suspected that he would cousen him and sought to entrap him If any talked roughly to him then he thought that he contemned him If meat were given to him in any plentifull sort This is but to fat me as a sheep or an ox to be slaughtered Thus his sin did lie upon him and ever remember him that some vengeance was to follow from God or Man or both And this is the case of all wilfull bloody presumptuous sinners that though there be some struglings and wrestlings to the contrary yet their hearts and consciences are greater than themselves and will put them in mind that nothing but destruction waiteth on them if they walk abroad sonus excitat omnis suspensum they are afraid of every leaf that wags if they stay at home nothing but horrour attends them In the day they are struck with variety of sad apprehensions and in the night they are tormented with fearfull dreams and strange apparitions Such and so great is the hell of a guilty conscience Love of Gods children is a sincere love THe Son of a poor man that hath not a penny to give or leave him yields his father obedience as chearfully as the son of a rich man that looks for a great Inheritance It is indeed love to the father not wages from the father that is the ground of a good child's obedience If there were no heaven God's children would obey him and though there were no hell yet would they do their duty So powerfully doth the love of the Father constrain them Ministers to be men of merciful dispositions THe Lord Ellesmer sometimes Lord Chancellor of England a great lover of mercy was heard to professe That if he had been a Preacher this should have been his Text A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast A merciful man and a merciful Text well met But oh the Prophetical incendiaries of the late fearful un-natural civil vvar how far were they from this sweetness of disposition how far from thoughts and bowels of mercy how far from a desire to preach mercy when it was a common course with them by Viperine glosses to eat out the bowels of a merciful Text when nothing was more usual amongst them than to alleadge the words of the Scripture against the meaning than to wrong and wring the Scripture till it bled again but they would misconstrue and misapply it one way or other to stir and incite men to such actions as little became the profession of the Gospel Election known by Sanctification IF any man would know whether the Sun shineth or not let him go no further but look upon the ground to see the reflection of the Sun-beams from thence and not upon the body of the Sun which will but the more dazle his fight The pattern is known by the Picture the cause by the effect Let no man then soar aloft to know whether he be elected or not but let him gather the knowledge of his Election from the effectualness of his calling and sanctification of his life the true and proper effects of a lively faith stamping the Image of Gods Election in his soul. Men commonly are loath to die though seemingly willing thereto IT is but Aesop's fable but the Morall of it is true A poor desolate old Man returning home from the vvood with a burthen of sticks on his back threw them down and in remembrance of the misery which he sustained called often for death to come unto him as if he would live no longer But when death came to him in earnest and asked him what he should do the old Man presently changed his mind and said That his request unto him was that he would help him up with his wood This most commonly is our case vve would find some other business to set death about if he should come to us when vainly we have wished for him we dismiss him with a Nondum venit tempus bid him call to morrow we are not yet at leisure How do men vainly wish for death and how mercifully doth the Eternal deal with them who oftentimes in his love denyeth that which they so earnestly desire and which if they should presently enjoy they would prove of all men most miserable for being removed hence it is to be feared the accounts betwixt God and their own souls would fall short of what they should be A special Sacrament-duty to bless God for Christ's death THe Jews in the celebration of the Passeover did sing the 113. Psalm with the five following Psalms which they called The great Hallelujuh it was always after that cup of wine which they called Poculum hymni or laudationis The cup of praise And thus it should be with us At all times upon all occasions in all places we should sing Hallelujahs to God and praise his holy name but at the Sacrament in that Eucharistical action we should sing a great Hallelujah No time but we should blesse God for the work of our Redemption but at the Sacrament we should have our hearts greatly inlarged in a more special manner to bless God for the benefit of Christ's death and the sweet comforts that we receive therby in the use of the Sacrament Not lawful to fight for Religion WHen Mahomet was about to establish his abomâ—nable superstition wherein he had mingled the Laws and doctrines of Heathens of Iews false Christians and Hereticks with the illusions and inventions of his own brain he gave it forth for a main Principle how God at the first in his love to mankind sent Moses after him Jesus Christ who were both of them endued with power to work miracles but men gave small heed to them Therefore he determined to send Mahomet a man without miracles a Warrior with a sword in his hand that whom miracles had not moved weapons might compell Thus they may derive their authority perhaps by a long descent from Mahomets pretended Charter but most sure it is they can find no syllable of allowance in the great assured sacred Charter of Gods word who seek to set up Religion by the sword fire and faggots are but sad Reformers The Church therefore was wont to be gathered by the mouths of Ministers not by the swords of Souldiers It was well said of one Let Religion sink to Hell rather then we should call to the devill for help to sâ—pport it The weight of sin to be seriously peized POrters and Carryers when they are called to carry a burthen on their shoulders first they look diligently upon it then they peize and lift it up to try whether they be able to undergo it and whether they shall have strength to carry it when it is once on their backs And thus should every man do that for a little pleasure hath enthralled himself to carry the burthen of sin he should first prove and assay what a weight
of Greece Viso Solone vidistiomnia In seeing Solon thou seest all even Athens it self and the wholy glory of the Greeks Tell me Christian Hast thou faith and assured trust in the Lord then thou hast more then all the wonders of Greece upon the point all the wonderful gifts of grace for faith is a mother vertue from which all others spring and without faith all the best of our actions are no better then sin Hypocrites in their saying well but doing ill reproved â—Ulius Caesar in his Commentaries writeth of the French Souldiers that in the beginning of the battel at the first onset they were more then Men but at the second or before the end less then Women They would talk bravely and come on couragiously but at length give off cowardly Such are the hypocritical Hotspurs of our times who have Gods word swiming in their heads but not shining in their lives such as set up the Temple with one hand and pull it down with the other like scribling School-boyes that what they write with the fore-finger they blur with the hinde-finger who if words may be received their pay is gallant but if deeds be required their money is not currant who in professing and protesting are more then Protestants but in practising and performing and persevering less then Papists Zeal in God's service made the worlds derision DOgs seldom bark at a Man that ambles a softly fair pace but if he once set spurs to his horse and fall a galloping though his errand be of importance and to the Court perhaps then they bark and flie at him and thus they do at the Moon not so much because she shines for that they alwayes see but because by reason of the clouds hurried under by the windes she seems to run faster then ordinary And thus if any Man do but pluck up his spirits in Gods service and run the wayes of his commandments it is Iehu's furious March presently and he shall meet with many a scoffe by the way that runneth with more speed then ordinary The great danger of Sacriledge IT is no Christian but a right Heathenish trick to demolish holy places or through sloth and covetousnes to suffer them to fall Nay the very Heathens would never do that to the Temples of their false Gods that we Christians do to the house of the true God for they hated and fled from all sacrilegious persons Were the Church leprous we could do no more then pluck out the stones as they did in the old Law in a leprous house nay they would not even in such a house pluck out all the stones as they do in Churches but onely such as were leprous Well let such know that next to the injury done against the Temple of mans body there can be no greater injury then that which is done against the body of the Temple and one day all such sacrilegious irreligious prophane persons may chance to feel that whip upon their conscience which sometime Celsus felt who after the robbing and prophaning of many Churches hearing one day that place of Esay read Woe unto them that join house to house that lay field to field till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the Earth cryed out immediately Vae mihi filiis meâ—s Wo then be to me and my children for ever The Hypocrites inconstancy IT is reported of the Shee-wolfe that she hath an yearly defect in procreation for at the first she beareth five young ones the second time but four the third time but three the fourth time but two the fifth time but one and then afterwards remaineth barren Thus Hypocrites forgetting the solemn vow they made to God in Baptism as also those principles of Religion wherein they seemed expert to their Catechizers as they grow upward in age they grow downward in Grace with Demes embracing this present World and with Hymeneus and Alexander making shipwrack of a good conscience verifying the by-word young Saints old Devils The laughtâ—r of the wicked is but from the teeth outwards IT is said of Paulus Emilius that having put away his wife Papinia without any cause as it seemed to others stretched forth his foot and said You see a new and neat shooe but where this shooe wringeth me not you but I alone know meaning that there were many secret jars happening between the marryed which others could not possibly perceive And certainly the most wicked men the greatest enemies to God and his Gospel the most traiterous and rebellious of a People or Nation may be so jocund and merry and shew such magnanimity in their faces that none can imagine by any outward circumstance but that they are truly cheerful and couragious in their hearts and yet in the midst of all their mirth and greatest delights even in the very ruffe of all their bravery they have secret heart-burnings and grievous vexations what God and themselves only know The Lord hath spoken it tâ—ice and therefore it must needs be plain and peremptory That there is no Peace to the wicked Their looks may be sometimes lively but their hearts are alwayes heavy Gods omnipotency AMongst all the gods of the Heathens Iupiter was in the greatest esteem as the Father and King of gods and was called lupiter quasi juvans Pater a helping Father yet as the Poets feign he wept when he could not set Sarpedon at liberty such was the imbecillity and impotency of this Master-god of the Heathen But the hand of our God is never shortned that it cannot help he is ever able to relieve us alwayes ready to deliver us Amongst all the gods there is none like unto him none can do like unto his works he is God omnipotent Prayers and tears are the Weapons of the Church THe Romans in a great distress were put so hard to it that they were fain to take the weapons out of the Temples of their gods to fight with them and so they overcame And this ought to be the course of every good Christian intimes of publique distress to flie to the weapons of the Church Prayers and Tears The Spartans walls were their spears the Christians walls are his prayers his help standeth in the name of the Lord who hath made both Heaven and Earth The gradation of Faith THe heart of every believer is like a vessel with a narrow neck which being cast into the Sea is not filled at the firstâ—asily â—asily but by reason of the strait passage receiveth water drop by drop Thus God giveth unto us even a Sea of mercy but the same on our part is apprehended and received by little and little we go from strength to strength from grace to grace and from one degree of vertue to another praying alwayes as the blessed Apostles O Lord encrease our faith that from weakness of faith and
Iohn even Christ himself will begin to preach What if a Sulpitius die at Rome a Tully is left behind What though a good King a good Minister a good Magistrate be removed he chears up himself that as good may succeed however he lies down with patience expecting the event If God take away his estate in this World manet altera caelo he looks for a better in Heaven If he be traduced by Men he shall be cleared by God If he lose his life here he shall find it hereafter Men upon hearing of the joyes of Heaven to be much taken therewith THe Gaules an ancient People of France after they had once tasted of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy inquired after the Country where such pleasant liquor was and understanding of it they made towards the place and never rested till they came thither where such pleasant things grew Thus when the Minister hath endeavoured to lay open the rich and pretious things of God and brought unto our Souls some of the clusters of Canaan and some of that Wine which is to be drunk in the Kingdom of Heaven let it be our parts to close in with him in the pursuit after such good things and not to let out Hearts rest till we come to taste the sweet and enjoy the benefit thereof Order to be in the Church of God AS there is an Order in God himself even in the blessed Trinity where though the Persons be co-eternal and co-equall and the Essence it self of the Deity indivisible yet there is the first second and third Person And as in God so in the whole Creation Angels have their Orders Thrones and Dominions Principalities and Powers and an Arch-angel that at the last shall blow the Trumpet So it is amongst the Saints the Souls of Just men perfected all of them have enough none of them want yet there 's a difference in the measure of their glory because every one hath his own Reward according to his labour Stars are not all of one Magnitude one differs from another in glory As for things below some have onely a being some being and life others being life and sense and others besides all these have Reason and Understanding All Arts and Sciences before they can be learned must be reduced into Order and Method A Camp well disciplined is a perfect pattern of good Order Nay there is a kind of Order even in Hell it self a place of disorder and confusion And shall then God and Belial Angels and Men Saints and Devils Heaven and Earth be all in Order and the Church out It cannot be The Church is to be as an army with banners to consist of Governors and governed some to teach and some to hear Ordine quisque suo all in decency and in Order How the Humane nature may in some sort be said to excell the Angelical A Chain that is made up of coorse gold may in some sense be said to outvalue that which is made up of â—iner not in respect of the Nature and perfection of the gold but because there is a very rich Iewell fixed unto it So the Angelical nature may in respect of its pure and undefiled quality be said to excell that which is humane yet the humane in another way excells it because there is that sparkling Diamond of the Divine Nature fastned unto it Verbum caro factum The Word made Flesh the Son of God made like unto the Son of Man in all things Sin onely excepted passing by the Angels taking the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. Mention of the joyes of Heaven to be a winning subject upon the Souls of Men. IT is reported of Adrianus an Officer unto Maximinianus the Tyrant that seeing the constancy of Martyrs in suffering such grievous things for the cause of Christ was very earnest to know what was that which caused them so willingly to undergo such exquisite torments One of them there being at that time two and twenty under the Tormentors hands made answer in that text of St. â—aul Eye hath not seen ear hath not heâ—rd neither hath it entred into the heart of Man to conceive what is laid up for them that love God Upon the hearing whereof Adrianus was converted to the Christian faith and sâ—aled the profession thereof with his bloud Thus ought the very mention of the joyes of Heaven to be as a winning argument to work upon the Souls of Men not to â—it down contented with the greatest things in the World if they once appear in competition with the things of Heaven Shall Mens hearts stirre when they hear of Gods wrath and dreadfulnesse of his displeasure against Sin And shall not their hearts burn within them for joy when they hear of the goodnesse of God and of the Riches of the grace of God and of the wonderfull thoughts that he hath for the everlasting good of Mankind Reverence to be used in the Worship of God WHen Moses had received the Law from the mouth of the Law-giver himself and had published the same and finished the Tabernacle of the Ark and Sanctuary he musters up all the Tribes and Families of Israel from twenty years of age upwards The number of the whole Army was six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty Men of War besides Women and Children and strangers that followed out of Egypt these he divides into four grosse and mighty Battailions In the midst of them the Tabernacle as it were a portable Temple was carried being surrounded by the Levites and the Levites by the other Tribes so that not onely the Pagans and Heathens were forbidden accesse unto it but the sentence of death passed upon every Soul of the Israelites themselves that durst be so bold as to approach it such who were not Levites to whom the charge was wholly committed So sacred was it and with such reverence guarded and regarded that two and twenty thousand Priests were dedicated to the service and attendance thereof which was performed with such dutifull observance in the preserving and laying up of the holy vessels the solemn removing together with the prudent and provident defence of the same that it might well procure all due reverence to the holy things of God and encrease zeal and devotion in such as drew near unto him This was their devotion to the Ark of God then and afterwards to the Temple and ought to be continued amongst all good Christians to the house of God the house of Prayer now in times of greater light But which is to be lamented whereas most of our Châ—rches have two doors Superstition crept in long since at the one and Prophanesse hath of later dayes shouldered in at the other so that had there been more fear and Reverence in the hearts of Men towards the worship of God and the parts
an artificiall contrivance it is so framed that when the wind sitteth in such or such a corner it will move and so having but an externall motor and cause to move and no inward principle no soul within it to move it it is an argument that it is no living creature So it is also if a man see another man move and move very fast in those things which of themselves are the waies of God you shall see him move as fast to hear a Sermon as his neighbour doth is as forward and hasty to thrust himself and bid himself a guest to the Lord's Table when God hath not bid him as any Now the question is What principle sets him a work if it be an inward principle of life out of a sincere affection and love to God and his Ordinances that carrieth him to this it argueth that man hath some life of grace but if it be some wind that bloweth on him the wind of state the wind of law the wind of danger of penalty the wind of fashion or custom to do as his neighbours do If these or the like be the things that draw him thither this is no argument of life at all it is a cheap thing it is a counterfeit and dead piece of service God is not to be provoked to anger THe gods of the Gentiles were senslesse stocks and stones not able to apprehend much lesse to revenge an injury done unto them Well therefore might the Philosopher be bold with Hercules to put him to his thirteenth labour in seething of his dinner and Martial with Priapus in threatning him to throw him into the fire if he looked not well to his Trees A child may play at the hole of a dead Aspe and a silly woman may strike a dead Lion but who dare play with a living Serpent who dare take a roaring Lion by the beard Let Christians then take heed how they provoke the living God for He is a consuming fire and with the breath of his mouth he is able to throw down the whole frame of Nature and destroy all creatures from the face of the earth Religion and Unity the onely supporters of Church and State IT is not possible that those things which are knit together by a bond should hold fast together after the bond it self is broken nor can a sinew hold steddy the joynt if it be sprayned or broken or cut assunder Religion is the band of all society the strongest sinew of Church or Commonwealth God forbid there should be any rupture any sprain in this sinew The like of Unity Pluck iâ— you can a beam from the body of the Sun it will then have no light break a branch from the Tree it will bear no fruit sever a River from the Spring it will be soon dried up cut a member from the body it soon dyeth cast a Pumice-stone into the water and though it be never so big which it remains entire and the parts whole together it will swim above water but break it once into pieces and then every piece of it will sink to the very bottom Thus both Church and Commonwealth which are supported and as it were held up by Religion and unity peace and concord are ruined and destroyed by discord dissention schism and faction O tam bonum quam jucundum How happy are such a People such a Nation such a Church such a State as live together in peace and unity Peace with Men will make our peace with God WHen upon newes of earthquakes and other prodigious signes the Sooth-sayers foretold great calamities that were to befall the State of Rome unlesse the wrath of the gods were suddainly appeased the Orator determineth the point most divinely Faciles sunt deorum ira c. God will be easily reconciled to us if we be reconciled one to another And most true it is we cannot be one with God so long as we are one against another when we are at peace one with another then God will be at peace with us and if God be at peace with us all creatures shall be in league with us so that neither devill nor man nor any thing else shall have any power to hurt us The great folly of too late Repentance in any thing IT was a sad confession that by the testimony of a reverend ear-witnesse drop'd from the mouth of a very considerable person in Scotland viz. That it was true he with the rest of his Nation had buried Episcopacy and their antient Monarchy in one and the same grave but upon the sad consequences of it they would be content to tear up the very earth of that grave with their teeth so that they might but raise both of them up again And such is the precipitate folly and madnesse of many that are at this day to be found in the midst of us who act ill at the first and then to their great griefe consider what they have so acted such as have and do still run headlong upon one mischievous designe or other and then Phrygian-like repent when it is too late wishing that undone which is done whereas one day they will finde to their great losse that the safest course had been with prudent Prometheus to have foreseen a danger and shun'd it then with foolish Epimetheus in the want of due consideration to go on and be deservedly punished The Church robbed of her maintenance upon pretence of Reformation DIonysius the Tyrant entring into a Temple of Idolls took away from the chiefest amongst them a Cloak of gold and being demanded why he did it his answer was This Cloak is too heavy for the summer and too cold for winter Taking likewise a golden Beard from Aesculapius he said That his father Apollo having no beard there was no reason his son should wear any But this was but a mask for his covetousnesse And thus it is with some in these daies they will strip the Church of her maintenance to keep the Clergy from lazinesse and they tell us that the King's Daughter is all glorious within so as they may pocket up her Rayments of needlework and fine gold it is no matter how she is without They professe encouragements to the Ministers of the Gospell and in the mean time pare off a great deal of their necessary maintenance But let them know That it is scandalous maintenance that makes a scandalous Minister and that a beggerly clergy is alwaies the signe of a bankrupt Religion Time to be well used MAny sitting up so long at play are necessitated to go to bed darkling This our living in this world is a kind of playing or gaming whose bed is Eternity Let us then study to give over this play in some good time and not stay at it till the very snuffing and topping of the candle go out lest darknesse overtake us and we
brunt and for a little flash like a flash of lightning in the aire and so gon but it must be rooted and grounded in a man so as that it will continue continue so as that the exercise of graces and duties towards God should be frequent and quotidian daily to have converse and communion with God to walk with him and talk with him to approve our selves to him to set our selves in his presence to make a constant trade with him to be his daies-man to work by the day with him and withall to hold out to the end An impatient condition is a discontented condition WEak and sickly bodies agree well with no aire and are not much bettered by their often removes and changes of place because they carry about them their distempered humours which are the causes of their disease So he who is sick of impatiency and peevish discontent agreeth well with no condition but picketh quarrells as well against his prosperity as adversity and is well as we say neither full nor fasting but like those who are sick of a feavour bitter and sweet taste both alike loathing the very sight of wholsome nourishment because his humour maketh every thing to relish of his aguish condition God all in all KIng Porus when Alexander asked him being then his prisoner how he would be used answered in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is like a King Alexander again replying Do you desire nothing else No saith he all things are in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this one word Like a King Whereupon Alexander restored him again But this hath not alwaies been the happinesse of Kings and Princes Yet however he that hath God hath all things because God is all things Take a pen and write down riches honours preferments they are but as so many cyphers they signifie nothing but write down God alone and he will them raise to thousands hundred of thousands And then it is that a Christian is truly happy when he can finde himself and all things in his God If the Soul be safe all 's safe IF the vessell be saved though the wares be spoyled with the sea-water or cast over ship-board yet we may arrive at the haven and there be in safety If the Field be gotten by us as Alexander told Parmenio our baggage and horses will be recovered again with advantage If a Tree be sound at the root there is hope that it will sprout out notwithstanding it should be lopped and shred never so much but if it be rotten at the root fare it well In like manner if the soul be safe if it live by faith in the Son of God if it fight the good fight of faith and win the field all other losses are not to be reckoned of we are more then gainers more then conquerours But if the soul perish and it will perish except it be fed with the Word of the Gospell and it will make shipwrack if Christ sit not at the stern and it will be overcome if Christ be not the Captain Saviour and Deliverer then all the world is gone with us it had been better with us we had never been born Though a weak Christian yet a true Christian. HE is a scholler in the school that beginneth at Christs-crosse row and he is entred into the Colledge that readeth but Seton's Logick and he is a member of the family that was bound Apprentice but yesterday Thus if thou be a penitent though not in fulnesse of perfection if thou believe though not with the fullest measure of believing if thou obey though not in the highest degree of obedience be comforted in thy weak beginnings and resolve to proceed and know that thou art already entred into the Covenant of Grace and shalt enjoy that which Christ hath promised freedom from damnation Thou shalt never see death A cheap Religion is the Worldling's best Religion A Merchant being about to buy a parcell of wines doth taste of them and thereupon approves them wisheth them stowed in his own Cellar yet when he understands of the price he must give for them leaves them unbought and goes his way Such were those Hypocrites Luk. 8. 13. and such are many amongst us at this day A glorious Christ they would have by all means but a crucified Christ is not for their turn hearing what excellent things are prepared for God's faithfull ones they are much taken with the taste and relish of them but when they understand of the price that is set upon them that they must deny themselves and their worldly lusts forsake the world and the vanities thereof mortifie the flesh c. they leave them as being too dear and rather be without them than come to so high a price The godly man's afflictions not destructive but corrective AS David gave charge to his Souldiers that by no means they should kill Absolom his son though he sent them with a full Commission against Absolom to stay his unnaturall rebellion to reduce him to his former obedience So God when he sends his judgments out into the world he forbids them and as it were laies a prohibition on crosses and afflictions that they shall not destroy his children they shall have a corrective but no destructive power they shall serve to purge out their corruptions but they shall not destroy their graces Grace not Greatnesse maketh Magistrates glorious THere was a great King Antigonus by name that turning and winding his Diadem said to them that stood by That if a man knew what a deal of care and trouble were lapped up and lodged in it he would not account it worth the taking up And there was a Pope by name Hadrian the sixth not the worst Pope that confessed to his friends That he lived a happier life when he was a poor Schoolmaster in Lovayn than since he was advanced to that high See Such or the like expressions were made by Henry the fourth of England lying on his death-bed upon occasion of his son's removall of the Crown out of his sight All which signifie thus much that it is not the high place nor the great state that maketh a Magistrate happy it is not his standing on the higher ground that makes him glorious but when with Pericles in Plutarch he can say that he never caused any to wear a mourning gown and with St. Paul This is our rejoycing even the testimony of our conscience and That they are pure from the blood of all men i. e. from shedding innocent blood To make good use of good men while we have them WHen any man borrowes a book he is diligent in the perusall of it and taking notes out of it because he cannot tell how soon the owner may have occasion to use it himselfe as for his own books he lets them lye by presuming to use them at
there is no pleasure in it Every man is to be suited to his Genius too to be planted according to the naturall bent of his mind For a man to make his son a Tradesman if he be fit for Learning or to apply him to Learning when he is cut out for a Tradesman to send him to the Court when he is fitter for the Cart this is as much as if he should apply his toes to feeling and not his fingers and should walk on his hands and not on his â—eet which is never like to do well in the conclusion God the proper Agent in all things THe Scribe is more properly said to write then the pen And he that maketh and keepeth the clock is more properly said to make it go and strike then the wheels and peyzes that hang upon it and every work-man to effect his work rather then the tools which he useth as his Instruments So the Lord who is the chief agent and mover in all actions may more fitly and properly be said to effect and bring to passe all things which are done in the Earth then any inferior or subordinate causes as meat to nourish us cloaths to keep us warm the Sun to lighten us friends to provide for us c. seeing they are but his tools and Instruments but as they are ruled and guided by the power and providence of so heavenly a Workman Afflictions crosses c. a surer way to Heaven then pleasures PAssengers that have been told that their way to such a place lyeth over a steep Hill or down a craggy Rock or through a moorish Fen or dirty Vale if they suddenly fall into some pleasant Meadow enameld with beautiful flowers or a goodly corn-field or a fair Champion Country look about them and bethinking themselves where they are say Surely we are come out of the way we see no Hills nor Rocks nor Moors nor Fens this is too good to be the right way So in the course of our life which is but a Pilgrimage on Earth when we passe through Fields of Corn or Gardens of Flowers and enjoy all worldly pleasures and contentments when the wind sits in such a corner as blows Riches honours and preferments upon us let us then cast with our selves Surely this is not the way the Scripture directeth us unto here are not the Temptations not the Tribulations that we must passe through We see little or no footing of the Saints of God in this Road but onely the print of Dives feet some where we have mist our way let us search and find where we went out of it It is very true that God hath the blessings of this life and that which is to come in store for his children when he seeth it good for them they may go to Heaven this way but certainly afflictions and troubles are surer Arguments of God's love and a readier way to Heaven then the other Desperate Devils AS a forlorn desperate Rebel out of all hope of pardon standeth upon his guard raiseth a Faction and maintains a party against his Soveraign Lord and Master So the Devil past all grace and goodness in despight of God laboureth to set up a Kingdom of his own the Kingdom of darkness against the Kingdom of light the Kingdome of Antichrist against the Kingdom of Christ he knows himself to be damned already and therefore thinks himself most happy when he can make another unhappy Forgetfulness of injuries commendable THemistocles when a famous Artist undertook to teach him the Art of Memory made answer Mallem oblivisci doceres I had rather thou wouldst read some Lectures of Oblivion to me that thou wouldst teach me to forget for I remember many things too wel This is just our case O for a blessed Amnestia to forgive and forget wrongs done unto us were our memories as strong as our sins were we as retentive of God's favours as we are of injuries which affront us there would be no need at all to scrub up our memories but rather an Act of Oblivion to suppress our passion thaâ— works too strongly upon the least apprehension of a wrong though but intended How God is said to be angry with his children AS children with their faults provoke their Parents to anger and move them to turn their fatherly smiles into bitter frowns and the fruits of their love into effects of hatred in outward show as namely severe countenances sharp reproofs and rigorous chastisements and in respect of these outward signs and effects of their anger they are usually said to be out of favour and in their father's displeasure however in truth at the same time they entirely love them and use all this wholsom severity not because they hate but because they would reform them So Gods children when by their sins they do offend him and provoke his anger against them are said to be out of his favour not that God doth ever change his Heavenly affection or purposeth utterly to reject them but because he changeth the effects of his love into the effects of hatred in outward shew as when inwardly he suffereth them to be terrified with horrors of conscience and with the apprehension of his anger and displeasure and outwardly whippâ—th and scourgeth them with temporary afflictions all which he doth not with hatred to their persons for he never hateth them whom he hath once loved in Christ but for the hatred of their sins and love of them sinner whom by this means he bringeth by the râ—ugh and unpleasant way of Repentance unto the eternal pleasure of his Kingdom The very thoughts of former pleasures adde to present sorrows THe Souldiers of Hannibal were much effeminated by the pleasures they had at Capua infomuch that Corpus assuetum â—unicis loricae onus non fert c. their bodies being used to soft raiment cannot bear the weight of an Helmet the head wrap'd in silk night-caps cannot endure an iron head-peece and the hard hilt hurteth the soft hand Sound trees are not blown down with the wind but the root rather fastned thereby but corrupt trees eaten with worms engendred of superfluous moisture are therefore thrown down by the least blast because they had no strength to resist Res adversae non frangunt quos prosperae non corruperunt The cause of our so great distemper in our afflictions we owe to the delights of our prosperity Why else do lâ—sses of goods so vex us but because we trust in uncertain Riches Why is disgrace a Courtiers hell but because he deemed the favour of his Prince and places of honourable employment his Heaven Thus it is that the very thoughts of our former pleasures adde to present sorrows Miserum est fuisse there 's the grief We are therefore astonished at our fall because with David in the heighth of our worldly felicity we said we shall never be moved Prayers to be made for all Men.
on him sure it is that the fiery trial is now on the Church and the Lord will discover what is in the heart of his Israel while they are in the troublesome wildernesse e're they come into Canaan a Land of rest Religion pretended mischiefe intended IT is reported of young King Edw. the sixth that being about to lay hold on something that was above the reach of his short arm one that stood by espying a boss'd Bible lving on the Table offered to lay that under his feet to heighten him but the good young King utterly disliked the motion and instead of treading it under his feet he laid it to his heart But now there are many amongst us that make Religion but a stalking Horse to their policy that make use of the Bible to no other end but to reach at and to seek out their own wicked designs quaerentes sua non quae Christi seekers of their own things not the things of Iesus Christ Phil. 2. 21. The Churches enemies the Churches good AS we say of fire and water and as the Romans said of Caligula Nemo melior servus nemo pejor dominus we may say of the Churches enemies they are very bad Masters executing their own lusts and cruelty against Gods people yet very good servants if the divine hand make use of them for the Churches service just like the good Husbandman which makes use of bryers and thornes which though they be fruits of the curse and cumber the ground yet will he suffer them to grow in hedges that he make them a fence unto his fruitful ground The Devil's endeavour to darken the understanding IT is written of Antiochus that entering into the Sanctuary he took away the golden Altar and the Candlestick for light And Nebuchadnezzar when he conquered Zedekiah put out his eyes and bound him in chaines and then carried him to Babel In like sort the Devil So soon as he hath entred into mans soul which is Gods holy Temple he doth endeavour instantly to put out the light to darken the understanding that a man may not be able to discern betwixt good and evill and so be more easily carried into Babylon to his souls confusion The Devil's charge and the sinners discharge THere is a story how the Devil appeared to a dying man and shewed him a Parchment Role which was very long wherein was written on every side the sins of the poor sick Man which were many in number and there were also written the idle words he had spoken which made up three quarters of the words that he had spoken in his life together with the false words the unchast words and angry words afterwards came in rank his vain and ungodly words and lastly his actions digested according to the Commandements whereupon Sathan said See here behold thy verâ—ues see here what thy examination must be whereunto the poor sinner answered It is true Satan but thou hast not set down all for thou shouldst have added and set down here below The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all our sins And this also should not have been forgotten That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life whereupon the Devil vanished Thus if the Devil should muster up our sins and set them in order before us let but Christ be named in a faithfull way and he will give back and fly away with all the speed that may be The dangerous effects of Riches being not well used THere was in the King of Denmarks Court one that played on the Harp so exceeding well that it was said He could put men into what passion he listed though it were into fury and madness One desirous to make the tryal would needs hear him but so that divers Gentlemen standing aloof off out of the hearing should be ready to come in and stay the Musick if they saw him in any distemper Things thus ordered the Musitian began to play and first he struck so deep and sweet a note that he put the man into dumps so that he stood like one â—orlorne his Hat in his eyes his arms across sighing and lamenting Then the Musitian began a new Note and played nothing but mirth and devices that the man began to lose his dumps and fell a dancing But in the third place the Harper so varied his Notes and by degrees so wrought upon the Man according as he saw him incline that from dancing he brought him to showting untill he grew frantick and slew four of his friends that came to stay him And thus it is with Riches if not used the wiselier they will play such feats as the Harper did first in the beginning when a man is gathering of them together they fill him with care and and restlessness that nothing is more miserable then a man carking after the world Then in the second place when he hath tasted the sweetness of them and is gotten through his travel when he comes to be Master then he falls a dancing shews the vanity of his mind speaks high looks big and his apparel is excessive and usually in this fit his Wife fetches a frisk or two with him But when this merry fit is over the third passion is phrensie killing and slaying all that come in his way he becomes a rapacious griping Usurer grinds the face of the poor breaks the backs and cuts the throat of many a Man and is so strong and boysterous that no Man can tell how to get within him and come off with safety Sin onely is the Godly man's terror OH saies Pharaoh take away these filthy frogs this dreadful thunder But what saies holy David Lord take away the iniquity of thy servant The one would be freed from punishment the effect of sin the other from sin the cause of punishment And it is most true that a true Christian man is more troubled at sin then at Frogs and Thunder he sees more filthiness in sin then in Frogs and Toads more horror then in Thunder and Lightning Want of Love to be deplored SUch was the Love of the Saints of God in old time that their hearts were knit one unto the other yea which is more All the believers had but one heart Cor unum Viauna no breach in their affections no difference in their judgements Such Love is not to be read in our books not to be found in our Conversations we are not descended of this peaceable line but rather from that of Câ—elius whose Motto was Dic aliquid ut duo simus who could not be quiet unless he were engaged in one quarrel or other such as the Salamander that live not but in the fire of contention All the true family of love may even seem to be extinguished and the houshold of faith quite broke up for the greatest part of Men as if they had been baptized in the Waters of strife are
in such and such Psalms such complaints and workings of spirit I had never understood the practice of Christian duties had not God brought me under some affliction And it is very true that God's rod is as the fescue is to the child pointing out the letter that he may the better take notice of it and to point out to us many good lessons which we should never otherwise have learned Vnworthy Communicants condemned ABraham when he went with his servants to sacrifice Isaac said unto them Abide you here with the Ass and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you Thus too too many do with their sins when they come to the Sacrament they do in effect say to their sins and lusts Stand you a while aside I must go to the Sacrament and receive the Communion do but stand by a while and when the Sacrament is over or at farthest as soon as the Sacrament-day is over I will come again to you thus the duty once over and the Sacrament a little forgotten they and their sins are hail fellow well met upon all occasions Religion not Reason is the square of good actions A Carpenter when he is working doth see by his eye when he applyeth the square to the wood whether it be straight or not but yet his eye without the which he cannot see is not the Iudge to try whether the tree be straight or not but onely the square is the Iudge So Reason in man without the which he could not judge is not the square to try what is right or wrong in ordine ad Deum in order to salvation but Religion the word of God it self is tâ—e onely Rule and square For instance Reason cannot consider how faith justifieth a man or whether works be an effect of faith or not but Reason can conclude ex concessis of things granted If faith be the cause and works the effect then they must necessarily go together and Reason can go no higher God chastiseth his childrens security A Bsolon sends once or twice to Ioab to come and speak with him but when he saw that Ioab would not come he commands his Corn-field to be set on fire and so he fetched him with a witness So the children of God when they stand off upon tearms and will not see his face the fire of affliction will make them seek him early and diligently It is the custom of our Gallants when their horses be slow and dull to spur them up If Iron grow rusty we put it into the fire to purifie it And so doth God in our backwardness to duties he pricks us on or being in our filthiness purifies us by casting us into the hot coals of tribulation Christ in all his Excellencies to be the Christian's Object A Woman in travel being delivered if she should desire but to see the feet onely of the Babe and not the head face and body would she not be accounted a strange foolish and wicked woman So man being in travel and sorrow under sin but salvation having appeared by the Coming of Christ into the World Is it sufficient for him to look onely upon the death of Christ it being the last extream or foot as it were of his sufferings and passion No it is not he will behold the dignity of his Nature he being God the preheminence of his government he being the head of his Church the beauty of his goodness he having love and mercy shining in his face the painfulness of his labour he sustaining and bearing all in his body The convenience of Virginity THere are none but Beggars that desire the Church-porch to lodge in which others use onely as a passage into the Church So Virginity is none of those things to be desired in and for it self but because it leads a more convenient way to the worship of God especially in time of persecution and trouble For then if Christians be forced to run races for their lives the unmarryed have the advantage lighter by many ounces and freed from much incumbrance which the marryed are subject to who though private persons yet herein are like Princes they must have their Train follow them The certain prevalency of Prayer IT is reported of a Nobleman in this Kingdom that had a Ring given him by the Queen with this promise That if he sent that Ring to her at any time when he was in danger she would remember him and relieve him This was a great priviledge from a Prince yet it is known to many what that was subject unto he might be in such distress as the Queen could not be able to help him or though she were able as she was in that case yet the Ring might be sent and not delivered Now then consider what the Lord doth to us He â—ath given us this priviledge he hath given us Prayer as it were this Ring he hath given us that to use and tells us whatsoever our case is whatsoever we are whatsoever we stand in need of whatsoever distress we are in do but send this up to me saith he do but deliver up this message to me of Prayer and I will be sure to relieve thee And most certain it is whatsoever case we are in when we send up our prayers to God they are sure to be conveyed for we send them to one that is able and ready to help us which a Prince many times is not willing or not able to perform Infirmities to be in the best of God's children and why so THe Merchants of London petitioned Qu. Elizabeth that they might but have liberty to levell the Town of Dunkerk a place at that time very obnoxious to the safety of the Merchants trade and they would do it at their own charges The Queen by the advice of her Councel returns them an answer in the Negative She could not do it What not suffer them to beat hers and their enemies not to fire such a nest of Hornets not to demolish such a Pyraticall Town as that was No it must not be And why She knew well that it would not do amiss that they should be alwayes sensible of so neer and so offensive an Enemy and so be alwayes preparing and prepared to defend themselves and the State of the whole Kingdom which took a right effect for hereupon all turn men of War hardly a Boat but is man'd out for service which otherwise might have either rotted in the Harbour or ridden security at Anchor Thus God when his dear children cry out unto him to be delivered from the body of sin that sin may not raign in their mortal bodies he so far granteth their requests that by the special dispensations of his holy spirit sin shall not prevail over them not but that sins of infirmity shall still cleave to the best of his children here in this world Why because they shall be still
cause quoth he wherefore your fellow was condemned to death and therefore you must dye and to the third You Centurion because you have not learned to obey the voice of your General shall dye also for company Excogitaverat quomodo tria crimina faceret c. He devised how he might make three faults because he found not one But the just Iudge of all the world needs not do so with us no beating of his brains to invent an accusation against us he needs not draw three faults into one or find one where there is none there 's matter enough within us to condemn us our thoughts our words our deeds do yield him cause enough to pronounce the sentence of death upon us The giving up of our selves an acceptable Sacrifice to God IT is reported of Aeschines when he saw his fellow Scholars give great gifts to his Master Socrates he being poor and having nothing else to bestow did give himself to Socrates as confessing to be his in heart and good will and wholly at his devotion And the Philosopher took this most kindly esteeming it above all other presents and returned him love accordingly Even so the gratious disposition of our heavenly Father taketh in far better part then any man can take it the laying down of our souls the submitting of our selves unto his direction the melâ—ing of our wills down into his Will The Widows two mites were welcome into his Treasury because her heart was full though her purse were empty He accounteth that the best sacrifice which is of the heart External things do well but Internal things do far better Heaven worth contending for IF a man were assured that there were made for him a great purchase in Spain Turkey or some other parts more remote would be not adventure the dangers of the Seas and of his Enemies also if need were that he might come to the enjoyment of his own Well behold Iesus Christ hath made a purchase for us in Heaven and there is nothing required on our parts but that we will come and enjoy it Why then should we refuse any pains or fear any thing in the way nay we must strive to get in It may be that we shall be pinched in the entrance for the gate is strait and low not like the Gates of Princes lofty roof'd and arched so that we must be fain to leave our wealth behind us and the pleasures of this life behind us yet enter we must though we leave our skins nay our very lives behind us for the purchase that is made is worth ten thousand Worlds not all the silks of Persia â—ot all the spices of Egypt not all the gold of Ophir not all the Treasures of bot\â—h Indies are to be compared to it Who therefore would not contend for such a bargain though he sold all to have it Adoption of God's children known by their Sanctification FIre is known to be no painted or imaginary fire by two notes by heat and by the flame Now if the case so fall out that the fire want a slame it is stil known by the heat In like manner there be two witnesses of our adoption or sanctification Gods spirit and our spirit Now if it so fall out that a man feel not the Principal which is the spirit of adoption he must then have recourse to the second VVitness and search out in himself the signs and tokens of the sanctification of his own spirit by which he may certainly assure himself of his adoption as fire may be known to be fire by the heat though it want a flame The danger of Worldly mindedness IT is seen by experience that a man swiming in a River as long as he is able to hold up his head and keep it above water he is in no danger but safely swimeth and cometh to the shore with good contentment but if once his head for want of strength begin to dive then shaketh he the hearts of all that do behold him and himself may know that he is not far from death So is it in this wretched world and swimers of all sorts if the Lord give us strength to keep up our heads i. e. to love God and Religion above the world and before it and all the pleasures of it there is then no danger but after a time of swiming in it up and down we shall arrive in a firm place with happiness and safety but if once we dive and the head go under water if once the world get the victory and our hearts are set upon it and go under it in a sinful love and liking of it O then take heed of drowning Gods delight in a relapsed Sinners repentance AS a Husbandman delights much in that ground that after long barrenness becomes fruitful As a Captain loves that Souldier that once fled away cowardly and afterwards returns valiantly Even so God is wonderfully enamoured with a sinner that having once made shipwrack of a good Conscience yet at last returns and swims to Heaven upon the plank of Faith and Repentance Vnworthy Communicants condemned CHildren when they first put on new shooes are very curious to keep them clean scarce will they set their foot on the ground for fear to dirty the soles of their shooes yea rather they will wipe them clean with their Coats and yet perchance the next day they will trample with the same shooes up to the ancles Alas childrens play is our earnest On that day we receive the Sacrament we are often over-precise scrupling to say or do those things which lawfully we may But we who are more then curious that day are not so much as careful the next day and too often what shall I say go on in sin up to the ancles yea our sins go over our heads Psal. 28. 5. A sense of the want of Grace a true sign of Grace IT is the first step unto Grace for a man to see no Grace and it is the first degree of Grace for a man to desire Grace as no man can sincerely seek God in vain so no man can sincerely desire grace in vain A man may love gold yet not have it but no man loveth God but is sure to have him Wealth a man may desire yet be never the neerer for it but grace no man ever sincerely desired and missed it and why It is God that hath wrought this desire in the heart and he will never frustrate the desire that himself there hath wrought Let no man say I have no Faith no Repentance no Love no fear of God no sanctifying no saving grace in me Doth he see a want of these things in himself yes that is it which so grieves him that he cannot love God stand in awe of him trust in his mercy repent of sin as he should yea but doth he seriously and unfeignedly desire to do thus yes he desires it above all
in strange sins out of the road of common corruption not once coming within the compass of a rational suspition so true is it that strange sins have and ever will be attended with strange and unheard-of punishments The souls delight once set upon God hardly to be removed HE that lets down a Bucket to draw water out of a deep well as long as the bucket is under the water though it be never so full he may get it up easily but when he begins to draw the bucket clear out of the water then with all his strength he can hardly get it up yea many times when it is at the very highest breaks the Iron chain and falls violently back again After the same sort a Christian heart so long as it is in Him wherein is a well of life is filled with delight and with great joy drinketh in the water of comfort out of the fountains of salvation but being once haled and pulled from God it draweth back and as much as it can possible resisteth and is never quiet till it be in him who is the very Center of the Souls happinss The Incorrigibility of Errour IT is observable that in the time of the great sweating sickness in England the sick persons when they were beaten on the face with sprigs of Rosemary by their friends would cry out O you kill me you kill me whereas indeed they had killed them in not doing it for had they slept they had dyed So those whom the sickness of Errour hath surprised if you but go about to suppress them you shall presently hear them exclaim and say Oh you persecute us you persecute us whereas indeed it is not such a persecution as le ts out the heart-blood but such a persecution as le ts out the corrupt blood And they will one day acknowledge though now they may stifly stand it out that to be a happy violence which pulled them out of the fire blessed bonds that tyed them to Christ and comfortable fetters which kept their feet in the way of peace The sloathful contractednesse of our prayers unto God reproved POpe Boniface the Ninth at the end of each hundreth years appointed a Jubilee at Rome wherein People bringing themselves and money thither had pardon for their sins But Centenary years returned seldom Popes were old before and covetous when they came to their place few had the happinesse to fill their Coffers with Iubilee coyn Hereupon Clement the sixth reduced it to every fiftieth year Gregory the eleventh to every three and thirtieth Paul the second and Sixtus the fourth to every twenty fifth year as now it is some overtures have been to bring it lower and would have succeeded had there not been opposition Just thus we serve our prayers unto God as they their Iubilees perchance they may extend to a quarter of an hour when poured out at large but some dayes we begrutch this time as too much omittiâ—g the Preface with some passages conceived lesse materiall and running two or three Peitions into one so contracting them to halfe a quarter of an hour Not long after we fall to decontracting and abridging the abridgement of our prayers yea be it confessed to our shame and sorrow that hereafter we may amend it too often we shrink up our Prayers to a minute to a moment to a Lord have mercy on me The difficulty of returning unto God having long strayed from him JOseph and Mary left their Son at Ierusalem and went but one dayes journey from him but they sought him up and down three whole dayes and that with a great deal of sorrow too before they could â—ind him They are therefore deceived which think it an easie matter speedily to return unto God when they have long been straying from him that are gone with the Prodigall child in Regionem longinquam into a far Country far from the thought of death and consequently from the fear of God yet promise themselves a quick return unto him The Grace of God the onely Armour of proof THere was a Judge in Poland called Ictus who a long time had stood for a poor begger the Plantiffe against a very rich man the Defendant but in the end took a Fee of the Defendant a considerable sum of mony stamped according to the usuall stamp of the Country with the Image of a Man in compleat Armour and at the next Sessions in Court judged the cause in favour of the Defendant But being taxed for it by his friends in private she wed them the coyn he received and demanded of them Quis possit tot armatis resistere Who is able to stand against such an Army as this is Steel Armour is indeed Musket proof but nothing except the Grace of God is gold or silver-proof Nothing can keep a Iudge or a Magistrate from receiving a Reward in private in a colourable cause but the grace of God the eye of the Almighty who seeth the corrupt Iudge in secret and will reward him openly if not here hereafter God both powerfull and merciful GOd shewed the Israelites in the spectacle of Thunder and Lightning at the delivery of the Law what he could do and what they deserved so that what Caesar sometimes said to the Questor who would have hindred him from entring into the Treasury at Rome shaking his sword It is easier for my Power to dispatch thee then for the goodnesse of my Nature to be willing to strike thee may much more truly besaid of God his Power maketh him mercifull and his Mercy doth manage his power The Author of the Book of Wisdome openeth this at large chap. 11. The excellencies of Christ are theirs that are in him AS thew â—e communicates in her Husbands honour and wealth the branches partake of the fatnesse and sweetness of the root and the Members derive sense and motion from the head So Christ our King is not like the bramble that receiveth all good and yields none to the State but he is like the Figtree the Vine the Olive they that pertain to him are all the better for him they are conformable to him if he have any excellency they shall have it also The best improvement of worldly sorrow WHen a Man by extream bleeding at the nose is brought in danger of his life the Physâ—tian gives order to let him blood in another place as in the arm and so turns the course of the blood another way to save his life And thus must we do turn our worldly sorrows for losse of goods or friends to a godly sorrow for our offences against God Flesh and Spirit their opposition ANselm Arch-bishop of Canterbury as he was passing on the the way espyed a boy with a bird tyed in a string to a stone the bird was still taking wing to fly away but the stone kept her down the holy Man made good use of this sight and bursting
found himselfe there And it is true that omnis homo Hypocrita every Man is an Hypocrite Hypocrisie is a lesson that every Man readily takes out it continues with age it appeares with infancy the wise and learned practise it the duller and more rude attain unto it All are not fit for the Wars Learning must have the pick't and choycest wâ—â—s Arts must have leasure and pains but all sorts are apt enough and thrive in the mystery of dissimulation The whole throng of Mankind is but an horse-fair of Cheaters the whole world a shop of counterâ—eit wares a Theater of Hypocriticall disguises The justice of God what it is and how defined IN the Raign of King Edward the first there was much abuse in the alnage of all sorts of Drapery much wrong done betwixt Man and Man by reason of the diversity of their measures every Man measuring his cloath by his own yard which the King perceiving being a goodly proper Man took a long stick in his hand and having taken the length of his own arm made Proclamation through the Kingdom that ever after the length of that stick should be the measure to measure by and no other Thus Gods Iustice is nothing else but a conformiâ—y to his being the pleasure of his Will so that the counsell of his Will is the standard of his Iustice whereby all Men should regulate themselves as well in commutative as distributive Iusâ—ice and so much the more Righteous than his Neighbour shall every Man appear by how much he is proximate to this Rule and lesse Righteous as he is the more remote Iustification by Christ the extent of it AS the Sun by his beams doth not onely expell cold but works heat and fruitfulnesse also Thus in the Iustification of a sinner repenting there 's a further reach then â—ollere peccata the taking away of sin there is also infusion of grace and virtue into the sinners heart The father of the Prodigall did not onely take off all his Sons rags but put on the best he had and a Ring on his finger And to say truth our Iustification doth not consist onely in the taking away of sin but in the imputation of Christs Righteousness and obedience for though the act be one yet for the manner it is two-fold 1. By privaâ—ion 2. By impâ—tation How is it that the proceedings of God in his Justice are not so clearly disâ—erned TAke a streight stick and put it into the water then it will seem crocked Why because we look upon it through two mediums air and water there lies the deceptio visus thence it is that we cannot discern aright Thus the proceedings of God in his Iustice which in themselves are streight without the least obliquity seem unto us crooked that wicked men should prosper and good men be afflicted that the Israelites should make the bricks and the Egyptians dwell in the houses that servants should ride on horse-back and Princes go on foot these are things that make the best Christians stagger in their judgements And way but because they look upon Gods proceedings though a double medium of Flesh and Spirit that so all things seem to go cross through indeed they go right enough And hence it is that Gods proceedings in his justice are not so well discerned the eyes of Man alone being not competent jugdes thereof Resolution in the cause of God very requisite IOhn Duke of Saxony who might have had the World at will if he would not have been a Christian resolved rather to pass by much difficulty nay rather death it selfe then â—o desert the cause of God which afterward he did heroically maintain against all opposition in three Imperiall Assemblies And when it was told him that he should lose the favour of the Pope and the Emperour and all the world besides if he stuck so fast to the Lutheran cause Here are two wayes said he I must serve God or the World and which of these do you think is the better And so put them off with this pleasant indignation Neither would he be ashamed to be seen which way he chose to go for when at the publique Assembly of the States of the Empire it was forbidden to have any Lutheran Sermons he presently prepared to be gone and profest boldly He would not stay there where he might not have liberty to serve God Thus must every good Christian be throughly resolved for God and for the truth which he takes up to profess Resolution must chain him as it did Ulisses to the Mast of the Ship must tye him to God that he leap noâ— over-board and make shipwrack of a good Conscience as too too many have done It is Resoluâ—ion that keeps Ruth with her Mother it makes a Man a rocky promontory that washes not away though the Surges beat upon him continually Resolution in the waies of God is the best aggioâ—ta of a Christian and a resolved Christian is the best Christian. To be carefull in the censure of others IT is reported of Vultures that they will fly over a Garden of sweet flowers and not so much as eye them but they will seize upon a stinking carrion at the first sight In like manner Scarabs and Fâ—yes will passe by the sound flesh but if there be any gall'd part on the horses back there they will settle Thus many there are that will take no notice at all of the commendable parts and good qualities of others but if the least imperfections shall appear there they will fasten them they will be sure to single out of the croud of Virtues and censure but let such know that Aquila non capit muscas the Eagle scorns to catch at flyes so that they discover what dunghill breed they are come of by falling and feeding upon the raw parts of their brothers imperfections without any moderation at all Prejudice in Judgement very dangerous THe mad Athenian standing upon the shore thought every Ship that came into the Harbour to be his own Pythagoras Schollars were so trained up to think all things were constituted of Nombers that they thought they saw Nombers in every thing Thus prejudice in judgement and prejudicate opinions like coloured Glass make every thing to seem to be of the same colour when they are looked through And it is most true that when Men have once mancipated their Iudgements to this or that error then they think every thing hits right whether pro or con that is in their fancy all the places of Scripture that they read all the doctrinall parts of Sermons that they hear make for their purpose and thus they run into monstrous absurdities and dangers inevitable The Hypocrite Characteristically laid open HYpocrites are like unto white Silver but they draw black lines they have a seeming â—anctified out-side but stuff'd within with malice worldiness intemperance like window cushions made up of
serve God for nought chap. â— 9. Doth any so much as shut the door or kindle a fire upon his Altar unrewarded They do not God is a liberall pay-master and all his reâ—â—ibâ—â—ions are more then bountifull even for the least of service that can be done unto him God accepts the meanest of Graces ABel offers unto God the firstlings of his flock and God had respect unto Abel and his offering though the earth was but newly curfed for the sin of man yet God accepts the first fruits thereof well knowing they were no such things as were in the offerers power to perform but that which he had commanded the earth to yield So shall those mean graces that are in us be accepted of God though too too much they savour of the â—aughtinesse of our nature And why so but because they proceed from his speciall blessing and are the work of his Spirit A great comfort for such as feel in themselves reluctancies and spirituall assaults by reason of the corruptions and imperfections that â—leave unto the best things they do The Name of God to be had in reverence JEHOVAH is a Name of great power and efficacy a Name that hath in it five vowells without which no language can be exprest A Name that hath in it also three syllables to signifie the Trinity of Persons the Eternity of God One in Three and three in One A Name of such dread and reverence amongst the Iews that they tremble to 〈◊〉 it and therefoâ—e they used the name Adonâ—i Lord in all their devotions And thus ought every one to stand in â—we and sin not by taking the Name of God in vain but to sing praises and honour to remember to declare to exalt to praise and blesse It for holy and reverend onely worthy and excellent is his Name Slanderers discovered IT is Aelians observation how that men being in danger to be stung by Scorpions use to place their beds in water yet the politick Serpents have a device to reach them they get up to the top of the house where one takes hold the next hangs at the end of him a third upon the second a fourth upon the third and so making a kind of Serpentine rope they at the last wound the man And thus it is that amongst scandalizers and slanderers one begins to whisper another makes it a report a third enlargeth it to a dangerous calumny a fourth divulgeth it for a truth So the innocent mans good name which like a Merchants wealth got in many years and lost in an houre is maimed and so secretly traduced that it is somewhat hard to find out the villain that did it God onely to be eyed in the midst of Afflictions JAcob when he saw the Angells ascending and descending enquired who stood at the top of the ladder and sent them David though he knew the second cause of the famin that fell out in his daies to be the drought yet he enquired of the Lord what should be the cause of that judgment And Iob could discern Gods arrowes in Sathans hand and Gods hand on the arms of the Sabaean robbers chap. 1. So should we do in like case see God in all our afflictions In the visible means see by faith the invisible Author and not look so much upon the malice of men or rage of devills as if either of them were unlimited not upon chance as if that idoll were any thing in the world or that things casuall unto us were not fore-appointed by God even to the least circumstance of the greatest or least affliction to the falling of a hair off from our heads Matth. 5. 37. Great sins attended by great judgments WHen Calice was taken from England by the French in the time of Charles the fifth one asked the English by way of scorn and derision When they would win Calice again A wise Captain hearing it made this answer Cum vestra peccata erunt nostris majora When your sins shall be greater than ours then there will be large hopes of gaining Calice again And what then can we expect in this sinfull Land of ours Were but our fore-fathers alive they would blâ—sh to see such a degenerate posterity their sins were ignorance ours presumption their 's omission ours commission they were righteous in respect of us their hospitality is now converted into riot and luxury their frugality into pride and prodigality their simplicity into subtlety their sincerity into hypocrisie their charity into cruelty their chastity into chambering their modesty into wantonnesse their sobriety into drunkennesse their Church-building into Church-robbing their plain-dealing into dissembling their works of compassion into works of oppression It is almost if not altogether out of fashion to be an honest man Such and so great so transcendent so superlative so ripe are the sins of this Nation that it is high time for the Angel to put in his sickle and reap for God to pour down the heaviest of his judgments upâ—n us The mystery of the blessed Trinity unconceivable IT is though somewhat fabulously recorded that when St. Augustine was writing of the blessed Trinity walking by the Sea-side he saw a little child digging a hole in the ground and taking water with a spoon out of the Sea powred it into the hole S. Augustine demanded of the Childe why he did so and he answered that he would lade the whole Sea into it The Sea said he is too great and the hole the spoon and the 〈◊〉 too little To whom the Childe replyed thus Iust so art thou to write of the holy Trinity and so vanished Thus Whosoever thou art Canst thou empty the Ocean of this great mystery into thy Oyster-shell Canst thou define how the Begetter should not be before the Begotten Canst thou dream how Generation and Proceeding differ How there should be a Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity Three in One and One in Three This is a mystery of mysteries not farre to be dived into It is impossible to sound the bottomlesse depth of such divine mysteries with the plummeâ— of our short lived and short lyâ—'d Reason or think to pierce the Marble hardnesse of Gods secrets with the leaden point of our dull apprehension yet so farre as the Scriptures have revealed necessarily to be understood we may look into it And to be sure He that hath two or three walks a day upon Mount Taboâ— and with holy Moses converseth with God in three Persons on the Horeb of both â—estaments shall find the peace of God the Father the love of God the Sonne and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost to his eternall comfort A Man to be wise for himselfe as well as for others VVHen an Orator with great store of Wisdom had bitterly declaimed against folly and somewhat abused his Auditors it was afterwards replyed upon him by one of them Sir your discourse of folly may
such occasions as this seldom fall out And certainly for women in Masks and Shewes to be apparel'd as men and men as women hath been alwaies a thing distastfull to them which are more sober minded as Tertullian condemneth it directly Nullum cultum à Deo maledictum invenio c. I find no apparell saith he cursed of God but a womans in a man according to that of Deut. 22. 5. especially in Showes and Plaies further adding out of another place Non amat fâ—lsum Author veritatis c. The God of verity loves not falsity every thing that is counterfeit before him is a kind of adultery Sorrow that is true is for the most part silent ST Bernard bewailing Gerhardus the Monk and his dearest brother saith At his death my heart failed me sed feci vim animo with much ado I dissembled my griefe lest affection should seem to overcome religion and whilst others wept abundantly Secutus ego siccis oculis invisum funus my self followed with dry eyes the happy Hearse by-standers with watry cheeks admiring whilst they did not pitty him but me that lost him Indeed whereas tears and words fail the blood leaveth the cheeks to comfort the heart and speech giveth place to amazement They are small miseries when he that hath them can presently tell the world of them Sorrow that is true is for the most part silent That observation of St. Peter is good Flevit sed tacuit he wept but was silent as if his eyes would in some sort tell what his tongue could in no sort utter The known Law of any Nation to be the rule of Obedience IT was the observation of a wise but unfortunate Peer of this Nation at the time of his Triall before an honourable Assembly That if a man should passe down the Thames in a boat and it be split upon an Anchor and a Buoy being not set as a token that there is an Anchor there that party that owes the Anchor should by the Maritime Law give satisfaction for the dammage done But if it were marked out then he must come upon his own perill And thus it is that the known Lawes of a Nation are made the rule of obedience to the People the plain Law and Letter of the Statute that tells where and what the crime is and by telling what it is and what it is not shewes how to avoid it For were it under water and not above skulking onely in the sense of some musty record and not divulged no human providence could avail or prevent destruction No true cause of Rejoycing in this world THere is a story of a certain King that was never seen to laugh or smile but in all places amongst all persons at all times he was very pensive and sad His Queen being much troubled at his melancholly requested a brother of his that he would ask him what was the cause of his continuall sadnesse He did so The King put him off till the next day for an answer and in the mean time caused a deep pit to be made commanding his servants to fill it half full with fiery coals and then causeth an old rotten board to be laid over it and over the board to hang a two edged sword by a small slender thread with the point downwards and close by the pit to set a table full of all manner of delicacies His brother comming next day for an answer was placed on the board and four men with drawn swords about him and withall the best musick that could be had to play before him Then the King called to him saying Rejoyce and be merry O my brother eat drink and laugh for here is pleasant being But he replyed and said O my Lord and King how can I be merry being in such danger on every side Then the King said Look how it is now with thee so it is alwaies with me for if I look about me I see the great and dreadfull Iudge to whom I must give an account of all my thoughts words and deeds good or evill If I look under me I see the endlesse torments of hell wherein I shall be cast if I die in my sins If I look behind me I see all the sins that ever I committed and the time which unprofitably I have spent If I look before me I see my death every day approaching nearer and nearer unto my body If I look on my right hand I see my conscience accusing me of all that I have done and left undone in this world And if I look on my left hand I see the creatures crying out for vengeance against me because they groaned under my iniquities Now then cease hence forward to wonder why I cannot rejoyce at the world or any thing in the world but continue sad and heavy Thus did but men consider their estates then would they find small cause to rejoyce at any thing which the world shall present as a thing delectable but rather employment enough for Argus his eyes yet all little enough to weep for the miserable estate wherein they stand by reason of sin and wickednesse Controversies especially in matters of Religion dangerous ON the Tomb-stone of the learned Sr. Henry Wotton late Provost of Eaton Colledge it is thus inscribed Hic jacet hujus sententiae Author Pruritus disputandi fit scabies Ecclesiae Here lies the Author of this sentence The itch of Disputation becomes the scab of the Church And very true How is Religion in a manner lost in the controversies of Religion For who is there that had not rather seem learned in the controversies of Religion then conscionable in the practice of Religion and that sets not more by a subtle head then a sanctified heart that had not rather disputare quam bene vivere dispute well than live well So that distraction in Religion becomes destruction of Religion Daily Examination of our selves the comfort of it SEneca tells of a Roman that kept his soul as clean as the best housewife keeps her house every night sweeping out the dust and washing all the vessells examining his own soul Quod malum hodie sanâsti qua parte melior es What infirmity hast thou healed what fault haste thou done and not repented in what degree art thou bettered Then would he lie down with O quà m gratus somnus quà m tranquillus With how welcome sleep and how quiet rest do I entertain the night And it were to be wished that all men would do the like to keep a day-book of all their actions and transactions in the world to commune with their own hearts and not to sum up all their words and works in the day passed with an Omnia bene as Church-wardens were wont to do when they gave up their presentments then would their nights rest be quiet and then might they lie down in safety for God himself would keep them Repentant tears
so about building a Vessel of such bulk and bignesse to prolong his life for so short a time And if it must needs be done I may go and take pleasure for these hundreth years yet and then set upon it twenty or ten years before and get more help then and dispatch it the sooner But Noah did not he could not he durst not defer the doing of it but fells his wood sawes out his planks hewes out his timber and so falls to work The same case is ours God foretells us that a second general destruction shall come not by Water but by Fire the fiercer Element of the twain which even Heathens have taken notice of And that none shall then be saved but those that have a spirituall Temple or Sanctuary built in their Souls an house for the blessed Spirit to dwell in as hard and difficult a work as ever the making of the Ark was For before the spiritual building can be raised we must pull down an old Frame of the Devills rearing that standeth where it must stand and rid the place of the rubbish and remainders of it Let us then fall to work betime we are so far from being able to promise to our selves a hundreth years that we cannot assure our selves of one hour no not of one minute Likenesse to be a motive to lovelinesse THe Naturall Philosophers and others write of a monstrous bird called an Harpy which having the face of a Man is of so fierce and cruel nature that being hunger-bitten will seize upon a Man and kill him but afterwards making to the water to quench her thirst and there espying her own face and perceiving it to be like the Man whom she had devoured is so surprized with grief that she dies immediately Thus our likenesse to Christ and his likenesse to us in all things sin onely excepted ought to be an argument of Love not of hatred Birds of a feather will flock and keep together Beasts though by Nature cruel yet will defend those of their kind How much more should one Man love another bear with one another and stand by one another in the midst of any dangâ—r or difficulty whatsoever they being all fellow-members of that mystical body whereof Christ Iesus is the Head Spirituall and corporall blindnesse their difference A Blind Boy that had suffered imprisonment at Glocester not long before was brought to Bishop Hooper the day before his death Mr. Hooper after he had examin'd him of his Faith and the cause of his imprisonment beheld him very steadfastly and tears standing in his eyes said unto him Ah poor boy God hath taken from thee thy outward sight upon what consideration he in his Divine wisdome best knowes but hath given thee another sight much more pretious For he hath endued thy Soul with the spirituall eye of understanding O happy change doubtlesse there is a wide difference betwixt corporeall and spiritual blindness though every Man be blind by Nature yet the state of the spiritually blind is more miserable then that of the other blind The bodily blind is led either by his Servant Wife or Dogg but the spiritually blind is mis-led by the World the Flesh and the Devill The one will be sure to get a seeing guide but the other followes the blind guidance of his own lusts till they both tumble into the ditch The want of corporal eyes is to many divinum bonum albeit humanum malum but the want of Faith's eyes is the greatest evill which can befall Man in this life For Reason is the Soul 's left eye Faith the right eye without which it is impossible to see the way to God Heb. 11. 6. Good Conscience a Mans best Friend at the last IT is a witty Parable which one of the Fathers hath of a Man that had three Friends two whereof he loved intirely the third but indifferently This Man being called in question for his life sought help of his Friends The first would bear him company some part of his way The second would lend him some money for his journey and that was all they would or could do for him But the third whom he least respected and from whom he least expected would go all the way and abide all the while with him yea he would appear with him and plead for him This Man is every one of us and our three Friends are the Flesh and the World and our own Conscience Now when Death shall summon us to Judgment What can our Friends after the Flesh do for us they will bring us some part of the way to the grave and further they cannot And of all the Worldly goods which we possesse What shall we have What will they afford us Onely a shrowd and a coffin or a Tomb at the most But welfare a good Conscience that will live and die with us or rather live when we are dead and when we rise again it will appear with us at Gods Tribunal And when neither Friends nor a full purse can do us any good then a good Conscience will stick close to us The captivated Soul restless till it be in Christ Iesus THere is mention made of a certain Bird in Egypt near the River Nilus called Avis Paradisi for the beauty of its feathers having in it as we say all the colours of the Rainbow the Bird of Paradise which hath so pleasant and melodious notes that it raiseth the affections of those that hear it Now this Bird if it chance to be any way ensnared or taken it never leaves mourning and complaining till it be delivered Such is the Soul of every Regenerate Man if it be taken by Sathan or overtaken by the least of Sins weaknesse or infirmity it is restlesse with the Spouse in the Canticles no sleep shall come into the eye nor any slumber to the eye-lids till Reconciliation be made with God in Christ Iesus Sin of a dangerous spreading Nature A Mongst many other diseases that the body is incident unto there is one that is called by the name of Gangrena which doth altogether affect the joynts against which there is no remedy but to cut off that joynt where it settled otherwise it will passe from joynt to joynt till the whole body is endangered Such is the nature of Sin which unlesse it be cut off in the first motion it proceedeth unto action from action to delectation from delight unto custome and from that unto habite which being as it were a second Nature is never or very hardly removed without much prayer and fasting Lex talionis MAxentius that cruel Tyrant coming with an Army against Constantine the Great To deceive him and his Army he caused his Souldiers to make a great bridge over Tyber where Constantine should passe and cunningly laid planks on the Ships that when the Army came upon the planks the ships should sink and so
a straight way yet try it put into it however do but disgest the diâ—â—iculty of the entrance and then thy feet shall not be straitâ—ed thou shalt find more and more enlargement every day more comfort then other Lewdnesse of the Preachers life no warrant to sleight the Ordinance of Preaching IT was an unhappy meaning that Sir Thomas Moor had though he spake it pleasantly when he said of a vitious Priest That he would not by any means have him say the Creed lest it should make him call the Articles of his Faith into question Thus too too many are apt to call the Truths of Gods Word into question because of the lewdnesse of the Preachers life One will not have his children baptized by such a one it goes against anothers stomach to receive the Sacrament from the foul hands of such a one others care not for their doctrine because they say and do not c. A preposterous Zeal God wot Eliah received comfortable food from a Raven as well as from an Angel If God speak to thee as he did to Balaam by the mouth of an Asse thou must have so much Patience saith Luther as to hear him If God will have thee to be saved by one who peradventure shall be damned hear what he saith and look not what he doth if thy Pastor live lewdly that is his own hurt if he preach well that is thy good take thine own and go thy way Good water which passeth into a Garden through a channel of stone doth the Garden good though it do the channell none and so may the Word and water of life conveyed by a bad instrument of a stony heart do good to the Church of God though it work not upon himself And good seed though it be cast into the ground with foul hands will â—ructifie One may be a bad Man yet a good Seeds-man both in the Field and the Church yet woe be to him by whom the offence cometh by whose means the offerings of Eli's sons smoked for this And to many which have prophesied in his Name Christ will say in his just displeasure Away from me ye workers of iniquity Wicked Men made by God instrumentall for the good of his People LEwes of Granada that devout Spaniard maketh mention of a very poor diseased Man dwelling in Italy that was brought so low that he could stir neither hand nor foot and seeking for a skilful Physitian to heal him he found a potent Enemy to torment him who to adde unto his misery cast him into prison and there kept him with a very small allowance of bread and water so much onely as should keep life and soul together But it so happened that there being a new face of Government in that Province he was released from his imprisonment and his disease together For the want of Food intended to take away his life proved the onely remedy to preserve it And thus it is that God makes use of Wicked Men for his Peoples good The Wicked cast them into the Furnace thinking to destroy them but they rise out thence more glorious then before They plow deep Furrowes on the backs of Gods people but that makes them more fruitfull in good works put them to death that proves their advantage vex grieve trouble and torment them yet do what they can do they are still gainers not losers so true is that of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All things work together for the best to them that love God How it is that one Man may be said to be punished for another Mans sin A Man that hath fâ—d high for a long time comes to have a plethory of crude and indigested humors in his stomach It so falls ouâ— that this Party riding afterwards in the wet and taking cold begins to shiver and shake and after falls into a durable lasting Feaver If the Physitian be a wise Man one that hath parts and skill ask him What was the cause of this sicknesse and he will tell you The ill humours of the body and the abounding of them yet it is like enough it had not turned to a Feaver so soon if he had not took cold of his feet or been some way troubled in his journey So when God brings punnishment upon People the proper cause is in every Mans self There are personall sins in every Man to make him obnoxious to the curse of God yet may the sins of the Father or Parent or Neighbour be the occasion that God will punnish Sin so that it may be said that the personal Sins of Men are the primary internal antecedent dispositive cause of Gods Iudgments but the Sins of other Men as they are Members of the whole may be the external irritating excitating cause of Gods Iudgments upon a People or Nation The Souls comfortable enjoyment of Christ. IT were a great grace and such as would minister much comfort to a Courtier lying sick at home of the gowt to have the Prince not onely to send to him but in person also to visite him but much more comfort and joy would it be to him to be able being recovered to repair to the Court and there enjoy his Prince's presence with such pleasures and favours as the place may afford How much more then in this case is it a grace and a comfort that God vouchsafeth to visit us here by his Spirit sometimes more familiarly and feelingly but alwaies so effectually as thereby to support us even in the greatest of extremity but how much more exceedingly shall our joy and comfort be encreased when being freed from all infirmities we shall be taken home to him that we may enjoy him for evermore As that Courtier having assurance given him of recovery by such a time would exceedingly rejoyce to think of the joy of that day and count every day a week if not a year to it wherein he should being recovered return to the Court and be welcom'd thither in solemn manner by all his Friends there and by the Prince in a more especiall manner So well may the faithful Soul not a little joy to fore-think with it self what a joyfull hour that shall be unto it wherein by Death parted from the body it shall solemnly be prâ—sented before the face of Iâ—sus Christ and entring into the Heavenly place shall be welcom'd thither by the whole Court of Heaven the blessed Saints and Angels Unhappy Prosperity happy Adversity IT is a Philosophical observation of Turtle Doves and some other birds that use to take their flights into other parts beyond the Seas that if the South-wind blow they will be sure of a good guide to direct them but if the wind be Northward then they venture of themselues without any conduct at all This may note unto us the unhappy Prosperity of the Wicked and the happy Adversity of the Godlâ— He that spreads his sailes before
a sting from a Bâ—e constrainedly Mercy floweth from him as honey from a Bee most willingly Mercy is as â—sâ—entiall to him as light is to the Sun or as heat is to the Fire He delights in Mercy as the senses and faculties of the Soul do in their several actions Patience and Clemency and Mercy and compassion and peace are tâ—e Fruits of his bowells the Off-spring which the Divine nature doth produce Fury and rage and anger and impatience VVar and fire and sword are forced into him by the provoking exorbitances of the VVorld Faith not alwaies sensible IT is said of Euâ—ychus that falling down out of a VVindow was taken up dead his Friends were much troubled at the sodainnesse of the accident but Saint Paul being then preaching in an upper chamber went down and fell upon him and embracing him said Trouble not your selves for his liâ—e is in him though he seemed dead yet he was alive And as substance may be said to be in an Elm or an Oak tree when they have cast their leaves and there is VVine to be found in an unlikely cluster and one saith Destroy it not For there is a blessing in it Such are the beatings of the pulse the trances and the swoonings of Faith beating many times so slowly and drawing the breath of life so inwardly to it self that no man can perceive any life at all so that unlesse the goodnesse of God should embrace it as Saint Paul did Eutychus it would never recover strength again such was the trance of Adultery in David of Idolatry in his son Solomon of Apostacy in Peter of Recusancy in Ionah c. Minding of good things a notable way to encrease Grace DOmitian perceiving many of his Predecessours in the Empire to be so hated of the People asked How he might so rule as to be beloved and waâ— answered Tu fac contrà Mind and examine what they did and do thou the contrary Thus if Men would but truly mind the Law and the Prophets they would find themselves miserable For totus homo est inversus Decalogus that they stood in a full contrariety to all the Law and that is the very definition of Man Now this minding will work a Godly sorrow will make Men like those that after Baptist's Sermon was ended came with materiall Quaere's What shall we do and to make the conclusion up in their own hearts Is it comfort that we hear of Repent and it 's ours Is it Iudgment Repent and it is none of ours if any Vertue be commended we shall fall to practise it if any Vice be condemned we shall labour to avoid it if any Consolation be insinuated to appropriate it any good Example be propounded to follow it Where good things are minded Graces will be encreased The Mercies of God to be recorded to all posterity SAint Augustine relateth of a certain Platonist that should say as Simplicianus his good friend told him that those words of Saint Iohns Gospell In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the begining with God were fit to be written in letters of Gold and to be set up to be read in the highest places of all Churches his reason was because 't is such a strong Text to confirm the Divinity of Christ For as Saint Ambrose saith Erat erat c. Saint Iohn saith four times Erat in principio And where doth Arrius find that it was not in the begining And thus verily that Scripture where God proclaims his Nature by Adjectives ought to be recorded to all Posterity l The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands â—orgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin c. Now What is meant by all these Synonomaes and Equivocall expressions but that as an Act of Oblivion and pardon of Grace the abundant Mercies of God might be set out to the comfort of all Repentant Sinners The Providence of God not secondary causes to be rested on SAint Ambrose speaking of great drought in his time when the People talked much of rain he sometimes comforted himself with this hope Neomenia dabit pluvias the new Moon will bring us rain yet saith he though all of us desired to see some showers yet I wished such hopes might fail and was glad that no rayn fell donec precibus Ecclesiae data esset c. untill it came as a Return upon the Churches prayers not upon the influence of the Moon but upon the provident Mercy of the Creator Such was the Religious care of that good Saint then and the like wâ—re to be wished for now that Men would be exhorted not to be so much taken as they are with the Vanity of Astrologicall predictions to read the Stars lesse and the Scriptures more to eye God in his Providence not the Moon so much in it's influence still looking up unto him as the primus motâ—r and upon all other Creatures whatsoever as subordinate Hell broke loose by the swarms of Sectaries Ranters c. IN a City of Spain a Jesuite in the midst of his Sermon fell into a Trance if we had but faith enough to believe him and starting up he told his Auditory that he had been in a dream and the Scene lay in Hell There he saw many Souls of all conditions naming them whom he thought fit to traduce from Coblers to Kings Amongst the rest he pretended to see abundance of Franciscans whereat he stood amazed that Men so holy and strict of life should come thither This dream of his stuck in the Franciscans stomachs till they could requite him with another Therefore on the next occasion in the same Pulpit a Franciscan preaching fell into the like trance and waking told them that he had also been in Hell and could not deny but some sprinkling of Franciscans and other Orders were there But his wonder was that in all Hell he saw never a Iesuite at which Belzebub laughing told him his errour That the number of Jesuites in Hell did exceed all other Societies put them all together Where are they replies the Franciscan Alas saies the Devil they are in a room below the Common Jayl is too good for them they are safe bound in the Dungeon stowed in the hold under hatches For if they were suffered to come to the upper decks they would set all Hell in an uproar It was well it was but a dâ—eam for their sakes and not so well that it is not a Truth for the Church and Common-Weal's sake Many dreamers there are that say The Spirit of God is come down amongst us in these latter times but by the lives and practices of leud and Wicked Men it may be concluded that Hell is rather broke loose and the Devill let out for a season Else what mean those swarms of
imminent but cannot give themselves a supersedeas from Death approaching They are said to be like tumbling Seas whose boyling swelling overflowing waves bring terrour and trouble to all that are near them But God hath said unto them Hither shall ye come and no further here shall your proud waves be staid here in the midst of your march be it never so fierce shall the wheels of your Charriots be knocked off and here in the ruffe of all your greatnesse shall Death arrest you Marriage not to be made for Money onely THere was a Rich Man in Athens which had a daughter to marry and he asked counsel of Themistocles how to bestow her telling him that there was a very honest Man that made suit unto her but he was poor And there was a Rich Man which did also defire her but he was not Honest Themistocles answered that if he were to choose he would prefer Monilesse Men before Masterlesse money Intimating thereby that Marriage is not to be contracted for Money onely yet the question is now with what money not with what honesty the party whom they seek is endowed whether they be rich not whether they be godly What lands they have on Earth not what Inheritance they have in Heaven It is dos not Deus all 's good enough if there be goods enough it is Money that makes the Match But let such know that as their Money wasteth so their love weareth neither is there any Love or Friendship constant but that which is grounded on constant causes such as Vertue and Godlinesse which will hold out to the last The day of the last Judgment a terrible day THere is a story of two Souldiers that coming to the Valley of Iehosaphat in Iudea and one saying to the other Here in this place shall be the generall Iudgment Wherefore I will now take up my place where I will then sit and so lifting up a stone he sate down upon it as taking possession before-hand But being sate and looking up to Heaven such a quaking and trembling fell upon him that falling to the Earth he remembred the day of Iudgment with horrour and amazement ever after And to say truth so fearfull and terrible shall be the appearance of that day that our Saviour in some sort describing the same saith that then the powers of Heaven shall be shaken de Angelis hoc dicit saith S. Augustine Christ here speaketh of the Angels that trembling and great fear shall surprise them so that if those glorious spirits shall tremble at the horrour of that day who being guilty of no sin shall not then be judged How shall poor Martals stand amazed especially the wicked whose Iudgment and condemnation shall then be pronounced The benefit of History LUcius Lucullus being appointed Captain General over the Romane Forces against Mithridates had not great experience or knowledg in War but onely what he had gotten by reading History yet proved a discreet and Valiant Commander and vanquish't at that time two of the greatest Princes in the East Thus it is that History is and may be the director of meanest Men in any of their actions how others have behaved themselves upon several occasions and what hath followed thereupon It is a trusty Counsellour of State by whose advice and direction a Common-weal may be framed governed reformed and preserved an Army may be ordered Enemies vanquished and Victory obtained In it as in a glasse we see and behold Gods providence guiding and ruling the World and Mens actions which arrive often at unexpected events and even some times reach unto such ends as are quite contrary to the Actor's intentions It is a punisher of Vice presenting aged Folly green and fresh to Posterity not suffering Sin to dye much lesse to be buried in Oblivion It is also a Reâ—arder of Vertue reserving worthy deeds for Imitation A good Work though it dye in doing is a Reward to it self yet that some dull Natures might be stirred up the more and all benefited by seeing gratious steps before them this onely is exempted by a firm decree from the stroke of Death to live in History Men usually judging others to be like themselves IT is said of Moses and Ioshua that when they were coming down from the Mountain and heard a noise in the Camp Ioshua said There was a noise of War But Moses said the noise of them that sing do I hear Here was now great difference of these two great Mens Iudgments but the reason was that Ioshua being a Martial man therefore judgeth the noise to be a noise of War but Moses being a Man of Peace judgeth the noise to be a noise of Peace each of them judging according to their several dispositions Hence is that of the Philosopher Qualis quisque est tales existimat alios such as every one is the same he thinketh others to be measuring of other Mens actions by his own bushel The Lascivious Man thinketh others to be lascivious The Covetous person thinks others to be Covetous the Fool thinks every Man to be as arrant a Wise man as himself hoc proclivius suspicatur in alio c. Every Man readily suspects that of another which he findeth in himself Neglect of the Soul reproved THere is a story of one Pambo that on a time looking out at a Window and perceiving a Woman to spend a great deal of time in trimming her self fell a weeping And being demanded the cause answered Have not I a great cause to weep to see yonder poor creeping worm consume so long time in decking and adorning her poor Earthly carcase to the sight of Man and I spend so small time in preparing my Soul for God But were this Man alive now he would do nothing else but lament and take on to see how people of all sorts from the highest to the lowest are taken up with high thoughts of their bodies little thinking of their Souls Men and Women trifling out whole dayes inter pectinem et speculum in finifying of their Fantastical Phisâ—omies and not bestowing one hour in smoothing and rectifying of their most pretious Souls To Compassionate others miseries THere is mention made of some Mountains called Montes Lactarei the milky Mountains on which the Beasts that feed do give such nourishing milk that Mens bodies though much consumed away do thereby not onely receive strength and health but fatnesse also whereas the beasts themselves are exceeding lean so that after a wonderfull manner the beasts do not profit by that grasse by which the bodies of Men come on and prosper they go up and down near the thickets of the Mountains meagre and thin and as it were sustaining the condition of those who are healed by them Like to these beasts should Charity make every one of us that as we comfort the Poor with the milk that we give them the relief that we afford them
thoughts of God if no looking up to better things then without doubt they are unclean not legally unclean as the beasts were but really unclean in the fight of God and his â—oly Angels Wherein the true Knowledg of Christ consisteth MAry when she went in quest of her Saviour stopt not at the empty Monument but searches and follows him so far that she discovered him under the disguise of a Gardiner and then casting her sâ—lf at his feet takes possession of him with this acclamation Rabboni which is in effect as much as Thomas his congratâ—lation My Lord and my God Thus it is that true Knowledg doth not alwayes hunt objects at the view nor doth it stop at the numerous effects wrought by the Creator It is not a shallow or supersicial knowledg that God is in a general consideration the cause of all things a Creator at large but in a nearer My God my Creator So that Religion and Faith are but aery empty sounds if a Man possesse nothing of them beyond the words the fruit of either consists in their application 'T is true that Christ is the Saviour of the World so much I know but this is an uselesse truth to me if my knowledge reach no further unlesse my Faith entitle me to him and by appropriâ—ting his work be able to call him my Lord my God my Redeâ—mer c. To beware how we come into the debt of Sin A Wary discreet Traveller when he comes to his Inne calls for no more then he means to pay for though he see a great deal of good chear before him in the house yet he considers how far his purse will reach otherwise if he call in for all he sees and never take any thought of the reckoning he shall not onely run into a great deal of disgrace but of danger also So fareth it with most Men in taking up more then they are able to pay for but let every good Man howsoever hâ— sees a number of goodly things in this World which may allure him and set his desire on Fire causing expence both of time and Mony be carefull how he comes into debt especially the debt of Sin the worst of all other For though by death he may be out of the Usurers hands yet Death cannot free him from the debt of Sin neither can he escape out of the hands of a just and all-knowing God Infant-Baptism asserted A Ristotle was so precise in admitting Schollers to his Moral Lectures that he would first have them past their Wardship as thinking that their green capacities would not be mellow enough for his Ethiques till Thirty at least But Christ our Master was of another mind his Sinite parvulos Suffer little ones to come unto me and sorbid them not encouraged Parents and Supervisers of Children to enroll them in his bands his Church before they were Masters of so much tongue as to name Christ well knowing that though their narrow apprehensions could not reach the high mysteries of Faith yet in a few years their understandings being elevated with their statures would grow up to them and the accession of a little time digest those precepts which their Infancy drew in into the constant habit of a good life not â—owing themselves into any crooked postures of Error nor forgetting that streight form into which their first education brought them Grace to be communicated IF a Man had a thousand tuns of Wine stored up in a Cellar which he had no use of but should be kept up close What were any Man the better for it but if he would make a large Cistern and turn out a Conduit cock into the street that every one that passed by might be refreshed then would they commend his bounty and be very thankfull unto him So when it hath pleased God of his goodnesse to afford us the graces of his holy Spirit and we should keep them to our selves not being profitable to any in the communication of them it would be matter of rebuke and reproach untill we let the Cock run untill we tell others what God hath done for our Souls For Grace like oyl is of a diffusive nature like Mary's box of oyntment which she brought unto Christ that filled all the house with the sweet scent thereof so that God smells the savour and others receive good thereby To be patient under Afflictions because they will have an end AS an Apprentice holds out in hard labour and it may be bad usage for seven years together or more and in all that time is serviceable to his Master without any murmuring or repining because he sees that the time wears away and that his bondage will not last alwayes but he shall be set at large and made a Freeman in the conclusion Thus should every one that groaneth under the burthen of any crosse or Affliction whatsoever bridle his affections possesse his Soul in patience and cease from all murmuring and repining whatsoever considering well with himself that the rod of the Wicked shall not alwayes rest upon the lot of the Righteous that weeping may abide at Evening but joy cometh in the Morning and that troubles will have an end and not continue for ever Every Man to find out the impediments of Repentance in himself THey who have Water running home in Conduit-pipes to their houses as soon as they find a want of that which their Neighbours have in abundance by and by they search into the causes run to the Conduiâ—-head or take up the pipes to see where they be stopt or what is the defect that so they may â—e supplyed accordingly Even so must every Man do when he finds that the Grace of Repentance flowes into other Mens hearts and hath no recourse or accesse into his Soul by and by sit down and search himself what the cause should be where the Remora is that stayes the course where the rub lyes which stoppeth the grace of Repentance in him seeing they that live it may be in the same house sit at the same Table lye in the same bed they can be penitent for their sins sorry that they have offended God and so complain in bitternesse of Soul for their Sins but he that had the same means the same occasions more sins to be humbled for morâ— time to repent and more motives to draw him to the duty is not yet moved with the same nor any way affected with the sense of Sin this must needs be matter of high concernment to look about him Murmuring at Gods doings the prejudice thereof IT is reported of Caesar That having prepared a great Feast for his Nobles and Friends of all degrees it so falling out that the day was extream foul tâ—at nothing could be done to the honour of the meeting with comfort he was much displeased and so far enraged at present that he willed all them that had bowes to shoot
but let Patience have its perfect work in them so that when they are as it were overwhelmed in a deluge of distress finding no way to get out they would tarry Gods time and though deliverance come not at an instant yea though it be irksome at the present in due time they shall certainly receive comfort Pride a main Engine of the Devill AS when a City or a Castle is besieged amongst other stratagems and devices Men use to undermine the Foundation and blow it up with Gunpowder that being as they think the surest way to gain it So the Devill laying battery to the Fort of Mans Soul undermines it and puts the Gunpowder of Pride into it knowing that as he himself was blown up so will that pretious Fortresse be easily scaled if that powder once take fire in it And as those that fish with nets in standing Rivers where they pitch down their net do blunder and trouble the water that the Fish may not see the net and then with poles beat and dash the streams above to drive the Fish into the net So Satan setting the net of disobedience muds and troubles the heart of Man by Pride and so beats him down the stream of his own affections till he have caught him in his deadly Net of destruction Nature cannot work out Peace of Conscience THere are a sort of foolish Country people that think Nature will work out all distemperatures and they need no Physick Some of them are confuted by their graves others of more strength and healthier Constitutions possibly recover their former vigour but their diseases make a truce onely not a peace with their bodies the latent cause remains and watcheth its advantage of the next heat or cold the body takes or the next intemperate season that comes And thus many deal with their Souls never regarding when their Spirits are troubled to heal up the wound with the balm of Gelead but go on in their Worldly natural way and at last their troubled Spirits are quiet again so they get their Peace of course but all this while the hidden cause of their trouble watcheth the next advantage their Souls fester within and on a sodain they are ready to despair and to lay Violent hands on themselves Men to set an high Valew upon their Souls WHen Praxiteles a cunning Painter had promised unto Phryne one of the choicest pieces in his shop she not knowing which was the best began to think upon some plot whereby to make him to discover his Judgment which of them was the piece indeed suborned one of his Servants to tell his Master being then in the Market selling his Pictures that his house was on fire and a great part of it burnt down to the ground Praxiteles hearing this presently demanded of his Servant If the Satyre and Cupid were safe whereby Phryne standing by discovered which was the best Picture in the Shop And shall a silly painter set so high an esteem upon a poor base Picture the â—â—ubber'd work of his own hands And shall not we much more value the Soul that is of an Immortall being the most pretioâ—â— piece that ever God made the perfect pattern and Image of himself let Riches honours and all go if nothing but this escape the fire it is sufficient Peace of Conscience not wrought out by merry Company or drinking SOme there are that if they be in an ague or the like distemperature will drink hot waters or good store of Sack to prevent their cold â—it and out-burn Nature but alasse all the good that comes of it is onely that they fall into a burning Fever and perhaps consume their dust into ashes So there are such prophane wretches that if their Conscience alarums them if their Spirit troubles them or if crosses multiply upon them think there is no other way to wind out of the Devils fingers but by throwing themselves into his arms making themselves twice more the Children of the Devil then they were before they must needs to the Tavern or to the Alehouse seek out some boon Companions drink away their sorrow but had Zimri peace that slew his Master Damning a Soul cannot surely be the way to save it The vast difference betwixt Pride and Humility SPectacles that are of an antient sight if the young go about to use them they shew all things lesse then they are but unto old Men they present all things greater then they are Such is the difference betwixt Pride and Humility that Pride is like the old Mans spectacles and makes things bigger then indeed they are but Humility like the spectacles worn by young Men causeth every thing to seem lesse then it is A Proud man thinks no man better then himself an Humble man none worse The one lifteth up himself on high the other layeth his mouth in the dust Lament 3. 29. Much Learning to be found in a small compasse of expressions THe Learned Heraclite no lesse elegant then Aenigmatical amongst other his quaint speeches hath this saying of special remembrance and observation That the greedy Mettal mongers in their too too eager search for the Worlds wealth after long toil and trouble find parvum in magno a little pure substance in a great deal of unprofitable Earth But it fareth otherwise in the Inquisition and pursuit after Learning For there a well grounded Scholler shall find with a little abstractive speculation magnum in parvo much matter in few words every short golden sentence and particle thereof containing incredible store of most pure substance every short Aphorisme every Axiome every Maxime nay almost every contracted line comprehending matter sufficient to fill whole Volumes The true Nature of Humility RUffinâ—â— the Companion of S. Francis having a Revelation that a Crown of glory was laid up for that holy Man told him one day that it would very much rejoyce him if he would let him understand What he thought of himself To whom S. Francis gave this answer I esteem my self the greatest Sinner of any in the World and that I serve God lesse then any other man How can that be said Ruffinus seeing some are Thieves some Murtherers some Adulterers and many most prophane and Wicked wretches such as are in the very gall of bitternesse such as never think of God or goodnesse and thou art not onely free from all these but withall a Man of much sanctity and holinesse But he replying said Out of doubt if God had been so mercifull to them as he hath been to me they would have shewed themselves more thankfull then I have been And besides if God had forsaken me I should have committed far greater Sins then they have done Here was a good Man though a Papist a rare pattern of Humility so far imitaâ—le as being a Man arrived at a most excellent degree of self-denyal coming from an inward and high
Kite a breakfast yet of that extent as to the desires thereof totus non sufficit Orbis the whole World is not able to satisfy it If an Earthly-minded Man should gaiâ— unto himself the whole World and being placed in the middle of it so that if possible he might at once view his purchase he would Alexander-like ask whether there were any more Worlds any more land any more Wealth that he might grasp that into his hands also Pride in Apparel condemned OUr Chronicles record it of William Rufus one of the three Norman Kings who in his time was held for one sumptuous in his Apparrel that when his Chamberlain had brought him a pair of new breeches to put on and he demanding what they cost it was answered Eight shillings The King being offended bade him begone like a beggar and bring him a pair of a Mark price Now it is much to be feared that Histories for the time to come shall have little or no cause at all to commend our sober moderation in this kind but rather complain of the most intolerable and damned excesse that ever reigned amongst Christians such being the Vanity thereof that Sâ—xes can hardly be distinguished and when one sees Men and Women in their bravery they may safely conclude many of them to be in the midst of their Wealth the basest of them wearing more in gold and silver-lace or a sett of points then would in times past have bought one of our ancient Kings a Suit of Apparrel Carelesse Worldly hearers of Gods Word to be reproved IT is said by the Naturalists how true let them look to it that a Vessel being made of the Iâ—ie-Tree iâ— Water and Wine be poured into it together the Wine will leak out and leave the Water behind it Such are all carelesse worldly Hearers of Gods Word they hold a true resemblance with this Wood for receiving into them the Wine of Gospel-dispensations which should inebriate them with the love of God and goodnesse and also taking in the Water of â—orldly apprehensions they leave out all the Wine forget all the good so that notâ—ing remains behind but the pudled water of Vanity Pride Ambition Luxury and such other pests of the Soul which without the mercy of God upon true Repentance will endanger it to all Eternity Pride and Ambition the Folly thereof IT is reported of a certain Philosopher who dying demised a great sum of Moâ—â—y to him that should be found most foolish and left another Philosopherâ—is â—is Executor It fell out so that travelling many Countreys to find out a Man exceeding all others in Folly that he came to Rome where a Consul abusing his place was adjudged to death and another immediately chosen who joyfully tâ—ok it upon him to this Man the Philosopher delivered the sum of Money telling him that he was the most foolish Man in the World who seeing the miserable end of his Predecessor yet was nothing daunted therewith but joyfully took upon him the succession of his Office O how Foolish then are the most Men of this World that live and see the miserable wrack that Pride and Ambition have made every where In Heaven in Paradise and through the whole World and every part thereof especially that of the Court of great ones where but few prosper and those that prosper perish yet dare adventure with joy and contentment to hoyse out their sayls and run themselves upon such dangerous rocks ruine and destruction Men by Nature looking more after their bodies then their Souls SOcrates one day meeting Zenophon the sonne of Coryllus in a certain angiport or Haven-street and seeing him a youth of great hopes stayed him with his staffe and asked him this question Where was the place where severall Merchandizes and Commodities were to be sold To whom Zenophon readily replyed In such a place he might be furnished with all sorts Then Socrates demanded of him another question Where was the place where Men were to be made good To this his answer was That he could not tell Then saith Socrates to him Follow me that thou mayst learn it And so from that time he began to be Socrates's Scholler Now as it was with Zenophon at that time so it is now with most part of Christians they know readily and are very well verst in all the waies of Worldly Trade and Commerce as having special care to be ignorant of nothing that belongs to profit or pleasure but if the demand be made concerning the Pearl of price the rich Merchandize of the Soul the graces of Gods holy Spirit and where and how one may purchase them they answer with Zenophon they cannot tell And why because they never made it their work to enquire after things of that Nature Magistrates Ministers c. their rule to walk by THe Sea-men have a Proverb or rather a Riddle Mare ab imbecillibus victum fortior a vincit that the Sea is overcome of things weak but the strongest are overcome of the Sea which is thus to be understood That those â—abulous dirty and fenny places about the Sea are by aggregation and access of mire sand and other things falling into them continually enlarged and so the Sea about such places is contracted restrained and as it were overcome but the rocky strong and hard places are by the Sea strongly assaulted and by little and little so battered and eaten out that it gets much ground there and overcomes that stony-hearted opposition A good Rule for Magistrates Ministers and Men in power to walk by to be gentle and loving and of a yielding disposition to the humble virtuous and Religious persons and suffer such to be overcome by them but to the stubborn stiff-necked and proud rebellious spirits to extend the waves and billows of their Iustice and power to break down their oppositions and bring under their aspiring thoughts but with this Proviso that their Sins may be hated not their Persons and that to be done too not with a desire of Revenge but of healing and curing their Infirmities Graces of the Spirit to be made the Souls furniture ALexander having conquered Darius there was a box brought unto him from the Kings Cabin curiously wrought with gold and pearl And asking of them who were not ignorant of the Persians profusednesse and vanity What use there was of so pretious a Vessel It was answered That the King used therein to keep his Oyntments which as soon as he understood he gave order forthwith that it should be the keeper of a more pretious Iewell meaning the Iliads of Homer and be no more called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the box of Oyntments but the box of Homer Now how much rather should every Christian make his most pretious Soul which hath for a long time been no better then a cage full of unclean birds the keeper of
at the gate of his Pallace the Image of Bounty or Hospitality The needy Travailer with joy spying such a sight makes his approach thither in hopefull expectation of succour but still silence or an empty Eccho answers all his cries and knocks For Hospitality 〈◊〉 stand at the gate but to be sure there 's none in the house Then comes another who having his hungry trust often abused resolves to pluck down the Image with these words If there be neither meat nor drink in the house What needs there a sign Thus great portalls in the Country and colour'd posts in the City like so many Mock-beggars promise relief but they are often found but Images dumb and lame signs For Hospitality is not at home you shall have Divinity at their gates but no humanity wholesome counsel but no wholesome food much exhortation little compassion charging the weary Travellers ear but in no wise overcharging his belly they have Scripture against begging but no bread against famishing The bread of the Sanctuary is common with them but not the bread of the buttery If the poor can be nourished with the Philosophical supper of morall Sentences they shall be prodigally feasted but if the bread of life will not content them they may be packing Multiplicity of Law-Suits condemned IT is related to the honour of Sir Thomas Moor then Lord Chancellor of England and the charitable constitution of those Times wherein he lived as a thing never seen either since or before that he having ended a Cause then before him did call for the next to be brought but answer was returned him That there was never another Cause behind and so with thanks unto God the Court was dismist at that time whereupon in perpetuam rei memoriam it was ordered That the proceedings of that day should be registred in the Roles of the Chancery as may be seen at this instant What a charitable disposition What a peaceable frame of spirit was upon the hearts of Men in those darker times And what a raging Torrent of dissention is broke in upon us in dayes that are far more clear Every Man almost lives like a Salamander in the fire of Contention Witnesse the multiplicity of Law-Suits the swarms of Lawyers the sholes of Clerks and Registers that are to be found in the midst of us witnesse the crowds of Clyents dancing attendance upon the Courts of Iustice in the severall Judicaâ—ures at Westminster and elsewhere so that what the Apostle said to the Corinths Is there not a wise man amongst you why do ye go to Law may very well be inverted upon us We are all mad or else the Lawyers would have lesse employment The Sin of Sacriledg condemned AN Italian Seignior came with his Servant to one of our Ladies Images no matter which for they do not scant her of number he threw in an Angle of gold the humble picture in gratitude made a courtesie to him The Servant observing and wondring at her Ladiships plausible carriage purposed with himself to give somewhat too that he might have somewhat of her courtesie as well as his Master So he put into the basin six pence and withall takes out his Masters Angel the Image makes him loving courtesie and seems to thank him kindly Thus it is too too common now adayes to take away the Clergies Angel and lay down six pence in the stead thereof to take away their just maintenance and put â—hem upon the Peoples benevolence like those that steal a goose and stick down a feather or those that have undone many then build an Hospital for some few so they having made a sad purchase of Church-lands having taken away a Talent of Church-maintenance return a mite of popular Contribution Truth commended Falshood condemned PYrrbus and Ulysses being sent to Lemnos to take from Philoctetes Hercules arrowes the two Legates advised by what means they might best â—rest them out of his hands Ulysses affirmed that it was best to do it by lying and deceipt No said Pyrrhus I like not of that course because I never used it but alwayes loved the Truth at my Father and my Ancestors have ever done Whereunto Ulysses replyed That when he was a young Man he was of his mind too but now being old he had learnt by long experience dearly bought that the surest way and safest art in Mans life is Fallere et mentiri to lie and cheat Surely many of this Age are of Ulysses's mind they speak one thing intend another they are all courtesie in promise no honesty at all in performance but true Israelites are of Pyrrhus's spirit Magna est Veritas et praevalebit Great is the Truth and will prevail is the sweet Poesie of their profession both in themselves and those that relate unto them and they resolve upon the doctrine of Christ Iesus their Master that the Truth shall make them free Piety and Policy not inconsistent FAbles are not without their usefull Moralls A Boy was molested with a Dog the Fryer taught him to say a Gospel by heart and warranted this to allay the dogs Fury The Mastiff alias Maze-Thief in the original Saxon spying the boy flyes at him he begins as it were to conjure him with his Gospel The Dog not capable of such Gospel-doctrine approacheth more violently A Neighbour passing by bids the boy take up a stone he did so and throwing at the dog escaped The Fryer demands of the Lad how he sped with his charm Sir quoth he your Gospel was good but a stone with the Gospel did the deed And most true it is that prayers and tears are good weapons but not the onely weapons of the Church It is not enough to bend the knee without stirring the hand Shall Warr march against us with thunder and shall we assemble our selves in the Temple lye prostrate on the pavements lift up our hands and eyes to Heaven and not our weapons against our Enemies shall we beat the ayr with our voyces and not their bosoms with our swords onely knock our own breasts and not their pates Sure a Religious Conscience never taught a Man to neglect his life his liberty his estate his peace Piety and Policy are not opposites He that taught us to be harmlesse as Doves bad us also be wise as Serpents Progresse in Piety enjoyned THe Prophet Elias after he had travelled a dayes journey in the Wildernesse sate down and slept under a Juniper Tree and there God calls upon him Up and eat and when he found him a second time Up thou hast a journey to go and when he had travelled fourty dayes and was lodged in a cave What doest thou here Elias Go and return unto the Wildernesse by Damascus and do thus and thus So whether we be entred in our way or have proceeded in it whether we be babes in Christ or stronger men whether carnal or spiritual we must up and
time yet he will return at last he may in his great Wisdome for a time hide his face yet at last he will in mercy lift up the light of his Countenance to the great joy of that poor Soul that seems to be deserted and make bare the arm of his power for comfort Men to be active in regaining their lost Souls IT is said of Xerxes the greatest of the Persian Princes that when the Graecians had taken from him Sardis a famous City in Asia the lesse in S. Iohn's time one of the seaven Churches charged That every day at dinner some one or other speaking with a loud voice should remember him that the Graecians had taken the City of Sardis from him But what shall poor Sinners do that have lost more then a City even their pretious Souls which are of more worth then all the World besides Let them then give their Redeemer no rest by incessant Prayers till he deliver them and repair their ruines let them still be calling upon him to remember his losse and theirs for theirs are his till they have regained by him that which was at first taken from them by the Enemy â—ven the Image of their God after which they were created Hypocrites discovering their own shame IT is said of the Peacock whose pleasant wings as holy Ioh calls them chap. 39. 16. are more for ostentation then for use For whiles he spreads out his gaudy plumes he displayes the uglinesse of his hinder parts Such are many Hypocritical dissembling wretches aâ— this day who yet differ from the Peacock in this that whereas he is said to have Argus his eyes in his tail they it should seem have them in their heads else how could they espy so many faults in others none in themselves yet whilst they spread out their gay plumes whilst they simper it devoutly and rail Jesuitically against Church and State whilst they hear Sermons pray give Alms make a sowre Lenten face all to be seen of Men What do they else but discover their own shame shew the uglinesse of their hinder parts bewray the fearfulnesse of their latter end Sin the chief cause of a Nation or Cities ruine PHysitians make the Threescore and third year of a Mans life a dangerous Climacterical year to the body Natural And Statists make the Five hundreth year of a City or Kingdome as dangerous to the body Politick beyond which say they Cities and Kingdomes cannot stand But which is matter of Wonder Who hath ever felt a Cities languishing pulse Who hath discerned the fatal diseases of a Kingdome found out their Critical daies Do they wax weak and heavy and old and shriveld and pine away with years as the body of Man No they may flourish still and grow green they may continue as the daies of Heaven and be as the Sun before the Almighty if his wrath be not provoked by their wickednesse So that it is not any divine aspect of the Heavens any malignant Conjunction of Stars and Planets but the Peoples loose manners ungratious lives and enormous Sins which are both the chief cause and symptome of a Kingdome or Cities sicknesse and they indeed soon bring them to a fearful end and utter desolation Wherein the poysonfull Nature of Sinne consisteth IT is credibly reported That in some parts of Italy there are Spiders of so poysoâ—ous a Nature as will kill him that treads upon them and break a glasse if they do but creep over it This shews clearly that the force of this Poyson is not in measure by the quantity but in the Nature by the quality thereof And even so the force of Sin consists not in the greatnesse of the subjâ—ct or object of it but in the poysonful Nature of it For that it is the breach of the Law violation of the Iustice and a provocation of the wrath of God and is a present poyson and damnation to Mens Souls therefore as the least poyson as poyson being deadly to the body is detested so the least sin as sin being mortal to the Soul is to be abhorred Our own Natural corruption the cause of Sin AS corruption and infection could not by the heat of the ayr ambient enter into our bodies if our bodies did not consist of such a Nature as hath in its self the causes of corruption No more could Sin which is a generall rot and corruption of the Soul enter into us through the allurements or provocation of outward things if our Souls had not first of themselves received that inward hurt by which their desire is made subject to Sin as the Womans desire was made subject to her Husband and as the Philosophers say the Matter to the Form The causes of Sin are to be ascribed to our own Concupiscence the root is from our own hearts It is confessed that Sathan may instill his poyson and kindle a Fire of evil desires in us yet it is our own Flesh that is the first Mover and our own Will which sets the Faculties of the Soul in combustion Death of the Soul more to be lamented then the death of the body ST Augustine confesseth That in his youth as many Wantons do he read that amorous discourse of Aeneas and Dido with great affection and when he came to the death of Dido he wept for pure compassion But O me miserum saith the good Father I â—ewailed miserable Man that I was the fabulous death of Dido forsaken of Aeneas and did not bewail the true death of my Soul forsaken of her Jesus Thus it is that many unhallowed tears are sacrificed to the Idols of our eyes which yet are as dry as Pumices in regard of our Souls We bewayl a body forsaken of the Soul and do not grieve for the Soul abandoned by God Hence we are to learn from every Corps that is buried what the daughters of Israel were to learn from Christ crucified Weep not for me but weep for your selves Luke 23. 28. not so much for the losse of your bodies as for the death of your immortal Souls Not to wait Gods good pleasure in times of Affliction very dangerous A Man that is unskilful in swimming having ventured past his depth and so in danger of drowning hastily and inconsiderately catcheth at what comes next to hand to save himself withall but it so happeneth that he oft layeth hold on sedgy weeds that do but intangle him and draw him deeper under water and there keep him down from ever getting up again till he be by that whereby he thought to save himself drown'd indeed Thus it is that whilest many through weaknesse of Faith and want of Patience are loath to wait Gods good pleasure and being desirous to be rid in all haste of the present Affliction they put their hand oft to such courses as procure fearful effects and use such sorry shifts for the relieving of themselves
the corruption stayes not where it begun but putrifieth and corrupteth more and more till all be alike Thus it is that Sincerity tells the Christian Nil fictum est diuturnum Nothing counterfeit will last long and that Man that hath a rotten heart towards God his want of sincerity will in time be discovered and his outside be made as rotten as his inside Fraud and guile cannot go long unspied dissembling will not alwaies be dissembled and Hypocrisy will discover it self in the end The Devills rage an argument of the day of Iudgment near at hand AS some ill-minded Tenant whom if you should see to make havock and spoil of every thing upon the Tenement he holds as to fell the Trees rack out the ground grub up the hedges tear down the gates rifle the house would you not be ready to think Surely this Mans lease is almost expired else he would never play such â—eaks as he doth So now that the Devill so ruffles abroad stirs up contentions conspiracies tumults wars labours to bring all kind of Sin into fashion to convert the World all into Pride drunkennesse Whoredome Epicurism Atheism and attempts above all former wont to do all the villany and mischief that he can What implies it but that the date of his time is even almost out his Lease very near out and Christ near at hand to Iudgment The Simonist discovered THere is mention made of a certain sort of Indian people near unto the River Ganges called Astomi who have no mouths but a kind of hole instead thereof whereby they receive the sweet sent of flowers which is all the sustenance they receive for the support of Nature And just such are all Simonists and Simonaicall parties who have no mouths to shew forth the prayses of God but onely a tonguelesse hole by which they suck up the sweetnesse of Church-livings purchased by bribery at Steeple-fair such as make their Profession a meer Mechanick trade or Occupation and their Ministery a ladder onely to climb to preferment Mercenaries no true Pastors Creepers in through the Window no true Preachers Men easily to be known by their works For they seek their own not Christ's they feed upon the fat of the Flock and cloath themselves with the wool but suffer the sheep to starve for want of food the People to perish for want of due Instruction The excellency of Justice THe Sages of elder times seated the Virgin Iustice amongst the Constellations of Heaven betwixt the signs of the Lyon and the Ballance 1. Power and Equity receiving the Comforter of the World the Sun in Harvest time and bearing in her hand an ear of Corn in token of Plenty to the Husbandman And before her walks or stalks Bootes the Heard or Pasture-man holding up one hand as triumphing and blessing his security under the protection of Iustice and with the other guarding the Crown against the Gyant and the Serpent 1. Violence and Treachery Wisely shewing as by an Emblem visible to the eye of the World that Iustice Laws and Magistracy are Divine and Heavenly things Mothers and Nurses of Piety Security Felicity Iustice being the very life-breath which many thousands draw who else would be a very burthen to themselves and a prey unto others Do but take away Iustice and what are great Kingdomes but great Thieveries Justice is that which tames and bridles the fiercest defends and strengthens the weakest keeps all quiet secure peaceable happy God Predestinateth to the means as well as to the end THere is mention made of one Ludovicus who was a learned Man of Italy yet wanting the guidance of Gods spirit and so never considering advisedly of the means of his salvation grew at last to this resolution Sisalvabon salvabor It 's no matter what I do or how I live For if I be saved I am saved If I be predestinated to life I am sure of Salvation if otherwise I cannot help it Thusbewit ched with this desperate opinion he continued a long time till at length he grew very dangerously sick whereupon he sent for a Skillfull Physitian and earnestly requested his help The Physitian aforehand made acquainted with his former leud assertion how he would usually say If I am saved I am saved directed his speech to the same purpose and said Surely it will be altogether needless to use any means for your recovery neither do I purpose to administer any thing unto you For if the time of your death be now come it is impossible to avoid it Ludovicus musing in his bed of the matter and taking the Physitians speech into serious consideration makâ— out this conclusion to himself That if means were to be used for the health of the body then much more had God also ordeined means for the Salvation of Mens Souls And so upon further conference with shame and grief he recanted his former opinion took Physick and was happily cured both of Soul and body together Thus it is that the determinate Counsell of God in the matter of Predestination doth not take away the Nature and property of secondary causes nor exclude the means of Salvation but rather sets them in order and disposes of them to their proper end And common sense and Reason teach that in every action the end and the means of the end must go together Now the end which every one of us doth aim at is Eternall life we must be sure then to lay hold upon Calling and Iustification as the means ordained to come to this end For God hath chosen us from everlasting there is Predestination yet there he doth not leave us but then he doth teach us by his word there is Calling This Word through his Spirit ingendreth Faith there is Iustification And Faith lifts up unto God there 's the Ultimate of all Glorification Man by refusing the tenders of Grace becomes the cause of his own destruction A Man being sick and like to die the Physitian knowing his case takes with him some preservative to comfort him and coming to the dore falls a knocking Now if he either will not or be not able to let him in he must of necessity perish and the cause cannot properly lye at the Physitians door who was ready and willing to relieve him but in himself that is not willing to be relieveâ— Thus it is that Sin is a disease whereof we are all sick we have all 〈◊〉 Now Christ is the great Physitian of our Souls he came down formerly from Heaven on purpose to heal us and he comes down daily to the door of our hearts and there he knocks Rev. 3. 20. He bringeth with him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread of life his eternal word to comfort us and if we but open the dore of our 〈◊〉 he will come in and sup with us as he did with Mary and forgive all our sins Luke 10. but if we
fair impression once so visibly seen may not at present appear yet all this marrs not the evidence nor ought to weaken the assurance of Heaven for there it shall go currant and hold out in the matter of right as a greater fairer and fuller because it was once as good as any and once loved ever loved to the end Christ a sure pay-master IT is reported of a certain godly Man that living near to a Philosopher did often perswade him to become a Christian Oh but said the Philosopher If I turn Christian I must or may lose all for Christ To whom and to which the good Man replyed If you lose any thing for Christ he will be sure to repay it an hundred fold I but said the Philosopher Will you be bound for Christ that if he do not pay me you will Yes that I will said the other So the Philosopher became a Christian and the good Man entred into bond for performance of Covenants Some time after it so fell out that the Philosopher fell sick on his death-bed and holding the bond in his hand sent for the party engaged to whom he gave up the bond and said Christ hath paid all there 's nothing for you to pay take your bond and cancel it Thus it is that Christ is a sure willing able Pay-master whatsoever any Man ever did for him hath been fully recompensed and put the case so far that a Man should be a loser for Christ yet he shall be no loser by Christ he will make amends for all in the conclusion The Soulâ—s neglect condemned THere is a story of a Woman who when her house was on fire so minded the saving of her goods that she forgot her onely child and left it burning in the fire at last being minded of it she cryes out Oh my child Oh my poor child So it is that the most of Men here in this World scrabble for a little pelf and in the mean time let their Souls be consumed with cares and then at the time of their death cry out Oh my Soul Oh my poor Soul so mad are they so bewitched with the things of this life that while they pamper their bodies they starve their Souls great care is taken to neatiâ—ie the one when the other goes bare enough not having one rag of Righteousnesse to cover it so that many times under a silken and Sattin Suit there 's a very coorse Soul in a clean house a sluttish Soul under a beautifull face a deformed Soul but all such will one day find that he that winneth the world with the losse of his Soul hath but a hard bargain of it in the conclusion How our love to the Creature is to be regulated RIvers that come out of the Sea as they passe along do lightly touch the Earth but they stay not there but go on forward till at last they return again into that Sea from whence they first came Thus it is that our love must first come from God to the Creature yet being so come it must not rest and settle there however like a River it may in passage touch it no it must return back again into that infinite Sea even God himself whence it first came All Creatures therefore are to be loved in God and for God onely so that the love of the Creature must be so far from taking any thing from the love of God that rather it must confirm and encrease the same And then is the love of the Creature truly regulated when it is referred to the Creator when it may be said We love not so much the Creature as the Creator in the Creature How to demean our selves after we are sealed by the Spirit LOok but upon a poor Countryman how solicitous he is if it be but a bond of no great value to keep the Seal fair and whole But if it be of an higher nature as a Patent under the broad Seal or the like then to have his box his leaves and wooll and all care is used that it take not the least hurt And shall we then make slight reckoning of the Holy Ghost's seal vouchsasing it not that care do not so much for it as he for his bond of five Nobles the matter being of such high concernment Let us then being well and orderly sealed by the Spirit be careful to keep the signature from defacing or bruising not to suffer the evill Spirit to set his mark put his print with his image and superscription upon it then not to carry the seal so loosely as if we cared not what became of it And whereas we are signati to be close and fast not to suffer every trifling occasion to break us up not to have our Souls to lye so open as all manner of thoughts may passe and repasse through them without the least reluctation Rulers Magistrates c. to stand up for the cause of the Poor and needy IT is an Honourable memorial that Iames the fifth K. of Scots hath left behind him that he was called The poor Man's King And it is said of Radolphus Habspursius that seeing some of his Guard repulsing divers poor persons that made towards him for relief was very much displeased and charged them to suffer the Poorest to have accesse unto him saying That he was called to the Empire not to be shut up in a chest as reserved for some few but to be where all might have freedom of resort unto him And thus as great Persons are in Scripture expressed by the Sun which affordeth his influence so well to the lowest shrub as to the tallest Cedar shines as comfortably upon the meanest Cottage as the stateliest Pallace that amongst other good things done by them they may be renowned to Posterity for being the Poor man's Advocate eyes to the blind feet to the lame alwayes ready to right and relieve those that have no other means to right and relieve themselves but by flying to them for shelter The Vanity of all Worldly greatnesse AS it is in a Lottery the Place with the great basin and ewer make a glistering shew and are exposed to the publique view of all and if a Man by chance light on a prize it is usually no great matter onely it is drummed out and trumpetted abroad to tell the World and this is the glory of it Even so if some of those many that venture hard for Honours and struggle for greatnesse do speed it is no such great matter onely the businesse is trumpetted out told abroad and the World hath some apprehension of it but the wisest of Mortals found this also amongst other things to be vanity a supposed excellence which hath no true being accompanied with cares and cumber the object as well of Envy as esteem the happinesse of all such greatnesse consisting in this that it is thought happy rather then that it is so indeed The
tryall 47. The providence of God to be eyed in all things 224. 512. God is not to be provoked to anger 16. The proud Man's Memento 565. Men not to be proud of their Lands and Livings 631. Prudentiall part of a Man to do as well as he may 653. God to be consulted at all times but more especially in the beginning of all Publique concernments 9. Publique Men to have publique spirits 32. The proposal of punishments and rewards very usefull to the bringing in to Christ 644. Punishments of the Wicked in this life nothing in comparison of those in Hell hereafter 671. The place of Purgatory a meer dream 489. Purity and the heart of Man seldome meet together 508. Q. THe vanity of needlesse and intricate Questions 61. No Quietnesse in the Soul till it come to Christ 19. The good of Quietnesse and evill of contention 331. R. RAnters Roaring Boys their Conversion to be endeavoured 358. The Ranters Religion 439. Hell broke loose by swarms of Ranters 512. How to read with profit 235. Reason must submit to Faith 125. Reconciliation with God in Christ to be made sure 290. To be made with all Men 488. Recreation the necessity thereof 247. Lawful recreation the benefit thereof 250. The high price of Mans Redemption 620. Men to labour that they be regenerated 614. Regeneration the excellency thereof 611. Carnal unregenerate Men unserviceable in Church oâ— State 534. An unregenerate Man a carelesse Man 135. Regeneration the necessity thereof 263. Regeneration the onely work of Gods Spirit 264. Corruption of Nature left even in the most Regenerate to humble them 355. To rejoyce with trembling 157. No true cause of rejoycing in this World 293. Relapses into sin dangerous 89. Gods delight in a relapsed Sinner's repentance 155. To beware of relapses in sin 279. A cheap Religion the Worldlings best Religion 42. A cheap Religion the best Religion with most Men 8. Religion and Unity the onely supporters of Church and State 16. Protestant Religion the onâ—ly comfortable Religion to dye in 21. Peace sets up Religion 48. A seeming Religion no saving Religion 61. Not lawful to fight for Religion 77. The Christians inside Religion and outside to be all one 95. Talkâ—rs and not doers of Religion condemned 98. Religion pretended mischief intended 130. 493. Religion not Reason is the square of all good actions Englands distractions as to the matter of Religion 169. Sin attendant on the best of Religious performances 170. How to walk circumspectly or Religiously 206. Religion wasted by the want of Maintenance 209. Not to give occasion that Religion be ill spoken of 258. Religion consisting in duty both to God and Man 398. The way of Religion irksome in the begining but comfortable in the end 417. Men to be forward in promoting the cause of Religion 435. Religion not to be made a stalking horse to policy 471. Satan's aym at those that have most of God and Religion in them 649. Truth of Religion lost as it were in the crowd of many Religions 654. Life libâ—rty estate c. to be undervalued when Religion is in danger of losing 658. Women Reformers intollerable 516. Reformation pretended deformation intended 116. Ignorant Reformers whether in Church or State reproved 580. Knowledg very useful in the matter of Reformation 4. The Church robbed of her maintenance upon pretence of Reformation 17. A bad Reformation of the Church is the deformation of the Church 26. To find out the impediments of Repentance in our selves 557. The great danger of Repentance put off till old age 552. Repentance not to be put off till old age 329. 414. 489. The true Râ—pentant Sinnâ—r's encouragement notwithstanding all his former Wickednesse 349. The great folly of late Repentance in any thing 17. 248. What true Repentance is 29. The time of Repentance not to be deferred 34. The vanity and danger of late Repentance 68. Nationall Judgments call for National Repentance 68. Repentance to be Universall 91. 154. 631. Our whole life to be a life of Repentance 95. Seasonable Repentance is safe Repentance 122. The fruits of Repentance are to be as well outward as inward 146. True Repentance will not admit of any sin 160. The prevalency of Repentant tears 167. 446. Christians not to revile and reproach one another 445. How to bear the Reproaches of Men 446. Reproaches to be born chearfully and why so 447. Reproaches and sufferings for the Name of Christ are marks of Salvation 449. Reproaches and sufferings made honourable by God 451. Faults in manners and errours in doctrine to be distinguished in the matter of Reproof 257. The Ministers partiality in the reproof of sin condemned 262. Reproofs of a Wise Man not to be sleighted 523. Ministers to be carefull in the reproof of Sinners 529. Resurrection of the dead asserted 515. Gods iâ—finite power in the Resurrection of the body 14. Resurrection of the body proved by demonstration 148. The happy meeting both of body and Soul in the Resurrection 176. The comfortable Resurrection of Gods poor people 311. Resurrection of the just asserted 406. Excellency of Resolution in the cause of God 378. Resolution in the cause of God very requisite 232. The Resolved Christian makes way through all difficulties 105. The Resolved Christian 50. 647. Restitution the necessity thereof 290. Neglect thereof condemned 479. Revenge above all other passions is of a growing Nature 80. Not to be hasty therein 545. The grand impostory of pretended Revelations 476. Reverence to be used in the service of God 25. 466. Reverence of Man more then God a true sign of a decaying State or Kingdome 211. Reward of Heaven will make amends for all 136. God regardeth and rewardeth his People 209. God rewarding the least of good done to his people 434. Faithful and seeming servants of God differenced by way of reward 461. Certainty of the good Man's reward 584. God himself the reward of all good endeavours 486. The fulnesse of reward reserved till after this life 620. The powerful effects of Rhetorical elocution 109. Gods Rhetorick in the delivery of the Law 133. Riches avail not in the day of Wrath 3. Riches honours preferments c. transitory 5. Riches the deceitfulnesse of them 15. Riches have wings 29. Riches without content yield no comfort 54. Riches oft-times prove pernicious to the owners thereof 55. Riches without grace yield no true comfort 87. Riches are snares 89. The safest way is to trust God with our Riches 95. The Vanity of heaping up Riches 99. The readiest way to get Riches is to trust God for them 128. The dangerous effects of Riches being not well used 131. Riches ill gotten seldome prosper 138. 495. How to use Riches 192. 590. Riches honours c. the Devil's bayts 201. Riches ill gotten never prosper 303. Riches beauty c. in comparison of God are lying Vanities 319. How to become true possessors of Riches 357. A blessed thing to have Riches and a heart to use them aright