of the Lord Jesus for every just Cause is his neither is he less a Martyr that suffers for his conscience in any of Gods Commandments then he who suffers for matter of Faith and Religion Remember that cordial word of thy Saviour Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven In such a prison thou shalt be sure to finde good company there thou shalt finde Joseph Micaiah Jeremiah John Baptist Peter Paul and Silas and what should I think of the poll all the holy Martyrs and Confessors of Jesus Christ from the first plantation of the Gospel to this present day repent thee if thou canst to be thus matched and choose rather to violate a good conscience and bee free then to keep it under a momentary restraint §. 7. The good 〈◊〉 of retirednesse and the partnership of the souls imprisonment Thou art a Prisoner make the best of thy condition close aire is warmer then open and how ordinarily doe wee heare Birds sing sweeter notes in their cages then they could doe in the wood It shall bee thine owne fault if thou bee not bettered by thy retirednesse Thou art a Prisoner so is thy soule in thy body there not restrained onely but fettered yet complaines not of the straitnesse of these clay walls or the weight of these bonds but patiently waites for an happy Gaole-delivery so doe thou attend with all long-suffering the good houre of the pleasure of thy God thy period is set not without a regard to thy good yea to thy best hee in whose hand are all times shall finde and hath determined a fit time to free both thy body from these outward prison-walls and thy soule from this prison of thy body and to restore both body and soule from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God Comforts against Banishment § 1. Comfort from the universality of a wise mans Country THOU art banished from thy Countrey Beware lest in thy complaining thou censure thy selfe A wise mans Countrey is every where what such relation hath the place wherein thou wert born to thy present being What more then the time wherein thou wert born what reason hast thou to bee more addicted to the Region wherein thou fell'st then to the day of the week or houre of the day in which thou salutedst the light What are times and places of our birth but unconcerning circumstances Wherever thou farest well thou maist either finde or make thy Countrey But thou sayest there is a certain secret property in our native soyle that drawes our affection to it and tyes our hearts to it not without a pleasing kinde of delight whereof no reason can bee yeelded so as we affect the place not because it is better then others but because it is our owne Vlysses doth no lesse value the rockie soyle of his hard and barren Ithaca then Agamemnon doth the noble walls of his rich and pleasant Mycenae I grant this relation hath so powerfull an influence upon our hearts naturally as is pretended yet such a one as is easily checked with a small unkindnesse How many have wee knowne who upon an actuall affront not of the greatest have diverted their respects from their native Country and out of a strong alienation of minde have turned their love into hostility We shall not need to seek farre for Histories our times and memories will furnish us too well Doe we not see those who have sucked the brests of our common Mother upon a little dislike to have spit in her face Can we not name our late home-bred compatriots who upon the disrelish of some displeasing Laws have flown off from their Country and suborned Treasons and incited forrain Princes to our invasion So as thou seest this naturall affection is not so ardent in many but that it may be quenched with a mean discontentment If therefore there were no other ground of thine affliction thy sorrow is not so deep-rooted but that it may be easily pulled up § 2. Comfort from the benefit of self-conversation It is not the aire or earth that thou standest upon it is the company thou saist from which it is a kinde of death to part I shall leave all acquaintance and conversation and be cast upon strange faces and languages that I understand not my best entertainment will be solitude my ordinary inhospitality What dost thou affright thy self my sonne with these bugges of needlesse terrour He is not worthy of the name of a Philosopher much lesse of a Christian Divine that hath not attained to bee absolute in himselfe and which way soever hee is cast to stand upon his owne bottome and that if there were no other men left in the world could not tell how to enjoy himselfe It is that within us whereby wee must live and be happy some additions of complacency may come from without sociable natures such is mans seek and finde pleasure in conversation but if that bee denyed sanctified spirits know how to converse comfortably with their God and themselves § 3. Examples of those holy ones that have abandoned society How many holy ones of old have purposely withdrawne themselves from the company of men that they might bee blessed with an invisible society that have exchanged Cities for Deserts houses for caves the sight of men for beasts that their spirituall eyes might be fixed upon those better objects which the frequence of the world held from them Necessity doth but put thee into that estate which their piety affected Oh! but to bee driven to forsake Parents kinsfolke friends how sad a case must it needs bee What is this other then a perfect distraction What are wee but pieces of our Parents and what are friends but parts of us what is all the world to us without these comforts When thou hast said all my son what is befalne thee other then it pleased God to enjoyn the Father of the faithfull Get thee out of thy Country and from thy kindred and from thy Fathers house into a Land that I will shew thee Loe the same God by the command of authority calls thee to this secession If thou wilt shew thy self worthy to be the sonne of such a Father doe that in an humble obedience to God which thou art urged to doe by the compulsion of men But what so grievous a thing is this Dost thou think to find God where thou goest Dost thou make full account of his company both all along the way and in the end of thy journey Hath not he said who cannot sail I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Certainly he is not worthy to lay any claim to a God that cannot finde parents kindred friends in him alone Besides he that of very stones could raise up children unto Abraham how easily can he of inhospital men raise up friends to the sons of Abraham Onely labour thou to inherit that faith wherein he walked that
blessed Martyr Theodorus have upon racks and gibbets found their consolations stronger then their pains Whiles therefore the goodnesse of thy God sustaines and supplies thee with abundance of spirituall vigour and refreshment answerable to the worst of thine assaults what cause hast thou to complain of suffering The advice is high and heroicall which the Apostle James gives to his Compatriots My brethren count it all joy when ye fâ—ll into divers temptations Let those temptations be rather trials by afflictions then suggestions of sin yet even those overcome yeeld no small cause of triumph for by them is our faith no lesse tried and the trying of our saith worketh patience and the perfect work of patience is a blessed entirenesse of grace The number of enemies addes to the praise of the victory To overcome single temptations is commendable but to subdue Troopes of temptations is glorious § 3. The restraint of our spirituall enemies and their over-matching by the power of God Alas thou saist I am overlaid not with multitudes onely but with power In all challenges of Duels there is wont to be respect had to the equality both of the Combatants and weapons But woe is me how am I overmatched For me I am a weak wretch and we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and powers against the rulers of the darknesse of this world against spirituall wickednesse in heavenly places Behold the Amorite whose height is like the height of the Cedars and their strength as the strength of oaks What are we but poor pismires in the valley to these men of measures Who can stand before these sonnes of Anak I did not advise thee my son to be strong in thy self alas we are all made up of weaknesse One of those powers of darknesse were able to subdue a whole world of men but to bee strong in the Lord whose lowest Angel is able to vanquish a whole hell of Devils and in the power of his might who commandeth the most furious of those infernal spirits to their chains Wo were us if we were left in our own hands there were no way with us but foiling and death But our help is in the Name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth The Lord is our strength and our shield he is our rock and our salvation he is our defence so as we shall not be moved It is he that hath girded us with strength unto battel and that subdueth those that rise up against us Take courage therefore to thy self man there cannot be so much difference betwixt thee and those hellish powers as there is betwixt them and the Almighty their force is finite and limited by his omnipotence How fain dost thou think Jannes and Jambres the great Magicians of Egypt by the conjoyned powers of hell would have made but a Louse in an affront to Moses yet they could not How earnestly was that legion of Devils fain to beg but for leave to prevail over a few Gaderene-swine How strong therefore soever they 〈◊〉 to thee yet to him they are so meer weakness that they cannot so much as move without him Who can fear a Bear or a Lion when he sees them chained to their stake Even children can behold them baited when they see their restraint Look not upon thy self therefore look not upon them but look up to that over-ruling hand of the Almighty who ordinates all their motions to his own holy purposes and even out of their malice raises glory to himself and advantage to his servants §. 4. The advantage that is made to 〈◊〉 by our temptations and foils It is a woful advantage thou sayst that I have made of temptations for alas I have been shamefully foiled by them and what by their subtilty and what by their violence have been miscarried into a grievous sin against my God and lie down in a just confusion of face to have been so miserably vanquished Hadst thou wanted tears my son for thine offence I should willingly have lent thee some It is indeed a heavie case that thou hast given thy deadly enemy this cause to triumph over thee and hast thus provoked thy God Be thou thorowly humbled under the consciâ—ence of thy sin and be not too sudden in snatching a pardon out of the hand which thou hast offended be humbled but after thou hast made thy peace with God by a serious repentance be not disheartned with thy faâ—lings neither do I fear to tell thee of an advantage to be made not of thy temptations onely but even of thy sin What art thou other then a gainer if having been beaten down to thy knees thou hast in an holy indignation risen up and fought so much the more valiantly A wound received doth but whet the edge of true fortitude Many a one had never been victorious if he had not seen himself bleed first Look where thou wilt upon all the Saints of God mark if thou canst see any one of them without his scars Oh the fearful gashes that we have seen in the noblest of Gods Champions upon earth whose courage had never been raised so high if it had not been out of the sense of some former discomfitures As some well-spirited wrestler therefore be not so much troubled with thy fall as zealous to repay it with a more successful grapling We know saith the blessed Apostle that all things work together for good to them that love God All things yea even those that are worse then nothing their very sins The Corinthians offended in their silent connivence at the incestuous person the Apostles reproof produceth their sorrow what was the issue For behold this self-same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge Lo what a marvellous advantage is here made of one offence What hath Satan now gotten by this match One poor Corinthian is mis-led to an incestuous copulation The evil spirit rejoyceth to have got such a prey but how long shall he enjoy it Soon after the offending soul upon the Apostles holy censure is reclaimed he is delivered over to Satan that Satan should never possess him The Corinthians are raised to a greater height of godly zeal then ever Corinth had never been so rich in grace if it had not been defiled with so foul a crime Say now whether this be not in effect thy case Shouldst thou ever have so much hated thy sin if thou hadst not been drawn in to commit it Shouldst thou have found in thy self so fervent love to thy God if it had not been out of the sense of his great mercy in remitting it Wouldst thou have been so wary of thy steps as now thou art if thou hadst never slipped Give glory to God my son whiles thou givest shame to thy self and bless him
cooping up of these outward parts that can make thee a Prisoner Thou art not worthy of the name of a man if thou thinkest this body to bee thy selfe and that is onely it which humane power can reach unto Besides art thou a Christian then thou hast learned to submit thy will to Gods Gods will is declared in his actions for sure what hee doth that hee wills to doe If his will bee then to have thee restrained why should it not bee thine and if it be thy will to keepe in what dost thou complaine of restraint § 2. The sad objâ—cts of a free beholder Thou art restrained Is it such a matter that thou art not suffered to rome abroad How ill hast thou spent thy time if thou hast not laid up matter both of employment and contentment in thine owne bosome And what such goodly pleasure were it for thee to looke over the world and to behold those objects which thine eye shall there meet withall here men fighting there women and children wayling here plunders there riots here fields of blood there Townes and Cities flaming here some scuffling for Patrimonies there others wrangling for Religion here some famishing for want there others abusing their fulnesse here schismes and heresies there rapines and sacriledges What comfortable spectacles these are to attract or please our eyes thy closenesse frees thee from these sights the very thought whereof is enough to make a man miserable and in stead of them presents thee onely with the face of thy Keeper which custome and necessity hath acquitted from thy first horrour §. 3. Comfort from the invisible company that cannot bee kept from us Thou art shut up close within four walls and all company is secluded from thee Content thy self my son God and his holy Angels cannot bee kept out thou hast better company in thy solitude then thy liberty afforded thee the jollity of thy freedom robb'd thee of the conversation of these spiritual companions which onely can render thee happy they which before were strangers to thee are now thy guests yea thy inmates if the fault bee not thine to dwell with thee in that forced retirednesse What if the light be shut out from thee this cannot hinder thee from seeing the invisible The darknesse hideth not from thee saith the Psalmist but the night shineth as the day the darknesse and the light are both alike to thee Yea I doubt not to say God hath never beene so clearly seene as in the darkest Dungeons for the outward light of prosperity distracts our visive beames which are strongly contracted in a deep obscurity Hee must descend low and bee compassed with darknesse that would see the glorious lights of heaven by day They ever shine but are not seen save in the night May thine eyes bee blessed with this invisible sight thou shalt not envie those that glitter in Courte and that look daily upon the faces of Kings and Princes yea though they could see all that the Tempter represented to the view of our Saviour upon the highest Mountaine all the Kingdomes of the world and the glory of them § 4. Comfort from the inward disposition of the Prisoner Thou art forced to keepe close but with what disposition both of minde and body If thou hadst an unquiet and burdened Soule it were not the open and free aire that could refresh thee and if thou have a cleare and light heart it is not a strict closenesse that can dismay thee thy thoughts can keepe thee company and cheare up thy solitarinesse If thou hadst an unsound and painefull body as if thou wert laid up of the gout or some rupture or luxation of some limb thou wouldst not complain to keep in thy pain would make thee insensible of the trouble of thy confinement but if God have favoured thee with health of body how easily mayst thou digest an harmless limitation of thy person A wise man as Laurentius the Presbyter observed well doth much while he rests his motions are not so beneficial as his sitting still So mayst thou bestow the hours of thy close retiredness that thou mayst have cause to bless God for so happie an opportunity How memorable an instance hath our age yeelded us of an eminent Person to whose encagement we are beholden besides many Philosophical experiments for that noble history of the World which is now in our hands The Court had his youthful and freer times the Tower his later age the Tower reformed the Court in him and produced those worthy monuments of art and industry which we should have in vain expected from his freedom and jollity It is observed that shining wood when it is kept within doors loseth its light It is otherwise with this and many other active wits which had never shined so much if not for their closeness § 5. Comfort from the willâ—ng aboue of â—â—â—rednes in some persons Thou art close shut up I have seen Anachorites that have sued for this as a favour which thou esteemest a punishment and having obtained it have placed merit in that wherein thou apprehendest misery Yea our History tells us of one who when the Church whereto his cell was annexed was on fire would not come out to live but would die and lye buried under the ashes of that roofe where his vow had fixed him Suppose thou dost that out of the resolution of thine owne will which thou dost out of anothers necessitating and thou shalt sit downe contented with thy Lot § 6. Comfort from the causes of imprisonment Thou art imprisoned Wise men are wont in all actions and events to enquire still into the causes Wherefore dost thou suffer Is it for thy fault Make thou thy Gaole Gods correction house for reforming of thy misdeeds Remember and imitate Manasses the evill sonne of a good Father who upon true humiliation by his just imprisonment found an happy expiation of his horrible Idolatries Murders Witchcrafts whose bonds brought him home to God and himselfe Is it for Debt Thinke not to pay those who have intrusted thee with a lingring durance if there bee power in thine hand for a discharge there is fraud and injustice in this closenesse Feare thou a worse prison if thou wilt needs wilfully live and die in a just indebtment when thou maist bee at once free and honest Stretch thine ability to the utmost to satisfie others with thine own impoverishing But if the hand of God have humbled and disabled thee labour what thou canst to make thy peace with thy Creditors If they will needs be cruel look up with patience to the hand of that God who thinks fit to afflict thee with their unreasonableness and make the same good use of thy sufferings which thou wouldst do from the immediate hand of thy Creator If it be for a good cause rejoyce in this tribulation and be holily proud and glad with the blessed Apostles that thou art counted worthy to suffer shame and bonds for the Name