which yéeldeth his fruite in due and conuenient time whiche neuer léeseth his verdure and all that hée doeth shall succéed prosperously My brother these are the voyces the drums and trumpets wherewith Gods eternall wisedome calleth sinners vnto him if thou wilt harken to this harmenie and not lysten to the Syren songes of the subtil Serpent turne thy selfe vnto to God and amende thy life spéedily to the which ende this Treatise is addressed But how this is to be performed shal be shewed in the next volume The ende of the Conuersion of a Sinner Sundrie profitable Contemplations gathered by the saide Author The Argument A Christian man which couetteth to come vnto God must make his enterance through the gate of compunction generally confessing all his offences Wherevnto it shall auaile him much to exercise himselfe euery day in certaine Prayers and godlie Meditations and in the considerations of death and of Gods seuere iudgement CHAP. I. HE therefore that is departed out of Egypt and beginneth to march towards the land of promise hee that like vnto the loste sonne reremembreth himselfe and openeth his eyes to behold the beames of glittering vertue and knoweth the perplexitie wherein hée is plunged and the fraude of this fraile life and desireth to returne to the plenteous repastes of his fathers house his first passage must be through the straights of penance where it behoueth him ruthfully to record in his minde the former ryots and excesses and firmely to purpose the amendment of them And for that this discussion and examination ought to bee as the Prophet sayth with affliction and remorce of conscience it is the part of the penitent at that time to vse al such praiers ronsiderations as by any meanes may stir him to teares and dolour To the which auaileth much the consideration of death of Gods finall iudgement of the paines of hell and of the passion of Christ suffered for the satisfaction of our sinnes Sith it is apparant that if there had bin no defects on our side there had héene no cause of his gréeuous annoy These and such like considerations may mooue vs to sorrow and to the detestation of sin which is the chéefest part of repentance In the which we should exercise our selues not onely the space of fiue or sixe dayes but the greatest part of our life Wherein many penitents are deceiued who béeing most diligent in scouring their conscience and scanning their faultes are quite carelesse in bewayling of them whereas both the one and the other are most necessarie but chéefly the last And I thinke verily that the cause why so many faynte in the following of vertue and in long time cannot attaine to perfection and sometime to surcease their iourney begunne is because they haue not layde a sure foundation nor haue not planted the rootes déepe inough in this exercise For this béeing the piller of all the building when the foundation it selfe is féeble the worke cannot bee firme which is erected vppon it To the which ende it is very necessarie to assigne certaine dayes many or sewe as the holy ghost shall direct vs wherein as I haue sayde before we may exercise our selues in all such prayers and meditations as maye induce vs to this sorrowe For the plainer declaration of this doctrine I minde to impart vnto you a fewe of the foresaid considerations which may serue not onely to stirre vs to be sory for our sinnes and to the hatred thereof but also to allure vs to the loue of vertue and to the feare of God and to the contempt of the world for al this is néedfull to nouices and beginners The Argument He that list to encline his heart to the hatred of sinne and to the dread of God must conuey himselfe into some couert corner and must bend and imploy his minde to the contemplation of the heauenly blisse and the iniquities which abound here in earth CHAP. II. VVHosoeuer then will haue his heart setled hereupon and wil fasten this firmly in his mind must euery day once or twise take a time most quiet conuenient for that purpose and sequestring himselfe into a secret place al other earthly thoughts and vain imaginations being laid apart arming himselfe first with the shield of faith humbly crauing the grace of the holy spirit to assist him in this behalfe assuming to himselfe the minde of that deuout Publican which durst not to lift vp his eyes towards Heauen for the confusion and horrour of his offences Let him repeate some generall confession or else the Psalme Miserere mei deus with so great deuotion as he can deuise and suddenly let him apply his minde to the considerations following that by this meanes he may attain the feare of God through the sorrow the dread and detestation of sinne The Argument In the first cōsideration a christian ought to runne ouer the multitude of the mortal offences that he hath committed CHAP. III. THe first sting that may stirre vs to the woe and hatred of our iniquities is to consider the infinit number of them and to fixe them before our eyes as a terrible troupe of armed Souldiers that the soule may be appalled with so hidcous a spectacle Runne ouer therefore bréefely all the commaundements of God through all the capitall sinnes through all the sences the powers and parts as well of thy body as of thy soule and thou shalt perceiue that there is scarce any commandement which thou hast not transgressed nor any sinne wherein thou haste not sunke nor any sence externall or internall which thou haste not abused nor any benefite which thou haste imployed to that ende for which it was giuen thée But as the Prophet sayth God hath giuen thée his golde and siluer and therewith thou haste serued Baal Looke therefore into thy selfe throughly and viewe the race of thy life passed and thou shalt sée a huge webbe fraught full of deceit of trecherie of pride of lyes of slouth of enuie of couetousnesse of hatred of entisements of blasphemie of malice and of a thousand other manners of mischiefes and thou shalt finde that like a brutish beast in all and euery of these thou haste followed and fulfilled thy sensuall delights without regarde of the lawe of iustice or reason and thou shalt perceiue that thou hast liued as a Gentile or Pagan altogither which neuer knewe God or as though thou so beleeuest that there were no God no death no iudgement no paine no blisse nor any thing else to be thought but euen to be borne and to dye He then that hath liued this many yeares so disorderly shall it not be reason that he imploy the fewe dayes that are remayning of his life in bewayling his former yeares fondly consumed and to féele sensibly the ruine and decay of the powers of his soule and the time that hee might hane gayned in this while which hee shall not get hereafter For time lost can neuer be recouered Throw therefore thy selfe
Prophet saith they shall cry vnto the hilles Math. 25. saying O ye hilles fall vpon vs and close vs in your Caues that we may not shewe our selues with such excéeding shame But wo worth ye wretches your hope is frustrate ye toyle against the tide weighing the force of that sentence definitiue Go ye caitiues into euerlasting fire long since prepared for Satan and his adherents What shall that cursed generation imagine then will become of themselues hearing this for if as Iob saith we can scarce abide to heare his mildest wordes Iob. 4. who can abide those thundring threats of his omnipotencie These words shall be so sharpe and so pearsing that at the verie instant the earth shall open it selfe wide and large and into the bottome and bowels thereof shall be whirled topsie turuie all those who Iob. 2 as the same Iob saith here haue had their paradise and pleasures in sundry sortes of Musicke and harmony trifleling out their time and yeares in all kinde of mirth and iollitie This fall and cracke of the earth S. Iohn describeth in his Apocalips in this maner I saw an Angell descending from heauen with great power and with such brightnesse that all the earth was lightned therewith and hée cryed aloude saying The great Cittie of Babilon is fallen downe and is made of the habitation of diuels and the cage of all filthy and abhominable fowles And further hée sayd I sawe another mightie Angell lifting vp on high a great stone much like to a mylstone and did cast it into the sea saying With such a violence shall the great Babylon bee throwne into the bottomlesse pitte and shall neuer recouer his estate againe In this sort shall the vngodly fall into the blacke and gastly prison full of confusion and vtter desolation Esay 66. But what tongue can expresse the innumerable sundrie sorts of torments in that place addressed for the wicked There their bodies shall be broyled with furious flames cōtinually there their soules shall be consumed with the worme of conscience which will neuer cease his gréenous gnawing There shall be that incessant howling and gnashing of téeth whereof the Scriptures treateth in so many places There these vnhappie wretches surseysed with cruell dispaire and rage shall waxe wood against GOD and themselues in suche dispiteous wise that they shall deuoure their owne fleshe and in a franticke moode rent it with their nayles crashing their téeth togither and spilling their Intrailes with sorrowe and sighing blaspheming and denying continually their creator that hath adiudged them to such sharpe punishments There euery of them shall crie out vpon his cursed condition and vnfortunate byrth estsoones repeating those pittifull bewaylinges and wofull wordes of patient Iob Iob. 3. but with a minde and intent farre contrarie to his These bee the wordes Curst be the day wherin I was borne and the night in whiche it was sayd A man is come into the worlde let that day be turned into darknesse let it not be reckoned of God nor beautified with light let it be ouerwhelmed with darknesse and shadowe of death let it be full fraught with obscuritie and bitternesse let that night be ouercast with a black cloude let not that day be numbred among dayes and moneths of the yeare Why did not death receiue me so soone as I was issued out of my mothers wombe why was I not carried from the place of my byrth straight to my graue why was I lulled in my mothers lap or why did she giue me suck This shall be their melodie their mydnight mattens their morning and euening prayer O filthie tongues which babble of nothing else but brawling and blasphemie O wretched cares which heare no other things but wofull mourning O vnhappie eyes whose obiect is miserie vppon miserie O wretched bodies who haue for your harbour a fierie fornace In what case shall they then be who héere earst wallowed in wealth and wantonnesse O what fléeting delight hath wrought continuall gréefe O what wofull habitations are addressed for you Now gone is all your gallant glée and iollitie wherein you delighted for a moment for which ye now lament eternally Now what doo your treasures auayle you where is your pompe and pleasure become the seuen fertile yeares are now ended quite and in place thereof are now succéeded the seuen barren yeares which shall so consume the abundance of those which are passed that there shall not remaine any one shadow or shewe thereof Therefore all your former felicitie is drenched and wrapped vp in the waues of wretchednesse and are now driuen to such straights and scarcitie that not so much as one droppe of water shall be granted vnto you wherwith ye might somwhat asswage the raging thirst which vexeth you so furiously neyther shall your wonted prosperitie reléeue your miserie but rather thereby ye shall be more fiercely afflicted For therein is accomplished this saying of Iob Iob. 21.24.25 that the sugred soppes of the vngodly shal be at the last deuoured with wormes Which S. Gregory in his Moralls expoundeth in this sort The memory of their wonted ioyes maketh their present paine to séeme more bitter by calling to minde how braue and frolike they haue bene and how base and vile they now are come and howe for loue of that which so soone slipte away they suffer that which neuer shall haue end Then shall they perceiue euidently the subtil slights of the enemie and being called to their account shall mutter too late these sayings of Salomon Sap. 5. Woe vnto vs wretches howe apparaunt is it now vnto vs that wée haue strayed from the trade of trueth that the light of instice hath not shined vpon vs and that the sunne of intelligence hath not risen ouer vs. Wée haue wasted and wearied our selues in the crooked and crabbed way of wickednesse but we haue not stepped one foote in the plaine and easie path which leadeth to righteousnesse What are we now abettered by our Princely traine and treasure All these thinges are now vanished as the fléeting shade and as the swift Courser chased vppon the spurre as a shippe driuen with the tide and tempest which leaueth behinde no print of his passage This and such like in the infernall pitte shall bee the talke of those which haue bene offendors For that the hope and trust of sinne is like vnto chaffe chased with the winde or as the skumme and froath of the Sea dispearsed with the waues as the smoke sodeinly dissolued into the ayre or as the remembraunce of a pylgrime passing by the way These be there the complaintes and this the perpetual penance of the vngodly which shall not assist them at all because the time is passed wherein they might haue bene reléeued hereby Come therefore in the time of grace and repentaunce and you that haue eares receiue the sounde aduise of our Lorde vttered by the Prophet saying Iere. 13. Serue and glorifie God before the
of our Lord shall enuiron thée on euery side that thou mayest be honoured in the sight of God and men Then shalt thou call vpon the name of our Lorde and he will heare thée because thou louedst him and shall say vnto thée behold me here prest to accomplish whatsoeuer thou canst aske Then in the middest and déepe darkenesse of the tribulation and distresse of this life the comfortable beames of diuine fauour shall shine vpon thée and thy tribulation shall be as the middest of the day for that our Lord had ordeyned that thy miseries themselues and thy transgressions passed should accumulat vnto thée greater felicitie presenting alwayes to thy minde assured peace and firme tranquilitie And in the time of scarcitie and famine he shall féede thee full and shall supply thy wantes aboundauntly and thy bones shall be deliuered from death and from the flames of eternall fire and thou shalt be like vnto a moyst garden and as a fountaine which runneth incessantly and in thée that shall be accomplished which many yeares hath bene vnfinished to the ende thou maiest stand vpon a sure foundation from generation to generation and if thou wilt endeuour to celebrate my festiuall daies not contriuing them in foolish delightes nor in preferring thy will before mine obseruing carefully my will and behest in this voyage then will I create thée a Lord and will giue thée such solaces as shall farre surpasse all pleasures of the worlde And I will exalt thée aboue the highest turrets of the earth to a most blessed state of life wherevnto neither fortune nor humaine nature can adde or detract ought at all And after all this I wil enstal thée into the precious inheritaunce that I promised to Iacob thy father which is the benediction of glorie because the mouth of God hath spoken it These are the rewards which God promised to his seruantes of which although some are yet to come notwithstanding many of them pertaine to this present life As is that new light and heauenly brightnesse that abundance of all things that assured trust in GOD that diuine assistance to al petitions and demands that peace and securitie of conscience that diuine prouidence and protection that flourishing Gardein which is the deo king and garnishment of grace the fountaine which floweth continually which is the great plentie of all things those supernall ioyes which excéede the capacitie of man that lifting vp of the spirite which cannot be augmented by assistance of humane nature These fauours and prerogatiues promised by God are all the workes of his mercy the influence of his grace the testimonies of his loue the effect of the fatherly prouidence he extendeth to his seruaunts Vpon euery one of these I could say much more then the breuitie of this volume will permit for that euery of them would aske a seuerall Treatise Wherefore the iust shall reioyce of all these good thinges both in this life and in the life to come whereof the vniust shall be vtterly destitute By which meanes marke what oddes is betwixt the one part and the other nowe that these are so fauoured from heauen and those in such distresse and penury for if thou consider aduisedly all things before treated of doest weigh the estate and condition both of the iust and vniust thou shalt finde that the lot of the righteous is in the fauour of God but that of the vngodly in vtter disgrace The estate of the good and of the euill these are his friendes the other his professed foes these enioy the light the other dwell in darknesse these participate in delight with Angels those with dririe swine these are frée indeed and masters of themselues those other the thrals and vassalls of Satan these liue in vnitie those other in deadly discord the trust and testimonie of a false conscience delighteth these and to the other mindes resorteth alwayes the guilt of their filthy facts these with a resolute minde abide the brunt of tribulation in their accustomed place those other as light chaffe are repelled by the winde these depende vpon the anker of hope those other haue no stay to leane vnto being obiected to euery chaunce and chaunge of fickle fortune the prayers of these are acceptable to the eares of the Lord the other petitions are odious and execrable The death of these is quiet and glorious with diuine honour and that of the others troublesome defamed fraught with a thousand feares Finally these liue as children vnder the guard and gouernment of God they sléepe securely vnder the winges and shadow of his prouidence but the others excluded from this diuine protection wander too and fro as scattered beasts without head or guide thrust out to apparant perils and alaroms of fortune Then if such and so excellent perfections doo accompany vertue what restraynt can there be why thou shouldest not imbrace so soueraigne a thing what canst thou alleage for thy excuse herein To wrangle and say this is not true cannot extenuate thy guilt séeing thou seest howe it is founded vppon the infallible word of God and testimonies of the scripture To say these perfections are of small price auayleth not for that as I haue before mentioned they excéede all that mans heart can wish for To alleage that thou art thine owne enemie herein and that thou doest not desire these good things is most vntrue for a man is by nature a friende to himselfe and humaine will hath felicitie for his subiect which is the ende of his desires To affirme that thou hast no sence nor taste hereof sufficeth not to acquite thy crime considering thou beléeuest them to be true although thou canst not taste them Originall sinne bereaued thée of thy taste herein but not of thy faith and faith is a testimonie more sure more secure and more doubtlesse then all other experiences witnesses and warrants of the worlde Wherefore then doest thou not preferre this testimonie before all the other allegations Why doest thou not attribute more to fayth then to thine owne sottish séeming and iudgement O that thou wouldest determinately commit thy selfe into the handes and armes of God and trust to him onely how suddenly shouldest thou perceiue in thy selfe the accomplishment of these prophesies shouldest soone see the greatnesse of these treasures shouldest sée how senslesse and blinde all worldlings are which doo neither féele nor fancy this felicitie and shouldest sée with howe iust reason God commaunded vs this kinde of life saying Come vnto me al ye that are laden and weary and I will ease your gréefe Receiue my yoke vppon you and then ye shall finde comfort in your soules for it is full swéete and delectable God is no deceyuer his promises are neither false nor fraudulent Which sith it is so indéed why doest thou flée or faynt why doest thou abandon peace and pleasure Wherefore despisest thou the allurementes and swéete soundes of thy Pastor How darest thou to chase vertue from thée hauing such