that we know that none can sojourne in the Tabernacle of of the Lord Psal 15. none can inhabit the place of his holinesse who regulates not his steps according to his divine Ordinances In the Country of the Gadarens the man who had an unclean spirit which inhabited not but in Desarts â—nâ— Sepulâ—hres which broke all the cords all the chaines which restrain'd him who roared without intermission and gash't himself with stones when afarre off he beheld the Saviour of the World he ranne and prostrated himselfe at his feet and we who are not cram'd and stuf't with Devils who have not our abiding in Cavernes and who do not dismember our selves with rage and fury we I say who apprehend the verity of the Gospel who have the knowledge of God shall we fly before him when he approacheth us shall we stop our eares at his voice to lance and destroy our selves in vice Let 's awake our selves from our drowsinesse and render our selves capable of our proper good The men of Nineve reformed themselves at the preaching of Jonah The Queen of the South travelled from the extremities of the earth to heare the Wisdome of Solomon There is in the Gospel greater than Jonas greater than Solomon there is the Spirit of God who talketh to us who excites us to retire from our sinnes who hastens who threatens us Let us submit our selves then to God let 's approach him let 's remark our offences let 's lament weep and purifie our hearts let 's humble our selves under his powerful hand to the intent that he may secure us from the Devil who encompasseth us to devoure us Let 's abandon our transgressions and submit our neeks under the just government of the Omnipotent acknowledging him the stedfast Wall against which who knocketh breaketh himself Let 's lift up our tyred hands Heb. 12.12 and our dislocated knees and adore him who hath formed both the heaven and earth the Seas and all Fountaines of waters and not longer abase our selves as the impious as unregardful of his glory which we should elevate more high than the heavens if there remaines in us any recentment of his graces whil'st his favourable hand continues on us for our good whereof he has been more Prodigal than Liberal Let 's offer instantly our bodies a living sacrifice let 's spread out our hands before his wrath by prayers and amendment of life dreading his vengeance or ever it irrevocably destroy and overwhelme us which if we omit we hasten our deaths we ate the hang-men of our own soules if we longer attend Luk. 13.25 the gate of Gods mercy shall be for ever closed against us and in the day wherein we shall behold Abraham Isaac and Jacob with all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God wherein we shall see set at the Table of God his children who shall come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South we shall be miserably cast into darknesse 'T is long since God having endured our manners expecting our repentance he hath not hitherto corrected us but with the chastisements of a Father but if still we are insensible of these stripes and of our offences we shall constraine him to punish us with the Sword of extermination and give us up unto the power of the Executioners of his Justice Long patience contemn'd Heb. 2.1 draweth rigour without pity If what was pronounc't by Angels was firme and every transgression and disobedience hath received a just reward how shall we escape if we neglect the judgment of God so often declared against the children of iniquity would we be of the cockle and straw which shall be cast into the fire would we be of those cursed ones Mat. 13.49 who by the Angels shall be separated from the just to be cast into the Furnace Of those evil servants who shall be punish't with many stripes of those Reprobates who shall be overtaken with sudden destruction of those plants of offence who shall be devoured with consuming flames Would we be of those of whom Jeremiah complaines in these terms They know the way of the Lord Jerem. 5. but themselves have broken the yoke and the bonds Therefore are they slain by the Lyon of the Forrest the Wolfe of the Evening hath wasted them and the Leopard watcheth against their Cities whosoever cometh out shall be torn in pieces for their offences are multiply'd and their rebelloins are increased How shall I pardon thee for this saith the Lord thy children have forsaken me I have fed them to the full and they have committed adultery and are gone in Troops into Harlots houses shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation God is not idle in Heaven He contemplates on what is done here below He is there seated as a Judge to punish iniquity and when he reaches his hand highest 't is but to give the heavier stroak Why tarry we Rom. 2.5 if by the hardnesse of our hearts without repentance we heap up wrath against the day of the just judgment of God who rendreth honour immortality life eternal to them who with patience and well-doing seek his glory and who giveth tribulation and anguish to every soul of man who rebelleth against him and followeth iniquity If God spared not the Angels who had sinned 2 Pet. 2.4 and at once drowned the whole World except eight persons If he have given so many testimonies of his rigour on them who live in impiety what waite we for since 't is recorded in so many passages of the Gospel that we shall be more severely handled than Sodom and Gomorrah which were burn'd and reduc'd into a heap of sinders Seeing then that it is said 2 Thes 1.8 that God shall exercise vengeance with flames of fire against those who serve him not and are disobedient to his will Would we swallow the cup of the wrath of God even to the dregges would we dry up and exhaust to the very bottome the treasures of his patience Go to then since our malady is yet capable of Remedy Let us tear out those motes that are in our eyes let us reconcile our selves to God who stretcheth out his armes to us remembring that his children are not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh John 1.13 nor of the unsatiable desires of man but are born of God are born of prudence of charity wisdom and vertue Let 's not tarry longer fearing that he should rain fire and brimstone upon us and that he chase us not as cursed gates into eternal fire prepar'd for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Instantly detesting our crimes abjuring our vices our sinnes and offences let us cast and prostrate our selves at the feet of God let 's raise our voices suing for our pardon redoubling our petitions submitting our selves entirely to his pleasure otherwise the tempest will
Satan There was none but he alone proper for so great an enterprize He alone who hath drawn us out of the path and slaughter of death to fill us with Triumphs He alone who is the Phaire and the Lanthorne who directs us to arive in a safe harbour and who hath ever his eyes open for our happinesse and watcheth over our affictions He alone who is the channel of perpetual sweetnesse which uncessantly distills on them who cast themselves into the Port of thy Clemency Great God The compasse of the Universs adores thy Grandure but as the glory of thy chiefest benefits are perpetually graved in the hearts of thy faithfull ones in whom by this holy sacrifice thou hast planted thy victorious lawrels Also it is requisite that I be the Temple in which for ever there may be chanting and sounding forth the Hymnes of thy Triumphs and that thou may'st be the sole object of my heart as thou art the cause of my repose and the end of my vowes as thou art the Redeemer and Conserver of my being what more beautyfull object my God can I enjoy then for ever to contemplate that Christ is the inexpugnable wall and Rampart of my life and that his charity heated with his watchfulnesse over me causeth without intermission to spring in thy compassions new sprouts of compassion This is the true Father of men who transported with the love of his children is offered for them in sacrifice and hath embraced their sorrowes and his death Up then my soul let thy thoughts be ravish't in the contemplation of this holy light of the world who shineth over the heaven and the earth and enlightneth with his flame the gloominesse of our most obscure night Up admire his compassion adore this Lamb without spot that holy Burnt-offering that eternal high Priest who hath given himself for thee Rejoyce thou oh my soul since thy clensing is so perfect and so pure since the merit of that death shall carry thee into the heavens Thou hast not my soul Heb. 7. one of those Sacrificers which are subject unto death made after the law of a carnal commandment who have need to offer continual sacrifices first for their own sinnes then for those of the people Thou hast one Sovereign high Priest made according to the power of an uncorruptible life and who hath one perpetual oblation one holy Priest Innocent separate from sinnes exalted far above all heavens who is consecrated for ever offering himself once to obtaine an eternal redemption The light of the world my soul chaseth the night and obscurity farre from thee but the knowledge of this sacrifice dissipateth all darknesse from thy eyes and renders thee capable happily to finish thy course on earth and attain with joy an aboad in Paradice Divine Trinity the only foundation of salvation Holy unity of three persons in whom consisteth all perfection and felicity whereof my soul can be render'd capable Grant me that I may worthily comprehend the majesty of this sacrifice and that all the dayes of my life I may meditate on its greatnesse Lord the Lamb is slain from the beginning of the world and both our fathers and we our selves have washed in one same blood and are redeemed by the same sacrifice 'T is what the Apostle saith our fathers were all under the cloud 1 Cor. 10.1 and have all passed throw the Sea and were all baptized in Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and have all eaten of one and the same spiritual food and have all dranke of one and the same spiritual cup. For they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them and that Rock was Christ So Lord the Patriarchs and Israelites have eaten and drank the same spiritual substance with us and have participated as we of the Communion of the body of the Saviour of the world The word Prophetick and Apostolick have the same efficacy Christ in the one and the other throw all equal to himself Their Sacraments giving them Jesus Christ to come to assume humane flesh and suffer for their sins and ours give to us the Saviour of the world come having taken flesh of the Virgin endured the Crosse and risen for our Justification The Manna and the water signified to them their future redemption and the bread and wine signifie to us the satisfaction of our Randsome acquitted by Christ come dead and risen after such a sort that we have but one like and same faith under divers signes Christ the only salvation of the Church in all its periods without the law under the law and under Grace He is prefigured in all the sacrifices exhibited in all Sacraments as well Old as New which are in all times unprofitable without Christ which is himself alone both the foundation and the sustance Abraham saw the day of the Lord and rejoyc't This great secret was revealed unto the Prophets who Publish't it through the world they were the signes of salvation to come Or Host and of the holy Bread which should be offered up for their sins and for our sakes the great Saviour of the world would rayse to the heavens at thy right hand the body which he had taken of the Virgin instituting the Sacrament of his body and of his blood to the intent that That which was once offered for the satisfaction of our sinnes should continually be honoured by a mystery Baptisme admitteth us into an allyance with God instead of ciricumcision The holy Supper instead of the Passeover nourisheth and entertaineth us Baptisme is called Regeneration that is to say a new birth The holy Supper The Communion of the body and blood of our Lord to nourish us to life eternal Of Baptisme water is the sign The blood of Christ the thing signified The water which washeth the staines of the body The blood which clenseth the sins of the soul In the holy Supper the bread and the wine are the signes The Body and the blood of Christ the things signified and signified most conveniently and properly by these signes of bread and wine for as much as the nourishment of our souls which is in Christ could not be better express'd than by that of our Body which converteth into their sustance that which they eate and drink So in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the bread which is blest and which is broken and given to eate and the cup which is blessed and given mee to drink represents to me The body and blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for me on the Crosse to me are the sacred Symboles and assured earnests that I am received into the communication of his body and of his blood which I spiritually enjoy by Faith in the Participation of the supper When I see the bread broken in the celebration of the supper I meditate with my self of his body which hath suffered death on the Crosse for the remission of my sinnes When I behold the wine poured into the cup I
call to my remembrance his blood shed for to acquire for me life eternal By the receiving the bread and the wine I enter by faith into a community into the society of the body and blood of the Son of God I draw life I draw absolution and am clothed again with his innocence and with his Justice By the vissible receiving which I performe of the bread and of the wine I am assured that I am spiritually united to Christ and made a Citizen of the Kingdome of heaven that he hath bequeath'd me and possessor of eternal life which he hath given me and in eating and drinking the bread and the wine at thy holy Table I am assured my God that I Participate of the body and of the blood of thy Son which I truely receive by faith and by which I participate of the Treasures and Heritage which he hath acquired by his death and which he hath bestowed on his faithful servants When I receive the bread and the wine I receive not only the Elements which are the figures and sacred signs of his body and of his blood but I receive by faith and in spirit the things themselves which are signified and represented Not that the bread and the wine of the Eucharist communicate to me his body and blood but thy goodnesse my God Thy truth Thy majesty Thy vertue and the efficacy of thy holy Spirit communicate and reach forth this body and blood to my understanding and my soul to be spiritually eaten and drank by faith The bread and wine serving to this purpose being sacred signes of his Body and of his blood which should be eaten by the operation of his holy Spirit without understanding any thing therein of sensual any thing corporeal ☜ any thing carnal and without searching here below and in our corporal mouths His true body with it's proper essentials with it's inseparable accidents with it's quantity and dimentions which is ascended to the heavens and set at the right hand of God where 't is requisite that the heavens contain him even until the restauration of all things Thus Lord I seek the body of Christ in heaven Acts 3.21 by faith I celebrate in the holy Supper the memory of his Death and of his Passion I declare it I esteem it and magnifie it even untill he come and I receive it not with a carnal mouth and corporal throat but after a Divine manner Sacramentally under a signifficant mystery with the mouth of my heart and spiritually by faith By faith which is the substance of things hoped for By faith whereby I really embrace his Body and blood and which bring to passe that in the holy Eucharist I am made partaker of it By faith which is the vessel and the hand whereby I receive thy Graces And as Lord 't is by faith that the Lamb was slaine from the beginning of the world 't is by faith that Abraham saw the day of the Lord 't is by faith that the Galatians have had Christ crucified before their eyes 'T is by faith that the Gospel gives me at this present eternal life Also Lord 't is by faith that in the celebration of thy holy Supper His body and his blood are present and subsistent in my heart in my spirit and in my soul 'T is by faith that I embrace his body and suck his blood which distilleth from his wounds And by means of this Sacramental eating and feeding on the body of the Saviour of the world and this spiritual drinking of his blood I am made bone of his bone flesh of his flesh I am incorporated in him I draw by faith eternal life from his flesh broken for me and from his blood shed for me I live of Christ and in Christ I live of his Justice instead that I should dye of my sinne I am justified by him sanctified in him to be eniivened and glorified in him By this holy Sacrament I am also admonished of my duty toward my Neighbour in regard as we are ransomed with the same blood made members of the same body and Dependants of one and the same Head and consequently one among our selves and by the Commandment of God and natural duty We all draw life from one and the same death nourishment from one and the same food and the self same cup. Up then my soul 't is here where thou oughts to Anchor and fix thy cogitations stay thy course and cast thy eyes upon the love of thy God 'T is here that thou oughtest to supplicate that Divine heavenly heart who onely bestowes motion upon men That only pulse and life of thy being 'T is the only base whereon thou foundest thy hope to inspire in thee the ardent flames of his Spirit and turn into thy heart the generous boylings of zeale heate and ardour toward him to the intent that thou mayest be a worthy partaker of that holy Sacrament which is the most singular consolation the most effectual remedy and greatest guift which he hath communicated to his upon the earth It 's the entyre Summe and Soveraign abridgment of his benefits it 's the certaine token of his infinite love the true treasure of his bounty Lord Eph. 1.7 thou hast ransomed me by the blood of thy Sonne according to the rickes of thy grace which thou causest plentifully to abound over me Instructing me in the secret of thy pleasure Thou hast informed me that 't is the bread of life by the which my soul is sustained That 't is the true Vine whereof I am a branch The gate of Honour and the rich assent which conducts me to the mount of Glory Thou hast called me to the communication of his body Hast applyed his merits to me made me his Co-heritor partaker of his Riches enjoying his celestial heritage In time-past I was not of thy people but now am I of the chosen generation of the Royal Priest-hood of the holy Nation of thy purchased people To th' intent I should set forth and magnifie thy grace and vertue my God who hast called me out of darknesse into thy merveilous light Thy Sonne is my only sacrifice my only oblation my onely Holocost by the vertue and merit whereof the heavens and all the treasures of heaven are open to me 'T is the onely remedy of my sin the onely spunge capable to efface my crimes 'T is the Sanctuary the Assillum of my salvation my heritage the joy and the Divine chaine sufficient to rayse me from these miserable places 'T is the tongue of succour who undertaketh my defence 'T is the sacred Anchor which stayeth my vessel and secureth it from ship-wrack and the prosperous Gale which freeth and delivereth me from the depths and Gulfes of the world If the food Lord which will sustaine me but one day obligeth me to praise thy Fatherly goodnesse how much more ought to be excited and enflamed my Devoyre to render thee thanks for the bread of life and for
Blest is he who is capable happy he who is treated as the Master Happy he who is of those grapes The Children of this World who are not couch't in a divine estate make themselves merry they are weak-sighted altogether imperfect to contemplate on heavenly mysteries they are strayed too far to recover the right way they imagine not that the reward is at the end of the race but they shall one day find that our miseries shall terminate in delights which endure for ever and their pleasures end in horrible and eternal torments 'T is then in this Combat against afflictions and death that we must contest that we must vanquish and that we must search for the Crown of Christianity and Kingdome of God Our hearts will be crush't our eyes blemisht but our souls shall be filled with gladnesse we shall be beaten we shall be torn but our zeal shall augment and in its augmentation our contentment shall encrease Thou Barbarian thou mayst ravish our goods but the Eternal will not forsake us thou can'st exile us but all the Earth is the Lords Thou can'st threaten our lives but 't is those of our bodies 't is that of the World our soules are immortal Thou mayest send us to death but we conduct our selves thither we there shall receive it we will there suffer it patiently Our spirits are heads and masters of our bodies they are so elevated by the assistance of the Omnipotent Spirit that they are able to surmount all sorts of torments and death it self Infidels with what do you affright us so much with punishment with what do you menace us so highly to take away our lives with what do you make us so much afraid of death O pitiful Adversaries we contemn we despise the world we make no account of afflictions we trample over the fear of death Ha wherefore should we fear so much to give for so admirable and excellent a Subject so Glorious so Honourable That which such a multitude of persons lavish dayly to obtain a little pay That which so many Generals give so freely to merit to have their browes encircled with a branch of Olive or of Palme How many mighty men hazard themselves dayly to the peril of a thousand shot presse into dangers and into the croud of a battel on the hopes of an earthly victory rather than to behold their proper valour surmounted what a multitude presse and advance to the forefront bearing their bodies against wounds exposing themselves to the edge of the Sword stretching out their persons on the earth to sustaine the Banners of a stranger of whom they receive not above foure Crowns of pay With how much more reason than they should we render ourselves obstinate in the Combat resolute of the victory We contend not for a point of honour and glory we endure not for a stranger we suffer not for an inconsiderable reward we have a better and different hope than a punctillio of honour or of gain than of pay We contest for the immortal honour of true Christians we endure for the great God for the Creatour of heaven of earth of men we suffer for our Saviour our Christ our Salvation for a glittering recompence resplendent and enduring for ever God hath not given us a spirit of fear but of courage we can performe all things through Christ which strengthneth us 2 Tim. 1.7 Phil. 4.13 we can demonstrate that nothing can reverse the Banners of the Church and that every thing that opposeth it self against it's course is not but for the augmentation of its glory What if Murtherers leavy war against the Gospel they do nothing but dash against a mighty and puissant Rock which fixes and strengthens it self within it's own wait Let them satisfie their rage and fury they shall not for that overthrow the Kingdome of God Their fathers imagined they had massacred all the Prophets and neverthelesse the Lord reserved to himself seaven thousand men who had not bowed their knees to Baal 'T is requisite mauger all the Wolves that the Gospel passe from one Pole to the other That it cause his voyce to eccho over all that which the Sunne illustrates with his beames that it glide like a Thunderbolt of fire as a flash of lightning even to the most barbarous and savage regions and fill their mouths with the memorable and mighty acts of the Lord. God when it shall be seasonable for his glory will multiply his own by meriads when it shall be seasonable he will cause his Church to out-shine all the Idols of men To the intent that as he caused miraculously the Rod of Aaron to flourish among the twelve Num. 17. laid on the Tabernacle by the Tribes of Israel he ratified and confirmed his High Priest against the murmure of the people after the same sort having caus'd his Church to flourish above all false doctrines of men he shall by so much the more confirme his own When it shall be seasonable he will smite our enemies with dimnesse as he did the Inhabitants of Sodom who would have forc't the house of Lot wherein he had withdrawn two of his Angels When it shall be convenient he will silence these Vultures and these Ravens who foretell epidemical calamities these fire-brands and incendiaries who come to light again the flames and to foment the sparks of our adversities he will stifle and silence these Trumpets of sedition these bloody voyces these stomachs of Iron and of Brasse who howle without intermission to procure the destruction of Christians When it shall be seasonable he will cause to rebound on their account Luk. 11.51 the righteous blood spilt from that of Abel even unto that of Zechary who was slain betwixt the Altar and the Temple and from that of of Zecharie even untill this day But these dayes shall come in that rank which he hath ordained for them by his providence who now calls us to suffer affliction with constancy We know that the Nations ought to exalt themselves against us Mat. 24.6 that we must be led before Governours and Kings for Christs Name sake Our nearest relations must deliver us to death we must be afflicted we must be hated ☞ we must behold the abomination fore-told by Daniel the Prophet we must be torn as sheep by the Wolves we must suffer hunger and thirst we must be Vagabonds in Desarts and to endure persecution in every place but our reward is great in heaven and the same hath been practic'd against the Prophets We are blessed to suffer persecution for righteousnesse and to manifest that we are the Children of God in patience in anguish and in labours we are happy to be guided through these dusky nights to the desired haven of our repose Our bodies are blessed to suffer these stripes which heal their wounds and more blessed our souls to receive them to their salvation We shall relish somewhat of sweetnesse in our sufferings of repose in our inquietudes
which shall Harp before the Saviour of the world who shall gloriously descend from the vaults of heaven all those whom the Sea hath overwhelm'd or the earth received to the intent that being clothed with their bodyes before the great Judge they may receive their definitive sentence of life or death O Lord that I may be of their number who shall arise to their glory and not of them who shall arise to their infamy that I may be of them who shall rejoyce with perpetual Triumph and not of those who shall for ever remain slaves of that horrible Monster That I may be of that number that may be borne into the brightnesse of heaven and not of those that shall be tumbled down into gloomy places and to eternal night That I may be a Citizen of thy heavenly habitation that I may inherit thy Paradice that my seat may be near my Saviour that my place may be there designed that I may not be of those victims prepar'd for Hell that I may not be of that number that shall be precipated into the abism of death which shall have their abode in darknesse and their habitation in the grave O good God suffer not my Barke to fall into so cruel so sad and dismal a storme It should be more expedient for me never to have been born than be ranck't in the number of them who were created to their destruction Bring to passe then at that great day that my rotten cossin may be listed up enlighten this extinguish't carcase cause it to live and shine with my soul make them to flourish together for ever and ever I am nothing Lord but a lump of mud yet never the lesse thy hands have compast me I am nothing but corruption but I bear on my brow thine Image drawn to the life I am all vice all sinne all abomination in thy sight Thy love makes no impression farther than my lips Thy Divine flame pierces not within my soul But Lord I have been washed with the water of holy Baptism I have participated of thy Sacraments I have received a seal a token a sacred testimony of my pardon I have sucked that powerful antidote that immortal Ambrosia that heavenly nourishment which shall concerve me against the poyson and venome of my sinnes and against the power of Satan Lord A lively Description of the last Judgment it seems to me that I already behold thee descending from on high set on thy Throne of Glory filling all with astonishment environed with a Million of Angels holding the sword of vengeance in thy hand It appears to me that I now behold an infinite company of scatter'd men delving the earth to hide themselves not daring ot sustain the bring flames of thy countenance that I behold the flock of thy chosen postrate at thy feet crying out that the squadrons of thy holy Angels dare not appears in reverence of thy just severity crying out that their souls were purchase by the precious blood of thy body That their sinnes are surmounted by thy grace that the honour of thy goodnesse is manifest in their salvation that thou wilt not cut and prune off thy members and reject those whose names are written in thy book of life It seems that I behold thy countenance turn'd toward them standing at thy right hand and thy mouth pronouncing their absolution and saying to them Come ye blessed of my Father possesse for heritage the Kingdome which was prepared for you from the foundation of the World Methinks I behold them rejoycing and filling themselves with splendour while thou art speaking beholding them transported by a sweet and delightful ravishment by an ardure full of zeal for thee and for thy glory to remain there for ever O good God 't is thither that we must direct all our vowes and confine all the desires of our soules 'T is the lustre of that glorious and holy day that should dazle our eyes and not the riches of this world 'T is the remembrance of these extream bright and perfect beauties which should ever entertain our thoughts and not the dark shadowes of our cares Bestir thee then let 's not longer stay on these earthly cares which are so many spiritual Divorces and Adulteries My Soul entertain not other discourse my heart have no other wishes my mouth pronounce no other name than that of our Saviour and thy salvation Let 's up and anchor here our bark in these fair desires let 's perfect this man finish this body let 's forbear to corrupt and ulcerate our wounds to encrease our woes to open again our miseries that our dolors that our convulsions that our fleames if it seem good to them hail us quick and drag us alive to the Tomb that our carcasses be consum'd with wormes that our bones may be reduc't to dust it matters not seeing that the Saviour of the world renders as possessors of the fruit of so signaland happy a victory that he bestowes on us our share and lot in his land that he covers us with Lawrels and with Palmes O God this Crown is very high 't is above this aspiring rock whose way is narrow and uneven incumber'd with thornes and bryars I lye tumbling on my Bed I cannot pull up my feet not raise my head above my bolster my carcasse is nothing but dung and my Soul then corruption I am laden with a counter-wait which ever presseth me down my offences are bolts and shackles on my feet which makes me ever stumble The Devil places them near the avenues to close up the passage to render the way dreadful and to drive me to despair of my salvation But what shall I say good God! I must not require the endeavours of my attenuated legs and my carcasse half benum'd to climb this Mountain to pierce the thicknesse of the clouds and raise my self even to the heighth 'T is onely requisite that I dive into the contrition of my heart the confession of my month I need but lift up my eyes and taise up my cogitations toward the great Saviour of the World who openeth his armes to transport me O my Rock thou art not then any longer hard for me to prevail with Christ the object of my faith Christ the only medicine who can close and consolidate my wounds Christ in whom I establish all my present and future felicity Christ my guide and my Bare star who must conduct me to the light of his ensign he shall open to me the way shall make my faith to surmount all despaires he shall deliver me from these hindrances he shall raise me up free and conduct me even into heaven making me mount by his divine degrees and shall guide by the might of his holy Spirit my blessed and happy soul into his high place where the seasons passe eternally I will leave to him this Triumph I will leave to him the accomplishment of this great work the honour shall be to his blood to his blood
that we are obliged to banish the discourse of our abominations as dreading to publish such things as the eares and thoughts of men ought not to receive as likewise men may judge what may be our hidden crimes when those which appear are so enormous It then remaines to call to remembrance the excesse of our vices and how far this feavour hath transported us It rests to observe the heat of our passions to conceive a just hatted to take leave of them to discharge them for ever and to detest the very thought of them if it be not to demand pardon for them It 's a shame to make such slender profit of the wonders by the which heaven calls us to repentance and notwithstanding so many advertisements to behold our selves groveling in vices and so corrupt in our behaviour When stormes and tempests arise the Pesants tremble they assemble themselves they make vowes every one for the conservation of his cottage and his little Field When a clamour of fire is in the City every one runnes to quench it the weak contribute their cries the children their sighths And when the wrath of God is ready to tumble down on our heads when the plague is already begunne we stand immovable one arme is already rotten before the other stirs the body is in the agony of death before the spirit is awaked Go to then let 's consider of our wretchednesse let our cogitations tend to our advantage let 's be active in the reformation of our vices let 's draw our feet out of the of iniquity let us with strength expectorate these crimes these plagues these poisons and not hence forward suffer that the heart recoile let us have them in horrour let 's convert our rage upon them let 's tear them with wrath let 's vow an irreconcileable enmity against them and constraine our hands to wage war upon them Let us for the future love God with all the faculties of our soules let 's contain our selves within the limits of our duties within the bounds of our subjection let 's not again precipitate our selves into the abismes of rebellion Let every one that bears the image of God be pure from such imaginations It 's the fairest ambition to the which we can direct our vowes 't is the best Inheritance and the most Eminenst Nobility we can enjoy The pure soules detesteth vice their whitenesse flies such ordure their beauty feares the touch of their hands If any lost man shakes not off the yoke of Satan who forgeth a thousand wiles to ravish him from heaven if others proceed as the reed which shooteth forth a long and strait blade at his first springing but afterwards makes frequent knots as pauses which declares him languishing and out of breath for that let not us lose courage let us not quit our strength let 's not easily abandon our felicity These are Worldlings fil'd with vapours which at first display their puissance and advancing tire themselves at every step abating some part of their strength and then one may also receive instruction by contraries as by examples by flight as by pursuit In hearing an unskilful player touch an harp one may learn to nautiate discords and false measures Let 's abandon these worldlings to the dreadful judgment of God Who shall exactly collect their vices and rigorously chastise their offences ☜ Whil'st in the interim the fear of punishment which ought to humble them remain continually imprinted in their guilty memories The Image of gloominesse never retiring from their eyes They shall ever have a Judge to attend them a million of afflictions which shall stuffe them with despaires and hells which shall tyre on their hearts which shall pursue them in their flight which shall watch over their slumbers and shall constantly accompany their wretched lives Punishment derives its original from sinne ☜ this World hath nothing secure but innocence which we ought to cherish which we are obliged to embrace as our infallible Rudder as our assured Anchor But if our vices still survive in us if they spring in our hearts if we grow obstinate in our offences if the experience of impunity multiplies our evil inclinations or if the scourge hardens us God will take vengeance of so many out-rages he will declare himself to us in his fury he will compel us to acknowledge his omnipotency he will convert judgment into severity he will scatter the bonds of our impiety he will render us confused in our temerity He will thrust his sharp sickle in the Field so over-grown with brambles with stinking and loathsome weeds and will over-turn in the mire by Pestilence by the Sword by Famine so many bastard-seeds and unpleasant in his sight In his fury he is the generous Lyon prick't forward by his force which redoubleth his fierce roarings over his enemies He is the untamed Bull who casts forth his affrightful bellowings and under the horrour of his stern look overthrowing for ever into obscurity those who are obstinate in their offences He is the Omnipotent who hath terrours by his side death in his hand and who darteth on the wicked the fire of his just vengeance He defeates in the twinckling of an eye the Batallions of men and causeth to graw the earth the most Ancient of all the Monarchs and most August Kings and who merit a principal place in the Register of the glorious Caesars with the like facility as the smallest and most infirme and inconsiderable of the world We have felt we have proved the weight of his arme But what we have beheld is but the first act our eyes have shed Rivers of teares Our Theaters have distill'd all with blood the bowels of the earth have been torne up on every side to receive our carcasses the Divine Justice engages it selfe against us on all sides to our destruction and yet these are but the prologus to the rigour of the horrible Judgement of the living God if we prevent not his severity by amendment of life He is all goodness all mercy all clemency He sufficiently demonstrats with what regreat he layes hand on the sword or fire He never proves the last remedyes he proceeds not to the rigour of chastisements till after he hath tryed all other expedients but his backwardnesse is seconded with extreame afflictions and punishments That which men enterprize against heaven he causeth to recoyle upon them Whosoever striketh against God he will there finde such solidity that the repercussion will tumble him down shattred like an earthen Pitcher Whosoever precipitates himself into that encounter there sinks and ordinarily perishes before that he hath enterpriz'd it Let 's not then flatter our selves not then be drunken then let 's not slumber whil'st that God spares us Let 's not expect till for conclution his arme fall heavy upon us till he trouble and consume us as slaves of iniquity and of Satan The Master that is not obey'd by his servants but outraged out of spight
transgression upon transgression thou multipliest the acts of clemency Be not then My God inexorable to my fault pursue me not unto extremity The Nurse forbears not to give the breast to her child because it disturbs her repose and sleep Thou art to me more than a Fosterer be not then deaf to my plaints and deny not the milk and the sweetnesse of thy grace to thy infant whom thou hast imbellish't for an high designe and whom thou hast redeem'd with the life of thy onely Son I have forfeited thy grace my God but thou never losest thy goodnesse behold me in thy clemency not in thy justice my hopes survives in thee alone swallow my transgressions in thy compassions and the fruit shall remain to thy glory Lord my braines dissolve into teares my haires are full of ashes my visage heavy my eyes are hollow sunk and dull But Lord if my teares can render thee more gentle if they can move thee to extinguish the flames of my crimes set open the Fountaines of my weeping and cause me to bathe in the waters of my penitence untill that by the merits of the Saviour of the world thou hast overturned my transgression and impure desires under the power of thy compassion Lord I am nothing but Rottennesse and Corruption But the very ashes of a rich substance want not their value I am ransom'd by the stripes of thy Sonne I am cleansed by his blood I speak to thee by hismouth be mindful then of that sweet smelling sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered on the Crosse and do me the honour I may participate in the Triumph of his perfect and compleat Ministry Thou promisedst to Abraham not to destroy Sodom if so be that there thou couldst finde ten just persons and I Lord Gen. 15.36 I am holy I am enclosed I am a member of the just one without spot of one just justifying who hath swallowed my transgressions in the Ocean of his merits of one Just who is the light from whence I borrow the rayes of splendor Of one Just who hath cherish't me in his bosome and who makes me to draw the breath of his mouth Accept then the offerings my God of my humble acknowledgment which I bring to thy Altars with all the zeal and devotion whereof I am capable Psal 51. I beseech thee with the Psalmist David O God have pity upon me according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitude of thy compassions efface my offences wash me from mine iniquity and purge me from my sinne I acknowledge my transgressions and my faults are ever before thee I have sinned against thee purge me with bysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow Turn thy face away from mine iniquities O God create in me a clean heart and a stedfast spirit east me not away from thy presence neither take from me the Spirit of thy holinesse Restore me to the gladnesse of thy salvation open may lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Lord cause thy graces to abide with me conduct and lead me in thy wholsom paths by a divine inspiration touch to the quick my spirit and my sense and fill me with an ardure to thy service Open my lips which my transgressions have closed make to spring in me piety integrity the love of my neighbours modesty and that my vices after having so long time abused thy creature may in conclusion quit and surrender the place to a blessed to a reformed estate Effect it that my very countenance may answer for me that one may read in my eyes and voice the integrity of my intentions Enable me that I may fructifie as Trees planted by the streames of waters Enable me to walk worthily as it is requisite before thee increasing in all sweet savour and declaring that I am a member of thy Church instructed in thy Gospel and that thy Word dwelleth in me Lord thou hast unto this day conserved me thou hast born me upon thy wings Enable me then to be obedient to thy Voice that I may keep thy Covenant and that I may be of the Kingdome of thy Priests and of thy holy Nation Engrave thy holy Ordinances in my spirit cause my eares to resound the sweet and gratious ayres of thy Word Bring to passe that my tongue may sing a perperual song and be an eccho to thy heavenly voice and for the time to come I may ever addresse most ardent supplications not idle drowsy words unto thee then when as carried away with a Designe or Slumber and that I speak and understand not my self Establish my heart in thy fear retain my inclinations in obedience to thine fill my soul with charity which is the Complement of the Law the establishment of grace the preparative to glory which as the influence of the Sunne enables me with a vertue to fructifie and increase Lord receive me into thy favours wholly blot out my sinne temper and aslwage the scaldings of my wounds Encamp thy Angels round about me dispel and scatter all evil farre from me Be thou my Guide through the perisous straights of the World and the turbulent stormes of the violence of my passions suffer me not to daâ—h against the rocks of this Sea of the world and under the conduct of thy Holy Spirit cause me to arive at the Port of thy salvarion and cast anchor in the midst of thine Love me my God to the intent I may love thee that I may seek thee serve thee pray to thee that I may give thee glory and honour for ever A Meditation upon the Holy Supper UP then my Soul continue not longer buried in the delights and vanities of the World Arise awake thee rouze thy self and lend an attentive ear to the sacred voice of the well-beloved Sonne of God who invites thee to take place at his feast to sit down to the Banquet of eternal life Arise recollect all thy strength and lift thy self up toward this Fountain of light who by his Sunne illustrates all the Starres of heaven and illuminates all the parts and corners of the earth He is the only Physician on whom depends all thy deliverance He is the onely Authour of grace who can conserve thee against darknesse against hell he onely is Omnipotent who can carry thee for ever into heaven Up then my Soul prostrate thy self before him fortifie thy zeal follow thy God who calleth thee to participate of that great divine mystery which he hath instituted and ordained in his Church which is the Sacrament of his body of which one must take part to obtain eternal life The Sacrament of his body by the which he is united unto thee to convey thee into his glory whereby he removeth he abolisheth he effaceth all that is in thee of sin of cursing and of death and there replanteth his grace his life and his felicity All whatever he has brought from heaven all the grace which is
this spiritual wine which giveth me an eternal Paradice which returneth me from death to life which giveth me so perfect a recovery that there remaines no scar in my ulcers which conducts me unto an estate wherein I shall not more suffer the temptations and approaches of sinne where I shall be no more subject to change where I shall be a Citizen of the Kingdome of heaven I prostrate my self then before thee my God who art my Judge my Creatour and Redeemer all in one give me I beseech thee both heart and lips and that I may adore thee with all the affections and all the faculties of my soul Drive away my disobedient humours fill me with true zeal and with sincere intentions to thy service and scatter far from me these desires of the world who entangle themselves in my cogitations and thwart my holy resolution I am happy my God Isa 22.7 to enjoy that which so many Kings Nahum 1.15 and so many Prophets desir'd to behold I am happy to possesse that holy Heritage which they having but obscurely seen and saluted by faith they have cryed out with vehement desire Rom. 10. â— 15.5 Oh how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Ghospel I am not Lord in the extremity of the poor Paraletick who attended so many yeares to have the first place in the Bath troubled by thy Angel I receive immediately my recovery of the blood of my Saviour and there is no need that one more sound than my self take me in his armes to embrace and carry me into the water For the Faith which thou hast given me lifts me up even unto heaven She thither conducts my soul which washeth her self in this pretious blood and comes forth clean and white I sinne continually and have cause of humiliation and to dread and apprehend Death and Hell and I am ever cheered with hope by the memory of that Eternal Sacrifice But my God make me so perfect that I receive not thy Manna unworthily that I take it not in contempt of thy Word and thy glory to be punish't in thy wrath as he who was devoured of a Lyon having contrary to thy command eaten bread in the house of the false Prophet to be punish't as he who was bound and cast into darknesse inasmuch as he came to the marriage without being cloathed with a Wedding garment Lord I know that 't is recorded in the Gospel that who so eateth of this bread and drinketh of this cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ thy Son But my God Thou art Wonderful in thy mercies Thou rejectest no man Thou abhorrest not the Thief who confest thee nor the sinner who wept nor the Canaanite who accused her self Mary Magdalen nor the Disciple who denied Jesus nor even they themselves who persecuted thee insomuch as they repented And I Lord I confesse my sinnes I condemne them I accuse my self I beg thy pardon I entreat thee to behold thy goodnesse not my demerit Lord Thou hast vanquish't death thou hast raised my soul from the grave thou hast drawn me out of the pit thou hast opened to me the gates of eternal life Supply then my defaults with thy blessings and grant me that in thy Temple in the Assembly of thy faithful ones I may worthily receive with faith this heavenly food and this spiritual drink and that I take with zeal and reverence the bread and wine which are presented to me by him who hath the honour to preach thy Word and whose mouth is the breast of thy Church A Thanksgiving after the receiving of the Sacrament My Soul blesse the Lord who dayly filleth and loadeth thee with his treasures Blesse God who causeth the sweet dew of his Clemency to distill on thee My Soul blesse the Saviour of the World who hath loved us who hath washed our sinnes in his blood who hath made us Kings and Priests to God his Father Blessed be the Lamb who sitteth upon the Throne Apoc. 5 13 to whom shall resound prayses for ever under the Vaults of heaven and his Sacred Name shall be Celebrated and Magnified from age to age Oh my glorious God how much satisfaction do I receive in casting and overthrowing my self at thy feet how happy am I to approach thy holy Table 'T is thou oh my God who hast tamed the Hidra of my miseries who hast preserved me from the devouring knives of the Devil who hast succoured me in my bloody agony who hast recented my afflictions seeing me exposed to the Savageness of the infernal Tygers who had reduc't me to the cruel darts of death I was buried in despair and in the grave swallowed and overwhelmed in the jawes of a miserable servitude overtaken with the storme of so many mis-fortunes But my God by thy singular compassion though I bedewed not my face with tears nor filled the ayre with my complaints Thou hast restored me to my first condition thou hast imbellish't me with-the splendour of the graces of thy countenance and pollish't me with the first lustre of my natural beauty I was overwhelm'd under my proper ruine I was entomb'd in the gulfe di gged with my own hands I had cast my self within the horrible Den of Satan but thou hast restored me thou hast lifted me up and delivered me from my extremities I was captive and now the gate of liberty is open to me my vessel was on every side batter'd with the Tempest It was ready to split it self against the bancks and now saileth gloriously on the water and cuts and divides the waves driven by a prosperous gale I was the prey of Satan and now triumph through thy mercies above all his temptations above all his ambushes and all his powers I cry out now Lord with Simeon let thy servant depart in peace according to thy Word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before all men to be the enlightning of all Nations and glory of thy people Israel Lord I render thee such thanks as I am able not such as I ought I am oblidg'd to magnifie thy Name for ever with a thousand sacrifices of praise to humble my self all contrite at thy feet to enflame my heart with repentance and sacrifice the ashes to thee Thou hast cleansed me wash't me from my offences made me approach thy holy Table and partaker of thy merits there remaines nothing after this Sacrament but to be united to thy glory Grant me Lord that I may submit to thy pleasure the remainder of my dayes Grant me repentance of my offences not for a day but which may last even unto my Sepulchre that I may continually addresse my vowes to thee that I may exalt thee without ceasing and that for ever I may be at thy feet to do thee homage as my God my Soveraign and my Redeemer Grant me Lord that I may be attentive to the reading of thy holy Scriptures to the
end that the sharp Sword of thy Word may sever and reverse the deepest and profoundest roots of my infidelity and that the divine light of thy Gospel which hath enlightned thy Church from the Apostles even to this day may dissipate the thick darknesse which overwhelmes me Grant me that I may serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse that I may furnish my memory with the beauty of thy divine power enlighten the gloominesse and obscurity which environes me prepare my feet to the path of peace and my mouth to pronounce thy praise and permit not that I be surpriz'd with any evil slumbers and that I sleep not unto death Raise up my Soul Lord by the fervour of devotion to a constant meditation on heavenly things conserve me as he whose name is written in thy book of life as he who is ransom'd with the blood of the Saviour of the World is destined to be a vessel of honour in thine house Unite my spirit by continual meditations to them of thine elect to the intent that being endowed with thy graces I may serve thee for a pleasant habitation as a fair Jerusalem In Conclusion Lord to thee I recommend my Soul and my Body my Councels and Cogitations my Words and Actions the conduct of all my Wayes the Course and End of my life A Discourse of Afflictions and Martyrdome THe Children of God are marked with a different Character from the rest of the Citizens of the Earth God hath assigned them for portion here below Poverty Ignominy the losse of kindred maladies and the most insufferable kinds of deaths but happy are these afflictions tending to salvation blessed these chastisements which are to correct not to destroy Praised be God who by these stroakes prevents the celerity of our gangrenes who hath recourse to absitions to preserve our lives and applies the lance to the inflammations of our ulcers untill the venome ceases to prevail Those whom he corrects not are such whom he disdaines to amend those are the children of the World who have their Paradise on earth not in heaven Their wealth often exceeds their wishes their honour surmounts their desires but the season of their delight fades in an instant and that of their calamity is eternal The Fatherly hand afflicteth not them daily they are only buffetted by the enemy of men which cometh too late and in recompence he tormenteth them for ever Let us then call to mind that it 's fore-told in the Gospel that we are destined to suffer griefs to support out-rages and be cut off from the world and that we are commanded to comfort our selves in these tribulations and to skip for joy in the midst of our torments for asmuch as our reward is great in heaven If we suffer our selves to be transported by heavinesse beyond measure 't is to be suspected that afflictions will overcome us give us over to despair as unworthy the consolations which are presented to us by the hand of God and of the certain promises which he hath left us by writing in his Word Let us raise up our soules then above all the things of this World Direct our cogitations to remember the state of our lives and on the remedies which God hath bestowed on us to solace our sorrowes and calamities of a truth our prosperity the sweetnesse of content ordinarily passeth in a little space and giveth place to afflictions who march on with a hideous and frightful visage Our life is nothing but a motion if one day be pleasant another renders it self unsupportable and that we enjoy of content never continues constant But since this is the condition in which it pleaseth God we should live we must not adde our bloody hands to tear our wounds and become unjust in respect of what remaines for the regreat of what we have lost It 's folly to take on ones self the punishment of his infelicity to stay upon the part offended and to look upon the worst side of our lives Let 's not then more imbitter our evils by our impatience neither hereafter render our greene wounds and emotions mortal stroakes and incurable ulcers Let 's cast behind us that pusilanimity which ever puts us to flight causing us to cast forth cries equal to the measure that the Ocean is irritated and raised up against us and hinders us from sustaining the storm without being appall'd Let 's fortifie our hearts let 's fill them with assurance to the intent that contemplating with a confident brow the miseries of the world not to apprehend their approach to sustain them with a couragious aspect and encounter them with valour Let 's approach afflictions to understand them and by the way resolve our selves to constancy The Souldier is unworthy of that name who trembles so soon as he beholds an enemy and perswades himself that already their Sword is at his throat and he is marveilous feeble who is afraid at the only appearance of afflictions Their view cannot offend us and their endeavours if we please may be rendered successelesse Why then make we any difficulty to enter into the lists against them since their wounds ought to harden us constantly to suffer their assaults Those who are nourisht in the shade dread the ardure of the Sun and not those that are accustomed to it Children are apprehensive and fear to behold their blood and not old Souldiers who have of 't seen it as it were continually to distill and flow from their wounds Few new afflictions can present themselves we already have beheld and sustained the most of them if they be great and confiderable the more danger and peril the more glory What delight to rend off the scales which would forme themselves against the brightnesse of our eyes what satisfaction to prevent those discords which would trouble our harmony Up then let us learn to accustome our selves to all diversity and inequality of life and to receive every thing of the saving hand of God And as the Superiour part of the aire which is nearest to the heavens is never darkned with clouds nor agitated with thunders so our soules ever elevated above these passions should never be shamefully overturned under griefs and sadnesse but so much as is necessary to bring her to repentance Let us not precipitate our selves desperately as mad men after our affections enduring with all our heart the adversity of the world ever calling to mind that as the divine benedictions which we shall one day enjoy are setled in a continued and happy rank so also these mortal things are tossed by an infinite number of blustres and totter and incline sometimes to one side sometimes to another It is familiar in the croud and throng of a battel to take ones fortune upon the Ocean to be beaten with stormes upon the earth with diverse afflictions The Pilate for having been preserved from so many tempests cannot longer dread Ship-wrack The Souldier for the frequency and assiduity of peril contemns
without the desolution of the whole Body But then when our well-fare requires that so it must be it 's better to perish in part then entyrely to lose one than both our eyes of't-times a member spar'd costs the life If we be alwayes heated with Prosperity if we ever live at our ease what a multitude of designs would take up our thoughts and interpose that we lift not up our soules to that which is on high with how little difficultie will we permit our selves to slip into vices and to be partakers of all the vanities of the word That little interval we have enjoyed gives us full assurance the example of very many removes all doubt We are slothful to our safety we must be prest to it we are slack and advance not but by constraint The Eagle hovers round about her young to teach them to rayse themselves from the earth he lets some dayes passe without feeding them to the intent that hunger may compell them to seek out their food and for the utmost remedy He beats them he corrects their sloth with strokes both with his beak and wings Even so the great God delivers his Ordinances into our hands to observe them He commands us to obey them he summons he threatens us and in conclusion when bare words makes no impression in our hardned hearts He puts us forward and constraines us through sundry afflictions He deals by us as a Father who hastily snatches the Knife out of the hand of his childe fearing he should hurt himself and forbeares not for his crying As the Father who retyres his sonne from the brinck of the River and in with-drawing him corrects him to the end he should not return again He chastiseth us to the intent we should resent our offences he leads us off beating us and ever addes some surcharge to our afflictions thereby to humble us During our prosperity we pride our selves beholding every thing with a scorneful eye we value none but our selves and think not of ought but our content and felicity And as bodies that are fatted languish under their proper weight and stoop beneath the burthen and charge of themselves in like manner our overmuch and continual repose drowns us in pleasures and lessons in delights the first glances men observe to blaze of our zeal and ardure to pursue the path of the children of God The skilful Physician sometimes breaths a veine not for present necessity but to prevent and remove the cause of that malady he judges approaching In like manner God afflicts us to turn us from vices which we are ready to embrace And so he prunes off many branches of a plant to the intent it may become more fruitful we undergo afflictions to the intent we may fructifie the more and that we may increase our zeal That we may preserve our selves dextrous and strong we accustome our selves to Justs Turneys we counterfeit war in a full absolute peace and to preserve our soules ever amiable alwayes healthy do we refuse adversity afflictions and tryals we conceive not of our felicity but by the same measure that we recent evil ☞ we joy not in heaven but so far as earth torments us we embrace not God but in the same degree that men afflict us Men distinguish the children of God by their scars their songs are sighths their garments sable mourning and gloomy their Edifices Prisons and the Grave Men send the stout Souldier to the assault they plant him in the midst of the breach they place him in the mouth of the Cannon the Loyal in battel against difficulties losses and vexations The Courage of the Souldier softens and relents during the truce his generosity abates if he be long absent from the Field of battel In like-sort the zeal of Gods Children languisheth and consumeth it self in time of prosperity He there signalizeth himself by the scars in his front and by the wounds received for default of his Armes This here by afflictions proceeding from the hand of the Omnipotent God All his adversities are advertisements these rubarbs are healthful nourishments and bitternesses tending to pleasantnesse we may not imitate the Caterpiller converting flowers into poyson the Anvil which hardens it self against the Hammer The sonnes of earth who sinke in despaire The valiant brow searches the glory of Lawrels and Palms for testimonies of their courage the true believers suffer the honour of crosses of griefs and tryals for signes of their faith Let 's then quit the Field to these Panick these feeble amasements overthrowing them under our weapons enduring them with a cheareful aspect since 't is the pleasure of God that afflictions as pointed arrowes should be fixt in our bodies Suffering with constancy if his heavy hand presseth us on abates us dismembers us and hence forward being rather apt to penance than plaints Being of good courage he is ever a spectatour of his own who strugle and contest against calamity He is ever at hand to yield them courage by their sides to aid and assist them He was by Job stretcht out on the Dunghill He accompanied the three Children in the Furnace He descended with Daniel into the innermost crannies of the Den of Lyons He was near Elias in the Desart with Saint Peter in the Prisons with such a multitude of Martyrs in the midst of the flames This labour is an exercise of true Courage in the sweat whereof men finde felicity The end the aime whereunto we are call'd is so excellent and admirable that we are oblidg'd to embrace all enterprises which may conduct us thither Then let these Ignominies these faded withered things these dolours be our Lawrels our Palmes our Crowns let them be the marks of our vertue engraven on our bodies Let us chearefully receive these Presents from the hand of God let 's relish these wholsome medicines let 's embrace if it be the pleasure of God wounds Martyrdome and Death What then If for his honour and glory if the more to publish the Name and Merit of the Saviour of the World He delivers us into the hands of these Barbarians who oppose publick afflictions and the horrour of death to check the progresse of the Name of Christ who seek not their glory but by the measure and proportion of their cruelty against persevering Christians if he deliver us into the power of these Butchers who imagine the heavenly Field is husbanded as ours by the labour and assistance of the Iron who persecute us by publick punishments by the astonishment of flames by the horrour of Gibbets and of Pillaries surfeting of blood and carcasses and by the dread of Butchers prepared to death and destruction What Shall we not conserve this precious earnest this holy gage this divine faith planted in our hearts by the powerful operation of the Omnipotent Spirit Shall we not inviolably observe this sacred oath of fidelity given to Jesus Christ at our birth What Shall we not freely lavish out our blood
Temple of my God Rev. 3.12 and he shall never go forth more and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God which is the new Jerusalem Who overcometh Rev. 3.21 I will cause to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also have overcome and am set with my Father in his Throne What hinders us now what doth obstruct us then to bear afflictions and miseries with constancy who hinders to surmount and overcome these things Is it this World are they our riches Alas why change we not chearfully and willingly our lands our habitations and our lives for repose for felicity for eternal beatitude Our life is short wherefore for so short a time do we renounce a perpetuity of blessednesse of the ages of Paradise Our life passeth in an instant why for to preserve a few dayes do we precipitate our soules in the Abisme Our life is precious to God he holds it he keeps it in his hands i◠he dispose it 't is for his honour 't is for our preservation ☞ why deny we him this glory and to our selves this profit Do we dread torments there is more of grief and anguish to finish ones life by a long and continued distemper than by a violent stroak death is more languishing and tormenting in a bed than in the sight of heaven in an assembly The Feavers Convulsions Catarrhs are more insupportable and fatal than torments Christ is present he exhorts us he offers himself to us he invites us he spreads his armes to receive us he will open the heavens for our consolation as to Saint Steven than when the enemies of the Gospel stoned him He will assist us with his strength and augment our courage as he hath done to so many Martyrs who have endured for his name Let us not then loyter any longer committing our selves into his hands The Lawrels and the Palmes never cast their leaves the true Children of God never quail The love of heaven doth so ravish them they are after such a manner fil'd with that divine fury so that when nothing remaines to them but their heart wherewith they are accustomed to contemne the most dreadful things that continues sound even to the end of their lives their souls are invincible untameable free and generous Let 's suffer then with patience lifting up our hearts to heaven Let those savage Beasts which are not satisfi'd but with blood and wounds who are not asswaged but with murthers who are not delighted but with the sounds of racks having nothing agreeable but to dismember Christians Let us suffer if it be the pleasure of God to deliver us into the hands of these Butchers if they cause our bodies to stoop under the weight of Martyrdome Let us suffer if they redouble their rage if they do not forbear any kind of cruelty and as Lyons Whelps fil'd with flesh they feed their eyes on our dead bodies and dabble their hands in our bloody effusions God will assist us with his power and will raise us by his Omnipotent Spirit when 't is for the honour of his Name above the racks and flames The most cruel torments shall not be considerable to us the greatest most ponderous punishments shall be pleasant unto us these cruelties cannot astonish us death it self shall be life Our faith shall sustain our bodies seeing them torn it shall the more encourage us to suffer Our holy zeal shall delude the most sowre afflictions will cause us to advance into flames without amazement we shalconsume our selves with satisfaction embracing Martyrdome We shall imitate those Martyrs who for such a subject have endured a thousand afflictions have a thousand times spilt their blood have sustained a thousand flames These Martyrs whose Names and Renowns have found the earth too narrow to comprehend them These Martyrs who have magnifi'd Christianity by their blood who have accepted Martyrdome for their Crown These Martyrs who by a few torments are gone for ever into Supreme felicity Up then Barbarians what havock and slaughter soever you make of our bodies we remain firme and resolv'd to die Our bodies are vanquish't our spirits remain Conquerors You shall behold us languish full of delight in a divine Martyrdome You shall see our blood boyling with devotion to distill and trickle into the flames That our death shall be lovely and beautiful to be for ever famous to Christianity That our bodies shall be blessed to be consumed for the glory of the Saviour of the World That our blood shall be precious to witnesse and trace out the way to heaven That those flames shall be exquisite which set a lustre on the truth in the eyes of a throng and croud of poor Ignorants That our ashes shall be pretious to celebrate publish and to spread the Gospel among men If the earth be glutted with our blood the example of our Martyrdome will make us re-created by Miriads if they consume us as the Phenix we shall be renewed within our ashes Meditations for one that is sick FRail Creature in the midst of thy imaginations thou wastest and consumest thy self thou straglest thou wanderest and losest thy self amongst the vanities of the World Thou runnest out of knowledge in these slippery paths without understanding thy feeblenesse without considering that at the first step upon the first advance thou mayst stumble that a sprain may turn thee quite short and that thou hast no sooner weighed anchor than thou art in danger of Ship-wrack thy health hath puft thee up thy courage hath raised thee up precipitating thee into pleasures and delights and suddenly a chilnesse surpriseth thee some heat a pain in the head thou art dejected thou tremblest thou doubtest whether it be some light distemper or rather a disease tending unto death O Lord the World to this moment hath possessed me her delusions have intoxicated me at this instant my sinnes stare in my face as if I were awaked from a prosound slumber I begin to recover my spirits my eyes retort their looks upon my self to behold my weaknesse and my body tyred and consum'd with the feavour which is mixt with my blood and with the pain which torments it is constrain'd to acknowledge her misery to reject her Presumption Lord these fogs which obscure heaven to me begin to fall off my Soul so long blinded recovers some glimmering I have lived to this very instant swimming and floating at the pleasure of the Tide give me grace that I may arrive at the Port I have passed my time in darknesse give me light in the rest of my dayes Poor Carcasse thy Original is in infection thy habitation in a station fil'd with tempests with diseases with torments with bloody wars in a place common to the savage beasts upon an ingrateful earth out of which thou can'st extract nothing but with the Plow-share and edge of the Iron For thy end thy flesh is the prey and triumph of wormes thy
of it for a time for a time which thou cuttest which thou shortnest at all times every moment according to thy pleasure And not being lesse prudent than the savage creatures who know their dens and love them and the foules who desire their nests and they please themselves there I will lift up my soul and direct my eyes toward my true and natural Country wherein I ought to trust toward that heaven wherein pleasures are heap't upon delights wherein at all seasons the beauty of the amiable spring flourisheth in such delightful cogitations I shall find ease to my mallady the refreshment proper to extinguish and sweeten my scortching In these pleasant fountaines I shall draw out waters and liquors to allay and temper my feavour and my heat and plunging my self into these holy streames I shall despise all other remedyes as being but an aggravation and fomentation of my paine and although that where-ever I stay my self my body pains me Neverthelesse I shall receive more of ease in the contemplation of my misery and of thy Grandure of the quantity of my offences and the multitude of thy graces which they have not which give not themselves but to be inquisitive after divers remedyes which they esteem healthful and find a way and a means to provoke them to sleep by the harmony of resounding voyces I seek not my recovery in the substance of rootes and herbs but in the might of thy hand who hath made the plant to spring and hath given it it's encrease I shall not seek my rest in diverting my self from the remembrance of my mallady but in reducing to my memory the wretchednesse of my condition in representing to my self that fancying a thousand conceptions in my brain I was neare swallowed in the Billowes and over-flowings of my defires that I have a long time borne the wound in my heart without sense or without complaint that I well nigh imitate the fish who swallow at the same time the bait and death That this world never affords me a cheerful look dains not to smile on me that afflictions have ever clouded my countenance that my pleasures are fill'd with torments my hopes with dispayres that the course of my afflictions have been equal to those of my dayes Briefly that I have been a subject to all accidents that hang over the head of man that I am the Butte and white against which all the crosses and mis-fortunes of the world let fly and discharge their shot and their arrowes And so Lord I constrain and force not my self to expect my recovery in the vertue of herbs I sooth and flatter not my mallady and deceive not my pain in stupifying and benuming my spirit or otherwise diverting it I seek not my recovery in flight but contrarily I feel the inequality of my pulce and the difficulty of my respiration I will consider how my mallady is fixt that it is rooted that it holdeth off my body and that I beare in my stomack the spring and receptacle of heat and cold which consumeth me and that all the parts of this body cease their operations and sunctions through the grief that afflicts them and not longer able to support it fail and yield to death Behold me then gracious God as the Bird in crossing the otian and not finding where to pirch her self after she hath long laboured with her wings in the end drops down weary and not able to struggle longer into the sea and death I have walked among the paths of this world the Thornes have pricked me the Brambles have offended me the stones have made me to stumble the strokes have bruised me they have batter'd me the feavours have weakned me I have search't for medicines and emplasters I have applyed splinters to sustain my bones I have swallowed bitter juces to drive away my distempers I have sustained and propped this poore cottage on all sides but in conclusion 't is necessary that it ravel that it crack that it sink under it's proper weight I perceave Lord that it slacks that it dissolves that it growes loose I behold on the other side that my soul the which she depresseth distasts and cleers himself of him by degrees as not longer able to contain it But alas It is very requisite this poore carcasse cannot ever draw his yeares under so heavy a bondage it cannot last ever 't is necessary that in the end she render her self to this deafe and inexorable death who yields not to any prayres who comes to surprize him without noyse and demands his debt without agreeing to delay In conclusion I must after having so long course over the sea slaves to stormes and tempests enter the haven which I have toucht already that I am already entering into It 's expedient that I retyre out of the croud and throng of the world to a more pleasant conversation and that I sustaine this assault and attempt without palenesse without amazement and without a dejected spirit How I' st not more expedient I fall once for all than alwayes to remaine tottering wherefore decline I the terminating of this life which to me is a passage to a thousand better lives why should not death be agreeable since she comes to unloosen the bonds which fetter me so closse to anguish and misery why make I difficulty to embrace death to obtain heaven and everlasting delights and pleasures and to arive at the haven where the feare of death shall neare approach Shall I doubt Lord that ' tisnot seasonable to dye since 't is but to live better till the wayes to live fail shall I preserve my life to my torment no good God no I will march confidently unto death I will commit my self to thee who hold'st in thy hands the number of my yeares the bounds and markes of my life I will cast my self into thy embraces to the intent thou shalt dispose of thy Image and thy clay according to thy good pleasure I will constantly suffer the law of my condition and the decree pronounc't by thy mouth Moreover good Lord what can I farther expect of my so frail life so feeble so subject to lose it self what can I hope farther of the continuance of this body which hath endured so many miseries that hath suffered so many evils that hath been so of 't menac't and that so many light occasions hath so varyed it's condition can it be but this smoak must sometime vanish and that this dust should be carryed a way with the wind observe I not that the strongest the most sturdy and most healthful are but light shadowes who must suddenly encrease the number of the dead That these great thunder-bolts of war find themselves not armed against death That these beautiful tresses these white breasts the lineaments of these graces are not exempt and that fame it self who triumphs over time and death in the end tumbles into it's obscure abode perceive I not how easily old age surprizes us and crumbles
forbear to aggravate my torments regard my afflictions and my travel and forgive me all my offences Lord I suffer in my groanings I mingle my Couch with my tears I am pierc't with afflictions on the bed of languishing The earth is not capable to deliver me out of this extremity The heavens alone have the glory of the medicines that are requisite for me Make hast then to come to my deliverance my God who doth dayly comfort me in my distresse and shelter me in all my stormes Lord I am afflicted that I cannot depart more than that I cannot live But good God who hast freed from death the great Shepheard of the flock by the blood of the perpetual Covenant turn thy compallionate countenance towards my torment and cause it to shine upon me in joy and in salvation Lord thou hast instructed me to understand my end and what is the wretchednesse of my dayes But good God since thou hast ordain'd that I must die cause me to depart in thee that Imay live again I have sinned my God I have displeased thee I have a thousand and a thousand times every day provoked thy fury but thou art the God of my deliverance I am washt I am sanctifi'd I am justified by thy grace in the name of Jesus Christ who hath taken my sorrowes upon him and charged my offences upon himself I am a fellow-Citizen of the Saints of thy Houshold I am built upon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles Pardon then my sinnes Lord in the name of thy well-beloved Son correct me not in thy displeasure neither chasten me in thy fury have mercy on me that am destitute of strength I beseech thee my God in the bitternesse of my Soul in the words of the Propher David Lord heare my request and make my supplication come unto thee Hide not thy face from me in the time that I am in calamity encline thine ear unto me in the day that I cry unto thee hast thee to answer me for my bones are dryed as an hearth and they cleave to my flesh by reason of my groaning and my time vanisheth away like smoke and as a shadow which passeth away and as for me I am become withered as the grasse Lord I said once again with David Eternal reprove me not in thine indignation thine arrowes have pierc't me and thy hand hath overwhelm'd me there is no entire part in my flesh there is no rest in my bones by reason of my sinne for mine iniquities are gone over my head and are too weighty as â—n heavy burthen above my strength I am bowed down and swerve beyond measure I am weakned and bruised more and more Lord all my desires are before thee and my afflictions are not hid from thee Forsake me not my God be not far from me hast thee and help me All my hope is in thy mercy Lord thou hast spoken by the mouth of thy Prophet Esay I have heard thee in an acceptable season and succoured thee in the day of salvation My God now behold the agreeable time see now the day of salvation Be thou now Lord my Rock and my Fortresse be thou my Deliverer and sure Retrait The snares of death hath surpriz'd me destruction hath environ'd me but I lift up my self to thee my God hearken to my supplication from thy holy place and let my cry enter into thine ears Give me by thy free mercy the wages and entire reward notwithstanding that I entred not into thy Vineyard till at the close of the day shew me thy sight give me life eternal after this fleeting languishing and cransitory life and assure me of heaven to the intent that the grave swallow me not up for ever Grant me my God that when the Saviour of the World shall appear I may appear with him in glory Grant me that I may accompany that infinite number of thine which shall be before the Throne cloathed in long white Robes holding Palms in their hands and that I sing with a loud voyce with them salvation is of our God who is set upon the Throne and of the Lamb. Wash my garment and cleanse it in his innocent blood to the end that I may eternally serve thee in his holy Temple wherein I shall never suffer hunger nor thirst that I be no more molested nor distemper'd with the Sun nor with the Winter nor with miseries my tears and my pains wip't away with thy hand O Lord I am at the last gasp of my life in the agony and shadow of death to thee I direct my latest vowes my last words All my actions have not been better than vanity in respect hereof Good God arme not thy self with vengeance against me I render to thee my penitent Soul deploring languishing which savours of nought but earth and dust to which this carcasse shall be incontinently reduc't I oppose my cryes my tears my requests my plaints and my groans against my condemnation and my fall Let the confession of my mouth the contrition of my heart cause thy Sword to tumble out of thy hands let my gasping move thy goodnesse magnifie not thy power and might against a languishing attenuated immoveable carcasse against withered grasse laid on the earth expecting nought but to be driven away by the smallest blast I am at my end I neither have more power nor heart to offend thee but I may still serve thee to publish thy elemency the foundation of my hope and thy bounty the spring of my life I am thine from the Cradle thou hast sanctified me I have been redeem'd and ransom'd by the blood of thy Son who died innocent to give life to the guilty by the blood of thy Son who must open to me the door of felicity I have my recourse to him I beseech thee in his Name It is not reasonable that my sinnes should violate me in so holy a Sanctuary Rouse thee good God a rise speedily the extremity of my affliction will not admit any delay to the end that these sinnes be not too powerful for me hearken to my prayers give me strength to prevail against these billowes that drive me off from the heavenly shoar hast thee to absolve me preserve in thy hands my Soul lest it remain a prey drive these sins our of thy presence which are the work of thine enemy and Lord pardon me that am the work of thine hands Lord I render praise for that thou hast made me capable to participate of the heritage of Saints in thy light for that thou hast delivered me from the power of darknesse and hast transported me to the Kingdome of thy well-beloved Son in whom I have deliverance and remission from my sins Lord I perceive the establishment of thine assistance I feel my self replenish't with thy Holy Spirit who effaces my transgressions and ravisheth my Soul even unto heaven to shew him the inheritance which the mercy of thy Son hath bestowed on me in thy presence O good God! how blessed shall I be to hear from thy Holy Spirit that the last of my dayes shall be the first of my repose that I am not farther from my satisfaction than the length of the last groan of my life I am approaching Lord to thy Throne of grace with assurance to obtain mercy by the vertue of my High Priest who hath compassion on my infirmities I am coming to behold thee face to face whereas now I discern thee but darkly as in a mirrour I am quitting these miseries for a fulness of delight from these dolors into the Mountain of Syon from this Militant to the Triumphant Jerusalem from this World to the City of the living God I voluntarily cease to live on the Earth to survive in heaven I contentedly part with this wretched life for that which is most happy I chearfully quit my self to follow thee I abandon this carcasse and render my Soul into thy hands FINIS