Prison-pietie, or, Meditations divine and moral digested into poetical heads, on mixt and various subjects : whereunto is added a panegyrick to the right reverend, and most nobly descended, Henry Lord Bishop of London / by Samuel Speed ...

A MISCELANY OF Divine Maximes: OR, Words fitly spoken, Like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver.

1. WOuldst thou be truly perfect? love God with all thy heart, and thy Neighbour as thy self.

2. Let thy eye be always upon God and thy self, and thou shalt never see him without good∣ness, nor thy self without misery.

3. None shall see God so much as he is visi∣ble; and none shall ever love God so much as he is amiable.

4. He that doth not covet to love God more and more, can never love him enough.

5. To whom God is all, the World ought to be nothing at all.

6. Let us be what God will, so we be but his; and let us not be what we will our selves, against the will of God.

7. In the service of God, there is nothing little enough to be rejected.

8. To meditate much upon God is good, but the Souls greater advancement in Vertue, con∣sists in much loving him.

9. He to whom God alone is pleasing, is dis∣pleased with nothing, but that which displea∣seth God.

10. In Divine matters a generous Soul finds greatest contentment, in believing things most difficult.

11. All our actions take their value from their conformity to the Will of God.

12. Love and Suffering are the greatest du∣ties we owe to God, they being the two causes for which he died for us.

13. He that neglects his own will, complies best with God's.

14. So love thy Neighbour upon Earth, as that thou mayst enjoy his love in Heaven.

15. Thou canst not love thy Neighbour too much, but thou mayst too much shew thy love.

16. One great argument of our love to our Neighbour, is to bear with his imperfections.

17. We should never endure to hear evil spoken of any but our selves.

18. We should never under value any per∣son; the workman loves not that his work should be despised in his presence: wherefore beware, for God is present every where, and and every person is his work.

19. It is a spiritual injustice to desire to know the secrets of others, and to conceal our own

20. We ought not to love our Neighbour onely because he is good, or because we hope he

will be so, but because God commands us so to do.

21. In holy duties we should speak little, think much, but do more.

22. It is a great evil not to do good.

23. The just man never dies unprepared: for he is well prepared for death, who perseveres in Christian justice to the end.

24. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble, is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joynt.

25. As he that taketh away a Garment in cold weather, and as Vinegar upon Nitre, so is he that singeth Songs to a heavy heart.

26. It is no shame to be poor: Nature brought us so into the World, and so we must return.

27. Dost thou want things necessary? grum∣ble not, perchance it was necessary thou shouldest want; however, seek a lawful remedy; if God bless not thy endeavour, do thou bless him that knoweth what is fittest for thee: Thou art God's Patient, prescribe not thy Physician.

28. Art thou calumniated? examine thy Con∣science; if that be spotted, thou hast a just cor∣rection; if not guilty, thou hast a fair instru∣ction: Use both, so shalt thou distil honey out of gall, and make to thy self a secret friend of an open enemy.

29. If thine enemy be hungry give him bread, if thirsty give him drink; thou thereby heapest coals of fire upon his head, and a re∣ward unto thy self.

30. Charity makes God our debtor; for the Poor are his receivers.

31. Hast thou an Estate, and wouldst increase it? divide thy Riches to the Poor; those Seeds that are scattered do encrease, but hoarded up they die.

32. Correction without instruction, makes the Master a Tyrant, and the Servant a novice.

33. That man is a Conquerour that can sub∣due his own passions.

34. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

35. Arm thy self against a profest enemy; but he that dissembleth friendship strikes beyond a caution, and wounds above a cure: from the one thou mayst deliver thy self, but from the o∣ther Good Lord deliver thee.

36. A man that flattereth his Neighbour, s•…•…eadeth a Net for his feet.

37. The Touch-stone trieth Gold, and Gold trieth men.

38. Virtue must be the guide of all Qualities, otherwise the Professors are undone.

39. As the servants of God are known by their two Vertues, Humility and Charity, so the servants of the Devil are known by their opposite Vices, Pride and Cruelty.

40. The best way to keep good acts in me∣mory, is to refresh them with new.

41. To boast is to be vain, since the greatest Conquerour, if he measure his own shadow,

shall finde it no longer than it was before his victory.

42. Believe not Soothsayers: for Prophesies are never understood till they are accompli∣shed.

43. The World is a wide Prison, and every day an execution-day.

44. Our Stomachs are common Sepulchres for Birds, Beasts, and Fish; they all die to feed us: Lord, with how many deaths are our poor lives patched up! How full of death is the life of man!

45. Beware of Drink: where Drunkenness reigns, Reason is an exile, Vertue a stranger, and God an enemy; Blasphemy is Wit, Oaths are Rhetorick, and Secrets are Proclamations.

46. Whosoever will arrive at a New life, must pass by the death of the Old.

47. He that is truly humble, never thinks himself wronged.

48. The good man lives contented with a moderate Estate, not so much taking notice of those that have more, as those that have less than our selves.

49. He that most mortifies natural inclina∣tions, receives most supernatural inspirations.

50. To shun the accidental troubles of this life, is to meditate often upon Eternity.

51. It is the great misfortune of man, to de∣sire those things which he should only use.

52. To have a desire to be poor, and not to

receive the inconveniencies of it, is too great ambition: For it is to desire the honour of Po∣verty, and the commodity of Wealth.

53. There is no better way to end happily a true spiritual life, than daily to begin it.

54. He that would have a part with Jesus glorified, must first take part with Jesus cruci∣fied.

55. We should live in this present World as if our Souls were in Heaven and our Bodies in the Grave.

56. In the death of our Passions consists the life of our Souls.

57. It is not Humility to acknowledge our selves miserable, that onely is not to be a beast; but it is Humility to desire that others should e∣steem us so.

58. There is no reason to be given for the fault we commit in sin; for the fault would not be sin, if it were not against Reason.

59. Virtues never have their full growth, but when they bring forth desires of advancing; which like spiritual seeds, serve to produce new degrees of Vertues.

60. We should never speak of God, or of things which concern his service, carelesly, by way of discourse, or entertainment, but always with great respect and humble minde.

61. We should sear the Judgement of God without discouragement, and encourage our selves without presumption.

62. The ready way for the Soul to have peace with it self, is to obtain its peace with God.

63. We may perform many holy actions, yet not please God, if we neglect to do what he requires of us, no more than a Painter in re∣presenting an Eagle, pleaseth him that desired a Bee.

64. Let us never look on our Crosses but through the Cross of Christ; thereby we shall finde them pleasant, and have fresh desires to be afflicted.

65. Desire to obtain the love of God, makes us meditate; but that love once obtained, makes us contemplate.