viri fortes quos Gentiles praedicabant in exemplum aerumnis suis inclytifloruerunt The Gentiles in their whole religion never propounded any man imitable unlesse the man were poor or persecuted Brutus stood for his countries liberty but lost his army and his life Socrates was put to death for speaking a religious truth Cato chose to be on the right side but happened to fall upon the oppressed and the injured he died together with his party Victrix causa Deis placuit sed vict a Catoni And if God thus dealt with the best of Heathens to whom he had made no cleare revelation of immortal recompences how little is the faith and how much lesse is the patience of Christians if they shall think much to suffer sorrows since they so clearly see with the eye of faith the great things which are laid up for them that are faithful unto the death Faith is uselesse if now in the midst of so great pretended lights we shall not dare to trust God unlesse we have all in hand that we desire and suffer nothing for all we can hope for They that live by sense have no use of faith yet our Lord Jesus concerning whose passions the gospel speaks much but little of his glorifications whose shame was publick whose pains were notorious but his joyes and transfigurations were secret and kept private he who would not suffer his holy mother whom in great degrees he exempted from sin to be exempted from many and great sorrows certainly intends to admit none to his resurrection but by the doors of his grave none to glory but by the way of the crosse If we be planted into the likenesse of his death we shall be also of his resurrection else on no termes Christ took away sin from us but he left us our share of sufferings and the crosse which was first printed upon us in the waters of baptisme must for ever be born by us in penance in mortification in self-denial and in martyrdom and toleration according as God shall require of us by the changes of the world and the condition of the Church For Christ considers nothing but souls he values not their estate or bodies supplying our want by his providence and being secured that our bodies may be killed but cannot perish so long as we preserve our duty and our consciences Christ our Captain hangs naked upon the crosse our fellow souldiers are cast into prison torne with Lions rent in sunder with trees returning from their violent bendings broken upon wheels rosted upon gridirons and have had the honour not onely to have a good cause but also to suffer for it and by faith not by armies by patience not by fighting have overcome the world sit anima mea cum Christianis I pray God my soul may be among the Christians and yet the Turks have prevailed upon a great part of the Christian world and have made them slaves and tributaries and do them all spite and are hugely prosperous but when Christians are so then they are tempted and put in danger and never have their duty and their interest so well secured as when they lose all for Christ and are adorned with wounds or poverty change or scorn affronts or revilings which are the obelisks and triumphs of a holy cause Evil men and evil causes had need have good fortune and great successe to support their persons and their pretences for nothing but innocence and Christianity can flourish in a persecution I summe up this first discourse in a word in all the Scripture and in all the Authentick stories of the Church we finde it often that the Devil appeared in the shape of an Angell of light but was never suffered so much as to conterfeit a persecuted sufferer say no more therefore as the murmuring Israelites said If the LORD be with us why have these evils apprehended us for if to be afflicted be a signe that God hath forsaken a man and refuses to own his religion or his question then he that oppresses the widow and murders the innocent and puts the fatherlesse to death and follows providence by doing all the evils that he can that is all that God suffers him he I say is the onely Saint and servant of God and upon the same ground the wolf and the fox may boast when they scatter and devour a flock of lambs and harmlesse sheep Sermon X. The Faith and Patience of the SAINTS OR The righteous cause oppressed Part II. IT follows now that we inquire concerning the reasons of the Divine Providence in this administration of affairs so far as he hath been pleased to draw aside the curtain and to unfold the leaves of his counsels and predestination and for such an inquiry we have the precedent of the Prophet Jeremy Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let us talk to thee of thy judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit Concerning which in generall the Prophet Malachy gives this account after the same complaint made And now we call the proud happy and they that work wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered They that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was written before time for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name and they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in that day when I binde up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall ye return and discern betwen the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not In this interval which is a valley of tears it is no wonder if they rejoyce who shall weep for ever and they that sow in tears shall have no cause to complain when God gathers all the mourners into his kingdom they shall reape with joy For innocence and joy were appointed to dwel together for ever And joy went not first but when innocence went away sorrow and sicknesse dispossessed joy of its habitation and now this world must be alwayes a scene of sorrows and no joy can grow here but that which is imaginary and phantastick there is no worldly joy no joy proper for this world but that which wicked persons fancy to themselves in the hopes and designes of iniquity He that covets his neighbours wife or land dreams of fine things and thinks it a fair condition to be rich and cursed to be a beast and die or to lie wallowing in his filthinesse but those holy souls who are not in love with the leprosie the Itch for the pleasure of scratching they know no pleasure can grow from the thorns which Adam planted in the hedges of Paradise and that sorrow which
by that which you heard so diligently and accepted with so much pietie and I am persuaded have entertain'd with that religion and obedience which is the dutie of all those who know that Sermons are arguments against us unlesse they make us better and that no Sermon is received as it ought unlesse it makes us quit a vice or bee in love with vertue unlesse we suffer it in some instance or degree to doe the work of God upon our soules My Lord in these Sermons I have medled with no mans interest that onely excepted which is Eternall but if any mans vice was to be reproved I have done it with as much severitie as I ought some cases of Conscience I have here determined but the speciall designe of the whole is to describe the greater lines of Dutie by speciall arguments and if any witty Censurer shall say that I tell him nothing but what he knew before I shall be contented with it and rejoyce that he was so well instructed and wish also that he needed not a Remembrancer but if either in the first or in the second in the institution of some or the reminding of others I can doe God any service no man ought to be offended that Sermons are not like curious inquiries after New-nothings but pursuances of Old truths However I have already many faire earnests that your Lordship will bee pleased with this tender of my service and expression of my great and dearest obligations which you daily renew or continue upon My noblest Lord Your Lordships most affectionate and most obliged Servant JEREMY TAYLOR Titles of the Sermons their Order Number and Texts SErmon 1. 2. 3. Dooms-day Book or Christs Advent to Judgement Folio 1. 15. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Sermon 4. 5. 6. The Return of Prayers or The conditions of a Prevailing Prayer fol. 44. 57. 69. Joh. 9. 31. Now we know that God heareth not sinners but if any man be a worshipper of God and doth his will him he heareth Sermon 7. 8. 9. Of Godly Fear c. fol. 83. 95. 114. Heb. 12. part of the 28th 29th vers Let us have grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear For our God is a consuming Fire Sermon 10. 11. The Flesh and the Spirit fol. 125. 139. Matt. 26. 41. latter part The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak Sermon 12. 13. 14. Of Lukewarmnesse and Zeal or Spiritual Terrour fol. 152. 164. 179. Jer. 48. 10. first part Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully Sermon 15. 16. The House of Feasting or The Epicures Measures fol. 191. 204. 1 Cor. 15. 32. last part Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die Sermon 17. 18. The Marriage Ring or The Mysteriousnesse and Duties of Marriage fol. 219. 232. Ephes. 5. 32 33. This is a great mysterie But I speak concerning Christ and the Church Neverthelesse let every one of you in particular so love his Wife even as himselfe and the Wife see that she reverence her Husband Sermon 19. 20. 21. Apples of Sodome or The Fruits of Sin fol. 245. 260. 273. Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death Sermon 22. 23. 24. 25. The good and evill Tongue Of Slander and Flattery The Duties of the Tongue fol. 286. 298. 311. 323. Ephes. 4. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers Sermon I. ADVENT SUNDAY DOOMS-DAY BOOK OR CHRIST'S Advent to Judgement 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of CHRIST that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad VErtue and Vice are so essentially distinguished and the distinction is so necessary to be observed in order to the well being of men in private and in societies that to divide them in themselves and to separate them by sufficient notices and to distinguish them by rewards hath been designed by all Laws by the sayings of wise men by the order of things by their proportions to good or evill and the expectations of men have been fram'd accordingly that Vertue may have a proper seat in the will and in the affections and may become amiable by its own excellency and its appendant blessing and that Vice may be as naturall an enemy to a man as a Wolf to the Lamb and as darknesse to light destructive of its being and a contradiction of its nature But it is not enough that all the world hath armed it self against Vice and by all that is wise and sober amongst men hath taken the part of Vertue adorning it with glorious appellatives encouraging it by rewards entertaining it with sweetnesses and commanding it by edicts fortifying it with defensatives and twining with it in all artificiall compliances all this is short of mans necessity for this will in all modest men secure their actions in Theatres and High-wayes in Markets and Churches before the eye of Judges and in the society of Witnesses But the actions of closets and chambers the designs and thoughts of men their discourses in dark places and the actions of retirements and of the night are left indifferent to Vertue or to Vice and of these as man can take no cognisance so he can make no coercitive and therefore above one half of humane actions is by the Laws of man left unregarded and unprovided for and besides this there are some men who are bigger then Lawes and some are bigger then Judges and some Judges have lessened themselves by fear and cowardize by bribery and flattery by iniquity and complyance and where they have not yet they have notices but of few causes and there are some sins so popular and universall that to punish them is either impossible or intolerable and to question such would betray the weaknesse of the publick rods and axes and represent the sinner to be stronger then the power that is appointed to be his bridle and after all this we finde sinners so prosperous that they escape so potent that they fear not and sin is made safe when it growes great Facere omnia saevè Non impunè licet nisi dum facis and innocence is oppressed and the poor cry and he hath no helper and he is oppressed and he wants a Patron and for these and many other concurrent causes if you reckon all the causes that come before all the Judicatories of the world though the litigious are too many and the matters of instance are intricate and numerous yet the personall and criminall are so few that of 20000 sins that cry aloud to
abscondant scientiam if they speak let them minister to the good of souls if they speak not let them minister to sobriety in the first they serve the end of charity in the other of humility THE END ERRATA PAg. 10. l. 35. r. entertained that at p. 6. l. 30. scen r. scene 29. 21. dear r. clear 152. 4. terrour r. fervour 71. 40. the bowed r. they bowed 87. 41. reverend r reverene'd 112. 27. r. illius pejo a prioribus 100. 1. one r. once 102. 21. that flies r. he that flies 142. 16. r. true or false 98. 45. if it be turned r. if it be not turned 283. ult r. get a Genius 309. 40. still r. till 334. 5. r. his soul. 33. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lege forsan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 52. 29. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 140. 9. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 200. ult lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In margin p. 225. 5. lege 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XXVIII SERMONS PREACHED AT GOLDEN GROVE Being for the Summer half-year BEGINNING ON WHIT-SUNDAY And ending on the xxv Sunday after TRINITY TOGETHER WITH A Discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministeriall BY JER TAYLOR D. D. QVI SEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENEBRIS LONDON Printed by R. N. for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-Lane 1651. To the right Honourable and truely Noble RICHARD Lord VAVGHAN Earl of Carbery Baron of Emlin and Molingar Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath My Lord I Now present to your Lordship a Copy of those Sermons the publication of which was first designed by the appetites of that hunger and thirst of righteousnesse which made your Dear Lady that rare soul so dear to God that he was pleased speedily to satisfie her by carrying her from our shallow and impure cisterns to drink out of the fountains of our Saviour My Lord I shall but prick your tender eye if I shall remind your Lordship how diligent a hearer how carefull a recorder how prudent an observer how sedulous a practiser of holy discourses she was and that therefore it was that what did slide thorow her ear she was desirous to place before her eye that by those windows they might enter in and dwell in her heart But because by this truth I shall do advantage to the following discourses give me leave my Lord to fancy that this Book is derived upon your Lordship almost in the nature of a legacy from her whose every thing was dearer to your Lordship then your own eyes and that what she was pleased to beleeve apt to minister to her devotions and the religions of her pious and discerning soul may also be allowed a place in your closet and a portion of your retirement and a lodging in your thoughts that they may incourage and instruct your practise and promote that interest which is and ought to be dearer to you then all those blessings and separations with which God hath remarked your family and person My Lord I confesse the publication of these Sermons can so little serve the ends of my reputation that I am therefore pleased the rather to do it because I cannot at all be tempted in so doing to minister to any thing of vanity Sermons may please when they first strike the ear and yet appear flat and ignorant when they are offered to the eye and to an understanding that can consider at leisure I remember that a young Gentleman of Athens being to answer for his life hired an Orator to make his defence and it pleased him well at his first reading but when the young man by often reading it that he might recite it publikely by heart began to grow weary and dspleased with it the Orator bade him consider that the Judges and the people were to hear it but once and then it was likely they at that first instant might be as well pleased as he This hath often represented to my mind the condition and fortune of Sermons and that I now part with the advantage they bad in their delivery but I have sufficiently answered my self in that and am at rest perfectly in my thoughts as to that particular if I can in any degree serve the interest of souls and which is next to that obey the piety and record the memory of that dear Saint whose name and whose soul is blessed for in both these ministeries I doubt not but your Lordship will be pleased and account as if I had done also some service to your self your religion makes me sure of the first and your piety puts the latter past my fears However I suppose in the whole account of this affair this publication may be esteemed but like preaching to a numerous Auditory which if I had done it would have been called either duty or charity and therefore will not now so readily be censured for vanity if I make use of all the wayes I can to minister to the good of souls But because my intentions are fair in themselves and I hope are acceptable to God and will be fairly expounded by your Lordship whom for so great reason I so much value I shall not trouble you or the world with an Apologie for this so free publishing my weaknesses I can better secure my reputation by telling men how they ought to entertain Sermons for if they that read or hear do their duty aright the Preacher shall soon be secured of his fame and untouched by censure 1. For it were well if men would not inquire after the learning of the sermon or its deliciousnesse to the ear or fancy but observe its usefulnesse not what concerns the preacher but what concerns themselves not what may make a vain reflexion upon him but what may substantially serve their own needs that the attending to his discourses may not be spent in vain talk concerning him or his disparagements but may be used as a duty and a part of religion to minister to edification and instruction When S. John reckoned the principles of evil actions he told but of three The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life But there was then also in the world and now it is grown into age and strength and faction another lust the lust of the ear and a fift also the lust of the tongue Some people have an insatiable appetite in hearing and hear onely that they may hear and talk and make a party They enter into their neighbours house to kindle their candle and espying there a glaring fire sit down upon the hearth and warm themselves all day and forget their errand and in the mean time their own fires are not lighted nor their families instructed or provided for nor any need served but a lazie pleasure which is uselesse and imprudent Hearing or reading sermons is or ought to be in order to practise for so God intended it that faith should come by hearing and
of wickednesse by a speedy passage as being thrust forward by an active example by countenance by education by a seldom restraint by a remisse discipline so they ascertain a curse to the family by being a perverse generation a family set up in opposition against God by continuing and increasing the provocation 3. Sons inherit their fathers crimes by receiving and enjoying the purchases of their rapine injustice and oppression by rising upon the ruine of their fathers souls by sitting warme in the furres which their father stole and walking in the grounds which are water'd with the tears of oppressed orphanes and widows Now in all these cases the rule holds If the son inherits the sin he cannot call it unjust if he inherits also his fathers punishment But to rescind the fatall chain and break in sunder the line of Gods anger a son is tied in all these cases to disavow his fathers crime But because the cases are severall he must also in severall manners do it 1. Every man is bound not to glory in or speak honour of the powerfull and unjust actions of his Ancestors But as all the sons of Adam are bound to be ashamed of that originall stain which they derive from the loins of their abused Father they must be humbled in it they must deplore it as an evil Mother and a troublesome daughter so must children account it amongst the crosses of their family and the stains of their honour that they passed thorow â—â— impure chanels that in the sense of morality as well as nature they can say to corruption thou art my father and to rottennesse thou art my mother I do not say that sons are bound to publish or declaim against their father crimes and to speak of their shame in Piazza's and before Tribunals that indeed were a sure way to bring their fathers sins upon their own heads by their own faults No Like Sem and Japhet they must go backward and cast a vail upon their nakednesse and shame lest they bring the curse of their fathers angry dishonour upon their own impious and unrelenting heads Noahs drunkennesse fell upon Chams head because he did not hide the opennesse of his fathers follies he made his father ridiculous but did not endeavour either to amend the sin or to wrap the dishonour in a pious covering He that goes to disavow his fathers sin by publishing his shame hides an ill face with a more ugly vizor and endeavours by torches â—â—d phantastick lights to quench the burning of that house which his father set on fire These fires are to be smothered and so extinguished I deny not but it may become the piety of a childe to tell a sad story to mourn and represent a reall grief for so great a misery as is a wicked father or mother but this is to be done with a tendernesse as nice as we would dresse an eye withall it must be onely with designes of charity of counsell of ease and with much prudence and a sad spirit These things being secured that which in this case remains is that with all entercourses between God and our selves we disavow the crime Children are bound to pray to God to sanctifie to cure to forgive their parents and even concerning the sins of our forefathers the Church hath taught us in her Letanies to pray that God would be pleased to forgive them so that neither we nor they may sink under the wrath of God for them Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins Ours in common and conjunction And David confessed to God and humbled himself for the sins of his Ancestors and Decessors Our fathers have done amisse and dealt wickedly neither kept they thy great goodnesse in remembrance but were disobedient at the sea even at the red sea So did good King Josiah Great is the wrath of the Lord which is kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkned unto the words of this book But this is to be done between God and our selves or if in publike then to be done by generall accusation that God onely may read our particular sorrows in the single shame of our families registred in our hearts and represented to him with humiliation shame and a hearty prayer 2. Those curses which descend from the Fathers to the children by imitation of the crimes of their progenitors are to be cut off by special and personal repentance and prayer as being a state directly opposite to that which procured the curse And if the sons be pious or return to an early and a severe course of Holy living they are to be remedied as other innocent and pious persons are who are sufferers under the burdens of their Relatives whom I shall consider by and by Onely observe this that no publick or imaginative disavowings no ceremonial and pompous rescission of our Fathers crimes can be sufficient to interrupt the succession of the curse if the children do secretly practise or approve what they in pretence or ceremony disavow and this is clearly proved and it will help to explicate that difficult saying of our B. Saviour Wo unto you for ye build the sepulchre of the Prophets and your Fathers killed them truely ye beare witnesse that ye allow the deeds of your fathers for they killed them and ye build their sepulchres that is the Pharisees were huge hypocrites and adorned the monuments of the Martyr Prophets and in words disclaim'd their Fathers sin but in deeds and designe they approved it 1. Because they secretly wish'd all such persons dead colebant mortuos quos nollent Superstites In charity to themselves some men wish their enemies in Heaven and would be at charges for a monument for them that their malice and their power and their bones might rest in the same grave and yet that wish and that expence is no testimony of their Charity but of their anger 2. These men were willing that the monuments of those Piophets should remain and be a visible affrightment to all such bold persons and severe reprehenders as they were and therefore they builded their Sepulchres to be as beacons and publications of danger to al Honest Preachers And this was the account Saint Chrysostome gave of the place 3. To which also the circumstances of the place concur For they onely said if they had lived in their Fathers dayes they would not have done as they did but it is certain they approved it because they pursued the same courses and therefore our blessed Saviour calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not onely the children of them that did kill the Prophets but a Killing generation the sin also descends upon you for ye have the same killing minde and although you honour them that are dead and cannot shame you yet you designe the same usages against them that are alive even against the Lord of the Prophets against Christ himself whom ye will kil and
the longest and latest before it be obtained A man does not begin to know him self till he be old and then he is well stricken in death A mans heart at first being like a plain table unspotted indeed but then there is nothing legible in it As soon as ever we ripen towards the imperfect uses of our reason we write upon this table such crooked characters such imperfect configurations so many fooleries and stain it with so many blots and vitious inspersions that there is nothing worth the reading in our hearts for a great while and when education and ripenesse reason and experience Christian philosophy and the grace of God hath made fair impressions and written the law in our hearts with the finger of Gods holy spirit we blot out this handwriting of Gods ordinances or mingle it with false principles and interlinings of our our own we disorder the method of God or deface the truth of God either we make the rule uneven we bribe or abuse our guide that we may wonder with an excuse Or if nothing else will do it we turn head and professe to go against the laws of God Our Hearts are blinde or our hearts are hardned for these are two great arguments of the wickednesse of our hearts they do not see or they will not see the wayes of God or if they do they make use of their seeing that they may avoid them 1. Our hearts are blinde wilfully blind I need not instance in the ignorance and involuntary nescience of men though if we speak of the necessary parts of religion no man is ignorant of them without his own fault such ignorance is alwayes a direct sin or the direct punishment of a sin A sin is either in its bosom or in its retinue But the ignorance that I now intend is a voluntary chosen delightful ignorance taken in upon designe even for no other end but that we may perish quietly and infallibly God hath opened all the windows of Heaven and sent the Sun of Righteousnesse with glorious apparition and hath discoverd the abysses of his own wisdom made the second person in the Trinity to be the doctor and preacher of his sentences and secrets and the third person to be his Amanuensis or scribe and our hearts to be the Book in which the doctrine is written and miracles and prophecies to be its arguments and all the world to be the verification of it and those leaves contain within their folds all that excellent morality which right reason pickt up after the shipwrack of nature and all those wise sayings which singly made so many men famous for preaching some one of them all them Christ gathered and added some more out of the immediate book of Revelation So that now the wisdom of God hath made every mans heart to be the true Veronica in which he hath imprinted his own lineaments so perfectly that we may dresse our selves like God and have the aire and features of Christ our Elder-Brother that we may be pure as God is perfect as our Father meek and humble as the Son and may have the holy Ghost within us in gifts and Graces in wisdom and holinesse This hath God done for us and see what we do for Him We stand in our own light and quench Gods we love darknesse more then light and entertain our selves accordingly For how many of us are there that understand nothing of the wayes of God that know no more of the laws of Jesus Christ then is remaining upon them since they learned the childrens Catechisme But amongst a thousand how many can explicate and unfold for his own practise the ten Commandments And how many sorts of sins are there forbidden which therefore passe into action and never passe under the scrutinies of repentance because they know not that they are sinnes Are there not very many who know not the particular duties of meeknesse and never consider concerning Longsuffering and if you talk to them of growth in Grace or the spirit of obsignation or the melancholy lectures of the Crosse and imitation of and conformitie to Christs sufferings or adherences to God or rejoycing in him or not quenching the spirit you are too deep learned for them And yet these are duties set down plainly for our practise necessary to be acted in order to our Salvation We brag of light and reformation and fulnesse of the spirit in the mean time we understand not many parts of our dutie We enquire into something that may make us talk or be talked of or that we may trouble a Church or disturb the peace of mindes but in things that concern Holy living and that wisdom of God whereby we are wise unto Salvation never was any age of Christendom more ignorant then we For if we did not wink hard we must needs see that obedience to supreme Powers Denying of our selves Humility Peacefulnesse and Charity are written in such Capital text letters that it is impossible to be ignorant of them And if the heart of man had not rare arts to abuse the understanding it were not to be imagined that any man should bring the 13. Chapter to the Romans to prove the lawfulnesse of taking up Armes against our rulers but so we may abuse our selves at noon and go to bed if we please to call it midnight And there have been a sort of wittie men that maintained that snow was hot I wonder not at the probleme but that a man should beleeve his paradox and should let eternity go away with the fallacie and rather lose heaven then leave his foolish argument is a signe that wilfulnesse and the deceiving heart is the Sophister and the great ingredient into our Deception But that I may be more particular the heart of man uses devices that it may be ignorant 1. We are impatient of honest and severe reproofe and order the circumstances of our persons and addresses that we shall never come to the true knowledge of our condition Who will endure to heare his curate tell him that he is Covetous or that he is proud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Calumny and Reviling if he speak it to his head and relates to his person and yet if he speak onely in general every man neglects what is not recommended to his particular But yet if our Physitian tell us you look well Sir but a Feaver lurks in your spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drink Julips and abstain from flesh no man thinks it shame or calumny to be told so but when we are told that our liver is inflamed with lust or anger that our heart is vexed with envie that our eyes rowl with wantonnesse And though we think all is well yet we are sick sick unto death neer to a sad and fatal sentence we shall think that man that tells us so is impudent or uncharitable and yet he hath done him no more injury then a deformed man receives daily from his looking-glasse which