good to thee This argument seemed to carry such command with it as that Dauid not onely may but must embrew his hands in bloud vnlesse hee will bee found wanting to God and himselfe Those temptations are most powerfull which fetch their force from the pretence of a religious obedience Whereas those which are raised from arbitrary and priuate respects admit of an easie dispensation If there were such a prediction one clause of it was ambiguous and they take it at the worst Thou shalt doe to him as shall seeme good to thee that might not seeme good to him which seemed euill vnto God There is nothing more dangerous than to make construction of Gods purposes out of euentuall appearances If carnall probabilities might be the rule of our iudgement what could God seeme to intend other than Sauls death in offering him naked into the hands of those whom he vniustly persecuted how could Dauids souldiers thinke that God had sent Saul thither on any other errand than to fetch his bane and if Saul could haue seene his owne danger he had giuen himselfe for dead for his heart guilty to his owne bloudy desires could not but haue expected the same measure which it meant But wise and holy Dauid not transported either with mis-conceit of the euent or fury of passion or sollicitation of his followers dares make no other vse of this accident than the triall of his loyalty and the inducement of his peace It had beene as easie for him to cut the throat of Saul as his garment but now his coat onely shall be the worse not his person neither doth he in the maiming of a cloake seeke his owne reuenge but a monument of his innocence Before Saul rent Samuels garment now Dauid cutteth Sauls both were significant The rending of the one signified the Kingdome torne out of those vnworthy hands the cutting of the other that the life of Saul might haue beene as easily cut off Saul needes no other Monitor of his owne danger than what he weares The vpper garment of Saul was laid aside whiles he went to couer his feet so as the cut of the garment did not threaten any touch of the body yet euen the violence offered to a remote garment strikes the heart of Dauid which findes a present remorse for harmefully touching that which did once touch the person of his Master Tender consciences are moued to regret at those actions which strong hearts passe ouer with a careles ease It troubled not Saul to seeke after the bloud of a righteous seruant there is no lesse difference of consciences than stomacks some stomachs will digest the hardest meates and turne ouer substances not in their nature edible whiles others surfet of the lightest food and complaine euen of dainties Euery gracious heart is in some measure scrupulous and findes more safety in feare than in presumption And if it be so strait as to curbe it selfe in from the liberty which it might take in things which are not vnlawfull how much lesse will it dare to take scope vnto euill By how much that state is better where nothing is allowed than where all things by so much is the strict and â—nnorous conscience better than the lawlesse There is good likelihood of that man which is any way scrupulous of his wayes but he which makes no bones of his actions is apparently hopelesse Since Dauids followers pleaded Gods testimony to him as a motiue to bloud Dauid appeales the same God for his preseruation from bloud The Lord keepe me from doing that thing to my Master the Lords Annointed and now the good man hath worke enough to defend both himselfe and his persecuter himselfe from the importunate necessitie of doing violence and his Master from suffering it It was not more easie to rule his owne hands than difficult to rule a multitude Dauids troupe consisted of Male-contents all that were in distresse in debt in bitternesse of soule were gathered to him Many if neuer so well ordered are hard to command a few if disorderly more hard many and disorderly must needs bee so much the hardest of all that Dauid neuer atchieued any victory like vnto this wherein hee first ouercame himselfe then his Souldiers And what was the charme wherewith Dauid allayed those raging spirits of his followers No other but this Hee is the Annointed of the Lord. That holy Oyle was the Antidote for his bloud Saul did not lend Dauid so impearceable an Armour when hee should encounter Goliah as Dauid now lent him in this plea of his vnction Which of all the discontented Out-lawes that lurked in that Caue durst put forth his hand against Saul when they once heard Hee is the Lords Annointed Such an impression of awe hath the diuine Prouidence caused his Image to make in the hearts of men as that it makes Traytors cowards So as in steede of striking they tremble How much more lawlesse than the Out-lawes of Israel are those professed Ring-leaders of Christianitie which teach and practise and incourage and reward and canonize the violation of Maiestie It is not enough for those who are commanders of others to refraine their owne hands from doing euil but they must carefully preuent the iniquitie of their heeles else they shall bee iustly reputed to doe that by others which in their owne persons they auoyded the Lawes both of God and man presuppose vs in some sort answerable for our charge as taking it for granted that wee should not vndertake those raynes which wee cannot mannage There was no reason Dauid should lose the thankes of so noble a demonstration of his loyalty Whereto hee trusts so much that hee dares call backe the man by whom hee was pursued and make him iudge whether that fact had not deserued a life As his act so his word and gesture imported nothing but humble obedience neither was there more meeknesse than force in that seasonable perswasion Wherein hee lets Saul see the error of his credulity the vniust slanders of maliciousnesse the oportunity of his reuenge the proofe of his forbearance the vndeniable euidence of his innocence and after a lowly disparagement of himselfe appeales to God for iudgement for protection So liuely and feeling Oratory did Saul find in the lap of his garment and the lips of Dauid that it is not in the power of his enuie or ill nature to hold out any longer Is this thy voice my sonne Dauid and Saul lift vp his voice and wept and said Thou art more righteous than I. Hee whose harpe had wont to quiet the frenzy of Saul hath now by his words calmed his fury so that now he sheds teares in steed of bloud and confesses his owne wrong and Dauids integrity And as if hee were new againe entred into the bounds of Naioth in Ramath hee prayes and prophesies good to him whom hee maliced for good The Lord render thee good for that thou hast done to mee this day for now behold I know that
from whatsoeuer may offend that maiestie we rest vpon and aboue this of true and canonicall obedience to God without all care of difficultie and in spight of all contradictions of nature Not out of the confidence of our owne power impotent men who are we that we should either vow or performe But as he said Giue what thou bidst and bid what thou wilt Hence the courage of Moses durst venture his hand to take vp the crawling hissing Serpent Hence Peter durst walk vpon the pauement of the waues Hence that heroicall spirit of Luther a man made of metall fit for so great a worke durst resolue and professe to enter into that fore-warned Citie though there had bin as many Deuils in their streets as tiles on their houses Both these vowes as wee once solemnly made by others so for our peace we must renew in our selues Thus the experienced minde both knowing that it hath met with a good friend and withall what the price of a friend is cannot but be carefull to retaine him warie of displeasing and therefore to cut off all dangers of variance voluntarily takes a double oath of allegeance of it selfe to God which neither benefit shall induce vs to breake if we might gaine a world nor feare vrge vs thereto though we must lose our selues The wauering heart that finds continuall combats in it selfe betwixt Pleasure and Conscience so equally matched that neither gets the day is not yet capable of peace and whether euer ouercommeth is troubled both with resistance and victorie Barren Rebecca found more case than when her twins struggled in her wombe If Iacob had beene there alone she had not complained of that painfull contention One while Pleasure holds the Fort and conscience assaults it which when it hath entred at last by strong hand after many batteries of iudgements denounced ere long Pleasure either corrupts the watch or by some cunning stratagem findes way to recouer her first hold So one part is euer attempting and euer resisting Betwixt both the heart cannot haue peace because it resolues not For while the soule is held in suspence it cannot enioy the pleasure it vseth because it is halfe taken vp with feare onely a strong and resolute repulse of pleasure is truly pleasant for therein the Conscience filling vs with heauenly delight maketh sweet triumphs in it selfe as being now the Lord of his owne dominions and knowing what to trust to No man knowes the pleasure of this thought I haue done well but he that hath felt it and he that hath felt it contemnes all pleasure to it It is a false slander raised on Christianitie that it maketh men dumpish and melancholicke for therefore are we heauie because we are not enough Christians We haue religion enough to mislike pleasures not enough to ouercome them But if we be once conquerors ouer our selues and haue deuoted our selues wholly to God there can be nothing but heauenly mirth in the soule Loe here yee Philosophers the true musicke of Heauen which the good heart continually heareth and answers it in the iust measures of ioy Others may talke of mirth as a thing they haue heard of or vainely fancied onely the Christian feeles it and in comparison thereof scorneth the idle ribaldish and scurrilous mirth of the prophane SECT XXIV ANd this resolution which we call for 2. Rule for our actions must not onely exclude manifestly euill actions but also doubting and suspension of minde in actions suspected and questionable wherein the iudgement must euer giue confident determination one way For this Tranquillitie consisteth in a steadinesse of the minde and how can that vessell which is beaten vpon by contrary waues and winds and tottereth to either part be said to keepe a steadie course Resolution is the onely mother of securitie For instance I see that Vsury which was wont to be condemned for no better than a Legall theft hath now obtained with many the reputation of an honest Trade and is both vsed by many and by some defended It is pittie that a bad practice should finde any learned or religious Patron The summe of my patrimony lieth dead by me sealed vp in the bagge of my Father my thriftier friends aduise mee to this easie and sure improuement Their counsell and my gaine preuaile my yeerely summes come in with no cost but of time wax parchment my estate likes it well better than my conscience which tells me still he doubts my trade is too easie to be honest Yet I continue my illiberall course not without some scruple and contradiction so as my feare of offence hinders the ioy of my profit and the pleasure of my gaine hartens me against the feare of iniustice I would be rich with ease and yet I would not be vncharitable I would not bee vniust All the while I liue in vnquiet doubts and distraction Others are not so much entangled in my bonds as I in my owne At last that I may be both iust and quiet I conclude to referre this case wholly to the sentence of my inward Iudge the Conscience the Aduocates Gaine and Iustice plead on either part at this barre with doubtfull successe Gaine informes the Iudge of a new and nice distinction of toothlesse and biting Interest and brings presidents of particular cases of Vsury so farre from any breach of charitie or iustice that both parts therein confesse themselues aduantaged Iustice pleads euen the most toothlesse vsury to haue sharpe gums and findes in the most harmelesse and profitable practice of it an insensible wrong to the common body besides the infinite wracks of priuate estates The weake Iudge suspends in such probable allegations and demurreth as being ouercome of both and of neither part and leaues me yet no whit more quiet no whit lesse vncertaine I suspend my practice accordingly being sure it is good not to doe what I am not sure is good to be done and now Gaine sollicits me as much as Iustice did before Betwixt both I liue troublesomely nor euer shall doe other till in a resolute detestation I haue whipped this euill Merchant out of the Temple of my heart This rigour is my peace Before I could not be well either full or fasting Vncertaintie is much paine euen in a more tolerable action Neither is it I thinke easie to determine whether it be worse to doe a lawfull act with doubting or an euill with resolution since that which in it selfe is good is made euill to me by my doubt and what is in nature euill is in this one point not euill to me that I doe it vpon a verdict of a Conscience so now my iudgement offends in not following the truth I offend not in that I follow my iudgment Wherein if the most wise God had left vs to roue onely according to the aime of our owne coniectures it should haue beene lesse faulty to be Scepticks in our actions and either not to iudge at all or to iudge amisse
harsh which also holds no lesse in the actiuities of the hand And if it happen that one man be qualified with skill of diuers trades and practise this varietie you shall seldome finde such one thriuing in his estate with spirituall gifts it is otherwise which are so chained together that who excels in one hath some eminencie in more yea in all Looke vpon faith shee is attended with a Beuie of Graces Hee that beleeues cannot but haue hope if hope patience Hee that beleeues and hopes must needs finde ioy in God if ioy loue of God hee that loues God cannot but loue his brother his loue to God breeds pietie and care to please sorrow for offending feare to offend his loue to men fidelitie and Christian beneficence Vices are seldome single but vertues goe euer in troupes they goe so thicke that sometimes some are hid in the crowd which yet are but appeare not They may bee shut out from sight they cannot be seuered 8 The Heauen euer moues and yet is the place of our rest Earth euer rests and yet is the place of our trouble Outward motion can be no enemie to inward rest as outward rest may well stand with inward vnquietnesse 9 None liue so ill but they content themselues in somewhat Euen the begger likes the smell of his dish It is a rare euill that hath not something to sweeten it either in sense or in hope Otherwise men would grow desperate mutinous enuious of others weary of themselues The better that thing is wherein we place our comfort the happier wee liue and the more we loue good things the better they are to vs. The worldlings comfort though it be good to him because hee loues it yet because it is not absolutely and eternally good it failes him wherein the Christian hath iust aduantage of him while he hath all the same causes of ioy refined and exalted besides more and higher which the other knowes not of the worldling laughs more but the Christian is more delighted These two are easily seuered Thou seest a goodly picture or an heape of thy gold thou laughest not yet thy delight is more than in a iest that shaketh thy spleene As griefe so ioy is not lesse when it is least expressed 10 I haue seene the worst natures and most depraued minds not affecting all sinnes but still some they haue condemned in others and abhorred in themselues One exclaimes on couetousnesse yet he can too well abide riotous good fellowship Another inueighs against drunkennesse and excesse not caring how cruell hee bee in vsurie and oppression One cannot endure a rough and quarrelous disposition yet giues himselfe ouer to vncleane and lasciuious courses Another hates all wrongs saue wrong to God One is a ciuill Atheist another a religious Vsurer a third an honest Drunkard a fourth an vnchaste Iusticer a fift a chaste Quarreller I know not whether euery Deuill excell in all sinnes I am sure some of them haue denomination from some sinnes more speciall Let no man applaud himselfe for those sinnes he wanteth but condemne himselfe rather for that sinne he hath Thou censurest another mans sinne hee thine God curseth both 11 Gold is the heauiest of all metals It is no wonder that the rich man is vsually carried downeward to his place It is hard for the soule clogged with many weights to ascend to heauen It must be a strong and nimble soule that can carrie vp it selfe and such a load yet Adam and Noah flew vp thither with the double Monarchie of the world the Patriarkes with much wealth many holy Kings with massie Crownes and Scepters The burden of couetous desires is more heauie to an emptie soule than much treasure to the full Our affections giue poize or lightnesse to earthly things Either abate of thy load if thou finde it too pressing whether by hauing lesse or louing lesse or adde to thy strength and actiuitie that thou maiest yet ascend It is more commendable by how much more hard to climbe into heauen with a burden 12 A Christian in all his waies must haue three guides Truth Charitie Wisdome Truth to goe before him Charitie and Wisdome on either hand If any of the three bee absent he walkes amisse I haue seene some doe hurt by following a truth vncharitably And others while they would salue vp an errour with loue haue failed in their wisdome and offended against iustice A charitable vntruth and an vncharitable truth and an vnwise menaging of truth or loue are all to be carefully auoided of him that would goe with a right foot in the narrow way 13 God brought man forth at first not into a wildernesse but a Garden yet then hee expected the best seruice of him I neuer finde that hee delights in the miserie but in the prosperitie of his seruants Cheerefulnesse pleases him better than a deiected and dull heauinesse of heart If wee can be good with pleasure hee grudgeth not our ioy If not it is best to stint our selues not for that these comforts are not good but because our hearts are euill faulting not their nature but our vse and corruption 14 The homeliest seruice that we doe in an honest calling though it be but to plow or digge if done in obedience and conscience of Gods commandement is crowned with an ample reward whereas the best workes for their kinde preaching praying offering Euangelicall sacrifices if without respect of Gods iniunction and glory are loaded with curses God loueth aduerbs and cares not how good but how well 15 The golden infancie of some hath proceeded to a brazen youth and ended in a leaden age All humane maturities haue their period onely grace hath none I durst neuer lay too much hope on the forward beginnings of wit and memorie which haue beene applauded in children I know they could but attaine their vigor and that if sooner no whit the better for the earlier is their perfection of wisdome the longer shall be their witlesse age Seasonablenesse is the best in all these things which haue their ripenesse and decay We can neuer hope too much of the timely blossomes of grace whose spring is perpetuall and whose haruest begins with our end 16 A man must giue thanks for somewhat which he may not pray for It hath beene said of Courtiers that they must receiue iniuries and giue thanks God cannot wrong his but he will crosse them those crosses are beneficiall all benefits challenge thanks yet I haue read that Gods children haue with condition prayed against them neuer for them In good things wee pray both for them and their good vse in euill for their good vse not themselues yet we must giue thanks for both For there is no euill of paine which God doth not nothing that God doth is not good no good thing but is worthy of thanks 17 One halfe of the world knowes not how the other liues and therefore the better sort pittie not the distressed and the miserable enuie not
is maruellous in our eyes You haue now parallel'd vs Out of both our feares God hath fetched securitie Oh that out of our securitie wee could as easily fetch feare not so much of euill as of the Author of good and yet trust him in our feare and in both magnifie him Yea you haue by this act gained some conuerts against the hope of the agents neither can I without many ioyfull congratulations thinke of the estate of your Church which euery day honours with the accesse of new clients whose teares and sad confessions make the Angels to reioyce in heauen and the Saints on earth We should giue you example if our peace were as plentifull of goodnesse as of pleasure But how seldome hath the Church gained by ease or lost by restraint Blesse you God for our prosperitie and we shall praise him for your progresse To M. THOMAS SVTTON EP. VII Exciting him and in him all others to early and cheerfull beneficence shewing the necessitie and benefit of good workes SIR I trouble you not with reasons of my writing or with excuses if I doe ill no plea can warrant me if well I cannot be discouraged with any censures I craue not your pardon but your acceptation It is no presumption to giue good counsell and presents of loue feare not to be ill taken of strangers My pen and your substance are both giuen vs for one end to doe good These are our talents how happy are we if we can improue them well suffer me to doe you good with the one that with the other you may doe good to many and most to your selfe You cannot but know that your ful hand and worthy purposes haue possessed the world with much expectation what speake I of the world whose honest and reasonable claimes yet cannot bee contemned with honour nor disappointed with dishonour The God of heauen which hath lent you this abundance and giuen you these gracious thoughts of charity of piety lookes long for the issue of both and will easily complaine either of too little or too late Your wealth and your will are both good but the first is onely made good by the second For if your hand were full and your heart empty we who now applaud you should iustly pity you you might haue riches not goods not blessings your burthen should be greater then your estate and you should be richer in sorrowes then in meals For if we looke to no other world what gaine is it to be the keeper of the best earth That which is the common cofer of all the rich mynes we do but tread vpon and account it vile because it doth but hold and hide those treasures Whereas the skilfull metallist that findeth and refineth those precious veines for publike vse is rewarded is honoured The very basest Element yeelds gold the sauage Indian gets it the seruile prentise workes it the very Midianitish Camell may weare it the miserable worldling admires it the couetous Iew swallowes it the vnthrifty Ruffian spends it what are all these the better for it Onely good vse giues praise to earthly possessions Herein therefore you owe more to God that he hath giuen you an heart to doe good a will to be as rich in good workes as great in riches To be a friend to this Mammon is to be an enemy to God but to make friends with it is royall and Christian His enemies may be wealthy none but his friends can either be good or do good Da accipe saith the Wise-man The Christian which must imitate the high patterne of his Creator knowes his best riches to be bounty God that hath all giues all reserues nothing And for himselfe he well considers that God hath not made him an owner but a seruant and of seruants a seruant not of his goods but of the Giuer not a Treasurer but a Steward whose praise is more To lay out well then to haue receiued much The greatest gaine therefore that he affects is an eauen reckoning a cleare discharge which since it is obtained by disposing not by keeping he counts reseruation losse iust expence his trade and ioy he knowes that Wel done faithfull seruant is a thousand times more sweet a note then Soule take thine ease for that is the voice of the matter recompencing this of the carnall heart presuming and what followes to the one but his masters ioy what to the other but the losse of his soule Blessed be that God which hath giuen you an heart to fore-thinke this and in this dry and dead Age a will to honour him with his owne and to credit his Gospell with your beneficence Lo we are vpbraided with barrennesse your name hath beene publikely opposed to these challenges as in whom it shall be seene that the truth hath friends that can giue I neither distrust nor perswade you whose resolutions are happily fixed on purposes of good onely giue me leaue to hasten your pase a little and to excite your Christian forwardnesse to begin speedily what you haue long and constantly vowed You would not but doe good why not now I speake boldly The more speed the more comfort Neither the times are in our disposing nor our selues if God had set vs a day and made our wealth inseparable there were no danger in delaying now our vncertainty either must quicken vs or may deceiue vs. How many haue meant well and done nothing and lost their crowne with lingring whose destinies haue preuented their desires and haue made their good motions the wards of their executors not without miserable successe to whom that they would haue done good is not so great a praise as it is dishonour that they might haue done it their wracks are our warnings we are equally mortall equally fickle Why haue you this respite of liuing but to preuent the imperious necessity of death it is a wofull and remedilesse complaint that the end of our dayes hath ouer-run the beginning of our good works Early beneficence hath no danger many ioyes for the conscience of good done the prayers and blessings of the releeued the gratulations of the Saints are as so many perpetuall comforters which can make our life pleasant and our death happy our euill dayes good and our good better All these are lost with delay few and cold are the prayers for him that may giue and in lieu our good purposes fore-slowed are become our tormentors vpon our death-bed Little difference is betwixt good deferred and euill done Good was meant who hindred it will our conscience say there was time enough meanes enough need enough what hindred Did feare of enuy distrust of want Alas what bugs are these to fright men from heauen As if the enuy of keeping were lesse then of bestowing As if God were not as good a debtor as a giuer he that giues to the poore lends to God saith wise Salomon If he freely giue vs what we may lend grace to giue wil he not much more
men It hath been an old policy to serue our selues of men and after our aduantage to turne them vp He bargaines therefore for his Soueraignty ere he win it Shall I bee your Head Wee are all naturally ambitious and are ready to buy honour euen with hazard And if the hope of a troublesome superiority incouraged Ieptha to fight against the forces of Ammon what heart should we take in the battels of God against spiritual wickednesses when the God of heauen hath said To him that ouercomes will I giue power ouer nations to sit with me in my Throne Oh that we could bend our eyes vpon the recompence of our reward how willingly should we march forward against these mighty Ammonites Ieptha is noted for his valor yet he intreats with Ammon ere he fights To make war any other then our last remedy is not courage but cruelty and rashnes And now when reason will not preuaile he betakes himself to his sword As God beganne the war with Ieptha in raising vp his heart to that pitch of fortitude so Ieptha beganne his war at God in crauing victory from him and powring out his vow to him His hand tooke hold of his sword his heart of God therefore he whom the old Testament stiles valiant the new stiles faithfull he who is commended for his strength dares trust in none but the arme of God If thou wilt giue the Ammonites into my hand If Ieptha had not lookt vpward for his victory in vaine had the Gileadite lookt vp to him This is the disposition of all good hearts they looke to their sword or their bow as seruants not as Patrons and whiles they vse them trust to God If we could doe so in all our businesses we should haue both more ioy in their successe and lesse discomfort in their miscarriage It was his zeale to vow it was his sin to vow rashly Iacob his forefather of whom he learned to vow might haue taught him a better forme If God will be with mee then shall the Lord be my God It is well with vowes when the thing promised makes the Promise good But when Ieptha sayes Whatsoeuer thing commeth out of the dores of my house shall be the Lords or I will offer it for aburnt sacrifice his deuotion is blinde and his good affection ouer-runs his iudgement For what if a dog or a swine or an asse had met him where had been the promise of his consecration Vowes are as they are made like vnto sents if they be of ill composition nothing offends more if well tempered nothing is more pleasant Either certainty of euill or vncertainty of good or impossibility of performance makes vows no seruice to God When we vow what we cannot or what we ought not doe we mocke God in stead of honouring him It is a vaine thing for vs to goe about to catch God hood-winkt To conscience shall neuer finde peace in any way but that which we see before vs and which we know safe both in the kinde and circumstances There is no comfort in Peraduenture I may please God What good childe will not take part of the parents ioy If Ieptha returnes with Trophees it is no maruell if his daughter meete him with Timbrels Oh that we could be so affected with the glorious acts of our heauenly Father Thou subduest thine enemies and mightily deliuerest thy people O God a song waiteth for thee in Sion Who would haue suspected danger in a dutifull Triumph Well might Iepthaes daughter haue thought My sexe forbade me to doe any thing towards the helpe of my Fathers victory I can doe little if I cannot applaud it If nature haue made me weake yet not vnthankfull nothing forbids my ioy to be as strong as the victors Though I might not go out with my father to fight yet I may meet him with gratulations A Timbrell may become these hands which were vnfit for a sword This day hath made me the daughter of the Head of Israel This day hath made both Israel free my Father a Conquerer and my selfe in him noble and shall my affection make no difference What must my Father needs thinke if he shall finde me sitting sullenly at home whiles all Israel striues who shall runne first to blesse him with their acclamations Should I onely be insensible of his and the common happinesse And now behold when she lookes for most thankes her Father answeres the measures of her feet with the knocking 's of his breast and weepes at her musick and teares his clothes to looke vpon her whom he best loued and giues no answere to her Timbrels but Alasse my daughter thou art of them that trouble me Her ioy alone hath changed the day and lost the comfort of that victory which she inioyed to see wonne It fals out often that those times and occasions which promise most contentment proue most dolefull in the issue The heart of this Virgin was neuer lifted vp so high as now neither did any day of her life seeme happy but this and this onely proues the day of her solemne and perpetuall mourning As contrarily the times and euents which we haue most distrusted prooue most beneficiall It is good in a faire morning to thinke of the storme that may rise ere night and to inioy hoth good and euill fearefully Miserable is that deuotion which troubles vs in the performance Nothing is more pleasant then the acts of true piety Ieptha might well see the wrong of this religion in the distaste of it yet whiles himselfe had troubled his daughter he saies Alasse my daughter thou art of them that trouble me She did but her duty he did what he should not yet he would be rid of the the blame though he cannot of the smart No man is willing to own a sin the first man shifted it from himselfe to his wife this from himselfe to his daughter He was ready to accuse another which onely committed it himselfe It were happy if we could be as loth to commit sin as to acknowledge it The inconsideration of this vow was very tough and setled I haue opened my mouth and cannot goe backe If there were iust cause to repent it was the weakenesse of his zeale to thinke that a vow could bind him to euill An vnlawfull vow is ill made but worse performed It were pitty this constancy should light vpon any but an holy obiect No loane can make a truer debt then our vow which if we pay not in our performance God will pay vs with iudgement We haue all opened our mouthes to God in that initiall and solemne vow of Christianity Oh that we could not goe backe So much more is our vow obligatory by how much the thing vowed is more necessary Why was the soule of Ieptha thus troubled but because he saw the entaile of his new honor thus suddenly cut off He saw the hope of posterity extinguished in the viginity of his daughter It is naturall to
sinne The sinnes of the great command imitation and doe as seldome goe without attendants as their persons Saul knew well how much he had done amisse and yet dare meet Samuel and can say Blessed be thou of the Lord I haue fulfilled the Commandement of the Lord His heart knew that his tongue was as false as his hands had beene and if his heart had not been more false then either of them neither of them had beene so grosse in their falshood If hypocrisie were not either foolish or impudent shee durst not shew her head to a Seer of God Could Saul thinke that Samuel knew of the asses that were lost and did not know of the oxen and sheepe that were spared Could hee foretell his thoughts when it was and now not know of his open actions Much lesse when we haue to doe with God himselfe would dissimulation presume either of safety or secrecie Can the God that made the heart not know it Can hee that comprehends all things be shut out of our close corners Saul was otherwise crafty enough yet herein his simplicitie is palpable Sinne can besot euen the wisest man and there was neuer but folly in wickednesse No man brags so much of holinesse as hee that wants it True obedience is ioyned euer with humilitie and feare of vnknowne errours Falshood is bold and can say I haue fulfilled the Commandement of the Lord If Saul had beene truely obsequious and holy he had made no noise of it A gracious heart is not a blab of his tongue but rests and reioyceth silently in the conscience of a secret goodnesse those vessels yeeld most sound that haue the least liquor Samuel had reason to beleeue the sheepe and oxen aboue Saul their bleating and lowing was a sufficient conuiction of a denied and out faced disobedience God opened their mouths to accuse Saul of their life and his falshood but as sinne is craftie and neuer wanted a cloake wherewith both to hide and decke it selfe euen this very rebellion is holy First the act if it were euill was not mine but the peoples and secondly their intention makes it good For these Flocks and Herds were preserued not for gaine but for deuotion What needs this quarrell If any gaine by this act it is the Lord thy God His Altars shall smoake with these sacrifices yee that serue at them shall fare so much the better this godly thriftinesse lookes for thankes rather then censure If Saul had beene in Samuels cloathes perhaps this answer would haue satisfied him Surely himselfe stands out in it as that whereto hee dare trust and after hee heares of Gods angry reproofe hee auowes and doubles his hold of his innocency as if the Commanders should not answer for the knowne sinnes of the people as if our intentions could iustifie vs to God against God How much adoe it is to bring sinners vpon their knees and to make their tongues accuse their hands But it is no halting with the maker of the heart He knew it was couetousnesse and not piety which was accessary to this forbearance and if it had beene as was pretended bee knew it was an odious impietie to raise deuotion out of disobedience Saul shall heare and finde that he hath dealt no lesse wickedly in sparing an Agag then in killing an innocent Israelite in sparing these beasts for sacrifice then in sacrificing beasts that had beene vncleane Why was sacrifice it selfe good but because it was commanded What difference was there betwixt slaughter and sacrifice but obedience To sacrifice disobediently is wilfully to mocke God in honouring him The reiection of SAVL and the choice of DAVID EVen when Saul had abandoned God in disobedience hee would not forgoe Samuel yea though he reproued him when he had forsaken the substance yet hee would maintaine the formalitie If hee cannot hold the man he will keepe the pledge of his garment such was the violence of Sauls desire that he will rather rend Samuels coate then part with his person Little did Saul thinke that he had in his hand the pawne of his owne reiection that this act of kinde importunitie should carie in it a presage of his iudgement yet so it did This very rending of the coat was a reall prophesie and did bode no lesse then the rending of the Kingdome from him and his posteritie Wicked men whiles they thinke by carnall meanes to make their peace plunge themselues deeper into misery Any stander by would haue said what a good King is this how deare is Gods Prophet vnto him how happy is Israel in such a Prince as thus loues the messengers of God Samuel that saw the bottome of this hollow affection reiects him whom God had reiected he was taught to looke vpon Saul not as a King but as an offender and therefore refuses with no lesse vehemency then Saul intreated It was one thing what he might doe as a subiect another what he must doe as a Prophet Now he knowes not Saul any otherwise then as so much the greater trespasser as his place was higher and therefore he doth no more spare his greatnesse then the God against whom hee sinned Neither doth he countenance that man with his presence on whom hee sees God to frowne There needs no other Character of hypocrisie then Saul in the cariage of this one businesse with Agag and Samuel First he obeyes God where there is no gaine in disobedience then he serues God by halues and disobeyes where the obedience might be losse He giues God of the worst he doth that in a colour which might seeme answerable to the charge of God He respects persons in the execution He giues good words when his deeds were euill He protests his obedience against his conscience He faces out his protestation against a reproofe When hee sees no remedy hee acknowledges the fact denies the sinne yea he iustifies the act by a profitable intention When he can no longer maintaine his innocence hee casts the blame from himselfe vpon the people Hee confesseth not till the sinne be wrung from his mouth Hee seekes his peace out of himselfe and relyes more vpon anothers vertue then his owne penitency Hee would cloake his guiltinesse with the holinesse of anothers presence He is more tormented with the danger and damage of his sinne then with the offence He cares to hold in with men in what termes soeuer he stands with God He fashionably serues that God whom hee hath not cared to reconcile by his repentance No maruell if God cast him off whose best was dissimulation Old Samuel is forced to doe a double execution and that vpon no lesse then two Kings The one vpon Saul in diuiding the Kingdome from him who had diuided himselfe from God The other vpon Agag in diuiding him in pieces whom Saul should haue diuided Those holy hands were not vsed to such sacrifices yet did hee neuer spill blood more acceptably If Saul had beene truely penitent hee had in a desire
on the Church of England 551 As of Apostacy 561 Notably confuted 562 The Brownists acknowledgment of the graces of the Church of England 563 Instances of their horrible railings 564 Their vnnaturalnesse ibid. and 565 What they think themselues beholding to the Church of England for 565 Our Church iustified by theÌ„ against their wills 552 And that in instancing some particular men whom they acknowledge Martyrs 573 The four pillars of Brownists 595 Their wronging of vs about Ceremonies 596 An eleuen crimes that they haue laid on the French and Dutch Church 601 Their imputation of our impure mixtures 604 Their scorne of our people 608 Buriall Of decent buriall 1326 Bush The burning Bush a perfect Embleme of the Church 870 Busie-bodies His Character 188 Buying A rule in buying and selling 697 C CAlfe Of the golden Calfe 899 Calling remedies against dulnesse in it 375 Honest men may not bee ashamed of their lawfull Callings 869 When God finds vs in our calling we shall finde him in his mercy 870 Grosse sinnes cannot preiudice the calling of God 900 The peoples assurance of the Ministers calling very materiall 927 The approbation of our calling is by the fruit ibid. An honest mans heart is where his calling is 1017 Neuer any calling of God was so conspicuous as not to find some opposites 1119 Our deuotions attended without neglect of our calling 1186 Diligence in our calling makes vs capable of blessednesse 1200 Cana The mariage in Cana. 1202 Canaan Of its Searchers 916 Cappucine prettily painted out 282 Carelesnesse Of an holy carelesnesse 64 Carnall A carnall heart cannot forgoe that wherein hee delights 1009 Cares Of taking cares on a mans selfe 48 Worldly cares fitly compared to thornes 142 Censure The conscionable somtimes too forward in censuring 1030 There must bee discretion there may not bee partialitie in our censures of the greatest 1063 Centurion Of the good Centurion 1205 His humilitie 1206 His faith 1207 Christ maruels at him ibid. Ceremonies some are typicall some of order and decencie 426 A passionate speech concerning our diuisions about ceremonies 426 427 Ceremonies must giue place to substance 1092 Challenges Whence they came 1081 Charitie vid. Loue not suspitious 1088 Cheerefulnesse an excitation to Christian cheerefulnesse 306 and in our labour 375 Nothing more acceptable then cheerefulnesse in the seruice of God 1028 Children an excellent child of an excellent parent a rare sight and why 135 What they owe their parents 242 A good note for children which couer their parents shame 828 It is both vncharitable iniurious to iudge of the childs dispositioÌ„ by the Father 867 Iepthâ—'s daughter a notable patterne for our children towards their parents 994 Childrens contempt of their parents for pottery censured 1025 Of our ouer loue to our children 1028 What children are most like to proue blessings 1031 A caueat for mocking children 1374 Christ his Annunciation 1164 Hee hath nothing in the whole work of our Redemption ordinarie 1162 No man may search into that wonder of his Conception 1166 Of his birth 1167 Of his lodging Cradle c. 1169 The vse of this his abasement ibid. how found of the Wise men 1172 Of his flight from Egypt and the vse of it 1177 His being among the Doctors 1185 His Baptisme 1 89 His temptation 1191 Hee is caried vp to a pinacle of the Temple 1195 Christian and Christianitie how a Christian should be both a Lambe and a Lyon 6 7. His happinesse 13 He is a little Church with n himselfe ibid. More difference betweene a naturall man and a right Christian then betwixt a man and a Beast 27 A wise Christian hath no enemies 47 An halfe Christian liues most miserably 62 A Christian compared to a Vine ibid. There is more in a Christian then any can see 66 A Christian man in all his wayes must haue three guides First Truth Secondly Charitie Thirdly Wisedome 137 Christianitie both an easie and hard yoake 143 The estate of a true though but a weake Christian 293 The difficultie of it 323 His description difference from a worldling 366 A conscionable Christian in sorrow sweetly described 493 Church That Churches happinesse wherein Truth and Peace meet together p. 6 A Christian is a little Church within himselfe p. 13 An excellent rule for our cariage in Church-dissentions 29 Church Schismes how bred fostered and confirmed 29 30 The needlesnesse of our conformitie to ancient Churches in all things 364 The Church of England is the Spouse of Christ 570 How it hath separated from Babylon 571 Why our Churches may stand 593 It is good coÌ„ming to Church for what end soeuer 870 The way to haue a blessing at home is to be deuout at Church 1031 What institutes a Church 1159 Cold When all hearts are cold and dead it is signe of an intended destruction 1059 Combats of single combats 338. 339 The censure of it 1120 Comforts the intermission of them what they doe 857 Commendations the commendation of diuers good men with the vse of imitation 287 Communitie care of it a signe of bâ—ing spirituall indeed 902 Companie the euill of euill company discyphered 2 What company we should delight in 4 A rule in choice of our companions 140 Company in sinne how it infects a sinner 901 And how it brings punishment on him 921 The intirenesse with wicked consorts is one of the strongest chaines of hell 931 Companie in the Church what it doth 1186 Compassion vide Mercy how it must be ruled 1103 Compellations sweet compellation how helpfull for the entertainment of good admonitions 956 Concord is the way to conquest 1136. vide Peace Concubine of the Leuites Concubine 1015 Confidence what maketh it 141 Described 226 A presumptuous confidence commonly goes bleeding home when as an humble feare returnes in triumph 1062 Confession how much it honors God 956 how he is pleased w th it 1009 Dauids confession 1142 Confession how hardly gotten out of vs. 1143 Conscience a good conscience keepes alwaies good cheere 46 The torment of an euill conscience 76 The ioy of such but dissembled ibid. The remedy of an vnquiet conscience 77 our peace of conscience comes by faith 78 79 The vaine shifts of the guilty conscience 79 Crosses a main enemy to the peace of conscience 80 A second ranke of enemies to peace of conscience 87 88 89. The Shipwracke of a good conscience is the casting away of all other excellencies 148 A wide conscience will swallow any sin 1006 Trust him in nothing that hath not a conscience of euery thing 1006 When we may look to haue rest to our Conscience 1031 A good conscience will make a man bold 1060 None can be sure of him that hath no conscience 1089 The power of conscience 1359 Conspiracy Corahs conspiracy 919 Constancy Of it 109 An encouragement vnto it 399 It must be like fire 911 One act is nought without constancy 919 Constâ—â—â—tion what it is 557 Constraint Whether constraint may haue place
be yours Vouchsafe therefore to take part with your worthy Husband of these my simple Meditations And if your long and gracious experience haue written you a larger volume of wholesome lawes and better informed you by precepts fetcht from your owne feeling than J can hope for by my bare speculation yet where these my not vnlikely rules shall accord with yours let your redoubled assent allow them and they confirme it J made them not for the eie but for the heart neither doe J commend them to your reading but your practice wherein also it shall not be enough that you are a meere and ordinary agent but that you be a patterne propounded vnto others imitation So shall your vertuous and holy progresse besides your owne peace and happpinesse be my Crowne and reioycing in the Day of our common appearance Halsted Decemb. 4. Your L. humbly deuoted IOS HALL MEDITATIONS AND VOWES 1 A Man vnder Gods affliction is like a bird in a net the more he striueth the more he is intangled Gods Decree cannot be eluded with impatience What I cannot auoid I will learne to beare 2 I finde that all worldly things require a long time in getting and affoord a short pleasure in enioying them I will not care much for what I haue nothing for what I haue not 3 I see naturall bodies forsake their owne place and condition for the preseruation of the whole but of all other creatures Man and of all other Men Christians haue the least interest in themselues I will liue as giuen to others lent only to my selfe 4 That which is said of the Elephant that being guiltie of his deformitie hee cannot abide to looke on his owne face in the water but seekes for troubled and muddie channels we see well moralized in men of euill conscience who know their soules are so filthie that they dare not so much as view them but shift off all checks of their former iniquitie with vaine excuses of good-fellowship Whence it is that euery small reprehension so galls them because it calls the eye of the soule home to it selfe and makes them see a glimpse of what they would not So haue I seene a foolish and timorous Patient which knowing his wound very deepe would not endure the Chirurgion to search it whereon what can ensue but a festering of the part and a danger of the whole body So I haue seene many prodigall wasters run so farre in bookes that they cannot abide to heare of reckoning It hath beene an old and true Prouerbe Oft and euen reckonings make long friends I will oft summe my estate with God that I may know what I haue to expect and answer for Neither shall my score run on so long with God that I shall not know my debts or feare an Audit or despaire of pardon 5 I account this body nothing but a close prison to my soule and the earth a larger prison to my body I may not breake prison till I be loosed by death but I will leaue it not vnwillingly when I am loosed 6 The common feares of the World are causelesse and ill placed No man feares to doe ill euery man to suffer ill wherein if we consider it well we shall finde that we feare our best friends For my part I haue learned more of God and of my selfe in one weekes extremitie than all my whole lifes prosperitie had taught me afore And in reason and common experience prosperitie vsually makes vs forget our death aduersitie on the other side makes vs neglect our life Now if we measure both of these by their effects forgetfulnesse of death makes vs secure neglect of this life makes vs carefull of a better So much therefore as neglect of life is better than forgetfulnesse of death and watchfulnesse better than securitie so much more beneficiall will I esteeme aduersitie than prosperitie 7 Euen griefe it selfe is pleasant to the remembrance when it is once past as ioy is whiles it is present I will not therefore in my conceit make any so great difference betwixt ioy and griefe sith griefe past is ioyfull and long expectation of ioy is grieuous 8 Euery sicknesse is a little death I will be content to die oft that I may die once well 9 Oft times those things which haue beene sweet in opinion haue proued bitter in experience I will therefore euer suspend my resolute iudgement vntill the triall and euent in the meane while I will feare the worst and hope the best 10 In all diuine and morall good things I would faine keepe that I haue and get that I want I doe not more loath all other couetousnesse than I affect this In all these things alone I professe neuer to haue enough If I may increase them therefore either by labouring or begging or vsurie I shall leaue no meanes vnattempted 11 Some children are of that nature that they are neuer well but while the rod is ouer them such am I to God Let him beat me so he amend me let him take all away from me so he giue me himselfe 12 There must not be one vniforme proceeding with all men in reprehension but that must varie according to the disposition of the reproued I haue seene some men as thornes which easily touched hurt not but if hard and vnwarily fetch bloud of the hand others as nettles which if they be nicely handled sting and pricke but if hard and roughly pressed are pulled vp without harme Before I take any man in hand I will know whether he be a thorne or a nettle 13 I will account no sinne little since there is not the least but workes out the death of the soule It is all one whether I be drowned in the ebber shore or in the midst of the deepe Sea 14 It is a base thing to get goods to keepe them I see that God which only is infinitely rich holdeth nothing in his owne hands but giues all to his creatures But if we will needs lay vp where should wee rather repose it than in Christs treasurie The poore mans hand is the treasury of Christ All my superfluity shall be there hoorded vp where I know it shall be safely kept and surely returned me 15 The Schoole of God and Nature require two contrary manners of proceeding In the Schoole of Nature we must conceiue and then beleeue in the Schoole of God wee must first beleeue and then we shall conceiue He that beleeues no more than hee conceiues can neuer be a Christian nor he a Philosopher that assents without reason In Natures Schoole we are taught to bolt out the truth by Logicall discourse God cannot endure a Logician In his Schoole he is the best Scholler that reasons least and assents most In diuine things what I may I wil conceiue the rest I will beleeue and admire Not a curious head but a credulous and plaine heart is accepted with God 16 No worldly pleasure hath any absolute delight in it but as a Bee
a perpetuall make-bate betwixt God and man betwixt a man and himselfe And this enmitie though it doe not continually shew it selfe as the mortallest enemies are not alwaies in pitched fields one against the other for that the conscience is not euer clamorous but some while is silent other-whiles with still murmurings bewraies his mislâ—kes The torment of an euill conscience yet doth euermore worke secret vnquietnesse to the heart The guilty man may haue a seeming truce a true peace he cannot haue Looke vpon the face of the guilty heart and thou shalt see it pale and ghastly the smiles and laughters faint and heartlesse the speeches doubtfull and full of abrupt stops and vnseasonable turnings the purposes and motions vnsteddy and sauouring of much distraction arguing plainly that sinne is not so smooth at her first motions as turbulent afterwards hence are those vaine wearyings of places and companies together with our selues that the galled soule doth after the wont of sicke Patients seeke refreshing in variety and after many tossed and turned sides complaines of remedilesse and vnabated torment Nero after so much innocent bloud may change his bed-chamber but his Fiends euer attend him euer are within him and are as parts of himselfe Alas what auailes it to seeke outward releefes when thou hast thine executioner within thee If thou couldest shift from thy selfe thou mightest haue some hope of ease now thou shalt neuer want furies so long as thou hast thy selfe Yea what if thou wouldest runne from thy selfe Thy soule may flie from thy bodie thy conscience will not flie from thy soule nor thy sinne from thy conscience Some men indeed in the bitternesse of these pangs of sinne like vnto those fondly impatient fishes that leape out of the panne into the flame haue leapt out of this priuate hell that is in themselues into the common pit choosing to aduenture vpon the future paines that they haue feared rather than to endure the present horrors they haue felt wherein what haue they gained but to that hell which was within them a second hell without The conscience leaues not where the Fiends begin but both ioyne together in torture But there are some firme and obdurate fore-heads whose resolution can laugh their sinnes out of countenance There are so large and able gorges as that they can swallow and digest bloudy murders without complaint who with the same hands which they haue since their last meale embrued in bloud can freely carue to themselues large morsels at the next sitting The ioy and peace of the guilty but dissembled Beleeuest thou that such a mans heart laughs with his face will not he dare to bee an Hypocrite that durst bee a villaine These glow-wormes when a night of sorrow compasses them make a lightsome and fiery shew of ioy when if thou presse them thou findest nothing but a cold and crude moisture Knowest thou not that there are those which count it no shame to sinne yet count it a shame to be checked with remorse especially so as others eies may descrie to whom repentance seemes base-mindednesse vnworthy of him that professes wisdome and valout Such a man can grieue when none sees it but himselfe can laugh when others see it himselfe feeles not Assure thy selfe that mans heart bleedeth when his face counterfeits a smile he weares out many waking houres when thou thinkest he resteth yea as his thoughts afford him not sleepe so his very sleepe affords him not rest but while his senses are tyed vp his sinne is loose representing it selfe to him in the vgliest shape and frighting him with horrible and hellish dreames And if perhaps custome hath bred a carelesnesse in him as wee see that vsuall whipping makes the childe not care for the rod yet an vnwonted extremity of the blow shall fetch bloud of the soule and make the backe that is most hardened sensible of smart and the further the blow is fetcht through intermission of remorse the harder it must needs alight Therefore I may confidently tell the carelesse sinner as that bold Tragedian said to his great Pompey The time shall come wherein thou shalt fetch deepe sighes and therefore shalt sorrow desperately because thou sorrowedst not sooner The fire of the conscience may lie for a time smothered with a pyle of greene wood that it cannot bee discerned whose moisture when once it hath mastered it sends vp so much greater flame by how much it had greater resistance Hope not then to stop the mouth of thy conscience from exclaiming whiles thy sinne continues that endeuour is both vaine and hurtfull So I haue seene them that haue stopt the nosthrill for bleeding in hope to stay the issue when the bloud hindered in his former course hath broken out of the mouth or found way downe into the stomacke The conscience is not pacificable while sinne is within to vex it no more than angry swelling can cease throbbing and aching whiles the thorne or the corrupted matter lies rotting vnderneath Time that remedies all other euills of the minde increaseth this which like to bodily diseases proues worse with continuance and growes vpon vs with our age SECT V. THere can be therefore no peace without reconciliation The remedy of an vnquiet Conscience thou canst not be friends with thy selfe till with God for thy conscience which is thy best friend while thou sinnest not like an honest seruant takes his Masters part against thee when thou hast sinned and will not looke straight vpon thee till thou vpon God not daring to be so kinde to thee as to be vnfaithfull to his Maker There can be no reconciliation without remission God can neither forget the iniury of sin nor dissemble hatred It is for men and those of hollow hearts to make pretences contrary to their affections soothings and smiles and imbracements where we meane not loue are from weaknesse Either for that we feare our insufficiency of present reuenge or hope for a fitter opportunitie afterwards or for that we desire to make our further aduantage of him to whom we meane euill These courses are not incident into an Almighty power who hauing the command of all vengeance can smite were he lift without all doubtings or delaies There can be no remission without satisfaction neither dealeth God with vs as we men with some desperate debters whom after long dilations of payments and many daies broken we altogether let goe for disabilitie or at least dismisse them vpon an easie composition All sinnes are debts all Gods debts must be discharged It is a bold word but a true God should not be iust if any of his debts should passe vnsatisfied The conceit of the profane vulgar makes him a God of all mercies and thereupon hopes for pardon without paiment Fond and ignorant presumption to disioyne mercy and iustice in him to whom they are both essentiall to make mercy exceede iustice in him in whom both are infinite Darest thou hope God can be so
How many vaine men hast thou seene that haue gone into the field to seeke death in hope to finde an honour as foolish as themselues How many poore creatures hast thou mulcted with death for thine owne pleasure And canst thou hope that that God will make a by-way and a Posterne for thee alone that thou maiest passe to the next world not by the gates of death not by the bottome of the graue What then doest thou feare O my soule There are but two stages of death The Adiunct the bed and the graue This latter if it haue senslesnesse yet it hath rest The former if it haue paine yet it hath speedinesse and when it lights vpon a faithfull heart meets with many and strong antidotes of comfort The euill that is euer in motion is not fearefull That which both time and eternitie finde standing where it was is worthy of terrour Well may those tremble at death which finde more distresse within than without whose consciences are more sicke and neerer to death than their bodies It was thy Fathers wrath that did so terrifie thy soule O my Sauiour that it put thy body into a bloudy sweat The mention and thought of thy death ended in a Psalme but this began in an agonie Then didst thou sweat out my feares The power of that agonie doth more comfort all thine than the Angels could comfort thee That very voice deserued an eternall separation of horrour from death where thou saidst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Thou hadst not complained of being left if thou wouldest haue any of thine left destitute of comfort in their parting I know not whom I can feare while I know whom I haue beleeued how can I be discouraged with the sight of my losse when I see so cleere an aduantage The Contrary What discomfort is this to leaue a fraile body to bee ioyned vnto a glorious head To forsake vaine pleasures false honours bootlesse hopes vnsatisfying wealth stormie contentments sinfull men perillous tentations a sea of troubles a gallie of seruitude an euill world and a consuming life for Freedome Rest Happinesse Eternitie And if thou wert sentenced O my soule to liue a thousand yeeres in this body with these infirmities how wouldest thou be wearie not of being only but of complaining Whiles ere the first hundred I should bee a childe ere the second a beast a stone ere the third and therefore should be so farre from finding pleasure in my continuance that I should not haue sense enough left to feele my selfe miserable And when I am once gone what difference is there betwixt the agedst of the first Patriarchs and mee and the childe that did but liue to be borne saue onely in what was and that which was is not And if this body had no weaknesse to make my life tedious yet what a torment is it that while I liue I must sinne Alas my soule euery one of thy knowne sinnes is not a disease but a death What an enemie art thou to thy selfe if thou canst not bee content that one bodily death should excuse thee from many spirituall to cast off thy body that thou maiest be stripped of the ragges yea the fetters of thy sinne and cloathed with the Robes of glorie Yet these termes are too hard Thou shalt not bee cast off O my body rather thou shalt be put to making this change is no lesse happy for thee than for thy partner This very skinne of thine which is now tawnie and wrinkled shall once shine this earth shall bee heauen this dust shall bee glorious These eyes that are now wearie of being witnesses of thy sinnes and miseries shall then neuer be wearie of seeing the beautie of thy Sauiour and thine owne in his These eares that haue beene now tormented with the impious tongues of men shall first heare the voice of the Sonne of God and then the voices of Saints and Angels in their songs of Alleluia And this tongue that now complaines of miseries and feares shall then beare a part in that diuine harmonie The comparisons In the meane time thou shalt but sleepe in this bed of earth hee that hath tried the worst of death hath called it no worse very Heathens haue termed them cousins and it is no vnusuall thing for cousins of bloud to carrie both the same names and features Hast thou wont O my body when the day hath wearied thee to lie downe vnwillingly to thy rest Behold in this sleepe there is more quietnesse more pleasure of visions more certaintie of waking more cheerefulnesse in rising why then art thou loth to thinke of laying off thy ragges and reposing thy selfe Why art thou like a childe vnwilling to goe to bed Hast thou euer seene any bird which when the cage hath beene opened would rather sit still and sing within her grates than flie forth vnto her freedome in the woods Hast thou euer seene any prisoner in loue with his bolts and fetters Did the Chiefe of the Apostles when the Angell of God shined in his Iayle and strooke him on the side and loosed his two chaines and bade him Arise quickly and opened both the woodden and Iron gate say What so soone yet a little sleepe What madnesse had it beene rather to slumber betwixt his two Keepers than to follow the Angell of God into libertie Hast thou euer seene any Mariner that hath saluted the sea with songs and the Hauen with teares What shall I say to this diffidence O my soule that thou art vnwilling to thinke of rest after thy toile of freedome after thy durance of the Hauen after an vnquiet and tempestuous passage How many are there that seeke death and cannot finde it meerely out of the irksomenesse of life Hath it found thee and offered thee better conditions not of immunitie from euils but of possession of more good than thou canst thinke and wouldest thou now flie from happinesse to be rid of it What Is it a name that troubles thee what if men would call sleepe death The Names wouldst thou be afraid to close thine eies what hurt is it then if he that sent the first sleepe vpon man whilest hee made him an helper send this last and soundest sleepe vpon mee whiles he prepares my soule for a glorious Spouse to himselfe It is but a parting which we call death as two friends when they haue lead each other on the way shake hands till they returne from their iourney If either could miscarry there were cause of sorrow now they are more sure of a meeting than of a parture what folly is it not to be content to redeeme the vnspeakable gaine of so deare a friend with a little intermission of enioying him He will returne laden with the riches of heauen and will fetch his old partner to the participation of this glorious wealth Goe then my Soule to this sure and gainefull traffique and leaue my other halfe in an harbour as safe
top-saile another to the maine a third to the plummet a fourth to the anchor as hee sees the need of their course and weather requires and doth no lesse by his tongue than all the Marriners with their hands On the Bench he is another from himselfe at home now all priuate respects of bloud alliance amity are forgotten and if his owne Sonne come vnder tryall hee knowes him not Pity which in all others is wont to be the best praise of humanity and the fruit of Christian loue is by him throwne ouer the barre for corruption as for Fauour the false Aduocate of the gracious he allowes him not to appeare in the Court there only causes are heard speake not persons Eloquence is then only not discouraged when she serues for a Client of truth meere narrations are allowed in this Oratory not Proems not excursions not Glosses Truth must strip her selfe and come in naked to his barre without false bodies or colors without disguises A bride in his Closet or a letter on the Bench or the whispering and winks of a great neighbour are answered with an angry and couragious repulse Displeasure Reuenge Recompence stand on both sides the Bench but he scornes to turne his eye towards them looking onely right forward at Equity which stands full before him His sentence is euer deliberate and guided with ripe wisdome yet his hand is slower than his tongue but when he is vrged by occasion either to doome or execution he shewes how much he hateth mercifull iniustice neither can his resolution or act be reuersed with partiall importunitie His forehead is rugged and seuere able to discountenance villany yet his words are more awfull than his brow and his hand than his words I know not whether he be more feared or loued both affections are so sweetly contempered in all hearts The good feare him louingly the middle sort loue him fearefully and only the wicked man feares him slauishly without loue He hates to pay priuate wrongs with the aduantage of his Office and if euer he be partiall it is to his enemy He is not more sage in his gowne than valorous in armes and increaseth in the rigour of discipline as the times in danger His sword hath neither rusted for want of vse nor surfetteth of bloud but after many threats is vnsheathed as the dreadfull instrument of diuine reuenge He is the Guard of good lawes the Refuge of innocency the Comet of the guilty the Pay-master of good deserts the Champion of iustice the Patron of peace the Tutor of the Church the Father of his Countrey and as it were another God vpon earth Of the Penitent HE hath a wounded heart and a sad face yet not so much for feare as for vnkindnesse The wrong of his sinne troubles him more than the danger None but he is the better for his sorrow neither is any passion more hurtfull to others than this is gainfull to him The more he seekes to hide his griefe the lesse it will bee hid Euery man may reade it not onely in his eyes but in his bones Whiles hee is in charity with all others he is so falne out with himselfe that none but God can reconcile him He hath sued himselfe in all Courts accuseth arraigneth sentenceth punisheth himselfe vnpartially and sooner may finde mercy at any hand than at his owne He onely hath pulled off the faire vizor of sinne so as that appeares not but masked vnto others is seene of him barefac'd and bewraies that fearefull vglinesse which none can conceiue but he that hath viewed it Hee hath lookt into the depth of the bottomlesse pit and hath seene his owne offence tormented in others and the same brands shaken at him He hath seene the change of faces in that euill one as a tempter as a tormenter and hath heard the noise of a conscience and is so frighted with all these that he can neuer haue rest till he haue runne out of himselfe to God in whose face at first hee findes rigour but afterwards sweetnesse in his bosome He bleeds first from the hand that heales him The Law of God hath made worke for mercy which he hath no sooner apprehended than he forgets his wounds and looks carelesly vpon all these terrors of guiltinesse When he casts his eye backe vpon himselfe he wonders where he was and how he came there and grants that if there were not some witchcraft in sinne he could not haue beene so sottishly gracelesse And now in the issue Satan findes not without indignation and repentance that hee hath done him a good turne in tempting him For he had neuer beene so good if he had not sinned he had neuer fought with such courage if he had not seene his bloud and beene ashamed of his foile Now hee is seene and felt in the front of the spirituall battell and can teach others how to fight and incourage them in fighting His heart was neuer more taken vp with the pleasure of sinne than now with care of auoiding it The very sight of that cup wherein such a fulsome potion was brought him turnes his stomacke the first offers of sinne make him tremble more now than he did before at the iudgements of his sinne neither dares he so much as looke towards Sodom All the powers and craft of hell cannot fetch him in for a customer to euill his infirmity may yeeld once his resolution neuer There is none of his senses or parts which hee hath not within couenants for their good behauiour which they cannot euer breake with impunity The wrongs of his sinne he repaies to men with recompence as hating it should be said he owes any thing to his offence to God what in him lies with sighs teares vowes and endeuours of amendment No heart is more waxen to the impressions of forgiuenesse neither are his hands more open to receiue than to giue pardon All the iniuries which are offered to him are swallowed vp in his wrongs to his Maker and Redeemer neither can hee call for the arrerages of his farthings when he lookes vpon the millions forgiuen him he feeles not what he suffers from men when he thinks of what hee hath done and should haue suffered He is a thankfull Herauld of the mercies of his God which if all the world heare not from his mouth it is no fault of his Neither did hee so burne with the euill fires of concupiscence as now with the holy flames of zeale to that glory which hee hath blemished and his eies are full of moisture as his heart of heat The gates of heauen are not so knockt at by any suter whether for frequence or importunitie You shall finde his cheekes furrowed his knees hard his lips sealed vp saue when he must accuse himselfe or glorifie God his eies humbly deiected and sometimes you shall take him breaking off a sigh in the midst as one that would steale an humiliation vnknowne and would be offended with any part that should not
will you embrace him for his sake that hath stricken him or auoid him for his sake that hath forbidden you If you honour his rod much more will you regard his precept If you mislike not the affliction because he sends it then loue the life which you haue of his sending feare the iudgement which he will send if you loue it not He that bids vs flee when we are persecuted hath neither excepted Angell nor man whether soeuer I feare our guiltinesse if wilfully we flee not But whither shall we flee from God say you where shall he not both find and lead vs whither shall not our destiny follow vs Vaine men we may runne from our home not from our graue Death is subtle our time is set we cannot God will not alter it Alas how wise we are to wrong our selues Because Death will ouer-take vs shall we runne and meet him Because Gods decree is sure shall we be desperate Shall we presume because God changeth not Why doe we not trye euery knife and cord since our time is neither capable of preuention nor delay our end is set not without our meanes In matter of danger where the end is not knowne the meanes must be suspected in matter of hope where the end is not knowne meanes must be vsed Vse then freely the meanes of your flight suspect the danger of your stay and since there is no particular necessity of your presence know that God bids you depart and liue You vrge the instance of your Minister How vnequally There is not more lawfulnesse in your flight then sin in ours you are your owne wee our peoples you are charged with a body which you may not willingly leese not hazard by staying wee with all their soules which to hazard by absence is to lose our owne we must loue our liues but not when they are riuals with our soules or with others How much better is it to bee dead then negligent then faithlesse If some bodies be contagiously sicke shall all soules bee wilfully neglected There can be no time wherein good counsell is so seasonable so needfull Euery threatning finds impression where the mind is prepared by sensible iudgements When will the ironhearts of men bow if not when they are heat in the flame of Gods affliction now then to runne away from a necessary and publike good to auoid a doubtfull and priuate euill is to runne into a worse euill then wee would auoid He that will thus runne from Niniue to Tharsis shall find a tempest and a whale in his way Not that I dare be an author to any of the priuate visitation of infected beds I dare not without better warrant VVho euer said wee were bound to close vp the dying eyes of euery departing Christian and vpon what-euer conditions to heare their last grones If we had a word I would not debate of the successe Then that were cowardlinesse which now is wisedome Is it no seruice that wee publikely teach and exhort that we priuately prepare men for death and arme them against it that our comfortable letters and messages stir vp their fainting hearts that our loud voyces pierce their eares afarre vnlesse we feele their pulses and leane vpon their pillowes and whisper in their eares Daniel is in the Lyons den Is it nothing that Darius speakes comfort to him thorow the grate vnlesse he goe in to salute him among those fierce companions A good Minister is the common goods hee cannot make his life peculiar to one without iniury to many In the common cause of the Church he must be no niggard of his life in the priuate cause of a neighbours bodily sicknesse he may soone be prodigall A good father may not spend his substance on one child and leaue the rest beggers If any man be resolute in the contrary I had rather praise his courage then imitate his practice I confesse I feare not so much death as want of warrant for death To M. R. B. EP. X. A complaint of the iniquity of the Times with a prescription of the meanes to redresse it WHiles I accused the Times you vndertooke their patronage I commend your charity not your cause It is true There was neuer any Age not complained of neuer any that was not censured as worst VVhat is we see what was we neither inquire nor care That which is out of sight and vse is soone out of mind and ere long out of memory Yet the iniquity of others cannot excuse ours And if you will be but as iust as charitable you shall confesse that both some times exceed others in euill and these all This earthly Moone the Church hath her fuls and wainings and sometimes her eclypses whiles the shadow of this sinfull masse hides her beauty from the world So long as she wadeth in this planetary world it should be vaine to expect better it is enough when she is fixed aboue to be free from all change This you yeeld but nothing can perswade you that shee is not now in the full of her glory True or else she were not subiect to this darkning There was neuer more light of knowledge neuer more darknesse of impiety and there could not be such darknesse if there were not such light Goodnesse repulsed giues height to sin therefore are we worse then our predecessors because we might be better By how much our meanes are greater by so much are our defects Turne ouer all records and parallell such helps such care such cost such expectation with such fruit I yeeld We see but our owne times There was neuer but one Noah whom the Heathen celebrate vnder another name that with two faces saw both before and behind him But loe that Ancient of dayes to whom all times are present hath told vs that these last shal be worst Our experience iustifies him with all but the wilfull This censure lest you should condemne my rigour as vnnaturally partiall is not confined to our seas but free and common hath the same bounds with the earth I ioy not in this large society Would God we were euill alone How few are those whose cariage doth not say that profession of any conscience is pusillanimity How few that care so much as to shew well And yet of those few how many care onely to seeme whose words disagree from their actions and their hearts from their words Where shall a man mew vp himselfe that he may not be a witness of what he would not What can he see or heare and not bee either sad or guilty Oathes striue for number with words scoffes with oathes vaine speeches with both They are rare hands that are free either from aspersions of blood or spots of filthinesse Let mee bee at once as I vse bold and plaine VVanton excesse excessiue pride close Atheisme impudent profanenesse vnmercifull oppression ouer-mercifull conniuence greedy couetousnesse loose prodigality simoniacall sacriledge vnbrideled luxury beastly drunkennesse bloody treachery cunning fraud slanderous detraction
a Traytor to his friend the host of God must shamefully turne their backes vpon the Ammonites all that Israelitish bloud must bee shed that murder must be seconded with dissimulation and all this to hide one adultery O God thou hadst neuer suffered so deare a Fauourite of thine to fall so fearefully if thou hadst not meant to make him an vniuersall example to Mankind of not presuming of not despairing How can wee presume of not sinning or despayre for sinning when wee finde so great a Saint thus fallen thus risen NATHAN and DAVID YEt Bathsheba mourned for the death of that Husband whom she had beene drawne to dishonour How could shee bestow teares enow vpon that Funerall whereof her sinne was the cause If shee had but a suspicion of the plot of his death the Fountaines of her eyes could not yeeld water enough to wash off her Husbands bloud Her sin was more worthy of sorrow than her losse If this griefe had beene right placed the hope of hiding her shame and the ambition to bee a Queene had not so soone mittigated it neyther had shee vpon any termes beene drawne into the Bed of her husbands murtherer Euery gleame of earthly comfort can dry vp the teares of worldly sorrow Bathsheba hath soone lost her griefe at the Court The remembrance of an Husband is buried in the ioyliltie and state of a Princesse Dauid securely enioyes his ill-purchased loue and is content to exchange the conscience of his sinne for the sense of his pleasure But the iust and holy God will not put it vp so hee that hates sinne so much the more as the offender is more deare to him will let Dauid feele the bruise of his fall If Gods best Children haue beene sometimes suffered to sleepe in a sinne at last he hath awakened them in a fright Dauid was a Prophet of God yet hee hath not only stept into these foule sinnes but soiournes with them If any profession or state of life could haue priuiledged from sinne the Angels had not sinned in Heauen nor man in Paradise Nathan the Prophet is sent to the Prophet Dauid for reproofe for conuiction Had it beene any other mans case none could haue beene more quick sighted than the Princely Prophet in his owne hee is so blinde that God is faine to lend him others eyes Euen the Phisician himself when hee is sick sends for the counsell of those whom his health did mutually aid with aduice Let no man thinke himselfe too good to learne Teachers themselues may bee taught that in their owne particular which in a generalitie they haue often taught others It is not only ignorance that is to be remoued but mis-affection Who can prescribe a iust period to the best mans repentance About tenne moneths are passed since Dauids sinne in all which time I finde no newes of any serious compunction It could not bee but some glances of remorse must needs haue passed thorough his Soule long ere this but a due and solemne contrition was not heard of till Nathans message and perhaps had beene further adiourned if that Monitor had beene longer deferred Alas what long and dead sleepes may the holyest Soule take in fearefull sinnes Were it not for thy mercie O God the best of vs should end our spirituall Lethargie in sleepe of death It might haue pleased God as easily to haue sent Nathan to checke Dauid in his first purpose of sinning So had his eyes beene restrayned Bathsheba honest Vriah aliue with honour now the wisdome of the Almightie knew how to winne more glorie by the permission of so foule an euill than by the preuention yea he knew how by the permission of one sinne to preuent millions how many thousand had sinned in a vaine presumption on their owne strength if Dauid had not thus offended how many thousand had despiared in the conscience of their owne weaknesses if these horrible sinnes had not receiued forgiuenesse It is happy for all times that we haue so holy a Sinner so sinfull a penitent It matters not how bitter the Pill is but how well wrapped so cunningly hath Nathan conueyed this dose that it begins to worke ere it be tasted there is no one thing wherein is more vse of wisdome than the due contriuing of a reprehension which in a discreet deliuerie helps the disâ—â—se in an vnwise destroyes Nature Had not Nathan beene vsed to the possession of Dauids care this complaint had beene suspected It well beseemes a King to take information by a Prophet Whiles wise Nathan was querulously discoursing of the cruell rich man that had forceably taken away the only Lambe of his poore Neighbour how willingly doth Dauid listen to the Storie and how sharply euen aboue Law doth he censure the fact As the Lord liueth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye Full little did he thinke that he had pronounced sentence against himselfe It had not beene so heauie if he had not knowne on whom it should haue light Wee haue open eares and quick tongues to the vices of others How seuere Iusticers wee can bee to our very owne crimes in others persons How flattering Parasites to anothers crime in our selues The life of doctrine is in application Nathan might haue bin long enough in his narration in his inuectiue ere Dauid would haue bin touched with his owne guiltinesse but now that the Prophet brings the Word home to his bosome hee cannot but be affected Wee may take pleasure to heare men speake in the Cloudes we neuer take profit till wee finde a proprietie in the exhortation or reproofe There was not more cunning in the Parable than courage in the application Thou art the man If Dauid be a King he may not looke not to heare of his faults Gods messages may be no other than vnpartiall It is a trecherous flattery in diuine errands to regard greatnesse If Prophets must bee mannerly in the forme yet in the matter of reproofe resolute The words are not their owne They are but the Heralds of the King of Heauen Thus saith the Lord God of Israel How thunder-stricken doe we thinke Dauid did now stand How did the change of his colour bewray the confusion in his Soule whiles his conscience said the same within which the Prophet sounded in his eare And now least ought should be wanting to his humiliation all Gods former fauours shall be laid before his eyes by way of exprobration He is worthy to be vpbrayded with mercies that hath abused mercies vnto wantonnesse whiles we doe well God giues and sayes nothing when we doe ill hee layes his benefits in our dish and casts them in our teeth that our shame may be so much the more by how much our obligations haue bin greater The blessings of God in our vnworthy carriage proue but the aggrauations of sinne and additions to iudgement I see all Gods Children falling into sinne some of them lying in sinne none of them maintayning their sinne Dauid
His Vow 992 A pretty expostulation of Ieptha's daughter in meeting her father 993 Iericho Of the siege of Iericho 950 Of their feare and courage 951 A pretty vse to bee made of the peoples walking about Iericho seuen dayes 952 Ieroboam 1315 He set vp two calues in Dan and Bethel 1316 Of his wife 1323 She is disguised but found out 1324 1325 The Prophets thunderclaps of vengeance against him 1325 Iesuite A caueat for Kings to beware of them 372 Their couetousnesse and ambition 416 417 The Iesuites cunning insinuations into those whom they hope to peruert 679 680 Accompanied with horrible vntruths 681 682 Their coniurations 683 They haue nothing but the ouside of Religion 684 Iezabel Of her counsell to Ahab in the matter of Naboth 1357 Ignorance It is a wise Ignorance not to pry into things not reuealed p. 1 Ignorance cannot acquit if it can abate our sinne 1067 the affectation of ignorance desperate ibid. Imitation A caution to be had in it 59 60 These sins that nature conuaies not we haue by imitation 1010 Impatience The ill wishes of the impatient often heard 929 Importunitie It s good speed 1205 Imprisonment Of its comfort 305 Impunitie Hope of it drawes on sinne with boldnesse 1111 Inconsideratenesse What it oft doth 969 Inconstancie The inconstant is vnfit for societie 36 The vnconstants Character 191 Increase A certaine way of it 1032 Indifferencie In humane things it is most safe to bee indifferent 136 Indulgences Popish Indulgences censured as against antiquitie reason and Scripture 433 Parents indulgence what 1015 Cruell to themselues 1034 It is a notorious sinne in Parents ibid. Infants Of them and Herod 1176 c. Infidelitie Its Character 196 A sharpe reproofe of it 425 505 Infidelitie is craftie yet foolish 891 It is lawfull enough to deale with Infidels with a caueat 1017 Infirmities Euen the best of Gods Saints haue them 1077 When they best appeare 1108 Ingratitude Three vsuall causes of ingratitude 26 Very Nature hates ingratitude 895 Inheritance Our heauenly inheritance glorious and not subiect to alteration 64 Iniuries Three things follow an iniury so farre as it concernes our selues p. 16 Iniuries hurt not more in the receiuing then in the remembrance 30 Iniuries like a wound 857 Innocencie It is no shelter for an euill tongue 921 Inquisition Its tyranny with a fearfull example on the executioners 283 Insultation That in the rigour of Iustice argueth creation 1020 Intention Good intentions cannot warrant vnlawfull acts 1128 What bewrayes euil intentions more then vicious Agents 1312 Inward Our inward disposition is the life of our actions 934 And a mans inward disposition doth presage the euent 948 Ioab and Abner 1119 Ioabs execution 1261 Iohn Baptist Of his baptising Christ his modesty 1190 1191 Ionathan Of his victory 1064 His admirable faith ibid. Of his loue and Sauls enuy 1086 His and Dauids loue prettily set out ibid. Iordan Of it diuided 948 Ioseph His brethrens enuy prettily described 853 Ioseph twice stript of his garment 854 Ioseph praised for his patience and wisedome ibid. Ioy vid. Reioyce It is shamefull for true Christians not to be ioyfull 46 47 Of worldlings ioy and the godlies 51 The ioy of such as haue an euil conscience is but dissembled 76 T is the safest way to reserue our ioy till wee haue good proofe of the worthinesse and fitnesse of its obiect 1058 Isaac He sacrificed 834 835 Israel His affliction 863 Israels iust now scoured 864 Israel fed with Sacraments â—92 Of their seuen mutinies against Moses 928 What pretences â—re be made a true Philistim will bee quickly weary of a true Israelite 1002 The great change in Israel 1127 Iudaisme The fearfull danger of being in it 426 Iudges A note for them in regard of partialitie 1074 1075 Iudging We may Iudge but we must take heed to the order 491 The not iudging according to appearance is a vsefull rule for auoiding errour in iudging 491 Excellent things of iudging a mans selfe 1060 God separates before hee iudgeth and so should wee 1074 What to doe that wee may not care to bee censured of men 1287 1288 Iudgements God is to be magnified in his iudgements 49 The Day of Iudgement how terrible shewed by resemblance 898 Wicked men neuer care to obserue Gods iudgements vntil theÌ„selues be touched 931 Gods sentence of iudgement certaine 941 Gods mercy in letting vs to see his iudgements on others 1035 God knowes no persons in the execution of iudgements 1048 Nothing but grace can teach vs to make vse of other mens iudgements 1058 The Iudgements of God are not alwayes open but iust 1093 When wee make a right vse of the iudgements of God 1128 Iudgement assuredly attends on those that dare oft vp their hands against Gods Vicegerents 1263 Iunius commended 287 Iustice It giues to euery man his owne 215 A buyer of places of Iudicature will surely sell iustice 519 Of the two-fold iustice Legall and Euangelicall 538 Of Legall and distributiue iustice 1540 How Iustice is a notable work of mercy ibid. The Churches peace ariseth from iustice 541 Insultation in the rigour of iustice argueth cruelty 1020 Wee may not alwayes measure the iustice of God by present occasions 1121 The beautifull face of iustice both effects and light and comes to it 1245 Iustification The Romish heresie concerning it 643 K KIng vid. Princes described by his qualities actions Naturall Morall 229 c. Our King commended 479 Parallel'd with Constantine 482 483 The neere relation of sinne and punishment in the Soueraigne and subiect 484 Of Kings humouring their people in their sinnes 900 Kings sinnes are a iust stop to the people 915 Gods ancient purpose to raise vp a King to his people 1052 In Kings mercy and iudgement should bee inseparable 1059 A Kings first care must be to aduance Religion 1127 It well beseemes a King to heare a Prophet 1142 Kingdome Euery man hath a Kingdome within himselfe· 14 Kneeling at the Sacrament defended 583 Knowledge What 〈◊〉 best to know p. 31 Knowledge of a mans selfe is the best knowledge 36 Of knowledge without foundnesse 53 Wee must labour if we will haue a right rellish of diuine knowledge 63 Of our knowing one another in heauen 326 The itch of impertinent knowledge is hereditary 1110 L LAbour labouring minds are the best receptacles for good motions 1017 Laugh There is nothing more lamentable then to see a man laugh wheÌ„ he should mourne 1109 Law Of it 896 How terrible in its deliuery 898 The power of it 〈◊〉 mans soule ibid. Learning Who fit to learne and and who to teach p. 10 Humane learning well improued makes way for diuine 1170 Legion What it imports 1300 Leuite Of Micha's Leuite 1010 1011 c. The Leuites Concubine 1015 Liberalitie What 221 The extreames thereof ibid. Life He that liues well cannot but dye well p. 9 The shortnesse of life how mans happinesse 17 Of his dissolution 23 Three things wherein