happiness must needs be: when as, by what way we are able to apprehend of it, it is infinitely the object of our desires; and yet we are assured by those, that are best able to tell, that the best and greatest part of the country is yet undiscovered, and that we cannot so much as guess at the pleasure of it, till we come to enjoy it. And, indeed, it is impossible it should be otherwise; for, happiness being a matter of sense, all the words in the world cannot convey the notion of it into our minds: and it is only to be understood by them that feel it; μὴ κατὰ ἐπιστήμην ἡ σύνεσις ἐκείνου, μηδὲ κατὰ νόησιν, ὥσπερ τὰ ἄλλα νοητά, ἀλλὰ κατὰ παρουσίαν ἐπιστήμης κρείττονα.

:

But though it does not yet appear what we shall be; yet so much already appears of it, that it cannot but seem the most worthy object of our endeavours and desires; and by some few clusters that have been shown us of this good land, we may guess what pleasant and delightful fruit it bears and if we have but any reverence of ourselves, and will but consider the dignity of our natures, and the vastness of that happiness we are capable of; methinks we should be always travelling towards that heavenly country, though our way lies through a wilderness: and be striving for this great prize and immortal crown and be clearing our eyes, and purging our sight, that we may come to this vision of God; shaking off all fond passions and dirty desires, and breathing forth our souls in such aspirations as these: My soul thirsteth for thee, O Lord, in a dry and barren land, where no water is; O that thou wouldst distil, and drop down the dew of thy heavenly grace into all its secret chinks and pores. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, and behold his glory: for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand, and I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. All the kings of the earth, they are thy tributaries; the kings of Tarshish, and of the isles, bring presents unto thee; the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. O that we could but pay thee that, which is so due unto thee, the tribute of our hearts! The heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled help us, O God of our salvation, and deliver us, and purge away our sins from us, for thy name's sake! O that the Lord, whom we seek, would come to his own house, and give peace there, and fill it with his glory! Come and cleanse thine own temple, for we have made it a den of thieves, which should have been a house of prayer! O that we might never give sleep to our eyes, nor slumber to our eyelids, till we have prepared a house for the Lord, and a tabernacle for the God of Jacob! The curse of Cain it is fallen upon us, and we are as vagabonds in the earth, and wander from one creature to another. O that our souls might come at last to dwell in God, our fixed and eternal habitation ! We, like silly doves, fly up and down the earth, but can find no rest for the sole of our feet; O that, after all our weariness and our wanderings, we might return into the ark; and that God would put forth his hand, and take us, and pull us in unto himself! We have too long lived upon vanity and emptiness, the wind and the whirlwind; O that we may now begin to feed upon substance, and delight ourselves in marrow and fatness ! O that God would strike our rocky hearts, that there might spring up a fountain in the wilderness, and pools in the desert; that we might drink of that water, whereof whosoever drinks, shall never thirst more; that God would give us that portion of goods that falleth to us, not to waste it with riotous living, but therewith to feed our languishing souls; lest they be weary and faint by the way! We ask not the children's bread, but the crumbs that fall from thy table that our baskets may be filled with thy fragments: for they will be better than wine, and sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb, and more pleasant to us than a feast of fat things. We have wandered too long in a barren and howling desert, where wild beasts, and doleful creatures, owls and bats, satyrs and dragons, keep their haunts: O that we might be fed in green pastures, and led by the still waters, that the winter might be past, and the rain over and gone, that the flowers may appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds may come, and the voice of the turtle may be heard in our land! We have lived too long in Sodom, which is the place that God at last will destroy : O that we might arise, and be gone; and, while we are lingering, that the angels of God would lay hold upon our hands, and be merciful unto us, and bring us forth, and set us without the city; and that we may never look back any more, but may escape unto the mountain, and dwell safe in the Rock of ages! Wisdom hath killed her beasts, she hath mingled her wine, and furnished her table; O that we might eat of her meat, and drink of her wine which she hath mingled! God knocks at the doors of our hearts; O let us open unto him those everlasting gates, that he may sup with us, and we with him; for he will bring his cheer along with him, and will feast us with manna and angels' food; O that the Sun of righteousness might arise, and melt the iciness of our hearts! That God would send forth his Spirit, and, with his warmth and heat, dissolve our frozen souls! That God would breathe into our minds those still and gentle gales of Divine inspirations, that may blow up and increase in us the flames of heavenly love! That we may be a whole burnt-offering, and all the substance of our souls be consumed by fire from heaven, and ascend up in clouds of incense! That, as so many sparks, we might be always mounting upward, till we return again into our proper elements! That, like so many particular rivulets, we may be continually making toward the sea, and never rest till we lose ourselves in that ocean of goodness, from whence we first came ! That we may open our mouths wide, that God may satisfy them! That we may so perfectly discharge ourselves of all strange desires and passions, that our souls may be nothing else but a deep emptiness and vast capacity to be filled with all the fulness of God! Let but these be the breathings of our spirits, and this Divine magnetism will most certainly draw down God

into our souls, and we shall have some prelibations of that happiness; some small glimpses, and little discoveries whereof, is all that belongs to this state of mortality.

I have as yet done but the half of my text: and I have another text yet to preach upon, and a very large and copious one,-the great person, whose obsequies we here come to celebrate his fame is so great throughout the world, that he stands in no need of an encomium; and yet his worth is much greater than his fame; it is impossible not to speak great things of him, and yet it is impossible to speak what he deserves; and the meanness of an oration will but sully the brightness of his excellencies: but custom requires that something should be said, and it is a duty and a debt that we owe only unto his memory: and I hope his great soul, if it hath any knowledge of what is done here below, will not be offended at the smallness of our offering.

He was born at Cambridge, and brought up in the free-school there, and was ripe for the university afore custom would allow of his admittance; but by that time he was thirteen years old, he was entered into Caius college; and as soon as he was graduate, he was chosen fellow. Had he lived among the ancient pagans, he had been ushered into the world with a miracle, and swans must have danced and sung at his birth; and he must have been a great hero, and no less than the son of Apollo, the god of wisdom and eloquence.

He was a man long afore he was of age, and knew little more of the state of childhood, than its innocency and pleasantness. From the university, by that time he was Master of Arts, he removed to London, and became public lecturer in the church of St. Paul's, where he preached to the admiration and astonishment of his auditory, and by his florid and youthful beauty, and sweet and pleasant air, and sublime and raised discourses, he made his hearers take him for some young angel, newly descended from the visions of glory. The fame of this new star, that outshone all the rest of the firmament, quickly came to the notice of the great archbishop of Canterbury, who would needs have him preach before him, which he performed not less to his wonder than satisfaction; his discourse was beyond exception and beyond imitation: yet the wise prelate thought him too young; but the great youth humbly begged his grace to pardon that fault, and promised, if he lived, he would mend it. However, the grand patron of learning and ingenuity thought it for the advantage of the world, that such mighty parts should be afforded better opportunities of study and improvement, than a course of constant preaching would allow of; and to that purpose he placed him in his own college of All Souls, in Oxford; where love and admiration still waited upon him: which, so long as there is any spark of ingenuity in the breasts of men, must needs be the inseparable attendants of so extraordinary a worth and sweetness. He had not been long here, afore my Lord of Canterbury bestowed upon him the rectory of Uppingham in Rutlandshire, and soon after preferred him to be chaplain to King Charles the martyr, of blessed and immortal memory. Thus were preferments heaped upon him, but still less than his deserts; and that not through the fault of his great masters, but because the amplest honours and rewards were poor and inconsiderable compared with the greatness of his worth and merit.

This great man had no sooner launched into the world, but a fearful tempest arose, and a barbarous and unnatural war disturbed a long and uninterrupted peace and tranquillity, and brought all things into disorder and confusion: but his religion taught him to be loyal, and engaged him on his prince's side, whose cause and quarrel he always owned and maintained, with a great courage and constancy: till at last, he and his little fortune were shipwrecked in that great hurricane, that overturned both church and state this fatal storm cast him ashore in a private corner of the world, and a tender providence shrouded him under her wings, and the prophet was fed in the wilderness; and his great worthiness procured him friends, that supplied him with bread and necessaries. In this solitude he began to write those excellent discourses, which are enough of themselves to furnish a library, and will be famous to all succeeding generations, for their greatness of wit, and profoundness of judgment, and richness of fancy, and clearness of expression, and copiousness of invention, and general usefulness to all the purposes of a christian. And by these he soon got a great reputation among all persons of judgment and indifferency, and his name will grow greater still, as the world grows better and wiser.

When he had spent some years in this retirement, it pleased God to visit his family with sickness, and to take to himself the dear pledges of his favour, three sons of great hopes and expectations, within the space of two or three months: and though he had learned a quiet submission unto the Divine will, yet the affliction touched him so sensibly, that it made him desirous to leave the country; and going to London, he there met my Lord Conway, a person of great honour and generosity, who making him a kind proffer, the good man embraced it, and that brought him over into Ireland, and settled him at Portmore, a place made for study and contemplation, which he, therefore, dearly loved; and here he wrote his "Cases of Conscience:" a book that is able alone to give its author immortality.

By this time the wheel of Providence brought about the king's happy restoration, and there began a new world, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and out of a confused chaos brought forth beauty and order, and all the three nations were inspired with a new life, and became drunk with an excess of joy among the rest, this loyal subject went over to congratulate the prince and people's happiness, and bear a part in the universal triumph.

It was not long ere his sacred majesty began the settlement of the church, and the great Doctor Jeremy Taylor was resolved upon for the bishopric of Down and Connor; and not long after, Dromore

was added to it and it was but reasonable that the kingdom and church should consider their champion, and reward the pains and sufferings he underwent in the defence of their cause and honour. With what care and faithfulness he discharged his office, we are all his witnesses; what good rules and directions he gave his clergy, and how he taught us the practice of them by his own example. Upon his coming over bishop, he was made a privy counsellor; and the university of Dublin gave him their testimony, by recommending him for their vice-chancellor: which honourable office he kept to his dying day. During this being in his see, he wrote several excellent discourses, particularly his "Dissuasive from Popery," which was received by a general approbation; and a "Vindication" of it (now in the press) from some impertinent cavillers, that pretend to answer books, when there is nothing towards it more than the very title-page. This great prelate improved his talent with a mighty industry, and managed his stewardship rarely well; and his Master, when he called for his accounts, found him busy and at his work, and employed upon an excellent subject, "A Discourse upon the Beatitudes;" which if finished, would have been of great use to the world, and solved most of the cases of conscience that occur to a christian, in all the varieties of states and conditions. But the all-wise God hath ordained it otherwise, and hath called home his good servant, to give him a portion in that blessedness, that Jesus Christ hath promised to all his faithful disciples and followers.

Thus having given you a brief account of his life, I know you will now expect a character of his person; but I foresee it will befall him, as it does all glorious subjects, that are but disparaged by a commendation; one thing I am secure of, that I shall not be thought to speak by hyperboles; for the subject can hardly be reached by any expressions; for he was none of God's ordinary works, but his endowments were so many and so great, as really made him a miracle.

Nature had befriended him much in his constitution; for he was a person of a most sweet and obliging humour, of great candour and ingenuity; and there was so much of salt and fineness of wit, and prettiness of address, in his familiar discourses, as made his conversation have all the pleasantness of a comedy, and all the usefulness of a sermon. His soul was made up of harmony; and he never spake, but he charmed his hearer, not only with the clearness of his reason, but all his words, and his very tone and cadences, were strangely musical.

But that which did most of all captivate and enravish, was the gaiety and richness of fancy; for he had much in him of that natural enthusiasm, that inspires all great poets and orators; and there was a generous ferment in his blood and spirits, that set his fancy bravely a-work, and made it swell, and teem, and become pregnant to such degrees of luxuriancy, as nothing but the greatness of his wit and judgment could have kept it within due bounds and measures.

And, indeed, it was a rare mixture and a single instance, hardly to be found in an age for the great trier of wits has told us, that there is a peculiar and several complexion required for wit, and judgment, and fancy; and yet you might have found all these in this great personage, in their eminency and perfection. But that which made his wit and judgment so considerable, was the largeness and freedom of his spirit; for truth is plain and easy to a mind disentangled from superstition and prejudice; he was one of the 'EKλɛKTIKOì, a sort of brave philosophers that Laertius speaks of, that did not addict themselves to any particular sect, but ingeniously sought for truth among all the wrangling schools; and they found her miserably torn and rent to pieces, and parcelled into rags, by the several contending parties, and so disfigured and misshapen, that it was hard to know her; but they made a shift to gather up her scattered limbs, which as soon as they came together, by a strange sympathy and connaturalness, presently united into a lovely and beautiful body. This was the spirit of this great man; he weighed men's reasons, and not their names,—and was not scared with the ugly visors men usually put upon persons they hate, and opinions they dislike; not affrighted with the anathemas and execrations of an infallible chair, which he looked upon only as bugbears to terrify weak and childish minds. He considered that it is not likely any one party should wholly engross truth to themselves; that obedience is the only way to true knowledge; which is an argument that he has managed rarely well, in that excellent sermon of his which he calls, "Via Intelligentiæ;" that God always, and only, teaches docible and ingenuous minds, that are willing to hear and ready to obey, according to their light; that it is impossible a pure, humble, resigned, God-like soul, should be kept out of heaven, whatever mistakes it might be subject to in this state of mortality; that the design of heaven is not to fill men's heads, and feed their curiosities, but to better their hearts, and mend their lives. Such considerations as these made him impartial in his disquisitions, and give a due allowance to the reasons of his adversary, and contend for truth, and not for victory.

And now you will easily believe that an ordinary diligence would be able to make great improvements upon such a stock of parts and endowments; but to these advantages of nature, and excellency of his spirit, he added an indefatigable industry, and God gave a plentiful benediction: for, there were very few kinds of learning, but he was a Mystes, and a great master in them: he was a rare humanist, and hugely versed in all the polite parts of learning; and had thoroughly concocted all the ancient moralists, Greek and Roman, poets and orators; and was not unacquainted with the refined wits of the later ages, whether French or Italian.

But he had not only the accomplishments of a gentleman, but so universal were his parts, that they were proportioned to every thing; and though his spirit and humour were made up of smoothness and gentleness, yet he could bear with the harshness and roughness of the schools; and was not unseen in

their subtilities and spinosities, and, upon occasion, could make them serve his purpose; and yet, I believe, he thought many of them very near akin to the famous Knight de la Mancha, and would make sport sometimes with the romantic sophistry, and fantastic adventures of school-errantry. His skill was great, both in the civil and canon law, and casuistical divinity; and he was a rare conductor of souls, and knew how to counsel and advise; to solve difficulties, and determine cases, and quiet consciences. And he was no novice in Mr. I. S.'s new science of controversy; but could manage an argument and repartees, with a strange dexterity; he understood what the several parties in christendom have to say for themselves, and could plead their cause to better advantage than any advocate of their tribe; and when he had done, he could confute them too; and show, that better arguments than ever they could produce for themselves, would afford no sufficient ground for their fond opinions.

It would be too great a task to pursue his accomplishments through the various kinds of literature: I shall content myself to add only his great acquaintance with the fathers and ecclesiastical writers, and the doctors of the first and purest ages both of the Greek and Latin church; which he has made use of against the Romanists, to vindicate the church of England from the challenge of innovation, and prove her to be truly ancient, catholic, and apostolical.

But religion and virtue is the crown of all other accomplishments; and it was the glory of this great man to be thought a christian, and whatever you added to it, he looked upon as a term of diminution: and yet he was a zealous son of the church of England; but that was because he judged her (and with great reason) a church the most purely christian of any in the world. In his younger years he met with some assaults from popery and the high pretensions of their religious orders were very accommodate to his devotional temper: but he was always so much master of himself, that he would never be governed by any thing but reason, and the evidence of truth, which engaged him in the study of those controversies; and to how good purpose, the world is by this time a sufficient witness: but the longer and the more he considered, the worse he liked the Roman cause, and became at last to censure them with some severity; but I confess I have so great an opinion of his judgment, and the charitableness of his spirit, that I am afraid he did not think worse of them than they deserve.

But religion is not a matter of theory and orthodox notions; and it is not enough to believe aright, but we must practise accordingly; and to master our passions, and to make a right use of that arεovLov, and "power that God has given us over our own actions," is a greater glory than all other accomplishments that can adorn the mind of man; and, therefore, I shall close my character of this great personage with a touch upon some of those virtues, for which his memory will be precious to all posterity. He was a person of great humility; and notwithstanding his stupendous parts, and learning, and eminency of place, he had nothing in him of pride and humour, but was courteous and affable, and of easy access, and would lend a ready ear to the complaints, yea, to the impertinencies of the meanest persons. His humility was coupled with an extraordinary piety, and, I believe, he spent the greatest part of his time in heaven; his solemn hours of prayer took up a considerable portion of his life; and we are not to doubt but he had learned of St. Paul to pray continually; and that occasional ejaculations, and frequent aspirations and emigrations of his soul after God, made up the best part of his devotions. But he was not only a good man God-ward, but he was come to the top of St. Peter's gradation, and to all his other virtues added a large and diffusive charity; and whoever compares his plentiful incomes with the inconsiderable estate he left at his death, will be easily convinced that charity was steward for a great proportion of his revenue. But the hungry that he fed, and the naked that he clothed, and the distressed that he supplied, and the fatherless that he provided for; the poor children that he put to apprentice, and brought up at school, and maintained at the university, will now sound a trumpet to that charity which he dispersed with his right hand, but would not suffer his left hand to have any knowledge of it.

To sum up all in a few words: This great prelate had the good humour of a gentleman, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet, the acuteness of a school-man, the profoundness of a philosopher, the wisdom of a counsellor, the sagacity of a prophet, the reason of an angel, and the piety of a saint: he had devotion enough for a cloister, learning enough for an university, and wit enough for a college of virtuosi: and, had his parts and endowments been parcelled out among his poor clergy that he left behind him, it would, perhaps, have made one of the best diocesses in the world. But, alas! "Our father! our father! the horses of our Israel, and the chariot thereof!" he is gone, and has carried his mantle and his spirit along with him up to heaven; and the sons of the prophets have lost all their beauty and lustre, which they enjoyed only from the reflection of his excellencies, which were bright and radiant enough to cast a glory upon a whole order of men. But the sun of this our world, after many attempts to break through the crust of an earthly body, is at last swallowed up in the great vortex of eternity, and there all his maculæ are scattered and dissolved, and he is fixed in an orb of glory, and shines among his brethren-stars, that, in their several ages, gave light to the world, and turned many souls unto righteousness; and we that are left behind, though we can never reach his perfections, must study to imitate his virtues, that we may at last come to sit at his feet in the mansions of glory; which God grant for his infinite mercies in Jesus Christ! to whom, with the Father, through the Eternal Spirit, be ascribed all honour and glory, worship and thanksgiving, love and obedience, now and for evermore. Amen.

CHRISTIAN CONSOLATIONS;

TAUGHT FROM

FIVE HEADS IN RELIGION :

I. FAITH; II. HOPE; III. THE HOLY SPIRIT; IV. PRAYER; V. THE SACRAMENTS.

[The following piece, as appears by the preface prefixed to the original edition by the publisher, was first written for the private use of a "noble and excellent lady." "Before the late edition of Jeremy Taylor's whole works was published, this little treatise had become exceedingly scarce, not more than one copy being known to exist. There is no doubt about its being a work of Jeremy Taylor. Every page bears the marks of the author's peculiar style and manner.]

TO THE READER.

THIS manual of Christian Consolations, derived from Five Heads of great importance in Religion, was written by a late Reverend Prelate of our church, and now is printed according to his own copy. The papers were presented by him to a person of honour, for whose private use they were designed; but, as the noblest spirits are most communicative, that noble and religious lady was pleased to impart them for the good also of others. We read in the Evangelists, how that the holy Jesus, who " went about doing good," (that is the short, but full, character which Saint Peter gives of him,) did, by a miracle of mercy, bless five loaves to the feeding of a very great multitude. And may the same Almighty goodness bless and prosper whatsoever spiritual good is contained in these FIVE HELPS and DIRECTIONS FOR A CHRISTIAN'S COMFORT, to the refreshing and strengthening of such souls as truly hunger and thirst after God! May the serious and devout readers taste and see how good the Lord is, that his lovingkindness is better than life, and that the light of his countenance, the sense of his favour, is infinitely more heart-cheering, and brings with it a truer and larger satisfaction, than the increase of " corn, and wine, and oil," doth to the men of this world, who only or chiefly " mind earthly things," and unwisely place their felicity in the fading and empty enjoyments of this present life.

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It is a good thing, then, that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord; for, "he is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him." c

d

C

He who is the God of love, and even Love itself; he who is the ever-flowing fountain of goodness, will not fail to fill the hungry with good things. Such a christian hath meat to eat which the world knows not of; he feeds on the hidden manna: he hath (as St. Austin said of St. Ambrose)" occultum os in corde ejus," and with this he doth "sapida gaudia de pane Dei ruminare." "The Father of the world, who openeth his hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing, giving to all their meat in due season;"e" he is as ready to fulfil the desire of them that fear him; he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." And here, from the character and qualification of the persons, (them that fear him, and them that walk uprightly,) it highly concerns us to observe, and to lay it to heart, that a sincere desire and serious endeavour to fear God and walk uprightly, is a necessary and indispensable condition to qualify and make us meet for the receiving of the best of Divine favours and blessings. We must first walk in the fear of the Lord, if we would walk in the comfort of the Holy Ghost; as these two are set together. If we would have the Spirit to be our comforter, we must follow the Spirit as our guide and counsellor. If we would find rest unto souls, we must

take Christ's yoke upon us,h the yoke of his precepts, which are all holy, and just, and good. A state of inward comfort and true tranquillity of spirit can never be secured and preserved, but by a continued care to walk before God in faithful obedience to his will in all things.

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i For "there is no peace to the wicked," as is twice expressed by the noble prophet Isaiah; but

1 great peace have they that love thy law," saith the royal psalmist, the man after God's own heart,