and fight for his truth It is not our goods and lives that our enemies seeke for it is our God and Religion that they thrust at so to make roome for their owne Oh how should me◠fit themselves for this service and give over their drunken quarrels veneries and other effeminate courses which have almost enfeebled our English nation and disabled our bodies to fight or brooke the open ayre Iust it is with God to make us dye before our enemies that will not dye to these sins nor seeke to live according to the ancient discipline and example of our worthy progenitors who have beene ranked with the best and ablest soldiers in the world when now being soaked in ease and disused to labour wee are thrust downe to the lowest forme and reputed of small esteeme amongst our Neighbours 3. God is often a moth in our Counsels Counsell and wisedome direct men to the fayrest and most hopefull meanes of their security Therefore to be smitten in the braine Deut. 28.28 Zach. 12.4 viz. either not to see the way or in the event and issue of good Counsell not to prosper is one of Gods sorest judgements and the truest forerunner of ruine Our sinnes saith the Prophet with-hold good things Ier. 5.25 Even our best consultations are blasted with the noysome and pestilent breath of our sins Oh that wee were sensible of this judgment could mourne for it Who seeth not in this this Gods hand against us yet alas how few lament it We laugh at our Sorrowes and lay nothing to heart This is the way to make him that was a moth unto Ephraim a moth unto us to smite us even in our Counsells and make them fruitlesse in their hopefullest and best proceedings and thus may God make the best of our Counsells consultations rotten and moatheaten 4. God is often a moth in our courage It was the high dignity of Ephraim to speake with majestie in the midst of all the tribes and to cause trembling round about him Hos 13.1 But when he offered in Baal he died Sinne is the dampe of courage and the death of the heart and decay of all excellency And here wee finde God againe smiting Deu. 28.28 Zach. 12.4 who as he takes away Counsell by blindnesse and madnesse so doth hee take away courage by astonishment and amazement of heart 5. God is often a moth in our Religion Religion of all blessings is the greatest and yet in this we are often secretly smitten of God This whole land hath great cause to prayse God that the truth of the Gospell is so publikly mainteined This blessing we would learne to esteeme if wee were in the skins of our forefathers or neighbour brethren abroad The time was when wee would gladly have served God in Woods and Caves and secret Cells and how glad would our brethren abroad be to see but one of our dayes yet we enjoying full liberty of profession practise under good and wholesome lawes wee nothing answer Gods goodnesse unto us but live as if we wanted these inestimable priviledges and shew plainely the secret curse of God upon us Errors and evills such as Poperie and Idolatrie may steale and creepe in at a posterne gate but blessed be God at an open and wide gate they finde no entrance The sword of authority like the Cherubims stands at the gates of our Eden to keepe out the rebellious Would God to our lawes there were the like execution and happie successe in the meanes The neglect in these may cause God to bee a moth in the rest secretly to withhold from us the blessed influence of a Blessed Religion and of our blissefull lawes Thus much of Gods secret judgements upon his house The more open and apparant judgements Gods secret judgements consist rather in the privation of good things than in the sensible smart of positive plagues But when we are not apprehensive of the moth then he roares as a Lyon teares and rends in peeces takes away his prey and suffers none to rescue When the good gifts of God want their blessing when in our estates wee become poore in our bodies weake and in our soules blind fearefull and unholy these wants should stirre us up to seeke God but if we like senselesse people move not God to make us more sensible inflicts upon us sorer judgements and makes us feele our losses in our lives and our blowes in our bloud and smites us as hee once smote the Philistims first a farre of in laying some Dagon which we adore flat on the ground then striking off hands and head wherein wee trust for helpe he leaves it an useles stumpe When blockish men regard not this The Lord drawes nearer and smites their bodies with sharpe paynes and yet proceeding farther he take away their lives with the sword Easy warnings neglected end in greater woes God that at first would faine be heard at last will worke his pleasure and will not heare Ezoc 14.21 tells us of foure sore judgements the Sword Famine Pestilence and noysome Beasts Some of these have raged in this Land and wee may feare the rest will follow unlesse we prevent them by our repentance The Lyon hath rored who will not feare The Lord God hath spoken who can but prophecie God in judging his house makes choyce of a fit time The originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imployeth rather the convenience of season than the continuance of time As God knoweth when to deliver his so he hath his season wherein to punish and chastize them and that first to revenge the quarrell of his covenant Lev. 26.25 It is ill contesting with God especially for them that are linked in covenant with him You have I knowne of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Amo. 3.2 Secondly in respect of the Gospell which cannot bee preached without opposition of outward violence Matth. 11.12 Luk. 16.16 violent men will prey upon Gods kingdome and every wicked man will have ablow at it Like Kites upon a Carkeise so are Gods enemies upon his Church Luke 17.37 Thirdly this season here poynted at fulfills the prophecie of Christ Matth. 24.9 For here Peter writing to the dispersed Iewes five yeares before the destruction of Ierusalem tells them that now is the time to deliver them up to be afflicted killed and hated as his master Christ foretold before his death Fourthly Christiās are too great strangers in their afflictions as in an estate unwonted therefore Peter bringeth this reason to bring Christians to themselves for the time is come c. that is God hath sent you the fittest season of your tryall and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be not strangers in things familiar and seasonable and wherein you ought to bee the best studied Fiftly the season bids you expect the harvest you sow in teares and shall reape in joy When others that sowe in joy shall reape in sorrow Philip. 1.28
time for thou knowest not when thy appearance shall be he deliver thee to the Iudge the Iudge to the laylor the laylor to the prison where thou must lye for ever But in the close of this verse and that which followeth mention is made of the true cause of all this misery that is especially the disobedience of the Gospel The Law is added as a light of former sinnes consisting of impiety against God and cruelty against man The Iewes crucified Christ a legall sinne but they crucified themselves in rejecting his bloud and the Gospell that offered them pardon for that sinne and all others The fault was foule enough to murther Christ but to murther their soules in denying salvation by his blood was of all sinnes the greatest They are branded for ungodly persons by the testimony of the Law and their owne wicked actions of Idolatrie and obstinacy They are sinners deepe seyzed in singular bloodshed and butchery of Christ and his Saints but the transcendent sinne is here fairely characterized by a speciall act and by a speciall object The act is Evangelicall disobedience and the object the Gospell it selfe The Gospell In giving the Gospell to a Nation it is more than he does to all Nations where the Gospell is given faith and obedience are but given to some in that Nation The Gospell distinguisheth Nations faith and the gift thereof the men that professe it Grace is given where it is not received Given to a Nation of which it may more easily bee rejected than embraced Psal 147.19 20. here the Word is not revealed alike to all Psal 81.11 here rejected by them to whom it was given Psal 119.70 Davids heart being pined with want takes pleasure in the Word others having their hearts fat and greasie despise it Isai 6.9 10. Men have hearts too fatte to beleeve eares too heavy to heare and eyes closed up from seeing The Gospell is as strange to some that heare it as those that never heard it Hos 8.12 Christ came to his owne and yet was not owned by them Iohn 1.11 Some received him vers 12. when the nation rejected him These 1. had power to beleeve 2. to receive 3. to be sonnes In the mysteries of the Gospell prudent men come short of Infants Luke 10.12 and receive in parrables what others receive in power Luke 8.10 yea finde that savour death unto death which to others is life unto life 2 Cor. 2.15 16. Gods free Grace Shall wee say this is the worke of our owne wils and the good use of our owne freedome This were to render more than wee receive and to glory in our owne power and praise Thus to differ were to disgrace the Gospell that grants unto us deliverance from enemies and obedience unto friends Luke 1.74 Our good friends in heaven mutually conspired our victory and obedience God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost bound not up the hands of our enemies but gave us also hearts to obey for this gift 1 Cor. 4.7 presseth upon the pride of us all Physically Politically Theologically Who made man or man to differ from a beast He were a beast that would not acknowledge God for the Author of both Who raiseth man to honour or distinction of civill order Surely the same God that made him preferres him But above all grace is least in our command and most in the power of God nay wholly from him as appeares by the gift of faith a new principle nature never acknowledged by righteousnesse a purchase that never came out of our vertues by holynesse a worke not of our wils but the sanctifying Spirit Faith is a firme principle of the Gospell and keepes us by the power of God and not our owne unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 I know what advantage is taken Ier. 32.40 by turning the text from They shall not depart into They may not depart Loath the words should be more peremptory than possible Possible they would have it runne and then raise their answer against Gods grace that faith or feare is not so certainely placed in the heart but as it may stay so depart if wee will forward either God puts in our hearts a new principle and that for this end that we might bee assured of the new Covenant and of our cleaving to God and therefore fuller assurance than of a possibilitie and power in our selves The Legall and Evangelicall principles of well living as we shall afterwards declare differ much in nature office and end God by originall righteousnesse left man to the tryall of his owne power But by Faith or the new principle hath cast man upon himselfe and a holy and happy dependencie upon his power for salvation The Gospel is his best law for life and surest power of God Rom. 1.16 to save him yet with this caution that wee beleeve Promises are generall and must bee received as they are propounded Faith makes them particular to us and in our deeds and determinations wee may presume no further than the generall evidence applied we must silence all search of further secrets and Gods will revealed must bee our rule and to reach higher by his decrees is to outreach our selves and rove about the truth If any say why have some the Gospel and not Faith I silence his presumption with Gods freedome and say why hath hee either His Gospell is a pledge of his love and thy faith of his favour thou hast no wrong whē he counts thee worthy of neither If he have a list to leave thee an Infidel thou art but thy selfe His Law containes wonders and workes them daily in preaching All heare the same word yet have not the same affection Hee speakes too boldly of Gods counsels that will reason by our dispositions O the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and wayes of God! His judgements must bee past our finding and fadoming Wee must feare to search too much and take heed of an evill eye because his is good Hee cals and commands by his word and of them he chooseth as few or many as hee pleaseth Hee makes some last in Vocation first in Election some he cals first that hee never chooseth The Iewes by Peter in my text are divided and the nation differenced in receiving and rejecting the Gospell 70. Famous yeeres Foure things would further bee unfolded 1. the time of this end 2. the persons 3. the judgement 4. the cause The time is the last yeere or at least the last weeke of the 70. weekes of Daniel Dan. 9.24 The Gentiles Luke 21.24 have times to fulfill and from former times they come to latter times 1 Tim. 4.1 which divide themselves Dan. 7.25 12.7 Rev. 12.14 into a time times and halfe a time So the Iewes have the like account and computation and falling upon their last times have them by Daniel determined in the number of 70. weekes These make seaven points or periods of their time every period containing 70. yeares and six of
devill but an heire of such happinesse may have as heavy an end Abraham remembred Dives of paines in hell for pleasures upon earth Men that have despised the Gospell were blessed if they might die like beasts and be buried like wormes A Toad is touched with lesse misery in the hatred of man than men that for sinne are hated of God A bitter cup that is in Gods keeping and though vengeance bee not powred out of it yet it neither sleepeth nor resteth there for ever Iudgements doe not follow crimes as thunder doth lightning neither is a wicked mans pang alwayes superscribed in his forehead Wickednesse hath Sugar in the mouth and sorrow in the heart wantonnesse like oyle shineth in the face and is festered in the soule worldly things upon the best termes are vaine but vile with sinne men may up and be rich with injury grow great by secret evils and not know their wofull end If these things had better conditions they were no great friends to us but as they are by us to corrupted they are no lesse then tormenters A gay coate will not alwayes beare out a corrupt heart nor high title a hell in the conscience Sophar in the booke of Iob powreth out curses upon the head of an impious man te les him hee shall sucke the gall of Aspes and be slaine by a Vipers tongue The sunne that shineth faire six dayes upon a wicked mans tabernacle may bee clouded the seventh and then for delay he comes to pay the interest Surely when the heavens shall shrivell as a scrole and the Mountaines move like frighted men then no Cave shall bee found to receive or mighty Mountaines to fall upon them Count them miserable who for a while are made fortunate by impiety fooles are at no time happy if wicked men were wise they would cease to be evill Iniquity is an undoubted proofe both of folly and misery Grieve not at the sinners impunitie and prosperity because rightly discerned they even then neither prosper or goe unpunished Vulgar people for their names lie buried with their bodies but great persons and kingdomes stand upon record We are marveilous blind in their use men thinke such and such persons miscarried not by sin but simplicity They are dare hazzard the same way and looke for better successe Let mee never bee credited if they fare better then their neighbours Their Chronicles wil come out with the same edition and addition of better wits It is no working against Gods workes that hath alwayes cursed ill courses mans end in this world ends not his misery in hell Hee stands for a time upon the slippcrie yee and being in darkenesse knowes not when Gods Angell shall push him into hell Psal 35.6 Three aggravations of his misery first the place of his standing this is slipperie Secondly it is possessed with darkenesse and therefore being in the way to fall hee cannot have the wit to place one foote for safety Hee that walkes upon the yee in darkenesse must needs have a downefall as deadly as a break-neck God is angry every day with sinners and could find in his heart to cast them into hell that he spares them is his patience not his pardon for hee will punish in the end Hee will one day breath fire upon those coles that in mercy hee breathed into us His fire shall fall as raine catch them like snares To sire he will adde brimstone and to both an horrible tempest Psal 11.6 The streame and current of Gods wrath shall runne like a River of brimstone the very pile of the pit is fire and that fire hath also much wood to worke on Isa 30.33 This after-clap of hell is the worst and should have our greatest care of prevention before it be too late and wee have lost both our lives and him that is unto us both life and length of daies One hand by the pulse askes the other how wee doe and our eye is on our Vrine to divine in what danger wee are why is there not a pulse panting and beating within to admonish us of our inward estate With what presumption doe we daily provoke God to blow these Soules into hell that once he breathed into our bodies The Lord teach us Wisedome to thinke of our end that when wee are taken of our feete to fall on our beds and from them to the cold earth we may not be raised off our foundation but rest on him that will sustaine us if we obey his Gospell Let the good departure of my Soule to salvation bee alwaies evident to my faith and I shall be the lesse curious to care how darke and deadly it entred into my body It is the going out more then the comming that concernes every hearer of Gods Gospel This was St. Augustines meditation and shall be mine for ever that my end may conclude my sorrowes and begin my joyes The true cause For the cause of this end we are taught by our Text to be sinne and in speciall the sinne of the Gospell Irreligious honest men and civill insidels know not this sinne they have no light and leading unto it Conscience applies no such fact to the Law as to disobey the Gospell neither does the Law trouble any man with accusation of this sin It is solely and solitarily the Gospels office to convince of this fault To want faith in God is reproved by the Law but in a Mediator by the Gospell To want personall righteousnesse is the crime the Law will charge us with but to want the righteousnesse of another must come to bee evinced by the Gospell Holinesse of nature is what the Law requireth and condemneth the contrary but holinesse of Grace infused by the Spirit is the light of the Gospell and to bee destitute thereof is the greatest condemnation Iohn 3.19 This must teach us first to distinguish the sinnes of the Law and the Gospell how to aggravate them Secondly seeing faith and the Gospell are free gifts wee must neither bee closse freinds unto nature nor open friends unto grace We have no power to reach so high as the Gospell or call for faith at our pleasure wee are more ready to reject both and reason against them with the stubborne Iewes than convinced and yeeld them our obedience Thirdly wee must looke to our danger Turkes and Tartars that never heard of the Gospell shall escape better than Christians They shall be beaten with few stripes for that little they have received we with many for our great and gracelesse neglects In stead of rods God will lash us with Scorpions who have neither answered the utmost of our power or greatnesse of our meanes Math. 11.15 and 13.12 Civil moral men under the Gospell are in greatest danger because they oppose their owne righteousnesse to Christs righteousnesse and will not be moved to master themselves in a meane conceite of their best proficiencies These are in danger to want faith because it is needlesse for those that
of them in the I ather O ravishing Societie and blessed Communion wee shall enjoy in our Fathers house when all is given up unto him and yet in him all to be enjoyed In him we enjoy Christ and the blessed Spirit we are no losers but gainers by these wayes of Divine and deepe wisedome The regression of the Kingdome to the Father 1 Cor. 15.28 That God may be all in all v. 24. God even the Father God essentially shall blesse us but the Father in speciall shall be glorified in us This was Christs prayer upon earth Iohn 17.21 That we might be one in the blessed Trinitie as they are one in themselves and have all conspired to make us happy Christ prayeth they may be perfect in one that they may be where he is now c. The holy Ghost and the Sonne conclude in the Father and so must wee for our full happinesse Zech. 14.16 Why not the Passeover to be kept in the great day spoken of before this was the greatest feast in Israel but the feast of Tabernacles hath a more apt allusion to those times Our Mansions are in heaven as long as we stay upon earth though under assured safety and freedome from danger yet we are not at the best In the Kingdome of Grace we are well and happy In the Kingdome of power we are better and more happy but in the Kingdome of Glory we are best of all We have thus farre digressed and I hope transgressed no rule in Religion Wee can easily recall our selves to our first intention concerning the comming of the holy Ghost And when he is come he shall convince the world of sinne and of righteousnesse and of judgement Of Sinne. That is want of faith in Christ the signe of all sinne for we can expect no discharge without it All sinne in one sinne is convinced of the Law we are guilty in Adam and of this sinne wee are guilty in the Gospel The sinnes of the Law are strong enough to condemne us but this firme brings in our great condemnation Ioh. 3.19 the Law is not that light that containes life in it that light is Christ Ioh. 1.14 He came into the world both as the light and life of it and yet men loved darkenesse more than light not onely because their deeds were morrally evill but because they esteemed not to have them mended by this new principle of faith in Christ Infidels come not to the light of the Gospel because that does most convince them of sinne The Law is more sparing than the Gospel for it chargeth man no further than of originall and actuall sinne But the Gospel extends to his wants of such faith righteousnesse and holinesse as the Law leaves at liberty It commands us faith in God and is silent of faith in Christ It bids us bee righteous but not in another It bids us be holy but that is from our owne vertues and not spirituall graces The Spirits light is too strong for weake eyes to looke upon it It blunts and blindes him to thinke his deeds so ill as God does not approve the best of them It is strange to him to beleeve that without faith in Christ nothing that is done by him is accepted of God He conceives better of himselfe and trusts that his good meanings and vertuous actions are not so out of request with GOD but he shall gaine some favour and friendship at Gods hands to be esteemed of better then of the worst and most wicked man Hee must therefore know that if the Gospel prove him guiltie of the want of faith no sinne is spared or pardoned any more to him than the lewdest liver in the world Hee must therefore learne to love the truth of the Gospel and come to the light thereof that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God and the power of his Spirit and not in or by any of his good dispositions Let us in the holy feare of God looke to our lives and never applaud our selves by our owne vertues The whole world is guilty of a sinne it hath no sense or feeling of and even the best are in worst case let thē come to triall and by a conviction more than legall see what the Gospel reproveth let them thus reason with themselves It is too grosse and sottish to say I am a sinner I am worse I am an Infidell and wrapped up in the worlds condemnation It is high time for my soule to bee dealt withall and that by a more powerfull cause than the morrall Law or mine owne conscience I must to the Gospel and conviction of Gods Spirit and never rest till I finde the Spirit present and come home to my heart I shall afterwards intreat of all the heads of this first conviction I will first open the sinne secondly who are guilty of it Thirdly how they must be dealt withall Fourthly by whom Fiftly in what manner The same methode shall be observed in both the other convictions that by the instance in my Text of the Iewes disobedience and judgement we may learne to tremble and feare to live either without Evangelicall faith Evangelicall righteousnesse or Evangelicall judgement Three things in the Gospel inseparably lincked together He that beleeves in Christ hath righteousnesse imputed and hee that hath righteousnesse imputed hath holinesse infused to reject Satan and his service and receive the true judgement of the Spirit to bee at his command and Kingly government I shall wish every head propounded may have it's use and application Vse 1. Let the want of faith in Christ and righteousnesse from him and an holy subjection to Gods Spirit more perplex us than all earthly wants Let such especially as are profane thinke of it who beside the burden of the Law grosly abused have the Gospel to beat home their condemnation and beare them downe headlong to hell for contempt of great salvation tendred them in their sinnes But especially let the more morall men marke themselves if they were as forward as Paul to know none or little evill by themselves yet to thinke they are not so justified but the Gospel can bring upon them a greater condemnation than the Law and challenge them for more than ever was dreamed of by their owne account and reckoning by the Law Lastly let carnall Gospellers descend and see their presumption that will bee sure of faith without conviction They suppose it is soone gotten and lost and that to play at fast and loose with God is no danger They will have faith when they list and easie convictions leade them any wayes It is time for them to learne a better lesson and to bee soundly lashed from our Text that the convictions of Gods Spirit are no easie and morall perswasions fitted to our inclination but sound convictions taking from us all excuses be they never so witty and laying us low before God to be dealt withall at his pleasure Vse 2. These wants are
death is a sad symptome of some severe and unspeakeable sorrow Passe we to his prayer and see with submission how hee intreateth for the departure of it Father if there be any possible meanes to redeeme man without mee and save me from the sorrow I am in let the bitter Cup escape my taste It is not a thing I sue for once but againe and againe I continue my fuite and seeke more earnestly than ever formerly in any prayer I expressed my selfe unto thee It was no small burden that Christ would have shifted from his shoulders and setled upon some other meanes and mediation Hee will not shrinke to have man saved but it would glad him to see himselfe eased If it be possible my will is to bee eased but thy will bee obeyed what ever I suffer From sorrow Christ fals to prayer from prayer into an agony and then he prayes more earnestly as the burden is increased Now he sweates and drops with bloud It passeth through the veines flesh skinne not like some thinne dewie sweat by an ordinary transsudation that Physitians discourse of for cause and cure but it breakes violently out by great lumpes and leapeth forcibly from his veines and with a strong current is cast from them to his upper garments rumbling to the ground To talke of diseases when veines burst breake open their mouthes or have their coates and containers thinned to sweat out the bloud is idle to tell us of examples of the like blasphemous Never was there sickenesse sorrow or example like this meerely from apprehension and true consideration of his owne sufferings to be thus perplexed no cause antecedent or conjunct but what passed betweene Christ our Saviour and Suretie and his Father angry and displeased for our sinnes This first combate had beene enough to have annihilated or swallowed up a meere creature Angel or Man His Passion upon his Crosse His preparation in the Garden brings him better armed to his Crosse he passeth by the wrongs of men and Angels yet the one with the power of the hand and the other with the hand of power doe to him their worst for divers houres The power of darkenesse after mans malice was ended laid at him and left him not for many encounters Hee that in the Wildernesse assaulted him thrise and often afterwards in the course of his life brings now all the power of hell and for his farewell to the world hopes to have successe in his and all our ruines and destructions But these are light skermishes and meane affronts to that which followed All these are not worth the speaking of he never opens his mouth to complaine of such dealings and deeds of darkenesse enough to plunge the best of us into hell but after these troopes of wickednesse shaken off he fals to the greatest shocke and meetes with his match His Father now takes him to taske and turnes him to another tune He is compelled to cry out and utter words of complaint fearefull for despaire if that word My Father had not supported his faith My God my God why hast thou forsaken me here is apprehension of dereliction and desertion there is nothing that keepes Christ to God but faith On his Fathers part he complaines of desertion on his owne he will not despaire as long as God is his in application The Father leaves the Sonne cleaveth and claspeth close about him Suppose the case had beene mans in either of these assaults hee had upon the first apprehension been not onely dismayed but confounded Yet this would have put him into desperation and despaire for ever He had not been able to lispe one word of a better life or laid the least of his thoughts upon God In stead of my God he would have blasphemed and gnashed his teeth at his tormentor Deare Christians dread this fire that fastened upon the Innocent Sonne of God and thinke what extremity it would be to you but to touch the most utmost flame Learne for ever to obey his Gospel and bee thankefull for his mercy and deliverance Viter darkenesse The greatest comfort of the fire is light heate without it is an hell in our bodies and we see a burning Ague how it scorcheth us and sends forth nothing but smoake and poyson It distracts men with rage and madnesse Poore soules we never felt such a fire in the sharpest Ague as we shall find in our soules when hell fire entreth us and we it Vtter darkenesse is but a privation yet the losse will make it a sensible torment The Father of lights is God that will bee gone The Fountaine opened to us is Christ but he will not visite us The light of Grace and Glory vanish with the Spirit No inward or outward light to comfort us will shew it selfe Heaven and earth will curse us wee shall be blind in our selves and burne without sight of our owne miseries Sense shall not be wanting nor sorrow to our senses Let darkenesse dismay us to disobey and let the light whiles we have it stirre us up to follow it The never-dying Worme The worme that gnawes upon the living man and eates him up being dead may both be killed and consumed with us but this Worme is as immortall as our selves Wee may desperately send our soules from our bodies but sinne and conscience cannot be dismissed We may sooner part with our selves than with our tormentors It were well a man might be as a flint in a rocke of stone which as it findes no pleasure so it feeles no paine but this will not be granted his wounded Spirit will never leave him Prov. 18.14 A man sustained by the Spirit of God may beare any infirmitie but when his owne spirit is as much wounded by God as himselfe what man shall beare it Once againe remember the Gospel and let it helpe and heale this misery Vtter perdition Wee often pitty men when we heare Briefes of utter undoing and we commonly complaine of lamentable losses as if all were gone when we have parted with no more than our worldly goods Never thinke men of being undone in spirituall losses There is not the poorest Begger in the world but in losing his soule he leaveth more than a King that is cast out of his kingdome nay his losse is greater than to lose the whole world Better the soule bee saved than a world purchased and yet sottish sinners to seeke wealth upon earth will hazzard their soules I lose my goods yet I am not utterly undone as long as I have friends I lose my friends yet I am not utterly undone as long as I have my selfe I lose my life yet still I am farre from being undone as long as God stands by me But then I am undone indeed when I have lost God then have I lost my selfe And all good Christians once more heare me friendly and favourably feare God love his Gospel live well and never feare to dye ill Many wretches feare to suffer ill that never feare