Ioseph had never beene a Courtier had hee not first beene a prisoner Gods children are ever the better for being miserable and end in that It is good for mee that I have been afflicted let God use me how Hee will on earth so I may have what Hee hath promised to those that love Him in heaven Who would not be a Lazarus for a day that hee might sit in Abraham's bosome for ever Gods Church must be a lillie among thorns and while I am a member of the Church I must not looke to fare better than the whole Body if they have call'd the master of the house Beelzebub well may it be endur'd to those of the household my comfort is if I am reviled for His sake I shall be blessed Prosperity is like Vinum merum all wine it makes drunke the soule and therefore God mingles it that He may keep us sober feeds His children with a bit and a knocke ever dishes His sweete meate with sowre sause if wee did alwaies abound wee would grow proud and forget our selves and if not sometimes wee would despaire and forget our God I will pray with Salomon give me neither wealth nor poverty but a meane or if wealth grace to imploy it if poverty patience to endure it Afflictions are the medicines of the minde if they are not toothsome let it suffice they are wholesome 't is not required in Physicke that it should please but heale unlesse we esteeme our pleasure above our health let me suffer so I may reigne be beaten so I may be a son Nothing can be ever too much to endure for those pleasures which endure for ever There was never good but was hard to get the prison and the hatchet sores and crums leade to Abraham's bosome and the way thither is by weeping-crosse if many tribulations will carry me to heaven on Gods name let me have them welcome the poverty which makes me heire to those riches that never shall have an end I will deale for my soule as for my body never refuse health because the Phisicke that should procure it is bitter let it distast me so it heale me There are in the world that thinke it too great sawcinesse to be our owne spokes-men to God and therefore goe to St. Some-body to preferre their petitions for them I shall ever hold it good manners to goe of my owne errants to God He that bids me Come will bid me welcome God hath said Come unto me c. It is no unmannerlinesse to come when I am call'd All consciences like all stomacks are not alike how many doe we see digest those sinnes with ease which others cannot get downe with struggling one straines at a gnat when another swallowes a camell hee that will keepe cleere of great sinnes must make conscience of all I will thinke no sinne little because the least endangers my soule and it is all one whether I sell my SAVIOVR for thirty pence with Iudas or for halfe I am worth with Ananias whether I goe to hell for one sin or for many This life is but a journey unto death and every day we are some spannes neerer the grave how is it that wee which are so neere our death are so farre from thinking of it Security is a great enemy to prevention and a presumption that wee shall not dye yet makes men that they doe not prepare to dye at all it is good taking time while time is if it come suddenly and find thee unprepared miserable man that thou art who shall deliver thee from the body c Therefore hath Nature given us two eares and but one mouth that we should heare twice as much as wee should speake with all thy secrets trust neither thy wife nor thy friend hee that is thriftie of his owne tongue shall lesse feare anothers There are that affect not so much to have true friends as to have many and whisper to that friend what they heare from this and againe to this what from that and glory to have it knowne how much they are trusted whereas they were therefore trusted that it might not be knowne I have ever thought it a maxime in friendship that he which will bee intimate with many is entirely nones let me love and be lov'd of all I will bee inward onely with a few I had rather have one meane friend that I may call my owne than the most potent where I must share with others He that provides not for his owne is worse than an infidell 't is not the blame of charity that it begins at home it is that it ends not abroad I am not borne all to my selfe somewhat to my friend to my neighbour I will so care for my owne as I may relieve others and so doe for others as I wrong not my owne Much knowledge not much speech Emblem 's a wise man I shall ever hold it neither safe nor wise alwaies to speake what I know of my owne affaires nor what I thinke of others a man may speake too much truth Pleasures like the Rose are sweet but prickly the hony doth not countervaile the sting all this worlds delights are vanity and end in vexation like Iudas while they kisse they betray I would neither be a Stoick nor an Epicure allow of no pleasure nor give way to all they are good sause but naught to make a meale of and were given not to fill the belly but to relish the meate I may use them sometimes for digestion never for food In crosses these two things must be thought on first whence they come from God Hee strikes thee that made thee next wherefore they come for thy good either to try thee or to mend thee if they bee harsh yet they be gainfull I shall ever count it a good change to have the fire of persecution for the fire of hell who would not rather smart for a while then for ever let me rather have that fire which is rewarded with heaven than these pleasures which shall be rewarded with fire Salomon's Rejoyce oh young man in the dayes of thy youth were the finest thing in the world if it were not for that which follows for all this thou shall come to judgement to goe well lye soft sleepe hard if there were noe after-reckoning who would not say out of delight what the Apostles did out of amazement It is good for us to be here but when I have a stewardship to account for and God knowes how soone my master returning and my talent to seek the Bridegroome entering and my oyle to buy I have more reason to care how to redeeme my time past than to spend the present To grow heavy or lumpish with crosses argues not so much want of courage as grace nothing more soyles the reputation of a Christian than to have his minde droope with his Mammon what if health friends meanes have all forsooke thee wilt thou lose thy wittes together with thy goods all the
us in modestie to submit to Him and thinke that our best which God thinkes so Seneca an heathen but a Philosopher could say hee was better borne than to be a slave to his body and they are no better that are continuall factors for it Every man layes up for a hard winter and a Rainie-day I will lay up for that day which I am sure will come and am not suer how soone it will come The bare desiring of earthly things is not unlawfull Hee who first taught us to pray allow'd us this in Give us this day our daily Bread 't is the excesse either in using or in caring for them makes them ill to us that are not so in them selves I will so desire these as I may bee the better for enjoying them and so imploy them as I may have little to account for them Why should I abound to my cost Teares are a second Bâ—â—â—â—sme of the soule 〈◊〉 it is rinced anew as the sinnes of the old worlde so of this little world neede a deluge There is but one sorrow never to be repented of the sorrow of repentance only these teares goe into Gods bottle and thus blessed are they that mourne Others eyes are Sermons unto mine when I see a Peter weeping for his denyall it puts mee in minde of mine why should I weepe for the losse of my friends 〈…〉 my health or of 〈◊〉 state and not of my soule There are two kindes of teares of joy and of griefe and two causes of these kindes Heaven and our Sinnes the one of affection the other of remorse the one for what we have done the other for what we would have these two shall vie teares in mine eyes to be forgiven and to be dissolved This World is a stage the play is a tragi-comedy of the life and death of man every man playes his part and exit and it may be he that hath liv'd a begger would not exchange with the KING when he comes to dye for then he is rewarded not according to what he hath beene but what hee hath done I wil not greatly care what part I play but to doe it well Home is home be it never so homely sayes the Proverbe Men goe forth to labour and come home to take their ease this world is our worke-house and Heaven is our home why am I loth to goe to my rest This world is the valley of teares and we may sooner want them than cause to shed them I will bee content to sow in teares that I may reape in joy I reade of Augustus when ever hee heard of any that dyed suddenly hee wish'd him and his friends the like happinesse he shall not choose for me Let him and his brother-heathens pray for their fooles paradise Our Church hath learn'd us a better Language From sudden Death good Lord deliver us I ever thought it not a little blessing to dye by degrees In this case the farthest way about is the nearest way home Mee thinkes it is but th' other day I came into the world and anon I am leaving it How time runs away and we meet with Death alway e're wee have time to thinke our selves alive One doth but breake-fast here another dine hee that lives longest doth but suppe We must all goe to bed in another World I will so live every day as if I should live no more 't is more than I know if I shall All goe to the same home but all goe not the same way one falls by the hand of a brother another by the fall of a house c. Againe all goe to the same home but all goe not the same pace one dyes in his cradle another on his crutches to some their life is a prey to others a burthen Iob and Ionah are weary of living and Lot and Hezekiah would live longer as for the way I shall ever pray God that I may take my last sleepe in a whole skinne but for the pace Come LORD IESVS come quickly Death was given for punishment of sinne but is the end of it when we lost Paradise we met with this and againe when we part with this wee meet our Paradise they that know whither they are going cannot but wish themselves gone and say with our Saviour but in another sense Arise let us goe hence Through how many dyings doe wee come to our Death And how many deaths may wee come to Infinite are our waies out of this life that have but one way into it Our life is compos'd of nothing but deaths for that wee may live other creatures die again our child-hood dyes and is forgotten when we are growne up Our youth dyes when wee are men Our man-hood dies when we are aged at last Our age dyes and all dyes and wee dye with it every day dyes at night now if my life consist of dayes what doe I else but dye daily Favour is a thing to esteeme but not to build on hee that stands upon others leggs knowes not how soone they may faile him Greatnesse is not eternall I will never leane so hard upon any man that if he breake he shall give me a fall The things of this world are in a manner but apparitions not so indeed all our Pompe is but like the strowing of Boughes before our Saviour taken up againe straite our provision here is like that of the Gibeonites apt to moulder open to the theefe and the moath to be corrupted and stole wee have waters but like those of Marah bitter we have riches but we have crosses sweete meate but sowre sauce they make a fair shew but they last not I may say of them what my Saviour did of Israel their goodnesse is but as a cloude c. I will use this world but I will bee in love with that better onely why should I delight to be miserable This world is a region of Ghosts or of dying men if not dead our life is but one continued sicknesse and we are ever in a comsumption wasting wee now accompany those to the grave whom shortly wee must keepe company with in the Grave Every man must have his turne and GOD knowes whose turne is next it may bee thine it may bee mine and mine before thine GOD knowes thou hast more yeares it may be and therefore as thou thinkest some strides before I am no lesse subject to diseases and therefore no whit behinde these threaten no lesse to mee than age doth to others Every ache every stitch tolles the bell in mine eares for some have dyed of these but every strong sicknesse digs the grave and sayes service over mee and cries Dust to dust c. Since there is a time to dye and I know not the time I will provide for it at all times Blessed is that servant whom when the Master comes he shall finde watching No man thinkes hee shall live ever yet most men thinke they shall not dye yet otherwise they would dye better
excuse our present evill the end crownes us what ever my beginning hath beene I shall ever pray and endevour that I may dye the death of the righteous and my latter end may be like unto his for as the tree falls so it lyes Man till hee sinned was naked and was not ashamed clothes are not more our covering than our shame and wee may justly blush every time wee looke on them not bragge the best ornament of the body is the minde and the best ornament of the minde is honesty that best becomes which best beseems not that which is most us'd But most decent I will neither looke what others doe nor what I may doe but what I ought to doe many things are lawfull which are not expedient To doe well and say nothing is Christianly to say well and doe nothing is Pharisaicall if the hands bee not Iacobs as well as the voice wee are but impostors cheats If we are good trees by our fruit they shall know us I will not lesse hate not to doe good than to tell of it my faith is dead if it beare not Eating was the first sinne in the world and it is now the sinne almost of all the world and as before the building of Babel so still in this all the Earth is of one language what shall we eat or what shall we drinke and wherewith c. Eating and Drinking have taken away our stomacks to spirituall things I will never be so greedie as to eat my selfe out of heaven He loves his belly well that with Esau will sell his Birth-right for pottage of the two I had rather beg my bread with Lazarus than my water with Dives Great mens Words are like dead mens shoos hee may goe bare-foot that waits for them I will ever bee a Didymus in these beleeve onely what I see so I shall neither be deceived with others promises my selfe nor deceive others with them The good mans word is his Oath his actions serve only to make good his words He that promises either what he cannot or what hee meanes not is for the first a Boaster and for the last an Hypocrite by such an one I will bee deceived but once Dissimulation is state-policie and wise men set out themselves as Aristotle did his bookes not to bee understood at first sight He that alwayes speakes what hee knowes is not wise but hee that doth not alwayes speake what hee meanes is not honest As I will not have my heart at my tongues end yet I will have my tongue speake from my heart it is not necessary I must be dishonest or a foole Commonly your open eares are open mouth'd and they that are craving to heare are apt to tell I will neither desire to know much of another mans estate nor impart much of my own never any man repented him of saying nothing A Parasite of all Trades is the basest and in two things like an Eccho first that he speakes only what he heares others and that he is nothing but voice words next to an ungratefull man I would not be a flatterer Sinnes grow like Grapes close but in clusters Wee usually say He that will sweare will lye and he that will lye will steale and hee that will doe all these will doe any thing Satan is a Serpent if the head bee once in his whole bodie will not bee long behinde It is better to goe into the House of mourning than into the House of laughter c. Hee is worse than madde that with Herod will part with a kingdome for a dance Hee takes little thought for his sinnes that thinkes to put them out of his head as Cain and Saul did with Musicke Hee that truly considers those joyes which never shall have an end cannot but desire to have an end of these Where the treasure is there will the heart be also Gods promises doe not binde Him to keep us in our wickednesse our sinnes quit Him of His promise and us of His protection when wee leave to be of His Family wee are none of His Charge His Friendship keepes pace with ours If thou doest well shalt thou not bee accepted sayes Hee to Cain doe well and have well such as wee behave our selves towards God such shall wee finde God towards us now if we doe smart thanke our selves Wee have too many that have a double heart in one body but very few that have but one heart to two bodies yet so is it with friends the one cānot laugh when the other weepes one friend is the looking glasse of the other where face answers face when the one smiles the other smiles when the one is sad the other is trobled there is no Amity where there is no Sympathy If I doe not suffer in my SAVIOVR I doe not love Him Can the Head be ficke and the Body not feele it There is a time to laugh as well as a time to mourne we are not deny'd the use of mirth but the excesse it is not forbidden Fruit. Hee who gave Oyle to cheere the Countenance gave Wine also to glad the heart And I will not say whether Salomons draught be not sometimes in season Drinke that thou maiest forget thy poverty yet so as thou remember thy God God never intended religion should make men Stoicks as if to mew up our selves from the World were to single out our selves to God And because He hath forbid the abuse of things not to use them thus we should abstaine from drink because some men have beene drunke If that which is one mans meate proove another mans poyson the fault is not in the meate but in the stomake If they be so easily abus'd the more our thankes our praise if we doe not abuse them wee shall be commended for our temperance we cannot for our want of them GOD makes us but to use them as wee should and wee cannot have too much of them Where should Ioy be but in the Fountaine of Ioy or how doe wee partake of that Fountaine and rejoice not that Ioy must beginne to fill here that will be full hereafter Hee shall never sing Halelujah's that doth not first sing Hosanna's Hee is no sound Christian that is not taken with the glory hee shall have and rejoyce in this that his name is written in the Booke of Life God ever helpes at a pinch when all helpes fail then is He seen when Iacob wants at home then Ioseph is heard of abroad and when the prodigall wants abroad then God makes him thinke of home What if he will not deliver Ionah from the Tempest yet Hee will from the Whale If the danger bee great His Glory shall bee the more never despaire then thou drooping soule why art thou cast down why art thou so disquieted c The goodnesse of thy God endureth yet daily The Contention of Christs time is the contention of all the world who shall be the greatest and most men envy to be out-gone in any
and he only shall receive mercy that shewes mercy all the wrongs thou receiv'st cannot equall one sinne thou committest and art forgiven now when God hath forgiven thee thy hundred Talents which thou owedst and could'st not pay do not with the evill servant take thy brother by the throat for two be not so cruell to others that hast God so mercifull to thee freely thou art forgiven freely forgive with what measure yee mete unto others with the same shall it bee measured to you againe and if you give you shall receive good measure not only shaken together and pressed down but running over God as He doth not let goodnesse go unrequited so doth He not requite it with a little or inch out His blessings He never hath done enough for those that love Him one good turne drawes on another and Hee is ever thinking What could I doe more for my Vineyard that I have not done There is no pains of ours which falls to the ground unaccepted unrewarded who would not serve that master whose service is perfect freedome and the wages eternall life I cannot bee more mine owne friend than by beeing GOD's servant and the Worlds enemie Our bodies waxe weaker as they waxe older our sinnes as they waxe older they waxe stronger I will labour to bee olde in goodnesse and I cannot complain of weaknesse let mee but bee too strong for my sinnes and I have strength enough Some men doe not revenge injuries because they cannot they want power others because they want opportunitie and doe but waite with Esau the dayes of the mourning for my father are at hand and then I will slay my brother It is no god-a-mercie to passe over injuries when we can do no other he is not innocent that is so perforce then is our goodnesse commendable when we may hurt and will not It is the fault of the world yet it is the fashion of it to put off God to the last the fall of the leafe will serve his turne and thinke one sigh at their death enough for all their lives before but true repentance as it is not for a spurt so it is not done in an instant He that goes about thorowly to make riddance of his sinnes shall finde it a long businesse sinnes are not like servants to be gone at a quarters warning In many things we offend all is the voice of an Apostle the best have their faults he is happie that hath least and fewest I can never be so holy as to have no sinnes my care shall bee to repent me of those I have if my repentance be daily my score shall never be long Youth and holinesse doe not meet often to see a young man dead to sin and ready for death is admirable but rare it is a good thing to be good betimes sinnes as they growe old they growe lusty and if they once get head they know no master it is a harder matter to restore to godlinesse than to make godly for there must be a dedocebo te c. an unteaching of that evill which they before learned before there can be an insertion of that good which they must after practise Custome will alter nature and an use of sinning make them in love with sinne it is rarely seene that a young divell proves an old Saint I will so begin as I would hold out with GOD otherwise it is ill that I have begun but worse that I hold not out GOD desires not the death of a sinner but that is not all He doth not onely not delight in our ruine but He desires our recoverie If we repent He spares us if we returne Hee receives us for the first mercy to forgive for the second an Abrahams bosome to receive if we wander He recalls us if we be obstinate he intreats us if we come but slowly He will stay for us in all His workes He is wonderfull but in His workes of mercy He exceeds I will never despaire of that goodnesse that hath no bounds my sinnes are infinite but not unpardonable Hee was once a persecutor who was after an Apostle and not behind the best of the Apostles that was once before the worst of the Iewes for cruelty God is able to make of a cast-away a convert of a theefe a disciple of stones children of dead men living Saints if the disease be desperate the cure is the glorie of the Physician the recoverie is more remarkeable of a dead man to life than of a sicke man if the danger were not great there were lesse praise of our redemption but when our sinnes are gone over our heads when the beame of the timber and the stone in the wall crie us guiltie when thou art possest and not as Mary Magdalen with a few divels but with Legions not one sinne or small sinnes or a few sinnes seven divels as it is said of her but past number like the starres or the sands and of the worst sort of divells too that cannot easily be cast out but with fasting and praier and hast not onely committed them but lived in them and art now dead in them when we have thus lost our selves and Him to bee found of Him and brought to our selves pusles us for thankes His armes are ever open onely our hearts are shut wee receive not because wee aske not wee are not received because wee returne not or returne to our vomit It is but just when wee turne to our sinnes that GOD turne to His judgements either wee must bee cut off in our sinnes or from them Salvation is the gift of God it is given and yet it is got with a great deale of struggling thou must fast and watch and fight as Saint Paul saies and as Saint Paul did too not onely with beasts after the manner of men though wicked men are beasts in a manner but with principalities and powers not the Aegyptians but the Anakims Gyant sinnes growne temptations My glory shall be not to have no sinnes but to have the mastery not that I am not set upon but not beaten That we shall all dye we all know when wee shall dye God knowes but how any man should be dead while he is alive is strange wil some think and would bee glad to know yet so it is sin is a death and every obstinate sinner is dead for the time Some with Iairus daughter are not dead but sleepe others with Lazarus are not onely dead but stinke and it is with sinne as with sicknesse it weakens by degrees first it distempers the palate of the soule or spoiles the stomake so that either it refuseth meat or distastes it or puts it up againe and next it takes away the sense that they feele not their sinnes and then are remedilesse and as our Saviour told the Iewes they wil dye in their sins and this is a death men care not to be acquainted with til they be past cure and then onely thinke of Heaven when they
are going to hell and after forty or fifty yeares living know not what belongs to dying more than with Ezekiah to turne their face to the wall and weepe when it comes The way to dye willingly is to conne death before hand he that hath spent his life in providing for his death is not troubled at his death how to be provided of a better life My care shall be not how I may not dye but how I may live ever Prosperitie is a great enemy to goodnesse how hardly doe those which have riches enter into the Kingdome of Heaven I heare Israel praying in Aegypt quarreling in the wildernesse When they were at their bricke-kills they would be at their devotion and no sooner are they at ease but they are wrangling for their flesh-pots I think many a man had not been so bad if he had but been poore It is the saying of a wise Father that Salomons wealth did him more hurt than his wisdom did him good Trouble and want do that many times which faire meanes cannot wealth like knowledge puffes up when poverty as their infirmities did many in the Gospell make men flock to CHRIST I will never pray more heartily to God for His blessings than for grace to use them nor to lessen my miseries but to add to my strength Though my afflictions be many or often so my strength be equall I shall get by them the stronger my tryall the greater will be both my victorie and my reward The way to live ever is to live well there is no way to everlasting life but a good life it is not living at ease or at randome or at rack and manger in pompe and plentie mirth and jollity and with Saul think to drive away the divell with musike God cares not how rich or how powerful thou art but how good We should so live as wee may have joy of our life and bee made partaker of those joyes and that life which are for ever There are many dead men and manie deaths there is a death in sinne and a death for sinne and a death to sinne the two first we may thanke our selves for if wee had not knowne sinne we had not known death but the last we must thanke God for it is from Him that wee dye to sinne that have deserv'd to dye for it who Himselfe dyed for us and hath taken our sins upon Him and at once delivered us from the sting of death and the strength of sinne And thankes be to God who hath given us this victorie through our Lord IESVS CHRIST We are in this world as Israel in the wildernes and Christ is to us as Moses was to them if He leave us wee know not which way to turne us nature cannot carrie us to God Here all our sufficiencie is from Him and we say well in our praier for thine is the power and the glorie and it is by that power that wee come to that glorie our strength is but borrowed our standing but leaning upon His arme our going but leading in His hand It is with us as it was with S. Paul upon the way wee must be led we must be carried to God we must pray turne us O Lord unto thee and wee shall be turned Of our selves wee are unable to goe yet drawe us and wee shall runne after thee so shall wee come to thee with thee that are rather images that have feete and walke not without thee It is betweene some sinners and God as betweene some men their creditors all their care is how to be trusted not how to pay My first care shall be as little as I can to come in Gods debt and my next care how to come out of it Our goodnesse must be that part of the wallet that hangs behinde us seene of others not of our selves our sinnes must bee that part that hangs before us seene both of others and our selves To conceale sinne was never the way to be forgiven it or what art thou the safer that thou canst conceale it from men and not from God I had rather be censur'd for my sin than be damned for it As in Moralitie so in Divinitie not to goe forward is to goe backwards and not to thrive in goodnesse is not to be good When I compare what I am with what I have beene I am not a little proud but when I compare what I should bee with what I am with Peter I begin to sinke only here 's my comfort I shall be receiv'd not according to what I am but what I am in Christ. Every good heart is accuser judge and executioner of its ownfaults Why should I be afraid of standing at the tribunall of my owne conscience and not of God at one I must and if I judge my selfe I shall not bee judged I will prevent Gods judgements with my owne and the feare of what I should suffer with the sorrow for what I have done to him only is the last judgement terrible that shunnes the first Wicked men as they make most shew of mirth so they have least their heart and their face do not agree they carrie that in their owne bosome that spoiles their laughing they are alwaies pursued by themselves and encountred with their own thoughts Their sleepe is dreaming and they dreame of those judgements in their sleepe which they have deserv'd waking every noyse is of thunder and everie thunder of the last day every shadow is a spirit and their sinnes are so many divels about them they have a double hell they dy a thousand deaths here and hereafter dye eternally There is no joy like the joy in the Holy Ghost Nay there is no joy but that and that is as farre above all earthly joy as our heavenly joy shall be above this Hallelujah above Hosanna Let mee but have this within and I care not how the square goe without Death to the wicked ever comes unwelcome because they see it in its worst shape ghastly Faine they would not goe and goe they must it is impossible they should live still but it is intolerable to be still dying which is the life they are to live a living death I will pray God to season this life to me as I may not bee in love with it and so to remember me of my death as I may not be afraid of it and in my life so to prepare me for my death that at my death I may not onely bee prepared but assured of a better life When I remember the sinnes I have already committed and some it may be not throughly repented of and those which I do hourely commit and some it may be not taken notice of so many of infirmitie stealing upon me and other stronger sinnes breaking in upon me I doe not will that good which I should or want power to that will or perseverance to that power I am at a stand with the Apostle and thinke miserable man that I am who shall deliver me
from this body of death Even He that delivered His body to death for me Oh God thou that workest in me both to will and to doe worke my will to thine da Domine quod jubes c. Give but power to obey and what thou wilt command Death is as hatefull to man as old age to beautie and we are ever complaining of the shortnesse of our time unlesse calamitie make it seeme long which yet if they be never so little over they are weary of that which before they wished for death as I will not be in love with tribulations so I will not love my life the worse for them nor the better for wanting them if prosperity make me fond of living or afraid of dying it had been better for mee if it had not been so well I shall pay deare for my ease It is better to go into the house of mourning than into the house of laughter nay the way to the house of laughter is through the house of mourning so our Saviour Blessed are they that mourne for they shall be comforted Mirth like Salomons strumpets leads to the chambers of death and the voluptuous man goes out of this World as hee came into it crying and into another world where there is nothing but weeping It is a great weaknesse to defer to doe that which must be done if I must once weepe I will doe it now It is better to cry for remorse than for anguish There were no such tyrant upon earth as the envious man if he had but his will no man should live a quiet life or dye a naturall death but himselfe hee sees his neighbours house burning and warmes him by the fire and is refreshed there is no estate that he hath not a quarrell to no person his equals hee hates because they are his equals his inferiors because they are not his equals and his superiors because he is not their equall he is an enemy to all mens peace but most of all to his own and I think if he were put to it himselfe knowes not what hee would be or have others be It is the greatest vanity in the world to runne mad for others pleasures what if I have not the same thing or in the same measure I have enough to serve my turne if they have more yet they must account for it and I will never envy any man that he hath more to answere for to God than I have I shall not account for the talents which I never had Gods blessings and our thankes must ever goe hand in hand one good turne requires another Wee must not thinke to serve our selves of God and not serve Him His blessings are not only encouragements or rewards but bonds Of these the more we have the more we owe and our care must be not onely to receive but to repaie Why should we strive to come out of every mans debt but GODS The charity of forgiving is more difficult than that of giving and more worth by how much our selves are more deare to us than our goods in the one wee are doers but in the other sufferers and many a man would doe for another that would not suffer for him I am but halfe a Christian if I have only learn'd to pitie and not to forgive we cannot at once remember our profession and our wrongs if they bee small the matter is the lesse if they be great our glorie is the more nor only our glorie but our reward it is our owne faults if wee be not gainers by our injuries Gluttony is not onely a sinne but a disease not onely to be forbidden but to bee afraid of other sinnes hurt in future this in present and robbes not only of eternall life but of this and destroies the body together with the soule Our bodies were not given for cellarage to lay in bread and beare in I will remember that I was not therefore borne or doe live meerely to eate and drinke but therefore eate and drinke that I may continue life I have seldome known any wickednesse so hainous that had not clients as well as patrons Corah had cōpanions with him in his sinne before in his punishment But innocency doth not go by voices I will never looke at my partners but my cause I desire no other Advocates but GOD and the truth It was the accusation of the old world that they were eating and drinking till they entred c. and is still of this and will be so to the end though this were not the end of our being but for the continuance of it I will use my meat as others doe their Physicke onely for health to satisfie not my desire but my stomach I can a great deale cheaper and safer feede my belly than my eye We see men set not their best wares upon the stalls but within lapp'd up it is neither commendable nor wise to shew our excellencies as Musicians do in all companies what are we the better that we thinke well of our selves while others thinke not so Or what are we then worse that others thinke meanly of us while we think so too Since those art never the better for thy selfe-conceitednes nor the worse for thy humilitie why shouldst thou make thy selfe envied for those graces which thou hast by shewing them and derided for making shew of those thou hast not and would'st seeme to have and art at once noted of men for a boaster and of God for a dissembler I will be content to be lowly in mine owne esteem and others that I may bee high in Gods A handsome garment is no argument of a strait body those are not alwaies the best men that make the most shew of holinesse Demurenesse may stand with falshood Pretences are evermore suspicious they that are ever perfum'd 't is to be thought have naturally ill breaths we must not ever beleeve our senses goodnesse is plaine and would be knowne by her workes but not tell of them whilest hypocrisie is painted to hide ' its wrinkles and would bee taken for better than it is and with the figge-tree it shall be curst for flourishing if wee are true Christians wee are both sides alike Goodnesse doth not go by yeeres many times you shall have that from a Samuel in his long coates which you shall not have from a Saul at forty yeeres old and yet it is not forwardness commends us but perseverance Some men like some fruits promise faire in the blossome but wither ere they be pluck'd others like some graine lye long in the ground but grow up the taller it is dangerous to deferre long but it is worse not to hold out I will love and endevour early holinesse yet it is better to begin late than to have done betimes there is a penny for him that comes at the eleventh houre If thy youth have been faulty it is comfort that thy age is otherwise It is no disparagement to have beene wicked but to continue
into hell thou art there there is no running from the punishment till from the sinne All sicknesse is not of the body every leprosie is not in the skinne it were well for some men it were every sinne is a disease our soules are no lesse subject to infection than our bodies some are diseas'd and do not know it others are diseas'd and doe not care for it both cases are hard but the last is desperate To make light of sin and because thy soule is sicke even unto death to say with the Atheist Epicure Let us eat and drinke for we must dye is to shake hands with vengeance Hee that will not so much as aske to be heal'd how justly shall he dye in his leprosie It is strange but it is ordinary to see every man greedy to continue this life and not to procure a better If the head doe but ake strait to the Prophet with the Shunamite to the Physicians with Asa If they bee but talk'd to of dying with Ieroboam's wife they run and ride and send and as the Cripple to our Saviour pul downe the tiles to come at him but in the matter of their soule they are deafe to the disease why are wee not as industrious for Heaven as for our health and to live ever as to live long Alas what is age without goodnesse but a fairer marke for vengeance What is Dives the better to out-live LAZARVS and at last dye and be damn'd Let others trouble themselves and the world how to maintaine this body my care shall bee how to subject it whilest I employ my soule only for the setting out of my flesh what am I else but a glorious slave Diseases though they were the fruit of sinne and brought upon us by our selves yet they are not dispos'd of amongst us but by God they head doth not ake but with his leave nor leave aking but with His helpe it is from above both that wee are sicke and that wee are made whole to whom should I not only owe my life but bestow it but to him of whom I live and move As it is in extremities for men to remember God but with repining so it is hard in prosperity to remember themselves and what they have receiv'd of God we are apt to forget what wee have bin when we are chang'd for the better Pharaoh's butler hath forgot he was a prisoner it is too true that too many love God for their owne sakes either they are poore and would be rais'd or they are sicke and would bee heal'd and like beggers no sooner are they serv'd but they are gone I may both love my selfe and God I may not love God for my selfe I would not love my selfe but for that I am His and I will love Him but for Himselfe When I consider the yeeres I have already lived me thinkes they are few but evill evill not in respect of affliction alone but of sin and I am found guilty if I consider the present if there be any present when it is ever passing I do but adde to my score and if I consider the time to come if I have any to come God knowes I do but adde to the measure of my owne sinnes and Gods wrath together with my yeeres since I must live and cannot but sinne I will study how my sinnes may not hinder me of a better life first I will abhorre them and then I will abhorre my selfe for them and if I could not before break my heart of them I will now breake it for them A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise To every one it shall one day be sayd Give an account of thy stewardship c. It is that which everie man should tell himselfe and one tell another what the Apostle hath long since told us all that we must all stand before the tribunall seate of Almightie GOD the righteous thinkes long of this day and longs for it because hee is long since provided for it the wicked thinks it coms too fast and yet thinkes not of it till it come and when it is come can think of nothing but that and is stown'd with the thought of it his pleasures which were never but shadowes yet accounted recall then appeare as they were and not as they were accounted and those torments which were ever thought but shadowes bug-beares then appeare as they are and prove reall the comparing of what he hath enjoi'd with what he hath lost and that little lesse than nothing of time which he hath liv'd with the eternitie of torment hee is to dye in makes him curse the time of his birth since there is a time of death and another death beyond all time so the godly and the wicked differ not more in their lives than in their deaths but most of all after death Oh my God! as thou hast made mee of the best sort of creatures a man and of the best of that sort a christian so let mee be yet better by beeing one of those whom thou hast sorted for thy selfe what am I better if I am only call'd and not chosen All bookes are not alike easie those that are are not all alike profitable some would profit more if they did but rellish others would rellish better if they were more profitable he doth well that doth both utile dulci I will neither drowne my meat in sauce nor dish it dry They are not the only robbers that breake houses guile is worse theft than outrage it is alike wicked to make wine of other mens grapes as Ahab did of Naboth's and to be drunk of our owne hee that will have riches in spight of heaven shall have hell to boote The malicious man is his owne moth that God is better to him than hee can expect is nothing whilest He is better to others than Hee is to him like Gideon's first miracle hee would have all the ground dry but his fleece if Cain's sacrifice miscary Abel must not bee accepted and live no man may bee either greater or better with safetie I will not looke at what I have but what I deserve and I shall never thinke my owne little or anothers too much that is a wicked heart that would have all men worse than it selfe and hates all those whom others thinke better God is therfore bountifull to us that we might be so to others to feast those that cannot bid us againe and to build for those that cannot lodge us againe is the way to that marriage-feast and those buildings whose Builder Maker is God he alone hath the true use of wealth that receives it onely to disburse it if of wealth that receives it only to disburse it if men were their owne friends they would make others so with this Mammon why should the rust of that gold rise up in judgement against thee the use of which will set thee with those that shall sit in judgement Persecution is the dore to happines Canaan hath still the same way a wildernesse who can looke for heaven cheape that sees his SAVIOVR bleeding I may not afflict my selfe yet I shall suspect my selfe without affliction calmes are no lesse dangerous than stormes Some men doe not climbe but vault into preferment at a leape I know not their sleight I mistrust their quicknesse few men were ever great and good in an instant All the harme I wish these is that their early rising do them no harme they that are their owne brokers in these are likely their owne theeves in better and steale themselves out of heaven Favours are more binding but aflictions are more profitable to have much is more glorie but to be content with that we have is more victory there is no conquest like that of our selves no conquest of our selves like that of want it is a hard matter not to find poverty a burden or prosperity a snare this religion obtains us that if we are not richer than others yet we are content to be poorer he only hath enough that would have no more Our endevors are in vaine without God's blessing yet in vaine shall he challenge a blessing that endevors not sloth is no lesse guiltie than coveteousnesse I can doe nothing without God yet I will not looke God shall doe all The cause of all punishment is sinne and the end of all sinne is punishment Either present or to come how then doe we love to be punished and yet love to sinne if we could but be innocent we could not but be safe while I am here I cannot but sinne but I hope to avoid the punishment through Him who hath borne the punishment and the sinne Our life is but a breath at first God breath'd upon man the breath of life c. And it is gone with a breath if He breath upon us in displeasure we die for at the breath of His nostrills wee are all consum'd since we doe not live but by His leave why doe we not live to His glorie Oh God I have not liv'd long yet so much of my life as I have not liv'd to thee I have liv'd too much all I desire is that as this life was thy gift to me so it may be my gift to thee I I can afford God little if not His owne All punishments are from the same hand Iobs boyles are no lesse Gods finger than Pharaohs but all are not with the same end those are but chastnings upon some that are judgements upon others God strikes His owne because He loves them He strikes the wicked because they love not Him those Hee corrects but these He executes it is a signe Hee loves us when Hee strikes us and if his strokes bring us to love him wee may brag with David it is good for us that we have beene afflicted God is all eare and all eye and all in all grant Lord that as I am alwaies seene of thee so I may be alwaies heard of thee and may alwaies heare thee in thy Word and contemplate thee in thy workes that I may one day see as I am seene and heare and bee heard in that heavenly quire of Hallelujah's Glorie and power and honour be unto the Lambe and to Him that sitteth on the Throne for evermore Amen FINIS * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similem