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A11070 The diseases of the time, attended by their remedies. By Francis Rous Rous, Francis, 1579-1659. 1622 (1622) STC 21340; ESTC S107870 133,685 552

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more Reason to bee valiant in the defence of his Country or a lawfull cause then a Christian The greatest abatement of Valour commonly ariseth from a fearfull apprehension of death But the Christian hath least Reason of any to feare death for by it he is sure to gaine the aduantage of an eternall felicitie And therefore hath he most reason to be valiant This beliefe of eternitie euen a Heathen Poet commended as a principall root of valour and he commended it in the ancient Brittons for saith he it is a foolish thing among them to be sparing of that life which will returne againe and he calls them happy in this errour whereby they are freed from that greatest feare of death And by common reason He that beleeues nothing to be beyond life should feare more to lose life which is all that he knowes then another which knowes a second life to follow this which farre excelleth it Againe as the Christian hath least cause of feare so hee hath most cause of valour and where is more cause there is to be expected a greater effect Now it doth plainly appeare that a Christian hath more cause then a Heathen to bee valiant For besides the loue of his Countrey and the preseruation and enlargement of Fame which are reasons common to both the Christian hath for his aduantage the highest Essence commanding him confirming him and standing before him as his reward God is his warrant for his action he is his strength in the action he is his happinesse if he dye in the action So many aduantages hath a Christian of a Heathen and therefore his valour should by so many degrees be more excellent then a Heathen Therefore if a Christian be not so valiant as a Heathen it is not because he is a Christian but because he is not Christian enough and no question but hee that is fearefull beeing a Christian would bee much more fearefull if hee were a Heathen For let the Philosopher rack vp his wits to the highest tenters to see if hee can reach to higher causes of valour then these of a Cristian I am sure hee can propose no greater reward then eternall felicitie he can conceiue no higher incouragement then the word of the highest he can imagine no valour more full of force and vertue then that which is infused by the originall Fountayne and Roote of all might and power who alone is iustly termed the Almighty and the Lord of Hoasts and the God of Battailes Who should be stronger then hee that hath the Author of strength on his side and who can feare that hath a greater with him then against him Therefore Paul sendes a chalenge to swords and famines and persecutions crying out if God bee on our side who shall bee against vs and though all things bee against vs yet wee be sure to bee more then Conquerours through him that loueth vs. So wee need not to feare except we will feare to conquer And indeed the patent of our saluation runnes in those very words Wee are deliuered from our Enemies that we may serue God without feare Accordingly Dauid professeth that because God is on his side hee doth not feare what Man can doe vnto him and he would not be afraid if ten thousand inclosed him And the true Roote of his inuinciblenesse hee discouers in the eighteenth Psalme which is this Because hee is backt and supported by the Deity And since I am now met with him I will set him foorth to challenge the Ethnickes to giue vs one like him that being a boy slew a Beare a Lyon and a Gyant Herein I thinke they will bee farre short of Dauid and it wil be well if they come to his thirties and his threes And as the Heathen magnanimitie comes short of Dauid so I thinke will the Doctors Philosophie And indeede the Doctour meant to steale away the question while vnder the name of Diuines he intends certaine Scholasticall Rauens that are themselues growne fearefull with Melancholie and vnder the title of Priesthood picke out the eyes of the sheep committed to them by an implicite Faith a slauish Ignorance They pull out their eyes and then leade them in the darke bound vp in the chaynes of scrupulous Superstition and timerous Deuotion And you know darknesse of it selfe is fearefull and rayseth vp in a man fearfull Images and perpetuall doubts Surely the doctrine of such Diuines is far inferiour to that of the Philosopher But the Doctour must know though he professe not to equiuocate yet these are but equiuocall Diuines and from his equiuocall Antecedent hee shall neuer deduce an vniuocall consequent Hee might as well goe into the house of a Painter and beholding there the picture of an eloquent Orator returne to his schollers and tell them that hee saw such a man of late and hee hath the worst vtterance of any man in the Citie But renouncing these scrupulous and paynted Diuines I will haue Dauid to be a true patterne of a true Diuine and let the Doctor take his Character from him euen of that wh●ch is written both of him and by him and then let him consider whither there bee a more noble puissant confident and free spirit then that of Dauid His Valour hath before beene appr●oued and his cheerfulnesse in vertue and bolde confidence are readie to be manifest Hee danceth before God with all his might the lawes of God are sweeter to him then honie and more precious then gold and he is confident beyond exception for hee calls God his Rocke his Fortresse and his Refuge His faith and holinesse make him familiar with God and hee is bold to fetch from mercifull Omnipotence whatsoeuer he wanteth Now from this Diuine let the Doctour fetch the patterne of Diuinitie and see if hee can ground thereon the basenesse and deiection of his Monkish superstition But the Doctors Epistle had forgotten the Doctors own Chapter of Pietie for the one confuteth the other while in the Chapter hee sayth tha● God is not to be imagined as some terrible spectre whose imagination frighteth men from him Againe That Religion setleth a man in peace and rest and lodgeth in a free liberall and generous Soule Againe That the office of Religion is to reunite Man to his first cause as to his Roote wherein so long as hee continueth firme and setled hee preserueth himselfe in his own perfection Now if this Doctrine bee more truly the doctrine of the Diuines then his then hath hee vainly condemned it for this doctrine agrees excellently with Nobilitie and Puissance and reiecteth basenesse and feare This therefore I thinke was not meant to bee censured by him but it remaynes the● that the Religion of the Diuines which he censured was not his Religion but some other and so they were not both Catholikes or else this difference arose because he could not knit his diuers common-places into an harmonious Vnitie And indeed eyther of these may be true For first where hee
Holinesse Mat. 5.16 Fourthly let men know renounce as an extreme folly that temporall Thrift which causeth an eternall losse Surely if that Lord who is Wisedome it selfe commended the Steward for a Wiseman that abated his temporall Reckonings to increase his eternall Rewards hee cannot but disprayse for a Foole that man that wil increase a little perishing vanity that hee may decrease an exceeding weight of eternall glory Whereas a hundred abated heere would increase a thousand hereafter this man by a most foolish thrift will saue fifty here that hee may lose fiue hundred hereafter Ill Husbands they are in the midst of their good husbandry and the Husbandmen of this generation shall rise in iudgment against them for these will not sow sparingly that they may reape sparingly but with a full hand do sow that with a full hand they may mow Let vs therefore pray the Lord of the Haruest he that as he increseth our seed will also increase our sowing that as he outwardly ladeth vs with the bounty of his blessings he will inwardly fill vs with the bountie that giueth these blessings that partaking of his good things wee may also partake of the goodnesse that bestoweth them Then by the same goodnesse which gaue vnto vs shall we giue vnto others the goodnes of God supplying vs both within and without inwardly giuing vs the power of giuing and outwardly giuing vs the matter of giuing And to these men that are filled with this goodnesse the Mother of good Workes is especially recommended that saying of S. Paul Hee that prouides not for his owne is worse then an Infidell To such I say it belongs who are likely to stray too farre on the right hand of Bounty and not to such who most commonly abuse it for the defence of their left-handed Parsimonie This place is to limit those that are excessiuely good not to stop and bound those that are not yet good enough Wherefore goe on boldly a good way farther for there is yet a good distance betweene this place and thee except thou art in doubt of being too good There is yet a third sort which I would only name and I wish that there might be no Examples of such hereafter knowne in Gath nor spoken of in Ashd●d and that is when they that beare the true marke of God in their foreheads and haue ript off the Badge of worldly loue from their harts yet in some sleepe of their consciences the enemie soweth some Tares of worldly Lust Couetousnesse or Ambition Dauid sinned in one kind and no doubt men of perfect hearts sinne in other kindes and single Actions of sinne issue from them that haue an habite or rather a nature of Grace God hath left the Canaanite in vs to exercise vs to humble vs that wee may haue an Enemy to fight against before we weare the Crownes of Glory and that we may haue a patterne of our corruption to humble vs as the Valleyes before we receiue his showres of Grace and Mercy from those hils from whence commeth our Saluation What remaynes but that we fight like men for the killing of that old man which fighteth to kill vs While we stand let vs stand in humility taking heed lest wee fall and this humilitie which makes vs take heed lest wee fall will best keepe vs from that falling whereof wee are to take heed And if wee doe fall as what man lineth that sinneth not let vs rise by giuing our hand to Christ in Faith and Repentance who by his bloud washing vs and by his Spirit quickning vs will raise vs againe set vs on our feet That we may run the way of his Cōmandements Neyther let the wicked in the fals of the Godly magnifie themselues and despise the other as such Pharisies vse to do for though these two did the same kinde of fact yet the fact is different The godly man fals by infirmitie as by the weight of his body or slip of his foote the wicked fals with the swinge of his will as if hee ran his head against the Rockes The godly man hates his owne fault and ariseth from it the wicked man neuer truly hates it neuer heartily forsakes it Yea the godly man is bettred by his fals and by falling stands the more strongly because the more humbly and warily And finally though hee passe by some particular frailties yet vpon the whole he is still better and growes from strength to strength vntill he appeares before God in Sion CHAP. XI An Errour that forbids men though mortally diseased to be cured by a sicke Physician THere is an Errour which though it possesseth not many yet some it possesseth strongly and this is a great mischiefe belonging to it that they thinke themselues better then others for being deceiued and so they become angry with those that would cure them because they seeme to indeauour not to take away an Errour from them but to depriue them of their Eminence Their misbeliefe is this That none but sanctified Preachers can teach vnto Sanctification and Saluation And first for a generall remedie I desire these men to consider that as in naturall so in spirituall fi●e there are two things of especiall and inseparable vse the one is Light the other Heate Let the heate of Nature make a mans body neuer so actiue and able yet if the eyes be shut vp so that this heate by the inward light which it makes cannot entertayne the outward light the more actiue and stirring this man is the more hee stumbles and the more hee fals Euen so in the things of Grace if a man will separate heate from light hee diuorceth those ●hat in the spirit are ioyned together and therefore it is likely that such are Saint Iudes men separaters sensuall not hauing the spirit For where the spirit is there light is the guide of heate and such are led by euident Truth not by blind violence But to meete with their Errour more particularly I will first lay my foundation and it is this An assured discouery of the true cause of mans Saluation Not to runne into by-wayes the true way to life is Christ The Way the Truth and the Life Christ our life shall appeare saith Paul and againe Our life is hid with Christ in God More particularly Christ entring into man doth abolish the olde man which is the bodie of Sinne Death and giues vs the new man wherein is included a right of Inheritance vnto Life Eternall The bodie of sinne by sinne had bound vs vnto death and by Dominon had bound vs to sinne but Christ Iesus entring into vs by his Spirit by his Death freeth vs from the Death to which we were bound and by his sanctifying Grace freeth vs from that Dominion by which wee were bound vnto sinne So from henceforth neyther sinne nor death haue dominion ouer vs but the free and freeing Spirit of Christ dwels in vs whereby we are sonnes and heires of Life Eternall Rom.