Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	grace_n	work_n	1,598	5	6.0605	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45630	Horæ consecratæ, or, Spiritual pastime. concerning divine meditations upon the great mysteries of our faith and salvation : occasional meditations and gratulatory reflexions upon particular providences and deliverances, vouchsafed to the author and his family : also a scripture-catechisme dedicated to the service of his wife and children, and now published, together with other treatises mentioned in the following page for common use / by Sir James Harrington ...	Harrington, James, Sir, 1607-1680.; Harrington, James, Sir, 1607-1680. Meditations upon the creation, man's fall, and redemption by Christ.; Harrington, James, Sir, 1607-1680. Noah's dove.	1682 (1682)	Wing H803E_PARTIAL; Wing H815_PARTIAL; Wing H831_CANCELLED; ESTC R4540	368,029	493

O have these fleshy eyes of ours such various presentations of pleasure to delight these Bodies of Clay with and can we imagine Faith the eye of the immortal Soul can be destitute of a subject worthy its view and contemplation O no my Soul The weakest-sighted Faith enjoys a far better and more excellent prospect viz. with Eagles eyes looking abroad upon the glorious Son of Righteousness and Son of God Jesus Christ. The Life of the Body gives the first power and motion to the Eye but this Heaven-aspiring sight gives the Soul its first Life Hear me saith God that is believe in me and your Soul shall live The Earthly Sun suffers sometimes an Eclipse so did ours once for all An interposition caused the one the other not any defect in his own Body or Light but a condense Darkness an Orb of Sin for a time obscured his brightness Women and Children whose shallow reach fathome not the depth of Natures works may with a flying fear hide themselves not daring to behold the labouring Sun when a learned Artist by Water or reflection searcheth out the cause and greatness of an Eclipse Worldly and carnal Men may mask their understanding with a wilfull ignorance But do thou O Lord which hides these things from the Wise and revealest them unto Babes make me to apprehend the reason and admire the infiniteness of thy suffering Earth affords not a neerer Union or Relation than friendship That mysterial incorporation and perfect conjunction of Wedlock is but an inclusive of this that being more particular this more general Society is the happiness of Mans life this is the height of that Conjunction and the perfection of that happiness He is either most miserable or undeserving that hath not had some taste of this reciprocal foelicity Since vice and vertue have both their favourites the one exceeding in number the other in worth Thus far hath my Meditations roved on Earth ascending this height of temporary delight that from such a rise my Soul may take a quick flight to Heaven The friendship of the World and all things else in it eminent or praise●worthy are but dark shadowes of Heavenly things beames derived from that eternal Light to give Light to Man Doth not the Holy Spirit express the exceeding love of the eternal Father to us his Children by the tenderness of Earthly Parents His infinite and free mercy by the charity and friendship of the Samaritan stranger The ardent and unparallel'd affection of our Saviour Jesus Christ to us his Church by a Matrimonial and espousal love O all yee that have any illumination of Faith come and witness with me if there were ever or can be any love amity or affection like unto this which God hath shewed towards us Lord I would fain express thy acts of mercy the witness of thy love and object of my Faith but who is sufficient for these things or able to express what he cannot sufficiently conceive of How or where shall I begin when Lord my beginning was from thee Yea from all beginnings hast thou chosen me and in time hast thou called me void of love desire and freedome of will or any other congruity remote or sufficient to answer thee calling being the servant of Sathan and Bond-slave of Sin and therefore an Aliene from thee and the common wealth of Israel One not only sick but dead in sins and trespasses and therefore unable to move towards thee A natural Man perceiving not the things of God and therefore ignorant of thee Thy love alone was the cause of mine for herein is love not that we loved thee but that thou loved'st us first Nor foreknowledge of my after works or willingness to receive grace occasioned this free Election For not of works which I had done but according to thy mercy didst thou elect and save me From thy free and gracious predestination my faith with a devout affection makes haste to behold the Foundation thy dear Son Jesus Christ my Saviour O wonder O infinite Love O admirable friendship He whose glory and greatness the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain was inclosed within the Womb of a poor though pure Virgin God descends in humility from Heaven that Man might ascend Heaven in Glory becoming like to Man that Man might be like to him Not Rome the Metropolis of the World nor Jerusalem the glory of Judea must tryumph in the birth or be made more honourable by the first presence of Emanuel but Bethlem the least of the Cities of Juda. Which poor place either ignorant or regardless of so high a favour was not only void of thankfulness and common courtesie but of neighbourly hospitality A Stable a Manger and brute Beasts being the Palace the Cradle the company it prepared for the entertainment of the Worlds Saviour Behold here a mystery of mysteries He who knows no beginning now begins to be that his being in nature might give us a being in grace in glory And in his Infancy did our gracious Redeemer begin to suffer the entrance of his life being but the Prologue of his sorrow and the total thereof a continued passion His innocent Child-hood is made the subject of treason and nought but his slaughter must allay the Tyrants suspition What needed any unjustly or violently to have sought his Death who willingly came to Dye only living the life of Man that for Man he might be capable of Death This Herodian cruelty hath a deeper dye than Nero's Tyranny For he destroyed the World only in his wish but this Man by one act would have made not our Bodies only but our Souls mortal O sweet Jesus thou fleddest into Egypt not to preserve life but to die daily avoiding his merciless Power that thou mightest declare thy powerfull mercy Thy Death by which we live must not be constrained least ungrateful Man should esteem it no gift The strength and policy of Herod are unable to wrest that per-force from thee which thou purposest freely to give Infancy must not suffer for Man-hood since the greater includes the less but the lesser cannot comprehend the greater That perfection of Age that made Mans rebellion and sin more full more hatefull must make thy obedience and sufferings more compleat more acceptable Not Bethlem but Jerusalem the center of the World must be the Theatre of infinite mercy of merciless cruelty that thy passion being acted in the place wherein the Legal Ceremonies were celebrated the Types and Figure might more clearly point out the substance All those bloody Sacrifices being abolished by one Sacrifice of blood After this escape of danger in his Child-hood and reprieved of his life for a time did not the increase of his years multiply his sorrows No doubt he suffered as well as fulfilled the Law for us during those thirty years he obscured himself At twelve years of age we finde him disputing in the Temple when surely

Application and Justification Thus these whilst they think to deceive others the Devil deceives them Charity the most fruitful lasting and most eminent Grace begins first at home The affection which we bear to our selves being the best pattern for direction of our loves towards others Witness the approbation of our Saviour Christ whose abridgement of the whole Law being Charity the Rule of it was To love our Neighbours as our Selves From this Expression or short Paraphrase who concludes not a primary and most natural Duty necessarily to be implyed and commanded a self-loving though not a self-love as being the manner quantity and just weight of all our external actions Of this want are those guilty reproved by our Saviour who too publickly officious offer to pull out their neighbours Mote not being sensible of the Beam in their own Eyes Also the unhappy Miracle-worker must here plead Guilty of whom that Jewish saying falsly applyed to our Lord may be truly verified He saved others himself he cannot save Gods Power is the chiefest agent in effecting Miracles an Attribute most necessary to beget Fear Admiration and Humiliation But alas the Knowledge of Gods Omnipotency shall rather affright than comfort us without the apprehension and self-application of His love towards us in Him for whose Name sake he wrought such Signes Yea our Fear will prove slavish and servile our Admiration frightful and terrible our Humiliation distracted and desperate without the sense and feeling promise and assurance of his merciful Love For God is Love and works by Love His Love being the only cause of ours to Him and to others The truth of this made Paul account all Faith though able to remove Mountains nothing without Charity further intimating that how glorious soever such outsides might seem they would prove empty shells void of the kernel the substance and true essence of Faith Charity being the left hand of Faith as Faith the right eye of Charity There needs no other witness of this Faiths insufficiency than Judas Iscariot Who was elected to be one of the Select Disciples and dignified with the Highest of Callings even to be the Apostle of Jesus Christ. One who both under the Law and Gospel had participated of those initiating Sacraments Circumcision and Baptisme as also of that which was for Confirmation the Passeover Further he was a Preacher of the Covenant of Grace by Word as well as by Name by Deed as well as by Word as appears by our Saviours large Commission He gave them Power viz. his Twelve Disciples against Vnclean Spirits to cast them out and to Heal all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases The Execution of this the joynt Confession of the Twelve and of the Seventy Disciples doth manifest saying Lord even the Devils are subject unto us through thy Name Loe here Judas miraculously casting out Devils Will it not be a wonder yea and seem an untruth that this Saint is become a Devil No. Such a Faith to have such an End is but natural a stinted Faith wants enlargement to continue Through Faith in His Name we may do Miracles but through Faith in His Blood we and Judas only can be Saved The light and fruit of Faith and all other good Works must shine not to me nor to others alone but to both Men may be instruments of Heat to others and yet Cold themselves Many are made Executioners of Gods Power which never enjoy his Grace Nebuchadonezzar was his Rod Cirus his Servant Neither his Son Yea Miracles and proofs are not wanting in our dayes there being those I fear whose words have powerfully cast Sathan out of others their own Souls being not delivered from his Tyranny Stories the monuments of Art preserve in black and white what once was done in Colours by a Grecian Painter whose Skill was so much an Ape to Nature that his lively Draughts deceived the double sences of Birds causing them to prefer the shaddows of Fruits before the fruitful Substance The Devil in his subject is not less void of Art although they both differ in their ends the one Deceiving but to shew his Skill the other being Skilful to deceive Birds who have not reason to correct their Sence nor to discover the Shaddow of Shaddows one is only a Laughfing-stock of that Artists innocent Craft But Man whose incorporeal parts parallel the others Essence yea now transcend it by how much a positive is better than a depravation is the stage which Sathans derision tramples on The least of Scornes is not the least of Injuries the height of it the greatest of Cruelties Such is his for it wounds the wounded seeking to deprive those of Heaven whom he hath already defrauded of an earthly Paradise O my Soul thou art one of this worlds Common-wealth to whom this busie Impostor variously disguised offers his service Each mind at first whiles unhabituated is in that respect an empty Tablet on which some portraiture must be drawn A good and a bad Artist strive for the Employment Divers excellent beginnings are there Blurd by the one Divers bad ones amended by the other The good Models having only this advantage that once dry and fixt they may suffer a Blot never an utter Defacing Death lastly brings to light the work which challenges the Master and the Master it Wouldst thou then know what is Drawn and whom thou hast Imployed Let thy following Meditations search out and observe the Original which the shaddowes withdrawn most opportunely and in order meets thy next Contemplation The pleasingness of Objects begets a Delight the delight an affection the affection courts an enjoying Eve the Mother of Sin and of Man-kind before ●he took that Forbidden and Sacramental Fruit or tasted the Bitter-sweet saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes The Scripture thereby intimating that had not the Flesh afforded entertainment to the Temptation nor the Eyes been windows to let in the superficial beauty of that knowing Fruit nor the mind brought forth and nourisht desires so rebelliously ambitious no powerful assault nor subtile stratagem of Sathan could have prevailed or been sufficient to enter a Cittadel so perfectly fram'd and strongly fortified As the Body so the Soul hath its several Objects according to which diversity it may be capable of a threefold sight in all which the cause medium and instrument of seeing with its object is most considerable In the first the sight of sence there is the Light proceeding from the Sun occasioning the operation 2. The fleshly nerves which contein the optick faculties imployed about all objects and visible substances In the second the sight of Reason there is the light of Nature 2. The luminary o● instrumental receptacle the mind of Man 3. The things obvious which are chiefly moral Justice Virtue and earthly Wisdom In the third viz. the spiritual and supernatural sight There is first the Light of

of the Soul there are some conditions and estates so vitiated and overcome with maladies that they are forsaken of the Physician and left as desperate and past remedy In such a condition me-thinks I seem to be of whose heart by reason of festred corruption it may be said as Job of Leviathan That it is as firme as a Stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether Milstone of whom also thine own speech to the Jews may be verified That my heart is waxed gross and my eares are dull of hearing and my eyes are closed least at any time I should see with my eyes and hear with my eares and should understand with my heart and should be converted and thou shouldst heal me Is then Lord my heart such a Rock and the imaginations thereof wholly and continually evil How can then the pure streams of Repentance flow from thence which is the condition on my part in thy Covenant of mercy and pardon witness thy own words delivered by the Prophet Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine And that in thy Gospel preached by thy Apostle Repent yee and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Fear not my redeemed nor be dismaid as though any thing was impossible unto God What seems difficult because of thy nature shall be made easie through my grace Think not my Word which is the word of life shall become the savour of death unto any of mine Thou complainest that by it thou hast found thy hardness of heart which thou sayest excludes repentance and consequently pardon O be not deceived here 's no cause of despair but of hope and thankfulness since my Word hath wrought that blessed work upon thee for which I ordained it Having not only selected but prepared thee for my cure There is a reprobate and sick sort of Men I confess Who after their hardness and impenitent Hearts treasure up unto themselves wrath against the Day of wrath Such were those Jews whose insensibleness did sufficiently prove their deadness But thy Eares are bored to give my Word entrance Thy Eyes are opened to behold therein as in a Mirrour thy spots and many defects And thy Heart is agil and willing to know and accuse thy self Therefore thou shalt be converted and I will heal thee If there should be impossibilities imposed on thee in my Covenant how could I then be just And shall not the Judge of all the World do right Or if thy work should either precede or assist mine should not that act of thine though the least detract from my free mercy and make my grace no more grace O cursed be such Sathan-like pride of dust and ashes that thus lifts up it self against my omnipotency mercy and all other my attributes aspiring even unto my Throne of Glory O know that those commands proclaimed in the Old Testament by my Prophets were given as preparatives to the New What I require of thee is my due why I require it of thee is my mercy that so running from me as a Judge thou mightest run to me as a Saviour Who grants both to Jew and Gentile repentance unto life Which conversion since it hath wrought it on thee receive and apply what my mercy out of the same word hath extracted for thee Are thy thoughts only evil I will sprinkle clean Water upon thee and thou shalt be clean from all thy filthiness Is thy Heart a Stone which cannot relent I am he that turns the Rockie Heart into a Well as the Rock in Horeb into standing Water and the Flint into a Fountain of Waters Yea a new Heart also will I give thee and a new Spirit will I put within thee and I will take away thy stony Heart out of thy Flesh and I will give thee a Heart of Flesh. And I will put my Spirit within thee and cause thee to walk in my Statutes For I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive him That so all my Enemies with shame here and torment hereafter may be inforced to confess that it is I that worketh in thee both to will and to do of my good pleasure quickning those that were dead in sins and trespasses As also that I am Lord Paramount over all my Creatures Having mercy on whom I will have mercy and whom I will I harden O my Lord Thou art my refuge and strength a very present help in time of trouble How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than Honey to my Mouth O that they were so fixed in my mind and imprinted in my memory that they might remain with me for ever But blessed Saviour this is my misery that though for the present I may rejoyce with David yet for the future I cannot promise and say with him I will not forget thy Word For whereas in my Primitive nature thou didst indue my Soul with a serviceable and faithfull memory to be as it were her treasury or magazine from whence like that wise House-holder in thy Gospel she might upon all occasions bring forth things new and old I finde that Cyttadel battered and possest by my corruptions Who have fore-closed and lodged themselves therein So that the complaint of Jeremy is verified of me as well as of that People that have forgotten Thee Days without number O Lord if the Cistern be broken where shall the thirsty be refreshed my barrenness watered what doth it avail that my Eares as Buckets do continually draw up and are filled from thee the Fountain of life with quickning promises and saving directions if the receptacle and Cistern my memory be faulty and faithless As the Body which wants the retentive faculty and vomits up its sustenance giving neither time of Chilefaction to the Stomach nor of making blood to the Livour can receive little nourishment So that Soul which retains not the spiritual Manna thy Word in the memory that there it might be disgested by Meditation and converted into practice can never thrive in holiness and live spiritually It may be for the present I may say of thy Word as Shimei of Solomon's Thy saying is good When as soon after it will be forgotten and without thy mercy prove to me as that to him death and bitterness in the end Further this holy retention is not only of excellent and necessary use in thine but also highly by thee commended required and commanded Thine own Mouth pronouncing Him to be rather blessed that bears thee in his heart than her that bore thee in her Wombe a spiritual enjoying being far above a corporal Yea for this cause and to help this dangerous defect didst thou ingrave thy Law upon Tables and commanded it to be written upon the most perspicuous places of the House And in the glorious and holy Decalogue it self thou didst

Iron cast into the Forge is as it were converted into Fire and the body and substance of the Sun is as it were hid and changed into the light that possesses it so shall the Soul and Body as being in God and God in it be absorpt and as it were transmuted into his Glory Thus much concerning the Souls external glory The internal if it be possible is yet a Sphere in altitude above this as bringing the Soul neerer to the assimilation apprehension and fruition of God The understanding will memory and affections in the Soul being as it were Impresses to speak improperly and according to the understanding of Men of the like infinite essentials in God For then the understanding faculty according to its created capacity shall be wonderfully elevated and enlarged and be repleat with a sufficient and compleat knowledge of all Creatures yea of God himself Which shall not then be acquired and gathered as now by a Retrogradation from the effect to the cause but then primarily by immediate Vision and mutual possession of God the cause of causes Be not then disconsolate O my Soul nor set thy Bodily Organs upon the Rack in the study of the Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Physicks farther than thy special calling requires mispending thy hours and neglecting that one thing necessary The knowledge of God and thy self The degrees of learning on Earth are reversed in Heaven begin here with God the beginning of all things and proceed to be Batchelor of Divinity on Earth and fear not but be assured that thou shalt commence a true Master of Arts yea a Doctor of Divinity in Heaven Then shalt thou know perfectly and not as now by supposition the essentials spiritualities and supreme excellencies and attributes of God and Angels The magnitudes altitudes motions and influences of the Heavenly Planets and fixed Stars There shall be no disputing Copernicans No ignorant Empedocles nor Aristotles The causes of the Aetnaean Fires the Flux and reflux of the Seas the Polaramorousness of the Loadstone and all other the Magnalia of Nature shall there be discovered to the Souls eye For as a Man placed in the Centre of the Sun having an Eye or Organ proportionable must needs see whatsoever it enlightens so the Soul of every Saint being fixed in God the Centre from whom all operations as so many lines or rayes are emitted must needs know all being finite and within his enlarged capability the whole frame and work of Nature perfection of knowledge being necessary to the perfection of Glory As the understanding so the will shall be replenished with Glory also being made then co-voluntary with God's and answering his in every particular as the impression doth the Seal or as the Image in the Glass the Original being according to it s created and limitted measure and proportion perfectly just and holy yea freely and constantly willing good without the least constraint or necessity This being no thraldome but a divine perfection of the will to will nothing but what is good The understanding which is the Leader and incliner as a Spring in a Watch the internal mover of the will being not left to it self and created sufficiency as in Adam but by an irrevocable mercifull natural and therefore necessary consequence and decree in Christ is doubly confirmed First positively as being for ever enlightened and filled with a height of wisdome truth and goodness flowing from the perpetual mystical union and co-habitation of Christs Spirit Secondly privatively as being in such a state of perfection glory and happiness as admits not of any temptation or inclination to mislead the one and thereby to defile the other From this ground also springs the Eternal station in goodness and consequently in blessedness of all other the faculties of the Soul Which like so many Stones in an Arch are unmoveable because every Stone is unmoveable Jesus Christ being the Head-Stone upon whom the whole Building depending becomes immutable O my God! I cannot pass this thought of Eternity without a Selah a note of admiration as seasonable although in respect of the benefit but a temporary acknowledgment Behold how wonderfull is that mercy which in Christ hath not deprest but elevated not extinguisht but inflam'd not diminished but encreased Mans excellency Innocent Adam being neither in his perfection nor duration so happy as we sinfull Adams by Regeneration Shall I therefore commend sin God forbid I extoll grace even that Miracle of thy love O Lord whose Mercy hath made Mans Sin Oyle to enflame thy love which in its own nature and ours was Water to quench thy pitty and drown a World Let it work one wonder more and turn my Rock into Springs of Tears to wash thy Feet in humble Repentance and Thankfulness that so my seldome falling here may be a Preludium of my never falling hereafter and Glory begun on Earth in Grace may be in thy Kingdome perfect and Eternal But to proceed and not to forget that faculty which makes me to remember viz. Memory that Magazine and Treasury of the Soul I wish I could say not of evil also Wherein now many things lye confused and obscured by latter Occurences unless discovered by external objects and circumstances or rak'd out by help of discourse Out of whose Postern many things are crowded out by trifles or fallen through its rifts and deficiencies or else worn out by time and age or stollen away by that arch Thief Sathan this faculty I say though now thus decayed and imperfect shall in that never-ending day of happiness be repaired and made Gods Ark over which not Cherubins but the Almighty shall hover filling it by means of the Souls divine and continued Vision of the Glass of the Trinity with a present sight and apprehension of the great glory of God and in it all things I will not call these kindes of actings of the Souls remembrance for those imperfect ways of its operation by recollection and recordation with other medial helps shall be then absorpt in this act of the understanding as being unnecessary and only fitted for the state of Corruption the Apostle teaching us that we shall then know as we are known not remember as we are known The chief Power of the Memory the retention remaining and becoming by this continual beatifical Revelation and Inspection indefatigable and invincible Yea in this Ark shall be always kept the Tables of Gods holy will the Manna of all his past and present mercies the Rod ever budding and flourishing with all his righteous Judgments and Declarations of his Justice As the Memory so each Affection except what habits or inmates sin and corruption have introduc'd such as the servility of fear the dolorous passion of sorrow shall then have not their part only but their full of Glory Then excesses though of the right hand while in this life prove the Soul a Prisoner and make both Soul and Body suffer being therefore properly

it is common among Men A Man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honour so that he wanted nothing for his Soul of all that he desireth yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof but a stranger eateth it this is vanity and it is an evil disease Let every Man abide in the same Calling in which he was called Let none stand idle all the Day For an idle Soul shall suffer hunger And by much sloathfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the House droppeth through Behold this was the iniquity of Sodom abundance of idleness Avoid ye therefore their sin lest ye be consumed as was that City upon which the Lord rained Brimstone and Fire from the Lord out of Heaven Seest thou a Man diligent in his business he shall stand before Kings he shall not stand before mean Men But drowsiness shall cloath a Man with rags Wherefore be not sloathful in business as private Persons Let him that Ruleth do it with diligence lest when I come and reckon with you the sloathful and unprofitable Servant be cast into utter Darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Be ye angry but sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Like Simeon and Levy Instruments of Cruelty are in their habitations for in their anger they slew a Man and in their self-will they digged down a wall Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Therefore be not hasty in Spirit to be angry for anger resteth in the bosome of fools Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment One of the works of the Flesh is hatred therefore thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart They that hate the righteous shall be desolate He that faith he is in the Light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murderer and ye know that no Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him Woe to them that hate good and love evil All they that hate me love death Use not your liberty for a Cloke of maliciousness But let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil-speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kinde one to another tender-hearted forgiving one to another even as God for my sake hath forgiven you The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out Water therefore leave off contention before it be medled with Walk honestly as in the Day not in strife and envying Let nothing be done through strife For where strife and envying is there is confusion and every evil work The Spirit that is in you lusteth to envy which slayeth the silly one and is the rottenness of the bones Charity suffereth long envyeth not Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and evil speaking as new born babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord. Therefore if thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap Coals of Fire on his head Be not over-come of evil but overcome evil with good Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate Only by pride cometh contention and where it cometh there cometh shame But with the lowly is wisdom Wherefore let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Be not high-minded but fear For who maketh thee to differ from another And what hast thou that thou hast not received Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received it Thus saith the Lord let not the wise Man glory in his wisdome neither let the mighty Man glory in his might let not the rich Man glory in his riches But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord that exercise loving kindness Judgment and righteousness in the Earth For in these things I delight saith the Lord. Pride cast the Angels out of Heaven Your first Parents out of Paradice and the wicked World into Hell For the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God Behold that which I have built I will break down and that which I have planted will I pluck up And seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not For behold I will bring evil upon all flesh How can ye believe who receive honour one of another and seek not the honour which comes from God only He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord for not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall finde rest to your Souls Whosoever shall humble himself as a little Child the same is greatest in the Kingdome of Heaven Whosoever exalts himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted Be ye not ambitious like Absalon and Adonijah least ye partake of their Judgments and violent deaths Give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in my Name For it is good to sing praise unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Be ye not therefore guilty of the great sin of ingratitude with Hezekiah and the nine Lepers who rendered not again according to the benefits done unto them In these last times Men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blaspheamers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural affection despisers of those that are good Traytors from such turn away Whoso rewardeth evil for good evil shall not depart from his House Example in King Joash who remembred not the kindness which Jehojada the Father of Zacharias had done unto him but slew his Son Therefore his Servants conspired against him for the blood of the Son of Jehojada the Priest and slew him on his Bed Whoso loveth pleasure shall be a poor man he that loveth Wine and Oyl shall not be rich Woe unto the Land whose Princes eat in the morning But blessed is the Land whose Princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness Woe unto you that are full for ye shall hunger Woe unto you

upright Thus sad Was that my Youthful State when from above Thou didst in thy Caroche of Faith and Love Dear Father draw me home and for my good Balsom'd and heal'd my wounds with thy Sons Blood O let those parts which thou hast doubly cur'd Be doubly thankful and hence-forth impour'd To contemplate walk in and act thy will Since real praise is thy Word to fulfill Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving of me from any harm by Eight several Falls from my Horse Soliloquium or Discourse MY whole Life O Lord hath been a Circle a Map fill'd full with thy loving and extraordinary Providences which should I at any time forget I might justly deserve to be forgotten of thee In these eight merciful deliverances I bear witness and seal to that great and comfortable truth the constant and powerful Ministration of thy glorious Angels for the preservation of thy Children according to those comfortable promises That thy Angels are ministring Spirits for the good of thy Elect And that they shall hold them up in their hands lest they should dash their Feet against a stone Who else but they as thy blessed Instruments did put under their Hands and aleviate such and so many down-falls that they broke not into many pieces such a Venice Glass as my frail Body nor dislocated in the least any of the many wheels of so curious a Watch That is so soon and easily put into disorder as appears in the frequent and sad disasters of others that by such overthrows have lost their lives or the use of their Limbs O Lord great and special mercies call for from me great and singular praises which after the example of the Man after thy own heart I humbly offer to thee in this Psalm and thankful memorial of these thy many Preservations The OCTONARY Ejaculation or Hymn upon the former Subject DEar Lord our Sins according to thy Curse Have burthened Earth and Creatures yea far worse Our God no wonder then thy Subjects pay Vengeance on them that do thee disobey And that the Horse so oft his Rider throwes For to regain his Freedome from such Foes Trampling them under Feet that he might see That which is burthensome to him Earth thee Eight times O Lord have I thus humbled lain Prostrate As oft Thou hast me rais'd again In goodness safe and sound O let these falls Be both from Sin and Mercy blessed calls Remembrancers The one these dangers brought And by the other my Salvation's wrought Blest Love and Wisdome that thus throwes me down To raise me up again unto a Crown Lord let this close be the Eccho of that sound Where Sin exceeds thy Grace much more abounds Amen ARGUMENT Vpon God's merciful Preservation of me from any Harm when being a Childe and alone in my Fathers Coach the Horses running down a steep Hill the Boot flew open by a jolt in the way and I was cast out of the Coach upon the Ground and taken up without any the least hurt or maim Soliloquium or Discourse O Lord God who hast been a gracious Father to me in my Childhood as well as now in my elder Years How great cause have I to trust in thee continually and to celebrate thy praise to future Generations O that Men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of Men. Although violent motions are not perpetual yet are they very often hurtful and destructive as is evidenst by the sad effects of Earth-quakes Whirl-winds and Hurricanes Thunders and Lightning yet all these yea Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour stormy Wind fulfilling O Lord thy Word shall praise thee and declare thy gracious Presence with thy Children as once in the Red Sea the Fiery Furnace and now with me the greatest of Sinners the least of Saints yea unworthy to be called thy Son else when I was cast violently out of a Coach by a Jolt that forc'd open the Boot the swifter and violent motions of the hinder Wheels had taken advantage of the much slower and heavy motion of my falling Body and run over and broken my Bones or pitcht me upon my Head to the destruction of my sense or life as hath often happened by such accidents But if an evil spirit was in the Horses as once in the Gadarine Swine which is frequently the occult cause of such sudden and usual frenzies of Beasts although taken notice of or observed by few Persons yet I am assured O Lord thy good Angels and providence was present to preserve me from any hurt in so eminent a danger Wherefore with thankful David all my Bones shall praise thee yea those Bones which thou hast kept from breaking shall rejoyce yea I will further record this thy great goodness in this following Hymn to all future Ages The HURRICANE Ejaculation or Hymn on the former Subject THy Mercy Lord is a continued Act As well as is thy self witness this Fact Of Love which doth succeed the four Last mention'd Blessings ush'ring many more O let my constant Praises imitate Thee in thy Daily goodness that Ingrate I may not prove yea let this Providence Make me more thankful as reminding hence Thy higher favours for my Soul hath bin Shut up and hurred in a Coach of Sin My Flesh full-oft in which my sinful Will As Charrioteer hath drove me down the Hill Of Worldly Pleasures on swift moving Wheels Of raging Passions Steeds whose Mouth neer feeles Religious Bit Pride Lust This Chariot mov'd With feerless speed Till Grace in thy Belov'd Cans'd thee as oft to scotch it on Some Stone some blest affliction By which thrown out cast down upon the Ground Thy Childe hath lain as in a spiritual swound From which thou still hast raised me by the Arme Of Mercy and Me sav'd from lustful harme O let me run no more in Sins career But draw me to Thee by thy Love and Fear Nor suffer me for to run down the Hill Again of Earths delights but let thy will Be mine so shall my changed Soul aspire Heaven like Elijah in a Coach of Fire True holy Zeal letting my Garment fall Of Sin that thou mayest be my All in All. Amen ARGVMENT Vpon God's gracious preserving and preventing me from falling Horse and Man into a deep Pit when I was riding in the Night the Moon only shining to a Horse-Race when being upon the brink of it I was stopt suddenly by the Call of my Friend that accompanied Me. Soliloquium or Discourse DAy unto Day and Night unto Night teacheth knowledge Thy Mercies O Lord are renewed to me every Morning and thy Providences are circular and without an end therefore let nulla Dies be sine linea no Day pass without my thankful remembrance and recording of thy many great and undeserved mercies Worldly yea too often sinful Pleasure is the Dallilah and flattering Mistriss of our Youth so that slavishly and unweariedly we court it Day