Christian is more delighted Thou laughest not at the sight of an heap of thy gold yet thy delight is more than in a jest that shaketh thy spleene As griefe so joy is not lesse when it is least expressed It must needs be a strong and nimble soule that can mount to heaven possessing abundance of earthly things If thou finde wealth too pressing abate of thy load either by having lesse or loving lesse or adde to the strength of thy activity that thou maist yet ascend It is more commendable by how much more hard to climbe up to heaven with a burthen THe meaner sort of men would be too much discontented if they saw how far more pleasant the life of others is and if those of higher ranke could looke downe to the infinite miseries of their inferiours it would make them either miserable in compassion or proud in conceit It is good sometimes for the delicate rich man to looke into the poore mans Cup-board and seeing God in mercy lets him not know their sorrows by experience yet to know it in speculation Which will teach him more thankes to God more mercy to men and more contentment in himselfe I never saw Christian lesse honoured for a wise neglect of himselfe If our dejection proceed from the conscience of our want it is possible wee should be as little esteemed of others as of our selves but if we have true Graces and prize them not at the highest others shall value both them in us and us for them and with usury give us that honour we withheld modestly from our selves I never read of Christian that repented him of too little worldly delight he that takes his full liberty in what he may shall repent him how much more in what hee should not The surest course in all earthly pleasures is to rise with an appetite and to be satisfied with a little That mans end is easie and happy whom death findes with a weake body and a strong soule HErein as much as in any thing the perversnesse of our nature appeares that wee wish death or love life upon wrong causes we would live for pleasure and die for paine Iob for his sores Elias for his persecution Ionas for his Gourd would presently die and outface God that it was better for him to die than to live Wherein we are like to garrison souldiers that while they live within safe walls and shew themselves once a day rather for ceremony and pompe than need and danger like warfare well enough but being once called forth to the field they hang the head and wish themselves at home THe shipwrack of a good Conscience is the casting away of all other excellencies It is no rare thing to note the soule of a wilfull sinner stripped of all her Graces and by degrees exposed to open shame for since he hath cast away the best it is just with God to take away the worst and to cast off them in lesser regards which have rejected him in greater THe tongue will hardly leave that to which the heart is inured if we would have good motions to visit us in sicknesse we must send for them familiarly in health for such as a mans delights and cares are in health such are both his thoughts and speeches commonly on his death-bed And no marvell though the worldling often escapes earthly punishments God corrects him not because hee loves him not he will not doe him the favour to whip him The world afflicts him not because it loves him for each one is indulgent to his owne God uses not the rod where he meanes to use the sword the Pillory or scourge is for those Malefactors which shal escape execution LAughing is proper to Man alone amongst all living creatures though indeed he ought ever to be weeping because he ever sins and the beasts might rather laugh to see man so much abuse his most excellent part his reason Doubtlesse if man knew before he came into the world what should be his portion in the world he would feare his first day more than his last wherefore we ought to moderate our affections and in imitation of our great Lord and Saviour who was a man of sorrows we should not be altogether composed of mirth SEldome hath any man got either wealth or learning with ease and the greatest good is most difficult in obtaining he must not thinke to get Christ that takes no paines for him If men can endure such cutting such lancing and searing of their bodies only to protract a miserable life for a short time how much should we care what we doe or what we suffer so wee may win Christ No paine should bee refused for the gaining of Eternity MVch ostentation and much learning seldome meet together The Sun rising and declining makes long shadows but being at the highest makes none at all Skill when it is too much shewne loseth the grace as fresh coloured wares that are often opened lose their brightnesse and are soiled with much handling It is better to applaud our selves for having much of that we shew not than that others should applaud us for shewing more than we have The conscience of our owne worth should cheare us more in their contempt than their approbation comfort us against the secret check of our knowne unworthinesse Every man hath an heaven and a hell Earth is the wicked mans heaven his hell is to come contrarily the godly have their hell upon earth where usually they are vexed with many afflictions and temptations by Sathan and his complices their heaven is above in endlesse happinesse Though they sow in teares they shall reape in joy though their seed time be commonly waterish and lowring and their spring wet they shall bee sure of a cleare and joyfull harvest It is no marvell if the wicked have peace in themselves being as sure as temptation can make them Princes wage not warre with their owne subjects The The godly are still enemies and must therefore looke to be assaulted both by stratagems and violence Wherefore nothing should more joy us than our inward unquietnesse A just war is far more happy than an ill conditioned peace EVery good prayer knocketh at heaven for a blessing but an importunate prayer pierceth it though as hard as brasse and makes way for it selfe into the eares of the Almighty And as it ascends lightly up carried with the wings of faith so it ever comes laden downe againe upon our heads In prayer our thoughts should not be guided by our words but our words by our thoughts Good prayers never came weeping home and by fervent prayer we are sure to receive either what we aske or what we should aske VErtuous actions are a mans best monument Foolish is the hope of Immortality and future praise by the cost of sencelesse stone when the Passenger shall only say here lies a faire stone and a filthy Carkasse That only can report us rich but for other praises our selves must build
against him it will pull him downe and lay him flat and fill him with such inward terrors that hee shall bee more afraid of himselfe than of all the world beside THere is something in the very greatnesse of sin that may encourage us to goe to God for the greater our sinnes are the greater the glory of his powerfull mercy in pardoning will appeare The great God delights to shew his greatnesse in the greatest things hee delighteth in mercy it pleaseth him nothing so well as being his chiefe Name His mercy is not only above his own works but above ours also if we could sin more then he could pardon then wee might have some reason to despaire Despaire is a high point of Atheism it takes away God and Christ both at once Iudas in betraying our Saviour was occasion of his death as man but in despairing he did what lay in him to take away his life as God Wherefore we should never thinke the dore of hope to be shut against us if we have a purpose to turn unto God Invincible mercy will never be conquered and endlesse goodnesse never admits of bounds or ends If Christ be the Phisitian it is no matter of how long continuance the disease be hee is good at all diseases and will not endure the reproach of disability to cure any AS in the sinne against the holy Ghost feare shewes that we have not committed it so a tender heart fearing lest the time of true repentance is past shewes plainly that it is not past God is more willing to entertaine us than we are to cast our selves upon him As there is a fountaine opened for sin and for uncleannesse as it is a living fountain of living water that runs for ever and can never be drawne dry ALl men are not affected with a like sorrow for sin God giveth some larger spirits and so their sorrowes become larger Some upon quicknesse of apprehension and the ready passages betwixt the brain and the heart are quickly moued where the apprehension is deeper and the passages flower there sorrow is long in working and long in removing the deepest waters have the stillest motion Iron takes fire more slowly than stubble but then it holds longer It is fitter to leave it to Gods wisdome to mingle the portion of sorrow than to be our owne chusers IF wee grieve that we cannot grieve and so far as it is sin make it our grief it should not hinder us from going to Christ but rather drive us to him God delights not in our sorrow if we could trust in him without much sorrow then it would not be required and though want of feeling be quite opposite to the life of grace yet senciblenesse of the want of feeling shewes some degree of the life of grace When that which is wanting in grief for sin is made up in feare of sinning there is no great cause of complaine of the want of griefe for this holy affection is the awe-band of the soule whereby it is kept from starting from God and his waies That measure of griefe and sorrow is sufficient which brings us and holds us to Christ WE should grieve for our sins and rejoice for our griefe and though wee can neither love nor grieve nor ioy of our selves as we should yet are we often guilty in giving a checke to the spirit stirring these affections in us which is the maine cause of the many sharp afflictions wee endure in this life though Gods Love in the maine matter of salvation bee most firme unto us GRiefe is no farther good than it makes way for ioy which caused our Saviour to ioyne them together Blessed are the mourners for they shall be comforted it is one maine end of Gods leaving us in a sorrowfull condition that we may live and die by faith in the perfect righteousnesse of Christ whereby we glorifie God more than if we had perfect righteousnesse of our owne OVr corruptions are Gods enemies as well as ours therefore in trusting to him and fighting against them wee may be sure he will take our part in vanquishing them The looking too much to the Anakims and Gyants and too little to Gods omnipotency shut the Israelites out of Canaan and put God to his Oath that they should never enter into his rest And it will exclude our souls from happines at length if looking too much on these Anakims or great corruptions within and without us we basely despaire and give over the Field what coward will nor fight when hee is sure of helpe and victorie THough God be of pure eyes yet he looks upon us his poore Creatures in him who is blamelesse and without spot who by vertue of his sweet smelling sacrifice appeares for us in heaven and mingles his odors with our services and in him will God be knowne to us by the name of a kinde Father not onely in pardoning our deserts but accepting our endeavours WHatsoever comfort we have in goods friends health or other Blessings it is all conveied by God who still remaines though these bee taken from us And we have him bound in many promises for all that is needfull for us we may sue him upon his owne bond Can we thinke that hee who will give us a Kingdome will faile us in necessary provision to bring us thither who himselfe is our portion DEparture of friends should not be grievous unto us A true Beleever is unto Christ as his Mother Brother and Sister because he carries that affection to them as if they were so indeed to him As Christ makes us all to him so should wee make him all in all to our selves If all comforts in the world were dead wee may enioy them still in the living Lord HEalth is at Gods command and sicknesse stayes at his rebuke The time of sicknesse is a time of purging from that defilement we gathered in out health till wee come purer out which should moue us the rather willingly to abide Gods time Blessed is that sicknesse that proves the health of the soule we are best for most part when wee are weakest Then onely it truly appeares what good proficients we have been in the time of health IN all kinde of troubles it is not the Ingredients that God puts into the cup so much afflicts us as the Ingredients of our distempered passions mingled with them The sting and coare of them all is sinne when that is not onely pardoned but in some measure healed and the proud flesh eaten out then a healthy soul wil beare any thing when the conscience is once set at liberty we cheerfully undergoe any burthen But it is a heavy condition to be under the burthen of trouble and under the burthen of a guilty conscience both at once When men will walke in the light of their own fire and the sparks which they have kindled themselves it is iust with God that they should lie downe in sorrow IN all sorts of injuries which we suffer
our owne Monuments alive and write our owne Epitaphs in honest and honourable actions Which are so much more noble than other as living men are better than dead stones We should either procure such a Monument to bee remembred by or else wish to be buried in oblivion for it is better be inglorious than infamous NO man is so happy as the regenerate Christian when he lookes up into heaven hee thinkes That is my home The God that made it and owes it my Father the Angels more glorious in nature than my selfe are my attendants Yea those things that are most terrible to the wicked are most pleasant to him When hee heares God thunder above his head he thinkes This is the voice of my Father When he remembreth the Tribunall of the last judgement he thinkes It is my Saviour that sits in it When death he esteemes it but as the Angel set before Paradise which with one blow admits him to eternall joy And which is his greatest comfort nothing in earth or hell can make him miserable AN evill man is Clay to God Waxe to the devill God may stamp him into powder or temper him anew but none of his meanes will melt him Contrariwise a good man is Gods Waxe and Sathans Clay hee relents at every looke of God but is not stirred by any temptation knowing that earth affoords no sound contentment For what is there under heaven not troublesome besides that which is called pleasure And that in the end we finde most irksome of all other THe spirits of Christians are like the English Iett whereof we reade that it is fired with water quenched with oyle And these two prosperity and adversity are like heate and cold the one gathers the powers of the soul together and makes them abler to resist by uniting them The other diffuses them and by such separation makes them easier to conquer The Sun more usually causeth the Traveller to cast off his cloake than the Winde I hold it therefore as praise-worthy with God for a man sometimes to contemne a proffered honour or pleasure for conscience sake as on the Rack not to deny his profession THere is no vice doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious cleare and round dealing is the honour of mans nature Certainely it is heaven upon earth to have a mans minde move in charity rest in providence and turne upon the poles of truth THat man which studies revenge keepes his owne wounds greene which otherwise would heale and doe well Revenge is a kinde of wilde justice which the more mans nature runs to the more ought Law to roote it out In taking revenge a man is but eaven with his enemy but in passing over an injury he is superiour CHildren sweeten labours but they make misfortunes more bitter they increase the cares of life but they mitigate the remembrance of death Parents joyes are secret and so are their feares and griefes they cannot utter the one nor will they utter the other The perpetuity by generation is common to beasts but memory merit and noble workes are proper to men HEE that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune for they are impediments to great enterprises either of vertue or mischiefes Vnmarried men are best friends best Masters best servants but not alwayes best subjects for they are light to run away and almost all fugitives are of that condition A single life doth well with Church-men for charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a poole Grave natures led by custome and therefore constant are commonly loving husbanda Wives are young mens mistresses companions for middle age and old mens Nurses CErtainly great persons had need to borrow other mens opinions to thinke themselves happy for if they judge by their owne feeling they cannot finde it so Men in great place are thrice servants to the Soveraigne or State to fame and to businesse so as they have no freedome either in their persons actions or time It is a strange desire to seeke power with losse of liberty or to seeke power over others and to lose power over a mans selfe The rising unto paines is laborious and by paines men come to great paines Great persons are the first that finde their owne griefes but the last that finde their owne faults The vices of authority are chiefly foure delaies corruption roughnesse and facility And it is an assured signe of a generous spirit whom honour amends for honour is or should be the place of Vertue GOodnesse of nature is a character of the Deity and without it a man is a busie mischievous and wretched thing no better than a Vermine Goodnesse answers to the Theologicall Vertue Charity and admits no excesse but error Seek the good of other men but be not in bondage to their faces for that is facility or softnesse which soone taketh an honest minde prisoner HEE that denies a God destroyes Mans nobility for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit he is a base and ignoble creature And doubtlesse hypocrites are the greatest Atheists who are ever handling holy things but without feeling HEE that travelleth into a Country before hee hath â—â—â—e entrance into the language goeth to schoole and not to travell Things to bee seene and observed in travell are the Courts of Princes specially when they give audience unto Embassadours The Courts of justice while they sit and heare causes And so of Consistories Ecclesiastick the Churches and Monasteries with the Monuments that are therein extant the Wals and Fortifications of Cities and Townes with their havens and harbors antiquities and ruines Libraries Colledges Disputations and Lectures where any are Shipping and Navies houses and gardens of estate and pleasure neare great Cities Armories Arsenalls Magazins Exchanges Burses Warehouses exercises of horsmanship Fencing training of Souldiers and the like Comedies such as whereunto the better sort of persons doe resort Treasuries of Iewels and Robes Cabinets and rarities and to conclude whatsoever is memorable in the places where they goe THe minde of man is more cheared and refreshed by profiting in small things than by standing at a stay in great It is a miserable state of minde to have few things to desire and many to feare And yet that commonly is the case of Kings who are like to heavenly bodies which cause good or evill times having much veneration but little or no rest THere is no greater wisdome than well to tune the beginnings and onsets of things that so neither hast may harme thee nor delay deceive thee of what thou desirest As in races it is not the large stride or high lift that makes the speed so in businesse the keeping close to the matter and not taking of it too much at once procureth dispatch True dispatch is a rich thing for time is the measure of businesse as money is of wares
HEE that is perfect and marries not may in some sort be said to be guilty of a contempt against Nature when the husband and wife are together the world is contracted in a bed and without this like the head and the body parted either would consume without a possibility of reviving A wise wife comprehends both Sexes she is woman for her body and she is man within for her soule is like her husbands Questionlesse a woman with a wise soul is the fittest companion for man otherwise God would have given him a friend rather than a wife It is the crowne of blessings when in one woman a man findeth both a wife and a friend Poverty in Wedlock is a great decayer of love and contentation Above all therefore the generous minde should beware of marrying poore for though hee cares least for wealth yet will he be most galled with the want of it Single life is to be liked in those who can suffer Continency but should all live thus an hundred yeares would make the world a Desart NOthing makes a man more like to God than Charity As all things are filled with his goodnesse so the Vniversall is partaker of the good mans spreading love Wealth in a Misers hand is uselesse as a lockt up treasure It is charity only that makes Riches worth the owning To every thing that hath sence there is a kinde of pitty owing Solomons good man is mercifull to his beast Surely he that is right must not think his Charity to one in need a curtesie but a debt which nature at his first being bound him to pay yet should we not water a strange ground to leave our owne in drought MVsick is good or bad as the end to which it tendeth they that wholly despise â—t may well be suspected to be something of a savage Nature Light Notes are sometimes usefull as in times of generall joy and when the minde is pressed with sadnesse whose dull blood will not caper in his veines when the very aire he breathes in frisketh in a tickled motion We finde Halelujahs are sung in heaven and doubtlesse Musick is a helper both to good and ill it is therefore to be honoured when it moves to uertue as to bee shunned when it would flatter into vice REpentance is so powerfull that it cannot be but a gift of the Deity he is not to be pittied in his sufferings that may escape a torment by the compunction of a heart and teares Sometimes a returne after failing is a prompter to a surer hold S. Ambrose doubts not to say that Peter by his fall found more grace than he lost his faith being thereby much stronger The devill sometimes cosens himselfe by plunging man into a deepe offence A sudden ill act grows often abhorred in the minde that did it yet a man should beware the steps he once hath stumbled at Doubtlesse that is the best life that is a little sprinkled with the salt of crosses the other would quickly be ranke and tainted There are whose paths are washt with butter and the Rose bud crownes them but surely it is a misery to live in oily vice when her waies are made slippery with her own slime Heaven is not had without repentance and repentance seldome meets a man in jollity in the careere of lust and the bloods lose riot COmmanders in war should be wise valiant and experienced Experience puts a credit on their actions making them far more prompt in undertakings And indeed there is a great deale of reason why we should respect him that with an untainted valour hath growne old in armes and hearing the drum beat When every minute death seemes to passe by and shun him he is as one that the supreame God hath cared for and by a particular guard defended in the haile of death It is true it is a life tempting to exorbitancy yet this is more in the common sort that are pressed as the refuse and burthen of the land than in those that by a nobler breeding are abler to command Want idlenesse and the desperate face of blood hath hardened them to outrages Nor may we wonder hereat since even their life is but an ordered quarrell raised to the feud of killing Wars have the same nature with offences they must be yet are they mightily in fault that cause them When a just cause and a just deputation meet for war I shall ever thinke this one of the noblest and most manly wayes of dying BLots appeare fouler in a strict life than a loose one no man wonders at the Swines wallowing but to see an Ermin mired is a prodegy Where doe vices shew so foule as in a Minister When he shall be heavenly in the pulpit only Certainly they wound the Gospell that preach it to the world and live as if they thought to goe to heaven some other way than that they teach the people How unseemly is it when a grave Cassock shall be lined with a wanton Reveller and with crimes that make a loose one odious We should not professe that wee will not strive to practise Surely God will bee severest against those that will weare his badge and seeme his servants yet inwardly side with the devill and lusts They spot his honour and cause profane ones to jest at his holinesse Other offences God may punish this he must left the enemies of his truth triumph against him If thou beest unsound within soile not the glorious robe of truth by putting it upon thy beastlinesse This is to be religiously rude and even all the Church of sincerest good men suffer in a seeming good mans fall Let not thy actions sight against thy tongue or pen one ill life will pull downe more than many good tongues can build THe best way of speech is to be short plaine materiall Tedious admonitions dull the advised and make the giver contemptible It is a short reproofe that staies like a stab in the memory and many times three words doe more good than an idle discourse of three houres A limitlesse tongue is a strange unbitted beast to worry one with A talkative fellow is the unbraced drum which beats a wise man out of his wits Surely Nature did not guard the tongue with the double fence of teeth and lips but that shee meant it should not move too nimbly GOod men have most right to the best of Gods creatures and seeing Wine was given to cheare the heart why should I not use it to that end for surely the merry soule is freer from intended mischiefe than the thoughtfull man and a bounded mirth is a Patent adding time and happinesse to the crazed life of man without which he is but a meere lumpe of quickned care For as there are many that in their life assume too great a liberty so doubtlesse there are some that abridge themselves of what they might lawfully use forgetting what Solomon saith That the only profit to a man is to eat and drinke and