable human prescriptions which are
founded upon them, and which none but
very strong causes, such as the wickedness,
idiocy, or certain misapplications of the par-
ties expectant, can properly set aside. Such
seem to forget, that being only stewards, and
not absolute proprietors, they are as account-
able for the disposal of their temporal goods,
as for the acquisition of them. Others are
exceedingly liberal in bequests to public or
private charities, who could spare little or
nothing during their own life, or, in other
words, from themselves. These pompous
bestowments are but too often " the painted
sepulchres of alms," raised up by covetous-
ness for a worthless glory ; and if there be
living and lawful heirs, or unexceptionable
2 T
276 PRECIOUS STONES.
kindred, the whole is done at their expense,
not the testator's, who has presumed to mis-
apply what he could no longer grasp, and
what therefore could be no longer his own,
and to rob his friends for the sound of a
name, which, in such a case, had been less
disgraced if entirely forgotten.
If a Christian should set the Lord ALWAYS
before him, he is especially called to recollect
His presence in a business where he may be
said to be acting after his death, and to be
affecting very materially the future actions
and interests of others. When his will is in
force, he himself is at the bar of God, and
accounting for its principle and effects. He
should therefore renounce all humours, and,
in the most solemn frame of a religious
mind, ask himself: " Suppose I were stand-
ing before the Divine Majesty, would I de-
vise what He committed to my charge, ex-
actly as I have now devised it ? " The
answer of a good conscience, and of a sound
mind, will generally exclude all foolish or
perverse partialities, and determine what is
honourable for the Christian, and right for
PRECIOUS STONES. 277
those he leaves behind him. ( The Christian
Remembrancer, Part iii. c. xviii.)
ROBERT HALL.
Time Spent in Religious Exercises never
Lost. [HALL, born 1764, died 1831.]
What may seem a loss of time will be more
than compensated by that spirit of order and
regularity, which the stated observance of
this duty tends to produce. It will serve as
an edge and border, to keep the web of life
from unravelling. ( Works v. 260).
True Excellence always a Conqueror.
Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to
oppression, and will draw lustre from re-
proach. The vapours which gather round
the rising sun, and follow it in its course,
seldom fail at the close of it to form a mag-
nificent theatre for its reception, and to in-
vest with variegated tints, and with a softened
278 PRECIOUS STONES.
effulgence, the luminary which they cannot
hide. (Miscellaneous Works, 135).
Against Excessive Love of Novel Reading.
There are kinds of distress founded on the
passions, which, if not applauded, are at least
admired in their excess, as implying a pecu-
liar refinement of sensibility in the mind of
the sufferer. Embellished by taste, and
wrought by the magic of genius into innu-
merable forms, they turn grief into a luxury,
and draw from the eyes of millions delicious
tears. Nor can I reckon it among the im-
provements of the present age, that, by the
multiplication of works of fiction, the atten-
tion is diverted from scenes of real to those
of imaginary distress ; from the distress which
demands relief, to that which admits of em-
bellishment ; in consequence of which the
understanding is enervated, the head is cor-
rupted, and those feelings which were de-
signed to stimulate to active benevolence are
employed in nourishing a sickly sensibility.
(Ibid. 322).
PRECIOUS STONES. 279
Doing, not Feeling, the Measure of Piety.
The sight of a penitent on his knees is a
spectacle which moves heaven ; and the
compassionate Redeemer, who, when He
beheld Saul in that situation, exclaimed,
" Behold, he prayeth," will not be slow or
reluctant to strengthen you by His might,
and console you by His Spirit. When a new
and living way is opened into the holiest of all
by the blood of Jesus, not to avail ourselves
of it not to arise and go to our Father, but
to prefer remaining at a guilty distance,
encompassed with famine, to the rich and
everlasting provisions of His house, will be a
source of insupportable anguish when we
shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob enter
into the kingdom of God, and ourselves shut
out. It is impossible too often to inculcate
the momentous truth, that the character is
not formed by passive impressions, but by
voluntary actions; and that we shall be
judged hereafter, not by what we have felt,
but by what we have done. (Ibid. 419).
280 PRECIOUS STONES.
S. T. COLERIDGE.
Always look Upward. [COLERIDGE, born
1772, died 1834]. All lower natures find
their highest good in semblances and seek-
ings of that which is higher and better. All
things strive to ascend,- and ascend in their
striving. And shall man alone stoop ? Shall
his pursuits and desires, the reflections of
his inward life, be like the reflected image
of a tree on the edge of a pool, that grows
downward, and seeks a mock heaven in the
unstable element beneath it, in neighbour-
hood with the slim water-weeds and oozy
bottom-grass, that are yet better than itself
and more noble, in as far as substances that
appear as shadows, are preferable to shadows
mistaken for substances ? No ! it must be
a higher good to make you happy. While
you labour for anything below your proper
humanity, you seek a happy life in the region
of death. {Aids to Reflection, p. 112 ; edit.
1825).
PRECIOUS STOXES. 281
JOHN FOSTER.
Power of Bad Habit. [FoSTER, born
1770, died 1843]. I know from experience
that habit can, in direct opposition to every
conviction of the mind, and but little aided
by the elements of temptation, induce a re-
petition of the most unworthy actions. The
mind is weak where it has once given way.
It is long before a principle restored can be-
come as firm as one that has never been
moved. It is as in the case of the mound of
a reservoir : if this mound has in one place
been broken, whatever care has been taken
to make the repaired part as strong as pos-
sible, the probability is that, if it give way
again, it will be in that place. (Life and
Correspondence, t. i. p. 168).
Spring and its Moral Analogies. Amidst
the glowing life of the vernal season, there
are languor, and sickness, and infirm old
age, and death ! While nature smiles, there
are many pale faces that do not. Sometimes
you have met, slowly pacing the green mea-
282 PRECIOUS STONES.
dow or the garden, a figure emaciated by ill-
ness, and feeble with age ; and were the more
forcibly struck by the spectacle as seen amidst
a luxuriance of life. For a moment, you have
felt as if all the living beauty faded or re-
ceded from around, in the shock of the con-
trast. You may have gone into a house
beset with roses and all the pride of spring,
to see a person lingering and sinking in the
last feebleness of mortality. You may have
seen a funeral train passing through a flowery
avenue. And the ground which is the depo-
sitory of the dead, bears, not the less for that,
its share of the beauty of spring. (Lectures,
t. i. p. 141).
A Summer Thought. One has looked
sometimes on the flowers of a meadow, which
the mower's scythe was to invade the next
day; perfect life and beauty as yet ; but to
the mind they have seemed already fading,
through anticipation. (Ibid. 258).
Autumn Warnings. Those who are ranked
as the middle-aged have much that speaks to
PRECIOUS STONES. 283
them in a serious voice. Let them think
what they feel to be gone freshness of life ;
vernal prime ; overflowing spirits ; elastic,
bounding vigour ; insuppressible activity J
quick, ever-varying emotion ; delightful un-
folding of the faculties ; the sense of more
and more power both of body and spirit ; the
prospect as if life were entire before them;
and all overspread with brightness and fair
colours. (Ibid. p. 259).
Winter. Recall to your imagination
what you so lately beheld and admired. All
vanished like a dream ! gone into air, into
the dust, and into dead masses ! It is amaz-
ing to think what an infinity of pleasing
objects have perished ; so soon perished and
gone ! Just as yesterday the fair profusion
was here ; now it is no more to us than the
earliest beauty of Eden. It is gone, and for
ever gone ! never to be that beauty again
that is, identically. The change is as if some
celestial countenance had for a while beamed
in smiles on the earth, but were now averted
to some other world ; and then the earth had
284 PRECIOUS STONES.
no power to retain the glory and beauty:
they disowned and left it ; and left us on the
bare ground over which the vision of en-
chantment had been spread. (Ibid. p. 284).
POSTSCRIPT.
THE following letter of JEREMY TAYLOR
forms a becoming conclusion to this volume.
It is one of the most admirable " Aids to
Reflection," which even the writer of it has
bequeathed to a troubled, restless, and pole-
mical generation. The letter is not found
in any edition of Taylor's works, and is now
reprinted from the Gentleman's Magazine for
May, 1841. It is taken from the following
work : " An Apology for the Discipline of
the ancient Church, intended especially for
that of our Mother, the Church of England,
in Answer to the Admonitory Letter lately-
published. T?}? dpaBias Odpcros ecrri r etcyo-
vov. Na%uiv Ephraim feedes on winde.
Plosea, xii. 1. By William Nicholson,
Archdeacon of Brecon." 1659, 4to.
"SiR I thank you for the favour you
did me in imparting these papers to me,
286 PRECIOUS STONES.
composed by our learned friend in defence of
the ecclesiastical government under which
the Church of God hath lived, ever since it
was established by the preachings apostolical.
I see and love his zeale and honour his
learning ; but am most pleased with his
method and order of argument. For having
prosperously defended and illustrated the
doctrine of the Church of England, in his
material and grave discourses upon the
Church Catechism, he does, to very good
purpose, proceed to defend her government ;
that, as it already appears that her doctrine
is catholicke, so it may be demonstrated
that the government of the Church of Eng-
land is no other than that of the Catholicke
Apostolic Church; she, by the same way,
being truly Christian, and a society of Chris-
tians, by which all Christendom were put
into life and society that is, become collec-
tive and united bodies or Churches; and,
indeed, they are both of them very weighty
and material considerations : for more things
are necessary for the being of a Church than
to the being Christian. First, the apostles
PRECIOUS STONES. 287
preached Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,
and every day winning souls to Christ, did
adopt them into His body, and joined them
to that Head, and there they had life and
nourishment ; but, until their multitudes
were much increased, they were no body
politick : they were so many single persons,
till the apostles, according to their places of
abode, gathered them under one pastor, and
they grew into communion, and were fastened
to one another by the masters of assemblies.
This government, with the alteration only of
some unconcerning circumstances, hath con-
tinued in the Church of God ; and the
Church of England was baptized by it at
the same time it was baptized into the faith
of Christ. Only of late some endeavours
have been to rifle this government, and to
dissolve her being a body politick, and almost
reduced her only to the being Christian:
which, because also it seemed to be in some
danger, being and unity having so near re-
lation to each other, I suppose it very
advisedly done of him first to do what he
thought fit for the securing the doctrine,
288 PRECIOUS STONES.
%
and then by the method apostolical, proceed-
ing to the immuring of that doctrine by the
walls and towers of government ; and I find
he hath done it well. His arguments are
grave and close ; not florid, but pressing ;
his observations choice; his irapepya and
little by-discourses pleasant and full of in-
struction : his refutations sharp and true ;
his returns pertinent, and nothing trifling
but his adversary, who, because he speaks
but weak things, ministers not occasions
worthy enough for this learned man to do
his best. But he hath made supply (I per-
ceive), and by taking little occasions by the
hand, he hath advanced them to opportuni-
ties of handsome discoursings, and to my
sense hath to better, more full, and excellent
purposes than any man before him, confuted
the new fashion of congregational and ga-
thered Churches, which must now needs
appear to be nothing but a drawing schisme
into countenance and method, and giving a
warrantry to partialities. It is a direct
crumbling of the Church into minimits and'
little principles of being, just as if the world
PRECIOUS STONES. 289
were dissolved into Democritus, his dream of
atoms, and minima naturalia. Every man
loves government well enough; but few of the
meaner sort love their governors, especially
if they think themselves wise enough to
govern, for then they are too wise to be
governed. Now, this independent or congre-
gational way seems to me the finest compen-
dium of humouring and pleasing all these
little fellows that love not, that endure not.
to be subject to their betters ; for by this
means a little kingdom and a royal priest-
hood is provided for every one of them a
kingdom of Yvetot and some had rather be
chief, but in a garden of cucumbers, and
govern but ten or twenty absolutely (so they
do) than be the fifth or twentieth man in a
classis, or inconsiderable under the apostoli-
cal and long-experienced government by those
superiors which Christ by Himself, and by
His Spirit, and by His blessing, and by His
providence, and by the favour of princes,
hath made firm as heaven and earth, never
to be dissolved until the divine fabric of the
house of God itself be shaken. I pray give
u
290 PRECIOUS STONES.
my service to the good man, and I do hear-
tily thank him for my share of the book,
by which I have already had some pleasure
and some profit, and hope for more, when
my little affairs will give me leave strictly to
peruse every unobserved page of it. When I
only heard of it, I was confident he would do
it very well ; and now I see it is so very well
done, and in that grave judicious manner, if
you had not told me, I should have been
confident it had been his. Vox hominem
sonat. I pray God that he may find en-
couragement according to the merit of his
labours, and acceptance according to his
good intention, and that his book may not
receive its estimate according to the cheap
and vast numbers of others, but according to
its own weight. The strength -that was put
to this would have resisted a stronger adver-
jary, but it could not readily have supported
a worthier cause : and, because I believe it
was done with as much charity as learning,
I hope it will have the blessing of God, and
the Church, and the prayers of all good men.
I only have this to add farther. 1 wish that
PRECIOUS STONES. 291
this worthy man would enter into no more
warre but against the open enemies of man-
kinde ; that he would dispute for nothing but
the known religion of Jesus Christ ; that he
would contend for no interests but the known
concessments of the Spirit, in the matter of
good life, which is the life of religion ; and
my reason is, not only because I find that he
calls his adversary brother, and it is not so
good that brothers should contend, but because
men are wearied with disputes ; and the
errors of this, or any age, after the first bat-
teries and onsets of the Church, are com-
monly best confuted by the plain teaching of
positive truths, and the good lives and by the
wise governments of our superiors. And
after all, I believe that, though he does ma-
nage this contest prudently and modestly, yet
the spiritual warre against direct impiety he
would manage much more dexterously, and
prosperously; and for his auxiliaries, he would
be more confident of the direct and proper
aides of the Spirit of God. This is very well,
and he will, I doubt not, still do better when
a more convincing argument is managed by
292 PRECIOUS STONES.
so excellent a hand. Sir, be pleased, when
the book is printed (in case you think it fit,
and that it be approved by authority), to send
me a copy of it unto the farre distant place
of my retirement, that I may be recreated
with the worthiest productions of my friend ;
for it will be instruction and refreshment, too,
to your very loving friend and brother,
J. T.
CORRECTION*.
P. 96, Oweix Felltham, born , died 1688.
W. E. Painter, 342, Strand, London, Printer.
./vmmr