Jesus Christ a Don Anthony de Guevare Diall of Princ. Fol. 9. When the Romans created any Knights they caused them to swear 1. That they should spend all the days of their lives in Wars 2. That they should never through fear poverty for riches or any other thing take Wages but of Rome only Lastly that they would rather choose to dye in liberty then to live in Captivity In our Baptismal Covenant which is an honor and happinesse infinitely beyond that of being a Romane Knight for thereby we are made members of Christs body and as I may say Peers and Nobles of his Kingdom we do solemnly and faithfully promise and engage 1. To fight the Lords battails under the great Captain of our Salvation Jesus Christ against sin temptations the World the flesh and the Devill untill Death 2. That we will not be hired corrupted allured nor prevailed withall either by pleasure power credit profit or any thing to serve the Devill or our own Lusts against Christ And Lastly that we will neither willingly suffer our selves to be pinioned or manacled by our spiritual enemies nor live in cursed slavery or captivity under them but that we will as Hannibal solemnly swore to Amilcar that he would be an irreconcileable enemy to Rome both live and dye in a Christian couragious constant implacable hatred against them and opposition of them Baptisme it 's the brand whereby we are known being thereby brought within the pale of Christs visible Church and also whereby we are distinguished from Heathens and Pagans Certainly then those parents are very unwise unnaturall yea cruell to their Children who will not suffer the covenant of Grace nor that Deed of an heavenly inheritance which God hath drawn and is ready made to be sealed by this Sacrament to which they have an unquestionable right by vertue of Gods promise which is made unto and entailed upon them as well as their Parents unto them But instead thereof do without all both pity and affection not only keep those Lambs out of Christs fold In Baptismo Cyprianus seatit omnia peccata deponi diabolum opprimi spiritum sanctum accipi Idem Cent. 3. p. 247. but also expose them to Wolves and wild beasts Hereticks and Seducers to be devoured And rather choose to have them continue foul and filthy then to have them * Not per illud sacramentum ablutis delictis nostrae cacitatis in vitam aeternam liberari inquit Tertul. de Baptismo lib. de Baptist Hist eccles Magdeburgens cent 3. p. 239. washed in the laver of Regeneration Besides they do grievously sin against their own souls in slighting opposing and despising so sacred an institution For although the want and in some cases the neglect of Gods ordinances be not yet the contempt of them is damnable Woe to them Et Origen docuit peccati fordes per Baptismum deponiâ— omne genus delictorum auserri Idem Hist Ecclesiast Magdeburg Cent. 3. p. 253. saith a learned man that in the Administration of this Sacrament of Baptisme deny their duty to dying infants under pretence of I know not what discipline And wo 't is sadly to be feared will pursue and overtake those who will not suffer Ministers to perform their duty to Infants neither living nor dying through their dangerous delusions and under both vain and ungrounded pretences For the administration of this Sacrament of Baptisme hath both the best foundation and text the * Mark 1. 4. Acts â—38 39. Genes 17. compared with Coloss â— 11. 12. word of God to warrant it and the best clearest and safest comment to wit the practise of the Apostles and also both the judgement and practise of all Christian Churches in the world for some hundred of years to confirm it c The Baptisme of Infants was not derived from the authority of man neither of councess but from the tradition or doctrine of the Apostles saith S. Augustine contra Donatist lib. 4. cap. 23. 24. Baptisme hath its beginning from Gods word and from the use of the primitive Church saith Mr. Philpot. d And the Ecclesiasticall History and others acquaint us that Auxentius who was an Arrian with his adherents was one of the first that denyed infant Baptisme and next after him that Heretick Pelagius And then the Anabaptists These are the spoysoned springs and muddy channels from which and down which this dirty unwholesome dangerous stream of Antipedo baptism did flow run into this vertiginous truthsick and truth-despising if not loathing age into which the former times have conveyed and emptyed their dregs froth and filth and wherein gray-headed errors and Heresies are not only grown young again but vamped furbished and new gilt on purpose to vent them unto such Mr. Simpsons History of the Church Mr. Philpot c. either ignorant inconsiderate or profane chapmen as without care or conscience will sell their souls to purchase their Lusts For now it 's become a gainfull trade to retaile those damnable and dangerous Heresies and principles that are sent by wholesale out of Italy by the Popes Factors and which is more all that will may set up and be free of any Company they like best 'T is no wonder then that Gods Temple and Table have but a few guests when the Devill is permitted to revell and keep open-house for all comers or that truth should be opposed when the Father of lyes hath liberty to speak against it Infant-baptisme being heretofore questioned after so many years quiet enjoyment of its undoubtted Right as inabled it to plead prescription for it It was Defendent in the cause and produced such cleer strong and good evidences that it got both a verdict and judgment upon it which still hangs upon record in the Court of antiquity against the adversaries thereof But of late time it hath been forced through the unjust disturbance of some turbulent spirits to be Plaintiffe also And through the good providence and the divine assistance of him who hath given e That pious and learned Divine Mr. Baxter cum multis aâ—iis and amongst them that emnently learned Dr. Hammond pract catech some of his Servants such a mouth and wisdome as none of its enemies are able to resist It hath again cast the most cunning active and irreconcileable enemies thereof to the glory of God the vindication of truth the comfort of his people and the everlasting both shame and silence of those whose either passion or interests have blinded their Reasons or corrupted their affections so as that they either know not or love not the truth For f Cypr. Epist 59 ad Fidam A baptismo post Christum prohiberi non debet infans recens natus saith Cyprian †and with him agree so many both pious and learned men * Vide Dr. Hammond pract catech p. 212. to 219. that but to name them their arguments and sayings would swell this Subject into a Volume
Melch. Adam in vit Luth. Luther Mallem ego cum Christo ruere quam cum Caesare stare For Christ is the loadstone to which the needle of his heart doth willingly constantly restlesly though tremblingly turn Nothing can keep disswade or withhold him from him neither enemies troubles dangers nor devills for his love is strong as death and love alone over-powers all powers * Genes 8. 9. Christ alone is the Ark wherein his soul like †Noahs Dove in the Deluge can find rest Faith and love are to the soul of a gracious praying Christian wherein Amalek and Israel the flesh and Spirit are up in Arms and will continue fighting all the day during the time of this natural life as * Exod. 17. 11 12 13. Aaron and Hur were to Moses the Servant of the Lord. For although Amalek may yea doth sometimes prevail against Israel Corruption against Grace And although as Moses hands were heavy a Christians Spirit may be faint or weary with so long so sharpe a conflict yet he like Moses being set upon a stone resting trusting and relying upon that chief corner-stone that precious stone cut out of the Mountaine without hands Jesus Christ and being also like Moses hands steady fixt and constant being upheld by faith and love as Moses hands were by Aaron and Hur in crying to and begging of the Lord both strength assistance and victory untill the going down of the Sun till death he obtains under the great Captain of mans Salvation through whom Christians are more then conquerors Jesus Christ a comfortable happy glorious Victory over Amalek and his people Satan temptations sin corruptions and all its deadliest enemies The Prayer MOST Holy Lord God thou hast not only given unto Christians a glimpse of the Felicity and Glory of Heaven by revealing to them what it is so far as they are capable to apprehend it for they can never comprehend it till they enjoy it and are crowned with it But thou hast also chalked them out the way that leads to it offered them an infallible guide to conduct them in it and promised yea assured them if they will accept thy gracious offer to give them both Leggs and strength to carry them unto it Thou O Lord art truth it self inable us stedfastly to believe thee Thou art Goodnesse it self grant that we may ardently intirely love thee And since without these graces in reality we can neither please nor enjoy thee Crown us with them I beseech thee for these are such sweet Flowers as did never grow since Adam by his fatall fall sowed it all over with venemous Weeds in the Garden of Nature that so being regenerated quickened inflamed and inabled by thee we may come boldly unto thee rely confidently upon thee set our Affections sincerely on thee delight chiefly in thee and rest eternally blessed with thee Grant this for his sake in whom thou canst deny thy people nothing Jesus Christ the Sonne of thy Love Amen Per fidem in Christo corona in Caelo XII Of Repentance 'T Is the Souls return from travailing in the foraign Countrey of sin 'T is a Vagabond prodigall * Luke 15. 17. First come to his right mind being before no better then a mad-man out of his wits and then coming home to his Heavenly Father upon the feet of †Idem v. 21. confession and sorrow for it 's not only far more infamous to commit sin then to confesse it because nihil pudori esse debet poenitenti nisi non faterl true penitents should blush at nothing but at the concealing of their crimes but it 's also very dangerous not to acknowledge or to excuse our offences Quicunque enim sibi se excusat accusat deo because either to extenuate our faults or to plead our own innocency will both aggravate our sins and provoke the Lord to punish us for our wickednesse Since the surest way for transgressors to be found guilty and to be condemned * Prov. 28. 13. is to †hide their sins and to justifie themselves for wounds that bleed inward and poyson that is not vomited up are most deadly Repentance is an Augustins a Christians retractation It makes the soul a Solomon wise and happy living as well as speaking or writing an Ecclesiastes 'T is an * 1 Kin. 20. 32. 34. Aramite with importunity submission and supplication begging the Life of Benhadad the soul of the mercifull King of Israel God Almighty An humble hearty particular ingenuous * Prov. 28. 13. confession of all sin a sound humiliation and godly sorrow for all sin a reall detestation of and an irreconcilable hatred to all sin a resolute resistance and constant opposition against all sin an holy jealousie and Christian vigilancie at all times in all places in all company and in all our callings and imployments over our consciences affections hearts tongues lives souls and bodies to fly and decline all occasions of all temptations unto sin a pious care when through frailty temptation corruption or securitie our souls are become black â—oul and deformed by sin to a Gods children fal but it 's the property of the Devils child to lye stil Mr. Philpot. Humanum est cadere â—ace rebelluinum resurgere Christianum perseverare in peecato diabolicum August bath them in and to wash them with tears of godly sorrow til they be white and clean to be afraid of fullying of defiling them again Inanis enim est ista poenitentia quam sequens culpa coinquinat A conscientious care to do no wrong to our neighbors or if we have willingly knowingly injurd any man to give him ful satisfaction for non tollitur peceatum nisi restituatur ablatum b I have read of one Pyâ—rhus that when he perswaded the Sultan Selimus to give the wealth and treasure which he had taken from the Peâ—sian Merchan S unto an Hospital for the maintainance of the poor Nay rather said Selimus let it be restored to the right owners and accordingly restitution was made thereof unto them It would certainly be very much for the glory of God the honour of the Gospel the comfort of those that profess themselves to be Christians and the good of their posterity if they would write after and copy out the honest example of this Turk herein but if this be called or esteemed foul because a Mahomitan set it I shall present them with one equally fair and necessary written by a good Christian I mean pious and conscientious Zaccheus Luke 19. 8. And also with one Royal precedent one noble pattern of our own viz. King Henry 7th who in his last Will and Testament willed that Restitution should be made of all such Moneys as had unjustly been levied by his Officers Speed Chron. p. 993. Go thou then and do like these who ever thou art that art grown rich or great by unjust gain and means and then the Lord wil pardâ—n honor bless thee But if
peace of Sion and the prospeâ—ity of Jerusalem but is grieved for the afflictions of Joseph and above all for the dishonour done to his God for his own worldly interest relations or life are not so dear to him as the glory of his Maker and Redeemer He accounts Gods ordinances the rarest dainties the sweetest delicates and with Job esteems Gods holy word and them more then his necessary food He stumbles often seldome falls but never lies down in sin so as not to rise up out of it He like a laboriqus Bee doth industriously daily delightfully suck not only the sweet and beautifull flowers of Gods precious promises heavenly counsells and holy commands but also the bitter yet wholesome hearbs of Gods just and terrible threatnings growing in that rare garden or rather Paradise the sacred Scriptures that so he may fill the hive of his Soul with the honey and wax of holinesse and honesty He 's a good Theodosius who had rather be a living member of that true Church whereof Christ is the glorious head then an Emperour in the World And saith with holy Ignatius who perswaded his friends not to disswade him from suffering Martyrdome It is better for me to die in Jesus Christ then to reign in the ends of the earth because Jesus Christ is the life of the faithful and life without Christ is death And because as blessed Bradford h Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 283. said when the Queens mercy was offered him if he would recant and forsake his Religion Life in Gods displeasure is worse then death and death with his true favour is true life He is one in whom the house of David prevails against the house of Saul And is not †gilt but Gold He hath no sweet sin nor secret lust lapped close up within the folds of guile or hypocrisie in his heart He like * Qualis animus talis oratio qualis oratio talis vita His life as well as his lips his works as well as his words do praise God for he doth not flatter but truly fear the Lord. Enoch walke with God Like Caleb and Josuah his heart follows the Lordsfully while he is travailing through the wildernesse of this world towards Canaan Heaven And he is an * Genes 5. 22. Abraham a friend of God Sincerity 't is the highest round and pitch of Grace and goodnesse that the Soul can fly or climb to while it 's pinioned and loaden with the flesh * Esay 41 8. 2 Chron. 26. 7. 'T is the Souls cordial when fainting its bladder when sinking its leg when stumbling staffe when falling comfort while living Joy when dying and its Crown after death But without sincerity we are but light without heat mudwals pargetted Rotten posts gilded ugly wrinkled creatures painted professors blanched without it we are odious and loathsome both to God and Man God hates us for not being * Quid tibi prodest nomen usurpare alienum et vocari quod non es It wil be no real profit advantage or comfort unto us either to be called Saint or to be accounted the children of God by men if we be but whited Tombs but carnal rotten dissembling Christians and professors in the sight and esteem of God nay we are much more odious to the Lord for being pious only in shew and appearance really and man for being seemingly religious so that we are too bad for Heaven too good for earth and therefore only fit for Hell An Hypocrite is like an Aegyptian Temple which was very curious glorious and beautifull without but had nothing within except a Serpent or an Ape Though he professeth himself to be a Temple of the Holy Ghost yet his heart hath nothing in it but either filthy or foolish venemous or vain lusts and desires He is like that tree in Pliny whose leaf is as broad as a hat but its fruit no bigger then a Bean. Like that Oxe slain and sacrificed in Rome the same day that Caesar was murdered in the Senat without an Heart at least without a good one for * Prov. 10. 20. the heart of the wicked is little worth Like that shield which had God painted on the one side and the Devill on the other Hee hangs like Mahomets Tomb or as the Papists picture Erasmus betwixt Heaven and Hell Like Janus he hath two faces being intus Nero foris Cato Loquituâ— ut Psâ—â— vivitur ut Gallonius audi nemo melius specta nemo pejus He is like a man with corrupted Lungs a bad Liver rotten teeth and an artificiall perfumed breath Like a stinking carcasse stuck with lillies violets and roses like a rotten dunghill covered with snow like one cloathed in white with a plague-sore upon him and like a thiefs coat plush or scarlet without and cloth within of another colour He 's like Nebuchadnezzars Image whose feet were clay for his affections though his words be gilt with golden 1 Camden Annal Of Queen Elizabeth lib. 4. p. 489. holy expressions and his outward behaviour with a silver civill specious religious profession are carnal earthly vile and sinfull i Squire when he anointed the Pummel of Queen Elizabeths Saddle with poyson to destroy her cried with a loud voice God save the Queen An Hypocrite when he seems most zealous to honour Christ even then murders him he cries Hosanna with his tongue but his heart sayes Crucifie him for it loves and preferreth some Dalilah more then him and before him He hath certainly a Diana in the Temple a Dagon in the Ark of his heart like those * 2 Kings 17. 35. that feared the Lord and served other Gods And like k Speed Chro. p. 297 Redwald the 7th Monarch of the English men who in the same Temple erected an Altar for Christ and another little altar for burnt sacrifices to his Idols He is like those leones Syriaci l Aristotle Solinus qui primo quinque foetus pariunt deinceps quatuor post ad singulos partus uno pauciores donec ad extremum omnino steriles nullum foetum pariunt He is like the Cypresse tree beautiful but barren m Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 967. 'T is reported of Castellanus an Apostate professor who persecuted the Christians at Orleans that he was stricken by the hand of God with this most strange judgment the one half of his body burned as hot as fire and the other part of it was as cold as Ice and thus crying and lamenting he continued till his death The fire of piety kindles in the mouth burns upon the tongue and blazes out in the verball expression of an Hypocrite but his heart is frozen and cold as snow for all that because there is not so much as one spark of true grace therein to thaw or heat it while he lives here nor to prevent his sufferings hereafter in that place where through Gods just judgment upon him he shall both freeze and fry
against her or any part of her be cast over-boord by her vigilant and valiant Pilots pious orthodoxe and zealous Magistrates * O quâ—m beati erunt in illo die judcii Magistratus illi qui subditos non modo honestis legibus judiciis disciplinâ— rexerunt sed etiam omnium maxime in hoc studium incubucrunt ut incorrupta Religio apud suos exculta sit doctrina coelestis per fidos eruditos et constantes Ministros sit tradita ingens hominum multitudo per spiritum et verbum renata in conspectum Christi prodeat quae tali Magistratui aeternas gra ias agat E contra quam infelices qui c. Religionem per varâ—as corruptelas passi sunt adulterare sayes one And an Heathen could say In nauâ—ragio Rector laudandus quem obruit more clavum tenentem Senec. ad Petil. c. 6. and Ministers that Pirates strangers and enemies the profest cruel subtle and secret adversaries opposers and underminers of thy Glory Gospel ordinances and Ministers may neither be inriched by her woful wrack nor pleased with the birth and sight of those grievous miseries and overwhelming calamities which too often proceed from her contentious and disagreeing Children but let the desires and designs O Lord of Sions enemies be blasted and frustrated And let blessed God all those spiritual Merchants those heavenly Mariners thy Saints thy faithful Souldiers and Servants that are resolved or shal resolve to venture all their treasures their souls lives and worldly interests in that Arke thy Church and to imbarque themselves in her for a voyage to the Holy Land to that new and glorious Jerusalem which is above Let them dear God I once more humbly beseech thee be crowned with a calm with quietnesse serenity and safety in their passage over the brackish boysterous dangerous Ocean of life and when they shall put into and cast Anchor in the port of Death then let them find that they are safely arrived at the Isles of Paradise the Kingdome of Heaven Glory and Felicity Amen Qui pugnat sine mandato poenam accipit non mercedem Qui praedicat sine vocatione peccat non prodest XXII Of a good and a bad Conscience A Good Conscence 't is the suburbs of Heaven 'T is the Sanctuary of the Soul when it 's pursued by sin Satan fear or temptation 'T is Heaven in hell riches in poverty honour in disgrace health in sicknesse in bonds liberty and light in darknesse 'T is Balm that healeth all woundâ— A medicine infinitely more precious then all the Benedicta Medicamenta of Physitians for it cures all spirituall maladies and antidotes the mind against all temporall miseries T is the best Mithridate to expell all troubles from the heart T is Gods temple Christs Bed-chamber and the Spirits Mansion for the highest Heavens and the humblest purest holiest heart are the two places of Gods most glorious * Esay 57. 15. Residence 'T is the souls soft Bed whereon it resteth quietly and sweetly with a pillow of Gospel promises and the left hand of Christ under its head his right hand also imbracing it when it 's either troubled dejected or distressed T is an admirable Soveraign Balsome against the stinging perplexing fears and all the dreadfull dismaying apprehensions of sin Gods wrath Satan Death judgment and Hell 'T is an Ark that keepeth the Soul safe and preserves it from sinking under the heaviest burden of sin or sorrow in the greatest deluge of inward or outward troubles 'T is a ship with Christ in it Heaven in a little volume 'T is divine love and speciall mercy printed usually upon the soul by the Spirit of God in the presse either of Gods ordinances or afflictions in great and golden characters with notes of choicest favour tenderest mercies and free grace upon it T is a Kingdome of fortified rich safe and happy 't is the daughter of faith and repentance and the Mother of all reall ineffable endlesse Joy comforts pleasures 'T is a serene skie with the Sun and Moon of Faith and repentance fixed and shining in the â—irmament of the Soul together with the brightest sparkling stars of all other saving graces which beautifie bespangle it and make a glorious constellation therein 'T is a feast in a famine an haven in a storm life in death 'T is an invincible fort in a Leaguer when the outworks City and Castle of health riches liberty are taken 'T is a Paradise with a tree of Life in it 'T is the Vialactea in a Laetitia bonae conscientiae paradisus est â—nimarum gaudium angelorum hortus deliciarum ager benedictionis templam Sclomonis aula Dei habâ—tac ulum spiritus heavenly heart The vena porta of * 2 Corinth 1. 12. gladnesse joy and a consolation to the spirit here and the beginning of that matchlesse felicity which will out-live time and run parallel with the longest line of eternity 'T is a Dove that brings an Olive branch of peace to a Noah a righteous person in the greatest inundation of perplexity and sorrow of heart 'T is the way to a life without fear or trouble 'T is a John lying in the bosome of Jesus 'T is a transcript a true copy of eternall felicity 'T is a consolatory epistle written with the bloud of Jesus Christ by the finger of the Holy Ghost sent by love and read by faith to a languishing mourning drooping bleeding Soul 'T is ipsum coelum saith Augustine a continuall feast saith Solomon Yea it is a Goshen in Aegypt an Angell in a Dungeon an harbour in a Tempest an Heaven upon earth and the day-star of Glory 'T is an immarcescible Crown A treasure which once got can never be lost for what that b Cicere parâ—dâ—x ad sinem Prince of Orators saith of vertue is most true of a good conscience Nec eripi nec surripi potest â—nquam Neque naufragio neque incendio amittitur nâ—â— tempestatum nec temporum permutatione mutatur But a bad conscience it 's the souls inquisition and strappado It 's the epitome or abridgment of eternall torments 'T is the gloomâ—e evening to the black day of Damnation 'T is the terrible Harbinger of that dreadfull furious cruell train and troop of dismall intolerable unconceiveable woes and plagues which are marching â—ay at the door to take up their everlasting Quarters and abode in the miserable Soul 'T is secretum ftagellum an hell in the soul before the Soul be in Hell 'T is the lightening of those horrors which the thunder of that confounding â—â—ntence Goye cursed into Hel-fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels c. will suddainly inflict upon the for ever undone impenitent sinners Perillus his brasen Bull when hottest was a Down-bed warmed to the scorching anguish of an evill Conscience Nam urit caedit lancinat et eo gravius quia sine morte The stinging of the most venemous Serpent is pleasure and delight to the agonies
inauguration in Constantinople had severall sorts of stone presented to them by a Mason out of which they was to choose one to make them a Tomb to be buryed in o Joseph of Arimathea had his Tomb in a Garden and so had their great men also Mat. 27 60. 2 Kings 21. 18. The Jewes had their Sepulchers in their Gardens that so in the the midst of their delights they might remember their mortality And others have had a Deaths head served up to their Tables that they might in that perspicuous mortifying glasse behold their own frailty in the midst of their mirth pleasures jollity And certainly serious frequent and pious meditation of death will beget in us a vigilant continual expectation of death expectation of it will p Vivere in in tota vita discendum est Quod magis mirum est in tota vita dissendam est mori Seneca de brevitate vita ad Paulinam perswade and spurre us on to preparation for it so that we shall be able not only to look it in the face with comfort but triumphingly to say O Death where is thy sting c. It being nothing to such as have the Lamps of their Souls filled with saving Grace and their Garments washed white in the bloud of the Lamb but the Death and period of all their sins sorrows fears dangers troubles enemies yea and of death it self Mors vita duello conflixere mirando Rex mortuus regnat vivuâ— In hoc duello mors et vita in arenam descenderunt sed tandem vicit vita et gloriose exiit e sepulcro de morte triumphans Irrideamus ergo mortem cum Apostolo dicamâ—s Vbi mors victoria For q Quid ipsa mors quam timemus g Lips Epist p. 75. Requies gaudium et vera vita aut siquid in ea mali malis tantum What is that death which we so much fear and at the very name whereof we tremble 'T is rest joy and life or if there be any evill in it 't is only so to those that are evill And indeed 't is very sad yea wofull to all ungracious persons who have this punishment In dying they forget themselves because in their life time they forgat God But besides this grievous punishment and heavy judgment most justly inflicted by the Lord upon them because when he came to them in their health prosperity life and offered them mercy they refused with equall madnesse and cruelty to their own souls to hear and imbrace the tenders of love and salvation when their Life is lost and ended all hope comfort help all means of Grace and seasons of mercy all possibility of pardon together with the society of the Glorious Angels and glorified Saints the beatificall vision and blessed fruition of the thrice blessed Trinity and those ineffable pleasures which are prepared for all that love God will then be lost for ever Deus amissus est mors animae anima amissa est mors corporis The Death of the body is but the body of death therefore disce non metuendum existimare quae metuenda finit But the death of the Soul the losse of God and his favour is the Soul of Death Fear therefore by sin to provoke that God who can and for sin unrepented of and continued in will inflict eternal death both upon the body and soul and make all impenitent transgressors ever living objects of his never-dying wrath I shall conclude all with presenting and commending the Lord Gabriel Simeons Glasse to your view and perusall Beauty is deceitful money flyeth away Rule-bearing is odious victory doubtfull peace fraudulent old age miserable the fame of wisdome everlasting Life short death to the Godly * Mark the perfect man behold the upright for the end of that man is peace happy Psalm 37. 37 The Prayer O LORD Man hath but one Door to let him into the World by Life but there are a thousand Posterns Wickets and Passages to let him out of it by Death We are born both Mortall and Miserable O give us blessed God so to live that at the end of our daies we may be immortally happy we came into the World Sinners O grant that we may go out of it Saints We were unclean at our birth O let us be pure and holy at our dissolution The hand of every moment winds off some of the little clue of Life The string and plummet of our daies creep and descend every minute nearer and nearer to the ground our Graves The Sunne of this naturall Life never stands still but moves or rather flies from the East and morning of our birth and infancy to the South and noon of Youth and Manhood and then hastens to the West the evening of old Age. Grant therefore holy God that when this Sunne shall set in the night of Death our Soules may rise and shine with the Sunne of Righteousnesse in Glory That as we grow older we may grow holyer every day then other That we may passe the time of sojourning in these Tents of flesh in thy way and Fear that so the Conscience Evidence and Comfort of a wel-spent Life may both Antidote and Arme us against the Sting and Power of Death before it comes and free us from the Horreus and Misery of it when it doth come O let it be no Stranger to our thoughts and then it will be no terrour to our Hearts O let us get death into our mindes and that will put life into all our Actions O grant good God that our Lives may be pious and then our Death will be peaceable joyfull welcome unto us and precious in the sight of the Lord. And give us I beseech thee most mercifull Father some clusters of Grapes of the good Land of Canaan here even the Graces of thy holy Spirit and some fore-tasts of thy speciall Love in Christ while we continue in the Wildernesse of this World that when we die our Souls may enter into and for ever possesse the spirituall Canaan of Heaven Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Amen Diu vixit qui pie moritur Fructus est laboris finis operis placere melioribus FINIS Soli Deo Gloria THE CHARACTERS OF A True Beleever IN PARADOXES AND Seeming Contradictions AN ESSAY By THO. GODDARD Gent. Vetera legendo et metitando nova invenimus Quintil. Placere cupio prodesse precor laboro LONDON Printed by E. C. For Thomas Williams at the Bible in Litle-Brittain and William Thompson at Harborough in Leicestershire 1661. THE CHARACTERS OF A True Beleever In PARADOXES AND Seeming Contradictions 1. HE beleeveth that which he cannot comprehend because it is above reason That there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead yet but one God that God is the Father of Christ that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from them both and yet that they are all three Coeternall and but one in substance 2. He beleeveth that Christ who was
for givenesse because he sins willingly even at that very time when he seems earnestly to beg of the Lord the pardon of his sins and so doth not please or serve but mock God For the God of love and life doth infinitely hate and will not hear those that love hatred and live in it But he will avenge himself severely upon all those that desire and delight to revenge themselves implacably upon others 64. 'T is midnight with an impenitent transgressor when he hath the brightest noontide of prosperity And 't is a serene a shining Noontide with a Saint when he is in the cloudiest midnight of adversity 65. A Saint is a great gainer though he lose all that he hath in the world But a wicked man is a great loser though he gain all that the world hath in it 66. He is mercifully cruell to his own Soul that spares the lives of those Amalekites his Sinnes But he is both cruelly merciful and merciful without any cruelty to his soul that kils them all without mercy 67. He that would live when he dies must kill by mortification all his deadly sins in his life And he that would never die * Mortibus viâ—imus Senec. must die daily 68. The sins of others will increase his sorrow that doth not sorrow for others sins 69. He that would be married to Jesus Christ must get his heart divorced from an inordinate love of worldly things because Christ Jesus will give him a Bill of Divorce that loves the things of the world inordinately For he that makes earth his Heaven or Paradise by suffering a sinful love thereof to enter into his Soul his Soul shal never enter into the Paradise of Heaven 70. He that hath a saving interest in Christ shall be full and rich even when he is empty wantful and deprived of all creature-comforts But he that wants a saving interest in Christ will be poor and empty in the midst of his fullest injoyments and greatest plenty 71. His Soul is sick to death that neither is nor ever yet was heart-sick with grief for the sins of his Life which will be without true repentance the death of his Soul nor love sick for the great and good physitian of the soul Jesus Christ who is both lovely and loving to those only that are sick of love for him 72. His sins are most both odious and hainous that after he hath repented of them returns again with delight to the commission of his hainous sinnes Because he hath laid God in one and put the Devill into the other Scale of the ballance and suffered the Devill to weigh down the Lord. He hath also heard God and the Devill argue and plead and after a full hearing he doth deliberately by wilful relapsing decree for Satan against his Saviour And so he doth both undervalue dishonour and provoke God and also repent that he did repent God will therefore most certainly judge him for his sins without mercy that gives so sinful a judgment against the God of mercy 73. It 's reported that when Caesar saw M. Brutus come running upon him amongst those that murdered him he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And thou my son The sins of Gods Children do grieve and offend Christ more then the iniquities of his Enemies Because a contempt or an injury from a friend doth both dishonour him more highly and wound him more deeply then an affront or an abuse from a professed Adversary 74. He is a bad Magistrate that is not good for nothing And as pious Governors do clothe a Nation with the Robâ—â— of Joy and gladnesse So wicked Rulers do put it into Sackcloth and mourning 75. He that undermines the Church of God doth at once labour sweat and weary himself to dig a hole down to hel for his Soul to fall irrecoverably into the bottomlesse pit And he that persecutes the people of God by shedding their innocent crying bloud puls up a sluce to let in a crimson deluge to drown him 76. Never did any wicked men attempt to pull down God from his Throne by setting up themselves their lusts interests and idols above him or his glory but the God of glory pulled or rather tumbled them down headlong for that wicked attempt Either by humbling their proud presumptuous hearts or else by destroying their persons or blasting their cursed designes or which is yet more dreadful by damning their rebellious Souls 'T is then a fearful thing not to fear falling into the omnipotent Arms and the angry hands of that terrible God who both can and will with one irresistable blow kil and confound the offender and with one frown or stroke send him at once both to his Grave and Hâ—ll 77. A pious Christian though he hates no mans person is yet the worst most inexorable and invincible enemy of all mortall creatures to the ungodly whose works and waies his Soul doth loath and detest For by his faithful prayers he can prevail with God to infatuate their Counses dispirit their stout hearts blast their designs wither their flourishing hopes to break the Arme of their power and to rescue himself and those that fear God out of the Jawes of Enemies dangers and death 'T is therefore a stupendious astonishing madnesse in wicked men to hate those whom God loves to destroy those for whose sakes themselves are preserved to hope to build themselves houses upon earth by pulling the pillars thereof to condemn them that shall one day be their Judges and to plot and presume to plant themselves or their Posterities in the World by supplanting and rooting out the upright * Prov. 2. 1. who shall dwell in the Land whereas the * Prov. 3. 33. wicked * in whose house the curse of the Lord is shall be cut off from the earth †Prov. 2. 22. For if Cedars vinâ—â— olive and orenge trees be cut down then brambles briers and barren Fig-trees will certainly suddainly miserably be cursed burned and consumed 78. He is the worst malignant and Incendiary in a State that is a wicked man For he not only hates goodnesse and good Christians but he also both kindles the fire of Gods wrath against it and keeps it burning and flaming by casting continually the oyle of sinne upon it 79. Those Governours and great ones who are so bewitched with the fading dying and killing glories of this World as for the Love of them to slight Heaven neglect the great Salvation offered them and to reject Jesus Christ their pomp will end in pain their honour in Infamy and their Glory in eternal misery 80. He that slights opposes robs and wrongs the Ambassadours of Jesus Christ Gods faithful Ministers doth dishonour displease and bid defiance to their Master the Lord of Hosts He must therefore without repentance restitution and submission expect to receive neither peace pardon nor quarter but death without mercy that steals from or fights against the God of bounty Justice and Mercy and
r. thy dele own p. 19. l 3 marg r. in Trinitate p. 12. l. 14. r. covet p. 23. l. 10. r. this p. 24. l. 12. r. all miseries p 25. l. 19. r. all whose prayers p. 27. l. 7. marg r. but. p. 35. r. storm p. 44. l. 13. r. but rebellion p 49 l. 6. r. erected p. 50. l. 25. r. pittacus p. 51. l. 24. r. eutrapelus p. 51. l. 19. marg r. Frilby p. 52. l. 22. r. juvandi p. 53. l. 22. r. is l. 36. r. patientia p. 54 l. 9. r. with Isaack p. 55. l. 7. r. quest p. 56. 10. r. dum sitiâ— sitare â—item p. 57. l. 21. r. visiting p. 61. l. 36. r. dark p. 62. l. 2. r. delight in p. 68. l. 27. r. their p. 71. l. 14. r. pleased p. 76. l. 15. r sheds l. 22 r. in the Center p. 89. l. 2. r. as l. 11. God in all things ends the parenthesis p 90. l. 5. r. clean p. 94. l. 16. r. expressions p. 95. l. 12. r. which p. 103. l. 8. r. leaden p. 104. l. 20. r. a Nathan p. 117. l. 31 del that p. 122. l. 9. r. pessimus p. 132. l. 21. r. and in the margenâ— r. and articles of the Ch. of England 23. A little Box of pils p. 13. l. 29. for Varius r. Narius p. 18 l. 23. r. down Reader thou art desired to take notice that all the Pages from 48 are false folied that instead of 49 there is 45 c but we have kept them in this â—rrata as they should be that is in order MISCELLANEA OR Serious Usefull Considerations Morall Historical Theologicall I. Of God THE nature of God who is the deepest Ocean of being cannot be measured by the short the snarled line of mans shallow dark erroneous understanding nay t is equal madness and presumption to attempt it For how can that which is narrow and finite contain or comprehend that which is infinite Deus religione intelligendus est pietate profitendus sensu vero persequendus non est sed adorandus His glorious essence so dazles the purblinde eyes of reason and naturall knowledge that the more they look on him the blinder they are We can at best but spell him in his wonderfull works of Creation Providence Preservation and his Gubernation of the world as Men as Christians we may and can read much of him and see his back parts in his Attributes Word Ordinances by his holy Spirit teaching illuminating and applying the spirituall eye-salve of heavenly wisdome and saving knowledge to our bemisted darkned benighted minds But when we are Saints in Heaven the Prospectives of Glory and Immortality being given unto us we shal then see him face to face and know him as he is Here on earth where we are but strangers guests pilgrims it is our duty to serve obey admire adore him There which is our City Heaven home it will be our both delight happinesse reward and portion to behold possess enjoy him for ever and this is the very Apex and completion of a Christians felicity Here it 's presumption danger sin to peep into the secret Cabinet the Sacred Ark of his unrevealed will there God will discover and the soul will with fresh unwearied renewed desires sweetest pleasures most refined blisse purest Joies and fullest contentment without all possibility of either sorrowing sinning losing them or being satiated with them see and possesse whatever can afford it blessedness glory or satisfaction Here errors crimes miseries and judgments are the fruits effects rewards of a busy bold curious profane inquiry into the essence of that thrice blessed incomprehensible Majestie and therefore we must be sober fearful humble modest in our search of it in our approach towards it and not dare or presume to touch that glorious Mount by any irreligious irreverent unwarrantable notions opinions or expressions of this great God blessed for ever for otherwise in stead of a discovering light to guide and comfort us we shal be sure to meet with a fire that will consume us Lâ—qui volentes de Dei profundo merst sunt in profundum It is honour comfort and happinesse enough for us to know him by a justifying faith to be our God in Christ while our souls abide in the Tents of our bodies in the Wildernesse of this world and that when death hath taken them down we shall have spiritual Mansions and a glorious inheritance in the Canaan of Heaven This Almighty yet most mercifull God is the sole Landlord of the whole world we are his Tenants at will and the Rents which he requires of us and hath obliged us to pay duly truly and not only yearly but daily unto him are obedience holinesse love praises praier and thankfulnesse This God is both omniscient omnipresent omnipotent and just and pure therefore he both knoweth all those sins that are acted though never so secretly or cunningly by the sons of men abhors them and will certainly yea severely punish them Yet he is also patient pitiful gracious and merciful therefore he is not only willing but ready yea desirous to forgive them and to be reconciled to all truly penitent transgressors a Aelius Spartianus Trajane the Emperour of Rome being on horseback to go to the Warrs he alighted again to hear the complaint of a poor Romane If the Lord of Hosts be marching against a poor soul in a way of wrath he will yet both stay to hear the Petition of an humble sorrowful sinner being that God who heareth prayers and he will also turn from his fierce wrath being that God who delighteth in shewing mercy b Thucidides Admetus Molossorum Rex ignovit Hosti suo Themistocli filiolum proprium intuens quem Themistocles supplex utraque manu complexus patri ostentabat This good God who is infinitely more compassionate then the most pitifull Prince yea then the most affectionate father and which is yet more then the most indulgent tender hearted * Esay 49. 15. Mother ever was or possibly can be to the child of her own womb wil both freely and fully pardon all those who bring his own his only son Jesus Christ in the Armes of faith and love with humility and supplication unto him for the life of their souls c Marc. Aurelius in a Letter to his friend Cornelius It was a custome amongst the Romanes after they had proclaimed open wars against an Enemy and when they had sent their Armies against them for all the Romane Senatours to go into the Temple of Jupiter and in it to swear that if those enemies against whom they were going to fight did desire to enter into a league with Rome or aske pardon for their faults that then all revenge laid aside they should grant them mercy The Lord of Hosts hath proclaimed open wars * Esay 3. 11. against all impenitent Sinners who are implacable enemies to his Majesty to the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ his son and to
gemms Joy Peace Honour Riches Comfort Light Life and Blisse O let us all-blessed God make thee our end our Center and Rest our Portion Our Treasure and our All and let us never be quiet till we know and experience thee to be a reconciled God and our merciful Father in and through thy dear Son Jesus Christ that so we may both enjoy thy Love O God which is better then life whilst we sojourne upon earth and live Crowned with the God of Love in glory when these Mud-wall'd Cottages of our fraile Bodies shall be crumbled and resolved into Dust by Death Grant this O God for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Sine Deo nec Gratia Gaudium Bonum nec Coelum II. Of Jesus Christ and A Christians Duty unto Christ HEE is truly really both God and man God that he might satisfie the Lords justice appease his wrath justifie and acquit guilty condemned man * Propter hominem homo Deus factus est man that he might die for sin purchase life for those who were spiritually dead and redeem them both from their woful slavery and from eternall misery He put off those Royall robes of Majesty and Glory and put on in his Incarnation the course rotten Garments or rather rags of flesh and frailty and so became like us in all things sin only excepted Behold here infinite astonishing miraculous debasement Compassion Condescension The Creator of the world became a mortall man the King of Kings a subject Man sins and his God willingly dies to expiate his Crimes The Actions and passion of this blessed Jesus are a continued series of miracles a golden chain let down from heaven to earth all whose links are love mercy goodnesse pity wonder a Dio Cassius Trajanum ferunt suorum vulneribus medicam manum adhibuisse cum fasciae dificerent nec fuaelquidem vesti pepercisse sed eam totam in ligamenta fomenta discidisse But this and ten thousand times more Compassion affection charity is not so much as a drop to the Ocean a beam of light to the Sun or a dust in the ballance to the whole earth compared with the love of Christ to undone man For never did the most tender hearted Soveraign do that for a wounded Souldier nor yet the most faithful lover for his dearest friend which Jesus Christ did for his deadlyest enemies What Prince did ever give his Throne Kingdome to his chiefest Rebells What Physitian did ever let the bloud out of his own heart to cure a most malitious unthankfull Patient What Judge did ever freely sacrifice his own life to save a condemned malefactor who did not only desire and resolve but indeavour to murther him upon the Bench What Generall or Commander did ever suffer willingly himself to be mortally wounded to cure the hurts or save the lives of those Souldiers who conspired to betray him Yet Jesus Christ did all this and infinitely more for he left heaven descended out of the Chariot and came down from the Throne of his Glory to sit upon his foot-stool the earth He willingly indured a close imprisonment in that dark Dungeon the womb of his both Mother and Creature for a time and afterwards he removed himself into that greater Gaole the world into which he was no sooner entred by his birth but disregard dishonor contempt dangers attended on him saluted him and was the best entertainment the chief Rent and Homage which his Tenants Subjects Creatures afforded presented paid unto him their Lord King Creator Immediately yea constantly after this cold uncivil unkind ingrateful usage till his death bloudy enemies hunted this Royal Lion of the Tribe of Juda to destroy him cruell Eagles pursued this harmlesse galless Dove to prey upon him Malitious cunning Foxes attempted to catch this innocent meek Lamb of God whom they should have worshipped to worrey him some openly persecuted others secretly combined against him some impudently affronted others subtilly by questions varnished with Religion and gilded with pretence of conscience laboured to insnare him some scorned and derided others blasphemed him This golden Ball was continually bandied and tossed up and down in the Tennis Court of this world by wicked men with the Rackets of Implacable malice inraged ignorance blind ambition and barbarous persecution till he was stricken into the hazzard of his Grave by the hand of death And yet all this was kindnesse Comdie to those injuries to that Tragedie which he received and soone after acted for they consulted apprehended accused buffeted derided reviled undervalued insulted slandered crowned with thornes at once to mock and wound him arraigned condemned and then crucifi'd him And yet all this too was love ease pleasure mercy to that ineffable yea unconceivable misery which their own and the sins of the whole world burthened and afflicted him withall in that bloudy violent terrible conflict of his upon the cross with sin Satan and the wrath of God the dreadfulnesse weight horror and fiercenesse whereof was such that it amazed affrighted nature and almost unhinged the whole Creation * Matth. 27. For the sun of heaven whilest the son of God was suffering upon earth hid his resplendent face under a pitchy cloud at once blushing grieving and fearing to behold so sad a spectacle The heavens put themselves into mourning wore a sable garment and gave a black livery to the world when that prodigious fact was committed that so they might both weare an habite sutable to the crime and apparell heaven aâ—d earth in a dresse fit to attend their maker withal to his grave expressing their sorrows in showers of tears The very Rocks to upbraid his more then flinty hearted Enemies to teach them and us compassion when others especially those who are innocent do suffer and compunction when we by sinning do crucifie our Saviour did relent yea break and because man was dumbâ— or rather silent and would not they clave themselves into mouths and tongues to proclaim and preach his Majesty mercy Divinity torments funerall The senselesse earth seemed to apprehend grew aguish and falling into a cold fit she did quake and tremble as if shee had both understood and been terrified with those wofull dismall dreadful calamities plagues and judgments with her equally stupid cruell and rebellious Children were then with both hands deliberately diligently certainly pulling downe upon their own wicked heads and by that fearfull bloudy prevailing Imprecation * Matth. 6 25. his bloud be upon us and our Children importuning an omnipotent just and highly offended God to intail upon their unborne posterity The vail of the Temple rent from the top to the bottome in twain and by that Sympathizing mysterious Act did declare assure and publish both to them and all the world 1. That the vail of ignorance and superstition which had so long covered and blinded the minds of men should be immediately taken way and torne in pieces by the promulgation of the glorious precious comfortable Gospell
with wonder love and thankfulnes◠meditate of and acknowledg the unparallel'd unspeakable * Solus pro nobis suscipit sine malis meritis paenam ut nos per illum sine bonis meritis consequeremur gratiam Aug. affection and compassion of Jesus Christ in dying not only to redeeme Captives but which is much more to purchase pardon for those who were implacable enemies to him and bloudy Rebells in armes against him And lastly they will abhorre and loath all sin and express their detestation thereof by never committing delighting or living in those impieties transgressions and abominations which Jesus Christ hates which cost him so much anguish griefe trouble and which brought him to so horrible so painfull and so ignominious a death They being those Jewes that crucified him that Crown of Thorns which wounded his head who is the head of his Church and members those hands and whips that scourged him those nails that fastned him to the Crosse and that speare which pierced his very heart and kill'd the Lord of life Nor yet is this all the duty we are to performe all the tribute we are to pay or all the gratitude or praise which wee must express and return to Jesus Christ for we are most justly and strongly obliged not only to avoid carefully to oppose resolutely to strangle impartially and to hate implacably all sin though never so dear sweet or profitable to us but we must also carefully conscionably sincerely constantly strive and resolve to tread in the steps of Christ to make him our rule and to measure our conversation by the straight line of his most holy †life it being the summe of all religion to imitate him whom we worship * Matth. 11. 29 Et frustra appellamur Christiani si imitatores non simus Christi qui ideo se viam dixit esse ut conversatio magistri esset forma discipuli et illam humilitatem eligeret servus quam sectatus est Dominus If he be not our Exemplar he will not be our Saviour If we will not learne of him here we shall not live with him hereafter Besides the great the unavoydable danger which we incurre and the insupportable miseries which we are sure to bring upon our selves by refusing to walk in those paths of piety and Righteousnesse which Christ hath chalked out for us we have many and great incouragements to follow him in those blessed waies which he hath troden before us For we can never ingage with such a Captaine nor choose such a Husband nor follow such a Guide nor serve such a Master nor imitate such a pattern as Jesus Christ Because he is a Captain invincible a Husband most rich wise faithfull great honourable a guide infallible a most munificent loving bountiful master and a pattern unmatchable Verbi verba sunt nobis documenta Verbi facta sunt nobis exempla The words of this word who is * John 1. 1. God the Word are our instructions and the actions of this Word are our examples This glorious this gracious Jesus is the good the great Shepherd of our soules he speaks to his flock his people as * Judges 7. 17. Gideon did to his little Army looke on me and do likewise and his sheepe will not only hearken to his voyce but obey him also This King of Saints saith to his Subjects as i Edward the 3d. g Speed Cronic p. 704. King of England did to his souldiers when he entred into a Foord in the River Some notwithstanding a thousand horse and ten thousand foot were sent thither by the French to impeach his passage over it he that loves me let him follow me they will cheerfully couragiously march after him for they are such Cordelyons that the greatest dangers cannot affright them nor Enemies though Anakims Gyants both in power might malice and cruelty discourage or dispirit them nor sufferings and torments though never so sharp bitter or painful disswade or deter them Nay death it self though presenting it selfe in its grimmest hue and most ghastly shape cannot dismay or appale them for their Captain is their Bridegroome and rather then they will not injoy him they will meete and celebrate their Nuptials to him in a flame They will embrace him with hands and armes burning for him as well as with hearts fired with Love unto him Yea they will welcome both miseries and death when they are the messengers to invite them unto and the means to hasten effect and solemnize their longed for marriage to Jesus Christ h Fox book of Martyrs vol. 3 p. 140. As Mr. Sanders did who being brought to the stake to be burned kissed it saying Welcome the Crosse of Christ welcome everlasting life i idem vol. 2. p. 554. and as Anthony Person did too who being brought to the place of Execution with a cheerfull countenance he embraced the post to which he was to be bound in his armes and kissed it saying Now welcome mine own sweet wife for this day shalt thou and I be married together in the love and peace of God And rather then they will either desert or dishonour their Captain or his Cause they will freely constantly undauntedly sacrifice their lives in it and prefer death for Christ before life yea and all the world too without him as another faithful Souldier of his k Fox book of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 200. Stephen Knight did who being come to the place where he was to be burned he kneeled down and said Thou seest O Lord that where I might live in worldly wealth to worship a false God and honour thine enemies I choose rather the torment of the body and losse of this life and have counted all things but vile dust and dung that I might win thee which death is dearer to me then thousands of gold and silver And which is yet more they not only have and will meekly willingly invincibly carry the crosse of Christ but like the blessed * Mercatura est quadam amittere ut majora lucreris Tertul. Apostles they have heretofore * Acts. 5. 41. do at present and wil◠hereafter rejoyce also that they were and are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ But that which is more then all that which I have yet said or these have done or suffered for their husband and Generall is this some of them have exalted yea sung in the midst of such tortures torments and miseries as have caused palenesse to sit upon the faces trembling to seize upon the joynts and sighs terrors griefe amazement and horrour to fill and wound the hearts of their Spectators persecutors Executioners even whilst they were joyfully suffering of them l Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 390. Master Denley sung a Pslame in the midst of the fire when it was kindled and he was burning in it and having a Faggot thrown at him by one of the tormentors at the command of cruel Doctor Storie
those that are darkened with Ignorance and benighted in Superstition with the glorious Beames of saving knowledge Let it guide all those that wander in the by paths of Errour and Wickednesse into the safe way of Verity and Holinesse And let it quicken such as are dead in Trespasses and Sins that those dry bones those stinking Lazarusses may rise live and praise thee Let it O Lord convince convert humble purifie and regenerate those that are secure profane carnall and unclean that so being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ they may be comfortably assured they are justified by the Merits of Christ Let good God thy Holy Spirit excite perswade inable Christians to try discern and judge which is the true Spirit the Spirit of Truth that so they may not be deluded but infallibly directed by it to choose and to walk under the Câ—nduct thereof in the way of Holinesse that leads to happinesse And do thou O Lord who art the Father of Spirits give us all thy Holy Spirit whereby we may be inabled to cry Abba Father for thy Sons and our alone Saviours sake Jesus Christ Amen Sine Spiritu Sancto nec lux pax puritas Sanctitas nec gloria IV. Of Sinne and Sinners T is the true and fruitfull mother of miseries A Pandoras Box full of all reall deadly plagues and curses T is the poyson of the soul rack of Conscience the Bellows fewell oyle that blow kindle and continue the fiery wrath of God burning against all obstinate perpetrators thereof a Ho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 632. Like Homers Thersites it's ugly without as well as within having like the subtile cruell Panther a deformed head as well as a destructive deadly paw Like Judas it kisses and betrayes us Like Ioab it embraces stabâ— and kills at once b Quint Curtius lib. 8. p. 154. Sin is like to the River Nilus whose streams do cause and produce a fruitfulnesse even to wonder but yet it abounds with crocodiles wickednesse is sometimes prosperous but it s always dangerous and without Repentance deadly It 's like the Caspian Sea which affords the sweetest waters but breeds the greatest Serpents The Preface of sin may be pleasure its Exordium delight but the Finis thereof will be punishment At sins table the first course may be contentment but the second will be death It may appear to our dim eyes a Dove but if we once lodge it in our bosomes or imbrace it we shall finde it a serpent that will both sting and kill us T is a Siren which allures us to our ruine a Thiefe that robs us of our chiefest treasures our choycest mercies Gods favour a saving interest in Christ pardon of sin peace of Conscience grace glory It 's the souls both Leprosie and murderer Like the stone by the river Maeander called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sober stone which put into a mans bosome would make him mad it distracts us Like that deaf-stone which I have read is in Scotland that one standing at one end of it can not hear what another saith standing at the other end thereof it stops the ears of the Lord that our Prayers cannot find audience or acceptance with him * Esay 59. 1. 2. Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear c Plutarch in ejus vitâ— What Phociâ—n the Athenian once said to the people of Athens viz. All that ever you say and do dislikes me God * Prov. 15 8 9. 26. saith and declareth to all wicked persons whose both prayers wayes and thoughts are abominable to him yea and their civill actions too †for the ploughing of the wicked is sin * Prov. 21. 4. Sin it blots out all the characters of beauty comelinesse and amabilitie which God at first engraved upon the soul it covers also the face of the soul which was most fair and lovely till sin did spoil blast and soil it with a black vail of deformity and renders it loathsome and ugly in the pure eye of God It defaces yea ruins the rarest piece of the whole Creation the Epitome of the Universe the wonder of Nature the miracle of the world Man It not only poysons the lower springs of earthly injoyments turns blessings into curses but like Pharaohs lean kine it devours consumes those sat ones riches health greatness peace plenty and all * Read Deut. 28. chapt worldly prosperity It also which is a mischief infinitely greater then the other dams up the current of those upper springs grace mercy speciall love salvation so that the soul like the mountains of Gilbea hath no celestiall showres of holinesse or reall happinesse rained upon it It turned Paradise into a wildernesse and makes the world a Pest-house when that too pregnant womb the heart hath conceived Sin by the Devill who is the true Father thereof it nourishes seeds and keeps it till it falls in travail of those cursed dreadful monstrous Twins Guilt and Misery and then it 's carried and laid down by death and judgment in a bed of fire and attended only with Devils and Reprobates without all possibility or hope of ever being delivered It grieves Heaven but makes Hell triumph It 's a tree that bears no other fruit but shame sorrow wrath and death Doe but wipe your eyes and behold the ugly face of sin in the Crystall glass of Gods word and also in those red mirrors the fearfull judgements the dreadful vengeance of the Lord upon those pillars of salt those miserable standing monuments of Gods hatred and detestation erected both in his word and in the world Impenitent transgressors And lastly in the bloudy sufferings of Jesus Christ and then if your hearts be not harder then an Adamant or like the * Job 41. 24. Leviathans as firm as a stone yea as hard as a piece of the nether milstone they will relent and you will mourn confesse forsake yea loath all sin †Numb 32. 23. It 's the souls bloud-hound which will hunt pursue overtake and as Acteon was killed by his own dogs as Haman was hanged upon his own Gibbet as Holofernes was beheaded with his own sword destroy it T is that Jonas in the ship of the soul which raises a terrible tempest of divine wrath against it whereby it will be not only restlesly tossed upon the briny bitter Billows of fear anguish dejection and perplexity but also before the stone cease unlesse it be thrown over board cast out of the heart and life by godly sorrow and unfained repentance it will most certainly and miserably be wrackt and perisht without hope or help in a boyling Sea of fire and brimstome which hath neither banks nor bottome For as d Leigh choyce observat in the Life of Claudius p. 102.
Claudius was murdered by Agrippina his wife with that meat mixed by her with poison which he most and best loved So those sins wherein the wicked do most delight and please themselves will certainly if they do not get their pardon in this life both poyson and kill their souls T is a truth equally sad apparent and prodigious that there is no Creature in the world so mercilesse or mischievous to its self as a wicked man is For it is an e Bed Axiom ex Arist lib. 2. phys Axiome in Philosophy Idem non agit corruptionem sui ipsius nisi per accidens Every thing naturally either desireth or tends to its own preservation perfection and felicity But an impious profane Man yea every impenitent sinner doth deliberately contrive cunningly plot diligently seek industriously pursue and most laboriously yea indefatigably indeavour to ruine both his body and soul for ever He is a Wolf a Devill to himself for he is his own adversary his own tempter as well as to others Since he spends much time useth many means spares for no cost and takes very great pains to go to Hell So that f Camerar Hist medit lib. 1. p. 29. what the Common Souldier said unto Marius who was in his youth a Cutler but afterwards an Emperour when he slew him This is with the sword which thy self hast made God men Conscience and Satan may yea will one day say to every impenitent sinner This sin of thine thy pride hypocrisie drunkenness thy profaneness uncleaness worldlyness c. which thou hast in thy youth and life committed is the sharp glittering sword with which the Lord of Hosts doth now pierce thy hardened heart through with sorrow and kill thy sinfull soul T is the sole object of Gods eternall hatred Deo nihil est invisum odiosum execrabile nisi malum It 's a spiritual Gangraena which if it be not cured by hearty repentance will provoke the Lord to cut the soul off with the sharp Revenging axe of Justice and the two-edged sword of wrath from the body of Jesus Christ What the Jews said of the golden Calf g Godw. Jew Antiq. lib. 4. p. 175. No punishment befalleth thee Israel in which there is not an Ounce of this Calf is most true of sin it being certain that both temporall punishments spiritual judgments and eternall torments are procured by it and that they have been are and will be inflicted by the Lord upon those that are wicked as the just reward and deserved wages of iniquitie because sin like Goliah comes alwaies with an Army of Philistines with woes miseries curses and troubles in the rear of it And if men will suffer or rather combine with and help Satan to pinion themselves with the Cords of iniquitie God will also in his owne time bind them with the fetters of afflictions and hang them up as Spectacles of his just fury in the Chains of Damnation The counsell therefore of Otho 2. ought to be our practise Pacem inquit cum omnibus habe bellum cum vitiis because we cannot make our peace with God nor injoy that peace of God which passeth all understanding unlesse we wage war and maintain a couragious constant fight till death against sin Satan and our selves If we would have the Lord our friend and love us we must be enemies to and hate implacably every wicked way and every evill thing * Matth. 5 7. If we mourn for sin here we shall rejoyce hereafter but if we rejoyce in sin here * Job 20. 5. we shall †grieve hereafter because the short empty deceitful pleasures of sin which are but like the colours in the Rainbow pleasures in appearance only not in truth or reality in the end will sting and fill the heart with unspeakable yea unconceivable horror and sorrow for sin is neither h Socrates Epist 7. a gainful nor an honorable nor a pleasant thing but the greatest calamitie in the world Although then the distempered palat's of wicked men may at their first drinking a sugared draught of sinful delights tast some * Sin is like the River Atheneus whose upper waters were sweet grateful both towards the bottome brackish pleasantnesse and honey therein yet they will be sure to relish and find bitternesse yea gall and wormwood at the bottome of the Cup. Besides they cannot satisfie but they will satiate them and as at the first they will be sick of Love so ere long they will be sick of loathing like * 2 Sam. 13. 15. 27. Amnon even those dearest fairest Tamars on which but even now they so passionately doted For like the bloudy Sword of cruel war it will be bitrernesse in the end The Devill like a cunning cruell Master at first useth his Servants with seeming kindnesse and bids them welcome he will not crosse displease or deny them any thing nor in any thing but when he hath once got them into his workhouse and ingaged them in his service then the condition of an Isralite in Aegypt or a Galley slave in Turkey or of a Christian in the Inquisition is infinitely more desirable and comfortable then theirs When Satan first tempts men and women to drudge for him to sin he perswades them that the evill which he would have them act is so little veniall inconsiderable that it hath no danger in it and that they shall not fail to find and receive either delight advantage or advancement or all for he hides his deadly hook with such baits as he by his long experience finds are the likelyest to be swallowed by those he desires to catch and resolves to kill by the committing of it and by this pulley he drawes them with this screw he turns and winds them up to presume In this hood put over the eies of their mind he leads them blindfold quietly easily and securely to the very brink of the bottomlesse pit for they go with him as that more then foolish young wanton did with his unchast minion †Prov 7. 22. Even as a Beast goeth to the slaughter or as a foole to the correction of the stocks But when this bloudy Gaoler hath hung and lockt so many Irons upon his jocund fearlesse muffled miserable Captives that he is confident they cannot break Prison nor make an escape then he awakens them with thunder and represents their wofull condition in the most grisly terrible dreadfull form which he with all his skil and spite is able unto them suggesting and telling them That their sins are got above Gods mercy being too great to be pardoned that since they have chosen him for their master damnation must be their wages that since they have given him the flowr of their youth God will never accept the bran of their age that the day of Grace is ended and the door of mercy shut therefore it is in vain either to work or knock that their sins have made them like
stubble fully dry therefore God wil be a consuming fire to them that they have walked so far and so long in the broad way of death that it 's now too late to turn into the narrow way of life that their iniquities have made them too filthy for Gods pure eyes to pity them that they have turned a deaf care to their Makers commands and therefore he will not now hear their cries that they have both lockt and bolted the iron doors of their hearts against Christ and therefore God will not open the gate of mercy to them that they have sinned against infinite love admirable patience glorious light c. and therefore the Lord will now in fury both pour out the fullest vials of his dreadfull wrath upon them and cast their souls into utter darknesse that they have troden the precious bloud of Jesus Christ under their profane feet and therefore God will never set a Crown of glory on their heads that they have chosen to have their portion in this world and therefore God will not give them an inheritance in Heaven With these and such like Milstones of temptation which he strives to hang about the necks of their guilty awakened amazed perplexed consciences he both endeavours and hopes to sink and drown their souls in the Dead sea of despair For our groans are the Devils musick our sins his Banquet our sufferings his solace our torments his pleasure our sorrow his Joy our evills his doth desire and satisfaction our wickednesse his very wisâ— our destruction his delight and our eternal ruine his Triumph And our sins are those murdering peeces wherewith this politick cunning active cruell enemy of mankind both wounds and kils so many immortal souls They are the wheels of that Chariot wherein this Prince of the Aire rideth triumphing up and down the World over vanquished captivated murdered men and women They are the Rocks and quick-sands which split and swallow up so many millions of precious souls It is then a dear bargain when men purchase a few empty transient delights with infinite endless pain grief torments when they sell heaven and their souls to buy Hâ—ll yet thus do all wicked profane persons Breve est quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat for impenitent sinners shal be alwaies burning in streams and drowning in flames without all hope or possibility of ever being either drowned or consumed Those that are truly wise will therefore fear Sinne. But a fool for so the wisest of men * Prov. 1. 7. 32. Solomon calls every one that is wicked makes a mock at it sports with it and like one that I have read of Joco venenum bibit serio mortem obiit He drinks the poysoned waters of sin in jest but murders his own soul in earnest And as i Julius Caesar was killed with daggers Fabius was cheaked with an hair some have been killed with a plumbstone and others have been choakâ—d with a bit of Châ—ese And the lâ—ast sin without Râ—pentance will be deadly to the soul because it 's an essence and contempt done and committed against an infinite puâ—e holy just God Cleopatra killed her self with a little serpent called Apis So wicked men do destroy themselves not only with great Scarlet and gross sins but with little ones also because the soul may be strangled with cords of vanity as well as with the Cart-ropes of iniquitie And the greatest wisest man in the world if wicked will or however hath just cause when he dies to say as Nero did Heu qualis Artifeâ— pereo since if he be not rich in grace and wise to salvation in this life at his death he will find himself to have been the veriest Idiot and the poorest Lazar that ever had a being upon Earth What was said of Domiâ—ian namely That all those evils which were scattered in others met and were united in him is most true of sin it being that Ocean from which all those streams of miserie and mischief flow which over whelm and destroy the ungodly If sin reign the man is dead since Grace and sin like Mezentius his couples cannot live together Like light and darknesse Heaven and Hell they are irreconcileable so that what was at first said of those two Princes Conradine of Sicily and Charles of Anjou and afterwards k Camden Annal. of Q. Elizabeth lib. 2. p. 142. applied to Elizabeth Queen of England and Mary Queen of Scots The death of Mary is the Life of Elizabeth and the Life of Mary the death of Elizabeth is most true of them for the life of piety is the death of iniquity and the life of impiety is the death of Sanctity and the Soul Besides all this both danger and misery to which a wicked person renders himself obnoxious by his sins enough one would think to rouse affright and humble the most Atheistical wretch in the world every impenitent transgressor doth yet add more fewell to the fire of Gods wrath and more weight to the already insupportable burden of his sins by his ingratefull injurious dishonourable undervaluing of Christ for he prefers Barabbas before Jesus his lusts before his Lord and which is a crime both most horrible and abominable Satan that roaring lyon who seeks daily to devour him before his Saviour the Lyon of the tribe of Judah who laid down his life to deliver him For Christ commands and he rebels Christ woo's and he will not love Christ knocks and he will not open the door to him but now let the Devill call and he will run let the Devill perswade and he will obey let the Devill knock by a temptation and he will let him in either at the gate or window and rather then he shall be kept out his ears eyes mouth heart and all shall be unlockt for him His condition is most sad and woful for bloudy cut-throats are got into his house his heart yet he fears no danger he is mortally sick yet he feels no pain death stands at the door and destruction is ready to come over his Threshold and yet he sayes Soul take thine ease Nihil enim est miserius misero se non miserante Let then all unholy ungratious men and women consider that if they do live and dye on earth fast asleep in a sinful * Quisquis desolationem non novit nec Consolationem agnoscere potest et quisquis ignorat consolationem esse necessariam super est ut non habeat gratiam Dei Inde est quod homines seculi negotiis flagitiis implicati dum miseriam non sentiunt â—o attendum misericordiam Bern. security their souls will most certainly awaken in Hell in unavoydable never dying misery for if impiety and impenitency be the praemises eternal damnation both of body and soul will be the conclusion Peâ—â—atum puniendum est aut ate aut a deo si punitur ate tunc punitur sine te si vero non punitura te tecum punietur To
be merciful to sin is to be cruel to our selves since he that loves and spares it doth not only lash and wound but * O Israel thou hast distroyed thy self Hâ—sea 13. 9. murder himself Because as holiness is both a work an incomparable felicity and a reward So sin is both a Crime a punishment and an Executioner to all unconverted offenders Pharoah's sins as well as the Sea drowned him * Numb 16. 32. And Corah's swallowing down sin without repentance was the cause that the earth swallowed up him without example for never did so many of her ungracious children as he his wicked companions were who was therefore most justly by God made wofully miserable in that dreadful destruction because they was all wilfully guilty of that damnable Rebellion fall down into her gaping inlarged new made mouth slide or rather tumble head-long into her empty greedy stomack entrails or lye down alive in her cold and mercilesse bosome before O the misery and madnesse of a gracelesse Sinner How can he expect or hope to escape the dreadful vengeance of God that by his unkindnesse unthankfulnesse and undutifulnesse to his heavenly Father hath most justly provoked the God of mercy to become his everlasting enemy What the people of Rome said when they lamented the death of Octavius Augustus he will most certainly when 't is too late have cause in another sense to say Vtinam aut non l Aurel. Vict. nasceretur aut non mor eretur would he had never been born or never dyed The Prayer O LORD thou art a God infinite in all Divine perfections Thou hast all things and art all things eternally from within and unto thy most glorious self Thou dost therefore want neither the praises nor the Services of either the most gracious Christians or the most glorious Cherubims The holinesse praiers and duties of Saints or Angels can add nothing to thy most transcendently divine Excellencies Nor can the vices vilenesse crimes and Sinnes of men lessen stain or eclipse thy Glory Yet such O Lord is thy miraculous condescensiâ—n thy wonderful thy undeserved Compassion to the Bankrupted posterity of Adam that thou art pleased not only to acquaint but also to assure all those who walk humbly conscientiously holily before thee and sincerely endeavour to praise thy great and glorious name that though they be but dust ashes and worms yet they do honour and glorifie thy ever blessed Majesty And although sin be so contrary to thy holy nature opposite to thy righteous Laws and Will and loathsome in thy pure eye that even the least sin is a great yea an infinite offence injury and contempt done unto thee and doth at once vex load and grieve thee Yet such O Lord is thy never enough to be admired acknowledged or magnified mercy and patience to rebellious self-polluting poysoning self-ruining Man that thou dâ—st not only forbear to punish plague and damne him but thou art also pleased though he daily offend thee and persist in his provocations of thee and reject thy gracious tenders of peace pardon and salvation to seek unto him to intreat yea by thy Ministers to importune and beseech him that he would be reconciled to thee love accept imbrace thee and thy offered mercy that so tbou mayest forgive own delight in him deliver and save him both from Wrath and Death O Lord let the riches of thy unparallel'd goodnesse long-sufferance and forbearance lâ—â—d us unto speedy unfeigned hearty Repentance Let the serious consideration of the cursed defiling deforming damnable nature of sin the guilt whereof could not be expiated nor the filth thereof purged away with any Sacrifice but the bloud and death of the only Sonne of God Jesus Christ both God and Man make us not only fear but tremble to commit the least evill O let it pierce and break our hearts with Grief and Remorse to consider how we have pierced our Saviours very heart and broken his most just and holy Commandements by our wilfully transgressing against him Let O Lord our spirits melt mourn and bleed within us for our shedding and trampling under our profane feet without pity or sorrow that precious bloud of our dearest Saviour which alone can cleanse and cure our defiled wounded Souls Whensoever we are tempted to commit any sinne let us O Lord not only meditate and remember what it cost Christ to make our peace with a displeased God to pay our debts and to ransome our inthralled Souls but let us also set before our eyes and look upon Jesus Christ who never committed any sin sweating suffering grâ—aning wounded bleeding and lying for our Sins that so we may in his unexampled and unexpressible miseries with the eyes of detestation and lamentation behold the danger and desert of our own Iniquities Let not sin most holy God be sweet dear or delightfull to us which was Gall and Vinegar bitter painful and deadly to Jesus Christ O let the knowledge of thy power and purity awe and deterre us from evill but chiefly let our frequent serious admiring and thankfull reflexions upon the bounty mercy and long-suffering of our gracious God and the free the infinite Love of Jesus Christ prevail with us and make us both watchful and carefull to detest decline loath leave confesse forsake and crucifie all our lusts and transgressions and to love honour please praise and glorifie our God And let us not imbrace entertain or welcome sinne into our hearts and crucifie our blessed Saviour any more lest our bloudy cruelty both to him and our own souls deprive us for ever of Christ Comfort Grace and Glory Amen Peccatum lethale est Venenum Quod delectat necat V. Of the World and the brightest Jewell in its Crowne Soveraignty 'T is a fools Idol a wise mans Inne 't is a storehouse of vanities a shop full of gaudy but empty pots a fair house haunted with evil Spirits it 's a maze a desert a disguised mockery an Ocean of troubles a pitfal to the rich a burden to the poor a traducer of the good a deceiver of all that love and trust it 'T is a Garden enamelled with beautiful flowers under which lurk deadly Serpents a green soft pleasant walk covered and bespread with nets and snares a Speed Chron p. 118. a path like that of a Heliogabalus strawed with the powder and dust of Gold and silver but leading to a Gibbet A sweet spring set round with lime-twigs a stately wealthy Citie infected with the plague 'T is the body's Paradise but a Purgatory to the soul 'T is a painted treacherous Harlot which allures invites but destroys her Lovers a tender Nurse to vice dandling it upon her knees of Pleasure and Profit but a step-mother which hates and strangles vertue 'T is a dâ—ie pit a broken Cistern in a drought an empty cloud a Feast in a dream and without Christ as one said of her dead husband a cold armful And as for Soveraignty though
Socrates did of his enemies Anitus and Melitus they may kill me but they cannot hurt me for he is like the Amiantus stone called the Asbest which t is said being cast into the fire seems forthwith to be all on a flame but being taken out shines more gloriously And like gold which put into fire is more pure and being cast into the water is most radiant Tribulation is to him as the enemies sword was to that souldier who being therewith wounded in his side was thereby cured of an Impostume which otherwise would have caused his death Adversity it is a Christians Topicks from whence he deduces Arguments to prove himself a * Prov. 13. 1â— Favourite in the Court of Heaven 'T is his Heraldry or Coat of Arms where by he is able to prove himself allyed to Christ and an Heir of Glory they being Bastards Esay 27. 9. not Sons who are not chastened of the Lord. Deus unicum tantum habet filium sine peccato nullum sine flagello It 's the †Physick that purgeth out the peccant dangerous humours of sin 't is a painfull but a health-bringing medicine Nulla remedia quae vulneribus adhibentur tam faciunt dolorem quam quae sunt salutaria saith the Orator Corrections like Plato's suppers are best the day after * A gale of groans and sighs a stream of tears accompanies us to the very gates of Heaven and there bids us farewell for ever M. Baxter A good mans drink is wormwood here for he must not expect two Heavens Delicatus es si hic gauderevelis cum seculo postea regnare cum Christo Since they that would reap in joy must sow in tears they must expect both clouds and showres †1 Thess c. 3. v. 3â— it being the lot portion and condition of all Gods people to have foul weather and foul way in their Journey towards their everlasting home Heaven c Rainold Orat p 401. Cyrus olim suos Persas libertatis dulce dinem ex labore servitutis docuisse traditur * Si mihi tranquilla placata omnia faissent incredibili qua nunc fâ—uor laetitiae voluptate caruissem Cicer. post reditum Misery gives a sweet relish to mercy and therefore God will have his people to be slaves in Egypt before he makes them free denisons of Canaan * Afflictions are the snuffers wherewith God makes his people to burn and shine more bright Affliction 't is the Morter in which a Child of God is beaten and bruised to make his graces like sweet spices smell more fragrantly Afflictio piorum non est tam poenae criminis quam examen virtutis For Gods sharpest dealings and severest dispensations towards his children are corrections not judgments chastisements but not punishments or if they be punishments they are yet poenae emendatoriae non interfectoriae reforming not consuming temporall not eternall sin-killing but not soul-killing punishments Affliction 't is the Sive wherewith God sifts and as it were dresseth them to make them fit grain to be gathered into his Garner 'T is the workhouse in which he frameth his Servants like to his Son 'T is the mould wherein God casts his own people and forms Jesus Christ in them 'T is the Mint-house wherein the Lord stampeth his own Image upon them with this superscription Holinesse to the Lord. d There is no greater sign of damnation then to lie in sin and evill unpunished of God saith blessed Mr. Bradford 'T is the mark livery Cognizance of the friends sheep and servants of Christ 'T is a Rod like †1 Sam. 14. 27. Janathans with honey at the end of it whereby mens eyes are enlightned to behold their misery most men and women being too like the Mole who they say is blind till a little before her death but then see 's * Job 36. 8 9. If they be bound in fetters and be holden in the cords of affliction then God sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded saith Elihu Manasses could not see his sins so as to be humble for them and to repent of them till affliction had opened his eyes Adversity 't is the Grave of sin and the Womb of Grace 'T is like d Rainold Orat p. 394. the picture of Diana in Chios which frowns when you come to it and smiles when you go from it * Nihil mihi videtur infeliciâ—s eo cui nunquam aliquid â—venit adversi Demetrius Demetrius an Heathen accounted it a great unhappinesse that he had no misfortune And not without just cause since prosperity is usually the mother and fore-runner of iniquity security * Prov. 1. 32. misery e Plutarch Apothegm When Philip King of Macedon had tidings brought unto him of many worthy and prosperous exploits atchieved all together in one and the same day he cryed out O fortune work me but some small displeasure I beseech thee for these so many blessed good turns f Camerar lib. 1 p. 38. And when Amasis King of Egypt heard of Polycrates his happinesse he wrote to him saying I have thy great felicity in suspicion And afterwards said that he feared he should be forced to sorrow and lamentation because of this his friend overwhelmed with misery And that he feared came to passe for not long after Polycrates was hanged upon a Gibbet by the Command of Oraetes the Lieutenant of Cyrus * Miserum te judico quod runquam fuisti miser Seneca de divin providentia Impunity is the greatest infelicitie * Prov. 2. 1â— prosperous wickednesse being the usuall Harbinger of grievous calamities for God is most angry at the wicked when he seems because he doth not punish them to be pleased with them Amongst men there is et misericordia punienâ— crudelitas parcens Witnesse Tiberius g Suetonius vita Tyberii who constrained them to live who were willing to dye And h Camerar lib. 5. p. 334. Caligula whose Command to the bloudy Executioner of his cruelties was Ita feri ut mori se sentiat strike so as he may feel Death And when a poor prisoner said to Tiberius I beseech your Majesty that I may dye he answered him thou art not yet in my favour So the Lord but most justly punisheth his enemies by sparing wounds by not striking and plagues them by prospering of them For Adversity with Gods mercy is true felicity but prosperity with Gods wrath is reall misery Paul in a Dungeon was happily miserable when Nero upon a Throne was miserably happy The way to Canaan for the Israelites lay through a howling desert Affliction is the Kings great road to Heaven i Don Anthony de Guevara Dial of Princes Fol. 28. Bias amongst others ordained this Law That none should be a Prince of the Perinenses but he that had been brought up ten years in the Warres Because saith he he alone doth know how
of such a wounded Spirit That poor wretch who was flayed alive and then laid upon a bed of Salt till he expired by the barbarous command of Solyman â—elt no pain and rested upon a soft couch-chair compared with him or her that hangeth upon the gibbet of an evill conscience Yea the greatest sharpest deadliest pangs and throws of that woman who hath the hardest labour in child-bearing are not only ease and refreshments but cordialls in respect of the horrible unavoidable insupportable tortures lashings bitings and gnawings of the whip and worm of a bad conscience An evill conscience is the outward court of Hell 'T is the earnest and foretast of those torments which are easelesse endlesse remedilesse 'T is like that * Ezck 2. 9 10. Book in Ezekiel wherein was written both within and without lamentation and mourning and wo. Weigh them seriously and hearken attentively to the God of Wisdome and truth who assureth us †Prov. 18. 14. The spirit of a man willsustain his inâ—irmities but a wounded spirit who can bear That a Spirit wounded with the sense of its guilt and misery is insupportable for by putting the question he puts it out of all question that it is so And also to that doleful eccho of the damned souls in Hell c See the life of Spira Francis Spira that compleat map of misery that so you may both judge impartially what it is fear it and carefully timely resolutely oppose hate decline and fly that which will bring you unto and hang your souls upon the same rack on which all his bones were broken viz. Sin against convictions covenants promises profession love light knowledg and conscience committed relapsed into and unrepented of I now feel saith he Gods heavy wrath that burns like the torments of hell-fire within me and afflicteth my soul with pangs unutterable And again the gnawing worms of an unquenchable horror confusion and which is worst of all Desperation continually torture me My pangs faith he are such that the damned wights in Hell endure not the like misery O let us then hear and fear yea let us be instructed warned and perswaded by his and * Cain Judas c. others sufferings to pray and labour to get good consciences and to keep them voyd of offence both towards God and towards men that so we may never feel and endure the exquisite the insufferable torments of a double Hell Desperation and Damnation And since unicuique liber est propria conscientia ad hunc librum discutiendum emendandum omnes alii inventi Since every mans conscience is his book and that all books are written for the reading correcting and expunging the errata's thereof It is therefore the great duty and concernment of every one vigilantly conscientiously constantly to take heed that it be neither interlined with sin nor blotted and blurred with crimes vices nor defaced with foul and filthy lusts Because if it be not kept pure fair and undefiled God will one day command it to be burned by the common hangman the Devill in the fire of Hell But if it be preserved unstained God will then love and delight in it For facies animi est câ—nscientia sicut in conspectu hominum gratiosa est facies pulcra sic in conspectu Dei speciosa est conscientia munda The face of the mind is the conscience And an unspotted conscience is as beautiful in the sight of God as the most renowned and celebrated Beauty either is or ever was amiable in the eyes of men If then thou wouldest be free from the anguish agonies and miseries of an evill Conscience do thou in this case what one advised Domitian to do in another who being asked by Domitian how he might so rule as not to be hated like many of his predecessors answered him Tu fac contra do thou contrary to that they have done Do thou confesse repent hate and forsake every known sin and take heed of relapsing into wickednesse for sin is both the root and fewell of outward troubles inward terrors temporall punishments spirituall Judgments and eternall torments The Prayer O LORD thou hast not only forbidden us upon pain of High Treason Death and Damnation to commit the least sinne and acquainted yea assured us that all things are naked and opened to the eyes of that God with whom we have to do But thou hast also placed a comptrouler a Register a Notary conscience in every Child of Adam to observe record and remember all our thoughts words and actions whether good or evil And thy great design in all this is to make us afraid of acting any either open wickednesse or secret filthinesse since even all our closest iniquities impurities villanies and our midnight abominations are perpetrated upon a stage at noonday and in the sight of the Sun not only in respect of thine all-seeing eye to whom the darknesse and light are both alike but also in respect of that impartiall witnesse that all-observing Sentinel which thou hast placed within us that will most certainly reveal all those hidden hideous horrible and loathsome crimes we are guilty of which the eye or ear of Man never saw nor heard accuse us to God of them and both evidently and undenyably to the Lord and our own selves proves us conscious of them Give us therefore O Lord I beseech thee Grace care and resolutions to live walk and behave our selves to think speak and act as under thine eye and in thy presence at all times in all places in all company in all conditions in all our callings duties services recreations and imployments that so our consciences may acquit and not condemn us Let us prize seek and keep the happinesse peace and comfort of a good conscience more then pleasure plenty prosperity liberty yea then Life And let us fear the plague and torment of a bad Conscience more then Death And since O Lord thou wilt most certainly bring every work unto Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or evill O give us Grace to fear thee and to keep thy Commandements that so we may both injoy the peace of God here and the God of peace hereafter This grant for his sake who is the Prince of peace and dyed to make our peace with thee thine only Son and our alone Saviour Amen Conscientia est index judex vindex Bona coeli est Porta primitiae Mala damnationis Prodromus Et Gehennae miseriarum principum XXIII Of Life IT is the seed-time both of Grace and Glory 'T is a short craggy thorny narrow way to a sad or joyfull to a blessed or cursed eternity 'T is a tree from which some blooms doe fall in their infancy on which some buds are blasted when but just set in their child-hood from which some green fruits are snatched off in their youth upon which some hang till Manhood and then are violently stricken down or pulled off by the hand of death
and some continue thereon untill they be full ripe by old age and then drop down into their graves Man hath as it were two Sepulchres One in the warm belly of his naturall Mother and the other in the cold Bowels of the common Mother of all both men and women the Earth By life he is put into a Gaole by Death into a Dungeon So soon as we are born we cry as if because we then want language to speak them our eyes did weep elegies and by those tears at once prognosticate expresse and lament our future troubles sorrowes sufferings Funerals The Mexicanes thus salute their Infants coming out of the Womb Infant thou art come into the World to suffer endure suffer and hold thy peace Our Mothers are living Tombs to us before our birth and so soon as ever we do but peep or step into the world every thing not only mindeth us of but also preacheth and readeth Sermons Lectures and Lessons to us of our departure out of it again For what are our swadling cloaths but winding sheets What are our cradles but Coffins What is the ringing of the Bell before our being Christened but an antedated passing peal What are those arms which carry us to Church to be baptized but a Biere What doth our being first undrest signifie but the putting off of our mortality What is our being layd down to sleep but an embleme of our Buriall And what is our first sleep but the Image and elder Brother of Death Life 't is a weak twig and a slender thread upon which fraile man hangeth over both his Grave and Hell 'T is a Tragae-Comedie whose scenes are health sicknesse strength weaknesse joy sorrow mirth and mourning The Prologue tears the Epilogue groans a Rainold Orat 185. Romani duas angorum voluptatum deas Angerioniam Volupiam ita colebant ut Angeroniae pontifices in sacello Volupiae et Angeroniae simulacrum in ara Volupiae collocarent quo significarent angores voluptatibus dolorem gaudiis humana vita semper temerari In this world there is no day without clouds The door of this naturall life is alwaies turning upon the hinges of mutability and variety of conditions Winter Summer Autumne Spring prosperity adversity sadnesse gladnesse black and white daies b Godwin Rom. Antiq. as the Romanes distinguished them make chequer-work in our lives Our complexions our outward estate and conditions are sometimes fair and ruddy with joy comforts mercies and sometimes they are black wrinkled pale and wan with sorrows crosses and miseries Man hath neither * Psalm 102. 11. Job 14. 2. Solstice nor rest here and therefore the Romanes built the Temple of Quies without the City to signifie that the lower Region of this Life is subject unto and disquieted with storms and showres * Lacrymae nobis decrunt antequam causae dolendi Sencca de brevitate vitae troubles and afflictions The Womb of Life is alwaies pregnant with both consolations and tribulations which struggle therein and the one as * Genes 25. 26. Jacob did Esau usually taketh the other by the heel c Plin. Secund Panegy ad Trajan Habet enim has vices conditie mortalium ut adversa ex secundis ex adversis secunda nascerentur Like ship-boys we stand sometimes upon the top of the mast of Prosperity and sometimes we are put down underâ— deck by Adversity Our life is a Sea wherein these tides are alwaies ebbing and flowing Dolor voluptas se invicem succedunt No man was ever yet so happy as to injoy all those mercies which the hand of God hath liberally scattered and divided amongst all men Nor was there ever yet any man so miserable but he had some comforts And though the line of calamity be often if not ordinarily to the godly longer then that of felicity in this Life yet it will be but very short even in his own judgment that is most miserable if it be measured or compared with the endlesse line of eternity And this consideration will make the waters of Marah sweet to a Child of God Our Life is an Irish a troubled dangerous tempestuous Ocean we take Shipping at our Birth with tears we â—ail over it with care fear sorrow and we land at the port of Death with sighs sadnesse unwillingnesse The thread of Life is so short and rotten that it is often yea alas too often spun out by the wheele and broken off by the hand of providence before it leads us out of the Labyrinths and maze of sin and misery many millions being carryed to their graves before they consider why or for what they came out of the Womb into the world For they do not consider that Man was not made and born to imbase his Soul with the allay of sin which alone renders it capable and maketh it fit to receive the impressions of temptations and all reall evills To fewell and feed his filthy Lusts or to gratifie and comply with his vile and vain desires To burn himself in the fire of uncleannesse anger or malice or to drown himself in the waters of drunkennesse and intemperance To choak himself in the dirty puddles and muddy Fennes of sensuality and Epicurisme To lye groveling upon or to spend his time in rooting in the earth by wilfully diseasing his Soul with the falling-sicknesse of Avarice or to entertain a dumb Devill into his heart not only to hinder but disable him from either praying to the Lord for grace and pardon of sin or praising him for his great and undeserved mercies And yet it 's too true that with the most of these devills some men and women are possessed and the most with some of them 'T is most certain that God did not give mans soal brave wings to pursue the poor quarrey of pleasure profit and honour or to fly unto hell but that by holy meditations and a religious conversation it should with them mount up to Heaven The Lord both gives us our beings and continueth us in them to trust love serve obey honour and delight in him He hath assured us we must dye and yet concealed from us how long we shall live that so we might every day and every where expect death and by a holy life and faith in Christ escape the torments of an everlasting death in hell We read of many that had alwaies some memento's of their Originall by them Agathocles who was but the Son of a Potter when he became a King had earthen pots brought up and set in his Presence chamber to immind him of his low extraction d Camerar lib. 1. p. 48. Willigis from a base condition for he was but the Son of a Carter being advanced to so high a dignity as to be made Arch-bishop of Ments caused these following words to be written in great Letters in his Lodging Chamber Willigis Willigis remember from whence thou camest And certainly if Men and Women even the most Royal
he be dead And we ought not to lament our death but the wicked lives we lead saith Bruxellus How much more then should Christians receive it both with courage and * Prov. 14. 32. gladnesse Since Pagans knew not what should become of them afterwards Animula vagula blandula hospes comesque corporis quae nunc abibis in loca pallidula nudula frigida nec ut soles dabis joca said f Hadrian in his Sollioquy on his Death-bed one of them But the Children of God know that as they have an unquestionable right and title to a glorious inheritance so they cannot possibly injoy it untill they be put into quiet possession thereof by that high Sheriffe Death It 's true death was the most ugly frightful dreadful thing in the world It was the King of Terrors yea of all terrible things the most terrible being the first-born of that most deformed monstrous loathsome hateful Mother sinne But when Christ had put his precious bloud into its pale ghastly ill-favoured face it then became and so continueth beautiful amiable desirable I desire saith blessâ—d St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ g Pontanus lib. 4. Libenter ecorporis vinculis evolaudum est Quid enim hic est quod quenquam ad diutius vivendum invitare possit an labores assidui an diurnae nocturnaeque solicitudines an quotidiani angores an fortunae ludibria an morborum varietas an mille casus mille incommoda vere melior est dies mortis quam natalis Ille siquidem quietis beatitudinis hic autem miseriarum dolorumque initium est Therefore many of the Martyrs courted importuned longed for and begged of their most bloudy persecutors a release from that debt which they owed desired yea thirsted and rejoyced to pay unto nature Why do you not give me that gold chaine and create me a Knight of that Noble Orde said Ludovicus Marsacus a French Martyr when the rope wherewith his Fellow were to be executed was put about his Neck 9 Fox B. of Martyr vol. 3. p. 891. And h one Priest's wife being condemned to be burnt at Exceter when that cruell Sentence was pronounced against her she lifted up her voice and thanked God saying I thank thee my Lord my God this day have I found that which I have so long sought Death is not now a Thorn but a Crown T is not a wound but a plaister to a good Christian who like the Sun shines brightest usually when setting This cruell Serpent hath now lost his sing so that the greatest hurt which it can do a Child of God is to free him from misery dangers troubles T is the bridge over which he passeth to Glory T is a soft bed of down a sweet bed of Roses as holy Bainam stiled it when he was riding in a fiery Chariot of Martyrdome to Heaven 'T is the Gate of Paradise the Messenger of Blisse the Usher and Harbinger of Glory Though it kill yet it cannot hurt nor conquer a Saint Hoc posteris dicite hominem Christo deditum posse mori non posse superari And therefore the Motto of a good Christian may well be the last words of i Aemil Probus in vita Epaminoned Epaminondas who being mortally wounded by the Beotians in a bloudy Battail and ready to expire it was told him that his Enemies were overthrown which pleasing happy news he no sooner heard but he concluded both his Speech and Life with these words Satis inquit vixi invictus enim morior I have lived long enough since I dye unvanquished For Christians are * Rom. 8. 37. more then Conquerors through him that loved them Death t is a spring-tide of * Euge Deo sit laus gloria quod jam mea instet liberatio horula gratissima said pious Graserus when he perceived his legs to swel with a Dropsie Melch. Adam in vit Graeseri joy and pleasure to the godly It 's the Souls Gaole-delivery 'T is Gods Servant sent in love and mercy to invite them to come to that Feast of Felicity and eternall Glory which the Lord hath prepared for them And therefore the people of God have gone merrily to meet death when their friends have followed them with sorrow and mourning to see them imbrace and suffer it k Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 176. When Doctor Taylor being condemned was carried out of London to be conveyed to Hadley where he was to be burned he was all the way as merry and cheerfull as one that accounted himself going to a most pleasant Banquet or Wedding We see then that although Death be the Mother of misery and so terrible to the wicked that even the very thoughts and fear of dying is a death to them witnesse Lewis the 11. King of France who when he was sick commanded that none should so much as name that terrible word Death unto him Yet to the Godly it 's neither hurtfull nor horrible But yet as I said it is both * Hebr. 9. 27. unavoydable for the chief Law that the Gods have given to humane nature is That none should have perpetuall Life saith Pliny And also most uncertain l Senec. lib. 3. Epist 29. Incertum est quo loco mors te expectet Tu vero eam in omni loco expecta saith Seneca It doth and must needs therefore infinitely concern all men and women as they desire to save their Sâ—uls and fear to shed their own bloud and to become their own murderers butchers and executioners seriously timely yea daily to * Praecogitati mali mollis ictus Senec. Epist 77. consider the mortality of their bodies and the immortality of their Souls that they must dye but once That if they dye wickedly they are undone yea cursed eternally Since if the fire of Hell be once kindled upon them neither Rivers of tears nor infinite Oceans of Bloud nor prayers nor cryes though never so importunate or lamentable will ever be able to coole or mitigate much lesse then to quench it And also to have some Monitors and remembrancers of their approaching inevitable dissolution alwaies before the eyes of their minds because forgetfulnesse of Death maketh life sinfull and death most dreadfull m Camerar lib. 6. p. 420. Philip King of Macedon appointed one of his pages to come into his Chamber door every morning and to speak these words Memento te esse mortalem Neither did he ever come out of his Chamber or admit any man to speak with him till the Page had proclaimed every day thrice Philip thou art a man The Emperour Maximilian the first two years before his death whithersoever he went carried a Coffin with him to immind him of his end n Dial of Princes The Thebanes had this custome No Thebane might build himself an house to dwell in before he had made him a Sepulchre to be buryed in The Graecian Emperors upon the day of their
which so hurt his face that he bled again he left his singing and clapt both his hands on his face but afterwards he put his hands abroad and sung again m Idem vol. 3. p. 537. And when George Roper came to the stake where he was to be burned he leaped at it for joy Some have blessed God for setting the Crowne of Martyrdome upon their heads n Idem vol. 3. p. 850. When Alice Driver who was burned at â—pswich had the Iron chain put about her Neck O said she here is a goodly Neckerchief blessed be God for it Id. vol. 3. p. 888. Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this said John Noye when he came to the stake to be burned Others have both fervently desired to glorifie God in those fires and grieved that God would not suffer them to be made a burnt sacrifice as that precious Jewel our Bishop Jewel did Thus we see the pious gracious faithful Servants Subjects and Souldiers of Jesus Christ are not only desirous to raign with him but they are also ready to suffer for him And for such Lambs and such only as do copy out the holy Life of Jesus Christ and write it in their owne in those golden characters of sanctity constancy humility meeknesse patience charity prayer obedience c. did this Lambe of God Jesus Christ die Redemptor noster pro bonis misericorditer incarnatus est Nihil igitur haec Margarita ad porcos canes The Prayer MOST deare and yet most dreadful Jesus who art a God of might and Majesty as well as mercy of justice as we as pity a Lyon as well as a Lamb a Saviour and a Soveraign and at once the Creator Husband Brother and Redeemer of thine Elect Be pleased blessed Jesus to grant that those who own thine own name wear thy Livery and have Covenanted with thee to be thy Servants may be careful watchful zealous conscientious and willing to honour their Master thy sacred and most excellent Majesty to obey thy commands to imitate thy holy Life and to accept thee on thine own terms joyfully thankfully heartily even as a Lord King Prophet to govern command teach them as well as a Priest and Saviour to sacrifice and die for them Let them consider what it will cost them to buy this precious field this inestimable jewel what they must do to be real Christians and to get a saving Interest in Jesus Christ That they must sell all that they have part readily and resolvedly with the World with their sins their Isaacs Idols yea their Lands Liberties and Lives also if he who is the Lord and giver of them require us to surrender them to and for his own use and glory That they must take Christ as in a matrimonial Covenant and be not only chast obedient pleasing faithful constant to him but also that they must honour and esteem him above all other things admit no corrival into their affection with him rejoyce in his presence mourn for his absence grieve when he 's offended by them and angry with them forsake all for him cleave stedfastly to him and neither for either love of life or fear of death leave dishonour or deny him That they must be mortify'd Self-denying sincere Christians That they must not expect to be carryed on Beds of Down or to have their way green smooth easy soft or strawed with flowers to Heaven That they must run without fainting loytering or tyring to the end of the Race if they would obtain the prize That they must cheerfully couragiously bear Christs crosse or else they shall never triumphantly wear a Crown That they must not only sweep sweeten cleanse and open the dusty dirty-filthy sin-lockt houses of their hearts with the beesome of repentance and the hands of Faith and Love to entertaine him but they must also welcome him set him at the upper end of the Table in the highest seat esteem affect him above and beyond all other persons or things whilest they live on earth or else when they die he will never open the narrow Gate of Life to let them into Heaven That if they be not good and holy in the Kingdome of Grace they shall never be great or happy in the Kingdome of Glory That if their sins and lusts which Lord it over them revel in them captivate them and are dear and sweet unto them be not hated crucified and forsaken by them the Lord Jesus Christ though he was crucified for sinners and died to purchase Life for transgressors who were spiritually dead will never save them That therefore we may resolve and labour to get into that Arke Jesus Christ where safety and salvation only are to be found make us I beseech thee speedingly really savingly sensible of the want the worth the excellency All-sufficiency and the necessity of a Jesus that so we may court seek and value thee in and from whom alone is all fulnesse sweetnesse happinesse above all things And let O most gracious God all our sins be laid upon the Head set upon the Account of that Scape-goat Jesus Christ that so they may be carried into the Wildernesse of forgetfulnesse Take away O Lord our filthy Garments from us and clothe us with change of Raiment impute the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ to us that so being found in the Garments of our elder Brother we may receive from our heavenly Father the Blessing of Grace here and that wherewith thou crownest thy own freely given and yet by Christ dearly purchased Grace eternal Glory hereafter Grant this O Lord for his sake who died to satisfie thy dreadfull Justice who shed his heart-bloud to quench the fire of thy flaming consuming wrath to pay our debts to purchase our pardon to redeem us from eternall slavery and misery and to save our undone Souls Amen In Christo per Christum solum modo Vita Libertas Foelicitas et beata Aeternitas III. Of the Holy Ghost THE Holy Ghost is the third Person in the glorious blessed a Deus est indivise â—â—us in Triniâ—e et inconfuse trinus in unitate undivided b Sacramentum hoc venerandum non scrutandum quemodo pluralitas sit in unitate unitas it plura litate Scâ—utaâ—i hoc temeritas est credere pietas nosse verò vìta aeterna Incomprehensible Trinity proceeding from both the Father and the Son and yet Coessentiall Coeternall and Coequal with them The opera officia the works and Offices of the Holy Ghost are these 1. It illuminates our blind understandings and teacheth us to know what we are by nature together with the necessity and felicity of being born again It teacheth us also to know the danger deformity and misery of sin the infinite and undeserved love of God and Christ to undone man and the means both to escape eternal death and to obtain immortal glory 2. It regenerates us making us that were profane holy barren fruitfull rebellious
Loyall and impenitent truly sorrowfull for all our transgressions 3. It quickens and breatheth Life into us that were by nature dead and buried in trespasses and sins 4. It both inspires and stirreth up good motions in our soules 5. It helps our infirmities makes c Rom. 8. 26. intercession for us indites our prayers inables us to pray fervently faithfully prevailingly to God for Grace pardon and salvation 6. It comforts quiets and supports mourning doubting drooping hearts 7. It leads and keepeth Christians into and in the way of holinesse till they come to heaven and enjoy eternall happinesse 8. It sanctifieth and maketh Gods ordinances effectuall for the conviction and conversion of sinners Lastly to name no more it dwelleth and abideth in all those that truly repent believe love obey fear and serve God The Holy Ghost is compared and resembled in Scripture to divers things First it 's compared to d Jere. 23 29. Acts 2. 3. fire and that in these respects Fire first heats 2. shines 3. ascends 4. softens and 5. refines drossy and hard things so the Holy Ghost 1. inflames our frozen hearts with love to God and zeale for God 2 It makes Christians shine in works of piety justice charity mercy and in holinesse of life 3. It raiseth their naturally low-flying or rather crawling affections from earthly things and maketh them to mount and fix them upon God Christ and heavenly things 4. It turneth a heart of Adamant into a soft and tender heart of flesh 5. It purgeth away a Christians drosse it purifies him from his corruptions and filth Secondly the Holy Ghost is compared to e Ezech. 36. 25. water for as water 1. refreshes 2. quenches 3 cleanses 4. fructifies So the Spirit of God comforts cheares and reviveth troubled weary languishing hearts 2. It quencheth Gods fiery wrath kindled and flaming out against transgressors in their terrors spiritual desertion trouble anguish of soul and conscience for their sins 3 It cleanseth them from all filthiness both of flesh spirit 4. It makes them fruitful in every good work Thirdly the Holy Ghost is compared to a * John 3. 32. Dove As Doves are 1. meek for they have no gall 2. innocent and harmlesse creatures 3. Lovers of and delighted with white houses to sit and roost in Amant alba tecta Columbae So those Christians that have the spirit of God are 1. free from malice hatred sinfull anger envy or however they mourn and are exceedingly displeased with themselves for being otherwise 2. The Holy Ghost makes them not only carefull to do no hurt or wrong to any but also willing and desirous to do good unto others especially spiritually that is to their soules 3. It makes their hearts pure and white by sprinkling the bloud of Christ upon them and working godly sorrow in them without which it will neither delight nor dwell in them because sin unrepented of makes the soul black ugly and filthy Fourthly the holy Ghost is compared to * Acts 2. 3. cloven fiery tonguâ—s to teach us that our tongues must be cloven with Charity and fervency in our prayers for 1. we must not only beg earnestly for mercy but we must also praise the Lord most heartily for his mercies petition and thanksgiving must cleave them 2. We must pray for both spirituall and temporall mercies these must again divide our tongues 3. We must pray and â—ry mightily not only for pardon of sin for the removal or sanctification of afflictions for grace and prosperity to and for our selves but for all others also 4. We must pray not only that God would give us and others glory hereafter but also that we and they may honour and glorifie God here And certainly all those that have this glorious Spirit have also not only their tongues but their hearts too thus cloven with zeal I mean for God and love to their own and others souls Fifthly the Holy Ghost is compared to a * Ephes 1. 13. Seal because as Deeds and Conveyances are unable and ineffectual to settle and assure those things conteined in them being null and voyd in Law till they be fealed So we can have no sound good or clear Evidences that our sins are forgiven us that God is reconciled to us that the Lord Jesus is our Jesus and that our souls shall be saved till we be sealed by the Spirit of God Sixthly the Holy Ghost is compared to * 2 Cor. 1 22 and ch 4. v. 5. Earnest for as Earnest is an argument and proof of an agreement betwixt man and man for something to be delivered and given by one to another and also an assurance that some other and greater thing shall be made good and received when that is given and taken So by having the Earnest of the Spirit Christians are assured that now the Lord and they are agreed and reconciled that they shall undoubtedly have his favour blessing grace here and that they shall hereafter injoy eternall joy and blisse with him for ever Seventhly the Holy Ghost is compared to †John 16. 13. a Guide because as Guides do 1. Comfort 2. direct 3 defend 4. keep those they travail with from wandring 5. accompany them and bring them to their Journeys end So the spirit of God doth 1. wonderfully solace and rejoyce the hearts of tru Christians in their pilgrimage on earth 2. It directs and sheweth them which is the sure good and best way for them to go in 3. It secures and delivers them from those enemies and dangers that lye in Ambush to surprize them and are ready to seize upon them 4. It keeps them from erring and straying in the broad dangerous yea deadly ways of sin and leads them forward in the narrow but safe and happy path of life And lastly the Holy Ghost never leaves them finally but conducts them with safety joy and comfort to their earnestly longed for and desired home Heaven These and such like are the bright beautiful and refreshing Beams that ray from his glorious Sun and dart consolation exultation peace and felicity into the hearts of Gods people These are the pure reviving and pleasant streams that flow from this Fountain or rather Ocean into the fouls of true Christians These are the radiant rich yea precious and inestimable Jewels that embellish and adorn the Holy Spirits Mansion a truely Gracious heart Let us then sincerely desire fervently beg highly prize this Holy Spirit and when ever it knocks at the door of our hearts by any holy motions say as †Genes 24. 31. Laban did to Abrahams Servant Come in thou blessed of the Lord wherefore standest thou without for I have prepared a room for thee The Prayer O Eternall infinite and incomprehensible Lord God who art Three in One and One in Three most glorious Persons distinguished but not divided grant I humbly beseech thee that the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Light Truth and Life may illuminate all