brings Men into Snares which drown Men in Perdition Fulgentius used to say CHRIST Died for Men and Angels for Men that they may rise from Sin and for Angels that they may not fall into Sin. And if they go to Hell that do not Feed the Hungry Cloath the Naked c. If want of Charity be Tormented in Hell what will become of the Covetous Tertullian saith Gold to many Men is much better than their Faith and Honesty And the Love of it makes many so Covetous as if they were to Live here for ever Avarice is not the Vice of Gold but of Men that use it Conscience THe Two main Principles that guide Human Nature saith Judge Dodderidge are Conscience and Law by the former we are obliged in reference to another World by the latter in reference to This. St. Ambrose was wont to say A clear Conscience should not regard slanderous Speeches nor think that they have more Power to Condemn him than his own Conscience hath to clear him Aquinas was wont to say That Day will come when Fair-Dealing will be found a Jewel when a good Conscience shall be better than a good Purse when the Judge will not be put off with fair Speeches nor drawn aside with hopes of Reward Isidore saith All things may be shuned but a Man 's own Heart a Man cannot run from himself a guilty Conscience will not leave him wheresoever he goes It is very dangerous to quiet Conscience with any thing but the Blood of Christ It 's bad being at Peace till Christ speaks Peace Nothing can truly satisfie Conscience less than that which pacifies God and that is the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Mead. Whoso will keep the Peace of his Conscience and his Confidence in God must carefully keep himself from all those things that displease his Holy Eyes and turn away his Gracious Countenance lest that when need of our Duty calls us to draw near him by Prayer we feel our selves pulled back by Guilty Fears Du Moulin 63. The Glory of a good Man is the Testimony of a good Conscience A good Conscience is able to bear very much and is chearful in Adversities To walk inwardly with God and not to be possessed with any outward Affection is the State of a Spiriritual Man. Have a good Conscience and thou shalt ever have Joy. Charity CHrisologus saith Let not thy Care be to have thy Hands full when the Poors are empty for the only way to have full Barns is to have Charitable Hands St. Ambrose saith It is not so much to be enquired how much thou Givest as with what Heart It is not Liberality when thou takest by Oppression from one and givest to another St. Cyril saith It is the best way for a Rich Man to make the Bellies of the Poor his Barn to succor the Fatherless and Naked and thereby to lay up Treasure in Heaven that he may be received into the Heavenly and everlasting Habitations Chastity A Woman is truly Chast that hath Liberty and Opportunity to Sin and doth not Commands GOD comes to us not a Naked GOD but Cloathed with His Commands and if we Love Him we must receive Him so Cloathed GOD hears our Prayers according as we keep his Commands Whatsoever God forbids in the Act he forbids likewise in the Thoughts If Christ be not our King to Rule and Govern us he will neither be our Prophet to Fore-warn nor our Priest to Expiate If Christ hath freed us from the Damnation of Sin he hath also freed us from the Dominion of Sin. If with his Blood he hath quenched the Fire of Hell for us he hath also quenched the Fire of Lust in us Christ's Justifying Blood is given by his Sanctifying Spirit Touchstone of a Christian Conversion LAbor after and Pray for a through Conversion beg of GOD that he would make a saving Change in your Souls that you may be altogether Christians all other Changes below this saving Change this Heart change make us but almost Christians Morality and Civility may commend us to Men but not to God they are of no moment or value to the procurement of Eternal Salvation The sober Man not being renewed throughout by the Spirit of God shall as surely go to Hell as the beastly Drunkard Corruptions WHilst Grace is Imperfect Corruptions will be strong The great Corruptions that the Godly find in themselves keep them from being Proud and despising of others Hildersam Custom THe Halsion Days of the Gospel provoke Hypocrisie but the Sufferings for Religion prove Sincerity He that is a Professor of Religion meerly for Custom when it Prospers will never be a Martyr for Christ's sake when it Suffers Covenant the Second THe Son of GOD came to make known unto us the Will of his Father in performance of which we shall be sure to be Accepted and Rewarded by Him And this was one great part of his Business which He performed in those many Sermons and Precepts we find set down in the Gospel and herein He is our Prophet it being the Work of a Prophet of Old not only to Foretel but to Teach Our Duty in this particular is to hearken diligently to Him to be most ready and desirous to learn that Will of God which He came from Heaven to Reveal to us The second Thing He was to do for us was To satisfie GOD for our Sins not only that One of Adam but all the Sins of Mankind that truly Repent and Amend and by this means to obtain Forgiveness of Sins and the Favour of God and so to Redeem us from Hell and Eternal Damnation which was the Punishment due to our Sins All this He did for us by his Death He offered up Himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of all those who heartily bewail and forsake them and in this He is our Priest it being the Priests Office to Sacrifice for the Sins of the People Our Duty in this particular is truly and heartily to Repent and forsake our Sins without which they will never be Pardoned us altho' Christ hath Died. Secondly Stedfastly to Believe if we do that we shall have the Comforts of this Sacrifice of His all our Sins how great or how many soever shall be Pardoned and we saved from those Eternal Punishments which were due to us for them And for that other part viz. That of Praying that he not only performed on Earth but continues still to do it in Heaven He sits on the Right-Hand of God and makes Requests for us Rev. 8.34 Our Duty herein is not to resist this unspeakable Blessing of His but to be willing to be thus Blest in being turned from our Sins and not to make void and fruitless all his Prayers and Intercessions for us which will never prevail for us whilst we continue in them The third thing that Christ was to do for us was To enable us or give us strength to do what God requires of us This He doth First by
are ever holding Holy things without feeling Bacon If Atheists say The World or its Materials were Made they must grant a GOD that made it If they say They were not Made they then assert an Eternal Being of it self that is they allow the Difficulties for which they pretend to deny a GOD. Cares WHen Men Believe weakly and Love GOD but little they can scarce find whether they Believe or Love at all and therefore remain in doubt To Remedy which follow your Duty till Grace be encreased ply your Work wait upon God in the use of his prescribed Means and he will undoubtedly bless you with Increase and strength of Grace If you would lay out those serious Affections in Praying and Seeking unto Christ and for more Grace you would in time Believe strongly and Love fervently and thereby put it out of doubt whether you Believe or Love or not Mrs. B. If by moderate and due Care we would resign up our Selves and Concernments into the Hands of God He would charge himself with us but if we will Immoderately Care and be so peremptory in our Designs and will not submit them to him then God is discharged and we must look to our selves You need not fetch the Misery of another Day and put to this it hath enough for its own Let them consider that fear Want that they want nothing so much as Faith A little more trusting in God and a little less sinful Foresight and needless Care would do well Our daily Defects and Disappointments procure Misery and Vexations He that would make Earth sure must first of all make Heaven sure Shall I by taking thought what I shall Eat and what I shall Drink here never fear Wanting or Begging a drop of Water hereafter Shall I be Solicitous for Cloaths and do not know but my Soul and Body may lie naked in the scorching Flames of the Wrath of God to all Eternity Besides that I have a Promise of God for outward things if I make it my business to look after Heavenly It s a very needless Care God provides Meat for me that I may not be taken off my Work to seek those things that are Heavenly Mat. 6.33 Christ Crucified the knowledge of it IT is a kind of Catholicon of universal Use and Conveniency in reference to this Life Am I in Want in Prison in Contempt in Banishment in Sickness in Death this Knowledge gives Contentedness Patience Chearfulness Resignation of my self to his Will who hath Sealed my Peace with him and Favor from him in the great Covenant of his Son I could live upon this tho' I were ready to Starve when I am assured that it is for my Good and the glory of his Name I shall be delivered if not I can be contented if my Jewel the Peace of God and my own Conscience by the Blood of Christ be safe if not in Wealth Honor greatness in Esteem in the World. This Knowledge teacheth me Humility as knowing of whom I have received it Fidelity as knowing to whom I must account for it and in all it teacheth me not to over-value it nor to value my Self the more by it or for it It makes Death not Terrible because a most sure Passage to Eternal Life Here I find a way to get my Sins Pardoned whereas all the World without this cannot contrive a Satisfaction for me I find such a Way to obtain such a Righteousness as is valuable with God and perfect before Him even the Righteousness of God in Christ and here I find the means the only means to avoid the Wrath to come the Terror of the Judgment of the Last-Day Everlasting Life to all Eternity which the blessed God and the Lord Jesus Christ all the blessed Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect The knowledge of Christ above all other Knowledge and Christ Crucified above all other Knowledge of Christ being the highest manifestation of his Love. J. Hale With all my Heart saith Calvin I embrace the Mercy of God which he hath used towards me for Jesus Christ's sake recompencing my Faults with the Merits of his Death and Passion that satisfaction being made by this means for all my Sins and Crimes and the remembrance of them may be blotted out I witness also and profess that I humbly beg of him that being washed and cleansed in the Blood of that highest Redeemer shed for the Sins of Mankind I may stand at his Judgments-Seat under the Image of my Redeemer Had Christ been God only he could not have Suffered had he been Man only he could not have Merited Christ's Blood was shed as well for Oblution as for Absolution Diffidence of ones Self and Dependance of Christ is the Motto of a Christian Counsel THe greatest Trust between Man and Man is the Trust of giving Counsel For in our Confidences saith our Lord Bacon Men commit the parts of Life their Lands their Goods their Children their Credit and some particular Affairs but to such as they make their Counsellors they commit the whole by how much the more they are obliged to Faithfulness and Integrity There is no such Flattery as of a Mans self and there is no such Remedy against that Flattery as the Liberty of a Friend Counsel is of Two sorts The one concerning Manners the other concerning Business For the first The best Preparative to keep the Mind in Health is the faithful Admonition of a Friend The calling of a Man's self to a strict Account is sometimes too piercing and corroding Reading good Books of Morality is a little Flat and Dead Observing our Faults in others is sometimes improper for our Case but the best Receipt best I say to work and best to take is the Admonition of a Friend Conviction IF you be troubled for Sin observe whether your trouble for it be inward as well as outward and reaches not only to open Sins but to secret Lusts to Inward and Spiritual Sins such as Hypocrisie Formality Lukewarmness Deadness and Hardness of Heart and if so this is a sure sign of the Work of the Spirit because the Trouble occasioned by these Sins bears a more immediate Relation to the Holiness of God who only is offended by them they being such that none else can see or know Covetousness HE that is Covetous when he is Old is as a Thief that Steals when he is going to the Gallows Bags of Gold to us when Saints will be but as a Bag of Pebbles when Men. Alexander of Hales says That Covetousness deserves the Hate of all for these Reasons First It is a Sin against Nature making the Soul Terrestrial which should be Heavenly Secondly For the many Curses against it in the Scripture Wo to them that joyn House to House c. Thirdly For the many Evils it subjects them unto It is the Root of all Evil. Fourthly It makes a Man a Fool O Fool this Night c. Fifthly It canses Strifes from whom are Strifes Sixthly It
taking off from the hardness of the Law given to Adam which was Never to commit the least Sin upon pain of Damnation and requiring of us only an honest and hearty Endeavor to do what we are able and where we fail accepting of sincere Repentance Secondly By sending his Holy Spirit into our Hearts to Rule and Govern us to give us strength to overcome Temptations to Sin and to do all that He requires of us And in this He is our King to Govern Rule and Subdue our Enemies Our Duty in this particular is To give up our selves Obedient Subjects of His to be Governed and Ruled by Him to Obey all his Laws not to take part with any Rebel that is not to cherrish any One Sin but diligently to Pray for his Grace to enable us to Subdue them all and then carefully to make use of it to that purpose Lastly He hath purchased for all that faithfully Obey Him and Eternal and Glorious Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven whither He is gone before to take Possession for us Our Duty herein is First To be exceeding careful that we forfeit not our Parts which we shall certainly do if we continue Impenitent in any Sin. Secondly Not to fasten our Affections on this World but to raise them according to the Precept of the Apostle Col. 3.2 Set your Affections on things above and not on things below longing to come to the Possession of that Inheritance of ours in comparison of which all things here below should seem Vile and Mean. Whole Duty of Man. Christ indeed hath freed us from the Impossibilities of the Covenant of Works and from the Burthen and Yoke of the Legal Ceremonies but not from the Difficulties and Pains of Gospel Duties Baxter's Rest Comforts FEtch thy Comforts from Heaven and not from Pleasures or Hopes here below De Kempis What profit can it be for thee to bewail that Sin which thou wilt not forsake What Reward canst thou expect for that Obedience which so soon fainteth What Comfort in that Joy that is but Temporary How truly sweet says St. Austin is the loss of those Earthly Sweetnesses those Transitory Joys which I was formerly afraid to lose and rejoyce now to Banish It is Thou O Lord who arâ— entred in who art sweeter than aâ—â— Sweetness c. As thou hast raised me by thy Power so Rule me by thy Providence that thy Grace may be far sweeteâ— with my Sufferings than my Pleasures with my Sins Mr. Corbet When I walk in Darkness and see no Light in outward Comforts Human Helps and visible Means I will Trust in the Name of the Lord and stay my self upon my GOD. Ibid. Contentation BE not troubled if this Man lives in Tranquility and thou in Tribulation God will have it so He puts thee in the Combat thou therefore must Sweat before thou comest off with Victory whereas he that comes forward in the World goes back in Grace His Estate is miserable that goes Laughing to Destruction As the Fool in the Stocks for Correction Theophilact He that sets his entirest Love on God yet hath Liberty to Issue a Subordinate Portion of Love to other good things as Health Peace opportunity to do Good Wife Children Friends and in these he may be crossed and disappointed but the predominant Love of God delivers the Soul from Discontent and Impatience even under these Losses because the Soul is still assured of what it most values the Love of God returned to the Soul which compensates and drowns those other Losses and the Discontent that may arise upon it Trouble makes every sad Accident a double Evil Contentedness none at all When we lose our Estates let 's not lose our Constancy and Chearfulness If thou hast lost thy Health do not lose thy Patience also If thou Die a little sooner than thou expected'st do not Die unwillingly If thou have no Friend be not also thy own Enemy If others Vex thee do not withal Vex thy self If thou be Ill to Day be not solicitous for to Morrow sufficient to the Day is the Evil thereof Despair FRancis Spira about the Year 1548. saith this of himself I was excessively Covetous of Money and accordingly I applyed my self to get it by Injustice Corrupt Judgment Deceit Inventing Tricks to delude Justice Good Causes I either defended Deceitfully or Sold them the Adversaries perfidiously Ill Causes I maintained with all my Might I willingly opposed the known Truth and Trust committed to me either Betrayed or Perverted And for the Inordinate Love of the things of this World I wholly Wounded my Conscience by an Infamous Abjuration of the Blessed Truth which I formerly Professed upon the serious Consideration of what I had done in cold Blood acknowledging my self utterly undone for ever This poor Man became a Spectacle of such Spiritual Misery and Woe to the whole World that there is not any thing left to the Memory of Man more Remarkable his Spirit was suddenly smitten with the dreadful Sence of Divine Wrath for his Apostacy and splitting in pieces as it were by so grievous a bruise his Heart fainted fearfully and failed him quite and fell asunder in his Breast like drops of Water Hear some ruful Expressions out of his Desperate State from his own Mouth O that I were gone from hence that somebody would let out this weary Soul of mine I tell you there was never such a Monster as I am never was there a Man alive such a Spectacle of exceeding Misery I now feel God 's heavy Wrath that burneth like the Torments of Hell within me and afflicts my Soul with Pains unutterable Verily Desperation is Hell it self the gnawing Worm of unquenchable Fire Horror Confusion and which is worst of all Desparation continually Tormenting me And now I count my present State worse than if my Soul were separated from my Body with Judas The Truth of it is never had Mortal Man such experience of God 's Wrath and Hatred against him as I have The Damned in Hell I think endure not the like Misery If I could conceive the least spark of Hope in my Heart of a better State hereafter I would not refuse to endure the most heavy Wrath of the great God yea for Two Thousand Years so that at length I could get out of Misery O that God would loose his Hand from me and that it were with me as in times past I would scorn the Threats of most Wicked Tyrants bear Torments with Invincible Resolution and Glory in the outward Profession of Christ till I were choaked with the Flame and my Body turned into Ashes Discression IT 's more Discression to hold the Stile of Miserable which begets an Infamy without Hatred than to desire that of Liberal which being maintained by necessitous Courses procures an Infamy with Hatred Machiavil Death THe Young-Man hath Death at his Back the Old-Man before his Eyes That 's the more dangerous Enemy that Pursues thee than that which Marches before
wonderfully delivered him from eminent Death so that he was compelled to acknowledg a Divine Providence therein his Father seeing the dangerous ways his Son was led into sent for him home where he carefully and holily instructed him and caused him to read over the New-Testament of which he himself writeth thus When I read over the New-Testament I first lighted on the First Chapter of St. John In the beginning was the Word c. I read part of the Chapter and was suddenly convinced that the Divinity of the Argument and the Majesty and Authority of the Writing did exceedingly excel all the Eloquence of Humane Writings My Body trembled my Mind was astonished and so affected all the Day that I knew not where or what I was Be thou mindful of me O my God according to the Multitude of thy tender Mercies call home thy lost Sheep into thy Fold And as Justin Martyr of Old so he of late professed that the Power of Godliness in a plain simple Christian wrought so upon him that he could not but take up a strict and serious Life Mr. Howard afterwards the learned Earl of Northampton being troubled with Athestical suggestions put them all off this way viz. If I could give any account how my self or any thing else had a Being without God how came there so uniform and constant a Consent of mankind in all Ages Tempers and Educations otherwise differing in their apprehensions about the Being of God the Immortality of the Soul and Religion in which they could not likely come so many or being so many could not be deceived I could be an Atheist And when he was urged that Religion was a State-policy only to keep men in awe he replyed That he would believe it but that the greatest Politicians have sooner or later felt the Power of Religion in the grievous lashes of their own Consciences and dreadfulness of their own apprehensions about that State wherein they must live for ever Sir John Mason having been imployed much in State-Affairs said I have learned this after so many experiences that Seriousness is the greatest Wisdom Temperance the best Physitian and a good Conscience the best Estate and if I were to live again I would leave the Court for a Cloyster my Privy Councellors Bustles for a retired Life and the whole Life I lived in the Palace for one Hour Enjoyment of God in the Chappel all things forsake me besides my God my Prayer and my Duty Sir Henry Wotton after so many years Study with proficiency and applause of the University his being a Favorite of Robert Earl of Essex his intimacy with the Duke of Tuscany and James the 6th of Scotand his Embassies into Holland Germany yet desired to retire with this Motto Tandem didicit animas sapientiores fieri quiescendo He was very Ambitious of the Provost-ship of Eaton that there he might enjoy his beloved Study and Devotion saying That that day he put on his Gown was the happiest day of his Life that being the utmost happiness a man could attain to he said to be at leasure and to do good never reflecting on his former years but with Tears in his Eyes he would say How much Time have I to repent of and how little to do it in Charles the Fifth Emperor of Germany King of Spain and Lord of the Netherlands after 23 Pitch-fields 6 Triumphs 4 Kingdoms won and 8 Principalities added to his Dominions and 14 Wars finished he resigned his Empires and Kingdoms retiring to his Devotions in a Moastery and had his own Funeral Celebrated before his Face leaving this Testimony of the Christian Religion That the sincere Profession of it had in it Sweets and Joys that Courts were strangers to Salmasius that excellent French Scholar whom the Learned men of his Time never mention without such Expressions as these Vir nunquam satis laudatus went out of this World with these words in his Mouth Oh! I have lost a World of Time that most precious thing in the World whereof had I but one year more it should be spent in David's Psalms and Paul's Epistles Oh! Sirs said he to those about him Mind the World less and God more all the Learning in the World without Piety and the true Fear of God is nothing worth The Fear of the Lord that 's wholsome and to depart from Evil that 's understanding Robert Rollock said at the time of his Death Haste Lord and do not tarry I am a weary both of Nights and Days Lord Jesus that I may come to Thee break these Eye-strings and give me others I desire to be dissolved and to be with Thee Haste Lord Jesus and defer no longer Go forth my weak Life and let a better succeed Oh my Lord Jesus Christ thrust Thy Hand into my Body and take my Soul to Thy Self O Lord Jesus set my Soul free that she may enjoy her Husband The Earl of Strafford said Oh trust not in man that shall Die nor to the Son of Man as shall be made as Grass there is no Confidence in Princes the only things that stands by a man are the Blood of Christ and the Testimony of a good Conscience An Excellent Person having writ exquisitly for the Christian Religion hath this Discourse of the Nature of it viz. Doth now the Conquest of Passions forgetting of Injuries doing Good Self-denial Patience under crosses which are the expressions of Piety abound to the support of a Luxurious Malitious and Impatient Spirit Is there nothing more becoming Malitious Proud and Impatient Soul of Man in examplary Piety and an Holy and well ordered conversation than in the Lightness and Vanity not to say in Rudeness and Debauchery in them which the World accounts the greatest Gallants Is there nothing more graceful and pleasing in the Sweetness and Ingenuity of a truly Christian-temper and disposition than in the revengeful Spirit of such whose Honour lives and is fed by the Blood of their Enemies Is it not more truly Honourable and Glorious to serve that God that Commandeth and Ruleth the World than to be a Slave to those Passions and Lusts that put men upon continual hard Service and torment them for it when they have done it Is there nothing else to Commend Religion to the Minds of men besides that Tranquility and Calmness of Spirit that Serene and placable temper which follows a good Conscience where soever it dwells it were enough to make Men to welcom that Guest which brings such good Entertainment which it wherefore the Horrors Anxiety and Amazement of Mind which brings at one time or other which prostitute their Consciences to a Violation of the Laws of God and of the Rules of rectified Reason may be enough to perswade any Rational Person that Impiety is the greatest Folly and Irreligious Madness Sir Thomas Smith after he had served Queen Elizabeth as Secretary of State and done many good Services to the Kingdom especially in setling the Corn-Rate for the