and some continue thereon untill they be full ripe by old age and then drop down into their graves Man hath as it were two Sepulchres One in the warm belly of his naturall Mother and the other in the cold Bowels of the common Mother of all both men and women the Earth By life he is put into a Gaole by Death into a Dungeon So soon as we are born we cry as if because we then want language to speak them our eyes did weep elegies and by those tears at once prognosticate expresse and lament our future troubles sorrowes sufferings Funerals The Mexicanes thus salute their Infants coming out of the Womb Infant thou art come into the World to suffer endure suffer and hold thy peace Our Mothers are living Tombs to us before our birth and so soon as ever we do but peep or step into the world every thing not only mindeth us of but also preacheth and readeth Sermons Lectures and Lessons to us of our departure out of it again For what are our swadling cloaths but winding sheets What are our cradles but Coffins What is the ringing of the Bell before our being Christened but an antedated passing peal What are those arms which carry us to Church to be baptized but a Biere What doth our being first undrest signifie but the putting off of our mortality What is our being layd down to sleep but an embleme of our Buriall And what is our first sleep but the Image and elder Brother of Death Life 't is a weak twig and a slender thread upon which fraile man hangeth over both his Grave and Hell 'T is a Tragae-Comedie whose scenes are health sicknesse strength weaknesse joy sorrow mirth and mourning The Prologue tears the Epilogue groans a Rainold Orat 185. Romani duas angorum voluptatum deas Angerioniam Volupiam ita colebant ut Angeroniae pontifices in sacello Volupiae et Angeroniae simulacrum in ara Volupiae collocarent quo significarent angores voluptatibus dolorem gaudiis humana vita semper temerari In this world there is no day without clouds The door of this naturall life is alwaies turning upon the hinges of mutability and variety of conditions Winter Summer Autumne Spring prosperity adversity sadnesse gladnesse black and white daies b Godwin Rom. Antiq. as the Romanes distinguished them make chequer-work in our lives Our complexions our outward estate and conditions are sometimes fair and ruddy with joy comforts mercies and sometimes they are black wrinkled pale and wan with sorrows crosses and miseries Man hath neither * Psalm 102. 11. Job 14. 2. Solstice nor rest here and therefore the Romanes built the Temple of Quies without the City to signifie that the lower Region of this Life is subject unto and disquieted with storms and showres * Lacrymae nobis decrunt antequam causae dolendi Sencca de brevitate vitae troubles and afflictions The Womb of Life is alwaies pregnant with both consolations and tribulations which struggle therein and the one as * Genes 25. 26. Jacob did Esau usually taketh the other by the heel c Plin. Secund Panegy ad Trajan Habet enim has vices conditie mortalium ut adversa ex secundis ex adversis secunda nascerentur Like ship-boys we stand sometimes upon the top of the mast of Prosperity and sometimes we are put down underâ— deck by Adversity Our life is a Sea wherein these tides are alwaies ebbing and flowing Dolor voluptas se invicem succedunt No man was ever yet so happy as to injoy all those mercies which the hand of God hath liberally scattered and divided amongst all men Nor was there ever yet any man so miserable but he had some comforts And though the line of calamity be often if not ordinarily to the godly longer then that of felicity in this Life yet it will be but very short even in his own judgment that is most miserable if it be measured or compared with the endlesse line of eternity And this consideration will make the waters of Marah sweet to a Child of God Our Life is an Irish a troubled dangerous tempestuous Ocean we take Shipping at our Birth with tears we â—ail over it with care fear sorrow and we land at the port of Death with sighs sadnesse unwillingnesse The thread of Life is so short and rotten that it is often yea alas too often spun out by the wheele and broken off by the hand of providence before it leads us out of the Labyrinths and maze of sin and misery many millions being carryed to their graves before they consider why or for what they came out of the Womb into the world For they do not consider that Man was not made and born to imbase his Soul with the allay of sin which alone renders it capable and maketh it fit to receive the impressions of temptations and all reall evills To fewell and feed his filthy Lusts or to gratifie and comply with his vile and vain desires To burn himself in the fire of uncleannesse anger or malice or to drown himself in the waters of drunkennesse and intemperance To choak himself in the dirty puddles and muddy Fennes of sensuality and Epicurisme To lye groveling upon or to spend his time in rooting in the earth by wilfully diseasing his Soul with the falling-sicknesse of Avarice or to entertain a dumb Devill into his heart not only to hinder but disable him from either praying to the Lord for grace and pardon of sin or praising him for his great and undeserved mercies And yet it 's too true that with the most of these devills some men and women are possessed and the most with some of them 'T is most certain that God did not give mans soal brave wings to pursue the poor quarrey of pleasure profit and honour or to fly unto hell but that by holy meditations and a religious conversation it should with them mount up to Heaven The Lord both gives us our beings and continueth us in them to trust love serve obey honour and delight in him He hath assured us we must dye and yet concealed from us how long we shall live that so we might every day and every where expect death and by a holy life and faith in Christ escape the torments of an everlasting death in hell We read of many that had alwaies some memento's of their Originall by them Agathocles who was but the Son of a Potter when he became a King had earthen pots brought up and set in his Presence chamber to immind him of his low extraction d Camerar lib. 1. p. 48. Willigis from a base condition for he was but the Son of a Carter being advanced to so high a dignity as to be made Arch-bishop of Ments caused these following words to be written in great Letters in his Lodging Chamber Willigis Willigis remember from whence thou camest And certainly if Men and Women even the most Royal
he be dead And we ought not to lament our death but the wicked lives we lead saith Bruxellus How much more then should Christians receive it both with courage and * Prov. 14. 32. gladnesse Since Pagans knew not what should become of them afterwards Animula vagula blandula hospes comesque corporis quae nunc abibis in loca pallidula nudula frigida nec ut soles dabis joca said f Hadrian in his Sollioquy on his Death-bed one of them But the Children of God know that as they have an unquestionable right and title to a glorious inheritance so they cannot possibly injoy it untill they be put into quiet possession thereof by that high Sheriffe Death It 's true death was the most ugly frightful dreadful thing in the world It was the King of Terrors yea of all terrible things the most terrible being the first-born of that most deformed monstrous loathsome hateful Mother sinne But when Christ had put his precious bloud into its pale ghastly ill-favoured face it then became and so continueth beautiful amiable desirable I desire saith blessâ—d St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ g Pontanus lib. 4. Libenter ecorporis vinculis evolaudum est Quid enim hic est quod quenquam ad diutius vivendum invitare possit an labores assidui an diurnae nocturnaeque solicitudines an quotidiani angores an fortunae ludibria an morborum varietas an mille casus mille incommoda vere melior est dies mortis quam natalis Ille siquidem quietis beatitudinis hic autem miseriarum dolorumque initium est Therefore many of the Martyrs courted importuned longed for and begged of their most bloudy persecutors a release from that debt which they owed desired yea thirsted and rejoyced to pay unto nature Why do you not give me that gold chaine and create me a Knight of that Noble Orde said Ludovicus Marsacus a French Martyr when the rope wherewith his Fellow were to be executed was put about his Neck 9 Fox B. of Martyr vol. 3. p. 891. And h one Priest's wife being condemned to be burnt at Exceter when that cruell Sentence was pronounced against her she lifted up her voice and thanked God saying I thank thee my Lord my God this day have I found that which I have so long sought Death is not now a Thorn but a Crown T is not a wound but a plaister to a good Christian who like the Sun shines brightest usually when setting This cruell Serpent hath now lost his sing so that the greatest hurt which it can do a Child of God is to free him from misery dangers troubles T is the bridge over which he passeth to Glory T is a soft bed of down a sweet bed of Roses as holy Bainam stiled it when he was riding in a fiery Chariot of Martyrdome to Heaven 'T is the Gate of Paradise the Messenger of Blisse the Usher and Harbinger of Glory Though it kill yet it cannot hurt nor conquer a Saint Hoc posteris dicite hominem Christo deditum posse mori non posse superari And therefore the Motto of a good Christian may well be the last words of i Aemil Probus in vita Epaminoned Epaminondas who being mortally wounded by the Beotians in a bloudy Battail and ready to expire it was told him that his Enemies were overthrown which pleasing happy news he no sooner heard but he concluded both his Speech and Life with these words Satis inquit vixi invictus enim morior I have lived long enough since I dye unvanquished For Christians are * Rom. 8. 37. more then Conquerors through him that loved them Death t is a spring-tide of * Euge Deo sit laus gloria quod jam mea instet liberatio horula gratissima said pious Graserus when he perceived his legs to swel with a Dropsie Melch. Adam in vit Graeseri joy and pleasure to the godly It 's the Souls Gaole-delivery 'T is Gods Servant sent in love and mercy to invite them to come to that Feast of Felicity and eternall Glory which the Lord hath prepared for them And therefore the people of God have gone merrily to meet death when their friends have followed them with sorrow and mourning to see them imbrace and suffer it k Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 176. When Doctor Taylor being condemned was carried out of London to be conveyed to Hadley where he was to be burned he was all the way as merry and cheerfull as one that accounted himself going to a most pleasant Banquet or Wedding We see then that although Death be the Mother of misery and so terrible to the wicked that even the very thoughts and fear of dying is a death to them witnesse Lewis the 11. King of France who when he was sick commanded that none should so much as name that terrible word Death unto him Yet to the Godly it 's neither hurtfull nor horrible But yet as I said it is both * Hebr. 9. 27. unavoydable for the chief Law that the Gods have given to humane nature is That none should have perpetuall Life saith Pliny And also most uncertain l Senec. lib. 3. Epist 29. Incertum est quo loco mors te expectet Tu vero eam in omni loco expecta saith Seneca It doth and must needs therefore infinitely concern all men and women as they desire to save their Sâ—uls and fear to shed their own bloud and to become their own murderers butchers and executioners seriously timely yea daily to * Praecogitati mali mollis ictus Senec. Epist 77. consider the mortality of their bodies and the immortality of their Souls that they must dye but once That if they dye wickedly they are undone yea cursed eternally Since if the fire of Hell be once kindled upon them neither Rivers of tears nor infinite Oceans of Bloud nor prayers nor cryes though never so importunate or lamentable will ever be able to coole or mitigate much lesse then to quench it And also to have some Monitors and remembrancers of their approaching inevitable dissolution alwaies before the eyes of their minds because forgetfulnesse of Death maketh life sinfull and death most dreadfull m Camerar lib. 6. p. 420. Philip King of Macedon appointed one of his pages to come into his Chamber door every morning and to speak these words Memento te esse mortalem Neither did he ever come out of his Chamber or admit any man to speak with him till the Page had proclaimed every day thrice Philip thou art a man The Emperour Maximilian the first two years before his death whithersoever he went carried a Coffin with him to immind him of his end n Dial of Princes The Thebanes had this custome No Thebane might build himself an house to dwell in before he had made him a Sepulchre to be buryed in The Graecian Emperors upon the day of their
of Jesus Christ 2. That the vail or pale of partition betwixt Jew and Gentile the Jewes being till then inclosed and severall but the Gentile open-field and Common were now pluckt up and broken down 3. That all the types ceremonies shadows and sacrifices of the Law were vanished abolished the Antitype being come 4. That the vaile of sin which hid the face of God from beholding his noblest sublunary Creatures with the eyes of pity and mercy were taken away so that now God would look with a pleased smiling countenance upon man in through his dear son Jesus Christ 5. And lastly that the obdurate stony heart of sinful man must be rent and broken by true repentance humiliation and contrition before he can have any saving interest in or spirituall benefits by the passion merits and satisfaction of Jesus Christ The Graves unlockt their hitherto fast bolted doors and many of the Prisoners of hope came out of their cold silent dark habitations at once to acknowledge the divinity of Christ to manifest their allegiance to him their Soveraign to assert and demonstrate the certainty of the bodies Resurrection and to confesse him to be their God Head Redeemer Thus all things but ingrateful man for whom Christ endured all this did sympathize and suffer with him the greatnesse sharpnesse and intolerablenesse of whose sorrow anguish and miseries were such And needs must they be unparallel'd unconceivable since the guilt load punishment torments of all the elect yea of the whole world together with the utmost keenest and most implacable rage spite and fury both of Devâ—ls and wicked men pressed pierced wounded both his body and soul at once that at last he bled out these words * Matth. 27. 46. My God My God why hast thou forsaken me But yet his misery was our mercy his Crucifixion our Comfort For now the wounds of this gracious glorious Jesus are become a Christians Citie of refuge So that he who flies unto and hides himself in the Clefts and holes of that Rock shall not be consumed though the Lord passe by in Majesty glory and fury A Bird being pursued by an Hauk flew into the bosome of a b Xenocrates Philosopher who gave his unexpected guest both welcome and safety When a poor soul is pursued by that red Dragon Satan who desires and strives to catch and destroy it then if it do but flie with the wings of Faith and Prayer to Jesus Christ whose very heart was opened with a spear upon the Crosse to receive it it will there find both * Evacuatur peccatum non ut non sit sed ut non obsit Aug. security and deliverance from him The very name of Jesus Christ hath a thousand treasures of Joy Peace comfort pleasures in it Nomen Jesu Christi est nomen sub quo nemini desperandum It 's an Asylum to the most hainous wicked guilty Malefactor It is honey in the mouth musick in the eare and a Jubilee in the heart c Pulio in ejus vita A poor woman coming to Claudius for Justice and weeping Claudius also wept and dryed her eyes for which being censured by some Courtiers as doing that which was unbecoming his Majesty and too much below an Emperour I had rather said he be a partaker of my Subjects griefs then give them occasion to have their eies full of tears When a truly humbled sinner commeth to Jesus Christ either for mercy to his soul or Justice against his spirituall enemies who do daily yea hourly assault injure tempt and indeavour to murder him with prayers and teares this Sun of righteousnesse will arise and shed the beames of light joy comfort peace into that darkened drooping spirit he will dry up or howsoever sweeten the bitter springs of doubting temptations dejection desertion here and hereafter he will for ever wipe away all tears from the eyes of Saints He is so full of yearning Bowels and tender compassion that what d Speed Chro. p. 88. Et Suetonius Vespasian said viz. No man should go away sad from the Speech of a Prince Christ doth for he sends all them away that come to him with mourning hearts * Matth. 5. 4. rejoycing e Speed Cro. p. 111. Albinus the Romane while he was in Britaine commanded his souldiers no service but he would bear therein a part even in carrying of burthens What work soever Jesus Christ the Captaine of our salvation commands his souldiers faithful Christians to doe he will not only assist but inable them to perform it which is yet more he wil not only carry budens with them but he will also * Matt 11. 28. ease them of them Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Axiocus almost sick to death at the very sight of Socrates recovered his former health If a sin-sick sin-wounded dying soule can but by a lively faith look upon Jesus Christ it will undoubtedly infallibly probatum est receive recover injoy cure health life What Alphonsus King King of Spain advised his brother in Law Henry the 3 King of England to be viz. A Lamb to his Subjects a Lyon to Rebels Jesus Christ is * 2 Thessalon 17 8 9. For he wil come in flames of fire to take vengeance on those that obey not his Gospell but he will own protect promote love honour and reward all those who are loyall and faithfull to him For his love to his betrothed pâ—rchased redeemed ones infinitely exceeds excells that of Jonathan to David of Regulus to Rome of Curtius and the Gracchi to their Countrey And the mutual love betwixt Christ and a true Christian doth transcend both in respect of dearnesse divinenesse and duration beyond all possibility of expression the affection of Hortensius and Cicero to one another of whom t is said f Raynold Orâ—â— p. 43. Alter semper ab altero adjutus erat communicando favendo monendo The Grecian Ladies counted the years of their life from the day of their marriage All men and women are by nature spiritually dead and therefore neither do nor can live either holily or happily till by faith they be espoused to Christ So that it may be truly said of every one who dies without a saving interest in him Fuit non vixit he was but he lived not The French Historian concludes the Raign of Charles the 9th King of France in which thirty thousand Protestants by those cruell Massacres in Paris and other places went through a Sea of Bloud to the heavenly Canaan with these words All posterity will both admire and abhorre it And surely not only all ages but all true Christians will both admire and adore the wisdome and goodnesse of God in contriving such a way and meanes as was equally full of miracle and mercy namely the sending of his dear Son freely out of his own bosome to seek and save lost undone cursed man They will also
Lawful Soveraign but also to think * Eccles 10. 10 or †wish any evill to him d Cap. 25. â— 3. And the Law of England hath made it high Treason for any one or all his Subjects but to imagine his Death Much more certainly then are we forbidden to do any evill to our King to tâ—ke up Arms against him and to seize apprehend imprison Arraign Condemn Murder him Our Law saith the King can do no wrong it must needs be then against all right reason justice equity Conscience that he should suffer any wrong by or from his Subjects who cannot attempt his destruction without being guilty of Treason nor act it unlesse they repent without Damnation God sayes †2 Pet. 2. 13. 17. we must submit to him how then can we justifie our selves in rising up against him Let us therefore not only esteem Gods command our Duty but let us make it our delight care and resolution inviolably to observe it Let us remember and consider that Loyalty is pleasing to God an honour to Religion a Bulwark against forraign invasions an Antidote against the stinging killing power of the Law but that Rebellion * 1 Sam. 15. 23. is as the sinne of Witch-craft which is death without mercy by the Lawes both of †Levit. 20. 17. God and Man 'T is a crimson sluce pull'd up to let in Confusion together with all other imaginable yea unexpressible miseries upon a people 'T is a bloudy Flux that often destroyes but alwaies extreamly weakens that Body politick that unwise unhappy Kingdome which is diseased and afflicted with it 'T is that furious Wild-fire which quickly turns the strongest the best built and the most flourishing Nation into Ashes T is a Cart-rope of Iniquity that draws down Gods heaviest Judgments upon a People T is a dagger that stabs Religion to the very heart and le ts out the Life-bloud thereof T is a sword that cuts the Sinews and ligaments of Love Unity Honesty Justice Mercy and Piety asunder 'T is the Devils grand Engine wherewith he batters down the Throne and Temple of Christ in a State the means he uses to erect his own Kingdome upon their Ruins 'T is the broad way to Poverty Infamy Death and Damnation The Triumphs of Traitors are nothing but glorious Chariots wherein Satan drives them securely furiously suddainly to destruction Their most eminent Conquests are only barbarous successful Murders publick Robberies and short-lived prosperons Impieties For Rebells like blind Samson do alwaies pull down Ruine either upon their own or upon their Posterities heads or both Their Victories do but multiply at once their Iniquities and Calamities God abhors them good men detest them Vengeance pursues them their scarlet Crimes cry aloud for Plagues to be inflicted on them and their deserved Execution is often as strange sodain and unexpected as their wicked horrid cursed practises are loathsome in the eye of God and odious to all gratious honest men And that you may see what signal marks of Infamy Misery Indignation and Detestation the King of Kings God Almighty hath visibly set upon Traitors I shal present you with a few instances of his severe yet most righteous dealings with them and the uufortunate Children of some of them Was not Absalom justly and strangely punished That head which contrived the sin cut off the sinner for his Hair became his Halter he hanged by it upon an unexpected Gallow-tree and so perished †2 Kings 12. 20. The Servants of Joash conspired against him and slew him * 2 Kings 14. 5. But Amaziah so soon as he was confirmed in the Kingdome slew those wicked Servants that murdered his Father Julius Caesars Butchers came all of them to untimely Deaths and some of them were cut off by their own hand with those very Weapons wherewith they killed him But since I need not travaile out of England to fetch examples of this kind I shall offer a few of our own to your view and serious perusall King Henry the 6th was deprived of his Kingdome and together with his young Son Edward imprisoned and put to death by King Edward the 4th King Edward the 4th died not without suspicion of poyson After his death his two Sons were imprisoned and murdered in the Tower by their bloudy Uncle the cruell Duke of Glocester who being a Tyrannical Usurper was encountred and justly slain in Bosworth Fields by Henry the 7th King Henry the 〈◊〉 an Usurper had only one Son and one Daughter his Son William was drowned in his passage from Normandy his Daughter Maud was disinherited by Stephen of her Birthright and Eâ—stace the only Son of King Stephen died mad in his Fathers life-time But that English Judas Machiavil Ravillack Cromwell though he deserve to lead the Van of all Heathenish Atheisticall Peâ—jur'd Jesuitical Traitors shall bring up the Rear of these Odious Execrable Exampler He murdered his Gracious Soveraign Exiled his pious Son enslaved his Fellow-Subjects shed abundance of innocent Bloud Tyrannized over Three Kingdoms Nursed Heresies protected and promoted Traytors justified Rebellion designed laboured and endeavoured to extirpate Monarchy together with all the Royall Progeny of our late blessed King of ever glorious Memory This is that Cromwel of whom as of most Tyrants that may be truly affirmed which Florus saith of Beasts sc Maxime mortiferi esse solent morsus morientium bestiarum for usually the Older the Crueller the nearer their end and destruction the bloudier and more barbarous they are His name stinks worse then his rotten carcasse his memory is loathsome to all honest hearts and his Children who had built their nests amongst the Stars are tumbled down by the angry Arme of a just God and do now lie level with the surface of the earth not so much as a branch sprout or stump of that hollow rotten tree remaining either in power or honour So true is that of Curtius Nulla quaesita scelere potentia est diuturna Thus we see that Rebellion kindles such a Fire as will not be quenched till either the Traytors themselves or their miserable posterity be consumed The joy of Hypocrites is but for a moment and the triumphing of the wicked is short saith Zophar Since I began to write God hath effected two more famous Monuments of his hatred against Rebellion in England I shall therefore though I intended to add no more briefly mention them The one is his mercifull blasting the hopes of those persons commonly called the fly-blown stinking Rump The other is his seasonable breaking the horns of those Phanaticks in the North. This is the Lords doing and it is marvailous in our eyes And thus we see again that though God may for a time forbear to punish Rebellion yet he will not forget it Though the just Laws of men may sleep or rather seem to slumber a while yet they will both surely and quickly awaken And though they may be gagged or bound by the cruell
where you will meet with aboundant satisfaction in this particular In short therefore for it 's not my design to be Polemicall herein to me it seems to be a very safe and good rule which g Arist Ethic. lib. 10. c. 3. That rule also of St. Augustine is very sate and good viz. Quod universa tenet ecclesia nec conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate apostolica traditum rectissime creditur Aug. Baptis contr Donatist lib. 2. c. 7. Aristotle layes down sc That whatsoever hath been affirmed by almost all should not hastily be denyed by any because h Vincent â—yrinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus tenetur Ecclestis id demum Catholicum 'T is a Merldian shining truth that all new waies are false waies and therefore they must be carefully declined by all those that really desire to walk in that good old way of life that leads to blisse and glory And 't is as true that they must needs wander stumble and fall that resolve to walk in crooked uneven blind and slippery foot-paths of their own making The Prayer O LORD it is no less then a signall a singular and a very great Mercy to thy Church and Children that thou hast provided and given them a remedy for Infants against the danger the poyson and the pollution of Originall Sinne wherein they are born and thereby come into the world both defiled and spiritually deformed In that thou hast set open the door of Baptisme for them at which they enter and are admitted to come within the pale of thy visible Church Lord still continue this great Priviledge nnto them And as then and there they are listed under and Covenant with the great the glorious the victorious and invincible Captain of our Salvation to fight under him against the implacable Enemies of their gracious both Saviour and Soveraign and their own immortall Souls the World the Devill and the flesh O let them be conscientiously carefull to pay their Vows to discharge their solemn ingagements and to expresse their fidelity piety and loyalty by continuing Christs faithfull Souldiers and Servants unto death Amen Baptismus janua est Vitae Christianitatis Ostium Regenerationis Sacramentum XVIII Of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper T Is the Souls Banqnet 'T is one of those * Certainly then those Ministers are very not only unkind but cruel and injurious to their flocks and people that either cut off this breast by absolutely â—â—susing or dry it up by deferring and neglecting to administer this necessity food this holy and comfortable Sacrament unto them Breasts wherewith our Mother the Church nurseth and nourisheth the Children of Christ 'T is both the food and fewell of Grace Jesus Christ is in this necessary Holy Sacrament a Pelican in deed and reality for he feeds his faithfull ones with his own Bloud 'T is a lively representation of Christ crucified to the eye of faith 'T is spirituall glue which joynes and cements Christians one to another in Love and Unity 'T is a Christians commemoration-commemoration-day of his best and greatest Benefactor 'T is the last Will and Testament of Jesus Christ whereby he bequeathed the precious ineftimiable everlasting Treasures comforts and blessing of his Death and passion to all worthy Receivers I acknowledg the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of Christ administred according to Christs institution to be one of the greatest treasures and comforts that he left us upon the earth a Fox B of Marty 5 vol. 3. p. 556. col 1. Those Ministers then do rob defraud wrong their people that either take away or keep from them this precious treasure faith Mr. Philpot. 'T is a deed of Guift A Conveyance from Jesus Christ of himself and all his merits both sealed and delivered with livery and seisin to all true Beleevers whereby they have a just right an unquestionable title unto and a saving interest in the Lord Jesus and all the sweet blessed and glorious benefits of his death resurrection and intercession b Camerar lib. 1. p. 64. Darius King of Persia had in his Bedchamber a vine all of Gold which was inriched with precious stones and did bear grapes made of pearl of an inestimable value And yet this Vine was but a barren figstree and its orient Gemms but dry and withered leaves compared with that * Joâ—n 15. 1. true vine Jesus Christ and the most precious fruit thereof For if all the Gold Jewells rarities and wealth of the whole world were put into one scale of the ballance and but one drop of that invaluable bloud which flowed from this vine when it was cut when Christ was crucified upon the cross in the other Scale all those would be but feathers chaffe or mosse light vain and worthlesse things in respect of the excellency and necessity of this Since 't is only the bloud of Christ that cleanses us from fin and makes the soul beautifull in the eyes of God and redeemeth it from eternall damnation For it is not in the power either of all the glorious Angels and blessed Saints in Heaven or of all the Christians upon earth to satisfie the Justice of God for one Soul much lesse then can stones or clay reconcile an angry God and free a sinner from everlasting misery To neglect this holy Sacrament then wherein this precious bloud of Christ is freely offered to us to purge and save us is both dangerous and sinfull to contemne it without repentance damnable Si qui Sacramentorum usum ac si opus iis non 〈◊〉 erent aspernarentur non modo arrogantiae summae sed etiam impietatis in Deum merito damnari debent quum non suae tantum infiâ—mitatis subsidia sed et Deum ipsorum authorem contemnant ipsius gratiam respuant et spiritum quantum in ipsis est extinguant saith one c â—â—akwel Apolog p. 417. Aesops Son at a Feast which he made dissolved Pearls in Vinegar and gave to each guest one to drink And yet his bounty was but parsimony his pearls below pebbles compared with the love and excellency of this true Magarite this pearl of infinite price and value the Lord Jesus Christ which every rightly qualified and prepared communicant both drinks and eateth also at this Supper of the Lamb. And Cleopatras draught when she swallowed an Exchequer and drunk an Indies was but puddle muddy water to those pure refreshing life-preserving streams which flow into the Soul from that Rock of living-water Jesus Christ through the golden conduit-pipe of this blessed Sacrament â—on Anthory de Guevara Dial of Princ. Fol. 417. d When the feast of the God Janus was celebrated in Rome none were suffered to go into his Temple but those that had new apparell That day also the Emperor put on his imperiall Robes and all the Captives who could with their hand touch them were delivered prisoners for debt were discharged
signum esset quam principii lenitas Suctonius like the heavy bloudy and condemning sentence of that cruell Emperour Domitian it do begin with a preface of Clemency with pleasure and outward prosperity yet it like his mercilesse Judgement will be sure to have a wofull horrible and most miserable Conclusion The Prayer O LORD thou hast acquainted us with the vanity frailty and uncertainty of this naturall Life in those lively reall teaching resemblances and comparisons of it in thy Word of Truth to a Post a Race a Shuttle a Vapour Span Bubble Flower Grasse And thou hast also informed us that as short brittle mutable as it is we must either whilest our Souls so journ in these houses of Clay our bodies whose foundations are in the dust both make our peace with God and get our Pardons sealed or else we shall lye under thy dreadful intolerable yet unavoidable vengeance for ever O Grant therefore most gracious God that we may not ravel out those Golden Skeans of precious opportunities offers of Grace and means of Salvation which thy mercy bounty patience have both given and continued unto us to make our callings and elections sure Suffer us not holy God to play loyter sinne or sleep away our precious Time seasons of Grace our Talents Gifts Hopes Comforts Promises lest while we live those daies come upon us wherein like Pashur thou in wrath and justice make us a burden to our selves Lest thou make our lives so bitter and grievous that we shall digge for death as Riches and seek it as for hid treasures even couâ—t crave court it and yet not be able to find it or prevaile to be taken out of our Misery by it And lest after all these terrors sufferings sorrows agonies and languishings our sinful Souls be for ever separated divorced banished from the God of love light life and cast into utter darknesse and eternal death amongst cursed Reprobates and damned Devills when we go hence and shall be seen no more Amen Vita vere religiosa optimum est medicamentum contra Timorem Terrorem Mortis Stimulum Bonus semper Vivit Abit enim non obit Asbconditnr non abscinditur Dormit non perit Mutatur non moritur XXIV Of Death T Is the Souls convoy to Heaven or Hell 'T is the Porter that lets a true sanctified mortified Christian into Paradise through the narrow Gate of Life The Pilot that steers him over the rough raging troublesome Sea of this World and lands him safe at the Haven of Happinesse Heaven 'T is the first statute in Magna Charta A Law made Primo mundi which can never be repealed * Hebr. 9. 27. For it 's appointed It 's inacted ordained in the High Court of Parliament in Heaven for all men once to dye 'T is to a Child of God the Soules Coronation day gaudy-day its glad day as a Mr. Fox B. of Martyr vol. 3 p. 431. Wolsey its wedding day as b Idem vol. 3. p. 502. Bishop Ridly the night before he was to be burned being at Supper he was very cheerful and did bid Ms. Irish his keepers Wise and the rest of the company at Boord with him to his Wedding For saith he to morrow I must be married blessed Bishop Ridley called it and its year of Jubilee But it 's a sluce pulled up to drown the wicked It 's an impenitent sinners ship-wrack 'T is the death buriall and period of his prosperity delights pleasures The funerall of all his comforts and the nativity of his eternall torments 'T is the Bâ—kers going out of Prison to execution a Josephs inlargement and promotion a Queene Elizabeths Exaltation to a Throne 'T is a good Mans Spring a Reprobates Autumne a Nuâ—c dimittis to a pious Simeon a Take him Gaoler bind him hand and foot and cast him into utter darkness to an impious Soul A quietus est a writ of ease to the godly a warrant signed and delivered for the destruction of the Wicked 'T is an Ahimaaz bringing good tidings to the righteous but the last and worst of all Jobs messengers to him that is unholy relating his sad his irrecoverable irreparable losse of all soul body goods riches pleasures friends children house lands honors mirth hopes offices power earth and Heaven unto him It lets that Dove the Soul out of the Cage the Ark of the body It knocks off those bolts mortality and frailty and sets it at liberty It 's the taking up of Jeremiah the Soul out of the dark filthy noysome irksome Dungeon of the flesh and the safe delivery of that Daniel from those hungry cruell terrible Lyons sin Satan Hell Christ hath disarmed death and now to the Godly Mors nomen est tantum c Owen Epiâ— Introitus non interitus So that what Camerarius appointed by his last will should be written on his monument may also most truly be ingraved upon the Tomb of every one that dies in the Lord Vita mihi mors est mors mihi nova vita est Life to me is death and death to me is a new a true a blessed a glorious Life Death t is both unavoidable and certainly uncertain d Apollonius Thyaneus who had travailed over the greatest part of Europe Asia and Affrica being asked at his return n Dial of Princes what wonderful things he had seen in those Countries through which he had travailed answered That he wondred most at two things 1. That in all the parts of the World where he had been he had seen quiet men troubled by seditious persons the humble subject to the proud the just obedient to the Tyrant the cruell commanding the merciful the ignoâ—ant teaching the wise and above all That he had seen great Thieves hang the innocent on the Gallows 2ly That the other thing at which he marvailed was that in aâ—l the Countries and places where he had been he knew not neither could he find any man who was immortal but that at length both high and low had an end And as Death is inevitable so it is also in it self terrible For groans sighs tears convulsions cries palenesse blacks and Funeralls are the Harbingers Heralds and the train thereof And yet to the Godly t is but like a Kings visit to his beloved Subjects in his progresse acceptable honorable welcome and comfortable Nam pompa mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa e Augustus Caesar died in a complement Vespasian in a Jest Galba with a Sentence Septimius Severus in dispatch c. Bacon Essâ—ys 2. p. 8. The very Heathens entertained it without fear embraced it without sorrow The * Hâ—rodotus lib. 5. Thracians or rather Thrausians wept at the birth of their Children and †In the primitive times Câ—ristians were wont at Funerals to sing Psalms of Thanksgiving Kinet Cathol Orthod Quest rejoyced at the death of their Friends Solon could say to rich Croesus Ante obitum nemo beatus No man is happy till
rejects both the offers and the offerers of peace 81. He is an intollerable Traitor in and to a Common-wealth that hates and persecutes the Children of God For as it is Treason by the Laws of men not only to murder a Prince but also to stab or malitiously to deface his picture So it is spirituall Rebellion too not only to fight against God himself but also wilfully to wound and to destroy those that bear his Image his holy Servants 82. He that would have his shamefull sins for ever hidden must not be ashamed but resolved to lay them open and fully to discover them For concealing reveales but confessing covers them And he that desires never to be accused arraigned or condemned for his guilt must freely acknowledge himself to be guilty and most worthy to be eternally condemned An open bosome an unbared breast is a sure shield and Armour of proof against the deadly Arrowes of the Lords most dreadful wrath 83. He that will lose his Soul to preserve his Life shall save neither But he that is willing to perish to save his Soul shall save his Soul from perishing 84. He that is undone for Christ is truly rich and happy But he that is rich and prosperous without Christ is really undone poor and miserable 85. He that doth not in the time of this Life make Gods glory and the enjoyment of Heaven his chiefest ends shall neither enjoy the God of Glory nor the joyes of Heaven at his end 86. He that would never want must be poor in Spirit And he that would alwaies rejoice must mourn daily for he that did never grieve shall ever lament 87. He that is rotten at core that hath an unsound aâ— unsincere heart will like an Apple be speck'd without For a Leprous Soul will have some spot or other upon the Face of the Life And an Hypocritical Spirit will have foul hands which at one time or other will work Wickednesse â—lain its seeming purity and discover its artificial its borrowed paint and its real deformity 88. He that desires never to leave God nor to be left and finally forsaken of God must not only resolve but seriously endeavour both to depart from evil and to do good For sincerity is the root of couragious constancy but Hypocrisie is the true Mother of timerous Apostasie And it 's most certain that he who will not leave his Rimmon or Mammon his sweet sinne and his secret Lust to please Christ will never lose or lay down his Relations Lands Liberty or Life to enjoy and glorifie Christ 89. He that opens the door of his heart to let in sin or Satan shuts it and turns the key against his Saviour and Soveraign whose power made it whose Love prevailed with him to let his own heart be pierced on the Crosse to unlock it If then a Sinner will not suffer the hand of mercy to unbolt it the arme of wrath will most certainly break it to pieces If the fire of infinite unexpressible Love cannot melt it the flames of endlesse intolerable Anger will burn it If the precious bloud of Christ do not soften this Adamant it will sink it to the bottome of Hell For those whom goodnesse doth not win vengeance will destroy 90. The Life of a Saint is a publique Mercy his Death a common Calamity The end of his dayes is the Autumn of all his misery and the Spring of his endlesse Glory and felicity So that what Suetonius saith of Titus Vespasiaâ— may more yea most truly be said of him when he is cut down with the Sythe of death viz. That he was taken away to the greater losse of Mankinde then of himself Optima Eloquentia est bona vita He is most eloquent whose Life is most Holy and Innocent FINIS Soli Dea Gloria The Table 1 Of God pag 1. 2 Of Jesus Christ and a Christians Duty unto Christ 7. 3 Of the Holy Ghost 19. 4 Of Sin and sinners 23. 5 Of the World and the brightest Jewel in it's Crown Soveraignty 24. 6 Of Loyalty and Rebellion 42. 7 Of Riches 46. 8 Of covetousnesse and covetous persons 51. 9 Of Pleasure 61. 10 Of Health 65. 11 Of saving faith and sincere Love 67. 12 Of Repentance 74. 13 Of Prayer 80. 14 Of sincerity and hypocrisie together with some Characters of both sincere and Hypocriticall Christians 84. 15 Of Affliction 92. 16 Of Patience 102. 17 Of Baptisme 105. 18 Of the Sacrament of the Lords supper 109. 19 Of preaching 113. 20 Of Godly learned and of ungodly unlearned Ministers 116. 21 Of self-calling self-making preachers or rather Anabaptistical praters and seducers 124. 22 Of a good and a bad Conscience 132. 23 Of Life 137. 24 Of Death 144. FINIS A little dark PICTURE of the Great Glorious Unparallel'd Loyalty Piety and Policy of the Renowned Restorer of Monarchy Liberty Tranquillity and Prosperity to ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND The Lord Generall MONK THe World hath bred brave Hero's whose bright Name Darkens the Sun and fils the Trump of Fame Whose fragrant memory is still i'â—h Bloom And n'er shall wither till the day of Doom Whose acts at once astonish fire indear All noble souls that them do know or hear Those are the root and sourse whence that Renown Did grow and flow which justly doth them Crown With honour love and praise whereby they all Survive with glory their own Funeral Such vertuous great Worthies there have been But they dy'd childlesse sure for we have seen Nothing but dwarfs in this base Iron age Except in Treason Avarice and Rage Wherein such horrid Monsters have been known As n'er before in all the world were shown Until our true Saint GEORGE did rise and kill That hideous viprous brood who plotted still In their inchanted Castle to enslave Torment and keep us till we found our grave A dismall darknesse hath this sinful Land Ore spread e're since by a curâ—â— cruel hands That glorious * King Charles the first Light was quencht whose happy rayes While we enjoy'd him turn'd our nights to dayes That orifice at which we all have bled Almost to death our martyr'd Soveraigns head MONK now hath stopped by his pious Art And healed with his faithful Loyal Heart Twelve years we 've had nor day peace Law nor Spring He gives us all by bringing home our King The City gates he broke and threw aside T'unhinge Rebellion that great CHARLES might ride With Love and Safety there from whence did spring His hurt his help losse gain joy suffering Our bane is now our balm Such is his skill We 're now preserv'd by that which did us kill The bloudy Sword by his just loyal vote Hath made rank poyson our best antidote Some say there is a Phoenix but we see A Fable is become a truth in thee Thou art the healer honour Atlas love Of three expiring Kingdomes As above A Crown of blisse attends thee so below Prayers praises thanks which really we owe Thy
with wonder love and thankfulnes◠meditate of and acknowledg the unparallel'd unspeakable * Solus pro nobis suscipit sine malis meritis paenam ut nos per illum sine bonis meritis consequeremur gratiam Aug. affection and compassion of Jesus Christ in dying not only to redeeme Captives but which is much more to purchase pardon for those who were implacable enemies to him and bloudy Rebells in armes against him And lastly they will abhorre and loath all sin and express their detestation thereof by never committing delighting or living in those impieties transgressions and abominations which Jesus Christ hates which cost him so much anguish griefe trouble and which brought him to so horrible so painfull and so ignominious a death They being those Jewes that crucified him that Crown of Thorns which wounded his head who is the head of his Church and members those hands and whips that scourged him those nails that fastned him to the Crosse and that speare which pierced his very heart and kill'd the Lord of life Nor yet is this all the duty we are to performe all the tribute we are to pay or all the gratitude or praise which wee must express and return to Jesus Christ for we are most justly and strongly obliged not only to avoid carefully to oppose resolutely to strangle impartially and to hate implacably all sin though never so dear sweet or profitable to us but we must also carefully conscionably sincerely constantly strive and resolve to tread in the steps of Christ to make him our rule and to measure our conversation by the straight line of his most holy †life it being the summe of all religion to imitate him whom we worship * Matth. 11. 29 Et frustra appellamur Christiani si imitatores non simus Christi qui ideo se viam dixit esse ut conversatio magistri esset forma discipuli et illam humilitatem eligeret servus quam sectatus est Dominus If he be not our Exemplar he will not be our Saviour If we will not learne of him here we shall not live with him hereafter Besides the great the unavoydable danger which we incurre and the insupportable miseries which we are sure to bring upon our selves by refusing to walk in those paths of piety and Righteousnesse which Christ hath chalked out for us we have many and great incouragements to follow him in those blessed waies which he hath troden before us For we can never ingage with such a Captaine nor choose such a Husband nor follow such a Guide nor serve such a Master nor imitate such a pattern as Jesus Christ Because he is a Captain invincible a Husband most rich wise faithfull great honourable a guide infallible a most munificent loving bountiful master and a pattern unmatchable Verbi verba sunt nobis documenta Verbi facta sunt nobis exempla The words of this word who is * John 1. 1. God the Word are our instructions and the actions of this Word are our examples This glorious this gracious Jesus is the good the great Shepherd of our soules he speaks to his flock his people as * Judges 7. 17. Gideon did to his little Army looke on me and do likewise and his sheepe will not only hearken to his voyce but obey him also This King of Saints saith to his Subjects as i Edward the 3d. g Speed Cronic p. 704. King of England did to his souldiers when he entred into a Foord in the River Some notwithstanding a thousand horse and ten thousand foot were sent thither by the French to impeach his passage over it he that loves me let him follow me they will cheerfully couragiously march after him for they are such Cordelyons that the greatest dangers cannot affright them nor Enemies though Anakims Gyants both in power might malice and cruelty discourage or dispirit them nor sufferings and torments though never so sharp bitter or painful disswade or deter them Nay death it self though presenting it selfe in its grimmest hue and most ghastly shape cannot dismay or appale them for their Captain is their Bridegroome and rather then they will not injoy him they will meete and celebrate their Nuptials to him in a flame They will embrace him with hands and armes burning for him as well as with hearts fired with Love unto him Yea they will welcome both miseries and death when they are the messengers to invite them unto and the means to hasten effect and solemnize their longed for marriage to Jesus Christ h Fox book of Martyrs vol. 3 p. 140. As Mr. Sanders did who being brought to the stake to be burned kissed it saying Welcome the Crosse of Christ welcome everlasting life i idem vol. 2. p. 554. and as Anthony Person did too who being brought to the place of Execution with a cheerfull countenance he embraced the post to which he was to be bound in his armes and kissed it saying Now welcome mine own sweet wife for this day shalt thou and I be married together in the love and peace of God And rather then they will either desert or dishonour their Captain or his Cause they will freely constantly undauntedly sacrifice their lives in it and prefer death for Christ before life yea and all the world too without him as another faithful Souldier of his k Fox book of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 200. Stephen Knight did who being come to the place where he was to be burned he kneeled down and said Thou seest O Lord that where I might live in worldly wealth to worship a false God and honour thine enemies I choose rather the torment of the body and losse of this life and have counted all things but vile dust and dung that I might win thee which death is dearer to me then thousands of gold and silver And which is yet more they not only have and will meekly willingly invincibly carry the crosse of Christ but like the blessed * Mercatura est quadam amittere ut majora lucreris Tertul. Apostles they have heretofore * Acts. 5. 41. do at present and wil◠hereafter rejoyce also that they were and are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ But that which is more then all that which I have yet said or these have done or suffered for their husband and Generall is this some of them have exalted yea sung in the midst of such tortures torments and miseries as have caused palenesse to sit upon the faces trembling to seize upon the joynts and sighs terrors griefe amazement and horrour to fill and wound the hearts of their Spectators persecutors Executioners even whilst they were joyfully suffering of them l Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 390. Master Denley sung a Pslame in the midst of the fire when it was kindled and he was burning in it and having a Faggot thrown at him by one of the tormentors at the command of cruel Doctor Storie
righteous because fidelibus totus mundus divitiarum est saith a Christian the Saints have all the world for their possession And if you would increase your riches the surest way is * Prov. 11 24. 1 Tim. 6. 19. Charitably to scatter them e Reinold Orat p. 397. Divitiae quo aliis jurandis profunduntur magis eo magis nobis ipsis amplificantur servando minuuntur minuendo crescunt acquiruntur largiendo congeruntur dissipando cetinentur impertiends Si parcas perdis amittis si recondas si distribuas custodis non erunt diu tuae si sint solius tuae nunquam erunt magis tuae quam si cunctis communes facias Qui ditissimus esse volet profusissimus sit oportet qui parcissimus esse studet egentissimus sit necesse est sayes the Orator elegantly Riches the more bountifully we distribute them the more abundantly we encrease them They are lessened by keeping and multiplied by lessening of them they are gotten by giving them away heaped together by dispersing and retained by bestowing of them If we spare them we consume them if we hide them we lose them but if we releive others with them we save them They will not stay long with us if we keep them only to our selves they will never be more truly ours then when we freely communicate them to others If then we would be wealthy we must be liberall since the way to be beggerly is to be niggardly and to be poor to be parsimonious The safest place to keep our Riches in is Christs treasury the poor When Alexander the Great had given away his Treasure and they asked him where it was he pointed to the poor and said in Scriniis in my Chests And the only way to take our wealth with us to Heaven or to find it there is to send it before on poor mens backs thither Money is a good Maid but a bad Mistress If we over love Riches they will destroy us If we trust in them they will deceive us They will serve a wordly wicked man when he puts off from the shoar of life by sicknesse and launches into the Ocean of eternity by death as Pharaohs Chariot wheeles did him and the Aegyptians in the midst of the red Sea they will fall off and fail him in his greatest extremity And as the f Mr. Weever Funer Acts Monuments Courtiers Counsellers Friends and Servants did that renowned King of England Edward the 3d. upon his death-bed they will forsake him and neither stay nor so much as appear to administer any either temporall or spirituall Comfort unto him g Rainold Oratus p. 290. What Hannibal said of Antiochus his Souldiers Auro fulgebant satis ad Pompam armis ad pugnam nihil valebant 't is most true of them They may yea can indeed make us shine and glitter with bravery but they cannot fit arm inable or spirit us to fight against our spirituall Enemies with Courage nor the wrath of God with victory And therefore Beatus ille qui non post illa abiit quae possessa onerant amata inquinant amissa cruciant A man may be very poor with abundance of Wealth yea when he hath the highest Tide of plenty and a man may be really h Mens bona possidet Regnum Nerva Imperator rich in the midst of wants yea in the lowest Ebbe of Poverty for pauper esse non potest qui apud Deum dives est 't is not goods but goodnesse not earthly wealth but Heavenly Wisdome not a great Estate in the World but a saving interest in Christ not gold * Prov. 8. 21. but grace that makes us truly rich Isse ad deum copiosus * Judges 4. 18 19-21 ille opulentus advenit cui adstabunt continentia misericordia potentia fides charitas God is not alwaies pleased with those he prospers in the World for he gives wicked men riches as †Jael gave Sisera milk and lodging * Judges 3. 17-21 As Ehud gave Eglon a to their destructions * 1 Sam. 18 21. And †as Saul gave Michal to David to be a snare unto them Riches are but the blessings of Gods left hand the comforts of the lower springs and therefore Goats profane men and women that shall be eternally damned may drink freely fill themselves at those wells and have abundance of them The Indians who never heard of Christ were owners of the Gold and Silver Mines when Christians had but quarries of stone But God deals with his Children as * Genes 24. 6. Abraham did to Isaac he gives them all that he hath grace mercy peace here and glory hereafter And as * 2 Cron. 21. 3. Jehoshaphat did with his Sons he gives the eldest those that are regenerate that are adopted and have the Spirit whereby they can truly comfortably cry Abba Father a Kingdome but unto all the rest to all those that are unconverted unholy he gives only gifts of silver and Gold and of precious things for the wicked have nothing but outward Mercies for their Portion The Prayer O LORD thou alone dost both blesse the substance and curse the blessings of Men. Thy dispensations holy God are various perplexing wonderfull For thou makest some persons that are poor oppressed distressed imprisoned banished and very indigent rich in Faith and dost assure them that they are heirs of an heavenly great glorious ever-enduring Inheritance whilst others that are great full opulent free from troubles and prosperous in the World are both exceeding miserable and very Beggers And yet thou art most just equall righteous in all thy doings wayes and dealings with men Thy mercy O Lord is plenty with Poverty Thy blessing is pure reall refined Riches having no mixture of sorrow care or fear in it Thou O God fillest the empty thou satisfiest the hungry and thirsty with good things when the wickedly wealthy are empty both of Grace comfort peace and contentment though they be brimful yea though they runne over with Abundance Let not Christians therefore O Lord fix their eyes or set their hearts upon earth or earthly things only as if there was no Heaven for them to look upon or no Celestiall riches for them to desire and seek But let them account all sublunary enjoyments but fair and fading Flowers which thine Anger can and will both blast and wither in a moment Let them not prefer a muck-hill before a Mine by esteeming gain more then Godlinesse Let them not strangle their souls with a silver Snare nor suffer themselves to be catched in a Net of Gold by either an inordinate Love of or an over-eager and sinful guest and pursuit after Riches while they live lest when they dye their Iniquity and Calamities teach them their folly upbraid them with their phrensy and sting them for ever with unexpressible misery Grant this O thou who art rich in Mercy for his sake in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdome reall
wicked and rebellious Children of Adam whose Life on Earth is both a Warfare and a wayfare a Fight and a voyage that thou hast both provided them a Magazine and set them up great yea glorious Land-marks The Holy Scriptures to furnish them with Weapons to subdue all their Enenemies And also to afford them Light and to give them Direction whereby they may safely saile by those Shelves and Quick-sands that threaten to ruine and swallow up their Souls in their passage to eternity And further as one of the greatest and most mischievous of them all hast in love to their Souls acquainted them with the danger mischief and misery of Avarice that so they may both fear avoid decline and escape that Soul-wracking Soul-ruining Rock Blessed God add one Link more I beseech thee to the long the precious Chain of thy free Love and rich immerited Mercy Give Christians hearts I pray thee to hate Covetousnesse Let not their Affections O Lord be riveted to earthly things Let them not set up Gold or goods in their minds above their good God Let them not sinfully love or seek that here which will either leave or betray them when they come to lye under black and sad Providences under the burden anguish trouble and terrours of a wakened Conscience and the affrighting confounding Arrest of Death Give them Grace O Lord to covet the best Gifts and then the best of Gifts Jesus Christ that reall Indie wherein all the most precious I never-failing Mines of Saving Grace heavenly Blessings spiritual Joyes and Comforts everlasting Treasures purest sweetest pleasures highest Honoures and eternal Felicity are to be found and gotten will be given unto them Let them O Lord make Christ their All and then they will be sure to want nothing Let all their fresh springs be in thee and then dry and broken Cisterns Creature-comforts will neither deceive nor destroy them And let all O Lord that enjoy the Gospel of Jesus Christ both remember and consider with timely Care and Fear that covetous Persons are not written in the Book of Life and enrolled in Heaven but that they are Registred Listed and put by the Lord into that black Catalogue and Muster-roll of hainous Sinners and odious Idolaters whose souls shall never enter into Gods rest Kingdome and Glory Amen Avaritia Averni est porta pietatis Gangraena Honestatis Tinea Mors Animae IX Of Pleasure IT s an Itch that overspreads all the senses till it grow an incurable disease A hand which tickles us like Trouts to our ruine A Tarantula that stings men so as to make them die laughing It deprives us of our Palats so that we cannot tast any sweetnesse in the duties of holinesse and service of God It 's pleasing but dangerous Opium to the soul and hath a Sirent tongue wherewith it sings such Melodious Lullabies unto it that at length the heart is laid down by it so fast asleep in the Cradle of security that nothing but either the thunder of threatning or the lightning of flaming wrath and scorching anger or the fire of Hell flashing in the very face of Conscience can awaken it * All sublunary delights pleasures and contentments Gustata magis quam potata delectant Cicer. Tusc lib. 2. The top of the cup is honey but the bottome Gall. It at our first acquaintance with us smiles upon us and bids us welcome but afterwards it scourges us with Scorpions By it men and women a Hackwel Apolog p. 458. like the Jesters of Heliogabalus are smothered with violets and buried under Roses a bitter sweet death Voluptuous persons like the b Sr. Anthony Shirlies relation Kings of Persia doe Hauke at Butterflies with Sparrows their lusts make them pursue vanities They are like the c Howel in the Life of Lewis 3. French of whom one saith in regard of their Inconsideratenesse that they are Animalta sine praeterito futuro Creatures that have no respect either to time past or time to come When they have tired glutted and turned the edge of their lusts by a full and free injoyment of their darling lushious delights and their foolish filthy pleasures they say of such a day or time as the d Burton melancholy Barbarous Prince did of that when he saw Julius Caesar and his gallant Romane Army that he had now seen the Gods and that it was the happiest day that ever he had in his life And as the Glutton did at a great feast sure there is no other Heaven but this They are like that Cardinal who said he would not give his part in Paris for his part in Paradise The Alpha of pleasures is mirth but the Omega mourning It 's a false fire an Ignis fatuus that lights leads and betraies those who follow it to danger dishonour destruction It 's a soft sweet pleasant Gale that fills the sails of mens corrupt affections and wasts them delightfully down the calm streams of carnall Joy and sensuall pleasures into the Mare mortuum of everlasting lamentation It 's like the Apples of Sodome very beautifull without when within there 's nothing but dust and rottennesse Like some pictures exceeding fair and amiable if look't upon one way but most ugly and deformed if beheld another way It hath a weight of lead on the one hand as well as a wing on the other a sting as well as a speckled skin And when best or sweetest it 's but honey and Aloes wine and water mixed together nay many times it stings the heart so painfully that even while smiles sit upon the * Prov. 14. 13. face sighs and sorrowes fill and pearch upon the spirit That very day saith Marcus Aurelius when I triumphed in Rome openly for my Victories my heart wept secretly Pleasure it strangles the soul with silken halters smothers it in a bed of down throws it from a Tower of Pearl stabs it with a Golden dagger kils it with a delicious banquet and drowns it in a Sea of Wine The infatuated Lovers of it are like e Speed Cro. p. 85. Domitian whose delight was to catch and kill flies Like f Hackwel Apolog p. 463. Nero who used to fish with golden hooks and nets drawn with purple coloured Lines for Gudgeons T is like Diogenes his laqueus melleus delightful but deadly A voluptuous person is an Aetna alwaies burning within with foolish and filthy desires and often flaming out in Acts of impurity beastialitie impiety Hee 's an Israelite dying with Quailes in his mouth Pleasure it 's like a Favourite both a summe and a cypher in a very little time all and nothing she serves and deludes her Lovers as t is said the Devill hath done some witches glving them shining leaves instead of reall Gold and proves an empty cloud instead of a Juno to those that embrace her She decoys men into snares and dangers and instead of a pleasant walk she proves at last a deep pit and a narrow
ditch to her lovers For although they doe preferre Dalilahs lap before Abrahams bosome yet they will one day most certainly find that all those fleshly vain and sinfull pleasures whereon they have doted and wherein they have lived will be Serpents and stones instead of fish and bread and but Thornes Thistles Briers instead of Grapes Figgs and Flowers Pleasure t is like an g Heylyn Geog ex Ovidio p. 726. Aethiopian Lake at which whosoever drinks it makes him they say either mad or drowsie T is like small beere or water in a fever which doth not quench but increase the thirst and though at first it may be pleasant yet afterwards it is alwaies dangerous and often deadly T is that Green fruit which breeds the worm of an evill Conscience in their souls that feed too greedily too long and too much upon it The Prayer O LORD thou knowest that the Devill that equally cunning cruell and implacable enemy of Mankind doth both long and labor to take possess and command that Royall Fort the heart In Order whereunto he uses both Fraud and Force Arms and art that so if he cannot conquer it by Battery he may yet gain it by Treachery or flattery and if he cannot by affrighting that then he may by alluring have it yielded up unto him Now to the effecting of this bloudy design upon too many he knows that an inordinate excessive Love of sensual pleasure is very useful and contributory prevalent and successful voluptuous persons being never vigilant and very seldome valiant resolved and constant opposers of his Assaults suggestions and sugred insinuations Self-denyal Mortification Precisenesse and Holinesse being too rough too sharp too hard too uneven and too troublesome a way for their delicate their tender Feet to tread upon and to walk in Be pleased therefore most blessed God who art the only overflowing ever-flowing Ocean of all true Joy really-sweet pleasures and refined delights to grant that all the streams of Christians affections may runne down right pure and holy Channels into thee That they may relish that incomparable pleasantnesse which is to be found in thee thy Word Worship waies and love that so all carnall pleasures may be sowr bitter and unsavory unto them Let not O Lord Satan poyson them with candled delights or sugred sensuality Let him not convey their death in Honey nor drown them in Rose-water But antidote them I beseech thee and preserve them against his mortal potions and his murdering Stratagems by convincing of them that Satan though he may seem a Friend will be sound a Fiend and that although pleasure may by his jugling and through the bemisted eyes and deluded sight appear a seemingly innocent Dove unto them yet if it be immoderately prized and pursued by them that it will certainly be found a fiery deadly Serpent which will sting them with immortal incurable intolerable sorrow terrors torments Amen Voluptas obcaecat titillat pascit placet perdit X. Of Health 'T Is a Jewell not valued because common 'T is the solace of life without which all other outward mercies are both unsavory and dead this being the soul that both animates them and the ingredient that gives a delightful relish to them 'T is a Venice Glasse easily quickly irreparably and very often unexpectedly crack't and broken a Pliny Nat. Hist 'T is a Bird or flower but of one day's life and continuance a guest or friend that doth but call or visit not stay with us It naturally kills fear breeds security feeds to wantonnesse excites to pleasure spurs on to vice inables to sin and without Grace it 's both the souls sicknesse and death The want of it makes men impatient discontented unserviceable the fruition profane If God deny this mercy to a man although there be a confluence of all other creature-comforts yet he is but like one clothed with Gold Silk or Tissue adorned with Jewels crowned with Honours feasted with dainties cheered with the rarest musick comforted with Cordials surrounded with a faithfull wife and with dutiful hopeful Children attended with reall friends skilfull Physitians obedient servants and laid upon a bed of Ivory in a chamber richly furnished with all his bones out of Joynt and broken 'T is usual for the sun of health to arise cleer to shine bright in the morning and to set in a cloud of sicknesse at night How easily quickly will a fiery fever devour and consume it An Aery colick rack yea ruine it A watery dropsie float and drown it or an aguish earthquake shake and swallow it up The elements are all up in arms and at civill warrs within the body naturall as heretofore the Saxons in the time of the Heptarchy was in the body politick of this Nation each of them contending for victory and aspiring to a Monarchy over that Microcosme Man non enim datur temperamentum ad pondus and when any of them prevails and triumpheth over the other Competitors Health is then both wounded vanquished captivated and commmitted either a close Prisoner to a dark room and a weary languishing restlesse bed by sicknesse or else it 's condemned and executed by death A thousand enemies combine assault beleaguer it and either by the furious storme of a suddain violent unexpected distemper they force and surprize it or els by a lingring lasting siege of pain and weaknesse as by consumptions c. they famish and conquer it Health 't is a Bibulus triumphing in a Chariot 'i th morning and lying in the afternoon in a Coffin A Caâ—sar now very well on the top of the hill of honour and power and anon expiring with wounds in the Senate A Quintus Scapula while supping and feasting himself turned into and served up for a Banquet to the worms An Aufejus while dining dying A Valla who as he was drinking Honey-wine had the gall of death put into his cup by the hand of providence and so departed out of the vale of the dying into the vale of the dead T is both a Conqueror and a Captive in a day hour moment 'T is a Cyrus strong secure prosperous in the morning and before night slain by Tomiris Death The Prayer O Most Mercifull and most Bountiful Lord God thou hast not not only given unto man a being but a well being also upon Earth Nor hast thou only built him a stately Palace this World to dwell in and furnished every Room every part thereof with necessaries for his entertainment to make his abode therein desirable but thou hast also deck't and adorn'd it with infinitely various and admirably curious delightfull things to make his life pleasant And as the top-stone the choycest of all outward Favours hast given him health without which he could not comfortably survey use or enjoy them O let good God thy Munificence and Mercy be so sanctified unto us that the sense of thy goodnesse and bounty may humble us that professe our selves to be Christians for our undervaluing and abusing
it be not animated by striving and resolving to please Gâ—od in all things in all his actions to honour God and so though he shoot many Bowes short yet he both reaches and hits the mark the white because his heart aimes chiefly ultimately in all his services waies and works at Gods glory who requires not of us in this world perfection but integrity He 's alwaies afraid of sinning and that prevents his both offending and suffering b Probus Mater timidi non solet flere * Vis in timore esse securus securitatem time He fears falling and by that means stands fast upon an hill of Ice the world Qui semper timet securus Hâ— will not endure a Rimmon in his heart because he knows that God like Alexander will have no Co-partner nor corrival Aut Caesar aut nullus That inscription which the Common-wealth of Venice hath politically written in their Magazine c Burt. Melanch Felix civitas quae tempore pacis de bello cogitat he hath religiously ingraved in his memory and mind and therefore 't is both his resolution and care in health to provide for sicknesse in a calm to prepare for a storme in Life for death He strives and aspires to be greater stronger higher in grace and Gods favour every day then other and gives this which was Pompeys for his Motto Ego cupio praecellere et esse supremus He can neither rest nor be quiet till like Saul he be grown taller then worldly morall hypocriticall men by the shoulders neck and head in honesty vertue piety And never as t is said of the Crocodile gives over * Psalm 92. 13. 14. Job 17. 9. growing in goodnesse and godlinesse till his death What Alexander the great said to one of his Captains named Alexander Recordare nominis Alexandri see thou do nothing that will smut stain or darken the fair the illustrious name of Alexander He being like the Ermin to whom nothing is so troublesome as to be soul for it will rather dye then be soyled indeavours carefully to observe and conscionably to perform and therefore he labours to keep himself unspotted from the world to get and to keep a pure heart and clear hands to be undefiled in Gods Law and to wash his heart from all wickednesse He doth as really endeavour never to commit sin as he doth unfaignedly desire never to be damned for sin He doth think speak and act at all times in all duties and places as under the eye and in the presence of God because he knows d Seneca Epist ad Luc 83. p. 711. Sic certe vivendum est tanquam in conspectu vivamus sic cogitandum tanquam aliquis in pectus intimum inspicere possit potest Quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum Nihil deo clausum interest animis nostris cogitatiocibus nostris intervenit And also because he knows that although man can make no through lights to look clearly into the heart yet it lies unbowelled dissected unto his all-seeing eye to whom all things even the most dark hidden and undiscernable are both naked opened and transparent He makes God his center and so enjoyes both rest happinesse and stability in the midst of all either national or personal overturnings and shakings e Let their money perish with them who esteem all the gold in the world worth one days society with Jesus Christ and his holy spirit said that noble and pious Marquesse of Vico Gealacius Caraciolus when a Jesuit offered him huge sums of money to forsake his Religon and to turn Papist again videte jus vitam He like an Eagle disdains to pursue flies earthly enjoyments and sublunary comforts because like flies they are only to be seen and found in the sun-shine and summer of prosperity but flye away and hide themselves in the dark cloudy dayes and winter of adversity spirituall desertion and death Thou art not said Cleopatra to Mark Anthony to fish for Gudgeons and Trouts but thou art to angle for Castles and Towers and Forts and Cities When the heart of a true Nathaniel like Dinah begins to gad abroad to hanker and thirst inordinately after creature-comforts he considers and tells his Soul Soul thou wert not created by an omnipotent power nor sent into the world by an omniscient holy just glorious and dreadful God to fish for Gudgeons or Trouts for pleasure wealth honour or greatnesse to love and mind such poor contemptible empty treacherous worthlesse things as these burby faith and prayer holinesse hope and perseverance in a constant course of sanctification to angle to seek wait and labour for the impregnable Castle of a good Conscience for the strong rich and beautifull Forts of vertue and piety for the Citie of Heaven and for the Towers of glory felicity and immortality He desires and delights in the society of the brethren the people and servants of God because he sees the superscription of Caesar upon them the Image of Christ lively and truly drawn and stamped by the Spirit of God upon their souls And also because he doth experimentally find that f Socrates Bonorum conversatio est virtutis exercitatio he gets good by good company He doth with an ardent zeal and pious care set up the worship of God in his family because he knows that the prisons stink but yet not so much as those sweet houses where the fear and true honour of God is wanting As that blessed Martyr g Fox B. of Martyrs vol. 3. p. 156. Bishop Hooper said And he desires to serve God who is the purest of Spirits with spirituall puritie If the candle of the Lord shine upon his Tabernacle so that his riches or honours increase he notwithstanding both longs and seeks for higher and better things and sayes as Luther did when many of the great ones of Saxony sent very rich gifts unto him Lord thou shalt not put me off so for he will not take or accept outward things for his portion or inheritance nor exchange Heaven for earth He is the Epistle the letter of Christ wherein men may run and read saving grace written by the finger of the Holy Ghost therefore he is exceedingly yea constantly carefull to keep both his heart and life fair and free from the spots of vice and the stains of sin That King of Rivers in Germany the rhine crosseth the muddy lake of Constance with a clean cours and keeps his streams both pure and clear So a sincere Christian keeps himself free from the corruptions sins and pollutions of the world and like Lot in Sodom he is grieved for but not defiled with the crimes vices and filthy conversation of the wicked for though he be in the world yet he is not of the world He mourns for the abominations of the land wherein * Psalm 119. 158. idem ver 136. and of the ungodly amongst whom he lives He rejoyceth in the
inauguration in Constantinople had severall sorts of stone presented to them by a Mason out of which they was to choose one to make them a Tomb to be buryed in o Joseph of Arimathea had his Tomb in a Garden and so had their great men also Mat. 27 60. 2 Kings 21. 18. The Jewes had their Sepulchers in their Gardens that so in the the midst of their delights they might remember their mortality And others have had a Deaths head served up to their Tables that they might in that perspicuous mortifying glasse behold their own frailty in the midst of their mirth pleasures jollity And certainly serious frequent and pious meditation of death will beget in us a vigilant continual expectation of death expectation of it will p Vivere in in tota vita discendum est Quod magis mirum est in tota vita dissendam est mori Seneca de brevitate vita ad Paulinam perswade and spurre us on to preparation for it so that we shall be able not only to look it in the face with comfort but triumphingly to say O Death where is thy sting c. It being nothing to such as have the Lamps of their Souls filled with saving Grace and their Garments washed white in the bloud of the Lamb but the Death and period of all their sins sorrows fears dangers troubles enemies yea and of death it self Mors vita duello conflixere mirando Rex mortuus regnat vivuâ— In hoc duello mors et vita in arenam descenderunt sed tandem vicit vita et gloriose exiit e sepulcro de morte triumphans Irrideamus ergo mortem cum Apostolo dicamâ—s Vbi mors victoria For q Quid ipsa mors quam timemus g Lips Epist p. 75. Requies gaudium et vera vita aut siquid in ea mali malis tantum What is that death which we so much fear and at the very name whereof we tremble 'T is rest joy and life or if there be any evill in it 't is only so to those that are evill And indeed 't is very sad yea wofull to all ungracious persons who have this punishment In dying they forget themselves because in their life time they forgat God But besides this grievous punishment and heavy judgment most justly inflicted by the Lord upon them because when he came to them in their health prosperity life and offered them mercy they refused with equall madnesse and cruelty to their own souls to hear and imbrace the tenders of love and salvation when their Life is lost and ended all hope comfort help all means of Grace and seasons of mercy all possibility of pardon together with the society of the Glorious Angels and glorified Saints the beatificall vision and blessed fruition of the thrice blessed Trinity and those ineffable pleasures which are prepared for all that love God will then be lost for ever Deus amissus est mors animae anima amissa est mors corporis The Death of the body is but the body of death therefore disce non metuendum existimare quae metuenda finit But the death of the Soul the losse of God and his favour is the Soul of Death Fear therefore by sin to provoke that God who can and for sin unrepented of and continued in will inflict eternal death both upon the body and soul and make all impenitent transgressors ever living objects of his never-dying wrath I shall conclude all with presenting and commending the Lord Gabriel Simeons Glasse to your view and perusall Beauty is deceitful money flyeth away Rule-bearing is odious victory doubtfull peace fraudulent old age miserable the fame of wisdome everlasting Life short death to the Godly * Mark the perfect man behold the upright for the end of that man is peace happy Psalm 37. 37 The Prayer O LORD Man hath but one Door to let him into the World by Life but there are a thousand Posterns Wickets and Passages to let him out of it by Death We are born both Mortall and Miserable O give us blessed God so to live that at the end of our daies we may be immortally happy we came into the World Sinners O grant that we may go out of it Saints We were unclean at our birth O let us be pure and holy at our dissolution The hand of every moment winds off some of the little clue of Life The string and plummet of our daies creep and descend every minute nearer and nearer to the ground our Graves The Sunne of this naturall Life never stands still but moves or rather flies from the East and morning of our birth and infancy to the South and noon of Youth and Manhood and then hastens to the West the evening of old Age. Grant therefore holy God that when this Sunne shall set in the night of Death our Soules may rise and shine with the Sunne of Righteousnesse in Glory That as we grow older we may grow holyer every day then other That we may passe the time of sojourning in these Tents of flesh in thy way and Fear that so the Conscience Evidence and Comfort of a wel-spent Life may both Antidote and Arme us against the Sting and Power of Death before it comes and free us from the Horreus and Misery of it when it doth come O let it be no Stranger to our thoughts and then it will be no terrour to our Hearts O let us get death into our mindes and that will put life into all our Actions O grant good God that our Lives may be pious and then our Death will be peaceable joyfull welcome unto us and precious in the sight of the Lord. And give us I beseech thee most mercifull Father some clusters of Grapes of the good Land of Canaan here even the Graces of thy holy Spirit and some fore-tasts of thy speciall Love in Christ while we continue in the Wildernesse of this World that when we die our Souls may enter into and for ever possesse the spirituall Canaan of Heaven Grant this O Lord for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Amen Diu vixit qui pie moritur Fructus est laboris finis operis placere melioribus FINIS Soli Deo Gloria THE CHARACTERS OF A True Beleever IN PARADOXES AND Seeming Contradictions AN ESSAY By THO. GODDARD Gent. Vetera legendo et metitando nova invenimus Quintil. Placere cupio prodesse precor laboro LONDON Printed by E. C. For Thomas Williams at the Bible in Litle-Brittain and William Thompson at Harborough in Leicestershire 1661. THE CHARACTERS OF A True Beleever In PARADOXES AND Seeming Contradictions 1. HE beleeveth that which he cannot comprehend because it is above reason That there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead yet but one God that God is the Father of Christ that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from them both and yet that they are all three Coeternall and but one in substance 2. He beleeveth that Christ who was
true Beleever is afraid of that which with zeal courage sincerity and constancy he is resolved to do to serve God He delighteth in it yet is grieved that he can perform duty no better He seeketh diligently for that which he knows he shall not find and beggeth that importunately which he is assured will be both denyed and granted in this world unto him He is what he seems to be yet is not what he seems being like Solomons Tents black without but adorned with precious things within He is both black and white weak and strong contemptible and Honourable sick and well at Liberty and in Prison a Sinner and a Saint fearfull and yet bold as a Lyon 19. He leaves the dirty broad way of the World and by crossing that he goeth on directly in the right way toward Heaven Though he be far from home and from his friends in a strange Countrey yea in the darkest night yet he can go to his Father almost in a moment without wandring Though all the men in the World should lye armed in Ambush to surprize him yet he can passe either safely by them or victoriously through them For although he may be taken or killed yet he cannot be kept or overcome 20. A true Beleever loveth Gods Words and Ordinances as dearly as his Life Because by them he was wounded to his healing humbled to his raising inlightened to the beholding of his Blindnesse emptinesse nakednesse nothingnesse filthinesse and because without them though he had been the sole Monarch of the whole world he had been everlastingly undone and a very begger He trembles at the good the holy Word of God yet both rejoyceth in it and findeth transcendent sweetnesse spiritual yea soul-ravishing joy and gladnesse by it 21. He honoureth highly loveth dearly and obeyeth willingly his naturall Parents yet prizeth and affects his spirituall Father a Godly Minister above and beyond all men though he be not at all akin to him Because he knoweth that it 's better never to be then to be everlastingly miserable and never to be Borne then not to be Borne again 22. He will not he dare not spare his own Flock and take anothers only Lamb. He therefore dedicates and consecrates the Sabbath-day which is none of his own wholly cheerfully joyfully thankfully heartily and religiously to the Lord. And by so doing he getteth six for one to himself together with a promise of Gods guidance favour protection and blessing upon him his and his Labours in his calling in them And so by serving God he serves himself too and by giving God his due he both keep 's his own and getteth more then he had 23. A true Beleever increaseth his estate by giving it away gathereth by scattering By clothing others he adorns himself with Robes by relieving others he supplies his owne wants and by sowing Charity he reapâ—s Mercy 24. He saveth his Life by confessing his guiltinesse whereas others condemn themselves by concealing their crimes He 's the only happy man for nothing can make him miserable Because he is comforted when afflicted he is at Liberty in Bondage at home when Banished sed when famished full though empty satisfied when hungry advanced though degraded safe when most cruelly persecuted and when killed crowned 25. He is naturally heavy and droffy yet ascends and the nearer his body comes to its Center the earth and its long home the Grave by age and sicknesse the faster and the higher his Soul mounts towards Heaven And at length his Soul is divorced from his Body both with joy and griefe exultation and mourning 26. A true Beleever is never satisfied yet alwaies contented He feareth continually yet seldome wants Hope He doubts yet stedfastly beleeveth he is not worldly minded and yet he is so covetous that he never thinks he hath enough He is most temperate and sober yet is alwaies thirsty He is a modest Suiter yet is resolved to take no denyal He knoweth and confesseth himself to be unfit to ask and unworthy to receive either a gracious answer or any mercy and yet he will not cease begging till his prayers be heard and his petitions granted 27. He never sits stands nor lies but is alwaies walking His motion is neither retrograde nor circular but progressive yet the longer faster and further he travails the stronger and fresher he is All things â—re become new in him yet the old man is not destroyed He is very pitifull and tender hearted yet so mercilesse and implacable an enemy to sin that he is never quiet or pleased till it be mortified crucified and dead in him He is both in the world and out of it at the same time He is willing yea desirous to keep his estate yet freely parteth with it if God will have it and accounts the losse of all for Christ the greatest the truest gain 28. He injoies that which he doubts he wants loves unfainedly that which he feare he doth not care for prizeth above all things that which others trample under their feet He is assured of his Salvation and that he is an Heir of Glory yet questions his evidences and by * Nulla sunt sirmiora quam quae ex dubiis facta sunt certa doubting makes them firm and good 29. A true Beleever matters not his life nay he desires to dye yet strives more then any man to save himself He is terribly afraid of Hell and Damnation yet would not knowingly and with delight and perseverance commit or live in any one sin to obtain Heaven 30. He is diligent in his calling yet doth not mind earthly things He alone hath a true comfortable and religious right to the Creature yet accounts himself an Usurper till his Title be confirmed by his interest in Christ Though he hold his Land in free Soccage yet he acknowledgeth 't is but in Capite Though his Tenure be in Fee-simple yet he confesseth himself to be but a Tenant at Will Though his goods be his own yet he knows and beleeves himself bound freely and liberally if he be able to distâ—â—bute and communicate them unto others He beâ—eeveth all things without Christ are nothing but vaâ—ity and â—â—â—â—tion of Spirit and that Christ alone is all things without any thing else 31. That which others fear flie and abhorre he courts desires and welcomes That which is their Funerall is his Nuptials For death doth not kill but translate him it doth not execute but remove him He dies daily and so doth not die at all but deparâ— His sleep is a short death and his dissolution is but a long sleep Death which is a destructive deluge to the wicked is only an Ark to him preserving and carrying him safe to Mount Ararat Heaven and there it both lands and leaves him 32 A true Beleever anticipates the last day He accuseth arraigneth and condemneth himself and so is both acquitted and discharged by God at his death He is no Incendiaâ—y yet desires nothing so
matchlesse merits we shall duely pay With zeal and joy until our dying day We have felt the difference 'twixt Law and Lust 'Twixt cruel perjur'd Tyrants and a Just Mild gracious Prince whose love and piety Were his chief crimes Our Faith and Loyalty To CHARLES his Son our hatred shall expresse Of their ingratitude and wickednesse Who murder'd him only for this one thing That they themselves might get above the King This is our cost and sorrow we soon saw For neither Oaths Religion nor Law Could bound or stop their furious ambition Pride Avarice Rebellion or Sedition They rack't us rob'd us hatch't plots to destroy Our Naboth's their good vineyards to enjoy Thus bolted beaten burden'd we had spent Our dayes in slav'ry misery banishment Had we not been free'd and restor'd by thee From Tyrants Traytors to our Liberty When therefore Famous MONK thy body shall Receive a writ of ease to rest from all Those pining cares black dangers palsey fears Which canker and consume our flying years Mirror of men thine Epitaph shall be Sighs tears and groans not varnisht poetrie Not stones but hearts shall make thy monument Which will indure till time it self be spent And thus those seeds which thou this year didst sow Will root live sprout and till the last day grow Two harvests thou shalt reap honour in this And in the next World endlesse joy peace blisse On thy rare Tomb this shall be writ Here lies th' Elixir of all wit The summe the map the Quintessence Of Prudence Loyalty Sapience Englands Saviour and Renown Who gave his Soveraign his Crown And would not snatch it as his own Although he might have climb'd the Throne A world of wonders was this man A Caesar Souldier Christian A Son of Mars and yet a †He is an exception to that too general rule Nulla â—ides pietas que viris qui castra sequuutur Saint Who lov'd colours but loath'd paint Rich and Righteous good and great The pillar of our Church and State A scourge to Rebels friends to those That were not the Kings traitrous Foes Most valiant yet durst not draw His sword against King Oaths or Law Known unto none yet known by all To free three Kiâ—gdomes from their Thrall Though others scrambled for Empire He only did t' obey aspire Phanatiques he id dissipate Because both truth and peace they hate Lambert and 's Locusts he o'rethrew Yet did not fight that bloudy crew By stratagems he made them yield With words not swords he won the field The maul of errors Heresies Which do bemist and dim the eyes Of those that follow false new lights Until they lose their Fame Faith Sights He was like subtile Fabius By wise delaies he saved us Religious pure and lovely Face Which Bloud and Treason did disgrace Spot and deform he did make fair And beautiful For the right heir Of our late King the best of Men He restored to 's Diadem He woo'd agreed and Marryed Great Britain to her Sacred Head Whom fraud and Force had severed From his true Spouse and Royal Bed This is a little All the rest Of him by silence will be best Expressed who did far excel Whatever Wit or words can tell But hark Me thinks I hear some call and say Down with these common stones throw them away MONK cannot die He therefore needs no verse T'embalm his Name or to adorn his Hearse Nor yet to give a Tomb a tongue to tell Whose dust in that dark silent house doth dwell His true Allegiance and Piety Will make him live to all eternity 'T is true I 've done But will not cease to pray May England have a MONK until doomâ—-day Amen T. â— Upon the Happy Safe and miraculous return of our Sacred Soveraign CHARLES II. to his Scepter Citie and Subjects on the XXIX day of May 1660 A short Loyal and Cordial Congratulatory POEM WElcome great King of Hearts We 've had all night E're since we wanted thy refulgent light Who art our only Sun plagues curses warrs Oppression Rapine Ruine Faction Jarrs Bonds bloud confusion woe's calamities Gaols gibbets axes plunder Heresies Have been the sad but just effects of those Black crimes and bloudy paths too many chose Lov'd and resolv'd to tread We now do see At once the want and worth of Mornarchiâ— Our Law peace safety properties and all Our comforts were eclipsed by the fall Of glorious CHARLES yea kill'd nad buried With him for them and us who lost his head But thy miraculous Return doth give A resurrection to them for they live Again by thy reviving influence Whose presence quickens them The sight and sense Of this choice mercy unto us shall be Both cords and chains of faithfulnesse to thee And love praise thanks to our good gracious God Who hath destroy'd our Serpents burn't his Rod. Thy safe arrival makes a joyful spring The Heavens weep for joy to see our King Since thou didst rise and guild our Hemisphere With thy bright beams no ominous cloud appear Those beasts of prey that hunted to have fed O' th sheep and Shepherd too are all now fled Our day is unto them a dismal night Their dark deeds make them fear hate shun the light Peace plenty gladnesse triumphs do expresse And prove our Loyalty our happinesse Men earth air water fire do all agree To guard obey feast honour welcome thee Our pangs are gone The twenty ninth of May Wee 'l therefore call Englands happy Birth-day Thy people had hard labour swoonings cries Cares faintings fears watred with weeping eyes Did burden rack afflict them till they saw Their Child and Father the true spring of Law Justice and power to their longing arms Brought and deliver'd without bloud or harms But now they have forgot their Throws and sing Being safely brought to bed of a brave King Whose vertues are too big for art prose verse To limn to hold or fully to rehearse Whose life 's a miracle whose patience Is truly wonderful whose innocence Suffrings sobriety desire of peace His enemies and comforts did increase A King yet without Subjects rich yet poor Born to a Throne yet cast upon the floor By Rebels hands who threw their Soveraign down To raise themselves and to usurp his Crown Forc't into 'th Field of war ' mongst enemies Abroad at home he was who to surprize And kill him did pray plot fight pay combine Though by all Laws both humane and divine They were forbidden those hellish horrid crimes Which Christians durst ne'r act in former times The weapons which they us'd for their defence Being only pray'rs tears flight obedience Depriv'd he was of Friends rest means by those That profest Loyalty but were deadly Foes His guard was dangers his associates Want fear distresse dishonour his estate Was seized and divided for this end T' increase rebellious numbers to defend Their theft and sacriledge with Gun and Sword Against their Oaths our Laws his right Gods word And which is more they voted to repeal Null and prohibit what God doth reveal To be his will Law and command to all We might nor pay nor pray but for his Fall 'T was death and treason made by them to do What Reason Conscience Scripture binds us to Thus we may see how wickednesse proceeds From evil thoughts to words from words to deeds Black as the place where all such shall remain Without repentance in horrors and pain Fire-brands and Rebels being condemn'd to dwell By a just God in endlesse flames in hell But all these blows did hew polish and square Thee for Gods Temple Great afflictions are The road to Heaven physick wholesome food Which God prescribes and gives his for their good Prosperity us surfeits crosses cure The potion's bitter the effect both sweet and sure Love power mercy have refined thee And brought thee out o' th furnace for to be A praise to God a blessing to this Land Which was consumed by his angry hand His dispensations are just gracious rare No age or story can with those compare Which he hath showred on thy Royal Head Since miracles did cease and go to bed On that same day where thou didst first see Light He did restore thee to thy Throne and Right Armies excluded Armies brought thee in A Rump was guilty of that odious Sin Thy sad exile a Loyal Parliament Did call thee home from thy long banishment The City fed those flames that did consume Our peace the City also did perfume Their streets with loyall Fires and put out The stinking â—aggots of the new-light Rout. Petitions mov'd that murder might be done On our â—ust King Addresses begg'd his Sonne Might be restored to this benighted Ile Which hath been a dark Egypt all this while Our crimes depriv'd us of our Soveraign The sins of Rebels and their frantick Train Together with the cries of pious men Prevail'd with God to give 's a King agen That King by whom all other Kings do raign Did pilot thee over the dangerous Main Those envious gusts which two daies hindered Thy passage to 's in traiterous Lungs were bred The Ships the Sea the wind that fill'd the sailes With which in which ore which with prosprous gales Thou didst then sail they were the Prayers Tears And hearts of pious Subjects whose great â—ears Sorrows and dangers are now vanished And by thy happy presence banished But terrors anguish hotly do pursue And sting that bloudyâ— painted faithlesse crew Whose consciences and matchlesse Villanies Tell them their guilt and future miseries What 's got by sin doth seldome long endure Justice is sometimes slow but always sure We 've seen the spring the summer and the fall The birth growth rise ruine and death of all Their wicked plots Let 's therefore strive to be Such Subjects and such Christians that we May joyn Allegiance unto Piety As Debt and Duty to his Majesty Since fearing God and honouring the King Will peace and happinesse to England bring And let none have so much as one good day That will not heartily boch say and pray God save the KING Amen T. G.