Miscellanea spiritualia: or, Devout essaies: composed by the Honourable Walter Montagu Esq.

§. IV.

The Disposure of our time treated and ad∣vised, for improvement as well as ease of our Mindes.

HAving laid the ground-work of our peace and ac∣quiescence upon that Divine Assignment which Christians are to account upon, which is the provi∣sion of it by the All-sufficient power, that giveth not such * 1.1 peace as the world giveth, but such as none shall take from us; upon this foundation we may design the frame of our time into several rooms and offices, respectively to our Duties to God, and the diversions of our own minde, to make this sort of life both as useful and as agreeable as we can: For this kinde of Solitude is acknowledged to be a burthen to our Nature, and so by parting and dividing it as it were into several parcels, we seem to carry the less of it at once; whence it becomes of easier portage. By the experience I have had of the benefit of this method, I should advise every one in this case to make partitions of the day into several hours, assigned to distinct occupations, beginning in the morning with the intentional Sacrifice of the whole day to the honor of God, looking upon this memorial S. Bernard perused every morning, Bernarde ad quid venisti? Bernard, what wert thou born for? This question to our selves, of what we are come into the world for, may easily afford us this resolution, That we have no time to spare in the longest day, for that work for which we were created; having then in the beginning of every day made this Free-will offering of all our time, we may take such portions as are allowed us back, after this consecration, and divide them into such pieces, and dress them in those maners, as best agree with

the appetites of our minde, both to nourish our Soul, as well as to solace and recreate our Imagination.

I should advise then, that every day may be cut out into several portions of entertainments, in that company (which I suppose onely allowed) that is, the conversation of Books; which address I need not recommend to any in this case: for in this civil death, we do naturally repair to the society of the dead; and in Books we finde a civil Resurrection of the dead for our conversation: And by this sort of intombning our thoughts, we revive our Spirits, and have better or worse company, according to the qualities of those Spirits we choose to converse with (for I suppose this allowance in this civil death, of free intelligence with all these kindes of Shrines and Reliques of the dead) and I do not mean to make a new commitment of any body's minde, restraining them onely to Mount Thabor, with Moses and Elias, that is, to Books of Devotion and Contemplation; they may, as I have explained, walk not onely innocently, but usefully in the ways of the Gentiles, out of all sorts of Philosophy, History, Policy, and out of lighter food of Humanity, there may be wholsom nourishment drawn and assimilated to a good constitution of minde; yet certainly the solider and purer the aliment is we feed upon, the stronger and sounder complexion we shall induce: But what licences soever our Fancies take for their recreation, our Spirits must be regu∣lated in this, to taste constantly of the Morning and Even∣ing Sacrifice of the Temple; that is, in each half of the day there ought to be some hour assigned, to the reading of some Book of Devotion; this practice will keep the fire on the Altar always alive, which by an insensible perspiration breatheth out a pious warmth into all the other innocent oc∣cupations of our mindes; nor is it required, that the no∣tions of Religion and Piety should be always blazing in our cogitations▪

When we have thus portioned out our day into several assignments of Prayer, Reading or Meditation, we shall not

feel the weight of the whole day upon us all at once, onely such hours by themselves as are successively chained upon one another, by links of various occupations, and every such division, as it hath some ayr of variety in it, seemeth rather a recreation, then a charge upon the minde, which must be cherished with those diversities that may (as near as we can draw them) resemble liberty; and when all our time is parcell'd out into different voluntary addresses, there being no spaces left void or empty, time weigheth much the lighter, the less vacuity is left in it; for nothing nauseateth the minde so soon, as an emptiness of thoughts, bespoken and fitted for her entertainment, since in that vacuousness the winds and vapors of tediousness and displicence rise and fume out of our imagination into our Spirits, whereas a convenient replenishment of the Fancy, with change of at∣tentions, doth much suppress such fumes.

We may learn, me thinks, by the eye of the body, how to accommodate objects to the sight of the minde, for both of them are best pleased with the diversity of species, and the competent determination of the prospect; which order and interposure of various and alternate attentions, afford∣eth both the change and the limitation agreeable to each of these appetencies, every several trancision of our thoughts to different occupations, breaketh the vastness of Solitude, by a competent termination of the prospect, when our ima∣gination looketh no farther then that term of time allotted for that single exercise. These intersertions of differing entertainments, are like woods or hills, which rest the sight in this vast prospect of Solitude, affording our Fancies this agreeable intermixture of variety and rest: So that by this method of an interchanging mixture of Prayer and Study, one may approach to that Blessing the Prophet Isaiah de∣scribeth, The Lord will make our wilderness like Eden, and our * 1.2 desert like the garden of the Lord.

Having given this advice for the lightening of our time, we must not forget some order for the weighing it, that the

value may be taken together with the measure; for indeed the worth of time rightly pondered and ballanced by rea∣son, may outweigh any Liberty or Company, which either imbase the value of time unto us, or steal from us any ex∣cessive proportions of that which is the onely Stock we have for the purchase of a blessed Eternity: And we know how familiar it is, to assign our Liberties and Companies to the discharging us onely of our time, as if the pleasure of our life were but the smothering or making away of precious time: They then (who seriously reflect upon the loss of Li∣berty, wherewith vain passions may be charged (by which our mindes are truly imprisoned, while they are dallying with these similitudes of Prisons and Chains, to inlarge the liberties of their Fancy) when they come to understand and affect rightly the freedom of their mindes) may judge this severing from such temptations and fascinating vanities, to be a state of real infranchisement, and esteem the other giddy agitation of their persons up and down the world, floating upon their Fancies, but as a Prisoners Dream, wherein he may imagine himself Master of his own Keepers, while he is faster in hold then when he is awake, and truly apprehending his condition.

They whose mindes then are guilty of these kindes of crimes, of making away their time, and using their former liberties, as instruments in this mischief, let them Arraign their Imaginations upon this Indictment of their Memories; for by judging and casting themselves, they may make a new life out of this suffering and execution of their faulty liberties; which if their Prison put to death in their affe∣ctions, as it doth extinguish in their practices, they will conclude themselves rather resuscitated then restrained: How happy may they be accounted, who come to redeem time ever by the evilness of their days, to whose civil death and moral resurrection this of the Apostle may be apply∣ed, What was sown in corruption, is raised in incorruption; and * 1.3 what was sown in infirmity, is raised in power.

This being admitted, let those who lie under this sentence of Sequestration from the world, in stead of setting th•••••• hearts upon the Suit of their Habeas corpus, apply them to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 out, as I may say, their Habeas 〈…〉〈…〉tem, in which Plea they are sure they have to deal with so indulgent a Judge, as he taketh their own Will for Security, to free their Minde upon it; the which being at liberty, will be well pleased with the Commitment of their bodies, upon the Action of their Time against them, when they conceive that this Arrest was the easiest way for them to acquit that Debt, by the discharge whereof they can onely recover their forfeited Estate of real Liberty: And when their mindes look upon the lovely Image of redeemed and improved time, figured upon the walls of their inclosures, by falling in love with time, they may disprove the Proverb, and make a lovely Prison, while that becometh a possession of their love; and are not their affections happily placed, when time contributeth to the beauty of the object? This Spiritual inamourment hath all these preheminences, and the indearments of such loves, are made by the professions of liberty and infranchisement; how much a nobler engagement then is this of our mindes, above that of such loves, which have all direct contrary qualifications.

Such therefore as address their thoughts to this suit and research, shall by degrees finde their familiarity with this love, introduce them into the acquaintance of that truth which unvaileth the various miseries of all conditions in this life, by the light of Contemplation, wherein this pro∣mise of the Prophet is verified, Then shall thy light rise in ob∣scurity, * 1.4 and thy darkness be as the m••n day; for by this clarity we may discern the whole world in several chains and man∣cipations, and those the most inflaved, who are sweating in the world as in a forge, to hammer out their own Man〈…〉〈…〉, which they make even while they are laying bolts and irons upon others that are cast under them, but as it were by the rowling of the Ship on the one side, for another contrary

wave coming, turns them back again, beneath those they lay upon, and then all the irons they had put on them, prove their own surcharge. The speculation of these truths, may keep the Spirits of Sufferers in more steddiness then is com∣patible with that estuation of minde which is inseparable from insolent prosperity: These calm Meditations suggested by the Spirit of Truth, may bring Prisoners into that state which is promised to the clients and followers of these Verities, You shall know Truth, and Truth shall set you * 1.5 free.

These Advices, in order to the valuation of Time, as they do primarily respect eternity, so incidentally they refer to the reconciling us unto the great acerbities of the mo∣ments of this life; where unto, I conceive, this adjunction also of some Counsel, in point of Improvement of Time, in relation to the acquiring of Humane knowledge, may be a very useful ministry and suppeditation.

Notes

• * 1.1

  John 14. 27.
• * 1.2

  Isa. 51. 3.
• * 1.3

  1 Cor. 15. 43.
• * 1.4

  Isa. 58. 10
• * 1.5

  Joh. 8. 32.