against him it will pull him downe and lay him flat and fill him with such inward terrors that hee shall bee more afraid of himselfe than of all the world beside THere is something in the very greatnesse of sin that may encourage us to goe to God for the greater our sinnes are the greater the glory of his powerfull mercy in pardoning will appeare The great God delights to shew his greatnesse in the greatest things hee delighteth in mercy it pleaseth him nothing so well as being his chiefe Name His mercy is not only above his own works but above ours also if we could sin more then he could pardon then wee might have some reason to despaire Despaire is a high point of Atheism it takes away God and Christ both at once Iudas in betraying our Saviour was occasion of his death as man but in despairing he did what lay in him to take away his life as God Wherefore we should never thinke the dore of hope to be shut against us if we have a purpose to turn unto God Invincible mercy will never be conquered and endlesse goodnesse never admits of bounds or ends If Christ be the Phisitian it is no matter of how long continuance the disease be hee is good at all diseases and will not endure the reproach of disability to cure any AS in the sinne against the holy Ghost feare shewes that we have not committed it so a tender heart fearing lest the time of true repentance is past shewes plainly that it is not past God is more willing to entertaine us than we are to cast our selves upon him As there is a fountaine opened for sin and for uncleannesse as it is a living fountain of living water that runs for ever and can never be drawne dry ALl men are not affected with a like sorrow for sin God giveth some larger spirits and so their sorrowes become larger Some upon quicknesse of apprehension and the ready passages betwixt the brain and the heart are quickly moued where the apprehension is deeper and the passages flower there sorrow is long in working and long in removing the deepest waters have the stillest motion Iron takes fire more slowly than stubble but then it holds longer It is fitter to leave it to Gods wisdome to mingle the portion of sorrow than to be our owne chusers IF wee grieve that we cannot grieve and so far as it is sin make it our grief it should not hinder us from going to Christ but rather drive us to him God delights not in our sorrow if we could trust in him without much sorrow then it would not be required and though want of feeling be quite opposite to the life of grace yet senciblenesse of the want of feeling shewes some degree of the life of grace When that which is wanting in grief for sin is made up in feare of sinning there is no great cause of complaine of the want of griefe for this holy affection is the awe-band of the soule whereby it is kept from starting from God and his waies That measure of griefe and sorrow is sufficient which brings us and holds us to Christ WE should grieve for our sins and rejoice for our griefe and though wee can neither love nor grieve nor ioy of our selves as we should yet are we often guilty in giving a checke to the spirit stirring these affections in us which is the maine cause of the many sharp afflictions wee endure in this life though Gods Love in the maine matter of salvation bee most firme unto us GRiefe is no farther good than it makes way for ioy which caused our Saviour to ioyne them together Blessed are the mourners for they shall be comforted it is one maine end of Gods leaving us in a sorrowfull condition that we may live and die by faith in the perfect righteousnesse of Christ whereby we glorifie God more than if we had perfect righteousnesse of our owne OVr corruptions are Gods enemies as well as ours therefore in trusting to him and fighting against them wee may be sure he will take our part in vanquishing them The looking too much to the Anakims and Gyants and too little to Gods omnipotency shut the Israelites out of Canaan and put God to his Oath that they should never enter into his rest And it will exclude our souls from happines at length if looking too much on these Anakims or great corruptions within and without us we basely despaire and give over the Field what coward will nor fight when hee is sure of helpe and victorie THough God be of pure eyes yet he looks upon us his poore Creatures in him who is blamelesse and without spot who by vertue of his sweet smelling sacrifice appeares for us in heaven and mingles his odors with our services and in him will God be knowne to us by the name of a kinde Father not onely in pardoning our deserts but accepting our endeavours WHatsoever comfort we have in goods friends health or other Blessings it is all conveied by God who still remaines though these bee taken from us And we have him bound in many promises for all that is needfull for us we may sue him upon his owne bond Can we thinke that hee who will give us a Kingdome will faile us in necessary provision to bring us thither who himselfe is our portion DEparture of friends should not be grievous unto us A true Beleever is unto Christ as his Mother Brother and Sister because he carries that affection to them as if they were so indeed to him As Christ makes us all to him so should wee make him all in all to our selves If all comforts in the world were dead wee may enioy them still in the living Lord HEalth is at Gods command and sicknesse stayes at his rebuke The time of sicknesse is a time of purging from that defilement we gathered in out health till wee come purer out which should moue us the rather willingly to abide Gods time Blessed is that sicknesse that proves the health of the soule we are best for most part when wee are weakest Then onely it truly appeares what good proficients we have been in the time of health IN all kinde of troubles it is not the Ingredients that God puts into the cup so much afflicts us as the Ingredients of our distempered passions mingled with them The sting and coare of them all is sinne when that is not onely pardoned but in some measure healed and the proud flesh eaten out then a healthy soul wil beare any thing when the conscience is once set at liberty we cheerfully undergoe any burthen But it is a heavy condition to be under the burthen of trouble and under the burthen of a guilty conscience both at once When men will walke in the light of their own fire and the sparks which they have kindled themselves it is iust with God that they should lie downe in sorrow IN all sorts of injuries which we suffer
was not ashamed to set upon Christ himselfe with this temptation and thinks Christs members never low enough untill he can bring them as low as himselfe But God is often neerest to his children when he seemeth farthest off In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seene God is with them and in them though the wicked be not aware of it even as the Moone at what time it is least visible to us is then neerest the Sunne HE that shunneth labour procureth trouble An unimployed life is a burthen to it selfe God is a pure At alwayes working alwayes doing and the neerer our Soule comes to God the more it is in action and the freer from disquiet Men experimentally feele that comfort in doing what belongs unto them which before they longed for and went without WE ought not to be over-hastie in censuring others when we see their spirits out of temper Many things worke strongly upon the weake nature of man and wee may sinne more by harsh censure than they by over-much distemper as in Iobs case which was a matter rather of just griefe and pittie than great wonder or heavie censure IN all our troubles we should looke first home to our owne hearts stop the storme there for wee may thanke our owne selves not onely for our troubles but likewise for overmuch troubling our selves in trouble if wee will prevent casting downe let us prevent griefe the cause of it and sinne the cause of that A Dejected man is indisposed to good duties it makes him like an Instrument out of tune like a Body out of joint that mooveth both uncomely and painefully It unfits him to duties towards God who loves both a chearefull giver and receiver Dejectednesse makes a man forgetfull of all former blessings and stoppes the influence of Gods grace for the time present and that to come it makes us unfit to receive mercies A quiet Soule is the seat of wisdome therefore meekenesse is required in receiving of that ingrafted Word which is able to save our soules It is ill sowing in a storme A stormie spirit will not suffer the Word to take place Men are deceived that thinke a dejected spirit to be an humbled spirit yet it is so when we are cast downe in the sense of our owne unworthinesse and then as much raysed in the confidence of Gods mercie SAtan hath never more advantage than upon discontent it disposeth us for entertaining any Temptation It damps the spirits of those that walke the same way with us when as we should as good travellers cheere up one another both by word and example In such a case the wheeles of the soule are taken off or as it were want oyle whereby it passeth on very heavily and no good action comes off from it as it should which breeds not only uncomfortablenesse but unsetlednesse in good courses for a man will never goe on comfortably and constantly in that which he heavily undertakes So much as we are quiet and cheerfull so much we live and are as it were in Heaven so much as we yeeld to discouragements we lose so much of our life and happinesse Cheerfulnesse being as it were the life of our lives and the spirit of our spirits by which they are more inlarged to receive happinesse and to expresse it THere is an art or skill in bearing troubles without over-much troubling our selves As in bearing of a burthen there is away so to poise it that it weigheth not over-heavy if it hang all on one side it poiseth the body down The greater part of our troubles we pul upon our selves by not parting our care so as to take upon us only the care of duty and leave the rest to God and by mingling our passions with our crosses and like a foolish Patient chewing the Pills which we should swallow downe WHy should wee dwell too much upon griefe when wee ought to remove the soule higher Wee are neerest neighbours unto our selves when wee suffer griefe like a Canker to eat into the soule and like a fire in the bones to consume the marrow and drink up the spirits we are accessarie to the wrong done both to our bodies and soules we waste our owne Candle and put out our owne Light IN great fires men looke first to their Iewels and then to their Lumber No Iewell is so precious no possession so rich as the Soule The account for our owne soules and the soules of others is the greatest account and therefore the care of soules should be the greatest care A Godly mans comforts and grievances are hid from the world naturall men are strangers to them If we be troubled with the distempers of our hearts it is a ground of comfort unto us that our spirits are ruled by a higher Spirit and that there is a principle of that life in us which cannot brooke the most secret corruption but rather casts it out by an holy complaint as strength of Nature doth poyson which seekes its destruction Hee wants spirituall life that is not at all disquieted hee abates the vigour and livelinesse of his life that is over-much disquieted A Burning Ague is more hopefull than a Lethargie so is hee that feeles too much more happie than hee that feeles not at all for hee in all his jollitie is but as a Booke fairely bound beautifull to the eye while it is shut but being opened is full of nothing but Tragedies despaire to such is the beginning of comfort trouble the beginning of peace A storme is the way to a calme and Hell the way to Heaven 'T is fit that sinne contracted by joy should be dissolved by griefe A Christian should neither be a dead Sea nor a raging Sea Affections are never well ordered but when they are fit to have communion with God to love joy trust and delight in him above all things for they are the inward movings of the soule which then move best when they move us to God not from him A Carnall man is like a Spring corrupted that cannot worke it selfe cleare because it is wholly tainted his eye and light is darknesse and therefore no wonder if he seeth nothing Sinne lyeth upon his understanding and hinders the knowledge of it selfe it lyes close upon the will and hinders the striving against it selfe That which a carnall man doth for by-ends and reasons the godly man doth from a new Nature which if there were no Law to compell yet it would moove him to that which is pleasing to Christ WE cannot say This or that trouble shall not befall yet we may by helpe of the Spirit say Nothing that doth befall shall make me doe that which is unworthy of a Christian If wee expect the worst when it comes it is no more than wee thought of if better befalls us then it is the sweeter to us the lesse wee expected it IN the uncertaintie of all events here we should labour to frame that contentment in and from our own selves which
delight his soule in his labour for this is the hand of God I Never yet found Pride in a noble Nature nor humility in an unworthy minde Arrogance is a Weed that ever growes in a dunghill it is from the ranknesse of that soile she hath her height and spreadings To be humble to our Superiours is duty to our equals curtesie to our Inferiours noblenesse If ever Pride be lawfull it is when it meets with audacious Pride and conquers for then many times the affronting man by his own folly may learne the way to his duty and wit Vlee is a myery deepnesse If thou strivest to helpe one out and doest not thy stirring him sinkes him in the farther Fury is the madder for his Chaine When thou chidest thy wandring friend do it secretly in season in love Certainly he is drunke himselfe that prophanes reason so as to urge it to a drunken man To admonish a man in the height of his passion is to call a Souldier to councell in the heat of a Battell Let the Combate slack and then thou maist expect a hearing Who blowes out Candles with too strong a breath doth 〈…〉 a stinke and blow them 〈◊〉 againe And many times the tartnesse of speech makes a reprehension worse than the fault TO finde friends when wee have no need of them and to want them when wee have are both alike easie and common And certainly it is not the least part of mans misery that hee can neither bee truly happy without a friend nor yet know him to be a true friend without his being unhappy Our fortunes and our selves are so closely linked that we know not to which of them our friends love alâ—es till one of these two shall part I confesse he is happy that findes a true friend in extremity but hee is happier that findes not extremity wherein to try his friend INfidelity is the cause of all our woes the ground of all our sins not trusting God we discontent our selves with feares and solicitations and to cure these we run into prohibited pathes Vnworthy earthen Worme to thinke that he that grasps the unemptied provisions of the world in his hand can be a niggard to his Sons unlesse he sees it be for their good and benefit O my God let me finde my heart dutifull and my faith upon triall stedfast that I may but serve thee and depend upon thee and then I need beg no farther supply for these will bee ground enough for sufficient happinesse while I live here NEither example nor precept unlesse in matters wholly religious can be the absolute guides of a discreete man It is only a knowing and a practicall judgement of his owne that can direct him in the Maze of this life in the bustle of the world in the twitches and twirles of Fate for mans life is like a State still casuall in the future and he that lives alwaies by booke Rules shall shew himselfe affected and a foole I will doe that which I see is comely so it be not dishonest rather than take grave advice to the contrary VIce ruleth as a god in this present evill world and it is impossible to live and not encounter her Wherefore it is good to be acquainted with Vertue also that the true beauty of the one may draw our affections from the ugly deformity of the other And happy is hee that makes other mens vices steps for him to climbe to heaven by THe good man is he to whom life and death is indifferent for he knowes while he is here God will protect him and that when hee goes hence God will receive him Certainly we are never quiet in any thing long till we have conquered the feare of death every spectacle of mortality terrifies and every casuall danger affrights us Feare of death kils us often when death it selfe can doe it but once But he that would not die when he must and he that would die when he must not are Cowards alike And why should we feare to doe that at any time which we know wee must doe once But what wee cannot do till our time comes let us not seeke to doe before He that hath lived well will seldome be unwilling to die for death hath nothing in it terrible but what our life hath made so Good men never die but as the Phoenix from whose preserved ashes one or other still doth spring up like them for surely nothing awakes our sleeping vertues like the noble acts of our predecessors COntemplation seconded by action makes men happy without the first the later is defective without the last the first is but abortive Contemplation like Rachel is fairest but Action like Leah is most fruitfull I will neither alwaies bee busie and doing nor ever will I be shut up in nothing but thoughts yet that which some would call idlenesse I will count the sweetest part of my life and that is my thinking VErtue were but a kinde of misery if fame only were all the Garland that did crown her but in heaven is laid up a more glorious and essentiall recompence For a mean man to thirst for a mighty fame is a kinde of fond ambition Great fames are for Princes and such as are the Glories of humanity good ones may crowne the private the same fire may be in the waxen Taper which is in the staved Torch but it is not equall either in quantity or advancement A Prince that leaveth law and ruleth himselfe and others by his owne appetite and affections is of all creatures the worst and of all beasts the most furious and dangerous for that nothing is so outragious as injustice armed and no armour is so strong as Wit and Authority whereof the first he hath as he is a Man and the other as he is a Prince LEt this be my advice and thy instruction Shun verbosity speake seldome and then to the purpose have a pure conscience and pray often study much and be familiar with few shun superfluous discourse follow the steps of godly and devout men regard not from whom thou hearest what is good and having heard it forget it not what thou readest or hearest cease not till thou dost understand be resolved of doubts and search not too far into things which are not lawfull to know THose sins are greater which are committed through lust than those which are committed through anger for he that is angry seemes with a kinde of griefe and close contraction of himselfe to turne away from reason but he that sins through lust being overcome by pleasure doth in his very sin bewray a more impotent and unmanlike disposition For the angry man sinneth by anothers injury that provokes him whereas the other doth of himselfe meerly resolve upon any evill action IT should be every mans duty to confine all his thoughts and cares to the attendance of that spirit which is within himselfe namely to keepe himselfe pure from all violent passion and evill affection from all