modii but lux mundi that light of the World in whom there is not so much as the least shadow of darknesse Small buddings of Grace in the Soul an argument of greater growth VVHen we behold Prime-Roses and Violets fairly to flourish we conclude the dead of the Winter is past though as yet no Roses or Iuly-flowers do appear which long after lye hid in their leaves or lurk in their roots but in due time will discover themselves Thus if some small buddings of Grace do but appear in the Soul it is an argument of far greater growth if some signs be but above-ground in sight others are under-ground in the heart and though the former started first the other will follow in order It being plain that such a Man is passed from death unto life by this hopeful and happy spring of some signs in the heart Magistrates Rulers c. the great comfort of good ones THe People of Rome were very jocund when they had made Galba their Emperour but he had not been long in till they began to change their note For they found by woful experience that they had met with a carelesse and cruel Goverâ—our A sad thing when it is either with Magistrates or Ministers as Pope Urban writ to a Prelate in his time very scoffingly Monacho fervido Abbatic calido Episcopo verò tepido et Archiepiscopo â—rigido still the higher in means the worse in manners But there is then good hope when Men in power and authority can say Non nobis sed populo that they aym at the publique good And happy is that People that place that Common-wealth whose Rulers think no time too long no pains too great nor no patience too much whereby they may glorifie God and seek the publique good in the appointed places of their dignity Godly Company the benefit thereof IT is observable of many houses in the City of London that they have so weak walls and are of so slender and slight building that were they set alone in the Fields probably they would not stand one hour which now ranged into streets receive support in themselves and mutually return it to others Such is the danger of solitarinesse and the great benefit of association with good and godly Company Such as want skill or boldnesse to begin or set a Psalm may competently follow tune in consort with others and such are the blessed fruits of good Society that a Man may not onely be reserved from much mischief but also be strengthened and confirmed in many godly Exercises which he could not perform of himself alone The excellency of Sonday or Lords day above other dayes WHat the Fire is amongst the Elements the Eagle among the Fowls the Whale among the Fishes the Lyon amongst the beasts Gold among the other mettals and Wheat amongst other grain the same is the Lords day above other dayes of the week differing as much from the rest as doth that wax to which a Kings great seal is put from ordinary wax Or that silver upon which the King's Arms and Image are stamped from Silver unrefined or in bullion It is a day the most holy Festival in relation to the Initiation of the World and Mans Regeneration the Queen and Princesse of dayes a Royall day a day that shines amongst other dayes as doth the Dominical letter clad in scarlet among the other letters in the Calender or as the Sun imparts light to all the other Stars so doth this day bearing the name of Sonday afford both light and life to all other dayes of the week Men to be as well industrious in their Callings as zealous in their devotions THe Inhabitants of the Bishoprick of Durham pleaded a Priviledg That King Edward the first had no power although on necessary occasion to presse them to go out of their Country because forsooth they termed themselves Haly-work-folk onely to be used in defending the holy shrine of S. Cuthbert Thus it is that many in the World are much mistaken thinking that if they be but once entred into the trade of Godlinesse they may cancell all Indentures of service and have a full dispensation to be idle in their Callings whereas the best way to make the service of God comfortable within their own Souls is to take pains without in their lawful Vocations there being ever some secret good accrewing to such who are diligent therein Variety of gifts in the Ordinance of Preaching IT is a received Aphorism amongst Physitians that the Constitutions of all Mens bodies are of a mixt nature hot dry cold and moyst and yet the Wisdom of God hath so diversly tempered these that scarce in the World are two Men to be found in every point of like temper The face of a Man is not above a span over yet let ten thousand Men be together and their countenances shall all differ So in the Church as to the variety of gifts in the matter of Preaching let divers Men take one and the same Text yet scarce two of a hundred though all soundly and to the Point are to be found that have in all things the like gift either for matter or utterance some having five talents some but two some but one some have a more excellent gift of Conference some of Prayer some of Exhortation some in opening of a Text some in application c. every one though not all alike some one way or other profitable unto Gods people to help onward the building up of the body of the Lord Iesus in the edification of those that are committed to their charge To be more strict in the holy observation of the Sabbath then heretofore and why so SOme Popish People make a superstitious Almanack of the Sonday by the fairnesse or foulnesse thereof guessing of the weather all the week after according to that old Monkish rime If it rains on Sonday before Messe It will rain all week more or lesse However it may be boldly affirmed That from our well or ill spending of the Lord day a probable conjecture may be made how the following week will be employed yea it is to be conceived that we are bound as matters now stand in England to a stricter observation of the Lords day then ever before That a time was due to Gods service no Christian in this Nation ever did deny That the same was weekly dispersed into the Lords day Holy-dayes Wednesdays Fridays and Saturdays some have earnestly maintained seeing therefore all the last are generally neglected the former must be more strictly observed It being otherwise impious that our devotion having a narrower channel should also carry a narrower stream along with it Gods gracious return of his Peoples Prayers in the time of their distresse IT is said of Martin Luther that perceiving the cause of the Gospel to be brought into a great strait he flyes unto God layes hold on him by Faith and
him Thus what Nature taught the Creature Experience hath taught Man To strike the Enemy where he may with most hurt and leave things impossible unattempted for Prudence is of force where Force prevailes not Policy goes beyond strength and contrivance before action Hence is it that direction is left to the Commander Execution to the Souldier who is not to aske Why but to do What he is commanded The state of a kingdomc or Common-wealth known best by the administration of Iustice. THe Constitution of a Man's body is best known by his pulâ—e if it stirre not at all then we know he is dead if it stirre violently then wee know him to be in a Fever if it keep an equall stroake then we know he is sound and whole In like manner we may judge of the state of a Kingdom or Common-weale by the manner of execution of Iustice therein for Iustice is the pulse of a Kingdom If Iustice be violent then the kingdome is in a Fever in a bad estate if it stirre not at all then the Kingdom is dead but if it have an equall stroake the just and ordinary course then the Kingdom is in a good condition it is sound and whole without the least corruption imaginable The prevalency of fervent Prayer SOcrates telleth that when a terrible fire in Constantinople had fastned on a great part of the City and tooke hold of the Church the Bishop thereof went to the Altar and falling downe upon his knees would not rise from thence till the fire blazing in the Windowes and flashing at every doore was vanquished and the Church preserved so that with the flouds of his devotion he slaked the fury of that raging Element And the same shall be the force of Englands prayers for Englands peace and welfare if wee be fervent therein Hereticks and Schismaticks may range Enemies conspire and the People rise up in tumults but let us trust in him that never forsaketh them that faithfully call upon his holy name God onely to be seen in Christ Iesus A Man cannot behold the Sun in the Eclipse it so dazeleth his eyes What doth he then He sets down a basin of water and seeth the image of the Sun shadowed in the Water So seeing we cannot behold the infinite God nor comprehend him we must then cast the eyes of our Faith upon his image Christ Iesus When we look into a cleare glasse it casteth no shadow to us but put steele upon the back then it casteth a reflex and sheweth the face in the glasse So when we cannot see God himselfe we must put the Manhood of our Lord Iesus Christ as it were a back to his Godhead and then we shall have a comfortable reflex of his glory Riches availe not in the day of Wrath. IT is sayd that there stands a Globe of the World at one end of the Library in Dublin and a Skeleton of a Man at the other there it is that one need not study long for a good lesson And what lesson is that Though a Man were Lord of all that he sees in the Map of the world yet he must dye and become himselfe a Map of Mortality And therefore if the Devill tempt him with a View of the glory of the World Omnia haec tibi dabo he may resist him with the words of our Saviour Sed quid proderit homini c What will it profit a Man to win the whole world and to lose his owne soul Affliction from God is for his Children's good A Tender hearted Father walking with his little Son suppose in the City when he perceives him gaze up and down and wander from him withdraws himselfe behind some pillar or hides himselfe in some corner of the street not that he means to lose him but to make him cry and seek after him and keep closer to him afterwards So doth our heavenly Father with us he correcteth every son whom he loveth he hides himselfe and as it were pulls in the beams of his Gracious favour for a time when wee are rambling about in our thoughts and 〈◊〉 in our imaginations but it is to make us cry after him the louder and to keep closer to him for the time to come and to walke more circumspectly than ever wee did before The peaceable Man's comfort IF a Man stain were found in the field and it not known who slew him God provided That the Elders of the next City should wash their hands in the blood of an Heyâ—er and say Our hands have not shed this blood neither have our eyes seen it be mercifull O Lord unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed and lay not innocent blood unto thy People of Israel's charge and the blood shall be forgiven them So this one day will be a comfort to the Consciences of all well minded men that they may appeal to the great God of heaven that they have prayed heartily for peace have Petitioned humbly for peace have been contented to pay dearly for peace and to their powers have endeavoured to refraine from sins the only breakers of Peace and therefore trust that the Christian English Protestant blood which hath already been and hereafter may be shed shall never be visited on their score or layd to their charge Knowledge very useful in the matter of Reformation DAngerous was the mistake committed by Sir Francis Drake in 88. when neglecting to carry the Lanthorn as he was commanded in the dark he chased five hulks of the Dutch Merchants supposing them to have been of his Enemies the Spaniards such and worse Errors may be committed in the Reforming of a Church or Commonwealth good mistaken for bad and bad mistaken for good where the light of knowledge is wanting for direction How to know whether a Man belong to Heaven or not IT was wont to be a Tryall whether land belonged to England or Ireland by putting in Toads or Snakes or any other venemous Creature into it and if they lived there it was concluded that the land belonged to England if they died to Ireland So if venemous Lusts live in us if sin reign in our mortall bodies we belong to Hell but if they dy by Mortification if there be no life in them then shall we be sure to set up our eternall rest in Heaven and be made heires of Heaven and have full possession of those Mansions which Christ our elder brother hath prepared for us God's way the safe way to walk in IF a Man travelling in the King's highway be robbed between Sun and Sun satisfaction is recoverable upon the County where the robbery was made but if he takes his journey in the night being an unseasonable time then it is his own perill he must take what falls So if a man keep in God's wayes he shall be sure of God's
yea though the Temple in his time were become a den of thieves yet then and there sent he up devout and holy prayers to Heaven Get but God and get all AS Noah when the Deluge of waters had defaced the Earth and blotted the great book of Nature had a copy of every kinde of Creature in that â—amous Library of the Ark out of which all were reprinted to the World So he that hath God hath the originall copy of all blessings out of which if all were perished all might easily be renewed Let friends and goods and life and all forsake us yet let but the light of God's countenance shine upon us and that shall be life and friends and goods and all unto us Afflictions the ready way to Heaven A Man taking his journey into a far Country and enquiring for the way is told that there are many plain waies but the streight and right way is by woods and hills and mountains and great dangers that there are many Bears and Lions in the way much difficulty is upon the road thither Now when he is traâ—ailing and finds such and such things in the way such mountains and hills of opposition such flats and vallies of danger he concludeth that he is in the right way thither And so the child of God that is going to the kingdom of Heaven though there be many waies to walk in yet he knowes that there is but one rigâ—t way which is very strait and narrow full of trouble full of sorrow and Persecution full of all manner of crosses and afflictions and when in this life he is persecuted for God and a good cause whether in body or in mind it argueth plainly that he is in the right way to salvation To be provident for daies of triall MEn in policy prepare cloaks for the wet provision for winter a staffe for old age a scrip for the journey they 'l be sure to lay up something for a rainy day or a bank of mony to flie to when occasion serveth Thus it should be with all true Christians they should be alwaies striving for the more and more assurance of God's favour to be sure of a stock going in the Lord's affection to get some perswasion of God's love whereby they may be able to stand in the evill day in the saddest of times in the hour of death and in the day of judgment A good Man is the prop and stay of his Country IT was the Poet's vain and groundlesse conceit of Hector that so long as he lived Troy could not be destroyed terming him the immovable and inexpugnable pillar of Troy But well may it be said of a faithfull man that he is a mighty stay and strength a main defender and upholder of the place where he liveth for whose sake for whose presence and prayers out of the Lord 's abundant kindnesse to all His even the wicked are often within the shadow of God's protection and spared It is Peace that sets up Religion ANtigonus told the Sophister he came out of season when he presented a treatise of Iustice to him that was at that very time besieging a City he could not hear the voice of the Lawes for the noise of Drums And so the Lawes of God the comfortable voice of the Gospell cannot be heard in times of war and hostility Religio doâ—enda non coercenda Fire and faggot are but sad Reformers It is Peace that is the good Ioseph the best Nurse to Religion When the Church had peace and rest then and not till then it multiplied Children to be brought up in the fear of God PArents are very carefull to prefer their children to great places and Noblemen's houses and to that end they give them gentile breeding which is welldon of them But if they would indeed be good parents to their children they should first endeavour to get roomes for them in the kingdom of Heaven But how shall this preferment be had God hath an upper and a lower house His Church and the â—ingdom of Heaven the Church is his house of grace Heaven is his house of glory Now if thou wouldst bring thy child to a place in the house of glory then thou art first of all to get him a place in the house of grace bringing him up so in the fear of God that both in life and conversation he may shew himselfe to be a member of the Church and then assure thy selfe that after this life he shall be removed to the second House which is the house of glory and there for ever be a freeman in the kingdom of Heaven In thus doing thou shalt not leave him an Orphan when thou diest for he shall have God for his Father Christ for his Brother and the Holy Ghost his Comforter to all eternity Heavenly Principles tend Heaven-ward FIre which here we kindle and is engendered on the earth it being no earthly but an heavenly body hath ab origine an aptnâ—sse and inclination carrying it towards the sphear of Fire which is the proper place thereof So from what time a man by God's calling is begotten to be an heavenly creature here on the earth he hath produced in him an inclination which doth make him move God-ward being heavenly principled he tends Heaven-ward Never did poor exile so much long to smel the smoak of his native Country as he breathes and pants after the Kingdome of Heaven Sathan suiting himself to all humours IT is observable that a Huntsman or Forrester goeth usually in green suitable to the leaves of the Trees and the grasse of the Forrest so that by this means the most observant in all the Heard never so much as distrusteth him till the Arrow stick in his sides And thus the Devill shapes himself to the fashions of all men if he meet with a proud man or a prodigal man then he makes himselfe a flatterer if a covetous man then he comes with a reward in his hand He hath an apple for Eve a grape for Noah a change of raiment for Gehezi a bag for Iudas He can dish out his meat for all palats he hath a laste to fit every shoo he hath something to please all conditions to suit with all dispositions whatsoever Love the bond of all perfection AS the Pâ—imum mobile in the Heavens sets all the other Sphears a going which move and make musiâ—k as the Pythagoreans thought in the god's bosome As Ens in Logick communicates his beeing to the ten Preâ—icaments So is Love to the ten Commandements in which they live and move and have their being Love is the end the scope at which they all aime the perfection in which they rest the tribute which they exact it is the bond of perfection or perfection of bonds the most perfect bond that ties all graces to us Forgivenesse of others an argument of God's forgivenesse of us TAke a
that passed desired his Master to give him the staff that he used to walk withal He gives it to him but on condition that he should give it back again to the next he met with that was a verier fool than himself Nay then said the Fool Here Master take the staffe again for a verier fool than thou art I shall never meet again that didst first send for a physician to strengthen thy body then for a Lawyer to make thy Will and in the last place for the Priest to comfort thy poor soul which should have been the first work of all And such fooles are they that ravell out their pretious time tormented with the cares of the world that lade themselves with thick clay such as sing Requiems to their souls that put the evill day far from them with a Nondum venit tempus till it come to the last pinch that the last sand is dropping in the glasse and their soules except God be more mercifull into the pit of hell for ever Not to continue angry TWo Grecian Bishops being fallen out about some difference in point of judgment parted assunder in great anger but the elder of them for so the wiser is to be accounted sent unto his Collegue a message onely in these two words sol ad occasum The Sun is about to go down The other no sooner heard it but he reflected on that of the Apostle Let not the Sun go down upon your wrath and so they were both friends again How doth this amity of theirs condemn the enmity that is amongst many of us at this time As that deadly feud of the Scots who entailed their Lands on posterity conditionally that they should fight against the party that had offended and never entertain any the least pacification And such wrangling Law-suits as that of the two noble Families Barclay and Lisle which began in the reigne of Edward the fourth and continued to the first year of King Iames full seven score years It cannot be denyed but that a man may with good qualifications go to Law for his own but the length of time in the Suit when the Grandchild shall hardly end that which the Grandfather began may draw on a great suspition in the want of charitable affection The onely comfort of a Christian is his propriety in God THe conceit of propriety hardens a man against many inconveniences and addeth much to his pleasure The Mother abides many painfull throwes many unquiet thoughts many unpleasant savours of her child upon this thought It is my own The indulgent Father magnifies that in his own son which he would scarce like in a stranger and why but because he is his own The want of this to God-ward makes us so subject to discontentment and cooles our delight in God because we think of him aloofe off as one in whom we are not interessed Could we but think It is my God that cheareth me with his presence and blessings whilst I prosper my God that afflicteth me in love when I am dejected It is my Saviour that sits at the right hand of my God in Heaven my Angels stand in His presence it could not be but that God's savour would be sweeter his chastisments more easie his benefits more effectuall unto us Ministers and Physicians of all men not to be covetous LUd Vives that worthy learned man doth wonder at some Physicians that they could possibly be covetous and greedy upon the world in as much as both in their speculative study and their practicall ministrations they behold every day how tickle a thing life is how soon the breath is gon how the strongest die in a moment and the youngest fall on the suddain and so by consequence that the use of riches is uncertain and that all worldly things are transitory And it were to be wished that many Physicians of the Soul were not sick of the same disease they know that all flesh is grasse and the grace of it but a flower that our breath is but a vapour and our life but as a bubble They speak much of mortality and preach other mens funerall Sermons yet in the midst of their studies of contemning the world they are in love with the world and look too much after Mammon The losse of Grace made good again in Christ onely EPiphanius maketh mention of those that travail by the deserts of Syria where are nothing but miserable marishes and sands destitute of all commodities nothing to be had for love or mony if it so happen that their fire go out by the way then they light it again at the heat of the Sun by the means of a burning glasse or some other device that they have And thus in the wildernesse of this world if any man have suffered the sparks of divine grace to die in him the fire of zeal to go out in his heart there is no means under the Sun to enliven those dead sparks to kindle that extinguished fire again but at the Sun of Righteousnesse that fountain of Light Christ Iesus To love our enemies and do them good IT was wont to be said of Arch-Bishop Cranmer If you would be sure to have Cranmer do you a good turn you must do him some ill one for though he loved to do good to all yet especially he would watch for opportunity to do good to such as had wronged him O that there were but a few such leading men of such sweet spirits amongst us how great a blessing of peace might we enjoy Did we but rejoyce in any opportunity in doing any office of love to those who differ from us yea to those who have wronged us things would be in a better posture than they are Plain preaching is profitable IN the building of Solomon's Temple there was no noise heard either of axes or hammers all the stones were prepared squared and fitted in the Quarry 1 King 6. 7. And thus the Minister in the building up of the mysticall body of Christ should make all the noise in his study there he must turn his books and beat his brains but when it comes to Church-work to the Pulpit then it must be in plainnesse not with intricacy and tying of knots but with all easinesse that may be It is confessed that painted glasse in Churches is more glorious but plain glasse is more perspicuous Oratory may tickle the brain but plain doctrine will sooner inform the judgment that Sermon hath most learning in it that hath most plainnesse Hence it is that a great Schollar was wont to say Lord give me learning enough that I may preach plain enough For people are very apt to admire that they understand not but to preach plainly is that which is required The very approaches of afflictions torment the wicked PLutarch telleth that it is the quality of Tygres that if Drums or Tabours sound about them they
to the eye diversity of objects If thou go to it in decent and seemly apparel shalt thou not see the like figure if dejected and in coorse Rayment will it not offer to thy view the same equal proportion Do but stretch thy self bend thy brow and run against it will it not resemble the like person and actions Where now is the change shall we conclude in the glass No for it is neither altered from the place nor in the nature Thus the change of love and affection is not in God but in respect of the object about which it is exercised if one day God seem to love us another day to hate us there is alteration within us first not any in the Lord we shall be sure to find a change but it must be when we do change our wayes but God never changeth such as we are to our selves such will he be to us if we run stubbornly against him he will walk stubbornly against us vvith the froward he will be froward but with the meek he will shew himselfe meekly yet one and the same God still in vvhom there is not the least shadow of change imaginable Adversity rather then Prosperity is the preserver of Piety PLutarch in his Book of Conjugal Precepts maketh use of that knovvn Parable hovv the Sun and the Wind vvere at variance whether of them should put a man beside the Cloak vvhich he had upon his back vvhile the wind blevv he held it the harder but the Sun with the strength of his beams made him throw it away from him And Ice we know that hangeth down from the eves of the House in frosty weather is able to endure the stormy blasts of the sharpest Nothern wind but when the Sun breaks our it melts and falls away Thus it is that Adversity and Necessity are rather preservers of Piety then plenty and prosperity Prosperity makes many men lay aside that clean vesture of purity and innocency which they buckled hard to them while they were trained up in the School of Affliction prosperity melts them down into vanity whilst adversity lifts them up into glory The thought of Gods omnipresence a great comfort in affliction THere is mention made of a company of poor Christians that were banished into some remote parts and one standing by seeing them passe along said That it was a very sad condition those poor people were in to be thus hurried from the society of men and to be made companions wth the beasts of the field True said another it were a sad condition indeed if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God but let them be of good chear God goes along with them and will exhibite the comforts of his presence whithersoever they go he is an infinite God and filleth all places Thus as every attribute of God is a breast of comfort not to be drawn dry so this of his omnipresence is none of the least that he is both where we are and where we are not he is in the midst of our enemies we think that they will even swallow us up alive but God our best friend is with them to confound all their devices and insatuate their Counsells our friends our relations of Wife and Children if they be taken hence God is with them and God is with us too on all occasions in all conditions he is ordering all things for his Childrens good The downfall of Piety and Learning to be deplored BOys Sisi the French Leiger in England enquiring what Books Dr. Whitguift then Archbishop of Canterbury had published was answered that he had onely set forth certain Books in defence of the Ecclesiastical Government and it was incidently told him beside That he had founded an Hospital and a School at Croydon in Surry uttered these words Profectò Hospitale ad sublevandam paupertatem erudiendam juâ—entutem sunt optimi libri quos Archiepiscopus scribere potuit Truly an Hospital to sustain the poor and a School to train up youth are the worthiest Books that an Archbishop could possibly set forth And certainly such was the piety such the charity of former times that in this Kingdom of ours a man might have run and read in many such Books the Founders bounty and Munificence witnesse those Ramahs those Schools for the Prophets those Colledges in both the Universities so well filled so orderly governed and so richly endowed But of late how faintly did those streams run which were wont to make glad the City of our God How were those breasts dryed up that once nurst up so many Kiriath-Sepher made Kiriath-Havala a Kingdom of learning fairly onwards on the way to be made a Kingdom of ignorance and Seminaries of sound learning and saving knowledge likely to be Seedâ—plots of barbarous ignorance and intolerable presumption The exceeding bounty of God WE read of a Duke of Millain that marrying his daughter to a son of England he made a dinner of thirty courses and at every course gave so many gifts to every guest at the Table as there were dishes in the course This you 'l say was rich and Royal entertainment great bounty yet God gives much more largely Earthly Princes are fain to measure out their gifts why because their stock is like themselves finite but the Treasury of God's bounty is puteus inexhaustibilis never to be drawn dry It is he that gives the King his Royalty the Nobleâ—man his Honour the Captain his strength the Rich man his wealth c. And as Nathan said to David If all this were too little he would give yet much more To wait with Patience God's leisure DAvid being assured that he should see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living did not faint but expect with patience the time appointed Psal. 27. 13. The Husbandman patiently expecteth the time of Harvest The Mariner waits with content for wind and tide and the VVatch-man for the dawning of the day So must the faithful learn patience in all their troubles not to make haste or mourn as men without hope but tarry the Lords leisure and he in the fittest season will comfort their drooping souls He that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 〈◊〉 To be mindful of the day of Death IT is written of the Philosophers called Brachmanni that they were so much given to think of their latter end that they had their graves alwayes open before their gates that both going out and coming in they might be mindful of their death And it is reported of the women in the Isle of Man that the first Web they make is their winding sheet wherewith at their going abroad they usually guird themselves to shew that they are mindful of their Mortality And thus though we have not our graves digged before our eyes nor carry about us the ugly gastly picture of death yet let us carry
meal And Abraham did strew ashes in his memory saying I will speak unto my Lord though I be but dust and ashes Gen. 18. 27. And thus do all the faithful remembering they shall be one day turned to dust and ashes that so seeing and marking the footsteps of death how it continually cometh and steals away their strength as Bells Priests did the meal how it daily eateth up and wasteth and consumeth their life they may be alwayes prepared for it Patiently to wait God's leisure VVHen a Hushandman hath thrown his seed into the ground he doth not look to see it the same day again much less to reap it the same day as one saith of the Hyberborean people for North That they sow shortly after the Sun-rising and reap before the Sun-set that is because the whole half year is one continued day with them No he expects not the next day nor the next week neither to see it above ground but he is content to wait patiently till the year come about and is glad when he sees after a moneths time it may be that it begins to peepe out of the ground living in hope still of the further growth of it and to enjoy at length after the spire and blade a full ear and a plentiful Harvest Thus every child of God must learn to wait God's leisure What though he hath prayed long yet not a word of comfort no return at all appears yet let him pray still What though he sees not for a long time after much mortification but a slender growth of spiritual joy in his heart nay scarce any glimpse any sight at all yet let him not be dismayed or discouraged therefore but live in hope as the Husbandman doth of a further encrease and a full crop at length when God shall see it good and most advantagious for his spiritual state and condition A good man will be a good Example to others VVHen Diogenes saw a bungling Archer shoot he went as fast as he could to the mark The lookers on wondred what he meant to do in so doing He answered To make sure that he might not be hit for this fellow saies he never means to come neer the mark And thus must we do when we see prophane straglers starting aside like a broken bow and roving a great way wide in their lives and conversations we must presently run to the mark that not onely we may keep our selves safe from the danger of their ill Example but also we may give â—im as it were to others by our good example and direct them that they be neither wide nor short of the mark intended Mortification of sin breedeth sense of sin NEmâ— aegrè molitur artus suos A living member is not burthensom to the body A mans arms are not any burthen to him though otherwise massy and weighty but a withered arm or a limb mortified hangeth like a lump of lead on it Thus so long as sin liveth in the soul unkilled wholly and unmortified as yet so long our corruption is nothing at all cumbersome unto us but when it is once mortified in a man it beginneth to grow burthensome unto him and to hang like a lump of dead flesh on his soul and then beginneth the poor soul pestered and oppressed with the weight of it to cry out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am when shall I be once freed from this body of sin Rom. 7. 24. How to take our pleasures and serve God too IT is reported of one Leonides a Captain who perceiving his Souldiers left their watch upon the City-walls and did nothing all the day long but quaffe and tipple in Ale-houses neer adjoining commanded that the Ale-houses should be removed from that place where they stood and set up close by the walls That seeing the Souldiers would never keep out of them at the least they might as well watch as drink in them So because pleasure we must needs have and we cannot be kept from it God hath appointed that we should take delight enough and yet serve him never a whit the less for it is no part of Gods meaning when we enter into his sweet service that we should abandon all delight but that onely we should change the cause of our delight delight of the service of sin into a delight in the service of God Isaac must be sacrificed not the Ram all Rammish and rank desires of the world not Isaac i. e. all spiritual laughter all ghostly joy all heavenly delight and pleasure Consideration of Gods Omnipresence to be the Sinners curb CAmbden in his Britannia maketh mention of a great high Hill in Staffordshire called Weever under which there is a little Village called Wotton Now this Village being seated in so sad a dreary dolesom place the Sun not shining into it any further then on the tops of the houses by reason of the height of the hills over-topping it the people of the place have been observed to chant out this note Wotton under Weever Where God came never This now were an excellent place for a rapacious rich man to make a purchase of and then to plant a Colony there where God came never A good place for Drunkards to swill in for Epicures to surfeit in for the voluptuous to take pleasure in for the Prodigall to riot in c But let them all know that God is at Wotton and God is with them all in all places at all times every where included no where excluded Whither shall 〈◊〉 fly said David from thy presence The readiest way to get Riches is to trust God for them SOlomon desired wisdom of the Lord but for outward things his prayer was that he might have a mean Estate the Lord gave him wisdome which his heart so much desired and Riches also which he did not once desire Abraham gave unto the Lord Isacc his Son which when the Lord did behold he gave him his Son again And thus must we do The readiest way to obtain life is to be heartily well contented either to live or dye and to commit our selves unto the Lord and for these outward things the very ready way to obtain them is to give them up wholly to his hands so that when we least desire them we shall have them and when we freely give them up to him we shall sooner have them again Time ill spent SIR Francis Drake though a curious searcher after the Revolution of time in three years sayling about the World through the variations of several Climates lost one whole day which was scarce considerable in so long a time It is to be feared that there are many amongst us that lose a day in every week one in seaven neglecting the Sabbath nay every day in the week not once thinking on God or any goodness at all The worlds hard censure of the Godly Man IF some silly Astrologaster
things in the world and would be willing as it were to buy even with a whole world the least measure or dram or drop onely of such grace Who is it let me ask him who is it that hath wrought this desire in him Not the Devil he would rather quench it all he could in him Not his own corruption that is naturally averse thereunto It must needs then be the work of the Spirit of God and of him who affirmeth all them to be in a blessed plight that thus desire after grace Experimental knowledge the onely knowledge A Ristotle saith a man is not a Physiâ—ian that knows things in the general in the gross but he that knows them in particular This is not to be a Physitian to know that such dry meats are good for a moist stomack unless he also know dry meats and the symptoms of a moist stomack So it is in the knowledge of the world and in the knowledge of God To know what Repentance is is not enough except we know the parts and the signs of it in our selves To know that none are translated from death to life except they love the brethren is not enough except we know the brethren and love them To know that he that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof is not enough except we know that we our selves have crucified it The danger of loose Travel into forraign parts AS it is said of one who with more industry then judegment frequented a Colledge Library and commonly made use of the worst notes he met with in any Authors That he weeded the Library So it may be said of some loose Travellers that are got abroad too early before they be well principled That they weed forraign Countries bringing home Dutch drunkenness Spanish pride French wantonness and Italian Atheism as for the good hearbs Dutch industry Spanish loyalty French courtesie and Italian frugality these they leave behind them St. Augustine's Iudgement of the time of Christ's birth CHrist was born when the dayes were at the shortest ut diminuto noctis curriculo defectionem sentiant opera tenebrarum that the Chariot wheels of the night being taken off the works of darkness may drive heavily He must increase said the Baptist but I must decrease Iohn was therefore born at Midsummer when the days grow shorter and shorter but Christ about the Calends of Ianuary when the days wax longer and longer giving at once both life to man and length to dayes Good endeavours assisted by God IT much perplexed Mary how she should roll away the Tomb stone and so purchase the sight of her beloved Master but he that hath given his Angels charge over his children that they hurt not their foot against a stone sent a messenger from Heaven to roll back that huge stone for her Even as a loving Father when he carryeth his little child to the Town will let him alone to walk in the plain and fair way but when he cometh to slippery paths he takes him by the hand and in dirty passages bears him in his armes and when he comes to a style he gently lifts him over So God our heavenly Father useth his deer children if they endeavour to go as far as they may in the wayes of his commandements so fast as they can in the way to the coelestial Ierusalem he will assist them in danger and help them over styles of discouragements take away all rubs of offence remove all blocks and hindrances in their passage and the very great stone parting Christ and them even whilst they least think of it shall be rolled away To rejoyce with trembling A Quail the very same bird that was the Israelites meat in the Wilderness as he flies over the Sea feeling himself begin to be weary lights by the way into the Sea Then lying at one side he layes down one wing upon the water and holds up the other wing towards Heaven left he should presume to take too long a flight wets one wing left he should dispair to take a new flight he keeps the other wing dry Thus must every good Christian do when he holds up the wing of love towards Heaven to rejoyce for Christ he must lay down the wing of fear upon the water to weep for his sins that so his sins that so his two wings may be answerable to God's two wings that as God hath two wings the one of Mercy the other of Iudgment so he may have two wings the one of joy for Christ the other of sorrow for himself and so to rejoyce with trembling Magistrates to be alwayes ready to do Justice A Very poor Widow was earnest with Philip of Macedon to do her Justice but he defer'd her and told her that he had no leisure to hear her she forgetting all dutiful respect asked immediately VVhy he had leisure then to be a King Thus surely if Petitioners for Iustice be put back whose souls speak within them for it with the answer of not being at leisure they will go neer to ask VVhy they had leisure to be Kings and Iudges and Magistrates unless they did mean to execute judgement and do justice which they are bound to do at all times Lex Talionis BY the advice of the Lord Hastings and a Warrant signed by Rich. 3. thereupon the two Lords Rivers and Gray with others were without tryal of Law or offence given executed at Pontefract in the North and which is very remarkable the very self same day and as neer as could be ghessed the self same hour was Hastings head in the same lawless manner struck off in the Tower of London Here is Lex Talionis the just Law of Retaliation God in his eternall providence and divine justice subverts the wisdom oft-times of evill plots and irreligious imaginations and turns them upon the very heads of the Actors themselves according to that passage In foveâ—m quam foderunt c. Psalm 7. 15. The power of God's word IUnius was reclaim'd from Atheism by casting his eye upon the New Testament lying open in his study and reading the first of St. Iohns Gospel In the beginning was the Word c. being amazed with the strange Majesty of the style and profoundness of the mysteries therein contained What should I speak of St. Augustine who was strangely converted by hearing a voice saying Tolle lege Tolle lege and fastning his eyes upon the first passage of Scripture he light on which was this Let us walk honestly as in the day not in gluttony and drunkenness c. Rom. 13. 13 14. No sooner was the verse read then the work of Conversion finished and a pious Resolution for amendment of life setled in him Alipius certified hereof desires to peruse the place and falleth upon the verse immediately following Him that is weak in the faith receive
in strange sins out of the road of common corruption not once coming within the compass of a rational suspition so true is it that strange sins have and ever will be attended with strange and unheard-of punishments The souls delight once set upon God hardly to be removed HE that lets down a Bucket to draw water out of a deep well as long as the bucket is under the water though it be never so full he may get it up easily but when he begins to draw the bucket clear out of the water then with all his strength he can hardly get it up yea many times when it is at the very highest breaks the Iron chain and falls violently back again After the same sort a Christian heart so long as it is in Him wherein is a well of life is filled with delight and with great joy drinketh in the water of comfort out of the fountains of salvation but being once haled and pulled from God it draweth back and as much as it can possible resisteth and is never quiet till it be in him who is the very Center of the Souls happinss The Incorrigibility of Errour IT is observable that in the time of the great sweating sickness in England the sick persons when they were beaten on the face with sprigs of Rosemary by their friends would cry out O you kill me you kill me whereas indeed they had killed them in not doing it for had they slept they had dyed So those whom the sickness of Errour hath surprised if you but go about to suppress them you shall presently hear them exclaim and say Oh you persecute us you persecute us whereas indeed it is not such a persecution as le ts out the heart-blood but such a persecution as le ts out the corrupt blood And they will one day acknowledge though now they may stifly stand it out that to be a happy violence which pulled them out of the fire blessed bonds that tyed them to Christ and comfortable fetters which kept their feet in the way of peace The sloathful contractednesse of our prayers unto God reproved POpe Boniface the Ninth at the end of each hundreth years appointed a Jubilee at Rome wherein People bringing themselves and money thither had pardon for their sins But Centenary years returned seldom Popes were old before and covetous when they came to their place few had the happinesse to fill their Coffers with Iubilee coyn Hereupon Clement the sixth reduced it to every fiftieth year Gregory the eleventh to every three and thirtieth Paul the second and Sixtus the fourth to every twenty fifth year as now it is some overtures have been to bring it lower and would have succeeded had there not been opposition Just thus we serve our prayers unto God as they their Iubilees perchance they may extend to a quarter of an hour when poured out at large but some dayes we begrutch this time as too much omittiâ—g the Preface with some passages conceived lesse materiall and running two or three Peitions into one so contracting them to halfe a quarter of an hour Not long after we fall to decontracting and abridging the abridgement of our prayers yea be it confessed to our shame and sorrow that hereafter we may amend it too often we shrink up our Prayers to a minute to a moment to a Lord have mercy on me The difficulty of returning unto God having long strayed from him JOseph and Mary left their Son at Ierusalem and went but one dayes journey from him but they sought him up and down three whole dayes and that with a great deal of sorrow too before they could â—ind him They are therefore deceived which think it an easie matter speedily to return unto God when they have long been straying from him that are gone with the Prodigall child in Regionem longinquam into a far Country far from the thought of death and consequently from the fear of God yet promise themselves a quick return unto him The Grace of God the onely Armour of proof THere was a Judge in Poland called Ictus who a long time had stood for a poor begger the Plantiffe against a very rich man the Defendant but in the end took a Fee of the Defendant a considerable sum of mony stamped according to the usuall stamp of the Country with the Image of a Man in compleat Armour and at the next Sessions in Court judged the cause in favour of the Defendant But being taxed for it by his friends in private she wed them the coyn he received and demanded of them Quis possit tot armatis resistere Who is able to stand against such an Army as this is Steel Armour is indeed Musket proof but nothing except the Grace of God is gold or silver-proof Nothing can keep a Iudge or a Magistrate from receiving a Reward in private in a colourable cause but the grace of God the eye of the Almighty who seeth the corrupt Iudge in secret and will reward him openly if not here hereafter God both powerfull and merciful GOd shewed the Israelites in the spectacle of Thunder and Lightning at the delivery of the Law what he could do and what they deserved so that what Caesar sometimes said to the Questor who would have hindred him from entring into the Treasury at Rome shaking his sword It is easier for my Power to dispatch thee then for the goodnesse of my Nature to be willing to strike thee may much more truly besaid of God his Power maketh him mercifull and his Mercy doth manage his power The Author of the Book of Wisdome openeth this at large chap. 11. The excellencies of Christ are theirs that are in him AS thew â—e communicates in her Husbands honour and wealth the branches partake of the fatnesse and sweetness of the root and the Members derive sense and motion from the head So Christ our King is not like the bramble that receiveth all good and yields none to the State but he is like the Figtree the Vine the Olive they that pertain to him are all the better for him they are conformable to him if he have any excellency they shall have it also The best improvement of worldly sorrow WHen a Man by extream bleeding at the nose is brought in danger of his life the Physâ—tian gives order to let him blood in another place as in the arm and so turns the course of the blood another way to save his life And thus must we do turn our worldly sorrows for losse of goods or friends to a godly sorrow for our offences against God Flesh and Spirit their opposition ANselm Arch-bishop of Canterbury as he was passing on the the way espyed a boy with a bird tyed in a string to a stone the bird was still taking wing to fly away but the stone kept her down the holy Man made good use of this sight and bursting
are many People that find out more mysteries in their sleep than they can well expound waking The Abbot of Glassenbury when Ethelâ—â—ld was Monk there dreamt of a Tree whose branches were all covered with Moâ—ks cowles and on the highest branch one cowle that out-toâ—t all the rest which must be expounded the greatnesse of this Ethelwold If they dream of a green Garden then they shall hear of a dead corps if they dream that they shake a dead man by the hand then there 's no way but death All this is a kind of superstitious folly to repose any such confidence in Dreams but if any man desire to make a right use of dreams let it be this Let him consider himself in his dreaming to what inclination he is mostly carried and so by his thoughts in the night he shall learn to know himselfe in the day Be his dreams lustfull let him examâ—â—e himself whether the addictions of his heart run not after the byas of Concâ—piscence Is he turbulent in his Dreams let him consider his own contentious disposition be his dreams revengefull they point out his malice Run they upon gold and silver they argue his covetousnesse Thus may any Man know what he is by his sleep for lightly Men answer temptations actually waking as their thoughts do sleeping Consultation with flesh and bloud in the waies of Heaven is very dangerous LOok upon a Man somewhat thick-â—ighted when he is to passe over a narrow bridge how he puts on his spectacles to make it seem broader but so his eyes beguile his feet that he falls into the brook And thus it is that many are droâ—â—ed in the whirle-pool of sin by viewing the passage to Heaven onely with the spectacles of 〈◊〉 and blood they think the bridgeâ— broad which indeed is narrow the Gate to be wide which indeed is straight and so ruinâ— themselves for ever The sad condition of adding sin to sin Mr. Fox in his Martyrology hath a story of the Men of Cockâ—am in Lancashire by a threatning command from Bonner they were charged to set up a Rood in their Church accordingly they compounded with a Carver to make it being made and erected it seemed it was not so beautiful as they desired it but with the hard visage thereof scared their Children Hereupon they refused to pay the Carver The Carver complained to the Iustice the Iustice well examining and understanding the matter answers the Townsmen Go to pay the Workman pay him get you home and mark you Rood better if it be not well-favoured to make a God it is but clapping a pair of horns on 't and it will â—erve to make an excellent Devill Thus when any man adds one sin to another when they add superstitious dotage covetous oppression and racking extortion to their worldly desires whereby they gore poor Mens sides and let out their very heart-bloods they shall find no peace of God to comfort but Devil enough to confound them Preaching and Prayer to go together IT is observed by those that go down into the deep and occupy their business in great waters that when they see the Constellation of Castor and Pollux appeare both together then it is the happy omen of a successfull voyage but if either of them appear single actum est de expeditione there 's small hope of thriving Thus it is that when Preaching and Prayer do meet together and like Hippocrates's two twins live arm in arm together not all praying and little or no preaching as some would have it nor all preaching and little or no praying as others would have it then is offered up that Sacrifice which unto God is made acceptable For praying and no preaching would not so well edifie his Church because where Visions fail the People perish and preaching without prâ—yer would not well beseem his Church which is called an house of prayer but both together will do exceeding well the one to teach us how to pray the other to fit us how to hear Man losing himselfe in the pursuit after knowledge Extraordinary HOunds that are over-fleet often out-run the prey in the pursuit or else tyred and hungry fall upon some dead piece of carrion in the way and omit the game Thus Man who onely hath that essentiall consequence of his Reason Capacity of Learning though all his time he be brought up in a School of Knowledge yet too too often lets the glass of his dayes be run out before he know the Author he should study hence it is that the greatest Epicures of Knowledge as Children new set to School turn from their lessons to look upon Pictures in their Books gaze upon some hard trifle some unnecessary subtilty and forget so much as to spell God How great a part of this span-length of his dayes doth the Grammaticall Critick spend in finding out the Construction of some obsolete word or the principal verb in a worn-out Epitaph still ready to set out a new book upon an old Criticisme How doth the Antiquary search whole Libraries to light upon some auncient Monument whilst the Chronicles of the Lord who is the Ancient of dayes are seldom looked into all of them so wearying the faculties of their understandings before hand by over-practising that when they come at the race indeed where their knowledge should so run that it might attain it gives over the course as out of breath before it have begun Slanders of wicked men not to be regarded LIvia wrote to Augustus Caesar concerning some ill words that had passed of them both whereof she was over-sensible but Caesar comforted her Let it never trouble you that Men speak ill of us for we have enough that they cannot do ill to us And to say truth above Hell there is not a greater punishment then to become a Sannio a subject of scorn and derision Ill tongues will be walking neither need we repine at their violence we may well suffer their words while God doth deliver us out of their hands Let it never trouble us that Men speak evill of us for we have enough that they can do no evill to us And withall whilst that the Derider dasheth in a puddle the dirt flyes about his own ears but lights short of Innocence the Mocker that casts aspersions on his brother over night shall find them all on his own cloaths next morning How to be truly Humble EPaminondas that Heathen Captain finding himself lifted up in the day of his publique triumph the next day went drooping and hanging down the head but being aked What was the reason of that â—is so great dejection made answer Yesterday I felt my selfe transported with vain glory therefore I chastise my selfe for it to day thus did Hezekiah thus David thus Peter and many others And so must it be with every truly humbled Man If he have not the
Grace Iudas carried the bag he was good for nothing else and a rich Man laden with thick clay having outward things in abundance is good for no body but himself so true it is that as Greatness and Goodness so Gold and Grace â—eldom meet together To beware of erronious Doctrine IT is recorded by Theodoret that when Lucius an Arrian Bishop came and preached amongst the Aâ—tiochians broaching his damnable errours the People forsook the Congregation at least for the present having indeed been soundly taught before by worthy Athanasius Thus it were to be wished that the People of this age had their wits thus exercised to distinguish betwixt truth and falshood then false doctrines would not thrive as they do now amongst us and Errours though never so closly masked with a pretence of zeal would not so readily be received for Truths as now they are by the Multitude nor so much countenanced by those that make profession of better things Atheism punished IT was somewhat a strange punishment which the Romans inflicted upon Parricides they sewed them up in a mail of leather and threw them into the Sea yet so that neither the water of the Sea could soak through nor any other Element of Nature earth air or fire approach unto them And certainly every Creature is too good for him that denyes the Creator nor can they be further separated from Heaven or pitched deeper into Hell than they deserve that will believe neither The God they deny shall condemn them and those Malignant spiritâ— whom they never feared shall torment them and that for ever Truth beloved in the generall but not in the particular AS the Fryer wittily told the People that the Truth he then preached unto them seemed to be like Holy-water which every one called for a pace yet when it came to be cast upon them they turned aside their face as though they did not like it Just so it is that almost every Man calls fast for Truth commends Truth nothing will down but Truth yet they cannot endure to have it cast in their faces They love Truth in universali when it onely pleads it selfe and shewes it self but they cannot abide it in particulari when it presses upon them and shewes them themselves they love it lucentem but hate it redarguentem they would have it shine out unto all the world in its glory but by no means so much as peep out to reprove their own errors The confident Christian. THe Merchant adventurer puts to Sea rides out many a bitter storm runs many a desperate hazard upon the bare hope of a gainful return The valiant Souldier takes his life into his hands runs upon the very mouth of the Cannon dares the Lion in his Den meerly upon the hope of Victory Every Man hazards one way or other in his Calling yet are but uncertain venturers ignorant of the issue But so it often falls out that the greedy Adventurer seeking to encrease his stock loseth many times both it and himself The covetous Souldier gaping after spoil and Victory findeth himselfe at last spoiled captivated But the confident Christian the true child of God runs at no such uncertainty he is sure of the Goal when he first sets out certain of the day before he enter the field sounds the Trumpet before victory and when he puts on his harnesse dares boast as he that puts it off witnesse Davids encounter with Goliah Gedeons march against the Midianites and the christian resolution of those three Worthies Dan. 3. 17. To take Time while time serves IT was a curious observation of Cardinal Bellarmine when he had the full prospect of the Sun going down to try a conclusion of the quicknesse of its motion took a Psalter into his hand And before saith he I had twice read the 51 Psalm the whole body of the Sun was set whereby he did â—onclude that the Earth being twenty thousand thousand miles in compasse the Sun must needs run in half a quarter of an hour seven thouâ—and miles and in the revolution of twenty four hours six hundred seventy two thousand miles a large progresse in so short a time And herein though the Cardinal's compute as well as his doctrin in debates Polemicall doth very much fall short of truth yet his experience in this gives some proof of the extraordinary swiftnesse of the Suns motion Is then the course of the Sun so swift is time so passant then let time be as pretious lay hold upon all opportunity of doing good labour while it is day for night will come and time will be no more The Sun was down before the Cardinal could twice read the Psalm Miserere mei Deus and the light of thy life such is the velocity thereof may be put out before thou canst say once Lord be mercifull to me a sinner The workings of God and Man very different THe first and highest Heaven drawes by its motion the rest of the Planets and that not by a crooked but by a right motion yet the Orbs of the planets so moved move of themselves obliquely If you enquire whence is the obliquity of this motion in the Planets Certainly not from the first mover but from the nature of the Planets Thus in one and the same manner Man aimes at one end God at another the same that man worketh sinfully God worketh most holily and therefore they work idem but not ad idem The motion of our wills do exceedingly vary from Gods will and seem to drive a contrary end than that which God aimeth at yet are they so over-ruled by his power that at last they meet together and bend that way where he intendeth A wicked life hath usually a wicked end THere is a story of one that being often reproved for his ungodly and vitious life and exhorted to repentance would still answer That it was but saying three words at his death and he was sure to be saved perhaps the three words he meant were Miserere meî Deus Lord have mercy upon me But one day riding over a bridge his horse stumbled and both were falling into the River and in the article of that precipitation he onely cryed Capiat omnia diabolus Horse and man and all to the devill Three words he had but not such as he should have had he had been so familiar with the devill all his life that he thinks of none else at his death Thus it is that usually a wicked life hath a wicked end He that travells the way of hell all his life-time it is impossible in the end of his journey he should arrive at heaven A worldly man dies rather thinking of his gold than his God some die jeering some raging some in one distemper some in another Why They lived so and so they die But the godly man is full of comfort in his death because he was full of heaven
he reâ—â—ored all the gains of his injustice made the poor partakers of his riches abandoned all worldlinesse and vvas recovered both in soul and body to the Lord. As this man hath many follovvers in his base avarice so it vvere to be vvished of God that he had some in his gracious repentance Little do gripulous fathers think that vvhat vvas forty years a gathering should be spent in a few daies revelling And so it comes to passe as by daily experience may be seen that vvhen men are over carefull to provide for their ovvn by taking avvay another mans vix gaudet tertius haeres He that buies a Patrimony for his child vvith the losse of his own soul hath but a dear purchase a very hard bargain To be zealous in the cause of God MEmorable is that christian resolution of Martin Luther that he vvould enter into the City of Worms in the Name of the Lord Iesus though there vvere as many devills as tiles to cover the houses And that of Calvin Ne decem quidem maria c. That it vvould not grieve him to sail over ten seas about an uniform draught for Religion And the blessed Apostle vvas not onely ready to be bound but to die also for the Name of the Lord Iesus And thus must ever good Christian do be zealous in the cause of God contend for the truth of his Word spare no cost leave no stone unmoved Ubi de Religione ibi quoque de vita agitur holding even their very lives to hold upon Religion serving God vvith all their might and as is commanded ready to run through fire and vvater for their holy profession Christ to be received into our hearts by Faith IN the Gospels history we find that Christ had a four-fold entertainment amongst the sons of men some received him into house not into heart as Simon the Pharisee who gave him no kisse nor water to his feet some into heart but not into house as the gracelesse swinish Gergesites some both into house and heart as Lazarus Mary Martha And thus let every good Christian do endeavour that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith that their bodies may be fit Temples of his holy Spirit that now in this life whilst Christ stands at the door of their hearts knocking for admission they would lift up the latch of their souls and let him in For if ever they expect to enter into the gates of the City of God hereafter they must open their hearts the gates of their own City to him here in this world Sermon not done till practised IT is reported of a good man that comming from a publick Lecture and being asked by one whether the Sermon were ended made this answer fetching a deep sigh Ah! it is said but not done And to speak truth the Sermon cannot be said to be done till it be practised But herein the Lord be mercifull to most of us we are apt to think that when a Sacrament day is over all the Sacrament duties are over too when the discourse from the Pulpit is finished the Sermon is finished as if when the Ordinance were at an end there were an end of the Ordinance and of us with the Ordinance also Christ the poor mans Object as well as the rich mans A Low man if his eye be clear may look as high though not so far as the tallest the least Pigmee may from the lowest valley see the Sun or Stars as fully as a Gyant upon the highest Mountain He that stands by may see as far into the milstone as he that picks it Christ is now in Heaven it is not the smalnesse of our person nor the meannesse of our condition can let us from beholding him the soul hath no stature neither is Heaven to be had with reaching If God be but pleased to clear the eyes of our faith we shall be high enough to behold him Ministers to be encouraged and protected against the plots of wicked men and why so PHilip of Macedon besieging Athens sent Legates to the City conditioning with them that if they would deliver into his hands ten of their Oratours such as he should choose whom he pretended to be the disturbers of the Common weal he would raise his siege and be at peace with them But Demosthenes smelt out his plot and with the consent of the Athenians returned him this apologeticall answer The Woolvs came to treat of a league with the Shepheards and told them thus All the feud and discord betwixt you and us ariseth from a certain generation of Doggs which you maintain against us deliver up those dogs and we will be good friends with you The dogs were delivered up the Peace was concluded the shepheards as they thought secure But oh the wofull massacre that was presently made amongst the poor Lambs they were all devoured the shepheards undone and all by parting with their dogs Thus if the Popish or the Peevish party could but once get the Ministers of the Gospell to hold their peace or procure them to be muzzled by Authority or to be delivered over to their woolvish cruelty vvo vvere it to the souls of the poor people errour vvould then play Rex darknesse triumph hell make play-day truth vvould languish and all goodnesse fall flat to the earth As little as they are novv regarded men vvould then misse them and wish for them and be glad to protect them if they had them Meditations of Death the benefit thereof PEter Waldo a rich Merchant of Lyons in France being invited to a great supper where one of the company fell suddainly dead at the table he was so taken with the sight that he forsook his Calling and fell to study the Scripture trading for the Pearl of the Gospell whereby he became an excellent Preacher and the first founder of those antient Christians called Waldenses Such is the benefit that commeth by the meditation of death Let but a man behold the bones of the dead and make a Christian use thereof he must needs fall into a patheticall meditation within himself as thus Behold these legs that have made so many journeys this head which is the receptacle of wisdom and remembereth many things must shortly be as this bare skull and drie bones are I will therefore betimes bid worldly things adieu betake my self to repentance and newnesse of life and spend the rest of my daies in the service of my God and thoughts of my dissolution Away then with that sad and too too usuall expression I thought as a little of it as of my dying day Let Otho think them cowards that think on death but let all good men think and meditate on death what it is unto all men by nature what unto good men what unto bad and great will be the comfort arising thereupon Men to be helpfull one to
unresolved to several fortunes they swell in the Sun-shine of their prosperity and look big in the daies of their advancement but when storms of danger and troubles arise they are dried up with dispair and hang down their heads like a bulrush For a mind unprepared for dysasters is unfurnished to sustain it when it commeth he that soareth too high in the one forâ—une sinketh too low in the other Insolent braving and base fear are individuall and infeparable companions But the resolved man is ever the same even in the period of both fortunes The truly noble Souldier THe Getulian captive as Pliny relateth the story escaped the danger of being devoured by many Lions through her humble gesture and fair language as saying unto them That she was a silly woman a banished fugitive a sickly feeble and weak creature an humble suitor and lowly suppliant for mercy As therefore the Lion is the most noble of all the beasts of the Forrest who never shewes his force but where he finds resistance satis est prostrâsse do but yield and he is quiet Such is every truly noble souldier every generous souldier the most honourable of all other professions who holds it as great a glory to relieve the oppressed as to conquer the enemy that is in arms against him How it is that the self-conceited vain-glorious man deceives himself IT is usually so that the vain-glorious man looks upon himself through a false glasse which makes every thing seem fairer and greater then it is and this flatulous humour filleth the empty bladder of his vast thoughts with so much wind of pride that he presumes that fortune who hath once been his good Mistresse should ever be his hand-maid But let him know that the wings of self-conceit wherewith he towreth so high are but patched and pieced up of borrowed feathers and those imped too in the soft wax of uncertain hope which upon the encounter of every small heat of danger will melt and fail him at his greatest need For fortune deals with him as the eagle with the Tortoise she carries him the higher that she may break him the casier It would be therefore good advice that in the midst of his prosperity he would think of the worlds instability and that fortune is constant in nothing but incoâ—stancy How it is that Children are very bardly drawn from their naturall inclinations DO but set the eggs of divers fouls under one Hen and when they are disclosed the Kite will be ravenous the Dove harmlesse the Duck will be padling in the water and every one will be prosecuting its naturall inclination and condition Or take the youngest Woolf-whelp imploy the greatest art use the utmost skill that may be to make it gentle and loving and you shall find it but labour lost a thing altogether impossible for it will never be forced or intreated from its naturall curstnesse and cruelty Thus it cannot be denyed but that education hath a considerable power to qualifie breeding in a good family may civilize but never nullifie the proper nature of any thing or person It is therefore the duty of Parents earnestly to pray that God would be pleased to infuse such souls into their children as may be endewed with sweet and gratious inclinations if otherwise to use all fit means to temper the worst not presuming to effect an absolute extirpation thereby but by the miraculous power of him who can make from bitter fountains to deflow sweet and pleasant waters from the worst of nature the best of grace and goodnesse The different conditions of men in the matter of Society laid open DIvers and sundry are the conditions of men in society but three are most remarkable i. e. The open the concealed and the well-tempered betwixt these As for the first they are of so thin a composition that a man by a little converse may see as easily through them as if they were made of glasse for in every discourse they are ready to unbosome their thoughts and unlock the very secrets of their hearts The second sort are so tenacious so reserved and closely moulded that they seem like those coffers that are shut so fast that no discovery can be made where they may be opened so close that as they are of lesse delight for society so of lesse hazard to be trustud But the last and best composed and like some â—abinets that are not with difficulty unclosed and then discover unto you many things pleasant and profitable but yet so cunningly devised so artificially contrived that there will be some secret box that neither your eye nor wit can take notice of wherein is deposited a most proper and incommunicable treasure something that will give grace and much advantage to those that hear it Ministers to be accountable unto God for what they have received AS by the Law of Nature Redde depositum doth bind every such fiduciary engage every such Trustee not to use the pledge deposited as his own proper goods but to be accountable for it and restore it when it shall be called for if otherwise he is guilty of injustice and violating those dictamina rationis the very principles of naturall reason So it is with the Treasures of Gods truth committed to the hands of his Ministers they must acknowledge themselves to be but deposiâ—arii trusted as pledge-keepers not as proprietarii Lords and Masters of it for they are to be responsible in that great day of generall Audit how they have discharged their trust How it is that the People as to the generality are incompetent judges of the Preacher and his Doctrin IT is related of a â—ertain Bishop that a Visitation preached a very godly Sermon and withall so learned and plain that the descended to the capacity of the meanest hearers He was thereupon very much commended for his grave gesture for his distinct and sober delivery for his fatherly instructions speaking plainly and familiarly as a father to his children not so earnest and vehement and hot as many young Novices are c. For their Minister he was but a youngling and as good as no body in comparison of him and if they had but such a Preacher they would give I know not what to enjoy him This great and generall commendation was signified to the Bishop in private who to make tryall of the peoples judgment came the next year after in the attire of an ordinary and poor Minister offering himself to be their Preacher it being noysed abroad that their own was upon his remove to another place The Bishop having gained the Pulpit purposely chose another Text differing from his former in words but not in matter so that in a manner he preached the very self-same Sermon But the same persons that did so much commend him before did now as much discommend him and said That he had no good gesture but a heavy
being troubled with fears and cares how he should be able to live in that condition in regard that his Incomes were but small enough onely to maintain him as a single man looking out of the window and seeing a Hen scraping for food to cherish her numerous brood about her thought thus with himself This Hen did but live before it had the chickens and now she lives with all her little ones Upon which he added this thought also I see the fouls of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet my heavenly Father seeds them Thus did he and thus many of Gods servants have done before him and thus did our blessed Lord and Saviour himself who took occasion of the water fetch'd up solemnly to the Altar from the well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna to meditate and discourse of the water of life And so must all of us do get this sweet and comfortable art of spiritualizing the severall occurrences in the world and observing the providences of God therein drawing like the Bee sweetnesse from every flower and turning every thing that we hear or see into holy meditation the omission whereof cannot be without the neglect of God his creatures our selves The Creatures are half lost if we onely employ them not learn something of them God is wronged if his creatures be unregarded We most of all if we read this great volume of the Creatures and take out no lesson for our own instruction Men hardly drawn out of old customs and forms in Religious Worship IT is reported of the King of Morocco that he told the English Ambassadour in King Iohns time that he had lately read St. Pauls 〈◊〉 which he liked so well that were he to chuse his Religion he would embrace Christianity But saith he every one ought to die in the faith wherein he was born So it is with many amongst us they are perswaded they ought and are resolved they will live and die in those customs and waies wherein they were born and so they may do nay so they must do provided that such customs and forms whereunto they seem to be so fast glued be according to the pattern in the Mount the revealed will of God But it is to be feared that such are more addicted to Customs then Scriptures chusing rather to follow what hath been though never so absurd and irregular then consider what should be though never so orthodox and uniform The great love of Christ to he at an high esteeem and why so THere is a story of an Elephant who being fallen down and unable to help himself or get up again by reason of the inflexiblenesse of his legs a forrester comming by helped him up wherewith the Elephant a creature otherwise docible enough by the very instinct of nature was so affected that he tamely followed the man up and down would do any thing for him and never left him till his dying day Now so it is that if there be such love exprest by bruit beasts to those which have done them any good should not we much more love and prise Christ that hath done so much for us For we were fallen and could not recover or help our selves and Christ hath lifted us up and redeemed us with his own most pretious blood when we were even lost and undone Let us then think nothing too much to do too great to suffer too dear to part withall for such a Christ such a Saviour that thought nothing too much to do or too grievous to suffer that so he might accomplish the work of our Redemption He left Heaven for us let not us think much to lose Earth for him He came out of his Fathers bosom for us let not us be unwilling to leave father or mother or friends or any thing else for him He underwent sufferings reproaches afflictions persecutions yea death it self for us let not us repine at or be impatient under any trouble or misery we shall meet with here in this world for hâ—s sake but still be praising blessing and magnifying the love of God in Christ Iesus who hath done so much for us Faith to be preserved as the head of all Graces and why so IT is observed that the Serpent is of all things most carefull of his head because he well knowes though he be cut and mangled never so much in the body or any part of it yet if his head be but whole it will cure all the wounds of the other members And such wisdom ought all of us to have to labour above all things to keep our head our faith whole and sound to make sure of that whatsoever we do because if any thing else receive a wound if any other of our graces have as it were even lost their spirituall strength and vigour faith will renew them again but if this once suffer shipwrack it will cost many a sigh many a tear many a groan in the spirit before it be recovered again for without it all other graces decay and perish are as in a winter-condition of barrennesse without it yet if it do but appear there will be a spring-tide of all spirituall blessings whatsoever Troubles and vexation of spirit not to be allayed by wrong means and waies IT is said of Cain that being in trouble of mind and terrour of conscience for his bloody sin of fratricide he went to allay it by building a City Gen. 4. And there was no way to drive away Saul's melancholy but by David's tuning of his Harp Thus it is with most of people when they are under trouble of mind or vexation of spirit they use sinfull and wrong means to quiet themselves they run to merry meetings to musick to building to bargaining to buying and selling but they run not to God on the bended knees of their hearts who is the onely speedy help in such a time of need It cannot be denyed but that a merry meeting musick or the like may allay the trouble of mind for a while but it will recoil with more terrour then before A sad remedy not much unlike to a man in a seavouâ— that lets down cold drink which cools for the present but afterwards increaseth the more heat or like a man rubbing himself with Nettles to allay the sting of a Bee or not much unlike to one that hath his house a falling and takes a firebrand to uphold it whereby the building is more in danger Prosperity will discover what a man is IT is said of Pius Quintus so called because that when he was a mean man he was looked on as a good man but when he came to be a Cardinall he doubted of his salvation and when a Pope he dispaired of it So hard a thing is it for a good man to use a prosperous estate well Prosperity is that which will tell you what a man is it will
the whitest feathers yet of the blackest skin The Eagle a bird of the quickest sight and of the highest flight yet the most ravenous among birds And among Beasts the Lion the goodliest of all the woods yet the most fierce and cruel The Fox most subtle yet a Creature of the foulest smell Thus God hath ordered it even amongst the Creatures irrationall and thus it is with his own People in respect of Grace though they have many excellent endowments and guifts yet he suffers some corruptions of Nature in them to humble them So that Humiltty the best of Graces comes from the worst root our Sin And Pride the worst of sinnes comes from the best root our Grace which caused that saying of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist That his Graces hurt him more then his sins meaning That many times he was proud of his guifts but humbled by reason of his sinnes and natural infirmities Not to consult with Gods secrets but his revealed word IT was a good saying of Mr. Bradford that famous Martyr of Christ Iesus That a Man should not go to the University of Predestination untill he were well grounded in the Grammer-school of obedience and Repentance And most sure it is that we are not to consult with Gods secret decrees but with his revealed Word Secret things belong to the Lord our God but revealed things to us and our Children for ever Deut. 29. 29. We are not to look to the decrees of God and upon them either do or not do our duty but we are to look to his revealed will which bids us to be conversant in holy duties of Religion and Godlinesse We are not to search the secret Records of Heaven but the revealed will of God which is able to make us wise to salvation The consideration of Mercies formerly enjoyed an excellent means to bear up our spirits under present Afflictions THere is a story of a Man aged fifty years or there abouts who lived forty eight of that time and never knew what sicknesse was but so it was that all the two last years of his life he was sickly and impatient under it yet at last he reasoned the case thus with himself The Lord might have given me forty eight years of sicknesse and but two years of health yet he hath done the contrary I will therefore rather admire the mercy of God in giving me so long a time of health than repine and murmure at him for giving me so short a time of sicknesse And thus must all of us consider that we have had more Mercies in our life to chear us up than we have had crosses to discomfort us What though the Lord doth now visit us with sicknesse we have had more years of health then we have had of sicknesse What though this or that comfort be taken from us yet we have a great many more left us still Hence is that advice of the Wiseman In the day of Adversity consider What must we consider That God hath set the one against the other that is Though we are in Afflictions now yet he hath given us Mercies heretofore and it may be will give us Prosperity again he hath ballanced our present Afflictions with former Mercies so that if we should set the Mercies we have enjoyed against the present Afflictions we suffer we should soon find the tale of our Mercies to exceed the number of sufferings be they of what Nature or quality soever imaginable Not to mourn excessively for the losse of any worldly enjoyment whatsoever And why so IT is related of a Minister of Gods word that visiting a Neighbour whose child lay a dying he endeavoured to comfort her but she being much grieved and dejected with sorrow would by no means be comforted The Minister said unto her Woman Why do you sorrow so much pacifie your selfe If your Child should live it may be so that God might make it a scourge and vexation to you by taking wicked and sinful courses She answered that she did not care if her Child did recover though he were hanged afterward This Son of hers did recover and was afterward executed for some villany coâ—mitted Now let any one judge whether it had not been a greater mercy and a thousand times better for her to have seen him buryed before her then that he should have come to such an unhappy end Thus it is that that comfort which any of us all shall so excessively mourn for the want of it may be would have proved a greater cross and trouble should but God have continued it still unto us whether it be the lâ—sse of life or estate of a loâ—ing Wife or an onely Son as it was in Rachels case Gen. 30. 5. and in Davids that if God had given him the life of his Child it would have been but a living Monument of his shame and all that knew the Child might have said Yonder goes Davids Bastard The consideration whereof should allay and take off the edge of all excesse of sorrow for the losse of any temporall comfort any worldly enjoyment whatsoever Not to be troubled at Afflictions because God intends good by them SUppose a Man very much in debt and in such need of Money that he knew not well how to subsist without throwing himselfe upon the saâ— charity of others that might if they had but hearts possibly relieve him should go to some especiall inâ—imate friend and make known unto him the lownesse of his condition and crave relief accordingly Now if this friend of his which is somewhat strange should go presently to his Châ—st and take out a considerable bag of Mony and throw it at him and in the throwing of it breake his head or give him some slight scar Can it be imagined that he would take it unkindly No certainly Thus it is that every Affliction that God is pleased to lay upon us shall work for our good We may say as Ioseph did to his brethren Though you intended all this for my hurt yet God intended and turned it for my good and will work benefit and advantage to me by it and promote my spiritual good that as Afflictions do abound my Consolations in Christ shall abound much more Every Affliction like Ionathans rod having hony on the top and therefore let us bear them patiently How to know whether we are more grieved for sin then for worldly Sorrow and Trouble WHen a Man is brought to a low Condition and a great decay in the world so that his Trade is quite fallen and his stock spent Now if such a Man be more troubled for his sin that brought him to so low an ebbe in the World then for the Affliction and trouble it selfe then he will not commit a fin to repair and make up his losses though he did know assuredly that the committing of such a sin would make up all again As in the story
therefore be a scandal to our Calling not a reproach to our own Names but let us be mindfull of our Vow and duty so oft as our Names are mentioned and as ready to answer to our Faith as to our Names Negligence in the wayes of God reproved THere is mention made of a Prince in Germany who being invaded by a more potent Enemy then himself yet from his Friends and Allies who flock't in to his help he soon had a goodly Army but had no money as he said â—o pay them but the truth is he was loath to part with it For which cause some went away in discontent others did not vigorously mind his businesse and so he was soon beaten out of his Kingdome and his coffers when his Pallace was rifled were found to be thwack't with treasure And thus was he ruin'd as some sick Men dye because unwilling to be at cost to pay the Physitian Now so it is that few or none are to be found but would be glad their Souls might be saved at last but where is the Man or Woman that makes it appear by their Vigorous endeavour that they mean in earnest What Warlike-preparation do they make against Satan who lyes between them and home Where are their Arms where their skill to use them their resolution to stand to them and conscionable care to exercise themselves daily in the use of them Thus to do is a rarity indeed if woulding and wishing would bring them to Heaven then they may likely come thither but as for this diligence in the wayes of God this circumspect walking this Wrestling and fighting this making Religion our businesse they are far from these as at last in so doing they are like to be from Heaven No way to Happinesse but by Holinesse ONe fitly compares Holinesse and Happinesse to those two sisters Leah and Rachel Happinesse like Rachel seems the fayrer even a carnal heart may fall in love with that but Holinesse like Leah is the elder and beautifull also though in this life it appears with some disadvantage her eyes being bleared with tears of Repentance and her face furrowed with the works of Mortification but this is the Law of that Heavenly Country that the younger sister must not be bestowed before the Elder We cannot enjoy fair Rachell Heaven and Happinesse except first we embrace tender-eyed Leah Holinesse with all her severe duties of Repentance and Mortification If we will have Heaven we must have Christ If Christ we must like his service as well as his Sacrifice there 's no way to Happinesse but by Holinesse Men deluded by Satan in not taking the right notion of Sin IT is with men in sinning as it is with Armies in fighting Captains beat their Drums for Voluntiers and promise all that list pay and plunder and this makes them come trowling in but few consider what the ground of the War is or for what Thus Satan enticeth Men to Sin and giveth golden promises of what they shall have in his service with which silly Souls are won but how few ask their Souls Whom do I sin against What is the Devills design in drawing me to Sin Shall I tell thee Dost thou think 't is thy pleasure or profit he desires in thy sinning Alas he means nothing lesse he hath greater plots in his head then so He hath by his Apostacy proclaimed war against God and he brings thee by sinning to espouse his quarrel and to jeopard the life of thy Soul in defence of his pride and lust which that he may do he cares no more for the damnation of thy Soul then the great Turk doth to see a company of his slaves cut off for the carrying on of his design in the time of a siege If therefore thou wilt not be deluded by him take the right notion of Sin and labour to understand the bottome of his bloudy design intended against thee Gods love to his Children in the midst of spirituall desertions And how so AS Ioseph when he spake roughly to his brethren and made them believe he would take them for spyes still his heart was toward them and he was as full of love as ever he could hold he was fain to go aside and weep And as Moses his Mother when she puâ— her child into the Ark of bul-rushes and went a little way from it yet still her eye was toward it The babe wept I and the Mother wept too So God when he goes a side as if he had forsaken his children yet he is full of sympathy and love towards them It is one thing for God to desert another thing to dis-inherit How shall I give thee up O Ephraim Hos. 8. 11. This is a Metaphor taken from a Father going about to dis-inherit his Son and while he is going to set his hand to the deed his bowels begin to melt and to yearn over him though he be a prodigall child yet he is a child I will not cut off the entail So saith God How shall I give thee up though Ephraim hath been a Rebellious Son yet he is my Son I will not dis-inherit him Gods heart may be full of love when there is a vail upon his face The Lord may change his dispensation towards his children but not his disposition So that the believer may confidently say I am adopted and let God do what he will with me let him take the rod or the staff 't is all one to me so long as he loves me The day of Death becomes the good Mans comfort And how so THe Persians had a certain day in the year which they called Vitiorum interitum wherein they used to kill all Serpents and venemous Creatures Such a day as that will the Day of Death be to a Man in Christ this day the old Serpent dyes in a believer that hath so often sâ—ung him with his Temptations this day the sins of the Godly these venemous Creatures shall all be destroyed they shall never be proud more they shall never grieve the Spirit of God more the death of the body shall quite destroy the body of death so that Sin which was the Midwife that brought Death into the World Death shall be the grave to bury sin O the priviledg and comfort of a true believer he is not taken away in his sins but he is taken away from his sins and death is made unto him advantage Heavenly happinesse not to be expressed NIcephorus tells us of one Agbarus a great Man that hearing so much of Christs fame by reason of the Miracles he wrought sent a Painter to take his picture and that the Painter when he came was not able to do it because of that radiancy and divine splendor which sate on Christs face Whether this be true or no penes sit authorem but to be sure there is such a brightnesse on the face of Christ glorified and that Happinesse which
whereof hath been a great inlet to Idlenesse negligence and ignorance in the study of Divinity Blessednesse of the Poor in spirit in the matter of Hearing Gods Word IT is fabled that when Iuno on a day had proclaimed a great Reward to him that brought her the best present there came in a Physitian a Poet a Merchant a Philosopher and a Beggar The Physitian presented a hidden secret of Nature a prescript able to make an old Man young again The Poet an Encomiastick Ode of her bird the Peacock The Merchant a rare hallow Iewell to hang at her ear The Philosopher a book of strange Mysteries The poor quaking Beggar onely a bended knee saying I have nothing that is worth acceptance Accipe meipsum Take my self Thus it is that many come unto God in the hearing of his Word with prescripts of their own they have receipts enow already they care for no more Others like the Poet come to admire Peacocks the gawdy Popinjayes and Fashionists of the time all to be dawb'd with gold and silver Feathers Others like the Merchant present Jewels but they are hallow they come with criticall or hypocritical humours like Carps to bite the net and wound the Fisher not to be taken Some like the Philosopher bring a book with them which they read without minding the Preacher saying They can find more Learning there then he can teach them But blessed are the poor in spirit that like the Beggar give themselves to God Iuno gave the reward to him and God gives the blessing to these It is a poor Reverently devoted heart that carries away the comfort Godlinesse in the humble dust of adoration that shall be lifted up by the hand of Mercy Christ to be our Example and Pattern of Imitation in life and death ST Hierome having read the life and death of Hilarion one that lived most Christianly and dyed most comfortably folded up the book saying Well Hilarion shall be the Champion that I will follow his good life shall be my Example and his godly death my President How much more then should each of us first read with diligence the life and death of Iesus Christ and then propound him to our selves as the most absolute pattern for our Imitation resolving by the Grace of God that Christ shall be the copy after which we will write the pattern which we will follow in all things that he hath left within the sphear of our Activity so also in that necessary duty of Preparation for death He did so Iob. 14. and we must do so For as in shooting there is a deliberate draught of the bow a good aym taken before the loose be given so if ever we look for comfort in death we must look at death through the preparation for it The greatest of things wrought by God without means AS when Gedeon was to fight with the Midianites pretending that his Army was but a few How many hast thou saith the Lord So many thousand They are too many The Lord will not have them all but commands them to be reduced to one half and yet there were too many the Lord would not work by them they were too strong At last he comes to make choyce of them by lapping in the water then they came to three hundred Men to fight against three hundred thousand For it is said they covered the Earth like Grashoppers And now the Lord begins to work by these Men. And how doth he work by Weapons No but with a few broken pitchers in their hands and they had the day of it the Midianites be delivered up into their hands as a prey This was a wonderful act of the great God who not tyed to means wrought out Victory by his own arm It is true that means and second causes he hath much honoured in the World and commands them to be used but when he comes to effect great things such as was the Redemption of Mankind by Christ such as shall be the Resurrection of the dead at the last day then such means and causes as seek to set him forward he rejects them and works not by them but the clean contrary The greater stench the bodies have sustained in the grave shall work it unto greater sweetnesse and the greater weaknesse it had the greater strength shall accrew unto it and wondrous puissance shall God work unto that part that lacked honour according to his blessed dispensation in all things Not to be Angry with our Brother A Railing Fellow fell very foul upon Pericles a Man of a Civil and Socraticaâ— spirit and he left him not all the day long but continued till he had brought him to his own doors in the Evening somewhat late at Night He all this while not returning one unbeseeming word commanded one of his Servants with a Torch to light the brawler home to his house Thus did he by the dim light of Nature And therefore if a brother offend us upon ignorance let us neglect it if upon infirmity forget it if upon malice forbear it upon what terms soever forgive it as we would have God to forgive us It is a saying That every Man is either a Fool or a Physitian so every Christian is either a Mad-man or a Divine A Mad-man if he give his passions the rein a Divine if he qualifie them The Natural Mans blindnesse in Spirituall things WHen Xeuxes drew his Master-piece and Nicostratus fell into admiration of the rarenesse thereof highly commending the exquisitenesse of the work there stood by a rich Ignorant who would needs know what he had discovered worthy of so great applause To whom Nicostratus made this answer My Friend couldst thou but see with my eyes thou wouldst soon see cause enough to wonder as well as I do Thus it is that the dear Children of God have inexhaustible treasure even in the midst of their poverty transcendent dignity in the midst of their disgraces heighth of tranquillity in the very depth of tribulation their pulse and Locusts relish better then all the Gluttons delicious fare their Sheep-skins Goat-skins and Camels hair wear finer then all the Purple and soft rayment the Worlds hate makes them happier then all the applauses of the Capitol Now the sensual carnal Naturalist sees none of all this he perceives not the things of the spirit neither indeed can he for they are spiritually discerned no Man knowes them but he that hath them but had he spirituall sight were but the scales fallen off from his eyes as they did from S. Paul's at the time of his Conversion then he would clearly see and say as the same S. Paul did That though we suffer tribulation in all things yet we are not distressed we are brought into perplexities yet we are not forsaken Negligent Hearing of Gods Word condemned A Servant coming from Church praiseth the Sermon to his Master He asks him What was the
Non-resident sloathfull Minister worthily discouraged THere was a certain idle Monk in Winchester who complaining to King Henry the second that the Bishop had taken away three of their dishes and left them but ten the King replyed That the Bishop should do well to take away the ten and leave them the three And iâ— is just with all Men especially Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments that if they have crimen immane and nomen inane that they should have mercedem â—enuem a slender recompence if inertes then justly inopes especially cum valuerint et non voluerint praedicare when they are able and are not willing to Preach then let double honour which is countenance and maintenance be kept from them The true comfort of Election A Man may have his name set down in the Chronicles yet lost wrought in durable Marble yet perish set upon a Monument equall to a Colossus yet be ignominious inscribed on the Hospital gates yet go to Hell written in the front of his own house yet another come to possesse it All these are but writings in the dust or upon the waters where the characters perish so soon as they are made they no more prove a Man happy then the Fool could prove Pontius Pilate because his name was written in the Creed But the true comfort is this when a Man by assurance can conclude with his own Soul that his name is written in those eternal leaves of Heaven in the book of Gods Election which shall never be wrapped up in the cloudy sheets of darknesse but remain legible to all Eternity How to be assured of our Election A Senator relating to his Son the great honours decreed to a number of Souldiers whose names were written in a book the Son was importunate to see that book The Father shews him the outside it seemed so glorious that he desired him to open it No by no means it was sealed by the Councell Then sayes the Son tell me if my name be there The Father replied the names are secretted to the Senate The Son studying how he might get some satisfaction desired him to deliver the merits of those inscribed Souldiers The Father relates to him their noble atchievements and worthy acts of Valour wherewith they had eternized their names Such are written said he and none but such must be written in this book The Son consulting with his own Heart that he had no such Trophyes to shew but had spent his time in courting Ladies rather then encountring Knights that he was better for a dance then a March that he knew no drum but the Tabret no courage but to be drunk Hereupon he presently retired himself repented entered into a combat with his own affections subdued them became tempâ—rate continent valiant vertuous When the Souldiers came to receive their wreaths he steps in to challenge one for himself being asked upon what title he answered If honours be given to Conquerours I have gotten the noble conquest of all Wherein These have subdued strange Foes but I have conquered my self Now whosover thou art that desirest to know whose names are written in Heaven who is elected to life eternal it shall not be told thee This or that undividuall person but generally thus Men so qualified faithfull in Christ and to Christ obedient to the truth and for the truth that have subjected their owne affections and resigned themselves to the guidance of the Heavenly will These men have made noble conquests and shall have Princely Crowns Find but in thy self this Sanctimony and thou art sure of thy Election In Rome the Patres conscripti were distinguished by their Robes as the Liveries of London from the rest of the Company so thy name is enrolled in the Legend of Gods Saints if thy Livery witnesse it that thy conversation is in Heaven 1 Joh. 3. 16. No time to be mis-spent THere were three speciall faults whereof Cato professed himself to have seriously repented One was passing by water when he might have gon by land another was trusting a secret in a Womans bosome but the main one was spending an hour unprofitably But how many hours not onely on common dayes but upon the Lords day that concerns the businesse of our Souls have and do we still unprofitably lavish Let us then embrace the counsell which Ierome gave to Rusticus Be ever doing Ut quando Diabolus veniat occupatum inveniat that when the Devill comes with â—is businesse he may find us at our businesse It is the sitting bird that is so easily shot so long as she is flying in the Ayre the murthering piece is not leveld at her and let us be going on in good employment and then we shall not be so fair a maâ—k for the Devill to aym at The happinesse of good Government IT was a smart invention of him that having placed the Emperour and the Pope reconciled in their Majestick thrones he brought in the several states and conditions of the World before them First came a Counsellour of State with this Motto I advise you two then a Courtier I flatter you three then a Husbandman I feed you four then a Merchant I cozen you five then a Lawyer I rob you six Then a Souldier I fight for you seaven Then a Physitian I kill you eight Lastly a Priest I absolve you nine This was his Satyre but happy is both that Church and Common-weal where legall Authority doth govern in truth and peace Tâ—e Counsellour advise the Judge censure the Husbandman labour Merchant traffique â—he Lawyer plead the Souldier bear Arms the Divine preach all bring forth the fruits of Righteousnesse so that they become an exemplary encouragement to their Neighbours children may be blessed after them Enâ—mies convinced Aliens coâ—verted Sathan confounded the Gospell adorned and their Souls eternally saved The Laity abused by the Roman Clergy in the matter of Confession IT is mentioned in a Fable how the Woolf the Fox and the Ass went to shrift together to do penance The Woolf confesseth himself to the Fox who easily absolveth him The Fox doth the like to the Woolf and receiveth the like favour After this the Ass comes to Confession and his fault was that being hungry he had taken one straw from the sheaf of a Pilgrim travailing to Rome whereof he was heartily penitent but that would not serve the law was executed severely upon him he was slain and devoured By the Woolf is meant the Pope by the Fox his Cardinals Iesuites and Priests these quickly absolve one another how hainous soever their offences are but when the poor Ass that 's the Romish ridden Laity come to shrift though his offence be not the weight and worth of a straw yet on his back shall the rigour of the Law be laid he shall be sure to pay for all The want of Hospitality reproved A great Man of the new modell had curiously engraven
the matter of Society laid open 337. The sincere upright man described 604. The scarciâ—y of such 612. How to deal with sin being once committed 603. Wherein the poysonfull nature of Sin consisteth 608. Sins lethargy 629. Sin to be removed as the cause of all sorrow 636. Sinne the godly Man's hatred thereof 642. The woful gradation of Sin 659. The best of Men not free from sin in this life 470. 548. Sin of the meanest Man in a Nation may be the destruction of it 509. The extream folly of Sin 510. Sin may be excused here in this World but not hereafter 514. Insensibility of Sin the sadnesse thereof 521. Sin in its original easie to be found 582. How sins may be said to ouâ—-live the Sinner 585. Sin the strange nature thereof 596. All Sinne mâ—st be hated and why so 598. God not the author of Sin 599. How it is that the singling out of one beloved Sin makes way to a full sight of all sin 351. Sin committed with deliberation premeditation c. greatly provoketh the Holy Spirit of God 353. To take heed of smaller sins as bringing on greater 354. 649. Men covering their Sins with specious pretences reproved 361. To beware of masked specious sins 368. Beloved Sins hardly parted withall 376. When it is that a Man is said throughly to forsake his Sin 391. Men deluded by Satan in not taking the right notion of Sin 395. Every Man to confesse that his own Sin is the cause though not always the occasion of punishment 421. New inventions of Sin condemned 453. The great danger of living in any one known sin 456. Sin unrepented of heavy upon the Soul at the time of death 456. Consideration of our secret sins a motive to compassionate others 457. No Man able to free himself from Sin 240. The great danger of sleighting the least Sin 256. 597. Sin not consented unto excusable before God 271. Sins of infirmity how to be known from other sins 273. Great Sins attended by great Judgments 286. Sin of a destructive Nature 288. 531. 607. To be affected with the falling of others into Sin 296. The great danger of Sin unrepented of 298. How it is that every Man hath one darling sin or other 327. The distemper of Sin not easily cured 332. Godly and wicked Men their difference in the haâ—red of Sin 350. The more a Man is now troubled for Sin the lesse shall he be troubled hereafter and why so 350. The sad condition of adding Sinne to sinne 237. The least of Sinnes to be prevented 46. 593. Sin to be renounced as the cause of Christ's death 59. 649. Sin onely is the godly Mans terrour 132. Sins of Infirmity in the best of Gods Children 143. Sin overthrowes all 1â—7 The retaining of one Sin spoyleth a greaâ— deal of good in the Soul 149. One Sin never goes alone 172. Strange Sinnes strange punishments 183. Not to be in love with sin 199. One foul sin spoyleth a great deal of Grace 203. When sins are at the height they come to destruction 205. The great danger of little sinnes 218. 367. 659. The sense of sinne is from God onely 221. Sinne of a dangerous spreading nature 415. How it is that one Man may be said to be punished for another Maâ—â— sin 419. Sin to be looked on as the cause of all sorrow 464. The slavery of Sinne to be avoided 499. 625. Sin to be looked on as it is fierce and cruell 535. Sin and the Sinner very hardly parted 536. Some one sinfull quality or other predominant 548. The great danger and guilt of lying under the guilt of any one eminent sinne 600. The sinsulnesse of sin 601. As to beware of all sins so of beloved sins 602. The growth of Sin to be prevented 10. How Sin is made the prevention of Sinne 39. Sin trampleth on Christ 50. Little Sins if not prevented bring on greatâ—r to the ruine of the Soul 56. Sense of Sin is an entrance to the sâ—ate of Grace 56. Impossible for a Man to know all his sins 57. The difference of Sins as they are Men regenerate and unregenerate 60. The weight of Sin to be seriously peysed 77. Remembrance of sins past the onely way to prevent sins to come 83. Relapses into sin dangerous 89. Every impenitent Sinner is his own tormentor 50. A sinful Man is a senselesse Man 80. The Sinners estate miserable 89. A gracelesse Sinner will continue to be a sinner still 92. The wrath oâ— God best appeased when the Sinner appearâ—th with Christ in his arms 99. The Devils charge and the Sinners disâ—harge 131. The Sinner's Memeâ—to 204. Desperate madnesse 639. The Sinner's security 216. God's acceptance of Sinners through Christ 217. The incorrigible Sinner's stupidity 264. His desperate condition 590. The secure carelâ—sse Sinner 509. Sinners crucifying the Lord of life daily 537. The Devil 's hard dealing with the ensnared Sinner 594. How the wounded Sinner is to be cured 595. An ungrations Son not worthy to be his Fathers heir 40. The excellency of Sonday or Lords Day above other dayes 539. To be more strict in the holy observation of Sonday or Sabbath then heretofâ—re And why so 540. Sorrowes of this life not comparable to the joyes of another 162. The best improvement of Worldly sorrow 185. Sorrow that is true is for the most part silent 293. The excellency of godly sorrow for Sinne 362. For a Man to be sorry that he cannot be sorry for sin is a part of godly Sorrow for sin 519. The least proportion of godly sorrow for sin accepted by God 520. Sorrow for sinne must be in particulars 559. Must be proportionable 560. Other mens sins are the good mans sorrow 581. A meer Souldier an enemy to peace 107. The truly noble Souldier 336. The Soulâ—ier's Calling honourable 415. Whereiâ— the true valour of a Captain or Souldier in War consisteth 544. The devout Soul will admit of none but Christ 10. More care for the body then the Soul condemned 11. No quietnesse in the Soul till it come to Christ 19. If the Soul be safe all 's safe 42. The Souls comfortable Union with Christ 44. How the Soul lives in Christ onely 44. The Souls sleighting of Christ offering mercies condemned 37. The winning of a Soul unto God very acceptable unto God 153. The health of the Soul is the true health of the body 162. To be careful for the Souls good 182. To take especial care for the Souls safety 348. 458. Men living as though they had not Souls to save reproved 368. How it is that Soul and body come to be both punished together 377. 675. The captivated Soul restless till it be in Christ Jesus 415 420. The Souls comfortable enjoyment of Christ 419. The Soul of Man pretious in the sight of God 462. Excellency of the Soul of Man 502. A foul polluted Soul the object of Gods hatred 503. The high price of the Soul 503. The folly of Men in parting with their