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SermonIndex.net
:
Christian Books
: Centuries Of Meditations
Centuries Of Meditations
-
Thomas Traherne
Title Page
1 An empty book is like an infant's soul
2 Do not wonder that I promise to fill it with those Truths you love but know not
3 I will open my mouth in Parables
4 I will not by the noise of bloody wars and the dethroning of kings advance you to glory: but by the gentle ways of peace and love
5 The fellowship of the mystery that hath been hid in God since the creation is not only the contemplation of the work of His Love in the redemption
6 True Love as it intendeth the greatest gifts intendeth also the greatest benefits
7 To contemn the world and to enjoy the world are things contrary to each other
8 What is more easy and sweet than meditation? Yet in this hath God commended His Love
9 Is it not easy to conceive the World in your Mind? To think the Heavens fair? The Sun Glorious? The Earth fruitful? The Air Pleasant? The Sea Profitable? And the Giver bountiful? Yet these are the things which it is difficult to retain
10 To think well is to serve God in the interior court: To have a mind composed of Divine Thoughts
11 Love is deeper than at first it can be thought
12 Can you be Holy without accomplishing the end for which you are created? Can you be Divine unless you be Holy? Can you accomplish the end for which you were created
13 To be Holy is so zealously to desire
14 When things are ours in their proper places
15 Such endless depths live in the Divinity
16 That all the World is yours
17 To know GOD is Life Eternal
18 The WORLD is not this little Cottage of Heaven and Earth
19 You never know yourself till you know more than your body
20 The laws of GOD
21 By the very right of your senses you enjoy the World
22 It is of the nobility of man's soul that he is insatiable
23 The noble inclination whereby man thirsteth after riches and dominion
24 Is it not a sweet thing to have all covetousness and ambition satisfied
25 Your enjoyment of the World is never right
26 Theservices of things and their excellencies are spiritual: being objects not of the eye
27 You never enjoy the world aright
28 Your enjoyment of the world is never right
29 You never enjoy the world aright
30 Till your spirit filleth the whole world
31 Yet further
32 Can any ingratitude be more damned than that which is fed by benefits? Or folly greater than that which bereaveth us of infinite treasures? They despise them merely because they have them: And invent ways to make themselves miserable in the presence of
33 The riches of darkness are those which men have made
34 Would one think it possible for a man to delight in gauderies like a butterfly
35 The riches of the Light are the Works of God which are the portion and inheritance of His sons
36 The common error which makes it difficult to believe all the World to be wholly ours
37 The brightness and magnificence of this world
38 You never enjoy the World aright
39 Your enjoyment is never right
40 Socrates was wont to say--They are most happy and nearest the gods that needed nothing
41 As pictures are made curious by lights and shades
42 This is very strange that God should want
43 Infinite Wants satisfied produce infinite Joys
44 You must want like a God that you may be satisfied like God
45 This is a lesson long enough: which you may be all your life in learning
46 It was His wisdom made you need the Sun
47 To have blessings and to prize them is to be in Heaven
48 They that would not upon earth see their wants from all Eternity
49 The misery of them who have and prize not
50 They are deep instructions that are taken out of hell
51 Wants are the bands and cements between God and us
52 Love has a marvellous property of feeling in another
53 O the nobility of Divine Friendship! Are not all His treasures yours
54 He that is in all
55 The contemplation of Eternity maketh the Soul immortal
56 There are we entertained with the wonder of all ages
57 As eagles are drawn by the scent of a carcase
58 The Cross is the abyss of wonders
59 Of all the things in Heaven and Earth it is the most peculiar
60 The Cross of Christ is the Jacob's ladder by which we ascend into the highest heavens
61 Here you learn all patience
62 LORD JESUS what love shall I render unto Thee
63 Why, Lord Jesus
64 These wounds are in themselves orifices too small to let in my sight
65 Had I been alive in Adam's stead
66 But this is small
67 But what creature could I desire to be which I am not made? There are Angels and Cherubim
68 Being made alone
69 O Adorable Trinity! What hast Thou done for me? Thou hast made me the end of all things
70 But what laws O my Soul wouldst thou desire
71 But what life wouldst thou lead? And by what laws wouldst thou thyself be guided? For none are so miserable as the lawless and disobedient
72 There is in love two strange perfections
73 His nature requireth that thou love all those whom He loveth
74 Miraculous are the effects of Divine Wisdom
75 Being to lead this Life within
76 And now
77 Now O Lord I see the greatness of Thy love wherewith Thou diedst
78 Lord I lament and abhor myself that I have been the occasion of these Thy sufferings
79 My Lord
80 My excellent friend
81 My goodness extendeth not to Thee
82 But there are a sort of Saints meet to be your companions
83 They will praise our Saviour with you
84 Yet you must arm yourself with expectations of their infirmities
85 With all their eyes behold our Saviour
86 O Jesu, Thou King of Saints
87 O how do Thine affections extend like the sunbeams unto all stars in heaven and to all the kingdoms in the world
88 O Thou Sun of Righteousness
89 Is this He that was transfigured upon Mount Tabor? Pale
90 This Body is not the cloud
91 O Jesu, Lord of Love and Prince of Life!
92 It is an inestimable joy that I was raised out of nothing to see and enjoy this glorious world: It is a Sacred Gift whereby the children of men are made my treasures
93 As my body without my Soul is a Carcase
94 Thy will, O Christ, and Thy Spirit in essence are one
95 O Thou who ascendedst up on high
96 O Thou who hast redeemed me to be a Son of God
97 O Jesu, who having prepared all the joys
98 Wisely, O Jesu, didst Thou tell Thy disciples
99 Wisely doth St
100 Christ dwelling in our hearts by Faith is an Infinite Mystery
1 THE Services which the world doth you
2 If you desire directions how to enjoy it
3 Till you see that the world is yours
4 The misery of your fall ariseth naturally from the greatness of your sin
5 The counsel which our Saviour giveth in the Revelation to the Church of Ephesus
6 The consideration also of this truth
7 Place yourself therefore in the midst of the world
8 It raiseth corn to supply you with food
9 Did the Sun stand still that you might have perpetual day
10 Were there two suns
11 Had the Sun been made one infinite flame it had been worse than it is
12 Entering thus far into the nature of the sun
13 Could the seas serve you were you alone more than now they do? Why do you not render thanks for them? They serve you better than if you were in them: everything serving you best in its proper place Alone you were lord over all: bound to admire His eter
14 The Sun is but a little spark of His infinite love: the Sea is but one drop of His goodness
15 The world serves you
16 Those services are so great
17 Besides these immediate pleasures here beneath
18 You shall be glorified
19 They that quarrel at the manner of God's revealing Himself are troubled because He is invisible
20 Hence we may know why God appeareth not in a visible manner
21 When Amasis the King of Egypt sent to the wise men of Greece
22 His power is evident by upholding it all
23 Above all, man discovereth the glory of God
24 That you are a man should fill you with joys
25 You are able to see His righteousness
26 You are able therein to see the infinite glory of your high estate
27 As Love is righteous in glorifying itself and making its object blessed: so is it in all its dealings and dispensations towards it
28 But God being infinite is infinitely righteous
29 Love further manifests itself in joining righteousness and blessedness together: for wherein can Love appear more than in making our duty most blessed
30 Yet Love can forbear
31 By how much the greater His love was
32 Whoever suffereth innocently and justly in another's stead
33 One great cause why no Angel was admitted to this office
34 How vile are they
35 Another reason for which our Redemption was denied to Angels and reserved only to be wrought by our Saviour
36 Yet further, another reason why this office was delegated
37 Finally another reason was the dignity of our Saviour's person
38 How then should we be saved? since eternal righteousness must be paid for our temporal iniquity since one must suffer by His own strength on our behalf
39 God by loving begot His Son
40 In all Love there is a love begetting
41 Love in the fountain and Love in the stream are both the same
42 Where Love is the Lover
43 This Person is the Son of God: who as He is the Wisdom of the Father
44 This Person differs in nothing
45 How wonderful is it that God by being Love should prepare a Redeemer to die for us? But how much more wonderful
46 In all Love there is some Producer
47 What life can be more pleasant
48 Love is so divine and perfect a thing
49 Love is so noble that it enjoyeth others' enjoyments
50 God is present by Love alone
51 Love is a far more glorious Being than flesh and bones
52 The true WAY we may go unto His Throne
53 And He will so love us
54 Love is infinitely delightful to its object
55 God by Love wholly ministereth to others
56 By Loving a Soul does propagate and beget itself
57 Love is so vastly delightful in the Lover
58 Love is so vastly delightful to Him that is Beloved
59 Though no riches follow
60 By this we may discern what strange power God hath given to us by loving us infinitely
61 How happy we are that we may live in all
62 Love is the true means by which the world is enjoyed: Our love to others
63 See causes also wherefore to be delighted in your love to men
64 When you love men
65 You are as prone to love
66 That violence wherewith sometimes a man doteth upon one creature
67 Suppose a river
68 Suppose a curious and fair woman
69 The sun and stars please me in ministering to you
70 In one soul we may be entertained and taken up with innumerable beauties
71 Creatures are multiplied
72 Here is a glorious creature! But that which maketh the wonder infinitely infinite
73 Here upon Earth perhaps where our estate is imperfect this is impossible: but in Heaven where the soul is all Act it is necessary: for the soul is there all that it can be: Here it is to rejoice in what it may be
74 The world serveth you therefore
75 That all the powers of your Soul shall be turned into Act in the Kingdom of Heaven is manifest by what Saint John writeth
76 These things shall never be seen with your bodily eyes
77 Were all your riches here in some little place: all other places would be empty
78 The Heavens and the Earth serve you
79 Objective treasures are always delightful: and though we travail endlessly
80 Infinite Love cannot be expressed in finite room: but must have infinite places wherein to utter and shew itself
81 Few will believe the soul to be infinite: yet infinite* is the first thing which is naturally known
82 What shall we render unto God for this infinite space in our understandings? Since in giving us this He hath laid the foundation of infinite blessedness
83 He therefore hath not only made us infinite treasures only in extent: and souls infinite to see and enjoy them
84 Your soul being naturally very dark
85 You know that Love receives a grandeur of value and esteem from the greatness of the person
86 Since therefore Love does all it is able
87 God hath made it easy to convert our soul into a Thought containing Heaven and Earth
88 [This number is omitted in the original MS
89 Being that we are here upon Earth turmoiled with cares
90 We could easily show that the idea of Heaven and Earth in the Soul of Man
91 Once more, that I might close up this point with an infinite wonder
92 As it becometh you to retain a glorious sense of the world
93 The world does serve you
94 As the world serves you by shewing the greatness of God's love to you
95 The World serves you
96 The World is a pomegranate indeed
97 This visible World is wonderfully to be delighted in
98 It makes him sensible of the reality of Happiness: it feeds him with contentment
99 Varro citeth opinions of philosophers concerning happiness: they were so blind in the knowledge of it
100 Felicity is a thing coveted of all
1 WILL you see the infancy of this sublime and celestial greatness? Those pure and virgin apprehensions I had from the womb
2 All appeared new
3 The corn was orient and immortal wheat
4 Upon those pure and virgin apprehensions which I had in my infancy
5 Our Saviour's meaning
6 Every one provideth objects
7 The first Light which shined in my Infancy in its primitive and innocent clarity was totally eclipsed insomuch that I was fain to learn all again
8 Had any man spoken of it
9 It was a difficult matter to persuade me that the tinseled ware upon a hobby-horse was a fine thing
10 Thoughts are the most present things to thoughts
11 By this let nurses
12 By this you may see who are the rude and barbarous Indians: For verily there is no savage nation under the cope of Heaven
13 You would not think how these barbarous inventions spoil your knowledge
14 Being swallowed up therefore in the miserable gulf of idle talk and worthless vanities
15 Yet sometimes in the midst of these dreams
16 Once I remember (I think I was about 4 years old when) I thus reasoned with myself
17 Sometimes I should be alone
18 Sometimes I should soar above the stars
19 In making bodies Love could not express
20 The excellencies of the Sun I found to be of another kind than that splendour after which I sought
21 His Power bounded
22 These liquid, clear satisfactions
23 Another time in a lowering and sad evening
24 When I heard of any new kingdom beyond the seas
25 When I heard any news I receivd it with greediness and delight
26 ON NEWS
2 As if the tidings were the things
3 What sacred instinct did inspire
27 Among other things there befel me a most infinite desire of a book from Heaven
28 Had some Angel brought it miraculously from heaven
29 This put me upon two things: upon enquiring into the matter contained in the Bible
30 Upon this I had enough
31 This taught me that those fashions and tinseled vanities
32 In respect of the matter
33 Had the Angels brought it to me alone
34 To talk now of the necessity of bearing all calamities and persecutions in preaching is little
35 You will not believe what a world of joy this one satisfaction and pleasure brought me
36 Having been at the University
37 Nevertheless some things were defective too
38 The manner is in everything of greatest concernment
39 The best of all possible ends is the Glory of God
40 It is the Glory of God to give all things to us in the best of all possible manners
41 Many men study the same things which have not the taste of
42 By humanity we search into the powers and faculties of the Soul
43 In Divinity we are entertained with all objects from everlasting to everlasting: because with Him whose outgoings from everlasting: being to contemplate God
44 Natural philosophy teaches us the causes and effects of all bodies simply and in themselves
45 Ethics teach us the mysteries of morality
46 When I came into the country
47 A life of Sabbaths here beneath!
48 Thus you see I can make merry with calamities
49 Sin!
50 THE RECOVERY
51 I cannot meet with Sin
52 When I came into the country
53 And what rule do you think I walked by? Truly a strange one
54 Besides these common things I have named
55 That anything may be found to be in infinite treasure
56 Therefore of necessity they must at first believe that Felicity is a glorious though an unknown thing
57 Two things in perfect Felicity I saw to be requisite and that Felicity must be perfect
58 In discovering the matter or objects to be enjoyed
59 The Image of God implanted in us
60 This spectacle once seen
61 The Image of God is the most perfect creature
62 Upon this I began to believe that all other creatures were such that God was Himself in their creation
63 To be satisfied in God is the highest difficulty in the whole world
64 Neither is it possible to be otherwise
65 With this we are delighted because it is absolutely impossible that any Power dwelling with Love should continue idle
66 Little did I imagine that
67 There I saw Moses blessing the Lord for the precious things of Heaven
68 I saw moreover that it did not so much concern us what objects were before us
69 In Salem dwelt a glorious King,
70 When I saw those objects celebrated in his psalms which God and Nature had proposed to me
71 That hymn of David in the eighth Psalm was supposed to be made by night
72 His joyful meditation in the nineteenth psalm directeth every man to consider the glory of Heaven and Earth
73 Ye that fear the Lord
74 The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof
75 By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made
76 All my bones shall say
77 Hearken, O Daughter
78 There is a river
79 O clap your hands
80 As in the former psalms he propeseth true and celestial joys
81 Hear, O my people, and I will speak
82 Are not praises the very end for which the world was created? Do they not consist as it were of knowledge
83 Of our Saviour it is said
84 An enlarged soul that seeth all the world praising God
85 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance
86 My soul thirsteth for Thee
87 Make a joyful noise unto God
88 God is my King
89 In the 78th psalm
90 In the 84th psalm he longeth earnestly after the Tabernacle of God
91 Among the Gods there is none like unto Thee
92 In his other psalms he proceedeth to speak of the works of God over and over again: sometimes stirring up all creatures to praise God for the very delight he took in their admirable perfections
93 In our outward life towards men the psalmist also is an admirable precedent: In weeping for those that forget God's law
94 There are psalms more clear wherein he expresseth the joy he taketh in God's works and the glory of them
95 His soul recovered its pristine liberty
96 He saw these things only in the light of faith
97 By this we understand what it is to be the Sons of God
98 This greatness both of God towards us
99 This sense that God is so great in goodness
100 To enjoy communion with God is to abide with Him in the fruition of His Divine and Eternal Glory
1 HAVING spoken so much concerning his entrance and progress in Felicity
2 He thought it a vain thing to see glorious principles lie buried in books
3 He thought that to be a Philosopher
4 This last principle needs a little explication
5 In distinguishing of Christians we ought to consider that Christians are of two sorts
6 Furthermore doth not St
7 This digression steals me a little further
8 Philosophers are not only those that contemplate happiness
9 Once more we will distinguish of Christians
10 He that will not exchange his riches now will not forsake them hereafter
11 That maxim also which your friend used is of very great and Divine concernment: I will first spend a great deal of time in seeking Happiness
12 Happiness was not made to be boasted
13 One great discouragement to Felicity
14 In order to this
15 In order to interior or contemplative happiness
16 Of what vast importance right principles are we may see by this
17 If God be yours
18 All these relate to enjoyment
19 The world is best enjoyed and most immediately while we converse blessedly and wisely with men
20 He from whom I received these things
21 He thought within himself that this world was far better than Paradise had men eyes to see its glory
22 He generally held, that whosoever would enjoy the happiness of Paradise must put on the charity of Paradise
23 To establish himself thoroughly is this principle
24 He thought the stars as fair now
25 But order and charity in the midst of these
26 He thought that men were more to be beloved now than before
27 He conceived it his duty and much delighted in the obligation
28 He thought that he was to treat every man in the person of Christ
29 He had another saying?He lives most like an Angel that lives least upon himself
30 I speak not his practises but his principles
31 I heard him often say that holiness and happiness were the same
32 If he might have had but one request of God Almighty
33 The desire of riches was removed from himself pretty early
34 After this he could say with Luther
35 He desired no other riches for his friends but those which cannot be abused
36 He thought also that no poverty could befall him that enjoyed Paradise
37 Tis not change of place
38 Love God
39 Thus he was possessor of the whole world
40 He had one maxim of notable concernment
41 Having these principles nothing was more easy than to enjoy the world
42 One thing he saw
43 O Adorable and Eternal God! Hast Thou made me a free agent! And enabled me if I please to offend Thee infinitely! What other end couldst Thou intend by this
44 This he thought a principle at the bottom of Nature
45 This principle of nature
46 O the superlative Bounty of God! Where all power seemeth to cease
47 You may feel in yourself how conducive this is to your highest happiness
48 By this you may see
49 It is very observable by what small principles infusing them in the beginning God attaineth infinite ends
50 That I am to receive all the things in Heaven and Earth is a principle not to be slighted
51 Man being to live in the Image of God
52 Thus you see how God has perfectly pleased me: it ought also to be my care perfectly to please Him
53 If you ask
54 It was your friend's delight to meditate the principles of upright nature
55 He was a strict and severe applier of all things to himself
56 No man loves
57 Nevertheless it is infinitely rewarded
58 Shall I not love him infinitely for whom God made the world and gave His Son? Shall I not love him infinitely who loveth me infinitely? Examine yourself well
59 Is it unnatural to do what Jesus Christ hath done? He that would not in the same cases do the same things can never be saved
60 Here upon Earth
61 Since Love will thrust in itself as the greatest of all principles
62 These two properties are in it--that it can attempt all and suffer all
63 Whether Love principally intends its own glory or its objects
64 God doth desire glory as His sovereign end
65 How can God be Love unto Himself
66 He from whom I derived these things delighted always that I should be acquainted with principles that would make me fit for all ages
67 Were not Love the darling of God
68 Shall it not love violently what God loveth
69 To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious
70 Now you may see what it is to be a Son of God more clearly
71 To sit in the Throne of God is the most supreme estate that can befall a creature
72 To sit in the Throne of God is to inhabit Eternity
73 If anything yet remaineth that is dreadful
74 But what is there more that will more amaze us? Can anything be behind such glorious mysteries? Is God more Sovereign in other excellencies? Hath He showed Himself glorious in anything besides? Verily there is no end of all His greatness
75 The Supreme Architect and our Everlasting Father
76 |O Adam
77 |O infinite liberality of God the Father! O admirable and supreme Felicity of Man! to whom it is given to have what he desires
78 This Picus Mirandula spake in an oration made before a most learned assembly in a famous university
79 Neither is it to be believed
80 By choosing a man may be turned and converted into Love
81 Nazianzen professed himself to be a lover of right reason
82 The abundance of its beams
83 Whether it be the Soul itself
84 That God should love in the Soul is most easy to believe
85 That the Soul shineth of itself is equally manifest
86 Here upon Earth souls love what God hates
87 In the estate of innocency the love of man seemed nothing but the beams of love reverted upon another
88 It is a generous and heavenly principle
89 This estate wherein I am placed is the best for me tho' encompassed with difficulties
90 Knowing the greatness and sweetness of Love
91 That a man is beloved of God
92 Knowing myself beloved and so glorified of God Almighty in another world
93 Our friendship with God ought to be so pure and so clear
94 Having once studied these principles you are eternally to practise them
95 It is an indelible principle of Eternal truth
96 To be acquainted with celestial things is not only to know them
97 General and public concernments seem at first unmanageable
98 Because the strength of the soul is spiritual it is generally despised: but if ever you would be Divine
99 The reason why learned men have not exactly measured the faculties of the soul
100 Upon the infinite extent of the understanding and affection of the soul
1 THE objects of Felicity
2 The Infinity of God is our enjoyment
3 Creatures that are able to dart their thoughts into all spaces can brook no limit or restraint
4 Were it not for this infinity
5 Infinity of space is like a painter's table
6 One would think that besides infinite space there could be no more room for any treasure
7 Eternity is a mysterious absence of times and ages: an endless length of ages always present
8 Eternity magnifies our joys exceedingly
9 His omnipresence is our ample territory or field of joys
10 Our Bridegroom and our King being everywhere
NOTES AND REFERENCES
Notes on The First Century:
Notes on the Second Century
Notes on the Third Century
Notes on the Fourth Century
Notes on The Fifth Century
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