things 558. Worldly honours and greatnesse their vanity to be considered 571. Men in the midst of their worldly contrivances prevented by death 646. Worldly-minded men little think of Heaven and why so 663. The vanity of Worldly greatnesse 667. The danger of trusting to Worldly greatnesse in time of distresse 6. Dulnesse and drowsinesse in the service or Worship of God reproved 173. The anger or Wrath of God best appeased when the Sinner appeareth with Christ in his arms 99. Y. THe folly of Youth discovered and reproved 187. The time of Youth to be given up to God 250. Youth to be catechized 422. Youth to be seasoned with grace not giving the least way to the Devil 507. Z. ZEal and Knowledg must go hand in hand together 15. Zeal in Gods service made the Worlds derision 51. Zeal Anabaptistical condemned 179. Preposterous Zeal reproved 197. Want of Zeal in the Cause of God reproved 251. Men to be Zealous in God's Cause 252. To be Zealous for the honour of Jesus Christ as he is the eternal Son of God 379. The danger of immoderate Zeal against those of another Judgment And how so 385. The Zeal of Heathens of their false gods condemning that of Christians to their true God 411. Virgil. Eclog. 3. In praefat Reg. Aluredi ad leges suas Sr. H. Spelman in concil Aul. Gellius in noct Attic. Psalm 119. Is. Bargrave Parliament-Serm 1624. Apoc. 1. 8. Pont. Diaconus in vita ejus ut est vidâ—re in â—p praefixâ operibus ex edit Sim. Goulartij House of mourning or Fun. Seâ—mâ—ns Quae sensu volvuntur vota diurno Tempore nocturno reddit amica quies Claud. Conr. Zvingeri Theat hum Vitae Paul De Wann Serm. de Tempt Speculum Exemplorum Peccati mortificatio Diaboli flagellum Sedul Hybern Mart. ab 〈◊〉 Norvarri Concilia in â—ap de oratione horis canonicis In Dialogo ad Luciferium Non vox sed votum c. Esay 6. 5. 5. Psalm 4. 1. 2. Aver Metaph. Thales Miles Foelix criminibus nullus erit diu Ausonius Plin. nat hist. lib. 8. cap. 11. Sir Rob. Dallington's Aphorisms Ingens mole sua c. Plin. nat hist. Lib. 8. Chap. 25. Experientia docet Militem privatum non solum debere esse volentem c. Zenoph Cyropaed Lib. 2. Iean Bodin de la Republique Justitia Remp. firmat Ant. Bonfinius Lib. 3. rerum Hungar. Jer 22. 15. Lib. 7. Chap. 28. I. White Serm. at St. Paulâ—s London 1612. Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus Ovid. Psal. 50â—â—5 Rich. Holdsworth Serm. at St. Pauls Lon. 1624. Videmus Dâ—um per Christum c. Fulgent D. Staughtons Sermon Haud ullas portabit opes Acherontis ad undas Propert. Matth. 4. Mark 8. 36. B. White Serm at St. Pauls London 1617 Exiguâ— percussus fulminis ictu Fortior ut possit cladibus esse suis. Ovid. ep Deuâ— 21. 7. Eph. â—â—dal Ser. at Mercers Chappel London 1642. Paâ—â—m te poscimus omnes Tho. Fuller Holy State ubi virtus discretionis perditur c. Greg. lib. 3. moral Rich Stainihurst de rebus Hybern Rom. 6. 12. Jos. Shute Sermon at S. Mary Wolnoth Lâ—mbardsâ—â—eet London 1619. Iohn 14. 2. R. Skinner Serm. at Court 1626. Via divine via 〈◊〉 R. Stock Serm. at Alhallowes Breadsâ—â— Lon. 1616. Rev. 6. 10. Psal. 125. 3 Tempus 〈◊〉 tempus opportunum Edw. Wilkison Serm. at St. Pauls Lond. 1639. D. Price Serm. at Christ-Church Lond. 1620. 1 Joh. 3. 20. 1 Cor. 2. 11. Plutarch in vitâ Alexandri Jos. Shure Serm. at St. Pauls Lond. 1619. Act. 20. Nihil in vitae durabile non opes non honores non potentia c. Const. Minos Annal. Com. in Matth. chap. 13. Boys Postills Terras Astrâ—â— reliquit Luk. 18. â— Plutarch in Apophthâ—gm Ant in Melissa p. 2. Serm. 33. T. Westfield Serm. at St. 〈…〉 Lond. 1641. Psal. 120. Numb 13. Iohn Boys 〈◊〉 Mar. Luth. in loc com de Christo. Plus vident oculi quâ—m oculus Joh. I. 1â— Th. Gataker's Parley with Princes Nulla fides piâ—tasque viris c. Th. Gaâ—aker's True Contentment in God's way a Sermon 1619. Job 1. 21. 〈◊〉 tellus domus c. Horaâ— câ—â— 2. 3. 〈…〉 Evang. Eccles. 8. 11. Th. Gataker's Appeal from Princes to God Carcer ejus est cor ejus Bernard Eustath in Homeri Iliadâ— Th Gataker's Gain of godlinesse Seneca de benefic Virtutibus aâ—rum vilius Horat. B. Hall occasionall Meditat. Vilius argentum est auro Horat. B. Hall ut antea In promptu causa est c. Ovid. Variam semper dant otia mentem Lucan Serm. in divites 〈◊〉 I. Boys Sermont 〈…〉 Bedae hist. lib. 3. cap. 6. Jam. 2. 16. R. Holdsworth Serm. at S. Peter poâ—r Lond. 1630. Verbis non solvendum est quidquam Terence Iâ— lib. de 〈◊〉 Iâ—d D. Featly Clavis mystica Divide impara Machiav Mark 3. 24. Plinius 〈…〉 Sueton hist. Xyphilinus house of mourning Discite in hoc mundo supra mundum esse c. Ambros. lib. de Virg. Lib. 1. epist. 15. ad Atticum Preface to the B. of Winchest Serm. Res tua tunc agitur c. In lib. Antiquit. 1 King 3. 26. Cuspinianus Christ. â—onse cae Quadragâ—sâ—ma Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi Plutarch in Convi Diogen Laert in Vita Psal. 55. Sine caede sanguine pauci Descendunt Reges sicca morte Tyranni Juvenal Ammian Marcellin D. Featly Sermons Et quae non fecimus ipsi vix ea nostra voco Xenoph. cyro 〈◊〉 lib. 3. D. Featly ut antea Si Christum discis satis est 〈◊〉 â—aetera nâ—scis Plinii nat hist. lib 8. cap. 17. Rob. Dallington's Aphorisms Nec â—nim lex justior ulla est c. Ovid. Lud. â— Granada meditat Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est Virg. Macrob. Sat. lib. 2. cap. 4. D. King lect on Jonah Th. Mouffeâ—'s Insector Fuller's Holy State Clem Alexan. Paedog lib. 2. cap. 12. Mich. Jemin Com. on Prov. Deipnosoph lib. 13. Mich. Jermin ut anteâ— Ingratus vir â—â—lium est perforatum Lucianus Mich. Jermin ut antea Quae vera sunt loqui virum ingenuum decet Ephes. 4. 25. Pag. 1874. edit ult Th. Plummer a Serm. at St. Paul's Lond. 1616. Natura pauciâ— contenta Iovis omnia plena Virgil. Prov. 13. 25. Numb 23. Joh. Downham 's Warfare Solum non Coelum amatur Rhemig Rheâ— Plutarch de cohibenda irâ— Jeâ—â—m Burrough 's Heart divisions 〈…〉 R. Prior. A Serm. at the Funer of Bâ— Smith 1632. Vive memor lethi hoc quod loquor inde est Persius Plin. nat hist. lib. 10. cap. 20. Playâ—er's Serm. Mat. 12. 43. Ovid. Metam Gabr. Inchinus de quat novissimis Si nunquam moreretur c. Bern. 〈◊〉 â—52 Aristot. 〈…〉 Gal. 5. 15. Sueton in vita Cl. Nero. Walâ— Soul's ornament a Serm. 1616. Magna tamen spes est in bonitate Dei Ovid. epist. Theodoret. hist. lib. 6. cap. 22. Joh. Williams B. Lincoln Serm. at a Fast Westm. 162â— Gen. 22. 12. Numb
sin is what a burthen the punishment of sin is which he must bear or sink under it and by this means he shall soon find himself at a loss For a wounded spirit who can bear Licentious libertines impatient of Government THere was sometimes in Gaunt as divers of the Magistrates were sitting on a bench in the streets a beggar who passing along craved their Almes and complained that he had a secret disease lying in his bones and running all over his body which he might not for shame discover unto them they moved with pitty gave him each of them somewhat and he departed One more curious then the rest bad his Man follow him and learn if he could what that secret disease should be who coming to him and seeing nothing outwardly upon him but well to look at Forsooth quoth the beggar that which pains me you see not I have a disease lying in my bones and in all my parts so that I cannot work some call it Sloath anâ— some others call it Idlenesse Now there is a sort of Men that have a disease holds them much like this of the beggar's they cannot endure to be subject to have looked at them formerly you could have discerned little or nothing for they were close but there crep't all over all their body through every joint and was settled in their marrow and is now broke out at their mouths a Lordly humour that they cannot obey nor understand themselves to be any longer subjects than they please themselves Preaching Trades-men Preaching-souldiers c. not sent of God THere is a relation how Zeno the Emperor tempted God in the choice of a Church-man by laying a blank paper on the Altar that God might write in the paper the name of him who should be Bishop of Constantinople but one Flavitius that was otherwise Scholar enough corrupting the Sexton with a considerable summe of money caused him to write-in his name and so obtained the Bishoprick And are there not many amongst us Clero-Laicks Preaching-Trades-men Preaching-Souldiers c Such there are but certainly not sent of God not written down in the book of Gods approbation but are crep't in by the corruption of the time and have boldly thrown themselves into the work of the Ministery and are many of them the onely men admired for gifts of whom it may be said as sometimes Aulus Gellius did of one Vendidius Bassus Concurrite omnes augures aruspices Portentum inusitatum conflatum est recens Nam mulos qui fricabat Consul factus est But blessed be God there is yet no such a Famine in this our Samaria that an Asses head should be valued at fourscore pieces of silver Scholars not to be unthankful to the Vniversity that bred them ARistotle having gotten great Learning from Plato by whom he was taught no less then ten years afterwards became a great enemy unto him and by all means sought his discredit A course clean contrary to all moral Rules and even common humanity the which unthankfulness caused Plato to call him Mule The property of which beast is That when they have filled themselves with their Mothers milk they beat their Dams with their heels for a Recompence And well may our Vniversities the Nurseries of Gods Vineyard the Seminaries of Christian learning and Fountains of holy Religion yea the eyes the light the salt the seasoning of the whole land take it very unkindly that some of them whom they have not onely taught but maintained with all necessaries some ten years some more should now be found their greatest opposers This may be an Aristoâ—elian an Heathenish but surely no Christian requital Such unworthy Disciples dissemblers may be men in countenance but in condition Mules Sin rooted in the heart hardly to be plucked up HE that driveth a nail into a Post fastneth it at the first stroak that he maketh with his hammer but more firmly at the Second stroak but so fast at the third that it can hardly be pulled out again and the oftner that he knocketh it the faster it sticketh and is pulled out with the greater difficulty So in every one of our wicked actions which we do sin is driven deeplier into our souls as it were with the great hammer of Gods anger the nail is sin inclination to sin fastens it delight in sin enters it further custome drives it further and habit sets it home to the head and there it sticketh so fast that nothing in the World can be found out but onely the mercies of God in Christ Jesus by which it may be haled and pulled out again Good works are not the cause of but the way to happiness IF the King freely without desert of mine and at the mediation of another give me a place about him and never so much right unto it yet I am bound if I will enjoy it to come unto him and do the things that the place requireth And if he give me a Tree growing in his Forrest this his gift tyes me to be at cost to cut it down bring it home if I will have it And when I have done all this I cannot brag that by my coming and service I merited this place or by my cost in cutting down and carrying home the Tree made my selfe worthy of the Tree as the Iesuits speak of their works but onely the deed is the way that leads to the fruition of that which is freely given There cannot be produced a place in all the Scripture nor a sentence in all the Fathers which extend our works any further or make them exceed the latitude of a meer condition or way whereby to walk to that which not themselves but the blood of Christ hath deserved A true Christian the more he is afflicted and troubled the better he thriveth PLiny in his naturall history writeth of certain Trees growing in the red Seas which being beat upon by the waves stand like a Rock immovable yea sometimes pleno aeâ—â—u operiuntur in a full Sea they are quite covered over with waters and it appears by many arguments that they are bettered by the roughnesse of the waters Even so a Christian planted by faith in the red Sea of Christâ—s blood resisteth all the waves of temptation afflictions are but as so many pâ—essing irons to better obedience the more he is beat upon yea and overwhelmed also with the billowes of distresse and trouble the better he thriveth and the more he flourisheth in spirituall graces Troubles not to be so much questioned how we came unto them as how to get out of them ST Augustine tells of a man that being fallen into a pit one passing by falls a questioning of him what he made there and how he came in O saies the poor man Ask me not how I came in but help me and tell me how I may come out So lâ—t not us
he reâ—â—ored all the gains of his injustice made the poor partakers of his riches abandoned all worldlinesse and vvas recovered both in soul and body to the Lord. As this man hath many follovvers in his base avarice so it vvere to be vvished of God that he had some in his gracious repentance Little do gripulous fathers think that vvhat vvas forty years a gathering should be spent in a few daies revelling And so it comes to passe as by daily experience may be seen that vvhen men are over carefull to provide for their ovvn by taking avvay another mans vix gaudet tertius haeres He that buies a Patrimony for his child vvith the losse of his own soul hath but a dear purchase a very hard bargain To be zealous in the cause of God MEmorable is that christian resolution of Martin Luther that he vvould enter into the City of Worms in the Name of the Lord Iesus though there vvere as many devills as tiles to cover the houses And that of Calvin Ne decem quidem maria c. That it vvould not grieve him to sail over ten seas about an uniform draught for Religion And the blessed Apostle vvas not onely ready to be bound but to die also for the Name of the Lord Iesus And thus must ever good Christian do be zealous in the cause of God contend for the truth of his Word spare no cost leave no stone unmoved Ubi de Religione ibi quoque de vita agitur holding even their very lives to hold upon Religion serving God vvith all their might and as is commanded ready to run through fire and vvater for their holy profession Christ to be received into our hearts by Faith IN the Gospels history we find that Christ had a four-fold entertainment amongst the sons of men some received him into house not into heart as Simon the Pharisee who gave him no kisse nor water to his feet some into heart but not into house as the gracelesse swinish Gergesites some both into house and heart as Lazarus Mary Martha And thus let every good Christian do endeavour that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith that their bodies may be fit Temples of his holy Spirit that now in this life whilst Christ stands at the door of their hearts knocking for admission they would lift up the latch of their souls and let him in For if ever they expect to enter into the gates of the City of God hereafter they must open their hearts the gates of their own City to him here in this world Sermon not done till practised IT is reported of a good man that comming from a publick Lecture and being asked by one whether the Sermon were ended made this answer fetching a deep sigh Ah! it is said but not done And to speak truth the Sermon cannot be said to be done till it be practised But herein the Lord be mercifull to most of us we are apt to think that when a Sacrament day is over all the Sacrament duties are over too when the discourse from the Pulpit is finished the Sermon is finished as if when the Ordinance were at an end there were an end of the Ordinance and of us with the Ordinance also Christ the poor mans Object as well as the rich mans A Low man if his eye be clear may look as high though not so far as the tallest the least Pigmee may from the lowest valley see the Sun or Stars as fully as a Gyant upon the highest Mountain He that stands by may see as far into the milstone as he that picks it Christ is now in Heaven it is not the smalnesse of our person nor the meannesse of our condition can let us from beholding him the soul hath no stature neither is Heaven to be had with reaching If God be but pleased to clear the eyes of our faith we shall be high enough to behold him Ministers to be encouraged and protected against the plots of wicked men and why so PHilip of Macedon besieging Athens sent Legates to the City conditioning with them that if they would deliver into his hands ten of their Oratours such as he should choose whom he pretended to be the disturbers of the Common weal he would raise his siege and be at peace with them But Demosthenes smelt out his plot and with the consent of the Athenians returned him this apologeticall answer The Woolvs came to treat of a league with the Shepheards and told them thus All the feud and discord betwixt you and us ariseth from a certain generation of Doggs which you maintain against us deliver up those dogs and we will be good friends with you The dogs were delivered up the Peace was concluded the shepheards as they thought secure But oh the wofull massacre that was presently made amongst the poor Lambs they were all devoured the shepheards undone and all by parting with their dogs Thus if the Popish or the Peevish party could but once get the Ministers of the Gospell to hold their peace or procure them to be muzzled by Authority or to be delivered over to their woolvish cruelty vvo vvere it to the souls of the poor people errour vvould then play Rex darknesse triumph hell make play-day truth vvould languish and all goodnesse fall flat to the earth As little as they are novv regarded men vvould then misse them and wish for them and be glad to protect them if they had them Meditations of Death the benefit thereof PEter Waldo a rich Merchant of Lyons in France being invited to a great supper where one of the company fell suddainly dead at the table he was so taken with the sight that he forsook his Calling and fell to study the Scripture trading for the Pearl of the Gospell whereby he became an excellent Preacher and the first founder of those antient Christians called Waldenses Such is the benefit that commeth by the meditation of death Let but a man behold the bones of the dead and make a Christian use thereof he must needs fall into a patheticall meditation within himself as thus Behold these legs that have made so many journeys this head which is the receptacle of wisdom and remembereth many things must shortly be as this bare skull and drie bones are I will therefore betimes bid worldly things adieu betake my self to repentance and newnesse of life and spend the rest of my daies in the service of my God and thoughts of my dissolution Away then with that sad and too too usuall expression I thought as a little of it as of my dying day Let Otho think them cowards that think on death but let all good men think and meditate on death what it is unto all men by nature what unto good men what unto bad and great will be the comfort arising thereupon Men to be helpfull one to
and he hinder me not So that according to the old Verse Si nisi non â—sset perfectum quidlibet esset If it were not for condition and exception every thing would be perfect but that cannot be therefore every man hath his reserve of Gods good will and pleasure to back him in all his promises and undertakings in a good way So that he which speaketh with concition as relating to Gods mind may change his mind without suspition of levity All men to be highly affected with the Name of Jesus IT is said of Iohannes Mollius whensoever he spake of the Name of Iesus his eyes dropt And another reverend Divine being in a deep muse after some discourse that passed of Iesus and tears trickling down abundantly from his cheeks before he was aware being urged for the cause thereof confessed ingenuously it was because he could not draw his dull heart to prise Christ aright Mr. Fox never denyed beggar that asked in the Name of Iesus Christ. And religious Bucer never disregarded any though different in opinion from him in whom he could discern aliquid Christi any thing of Iesus Christ. None but Christ saies John Lambert at the stake And My Master saies Mr. Herbert that divine Poet as oft as he heard the Name of Iesus mentioned How then should our hearts rejoyce and our tongues be glad and how should we be vext at the deadnesse and dulnesse of our naughty natures that are no more affected with the sweetnesse of the Name Iesus a Name above all names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a word saith the Heathen Orator and so emphaticall that other tongues can hardly find a word to expresse it To attend upon God in his Ordinances IT is usuall for ships to ride a long time in a road-steed when they might be in the Haven and wherefore do they so wherefore but that they may be in the winds way to take the first opportunity that shall be offered for their intended voyage Even thus should all good Christians do anchor as it were in the house of God even then when they seem to be becalmed that they cannot stir and move themselves about holy duties as they were wont to do yet even then ride it out hearken what God will say to their souls wait upon him in the use of Means not in an Anabaptisticall phrenzy refusing to attend upon duty till the spirit move them but look up unto God for life and seek it from him in their attendance upon his holy Ordinances To see a necessitated Minister matter of great grief ANtigonus seeing Cleanthes a learned Philosopher and a painfull student at his book as he was helping a Baker to grind corn at the Mill said unto him Molis tu Cleanthe What Cleanthes dost thou grind corn I sayes he I do so or else I must starve for want of bread If I do not labour I must not eat Antigonus by this answer noted a great indignity that those hands should be galled at the Mill wherewith he wrote such excellent things of the Sun Moon and Stars And it must needs be then matter of greater griefe to any good Christian to see able Ministers in necessity to see what shifts they are driven to almost like the Popish Priests of old that said dirges for their dinners who are otherwise able to labour in the Word and do the work of right good Evangelists Idque vitae sustentandae causa not to grow rich thereby but to put meat in their mouths and in the bellies of their distressed families Baptism renounced by the leudnesse of life and conversation THe Spanish Converts in Mexico remember not any thing of the promise and profession they made in Baptism save onely their name which many times also they forget And in the Kingdom of Congo in Affrica the Portugalls at their first arrivall finding the People to be Heathens and without God in the world did induce them to a profession of Christ and to be baptized in great abundance allowing of the principles of Christian Religion till such time as the Priests prest them lead their lives according to their profession which the most part of them in no case enduring returned again to their Gentilism Such Renegadoes are to be found in the midst of us at this day such as give themselves up to Christ quoad Sacramenti perceptionem by externall profession but when it comes once advitae sanctificationem to holinesse of life there they leave him in the open field forsaking their colours renouncing their baptism and running away to the enemy so that Baptism is not unto them the mark of Gods child but the brand of a sool that makes a vow and then breaks it And better had it been that Font-water had never been sprinkled on such a face that should afterward be hatch'd with such impudent impiety Ier. 3. 4 5. Sinfull Prayers not heard by God A King of the Saracens by his Ambassadour demanded of Godfrey of Boloign then in the holy War how he had his hands â—am doctas ad praeliandum so able to fight who returned him this answer Quia manus semper habui puras c. Because I never defiled my hands with any notorious sin Thus is it that men prosper not outwardly because they look not to themselves inwardly they pray and speed not they lift up their voyce but not holy hands They pray but they do not with the Ninivites turn every one from the evill of his way and from the wickednesse that is in his heart So that regarding iniquity in their hearts God will not hear their prayers The Loadsâ—one loseth its vertue besmeared with garlick and our prayers with sin that 's the onely Remora that stops our prayers under full sail to the throne of grace The blessed guidance of Gods holy Spirit to be implored MEmorable is that passage betwixt Elisha the Prophet and Ioash the King of Israel he directed the hand of the King of Israel to shoot and the arrow of Gods deliverance followed thereupon and then so often as he smote the ground by the appointment also of the Prophet so often and no longer he had likelyhood of good successe Even so the Spirit that is it that must direct our tongues and hearts in all that proceedeth from them for where that ceaseth to be as a guide there will that of the Prophet certainly be verified Every man is a beast by his own knowledge Hence was it that the good old Christians sang Come holy Ghost eternall God comforter of us all c. and so must we if ever we look for Gods assistance to go along with our endeavours Angells ministring unto Gods people for their good IN the stories Ecclesiasticall there is mention made of one Theodorus a Martyr put to extream torments by Iulian the Apostaâ—e and dismissed again by him
spiritual Crosses and been prepared for the worst of times that could be Mans Extremity Gods Opportunity PHilo the Iew being employed as an Ambassador or Messenger to Caius Caligula then Emperor of the Romans his entertainment was but sleight for he had no sooner spoke on the behalf of his Country but was commanded to depart the Court Whereupon he told his People That he was verily perswaded that God would now do something for them because the Emperor was so earnestly bent against them And certainly Gods help is then nearest when Man 's is furthest off the one's extremity made the otâ—er's opportunity Ubi desinâ—t Pâ—ilosophus incipit Medicus c. Where the Philosopher ends there the Physitian begins and where the Physitian endeth there the Minister beginneth and where Mans ayd endeth there Gods beginneth Deliverance is oft nearest when destruction seemeth surest Parents not to be too much dejected for the death of an onely Sonne or Child ABraham was ready to have sacrificed his onely son Isaac And God gave his onely Sonne Christ Iesus to death for our salvation It is most true that the death of an onely Sonne must neeâ—s be grievous and the cause of great heavinesse and lamentation But let all disconsolate Parents take notice what Elkanah said to Anna Am not I better to you then ten Sons So doth God say What though I have taken away your onely Sonne the child of your delight there is no just cause of complaint I have taken but my own I will be better then ten hundred sons to you and you shall one day find that he is but gone before as your Feoâ—â—ee in trust to take possession and keep a place for you in Heaven How it is that Men may be said to learn of little Children dumb shews c. SExtus Tarquinius the sonne of Lucius being suborned by his Father pretending to be banished fled fraudulently to the Gabii where having screwed himself so much into their bosomes as he thought was sufficient for his design sent secretly to know his Fathers pleasure who leading the Messenger into the Garden walked a while and not speaking one word with his staffe strake off the heads of the Dazies which grew there the Messenger reports this to his Son who thereupon put the chief Noble-men of the Gaâ—ii to death and so by force and Injustice usurped a power over that Common-weal Such was the tacite Counsell that Periander the Corinthian gave unto Thrasibulus the Tyrant of Athens when pulling the upper ears he made all the standing corn equall intimating thereby what a Tyrant must do that would live safe and quiet Thus it was but in a better way and a far better sense that when the Disciples were building Castles in the ayr quaerentes non quaerenda seeking who should be highest in Heaven when they should rather have been enquiring how to get thither Christ sets a little Child before them who neither thinks great things of himself nor seeks great things for himself conâ—uting hereby their preposterous ambition and affectation of Primacy And thus it is that dumb shews may be said to speak out much to the purpose and speechlesse Children read many a significant Lecture to the Sons of Men as of simplicity humility innocency ignoscency c. not of childishnesse peevishnesse open-heartednesse c. Non praecipitur ut habeant aetatem sed innocentiam parvulorum not of their age but innocency Whereupon some mis-understanding the Text in a Nichodemicall way as one Goldsmith an Anabaptist and Masseus a Franciscan Fryer to abundance of more then childish folly Gods Judgments the causes of them to be considered LAy a book open before a Child or one that cannot read he may stare and gaze upon it but he can make no use of it at all because he understandeth nothing in it yet bring it to one that can read and understandeth the language that is written in it hee 'l read you many stories and instructions out of it It is dumb and silent to the one but speaketh to and talketh with the other In like manner it is with Gods Iudgments as S. Augustine well applyes it All sorts of Men see them but few are able aright to read them or to understand them what they say Every Iudgment of God is a reall Sermon of Reformation and Repentance every Iudgment hath a voice but every one understands not this voice as Paul's companions when Christ spake to him they heard a voyce and no more But it is the duty of every good Christian to listen to the Rod and him that sent it to spell out the meaning of Gods aâ—ger to enquire and find out the cause of the Crosse and the ground of Gods hiding his face Why it is that he dealeth so harshly with them and carrieth himself so austerely towards theâ— The Love of God the onely true Love EVery beam of Light proceeding from the body of the Sun is either direct broken or reflex direct when it shineth out upon the Center in a lineary motion without any obliquity broken when it meets with some grosser body so that it cannot shine out-right but is enforced to incline to one part or other and therefore called a collaterall or broken light reflex when lighting upon some more grosse body it is beaten back and so reflects upon its first principle Thus let the Sons of Men pretend never so much to the Love of God their Love is either a broken or reflecting Love seldome direct broken when it is fixed upon the things of this World reflex when it ayms at self-Interest Whereas the Love of God is the onely true Love a direct Love without obliquity a sincere Love without reflexion such a Love as breaks through all impediments and hath nothing in Heaven but God and desireth nothing on Earth in comparison of him such a Love as looketh upon the World by way of subordination but upon God by way of eminency The Active Christian object of the Devil and Wicked Mens malice LUther was offered to be made a Cardinal if he would be quiet He answered No not if I might be Pope and defends himself thus against those that thought him haply a proud Fool for his pains Inveniar sane superbus c. Let me be counted Fool or any thing said he so I be not found guilty of cowardly silence The Papists when they could not rule him rayl'd at him and called him an Apostate He confesseth the action and saith I am indeed an Apostate but a blessed and holy Apostate one that hath fallen off from the Devil Then they called him Devil But what said he Prorsus Sathan est Lutherus c. Luther is a Devill be it so but Christ liveth and reigneth that 's enough for Luther So be it Nay such was the activity of Luther's spirit that when Erasmus was asked by the Elector of Saxony Why
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 dangâ—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
they might not be inferiour to the Iews They boasted themselves to be of the Progeny of Ioseph and worshippers of God also with them but when they perceived that the Iews were câ—nelly afflicted by Antiochus Epiphanes for the worshipping of God then fearing lest they should be also handled in like manner they changed their coat and their note too affirming that they were not Israelites but Sidonians and had built their Temple not unto God but Iupiter Thus it is that times of Trouble and danger easily distinguish the counterfeit and true Professour Trouble is a kind of Christian Touch-stone a Lapis Lydius that will try what Mettal men are made of whether they be gold or drosse whether they be reall or â—arnall Professours sincere Christians or rotten-hearted Hypocrites The hardnesse of a Rich mans Conversion IT is observed amongst Anglers that Pickerils are not easily nor often taken a Man may take an hundreth Pinks or Minums before he catch a Pikeril For he preyethâ—o â—o sore at his pleasure upon the lesser frye that he seldome or never hath any stomach to 〈◊〉 at the bait And so fareth it with the Rich Men of this World their stomachs are so cloyed and surfetted with the things of this life that when the doctrine of Salvation is preached they have no appetite unto it tell them of selling all that they have and giving it to the Poor then with the young Man in the Gospell they cry out durus est hic sermo this is a very hard saying Who can bear it and it is as hard for such to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven whilst the Poor run away with the Gospell A small plat of ground sufficient for the greatest landed Man at the time of Death SOcrates carried Alcibiades as he was bragging of his lands and great possessions to a Map of the whole World and bad him demonstrate where his land lay he could not by any means espy it for Athens it self was but a small thing to the World where his lands at that time were Thus many there are that bear themselves very high upon their lands and livings so much in one place so much in another such a Lordship in this shire and such a Mannour in that but Saint Basil tells them truly where their land lyes and what 〈◊〉 be said to be really theirs Nonne telluris tres tanâ—â— cubiti te expectant So much measure of ground to the length and breadth of their bodies as may serve to bury them in or so many handfulls of dust as their bodies go into after their consumption that is terra sua terra mea and terra vestra their land and my land and thy land and more then this no man can absolutely claim Riches very dangerous in the getting of them SUppose a Tree whose leaves and boughs were clog'd and hung with honey unto which an hungry Man coming falls a licking one bough and leaf after another untill he is carried so high from one to another through the greedinesse of his hunger that he slips and slides and cannot stay himself but down he comes and breaks a leg or an arm and it is well if he escape with his life So dangerous is it to climb up the Tree of Riches For most commonly Men lay hold so upon one hundreth after another one thousand after another per fas et nefas no matter how or which way they do it though they endanger themselves sore even to the loss of their pretious and immortal Souls to all Eternity A great blessing of God to be gently used in the matter of Conversion IN some Corporations the sons of Freemen bred under their Fathers in the same Profession may set up and exercise their Fathers Trade without ever being bound Apprentices thereunto And whereas others endure seven years hardship at the least before they can be free they run over that time easily and are encorporated by their Father's Copy Thus it is that they who never were notoriously prophane such whose Parents have been Citizens of the new Ierusalem and have been bred in the mystery of Godlinesse are oftentimes entred into Religion and become Children of Grace without any Spirit of bondage seizing upon them and though otherwhiles they taste of legal frights and fears yet God so preventeth them with his blessings of goodnesse that they smart not so deeply as other Men A great benefit and rare blessing to that Soul where God in his goodnesse is pleased to bestow it Perfection of Grace to be endeavoured AS the Waters spoken of in Ezekiel grew up by degrees first to the ancles then to the loynes and lastly to the head Or as that gradual Wheat our Saviour spoke of First there was the blade then came the stalk after that the full Corn but lastly came the Harvest Even so like that Water we must grow higher and higher till we come to our head Christ Iesus and like that Corn riper and riper untill the end of the World when God shall come to winnow us We must resolve endeavour contend and strive for Perfection as for a prize though there may be many hindrances as Worldly allurements the Devils temptations and our own sinful provocations ever adding one grace unto another till we are in some sort secundum hujus vitae modum according to the capacity of our humane Nature perfect Men in Christ Iesus Matth. 5. 48. The pain of a Wounded Conscience greatned by the Folly of the Patient SHeep are observed to flye without cause scared as some say with the sound of their own feet Their feet knack because they flye and they poor silly Creatures fly because their feet knack An Emblem of Gods children under the pains of a Wounded Conscience self-Fearing self-srighted For as it is that the pain of a wounded Conscience amongst other reasons thereof assigned as from the heavinesse of the hand that makes the Wound an Angry God from the sharpnesse of the sword wherewith the Wound is made the Word of God from the tendernesse of the part it self which is wounded the Conscience becomes intolerable so from the Folly of the Patients themselves who being stung have not the Wisdome to look up to the brazen Serpent but torment themselves with their own Activity Hear they but their own Voyce they think it to be that which hath so often sworn lyed talked vainly wantonly wickedly their own voyce being a terror to themselves See they their own eyes in a glasse they presently apprehend These are they which shot forth so many envious covetous amorous glances their own eyes being a terror to themselves and as it was threatned to Paâ—hur themselves become a terrour to themselves Ier. 20. 4. No true Content to be found in the things of this World THere is an old Apologue of a Bird-catcher who having taken a Nightingale the poor Bird
be entertained therein SCipio being made General of the Romane Army was to name his Questor or â—râ—asurer for the Wars whom he thought fit it being a place in those daies as is now in these of great importance One that looked upon himself to have a special interest in Scipio's favour becomes an earnest suiter for it but by the delay mistrusting he should be answered in the Negative importun'd him one day for an answer Think not unkindnesse in me said Scipio that I delay you thus For I have been as earnest with a friend of mine to take it and cannot as yet prevail with him Intimating hereby that high preferments offices of charge and Conscience are fittest for such as shun them modestly rather then such as seek them greedily And without all doubt he that hunteth after any place or dignity whether in Church or Commonweal that doth omnem movere lapidem leave no stone unmoved no means unattempted no Friend unsolicited doth but declare himself as one byass'd to his own not the publique Interest and so a Man unfitting whereas he that lyes dormant till Preferment awaken him that humbly carrieth an inferiour condition till he hear the Governours voice Friend sit up higher Luk. 14. 10. is the onely Man fit to be entrusted Prayer and endeavour to be joyned together THe Pagans in their fabulous Legend have a story of Hercules whom for his strength they counted a God how a Carter forsooth had overthrown his Cart and sate in the way crying Help Hercules O Hercules help me At last Hercules or one in his likenesse came to him and laid on him with a good cudgel saying Ah thou silly lazy Fellow callest thou to me for help and dost nothing thy self Arise and set to thy shoulder and heave thy part then pray to me for help and I will do the rest Thus in the matter of Prayer unto God we must do somewhat on our parts It is not as we say lying in a ditch and crying out God help us that willâ—bring us out Shall a Scholler pray to God to make him learned and never go to his book Shall a Husbandman pray for a good Harvest and throw his Plow into the hâ—dg No no as a reverend B. said once in a Sermon before Q. Elizabeth It is not a Praying to God but a tempting of God to beg his blessing without doing our endeavour also Men to be ready to die for Christ. IT is reported of an able Ministâ—r now with God that riding with an intimate Friend by Tyburn which he had not know or not observed before demanded what that was and answer being made This is Tyburn where many Malefactors have lost their lives he stopped his horse and uttered these words with great affection O what a shame is it that so many thousands should die here for the satisfaction of their â—usts and so few be found willing to lay down their lives for Christ Why should not we in a good cause and upon a good call be ready to be hanged for Iesus Christ it would be everlasting honour and it is a thousand times better to dye for Christ to be hanged to be burnt then to dye in our beds And most true it is that it were every way more glorious to die for Christ then to live without him such was the Christian temper of the blessed Apostle that he was not onely willing to be bound but to dye for the Lord Jesus And after him those Primitive Christians How ambitious were they of Martyrdome in the cause of Christ And of late in the times of that Marian persecution How many cheerfully and willingly laid down their lives mounting Eliah-like to Heaven in Fiery Charriots And so must every good Christian be ready to do to dye for Christ willingly to endure the Crosse and not to shrink back for any torment whatsoever The generality of Men not enduring to hear of Death DOctor Rudd then B. of S. Davids preaching before Q. Elizab. An. 1596. on Psalm 90. vers 12. O teach us to number our dayes c. fell upon some sacred and mystical Numbers as three for the Trinity three times three for the Heavenly Hierarchy seven for the Sabbath and at last upon seven times nine for the grand Climacterical year but the Q. perceiving whitherto it tended began to be much troubled in her mind which the B. discovering betook himself to treat of some more plausible Numbers as of the Number 666 to prove the Pope to be Antichrist and of the fatal number 88 blessing God for hers and the Kingdoms deliverance not doubting but that she would passe her Climacterical year also Sermon being ended the Q. as the manner was opened the VVindow but she was so far from giving him thanks that she said plainly He should have kept his Arithmetick for himself and so went away for the time discontented though upon second thoughts she was pacified And thus it is that the generality of Men and Women cannot endure to hear of Death or to entertain any thoughts of their latter end you shall have them cry out upon the miseries of this wretched life and yet when Death appears be it but in the bare apprehension thereof they do as little Children who all the day complain but when the Medicine is brought them are nothing sick at all or as they who all the week run up and down the house with pain of their teeth and seeing the Barber come to pull them out feel no more torment Wit how to make a right use thereof IN the Levitical Law there are directions for the usage of a Captive taken to Wife When thou goest forth to ward against thy Enemies and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thy hands and thou hast taken them Captive And seest amongst the Captives a beautifull Woman and hast a desire unto her that thou wouldst have her to thy Wife Then thou shalt bring her home to thy house and she shall shave her head and pare her nails And she shall put the rayment of her Captivity from ofâ— her and shall remain in thy house and bewail her Father and Mother a full moneth and after that thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband and she shall be thy Wife Thus by way of Allusion this Captive-Woman is Witt as yet unsanctified Witt without VVisdome Wit as they say Whither wilt thou When speeches are witty whilest the behaviour is wicked when deeds are incongruities whilest words are Apothegms VVhat must then be done shave the hair pare the nails take off the abuse of Witt pare off such evils as usually are concomitant 1. Blasphemy as in jesting with the sacred Scriptures 2. Lasciviousnesse as in wanton discourses 3. Insolence as in trampling on Men of weaker parts 4. Contention as in making Policy to eat ouâ— Piety this being done Wit is become Wisdome then marry her and use
of the inferiour Members be cut off yet the body may live and do indifferently well but if the Head be taken off if the King be set aside actum est de Republica that Kingdome that People cannot long stand Christ the proper object of the Soul THere is no Agent that takes any rest or contentment but in its proper Object If a man had all the Musicall raptures and melodious Harmony in the whole World before him he could not hear it with his eyes because it is the proper object of the Ear If never so triumphant shews or Courtly Masques he could not see them with his Ears because they are the proper Object of the Eye So it is with the Soul of Man if it were possible that all the treasures pleasures honours preferments and delights which the World doth affect were presented and tendered to the Soul yet would they not afford unto it any true satisfaction because they be not the proper Object and Center of the Soul it is the Lord onely or as a godly Martyr said once None but Christ can compasse the Soul about with true content and comfort Sathans aim at those that have most of God and Religion in them PIrats and such as are Robbers at Sea slightly passe by smaller Vessels that are but poorly fraighted whilst ships that are richly laden and furnished with Merchantable commodities become the object of their greedy thoughts at whom they make the strongest opposition and for the gaining of whom rather then fail they will hazard their lives to the utmost of danger imaginable Thus it is that Sathan that Arch-Pirate lets poor silly ignorant Souls alone such as by their own defaults are but as so many empty Vessels floating on the Sea of this World Oh but when he spies out a rich Soul laden with the fruits of the Spirit that hath much of god Christ and Heaven in it there it is that he bends all his Forces and against such a Soul it is that he raiseth all his strength that so if possible he may bring it under his more then miserable subjection Sin to be abhorred as the cause of Christs Death AFter Iulius Caesar was treacherously murthered in the Senate-house Antonius brought forth his coat all bloudy cut and mangled and laying it open to the view of the People said Look here is your Emperours coat and as the bloudy-minded Conspirators have dealt by it so have they also with Caesars body whereupon they were all in an uproar crying out to slay those Murtherers then they took the Tables and stools that were in the place and set them on fire and ran to the houses of the Conspirators and burnt them down to the ground But behold a greater then Caesar even the Lord Iesus himself all bloudy rent and torn for the Sins of the World How then when we look on Sin as the cause of his death and seriously consider that Sin hath slain the Lord of life should our hearts be provoked to be revenged on Sin How should we loath and abhor it as having done that mischief that all the Devills in Hell could never have done the like A lesser Sin given way unto makes way for the committing of greater IT is S. Augustines story of Manicheus that being tormented with flies was of opinion that the Devill made them and not God Why then said one that stood by If the Devill made flies then the Devill made Worms True said he the Devill did make worms But said the other If the Devill did make worms then he made birds beasts and Man He granted all And thus saith the good old Father by denying God in the fly he came to deny God in Man and consequently the whole Creation And thus it is that the yeilding to lesser Sins draws the Soul to the commission of far greater as in these licentious dayes of ours is too too apparent How many have fallen First to have low thoughts of the Scripture and Ordinances of God then to slight them afterwards to make as it were a Nose of Wax of them and in conclusion to cast them quite off lifting up themselves their Christ-dishonouring and Soul-damning opinions above them so that falling from evill to evill from folly to folly and as it is in all other cases of the like Nature from being naught to be very naught and from very naught to be stark naught till God in his most just Judgment sets them at nought for ever Men to prefer suffering before Sinning IT is reported of that eminent servant of God Marcus Arethusus who in the time of Constantine had been the cause of overthrowing an Idoll-Temple but Iulian coming to be the Emperour commanded the People of that place to build it up again all were ready so to do onely the good Bishop dissented whereupon they that were his own people to whom he had formerly preached and who as in all probability any one would have thought might have learn't better things fell upon him strip't off all his cloaths then abused his naked body and gave it up to children and School-boyes to be lanched with their penknives but when all this would not do they caused him to be set in the Sun having his naked body anointed all over with honey that so he might be bitten and stung to death by Flies and Wasps and all this cruelty they exercised upon him because he would not do any thing towards the re-building of that Idol Temple Nay they came so far that if he would give but an half-penny towards the charge they would release him but he refused all though the advancing of an half-penny might have been the saving of his life and in doing thus he did but live up to that principle that most Câ—ristians talk of and few come up unto And thus it is that all of us must chuse rather to suffer the worst of torments that Men and Devills can inflict then to commit the least Sin whereby God should be dishonoured our Consciences wounded Religion reproached and our Souls endangered Discretion a main part of true Wisedome A Father that had three Sons was desirous to try their discretions which he did by giving to each of them an Apple that had some part of it rotten The first eats up his Apple rotten and all The second throws all his away because some part of it was rotten But the third picks out the rotten and eats that which was good so that he appeared the wisest Thus some in these daies for want of Discretion swallow down all that is presented rotten and sound together Others throw away all Truth because every thing delivered unto them in not Truth but surely they are the wisest and most discreet that know now to try the Spirits whether they be of God or not how to chuse the good and refuse the evill The difference betwixt true and feyned
ornament What a most unreasonable thing were it in this Man to murmure because the wind blows a few leaves off the Trees though at the same instant of time they are fully laden with fruit Thus if God take a little and leave us much shall we be discontent If he take an onely Son and give us his own Son if he cause the Trees to bring forth fruit shall we be angry if the Wind blow away the leaves Shall we murmure and repine at light and momentary afflictions when God at the same time is preparing for us a far more exceeding weight of glory A great exceeding mercy to be one of Gods dearest Children IT is observeable in Scripture that God hath alwaies had Saints be severall degrees and sizes and that some of them have had more communion with him then others From among the multitude he chose twelve to be with him from among the twelve he chose three Peter Iames and Iohn which were è secretioribus of the privy Councell from among the three he chose out John as his peculiar darling and bosome Favourite of whom it 's said five times that he was the Disciple whom Jesus loved So now to this day God hath his babes who eat milk and nothing else his Children who know their Fathers will and are assured of his love his young Men who go out to war and the Fathers in Israel whose gray-headed experience and wisedome abounds for they knew him from the beginning But is it not a great mercy to be one of Gods though but one of his little ones yea the least of all to be a Star though not of the first magnitude to be a Disciple though not a John nor one of the three nor one of the seventy but to be a John a darling to lean on his breast to lye in his bosome O how great a mercy 't is mercy to be new born though one be but newly and as one newly-born but to grow up to a perfect stature to be a Man in Christ Iesus O how great a mercy Removall of Good men by Death a Forerunner of Judgment EVen as a carefull Mother who seeing her child in the way when a company of unruly horses run through the streets in a full carrere she presently wâ—ips up the child in her arms and takes him home Or as the Hen seeing the ravenous Kite hovering over her head she clocks and gathers her chickens under her wings Even so when God hath a purpose to bring a lingring heavy calamity upon a Land it hath been usuall with him to call and cull out to himself such as are his dearly beloved When some fatall Judgment hovers like a flying fiery scrole over a Land or people he gathers many of his choice servants unto himself that he may preserve them from the evill to come Thus was S. Augustine removed a little before Hippo wherein he dwelt was taken Paraeus dead before Heidelberg was sacked And Luther taken off before Germany was overrun with war and bloud-shed Nay what else can be the meaning that of late so many lights so many eminent ones have been extinguished in this Nation but to fore-signify the great darknesse that without Gods great mercy is inevitably coming upon us Worldly-minded-Men little think of Heaven And why so THere is a fable how that a Wools being exceeding hungry came into a Tanners yard and there espying raw hides in the pit had a great mind to have eaten of them but being covered with water could not tell how to come at them at last he resolves to drink up the water but after a while his belly was so full that he had no mind at all to the hides This is the case of all Earthly-minded-Men that being filled with the things of this World they have no stomach to the things that are more Heavenly having dined with all the dainties as Earth can present such as honours riches and the like they have no appetite to the supper of the Lamb Christ Iesus at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Christ ready to revenge himself upon the Enemies of his Church IT is said of Lions that as they are mindfull of courtesies received witnesse the story of Androdus that fugitive servant of Rome so they will be sure to revenge injuries done to them They will prey on them that would make a prey of them When Iuba King of the Moors march't through the desart of Africa a young Man of his Company wounded a Lyon but the year following when Iuba returned the Lyon again meets the Army and from among them all singles out the Man that hurt him and tears him in pieces suffering the rest to passe by in peace and safety Thus it is that Christ Iesus that Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah is alwaies ready to revenge the cause of his Church and take Vengeance on all that have wounded him or his People such as will prey on them shall be made a prey to him And though they wound them in their passage through the Wildernesse of this World yet certainly when he comes again to judg the World he will single out all that shoot their arrows at him or his or him in his Members and will without mercy tear them in pieces But as for the peaceable peace be to them and the whole Israel of God Christ the Saints wonder and admiration THe Sun is gazed on by all the World with admiration yea it is so admired that by many it is adored and worshipped for a God as by the Persians at this day And many insensible Creatures some by opening and shutting as Marigolds and Tulips others by bowing and inclining the head as the Solsequy and Mallow flowers are sensible of its presence and absence there seems to be such a sympathy that if the Sun be gon or clouded they wrap up themselves or hang their heads as unwilling to be seen by any eye but his that fills them Thus it is and that in a far more larger sense that Christs name is Wonderfull Angels and Saints for love the World and Devills for fear wonder at him The Saints duly and truly adore him for their God and were there ten thousand Suns the Saints would admire Christ ten thousand times more then them all He doth so attract and ravish their hearts by the beaming forth of his love-rayes on them that they seem to be sick and dying if they be not with Christ they open when Christ comes and shut when Christ withdraws and will not be kiss'd by any lips nor embraced by any arms but his Cant. 5. 8. Christ's Watchfullnesse over his People for Good IT hath been a tradition that Lyons are insomnes that they sleep not It may be they sleep not so much as other Creatures do yet that they sleep not at all were absurd to think however their eye-lids being too