Meditations and Motives for Prayer Upon the Seven Days of the Week, Frontispiece 2
Monday. Gen: 1.
V. 3. And God said, let there be light, and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darknesse.
5 And God called the light, Day, and the darknesse he Called Night, and the Evening and the morning were the first day.
MOTIVES FOR PRAYER VPONUPON MVNDAY.
This is now the first of those dayes, of which God said, Sixe dayes thou shalt labour and do all that thou hast to doe: so it is a day of labour, and not to be spent, in nihil agendo, in doing nothing: and it is a day for doing all we have to doe: and therefore not to be spent in aliud agendo; but specially not in male agendo, in doing of evill: for certainly doing of evill is no part at all of all we have to doe: and to do this, to be doing, and not doe amisse, to be going, and not go astray, this O my soule, is a hard taske; and this is the taske wee are now enjoyned. And if the taske be hard for performance, have wee not the more need to looke about us for assistance? O therefore, thou great God to whom nothing is impossible; to whom even impossible things are easie; vouchsafe to assist me in this worke I am about, that entring into it by thine ordinance, I may be conducted in it by thy governance: and that I may cheerfully goe on in the course of my vocation, without either anxietie or diversion.
The labour of this day makes the labour of the dayes that follow, to be none at all, at least so easie, that it hath given occasion of the saying, Dimidium facti, qui bene coepit, habet: A worke well begun is halfe done: if then this dayes labour make a good beginning, and a good beginning make so great a progresse, how can we thinke, but that the labour of this day will be well bestowed? It is said, Aurora amica Musis, that the morning is a friend to the Muses; and what is this first day, but as it were, the morning of the weeke? and therefore, if wee labour not this day, we make a division betweene the Muses, and their friend; and then we cannot looke to have the Muses our friend; we cannot indeed looke to have God our friend, if we begin not our labour with alacrity and cheerfulnesse. Not to labour this day, is to make the day it selfe to labour: and seeing sufficient for the day, is the labour thereof; should we not do ill to adde more labour to it? and then we adde more labour to the day, when wee labour in the day: For, qui non est hodie, cras minus aptus erit: He that is idle to day, will be more to morrow, and so more and more till it come at last to the most: that as at first we had no will to labour; so at last wee shall have no ability to labour: and then of necessity, as now of choyce, wee shall be servants to idlenesse, the greatest labour of all.
Seeing then the beginning of every worke, is for the most part, the hardest part: and no good beginning can be made, if God be not the principall actor in it: For if the Lord build not the City, the builders labour but in vaine. Therefore, O thou that art the Alpha and Omega; the beginner and finisher of all good things; vouchsafe to be present at this beginning of my worke, in this beginning of the dayes of my worke: that being in thee, and to thee intended and begunne, it may by thee, and through thee, be finished, and have a happy issue.
But what are the workes wee are to do this day? Are they not workes for necessities, and workes for ornament? for so bountifull a Lord is God unto us, that he allowes us to do workes, as well for ornament as necessity. When Adam made him cloathes of fig-leaves to cover his nakednesse; this was a worke of necessity: but when Hester attired her selfe in her rich apparell; this was a worke of ornament, and both these workes allowed of God. But when we labour for necessities, wee must not labour for superfluities; when we worke for ornament, wee must not worke for vanitie; and this is a hard moderation to be observed, and whereof perhaps vaine man is of himselfe scarce capable. Here therefore is Gods assistance specially to be sought, and how to be sought, but onelyonly by Prayer? for though Prayer be not the very worke wee have to doe this day, yet prayer must be the preface to the worke, or it will never be well done. For (O my soule) if wee begin not our worke with Hosanna, wee shall never finish with Hallelujah; if wee begin it not with Prayer, wee shall hardly ever end it with Thanksgiving. O therefore thou great Moderator of all things, vouchsafe so to moderate mee in supplying necessities, that I may content my selfe without seeking superfluities: so moderate mee in supplying of ornaments, that I may content my selfe without seeking after vanities.
Now that wee have had a whole day of rest, wee may well be contented to have sixe dayes of labour; for one of rest for sixe of labour is no uncomfortable proportion. And indeed the rest wee have had, hath beene but to make us the fitter to labour; for labour is the thing wee are borne to in this world. Alas! the rest we have now, is but a labouring to rest; Laborare ut non laboremus; our rest will never be perfect till it come to be eternall; and will never be eternall till we come to be with him who inhabiteth eternity; and till then, O my soule, thou must be contented to labour: and to do it, not onelyonly with patience, seeing it must be done, but with cheerfulnesse, seeing there will be a reward for it being done: for as God loveth a cheerfull giver, so hee loveth a cheerfull labourer; and where patience perhaps may be out of constraint, cheerfulnesse cannot but be out of obedience; and who knowes not, that obedience is better, and to God more acceptable than any Sacrifice?
When we heare it said, Sixe daies thou shalt labour, wee may do well to meditate upon the cause, why it was said; for if we had not sinned, it had never beene said: If there had beene no sinne, there should have beene no labour; but now labour is injoyned us as a penance for our sins: and this penance we must do, or else incurre a greater punishment: but though the day be dedicate to labour, yet the labour of the day we may dedicate to God: so of the penance, wee shall make a sacrifice, and then labour will no longer be laborious to us, being so imployed. But if we thinke of the sixe dayes of labour, to make so many Sabbaths of rest; and so to shift off labour altogether: as God knowes too many do, spending all their time in idlenesse; or which is worse, in vanity: alas! we shall do it but in our owne wrong: for when wee looke to enter into our true rest; and that there shall be no more labour for us to take, we shall have the like answer made to us, as Abraham made to Dives, Sonne, thou hast received thy goods in thy life time, thou hast taken thine ease in dayes that were ordained for labour; and thou canst not have all Sabbath, both then and now, both there and here: and seeing thou hast made a Sabbath to thy self which God never made, thou hast forfeited the Sabbath which he had provided; and which is worse, where thy penance before had beene but weeping for thy sinnes, it will be now weeping for thy torment, and gnashing of teeth.
The Heathen dedicated this day to the Moone; committing therein, besides the impietie, a most grosse absurditie; for what can be more absurd, than to dedicate a day of labour to the Moone, whose Empire is but onelyonly in the night, when all labour is done? But thou, O my soule, follow not this folly of the heathen, but content thy selfe with Gods dedication of the day, and dedicate it to labour: but then labour not for things that are under the Moone, which are as variable, and as subject to change as the Moone it selfe is: but labour for things that are above the Sunne; that thou mayst be out of danger of this saying, What remaines to a man of all his labour; that he labours under the Sun?
It was upon this day in the revolution of time, that God made heaven, the glorious mansion of blessed spirits, and will there not be a place there for thee also, O my soule, if thou place thy labours as God hath ordained them? But canst thou looke for rest in heaven, untill thou hast laboured first on earth? and is not this a good motive to make thee labour to come to heaven: to thinke that heaven was this day prepared for thy comming to it? Can any labour be grievous that is taken to so glorious an intent? No my soule, but as God this day hath made Heaven ready for us: so let us this day make our selves ready for heaven; For alas, else wee doe not answer God, in the intent of his workes, and were it not a grievous thing, that when God doth all hee can to make us happy, we should do all wee can to make our selves miserable? and we shall do so indeed, if we crosse God in his ordinance, and labour not these sixe dayes, as he appoints us: of which this now is but the first: and O my soule, if thou shouldst faint now at thy first setting out; now that thou art fresh, and hast had a whole day of rest, what hope is there thou shouldst be able, to hold out the other dayes of labour that are remaining? Thinke not therefore of the labour of the day, but thinke of the recompence of the labour, and this thought will certainly keep thee in heart. We are all of us very ready to labour for earth, of which wee have enough already; and shall hereafter have too much, but we are very unready to labour for heaven: of which wee have as yet nothing, and can never have enough: And can there be a greater folly than this, to labour for that, wee shall have without labour: and not to labour for that which without labour wee shall never have? O therefore my soule, leave labouring for earth: and let thy labour be for heaven, and though thou shalt not have another Sabbath presently, yet thou shalt presently have another time of rest; thou shalt have a whole night, which will plentifully serve to refresh thy wearied limbes, though after never so hard labour: and indeed the harder thy labour is in the day, the sweeter thy rest will be in the night: and hath not God then dealt most graciously with us, who injoynes us indeed to labour sixe dayes, but it is to make our rest the sweeter in the nights? O then my soule, be thankfull to him for both: both for thy labour in the day, and for thy rest in the night, and pray unto him, that as they be both of them for thy comfort, so they may be both of them to his Glory; Pray unto him that he will first give thee a will to labour, for where the mind is willing, all labour is easie: and then that hee will give thee an ability to labour: for though the spirit be willing, yet the flesh is weake: and lastly, that he will give a blessing to thy labours; that being not vaine, they may not be in vaine, but have a happy and successefull issue: for without his blessing all labour is but lost that is taken, all courses but frustrate that are undertaken.
And yet (O my soule) thou hast not done, this is not yet all thou hast to doe: for is it enough to labour, and do workes, and to have patience? No my soule, for all this the Church of Ephesus did, to which the Angell acknowledged, I know thy labour, and thy workes, and thy patience; and how for my Names sake thou hast laboured, and hast not fainted; and yet hee had somewhat against her, because shee had left her first love. Take heed therefore O my soule, that this be not thy case, for there is no trusting to labour, nor to workes: the first love is all, and what is this first love, but to love God first, and before all? to labour, not for our selves, but for him, to worke, not for our owne profit, but for his Glory, to labour, not only for his Names sake, which that Church did; but onelyonly for his Names sake, which that Church did not; and no fitter time to shew this first love, than this first day; which O my soule, if thou shalt do this day, thou shalt make a good dayes worke; and there shall be given thee to eate of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. O therefore most gracious God, make mee so to shew my first love, by continuing my labour this first day, in workes of piety: that after this, and the rest that follow, I may rest from my labours, and my workes may follow mee, that I may follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth.