Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	law_n	sin_n	1,595	5	5.0127	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85674	An historical anatomy of Christian melancholy, sympathetically set forth, in a threefold state of the soul. 1 Endued with grace, 2 ensnared in sin, 3 troubled in conscience. With a concluding meditation on the fourth verse of the ninth chapter of Saint John. / By Edmund Gregory, sometimes Bachelour of Arts in Trin. Coll. Oxon.	Gregory, Edmund, b. 1615 or 16.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1646 (1646)	Wing G1885; Thomason E1145_1; ESTC R40271	96,908	160

I say of being in a lesser degree of Condemnation we cannot grant unto our selves for we shall reason chiefly thus If God be most just as he must needs be he cannot but distribute equall right and Justice unto all men and so he may not spare any one person more then other for any favour or respect whatsoever but only for their good behaviour and as they have better husbanded their time and his gifts in them for will the righteous God of all the world judge partially No verily he is truth it selfe farre be it from the Lord as it is in the 34. of Iob and the 10 verse that he shou●d doe wickednesse and from the Almighty that he should commit iniqutty for the worke of a man shall he render unto him and cause every man to finde according to his wayes and though there be mercy to be found in Christ for the greatest sinners yet are we notwithstanding me thinks to make account that God certainly requires our good behaviour in amendment of life according to that of Saint Paul in the second to the Corinthians the 5. Chapter If any man be in Christ he is a new creature As the Father is Truth so is the Son and if we meane to be the better for him and come thorough him as the way into Heaven we must follow him as he is the way and the truth in newnesse of life and therefore how can we who be thus in the greatest state of sinne as we conceive our selves to be both in the former passage of our life as also especially now for these present thoughts and tormenting impieties of minde but needs expect and look for the greatest Condemnation of all men so true is that Heathen but wise speech Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur There is no advocate can plead our cause When Conscience once doth prosecute the Lawes For nay yet further me thinkes we doe so much hate what we are and applaud Truth and Justice that unlesse we might be free from sinne from this wretched and hellish condition of minde though God himselfe should now call us into Heaven we would surely stand without we could not nor would not come in unlesse he would shew the like mercy upon all unlesse all other men were bidd●n come in too whom we are of opinion to be farre more fit for it then our selves Well this thought and conceit as it hath some reason in it in that we cannot deject our selves as low as our sins deserve we knovv so much of our selves that vve cannot but think all others better then our selves vvho are so exceedingly bad in our selves I say againe as it hath reason in it duely considering the unhappy state of sin and this transcendent unhappinesse of the minde vvhich is novv so full of the Hell of tormenting distempers and dispaire that we cannot thinke our selves possibly capable of that most holy place and glorious condition vvhich is only fit for the purity of Saints and Angels yet is there no question a kind of close stubbornnesse usually joyned vvith it even in this our lovvest dejection thus I say there may be though vve doe not all perceive it too much stomack in us too much stomack as much as to say Since that God hath not delivered us from these sinnes and vvretched untovvardnesses vve are therefore as it vvere carelesse to be delivered from the punishment as if a Father for some discontent should shut his Child out of doores for an houre or tvvo though perchance the Father aftervvards vvould let him come in yet forsooth he vvill not but in a mogging humour lyes abroad all night So verily in this aforesaid passage and conclusion of minde as I conceive it is not much unlike vvith us as if God had fcarce dealt vvell enough vvith us to let us fall into these snares of sin and distraction therefore novv peradventure in this case vve doe not much care for mercy our Melancholly forsaken soule as David in the 77. Psalm refuseth comfort and as Iacob at the supposed nevves of ●osephs death in the 37. of Genesis vvould not take comfort of his friend so now either we cannot or will not take comfort from others it is hard to tell ●ruely vvhich is the cause for sin These motions have so deep a secresie The truth thereof there 's none can well discry As I say let the cause be vvhat it vvill be either reall or imaginary or deluding for note this that the excesse of Melancholly in many of us is altogether a strong distempered delusion of phansie however sure enough it is to our seeming that vve are not able to receive it because vvhatsoever is said to us by any of our friends or others in the vvay of comforting us novv in this our extream distresse of mind for the most part it is all in vaine and to no purpose as touching the sins vvhich lye upon our consciences like mountaines of Lead too heavy for us to beare If it be urged and applyed that St. Peter forsvvare Christ his deare Lord and Master after that he had a long time received so many gracious courtesies from him after that he had been an ancient Apostle full of heavenly vvisedom and understanding that David committed both Murder and Adultery in his elder age after he had familiarly vvalked vvith God many yeares together and yet both these so great offenders vvere easily forgiven Againe that our Saviour Christ came into this World for nothing else dyed for no other purpose but only to save sinners and that he delighted in mercy whilst he vvas here amongst us rejo●cing to doe his Fathers vvork that great vvork of mercy as appeareth by his generall Proclamation Come unto me all yee that are weary and heavy laden c. and as it eminently appeareth by his manner of conversation upon earth by being usually amongst and familiar with Publicans and sinners by his favourable and kind speech and behaviour to that Woman taken in Adultery to Mary Magdalen and the like Nay ●et once further if it be urged and pressed unto our Consciences that the mighty Jehovah even the Lord God himselfe in his ovvne vvords hath spoken by the Prophet Ezekiel As I live saith the Lord God I desire not the death of the wicked And againe most Pathe●tcally by the Prophet Isaiah Though your sins were as crimson they shall be made as white as snow though they were red like scarle● they shall be as wooll If you vvill I say if you vvill at last but endeavour to be reclaimed if the consent c. as it follovves in the next verse intimating that it is not the greatnesse of our sins that can seperate his mercy from us if there be any desire or inclination to good be it never so little even as nothing for he will not quench the smoking flax nor breake che bruised reed Alas it must needs be a very little fire that doth but make the flax to smoak when as

Service of God leads us into that glorious liberty which as I conceive Saint Paul speaks of of the sons of God First I mean that liberty whereby we feel our Consciences set free from the doting scrupulosity of things unnecessary and indifferent the which perchance at some other times we may be apt to stick upon with perplexity Secondly I mean that liberty we may call it The liberty of Obedience which as it makes us willingly and freely to obey our betters cause 't is for Gods glory who hath appointed the same and ' cause 't is for his glory to do him service in it so again it makes us so free in Spirit as not to stoop to any ignoble or disgraceful servility that is with a base and cowardly heart to yeeld our approbation in any unjust indirect course because our Superiours either like or command it to call good evil or evil good for any cause whatsoever No we have a warrant for it methinks in our souls not to deny the Truth for the fear or love of the greatest or dearest one in the world for if we deny the Truth we deny him that is greater and dearer unto us then any can be besides even God himself for God is Truth saith Saint John And surely he that is in subjection to father or mother as our Saviour saith or even unto any other Creature more then unto God is not worthy of him Many times this free spirit is apt to degenerate into a firy spirit so that in stead of a moderate use of the liberty of truth towards Superiours shall we be ready to fall into a rash and disobedient humour against them Joab's dealing with King David 1 Chron. 21. 3 is a singular example to be followed in this kinde that is to be so freely faithful unto our Betters as not to flatter or back them on in that which is evil and yet not using our Liberty as a cloke of Maliciousnesse so lovingly respectful as not to contradict their power with an undiscreet and churlish impatiency Moreover this our foresaid unity and reconciliation with God crowneth our souls with many happie and rare advantages but specially in this that it maketh our spirits chearful merry and full of rejoycing a good Conscience is as a continual feast wherein we are satisfied with all good things as with marrow and fatnesse and therefore most fitly hath our Saviour named the holy Ghost a Comforter And be shall give you another Comforter Joh. 14. 16. A Comforter and truely so for how can sadnesse take fast hold in that brest where this heavenly joy and comfort doth abide Thus for a season do we flourish in the state of reconciliation flourish like an herb nourished with the dew of heaven or like the tree in Davids Psalms planted by the waters side the flowing river of Gods mercies And now And now perchance that we have spent some days Or else some weeks in these more sacred ways we must begin to take an unwilling farewel of this our happinesse for by this time that heart and courage against sin which we have got by Repentance doth flag grow lesse and lesse and decay till we are defiled therewith as before the drowzie eye by little and little falls asleep it knows not how and were it not for the awaking again 't would scarce perceive whether it had slept or no so even so insensibly doth sin creep on and so subtilly get within us that we can never almost feel it till the sting thereof hath awaken our consciences unto Repentance And then again perceiving the wickednesse of our hearts and the foul enormity of sin shall we in the bitternesse of our souls and detestation of our iniquities humble our selves even belowe the dust of the earth accounting us not worthy to be the vilest creatures under the cope of heaven that have been so wickedly perfidious against our Creator and therefore do we consider and earnestly resolve for the present if it will please him once more even this once more to forgive us this our sin surely methinks all the devils in hell should not prevail to overtake us so again for this doth always touch us neerest and trouble us most that we are so faithlesse unto God and so full of hypocrisie before him that whereas at our last Repentance we had so syncerely so heartily and so seriously promised amendment of life and also with our whole might and main to obey God and please him neverthelesse though our promise doth seem to be never so hearty and with so full a purpose yet the end and event doth shew that there is hypocrisie in it even great hypocrisie for when temptation comes and sin is at hand then do we falsheartedly and cowardly not onely not duly strive against and resist it but even basely yeeld unto it So infirm is our best ability that our Saviour hath wisely taught us to pray to God that he would not try our strength with temptation O lead us not into ●emptation But our weaknesse or rather wickednesse is yet greater not onely in so easily suffering temptation to prevail over us but also in our readinesse to joyn with it and help it forwards hugging the very first motions thereof in our brests so that we may say of our souls as David did of the wicked man Psal 50. 18 Thou no sooner sawest that thief sin but thou consentedst with him and bast been partaker c. Nay many times we do go one degree farther besides this hugging and hastie embracing of the evil motions of sin proposed unto us I say One degree farther even by seeking after temptation and inviting of outward means to beget sin within us just as those of whom Isaiah speaks that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Well notwithstanding Though sin doth thus even dye our souls in grain Thy mercies Lord can purge out all the stain Before thee we are ' sham'd to shew our face But all our hope is in thy saving grace notwithstanding I say the unhappie discouragements of sin we shall embolden our selves to offer up in this manner our resolution unto the Lord. O merciful Father if it would please thee to passe by our iniquities and to forgive us this time sure now in good earnest we will perform our words we will certainly keep our promise and set our selves more syncerely to it then before hitherto we have promised well but now will we do well knowing verily that it is not the sudden passion of a good desire that is sufficient but the constant habit of better Obedience it is not enough to have the shew of godlinesse in our Mouthes and bare Intentions if we deny the true power and effect thereof in our Lives and Conversations We will now therefore act out our intendment in the practice of Religion whatsoever hath been past we will now certainly be altogether in good earnest there shall nothing hinder us Thus

even thus so eager so intentive and so earnest shall we be somtimes that we desire forgivenesse from God on no other terms but as he doth finde our amendment afterwards we will even be dealt withal according to our good behaviour and not onely so but we shall be ready to imprecate a revenge of our breach of promise with some due punishment upon our heads and to expect from God no otherwise to be merciful unto us then as that we do approve our faithfulnesse unto him And yet for all this this utmost resolution that may be are we at no time as good as our word I say At no time can we thorowly withstand sin it always overmatcheth us 't is too strong for us to deal with sin specia●ly of all the rest the sin of our nature our darling and sweet a reeing sin this therefore exceeding unfaithfulnesse of ours in that we do so vehemently promise that which we do never accordingly perform doth at length methinks at every time of our Repentance bring us so much the further out of credit with God so that we can hardly see how he should believe or forgive us any more who have thus often dealt so falsly with him Neverthelesse sin doth presse us so sore that we may not sit still in quiet till we get ease by Repentance The Conscience like a stomack that 's displeas'd With meats doth vomit till she can be eas'd In this case we shall be very loth perchance and altogether asham'd to come again into the presence of God as Adam was in Gen. 3. 10 yet necessity doth prick us forward because O Lord whither shall we go from thy presence to have any comfort in this our misery to thee therefore must we needs come O thou Preserver of men Necessity I sav sets us forward and at length so often experience bringeth us to consider with our selves and thus to close our judgement more neer to the matter that since there must needs be somthing else in it besides the secret hypocrisie of our own hearts why so many promises should vanish in the air so many promises which for th● present we cannot perceive but that they do come most heartily and syncerely from us Sure we shall think to our selves there is some other difficulty in it sure there is somwhat else hinders that we cannot be as good as our words and thus considering after a while we begin to feel out the knot that indeed it is no marvel why we could not perform that which we did promise when-as we did promise that which we could not perform that which of our selves we are no ways able to bring to passe Now therefore it is easie to see the folly of our too-violent and vehement earnestnesse in saying we will do this and we will do that the which is not in our power to effect and therefore more duely weighing within our selves that 't is God alone who worketh both the will and the deed as Saint Paul speaks we learn thereby more moderately and soberly to say O draw us and w● will run after thee Lord we would be better we desire to avoid sin but help thou our desire We may also in Saint Pauls words truely say that we labour labour in our mindes to be rid of sin and to attain some better condition of life and yet it is not we but the grace of God which is with us it is our labour and it is not ours somthing there is no question in us to set forwards in the businesse and yet this something without God we do sufficiently finde to be even as nothing we may as indeed we must be doing and so we our endeavours but let us know and be assured that there can be no harvest except God prosper it for it shall be like the Corn growing upon the house top wherewith the Mower filleth not his hand neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom Many times do we observe in the passage of our life that when we most strive and are most eagerly set to resist sin we shall usually never a jot the lesse but rather the more be foil'd with sin First the cause thereof as I judge is our impaciency for we may feel in our selves if we mark it that herein we are not so patiently contented as we should be to tarry the Lords leasure but would make too much haste to be freed before it is Gods will we should Saint Paul himself would fain be delivered but it was answered him My grace is sufficient for thee Again another cause may be for that perchance we do attribute too much to our own strength for the deliverance and therefore God will let us see how weak we are of our selves to do any thing as of our selves Behold Our sinnes take being with us in the wombe they live with us from Cradle to the Tomb so weake are wee frayle to encounter with sinne the common Enemy of Man-kind specially this bosome Enemy our naturall sinne and corruption that it is well if through continuance ef many yeers together we can make these Ague fits to breake their course It is to be noted that every one hath his double Genius his good and evill Angell to attend upon him the good Angell I meane his naturall inclination to some vertue more then ordinary the evill Angell his naturall inclination to some vice above the rest if wee doe keepe out this evill Angell this Devill of ours this Satan and Deceiver at armes end that is not suffer the temptation to enter in too neerly unto us we may perchance now and then escape the foyle But when once he gets within us sure wee are then to bee overcome there is no grapling with it in our owne breasts And oh how often and often are wee thus shamefully foyled and overcome sometimes do wee thinke to our selves Lord shall we never be free from this pollution of sinne Wee doe hope this shall be the last time now wee hope wee shall doe so no more but yet still there is no Last there is no end with it the comfort that wee have is this that as wee doe often sinne so it is no long while that wee continue in it without repentance and so then as David saith Though heavinesse may endure for a night the night of sinne yet Ioy commeth againe in the morning the morning of repentance Ioy and that a double Ioy Ioy by Reconciliation with God and Regeneration unto Righteou●nesse and Ioy by spirituall comfort in divine Meditations for the pleasing exercise of these Meditations like a sweet Companion in our heavenly Iourney is seldome long absent from our soules being full of amiable delight and recreation refreshing the heart with pleasure and sugaring the affections so that many times the familiar conversation which wee have with Heaven and that Angelicall illumination of mind which is within us doth make our ravisht soules notwithstanding all other difficulties say unto themselves as Iacoh

Aegistus quare sit factus adulter In promptu causa est desidiosus erat If you demand Aegistus why He did commit adultery The cause is easie to be seen Because he hath so idle been And as it hatcheth all sins in the soul so of all other is it the most kindly Nurse of lust and fleshly desire in our melancholy nature How doth the fancie hereby become polluted and most grosly defiled with all kinde of basenesse and obscenity what inventions doth it frame for the provocation of lust how closely doth it make us hug the amorous conceits of our enslaved fancie nay how do we many times hereby so deeply infect our thoughts with this kinde of vitiousnesse that like Lime twigs they are ready to catch hold on every object converting it to some libidinous and wanton motion the which perchance sometimes doth cling so fast unto us that we can scarcely draw off again our imagination from it Again Idlenesse and Luxury the excesse of eating and drinking either in quantity or quality I say fulnesse of bread and abundance of Idlenesse are constant companions together we that are idle must needs be luxurious one way or other And if Saint Paul said that the idle person was not worthy to eat or drink at all how often and how much do we sin when as the vanity of our idle souls causeth us to waste so much in superfluity who are not worthy of sufficiency O alas so we live many times as if we were created for nothing else but to eat and drink Sure this is not the least if not the greatest of our sins for if abstinence be the chiefest help to mortifie the flesh certainly luxury is the chiefest means to quench all goodnesse of the Spirit and therefore see in the Gospel the devils desire to enter into the Swine we hear of no other creature that at any time they desired to enter into but onely I say into the gluttonous Swine that of all other creatures being most uncleanly addicted to its belly so fit an habitation is the gluttonous and luxurious soul for nothing but devils but sin and uncleannesse But further with the story our whole man is so utterly disframed and disjoynted with sin that there is no part but is out of order When we seriously reflect on our selves and our so great imperfections we cannot but fetch from within us many a deep sigh to grieve at this our so great untowardnesse thinking thus How much are we now behinde the condition o● the righteous how miserably do we mispend our time in being vassals unto Satan and working our own damnation who might in this time so ill wasted have as well made a good progresse towards heaven and attained unto much comfort and proficiency in Religion O ●ow do we want that light of understanding and retention of Memory in good things which we ought to have how void are we of devotion to Godwards that Charitablenesse of affection towards our brethren which we observe in others that patience and cheerfulnesse in troubles that manly constancy in ruling the motions of the soul as grief fear hope and the like O we alone we are in each degree So frail with sin there 's none so frail as we For behold we are so crazed and weakned in all the strength and constancy of our minde through sin that every passion is able to overturn us either we are too much in fear of the roaring waves of calamity in this world or too much in love with the pleasing vanities thereof either we are too hot with the joy of prosperity or too cold with the grief of adversity overjoy'd with the tickling exaltation of the one or faint-heartedly dejected and cast down with the other but of these two specially ought we to be careful and take good heed there is always as we may finde a more principal danger in the joy of prosperity for saith Moses Deut. 6 When thou hast eaten and art full then beware lest thou forget the Lord c. Narrow vessels are quickly over-fill'd then then I say in our prosperity do we feel our selves ready to run over the capacity of moderation apt to grow lawlesse with unlimited pride and to forget our reverence to that God which hath created us and always doth so great things for us and therefore it was that David said It is good for me that I have been in trouble Happie is the man that is always ballasted with such a constant stedfastnesse of minde that let the winde blowe which way it will can carry his affection with an upright setled and indifferent moderation can hold him fast by God in all changes of this life patiently hoping in him in adversity humbly rejoycing in him in prosperity so to rule himself with Saint Pauls resolvednesse of minde Phil. 4 At all times and in whatsoever state he be as therewith to be content with satiety and yet not drunken with excesse See the folly of a sinner and strange besotted ignorance of our thoughts Behold We fear the face of man poor sinful man When of the God of heaven we little scan though we have not much care of it that our faults are all naked in the presence of God that the Searcher of hearts knoweth the depth of them and that they lie open plain enough before our Consciences yet by no means we would that men should know so much of us no let self-loving nature alone to be sure to take heed of this that no body know it but our selves Oh we may in no wise bewray our infirmities in any particulars what vain fig-leaves of poor shifts and excuses do we so we together to cover us with rather then we will be guilty in the sight of men we shall chuse rather many times to make two sins of one then discredit our selves by Confession as thus Pe●chance when we are reproved for our untowardnesse reprehended for our vices or any thing else be spoken which is harsh unto us presently is our headstrong and self-accusing nature all on fire with spitesul scorn and ill-will against it either moved with so much distemper as malitiously to revile the party or else so deeply stung with inward unquietnesse as unsoberly to depart the place not abiding to hear it any longer such is our impatient desire of credit our self-justifying honour on our own parts But on the other side to hear the dispraises and reproofs of others to hear their credit broken by the tongue of envie that methinks is a contentment and recreation to us or specially when we meet with them who are enclin'd to speak against such parties that are out of our liking then it is meat and drink to us to say Amen and joyn with them in the like malevolent and disgraceful speeches We are I say most impatient of reproof specially if it be laid either sharp and closely unto us or tedious and over urgent and truely though reproof ought humbly to be taken as

sent from God justly for our sins yet many times through the rigotous application thereof it proves to our evil natures not onely unprofitable but hurtful for we finde that when a wicked passion on whatsoever occasion is stirred up in the height of its fury 't is hard to be bridled and dangerous to be dealt withal Cain's countenance fell with furious indignation Gen. 4. 5 and lo the sad effect it is but the eighth Verse that he slew his brother Abel It is here worth the marking that sometimes and in some of us the smooth facility of minde can perhaps jest out or pleasantly put off those self-same sins and disgraces which the rough seriousnesse of others doth take with a great deal of indignation discontent and shame the reason thereof partly without doubt is the different disposition of nature and partly also the experienced policy of sin for sin when it is used and practised in the soul like an old Fox grows more cunning and politick to conceal it self it can make its guiltinesse seem to be innocence its covetousnesse seem to be liberality its pride humility c. Herod-like becoming seemingly vertuous when it is never a whit the lesse but rather the more truely vitious But further with the real discovery of our selves Moreover as the dogged morosity of our minde is frequently apparent in our behaviour towards our friends in our dealing with strangers and other like instances that may be quickly remembred so also is our grudging unthankfulnesse not a little before God and in reference to his Majestie So that when losses or crosses do befal us our words are usually these or such like This is hard fortune there is no body so unhappie as we we I warrant have the worst lot and portio● of all men foolishly not at all heeding the frequent miseries of others daily before our eyes that rod of Gods correction which is imparted to our neighbours peradventure at the same present and doth it may be in many degrees go beyond ours if not at the leastwise we may remember how far the afflictions of poor Job do outgo our greatest sufferings and yet he sits embracing the dunghil with these words in his mouth The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Have we receiv'd all good from him so long And shall he think that now he doth us wrong O the perverse impatiency of our sinful nature when our minde at first is newly wounded with our misfortunes and whilst that it is in a fresh and yet-bleeding remembrance with us what cursed and even nothing else but madly discontented imaginations do there rise up and occur unto our mindes how full of raging and masterlesse thoughts are we so that if we go about never so little to stop the furious current of them and to turn necessity into a vertue by applying the consideration of it to some contentful use or good resolution our wicked passion most times is so unruly with discontent that by no means can we over-master or bring it into the subjection of any sober thoughts Which being so we must needs for the present let it slack and altogether as much as possible exclude it out of the minde if that haply afterwards our passion being allayed and more reasonable we may consider it with some discretion so hard a thing as I say is it to wrestle with a disturbed passion in its excesse and truely as sin grows on in the soul so the passions of our minde grow further and further into excesse and immoderate distempers Sin when it getteth much strength within is methinks of all things in the world most like unto the pestilence the Pestilence when the height of the disease is upon a man makes him even as phrenzie distempered with the violence thereof so as I say sin doth here unhinge all the affections of the soul into a furious and madly-behaving humour when it flies much out of reason into an immoderate excesse The Pestilence when it worketh a full infection is a disease very mortal and deadly so that few escape it so sin when a man is much over gone therewith bringeth the soul into a very sad and dangerous condition and it is the effect of Gods greatest mercy that we do overcome it Lastly the Pestilence that grand misery of Mankinde is usually attended upon with many inferiour mischiefs as the Measles Small Pox and the like so sin those great exorbitancies of the minde which are truely the misery of all miseries and cause of all miseries unto us men are ever accompanied with smaller inconveniences and vanities of conversation And so then what with greater sins and lesser vanities we may now well say with the Preacher Vanity of vanities all is vanity There is no word no deed no not a thought In us but 's vain and altogether nought I say What are all our thoughts our words and deeds but vain even of no weight substance and solidity for know thou O my soul that nihil est non vanum quod non ad aeternitatem pertinet that all that is vain which aims not at eternity Those thoughts th●se words those works which perish and do not accompany and follow us into heaven that we may there for ever rejoyce of them those all those I say are vain and idle and such whereof we must be sure as our Saviour saith to give an account and thus through our so totally depraved condition of sin all that is within us is become vanity and lighter then vanity it self our thoughts think vanity and nothing but vanity we say to our selves What profit is there in serving the Lord do not things fall out and prosper as well with the wicked as the righteous Doubtlesse he that dwelleth on high regardeth it not and there is no difference unto us Again we think foolishly Hath not God s● chained the course of things by his Eternal Predestination to such and such periods and events that the fatal bo●nds and decree thereof we can by means frustrate Alter it we cannot how then is it in us to do good or to do evil 't is not our fault that we are not saved we could not sin bad ●e not appointed it and we cannot avoid it because he hath appointed it Thus we many times ignorantly judge and conceive that Gods ways are as our ways but he shall one day convince and reprove us he shall set our sins before us making our Consciences truely to confesse that Thou O Lord art good art holy righteous and just but it is we of our selves that have sinned done wickedly and stubbornly gone astray from thy Commandments Our thoughts think nothing but vanity Such is the vain singularity of our intentions in any thing which is of moment or considerablenesse that we contemptuously slight and lightly regard to follow the common manner and fashion always aiming at some rare and unusual way thereby to be advanced into a more general

new birth of the soul and that which we have great cause to rejoyce of for you must understand it pleaseth God differently to dispose of the finall period and conclusion of this our trouble according to his most blessed Will and purpose giving some of us much more joy in the end of it then some as also in some of us continuing it like an ach in the limbs ever now and then to mind us untill our dying day and some of us againe after a while never feele it any more O Lord what reward of thanks can we give unto thy mercy that hast done so great things for us whereof we now rejoyce Verily no Tongue can speak no finite understanding can comprehend it hath never entred into the apprehension of either man or Angell the infinite goodnesse that thou dost extend to the souls of sinners O now with David we may sweetly sing Of Mercy and Iudgement to our heavenly King And hath the Lord God Almighty that is most wonderfull in all his Works done this great Miracle for us in casting out this foul Devill this foming and raging Beelzebub this chief of all misery out of our souls O let us then take heed that we sinne so no more least a worse thing come unto us least he get power to come in againe and bring seven other with him worse then himselfe Here you may take notice as I say That in some of us this our misery is not so fully quencht nor this Devill so cast out but that there remains in us ever now and then the touches of our former misery though the heart of it be broken yet the being is not wholly taken away God in his infinite Wisedome so ordering it perchance to exercise our patience or some other cause which he only knoweth and we cannot fully judge only let this be our chiefest care sithence sin and misery must needs dwell with us whilst we live that if possible we keep our selves within the compasse of patience and humility in all conditions of our life let us in patience possesse our souls and though as St. Paul in the 20. of the Acts when he was going to Ierusalem knew not what things should come unto him there save only saith he That the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City saying That bands and afflictions abide me so we that are travelling to the new Ierusalem being sure of nothing in our Journey but sure of trouble yet as Aeneas in the Poet comforted his wandering Souldiers whom necessity had banisht from their own Country that the Destiny had promised them in the end a resting place in Italy I say as he thus comforted them Pervarios casos per tot discrimina rerum tendimus in latium sedes ubi fata quietus ostendunt So in like manner may we Pilgrims and Strongers of this world thus cheere up our selves in consideration of our Journies end although that now Thorough many dangers miseries and woe Like Pilgrimes we are tossed to and fro Our comfort is the Fates tell we shall come In death at length to have a resting home Whilst this our trouble is wearing away we shall be for the most part full of charitable and fellow-feeling thoughts to be lovingly affected and doing good unto all especially to the distressed in what case soever even unto our utmost ability as also we shall use to be frequently weeping and condoling our unhappy life weeping I say and sorrowing like melancholiy Heraclitus and wishing that we might dissolve out the residue of our daies into teares in redeeming the time because our daies have been so evill and that the whole action of our momentary life might now be nothing else but a mournfull and Swan-like Song of preparation to our end Our sighing soul with Dove-like melody L●ments her sins and learneth how to dye Iacob when Pharaoh asked him how old he was answered That his daies were few and evill how much more truly may we say of our short and sinfull daies that they are few and evill he was an old man and yet his daies were few he was a good man and yet his daies were evill Oh the short and evill estate of mans life wise men have alwaies accounted their daies but few for that their thoughts are fixt upon God and then saies David Min● age is nothing in respect of thee and againe for that their thoughts are fixt upon the blessed Eternity of the world to come and then they consider with St. Paul That they have no continuing City here but they seeke one to come I say wise men thus esteemed their daies few and they accounted them likewise evill evill in regard of sin for they feele the experience of St. Pauls case That when they would doe good evill is present with them and evill also in regard of misery for Iob saies Man is borne to trouble as the sparkes fly upwards And is it not too true that man is thus borne to trouble If not what meaneth that complayning which I heare Harke how Cai●e cries out in the fourth of Genesis My punishment is greater then that I am able to beare and do you not heare Eliah under the Juniper Tree in the first of Kings the 19. Chapter how he requesteth for himselfe That he might dye and Ionah under the Gourd saying Take away my life for it is better for me to dye then to live Ieremy is even blind with weeping Lamentations the second Chapter Mine eyes doe faile with teares my bowels are troubled my liver is poured out upon the earth and all for the affliction of his people for the misery of man Salomon in the 6. of Ecclesiastes thinks it farre better not to be borne then to undergoe the miseries of this life how often doth Iob lament his daies and David complaine of his troubles the Shunamites Child in the second of Kings cries out O my head my head another perchance cries out Oh my stomack oh my heart oh my Conscience oh my belly oh my feet A capite ad calcem from the top to the toe from the beginning to the end for ought we can perceive there is little true comfort or pleasure in the life of man With teares we came into this life With sorrow we go out againe We live in trouble care and strife And have our labour for our paine We have seen not a little experience of the manifold changes and variety of alterations that are Created for mankind under the Sun and verily me thinks the counsell of Ecclesiasticus in his 38 Chapter and the 20 Verse well weighing the condition of all things is full of wisedom and discretion that is To take no heavinesse to heart to drive it away and to remember the latter end I say To take no heavinesse to heart that is Not to grieve over much or take on out of reason least as St. Paul said of the excommunicate person in the second Epistle to the Corinthians and second Chapter We be swallowed