THese (Sophronia) are some, and but some, of the Thoughts, which the Occasional Consideration of a Fruit-tree might suggest to a Considering Person. And if we should lead our Reflector from the Garden to the Woods, or to the River side, or into the Fields, or to the Street, or to a Library, or to the Exchange, or, in a word, to I know not how many other places I could name, I have some reason to think, that each of them would supply him with variety of Occasional Meditations. Wherefore, since the want of Themes will not, ‘tis fit that somewhat else should, place Bounds to this Discourse. And since, by finding, that I my self begin to be weary of writing, I have too much cause to fear that you are quite tir’d with reading, I think it high time to hasten to a Conclusion: Onely, before I make one, I must do our Meleteticks the right to advertise you, that you would do them wrong if you should imagine, that in the pass’d Discourse I have either carefully enumerated, or fully displai’d, the Advantages, which a devout and ingenious Contemplator may derive from the Exercise of the ways of Thinking I have been treating of. For, though I have in the past Discourse, especially those parts of it that are contain’d in the 3d precedent, and in this present 4th Section, said enough to recommend the Subject to any that is not much indispos’d to be prevail’d with; yet I will not deny, but that, even in those two Sections, I have left much unsaid.
For, besides the several Advantages and ways of making Occasional Meditations already pointed at, there are other accounts upon which the practice I would persuade may both benefit a pious Soul, and be made use of by an ingenious one. For the respects one thing may have to another are so numberless, and the mind of a rational man, vers’d in Meditations, may compound and disjoyn Notions so many ways, and may make such Inferences from them, and such Applications of them, that it frequently happens, that besides the Reflection, suggested by that which gave the first Rise to his Meditations, he lights upon Conceipts differing enough from them, and perhaps better than they: As when Hounds, hunting a Hare, meet in their way with a Stag. For, though Philosophers seem to have justly enough rejected the Opinion, attributed to Plato, That all Knowledge is but Reminiscence, yet certainly the Mind of a Man well furnish’d with variety of Notions, is, by the Analogy or Contrariety of Things and Notions, in reference to each other, so easily and readily excited to lay them together, and discourse upon them, that he is oftentimes by any sleight occasion helped to light (and that with a strange and almost surprizing facility) upon things that he would else have scarce taken the least notice of. When the Mind is once set on work, though the Occasion administred the first Thoughts, yet those thoughts themselves, may, as well as the Object that excited them, become the Themes of further Meditation: and the Connection of Thoughts within the Mind, may be, and frequently is, so latent, and so strange, that the Meditator will oftentimes admire to see how far the Notions he is at length lead to, are removed from those which the first Rise of his Meditation suggested. And by these Incidental Excursions he may sometimes be as much delighted and surpris’d, (Judges 14. 8) as Samson was, when going aside to look upon the Carcass of a Lion, he met with a Stock of Honey.
But I can add one thing towards the inducing you to exercise your self in the way of Thinking, we have all this while been speaking of, which though I had almost forgot to take notice of, it will, I doubt not, seem important to Sophronia, to whom it need not be a discouragement from aiming at one of the noblest uses of Occasional Reflections, that it supposes not a bare acquaintance with them, but springs from an entire and (if I may so speak) intimate familiarity with our Meleteticks. For this use of Occasional Meditations, though it do but gradually differ from some of those that have been already mentioned, will perhaps by the devout (and consequently by Sophronia) be esteemed the highest Advantage that this way of Thinking can confer; and it is, That the custom of making Occasional Reflections may insensibly, and by unperceiv’d degrees, work the Soul to a certain frame, or temper, which may not improperly be called Heavenly Mindedness, whereby she acquires an aptitude and disposition to make pious Reflections upon almost every Occurrence, and oftentimes without particularly designing it. But as this privilege will, as I was intimating, scarce fall to the share of any but those that, by long or frequent Exercise, have so accustom’d their minds to reflect upon what they see, that they continue that practice, as it were, of their own accord; so when once, by such a constant kindness and hospitableness to such thoughts, that they will, as it were, come to the mind without calling, and make themselves its guests, without particular Invitations, the Soul has attain’d that desirable Frame we lately call’d Heavenly mindedness, which is a Disposition and a Readiness to make Spiritual uses of Earthly things, both the Advantage and the Delight of that frame of heart cannot but be extraordinary. It must surely afford a great deal of satisfaction to an Ingenious and Devout person, to be able to make the world both his Library and his Oratory. And which way soever he turns his eyes (not onely upon unobvious things, but even upon the most familiar ones) to behold something that instructs, or that delights him. And to find that almost every object that presents it self to his notice, presents also good Thoughts to his Mind, to be gather’d with as much Innocency and Pleasure, and with as little prejudice to the things that afford them, as Honey is gather’d by the industrious Bee from the differing Flowers she meets with in her way. Certainly, if we would carefully lay hold on, and duly manage, this help, it would prove a powerful Remedy to prevent or cure much of that Dulness and Drousiness, that do so frequently smother or blemish our Devotion. There would scarce any thing pass us, out of which we would not strike some spark or other of that Heavenly Fire, or that would not contribute something, either to kindle it, or to feed it, or to revive it. If but half the pretious time we impertinently trifle, or squander away, upon Employments that will be sure to cost us either Tears or Blushes, were carefully laid out in the cultivating of this kind of Thoughts, it might often save our Ministers the labour of insisting so long upon the Uses of their Doctrines, when the whole VVorld would be a Pulpit, every Creature turn a Preacher, and almost every Accident suggest an Use of Instruction, Reproof, or Exhortation. No Burial but would toll a Passing-bell to put us in mind of our Mortality: No Feast but would make us aspire to the Marriage-feast of the Lamb: No Cross but would add to our Desires to be dissolv’d and to be with Christ: No Mercy but would be a fresh Engagement unto Obedience to so good a Master as the Author of it: No Happiness of others, but would prove an Encouragement to serve him that can give That, and much greater: No Misery of others, but would awake and heighten our Gratitude, that we are priviledg’d from It: No Sin in our Neighbours, that would not disswade us from what we see look’d so unhandsomely in others: Nor any Virtue of theirs, but would excite our Emulation, and spur us on to imitate or surpass It. In a word, when the devout Soul is come to make that true use of the Creatures, as to look upon them as men do upon water, that the Sun gilds with his Beams, that is, not so much for it self as for the Reflective vertue it has to represent a more glorious Object; and when she has, by long practice, accustom’d her self to spiritualize all the Objects and Accidents that occur to her, I see not why that practice may not be one of the most effectual means for making good that magnificent Assertion of the Apostle, That all things work together for good to them that love God. (Rom. 8. 28) A devout Occasional Meditation, from how low a Theme soever it takes its Rise, being like Jacob’s Ladder, whereof though the foot lean’d on the Earth, (Gen. 28. 12) the top reach’d up to Heaven.
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