The Whole Duty of Divine Meditation, Part 2 · Meditation 15
MED. XV. True Contentment.
Phil. iv. 12.
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where, and in all things I am instructed, both to be full, and to be hungry; both to abound, and to suffer need.
NONE but this happy Apostle, such a divine Saint as St. Paul was, could become a Proficient in this Lesson. How few is there, that have desired to learn it? 'Tis a Lecture the World hath long ago been weary of: not so much, because 'tis so hard a Task, but because 'tis so unpleasant a Theme. Were the Way to Everlasting Happiness strewed with Roses of Pleasure, for our sensual Appetites to range and revel in, 'twould quickly become a frequented and an easie Walk. Were there no Difficulties, no skilful Trials to be past through, who, of a Mortal, would not become a Saint? The Crown of Eternal Glory would be as common as a Garland of Flowers, did not that of Thorns carry the precedence.
II. THE World values not a Religion which disanuls all Splendour, whose strict Discipline abrogates all Pomp and Pleasure; and instead of all Temporal Delights, which affects the Senses, preaches Temperance, Patience, and the Judgement to come. This Doctrine possesses us with an aguish Fit, and then we, like Felix, fall a trembling, and desire to be excused from so piercing a Duty. He that invites us to see Heaven first, informs us, That to desire Temporal Enjoyments, is the Wish of an Ethnick: For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, Mat. 6. 32. And shall Christians follow the Examples of Heathens? and aim not at sublimer Things than what this sublunary World can afford? Shall they who can, by the Eye of Faith, take a prospect of Eternity, look down upon this Lower World with Affectation?
III. AND was that the Occasion of this Invitation we gave the Most Highest? Did He which made the Heavens bow them, come down, and unthrone himself to convey us thither, and do we lie wallowing in our Sins for ever? How Vile, Base, Vain, and Senseless a Creature is that Person, that winds up his Felicity in the fruitless Enjoyments of this Life, and eagerly resigns himself to sordid Sense! But tell me, O Thou that reignest in Plenty, and obscurest Heaven in Oblivion, should the two bright Luminaries be invested in their Purple Robes, and transforming their Lustres, like bleeding Meteors, change their Rays into Crimson Streams; were the Air now crouded with Sounds of the last Trumpets, ecchoing audibly in our Ears an approaching Judgment; How prodigious would that Mutation appear! What vast and horrid Consternations would the remembrance of thy Profane and Atheistical Plenitude then strike and amaze thee with!
IV. INDEED, these Mundane Enjoyments are so trivially poor & empty, that he which fixes his Hopes in their Fruition, will speedily find himself but an eternal Mendicant, a wretched, miserable, and deplorable Dives. And yet such is the apparent Sanctity of the whole Universe, to scoff at Religious Poverty, and deride the Exigencies of a Devout Life, as an Adversary to Nature: He is ignorant of the Joys of a Future State, and of an Expected Eternity, that thinks there's no Felicity beyond this Hands Breadth, no Happiness beyond this slender Span.
V. WERE we but sensible of the glorious Reward which shall Crown the World, for that which she terms Misery, that Felicity that attends on the most suffering and dejected Devotion, we should glory in our Wants, be affected with Hardship, and inure our selves to Poverty with Delight; we should be willing, not only to depart, but to live Martyrs; rejoyce even in the lowest State, to purchase Heaven; and chearfully learn that Art, with the holy Apostle, to suffer Want here, and to labour how to abound in that Plenitude which is infinite.
VI. AND yet how hard a Task is it for us to endure even the pettiest Affliction, for Thy sake, O Lord? So senseless are we of Thine abundant Goodness, so wilfully forgetful of Thy Omnipotency, that we not only, in our greatest Necessities, arraign and condemn thy vigilant Providence, but are ready even to turn Pagans in our unhappy Misfortunes. Open Thou our Eyes, O Lord, that we may behold the Vanity of this transitory World, and the Deceitfulness of our own Hearts; that the alluring Pleasures of it may neither swallow us up, nor the Losses of it overthrow our Hope, or discourage our Obedience. Let that illuminated Glory which Thou hast freely promised to those that vanquish the World for Thy sake, be ever in our sight; that in whatsoever State we are in, we may still be found triumphing in Faith, and at last receive, as a Recompence of Reward, a Crown of Righteousness.