failes in one which holds in al Thus he whose life should be deaths meditation Waiting for future immortality Forgets the end of his divine creation And faine would finde on earth eternitie O man look up thou must this mortall leave Before thou canst th' immortall robe receive 1 Due thought of death and hell Would sinfull thoughts expell Who so with carefull thought Would ponder as he ought How fearefull 't is to flâ—t From bed to loathsome pit From pit to easelesse paine For ever to remaine Among the damned sprights Whose mercy never lights Would not commit one sin Though it the world might win 2 As certaine as it now is day so sure it will be night anon For time stands never at a stay but now is here and now is gone Such is our life whose minutes spend and every minute wasts the store Till all be out and then an end we cannot live one minute more 3 What thing is that each man doth chiefly crave Contentment in his fortune and his mind What thing is that man here can never have Contentment in his thoughts and state to find What 's cause of both That man who heaven minds not May strive to seek that there which here he finds not 4 Take from our life these threefold parts of time First what we idly spend and nothing do Then what we spend in evil and heaven-hâ—ted cryme Last what in things that us belong not to Alas how small remaine how quickly told Is left wel spent in doing what we should Occasionall Meditations Vpon a sad and unseasonable Raine translated out of Latine WHence comes it that this sad untimely showrs Do choak the earth and of our fruits bereave us Fâ—ther to shew in heavens angry lowres That God hath left us as the Sun doth leave us Or for that man his sins nor see nor feares The heavens for us powres out it selfe in teares 2 Vpon a LOOKING GLASSE Translated out of Latine MAke this use of thy Looking-glasse that if thy face seeme faire With vicious manners ô do not the grace thereof impaire Or if thou find thy countenance such gracefulnesse denyed Let that defect with inward grace and vertues be supplyed 3 Concerning an extraordinary veile which covered my body at my comming into the world THere be some things which belong to every child in the infancy whereof the certainty cannot be known but by relation of others as the day or houre of our birth who were our sureties at baptism and the like of which kind ther was one special remarkable thing concerning my self who being my parents first son but their second child they having a daughter before me when I came into the world my head face and fore parts of the body were all covered over with a thin kell or skin wrought like an artificiall veile as also my eldest sonne being likewise my second childe was borne with the like extraordinary covering our Midwives and Gossips holding such children as come so veyled into the world to be very fortunate as they call it there being not one childe amongst many hundreds that are so borne and this to fall out in the same manner both to the father and the sonne being much more rare But whatsoever old wives observations are let us both father and sonne with all humble thankfulnesse look up to our heavenly father who made us and formed us in the wombe and brought us from thence and doth preserve and governe us from the cradle to the grave to blesse and praise his holy name for the priviledge of our birth-right which his favour hath bestowed upon us above the rest of our brothers and to studie and endeavour to walke worthy of that dignitie in our care and endeavour to serve and please him who hath singled us out as fathers of the family in our severall generations to that purpose the first borne of the sonnes amongst the Israelites being to be given or consecrated to the Lord Exod. 22.29 Numbers 3.13 Luke 2.23 And from those veiles wherewithall wee were borne let us learne this Christian lesson to veile our heads and our hearts and all our affections from the witcheries and vanities of this world and to looke up beyond the things here to our Saviour IESUS CHRIST within the veile in heaven to long and wait for those blessed and unchangeable comforts which are there treasured up for us in him Not as wee came into this world hidden of nature but as wee are now born by his holy spirit children of grace and election O mercifull Lord God we bring nothing with us into this world but that which might condemne us in the next blessed be thy most holy name by whose eternall mercies wee are born again of the Holy Ghost and our begun regeneration here shall be consummated in the world to come ô sanctifie and establish us by thy free spirit that being by our new birth made children of grace and adoption in Christ we may mortifie all our old corruptions of nature and serve thee faithfully in new obedience in the short pilgrimage of this life and bee finally received in peace into thine everlasting kingdome as thine own redeemed ones through Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen 4. Vpon an extraordinary accident which befell me in my swadling cloaths WHen we come to years we are commonly told of what befel us in our infancie if the same were more than ordinary Such an accident by relation of others befell me within few daies after my birth whilst my mother lay in of me being her second child when I was taken out of the bed from her side and by my suddain and fierce crying recovered again being found sticking between the beds-head and the wall and if I had not cryed in that manner as I did our gossips had a conceit that I had been quite carried away by the Fairies they know not whither and some elfe or changeling as they call it laid in my room In the 12. Chap. of the Revelation we read of two great signs in heaven A woman cloathed with the Sunne great with child ready to be delivered and a great red dragon with seven heads standing before her ready to devoure the child assoon as it should be born but the child being câ—â—ght up unto God and the dragon disappointed of his prey cast downe into the earth was wroth with the woman and went to make warre with the remnant of her seed which kept the commandements of God and have the testimony of Iesus Christ By this woman I conceive the Church militant was prefigured whom the Dragon hath persecuted and doth continually labour to destroy in all her members that Dragon being there vers 9. expresly said to bee that old serpent called the Divell and Sathan which deceiveth the whole world and vers 10. is the accuser of our brethren whom hee accuseth before God day and night But to our comfort it is added in the next verse that they overcame him by the blood
our sinnes or fearing his justice against us which our Saviour the Lord IESUS hath already satisfied for us to our finall peace and salvation Let us then cheere up our selves in this blessed comfort of all comforts our debts are all paid and cancelled our Paschall Lambe is slaine CHRIST IESUS hath made all our dayes holy-dayes have any more cause to bee merrie then wee Away then with droopings and mistrustfulnesse for the Lord hath turned our sorrow into joy and such joy as shall never bee taken from us Blessed be the name of the Lord our God for ever And now O most glorious and gracious Redeemer who art the author and finisher of my faith perfect the good work of thy grace begun in me that by daily renewing of my humble faith and repentance by these weake and unworthy meditations of mine I may with joy and gladnesse comfort and cheerfulnesse walk before thee this day and all the remaining dayes of my earthly pilgrimage waiting for thy blessed calling of me to thy selfe in glory when my faith shall bee turned into fruition and I shall leave imperfection and mortality behinde me for ever The Second MEDITATION of Mount TABOR How sweet a thing it is to have God appeased towards thee Places of Scripture shewing how this benefit belongs to us THus saith the high and mighty one that inhabiteth eternitie Isa 57.15 whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Ver. 16 For I will not contend for ever neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should faile before me and the soules which I have made Vers 17 For the iniquitie of his covetousnesse was I wroth and smote him J hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart Vers 18. I have seene his wayes and will heale him I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and unto his mourners Vers 19. I create the fruit of the lips peace peace to him that is afarre off and to him that is neere saith the Lord and I will heale him Who is a God like unto thee Micah â— 18 that pardoneth iniquitie and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage hee retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Vers 19. He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sinnes into the depth of the sea For when wee were yet without strength Rom. 5. â— in due time CHRIST died for the ungodly Verse 8. But God commendeth his love towards us in that whiles we were yet sinners CHRIST died for us Ver. 9. Much more then being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Vers 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his sonne much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Vers 11. And not only so but we also rejoyce in God through our Lord IESUS CHRIST by whom we have now received the attonement Ioh. 16.33 These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace 1 Cor. 5.18 All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Iesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministery of reconciliation 19 To wit that God was in CHRIST reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation Vers 20. Now then we are Ambassadors for CHRIST as though God did beseeâ—h you by us we pray you in CHRIST his stead be ye reconciled unto God 21. For hee hath made him to be sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him For now in CHRIST IESUS Ephes 2.1 ye that sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of CHRIST Vers 14. For he is our peace Ver. 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Crosse For it pleased the Father Colos 1 â—â— that in him should all fulnesse dwell Vers 20 And having made peace through the blood of his Crosse by him to reconcile all things unto himselfe by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven Vers 21. And you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled Vers 22. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreproovable in his sight And to wait for his sonne from heaven whom he raised from the dead 1 Thes â—â— even IESUS which hath delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 3 â— For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to attaine salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ Vers 10. Who died for us The second Meditation NOw my soule having formerly considered the great benefit of having all our bebts cancelled our second remembrance points us to a blessed consequence thereof how sweet a thing it is to have our God appeased towards us which will the better appeare for our instruction and comfort if we seriously take into our humble consideraâ—ion these three points 1. The infinite power and greatnesse of the Almighty whom our sinnes have provoked to wrath against us 2. His graciousnesse and goodnes towards our selvs in particular 3. The hainousnesse of our offences by which we have justly incurred his displeasure For the first The Lord our God is the great and the terrible God Nah. 1.5 The great and dreadfull God Daniel 9.4 The Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things therein contained and disposer of all things by his eternall and al-governing providence who hath ever at his commandement innumerable hosts of Angels one of which 2 King 19.35 killed 1850000. of his Churches enemies in one night Nah. 9.3 who hath his way us the whirl-wind and in the storme and the clouds are the dust of his feet Nahum 14. He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry the mountains quake at him and the hils melt and the earth is burnt up at his presence yea the world and all that dwel therein v. 5. Who can stand before his indignation who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger Verse 6. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6.15 A great God and a great King above all gods Psal 9.13 The great and mighty God the Lord of Hosts is his name Jeremy 32.18 Great in counsell and mighty in workes for his eyes are open upon all the wayes of the sonnes of men Vers 19. to give to every one according to his wayes and according to the fruit of his doings who shall judge the quicke and the dead 2 Tim. 4.1 For he is the judge of the whole world and will hold his grand Sessions
of the lamb and by the word of their testimony And certainly that attempt of stealing me away as soone as I was born whatsoever the midwives talk of it came from the malice of that arch-enemy of mankind who is continually going about seeking whom he may betray and devoure But blessed be the Lord our most gracious God and mercifull father that disappointed them then and hath ever since preserved and kept mee from his manifold plots and stratagems of destruction so as now in the seventieth yeare of mine age I yet live to praise and magnifie his wonderfull mercies towards me in this behalfe O most blessed Lord Iesu our most gracious Saviour and Mediator one part of thy Church redeemed by thy pretious blood have already fought the good fight of faith and are translated hence into thine heavenly kingdome with Abraham the father of the faithfull and the rest of the glorified Saints to celebrate thy praises for evermore The other part of this Church is militant here upon earth striving against their owne naturall corruptions and the wiles and power of thine and their enemies Good Lord thou knowest the cunning power malice and crueltie of the adversary and the great weaknesse of â—â—â—e owne children and beholdeâ— their daily fightings and failings and how â—â—â—ble wee are to stand in our selves O mercifull Saviour strengthen us with thy grace and shew thine almightinesse in our weaknesse that fighting under thy banner who hast already in our flesh and for us conquered all our enemies to our hands we may be enabled to stand fast and unmoovable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord that so in the end we may bee more than conquerors through thee our glorious Captaine and Saviour and when wee have fought here below so long as thou wouldest have us wee may when thou shalt bee pleased to call us hence be translated unto the fellowship of thy Saints and Church triumphant in heaven there to joyne with them in the new songs of thy redeemed ones to magnifie and praise thy most holy and blessed name from everlasting to everlasting Amen 5 Vpon my breeding up at Schoole IT was not my happines to be bred up at the Vniversity but all the learning I had was in the free Grammar Schoole called Christs schoole in the City of Gloucester yet even there it pleased God to give mee an extraordinary helpe by a new schoolemaster brought thither one Master Gregory Downhale of Pembrook-Hal in Cambridge after I had lost some time under his predecessor This Master Downhale having very convenient lodgings over the school tooke such liking to me as he made me his bedfellow my fathers house being next of all to the schoole This bedfellowship begat in him familiaritie and gentlenesse towards mee and in mee towards him reverence and love which made me also love my book love being the most prevalent affection in nature to further our studies and endeavors in any profession hee came thither but Batchelour of Arts a good scholler and who wrote both the secretary and the Italian hands exquisitly well But after a few yeares that hee had proceeded Master of Arts finding the schooles entertainment not worthy of him hee left it and betook himselfe to another course of being Secretary to some noble man and at last became Secretary to the worthy Lord Chancellour Ellesmere and in that service as I think dyed And my selfe his scholler following his steps as neere as I could though furnished with no more learning then he taught mee in that Grammar Schoole came at last to be Secretary to the Lord Brooke Chancellor of the Excheqâ—er and after that to my â—â—â—ch honoured Lord the Earle of Middlesex Lord high Treasurer of England and lastly to the most worthy my most noble Lord the Lord Coventry Lord-keepper of the great Seale in whose service I expect to end my dayes And this I note that though I were no graduate of the Vniversity yet by Gods blessing I had so much learning as fitted me for the places wherunto the Lord advanced mee and which I thinke to bee very rare had one that was after a Lord Chancellors Secretary to be my Schoolemaster whom by Gods blessing I followed so close that I became a successor to his successors in the like place of eminent service and employment It is the almighty and al-governing hand of thy providence O most glorious Lord God whereby all things are disposed amongst the children of men let my soule for ever praise thee for this gracious work of thine towards me thine unworthy wretch whom thou hast preserved and enabled from my weake and small beginnings for those places whereunto I have beene called and which by thy grace I have with credit and comfort discharged O blessed Lord God who hast led mee from my youth up forsake mee not now in mine old age when I am gray headed and my strength faileth me but finish thy gracious worke of mercy and grace in me to the consummation of it in thy heavenly kingdome whereunto thou hast â—lected mee in IESUS CHRIST thine eternal Son the promised Messias God in the flesh manifested our most gracious Lord and Saviour unto whom with thee ô father of glory and mercies and God the Holy Ghost the most blessed spirit of grace and adoption most holy glorious and ever blessed Trinitie in the unity of one onely true immortall and everliving God of incomprehensible glory and most adored and coeternall Majestie be al praise glory dominion and thanksgiving for ever Amen 6 Vpon an accident to me when I was a Schoole-boy BEfore Master Downhale came to be our Master in Christ-school an ancient Citizen of no great learning was our schoolmaster whose manner was to give us out severall lessons in the evening by construing it to every forme and in the next morning to examine us thereupon by making all the boyes in the first forme to come from their seates and stand on the outsides of their desks towards the middle of the schoole and so the second forme and the rest in order whiles himself walked up and down by them and hearing them construe their lesson one after onother and then giving one of the words to one and another to another as he thought fit for parsing of it Now when the two highest formes were dispatched some of them whom we called prompters would come and sit in our seates of the lower formes and so being at our elbowes would put into our mouths answers to our masters questions as he walked up and downe by us and so by our prompters help we made shift to escape correction but understood little to profit by it having this circular â—e â—oâ— like the Mil-horse that travelâ— all day yet in the end finds himsâ—â—â— not a yard further then when he 〈◊〉 I being thus supported by my prompter it fell out one day thâ—â—â—â—e of the eldest schoâ—ler◠〈◊〉 one of the highest forme fell out with mee upon occasion of some boyes-play
next the sealing a narrow white border wherein was written in one continued line round about the roome these verses Sith it is uncertaine where death shall us meet And yet most certaine that he follows our feet In all our waies let us be so wise and steady That whersoere he meet us he may find us ready Alas how dull and slow are wee to entertaine this one most necessary Meditation of our owne mortality when in our beds and at our tables in our restings at home or travailes abroad whatsoever we doe whatsoever we see in the cloudes above or the earth or sea below we may observe such a vicissitude of changes and alterations in all creatures and things as might make us expect in ourselvs a change too yet such is our strong forgetfulnes as the complaint of Cyprian one of the ancient Fathers of the Church in his time may be now justly verified against us Nolumus agnoscere quod ignorare non possumus We will not acknowledge that which we cannot possibly but know O blessed Lord God pardon we beseech thee our former negligences and manifold infirmities and by thy grace sanctifie and strengthen us to consider so seriously of our owne fraile condition that since every day that goeth over our heads may be our last we may live so graciously prepared both at home and abroad from day to day as needing no morrow and then where or whensoever death shall meet us our redeemed soules may welcome him as the porter sent to open heaven gates for us for our finall and everlasting peace through Iesus Christ our most blessed Saviour and peacemaker Amen 11 Vpon a pedegree found in a private mans house GOing with one of mine honest neighbours in a Towne within the Marches of Wales to see a house which hee had new built there when wee came into the parlour as the best roome I observed a table hanging over the mantletree of the chimney with two columnes of Pedegrees crowned on either side one The one column containing a pedegree or descent from the princes of south Wales the other from the ancient princes of north Wales and from both those descents the pedegree was deduced and concluded in the foot of the table with the name of the good man of the house as lineally descended from those two ancient Princes the lines of their principalities being cut off two hundred yeares before At the sight whereof I bethought my selfe what a strange and poore bragge it was for this meane neighbour of mine to fetch his pedegree from Princes when it might happen that the Smith or the Shoomaker should take place above him in all the publike meetings in the Towne till withall I considered that there is not so contemptible a wretch in the world but if he could deduce his pedegree high enough would bee found of kin to nobles and the greatest Lord if his pedegree were set forth in all the collaterall lines and branches thereof should be found to have meane or poore creatures of his kindred or allyance It being certaine that wee all are one mans children all sprung from Adam by nature who was made of the clay or dust of the earth Genesis 2.7 and hee and his posterity to returne to earth and dust againe Genesis 3.19 From hence wee may observe the vanities of this transitory world and the glory of it which howsoever it differenceth betweene one and another whiles they are living yet when we turne againe into our dust there is no such inequalitie for there is no disparity in death and no difference at all betweene the delicatest Lady and the fowlest kitchin-stuffe when they lye both in their dust Mors Sceptra ligonibus aequat And it may be observed that many gallants which have boasted of their great blood by many descents of gentrie have by their pride and foolery wasted the great estate which their frugall ancestors left them and then may come to sit below the Smith or the Shoomaker with this goodman who could fetch his pedegree from Princes Since therefore every man none excepted in his best estate is but vanitie Psa 39.5 this should teach us to be humble in our selves and as wee know more wickednesse and corruption in our selves then we can doe in others so in lowlinesse of minde to esteeme others better then our selves as the Apostle requireth Thâ—l 2.3 which would be a good meane to avoid contention and vain glory O blessed Lord God have mercy upon us poore wretches that have nothing in our selves from nature but dust and corruption and give us a new birth and generatiâ—n by thy holy spirit of grace which only can truly enable us making us thy children by adoption in Christ Iesus and heires with him in the kingdome of heaven Amen 12. Vpon a pedegree seene in a Noble-mans house LVmley Castle in the Countie Palatine of Duresme was built by that noble and worthy Lord John Lord Lumley after the manner of some Castles hee had observed in his travailes beyond the seas with two faire passages into it up two paire of staires large but short both standing the one over against the other at the lower end of the Hall all the rest of the maine roomes being of the same floare equall with the Hall the most eminent roome whereof at the upper end of the Hall being the great Chamber was adorned with the pictures of all the Barons of that family in their robes at full length beginning with the first who was set forth kneeling before King Richard the second and receiving his Writ or Patent of creation at his hands and so from one to another to that Noble-man himselfe that built the house with the picture also of his Lordships sonne and heire apparent then a young man with a Hawke on his fist In that faire chamber at the upper end of it in a Bay window I observed a long Table hanging fitting the one end of the window containing a faire written or painted Pedegree setting out not onely how the Barons of that house succeeded one another but also how the first Baron was lineally descended from Adam himselfe But hee that lived to build the house and to adorne it with such Monuments of Noble Ancestors from so high a descent as the very Creation of the World and having a sonne then living like to have succeeded him in the Barronie dyed himselfe childlesse in Queen Elizabeths time and so the Barony dyed with him and there was no Lord Lumley to entertaine King Iames there at his first comming into England upon her Majesties decease and so that pedegree which I know not by what heraldry brought that worthy nobleman by many generations of Kings and Queenes and other famous ancestors by a lineall descent from Adam himself could not deduce it one descent further but it ends in him for whose honour it selfe was devised And that noble Lord when he was at the highest of the pedegree what could hee finde there of Nobility
to walke exactly Ephes 5.15 in a holy life have little store of that grace and little hold of that Saviour whereof they presume so much Shortly as it is our great comfort that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. So that which followes must bee our great care to walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That new and living way by the blood of Christ will guide us streight to heaven between those two dangerous rocks of despaire and presumption Rec. 4. Nov. 1630. In the conclusion of this Letter I was encouraged to continue my honourable Lords service which I did for the yeare following and then 30. Novemb. 1631. being suddainly taken with a disease called vertigo capitis which I doubted might turne to an Apoplexy I withdrew my selfe home and entred into a course of Physick under which I was holden so long as I was by GODS mercy taken off from my further worldly imployments and with my noble Lords extraordinary favour in my farewell retired my self into Northamptonshire since which time it hath pleased our most gracious Lord God to adde some more yeares to my life for my better preparation for the time of my change blessed be his most holy name for it and let his holy spirit of grace I humbly beseech him teach both my selfe and all others that shall read this worthy letter to learne and practise that most necessary and blessed lesson of joyning faith and obedience true beliefe and holy life together in the short race of our earthly pilgrimage that so being true children of grace here we may be assured to bee heires of glory in the life to come through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour Amen 23. Vpon the words revealed to S. Augustine In te stas non stas IT is written of Saint Augustine that after his conversion to the faith he was grievously vexed with inward conflicts against his corrupt affections complaining of his inbred hereditary habituall inveterate vices and after long strugling with them by purposing and vowing strong resolution watching fasting selfe-revenging and other good meanes finding still hâ—s owne weaknesse and the encreasing violence of his owne corruptions as he was intentively musing and meditating what to doe more hee heard a voice speaking to him these words Jn te stas non stas Whereupon rightly apprehending that his owne strength of wit carnal I reason and other powers and helpes of nature could not serve the turne for effecting that which was the peculiar and proper worke of grace hee betooke himselfe to his Saviour by humble faithfull and fervent prayer and at last found such inward assistance from the holy spirit of grace as strengthened him to stand and make good his resolutions with more comfort then before Whether the Lord in speciall favour to this gracious servant of his did vouchsafe to give him this vocall instruction by words to his eares or howeveâ— the matter thereof was suggested or revealed to him by the Holy Ghost I enquire not but sure I am they are words of great use and warning to us all not to trust to our selves or any strength or power of nature for any spirituall worke to be wrought in us or by us but to have our recourse to our Saviour and to seeke helpe from him and his grace which cannot bee had elsewhere how often it falls out that selfe opinion of a mans owne wit makes his wit his owne overthrow and selfe-confidence of his owne strength in evill company instead of reclaiming others to make himselfe worse then they O blessed Lord Iesu our most blessed Saviour who knowest both the miserable infirmities and debilities of our depraved nature and the subtile and advantagious power of our ghostly enemies and having thy selfe in our flesh and for us overcome them in all their temptations dost best know Hebrews 2.18 to succour them that bee tempted have mercie upon us thy weake and unworthy servants and give us grace to learne that necessarie lesson of self-deny all and with humble faith to put our whole trust in thee for ever Esay 26.4 For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength and Iude 24. thou only art able to keepe us from falling that so being weake in our selves wee may bee strong in thee and in the power of thy grace be enabled to stand fast in the evill day and in all things Romans 8.11 through thee who lovest us to hee more then conquerors for 2 Timothie 4.18 Thou O Lord hast delivered us and dost deliver us and we hope wilt deliver us from every evill worke and wilt preserve us unto thy heavenly kingdome to thee be all glory and praise for ever Amen 24. Vpon the building of Pauls Church in London WHensoever that goodly monument of antiquity was built it was evident to my understanding that the Christian Church of those times did hold that not Saint Peter but the holy Christian faith was the rocke or foundation whereupon the militant Church of CHRIST was to be founded for under the Chauncell of that mother Church of the chiefe Citie of England there is an under-Church built with strong arches and pillars called Sancta Fides usually called S. Faiths which is indeed the proper foundation of the Church of Paul's By which demonâ—â—rative argument it appeares that the good people in those dayes did better understand the true meaning of our blessed Saviour in the 16. Chapter and 18. verse of Saint Matthew's Gospell concerning the Rocke whereupon hee would build his Church then the Romanists of later times have done who would make the world believe that our Saviour did then appoint S. Peter and after him his successors in the Cathedrall Church of Rome to be that rocke of the Catholike Church of Christ and the supreme Vicar and head of the Church in whose breast all infallibilitie of judgment and power of determining in all matters of the Church should bee only resident For certainly if there had beene any such conceit broached at the building of Pauls the fundamentall Church of holy faith should have beene named Saint Peters as if our Saviour had meant to build his Church upon Saint Peter's person and not upon the Christian faith which hee as the mouth of all the Disciples professed that our Saviour was the true Messiah Christ the sonne of the living God our Saviours question being made expresly to all the Disciples verse 15. and hee answering for them all O most blessed Lord Jesu who art the way the truth and the life and seest into what miserable combustions the state of Christendome is brought by these antichristian wastings of thine owne blessed workes for maintenance of private supremacie and Soveraigntie here as if thy kingdome were of this world which thy self hast Ioh. 8.36 expresly disclaimed have mercy upon thy poore distracted and distressed Church and make up the breaches thereof against all the wicked plots and machinations of the adversary by inclining the