The arte of diuine meditation profitable for all Christians to knowe and practise; exemplified with a large meditation of eternall life. By Ioseph Hall.
Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.

Chap. I.

IT is not, I * suppose, a more bolde than profita∣ble labour, after the in∣deuours of so many cō∣tēplatiue men to teach Page  2 the Art of Meditation: An heauenly businesse, as any belongs either to man or Christian; and such as wherby the soule doeth vnspeakea∣bly benefit it selfe: For by this do we ransacke our deepe & false harts, find out our secret ene∣mies, buckle with them, expell them, arme our selues against their re∣entrance. By this wee make vse of all good means, fit our selues to all good dueties; by this we descrie our weake∣nesse, obtaine redresse, Page  3 preuēt tentatiōs, cheere vp our solitarines, tem∣per our occasions of delight; get more light to our knowledge, more heate to our af∣fections, more life to our deuotion: by this we grow to be (as wee are) straungers vpon earth, and out of a right estimation of all earth∣ly things, into a sweet fruitiō of inuisible com∣forts: by this, wee see our Sauiour with Ste∣uen, we talke with God as Moses▪ and by this we are rauished with bles∣sed Page  4Paul into Paradise; and see that heauen which we are loath to leaue, which we cannot vtter. This alone is the remedie of security and worldlines, the pastime of Saints, the ladder of heauen, and in short the best improuement of Christianitie: Learne it who can, and neglect it who list; hee shall neuer find ioy, neither in God nor in himselfe, which doeth not both knowe and practise it. And how euer of olde some hidden Cloyste∣rers Page  5 haue ingrossed it * to themselues, and con∣fined it within their Celles: who indeede professing nothing but contemplation, throgh their immunitie from those cares which ac∣company an actiue life, might haue the best leasure to this busines; Yet seeing there is no man so taken vp with action, as not some∣times to haue a free minde; and there is no reasonable minde so simple, as not to bee able both to discourse Page  6 somewhat, and to bet∣ter it selfe by her secret thoughts; I deeme it an enuious wrong to conceale that from a∣ny, whose benefit may bee vniuersall: Those that haue but a little stocke, had neede to knowe the best rules of thrift;