only Coin that 's Currant the only Price at which you let your Souls go Nec quisquam Animi causa fit malus saith Seneca None are so prodigal of their Service as to serve the Devil grat is Esau will have red Pottage for it Ahab will have a Vineyard Gehazi will have Sheep and Oxen Achan will have a Golden Wedg Judas will have three Pound eight Shillings and Sixpence unto that Sum of ours came his Thirty Pieces Demas will try the Market and have as much as he can get In these things therefore in these is your Danger As it was exclaimed by a dying Miser In rich Grass laid all my Snakes You shall scarcely read of one in an Age like unto Job Who feared God and eschewed Evil when he was the Prince of the East more than when he was Poor to a Proverb Or like unto Jehosaphat who then when all Judah brought him Presents and he had Riches and Honour in abundance had his Heart lifted up in the ways of Jehova The Enjoyments which usually fuel Mens diabolick Lusts enflamed his Seraphick Love Genteel and Noble most Men are like Hannibal in Wars victorious but with Pleasures vanquished In Affliction they Pray in Prosperity they Blaspheme The very Man after God's own Heart was less exactly after it upon his Throne than in his Exile Multitudes we have known like to the Lamps in the old Roman Tombs Which as long as they were kept low and close burned and shone with a Light very Glorious But as soon as taken up went out with a Stench Rarely are hail Consciences held in the contagious Air of secular Pomp. White Silver draweth black Lines in all Hands Yellow Dust is choaking in all Throats And as Mercury it kills Men that come by it ever so Honestly if they use it not as carefully Opinion it is that gives it its Worth and Opinion is sufficient also to make it your Death For Covetousness the Canine Appetite after it is not more mortal than Fondness and immoderate Esteem of it To covet your Neighbours Vineyard is a Sin very hainous but to overvalue your own is not at all less The Causes and Effects of both are alike malignant It is said that the Runnagate from our Saviour went away because he had great Possessions had them in Possession and in Admiration It is not said nor can it be concluded that he coveted greater Possessions Wherefore Awake Sirs and look out A fronte Lupus a tergo Praecipitium Before and Behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your Dangers are great Plato's Thunder is without a Bolt he has falsely said It 's impossible for you to be eminently Good Rich Abraham was as Good on Earth and is as Great in Heaven as poor Lazarus Except but Hell one would have looked for a Saint any where sooner than in Nero's Court. Yet in that Cage of all Uncleanness there lived some Birds of Paradise Usque adeó difficillimum est magnarum rerum Contubernio non corrumpi Your Seneca's words are very Sun-beams To keep Chaste in the bed of Prosperity is of extream Difficulty You may be saved it is most sure yet so as by Fire No Men take the Kingdom of Heaven but the Violent or any way but by Force Nor may you Rich look to take it but by special Force and Violence Up then and be Doing and God speed you For your Eyes are Witnesses the most do sleep the sleep of Death And if here and there one of you do stand by Grace yet Thousands at his side do fall God knows whither and Ten thousand at his right Hand Is this an hard Censure And is it said to your Monitor as it was said to our Saviour Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil I dare in his Name to reply in his words I have not a Devil but I honour my Father My Father of whom ye say that he is your God! CHAP. III. To the Dissolute and Profane DEvils are not all of them equally Outragious nor are all their Children alike Vicious some are chief of Sinners and farther from God's Kingdom than others And the name of this sort among you Rich is Legion for they are many And unto them I now turn me Sirs both Worshipful Honourable and Right Honourable You are they who have turned your selves upside-down Deposed the Man and Enthroned the Beast in you Who have fallen out with Reason Judgment and Conscience And have taken Sense Fancy and Passions for King Lords and Commons Supposing the former to be Sicilian Tyrants and these latter to be least Dread when most Soveraign Glorying therefore in your Bodies made Channels for your Lusts and your Souls made Slaves to both You are the Men who value alike the Holy Bible and the Alchoran the Lord's Prayer and an Ave Maria the Ten Commandments and the Laws of China the Holy Sacraments and Ropes of Sand. Who mind no more Heaven and Hell than the Elysian Field and Stygian Lake Who deem it to be base and below the strain of your Spirit to trembleat the Divine Word Or to fear its Judgments denounced before you feel them Executed Despising all Arguments but Storms and Whirlwinds Flames and Thunderbolts Who to the utmost of your Power do cast out of your Thoughts him that hath Power to cast you into Hell Torments Who do banish your Omnipresent Maker out of your Minds Racking your weak Brains to serve your ill Humours and to perfect their Mastery over your Consciences To possess you of the Heroical Perfection of Scoffing at Religion And of exposing what you name the squeamish Folly of Devotion Who do make use of Pasquils and Bottles to mortify natural Principles and to exhilarate your Frenzy That as King John said of his Buck look how Fat it is tho it never heard Mass You may boast what a Paradise you have found without looking into a Church And what undisturbed Lives you have tho they are like the Sheet in Peter's Vision full of all unclean Things Whose God is a Trinity of Colours Tastes and Sounds Whose Business is therewith to entertain your Senses Whose Schools are Play-houses Whose Books are Cards and Romances Whose Language is profane Swearing and Swaggering And whose Life if a Life it be is Rage Riot and Sleep Who are Ahabs that have perfectly sold your selves Reserving no more than the poor Ruines of your reasonable Nature Ruines which are not Mutes but loud Witnesses against you as you do know to your Sorrow For as small as Bees are getting their Stings into the Nose of a Bear they torment him As small as Mice are creeping into the Trunk of an Elephant they make him very uneasy And as small as the Reliques of your Reason are they do make every Felix to tremble as oft as they can get an Hearing from you They do together shame your Rebellion against them and extort your Veneration of them For railly and break Jests as fast as you break Laws if you
you can think the Prisoners in Bedlam to be the Sages of the City and the Merchants upon the Exchange to be the Idiots and Lunaticks Mentiuntur qi dicunt saith the Pagan Ecclesiast A Lie will not choak such as say that they think there 's no God and no Life to come Sirs Is there any where a Man but there is a Conscience Does any one act and not reflect upon his Actions Is there ever a Party but what is his own Judg too And Can there be a Conscience without a Law How come Men to make Conscience of any thing if they be under no Law or Obligation And why should they if they be accountable to no Authority Conscience without Law is of no Force And can you tell What is a Law without a Sanction Without a Confirmation by Rewards and Penalties What is a Law when disarmed of this What is it more than the Sign of a George on Horseback over a Door which neither commands any Body in or keeps any one out Law and Punishment are Relatives and mutually connote each other in the common Sense of all the World Where-ever Precepts be the Rule of Subjects Duty Sanctions are the Rules of Princes Process And doubt you but that A Sanction implies a Judg A Judg without whom Precept and Sanction were vain And might be disregarded without Loss or Hazard But say also If there be a Judg must there not be a Judgment-Day A Day of solemn Trial and final Judgment Wherein he who now rules the World with Patience will judg it in Righteousness Who can wink so close but he must see this But what if the Doctrine of this Dooms-day were of any Vncertainty What if it did admit of Question and were no more than a probable Opinion What if as one speaks there were an even lay between the Negative and Affirmative Would not Wisdom bid us stick to the safest side of the Question and make that Hypothesis the Rule of your Life Inasmuch as if no such Day do come Good Men must fare as well as Bad ones But if it doth come they must fare as much better as Rivers of Eternal Pleasure are more sweet than a Lake of unquenchable Fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Euripides and it was often repeated by Pyrrhon himself Who knows but to Die is to Live To return then Religion which is the only Salt to season and sweeten this Life is the only means to be thought of for securing the next Phrenzy it self cannot imagine that Contempt of the Supream King is the way to Preferment in his Court Or that he who is only Wise will set Crowns of Glory upon Fools That he will make them happy for ever who disdain to seek his Acquaintance and Favour And do as plainly love Earth more than Heaven as they love Heaven more than Hell The Future Blessed State is a Penny which the Lord of it thinks too much for any but Labourers in his Vineyard Yea Labourers to the Death therein It is a Treasure that he gives to none but such as part with their Sins and are disposed to part with their Lives for it It is that Joy of his which no one must have but they who do faithfully improve his concredited Talents It is that Feast whereto none are admitted but such as have on them the Wedding-Garment i. e. Imputed Righteousness Inherent and Practical It is that Prize which none obtain but they who accomplish their Race It is that Crown which none must receive but they who fight and conquer Flesh World and Devil It is that House of the King wherein no Man gets a Mansion but he who enters in at the Strait-gate of Christianity It is that Inheritance which belongs to none but to new-born Children as well as Adopted ones And to such as not only are Children but do walk as Children of the Most High Wherefore in every respect Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it Ask you now seriously What you shall do Or derisorily What it is that you can do And whether it be presumed in what hath been said That disordered Clocks can set themselves to rights Or dead Men recal their Lives And Men whom Satan hath bound for many Years can loose and let themselves go Sirs You shall not be set about ought that is either unnecessary or impossible It is true being corrupted in your noblest Parts you can never restore your selves In the Body no Principles of Constitution can cure a Gangrene And in the Soul when the Vnderstanding and Will are vitiated nothing of their own can restore their Rectitude Because the Mind that should direct is more than Ignorant even Erroneous And the Will that should Command is more than Impotent even Malicious Yea and Sin as deadly as it is doth not smart but stupify you whereby your Vices even the most cruel and sanguinary ones be made like Soldiers Arms not at all uneasy or any more a Burden to them than their very Limbs And more than that they be even Ornaments in their Sight Of that Mind was he who said concerning profane Swearing That it was a pity that such a good Grace of Speech should be any Offence In short if ever you are Saved you must be new Created And none but Almighty Power can produce a New-Creature Yet know ye Sirs God your Redeemer is before-hand with you He giveth you more Power to recover your selves out of the Snare of the Devil than you make use of The Schools of Calvin and Arminius do agree in this that so much Power is given unto every Man as serves to justify God's Commanding Man and to condemn Man's Disobeying God who as you know promiseth you that the Diligent Hand shall make Rich. Yea and he hath given you this abundant Encouragement to seek supernatural Grace he hath said it The Meek he will teach his Way The Meek are Men humble enough to desire the Favour to receive his Commands and the Grace to keep them To desire it with congruous Grief and Shame of their Apostacy And with entire Submission to his Gospel-way of Salvation which is by Repentance Faith and new Obedience Let it be told if it be known who did ever thus seek and not find Eternal Life Or why should it not be hoped that the Mountains of your Spirits by this time are levelled And that you are more than almost perswaded to the Holy Ambition aforesaid If so upon the Writer be the Reproach if you find it lost Labour To off with the Vipers which have fastned upon your Hands The vain and vile Companions whose Tongues are more venomous than Vipers Teeth And whose chosen Company are under God's extream Curse A Companion of Fools shall be destroyed To commence Friendships with Men of shining Faces Holy Wisdom makes the Face to shine And Wise Mens Associates have the reversion of Wisdom unto Salvation He that walks with Wise Men shall be Wise To take a
to your Worships of every Opinion and Sentiment Episc Presb. Independ c. It being no extraordinary Matter with whom you run whose Cry you follow and whose Shibboleth you have taken to pronounce For without the true Scope and Substance of Religion all external Formalities are equal Fooleries And their most punctual Observance is no wiser than Domitian's business in catching of Flies Like the antient Pharisees you may glister with your Phylacteries and Tephilims And reverence your selves as highly as any Spanish Alumbrados or domestick Dreamers but Serpents be Serpents thô their Skins be ever so richly painted And could Men perswade themselves that they were really Gods their Conceit would make them but so much the worse Men. Wherefore know ye Sirs that You have two Classes one of gross and another of close Hypocrites The Gross who are less blind but more mad Who do use Art and Fiction to make their Mock Religion Knowing how far they are from the Holy State and the Walk which they counterfeit As he who upon the Stage acts the Part of a King knows himself to be none The close Hypocrites are you sick of the Jaundies to whom all things do seem golden and rich And who do therefore think as you speak when you call your selves Christians thô you neglect and hate God's Christ Neglect his Grace and hate his Government and are no more his pardoned Favourites or consenting Subjects than Turks and Tartars But are much blacker Sinners than either because you have Means and you if you would might know both your Saviour and your selves The things which both of you pretend is to be Children of God and Heirs of Heaven For the least of true Christians are no less The Cloaks you do put on are more and less fine It contents not some Papists to be common ones but they must enter some particular Order And it will not serve all of you to be common Protestants some of you must be of this or that Sect. And Opinion Party and way of Worship are your most cheap but least serviceable Cloak Wherefore some of you do go to the cost of a demure Countenance and a reformed Life and very many Works of Piety Justice and Charity Abundance of Snow is laid on to make your Dunghils look like Gardens Very many white Feathers are used to hide your black Skins More than a few Flowers are procured to strew your Corps And to what end is this To be Cesar's Friends when Cesar is God's Friend But mostly for fear of a Power superior to any Cesar To escape the flaming Sword of Conscience that is not to be averted without some Image of Holiness And sometimes to gratify the Concupiscence of Vogue and Praise Carnal ends of your false Dealings all of them And such as are demonstrative of a Mind to persist in a carnal sinful State For it 's sure he loves a Dunghil that adorns it a Blackamore that puts him in a fine Dress and a Corps that strews Flowers on it It is most certain when you go to charge in whitewashing and painting an old rotten House you do not mean to pull it down While you keep a stir to make you seem what you are not you have no intention to make your selves what you ought to be And what you must become or it had been better you had never been born For the Name of Religion which you get without any Merit you hold without any Profit But by what Witchcraft are you held from all manner of Thought Or notwithstanding this do you sometimes think hereof Sc. How you should take it if your Servants did set upon your Tables no more than the Hair of your Oxen the Feathers of your Fowls the Shells of your Fish Giving the best of all three to your sworn Enemies No better do you serve and no less do you mock your great Master Putting him off with no more than false shews of Honour Love and Worship Bestowing the Estimation of your Minds the Affection of your Hearts and the Obedience of your Lives upon your Idols This is your dealing with I AM THAT I AM. The Heathen World was not so blind but it saw this God being a Spirit is to be worship'd in Spirit The Ceremonious Jewish one was taught that the true Circumcision was that of the Heart And shall any of the Christian World doubt it Thus speaks the Gospel Covenant I will write my Law in their Heart Deceive not your selves with Conceits that all is well and you have the inward parts as well as the outward ones of Christianity You know that a dead Man hath inward Parts But what then He hath them dead and so hath no inward Man You have likewise many rare Parts in you but the Misery is they are dead In short it is a dead Body wherein the Soul lives not And a dead Soul it is wherein the Holy Ghost lives not That Holy worker of Grace with all the Graces which are his Holy Works Dead you are if you dwell not in God and God in you Until you love God and nothing else but for God's sake it is but in degree that you differ from the worst of Men. So as Toads do differ from Asps But it is in Nature and Kind that Men truly Good do excel you So as Wheat excels Chaff and Children excel Dogs And plainly it must be said The Lord hath not yet given you an Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear To hear his Word and do it The Son of Perdition was first a close Dissembler and afterwards a bold Traitor Not afraid to go straitway from the Holy Sacrament to the Execution of the most accursed Project There is a just Fear of many of your selves Will it please you therefore to observe particularly There is a specious Repentance in which you may perish Judas perished in his He had a deadly Sorrow for Sin but no godly one And so may you You do grieve for your Sin And so does every Felon when he comes to Tyburn You do turn and cast away your Transgressions And so do Seamen cast their beloved Goods to the Sea's bottom in a Storm Yet they venture their Lives to get them up again in a Calm Know it Sirs as there is a trembling of Heart which is a true saving Grace there is also a trembling of Heart which Divines as well as Physicians do call a dangerous Disease Pejus poenituit quam peccavit â—â—das saith St. Austin You repent not unto Life if you count not that to dishonour God is worse than Death And if you break not off your Sins as a Prisoner doth his Irons with a desire they may never come on any more There is a Sense in which you may believe and be damned Devils do believe and tremble And what are your Thoughts of Simon Magus You may believe the Gospel as a History so you do the Gazette And who questions but the History of it is believed