Birds — Meditation 9

HOw am I reproved of sluggishness by these watchful Birds! which cheerfully entertain the very dawning of the morning, with their cheerful and delightful warblings! they set their little spirits all awork betimes, while my nobler spirits are bound with the bonds of soft and downy slumbers. For shame my soul! suffer not that Publican sleep to seize so much of your time, yea, your best and freshest time; reprove and chide your sluggish body, as a good Bishop once did, when upon the same occasion he said, Surrexerunt passeres, & ster[•]unt Pontifices.

The early chirping Sparrows may reprove

Such lazy Bishops as their beds do love.

Of many sl[•]ggards it may be said, as Tully said of Verres, the Deputy of Sicily, Quod nunquam solem nec orientem, nec occidentem viderat; that he never saw the Sun rising, being in bed after, nor setting, being in bed before.

'Tis pity, that Christians of all men should suffer sleep to cut such large thongs out of so narrow a hide, as their time on earth is. But alas! it is not so much early rising, as a wise improving those fresh and free hours with God, that will inrich the soul; else, as our Proverb says, a man may be early up, and never the neer; yea, far better it is to be found in bed sl[•]eping, than to be up doing nothing, or that which is worse than nothing. O my soul! learn to prepossess your self every morning with the thoughts of God, and suffer not those fresh and sweet operations of your mind, to be prostituted to earthly things; for that is experimentally true which one in this case has pertinently observed; That if the world get the start of Religion in the morning, it will be hard for Religion to overtake it all the day after.