that we are in the waine and the date of our Pilgrimage is well-neare expired Now therefore it behooueth vs to looke to our Countrey our forces languish our senses impaire our bodies droope and on euery side the ruinous Cottage of our faint and feeble flesh threatneth fall Hauing then so many harbingers of death for to premonish vs of our end O let vs then with all care indeauour our selues to be prepared for so dreadfull a stranger The young may die quickely but the old cannot liue long young mens liues may by casualties be abridged but the old mens can by no phisicke be long adiourned If then green years ought to be mindfull of the graue the thoughts of seere Age must continually dwell in the same Whereby we may see that old and yong of what estate and condition soeuer are seriously to prouide for the intertainment of so feareful a stranger The prerogatiue of Infancy is innocency of Childehoode reuerence of Man-hoode maturity and of Age wisedome the chiefe properties of wisedome are to be mindfull of things past carefull of things present and prouident of things to come Let vs vse then the priuiledge of Natures tallent to the benefit of our Soules and indeauour hereafter to be wise and delight in well-doing and watchfull in foresight of future harmes for to continue our course in seruice of the world we haue little cause seeing it yeeldeth but an vnhappy welcome a churlish entertainement and doth abandon vs with an vnfortunate farewell Who then would sowe in such a flinty field where we shall reape nothing but a crop of cares and affliction of spirit rewarding our labours with remorse and affording vs for gaine eternall dammage It is now more then a seasonable time to alter the course of so vnthriuing a husbandry and enter into the field of Gods Church in which sowing the seeds of repentant sorrow and watering them with the teares of humble contrition we may haue a more beneficiall haruest and gather the fruits of euerlasting comfort Let vs remember that our spring is spent our Sommer ouer-past and wee are now arriued at the fall of the leafe And that S. Augustine saith Though our louing Lord beare long with offenders be not careles for the longer he staieth not finding amendment the sorer will he scourge when he commeth to iudgement and his patience in long expecting is onely to lend vs respite to repent and not any way to inlarge our leasure to sinne He that is tossed with variety of stormes and cannot come to his desired port maketh not much way but is turmoiled So he that hath passed many yeares and purchased little profit hath had a long being but a short life for life is more to be measured by goodnesse then number of daies seeing most men by many daies doe but procure many deaths and others in short space of time doe attaine the life of infinite Ages What is the body without the Soule but a corrupt carkasse And what is the Soule without God but a Sepulchre of sinne If God be the way the truth and the life he that goeth without him strayeth he that liueth without him dieth and he that is not taught by him erreth Well said S. Augustine God is our true and chiefe life reuolting from whom is falling to whom returning is rising in whom staying is sure standing God is he from whom to depart is to dye in whom to dwell is to liue Be not therefore like to those that beginne not to liue vntill they be ready to dye and after a foes desert come to craue of God a friendly entertainment Some thinke to snatch heauen in a moment which the best could scarce doe in the continuance of many yeares and when they haue glutted themselues with many delights they would iumpe from Diues dyet to Lazarus Crowne and from the seruice of Sathan to the sollace of Saints But let them be wel assured that God is not so pennurious of friends as to hold himselfe kingdome saleable for the reuersion refuse of their liues who haue sacrificed the principall part thereof to his enemies and their owne brutish appetites then onely ceasing to offend when ability of offending is taken away And true it is a Theefe may be saued vpon the Crosse and mercy found at the last gaspe But well said S. Augustine Though with God it be possible yet is it scarce credible that his death should finde fauour whose whole life hath earned wrath And that his Repentance should be accepted that more for feare of Hell and loue of himselfe then for the loue of God cryeth for mercie Wherefore let vs make no longer delay but being so nigh the breaking vp of our mortall house take time before extreamity to appease Gods iustice Though wee haue suffered the bud to be blasted and the flower to fade and though wee haue permitted the fruit to perish and the body of the Tree to decay yet let vs keepe life in the roote for feare lest the whole become fewell for hell fire for surely wheresoeuer the Tree falleth there shall it be whether to the South or North Hell or Heauen Such sap as it yeeldeth such fruit shall it euer beare And now seeing wee are left vnto the remisals of our wearish and dying dayes the remainder whereof as it cannot be long so it doth warne vs speedily to returne and to ransome our former losses that against the approaching of our desolution and period of our course we may not be vnprouided of such appurtenances as are behoouefull in such a perillous and perplexed a iourney Death in it selfe is very fearefull but much more terrible in respect of the iudgement it summoneth vs vnto If we were laid on our departing Bed burdened with the load of our former trespasses and goared with the sting and pricke of a festered conscience if we felt the crampe of death wresting our heart-strings and ready to make the ruefull diuorce betweene body and Soule If we lay panting for breath and swimming in a cold fatall sweat wearied with strugling against our deadly pangs How much would wee giue for an houre of repentance At what rate would we value a daies contrition Then worlds would be worthlesse in respect of a little respite a short truce would seeme more pretious then all the treasures of Empiers nothing would be so much esteemed as a trice of time which now by moneths and yeares is lauishly spent How deepe it would wound our hearts when looking back into our liues we consider so many faults committed and not repented of many good workes omitted and not recouered our seruice to God promised and not performed How inconsolable were our case our friends being fled our senses frighted our thoughts amazed and our memory decayed our whole mindes agast and no part able to performe that it should but onely our guilty consciences pestered with Sinne that would continually vpbraid vs with most bitter accusation What would wee thinke
maine crop to the diuell and set God to gleane the remainder of the haruest or gorge the diuell with the fairest fruits turne God to feede on the filthy scraps of his leauings How great a folly were it when a man pyneth away in perillous languor to prouide gorgious Apparell and take order for the rearing of stately buildings and neuer thinke of his owne recouery but let the disease take roote in him Chrysostome saith When mans Soule hath surfeited in all kinde of sinne and is drenched in manifold diseases they pamper the body with all possible delight Where as the Soule should haue the soueraignty and the body follow the sway of her directions but seruile sences and lawlesse appetites rule her as superiour and so make her as a Vassall or seruile in her owne dominions What is there saith S. Augustine in thy meanest necessaries that thou wouldest not haue good Thou wouldst haue a good house good furniture good apparell good fare good cattell and not so little as thy Hose and Shooes but thou wouldst haue it good onely thy Life and poore Soule thy principall charge of other things the most worthiest thou art content should be nought by cankering and rusting in all kinde of euill Oh vnspeakeable blindnes to preferre our shooes before our Soules refusing to weare an vnseemely shooe and not caring to carry an vgly Soule Alas let vs not set so light by that which God prized so high let vs not rate our selues at so base a worth being bought to so peerelesse a dignity The Soule is such that all the gold in the world nor any thing lesse worth then the body bloud and death of the Sonne of God was able to buy it If not all the treasures of the world nor any thing that wit can deuise but onely Gods owne pretious body was by him deemed a fit repast to feede it If not all the creatures of the world nor Millions of worlds if so many were created but onely the illimitable Maiesty and goodnesse of God can satisfie the desire and fill of the capacity of it who but one of lame iudgement or peruerse will yea who but of incredulous minde and pittilesse spirit could set more by his olde shoes then by his Soule and suffer so noble a Paragon so long time to be channelled in ordure and myred in sinne If wee see our seruant sicke wee allow him a Phisition if our Horse be diseased we send for a Leach nor our garment torne but we seeke to amend it and yet maligne our own Soule and let it dye for want of Cure and being mingled with so many vices neuer seek meanes to restore it to the former integritie If any should call vs Epicures Atheists or Rebells wee should take it a reproach and thinke it a most disgracefull and approbrious calumniation yea but to liue Epicures to finne like Atheists or like violent Rebells to scorne Gods commandements and daily with damnable wounds barbarously to stabbe in our vnfortunate Soules we account no contumelie but rather register it in the vaunt of our chiefe praises O yec sonnes of Men how long will you carry this carelesnesse of heart following Vanity and seeke after Lyes how long will Children loue the follies of Infancy and sinners run wilfully to their owne ruine and destruction You keepe your Chickens from the Kite your Lambs from the Wolfe you will not suffer a Spider in your bosome nay scarce in your house And yet nestle in your Soule so many Vipers as vices and suffer it to be long chewed with the poysoned Iawes and Tuskes of the Diuell And is your Soule so vaine a substance as to be had in so little estimation Had Christ made shipwracke of his wisedome Or was he but in a fit of passion when hee became a wandering Pilgrime exiling as it were himselfe from the comfort of his godhead and passing three and thirty yeares in paine penury for the behoofe of our Soules Or was he surprised with a distempered spirit when in the Tragedie of his Passion so grieuously in flicted patiently endured he made his body as a cloud to disolue into showers of most innocent blood and suffered the dearest vaines of his heart to be launced to giue full issue to the prize of our Soules redemption But if as indeed Christ did not ere or deeme amisse when it pleased him to redeeme vs with so excessiue a ransome Then what shall we deeme of our most monstrous abuses that sell our Soules to the Diuell for euery vaine delight and rather venture the hazard thereof then the silly pittance of worldly pelfe Oh that a creature of so incomparable a price should be in the demaine of so vnnaturall keepers and that which in it selfe is so gratious and amiable that the Angels and Saints delight to behold it alas if the care of our owne Soule moue vs no more but that we remaine negligent of the better portion of our selues let vs at least feare to doe iniury to an other very careful iealous ouer it who will neuer indure so deepe an impeachment of his interest to passe vnreuenged Wee must remember that our Soule is not onely a part of vs but also the Temple the Paradice and Spouse of Almighty God by him in Baptisme garnished stored and endowed with most gratious ornaments And how thinke ye he can brooke to see his Temple prophaned and turned into a den of Diuels his Paradice displanted changed into a wildernesse of Serpents his Spouse defloured and become an Adulteresse to his vtter Enemie If Man offering such vsage to one of meane estate for feare of the law and popular shame forbeareth to effect the same shall not then the reuerend Maiesty of God and the vnabated iustice of his angry sword terrifie vs from offring the like to his owne Spouse shall wee thinke God either so impotent that hee cannot or so base and sottish that hee will not or so weake witted that hee knoweth not how for to wreake himselfe on such daring offenders Will he so neglect and loose his honour which of all things hee claimeth as his chiefe peculiar Will he that for the Soules sake keepeth a reckoning of our very haires which are but the excrements of our earthly weed see himselfe so much wronged in the principall passe by it without demonstration of his iust indignation Oh let vs remember that the Scripture termeth it a fearefull thing to fall into the hands and iustice of God who is able to crush the proud spirit of the obstinate and make his enemies his foote-stoole Let vs then wrastle no longer with the cries of our owne conscience and the forcible inspirations of the Holy Ghost Let vs I say embrace his mercy before the time of rigour and like penitent children returne to the obedience of his will lest hee debarre vs of his Kingdome And as the members of one body wherof Christ is the head let vs liue in humble
obedience of the Church millitant heere on earth that wee may atchieue to the Church triumphant in Heauen knowing that wee haue beene long aliants in the Tabernacles of sinners and straied too long from the fold of Gods flocke Let vs now turne the biace of our hearts towards the Sanctuary of Saluation and Citie of refuge seeking to recompence our wandring steps troden in sinne and wickednesse with a swift gate and zealous progresse to Christian perfection redeeming the time because the daies be euil The fall of our spring is past and the streame of our life runneth at a lowe rate or ebbe our tyred Ship beginneth to leake and grateth on the grauell of our graue it is high time for vs to strike saile and put in harbour lest remaining in the scope of wicked winds and weather some vnexpected gulfe and sodaine storme dash vs vpon the Rock of eternall ruine Let vs tender the pittifull estate of our distressed Soules and be hereafter more feareful of Hell and more desirous of Heauen then worldly repose that at the great day of our Lord Christ Iesus may acknowledge vs to be his and that our Soules and bodies may inioy the fruition of his most glorious death and passion vnto which God for his mercie sake say yea and Amen The Conclusion IF God the Father had beene the indighter heereof God the Sonne the sender and God the holy Ghost the Scribe and writer of the same If he had dipped his pen in the wounds of our Sauiour and vsed his pretious blood in liew of Inke If one of the highest Seraphins had beene formed into some visible personage and come in most solemne embassage for to deliuer this vnto you would it not straine your hearts and enforce your thoughts to fulfill the contents and alter your courses according to the Tennor of it Oh I beseech you let it take a proportionable effect knowing that the Scripture teacheth vs that God reuealeth to little ones that which he oft times concealeth from the wisest Sages and his truth is not abased by the meanes of the speaker for if men should be silent hee would cause the very stones to cry out in these times wherein sin and wickednes so exceedingly aboundeth Wherefore I humbly pray and exhort you for to surrender your Assents that we may yeeld our selues happie Captiues to Gods mercifull inspirations That hee may in the temptations of our three ghostly enemies the World the Flesh and the Diuell euen for his Sonnes sake shrowd vs vnder the shadow of his mercifull wings and close vp the day of our life with a cleare Sun-set that leauing all darknesse behinde vs and carrying in our consciences the light of grace wee may escape the horrour of an eternall Night and passe from a Mortall day to an euerlasting Morrow The God of peace who hath brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus the great shepheard of the sheepe through the blood of the euerlasting couenant make vs perfect in all good workes to doe his will working in vs that which is pleasant in his sight through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen The Prayer VVHat was I Lord what am I what shall I be I was nothing I am now nothing worth and am without thy grace in hazard to be worse then nothing I was conceiued in originall sinne now full of actuall sinne and but for thy goodnesse may hereafter feele the eternall smart for sinne I was in my mother a loathsome substance I am in the world a sacke of corruption and I shall be in the Graue a prey for vermine when I was nothing I was without hope to be saued or feare to be damned I am now if I looke upon my selfe rightly in no hope of the one and in manifest danger of the other I was so that I could not then be damned and now such are my sins that in thy instice I cannot be saued But I know sweet Iesus thy grace is sufficient for me Wherefore I humbly beseech thy Maiestie to turne from me those plagues which my sinnes cry out for I confesse oh Sauiour Iesus that my sinnes are exceeding many and fearefull yet thy Mercie is farre greater for thou art infinite in mercy but I cannot be infinite in sinning and thy righteousnes is more for mee then my owne unrighteousnesse can be against my selfe I beseech thee therefore strengthen my weaknesse correct my sinnefulnesse direct my future frailty and through thy pretious Bloud and Passion conuert my passed euils to present good and future ioyes in thy eternall and most glorious Kingdome Amen FINIS