The Whole Duty of Divine Meditation, Part 2 · Meditation 23
MED. XXIII. A Bad Exchange.
Mat. xvi. 26.
For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
THIS Text works no Effects upon the Covetous; for they had rather lose their Souls, than forsake their Riches. He, for whom the whole Creation was made, makes himself wretched and miserable, in chasing after Vanity: disrobing Himself of all his Glory; and by exceeding a bruitish Transformation, inhumes the Divinity of his Immortal Part in the Bowels of the Earth. Hearken unto this, all you that inhabit in this Lower Region, ye that are Votaries to Sensualities, and ascend no higher than the Elements for Celestial Glory! that can mortgage your Souls for a momentary Pleasure; and entertain a delectable Misery, for Evelasting Happinss!
II. GIVE Ear, thou aspiring Meteor, whose haughty Ambition, with Icarus, soars to that heighth, that thou consumes the Wings of thy immoderate Desires! Thou that wilt with eagerness adore Satan, for a Kingdom; and greedily render him your Fidelity, for a Crown, and offer him a Revenue worth Ten thousand Worlds, the immortal Tribute of your precious Soul; till thy flourishing Hopes, and Trophies, be turn'd to endless Torments; thy Masquerading Revellings of elvevated Honour, into Repentant Regrets of direful Horrour; and thy Imperial Chair of State, into a Bed of Infernal Flames!
III. BE attentive, O thou indefatigable Wanton, whose Soul is as unsatiable as brutish Animals; that palpitates after Pleasure, beyond the Camelion's breathing after Air! Thou that swimmest in iniquity, and plungest Morality in Seas of Vice; bathing thy self in those amorous Streams that drown thee in wanton Delights! that imaginest True Religion but a ridiculous Fable; the Lives of Apostles, Saints and Martyrs, but a Tragy-Comical Play, or a melancholy Romance! and scoffest at Heaven, and its Creator, as if Infinite Eternity were but an imaginary Fancy!
IV. STOP not thy Ears, O thou wretched Miser, whom the deluding Rhetorick of Bags cram'd with Silver Coin can invite to Hell! and art ardeously allured to throw thy self into the Arms of Satan, at the Musick of tempting Gold! That can'st assist thy weak Eyes with Spectacles; and gaze thy self almost blind, at the Splendor and Curiosity of a rich Gemm; and imprecateth Geography, for defining Riches beyond thy Sphere; earnestly wishing thy self an Indian, that thou might'st lead the remnant of thy Life among the choicest Treasures; and converse with the richest Mines, till the Hair on thy Head were all Silver; till thou thy self wer't all transmuted to Ore, and every Bone turn'd into a Wedge of the purest Gold.
V. LISTEN, ye tender Gallants, that are so attracted with the Mode of this World, that ye have have lost all Conceptions of a better! Ye that dwell upon Earth, only to delight your sensitive Appetites; and supply your Luxury with the exquisite martyrdom of thousands of Creatures! As ye are well-complexion'd Dust, and possess purer Veins; so entertain purer Passions too, and acquire generous and nobler Inclinations for Eternal Glory! The sumptuousness of your Attire will not invest you with Immortality. Should you expose your Estates to sale, and receive for it a great Value, '…would not purchase one Inch in Paradise. It was the elegantest Speech the ancient Orator ever deliver'd, when he utter'd, He would not buy Repentance so dear. 'Twas but an Extemporay Oration; and yet all Silver-tongu'd Rhetorick could never parallel it: That one Note exceeded all his Eloquence, and will survive the Dexterity of his Pen.
VI. COULD we out-live the Lives of Patriarchs, even beyond the Age of old Methusalah, or of Time it self; and with the Pleasures of the greatest Epicures: Could we, like Cleopatra the Egyptian Queen, dissolve a Pearl into a Golden Cup, and drink the Riches and Pleasure of a Kingdom at a Draught; or Command all the Creatures of the Universe, as positively as ever the Centurion did his Servants: Had we all the delectable Enjoyments we can either wish, fancy, or chase after, and whatever can satisfie the Ambition of the most profuse and carnal Appetite: Were the whole Universe turn'd into a Garden of Eden, or a perpetual Spring adorn the Surface of our Mother Earth:
VII. COULD we, like the Eagle, renew our Age, and not grow Old, but still continue in our pristine Health; or if in Years, be insensible of the Miseries that attend the Aged: Could we unravel, untwist, or unwind Time again; reverse and retrograde its Wheels again; stop the swift Celestial Mercuries, the nimble Posts of Heaven, in their full career; and set the great Clock of the World backward to a Minute: Nay, were our Bodies of that durability as our Souls, that we could survive Time it self, and be a Spectator when the World receives its Period: Yet what shall we extract, if after all our vain and imaginary Felicities, and flippery Contentments, we become an Oblation for Hell, enroll'd in the execrable Catalogue of the Infernal Crew, a Victim for sulphurous Eternal Flames, banish'd to Perpetuity from God and Heaven: Then inform me, whoever thou art, and ask Dives himself that necessary Question, What is? &c.
VIII. O Lord, what is there in this World, that should attract our Hearts, to tire our selves in fruitless Desires, and indulge our selves to the Pleasures of this Life, as our chiefest Felicity? How difficult is it for him that is unacquainted with thy Law, to perceive the Evacuity of those Enjoyments he hath so long rouled himself in, to resist the enticing Advantages of Sin; and disesteem the glittering Flashes of this Life, for that Lustre of Glory Thou wilt impart. My God, instruct me so to use the World, that I forget not Thee. Let the Blessings Thou showerest down, quicken and encrease, not stupifie my Devotion. Elevate my Obedience, not overwhelm my Thankfulness; that so the Follies of the World may become my Derision; and the Glories of Heaven, my only Ambition; that I may never, for a fading Fruition in this World, hazard both my Soul, and thy Saving-Grace together.