Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	grace_n	justification_n	5,753	5	9.4155	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61120	Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...	Spencer, John, d. 1680.; Fuller, Thomas, (1608-1661)	1658 (1658)	Wing S4960; ESTC R16985	1,028,106	735

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 ●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 mak● 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 relieve● 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

Horse would needs have him foaming at the mouth but could not by any means do it Whereupon in a great rage he took the sponge wherewith he made his pensils clean and thr●w it at the picture intending to have utterly defared it but it so fell out that the spunge having sucked in severall sorts of colours effected that by chance which the Artist by all his industry could not compasse Thus it is with them that strive to make themselves great and eminent in the World How do they cark and care flatter lie and dissemble and all to be thought some body amongst their fearful Neighbours But all in vain this is not the way to do it for as Charles and Fifth told his sonne That Fortune was just like a Woman the more you woe her the further she flings off Let every good Christian then take up the spunge of contempt and throw it at these outward eminencies Moses did so and found to his exceeding joy that the abjection of vain glory was the acquisition of that which was true and reall The difference of good and bad Men in their preparation for Death A Wife that hath been faithfull to her Husband and waits his coming home let him knock when he will she is alwayes ready to open the door unto him but another Woman that is false to her husband and hath other Lovers in the house if her husband chance to knock at the door she does not immediately go to the door and let him in but there is a shuffling up and down in the house and she delayes the time till she have go the others out of the way Thus it is when Death knocks at the door of these Earthly Tabernacles of ours here 's the difference A good man is willing and ready to open to Death his Heart is in such an Heavenly frame that he is alwayes prepared for Death and seeing 〈…〉 Death that so he may take possession Whereas the Atheist he dares not die for fear of a Non esse that he shall be no more the prophane Person is afraid of Death because of a male esse to be made miserable and every wicked ungodly Man is loath to die for having espoused himself to the things of this World he shrinks at the very thought of Death and cryes out to his Soul as sometimes Pope Adrian did O my Soul whither goest thou thou shal● never be merry more Or as those ten Men Stay us not for we have Treasures in the Field of Wheat and of Barley and of Oyl and of Honey c. Jer. 41. 8. Christ to be the summe of all our Actions THere is mention made of one in the Primitive times who being asked What he was answered A Christian. What is thy name he answered Christian. What is thy Profession He answered Christian. W●at are thy thoughts He answered Christian. Thy words and deeds What are they He answered Christian. What life leadest thou He answered still Christian. He had so digested Christ into his Soul by Faith that he could speak nothing but Christians And thus it is that Christ is to be made the summe and ultimate of all our actions we must labour that Christ may be made one with us and we with him that in all our Works begun continued and ended we may still conclude with that expression of the Church Through Iesus Christ our Lord. Gods Immutability A Man travelling upon the Road espies some great Castle sometimes it seems to be nigh another time afar off now on this hand anon on that now before by and by behind when all the while it standeth still unmoved So a Man that goes in a boat by water thinks the shore moveth whereas it is not the shore but the boat that passeth away Thus it is with God sometimes he seemeth to be angry with the Sons of Men another time to be well pleased now to be at hand anon at a distance now shewing the light of his Countenance by and by hiding his face in displeasure yet he is not changed at all It is we not he that is changed He is Immutable in his Nature in his Counsels and in all his Promises whereas all Creatures have and are subject to change having their dependance on some more powerfull Agent but God being onely independent is as the School-men say omninò immutabilis altogether immutable The Godly Man rejoycing in Death IT is storied of Godfrey Duke of Boloigne that when in that his expedition to the Holy Land he came within view of Ierusalem his Army seeing the high Turrets goodly Buildings and fair fronts though but as it were as so many Skeletons of far more glorious bodies being even transported with the joyfulnesse of such a sight gave a mighty showt that the Earth was verily thought to ring with the noyse thereof Such is the rejoycing of a Godly Man in death when he doth not see the Turrets and Towers of an Earthly but the spirituall building of an Heavenly Ierusalem and his Soul ready to take possession of them How doth he delight in his dissolution Especially when he sees Grace changing into Glory Hope in●o fruition Faith into vision and Love into perfect comprehension such and so great are the exultations of his Spirit such mighty workings and shoutings of the Heart as cannot be expressed Sin to be looked upon as the cause of all sorrow IN the course of Justice we say and say truly When a Party is put to death that the Executioner cannot be said to be the cause of his death nor the Sheriff by whose command he doth it neither yet the Iudge by whose sentence nor the twelve Men by whose verdict nor the Law it self by whose Authority it is proceeded in for God forbid that we should endite these or any of these of Murther Solum peccatum Homicidae Sin and sin onely is the cause and occasion of all sorrows It is not the looking upon any accidentals any Instrumentals of our Miseries and vexations but upon the principal the prime Agent and that 's Sin to take a wreak or holy Revenge upon that to send out an enquiry in our Souls after that and having found it to passe sentence thereupon The Good Mans comfort in matter of Worldly losse IT was a handsome conceit of a great Duke of Florence that had for his Arms a fair spread Tree having one branch onely lopped off with this Motto U●o avulso non deficit alter intimating thereby that as long as the Trunk or body of the Teee was well rooted there was no fear though a branch or two were withered Thus a good Man bears up himself in the matter of temporal losse As to the matter of Government if a David be gathered to his Fathers a Solomon may succeed him in his Throne If a Iohn be cast into Prison rather then the Pulpit shall stand empty a greater then

yet Thus it is betwixt Christ and the damned soul Christ is a most just Judge no Tyrant no Tiberius and yet if one of the damned after a thousand years burning in hell should beg and entreat for a speedy death he would answer after the same manner Nondum tecum in grattam redii you and I are not yet friends if after thousands and millions of years the request should be renewed the answer would continue still the same Stay you and I are not yet friends So just and right a thing it is that he that would not by Repentance accept of mercy when it was offered should by punishment be torm●nted and have justice without mercy for ever God and his Attributes are answerable IT is well known that the title of Augustus hath been given to such Caesars as did not enlarge but diminish the Empire of Pater patriae to those that were so far from being Fathers that they were plain Tyrants of Pontifex maximus given to them which were so far from serving the Gods that they did sacrilegiously Canonize themselves for Gods and yet propter spem the Senate gave them these titles and by flattery they did amplifie in the rest He that had but a small conquest encreased his style as if he had conquered a whole Kingdome as appears in the titles of Germanicus Illyricus Britannicus c. nay the Eastern Monarchs were very fond this way claiming kindred of the Gods of the Stars and what not which might amplifie their Majesty In a word hope and flattery are the best ground whereupon all worldly mens titles are built especially great mens and Kings most of all But it is not so with the King of Heaven the truths in him are answerable to the titles that are given him the Attributes proportionable they are not given him propter spem but rem He is that which he is called neither is there in them any flattery yea his titles do come short of they do not exceed those perfections that are in him So that we may not measure the style of God as we do the styl●s of mortal Kings but conceive rather more then less when we hear them Prosperity of the wicked is destructive I Have seen the wicked saith David in great power and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree And why like a green Bay-tree because in the Winter when all other Trees as the Vine-tree Fig-tree Apple-tree c. which are more profitable Trees are withered and naked yet the Bay continueth as green in the Winter as the Summer So fareth it with wicked Men when the children of God in the storms of persecutions and afflictions and miseries seem withered and as it were dead yet the wicked all that time flourish and do appear green in the eyes of the World they wallow in worldly wealth but it is for their destruction they wax fat but it is for the day of slaughter It was the case of Hophni and Phinees the Lord gave them enough and suffered them to g● on and prosper in their wickednesse but what was the reason because he would destroy them Justifying faith accompanied with good works IT is evident to all except others be made keepers of their Reason as now they are of their Liberties that the eye alone seeth in the body yet the eye which see●h is not alone without the other senses that the Fore-finger alone pointeth yet that finger is not alone on the hand that the Hammer alone striketh on the Bell yet the hammer that striketh is not alone in the Clock that the heat alone in the fire burneth yet that heat is not alone without light that the Helm alone guideth the Ship and not the Tackling yet the helm is not alone nor without the ●ackling In a compound Electuary Rubarb onely purgeth choler yet the Rubarb is not alone there without other Ingredients Thus we are to conceive that though faith alone doth justifie yet that faith which justifieth is not alone but joyned with charity and good works St. Bernard's distinction of Via regni and Causa regnandi cleareth the truth in this point Though good works are not the cause why God crowneth us yet we must take them in our way to Heaven or else we shall never come there It is as impious to deny the necessity as to maintain the merit of good works Talkers and not doers of Religion are to be condemned IT is a custom in Germany that in the evening when a candle is first lighted or brought into a Room they say Deus det vobis lucem aeternam God grant light eternal And it is usual in many parts of this Kingdom to say God grant us the light of Heaven The custom is good and the words warrantable but were the light of Heaven more in our hearts and less in our tongues there wo●●d be fewer works of darkness in our lives and conversations We speak of the light of Heaven and wish for the light of Heaven and we talk of new lights to heaven but all this is like that silly Actor in the Comedy that cryed out with his finger pointed to the Earth and his eye to Hea●en Encoelum ôterra Heaven is in our mouth but Earth in our hearts We are Heteroclit●s in Religion not reas but nominals in profession The endeavours of Christ are for peace IT is too usual with men the wiser they are the more to be turbule●t and disquieters of the State and the more power they have the more to tyrannize and lord it over their fellow Subjects For such men do seldom suffer themselves to be guided or governed by the Counsels and dictates of others and run head-long of themselves swayed by a kind of impulsive providence and so care not but to please their own fancy no matter whom they displease besides But it is not so with Christ he that is Wisdome it self that is wonderful for Counsel mighty for Power bends both his wisdom and his power and his counsel to work peace that peace which is the portion of his people the inheritance of his Church which none can partake of but those that are true members thereof Study of the Tongues to be encouraged DAvid made a Statute in Israel that they who tarryed by the stuffe should part alike with those who went to battel The Professors of the Tongues are they who keep the stuffe and they should be as well rewarded as they who go into the field and fight in the Ministery The anger or wrath of God best appeased when the sinner appeareth with Christ in his armes THemistocles understanding that King Admetus was highly displeased with him took up his young son into his armes and treated with the Father holding that his darling in his bosom and thereby appeased the King's wrath God is at this time offended with us and hath a controversie with us there is no

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 t●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 ●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

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 dang●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

estate supposing that she would not go along with him but she answered the Emperour saying There is a cause that hinders me from partaking the benefit of your bounty The affection I bear to my husband because I have shared with him in his Felicity Whereupon the Emperour being displeased with her answer banished her likewise Memorable is that also of David's brethren and those of his Fathers house who when they heard of his being in the Cave of Adullam sleighted the forfeiture of their goods and venturing the displeasure of Saul went down to comfort him And thus it is that true Friendship is best tryed in times of Affliction and distress A brother a Friend a Wife is for the time of Adversity Away then with those Summer-birds those false-hearted Friends that like ditches are full in the Winter-season but dry in the heat of Summer when we have most need of them Natural Wants and weaknesses not to be objected against the practice of Divine Meditation MEn that are sick and weakly in their bodies do not altogether abstain from food and Physick but rather use them that they may recover their strength again and though their appetite is small yet they force themselves that by eating a little and a little they may get a stomach Shall a Man that is dim-sighted shut the windowes because the house is dark Shall he not rather open them to let in the light that he may the better see to go about his business And the colder a man feels himself the more needful he thinks it to come to the fire and warm himself or use some exercise that so he may recover his natural heat Thus in like manner the sight of our own natural wants and weaknesses is not a sufficient plea to barre us from the exercise of divine Meditation but rather incite us thereunto it being an excellent means to clear up our sight to enlighten our minds with more knowledge to get spiritual health and strength and to warm our cold and frozen hearts that so by Gods assistance we may perform service unto him with more heat of Godly Zeal and fervour of devotion The greatest boasters the smallest doers ERasmus in his Adagies reports of a young Man that had travailed many Countreys and at last returning home began to praise himself in every Company and amongst many his other excellent feats that he had done he said that in the Isle of Rhodes he out-jumped all the Men that were there and all the Rhodians could bear him witnesse of the same Whereupon a stander by said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If thou sayst true think this to be Rhodes and jump here And then he could do just nothing but hid his face for shame Thus as those sticks that send forth most smoke do afford least heat So those Men that are the greatest boasters are for the most part the least doers according to our English Proverb Great boast and small roast Alas what are words meer van●ty if not attended with deeds hence is that saying Loquere ut te videam so speak that I may see you make no more words but what may be demonstrated by deeds in the view of all Men. God rewarding the least of good done to his People IT is reported of Herod Agrippa the same that was eaten up of Worms Act. 12. 23. that being bound in chains and sent to prison by Tiberius for wishing Caius in the Empire one Thaumastus a servant of Caius carrying a pitcher of Water met him And Agrippa being very thirsty desired him to give him drink which he willingly did Whereupon Agrippa said This service thou hast done in giving me drink shall do thee good another day And he was as big as his word for afterwards when Caius was Emperor and Agrippa made King of Iudea he first got his liberty then made him a chief Officer of his houshold and after his decease took order that he should continue in the same Office with his Sonne How much more then shall Christ reward those that shall give to his distressed members but a cup of cold water one of the least readiest and meanest refreshments that may be in the midst of their Afflictions Shall not he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet have a Prophets reward Yes surely they shall not be unrecompenced when Christ shall appear in his glory he will own them before Men and Angels Want of matter not to be pretended against the practice of Divine Meditation LOok but upon an Earthly-minded Man and hee 'l have matter enough to think and meditate upon in worldly things if it were for a whole year together building as it were Castles in the ayr busying himself about things that are not or ever shall be and herein they are such quick Workmen too that they can both gather their straw and burn their brick in full tale Strange then that any Man should object the want of matter or barrennesse of invention in the Meditation of things spiritual whereas did he but resort to Gods store-houses like the Egyptians to Iosephs did he but open the large volume of the Creation and unclasp the book of holy Scriptures he might find abundant matter of Meditation besides the consideration of his own misery his manifold sins and corruptions wants and imperfections Gods great Mercies and blessings the admin●stration of his Judgments the workings of his Providence c. so that there is no want of good seed no cause to complain of any thing but the barrennesse of heart and aversnesse to good things if there be not bringing forth fruit in a plentifull manner More comfortable to have a strong Faith then a weak one AS two Ships sailing together the one sound and well tackled the other leaking and wanting sailes though both do arrive at the same port yet not both alike disposed the one comes in merrily and confidently the other with much difficulty and doubting So the strong in Faith doth singingly walk towards Heaven goes on comfortably and with full assurance when they of little faith do but as it were creep thither with many doubts great fears and small joy And therefore as it is no Wisdom for any Man to continue poor that may be Rich or to live in Fear when he may be free from it So it is no point of Wisdome no piece of Christian Prudence for a Man to content himself with a weak Faith when by any means he may encrease it Men to be forward in promoting the cause of God and Religion FAmous is the Story of one Terentius a Captain in the Emperour Valens his Army who returning from Armenia with a great Victory the Emperour bade him ask what he would He onely desired as a Recompence for all his service That there might be granted a Church to the Orthodox in Antioch where to the honour of the place Christ did as it were

her patience her bottle and her hope were both out together O what must she do What Why there was upon the very place and that near at hand comfort enough a Well of water to refresh her had she but had her eyes open to have seen it Gen. 21. 19. Thus it is that in the midst of A●●lictions and distresse Men whine and repine as if they were quite lost they eye t●e empty bottle the crosse that is at present upon them but for want of spirituall sight they see not the Fountain of living waters Christ Iesus with the open arms of his Mercy ready to relieve them they as it were groan under the heavy burthen of oppression but for want of coming to Christ and believing on him they misse of that speedy refreshing which otherwise they might happily enjoy The supernatural workings of the Spirit PHilosophers observe that the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is by virtue of the Moon she flings her fainting beams into the Sea and being not able to exhale them as the Sun doth she leaves them there and goes away and that drawes them and when they grow wet they return again so that the Sea ebbs and flowes not from any principle in its self but by virtue of the Moon Thus the heart of every poor Creature is like the Water unable to move towards Heaven to think a good thought much lesse 〈◊〉 act any thing that is good till the holy Spirit of Grace bring in its beams and leave a supernaturall virtue by them upon the Soul and thereby drawes it up to it self Afflictions Not to be altogether taken up with the sense of them IT is very observable of Iacob That when his Wife dyed in Childbirth she called the child Benoni that is a son of sorrowes But Iacob in all probability thought thus with himself If I should call this Child Benoni every time that I name him it would put me in mind of the death of my dear Wife which will be a continual affliction to me and therefore I will nor have my child of that name but will from henceforth call him Benjamin that is the son of my right hand And this of Iacob may serve to shew us thus much That when Afflictions befall us we should not give way to have our thoughts continually upon them alwayes poring on them ever thinking and speaking of them but rather to have our thoughts on those things that may comfort us or that may stirre up our thankfulnesse to God for mercies even in the very midst of our Afflictions afforded unto us To suffer any thing for the Cause of Christ. IT is said of Hormisda a Nobleman of great eminency in the King of Persia his Court that because he would nor deny Christ he was degraded of all his honours stript out of his Lordly habit cloathed with sordid rags and so turn'a out to keep the Camels After a long time the King seeing him in that base slavish condition and remembring his former estate took pity on him caused him to be brought into his Pallace suited him like himself in rich attire and then perswadeth him to deny Christ at which he rent his silken cloaths and said If for these silly things you think to have me to deny my Faith in Christ take them again I le none of them And so with great scorn and reproach he was the second time cast out Thus it is that all of us should be ready to suffer any thing for the cause of Christ be contented to be made a by-word and laughing-stock for Christ and to bear with willing shoulders the most disgraceful things that can by the malice of Men and Devils be put upon us for Christ nay to bear up our spirits though all the World should frown upon us cast us off scorn us and accompt us as a disgrace unto them The sins of our Religious duties corrected by Christ and then presented to God the Father AS a Child that is willing to present his Father with something or other that might please him as a Poesie or Nosegay goes into the Garden and there for want of judgment gathers sweet smelling Flowers and noysome stinking weeds together but coming to his Mother she picks out the weeds and thus it is that whether we pray unto God or hear God speak unto us in his Word or are otherwise employed in the performance of any Religious action Christ comes and picks out the weeds takes away the iniquity of our holy things observes what evil or failing there is in duty and draws it out and so presents nothing but flowers nothing but what is pleasing and acceptable to God his Father The comfortable sight of Christ Iesus crucified to the poor Repentant Sinner IMagine that you saw some Malefactor led along to the place of Execution wailing and weeping for his mis-spent time for his bloudy acts for his heynous crimes and that his wailings and his weepings were so bitter that they were able to force tears from others and to make all eyes shoot and water that did but look upon him but then if this Man in this case should sodainly see his King running and riding towards him with a pardon in his hand What a sight would this be Surely none like it Thus thus it is with Man sorrowing and repenting for Sin Whilest he is weeping over the sadnesse of his condition and confessing what a little step there is betwixt him and damnation as if he were even dropping into Hell in a maze he looks up unto Christ whom he sees with a Spear in his side with thorns in his head with nayles in his feet and a pardon in his hands this were a sight indeed a most pleasant ravishing Heavenly sight such as all the rich and curious sights on Earth not all those glittering spangles in Heaven could afford the like Heart-Communication the want therof deplorable IT was the ingenuous confession of a learned Divine sensible of his neglect but more especially of the difficulty of the duty of Heart-communication I have lived said he Forty years and somewhat more and carried my Heart in my bosome all this while and yet my Heart and I are great strangers and as utterly unacquainted as if we had never come near one another Nay I know not my own Heart I have forgotten my Heart Ah my bowels my bowells that I could be grieved at the very Heart that my poor Heart and I have been so unacquainted Thus he then in a pious and conscientious manner expressing himself but mutato nomine it is the condition of most Men now in this Athenian age of ours such as spend their time in nothing more then in telling and hearing news How are things here how there how in this place how in that None almost enquiring how things are with their poor hearts few or none debating the matter nor holding