yet divers instances may be produced to prove That Avarice doth change into Ambition in mens declining age Martius Crassus p See Plutarch in his life had by a sordid kinde of Avarice attained to the greatest riches of any that we read of and yet out of Envy that he bore to the warlike atchievements of Pompeius and Caesar such an insatiable Ambition or desire of honor possessed him in his declining age That at threescore and three yeers of age he gave away half his estate to the common people of Rome to obtain a general Commission to be Commander in chief of the Roman Legions that were appointed to make war in the furthest parts of Armenia against the Parthians Which insatiable and unseasonable Ambition of his was ingeniously reproved by an old Armenian Knight of whom he did desire to be informed of the condition and distance of the way he was to undergo and power he was to oppose in this Parthian journy saying unto him That it was too great for him to undertake the same in his declining age and that the morning Sun of his age had been fitter for such an enterprise then the setting of it And had Crassus been ruled by this wholesom Counsel he had not by his insatiable desire of honor faln from the highest degree of worldly prosperity to the lowest degree of humane disgrace and misery as he did for by this rash enterprise he was the cause of his own death and of his eldest sons and of the lives of a great part of the bravest Nobility of Rome and of the rout and utter overthrow of his whole Army This is to prove That men in their declining age are fitter for Counsel then for Action and that is the reason that the Roman Senate the Counsel of Areopage and the Senate of Venice have been and are composed of men much advanced in their declining age because their Passions are commonly more moderate their Experience greater their Judgment more solid and their Counsels safer then of those who are in the youth or virility of their age for as Job saith With the ancient should be wisdom and in length of yeers understanding q Job 12.12 Contrarily there have been others in whom the desire of honor hath raigned in their youth and virility as their Noble Martial atchievements do witness who have changed this Ambitious Passion into the Sordid Passion of Avarice in their declining age As may appear by the lives of Vespasiaanus r See Dion and the English and the French Histories of Henry the seventh King of England and of Henry the fourth King of France Howsoever the desire of Wine of Money and the malicious Passion of Envy is more natural and doth commonly increase with age as much as rash Temerity and carnal Delights do diminish by age whereby I conclude That the declining age of men is not free from Vanity For what greater Vanity can there be then to Envy at another mans prosperity or to desire Wine when our head-piece is so weakened by age that it cannot overcome the vapors of it or to desire Money when we have less need of it sith we daily expect to be carried to our Graves Sixthly and Lastly The decrepit age of men begins at seventy and ends when Death strikes them with her Dart which is according to the course of life between fourscore or fourscore and ten For none attains to the days of Methuselah Å¿ Gen. 6.26 or of the Patriarks Abraham Isaac and Jacob for God hath shortened the days of men because of their transgressions as it appears Gen. 7.3 My Spirit saith the Lord shall not alwayes strive with man for he also is flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty years and the oldest man that hath been known in this age of the world was a Shropshire Husbandman that was brought up to London as a wonder in the days of King James who was said to be one hundred and thirtie three years of age and this long life of his according to the opinion of the learned Physitians did proceed from the simplicity of his meate and drink for as soon as he came to be fed with the dainties of the Court he came to be diseased and suddenly departed this life Plinius and other Naturalists have much troubled themselves to finde out the naturall reasons why mens lives are so short the best reason they give for it is their immoderate diet and the variety of dainties and change of superfluous meats cooked with art inticing men to gluttony and drunkenness for daily experience doth shew that those who live soberly and live upon simple food avoiding slowth and idleness do live commonly longer then such as feed on dainties and use a sedentary life but the chief cause of it is that men do daily increase in sin and it is just with God for the punishment of their sins to shorten their lives sith as the Apostle Paul saith t Rom. 6.23 That the wages of sin is death howsoever the decrepit age of men except it be indowed with free grace and sanctified by the blessed Spirit of God it is the vanity of vanities and the misery of all miseries for the numerous infirmities incident to it and especially if penury doth accompany the same for old age with penury is the greatest affliction that can befal to generous spirits and the greatest tentation of Satan to intice men to despair for if rich men who have all manner of comforts cannot with patience support the infirmities of a decrepit age but murmure as some have done in my hearing that they were weary of their lives of what distemper must the poor aged people be who have no worldly comforts at all but are ready to starve for cold and to famish for want of food therefore tender and compassionated Christians should exercise their charity upon these objects of unparalleld misery as the most acceptable sacrifice they can offer to God and yet all the hearts of most men are so hardened by a just Judgment of God upon this Nation for its transgressions that they can look upon these dying objects of compassion whoperish daily in the streets without pity or reluctation Now for a conclusion and confirmation of the vanity and misery incident to the life of men I will make a short relation of the Maladies incident to every one of the ages of their lives first in their very conception they may be extinguished by ill sents and vapours and by divers accidents of bruises or falls secondly in their infancy by the squincy convulsions measles or the smal pox thirdly in their adolescency by the sword the pleuresie and burning feavers fourthly in their virility by sanguin apoplexies bloudy-flixes and consumptions fifthly in their declining age by the stone and the gout by dropsies paralepsies and flegmtick apoplexies and in the decrepit age by gouts aches cough the retentions of urine the strangullion poverty cold and
c 2 Sam. 15.6 stole the hearts of the people of Israel from his father Divers other qualities might be produced which abstract Love from others but these shall serve for this time Sixthly The effects of Love are either Good or Bad according to the end of it for if the end of mens Love be Good the effects of it are always comfortable but if the end of their Love is to satisfie their lust it is always destructive and fatall and so proved the love of d Gen. 34.2 Sechem to Dinah and the love e 2 Sam. 13.14 28. Homers Illiades Livius Decade 1. lib. 2. of Amnon to his sister Tamar and the rape of Helen by Paris was the cause of the ruine of Troy the Rape of Lucretia by Tarquinus was the cause that Rome from a Monarchy fell into a Democracy the violence committed by the f Judg. 19.25 Gibeathites to the Levit's Concubine was the cause of the death of fourty thousand Israelites and almost of the utter ruine of the whole Tribe of Benjamin and the love of Antonius to Cleopatra was the cause of their lamentable end but sith a volume would not contain all the examples that might be produced of the evil effects of lust varnished over with the name of Love I will now speak of the effects of true Love first See Plutarch in the two young Graccus lives The love of Tiberius Graccus towards his vertuous wife Cornelia was such as he slew the male Serpeut and spared the femall on purpose that he might save her life by the loss of his own secondly The love of Antonio Perez's wife to him was such as she ventured her own life to save his See the Spainsh History in the raign of Philip the second thirdly The love of Portia daughter to famous Cato and wife to Martius Brutus was so vehement and passionate that being informed of his death at the battell of Philippi See Bâ—utus life in Appian she smothered her self by casting a handful of burning coles into her mouth fourthly The love of Artemisa Queen of Caria towards her beloved husband Mausolus was so violent that being dead See Plutarchs Morals it could not suffer his body to have any other grave then her own bowels for she caused the same to be burned and drank a portion of his ashes at every meal in commemoration of their constant love See the Italian History fifthly The love of an Italian Gentleman to his betrothed Mistress is to be commended for hearing she had been taken at sea by some Pirats of Tunis and sold for a Slave he went over into Africa and redeemed her with an incredible sum of money sixthly The incredible love and fidelity of Damon and Pythias two Sicilian Noble men is to be admired for Dionysius the Elder King or Tyrant of Syracuse having upon some jealousie of state caused Damon to be cast into prison and to be condemned to death Damon presented a petition unto him desiring to have leave for eight days to go into the Countrey to set his houshold in order See old Dionisius life promising to return Dionysius granted the same upon this condition that some other Noble man of his means and degree should bail him body for body and life for life and should remain in durance untill the day appointed for his return Pythias his intimate friend bailed him of his free accord and yeelds himself prisoner in Damons stead but the day being come and almost the hour appointed at hand and Damon not appearing Dionysius began to deride Pythias for his credulity of the constancy of his friend yet before the hour went out Damon came in and presented himself to the King desiring his friend might be discharged at whose love fidelity and constancy Dionysius was so astonished that he set them both at liberty and required to be accepted for the third of their society yet all these admirable effects of Love are as much inferior to the Love of God towards man as the finite is inferior to the infinite as it will appear by the insuing Discourse Seventhly The Love of God towards men is altogether incomprehensible as it will appear by these expressions of the blessed Spirit For God saith St. Iohn g Ioh. 3.6 so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life and Christ saith himself h Ioh. 10.10 That he is the good Shepherd who hath given his life for his sheep And St. Iohn saith i 1 Ioh 4 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Beloved let us love one another for love cometh of God and every man that loveth is born of God he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another no man hath seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world These words of St. Iohn and divers others to the later end of this Chapter do confirm the Point that Gods Love is the Adamant stone that draweth our love to him and that we cannot of our selves love him before he be pleased to love us Eighthly As for the love of man towards God it comes infinitely short of Gods love towards them for if any love God it is a gift of his free grace and God hath loved his elect before the creation of the world and St. Paul a Rom. 9.13 doth give us a clear instance for it Rom. 9.13 For God saith he loved Jacob and hated Esau from their mothers womb and the heart of b 1 Sam. 13.14 David was framed after Gods own heart and that is the reason why this holy man hath such rare expressions in his Psalms of his unfained love towards God And to confirm the choise and election of Gods faithful ones we have divers instances of it in his Word for Moses c Numb 16.5 was a chosen servant of the Lord as it appears by these words Even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him And Aaron d Deut. 18.5 was a chosen servant of the Lord as appears Deut. 18.5 And Cyrus King of Persia e Isai 44.28 was a chosen servant of the Lord to execute his will as it appears Isai 44.28 And St. Paul f Act. 9.15 was a chosen vessel of the Lord as it appears Act 9.15 But
Parents towards them and this indulgency and fond love of Parents is the cause of two evils first that the children come to a shameful end secondly that their Parents hoary heads go down with sorrow to the grave and Solomon confirms the same The rod and k Prov. 29.15.17 reproof give wisdom but a childe left to himself bringeth his mother to shame and in the 17. vers Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest yea he shall give delight unto thy soul This Infancy of man is then but meer vanity for the first five years of it is but imbecillity the second five but puerility and the last five nothing but malice obstinacy and disobedience so that according to their good or bad education they become a blessing or a curse to their Parents Thirdly the adolescency or youth of man begins at 15 years of age and ends at thirty the greater part of it is spent under the restraint of their Tutors or Masters and by consequence freed from cares and curbed from vices if their Tutors or Masters discharge their duty but if they do not they commonly become so vicious that without the speciall grace of God they can never be recalled and continue prophane and unthrifty all their dayes And therefore Tutors and Masters who neglect their duty and are too indulgent towards their Pupils or Servants are the cause of their overthrow and will be called to a strict account for it before the Tribunal of God The remisness or indulgency of i 1 Sam. 2.2.3 and 3.17.18 Ely towards his two sons Hophny and Phineas drew a great judgment of God upon him and upon them both and the Pupils and Servants that reject the sharp reprehensions and corrections of their Tutors or Masters aggravate their own guilt and acquit their Tutors and Masters for they do not shew themselves onely disobedient to them but also to God for St. Paul chargeth them m Ephe. 6.5.9 Servants be obedient to them that are your Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye-service as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ And ye masters do the same things unto them forbearing threatnings knowing that your master also is in Heaven neither is there respect of persons with him But when young men are freed from the subjection of their Tutors and Masters and have as it were the Bridle cast over their necks they run as fiercely after the pleasures delights and vanities of the flesh as untamed Colts run from their riders when they have cast them down and without Gods special grace miscarry in their race as it is confirmed by Solomon who in derision of their folly saith Rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment n Eccles 11.9 The reason why in this age men are more addicted to their pleasure then in any other is Because their Passions are more predominant in them and experience doth shew That from twenty five yeers to thirty five yeers of age men are by the strength of their bodies the abundance and hear of their blood in which doth reside the vital spirits fitter for great enterprises where they may shew their courage and valor then at any other season and that the Passions of Love and Ambition are more violent in them then in any other age For the Adolescency of men is compared to the Spring their Maturity or Virility to the Summer their Declination to the Autumn or Harvest and their decrepit age to Winter the most irksome time of the yeer But as it is the most pleasant and precious age of men so is it the most dangerous for more are carried away with death in this age then in any other because of the distemper and excessive riots of young men which beget burning Feavers Pleurisies Sanguine Apoplexies and divers loathsom Diseases that sends them to their Grave before their time And as their Passions are more turbulent in that age so are their Actions more irregular Young men being most addicted to Vindication Spleen Indignation Wrath Rapines and Oppressions then others and as fickle and inconstant as the wind fit to undertake and active to execute but rash and inconsiderate for want of a rational solidity of Judgment In a word As this age of man hath many rare Prerogatives over the others so it is subject to great inconveniencies and fuller of vanity then any Fourthly The maturity of mans age begins at Thirty and continues till Fourty five In this age mens mindes are commonly full of the cares of this world they have wives children and servants to care for and as their families increase so doth their toyl and their cares The vices or sins of their youth are rather changed then forsaken their delights and pleasures are changed to Envy or Avarice their desires are now bent to attain to honor and riches and to out-go their neighbors in all things but in Vertue or a Godly life their thoughts flie high and are bent only upon Machavilian policies that they may by them over-reach their Brethren by false lights by falsifications of Wares by distinctions and equivocations and as for Religion they use it onely as a baite to deceive men and are more unsatiable after gain and money then the Horse-Leeches are after blood They account this saying of Solomon a Paradox He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase He that trusteth in his riches shall fall but the righteous shall flourish as a branch o Eccles 10.5 6 7 8. And so either by right or wrong they will become rich and honorable at least in shew according to the world but not really according to God for in his sight they are the most vile the poorest and the most despised Creatures under the Sun for they never take into consideration this saying of our blessed Saviour What availeth if a man getteth all the world and loose his own soul This virility of man is then but vanity and not inferior in Vices to Adolescency but they are not so visible to the eyes of men but as odious to the eyes of God Fiftly The declination of mens lives begins at fourty five yeers and continues till seventy This age of man is as much subject to Envy and Avarice as the former age is to Ambition and carking cares whereby it appears that mens Passions and Sins do rather change then forsake them for volupty and carnal delights to which young men are most addicted in their Adolescency doth change in their declining age to Envy and Avarice and sometimes their Avarice doth change to Ambition a Passion more incident to the virility or mature age of men then to old age
or if this motion be over-fierce and violent it doth extinguish their life as the snuff of a Candle goeth out when it hath no more tallow to sustain its light Now the heart who is the efficient cause of life being thus deprived of heat loseth its motion upon which depends the life of men for the beating of the heart gives life and motion to all the members of the body and is congealed and frozen to death by this sudden motion and privation as water is congealed into Ice by a great frost and this may be confirmed by another violent action of men of which many are yet living that were eye-witnesses to it Two English Foot-men running a race for a great wager from London to Kingston did by their swift and violent running so drive their blood and vital spirits from the heart to the extreamest parts of their bodies that their faces looked as black as their hats one of them obtained the victory and out-ran the other about twenty yards and being joyful of his gain and honor presumed over-much of his strength and did not use the means to preserve himself as the other did who was much more distempered then he whereby his blood and vital spirits in stead of returning to the heart were congealed in the extream parts of his body by taking cold which did deprive him of life within few hours after but the other putting on his apparel and covering himself with a warm cloak prayed two of his fellows to walk him up and down till his blood and vital spirits were setled again about his heart A remarkable Relation and by this means he was as well the next morning as ever he was before now the motion of the blood being more violent by the inward distemper of the fiery passion of Joy then it can be by the motion of a long-continued race it must by consequence be more dangerous and mortal then the other thirdly As the immoderate Joy hath dangerous proprieties the moderate joy hath many good for moderate joy preserves and increaseth the health of the body fourthly It giveth a seemly and loving aspect and a fresh colour to the face fifthly It makes mens company and conversation more pleasant and acceptable to all other men sixthly It makes men more chearful in their particular and general calling and pass their days through this vale of Tears with more alacrity and content Fourthly The effects of immoderate Joy would be incredible The effects of immoderate joy See Livius in his third Decade li. 3. if they had not been recorded by approved and faithful Authors first A Roman Lady saith Livius died with joy at the sight of her son whom she conceived to have been slain at the battell of Cannae secondly The Author of the Turkish History Records See the Turkish History in the life of Achmath that Sinna Basha had but one son of great valour who was taken prisoner in a sea fight by a Venetian Galley whereupon tidings were brought to Sinna his father that he had been slain in that fight because he had been wounded but by the care of the Captain of the Galley who hoped to receive a great ransom for him he did recover and his wounds were cured and it hapned some days after before the Venetian Galley could carry him to shore that it was taken at sea by Cicala Basha a great friend of the above-said Sinnae who finding this prisoner of note in the Venetian Galley was exceedingly joyful as knowing how grateful a present it would be to his friend and therefore after he had apparelled him with rich vestures he sent him in a well-appointed Galley and with an honorable train to his father Sinna that had lately been made grand Visier by Achmath Emperor of the Turks who was then at Caffa upon the black sea but this yong man was no sooner come into his sight but Sinna transported with joy fell dead at his sons feet whereby it appears that he who had the power to bear with admirable constancy the tidings of the death of his onely son had not the power to moderate the joy that he did receive by his unexpected return thirdly Theophrastus Boujou records the names and means of a dozen more at least who have died suddenly by the violent distemper of immoderate joy some by honors received others for seeing their mortal enemy ly wallowing in his own blood See Boujou in his Commentary upon Aristotle lib. 19. ca. 39. fol. 835. ready to give up the Ghost and others by looking upon Pictures which by their ugly features inforced them to such an immoderate laughter as it did deprive them of life others for being victorious in the Olympian Sports and others in the field as it is recorded of Epamonides and of the Duke of Roan who died rather for joy of two great victories obtained against their enemies in two pitcht battels then by their wounds Fifthly The bad and good use of this passion of Joy doth onely consist in the not regulating or in the regulating of it for if Joy be let in to the soul by degrees the sting and venom of it is changed into an Antidote and doth rather comfort Nature then destroy it for as it is dangerous to open the Floud-gates of a river suddenly The bad and good use of worldly joy and all at once for fear the violence of the water break down the banks and pull up the foundation of the sluce even so it is dangerous to let in into the soul all at once the swift currant of good or evil tidings therefore if Cicala Basha had only at the first sent word to the Visier Sinna that he had happily rescued his son and that as soon as his wounds should be cured he would send him back unto him in an honorable condition this had undoubtedly prevented the death of this old man but the sudden and unexpected sight of his son whom he thought to have been dead caused so violent a perturbation in his minde and so great an alteration in the vital faculties of his body that his natural strength being then in his declining age was overcome with it and his life utterly extinguished as the light of a candle is by a violent blast of winde But the Duke of Medina Coeli who was General for Philip the second King of Spain See the Spanish History in Philip the seconds life of the invincible Armado as they termed it that came against England in the Year 1588. did deal more prudently with his Prince for his ship being the first that arrived into Spain after the utter rout of this great Navy he sent a discreet Messenger unto him to inform him that some part of his Navy had miscarried by foul weather and that himself had been driven back by a storm and eight days after he sent another messenger to the King informing him of the particulars and some days after came in person to give him
argued with his Prince after this manner Suppose saith he my Liege that Fortune be so favorable to you as to grant you the fruition of your hopes See Plutarch in Pyrrhus life in which I see small probability because the Roman State is potent and abounds in valiant and warlike men and experienced Commanders where will you then fix your hopes Pyrrhus answered when I shall have the possession of Italy I will cross over into Sicilia and subdue that and then replied Cynias where will you bend your Hopes to conquer Carthage said Pyrrhus and all the coasts of Africa and whether then saith Cynias we will then saith Pyrrhus return into Albania and joy in our Conquest and make good chear and be merry and who hinders you saith Cynias to be joyful and make good chear and be merry sith you have a rich Kingdom of your own and abound in Treasures and in all things that your heart can desire my counsel is then that you should give bounds to your hopes and prefer the certain to the uncertain events of Fortune By this Instance onely these things will be confirmed first That the hopes of men are insatiable secondly That young and sanguin men are most addicted to hopes and to undertake hard and difficult enterprises thirdly That rash and inconsiderate hopes void of probabilities are always deceitful and vanish into smoke for this young and valiant Prince was deluded by his hopes and was foiled in Italy by the Romans and in lieu of the conquest of Italy of Sicilia Carthage and the coast of Africa after the shedding of his subjects blood the exhausting of his Treasures and the many hazards he was in to lose his life he was inforced to return into Albania and was slain in the City of Argos by a woman that did cast a Tyle upon his head Fifthly The effects of worldly hope may be these first it is Hope that incourageth generous spirits to undertake all hard and difficult enterprises It was Hope that moved Alexander to forsake his Kingdom of Macedonia to undertake the conquest of Asia and that made him leave a certain good for an imaginary hope of conquest which had a prosperous success against all human probabilities by the secret decree of God The effects of worldly Hopes that the Persian Monarchy should be transferred to the Greeks as it was fore-told by the Prophet Daniel It was Hope that moved Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queen of Spain to undertake the conquest of the West-Indies and by Hope the Ottoman Family hath been inticed to undertake the conquest of the third part of the Kingdoms of the earth See the Spanish History but all their hopes had no other object then self-ends and vain-glory secondly It is Hope that induceth Polititians See the Turkish History and Statesmen to impaire their health and tire their spirits to dive into the mysteries of the Maximes and Reasons of State to propagate the increase honor and glory of their native Countrey as Cardidinal Ximenez did for Spain and the Cardinal de Riche-lieu for France See the French History yet their Hopes were mixt with self-ends and vain-glory It is Hope that moves Commanders and Souldiers to venture their lives in the dangerous atchievements of war under colour to fight for the Liberties and increase of the peace and extent of the demains of their native Countrey yet Marius Sylla and Cesar had a self-end in all their Military exploits tending more to the utter subversion of the Liberties and desolation of their native Countrey then to the increase of the good or glory of it fourthly It is Hope that inticeth Merchants to venture their means and lives at Sea and Tradsmen and Artificers to moyl and toyl and the Husbandman to to endure the heat in Summer and the cold blast of the Northerly windes in Winter Hope incourageth men in their calling nay all the injuries of the Meteors of the Air but all their Hopes have no other object then their private gain and to keep themselves and their Families in a decent condition and free from penury This hope is necessary and therefore more commendable then any of the former so it be kept within the bounds of moderation because it is profitable to the Common-wealth without which it could not subsist but the other are destructive to mankinde for they are cause of much shedding of blood and of the desolation of Kingdoms fifthly Moral Hope excels worldly Hope Moral Hope is better then wordly Hope for it is a preserver of Life and the Moderator of Grief and Sorrow and a Cordial against all Anguishes and Infirmities of the body it supports men in their greatest miseries and is the opposite of the passion of despaire for it moved a Rhodian who had been cast into a dungeon ful of Adders and Snakes for some horrid crimes by him committed to use daily antidotes for his preservation and to answer to some that perswaded him to rid himself by a violent way out of that misery where he lay no saith he as long as I have breath in my nostrils I will ever hope for my deliverance and it is daily seen Hope forsakes not men till death that the Gally-slaves and those that are condemned to die do ever hope to be redeemed or reprived and the sickest or the oldest man hath hope to recover or to live one year longer Nature having as it seems indowed men with this passion of Hope for the preservation of their beeing for as soon as Hope forsakes men they go the way of all flesh or fall into despaire sixthly If Moral Hope be thus qualified it will be of excellent use first Its objects must be a real good secondly This good must be absent or to come thirdly It must be difficult to obtain fourthly It must have some probability that it may be obtained for impossibilities destroy the nature and the proprieties of Hope Vertue is then the true object of moral Hope but it must be without mixture of self-ends and Vain-glory. But Sixthly The Spiritual Hope is free from both for it is a supernatual gift of God The Apostle St. Paul in the eighth of the Romans makes a clear definition of it Hope that is seen is not Hope Rom. 8.24.25 for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Now the object of this hope is the Rock of Eternity Christ Jesus our Lord and the Joy and Glory to come for as the Apostle saith in the same Chapter We are saved by hope The cause of this hope is the immediate grace of God for so excellent a Flower doth not grow in the Garden of our corrupt Nature The effects it prroduceth in all true Christians proceed from the Promises of God and the recompence of reward as the Apostle St. Paul saith of Moses Heb. 11.24 26. By faith when