before you die Death is yours An earthly Saint is a contradiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a man refined and separated from the earth if an Astronomer in stead of observing the Planets and the motions of the Heavens should take a reed in his hand and fall a measuring of the earth would not this be counted a solecisme and is it not as great a solecisme in Religion when men that pretend to have Christ and heaven in their eye yet minde earthly things Phil. 3.19 Our souls me thinks should be like to a ship which is made little and narrow downwards but more wide and broad upwards So our affections should be very narrow downwards to the earth but wide and large upwards towards heavenly things Thus we see death is a priviledge to believers death is yours the heire while he is under age is capable of the land he is borne to but he hath not the use or the benefit of it till he comes of age be as old as you will you are never of age till you die Death brings us of age and then the possession comes into our hands CHAP. VII The second Prerogative Royall of a Believer NOw I proceed to the second Prerogative which is yet to come what holy David saith of Sion Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Psalm 87.3 I may apply to these blessed things in reversion 2. The second Prerogative royall of a Christian is he shall be carried up by the Angels In this life a believer is carried by the Saints they lift him upon the wings of their prayers and when they can carry him no longer after death the Angels take him and carry him up thus shall it be done to the man whom God will honour Wicked men who are of the Devils life-guard when they die they shall have a black-guard of Angels to carry them Thou who art an old sinner that hast an hoary head but thy heart is as young in sinne as ever I may say to thee as Christ said in another sense to Peter When thou art old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not So I say Thou old sinner the time is shortly coming when thou shalt stretch forth thy hands on thy death-bed and another shall binde thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not thou shalt be carried by a black-guard but a believer shall be carried by the Angels into Heaven The begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham 's bosome Abraham's bosome is a figurative speech representing the seat of the Blessed thither was he carried by the Angels Poore Lazarus when he was upon earth he had no friends but dogs to come at him when he was dead he had â— convoy of Angels After our fall the Angels as well as God fell out with us and became our enemies hence we reade that the Angels set out by the Cherubims stood with a flaming sword to keepe our first Parents out of Paradise Gen. 3.24 but being at peace with God we are at peace with the Angels Therefore the Angell comes with an Olive-branch of Peace in his mouth and proclaimes with triumph the newes of Christs incarnation Luk. 2.11 For unto you is borne in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord the Angels blesse God for mans Redemption Ver. 13. And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly hoast praising God and saying Glory be to God in the highest The Angels love mankinde especially where there is the new-man and are ready to do all friendly offices for us as in our life-time they are our supporters Psal. 91.11 He shall give his Angels charge to keep thee So after death they are our Porters Lazarus was carried up by the Angels The Angels are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring Spirits they are willing to minister for the good of the Saints Hence some observe it is said Lazarus was carried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Angels in the plurall not by one Angel as if the Angels had been ambitious to carry Lazarus and every one strived which should have a part wicked men do not strive more who shall have a part in the death of the godly then the Angels do who shall beare a part in their ascension O in what pomp and triumph did Lazarus's soule now ride never was Dives so honoured in his life as Lazarus was at his death For a King to help to carry the Hearse of one of his Subjects were an high honour but a believer shall have a guard of Angels to conduct him Amasis King of Egypt that he might set forth his magnificence would have his Chariot drawn with foure Princes which he had conquered in the War but what was all this to the Chariot in which Lazarus and the soul of every believer shall be drawn at their death they shall be carried by the Angels of God CHAP. VIII The third Prerogative Royal of a Believer THe next great Prerogative is The Believer shall be with Christ in glory Phil. 1.23 I desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolved or loosen anchor and to be with Christ This is a priviledge of the first magnitude surely we can be no losers by being with Christ. A graft or scion though it be taken out of the tree it doth not perish but is set into a better stock thus it is with a Christian while he is here even after Conversion there is much of the wilde Olive still in him now when this scion by death is cut off he doth not perish but is set into a more noble and generous stock he is with Christ which is farre better a state of perfection is better then a state of imperfection Our graces are our best jewels but they are imperfect and do not give out their full lustre they are like the Moon which when it shines brightest hath a darke spot Our faith is mingled with unbeliefe our humility is stained with pride the flame of our graces is not so pure but it hath some smoake grace is but in its infancy and minority it will never be of full growth till we are with Christ. This is the highest link in the chaine of glory we shall be with Christ. What is it the pious soule desires in this life is it not to have the sweet presence of Christ he cares for nothing but what hath aliquid Christi something of Christ in it he loves duties only as they are manuductions to Christ why is prayer so sweet but because the soul hath private conference with Christ Why is the Word precious but because it is a meanes to convey Christ he comes down to us upon the wings of the Spirit and we go up to him upon the wings of Faith An ordinance without Christ is but feeding upon the dish in stead of the meat Why doth the wife â—ove the Letter
might Solomon say Better is the day of a mans death then the day of his birth Death is the spiritual man's preferment why then should he fear it Death I confesse hath a grimme visage to an impenitent sinner so it is ghastly to look upon it is a pursuivant to carry him to hell but to such as are in Christ Death is yours It is a part of the Joincture Death is like the Pillar of cloud it hath a dark-side to a sinner but it hath a light-side to a believer Deaths pale face looks ruddy when the blood of sprinkling is upon it in short Faith gives us a propriety in Heaven Death gives us a possession Feare not your priviledge the thoughts of death should be delightfull Iacob when he saw the Chariots his spirits revived Death is a Waggon or Chariot to carry us to our Fathers house What were the Martyrs flames but a fiery Chariot to carry them up to Heaven How should we long for Death This world is but a Desart we live in Shall we not be willing to leave it for Paradise We say It is good to be here we affect an earthly eternity but grace must curb nature Think of the priviledges of Death The Planets have a proper motion and a violent by their proper motion they are carried from the West to the East but by a violent motion they are over-ruled by the Primum Mobile and are carried from the East to the West So though naturally we desire to live here as we are made up of flesh yet grace should be as the primum mobile or master-wheele that swayes our will and carries us in a violent motion making us long for death Saint Paul desired to be dissolved and 2 Corinth 5.2 In this we groane earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven we would put off the earthly cloathes of our body and put on the bright robe of immortality we groane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is a Metaphor taken from a mother who being pregnant groanes and cries out for delivery Austine longed to die that he might see that head which was once crowned with thornes We pray Thy Kingdome come and when God is leading us into his Kingdome shall we be afraid to go The times we live in should me thinks make us long for death we live in dying times we may heare as it were Gods passing Bell ringing over these Nations Foelix Nepotianus qui haec non videt as Hierome said in his time Nepotian is an happy man that doth not see the evils which befall us they are wel that are out of the storm and are gotten already to the haven To me to die is gaine Quest. But who shall have this priviledge Answ. death is certaine but there are only two sorts of Persons to whom we may say Death is yours 'T is your preferment 1. Such as die daily We are not borne Angels die we must Therefore we had need carry alwayes a deaths-head about us The Basilisk if it see a man first it kills him but if he see it first it doth him no hurt The Basilisk death if it sees us first before we see it 't is dangerous but if we see it first by meditating upon it it doth us no hurt study death often walke among the Tombs It is the thoughts of death before-hand that must do us good In a dark night one Torch carried before a man is worth many Torches carried after him one serious thought of death before-hand one teare shed for sinne before death is worth a thousand shed after when it is too late 'T is good to make Death our familiar and in this sense to be in Deaths oft that if God should presently seal a lease of ejectment if he should send us a Letter of Summons this night to surrender we might have nothing to do but to die Alas how do we adjourne the thoughts of death 'T is almost death to think of it There are some that are in the very threshold of the grave who have one legge in the earth and another legge in hell yet put farre from them the evil day I have read of our Lysicrates who in his old age dyed his gray hairs black that he might seeme young againe When we should be building our Tombes we are building our Tabernacles die daily lest you die eternally The holy Patriarchs in purchasing for themselves a burying place shewed us what thoughts they still had of Death Ioseph of Arimathea erected his Sepulchre in his Garden we have many that set up the Trophies of their victories others that set up their Scutchions that they may blaze their honour but how few that set up their Sepulchres who erect in their hearts the serious thoughts of death Oh remember when you are in your gardens in places most delicious and fragrant to keep a place for your Tomb-stone die daily There is no better way to bring sinne into a Consumption then by oft looking on the pale horse and him that sits thereon By thinking on death we begin to repent of an evil life and so we disarme death before it comes and cut the lock where its strength lies 2. Such as are in Heaven before they die death is yours If we will needs be high-minded let it be in setting our minde upon heavenly things Heaven must come down into us before we go up thither A childe of God breaths his faith in Heaven his thoughts are there When I awake I am still with thee Psal. 139.17 David awaked in Heaven his conversation is there Philip. 3.20 For our conversation is in Heaven The Believer often ascends Mount Tabor and takes a prospect of glory O that we had this celestial frame of heart When Zacheus was in the croud he was too low to see Christ therefore he climbed up into the Sycomore-Tree When we are in a croud of worldly businesse we cannot see Christ Climb up into the tree by divine contemplation If thou wouldest get Christ into thy heart let Heaven be in thy eye Set your affections upon things above Colos. 3.2 There needs no exhortation to set our hearts upon things below How is the curse of the Serpent upon most men Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life Those that feed onely upon dust Golden dust will be unwilling to returne to dust Death will be terrible The tribes of Reuben and Gad desired Moses that they might stay on this side Iordan and have their portion there it being a place convenient for their Cattel It seems they minded their Cattel more then their passage into the holy Land so many Christians if they may have but a little grazing here in the world in their Shops and in their Farms they art content to live on this side the River and minde not their passage into the Land of Promise you that are in heaven
Mal. 3.17 The world is the shrine or Cabinet where God locks up these jewels for a time The world is yours it was made for you The creation is but a theatre to act the great work of Redemption upon The world is the field the Saints are the corn the ordinances are the showers the mercies of God are the Sunshine that ripens this corn death is the sickle that cuts it down the Angels are the harvesters that carry it into the barn The world is yours God would never have made this field were it not for the corn growing in it What use then is there of the wicked They are as an hedge to keep the corn from forrain invasions though oft-times they are a thorn-hedge Quest. But alas a childe of God hath oft the least share in the world how then is the world his Answ. If thou art a believer that little thou hast though it be but an handfull of the world it is blest to thee If there be any consecrated ground in the world that is a believers The world is yours Esau had the venison but Iacob got the blessing a little blest is sweet A little of the world with a great deal of peace is better then the revenues of unrighteousnesse Every mercy a childe of God hath swims to him in Christs blood and this sauce makes it relish the sweeter Whatever he tastes is seasoned with Gods love he hath not only the mercy but the blessing So that the World is a Believers An Unbeliever that hath the World at will yet the World is not his he doth not taste the quintessence of it Thornes and thistles doth the ground bring forth to him He feeds upon the fruit of the curse I will curse your blessings he eats with bitter herbs So that properly the World is a Believers He only hath a Scripture-tenure and that little he hath turnes to creame Every mercy is a present sent him from heaven 2. All things that fall out in the World are for your good 1. The want of the World all is for your good 2. The hatred of the World all is for your good 1. The want of the World is for your good By wanting the honours and revenues of the World you want the temptations that others have Physicians observe that men die sooner by the abundance of blood then the scarcity 't is hard to say which kills most the sword or surfet A glutton with his teeth digs his own grave The world is a silken net the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Him whom I shall kisse saith Judas take him so whom the world kisseth it often betrayes The want of the world is a mercy 2. The Hatred of the world is for your good Wicked men are instruments in Gods hand for good albeit they mean not so they are flails to thresh off our husks files to brighten our graces leeches to suck out the noxious blood Out of the most poisonful drug God distils his glory and our salvation A childe of God is beholding even to his enemies The ploughers ploughed upon my back if they did not plough and harrow us we should bear but a very thin crop After a man hath planted a tree he prunes and dresseth it Persecutors are Gods pruning-hook to cut off the excrescencies of sin and evermore the bleeding vine is most fruitful the envy and malice of the wicked shall do us good God stirred up the people of Egypt to hate the Israelites and that was a meanes to usher in their deliverance The frownes of the wicked make us the more ambitious of Gods smile their incensed rage as it shall carry on Gods decree for while they sit backward to his command they shall row forward to his decree so it shall have a subserviency to our good Every crosse winde of providence shal blow a believer neerer to the port of glory What a blessed condition is a child of God in kill him or save him alive it is all one The opposition of the world is for his good The world is yours §. 3. Shewing That life is a believers 3. The next thing is Life is yours Hierome understands it of the life of Christ. It is true Christs life is ours the life which he lived on earth and the life which he now lives in heaven his satisfaction and his intercession both are ours and they are of unspeakable comfort to us But I conceive by life in the text is meant Natural life that which is contradistinguished to death So Ambrose But how is life a Beleevers Two wayes 1. The priviledge of life is his 2 The comfort of life is his 1. The priviledge of life is a believers that is life to a childe of God is an advantage for heaven this life is given him to make provision for a better life Life is the porch of Eternity here the Believer dresseth himself that he may be fit to enter in with the Bridegroome We cannot say of a wicked man unlesse catachrestically that life is his Though he lives yet life is not his he is dead while he lives He doth not improve the life of nature to get the life of grace he is like a man that takes the lease of a farm and makes no benefit of it Diu fuit in mundo non vixit he hath been so long in the world as Seneca speaks but he hath not lived He was borne in the Reigne of such a King his father left him such an estate he was of such an age and then he died there 's an end of him his life was not worth a prayer nor his death worth a tear But life is yours 't is a priviledge to a Believer while he hath natural life he layes hold upon eternal life how doth he work out his salvation what a do is there to get his evidences sealed what weeping what wrastling how doth he even take heaven by storme So that life is yours It is to a childe of God a season of grace the seed-time for eternity the longer he lives the riper he grows for heaven The life of a believer spends as a lamp he doth good to himselfe and others the life of a sinner runs out as the sand it doth little good The life of the one is as a figure ingraven in marble the life of the other as letters written in dust 2. The â—â—â—fort of life is a beleevers rejoycingâ—ake â—ake a childe of God at the 〈◊〉 disadvantage let his life be â—ver-cast with clouds yet if there be any comfort in life the believer hath it Our life is oft imbecill and weake but the spiritual life doth administer comfort to the natural Homo componitur ex mortali rationali Man saith Augustine is compounded of the mortal part and the rational part the rational serves to comfort the mortal So I may say a Christian consists of a natural life and a
Debt-book is crossed in his blood Quest. How is Death ours Answ. Two wayes 1. It is the Out-let to Sin 2. It is the In-let to happiness 1. Death to a Beleever is an Out-let to Sin we are in this life under a sinful necessity even the best Saint There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Evill thoughts are continually arising out of our hearts as sparks out of a Furnace Sin keeps house with us whether we will or no the best Saint alive is troubled with In-mates though he forsakes his sinnes yet his sinnes will not forsake him 1. Sin doth indispose to good How to performe that which is good I finde not Rom. 7. ver 18. When we would pray the heart is as a Voyal out of tune When we would weepe we are as clouds without rain 2. Sin doth irritate to evil The Flesh lusts against the Spirit There needs no winde of Tentation we have Tide strong enough in our hearts to carry us to Hell Consider sinne under this threefold notion 1. Sin is a body of death and that not impertinently First It is a body for its weight The body is an heavy and weighty substance so is Sin a body it weighs us down When we should pray the weights of Sin are tied to our feet that we cannot ascend Anselm seeing a little Boy playing with a Bird he let her flie up and presently pulls the Bird down againe by a string So saith he it is with me as with this Bird when I would flie up to heaven upon the wings of meditation I finde a string tied to my leg I am over-powered with corruption but Death pulls off these weights of sin and le ts the Soul free Secondly Sin is a body of death for its annoyance It was a cruel torment that one used he tied a dead man to a living that the dead man might annoy and infest the living Thus it is with a childe of God he hath two men within him Flesh and Spirit Grace and Corruption here is the dead man tied to the living a proud sinful heart is worse to a childe of God then the smell of a dead Corps Indeed to a natural man sinne is not offensive for being dead in sinne he is not sensible of the body of death but where there is a vitall principle there is no greater annoyance then the body of Death Insomuch that the pious soule oft cries out as David Wo is me that I dwell in Mesek and sojourn in the tents of Kedar So saith he Wo is me that I am constrained to abide with sin How long shall I be troubled with inmates How long shall I offend that God whom I love When shall I leave these Tents of Kedar 2. Sinne is a Tyrant it carries in it the nature of a Law the Apostle calls it the law in his members There is the law of Pride the law of Unbelief it hath a kinde of jurisdiction as Caesar over the Senate perpetuam dictaturam What I hate that do I The Apostle was like a man carried down the streame and was not able to beare up against it Sinne takes us prisoners whence are our carnal fears whence our passions whence is it that a childe of God doth that which he allows not yea against knowledge only this he is for a time Sinnes Prisoner The Flesh oft prevailes though in coole blood the elder shall serve the younger whence is it that he who is borne of God should be so earthly The reason is he is captived under sin but be of good chear where grace makes a Combate death shall make a Conquest 3. Sin is a leprous spot It makes every thing we touch uncleane We reade when the Leprosie did spread in the walls of the house the Priests commanded them to take away the stones in the wall in which the Plague was and take other stones and put in the place of those stones and take other morter Levit. 14.42 But when the Plague spread againe in the wall then he must break downe the house with the stones and timber thereof Vers. 45. Thus in every man naturally there is a fretting leprosie of sinne pride impenitency c. These are leprous spots now in conversion here God doth as it were take away the old stones and timber and put new in the roome he makes a change in the heart of a sinner but still the leprousie of sinne spreads then at last death comes and pulls down the stones and timber of the house and the soule is quite freed from the leprousie Sinne is a defiling thing it makes us red with guilt and black with filth 'T is compared to a menstruous cloath we need carry it no higher Pliny tells us that the Trees with touching of it would become barren and Hierom saith Nihil in lege menstruato immundius there was nothing in the Law more uncleane then the menstruous cloath this is sinne Sinne drawes the Devils picture in a man malice is the Devils eye oppression is his hand hypocrisie is his cloven foot but behold death will give us our discharge death is the last and best Physician which cures all diseases the aking head and the unbelieving heart Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis mors erit sepulchrum peccati Sinne was the Mid-wife that brought Death into the World and Death shall be the Grave to bury Sinne O the Priviledge of a Beleever he is not taken away in his sinnes but he is taken away from his sinnes The Persians had a certaine day in the yeare 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 dies in a Beleever that hath so often stung him with his temptations this day the sinnes 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 2. Death to a Believer is an Inlet to happinesse Sampson found an honey-combe in the Lions carcase so may a childe of God suck much sweetnesse from death Death is the gate of life death pulls off our rags and gives us change of rayment all the hurt it doth us is to put us into a better condition Death is called in Scripture a sleepe 1 Thes. 4.14 Those that sleepe in Iesus as after sleep the spirits are exhilarated and refreshed so after Death the times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Death is yours Death opens the portal into Heaven as Tertullian speakes The day of a Christian's death is the birth-day of his heavenly life it is his Ascension-day to glory it is his Marriage-day with Jesus Christ. After our Funerall begins our Marriage Well then
felt no paine Time was when conscience was tender but by often sinning he is like the Ostrich that can digest iron or as it is said of Mithridates that by often accustoming his body to poyson it never hurt him but he could live upon it as his food That sinne which was before as the wounding of the eye now is no more then the cutting of the naile Well there is a time coming when this sleepy conscience shall be awakened Belshazzar was drinking wine in bowls but there came out fingers on the wall and his countenance changed there conscience began to be awakened Conscience is like a looking-glasse if it be foul and dusty you can see nothing in it but wipe away the dust and you may see your face in it clearly there 's a time coming when God will wipe off the dust from the glasse of a mans conscience and he shall see his sins clearly represented Conscience is like a Lion asleep when he awakes he roars and tears his prey when conscience awakes then it roars upon a sinner and tears him as the devil did the man into which he entred Mark 9.22 he â—ent him and threw him into the fire When Moses rod was turned into a Serpent he was afraid and fled from it oh what is it when conscience is turned into a Serpent Conscience is like the Bee if a man doth well then conscience gives honey it speaks comfort if he do ill it puts forth a sting it is called a worm Mark 9.44 Where the worm never dies It is like Prometheus's Vulture it lies ever gnawing it is Gods blood-hound that pursues a man When the Jaylour saw the prison-doors open and as he thought the prisoners were missing he drew his sword and would have killed himselfe when the eye of conscience is opened and the sinner begins to look about him for his evidences Faith Repentance c. and sees they are missing he will be ready to kill himselfe a troubled conscience is the first-fruits of hell and indeed it is a lesser hell That it is so appears two wayes 1. By the suffrage of Scripture Prov. 18.14 A wounded spirit who can bear a wound in the Name in the estate in the body is sad but a wound in the conscience who can bear especially when the wound can never be healed for I speak of such as awake in the night of death 2. By the experience both of good and bad 1. By the experience of good men when the storme hath risen in their conscience though afterwards it hath been allayed yet for the present they have been in the suburbs of hell David complaines of his broken bones he was like a man that had all his bones out of joynt What is the matter you may see wherein his pain lay Psal. 51.3 My sin is ever before me he was in a spiritual agony it was not the sword threatned it was not the death of the childe but it was the roarings of his conscience some of Gods arrows stuck fast there though God will not damn his children yet he may send them to hell in this life 2. By the experience of bad men who have been in the perpetual convulsions of conscience I have sinned saith Iudas before he was nibling upon the silver bait the thirty pieces but now the hook troubles him conscience wounds him such was Iudas his horror being now like a man upon the rack that he hangs himself to quiet his conscience This shews what the hell of conscience is that men account death easie to get rid of conscience but in vaine it is with them as with a sick man he removes out of one room into another and changeth the aire but still he carries his disease with him Thou mayest think O sinner to laugh thy sinnes out of countenance but what wilt thou do when conscience shall begin to flie upon thee and shall examine thee with scourgings it is a mercy when conscience is awakened in time but the misery is when the wound is too late there being then no balm in Gilead §. II. The second thing to come His appearing before the Judge For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ Hierome thought he ever heard that sounding in his ears Surgite mortui Arise ye dead come to judgement What solemnity is there at an Assizes when the Judge comes to the Bench and the Trumpets are sounded Thus Christ the Judge shall be accompanied with Angels and Archangels and the Trumpets shall be blown 1 Thes. 4.16 For the Lord himselfe shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God This is the great and general Assizes Then shall Christ sit down upon the Throne of Judicature holding his sword in his hand and a flame coming out of his mouth Now the sinner being summoned before him as a prisoner at bar he hath his guilt written in his forehead he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned before he comes I mean in his conscience which is the consistory or petty Sessions and appearing before Christ he begins to tremble and be amazed with horrour and not being covered with Christs righteousnesse for want of a better covering he cries to the mountains to cover him And the Kings and the great men said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Nothing so dreadfull as the sight of mercy abused Now the Lamb will be turned into a Lion and he who was once a Saviour will be a Judge §. III. The third thing to come is His Charge reade I will reprove thee and set thy sinnes in order before thee Psal. 50.21 As God hath a bottle for tears so he hath a book to register mens sins Rev. 20.12 The books were opened Oh what a black charge will be read against a sinner not only the sins which have damnation written in their forehead as drunkenness swearing blasphemy shall be brought into the charge but those sinnes which he slighted As 1. Secret sinnes such as the world never took notice of many a man doth not forsake his sins but grows more cunning with the Vintner he pulls down the bush but his heart gives as much vent to sinne as ever his care is rather that sinne should be covered then cured Not unlike to him that shuts up his shop-windows but follows his trade within doors he sits brooding upon sinne he doth with his sins as Rachel did with her fathers Idols she put them under her that he might not finde them so doth he put his sins in a secret place all these sinnes shall be set in order before him Luk. 12.2 For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed God hath a key for the heart 2. Little sinnes as the world calls them Though I know no such thing as little